Thank you to Karen for suggesting the opening line. I wrote for 5 minutes and this is what I got.
At the signal, she started putting nails in her mouth as fast as she could.
“I’m going to beat you!” Timmy shoved a handful of nails into his own mouth.
“Nuh Uh!” Sally choked down her first mouthful.
After thirty seconds the buzzer went off, both children spat globs of blood onto the carpet and started counting the nails that remained in front of them.
“I ate sixteen!” Sally grinned.
“That last one didn’t count!” Timmy whined. It was smaller than all of mine!
“WHAT ON EARTH….” Mother ran into the room. “Sally! Timmy! What in God’s name are you doing?”
“Eating Nails!” Sally popped another one into her mouth.
“Yeah mom! Sally bet me a quarter she could eat more than me. YOU OWE ME A QUARTER!”
“No one owes anyone a quarter!” Mother snapped. “Look at this! You got blood all over the carpet and those were the nails Father was going to use to build your tree house this weekend!”
Sally and Timmy hung their heads. “Aw shucks, we’re sorry!”
“Clean up this mess right away and then go play outside. Dinner will be in an hour. I hope you didn’t ruin your appetite!”
The children did as they were told. Once the playroom was spick and span they went outside where they sat on their swings.
“What should we do now?” Timmy asked.
Sally looked down the hill to the river. There was a mother duck with her ducklings waddling across the bank. “Wanna win a quarter?”
