He smelled something burning. "Oh no," he thought. "This definitely isn’t good."

The boy opened the oven, and found that the lasagna inside had caught fire. He began pouring water over the food in an attempt to put the fire out. Suddenly, when the fire was nearly out, the phone rang. The boy saw that it was his mom calling, which meant he had to answer, so he picked up the phone. "Hi Mom," he said.

 "Son, your father and I would like to come home. Is our special anniversary dinner about done?"

"Um, yeah Mom." He knew she would notice the tension in his voice.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yep. Everything is fine." He knew that he was lying through his teeth, but he was trying to do something nice for his parents and didn’t want to worry them. "You and Dad can come home now."

"Okay. See you soon."

A few moments later, he had the fire completely out, so he tried to make his dish presentable. 

"Son, the food tastes interesting," his mom said and his dad agreed.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. Sorry. I guess my cooking needs some work."

© 2008 Emma K. Original for CCF  (Emma K. grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).

* CCF does not publish students' last names on the work they submit for publication.