Story Entry
Prompts given by Brooke - thanks her friends :
At least one scene has to take place in a fire station
One character has to have a tick, lisp, nervous action, or other noticeable character trait
Lime sherbet has to be somewhere in the story

“Oh, come on guys! Where’d you put it? You know I can’t get some sleep unless I have my lime sherbet. Just give it to me!” Mike walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, staring down the three men sitting there around the television.

No even turned to look at him. Mike went back to kitchen to look in the freezer again even though he knew it wasn’t there. He was the rookie on the squad and the team was always making sure he knew that. Scrubbing toilets, doing the cooking plus all the cleaning up, buying the new video games when they came out... All were his responsibility just because he was new. He wasn’t sure how long it took to become a member of the fire squad but it didn’t look to be happening any time soon. Well, at least the fire station is clean, for a while, he thought to himself as he slammed the freezer shut again.

Just then the alarms sounded and the quiet fire station was alive with activity. All four men jumped from the living loft, sliding down the fire pole and into the garage. They slipped into their gear, already laid out and waiting for just such a need. Within seconds, they were on the truck with lights blazing and sirens blaring as they pulled out of the fire station.

The apartment building’s second floor was already filled with flames and the first floor’s windows were billowing smoke. As soon as they parked the truck, a woman ran up clutching a child who looked to be about two years old. “My son is in there! Please get him out of there! His name is Michael!”

Mike held her by the shoulders, looked her in the eyes and nodded, quickly getting to work. After a huddle, the three men grabbed the fire hose and started fighting back the flames as Mike grabbed an oxygen tank and mask. He was going in for Michael.

He kicked in the door and was met with a face full of thick, black smoke. His eyes adjusted to the darkness as he crouched beneath the smoke and made his way around a burning beam that had fallen and a couch that would soon be engulfed. Through this room he travelled a short hallway, peering into each room, yelling Michael’s name. Finally, he heard signs of life – someone was yelling. Mike quickly opened the door as he heard more of the floor above falling in the living room. He found the boy sitting on his bed with a stuffed bear clenched to his chest, tears streaming down his face as he continued yell, as if Mike wasn’t really standing there and he was still waiting for someone to come. Mike grabbed him in his arms and left the room as another piece of the floor fell behind them.

Carrying the boy and moving quickly, Mike made his way down the hall in the opposite direction hoping for another way out. He found a kitchen, with a dining room, and... a back door! The glass of the sliding door had already been blown out by the heat, so he kicked more of the glass out and stepped through quickly, walking around to the front of the house toward the boy’s mother and a waiting ambulance.

Prompt: My 10 favorite scents or smells.

Man, it’s going to be tough coming up with my ten favorite smells. There’s a lot of smells out there, for sure. To come up with only ten that are my favorite? Hmmm... Well, let’s get started!

Cinnamon
I love the smell of cinnamon. I bake with it a lot, actually. Baked apples are yummy, and so are fresh cinnamon rolls hot from the oven on a Saturday morning! I used to stir my tea with a cinnamon stick, and I remember having hot chocolate with cinnamon in it once that was delicious. Mmmm... Maybe I need to get to preparing some cinnamon rolls to bake in the morning, or maybe I should make some snickerdoodles tonight so the whole house smells like cinnamon!

Rain
The clean, fresh smell of a slowly falling rain is so relaxing to me. It really does leave everything with a fresh, clean scent. Rain doesn’t just have scent to it though, it also has that soft drumming sound to go along with it. And thunderstorms are a whole new ballgame with hard rain and that thunder! I don’t know what I like about rain the most – the scent or the sound.

Clean Towels
I usually get sidetracked when I’m folding the laundry, especially if there are towels, simply because I love the smell of them. Part of it is probably the smell of our dryer sheets, but the towels are just so fluffy and smell so clean that I want to take a shower or bath just to use them!

Popcorn
I am crazy for popcorn and the salty, buttery smell of it is amazing! Making it at home works but you can imagine just how much I love walking into a movie theater, with all that popcorn popping! I actually bought my own popcorn maker so I could make as much popcorn as I wanted without having to microwave it! And don’t even get me started on the smell of kettle corn, YUM!

Peanut Butter
I love to eat peanut butter in all forms, whether it’s on a sandwich or in a cookie. I absolutely love the smell of peanut butter, too. Even my dogs love the smell of peanut butter – they know when the peanut butter jar is out!

Lilac
I used to like the smell of lilac, but now I love it. We have a lilac bush right outside of our living room window in the house we’ve owned for a little over a year now. It’s springtime now so it’s blooming and you can really smell the scent of lilac coming through the window on the cool spring breezes! I should cut some and bring it inside to my bedroom to make my bedroom smell like lilac, too!

Vanilla
Vanilla isn’t just my favorite kind of ice cream, it’s also one of my favorite scents! I use it a ton while I’m baking, of course. And I also like vanilla scented diffusers that put the smell of vanilla into the air. Actually, I’m out of those so this reminds me to get more!

Old Books
I think every writer loves the smell of books, new or old. I love the smell of old books. Walking into a used book store is like walking into heaven for me. I only wish I had enough time to read all those old books I love the smell of! And I wish I had enough room in my home to have enough old books to make my office smell like them!

Fresh Cut Grass
I used to live in the desert and there was no grass so I didn’t really know the smell of fresh cut grass until I moved to Vermont to live near my husband’s family. I love the smell of freshly cut grass, and of my man when he comes in from mowing, all sexy and sweaty! More than the smell of fresh cut grass, I love walking through fresh cut grass (as long as I’ve sprayed on enough bug spray, of course, since bugs like to eat me alive!)

My Hubby’s Pillow
When my husband gets up in the morning, I usually end up grabbing his pillow so that I can hug it. I just love the smell of it since it smells so much like him! It’s like a concentrated ‘scent of hubby’ pillow! I just have to remember to give it back when hubby wants it.

Well, that’s my list of my ten most favorite scents or smells. Some of them might be a little off the wall, but tell me what you think!