Matt’s Monster Movie

It was Saturday. Justin was enjoying his pancakes when his dad walked into the kitchen.

“Good morning, Justin,” he said as he sat down at the table.

Justin watched as his dad poured a cup of coffee and opened up a soggy newspaper.

“Hmm,” he muttered, “looks like the rain got to my paper.”

Justin snickered as he watched the corner of the newspaper slowly wilt while his dad tried to read it.

“Oh dear,” Dad said.

“What’s that?” asked Mom, bringing two plates to the table. She sat down and poured herself a cup of fresh coffee.

“That monster movie is out on DVD now. You know the one we were hoping no one would ever see?”

“Oh, that movie? Ick! Who would ever want to watch it? What was it called?” Mom asked.

“The Monsters That Ate the Earth, or something like that,” Dad replied. “The guy who wrote about it here said it’s horrible. And the language is awful.”

Mom shuddered. “I don’t know why anyone would want to sit and watch such a thing. Eww!”

“Eww! Eww!” Ellie copied.

“Silly Girl.” Mom turned to Ellie. “Here, eat some more pancake.”

Ding-dong! The doorbell rang. Justin ran to the living room and looked out the window to see who was at the door.

“It’s Matt!” he called out to his mom and dad. Justin opened the door.

“Hi, Matt. How come you’re out in the rain?” Justin asked.

Matt shrugged. “I just wanted to come see if you wanna play today.”

“Oh,” said Justin. “I guess we can find something to do. You wanna play a game?”

“Okay,” Matt agreed.

The boys headed to the family room. Matt picked out a game, and they started to play.

“Ha ha, I won!” said Matt victoriously.

“Want to play again?” asked Justin.

“Nah! Let’s go to my house,” Matt suggested. “My mom could fix us some popcorn, and we can watch a movie.”

Justin asked his mom if he could go to Matt’s for a movie and soon he and Matt were heading across the street through the rain, jumping over the puddles.

“Hey, Mom!” Matt yelled as he came into his house. “Can we have some popcorn?”

“Popcorn? What for?” Matt’s mom replied.

“We want to watch a movie, and we need popcorn to munch on.”

“Oh, I see. I guess I can make some for you then.”

Matt turned to the movie cabinet while his mom made a snack for the boys.

“What do you wanna watch, Justin?” Matt asked, rifling through the DVDs.

“Uh, I don’t know.” Justin shrugged.

Suddenly Matt leaped up with a DVD in his hand.

“Oh cool!” Matt exclaimed, “I didn’t know we had this one!”

“What is it?” asked Justin excitedly.

Matt held up the DVD. Justin gasped when he saw the picture of a gigantic one-eyed monster on the front cover. Justin frowned.

“What is that movie?”

“It’s the new one, The Monsters That Ate the Earth. I guess Craig bought it.”

“Why would your brother want to watch such a scary movie?” Justin asked.

“Scary?! Only babies are afraid of monsters. Let’s watch it!” Matt stuck the DVD into the player and sat down. He grabbed the bowl of popcorn and offered some to Justin. “Here, you want some?”

Justin shook his head. He didn’t want popcorn. He didn’t want to see this movie. He didn’t even want to be there at all! Justin eyed the front door, wondering if he could sneak out.

“Matt,” he whispered. “I don’t think we should watch this show.”

Matt munched on his popcorn and stared at the TV screen.

“Whatever,” he said. “Shh, it’s starting.”

“Matt, I’m going home.”

“Okay. Bye,” Matt replied.

Justin got up and hurried to the door, leaving Matt in front of the TV. Justin ran through the rain back to his home, feeling relieved.

The next day, the doorbell rang. Justin’s dad opened the door, and Matt stepped inside.

“Hi, Matt,” he said.

“What’s the matter?” asked Justin coming to the door and noticing that Matt’s eyes were red.

“Well, I didn’t sleep very good last night. I kept dreaming about giant monsters.” Matt shuddered.

“That’s awful! Was it because of the movie you saw?”

“Uh huh,” Matt replied. “And I learned some new words from the movie, too. But when I said them to my mom, she got really mad and told me never to say them again.”

“Oh no!” Justin turned to his dad. “I remembered you said that monster movie had bad words.”

“Is that why you left?” asked Matt.

“Yep,” Justin nodded. “I knew my parents didn’t like that movie. And I didn’t want to be scared either.”

“So you got up and left instead of watching the movie?” asked Dad. “I’m proud of you, son. You did the right thing.”

“Yeah, he did the right thing, but I sat and watched it all,” Matt squeezed his eyes shut. “I should’ve listened to you, Justin. I’m never watching anything like that again.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Justin’s dad agreed.

“No more monster movies.” Justin patted Matt on the shoulder. “Hey, let’s go play in my fort outside. Maybe that will help you forget about it.”

“Okay, that sounds like fun,” Matt said, smiling. “As long as there aren’t any monsters out there.”

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