My biggest pet peeve is the incredibly annoying squeaking sound of balloons rubbing together. The shrill sound of the skin of one balloon rubbing against the other drives me insane! It makes my neck and head tense up. Overly sensitive to the sound, I cringe and raise my shoulders in an attempt to block the sound from penetrating my ears. I loose all thoughts and can’t move a muscle until the screeching is put to a halt. My head aches at the thought of the horrific sound. Relief washes over me when the balloons separate. It takes me a minute to collect my scattered ideas.

Mattea DeRushe wrote this for a seventh-grade assignment from the teacher, Dani Golden.