"A Tale of Four Electrons" is a creative writing assignment used with 10th-grade Honors Chemistry students. The project helps students consolidate their learning about bonding--an important unifying theme in chemistry--and answers questions such as (1) How are ionic, metallic, and covalent bonds related? (2) How do variations in electron configuration across a period alter expected bonding? and (3) How do intermolecular forces depend on bond polarity? This article describes the assignment, and the processes the author uses to grade students' tales. (Contains 4 figures and lists 3 online resources.)