“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.