Yes, I'm still on track for NaNoWriMo. I'm at 31,000 words and doing fine.. or at least, I will be after the weekend.
The majority of my easy work is changing the book from present to past tense.
It's only when I come to the re-writes (the middle/end) that I get stuck. I'm slowly, but steadily making my progress through though. Very, very slowly.
When I think of BC, a time before the Gregorian calendar – our calendar – and Christianity came into existence, I think of primitive human beings, as cavemen, or monkeys. The reality is much more than that. Humans of the time were an intelligent start to mankind; creating the foundations for the world we live in today. Romans, who spoke Latin and lived in Rome, Italy, just off the Mediterranean Sea where just one group, and they are the group we are focusing on today. Three great wars over 500 years enabled Romans to control all of Italy.
One thing about English this year that was different from grade 9 English is that we have a lot more creative writing pieces. Which I find amazing, as I love creative writing.
This was a monologue on fear, after reading a creepy story which involved someone possibly drowning/dying, and claustrophobia. Both are different types of fear, so we had to do an artistic representation of any fear.
You could draw, sing, paint, etc, but I obviously chose writing, because that's what I do creatively. :)
Sunshine boy. His smile lit up my mind, reminding me of all the good times we had spent together. Weren’t all of my good times with him? Out in the sun, on the dock, the dark, shady forest between our cottages, this summer had gone by in a breeze. I could still feel it; the cool, moist ground beneath my bare feet, early morning fog, and the warm lake water. I envisioned pine trees swinging in the breeze, the roar of a wave from the thousands of poplar trees, and the growl of diesel boats. It didn’t seem at all over. Outside, the sun shone bright and the kids played on the road, all oblivious to the one cold fact; he was gone.
I think that is a pretty special number. It means I've filled up a lot of space with my words, and you must know a lot about me. It means I've changed my blog layout at least 5 times, and that I've spent over 100 hours on this lovely Blogger interface. It means I've been here for a year, averaging 2 posts a week.
In English we've moved past our "To Kill A Mockingbird" unit and into poetry and short stories. We also have another ongoing project to read a science fiction novel and write (NOT present, which I hate so GO ME!) some report on it. I'm reading "Black Monday", a book which is not about racism like most people think, but all the oil in the world becoming unusable. It starts off with these amazing lines: "A plague that will cause the death of millions. A plague that will
destroy countries. A plague that will plunge the world into a dark age. A
plague that will make nobody sick..."
I was back. In so many ways, this could have been different. But looking out on the across the train station, I couldn’t think of it another way. Here I was, home at last with the horrors behind me – horrors I had brought upon myself, but never regretted.
I saw families greeting, the cry of mothers meeting sons and parted sisters reuniting; the sound of people, once children and now young adults finding their way home.
My home was different now. I couldn’t deny that. When I had gone, fighting through not only warfare but also a personal, family crisis that had taken place in my leave, things had changed.
Wow. I've had this blog for a year! That's special. And obsessively dedicated.
I guess I need to do some blog/new years resolutions - it's about time, I think, since I forgot the first two days of 2010, so I decided to put it off till my anniversary. I hardly remember this time last year, starting a blog because of Kori and NaNoWriMo (yes, I couldn't decide which link to put, so it's split down the middle ;) hehe).
New Years Resolutions For Me And Blog
Blog: post weekly, 300 words or more.
Me: study more, and stop procrastinating
Blog: change complete or make small but large changes to the design
Me: possibly try out a new haircut this summer (like straight across bangs compared to the side ones I have now)
Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate) and happy holidays...
I hope everyone is enjoying the break from school and time at home :) I know I have!
For Christmas (which was this morning, a few minutes ago) I got AMAZING stuff! There was everything I wanted and more, and it was a nice day and (amazingly) the cat and dog behaved - even if they were close together and wearing hideous collars (Garfield) and scary things that he had to sniff (Odie).
First of all, I got a book called the Maze Runner (left) and Wings, (above right with butterfly-thing).
I just found out that I didn't win the contest at my library. I really thought I was going to win it.. and now I'm just plain sad.
Why do I write? Someone my age who doesn't seem at all writerly (just one of those "I'm writing a book about my life story" people) got an honourable mention. Mehh..
Am I actually a good writer? Sure, I can write fast. Sure, I'm obsessed with it. Sure, I've written lots of words, but as they actually good words?
In a state on confusion,
Sarah
P.S. Read more so see what I submitted. Sure I wrote it a while ago because I can't write short stories very often, but I had hope, you know?
I, proud to say it, have updated InVincible with a sweet 2-page segment about death. Uh-huh, I rock.
The story about writing it goes like this: It's the girls change room, and the grade 11 girls are back 10 minutes before the grade 9's. 10 minutes, and all of the little niners stuff is thrown all over the room. Ransacked. Wallets missing, ipods, iphones, everything. Even a sweater went "missing". It must have been a pretty amazing ten minutes, because one of my friend's wallet and iphone were stolen out of the bottom of her backpack, and someone took my ipod, Iggy, out of my bag where it had been in a zippered pocket. That's two zippers, a binder, clothing, paper and pencils they went through to get a $50 ipod.
Whoohoo. Congradulations. You just won some Billy Talent and stalker-like photos of a girl's life.
I hate you.
With passion.
So, frankly, I was depressed last night. Very, very depressed. And, when I get depressed, a great way to get out the depressed-ness is too write. So I did. And it ended up being InVincible I wrote, because it's my violent book and I thought this would end up violent. Excerpt below.
(k, so I'm trying out the 'Read More' thing -- IT WORKED!!! --)
Not exactly sure about all the details right now, just that it'll be written for NaNoWriMo this November. If you haven't checked out NaNo already, do so now! I did it last year, and that's the reaosn I started blogging, how I met Kori, and got my very first novel out.
The main idea of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month - November. There's lots of ways to do this, and lots of cheats too ;) (like loooonnnnggggg chapter titles, would not 's instead of wouldn't's, etc... although I, of course.. didn't use any.. *coughnocough*). So, it's pretty hard, but the satisfaction of winning is just too good to be true.
Anyways, the New Story!
Here is my 10-minute summary:
It's 3013, the world has reached overpopulation and near
destruction. Now, it's controlled by one
single Government - a highly efficient system in which every living being's
voice is heard.
But what if you aren't living? Over time, the ways of the ghosts has been
forgotten, and now the passage to a new life has been forgotten entirely. For the first time, ghosts have shown
themselves to not only a few humans, but the entire population and government. Now allowed to live like citizens in small
highly-guarded villages, the government says they will be safe from the
companies who want to control and experiment on them.
But things are no longer so safe, and in Echo G’Allen’s
town of 50 ghosts, there are daily attacks by annoyed humans who think the
ghosts should go back into hiding – or leave forever. Unable to explain why they can’t leave, the
government is becoming more and more distrusting to the ghosts. After her family is killed, Echo realizes she
can’t stay any more. Leaving her town,
she sets off to the infamous No-Zone, a radioactive, nuclear-testing site that’s
found its way into all of the ghost’s legends and fairytales.
It's not finished, and definitely not final, but that's what I have right now. The main character's name is Echo G'Allen (the G was added because she's a ghost family) and she goes out of her village and meets Nike (n-EYE-k) who doesnt really like ghosts, but joins her anyways. After getting to the place, there is a village (after a while of dissapointed looking) but Nike dies in the process. He becomes a ghost, which he isn't happy about, especially because he's supposed to have special powers - the reason why he was on the run and met Echo in the first place). He does, only after he gets kidnapped... he can make things just materialize out of thin air, which is amazing. Echo can sometimes control electric currents, but after experimenting can cause lightning and extraordinary things - with extreme pain and such as the verdict.
Here's some of my two-second plotline notes:
·Ghost girl in a ghost world
·Ghosts used to hide, or use special ways to get
back
oNow with pop. They are running out of ghost
space
oGhost towns are guarded and imprisoned
oIf they leave, there are agencies going to
experiment
oSome ghosts have special abilities, some more
§Mother – healer
§Father – animals, vegetarian family
§Brother – nothing
§Most powerful in village – only rumoured, but an
old druggie geezer can occasionally cause some sparks to fly
·Wants to get to Nowhere, a past nuclear testing site,
where all the ghost fairytales and stuff takes place
oShe can occasionally stop an eclectic current,
so she can get out – had to keep that power HIDDEN from everyone or else they
would do something bad – a friend of hers said it out loud and was taken away
oMeet dude along the way, become friends
"Now, you can do one of two things. You can run, or you
can hide."
"I really don't see why I can't just punch you in the face."
§He dies in the end, but becomes a ghost
·They were trying to keep him alive because he’s
supposed to have special ghost powers
oBecause of that people trying to kill him
oEquals out = ghostgirl is wanted to be
captured/tested on too, so they stick together
oGet to site, see one hazy form – part 1 end
·There’s a whole community of people – maybe 200,
compared to the 50 of her last village
oIt can take up to a month for the ghost to rise
out of the dude
§Girl must wait, become part of village life
·Hears people talk about other groups, more
secret ghost villages rising
·Ghosts shouldn’t have to hide, this isn’t right
·Revolutions are in the planning – raids are
organized to go out and get ghosts out of the prison towns
oGirls wants to join, trains like most people her
age
oGoes on raid back to homeland, guy wakes up
§Freaks and goes looking for her
§When she comes back he’s gone, must go looking
for him
§magical disturbences lead to him getting
captured,
"Don't you ever shut up? No
wonder your friends aren't coming to rescue you."
§she gets herself captured
§meets him, crazy things going off, kiss and
there’s a heart-shaped bed, which turns into a rampant cow with heart spots
·can make things appear if tries really hard
·gets gun and gets out!
§Can’t go back home, big settlement found out,
whole area unsafe see after coming over
last hill
I was only two dozen feet from sanctuary, and standing in my
way was the man sent to kill me.
"Okay, maybe I can technically survive its loss, but I
still happen to be rather fond of my head; specifically, how it's attached to
my neck."
§Turn around, where now?
·Meet a dying ghost - usually never done, he says hints only on how to die themselves, find it (way) for the rest of the ghosts
That's my really, really, really quick idea-mode session. Girl is Echo, boy is Nike,and the quotes are quotes I found on the Adopt-A-Line which I would love to use. It also didn't copy&paste all too well, so bare with the bad formatting. I had layered bullets in the real thing, lol, because I'm a weirdo organized nerd.
That being mainly what I have at the moment, can you guys think of any plot-fixes and such to suggest? I'm open to suggestion ALL the time with writing, and I have a pretty thick skin so dunt worry :)
(Weirdly enough, I like it when I get essays back with red pen ALL over)
Sarah P.S. will update with photos I find later, probably tomorrow or Monday.
What are these things? These wierd stops in the middle of school.... weekends? Yes, I think it's called a weekend...
Odd.
Facts About The Newly Discovered Weekends:
They provide dates for things like a soccer tournement
They provide chances to sleep in (although the chance has so far gone untaken)
They provide chances to stay up late (again, untaken)
They let you invite friends over (taken for tomorrow! :D yay)
They let you find time to write. Note the excerpt below.
They bring about boredom which I suffer from right now.
So, I'm bored. This morning I had a soccer tournament, in which the previously last team came in first, and the second last (my team) came in second! Whoohoo!! I rocked at soccer today, despite the headache, sun, wet grass and hurting all over. Ouch, but it was still fun. Plus, I get this pretty metal. Go me!
Tomorrow I think one of my friends is coming over... not sure what we're doing - but I know before he comes, I'll need to spend at least 4 hours cleaning my room. During the school week I don't have time to clean it, and now the floor has gone missing.
Also, I've written an added bit of Empyrean - now 47,000 words. This happens at the beginning, when she's in a burning building, 6 years old, and about to discover her power. I think it's pretty good, especially for a situation I'd deemed impossible to add on to earlier. Who knew?
Finally, I'm back on track. It's my goal to write at least 800 words a day, and so far I'm having no trouble doing that (though it is still freezing down there, and I have to wear a thousand layers of clothes... when it's 30 degrees celcius!) and InVincible is at 16,200 words right now. Yesterday I jot-notedly planned the rest of the story, and I think it'll be about 120,000 words - though I really want to break into the 150's.
Here's an excerpt of what I wrote.
P.S. this is an extreme rough draft - because the NaNoWriMo writing style worked for me (otherwise it's hard to write because my inner critic is a beeper) so please don't judge this or think I'm a bad writer or anything. Please. (I'm a little bit more insecure about this piece because I was really trying to get a guyish look on things.... lately Vince has become somewhat girly).
InVincible
She even insisted on walking me home.
“This is where you live?”Our backup for tailings, a tall apartment building with relatively low security, admitted our access.
“Yes.”
“And your parents are what?”
“Never said what they were.”
“So tell me.”I was trying to avoid looking in her eyes but she caught me, and I couldn’t look away.
“Dead.”
She looked shocked and I almost liked it – it was hard to find something to shock Wings.I’d only seen her four times, but each time she’d been so used to weirdness and adaptable in any situation, I’d actually spent some time thinking about a way to surprise her.But I’d never admit it, just as I would have never admitted my parents were dead – even if it was only to me.That was private.She hadn’t needed to know, but now she was looking at me and trying to share my grief.I’d made a mistake telling her, opening up, and it was partially her fault.Still, I needed to fix it.
“They’re dead, to me.”I tried, then as she opened her mouth to prompt me with more questions, “it’s too complicated to explain.”
“Okay.”Relief flooded my veins, and I pulled out the old fashioned key which would have no use on this door.I faked realizing this, and dug around in my empty pockets.
Wings just stared, trying to find more words.“Who’s apartment is this?”The questions started again.
“My brothers, but I forgot my key.”
She looked worried.
“It’s ok, we hid one around here just in case.”A smile lit up the dark space.“But I can’t show you where.My brother would kill me.”
“Oh.”She frowned, “Is it Paul?”
“What?” I exclaimed.
“Paul, is he your brother?”
I decided to let her have it, even if it wasn’t true, just to end the questions and get rid of her.
“Yes, goodbye.”
“Bye.”She turned, then turned back to me, smiling again.“I knew it was Paul because he has the same jaw line as you and he looks like he could kill someone.”
I had to admit, I was surprised.Not only about the similar face shape Wings thought we shared, but the idea of him killing someone.She definitely wasn’t wrong about his abilities, but one thing bothered me.
“Do I look like I could kill someone?”
She smiled, as if her answer was good.I wasn’t so sure she knew what the ‘good’ answer would be.“Nope, your too nice, and your arms aren’t as thick.Paul could strangle you to death with one arm.”
She left, but I stood there for a few moments before heading down the fire escape.Her face was still on my mind, burned into my eyelids.She didn’t know that you hardly needed any muscle at all to strangle someone, but nonetheless she thought Paul was stronger than me.She thought I couldn’t kill someone.
I geared up into a slow run as I wound down the street leading to the warehouse.It was an insult, I was sure, to tell a trained killer he didn’t look like he could kill someone.I could kill anyone.I could kill her, although for some reason I didn’t want to do it.I’d had plenty of opportunities though.
But what about our faces?I’d never looked hard enough to compare my looks to anyone else, hardly even cared about them.But Paul, it was plain to see, was pretty good looking.Stocky, constant 5 o’clock shadow, and deep dark eyes made our boss literally beg him to go on cash.For the sake of the Mass, he’d tried, but the amount of stupid, flirty girls he couldn’t stand had made him quit before he lost his mind.I’d never had any girl look at me twice, which I took to be a very good sign.But Paul’s looks were something to be dreamed about in your utmost weirdest and nearing girly thoughts.Wings thought I had a piece of those?That was a compliment – but if I accepted, what would happen?
George opened the door for me.His hair was wet with water, and soap covered his face.“So, I heard you’ve gots a girlfriend.”
I ignored him, but Peter had caught on to what George said.He whooped, then yelled “Little Vince has got a girlfriend!”
“No I don’t!”
“Yes you do!” Leddie laughed.My face turned red, and I rapidly tried to control my emotions.This was not the behavior of any of the Bishops subjects, and definitely not the Mass’s either.
I rushed away to my room, still struggling to be indifferent.I hesitated before opening the door, my unnatural sixth sense feeling something my conscious mind had not.I opened the door, ready for anything.
A hand came out from behind the door, grabbing my face and banging my head against the doorframe.I struggled to stay conscious, the hours of training at the Bishop’s school kicking in after their long dormant sleep.Immediately, I dropped to the ground, rushing through the steps of kicking the legs of my opponent – who cares who it was – and getting back up.But he was ready for that, pining me to the ground the moment I dropped.The move was a simple one, but it was hardly protective and once caught, hard to get out of.But I knew how.Spitting where I hoped a face was, I struggled until the hand on the throat came free.In a flash, I was standing on my bed, ready to jump on the recovering attacker.
It was only once I’d pinned him down, I realized it was Paul.He gave me a curt nod, blood and my saliva dripping down his face.
“Good move there.” He said.“But I was ready for the drop.It’s too dangerous with trained men.”
I nodded and released my hold on his neck - slowly.Paul didn’t make a move to continue the fight, so I let him up.
“Don’t let this go to your head.I was being easy on you kid, you’ve still got much to learn.Watch me and Frank practice sometime, there’s new moves in the higher levels.”
Even though they knew why I had never advanced and understood, maybe even admired my thinking, everyone knew I was a weaker fighter.I have Paul a nod and he turned to leave.Then he turned back.“Don’t ever let girls get in your way.I won’t let them in our way.”
He left, and I sat down to think.I didn’t want Wings to get hurt – sure, she was annoying and a little too inquisitive for me, but she was also the beginnings of a friend, something I didn’t know anything about, much less had ever had.But what about Paul?I doubted he’d never met someone like Wings, someone you could be a true friend with, if you let yourself.Paul would never let himself.Had I?Was I already too far gone to save myself?
In 45 hours after I post this (posted at 8:00 Saturday May 30th) I will be...
F o u r t e e n !
14
Isn't that awesome? I was born as 5:35am on June 1st 1995. A lot of people are born on June first, which I pretty cool too. But when I'm fourteen... the world will not seem any different. At all. But still, I'll be old enough to have a teensie more bit of respect and get into 14A movies (which I already do, but this time I'll do it shivering free - I shiver when I'm nervous).
Also, in about 9 hours I'm having my birthday party. Sorry I didn't invite you guys, but sometime tells me it'd be thousands and thousands of miles to travel for one 4-hour party.
Also, as a birthday gift to you... (even though I'm the one celebrating, not you) here's the last chapter of Empyrean. You might not get it, because I haven't really talked about Empyrean for a while, but if you go to the labels/catogories and click on Empyrean, you'll find some other bits and pieces about it.
P.S. The "saving the world" thing she's talking about - she actually did save the world by stopping this missile full of poison set to kill a sort of "race" (everyone has one magic power, but some people are less powerful - the poison was to kill off any unpowerful people, including her sister). She's really powerful though, so it didn't kill her.
Empyrean, Epilouge: It's The End Of The End, For Forever And Ever And Never Again
After a week in recovery from the poison that had seeped into my skin, I was able to leave the hospital. They had kept me there extra long, but I didn’t mind one bit. Even when I was in there, torrents of news agencies and reporters had snuck their way through the building security and found me, questioning me relentlessly, even one their way out the door. I had heard it was even worse for Erik and Alexa, because they were out in the public. I was glad they’d decided to keep me in longer to ensure the poison was entirely gone and I couldn’t infect anyone else with it.
The world had reacted strangely to what I had done. Our great country, Empyrean, was quickly split in two. At one side, the people who had been on Emerson Palenstine’s side all along were angry, shooting people on the streets from building up high and blowing up the rest. The other side had retreated into the side of Empyrean I was on now - the side with the peace-keeper countries’ forces ensuring all-around safety and wellbeing, and the side the was constantly being attacked by the other side’s planes and missiles. Empyrean was no longer safe.
People were dying.
It hurt so much to know that what I had done was killing people. Erik, who had visited earlier this morning, said that more people would have died had I not saved them.
I guess I believe him, but it still hurt.
One thing that made it better was that all around my bed, there were gifts of gratitude. I already had plowed through much of the chocolates and felt at least ten pounds heavier, but the cards from people who had known the truth all along meant the most.
Of course, Erik’s card was the most important. It was right beside me, and had been since last week.
“You’re free to go, Miss. Bradburn.” The nice doctor told me. I smiled, and stretched my right arm and legs.
My left arm would never recover. Too much of the poison had seeped into my bone, and even though I was powerful enough to stop it from killing me, I wasn’t powerful enough to stop it from killing my arm in such a large quantity. I was going to have to learn to do everything with my right hand - but that wasn’t the end of the world - literally. I was learning very, very slowly.
“Hey Aerynn!” It was Alexa, back to see me for the second time today - the fourteenth time over all. When she had first come, our reunion had been caught by a reporter, and was now broadcast all over the world.
Olyver, Raechel and everyone working for the Government were in a temporary makeshift jail; most of the big hotel chains of Empyrean had donated their rooms for the people waiting time with the judge. Josh had been one of the first people to get out, and I was glad he hadn’t been charged. I wasn’t so sure that Olyver and Raechel would fair the same good fortune.
As for Emerson Palenstine the Second, he had disappeared, following Erik and Liam out of the building. While Erik and Liam searched for me, a resident in a local town claimed that he had been seen riding off into the ocean on a small motorboat. Searches were out there, but something told me that Emerson Palenstine would never be found.
When I stepped out of the building, I was greeted by the roar of the biggest crowd I had ever seen. The army colours of Kanada, Wat and other countries were mixed in with the normal colours of normal Empyrean citizens. But the best colour was the black of Erik, who was standing on my right. He took my hand and led me through the crowd.
“You really do need to get a security guard, for now at least.” Erik said.
I laughed, “I do.”
I looked around, and I saw everything. Destruction, desolation, death; all the things I had caused. But I also saw love, kindness, thankfulness, and people helping each other get through one of the toughest times in Empyrean history. This was, no matter how you looked at it, all for the better.
We loaded into the limo that would take us to the home Erik and Alexa had been staying in. I couldn’t take my eyes of the country that I had saved, or destroyed.
This wasn’t over, but it wasn’t ever going to be as bad as it once was. This was the New Empyrean, the beginning of the never-ending.
I'm about to say Happy Birthday here, but er... Happy June and start of the last month of the school year!
# WARNING: a swear word is spelled in this story... I felt like warning you #
This is a short story I wrote totally on urge... and I have no idea what to do with it. It has backstory, and kinda a promise of a somewhat longer thing - but I'm just stuck.
Also, as of late (Christmas aproximately) I've tried to extend it - this is the longer version, but I have a 1200-word one too.
Oh, and also, I give up on the formatting. Grr...
“SIR, WE HAVE A CONFIRMED SIGHTING OF THE RED CAR. TAILING SUPPOSED SUSPECT.”
“PERMISSION TO DESTROY.”
* * *
“Emma! Pass me the popcorn.”
I rolled my eyes at the immature and absolutely uncouth boy beside me. His one hand was inches from the bowl between us, yet he couldn’t even bother to grab popcorn himself.
"If you want it, you have to get it yourself.” I said tiredly, casually scratching the tomato sauce on my shirt, which had dried on after that same boy, Nick, had ‘accidentally’ knocked his pasta on me.
“That’s not the way a man works.” Nick told me, stubbornly tilting his chin higher up in the air. Apparently, his pale blue eyes and straw coloured hair was ‘cute’, but I never saw it. All I saw was a disrespectful, boy who liked spilling pasta on a girl’s favorite shirt.
Much to my disappointment, Nick was still on about his ‘way of life’. “The woman fetches the popcorn, clothes in the morning, food in the afternoon and takes care of everything while the man watches the latest football game.”
I rolled my eyes again. “And how would that family survive? Any way of income?” I liked to think about the practical side of things - especially around him. I had said the practical side earlier, about buying the latest skateboard and Nick had just stood there at loss of words for five blissful minutes.
Sadly, that wasn’t going to happen this time. “They don’t have to work. My parent’s own the Grensbey Amethyst mine, when I inherit that, I’ll sell it all and live off the millions I’ll be paid.” He sounded so proud, wow, his parents own a mine. Sure, whatever. I didn’t really care - all I cared about was getting home and away from him. Like that was going to happen anytime soon.
“I don’t think your parents would like that, Nick.” Our driver said. His hands were on the wheel, navigating through the slushy false spring that happened every February. I looked out my window, hoping that Nick would take that as I sign I didn’t want to talk to him ever again in my life, and for him to shut up for eternity. As if.
He wasn’t even supposed to be here. This was a special trip between me and my brother David, who had just returned from Iraq. It had never meant to include the annoying son of my overly generous parent’s friends.
My brother had joined the army a year after graduating from a high school. I could still remember my mother crying when he left, although it was slightly faded because my memory was horrible, and anything two years or more was almost gone. Either way, it felt like an eternity when he was gone.
In this shopping trip I’d ask him to take me on, I’d been hoping to get to know him again. But things never work the way you intend for them to work.
“Emma, are you there? I’m still waiting for that popcorn.” Nick waved his hand in front of my face. Yes, he was the unexpected thing that had ruined the trip. A last minute business crisis had caused the Wilson’s to run off to the other side of country, leaving behind their annoying son and five-year-old daughter in the hands of their kind and always-there-for-you neighbors, my family. Moreover, with my parents taking both their daughter (my younger sister) and the Wilson’s daughter to the zoo, Nick had been forced to come with us.
“You can’t leave him… who knows what that teenage boy could do. Emma, I know your mature and can handle him… even his sister would be more suited to be home alone than him!” I mimicked under my breath.
“What’d you say Em?” David raised his head and looked at me in the rearview mirror.
“She’s talking to herself. The first sign of insanity. How about we leave her at the closest mental hospital?” Nick asked, acting innocent. “We just passed a sign saying there was one five kilometers East on Kings Road.”
The car stopped at the intersection, and pulled away, driving straight ahead.
“Well, sorry Nick. We just passed the turnoff. Another day, eh?” David laughed. It felt to great to have him back at home and with me - only God knew how much he’d helped me growing up - but I cringed at the thought of him joking with Nick Wilson. Didn’t he know? Why wouldn’t he see the stupid, big headed, arrogant side of him and know to stay away?
Outside the car, the ‘Nashville’ sign passed by. A click of hail joined the clatter of rain that had been following us around all day. It wasn’t the best day to go shopping, and the amount of people and activity in the mall had reflected that. Either way, there was a nice amount of bags in the trunk - maybe a not so nice amount of money taken out of my bank account, but I had the money to loose after my summer job.
“…And that’s the start of the real storm.” David said, referring to the hail falling from the sky. I nodded, and my head fell back against the headrest. I closed my eyes and relaxed.
An electronic whirr came from my left, followed by a downpour of rain, sleet, and heavy rocks of hail.
“ARGHH!” I screamed. Nick was just doing up his seatbelt again as I undid mine and jumped on him, pummeling his face with my hands.
“Whoa! Watch it Emma, we almost got into a car accident!” David shouted. A truck roared by, inches from the side of our car, splattering the previously red, but now a dirty pink, splattered car with more slush.
I didn’t say sorry, and regretfully sat back down in my seat, promising myself to torturously kill Nick some other time when it didn’t endanger my life.
As the slush cleared off the windshield, I saw a pair of headlights cutting across the 4-lane road. A car’s horn blared as the silver SUV cut off two lanes of traffic and headed in a straight line towards us.
I felt my heartbeat quicken, and wondered what on Earth the SUV was doing.
David must have noticed the deranged car and driver heading towards us as well, and he swore colourfully. I think he must’ve picked up some words in Iraq, because before he left, ‘shoot’ was as far as his vocabulary went in the profanities direction.
I guess he’d learnt a new meaning for ‘shoot’ over their, and it didn’t mean the same thing as ‘damn’.
“Is there anyone behind us?” In these conditions, which were getting worse by the second, David couldn’t take his eyes off the road. I waited for Nick to look behind, noticing the line of traffic ahead of us.
“Someone!” David shouted at us. Nick hadn’t moved. I checked behind me.
“No one.” I said, casting the lump of wasted space beside me a look that I hope reinforced the ‘I’m going to kill you’ scheme of things.
David’s hands flew at my words, one hand on the gears and the other controlling the steering wheel. The emergency brake was pulled, gear-stick shifted from three to reverse. Our red car rolled backwards.
“What-” I started to ask.
“Shush.” David said sharply. I closed my mouth and looked at the SUV, which was charging towards us as we drove backwards down the road. I looked over at the speedometer, just visible under David’s arm. It read 70 kilometers an hour. I didn’t know that was possible while driving backwards.
The car slid to a stop, David’s hand switching from reverse to first and up as the car regained speed. Now we were speeding towards the SUV.
David spun the steering wheel and our car moved into the oncoming lane. The silver SUV tried to turn and hit us, but only clipped the back. The car fishtailed for a minute, and then David regained control. He sped off down the road, joining back into the right lane when the SUV was far behind us. Back in our lane, David still drove fast, cutting between cars and passing on the left and right.
“A, S, S, H, O, L, E.” Nick muttered beside me, digging through the pocket and cup holder beside him.
“What are you calling my brother?” I asked, giving Nick another death glare. He reflected it back at me.
“No you idiot, that was the license plate number.” Oh, I thought. I grabbed the notepad out of my cup holder and handed it to him.
“There’s a pen in the glove compartment. David, can you slow down and get it?” I asked.
“I have to make sure they’re gone and we are far away from them.” David told me, but slowed down and got the pen anyways.
We recorded the plate and David told us that he would take it to the police station the following morning. Right now, all he wanted to do was go home.
* * *
“WE LOST THEM, SIR.”
“WELL, DO BETTER NEXT TIME. YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE - IT’S THEM OR YOU, GESPARD.”
Part 2
That was the first time I realized something wasn’t right. There’s always a first, isn’t there? A first and a last, but here in this cell, surrounded by grey and a shade of green that can only come from one thing I’d rather not name, I’m beginning to think there’s no last coming, no solution, only an end.
* * *
“A FAILED MISSION! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? YOU LEAVE ME WITH NO CHOICE.”
“NO SIR. THERE ARE ALWAYS CHOICES. TAKE THE RIGHT ONE, I TRUST YOU.”
“YOU TRUST TOO EASILY GESPARD. IT WILL, ULTIMATELY, LEAD TO YOUR DEATH.”
* * *
The second instance that told me something was up happened just two days after the first.
David was heading out to talk to the police about the first incident, and picking up the car from the auto body shop.
“Bye Em! Don’t kill Nick.” He told me. Oh, how I wished I could. I’d actually already had a dream about it. Apparently I had said most of the stuff aloud as well, according to Annabelle, Nick’s little sister, who was sharing my room with me.
Ever since then Nick had gone quieter and quieter, bugging me less and less. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it - I loved the silence and peace, but the tender side of me kicked in and I couldn’t help but wonder if his ego had taken a massive dent after hearing me talk in my sleep about killing him. He’d gotten so used to everyone loving him, I guess it was hard to know at least one person didn’t.
But I can’t say I wasn’t the teensiest bit happy about the new silence. I curled up on the couch in my basement, ignoring skillfully the horrible gold and green paint job that it’d been given years before, and turned on the TV. I watched random funny shows for about an hour, content in the simple, pure bliss of being alone. It was hard to be alone and have time to yourself when your family of five had taken on two extra members, and especially when every person in your house had at least two extra-curricular activities to participate in. Between hockey games and dance recitals, I hardly got time to rest and be myself.
But now I had that time - or so I thought. Really, I had only a few moments of normality before my life was plunged into total darkness, and total chaos.
I spent those moments watching Who Wants To Be A Millionare and sipping my latest blender-creation. It was heaven while it lasted, but all too soon, the commercials came on and I was called away to get Nick out of whatever trouble he’d gotten himself into.
“Emmily!” His annoying voice called out. It was a lot deeper than most people I knew, but to my ears, it was an annoying as the high-pitched whine of a fly.
P.S. Awesomely great news! On my 3R (retell, relate, response) I got a 94% for writing! Other people (other geniuses) got the same as me, but that was still the highest mark in the class - and like, ever for writing :D
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Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate) and happy holidays...
First of all, I got a book called the Maze Runner (left) and Wings, (above right with butterfly-thing). 
Finally, I'm back on track. It's my goal to write at least 800 words a day, and so far I'm having no trouble doing that (though it is still freezing down there, and I have to wear a thousand layers of clothes... when it's 30 degrees celcius!) and InVincible is at 16,200 words right now. Yesterday I jot-notedly planned the rest of the story, and I think it'll be about 120,000 words - though I really want to break into the 150's.
