Things i've realized:
- When i get angry, my writings' voice starts to sound a little incomprehensible.
- i don't care about capitalizing my i's when i blog. Who cares, right? i know i don't.
- Even though i tell myself i'll start my summer project earlier the next year, i never do.
- My cats are wild. (but that has nothing to do with writing.)
- My motto about deadlines seems to be: If you didn't procrastinate, you didn't want it to be great.
- The word realize is one of those weird common words that actually uses an, unnecessary, "Z" in them.
- Fall out Boy doesn't rhyme when you think they will. Tricky, FOB, tricky. (not writing related either, and a topic for another post someday.)
- There seems to not be a lot of variety when it comes to writing a dragon story. Will it try to kill you, will you try to kill it, will it be good and let you ride it, will it be red, orange, breath fire, breath ice? That's about it. Not a lot of room for something new...
- Writing is like fine dining.
- When i listen to an accent for long enough (British television, Nadia G's bitchin' kitchen, Grand Theft Auto 4) my thoughts are in that accent. It's really annoying and i can't stop it until i watch american tv or... until i fall asleep and forget the accent.
- When in doubt, you just have to remember these two words: helicopter and bazooka.
- Whoever named the grapefruit had seriously run out of names. What, did they pick a fruit's name out of a hat and say, there! we'll add the word fruit after this and then, bam, we have something totally new and different! ??
So, on the off chance you're wondering how my summer project turned out... well it all started at 8 am on the Monday before.
My head was foggy as i lifted it from the pillow, i heard a knock at the door and someone telling me to get up. I didn't want to, so i didn't, eventually it all turned to screaming and threats. I had to go with my sister to take our kittens to the vet for booster shots because apparently my sister couldn't handle two kittens. I knew deep inside that i was a ploy to get me out of bed. I laid still and my mom came in and threatened to take away my laptop, which i knew i needed to do my project, so, still half asleep, i tried to push my laptop under my bed to hide it from her. Maybe if she couldn't see it, she'd take away something stupid, like my phone. Well, dangling off the bed, trying to shove this laptop under my said bed, my mom walked in and i went limp, as if i was being dramatic about getting up. Eventually i couldn't take it though so i went with my sister, who didn't need my help in any way. If i wasn't there, i'm sure nothing would've happened different.
I came home and went back to sleep, as if my body was making up for the rest lost i slept until 5 o clock. I was starting to get used to waking up at 10:30-11 ish so getting up this late was a kind of shock. I was afraid to have fallen into an old groove, but then again, i didn't care. I went through the beginning of the day, pretty normal. Acting like i've been reading since 2 or something, eating dinner as breakfast, chilling out, doing my thing, feeling guilty. Then when everyone started going to sleep, that's when i did my work. I don't remember the precise details, though, but let's just say with some aid from Anonymous and Lewis, up until... six-ish maybe, i was making progress. Then it was 7 and 8 and i was rushing to finish before my parents got up for work but then my mom woke up and went with my brother to take our dog to the vet for a booster or something... i don't remember, and i was rushing to sneak downstairs and print out my project, hoping that the loud annoying printer noises weren't going to wake up my dad, who was snoozing on the couch. The floor was cold and the the bright morning light was new to me, considering my nocturnal tendencies, the goosebumps on my arms and legs reminded me of an ending summer. Meaning... summer projects were due. If one word could describe my printer, it would be crazy. It tells you that the ink pack things needs replacing but you replace it and it says the same thing again. (we got a new one) So after having it print one page and having it tell me to replace the ink thing, i said: screw this, and i went back to my room. I waited until my mom and brother came home and then pretended like they woke me up because they were loud when they were leaving. Then i ate some cereal and told my mom my project was due on that day and she helped me print it and then me and my sister turned it in and then it was around 12-ish maybe 11 and then me and my sister took a nap in my mother's room with our kittens. i'm not sure why my sister was so tired, but i had a good reason.
Phew! Okay, that's my story.
Speaking of stories, remember that contest i talked about, well two hours ago i emailed my entry in. Now, on the paper it said that the stories were due on midnight on August 14th. But does that mean, the end of the day or... there's august 13th 11:59pm and then there's august 14th 12:00am. Was i a day late? I don't know, but i turned in my story and hopefully i'm not. Hopefully i win the rights to have my story read to others during the Halloween and a to have it published on the site... and $50, but i couldn't care less about $50.
So, i'm going to put my story in the end of this post here, tell me if you think it deserves publicity, $50, and the tears of the people i've beat! (and it's only 909 words, 908 without the title)
Hidden
Like a sweet lullaby,
hushing me to sleep, breathing whistled through the forest’s trees, but I wasn’t
about to be lulled; my heart raced at every rustle in the leaves. The bark behind
my back cut into my spine as I stood frozen, waiting for it all to be quiet,
waiting to hear my own breathing, waiting for myself to sigh in relief when I
realized I was alone again. I never did.
The breathing was closer, I could
feel the hot breath blowing past me as I squeeze me eyes shut. Trees snapped as
it closed in. I wasn’t sure if it
would see me if I ran. I wasn’t sure if it would chase me. I wasn’t sure how I
even got into this situation where a shadow was stalking me through the woods.
I wondered if I should climb the
tree I was pressed against. Believe it or not, that wasn’t the weirdest option
I considered, but when you weren’t sure what was around the corner, you didn’t
deny any thoughts that might help you live. I tried to blindly size up the
shadow, but I couldn’t. One thing I did know was that it was clumsy and loud; it
snapped through branches and the overgrown weeds, as if it didn’t know I was
there, but I knew it saw it me, it turned towards me and followed me to this
spot.
I looked to my right and thought I
saw a clearing a little farther out. I suddenly knew where I was and knew that
if I could get the clearing, a path was awaiting me a little father out. I wasn’t
sure if I could risk the run, but I also wasn’t sure if I could risk standing
still.
I stood frozen. I heard the leaves
rustle, a crunch, some sort of grunt, and then I went off sprinting. My legs
burned even though I only went a few feet and I kept tripping over invisible
obstacles, my legs felt like a bowl of cereal after leaving it sit for too
long. Branches whipped me in the face, so I had to blindly run in where I hoped
was the right direction. Suddenly I fell flat on my face, my stomach lurched,
and I smacked onto the ground, but the ground was clear of weeds and I opened
my eyes to see I made it to the clearing.
Behind myself and heard snaps of
twigs. Tears streamed down my scratched face and I tried to scramble into a
standing position, but I was too afraid. Feeling defeated I looked up and saw
lights. My heart leaped and I started to wildly wave my arms and scream, hoping
that the airplane or helicopter might see me. The lights quickly changed
direction and started coming down, for a second I wondered how it could descend
so fast, but then I decided not to care, because it was coming to save me. Relieved
, I ran to the other side of the clearing, hoping that it could get to me
before my menacing shadow did.
I looked to the trees and realized
that the light were too late, the shadow was coming from the forest. I hid
behind the trees and held my breath praying, watching, crying silent tears, and
the shape slowly appeared in the full moon’s light. I saw for legs and a heavy
build… horns, I think, then it meandered into the middle of the clearing I saw
what it was.
A crow uttered a cry as I saw in
full glory what I was running from. A… cow. A big old cow with brown eyes,
looking lost. Its bell must’ve fallen off and it was falling me, trying to get
home. I suddenly remembered the lights, I didn’t want them to land on the cow.
I pushed away from the tree, ready to wave the helicopter off, but then… I
heard the noise I’ll never forget. The whoosh of air, the… flapping. The cow was gone before I could look back at it. I fell
back and looked at the spot where it was standing; it was blood stained. I
heard a strangled moo and a loud
thump, birds flew from trees and I was left sitting dumbfounded, staring into
the inky sky. I blindly ran into the trees again and stood until the lights
came back, landed on the ground and looked at me. I realized they weren’t
lights, they were eyes.
I turned and ran. I heard the loud
whooshing again and continued running. The dense trees I made my way into
blocked the moonlight, which is why I ended up smacking into something hard. I
guess it was a rock but I was so dizzy I couldn’t tell anything from anything. I
heard the flapping again, it was right on top of me. When I turned I could make
out two red balls of light, dancing in front of my eyes. I could smell smoke
and colors dance around my face. I saw what it was. A lizard monster with
scaly bat wings. It opened its mouth, but then, over the hills, I heard my
mother's voice calling me home. The dragon turned away from me, so I threw a
rock blindly, hitting its snout. It turned towards me, knocked me down, and I
closed my eyes, willing my mother to go into the house. Then, the pain came.
Unicorn Slayer
