Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Interconnected stories
Your assignment for the week is to create three short stories, each one being at least 1,000 words, that are somehow connected to each other. You can use recurring characters, a shared setting, a shared theme...etc. Your three stories are due on Friday at the end of the period.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
First Story:
ReplyDeleteThe never ending debate over whether girls versus boys has been cursed above Stonecreek High School. “The Man vs. Woman” competition was set to take place, with both sides determined to figure out which gender reigned supreme over the other.
The “Man” team consisted of five boys, one sophomore, two juniors, and two seniors. The sophomore currently had the highest GPA over the entire school. Mark Pendleton was the captain of the chess team and had never seen the other side of his computer screen for longer than nine hours. His age was but a number, because easily he was the smartest person in the entire school. With his super bulky and twelve inch thick glasses he was a shoo in for winning the intelligence portion of the competition. The first junior was Jackson Lents, the only junior in the entire world who lacked the ability to tie his own shoe. He really had no special talent, except his towering height that overshadowed the competitors. Have you ever seen a three year junior? Who should have graduated 20 years ago? While SHS had Kris Zeller, who broke the record for being the eldest junior in the entire school, at the age of 21, he made Principal Oswald tremble with fear when he strutted down the hallway. He had the ability make the girls run for hills and if his killer physique didn’t do it, his stench would. Peyton Grayson was the guy everyone knew. He was the typical senior, with his popped collar on his varsity jacket and the carefree personality that all seniors eventually acquired. Peyton had more charisma than Jack Nicholson, he could get the judges to side with him like that. The last senior was Devin Sperry. Where to begin with him. He lacked the smile and the charisma that Peyton had, but he was overall the ideal guy. He was the guy fathers want for their little girls. When all of the boys add their best attributes they may seem unstoppable, until the girls come in.
The “Woman” team consisted of four girls. three sophomores and one senior. They were delicate and lacked in numbers, but they had something to prove. Riley Bunker was the school’s superstar. From being a lead in chorus to being a lighting bolt on the soccer field, Riley had the best all around slant nailed. She could do anything and should would win. Meaning, she obviously is suppose to win. Catrina Thatcher was the quiet book worm who spent more time with her nose in a book then breathing. However, when she put the book down and danced on the stage was the cliche ballerina. With pose and flexibility that some dancers dream of. Savanna Grande was the last sophomore. She isn’t likely to make herself known. She is not the superstar who is the best at everything and she isn’t the silent ballerina. Savanna is the cheerleader who made it because she has an excellent athletic ability. Although, she refuses to try out for any other sports like tennis, soccer, or softball. The senior was Nia Rivera, the loudest mouth that any town has met. Her laugh was contagious, her yelling voice put the blow horn to shame at any football game. Despite her obnoxious voice, Nia was one of the few seniors who actually acknowledged underclassmen.
How did these random people get thrown together to determine one of the most controversial topics? They all needed extra credit from the dreaded Mr. Chaffin. He had been the math teacher for over a million years and even kid genius Mark needed help on improving his grade. They all came in on foot and knee begging for a couple of extra points to improve their grades.
ReplyDelete“My parents do not accept a 92, I need at least a 95” Mark cried. Similar reaction happened with Catrina.
“I won’t be able to dance and next week’s competition with a 63 on my report card, as my teacher you need to help me” she begged. By the end of the week before the marking period was about to end, Mr. Chaffin called all nine of them into his classroom.
“Here is your only option, last night at dinner, my wife brought up the fact that she feel girls are better than boys. It started a brawl between us trying to figure out who is better. If you can figure out a clever and intellectual way come up with which gender is better, I will bump each one of your grades a whole letter grade. So a -C will become a C. Any question?” Mr. Chaffin finished.
“Just one, do we all have to work together? I haven’t even spoken with most of these people, how am I suppose to work with them?”
“Well Mr.Grayson, maybe it is time you take your charm and make some friends” Mr.Chaffin smirked.
The week of planning did not prepare these five students who what they were about to face. They did their best to keep the competition quiet, but that Saturday afternoon, their football stadium was packed with students, families, and faculty. The tournament will cover five major events that will test intelligence, athleticism, diligence, and ability. An event for each, and the last one will be tennis...mainly because Mr. Chaffin refused to host the competition unless they got another teacher to supervise and the only one willingly was grumpy old Mr. Twiff. The best Stonecreek High School had to offer as a gym teacher and supervisor whose obsession for tennis took over the student’s man vs woman showdown.
The rules were simply, each team member had to compete in one event and one girl was allowed to do two events. The first event was flexibility, Catrina creamed Kris when she bent herself completely in half and held it longer than Kris was in high school. Jackson Lent, the one with legs longer than America ran against Nia, in who can run one loop around the track the fastest. Needlessly to say Jackson won with ease. Whoever could make more goals against the best goalie in the tri-state area, won this event. Well Riley has been playing soccer for years, so she shoots and scores against Peyton. Savanna bravely went against Mark in figuring out an AP calculus problem that even Mr. Chaffin had difficulties completing before Mark. 1 + 1 equals 2 and that is how many points both the girls and guys had by the end of the main four, leaving tennis left. Devin who happened to be the best tennis player in the school was the only boy who didn’t go yet. Surprisingly Savanna took the last event. The girl know one expected to be good at anything, killed Devin in tennis. She has had private tennis lessons since she was two and hates it, but it made her the best in the state. Everyone was shocked, including Mr. Chaffin, who boosted all nine of their grades because he finally believed girls were better than boys, at least for a little bit.
These teams and competitions were obviously not accurate. So now it is your turn, which gender do you think is better?
Second Story:
ReplyDeleteThe three month rehearsal had prepared Savanna Grande to be amazing for opening night, which happens to be her first time in the spotlight. It has been a long journey getting here, but finally tonight's the night.
The prominent red curtain is raised to kiss the stage floor. The house lights are ignited and the doors open. For awhile the “Starlight Theater of Pennsylvania” have wanted to put on Anastasia. The musical is a new stage adaptation of the 1997 animated musical film, about the title role of the lost Russian princess who — at least in the kid-friendly film that fictionalizes history, who apparently survived the 1918 assassination of the royal Romanov family, which included Czar Nicholas II, his wife and five children. Since Savanna was two, this was her favorite animated musical, and she usually hates musicals. The movie/musical is filled with funny whit, amazing music, a beautiful love story, and a sweet historical myth.
Josh Lancaster, Savanna’s best friend was able to get her a position on the crew considering she assumes she is tone deaf and cannot act for her life. For the first week of the production, Savanna came and they put her straight to work on mending and preparing the costumes for opening night which was only a couple of months away.
Within every production there is always one diva and that happened to be Tiara Gold. Her curly red hair and dazzling blue eyes made her look like the actually Anastasia came into rehearsal. However, by the second week she had to drop the musical because her family was moving to Europe for four years and they needed to leave the country immediately. Any good director knows to have understudies. Although, Tiara’s double was the complete opposite of what the director Adam Ludwig wanted, they went with her. Lily was pale as paper with deep hazel eyes and midnight black, pinpointed hair.
For the last couple days, the production was stopped because they had to teach everything to Lily, but she could not pick up the choreography and steps to save her life. Later that day, Savanna was caught singing and doing all of the steps to Once a Upon a December. Little did Savanna know that she sung like an angel and danced as graceful as the professional ballerina’s from Black Swan. Adam fell in love with everything Savanna had to offer.
“You must play Anastasia, Lily just is not cutting it any more” Adam begged Savanna.
“I can’t, I have never acted, so I wouldn’t be able to be on the stage” Savanna explained “You should just stick with Lily, she enjoys acting.”
“I know you saw Lily screwing up back there, please I need you to be my Anastasia. You would be fantastic” he exclaimed.
“I just can’t take this from Lily. I am sure it means a lot to her”
“Fine then. I refuse to continue to rehearse until you agree to play Anastasia” Adam threatened Savanna.
“Are you really going to trust me to play your lead? I have never even been on stage”
“I believe in you, so does this mean I can fire Lily?” Adam asked.
“I will play Anastasia, but I cannot say whether or not you can fire Lily, I will feel horrible” Savanna explained as she took on the role as Anastasia Romanov.
ReplyDeleteNow the production had found the Anastasia it was time to begin constant rehearsal. Savanna wanted to keep her big news of being the lead a secret. She did not want everyone at her school or even her family to know about it. She wanted it to be the cast, the crew, herself, Josh, and her mom’s secret. Savanna felt it was just dream if only a handful of people knew about it. Even though she was told by Dimitri, Rasputin, Vladimir, the Empress, and the entire cast that she was amazing, she couldn’t comprehend her talent.
As rehearsal continued, Savanna learned to love the spotlight. She became comfortable on stage, but as opening night approached, she began to lose her spark.
“I do not have red hair or blue eyes, I cannot pass as Anastasia, I cannot do this Paul” Savanna had a panic attack and could barely get the words out.
“I am disappointed in your lack in confidence of my talent. I am the best hair and makeup guy Pennsylvania ammature theater has to offer” Paul quickly responded. A smile grew on Savanna’s gloomy face. She was getting cold feet and all she needed was a shot of confidence. However, the show must go on.
Curtain rises at 7, so it was crucially that Savanna got here at 5 to completely transform into the exquisite Anastasia. They began by giving her colored contacts to transform her warm chocolate eyes into the sapphire blue eyes that the Romanovs are known for. They took her dirty blonde hair and added red and brown spray color to give it that red-arbern color. The light makeup that created the gorgeous Anastasia out of the beautiful Savanna was applied. They put the olive green orphan dress on her and placed the ionic “Together in Paris” necklace around her neck for the start of act 1.
The cues were placed and the quick changes were set up. The entire cast warmed up and gave wishes and ‘break a leg’ to all. Adam came in before places were announced.
“It has been a long journey to this moment, I would like to thank everyone for taking time out of their lives to perform a musical that I dearly love. And thank you Savanna for taking this dilemma and heading straight up the mountain with it” Adam spoke from the heart. Everyone gave final hugs and went to places.
“Wait Adam!...I wanted to say thank you, for giving me this opportunity, having so much confidence in me, and just everything” Savanna started.
“I know Savanna, but just remember if I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it” Adam interrupted. She smiled as she took her place for the start of the show.
Third Story:
ReplyDelete“You know Savanna? So do I” the ragged black haired and holey eared teenage asked Matthew Lyon. “I meet her through Josh, how do you know her?”
“We go to school together, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but umm who is Josh?” Matt asked as his scrunched eyebrows looked puzzled. He prayed his cheeks didn’t get too red, the thought of Savanna hanging out with another boy made Matt insanely jealous. He liked Savanna, a lot, but she seemed quiet and reserved, almost constantly depressed. So his infatuation took over and he wanted to learn more about her, but Matt, himself stayed quiet around her. Never really talking to her until recently.
“How the hell do you know Savanna Grande, but you don’t remember Josh Lancaster? They were inseparable for years. They did everything together.” The gothic boy replied.
“Did? As in past tense, so what happened?”
“You really do not know anything about Savanna do you?” he questioned.
“Well I thought I did...care to explain her life story to me?” Matt replied with encouraging eyes that screamed “Tell me everything about her.”
“Pull up a chair and grab a beer, because this is a long story. I do not know everything about Savanna, that I know you want me to tell you, but I know most. I was friendly with Josh and he had a pretty big mouth about his number one girl. Where to begin?”
**
Savanna was dating a junior her freshmen year. It was definitely a shocking realization when everyone learned that she was dating Dennis. Someone who was clearly below her standards. But there was something about him that Savanna fell head over heels for him. The summer of Savanna’s sophomore year they were off and on. The weeks that they were off, she would take her best friend Cameron and they would go to parties in Clark to get Dennis out of her mind. Besides, why party in Stonecreek. It was relatively a small town that didn’t even have it’s own fire department. Stonecreek shared with it’s neighboring towns. People did not move here unless they are trying to rebuild their life or they need a 15 minute pit stop on their way to a destination of somewhere majestic and enchanting. So the parties lacked enthusiasm, entertainment, and booze.
Savanna had family friends who lived in the heart of Clark. She would go and let steam off on the days that Dennis crushed her heart. That is where Savanna met the famous Josh. He was tall and had the greenest eyes that would get you to do unthinkable things. He convinced Savanna to do things that she would not have done in a million of years.
**
“Before you go and want to kill Josh, know that he was gay and Savanna and him had no intentions of dating. It would actually be disgusting if they dated because they were so close. If you saw Savanna, Josh was a couple of seconds behind her. They were the ultimate best friends” the goth stated, noticing Matt’s clench on his beer bottle. Indicating his extreme jealousy of Josh, which is pretty redundant.
**
ReplyDeleteJosh ended up taking Savanna to Miami for spring break and he got her to come out of retirement for gymnastics. She was suppose to be the next Olympic Champion in either tennis or gymnastics. But she choose gymnastics for her love and the fact that she really does not enjoy tennis, despite her true talent with the racket. Josh ended up being a gift from heaven for Savanna. When Dennis and her broke up, Josh was there feeding her spoonfuls of Ben and Jerry’s “Chocolate Therapy” and crying over The Notebook for at least the billionth time. Savanna and Josh were soul mates, they brought out the best in each other. Josh even made Savanna the lead in her favorite musical. Everything was perfection. But good things must come to an end, and for Josh it was August 13, 2013.
The summer of Savanna’s junior year was going to be her worse. Josh had been receiving death threats and harassment through twitter and instagram for being different. It was mainly because he was an out of the closest gay and he was extremely proud of it. Even the most confident and happy people are always hurting on the inside. But Josh was an excellent actor and an even better liar. No one suspected anything from it. Plus, he would delete all the tweets and comments, so no one knew he was suffering.
Until the night of August 13th. It was the worst storm that Pennsylvania had all summer. Thousands of roads were flooded. The rain ran out of the clouds. They came down by the gallon and causing more destruction than the most recent tornado in Kansas.
**
“Josh texted something to Savanna, it could have been a goodbye or a message explaining why he was going to do what he did. Only Savanna knows what it said and she has kept it in her heart” he explained.
“But do you think..”
“Do not ask her, it was the last thing Josh ever said to her. I’m sure she wants to keep it private” the goth interrupted.
**
Savanna read the message with tears filling her eyes. They slowly creeped down her face. She didn’t think. She let her emotions take over and grabbed her mother’s car keys and drove to Josh’s house. Savanna was only 16, she didn’t have a licenses. Although, at a time like this, no laws matter, it was all about saving Josh. With Savanna’s heart racing and her calmly hands she made it. But it wouldn’t be reality if she made it in time to stop the trigger. Josh is apart of Savanna. They were meant to be best friends. He is looking down upon her.
Josh was an incredible person, he put Savanna on a pedestal and he truly loved her. Savanna is constantly depressed, so lonely, and insecure because she saw her best friend commit suicide. She held him as his body bleed out.
**
“You asked me who Josh Lancaster was, well he was the most important thing to ever happen to Savanna and me. He will remain in both of our hearts” a tear fell from the goth boy’s eye. “Just remember, Savanna lost a friend, but I lost a brother. She is in a dark place right now and all she needs is a friend. So please treat her right, she at least deserves that.”
Wow, this is a really good story. I enjoyed it. You have to fix some errors, but overall it is great. Well Done!
ReplyDeleteHello my name is Jason , what is your name?’’
ReplyDelete“ My name is Kate nice to meet you Jason”
“ why are you majoring in Kate Jason stated”?
“ i'm majoring to become a social worker what about yourself Jason”?
“I'm majoring in English ” Jason said”.
Today i am at Buffalo University in upstate New York. I traveled here from New Jersey where i have my own condo. I have lived in Jersey my whole life i want to treveal the world. I told myself once i had the opportunity to travel the world on my own i would. The first trip i took was in Europe it was beautiful the food was so amazing i wish i could go back. I took a lot of pictures of the beaches, memorials, statues, and places that are symbolic. I come from a well off family, when i attended school all my schools were Catholic. My parents didn't want to send us to a regular school because they felt as though you don't get as much education as your suppose to. I am here today because i want to change people life and i want to be there for children who wants to talk who just need help. I want to become a social worker for those teens who are in trouble who don't want to go down the wrong path. I am willing to help others and give others my time because i am a nice person and i help everyone out with there problems, and issues they might have. I work part time a bakery called Nattie’s delicious snacks, i’ve been working here for about 2 years now this is a wonderful job to have i really enjoy working here. I began to save money so i could save up for my students loans i know it going to cost a lot of money especially because i'm going to need money for my expensive books. I decided to pick this college because it has a lot of different offers that i am interested in. During my orientation to go to this college i was excited i knew that i could get in with no problem i had a high GPA it stated at 4.0. This was amazing for me i felt as though i was ready to accomplish everything i had to do and start a fresh year at college. I had a feeling that this year was going to be the best year of my life i was excited for my first year of college. I wondered if i was going to have a lot of friends here because i could tell that there are so many different cliques. I hope the boy that i meant Jason could be my friend and he could show me around here so i could get familiar with this college. I hope to run into him because this college is emogouse it is so big filled with over a thousands students. I began to wonder what it would be like to be a graduate of this college. As i was thinking to myself the teacher came in to explain the class she was a woman who looked like she was in her mid forties, she was 5’5 she was really short, she had nice blonde curly hair. She was giving us a lecture about the class that she taught and the producers that was needed for her class, she taught English. She didn't look mean at all but i knew she was going to be a little strict on me and others because we were knew and we were freshmens. Some teachers don't take it easy on new students they are usually strict from right then and there. Everyone in my English class made rumors about the teacher Ms. Johnson she was a nice lady to me.
“Hello my name is Ms. Johnson i am your English teacher, whats your name”?
new students they are usually strict from right then and there. Everyone in my English class made rumors about the teacher Ms. Johnson she was a nice lady to me.
ReplyDelete“Hello my name is Ms. Johnson i am your English teacher, whats your name”?
e to go to the next class, and i was feeling really sad. That class went by so fast, i didn't even notice that it was time to leave. My next class was math i already knew that i was going to have problems with this class i barely liked math is was so hard. Any math that i did i started to get aggravated and annoyed. Once i knew i didn't have to take math at all i was extremely excited about it i refuse to take this subject, but after while i decided to ease myself on this subject even though i had problems with it when i attended middle school. When this orientation was over i went home and i went to call my best friend Rebecca from high school, i wanted to tell her that i actually like this college and it is a really good college and i want to take classes there. So i went to dial her phone number up to call her. The phone rang 3 times before anyone could pick up the phone.
“hey Rebecca guess what ?”
“ what? Rebecca said excitedly
“I went to the Buffalo University today and everything went so great. Kate said with excitement in her voice”.
“ That’s great im glad everything went good for you and that you like it, Rebecca said”
“You should think about moving here, and going to college here in NYC its beautiful.” Rebecca was thinking if that was a good idea because she didn't want to leave her family.
“Rebecca said she had to think about it first and see what was going to happen”.
As though Rebecca didn't know if she wanted to leave New Jersey and move all the way to NYC just for college. Kate wanted her best friend with her she didn't want to be alone but she could understand that she didn't want to leave her family there alone. Kate hopes that her friend can move down there with her and they can go to college together as they had plan when the were freshman in high school.
Hello my name is Jason and i just graduated from Townsend Harris High School in New York City. I want to attend a college in New jersey called Seton Hall university. I heard a lot of good things about this college and they have my major which is English. I am going there today to see how i like it and what after school activities i could attend while i am there i have to start applying for a college soon because i have found a nice apartment two blocks away from where the college is at just in case i don't have transportation i could go on foot. I am moving to my new place next week i am trying to get everything together that i would need to go to this college. I cant waste any time i want to complete my first trimester here. I refuse to go to any other college i like this one and i want to go. While i was walking to the college i got approached by a lady that had long black curly hair , she was very tall. She came up to me and said
ReplyDelete“ Hello nice to meet you i am Jessica, and i am here to guide you around our school so you can get some ideas”.
“ My name is Jason nice to meet you Jessica , i am looking to major into English, this has always been my favorite subject”.
“I can help you out and guide you into right direction”.
While i continue to follow Jessica alot of things have caught my attention. I saw a lot of trilliums that look interesting to me. This college looked really busy, there was always something there to keep me occupied. I was excited to move to New Jersey and start a new life as i always wanted. It looked very interesting to me that it is your option if you want to take night classes or morning ones. This is a great opportunity to get some work done and have a part time job. I am very excited to attend a good college as well but i am going to miss my family and friends. I cant wait to meet knew people at this college, i would like to get to know new people as well. I am a very nice person and where I was from my friends use to call me a geek because i would rather read or write then go out, i love going out and having a good time but going to school was my goal and getting goods grades. I liked having good grades and being proud of myself. Although college might be as tough then high school i am ready to improve myself and successes. I’m excited to to go to college because there are so many opportunities that you have that you don't have in high school and i dont want to waste any time. I want to teach a freshmen class of English i want to be a good teacher as well. I want to get up and teach my class everything that i know, i don't want them to get the wrong idea of nothing. This will be great for me because i can connect to the high schoolers the most because i was once in their seat before i got to what i had to get too. English was always my favorite subject in high i did not like any other subject this was the easiest subject for me when i was in school. I loved every English class that i was in i got all A’s in my whole four years of high school. It has been a couple of days since i've been back at this college, today was my first day at college i was so happy to sit in that chair and take notes i loved every minute of it. I was the type of student who sat there and took all the notes and listening to the teacher. It was sometimes hard for me to function before becasue i was always tired ans exhausted.My first peroid class went great i meant new friends today Josh and Jacob. They were both majoring in English too, they said that this was their second year of college and they loved it! I told them that i was majoring in college also they were going to teach younger children and i was teaching the higher grade. I took morning classes because during the night i could only work part time, this was a good working schedule for me. This was exactly what i needed a good working schedule, because I also liked working. This job also worked around my time too it
wasn't as bad as i thought. My second day of college was interesting because we were filling out paperwork and we were getting right to business. It wasn’t a hard whatsoever for me. I actually did what i had to do. Some days i would go to school for 3 hours for hours but never longer then that which was perfectly fine with me. I had so many books i had to buy, they were heavy as well. By time i knew it was time for me to go on Winter break that first trimester went so fast i couldn’t believe it. That time went so fast, it really did for me. Along the break i went to go back to NYC to go visit some of my family members they were so excited to see me. They were so anxious, i thought to myself i haven't been gone for a long time just a couple of months, it felt like years. I told my mom that i have meant new people and that i enjoyed their company. I didn't really have friends when i first moved there but eventually i knew i was going to. This was a very important time of my life i was loving on my own i was going to college and i had a good paying job thats all i needed.
ReplyDelete“ Professor Jim what did you teach in class?’’
ReplyDelete“ i taught the the concepts of different writing prompts, he stated.”
“ Okay thank you for your time Professor JIm”.
I could already tell that this concept was going to be very complicated because i didn't know what the topic was on or even if we got our own topic i was confused. I didn't know what i needed to have or what i had to write about. I had to do go this time because i didn't not want to get a bad grade on this assignment it looked like an easy grade. So i asked my friend John what was the homework and what we needed to know about it. He gave me all the information about the writing topic and i was set and completed what i had to complete. I finally finished my prompt it wasn't that hard, i wish i would’ve payed attention when my professor was getting everyone the assignment. I would of understood everything more if i was up instead of sleeping. While everyone was presenting their prompt i was roaming the halls i wanted to see if i could major in two things at the same time. I went to go ask if i could and they told me i could but it would be very difficult to comprehend. Today was the last day of the semester it was an amazing journey i learned a lot through the time that i went to college here it has been a great experience for me. Now i am going to go visit my family i missed them so much. My younger sister promotion is coming up in a couple of days and i would be home to see her accomplish her goals. This was wonderful for me because i get to see my sister walk along that ile just as well as me.