Winter Journal

A child walks outside and enters the ice angel's palace.  He lifts his face to feel winter's first cold caress.  Laughing and running through the snow, he trips and falls upon a chilling pillow.  The child quiets to hear the frosty sighs of the winter wind.  From a distance, his mother calls him inside and he barrels to the door.  Being a good boy, he stops before he goes in and performs an odd little dance as he stamps the snow off his boots.  He smiles as the heat from the house removes his cloak of cold and replaces it with a blanket of warmth. 

The next day, the sun rises and all the snow shrivels away, leaving behind a snail-like trail of muck.  Everywhere, the repulsing mush creates puddles in shoes and freezes little toes.  The little boy looks at the runny molasses on the side of the road and sighs as he remembers the magical wonderland of Snow.

On the Cusp Of Sanity

 Author's Note: Erika and I decided to have a competition to see who could write the better piece with this title.  Please read and comment on my piece, and then read and comment on Erika's piece on who you think should win.  BTW, I came up with the awesome title.

On the cusp of sanity,

Teetering on the edge of the cliff

In constant balance, between two states of mind

No-Man's-Land, but I am a woman

Accursed and blessed is this ever-lasting forest

Accursed and blessed is me

Not one other soul;

Not one worm, or flea

Constant silence, broken only by my sobs,

Deep with longing

I live for nothing,

But I cannot die

Reality withers and wastes away

As I sit here, screaming on the cusp of insanity

Prompt Sentence

The silence between them sprung up like a fortress wall, impenetrable and forbidding. The young delinquent licked her lips, a nervous habit, though it came across as menacing.  The teacher was completely terrified. 
She had witnessed the girl kill Mary and was now wondering what the girl could do to her.

Evelynn,  however, was no longer in the mood.  Her anger had passed and she was now almost on the verge of remorse, almost.

A door slammed and her father and the principal stormed in.  Seeming to cross the room in one step, her dad was suddenly in front of her.  He slapped her across the face, and the impact gave way to a flashback.

They were in history, learning about prisons, Alcatraz specifically.  She stood there, completely perfect.  Suddenly, her flawless features creased.  "What if all of us were sent to Alcatraz?  That would be crazy, but I wonder if any of us will ever go to real prison..." as she trailed off, her wandering eyes rested on Evelynn. Their eyes met and Mary looked away and blushed a light embarrassed pink.  She's thinking of Henry.  She thinks that just because my brother was sent to jail, I'll end up there too. Evelynn's eyes blazed and after the bell rang, she had eyes for only one person.  It was lunch and about now Mary was normally found lost in thought in the left wing,  Sure enough, Evelynn found her leaning casually against the wall next to the bubbler.  As she approached, Mary came away from the wall and managed to get out "Evelynn,I didn't mean-" before Evelynn had her hands around Mary's neck.  Evelynn grinned at the wide, pleading eyes.  "I'm...sorry", Mary managed to gasp out.  This, however, only angered Evelyn more. Her wicked grin turned to a mask of rage.  Keeping her hands on Mary's neck, she began to bash Mary's perfect face against the bubbler.  Her nose started gushing and the sight of blood brought back Evelyn's evil and satisfied grin.  The noise, however, had also brought back teachers into the hallway. Mrs.Worros got there first and frantically tried to pull Evelynn off of Mary.  Angered once more, Evelynn decided to hurry things up.  Mary hadn't died as fast as Evelynn had expected and she now resorted to plan B.  Releasing her grasp on the other girl, Evelynn took a knife out of her back pocket and repeatedly stabbed the barely-conscious girl.  Mrs.Worros, of course, was still trying to peel off Evelynn, so she got stabbed as well.  This was simply a casualty to Evelynn, but when the rest of the teachers came, she knew she couldn't face them all.  Evelynn felt Ms.Gnuoy pull her back and she let her drag her to the office.

Evelynn finally reached remorse.  Maybe she shouldn't have killed her.  After all, they had been friends once.  But that was long ago, and now all Evelynn remembered was the apologetic face and pleading eyes.  Mary had been trying to apologize.  She couldn't help her straying eyes and it had just been a simple glance.  She didn't deserve this.  Everything that Evelynn had just done hit her, and it hit her hard.  She crumpled into tears and barely listened to her father's furious words.  "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?  OH, I KNOW, YOU WEREN'T THINKING!  YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR BROTHER."  He took a breath and calmed down a bit.  "You know, I expected more of you.  I guess I shouldn't have.  You're definitely your mother's daughter, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

This, oddly enough, was true.  The reason that Evelynn had such severe anger problems was due to the fact that her whole family on her mom's side all had a history of problems with anger management.  But Evelynn didn't know that.  She thought something was wrong with her.  In fact, I'm a monster, was her last thought before she jumped.

Whatever..I Guess

Author's Note: This is my prediction for the ending of an original piece called "Whatever".  This is for my prediction score.  Oh, and btw, I sound really harsh in this essay and I seriously am not that harsh and I don't really have a problem with laid back people, it just makes a better essay.

Don't worry, if my last opportunity door

closes, I'll just jump through a window.

Normal is no more.

It was so last season.

Don't bother talking to me,

I've lost all reason

I think it's somewhere under my bed

Or maybe in my black hole closet

Lost it just like my marbles, my poor head

People  glance at me, once, then twice

I bet they're jealous, just kidding.

My life is a dice

That is not at all even

'Cause I'm just odd

And I'm sittin' here believin'

That somethin' good is gonna happen to me

But do I really want it to?

Because I'm fine as you can see

Maybe insane, but that's no crime

Over optimistic, but not at all friendly.

Never in a rush, I've got time.

I'm just an average joe

Only a step up from a crazy cat lady

I've got a pet squirrel, he's my bro

I'm a crazy insane psychopath

A lazy bum, couch potato

That aced his way through math

Whatever, I don't care,

It don't matter

I've seen my fair share

Of things, in this world

Now I'm on to the next

'Cause I've spun and jumped and been twirled

I've eaten and slept, swam and flew.

Been to the moon and back, even held a star

But did that really happen, no one knew

'Cause I'm just me

In my own world, takin' on life by the stride

Me. Just me.  It's all I'll ever be.

And it was all I ever was
Until I met her
That ice 'twas
The stone that broke
My window
Life was a dream and then I awoke
To realize reality was a nightmare
I was livin in a box of glass, and the loss shattered my world
She was my only care
Now I have none
Not a care in the world,
I should be havin fun
Yet instead I'm
Watching the same episode
Of Law & Order for the fifth time

I'm sure you have someone in your life that is just a complete slacker.  That's exactly what Whatever is about, "a lazy bum, couch potato".  Whatever is a piece that has a really laid back "I don't care" feeling.  I had a lot of fun writing it and I thought it would be fun to try to do a bit more with it.  So, I wrote an ending to this piece.  I believe my ending is correct.

I predicted Whatever would end this way due to the fact that it is a comedy.  Everything starts off normal, but then nothing else happened.  This piece need a conflict and then a return to normalcy.  Henceforth, the "ice" between the man and this mysterious girl and the return to watching T.V., presumably on the couch. 

As I said before, this guy was a slacker.  He needed to be taught a lesson.  Though it may be cruel, shattering his fragile little heart seemed like the perfect way for him to learn. 

Two similar characters can be found in the songs "I'm Awesome" by Spose  and "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars.  If you're "eatin' at McDonalds because Subway's pricey" and eating it while you're " lounging on the couch just chilling in my Snuggie", then you're exactly what Whatever is about. Though the songs are like the original Whatever and they don't really have an ending, we can assume that if a conflict ever appears in their life they will just return to their normal care-free selves after it is resolved.

All three of these men needed to take things more seriously.  They didn't have a care in the world.  Then "Mr.Whatever" found someone that he actually cared about, but he realized this too late, and he was back to not having a care in the world.  Too bad he didn't know not caring would be his downfall.

A Christmas Carol Quote

"There is no doubt that Marley was dead.  This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate."

I think these words are important because they help the reader understand how the author will be narrating the book.  In this excerpt, the reader is introduced to the author's peculiar humor.  The reader then draws the assumption that they can expect this type of humor throughout the rest of the book.

Rajiv

He walks through the hallway and turns into cattle as he yells "mooooove!" Not daring to disobey his wishes, bystanders hurry out of his way.  As cunning as a cat, you can almost see his tail flick side to side as he stays low in a crouch and plans his attack before he pounces.  Suddenly, the tail stops.  He rises from the crouch, having decided not to pounce, but to instead carefully approach the parents.  He pauses for a moment in front of the two, and considers his options, one is more likely to say yes, but one is more likely to give him more time, though less likely to say yes.  Ready for a challenge, he licks his lips and steps in front of his father.  Taking his best shot, he turns into a business man and compromises; he gets to go to the game and when he comes home he'll vacuum.  Father takes a breath... and then shakes his head.  Refusing to be turned down, he turns to the other, but before he is given the chance to offer up his proposal, he is denied.  His eyes flash and he transforms into a raging, beastly bull, ready to run over anything in his way.  

Things are thrown and broken.  He tornadoes through the house, leaving a path of destruction behind him.  When he gets back to his den, he lets loose a  thunderclap of sound as  he closes his door none too gently.  The wildfire now contained, the people come back out of hiding and observe the result of his fury.  They all agree, the beast needs to be tamed.