Excerpt

First, a few updates: I'm done all my exams, and they went really well, so I'm a lot less stressed. I'm going into my fourth week of vegetarianism and it's also going pretty good, although my friends still look at me funny when I take B12 supplements with my lunch and ask why, exactly, I'm doing this. And last, I'm up to 7,777 words on what I've taken to calling The Exam Novel, though it has nothing to do with exams except I started it then. But to celebrate all the sevens, I'm going to post a short excerpt from Chapter One.

The air was cool, but warm enough that you could get away with wearing only a hoodie. It was the kind of night that you knew was going to be good no matter what you did, whether you went out and danced at a club until dawn or went home and ate Pop Tarts with your brother while playing COD. Addison inhaled, the air around her smelling like car exhaust and smoke, which sounded gross but was, in her mind at least, one of the most comforting smells in the world.

By the time she got to the apartment, the temperature had dropped even more, and she was shivering slightly. She knew that her face and eyes must have been red from the wind, and her choppy blond hair had to be a mess. She attempted to finger comb it in the elevator with no luck.

Finally, she got to the top floor. The fact that the door was locked should have been her first tip that something was wrong, but she didn’t even notice. She just figured that Rian was screwing with her, or something.

“Ri-aan,” she called, drawing her name into two syllables as she knocked. “Let me in!” There was no response, and Addison rolled her eyes. He was probably playing Xbox and got so sucked in that he was ignoring everything else. “Idiot,” she mumbled under her breath, but a smile played across her mouth as she thought of all the times she and Rian had used that excuse over the years: “I’m sorry I didn’t set the table, mommy. I was playing on the Nintendo.” It had never really worked.

Addison set down the Pop Tarts and rifled through her school bag for her key, finding it lurking at the bottom corner of the bag, under layers of books and discarded papers. Of course it was. Picking their dinner back up again, she pushed the door open.

“I’m back!” she cried, walking into the kitchen and setting the Pop Tarts on the counter. “I brought dinner! Rian?” No answer. That should have been the second clue that something was wrong.

Addison kicked off her shoes and made her way to the end of the hall, where her brother’s room was. “Hello?” she called, knocking softly on the door. “Rian?” Pushing the door open, she saw that there was no one there.

Her heart was starting to beat faster now. All Addison could think of was coming home all those years ago to this same apartment. No one was there—her dad was at the office, her brother still at school, in some club or sport—she couldn’t remember now. Her mom was supposed to be there, but she wasn’t. Addison remembered sitting on the couch, the apartment seeming empty and scary, and Rian coming home and sitting with her—because he didn’t know what was happening either. That was when Addison started to panic. Rian was her big brother, her five-year-old brain screamed at her. He was supposed to know everything.

Forgive the awful grammar/spelling :)

Exams... helped...me??

Huh. This is really weird--like, it actually felt weird to write it--but by procrastinating on my exams I wrote 5000 words on a new story. It was kinda like... "work...wrork...wrirk...writ...WRITE!" So that's what I did. And it's turning out well.
And I just finished my first exam :) Easy peasy. I have my second one this afternoon--my worst subject, math. Right now, I'm sitting in Starbucks (dear school: THANK YOU for being built within walking distance to a Starbucks. Thankyouthankyouthankyou). I'm pretty nervous, but then again--I did some calculations, and even if I get a zero on the exam, I still end up with a 62% in math. So... I'm a bit less nervous. But still...

Narcissism!

So in a break from studying (to see how I feel about school, by the way, look at the last post :)) I was like, "Yay! I'll post something on my blog!" then I was like... "Damn. The only thing that I can think of right now is exams. I already freaked out about that :(". But then I realized... "Why, my readers know nothing about me!". So, in a fit of self-absorbed teenager-ism, I present to you: The List of Things Rachel W. Loves:

1. Writing. If you haven't figured that out already... I'm sorry, you're an idiot. Get off my blog.

2. Reading. Less obvious, but you should still probably have guessed that.

3. Music. Without my iPod, I would die. Like, I would just collapse on my bed and cry until I passed out.

4. TV--more specifically: Skins (the UK version, obviously), Glee, House, and Lost.

5. This girl right here. Yeah, the really really pretty one on the left who isn't me, who looks like she's about to stab someone? I couldn't live without this chick. I love her more than my iPod and my TV combined :O She's the Cameron to my Ferris--actually, that might be switched, I can't remember which one of us is the Ferris and which is the Cameron (props if you get the reference!)

6. All Time Low. I know I already said music, but ATL is more than music to me. They've honestly gotten me through so much, I don't know what I would do without that band.

7. My netbook. His name is Greg, he's very pink, small, and covered in stickers.

8. John Hughes. Just... John Hughes.

9. My friends and my family < 3

10. Singing. I'm terrible at it, yet I still do it.

11. Big cities. I live in a small city, and some day I'm going to go out and make something of myself.

12. Sleep :)

13. All of you. Because without you, this blog wouldn't be here and I'd be stuck talking to myself somewhere.

Stupid Exams

Gah. Hate hate hate school. Hate exams. I really have nothing to say, but my brain is about to blow up from studying so hard. Gaaah.
Although I did my French oral exam already and the teacher showed me the mark--96%! So studying pays off... but still. Brain = about to explode.

Bookshop Musings

Going to be honest with you all here... The Coffee Shop Chronicles is non-rewritable. Yes, yes, you can all bitch at me for giving up on yet another project--not sure why you care, but you could, you know, if you like--but honestly, for the past week, I've been working on the rewrite, and I've gotten about 2,000 terrible and forced words. So I'm just going to take a break and wait for my muse to come back to me--well, technically, I'm going to take a break, tie my muse to a chair, and beat him up until he gives me an idea.
Same thing, really.

Never mind...

Damn it. Anyone know how to delete posts? (I really need to stop accidentally posting :P)

Progress!

On the rewrite of TCSC. Except you can't really call it a rewrite, because I did the first five hundred words and already it's nothing like the original. I might even need to rename it :$ Ah, well. I like it this way better!

Rewrites

First off, happy 2011! I was sick all through New Years Eve and New Years Day, so I missed my concert, which kinda sucked, but whatever. At least I'm better now!
However, while I was sitting in bed feeling sorry for myself, I pulled out TCSC and started reading through it. I found something out: It was bad. Really bad.
Instead of giving up like I normally would, though, I've decided to rewrite it from scratch. Change a few elements--mostly the main character, because she has all the personality of a text book.
That's about all that's happening around here... Off to create a timeline!