Short Short Story: Free Post

Shrill and disturbing, loud as a siren. Penetrates my body and shimmies down my spine. A sound from so deep inside of me it is foreign. The sound echoes across the lot, bouncing off the concrete walls of distant buildings. Birds from nearby trees launch up in a torrent of fluttering wings into the hazy night sky, full of the artificial light of the city. The sound is still exploding out of me, tearing out of my throat like I’ve been swallowing swords. When it feels as if I’m going to pass out from the lack of breathing, my scream finally starts to fade. I feel weak so I let myself slump to the ground leaning against a nearby car. Only now do I feel the full pain of the wound in my side. The strength I thought I had drains out of me as the last echoes of the mingled scream and gunshot subside.

Sorry if this is disturbing for anyone, I wrote it a little while ago for a free post but decided to write something else. I couldn't think of anything to write, so I thought I might just use this.

 

Reading Log

Lord of the Flies 2 hours and 15 mins

Siege and Storm 20 mins 

Captivating Conversations – Blog Prompt

Prompt: Come up with a question to ask several people, list their responses, and talk about your favorite response.

I have thought about this question a lot, even though it may be simple and dull sounding. What makes a good conversation starter? I forgot about it for a little while but I was inspired by probably one of the most spontaneous people I know. Prepare yourselves some of these might get a little bit boring but bear with me because the last one practically put me in tears when I was asked this.

1. Brother #1 says ‘an insult’

2. Brother #2 says ‘Would you kill baby Hitler?’

3. Dad says telling an amusing story along the lines of Roman admiral performing a pre-battle ceremony… sacred chickens aren’t hungry…’if they will not eat then let them drink’… throwing them into the sea… losing the battle because he killed the sacred chickens. And mentioning that we are distantly related to the idiot who killed the sacred chickens.

4. Mom says she can’t think of anything quite as interesting as my father’s response. But she usually starts with ‘how are your kids doing?’ or something like that.

5. Last but not least, my dance teacher says ‘what would it be like if I could only move my head in sharp abrupt movements?’

                 The last one I definitely my favorite because it was so out of the ordinary and actually led to an extremely interesting conversation.

                What do you think about these responses? What do you think is the best conversation starter?

What It Would Be Like If It Were Us

Eleanor screams in the distance.  She is standing on the beach, eyes wide open gaping at the disaster before her. Cody, Bailey S., Nicole, and Devin stumble out of the forest their clothes burned and pulled at by the trees. The sound of a small explosion booms from the plane, the engines still roaring back to life every minute or so. Madison, John, and Sienna are already standing behind me. John is running in circles panicking sputtering a million words a minute at 100% volume. Smoke is billowing up from the forest, meaning the trees have caught fire. The obvious doubt in everyone’s face says that everybody probably didn’t make it. But just as the last engine explodes sending the fires reaching up towards the night sky, the rest of our class trudges out of the trees. Bailey L., Emelia, Alex, Sophie, AC, Jacob, and Harper, all carrying or dragging each other to the safety of the beach. They gather together in a chaotic cluster by the waves.

 “What are we gonna do?” shrieked several people in desperate voices.

Sienna says with a grave voice, “Did you see anyone else? Are we the only ones?”

Out of breath, Jacob and Baily are only able to nod their heads.

John stops his screaming long enough to say, “How is it possible that everyone on the plane died, except for our English class?”

Deserted Island Simulation

               On Thursday, when we did our deserted island simulation, we did it vey calmly and well organized. We got our priorities straight and established a system of working (sort of). I think that if we were in a real life situation, it is likely that we wouldn’t have been able to stay so calm. But I think that in some variation of what happened, we would have been able to collect ourselves and ultimately survive pretty well.

                I think we would have been able to have a well-rounded group of people with useful survival skills. There are some pretty smart people in our class, as well as some pretty athletic people, with that I think we would have the organization and resourcefulness to maintain a steady food supply and working force. We will certainly run into plenty of problems while stranded on an island. For example, since we are all still teenagers some of us are still growing, especially since we are accompanied by a bunch of 1^st graders, we are going to need a lot of food and eventually new clothes. There will be plenty of injuries and if we’ve got a shelter of some sort that will eventually break and need fixing. Overall, our class would probably be fine if we got stranded on an island.

Reading Log

Literary Analysis 2 hours 30 mins

Siege and Storm 20 mins

LOTF about 1 hour

Writing Center Thursday 3^rd block

Free Post: The Speech Song

                I was listening to the radio in the car on the way to dance on Wednesday, and a strange song came on the radio that really caught my attention. Its called Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen. The title is a little bit misleading but it kind of makes sense once you hear the song. The song is basically an advice speech with a beat, but I liked the advice so much that I actually bought the song. I can't say everyone will appreciate it, but I highly recommend going on YouTube and listening to it.
Link: http://youtu.be/xfq_A8nXMsQ

Reading Log

Reading Log

Siege and Storm 1 hour

Peer marks 35 minutes

Literary Analysis 30 minutes