hey this is a work in progress. its a short story that i had to do for english. tell me what u think though cus this is the first one that i thought was good.
Many thoughts were flooded onto the crumbled yellow piece of paper. Nice, quiet and shy were just a few of the repeated words used to describe Jane. She has long blonde hair curling at the ends and pulled back into a loose ponytail. Right now we’re in English Lit. and as about 20 pieces of paper pass through the room, I cannot think of one thing that is different to describe her. She’s looking at the clock again, as if it will magically turn to 2:20, the time school ends. I look through the words to describe her. Nice, smart, quiet, shy and conservative were written followed by little hearts and stars. But there was one, just one that said… She’s Trustworthy- she isn’t popular, but she definitely is not a geek. That was something I never saw in Jane anymore I wanted to find out more. I was thinking about that as the bell rang, so I scribbled in mysterious. I kept thinking about that as I turned to leave for my locker.
Walking towards my locker, I see Jane slowly go down on her knees to help the mentally challenged boy enter in his locker combination. She listens as he slowly recites his combination, one digit after another. She smiles at him, like she’d rather be here than anywhere else. As she opens it, she promises to be here after class, to help him find his way to the cafeteria. It doesn’t seem to matter that she is late for class, or that her next class will be in the opposite direction; she’ll be there.
The door to science slowly gets pulled open, hesitantly as if someone is scared to come in. Jane slowly steps in and takes the test that the rest of us started 5 minutes ago. Head bent down and eyes unfocused, she makes her way to her desk behind me and sits down; everyone has their cells out getting texted answers from their friends while the teacher mutters under her breath. I quickly look at Jane; as she takes out her pencil to start. It looks like she is having a really bad day. My head snaps back to the test as I realize the teacher is yelling at us to put away our cell phones. She slowly sinks into her chair as the teacher glares at her. She puts down the pencil and stares out the window; she isn’t having a good day. I think I’ll tell Anna to talk to her. She’s her best friend and it looks like Jane needs it. I slowly take another quick glance at Jane. She is so quiet and nice, but it looks like something is eating away at her. Quickly I nudge her and go back to the test; we both really need to pass.
~Lena
Lena came up to me as I was going to math with Jane. I know something is a little off today, but I can’t figure out with who or what? As we were about to enter, she asked if she could talk to me. We were already late thanks to Jane helping Marcus, a.k.a. the mentally “challenged” kid, to find his way to the cafeteria. I told Jane to go ahead, and to tell the chorus sub that I just dropped my books and was picking them up. It was an easy lie that could buy me an extra 3 minutes. So I turn to Lauren. I know her from last year’s gym class, but I never actually talked to her. Now though, I guess it’s different, so I have to ask…
“What’s up?”
The door opens and standing there is Miss Lily, the sweet sub. She kind of gives us a look that says, I understand you girls want to talk but class is starting now. Lena awkwardly asks, “I’ll see you after class?”
I just as awkwardly reply, “Definitely.”
Jane is sitting next to Joey, the funny guy that just doesn’t get math. He cracks jokes and annoys the teachers, but she doesn’t laugh the way others do. I see her roll her eyes or shake her head and later she’ll remark about how annoying he is. It’s like she hears something that we don’t. The thing that strikes me the most is when he remarks about how he doesn’t get it, she’ll turn to him, put down the homework she was trying to finish, and just explain it over and over until he got it. She’d sometimes not finish and I’d see her force her textbook into the already full backpack, when she only had 5 problems left. Everyone but Jane and I are laughing right now. I join in because I’d rather not be left out. She just sits there though; it’s almost as if…
I sprint towards Lena after class ended and we headed towards my chorus class. So I asked her yet again, “What’s up?”
“There’s something going on with Jane. Do you know something, I mean I don’t need to know, but is she okay? I just thought someone should bring it up before something bad happened.”
I stand there stunned and ashamed, because everything she is saying totally makes sense. A little to myself I ask, “What do you know? I knew something was a little off but I couldn’t figure it out. I think I’m going to ask her today during chorus.” A little more calmly I say, “Thanks though, I know you two aren’t really friends anymore, but I’ll tell you anything I think you should know.” She stands there and kind of half smiles. She turns around and starts sprinting towards the band room, I guess she is late too.
~Anna
I’m sitting in chorus class, and thinking really hard about what my mom said. Between her talking and crying at the same time, and my screaming and crying, I couldn’t really understand what she was saying. Something is going on lately, in and out of school. I used to be referred to as plain and simple Jane. Nothing more to it as the crumbled yellow sheet of paper told me during English Lit. You know that little exercise during the year sometime, when a teacher has all the students write about each other? Well, it happened today unfortunately. I wrote the most random things as I just spaced out. The things about me said stuff like nice, simple, and conservative. Only Anna wrote something truly unique, but there was also the person who scribbled in something that looks like Myzepioz. It could be something like mysterious, that or the Greek indies film guy is mixing up his languages. I HATE the fact that my life is just tumbling downward. Between sitting next to obnoxious Joey, being late for class all the time, and my slipping grades, life STINKS. That was just in school though. Outside of school my life is getting wrecked. I don’t know yet what exactly is going on, but my dad is sick. No doctor will admit it though, and I have a feeling that my mom is losing money fast, but what for? I hate thinking about this and the parent teacher meeting next week isn’t going to go well which will only stress out me and my family more. I just can’t take it! And what is this hot salty stuff racing down my cheeks? And why is everyone staring at me? Why can’t I breathe? Life isn’t going well, and now that I think about it, I think people are starting to realize there is more to me then plain and simple Jane. I’m realizing though, this is the worst possible time for them to figure this out.
~Jane
I haven’t talked yet to Jane, but if the way she was crying today meant anything, then I think I should talk soon. Right after chorus class, I bring her to the bathroom, because I can’ just talk to her in the hallway. I ask her a multitude of questions, stuff like, “Are you okay? What’s going on? Why were you crying? WHAT’s WRONG?”
All she would say was, “I’m not okay now, but I think I will be soon.” I hate this! She is being so annoying, and I’m going to go crazy if I have to wait a long time for her to spill. It’s not like I asked her in front of everyone, I brought her to the place most girls talk and cry, WHY WON’T SHE TALK AND CRY? I hate this, but I love her, so I guess I’ll have to wait.
~Anna
1 Year Later
I’m taking my time as I slowly make my way through the hospital wings. Step by step, I make my way to the Surgery Therapy clinic. I miss school so much, and hopefully chemo will be over soon for me. Today I’m going to visit Mr. Marvin, the funny man who checked in yesterday due to an unexplainable disease. As I step into the room with its ugly tan walls, I see Jane look up at me, with the saddest of all eyes. Then it just clicked. I knew I knew him from somewhere, but now I know that it’s Jane’s father. I miss the way Jane and I used to laugh, before I got leukemia, before we drifted apart, before I got a tumor and before I had to get a tutor for weeks during chemo instead of going to school. I kept in touch with so many people during it, Anna included, but not with Jane. Life just didn’t let us keep in touch. I don’t know if it’s just today, but she looks unkempt, just not put together as everyone says. Maybe I should tell Anna, I mean she is supposed to visit me today, maybe Jane needs an outside perspective. For now though, I’ll just close the door on Jane and Mr. Marvin, they need each other now, and I hope Anna thinks Jane is ready to deal with her father, especially since the whole school will be right beside her.
~Lena
Epilogue
Days passed without Jane saying anything. She didn’t show up to school for weeks. As her mother slowly became poorer and her father became sicker, she eventually moved downtown, to an old shack with only one room that had everything from a kitchen to a bathroom. I visited her there once, but never went back. I offered to help pay for things and what ever else could help. Things only became worse when her father died. All those medical bills that they held off just came in one huge blow, so they had nothing and eventually, they lived on the streets excepting from no one. A few months later, they got back on their feet, and they came back to normal. They became stronger and stronger, living less and less in the past. She is happier now to live on memories while she shares the newer ones with her personal angel, the one who remembers everything, because he was the one who picked her up when she fell. Because according to Jane, he is Mr. Marvin. She overcame so much because everything here was written on the back of the yellow piece of paper. Faded until she realized it was there. All that happened was that she forgot to check the other side, or else she wouldn’t think that she was just nice, shy and conservative. She would’ve known that she is so much more.
Love,
~Anna ~Lena
