My Review for Paper Towns by John Green: May 26, 2014

John Green…I love you. Like, seriously love you. Are you married? Is there somewhere I can file a marriage request? Courting request? Dating request? Polishing shoes request? I’ll do one of them. Or two. Or all. It all works.
But I LOVE this book. The Fault in Our Stars is still the best…BUT THIS IS DEFINITELY THE SECOND. How come they’re not making a movie out of this one? I mean, I would totally watch it… and it wouldn’t even have be as heart-wrenching as the Stars movie is going to be. I mean, what actor wouldn’t want to fake-break into Sea World? I WOULD! I mean, I’m not an actor or anything….but still.
Now, I love it with all my heart (I really do) but we do have a few problemo’s…
1) Quentin was too mushy. John (can I call you John?), sweetheart (that too?), I know you were trying to make it all deep and fill up pages and what-not, but the conversations Q had with himself were a teeny bit too deep. I mean, I have deep thoughts and all, but not THAT deep. That’s like, drowning in the ocean after playing with sharks deep. At some points in the story, the deep-ness was good. I got it. But at other points…he should have had less girl-ish thoughts. Just saying.
2) Q was a tiny bit obsessed with Margo. For real. Long-time crush or no, that’s kinda creepy.

But otherwise, I think it was all good. I FREAKING LOVED THE ROAD TRIP, though. That was by far my most FAVORITE part of the ENTIRE book.

Now about those shoe polishing requests…

If You Could Go Back In Time Or See The Future, Which Would You Choose? May 13, 2014

If I had to pick between going back in time or going into the future, I would pick going back in time.

While there are PLENTY of reasons I’ve chosen this option, a few of them are:

1. To Remember Past Occurrences: So the next time my sister says “NO, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED…” I can say, “Uh, no, I recorded it…THIS is what happened…”

2. Because I Can’t Remember Anything: Like where I put my earbuds…

3. The Mysteries: If you think about it, there are WAY too many mysteries in America’s past, because either a)nobody thought to write it down, or b) nobody could write. Going back to figure out the reasons all these things happened would be AWESOME. Then I could start some secret-society-club where only me and a bunch of my friends would REALLY know what happened in ancient America…

4. So I Can Kick Some Spanish Butt: For real. Of all the continents to slaughter people on, why couldn’t they have picked a nice island where monkeys were living? We would’ve found a way to save the monkeys. Eventually.

5. To Fix A Few Mistakes: Wouldn’t we all like to do that…

6. To Save Somebody Famous: Now how effing cool would it be for a picture of me saving Martin Luther King Jr. be in history books everywhere. Pretty effing cool.

7. To Kill Somebody Famous: …What? Don’t worry, it’d only be Hitler or somebody like that (Random Fact: I did NOT know he had a love interest throughout his entire slaughter-ordeal. Just goes to show that we’re all human…though some of us more than others).

8. Because If I Could Go Back In Time, It Would Mean I Had A Time Machine: Nuff said.

 

On Another Completely Unrelated Note: I GOT A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE! Y’ALL HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM :’D (apparently excited enough to say y’all…)

Camp NaNoWriMo (and how I’m kind of cheating, but not really) April 2, 2014

It’s that time of year again, guys. Time to bring out you pens/ pencils/ paper/ notebooks/ coffee/ tea/ water/ OJ/ lemonade/ typewriters/ laptops/ keyboards/ …I don’t know, gift cards? and START WRITING.

Again.

Seems like just a few months ago, I was trying, then deciding not too, then deciding too, then failing at the regular NaNoWriMo.

Oh sweet memories…

But in ACTUAL GOOD NEWS I GO-

Oh yeah…I didn’t explain the title yet. Okay, so I was SUPPOSED to start writing whatever I’m supposed to be writing yesterday, but my laptop charger broke, so then I could no longer charge my computer…so I couldn’t use it for a 2 days…

IT WAS TERRIBLE I TELL YOU. TERRIBLE.

But I survived. So I’m okay.

But anyways, I went on to check my account, and there were like, 30 camper messages from people saying hi. 45 hours after I said hi. Cabin-mates suck sometimes, you guys. I’m just saying. So THEN, I went on and put that I wrote 1,435 words today.

Now this is kind of a lie…but not really. I didn’t actually physically sit down and type up that many words and decided to dedicate it to NaNoWriMo. No, what I decided to do was edit a story that I had kinda sorta started a little bit, and see how far I got with it. So TECHNICALLY, since I had to do all the work and search for a grand total of 30 seconds for the document, that can count as my writing time. Besides, I’m going to go edit it some today anyways. And THAT counts as working.

…Right?

And besides, it’s not like I don’t have that many words and I totally lied…

Okay, moving on.

P.S. DON’T COMMENT AND MAKE ME FEEL GUILTY ABOUT THIS.

Okay, now for not rambling actual GOOD news.

I GOT ACCEPTED TO BE A STATE FINALIST TO COMPETE FOR MISS KANSAS TEEN THROUGH NATIONAL AMERICAN MISS OH MY GOSH I’M SO EXCITEDDDDDDDDDD OH MY GOSHHHHHHH!!!!!

Only un problemo, mi amigo’s (and no, I’m not taking spanish…I’m taking french. Don’t ask)…there’s a sponsor fee. And I need half of it ($240) by before the end of the month. So I have to like, call people. REAL PEOPLE. LIKE, REAL REAL LIVE PEOPLE.

HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS?!

Haha, I’m just kidding…I’m actually really excited about it. Even the getting sponsors part. I mean, this is a pageant with a purpose. They don’t do the swimsuit modeling part, and you don’t even have to model at all if you don’t want too. You learn interviewing skills, you learn how to confidently walk and talk in front of a live audience with lots of people, you can practice your talent, and win awards for it, you do community service…it’s awesome. Getting the sponsors should be REALLY fun after I figure out what I’m supposed to say. If I can make it to state finals, I can talk to a general manager. I mean, they’re not going to like, bite me…right? They’ll just sit there and listen and look at the brochure and talk with me and tell me yes or no! I mean, I’m ALREADY a people person. It’s why I like downtown so much. And why I never ever EVER want to live on the farm. Or too far into the country. We could have a 2 million dollar mansion, but if it were too far away from civilization, I’d go rent a bungalow or something.

Okay, the mansion part miiight not be completely accurate…but you get the point.

In other OTHER good news, WE’RE DOING FOOD SCULPTING TONIGHT AHHH I’M SO EXCITEDDDDD!!!!

Wow, I get excited REALLY easily… But I guess that’s a good thing. I mean, cause when I get a boyfriend (AHAHAHAHHAHA THAT’S FUNNY! I mean…*ahem*, keep reading), he’ll always be happy cause I’ll just be happy to see him all the time!

But flowers are still good. Oooooh or chocolate. You can never EVER have enough of that.

Like, ever.

I picked a really bad place to end this but IT’S STILL GOOD November 20, 2013

Going to school the next day wasn’t so hard. Maybe it was because she had gotten home earlier then she expected and got some extra sleep. As she got out of the car and thanked her mom for driving her (she would normally have driven, but she didn’t want her day to be ruined because she’d had to yell at some stupid driver), she smelled trouble. Literally. It smelled wrong. She tried to place the scent for a moment, and then she realized…it smelled like blood. She rushed towards the entrance of the school, and was greeted by the sight of a gathered crowd of students. Pushing through the throng, she stood on her tip-toes to try to see what was happening. She gasped when she recognized every face that was involved. Towards her left was Tristan, Liz, Taylor, and that one guy….what was his name? It took her a second, but then she remembered….it was Carl. Liz looked terrible. She had a bloody nose, and it was ruining her makeup that had probably taken her an hour to fix. Someone bumped into her, and from that angle, she could see that the other side of her face had a bruised on it. She smiled a little as she pictured how her face would look when she saw what had happened, but that quickly turned into a frown as Tristan started speaking.

“Noah, just leave us alone and quit being such a jerk.”

Noah, looking unscathed, as usual, laughed and replied “As soon as you all admit that I’m better than you, I’ll leave you alone. Everybody…except you. We have a score to settle.” Noah’s eyes narrowed, and his gaze settled on Carl. She wondered what Carl could’ve done. He was usually pretty laid back, from what she could tell. Then she saw it…Noah had a broken leg. And Carl’s arm looked slightly twisted. They had broken each other’s…OH! That’s what must have happened on Thursday at the game. Somebody must’ve started some kind of skirmish…and Carl must have defended whoever started it. She hated to think of what the boy must look like after fighting Noah. They must’ve put up a pretty good fight, though, if it had ended with the breaking of a leg.

The next next next NEEEEXT part (i’ll put a new title next time, i promise) November 19, 2013

She had known him only for about an hour before lunch. He was one of those guys that everyone knew of, but no one actually knew.  Sure, he was good looking and an amazing soccer player, but there was already a top player in that sport (Roger), so he ended up standing in the lamp light. This wasn’t a particularly good place to stand, of course, but he bore it quite well for someone with his talent. Of course, only a few people really knew he was talented. This was, in a way, good because Roger didn’t see his as competition. No competition + belief that you rule the school = all-powerfulness + girls + no trouble. That’s just how things worked.

But then they went to state. This was when the real trouble started.

She remembered going to the state game with Tristan, Lydia, and Liz. They had already bought enough food for half an army (and had even more in the girls’ purses) and were excitedly anticipating the start of the game.

Liz, standing on the sidelines and waving to every guy in a uniform, said wistfully, “Oh, if only Roger would notice me…I swear, we would totally be the cutest couple. Like, ever.”

Lydia, usually the person most annoyed with Liz, said, “Liz, you say that about every single freaking guy. If I hear you say that ONE MORE TIME, I’m going to take a gun to your head and-“

“GUYS. Don’t be so darn violent. Jeez.”

“Like you’re one to talk Tristan. I heard you talking about wanting a chainsaw for your birthday.”

She loved hearing her friends argue about silly meaningless things like this. It made her feel better knowing that they were all harmonizing. Even if harmonizing meant debating who was more violent and talking about chainsaws.

Faking his being offended, Tristan scoffed, “PSH, please Liz. You’re obviously the most violent out of everybody. You remember when Noah decided to take you out, and you-“

“MAY I PLEASE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN. WE’D LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO VARIOUS PLAYERS BEING INJURED. WE’D LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVINIENCE AND WISH YOU A GOOD REST OF YOUR EVENING. THANK YOU.”

Audibly groaning and shouting protests, the crowd reluctantly got up and left their seats.

“Dude, I’m so going back up there to get a refund. I spent like, eight freaking dollars for those tickets.” Heading towards the stairs, Liz was looking more annoyed with life than usual.

“Hear, hear. I’m goin’ with Liz…y’all coming?” Lydia raised an eyebrow and turned towards Tristan.

“Nah, I’ll stay here with the creeper.” Finally catching up and holding at least three drinks, she threw him an annoyed look and said, “If I had any free hands right now, I would throttle you.”

Half dancing, half skipping away from reach, Tristan went towards the gate and shouted, “GOOD LUCK WITH THAT! SEE YOU GUYS TOMORROW.”

“WAIT UP DOOFUS, YOU’VE GOT MY KEYS!” Liz, struggling to run in her 5 inch pumps, quickly limped over to the gate where Tristan was grinning from ear to ear. As Tristan started to leave, she watched as Liz tackled him, and kissed him into submission.

Heaving a sigh, she turned towards Lydia who had been watching her critically.

“…what?”

“You wish you had somebody…don’t you?”

“Lydia, not now.” Pushing past Lydia, she headed towards the throng of people who were still leaving. “Weren’t we supposed to be getting a refund or something?”

Turning around to start heading in that direction, she started when she felt Lydia grab her wrist. “Don’t start. We both know what you’re thinking.”

Smirking, she said “At this rate, they’ll be out of money by the time we get there.” She turned, and started skipping away. As she glanced back, she saw Lydia shake her head and follow her.

At least she avoided that confrontation. It was hard to ignore Lydia. Lydia was a good friend, but she felt like she always had to tell her everything. But whatever, she’d be fine. She’d lasted this long, anyways.

The next next NEXT part November 18, 2013

The first thing she felt when she woke up the next morning was…happiness. She wasn’t usually happy…what happened? OH! She went out with Carl yesterday. She smiled faintly sitting up. She looked behind her at the wall. On the wall was a plastic bracelet with blue, silver, and purple beads on it. She reached up to put it on when reality hit her and she froze. She went out with Carl yesterday.

“Yoo-hoo! Sissy sissy sistah, wake uuuuuup.” Her youngest sister entered the room to find her looking worse then she had in a long time. Her face was an ashy grey shade, her hands were trembling, and she was on the brink of tears.

“A-a……a-are you okay?” Her sister would have cried just seeing her like that if the color hadn’t have returned back to her face.

“Wait…huh? OH, yeah, fine. I’m up. Bye.” Her sister, still unsure of her sister’s currently state of health, turned back timidly once at the door.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, yes. I’m fine. Go eat breakfast or something.” Her sister closed the door cautiously, as if afraid something else might happen.

When the door was finally closed, she slumped against her pillow. What was she going to do? She shouldn’t have gone out with him…she should’ve made up an excuse of some sort. Yes, she should’ve said her dad was still home and sick, and that she needed to take care of him. She felt like banging her head against the wall.

Why. Did. She. Let. Him. Stay.

She looked up again at the bracelet she was going to grab off the wall just minutes ago. In a sudden burst of rage, she ripped the bracelet off the wall, tore it apart, and scattered the beads everywhere. With a look of lunacy in her eyes, she looked around the room, looking for something else to tear apart. While combing the room with a hungry look in her eye, she saw something gleaming near the window. Hopping across the cold floor, she reached the window sill and reached out to see what the gleaming thing was. What she saw made her recoil in horror. It was the silver and pink bead. The only bead on the bracelet that had ever meant anything to her. She sank slowly onto the rug, and cried. She cried for everything that had happened. She cried for everything feeling she’d ever had, for every decision she had make, and would ever have to make. She cried because of all her mistakes, because of all the chances she never took, because of all the things she never said or never did.

She cried for Carl. She cried because she was sorry.

IF YOU DON’T LOVE THIS TOO, THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU….Don’t Worry, I’ll Get You A Brain Surgeon *Pulls Out Gloves*

This song is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and an AMAZING help when I was writing parts of chapter one.

Next NEXT Part (which just so happens to be x2 longer than the last one)

She slumped in her seat, plainly showing her reluctance. Not that he noticed, her was too busy rambling on and on for who knows how long about…she wasn’t exactly sure.  She had stopped paying attention after she had gotten into his car, and stepped on a sticky pile of squish.

“Ugh, what is this?” she asked, thoroughly disgusted.

“Oh…that’s, uh, actually, here’s a napkin”, in which he proceeded to lean ALL the way over and use the napkin to scoop up whatever it was. Thinking back to when it happened a few minutes ago, she was glad he hadn’t told her. Right now, her opinion of him couldn’t stand to get much lower before she started to avoid him completely. That’s actually what she had been doing up until that day, but thanks to some certain friends of hers, she was in the car with the very person she had been trying to avoid for a week and a half. She wasn’t even sure if she noticed that she’d been ignoring him lately, given the way he went on and on for an interminable amount of time about absolutely nothing of interest.

“Here we are!” he exclaimed, again too cheerily.

“Yup.” She said, gingerly stepping out of the car. She was tremendously glad, for once, that Starbucks was so close to her house. At first, she had complained because that meant her mom could come pick her up virtually whenever she wanted. She smiled grimly at how long she had complained and threatened to email headquarters. She offered up a silent prayer of thanks as she opened the door and walked into the building.

This was her absolute most favorite place to go. It was always warm inside…not the warm that made you take off every layer of clothing you had on, though. It was the kind that made you take off your jacket, but keep your gloves and sweater on. The kind that made you hug yourself, not because you were cold, but because it made you feel so welcome. There always seemed to be a forever lingering smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and she suspected it would be there, even the gutted the place out and turned it into an office building. She paused at the entrance, faintly smiling, until she heard the struggle of dragging boots behind her. Refraining herself from rolling her eyes, she turned around and pushed the door open for him. It almost hit him directly in the face, so he blinked a few times in surprise, but he came in quickly and flashed her and apologetic but grateful grin. This time, she did roll her eyes. She could tell from his slightly hurt look that he had seen, but she didn’t care.

“I’d like the White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha with extra chocolate chips on top, please.” Glancing over in his direction, she asked “You getting anything?”

“Oh, right. Uhm…I’ll get whatever she’s having.”

The cashier rang up the two orders and replied, “That’d be $7.06.”

The cashier was looking at her, but she looked at him. If she was going to suffer through this, she decided, she might as well get something out of it.

“I left my wallet at home. Do you have any cash?”

He looked at her blankly for a second, then, realizing what she was saying, stuttered “O-oh…uh, yeah. Um…” He then proceeded to check every single pocket he had on his body. After he gave up looking in all his front pockets (which consisted of his shirt pocket, his sweater pockets, his front jean pockets, and his jacket pockets) and started searching the back ones, she audibly sighed and said, “I’m going to go sit down now.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned on her heel and left.

From her little hidden corner towards the side, she heard the cashier say “Woah. Dude. What’d you do to her?” He then proceeded to shrug pathetically and whisper something in the cashier’s ear. After he leaned back, they both nodded grimly at each other. After another second or two of searching, he finally found a ten dollar bill, and handed it over. By that time, the drinks had been ready for about a minute, and he walked over holding the drinks, his change, and the receipt.

“Thanks.” she said, hurriedly taking it from his hand before he could sit down. He stared at her for a moment, and then sighed a little. As he sat down with a heave, he seemed to age a little. She could see that the circles under his eyes were a little dark, like he hadn’t had much sleep. She noticed that he smelled good too…she recognized that the smell was the same as her dad’s cologne. She glanced him over, and also saw that he was dressed a little nicer than usual. Notwithstanding her early feelings of rejection, she whispered a small thank you as she continued to sip her drink. He smiled blankly in her direction, but she could tell he was turning something over in his mind. She sat there, a little uncomfortably as she knew what she was about to face was inevitable. She knew what was coming. She knew all the trouble it would cause and the betrayal that would be felt…but how could she say no? She could be cold and cold shouldered, when she needed to be (she didn’t, however, prefer to go to measures as drastic as this), but she couldn’t just flat out say no. She had nothing against him. She liked him. She just couldn’t…

He looked over at her for a moment, just to watch to see what she was doing at him. She gave him a little smile, and he grinned a little. Relieved that he wasn’t too upset with her for being so terrible, she ventured to ask, “You ever gonna drink that?” She pointed to the drink he had been toying with for minutes. “It’s probably cold by now.”

He glanced at her, then looked down looking embarrassed.

“Well, I’m kinda allergic to spearmint…”

She nearly choked on her drink. Carl? Allergic?

“But there isn’t any spearmint in here. Just a bunch of chocolate and peppermint.”

“Well, peppermint is a hybrid of spearmint and watermint. My grandpa was allergic to it too. Guess he just passed it on to me…”

She started to giggle. She wasn’t exactly sure, because it wasn’t funny. At all. Maybe it was just the fact that big ‘ol strong, blond hair, dark eyed Carl was allergic to something…

Her giggle quickly turned into full-on laughter, which turned into snorts, which turned into breathless gasps. She shouldn’t have been laughing, she knew, but there were tears streaming down her face because she was laughing so hard.

He looked incredibly confused at first, but her laugh must’ve been too funny to not be contagious, so he eventually joined her in her laughter. They were both doubled over in laughter when her mom and sister burst into the building. She quickly brushed the tears from her eyes, but every time she glanced over at Carl, she giggled non-stop.

“Hey….guys”, her mom said, looking overwhelmingly confused. Her mom knew she was ignoring him, so, she imagined, they must look ridiculous. She quickly got up, and said “Yup, here we are!” She accidentally glanced over at him and started giggling again.

“Yeah…so….are you ready to go home now? Or…?” Her mom glanced over at Carl, glanced back at her, and raised her eyebrows in question.

“Yup, I think we’re done.” She turned back to look at him.

“Thanks for the drink…it was awesome. See you tomorrow?” He was about to say sure, when he realized that tomorrow wasn’t a school day. A smile slowly spread over his face as he said sure and jumped up to say good bye.

“Well then, see you tomorrow.”

As she walked out the door, the last thing she saw was Carl and the cashier leaning over the counter, talking about something, and watching her leave in pure awe.

The Next Part (very blunt, I know)

A sudden gust of wind hit her like a wall of dry ice. Or at least, that’s how it felt. She stood at the front steps, trying to catch a breath or two, when out of the corner of her eye she saw Carl get out of the car. He tried to close the door, but his hand ended up missing it completely. He glanced in her direction and grinned sheepishly. Despite herself, she smiled a full-on smile. She hated showing any sort of affection towards him, but he was just so darn funny sometimes. He started towards her, but his foot got caught in the snow and he ended up tripping. She wondered if he was always this clumsy, and she was just now noticing it.

She started forward to help him, but then stopped dead in her tracks. How did he even get the address? Her face colored a little as she realized it must have been Tristan’s idea. She was debating whether to use a chainsaw or a gun to go after him when Carl regained his footing, and continued to walk over.

“Hey you!” he said, smiling a little too cheerily.

“Hey…” She wasn’t exactly sure why he was here, why he would drive over in this awful cold, and why he had brought her out there to talk in awful cold whether when he wasn’t even supposed to be there.

He continued to smile, though it had waned a little due to her response, and stood there. She put her hands in her pockets, and wondered where her gloves were. They were probably stuffed in the back of her closet with her flip-flops, because she couldn’t remember taking them out…

“So, uh, how’re you?”

She couldn’t believe she was out in the cold, and answering this question. “Good. You?” She was determined to be as straightforward as possible. She figured if she was, he would leave sooner. Sure, he would feel disappointed and dejected, but at least he would be gone.

“Good, good. Uh, so I came over and I was wondering if you would maybe….uh….”

He paused for a second, looking a little bit unsure of himself. She would’ve felt sorry for him if he were anyone else. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him. He was a plenty likeable person. It’s just….she didn’t really know, actually.

“WELL, I was WONDERING if you would MAYBE POSSIBLY go with me….uh…on a drive…to, uh, Starbucks. Yeah, Starbucks.” We both knew that that wasn’t the point of his visit, nevertheless, he looked very pleased with himself for saying anything at all.

“Right NOW?” He frowned a little at how frankly her choice of words was, but he wasn’t one to be impolite.

“Well yeah. Tristan and Lydia said you weren’t doing anything, so I figured…”

Lydia was in this too? She glared at a patch of snow while she imagined what she was going to say to her. AND Tristan. They were probably together right now, congratulating themselves on the amazing job they did, and looking forward to hearing the thankful results. Or maybe they were just laughing because they knew how furious it would make her. She wasn’t one to get angry very easily, but this ticked her off to no end.

She started a little when she realized he was still talking.

“…so I decided to drive by and-“

Abruptly, she stomped on the patch of snow she had been glaring at. He looked up,  a little startled by the loud crunch of interruption.

“Hold on a sec, I’ll call my mom and ask.”

He deflated a little, probably from utter happiness, and stepped back a step or two. She marched into the house, not bothering to ask him to come inside, grabbed her phone off the counter, and punched in her mom’s cell number.

“Hello? Mom? Yeah, Carl’s over…”

I think, therefore I write (actually, i was just bored) November 16, 2013

It was snowing, that morning. This wasn’t particularly unusual for a place like Michigan, but she was surprised it started snowing so early this year. She smiled to her self. The snow fell slowly, untainted by any of the dark landscape surrounding it. She was looking at her window, thinking about how feather-like the snow flakes when suddenly, someone honked their car horn. Slightly irritated from being jolted back to reality, she glared at the window to see who it was and what in the world they wanted.

It was Carl.

She sighed. It was always Carl nowadays. He seemed to be more interested in her lately than he usually was.

Carl, leaning out his window, saw her before she could duck behind the curtain. He waved a cheery sort of wave that invited her to come outside. She breathed another sigh as she realized that she should probably go out and see what he wanted. She faintly smiled, waved back, and turned around to put her snow boots and jacket on. Where was her boots anyways? Crawling around as quickly as she possibly could, she finally spotted something pink and purple sticking out from underneath her bed. There was one…how about the other? Oh, it was probably downstairs by the door. That’s where her missing shoes were most of the time anyways. She quickly looked at the clock, it was 2:34, grabbed her coat, and went down the stairs two steps at a time. No one was home because they all accompanied their mom downtown to buy cupcakes. She had requested a vanilla one, but they would probably forget and end up getting her a chocolate one. Not that she had anything against it, just that she’d prefer vanilla. It reminded her of snow.

By now, she was pulling on her boot over her sore ankle. She grimaced, not exactly from the pain, but from the memory of how she got it.

Carl honked again, more in question than in demand. She quickly buckled the top clasp, and pushed her way through the pile of forgotten shoes, and outside.