short story (draft 1)

By the end of class, the color of Thomas’ Simmons face was almost completely white. The pallor of his gaunt face made him appear to be see through. He definitely looked sick. I maneuvered around the labyrinth of glitter dusted tables, and piles of light up sneakers to the rug in the center of the room, where all the children sat, and waited anxiously for the ding of the afternoon bell. I squatted down near Thomas, and eyed him keenly. He didn’t usually get sick, and was normally jumping off the walls by the end of the day.
“Thomas,” I asked, concerned, “Are you feeling alright?”
He deliberately shook his head, and breathed deeply as if to calm himself. Then he leaned back and cast his lunchbox on the floor.
“The nurse is still in her office. We could go stop by if you’d like.” I suggested.
“No, that’s alright Ms. Annie. It’s almost the end of the day, and I don’t feel that bad.”
“Ok.” I replied suspiciously, “But keep me updated.”
I smiled and tickled his chin, and then I turned to look at the clock. Five minutes before three, just in time for afternoon announcements.
“Alright second grade, listen up!” I clapped three times, and waited for them to repeat.
“Tomorrow, we have Nathan and Thomas’ parents coming in to tell our class about each one of their jobs for Parent week, so think up some interesting questions to ask them when your home tonight, okay? And our first spelling test is on Friday, so you only have two more days to study. And have a good day!” I managed to get that out right as the bell rang.
I hopped up on one of the benches on the rug to avoid being trampled by the stampede of children, and then walked over to clean up the cubbies. I stopped in front of Thomas’ to scoop up his change of clothes that had fallen to the ground. Thomas was by far the recluse in the class, but also, no question, the most inquisitive. Instead of swinging from the monkey bars like the rest of the class, we had a whole conversation about long division yesterday at recess. I was surprised at how much he knew, but lost him once I talked about the concept of remainders. Not only was Thomas smart, but he thought differently than the other kids did. Once they got an answer to a question, they were through with it, and kept it stored In the back of their little brains, cluttered among other useless information. But Thomas would toy with the subject, questioning it until it was dry, wanting to understand every aspect of it. I had known Thomas and his family for quite some time now, and loved him just as much I would my own child.
I walked over to Nathans cubby, at the other end of the cubby rack. His large pile of action figures and rancid spoiled food represented his callowness. He and a small bevy of his friends were the bullies of the class, but Thomas got the worst of it. He knew the time out corner like the back of his hand, and didn’t seem to be ashamed of it. And it wasn’t uncommon when he had Thomas in tears by lunch time. But I never seemed to mind reprimanding him, and pulling out the ‘old ruler and giving him a good smack every time that happened. What I wouldn’t do to protect Thomas.
I got to school an hour early to set up for parents day, when I ran into Thomas’ mother in the office. I waved, and smiled graciously, but the smile in return wasn’t nearly what I’d hoped it would be. There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair was pulled up into a messy pony tail. She looked distraught. Worried maybe? Regardless, she came over to say hello, and walked me out of the office into the hallway by my classroom.

“Hello Ms. Annie. Unfortunately, I have some bad tidings for you. It’s about Thomas.”
I was vexed by her story and knit my brows together in confusion.
“Well,” she continued hesitantly, “About an hour after he came home from school, we found him passed out, and prostrate on his floor. We took him to the hospital, not expecting anything to be wrong, but they told us he had some, “complications,” and needed to run some blood tests.” She took a deep breath before she spoke again. “It turns out that….Thomas has leukemia.” She cupped her hand over her thin mouth, and made a shrill crying sound, then started to sob softly. I embraced her and let her cry on my shoulder.
The news took me completely off guard. I gasped, and soon felt tears of my own start to run down my cheeks. Why Thomas? Why now? I asked myself. I asked the Office to find me a substitute for today, and took off with Thomas mother. She informed me that he was at the hospital now, starting treatment, but it didn’t look promising. The whole thing just felt unreal.
I got to the hospital only to find Thomas knocked out from the pain medication, and decided to go home to think things over. I kissed him on the forehead before I left, and left my good wished with his parents.

The next day went by in a haze. Without Thomas in class, it felt like an important piece of me was missing. Some of the kids asked where he was, others didn’t notice. But what they did notice was my change of mood. From cheerful, peppy teacher to dismal, pessimistic Annie. I hated to make them sad, so I tried to put my best face forward, but I was still aloof to the class. Weeks passed by, a number of hospital visits, only to find Thomas asleep, or in some type of surgery.
But then, in the middle of math class on Monday, I got a phone call. A simple exchange of three lines, between me and Mrs. Simmons when I learned that Thomas had been pronounced dead this afternoon. I cried with the class, and even Nathan joined in and apologized for all he had done to Thomas. For the rest of class, we decided to write letters to him in heaven; talking about all of the things he’d done that made us happy. Mine was the longest.


(sorry jenny! its not that good, and it ends kind of fast. ill make it better)

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. Little, Brown and Company. September, 2007.

Eclipse Is the third book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. It is about a shy, yet very smart and inquisitive 18 year old girl named Bella Swan who is currently living in Forks, Washington with her father Charlie, away from her usual home with her mother in Jacksonville, and is also in love with, and dating, a vampire named Edward Cullen. Bella is very close to his adoptive vampire family, including Esme and Carlisle, the “parents,” and Edwards siblings, Rosalie, Emmet, Jasper, and Alice. In this story, Edward has just returned from leaving Bella and things are becoming back to normal. However, Jacob Black, Bella's long time friends from when she was little, and also who she leaned on after Edward left, is not at all happy with Bella spending time with Edward, and vice-versa. She has to choose who to dedicate her time with throughout the story, although they do end up compromising a bit. Also, in the beginning of the book, the Cullen's vote on whether to honor Bella's request of becoming a vampire and vote yes to change her come graduation. As it approaches, Bella doubts that she really wants to go through with this. And lastly, a new vampire scent is found in Bella's room, and it is found out that Victoria is leading a group of newborn vampires to come and hurt Bella and the Cullen's. Without giving away the ending, they join with the werewolves to try and stop them.
“Meyers Trilogy seethes with the archetypal tumult of star-crossed passions, in which the supernatural element serves as a heady spice.” –The New York Times
I absolutely love Meyers writing style. It is something I have never come across before and both helps me understand the book more, and brings it to life with astounding detail. It is the same as the two books before it, and shows the same level of curiosity from the characters, as well as description of the setting, and characters. For example, Bella and Edwards conversations always reach the depths of what they are talking about, and the characters (especially Bella and Edward) are very good at reading each others emotions, and figuring out puzzles, or what they aren’t told. She also completely changed my view of vampires, and I how I view them in stories. From coffins to skin that literally sparkles in the sunlight, her style uses the basis of vampires, but also adds new and unexpected twists to their presence. Meyer grabbed my interest on the first page of the series, and I was hooked ever since.
“Its late,” he said again, murmuring, almost crooning now, his voice smoother than silk. “Sleep my Bella. Dream happy dreams. You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours. Sleep my only love.”
Although I haven’t met her in person, I feel somewhat of a connection with Meyer, or at least her writing style. This is because in her writing, she likes to change peoples views on things that have already been described or written about, such as vampires, friendship, and love. I also try to change peoples opinions about things, and make them look deeper into what they really are. I have also related to one of the themes of the story, “love conquers all,” when my grandfather was dying, and I was with him and my mom. Although I could’nt relate to the actual story that well, I could clearly picture what it would be like through her writing. Her book changed my views on several topics in her story, and made me look closer into the “themes” or meanings of everyday things.

twilight

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My sisters Keeper- Book review

First quarter Outside reading book review
My sisters Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. Washington Square Press, 2004.
Genre- Realistic Fiction (Novel)

My sister’s Keeper tells the story of a genetically designed child, Named Anna, who is created for the purpose of helping save her sister Kate, who has acute promyelocytic leukemia. Anna and Kate live with their parents, Brian and Sara, and their rebellious older brother Jesse, in Providence, Rhode Island. Kate was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2, and is presently 16, while Anna is 13. The children lived a very abnormal childhood because of Kate’s serious illness and this affected them as they got older. They couldn’t have friends over, and couldn’t commit to anything because no one knew when Kate would relapse, or need a trip to the hospital. Anna and Jesse sometimes felt as if all the attention was always towards Kate. Anna begins to question who she really is, and if she was only brought into this world to help the survival of another child. When her parents ‘designed’ her, the doctors were able to hook up the fathers sperm to the mother’s egg and design a perfect donor match for Kate. So, Anna donates parts of her body to Kate (such as blood, marrow, etc.) However, Anna decides that she wants to start making medical decisions herself, and hires a lawyer to sue her parents. The story takes place mainly at the home of the Fitzgerald’s, (Anna, Kate, Jesse , Sara, and Brian) the Alexander Law offices, the Hospital, and the Courtroom.
“[A] Fascinating character study framed by a complex, gripping, story….A beautiful, heartbreaking, controversial and honest book.” –Booklist (starred review)
I enjoyed the descriptive, thoughtful writing style of the book, and how she told it from 5 different points of view. By hearing five separate characters points of views, and how she efficiently intertwined the relationships of the families, lawyers, judges, etc. I get a better understanding of what is happening in the book and what emotional toll it takes on everyone. Although it can make the book very complicated, because there is so much going on, I find it to also be a helpful technique that I do not see in other books. I also like the relationships the author creates between the separate events in the story. For example, how she can connect everything to fire. Brian works as a firefighter, Anna’s lawsuit and Kate’s disease could be described as a fire, etc. Picoult also writes into the depths of the characters feelings, as she does in many of her other books/novels. This is a very unique style of writing that I enjoy to read.
“There are pictures of me too, but not many…….It’s nobody’s fault, and it’s not a big deal, but it’s a little depressing all the same. A photo says, you were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says you were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch you.”
From reading this book I could tell that the author had some connection with the events. The book affected me, and made me relate and feel bad for the characters because she described them so well. I could relate to some of the experiences of Anna, but the medical events were new to me, so I paid attention to those the most. Picoult described the medical details of the story so that we could understand what was going on, and didn’t only use fancy words that we could not interpret. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much.

The birth of a memory

My value essay

I asked myself at the beginning of this assignment, what the word priceless actually meant. Dictionary.com of course gave me the same dry answer that I would hear from everyone else. So I started thinking. Does priceless mean worthless? Or so valuable that it simply could not be compared with any amount of money in the world. But then I posed the questions, could you put a price tag on a priceless moment? Of course, we have yet to establish this value system and it would be very complicated, because so many variables would be involved in determining the worth of something that doesn’t physically exist. But without knowing the worth of a priceless moment, how does one determine which is of higher value? Are they all worth the same?

It is April fools day, 1997 and the gods have decided that to play a little “trick” on us New Englanders. One of the worst snowstorms of the decade in Massachusetts took place that day. I ride with my cousin, aunt, and uncle to the Springfield hospital, which took a little over two hours for a usually 30 minute drive. We trudge through the snow and threw the hospital doors, by which time we are sopping wet and covered in slush. We take off our coats, check in at the round marble desk, and walk down to the waiting room outside the room where my mother is. She is having her c-section today. Meme and I wait until late that night, trying to entertain ourselves with the limited selection of Dr. Suess books and pamphlets on eating disorders. Finally the kind and tired looking nurse comes to tell us that my mother is fine, and out of surgery, and calls us in to see the baby. I run over to my mom, who is propped up on her hospital bed, with an IV coming out of her wrist. Molly, the new baby is in my mothers arms, wrapped in a blanket with a thin pink hat covering her small head. I crawl into the stiff hospital bed, and my mom puts Molly in my arms. She giggles and smiles up at me. I hold out my hand and she slowly wraps her delicate pink fingers around it. The moment of first seeing my little sister will always stay carved in my mind.

I walk into my grandfathers bedroom, and over to the robins egg blue wall where he has hung all of his pictures. We are in New York City, in his apartment with the rest of my family getting ready for my cousins wedding. I run my fingers along the carved wooden frames that hold the photographs of my Grandmother. My eyes scan past the pictures of her younger years, and to my grandparents wedding photograph. The frame is a thin dark wood, with gold accents around the edges. I had never met my grandmother before she died. Her name was also Betty. I try to imagine what she was like, but the photographs don't offer much help. I walk over to his dresser and see an old, pale colored jewelry box sitting on the top. I open the latch and see dozens of beautiful pearls, gold, bracelets necklaces; all I assumed belonged to my grandmother. It is lined with black velvet like material, and has three drawers, one of which is broken. I am especially fond of one of the bracelets. It is gold, with an old clasp and fits perfectly on my wrist. It has two monogrammed charms, also gold. One is square, and has her initials in the center. The other has her birth sign, a Virgo, and on the back, the date she ran her gold medal track race.
I see my grandfather in the doorway. I jump and close the jewelry box. My grandfather doesn’t mind that I was looking at her old things. He sits me down and says I could keep her bracelet if I would like. I tell him that I’d love to, and I thank him. Then, he starts to tell me about her. From when she came over to America, to when they got married. The bracelet is a reminder of that day, and helps me to keep the memory of my Grandmother.

My grandmothers gold bracelet and the memory of my sister’s birth are both valuable to me for similar and different reasons. Aside from the fact that one is an object, and the other a memory, they both represent people that are very important to me, the bracelet representing my Grandmother, and the memory of my sister being born, obviously representing my little sister. They also represent important and specific days of my life, because the day I got my bracelet is what I remember most about it, and my sister was born on a certain day when I was younger. My bracelet however helps me remember and connect someone I've never met, and the memory of the birth of my sister is when I first met someone that I would be living with.
Through the reading and commenting of the essays that have been written, I've concluded that actual physical objects are in turn, worthless. We all described a scene in which our item was used, and what we remember and describe is the memory of using or being with that object, not the object itself. One doesn't buy a new car so it will sit in their garage and "act" valuable, but to bring it on the road trip to California, or drive it to work everyday. Your expensive lacrosse stick is worth nothing without the memory of scoring the winning goal in the last game of the season, or carrying it to practice every week. It is not the item itself that we cherish, but rather the memories that it hold. They are a mere representation of what we truly value in life.