Monday, April 4, 2011

Antithesis

This is a sneak peek at a story that's been playing around in my brain. I'd like to know what you guys think. Morgan stood on the short wall, staring out at the water. It was cold and their was still a sheet of ice on the lake, but the sky was blue and beautiful. Morgan closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. The breeze whipped around her playfully and she smiled. Suddenly, she felt a hand clamp onto her arm. Her eyes shot open in surprise as she was spun around. Morgan lost her balance and almost fell backwards, but the hand holding her arm steadied her. She looked forward and saw Michael. The wall Morgan was standing on was only a foot high, and Michael was a foot taller than Morgan when she was on the same level as him, so the two of them were now the same height. Morgan and Michael stared at each other for a moment; Morgan with a look of shock on her face, and Michael with a vacant but penetrating look on his. Slowly, Michael's hand found Morgan's hand, and he held it gently. Morgan glanced down at their hands together and her heart raced a little. Michael turned and began walking along the wall, still holding Morgan's hand. Morgan walked along beside him in silence. Her mind was running a mile a minute, but her thoughts were all jumbled and confused. Morgan flinched as a slight pain started at the back of her head. A headache, like the ones she had been getting recently, was beginning to form. She and Michael walked along silently until they came to the end of the small wall. The two of them stopped and Morgan looked over at Michael at the same instant he looked over at her. His eyes danced and she thought she saw the makings of a smile on his face, the first one she had ever witnessed from him, when suddenly, her mind was overtaken by the thought of pain. But the pain was not coming from inside her head; it was coming from inside her hand. Morgan gasped and pulled her hand away from Michael's before she looked down at it. What looked like a black cloud of smoke drifted from her hand into the air, and she felt like her hand was on fire, burning from the inside out. Before Morgan could think about what to do, the burning sensation snaked up her arm, causing her to panic. Michael stepped away from Morgan, a look of pain contorting his face as well. The pain in Morgan's hand and arm coursed through the rest of her body in a matter of moments. She wanted to drop to her knees, but the wall she was on was just wide enough for her feet. She stared down at both of her hands and wanted to scream. She was now emitting a white light from her palms, and the pain was increasing. She looked up at Michael, her eyes begging for help, but he was kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach. He looked up at her and their eyes met. However, his eyes were no longer blue--they were black. Just then, a pain inside Morgan's chest exploded and she screamed, sure that it would be the last thing she ever felt. She felt herself growing faint and nauseated from the fire inside of her, and she lost her balance, falling backwards off of the wall, towards the water. Suddenly, Morgan shot up in bed, gasping for air. A cold sweat had formed on her brow, and her blankets had been thrown onto the floor. The early morning light streamed through her window, and she glanced over at her clock. It was 6:25 on a Monday morning... Morgan flopped back down onto her pillow and rubbed her forehead. She would have to get out of bed in five minutes, but her dream had left her more exhausted then when she had gone to bed last night. She sighed and shook her head. Hopefully her nightmare wasn't an omen of things to come... She really wanted this Monday to be a good day. Well, that's it. It's kind of in the middle of the story, but I wanted to post it to see what you guys think. Comments would be appreciated. EDIT: This is not supposed to be one block of text, but it won't keep the paragraphs separated. Stupid blogger.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Acting

Tuesday was the first day of fall play auditions. I had signed up for them, and of course I was going.

After school, I headed to the auditorium. I wasn't feeling too nervous yet, but that feeling would come soon. I sat down four or five rows from the stage and pulled out some homework while we all waited for whatever was coming next. Everyone got a piece of paper and we all answered the questions that were on it before we gave it back to the directors of the play. After that, the auditions began.

We were called up in groups ranging from three to six and we were told what characters to read and off of what pages of the script. I read the blond (the same two lines) twice, getting some good laughter from the audience the second time. My nerves had, by this time, started up, but I didn't let it show in my voice. My hands were shaking, but I didn't know if that was obvious or not.

I got off of the stage and a few people on the ends of the aisles told me I had done a good job. I smiled and gave them a theatrical bow, saying a quick "thank you" as I did. I was feeling good. Those lines were the only ones I read that day, but I felt good about my performance.

Wednesday was the second day of auditions, and it was also the day that the callbacks were supposed to be posted. That morning, I checked the choir room door and saw the list. There was my name, printed on the list. I was one hop short of giddy as I walked off to my first class.

That day, though, I realized I had caught a cold from my brother. I had all of the symptoms of his cold, and I hoped that it wouldn't make me miss school the next day.

Thursday came, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I was probably fevering on and off all day. I was hot then cold then hot again, and my hands were clammy all day. By the end of sixth hour, I felt miserable. My head was throbbing, my voice was growly, and I wanted to go home and take a nap; but it was the day of callbacks, and I wanted to be in the school play more than I wanted a nap.

After sixth hour, I went to the auditorium. I sat in about the same place that I had sat before and two of the girls in front of me turned around and invited me to sit with them. I declined for multiple reasons (my cold, my backpack was already sitting beside me, I didn't know them, and I just didn't want to get up if I didn't have to). They realized that I had been at auditions on the first day and complimented me on how I had delivered my two lines. I smiled again and croaked a thank you.

We began the callbacks with the directors telling us that there were twenty-two of us there and only thirteen roles. I wondered why they had picked a play with such a small cast, but I wasn't worried about it. I was sure that I would get a part. They also told us that some of us would go up twice and some of us would go up four times, but that didn't mean some of us were worse than others. They're thought behind it was that they knew more of what some people could do as opposed to others, so I figured I'd get to go up quite a few times, since they'd never seen me act before.

I was called up and was told to read the part of a retired actress, so of course I turned on the drama. Again, my lines got some good laughs from the audience, but one of the directors told me that she couldn't hear the ends of my lines. My cold may have had something to do with that, and my mother told me that it's just natural that our voices get softer as we finish our sentences. It was an easy fix, and the in next two lines I read I thought I had remedied the problem.

Those were all of the lines I got to read, and I definitely didn't read as many lines as some people. I thought this was interesting, but I got a few more compliments from other people who auditioned and I left the callbacks happy. We were told that the list of cast members would be posted on the choir room door the next day, sometime after lunch. I felt miserable, but I was looking forward to the next day.

Friday morning I checked the choir room door. There was no list posted yet, but I didn't think much about that, because they had said that it wouldn't be posted until after lunch. I went through my day like it was just another normal day (even though I wasn't feeling one hundred percent healthy because of my cold). After lunch, I walked past the choir room door on my way to my fifth hour class. I glanced over at the door and saw the list. I stopped for a moment and scanned it quickly.

My name wasn't on it.

I turned and began walking down the hallway. There was only a five minute break between classes, so I hadn't looked over the list very carefully, and I might have missed my name, but I felt my eyes sting a little. I took a deep breath and blinked quickly. I shouldn't have checked the list... I thought to myself. No, my name is on it. I just missed it. I walked into my fifth hour class and pushed the list out of my mind. I'd check it again before choir.

Sixth hour came and I walked to the choir room. I stared at the list, going through all of the names...

My name wasn't on it.

I swallowed hard and quickly ducked into the choir room. I flopped my backpack down on a chair and took a deep breath. I got my folder of music out of the cupboard and set it on my chair by my backpack. My eyes were stinging, but I wasn't going to let myself cry. Not here, not in school. I took a drink of water from my water bottle and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, clearing my mind of thoughts. I blinked a few more times, took another deep breath, and forgot about the list until choir had finished. I pretended like I was fine, like I wasn't breaking down inside, like I wasn't confused. The directors knew that I needed to be in that play so that I could meet people. They both knew I was new. I knew I had done well, because people had told me so.

But I didn't think about that. I didn't talk about it, and I didn't let it show on my face. I put on a blank expression, pulled out my choir music, and sang. Not even my friend noticed my sadness enough to say something about it.

I knew for a fact that day that I was a good little actress.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Beauty

If you look outside, you'll probably notice that the leaves on the trees are starting to change colors. Their morphing from shades of green to shades of red, orange, and yellow, just like a caterpillar in it's chrysalis. An interesting thought that I had never considered was pointed out to me earlier today, though; the leaves are nothing like the caterpillars in their chrysalis's', and for more than just the obvious reasons. While a caterpillar is changing into it's next stage in life, the leaves aren't. The leaves are only so beautiful because they're dying.

That's kind of how it is with us as humans. Now, when I say this, I don't mean literally. Most of us don't look very fabulous when we're dying--at least, not when we're physically dying. I'm not talking physically, though; I'm talking spiritually.

As a Christian, I have two "selfs" in me. I have my "old self" (which is the side of me that does all of the bad things) and I have my "new self" (the "self" that has been redeemed by Jesus Christ and isn't really me anymore, because me by myself is just the old self). These two "selfs" are at war with each other, always trying to get my attention. The old self wants me to go back to my sinful ways, but my new self wants me to follow God's Word. What am I to do?

To put it bluntly: Part of me has to die. Again, I'm not speaking in a physical sense, I'm speaking in a spiritual sense. I have to do something about that old self, and that "something" is to get rid of it. I have to "die" to the world, which means that I can't be doing all of the evil and wrong things that the world around me is doing; I have to be "transformed by the renewing of my mind". I have to put good things in to get good things out; I can't just be filling my brain up with all of the junk that the world is throwing at me.

To really change and be a beautiful person on the inside, I have to fill myself up with God. I have to cling to what His Word says. I have to trust Him and have faith in Him. I have to stop listening to the world and start listening to Him.

That doesn't mean that I can't have friends that aren't Christians or I can't associate with people who don't know Jesus Christ as their savior. It just means that I can't be like them. I have to stand out. I have to be different.

I have to be "beautiful."

Just like the leaves that die and become beautiful, my sinful self has to die so that I can become truly beautiful from the inside out.

Just think about how lovely our world would be if everyone did that.

Friday, September 3, 2010

MR Fanfic (TPPOV) Chapter 48

"I don't understand it..." the scientist muttered to his female partner. "How did he escape without anyone noticing?"

"Have you checked the cameras?" she asked, looking over his shoulder. He nodded and clicked a few things on the computer, bringing up the video for that day. The two of them watched the footage go at double speed until it all suddenly went black.

"Whoa, what's that?" the woman asked, backing up a bit. The man sighed.

"I don't know. It seems as if the cameras shut down for about thirty minutes." he replied, glancing over his shoulder at the contemplative woman.

"That would give anyone ample time to escape..." she mumbled, more to herself than to her partner. "But how is it that no one saw him?" she thought for a few minutes before looking back up at the man.

"You'll have to tell--"

"No!" he exclaimed, cutting her off and jumping up out of his chair. "If I tell him, he'll kill me! He hates hearing bad news, and this is some of the worst news he could hear!" the scientist said, wringing his hands nervously.

"He has to know!"

"Not from me, he doesn't!"

"You were the one in charge of the experiment, so you have to tell him!"

"I was only recently put in charge, and I was only given a short sheet of facts about him! Nothing I read said anything about this!" the man motioned towards the computer monitor, which was still playing black video footage. The woman gave him a stern glare and he finally sighed. He was going to have to play a card he'd rather not use, but desperate times call for desperate measures...

"Fine, but if I go, you have to come to." the scientist said, pointing at the shocked woman across from him.

"What? Why do I have to go? Do you need someone to hold your hand?" she retorted, quickly getting over her surprise.

"No, you have to come because you're my partner, and that means you were in charge of the experiment, too. Besides," the man paused and took a deep breath. "I'd like you to be witness to my demise." the two stared at each other for a few moments before the woman nodded.

"All right," she said softly, "I'll go with you." the man smiled and held out his hand. His partner gave him a small smile in return as she took his hand and the two walked out into the hallway.

Knock, knock, knock. The man hit the door as softly as he could in hopes that perhaps the person inside the room wouldn't hear.

"Who is it?" a gruff voice called from inside.

"D-Doctor Alexander and Doctor Falicia, sir." the man stuttered, gaining control of his voice halfway through his sentence.

"Come in." the voice commanded quickly. Dr. Alexander opened the door and peeked inside. The room was furnished like the office of a CEO for an important company with a large desk in the middle of the room and an enormous chair behind the desk. The chair was turned so that the back was to the two scientists as they entered the room.

"I hope you have good news for me, Doctors." the man in the chair said softly. Dr. Alexander cleared his throat.

"Actually, sir, w-we don't. I wish we did, but-"

"Get on with it, Alexander! I don't have all day to listen to you stutter about your problems." the voice barked and Alexander and Falicia both flinched.

"Y-yes, sir," Alexander began once more and cleared his throat. "We're here about Experiment N1C01_43." the male scientist paused, waiting for a response from the man in the chair.

"Did he expire?" there was a bit of worry in his voice as he asked the question.

"Oh, no, sir," Alexander said quickly. "At least...not that we know of..." he finished hesitantly. There was another long pause as the two scientists looked at each other with worried expressions.

"He...escaped?" came the slow and soft reply.

"Yes, sir..." Alexander said with a nod, not that the other man could see it.

"Well, then, find him." Alexander and Falicia shared another worried look.

"Sir?" Falicia asked, almost as if she hadn't understood the command.

"Find him and bring him back here." the man in the chair said in a much sterner tone.

"But, sir, how?" Alexander asked quickly.

"You two were put in charge of him, figure it out!" the other man roared. Falicia and Alexander jumped. "You have two weeks to have him back here, or the two of you are out. And by out, I mean out." The two scientists gulped and nodded, and they had a feeling that even though he wasn't looking at them, the man in the chair could see them.

"Y-yes, sir," Alexander fumbled with his words once more.

"Use any means necessary. I want that experiment back here."

"Y-yes, sir,"

"Good. Now, get out!" the man bellowed and Falicia sprinted to the door, Alexander close behind. The two of them left the room and closed the door gently before they made their way back down the hallway.

"How are we going to find N1C01_43?" Falicia asked Alexander in a worried tone. Alexander took a deep breath before he opened the door to their lab. He sat down at his computer and began pounding away at it.

"We use any means necessary." he replied simply, bringing up a screen with a map on it. There, on the map, was a small blinking dot in the color red.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Help?

I was just looking back at the comments on my blog and saw that on my "Do you want to see something cute?" blog post there was another comment. So, I looked at it and it was someone asking if I would be interested in drawing some pictures for their blog. They said that if I was interested I should send them a message.

One question: How?

If any of you know, I would be very happy if you would inform me of how to do such things.

Now, on to much more serious news. My great uncle passed away last night. =( Please keep my family in your prayers, guys and girls.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Yet another thing that makes me different from other people...

There are a lot of things about me that some people wouldn't consider "normal". I won't go into the whole list, and whether or not you think I'm weird depends upon your definition of the word "normal". The following, though, is a little out of the ordinary for someone my age.

While surfing the Internet yesterday, I came across a blog post that had information on a certain contest. The U Rock music video contest (held by Disney.com) is basically you submitting a video that involves a short clip of music (apparently making the video a "music video"). The main rules are that the video can't be over forty seconds long, it can't have any music but that which the contest provides, and it has to be clean and with no logos, etc. There are four different songs you can pick from, each coming with a different prize for the big winner.

The first song is "Dance Forever" by Allstar Weekend. The prize is that you get to hang with the band. Sound cool? Yeah, I guess so.

The next song is "It's On" from Camp Rock 2, and the prize for that one is that you get to go see a Camp Rock 2 concert or whatever. (Something along those lines, I honestly didn't pay that much attention to it. I was too interested in what came after this one.)

The third song is (taken out of order, because this is more dramatic) "L.A. Baby" by the Jonas Brothers. The prize is getting to tour L.A. and/or meet the Jonas Brothers, I can't remember which. Once again, I didn't pay that much attention because I wanted to get past this one to the final song.

Last but not least, the fourth song is "Backyard Beach" by... Ferb Fletcher from Phineas and Ferb. (For those of you who don't know, Phineas and Ferb is a cartoon made of PURE AWESOME.) The prize for this song is that you get to meet the creators of Phineas and Ferb and you get a behind the scenes look at the show.

So, which one was I most excited about? Most definitely Phineas and Ferb.

Now, hanging out with Allstar Weekend would probably be cool, and seeing a Camp Rock 2 concert would be fun, and touring L.A and/or meeting the Jonas Brothers would probably be a blast, too, but meeting the creators of one of my (entire family's) new favorite TV shows would just be...amazing. This is how I see it: I'm interesting in writing of all kinds, including writing scripts and screenplay and things along those lines. I'm also into voice acting (for those of you who don't know, I'm in a podcast as the narrator and I'm the voice of a character in an online animated show...not to toot my own horn or anything...), so to go behind the scenes of an animated TV show would be something right up my alley.

Don't you think meeting the creators and going behind the scenes of Phineas and Ferb would be cool?

Well, here comes the sad part: the contest closes in less than twenty-four hours, and none of the videos that my brothers and I made are very good (well, I don't really like them, anyways). So, I don't think I'm going to be entering it. Maybe if I had learned about the contest sooner or didn't expect so much of myself I'd feel better about the videos...

I'm not sure why I wanted to tell all of you about this, but I guess this is more what a blog is for than what I've been using it for with fanfictions and whatnot...

Friday, August 20, 2010

MR Fanfic (MPOV) Chapter 47

"Run!" I yelled, acting on my instincts. We all turned and darted back down the street in the direction we had come from. I glanced over my shoulder at the van and saw that it had sped up. We needed to take to the sky, but we couldn't just leave Jazz here.

"Why are we running?" Jazz asked as I ran up beside her.

"Um, hello! Big black van coming down the road towards us!" I said quickly. I counted heads and stopped in my tracks as I realized Angel wasn't with us anymore. I spun around and saw Angel staring at us all with a confused expression on her face.

"Angel, come on!" I called, the others stopping ahead of us a little ways. I gasped as the black van neared her. I dashed forward and got to her just in time, pulling her away from the road as...

The black van passed us. I watched as it passed the others, too. I let go of Angel and stared after the vehicle.

"Max, are you okay?" Angel asked slowly.

"I thought for sure..." I mumbled, my voice trailing off at the end of my sentence. The others began walking towards me. A blush lit up my face like a campfire lights up the darkness. When he reached me, Fang raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What just happened?" Kalie asked from the back of the group. I thought for a moment before I shrugged and smiled sheepishly.

"Better safe than sorry?" I offered as a reply. Fang let out a sigh but he was smiling while he did it. He shook his head then took my hand again.

"Ya know, Max, things like this wouldn't happen if you'd take advantage of my full powers." Angel said suddenly.

Here we go again... I thought to myself with a sigh and an eye roll.

"I mean, if you would let me read your thoughts all of the time, we wouldn't have grabbed Jasmine back at the mall instead of you. And if you payed more attention to me, I could have told you that the people in that van were just some tourists on their way home. They seemed to be really lost, though..." Angel continued.

"Yes, but how much fun would that all be? I mean, if you guys hadn't grabbed Jasmine, we never would have met her or Sam or Kalie or Thing 1 and Thing 2. And besides, that little sprint was good for us. It kept us on our toes!" I said, faking enthusiasm here. I heard a few giggles from behind me and Angel frowned.

"I'm being serious, Max," she said in a completely serious tone. I sighed.

"Angel, I don't want you inside my head, and that's that, okay?" I said quickly. Angel's shoulders dropped a little and she looked ahead again.

"Fine," she mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. We all walked in silence for a few minutes before Gazzy spoke up.

"So, where are we going?" he asked.

"North, in the hopes of finding Jazz's mom." I replied matter-of-factly. That was all the answer I gave because beyond that, I didn't have a clue as to where we were going.

"How will we know when we find Jazz's mom?" Nudge asked from behind me.

"Well, Jazz knows what her mom looks like, and she knows her address, so it shouldn't be THAT hard..." I said with a shrug. Fang gave me a skeptical look and I shrugged again.

"Are we gonna walk the whole way there?" Gazzy asked incredulously.

"What do you want to do? Hitchhike?" I asked, turning around to see him. A smile crossed over his face.

"Yeah!" he said, running out in front of us. I rolled my eyes as he began walking in front of us with his thumb in the air.

"Gazzy..." I said his name in a whiny voice, making both syllables obvious. He completely ignored me and went on wagging his thumb in the air with a smile on his face.

"Who knows? Maybe his cuteness will actually catch us a ride." Jazz said with a smile. A few of the others laughed and I couldn't help but smile. He was pretty cute up there...