NaNoWriMo

Madeleine McNairn 6/18/15

Period 4 English

NaNoWriMo Excerpt From

The Cake Scandal

Stella Josephine

The cool air rippled Stella’s long brown hair while she waited for her bus. When the bus arrived she hurried on, excited to tell her friend Michelle that she got her 1st period class changed to Art and did not have to deal with Teagan teasing her in Technology anymore. However, to her disappointment Michelle was not on the bus that day. Unfortunately, Teagan O'Reilly was on the bus, she always harassed Stella. Luckily, today Teagan kept her claws to herself. Yet there is always a little catch, in this case Teagan bragged loudly about a new necklace her father was getting her tomorrow.

Trying not to let Teagan ruin her day early on, she thought about Monica, her gorgeous black and white cat who has the sass of Dee, the girl from ‘What’s Happening’. Monica, however, can take sass to a whole new level, because she can talk. That’s right. Monica is the only talking cat in Kansas City, Missouri and possibly the whole world. Stella thought about this on the way to school, letting her imagination take over. Once the bus pulled into the school parking lot, Stella got off in a hurry to get her new schedule to make the class change official.  

Confident and at ease, she walked into the main office and what she saw did not please her, half a dozen kids stood in line. All waiting for some petty reason, and it would take forever for Stella to get her schedule. Since Stella didn’t feel like waiting the whole morning to get a piece of paper, she pushed herself to the front of the line. Plastering on a fake smile to hide her irritation,  “I am here for my new schedule, I’m the person who switched Technology to Art, first period.” She explained.

The annoyed, low-paid secretary looked up, “You the doll whose mom called last night? The one named Dawson?” She asked with a Southern accent and showed disgusting coffee stained teeth when she announced her vowels.   

“No, no, my name is Stella Josephine,” Stella said, beginning to lose patience with the confused and obviously shabby secretary. Of course, not everyone had good taste in fashion, but Stella thought the secretary could do better.  

“Oh, right. Here it is, you know where the Art room is, don’t you?” The secretary inquired while passing the sheet to Stella.

“Yes, goodbye.” In her haste to leave she bumped into a clumsy boy, who spilled iced decaf coffee on her new skirt. This angered her more, because this was her new Ralph Lauren skirt.

“Really?” she shrieked at him “You spilled iced coffee all over my new skirt!”  Dawson was so surprised by her loud shriek, he was lost for words. All the other kids in the office snickered.

“Um...sorry, my bad,” he mumbled as he recovered over his embarrassing clumsiness. This was Stella! The girl he liked! Why couldn’t the first time he bumped into her he do something cool? Ugh!

“Whatever.” Stella said snottily.

Hoping this was not the boy that the secretary had confused her with, because then he would also be in her Art class, and she so couldn’t deal with another clumsy ox. However her hope was crushed as the secretary exclaimed, “Are you Dawson? The office mentioned a boy named Dawson was going to be the new coffee boy for me,” Dawson nodded to confirm. But the secretary's eagerness for her morning coffee disappeared as she looked from the crushed look on Stella’s face, to the empty coffee cup, and her eyes finally landed on Dawson’s embarrassed face. Putting the three together her face turned stony, “Dawson Chase!” the secretary sternly scolded using Dawson’s slightly formal name.  . “You spilled my caramel latte iced decaf coffee!”

Though her skirt was stained, Stella could not hold back a snicker, joining in with the other students in the office. The situation was much too humorous. Structured from Dawson’s beet red face compared to the secretary’s gargoyle face. The two faces in comparison were so different it just made you snicker.  This snicker and the others finally brought the secretary back to business.

“Go to your classes, now. The whole lot of ya.” she snapped. “And Dawson, don’t spill my coffee tomorrow.”

Introduction

I chose my NaNoWriMo excerpt, written in the beginning of the year. This piece is part of the story I was writing in the month of November. The assignment (to chose an excerpt from your NaNoWriMo story) was to find part of your story that pulled the reader in, making them want to read more and more! (Crazy, right?) The learning style I am focusing on is Storytelling and writing stuff that follows The Hero’s Journey plot line. I finally decided on this piece because I felt it best fit the requirements to get a good grade and I liked it. I had to do some changes to this piece, usually when I felt the character should have a different tone or attitude. There was one or two GUMS errors, but most changes were in the story elements. These changes make the story better because they smooth out the edges, making a more wholesome and enjoyable story.

About the Author

Hi! My name is Madeleine. Most of you guys know me, but if you don’t here are some quick facts (education wise and personality)( :

1. As a student:  I like learning and being at school. I like all of my subjects.
2. As an English student:  compared last year to this year, I feel like I have progressed. I actually wrote a story, which is crazy for me to do, because to be honest, I don’t like English or writing. But I did very much appreciate what Mr. Scott and Ms. Sherman taught me this year, as well as what Ms. Sterk taught me last year in English.
3. Improvement: I have improved in English this year, and I know this because last year if someone tried to force me to write a story…..well, let’s just say I wouldn’t have. As to all of the projects we got to do this year, that was awesome. I’m a sucker for any project creative or artsy.
4. Personality: I love art and baking. I am very creative (if I do say so myself) Like I said, I love projects.
5. Personality: Some people think I’m a little sassy and sarcastic (or alot, depending on who you are)
6. I think I’m hilarious, and my friends are hilarious too. But seriously, you guys are great.

🔷Have a great summer everybody!🔷