Monday, April 22, 2013

A Bad Reputation




1
            “So new town, new school… seems like a trend for us,” Emma sighed.
            “Think you can behave in this one?” Ethan laughed as the two of them walked into the school.
            “Behave, whatever you mean?” she laughed.
            “You just have a habit of stirring things up…” Ethan said, “Or rather let things get stirred up around with you… you know how close you were to getting kicked out of that last school…”
            “What like Dad even cares… if he has his way we wouldn’t be going to school…”
            “He wants us to learn other things besides…” Ethan said lowering his voice, “Killing things…”
            “Yeah, yeah… so what’s your first class?” Emma asked as she looked at her schedule.
            “Junior English… awesome,” Ethan said, “You know I’m seriously thinking about dropping out and just getting my GED, it’s not like I need this crap…”
            “Weirdly enough some classes I actually like… first period gym class though is not one of them…” she sighed as she stuffed her schedule in her bag, “You know it’s just all the other stuff that I hate about high school. Freaking football players and pep rallies, cheerleaders and drama geeks... the whole lot of it just makes me nauseous frankly… I’d rather be traveling around on back country roads fighting monsters. High school is so much worse…”
            “Yeah… well have fun in gym class… try not to cause too much trouble your first day,” Ethan said as he walked towards his classroom.
            “Can’t promise you anything, you know these things just sort of happen… I mean you aren’t Mr. Authority on the subject… try not to hit on anyone today…”
            “Can’t promise you anything…” Ethan said as he walked into his classroom.
            Emma laughed and shook her head as she walked to the gym where the gym class took place. Of course she didn’t bother looking at her schedule before she came to school today so she wasn’t exactly dressed for class. Right now she was wearing tight blue jeans and a ACDC black tank top which over it she wore her favorite leather jacket. As she walked into the gym she could feel all eyes on her as she walked up to the teacher and handed him her schedule.
            “So you’re the new girl huh? You’re late…” he said.
            “Sorry, don’t know this place yet, got a little lost,” she said even though that was a lie.
            “And you’re not dressed,” he said handing her schedule back to her as he looked her up and down.
            “Sorry, didn’t get my schedule until today,” another lie.
            “Well we’re playing dodge ball,” he said, “You can play in that right?”
            “Yeah it’s fine,” she said.
            “Good Ms. Carmichael, so put your things down and join the team on the right…” he said.           
            She nodded and then went and put her things down on the bleachers and took off her jacket so that her tank top was showing, along with the skin between her pants and some cleavage. Not the most practical for sports, but it would do. She saw a most of the guys in the class looking at her as she pulled her wavy light brown hair up into a ponytail. She took her place on the right team and then the game commenced.
            She actually lasted pretty long, not that she had much practice with dodge ball, but she was good at dodging other things. The whole dodge ball thing during gym class she thought was so clichéd but it was obvious that this was the one thing that the gym teacher didn’t have to put that much effort into. The class went by fast and she noticed quickly that the boys were all paying her attention and talking to her while the girls were all whispering about her and giving her snide looks. Well there went that good first impression, she thought was they all wrapped up the games and headed off to the locker rooms.
            “Hey, it’s Emma right?” a boy suddenly said behind her.
            “Yeah… how’d you know that?” she asked.
            “Saw your name on your schedule…” he said as he handed it to her, “You dropped it.”
            “Thanks… and here I thought you were just stalking me,” she laughed.
            “No, not exactly the stalking type,” he said, “I’m Rick by the way…”
            “Well Rick it was nice to meet you… but I have to get to my next class. Don’t want to be late.”
            “Something tells me you don’t care if you’re late…”
            “Wow maybe you are stalking me Rick…” she smiled as she turned and walked away. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked.
            Emma then walked out of the gym and back into the hallway thinking about how that first class wasn’t so bad, despite making a sort of a spectacle out of herself. She hoped the next classes and the rest of the day would go well too. It suddenly changed when she was stopped by a girl in the hallway who was wearing a cheerleading uniform.
            “Carmichael  huh?” the girl said standing in front of Emma.
            “Yeah… I’m Emma,” she said standing there, “And you are?”
            “Julie… you were in my gym class… do you need me to show you around?” she asked in an almost condescending tone.
            “I think I can probably manage… just heading to physics lab now…” Emma said.
            “Well I’m heading that way I’ll show you…” she said as she took Emma’s arm and Emma took all her might not to bat her away.
            “Fine…” Emma said putting on a fake smile.
            Of all the people to be friendly with or at least fake friendly she didn’t want to be friends with this cheerleader. Emma was also pretty sure that this was one of those girls that was whispering about her and giving her snide looks.
            “So where are you from Emma?” Julie asked.
            “All around really…”
            “And why are you starting in October?” she asked.
            Emma sighed, “We move around a lot because of my Dad’s job… this was just when we got here…”
            “Okay… so what’s your deal? What do you like to do for fun? Play any sports or anything?” Julie asked.
            “No… no sports or clubs… I tend to move around a lot so there’s really not time for me to get into things. More of a stay away from school activities kind of person…” she sighed, “We’re getting close aren’t we?”
            “Yeah right up here…”
            “So you’re a sophomore right?”
            “Yeah… and you?” Emma said trying to be friendly.
            “Junior… and I’m very involved… cheerleader as you can see, and I heard you met my boyfriend already?” Julie said and now Emma understood why Julie was talking to her.
            “Oh… Rick right? Yeah I dropped my schedule and he picked it up for me… he seems nice,” Emma smiled.
            “Yeah he is, and he has a soft spot for new kids…” Julie said her hand tightening on Emma’s arm, “Started last year himself, his Dad’s in the army…”
            “Well then we have something in common, our Dad’s moving around a lot,” Emma said, “So this is my class I think… it was nice meeting you Julie,” Emma said smiling a real smile now.
            “Likewise…” she said as she walked off, “Oh and Emma a word of advice next time you come to gym class and you’re gonna be jumping around, don’t wear something so skimpy…”
            “Well thanks for the advice,” Emma said sarcastically, “I’ll remember that for next time…”
            “Yeah you do that Carmichael ,” Julie said giving her that same snide look from earlier.
            Emma sighed as she walked into the physics lab as the bell rang. She sat down in the back, not wanting to talk to anyone really, but of course some boy sat himself down at her table. She spent the class like most of her past classes, not paying attention. Instead she was thinking about how she had somehow already made an enemy. She knew Julie’s type; her type was the reason she almost got kicked out of the last school. She knew that Julie was going to try to make her life a living hell. She also knew that she wasn’t going to stand for it and she already knew how to press Julie’s buttons.

2
            “Hey Carmichael over here!” Julie called as Emma walked into the cafeteria, which where of course her and Ethan had different lunch periods.
            She didn’t want to sit with the cheerleaders but it was either that or sit by herself or buffalo herself onto a table with stranger which she could easily do. Against her better judgment though she went and sat down next to Julie and the other cheerleaders.
            “So what’s with the uniforms?” Emma asked.
            “Pep Rally during 7th period today; there’s a big game tomorrow night against our rivals… you should come with us to the game… I mean obviously we’ll be cheering…”
            “Yeah like I said earlier school spirit isn’t really my thing,” she said as she took a sip of her Pepsi.
            “So what’s your ‘thing’ then?” Julie asked as some of the other girls chuckled.
            Emma sighed she knew that this was a bad idea. She looked over at Rick who was smiling at her giving her an apologetic look, “Well I don’t have just one ‘thing’ I like to listen to music and love drive in movies…”
            “So you don’t have any talents or anything?” one of the other cheerleaders asked.
            “I can think of some talents that you probably have,” one of who she guessed was a football player said smiling and then one of the others gave him a high five.
            “Eww… don’t be a pervert Jeff…” Julie said.
            “So what do you do then? Just hang out with your friends? Or do you not have any friends?” Julie asked turning up her nose.
            “Well yeah I just kind of ‘hang out’ mostly with my brother… obviously I don’t have any friends yet since I just came here… and unlike some people it’s not like I have to money to go out and do whatever I want…” she said bitterly.
            “Yeah I can see that by what you’re wearing… I mean that jacket where the hell did you get it?”
            “Vintage shop down in Alabama…” Emma said smiling, she was proud of the jacket.
            “I think it’s cool… retro stuff always is,” Rick smiled.
            “Shut up Rick,” Julie said.
            “You know I’m getting the feeling this little lunch is more of a ‘let’s make fun of the new girl’ thing… and I’m sorry to say that my feeling don’t get hurt that easily so if you’re trying to drive me away it’s not going to work,” Emma said smiling as she sipped more of her soda.
            “And why would we make fun of you Carmichael? I mean you fit in so well around here don’t you?” Julie laughed.
            “Well I mean haven’t had much time to fit in do I? Plus who cares… it’s high school,” Emma laughed as she decided to stand up.
            “Where are you going?” Julie asked.
            “What, you think I’m going to sit here at your table of conceited rich kids and take you making fun of me?” Emma laughed.
            “Oh come on it’s all in good fun… plus better to sit at our table and have us pick on you than to be outside our table and have you being picked on by everyone…” Julie laughed.
            “Who cares,” Emma laughed, “What don’t you get about that? I don’t care about all this shit… high school is four years! Four fucking years of our extremely long lives where everyone wants to label you to throw you into some category and force you to do all these things that you hate. Well not me. I don’t care what people think of me…”
            “Carmichael you are making a big mistake. You might not care what people think of you, but everyone else does. They will eat you alive out there… the way you are…”
            “The way I am?” Emma laughed as now a good majority of the cafeteria was listening to their conversation, “And what way would that be?”
            “Come on Emma,” Julie laughed, “I mean look at you… you’re so much different than everyone…”
            “And since when is being different a bad thing? If we were all the same things would be boring… I mean look at you lot…” Emma laughed.
            “Well at least we’re not freaks…” Julie said smiling and there was a silence that fell over the cafeteria and the ‘ohs” started.
            “Listen, I’d rather be me any day than be a bitch like you,” Emma said as she turned to leave.
            “Freak!” Julie yelled than Emma felt something hit her back.
            She turned around to see a plate of fries on the ground, ketchup now on her leather jacket. Emma shut her eyes a willed herself not to straight out punch Julie in the face. She brushed off the fries and what ketchup she could.
            “You know bitch that was a really bad move,” Emma said, “Just watch yourself…”
            Emma then stormed out of the cafeteria, her first day at school taking a turn for the worst. She stormed over to her locker and shed her leather coat to see the ketchup on the back. She quickly took out a rag that she had in her locker and wiped all the ketchup off of it that she could. She then put the jacket in her locker chilly now that she was only wearing a tank top.
            “Dammit…” she said as she rubbed her hands on her shoulders.
            Suddenly she felt a presence behind her and a hand that reached out with a flannel shirt in its hand. She turned to see Rick standing there holding a shirt as well as that same apologetic look on his face.
            “What you didn’t want to revel in your girlfriend’s act upon me,” she said crossing her arms.
            “Hey, waving the white flag here… Julie can be a bitch sometimes I know… she’s just threatened by you that’s all. A hot new girl comes in and takes all the attention off of her… she goes into defensive mode, “Now here I know you’re cold…”
            “Thanks,” Emma sighed as she pulled on his flannel shirt, “Won’t Julie be pisssed that you’re fraternizing with the enemy?”
            “Eh what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her… plus I’m not a little dog that follows her around all the time. I Might be one of those boring ‘rich kids’ you were talking about but I do have a heart and I can see that you could maybe use a friend right now.”
            “Well thanks Rick, but I meant what I said… I really don’t care what people think of me and I don’t need to have all these friends. I have my brother and me and him we stick up for each other…”
            “Well your brother can’t always be there… and maybe you don’t want a friend but I have your back if you need it… so that you don’t have to have ketchup thrown on you again… which by the way I’ll have paid to be dry cleaned…”
            “You don’t have to…”
            “Well I want to,” he smiled, “And I don’t want this whole thing to deter you from eating in the cafeteria or coming to the Pep Rally this afternoon…”
            “Well I don’t get scared away that easily Rick…” she smiled, “I think you would’ve realized that by now… though you should be happy that I didn’t punch her in the face for trying to ruin my jacket.”
            “Yeah I saw that look in your eyes… and I know you could’ve easily knocked her out, you could probably take me as well…” he smiled.
            “Well anytime you want to fight me just let me know,” she smiled.
            “So you’re still going to the Pep Rally right?”
            “Well I was under the impression that it was mandatory otherwise I’d skip it…” she sighed, “Not my scene at all…”
            “I’d like to see you there though… don’t think of going for you. Think about going there to see me…” he smiled.
            “Well then I guess I have to go then… I mean you did give me your shirt so I don’t freeze my ass of… these halls are freaking cold!”
            “Yeah, they don’t turn on the heat until like November,” he smiled, “By the way keep it, it looks good on you…”
            “And your girlfriend doesn’t mind you giving me your clothes?”
            “Once again I’m not just defined by my girlfriend, and second she doesn’t have to know,” he said as he walked away, “So see you at the Pep Rally?”
            “Guess so,” she sighed as he walked backwards down the hall then smiled as he turned and walked forward.
            Emma touched the shirt that she was wearing and then suddenly got an idea of how to get Julie back. It was obvious that Rick was starting to have a crush on Emma and she was going to use that to her advantage. She wasn’t going to wait though to use the advantage. If Julie was going to embarrass her in front of everyone than she was going to embarrass her in front of everyone and where better to do it? The Pep Rally of course.

3
            Emma sat on the edge of the bleacher close to the door of the gym that was on the far left. She sat on the end and there were people next to her that were all spirited out and what not. She sat there still in Rick’s shirt with her tank top underneath. As they announced the players from the different sports teams she just sat there impatiently waiting for her turn to pull her little stunt.
            She gripped the edge of the bleachers with her hands that were half covered by the shirt that was too big. At one point she was Julie’s eyes on her as Julie cheered on with the rest of the cheerleaders. Ethan was nowhere to be found and she figured that he had probably just decided not to go. She hadn’t made much effort to go find Ethan though for what she was planning to do. She smiled to herself as she thought about it, as the football team was now introduced.
            She sat there teetering back and forth as the other team members were announced and one by one ran out of the door by which she was sitting near. At last the captains were announced along with Rick who then came out and Julie and the cheerleaders cheered for him the longest. Emma then stood up as he was standing right near her. He smiled at her and she smiled back.
            Julie and the other girls stopped cheering right as Emma suddenly kissed Rick on the lips. To her surprise Rick actually kissed her back for a second before she got off of him. Only half of the gym could see what was going on, but the whole gym fell silent except for the other football players chuckling.
            “Um…” Rick said as he looked at her.
            “Go on…” she smiled as she waved him on to the go onto the court with other members of the team.
            Emma then looked over at Julie whose face was now beat red and she looked like she was about to cry. Emma just waved at her and then headed out of the gym laughing to herself. She half expected Julie to follow her as she walked out but she knew that for Julie reputation was everything and if she would never allow herself to make a big scene that made herself look bad. Emma was still surprised that Rick had actually kissed her back she had expected him to push her away to cause from making a bigger scene than necessary.
            One thing was for sure, she sure did make an interesting impression on the student body on her first day of school. Emma was walking to her locker to get out her things when the Pep Rally let out and people streamed into the halls. She could feel the stares on her as people past by her, but she knew this would all die down eventually just like things always did in high school. It was so worth it to get Julie back for what she did in the cafeteria at lunch.
            Of course who came up to her in the hallway though as she stood there, Rick who had a confused look on his face, “So… what was that exactly?” he asked.
            “Well I was under the impression that, that was a kiss…” she said, “Why are you here, don’t you have practice or something?”
            “Yeah but I have a minute to kill until I have to be on the field,” he said, “Look Julie and I are together okay, and I’m guessing you don’t care about that…”
            “Oh I care,” she said closing her locker, “That’s why I did it…”
            “Wait what...” he said confused as the cheerleaders including Julie started walking down the hall.
            “Look sorry I dragged you into this but the way to getting Julie back for all the crap that she did to me was to get her where it hurts…” she said as she pulled her bag over her shoulder.
            “So you used…” he started to say but didn’t get to finish as Julie stomped over to them.
            “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Julie asked as she pushed Emma against the locker.
            “So violence is the next stage then?” Emma laughed as she easily pushed Julie off of her.
            “That’s my boyfriend whose throat you just had your tongue down!” Julie yelled.
            Emma shrugged, “He didn’t seem to mind…”
            “Julie look stop this…” Rick said.
            “No! I won’t have her try to seduce you!” Julie said as she stopped and saw the shirt that Emma was wearing, “Why the fuck is she wearing your shirt?”
            “Well see your boyfriend is actually a decent person so after you defaced my jacket he gave me this to wear so I wasn’t cold…” Emma said.
            “Take it off!” Julie said as she then pulled on it and it ripped.
            “Now look what you’ve done,” Emma said smirking, “You’ve gone and ruined a perfectly good shirt… you’re boyfriend’s shirt no less.”
            “Julie please, we can deal with this later…” Rick said.
            “Yeah Julie please…” Emma said in a mocking tone.
            “You bitch! You fucking whore! You can’t just come in and steal people’s boyfriends!” Julie yelled.
            “Are we done with the name calling? Cause I have places to be,” Emma said starting walk off but Julie then slapped her in the face.
            There was a silence that now filled the now crowded hall because everyone had just heard that smack. Rick held his breath as Emma rounded on Julie the torn shirt now on the crook of her arms.
            “Bad, bad move,” Emma said as she couldn’t take it any longer and punched Julie in the face and she went down to the ground.
            Emma then pulled the shirt back up and adjusted her bag as she then turned and walked down the hallway as both Rick and the cheerleaders bent down to make sure that Julie was okay. Luckily for Julie Emma didn’t her that hard. As she walked outside people stepped away from her. So not only had she labeled herself as an apparent boyfriend stealer but she was also labeled violent.

4
            “So I saw your little spectacle…” Ethan said as he came into the living room where she was watching the Twilight Zone.
            “You know they never seem to get anything right on this show…” Emma sighed as Ethan stood behind her, “I mean werewolves don’t turn into wolves those are skinwalkers… gosh…”
            “Emma… don’t avoid the subject,” Ethan said.
            “I’m not… just making an observation,” Emma smiled, “So which spectacle are we talking about?”
            “The one when you made out with a football player in front of practically the whole school,” Ethan sighed crossing his arms.
            “Oh that… don’t worry I don’t like him or anything… just getting back at his girlfriend,” she shrugged, “Wow you were actually at the Pep Rally…”
            “Yeah some cheerleader I met told me to come… but that’s beside the point… so you kissed this guy, who is taken to get back at his girlfriend? Is this by any chance the girl that poured a plate of fries on you during lunch?”
            “Yatzee,” she said as she flipped through the channels, “She made a fool out of me in front of everyone so I wanted to do the same to her…”
            “Well so much for making a good first impression…” Ethan said, “By the way whose shirt is that?”
            “Rick’s… forgot that I was wearing it,” she said looking down.
            “Who’s Rick?”
            “The football player… Julie’s boyfriend, he was nice enough to give it to me after my jacket got covered in ketchup,” she said nonchalantly.
            “Nice Em, real nice… so not only are you making an enemy you’re screwing with a guy who’s actually being nice to you,” Ethan said.
            “I’m not screwing with him, just with Julie… he’s better off without her anyways,” Emma said.
            “So you like this Rick guy?”
            “No… I mean he’s nice, we could be friends…”
            “Yeah I doubt he wants to be friend with you after this,” Ethan said, “And how did the shirt get ripped and why do you have a mark on your face?”
            “Ethan are we playing 20 questions here or something?” she asked finally turning to him.
            “Emma… did you get into a fight?”
            “Yep… but don’t worry she’s alive…” Emma said, “I punched her in the face and didn’t use all the strength that I could’ve…”
            “And you wonder why people don’t like you Em…” he said shaking his head.
            “Hey I did nothing to Julie or any of her little cheerbitches okay? I was nothing but nice and honest and somehow that deserved me being called a freak and a slut and a bitch. Then made me look like a complete loser because I didn’t want to sit with them as they called me names and made fun of the way I dress? Yeah all my fault…”
            “You didn’t have to retaliate…” he said.
            “Yeah right, this coming from you? You’ve been in more fights than I have… by the way how did your first day go?” Emma asked, “Cause I heard a rumor about a mysterious new guy who was making out with a cheerleader in the janitor’s closet…”
“Yeah well at least I wasn’t making out with someone in front of the whole school…”
“Face it Ethan, we’re not the good ones okay? We don’t follow rules we can’t lie low or
blend in…”
            “Hey don’t label me in with you,” he said, “I don’t make a spectacle out of myself…”
            “Whatever, it’s high school Ethan, things happen then people get over them and we all move on until there’s another scandal…” Emma said, “I’m not worried I’ll be back to being the freak who keeps to herself in no time…”
            “Since when do you keep to yourself? I wish you would sometimes…” he sighed.
            “Whatever at least thing with me are never boring.”
            “That’s true but your idea of not boring is fighting and throwing yourself at guys…” Ethan said rolling his eyes.
            “Ethan you realize there is a reason that we will never fit in with these people right? We’re not like them… we don’t care about the latest styles or about getting good grades or about the freaking football season. We’re too busy making sure that all their asses are safe to care about that stuff. And yeah maybe I don’t handle things as well as I should but all of it is so fucking trivial…”
            “You know I agree with you, but can you just tone it down please? I don’t need to deal with people talking about you. I know you don’t care what people say about you, but I do,” he sighed.
            “Well thanks for caring Ethan but I can take care of myself and you’re right I don’t care what people think of me. But don’t worry I’ll tone it down. I already showed everyone what I’m capable of so I don’t think they’ll mess with me anymore,” she said but she really had no idea how wrong she was.

5
            “Can we talk?” Rick said as she walked up to her locker where he was waiting for her at lunch.
            “What about?” she asked as she took some books out of her bag and put them into her locker.
            “Like you don’t know… come on I know a place we can go,” he said as he gestured for her to follow him.
            She sighed as she closed her locker and followed him as they walked down the pretty empty halls. They ended up going to the woodshop classroom which was also deserted. He sat down at one of the tables and motioned for her to sit down.
            “You know I’m really not one for these long serious talks… look I’m sorry if you felt that I used you…” she sighed.
            “Well Emma you did use me…” he said, “And to think that I actually liked you…”
            “Rick come on, you barely know me,” she sighed her worst fear coming true; she didn’t want this guy falling for her.
            “And yet you already have me interested in you… took Julie two years,” he said.
            “Why are you with her?” she asked.
            “Cause it’s the way things go right? Head captain of the football team dates the Head cheerleader right?” he half chuckled.
“And she’s hot…”
“Well that too… and honestly she’s not that bad of a person…” he said though smirked,
“Though I thought you weren’t a bad person and yet here we are…”
            “I’m not a bad person… I just don’t let people walk all over me. Like I said high school is one part of our lives, one little part and it shouldn’t define you as a person…” she said.
            “Yeah well sticking your tongue down my throat in front of the whole school is pretty bad…”
            “You didn’t seem to mind,” she laughed.
            “Hot girl like you kisses me of course I’m gonna kiss you back,” he laughed, “But still I’m with Julie… well for now anyways… haven’t talked to her since after you punched her… which by the way I convinced her not to go to the principal on.”
            “I don’t need you to help me,” she said taken back, “And she started this whole thing anyhow…”
            “Was she in class this morning?”
            “Yeah she was but she brought some bogus note saying that she could sit out… I barely even hit her she’s so dramatic… but her mission was accomplished cause all the cheerleaders hate me now… along with a lot of the school…”
            “And that doesn’t bother you?” he asked.
            “Not really… I don’t know any of the people here why should I care what they’re whispering about me behind me back?” she shrugged.
            “Oh if only I could be like you,” he sighed, “I care what people think, hence why I kind of need to ask you to stay away from me okay?”
            “Yeah I get it, don’t want people to think we’re sleeping together while you’re with Julie…” she said.
            “Though how long me and Julie are going to stay together I don’t know… she was pretty pissed at me too after the whole incident. Plus I heard she was crying in a bathroom stall in the locker room this morning…”
            “Well looks like my plan worked than,” she smiled and he gave her a look, “Sorry… do you want me to lie to you and say that I’m sorry that I did it to her?”
            “No… but I’m serious about us not talking anymore okay? You might not care if people talk about you behind your back but I do and I have enough on my plate with the season winding down and school’s giving me offers… I don’t need drama…”
            “Hey drama just kind of follows me okay? I mean you saw Julie was the one who started this whole thing…”
            “Well I’m warning you Julie doesn’t let up, you just made yourself the enemy of the most popular girl in school…”
            “Sweet, well I’ll cross that off my bucket list,” she said rolling her eyes, “Well go on then get out of here, go back to being the golden boy. I promise I’ll just act like nothing ever happened okay?”
            “Good… that’s good,” he said, “Then maybe after football season we’ll see where we both are…”
            “Yeah, sure…” she said knowing that she had no interest of dating this guy, “Well I guess I won’t be seeing you around then?”
            “Uh huh,” he said as he started towards the door, “Just be careful Emma okay?”
            “But being careful is so boring,” she smiled.
            “Yeah and I guess we know you’re not boring,” he said smiling as he walked out of the wood shop room.
            Emma sighed, she could say all she wanted about how all this didn’t faze her, that she didn’t care what people thought about her and everything but it didn’t change anything. She was here less than two days and she already made an enemy with the most socially powerful girl in school and alienated herself from the most influential guy. This broke all her records at the last schools by a mile.
            “Well shouldn’t this be an interesting school year,” she sighed as she waited until Rick had walked all the way down the hall and then she headed out as well.

(Because you know you're singing the song right now)

Friday, April 19, 2013

Chilled to the Bone

Today I have a special treat for you guys. Most of you saw my announcement on Wednesday of the release date for Summer's Hollow and to say I'm excited about it is an understatement. My bones were worked to their breaking point on that project and now that it is over a feel excited, relieved, and a little sad. This was a project I spent seven years of my life on and now it's over. The end product is pretty kick ass if I do say so myself but still I find myself pondering my next project.

Summer's Hollow is my first full length novel. I don't usually write novels; I write short stories. Even though I love my novel to death I find myself craving more short stories. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take my binders full of horror short stories (extra points if you get that reference), sift through them and come up with some awesome anthologies for my lovely fans. In the mean time I would like to provide you guys with a little taste of what you can expect from the future.

Back in October of last year you all had the opportunity to meet the love of my literary life: Emma Carmichael. She is why I write. I want to get into every fiber of her being and expos all of her innards (both figuratively and literally). All together I have about 125 short stories about her and her journey through life. Some are nice and typed up but most were scribbled down into many notebooks and then ripped out and placed in Chronological Order. So today I will tease you all with a list of the titles from the first part of the series "Chronicles of a Teenage Freak". Then you guys let me know which chilling title jumps out at you. Which ever title has the most "votes" I will give you a further glimpse of Emma by posting that story for free on my blog :)



Bad Reputation
I Do
Monkey on your Back
The Beginning
Breaking Stereotypes
Lying with the Truth
The Vanishing Act
Back When
Caught off Guard
Pushing the Limit
Turning the Other Cheek
Protection
Writing on the Wall
Defy Odds
Break
Reunited
Taking it to the Next Level
Crash and Burn
Anniversary
Rumor Weed
Prom
Parting Ways
Epiphany
Shaken not Stirred
Reunited… Again


Recognized
Marked
21
Is it Something We Said?
Sticks and Stones
The Visit
Lights, Camera… Traction
Acquaintances
Ghost Ship
Sleep Away
Dead
Down South
Lighthouse
American Made
Re-Visiting
High Stakes
By the Water
Sneaking Around

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Without Further Ado...

Last night something pretty awesome happened: I finished the final edits on my full length horror novel Summer's Hollow! Cue the happy dancing all around. It has been a long seven year journey with this book and I couldn't be happier how it turned out. My blood, sweat, tears, (and not to mention money) has gone into this book which I endearingly refer to as my baby.

So what's next you ask? Well this is your official announcement: Summer's Hollow will hit bookshelves and Kindle Devices on  Friday May 3rd! Yes it will be available in both print and as an eBook. Now because of all the effort and funds I put into this production is will be a bit more than my other stories. Print version will be $7.99 and eBook will be $3.50.

Without further ado I leave you with the synopsis of horror goodness to wet your taste buds. Don't worry less than a month until you get to satisfy the cravings that are seven years in the making:


Have you ever wondered what would happen if you believed in something hard enough? Would it come true? What if it wasn’t just you that believed in it? Those and many other questions are answered through the eyes of 17 year old Rylie Bradford. 


Rylie is like any other high school student. She attends school, hangs out with her friends, crushes on one of the basketball players at the school, helps out on her Dad’s farm, and in her spare time loves to read. Her genres of choice:  horror and the occult. This is only perpetuated by the fact that she lives in the town of Summer’s Hollow which is infamous for the execution of the witch Mary Pascal. The town even has its own holiday, deemed “Bloody Friday” in which all the kids love to journey to the Pascal estate and see how far they can get to the door before running to the hills. That is until the year 1999 when all hell breaks loose on this specific Bloody Friday.

It begins with Rylie finding a locket in her barn. The locket bares a phrase in Latin which her best friend and farm hand Andy decides to decipher by reading out loud, three times. Since three is the magical number the spirit of Mary Pascal is released back onto the town. As a result, murder and mayhem ensues.

- Summer's Hollow, Copyright © 2011 by Samantha Curtin
 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Dealing with Tragedy on a Psychic Level

Last night I was gripped with many emotions: anger, pain, anxiety, hatred, grief, and pride. All these emotions welled up inside of me and I couldn't calm them. After class I sat down at my computer and started writing. I must have written three different blog posts and erased every single one. One was a rant about how disgusted I was at the media. Another was about how tragedy strikes everyday around the world yet it takes something in our own backyard to get our attention. And the last was on how the first responders to this tragedy and others faced such horrors and yet remained calm and helped.

None of those posts made it to be published today. None of them seemed fitting to post; they were just rants and I didn't feel that it was necessary right now. Perhaps after the dust has settled and we find out what really truly happened that day then I will post one of those entries.

Instead I find myself writing about what I personally experienced yesterday when dealing with all these emotions. See they weren't all mine. Yes I felt all those things but it came from feeding off of others. Most of you know that I am an empath, meaning that I feel the emotions that others are feeling. Yesterday between watching the news and talking to my classmates during our lecture my empathy towards others started to overwhelm me. I held on to my usual amethyst stones and twirled my triquetra necklace with amethyst in it and it helped a bit but didn't calm all my nerves.

There were parts of me that wanted to take my iced coffee and chuck it at the wall. Other parts wanted to cry but I couldn't find the tears. Even other parts wanted to hug my loved ones and never let them go. These were not all my emotions. After a while I had to shut off any news source, social media, or even talking to my friends and family because I couldn't deal with it. I made sure all my friends were okay that were at the marathon and the surrounding areas and then I shut myself off. Today I'm back on social media for the time being but I don't think it will last very long. The empathy will most likely start up again.

That isn't the only piece though to what the tragedy brought up yesterday. All kinds of spirits were hanging around yesterday and oh did I feel them and in some cases see them. It started off with seeing a man standing in the corner of the basement of my office building. He wasn't doing anything, just standing there looking at the ground with a sad expression on his face. I knew that he wasn't alive. On the drive home I took my usual short cut to avoid traffic on Rt. 29/32 and the little boy that I've seen before at the bridge was there again. As I passed over the bridge he was suddenly in my backseat again like last time. It was both comforting and eerie at the same time.

Of course I went home and did the usual protection rituals just in case I had some less than friendly spirit visitors. My protection spirit was in overdrive mode yesterday. I could hear her sitting up and lying down on the bed over and over while I was in class. It was as if she couldn't get comfortable. Her hand was on my shoulder a lot too to comfort me but there were times where I could tell she was upset as well. My coffee grinder went off a couple of times and the fridge door kept opening and shutting.

When Grant came home last night after having a long chat with a coworker a calmness washed over me that only he could bring. This didn't stop all those feelings but it made me feel a little bit better. My skin still crawled and part of me really wanted to go for a run but it was late at night (also I was a bit afraid of what other spirits I could possibly run into).

Once again like the empathy, today seems to be better for the spirits. They have calmed back down and seem to have crawled back into their usual places. I've said it before: sometimes they're comforting and sometimes they're quite eerie. Needless to say yesterday was a trying day for everyone, not just me. Just wanted to shed some light on how these tragedies influence people; in particular how I feel since I do know first hand.

Today make sure you take with a grain of salt everything you hear in the media and remember those who had to deal with this tragedy first hand: the victims, victims' families, participants in the race, and the first responders.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Bone Tools

Today marks the end of Pagan Culture's Witches in Fiction 2013... to the Bone blog party so I figured for my last entry I'd throw some cool anthropological bone info at you. During my studies I spent a lot of time studying about different North American Indian groups and the Iroquois were always a group that caught my eye. Of course it helped that one of my professors, Dr. Dean Snow, was also the authority on all this Iroquois.

bone toolsOne of the things the Iroquois were known for was their practice of making bone tools. Now most of you have heard about stone tools such as arrowheads, spear heads, and bi-faces. Those were popular among most tribes but the Iroquois used bone rather than stone. There were many different kinds of tools that they made from the bone and antlers of animals. Like many groups, the Iroquois believed that all parts of the animal should be used after killed for its meat.

One of the popular tools they made were awls which are like an axe, with a short handle attached so that the tool resembles a hoe. It is used for trimming and smoothing wood or bark. The figure above shows two sharp pointed awls and a knife made from bone.
bone arrow points
They also made arrows from bone as seen in the figure to the right. The two items on the side are the points and the bone in the center is the shaft. The arrow shaft could then be slipped into the hollow center of the bone in the arrow heads.

bone chisel and hook
The figure to left is a chisel made from a deer antler and a fish hook made from bone. A chisel could be made from a long piece of bone or antler. The end of the tool was ground to a sharp edge. Usually, the chisel was used to remove bark from logs, poles or standing trees. To use these chisels they were pushed with both hands and perhaps in some cases the shoulder as well. In addition, the Iroquois made digging sticks by sharpening the end of a wooden pole. They used these to loosen the soil where the posts for the longhouses were to go. There is some evidence that they made shovels from long wide bones or antlers to lift the dirt from the holes.

This makes me want to take the deer bone that I have, from a dig I went on, and make it into some sort of tool. There are actually archaeologists out there whose main job is to recreate different tools and practices of Native Americans and other groups. This is known as experimental archaeology and is one of the top ways to really understand cultures and their practices.

Figures and research from: The New York State Museum website,  http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage