Trudy

I decided it was time to introduce some more characters to see how they would work into the story.  Here, we get a glimpse of Trudy, Savannah's soon to be friend.  We are also introduced to Eileen and "The Brat Pack" who enjoy bullying both Savannah and Trudy.  Trudy is the target in this scene and we get to see how Trudy deals with it.

ead bent low over the math assignment on her desk, Savannah looked up through the brown curtain of her bangs to steal a glance at the new girl.  Well, she technically wasn’t new anymore since she’d moved to the school a month ago.  The girl, Trudy, sat at her desk with a concentrated expression as her pencil hovered just over her math paper.  Her long blonde hair draped over her shoulders and her straight bangs hung just to the middle of her green eyes.  Blowing the bangs out of her eyes, Trudy appeared to attack the next math problem with her pencil, jabbing and scraping the lead over the paper, the concentrated look on her face getting even deeper and creasing her brow.  Breathing out a huge sigh, Trudy flipped the pencil over in her fist and began furiously erasing then quickly began writing again without even wiping away the bits of used eraser. 

Savannah looked back down at her own math paper and saw rows of neat numbers, each problem carefully numerated and the answers circled with heavy pencil mark.  Math had always been Savannah’s favorite subject, mostly because it was easy for her.  She liked the way that numbers didn’t surprise you.  They were so predictable with their patterns and formulas.  It didn’t matter which way you wrote 4 + 4, the answer would always be 8, and that certainty was comfortable.  Savannah glanced up through her bangs again at Trudy who had taken to chewing the end of her pencil as she looked down unblinking at her math paper, as if winning a staring contest with it would reveal the answers she needed. 

The girl sitting just in front of Trudy turned around, took one look at Trudy’s paper and smirked.  Eileen’s shiny black hair hung in perfect waves down to her shoulders, a hint of eye shadow on her eyes and gloss on her lips gave her the appearance of being older than the 12 she was.  She pointed one pink tipped fingernail at Trudy’s paper.

“Here’s your problem,” she said in a voice loud enough for everyone in the nearby seats to hear.  “You forgot to ROUND the numbers before you multiplied them.” 

The word round rolled out of her mouth and hung in the air like the echo of a fireworks shell after it explodes.  Muffled laughter broke out nearby and Eileen settled her face into a self-satisfied smile.  She looked from side to side to acknowledge the laughter coming from her friends Jonetta, Shelley and Lisa, better known as “The Brat Pack” by Savannah. 

Encouraged, Eileen continued her lecture.  “Of course, we learned how to do that over a month ago, but you weren’t here then.  I guess your last school never taught you that?” 

Trudy’s cheeks bloomed pink, but from embarrassment or anger Savannah wasn’t sure.  “Oh sure, they taught us that,” Trudy said, eyes narrowed at Eileen.  “They also taught us how to be respectful, which it seems your teacher hasn’t gotten to yet.”  Savannah recognized a slight drawl in her voice; the kind that you get after spending just enough time in a southern state to pick up the habit. 

Eileen’s glossy lips turned down in a little frown.  “Well, I was only trying to help,” she muttered and quickly turned back around to her own work.  Savannah couldn’t hear Trudy’s mumbled response as she returned to chewing on the end of her pencil and staring down the math problems on her page.

Savannah #2

Here is another installment of Savannah.  Right now I'm trying to explore her character and figure out who she is - really get to know her.  The more I know her, the more I will be able to set up a believable plot around her.  It seems strange to do an exercise like this.  After all, shouldn't I be able to just develop the character however I want?  Yes and no.  I'm learning that as I write about Savannah, there are certain things that I write that seem plausible and believable for her, and certain things that just don't really fit her.  So, this little scene is my attempt to get to know Savannah better.  The scene is somewhat depressing.  I didn't intend it to be that way but that's how it came out.  I don't want Savannah to be a dark and morose character, but I think this scene shows a gloomy side of her because she's going through some hard things.  Maybe soon I'll have a scene that shows her lighter side.  This scene also gives some clues into potential problems that could be developed.  Feel free to leave comments about any impressions you have, good or bad.

iary,

It’s day number 116 here.  Thanks to Mrs. Hale teaching us percents I now know that means I’m only 16% through this move.  Of course, that’s if we end up staying here two years.  Nothing much to report today.  Eileen and the Brat Pack seem to have lost interest in me.  Probably because they are bothering the new girl Trudy now.  That’s just fine with me.  At least they’re leaving me alone, and that means I can go back to being invisible Me.  Just waiting for the next move to hurry up and get here.  Only 614 days to go…

Savannah looked at the three little dots left hanging at the end of her last sentence.  She found out from Mrs. Hale that those three dots have a name – ellipsis.  She liked how the dots seemed to hang in space, just waiting for the next words to get there.  Kind of like how she had to wait.  But how nice to be a patient ellipsis on a page of words instead of an impatient 5^th grader watching the time stretch out in an endless road ahead of you.  Or maybe more like a never ending circle, or better yet, an ellipse. 

Sometimes Savannah thought of time like it was laid out on a giant oval race track with January 1^st the starting line and each month connected to the next in a curve of 12 blocks that shaped the oval path.  The black and white checkered line at December 31^st marked the finish line of the year.  But unlike the Nascar races her dad watched on TV where the first driver across the line celebrated by burning out and driving to Victory Lane where they thanked their sponsors and fans, there was no Victory Lane in time.  No matter how many times you crossed the finish line at the end of the year, there was always a new starting line the very next day and little reason to celebrate.  The ellipse of time left you hanging a lot like the ellipsis at the end of a sentence.  But at least those three little dots made you feel like there was hope, like something better was coming to finish the sentence.  Savannah knew she was like that ellipsis, just waiting for something better to come along and finish her.