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Welcome to Miami: Chapter 1. [Edited and Rewritten]

by day tripper


Hey guys, now that I'm done the story - it's time for some rewriting and fixing up! Here's Chapter one rewritten and in a new point of view! :D

Chapter One: The Idea.

"...And to all those juniors and seniors out there, please be safe this 'break! And responsible. Having a license doesn't make you any older..." Evie soon lost interest in listening to her school's principal babble on about this Spring Break.

"Evie, Spring Break starts tomorrow. What are we going to do?" Carly, Evie's best friend, whined in the seat in front of her. They were in their first period class, English twelve, listening to the announcements. Carly had her legs crossed in her chair, trying her best to hide her phone in her lap. Her big brown eyes looked annoyed, but her face showed she was upset.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something." Evie shrugged, putting her book mark back into her book. Evie took her long, bleached blond hair and put it into a messy bun on top of her head. She felt very drained today, just waiting for that sixth period bell to ring so she can escape into the week long vacation.

"You better! Man, keeping us waiting like this." Said a deep voice. Evie looked at the boy walking towards her and Carly. He was tall, and very fit. He wore a wife beater top and straight legged jeans. His name was Brad Kesol and he was Evie's other good friend. Brad was aslo Carly's six year boyfriend. He sat down next to Evie and plopped an elbow on her shoulder after kissing Carly good morning.

"Don't worry, guys. We'll do something." Evie responded, slouching back into the chair. "Also, what are you doing here?" She turned to Brad. "Don't you have weights first period?"

"Yeah, but we have ten minutes before the bell rings so I figured I'd hang out with you guys here." Brad shrugged.

"Evie - I seriously want to do something this week. Something out of state, you know?" Carly pressed on to the subject.

"If you could get your mom to agree to that one." Evie smiled, arching an eyebrow. Her bleached hair started to come lose from her bun and she took it out, shaking it down.

"Oh, believe me, she will." Carly smirked, looking at them. Brad sighed and Evie felt a doubtful from that remark. Carly's mother was fun and nice, but she was very over protective of her wild daughter. Letting her escape the state with two other kids her age was a big step.

As they continued to talk plans for the upcoming week, an administrator came through the door with a tall boy by his side. The boy must have been six foot and was very lean. He hung his head low and slouched as he walked into the classroom. The administrator pointed to the empty seat in the back before walking over to our teacher to explain his absence. The boy walked slowly past them, bumping lightly into Evie as he past by. Evie felt her self shudder, she knew the boy. His name was Aaron Risoni, she used to and still does have a big crush on him. They've known each other since the very first day of high school.

"Did you see that?" Carly hissed, her big eyes growing even wider. Carly never got why Aaron and Evie didn't date, she thought they would be perfect together.

"Aaron was late?" Evie was confused by the question.

"No!" She shot, "He touched you!"

"By accident!" Evie protested, it wasn't really anything big for Aaron to touch her.

"Uh huh, oh yeah, sure." Carly pushed her attention to her phone again. From there, they dropped the subject. Brad looked around the white, bricked wall room as Carly texted in between her tiny legs and Evie read her book. "Carly - phone please." All three of the kids' heads looked up at their teacher who held his hand out impatiently.

"Can I have it back at the end of class?" She pouted, sliding off her blue chair.

"No."

"Please?"

He looked at her like she was crazy, "No!"

Carly sighed, "Fine." She turned and slowly returned to her chair, looking at Evie, pouting. Evie looked up from her book and smiled.

"Mr. Kesol, what are you doing in my class room?" Their teacher asked, looking directly at Brad. Brad looked up and then at the clock - he had two minutes to get down to the first floor of their enormous school to go to weights class.

"Ah, sorry Mr.Barso." Brad got up, stretching his big arms. He leaned down to kiss Carly's forehead, waved at Evie and then walked slowly out of the room. Even when the bell rung two minutes later, she wasn't at all ready for English. She looked over her pale shoulder at Aaron who must have been staring back at her since his eyes darted away quickly. Evie faced back at the bored, smiling to herself.

+

"Did you think of anything?" Carly asked as they walked down the crowded staircase. Kids were pushing and running down, trying to get everything they needed so they could escape the school for a week. Even with all the jostling and fast movement, Carly and Evie moved very slow down the steps next to each other.

"No, not yet." Evie replied, pushing her stringy blonde hair back. Carly sighed and paused with Evie as there was a built up jam on the stair well. Behind the two were Aaron and few of his friends. As Carly fixed her shoulder-length brown hair, Evie picked up on Aaron's conversation.

"Yeah, man. My mom freaked and told me I wasn't aloud to hang out with you this break." Evie turned to look up at his statue. She saw his eyes look at her from a side and quickly turned around.

His friend now spoke, "Oh, man. That sucks, we are going to Myrtle."

"Damn." Aaron shrugged.

Before she could listen up on the rest, the stairs unjammed and Carly was pulling Evie down so she could go get her phone back.

+

Evie relaxed on her bed, tired from the school day. She positioned her body so her head hung off the side of the bed, her legs resting against the wall. She looked at her face in the mirror across the room: her blue eye were surrounded in smudged makeup and her hair was becoming more wavy from the humidity. A buzzing sensation went off in the pockets of her jeans and she bent her head up to pull her phone out.

"Hello?" She asked, hanging her head again.

"Hey!" Carly's familiar, loud voice rung into Evie's ear. It was all static - sounding like she was in a car.

"...Hi?" Evie responded, wondering what Carly wanted. Carly hardly ever called anyone, usually she just texted them.

"Brad and I are on our way over." Evie managed to understand through all the static.

She sat up, "Why?"

"We're going to make plans!" Evie could hear the excitement in her voice.

Evie swung her legs around and hoped off the bed, "Right now?"

"D'oh!"

Evie sighed, stretching, "Fine."

"Oh yeah, love you too!" 'Click'. Evie looked down at the phone and shrugged, tossing it on her bed. She pushed her hair into a pony tail and sat on the wheel chair of her desk.

Ten minutes later, Evie heard a car door close and looked out her window: Carly and Brad were walking up to her front door. She raced down to go greet them.

"Okay, so we're deff' going to the beach!" Carly said, logging onto Evie's laptop. Brad relaxed on Evie's bed, choosing another song to play aloud from her iPod. Evie walked around her room, looking for things to do. When Carly and Brad arrived, they discussed plans with Evie's mother. She gave them permission but warned them that they were only aloud to venture on the east cost.

"How about Jersey? We could stay in Jessica's four bedroom condominium!" Evie suggested. Jessica was a good friend of Evie's and had a condominium in New Jersey. Evie stayed there with Jessica and her family before and really enjoyed it.

"Um.. Jessica? No thanks." Carly and Brad stated. They all shared a laugh, then got back to business. "I got it!" Carly shrieked, bouncing in Evie's chair.

"What?" Evie asked. She walked over to where Carly sat and glanced at the screen. Instant messages? "What?" She repeated, hovering over her shoulder.

"North Carolina! Maria suggested it!" Carly turned to us, smiling big. Maria was a friend from Carly's art class that Brad and Evie were not too fond of.

"Why?" Brad asked.

"...Cheap gas!" Carly nearly shouted.

Evie plopped on her bed, rubbing her temples. 'Where to go, where to go?!" She thought to herself.

"Florida?" Brad asked.

"Florida? Hell no!" Carly vetoed the idea instantaneously. But the more Evie thought about, the more she liked it.

"Hell yes!" Evie protested, loving the idea. She got up and high fived Brad.

"Huh?" Carly asked; lost.

"Think about it," Evie started, "it has the most sun, the most beach, and the most clubs!"

"Eh, I don't know." Carly shrugged. "It always reminded me of a place where old people went when they retired."

Evie winked at Brad, "Alright, fine, Jessica's it is!" She teased, clapping her hands.

Carly sprang to her feet, "No!"

"Then let's go to Florida!" Evie shook her shoulders.

"Okay! We'll go home and pack, but one question..." Carly started to log out of Evie's laptop.

Brad and Evie looked at each other, "Yeah?"

"Where in Florida?" Carly asked, sitting back down.

"I'll think things over with my parents, they'll know the best spot." Evie thought out loud. Brad and Carly said their goodbyes and Evie start explaining soon afterwards to her parents.

+

"My mom said Florida was fine." Carly spoke, chomping on some type of snack. Evie was spread among her rug, doing last minute homework. Her hair was wet from the shower she just took and always liked to hang out on her feathered rug right after one. The feeling of the feathers on her just-shaven legs felt amazing to her.

"Yeah, so did mine." Evie said, pressing "speaker" then shutting the phone and tossing it across the rug.

"Did you ever come up with a place to go?" Carly asked. Evie looked up from her papers and thought. No, she didn't. Evie grabbed the phone and walked to her laptop, opening it and logging on. "Hello?" Carly asked after no responce.

"Hold on." Evie stated simply, opening up her internet to search great vacation area's in Florida. "How about I ask my parents about Miami?" Evie suggested after reading a little about the great spot.

"Miami sounds good to me." Evie pictured Carly shrugging, then smiled as she emailed it to her father who was on his computer.

"Okay, I emailed the idea to my dad. I'll get back to you tomorrow." Evie leaned back in the chair.

"All right, good night." Carly stated, ending their conversation.


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Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:36 am
day tripper says...



I just rewrote the first chapter.




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Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:06 am
JC wrote a review...



I trust the others to have already checked for all the nitpics, and I'll just go straight to the story itself.

I think, and I mean no offense, but it sounds a lot like a story about high school, written by somebody not in high school yet. Not that thats some kind of rule or something, but it seems kind-of fake and forced.

For example, the planning of Miami. I think it would seem a lot more believeable if they planned it in a different way, maybe like during class the teacher could say something small and one of them got the idea or something. I don't know, but surprising Evie/Lu at her house and saying "Let's plan stuff!" and randomly picking Florida...and their parents are letting them go. Two girls, one guy. Just think about it for a minute.

I thought it was very good for a rough draft, and like all writing, could use a little smoothing around the edges.

Keep up the good work!
-JC
(If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.)




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Tue May 13, 2008 7:49 am
nilou-and-amani wrote a review...



Overall it's pretty interesting and fun to read. You have some grammar mistakes and your language tends to become immature in some places. I suggest you read over it a couple more times. The more you read the more mistakes you find.

They've been dating for 6 years! Yeah, 6. I don't get what they see in each other.


This sentence is too informal. You could write something like this :
They have been dating for six years, which i find insane because I don't understand what they still see in eachother after being together for so long.

Carly is Portuguese, gorgeous, has some what of a lisp, tan, brown hair, and petite. Brad is pale, blond shaggy hair, and thinks he's black. Seriously.


Another technique you could use to describe them is to do it indirectly. like: She twisted her smooth brown hair around her finger as she was talking on the phone.

We had past

There was history between us ?

I think that paragragh about the hair is off topic and sort of useless.

It would also better if you didnt describe yourself and let another character indirectly describe you.

apart from that i really like it! I'm definetly going to read the next chapters.

If you need anything just pm me!

Oh, and if you have time read the first chapter of my book and giv eme your opinion!
thank you!




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Tue May 13, 2008 7:44 am
budding writer wrote a review...



here it flows :
-

"...And to all those juniors and seniors out there, please be safe this 'break! And responsible. Having a license doesn't make you any older..."
exactly how old were they.
-
"MAH"
what exactly is this ?
-
Well, atleast that's what she thinks.

-
We had had a past, but not so much of a good one, more of a heart breaking one.

-
"Can I have it back at the end of class?" She pouted.
it should be,' she asked'
other than that there was some little mistakes but not to be counted. on the whole you did a very good job :)

pm me anytime-budding writer




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Tue May 13, 2008 4:42 am
Jesse wrote a review...



Hey, I started reading through and became more interested than i planned on being this late at night. Im gonna sit down tomorow after school and read through all of it and write my review. Peace :)




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 8:47 pm
day tripper says...



Haha well, see I've based this off my friends.
And like I said before,
Carly - Christina
Brad - Brandon
Evie - Me
Arron - Evan.


Those are my friends minus Evan.
Evan and I have had a past but not such a good one.
Its confusing.

Anyway, that's exactly why Carly was like that.
Because that's exactly what Christina does.
She blurts things out right away
and I just stay calm.
I dont know why but that's what happend, and I
tried to make this as close to our real personality's
as I could get, so yeah.
And to the thing about what they see in each other,
you'll find out in later chapters what I meant.
That's why it was like that.




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:56 pm
KJ wrote a review...



Hey. Wanted to point out a few things that I noticed:

They've been dating for 6 years! Yeah, 6. I don't get what they see in each other. Carly is Portuguese, gorgeous, has some what of a lisp, tan, brown hair, and petite. Brad is pale, blond shaggy hair, and thinks he's black. Seriously.

Well, if Carly is so gorgeous, then Brad must have something to see in her. Maybe she doesn't have any reaoson to date him, but the whole 'I don't know what they see in EACH OTHER' doesn't fit. Brad has something to see in her, even if it's only her looks. Oh, and 6 should be six.


And there were a couple of other things that bothered me. I hated how Carly freaked out when she mistook her friend's comment for wanting her boyfriend. I realize that this is her personality, but I htink she should express some confusion first before freaking. And it also bugged me how her friend reacted so calmly. I would have been PISSED that she screamed it out like that.

Otherwise, it was okay.




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:39 pm
day tripper says...



To my last review, thanks.
Here's to answer your question:
My name is Olivia and my nickname is Lu.
This story is based off my friends:
Carly - Christina
Brad - Brandon
Evie - Me
Arron - Evan.
So, it was kind of a habbit to put Lu, but if
I edit it, I will explain that more.

Thanks for all the reviews, guys!(:




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 6:12 pm
GryphonFledgling wrote a review...



It isn't so bad because each line is short, but this would read better if each new line of dialogue by a different speaker had an extra line break between them. As is, they are all bunched together in fairly large chunks of text and that can be hard to read.

I don't know about some of Alainna's comments, especially about the informality. It seems to me that the informal quality of the narration adds to it, since it is from the POV of the character. But more emotion is needed. We see a little bit of development in that Carly is obsessed with her phone and the narrator (I was confused as to just what her name is - Brad and Carly call her "Evie", while her mom calls her "Lu") wants a relationship, but that is about all we know.

I'm interested to see where this goes. I hope that you update soon.

*thumbs up*

Good luck!

~GryphonFledgling




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:51 pm
Alainna wrote a review...



Hi there Daytripper. First off, be careful to keep your two-one crit ratio. :wink:

OK, as for the crit:

Brad Kesol was my other best friend, and also known as Carly's boyfriend. They've been dating for 6 years! Yeah, 6. I don't get what they see in each other. Carly is Portuguese, gorgeous, has some what of a lisp, tan, brown hair, and petite. Brad is pale, blond shaggy hair, and thinks he's black. Seriously.

This seems to be a bit of info-dumping. Try to spread this out through the piece and cut out anything unnecessary. Also, although colloquial language is fine in writing of certain genres you need to be careful about just how casual you get. 'Seriously' is a bit too informal and not quite appropriate for a text of this kind. Remember, you are speaking to a reader - not a friend. Moreover, try not to use numbers in your writing. Unless it's a very large number you always spell it.

Brad even laughed at this remark.

Should it be 'even Brad laughed at this remark'?

Carly's mother was fun, loud, but very protective of her gorgeous daughter who at any second could get picked up and raped. Well, that's what she thinks.

Again, a bit too informal. You also don't have to be so frank about things like rape. I'm not saying to not include it - I'm just saying that you can put it in in a much better way. For example, just imply that her mother is worried about Carly getting into some sort of trouble or hurt.
E.g.
'Carly's mother was fun, loud, but very protective of her gorgeous daughter. It was not unusual for Carly to get a lecture on the dangerous of being a teenage girl in _______ (insert name of country or place) from her mother every time she left the house.'

The kid hung his head low, very tall; I'd say 6", kind of slouched his shoulders forward when he walked as if wanting to shrink himself.

Your grammar lets you down a bit here. The comma after 'low' isn't really doing anything as you need more words before 'very' otherwise it's like you are talking about his head being tall. The same happens after 6" (again, shouldn't be in numbers). A confusing sentence; consider rephrasing.

We had past

Should be an 'a' after 'had'.

and for once, set down her phone.

Should be a 'she' after the comma.

"Did you see that!"

Should be a question mark, not exclamation. OR: "Did you see that?!"

I stifled a laugh at myself.

Doesn't really make sense. Consider rephrasing?

Carly jumped off and handed him her 'Life' as my friends and I called it.

We understand that Carly loves her phone - would she really 'jump' off the desk? If you loved your phone and someone wanted to take it away then you would 'slouch off the desk' or 'moan as you slid off the desk'.

The bell started, indicating for everyone to leave HR(home room) and start for their first period class.

Don't shorten home room. It's better to just put down home room than have it in brackets.

"Yeah?" "Hey!" She was staticy, obviously in a car.

New speaker; new line.

Okay, so we're deff

Should be deff' because you are shortening the word.

'Where to go, where to go!'

Question mark instead of exclamation.

Soon, after they left, I went to inform the 'rents about the idea.

Get rid of the first comma. 'rents is too informal, use the complete word.

I was spread out among my rug, my beach blond hair in a high pony tail; bangs hanging.

Should 'beach' be 'bleach blond'? Also, replace the semi-colon with a comma.

Carly has medium-dark brown hair. But her side bangs are pink. A tinge of jealousy struck me. Carly was already gorgeous and perfect enough. Does she have to rub in the fact that her hair is better also? I dye my own hair a lot. It's been brown, black, strawberry blond, auburn, radiant red, and now beach blond. My natural color? Deep red. I haven't stopped dying my hair for 5 years now.

Info dumping and a sudden change in tense. Be careful with your tenses as this is present and the rest has been in past.

To Improve:
- More emotions from the characters. We need to see them as real people so try to give them more depth.
-More description. Of everything. The school, the setting and the general backdrop of your story.

Overall this was good and has a lot going for it. I'm interested in where the characters are going and I want to see this road trip.

Keep it up and pm me if you post more.

Alainna
xx




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Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:35 am
inkling wrote a review...



wow, I like that. It was very refreshing and different.
Is there going to be a sequel? That would be great.
hummmm... I didn't really find anything wrong with it, but I may be wrong...
keep up the excelent work!

~ inkling

:smt063





It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.
— Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity