z

Young Writers Society


12+

The Woods part 1.

by jacquelinevillegas10


"....here's your train ticket. Oh! And don't forget your luggage." Mom said worriedly. "I hope you have a great time baby." She placed her hands on my shoulders. "Let her go already," Liam, my mom's boyfriend barked. "She's going to be late if you don't quit with your mushiness." He spat.

"Right....of course." Mom said, sheepishly. She dropped her hands to her sides. It was quiet for a while, then Liam gave a hinting cough, and mom got the hint. "Well off you go!" she declared, pushing me towards the train. As soon as we were out of Liam's view, I whirled around to mom. "Why do you let him control you?" I asked. "He's a piece of crap and you know it, but you insist on letting him walk all over you anyway." The smile on my mom's face disappeared and made way for bitter shame.

"Honey...don't judge him so harshly." Mom pleaded quietly. "He just.....needs to adjust. He's trying, I know he is. He just needs someone who will be with him, good days and bad ones." She said, looking at the floor. When were there good days?

"Anyways," She said, "He's paying for your tuition, isn't that nice?" She asked hopefully. He's only paying because he wants me out of here."Yeah mom." I say, forcing a smile. "I'm going to miss you."

We looked at each other in silence, and embraced. She pulled away and looked deeply into my eyes. "Now I want you to be extremely careful ok? Watch out for yourself. Promise me." Although now I was a little suspicious that my mom was acting like this, I put on a brave face and nodded. "I promise." I said shakily. What am I walking into? Some kind of death trap?

" Rebeccah!!" Liam yelled. "Hurry up, we have things to do!" He said, impatiently from beyond a blanket of exhaust from the train. "Coming honey!" Mom yelled back, pulling away from me. The train also gave a long wail from its horn, reminding me it was time to go. I walked into the train, sitting by the window so I could see my mother for one last time.

"Goodbye," I whispered. "I love you."

~~~~

Welcome aboard passengers! I'm your conductor, Chief McCray. We will be arriving in the lovely English town of Jamesville shortly. So please, sit back relax and enjoy the ride!

Well someone's in a good mood. I'm so freaking bored on this train..... My thoughts were interrupted. "Hi, is uh...anyone sitting here?" I looked up from the window I was staring out of. A boy stood there, with brown eyes, hazel colored hair and.......a dimple? I sat up straighter, and gestured for him to sit down. "No. No one's sitting here. I'm just here being a loner." I cringed. Never start off with a bad joke.

He gave a little laugh, which lightened the mood. He sat down in front of me and dropped his bags next to him. "I'm Tyler by the way. Tyler Curtis." He said, introducing himself and sticking out a hand for a handshake. "I'm Gabriella Fitzpatrick. Nice to meet you." I replied, timidly.

"So. Where are you from, and where are you going?" He inquired, smiling.

"Well, I'm originally from Ireland from my mother's side but I'm French from my father's. And I'm going to Jamesville Academy." I answered. "How about yourself?"

"No kidding. I'm going to the academy, too. At least I'll have one friend when I get there." He said, looking at me. I stifled a squeal. Yes! We're friends! Things are finally looking up!

Attention all passengers. We have arrived in Jamesville, England. On behalf of all the staff and myself, we hope you've enjoyed traveling with us and we hope to see you again soon!

We both got our bags and walked out of the train. "Shall we?" He asked, grinning. His dimple showing. "Lets!" I replied happily.

~~~~

We walked along a cobblestone path entering shadowy woods. Making pleasant conversation, we neglected to notice three other figures peering at us through bushes and behind trees. That is, until one of the three snapped a twig. Krack!

I stopped in mid-step. "What was that?" I asked, shakily. Looking around. Tyler put his hand on my shoulder for reassurance. "Don't worry, it was probably just a squirrel or something. Come on, we have to keep walking." He persuaded me. "Yeah...It was just a squirrel." I agreed, uncertain.

"Anyway," I say, attempting to forget about the little scare that just happened. "What about you? Where are you from? What's your story?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest and smirking at him. "Well, I'm actually from America." He started. "But my mom's British, that's why I'm going to this academy in the first place. I've been all over the world though," He explained, gesturing with his hands in a big circle. "Having divorced parents makes for world wide travels." He said. "I didn't like the U.S much anyway, my old school was full of idiots and junkies.....and the girls weren't much better than the guys. I broke up with my last girlfriend before coming over here because I found out she smoked pot." He rolled his eyes at the memory.

He's single too?! I am loving these talks in the woods....

"And I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to a fresh start." He said pointedly. "I know how you fee--" Smash! Krack! "Ok, I don't think squirrels can make noises like that." I whimpered. "Yeah, lets get out of here...." Tyler agreed, beginning to jog.

Something is in these woods and I don't plan on sticking around to find out what it is.

~~~~

"The girl has become aware, Guenevere. She will ruin everything." Destiny hissed to her sister. "She will surely tell the elders." Guenevere looked down at her sister with disdain. "Nonsense pet." She assured her. "The girl will be of no consequence, she will be easy to pick off. Do you not see? All humans are frightened little lambs. She is no different. Mariweather!" Guenevere snapped.

Mariweather looked up from playing with her pet rats. "Yes?" Guenevere rolled her eyes. "Follow the girl and her boy suitor. Make certain she tells no one of any happenings that go on in these woods." She ordered. "But--but..she will certainly know I am following her. Look upon my appearance sister! I am dressed in rags, my nails are long and dirty! And my hair! Oh, my hair! It is matted and tangled." Mariweather whined.

"Of course sister. Did you really think I was going to let you attempt to blend in with a crowd of humans without looking like one?" Guenevere asked with a sly smile.

~~~~


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41 Reviews


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Reviews: 41

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Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:45 pm
hyperview wrote a review...



Hey, Jacqueline!

This is a good first chapter you have here. You've successfully introduced each character and given them their own voice and set of personality traits that they all don't sound the same, which is good. c: You've also left enough room for us to wonder who the heck those people are at the end of the chapter and why they're following Gabriella in the first place. To be honest, while reading that part, I started seeing them as the three witches from Hocus Pocus. :P

But there are some errors in this chapter that need to be addressed. First up is the same as the reviewer below me already mentioned: your dialogue. You've always got to give each character their own line to speak. The only time it's okay to have two or more dialogue in a paragraph is if the same person is speaking, but in your case you fused two or three different characters into one paragraph, which makes it highly confusing for the reader. Also, be careful with all those dialogue tags you're using (dialogue tags are things like she said, he spat, etc.) If you've already indicated that a character is speaking, then there's no need to add a second tag. Here's an example:

"Let her go already," Liam, my mom's boyfriend barked. "She's going to be late if you don't quit with your mushiness." He spat.


See, you already indicated that Liam was talking in the first line of dialogue, so there's no need to use 'he spat' again since we already know he's mad. I'm using this as an example but you've got so many more throughout the story. Don't forget that readers can still infer things without you having to say it. If you keep repeating things, they might become annoyed.
Also, be wary of the type of dialogue tags you use. For example, can humans bark? How does one bark something? I'm assuming you mean he yelled or said it harshly, but why don't you use those words instead?
The last thing I'll say about this is to actually tag your dialogue tags to the dialogue. In the example above, you did a perfect job doing that (ending the dialogue with the comma). But I saw that throughout the rest of the chapter, you failed to do so. Always remember that if you're using tags like 'said' 'mumbled' etc., you'll have to tag those to the dialogue in order for it to be a complete sentence.

Here's a example:

"I like cheese." Bob said.
This is incorrect because 'Bob said' isn't a complete sentence, and therefore can't stand alone. But you still need it there, so what you'd do is change that period to a comma so that 'Bob said' is tagged to it, making it:
"I like cheese," Bob said.

I hope that makes sense. If you need more clarification, let me know.

Another thing I'll mention is the fact you've got four different scenes that could've been fleshed out instead of being so short. For example, that train ride. It literally took them seconds to get to Jamesville. If you intended for the train ride to be longer, either add more action or actually tell us a few hours have passed. Right now, it just seems like she got in and got out in mere minutes.

Here are some other nitpicks:
then Liam gave a hinting cough, and mom got the hint

Here, the repeated word 'hint' is off-putting. You don't really need 'hinting' since readers can already infer that.

" Rebeccah!!”

The space between the quotes and Rebeccah might be a formatting issue, so I won't hound you on that. :P However, you only need one exclamation point to show that he's yelling (not to mention you even said 'he yelled' soon after). Two exclamation point won't add any special effects, so one does its job just fine. :P

Other than that, I think you've got a good thing going here. It just needs to be fleshed out a little more and the things I mentioned above can greatly help the readability of this chapter. If you've got any questions or would like me to clarify anything, please let me know. Have a good day/night, and happy writing!




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Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:49 am
Angrynoodles wrote a review...



Great work. It looks like you have the start of an amazing story. But this is a review so I have to correct the mistakes I saw.
Alright so, starting off you need to make new paragraphs when somebody new speaks. You tend to have whole conversations within one paragraph and that should not happen. So in this part there are a few mistakes but it can be fixed quickly.

"....here's your train ticket. Oh! And don't forget your luggage." Mom said worriedly. "I hope you have a great time baby." She placed her hands on my shoulders. "Let her go already," Liam, my mom's boyfriend barked. "She's going to be late if you don't quit with your mushiness." He spat.

This is was it should look like...

"....here's your train ticket. Oh! And don't forget your luggage," Mom said worriedly. "I hope you have a great time baby." She placed her hands on my shoulders.

"Let her go already," Liam, my mom's boyfriend barked. "She's going to be late if you don't quit with your mushiness." He spat.

You also don't really need, "He spat" because it is just kind of there, and the read already knows who is talking. There aren't many other mistakes except for a few times you used a period where a comma should have been used. The ending had was a little weird because it just changed perspectives but I still understood what was going on. Overall it sounds very interesting and I want to know where the story goes.

Keep writing -Angry Noodles




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Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:32 am



So....I went back and edited this story (thanks to a little someone who recomended it.) Hope I did better this time Lol





But even the worst decisions we make don't necessarily remove us from the circle of humanity.
— Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore