Weekly Writing Short Stories

Prompt One

[Photo ID: You're a renowned author who's still going to school. Annoyingly, your English teacher is reading way too deeply into your books.]

Ashley Grant sat down in a seat in the lecture hall, pulling out her tablet and opening her note taking app.
"Welcome to Advanced Literary Analysis," said the professor, underling the scrawled writing on the chalkboard. "My name is Lucas Allen, y'all can call me whatever you want, Luke, Lucas, Allen, even Professor Allen if you want to be ridiculously formal. The first book  we are going to be studying is Long Past Dusk by Kayla Rodgers."

Ashley wrote it down, silently groaning.
God, I can't be this unlucky. Of the thousands of books out there, why on earth are we studying mine.
"You will find a copy underneath your chair. This is a copy that will be returned to me at the end of this unit along with the test. Along with the book, there will also be a syllabus. For your next class, please read the first chapter. We will be analyzing the main character and how the stylistic choices play into character development as well as the connections to the author."

Oh fuck, he's the type of person to make us discuss how the curtains being blue relates to how I have 'mommy issues' and a 'disconnect from reality' because of early onset depression or some shit. What if the curtains were blue because I fucking like blue?! It's fine, at least this class will be a breeze.

                             *******

Lucas stepped up to the podium. "Lily is shown in the book as having commitment issues and is known to be a perfectionist. What do you think this is telling about the author?"

A kid sitting a couple rows to the left raised his hand. "Maybe there has been trauma in a past relationship so she maybe she's trying to avoid that?"

Oh, yeah, for sure. I got so much trauma. Ashley rolled her eyes, god I can't even with this class.

They were constantly discussing the science of how the various designs reflected upon the author and Ashley was fed up.

Note to Self: Bring your AirPods.