Planning Your Future

The Story I Should Write

Veronica's POV

Only two weeks since I started classes, I've already been assigned a short story. So I'm sitting at my desk, basically pulling out my hair, thinking of a story to write. There's a knock at the door so Erika opens it. JD comes in. "Hey." He kisses my cheek. He sees my face and drops the smile he had on his face. "What's wrong?" He asks. "I'm trying to do this stupid assignment." I groan. "What do you have to do?" He rubs my shoulder. "I have to write a short story." I sigh. "Cool. And you're nervous? You're a great writer." He tells me. "I don't know what to write." I bite my lip. "Veronica, you have one of the most interesting lives I've ever met." He says. "That doesn't mean I can write about anything else." I argue. "Then write about this. Make it seem like someone else's story." He suggests. "Are you sure?" I ask. "Yes." He kisses my forehead. "I have to go to class. I'll see you later."

Erika sits beside me. "So what're you going to do?" She asks me. "I don't know." I scratch my head. "Well JD made it seem like you have a pretty interesting life. Write about a part of that." She says.

"Didn't you tell me you were a part of a clique?" She asks after a minute of silence. "Yeah. But I left very early on into joining." I have no idea where she's going with this. "And didn't one of them get murdered by the other and you were arrested?" She continues. "Wait I never told you that." I had only told her about being with the Heathers. "JD told me." She admits. "He what?" I'm shocked that JD would tell her this. "I asked." She says. I sigh. "But didn't that happen?" She asks. "Yeah." I nod. "That's like a movie plot." She laughs. "You're right. This is the story I should write." I pick up my diary and flip through. "What're you doing?" She asks. "I wrote down everything that was happening during high school." I find the page when I first found out that Heather was dead. Erika takes it and starts looking through it.

"Wow." Erika puts it down once she finishes. "You had an interesting senior year." She laughs. "Yeah. You could say that." I shrug. "Well you're very well spoken in these entries. So there should be no problem in turning it into a complete story." She slides the diary towards me. "I don't know. What if my teacher sees the connection and realizes it's true?" I bite my lip. "She'll realize she's got a writer with a crazy past. She'll want more." She says. "Okay." I sigh.

I start writing, wanting to throw my pen across the room. I have no idea how to start. I only have my name on the paper. I write "The Heathers Murder" as the title, feeling it was the simplest title. It was also to the point. I take a break to go to my math class but as soon as I'm done, I go straight back to my dorm.

The thing I have neglected to mention, I spent over half the time I could have been working on this assignment trying to think of the plot for the story. Now I'm left with three days to complete this godforsaken story. I spend all night working on it.

By the time I have to go to creative writing class, I've just finished. I turn it in on the way to my seat. Towards the end of class, my teacher calls me to her desk. "Yes Ms Butler?" I stand in front of her. "I've read your story and..." I prepare for her to let everyone know that I was arrested for murder. And that I was stupid enough to write about it. "It was incredible." She smiles. That's surprising. "Really?" My throat has a huge lump in it, making me sound like I have strep throat. "Yes. Though I noticed you used your name in the story." Crap. "If you don't mind me asking, is this from experience or did you just add yourself into it?" She asks. "Experience." I say quietly. "Wow. I have to say. Your story is probably one of the most interesting ones I've read since I started teaching this class." She takes her glasses off. She picks up a pen and writes 100 on the front and hands it back. "Thank you." I nod.

I come back to the dorm. "Guess what?" I grin at Erika. "What?" She stands. I turn around my paper, showing the red 100 in the corner. "Oh my God!" She almost tackles me. She lets go of the hug. "I knew you could do it!" She shakes me.

There's a knock at the door. Erika opens it. JD walks in. "What's with the shouting? I could hear you down the hall." He asks. I show him the paper. He picks me up and swings me around. "I'm so proud of you!" He kisses me. "Well thank you. Wanna read it?" I hold it out. He takes it. "Of course I do."

That's it for this chapter! As I said in a comment last chapter, I want to see if you can guess the source of the titles. Leave a comment with your guess. Just tell me the musical name. You can say the song or scene but it's not required. Well, see you next chapter! Bye!