Popularity

I walked down the hall and tried to fend off my adoring fans, “I have to get to class. Please, can I have some space?”
  Since I was their “queen”, they all moved out of the way. My best friend, Raegan--the only one who liked me for who I was, caught up with me. The reason I knew she was a true friend was because we had been friends since the 1st grade--actually maybe even before that... yeah, we were friends since we were in kindergarten. She had been with me through good and bad. She had even seen me with braces and glasses at one point. I got nightly contacts to stay away from the glasses, and the braces went away as my teeth became straight.

“Hey Taylor!  Can I have your autograph?” A few kids behind me joked.

A few others exclaimed, “Yeah Taylor! Sing a song for us!”

I speed-walked away from them.

“Stop bothering her!” Raegan yelled.

“Hey thanks,” I replied to her.

Raegan smiled sweetly and said, “You know I’m always here for you.”


“Thanks, Raegan. You’re the best best friend anyone could ask for,” I replied honestly, and we did our handshake and waved goodbye as we walked to our next classes.  
After the bell rang, Mrs. Skift started lecturing us on the dangers of social media. Blah, blah, blah. I couldn’t concentrate anyway. Every time I tried to focus, all my mind would tell me was, You have no real friends... Make some real friends... You don’t deserve popularity... If you weren’t like Taylor Swift, you would be a nobody... and on and on. I doodled my face, except not my face. It looked more like Raegan’s or one of the girls who follow me around all the time... What’s her name again? Mollie, yes that’s her. I had drawn myself as someone else by “accident”, but my brain insisted it was on purpose. I didn’t want to be someone else; I just wanted to be who I am, not Taylor Swift.

“Sailer! Sailer!” Mrs. Skift snapped in my face.
“Huh?” I blurted loudly.
“You seem to be daydreaming while I am trying to teach,” she said with a strict voice.  
I looked down at my lap, and I sighed, murmuring, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Skift.”


“Now, since you are one of my favorite students, I’ll let you off the hook this time, but I better not see it again,” the teacher said with a wink. Ugh, even the teachers love me for being like Taylor. I’d rather live a normal life and not get special treatment.

“Okay, Sailer, to get you caught up, what do you know about the dangers of social media?” Mrs. Skift asked.

“Uhh... well, people can stalk you and kidnap you?” I took a wild guess, my face becoming red. I crossed my fingers under the desk.

The teacher had a surprised look on her face, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I had said the wrong thing or if she was surprised that I actually knew that.

She exclaimed, “Good job, Tay-oh, I mean Sailer!” She gave me a big hug full of fake love. Yes, my life is filled with fake hugs--it sucks.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, looking down at my desk.
“Well, you’re all caught up. Great job!” She exclaimed, emphasizing the “great.”
 Just then, the bell rang, and everyone, including me, scrambled to gather our things and raced out the door to lunch. I grabbed my binder, pencil, and book and headed to my locker. 12-30-02... 12-30-02... I thought as I did my locker combination. With a creak barely heard over the loud chatter of students, my locker opened up. I shoved my things inside and took out my lunchbox and water bottle. I slammed my locker door shut with a bang.

As I walked into the big, open hallway, the gang approached me. They giggled and walked alongside me as if we were having fun--which we were not. Smiling awkwardly, I walked with my head down to try and stop attracting attention to myself.

When I got home later that day, I went to Novo salon for a makeover to make myself look less like Taylor Swift. I usually do this once every month for good effect, but it usually goes back to looking the same within a few days. My mom drove me over to the salon and dropped me off. She supported me, because she understood how hard it was for me at school, but she didn’t want me to permanently change my look.  As I walked in, a light jingle greeted me at the door. I walked over to the station for my appointment, but my hair stylist wasn’t there. Instead, there was a tall, slim woman with pink and purple streaks in her beautiful blonde hair.

“Hi, I’m Sailer, and I’m looking for Mrs. Kim,” I told her politely.

“Ah, so you’re Sailer. I’m Ms. Smith, and I will be covering for Mrs. Kim today. She is out sick,” Ms. Smith explained, “Have a seat.”

“Oh okay,” I replied, taking in the information. I plopped down into the squishy swivel chair. “So today I will be changing your look as I’ve heard?” Ms. Smith asked.


I answered, “Yes... please.” 


With that, the artist got started.

“Can I please have my hair dyed brown?”

“Are you sure this is okay with your parents?” Ms. Smith asked.

I answered, “Yeah, she’s totally fine with it.”

She then dyed my hair a darker brown than Taylor’s. As it was drying up, she applied self tanner to my face to make me have tanner skin. Once my hair was dry, she straightened it to look unlike Taylor’s original hairstyle. Then, she swept my bangs off my face using a gel that made them look longer and could help them stick to the side. Soon, my bangs weren’t there anymore, and I looked nothing like Taylor Swift! I was so excited for school the next day! This artist had done a better job than Ms. Kim or anyone could do! I felt like a whole different person.

I walked into school feeling confident.

The wannabes didn’t even notice me. I ducked into my first period classroom without having anyone follow me around. I squealed with delight. The rest of the day went by smoothly until I saw Raegan.  Raegan had told me I should change my look if that’s what I wanted to do, and she definitely recognized me. When she was about to walk up to me, she turned and started talking to the new popular kid, Courtney. She was the most beautiful girl in school now that I had changed my look.

In case she really didn’t recognize me, I called, “Raegan! Raegan!”


She looked over at me, but just turned back around and started talking to Courtney.
  I couldn’t believe Raegan would betray me like that! After all we had been through together, she now only cared about being popular. I walked away with tears in my eyes. I tried to hold them back, to keep them in, but they poured out. I ran to the bathroom, locking myself in a stall. I knew I shouldn’t have been so upset, but the one person who was supposed to care about me turned her back on me--literally. The bell rang, signaling 8th period to start, but I didn’t care. I let the tears fall from my eyes, down my face, and finally plop onto my shirt, soaking it with the salt and water. I grabbed onto the wall to stablize myself. I was running out of tears, but I couldn’t seem to stop crying. When I finally tricked myself into thinking maybe she hadn’t heard me, and she hadn’t recognized me, I laughed at myself, thinking how silly I was. I wiped away the tears and blew my nose one last time into the tissue paper. Just as I walked out, the last bell of the day rang, dismissing everyone from class. The hallways went from silent and empty to loud and crowded all in a few seconds.

I grabbed my backpack from my locker and headed out the big doors to my bus. Raegan sat in our usual seat, but she was laughing with Courtney by her side. I stood by the seat, waiting impatiently.

As if just noticing me, Raegan looked up at me and exclaimed, “Oh hi, Sailer! Is it okay if I sit with Courtney today? She’s going to my house so we can study for the vocab test tomorrow.”

“Um... yeah, sure. I guess that’s fine.”

“Oh, by the way, sorry about today when I went to talk with Courtney, we had important gossip to catch up on.”

“Oh... uh... yeah okay,” I replied, shocked.


A boy behind me yelled, “Hey, kid! You’re holding up the line! Move it!”


I scrambled to get into an empty seat. After I sat down, I wondered what made Raegan change on me all of a sudden. The thought came to my head so quickly I felt faint; Raegan only wanted to be popular. She didn’t care about me. She cared about only herself and the popular group.

“Um, hi,” a shy girl interrupted my thoughts, “Can I sit here?”


“Oh, uh, sure,” I replied, moving my heavy backpack and lunch box onto my lap.


“Thanks,” she smiled.


I smiled back, “Yeah, no problem, have I seen you at school before?”


“Probably not. I just moved here from India a few days ago,” she answered.


“Wow, that’s cool. What’s your name?” I replied.


She answered, “Thanks, my name’s Kisha.”


“I’m Sailer,” I told her, and we high-fived.
“Mind if I take a look at your schedule?”

Kisha asked, “I really need someone I know in at least a few of my classes.”


“Yeah, sure let me just get it out of my backpack,” I answered, reaching into the depths of my backpack.
  After I handed it to her, she exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! We have eight classes together!”

“WOW! I’m so excited!”

.................


A week later, Raegan approached Sailer nervously.

“Hi,” Raegan said quietly.

Sailer replied, “Hi.”

“Listen, I’m really sorry for how I treated you the other day, I was being a jerk.  I’m really really really sorry for how horribly I was treating you, I never should have ditched you for Courtney,” Raegan said, “I hope you can forgive me for my mistake.  I realized you should really just be yourself.  I really hope we can be good friends again.”

Sailer paused for a moment, Raegan looking at her with hope in her eyes.

“Yes, of course we can be friends.  Just because you made one bad mistake doesn’t mean I’m going to ditch you,” Sailer hugged Raegan.

Raegan added, “By the way, I know you might not like Courtney, because I ditched you for her, but I think you should give her a chance.  She’s really nice and she didn’t know I was ditching you.  She would’ve said something if she had known.  If anyone should be blamed for this, it’s me.”

Sailer replied, “Okay, I think we would all make great friends.”

A Day at the Gym

Walking into the familiar gym, I think about why I still do gymnastics.  I remember how in the Olympics the gymnasts looked so beautiful in the way they moved their bodies and how smoothly they could jump and leap with straight legs and pointed toes.  They could flip high in the air, soaring like birds.  I also remembered the first day I started gymnastics.  I was two when I started doing somersaults in my house.  I would lay my head down on the ground, leaning forward and kicking my legs up to roll over.  My parents took me to “My Little Gym” so I could do gymnastics at a real gymnasium.  Soon I started doing cartwheels and handstands.  As soon as I learned how to do a front tuck, I immediately loved it.  I loved the feeling of flipping, especially when I started flipping in the air, soaring through the sky just like the Olympians.  This is how I am coded for gymnastics.

Now I realize how hard it can be.  As I walk over to my locker, I try to calm my sweaty palms and nervous shuddering breaths as a result of a fear of the round off back handspring back tuck.  I flipped it over many times, but had somehow lost the skill when I didn’t do it for a period of time.  I had had a mental block on it, flipped it over one day, but lost it again.  Now was the time to get it back and keep it forever.  I realize how I had just focused too much on the small details of the skill and I should have looked at it as a whole.  I felt so connected to the others who had a mental block too, because we shared the same frustration and fear of certain skills, and we could talk about it openly.  All of my teammates who had mental blocks like me.  We discussed how hard it was to get over the bump in the road and how you just had to go for it.  I know that today is the day to get the skill.  Accomplishing the skill didn’t involve breaking it down and looking at all the separate parts and overthinking it.  It did involve looking at the skill as a whole and looking at the beauty of it.  

When my team finally gets to the floor, I warm up my round off handsprings, thinking don’t get overwhelmed with the small details.  Don’t think about the possibilities of falling.  Don’t try to stop yourself.  As my coach, Jillian, walks over to the floor to spot me and help me with the skill, I walk slowly, stalling for time, over to my starting corner.  Deep breaths, deep breaths, I thought, just think of how easy the skill is when you think of it as a whole.  My teammates cheer me on, helping me relax and focus.

I take one last deep breath and ran.  I feel my hands hit the slightly squishy floor and then my feet, then back onto my hands again and I fly through the air for the back flip.  Before I know it, the skill iss over and I have done it!  Everyone claps and congratulates me as I walk over to sit down on the big squishy blue mat.

Another way gymnastics is a whole, not just individuals is that teammates cheer you on, and that’s what creates a team.  The team is like the ants who all work together.  We each have our own strengths, but we work together to win team awards and get good scores.  We help each other succeed by giving each other advice and by cheering each other on.  We support each other and make each other successful.

One Should Stay Flexible

The pancit noodles were staring back at me.  Ew. Gross.  I picked at it with my fork and thought, Should I try it?  Bleh, maybe not.  Then again, I might like it.  My friend cheered that I should eat it, and it was an authentic Filipino dish.  I held my breath and sucked in a small bite of noodles.  Not too bad, I thought.  I stuffed some more in my mouth and licked my lips.  I told my friend how delicious it was.  Now, I look back on this day and find that I am very glad I had been open minded and ate the pancit, because now it is one of my favorite foods.  One should be willing to change one’s mind when circumstances change, because one will enjoy life more, learn more, gain more interaction with others, have more educated opinions, and have more experiences.  

We often form opinions about people before we truly know them, so we must be willing to change those opinions.  My aunt used to be quite racist, because everyone in her neighborhood was raised to believe that some ethnic groups were “better” than others.  Soon, different races started moving in to the neighborhood, and, as the circumstances changed, my aunt grew open minded and talked to her next door neighbor who was a different race.  They grew to be close friends, and my aunt learned that staying open minded can make you gain friends and enjoy life.  As another example, when I was in Mr. Shah’s class, I didn’t like him at first.  I gave him a chance, learned more about him like the fact that he made us laugh and enjoy science.  He taught us a lot in science and said if you hug a cloud, you’ll end up hugging yourself to teach us about the water cycle.

Those who are too stubborn to change their minds when circumstances change miss out on learning, life experiences, and happiness.  Being stubborn is definitely not good in the way that my sister is so stubborn she won’t change her mind about how learning takes too much effort.  She refuses to do her homework and is so stubborn about it, she always has to do it in the last minute.  She does it only because of the thought that the teacher would yell at her if she didn’t.  My sister should not wait until the last minute, because it causes her to get stressed out, frustrated, and she loses sleep.  When she gets older and much busier, she will learn that she needs to stay open minded and will study harder to keep from being stressed out.  Another example of stubbornness is when my teacher only wanted the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a play she auditioned for.  It was a musical, and her voice range was more fit for one of the princesses.  She refused to change her mind and accept one of these parts, so she wasn’t even cast in the play in the end.  My teacher had really wanted to be in the play, but her insistence on the one part made her not get into the play and miss out on the entire experience.

In some points in life, it’s okay not to change one’s mind about topics.  Maybe pancit doesn’t taste good to certain people.  They could always push it away politely instead of missing out in case they did like it.  Maybe my chorus teacher would not have liked the princess parts as much, but she still should have tried it.  She would have at least had a chance to be in the play.  One should stay flexible and try new things even if one might not like it.

Brainstorm

This are a few ideas for what I'm writing next! Stay tuned for the actual story coming soon!

Taylor Swift doppleganger - everyone likes her because she looks like Taylor but she wants everyone to like her just for being her

she and her parents get into a fight and they only keep her at their house because she looks like Tay

she used to have braces and her best friend still was her friend

her best friend since preschool used to like her from her just being her but now she only wants to be cool and popular and she turns her back on her best friend once she changes her look to look not like Taylor Swift

Setting - school/homes

Names

Taylor look alike

Sailer

Tatum

Skylar

Sawyer

Best Friend

Reagan

Theme

Embrace who you are and enjoy it

Be Flexible

The pancit noodles were staring back at me.  Ew. Gross.  I picked at it with my fork and thought, Should I try it?  Bleh, maybe not.  Then again, I might like it.  My friend cheered that I should eat it, and it was an authentic Filipino dish.  I held my breath and sucked in a small bite of noodles.  Not too bad, I thought.  I stuffed some more in my mouth and licked my lips.  I told my friend how delicious it was.  Now, I look back on this day and find that I am very glad I had been open minded and ate the pancit, because NOW it is one of my favorite foods.  One should be willing to change one’s mind when circumstances change, because one will enjoy life more, learn more, gain more interaction with others, have more educated opinions, and have more experiences.  

We often form opinions about people before we truly know them, so we must be willing to change those opinions.  My aunt used to be quite racist, because everyone in her neighborhood was raised to believe that some ethnic groups were “better” than others.  Soon, different races started moving in to the neighborhood, and, as the circumstances changed, my aunt grew open minded and talked to her next door neighbor who was a different race.  They grew to be close friends, and my aunt learned that staying open minded can make you gain friends and enjoy life.  As another example, when I was in Mr. Shah’s class, I didn’t like him at first.  I gave him a chance, learned more about him like the fact that he made us laugh and enjoy science.  He taught us a lot in science and said if you hug a cloud, you’ll end up hugging yourself to teach us about the water cycle.

Those who are too stubborn to change their minds when circumstances change miss out on learning, life experiences, and happiness.  Being stubborn is definitely not good in the way that my sister is so stubborn she won’t change her mind about how learning takes too much effort.  She refuses to do her homework and is so stubborn about it, she always has to do it in the last minute.  She does it only because of the thought that the teacher would yell at her if she didn’t.  My sister should not wait until the last minute, because it causes her to get stressed out, frustrated, and she loses sleep.  When she gets older and much busier, she will learn that she needs to stay open minded and will study harder to keep from being stressed out.  Another example of stubbornness is when my teacher only wanted the part of Little Red Riding Hood in a play she auditioned for.  It was a musical, and her voice range was more fit for one of the princesses.  She refused to change her mind and accept one of these parts, so she wasn’t even cast in the play in the end.  My teacher had really wanted to be in the play, but her insistence on the one part made her not get into the play and miss out on the entire experience.

In some points in life, it’s okay not to change one’s mind about topics.  Maybe pancit doesn’t taste good to certain people.  They could always push it away politely instead of missing out in case they did like it.  Maybe my chorus teacher would not have liked the princess parts as much, but she still should have tried it.  She would have at least had a chance to be in the play.  One should stay flexible and try new things even if one might not like them, because sometimes one will, and even if one doesn’t like them, one has learned from the experiences.

Here are some tips for writing a short story

It has to:

• be original
• have a great hook that pulls the reader in
• have a creative title
• include many interesting, detailed characters
• have tons of dialogue
• have an ending (closure)
• make sure the ending is interesting
• many descriptive words (especially good verbs)
• keep verb tense the same
• be polished
• be clear and concise
• include some action

Angie’s Monthly Alliteration About 2013

We skied and slid down steep, snowy slopes,

My parents were convinced to get a cute cat,

The Tay Tay concert from the Red Tour was a dream come true,

As the judges gave me a medal at a gymnastics meet, I jumped with joy,

I sang silly songs about green eggs and ham in Seussical,

When I finished 6th grade, I said farewell to Floris, a school I won’t forget,

I boogie-boarded and sunbathed at Virginia beach in my bathing suit with my baby sister,

The very best vacation was Yellowstone where I viewed a vibrant landscape,

I got lost in middle school on the first day because it was like a maze, even with a map,

My thirteenth birthday was thrilling even though Taylor Swift didn’t notice me,

My parents produced a practical website for parents and teachers,

My mom helped me hurriedly assemble heaps of holiday gifts while doing homework.