Seasons - Squach's Nano

Ok guys NaNoWriMo has officially started! My word-count goal is 10,000 words, so that's a little over 300 words a day! Here is my first little snippet of exactly 700 words! I've figured out I should be doing about 350 words a day. (At this rate I'll destroy my goal )

Oh and my novel is called Seasons if you hadn't already guessed!


"Claire! What's the answer to question 4?"
Claire smiled as her beloved friend Tabitha (or Tabby) leaned over to ask for test answers. They were in the middle of a science test and Tabby was madly chewing her pencil, nudging Claire with her foot as Claire searched for the answer from her own paper.
Claire scanned the question: What is the waste product of plants when they photosynthesise?
"I put glucose and oxygen," Claire whispered in reply.
Tabby chewed her pencil again, looking at the smoke-stained roof as she thought. She suddenly sprung into action and scribbled madly on her test paper. Looking sideways at Claire, Tabby gave her a thumbs up. Smiling in return, Claire got back to her own test.

Claire trudged out of Science as the school bell sounded in the corridors, signalling that everyone was free to go home.
"Claire! Thanks for that answer! I was panicking! I think I've done well on this test!" Tabby ran over to Claire.
"You're we- Ow!" Claire tripped over some older boy's foot, sending her and her books flying.
"Oh my gosh! Are you OK?" Tabby enquired, reaching out for Claire's hand whilst collecting books in the other.
"Yeah, I suppose so. I guess I'm just clumsy." Claire replied, dusting herself off from the stony floor.
"So are you going tomorrow?" Claire's friend Melissa asked, her pale blond hair almost sparkling.
"Going where?" Claire asked in confusion. Tabby rolled her eyes.
"As if you don't know!" Melissa copied Tabby, rolling her eyes as well. "The bonfire tomorrow! You know, 'Remember, remember the 5th of November, gun powder, treason and pl-"
"Yes! I knew that. I'm not sure if I can go, but I’ll ask my Mum.” Claire was flustered, having just tripped over and was worrying about a question she thought she had got wrong on her test.
“’Kay. Hopefully see you there!” Melissa waved her goodbyes and drifted to another group of girls chatting loudly about their crushes.
Claire saw a familiar face striding down the narrow corridor.
“Hey, Charlotte!” Claire called.
“Oh, Claire, Alice wants you. She’s by the pool.”

Oh no, Claire thought. What does Alice want now?
Claire bid her farewells to Charlotte and then Tabby, and started to sprint towards the pool. A bored-looking figure was stood there with arms crossed, and a frustrated expression on her face.
“How long does it take for you to get your stupid self over here?” Alice exclaimed.
“Sorry, Charlotte only just told me,” Claire trailed off, shy in front of her own sister. “So what did you want?” Claire asked.
“I wanted to give you your library card. Mum was telling you to come back for it but you were shouting loads of rubbish at Tabitha, so she gave me it instead.”
“It’s Tabby.” Claire said. “But why didn’t you give it too me at break? Or lunch for that matter?”
“Because I was too busy with- with the boys,” Alice replied smugly. “They wanted me to play footie with them.”
Alice handed over Claire’s library card, while spotting someone in the distance.
“Oh, that’s Kevin. He’s gorgeous. And why am I telling you this? You don’t need to know.” Alice ran off, and that was that.
Claire always found it hard to talk to her sister. Alice was older, and stereotypically more intelligent, as Alice always bragged about. But both her and Claire knew that wasn’t true. Claire had always been extremely bright and Alice always lagged behind. Even Tabby knew more than Alice did, and Tabby wasn’t that bright. But Claire refused to think such negative thoughts about her friend.
Alice was also a strange character, as she would be talkative and bossy at school or away from home, but as soon as she stepped in the front door she was the quiet studious girl every mother dreamed of having. Alice was a secret goody-goody. It felt good to mock her sister in that way, Claire knew Alice would lose her popularity if she exposed her other half to her friends, but lately Claire’s diary had a habit of disappearing from underneath her floor boards, so she had decided to keep quiet.

Ok here's the next snippet - takes me up to almost 1,100 words! (1,096 to be precise)

Claire sighed as she meandered over towards the library. Breathing in the fresh air, she fiddled with her phone. It was one she had owned for several years now, the letters on the qwerty keyboard starting to fade with over use. Claire was always texting her friends. The blackened screen popped up with 3 new messages. The first one was from Tabby, asking if a sleepover was possible. She could reply to that later. The second was from Melissa, wondering whether Claire had asked about the bonfire yet. The last was from her Mum, demanding to know where she was. Claire replied quickly and swiftly: explaining that she was going to the library and thanking her mother for the passing on of her card.

The large green library doors opened with a loud creak. Many faces buried in bookshelves turned towards Claire as she walked in; silence was treasured in her library. Claire sniffed the new scent of her new environment: the musty smell of books and the aroma of stamper ink from the reception desk.
Running a pale slender finger along the rows of books, Claire headed towards her favourite section: the teen fiction. She loved to read about the passionate romances, evil monsters and gossiping girls that were printed into every page. Claire was often late home from there. Tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ear, Claire picked her favourite book from the highest shelf on her tiptoes. It was 1,257 pages long and Claire had been reading for almost three months. It was called Call of the Swan. She never like to take books out because she knew from many past experiences that that same copy of the book would quickly end up on her bookshelf, but a new shop-bought version usually ended up there anyway.
Claire dragged a purple bean bag from the children's area, grabbed her iPod and sat in a little corner of the library, hidden away from everything and everyone else. Plugging the earphones into her ears, Claire started to read.

It didn’t seem like long before Claire’s phone vibrated. It was her alarm telling her that it was time to get up, put her books away and get moving. Reluctantly, Claire slided Call of the Swan back onto its dusty shelf and started the fifteen minute journey home.

*bump*

Must have missed this before, sorry Squach- but I do have a complaint. How on earth am I supposed to make a living at this writing lark when people (children in fact!!) less than half my age write this well? Its not on you know.
I particularly like your little descriptive bits Squach, 'the aroma of stamper ink from the reception desk'- thats a damn nice touch, really liked that. If I have a criticism its that maybe there's a need for a bit more context in the opening paragraphs perhaps, the where they are is fine, in school, but people and events move quite rapid between class finishing and library- but that may just be because its late and I may have supped a buckie or ten. I shall read it again tomorrow to be sure!
Best compliment I can give Squach is that its good enough to depress me!! Young people should not write this well, just makes the rest of us look bad. I'm going to go have an extra buckie and reavalute my life's choices.

Yeah I just didn't want to make the opening chapter boring and have a whole chapter of a science lesson and the end of school because that might make you want to put the book down. Also I need to get to the exciting bits soon and I don't want to have seven chapters of the same day. Her starting the journey home bridges it nicely into the next chapter when she's at home as well. (All of the stuff so far is one chapter)

Ok so- Chapter 2 is coming soon, i just need to do a paragraph or something!

Squach wrote:Ok so- Chapter 2 is coming soon, i just need to do a paragraph or something!

I'm often saying to to myself. "You have that essay to start, Anne!" That's it! I like you're story so far btw.

Chapter 2

Claire sat in her purple room doing her homework with her purple pen. It was Maths homework and she had some Algebra to do. Claire hated Algebra. She understood everything and always got top marks but she never got the point of it. Why use little X’s or Y’s or A’s? What was the point? Claire didn’t know. Neither did her mum or her Math’s teacher. They always replied: That’s the way it is. Claire also hated when people answered things so vaguely like that or never gave you a real answer. If you ask a question, you want and answer, not some philosophy of some sort.
Ignoring the cold plate of chips and beans by her side, Claire got her phone out. She texted her friends back saying that she could probably come to the bonfire tomorrow, that she was allowed to have a sleepover with both Tabby and Melissa, and that she was just plain glad it was Friday!
A few minutes later, Tabby replied, saying good, she was looking forward to the sleepover, and the weekend, of course. When Melissa didn’t reply Claire guessed she had no credit, like she always did. No sooner had Melissa got some more credit before it had run out.
Claire got changed out of her school clothes. She would leave the last few algebra questions for another time, she was bored. Tapping her fingernail on her wardrobe door, Claire picked out some jeans and a cute yellow top with text speak like ‘LOL’ and ‘ROFL’ and ‘C U L8R’ written all over it. Claire looked in the mirror that hung from her other wardrobe door and smiled. Pleased with what she saw, Claire relaxed in her bean bag, happy to be free of anything school related.
Claire heard shouts from downstairs. She chuckled as she remembered that the latest football match was on, Manchester United against Arsenal or something. All Claire knew was that her brother, Ryan loved football, and Claire couldn’t care less about it.
Claire did her favourite thing - writing lists. She wrote a list of homework to be completed - Maths, French and a long running I.T homework. Then she wrote a list of Christmas presents she had to get. Although it was only the beginning of November, Claire liked to plan ahead and be organised. About ten minutes later Claire started wrapping Ryan’s presents - it was his birthday on Sunday.
Having nothing to do, (or nothing she wanted to do) as she often did, Claire got out her story paper. She loved to write and was inspired by her current library book. She loved writing about almost anything and everything, but most of all it was something to fill in her time. She hated sitting around with nothing to do, just contemplating nothing at all. But there was also a bonus to writing stories - Claire could perfect her handwriting.
Claire shook her Tip-ex bottle and set it to the right next to her faded pencil case, keeping it at the ready if she made a mistake. She had gone through almost two bottles of Tip-ex in the last month and drove her teachers mad with the odd smell. Claire once spilt a bottle on Tip-ex onto her desk and because her teacher was out of the room, the Tip-ex dried so she couldn’t rub it off. At least her teacher was a nice one and was forgiving, or Claire would have been in deep trouble!
Claire reread her story so far, flicking back on poems and mini writes she had completed before, gathering ideas and thoughts for her next little writing adventure, and she dived into the deep end and carried on.

Claire was lost in a world of princesses and fairy tales when the loopy letters weren’t coming out of her purple pen anymore. She tried to scribble a line but again, nothing appeared. Looking to her right, Claire reached out to grab another pen from her pencil case, but it had gone! She heard a giggle from Alice’s room and tiptoed out to have a peek at what her so-called sister was doing. Claire muffled a shout when she saw what was going on. Alice was rooting through her pencil case! Turning around, Alice had heard Claire and saw her stood there with her hand over her mouth.
“Claire, stop bothering me! I need to get some homework done!” Alice yelled loudly, on purpose.
“Give me my pencil case back!” Claire replied, a hint of worry inside her voice.
“Stop arguing!” Their mum shouted, marching boldly up the stairs with a messy apron tied to her waist and a saucepan full of golden syrup in her right hand.
“Mum, Claire won’t leave me alone! I have homework for Tuesday and she won’t go away! She sits in here with her pencil case drawing things on my wall!” Alice put her head on her desk as if in despair, sneaking a sly sidewards glance at Claire.
“What? I was writing and my pencil case was gone! I heard Alice giggling and I saw her with my pencil case! She’s a liar!” Claire had stress in her voice and felt like she had anger clenched in her fists.
“Just be quiet, now!” Their mother yelled, almost spilling the contents of the saucepan down the stairs. “You can both go to your rooms, and stay there!”
“Yeah, Alice,” Claire muttered under her breath.
“There’ll be no back chat either!” The girl’s mother breathed out a frustrated sigh. “In fact you can just both go to bed now.”
Angrily both Claire and Alice slammed their doors at the same moment, like synchronised swimmers.
Getting changed, Claire organised her bedsheets and walked slowly towards the light switch. But before she pressed it, Claire had a sudden thought about her homework. Her maths still wasn’t finished. I can do it tomorrow or Sunday, Claire thought, and she flicked the switch. Stumbling to her bed, Claire pulled the fluffy duvet over her head, closed her eyes and let her mind be filled with the same pitch black shadows that hung over her room like a drape.

Wow! This is a great story! Brilliantly written too! I can instantly relate to the Clare-Alice conflict for I have a sister who used to be like that, always getting me into trouble when it was always her fault! Also tipex, I don't think anyone has ever successfully gone through school without having accident with tipex! Once, in y8 a girl sitting next to me threw hers in the air the lid came off and it went all over me & my eye! Had to go to a&e!

I look forward to reading more!

This is developing along very nicely indeed Squach. I'm still in a bit of a gripe that someone your age writes so well though!

Thanks guys! I might not get the next bit up for a while, my pace has been decreasing (I wrote seven words yesterday ) and my guitar playing has risen!

So can we expect a tune from you Squach to go alongside Orwell's at the (imminent, honest!) picnic?

I don't see why not, Petty. My little pumpkin is very talented. I'm sure she could write a brilliant song if she decided to.

I already have, stupid.



But, nooo, Pseudo-Kafria doesn't care...

Oh, and, Halloween's over.

So does that mean you do have a song to contribute to the picnic Squach?

Well, I haven't really worked on it much, and I wouldn'tknow how to post it in audio!

I have a few other songs but they're a bit rubbish...

Record it as an mp3 Squach then you can either send it to me as an email and I will put it onto my youtube channel (which is what I am doing with Orwells song) then I can link the song here on the picninc thread when it starts. Or you can upload it yourself- although you will need to turn it from a music file to a video one to do that- then when the picnic starts you link it.

Well i do have a voice recorder on my phone - would that work?

I could also take a video - it wouldn't have my face in it, obviously, but it would probably have me playing either guitar or maybe piano (I only know two piano songs at the moment, along with lots of random tunes I make up!). It might not be an original song as i would probably play a Taylor Swift song or maybe an Adele song. Most of my origianal songs are just lyrics with their tune in my head, not chords or backing tracks or anything.

If i could film it, I would probably play You're Not Sorry by Taylor Swift. That's one of the songs I can play on piano.

The reflection in the mirror sighed back at Claire. She was wearing the ninth outfit she’d put on and was losing hope. None of them looked right. Her second-hand clock told her that the bonfire was only 40 minutes away.
“Claire!” Her mum called from downstairs. Claire raced down the flight on exactly 16 steps and found her mother washing dishes.
“Claire darling, have you finished all of your homework?” Raising her eyebrows, Claire’s mum waited for an answer.
“I still haven’t finished my maths homework. I have a few more questions to finish,” Claire replied. “Oh no! I haven’t done my Art! I completely forgot!”
Claire raked a set of long fingers through her blond hair. It was Saturday, and she had to complete three detailed drawings with several explanatory reasons for each drawing for Monday.
“Well you’re not leaving this house until you’ve done it all!”
“What?” Claire yelled, shocked.
“We’re going out for your brother’s birthday all day tomorrow, so you can’t do it then. It has to be done now.” Claire hated it when her mother was strict like that.
After knowing it was pointless to argue, Claire traipsed upstairs in silence.

It was like a spark had gone off in Claire’s head. She would run away.
It was stupid and childish, but she would run away. A plan slowly formed in Claire’s head and she grinned slyly before running back downstairs into the living room.
“I think I won’t bother with the bonfire,” Claire told her brother and mum. “I’ll do my homework and then I’ll go straight to bed, to get lots of energy for tomorrow. Don’t disturb me because I might be in bed.”
Her mother nodded in agreement. “Finally, a sensible choice from you of all people,” her mother laughed sarcastically.
“Whatever,” Claire muttered. “I’m just getting my pencil case. Turns out Alice didn’t take it, it magically appeared downstairs somehow.” Claire smiled sweetly at her brother. Lying was easy. Not that she’d lied before.
So Claire meandered slowly into the kitchen, closed the door and started to put her plan in action. She had turned the light off in her room before hand and was now opening the back door without making as much noise as possible. The latch slowly unhooked and Claire stepped out into the fresh, blast of icy air that met her face. Breathing out a cloud of smoke, Claire started to make her way to the bonfire.
Long before Claire arrived there, she could see little wisps of fire curling up above the rooftops. The warm orange glow made Claire feel warm inside even though the chill in her surroundings was grasping onto her with bony fingers. Many people, especially families, were making their way to the fiery celebration that was about to take place. It made Claire feel somewhat lonely and isolated and the feelings cut through the laughter and hubbub of chatter like a butchers blade.
It was a shame that Claire wasn’t in time to see the bonfire being lit, but at least she was there and not stuck at home writing hard sums and trying but failing to draw something detailed. Art was the only subject that Claire didn’t think she excelled in, she hated drawing as it made her feel self conscious and unlike a subject where you’re writing or answering the same questions that you can revise for, you can’t revise for a drawing. You can’t look at great paintings like the Mona Lisa and suddenly draw an exact replica of them.
“Claire!” Tabby’s enthusiastic voice soared over her thoughts. “I thought we were meeting at mine half-an-hour ago!”
“Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! It’s just that my mum got all over reactive over whether I’d done my homework and she was going to make me stay behind and do it all!” Claire breathed out heavily and rubbed her forehead while Tabby tried to keep up with her brisk pace. “So you did all of it?” Tabby asked. She knew Claire had almost everything to do still.
“Well, I-”
“You ran away?” Tabby’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Wow! I would never have the nerve to do that?”
“Yeah, well, I knew you’d be looking for me all night, and the 5th of November only comes around once a year, so…” Claire kicked a large stone that was in her way, feeling almost embarrassed. “Yeah, I ran away.”
“Cool. Does Alice know? If you told her, I wouldn’t trust her. She’d tell your mum as soon as you walked out of the door.” Tabby stared up at the clusters and constellations of stars above.
“No. I don’t think she heard me talking to mum. I’m hoping she was sleeping, or at least dozing.” Claire sighed. Whatever she tried to do, Alice would always stand in the way. Always.

The chatter and noise at the bonfire was so loud that Claire found it hard to hear the blaring music that was playing from a corner of the skate park. Lots of older students in years above Claire were whooshing down ramps and flipping and darting about on skateboards and scooters. Some were even running down the ramps, pushing those on wheels to help them go faster.
Claire and Tabby walked through the trees in the park. The park was perched on top of a slight hill and at the very top was a clearing surrounded by trees. The clearing was filled with fresh green grass and when the sun was in the sky, the only colour you would be able to see was bright green. The grass reflected its almost fluorescent colours onto the tree trunks and leafy canopies above.

Good, good... What now?

This.

A small orange glow was visible, contrasting against the bright, shocking green that usually could be seen. The crackle, crackle of a gentle fire echoed into the trees and rushed back to everyone’s ears.
“Tabby! Claire! Glad you could make it!” Melissa embraced the pair before smiling broadly at Claire. “We’ve got a surprise for you, Claire!” She winked and Claire looked at Tabby in confusion, her expression asking if Tabby had known about the ‘surprise’. Tabby shrugged in answer, before running over to some other people with sticks.
Everyone had been telling rubbish, not scary ghost stories for about ten minutes. A twig snapped, and a small, wimpy boy stepped into the light. He was immediately chased away by a big gang of boys that were running after him, and they could be heard shouting and screaming at the poor boy to get him away.
“They won’t be back for a while. They’ll probably scare him right back to the bonfire.” Melissa commented. She was still grinning from ear to ear. Her surprise had caught Claire off-guard. Claire’s all-time crush was here. But more about him later.
Tabby, Melissa and Claire all turned the long twigs that they held in their freezing hands. On the end were pink marshmallows, slightly browned from the heat.
“Toasting marshmallows is fun.” Claire murmured, in a daze. She popped her marshmallow into her mouth and pulled it of the stick. It tasted like gooey clouds. Or at least what Claire expected clouds to taste like; she’d never actually eaten a cloud before, but how many people have?
“Wouldn’t it be so funny if our marshmallows suddenly set on fire?” Tabby giggled. “We’d have torches for the night!” Claire and Melissa smiled in agreement, while Tabby stared at her marshmallow in a trance.
Suddenly, both Tabby and Melissa’s marshmallows went up in a spark of light, blackening and deforming on the ends of their wooden sticks.
“Oh my gosh!” Claire exclaimed, shocked.
“We must have held it too low,” Tabby said shaking her head in disbelief. “We must have.”

“There’s no other logical explanation, right guys?” Melissa scrunched up her eyebrows, thinking hard. Claire looked across at Tabby, sat on the other side of Melissa. Tabby was still intently staring at the black gooey lumps dripping off her stick and into the camp fire, where they bubbled away like part of a potion.
“Oh my god.” Tabby whispered, before running away from the duo of girls, her bouncy hair disappearing over the hilltop. In her haste, she dropped the stick into the fire, which spontaneously burst into flames as soon as Tabby’s shaky hand let go of it. Claire dodged it, thankfully, shouting at Tabby even when she wasn’t visible anymore.
“OK then. ‘Cause that’s not strange…” Laughing awkwardly, Claire looked down at her feet. She hated awkward silences, she had to fill the gap with some kind of noise, even if Claire made the situation even worse. But someone else would fill it up for her.
“Claire! Where’s Tabby running off to? She seemed a bit shaken,” Robbie showed unusual interest in Claire’s friends and Claire felt her legs turning to jelly. He is so gorgeous, Claire thought, not listening to a word Robbie was trying to ask.
Suddenly Claire was tapped on her shoulder, by a firm hand.
“Hey, Claire. So nice to see you here,” Alice smiled victoriously at her little sister, noticing Robbie stood there with his arms crossed. “You should be at home, doing your homework, Claire. I know I should be in bed, but… I decided to run away.” She turned towards Robbie, casting a flirty eye upon him. “Honestly, little kids these days, always copying your ideas, huh? They need to find some brains for themselves to think up plans of their own,” Alice rolled her eyes dramatically and fluttered those long eye-lashes, which had an impeccably applied coat of mascara over them.
Robbie frowned, disagreeing. “Well, first, I don’t have any interest in you, I’ve got someone else who I like, so there’s no point in your flirting. You really can’t flirt anyway. Second, I’m in Claire’s year, so you’re implying that I’m a little kid too. Third, if it was your idea to run away, why haven’t you been here for the past-” Robbie cut off, looking at his black watch. “Pfft, I don’t know, over half an hour? Oh, and, fourth. Your eye-shadow has gone a bit dodgy” Robbie couldn’t resist a small smile, he was always told that he should be an interrogator when he grew up, because apparently 14 wasn’t grown-up. It was to him.
Alice’s thin lips and mouth were left gaping after Robbie had closed his. Melissa had her sea blue eyes widened in shock. Best of all was Claire, her usually pale cheeks blushing, as if the cold chill hadn’t already made them rosy enough. Her sister had just been obliterated by her crush, and, of all the hours in the day, when she was trying to flirt with him!
Pulling out her broken compact mirror, Alice checked her smoky eye make-up. Yep, it was smeared and smudged so it looked like something out of a zombie movie. “You’re not gonna get away with this.” Alice pouted, and fled the humiliating scene, pushing and elbowing her way past everyone, Robbie especially.
“Wow. She’s got serious issues.” Robbie commented, pulling his hand through his hair.
“Yeah, I think she was born just for the purpose of destroying my life. She’s always calling me ugly and fat.” Claire stared at the ground.
“Well, you should just ignore her. She doesn’t know how pretty and gorgeous you are.”
“So, who’s that girl you have in mind instead of Alice? The one you like?” Claire needed to know who she was up against.
“Well, she-” Robbie jumped as his phone rang, the Maroon 5 song blaring out from his pocket.
“Sorry, got to go. I’ll tell you later. I really am sorry,” Robbie had one last lingering look at Claire, before turning and walking away, holding his iPhone to his ear.
It wasn’t long before Claire realised Melissa had ditched her, but she soon found a note with apologies written over it. Claire’s perfect posture slumped as she read that Melissa wouldn’t be coming to their sleepover next weekend.
So Claire returned home and got into bed. A sleepless night would surely follow.

If this doesn't make sense carrying on from the last bit you might have missed out a section!!

Chapter 5
Ryan’s birthday passed quickly, and so did the following week of school. Well, apart from the times when Claire silently willed the clock to tick by faster in Art, Spanish and Maths. (They were still doing Algebra) Then, all of a sudden, Claire was preparing for Tabby to come over for their sleepover. Tabby had been dodging Claire all week long, the only time she had spoken to Claire was when they were put together for gym. All Tabby asked was if Claire had a good weekend, and if Claire would pass her a ball from the P.E. storage room. The rest of their gym lesson was spent in a melancholy silence.
Claire almost jumped out of her window when she heard the front door bell ring. Preparing herself for silence, she blasted the latest chart music from her iPod speakers. A pair of strangely eager footsteps travelled up the stairs and burst into Claire’s room. Two arms full of a truckload of dusty books dumped them down onto Claire’s newly vacuumed floor, sending dust and minuscule torn fragments of paper to rest on the carpet.
“I have a secret!” Tabby exclaimed, “You can’t tell anyone, OK?” Tabby had a mischievous glint in her eyes, opening one of the larger, musty books from the gigantic pile.
“OK. Here goes nothing.” Tabby took a breath, sitting cross-legged like a primary school child.
“I’m a witch.”
Claire seemed stuck in a stunned silence. “You’re joking, right?”
“Uh, no,” Came the reply. Tabby then commanded, “Watch.”
Unzipping her coat, Tabby revealed a large white dove that flapped and flew up and around Claire’s room.
“I’ve seen loads of magicians do that trick,” Was Claire’s answer.
“Ok, what about this?” A sudden, strong blast of icy wind blew the pages from the slightly damp books everywhere.
“It’s supposed to be really windy today,” Claire frowned defiantly.
“Where’s the dove gone then?” Tabby just wasn’t going to give up, much to Claire’s annoyance.
“It flew out the window! Duh,” Claire, for a split second, thought Tabby was actually going insane.
“But the window’s closed.” Tabby protested. “Here, I know how I can prove it. Your music, what song is it playing?” Tabby had her dark brown eyes closed, concentrating.
“Erm, it’s at the end of Moves Like Jagger. Why?” Claire was starting to feel a little freaked out.
“Because the next song is Stereo Hearts, and then it is No Regrets. After that it is… Party Rock Anthem, then What Do You Take Me For. Then there’s some more Pixie Lott, and th-”
“OK! I get it, you memorised my iPod track list. Good joke, Tabby, but it’s over now.” Claire always had to see the logical explanation to everything.
“But your iPod’s on shuffle mode. It’s on random selection, so how can there be an order to that?” Tabby was unusually serene and calm for someone who was being accused of pretending. Claire jumped to her feet to find that her iPod was in shuffle mode. She sat back down in a dazed confusion, thinking and thinking and thinking. Both of the girls jumped when Adam Levine suddenly started singing Stereo Hearts. Just like Tabby had predicted. They both sat in silence some more, and some more. Adam’s voice faded away to No Regrets. Just like Tabby had predicted. Now Claire was really freaked out.
“You’re a witch.” Claire breathed, as Party Rock came on.
“Finally! It only took an iPod, some songs and about twenty minutes of our lives for you to realise!” Tabby was cut off from saying any more because Claire was hugging her too tightly. It was hard for Tabby to breathe.
* * *
The two families battled for centuries before calling a truce. They would split half and half. But this wasn’t to be the end of the quarrels.
“That’s the end of it,” Tabby announced. “We just read ‘The most important knowledge a witch will ever know’ But it doesn’t tell you the family names. Weird.”
“Hmmm. Sounds like myth or legend more than knowledge.” Claire tilted her head to the side. “But I suppose if you’re a witch, how many other legends are possible? Vampires? Dragons? Fairies? Werewolves?”
Tabby wrinkled her eyebrows. “I’m not sure. There’s nothing about them in my books.
“Where did you get your books from anyway?” Claire asked. She was pretty sure that the local library wouldn’t have them in stock, especially not when they were that ancient, dusty and detailed.
“I was clearing out and looking through boxes in the attic and I found a whole shelf full of them. I’m being serious, they were all on a creepy old bookcase, with loads of strange, exquisitely detailed carvings in it.”
Claire nodded. That made sense, Tabby had a new baby sister on the way so the attic was to be cleared out and decorated as Tabby’s new bedroom. Claire was really jealous; she had been wanting a nice big bedroom for ages. Tabby’s attic was massive. Claire only knew this because as a dare last year, she had to spend ten minutes in the attic, with the spiders and dead flies. Her friends were adamant that there should be no torches, but Claire had smuggled one up anyway.

Moving along nicely now Squach. And what a great line ( hate you for it); "It only took an iPod, some songs and about twenty minutes of our lives for you to realise!" I want to have written that line!
I coninue to despair that you write this well Squach. Keep it coming so I can be just as annoyed and crabbit at how well the next one is written too!

Only just noticed your comment, Petty. Sorry...

Well I got just over half of my word count goal - (5,000 and a bit words out of my 10,000 goal)

I had a lot of other things going on like school homework projects so it was quite hard but at least it tried!

Excuses excuses