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Title: Protectors and Guardians Chapter 1
Description: Chapter one, but theres a preface before


Zinka - March 11, 2007 05:14 AM (GMT)
So this is chapter one of my story. And Summer actually isn't the main character! But since she's such a big part of the story, I wanted to start it with her and Hawk. So enjoy, but make sure to read the preface before. It's not like you're not going to be able to understand the following, but doesn't it just make sense to read the stroy from the very beginning?

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Summer sat in the back row of the classroom closest to the door. Every few seconds her eyes would go from her teacher at the front of the room to the clock behind his head. Sure Summer liked school, but this was her last period so the second the bell rang she wanted to make sure she would be out that door and on to freedom. She heard her English teacher go on and on about some stupid English thing. Summer’s eyes darted to the clock once again. Only a few minutes separated her from the five day weekend. It was the day before the start of Thanksgiving break and pretty much everyone in the school was waiting for those few last minutes to be done with. Everyone it seemed, except her teacher Mr. Lane. He continued to drone on about something that no one really cared about. Whatever he thought was so important could surely wait until Monday, thought Summer.

“So, Summer, the answer would be?” Summer heard through her fierce concentration of time.

Her eyes shot to Mr. Lane. Then they widened when she realized she had been asked a question. “I have no clue…” she admitted. Then she asked suspiciously, “Was there really a question?”

“I just wanted to see if you were paying attention, Summer. This is your junior year, you should really start paying attention if you want to pass and get into a good college,” he lectured. Summer nodded. Of course she understood it all; she just wanted to get onto the break.

“As if it’s going to be hard for Miss I-get-everything-I-want-because-my-daddy’s-rich. She’s going to get into the best school regardless of her grades just because of her family,” Summer heard some guy to the right say.

“It amuses me how jealous you are. Dance my little monkey and do it again,” she told him in bitter sarcasm. He had no right to judge her, especially since he didn’t even know her or anything about her life.

He glared at her. She glared back as if challenging him to do something. He probably would have if the teacher didn’t interrupt.

“Summer and Hawk, stop arguing like children,” Mr. Lane told them sternly.

Summer rolled her eyes but gave a forced smile, though it happened to look quite evil. “Fine,” she told him with that evil smile and a small shrug of her shoulders.

The one who she was arguing with, Hawk, crossed his arms and glared. “Whatever,” he said while still glaring.

“Oh brilliant response,” Summer told him sarcastically while giving an overly done clap.

“Summer, what did I tell you?” Mr. Lane asked.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. The opportunity was just too good,” she told him.

“You know what? Just for that, I’m going to pair you two up,” Mr. Lane said as he walked over to his desk and started writing on a piece of paper.

Summer’s eyes widened. “Pairs? I don’t do the pair thing. I’m more of a loner type person who works alone,” she said, using much emphasis on the word ‘alone’.

“Get over yourself,” Hawk told her with a sigh.

“Shut up. I just don’t like working with people. Especially if they’re people like you,” she told him snidely.

“Well,” Mr. Lane said now standing in front of the class again, “Because of these two, I’m going to give you your semester project now. It’s due sometime after Christmas break, so you don’t have to start it right away – but you may want to.”

“Is it too late for I’m sorry’s?” Summer asked with a glimpse of hope in her voice.

“Yes,” Mr. Lane answered with a smile. He seemed to be enjoying the torment of his students. When Summer cursed to herself, he continued, “Now your projects are due in January, but you have some time in class and time out of school.”

“And the project itself is what?” Hawk asked without really wanting to know.

“I was getting to that if you’d just be patient. The project is a two hundred page story or play, double typed,” Mr. Lane stopped and heard groans and whines coming from his students. A few of them just dropped their heads on their desks in a way to show just how much they disliked the new assignment. “But,” he continued as if what he would say next would somehow make it all okay, “you do get to work in pairs. So if each just take a hundred pages it should be fine. Or better yet, the two of you could actually work together and get it done even quicker.”

“But that sucks!” came one students protest.

“Yeah, that’s just unfair!” came another.

“Yeah, I mean a hundred pages each is just crazy!” yet another student protested the assignment.

“It’s due in like two months, though! And it’s double spaced!” came Summer’s voice, protesting the other student’s protests.

“It’s a hundred pages! It’s going to take us like two years to finish,” someone in the middle of the room claimed.

“Then your just stupid, I’m sorry,” Summer told them in a monotone type voice.

“Okay, okay. That’s enough arguing over the assignment. You’re all going to have to do it whether you like it or not. So just get over it. The only option you all really have right now is do you want who you’ll be working with now, or Monday?” Mr. Lane said, regaining control of his class.

“We have like… a minute of class left,” someone pointed out.

“Then I’ll talk really fast,” Mr. Lane assured them.

“Go ahead. I want to know how many you can manage before the bell rings,” Hawk told him.

“Fine,” Mr. Lane said as he walked over to his desk and picked up a paper to read off of, “Hawk and Summer, Michelle and Stacy, Lewis -” he was then interrupted by the bell’s ringing.

Before Mr. Lane could even think about continuing, half the students were already out in the hallway, Summer included. She waited outside the door for a bit until Hawk came out.

“I was thinking since we got partnered together, we should get started as soon as possible,” she told him as she walked next to him.

He looked at her, “Why?”

Summer gave him a confused look but answered anyway with, “Because it’s an assignment that I would prefer not keeping off. It would be best to just get it done and over with.”

“Fine, where do you want to meet then?” he asked as he stopped next to a locker.

“I don’t know. It’d have to be one of our houses because we couldn’t do it in the library since we can’t talk there. And we really need an idea first.”

“Don’t you think we should wait for full details on the assignment before really starting it?”

“No. We know the general idea of the project, so we should be able to get started with a general idea. The project itself is a two hundred page story. So we need some kind of story idea that both of us can agree on.”

He looked at her. “You really like taking charge of a situation, don’t you?” he questioned.

She gave him a look that basically said ‘duh’. “Obviously so.”

Hawk had been putting away his books in the locker, but Summer hadn’t even noticed – she was thinking about the project already. “So why don’t we meet at your house? Do you have any special family things going on this weekend?” He wasn’t sure if she was from one of those families that had everyone gather together for the holidays. But it seemed a rare find to him to actually see a family together.

“Kind of. We have something to go to on Thanksgiving Day. So since that’s Wednesday, we should get together either tomorrow, or after on Thursday or something.”

“Yeah… Why don’t you just call me, then? I’ll give you my number and you can call me whenever this weekend. I don’t have anything to do on Thanksgiving, so anything’s okay.” Hawk was a bit put off by her forwardness and hoped she didn’t question why he had nothing planned on Thanksgiving. Most people would question it - he had found that out through experience.

“Okay then,” she pulled out a black flip phone and opened it. She started punching a few of the buttons and then asked for his number. He gave the number to her. She flipped the phone closed and shoved it into her pocket. “I’ll call you then and give you instructions to my house and a time to be there,” she said as she started walking back to her locker.

Once she was done putting her books away, Summer walked to the front of the school. Her sister was supposed to pick her up since Summer’s car had broken down earlier in the morning. She saw her sister, walked up to the car and got in.

“Someone’s coming to the house,” Summer told her sister before anything else could be said.

Her sister, August, looked at her. “Good to see you to, Mer. And what would you like me to do about a visitor in our home?”

Summer glanced over at her sister. Gusty and Summer were identical twins, but you couldn’t tell by looking at them. The twin’s hair was naturally blonde, and Summer had kept it as such. But Gusty had decided to change hers to black. Summer’s was also kept long, but Gusty had wanted short hair. But the main difference that made everyone take a second look to see if they were twins was that Gusty wore glasses, though she sometimes traded them in for contacts. Today seemed to be a glasses day, Summer noticed as she saw her sister push the thick black frames up her nose.

Summer rolled her eyes. It was partially at being called Mer because it annoyed her, and partially from her sister being so relaxed about everything. “I need you to hide all your Guardian things, Gusty.”

“All my Guardian things are already hidden in case someone decides to drop by at random,” Gusty reminded her.

“I know, but I need to make sure nothing goes wrong and he doesn’t find out about the Guardianship.”

“Nothing gets out about the Guardianship and you know it. Why are you so worried, anyways? Do you like this ‘he’ or something?” Gusty questioned.

“Does it matter if I do?” Mer questioned with her guard up a bit.

“Of course it does so he can be aware that if he hurts you then he will face the wrath of the older sister,” Gusty told her.

Summer laughed at her sister. “You’re older by what? Like twenty whole minutes?”

“Twenty minutes older, and twenty minutes wiser,” her sister told her.

“Twenty minutes is basically nothing when comparing ages.”

“Twenty minutes can be life or death. People can be born and die in just twenty minutes,” Gusty told her as if she were all knowing.

“Now your just being depressing again, with bringing up death and all,” Mer told her sister.

“Life’s depressing. You’ll get over it.” Gusty assured her sister as she drove out of the parking lot and to their home.


Precision - April 11, 2007 06:29 AM (GMT)
A good start, but don't be so quick to throw in the prologue and the quick mention of guardians. The real fun of science fiction and fantasy (as a reader) is guessing about the rules of the author's world and finding them out little by little.

aleana15 - April 15, 2007 11:38 PM (GMT)
This is a good beginning and a good basis for a promising story.

I agree with Precision though. I think the basis is there but it can be fleshed out a lot more, both the setting and the characters. Build the chapter up slowly so the reader can not wait to read the next chapter.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading the next installment.

:D




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