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Her Own Hero (Chapter 1)
A girl on a stage, about to perform. She puts the microphone to her mouth. Suddenly, bullets start shooting through the building's wide windows. All of this happening in the pages of her notebook. She wrote a bit, then erased, then doodled a bit then went back to writing. "Hey", he snapped at her. She looked up to see her coach staring at her with the whole team behind him. "We're about to start, put that down", she quickly stuffed the blue notebook into her backpack. "Next time this happens I'll make you run", she nodded with a blank stare on her face and stood up from the bleachers. "Won't happen again sir", she said as loudly as she could.
"Ok, line up on the baseline. Lunges, from there and back, and remember, speed is not the key". She ran to the corner of the line, away from the other girl. She was a really shy girl, quiet for a basketball player. While warming up, some of the girls would whisper to each other, giggle a bit, but stayed strong the whole time.
Ten minutes had passed, practice was two hours long, and they all felt tired already. "Line up on the baseline again, we're doing layups. Run to the other side of the court and shoot one, you miss it, you run. Understand", Coach Andy was a pretty tough coach, but as a teacher, he was really kind and understanding. It was just that he was obsessed with the sport, and failing had never been an option for him. But his toughness and yelling got them to the finals for the basketball championships, and he had them sweating like dogs every day.
Practice was over soon and she was sweating, she had always been a very sweaty person, so this just made it even worse. "Hey, Mel, you enjoy practice", asked Bella, a popular yet very sweet girl. "Extremely difficult", Mel said quietly. Bella would always try to talk to her after practice, she felt bad for Mel. Being a shy girl, no one in practice would ever talk to her, sometimes giving he weird stares.
"What were you drawing in your notebook", finally asked Bella after exiting the locker room with refreshingly, clean clothes. "I wasn't drawing anything, I was just doodling", she partially lied. "Can I see them", she asked with wide, pony eyes. Mel stared walking faster, "No, sorry, see you tomorrow", then she just left the gym.
She was the first one of her team to exit the middle school. Mel was an eight grader at Harrison Middle School. She didn't quite enjoy it, knowing most of her friends were going off to different high schools. She pulled out her ear buds from her pocket and connected them to her phone. Then, the magical words of Queen, blasted into her ears. She began walking, trying to walk to the beat. Both her parents woked full time, so neither could pick her up from practice. It was fine though, she had been doing it since she was eight.
She arrived home. Silent as always. Some pasta was waiting in the fridge for her, "nice", she whispered to herself, being just as quiet when she was alone than with other people. She put it in the microwave, making little beeping noises as she pressed the buttons. "Beep beep beep beeeeep". As she waited for those two minutes and thirty seconds to pass, she pulled out her notebook and silver pencil. Both had been a birthday present from her friend, Kathy. They had known each other since the first grade, so they knew each other like the back of their own hand.
She began to write. The girl yells, "Everyone, get down", and everyone at that concert does. A tall, tall man with few hair jumps in through one of the windows, "Time to die", he says. A very cliché line, sure, but it all felt real to her, she imagined herself in the shoes of her protagonist before, still did. She had never given her a name, never mentioned it in her story, it just didn't feel like it mattered.
The man starts shooting at her and then- beep beep beep beep! Her pasta was ready.
She ate in silence, alone with her thoughts, this didn't bother her though, she liked spending time alone. She used that time to think of more ideas for her story and liked whispering her random thoughts to herself. After she finished eating she went to her room, the only one on the first floor. She sat on her bed, suddenly the thought about going to high school crossed her mind again, at least Kathy's parents had already agreed for her to go to the same high school as her.
She finished her algebra, social studies and art homework. Mel was a smart girl, finishing homework had never been a problem for her falling asleep on the other hand, was a completely different story. It was ten thirty a.m and her parents had already gotten home. They tried to stay quiet, careful not to wake their only daughter, but Mel could hear everything they said. She didn't mind that either, it gave her something to keep her from getting bored. She heard them talk about Tom missing work that day and Carol firing some guy she had never heard of. She then heard them mention Kathy's name, but that was it, didn't hear anything else, they had gone to bed.
© Azul Morales
"Ok, line up on the baseline. Lunges, from there and back, and remember, speed is not the key". She ran to the corner of the line, away from the other girl. She was a really shy girl, quiet for a basketball player. While warming up, some of the girls would whisper to each other, giggle a bit, but stayed strong the whole time.
Ten minutes had passed, practice was two hours long, and they all felt tired already. "Line up on the baseline again, we're doing layups. Run to the other side of the court and shoot one, you miss it, you run. Understand", Coach Andy was a pretty tough coach, but as a teacher, he was really kind and understanding. It was just that he was obsessed with the sport, and failing had never been an option for him. But his toughness and yelling got them to the finals for the basketball championships, and he had them sweating like dogs every day.
Practice was over soon and she was sweating, she had always been a very sweaty person, so this just made it even worse. "Hey, Mel, you enjoy practice", asked Bella, a popular yet very sweet girl. "Extremely difficult", Mel said quietly. Bella would always try to talk to her after practice, she felt bad for Mel. Being a shy girl, no one in practice would ever talk to her, sometimes giving he weird stares.
"What were you drawing in your notebook", finally asked Bella after exiting the locker room with refreshingly, clean clothes. "I wasn't drawing anything, I was just doodling", she partially lied. "Can I see them", she asked with wide, pony eyes. Mel stared walking faster, "No, sorry, see you tomorrow", then she just left the gym.
She was the first one of her team to exit the middle school. Mel was an eight grader at Harrison Middle School. She didn't quite enjoy it, knowing most of her friends were going off to different high schools. She pulled out her ear buds from her pocket and connected them to her phone. Then, the magical words of Queen, blasted into her ears. She began walking, trying to walk to the beat. Both her parents woked full time, so neither could pick her up from practice. It was fine though, she had been doing it since she was eight.
She arrived home. Silent as always. Some pasta was waiting in the fridge for her, "nice", she whispered to herself, being just as quiet when she was alone than with other people. She put it in the microwave, making little beeping noises as she pressed the buttons. "Beep beep beep beeeeep". As she waited for those two minutes and thirty seconds to pass, she pulled out her notebook and silver pencil. Both had been a birthday present from her friend, Kathy. They had known each other since the first grade, so they knew each other like the back of their own hand.
She began to write. The girl yells, "Everyone, get down", and everyone at that concert does. A tall, tall man with few hair jumps in through one of the windows, "Time to die", he says. A very cliché line, sure, but it all felt real to her, she imagined herself in the shoes of her protagonist before, still did. She had never given her a name, never mentioned it in her story, it just didn't feel like it mattered.
The man starts shooting at her and then- beep beep beep beep! Her pasta was ready.
She ate in silence, alone with her thoughts, this didn't bother her though, she liked spending time alone. She used that time to think of more ideas for her story and liked whispering her random thoughts to herself. After she finished eating she went to her room, the only one on the first floor. She sat on her bed, suddenly the thought about going to high school crossed her mind again, at least Kathy's parents had already agreed for her to go to the same high school as her.
She finished her algebra, social studies and art homework. Mel was a smart girl, finishing homework had never been a problem for her falling asleep on the other hand, was a completely different story. It was ten thirty a.m and her parents had already gotten home. They tried to stay quiet, careful not to wake their only daughter, but Mel could hear everything they said. She didn't mind that either, it gave her something to keep her from getting bored. She heard them talk about Tom missing work that day and Carol firing some guy she had never heard of. She then heard them mention Kathy's name, but that was it, didn't hear anything else, they had gone to bed.
© Azul Morales
