Rough Draft Short Story

It was a warm mid-september day and I was preparing to go horseback riding for the very first time. I was celebrating my bestfriend’s birthday with her family and a couple other friends. On the ride over you could feel the jitters in the air and the excitement to try something new. We arrived to Bobby’s Ranch in Westford MA and settled on petting some of the other animals. It was all very bizarre, almost movie-like. We joked around about rookie mistakes and wondered how many of us were going to fall under it’s trap. The ride was scheduled to be an hour long, through the woods and in an orderly fashion. I got on top of a platform and was instructed on how to get up on the saddle and how to use the reins to guide the horse. The birthday girl

It was a normal day in New York city. I was playing basketball with my friends in the park. When I went up for a dunk, and I got fouled and flipped around and snapped my leg. My friends were saying “get some help now.” While was setting down on the floor crying, holding my leg. When my friends called the ambulance for help.

Have you ever had those days when you felt like you could no longer make it? Those days when you felt down for the count, and as though no one understood or had you back. In that instant, you wailed! Then you stopped and thought to yourself, I’m stronger than this, and the only way out was if you made a way out.

I wasn't planning on coming back quite so soon, and who knows, I may not truly be back because I am, in fact, still pursuing other avenues of my life, avenues that take up a considerable amount of my time, especially during the holiday season, and then Paris...

I had lacrosse practice on the hottest day of summer. The best day was going to jump off a cliff and die. Practice was done and I was hungry for food. I got in my mom’s car and asked my mom to go somewhere and get some food. We went to Taco Bell. I finished and was ready to go home and get a shower. We were going down the road and suddenly my mom got a phone call from my aunt. As soon as my mom started to talk to my aunt she started to cry and break down. She

I sit here at my career center feeling the tension of having to pull more weight than the guy next to me and all I have thoughts of is its time to cash in my flex days and get away. If I have to hear one more conversation about real tree apparel I will surely go insane. I needed a fix for this never- ending case of the Mondays, I quickly turn my attention to the brigade of travel sites all designed to allure me with last- minute deals, cheap getaways. I normally resist the temptation to engage in a spur of the moment decision, but I?m on edge today and on the other hand it?s time to let the rest of the office pull their own weight and a little of my workload for once. If there is such a thing as poetic justice in life, this is clearly one of those times.

I hold the paper in my hands. It’s crumpling under my grip, but in it I get to live in the footsteps of others. My old dress is wrinkled and torn much like the paper, but I can’t spare the money on a new one. As much as I try to focus on the crinkled piece of paper with scrawly handwriting, I can’t. I just can’t. Tears run down my face and I wipe them away. It has been awhile since I have cried, so long in fact that I was afraid that there was something wrong with me. I push myself up from the old oak I sit at the base of. There’s no use in dwelling in what I can’t change. I fold the paper back in my dress pocket and walk into the field. I used to think there was beauty in the way that the grass grows in the street; standing low next to the

I awoke that morning in my usual groggy state. The sun was adding a familiar warmth to my room as I got out of bed to get ready for the school day. It was to be a routine day with the exception of one thing. A certain emptiness was apparent in my house as I walked downstairs. I could see the area where my 20-year-old brother, Drew had slept. It was obvious, as he is my most disorderly brother, that he had already left. He hadn’t even had enough time to make the bed or clean up after himself. Drew was on his way to Georgia to join the Army and I could not do anything to change his mind, nor did I want to. After being at NDSU for one year, Drew had decided that college was not for him. Soon enough, he was preoccupied with all things Army. Drew met with an Army scout and was soon

¨Hopefully I get a midget horse¨ I thought as we pulled into the ranch. As I opened the car door, I heard the thunderous THUMP THUMP of horses hooves. ¨Oh God¨ I thought as my stomach turned into a knotted ball. Soon we were greeted by one of the ranch hands and were taken to a dinky shed to get suited up and sign waivers. Then came saddling time. We were taken to the horse pen where we were greeted by the stench of horse manure. I spied out a smaller horse around five to six feet tall and hoped to get that one as my horse. Shure enough my grandma got that horse as she is the shortest. I spied out yet another horse on the shorter side and hoped to get that one. My turn to get saddled came next and sure enough, with my luck, I get the second

My stomach twisted and scrunched up into knots after gazing up at the structure. The dreaded day had finally come: the day that I would conquer the high ropes course at summer camp. As a fourteen-year old girl who was frightened by heights of any kind, strapping on a harness and climbing up a bunch of shaky poles and shivering wires was definitely the last thing I wanted to do. Nonetheless, peer pressure got the best of me, so in order to satisfy my friends and to avoid being teased, I made the decision that I would climb up the ropes course no matter how much the voice in my head screamed at me to stop.

Can you see the handsome young man sitting by my side, driving through the forest, behind the wheel of his decaying truck?

One of my Best friends Cheyenne turned 17 over spring break. I couldn’t make it to her birthday party so to make it up to her she slept over for two days and I surprised her with a trip to knots berry farm. She was ecstatic! Her excitement was contagious and as soon as we stepped through the gates of knots berry farm we got on any ride with a 15-40 minute wait no matter how many loops, twists, or turns it had. We craved the thrill. Although there was one ride that intimidated us both… it was the Supreme scream.

The door, the door was the first thing that I remember, radiating with the Southern Utah heat. It was more than just a door; however, but more of a portal, transporting me from the red sandstone beauty that I was so commonly surrounded by, to a drab hallway. Brightly lit, but still duller than the beating sun. The smell, musty and hot, did nothing to calm my nerves, and the hundreds of desperate people did nothing to help that situation either. It was an odd experience for me walking into my first audition, well that is, my first audition not in front a close friend or neighbor

“Every time I’m in the arena all my troubles go away. The only thing that matters is the horse.” –Unknown

Wiping my tears from my wrinkled face, I put together all the pieces. It was like I just received a huge slap to the face, how did I not see this before? I clutch onto the diary, knowing it holds what my family went through behind closed doors. This ugly truth is the reality that I have been missing.