The Dark And Despair Of A Math Midterm-

School has just let out for summer. John has daily chores to complete to help his dad with the workload of the ranch. John liked the work on the ranch he had a love for the land and the horses. Between his girlfriend, mom, and sisters john felt overcrowded with women and wanted to be away from them. When john got into the truck to leave he tells his friend “...Women! Between Kelsey my sisters and my mom I haven’t had a peaceful minute in weeks!” John was ready for a change of scenery.

Outside, a deep silence fell over the neighborhood. This silence crept into every household. Members of the community had a guise of anger and pain expressed on their faces. Everyone locked themselves inside, to lament such a tragedy that has brought sorrow to a twelve years old’s family. Parents fell on their knees with tears in their eyes. This last murder represented the final straw. So many of their own had been murdered by the malicious, metallic, monsters that were supposed to be the defenders of their community. They felt insecure, threatened by the

“Well I would say goodnight, but I don’t like you.” I pulled out and she sat back down, with tears streaming down her face. I drove through little communities listening to the radio and eating the food I saved. I arrived in Reno, Nevada at 7:00 a.m. My bloodshot eyes told me I needed to rest, even for a few hours, but I’m going to see my daughter. I was low on gas, but I decided to take the risk of going up the mountain on the way to Tahoe. The tree’s became a blur as I pushed the pedal. The warm summer light beaming onto the road before me. The pine trees smell blessed my nose.

I sighed as I laid down my bulky big bag that I had packed the night before. Who knew that Florida could be so HOT. I decided to go for a swim right then and there, was that my mom yelling at me. It was,“Charity Berkheimer, if you do not come down here in five minutes we are leaving without you,”no! They can not leave without me. Where are we going anyway, it did not matter then. I just grabbed my blue one piece and dashed out the door.

Arnold shook his head, and Connie found herself in the jalopy’s passenger seat. She turned around and her house was fading into a little speck. All she could remember was that her parents were supposed to be home in a few hours, and just a few minutes ago, just a mile or two back home, just a tick and a tock away, she could feel her chest heaving and her stomach twisting right behind a screen door with her eyes staring right into Arnold Friend’s face. Now, Arnold was sitting right next to her, humming Connie’s favorite

She stood in front of stores and admired the things in them, spending about ten minutes viewing sofas through a glass and playing back what she has been wishing for. The opportunity she has been waiting for, the reason she woke up at dawn in Tepoztlan to go up North with Candido, the comfort she wished for and everything Candido promised her was right in Canoga Park. She feels right at

I heard soft footsteps coming for my door. Knock, knock. “Come in,” I sighed. My mom opened the door and walked over to my bed. I could smell her sweet perfume, and was overwhelmed with a feeling of content. “Madison, my cell phone is out of minutes for the month and I need to call somebody about an ad on craigslist. It won’t be long, sweetheart.” Tony always paid her phone bill, and they were on the same contract. My feeling of content faded into disappointment. I argued with my mom for a short moment, and soon realized it was not worth it. I handed over my shiny, yet beat up purple flip phone. Mom, looking a little guilty, strolled out of my room. I decided to follow her so that I could help myself to some dinner. Holding my phone in her hand, my mom, almost skipping, made it down the stairs and out the front door in record time. “Why is she going outside to make a phone call?” I asked myself. I searched the fridge and the cupboards for any sign of food that actually looked good to me. I didn’t find anything, so I huffed to myself and turned out of the deserted kitchen and back up the stairs. Instead of going into my dreadfully boring room, I walked into my sister’s room. “Madison, what the hell? Why don’t you ever knock?” Sydnie asked, accusingly. “I’m sorry,” I wasn’t sorry, “I just can’t find anything to eat and I’m bored. And Mom is outside on the phone with some person about something. My phone.” Syd squinted at me with her soft blue eyes through her freshly dyed black hair and her heavy dark eyeliner. She had been busy typing away on the Acer laptop she’d gotten for Christmas months before. She took her eyes off me and focused back onto the screen of her laptop. I stood there in her doorway sluggishly for minutes before she finally lifted herself out of her twin size bed and made her way through her messy room. I can’t remember a time when Sydnie’s room was clean. She

“Her room, where she could always find comfort and consolation. But her room, too, had been ruined. She had loved that room, the predominance of blue, her favorite color. And all her favorite things. Her special glass menagerie of frogs and puppys and kittens. The posters on the wall-New Kids and Bruce and messages like after the rain, the rainbow, so many posters that her father said he could have saved the price of wallpaper if he’d known about her poster madness. The room was her turf, her refuge, her hiding place. Where she could close the door and shut out the world, the C- in math- the worst mark of her life- the zits popping out all over her face, the agony of Timmy Kearns ignoring her after the first date. Her place of retreat to which she admitted only Patty and Leslie, with standing orders for

Her bedroom was drabby and dark. Over to the right, a bookshelf, with stories she’s read a million time, and over to the left, her dresser. With more books. Books were her fantasyland, her escape from reality. Worlds she could travel to whenever she wanted, and leave whenever she felt like it. Which was never, really, but all stories come to an end and you must leave no matter what.

She walks to the centermost oak tree near Mason Hall, she finally has found the perfect shady spot on an 80-degree day. She passes the boy from her Psychology class and gives him a small smile. She’s taking a journey to a jungle she doesn’t normally observe, a place where many humans and animals inhabit. There isn’t a breeze and the air feels drier than usual. The Diag seems unfriendly today, as she sits down she’s nervous of her surroundings. She plants herself on a somewhat clean patch of grass and pulls out her shiny laptop. She is reading “Werner Herzog’s Conquest of the Useless” for her freshman English class. As she dives her way into the reading she starts to think about where she is, what is going on around her, and the journey that she is on. A bushy red squirrel approaches her, she’s confused why it’s coming so close and quickly gets up to escape its presence. “Why in the world is this squirrel so close to me” she thinks to herself. The girl moves from the tree but as she get up she starts to notice specific details she hasn’t before.

Lilly glanced down the row of cars all parked up under the trees. A chill moved through her. She brought her knees up to her chest, pressed her thighs against her rib cage and let her head sink down. She needed to find a place to stay. She needed somewhere to sleep and she needed to be able to get ready tomorrow to make sure Bobby saw her looking hot again. Because he would kick himself once he saw her all made-up in a nice dress and nice shoes. He’d feel pretty dumb for avoiding her this last year over a stupid pair of flip-flops. But how was she going to be that girl who turned his head if she spent tonight sleeping rough? Lilly closed her eyes and tried not to let it upset her. Puffed up eyes was the last thing she

A young girl shook nervously at the sight of the wide tides of her family's privately owned ocean side. She herself had lived in this familiar place for over eleven years... Why was she so scared to do this? She sighed underneath her shaky breath and made her way towards the waves, dragging her surfboard closely with her. When she reached the area she was greeted by her father, A strong but yet still a goofy professional surfer. When he saw his daughter has finally pushed back her peers, he smiled and walked towards her. "How ya doin' pumpkin?" she stared at him with glassy eyes before replying."I'm fine, I guess." her voice was dry. The man simply shook his head and bent down towards her. "Amber." He said with a serious tone, "I want you to go out and surf like you mean it... Just

Jane, a young teenager living in a meager town in Florida, spends the majority of her summer days in her family’s modest beach house. After

The sound of the crashing waves surrounding me, and my family yelling "Run Lauren!" filled the air as I stood in awe of this wave heading straight toward me. My family decided to take a trip to Los Angeles, California to visit family, and the popular landmarks the state holds. I was excited to visit the beach because I had never encountered the ocean or the tropical climate before. I had never seen the ocean before so my excitement to go to the beach overflowed. While we were in California we had the opportunity to visit the beach but due to a tight time schedule, we did not have the opportunity to spend much time at the beach. The day we went seemed perfect to go, but with only a limited time frame to go, we did not have the opportunity to

As Connie got into the car she felt a wave of grief. She couldn’t get away from the invisible gates surrounding and trapping her as if she were a hunted animal. The ride seemed like a journey, going on forever and ever. Trying to pry information causally, Connie would ask Arnold ,” Where are you taking me?” Arnold just turned around and gave her that sleepy smile of his and , “Don’tcha worry ‘bout a thing honey. You are safe with me.” His smile, that reassuring yet mysterious smile quenched her longing for home and diminished the thought of how her family would think about the absence of their youngest daughter. It seemed to mask her thoughts of how how her cold mother and father would react seeing the their screen door wide open and the music that Connie listened to