Get Along

an assignment for Creative Writing that wasn't to horribly bad. i suppose i could expand on it if i wanted and make it into a book but at this moment i don't have the time.

Clara woke up Monday morning. ‘Fabulous,’ she thought, ‘another Monday.’  She got out of bed and made for the bathroom.  An hour later she emerged, looking completely different then she did when she went in, dressed in a blue top and jeans.  She packed her school things, taming the wild papers about the room.  She went into the kitchen and ate breakfast, quickly as it was getting time to be going.  She hurried out the door and was gone to school.

Once arriving at school she hurried through the door and up the stairs.  At her locker she stripped off her heavy jacket and traded last night’s homework for today’s classes.  First period, second period, third period, fourth period; people congregating in groups, some by clique some just to be in a group; humans need other humans.  Clara didn’t belong to any specific clique at school.  She talked to everyone.  Though it seemed that was the way around here.  If you could carry on a decent conversation you could be friends when anyone.

Mostly the people she hung out with were people who didn’t really fit any certain clique either.  They dressed how they wanted using different styles every day.  Even Clara did the same.  One day she’ll dress preppy in layers and designer clothes.  The next she’ll dress emo with blacks and grays and neon colors such as pink or green, the day after that she’ll be the tomboy in jeans and a no fear shirt.

Cliques didn’t really exist here the preppies talked to the druggies and the druggies talked to the emo’s.  It was all pretty social.  Clara had the fortune that she could talk to anyone.  She would just start talking and they would be friends for life.  Today was different.

She went to first period in her usual good mood.  There was a new boy in class today she noticed walking in.  At first glance he seemed the scruffy type.  His hair was shaggy and in disarray.  His clothes were faded and his jeans had a hole in the right knee.  He was sitting by himself as far from the door as physically possible.  ‘Hmm,’ she thought, ‘I should go talk to him, make him feel welcome.’  That was the way Clara was, always trying to put people’s minds at ease anyway she could.

She walked over to the kid.

“Hello,” she said politely.  “What’s your name?”  He looked up startled and just stared not saying anything at all.  She counted to five in her head waiting for a response when he didn’t give one she tried again.  “You must be new.  I’ve never seen you in this class before.”  Still she got no response.  “Well” she said slowly, becoming uncomfortable.  “I’m going to go sit down now as the bell’s about to ring.  You don’t have to sit here all by yourself.  People are extremely friendly here.”  The last finally stirred a response out of him.  His eyebrows rose and he gave a quick ‘ha.’  She tilted her head in confusion.  She thought the people here were nice, but obviously, he hadn’t had any good experiences yet.  “Seriously, just give them a chance.”  She smiled.  “Promise I’ve never found people to be mean.”  As she walked away, she saw him roll his eyes behind her back.  She sat down at her seat feeling hurt and forlorn.  She’d never had such a horrible, horrible meeting in her life.

Clara brooded, thinking of some way to get along with the boy, all morning.  By lunch she was pretty confident all she need was persistence.  No one refused to talk to her, and maybe he was just shy.  That must have been why he was so antisocial and sitting by himself.  ‘I bet he’s by himself at lunch too’ she thought.

She walked into the cafeteria and was proven right. He was sitting in the far corner at a small table, by himself, staring at the wall, automatically putting food in his mouth.  She grabbed her lunch, walked across the cafeteria, and sat with him.  He looked up at her as she sat then rolled his eyes and went back to eating.  She frowned.  That was not shy behavior.

“Just leave me alone.”  He said quietly. ‘He finally spoke’ she thought ‘but not a satisfactory answer.’

“Why?”  She said.  He studied her before he spoke again.

“I don’t want to be absorbed into a tribe just because you were the first one to talk to me…or for what I look like.”  She laughed.

“Who said you had to be with any ‘tribe’ as you call it, just be where you wanna be.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to ignore certain people.”  He looked at his tray a while.

“Alright” he said slowly.  She smiled.

“Alright!”  She laughed again.  “Now let’s try this again, what’s your name?”

“Matthew.”

“Hi Matthew, I’m Clara.”

Author's Note

Please comment good or bad I want them!

Reviews

[GoodIntentiionz]

Hmm. Not THE MOST intriguing story, but it was good nonetheless. The story itself seemed lacking something, but I saw that you wrote it for a Creative Writing class. So I understand that you may not have put your ALL into it. It may not exactly be the story you like writing.
(Sorry, am I being too critical?)

Now, the way you wrote it. There was some grammatical errors, maybe instead of putting the character's thoughts in ' ', they should be in italics. And I think that's it.

What I fail most to put in my reviews are POSITIVE THOUGHTS. While I may not like this kind of story, this genre, I still liked the skill you have when writing this story (if that makes any sense) :D

Great job.