Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Leaving School (part 1)

Chapter 1: "Alright everyone, I'm passing out your new schedules." Mr. Lauer called out. I was in fifth hour, Algebra, sitting sideways in my chair so I could talk to my friend Chloe and her boyfriend Matt. Everyone was tense and distracted because as soon as school got out, Thanksgiving break would begin! "I hope I have classes with you guys!" Chloe said frantically. She had been stressing out about her new schedule all day. "I'm sure we will," Matt said as Chloe sat down on his lap and motioned for him to massage her shoulders. "

That feels so good babe," Chloe moaned. "My thighs are sore from practice. You can massage there too, if you want." She giggled as he complied.

I rolled my eyes and turned around in my chair.
"Here ya go Teagan!" Mr. Lauer said startling me and handed me my schedule. As I scanned it I could hear Chloe and Matt receiving theirs. "Oh! no! We don't even have lunch together!" I could hear her exclaim. "Hmmmm," I muttered to myself. "Spanish, Choir, Science, Late Lunch, English, History...."
"Teagan!!!!!!?????" Chloe was standing behind me looking down at my schedule. "Oh T! We don't have any classes or lunch!!"
I made a sad puppy face at her. "NOT EVEN LUNCH!" she yelled.

"Chloe, seriously you don't even eat with me! You eat with all your new friends." I made another sad face.
"You don't even eat with me!" said Matt from across the aisle. "Those people aren't really my friends." Chloe chuckled like i was a clueless young child (yes, she chuckled).
"You always hang out with them. Therefore the are your friends." I stated.
"Not reaaaaaaaaally!" Chloe said still smiling and shaking her head.
"Yeah they are." Matt backed me up. "You bring them to all my Hockey games. I mean, what about Paige, Hannah, Linsy, Heather, Shelly, Meghan, Sanna, Quianchi, Lily-"
Chloe cut him off and went on one of her spastic rampages.

I stopped listening and started putting away my books when she started shrieking about how "We were her only real friends!"
Yeah right...
The bell rang. "How 'bout we hang up over break." I suggested as we shoved our way out the door. "Of course Babe!" Chloe called and as she was whisked away by her "friends" Shanay and Alexa. In the hall everyone was comparing schedules, pushing each other into lockers, laughing and all the usual bustle. I rushed down the stairs with Matt.

We were talking about our favorite things too eat on Thanksgiving as my friend Hallie emerged out of a side door. "Hallie!" I cried. At the same time as she yelled, "Teagan!"
We jumped around in the rush waving our schedules at each other, me shouting things like "Choir second hour!" and "You got late lunch??"

She was shouting things like "Did you see my new Polyvore set?" and "Interesting shirt...."
In a few minutes time we were on the second floor walking to the auditorium where Hallie was auditioning for Hairspray. "Break all of your bones!" I said as she went into the auditorium. "Happy Thanksgiving!" she called back. I went down the stairs showing my schedule to passing friends. It wasn't exactly like leaving for Christmas vacation but people were generally in the holiday mood.
Once at the bike rack, I gawkily mounted my bike. I wobbled around through a mass of people headed for the buses but eventually made it safely onto the sidewalk. Whenever I ride my bike it'ss a good opportunity to practice singing for my upcoming choir exams.

"Bonnie the Banks and Bonnie the Braes, Purple the Highland view! Sparkle the sun from Loch-Lo-MOND! Wild and rugged and trueeeee!" I belted then trailed off when I got some odd looks from kids I rode by, but soon enough I had reached my destination.
I was at Lobo's house. Lobo was a dear friend, I could talk to him about anything. I'd known him since I was nine. His Dad, our family friend Eric, had rescued him from the woods when he was a pup. Then he'd needed a dog walker. One thing lead to another and soon enough I was walking Lobo twice a week.
"Hi Eric!" I said as I walked into the house. "Hey Teagan, how was your Tuesday?" Eric was sitting at the kitchen table making and then erasing a list. "Pretty good," I replied. "You?"
"Stressed. I'm making the Thanksgiving shopping list." he said wiping the sweat of his brow. "Meeting the new in-laws tomorrow," he added. After chatting for a few minutes I walked out the door with frisky 7 year old Lobo. It was a gray dreary day and wet leaves kept falling in my hair. I smiled at the sky. I was happy.

Home Sweet Home (part 2)

Part Two (rough rough draft) : “That’s sooo annoying!” I was headed back towards Eric’s house a good 40 minutes later. My friend Piper had called and she was in a bad mood.
“I know,” she said moodily. “Ten dollars wasted! They could have easily not included it!”

Piper and some friends from her theater group, Young Peoples Theater, had paid for an ad, about their new play, in our high school newspaper. Then the newspaper had come out later than expected, after the play had finished running. Piper was telling me about the stupid editors that wouldn’t give her a refund. I was actually in the newspaper and had tried to see what I could do about it, but had had no luck. “It was probably Ms. Wargo’s fault.” I said.

Ms. Wargo was the newspaper representative and we both had classes with her. Ms. Wargo seemed to be becoming our permanent scapegoat. “I didn’t even get a paper I was so disgusted!” Piper continued.
“When you come to terms with your anger you can have mine,” I said reassuringly. “Okaaaaaay. Ummm....Gotta go T! Happy Thanksgiving.” She said. I could hear her Dad shouting in the background; “Piper, do you want to go to Chicago or not?!?!”
“Have fun in the Prairie State!” I called as she hung up.
I jogged up Eric’s driveway with Lobo at my side. Eric was getting into his purple Bug with a grin on his face and a completed shopping list in his hand. I waved as he drove off.
The ride home was an interesting one. It only took several minutes but I rode past lots of different scenery. I went past Vet’s Park, a fancy chop house, a cheap grocery and a party shop with wasted guys sprawled against it’s back wall. Then past a foot clinic and some boring office building everyone ignored. I turned off of busy Dexter road and onto my little dirt one.
My house was warm yellow with green trim and a double lot yard. We had a little red barn garage that I’d wanted to be my bedroom, but my parents hadn’t wanted to pay for insulation, heating and floors.

The house smelled of cabbage and quinoa as I walked in the back door, we never used the front one. “Hi Lucy,” It was my grandmother. Grandmother Bet, as I’d called her since I was little. She pinched my butt in a friendly “Hello” sort of way. I flinched.

Grandmother Bet was a very in shape young looking 70 year old. Sure, she’d gotten her share of face lifts, Botox injections, etc. She had over come breast cancer several years ago, so that counted for something!
I sat down and started to do my homework on a kitchen stool, as she launched into a story about her cruise ship dancer friend, Enrique. It had a very complicated plot; involving a dance class, her ex-husband’s girlfriend, Melissa and some punch with vodka in it. I nodded my head and said “NO WAY?” a lot, but I was in the world of Math.
“Grandmother Bet?” I interrupted, “Do you know what a direct variation is? It’s Algebra I.”
“Well, I never took Algebra.” She replied matter-o-factly “I just took Math. No geometry, no algebra, no calculus, just Math.”
“Uhhhhhh…” I gave her an odd look.
Just then my mom walked into the room singing some odd “Woman’s Circle Choir” song. “May all being live in harmonyyyyyyy? May allllll beings live in Peace! I am sending you light to heal….” She kept singing. Grandmother Bet and I exchanged a look. I had kind of forgotten the bike incident a few hours before.
Just then my phone rang.
“Hey Hallie!” I answered. She started in a rush, “Hey, Guess what?! I forgot my choir stuff! Exams are next week!!!! Can I copy yours? Please?”
“Umm…Yeah-“
“Oh, thanks!” she said.
“I actually need some fundraiser papers printed for me. Could you? Maybe we can get together tomorrow?” I said.
“Let me check!” she said. I heard her little brother Allen shriek in the background and a few crashes and bangs. “It’s fine for you to come!” she said rather breathlessly. “Can you come at twelvish?”
“Sure,” I replied. “Oh, Hallie I have a really funny story to tell you.”

About 25 minutes later

“Hallie! Are you even listening to me?” she hadn’t spoken in a while. “Not really…” she said launching into one of her famous guffaw.
“Heehahohahee!” I imitated her. “Goodbye!” I hung up the phone.


At the dinner table my twelve year old brother amused my Dad and Grandma immensely by eating out of his bowl like a dog. Mom and I were not amused. “So immature.” I said breezily. My mom looked at my Dad, who was giggling with my grandmother, and nodded in agreement.
“Okay everyone,” my Dad said after the laughter subsided. “Tomorrow we need to get up on the early side. Jason and his girlfriend Frida are arriving around seven in the morning. Carmen is arriving sometime tomorrow to help with the cooking. Nicky and Polly will both arrive on Thanksgiving. Get it? Got it! Good.”
My Dad nodded at us and then started clearing the table. Grandmother Bet got up to help. “Henry wait,” she said to my Dad. “Who are all these people!?” she looked bewildered. Usually she was young seeming and very with it, but she had her old lady moments.
“Suze didn’t tell you?” my Dad looked surprised. “Well, Jason’s my nephew. He and Frida, his girlfriend, are about 25. They’re coming out from California to visit us and Frida’s family…” they walked off into the kitchen. "Carmen's an old friend from work. Really friendly.....she'll bring orderves." He went on.

I glanced at my mom and brother. “Can I have Ice cream??” Simon asked in an annoying whiny voice. Mom shook her head. “I SCREAM! ICE CREAM! We all SCREAM for ICE CREAM!” he repeated the chant several times. “We don’t all scream for it, only you do.” I said.

Later that evening I watched a movie, with Grandmother Bet, called Circle of Friends. Basically, there are three girls (the friends) who go off to college. The date boys, have affairs, go to Eve’s (one of the girls) cabin, try on ugly dresses and uncover scandals. I honestly couldn’t decide what a thought about it. Grandmother Bet thought it was “sweet” and “darling” and also “adorable”. Although during the movie she got very worked up about their personal problems and held up a steady narrative of life tips, boy advice and swearing.

The Day Before Thanksgiving (part 3)

The next morning I woke up later than expected. It was Simon who woke me.
“T , mom wants you to help her get the turkey.”
Finally I got out of bed, took a shower and got ready for the day. When I went down stairs my mom and grandmother were eating, putting on makeup and looking for their purses.
“Teagan!” my mom said. “I thought you weren’t going to come down. Your grandmother and I are going to get our turkey. Wanna come?”
“Hmmmmm….I am a vegetarian, ya know?”
“Well, so are we.” Grandmother Bet said, making a good point. Plus, I had nothing better to do.
“Okay. I’ll come.”
“It should only take twenty or so minutes.” My mom said once we were in the car. I got bored quickly. We drove past pretty houses and frosty fields for a long long time. Our conversations pretty much consisted of “Oooh! Horses!” and “We should remember that stump as a land mark.” and “Suze, remember that time when you were eight and…”
After about an hour we’d reached a small, free range, organic farm. Mom was saying how the farmer had run for mayor a good 10 years ago and was a very highly respected Michigan citizen. She went on and on about this ladies people skills and life accomplishments.

Finally we pulled into the driveway. My mom and I got out of the car and walked towards a small run down looking farm house. As we approached we saw turkeys roasting in little pits, piles of junk ( rags, machinery, old furniture etc.) and a group of kittens eating a chicken head!

“OhmaGOD mom, they’re eating a CHICKEN HEAD!” I shrieked, just as a woman walked out the door. The woman gave me a hard look. I shuddered and glanced at my mom. She was obliviously examining a potted cactus. The woman cleared her throat and mom looked up.

She came closer and I gave her the “Manhattan Once Over”. She was, to be plain, grimy and gross. Her hair was oily, matted and looked like it hadn’t been brushed in weeks. Her teeth were brown and her face had a yellow tint to it. Here clothes were a whole other story; they were covered in food splotches, dirt and dust. “Ewwwww” I wanted to say. No wonder she hadn’t been mayor.

Sheesh, Teagan! I told myself Don’t be so mean!
It’s true though… I thought.

She and my mom started talking about the turkey. I was getting cold. “Here ya go.” The lady handed me a sack with our 18 pound turkey in it. “When I was your age I gobbled Thanksgiving turkeys up so fast that we had to buy two.”
“I’m actually a vegetarian.” I blurted
“heheheh…” she chuckled as if she thought it was a joke.
“You can take that to the car T.” my mom said.
“Nice to meet you!!!” I turned around and stumbled to the car with this giant dead bird.

When I was little I’d been a vegetarian. Around my fourth birthday I had been diagnosed with SEVERE SEVERE food allergies. Part of our new diet involved us eating meat. My Dad said that after we started the diet, whenever I met someone I’d say “Do you eat dead animals?” I’d always thought that was amusing, but in the last few years I’ve converted back to vegetarianism and sometimes find myself asking “Do you eat dead animals?”

Back in the car with Grandmother Bet, I warmed up and we started talking about previous Thanksgivings. “Never have Thanksgiving with any of your ex-husbands!” she said. She’s had four or five of them. “I don’t plan on having any ex-husbands!” I said indignantly. She laughed and said something about me being so young and naïve. Whatever.
Before going shopping mom and grandmother Bet dropped me off at Hallie’s. “Attack!!!!!!!” Hallie’s eight year old brother, Allen, rammed into me as I walked in the door. “Sorry” Hallie said as she walked into the entryway. “Allen.” She addressed her brother. “LEAVE!!!” Allen stuck out his tongue at us and didn’t leave. “I have the paper’s you need to print. Do you have the science stuff?” Hallie led me through the living room over to the computer. “Yep, I got them!” I said.

We started printing the fundraising papers I needed from her and went into the kitchen. “I’m hungry,” Hallie said “Let’s have cake!!!”
“Good plan. Hey, do you happen to have any mineral water????” mineral water was my all time favorite thing, besides maybe my friends and family. “Yep!”
After generous servings of cake and multiple glasses of mineral water we were laughing and goofing around like the idiots we were. Allen was watching us from the door way and kept rolling his eyes and saying “Silly Girls!!”

Later that afternoon when I got home some guests had arrived, Jason and Frida that is. It’d met Jason’s girlfriends before. They were always pretty, outgoing and charming. Not exactly the prom queen type but most definitely not a nerd or anything of the sort! I saw them lounging on the couch as soon as I walked in. Matt was looking nice as usual grinning his big white grin and Frida as she said something. Frida was big. Not fat, just wide and muscular. She had messy black hair and was eating French fries and coffee. I’d never seen a French fry in our household before! She was wearing sweatpants and a giant tee. She looked nice if a bit intimidating.

It seems that usually my first impressions of people are total crap but this time I hit the bull’s eye .

Meeting Frida (part 4)

Part 4:
“Hi Jason…” I said hesitantly.
“TEAGAN!” He got up off the couch and gave me a warm hug.
“This is my girlfriend Frida.” Hey motioned for Frida to come over.
“Hey! Nice to meet ya.” I said a bit awkwardly and we just stood there for a minute. “So, umm where is everybody?” I asked. Usually when family or guests came everybody was rushing around cleaning and preparing food to the moment our guests arrived. Then everyone crowds around and talks ‘til the guest rushes off to their room.

“We got here earlier than expected. No one was home so we just came in.” he gave me a rueful grin.
“Yeah….So why is nobody here to great us?” Frida said, and not in a jokey way.
“I really don’t know. I’ll call Dad.” I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed.

“Yo!” Dad answered (and not in a fake ghetto way, just in a Dad-ish way.) I explained that Frida and Jason were here. “Ah man! I wonder why they didn’t call! I wanted us all to be home cleaning before they arrived.” He said and I gave the phone to Jason.
Frida snatched it instead and started talking to my Dad.
“So, how was the trip?” I asked Jason, after rolling my eyes at Frida.
“Well, we took the red eye, so tiring... Hey T? Who else is coming for Thanksgiving? Just asking ‘cause Frida likes to know these things ahead of time.”

I looked at Frida. She was still talking to Dad. “No, we just got here a day early. Is that a problem?” She was asking, a bit menacingly.

I turned back to Jason. “Okay, Nicky’s coming. He comes every year. Dad said that he came to his childhood house for Thanksgiving when dad was a kid.”

“Of course I know Nicky!!! He and Grandma Huny were best friends since middle school. I hear those two were quite a pair back in the day. Huny loves telling stories about him and her, when she comes to visit.” Sometimes it was hard to believe Jason was my cousin. He seemed more like a cool young uncle sometimes. It was weird hearing him talk about Huny the same way I would.

Huny was my other Grandma. She was my Dad’s mom and usually came to our house for Thanksgiving. This year she’d gone out to visit Aunt Mary (Jason’s mom) and the rest of the California relatives. It also would have been tough to have Huny and Gr. Bet preparing food, as well as living, in the same household.
“So, anyone else?” Jason asked.
“Yeah! Polly my dad’s old boss is coming.” I leaned in and whispered “She got fired and he took her place.”
“Ahhhh…” he nodded knowingly, then glanced down at my shirt. “T, your shirt is all sticky.” Jason wrinkled nose.

“Oh that. My friend Hallie and I had a cake fight.” I heard a car pull up in the driveway. It was mom and Daniel. “I’ll be back, gotta change.” I said as I left the room. “Great to meet you Frida.”

I examined my self in the bathroom mirror. It was worse than I thought. I couldn’t believe Jason or Frida, hadn’t said something earlier. My hairs was sticky, my shirt was sticky even my face was a bit sticky. Hallie and I had washed ourselves of with wash clothes, but i guess they hadn’t done the job.

I heard commotion and exclaiming from down stairs. To tell the truth I really didn’t want to be down their right now. Our dog, Stewey, walked into the bathroom as I turned on the shower. I jumped in and started eating a bar of soap. He could use a washing too, he practically had a cloud of dirt floating around him.

I came downstairs with Stewey about thirty minutes later. I was mad and he was sad, the usual turnout of me trying to give him a bath. My mom, brother, Dad, Grandma, cousin and his girlfriend were all gathered in the family room talking. “Wow! Yale!” my dad was saying to Frida. “That’s right,” Jason said pulling her into a snuggle.

She looked slightly annoyed. “I’m going to be some type of surgeon.” she said “I just loved being an intern as an undergrad. We’d go into a room to a surgery come out and it’d be done. I just love being able to do things like that for people.” My mom and dad exchanged awed looks.

“I’d totally freak out if I was performing a surgery,” I said from the door way. Stewey padded into the room and sat down on Frida’s feet. He’s not a small dog. “Good to know!” she said in a rude way. I looked at the rest of the family. They apparently hadn’t noticed her snide tone. Jason definitely hadn’t. He was gazing at her proudly. He obviously adored her.

Go with the flow. I told myself.

It was about seven o’clock now. “Maybe we should start making some stuff for tomorrow.” I suggested “I could make the Cornbread Dressing. We should probably make the pies too. Mom, you could make you cranberry, apple, sweet potato dish...” Mom smiled and looked ready to get up.

“Or your cousin could catch up with his family a bit more.” You-know-Who said in that same snide voice. Mom settled back into the couch.
“Alright then.” I replied curtly and spun off into the kitchen. My dad followed.

“Teagan! These are our guests! No need to be so rude!” so maybe I was a tad rude but what was with that Frida girl. It’d preffered Jason’s other girlfriends; like Ashley, Rachel, Beth, Cammy and Michelle. “I’ll start on the cornbread.” I told my dad.

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