Twisted Twelfth

"Wait! Stop!   My dress is caught! Come back!" 

Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs, but she knew it was no use, they were gone.  The resounding click of the spiraling staircase confirmed her dread.  She slowly freed her long skirt from the rose bush then stood up.

  She spun on the cobblestone pathway lifelessly, cloaked in shadowy moonlight.  The sight of her dancing could overwhelm anyone with joy or sadness, but no one was there to watch.   Through her tears she didn't see the golden palace turn black, or the warm light of the lanterns in the trees turn ominous.  When she finally looked up, the world was no longer beautiful.  It was a world of darkness and pain, like a burned face beneath a gilded mask. 

She barely recognized the place that had once been her escape.  With a sinking feeling, she realized that this was the world's true nature.  She looked around at the twisted trees and at the dark waters of the once glistening lake.  The world radiated darkness.  Her courage was consumed by fear and she shrunk back towards the jeweled forest.  Whispering voices slithered through the cool night air. 

"We're coming…we're coming for you…don't be afraid Lizzy…we won't hurt you…don’t be afraid…we're your friendssss.  Remember… we're commingcomingcomingcoming," the raspy voice hissed.

Elizabeth felt a snake slither down her spine as she realized that no one was there.  The trees seemed to look down on her and the black sky seemed to be closing in.  Ravens mocked her with their jeering calls as she fell to the ground.  She lay there in terror, sobbing into the dirt. 

Her innocent nature led her in to listening the dark voice.  She felt the darkness enter her soul, crushing the life within her.  She lay on the ground gagging and gasping for air.

"You fool girl.  You honestly believed me?  Oh don't worry, with that little sense, you would have died soon anyway," The cruel voice laughed. 

A dark hooded figure stepped out from the malevolent woods.  He threw back his hood, revealing a young face.  Through the mangled features, Elizabeth could just barely make out the face of the knight that had been watching them before. 

"Surprised, are you.  Well, let's make this quick.  Any last words," he paused.

"No," she replied, seemingly deep in thought.

"Hmm…Alright then,"  The Knight unsheathed a gleaming dagger.

Just as he plunged it through her heart she through the contents of a small crystal vial down his throat.  The healing water washed way the evil that coursed through his veins.  Realizing what he had done, he dropped down beside her.  He lay his head on her heart and saw that it was still beating, but was quickly fading.  He knew that there was nothing that he could do to save her.  He lay beside her making his final decision.  Then in the fading twilight he stabbed himself through his own heart and lay there to be forever joined with her. 

Sports Stereotypes

In the world of sports there is a lot of stereotypes.  Some sports, such as football and basketball are considered athletic by almost all Americans, but others like cheerleading and dance get almost no credit at all.  People never seem to realize that these sports use the same amount of skill.  The latter mentioned sports require just as much or more physical ability. 

Even though football is one of the most recognized sports, it requires very little skill.  Players just use force to pin each other to the ground while a ball is moved in to an end zone on the field.  Muscles are being worked, but not with control.  Imagine a pro football player; how does he look.  First, this person is most likely tall and wide.  This is because in the game you use your body as a sponge, absorbing the power of the other player.  Next, notice his muscles, this man is 200-300 pounds of sheer force.  How hard can it be to shove someone to the ground when you are this strong.  This game doesn't require much ability.  It's like a team of sumo wrestlers on a battlefield. This "sport" requires little ability and no flexibility or muscle control. 

Unlike football, there are many more wholesome sports.  One can even be found quite near to a football team.  Cheerleading.  This sport is not the stereotyped, supermodel thin blonde girl, but a difficult physical sport.  Cheerleaders need strength to lift each other in to the air.  They have to have strong arm muscles, but also leg and core strength.  To stand in the air, only supported by people's hands you need balance.  You also need to be able to hold all of your muscles incredibly stiff and have perfect focus.  People say that the cheers themselves are stupid, but they do use skill.  You have to have great timing and coordination.  Cheerleading also includes tumbling.  For this you need lots of muscle control.  You also need lots of arm and leg strength.  Like dancers, cheerleaders can't have bulging muscles like football players, it interferes with their movement.  Your body weight needs to be balanced to perform correctly and precisely.  Doing such an intense workout for over an hour takes endurance.  To build up these skills, cheerleaders do lots of conditioning.  This includes running a mile, upper body exercises, intense core work, and lower body exercises, like suicide sprints.  This sport seems easy, but it really is more than meets the eye.  

Now that you have seen the true physical aspects, let's look at the mental ones too.  Cheerleading uses teamwork and moves as one unified person.  In football at any level beyond high school, teams are competing within themselves to be the best player.  This an unhealthy atmosphere and an unkind environment.  Cheerleading promotes people to be the best as possible and to push yourself to become even better.  Football tells you to be better than everyone else.  How great is that!  With this charisma, I don't know how football is still a desirable sport.  Football is competitive and aggressive while cheerleading promotes trust and unification.  Cheerleading is a much healthier sport mentally.

Technically, cheerleading is a much better sport.  So why does football get all of the credit?  A lot of this is caused by stereotyping.  People guess that because football players are bulkier and bulging with muscle, they are more physically fit.  Many people also believe that boys are always better at sports than girls.  This is not true.  Since a few individuals have built this stereotype, people tend to believe that everyone is the same.  This makes them prejudiced against girls, and people that play "girly" sports.  If people weren't prejudiced, sports like dance and cheerleading would get a lot more credit. 

Crimson Mist

The burning tears rush down her cheeks; a river of sadness

The burning lies; clouding her past, singing her future

The burning pain sears her thoughts; a deadly fire

 The sorrow floods over her mind, numbing her senses

The sorrow washes away the fear, the only thing holding her back

The sorrow changes her, innocence gone, only anger is left

The sliver blade is unsheathed; never to return to its home

The silver blade shivers; a trace of doubt in her mind

The silver blade is thrust forward, plunging deep, hitting its mark

The blood surges forward; a raging river is unleashed

The blood seeps slowly, fighting, maiming the world

The blood stops, but the pain flows on

The mist swirls, and darkness fills the air

The mist colors, and the crimson blood rains

The mist clears, and the deed is done

Pictures of Hollis Woods Character Essay

Imagine how you would feel if you had no one to love.  No friends, no family.  Even the person that is supposed to help you and take care of you doesn't care if your life is miserable.  If this was your life, would you still be the confident, outgoing person that you are today?  In Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, Hollis Woods is an unwanted orphan with one wish; to have a family.  Even though she has been to innumerable foster homes over the last twelve years, no one has ever shown Hollis love.  Hollis feels the need to protect her true emotions by acting defensive and disagreeable.  Hollis may seem like a terrible child, but she is really just afraid of being hurt.   

Even though Hollis is afraid of being hurt, she pretends to be defiant and strong.  She shows examples of this very early in the book, on pages 3 and 4.  She tells us on page 3 that she had stayed with a mysterious Regan family and that she ran away from them, but nothing else.  She tries to make it seem like we would are prodding in to her private information by wanting to know more, but she's really just afraid of being judged about her reasons for running away.  On page 4 she is being driven to another foster home.  She seems like she is purposely ignoring her caseworker, but she is actually thinking about the Regan family and their son, Steven.  Hollis has a hard time expressing her emotions   because she is too afraid of how others will react to them.  

Throughout the book, Hollis slowly looses some of her fear of being hurt because she is faced with impending situations that require judgment based on how she feels.  Most of these situations are in the climax and falling action and decide how the story will end.   One example is in chapter fifteen, when Hollis decides to call Beatrice to tell her to go live with Josie.  Hollis realized that she cared more about Josie than she about being sent to another foster home.  She realized that she loved Josie and wanted what was best for her.  Another example is on page 162, when Hollis decides to do back to the  Regan family.  She knows that they love her and that she loves them.  She finally realizes that not all of the problems are her fault and that she wants to go back.  Hollis learns to act on her emotions and do what's right; which helps her find a family and be happy. 

Hollis Woods is a lonely child that is afraid that people will hurt her if they see her true emotions.  Throughout the story she slowly realizes that there are people that love her and gave her a family.  Hollis starts the story felling troublesome and hurt, but she learns to let the people that she loves see her real thoughts and feelings. 

Pictures of Hollis Woods First-Person Response--Mustard Stain Woman

        Hollis Woods.  That child is pure trouble.  It should have been so easy.  The agency told me "find a good home for the baby." I did not sign up to have the child need to be reassigned more than twenty times in tewlve years!  Then she's finally old enough to try a little harder, and she starts running away the second she gets a little annoyed.  Now she finds a place where she's happy but the lady looses her memory!  Why couldn't she just stay with the Regans.  They didn't care if she was trouble, they actually liked her.  She just couldn't accept good enough!  Now she and the old lady are missing and it's my problem.  I swear, that child lives to give more to worry about. 

Giver-Feelings Essay

         What would our life be like without any true feelings?  There would never be any true love, or anger, or sadness, there is only general happiness and sometimes minor annoyance.  This is how the community lives.  Only the receiver has any knowledge of other feelings.  In a community that revolves around sameness, feelings couldn't fit in, so they were taken away.  Since each feeling is so different, they each were taken care of in a different way. 

          One of the easiest feelings to remove is love.  Around the age of twelve, the children of the community start to get feelings called "stirrings".  They don't know it, but the stirrings are the first feelings of love.  To treat these stirrings, the community invented a pill that neutralized the feelings of attraction that the stirrings led to.  Kids take this pill because they think that they have something majorly wrong with them, but they can take a pill that will completely fix everything.  They never have any reason to feel these stirrings again so they just take their pills and don't question anything.    This is the solution to love. 

          Anger and sadness are also dealt with quite easily.  The community gives everyone the same amount of everything, so no one has any reason to complain about unfairness.  Everyone is well fed, has a nice house, and lives a very comfortable life, as long as they follow the community rules.  In general, everyone is happy, so no one is unhappy or upset very often. 

         This is a world that doesn't need feelings, but is that better?  No one has to think for themselves and no one really is their own person.  Everything is decided for them by the community and they don't have strong feelings, so they don't complain.  This a world that revolves around order and sameness.  It is very efficient and runs smoothly, but I still would rather be able to live freely and be allowed to live life to its fullest.  That means that I would be allowed to have all feelings and choose my own life. 

Fiction Introduction

        Red rivers of blood shimmered in the fiery explosion.  Amber screamed, but she knew that there was no hope.  They were all dead, their lifeless bodies twisted at impossible angles.  She shook with choked sobs as she ran into the black night.  She didn't know where she was going, and she didn't care.  She just wanted to be far away from the remains of what used to be her life.