Untitled Middle Grade Story- Chapters One through Three (Classroom assignment)
Chapter 1
Victoria walked slowly along the sidewalk past Johnny Rockets, lazily fanning herself with her math notebook. The temperature had just spiked ten degrees, at least in her opinion. “It should be illegal for it to be this hot,” she moaned to herself.
“No way!” came Dana’s sing-song voice from behind her. Victoria started. “I love hot weather!”
“You scared me! Where did you come from?” Victoria shrilled.
“Inside! I just had lunch with my cousins,” Dana smirked. “Brian says hi.” She winked.
“He does? I mean, yeah. Tell him I said ‘hey’,” Victoria stuttered. “Here, hold this.” She handed her math book to Dana and began pulling up her long blonde hair. “My god, it’s lethal out here.”
“Nah, it’s perfect,” Dana sighed, closing her eyes and pointing her face toward the sun. “My tan is coming in nice.”
Victoria agreed. She was envious of the way Dana managed to stay five shades darker than everybody else even in the winter. Her white tank top and pink shorts looked like they were glowing next to her dark skin and black hair.
“So have you decided what you’re doing for your birthday?” asked Victoria.
“Yes! I’m the last one in our class to turn 15, so we can all get entrance into Club Haus on Wednesdays. I’m going to have my party there next week.”
“Oh goodness,” groaned Victoria. “Dancing?”
“Heck yes, dancing!” said Dana. “Is there any other way to celebrate a grown up birthday?”
“A pool party?” asked Victoria hopefully. She loved the water and would spend every second of her life in it if she could. It was the only place she felt graceful.
“No freaking way, Victoria. Not everyone looks like you do in a bikini and no one wants to compete with that.” said Dana. “If I have a pool party everyone is just going to get mad at me.”
Victoria looked down at her skinny chicken legs and wondered what Dana was thinking. “Well, I can’t dance. I flail around like one of those balloon people at a car dealership.”
“Brian loves to dance,” said Dana with a devilish grin.
“Maybe dancing would be fun.” said Victoria, smirking.
Dana laughed. “I thought you’d say so.”
Victoria laughed, hooked her arm around Dana’s and began walking. “I sure could use a visit to your closet to find the perfect dress to wear.”
“I don’t know that I have a dress with a hem low enough to fit your ridiculously long body, but I think I can make you one.” Dana said.
“Yay! Make me look pretty!” laughed Victoria.
“Don’t I always? You can trust me,” said Dana.
“I trust you. Just don’t make me look gaudy,” said Victoria.
“Shush!” said Dana. “I got this!”
Victoria laughed and unhooked her arm from Dana’s, heading for the other side of the street. “Okay, I give you full creative license. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
“Okay, bye, my little string bean!” Dana called.
“Bye, my little storm cloud!”
Victoria had forgotten the heat while she talked with her best friend, but was quickly reminded by the drop of sweat that slid down her cheek. She dragged her feet that last couple blocks to her house, cut through her long green lawn and sagged against her front door. She dug through her school bag, pulled out her keys and unlocked the door, pouring herself into the air conditioning. After dropping her stuff next to the stairs she headed up to her bedroom. Her parakeet squawked when she walked into her room. “Hi, Bink,” she said as she kicked off her shoes. She unlocked his cage and he flew out to perch on top of her computer.
After taking a shower and blowing her hair dry, Victoria put on of a pair of her comfiest pajamas and headed down to the kitchen. On the table was a tray of cookies with a note on top.
Going to be home late. Love, Mom, Victoria read. She poured herself a glass of milk, carried the tray into the living room, plopped down on the couch and flicked on the TV. Bink sat next to her on the arm of the couch. “Who needs to dance when there are couches and cookies in the world?”
Bink squawked his agreement.
Chapter 2
The door slammed and Victoria started awake feeling as though she had fallen two feet onto the couch. She sat up just as her mother walked into the kitchen. “Victoria, why are you still up?” she said.
“I fell asleep on the couch,” she said she she stretched her back. “I feel like I just got trucked by a linebacker.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t sleep on the couch,” said her mother. “Go to bed.”
Victoria peeled herself off the couch and started up the stairs. She stopped and turned around, “Love you, good night.”
“Love you to, sweetheart,” her mom said as she opened the fridge.
Victoria trudged into her room, crawled into bed and flicked off her lamp.
***
The following Wednesday Victoria gathered up her things from her final class period of the day and went to meet her friends by their lockers. If it were possible, the temperature had spiked even higher into a heat wave unlike any Victoria had ever seen. She wore a breezy sun dress to keep cool but had to keep a cardigan on through the school day to keep to the dress code. As soon as she was out on the locker veranda she tore it off and stuffed it into her backpack . When she reached her friends she leaned against the lockers like dead weight. “If the temperature goes up one more degree, I’m moving to Alaska.”
“Can I come?” asked Amanda as she fanned herself with a Chess Club flyer. She was half Victoria’s height and twice as skinny, a dead ringer for a pixie with her red, choppy hair cut. She wore a nose piercing and had a small bow tattooed on her wrist. She was edgy in all the ways Victoria wasn’t. “I’m about to start coming to school in a bathing suit,” she said.
“Oh, please! This is nothing compared to the weather in Texas,” said Melissa in her long southern drawl. She only moved to San Diego a year before, and had quickly become best friends with Victoria, Dana and Amanda. She was tanner than the most dedicated surfer and had long sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. She never wore make up and her friends hated her for it, because she was still prettier than anybody else in the room.
“Whatever, you’re crazy. This is the heat apocalypse or something,” said Victoria, rolling her eyes.
“Can we focus on my party please?” said Dana. “It’s only six hours away!”
“Oh my god that’s right,” said Victoria. “Did you make my dress? Oh, god, how did I forget?”
“You’re repressing your knowledge of it because you’re dreading it,” said Dana matter -of-factly. “But you’re going to have to suck it up and do this for me, so no more whining. And yes, I made you a dress and it’s freaking fabulous.”
The four of them walked the two blocks to Johnny Rockets together, moving slowly against the heat. They pushed through the door and a bell dinged as the air conditioning enveloped them. They took their usual stools at the bar, ignored the menus, and ordered their usual.
“Four bacon cheese burgers with curly fries,” said Melissa, drawing out ‘fries’ in her southern belle accent.
“And chocolate milk shakes,” Amanda called to the waiter as he disappeared into the kitchen.
“It’s probably not a good idea to eat this stuff when we have to look skinny tonight,” said Dana.
“There are some things in this world that are worth sacrificing,” said Victoria. “Rocket burgers and curly fries are not one of those things.”
Amanda high-fived her.
“Easy for you to say,” blurted Melissa and Dana at the same time.
Chapter 3:
That night Victoria curled her long blonde hair and put on her make up and the dress Dana had dropped off earlier that evening. It was black and glittery, reaching to the middle of her thighs. It only had one thick strap that reached across her chest and over one shoulder. “Remind me to thank Dana with a year supply of Rocket Burgers, Bink.”
An hour later she entered the three story club through a large doorway guarded by an even larger man whose name tag read “Dirk”. The club was dark, the only light source coming from a stage to the left of her. The band was playing a song she didn’t recognize. The lead singer was belting the song also playing guitar. He was tall, muscular and had spiky blond hair. His black t-shirt barely covered the large crucifix tattooed on his right arm.
Victoria was stunned. “Brian!” she said out loud.
“I know, right!” came Dana’s voice from behind her.
Victoria whipped around, “God! How do you do that?” breathed Victoria.
“What!” screamed Dana over the music. She wore a tiara and a sash that read “It’s My Birthday”.
“I said, ‘how do you do that’,” screamed Victoria. “But never mind. Happy birthday!” She handed Dana her gift and gave her a big hug.
“Thanks! Come on, Melissa and Amanda are over here.”
Melissa and Amanda stood at the bar with cans of soda in their hands. “Hey!,” they screamed when they saw Victoria.
“Wow, you look great!” said Amanda
“You all look gorgeous,” said Melissa.
The music stopped and Brian’s voice came over the microphone, “Thanks guys. We’re gonna’ take a short break, but we’ll be back before you know it.”
A DJ took over with a rap song. “Oh! I love this song!” screamed Dana. “Come on, let’s dance!”
“I’ll meet up with you, I’m not quite ready to dance, yet,” said Victoria.
The three of them left Victoria at the bar. She ordered a root beer and tapped her foot to the music.
“Nice dress.”
Victoria jumped and spun a round, spilling a bit of root beer on his shoes. “Hi, Brian! Oh, I’m sorry!”
Brian laughed. “That’s okay. These are ancient. You look really pretty, save me a dance for later?”
Was is Victoria’s imagination or were her feet going numb? She nodded her head yes.
“Cool. I’ll come find you when I’m done my next set,” he said.
Yeah, her feet were definitely numb. Brian smiled and turned away. Victoria could no longer feel the floor beneath her feet. Were her high heels cutting off her circulation? She took a step towards a bar stool but didn’t go anywhere. She took another step and still she remained in the same spot.
She looked down at her feet. They were hovering two inches above the floor. She screamed and her feet crashed onto the ground hard, causing her to lose her balance. She grabbed onto the bar to keep from falling. “What the heck!” Victoria screamed.
She needed to find Dana, she though as she darted off into the crowd.
When she got into the throng of dancing bodies she quickly became disoriented. Blue and white lights shot across the room in all directions and the pulse of the dance floor pushed her further away from where she wanted to go. She spotted Dana across the room directly in front of the stage, ducked down and pushed her way through the dancers toward her. She reached the stage and fell into Dana. “Yay, you’re dancing!” Dana screamed.
“No!” said Victoria.
“Oh, come on! Just like this!” Dana grabbed Victoria’s hips and moved them back and forth with the beat. Victoria looked up and her eyes met Brian’s. He was looking directly at her, singing and picking his guitar strings like lightning.
She tried to ignore the panic in her chest and began moving her hips in time with Dana’s. After only a few moments her feet began to rise off the floor.
Straining to keep her tip toes on the floor, she pivoted so that her back was to the stage and latched onto the edge, pulling herself down.
“What’s wrong?” Dana called over the thumping bass.
“I’m floating!” Victoria screamed, her eyes wild.
“I don’t blame you, he wrote this song for you! Could you tell?” Dana was smiling ear to ear. Victoria’s eyes became wide. She forgot herself and let go of he stage. Realizing her feet were leaving the ground again she threw herself onto Melissa, who was dancing next to her.
“Woo!” screamed Melissa and threw her hands in the air.
Amanda joined them, “Yeah!”
Dana jumped into the group and threw her arms around Victoria, whose feet hit the ground hard under her weight. “I’m so glad you’re dancing!” screamed Dana.
Victoria walked slowly along the sidewalk past Johnny Rockets, lazily fanning herself with her math notebook. The temperature had just spiked ten degrees, at least in her opinion. “It should be illegal for it to be this hot,” she moaned to herself.
“No way!” came Dana’s sing-song voice from behind her. Victoria started. “I love hot weather!”
“You scared me! Where did you come from?” Victoria shrilled.
“Inside! I just had lunch with my cousins,” Dana smirked. “Brian says hi.” She winked.
“He does? I mean, yeah. Tell him I said ‘hey’,” Victoria stuttered. “Here, hold this.” She handed her math book to Dana and began pulling up her long blonde hair. “My god, it’s lethal out here.”
“Nah, it’s perfect,” Dana sighed, closing her eyes and pointing her face toward the sun. “My tan is coming in nice.”
Victoria agreed. She was envious of the way Dana managed to stay five shades darker than everybody else even in the winter. Her white tank top and pink shorts looked like they were glowing next to her dark skin and black hair.
“So have you decided what you’re doing for your birthday?” asked Victoria.
“Yes! I’m the last one in our class to turn 15, so we can all get entrance into Club Haus on Wednesdays. I’m going to have my party there next week.”
“Oh goodness,” groaned Victoria. “Dancing?”
“Heck yes, dancing!” said Dana. “Is there any other way to celebrate a grown up birthday?”
“A pool party?” asked Victoria hopefully. She loved the water and would spend every second of her life in it if she could. It was the only place she felt graceful.
“No freaking way, Victoria. Not everyone looks like you do in a bikini and no one wants to compete with that.” said Dana. “If I have a pool party everyone is just going to get mad at me.”
Victoria looked down at her skinny chicken legs and wondered what Dana was thinking. “Well, I can’t dance. I flail around like one of those balloon people at a car dealership.”
“Brian loves to dance,” said Dana with a devilish grin.
“Maybe dancing would be fun.” said Victoria, smirking.
Dana laughed. “I thought you’d say so.”
Victoria laughed, hooked her arm around Dana’s and began walking. “I sure could use a visit to your closet to find the perfect dress to wear.”
“I don’t know that I have a dress with a hem low enough to fit your ridiculously long body, but I think I can make you one.” Dana said.
“Yay! Make me look pretty!” laughed Victoria.
“Don’t I always? You can trust me,” said Dana.
“I trust you. Just don’t make me look gaudy,” said Victoria.
“Shush!” said Dana. “I got this!”
Victoria laughed and unhooked her arm from Dana’s, heading for the other side of the street. “Okay, I give you full creative license. I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”
“Okay, bye, my little string bean!” Dana called.
“Bye, my little storm cloud!”
Victoria had forgotten the heat while she talked with her best friend, but was quickly reminded by the drop of sweat that slid down her cheek. She dragged her feet that last couple blocks to her house, cut through her long green lawn and sagged against her front door. She dug through her school bag, pulled out her keys and unlocked the door, pouring herself into the air conditioning. After dropping her stuff next to the stairs she headed up to her bedroom. Her parakeet squawked when she walked into her room. “Hi, Bink,” she said as she kicked off her shoes. She unlocked his cage and he flew out to perch on top of her computer.
After taking a shower and blowing her hair dry, Victoria put on of a pair of her comfiest pajamas and headed down to the kitchen. On the table was a tray of cookies with a note on top.
Going to be home late. Love, Mom, Victoria read. She poured herself a glass of milk, carried the tray into the living room, plopped down on the couch and flicked on the TV. Bink sat next to her on the arm of the couch. “Who needs to dance when there are couches and cookies in the world?”
Bink squawked his agreement.
Chapter 2
The door slammed and Victoria started awake feeling as though she had fallen two feet onto the couch. She sat up just as her mother walked into the kitchen. “Victoria, why are you still up?” she said.
“I fell asleep on the couch,” she said she she stretched her back. “I feel like I just got trucked by a linebacker.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t sleep on the couch,” said her mother. “Go to bed.”
Victoria peeled herself off the couch and started up the stairs. She stopped and turned around, “Love you, good night.”
“Love you to, sweetheart,” her mom said as she opened the fridge.
Victoria trudged into her room, crawled into bed and flicked off her lamp.
***
The following Wednesday Victoria gathered up her things from her final class period of the day and went to meet her friends by their lockers. If it were possible, the temperature had spiked even higher into a heat wave unlike any Victoria had ever seen. She wore a breezy sun dress to keep cool but had to keep a cardigan on through the school day to keep to the dress code. As soon as she was out on the locker veranda she tore it off and stuffed it into her backpack . When she reached her friends she leaned against the lockers like dead weight. “If the temperature goes up one more degree, I’m moving to Alaska.”
“Can I come?” asked Amanda as she fanned herself with a Chess Club flyer. She was half Victoria’s height and twice as skinny, a dead ringer for a pixie with her red, choppy hair cut. She wore a nose piercing and had a small bow tattooed on her wrist. She was edgy in all the ways Victoria wasn’t. “I’m about to start coming to school in a bathing suit,” she said.
“Oh, please! This is nothing compared to the weather in Texas,” said Melissa in her long southern drawl. She only moved to San Diego a year before, and had quickly become best friends with Victoria, Dana and Amanda. She was tanner than the most dedicated surfer and had long sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. She never wore make up and her friends hated her for it, because she was still prettier than anybody else in the room.
“Whatever, you’re crazy. This is the heat apocalypse or something,” said Victoria, rolling her eyes.
“Can we focus on my party please?” said Dana. “It’s only six hours away!”
“Oh my god that’s right,” said Victoria. “Did you make my dress? Oh, god, how did I forget?”
“You’re repressing your knowledge of it because you’re dreading it,” said Dana matter -of-factly. “But you’re going to have to suck it up and do this for me, so no more whining. And yes, I made you a dress and it’s freaking fabulous.”
The four of them walked the two blocks to Johnny Rockets together, moving slowly against the heat. They pushed through the door and a bell dinged as the air conditioning enveloped them. They took their usual stools at the bar, ignored the menus, and ordered their usual.
“Four bacon cheese burgers with curly fries,” said Melissa, drawing out ‘fries’ in her southern belle accent.
“And chocolate milk shakes,” Amanda called to the waiter as he disappeared into the kitchen.
“It’s probably not a good idea to eat this stuff when we have to look skinny tonight,” said Dana.
“There are some things in this world that are worth sacrificing,” said Victoria. “Rocket burgers and curly fries are not one of those things.”
Amanda high-fived her.
“Easy for you to say,” blurted Melissa and Dana at the same time.
Chapter 3:
That night Victoria curled her long blonde hair and put on her make up and the dress Dana had dropped off earlier that evening. It was black and glittery, reaching to the middle of her thighs. It only had one thick strap that reached across her chest and over one shoulder. “Remind me to thank Dana with a year supply of Rocket Burgers, Bink.”
An hour later she entered the three story club through a large doorway guarded by an even larger man whose name tag read “Dirk”. The club was dark, the only light source coming from a stage to the left of her. The band was playing a song she didn’t recognize. The lead singer was belting the song also playing guitar. He was tall, muscular and had spiky blond hair. His black t-shirt barely covered the large crucifix tattooed on his right arm.
Victoria was stunned. “Brian!” she said out loud.
“I know, right!” came Dana’s voice from behind her.
Victoria whipped around, “God! How do you do that?” breathed Victoria.
“What!” screamed Dana over the music. She wore a tiara and a sash that read “It’s My Birthday”.
“I said, ‘how do you do that’,” screamed Victoria. “But never mind. Happy birthday!” She handed Dana her gift and gave her a big hug.
“Thanks! Come on, Melissa and Amanda are over here.”
Melissa and Amanda stood at the bar with cans of soda in their hands. “Hey!,” they screamed when they saw Victoria.
“Wow, you look great!” said Amanda
“You all look gorgeous,” said Melissa.
The music stopped and Brian’s voice came over the microphone, “Thanks guys. We’re gonna’ take a short break, but we’ll be back before you know it.”
A DJ took over with a rap song. “Oh! I love this song!” screamed Dana. “Come on, let’s dance!”
“I’ll meet up with you, I’m not quite ready to dance, yet,” said Victoria.
The three of them left Victoria at the bar. She ordered a root beer and tapped her foot to the music.
“Nice dress.”
Victoria jumped and spun a round, spilling a bit of root beer on his shoes. “Hi, Brian! Oh, I’m sorry!”
Brian laughed. “That’s okay. These are ancient. You look really pretty, save me a dance for later?”
Was is Victoria’s imagination or were her feet going numb? She nodded her head yes.
“Cool. I’ll come find you when I’m done my next set,” he said.
Yeah, her feet were definitely numb. Brian smiled and turned away. Victoria could no longer feel the floor beneath her feet. Were her high heels cutting off her circulation? She took a step towards a bar stool but didn’t go anywhere. She took another step and still she remained in the same spot.
She looked down at her feet. They were hovering two inches above the floor. She screamed and her feet crashed onto the ground hard, causing her to lose her balance. She grabbed onto the bar to keep from falling. “What the heck!” Victoria screamed.
She needed to find Dana, she though as she darted off into the crowd.
When she got into the throng of dancing bodies she quickly became disoriented. Blue and white lights shot across the room in all directions and the pulse of the dance floor pushed her further away from where she wanted to go. She spotted Dana across the room directly in front of the stage, ducked down and pushed her way through the dancers toward her. She reached the stage and fell into Dana. “Yay, you’re dancing!” Dana screamed.
“No!” said Victoria.
“Oh, come on! Just like this!” Dana grabbed Victoria’s hips and moved them back and forth with the beat. Victoria looked up and her eyes met Brian’s. He was looking directly at her, singing and picking his guitar strings like lightning.
She tried to ignore the panic in her chest and began moving her hips in time with Dana’s. After only a few moments her feet began to rise off the floor.
Straining to keep her tip toes on the floor, she pivoted so that her back was to the stage and latched onto the edge, pulling herself down.
“What’s wrong?” Dana called over the thumping bass.
“I’m floating!” Victoria screamed, her eyes wild.
“I don’t blame you, he wrote this song for you! Could you tell?” Dana was smiling ear to ear. Victoria’s eyes became wide. She forgot herself and let go of he stage. Realizing her feet were leaving the ground again she threw herself onto Melissa, who was dancing next to her.
“Woo!” screamed Melissa and threw her hands in the air.
Amanda joined them, “Yeah!”
Dana jumped into the group and threw her arms around Victoria, whose feet hit the ground hard under her weight. “I’m so glad you’re dancing!” screamed Dana.
