Chapter Seven

Author's Note: This is the seventh chapter of Escape. For the beginning chapters, scroll down. This is not te last chapter, there will be more!

Escape

I was laying in bed for about five minutes after the nurse left the room when I started hearing voices. Not like the voices inside my head telling me I did the wrong thing or something, but real, live voices that were coming from outside the door. They weren't smooth, gentle voices like Ariana's, but a manly voice that was talking, to who I assumed was a receptionist, across the hall. I got dreadfully scared and started to panic. My mind was racing so fast I jumped off my bed and sprinted the five steps it took to get to the bathroom. Arms flailing, I reached for the door. As I was slamming it shut I caught a glimpse of the confused doctor walking into my room. He didn't see me though, he was looking at the bed.

Oh! And did I mention it was the same doctor who treated my cancer? I guess I wasn't going to be leaving that bathroom for awhile. That was my first thought at least.

My head swiveled around as I looked at my surroundings; a mirror, a toilet, a shower, a sink, and they were all in shades of white. The next thing I saw brought me ore happiness than I could ever imagine, on the wall opposite the mirror there was a small window. Luckily, it was big enough for me to fit through. I peered out the window and saw that I wasn't that high from the ground, but it was too high to jump from way up here. I would definitely break something. For some reason though, I kept getting lucky because about two floors down, there was a balcony I could land on and then jump down to the ground from there!  I would have to keep getting lucky though and hope that no one was going to be in the room when I jumped down; and hope no one would see me passing by.

Pressing my ear against the door, I could hear the doctor. It sounded like he was waiting for me to come out to talk to him, but I refused. Just seeing my name he probably already knew who I was, but that is all I am ever going to allow him to know about me. Next, I heard some rustling and some footsteps and that's when it went silent. Assuming that he left wasn't exactly something I could do so easily and the thought in my mind that he was still there was definitely back there, but it didn’t matter because I had to leave anyways. 

Shaking, my hands managed to push open the window. Now that I look at it a little closer, it was going to be kind of a tight fit, but no matter what I was going to make myself squeeze through. I knew that I was on a tight time budget, so I had to go fairly fast; not that I could control my speed falling out of a window. Anyways, I stepped my bare feet up onto the cold toilet seat; praying that I wouldn't fall in. The window was across from the seat, so I was lucky that it was a small bathroom. My tiny fingers gripped the window so hard that they were white. I threw my body across the room and my feet were now firmly against the wall. I climbed up and looked out.

I couldn't believe I was doing this.

That one thought wasn't going to stop me though. I was now positioned to jump. To make my fall shorter, I flipped myself outside and swung my legs down. Then, I let go.

Chapter Six

Author's Note: This is the sixth chapter of Escape. For the beginning chapters scroll down. This is not the last chapter and there will be more chapters! 

Escape 

My eyes immediately clicked shut and my body pretended I was asleep. I didn't want the nurse to give me shots or something and I was hoping if she thought I was asleep she would go away.

Of course that didn't happen.

"I know you're awake," said the nurse. Her voice was soothing and almost sounded like she was singing a nice, sweet, melody and not saying something that crushed my dreams of sneaking out without anyone knowing. "You waited a little to long to close your eyes and usually when people are asleep they don't lick their lips. Nice try though."

Then, my eyes opened, expecting to see some old lady with a stethoscope around her neck, but instead, I saw something beautiful. She was a young girl, around 25, and she was short with gorgeous brown hair that went down to her lower back while it was up in a high pony tail. A small smile crept on her face and her blue eyes were perfect. Almost to perfect. A tiny white nurse outfit framed her tiny body and the name tag on it read Ariana. It was the perfect name for her. When I was little, my mom would always read me this book that was about this girl named Ariana. Since I was always so curious, I would always ask my mom what that name meant and she never new. One day though, she finally looked it up and it meant "like a beautiful melody." And that is exactly what the nurse is. 

"Would you like something to drink or eat," she questioned? "We are the most popular hospital in the world on the scale of food."

What was I supposed to say? I knew that they had amazing food there and I was absolutely starving, but I didn't want to give away any information about myself. I know it sounds silly that it would matter what kind of foods I like, but maybe they would track it all the way back to when I was a kid and they might say, "wow, years ago there was a young girl named Layla who liked the exact same food as you. And, she happens to look exactly like you. What is your name exactly?"  Yes I can almost guarantee that that won't happen, but you never know and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

"Um, no thank you," I managed.

"Okay, well you're really missing out. I don't even bring a lunch anymore because I just buy the food from here. Anyways, do you know why you're here?"

I shook my head no and stared at her beautiful smile that went with her glistening white teeth.

"Well, I am going to tell you then," she spoke the words and they kept repeating over and over again in my mind. It made me think of all the things that could've happened. I could've gotten caught and while I was in a fistfight with the Falaguard, he punched me in the head and knocked me out. I could've been running and then gotten hit by a car or just fell and hit my head. No matter what happened though, it made my lose all consciousness. "What happened was one of our Falaguards was out on his night shift duty when he heard strange noises coming from underneath someone's house. Since this isn't usual because all animals are kept in wildlife centers, he called a Falacat while he went inside to ask the owners of the house if they knew about anything that would be making the noise. When he went inside the people were completely confused and when he went to go outside, since they didn't know anything, he saw his Falacat running towards someone who turned out to be you. And if you didn't already know this, Falacats can only be stopped by their Falaguards, but it was to late to stop it from causing no damage whatsoever, so the Falacat charged you and after he knocked you out by the impact and was beginning to rip off your arm, the Guard finally stopped it and found you laying there unconscious."

Beginning to rip off your arm, laying there unconscious I knew something bad happened, but not that bad. I'm probably now going to have to stay here for days and it's almost guaranteed that by the end of this, they are going to know exactly who I am. The words I said next, even surprised me. "Is this the kind of world we live in? Where we get mauled by robotic creatures for doing absolutely nothing?"  

"I'm sorry, what," the nurse stumbled out?

Responding to that was really hard. I didn't even know why I said that. Was I trying to get myself caught quicker? Doing anything was pretty much impossible so I did the only thing I could think of, I threw up all over the nurse. Hoping that later I could use me saying something horrific as a excuse for me being sick.

"Oh my goodness! We need to get you a doctor and I need to go get some new clothes!"

 Next, I started to panic. That was about the worst idea I could think of because now she is going to go get the doctor and then more people are going to see my face and- oh no. If the doctor is the same one that treated my cancer the he will for sure recognize me. After all, I was the longest patient he ever had to treat; at least back then, but everyone in this province is kept so healthy I doubt anyone broke my record. Honestly, I doubt anyone ever will.

As the nurse left the room, I looked at my surroundings. Obviously everything was white except for the solitary spot on the floor coated with my upchuck; not talking about the color though, the room was pretty plain. I was on the bed, there was a chair in the corner with fake white roses on the diminutive table next to it, a book lie on the floor that was titled "Where No One Loves",  there was a door that went out into the hospital, there was another door which I assumed led to the bathroom, and there was no windows. Which as of now, was my only chance of escape.

Change

Author's Note: This is an essay I wrote about how the character Bernice changes throughout the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Change

Change. It is something a lot of people don't want to go through in life, while others love change and no matter what change it is, it helps them love life. Change can be a good thing like a change in your relationship status when you go from single, to in a relationship. Change can be a bad thing like losing a family member who you were always close to. All in all though, change is something we all need to go through to experience life the way it is supposed to be experienced, even though it may sometimes disappoint you.

In the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character Bernice changes unexpectedly. At the beginning of the story, she is a girl that no one really wants to be around and pretty much no one cuts in on her unless they are bribed to. Boring is a pretty spot on word to describe her. Marjorie, Bernice's cousin, had a friend named Warren who she would always bribe him into dancing with Bernice and this is what he thought of her, she was no fun on a party. Every Saturday night he danced a long arduous duty dance with her to please Marjorie, but he had never been anything but bored in her company. Even Marjorie didn't have nice things to say, "Well," said Marjorie, "no girl can permanently bolster up a lame-duck visitor, because these days it's every girl for herself. I've even tried to drop her hints about clothes and things, and she's been furious--given me the funniest looks. She's sensitive enough to know she's not getting away with much, but I'll bet she consoles herself by thinking that she's very virtuous and that I'm too gay and fickle and will come to a bad end. All unpopular girls think that way. Sour grapes! Sarah Hopkins refers to Genevieve and Roberta and me as gardenia girls! I'll bet she'd give ten years of her life and her European education to be a gardenia girl and have three or four men in love with her and be cut in on every few feet at dances." At the end of the book though, you barely think that Bernice is the same person.

With the help of her cousin Marjorie, Bernice is the most popular girl in town, even though she doesn't actually live there. Everything changes about her; her attitude, her personality, her everything. All the boys want her. While she used to have no one cutting in on her, now even the best of the boys, G. Reece Stoddard, is cutting in and having a swell time. This is how popular she truly is, the man relieved proved to be none other than G. Reece Stoddard himself. And G. Reece seemed not at all jubilant at being relieved. Next time Bernice danced near, Warren regarded her intently. Yes, she was pretty, distinctly pretty; and to-night her face seemed really vivacious. She had that look that no woman, however histrionically proficient, can successfully counterfeit--she looked as if she were having a good time.

Change has really been helping her, it turned her from a boring person to the most wanted girl in town. All the change is getting her so much attention, she decides to change one last thing; her hair. She goes right down to the barber shop and says she wants to get it bobbed, the barber is partially confused, but he bobs it anyways. This change though, wasn't a good change. None of the boys wanted her anymore and even her own aunt didn't want to be with her. She didn't even want to be with her anymore and this is what she thought, Her hair was not curly, and now it lay in lank lifeless blocks on both sides of her suddenly pale face. It was ugly as sin--she had known it would be ugly as sin. Her face's chief charm had been a Madonna-like simplicity. Now that was gone and she was--well, frightfully mediocre--not stagy; only ridiculous, like a Greenwich Villager who had left her spectacles at home.

Throughout the story she didn't just change her looks, she also changed her confidence. At the beginning she was a wimpy, little, helpless girl, who didn't have her own opinion on anything. At the end of the story though, she is confident and only makes her own decision and doesn't really listen to anyone else. She decides that she needs to get her revenge so this is what she does to Marjorie,

She acted swiftly. Bending over she found one of the braids of Marjorie's hair, followed it up with her hand to the point nearest the head, and then holding it a little slack so that the sleeper would feel no pull, she reached down with the shears and severed it. With the pigtail in her hand she held her breath. Marjorie had muttered something in her sleep. Bernice deftly amputated the other braid, paused for an instant, and then flitted swiftly and silently back to her own room. With the new Bernice though she doesn't stop there, as she is walking down the street she passes Warren's house where she was swinging the braids like pieces of rope and flung them at the wooden porch where they landed with a thud. I would say from the beginning to the end, her confidence is the thing that changed the most.  

So, although change is a thing that can bring you popularity, friends, attention, and boys, change can also bring you sadness, people bullying you, bad attention, and people talking about you behind your back. People who have a strong heart though, always will love change.

Prediction

Author's Note: This is my prediction piece for the story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The beginning is a creative piece for how i thought the story was going to end and the end is an essay for my reasoning. 

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

Walking  into the barbershop she sat herself down in the chair. She didn't ask, she didn't say anything, she just sat down and expected to be waited on.

"May I hel-"

"I want my hair bobbed," she announced to the confused barber while also announcing it to everyone else in the shop.

"Are you sure about that," the barber questioned? "I've never done something on such a young women and I think you might be making a mist-"

"That's enough. I want my hair bobbed and I want it now," she clearly stated so he would finally understand.

"Okay, let me just go get you a cape and we'll get started on your bob."

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Bernice stared into the eyes of Marjorie. She could tell she was jealous. Ever since yesterday when she got her hair bobbed, all the guys wanted her. Now, her hair is full of volume and each slightly curled in strand lies perfectly against her head. Each luxurious lock of hair has made her the most popular girl in town; so why would she ever want to go back home?

"I know you aren't going to agree with this decision, but I'm doing it anyway," stated Bernice in a very snotty tone. "This town loves me and you know it. I am already more popular then you and it's your fault. You thought this new hairdo was going to ruin me, but it came back and bit you in the behind."

"This isn't my fault. I never actually wanted you to do it. I was in fact thinking about doing it myself," Marjorie shot back.

"Now you're just lying straight to my beautifully, perfect face. You are the one who made me like this and now you are going to have plenty of time to think of your revenge because I am staying and living with you. Since you seem to love me so much.

"You can't," Marjorie wept. "Mother and Father will never let you."

"They already agreed to let me stay. And even better, you’re my new roommate."

Marjorie repeated these words over and over again in her mind. Roommate? She couldn't bear the though of it so she just walked away. The thing was though, she didn't stop walking, she walked straight out of her house and down the street, she didn't know where she was walking, she wasn't going to stop though. She was just going to continue walking and go all the way into the sunset.

Predictions are something that can sometimes be based on the beginning of the story or movie, or they can just be random. For this prediction though, I definitely based it on the beginning.

For some reason I just knew that Bernice was going to bob her hair. Obviously the title states that she bobs it, but it kind of seemed like the story was going somewhere else. In my mind though, I just knew. I think I knew because Bernice was trying to be the most noticed and the most popular girl in town. A good way to get noticed is to do something that almost no one has done before; such as getting your hair bobbed. The other part of my prediction may seem random, but it does have reasoning.

If your cousin comes into town and is no threat to anyone, you wouldn't care. Right? Then all of a sudden she becomes way more popular then you and you are suddenly downgraded on the popularity chart. You would be furious. Next you try to downgrade her by getting her hair bobbed and then that backfires on you by making her even more popular. Now you're mad, but not to extremes because she is going to leave in a week or to anyways, right? Wrong. She is now the most popular girl in this town so why would she ever go back to somewhere where you're not popular and no one really likes you? You wouldn't. You would stay right there where you are now loved by everyone. Where you would be wanted by every boy and have tons of friends!

It's now all good for Bernice, but now Marjorie is not nearly as popular and mad as ever, then her terrible cousin is going to move in! No way. She can't stay for it so she leaves. The thing is, she leaves so quickly without thinking she doesn't know where she's going, she just needs to escape. So yes, some predictions can be way off even if they are based on the beginning of the story, but they are still much more accurate then if you just guess and use no knowledge at all.  

Chapter Five

Author's Note: This is the fifth chapter of Escape. For the first four chapters, scroll down! This is not the last chapter, there will be more chapters coming soon!

Escape

White lights burned against my eyes that hadn't been open for at least a day. Everything around me was white; that's all I could tell about my surrounding though.

The room I was in was very small and since everything, everywhere except one place falls in the color category of poop brown or barf beige, I knew I was in the hospital. For normal people the hospital is probably the scariest place in the world, but in the land of Falafia, it's a place where everyone dreams of going.

Food is usually something that comes to us in small quantities and has about as much taste as chalk, but in the hospital we all eat like kings and queens. We can get food whenever we want and all we have to do is put our order in. We can get anything made for us even if it isn't on the menu. We can get desserts, and snacks, and drinks, and anything else our heart desires. The food here doesn't taste like chalk and is filled with the richest flavors anyone can imagine. You can simply order mac n cheese and you might think they messed up your order because it will taste so good.

Now off the topic of food there; everything else is magnificent. The floors are sparkling, on the top floor the roof is made of glass, there's a balcony connected to every room, you just have to ring a bell and immediately someone will be at your service to help. I mean come on, this place is amazing.

The thing was, I didn't actually know I was here. At first I was a little scared that they did something to my family or something happened to them, but then I realized that I was the one strapped down. Although I've never actually been to a hospital, I know that the visitors don't get their arms and legs knotted down to a table; a very uncomfortable table may I add.

All I remember is that there was a Falaguard and a Falacat involved. I just can't put my finger on how they were involved. Then, a chill was sent up my spine. It was like a had been pricked and the sensation went all the way up my little spine and then flowed through my neck. I hated it.

Anything that makes my spine feel weird kills me because all it does is remind me of my terrible childhood. At the age of six I was diagnosed with cancer. I never actually went to the hospital because generally unless we work, we aren't supposed to leave our house at all. So our yearly doctors checkups happened at our house. It was a cold October day and I was confident that I was healthier than I had ever been and it would be the quickest checkup ever to happen on the face of the earth. It wasn't.

The doctor went to put the stethoscope on my back to listen to me breathe and when he lifted up my shirt, he found a large bump. That bump ended up being a tumor. The tumor was growing on my spine and it held a very rare kind of cancer. Everyday for a long time a experienced doctor had to come to my house and take the biggest needle I had ever seen, and stick it up my back. You would think I would've gotten used to it, but it would just hurt more each time as they started using stronger medicine. After one year, seven months, and 16 days, I was finally cancer free! I was so happy that I could finally live my life again! Not that I could do much more living then what  I was already doing.

I was still happy though because every morning I didn't have to live with the thought that that could have been the last time I would ever wake up. Most people don't ever have to live with that terrible thought every morning and absolutely no one should have to.

After thinking about this for several minute I came back to reality. I don't have cancer anymore and I really shouldn't keep thinking about it. Why bother worrying myself when I am healthy as can be? There is no reason to except if I want to make myself sad. Which I really don't want to.

I sat there a little while longer and started to hear footsteps. Obviously they were nurse footsteps because their shoes have soft padding on the bottom which gives them a very distinct sound. A sound anyone on this planet could hear and know exactly what it is. A sound I have been dreading to hear.

Hemingway

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"

Books and movies. They are pretty much opposites. Sometimes though, if you making a movie out of a book, it can turn out very similar. However, with the book and movie called "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," they really weren't that similar at all. Some of the most important parts of the book, in my opinion, were sadly left out of the movie.

In the very beginning of the movie, it starts off with an old man sitting in a booth with no windows around him. It probably sounds like no big deal that there was no windows around him, but in the book, it symbolizes something huge. There was a tree outside the window the man was sitting next to and the tree left shadows of the leaves on the old man. That symbolized darkness and almost like how he was trying to escape from it and he wasn't totally covered in darkness. It was probably the most important part of the book.

Now, not so much on the importance level, but on just what I was picturing level, the cafe. I pictured it being very small and kind of rustic looking. I pictured the tables to be little circular ones and the walls to be covered in old paintings. Instead, the tables were big and they pretty much looked like desks. The cafe was very modern and even had a TV on the wall. Not what I pictured at all.

So yes, books and movies can be very similar, or they can barely be recognized as the same thing. I think that they should have done a much better job portraying light and dark and they should have made it much more old looking a not so modern. It would have made the movie, much better.  

Hemingway

Light and Dark

Light and dark. It is one of the key components of the story A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway. There are light people and there are dark people. Light people are happy and good spirited. They see the glass half full and they always think of the most positive things in a situation. On the other hand, there's dark people who see the glass half empty and don't always hope for the best. Dark people think of all the bad things that could happen while light people just hope all goes well and if t doesn't, well that's too bad! An example is someone deciding if they want to go on a roller coaster; light people will just think that it will be fun and they will have a blast! Dark people might think of all the things that could go wrong, they could get stuck, they might drop something, they might fall out, the list goes on. Reality is though, people don't commonly just fall out of roller coasters!