GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS, GRAPHICS!

This is SO cool! Made it in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). If you want your own, please leave a comment below!











I made this one for my dad. His name is Scott.





Make sure you leave a comment below, critiquing my work.
~Emily.

Chapter Four - Valentine

Part Five - Enjoy~!

My first class was Literature. I checked my schedule at least six times to make sure I didn't stumble into the wrong class by mistake. What if I did? What if the teacher got mad and yelled at me? What if, what if, WHAT IF? Questions swirled in my head, and I had to actually stop walking to clear my brain. I took a deep breath and remembered the advice Mom had given me the week before.

“Room numbers that start with a two, like 201, are always going to be on the second floor. The same thing goes for room numbers that start with a one,” Mom had said, while pulling a burnt pie from the oven. She wasn't the best baker, but she did it anyway, claiming it was her passion. Thinking about her advice made me want to go home. I thought of my warm bed, covered in my bright yellow and pink bedspread. I thought of my cat, Ringo, who always slept on my feet, which, in the morning, I found quite annoying, but now, made my heart swell up with tears.

The tears swelled up out of my heart and into my throat, and soon they started to leak out of my eyes. No, I thought, forcing the tears back down my throat and into my heart, I can't cry. Not now. I took yet another deep breath, and counted to ten.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

When I had regained my composure, I tugged on the straps of my bag and started to walk to class. I was about to climb the stairs when someone crashed into me. My bag dropped to the floor and the contents of it, including my makeup and journal, flew everywhere, and all my stuff went in opposite directions. “Watch where you're going, GOSH!” I huffed. “Sorry, I am so sorry!” The guy said, handing me my schedule, which had landed near his feet. As I took it, I saw his shirt, which looked very familiar. AC/DC, it said. I looked up, hoping desperately that some guy had the exact same shirt with the exact same studded belt as the cute guy in the library. I saw his face, and his eyes were covered with the exact same SAND COLORED HAIR! I felt myself blushing and looked down at my feet. “Thanks,” I mumbled.

The cute boy held out his hand and said, “I'm Reese. Do you want me to, uh, help you pick up your stuff?” His face was as red as mine, and I was stunned to realize that a guy so cute could be nervous, much less talk to me. “Um, sure, I guess.” I shook his hand and we both bent down and started to gather up my stuff. He handed me my purse and I awkwardly shoved it into my bag. “Er, do you have a name?” Reese mumbled, running his hand through his hair. “Oh, um, yeah. I'm Candy,” I said, bracing myself for the part where he would say, “Your name is Candy? Wow, that's weird. Seriously?” I waited, but he didn't even blink. “Nice to meet you, Candy,” he said, and without missing a beat, he shook my hand. I was amazed that a boy the same age as me could have manners. I was even more surprised when he took my hand and offered to walk me to class. I guess this won't be so bad, I thought to myself, maybe it will actually be OK.

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Valentine - Part Four

Part Four - Enjoy!

"Ok," I agreed, "but where?" Delilah grabbed my hand and tried to pull me over to a corner in the far end of the library. "Maxie told me that when you first start out as a middle schooler, you should try to go unnoticed for the first day, so you can scope out everyone, and who they are going to be. That means we have to sit somewhere where we can see everyone.

"Seriously?" I smirked, "Did Maxie write a manual for us?"

Delilah stopped walking and turned so she could look at me. "Actually," she grinned, "yes." She fumbled around in her bag, searching for something at the bottom. She finally pulled out something that looked like a spiral bound notebook. She held it up so I could see it better. I took it from her hands and studied the cover. It said:

How To Survive in Middle School

For Girls Ages 12 - 14

By Maxie Simmons

"Maxie wrote it for one of her Gifted and Talented courses. She's taking them down at the community college," Delilah explained. I giggled, and so did she. Delilah grabbed it from my hands and flipped it open to the Table of Contents. There were entire chapters devoted to how to pick out your outfit, how to walk down the hall, and even how to avoid being locked in your locker! I plucked it out of her hands, and we continued to make our way to the corner.

There were some ugly yellow tables and chairs in the Non Fiction section, and Delilah plopped down into one of the chairs. She patted the seat next to her and motioned for me to sit, too. Reluctantly, I did, setting my bag onto the table. "OK," Delilah said, settling into her seat. She opened the manual and flipped to a page, on which the header read 'Tips on Making Friends'.

Delilah read aloud the chapter she was on, and I listened for a little bit, but then I got bored. Where did Maxie get this stuff, Yahoo Answers? It kind of irritated me how Delilah wanted to be perfect. My gaze wandered around the large room, and it finally settled on a group of boys goofing around about ten feet away. They looked...different. Different from your typical 13 year old boy. Their outfits consisted of rocker tee's and skinny jeans. I had never seen anyone who looked liked this. It kind of intrigued me, the way they were so unique. I shifted my body so I could see them better and saw that they were actually kind of cute. Not as cute as that jerk, Josh, but definitely cute. One of them had a AC/DC shirt on, and he was the cutest. His hair was the color of sand, and it was completely gorgeous! He had something in his hand that looked like an iPod. I looked closer, and saw that it was a ZUNE! A Zune is a media player, mostly like an iPod, but it's not as well known. My cousin had gotten one last year for Christmas, and she had let me play with it. It was really cool, and I loved it! Seeing someone with a Zune in public was AWESOME! I got really excited and my stomach flipped over. I felt like some monarch had laid eggs in my stomach, and they were about to hatch.

“Earth to Candy? Hello?” Delilah waved her hand in front of my face, “What are you staring at?” I quickly jerked out of my daze and Delilah giggled. “Those guys, huh? Their pretty cute,” she mused. “I don't like them,” I told her, blushing furiously, “They just look, um, interesting.” “Interesting,” she said, “really, Candy? I know you were just checking them out. I can tell.” “I was NOT!” I exclaimed. I guess I said it a little too loudly, because the guys turned to look at us. The one with the sand colored hair, the cute one, took out his ear buds. All 4 of them stared.

Delilah grabbed my shoulders and said, “She's alright, just a little loony from lack of sleep. No show here, people. Carry on!” The cute boy's friend raised an eyebrow, and one of them snickered. “Candy!” Delilah hissed, once we were out of earshot, “What was that? You may have ruined our chance of making friends with them. And according to the manual, the more friends you have, the more popular you are!” Delilah shook her head, waggling a finger at me. I rolled my eyes. I was really starting to worry about my friend...

My Laptop Crashed

Urg.
So you know what we did?
We reinstalled the operating system and it works now.
But I lost all of my files.
D:

Valentine - Part Three

Ok, ready for part 3?
--

There were about seven or eight stops before we finally got to school. The actual school. And it was huge. Extremely large. I'm talking mammoth. Ok, it wasn't that big, but it was a whole lot bigger than my elementary school. It had two floors, when Weston Elementary only had one. And the hallways were endless. I had to practically glue Delilah to my side so we wouldn't get lost.

"This place is enormous!" Delilah exclaimed. We were wandering our way around the maze that the schoolboard dared to call hallways, trying to find the library, where we could supposedly hang out until the bell rang, according to Maxie, Delilah's now 10th grade sister. Finally, we came to a wooden door that had a big, bold, red sign above it that read 'Media Center'. We both looked at each other, and I broke the dead silence with, "I'm going to assume that this is the library?" Delilah shrugged and pushed the oak door open. I could tell that it was heavy, and I was glad Delilah opened it instead of me. We stepped inside the 'Media Center', and the first thing we noticed was the overwhelming smell of mint. It practically knocked you over when you walked into the room. I coughed, and Delilah smacked my back. I glared. "Sorry," she giggled. We cautiously walked further into the room and Delilah said, "Maxie was right." And she was. Kids were sitting at tables, lounging on beanbag chairs, typing on computers, and relaxing on comfy, vintage-looking couches. I surveyed the room, looking for a clock, and my eyes stopped. I giggled to myself, because the clock behind the check out desk had a ruler and a pencil as the hands. The ruler and pencil told me that it was 6:47. School officially started at 7:00 am.

"What do we do for 13 minutes?" Delilah asked, right as I was wondering the exact same thing. "I dunno," I shot back, "how about we just sit down?"

Valentine - Part Two

Josh and I decided to walk to the bus stop together, and while we were waiting for the bus driver, we found out a lot of things we had in common. We agreed that we were the only two people in the world that liked peanut butter with Oreos, and we both hated chocolate ice cream, and even like the same music, alternative/indie. I couldn't believe that we hit it off so fast. I was on cloud nine. When the bus finally pulled up to our feet, we waited for the doors to open and stepped on. They closed with a hiss and we both surveyed the bus for a place to sit. Josh motioned to a seat near the back and I looked at him curiously. Did he really want to sit with me? The bus jerked forward and fate pushed us into a seat together. This time it was Josh's turn to blush. I giggled, and the whole thing was very awkward, until we came to Delilah's stop. The doors hissed again and she boarded the bus, her pretty ponytail swinging behind her. When Delilah reached our seat, a look of confusion spread across her face

"Candy?" She said, "Is this seat taken...?" I looked at her, then at Josh. Josh looked back at me. His expression changed, and it seemed to say, "It's either me or her." The rest of the kids at Delilah's stop were getting impatient. The bus started again.

I looked at Josh. I asked, "Can she sit with us?" Josh scoffed, "No." Delilah blushed. "Fine, then you won't sit with me either," I pronounced. I grabbed Delilah's wrist and we quickly walked to a seat near the back.

"Why were you sitting with him?" Delilah asked once we were seated, "Don't you know who that is?" "No!" I said, answering her question, "Who?" She sighed, and pulled a yearbook out of her cute, vintage Betty Boop bag. "This is H.G Bentin Middle School's yearbook from last year," she explained. "And...?" I prodded. Delilah rolled her eyes, "Josh Miller? Eighth grade womanizer? Dated at least 20 seventh and eighth grade girls last year? Kissed exactly 15 of them? Ring any bells?" I was still clueless, but I didn't want to seem stupid. "Oh yeah..." I said, tapping my chin. She opened up the yearbook and flipped a couple pages, then stopped. She held it up, and pointed to a picture with her long, manicured finger. I scooted closer to look at the page. "That's him alright," I confirmed. Delilah flipped a couple more pages and help up the book. "He was voted 'Most Flirtacious' of the seventh grade class. And from the looks of it, you were his next victim. The first of the year..." She pointed at me, and I swiped her finger down.

"How do you know all this?" I asked incredulously. "Older sisters are very valuable tools when it comes to starting middle school. Sandra told me all about him. You know she was an eighth grader last year, right?" Delilah said, and she looked at me, expecting me to answer. "Yep, go on," I told her. "Well, he dated her. She was the 13th girl he kissed. I'm not even kidding, he writes it down in a little green notebook!"

I swiveled my head to look at Josh, and he was flirting with a blonde, curly haired, unsuspecting seventh grader, just like I was less than 15 minutes ago. "Are you serious? What an ego-maniac, look," I said, motioning for Delilah to look at him. We both stuck our heads in the small space between two seats and tried to be subtle. We both giggled at what we saw. Josh had pulled out his cell phone and was using the black screen to stare at his reflection. I scooted back into the seat, smiling at Delilah. "Thanks for warning me. He's super charming, seriously. He almost got me," I said. Delilah patted me on the back saying, "Anything for my Candy." She grinned.