Story About a Poem

1. Story About a Poem Molly’s part Jasper’s part Shane’s part

2. Molly’s Beginning • My family and I have always lived in rougher neighborhoods. It helps my sisters’ designing. My aunt, Jaylyn, owns a clothing line, and my sister designs for it. She says that rougher neighborhoods tend to bring her creativity into better focus; that she needs the rough surroundings to help her see a style that will fit these rough and tough people. Hence, everybody in my family has to be either really fast, and agile, or somehow able to always avoid the fights and keep themselves safe, or, be an extremely strong, fast, and lethal fighter, that is very difficult to beat. • My father died about three years ago, from lung cancer. But he didn’t leave us weakened by too much. When he discovered his ailment, he enrolled all of my siblings and I in the most advanced karate school he possibly could afford. I quickly excelled in karate, moving from white to black belt within a time span of two years, leaving many boys bruised and injured from the fights I had to fight to get my next belt. • My mother, Kaiya, has made sure we keep excelling in karate, no matter how many degrees of black belt we become. There have been many situations where this becomes essential to our survival.

3. Molly’s Beginning page 2 • I am the second oldest in my family, but the strongest and fastest as well. I am the best fighter in the family; the most agile, and the least exhausted after a good fight. I make no unnecessary movements and fight quickly and lethally. I sidestep a lot, dodging being my best skill, though the lethal fighting style I prefer is just as good. • I am a third degree black belt; my mother has kept us in karate to keep us in good shape and we are never given a chance to forget how to fight. • I have long since accepted that I am rightfully, and gladly, my family’s true and strong protector.

4. Violet • Violet is very observant. She notices every thing there could possibly be to notice. She can especially notice my blush a mile away, pick it out of a crowd of blushing girls, which she has probably done. • Violet is a brunette, with deep pools of blue eyes. Normally. Around my family her eyes turn hazel, as they do with anybody she’s especially comfortable around. When she’s around boys, her eyes are a timid, and innocent bluish gray. Around a group of girls, her eyes are a deep, endlessly vast dark chocolate brown. • She is thin, and a bit short. Her form is partially curved, but when she fights, her form is flat, and hard to get a good grasp on. This is why she is never caught. She watches her opponents maneuvers, studies them and then attacks with her most sure path to victory. • She is very thorough. She never leaves her opponent a way around her, but if you can land a solid blow to her stomach or collar bone, she is forced off balance and is very easily beaten. Most people do not realize or guess at this weakness and she is normally almost undefeatable. I normally step into the fight before she gets hurt.

5. Jacob • Jacob is very blunt and easy to read, but is an extremely good reader in return. He can read other peoples movements and thoughts very easily. He can read facial expressions very well, and tends to find the reason for other peoples emotions very slowly though. • Jacob is a big, strong boy, who isn’t a very good runner, but has very immense strength. He has brown eyes, with a streaked blond and brown hair.

6. Jordan • Jordan is tall, but very skinny. He’s one of those boys that looks really unhealthily skinny, but you know they are in really good shape. • He has something like an aura; there’s just something about him that tells you that he might be a good fighter. Somehow, there’s a threatening air about him. • He has big, almond shaped eyes, that are a deep, chocolate brown like my fathers. • He is an extremely good fighter. He isn’t very strong; thus he can’t rely on brute strength the way his brother does. But even without the massive strength his brother has, he is honestly stronger, in his own way. They are opposites. • Jordan has light brown hair, that is always hanging in his eyes, giving him a sloppy look that never fades. He refuses to get it cut any shorter than this.

7. Rose-Marie • Rose-Marie has long, blond hair that reaches just below her constantly defined waist line. • She always wears tight clothing that she has specifically designed for herself, to show off no doubt. Everybody knows that she can be a bit shallow sometimes, but it’s obvious that she really cares about the entire family. • She is a designer for my aunt Jaylyn’s clothes line, and this is the main income in our home. She is constantly designing new outfits for our family. I absolutely dread the outfits she designs, or at least wearing them. They are so tight and clingy on my skin; it’s so uncomfortable, I can’t imagine wearing them by choice. • She is skinny and tall. She plans to be a model for her own clothes line. Honestly, it could probably work out, if aunt Jaylyn would let her. • Her fighting style is dodge until her attacker is tired, then she uses pressure points to take them down. This tends to help her define what kind of body types there are more of and what size she should be designing for.

8. Molly’s homes • We have lived everywhere. We have lived in humid Hawaii, which didn’t offer much inspiration for Rose. We’ve lived in hot and sunny California, which was much too hot for the comfort of my family. We’ve lived in South Dakota, but it just wasn’t rough enough for Rose to get any real inspiration. We’ve lived in Maine, but… it just didn’t work out there. So now we’re in Minnesota, and we’ve found a new group of people who are more than we expected. They’ve noticed us and singled us out. Everybody in my family is really happy here. Perhaps we’ll stay a while, for a change. I haven’t had a full school year in the same school for three or four years. Ever since Jaylyn discovered Rose’s talent in fashion.

9. Molly’s Experience • Rose was sitting on the front doorstep, waiting for her boyfriend. As usual, I was on the doorstep to the back door, waiting for mine. Then he came into view, jogging over the expanse of land behind our home in Maine. He jumped the fence with as much ease as I would have had jumping it, and came to sit beside me. “Molly, we need to talk.” He said, in a solemn and serious voice. “What’s wrong, Gabriel?” I asked, really worried. This wasn’t the first time I’d heard that line, and it was always the break up line. “We need to break up.” He said, sounding like he thought I’d burst out crying. All guys hate a girl crying, they never know what to do with tears. “Why?” I asked, my voice slightly shaky. “I’m moving to Nevada. My dad got transferred.” He said. Honestly, it didn’t sound like this was hurting him at all. Then he kissed my forehead, and started heading home. That was it. No goodbye, no pain in his eyes, just fear that I’d start crying because he just broke up with me. But I don’t let an ex see me crying after he breaks up with me. I try to keep as dignity as I possibly can. I moped and cried my way through the next quarter, but my family decided they didn’t want to see me suffer in that school anymore. So, we moved here.

10. Jasper’s Beginning • When I was younger, I traveled a lot. My parents were always being transferred, so I never stayed in the same school for too long. I’ve always been a strong kid, my dad improving upon my natural skills at running and my strength, by training me. He put in karate, and I had to earn my black belt before my computer. I’ve earned my fourth degree black belt already, and I’m my family’s strongest fighter. My dad is normally in the shop, repairing something, so we’re not very close. My mom is more of a stay at home and keep the kids in order type. She brings in a small income from an online business that she does while my brother and I are at school, when she doesn’t have any cleaning that she thinks needs to be done. I’m kind of shy, and I don’t like being in front of big crowds. I try to hide my strength and fighting ability, but it’s hard to when somebody pushes your temper a little too far. I’ve managed to only lose my temper once, and the victim of that was stronger than me at that point. I’ve been training extremely hard since then, and I don’t think I’ll lose to him again.

11. Joshua • Joshua is a strong boy for his age. He is tall, and a lot of boys compare him to a beanstalk, unaware, only as a result of my threats, of the hidden muscle that’s long and almost invisible. • He’s always had a bit of a temper, and I often have to hold him back so that he stays out of fights. He is a second degree black belt, and loves to advertise it whenever he gets the chance. • He has long, black hair. He always wears it up in a samurai’s style that my father taught him. He loves samurai, and thinks that he is invincible. I had to break his confidence in half a year or two ago, in a fight to see who was in charge of the other when mom and dad are away.

12. Joshua • Joshua has a permanent, deep tan. His skin is a russet tan, and he looks a lot like an Indian. My father is half Indian. It came out in me by my strong, easy to see muscle and the fact that I’m a born runner. It came through his skin and hair. • His lanky build also wins him a lot of races, like me, but dad takes him hiking a lot. He can now move through a forest with a speed and swiftness that is obviously native American. The silence he moves in makes him very hard to catch for anyone but me. Dad took me on most of these trips too, and I would sneak out in the morning to watch the sunrise from the top of my favorite tree.

13. Jasper’s Experience It was early in the morning, and my dad and brother were still deep asleep. I always got up to see the sunrise when we came out to camp. It was a simple matter of silently crawling over my brother and father, without waking them, and silently sneaking out into the forest. So first, as always, I slipped on my climbing and hiking clothes. As I was slipping on my pair of moccasins, my brother stirred in his sleep. The only effect his stirring ever had on me, was make me a little nervous, and little more cautious. This time however, his stirring was a little more nerve racking. Somehow, it seamed a little more conscious than it had in the past. I ignored the feeling in my stomach that was telling me to slip back into my sleeping bag, and skip seeing the sunrise to hide my favorite pine tree from my brother’s discovery. I slipped the moccasins on, and climbed over my brother and father.

14. Jasper’s Experience As I climbed over my brother, I briefly caught a glimpse of his wide eyes, open in shock at me. Then he regained his control over his face. His eyes closed, looking like he had never woken. I finished climbing over him, and silently escaped the tent. I snuck through the forest a little more silently, and more aware than usual trying to make it completely impossible to follow me. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I felt more aware and every little silent movement was audible to me. I couldn’t understand why adrenaline was pumping through me. What was the big deal if Joshua discovered my tree? I was always happy there; the beauty and majesty of mother nature chasing away all my stress and anxiety. Either way, I snuck through the silent forest with such silence, that I couldn’t even hear my own movements, though the adrenaline pumping through my veins made my ears even stronger and more uncanny than usual.

15. Jasper’s Experience After the usual five minutes of sneaking through the forest with uncanny silence and agility, I made it to my favorite tree. It had foot and handholds that made it absolutely perfect for climbing. They lined it all the way to the top of the tree, if you knew where they were and you knew how to climb them right. I put my first hand up, finding my usual first handhold with ease, and pulled myself up enough to reach my second handhold. I was halfway up when I heard a gasp. It took me so much by surprise, that I lost my grip for a moment, beginning to fall, but I grabbed a couple of handholds, put my feet in the right place, so that I was balanced, and looked down toward the sound. Of course, Joshua had followed me. He was gaping up at me, and he looked like a moron. “Go back to camp, Joshua.” I said with a thick edge of annoyance in my voice. “How’d you get up there without making enough noise for me to find you sooner?”

16. Jasper’s Experience “Because I’ve been climbing this tree since you were old enough to come out here.” I said realizing that if he went back, he’d wake dad. “Well, I guess if I send you back you’re going to wake dad.” I said finally giving up. “Not on purpose, but yeah, I’d probably end up waking dad.” He admitted, seeing where this was going easily. “Come on up, I guess. Well, come up if you can reach, I should say.” I added, finding this alternative much more appealing than having Joshua up here with me. He found the first handhold, and started climbing, just a little slower than it had taken me to climb because he had to search for each handhold. I kept climbing, trying to ignore his grunts every time he had to jump a little to reach a handhold that was a little out of his reach. Soon, I reached the very top of the tree. The very top of this pine tree wasn’t quite as used to supporting two people than it was at supporting one, so I told Joshua to be careful when he reached the top with me.

17. Jasper’s Experience “So, why’d you sneak out of the tent? To sit up here?” He asked, looking exhausted from climbing this high. “Because I always come up here to watch the sunrise when we come camping out here. It’s a beautiful view, and it’s like you can escape the stresses and anxiety of life up here.” I respondednoting how cheesy I sounded. “You do realize how cheesy you sound right?” He asked a grin starting to spread across his face. “Yeah, I know. But it is true. Could you imagine the stresses of school and work and life up here, when you’re watching the most basic act of nature? This has been happening for millions of years, never changing.” I said grinning back at him. “I have to give you credit, I never would have thought you could sneak through the forest that silently. It took me forever to find you, and you didn’t leave any kind of path behind you.” He said, sounding a bit awed.