If you didn't know, I have a facebook page for my book. You can like the page to get updates on my writing. Well, when I first made the page, I said that once I reached 50 likes, I would share a small portion of my second book, "The Eye of the Storm" with my followers. Well, a few weeks ago, I reached 50 likes! Thank you to everyone who was apart of making that happen.I am going to post the excerpt here on my blog. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. It was very fun to write. If you read the first book "The Other Side of Me," then you'll already know the characters Molly and Jacob, two siblings. Molly has always been my favorite character to write about, because she has a lot of spunk for an eleven year old. And I also like writing for Jacob, because he doesn't know the first thing when it comes to girls and their "drama." I thought it would be extra fun to see how clueless Jacob really is. I love this chapter, and I hope that you do too. Like I said previously, this is a small excerpt from book two in "The Other Side of Me" series, "The Eye of the Storm," which will be out sometime in the beginning of 2014. Enjoy!
One of those
problems happened about a month after the accident. Molly started going back to
school, which was good for her. She had a lot of friends her age. The
schoolhouse was about three miles away from where we lived. Most mornings I
would take her using the wagon and horse. Sometimes though, if the weather was
nice, she’d walk. I wasn’t sure how comfortable I was with her walking three
miles to school, and another three back, but she said it was very calming to her. I won’t
argue. The road between our house and the school was very quiet and peaceful.
There was only one other farmhouse along the way, but it was far enough back
from the road that the only sound you might here while passing by is a cow’s
moo, or a barking dog.
This day in
particular I had driven her to school in the wagon. So when I went to pick her
up that afternoon, I was surprised to see her sitting by herself on the front
of the schoolhouse’s steps. Usually I’d have to drag her away from playing with
her friends. All of her friends were playing hopscotch on the other side of the
yard, but Molly sat alone. When she saw me, she quickly got up, and ran towards
the wagon.
“Hey Moll,” I said
as she climbed in next to me. She didn’t say anything back, which surprised me.
Usually whenever I would pick her up, she wouldn’t stop talking about the great
day she had at school. Whether it was about one of her friends, or something
she learned in school, she usually wouldn’t stop talking for the entire three
mile trip home, which usually took about fifteen minutes.
I tried to get
the conversation started. “So Molly,” I said. “How was school today? Did you
pass that spelling test you were studying for?” I wondered if that was why she
was quiet. Maybe she didn’t do well, and was upset with herself.
“I got an A.” She
said quickly and quietly. “Oh,” I said, now knowing my theory was incorrect.
“Well, that’s great! Good job Molly.” She didn’t say anything else, so I
decided to drop the subject. If she didn’t want to talk about it, trying to get
her to tell me was just going to make her even more upset.
“Fine!” She
finally said when we could see our farmhouse on the horizon. “What?” I asked, a
little startled at her sudden outburst. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Meagan and
Morgan.” She said now,not as loud as before. “I know they hate me.”
I am not
necessarily the best when it comes to putting names with faces, especially when
they are Molly’s little friends, and their names sound so alike like Meagan and
Morgan. Honestly, they all look a lot alike to me. So when she told me these
names, I knew they had to be girls she went to school with, but I had
absolutely no idea which ones.
“It all started
when you dropped me off at school this morning.” Molly said. I went in the
schoolhouse, and saw Meagan and Morgan near the front of the room. They were
wearing the exact same dress. I mean, the same blue flowered fabric, the same
pattern, even the same little buttons up the front. They had their hair the
same way also. They each had it in two French braids. And at the ends of the
braids, they had ribbons that matched the dress’s fabric.”
“Alright,” I said,
not exactly sure why Molly was upset about this. “What’s the problem?” When I asked this, Molly nearly jumped up out of her seat. “What’s the problem?!” She
asked as I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back down, afraid she was
going to tumble out. “Don’t do that!” I said, catching my breath. Although my
sister isn’t the most daring person ever, she rarely thinks before she does
anything. Sometimes, she ends up in worse trouble then she started.
“What do you mean
what’s the problem?” She asked me, still as loud, but at least now sitting
down. “You can’t see where this is going?”
We were now
pulling down the dirt road to our house. I tried my hardest to think what the
problem was. I finally said the only thing that make the least amount of since,
but the only thing I could think of. “They are borrowing fabric and patterns
from each other?” Molly rolled her eyes. I knew then that I obviously didn’t
answer correctly.
“Jacob,” Molly said
annoyed. “Meagan, Morgan and I are supposed to be best friends. And they are
being mean to me. Can’t you see it now?”
“How is that being
mean?” I asked, now even more confused than I was before. The way Molly looked
at me then made me feel like I was the stupidest person on earth. She took a
deep breath, and then continued. “Jacob,” she said. “Best friends don’t leave
each other out. They wore matching blue flowered outfits to school today, and I
was left out just wearing this red plaid one. You see now? They are trying to
leave me out on purpose.”
I now definitely
felt like the stupidest person on earth, because I had absolutely no idea what
the big deal was. “Molly,” I said. “That is so dumb.” She looked surprised at
first, then mad. “Why is that so dumb?” She asked, looking like she was ready to
stand up again. It wasn’t as big of a deal now, because we were near the barn,
but I still grabbed her arm to keep her from getting up.
“I mean, you
shouldn’t care that these girls are wearing the same outfit. In fact, I don’t
even know why you’d want to wear the same outfits as them. Why on earth would
you want to look like someone else? In my opinion, being different is much more
respected than being the same as others.”
I was rather
proud of what I said. It sounded good to me, and I thought that maybe it would
help Molly understand. She was silent as I stopped the horse, and put the break
on the wagon. When I looked back at her, the expression on her face told me
something different.
“You just don’t
get it, do you?” She said standing up to get out of the wagon. Once she was on
the grassy ground, she picked up her schoolbooks which were sitting on the
wagon seat next to me, and walked towards the house.
I sat in the wagon for several more moments until I heard
the house’s door slam shut. “No,” I said to myself. “I suppose I don’t.”
~Sam
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