Writing Sample

    The story that I wrote that I thought was my work was my plot and character paper. This is actually the most recent one that we have completed, and mine is about a spoiled, popular girl named Haylee that got in trouble at school and was forced to go to a long weekend at a cabin with her sworn enemy, Jake. During this trip, they discover some of the more important things in life and actually start to not hate each other as much. The two enemies start to bond over the trip even after going through some tough obstacles.

The Fog Covered Cabin

            I stared out the fogged window as the row of colored houses got smaller and smaller. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst possible weekend ever. I still couldn’t believe that the counselor was going to make us spend an entire weekend together in some remote cabin just because we got in a tiny little argument at school. This cabin better be nice, was all I thought as I listened to weird, nerdy, Jake, my sworn enemy since the fifth grade,  hum the words to some country song. The chorus to the banjo-dominated song came on, and Jake’s hums became loud, pitchy words. When I just couldn’t handle it anymore, I shouted, “Can you shut up? God, its bad enough that I have to spend a weekend with you, don’t make it worse by being annoying!”

            He silenced his singing after that and looked back at the directions to our house. Everything within view was rustic and old. The house directly where the road turned into two different directions was disgusting. It was covered in fog, but you could tell that it was built of strong sturdy wood once, but after a good seventy years, the wood was in dangerous condition and could probably break at any second. As we drove closer and closer, and the fog grew thicker and thicker, and it began to seem as if we were entering the beginning scene of a horror movie. Good thing we would be turning away from it soon, I thought to myself. But Jake never turned the blinker on to make a turn away from this awful house. We couldn’t stay there. I won’t do it. I bet it’s infested with spiders and crawling with other insects. All of these thoughts rushed into my head as our car bumped into the driveway.

            Jake parked the car, grabbed his black duffle, and looked at me expectantly. “Well?” he said. “Are you gonna come inside? Or is it too scary for you?”

            “There is no way, I will be sleeping in that repulsive thing you call a house,” I said sassily as I scrunched my nose in disgust.

            “But it’s almost dark! Where are you planning on sleeping, the car?” Jake laughed as if that was a joke, but stopped when he understood that was my plan.

            Jake looked at me as if I was a stubborn puppy that couldn’t decide whether he wanted to play inside or out. I guess he just couldn’t understand that I wasn’t about to sleep with a ghost, or in the same house as him. I grabbed the fuzzy, zebra print blanket out of my hot pink suitcase and laid down against the cool, back seat, to try and get some rest.

            BANG BANG BANG!!! I screamed bloody murder as I woke with a start to the banging on the window. I looked outside and what I saw made me at least eight times as mad as I already was. Standing in the dewy morning grass was a tall, skinny, brown haired, green eyed, boy was buckled over laughing in blue Hawaiian-print swim trunks and a grey top. The boy was Jake. “I thought I ought to give you a taste of what you missed out last night,” Jake said with a smirk glued to his face.

            I ran my hand through my long, messy, blonde hair, and let out an uncomfortable half-laugh, half-sigh, as he ran away from the car, shouting something about checking out the dock and lake. I reached for my phone, but then decided that maybe I should put my swim suit on and at least try to have a little fun. After all, the weather looked gorgeous and we were at a lake!

            As I ran towards the water in my new Pink bathing suit, Jake stared at me in exaggerated shock. I sprinted past him, onto the dock, and jumped right into the blue-green water. The cool rush that the water gave off felt amazing. I smiled bigger than I have in a very long time while I swam away from the dock so Jake could jump in and enjoy this slice of heaven too. I laughed while I was splashed with water as the boy that made me so furious this morning cannon balled near me. For the first time ever, Jake and I had no reason to yell at each other or hate each other. We were both perfectly content and were actually beginning to connect. Maybe the dumb counselor that made us come here actually had a good reason behind his punishment.

            We swam around the lake for a while, and after we both had exhausted legs from treading water, we grabbed towels and headed to the car to find a restaurant for some lunch. The shorter time in the car wasn’t the only thing that was different during this ride. The atmosphere felt altered, like something more personal than the distance to our destination changed. We kept a conversation the entire half hour it took to get to a McDonalds. Even once we got there we kept talking! Not necessarily about anything in particular, it was just goofy, random words to fill the silence that was usually filled with hatred. This little thing was all ruined though, when I noticed the “FREE WIFI” sign and immediately whipped out my phone.

            “Um, what are you doing?” Jake asked me as if he was surprised.

            “Checking Twitter to see how fun the party that I had to miss out on was,” I snapped back at him without even looking up.

            “Can I see that for a minute?”

            “Yeah sure,” I said without hesitating, as I handed him my phone.

            I watched him carefully as he removed the lid to his Diet Coke. He placed the lid on the table and casually drowned my iPhone in the fizzy drink. Even though my phone was already cracked beyond repair, the fact that it couldn’t even turn on now was enough to send me over the edge. I dramatically gasped and reached for his cup. Jake shooed my hand away, stood up, and carried the drink and ruined phone into the men’s restroom. I sat outside the door, both tears and anger bubbling up inside of me. Jake came out a few seconds later, with my destroyed phone in his hand. He handed it to me and walked outside and got in the car like nothing had happened. I slowly got up and stomped my way to the car, taking my time to perfect my scowl, just so he knew how angry I was.

            The entire car ride home was so silent, it was almost painful. I was trying to give him the silent treatment, but I guess it wasn’t working out since he wasn’t event trying to make conversation. At least the silence gave me a lot of time to think about all sorts of mean things that I could say either to him or about him. By the time we pulled into the driveway around 4ish, I had thought of at least thirty seven different scenarios in which I would have an amazing comeback for whatever he said.

            Jake parked our car into the cracked driveway, and turned the ignition off without glancing at me, or my phone. He got out and walked directly to the front door and strutted inside without any hesitation. I sat in the old, worn down car for a little longer and thought. I thought about how although the house was completely and utterly distasteful, the lake was gorgeous, and I really shouldn’t be complaining. Maybe Jake actually had a purpose behind practically destroying my entire life, or in other words, my iPhone. Maybe he was trying to tell me something that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I eventually realized that it was probably something like live the life that’s surrounding you and don’t regret the things that you missed out on. I decided that this was a good enough reason to put my phone through its final misery, and hopped out of the car to look for Jake. Maybe, just maybe, the counselor was right for once.

    As I said before, this was my plot and character writing. I feel that throughout this story, the two characters, Jake and Haylee, both bonded and really began to connect while going through the many issues that the plot created. The plot structure that I used was the "W" plot. I believe that this was the right structure to use because it shows how two enemies went through some ups and downs, but were still able to make it through the story okay. I think that I really connected the characters to the plot that I used and was able to successfully create an interesting story with very clear characters.