The cool chapter’s over. It’s back to boring, normal school stories.
Dang it. I liked the fighting action. Now it’s just gonna be… romance action. Ew.
“Portraits!”
I was standing with the group (guess I was just part of them now), and Caitlyn walked up to the group waving a book in her hand around. She brought it over to show us what was in it. So what was in it?
I don’t know, I was the last one to look inside of it. Partly because I was being my usual stubborn self and… wanted to pretend like I didn’t care. You know, the Tsundere thing from a while ago?
Don’t remember? Eh. Being stubborn is a thing I do.
“What, you wanna see?”
I was standing off to the side, eyeing the book. Caitlyn must have noticed that I was … staring pretty hard… and asked me that question.
“Uh, no?”
“Then why do you keep looking at the book?”
I took my eyes off of it.
“I’m not.”
“Here, you wanna see what you look like?”
“Huh?”
What I look like? What, did you- no way
Did you DRAW a picture of me?
…creepy
“I said, do you wanna see what you look like?”
“I don’t care.”
“Fine.”
Wonder if she could tell I wanted to see what I looked like
Anyway, I did take a peek as she continued flipping through pages. I saw crossed-out drawings (it looked like… the drawings were of people holding hands… but I could be wrong! That’s definitely a weird thing to draw- no way that’s what I saw! Why would she draw tha- why would I even think she’d draw that?) until she flipped to pages with actual pictures on them.
Hahaha, no way she can draw-
Oh. She can draw.
I’m surprised. The drawings she had made were, well, as she described, portraits. There were people making poses, but it was more than that. Each drawing had a little extra effect added to it.
The drawings were portraits for the group of us, but in our ‘Elemental’ forms. Remember? Fire, water, earth, etc.? Yeah.
The first drawing was (unsurprisingly) Flare, Anna’s character. It had her hair stuck upwards in flames (creative, I know) and her face was full of burning passion and rage. She was in a pose that looked like she was ready to punch someone (hmm, who could I be describing) in the face, or worse, somewhere else (hmmM, wHo COULD I BE DESCRIBING?). Anyway, it had a lot of detail.
I should explain what drawing style it’s in. It looked like a comic. Like, it was a portrait of Anna (no really) but it had a chibi-esk style, I guess. Basically, it was a really cute drawing. But it was cool, too. I dunno, just whoever drew the picture must’ve been a really good and talen-
Nah.
Anyway, the next page was flipped over, and the next portrait was a drawing of… Skylar.
Wow.
She had her arms in a prayer position, like… Zelda or something. She was levitating; the wind was hoisting her upwards, and leaves were circling around her body, indicating the wind was pushing them around. Closing her eyes to add effect, the drawing felt… well… what’s a good word… elegant. Haha, that’s a funny word. Yeah, sure, the drawing was elegant. For a 4th grader’s drawing, at least.
Okay, okay, it was pretty good. I liked it. Uh, wait, not because it was a good drawing, but because I like the idea of roleplaying as multi elemental-bending warriors of time. Or Elementals, whichever name you prefer. Doesn’t matter the slightest to me. But yeah, that’s the only reason why I liked the pictures.
Uh, uh, the next page flipped over.
YEAH IT WAS ME THIS TIME
oh i actually look kinda decent
I figured Caitlyn would try to make me look as demon-ish as possible, but no, it looked pretty normal. Besides the fact that I was floating on top of a spiral of water and my palms were up and there were balls of water flying around.
balls lol
*ahem* I think we need to discuss the elephant in the room.
In my opinion, she could draw. But Caitlyn’s drawings were half-baked compared to mine and she should get some lessonsyeah they were pretty good.
“Why’d you make me look like that?”
Who said that?
“Well, sorry for making you look better than you already do.”
Oh. Ohhhh. I was the one who said that. And Caitlyn responded with wait what did she just call me
“Excuse me? You should, uh, be proud you’re even getting to draw me!”
That sounded stupid.
Then again, I was an elementary student. Of course I was stupid. You’ve read enough of this to know I can be dumb at times. We’re all stupid. That’s just how children roll, huh?
“What? Are you JOKING? Yeah, right.”
Okay, sure, she and I were just arguing as usual. But everyone else who was looking at the notebook with us made it into a huge deal. Why? Because why not?
“Great, they’re fighting again.”
I know right? At least Karoline agrees with me.
“Ooh, lovebirds!”
And Jaidon is just being haywire like usual.
“Shut up!”
Caitlyn and I got fed up by the two of them quickly, and they stopped. Nice.
“Caitlyn! Did you show off the drawings we made?”
We collectively turned to see Anna running up to us, almost tackling the group in the process.
Wait, so did Caitlyn make the drawings with help? So she… could have not drawn any of these drawings, and Anna could have been the one who drew them! So, actually Caitlyn sucks at drawing! Totally! Wait, that means Anna is really good at drawing… uh… never mind… cancel everything I just said.
After that mini-bout, she looked back down at the notebook, quickly flipping to the next page. As expected, there were more drawings of more members of the Elements, but I’m too lazy to write out everyone’s names. I could tell that she obviously fell apart after the first two drawings, and tried less and less after each one. I guess she got embarrassed (cause they started to suck) and quickly shut the book and ran inside to stash the notebook away.
Uh… phew, I dunno? Good things we got those things out of the way.
After she put it away, it was the last I’d ever seen them. That year. Totally would never ever see them again. Never.
Anyway, I must’ve been somewhat influenced by her drawings that… it made me want to draw too.
Okay. I’ve made comics before. Like when I was 5 or something. So I’ve had experience. When I say that, that means that yes, I decided to make more comics.
I started drawing the Elementals. I took their idea and turned it into a comic. I was bored in class, whatever, I felt like it.
I remember it being... something about how there was a random hole in the ground, and if you fell in it you got superpowers. And then a ton of people fell in it, and they traveled the world to… uh…
It… wasn’t… good…
I still gave the comics out to people! I could make a comic in no time, right and left, and people would walk up and ask for them!
In reality, the only people that asked for them was just a couple of my friends, and Anna when she felt like making fun of me for literally anything.
And Caitlyn, too. Maybe she liked the story of the comics (I’m joking, no one did.)
“Hey, wanna help write a book about the Elementals?”
Caitlyn walked up to may while I was making the next issue, and plopped that question onto me.
Hmm? Write a book? That sounds so boring (Notice the irony?)!
But… do something… with Caitlyn? Wait no that isn’t a good stimulus for why I would want to write a book
I already know how boring reading a book is, so why would I WRITE a book? You just have to put in EVEN MORE effort. That sounds like school, but worse.
I agreed anyway. I figured being with Caitlyn… uh... was a… decent idea.
“So how would we write it?”
“Using this thing called Google Docs. It’s something on the computer that lets you write things on it, and I think you can share it with other people to let them write on it, too.”
I already knew about Google Docs. I had a home computer and I’ve experimented doing things such as messing around in Google Docs before on it, so I guess you could say I was quite skilled. I still pretended to not know what she was talking about.
“Okay, so we need a computer, right? Do you have one?”
aHA! I got her this time.
“I asked the teacher if I could go to the computer lab to work on stuff for another class, and since we have snack right now we’re fine.”
“Well, okay, I guess. So we can just go?”
Uh… so… I’ll be alone with Caitlyn? Is this really happening?
“No, we’re gonna get Anna first. She’s the one who gave me the idea.”
Shoot.
“Where’re you going?”
Karoline asked. Hmm? She didn’t want to come with, did she?
“Can I come with?”
Of course.
“Of course!”
Anna, abundant of energy, yelled this.
And then, the four of us were off to the computer lab. Yeah, the teacher just let us go. Hmm.
“Okay, so how do we start?”
I asked. They did have a plan, right?
“Uh… I don’t know?”
Great. They don’t.
“Okay, so, I’m the main character, right?”
Nice one, sarcastic 4th grade me.
“Yeah, shut up. So I told you about how Flare and Skylar are sisters, right?”
Yeah, I don’t remember that.
“Nope.”
“Well, they are. So I think the book should like, introduce them.”
“So an origin story?”
Karoline butted into what Caitlyn was saying. Hmm, is Karoline smart? I’ve never really paid attention to how smart she was. I’ve also… never really paid attention to her in general. Guess I was too focused on someone el- no.
Uh, uh, I definitely would’ve also remembered what an origin story was, but didn’t feel like saying it. Yeah, that’s the only reason why I didn’t.
“So… how do we start?”
If Caitlyn can come up with an idea, she can come up with a beginning. That’s what I figured.
“Uh, so Skylar and Flare are sisters… and… they…”
“Get kicked out of their house!”
Anna screeched.
“Wait, what? Why?”
“Because, they, uh, get in a fight with their parents?”
Real creative story, Anna. Why did I agree to do this with them?
Alright, time to show off my supreme writing ability (NOTE: I’ve never written anything before.).
“How about, they’re born with powers, but their parents… force them to do stuff with their powers, like jobs, but they don’t wanna do that?”
HA! That’ll show them.
“Eh.”
What
“How about they have to live with terrible things because they have powers and want to escape it all?”
Caitlyn said this, and it sounded somewhat similar to what I just said.
Oh, maybe because IT WAS
“Sounds great!”
What
“Thanks, Anna!”
No-
“Let’s get to it!”
So ‘not’ using my idea, they started to write out the story in a google doc. I tried to give them ideas, but they ignored me every single time. Eventually, I gave up and just decided to watch over their writing skills, noticing all of the grammar mistakes the two of them were making (Karoline was kinda… just there…), and decided to just let them write whatever they wanted, correcting all of the grammar mistakes they made along the way. You know, like an editor? Yeah, I was editing their book. But can I just say one thing? When I said correcting their grammar, I meant it- Caitlyn had the absolute worst spelling I’d ever seen. I’m completely serious. She made mistakes left and right- or in her case, ‘laft’ and ‘rite’.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. The joke was that bad, at least.
Anyway, yeah, she was a pretty bad speller. I noticed this, and, as expected, got pretty irritated.
“Can you ever spell right? Do you know how annoying it is to correct every other word you type?”
“Well, you didn’t have to come along!”
“Yeah, why did you come along?”
Anna joined in the argument against me. But, it looked like I had some backup.
“You gotta admit, he is correcting a lot of mistakes that you make.”
Heh. Karoline had my back. She wasn’t nearly as excruciatingly unbearable as these two.
“But he’s still making just as many mistakes as you, as well.”
Wh- how- since when AM I making more mistakes than THEM? I’m being their EDITOR! That doesn’t make any sense!
“Shut up! You’re not even doing anything!”
“Yes I am. I’m reading the story, and seeing how bad of a story it is.”
Yeah, that’s doing nothing.
“Hey! Don’t make fun of our story!”
Anna seemed pretty mad. It’s her own fault she’s terrible at grammar. Maybe she should work on that before trying to write a book, huh?
“Yeah, it’s a good story!”
No, no it isn’t. The plot’s all over the place, the characters are based on people in real life (only the good parts of those people, so… well, I guess Anna doesn’t get a character, then, huh?), and the action is bad.
Hmm. Well, the editor is the one who’s supposed to fix all of the mistakes they make so… I guess it’s my fault?
Just kidding I’d never admit that it was my fault.
“If anything, it’s your fault the book’s bad!”
Caitlyn pointed at me. I made a horrified face and shook my head.
“HOW IS IT MY FAULT?!”
Screaming in a computer lab. Nice.
“Well, you think it’s bad, right?”
“Well-”
“Wait, you think it’s good?”
Well, I’ve never written a book myself, and haven’t had that much experience reading books at this point in time, so… I’m not the best judge for this. I don’t really have any qualifications to say anything.
“Oh, yeah, it’s perfect.”
Her eyes lit up. Hehe. Cute. No, like, I-
“REALL-”
“Perfectly bad.”
Boom. Ruined a child’s writing career, right then and there. So proud of myself.
“Fine. We’ll make it so you and Caitlyn fall in love in the book,”
Said Anna, making a mad face.
“Hey!”
“Wait what?”
Caitlyn made an astonished face, and I made a confused one. I shot a look at Karoline. She smirked.
“Yeah, Anna, that would actually be a really good book.”
“Stop it!”
“Wait, what?”
Was there something I was missing? I don’t get why you would try to make people fall in love in a book. That’s just a waste of time.
Wait oh you’re reading this huh
Uh… never mind. Maybe falling in love isn’t the worst idea.
Wait, what?
ns 15.158.61.13da2