The fall leaves fell from the orange trees onto Nate's shoulder as he walked up the steps to his small High School in lower Manhattan, New York. He took a moment to breath in the fresh morning air, closing his eyes to grasp the peaceful quiet moment so rare in this city. He was slightly late because he had to walk his little cousin to School and lost track of time in losing himself in the conversation with this bright little person. He walked in calm and collective, not trying to give any lame excuses or avoid security, just wrote his name on the late list and made his way to his first class.
Making an entrance to an already in session class cost him various stares, but he just nodded to the teacher and apologized for being late. Mr. Mork was usually austere when it came to tardiness, but Nate was a impeccable student so he just nodded back and continued with the lesson.
As Nate stood behind his seat and took off his jacket he noticed a few lingering glances, including one from Chad the theater star who was biting on his lower lip as he peeked at him before turning back to the front.
Nate sat next to Stacy, whom he had several affable conversations with but who generally didn't care for him. She was aloof to his entrance, which made her that much more intriguing to him.
She was an abstruse girl who was obsessed with the environment, something he always found fascinating to hear about from her. But he could tell she wasn't exactly allured with the thought of him ever since Veronica started making snide remarks about how Stacy never had a chance with Nate. He looked up and saw Veronica staring him down. He felt the iPhone in his pocket vibrate.
Veronica: "Nateeeeeeeeee... I missed you in the caff this morning, how was your weekend?"
Nate: "Pretty good V, how bout yours?"
Veronica: "Hahaha omg SO crazy, the party I told you about got shut down, there were mad heads in the streets so we just booked it to James freeeeeeeee with like 10 L's, I was sooo done."
Nate: "Really? Sounds like last weekend."
"yeah it was pop'in. You should come next time"
Although Veronica and her group of friends made up a small percentage of the student body, they still dominated the halls with their intimidating attitudes that made them unapproachable to anyone who wasn't a facebook junky.
Nate typically tuned down her invitations to parties. Rather he went to concerts and shows on the weekends, appreciating art and partaking in new experiences and meaningful relationships. Drunken hookups and racy photo shoots seemed tiring to him, you could only do it so many times before it felt routine.
Nate enjoined talking to people with different interest then his, able to learn something new while letting the person light up about their passion. He could photograph Stacy all day long and embody how she fervently described the green guide segment she saw on National Geographic.
Nate sat and sighed, took out his notebook to a clean page that had not yet been touched with notes or doodles. He outlined the corner of his notebooks with the faces of strangers he hoped to meet in exotic places in countries far from here, places where you adjust to a new culture and appreciate the natural beauty of the world.
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hi Alicia. let me just start by saying this is one of the best stories i have read. I really enjoyed reading it. i really liked how you were able to show a contrast between what you saw as cool, nate a nice person who appreciated art and culture. and what is typically shown as cool, veronica, an arrogant, and mean girl who does the same thing all the time. not really experiencing life. I think it was a good way to depict the "real" cool and the "fake" cool.
ReplyDeleteSOOOOOOO....this is your perspective on the "dream guy" LMAO
ReplyDeleteinteresting interesting....sounds a lot different then what I figured the dream guy might be. But besides that your story was really enjoyable to read. I can see that all those billion hours of journalism classes somewhat pay off although its not quite the same thing.
It seems that the typical cool guy to you is also kind of the typical "nice guy". He has a more subtle coolness, being away from the mainstream teenager activities like mating rituals and doing drugs, etc. Someone who has big dreams and goals about the future rather then focusing on the "in" of teenage lifestyle in the present. Cool cool. So since if this is your dream guy which is most obviously is *cough*, your might want to rethink your piorities to be able to attract a guy with these "cool" traits since that is one of the patterns i noticed of being "cool". Nate no likes party girls....
LOVE YOU! :)
hehe
oh btw thanks for commenting on my story and taking the time to read it, greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAlicia,
ReplyDeleteDamn Alicia, this is actually a really good story. No gas. I thought you incorporated a whole range of writing techniques in your story which greatly differed from others which only used one or two techniques.
You started off your story with really descriptive wording and set me up for the rest of the story with an image of place and time already in my mind. Later in the story, I thought you switched gears a bit, and your story became kinda humorous, using realistic dialogue that poked fun at a very generic conversation on SOF after the weekend.
The cool character was Nate evidently. I assume it was him, because of his alternative interests and lack of connection to the common activities of teenagers on the weekend. He also came off as pretty socially accepted, giving Nate a third dimension of believability. Great job Alicia, I will definitely try and look at your work in the future, as this story made a really good first impression to me of your writing talent.
I like the way you contrast the people who are perceived as cool and the person you perceive as cool, Nate, whose interests do not follow the norms of traditionally cool actions like partying and doing drugs but that he instead prefers cultural experiences and having meaningful relationships. From your description of Nate he seems very well rounded and socially adept enough to fit in in multiple "cliques," making him a cool guy.
ReplyDeletelolol i liked your big words from dictionary.com
ReplyDeletena really i liked your story. it was kinda like gossip girl meets sof, funny stuff. keep it up cub scout
dood dat was pretty cool dood
ReplyDeletespanks errrone, especially lily :)
ReplyDelete