NOTES: Final Prep Session! Saturday, Oct 16, 1-3 pm, 95th Street Library

Note: this exercise was the one on writing a scene where your character is doing something mundane when inside they have some very strong emotions roiling

Alaina walked into the classroom, feeling everyone's eyes upon her.

"We're so sorry," a few braver friends murmurred. Some of them touched her arm as she walked the gauntlet to her seat, feeling fragile and numb at the same time.

Alaina kept her gaze downward focused so she wouldn't see the expressions on the faces of those around her. Methodically she placed her text book and notebook on the desk before her and pulled out a pencil. She dared a small glance up at the teacher.

The bell rang.

The teacher spoke. History had been one of Alaina's favorite classes, but she had difficulty following what Mrs. Arnold was telling them today. Instead of notes, she found herself drawing detailed roses in her notebook, carefully shading them the way her mother had liked them. As Mrs. Arnold led the class through some discussion about early American industrialism, Alaina filled the page with the rose blooms, making sure to keep the thorns sharp.

She remembered a day only a month before when her father had taken her on a walk in the neighborhood park. She had skittered on ahead, eager to reach the playground to see if any of her friends were there; he had calmly kept his pace. He had tried to hold her hand when they set out, but Alaina was too shy? grown-up? cool? to be seen holding hands with her dad.

She was only made aware of her tears when they smudged the grass she was drawing around the base of the roses.

The bell rang. For one long, guilty moment, Alaina wondered what she would do about homework, about the class notes; this was her first day back after a week out of school. But she just wiped her eyes dry and shrugged inside. Mom and Dad had cared about her grades; but they were no longer here with her.