Ellie Jones -- (Author) lilemmy

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Author: lilemmy
Timestamp: Feb 3, 2014 at 12:09 AM
Content: About the Story:

This is the coming of age story of a 12 year old fictional girl Named Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Jones. The story takes place in a small city in the southern united states. This is a story of discovering life after change and the way we handle it. While the story is fiction, many of the events are not. Much are based or inspired on personal experience, the good and bad, and on the experiences of those around me. Growing up is a rite not easily taken.

Ellie Jones

Chapter One - Welcome back.

Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Jones woke up nearly three minutes before her alarm was set to go off. As she gained consciousness from the few hours of sleep she did manage have, a sinking pit formed in her stomach. Now cognitive of the events that would unfurl today, she clicked off her alarm and hid in the safety of her comforter with her battered stuffed frog Flippers.

“Maybe mom won't wake up in time,” she thought.
“Maybe she'll be in such a rush for work she'll forget about me.” Ellie tried to reassure herself again.

Five minutes now passed from when her alarm was supposed to go off. And then it came; a soft tap on her bedroom door her hope of staying home quickly diminished.

“Ellie? Are you up girl?” said a slightly hurried voice.

Ellie groaned.

“Good, now get moving baby. Your bus will be here in about twenty minutes.” Her mom’s voice trailed off as she left for the kitchen to get her routine coffee fix started.

Ellie groaned again.

Pulling back the covers she was hit with a blast of cold air from the room around her. She looked outside her small window and could barely see the street just feet in front of her. Ellie fumbled her hand on her nightstand as she was looking for her glasses. After nearly knocking them to the ground, she placed the bent frames on her face.

Ellie pulled the cord on her lamp that also took residence on her nightstand. Immediately a hazy, yellow light filled the room. She wasn't sure why, but she much prefered this light than the harsh bright white that would come with the overhead.
“Makes reading more pleasant.” She would tell her mom after yelling at her to not turn on the industrial apartment light.

Finally getting out of bed, she made her way to her four drawer dresser that rested against her wall. Not having a closet made her and her mom find ‘creative’ solutions as her mother put it, to hanging her clothes. Above two completely filled bookshelves, a string was hung from one wall to another. On that string were hangers; wooden, wired, plastic of all different colors.

“A hanger is a hanger, Ellie” her mother would say.

Sifting through the second to the top drawer of the dresser, she began to pull out her school’s uniform.

“Black tights, a skirt, a blouse, and cardigan. And tomorrow I'll have the wonderful choice of black tights, a skirt, a blouse and another cardigan.” Ellie mumbled to herself.

Any originality she might have had with her choice of clothes had been stifled by last years move to the city. While her preteen fashion sense was something to be found wanting, it was, at the very least, hers.

Having showered the night before, she begrudgingly slipped into her ‘prison uniform’ as she called it. Quickly she slipped on the tights, and then the skirt. As she was finishing buttoning the last few buttons on her white blouse, there was another, albeit less soft, knock on her door.

“Are you moving?” Her mother asked with a bit of sternness.

“Yes, mom!” Ellie said through gritted teeth.

While walking to her door, she noticed her blouse was untucked. Now wanting to avoid Mrs. Finch’s stern yells of disapproval she began to tuck it in.

“What the hell,” she said. “This stupid thing fit two months ago…”

She whisked open her door and began to yell.

“Mom! My dumb blouse won’t tuck in.”

“Well just pull up your skirt a bit then.”

And so Ellie tried that, but now her skirt was far too high above her knees. She could hear Mrs. Finch’s shrieks even louder now in her head.

“But then I’ll get yelled at for showing too much leg!”

“Well, I don’t know what you want me to do about it now, Ellie. I asked you three days ago if everything fit!”

“I thought it did, but I didn't try to tuck it in.”.

“Well obviously!”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP!” Came a low voice from the room next door.

“Tom, don't you talk to your sister and I like that!” Boomed a rather annoyed mother.

Ellie’s older brother had just been denied his precious extra 20 minutes of sleep that he got for being in a high school that started a bit after Ellie’s middle school. To top it off for her brother, the 17 year old, who was entering his Junior year, was still livid that he was wheelless yet again.

“Whatever. Screw it.” Ellie said while conceding defeat to her vertically challenged blouse.

Walking into the kitchen, a gentle smile came her way from her mother. Ellie, in an awkward attempt to reciprocate the gesture, shot her mother a half smile and a half it-feels-like-I-just-stubbed-my-toe look.

“Ellie, you look exhausted.” Her mother said while setting an off brand pop-tart package in front of her.

Ellie, whose mind was racing through what her first day back at school might bring, pushed the pastry away.

“No thanks,” she said softly.

“Ellie, you need to eat something.” Her mom replied while motioning to the wrapper.

Slowly, she unwrapped the package and took out two poorly frosted ‘breakfast treats’. It was a little over a year ago that Ellie could recall her mom making a real breakfast. Eggs, toast, and all kinds of cereal filled her mind, and yet it had come to this.

“Why can't you at least get the real ones Mom?” she said while spewing crumbs.

“Because they're $2.19 cheaper, and don't talk with your mouth full!”

“What!” Ellie exclaimed with a twisted grin while letting more crumbs escape her mouth.

“Come on! You're nearly 12, now act like it!”

“Fine.” she said while continuing to pick pieces off her pop-tart knock off.

Ellie’s mom looked toward the microwave clock to gauge how much time they both had left. Ellie watched as her mom’s eyes bulged out of their sockets.

“Crap, Ellie you've got to get going. The bus is going to be here any minute!”

Ellie who was still nibbling at her pop tart, seemed to be off in her own world.

“Earth to Ellie” Her mom said while she waved her hand in front of her face.

“Go grab your backpack and get your butt to the bus stop!”

She began to protest, “but I haven't even brushed my teeth yet.”

“No time; maybe if you get up when your alarm is supposed to, you won't be so rushed.”

“But…”

“No but’s, now go!” Her mom yelled.

Ellie scampered to the door and picked up her backpack from the ground. She quickly slipped on her black good-willed flats and made it for the door. As she was leaving, she could hear her mom yell after her, “have a good day baby; I love you!”

As she stepped outside, backpack still in hand, she could see the bus quickly moving past her stop. The frail four feet, eleven inch girl took off after the bus while flailing her one free arm about in a desperate attempt to get the driver’s attention. Fortunately she had a bit of luck as her bus driver had noticed her tiny waving arm and stopped the bus to let the panting girl on.

A familiar old face smiled at her. With his ragged gray beard, and giant thick plastic frame glasses, he said “you've got to be out here quicker sweetie. I don't want to accidently miss you again!”

“I know,” she said while gasping between breaths. “And thanks Puff.”

“Any time, Ellie”

Ellie examined the near full bus, but saw an empty seat near the middle. She quickly made her way to the dark gray seat and sunk down into it. When she thought she had a moment to relax, an unwanted yet familiar voice crept over her.

“Yeah, sweetie, you should really get out her quicker.” The tall-for-her-age brunette girl chortled to Ellie.

She could only sink down into her seat as the two girls behind her began to snicker about with each other.

“Did you see her hair?”

“I know right! What a rat’s nest. And what’s with her teeth, has she ever heard of dentist?”

“Yeah, it’s so gross.”

“Glad to see you too, cretins.” Ellie mumbled to herself. She never did like Jessica and Samantha, and after learning the word in a book last year she found the perfect name for the pair.

Truthfully it had been a while since she had seen a dentist. With money as tight as it was, and the poor benefits her mother’s job brought in, it had been nearly a year and a half since she had gotten her teeth cleaned.

Ellie began to vigorously clean off the bits of pastry that were stuck to her teeth. Having no mirror on hand, she could only hope she did a sufficient job.

A few minutes later, Ellie began to panic.

“Wait, what was my first class again?” She asked herself.

She had spent much of the last week going over her schedule, memorizing the teacher names and classroom numbers. But even through all of that effort, her mind seemed to have emptied. Frantically, she began to tear through her backpack in search of her schedule. After what felt like an eternity of not being able to find her schedule, she remembered that she had placed it in the front pocket of her backpack as to have ‘easy access’ for it.

“Let’s see.” She said as she thumbed down the list of classes to see where her first class was.

Room C119 - Adv. Reading - Ms. Rose

As much as she was not looking forward to going to school this year, reading and writing were her two favorite classes. If there was one thing she could say she had a passion for, it would be books. The nearly 12 year old’s small library, on the wall of her tiny bedroom, could impress any bibliophile.

Once bus #416 had stopped, she waited until the massive group of kids made their way off the bus. She didn't mind being the last person as she always got a nice goodbye to look forward too from her driver.

“Have a great day back, Ellie” He said with large smile.

“I’ll try Puff.” And she was earnest about that too.

As Ellie walked amongst the horde of adolescents being herded to their classrooms, she tried to brave her way to the C-Hall doors. However, while reaching for the medal handle, a stern voice called out to her and froze her in her tracks.

“Mrs. Eleanor Jones!”

Ellie took a deep breath. It was of course what she had been hoping to avoid. She then mustered the dreaded words, “Yes Mrs. Finch?”

“Your blouse, young lady, needs to be tucked in.”

Ellie was lucky that she was still looking ahead in the direction of the door, and that Mrs. Finch could not see her eyes roll back into her head.

“I know Mrs. Finch, but I…”

“If you know then please address the situation post haste, Mrs. Jones.” She said while cutting of Ellie.

“Yes, but I've apparently outgrown the stupid thing and we haven’t…”

Mrs. Finch cut her off again. “Please watch your tone with me. And I will let this slide for today, but tomorrow please rectify the situation.”

“Yes Ma’am.” She said with a sigh.

And with that, she was able to trudged on to her first class.

“I hope she’s nice.” She thought to herself as she made her way down the long hallway, checking the door numbers along the way.

Finally, she found the door nestled away in an alcove. Out side of the door was a woman who could not have been older than 25 Ellie thought. She gave the young child a big grin and welcomed her in.

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Author: lilemmy
Timestamp: Feb 3, 2014 at 5:56 AM
Content: Chapter Two - Bookworms

Dabney Rose was indeed not older than 25. She was barely 24, but as far as her students were concerned she was ‘old’. The lanky brunette with deep green eyes was surprised to see a miniature version of herself walking toward her.

“Hi, and you are sweetie?” She asked Ellie wall pointing to a seating chart.

“I'm Ellie. You’re Ms. Rose right?”

Dabney nodded. “It’s nice to meet you Dear, but I don't see you on the list here.”

Ellie, sighed. She always despised her ‘real’ name more than anything. Though she found that the cretin’s would give that a run for its money.

“My birth name, is Eleanor.”

“Oh, like the First Lady!” Dabney squealed.

“Exactly.” Ellie looked up at the teacher and then said, “I hate it.”

A bit taken aback by the child’s bluntness, she shook it off and spoke. “Oh, well I’ll make sure to mark you on the seating chart then!” And with a smile she pointed to the chair front-and-center. “And this is your home, for now.”

Normally Ellie hated these up close and personal kind of seats. If she had her way, most of the time she found herself in the back of the classroom, away from attention. Ms. Rose didn't intimidate her though like most of the teacher’s she had before. So without hesitation, she walked to her desk and took a seat.

Ellie was immediately taken aback by this classroom, in that it felt nothing like a classroom had felt before. Instead of the harsh fluorescent lights that she so despised, Dabney had placed many lamps throughout the room. The glow of the lights was the same soft yellow that she had at home. Ellie sunk into her chair.

“This was a nice surprise,” she thought.

Having not paid attention to the students that were making their way into the room, she was more attentive of shelves of books her teacher had placed around the room. Instead of the typical motivational posters most teachers plastered their walls with, the walls were covered in paintings.

“Real Paintings,” Ellie though impressed.

On the large blackboard in front of her, was Ms. Rose’s name. More impressed was it looked like it came from a computer. The writing was large, serif and well perfect Ellie had thought. Ellie had been complimented on her hand writing before, but it was nothing like what her teacher could do.

Finally, the last of the students had made their way into the classroom. Ms. Rose walked while shutting the door behind her.

“I’m glad to see all of you here” She said earnestly. If reading and writing were Ellie’s passions, Ms. Rose also had two: teaching, and books.

“If you have forgotten it from your schedule, or have not noticed the board, my name is Ms. Rose. And I am absolutely delighted to be your teacher this year.” She paused and examined the classroom.
“This class, and if you noticed the one directly after, are both with me.”

Again, she paused and looked at the room. Most were paying attention, but there were a few that were clearly not.

“Reading and writing are two things you will find yourself doing, if not, every day.”

Ellie shook her head as if to agree with her rather obvious statement.

“I'm sure you've been given a standard reading and writing pedagogy up to this point.”

A short, black haired boy near the door interrupted and asked, “What’s a ped-a-gog-y?”

“Ah, yes!” She responded. “It’s… It’s a method of teaching.”

The boy and the most of the class were looking on, still clearly having trouble with the concept. Ellie could not help but roll her eyes.

“How could you not know what that was,” she thought to herself.

“For example, your reading classes before have consisted of what? Read a short text, and answer some questions? 'What color was the ball?' 'How many cats did the old man have?' Or simple one sentence questions, 'How did this make you feel?'”

Ellie shook her head again. Most of her previous reading classes had been quite boring for her. When she was able to chose the books she wanted to read, that was the most enjoyment she could get from the classes. Her teachers, usually tired of having her complain about the lessons, would let her go on and read on her own.

“You all are very lucky to be here.” Ms. Rose said.

“We are?” A student blurted from the back.

Dabney shot the girl a look and then continued. “Yes, in fact you are lucky to be here. This will most likely be the first advance course you've been able to take in school.”

Ellie stayed assertive, eagerly anticipating to what she would say next.

“This class will focus on analyzing literature.” She paused and looked to the boy from earlier, “Finding a deeper meaning than what you only see on the surface.”

“Hopefully, you'll come to see that each word an author chooses is a choice. And with that choice comes a reason, and that is what we want to find out.”

Ellie was excited. She had never had a teacher that seemed this passionate about the subject before. Most always seemed to go through the motions, but Ms. Rose was different.

Dabney clapped her hands and let out a grin. “Ok, so out of curiosity. How many of you read at least one book this summer?”

Less than a third of the class raised their hands. She was slightly disheartened, but pressed on.

“Well, how about two books?”

Six small hands now stayed in the air.

“Five books?” She asked again while examining the room.

This time only three hands remained up.

“Ten books?” This would have to weed them down, she thought.

And then there were two.

“What about fifteen books?”

Ellie’s was the only hand remaining at this point. Dabney smiled at her and motioned for Ellie to bring her hand down as she was clearly struggling to keep it lifted in air. While this was only her second year teaching, she had yet to have a student read more than ten books willingly in such a short period of time.

“Ok… And you'll have to forgive me dear; what was your name again?”

“It’s Ellie,” she said meekly.

“Pure curiosity at this point. How many books did you read this summer Ellie?”

And without missing a beat, she responded with “37”.

Her teacher’s eyes bugged out much like her mom’s had done that morning. She only managed to chuckle and ask if the young girl was kidding her.

“Why would I be joking about that?” Ellie managed to ask innocently enough.

Dabney thought to herself, “This kid’s awesome, if not a little nuts.”

“Well, that’s amazing…” She said with a pause. Not trying to come off as rude to the girl, but still curious as to what level she was reading at, she asked with nervous laugh, “I mean these were real books right? You're not counting ‘Hop on Pop’ and the like are you?”

Ellie tilted her head back and began to cycle through all the books she had read in the past two months with her fingers. One by one she counted while muttering to herself, and after a brief moment she said, “I think the smallest one was about 250 pages, and the largest was 900 give or take.”

Most of the class had stopped paying attention at this point. A few students were twiddling with their hand-me-down flip phones, and there was one lucky enough to have an iPhone to graduate from Snake to Fruit Ninja. Unbeknownst to Ellie, however, there was another person that was paying attention. Stuck in the back of the room, was the one and only Jessica Thompson.

“Fucking show off.” Jessica mumbled to herself.

While Ellie and Ms. Rose could not hear the preteen, those around her were not out of earshot. Soon an eruption of snickers came from the back of the room; Ellie stayed oblivious, however Ms. Rose was not. Unlike Ellie, Ms. Rose was not oblivious to the creeping laughter in the back of the room.

And so the next hour and a half went by far too fast for Ellie. With as tired as she was, she was more attentive than she had ever been in a class before. Ms. Rose had gone into the class details: the usual syllabi and made emphasis of the rule to respect one another. And then began handing out their first book,Bridge to Terabithia (a book that Ellie had read at least four times as she could remember).

Throughout the lecture, Ellie noticed Ms. Rose kept giving her a funny look. It wasn't a bad look, as far as Ellie could tell, but she wasn't used to this attention before. She could only wonder if she had somehow did something wrong.

Before Ellie knew it, the bell had rung, marking the transition to their next class. Ellie neatly placed the syllabus in the divided off section of her binder, and dropped it into her backpack. Even though she had her schedule memorized, she still pulled it out of the front pocket to double check that her next class was Social Studies with Mr. Edward in room B115.

After waiting for the class to empty, she finally got up and went into the direction of the door. However, as she was moving Ms. Rose called out to her.

“Ellie, right? I’m sorry, I am terrible with names.”

Ellie just shook her head, but gave her teacher a reassuring smile.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to have you in my class Ellie!”

“Wait, you are?” Ellie blurted.

Dabney smiled at her. “You're going to do great here. I just know it.”

Ellie, not sure with what to think of the situation, just smiled awkwardly at her new teacher.

“If you want to read any other books, I can get you some from the higher grade levels as I'm sure you're much past a sixth grade level.”

This was odd to Ellie. Most teachers never seemed to pay her much attention, or at least she never realized it if it had happened. But why so soon, she thought. Ellies face grew warm, and a pink hue filled her cheeks.

Aa sly grin crept over her teacher’s face, and she began to nod her head as if to be in agreement with herself. “You know… If those books don't do it for you, I've got a pretty extensive library at home.”

The girl’s pink face began to light up. A mansion formed in mind with wobbling towers stacked high to the ceiling of books. She was picking up books, one after another, thumbing through the soft, crisp pages. She could smell them too. A warm, delightful musk of great adventures and age filled her nose

And then bell rang again; tardy on her first day back.

“Oh, no.” She panicked.

Ms. Rose chuckled at the nervous girl. “Don’t worry, us bookworms need to stick together you know?”
She walked to her large desk and pulled a green notepad from the middle drawer. Quickly, but in her meticulous handwriting, she excused Ellie’s tardiness for her next class.

Ellie grabbed the green slip of paper and was nearly out the door when she was stopped again.

“Oh, and Ellie - Feel free to come on by outside of class anytime!”

Without saying a word, she slipped out of the classroom and began to head to the B-Hall to go to her next class Social Studies, with Mr. Edward.

While her morning classes started out great, the rest of her day had slowly sunk into the rut that she was all too familiar with last year. The one friend she had managed to make last year moved away out of state, so lunch was eaten alone on a floor away from the other students. She actually did not mind the floor for lunch, that was where her and Eric would eat everyday last year. But alas, here she was eating a small salad, with all the meat picked out on the side due to reading Charlotte's Web three years ago, alone.

In no time she was back on bus #416, ready to head home. As she sat on the bus, cycling through the events of the day, well this morning more than anything, she noticed the cretins walking giggling as they walked on to the bus. The two would look, Ellie and erupt in laughter every time she was could catch them. Still, she tried to pay them no mind and pulled out the last Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay. She was instantaneously engrossed with the story.

A short twenty minutes passed and her stop finally arrived. As she was exiting the bus, she got her pleasant goodbye from ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, or just ‘Puff’ as the kids on bus #416 called him now. With her book in tow, she walked parallel with the bus, absorbing each word on the page.

Her heart froze. Sticky dark soda drenched her hair, book and clothes. Jessica and Samantha could be heard cackling harder than ever, even as the bus drove away. Ellie heard the empty soda bottle fall to the ground behind her. The sticky syrup of the soft drink sank deep into her hair drenched hair. Still standing in the same spot, she quickly broke into tears.

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Author: lilemmy
Timestamp: Feb 7, 2014 at 1:00 AM
Content: Thanks for the encouraging words. I was afraid it might not get as much attention due to its lack of traditional *b/dl ism that most stories here have, but that's not really what I set out to write.

Update: Here is chapter three.

Chapter 3 - Rainbows Have Nothing to Hide

Ellie threw her stickied backpack against the wall after slamming her front door shut. A series of thuds came from the apartment above in disapproval of the noise she had made. Ellie didn't care. She was covered from head to toe in a syrupy mess for a reason she didn't even know. Still standing near the door, she closed her eyes and let out a scream, flushing her cheeks a bright red. Above her came another series of thuds which echoed her sullen vigor.

Still holding the sopping wet book in hand, she threw it against the ground near her backpack. Luckily for Ellie, neither her mother or brother was home to see her well-deserved tantrum. She kicked off her shoes, which seemed to receive the least amount of damage and made her way to the single bathroom to wash away the mess.

“What a freaking day.” She thought as she was rinsing the soda out of her hair.
“What the hell did I do to deserve this?”

After finishing her shower, she left for her bedroom across the hall. She made her way to the dresser and opened the second to the last drawer containing her pajamas and underwear. Quickly she got dressed in her I’m-ready-for-sleep-now outfit and made her way to her bed. The lecture her mom gave her about sleeping on wet hair echoed through her mind, but she didn’t care. The only thing that was on her mind was bringing herself to sleep. Ellie then curled up with her stuffed frog Flipper and did something that she had not done in two years. She sucked her thumb.

Nearly three hours had passed since the girl had fallen asleep. By now it was actually dark outside, but still earlier than most kids would like to have been in bed. Two bright lights shined through Ellie’s window, but she managed to bury her head within the solitude of her comforter and continued to drool on her pillow and thumb. The door clicked at the front of their apartment, and an incomprehensible but pleasant conversation could be heard outside Ellie’s room.

Having not shut her bedroom door all the way, her mom didn't feel like she was violating Ellie’s sacred “knock first, lest ye be warned” policy. Cindy walked over to her daughter, but was taken aback after stepping in her daughter’s stained and sticky uniform on the ground.

“Girl can't hold a drink, I guess,” Cindy thought while shrugging her shoulders.

She picked up her daughter’s clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket that was only a few feet away. Much like Ellie, she had a knack for rolling her emerald eyes at the obvious.

As she was stepping over to wake Ellie up, she noticed that Ellie was gently sucking her thumb. Not knowing what exactly to do, she decided to keep with her original plan.

She spoke softly while stroking her daughter’s arm. “Ellie? Baby?”
Ellie’s eyes began to flicker and she barely managed to make out the outline of her mom. Still suckling on her thumb, she realized what exactly she was doing. Taking her finger out of her mouth, she looked up to her mom and said. “Oh, uh, hi Mom. How are you?”

With a slightly raised eyebrow, she ignored her daughter’s question and continued to stroke her arm. Gently she asked, “is everything alright Ellie?”

Ellie sighed but didn't feel like going into it. Answering half heartedly, she said, “I'm just tired is all.”

Cindy curled her lips into a tender smile for Ellie. She knew Ellie wasn't giving her the whole truth, but didn't want to press her daughter in her current state. “Ok, kiddo,” she said while suppressing a sigh of her own. She couldn't help but continue to slowly stroke her daughter’s arm. Ellie didn't seem to mind; she wasn't smiling, yet she seemed content in that moment.

After a brief moment of silence, she stood up and said, “I'm about to make some mac and cheese. And you're in luck, I even got the real stuff this time.”

Cindy thought she could have counted every tooth in Ellie’s mouth at that moment. Mac and cheese with veggie dogs was one of Ellie’s favorite meals. If she had the ability to set the menu, it would be that three times a day, seven days a week. Unfortunately for Ellie, her mom never seemed to make enough as her brother could (and would if she wasn't fast enough) devour the entire pot.

Getting out of bed, she stretched out her arms high into the air. With her hands still raised above her head, she let out a deep yawn that was quite a bit louder than necessary. As she wiped the dried gunk from her eyes, she headed for their living room. Walking past her brother’s room, she heard a voice call out to her.

“Hey Squirt, sleep much?”

Ellie rolled her eyes, and continued straight for the couch just a few feet ahead.
“But seriously Squirt, how was school?” He asked genuinely.

Ellie stopped again and began to answer. “It was…”

Just a head of her was her Hunger Game’s book sprawled out on the ground. Through blurry eyes, she could tell that the pages had warped.

“It was alright, I guess.” She said quietly. It wasn't a total lie, right? She had thought. After all, up until the incident with the cretins, it hadn't been all that bad. Ms. Rose’s class was great even. Still, two bad apples managed to spoil the bunch for Ellie.

“Cool,” Tom replied while no longer paying attention. His five year old laptop had locked up on for the upteenth time. “Piece of shit,” he mumbled loudly to himself while giving the battered keyboard a smack.

Ellie ignored him continued to walk to her small living room. A soft but lumpy couch sat in front of her. She threw the decorative pillows to the ground; I mean what’s the point, they're hard and not comfy at all, she thought. Being under five feet had its advantage as she fit snugly in the off-gray loveseat. This was normally one of her favorite spots to read in. Next to the couch was another lamp that gave the same yellow light that helped make reading so enjoyable for her. But she didn't have a book in hand, so she did something that even surprised her; she reached for the remote and turned on the TV.

Boring.
Boring.
Why are they covered in pudding?
Boring.

Cycling through the channels, she finally landed on a cartoon. Filling the screen was four small children, from a small Colorado mountain town. As the theme song began to play, the remote was snatched out of her hand faster than she could realized it was even gone.

“Maybe when you’re older, baby,” her mother said with a nervous laugh while incrementing the channel.

Ellie kept on watching the screen. It usually would have bothered her that her mom treated her like that, but for some reason she didn’t know, she just didn’t care enough to be upset.

As she watched, she heard a very familiar voice that could only have come from a famous green frog who had a habit of flailing his arms about…

The sound of a banjo being strummed started to fill her ears. This song, Rainbow Connection, had always been a favorite of hers. When she first saw the movie at five years old, she would rewind the VHS over and over again just to hear Kermit sing this song.

But it had been a few years since she heard this song. The last time was three or so years ago, while having a family-friday-movie night. As the words strummed along, Ellie didn’t hear them as she once did. The words were the same, but it was just different. The smile that usually would fill her face, was now vacant by the last chord.

“Ellie, come get your dinner before your brother grabs the pot off the stove.” Her mom called out to her from their kitchen.

“Sure,” she yelled across the short room. Ellie hopped off the couch and ran to the kitchen.

She looked through the cupboard next to their microwave, but could not find her most treasured eating item. Quickly she began taking out bowl, after bowl until she had left the cupboard completely evacuated.

“Mom, where’s my green bowl?” She said with a whiny twinge.

Her mom turned her head in Ellie’s direction and saw that her kitchen counter was filled with bowls of all shapes and sizes.

“Ellie, seriously?” She said while bulging her eyes out for the second time that day. Then with an annoyed huff, she pointed to the table on which sat a bright green bow filled with the noodly goop.

“Oh, uh… my bad.” She said while stacking the bowls back into their home.

Cindy rolled her eyes, but laughed off her daughter. She was honestly concerned if her daughter would even eat at home if that bowl ever went missing.

“Oh, before you go sit down, could you go get your brother?”

“TOM!” Ellie yelled while taking her seat.

“I mean go knock on his…”

“WHAT?” Tom yelled back from his room.

“DINNER!” Answered Cindy, who let out a short breathy groan while tightening her grip around her fork.

Ellie tensed her shoulders and shot her eyes in the direction of the bowl. Slowly, she reached for fork while making sure her mom wasn’t too upset, and brought it into the ceramic. Quickly something didn’t sit right with her. Jabbing her fork back and forth through the noodles, brought about the answer to the question she didn’t want to ask.

“Huh, where are the veggie dogs?” She mumbled to herself.

Cindy, who had a mouth filled with noodles, began to apologize to her daughter. “Crap, I’m sorry Ellie.”

Ellie looked down at her bowl and pouted. She took her fork and began to prod at the cheesy mess.

“Ellie, it’s not that bad without hot dogs.”

“Um, Veggie dogs, Mom.” Ellie stated.

“Right… Veggie dogs.” She said while echoing her daughter.

Tom walked into the kitchen and saw the giant pot of noodles. Paying no attention to his sister and mother, he crept over to the pot and looked inside.

“Hey, you guys going to eat any more?”

Ellie and her mom both shook their heads after looking down at the pile food in front of them.

“Cool.” Said Tom while grabbing the black curved handles of the pot.

“Thomas Reynolds, just what do you think you’re doing?!”

“Um, about to eat.” He stated with a very confused look on his face.

“Grab a bowl, sit down, and tell me about your day.” Cindy commanded.

Without saying it word, he took a red bowl from the cupboard, slopped nearly the rest of the noodles into it, and took his seat in between Ellie and his mom.

“Uh, it was good.” He said, before beginning to remove all traces of evidence of the mac and cheese.

An hour and half passed and Ellie’s head had sunk deep her plush pillow. Wrapped tightly in her striped green comforter, her eyes sealed closed, she drifted off to dreamland…

There was a black void, or at least it was. In the center she saw a fuzzy blur; this blur would move side to side, but she couldn't comprehend what it was. She looked around and saw walls that were so familiar, yet she could not place it. She looked at her hands and realized they were smaller than now.

Where am I she thought.

There was a voice that kept repeating. Over and over again, but like the blur it too was out of focus. Suddenly she realize her hand was holding her old house phone.

“Was this always in my hand?” She wondered out loud.

She looked at the blur, and saw it was slowly coming into focus. It was Tom and, “what is he doing to that… That man on the ground?”

The voice got louder. She could tell the person on the other end was distressed, but still couldn’t make out who it was. The voice kept getting louder, and faster. Ellie could feel her heart trying to escape her chest, and a cold sweat soaked her body.

Finally, the words became comprehensible.
“Hello, where are you located?” Asked the voice.

“I’m at 703 North Applewood Lane,” She said, or at least tried to say. However those were not the words that came out of her mouth.

“I cannot understand you. Tell me, where are you located?” The voice called out again.

“I’M AT 703 NORTH APPLEWOOD LANE!” She yelled as a deep panic set in.
Why can’t she hear me!

“I do not understand what you’re saying. Please tell me where you are.” The voice said sternly.

Ellie started crying. Why couldn’t she say these 6 simple words she thought. It was not a difficult task by any means; she could hear the words clearly in her head.

She tried again but to no avail. The voice on the other end began to scream over the phone. “Please! Tell me where you are, so I can send help over!”

“JESUS! CHRIST! ELLIE! TELL THEM!” Her brother screamed, taking a pause between each word.

Ellie shot up from her pillow. Her face really was dripping in sweat. Turning on her side she expelled the contents of her dinner onto the floor. She took a deep breath, and then another, and quickly her breathing turned to hyperventilating. Between gasps of air, she managed to scream the word Mom.

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Author: lilemmy
Timestamp: Feb 8, 2014 at 5:55 PM
Content: Thanks all. This has been really crazy to see where this has grown from since its inception. I have chapter 4 outlined and now I just need to sit down and write it (and revise, and revise...), so I'm guessing it'll be ready by Monday.

One thing to note is that your transition from one scene to another can be too abrupt

[End of quote]

Thanks for the critique. I'll take a look back over this chapter (and the others) and see if I can't make some revisions to help with that. Some of these scenes were meant to have a quick pacing to them, but whether or not I translated that correctly is another thing!

Thanks for reading!