Picture of the building of parliament in the Hague, the Netherlands. Credit to Vichie81 on Thinkstock.

Time for a new writing assignment I want to share with you. In week three of the Writing for Young Readers course we talked about setting, plot, theme and characters. As an assignment we had to write a story of 500 words or less, depicting some sort of change. Below is my entry! I wanted to go for YA this time and I’d like to think I nailed it. This version is slightly more embellished for your reading pleasure, but I think it works out better this way. Of course my first draft was 528 words, so I took out a few sentences here and there, got it back to 498, decided that for the blog I wanted the longer version again, so now it’s 672 words long {tihihi} The building in the picture is the inspiration for the school where our MC {main character} experiences a very peculiar first day… Enjoy!

‘It doesn’t look like a school.’ Sam thought as she trudged up the steps of one of the buildings, this one looking sort of like a short tower. The entire complex was made up of redbrick buildings with dark grey roofs, all of them different shapes and sizes. When you put them all together they kind of looked like a castle, which was just weird for a school, if you asked Sam. Her parents had been more than excited, however, when they got the invitation in the mail. Grimleigh Academy had been perfect for their ‘extra attention’ needing (read: troublemaker) teen, especially after she got expelled from her last school for punching a boy in the face. Sam of course hadn’t wanted to come at all, but it wasn’t like she had a choice.

The inside at least was more familiar, with light walls and floors, lockers lining both sides of the hallway. Classes had already started, leaving the halls mostly empty. Sam looked down at the note in her phone, she was supposed to meet mr. Greenridge in room 104. A loud bark made her look up and she almost dropped her phone in shock. The biggest dog she’d ever seen came rushing straight towards her. She jumped to the side, banging her shoulder against the lockers in her haste to get out of the enormous beast’s path.

‘Aw, come on, Andrew!’ A voice called after it. ‘The girls love that out-of-control thing!’ A boy with red curls and twinkling eyes came rushing past, chasing after the huge dog. He stopped when he saw Sam. ‘Oh hey, fresh meat!’ He grinned. ‘You on your way to the principal?’

‘Uhm, yeah?’

‘Cool! I’ll walk ya.’ The guy said, turning back the way he came and walking down the hall, not bothering to wait and see if Sam followed or not. ‘You gotta name, fresh meat?’

‘It’s Sam.’ She said, taking in the high ceilings and tiny windows. It was weird, the only windows in the building were high up and covered with some sort of foil.

‘I’m Gabe. So, what’re you in for? Witch right?’

‘What?’

‘Okay, no witch, I just thought, with the black hair and garb…’ Gabe trailed off at her pointed glare. ‘Then what? Shifter? Faerie? Oh! Are you one of those Selkie chicks?’ He stopped her with a hand on her arm. The door behind him read 104.

‘What are you talking about? You do realize those things aren’t real, right?’ She asked, feeling like this guy had lost touch with reality somewhere. A guy walked past them, a ferret perched on his shoulder. He seemed to be talking to it, hands waving expressively.

‘Wait, you mean you don’t know?’ Gabe exclaimed, pulling her attention back to him. ‘Oh man! I wanna see your face when Greeny explains what this place is. It’ll be epic! Please, please, please let me sit in.’ Sam was about to respond when a shriek filled the hallway. ‘Ah, ms. Honeycombe found the gift I left in her desk.’ Gabe grinned, his amber eyes lighting up with mischief.

‘Gabriel Helseth! Did you really think I wouldn’t guess it was you? You are in a world of trouble, young man!’ a female voice shouted.

‘Oops, guess that’s my cue to skedaddle.’ Gabe told her, still grinning like a loon. ‘See you around, fresh meat!’ He turned and all but ran towards the exit.

‘Don’t count on it, short-stack!’ Sam shouted at his retreating back.

Gabe turned, still running. ‘See, nicknames already, we’ve got a bond going!’ Sam hid behind her hair to hide the smile she couldn’t suppress at his antics. Yeah, she liked this guy already.

‘Ms. Lismore?’ A soft voice spoke behind her. Sam turned to offer her hand and an introduction, but the words died on her lips. All Sam could think when she faced the principal, with his green hair and beard, was that this was the weirdest first day she had ever had. And it hadn’t even begun yet.