ver·ba·tim [ver-bey-tim]–adverb
1. in exactly the same words; word for word: to repeat something verbatim.
I was randomly thinking up titles today, and the word 'verbatim' popped up in my head. Not many have this kind of revelation, but for the story I was trying to put my hands on, I think it works perfectly.
The story is fairly easy to follow, which, I guess, could be a delima. But this is my second official shot at writing third person, and to my huge surprise, I'm loving every second of it.
But it wasn't the story that came to me. It was three hug-worthy characters.
I'll be the first to admit that my characters NEVER come easy. First the name, then the filling... You know the drill. It's usually me, trying to fit my characters into a story. For the first time ever, I'm building a story on incredibly amazing characters.
First, there's Katy. She's a very strong character, and my favorite out of anything so far. She's plain, with freckles on her nose, hazel eyes, and longer chestnut hair that's known to frizz out randomly. She's not skinny, really, but has an athletic build and doesn't look like the wind could knock her over. She's a pain in the butt to the people she doesn't care for, loves french vanilla anything, and never cries.
Then, I thought of Danny. Danny was a little bit harder, because while the person popped up in my head, he really didn't have a name until I kind of realized who he "was". Danny is Katy's "big brother" who loves Katy no matter what, including the fact that they aren't related. He's, literally, a guardian angel that no one, besides Katy, can see, who died in an accident when she was nine and he was seventeen. Katy was the only witness to that accident. He's brunette with gray eyes, stands a little over six foot, and is kind of lanky. He's very blunt and sometimes almost rude.
Jace came next, the final of my three main characters, or so it seems. He's Katy's best friend who likes to bake desserts and, when needed, goes beyond all boundries to help her out. She jokingly tells him he should've been gay, just because all the girls can't get enough of him or his cakes. He does have girlfriends, but they usually leave because they get annoyed at the time he spends with Katy. [No, Katy and Jace don't fall in love. :O] He's into bright colors, has a severe thing against wearing pink, has spikey, massively highlighted blonde hair, and is only a little taller than Katy. Oh, and he's very call-it-as-I-see-it.
And, to top it off, it's going to be called [po-see-blay] Verbatim, because it's about Katy remembering back to when she was little, when so many things happened that she suddenly seemed to forget, and step-by-step retracing her past with Danny, while digging up sudden shocking secrets and problems that pop up along the way, dragging both her and Jace [and whoever decides to show up] into a complete mess.
Anywho, I wrote the prologue -ahemahem- already, but I'm not giving it away, just because there's so many questions someone could ask about it that the story, if written right, should tell.
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Chapter One:
Katy knew it was stupid, but it still felt like her guts had been pulled out. Curled up pathetically in the corner of the handicapped bathroom stall in the girls bathroom, she felt so incredibly lost.
Jase, Katy’s best friend, sat opposite of her against the stall door, his head leaning on his arm, his knees pulled up to his chest. They’d been like this for the whole of fourth period, just sitting there, every now and then with Jase spurting out something against Chris.
Jase sighed. “He was a jerk, Kat.”
She nodded glumly, and Jase went quiet. Katy never cried at anything, but he would found her sitting alone, deathly silent, if anything really bad had happened to her, and only rarely. In truth, she was the bravest person he knew.
This situation, he knew very well, would’ve led to some major tears from any other girl. For Katy, it was just a depressing silence that was, at least to him, worse than trying to console a crier.
Katy swallowed. “The party was tomorrow.”
Jase felt himself becoming more and more furious at Chris. The jerk had dumped his girlfriend a day away from their two year “anniversary,” just to go hook up with some lousy cheerleader he admitted to cheating with Katy on anyways.
And, of course, there was always that resentment he had towards anyone who left Kat with empty eyes that bore into him as he picked up the pieces. He hated that.
“I’m still bringing cake, as you well know.” He said, smiling weakly.
Kat rewarded his efforts with her own small smile. Jase loved to cook. He’d planned on making her a cake for her two years with Chris, as he had for every boyfriend or special event that arose, and obviously was now headed towards the idea of comfort food instead of celebrating something. There was no way you could stop him; he was a dessert baking freak.
“Thanks, Jase.”
“Anytime.”
A stall door slammed amongst the usual chatter of uncaring gossip and someone let out a annoyed high-pitched scream. “Is there a guy in here? Oh, gross! Get out, you perv!”
Jase’s expression turned from morose to wickedly amused in only points of a second. Without even turning around on the disgusting linoleum, he retorted, “Dana, no one in their right mind would try to be a pervert to you unless they were either mentally ill or gender confused.” Dana Leehaven squealed, sounding more like a pig on fire than an appalled Senior. “Well, seeing as how you’re gay and everything, Jase, I would expect that kind of expertise from a fruit like you.”
He rolled his eyes, and Katy smiled at her friend. He was completely unaware of how cool he was – that no matter what he did, he had a demeanor around him that just sucked everyone in to attention.
“Alright. Bathroom poll. Say “I” if you think I’m gay.”
A loud “I” erupted from Dana, but everyone else stayed hilariously quiet.
“And now say “you” if you think that Dana needs to keep her trap shut, go home, and take a long look in a mirror somewhere before accusing me of being gay.”
“Yous” bubbled up from all around the bathroom. Dana swore explicitly at Jase, who in turn, gave her the finger from under the stall door, and stomped angrily out into the breezeway.
“You know,” Katy informed her friend who was soaking up the applause that had began after Dana had left like a sponge, “being gay would completely suit you. Girls love you anyways.”
He grinned. “Yeah, but then you’d have to start sneaking into the guy’s bathroom to get a little uproar out of people.”
