SOL

     I have no ideas for my Slice of Life. I am typing on my blog. I glance down at the keys, and tap my fingers lightly over the tops of them. I write this sentence. There is a weird picture of an alien on the window in front of the computer. I write about it, glancing up at it. My fingers are fire on the keys when I have something to write. There are large gaps between these sentences where I am staring up at the ceiling or at the rough wall. I write more. This is happening right now. I glance up at a nail on the wall. I write about it. There is another nail. I just wrote about that one, too. I bite the inside of my cheek, shift my legs around in the chair, and type this sentence. This is happening at 1:53 in the afternoon. Now it is 1:54. I still have nothing to write about, but there is now a large-ish paragraph on the page. I scratch my cheek. I rub at my eye. I write about it. There is an orange button that says "Publish." Should I click it? I click it.

Pretty Little Liars (pt. 1)

     Emily, Spencer, Hanna, Aria, and Alison had been best friends for years. Then Alison went missing.
     Ali knew all of their secrets. She had more than enough dirt on the four others. With her gone, their secrets were safe. For three years, anyway.
     In their junior year of high school, the four remaining friends have drifted apart. Ali still hasn't been found. Ali's family moved out of their house. Emily, Spencer, Hanna, and Aria develop more secrets.

     There is a new girl in Alison's old house. She is African-American and her name is Maya. Her bedroom window faces Spencer's. But then what was that swish of blond that Spencer saw in Alison's old bedroom if Maya has black hair?

     Emily likes Maya. Like, really likes her. No one knows about it. But then Emily gets a note from "A." Someone knows. Someone has been watching.

     Hanna used to be chubby. She suddenly got skinny very quickly. How did she do it? "A" knows.

     Aria met her English teacher in a bar. They... did some stuff. No one knows about their secret relationship. They covered it up very well. At least, no one knows but "A."
   
     Who is "A?" What could it stand for? But Alison has been dead the whole time.... hasn't she?

     This book begins with the Benjamin Franklin quote:
     "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."




     I would totally recommend this book. It has some mature topics, if you didn't get that from some of the description. This book is very suspenseful and mysterious and AWESOME.


TBR: 2nd half of Pretty Little Liars
         Grasshopper Jungle

The most boring SOL you'll ever read...

     I sit in a chair waiting for dinner. The cat is meowing on the mantle. The puppy walks around in the kitchen, little nails skittering on the wood floor. I can hear my rats on their exercise wheel in my bedroom. 

     I lick my lips. Puppy and my other dog, Daisy, have followed my mom downstairs. The cat is still meowing above the fireplace. It is quiet except for the meows. Eventually, she stops.

     I know I could be doing stuff right now, like posting my book blog. I could be playing the piano. I could be checking my email. But I'm not. My legs have gotten comfy and refuse to move. I sit in the chair. 

     Suddenly, I realize that if I keep sitting here, my leg will fall asleep. I don't get up. Instead, I straiten the leg to let blood flow. 

     My younger sister is reading in my parents' bedroom. I can hear the pages of her book turn.

     I could read. I just am too lazy to get up off of this chair. I fiddle with my braided hair, twisting the end around my finger. It is soft since I accidentally used too much conditioner this morning. I like the feel of it. Maybe I should use a giant glop of hair conditioner more often. It makes my hair smell good anyway. 

     I am hungry. I am still waiting for dinner. Lasagna smells waft from the kitchen. My leg has woken back up, so I let it drop again. There is a noodle on the counter. I want to eat it, but I don't want to get up. 

     I end up getting up. I eat the noodle. I sit back down. 

Fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us

     I read Mockingjay, in The Hunger Games series, a couple years ago. I didn't finish it since I stopped when Prim died. Unfortunately, that was a hundred pages or so until the end of the book. This time, I meant to start where I stopped and finish the book, but I couldn't find it. I ended up rereading the entire book.


     Mockingjay starts in District 13. Katniss has just been pulled from the area she blew up. She is very worried about Peeta, whom she assumes is dead until she sees him in the Capitol on TV. His memories have been played with so that now he goes crazy whenever he sees Katniss. He tries to choke her. Katniss gets so mad and sad that she volunteers to be the Mockingjay, the symbol of rebellion against the capitol. The book is about her battles against President Snow as she goes on a personal mission, on Peeta's behalf, to kill Snow.

   
     I would definitely recommend this book to people who have read the first two, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

TBR: Pretty Little Liars
          Beautiful Creatures

SOL- snowshoeing

     I sit in the snow with my clunky snowshoes off and laying next to me. I am eating a giant chicken leg, because that's what my mom packed. Unfortunately, I did not get up early enough to make my own lunch for the trip.
     Everyone not eating is chatting with each other. Someone says, "Look! It's a small furry mammal!" I turn my head to look. A small brown mouse is climbing over the snow a couple yards away. It is coming toward us. Everyone quiets. The mouse has a shorter tail than the ones I see at Petsmart, but it is fatter. It makes its way over Sophie's backpack, about a foot away from where I am sitting. The mouse passes the backpack and rests in the dip of snow under a little pine tree. We can't see it anymore.
     "Look, it's another furry mammal!" "I think it's an ermine." "Ooh!" We whisper as another little fuzzy thing jumps around the snow. It is a white ermine, a little less than half a foot tall. It boings around, following the mouse's trail. We are too loud, and it circles around us, not as direct as the mouse. It also goes to the tree and disappears where we can't see it. As far as I know, the mouse is still there, too. Everything is quiet. Then the ermine reappears above the snow with the dead mouse in its mouth. Some people cheer too loudly and the ermine drops the mouse and runs away. We are silent again. The ermine comes back, picks up the mouse, and runs away.



     The snowshoeing trip was fun. I got really tired on the way up because I have not hiked for months while waiting for my knee to heal. I had the option of staying in someone else's classroom for the day, but I didn't want to. I have only gone snowshoeing once before, last year. It was colder then with more snow. I still like snowshoeing.

SOL

     I kind of have no new news because I was sick. The most interesting thing I can come up with is this...
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     I lay in my bed under the blankets. It felt very cozy and warm. My cat, whose real name is Cheerio but who my family just calls "Kitty," padded over and started meowing in my face. She has a very high-pitched meow, so after maybe thirty seconds I coughed in her face to shut her up. I immediately felt sorry and started petting her. Her warm fur was soft like always, and patchwork spotted brown, black, and white.
     My mom came in with a Camelbak water bottle filled with tea. I took it, and I set it on my desk next to my bed.

   SUDDENLY, the water bottle exploded! All of the tea blew out the top. It spilled hot tea all over my hand. I tried to put it out by putting my hand over the exploding top, but that made it worse! I started screaming and threw the bottle on the floor. It didn't stop and sprayed tea on my Ugg boots. Now they have little designs on them from the honey that was in the tea. The water bottle stopped spewing so I examined my hand. It was burned, but not badly. I got up and put it under cold water.

     I hate Camelbak. They don't make safe products for children. :(

SOL: DW

     (Sorry for posting a little late; I have the flu and was laying in bed sleeping all day.)


     Last night, I watched an old episode of Doctor Who. It was from Season 4, with the Doctor who wears a striped scarf and likes jelly beans (I can't remember the actor's name). The episode I watched was called The Horror of Fang Rock. It is about a big green alien who kills people on a lighthouse. My mom made fun of the bad special effects by pointing out that the alien looks like a big squishy cabbage.
     The Doctor and his companion, Leela, find themselves on the lighthouse. They are forced to run as the big squishy jellyfish/cabbage goes very slowly up the stairs and kills the stupid people who just stand there screaming and don't run or do anything.
     It made me realize how much bigger the budget of the new seasons is.

The List

     I started and finished The List, by Siobhan Vivian in about three days. It's a really good book.

     Every year, the Monday before the homecoming dance at Mount Washington High, a list appears. The list is all over the building. It tells who the prettiest and ugliest girls are in each class. The prettiest girls always get swooned over, and the ugly ones are made fun of. No one knows who started the tradition, and who the duty of writing the list gets passed on to every year. The prettiest girls this year are Abby, Lauren, Bridget, and Margo. The ugliest are Danielle (as the list states: "also known as Dan the Man"), Candace, Sarah, and Jennifer. 

     They all react differently to the list. Sarah threatens to ruin homecoming. Home-schooled Lauren makes new friends. Jennifer and Margo have to confront each other for the facts about why their friendship ended. Candace, who got put on the list because of her ugly personality instead of looks, loses all of her friends to Lauren. Bridget starves herself. Danielle and her boyfriend see each other differently. 

    

     I do recommend this book. :)

TBR: Pretty Little Liars

          The second half of Mockingjay which I never finished

          

Two Books

     Over break, I kind of read two books ("kind of" meaning that I only read the last couple chapters of one). I finished reading Fangirl (which I blogged about halfway through because it was a two week book) and I read Eleanor and Park. Both are by Rainbow Rowell.

     The ending of Fangirl was pretty much the same as when I blogged about it. Nothing new.

     Eleanor and Park is a great book. It is about two 16-year-olds; Eleanor and Park. (Duh.) Eleanor is new to Park's school. She dresses weirdly and has red hair, which for some reason makes people hate her. Everyone at school makes fun of her. On the first day, she gets on the bus and has no where to sit down because no one wants to sit with her. Park volunteers, and starts the relationship with letting Eleanor borrow his comic books.
     At home, Eleanor is being abused by her stepdad, Richie. He makes fun of her, hits her mom, and barely sustains the family. Eleanor has no toothbrush and four little siblings.
     A while into the year, Park realizes that he is somehow drawn to Eleanor. He invites Eleanor over to his house, but his mom disapproves of their relationship.
     Eleanor and Park have to figure everything out. Richie is writing horrible things on Eleanor's books, Park finds that he cannot live without Eleanor, and Eleanor's mom might send Eleanor into foster care (again).

      I would definitely recommend this book.

     TBR: The List
               Pretty Little Liars
               Beautiful Creatures