Shannon Some More

A couple of people have been asking how long Shannon's Story is. Short answer is "I don't know."

The long answer:
I love writing it and have so many ideas I want to work with in this. I'll be getting to them eventually but I only every write a few pages at a time so be patient.

My intention with Shannon was to see if I could write a novel-length story. Not necessarily a novel, but perhaps with some heavy editing and tweaking I could turn what I have into one.

Since I started the write blog I learned how easy it is for me to write. I spent a chunk of time working on short stories and learned how to handle that format. I felt I couldn't commit to characters or settings so I set out to write something longer, hence the murder mystery in May. But I never wrote something novel length. We're talking somewhere around 200-300 pages. Last I checked, unedited and without page breaks Shannon's story was close to 85 pages. That was a few weeks back too. Just so you get an idea of how long this going to be.

Maybe when I finish it I'll make a compilation post with the edited story and chapters and everything. We'll see.

In the mean time enjoy the next segment!


"She's lazy! And bossy! And doesn't do ANYTHING! I feel like It's up to me to make this assignment A+ worthy!"

Aberdine had called Shannon and spent the last half hour complaining about Amanda to her. Shannon just rolled her eyes and listened.

"That doesn't really sound like Amanda. She's always taken her school work seriously. Especially lately." Shannon defended her life long friend.

"Well maybe she thinks she can get away with doing nothing just because she has a smart partner. But she can't!" Aberdine continued to rant.

Shannon again rolled her eyes, thankful that Aberdine couldn't see her. Aberdine was beyond being convinced of Amanda's capabilities.

"I'm just going to make my half of the presentation so mind blowingly awesome that it'll make her half look like trash! Then Mr. Wilkinson will have no choice but to give me a good grade and her a bad one." Aberdine chuckled, pleased with her scheme. "But enough about me and the drama queen. How's things going with Jeremy."

"Not good I'm afraid." Shannon sighed. "Everytime I talk to him about the assignment he doesn't seem interested. He just says 'You do your thing.' And leaves."

"Well have you called him?" Aberdine asked. "You have his number. That's like an excuse to call him whenever, for whatever reason!"

"Yeah, I guess." Shannon looked at her palm where a few days ago Jeremy's number was written. "I haven't tried calling him yet."

"You should get on that." Aberdine said. "Besides, I should get going, it's not like my partner is going to be helping me write this assignment anytime soon."

"Have you even talked to Amanda about the assignment?" Shannon finally asked.

"Pfft! No!" Aberdine admitted. "Like she'd ever talk to me about some dumb assignment. Anyway. I'll see you tomorrow. See ya, Shannon!"

Shannon hung up the phone and stared at her assigned book. She was almost half-way through it already. It was actually kind of boring to her. She opened the book to her bookmarked page and tried to read some more.

She kept staring at the pages. She read the words but they wouldn't register. Her mind drifted to the piece of paper she had copied Jeremy's number onto. Maybe she should call him.

"No." Shannon said out loud, snapping her self back to her studies. "I need to read this." She picked up the book and doubled her focus. She read the first few sentences and felt her mind wandering again. It was funny, she thought, how Aberdine could complain so much without knowing what Amanda was doing with the assignment. What was Amanda doing? Shannon knew Amanda was reading 'A Brave New World' as well as Jeremy. She began to wonder if 'A Brave New World' was a better read than 'Nineteen Eighty Four.'

She looked at the clock on her desk. A couple of minutes had passed and she hadn't finished reading the page she was on. At this rate she'd never finish the book.

Shannon looked at the piece of paper again.

"It wouldn't hurt to ask him how his half of the assignment is going." Shannon reasoned with herself. She picked up the phone and punched in his number. After a few rings a woman picked up.

"Hi, is Jeremy there? It's Shannon, from school." Shannon felt a bit nervous saying it out loud.

"One second." The woman replied.

After a moment of silence Jeremy picked. "Hello?" He sounded very confused.

"Hey, Jeremy. It's Shannon. From English class? We're working on that assignment together?"

"How'd you get my number?"

"Uh, you wrote it on my hand."

"Oh yeah! Now I remember. What's up?"

"Uh." Shannon started to falter. She looked around her desk for something to talk about. She finally settled on the assignment sheet. "How's your part of the assignment coming?"

"Fine."

Silence.

"Uh, ok. I'm just wondering how we're going to, you know, do this presentation together."

"You just do your thing. Don't worry about it."

Jeremy was a bit more than frustrating to talk to about this assignment. "How's your book?" Shannon asked. "Because my book is boring! Every time I pick it up I can't focus. It's just so depressing to read."

"I really like my book."

Shannon was a bit surprised. "Really? Why?"

"I've always been into books about the oppression of people and how they overcome. I've always liked the idea of "fighting for the cause," ya know?"

"You mean, like being an activist?"

"Yeah, totally!" For the first time since Shannon started to talk to him, Jeremy sounded excited. "I just want to do my part to help humanity. I mean, so many people are suffering the world, and we have it so great. We never think about how great we have it. We're always complaining. About what we don't have, what we want. We never stop to think about those who don't have basic life essentials, ya know. Like food and clean water."

Shannon was stunned. "That's really..." Shannon trailed off. She never thought of Jeremy as the social conscious type. Maybe because she wasn't all that socially conscious herself. "Wow. I never thought about it that way. It makes me feel like really bad now."

"Don't take it too hard," he said "not everyone thinks about it. That's why it's our job to bring it to others attention."

There was a moment of silence afterwards as Shannon reflected on what Jeremy said. "Hey, I know I called you, but I need to get going."

"Oh, uh, ok."

"For what it's worth, I'm glad I called. It kind of helped but this whole assignment into perspective for me. Thanks."

"That's the second time I've helped you now. If you make a habit of this I'm going to have to start charging."