Who often believes that the most fantastic fiction book characters fly in through the window?

I’ve never believed In anything like that. Our characters represent repressed parts of ourselves and what we want to shout out to the world. 

My home life was filled with love and attention, yet my journey of self-discovery has been a long, arduous journey, much like a metamorphosis. My two main characters for my fantasy series are based on the opposite personalities of my parents. Their funny dynamic inspired the magnetic personalities of my female and male protagonist and side character.

My dad’s hardworking passion for doing things right, mixed with my mum’s free-spirited nature, always made for some critical comedic moments throughout my life. If you’re going to create human characters, you should look to those around you. List down your favourite qualities of people in your life. Why you connect with them, what qualities you love about them, and what purpose’s they serve in your life. 

I like to create character profiles before starting my first drafts, listing everything there is to know about your characters. Give your readers a reason to care about your feelings, make them relatable, how they deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life. 

I wouldn’t say I like Mary Sues and Gary Stu characters in movies, books, games, or tv shows. These types of protagonists and characters are unrealistically perfect at everything they do. They have no believable qualities. Their power progression and journeys end do not feel earned at all. A bad example of this Mary Sue arc trope is Rey from the most recent Disney Star Wars trilogy, and Teela from the new Masters of the Universe: Revelation show. 

I love a character with a relatable arc that feels earned. An excellent example of a well written, believable character would be Avatar Aang, Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, and Arya Stark from Game of Thrones/ A Song of Ice and Fire. The thing in common with these characters are their well-told stories of learning, failing, and growing from their natural human flaws- and becoming the best version of themselves. They’re the most satisfying things to read over time. 

More well-written characters are Tory, John Kreese, and Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai. They are not stereotypical bad guys in this adaption tv series. Instead, the writers show their backstories, significant events that made them the people they are today. Such as Tory, dealing with a sick parent and looking after her younger brother, shows audiences why she is so defensive and aggressive towards Sam Larusso. Also, Johnny Lawrence, being written as a cliché bully in the first Karate Kid, is the main protagonist of Cobra Kai. The show shows his side of the story fighting Daniel, the Karate Kid, and how his life changed for the worst after his loss to Daniel in the 1984 movie. Cobra Kai shows his softer side when he meets Miguel, and elaborates further on Johnny’s sad backstory under the emotional abuse from his stepfather. 

Though sad backstories don’t excuse an antagonists’ horrible actions; it shows an audience their humanity. We all have sad stories which shape our positive or negative outlooks on life. The key is to show audiences why they should invest their time in antagonist characters. Instead of making a villainous character devoid of love like Voldemort, create an antagonist who views things differently from the protagonist. Don’t forget, as Negan said in the Walking Dead, no one sees themselves as the bad guy. 

Moreover, engaging characters shouldn’t be made entirely to be disliked. For example, Teela from the new Masters of the Universe: Revelation didn’t connect with me at all throughout season 1 and 2. Her outright selfish attitude towards grief didn’t help me engage with her character, and her power ups in season 2 did not feel like she trained and earned them over time. A better of example of this is Katniss Everdeen’s years of training in the woods, making her a great huntress. She spends the first half of the book struggling to find food for her family. Katniss’ struggles made me sympathise and connect with her. She wan’t written as a perfect character, she went through ups and downs, going deaf in one ear, getting burned, and nearly dying at the hands of Clove. Katniss had flaws with not getting close to Peeta, however, her flaws were real, making me invest in her character more. Katniss’ struggles made me love her character more. Her arc for survival feeling more rewarding as she goes through trials and errors to survive. So, try to find the right balance when developing characters and protagonists’ flaws and likeable traits. Give them flaws and redeemable characteristics we can all relate to whilst not turning your audience off them. 

Anyone else love writing poems with themes about fighting environmental decline? I certainly do. My my writing themes across genres tackles reckless destruction of anything nature. This poem is a brief draft which will be edited further down the line. Stone Cancer © by C.W. McGee.

Stone Cancer, by C.W. McGee

An invasion appears a sting becomes pain

multiplying by the day they spread for survival, their waste aching my insides, entirely lawful the process is labelled, cries of my critters, my gifts mutilated, brown to black, charred, put to the stake, their remains added to the necessary  infestation, my fury shakes their foundations, my breath toppling the spread of the corruption, but they rebuild, their hive structures growing again, the symptoms temporarily treated but the virus flourishing,

They never cease their foul spread

ungrateful pests, I feel their bony claws wriggling in me, their toxins spewing into me, their nasty seed using me for their own gain, no consent, using inky remains of forgotten designs to assist their spread, creations of destruction helping their usurpation, mockeries of my invention, my own gifts rebranded against me, they play God, small alone but significant in numbers, thousands, millions, my existence reduced to a carcass, a feast for flies,

How dare they mimic me,

my natural designs, such pearl white erected structures of beastly sizes, soulless shells hiding my defiled body, their cancer distorts my breath, my bronchioles shrivelling, their infectious spikes cutting them down, a single virus propagates, a cluster to an expanding colony, their hive buzzing, multiplying, their spawn growing to release more toxins, sucking me dry, my clear blood is their nectar, their thirst unquenchable,                             

Most newer writers think they have to make worlds utterly different from their own. Like Alice in Wonderland, worlds are all topsy-turvy, taking place on a speck of dust with strange named creatures in unique worlds. However, people need to realise that many established fantasy-fiction worlds like Narnia, Oz, or Neverland are worlds that were made decades ago. Building worlds isn’t about developing the most absurd worlds imaginable. It’s about making a world believable for your readers. A few things to think about when writing a world is what has inspired it? For readers to believe your world is realistic and worth investing in – you must base it on historical events of our world and countries with unique structures, whether under dictatorships or liberty. For example, Westeros in Author George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is heavily based on England’s royal, medieval wars. Events like the War of the Roses heavily inspired the conflicts in his world, which made it more engaging for me as a reader.

You could even base your world on real-world countries. Some Dystopian worlds could be found of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. The tyrannical rule holds a significant impact on its people, which is why Dystopian worlds are usually very engaging — as we don’t know if the protagonist or characters will meet a bloody end. However, don’t input dangers for the sake of spicing a plot up. There should be reasons for a fictional place to be dangerous, whether they have crime family histories, religious wars, or turf fights.

Inputting dangerous environments can feed into world-building, such as setting up how crime and gang warfare work in a fictional world, as our world is filled with gangs and crime families. Also, don’t just make criminals in your books evil for the sake of being wrong. Many criminals commit crimes in desperation. Maybe they are trying to steal money for their children to eat. Perhaps they are killing rival gangs to ensure the safety of their loved ones? An excellent example of humanising criminals would be a short scene in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the tales of Ba Sing Sae episode. A robber tries threatening Iroh with a knife to get his money. However, in an expected twist for tea fanatic uncle Iroh, he sits with the robber and learns his story. We see a new side to a potentially dangerous robber as someone who is simply on the wrong path. All he needed was someone to believe in him and encourage him to follow his heart. A simple scene like this can show a lot of well thought out writing, as the real world isn’t always as simple as good and evil. Sometimes criminals are victims of more extraordinary circumstances we don’t know about.

Moreover, some fictional books and games have a tendency to have whimsical things, such as Mortal Kombat having blood seas entirely. The tricky part about that is, you have to come up with scientific research and backstories for stuff like that if your world is like a giant floating rock in a rainbow sky, for instance. A few things to think about is, does your world have laws of physics? Are their scientific facts and Historians in your world? Do libraries with archives and historical events exist in your world? So, before making a fictional world entirely whimsical and out of the ordinary, something like Dr Seuss’s Who’s on a speck of dust or something, a good writer will provide context and backstories in their world-building. However, don’t just pile world facts on readers. The time of Tolkien has long passed, and most new readers won’t be interested in your world when picking up your book. You need to get readers engaged with your fictional world before sprinkling in facts about how your world operates.

Think about real life with Isaac Newton, who discovered the force that pulls you down, gravity. Your world could have famous people mentioned briefly by characters, maybe someone who discovered magical energy power? A fictional character who ended slavery similar to Abraham Lincoln? Look to real-life people who have made a mark in real-world history. Look into significant things they did, whether good or bad that has made people centuries passed still remember them. Overall, make sure your fictional world has history and significant characters, like the four Hogwarts founders in Harry Potter

Writing Nelson ‘ha ha’ characters got old fast with so many new shows, movies, and books coming out with similar archetypes. The dumb Jock, the bleach blonde valley girl, the cruel, mean girl, the Britney, these are four of many stereotypes of fictional bullies. As writers, most of us have been bullied some time in our lives, and I can’t count how many times I’ve dealt with mental and social bullying. And because of those experiences, we tend to write the most irredeemable bully characters ever known to books. However, we forget that millions of writers like ourselves have dealt with just as much, sometimes more abuse than we ever had. And they have already written irredeemable bully characters who’ve been rewritten years over. But are there instances where bully characters aren’t plot devices?

My advice is don’t allow your ill feelings towards childhood bullies to manifest in your characters. Irredeemable is old news now, and they’ve been done so many times over. Evil bully tropes have been so over done that redemption arcs are becoming more popular. Shows like the Owl House with Amity Blight, and Amphibia with Sasha, are two of many examples of popular bully characters going through their arcs, realising what they’ve done wrong and starting to take the steps required to change.

However, writers need to understand that bully characters are Humans, just like protagonists and side characters. Why deny them an arc that can challenge and change their views? Half of the bully characters have gone through unfortunate experiences in life. Some experiences like a toxic home life, abusive relationships, or snobby families that think they are too big for their boots, raising entitled, diva narcissists. Whether what tragic story a bully has gone through, their views can be challenged and changed with a well-written character arc. An arc with obstacles and life lessons shows them some people will accept them for who they are, which is a better approach to writing bully characters now, as so many archetypes have been done of stereotypical bully characters. Most of them feel unreal and do not have genuine value or any reasons for bullying characters.

One approach to redeeming a misunderstood bully character I love is that they start as the wrong person. Still, over a story plot, they view the main protagonist as the bully. An example of this is Amity Blight from the Disney show the Owl House. Amity starts as the typical mean girl to Willow until Luz comes along and starts messing with her for being a bully. However, the trope of bullies usually knowing they are wrong is shattered with Amity, as a few episodes later, it is revealed she thinks Luz is making her life hell and bullying her. I always love a misunderstood character slowly turning around, but she thinks Luz, a protagonist, is the wrong person. Amity’s redemption even goes so far as to start dating Luz. I love an enemy to lover arc, it is a great arc to reach (as long as it is done right).

Moreover, writers must understand that fleshing out bully characters is essential, especially today with so many cliché tropes done repeatedly. Flesh out their personalities beyond bullying people. What I usually love to see is the soft sides of a bully character. Maybe they help at an elderly home. Perhaps they support one of their sick parents or something along those lines. Another excellent example of showing the more personal life of a bully character is Tory from Cobra Kai. For anyone whose seen that show, Tory starts as the typical violent, evil girl bully archetype. And though Sam Larusso’s character can become very annoying sometimes, Tory is shown to be a vengeful, violent person, as she tries to kill Sam in a crowd school stairwell. However, season four showed another side to Tory. Her home life reveals her mother has some cancer, and she has to find the rent to keep her families’ apartment and look after her little brother. Though her sad story does not justify her hateful attitude and violent behaviour, it shows the audience why she is like that. It showed me that she is not just another damaging bully stereotype, hating on a random protagonist for no reason other than plot convenience. Overall, take from Tory’s character that shows your audience your bullies’ homelife; show them what relatable challenges they go through and a softer side like how Tory looks after and cares for her sick mother and little brother.

Furthermore, bully characters are a golden opportunity to start a good character arc. As they are damaged, people take their anger out on others. A redemption arc is a natural course for them; using their damaged state and hateful attitude to help them grow as obstacles push people to change their views and act around them. For example, though I’ve never been a bully, being bullied myself made me quite bitter and resentful of people for a long time. Only a few years ago did I finally snap out of it, but I remember my thought process throughout the whole ordeal. It was like living through a real-life character arc, like a caterpillar slowly metamorphosing into a butterfly. Use any moments that changed you in your life and apply them to your bully characters — as real-life experiences hit readers in their hearts more than an utterly fabricated arc. Every one of us is flawed, so reading a reliable, realistic feeling arc draws more readers in, as just like our characters, we want to continue to grow and eventually be the best versions of ourselves.

Lastly, don’t try copying other bully characters in published books. Times have changed today, and bullying has shifted into a cyber age of cult, mob mentality, and isn’t always as straightforward as Draco Malfoy was with Harry Potter. If you want to write new bully characters, look to writing cyberbullies and how that affects modern kids. However, if you write bully characters that use social media in this form — show readers why they do this, the reasons behind their cruelty and humanise them. After all, readers go into books to read believable characters, not cliché big evil villain meanie. I’d watch Kim Possible if I wanted cliché bullies.

As most writers know, constructive criticism is a necessity in the writing game. It broadens your perspective on experimenting with various genres, teaches you how to be as productive as possible when reviewing fellow writer’s work, and helps you make connections with networking. However, a few may take criticism personally, which doesn’t work to help you at all in the long run. Feedback and suggestions only help you progress. No writer, not even the greats: Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, William Golding, and Stephen King didn’t write masterpiece first drafts on the first try. Writing is re-writing, a skill you must learn over many years. Taking the time to find the flaws in your work will help you grow and make your writing more engaging for readers.

You need to realise that people’s feedback isn’t a personal attack on your work. It is to help you see the flaws of your work, how to correct them as well as spotting flaws in other’s writing. To get anywhere in the writing game, you have to get thick skin, as your work is equivalent to a juicy steak in the African Savannah. It will be ripped to pieces, chewed up, spit out (not literally), and others will view what it offers differently. However, agents, friends, colleagues, they’re doing you a massive favour giving you early feedback. By pointing out the flaws in your work they are sparing you from the inevitable harsh words of publishing houses. In conclusion, you can’t spend your life not even considering the opinions of your readers and colleagues. Eventually, reality will come knocking, and the harsh reality that hard work beats talent every time will settle in.

Additionally, if I’ve learned anything this past year with creative writing, it’s never to mix your ego when taking other opinions into account. You may think your work is something special; perhaps you’ve edited it up many times where you feel it’s beyond further drafting. But remember, no matter how “perfect” you believe your polished manuscript is, some may not like it. And they don’t have to either. Though many authors will most likely have a loyal fanbase that grows over time, you will always have some who don’t like your work. But it’s not your job to please them. Though feedback is essential to develop into an insightful writer, slander and negative reviews are not worth reading and are useless for any writer. Any feedback that isn’t constructive, meant to help you improve your craft, is only destructive. Slander and negativity of others shouldn’t be acknowledged and will only bring down your positive vibes and ambitions.

Moreover, learning to give insightful criticism to other writers is another essential skill to learn as you can apply other’s imrprovments to your craft. However, I understand people in the present day are easily offended, but if you don’t have people challenging your views and insights respectfully, you’ll never improve and progress through life. By making mistakes, we learn, by others showing how we can improve and evolve onto higher levels.

A great tutor I had in St. Helens college taught me that everyone always has something to improve on. In the first year my arrogant teenage mind thought my work was flawless, beyond any form of insightful feedback. Reality hit hard with my first Art assessments not getting the grades I wanted. That experience taught me one important life lesson that has helped me shed my egotistical cacoon, and it’s that if you want anything in this world, hard work will get you there. Raw talent only gets a person so far. Hard work will take a person further than any talent ever will. If you believe your work is flawless beyond the wise insight of other authors and writers, you need to tweak your mindset seriously. Don’t be like the Hare from the Tortoise and the Hare. Sure he was a hundred times faster than the slow Tortoise, but at the end of the day, we know how much of a joke the Hare thought the race was. The Tortoise, on the other hand, was slow and patient and had more incredible determination than the arrogant Hare, and we all know how that ended. Talent and speed didn’t win the race; determination and hard work did. The same philosophy applies to real life. Patience, humility, and accepting helpful insight from others will help you win the race, not your misguided ego.

I like to see the antagonists’ side of the story. Why are they the way they are? Who made them that way? Why do they feel like they have no other alternate path to go down? These are some of the questions for writers to think about. Writing antagonists has changed over the years which puts pressure on newer writers to write more believable ones.

Remember, antagonists usually don’t think they’re bad. Like Negan in the Walking Dead, sometimes they are the heroes of their own stories who are trying to survive. You may be thinking about why other past writers created irredeemable villains in their books. Well, times change and so do perspectives. You’ve got to remember that in the ’90s and earlier years, readers loved an antagonist who caused nothing but trouble for their heroes. They loved the utterly despicable actions of an antagonist who is in every way opposite to the protagonist. However, that trope of the protagonist’s fighting an evil – the mass-murdering bad guy is overdone. Villains like Emperor Palpatine, evil witches in Disney, Voldemort, these types of antagonists have been overdone over the years. Nowadays people are starting to see how human antagonists, with actual soft sides and sympathetic backstories are so much more interesting than “wanting to take over the world” bad guys. 

A well-written antagonist will believe they’re doing the right thing, so you don’t need to write every antagonist as a Joffrey Baratheon. Some may agree on the way they go about it may be harsh, but the endgame like Thanos’ goal will result in the greater good for everyone. Don’t forget, your villains are humans too and good and evil are two very mucky concepts in real life. There is a lot of grey area in real life which is a lot more interesting in real life. If people were split into two categories as good and evil, the world would be a very bland place. The same goes for antagonists you write, they’ve got to have a reason for being the way they are. Below I’ve listed some good ways to write a well-written antagonist.

Here are a few examples below to help you think about writing a decent antagonist:

• They went through a traumatic experience that has morphed their view of the world around them.
• Their moral compass aligns with their actions, dismissing every violent thing they do for the greater good.
• They want to change something about the world which harms or has harmed people close to them.
• They hate themselves but have so much love for people, they may not care about their lives but are willing to give their lives up for a particular cause. 
• They may see themselves as freedom fighters who are doing great service in their perspectives compared to those who oppose them.
• They might not understand emotions, being born with sociopathic tendencies or have developed over time unshackling them from the chains of guilt and sympathy. 
• They may have been treated as outcast their entire lives, such as being bullied, neglected by parental figures, or had rocky relationships with people close to them.

An antagonist could mirror the protagonist with similar personality traits and behaviours, but they drastically differ from your protagonist’s righteous actions. A trope I love is when antagonists are inverted versions of the main characters. For example, the Golden Guard, Emperor Belos, and Kikimora are almost inverted versions of Luz, Eda, and King from the Owl House. They mirror each other as almost like a close-knit family which gets audiences more engaged with antagonists like Belos.

Antagonists who show they have love in their heart are more engaging – because they help readers to see things from their point of view. It would be harder to connect with a villain like Joffrey Baratheon because of how vile and irredeemable they are. But a villain who may have a soft spot for their child or family are more likely to engage readers, as cruel villains are usually plot devices to make story narratives more interesting.

Overall, write your antagonist not as a plot device, but a character who influences your protagonist’s emotional growth and progresses interesting narrative points. Antagonists are humans and have origin stories like the rest of us, don’t deprive a reader of understanding your antagonists motivations. Aim to create a person who doesn’t see their actions as flawed or show they have genuine guilt but bury it deep down.

Hello fellow Readers and Writers. The 1984 movie Amadeus inspired my microfiction below. The movie follows the perspective of Antonio Salieri, a man who envies Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for being a natural born talented musician. The film follows Salieri’s view of the young Mozart growing up as a spoiled, entitled Youth. Salieri hates how Mozart acts like a Fool and is still a better musician them him. The movie deals with themes of injustice, the sin Envy through Salaleri’s many attempts to ruin the life and career of Mozart- which ends up turning Salieri against God himself.

My short microfiction ‘Jess’ Burning Contempt’ takes inspiration from the jealousy and hatred Salieri shows towards Mozart in the movie. Salieri’s envy inspired my character Jess, who tries to ruin the life of a the new girl Rosemary who doesn’t mix with the popular clicks- who she hates with a passion.

Jess’ Burning Contempt. By C.W. McGee

Just look at her, humming to herself in a damn crowded cafeteria! My God, she is such a Freak. I wonder which shin I should kick her in first? Na might be more creative this time- bruised the Loser’s legs enough today. I extend my foot as Loner Rosemary comes strolling by. It’s the funniest thing ever seeing her go flying into her mash and gravy—the cafeteria echoes with a clanking crash and thunderous laughers of favoured groups. Of course, her fellow Losers stay stuck to their meals- not daring to laugh along with the essential groups.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Rosemary- hey, on the bright side, your rags looks so much better now.’ I say sarcastically, extending my arm to her. She is so gullible; I let go of her grasp, watching her slip like a fish out of water. However, one thing that always bugs me, why the Hell is she still smiling? I humiliate the Ginger farm girl every day, spread countless rumours about her, made her a prime target of the cruellest groups in school. Yet, she still smiles like the world is a grand old place! This Loser thinks just because she has some sort of beauty underneath all those farm rags that she’s better than me? Well, I guess I’ll have to remind her life isn’t all fun and games in our world.

My friends gossip about the Maths teachers shameful hair cut, the Farmgirl Rosemary skips idly down the stairs. Suddenly, a waft of old trash fills my nostrils. A bin yes, a cunning idea enters my mind. As the Farmgirl heads down the stairs, I lift the container, ready to tip its putrid-smelling contents down the stairwell. My God, it’s heavy. I scream at my friends to help me raise it as my heart leaps from my chest -slipping on a crisp packet. I can’t believe this, these fucking idiot friends of mine! Mouldy rotting cheese drips down my face as cherry yoghurt coats my red skirt. Squeaky waves of laughter of year 7’s fill my eardrums as I grab my friend Luz by her shitty blonde ponytail.

‘You stupid Bimbo, I’ll rip your highlights out!’ I scream, pulling her hair like a ragdoll. So, the freak farm girl wants to play, does she? Fine, she’s going to get it now!

As the lunch bell rings down the corridor, I balance myself on a stool placing the Janitors mop bucket on top of the English room door. I’ll get that farm girl for humiliating me like this, don’t give a shit if I get caught at this point. Ah, here she comes; the sound of shoes clapping against the corridor floor grow louder. As her red pigtails come into view, I release my grip on the string. Before I knew what happened, a splash of freezing water drenches over my head, dripping like a gushing waterfall down my brunette hair.
‘No, no, no, that was supposed to be for you, fuck!’ I grasp my hair in my balled hands, on the verge of tears. The Loser gazes innocently on me- as if I wasn’t just trying to humiliate her in front of hundreds of kids. As popular clicks keel over in giggles, the Farmgirl helps me up, patting my dress down. I smack her hand away as Miss Natalie’s roaring voice silences the screaming room.

‘Who did this?’ She screams in her commanding voice as all those Losers point their fingers at me. Two hours in the sweaty smelling detention go by slow as ever. All I can think of is that pathetic farm girl Rosemary; I ball my palms tightly – imaging bashing that wannabe beautiful Loser’s rosy cheeks in. Still, I can’t help smiling brightly, making surrounding delinquents scoot their desks from me. She’s laughing at me, isn’t she? Yeah, I bet her all those Losers are making fun of me right now, the Popular Jess Nettle being humiliated twice in one day. Well, we’ll see who has the last laugh, farm girl!

The main stairwell reeks of cooking oil. I can’t believe it was so easy to steal twenty bottles of it from the cafeteria. I can’t help laughing loudly to myself, admiring the sunbeams shining against the greased up steps. Just imagine that Ginger Freak’s turquoise dress coated in uncleanable olive oil. Oh, she’s going to be more humiliated than ever. I wait twenty minutes hiding behind the stairwell railings, slowly biding my time as I realise I missed PE class. Oh well, Rosemary crying her eyes out will be worth coach Camble’s week detentions. Come on, Rosemary, I thought the Loser always gets out early; where is she? There’s no way in Hell she wouldn’t come down this way. The sound of a door slamming catches my attention. I can’t believe my luck; Rosemary comes skipping down the corridor- heading for the main stairwell. I notice a shining gold badge on her striped dress. Of course, goody-two-shoes is rewarded going home early, again. Oh, well works in my favour this time, ha. As she’s about to place her left foot on the first greased up step, she stops.

‘What the Hell is she doing? Just go down.’ I whisper to myself as she gets down to tie her shoelace. Eight minutes go by as the Loser pulls her ancient Nokia brick out. Her soft, innocent voice fills the stairwell as I check the time. Damnit, the bell will be ringing any minute now. I know this is a stupid decision, but drastic times call for extreme measures. I sprint down the upper stairwell yet quietly thudding behind the Loser, get ready for humiliation! My eyes suddenly widen as the Farmgirl drops her phone, bending down to grab it. I shrill as gravity propels me forward; my feet slide off the first greasy step as my face smashes against the side railing. I feel every step smash against my bones as my vision twirls around as a merry go round. My head spins rapidly as my arms, chest, and legs fill with agonising stings and pain.

‘Oh my God, Jess, are you all right?’ said Rosemary, in her disgusting, sweet voice. She places her palm upon my chest, checking my right pulse. Thousands of peals of laughter suddenly bring my vision back, as I realise yellow cooking Grease all over my school dress. Boys, nerds and popular girls alike point at me, pulling out their phones as I hear the sounds of Instagram live turning on.

‘Don’t worry, Jess, I’ll get the Nurse.’ The Farmgirl said, holding my arm tightly the entire time. Why is my stupid face burning up, not just embarrassment? It feels like someone lit a fire within me, and Rosemary is the Igniter. She’s the only one helping me, her cute cherry pupils gazing on me with compassion and caring. No, I can’t, not today! I heave myself off her, shoving her filthy hands off me.

‘You’ll pay for this Farm girl, I’ll get you if it’s the last thing I do.’ I scream in her face as tears start flooding out my eyes. I turn back, noticing the look of care still in Rosemary’s adorable eyes. Even after I screamed in her face nose to nose, she still cares for my well-being. What the Hell is this feeling? What is wrong with me? You know what, forget all this.

The End.