20th January 2024 Writings

 

20^th

 

Excerpt from: On An Alien Beach

“I can teach you,” Barnes offered.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t.”

 

“OK, sure.”

 

Words: 18

 

 

Excerpt from: Spider Quinn

“I’m not getting interviewed,” Gerald said.

 

“I see that is a bad time,” Ted said.

 

“Not at all,” Quinn said. “I’m sure Ms. Li just intended for you to interview me about it.”

 

Ted looked to be in thought for a moment. “That’s true.”

 

“Right,” Gerald said. It didn’t look like he relaxed, but it didn’t look like he was about to run off either.

 

“But first we’re talking about field trip ideas,” Quinn said.

 

“Oh,” Ted said.

 

“So, grab a map of Lawndale and it’s surrounding areas from somewhere?” Anna asked.

 

“Good idea, Anna,” Quinn said.

 

 

It didn’t take Anna long to find such a map. She pick up several different ones and returned to the table when she saw Gerald staring at Ted with annoyance.

 

“Thanks,” Quinn said, when Anna passed out the map. “Let’s see. Arboretum, to the southeast. The Zoo, also to the southeast.”

 

“Forests to the west and east,” Gerald added.

 

“Reed beds along the Creek to the southeast also,” Anna added.

 

“And the lake to the south,” Quinn said.

 

“Although it is the furthest,” Ted said.

 

“True,” Quinn said.

 

“And the eastern forests are closer than those on the west.” Anna said.

 

“That’s because the subdivisions extend further to the west,” Gerald said.

 

“True,” Anna allowed.

 

“So, where?” Ted asked.

 

“I’d say the Zoo,” Quinn said.

 

“Arboretum,” Ben said. “A controlled environment compared to the forests or the wetlands.”

 

“Forest,” Gerald said. “On the east.”

 

“Forest,  but on the west,” Anna said.

 

“Disagreement,” Ted said as he wrote a note.

 

“Yes,” Quinn said with a sigh. “I guess I can do a forest, maybe on the west.”

 

“I guess the west would do then,” Gerald said.

 

“Oh why, the west?” Ben groused. “It is thicker than the eastern forests.”

 

“We could go to the east instead if you like,” Quinn said.

 

 “No, it’s fine,” Ben said.

 

“Are you sure?” Quinn asked.

 

“I’ll cope!” Ben said.

 

‘It doesn’t sound like it,’ Anna realsied. She knew that she was going to be talking to him later.

 

“So, when will this take place?” Gerald asked.

 

“Like, I would have liked tomorrow, but the holidays are starting,” Quinn said. “So, it’ll be after the holidays.”

 

“Good!” Ben said. “I can cope with that.”

 

“The article will be coming out then, too,” Ted said.

 

“But we will meet again tomorrow,” Quinn said.

 

“Sure,” Anna said.

 

 

Anna and Ben left first, followed quickly by Gerald.

 

Quinn sighed a sigh of relief.

 

“You didn’t think that would go well?” Ted asked.

 

“Not really. But putting it off until after the holidays will give me extra time to prepare.”

 

“That makes sense.”

 

“Anyway, you want to do the interview now, or wait until the morning?” Quinn asked.

 

“I can do it now if you want?” Ted asked.

 

“Sure?” Quinn said after a quick look at the time. Whilst she was usually out as SpiderGirl at that time, she was sure Lawndale could cope, even though some people could find themselves in difficult situations.

 

“Yes.” Ted said. He took out a tape recorder. “Are you OK with being recorded?”

 

“It’s fine, go ahead,” Quinn said. ‘I’ll tell Mom later, though,’ she thought.

 

The interview didn’t take long.

 

 

“And do you think that this will help Anna, Ben and Gerald ‘reach their potential’ as Principal Li put it?”

 

“Yes. Like I see that Anna at least is connecting to me in some way, and you saw that Ben was willing to consider going to the forest.”

 

“True,” Ted considered. “But do you think the break for the Holidays is a good idea?”

 

“I don’t think there’s much choice. Tomorrow’s the last day.”

 

“That’s true, but.”

 

“But we will meet tomorrow, I’ll see how that goes.”

 

 

SpiderGirl left the school and immediately saw that Feli was waving at her from the strip mall nearby. She sighed and swung in that direction.

 

 

“What’s up?” SpiderGirl asked Feli as she landed.

 

“Oh, just want to catch up.”

 

“Are you lonely?”

 

“A little. My friend has gone home because of his problems,” Feli answered. She didn’t really want to talk about Ben’s hypochondria to the superheroine, so didn’t elaborate.

 

“I see.”

 

“And I wanted to talk to you about that project I’m involved in.”

 

“Go on then,” the superheroine said in a resigned tone.

 

“Right. We’ve agreed that we will do a field trip in a forest after the Holidays.”

 

“What’s the problem?”

 

 

Words: 735

 

 

Total: 753