PREFACE
They say your life could change forever in a matter of hours. Well, I hadn’t really given much thought to that statement until it happened to me. This is the story of how my life changed before I even had a chance to think about what was happening.
CHAPTER 1
I stared out the window as the rain poured down the thin glass panes of the cheap school windows. That was about the most entertaining thing that was available for me to do right now. Listening to Mr. Dally drone on and on about some war in history class was the last thing I wanted to do. History was so boring this year. Last year it wasn’t that bad, we were learning about the fur trade then. This year all we learned about in history were pointless wars between Canadian settlers fighting over taxes. Don’t get me wrong, history is a fascinating thing. World history, I mean. Oh well, it was already period 6, and soon enough the end-of-day announcements would be coming on.
“By the way, you have a test on the Confederation of Canada tomorrow”, I caught Mr. Dally say.
Great, if there was one thing to love about Mr. Dally, it was his constant ‘forgetting’ to let us know when we had a test coming up. My best friend Jacquie turned around to give me one of her eye rolls. I gave her one back. This was Jacquie’s and my way of expressing our frustration of Mr. Dally to each other. At that moment, the intercom buzzed, and end-of-day announcements finally came on. I listened to Mrs. Hill’s perfect principal voice remind us of upcoming soccer practices, choir meetings, and volleyball tryouts. I have never been good at sports, and so in all of my 13 years, I have never tried out for one sports team. Student Counsel was more my kind of thing, and I enjoyed planning school events. Suddenly I heard Mrs. Coffer’s voice come on.
“This year, 10 lucky grade 8 students will get the amazing opportunity to go on a forty day Canadian expedition.” I listened as Mrs. Coffer went on. “10 grade 8 students, along with me; will go on a Canadian expedition by foot this summer. We will travel east through the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. We will then travel north through the cold arctic territories. Finally, we will come back down south, until we end off back here in Thunder Bay. This will all be done by foot, we will camp out in the forest, and during the whole expedition, we will never once be close to any towns or cities. If you are interested in joining the expedition club, please come to the library tomorrow at lunch.”
Wow, that sure sounded cool. And by the way my class sounded, I wasn’t the only one who was planning to go to the library tomorrow at lunch. As soon as announcements ended, I put my chair up and went over to talk to Jacquie.
“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “Can you believe that? I am definitely going to join the expedition club. You are too, right Valerie? I’ll ask Marla and Marissa if they want to come too!”
“Good idea Jacquie! But do you really think Mrs. Coffer will let girly-girls like us join?”
“Well, we’ll never know until we go there, right?”
Good old Jacquie, always trying to be optimistic. The moment the bell rang, everybody was pushing their way through the halls in an attempt to get to their locker. The reason everybody was always in a rush to get going at the end of the day was so that they would have a better chance of getting the back seat of the bus. It was really quite annoying, actually. I mean, the bus was going to take you home, no matter where you sat on the bus, right?
When I finally got to my locker, I put all my stuff in my bag, listening as everyone was chatting about the whole expedition thing. As I made my way out of the school, Jacquie approached me once again.
“Hey! Guess what I just heard? Mrs. Coffer wants people who are less-experienced in camping on the expedition club! That increases our chances of getting on! Call me tonight,” she said as she boarded her bus.
I stopped in front of my bus to shake the half-frozen slush off my shoes. My bus driver Wayne was probably one of the weirdest bus drivers I have ever had. Besides forcing us to shake our shoes off before we got onto the bus, he seemed to really like speeding down the quiet residential streets that were on my route.
I headed toward the back of the bus, trying to find a seat where I could sit by myself. It’s not that I’m anti-social or anything, it’s just that none of my friends are on my bus, and I really hate when random guys sit beside me just so that they can stare at me the whole bus ride home. I know I’m pretty, maybe too pretty for my own good. I can be popular if I want to be, but that would mean hanging around people who are just pretending to be my friends. They like me for my looks, not for who I really am. I actually wish I wasn’t so beautiful. I get attention I don’t really want. My friends, Jacquie, Marla, Marissa, and Shannon are probably th
The title is The Day My Life Changed Forever. That is the best I can think of, but if you have any other suggestions, feel free to let me know. Thanks!
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Lynci 10th March 2010
In my opinion, you have a great beginning to a potentially compelling story; you write quite well for your age, too (which I am assuming is in the range of that of your protagonist Valerie). You do have one spelling error which I feel obligated to address (sorry): Student Counsel should be Student Council (counsel is an adviser or attorney). Your story is fascinating to me, being set in Canada (you are undoubtedly Canadian!), and your prospective plot of the expedition seems quite intriguing. My advice to you is to continue writing, trying to produce your imagined story in its entirety; see how it goes. I think that the plot sounds original and has the possibilities to produce adventure, dangers, conflicts, and (quite naturally) romance! Good luck!
Addendum: You may decide eventually to change your title; more than a day will transpire as you tell the story, and a more apropos title may present itself to you as you write and the plot evolves…
HanstheHair 10th March 2010
Whats the title?
Kirby 10th March 2010
Sounds neat so far, I wanna know what happens, I know she’s probably going to end up going, and I wanna find out what happens while camping. Also, I’ve never heard of end of the day announcements. Any way, good story so far, but you say history a lot in the first paragraph.
Jacquie..nick jonas love 10th March 2010
OMG! Gabby thats so good, and hey your not suspended anymore!
). I already have to deal with listening to history and math from Mr.D like 12 hours a week 
kidding
Y!A is wierd sometimes. LOL. You should continue writing thats amazing!!!! You need to continue and then send me the rough or done copy!!!! Its so good, just try to talk about history less, and describe Mr. Dally more (besides wierd
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK