In My Book...

Chapter 1. Katem's Creation


~*~

Katem Quillmark growled.

"I'm sorry, Katem, this is an F." Mr. Drake said to her, handing her back her science test after Katem had shoved the failed paper into his face.

"But, I actually studied for this one!" Katem yelled after him, which did nothing of effect, for he went on walking down the hallway, silently.

"Grr...Teachers are so retarded these days..." She shook her head, slamming her locker door closed, not caring for the F paper which was stuck in between falling out and in her blue locker. And she started the two-block journey home.

This was Arran Darlans High School. Her favorite school in the whole world. Where the teachers care and were polite. Yeah, right, and Katem was driving a new silver New Beetle.

She was a few months away from actually doing that, her father had promised he would buy it for her on her 17th bithday---September 20th. She almost already felt older. But not quite.

She sighed. She wished she could tell her mother she aced the science test, and next week were parent/teacher conferences. She was lowering in her grades in almost every class that included some wacko formula or the very slightest pinch of math involved---which was Trigonometry Advanced (she had no idea how she got into "advanced" math class, but she had, with the average of a C-) and science---although she did some math in her Shop class (at the least measuring and Geometry, somewhat).

What she really wanted was to produce a "fine work of literature" as Katem often referred to it to sound intellectual, long word short---a book. A best-seller book. At least one, she didn't have to produce thousands of books---as long as she was known as a writer, that was all she wanted.

But her single, busy mother had no time of paying attention to her writings, her stories---she was a busy well-known nurse and Health teacher at Katem's school. While, her older sister, Andry, was always busy with something, talking on the phone, out with her friends, driving to the store, and this just made Katem feel maybe it was better to keep her works to herself instead of badgering people to take a look and see how her writing was.

She was always bothering Kimmy, her best friend, who was now tired of reading---she hated reading, actually, but she did like Katem's stories.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, (long distance call, by the way) she'd call Katem to tell her that she needed her to E-mail her a story, because she couldn't sleep, or was bored to death---she was too far away to go over to Katem's house, or Katem to hers. She had moved three years ago to Salem, and Katem lived in Maryland.

So, this was another reason she kept her works to herself, it was pretty hard for her to be well-known this way, but writing kept her alive none-the-less.

And why even ask her little brother, Danny? He hated to read too, and was quite slow at it.

She had tried many a times to publish a story by internet, but then again, she had to pay, and she didn't trust the internet with paying situations, so that was another thing.

As Katem walked home, there was no car in the driveway, except the blue slender-nosed Mustang with the white top, (which was her older sister Andry's car, a christmas present from their often-absent father).

The Quillmarks all looked very similar, brown hair, green eyed, thin, and tall. Katem's eyes were hazel like her father's, and her hair was longish, not like her older sister's which was cut short just below her double-peirced ears. Danny wasn't in the tall range yet, but he will be soon enough, for both of their parents were tall people. Their mother, Hanna was a stern looking person, but very pretty, her hair was long and straighter then Katem's, (Katem had wavyish hair like their father) bright green eyes, (as both Danny and Andry had them) and a nice smile when she was willing to share it with whoever she was talking to.

Katem entered the living room to have Andry taking over the television, watching MAD TV, one of their favorite shows. She heard her sister giggle as one skinny guy and another fat guy faught with french bread, making a big deal out of dodging the abnoramlly long slabs of bread. Katem snorted, and thew her back pack on the floor, jumping on the couch to watch along with her sister.

"Hey Katem, Mom's-stupid fat guy!- she's out. Ow! That looked like it hurt!" Katem obvserved the fat man had poked the skinny man in the eye, and it was bleeding fakely.

"Ahhh! Oh God! You stupid..." The man screamed, now throwing the bread aside and punching the fat man in a place that Katem knew would hurt bad.

Katem sighed, her stomach grumbling. "Did Mom leave anything in the fridge?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know---haven't checked---she didn't even tell me---not even where she was going." Andry shrugged.

"Well, I'll take a look..."

"I hope it's not that spinache caserole..." Andry called after her.

"Hi Kat!" A buck-toothed, brown-haired boy with thin glasses, grinned at her, popping up from the kitchen table chair.

Katem jumped at this sudden outburst, putting her hand to her heart, dramatically.

Danny grinned triumphantly at her. "Scared ya, didn't I?"

Katem nodded, "This time you did, kid---nice job! My heart was racing and everything!" She went over and rumpled her pale little brother's already messy mop of brown hair. "I've taught you well!"

Danny grinned wider at his compliments.

"How are those teeth of yours, D?"

He shrugged. "They don't hurt no more, I guess. I like them! They look like grown-up teeth!" Danny exclaimed proudly, tapping the dimly-whitened enamel of one his large front teath.

He had knocked both of them out in a swing accident a few months ago, and they were coming out kinda crookedly.

"Hey, since you've gone pro at scaring poeple, let's see if you can pass the Andry test..." Katem winked and smiled mischieviosly at Danny.

"I can hear you from out here, you know!" Andry's loud voice sounded shrill from laughing.

Katem frowned. "Fine. Abort mission, Danny."

Danny didn't look dissapointed, and he went back to making a building with his Legos.

Katem opened the fridge. The choices were: cold pizza, cold spaghetti, or icky, ucky, spinache caserole...

~*~

"Mom!" Katem, Andry, and Danny all chorused, seeing their mother return from wherever she had been at four hours.

Danny ran over and hugged their mother welcome.

"I wasn't gone long was I?" Hanna asked her children, puzzled.

"Not really, Danny wants you to cook fish today, though." Andry smiled.

~*~

"Katem, I was wondering, why did you get an F on your science test?" Their mother questioned at dinner (they were having fish on their menu that night.) Katem almost choked on her fruit punch juice.

She hadn't brought home her test.

She hadn't even said a word about anything related to the subject of school. Does this woman have failure senses or something? Katem wondered her mouth hanging open.

"How-how did you---? I didn't---"

"I have my resources. I thought you were studying all last week, Katem. That's your fifth F in one quarter. Maybe we should tell your father that you don't want a  new car for your birthday after all."

Katem hated when her mother referred to their Dad, (Katem's, Andry's, and Danny's) as "your father". She hated it more then somebody insulting her. And in the same sentence as "don't want a new car for your birthday" only added to the horrendousness of what her mother had just uttered in that one sentence.

Katem stabbed her little white piece of meat, Tilapia fishy, anger evident in her at this point. She always did get angered easlily by her mother and annoying teachers at school.

"I was studying! But I'm not a scientist, and I certainly don't plan to be one one day---"

Her mother held up her hand. "I don't want to hear any excuses, Katem, you're grounded for a week. No computer, no TV. End of it." Her mother declared, holding her chin up high, as if a Queen sealing a deal to a knight.

Katem scrunched her face in a sour frown.

"Fine." Katem stood, and walked out of the kitchen.

"Where are you going young lady?" Hanna's voice followed her.

"To sleep!" Katem shouted, stomping down the hallway to her room, and slamming the door shut.

She wasn't very angry though. She flopped onto her purple covered bed, in the comfort of the four lavender painted walls of her ordinary room. She grabbed a notebook, finding it surprisingly empty. She had so many notebooks filled with so many failed "fine works of literature".

Randomely, her hand wrote a name: Daisy Rose, at the top of one of the fresh pages. Katem found she liked the name. Hmm...Interesting... Katem thought, smiling. A story was forming from the top of her head with the name.

And as she wrote, more and more names popped out of her mind. Once she finished writing the first chapter of her new creation, Daisy Rose and Her Hectic Year, she started to draw each charcter, with each one having a distinctness, and a unique quality. She smiled wider, this was coming out nicely. She drew her main character, Daisy first. She always drew her characters in every story. It was kind of like a tradition to Katem, something she had done since she was 10 years old.

She gave Daisy large blue eyes with her coloring pencils, and mahogany brown hair. She was thin, but not too thin, curvy, but not womanly, tall, but not too tall. She liked this character. Then, she went on with the rest of the story, and whenever she came up with a new character, she would draw the character, then go back to writing.

She was so into this, that she had already written 12 chapters to the story, none of them, were short either---and it was 1:52 A.M.! Katem hadn't noticed her digital clock until now, and she swore under her breath when she did. She wanted to keep writing and drawing so badly, her idea was for once good---but she knew her mother would have a cow, by finding out she had stayed up all night  on a school night with her "psychic" mother powers.

Katem reluctantly stuffed her notebook into her backpack---she's continue it the next day in class.

~*~