Comments+Plz+(for+Jacob+Sterlitz)

Okay, I sincerely doubt you'll want to read all of this, and it would be rediculous and unfair for me to expect you to, but any help you can give, be it on only one or all three of them, would be appreciated. Especially on my epic poem; not many people have seen that... Also, does anyone know of a synonym to "hit rate" that's two syllables? And not "hit rate" in economics; "hit rate" as in how often someone's predictions come true.

__Memoir__

__How Complete Idiocy and a Water Softener lead to Inspiration: Final Portfolio__ By Jacob Sterlitz (Konett, 1st Hour Creative Writing)

 I decided I wanted to be an author so long ago, I can’t even remember exactly when I decided to pursue the ambition. This was back when I was really, really young, so it’s a far cry from the standard basketball player, president of the United States, or cowboy, so I was a little different. The thing was, I hardly ever put pencil to paper (or should I say, fingers to keyboard; my favorite medium is digital) in my own free time. The exceptions were of miserably low quality because I was young and a horrible and easily-discouraged author (I abandoned my first “novel” just shy of thirty pages).  All of this changed one day in the basement, about a year ago.  The reason I was down there in the first place was because my dad had made the commitment to start working out again, and that basically meant my brother and I were being pulled into it, too. My brother and my dad were out and about, so I was alone doing some sort of insufferable “gettin` pumped” stuff, so naturally, I let my focus wander a bit.  The room was in desperate need of a tune-up: it had cracking cement floors, ruined gray walls, and a big, rusty, smelly weight bench in the center of the room, which I was sitting on. Or, at least, I was supposed to be sitting on it, doing some kind of mind-numbing exercise, but instead, the water softener in the back corner of the room had my attention.  It looked like an oxygen tank a diver might go swimming with, but it was wrapped like a mummy in a white, shiny duct tape-like substance, and it had all sorts of pipes going off in different directions, and a control panel on the top.  You know how in TV shows, there’s always a situation in which one of the main characters sees esoteric technology, and their immediate reaction is to start pressing random buttons? And think, Gosh, who would ever actually do that?  ...Uh, over here!  Okay, let me explain. We have ride-in-place bike upstairs, and you can switch through different settings to see how fast you’re going, how far you’ve gone, and how long you’ve been riding by pressing these arrow buttons. Lo and behold, there were very similar buttons on the water heater, and the bottom setting was called “Quantity” or something like that, and for some wild, irrational reason, I was curious to know how much water was inside. So, I pressed the down arrow, and everything worked out perfectly without any frustration, confusion, regret, or stupidity.  Yeah, right.  Of course not. Turns out, you really shouldn’t assume ride-in-place bikes and water softeners are related. What a shock.  Instead, it started showing some sort of cryptic numbers on the monitor, and not knowing precisely what they meant, I started to panic a little bit. For all I knew, it could’ve started a count down to when it added some explosive chemical to the mix. So, I sprinted upstairs to contact my mom.  At the top of the stairs going to our second floor is the door to my parent’s bedroom on the right. So, at the bottom of these said stairs, I called up and said, “Uh... Mom? We may have a problem...”  She said in an exasperated tone, “Jacob, what?” Being a teacher, I think she might’ve been grading some kid’s papers or something, so she was busy. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “It’s about the water softener...” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Jacob, what about the water softener?” Now, that probably wasn’t the right thing to say, because saying something’s wrong with the water softener is like saying something’s wrong with the explosive chemicals in the garage. Hypothetically, of course; I’m almost certain...well, kind of sure my dad has no such things. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “I...um...I was messing with it, and, uh...” Now, you’d probably imagine that I’d be feeling like I didn’t even know the guy who played with the screen on the water softener, but really, my actions made perfect sense to me at the time and I wasn’t freaking out at all, which is probably even more concerning, isn’t it? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Of course, my mom was outraged; she called dad up because he’d know what to do (he also wasn’t actually present at the time, thank god), and he had some choice words for me. Not very nice ones, as you may assume. And I was guilty as charged; really, who messes with technology they don’t understand whatsoever? ...Except that I actually assumed I understood it. In actuality, I didn’t, so maybe it says less about stupidity and more about impudence. But ANYWAY... <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The good news is, I didn’t do as much damage as I thought; after my dad pressed a few buttons, the water softener was back to normal. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Later that night, after I apologized and made up with my parents, Mom and I decided to watch a movie, just the two of us, and it was the Disney version of “The Princess and the Frog.” It may seem I’m a tad old for that, but I’m not kidding you, for a kid’s movie, a musical, and a twisted fairy tale, it was actually pretty decent. I know that it isn’t an everyday occurrence when a children’s movie can give someone an epiphany, but I wasn’t exactly having an “everyday.” (Cut some stuff here.) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “You know what kind of bothers me, mom?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “What’s up?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “It kind of seems like all the good ideas are taken.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> You know how when you say something spontaneous that someone may not understand, so they give you that look that tells you to continue? Well, my mom was wearing that look precisely. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Well, think about it: Disney has its niche with all of the twisted fairy tales and their human-animal hybrids (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and so on), some incredibly brilliant movies have already been written, and all the ‘successful outlines,’ such as paranormal romances, have been so overused they’ve become cliches.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> She shrugged and said, “I bet you’ll think up something even better,” like any other self-esteem-boosting parent. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Well, it was rather late; we decided it was time to hit the hay. But as I started to think about it, I realized that a lot of the good writers get inspiration for their stories from their real-life experiences, so before I actually climbed in bed and stuff, I decided to start a journal on my laptop. I wrote a bit about this, a bit about that, and viola, my journal was born! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, other than being good for a few laughs, why was this event so significant for me? Well, actually, quite a lot of reasons. Before I started my journal, I didn’t write much. I wasn’t really used to doing it for fun, and I didn’t have too many good ideas. I really wasn’t much of a writer, and the activity wasn’t so important to me. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But after I started trying to get my thoughts on paper (er, screen), it seemed like I caught second wind and I got used to it. This journal (and some other projects) suddenly seemed like a priority because being in front of my laptop was an action I was doing more often. I also discovered that I usually think better while I’m writing because it gets my “gears churning,” so to speak, and this has helped me in many different subjects, not just English. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But what’s really made this journal special to me is Gail Carson Levine in “Writing Magic” often talked about how you’re only a kid or a teenager once. Once you grow up, it’s almost impossible to remember what it was really like back then or what was important or how you looked at things... I guess this journal will probably be an invaluable gateway back to what life is like today, and I think these days are worth remembering. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ultimately, I don’t regret almost making the house explode.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Changes I’ve Made: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, I’ve made a few G. U. M. changes, as recommended. I also removed some junk and took out my editorial comments about “The Princess and the Frog,” which just seems silly now. But what I think I’ve changed the most is I tried to elaborate a lot more on why this event means so much to me and how it’s changed my life. That’s quite apparent at the end. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reason I’ve made these changes is the G. U. M. was just wrong and needed some improvement. My criticism of that children’s movie was simply unnecessary and a bit distracting. And I elaborated a lot more on why this event means so much to me because doing so helped me answer the “big picture” question, the reason why we wrote these papers in the first place.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Choice I:__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Part IV: The Piece__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Epic Tale of Rowena laMay__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__[1-5]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">May I succeed in an effort to rebirth forgotten acts, tongue long dead.* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Muse,* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> listen to my implores, shall I be blessed * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> enough to take this task. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After all, merely archaic way shall do justice for her, hero she’s.* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As she is righteous and decent, Rowena leMay forever be known. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Truth, as apparent as ice is cold, purity flows through her soul, untouched.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cantos I: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[1-10] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Evil lord Raymond Day gazed* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> through his Watcher of All with loathing, endless hate. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oracle Black Wing spoke, fearfully, after the Speakers exposed her role, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So now, he falcons* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> her every move, knowing all too well Black’s hit rate. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Sir?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Here’s the prophet now; how dare he intrude the master’s brooding? Anyone’s guess <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Valid and well it be. Bellowed he, * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“By the lord, Black Wing! Do you ever knock anymore?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Uh, well, no, but-” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“By lord, you prophets are all so insensitive! Not everyone is so omniscent!” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m not omniscient; I just...know a lot of trivial things... Like when someone is about to enter my <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">chambers...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[11-20] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Know this well: even if you know everything, maybe you don’t act so. * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Raymond, oh, bright red with rage, vivid white, aged eyebrows arched like beasts of prey, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Wow, that was awfully big of you to apologize! You people are so bounderish!” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I sincerely repent, sir, but can we discuss topics of my manners later?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Angrily rolling his eyes, he said, * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Well, what is so significant that you think you have a right to just burst in?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“They’ve revealed to me a way to stop her.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dumbstruck was Raymond; he prayed for this, hoping for fate to reconsider. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Well... how?” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oracle Black is, he knew the device would answer the problem, so he

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[21-30] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gestured towards* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the pansophical Watcher of All, a stone orb that has * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two indentations, and shaped as hands; Raymond’s, for he is the only one <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Destined to use it; built only for he, it was. Placing his hands in them, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Speaking the Wakening Tongue, he was transported to a different land. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__And there Rowena leMay was, his ignorant archenemy. She sits__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Lone, woods around her as far as anyone can see. Scents assail the nose:__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__The blunt, damp rot; late flowers, so very sweet, and lively, smoky bonfire,__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Distant, for human abodes are behind her path by a long ways. Her brown,__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Wavy hair blowing behind her as she sits in here,__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">longing peace for her * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recent failure. Her attempt to perform on her violin while watched by

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[31-40] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grandmother ensued in screeches, flats, pain, and Aunt’s endless disappointment.* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Now, she just wanted to lie in leaves, all in autumn colors, staring through__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Lifeless branches at the endless, blue sky.__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Had she merely trusted herself, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She could’ve played so much better. Suddenly, a shrike flew down, hunting some <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mice. They then scattered, and he hesitated, failing to catch one of them. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Screeches of rage filled the forest.__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dejected, he flew, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__eye in black streak saddened.__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Just as that hunter retreated, a falcon, blue-gray and so regal in__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Stature and purpose, and eyes black as onyx, descended like God’s wrath from__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Its perch above, and clasping one wilier mouse, taking its life with a__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Snap of its yellow claws. It did not remorse, nay stop for a blink of an__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[41-45] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Eye__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.For with knowledge that he can, so he does. The shrike disbelieved, which robbed <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Him of a meal. As his faithlessness forestalled success, what if he thought <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All was forsaken? No prize, no trophy for himself? For all life long? The <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Falcon, though, gains so repetitively, endlessly. What if he hunts the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shrike next? If he can’t win, slaying the bird will be done with ease. * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Footnotes: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Introduction: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writing epics is a dead art, and here I am, trying to revive it. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> As I’ve said before, it’s traditional to mention the Muses in the introduction to your epic. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes, “blessed” can be considered two syllables, and it’ll be treated as so here. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Archaic way:” Here, I’m trying to say that she’s too great a hero to just write a story about; only an epic will do. And yeah, I’m abusing contractions a bit here! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cantos I: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[1-10] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He isn’t literally looking at it; he’s using it. You’ll see about it in a moment. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Falcons are known for their eyesight, so I thought I could “verb” it and use it as a synonym for “watching.” Plus...you’ll see. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The hexameter was bent here because someone was about to talk. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[11-20] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Note 2 self: it’s very awkward to try to insert humor about the difference between knowledge and wisdom into an epic. Ah, well... <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Again, the line was cut short for dialogue. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[21-30] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My sources tell me “towards” is two syllables, not one. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Raymond Day’s “Watcher of All” isn’t a crystal ball or ring through which he sees anything; it’s something he puts his hands into, speaks some magic words, and he is, for lack of better words, “imagined” there by himself. So, his experience there is not limited to sight. Also, he doesn’t go there as an actual tangible being; it works somewhat like one-way glass or a hallogram. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I don’t mean “for” as in going to, like “this gift is <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__for__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gamzee;” I mean, “for” as in because of. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[31-40] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Her “grandmother” isn’t really her grandmother; she’s her father’s half-sister’s mom, and Aunt is the said half-sister. Rowena was orphaned when she was rather young, and her “Aunt” has been raising her, even though her parents barely knew the Aunt; they didn’t have much choice. That was supposed to be a cool subplot set in the past for the rest of the epic, but sadly, you’re not going to get to see it. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There’s supposed to be a bit of symbolism here. Raymond Day, unlike Rowena, has an air of authority and arrogance to him, and he trusts himself to be good at what he does. Rowena, on the other hand, struggles with this, shown by the concert with Grandmother. So, yeah; she’s the shrike, Raymond is the falcon. Ta-da! <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[41-45] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">* <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This whole stanza is about extending the metaphor. There’s really not much to say... <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Also, you may be wondering why Blackwing showed this to Raymond, because, after all, this symbolism should be only apparent to a reader, not a character in the story. Well, the Speakers, which are these mythological truly omniscient and omnipotent beings who give secret information to Prophets, told him her weakness was her lack of trust in herself. Well, instead of just telling this to Day, he tells him to activate the All-Watcher, and he’s transported to that moment, which alludes to the truth.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Zoom-in moments in <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">__underlined__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Edits I’ve Made: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Well, first, I noticed I made the most horrible mistake in “Part I: Describing Epic Poetry,” because I said that a dactylic meter is done with two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, when, in fact, it’s the other way around. *FACEPALM.* I’m also moving my footnotes. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Other than that, though, the only changes I made were little aesthetic things like changing words around and such. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The reason I did this is because the mistake about Dactylic Hexameter is simply incorrect, so to leave that as is would’ve been simply wrong. I moved the footnotes because they really did seem a bit distracting, but I wonder if it’ll frustrate the reader to have to go down to the bottom of the story every stanza to learn about the symbolism and stuff... And the little changes I’ve made were simply done to improve the quality of the paper.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Hm...Y’know, I really liked this project. It’s the one I’m the most proud of, by far. I might decide to add to it, create a prequel, or something as my final project. If there's one thing that neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds to change is that I need to find a more classical word for "hit rate" while I was talking about Oracle Black Wing.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Character Sketch:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> If there is one thing about history that annoys the living daylights out of me, it’s the way Christopher Columbus called the indigenous people of North America the “Indians.” If he just had the good sense to swallow his pride and realize that he really messed up, then we wouldn’t have the most politically confusing identity crisis on the planet, and we wouldn’t have to take an extra moment to explain which “Indian” we mean, even though he made this error almost half a millennium ago.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> So now, I’m going to tell you about an Indian girl, and maybe you’re going to have two things go through you’re mind: a girl who has brown-red skin with maybe a few feathers in her hair, or the image of a girl with darker brown skin and when she talks, she has a rather exotic accent. The latter is closer to who she actually is; as in, I mean “Indian” as in the “subcontinent in Asia” Indian.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Her name is Abhikalpana Divan (goes by Abby for apparent reasons). As I mentioned, she’s Indian, so she has darkish skin, brown eyes, and glistening black hair. The first time I met her, I was talking to this guy she seems to be following (he goes by Sean). She just stands there in this plain, beige hallway with us, so far saying absolutely nothing. She’s rather short, and because I’m rather tall, I’d have to bend over to be eye-to-eye with her. Today, she’s wearing nothing too vivid; a purple striped shirt with some bands being paler than others, faded jeans, and white-and-baby-blue Nike shoes. Oh, and of course, her unusually accurate mood ring, which, as I’ll learn as I get to know her, she’s always wearing. Presently, it was green: neutral.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You know that kid who just follows a person around because they have a rather colorless personality and doesn’t fit in anywhere, so they just silently barnacle to someone? At first, I thought that was the case here, but... Well, as Sean and I chatted, she was staring at me with her big, brown eyes, her stare appearing as astute as an owl’s gaze; I felt like she... It’s a hard sensation to describe, but it made me feel strange and uneasy.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as we started comparing our football teams (theirs is somehow worse than ours; how that’s possible, I’ll never know), she suddenly rose out of her colorless stupor and she looked as though she heard some distant noise that caught her attention. I, as you may suspect of my shady way of describing this, didn’t hear anything, and she wandered over to the nearby gym doors and looked through the window.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, at first, I guessed she just had better hearing than me and some noise in there grabbed her focus, not mine. However, Sean would tell me that the gym has better soundproofing than the FBI headquarters because it’s right next to the library, and to make up for the architech’s raw stupidity at putting them so near each other, the construction crew agreed to make it as silent as they could.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I observed her, she slowly seemed to grow more intense as she watched what was going on in there. She began gritting her teeth, then her expression slowly descended into a scowl, and her grip on the window pane increased, until her knuckles were white against her velvet-brown skin. Her mood ring was a passionate, bloody red.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Is...she alright?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sean seemed to grow more somber, like a “here we go again” sort of thing was going on. “Don’t worry; she’s just... Being... Abby, I guess...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I walk up behind her to see what was going on, and she was watching the Bowler brothers (Dave and Ronath), in full garb, practice for basketball, even though the season is actually still a few weeks off. The former is on the varsity basketball team; is supposedly one of the most popular kids in the school; has blond, curly and messy hair; and is incredibly tall. Like, he is to me as I am to Abby. The younger one is on the junior varsity team; is much less extroverted than his brother; has brown hair and freckles; and looks as though he could be as tall as his brother when he gets to be a senior, but as freshman, he’s not much bigger than me. Now, as Sean would explain to me, all of the Bowler kids are demigod-like in sports, with Ronath being the only exception.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I was walking up, Ronath just finished failing a drill of some sort (hands-free, so he wasn’t doing it with the ball), and his brother’s scowl grew twenty-fold. He started yelling, and threw the basketball he had tucked under his arm a moment ago as hard as he could at him. Ronath barely caught it in time, and his body contorted at the waist. He then countered by throwing the ball back at him (with a much less satisfying result), and speaking a few accented words as well. That didn’t have a very positive effect with Dave, who then did that cliched “smack the ball in front of their face to make a point” thing, and Ronath cringed. As he did so, he saw Abby and I in the window, and...

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Okay, that’s enough, Abby,” Sean said, pulling us away by our shoulders.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But I don’t get it!” she protested, the first words she said of the conversation, “Why are you hu-Americans making your emotions so obvious if it’s considered unacceptable to observe?!” Her voice sounded much more shrill and infantile than what would be normal of a high schooler.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I was puzzled. “Did she almost say ‘you humans?’”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sean tried to change the subject, “So, why aren’t you in the library, anyway? You’re always there after school!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Because, Mrs. Belshy was mildly distressed because she ran out of paper a few minutes ago, and she’s about to tell Irene-” She paused for a moment, looking up absently like she’s trying to ‘tune in,’ “Oh, wait, she already has, and she’s coming this way!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sean was struck, and went into a poker face. He didn’t do a terrible job, but he still gave just enough away.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Abby grew excited and started pointing at him. “See, you just flared up as I said that!” Her mood ring grew pink-rose-pale.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He started to blush. “I most certainly did not!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh, really?” She pointed to her ring, as if the fact that a mood she was having would somehow be evidence to prove how Sean felt.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Um... I don’t follow,” I said.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He tried to give me the impression that it’s nothing, but I was doubtful.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A blink of an eye later, Irene Fortanada, Helen-esque and beautiful enough to be on any big screen, ran by in a flash, saying “Hey, Sean” as she sprinted away. Abby was incredibly excited while she was there, while Sean grew wide-eyed and a lovestruck ‘OMIGOSH she knows my name!’ look painted itself onto his face. Abby’s mood ring was a brilliant amethyst.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She looked like a mad scientist whose favorite collection of explosive chemicals all went off brilliantly at the same time. “That...was...just...Wow! But you have to stop trying so hard to dampen it! It ruins all the fun and my data!” Then an invisible light bulb lit up over her head. “You’ve got to talk to her! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I couldn’t be more lost. “Uh...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He looked like an introvert asked to give the Valedictorian speech. “I-I can’t, I’m sorry.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She looked unpleasantly surprised and confused. “But why?” Her mood ring became orange.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Uh...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Abby, no! What would I bring up? I don’t know anything about her, and she knows even less about me!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By now, her mood ring was black. “But-but she knows your name!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Uh...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh, yeah, that’ll be a sustainable conversation! ‘Oh, hi, Irene; let’s talk about the only thing we know about each other: our names!’ Gee, that’ll go well!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Uh...”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But it’s for my MISH-uuuuuuun!” She drew out the last syllable as though doing so would prove her point.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“But...well... Strangers...don’t talk!

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Uh...” It seemed as though I wasn’t tangible at the moment.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Strangers talk to me all the time, and because they’re natives, that proves that it’s normal!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I sincerely thought my brain was going to be torn in fifteen directions.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “That’s just ‘cuz you’re weird, and like draws to like!”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Guys!” I said as loud as I could. “What. Is. Going. ON?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> They both looked at me as though they forgot I was there (and they probably did). Sean drew a deep breath. “It-it’s not for you to know, alright?”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He looked at his watch. “I gotta go anyway; see ya.”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Abby shifted her gaze to me and she tilted her head a little, intrigued by me for some unknown reason. I grew increasingly uncomfortable as her mood ring faded into a granny-apple green. But eventually, she went back to her colorless stupor and her big-eyed expression. She drifted off to the library, and I was left to contemplate what just happened.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...And I can't put my Multi-Genre up because most of it isn't digital.