Exercise: Chocolate

Mmm, chocolate. What a wonderful word for an exercise. :)

5 minutes, 277 words.

Chocolate

"How come you never buy me chocolates anymore?"

"Um, uh, well --"

"What is it?"

"I kind of, um, can't really afford them since I lost my job at Sandy's..."

"You lost your job?!"

"Oh, um, I forgot to tell you that too? Ummm..."

"You're useless! I don't know why I ever agreed to go out with you!"

"I, well, I think it was because I know where to get really good chocolates?"

"Yes, but you're not getting them for me anymore, now are you?"

"N-no..."

"So what am I going to do with you now?"

"Um, uh, you could, I guess this would be a bad time to ask, but I kind of need some money to pay the rent..."

"You cheap out on me and now you're expecting me to lend you money?!"

"It's only for a little while! I'm looking for another job, really I am."

"I don't think I believe you anymore."

"I am! Why would I lie to you?"

"So you can get my money! I'll bet that's what you were after all this time!"

"No! That's not it! It's just... I need money or else I'm going to be thrown out of my apartment and I have nowhere I can go."

"Well, look for somebody else to sponge off! I'm not giving you anything. You can consider us through!"

"But! Wait!" But she'd already left.

He looked around his apartment. "I'm going to have to clean everything out," he muttered under his breath. It looked pretty grim. Then he looked around, making sure she couldn't see him, and took the last box of chocolate out from under his bed. "Mmmm, chocolate..."

Warm-Up Exercise: Destiny

5 minutes, 291 words.

Destiny

See, the funny thing about destiny is it kind of negates free will. And I've always hated the concept that whatever we do, we're bound to end up the same way just because it was our destiny.

Which is why I'm really hating my job right now.

It seemed like one of those really good positions at the time. Somewhat flexible hours, lots of freedom, lots of interesting problems to solve. Good pay, dental, and paid vacations. Good, but not so good as to be suspicious. So I took it.

Now I'm one of the guys in charge of making sure that people's destinies turn out right.

I mean, geez. Me? I hate it when people make me do things! And now they're claiming that it was *my* destiny to end up here.

Sometimes it's kinda okay. Like yesterday, when there was this serial killer I had to fix. He'd been getting away too much, he was supposed to be caught by now, and sent to prison, and eventually executed. So I made the cashier at the 7-11 take a little too long finding things, and the traffic lights turn up just the wrong way, and then the cops caught him. Guy like that deserves to be caught.

But sometimes, it's not okay. Last week there was this little girl who was supposed to end up dead in a ditch. Because... Well, because of that serial killer yesterday. And I had to make sure he got her. Make sure she ended up in just the right place and couldn't get away and the knots were too tight for her to squirm out of...

And we always have to watch to make sure that what needs to be done gets done.

NaNoWriMo!!!

http://www.nanowrimo.org

I'm crazy. Last year I was on Leave of Absence. This year I have 13.5 units of classes, including Clinic, Music Theory, and Piano, each of which require more time than their units reflect.

But the NaNo. I must have the NaNo.

(And as a side note, the title and description on this blog will change once I decide on a title for my NaNovel.)