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Silver River
Jensen is a 12 y.o. kid that goes on a trip with the school. During this trip, and with the support of his friends and family, he'll discover things about himself that he didn't know, and grow up to become a more complete person. |
Chapter 6
As Keith finished his countdown, a shower of balloons filled with water fell over Emily and me, leaving us dripping wet. We tried to stop them with our hands, but our efforts were absolutely pointless. Fortunately I have had just the time to put my guitar and mobile phone aside, so they weren't harmed. Keith grinned and motioned other 3 boys to come to us. As they were getting close, I confirmed my suspicions: Keith was probably 10, maybe 11, but none of the others seemed older than 9.
"Well, now we are even!", he stated firmly, never losing the grin on his face.
"We are even!? What the hell have I ever done to you!?", I exclaimed angrily.
"It's OK, Jenny, they owed me one", interrupted Emily, smiling and calming me down. "But we will get revenge!", she added firmly.
"But I didn't do anything!", I complained. It was true, I didn't even know them! it wasn't fair!
The best thing about me getting angry is that I totally forgot any kind of shyness. I was totally soaked and pissed off, and that was where my mind was.
"Let me introduce you", added Emily, ignoring my complains, "Keith is my neightbour, he also lives in Castle Rock. That tadpole over there is his brother Mike", she continued, pointing at them one by one.
"The one that looks like a monkey is his cousin Roy", she said, grinning. Roy responded by mimicking a polite bow.
"That one is their friend Nick, and", she added, shouting to the air, "the one that is hiding behind that tree is my squirt little brother, Jay".
Having been discovered, Jay poked his head from behind the tree, smiling as innocently as he could. He seemed to be the youngest of the group, probably about 7.
I said "hi" to them, even though I knew I would be incapable of remember all those names at the moment. I still wanted to be angry with them, but they had such a infectious smile, that I ended up smiling too.
"Emily", I sighed, "if we stay here for too long, we're going to catch a cold or something".
"True. Lets go back to our cabins and change. See you later, guys?", she asked.
"Why, of course!", exclaimed Keith, while I was picking up my guitar and mobile phone.
It was still quite early in the afternoon, and most of the people was still in the lake. Emily and I decided to get some dry clothes from our cabins, and have a shower. I got into our cabin, which was empty, got some denim shorts and a black unisex T-shirt, one of my favourite, and went with Emily to her cabin to get some clothes for her. The T-shirt, that I had inherited from Erika, had a front picture of a really cute white unicorn.
The showers were also empty, it was too early. I started to move toward the men's showers, but Emily didn't let go of my hand. There was nobody there, and there were individual shower rooms, so Emily kind of convinced me to go with her. I mean, she was right, why should it matter?
Keith and Roy were waiting for us when we came out of the showers, and joined us. We had tried to dry our hair a bit, but it was still a bit damp. Mike and Jay were playing with some other kids their age, I think. Erika, Sarah and Ash saw us a bit later and came to us.
"Hi Jen! Nice to see you're already making friends!", exclaimed Ash, happily.
"Hi Ash! Hi Sarah! Hi Sis", I greeted back.
"Jenny is your sister?", asked Keith.
"Almost... he's my brother!", she replied smiling, hugging me.
Keith looked at me with inquisitive eyes, Emily giggled and Roy's eyes widened. Ash laughed.
"Your brother? No way! I thought she was a girl!", replied Keith, looking back at me. I just shrug.
"Well, how does it matter?", asked Emily.
"Hmm... I guess it doesn't", replied Keith. Roy nodded. "Wanna come to play to the woods?", he immediately asked, brushing the gender topic off. "We thought you might want to come", he looked at Emily, then at me. "you and Jenny".
Emily grabbed my hand. I looked at my sister.
"You go and have fun", said Erika. "We'll meet you later for dinner!". With that, they went on towards the cabin, leaving us alone.
"Come on", urged Keith, "hurry up or it will get dark!"
Comments
Silver River - Chapter 6
What mischief do the boys have planned for Jenny and the girls?
May Your Light Forever Shine
Sliver Growing River - 6th chapter
I have a better question why is a terminally shy child of any gender going into the woods with out telling an adult on a school trip. The boys have already show they are not totally trust worthy from the main character/readers prospective.
Keith on the other hand is showing some potential to come out of his social shell, and that is a good thing.
"Sometimes you need a little space to grow up or start over"- Me
Jen's talking shyness
Hi! Thanks for your comment!
From my point of view, Jen is very talking-shy when in presence of strangers, but he is not afraid of doing things with other people, especially when there is someone present in which he trusts (Emily, in this case). He is actually successfully surviving school, and is going on the trip, so he is capable of doing things. He can even sing in the presence of other people, I mean, he even has a group.
But talking is something different. Talking among strangers makes him very anxious, and he's very unsure of expressing whatever he is thinking. He is a bit older than the other kids, and he has seen that Emily trusts them, so he is not really afraid that they'll do anything bad. The woods they're talking about are groups of trees close to the cabins, not really going very far away from the river, they're too young for that.
Jen has exceptionally been able to break the ice with Emily with Ashley's help, but he probably won't be able to talk to the boys for a while (apart from monosyllables and so, I mean). I don't see any problem in the fact that he is able to go with Emily and her young friends to play something. I don't know if it does make any sense. Without being this extreme, I already know a real person that is quite talking-shy, while he doesn't really have problems being in social environments doing stuff. I can only imagine what he thinks, though, as I'm usually very talkative myself.
Complete sense...
...people who stutter can often sing beautifully; some believe it comes from a need to monitor speech because they feel innately that there might be something 'wrong' in what they say whereas the music can be an emotional release. I see Jen being very self-conscious; maybe even worried about getting things 'right'. Plus? Jen may feel safe with the girls because they're more of a peer group to 'her' at this point. I hope I got that right. I'm really enjoying Jen's story. Thank you!
Love, Andrea Lena
Yup, you're getting it right
Jen is very self-conscious and unsure of him/herself. Even though everyone around him/her is, and has always been, very friendly and overprotective (so he/she feels free to behave the way he/she is not afraid of being hurt, being mocked, or anything like that), and no one has ever tried to force him/her to do or become something that he/she is not (his/her sweet ingenuity, spontaneity and trust are a result of that), he/she is absolutely unsure of having an answer to most of the questions that may arise in his/her brain, that contributing to his/her self-consciousness.
Thanks for the support! I'm really glad that you're anjoying it! As it is my first story, I'm very self-conscious myself about whether someone likes it or not, so encouraging words are indeed a gift to me. Lots of thanks!
"Well, how does it matter?",
It shouldn't. But it does, sometimes. She should be a little less open or she could get hurt.
Yeah, I know it does :(
Yeah, I know that in real life, sadly, it happens to matter, but I want to write a happy. optimistic, lighthearted story. Jen won't get hurt :)