Melanie meets a friend from the past.

When school started, I felt like an old lag. I knew where everything was, at least once I got my schedule, and I knew what to do everywhere.

Melanie and Dennis get a more "hands on" education.

Melanie's sophomore year draws to a close: very different from how it started.

Melanie experiences more of life as a girl, for better or worse (but mostly better), and meets a new friend.

Some good comes out of an upsetting day.

Melanie's first three weeks at her new school.

Content note: dream violence.

“Hey, fellow teenager!” Suriya giggles as she answers her front door and ushers me into her home.

“Your birthday was three days ago, you can’t celebrate it for the whole week!” Priya laughs at her younger sister.

Alexis said "A completion, I don't understand? What could it complete?"

“Mr. Henry, You can’t!” I yell at the young man opposite me as he brandishes his gun.

“This man betrayed my family, left us for dead,” the man says. “He deserves no better than to die like the dog he is.”

“But he’s my father!” I plead.

“Then you are the daughter of a traitor,” the young man coldly says, pulling the trigger. A loud ‘pop’ and a flash of light fills the room, and the man standing next to me falls to the floor, clutching his chest.

“No! Father!” I yell, spreading my long, elaborate dress beneath me as I kneel down beside the stricken man.

(I know I posted this would not be up for a week or more but things worked out and here it is Enjoy)

Being Diane

Published by Dennis N. Adkins at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Dennis N. Adkins

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter 1

I awoke earlier than usual that momentous morning and walked out the back door to see the sun rising slowly over the lush verdant fields of eastern Arkansas. The neat clean rows of cotton and soybeans awaiting the warm life-giving rays of the sun. The plants stretching to receive the mornings blessing from Father Sol. The rows beckoned me to come and grow with them and stretch my arms to receive the blessings of the Sun also. I walked out to the fields and stood among them warming myself as the Sun rose higher and higher over the horizon. The coming of the day was always exciting to me making me feel as though I would have another chance at being the best I could and today, like any other, was a chance to be what I wanted to be. I had made the decision to myself to realize my life’s dream, now I had to find a way to do it. Luck was with me for once and the way came, however not without a price.

“I hope you’ve all enjoyed your first term,” Mrs. Houghton announces to the whole of the year as the bell rings, signifying not only the end of the school day, but the end of school entirely for the next two and a half weeks. “I hope you all have a happy Christmas, and I look forward to seeing you back here in January, refreshed and raring to go for another term!” With the assembly ‘dismissed’, we all file out of the hall in neat columns, though once we reach the car park outside the school, we become a lot LESS orderly!

We all know what had happened to Anya from her story 'The Temptation of Anya' and the outcome of what Oksana's revenge had done to her.

But what of the effects on others who come to the park? What effects could have been caused intentionally or unintentionally? Here is one such story or several. A story of hopes and dreams. Of love and friendships.