I'm like Connie.

Dear Readers,

I'm like Connie. I don't like letting go. When I think of 2012 slipping away I feel kind of sad. I mean, I'm excited about 2013. But what about 2012??

There's been so many things that have happened. So many memories created. I never want to forget. Ever. Just like Connie, I can keep my memories. But I also want to go forward and make new ones.

Recently, I read a book called 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. In it, a girl called Amanda gets stuck for a week on her 11th birthday.

And just think--would I want to be stuck in 2012?

The answer's no. I want to get older. I want to keep on learning new things. I want to meet new people, go to different places, and write new stories. I don't want to be stuck here.

What are you looking forward to?

Love,
Katrina

I'm sorry I haven't written. So much has happened.

Dear Readers,

This is Abigail Jane Applegate. I'm sorry that I haven't written in what seems like ages to me. The war (Revolutionary War) is still raging around me. I feel the sadness of the people as more and more fall to the cause of freedom for this country.

I am currently living at my grandmother's plantation, and my father has gone off to war. It's not easy living here. My grandmother expects that we all have to be perfect ladies. But I do not want to be. I am considered to be the ugliest of my sisters, but I do not care. I just wish that I could get away from here... and from the war...

Thankfully, I manage to escape sometimes during the day. This is wonderful--when I can escape to the barns and hide in one of the lofts. Nobody finds me, and I can write one of these letters or write in my diary that is, mostly and sadly, empty, because I cannot bring myself to write of the tragedies of war.

I hear somebody calling me.

Sincerely,

Abigail Jane Applegate

* * *

Meanwhile, I (Storyteller/Katrina) found some awesome pics on Pinterest for ya'll. ;D

An Angel in Disguise

Dear Readers,

So I emailed Noah about what Mom said, and Noah said, sure, why shouldn't we just go as friends? So Mom went off and got a dress and some flats and I was made to suffer through school.

I was just coming out of the bathroom during the lunch hour when I felt somebody grab my arm. I looked up and saw Ladasha moving me. I wished, at that moment, that Madeline, one of the best shots of the spaghetti fight, had been there to save me as Ladasha pushed me into an empty classroom.

"Did Maurice ask you to the dance?!" she demanded, eyes glaring.

It was the first time I'd ever talked to her, but so far I wasn't liking our conversation.

"Um, yeah," I admitted.

"And did you accept!?" Her eyes were huge.

"Um, no," I snorted.

Ladasha angrily whirled around on her high heel. "I can't believe that he would ask you! I'm the most pretty girl in this school, the best in everything, and then the one person who could even be at least a little like me, goes and asks YOU!"

"Hey," I started, "I didn't ask him to."

"OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T!" she yelled at me. "BUT YOU DON'T DESERVE IT!"

"Hey, what's going on in here?" A brown-haired girl with blue eyes walked into the room. "What on earth are you doing to her?!" She was glaring right at Ladasha.

Ladasha's eyes grew big, and then she laughed nervously. "Nothing's going on." She sneered at me and then stalked out.

"Thanks for saving me," I sighed in relief.

"No problem," she winked. "My name's Alyssa."

"Jessie," I nodded.

"See you later," she nodded, walking off.

Amazingly, I never ever saw her again.

Could she have been an angel?

I was puking. And I have some weird eye updates. So... yeah.

Dear Readers,

I've officially decided that my name's Katrina. You may call me Kat, but I like Katrina better, so it's really up to you.

So, yeah. On Thursday I woke up and I puked. So I lay low all that day. And then today I was glugging down gatorade. Yeah.

But on Wednesday I went to the eye doctor just for a checkup. OK, so, whenever I go to the eye doctor I get this fear like "YOU. NEED. GLASSES" or something. It just scares me.

But, no, I don't need glasses.

Instead, I found out that if I don't want to get cross eyed and have a horrible surgery, I can't read or go on the computer past twenty minutes straight. After every twenty minutes I have to stop and look twenty feet away for twenty seconds.

It wouldn't stink as much if those weren't the two main things that I do.

First of all, I love reading. Second of all, I love writing and blogging. So, basically, everything that I love doing, is kind of interrupted. Yeah. It's kind of annoying, but I'm hoping it gets into better habit, soon. =P

See ya later, gator. ;)

Love,
Katrina

"Yes, you can go..."

Dear Readers,

This is Jessie. Anyway, more dance details...

So everybody's been worked up into a frenzy over this thing. I walk through the hallways, and everybody's rushing about doing SOMETHING. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only sane person in the world.

It's kind of also hard to concentrate on your studies when all you hear are whispers behind you--"I'm going to wear blah blah blah" "I love your nails!" "What're YOU going to do with your hair?" "I can't wait!"

My teachers tried to take care of it, but you know what middle school's like.

Let's just say they failed.

Miserably.

Mom and Dad have been trying to cheer me up, but I point out that it's annoying and, besides, I'm not even going.

"You're not?" Dad frowned.

"Uh, no," I said. "I didn't think I was allowed to..."

"Of course you're going!" Mom declared. "I went to a dance in middle school and had a blast. After the dance my best friend and I rigged this..."

"OK, so wait." I held up my hands. "I'm allowed to go?"

"Yep," nodded Mom. "Though I don't want you going with anybody. Unless Noah asks, of course. Then it'd just be like a friend-to-friend outing."

"Oh, yeah," I snorted. "I really see that happening. Noah would never ask me, Mom."

"Hmm." Mom's eyes looked away.

Yeah, weird.

Love,
Jessie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry CHRIST-mas!!!!! ;)

Merry Christmas Eve! And don't forget to click the link. =)

----------> here is your Christmas present <----------

Hope you guys enjoy!!! :)

If you'd like to give a Christmas present to ME, you could share my blog. =D

Anyway...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!! :)

Love,

Xxxxx

(I'm thinking about like Katrina or Lucy or something. What do you guys think?)

Some updates, and a name change...?

Dear Readers,

I didn't mean a name change of this blog, so it's OK. Really. :) I meant like instead of Piper. I really do need a different name, especially since I'm now thinking of myself on this blog as looking something like this:

Yeah. So I was thinking something more like... I don't know... magical? Princess-like? Anyway, if you have any ideas, please talk to me.

Anyway, so the reason that I haven't been posting for the two days is...

... I was puking my guts out on Wednesday. Yeah, not pretty.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. It was bad, but not that bad, I'm saying. Yesterday I mostly just had a massive headache and watched movies all day. Yep. Pretty much confirmed that The Adventures of Tintin, Lord of the Rings, and How to Train Your Dragon (I had watched Tintin just a few days before and our LOTR movies were being loaned, so amazingly I only watched the Dragon one =P) are some of my favorite movies.

Yeah.

Have any of you guys watched HoodwinkedToo? Well, I got to, and I didn't really like it. They all looked different, their personalities pretty much changed, and... well... let's just say that I would describe the story line as "dark". Yeah.

So--

What have you guys been doing? ;)

Love,

Xxxxxx

('Member--talk to me about a new name ;D)

Dance Troubles

Dear Readers,

Yes, this is Jessie again.

So, anyway, I went into school the other day and there was this huge sign tacked up on the wall in front of the library.

Every Day's a Fairytale

Middle School Dance Hosted by Dayton Public Middle School

Dance the night away!

I was pretty much like, "what??? A DANCE!? Why not a jousting tournament!?!?"

And then I walked into my classroom and like two boys that I didn't even know walked up to me and asked me out to the dance. 

"Um, I'm not even sure I'm going," I told the first one. "Sorry."

He walked away. And the next one walked up. When I told him the same thing, he took it as a no, too, and walked off, dejected.

"THERE'S A DANCE!" Maya was shrieking in the cafeteria that afternoon. 

The Sisterhood Squad looked about ready to pummel her. I finally located Noah, who'd been dodging me all day, it seemed, and sat down next to him.

"So what do YOU think about the dance?" I snorted, taking a big bite out of my homemade sandwich.

He just shrugged.

I sighed. "Come on. What's bothering you?"

"You," he answered.

I frowned, finished my sandwich, and walked out.

Where I was confronted by Maurice Mendoza.

As usual, the richie from Florida who looked like Spanish royalty was far from nervous. Cockily, he walked up to me and handed me a piece of paper, walking off.

Suddenly, Noah was by my side.

"What's that?" he demanded.

I looked down at the piece of paper. "Uh... I don't know. Maurice just handed it to me."

"Well?" Noah was getting edgy. "Open it up!"

I sighed and opened it up.

And almost puked.

Dear Jessie,

I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me. Leave a replying note in my bag after school.

Maurice

"I'm going to be sick!" I announced.

Noah grabbed the note, looking about read to tear it up. "This is horrible!"

"I know!" I cried. "What am I going to do?!"

Noah looked up, pale. "Well, of course you're not going to go with him, are you?"

"No," I snorted. "I'll just have to leave a replying note." 

I grabbed the note back from Noah and wrote:

Maurice,

Thanks for the invitation, but I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to go with you. Sorry.

Jessie

Noah grabbed it. "Perfect. I'll give it to him."

I snatched it back. "Of course you're not! I'M going to give it to him, because I'M the one who got the note in the first place!"

He sighed. "Fine." Then he grinned. "Wait a sec. Everybody thought that he would ask like Ladasha or Summer or Maya."

"So?" I snorted.

"Well..." Noah licked his lips, like he was coming up with this brilliant plan. "Maybe we could..."

"I am NOT going to show this off in their faces!" I declared. "That's just mean. I'm going to give Maurice the note and that's that."

"Jessie, wait." Noah grabbed my arm just as I was about to walk off.

"What?" I sighed.

"Never mind," he shrugged. "Bye."

I ran off.

What on EARTH am I going to do about this dance??

Something about surprises is just too much fun.

It's just way too much fun when you plan a surprise for somebody. When they walk through the door, a look of "OH. MY. WORD." on their faces. It's just too much fun, and suddenly you realize that all of the things that you prepared, everything that you labored to get ready... it was all worth it. In fact, it was more than worth it. Just seeing that look on their faces is priceless. Like the moment when you tell somebody that they're getting a free trip around the world, or they win a million dollars. Just something so big that they never even suspected. I love that. <3

*don't ask*

For those who lost their lives yesterday

Dear Readers,

I was heartbroken to read about the 27 kids who died in Connecticut yesterday. I couldn't believe it. The thought of the shooting reminded me of all the shootings that have happened this year. Already there have been three major shootings this year--this 2012. This year of the triple 12s. Yesterday night I watched The Hunger Games and it just reminded me of that--kids being killed. It's horrible. Pray for the kids' families. I can only imagine what it's like for them.

Love,
Piper

Ladasha the Beautiful

Dear Readers,

Hi, this is Jessie Bender. Yes, I'm finally back!!

Oh yeah--and that talk about the junior CIA? Just go and forget about that. You don't need to know anything. In fact, it might even endanger your very own life.

No, no, you're quite safe, just don't try to go and find me, OK?

Anyway, so after I got back Noah said he was never going to leave my side ever again--EVER AGAIN--but then I pointed out that obviously he didn't live at our house and wasn't going to any time soon. (Or ever. Hopefully never.)

I went to school and I was surprise when Maya ran up.

"JESSIE!" she shrieked, wrapping her arms around me.

"Oh, uh, hi," I managed. "How ya doing, Maya?"

Summer came down the hallway and rolled her eyes at us. "Oh, I see the loser's back."

"Don't call her a loser." It was Maurice, glaring fiercely at Summer. "Jessie Bender is definitely NOT a loser, and I'd like you to remember it!"

Summer rolled her eyes, muttering, "Whatever," and stalking off down the hallway in her high heels.

Noah stuck to my side like glue the whole time. Whenever I went somewhere he couldn't go (coughcoughGIRL'S BATHROOMcoughcough) he guarded the door like he was my personal bodyguard and I was president's daughter. That kid is my best friend, but, come on, it was kind of embarrassing.

I was just coming out of one of my classes when this beautiful girl who could've passed as an Indian princess walked down the hallway. I glanced over at Noah to see the affect she was having on him, but Noah was just rolling his eyes. I smiled. Good ol' Noah.

"That girl probably thinks she's so hot," muttered Noah. "Well, I'm going to break trends and call her ugly!"

"Noah," I warned.

"Well, you're much prettier," he announced.

"Thanks," I snorted. "Can we go to class now?"

We just started to go into our next class when Maya ran up to me. I couldn't understand why on earth she was even talking to me since she usually hated my guts, but she was. Excitedly, she began to say something in a hurried rush.

"Please," I begged. "Start over."

Maya rolled her eyes. "Did you see that girl out there? Her name's Ladasha, and she's from Chicago. Her dad's like this millionaire dude. They're super rich!"

"Wow," I managed.

"I think she's ugly," Noah announced.

Maya looked horrified. "No she's not! She's beautiful!"

"Well, I think she's one of the ugliest girls I've seen!" my best friend declared.

"You'd better not say that to her face," hissed Maya. "I hear that she's even doing modeling. She's been doing modeling for American Girl since she was like six! Isn't that creepy?! Lately, she's been working for even bigger companies! She's a star!"

"Then Jessie would be the sun," declared Noah. "Excuse us, we've got to go to class."

We sat down in our classroom. Madeline, a girl that I knew from being one of the best shots in the spaghetti war, leaned over and hissed, "I agree with you, Noah."

I wasn't sure which part she agreed with. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

But I can't help but wonder--what's going to happen with this Ladasha girl?

I'm proud to announce...

...THAT I'VE ADDED MORE TO OLIVIA 2!!!!!!!!! PLEASE GO CHECK IT OUT. :) :)

Please enter my photo contest

Dear Readers,

I am having a photo contest here on Dragonmaster. Please enter it! Thank you!!

Love,
Piper

Jessie Bender Contest--the winners!!

Thanks to everybody who entered the contest as to what on earth happened to Jessie Bender during her very, very long stay away. I love all your stories and they're super super awesome!!! :) They make Jessie Bender proud, I assure you. (She's still away for another day....)

By the way, in Jessie's next letter is where first place will be featured as one of the main characters, where second place will get a minor character, and where third place will get to be mentioned.

Whatever place you get, please come and talk to me about what you want your person's name to be and what you want to look like and so on. I will probably tell you if you just moved there or something, so you can kind of choose that, too. Now...... on with the contest!!

(You'll all probably end up being school friends of Jessie's. Just saying.)

And who DID win the contest??

The winner of the Jessie Bender Story Contest--the What Happened to Jessie Bender? Story Contest--is........

*drum rolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll*

*ahem*

......Piano Bookworm!!!

Congrats!! 

Here is her award:

PB? You can pull this off!! :)

Her award-winning story is below:

- - -

Dear Readers,

I know I have been missing. It was unavoidable. And I don't have a clue about Noah.

It all started this way: It was the day Noah and my parents were gone, both sets. I decided I was going to take a bike ride in the park just before I had supper. So I was merrily riding along, and then I see this car following me. And that was a bit creepy, so I headed back toward my home.

Then they started chasing me. I was pedaling frantically, but the car caught up to me, and a man and a woman, both dreessed in black, got out and grabbed my bike so I couldn't ride any further.

"What do you want?" I asked them.

The man smiled weirdly. "We want you to come with us, Miss Jessie Bender."

I started untangling myself from my bike. "No way, Mr Creepy Person!"

The woman laughed. "Don't worry Jessie. Just come with us, and you'll be fine."

I stood up straight. "Oh, yeah? Well, what if I don't want to go with you?"

The woman pressed her lips together and looked at me. "Then we will be compelled to use force to get you to come."

So I tried to start running, but I didn't get farther than a step or two before the man grabbed me and put me in the car. And it was weird, because it was like a police car. It didn't have handles or anything on the back seat doors on the inside. So there I was, stuck in the car while these two people took me somewhere.

It seemed like we went a long way before anything happened. Then we pulled over at a rest stop and the woman came and sat in the back seat with me.

"Jessie," she said, "this is not what it seems."

I raised my eybrows. "It's not a kidnapping?"

"No" she shook her head. "We have authority."

I nodded my head skeptically. "Authority to take a girl off her bike and take her somewhere against her will?"

The woman smiled. "I'll have you know, Jessie, we are recruiters for the Junior CIA."

"No way you are."

The woman breathed exasperatedly. "Do you have to be so stubborn?" She took a badge out of her pocket. "See?"

I stared at it. It looked authentic. "Oh." It was all I could think of to say.

And then we went a lot of other places and I met a whole bunch of people, but I can't tell you it. Because it is classified information. I can't even tell you what they asked me, (but I bet you'll guess) and what I answered. So if I go missing again, don't worry. Or do worry, but you won't know which to do, because I won't be able to tell you. This stinks. I can't tell you anything interesting that happened to me during this month.

Love,
Jessie

- - - 

Wasn't that awesome?!

OK, second place goes to......

.....Poem Girl!!!

Congrats!!

Here is your award:

You can take this off!! :)

And third place???

Madeline!!

Awesome job!! :)

Here is your award:

Great job!! Thank you SO MUCH for everybody that entered!!! :) Don't forget to talk to me about your Jessie-related awards!!!! :)

Hola!

Dear Readers,

I didn't get any name ideas in the last post, but for now, I'm going to call myself Piper. If you guys hate that name or have another name idea, please come and tell me and then I'll consider changing Piper. OK? OK. :)

Sometimes it's so hard to think how to create a story. Know what I mean? Like you have this really great idea, and then you start writing on it, but then nothing ever comes out of it. What are you supposed to do? I've done this lots of times. In fact, a lot of my stories were like this. Even my story Rubberboot Girl kind of happened like that. I had all of these great ideas and then they just got sllllllllllllooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww............... But then one day, I just went on there and started writing again. And then before I knew it, it was finished. Some things just happen like that. Usually what gets old story ideas alive is just more ideas.
As you live life, more ideas just keep on coming. And, some how, you can fit those into those stories that maybe you've put up on the shelf for awhile because they're just not quite right yet. But when you do get them right, they might just be your greatest story yet.

Sometimes it's also kind of hard if you have like several projects going on at one time. At the moment, I have about three to five live projects going on, and then I have those "other" stories that I skip over to if I get really, really bored and I just can't keep myself concentrating on the story that I'm trying to write on. (It's always good to have those kind of stories on hand, that way if you just kind of need a break you can have it and then, when you're back and juiced up, you can get working harder on your story then you ever did before.) And of course I have about several hundred "dead" stories that I probably should at least TRY and work on. But sometimes it's kind of hard.

How was YOUR day?

Love,

Piper

To Everybody:

Dear Readers,

I want to thank all of you so much for the encouragement in my last post. I think I really need that. =P

I kind of think of Rubberboot Girl as my journal, Dragonmaster as my dragon/design/inspirational place, and then Storyteller of Weston County? I think of it more as my blog. Know what I mean? :)

Anyway, if I want to make this more like my journal, I've got to come up with a name for myself.

What names do you guys like? Please tell me. I desperately need one, so I can end my posts with "Love, *BLANK*". (Where the *BLANK* is would be my name.)

Later gator.

I've realized that there's nothing really amazing about me...

I mean, seriously. I look at my friends blogs, and they effortless get more friends [followers] and comments and whatever just because... uh, well..... I guess I don't really know. So I suppose there's not really anything special about me. I don't really have anything that nobody else doesn't. I'm just one of those blogs. Just another in a million.

It's kind of funny, but first off I was trying hard to promote all my blogs. And then I just singled off Storyteller of Weston County. And now? I find myself realizing that you guys actually seem to comment more on my other blogs. I appreciate that. I just sometimes like to go and "hide away" to Dragonmaster or Rubberboot Girl [here] and just look around. It's kind of nice. Like I don't have to be one of those people who has 2,000 followers and gains them effortlessly. Because I like it just where I'm at. And I like you guys.

And I especially like just writing about my life on this blog. It's kind of nice, kind of like a journal or something. Know what I mean?

What's going on for YOU? :)

My Life in a Nutshell (or chocolate shell. Yum!)

The choir performance went really great. :) I got to listen to a recording of it, and I was like, "We sound like the Sound of Music!" (I meant, of course, that we sounded like the kids. I suppose that's pretty good, right?????) Anyway, so I'm also going to be doing a live nativity. It's going to be awesome!! I'm one of the Wise Men. I'm the holder of Frankie--aka the frankincense. (We named the Myrrh "Murrey" and the gold "Goldie". Aren't we strange?) We only got to run through it once, and then we got to be interviewed by the paper. (Technically, we were doing this nativity because of the bell choir, and the lady was really interviewing us because of the bell choir, because everybody in the bell choir was in the live nativity.) I also got to eat skimpy subway sandwich (I really don't like our subway...) and plenty of chocolate. (OOH!! JK) Also, I AM working on the Unusuals. I think it's rather funny that you guys like "life" posts and then never comment..... but oh well...... =P

Sometimes life's really busy... or really slow...

OK, so contests are still winning, but as you guys all know we're already having a contest. =D The awards are pretty awesome (if you love Jessie Bender), so you'd better hurry over there and write your story!!!! :) Now, the next thing winning is "my life posts". So guess what? I'm going to tell you a little about my life. I've been doing some choir now for awhile (I won't tell you what it's with or anything--you can imagine for yourself) and tonight I have a performance. I really love singing, so this is going to be really fun!! And some of my favorite people are in the choir. :) Other than that, I finished another story the other day and my other stories are all coming along great. I'm trying to get myself to have a writing bug for Alex and Andria, and of course Olivia McCarthy, but the bug isn't sticking. It's kind of annoying, but I guess I'll just have to work with it. Also, how do you guys like the blog design? I really just like the pictures in the header. :) Anyway, that's pretty much my life right now. What's happening in yours?

P.S. Connie is still getting worked on to get published!! Hopefully soon. :) I'll keep you updated...

Don't forget ;)

Don't forget that I'm still excepting entries for writing a story about what happened to Jessie Bender while she was gone!!!!! :)

Poem Girl's awards =)

Poem Girl? Congrats on getting first in the designing competition!! Here are your rewards:

You brought this upon yourself... (A Story Contest)

OK, so you really did bring it upon yourself.

What? You don't believe me?

OK, buster. Well, go and look over at my poll on the side.

SEE? You guys brought it upon yourselves. There's the most votes on "contests".

WHAT?! You were talking about design contests?!?!

Well, it does say contests in general.

So, see?

You brought it upon yourself.

(And if you voted it, pretty please enter??)

OK, and what is this amazing contest, you ask?

Oh, and you want to know why I have that Jessie Bender picture coming with this post?

Well, I can tell you that, too.

It's because...

So you know how Jessie's been missing, right?

Well, she wasn't actually missing.

She was on a missing, see.

Now, the contest is, everybody submits a story about what Jessie was doing in the form of a letter like what happens.

The person who wins the contest will get to be featured in a future Jessie Bender letter!! =D

Rules:

1. Enter one story in letter form, addressed to "readers" and ending with "Love, Jessie".

2. Put it into a comment with this post. (If it is not in this post, it won't be counted.)

3. Come up with a fictitious story about Jessie's adventures about why she was away.

4. Put the above^ advertisement on the side of your blog. (You can take it off after the award is done, or keep it on.)

5. Share this post. (on google)(so that others can enter, too)

6. If you win, you'll win an award to go on the side of your blog as well as be featured in a Jessie Bender letter. Your letter will also make print on this blog.

7. Second place will receive an award and a minor role in one of Jessie's letters.

8. Third place will receive an award and a mention in one of Jessie's letters.

9. Have fun!! :)

OK, I GOT IT!!! =)

Got what, you may ask?

The results of the header contest, that's what!!! :)

I had TONS of entries. You guys are so awesome!!! It was really hard, but it finally came down to my favorite three. :)

I had a really hard time picking between first and second, because I mostly liked them equally well. Eventually, one won out over the other. (Obviously.)

So first place goes to...

...Poem Girl!

Here is your reward, Poem Girl!! :) And you get first choice out of what you'd like out of the following:

1. Header.

2. Button and signature.

3. A saying for the said of your blog.

And here is her header:

Isn't it beautiful?? :)

Second place goes to...

...Piano Bookworm!! :)

Here is your reward! :) You get second choice out of the rewards mentioned above.

And here is her header:

(I'm telling ya, these girls are good at this!!!!!! :))

And finally, third place goes to...

...~The Keller Girls~!!!! :)

Here is your reward!!! :) And then you get whatever extra award is left, OK? :)

And here is their awesome header:

(I just love it. :))

Thanks so much to everybody who entered!!! They were all so awesome. :)