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Swapping Places
By: Nic
As a kid Dean was very shy. He held tight to his mother
wherever they went and could not bring himself to look at
strangers, let alone speak to them. Moms and dads all over
would try to get a word out of him, but he would just coward
behind his mother gripping even tighter. Growing up, Dean did
not make many friends due to the fact that he was too scared
to talk to them. This being, the only friends he had were his
teacher, and a student who was forced to work with him for a
group project in class. Dean and his new friend from school,
Zac, were complete opposites. Dean was shy, afraid and well
mannered, where Zac was outgoing, daring, and a troublemaker.
Dean would constantly share his colored pencils and pens Zac,
and Zac would constantly steal them.
They began hanging out after school every day, forming a great
friendship and rubbing off on each other. They saw each other
every day from elementary school, till after graduation. One
day after school they found a jar of rubbing alcohol and stole
an old rag from Zac’s garage. What was about to happen
next was clear in Zac’s head, but not 100% processed in
Deans. As Zac stuffed the rag into the bottle and lit it on
fire, Dean realized that what they were doing was wrong. A
million questions ran through Dean’s head as his heart
beat faster than light “What if we get caught? What
happens when we cannot put the fire out? What am I going to do
if my parents find out?” Before he could come up with
any answers to his recently asked questions, Zac threw the
bottle at the side of an old church. The whole back side went
up in flames. Immediately, both kids darted back to the house.
Their legs were pumping battery acid, they were about to puke
out whatever they had for lunch that day, they felt like they
could have set a world record on the mile dash. Making it home
they knew they were safe, they both swore to never talk about
that day again. The next day, there was a news report of an
old church that had been burnt to the ground with 5 homeless
asleep inside by a Molotov cocktail. So many months had passed
that they had graduated from high school.
It had been almost a year since the church had burnt down, they
both assumed that they were definitely clear and not a soul
would ever find out. One day Dean was watching the news and
had saw that Zac was being arrested for accidental
manslaughter and destruction of property. Dean was terrified;
the police had somehow found out that Zac was the one
responsible. Luckily for Dean, Zac had taken the blame for the
whole incident. Spending 7 years in prison, Zac decided to
turn his life around. Feeling regret Dean began hanging out
with the wrong people, doing drugs, becoming what was
originally expected of Zac. Zac was doing everything he could
in prison to get good karma. He was in a book club, a bible
club, he was getting his life on track. He made a friend who
offered him work once he got out, an honest living, and
that’s what he planned to do.
Many years later, Zac was out and completely turned his life
around. He was working in construction with his new friend,
had a wife, kids, and a nice house. Dean’s life however
was in the opposite direction: his family disowned him because
of the drugs, no job, no house, no life. With no house, Dean
began sleeping in an old abandoned church with 4 other
homeless addicts. Dean died in a fire as two kids burned down
that church. The only one who attended anything that resembled
a funeral for Dean was Zac, not even Dean’s parents nor
brothers.
Poll Results
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Is It Interesting? 4 Vote(s)
62.5%
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Are the sentences smooth? 4 Vote(s)
62.5%
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Is the narrative voice appropriate? 3 Vote(s)
83.3333333333%
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Are the word choices good? 4 Vote(s)
65%
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Is the dialogue believable (if any)? 4 Vote(s)
42.5%
Founded by Steve & Judy
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