(Okay... I admit this was in process but stalled almost at the outset. So I applied the exercise to it. It helped. Kewl!)

Assignment Five: Finding the beginning.

Level: Beginner

This is the opening point of the story:

"Rend-moi mon livre!" the girl said firmly, hand held out for the book. She looked up at the boy, not at all cowed by his extra six inches. "Maintenant. S'il vous plait!" she added, the 'please' only slightly softening her demand that he give her the book 'now.'

The boy grinned. "Make me, book-shrimp," he invited, holding the paperback out of the younger child's reach.

A second girl, sprawled on the blanket spread on the grass, looked up from her book and pushed a unruly fall of auburn curls off her freckled face. "Idioto. Carlos, la palabra es 'bookworm'. Maninci cacat!"

"Book-shrimp," Carlos repeated. "JJ's not big enough to be a worm."

The girl wrinkled her nose at the jibe, shifted her feet into an odd off-set position and jabbed forward with slightly curved fingers. Carlos easily blocked the blow, then lost both cocky grin and the book as the girl's foot hooked around his knee and tumbled him into the cluster of dahlias bordering the lawn.

"The worm turns," JJ announced, scooping up her book and plopping down on the blanket beside Migs.

This is the skeleton:

1. JJ loses her parents in an accident when she is three years old. Her surrogate parents become the staff at a private school. Because of a subconscious fear that they might also suddenly abandon her if she is not good enough, she works hard to please them and to excel at everything they teach her. She also wants to earn the respect of her fellow students. Although she is skilled, she finds it hard to get them to take her seriously, in part because she is a bit younger and unusually small for her age.

2. As a junior student, she wants to be promoted into the senior group. Once promoted, she can join in the group's activities as a contributing member of the school's community.

3. Anxious to prove herself, she begs to be promoted to the senior group. Her request is granted on a trial basis. Her best friend and surrogate sister, Migs, is promoted at the same time.

4. On her first task as a senior, JJ exceeds her instructions in an attempt to excel -- and doesn't. She is rebuked by an instructor and warned that if she doesn't follow instructions and the group's procedures, she could fail the trial and be returned to junior status.

5. Because of this rebuke, when both Migs and JJ both do poorly in their first senior test, JJ fears they will suffer the disgrace of being demoted. (JJ passes the test but doesn't earn the top score, so she is unhappy with her placing. Migs fails the test.)

6. The girls agree to help each other. At JJ's urging, Migs repeats the exercise. JJ secretly helps her succeed, even though both girls know the help would be regarded as cheating by their instructors.

7. Migs is still dropped from the senior list for the group's next two activities and JJ's participation is curtailed. Uneasy at this de facto demotion and fearing that their cheating might have been discovered, JJ argues that Migs should be included in the next activity. She believes they must prove themselves as soon as possible.

8. Migs and JJ join in the next activity although their roles are again minor. Migs gets into trouble. JJ sees the problem but Migs refuses any assistance. Because JJ is too inexperienced to recognize the danger; because she feels Migs should be given every chance to prove herself; and because it falls in with the group's procedures, JJ leaves Migs to resolve the problem.

9. When Migs does not rejoin the rest of the group, JJ flouts procedure to go back to try and help. She discovers Migs is dead. The danger is still present. JJ is almost killed herself but manages to escape.

10. Emotionally devastated by Migs' death and belatedly aware how dangerous her coveted senior status can be, JJ wants to return to junior status. The request is denied because JJ's ability to escape and survive prove that she has graduated to the senior level.

11. Unable to retreat, she forges ahead. She works hard, enhances her skills and eliminates the hazard which caused Mig's death. Her success makes her a respected member of the senior group and confirms her value to her surrogate family. But her victory is mixed: she cannot go back to being a child and Migs is still dead.

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