Cue the theme to Bonanza

Now that you all know how crazy I am I will go on to say that I'm procrastinating again, and this time using the blog. The previous essay was actually from last year. This year I'm a lot less stressed out and it was Paul helping write the essay, not me. However, I got this great idea (if I do say so myself) and accidentally wrote a future chapter. Well, at least part of one. I won't add the part about writing an essay because a) I'm quite fond of Cammy and I would never inflict that on her and b) Cammy isn't in school anymore (lucky bitch)

So because I'm kind of getting into this whole blogging thing I'll give another exclusive sneak preview for that too. This one actually has a LOT less to do with the whole essay portion. I don't know why my brain has to be attempting to multitask to get anything done, but it does. In the middle of writing this I got the blue screen of desk and after a half hour of yelling at the computer, trying desperately to hurt its feelings, I gave up, sat down, and just wrote the essay:

Cammy, Paul, and The Common Theme of Four Movies

“Nora, my little bird!” Someone was quoting A Doll's House and when I woke up. My brows furrowed in confusion and annoyance, but since I recognized the voice I was willing to roll over and squint at the sun coming in through my window.

No vampires today.

I stepped on the hardwood floor and walked over to the window. Paul was there, the big morning person he was with his hands on his hips in a Peter Pan pose in pajama pants. I cocked my head to the side and yanked the window up. It glided effortlessly. If it weren’t for my very own vampire security system I would be worried about burglars.

“What are you doing?” I asked him. He grinned.

“Making school more tolerable,” he said.

“By quoting the play we already covered earlier in the semester?” I asked. He loped forward, his height matching mine even with me being higher up inside the house. He greeted with a kiss. I grimaced in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I stink. Let me brush my teeth first,” I said going red. He rolled his eyes at my flush.

“You smell great. You know, aside from the bloodsucker stench,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Your final essay is due tomorrow,” he said. I smiled weakly sensing that this was the reason that he was going to have to make a quick exit. But he was still smiling which meant he couldn’t be leaving.

“Get your notes. We’re going to go work on it,” he said.

“You’re going to help me write a seven page essay?” I asked.

“You bet your cute little ass. Actually, I don’t really know anything about movies so I don’t know how much I can help, but I’m here to motivate you. I know how you stress the day before something’s due. Get your text book and laptop. It’s charged, right?” he asked.

I blinked in shock.

“You’re serious?”

He reached up and placed his hands on either side of my face, warming me instantly. His touch was feverish and smooth. The liquid heat melted straight to my chest making my heart swell with familiar happiness.

“I’ll meet you out back. I have a surprise for you,” he said. He waggled his black brows up and down suggestively.

Officially intrigued I tried not to look too eager as I shut the window and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes. It was warmer, the famous Eclipse storm still far off on the horizon. I settled for a beige long sleeve shirt and a light brown jacket. Knowing Paul wouldn’t care, I put on a fresh pair of black pajama pants. I’d taken a shower the night before so I figured the rest of me would smell just fine.

I brushed out my hair, took care of my breath, and a dash of deodorant. I grabbed my laptop, a few papers, and the stupid text book that I loathed. I burst from the screen door onto the last step.

The green backyard was empty. There were clouds off in the distance tumbling over the northern mountain range. There was an empty square of dirt where the shed used to be and the flower bed was in full bloom, swaying in the slight breeze. Where was my werewolf?

“Paul?” I called out.

It was impossible to miss the giant monster come around the side of the house. It shocked me at first. It was not a side of Paul I was used to seeing very often. He slowed his pace and looked at me. I had to pause to admire the werewolf form. It was a majestic thing to behold. Even standing on all fours he was a head taller than me. His fur was as long as you would expect a wolf’s to be. If this was how long his fur was when his hair was as short as it was I wondered exactly how shaggy Jacob was.

He smiled a doggy smile, tongue hanging out and panting.

I hadn’t realized how tense I was. Seeing an animal this size was sure to make any creature on edge, even vampires. He must have sensed this because he stepped toward me and licked my cheek. I backed away cringing and wiping the spit off on my hand.

“You’re disgusting,” I said. He nudged me with his nose and turned around toward the edge of the yard. I hopped into step with him, and he slowed so he could find my pace compared to his.

“Why did you phase?” I asked. I looked around realizing that if Eric or any of my other neighbors were to peek over they would see exactly what the bear scare a couple months ago had been all about.

Paul grumbled an incoherent response as we crossed the threshold from the edge of the yard to the beginning of the forest. Since I obviously wasn’t getting a response I paused to stuff my things in my laptop bag that was bursting at the zipped with all the crap inside.

I looked up and Paul had stopped. His down eyes watched me with eerie intensity. If I didn’t know him better it would have worried me.

“What?” I laughed to ease the tension.

He blinked and then turned his head toward the forest. I followed his gaze.

“I don’t get it.” He sighed frustrated with our communication problem as much as I was. Then he crouched down, his belly almost touching the ground. He looked at me and then flicked his head in the direction of my back. I narrowed my eyes in concentration as I tried to decipher what it must be that he was trying to say.

“Where’s Edward when you need him? I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” I said. He grumbled a little, the sound like a dog trying to mutter something under his breath, but lacking the words. He flicked his head again.

I looked at his back.

A gasp escaped me and I clapped my hands over my mouth in shock.

“I can ride on your back?” I asked hopefully. He stared at me confirming my guess. I touched my chest, hope realized. The smile across my face was too wide with my unbridled happiness. Then to my utter embarrassment I squealed in a high pitched voice, “Are you serious?”

He nodded.

“Oh Paul!” I ran into his body to hug him at full speed. It was nothing like smacking into a stone cold vampire. He felt like any seven foot wolf would, warm and fuzzy. I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed. “I knew you’d come around.”

Actually that was a lie. I’d stopped pestering Paul about me riding him ever since more serious problems made this particular argument insignificant. I grabbed his huge head, forgetting his sharp teeth and the fact that when he was a killer in this form, and kissed his right on top of his muzzle.

“You… What made you change your mind?” I asked.

He gave me a look. Oh yeah. He couldn’t talk.

“Right. Later,” I said. He lowered his body as I swung my laptop bag over my side and stepped back. There seemed to be no graceful way to get on a werewolf, so I clambered way, too wary that I might accidentally kick him in the stomach or something. This was a stupid concern because he was a werewolf clearly built to withstand a vampire attack. A crowbar attack hadn’t even scared him, my fumbling wasn’t going to hurt him.

It took some squirming and I could feel Paul straining not to laugh beneath me, but eventually I made it up his back. He stood up too quickly.

“Whoa.” I leaned forward and grabbed the thicker fur around his neck. He started to walk forward. I smiled. Somehow I thought that maybe this would be like running with Laurent or Victoria. This was much different. Paul trusted me to hold onto him as he gracefully loped over tree branches and through the moist dirt.

It wasn’t childish like a pony ride like I thought it might me. I didn’t teeter or bounce with every step like horse trotting. Werewolves were much too grateful for that. It was just a straight smooth trip through the forest.

“I can’t believe this,” I told Paul with a laugh. “This is amazing!”

He barked out a laugh. Since I there was no turbulence I leaned forward and ran my fingers deeper through his fur.

“Can you go faster? I don’t think I’m going to fall,” I asked.

Paul slowed. I frowned, thinking maybe he was trying to annoy me on purpose. Then I looked ahead. The trees were thinning. We had come to a grassy plain that I’d never seen before. Paul growled playfully. His muscles wound tight. He wiggled purposefully, preparing to spring.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He froze and swung his massive head to look at me. Then he winked.

I realized the message he was trying to give me.

Hold on tight.

I obeyed and clenched my fingers tighter into his fur.

And he shot off across the plains. I screamed in fear at first and then when I remembered that with a werewolf’s grace I was in no danger of bouncing off, it broke off into excited laughter. It was like being in a sling shot, floating across the land at impossible speeds. I’d never imagined a werewolf’s speed matching a vampire’s for whatever reason, but they were evenly matched as far as I could tell.

He slowed to a jog, then to a trot before he came to a complete stop below an old winding tree on the edge of the plains. The leaves were in full bloom like the rest of the vegetation.

He lowered his body and my laughter started to fade. My smile was still there. I liked when I could that despite everything in Twilight was real life, and should be taken seriously, it was still fun to play with a werewolf.

I swung my leg around, trying to position myself to land neatly on my feet, but being me I gave up and just rolled over and landed on my butt. Paul immediately turned and sniffed me over for injuries. I pushed his nose away and picked myself up.

“I’m fine,” I said. He stepped back as I checked my laptop to make sure that everything was in order. “That was by far the coolest thing I have ever done.” His mouth opened to make another odd looking grin flashing his deadly teeth in a manner that must have been an attempt at playfulness.

I laughed when his tail started to wag. He bound forward in a way that was more suiting for a puppy that a gigantic monster and licked me again.

“Paul! Seriously, that’s weird!” I laughed wiping my cheek on my sleeve. He bounded away into the tall grass before I could complain any more. “Where are you going?”

He disappeared into the brush. I could see his head over the tips of the swaying grass. He smiled a doggy smile one more time. I took that as reassurance. He ducked his head and in less than a minute he trotted back through the grass to the clearing under the tree where I stood.

He was back looking like his own human self again. My cheeks were hurting from smiling so much, but I couldn’t help it when I saw him again. He had a pair of men’s pajama pants I’d never seen before.

I giggled.

“What?” he asked.

“We match,” I said pointing to my own pj’s. He didn’t get it, but he still came up to me, resting his hands on my own hips. He smiled down at me. “Thank you. That was so much fun.”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

The moment became heavy as we leaned forward for a kiss. I was still feeling playful though. I dodged to the side for his cheek and licked him. He jerked away.

“Cam!”

“Yeah. Gross, isn’t it?” I said. He laughed a booming laugh and wiped his cheek. He looked down at me and then shook his head.

“Alright. I will not lick you anymore,” he said. Then as an afterthought he added, “Without permission.” An awkward pause followed. He seemed as shocked as I was that he’d said that out loud. He looked at me to gage my response.

“You’ve been spending too much time in Quil’s head,” I said.

“I totally agree,” he said. His smile brightened to a phony one. “Now let’s do your essay.”

I lost all expression immediately.

“Killjoy,” I insulted. He sighed heavily, clearly as excited as I was to start my essay. I turned around and rolled my eyes like a five year old. He put one hand on each shoulder, thumbs working into my muscles. Instant irritation killer.

Suck up.

“What’s it about?”

“You don’t care,” I griped.

“Wrong. I care about everything you do.” I looked at him over my shoulder wondering why that sounded so familiar, but he kept steering me toward the base of the tree. I wrapped my laptop bag around me and started to unzip it.

“I have to compare four movies to find a common theme,” I said. Paul feigned interest pretty well, but I couldn’t imagine this assignment being at all imperative to him. “I need five sources. Four reviews and the text book.” Everything spilled out of my bag onto the ground. As Paul and I bent down to gather that and the reviews I’d printed out, I wondered if they would discount the book when I tried to sell it back with dirt stains on it.

He sat down against the tree and motioned for me to sit in front of him. It was reminiscent of our first time being together in the rain at the beach. He was warm against the light breeze that hinted at the upcoming storm.

“What are the movies?” he asked. I untangled the laptop from the cord.

“Tell No One, North by Northwest, Three Days of Condor, and Schindler’s List,” I said. Paul looked thoughtful.

“I don’t think I’ve seen any of those,” he said. I glared at him.

“You’ve never seen Schindler’s List? What planet do you live on?” I asked. He shrugged. I turned back around and shrugged against him, settling against his chest. The laptop glowed and I sighed. I’d been putting this off for way too long.

“So…?” Paul asked. “Do you know what the common theme is?”

“Yes,” I said. I could hear my boredom before I’d even gotten a chance to type anything.

~*~

Cue the blue screen of death.

God works in mysterious ways. It sort of reminded me of that part in Monty Python Holy Grail when that huge horde of people appear out of no where and yell "Get on with it!"

I need a life. Maybe I'll get one this summer. Now that I've blogged I have nothing to do but work on my online class.

Ariana loses her mind during finals, but not her passion for writing

Well, I'm in the middle of college finals right now and anyone who knows me knows that this is like my semesterly breakdown. I can cruise through the entire semester without really giving a damn, but when the end of the year comes I hide away to try and make myself study.

But the thing is that it is extremely hard to make me do anything. When I have a seven page paper due all I can do is stare at the screen and think "That's about the length of one chapter for me. This should be no big deal." But somehow it is. Writing chapters is easy. Writing essays is not.

I'm obsessed with writing. So somehow I came up with this brilliant idea to write about someone else doing my essay to get it done.

And somehow that turns into Cammy writing my Political Science essay with Jasper's help. It takes place further into Eclipse and I have to warn you that it doesn't quite make sense unless you're writing the essay and this at the same time, but this is the only way to make me write something that I don't give a damn about. It's strictly free writing, so forgive the lack of editing.

So here is an exclusive bit of the Puppet Master that probably won't ever appear anywhere again. Don't worry. Its never going to appear in the real story:

Cammy, Jasper, and the Electoral College

Jasper arrived like a ghost as always. One moment I was alone watching The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and then without even feeling a dip in the couch cushions, noticed a vampire sitting to my right.

He met my gaze the moment I gasped and smiled.

“Someone needs to put a bell on you,” I said. Jasper’s grin widened. I don’t know what it is about vampires that take delight in appearing out of thin air. Maybe it was sort of reminiscent of his old hunting days.

I buried that thought as soon as it crossed me.

“Well, someone has to make sure you’re doing your essay. It’s due tomorrow,” he reminded. I cringed.

“Thanks. I was just getting to it,” I said.

“So I see,” Jasper laughed watching the flickering television screen again. He waited for a response from me. I sighed heavily. “Seven pages on the Electoral College is not going to write itself.”

“Unless Edward bribes Mr. Andrus.”

“Don’t count on it. Now that Carlisle knows he’s going to be keeping an eye out for this sort of thing. Bella’s excusable because she’ll be in high school more times than she can count. You only get one shot.”

“Thank God,” I muttered.

Then out of nowhere my laptop was in his hand. I opened my mouth to ask how long he’d had that, but he offered it back to me.

“Come on. A vampire tutor is the next best thing to bribery,” he said. I sighed. He turned and faced me. “What do you have so far?” I flushed a light pink, something I tried to avoid since I didn’t like reminding Jasper that I was a well balanced meal as much as I was a friend.

“You don’t want to see it. It’s very hard to get me to write essays that I don’t want to write. I have my methods,” I said feeling embarrassed. I felt a wave of contentment to smother my insecurity. I gave him a look to show that I knew what he was doing. But I consented, seeing as how he probably was not going to leave without making sure I was going to improve my grade at this point.

“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I said. The mouse glided across the screen to the desktop item and the Word document clicked to life. As usual he wasn’t going to get too close and lean over me to read. I handed him the laptop.

The Electoral College and other Useless Crap

The Electoral College is a voting system that has been active in this country for God knows how long. There are people who think it makes voting easier to tally. Other people think that government officials need to stop being so freakin’ lazy and count every vote the way its supposed to. I, for one, am that freakin’ lazy. If I had to count all those ballots I’d be like, “Damn, there are a lot of people in America. I wish I were a high school student.” How many Americans actually know what the Electoral College is?
The Electoral College is a system that we use for the presidential election. It was founded by_______ for the reason of _______. Can you tell I haven’t even thought of opening this book?
What the hell is the Electoral College?
Well it looks pretty damn complicated. I could probably write seven freakin’ pages on that alone, because personally I have no idea what it means.
Is the Man trying to keep us down? I think Andrus said something about how Bush didn’t win the election, but Gore did. What the hell happened there? Dude, I could write a page about that. Only six more pages to go!
But hey, there’s got to be a bright side to all this. I mean, otherwise what’s the purpose of the Electoral College?
Okay, okay. Let’s say we SHOULD get rid of the Electoral College. Is that going to piss off everyone and make everything crazy? Does it help any party in particular? DO I SMELL A CONSPIRACY?
This is like, National Treasure crap. Who the hell is trying to make it the Electoral College illegal? What would happen if it was gone? Would it just be the popular vote? Would that be a terrible idea leaving everything up to the people, because sometimes hardcore democracy sucks. Sometimes people are stupid. Then again, stupid people should get a say too. I mean what is stupid? Who draws the line at what is stupid and what’s not?
In conclusion, the Electoral College can kiss my ass because its lamer than lame.

It took a split second for Jasper’s brow to furrow in confusion. He looked up from the screen at me. Now I was a bright red.

“Have you ever been tested for Attention Deficit Disorder?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. He waited. “Oh, you were kidding? Well, I have, and no, I don’t have the luxury having the exact DSM criteria to make the government tutor me for free.” Jasper’s blonde brows went up.

“What exactly did you accomplish by writing this?”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I hated having to explain myself.

“Free writing is a good way to get momentum. If you get past all the obscenities, you’ll find that I made my outline. Topic paragraph, the history of the Electoral College, why it was made, what it is, how its developed over the years, the good its done for politics, the arguments for its removal, what would happen if it were removed, and the conclusion,” I said. The way Jasper did a double take at the screen made me smile with self pride. He seemed to agree.

“Clever. It must take the anxiety out of a term paper, and still productive. Excellent use of psychological defense mechanisms,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, though I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about.

“Now,” he said. “You have the general topic which is clearly the Electoral College, but, what is this paper about exactly? Is it purely informative?”

“I have no idea,” I responded with a nod.

He paused.

“Where’s your paper’s outline? What does your teacher expect you to write?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” I said again. He exhaled as he seemed to suddenly understand.

“You lost it?”

“Yes,” I said.

He sighed and I could guess his thoughts.

Typical Cammy.

“Is it an argumentative paper?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “But Mr. Andrus said something about how we should talk about why we should keep the Electoral College system or if we should just stick to the popular vote.” Jasper blinked. Something unnecessary for vampires, so I knew that he was reacting to something I’d said.

“What?”

“Nothing, just… Well, this is bringing back memories,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yes,” he said. He smiled and exhaled. “Very old memories.”

My blood surged in familiar Twilight enhanced excitement. I felt a back story coming on! Not just any back story, Jasper’s back story. This was what part of the Civil War was about, wasn’t it? I turned my body so I could cross my legs on the couch and face him. He watched me.

“Where’s this excitement coming from?” he asked, smiling hesitantly.

“Of every Cullen’s political view, yours has to be the most interesting. You’re the confederate soldier!” I said. Jasper looked shocked. I felt a flicker of that surpise brush against my own emotions.

“How did you know that?”

“Can I see the bite marks on your arms?” I asked feeling my eyes glitter with dazzled fascination of a fan. He exhaled in understanding.

“I’m going to tell Bella my story?” he asked. I hesitated. Maybe I shouldn't have given that away. He sighed. “How strange.”

“Why is it strange? She’s going to be a part of your family,” I asked.
He paused.

“Nothing, its just… I’m used to distancing myself from Bella. It’s starting to feel real, seeing Bella starting to spend the night, and indulging Alice,” he said. His eyes trained down at the couch for a moment. He looked almost sad.

“What’s wrong with that?” I asked Jasper.

“Nothing,” he said shaking his head. He forced a smile. “Once this book is over you can meet Bella. You won’t have to sneak around, and you’ll have more time with the family.”

I grinned. He leaned forward in the couch.

“Back to work,” he said nodding to the laptop. I picked it up and set it on my lap, ready to type. “Topic paragraph.”

“Hook, line, and thesis statement,” I said.

The Electoral College has been the United States traditional form of electing the president and vice president for decades.

I stopped after the period. The cursor blinked.

Jasper waited expectantly for more of an answer. I stared back at him. His expression fell into a face of concern.

“And…?”

“What else should I type?” I asked. He grinned.

“You want me to help you write this sentence by sentence?”

“Yes, please.”

“No Cammy. It’s the topic paragraph. It’s going to be the easiest paragraph to write,” he said. He waved his hand at the screen. “You don’t need any sources. All you need is some catchy lines about the Electoral College. Write what you know.”

My stomach sank a little. I knew he felt the guilt I had.

“You have no idea what the Electoral College is,” he deducted.

“Wow. And here I thought you must be better off than Bella seeing as how you didn’t miss an entire midterm going to Italy,” came another voice. Jasper was unsurprised as Edward strolled from the backdoor into the living room. Even with Edward’s stoically proud demeanor I could sense he was antsy.

This could be expected of course. Bella was in La Push.

I felt a spark of hope.

“Edward! Will you write a paper on the Electoral College for me?” I asked. Edward started to shrug.

“I don’t see why not,” Edward said. I grinned.

“Yes!”

“If you call the werewolves and convince them to wrap up the bonfire early,” he added. My spirits fell just as quickly.

“Now you’re just toying with me,” I growled. Edward’s small smile tweaked his lips handsomely. I looked away quickly. That’s when I saw Jasper leaning over the laptop and silently tapping the keys. An internet page was up and the downloading bar was loading.

“Read this,” he said.

“I thought you were going to make me do this by myself?”

“Giving you sources is helping. Writing your paper is cheating,” he said lightly. I was beginning to feel the same childish frustration I felt with the werewolves.

Though I supposed the vampires had more right patronizing someone one tenth their age, I was still annoyed.

“Okay, okay,” I said. After the twelfth time of rereading that page I found what I needed. “I think I get it,” I declared.

“Good,” Jasper said. Edward crossed the floor and looked out the living room window. He looked like a dog waiting for his master to come home from work. I smothered that simile to make myself focus.

The Electoral College has been the United States traditional form of electing the president and vice president for decades. There is much controversy surrounding the idea that this is a sufficiently democratic way of choosing the system, while others disagree. This system has affected the outcome of some elections that have decided America’s history and the controversy is still as heavily debated as it was when the Federalists and Anti-Federalist were shaping their country.

“Tah dah!” I said smiling at Jasper. I handed him the laptop to read. He nodded a little, biting his cheek. It was obvious he thought it could be better. “You can tell its bull shit, can’t you?”

“If its any consolation, its pretty good as far as bull shit goes,” he said. I could not contain my snickering. How strange to see a Cullen saying worse curse words than “hell” or “damn.” Jasper ignored my giggling.

“There’s your topic paragraph. Let's move on,” he said. I sighed in exasperation. There was so much to do. I fell back into the couch and groaned loudly. Edward turned away from the window slightly to look at me. “Come on, Cammy,” he insisted.
I felt my shoulders sag in defeat.

“Why was the Electoral College made?” Jasper asked. I suppressed another groan.

“Because…” I thought for a moment. “I don’t know. It doesn’t really make sense really. Why would the founding fathers make the Electoral College when they were reforming the colonies to be one democratic country?” Jasper looked at me expectedly.

“Sounds like a good topic sentence,” he said. I shrugged.

Hm…

The Electoral College is a system that is not direct democracy which has been both its attraction and repelling attribute.

“Why is it an attraction?” Jasper asked. I sighed. Jasper handed me the text book, smiling at my annoyance. “Procrastination won’t make it disappear.”


“Bribery will,” I said hinting in Edward’s direction.

“You know my terms,” Edward hinted right back at me. Maybe he wasn’t joking about calling the werewolves. It wasn’t like Bella would even see someone get the call.

She fell asleep in the middle of the legends. I sighed.

Even homework wouldn’t convince me to change unnecessarily interfere with Twilight. How sad was that?

The Electoral College is a system that is not direct democracy which has been both its attraction and repelling attribute. The framers of the constitution believed that the election of president should be represented by population rather than state by state because of the difference in each state size. The more people in the state, the more electoral votes the state gets. However, the popular vote does not technically decide how the state is going to vote, which is where some people argue the democracy is lost. The elected electors vote for the president. It is true that most of the time electors vote the way of the popular opinion of their state in order to reflect the will of the people officially.

“Oops,” I said. Jasper leaned over my shoulder.

“You veered off from your outline and jumped right into, to quote you, what the hell an electoral college is rather than it’s history,” he said. I shrugged a little.

“Maybe I should switch the paragraphs around,” I said. Jasper made a face as he thought on that.

“Perhaps. Or maybe its time to get into the old federalism song and dance,” he said. He had a sarcastic note to his voice. Edward looked over his shoulder grinning slightly. I looked from Edward to Jasper in confusion. It seemed that Jasper’s thoughts were entertaining.

Then I knew.

“Oh my gosh! Confederacy!” I said. Jasper looked annoyed. I smiled. “You don’t like the electoral college, do you? You have a civil war Southern political point of view and therefore think that the government should be involved as little as possible,” I said. Jasper rolled his eyes a little. I laughed. “Do you have cowboy boots and a snake skin belt with a fist-sized buckle too?”

“Do you dye your hair blonde and play volleyball on the beach in a bikini?” Jasper retorted.

I frowned at the mention of my own California stereotype.

“Okay. No more stereotypes, but still…”

“Keep writing. You’re getting distracted,” Jasper interrupted.

When American government was still being sculpted there was much debate as to how the president and vice president would be chosen. “The final decision of the delegates, to have electors chosen by the various state legislatures elect the president, was the result of a compromise worked out by a committee comprised of one delegate from each of the states and presented to the Convention on September 4, 1787.” This method has been unchanged since its creation and has served its country well, for the most part. However, there are times when the system has failed the people.
“The first contested election was that of 1800 when both Thomas Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, received 73 electoral votes, throwing the election into the House of Representatives.” While this caused dispute among the people in making a decision, it led to the creation of the twelfth amendment, which further defined the constitution.

I looked up at Jasper.

“What? You were doing so well,” he said.

“What happened in the 1800 election?”

“Don’t ask me. I wasn’t alive yet,” Jasper said cocking a brow. Edward sighed from where he stood, facing out the window. “Please Edward. Just sit down and think about something else. You know very well that Bella will be fine if Cammy says she is.”

“Yup,” I confirmed without looking up. My eyes were beginning to strain under the brightness of the screen.

Edward ignored Jasper so Jasper busied himself with helping me again.

“Look it up, Cammy,” Jasper urged, his voice becoming authoritative. I minimized the page, and brought up another search page.

Edward shifted away from the window, still anxiously looking westward where the reservation was a few miles away. I watched him, happy for the distraction.

“What if you’re missing something? What if something-” Edward worried.

“Nothing’s going to happen to her. Bella would know if something happened to Bella. Therefore I would know too. Besides Jacob’s not a… terrible guy. He’s just not you,” I said. My reluctance in admitting that made everyone in the room look up. I looked back at the two vampires. “What? I like vampires better. I’m not coming onto you.”

“I’d think that you would be more of a werewolf fan,” Jasper said casually. I shrugged.

“Life’s funny,” was all I had to say to that.

“Jefferson and Burr…?” Jasper reminded tapping the screen.

“Can both bite me," I finished.

“Cammy.”

“Alright, alright.”

“I think you should go more into the methodology of the Electoral College. The Electors aren’t the only part of it,” Jasper said.

“As Jefferson and Burr proved.”

“Right. Twelfth amendment.”

“One thing at a time.”

And that's when I put myself to work...

From that point on I have the ability to do my essay on my own. Though I'd probably wasted an hour free writing all the extra bits, I wouldn't be able to write it at all without making myself interested in the Electoral College. Now I've turned research for an essay into turning research for a story, and forced Cammy to write my outline (no matter how many tangents it may have.) And it ends there when I've had enough motivation to just write by myself.

Is that weird?

Frontal lobes are for pansies

Stardate: Erm...Whenever

I'm so hyper I can't even stand it. It's not even that I just got to visit my sister and celebrate our birthdays together. Its that finals are here and that's when my creative brain overtakes my rational brain that should be worried about my future and well being and all that.

But I can't freakin sleep. After typing my facebook apology for having absolutely inspiration I have an epiphany. Because I know they've been lagging and part of it is because every chapter is ridiculous. I mean, when you get a thousand hits in one day from people all over the world it gets a bit nerve wracking. I could screw up and I mean REALLY screw up and people would notice. Poor Stephenie Meyer. She has a billion more fans than me. But because of this stress I end up taking the safe route, making sure that Cammy isn't cooler than anyone else and making Paul calm the hell down. I guess I'm afraid to let either of them steal the show because this is a FANfiction. They have taken over for me and they are main characters while I'm still trying very hard to respect Stephenie Meyer's work. I feel this guilt that Paul and Cammy shouldn't be the stars of the show. And thus the characters got a bit distorted.

So the truth is that Paul and Cammy still argue ALL the time, but I don't write that because of being afraid of upsetting people. I just feel terrible. But these arguments might just make their relationship what it is. Its essential! I mean, its like the hotel scene when out of nowhere its like they're almost having sex. That's one of the memorable scenes I get comments on and I almost took that out because I had no idea where that came from. For a while it felt like a ridiculous sexy scene even if I did write it on the spot. But it was that ridiculous scene that made reviewers go "WHOA!"

This story is so complicated and hard to write for sometimes. So I think I'll just sit back and let my lack of limitations take over again. I need to be the spontaneous me who thought that this story was a stupid idea and that I would just write it to get it out of my head and play with a fictional world that I adore. I'm starting to think that the stupid ideas are the actual good ones. Its only when you take chances and make some noise that you really leave your mark and make people interested. That is, of course, what being an author is all about. I think...

My Blog?

How successful can a blog about a girl trying to achieve almost impossible dream of writing professionally? Well, let's find out.

First of all, I've been writing since I was thirteen. I have picked up a book or two about fiction writing in my lifetime. They're all good and bad in their own ways, but I'm starting that no one can tell you how to write more and more. One person will read your writing and go "Oh. That's uh... Well okay." Case and point, my father who started reading "The Puppet Master" and though he'd never say anything I knew he didn't like it. On the other hand it got LOTS of good attention. People ask me how I do outlines and I sheepishly have to admit that outlines ruin my writing and make it boring.

But I've been reading Janet Evanovich's How I Write and I actually love it. Of course there are some things that I don't agree with but she gave me some ideas. So now I'm going try and write a story about my fair city:

The Santa Clarita Valley!

The very city I tried to escape from three years ago. Its a miserable hell and I hope the next brush fire wipes it out, but hey, Bella doesn't like Forks. Why can't my characters not like Santa Clarita?

So I went scouting for locations. Its a lot easier to imagine things when you're actually at the place of them happening. I found the place of interest in fact. It's called the Valencia Corporate Center. I went there yesterday and found it was full of medical research buildings. Interesting because it sort of reminded me of "The School" from James Pattersons's Maximum Ride series. I didn't think places like that actually existed.

So after being scared off by a security car I drove away, inspired and upset that I should probably stop goofing off and work on my finals paper. Stupid school gets in the way of everything.