The Wedding Day
Today was the day. Dill had finally made good on his promise to Scout, and it was their wedding day. Jem wandered outside the church, trying to organize his thoughts. He had known this day was coming for years now, but he had never really thought about it until now. He found himself thinking of President Roosevelt's famous quote. Right now, for some reason unknown to him, he felt like he had something to fear besides fear itself. But why? He should have felt happy for Scout and Dill, but instead he felt…jealousy? No, that couldn't be it. Scout was his sister; Dill was one of his best friends. Of course he was happy, wasn't he?
Jem stared at the sky and ground around him. It was sunny and warm, like it always was in Maycomb. The sky was empty save for a single, fluffy white cloud slowly swimming among its personal ocean. Where the ground wasn't paved, the grass was dead, dry, and brown from the recent drought the town had had, and it crunched under Jem's feet. He took his time walking, to allow himself time to think.
Abruptly, Jem realized his feet weren't the only ones flattening the grass. He turned around to find himself looking directly into Scout's face. For a moment, Jem stood with his mouth open, staring. It was in that moment that Jem realized his younger sister wasn't the tomboyish little girl he remembered any longer. She was a beautiful young woman. Her long brown hair blew in the dry breeze, and the glaring sun made her eyes sparkle. Jem realized what he was doing, and quickly composed himself and closed his mouth.
"I wanted to talk to you," Scout said. "I need to know how you feel about this. Are you okay with me marrying Dill?" She asked the question strangely, as if she sought his approval.
"Of course I'm okay with it," Jem replied. "Why wouldn't I be? I've known this day was going to happen for years now."
"Just because you've known about it for a long time doesn't mean you accept or are happy about it," was her response.
"I'm happy for the both of you," Jem told her. He paused, uncertain what to say next, and then said, "You better go inside. The wedding is going to start soon."
"You're right," she said, and turned away from him.
Jem watched as she walked up the steps to the church doors and opened them. Scout turned around one last time, and looked at him. Then, she walked slowly into the church. The heavy wooden doors slammed shut, and Scout was gone.
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I wrote this for my Language Arts class because my teacher didn't like the ending. The thing was, she couldn't just let us write an epilogue. We had to add literary elements, like allusions, to it. So, if some parts don't flow smoothly or don't seem to fit (like that Roosevelt "nothing to fear thing"), that's why.