Author's note: For all of you readers out there, I thought that you would like to know a little bit of background information on this story. The relationship between Stephen and Rose is actually the tale of a relationship that Just ended between me and my boyfriend Stephen. This isn't my life story; the relationship is thought. If you want more background on this story and such, feel free to email me at Thanks for those who are reading! Your comments are very helpful!
Chapter 5
Friday came around quickly, and I was excited for the writer's meeting on Friday after school. After all of my uneventful classes, Stephen and I met up and we walked over to Mr. Halloway's classroom and entered. About 50 people were scattered around the room, review and reading aloud stories. I looked at Mr. Halloway, smiled and took a seat next to Stephen and we waited for the meeting to start.
"Good afternoon everyone. Take a seat and quite down," Mr. Halloway yelled over the crowd. Everyone started to settle down and listened attentively to Mr. Halloway.
"Well, as you all know, tomorrow is the first short story contest. I expect you all to be entering a piece or two in. We'll be meeting at the school at 11 in the morning, and we'll be traveling up to Baton Rouge, stopping for lunch on the way. We'll get there, present our stories to the judges, and wait for your scores. Then we'll leave, get dinner, and head back to the school, at around 12 in the morning." There were a few groans in the back about the report time, and Mr. Halloway smiled.
"Now you're free to work on stories and such. I'll be back at my desk," Mr. Halloway said, sitting in his chair. I walked up to his desk and smiled.
"Is the story limited to a type of genre?" I asked. He smiled.
"No," he said. I was getting a feeling that he wanted to ask me something, so I stood there. "Rose, I want you to go tomorrow," he suddenly blurted. I froze.
"But, I can't. I haven't filled out the permission forms, and I don't even have a story!" I exclaimed.
"You could do it Rose. You could come up with a short story in limited time. You've got a wonderful imagination. And don't worry about the paper work; I'll take care of that. I know that you can score very highly with the judges there, and at the end of the year, they offer a publishing contract to the student with the best scores. How wonderful it would be if it was you. Please go," Mr. Halloway pleaded, flashing puppy dog eyes at me. I laughed and shook my head.
"Fine. I will go. But if I get bad scores, it's because of you," I said, sitting down at my desk again. Stephen looked over at me.
"He wants me to go tomorrow," I announced to him, and he smiled.
"Then you're going to sit with me on the bus," he demanded. I laughed.
"Do I have a choice?"
"No," Stephen answered with a playful glint in his eyes. I reached over and lightly punched him on the shoulder. He held my hand for a few minutes as he edited his story, and I sighed, trying to think of an idea to write a short story about. Once the meeting was over, I still hadn't thought of an idea.
"I can't do this," I said as I was walking out of the class room.
"Oh, don't do that, I'm sure you can," Stephen said. I smiled and pulled out my cellphone to call Richard. Stephen waited with me, and we walked to the front of the school. Richard pulled up quickly and I went toward the car.
"See you tomorrow," I said, waving at Stephen. He smiled, waved back and started to walk to the bus stop. We had been dating for a few days now, and we could hug, but that was all we did. It's still early on, I thought as I got into the car and looked out at the window. I still hadn't thought of a short story to submit to the contest, and time was ticking away. We arrived at the house and I ran into my room, going to my pile of manuscripts and reading through them, trying to find an idea.
"What's going on?" Nicholas asked in the doorway of my room. I jumped and brushed my hair back.
"Sorry, I didn't realize that you were there," I mumbled. Nicholas smiled and entered my room.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm looking for a short story," I said, flipping through a notebook.
"For what?" He asked. I paused, realizing that I hadn't asked him if I could go to the contest tomorrow, and I hoped that he would let me go.
"Tomorrow there is a contest in Baton Rouge for writers; one of the schools up there is holding it, and my teacher Mr. Halloway wanted me to go. It's a bit short notice..." I said, trailing off to look up at his reaction. He looked genuinely interested, and I preceded to tell him the details.
"That would be OK with me," Nicholas finally said, and I leaped up and hugged him.
"Thank you Nicholas," I said. He smiled and patted my back. I pulled away and sat down on my bed.
"So, how is your boyfriend?" Nicholas asked, and I was completely thrown off guard. How had he known? He saw the surprised look on my face, and he laughed.
"I overheard Zach talking to one of his friends. Who is he? What's he like?" Nicholas asked, sitting down on the corner of my bed.
"Nicholas, he's really nice. I like him a lot. He's really great," I gushed happily.
"Well, I would like to meet him one of these days, to see if he's good enough for you," Nicholas ordered, and I smiled.
"You're acting like the typical father," I told him, and he laughed.
"I guess it just runs in fathers' blood," he answered, standing up. "Invite him over one time. I would really like to meet him. I'll let you get back to your work," he stood up, winked at me and left the room. I sighed, looking at the random notebooks spread across my bed, and an idea finally struck me. I ran downstairs into the library to use the computer, and I started to type away. It was about a girl who was at school when she went into a public restroom. A phone number was written on the mirror, and when she returned to class, she saw that this number had repeatedly call her phone. She didn't know who it was, so she didn't answer it, or return the call. When she went home, her house phone rang, and she answered it, hearing blood curdling screams on the other end of the line. Horrified, she asked who this was, but all she got was a dead line. She hung up the phone and turned around to see someone had entered the house, a butcher's knife in his left hand. It was the greatest idea that I had come up with yet, and I was so excited about it, that I worked on it throughout the night. I fell asleep around 3 in the morning, and didn't wake up until nine. I groaned, sitting up and wishing that I could fall back asleep for the rest of the day, but the contest popped into my mind, so I willed myself to get up and get dressed.
Nicholas and Annabelle were seated at the table, engaging in a late lunch when I went downstairs.
"Good morning Rose," Nicholas said, staring at the paper his was reading. Annabelle didn't acknowledge my presence as I sat down and starting picking fruits of a platter that was sitting in the middle of the table.
"What time do you need to be dropped off at the school?" Nicholas asked, sipping a glass of orange juice.
"Around eleven," I answered, and I saw Annabelle perk her head up.
"Where are you going?" she asked, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow.
"There's a writing competition up in Baton Rouge that my teacher invited me to," I answered shortly, her harsh words from yesterday entering my mind. Her head swivelled to Nicholas, and he shot her a dirty look. I could tell that she wanted to say something nasty about it, but she held her tongue until I was out of earshot.
"You're letting her go?" Annabelle asked as quietly as she could. I laughed to myself. Couldn't she have at least waited until I was upstairs? I stayed near the dining room doors to listen in.
"Of course I am. I have no reason to hold her back. She's done nothing wrong," Nicholas said. I could hear Annabelle's angry grunt. As she marched out of the dining room. I darted behind a fake tree standing near the door to hide from her, and watched as she mumbled angrily to herself as she walked up the stairs. I came out of my hiding place to go upstairs into my room to get ready. At 11, I met Nicholas downstairs and we got into the car.
"Are you excited?" Nicholas asked.
"More nervous than excited," I replied, review my story for the hundredth time. I sighed nervously and put it away. The more I read it, the more nervous I was going to get. It would be the first time that someone had ever read any of my stories, and it was to be judged. I pushed the thought away and watched as the school came into the clearing.
"Good luck," Nicholas said as we pulled up to the school. I kissed his cheek, hugged him and got out of the car, seeing students lining against the fences to wait for the bus. Mr. Halloway was the first to greet me.
"May I read?" He asked, seeing that I held the story in my hands. I handed it to him without saying anything, and started to pace around, reading it carefully. Stephen came up to me and watched as Mr. Halloway read my story. Once he was finished, he looked up from the carefully typed pages and smiled so wide I thought he was going to explode with happiness.
"Rose, I'm a loss for words," he said. My heart leaped inside. "Nothing could explain how wonderful this story is. I'm very proud of you." I grinned and turned to Stephen, who patted me on the back. The charter bus pulled up to the school, and everyone started to board. Stephen and I took a seat in the back, Stephen on my left. I sat down nervously next to him and sighed.
"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Stephen complimented me. I smiled weakly and leaned back in the seats. Mr. Halloway explained the agenda for the day, took a quick roll call, and the bus pulled away from school. There were TV's on the buses, so Mr. Halloway popped in Star Wars 1 into the DVD player, and everyone started to watch. Once we had gotten out of city limits, the bus driver, who had to be at least 80 years old, could keep the bus entirely straight, and I wasn't feeling to go.
"You OK?" Stephen asked, seeing the discomfort on my face.
"I'm not feeling to good," I said. Luckily, it wasn't like I was about to vomit, but it came pretty close. The other students started chattering about how bad the bus driver was driving, and finally, we stopped for lunch at a burger joint. I didn't want to eat anything due to fear of getting sick, but I nibbled on a few fries that Stephen had offered me. After we had about 45 minutes to eat, we went back onto the bus and drove for another hour an a half. By now my nerves had left me, but it was being replaced with fear. What if I did horribly? What if someone knew that my mother was a best selling author, and they were disappointed in me for not living up to her name? I sighed, wishing that I wouldn't let my own thoughts get the best of me, and we arrived at the school. It was another private school in the downtown area of Baton Rouge, and it was alive with excitement. Students were running around outside, trying to find their groups, and other things, and I could feel the energy surrounding them.
"Whoa," Stephen said as we stepped off the bus. I followed him inside of the building, we headed for the check in area which was in the cafeteria. Mr. Halloway signed the school in, and he gave us slips of papers.
"Here is a map of the school, and the room you are to be judged in. They are going to ask you some questions, so answer as honestly as you can. Good luck. If I am needed, I'll be in the lobby of the school," Mr. Halloway announced, and the group started to dissolve.
"What room are you in?" Stephen asked, glancing at my slip of paper. "Oh, we're right next to each other. Our time is in half an hour. Do you want to walk around the school a little bit?" I nodded, thinking that a long walk would clear my mind. We exited the school and went to walk around the area, gardens scattered around everywhere. We somehow wandered into a rose garden and we sat down.
"It's what you were named after," Stephen said. I leaned over and smelled a yellow rose, it's fragrance relaxing me a little bit. It instantly brought back memories of when I was living with my Grandmother and my mother had a beautiful rose garden. It had every type of Rose known to man, and during the summer time, it blossomed so beautifully.
"Rose are my most favorite flowers," My mother would say. "That's why I named you after them. Because you remind me of roses." She spent hours on that garden, and the summer before she died, it was the best it had ever looked. I'll have to ask Nicholas if I can plant some bushes in the backyard, I thought. I sat down next to Stephen on a stone bench and sighed.
"You don't seem nervous anymore," Stephen pointed out. I grinned.
"Roses make me feel better," I said softly, resting my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. My heart thumped nervously, because it was the first true sign of affection we had shown each other, other than hugging. We sat there for a few minutes, listening to the silence around us, and then Stephen looked down at his watch.
"We better go."
"Yeah," I said, standing up and taking one last look at the garden. He took my hand and we started walking back toward the building. We followed the directions to the judges' rooms, and we both entered different rooms, and panicked seized me.
It was a bare, white room with a chair in the middle of the room, and across from it, was the judge. She was very good looking, with brown hair cut to her shoulders, glasses and brown eyes. She smiled warmly as I entered the room.
"Good afternoon," she said. I walked over to the table and I handed her the story.
"I've never done this before, so please correct me if I make a mistake," I said to her, and she laughed.
"Well, so far you're doing quite well, so don't worry. Just have a seat over there," she directed me, and I took a seat in the chair and watched. She opened the folder, pulled out the story, and started to read it. It took her about 10 minutes to read it and then read it again to make it clear, and she looked up and smiled.
"What is your name?" She asked softly.
"Rosalyn Clairmont," I whispered, fearful of what she had to say.
"Come here," she said. I immediately leaped up from my chair and stood in front of her. She stared at me for a few minutes and grinned.
"I couldn't believe it when I read it. You're Emilia Clairmont's daughter, aren't you?" She asked. I nodded in response.
"You write just like your mother. This was absolutely genius. I really don't have any questions about this. Wonderful work," she said, shaking my hand. "You'll get your scores later on in the day. Go treat yourself to something," she added as I walked out the door. I sighed with relief when the door was shut. I had proved myself to be the writer that my mother was, and I was happy.
"How did it go?" Stephen asked as he walked out of the room.
"Wonderful," I said dreamily, and we proceeded to walk down the hallway and I explained to him everything that happened in detail.
"Wow, that's really great," he said. "Wanna go get something eat around the corner?"
I nodded. "What did you get on yours?"
"Oh, mine wasn't very good. Just your average story. But the judge liked it," he said cheerfully as we started to walk down the street. I smiled and started to blab about how the writer knew my mother. I stopped talking in consideration for Stephen when we arrived at the fast food restaurant.
"What do you want? I'll buy," he asked as he stared at the menu.
"Just some ice cream?" I asked him. He nodded and went up to order. I got a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone and he got a milkshake. We sat down in a booth and started to eat.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Stephen asked, slurping on his shake.
"Probably nothing. I'll be sitting at home, watching TV or swimming," I answered with a shrug.
"Why don't you come to church with me tomorrow, and then after that you can meet my mother?" Stephen asked. I paused in mid lick when I heard that. He was inviting me to meet his parents?
"I've never been to church," I said softly.
"Don't worry. That doesn't matter. Will you go?"
I nodded. "Sure. I guess that would be alright," I replied. I finished my ice cream and waited for Stephen to finish his shake.
"You take forever," I complained. He laughed.
"I enjoy my food, and you just want to finish it," he retorted as he stood up and walked out of the building with me.
"So, I like to eat fast. Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yeah, you don't taste it," he said, and I punched him in the shoulder.
"Jerk," I mumbled, and he laughed. We got back to the school and found Mr. Halloway, who was waiting in the lobby.
"How did it go?" He asked us as we walked in.
"Fine," Stephen and I both mumbled, and Mr. Halloway smiled.
"Your scores will be in around 8, so you have a few hours of waiting to do. I suggest curling up in one of the rooms like the other students and take a nap or something," Mr. Halloway suggested. Stephen and I walked out of the lobby and found where the other Montgomery Students were hiding out in. The room with soft with talking and Stephen and I found a secluded corner and sat down.
"What's your family like?" I asked, leaning against the wall.
"Well, I have two brothers. They're both younger than me, and I have a dad and a mom," he said, and I chuckled. "We live in a nice house down the street from the school. I have my own room. Well, not really because my drum set takes up most of it," he said with a shrug.
"You play drums?"
"Yeah," he said. "I thought that I told you that."
"You probably did, I just wasn't paying attention," I said and laughed. He punched my shoulder.
"Hey, that's abuse!" I cried, shoving him away from me playfully.
"Whatever," Stephen said, and I laughed again. A few minutes later, Stephen was asleep and I was staring around the room, thinking. Finally after a while my eyelids drooped and I took a nap for at least 2 hours.
"Rise and shine ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Halloway bellowed from inside the room. I jumped out of my sleep and shook Stephen awake.
"What?" He asked. He looked at Mr. Hallow and sat up.
"I have your scores. Come up and get them when I call your name," Mr. Halloway announced, and he started to read off student's names. Mine was finally called last, and I went to receive my scores. I stared down at the paper in shock. The rating scale was one to five, five being the best. In every category, there were fives in the little boxes. I stared in disbelief. Was this really my story? Did I really receive these scores? Stephen glanced at the sheet, and his eyes grew wide.
"You got all fives?" He asked. I looked up at Mr. Halloway and saw him smile. I nodded blankly at Stephen and looked around. All of the other students were crowded around me, looking at my score sheet.
"There's going to be a ceremony for the schools with the highest scores, and for individual works," Mr. Halloway announced to the group, and there was light chatter going around that I was going to be recognized. I smiled at Stephen, and I went to put my sheet with my things. Finally, at around eight, the ceremony commenced. There were seven schools competing, and they all crowded in the small auditorium of the school and waited for their scores. Montgomery received an 80.53, which compared to the scale was a four. Our rival school, Florence Academy, received at 76.34, which was a good thing for Montgomery. After the announcement of the schools' scores, there were individual awards. There was only one student from each school that was going to be recognized, and Mr. Halloway had submitted my name.
"From Montgomery Academy in New Orleans, we have Rose Clairmont, the daughter of Emilia Clairmont, receiving the Outstanding short story award," The director of the organization announced, and the students at the Montgomery school screamed cheers as I went up to the stage to receive my award. It was a certificate and a gold medal which read first place. I took my award with pride and wished inside that they hadn't showered so much attention on me. Back at the Poitier Academy, I was constantly praised for my writing, and because of it, I had lost some friends because of it. I went back to my seat and received pats on the back and compliments from my peers, and we went out to the buses to leave. I was instantly drained of energy, and I started to close my eyes fro sleep, when I felt Stephen's arm go around my shoulder and pull me closer to him.
"I'm tired," he murmured, looking down at me. I grinned and scooted closer to him, the scent of his cologne putting a smile on my face. I instantly was asleep against him, and I didn't wake up until we arrived at the school. We got off the bus, and behind us, I could hear people commenting on how "cute" Stephen and I looked together. I blushed every time I heard a comment. I called Nicholas once I got off the bus, and he said that he would be there momentarily.
"So, are you going to go tomorrow?" Stephen asked. I nodded.
"What time should I be ready by?" I asked, numbly. I was so tired, all I wanted to do was to crawl into my bed.
"Probably 9:30. You don't have to dress nice, just come in comfortable clothes I guess," he mumbled. I nodded just as Nicholas's car pulled up.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then," he said. I waved to him and crawled into the backseat of the car, resting my head against the window.
"Did you have fun?" Nicholas asked cheerfully as we pulled away from the school.
"I pretty much got first place," I announced, and Nicholas turned around to look at me.
"That's great! Excellent!" He cried. I smiled weakly and started to doze off, but I forced myself to stay awake.
"Stephen was wondering if I could go to church with him tomorrow morning?"
"Church?" Nicholas asked.
"Yeah. He can pick me up and then afterwards he was wondering if I could go over to his house to hang with him and meet his parents and stuff," I murmured.
"Well, I guess that would be OK," Nicholas answered. I smiled and nodded off to sleep for a while before Nicholas woke me up to help me inside the house. I immediately dropped my things to the floor and went up to my room and crawled into my bed, remembering to set my alarm for 8:30. I immediately went to sleep, dreaming of what would happen tomorrow.
I woke up to the buzzing sound of the alarm clock at 8:30 in the morning, and I reached over and threw the clock against the wall, and it silenced. I sat up, trying to remember what happened last night, and then remembered that I had to get ready to go with Stephen to church. I took a quick shower and curled the ends of my hair after it dried, and I went into my closet to pick out something to wear. There was a cute little sun dress at the back of the closet. It was white with a flora design on it. I put that on, found a pair of matching sandals, and went down for breakfast.
Nicholas was the only one sitting at the dining table, reading the newspaper. I sat down and started to pick out some fruits that were sitting on a plate that was sitting in the middle of the table.
"Where's Annabelle?" I asked Nicholas. He looked over at his paper and smiled.
"Last night she had a charity event that she just had to attend to, and she got back late last night and had a little too much to drink," Nicholas announced. "So you don't need to worry about her today." I grinned, thinking that she deserved the worst hangover of her life, but I silently reminded myself that I was staying in her house and that I was to be respectful. I heard the doorbell ring shortly after that, and I bolted to the door to answer it. Stephen was standing there, dressed in a black pair of pants and a T shirt, and he was smiling.
"Oh, how did you find the house?" I asked, remembering that I forgot to give him instructions to the house.
"I just looked it up on the internet," He said with a shrug. I turned to Nicholas who was standing behind me, and smiled.
"Stephen, this is Nicholas," I announced. Nicholas reached over me and shook Stephen's hand.
"It's nice to meet you," he said. Stephen nodded and turned to me.
"We better get going," he said.
"Oh, yeah," I said. "Nicholas, I'll call you later. I promise," I said as I walked back to his car. It was a teal colored van that was obviously old. I waved to Nicholas and then turned to Stephen, who was opening the car door for me. I looked inside and smiled. Two boys were sitting in the back, one blonde haired, and one dark haired child, and up front, his Stepfather was driving, and his mother was sitting the passengers seat.
"Hi Rose, nice to meet you," his mother said. She was an older woman, probably in her early forties, with graying hair and hazel eyes. She wore light framed glasses and she had a wonderful smile. She was short, plump, and friendly from my first impression. "I'm Karen, Stephen's mother." She spoke so softly and warmly that it made me happy.
"Nice to meet you," I said with a large grin.
"This old man driving is Bobby, Stephen's Stepfather," Karen said, nodding over at the driver. He was tall, with balding gray hair, and large sunglasses on. He also had hazel eyes and a large smile.
"Nice to meet you," he mumbled. I smiled at him and I sat back in my seat and looked over at Stephen. He grabbed my hand and held it.
"Back there, is David and Matthew. David is the older one," Karen said. I turned around to see them both. David had black hair, glasses and was chunky for his age. Matthew had blonde hair, glasses, and light blue eyes.
"Hi," I said to the both of them. They both waved at me, and I turned around to Stephen. He smiled at me, and I stared ahead until we reached the church. Me and Stephen went into his Sunday school classes, and he introduced me to the group. That went by quickly, and we then went into the sanctuary for the rest of the service. We really didn't pay any attention, we were both tickling each other and messing around and Karen laughed at us both. Finally, we went back to Stephen's house for lunch, and we hung out for the rest of the day. We were mainly in the basement, watching TV or playing video games, but later on, we went up to his room and hung out there.
"I'm tired," I announced, stretching as I sat at his desk. He sat down on the floor next to the drum set and laid down.
"Come here," he ordered. I stood up and laid down next to him.
"Now go to sleep," he said. I laughed.
"Well, now we can say that we've slept together," I said with a chuckle. Stephen laughed and closed his eyes. I slowly drifted to sleep and didn't wake up until later when Matthew stormed into Stephen's room to announce that dinner was ready. I went into the bathroom to freshen up, and we went downstairs to eat dinner. Sitting at the table at dinner, I looked around and smiled.
I think I'm going to like this family.