Enjoyyyyyy. :]



Chapter 8 – Anastasia’s Editing Idea



The next day at the lunch table, Anastasia asked Michael, “Did you talk to him?”
    “No. You have to talk to him,” he answered.
    Of course he hadn’t spoken to him. But, maybe it was better that way. Anastasia queried, “But if I talk to him, wouldn’t it be weird since we don’t know each other at all?”
    Michael replied, “It might be, but at the same time, what have you got to lose? If it doesn’t work out, then nothing happens and you move on. If it does, then that’s a good thing.”
    Anastasia pondered about this. What he was saying was true. Most likely if it didn’t work out they way she wanted it to, she would be upset for a couple of days, and then she’d move on. It seemed to be simple enough. But, the concept of walking up to Daniel and just start talking was frightening. What if he thought she was a creeper or a stalker? She didn’t mind making a risk for Daniel, but it almost seemed too risky and out-of-the-blue to start having a random conversation with a boy who didn’t know she existed.
    Anastasia didn’t know precisely why, but for the rest of lunch and throughout the next class, she felt down on herself. Nothing was going her way anymore, if anything went her way at all in the first place.     
    In the beginning of Spanish class before the period officially started, she walked to the front of the room where some of her friends sat at. She was speaking with her friend Vanessa when another friend of hers, Kevin, walked over to them. He asked about Daniel like he usually did every time he saw her, and Anastasia told him truthfully that, once again, nothing happened. She was growing tired of saying, “Nothing happened” every single time she talked to somebody about the boy she liked. She was annoying herself now.
“Well,” Kevin muttered, “what about your novel? Weren’t you thinking about having him help you edit it?”
    “Yes,” Anastasia responded, “but I don’t know him yet to introduce it.”
Back in January, she finished a book that she had been writing for almost a year. Though, the story had been around longer before that, for she first wrote it while she was in seventh grade. Back then, it was a humongous hit amongst her peers, and whenever a person finished reading her story, they showered her in compliments. So, Anastasia decided to write the story over with her improved writing, wondering how it would do if she actually got her story published for the world to read. Currently, she was focused on editing it before she would send it out to agents, who are people who will judge her story, and decide if it’s good enough or not to start sending it out to big publishing companies. In order for the agents to love her book, it would have to be in top shape, so she got some of her friends involved in helping her edit it for a second opinion. To have Daniel help her edit as well would be amazing, but she didn’t see how he could try if she didn’t know him.
    “Hey, he has study hall fourth period,” Kevin pointed out, “and so do I. I could talk to him about it if you want me to.”
Even though Kevin wasn’t exactly a friend to Daniel, he did know him, and could have a conversation with him without coming off as weird. Kevin was a naturally outgoing person in Anastasia’s opinion, and him talking to Daniel about her novel didn’t seem like a half-bad idea. Her dark chocolate-colored eyes lit up at this new, possible plan.
    “You would do that?” she asked, feeling excitement start to well up inside of her.
     He nodded. “Yes. If you can give me a part of your novel, I can introduce it to him tomorrow.”
    She smiled. “Really?”
    “Really.”
    “Really?!”
    “REALLY!”
    “YAY!” Anastasia exclaimed as a sudden wave of happiness splashed over her. She felt gratefulness toward Kevin. “Can I get a hug?”
    Instead of giving her a simple hug, her athletic friend picked her up by her waist and raised her into the air against him.
    “Whoa!” She started laughing as he carried her for a few steps.
    Once he put her down, Anastasia started to walk back down a row of desks to her seat to reach her backpack. As she walked, Kevin commented, laughing, “She’s freaking out!”
    She giggled. “Well, I freak-out a lot.”
    When she got to her backpack, she reached her arm and took out Part Three of her novel that she had printed out. It was the only part she had on her, and she wished that she would have brought the first part with her that day. Daniel wouldn’t know what would be going on if he started reading her book from Part Three. But, since it was all that she had, she went back to Kevin and handed him the packet of papers.
    “Here, take this,” she told him, “but it’s Part Three and not the first one.”
She walked with him back to his desk. As she put the story in his backpack he said, “It’s fine.”
    Even though he said this, she was still unsure.
    
That night when she returned home, she decided to print out a copy of Part One just for Daniel. The other copy that she owned was covered in her handwriting on every page that was the result her attempts to edit it herself. It would be better if he had a more recently edited, fresh version of Part One.
The next morning, she went to the area she usually hung out at in the mornings to meet up with Kevin. He was talking to his friends, so therefore she tapped lightly on his shoulder to grab his attention. He turned to her and she said, “I want to make a trade with you. Give me the part of my book that I gave you yesterday. I’ll give you Part One.”
Kevin slipped off his bag in order to get the section of her story out. As he did this, Anastasia did the same. Then, they handed each other their parts of the book.

During the day, for some reason, she couldn’t help but feel hopeless again. It was true that Kevin was supposed to help her that day, and she knew that he would, but there was just something about that day that didn’t make her happy.
When she met up with Kevin again in the beginning of Spanish class, she was expecting for him to say the very words that he spoke.
“Well, he didn’t take it,” he informed her as he began to take out Part One out of his bag.
Of course, Anastasia thought quite sourly.
She took the papers, then asked, “What happened?”
He blinked. “He didn’t take it.”
“Detail, please,” she said.
“Well, I sat by him and I greeted him. He was doing his homework, but I asked him if he was good in English. He said yes, and that he has Mrs. Starlet. Then we talked about that. After that I asked him if he knew you, and he said maybe, for he recognizes the name. I showed him your story, and he looked at it, but he says he probably can’t help right now since he’s busy with accounting homework and stuff,” Kevin explained to her.
    Accounting homework? She wondered. That was interesting. Maybe she hadn’t heard right, but it was interesting fact about Daniel if that’s what he said.
    “Oh okay. Thank you,” she said, but on the inside she was sighing. What was there to do now?