Sunday, February 21, 2010

Whoops-blogfest, or "Poor little MCs"

Well, I signed up at the last hour for Laurel's Whoops! blogfest...and totally had nothing. My characters may do dumb things, but like their creator, they just roll with the punches. Except, they sometimes roll with the punches better than I do. For this reason, my story is based on true events. It's not too, too, too funny for this 2-22 blogfest...by the way, 2 is my favorite number! But it's pretty sad, awkward, and at least a tiny bit true.

And yes, I did just write this... in the last twenty minutes or so, here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you ever get into a sort of stupor, you're thinking so hard? That's how it felt for Sierra. She was completely lost in thought, to that point, and that's when it all began. The whole episode, which she would so rather just forget.

It's just that she was so confused as to what to do about him... she just had to walk. So put on her favorite sandals, and she grabbed her keys, and she ran out the door. The air was still cool, and her toes turned numb almost instantly, and she began to walk faster, thinking that would take care of their numbness. She thought about her toes, about the number of steps she took in a sidewalk block, and then about him. Always, it came back to him. And then she started to obsess, because she was such an idiot around him, when all she wanted was to be cool.


She didn't notice it at the first step, or maybe even the second. But she definitely noticed it by the third. She wasn't moving well, for some reason. She looked down.

She was walking through a large block of freshly-laid, wet cement.

At that revelation, she stopped, confused, and sank a little more. She repressed the urge to swear.

Ahead of her, the block was dry. She could see, now that she was paying attention, that it looked solid. She just had to get on it. She swung her leg out, and her foot escaped from her favorite sandal. She looked at it and sighed--it was half-buried in the gray muck. And her feet were a little bit gray. And the cement was still cold, too, of course. Wonderful.

She was still half-way stuck, her legs sprawled, so she carefully lifted her other foot out of the gunk. The sandal stayed on, this time, but her foot had submerged beneath the cement more than the other foot had. She reached back, and pulled it out, sending curses toward the men who had poured the cement. Surely they could have put up that stupid yellow tape in time, so she wouldn't make such a complete fool of herself?

She reached back out and grabbed the sandal, pulled at the strap...but it was stuck worse than she had realized, and it threw her off-balance. She slipped, and fell back in, submerging her jeans, too, this time. She sighed, thankful that she was alone, and dreading what the men who had poured this cement would say, after they noticed her handy work. If they noticed. Oh, what if they didn't notice? What would she do? She'd never be able to show her face again, and Brian--

"Hey--Sierra? Are you okay?"

Oh, God. She didn't need to turn to see his face. To know it was him. She felt her cheeks turn red as she twisted back, and pasted a fake grin on her face. She turned to face him, slipped once. Brian was looking at her, kind of in shock, like he didn't know what to do.

She burbled, when she spoke. "Oh, yeah. Totally. Hi!" 

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and hoped she didn't just rub more cement into it. Really cool.

12 comments:

Stephanie Thornton said...

Hehe! I love the last line!

Hatshepsut is kind of a klutz so I actually had something to post for this blogfest. Who knew a Pharaoh could be so awkward?

Tina Lynn said...

Sounds like something I would do. :)

Roxy said...

Oh, falling is always embarrassing and cement just makes it worse. I love that Sierra says she's fine when she so obviously is not. Don't we all do that? Great comedic timing.

Tara said...

Ha ha! Glad you cooked something up last minute. Cute. And embarrassing.

Amalia Dillin said...

Hahaha. "So cool." This is great Sarah--especially the fact that she's clearly well into the cement before she realizes it at all.

word verification: pollygoo

a woman covered in muck.

sarahjayne smythe said...

This totally is an ultimate Whoops! moment. And of course she's fine and totally cool. :)

sarahjayne smythe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laurel Garver said...

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing this as part of the fest, and making it all the more fun.

Jenna Wallace said...

Yep, that could be me. Very funny!

Just Another Sarah said...

Stephanie: Thanks! And may I say that I enjoyed your moment, as well?

Tina Lynn: It's seriously easier than you think. Especially when the tape is up.

roxy: Thanks! I'm sure Sierra will also find humor in the situation, some day. :)

Tara: Thanks!

Amalia: Your word verification makes my day! Pollygoo is so perfect for this...

Sarahjayne: Nice name! And thanks!

laurel: Thanks for hosting! This was fun! I'm glad I got something together.

Dreamstate: See what I wrote to Tina Lynn. It's totally easy to do!

dolorah said...

Awesome; you used this as a writing prompt! Really good for twenty minutes worth of writing.

I really like it Sarah. Some of my best writing inspiration has come from prompts.

Well done indeed.

.......dhole

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Hahahahaha! Oh my word, this sounds like something I would do. So well laid out. Loved the intro of "him" in her thoughts in the beginning and then the actual introduction of him in the end. Oh so awkward, ha! But beautifully circular. Nicely done.