Recently in an Honors Literature Survey class, Mrs. Michelle Milanich, students were asked to write about a struggle they faced. Lleyton Bell, freshman, submitted his essay, extraordinary for its expressionism and extraordinary plot.
This essay is the first of this new edition. The HyBreeze is interested in publishing works of students, highlighting their hard work in writing. Similarly to the Creative Corner this will become a monthly edition. If interested, please submit your work to [email protected].
D.C. Scrapbook Nightmare
Get ready for a true nightmarish story about my D.C. scrapbook. My 8th grade U.S. history class had been working on our D.C. scrapbook since the beginning of the year. We had spent section after section working on this scrapbook with mountains of pages worth of work. It all led up to the DC trip, where we had to take notes on things from the elegance and antiquity of the Constitution to the marvel and beauty of the Washington Monument.
Using the notes, we had to assemble the biggest portion of our scrapbook while assimilating our experience to wrap all of the notebooks together. It was going to be the biggest summative assignment for the whole class, but it would have been several pages of hard work, so I was hesitant to do it during the week we had to do it. I waited until the last day thinking, “I will get it done.”
I had a rec baseball game that night, and it was so exciting that I completely forgot about the project. I woke up and had the realization of the nightmarish reality that I had not finished my DC scrapbook.
I tried to get it done while on the scorching yellow bus, but my triumph was to no avail. I arrived at my first-period U.S. history class with a disappointed look from my teacher, who gave me lunch detention, and I thought, “What was I going to do?” Almost every single kid in my class had it done. It was so surreal in my class. I had always seen the few slackers in my class and thought I could never be them. I was like them, I had become them.
At that point I noticed something. The walls in the school were always just normal brick walls with skin-colored paint, but the walls that day were looking evil, like they were growing eyeballs and a mouth. I was being shouted at by the wall and I was afraid. I realized that the wall had become a demon and I had to escape it before enough demons came out of the wall to destroy me.
I skipped playing in a band that day and just worked on the project. The sounds of the music murdered and screeched in my ears. It was all fun for the rest of the band, but I was in pain. I was in a hot tub of stress holding me with its grimy, filthy fingers. I would move on to class after class, my insides draining off the dread of my stress. Some classes let me work on the scrapbook, and some didn’t. The demons in the walls were getting closer and closer. I was running for my life from them. Completing the scrapbook was a thought that buried me, and weighed me down in classes where I could not work on it.
Eventually, I believe around Spanish class, I finished typing the scrapbook, but I wasn’t done. I needed to print the pages. I decided that this would best be done during my lunch detention. At this point, the demons were getting more numerous and frightening.
There was still one fatal problem: I still needed to find a container for all of the papers. I ended up solving this problem by disassembling my entire band binder, and just jamming the bent and distorted music in my backpack. I was pained to see my brilliantly crafted band binder be reduced to abstraction and I felt every part of my body ache, but I did what had to be done.
I didn’t even end up eating lunch that day because during my lunch detention, I ran to the library, being chased by demons along the way, and started printing every sheet one by one. The library printer was as slow as molasses in January, so I wasn’t sure if the pages would even be printed in time before lunch ended. I needed to get the project done before school ended. I waited and waited, and organized as it printed. Page after page would come out with me dying and screaming to the heavens and gods of all kinds above me, praying that this misery, torture, and distress would end.
As each page came, I was organizing and putting together my scrapbook. The demons were trying to hold me back. I wouldn’t let them stop me. I could feel their fingers on my back. They were whispering to me, but it didn’t discourage me. I will keep going.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
At last, the last page came out, and I could finally think, “I got it done!” It was only then, that the burden holding me had been released. I was triumphant, I had fought off the demons holding me back.
“I won! CURSE THE DEMONS AND SEND THEM BACK TO THEIR HOME. I AM VICTORIOUS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
I turned it in six periods late, but it was done. I got an A (but the grade was marked down for being late, so I got a B). The demons were forever banished from my soul. I learned many things from this experience. I learned to create schedules, plan assignments and figure out exactly when I am going to complete them. From then on, anytime there is a big assignment, I plan when and how I am going to do it.
Bio: Lleyton Bell is a freshman at BBHHS. Bell is involved in the math club and academic challenge, as he loves math, statistics, trivia, and other math related topics. Aside from his academic extracurriculars he enjoys being part of the marching Bees as a percussionist. Outside of school, he enjoys playing video games such as “Undertale” and “Deltarune”. He also enjoys listening to music by AJR and likes the song, Thick of it by KSI.
