A BROKEN PROMISE by Jordan Marshall

Latoya thought the world of Jim although no one seemed to do the same. Latoya was smart, intelligent and was by far the most beautiful girl in her third form class. So it puzzled everyone when she got together with Alan. Their relationship would make true the statement that opposites do attract as Alan was a rough, hard edged delinquent who was already out of school. He had made nothing of himself and spent all his money buying drugs and alcohol, so it was of no surprise that her friends begged her to break it up. She always claimed she knew what she was doing.
          One dark and quiet afternoon, in an old and abandoned classroom, she confronted Alan and told him what her friends had told her.
          "They say that some day you're going to hurt me!" mumbled Latoya, "but promise me you will always take care of me."
          "Ofcourse hon," whispered Alan, "I love you too much to do anything else." Latoya's face blushed with disbelief.
          "Do you really love me?"
          "Just close your eyes and I'll show you how much I do." At this point he wrapped his hands around her face and began kissing her gently on her lips. He then proceeded to kiss her on her neck, she smiled approvingly.
          "Honey, I'm sorry but I can't stay any longer, my parents will get worried."
          "But wait, I haven't finished showing you how much I really love you." She sensed a hint of mischief in his voice and immediately became tense. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and began to pull away. "What you think you doing!" He shouted.
          "I'm just fourteen. You really don't expect me to go all the way," she said adamantly. He began to smile, a evil grin on his face. He then clamped down on her leg, "that's the thing," he said, "you don't have an option." He held down her hands and began to strip off her clothing. She squirmed and cried for help but no one seemed to hear her.
          "I can't afford to let something like this happen to me. she thought. she then gathered all the strength she had and kicked him in the groin. He screamed in pain. She used this as an opportunity to escape so she spat into his eyes and threw him off of her. She then threw a couple of desks and chairs on him to prevent him from moving. At this point he lay on the ground swearing and holding his crotches. She left the room in tears in only her skirt and brassiere, running through the empty school yard. She felt hurt and distressed as the one whom she had loved had broken his promise.

REMINDERS

Please remember (when writing your short story)

• Start with a 'BANG'. Start with dialogue or action. Do not start with " This is a story about...", " It was a...", "Once, there was a...." or "Once upon a time..." . These are boring. The idea is to GRAB the reader's attention and keep them hooked to your story.
• Remember, each new speaker has their own paragraph.
•  Start with a conflict
• Like your descriptive essay, appeal to all your senses and include literary devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration....
• Show don't tell. Instead of saying you're scared show me - sweat began to bud all along your face, hands began to tremble, knees knocked, you began to move hesitatantly, eyes wide open, quickly turned back etc. (not once did I say scared or afraid or nervous, but you got all those feelings)
• It's not a report, so allow your characters to develop, go in great detail; be subjective. your opinion makes the story interesting.
• allow your characters to have a personality. Is she mean, is he a liar, is he a kindhearted soul or is she a dedicated friend? But don't tell me, show me. "As swift as a fox, he snatched the shirt off the hanger and stuffed it in his bag.... as cool as can be he walked through the revolving doors of JCPenny." or "How yuh so beggy beggy? Yuh fi buy yuh own sharpner. Every minute unu want supm else. Move man."
• your conflicts should be resolved. Agood idea is to resolve the conflict and have something else ironically happen to end your story in suspense. For example, you are travelling late and get held up. You are rescued by passersby. You thank them and go on a bus. Two men enter the bus, tell everybody not to move, they are robbing the bus.

WILL POST MORE LATER.

IT IS UPON US

It is fast arriving the end of our second year together, and as you ought to know, the End of Year Examinations is upon us. The next few blogs will be dedicated to reinforcing various topics you will need to revise for your English exams.

Remember, it's two Language papers and one Literature paper.

For the Language papers, students should be able to:

• answer comprehension questions
• write a business letter(report writing will be incorporated in this mode of writing)
• write a description of a person (or placce)
• write a short story

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• identify synonyms and antonyms
• select the correct homonyms
• identify the correctly spelt words
• select the most appropriate word to complete sentences
• punctuate sentences correctly

NB. There will be atleast three comprehension passages on the multiple choice paper (poetry, short story, exposition).


For the Literature exam, students will be tested on:

• poetry (mood/tone, literary devices and how effectively they are used, themes, stanzas)
• elements of drama
• Shakespearean drama (comedies, tragedies, histories - state characteristics and identify examples of each)
• all three novels read for the year (Sixty Five, Men and gods, Enchanted Island)              *Remember you are to answer A question from TWO books.

Themes include (but are not limited to):
- Heroism
- Love and Family relationship
- Violence
- Death/ tragedy

As you should realise by now, this is what you have been doing for the year.

****With hard work and perseverance comes success.****