In my story "She Said Yes," I believe the theme of the story is everything happens for a reason. This really suits the story and what the story is telling. Cassie was at first a crazy person and not connected to her family that well. Her and her friend Mona planned a murder of Cassie's parents. Cassie was this person for a reason and I think she became this person for a reason so Misty (Cassie's mom) can help her get on the right path of her life and help her through the tough times in her life. Also, Cassie went to this youth group with her brother to help her with her feelings and to bond with people. Cassie was very shy at first but then when Jamie came, Cassie and her became best friends so Jamie came for a reason and that really helped Cassie. Lastly, Cassie died for a reason. Cassie was very young when she died and was in a very bad massacre, but she died for a reason and my opinion she died because she knew that god needed her. When the killers came in they asked her if she believed in god and Cassie said yes. Cassie knew that her faith was the biggest thing for her life and she needed her to believe that her faith is the biggest thing in her life. So that is why the theme is everything happens for a reason. 

                In my story, She Said Yes, I would like to know the character Cassie. She passed away in the Columbine shooting in 1999. She was brave, independent, and faithful. Cassie had some very hard times in her life before she passed away. She was brave because the story said “...the gunmen came to her and said, “Do you believe in God?” she sat there and hesitated, but said, “Yes.” The gunman asked her “Why?” and then shot her…”  I want to know how she had the courage to be able to tell the gunman that she believed in god. I thought that was very brave and faithful of her to say that yes, she did believe in god. Cassie also had some problems in her early high school and middle school life. She used to write with her friend Mona how she wanted to kill her parents for taking her out of public school and she hurt herself mentally and physically. The story said, “…I can’t explain in words how much I hurt. I didn’t know how to deal with this hurt, so I physically hurt myself. Maybe it was my way of expressing my sadness, anger and depression… I would lock myself in the bathroom and hit my head on the counters and cut myself…” But she turned around her life and changed the way she was. I want to know how she changed her life so fast and accepted to make her life better. That is why my favorite character is Cassie.

Characters

My favorite character in literature is Jessica from the book Running Dream. Jessica changes a ton in this  book. In the beginning she was the all star runner on her track team. She was a superstar and loved to run with her dog. How the author describes her when she is running, Jess seems so powerful and adventurous, that what really makes me get dragged into the book because of Jess. Things change really fast and really shockingly. On the way to the track meet, the school bus tips with one of the kids dies and Jessica’s leg gets crushed and has to be amputated. She becomes really depressed and blue and doesn’t believe she could ever run again. Then her spirits get lifted and she gets a fake leg and starts running.  She goes from being blue and depressed to being thankful she got to run again and not caring what she looked like because she gets to run. I related to her so much because this book was so strong and powerful that putting Jessica, a powerful character, into the book really got me into this and caught my attention.

My favorite book is See You at Harry’s. I enjoyed this book because it is a great novel of a family that has a hard time with their family restaurant and events happened that causes depression of the family. I loved the detail and just the whole story of this book.

 I mostly read genres of realistic fiction and historical fiction.

I had just finished the story Drama. Drama is about a 7^th grade girl, Callie, who really enjoys drama productions, but she doesn’t like to be acting, singing and dancing, she likes to be behind the stage with the stage crew and costume crew. Her crush told her that he no never liked her and liked his ex-girlfriend. One day, two twin boys, Jessie and Justin saw Callie putting up a poster for the musical auditions and they started to talk to Callie and decided to join in the musical. Callie started to really bond with these two boys and became really good friend with them. Jessie loved to be on stage performing while Justin was like Callie and liked to be behind the sets.  Callie starts to hang out with Justin a lot and develops a crush on him. Callie gets in lots of drama with Bonnie who is the lead of the school musical and bounces back and forth with guys. When she finds out that her ex-crush Greg is going with Bonnie to the 8^th grade formal she gets really jealous and gets Justin to take her. When Justin ditches her at the dance, she can’t figure out why. She spends the night crying in the bathroom with her best friend,Liz until Liz gets Callie out of the bathroom and dance with her and have fun. She finds out that her date likes other boys and changes feelings about him. Soon Greg comes along and she finds out that her really actually liked her. She has so many mixed feelings and can’t control her life of school dance, their production of the play, and of course all of the drama.

-Abby Wylie