Do not drive me to despair:
Long have I sighed in vain,
Now I am come again:
Will you be mine or no, no-a-no,—
Will you be mine or no?
 |
| Illustration by T. Whittaker. |
Tom always stared at her silky, blonde curls.
He loved how they fell down her back like a waterfall. Tom wondered what her
hair smelt like. “Like lilies and soap, I bet”, Tom said to him. He had been in
love with Sylvia since they started attended Monroe Elementary together in the
3rd grade. Now, they are senior in high school and Tom knew he had
to make a move before she left for college and he left for the army.
Sylvia Shepard was one of the most popular
girls in school, even though she didn’t know it. She had this innocent
sweetness to her that everyone was drawn to. Tom included. Tom on the other
hand wasn’t so popular. He was from a bad part of town and had a hard time
growing up. But, he wanted to be different than his family and alcoholic dad.
He knew Sylvia was the key to his new life.
Tom would never forget the first time they
spoke since 3rd grade. It was in the hall at the beginning of senior
year. She accidentally ran into him sending paper and books flying everywhere.
They both dropped to the ground to pick up the mess. As they were picking up
the books, their hands touched and at that moment Tom felt something he never
felt before. He knew she was the one. Her gorgeous, big blue eyes gazed up at
him as they both laughed and pulled way their hands.
“Sorry”, she said. “ I am so clumsy. I need
to start looking where I am going. Are you hurt? I think my geometry book hit
your head pretty hard.”
“I am fine”, Tom said. “I wasn’t looking
either. It wasn’t your fault. I was looking down at my book trying to study for
the history exam tomorrow.”
“Do you need help studying? Not to brag but
history is my best subject. I am sure I can help you out. I owe it to you,”
said Sylvia. After hesitating, Tom agreed to have Sylvia help him. He needed to
make a good grade, but mostly he wanted to spend time with Sylvia.
Later that day, they met at the benches in
the park by Sylvia’s house where they had planned to meet. It was the best 2
hours of Tom’s life. He loved they way Sylvia tucked her hair behind her ears
when she looked up at him. They talked about history for only 30 minutes. The
rest of the time they spent talking to each other and learning about one
another. Tom had never met someone so amazing. Soon their time together was
over. Sylvia had to return home for dinner and Tom had to go to work.
Tom thought about that day every day. Him and
Sylvia continued to study together every week and learn more about each other.
One time they were talking about the upcoming Valentine’s Day dance, Tom
finally got up the nerve to ask Sylvia to go with him. Tom was heartbroken to
hear that Sylvia was already going with John the captain of the football team.
“I wish you would have asked earlier. I would
have loved to go with you. Please save me a dance,” Sylvia told Tom. They
shared a brief kiss before returning back to their homes for the night.
The next weekend was the dance. Tom was so nervous
to see Sylvia. He wondered how beautiful she would look and how great it would
feel to dance with her.
He arrived at the dance so excited to see
her. The second he laid eyes on her in her dusty pink dress, he knew he
couldn’t go one more second without asking her to be his.
He ran to the stage. Grabbed the microphone
and confessed his love for Sylvia in front of everyone.
“SYLVIA, sweet as morning air,
Do not drive me to despair:
Long have I sighed in vain,
Now I am come again:
Will you be mine or no, no-a-no,—
Will you be mine or no”
Sylvia couldn’t believe Tom had just gone on stage
and asked her to be his girlfriend. She couldn’t have been more excited. She
ran up to the stage and gave Tome a big long kiss in front of the whole school.
Tom was so excited to finally have Sylvia as his. After the kiss, Sylvia
whispered in his ear, “I thought you never ask”.
Author's Note:This week I read British Nursery
Rhymes. This section is a bunch of little nursery rhymes that have a main
subject they go under. I wrote my story after a section in the Love and Matrimony
section. The short nursery rhyme I used to tell my story is as follows:
SYLVIA, sweet as morning air,
Do not drive me to despair:
Long have I sighed in vain,
Now I am come again:
Will you be mine or no, no-a-no,—
Will you be mine or no
I wrote my story around this little section. It was
so fun to write a whole story based on such a small section. I got to come up
with all my own details and let my imagination go.
Bibliography: The Nursery Rhymes Book. Love and Matrimony
by Andrew Lang (1897).
Hi Averey! For the beginning of the story, was Tom speaking to himself? If so, I think you should put "Tom said to himself" instead of just "him." However, the whole story was very cute! The way you integrated dialogue into your story was very good. I like how the ending didn't quite wrap up the story, but it gave us enough information to assume that the two ended up together. There were some typos in the story that can be easily fixed, but they didn't take away much from the story.
ReplyDeleteVery creative to take a nursery rhyme and turn it into a whole story. You did a great job at doing that too. You made the story very relatable and I liked how you added the nursery rhyme at the beginning. This made me think about it as I read the story. I bet if anyone else got up in front of everyone and declared his love for a girl, she probably would have been weirded out haha. You did a very good job and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThis story was so interesting. I really enjoyed how you inserted the story rhyme at the beginning of the story. It gave me a clear cut idea of how the story might play throughout. If it changes, I would know and it would draw my attention to the story even more. You have great work overall. Keep up the creativity throughout your writing.
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