We are writing a book together
Here we can write our literary work together.
Maria Fellner - 04.01.2020 @ 09:58
This is the first chapter of our book "Sunshine". I hope you will like it. I am excited to read what you will come up with and how the story will continue.
Zoe Groening - 30.04.2019 @ 16:36
Sunshine…
By Sophia Bosnak, Marlene Kosin, Zoe Groening, HPS Buxtehude/ Germany
Chapter 1
It´s raining outside and I´m standing here, waiting for the bus to arrive. The buildings around me look all the same. Everything in this town is always the same. Every day is the same. Nothing is ever different or interesting. It´s just all grey and bleak and that´s exactly what I’m too. I`m the kind of girl, nobody knows exists. I´m alone most of the time. I don´t talk and people don´t talk to me. That´s also why school was awful today, like it actually always is. It just feels so useless to me. I´m probably never going to need most of the things I learn at school. The bus is late and my hair is already completely wet. It was supposed to be sunny today, so I didn´t take my umbrella with me this morning. But the weather has changed. Maybe it also doesn´t know, what´s going on, I can totally understand what you mean, dear weather, I really do understand.
Two months ago I realized that it´s actually not that important whether I´m good at school or not. I don´t have to be the best student that´ll ever exist. I put so much pressure on myself and now I just don´t care. If I say it like that, it sounds pretty good, but the bad thing about it is that I just stopped caring about anything at all. Nothing matters to me. Everything feels useless.
“Hey! Could you please stop staring at me? I mean, I like it when people stare at me. I love the spotlight and I love having everyone´s attention, but it´s getting a little weird now. If you´re trying to flirt with me….it´s not working.”
Wait, what? A girl only a few steps away from me, suddenly starts talking. I´ve been so lost in my thoughts that I haven´t even seen her standing there.
“Hello?!”
I start to look around and wonder who she´s talking to. It can´t be me, right? I would never look at someone more than two seconds. “Yes, I´m talking to you. You don´t have to pretend that you don´t know what´s going on. You´re the worst actor I´ve ever seen.”
And then she just bursts into laughter. I´m standing there with my eyes wide open. I can´t remember the last time I felt that embarrassed, and hell no, I don´t miss that feeling at all. Even though I´ve been staring at this girl for probably 5 minutes, if not longer, I see just now, what she looks like. She´s the same height as me. Her hair is black, but you can tell that she dyed it…and obviously not a professional hairdresser. It´s super patchy. There are brown spots all over it and even a white one. I don´t know, how someone could mess that up so badly. Is that even possible? She´s also really pale and dressed all in black. Black leather jacket, black t-shirt, black jeans and… what the hell……. black flip-flops? What is this girl doing? It´s not like I´m super well-dressed and know everything about fashion, but I swear, if Karl Lagerfeld saw that, he would get a heart attack and die. Yes, it looks that bad. Especially, when we think about the fact that it´s almost December. How does she still have feet? My feet would have gone numb by now.
But I have to admit that she´s going all-in with the “Everything I wear is black “-thing. Even her toenails are painted black. The only thing that´s not black is a bright coloured floral wreath on her head. Of course it doesn´t match the other clothes, but there´s something about it. It´s perfect! I think she stopped laughing two minutes ago, which means that I´ve stared at her, again. She must think I´m crazy by now. I look up and look into her eyes. She waves at me and screams ‘HEY!’ with a really high-pitched voice. And because I already made a fool of myself twice, I do the exact same thing. Now, we stare at each other, as if the situation wasn´t weird enough already.
“I´m so, so sorry” I start to apologize. “I didn´t want to stare at you. Usually, I would never do something like that, I swear.” I´m talking way too fast. Then she starts laughing again and says:
“You don´t have to apologize. I´m just taking it as a compliment. You just couldn´t help yourself cause I´m so pretty.”
Now, I feel uncomfortable, but I also wonder, how on earth, can this girl be so freaking confident?
“Hey Miss ‘I´m staring at pretty girls and apologize for it’, follow me!”
And then she just walks away. I can hear the weird noises her flip-flops make on the wet ground. I´m just standing there, wondering what just happened. And then I start running. I run after her. Why? I don´t know. I just have to. It just makes sense in a really weird way.
“Oh, so you´re actually following me. Okay, so...sunshine, any idea, what I´m going to show you?” After she said that, she looks at me with a big smile on her face and I just can´t help, but to smile back at her.
Enjoy the second chapter of our common book. How do you like the way the story is evolving?
Zoe Groening - 30.04.2019 @ 16:39
Chapter 2
by, Elias Ferry and Gabriella Nimmersjö, VKS Växjö/Sweden
I wake up from my alarm blaring at 8 in the morning. I sit up, rub my eyes and ask myself if I really should get up or if I should just continue sleeping. This goes on for a good few minutes and finally, I decide to get up. New day new possibilities...right? I walk over to my mirror and stare at my hair, the spontaneous dyeing of my hair last night did not go as planned. It’s full of brown patches, and somehow a white one...but I kind of like it, it’s cool and unique, like me. I smile at the mess. My mom is going to hate it! Perfect! I walk over to the dresser to get dressed. I open it to find my perfect collection of black clothes. Should I go for midnight black or rocket black? Meh, let’s go for something different today, raven black! I grab a raven black t-shirt and a pair of matching jeans. Of course, I can’t leave without my trusty leather jacket either, so I walk over to my pile of laundry and dig it up from the bottom. It smells like cigarette smoke and oil paint as usual. While digging through my clothes pile I find an old flower wreath I wore to a school graduation party in 6th grade. I put it on to match my unpredictable and unique hair. I check my watch, I have 5 minutes to get out of here before my mom wakes up, but I can’t find my boots. I search literally everywhere, in my dresser, under my bed, in the toilet and they are nowhere to be found. I only have 3 minutes! The only thing I manage to find is a pair of black flip flops...great. I put them on as I hear my mom stomping up the stairs, oh god! The only way out of the house is through the front door, well...and the window. I slide the window open quickly and jump out of the window and thankfully into a bush and I burst into a sprint to the bus stop. Finally, I'm going to meet him! Even if it’s pouring down a river I've never been more excited and happy.
I’m drenched as I near the bus stop. I check my phone to see if I've gotten any messages from him. Of course, I haven’t, he can barely text me two times a day. Why can’t he treat me like a queen? I deserve that after everything I've been through and after everything that I've done for him. I get to the bus stop and the only other person there is some girl I recognize from school. She’s usually really quiet and sits alone at lunch and on breaks. I get a notification on my phone, it’s from him! “Can’t come, sry” is all it says...no explanation or anything. God, he is such an asshole! I shove my phone in my pocket and notice the weird girl staring at me. I quickly look away thinking she can see I’m pissed off. But when I look up again she is still staring at me. She’s wearing a pair of light blue skinny jeans, a white sweater, a pair of white sneakers which are soaked and a yellow trench coat. Don’t get me wrong, I HATE colour but she looks great in it, it highlights her pretty eyes and auburn hair.
“Hello!?” I shout at her.
She looks around nervously, probably wondering if I'm talking to her. She must be stupid, since she is the only other one here. “Yes, I'm talking to you! You don’t have to pretend that you don’t know what’s going on. You’re the worst actor I've ever seen.” She looks like a terrified hamster. I can’t help but burst into laughter. After about 2 minutes I finally stop laughing and she’s still staring at me.
“I’m so, so sorry” She starts to apologize. “I didn’t want to stare at you. Usually, I would never do something like that, I swear. She blurts this out with such haste that I can’t help but laugh again.
“You don’t have to apologize; I’m just taking it as a compliment. You just couldn’t help yourself ‘cause I'm so pretty” I say jokingly.
She looks really uncomfortable, tilts her head and stares at me...AGAIN. Honestly, this girl needs help, maybe I should take her under my wing, teach her a thing or two about life. She can be like the little puppy that I train to attack other people. I know exactly where I should take her, to my secret spot! “Hey miss ‘I’m staring at pretty girls and apologize for it’, follow me!” I say and start running towards the forest. I turn back to see if she’s brave enough to run after a stranger into the forest and sure enough, she’s running after me. “Oh, so you’re actually following me. Okay, so...sunshine, any idea, what I’m going to show you?” I say as I give her my good old smile. She smiles back at me with an immensely pretty smile and we keep running.
Here's another chapter of "Sunshine". I hope you enjoy reading it and maybe find a way to continue the story.
Eichmüller - 12.06.2019 @ 14:41Laura
Chapter 3
by Laura Eichmüller, BG/BRG Kufstein/ Austria
After a few minutes of running, my breathing is starting to get heavier. How does this girl run so fast for this long time? The small path we are running on is curvy and if you don’t know where to go you will get lost because of all the turns. The black haired girl seems to know exactly what she wants. Even though I can see pretty far into the woods, I don’t feel like I would find a way out of this. The leaves of all the bushes on the ground make the forest light and spend some sunlight. The girl isn’t slowing down although I can clearly see that the flip flops make her struggle a little. I’m just stumbling behind her, it’s hard to keep track with her.
“Do you mind slowing down a little bit? I mean, if you don’t want to that’s also ok but... please slow down I can’t run that fast anymore” I try to say, breathing so hard I’m pretty sure she didn’t understand a single word.
She immediately stops running and goes over into a more normal walking tempo. “No problem sunshine, we’re actually almost there. So... have you any ideas so far where we’re about to go?”
“To be honest, not really. My mind was full with keeping up with you. But now that I’m thinking... maybe something hidden, a secret spot...” I start. It literally could be anything, from a simple house in the woods to a huge old industrial building occupied by teens who use it as a place to take drugs and drink alcohol. I really don’t know. And why does she even want me to figure it out myself? This girl is weird. I might have seen her before, but we’ve never talked in school before.
A small smirk appears on her face when she hears my answers. As if she hadn’t heard them she turns around and starts walking again. I’m confused. What is so important that she wants to show it to me. I mean why to me. There are so many interesting people out there and she chooses me. My thoughts go back to school. I don’t know the exact time right now but I’m sure school is starting in a few minutes. At the beginning of the school year I would have been furious if I was in that kind of situation and not in school. No school today seems actually really nice because I know I wouldn’t have learnt anything important. The teachers are probably showing only Christmas movies.
Black girl is still walking. I’m so glad she isn’t running anymore. I’m not the type for running. Every time we need to do it in school I’m one of the slowest, always the one who’s trying to catch up with all the others but always fails. Sport isn’t really my scene. I am more the girl that sits in the library with her nose in a book.
The path is getting a little wider again and I can go next to the girl. She’s clearly focused on something else, but she manages not to fall over a stone or root. I don’t want to interrupt her so I stay quiet. Then the forest suddenly stops. In front of us is field, covered in snow. And far away, at the end of it stands a small building. Nobody seems to be living in it right now. Behind it there are more trees, it’s impossible to see it from somewhere else than here. I’m glad that the snow isn’t high and we can pass the field with almost no problems. Her feet are red as tomatoes. I kinda feel bad for her.
After some time, we get to the house. It seems bigger now than it did before. I’m still wondering what it’s use is when the girl takes a key out of her leather jacket and opens the lock on the door. I step in and OMG what is this? This house has a full kitchen, an old couch with a fireplace and an ancient bookshelf. Several doors go to other rooms. Is this her house? It seems like it but you never know.
“Take a seat sunshine, I’m just gonna turn on the fireplace.” She interrupts me from looking around not believing what I see.
“Is that all yours?” I ask, still not understanding what all this is.
“Yeah it’s mine. But don’t worry, I’m going to explain that to you later.”
I stay quiet after this, using all the time to take in everything.
As the first flames ignite, she goes to one door and waits in front of it. “Girl, come on, let’s go inside!”
I don’t know what she wants, but she gives me a little smile and nods confidently, so I decide to get up and follow her. The other room is much bigger, wooden flooring, mirrors on the wall. In the fare back there are some mats. There is no other furniture in it. I see some speakers and a big sound system. It takes me some time to realize what this is supposed to be.
This girl has her own freaking dance or gymnastic studio.
This is the 4th chapter of tale about Sunshine, which we have written on our English lessons with class.
Maciej Czuba - 17.11.2019 @ 22:49
Chapter 4
by Marta Bednarczyk, Zuzanna Kapka, Estera Pyzia, Aleksandra Taźbirek, Michalina Meybaum VIII LO Kraków/Poland
This girl had her own freaking dance studio! She walked to the centre of the room, saying nothing for a while. A pregnant silence hung in the air. After a moment which felt like an eternity, she started to speak:
“This… is the place that I hate the most. Sunshine, you have no idea how much I have suffered here.” She was standing with her back to me, so couldn’t see her face. I never noticed how unsettling not seeing someone’s expression could be. “Let me tell you my story.” It wasn’t even phrased like a question. She just kept talking, almost like she was reciting a memorized poem. “There was once a world-class ballerina. She always got the main role, always danced on the biggest stages. She had everything: fame, money, connections. She had everything and yet she always craved more, always wanted to be better. However, she had an accident, after which she couldn’t perform anymore. And since she couldn’t dance herself, my brother and I became the subjects of her ambition.” She started walking slowly towards mahogany doors which I hadn’t noticed before. I followed, feeling more and more interested with every word she spoke. “Ever since we were young, we were trained here, every day, without rest. We were supposed to be the best, even surpass our teacher.
“But we were just children, and we had our moments of weakness…” -she opened the door to reveal a dark room- “and in those moments, that woman had no mercy.” A shiver ran down my spine at her words. Unprompted, I stepped into the room, and immediately my nose was assaulted with a metallic odour that made me want to retch. In the weak light coming from the dance room, I could see mysterious stains on the floor. I squinted, trying to identify what they were. In that moment the girl turned on the light; its source being a lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. I could now make out the red colour of the stains. My vision swam and my breath caught in my throat as I realized that it was blood. Lots of it. I turned to her, wanting to hear a denial, but it didn’t come. Instead, she continued, “The woman who was supposed to be my mother became my tormentor.” She looked at me with sad eyes. I noticed that they weren’t vivid blue, as I had previously thought, but a greyish, murky colour. Staring into them, I could only feel deep sympathy for this poor girl.
“I- I’m sorry…“ I mentally cursed myself for saying something so insensitive. Nothing I said could make it better, and yet I needed to say something. For a moment I thought I saw a spark of triumph in the girl’s eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. Must’ve been just my imagination.
“I’m not asking you to understand” she spoke again, her voice hoarse, “I just wanted to share this burden with someone. I’ve kept it all bottled up for so lo-ong…” her voice cracked. She closed the distance between us. From up close, I could see genuine suffering on her face. A single tear fell from her eye. I felt my throat close up at the sight, and my own eyes welled with tears. She started speaking again, her words slurring together as sobs wracked her body, “Ever since my brother left, that woman has been crueller than ever. In two months we leave for a prestigious ballet competition in Tokyo. I’m not good enough to win, but if I don’t, she will hurt me. Please, I can’t bear this anymore…” She was full-out crying now, tears streaming down her face. It was a truly pitiful sight, and something in me protested at seeing this girl in such a state.
“Hey” I called out to her, but it was such a quiet sound she didn’t hear it over her wailing. “Hey!” I repeated, louder, putting a hand on her shoulder. She raised her head to look at me. The sight of her tear-stained face ensured me in what I was about to say.
“I will help you, no matter what”
Here is our work, the fifth chapter of “Sunshine”
Mónika Farkas - 27.10.2020 @ 19:49
Chapter 5
by Greta Vizkeleti and Flóra Molnár, DNG Budapest/Hungary
“I will help you no matter what!” I said again louder, and I gave her my greatest smile.
I have felt first in a while, that I have something, a goal to wake up in the morning, to fight for.
I remember when my mom fell ill a year ago. The doctor said, she had just a few months left. But I didn’t give up. I knew my mother could make it through, she would not die. I always told her” I will become a doctor to take care of you. I will study hard; just promise me you won’t give up!” I was wrong. When my mum died two months later, my world became grey. Everything was useless, because the most important person, who has raised me up alone, is gone. But now I must help this girl to step up against her mum.
“But how…” she asked me.
“Pretty simple. We go to the police and tell them about, what your mother did to you. “She stopped crying and raised her eyes at me. She seemed to sink in her own thoughts, but in the end, she just shook her head.
“I can’t do it. I can’t betray her. She is my mother after all.” She complained. I sighed and sat down to the ground. She lay down next to me on the floor.
“And your brother? I looked at her.” Don’t you want to move to him? “
“No…I don’t want be a burden to him. He has started his new life…” I can’t argue with her.
“Let me think….” I broke the silence. “Do you want to make your mum go mad?” I had a mischievous smile on my face.
“Should I be scared?” She laughed. I stood up, grabbed her arm and pull her up. “Let’s make you the best ballerina of the world!” She was surprised for a moment.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am. First: What will you perform in the competition?”
“I will dance Giselle’s Act I variation. You know my mother had won her first competition and had become famous with this piece. Therefore, she thinks if I perform as Giselle, I will be as successful as she was once. I’ll show it to you!”
As she danced, she was like a fairy, but this role doesn’t show who she truly is. I felt, she was an actor in her own life. She danced perfectly, but she had no feelings for it.
I stopped the music. “You must find another piece. Someone said once: You must feel the music and hear the dance...”
“I…I have something in my mind. I always wanted to dance as the black swan.” she whispered it. I didn’t say anything, just nodded. And she started the practice to surpass her mother and to find her way to be independent. And I was happy to be able to help her.
Days, weeks passed, and she became better and better. I was always by her side and supported her. With the days, which we spent together in the house, I felt she was my first friend in a while. But I was suffering from one thought; I knew her mother would not leave her be, even if she won the competition. I could lose my friend, if I do, what my duty was as her friend…to go to the police and report her mum for child abuse. I had evidence. I asked her for more details. I secretly recorded her speech and I took photos, when she was in the heat of dancing.
One day before her flight when I met her, she had a bruise under her left eye. Then I had enough! I decided to go. No one could stop me.
I didn’t ask anything about her bruise, just smiled at her. In her eyes I saw, she was thankful for it. After her practice I prepared something for her as a supporting gift.
“I have surprise for you!” And I gave her a necklace with a moon symbol on it. She had tears in her eyes. But they were from joy.
“I am wearing the same. Look!” I showed her my little sun medal on my necklace. She smiled.
“Thank you, Sunshine!” She hugged me tight.
“Break a leg in the competition!” One nod was her answer.
Then we said goodbye than I was on my way to the police. I told them everything and they promised me, they will end it. I asked them to help me find her brother. They were on the case immediately.
After few days she called me to tell, that she successfully won the competition, but her mother was furious. She sounded scared. However, I still believed everything would be fine.
On that day I got her brother’s phone number from the police. After one or two rings a deep man’s voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi. I am your sister’s friend. She is in trouble. Her mother…your mother makes her suffer, even when she stands up. She didn’t ask you to help but I do. I reported your mother to the police, because I couldn’t bear, what she is doing to her. I don’t know, if I did it right…Please come to your sister and take care of her!”
“You did it right. I should have done it a long time ago.” He sounded very soothing.” When will they come back?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
“I will be there. Thank you!” He ended the conversation.
Next day came. The police were there, when she and her mum arrived at the airport. They took hold of her immediately.
“You are now arrested cause of child abuse after the examination of the evidence.” they shouted.
The girl just stood there and stared at me. She didn’t cry, but her eyes were full of loathing. I understood it very well…
Her brother came and took her in his arms.
“Let’s go home. We have to talk.” he said. The girl just nodded. When they were passing me, she stopped.
“I didn’t ask for your help…Don’t come closer in the future.” She whispered. I felt bitter, still I did well.
That was the day, when I lost a friend, but found a goal. I would like to help people in another way I’d imagined before. One day I saw a black girl. She had never changed her style, but she was always wearing the necklace with the moon symbol… I got inspiration from this case, and I started to write a book. The title is “Sunshine”.