Gone with November, Into December (AND CHRISTMAS)

So, we survived NaNo.

Being the busy college student I am, I finished the month with a word count of just over 31k.

But you know what? I am happy with that.

31k = 110 pages is the most I have ever written of something. Ever.

This wonderful little book of short stories is only about 1/3 of the way finished, but I have utilized NaNo as a good jumping off point to finish this thing.

My next goal is potentially try to finish this project in the almost three weeks of break I have from school coming up. We will see if this actually happens as there are a few new tv series that have come out this fall that I am gonna catch up on. Then there are the Christmas movies and tv episodes. Plus, well, I have started watching Big Valley again for the first time in a year and let's just say, I am really getting into it XD

Yeah, maybe if I can get this book to the halfway point by the time my three weeks of break are up, that just might be a more feasible goal.

So, without further ado, here are some of my best NaNo snippits. Be prepared, as you guys may get more if I really convince myself to stick with this project. Plus, it's fun when you figure out how your NaNo characters can guest star in a totally different book idea....and WOW have I got off topic.

HERE are the snippets.

There was something that had been weighing quite heavy on her mind. He knew her too well by now to figure anything different.

What was it?

Was she nervous for graduation? The Good Lord knew that they all were. While they had some sort of sense of direction to glean from for at least the next year after college, none of them knew where they would be or end up in the next five years with the band. It could be the greatest success in the world of Country music, or even a total flop. That thought alone was intensely terrifying to think about.

There she is, Ben pondered as he noticed the blond 20-year-old entering their Starbucks, striding with purpose over to what had become their table.

“Hey,” Ben greeted with a simile, standing up to give her a small peck on the cheek.

“Hi, thanks for meeting with me this late,” Chloe said with a sort of an apologetic grin.

“You know it's never a problem,” Ben said as he slid a grande Mocha toward her. “What’s on your mind?”

“Well, life, to put in in a nutshell,” Chloe said, taking a few apprehensive sips.

“After college?”

“Yeah”.

Chloe set her paper coffee cup down with a thunk, against the granite tabletop and rubbed her eyes, before her blue met with his grey. “I wanna put my music on hold for a bit and go back into gymnastics”.

Ben nodded as he sipped his coffee, never taking his eyes off her, as he knew she had more to get off her chest.

“With how much time and commitment this will take, I don’t know if I can make the time I really want..”

“For us?” Ben asked.

“For us,” Chloe agreed with a nod. “Now understand I am not breaking up with you. But my training will take up a good ¾ of my time if I go through with this and..”

“Well, we will have to find a way to utilize the other quarter of your time to see each other”. Ben cut her off with a natural air of assurance.

Chloe blinked, somewhat taken aback by what the man sitting across from her-a man who she cared very much about-had proclaimed. “You mean?”

Ben nodded. “I think God had something in mind when he put us together two years ago. This is something I would like to delve more into now we are leaving college, regardless of the fact of how much time you will spend in the gym”.

Chloe sighed in an almost state of relief, glad to finally have this off her chest. “I want to explore this with you. I will admit though, I was preparing myself for the possibility of having to let you go and trying to accept that as God’s will. I did not like it though”.

Ben covered her hand with his. “Sometimes we feel a certain way because God wants us to go on a certain path or keep up with something for a while. I feel that’s what he wants with us”.

“Let’s pray, shall we?”

Ben smiled and nodded, as they both prepared to give this new pat of life they were about to set on completely and wholly to God.

________________________________________________________________________________

After making her rounds of congratulations, Chloe headed to the showers as the team was announced to the general audience. As much as she loved these girls and was like a big sister to them, she was also disappointed. She did not think she could handle the announcement whiteout letting her own emotions show.

She new she had been biased against since her injury. She thought she had came back stronger than before, but apparently the coordinator did not see it the same way.

She sighed, stripping the leotard from her body and turning on the water to hot, wanting to burn the emotions she was feeling from her mind.

It was very likely that shortly after Chloe had started her second comeback, word had gotten out that she was dating one of her band mates. Sure, Max did not kind her having a life outside of gymnastics it had seemed, especially since she was older than the others.

But a boyfriend had been a no no. Her and Ben had to fight for their relationship, to keep the spark alive since she had decided to come back to gymnastics at a competitive level. Somehow, along the way, the couple had managed to fall in love with each other. It had been Ben who had been there for her, and she for him, when no one else was seemingly on their side.

The water dripped down her body. While it would be scalding for some, to her it was nothing but relief for her sore muscles. She was a 21 year old with a 40 year old body. All because of gymnastics.

She could not go another quad, that much was for sure. Her body could not take it. If she was not at the gym or at the recording studio, she was at the chiropractor getting her problematic back straightened out or at the PT getting her knees worked on.

Sure, she had wanted to try after injuring her other knee that required surgery no more that three months before. She know she had a long show at making the Olympics, yet she wanted and needed to try.

Tim was right when she had said she would not be able to forgive herself if she had not at least tried.

Yet, that still did not help the concerned looks he had given her whenever she had come home from practice too sore or too tired to even move, let alone rehearse with the band. She felt so bad for letting her other love of music take the back burner while she pursued gymnastics. She felt as if she was betraying the others, but they had promised her to try to make it as a quintet for a while.

They had not been making it.

Their acapella band was made for the six of them, subtracting one or more of their voices just did not work.

Then there had been times where Chloe was in so much pain that she had to call Ben or one of his siblings to pick her up from practice. No doubt all five of them had come to be concerned for her well being at the end.

Well, at least she could retire with her mind at ease now.

She had not really planned a retirement speech to give to the press that was undoubtedly waiting for her appearance outside. She was just going to speak from her heart, and thank the people she loved most.

She ran her favorite (and Ben's too) strawberry shampoo through her dirty blond curls. As she worked on scrubbing her scalp thoroughly, her mind drifting to the man she loved.

It had been at the beginning of the year, during her 21st birthday in January that the two had confessed their love for each other, with Ben promising to remain by her side until she saw this crazy plan of hers through.

That was true love at it's finest right there.

She had been worried, claiming she had nothing to give back to him right now, and that she had been selfish in focusing so much on her gymnastics. He had assured her that she was giving everything back to him by pursuing her dream and being an inspiration to others, even himself.

All fresh and shampooed, Chloe turned the water to the shower off, reaching around the curtain to where her towel was currently hanging up.

It took her a while to completely towel off, as she continuously found herself staring deep into her refection in the mirror, looking into blue eyes and studying her damp blond curls.

Eventually, she brought herself to snap out of it, and pulled on her sweats, a team USA shirt that has fit like a charm since she got to the Olympics back in 2012, and her National gymnastics team jacket over it.

"Here goes nothing," she said to herself, turning from her reflection and heading out the locker room and down the narrow hallway to where the media was undoubtedly waiting outside.

________________________________________________________________________________

Chloe sat huddled in a dark corner f the recording studio, knees drawn tightly to her chest.
Such an unfeeling idiot, she thought to herself, burying her face in her knees.

They had to get the album done, she understood that aspect good and wel. Yet, they were better with all six of them as a group. Without Ben here...

"Ben," Chloe sobbed, the tears that had been threatening to come finally overwhelming her.

What it came down to was the fact of Chloe Just not having the motivation to sing, to be at her best when her husband was in the hospital.

Quite frankly, the others aside from Nate, felt the same way.

The sound of footsteps caused Chloe to look up, blinking a few times to clear her blurred, watery vision.

"Hey sis," it was Chase, Ben's younger fraternal twin brother.

"Hi, Chance," she managed to croak out. "Nate is an ass".

Chase smirked. "We established that fact a long time ago when we were kids. He means well though".

"Does he really?"Chloe protested. "Ben gets shot and is lying sick in the hospital and Nate expects us to carry on like nothing happened".

"It's his coping mechanism, Chloe. He does care and is upset about the situation. He just throws himself into his work to cope with it better".

Chloe sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. "I don't want to record without Ben though. I miss him so much and it is so hard to not spend every moment of the day thinking about him lying in that hospital bed".

Chase slipped an arm around her. "This has been harder on you than for the rest of us," he murmured sympathetically.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "I would disagree. You and I are almost equally close to him, just in different ways".

"Well, I suppose you are right," he responded, flashing her his trademark grin. "But you and Ben have a relationship, a love and bond between you two that has already proved to surpass all circumstances. Which is why I believe he will be all right".

"Yeah," Chloe mumbled, propping her chin on her knees. "I am trying to think that way. Ben always encouraged me to see the best in any situation, no matter how good or bad. it's just..."

"Some days are better than others," Chase finished.

"Yeah," Chloe said softly, flashing Chase an understanding smile.

"Well, if it helps, look at it the way I have been approaching it".

"Which is?" Chloe prompted.

"I don't think God would bring Tim back, twice of all things, if he still did not have plans for him and the both of you. That is why I truley belive in my heart that my brother will be okay".

_________________________________________________________________________________

“Oh, Chloeeee!”

Chloe sighed at her husband’s call from the bedroom. Snowden looked from the direction of the bedroom to her and whined, sharing in her sentiments.

“What is it now, hon,” Chloe asked upon entering the bedroom, sending up a prayer for patience.

“Can we pleease go to the park?” Ben asked, with the expectant look of a schoolboy.

Chloe sighed and rubbed her eyes, exasoerated yet bemused all at once.

“Ben, hon I told you that the medications you are on right now are producing some pretty weird side effects. Untill we go to the doctor tommorw you have to stay here and rest”.

“But I feel finnee,” he whined, “and I wanna go to the park now!”

“Why do you want to go to the park so badly?” Chloe prompted in a gentler tone.

“My favorite nuts are there, I am a squirrl, and I need to find them”. He flashed her a smile that would normally have made her weak in the knees had it not been for the riduculousness of the situation.

“And just who are your favorite nuts?” Chole asked, feeling a smirk spread across her face.

“You and Chase. You are my favoritest nut. Chase is my second favorite. Even though he is slightly craked, I still like him”.

Now Chloe was biting her lip to keep from outright laughing, knowing it would only offend him.

“Hon,” she said after forcing her laughter down. “Why don’t you sleep for a bit. Maybe later if you feel up to it we can go to the park to look….to look for your nuts”.

Ben thought this over for a seemingly long moment, then shook his head yes. “Only if you promise though”.

“I promise, hon. Now let’s get you settled in here”.

________________________________________________________________________________

Now that you have gotten through reading my insanity allow me to give you a preview of what posts you will be getting in December.

First and foremost, Kennedy is going to be finished this month. As of right now, for those of you who continue to faithfully follow my long-running story that has been getting slow updates for over a year now (thank you Faith :) we are ALMOST at the halfway point. This may mean a lot of updates between my Christmas fun and getting Kennedy finished. Hey, hopefully this will get me more followers.

Then, I got a couple of Christmas stories planned. The first will be about two college students who plan for a special Christmas together seeing one's favorite band.

The next story, along with the previous one, will be part of Fath P. Twelve Days of Christmas over at  Stories By Firefly! It will be a short little story that deals with the youngest of my characters from NaNo finding an abandoned kitten around Christmastime, then figuring out how to convince his non cat crazy sibilings to let him keep it.
                                                                                                     
Look for these Christmas stories sometime early this coming week!

By the way, I just wanna say I love the weeks leading up to Christmas almost more than the actual day. I just love sitting cuddling up reading, writing, or watching my favorite tv shows or christmas movies in front of the tree with a hot chocolate or peppermint mocha. I LOVE Christmas lights and decorations. I am always sad each year when we have to put them away. I do have a little tree for my room, which my parents usually let me keep up as long as I want. I am not one of those Christmas all year people. After all, Christmas all year would take the fun out of the holiday season. Plus, when the holidays are over this usually means my next favorite thing is about 2 months from officially starting, baseball. It is usually about the weekend after the New Year that I am ready to reluctantly relinquish my hold on my tree and decorations, saying goodbye to the magic they hold for another 10 1/2 months (rough calculation okay XD)

Speaking of Christmas decorations, a while back I noticed some of the blogs I follow were doing a room tag. While I don't think I was ever tagged, I plan to do something similar sometime this next week. I want to do a post taking you guys on a tour of my room. I think this will be fun as I just moved last August, so I got to rearrange everything. You will get to see all my wonderful Christmas decorations too, and I may even give some close ups of my favorite ornaments on my tree and the big tree my family has upstairs.

I honestly don't know what I will be posting after the first of the year, story wise at least. I may just start posting a story I have that is about a modern day small town whose people are sort of backwards-living in nature. They are not against technology per-se. They are just against forms of technology that they consider to be time-consuming, such as tvs and smartphones. They still utilize cars and cellphones, but prefer to ride their horses everywhere and communicate snail-mail or face-to-face the good old fashioned way.

If any of you have any suggestions as to what kinds of post you would like to see at the start of the new year, let me know in the comments. It will help get my creative juices flowing ;)

Anywho, thanks to whoever got to this point after reading all my NaNo snippits and somewhat lengthy (at least I think it is) rant. I pray that this next week and goes well for you guys. Please pray that it goes well for me too, and that I can be productive and finish my second to last semester of college strong, as I have had no motivation to do anything at all (senioritis is a real thing here people) XD