1. The headphones were on. They had been utilized on purpose. She could hear her mom
yelling in the background, but couldn't make out exactly what the yelling was about. That
was exactly why she had put them on. She knew her mom would enter her room at any
minute, and she could pretend that she hadn't heard any of the previous yelling.
2. I haven't bailed on writing. Look, I'm generating a random paragraph at this very moment
in an attempt to get my writing back on track. I am making an effort. I will start writing
consistently again!
3. He picked up the burnt end of the branch and made a mark on the stone. Day 52 if the
marks on the stone were accurate. He couldn't be sure. Day and nights had begun to blend
together creating confusion, but he knew it was a long time. Much too long.
4. Cake or pie? I can tell a lot about you by which one you pick. It may seem silly, but cake
people and pie people are really different. I know which one I hope you are, but that's not
for me to decide. So, what is it? Cake or pie?
5. "Explain to me again why I shouldn't cheat?" he asked. "All the others do and nobody
ever gets punished for doing so. I should go about being happy losing to cheaters because
I know that I don't? That's what you're telling me?"
6. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and
the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such
close dealing implied. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be
Christmas...