Fiction Exercise: Setting

The clock read an hour later than it should have, and it seemed that the calendar read a month earlier than it should have. According to the clock, it was 8:52 am, and according to the calendar, it was March 12. But this just did not seem to click in my mind.

My body chose to nestle deeper into its cocoon of a bed, denying the possibility that this is the weather I was awakening to in the middle of March. My open windows invited in the smell of rain and gusts of cold wind that I thought we had survived the whole winter without. The outfit I had picked out for a warming spring day was no irrelevant, and my mind tried to sleep away the terror of the frigid temperatures intruding through my cracked window. It is as if March realized January never got a chance and decided to let her take over for a few days. My sweaters were shoved in the back alcove of my closet--this was all just a hassle.

And then, it beckoned me. The noise that can awaken me on the worst of days: the coffee pot. The water began to steam as it heat up and finally the noise of coffee dispensing into the pot permeated throughout the apartment, and it almost entirely shut out the intruding cold air from my mind.

The smell of that sweet vanilla candle freshly lit mixed with the aroma of the dispensing hazelnut coffee radiated from the kitchen to my bedroom in the back corner. For some, this combination of scents sounds gross. For me, it smells like home.

Coffee in hand, the aroma of the candle following me, I trekked back to the back corner of the apartment to dig through the black hole that is my closet to find a thick sweater to accompany me throughout this day.

Sweet Learning

Prompt: Choose one of your classmates in this room to write about. Each person will have a different one, so as soon as you choose come let me know--first come, first served! Write about that person in whatever way you wish--it can be a poem, prose, song, anything you want. We are going to present these to the class, and the class is going to have to guess who it is that you are talking about, so make sure you do not incorporate their name into your writing! Make it as descriptive as possible so the class can guess, but don't make it too blatantly easy!

My Example (A Poem About Cierra):

This girl is an outsider, just like me
But that doesn't mean she has no English glee
She takes the course with such ambition
Learning more about education is her mission

Let me tell you, this girl can write
I can see a future in publishing that's bright
She's an English major, with some psych
And she can answer questions so quick and catlike

I look to her when I am at all confused
And she answers my questions without leaving me bruised
She's kind, she's caring, and she's eager to learn
With her demeanor, your respect she earns

I don't know her at all outside of class
But I get excited when walking we pass
She puts me at ease, she won't let me get lost
And I'm pretty happy our paths have crossed.

I'm pretty sure she works in Cooper
Which in my book makes her quite the trouper
I know she reads a lot more than I
With her major, I understand why

She's pretty smart, I learn a lot from her
Even when the rest of the class feels like a blur
I'm guessing the subject of this you now know
But if you need a hint, she sits in my row.