What's nanowrimo?

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it's where you try to write a 50,000 page novel in one month. Camp Nanowrimo is a more casual version where you set your own word count.

Oh, hi Palmtree! Are you new? Haven't seen you before...

But yes, right now some of us are doing Camp NaNoWriMo, including moi... and this is for us to post our stories.  

Well, here's my story so far... I don't know if anyone else has heard, but it's establishing solarpunk. This is the beginning. 

Liisi and Ciara looked at the apartment building from on the street. Ciara leaned back against the pole of the streetlight and crossed her arms.

“Really, Liisi, look at it. We could make it.”

“You really think so? I...” Liisi trailed off. She looked up at the building -- faded grey concrete and red brick, wrought iron skeletons of balconies and fire escapes, grimy glass windows, rusty metal doors, yellowed once-white scrolls and molding. It looked like just an old building, one that would stand there forever. “I don’t know, Ciara. Maybe. But just the two of us?”

“Well, I guess you’re right. We’d need to talk to the other residents, too. And bring in more of my friends: some architects, artists, botanists...”

“That’s not what I meant, Ciara! I don’t know... if anyone’s ready for this! Okay?” Liisi bit her lip, swung her backpack over her shoulder, and stalked down the street and around the corner, heading for her door into her apartment. She ran a hand down the warm bricks, feeling the roughness of the mortar. Punching in the door code, she slammed the door behind her and strode to her room, dumping her bag onto the sofa and crashing.

I really don’t know, she thought. I really want to do it, make what Ciara and I have been thinking a reality. But I don’t know if I can carry it through, if Ciara can carry it through.  

I really hope this copy-paste thing works!!

Camilla didn’t blame Miss Ashlynn for waking up every other orphan but her. It wasn’t she who kicked me out of my own room and made her move into the attic. That was Jayla. It wasn’t she who gave a six-year-old Milla a black eye and a broken ankle when she first arrived at the orphanage. That was Jayla too. Jayla was a bully and that was all there is to it. Most girls were bullies at the “Park Street Orphanage for Girls.”

  Charlotte wasn’t.

   But lucky for Camilla, Charlotte got adopted three months ago. Three months one week four days two hours and 37 minutes ago to be exact. So yes, Camilla missed Charlotte. Charlotte was the only one who understood her. Charlotte was the only one who knew her darkest secret. Charlotte was the only one who called her Milla and not Camilla. Charlotte was her best friend. And she’s all gone now.

  Camilla scrunched her eyes and got out of her so-called bed. Nobody cared enough to wake her up, but they would care if she was late for school. The stairs creaked as she walked down them with care. She got to the kitchen and saw everyone was there. They didn’t seem to have noticed she was gone. If they did, they didn’t care.

  Jayla was in her usual seat at the end of the table with Becca and Lauren, two of the other bullies. Lauren had shoulder-length blonde hair in a tight headband. She wasn’t tall but wasn’t short. She had jabbing green eyes and a small amount of lip gloss.

  Becca had long brown hair that went down to her waist. Her skin was tanned and her eyes were a dark brown. She was semi-tall and wore a bit too much makeup.

  Jayla’s hair was black with navy streaks. She was normal height, but still one of the shortest orphans there. Jayla had black mascara and dark eyeshadow.

  Since we’re doing appearances, let’s describe Camilla. She has super long blonde hair and blue-gray eyes. She was the shortest girl beating Jayla by just inches. No makeup for her, as she couldn’t afford it. Not one person knew where Jayla and her evil posse got their money, but they had lots of it. They probably stole it from someone, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was everyone in the room staring at her.

  “Sweetie you're late!” Miss Ashlynn said.

 “Skipping school again, scrub?” Jayla said giving her a dirty look.

 “Jayla…..” Ashlynn gave her a warning look and Jayla muttered to me,

“Later. Me. You. Living room.” Milla knew what she meant.

 The cereal tasted like cardboard and the milk may as well have been poisoned. She took one bite and choked it down. The room was dark and crowded with girls who were either bullies, or too scared to stand up to one. Camilla sunk lower in her seat.

Likey?? 

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

Okay, I'm done writing the first chapter of my book. It's copied and pasted from a word document, so it might look a little weird, but you should still be able to read it. Hope you like it!

The sewers of Mantis City
looked like any other at a glance. That is, if you bothered to go down there
and take a look. But if you were to look harder, you’d notice two things that
would seem out of place in any ordinary sewer, one of these being a young teenager
wheeling a wagon full of various pieces of wood through the dank waters.

The teenager’s
name was Benjamin Rain. He was an average looking boy, with a mop of dirty
blonde hair on his head and a dusting of freckles across his face, but what he
was doing was far from average. He was scavenging the wet corridors of the sewers
for firewood.

The sewers aren’t
the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of places suitable for
collecting firewood, considering the lack of trees, which brings us to the
second main reason why the sewers of Mantis
City were different. They
were a scavenger’s treasure trove. The city above had a very odd custom of
dumping everything they didn’t need down the drain, rather than into a
landfill. The result was an interesting assortment of furniture, clothing and
newspapers floating in the dirty waters, just waiting to be picked up. And
picked up they were.

            Sure,
it wasn’t a normal lifestyle, but Benjamin was used to it. The sewers were his
home, and had been for as long as he could remember. He had lived there ever
since he was six years old, and had very little memory of his life before that.
All he recalled was that his mother had taken him to the hospital one day. Then
something terrible had happened. There had been a blast of fire, and two men
and a woman had appeared out of nowhere and had brought him here,

            The
trio who had raised Ben called themselves the “Hummingbirds.” Ben had no idea
what the name meant, but it was far from the only secret the group of adults
kept from him. He didn’t know why sometimes the Hummingbirds left the sewers
unexpectedly for a week or two at a time. He didn’t know why they only let him
go out into Mantis at night. He even didn’t know why they had adopted him in
the first place. But he had never dared to ask.

            Ben
broke off the leg of an old chair floating in the dirty water and just managed
to find a spot for it in the overflowing pile of wood filling the wagon. The
boy stood back to take a look at his work, surprised he’d been able to fit that
much firewood in without it all tumbling out of the wagon. But he and the
Hummingbirds were going to need every last piece of it. Winter was coming in
Mantis, and nights were getting steadily colder in the sewers.

            Satisfied
that he had found enough, Ben began to pull his wagon back to the Hummingbird’s
camp deeper in the sewers. As he walked, he smiled in anticipation of what he
would find back at camp. For this was no ordinary day. This was Ben’s 14th
birthday.    

            Technically,
it wasn’t his real birthday. It was the anniversary of the day the Hummingbirds
had first brought him to live in the sewers. But the adults certainly treated
it like a birthday. Every year, they brought him a present. Sometimes it was
something useful, like his wagon, or a map of the sewers they had given him one
year. Other times, it was a neat relic scavenged from the streets above, like a
stuffed bear missing an eye or a strange plastic device with two antennas
sticking out of each end.

This year,
however, Ben wanted noting of that In fact, he didn’t want any physical objects
at all. He wanted knowledge. He wanted freedom. Ben wanted to know what Mantis
was like in the daytimes. He wanted to roam the streets of the city when the
moon wasn’t out. He wanted to know why he had been living in the dark for eight
years. He wanted to know who the Hummingbirds really were, and why they had
been keeping him here for such a long time.

Ben knew his
wishes were probably in vain. In fact, the Hummingbirds had probably gone up to
the streets to find him something while he had been collecting wood. It was
going to be the same thing h got every year. Something cool, something useful,
but nothing he truly wanted.

Still, he couldn’t
stop hoping.

Ben made his way
through the dark, slimy corridor leading to the Hummingbird’s hideout. The boy
pulled out a flashlight from the backpack of trinkets he always wore. He
switched it on, and the yellow beam of light cut through the darkness like a
golden knife. The path to the camp led him through a massive pipe big enough
for a person to squeeze through. The pipe served as a bridge between two
sections of the sewers, hanging over a bottomless ravine. Ben suspected it had
been placed there by plumbers as a shortcut. There was no one here now, though.
No one but him, the Hummingbirds, and an abundance of rats.

When Ben reached
the other side of the pipe, he could see the campfire glowing orange a few
yards away. The camp was positioned on a raised stone platform, safe from the
waters of the sewers. It consisted of four tents, one for each of the adults
and on for Ben, positioned in a circled facing each other with a fire pit in
the center. Their food and supplies was in a wooden chest on a higher platform,
reachable by a wooden ladder.

Ben reached the
camp. “Hey!” he called out. “I got some firewood!”

A dirty, scruffy
face peeked over the side of the platform. It was Eldric, one of the
Hummingbirds. He was nice enough, but Ben wasn’t sure if the man had ever
bathed in his entire life. Eldric had long, stringy hair and a beard to match,
both filled with clumps of dirt and who knows what else.  Of course, everyone at the camp was used to
being dirty, but there was a freshwater spring about a half mile out from
Mantis City if thing got ridiculous. Ben went to spring very often, and not
just for washing himself. After all, it was the only place above ground he was
allowed to visit during the day.

Eldric’s face
curled into a grimy grin when he saw Ben. “Hi, Benny! What do you have for us
today?”

Ben gestured to
his overflowing wagon. Eldric raised his eyebrows. “Crikey, you’ve outdone
yourself this time! Hold on, Benny, let me get the rope!

Eldric lowered two ropes, part
of a pulley system designed to hoist heavy objects onto the platform. Ben tied
the ropes to either end of the wagon, and Eldric lifted it up onto the
platform. Ben scrambled up after it, carrying the lose sticks that had fallen
from the wagon.

Eldric untied the
wagon and wheeled it over towards the dwindling fire. Sitting next to the fire
pit were Sovi and Fenno, the other two Hummingbirds. Sovi was a woman with long
black hair tied back in a ponytail, and a surprisingly clean face. Fenno was a
young man with messy red hair and high cheekbones.

Eldric threw a few
pieces of wood from Ben’s wagon on the fire. They were still damp, and ad the
fire sizzled, but luckily, it didn’t go out. “Benny’s been out all morning
getting us a bit o’ wood,” the filthy man said to the other two. “Isn’t that
nice?”

“Good job, Ben,”
Sovi said. “Why don’t you come and warm yourself? You deserve it”

Ben gratefully did
so, settling down next to Fenno. The red-haired man smiled and pulled out
something completely unexpected from behind his back. A shiny, red apple.

Ben’s eyes widened
at the sight of the fruit. “Where did you get that?” he asked.

“We were up in
Mantis while you were getting wood,” Fenno replied. “We managed to steal a
whole bag of these.” Fenno reached into his tent and extracted a burlap sack
bulging with apples. “Eat up, guys!” he exclaimed, throwing a fruit to
everyone.

Ben gratefully chomped
into the apple. Scraps of bread, mushrooms, and occasionally even grass were the
norm around camp, so the sweet reed fruit was a rare treat.  

“I don’t suppose,”
Ben said through a mouthful of apple, “That this is my birthday present?”

Eldric laughed. “This
ain’t your present, boy! This is just something we got so we wouldn’t die of
food poisoning from the rubbish we usually eat!”

“So what is my present?” Ben asked, his curiosity
growing.

“It’s in the
chest,” Sovi said. “Go and have a look!”

Ben’s hopes of
learning bout his past were instantly shattered. If his gift was something that
could fit in a chest, it certainly wasn’t going to be a story about his mother,
or a trip into Mantis during the day. Nevertheless, he nodded politely at the
Hummingbirds and strode over to the wooden ladder. He climbed up onto the
higher platform, the familiar wooden chest coming into view.

Three were three combination
locks on the chest, for extra security. Even though the possibility of someone else
sneaking around in the deserted sewers was extremely low, the Hummingbirds didn’t
want to take any chances. Ben undid the first lock, then the second, and
finally the third. The lid of the chest swung open.

And there was
nothing inside.

Not only was his
birthday present absent, so was everything else. The food. The supplies. It was
all gone. Dread started to rise in Ben’s stomach. What could’ve happened to it
all? The boy quickly headed back down the ladder to warn the adults.

Ben ran up to the
campfire. “There’s nothing in the chest!” he panted. “Someone must’ve broken in
someho…” the boy cut off when he saw the Hummingbirds. They were all wearing
large black backpacks, which had certainly not
been on their backs the last time he had looked at him.

“Relax, man,” Fenno
said. “It’s all in here, see?” the red-haired man took off his pack and showed
Ben the inside. It was filled with the food and supplies that had previously
been occupying the chest. Ben was flooded with relief, but also confusion.

“Ya should’ve seen
your face!”  guffawed Eldric, earning a
disapproving look from Sovi.

Ben glared, resisting
the urge to slap the filthy man in the face. “Why would you scare me like that?”
the boy growled. “Is it your idea of a joke?”

“No, Ben. We lied
about your present being in the cheat, but we would never have a laugh at your
expense!” Sovi said softly. “Or at last, most of us wouldn’t.” the woman looked
at Eldric again, who just shrugged sheepishly.

“But why would you
lie to me?” Ben asked.

“Because we wanted
you to be surprised when we told you we’re going on a little trip,” Fenno replied.
“And we can’t risk our supplies being stolen while we’re away, so we’re taken
them with us.”

“A… trip?” excitement
began to build up inside of Ben. Maybe h really was going to get his wish
today!

Sovi nodded. “Yes,
Ben. A trip. We’re going to show you why Mantis is so dangerous during the day.”

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Here's chapter 2!

Ben couldn’t
believe his ears at first. For eight years, the Hummingbirds had told him time and
time again to never go into Mantis during the daytime. It was the one and only
thing they had ever asked of him. Now they were just letting him do it, and he
hadn’t even had to persuade them! Ben had always dreamed of the day the
Hummingbirds would allow him to do this, but now that the day had come, he
wasn’t sure he wanted to.

They were going to
leave when night fell and sleep in the streets of Mantis until daybreak, because Sovi
had insisted that four people popping out of a manhole in broad daylight would
look suspicious. So, they had waited around camp for a few hours before they were
actually able to leave.

The sun had just
set, and Ben and the others were trekking through the sewers, wearing black
hooded cloaks and carrying flashlights. There was a ladder lading up manhole
just north of the camp, and although Ben and the Hummingbirds had searched the
sewers thoroughly, they had never found another. This manhole was the only
entrance into Mantis

When they reached
the hole, Sovi turned around to look at Ben. “Ben,” she began. “We are only
doing this because we love you. We are your family, and we only want to be
happy. But I want you to promise me one thing. Whatever happens up there,
please try to stay safe.”

“I…I promise I
will,” Ben replied, though he was growing less sure of himself with every
passing minute.

Sovi gave a nod to
the others, and together, they ascended the ladder. Sovi was first, followed by
Fenno and Ben, with Eldric bringing up the rear. When Sovi reached the top of
the ladder, she pushed on the large metal cover until there was an opening
large enough for them to fit through. Moonlight instantly streamed into the
dark sewer, turning the faces of the Hummingbirds and Ben ghostly shade of
white. Ben scrambled out of the hole, climbing onto the pavement above.

The city looked
the same as it had every other night he had visited. The moon shined on
strongly, and a light breeze ruffled Ben’s hair. There was no sound at all but
the noise of the Hummingbirds breathing and a distant cricket. The silhouettes
of skyscrapers on other side of the road towered over them, completely absent
of all light. In fact, the only light in the entire city was the light of the
moon and the flashlight beams. This was the only view of the mysterious city
Ben had ever gotten in his life with the Hummingbirds, but every time he looked
at it he felt something stir in the back of his head. A memory, perhaps, of his
life before the sewers. He had probably walked these streets with his parents
every day when he was younger. And yet, all memory of what they had looked like
had faded fro his memory.

Well, I guess I’m about to find out again, Ben
thought grimly to himself.

Sovi scanned the
streets to make sure no one was watching them. Ben knew for sure there wasn’t.
For some reason, there was never a soul out at night in the city, but the woman
always checked to be absolutely sure.

Once Sovi had
determined the coast was clear, she motioned silently for Ben and the others to
follow her. She scuttled across the street, the Hummingbirds and Ben swiftly
following her until they were all on the sidewalk.

“We need to find a
place to spend the night before the sun starts to rise,” Sovi said in a hushed
whisper. Look for alleys, grottos, anything that can prevent us from being
seen.” The other Hummingbirds nodded, and Sovi motioned for the to follow her
again, and the woman sped off down the sidewalk.

After several
minutes of running, Eldric happened to spot a small, hidden alcove in the side
of a stone wall. He shouted his discovery a little too loudly, causing Sovi to
wince.

“Are you trying to get us found out?” she hissed.

“I found a place
to hide didn’t I?” replied the scruffy man. “We won’t get caught in there, so
calm yourself, lassie!”

Sovi sighed and
directed the group to get into the alcove. Fenno and Ben crouched behind a
garbage can in the alcove, and Eldric squeezed himself into a dark corner.
“I’ll take first watch,” Sovi declared. “And you’re next, you fleabag,” she said to Eldric. The man just rolled
his eyes.

As Ben soon
discovered, sitting hunched up behind a garbage can was not exactly the most
comfortable sleeping position. Ben’s thoughts were spoken aloud when he heard
Fenno say, “Well, gang, we’ve done the impossible. We’ve found a more
uncomfortable place than the sewers.”

Eldric sniggered
at this comment, but Sovi just told him to be quiet like a teacher shushing a
disobedient student. 

Ben tried to go to
sleep, but the discomfort of his position combined with the anxiety of what the
next day would bring made it impossible. Eventually, he managed to drift off
into a sleeplike haze. Not quite asleep, not quite awake.

But asleep enough
to have dreams.

He saw himself in
a sort of waiting room. He was young, too young to be alone. There was a woman
sitting next to him, holding his hand, but her face was blurred and unfamiliar.
Other young children and their mothers were sitting on benches lining the
waiting room. The mothers had expressionless stares, but the children looked
terrified. Ben had no idea why.

Suddenly, a doctor
wearing a whit coat entered the room. He was holding a clipboard. The doctor
cleared his throat and read several names off of the clipboard.

On of them was
Ben’s.

Then the dream got
fuzzier. H saw himself walking down a long corridor, his mother pleading about
something, and then, it all ended in a huge blast of fire.

Ben awoke in a
cold sweat, panting. He’d hd that dream about his past a few times before, but
never before had it been so detailed. So…vibrant. And yet he still had no idea
what it all meant.

Ben looked around
the alcove. Fenno was in an almost comical position, laying face down in front
of the boy. Eldric was still leaning against the wall, snoring louder than a
freight train. How was Sovi tolerating this? Ben peeked around one of the garbage
cans to get a glimpse of the woman, and got a panicky feeling when he did not
see her at first. Then he realized Sovi was lying on the sidewalk, her chest
rising and falling with slow breaths.

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

She had fallen
asleep.

At first, Ben was
not too alarmed. All he needed to do was wake up Eldric and tell the man to
start his shift. Then he noticed something that made his stomach turn upside
down.

The sky was
growing brighter by the minute. The shadows were growing longer.

The sun was
rising.

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}