Qenny the Koala was a very special koala. His mother was a kind, loving koala named Loary. Qenny the Koala wasn’t like other koalas though. Most koalas ate special leaves that kept them healthy and sleepy, too. When Qenny was born and his mamma first tried to feed him a special leaf, he coughed it back up. “I don’t like this, mamma. Get me something else!” he cried. “Qenny, you have to eat this leaf. It makes you healthy and sleepy, too.” But Qenny the Koala just couldn’t eat the special leaf. One day, Qenny was swinging on top of the trees in his forest, when he suddenly found a strange animal. This animal was black and white, with a big, chubby face. “Hello.” The animal said. “I am Penni the Panda. Would you like to eat some of my special leaf?” “No, I cannot.” Qenny said to the panda. “I cannot eat any of the special leaves that normal koalas eat.” “Oh, but this is not a koala leaf. This is bamboo, a panda leaf. Try it. You might like it.” Qenny gratefully accepted the bamboo leaf, and he enjoyed the taste very much. “Mmmm! This is much better than the koala leaf!” Qenny said happily. Qenny and Penni began to see each other more often, and Qenny took home many panda leaves for him and his koala friends to eat. The panda leaves were different from the koala leaves, though. Koala leaves made you sleepy, and all of the koala grown-ups slept for most of every day. The panda leaves made you feel like shouting and jumping up and down and being crazy all the time. Because they ate the panda leaves instead of the koala leaves, Qenny and his friends jumped around and disturbed their parents sleep for days on end. Eventually the grown-up koalas got angry at Qenny because he kept them awake. “You need to stop eating the panda leaves, Qenny. Why can’t you eat koala leaves like all the other koalas?” “I don’t know, mamma.” Qenny replied. “My friends like both koala and panda leaves, but I only like panda leaves. What should I do?” “If you can’t eat koala leaves, then you can’t be a koala.” Qenny became very sad because of what his mamma told him, and he went to see Penni. “How can I become a panda, Penni? I keep waking up all the koalas where I live. My mamma told me that I cannot be a koala anymore. I want to be a panda like you.” “I know how you can become a panda!” Penni said. “Here, come with me.” Penni took Qenny to a muddy swamp. “Here, roll around in the mud, and you’ll get black spots on you like a panda!” Qenny rolled around in the swamp, and when he came out, he looked like as much of a panda as Penni was. “Now I’ll take you to where the pandas live!” Penni and Qenny came to where the rest of the pandas lived. Penni’s father, Nikell, welcomed Qenny as a son. Qenny and the pandas lived happily ever after together, and the pandas threw wild parties every night.
DRUGS!
So there you have it. Seeing as this post will be a little short because of the short story I had, I will relent and give you all a couple of details on my November project idea. I have determined that the entire collection of stories will involve a single fictional college environment, and the stories will revolve around important events between teachers and students. Sounds cliche, I know, but I hope that I can use the plot device of the students' newfound independence to create some interesting storylines. Stephanie Winters (Professor Winters, that is) is going to be the Department Head of whatever she teaches, and her story will involve her making a sacrifice and losing her job. The topic that I am going to touch upon throughout her story is...when you are under suspicion and/or you know you did something wrong, I believe that your everyday behavior changes drastically.
When Stephanie is put under suspicion for doing something, she struggles with the morality of the situation and eventually decides to resign and save the career of one of her students. Her specific story in the collection will be called "The Touch of Fear", which I think nicely explains what I'm trying to say with the piece. As for what Stephanie is actually fighting for...she has a nephew (a character I have yet to invent...) who has a very unstable mental health condition. He goes to the college that Stephanie teaches at, and the only reason that he hasn't been kicked out yet is because Stephanie promised to watch over him.
Her nephew decides that he wants to go to a party that he got invited to, and he pleads with the usually stone-cold Stephanie to let him go. She relents and allows him to go to the party, and the nephew gets drunk there. In his drunken stupor, someone provokes her nephew and the nephew seriously injures that person. The administration blames the nephew (obviously) but Stephanie eventually reveals that it was her decision to let him go. Since the nephew technically did not break any rules, he stays at the school but Stephanie loses her job.
One more thing that I'd like to mention. All of these short stories will have a common element to bind them, and that element is a set of deck chairs that lies on one of the courtyards of the college. This is a popular leisure area that virtually all of the students use at one point or another, and the teachers are sometimes seen there as well. The stories all revolve around these deck chairs and what they symbolize; the comfort of leisure in a busy daily life. As some of you may know, the phrase "rearranging the deck chairs" is a phrase that means that certain things have changed only in appearance. Think of it this way. You have a set of deck chairs. They are purple, blue, and red. If you change the order of them (AKA rearranging them) to blue, red, purple, then you have changed the deck chairs...but they themselves haven't really changed. So it shows the fact that while drastic changes may be happening somewhere, things are still essentially the same. And that is the theme that will be apparent throughout my November project. I'll post again soon with info on Stephanie's nephew.
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