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Recipe For Self

 

Andie was pacing from the door to her closet and back again, with the cordless phone in one hand attached to her ear and an apple she was working on in other hand, when she stopped at the window. She glanced down upon her usually quiet suburban neighborhood after hearing shouts and laughter through her partly opened window. Her new neighbor stood in place before her driveway, smiling and waving majestically like a beauty pageant contestant who knows she has already has won the crown. Traces of the last “Bye Cristia!” diminished as her neighbor’s friends peeled off in a shiny black Range Rover and turned the corner at the stop sign. From the window, forgetting she was still on the phone, Andie thought to herself and accidentally voiced out loud in a hushed tone, “Where in the world do some people get that kind of charisma?”

“What?” she heard through the ear speaker.

Snapping back instantly she stammered, “Oh nothing, I’ll call you right back.” “Click” She walked across the room and plopped into her beanbag chair, sinking into a position that would take much motivation to get out of. She went to town, biting big chunks out her apple and chewing vigorously, thinking back again to the new neighbor. She just couldn’t figure it out, the Mclinnens had only moved next door two weeks ago; how could Cristia already have so many friends? Andie leaned back and looked up to where her wall and ceiling met. She could still see a thin segment of wall colored pale pink from when Andie was a child, before she had made over her room to look more mature. The room she looked around at had always been hers, she had grown up in the same house since the day she was born, and had gone to school with the same kids since kindergarten; Cristia had lived there for total of twelve days and already had the entire school wrapped around her little French manicure tipped finger. It all came so easy for her, befriending all of the girls and catching the attention of any guy within a 20 foot radius.

She sighed. Then “Brrrrring.” She jolted to a more upright position and felt the phone squashed beneath her knee, when it rang for the second time. She fumbled with it, trying to turn it upright and find the “talk” button before it went to message. Finally, she gathered herself enough to get out a “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Cristia,” the voice replied.

“Just act cool” Andie repeated in her mind for assurance. “What’s crackin?” “Doh!” “I mean what’s up?”

“Well, you know those awesome cookies you brought over as a house warming gift when we first moved here? They were just so good; I want to have them at this little get together I’m throwing tonight. If you wanted to bring the cookies, I guess you could come over too. Be at my house in an hour.”

“Okay, yeah, that sounds great! Thanks, I’ll be there!” “Click” Andie couldn’t believe it, with phone still in hand, she jumped off the ground and did an air maraca move. Once she landed back on Earth, it occurred to her “one hour”.

She ran downstairs, skipping two stairs before every step and got to work in the kitchen. Andie bust open a cabinet and pounced on the first ingredient, flour. She moved quickly, throwing in all the perfect measurements of memorized ingredients, intending for this batch to be simply divine, because the world depended on it of course. When turning around to reach for the greased cookie sheets, Andie’s elbow brushed the bag of open flour balancing on the edge of the counter, with just enough force to tip it over which landed in a “thump”, followed by a explosion of flour dust.

“Damnit!” she yelled impatiently after seeing the damage. Just then her mom walked in to the kitchen.

“Melanie is on the phone; she said you were going to call her back,”

“Not now Mom!” she snapped.

Her mother stared back at her in disbelief, before turning to leave the kitchen, explaining faintly in the background to Melanie that Andie was busy at the moment. Andie hastily ripped off some paper towels and threw them on top of the pile of flour to deal with later as she left the room and headed back upstairs.

When the timer for the cookies went off, Andie left the mirror, somewhat satisfied with the makeup she had put on for the third time in her entire life, and her wavy hair, which she had taken down from the usual ponytail and styled just for the occasion. With her plate of warm cookies in hand, she power walked down the path from her house in order to make it to Cristia’s on time. She was almost home free when she heard “Andie, hey Andie!” from above her. Jake, her five-year-old little brother, was perched on one of the overhanging limbs of the large oak tree in their front yard.

“Help me down, help me down!” he squealed.

“Ask Mom,” she quipped hurriedly while continuing toward sidewalk, “She’ll help you.”

There she was, walking up Cristia’s path, when she took one final appearance check. She looked down and saw her jeans. The dark blue denim was covered in white flour speckles from the knee down. “I look ridiculous, I can’t go in there like this!” she thought as her mind raced and she began to panic. “The fastest way is through the back yard,” Andie decided, so she set down the cookies clumsily and jumped the dividing fence back onto her property. She rushed to the back sliding door, just to realize it was locked. “No time,” she thought, and rashly began climbing the trellis onto her roof, removed the screen and then supermanned through the open window and did a barrel roll on the carpet. She grabbed another pair of pants off the pile of laundry on her bed and in record timing was redressed and shimmying back down the trellis to the ground, where she made a mad dash through the bushes and climbed back over the fence. She pulled a leaf out of her hair and brushed off her shoulders before walking up the pathway to the Mclinnens’ front door.

Right before she rang the doorbell, something caught Andie’s eye, a note taped up right beneath it. It read, “Hey Andie, change of plans. We decided to go out for pizza. Sorry. Hearts, Cristia.”

Andie furrowed her brow in confusion and defeat. She read the letter once more, just to make sure she had read it right, she couldn’t have possibly read it right. But she had, it was right there in front of her in sloppy purple ink. She left the cookies before the door and turned around to head home, watching the sidewalk beneath her as she walked, holding back the tears welling in her eyes. She then paused and the gears in her mind went to work. After a realization, she looked up, and then turned around without second thought and walked confidently back to the doorstep to retrieve her cookies. “What was I thinking?” she said with a laugh and peeled back the cling wrap, picking out a cookie for the road.

When she opened the front door, her mom walked in from the kitchen to greet her with that familiar look on her face. Andie knew her mom had the inability to stay mad, but she still felt bad about unleashing her craziness.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” she said earnestly. “And I promise I’ll clean up the mess I made in the kitchen.”

“And you’ll fix the screen,” her mother inquired.

“Hmmm, so you found that too,” she said glancing away. Andie paused and then replied, “Yes, yes. I know. I just got a little caught up in the excitement of the moment. I’m sorry.

” It’s okay, but I’m not the only one who deserves an apology,” her mother said softly while motioning with her head to the kitchen.

Andie walked in to find her little brother sitting on the counter in shorts with a scraped knee. “I tried getting out of the tree myself,” he said staring up at her with big blue eyes and sticking out his lower lip to pout.

“Oh jeez,” she said looking into that adorable face that got her every time. “Next time I will be there for you and escort you down safely via the Andie Express.” she said with a smile.

“Otay,” he replied.

“Otay,” she agreed, slapping on a smiley face band aid on his knee.

Andie heard the phone ring in the other room, and her mom walked in shortly after and with her arm outstretched and the phone in hand.

“It’s Melanie,” she said. Thank goodness.

“Hello?”

“Hey! I was going to ask you earlier about coming over tonight for one of our famous movie nights. What have you been up to?” she asked.

Andie laughed and replied “Actually, I have quite the funny story to tell you.

 

Short Story Response

My central purpose in writing this story is to explore the strong human desire to be accepted. Andie’s story emphasizes how easy it is to focus only on the goal of being liked and lose sight of everything else. Through a crazy race against time, involving numerous desperate attempts to get everything right and disasters which soon follow, she learns that it isn’t worth making a mess by trying so hard to be accepted, especially when the person you seek approval from would not make a good friend anyways. To get across my central purpose, I chose a character that just about everyone could see a little bit of themselves in and could sympathize with. I decided to include a lot of quotes varying from what she was saying out loud to what she was thinking in her head, showing her thought process and feelings, since I intended for the piece to have an emotional value. The diction and detail I chose with the intention of portraying the extent of Andie’s eagerness to impress Cristia. I mentioned the ways she “jumped into off the ground and did an air maraca move” to paint an image that displays Andie’s excitement in a more creative and effective way than simply coming out and stating “she was very happy”. Later in the story, when Andie is at her lowest point, I use syntax to show her difficult in accepting the truth through repetition: “She read the letter once more, just to make sure she had read it right, she couldn’t have possibly read it right.” I used imagery, diction, and syntax throughout my piece to develop the main character, describe her interesting adventure, and get across my main idea to the reader through a relatable and lighthearted story.

 

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