Past Present Future -- Lauren's PSA
Barnes, Lauren (2010-12-19)
>>TORU: Yah! Yah! Yah!

>>INSTRUCTOR: Toru! That's not the way to attack! You must stomp your foot on the ground then swing with your wooden sword.

>>TORU: Do you mean like this? Yah!

>>NARRATOR: Toru yelled as he stomped and swung. 

>>INSTRUCTOR: Very good, Toru. Keep up the good work. It's time to get some rest.
>>NARRATOR: So they all went to sleep. 

>>LAUREN BARNES: I think it is amazing how I progressed as a writer. I know, back in my past, I didn't like English but at the same time I would take all of my expression and put it on paper. I know back then I used to write a lot of stories and novels and hold a bunch of role plays with my best friend and we would both exchange ideas and put them all into one big story. No matter how many errors and how poor the sentence structure was, we still employed writing; no matter how much we hated English. That is pretty cool. In high school I attended Emerson for the Visual and Performing Arts Academy and I have taken Creative Writing as a major. It was a great experience. I used that experience to go to a lot of poetry slam competitions and compete against other schools with my poetic skills, as you can say. I made it to my second belt, but yeah I definitely progressed in high school.  
>>LAUREN BARNES: I have written and directed a play for the underclassmen and it came out the best play in the school. That is how good it was. I remember at the beginning when I started fiction writing class, I was so afraid to read. I was very insecure of my writing. I am still insecure now, but I wasn't as insecure as I was back then when I had to read my stories out loud, thinking that everybody's story was better than mine. It was just so intense.

>>ANGIE: Okay, this is what I have so far: “Deep in the forest, the moonlight glimmered through the trees and lightly shone on a fairy. Heartbroken, she lay lifeless in the fresh, deep grass. Her wings broken, red blood trickling through the veins of her lilac skin, and dirty from all of her fleeing from the hungry wolves.” Whoo! Okay, your turn. 

>>LAUREN BARNES: I'd rather not read. 

>>ANGIE: Why?

>>LAUREN BARNES: Because! You're so much better than me, Angie! I hate writing, I hate doing all this! Do I look like I want to read? I don't want to read this stuff! Why should I go ahead and read this? I don't want to – Ha! Ohhwaa! 

>>ANGIE: What you need to do is read Hair Trigger. It's full of short stories. No more complaining, okay? 

>>LAUREN BARNES: So, let's see the progression I have made over the past years. 

[Music plays]

>>LAUREN BARNES: Scene 1 takes place in a hospital room where Emeric and his ex-wife, Verona, lies in. 

[Verona sighs]
>>VERONA: I can't believe I'm lying in a hospital bed right next to you!

>>EMERIC: What makes you think I want to be next to you?
>>VERONA: Oh, don't give me that bull crap! If you never would have left my kids with that thing, none of this would have happened!

>>EMERIC: That thing is my fiance. 

>>VERONA: Really? I so didn't know that!

>>EMERIC: Shut up! 

>>VERONA: No, you shut up! 

>>EMERIC: I can't believe you would blame something like that on me!

[Both begin talking over one another]

>>VERONA: You are a complete ass. I hate you!

>>EMERICA: I hate you too!

[Dramatic music begins playing]
>>LAUREN BARNES: Being a senior is stressful sometimes, especially when you have to focus and get all of your credits to graduate. When I was a freshmen I saw some of the students beg their teacher for credit. Otherwise, they wouldn't graduate. “Come on, I need this! Just pass me with a ‘D'. Please! I don't want the certificate of attendance!” I once heard a student say “I am sorry but we you have two semesters in a year to do well but as usual you are never in school. And the times that you do come to school, you sometimes come with unexcused absences which definitely hurts your grade. And I always had your makeup work ready but you didn't attempt to do them. I called your house several times but there was no answer. On top of that you missed three years of finals. That definitely hurt your grade. I don't know what else to tell you but you are responsible for your own business, and now that you have waited until the last minute you are stuck and I simply cannot help you. I did all that I could to try to make you become successful.” The student rose away from the teacher while crying.

[Eerie music begins playing]
>>LAUREN BARNES: The guy that was sitting next to me eyed me as he gulped the last of his drink. It made me feel uncomfortable. I tried to ignore it but it was really difficult to. I stared back at him with my eyes squinted with angst. “Do you have a problem?” He bluntly replied “If you smoke, you die.” The muscles from my eyes and cheeks began to loosen then clinched back up again. “Who the hell did he think he was? Because he sure as hell wasn't perfect.” But wait; there was something about this man. Why did he look so familiar as if I had seen him before? Or knew him from somewhere? He took the face of a Hispanic but it was hard to tell if the Spanish accent is really attractive. But judging by his attitude makes him so ugly. His black, straight hair hung down from his middle spine. He wore a tan, fitted shirt with dark blue jeans. He also had a locket dangling from his pants pocket. Does he know? Does he know it might fall out? So what if i want to die?” I sarcastically asked. He bluntly replied in his heavy, tranquil voice “If you want to die then it means you have nothing to live for in the first place.” “Look you bastard, you don't know me so I suggest you stop talking to me.” “Or what?” I continued to smoke, flicking my hair. His irritating voice was a distraction. I looked at the bartender and noticed that he didn't do anything that I told him. He just had the drink in one and the cup in the other. He was manic and still. I didn't know what the hell was wrong with these people. “I shouldn't have come here”, I thought. “Excuse me, sir. I would like my tequila.” No response would come out of him. He just stared at his foggy reflection through the glass that I could have been drinking out of right now. I raise my voice. “Sir, I would like my fucking drink!” He clutched the glass cup tighter and tighter until he forcefully shattered them through his palms. My dark brown eyes widened by his action. “If you smoke, you die…”
>>LAUREN BARNES: Deep into the dark smelly sewer, the monster had just got done eating a person that was pasted against a stone wall with green and brown slime. The monster looked like a ten foot Mr. Potato, but slimy and lumpy. He was made of the sewer: feces, urine and all. He has the ability to regenerate and form into a brownish, greenish liquid. The lumpy blob can stick and slither while spying on his prey. He makes sure that no one is around the prey then he gets them. But the prey must be clean; that is how he likes them. He loves the taste of soap, detergent, perfume; any clean scent he can get his hands on. And in order to do that he must use all his senses. He could see, yet his vision was green. He could hear and speak. His voice sounds silky and heavy like Fat Albert. He only uses his voice when he encounters the prey. In the meantime, he heard a small woman above the sewer. He had to know who she was; her vanilla scent teases his nostrils as he slithered closer to the manhole. “All I want is a few change, miss,” the bum said as he walked closer to her. “And all I want you to do is get out my face. I don't have money for you!” the woman yelled as she carried a black purse on one shoulder, four tall, plastic bags of clothes hooked in her other hand, and the cell phone supporting her ear and shoulder. “Please, miss, I know you got something. I'm starving!” “Hold on, hun. Look, get away from me you smelly bum, before I call the cops!” She walked away faster from him. This time she was getting annoyed. Allison snarled at the bum as she walked over to her car which was parked parallel to the sewer. The monster could see her black heels clacking on the pavement. He could also see her smooth, firm legs. His mouth watered like melted wax candles. He craved her legs like they were chicken drumsticks. He had to have her, he just had to. Before Allison could get into her car, she heard a crusty laughter coming from the sewer. She didn't realize it was coming from the manhole until the noise grew louder and louder. She looked down. "Sweety, I will call you back. What the hell?" 
[The monster laughs gutturally]
[Allison screams]
>>LAUREN BARNES: An eruption of filth exploded from the manhole, thrusting Allison back onto the street. She screamed at the force. The greenish, brownish substance shot into the air like a firehouse. It didn't get on cars or street. It was completely controlled by the monster. He was embedded in the liquid. The liquid was thick like mud. It reeked like dead animals and bum piss. The stench wanted to make Allison gag. She could see different color turds massaging together inside the shooting blob. The sound of the sewer was unbearable. It sounded like bubbling acid.
[Bubbling sound]

[Upbeat music plays]
>>LAUREN BARNES: So the stories actually prove how well I have progressed as a writer and I am going to keep progressing until I reach my goal, which is my future. What I want out of my future? I do want to be a writer. I do want to be a novelist. I want to publish my work. I want to get people to read my stories and that is what I am going to do. So yes, I will see you guys later with another video. Bye.