Aaron Drake: Icarus Academy

Captivate Your Audience

It was mid-March and Ms. Fauna told us to write a story.

"But this won't be any normal story, my class! You must present your story to your classmates, and you must CAPTIVATE YOUR AUDIENCE! Make sure they're hooked onto each word, absorb them into your tale, and that's where your marks will come from - I'll mark your percentage in this assignment based on how much your audience was focusing!"

It's a difficult task for sure, to be able to grab the attention of so many people at once. I decided this was a good time to unveil my latest crush - Ashley. I quickly wrote a love poem for HER too, even though Ashley wasn't in my class. I only remember one line from that poem, "You are the apple of my eye".

I stepped up to the front of the class, and began. Immediately Ms. Fauna sensed this wasn't the usual kind of story she gets. The class fell silent as my intricate wordings danced in their ears, as I confessed my love to a mystery girl, and finished with the breathtaking final lines. Everyone clapped, even though they weren't supposed to. This was one of the happier moments of my time in 7. Everyone was desperate to know who this mystery girl was, and I revealed it was Ashley.

The word spread like wildfire, and I soon regretted it. Ashley was beautiful, but I had never even spoken to her. When we did finally speak, things became awkward. I knew she didn't like me back. I was short and not, like, bulked up like other more "good-looking" people in the grade, but I still liked her. She said we should just be friends right now, and I knew I had become friendzoned.

My heart was broken for the second time that year, but at least Ashley put me down gently unlike that bitch Alisha. Ashley did stick to her word, and we're still good friends. And she's still pretty, but I don't really like her anymore.