Leaving me here on my own
Jun. 27th, 2011 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impySo. My fic has turned on me. Turned! It's a bit like when I'm petting my evil cat and she's purring and happy and then, out of nowhere, she decides to try and take my face off. Not to be confused with her habit of letting me touch her tummy and then, if I'm not fast enough, ripping my hand off and handing it back to me. No, that I know will happen. This is just completely out of the blue.
Oh, it started off well enough. At first I was overrun with ideas. Almost every table pinged my muse in some way. (When did I start saying "ping" and abusing it?) I take that back. EVERY table did. Is good, I thought. This bodes well. But I decided to sleep on it. Bad idea. I woke up and while many of the bunnies had run off into hiding, a few stuck around. So I started one because it dovetailed quite nicely with one I was working on before. Things quickly went south.
Then Lila comes in and pushes everyone aside and says she's got this. And she so does, right? It's Lila! Only... this fic will not end. I'm not sure how it's supposed to end. I guess I'm just along for the ride, but usually I've got some idea of where things are headed. I... have no idea.
So it begins:
"I don't believe this," Lila Fowler muttered to herself. For the second weekend in a row, her friends had blown her off. Sure, it was summer and that meant the beaches were beyond crowded, but really, wasn't that half the fun? If you simply wanted a tan, or to go swimming, you could just hang around Fowler Crest and use the pool. No, you went to one of Sweet Valley's many gorgeous beaches to see and, most importantly, be seen.
And there wasn't much that Lila liked more than being seen. As the only daughter of one of the area's richest men, Lila had become very good at being the center of attention. The problem was, you needed admirers to be admired, and lately they'd been slacking on the job.
Lila sighed. She'd had the day planned out perfectly! She and her best friend, Jessica Wakefield, would hit the beach for a few hours, then stop off at Lila's or Jessica's (it didn't matter which) to shower and change before hitting the Dairi Burger. Since they were rising sophmores, they'd finally be able to hit the local high school hangout without feeling like they were encroaching on the upperclassmen's territory. Not that Lila ever felt this way, of course, but some people did. Lesser people, though Lila was trying to be better about saying such things... aloud.
After the Dairi Burger, Lila was pretty sure that some handsome juniors or seniors would ask them out to the Beach Disco (freshly tanned and dressed to kill, who could resist the one-two punch of Lila and Jessica?) and if by some horrible twist of fate that didn't happen, Lila's chauffer would drive them anyway. Once there, well, it was a Saturday night in the middle of the summer. Anything and everything could happen.
Instead, Lila found herself alone at the beach. Oh, sure, there were hundreds of people around her, but none of her friends had shown up. Quite a few had begged off, claiming to be bored with the beach, or their family vacations were still going strong. Which was just fine with Lila until Jessica had shot her down.
"Li, my parents grounded me for that last trip to the mall," Jessica had claimed. Even after all these years of being friends, Lila found it a little bit strange that Jessica could spend less than an eighth of what Lila did and still get in trouble with her parents. Lila's father rarely said anything about her spending habits anymore.
Not that it mattered in this case because Lila was pretty sure Jessica was lying. In the background, before Jessica had hung up, Lila had heard another voice. Female, and not Jessica's mother or her identical twin. No, this was that new girl, Cara Walker. Lila's eyes narrowed in anger. If Jessica didn't want to hang out, fine, but she should really come up with a better lie next time. Put some thought and effort into it.
She reached into her big beach bag (some horribly expensive purchase made hastily late spring but Lila couldn't be seen toting around just anything, even if it was just to the beach) and looked for her watch. Maybe it was late enough that she could call Daddy's driver to take her home. "Rats," she muttered. It was barely one thirty, and that was entirely too early to go home. Still, if she was going to be alone, she might as well be at home. At least there she didn't have to worry about some little terror escaping and dumping ice cream or sand on her.
She slowly got to her feet and stretched, admiring the way the sun had darkened her tan just enough to really set off the white bikini she was wearing. At least the day wasn't a total wash, she decided.
"Lila!"
She turned at the sound of someone vaguely familiar calling her name. With a hand held up to shield her eyes from the sun (where had her sunglasses gone?) she took a quick look around. Huh. Where was that...
For a second the world seemed to spin just a little faster, the colors seemed a little brighter, and the sun's rays felt a little bit warmer. Loping across the sand was one of the hottest guys Lila had seen in quite some time. That someone so gorgeous knew her name wasn't all that surprising (daughter of a millionaire and gorgeous to boot, remember?) but the realization that Lila knew him already? That was kind of blowing her mind.
Ken. Matthews. When the hell had he gotten hot? Somehow in the time since Lila had really paid him much attention, which to be fair, she wasn't sure when exactly that was, he'd finally grown an extra couple of inches. Now he was no longer kind of short for a guy, and to top it off, he'd begun to fill out so he wasn't quite so skinny anymore. Lila could finally see him playing football without getting creamed in the first fifteen seconds of any given game.
"Ken!" she found herself shrieking before she could stop herself. "Way to play it cool, Fowler," she thought to herself. Still, it was nice to see someone she knew after the last couple of hours of near seclusion. Also, for the record, she was just being polite. Really.
"I'm glad I found you," he said, causing Lila to go a little weak in the knees before she caught herself. "It was looking like I was going to have to spend my first day off all summer alone," he added, giving her a big smile.
Lila found herself smiling back without even realizing it. "We wouldn't want that."
Ken's gaze slipped to Lila's little slice of the beach and noticed that things seemed awfully tidy for someone who looked like she'd been at the beach for longer than a few minutes. "Oh, wait, were you leaving? Because I-"
"And leave you alone on your first day off all summer?" Lila shook her head. "I was just... stretching."
Ken's smile returned and Lila felt herself blush. If she was lucky, he'd just think it was due to the sun.
"Well, in that case..."
In which I ramble:
So... The idea was simple. Summer fling went up in my head as an obvious Lila/Ken thing. Seriously, don't start questioning how my brain works now, people. It just seemed obvious to me. It was what the muse wanted. So what if my SV fic past has never worked out before? This time was totally going to be different and besides, I've got ages to finish this, right?
But mostly I thought it would be a cute little thing about how Ken and Lila first started hooking up. And as these things go, you know know certain details, regardless of the facts in the series. (For instance, I don't remember if SVT Ken was all football centric or not. I do remember he was short and was Amy's boyfriend.) One of the things that became clear when I began my massively slow re-read of the series is that Ken and Lila kept drifting back to one another, which is probably why the Abomination married them off. While I think it was handled poorly, I can see it. It's my acceptable alternate 'ship for Lila, actually. But I wondered what started it off, since Lila isn't exactly easy to come by, y'know?
That took about three seconds. Obviously it was sometime after Ken went and grew up and got cuter. This is Lila, people. So...when exactly would Lila have had a clear shot at Ken, given how Wakefield centric the series was while also taking into consideration the fact that Ken and Jessica hooked up their sophomore year? The summer prior that, self! Excellent. So... And then I wondered when Cara appeared. (Anyone know?)
So the above was born. But it's not done, not enough to qualify it as 'summer fling', anyway. Where does one go from here? Other than following their day, because I'm thinking that's got to be written (...as it already is) even if it's not officially part of this. What to DO? *flails* Does it end at the beginning, or do I skip around to bits of their romance and end when it ends, right before school starts?
Thoughts? Opinions? Pictures of aminals with pancake hats?
Oh, it started off well enough. At first I was overrun with ideas. Almost every table pinged my muse in some way. (When did I start saying "ping" and abusing it?) I take that back. EVERY table did. Is good, I thought. This bodes well. But I decided to sleep on it. Bad idea. I woke up and while many of the bunnies had run off into hiding, a few stuck around. So I started one because it dovetailed quite nicely with one I was working on before. Things quickly went south.
Then Lila comes in and pushes everyone aside and says she's got this. And she so does, right? It's Lila! Only... this fic will not end. I'm not sure how it's supposed to end. I guess I'm just along for the ride, but usually I've got some idea of where things are headed. I... have no idea.
So it begins:
"I don't believe this," Lila Fowler muttered to herself. For the second weekend in a row, her friends had blown her off. Sure, it was summer and that meant the beaches were beyond crowded, but really, wasn't that half the fun? If you simply wanted a tan, or to go swimming, you could just hang around Fowler Crest and use the pool. No, you went to one of Sweet Valley's many gorgeous beaches to see and, most importantly, be seen.
And there wasn't much that Lila liked more than being seen. As the only daughter of one of the area's richest men, Lila had become very good at being the center of attention. The problem was, you needed admirers to be admired, and lately they'd been slacking on the job.
Lila sighed. She'd had the day planned out perfectly! She and her best friend, Jessica Wakefield, would hit the beach for a few hours, then stop off at Lila's or Jessica's (it didn't matter which) to shower and change before hitting the Dairi Burger. Since they were rising sophmores, they'd finally be able to hit the local high school hangout without feeling like they were encroaching on the upperclassmen's territory. Not that Lila ever felt this way, of course, but some people did. Lesser people, though Lila was trying to be better about saying such things... aloud.
After the Dairi Burger, Lila was pretty sure that some handsome juniors or seniors would ask them out to the Beach Disco (freshly tanned and dressed to kill, who could resist the one-two punch of Lila and Jessica?) and if by some horrible twist of fate that didn't happen, Lila's chauffer would drive them anyway. Once there, well, it was a Saturday night in the middle of the summer. Anything and everything could happen.
Instead, Lila found herself alone at the beach. Oh, sure, there were hundreds of people around her, but none of her friends had shown up. Quite a few had begged off, claiming to be bored with the beach, or their family vacations were still going strong. Which was just fine with Lila until Jessica had shot her down.
"Li, my parents grounded me for that last trip to the mall," Jessica had claimed. Even after all these years of being friends, Lila found it a little bit strange that Jessica could spend less than an eighth of what Lila did and still get in trouble with her parents. Lila's father rarely said anything about her spending habits anymore.
Not that it mattered in this case because Lila was pretty sure Jessica was lying. In the background, before Jessica had hung up, Lila had heard another voice. Female, and not Jessica's mother or her identical twin. No, this was that new girl, Cara Walker. Lila's eyes narrowed in anger. If Jessica didn't want to hang out, fine, but she should really come up with a better lie next time. Put some thought and effort into it.
She reached into her big beach bag (some horribly expensive purchase made hastily late spring but Lila couldn't be seen toting around just anything, even if it was just to the beach) and looked for her watch. Maybe it was late enough that she could call Daddy's driver to take her home. "Rats," she muttered. It was barely one thirty, and that was entirely too early to go home. Still, if she was going to be alone, she might as well be at home. At least there she didn't have to worry about some little terror escaping and dumping ice cream or sand on her.
She slowly got to her feet and stretched, admiring the way the sun had darkened her tan just enough to really set off the white bikini she was wearing. At least the day wasn't a total wash, she decided.
"Lila!"
She turned at the sound of someone vaguely familiar calling her name. With a hand held up to shield her eyes from the sun (where had her sunglasses gone?) she took a quick look around. Huh. Where was that...
For a second the world seemed to spin just a little faster, the colors seemed a little brighter, and the sun's rays felt a little bit warmer. Loping across the sand was one of the hottest guys Lila had seen in quite some time. That someone so gorgeous knew her name wasn't all that surprising (daughter of a millionaire and gorgeous to boot, remember?) but the realization that Lila knew him already? That was kind of blowing her mind.
Ken. Matthews. When the hell had he gotten hot? Somehow in the time since Lila had really paid him much attention, which to be fair, she wasn't sure when exactly that was, he'd finally grown an extra couple of inches. Now he was no longer kind of short for a guy, and to top it off, he'd begun to fill out so he wasn't quite so skinny anymore. Lila could finally see him playing football without getting creamed in the first fifteen seconds of any given game.
"Ken!" she found herself shrieking before she could stop herself. "Way to play it cool, Fowler," she thought to herself. Still, it was nice to see someone she knew after the last couple of hours of near seclusion. Also, for the record, she was just being polite. Really.
"I'm glad I found you," he said, causing Lila to go a little weak in the knees before she caught herself. "It was looking like I was going to have to spend my first day off all summer alone," he added, giving her a big smile.
Lila found herself smiling back without even realizing it. "We wouldn't want that."
Ken's gaze slipped to Lila's little slice of the beach and noticed that things seemed awfully tidy for someone who looked like she'd been at the beach for longer than a few minutes. "Oh, wait, were you leaving? Because I-"
"And leave you alone on your first day off all summer?" Lila shook her head. "I was just... stretching."
Ken's smile returned and Lila felt herself blush. If she was lucky, he'd just think it was due to the sun.
"Well, in that case..."
In which I ramble:
So... The idea was simple. Summer fling went up in my head as an obvious Lila/Ken thing. Seriously, don't start questioning how my brain works now, people. It just seemed obvious to me. It was what the muse wanted. So what if my SV fic past has never worked out before? This time was totally going to be different and besides, I've got ages to finish this, right?
But mostly I thought it would be a cute little thing about how Ken and Lila first started hooking up. And as these things go, you know know certain details, regardless of the facts in the series. (For instance, I don't remember if SVT Ken was all football centric or not. I do remember he was short and was Amy's boyfriend.) One of the things that became clear when I began my massively slow re-read of the series is that Ken and Lila kept drifting back to one another, which is probably why the Abomination married them off. While I think it was handled poorly, I can see it. It's my acceptable alternate 'ship for Lila, actually. But I wondered what started it off, since Lila isn't exactly easy to come by, y'know?
That took about three seconds. Obviously it was sometime after Ken went and grew up and got cuter. This is Lila, people. So...when exactly would Lila have had a clear shot at Ken, given how Wakefield centric the series was while also taking into consideration the fact that Ken and Jessica hooked up their sophomore year? The summer prior that, self! Excellent. So... And then I wondered when Cara appeared. (Anyone know?)
So the above was born. But it's not done, not enough to qualify it as 'summer fling', anyway. Where does one go from here? Other than following their day, because I'm thinking that's got to be written (...as it already is) even if it's not officially part of this. What to DO? *flails* Does it end at the beginning, or do I skip around to bits of their romance and end when it ends, right before school starts?
Thoughts? Opinions? Pictures of aminals with pancake hats?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 05:02 pm (UTC)This is cool, though. Obviously my knowledge of SVH is not has deep as that of BSC, because while I remember the mentions of pre-canon Ken/Lila, I don't recall sophomore-year Ken/Jessica (hmm...), or that he was Amy's boyfriend in SVT. (I don't think I got that far in the series? Maybe I should actually read the books I'm recollecting, LOL.)
As for this story - well, how do you want it to end? It's generally a good thing to know, so you know how to proceed. It's certainly a promising beginning! Are you planning to write at all from Ken's POV, or will it be Lila-centric? (She's got this, mmkay?) Are they having a secret summer fling, or do their friends know about it? IDK when Cara came on the scene, but it's definitely an interesting setup, having Jess blow Lila off in favor of a new friend (and one she can dominate, perhaps?)
I haven't decided which table I'm going to take yet, but when I was putting them together, #5 was definitely the one I felt had the most potential for my stuff...if that makes you feel any better, LOL.