Rachel Summers : Author

 

Works In Progress

Below are stories with their summaries. Listed below are stories I'm working on or have completed.

Just Maybe


Naomi Bloor and Eli Jury have been best friends since 2nd grade. They've shared the same weird hobbies, such as talking to homeless people, driving on the beach in the rain, and collecting funky clothes from thrift shops.

Now at sixteen, they are both unsure where their friendship leads. Naomi is fine admitting her crush on Eli to herself, but actually telling him is something else. Eli has always been childish and carefree while she is uptight and pessimistic. This is something she has admired him for, especially since his life at home isn't that great.

Eli lives with his mom, who has been an alcoholic ever since the abandonment of his dad. But that doesn't stop him from keeping a positive outlook on life. Eli has always told Naomi that other people have it  much worse. He doesn't like talking about it so she doesn't pry.

But lately Eli hasn't been acting like himself. Maybe Naomi is just exaggerating. Kissing Rose Taylor isn't that bad. But getting drunk at parties, lying to your friends and hanging out with a suspicious crowd is something else entirely.

Naomi doesn't want to want to invade his privacy, but she does want to help him. Doing the right thing is hard, especially when it comes to your best friend.


Haley

Despite the fact that Alex isn't that fond of children, he puts a babysitting ad in the paper. He intends on getting an easy job - a quiet obedient kid to watch for an hour or two. A couple replies to the ad, asking him to babysit their twelve year-old son.

Haley Myers is a mature, bright eyed kid with academic skills and an open and helpful personality. He offers to mow the neighbors lawn, wash the car, even trim the hedges of the people who live across the street from him.  For free.

Despite the fact that they all decline his offers, Alex thinks that Haley meant sincerely to help. To Alex he looks perfectly capable of watching himself for a hour or two while his parents go to the movies.

But when the other side of Haley's personality releases the third time Alex is asked to babysit, he finds himself dealing with a boy who tortures his cat, throws soda cans at squirrels, and mutters things about how he hates and will one day kill everyone around him.

Alex is even more surprised to see that Haley's parents are distant towards the situation. They blatantly ignore Haley's insanity,  whether it's by talking loudly over his mutterings or leaving through the door they came when they see the cat groaning on the floor in pain.

The worst part is that when Haley is back to "normal" he simply tells Alex that the cat got run over by a car the previous day, the garbage can fell over the previous night and that's why the soda cans are in the front yard, and he loves his parents and thinks of Alex as a role model and would never kill anybody.

He tries to tell his friend Sam who just tells him that Haley is being a kid and trying to freak him out, and that the cat probably did get run over by a car. As much as Alex would like to believe her, he knows that something is up. There are some things that he can't ignore.

Alex is caught between just quitting his paycheck, or sticking around to find out what exactly is wrong with Haley and why his parents aren't the least bit alarmed about his personality problems.

Rescue My Soul (from their destructions)

Nineteen year-old Janet Nakano loves her brother Jude. That's why she has to kill his girlfriend.

When Janet loses her job and is evicted Jude has no problem letting her stay with him. Janet is relieved that she won't be living on the streets, but that relief is short lived when she meets Jude's girlfriend, Harley, and discovers that she is ex-meth addict who regularly beats the crap out of Jude.

But to Jude, the agony of losing Harley is worse than the abuse he regularly suffers to be at her side. He can't let her go. He begs Janet not to call the police and even compares Harley to a lost, orphaned, sad little child. He claims that Harley is hurting and he is the only person that can help her.

However, Janet could really care less about the "true love" Jude claims is between him and Harley. After all, Harley is abusive and it's for his own good that she gets thrown in jail. But Janet is caught between a rock and a hard place when Harley begins to deal drugs again. With Jude's money.

So if she tells then not only will Jude get sent to prison for being involved, but there's also the chance of getting her head smashed in by angry drug addicts because she disrupted their trade. To make matters worse, a police officer from the Major Case Squad has begun to investigate Harley.

In between lying to Detective Matthieu Ames for the woman she hates most in the world and trying to stay away from a drug dealer's son Harley brought to the apartment who seemed to take an interest in her, Janet promised herself that she wouldn't loose her cool or do anything irrational.

She promised herself she wouldn't do something that would hurt and not help her situation. She promised herself she wouldn't commit murder.

But there's a way around every promise.