(Heartbreak; Image from Pixabay)
Hello all! Gossip girl here, and boy do I have a story for you!!
How many of you have ever gotten jealous over something that your friends have? Maybe it was a new cell phone? A new pair of shoes? Maybe your friends' parents bought them a new car for their 16th birthday? Or, how about this, maybe your friend got into the college of your dreams and you didn't? Well, let me tell you, that jealousy will get you nowhere... Read this story and you will see why! This is a good one, so grab some popcorn and get ready for an intense read!
Once upon a time there were two friends: Stella and Anna. Stella and Anna were seen as friends forever; they wanted to do everything at the same time such as have their weddings together, get pregnant together, go on double dates all the time, etc.
Well, after they had each had a kid, Anna finds out that Stella had gotten pregnant again. This didn't originally upset Anna because she figured she could also just have another kid so their lives would be equal again.
Anna was wrong.
Anna was visited by a spirit who assured her she was only allowed to have one kid in her lifetime; this is where the jealousy that took over Anna's life began. Anna began to envy the second son of Stella. One day Stella went out to go grocery shopping and while she was gone, Anna's jealousy got the best of her.
Anna snuck in to Stella's house and ended up killing her second son... or so she thought...
The next morning Anna got a phone call from Stella, crying hysterically. Anna immediately started to apologize for how sorry she was for Stella's loss, and then Stella stopped her and said, "My loss?? What are you talking about? I just found your son dead in my house!!"
Anna immediately went over and realized she had made the biggest mistake of her life: She accidentally killed her OWN son.
Anna took her son and went into the forest where she hid for several weeks. Eventually, her husband found her and asked if what she had done was true. Anna admitted to it and said the jealousy had taken over her, and she didn't even recognize herself. Her husband then explained that he was visited by a spirit who said their son could come back to life if Anna gave up her life instead. Anna agreed that this would be best, since she made the mistake and hurt her friends, family, and herself.
So, in the end, Anna passed away and her son came back to life....
I told you it was going to be an intense one, I contemplated on sending out this blast, but I figured everyone should know how evil jealously can be; I mean, haven't you heard? Jealousy is truly the thief of all joy!!!
Author's Note: For this story, I followed much of the original plot except I made one bigger change. In the original story, the wife was jealous of the more intelligent son and how he was so good at what he did; in my story, I decided to make the wife jealous at the fact that her friend had the ability to have two sons when she could only have one. This brings out more themes such as betrayal of friendship, jealousy being the thief of joy, and not appreciating what we have in the first place. Also, at the end of the original story, the mother is burned to ashes and the son remains dead; I added the part where if the mom dies the son comes back to life, showing a circle of life thing how she had to sacrifice herself in order to give her son a chance at life again!
Wow! I did not see that plot twist coming at all! You wrote your story in a way that gave no indication that that was going to happen and I really loved that! What kind of reaction did Anna's husband have? Was he angry? Did he notice her jealousy and refuse to act on it, or did she keep it hidden? I would have loved to see the husbands reaction, and how he handled the situation. I know it's not about him, but I think it would have improved your already great story.
ReplyDeleteHi Maddie! This story was absolutely crazy! There was so much drama packed in, it definitely felt like something out of Gossip Girl. I think the fact that you changed some of the plot while maintaining the character integrity and lesson of the story was fantastic! I was wondering why you decided to include spirits in your story? Was this part of the original myth, and if not, what made you add them? I do think they added a lot to the story however. One thing I would suggest is that maybe elaborate on the ending; I thought the story ended very quickly and I was kind of shocked that the wife died so quickly. If there was a larger buildup to the death of the wife, I think it could have added quite a bit more. Nevertheless, I absolutely loved your story and think it was a very entertaining way of sharing! Can't wait to keep reading your stories.
ReplyDeleteHi Gossip Girl,
ReplyDeleteIts me, Anna. Yep. Thats right, I am back from the dead, here to set the record straight. First and foremost, I wanted to address the way I am portrayed in your little blast. You made me out to be a jealous witch who cannot be happy for my friends when good things happen to them! Was I a little jealous? Yes. Did it drive me to do some crazy things? Maybe! But I was not the tyrant you ever-so-kindly painted me out to be! You have to think of this situation from my point of view. I mean, me and Stella planned on doing everything together since we were little girls, and when she secretly got pregnant for the second time, and I found out I wasnt able to do the same, it really upset me. Maybe I overreacted a little by trying to kill her son and accidentally killing my own, but at the time, it felt warranted. She had what I couldn't have and it drove me to do some crazy things. In the end, I made it all right by taking my own life to spare my childs, so it feels like I am the good guy in this story. Maybe next time get your facts straight before you send out information. Until next time,
XOXO, Anna
Hello Madeleine! I thoroughly enjoyed your story. I love the changes that you did to the original story. I always have a hard time when I am trying to decide what I am going to do to change the original, but it seems you didn’t have this problem! The things you changed seemed to improve the original story. It is no longer a tragedy where jealousy got the best of someone, but it was also about possible redemption and the mothers sacrifice to fix a wrong she made! One of the questions I have is how did the mother not recognize her son? Why was her son at Stella’s house in the first place? I think this is what threw me for the biggest loop. I suppose maybe their sons were friends and he was simply there for a play date? I also wonder how Stella took it coming home to find Anna’s son dead in her house. I bet she ran around the house trying to find her son to make sure he was okay.
ReplyDeleteHi Madeleine! I really enjoyed reading your take on this story. I've never seen Gossip Girl, but I've seen many instances of its iconic narrative voice being used. I particularly liked that your take on this motif emphasized the moral of story which is, essentially, that jealousy can be ugly and dangerous. I was very curious about how Anna carried out the murder of the boy. What was the method she used? How did she mistake her son for Stella's? How did she not notice her own son missing until the next day? Maybe giving more details about these events would've assuaged my questions but in a way, I also like that your story was pretty open-ended. It might also make it a little bit easier for the reader to shift from the story itself to the narration of Gossip Girl if you included some symbol or page break. This was definitely an entertaining read!
ReplyDeleteHi Madeleine! Although I'm unfamiliar with Gossip Girl, I thought the casual nature of the narrator worked well as a contrast of the really dark story. I think it would benefit the story to actually lean more into the darkness and add details regarding the death of both the son and the woman. I felt like both of the deaths happened very suddenly and didn't allow me to fully absorb what had happened until a couple of lines later.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I liked this a lot and totally didn't see that twist coming. Great job!