You know that book, "Men are from Mars, Women from Venus"? Well,
here's a prime example of that. This assignment was actually turned in
by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted) and Gary
(last name deleted).


First, the Assignment:
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English 44A
SMU
Creative Writing
Prof. Miller

In-class Assignment for Wednesday: Today we will experiment with a new
form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will
pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right.

One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The
partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph
to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so
on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time
in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree
a conclusion has been reached.

And now, the Assignment as submitted by Rebecca & Gary:
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At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home,
now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times,
that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep
her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she
thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So
chamomile was out of the question.

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Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about
than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with
whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago.

"A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic
communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so
far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed
out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The
jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across
the cockpit.

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He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt
one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its
pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.

"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel."
Laurie read in her newspaper one morning.

The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the
window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly
and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract
her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things
around her.

"Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered
wistfully.

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Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live.
Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched
the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy
peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty
through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile
alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within
two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on
course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire
planet.

With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical
plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The
president, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the
ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive
explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The
President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow
this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow'em out of the sky!"

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This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My
writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

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Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at
writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

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Asshole.

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Bitch.

And they are married today

What mark did they get?

That made my day. Thank you for posting that! Im no english professor, but i think the girl has some talent. Im a psychology major and its funny to be able to read an example of the things we learn. Once agian, thank you very much.

CASTOR