Entry 2: And We Stay

The main character of my book, And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard, is a 17 year old girl named Emily Beam. At this point in my book the reader has just found out then before and maybe when Emily's ex-boyfriend Paul killed himself, Emily was pregnant. The readers can assume from things that were said, that she's not pregnant now, and doesn't seem to have a baby, that Emily had an abortion. The abortion may have been what caused Paul to threaten Emily then kill himself. Right now Emily's seems to want to understand why this caused Paul to kill himself and how to get over the guilt of both the abortion and her boyfriend's suicide. Emily's French teacher and her new roommate K.T., other major characters, seem to know that Emily is going through something and wants to help her use her poetry to help rebuild get confidence and help her get better. K.T. also seems to want to be Emily's friend as she seemed to be best friends with the girl who used to live with her in Emily's room and looking for a new best friend. Themes that are beginning to appear are just because you stop living in the world doesn't mean you won't stop affecting the world. You can see this in Emily's constant guilt and want of understanding over what Paul did. When Paul shot himself it seems like he just wanted to stop having to deal with things or face consequences but now other prod have to do it for him. The structure of And We Stay is very interesting. It is in present tense but third person so Emily's story is being told as it goes on but seemingly not by her. For the flashbacks in this book they often start with phrases such as "Emily tried to forget" or "Emily remembered how" and then goes into past tense while telling about something happened before she got to boarding school. Another interesting thing about the structure of And We Stay is that at the end of each chapter is a poem "written" by Emily that helps show her feelings and reveal things that happened. Now that the book has revealed more about Emily and her boyfriend Paul's relationship I'm even more interested in what happened and how it will continue to affect Emily.