Written In The Margins Of My Textbook || a CS Diary

[honee bee]

Hello Reader,

Thank you for checking out my version of the CS dairy! This diary is written by our protagonist, Tessa Callahan. We will follow along through Tessa’s journey as she navigates school, explores her identity, and learns what it means to be a part of the community. What do you think will happen by the end of the school year?

As you read, you are more than welcome to comment or engage in the story! Please refrain from single word comments, like saying “cool” or posting “mark”, or “bump”. Instead, please share your thoughts on the story, questions you may have, predictions on what you think is going to happen next, etc. I want to interact with my readers and engage with you, but we need to do so with two sided conversations rather than one-word posts!

Sometimes, I will open the floor for people to recommend journal prompts for Tessa to write about. These prompts are a part of the school assignment portion of her journal and should be somewhat introspective and appropriate for a school setting.

You are also more than welcome to send gifts of items you’d like to see used in the story, as sometimes I will change the clothes on our characters to match what is happening in the chapter. You can check out my item inventory to see what I already have or think of items/accessories you think would complete the characters. Sometimes, I may open up to people contributing pets to participate in the story! If you are gifting anything, please put “To be used in your CS Diary Story” in the trade message.

Anyways! Happy reading!
~ bee

[honee bee]

Characters:
As time goes on and more characters are revealed, they will be added to this page so you can read up on them!
For now, this is a work in progress and hope you don’t mind it!

written in the margins of my textbook || pet group


Tessa Callahan
female, age 16

Our protagonist in the story. WIP

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Family Members












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Friends & Other Characters

Amaya Ellis
female, age 16

[honee bee]

nothing right now, come back later!

[honee bee]

𝟶𝟾/𝟸𝟷/𝟸𝟶𝚇𝚇

Dear Diary,

Ugh. No I don’t want to start this like that. It feels too cheesy. I can’t believe we actually have to do this, are they going to read my deepest thoughts? How am I supposed to be truthful while writing this if I’m afraid that my teachers are going to judge my thoughts??

Whatever. I’m not trying to get a bad grade either. I can’t believe we’re only two weeks into my junior year of high school and we already got assigned our big final project. That feels kinda insane? Mr. Bennet, my Anthropology & History teacher, said that some of the most important parts of history come from the journals or diaries of people living through it. He said that we have studied them as primary sources for information and referenced some pretty famous ones like the Diary of Anne Frank. He also mentioned that journals are important documentation in more personal, intimate ways as well, like understanding who your grandmother was when they were young. Ms. Carter, my Advanced Composition teacher, says that journaling is great as a free form of writing because you see a writer’s “stream of consciousness” as they develop their identity. Because of this, they have joined forces to make us write in journals as a joint final project. They said that this project is so important, and since it counts for both of their classes, the final grade is worth a LOT. My brother, Liam, even said that one of his classmates last year didn’t complete the journal and failed both classes and can’t graduate this year until they take summer school!! That’s so crazy!!

I do not want to fail my classes and have to take summer school, so I guess I have no choice but to write. The project has multiple layers: we have to write at least once a week. Half of the writing has to document what has been going on in our lives, as Mr. Bennet says that is the most important part of this project for Anthro & History. He says that he doesn’t want to actually read what we write, as it’s a private matter, so he just has us bookmark each new journal entry with a sticky note and we skip through the pages to show him that we’ve written something new. But Ms. Carter’s part of the project is a little more…intense…she assigns us a prompt that we need to write about each week. Not only that, but she wants to read what we write in response to the prompt too!! She says that if we feel uncomfortable about giving her our entire journal, since we are also doing “documentation” for Mr. Bennet, that we can just use the copy machine in the library to copy the part we write about the prompt and give her those pages to grade instead.

I’m counting this part right now as my “documentation” for the week for Mr. Bennet. He doesn’t read it so he doesn’t care what it says. And technically, I did document what is presently happening in my life because I’m talking about this stupid project! I don’t want to have to write more on top of that!

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Prompt: Who are you? Write about yourself: your name, age, interests, maybe write about what you think makes you unique? Think about this deeply, who are YOU?

I’m Tessa Callahan. I’m 16 years old and I’m the 2nd youngest out of 5 kids! 5 is a LOT of kids if you ask me, our house is so full! Do I have to write about my family in this section too? I don’t know, ugh. My mom says she loves a full house because she is the oldest of 7 kids…I don’t know how I’d survive in that house honestly…

Uhhh, what are my interests? Well, I guess I like to sing? I’m in the advanced choir, the Golden Notes, this year and I really love it! Last year I tried auditioning for the Golden Notes as a sophomore, but I didn’t get in and was put in the standard choir, SBHS Ensemble, so I worked my butt off to get picked this year! I think this year I want to try joining the Drama Club and do the school play or musical, but I don’t know if I’m as good of an actor as I am a singer. I love standing on stage and singing, but I get a little nervous when I stand out for solos and I think I would melt into a puddle if I had to speak or act in front of people!

What else do I like…

I don’t know…




I like my best friend, Amaya, does that count? We’ve been best friends since middle school! When I first moved here, I was sooooo shy and awkward, but Amaya picked me and decided that I HAD to be her friend and we’ve been besties ever since! She is so cool, she’s in choir with me too but she also does cross country and track & field! I tried running with her last year, but I was not very good at it. She’s thinking of quitting running to do Drama this year too. I don’t want her to give up something she loves, but if she did Drama I think I’d love that and feel a little better about auditioning for the play and musical too! Amaya is seriously the coolest, she is never afraid to speak her mind and she loves to talk and joke with everyone in class.

I also like…a boy

WAIT. I FORGOT MS. CARTER READS THESE!! I can’t believe I said that. Forget I said that.

Now I need to write about what makes me unique? I don’t know. I don’t think I’m really that unique. I try really hard to just, fit in and lay low in school. I feel like being “unique” would just make me stick out and be a target for bullying. I’ve been bullied before and it really sucks.

Anyways, I don’t really know what else to write about so I think I’ll be done for now.

— Ⲧⲉ𝛓𝛓ⲁ

Tessa,

Good job for completing your first prompt. I’m sorry to hear that you were bullied before, I hope you know that you can come to me and we can find some resolution if you are still being bullied. And don’t worry, I don’t judge or tell others about what you write for these prompts!

I am giving you full points on this one for doing the prompt, but I’d love to see you dig deeper in the future. I feel like you took the prompt really literally, when the prompt is supposed to get you started in your writing and help your stream of consciousness take flight.

Don’t stress too much though! We will have more fun prompts in the future (and don’t worry, you will get a prompt where you write about your family real soon). You may connect with other prompts better and find it easier to write about them, so it’s okay if sometimes you’re just writing to get the completion grade for the week. But if I see that every week, we might have to chat about what really counts for the grade, so I hope I see some better writing from you in the future!

- ℳ𝓈. 𝒞𝒶𝓇𝓉ℯ𝓇

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