I couldn’t take all those characters Holden Caulfield had.. Being a outsider, antisocial, highly critical and sarcastic, I couldn’t make a story keeping all these. So I tried to focus on making the character an outsider and being a little critical towards the world.
A creaking sound of a door seeped into my ears. I irritably put off my earphones and turned around.
“Ah, mom. What’s the matter.”
It was my mom. I got very annoyed. The song was lovely and all! Why did she have to trespass my room at this moment, interrupting me enjoying the song? Well, he’s always that way. Always ruffling me.
“Don’t say you were again listening to music with your damn earphone in.”
I didn’t say a word. Instead, I stared my mom in her face.
“Don’t look at me so harsh? Your eyes are to stick out if you keep scowling at me like that. Get stuffed and study. Right now!”
My mom squeaked quite nervously and went out the room. I put my earphones in again and turned on the music. But the overflowing feeling I had a while ago is never to be felt again. Damn, she interrupted the whole thing.
As a matter of fact, I hate exams. Or maybe I hate the exam ‘period’ more than the exam itself. This midterm is my twenty first exam (since I took it since third grade), but I can never get used to this damn thing. It stresses me out. I ask my mom if I could go out and have a walk or something, but my mom always tells me to drop that stupid joke and study. Am I joking? Of course not. I’m just serious. Yes, she never lets me out during exam period, and I have no excuses to go out during that time. She thinks the more I stay home, the more I get to study, and the higher my score gets, which is totally wrong.
Anyway, on a wonderful Wednesday like today, I decided to go out.
“Mom, can I go to library?”
Mom gave me an ‘interrogatory’ stare. I kinda hate places flooding with people, and library is one of those places, so it’s nothing wrong for her to think me going to library weird. But, that was the only excuse I could think of.
“I mean….. I can’t concentrate so well in my room. The TV sound distracts me.”
I added.
“Ah, so you’re now blaming ME, huh?”
“Well….. I thought maybe I could find some motivation in library since there are hundreds of people studying.”
I added again. My mom didn’t seem convinced at all, but she finally nodded. That’s how she replies. She nods when she is admitting something she has no mind to let me do. And I can be positive that she will nag at me on the dinner table. Whatever. I don’t care. I now got out of that damn house.
It didn’t take me so long to notice that I really didn’t have any place to go. Nanny’s house down the street was the only place I could think of, but that wasn’t a great idea either. She would call my mom right away and start talking on a phone for an hour or something, starting off from why I got to visit her house. So I just decided to go to library.
Library was a very interesting place. There were quite many people, but they all focused on their business. I hate when people-especially those squeaking girls-wonder around the street, talk about pretty much everyone around them, and giggle so loudly. That’s like the most annoying thing in the world ever. And it’s such a wonderful thing there aren’t any those people in library. I looked around the no.3 reading room. People were mostly sitting on their seat with some kind of book opened in front of them. Few had their ear phones on. One guy with a dark blue jacket was constantly beating his feet, which made a tapping sound around the library. Except that guy library was extremely silent. I picked up [Ladies behind the Emperor] from the New Arrival corner and started reading it. I didn’t bring anything to study, so reading it was pretty much the only choice I had.
I bammed my head on the desk. Quite a few eyes were on me. I flung out of the room right away, leaving the book on the desk. I just needed some fresh air to stay awake. That’s all. I headed to the ‘open air lounge’ on the second floor. But it didn’t take me so long to notice that the ‘open air lounge’ wasn’t a great place to get fresh air.
What you set out to do in your intro is achieved. I like the way he examines his mom's behavior and knows her "nodding" habit. We never do see much of Holden at home in the book, so this is an interesting approach. And the library also works as a place to "people watch" so we can see how this character sees the world. The absence of silly girls is something Holden would definitely enjoy, and you have his aimless habits established. Good work.:)
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