2 out of 5

You know when you were in high school, and your writing assignments would often get praised, and you had some teachers very supportive of some creative writing efforts, and then there was a contest, and you labored on your submission forever and those teachers, and your parents, and your friends were all really wowed by what you were doing and then you WON that contest, you champ?

This is that story.

It’s well written, although it’s clearly a young voice – there are a lot of subtle assumptions in the phrasings – and… it’s not about anything that people who aren’t your teachers, parents, or friends will actually care about.

Heather’s brother is distant after the death of a friend.  Heather frets, reciting very creative-writing-A+-details that don’t really add all that much to the story, and leads us to when a life lesson (in which the title of the story is dropped) is learned.

After your high school adventures, some online jerk will review your work and be dismissive, and make it seem like this likely personal experience you’ve fictionalized is meaningless, and hint that your efforts have produced crap.  While what he’s saying has merits – you wouldn’t have much interest in this story if it wasn’t yours, as the characters don’t inherently offer anything too engrossing to endear us to them, nor is the central “mystery” of the dead friend ascribed enough emotional weight to make it truly compelling – you also shouldn’t give a fig about his review, because this story is just a potential stepping stone to others that expand on your skills.