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Terramagine
©
By Bonnie Roberts
Lux Eternal Publishing® Huntsville, Arkansas May 10, 2013 2
Table of Contents Part I Introduction How To Make a Good Concept My First Concept The Mad Hatter
5 6 8 10 Part II
Introduction Tron Part I Chapter 30: Rom’s Plan Tron Part II Chapter 26: NightShade Tron Part III: Prologue The Tale of Mother Nature and Father Time
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Part III Introduction A Morning in the Life of Bonnie Rules, Rules, Rules The Fall of the Computer The Peter Pan Syndrome
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Acknowledgements I would like to dedicate this book to Leslie Carmichael and Mrs. Sullivan. These two inspired me to chase my dreams and to never give up. Mrs. Sullivan helped me to fine-tune my writing, and motivated me to keep writing. Leslie helped me start some of my stories and taught me how to draw. Thanks to these tow, I can write and draw with confidence. When someone compliments my art, whether it be writing or drawing, I give Mrs. Sullivan and Leslie credit because they taught me in these things. Without them, I’d still be writing poor stories, lacking in depth and character development and drawing stick figures, Thank you Mrs. Sullivan and Leslie Carmichael! ♼
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Part I I learned to draw and write from Leslie Carmichael; she helped me grow my imagination. Thanks to her, I developed whole worlds and added onto others. These worlds are in a universe made of everything I wrote, am writing, or drew. I like to call this huge universe called Terramagine. I became interested in the arts, and now I found a possible career field! I’ve designed many heroes, villains, and several worlds. I am a concept artist. Most every illustration in this book is a drawing of mine. Each story in this part is about how to make a good concept, my first concept, one of my newer concepts, and how I get some ideas for concepts. Enjoy learning about my knack for concept art, and how I make and write things!
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How to Make a good Concept I love to make concept art! It’s fun and, in some cases, it’s easy. I can come up with any cool videogame- like concept, and put it on paper. I would personally like to share with you my secrets to good concept art. I put it in steps so it would be easier to understand. First, you need to get an idea. Is your character male or female? What skills does you character possess? Is he/she a warrior? Assassin? Peasant? Once you have a grasp of who your character is, then you can start drawing. I always draw from the head down. So, I draw the head, neck, and shoulders. Keep in mind that even the shoulders say who the character is! The shoulders can be up, to show the character is tense, or slouched to show the character is relaxed. After I draw the shoulders, I usually draw the hair. To get a strong concept, try to make the hair say who the character is. After I do the hair, I make the face. Be sure to make the character emote, have their facial expression say who they are. Now, after this I usually mess up, so I’m going to warn you right now about proportions. Make sure that your character’s shoulders aren’t too wide. Also, make sure that if your character rests his/her arms by his/her sides, that his/her fingertips rest beside the middle of his/her thighs. Be sure that the hands are the right size. I always picture my character slapping his/her face. If the hand covers the face, but the fingers don’t go past the head, then the hand is perfect. Now that I have that out of the way, we can discuss the arms. Make you character pose; this pose should also say who they are. Position the arms in this pose. Let your character hold something that says who they are, like a weapon of sorts, or an accessory. Now you can draw the sides, legs, and feet. Make an outfit that describes them as well. Is your character evil? Good? Rich? Poor? Now that your concept is done, you need to make a story for it. How did your character become who he/she is? Why? Where does he/ she live? Why? Who are his/ her allies? Why? Maybe you already have a story in mind. If you do, and you have this character, try to integrate him/her as smoothly into the story as possible. Make sure your character is important to the story, and isn’t useless. Try to make your character develop. Have him/her learn something from the events of the story. If you story is an allegory, you should make your character symbolize something that sounds like them. Hopefully you now know how to create and draw a strong character. I also hope that you enjoy writing stories and inventing worlds like I do.
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My Concept for Morgannabyte; an villain from my Tron Fan Fiction
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My first concept It was Super Bowl Sunday, and we went to Alculpocos for dinner. I ordered an extralarge sweet tea. It was the worst and greatest mistake of my life. At 10:00 PM: I went to bed. I lay, thinking about my new favorite movie, Tron: Legacy, which had recently came out at the time. At 11:00 PM: I was still awake, but after an hour of thinking, I had a brilliant idea! At 11:15 PM: My computer (a 2001 laptop that weighs a ton) FINALLY finishes booting up. I made a note-to-self about putting the laptop on sleep mode next time. At 11:18 PM: The Paint Program (the really old one) finishes loading. At 11:50 PM: I’m excitedly drawing a character on the screen. The basics are half done. It was just a grey background with black lines that vaguely looked like a person. At 12:45 AM: I’m mostly done. I decided to finish it tomorrow. Went back to bed. I lay awake. At 1:00 AM: I decide to finish it tonight! I climb out of bed and boot up the computer again. At 1:30 AM: The concept was complete! Or so I thought… At 1:40 AM: I found something else to add to my concept. The picture looked good, but it needed some more flair. At 2:00 AM: I’m finished for good this time. I stared in awe at my new creation. My first concept art, smirking back at me, light disc ready for battle. Her unruly, short, golden hair spiking out from under her battle helmet. Just by looking at her, you could see confidence, bravery, and power. Things I have always wanted, but never gotten around to getting. I named her Mercuria. The was originally a User that got stuck in the computer, but with the Tron series, that had been done and overdone. Mercuria became a glitchy program that decided to follow her dream to become security software. I gave her friends and apps. I tied her seamlessly into the two movies, two videogames, a comic book, and a TV series. She was everything I wanted to be. Despite being a glitch, she was popular. She was strong, and was a natural leader. Mercuria became my digital alter-ego. All because I drank too much sweet tea at Alculpocos, an epic story, three novel to be precise, was born. It had scenes of epic virus-slaying action. It was epic (and really long), but it was beautiful in my sight.
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The mad hatter
It was Sunday evening, and it was very quiet. I was sitting in the second story of a big farm house. I could hardly hear the muffled discussion of the Bible study below. I pulled out my notebook and let my pencil do whatever. A head appeared on the paper, then an unusually large top hat. I fashioned some polka dots to ornament the already gaudy hat. The face I drew was smiling, the nose and chin perfectly pointy. The man’s eyes were crossed ever so slightly. I looked at the smiling, half-mad face. I no longer saw a doodle, I saw the Mad Hatter. The quiet second-story room I was in transformed to a tea party in the middle of the Tulgy Wood. I smiled back at the Hatter, and continued to draw. I carefully crafted tea cups that balanced precariously atop the Hatter’s rather large hat. He balanced a small teacup in his left hand, his right hand delicately held another teacup. I designed a gentlemanly undercoat, but none of the buttons matched. Be balanced on his left foot, and his right foot was missing a shoe. Upon his right foot rested a teacup. He was adorable… in a mad way. My version of the Mad Hatter makes many different hats for different occasions. Some hats are crazier than others; in the picture, he was wearing his “tea hat”. In the story I’m writing, Mattath Thather (that’s what Leslie Carmichael and I named him) and Lescaral (who later comes to the real world and changes his name to Lewis Carol) were being chased by the Jubjub Bird. Mattath Thather pulled a hat out of nowhere and threw it frisby style at the Jubjub bird. It grew increasingly larger as it flew, and eventually grew sharp teeth! The hat swallowed the foe whole, and Lescaral could escape. Jabberwocky is one of my favorite stories that I’m writing because of the concepts. I redesigned the Tweedles, the Mad Hatter, the Chesire Cat (whom we named Pordly Plumpooke), the White Rabbit (named Lapinary Alboffen), and all the other classic Alice in Wonderland characters. Each concept I drew was strong, and really defined each character. For this certain story, I used the Jabberwocky ballad by Lewis Carol for a backbone. The story follows Lewscaral on his quest through Wonderland to slay the Jabberwocky after it killed his father. For a traveling companion, Lewscaral has Charles, a man from the real world who fell through the rabbit hole. Mrs. Sullivan actually inspired this story. She gave us a lesson on comprehending poetry, and the “boss level” was Lewis Carol’s poem, Jabberwocky. I was just sitting there in class, reading the poem, then BOOM! The story came out of nowhere! Jabberwocky by Lewis Carol 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" 10
He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! and through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
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Here is Mattah Thather, the Mad Hatter!
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Part 2 Now that you know how I make things, you can see how I put my creations into action! Here are just pieces and parts of my stories, if I tried to write all of them completely, it would take years just to write them! These snippets of stories follow the adventures of Mercuria, a virus slayer in the computer (based off of the Tron movies). I also have a potential story in here about Mother Nature and Father Time. I hope you enjoy my stories and have fun exploring the universe of Terramagine‌ if you dare!
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Tron: Imperfection Part I: Chapter 30: Rom’s Plan Rom had a plan that could finally destroy Edge, a virus that had been terrorizing the Encom System. As Rom ran the plan through his plan in his mind, it seemed foolproof, but Mercuria saw it. A flaw. A flaw Rom was blind to. If they went through with Rom’s plan, they would be killed. Their fates and the fates of the System were in her hands. She had to warn Rom. When she told him, he became angry. Rom yelled at her, saying that he was a military program, and he knew what he was doing. Mercuria tried again, but Rom was impervious to the flaw. Angered, Mercuria left the team. If Rom and Silicon want to get killed, so be it. Crying is a rare thing for a program to do, and Mercuria shed many tears after she left. She sat on a boulder in the Outlands, and let her tears fall in the fine sand. “Prrroooww?” Electris, Mercuria’s digicat asked. Mercuria heaved a sigh, “I know you miss the team, but we broke the rules. Rom was the leader and I questioned his orders. We can’t go back.” He voice was a mere whisper. Mercuria sat, perfectly still for a microcycle (an hour in User time), just meditating on what happened. Electris sat faithfully, waiting for her master to do something. Mercuria’s eyes narrowed and she shot straight up. With her fists clenched, she snapped, “I don’t care about rules! My friends are about to die!” Electris smiled. Mercuria summoned her lightcycle and zoomed off. “If I hurry, we can make it in time to save them!” she told Electris who was crowded in the cab with her. Mercuria was too late; the part that would fail had come! Silicon was unconscious and Rom’s shoulder was injured during the fight with Edge. Mercuria tensed for battle. She activated her only weapon, a lightdisc. With a howl of fury, Mercuria leapt into the fray! The broadside of Mercuria’s disc smashed into the hideous virus. Edge slid to the ground, his snake-like body relaxing. “He’s unconscious. Rom, you need to get Silicon outta here. I’ll finish off Edge.” Mercuria ordered between pants. “Mercuria, you were right. I failed, but you can’t possibly fight this thing on your own!” Rom replied. Edge started to stir. “If you leave now, I can destroy Edge without fighting him! Trust me, Rom!” Rom lowered his gaze, “Alright. I’ll get Silicon to safety. Let’s Rendezvous at the I/O Tower.” “Sounds good, see you then.” Mercuria wore that confident smirk that Rom adored. “See you then.” Rom murmured as he watched Mercuria hoist a dazed Edge on the top of her lightcycle, tie the virus down, and drive away. Baud City was close enough to walk to. Ron heaved the tiny frame of Silicon onto his shoulders, and journeyed to the I/O Tower. Several miles away, Mercuria was racing at the speed of sound on her lightcycle. “Luckily, I’m the fastest racer in this system!” Mercuria thought as she heard the virus rustling around on the roof, “thank goodness he has no arms, just a snake body!” In a matter of seconds, Mercuria was where she needed to be: The Sea of Simulation. Her brakes screeched as she fought to stop her speeding vehicle. “The SOS: The place where programs dump things they never want to see again.” Edge was awake now, and snarling, straining at the energy rope holding him in place. Mercuria sat puzzling. “If Edge is awake,” she thought, “how do I get him in the SOS without him hurting me?” Mercuria wondered for a while, then had an idea. She shook her head. 14
“I’m not sure I want to do this.” She mumbled, “But it is the only way.” Mercuria opened the door to her lightcycle, and revved the engine. She patted her prized racer. She reached into the cab, and put the bike into gear. Mercuria opened the storage compartment that Flynn had called a “trunk”. Out of the trunk she pulled a clamp. Mercuria solemnly opened the clamp, and closed it on the lever on the handlebar. The engine roared over Edge’s mad screech, and it drove over the cliff, and fell into the Sea of Simulation with a large splash. Mercuria found a lightrain to take to the I/O tower, and told Rom and the now conscious Silicon about how she rid the System of the virus. Rom had appointed Mercuria as the new leader for she handled the situation well. As they were hanging out later that evening, Silicon started to smile, and then chuckle. “You know,” he smiled, “Mercuria could’ve saved her lightcycle.” He said matter-offactly, which sounded rather cute because of his squeaky voice and British accent. “Oh really,” Mercuria said slowly, “How exactly?” “You could’ve knocked Edge out again, and then you could’ve tossed the brute into the SOS, and still have your bike.” The color drained from Mercuria’s face. The whole team laughed. Thus the beginning of Mercuria’s leadership.
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Tron Part II Chapter 26: NightShade It was dark. Darker than usual on the Grid. Mercuria knew that a virus had caused this. Rom, Delta, and Silicon were deployed on a mission, so Mercuria had to go solo. The streets were cleared because of this darkness that plagued Tron City. The city was eerily quiet, and a black mist hung in the air. “If only I knew where the virus was.” Mercuria peered through the thick mist, but saw nothing. She walked past abandoned clubs, through empty circuits, and under empty bridges. “If I can’t find the virus soon,” Mercuria worried, “I might be too late.” “You aren’t too late; here I am.” A unnervingly calm whisper echoed in her head. “Who said that!?” hollered Mercuria. “I did.” The disembodied voice whispered. A shadowy figure hovered out from around the corner. The virus wore a hood that shadowed his face. It also wore a long cloak that fluttered about when he moved, the heavy dark mist flowed out from its right hand. The virus was haunting, but what sent chills down Mercuria’s back was the blank, glowing, purple eyes that stared at her from under the hood. “It’s nice to see you again.” Cooed the whisper. “Again?” snarled Mercuria, “This is the first time we met, you must be thinking of a different virus-slayer.” “Oh, no, this isn’t the first time. We met before, but it was a different system, and I had a different body. By the way, please call me NightShade, but you might know me better as Morbus.” Replied the voice. Mercuria’s eyes grew wide. “No! No, Morbus died thousands of cycles ago!” Mercuria screamed at NightShade. NightShade pulled back his hood. Unruly jet-black hair fell upon his pale forehead. He wore a thin smile. This was Morbus, the only thing that was different were the eyes. They were purple instead of green. “B-but how?” Stammered Mercuria. “Back in the MCP’s death games, when I crashed my lightcycle, I thought I was a gonner, but I was not. You, Mercuria, know that I was Spyware. We pirating programs have powers. I phased through the wreck, and the wall. I was going to go back for you, but then I saw him rescue you. I was angry that you chose him over me. I followed you around, you never saw me because I was invisible. You slowly turned into a Security Program, and I knew that we would never be a pair. I still followed you, curious. Curious about the new you. Then, not too long ago, you fought a virus, and it fled, but it happened to bump into me as it was leaving. I am no longer Spyware. I am a virus. I am more powerful than I had been. Mercuria, I know you still like me. I know you do. All it takes is a touch. You could be powerful too. Like me. We can rule the Grid together.” Mercuria was frozen throughout NightShade’s monologue. It took a while for the new information to sink in. Mercuria shook her head, “No.” she stared right into NightShade’s blank eyes. Those eyes narrowed. “Very well.” He whispered, “SLEEP” NightShade commanded. Mercuria’s knees buckled, and she fell into a coma.
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Tron Part III: Prologue The Grid was perfect. It was good. It was happy. Everyone was going fine, until he came. Codified Likeness Utility. CLU was programmed to create the perfect system, but he made it worse instead. He turned Flynn’s Games into death matches. Hundreds of programs are slaughtered there, every cycle. CLU even found Flynn’s miracle, the Isomorphs, imperfect. CLU hunted them, and destroyed them. Not a single ISO was left. Flynn’s miracle is gone. CLU destroyed my mentor, Tron, and turned some of our friends against us. Heck, he turned the whole Grid against us. In CLU’s eyes, we are imperfect. Since we are “imperfect” he seeks to kill us, like he did to Tron. Flynn, our User, our creator, has disappeared. I’m afraid we might not see him again; he’s afraid of his own creation. We have built a safe-house here in the Outlands. We’ve been hiding here way too long. We are finished mourning our mentor, and we are ready for vengeance. My team and I have been cooped-up in this safe-house for too long. We need to stretch our legs. CLU has been oppressing the Grid long enough. It’s time to rebel.
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The Tale of Mother Nature and Father Time
Mother Nature and Father Time married when the world began. They loved eachother dearly, and had four kids named Summer, Winter, Fall, and Spring. During the warmer months, Summer would play. He was cheeky and mischiveous. He enjoyed causing trouble, like sunburn. Summer also loves surprises, like when he conjours popcorn showers. Fall is much less roudy. She enjoys he cooler months, and loves art. Each year she would paint Summer’s green leaves the firy colors of sunset. At night, Fall would team up with Jack Frost and lace the leaves with a gentle frost. Winter is as beautiful as fresh snow. She is solemn and quiet and has a pet cardinal. She is jealous of Fall, for she thinks she is dating Jack Frost. Jack Frost, however, likes Winter. He always sends her thousands of small, hand-crafted snowflakes that Winter likes to arrange on the clouds. Spring is the sweetest of the four. Spring loves flowers and birds. She always sings with them, and carries a flute. She also tells the bees where the best nectar is. Spring loves everything that is beautiful, and cares for all living things. There is only one thing that the Seasons fear: Mother Nature’s hot temper. If mother nature is furious with Spring, she sends large storms that shake houses and cause power outages. Mother nature also causes floods when she is extra angry with Spring. If Winter got on Mother Nature’s bad-side, Mother Nature would gust all of Jack Frost’s gifts to the Earth and causes ice storms. If Fall ever got into trouble, Mother Nature would blow Fall’s artwork everywhere, and the humas would rake them up, and toss them away. If Summer was caught with his mischief, which happens often, Mother Nature would send heavy dust storms and long droughts to the land.
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Father Time courtesy of Google Images 20
Part 3 Now That you have enjoyed some adventures of my characters, you can hear about some of my adventures! Join me as I wage war a computer virus, deal with persnickety rules, talk about the Peter Pan syndrome, share my thoughts on parents and schools, and battle a cat! I wish I could share my whole zany life, but that would take 30 novels, 5 movies, and a comic book to explain, so I picked some of my favorite moments in life. Enjoy!
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A Morning in the Life of Bonnie Every morning. I wake up at 6:00, and manage to haul myself out of my homemade loftbed by 6:08. I wake up with a hot shower that lasts to 6:30. After I choose what to wear (which is kinda life-or-death for a girl) I eat breakfast. At 7:00 I hurriedly wash my face and brush my teeth, and do my hair (also life-or-death). Then by 7:15 I’m finally ready for a long, exhausting day at school. It’s exhausting every morning. If I pause for a micro-second, I will be late for school. It is work, work, work, every morning. Might I mention that I’m not a morning person, I’m quite the opposite. I would wake up earlier if I could, but I need plenty of sleep so I won’t be a zombie in the morning. Do you know what’s nice though? Nice little mornings I like to call Saturday mornings. On most Saturdays, I have nowhere to go, and not much to do. On a Saturday, I’ll wake up at 8:00, and start cleaning house by 9:00. By 12:00 the house is clean, and I can hang out for as long as I like (and stay up as long as well). Friday nights and Saturday mornings are my favorite parts of the week. This is what I wish mornings look like… but they don’t.
Courtesy of Google Images
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Rules, Rules, Rules I need to follow so many rules that all I can do is list some basics: Brush your teeth, Eat you veggies, Don’t punch anybody, Use an inside voice, No R-rated movies (unless mom says ok), Do you homework, Clean your room before you use your laptop, and most important of all… Don’t talk back to Mom, Dad, or anybody who has a higher rank than you. I’m actually glad for strict rules, I mean, I’m a good kid who gets along well with most people. Rules keep me in check, and keep me healthy. If these rules weren’t in my house, then I’d be an evil, rotten little brat who argues with everybody. It sounds horrible. I’m grateful for these rules. Another problem with parenting these days is spanking. Spanking is not child abuse. It’s abuse only if it leaves a bruise. If spanking is done right, it will not harm the kid; it would do them a favor. Spanking taught me to respect my parents, obey the rules, and behave. Thanks to spankings, I live happily because I rarely get in trouble. If I do something wrong, I know what’s coming, so I behave. I’m a living example of the positive effects of spanking! Rules are good yes, but they require enforcement, and not a verbal warning. Verbal warnings work, but not for long. Spankings work. Grounding also works too, but later, like when us kids are teens. So if someone is like: Should I spank him? I say yes, three swats, then hug ‘em and say you love ‘em. I’m glad my parents were strict.
Courtesy of Google Images
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The Fall of the Computer I was enjoying the family computer, before I got my own. I was playing Doodle Defender, and having a good time. I was actually about to break my high score! Adrenaline rushed as I tapped the keys, making my doodle defeat the other doodles, then it happened. A message popped up. In flashing red letters, it said that we had 77 viruses. My eye twitched. I battled this message in the past couple weeks. Usually, I would close it and hope it pops up on mom or dad so they can fix it. But not this time. Oh, no. Not this time. I was sick and tired, so I clicked “fix all problems” button, then the real problem came. The pop-up was a Trojan virus. The screen blinked out, and then came back as the Blur Screen of Death. I panicked. I was pushing buttons, but to no avail. Mom tried to fix it. Dad tried to fix it. Nothing worked. We had to summon the power of the Geeks. That right, we called the Geek Squad. They battled the virus, and used their amazing geek powers to finish the virus off. Never again shall I download anything or click anything suspicious without mom’s approval. The Virus that attacked us:
Courtesy of Google Images
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The Peter Pan Syndrome In Mrs. Sullivan’s class, we watched a video about growing up. It was interesting. It said how fun growing up can be. I have a problem, though. I have the Peter Pan syndrome. I can’t grow up! When you grow up, you have practically no free time (which is worth its weight in gold to me), and you must make big decisions about boring subjects like the economy, your budget, or the economy. It’s just, growing up is so scary, and the world is so big. Here are so many possibilities, so many huge choices to be made! Being grown up means being serious, being on time to everything, and spending your money wisely. It sounds way too much! But as us kids say, YOLO! Plus, there are some upsides. I mean, how fun does it sound to watch scary movies all night! Or going to college! Leslie Carmichael told me that college is fun! Now excuse me while I play video games while I’m still young. Courtesy of Disney and Google Images
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