The Story That Goes Nowhere

Foreword:

I've always wondered what would happen if I started writing a story, with no semblance of a plot or even characters decided upon. It'd be kind of like most of my ramblings, where I just sit down at the keyboard with a clear mind and start typing. There's only one way to find out...

The Rules:

1) No revisions, except to correct typos or grammar mistakes. If I type something that doesn't make sense or go off on a complete tangent, it stays.
2) No thinking ahead of what's going to happen. I don't even know what's going to happen until it's on the screen.
3) No pressure. Masterpieces cannot be rushed, and neither can things that I write. I'll add more when I'm in a writing mood, and I am not going to force anything.

Chapter One

"Why in the world would you pack ski boots for a Caribbean cruise?" Julie asked her brother. "Don't worry; you'll see" was her brother's cryptic reply. "Yeah, I guess we will" she mumbled to herself as she made life-altering decisions, such as which shoes to pack and how many toothbrushes she would need.

Julie had always considered herself to be a fairly normal person thrown into a very unusual world. She had friends, but didn't really fit in with any of them. They all saw her as another spoiled brat who was generally nice, but just a little too eccentric to get to know too tell. Somehow, this had never bothered her; she felt good about herself and her place in the world, and that was all that mattered to her.

Jason was never comfortable with his label as Julie's brother. All his life, he had dreamed of becoming his own person, the guy everyone wanted to be around. He did what he could to define himself as a separate entity from his sister, but it seemed that no matter what he did, in the end he was always the dorky little brother of Julie, the girl everyone knew.

Sibling rivalry was a constant source of entertainment in the James family home. Whenever the TV was disappointing, John and Jennifer James would turn it off and watch their kids interact. If the show was starting off too slow to hold their attention, the parents would make statements like "Honey, which one do you love more?" or "If I had to choose between them, which would I choose?" Questions like those would always prompt a lively discussion between the children. Julie would always maintain that she had more to offer the world, while Jason held fast to the notion of his own superiority because of his vast Star Trek knowledge. Julie often used the trump card of "Well, at least I'm not YOU", to which Jason had never developed a good comeback. Sometimes the parents took notes on the exchanges; John was adamant that one day he was going to write a book about the happenings in his family. He had planned the book for ten years, but the best title he had come up with was "The James Family: A Look Inside". Jennifer tried to convince him that no one outside of their family, and perhaps not even the whole family, would ever want to read it, but John had his dream.

John's lucrative job as the guy who announces the count down on space shuttle launches allowed him to work minimal hours and spend lots of time with his family. Jennifer worked as a writer for several years before the kids were born, but her writer's block that plagued her from her senior year of college until the year after Julie was born kept her from ever actually writing anything, so she was never published. But that never stopped her...every morning she would sit at her computer at 8:00 AM sharp. At 5:00 PM, the blank screen was often discouraging to her, but John always reassured her that they could get by on his income. Once the kids came along, they broke Jennifer's computer, so her career was over before it started.

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