5,033 words, and I swear this book will end up somewhere at some point

Day three complete, and still nothing has happened in my book. I just keep getting caught up writing about the characters and their backstory! Just, just, just managed to get to the opening of the chapter in which we will be introduced to Jackie's Place- Jackie being a main character in the book. I plan to copy and paste a lot from Jackie's (Esmonde) blog to describe Jackie and his restaurant. I will let you know that Jackie's Place in my novel is in the lobby of a hotel (that is not the Hilton), which is the hotel where the duelling conferences will be taking place- the teaching conference Annalise is attending and the meeting of the New Jersey Devils fan club that Gordon the Vampyre will be attending. But none of that happened today!! Today I wrote about the first time Anna and Jack met as children. Will include an excerpt just because, but it isn't very interesting. Should get more fun tomorrow.

When Anna walked in, Jack was sure that she wouldn’t last. She was exactly the kind of child that Mrs. Randall took the most intense pleasure in hating. She looked to be about 6 or 7, but looks, Jack knew, could be deceiving. Most of the kids were on the small side. She had long, shiny dark hair, thick and wavy. He noticed Mrs. Randall notice it right away. She had large dark eyes, very pretty. Jack saw Mrs. Randall soften in a way that he knew would mean trouble for Anna down the road. But Jack, as many did, had underestimated Anna.

Later that night, after Mr. Drab Suit had climbed back into his government issued vehicle and driven away, Anna took a pair of sewing scissors and cut her own hair off in lopsided chunks. She, too, had noticed Mrs. Randall noticing. Where it had once reached her mid back, the longer strands now hung down to her shoulders. Mrs. Randall gave a splendid performance of being horrified by Anna’s actions, but truly, she was most likely disappointed, or relieved, or maybe what she felt was a grudging respect for a little girl who would cut off her own beautiful hair to rob someone else of the pleasure of taking it away from her. Jack certainly did.

He also respected the way she carried herself with dignity, her small pointed chin held high as she put away her small number of belongings and claimed the top bunk bed for her own, displacing an older and much bigger girl.

When everyone had gone to sleep, he heard the creak of the floorboards, and assumed that she was going to find a quiet place to cry. Everyone cried their first night in a new home, especially at Mrs. Randall’s. He crept soundlessly out of his own bed and followed. When he found her on the back porch, sitting on the edge of the step, he was surprised that her shoulders weren’t shaking. The moonlight shone down on her, and she gazed upward at the stars. She was so quiet. He sat down next to her, and she looked at him as though she had been expecting him. She smiled, and although it was a sad smile, her eyes were dry. Something inside of Jack warmed as he sat next to her, quietly gazing at the stars. He didn’t yet recognize it as love, not having felt anything like it before, but he knew that for the first time in his life, he didn’t feel alone. It was a terrifying feeling.