#ree replies

ALRIGHT SO

back before ~quarantine~ and after my english class’ first essay had been graded, a boy in my english class walked up to me before class, while we were all waiting outside for the prof to arrive, and started talking to me. I really only remember him asking me about the essay and if I knew what the professor was looking for, and he told me that he got a low grade and was going to redo the essay for credit. I offered to peer review his next essay bc 1) I enjoy peer reviewing, 2) our professor has us peer review two essays before we turn in our final drafts. We put our rough drafts on a discussion board and she gives us questions we need to answer regarding their essay

He gave me his number and his snapchat and inwardly I was like “whatever” and then either that day or the next time we had class, we ended up in a group together. My first Yikes! moment was when he told the group that he loves putting on a movie when he’s driving down the freeway, like he actually props his phone up on the dashboard to watch a movie. Needless to say, another girl and I shrieked WHAT and she went “you’re joking” and he was confused by our reaction

Yikes

Peer review rolled around, and I was so horrified by the quality of his essay that I ended up peer reviewing 2 other people’s essays and then printing out his entire essay and marking it up with red pen. I cut out half of his essay, all of which was pure summarization of The Time Machine and not actually related to his thesis

Then, as @quinnyandco aptly summed it up:

So that was when the flirting started

It was mostly him just lavishing compliments on me and me taking them with grace but 0 reciprocity

I only have 1 screenshot of his texts (from what i’ve found) ‘cause I deleted our conversation, but I did find some texts of me relating info to @quinnyandco and they definitely relay both his himbo vibes and my disinterest

[my text to my friend | my chat with Himbo Plagiarist]

As you can see, I was basically just tolerating him

But so far he hadn’t done any harm and was being kind so I just didn’t take it seriously

Then

The rough draft of our Haunting of Hill House essay was due

I actually didn’t manage to finish my draft on time, but the assignment previous to this was to write and post our introduction, 1-2 of our body paragraphs, and an outline of our essay on the discussion board for fellow students to, well, discuss

(This was during quarantine, btw)

Peer review was due after that. So I decided to review his essay, mostly ‘cause I kinda felt like a patron who was guiding and helping him, if that makes sense

I had read his introduction the previous week and was surprised to see that he had completely changed it! And it was relatively better than what he had had before.

But then. I noticed.

He used the exact same quote in his introduction as I did.

And when I noticed that............then I realized that he had rewritten my introduction “in his own words”

I managed to get screenshots for comparison/proof (which is good bc he actually ended up deleting his essay off the discussion board)

And I just

The egregiousness of the plargiaism needs to be beheld with your own eyes. I can’t adequately describe it

[My essay intro | His essay intro]

My hopeful little brain thought that perhaps he had only plagiarized the introduction

Oh no

No, he plagiarized everything he could

So I wrote all of this and then reread your question and realized you were only asking permission to send me questions and not like, advice, so yes you may send me questions and I’m just gonna leave everything I wrote down here bc I spent a good chunk of time on it and don’t wanna delete it😂😂 my baaaddddd

Is it set in our world? What type of the supernatural does the character turn to? Does she turn to another religion, like paganism or Wicca? Most importantly: do you want her to return to her Christian (I’m presuming?) faith by the end of the story, or do you want her to turn away from it entirely? Is this a world where Christianity (still presuming) is, by your power as the author, not a genuine, true faith? Is there a one, true faith, or is there a universal spirituality where all religions are true and genuine in your universe? (I’m not gonna tell you what story to write ‘cause that’s not my place)

One thing I can say for sure is that one of the most offensive things to portray every single Christian in your story as an old, dumb, bigoted, white hick. Many young people are Christians. Many intelligent people are Christians; many scientists, lawyers, historians, etc are Christians. “Bigoted” isn’t the same thing as “doesn’t follow mainstream/currently accepted morality and follows a different moral code as written in the Bible” and doesn’t mean that all Christians are hateful. We’re called to love even our enemies, even the people who persecute us. Obviously there are people who call themselves Christians who are full of hatred, but they don’t represent every single Christian. Many POC are Christian. Many cultured people living in cities are Christian.

Try to avoid using the negative stereotype that is plastered all over the media in every single Christian character in your novel. Don’t make all the Christian characters people that your readers can’t connect to. Make them flawed but don’t make them horrible people. Treat them with the same respect you would a Muslim or a Buddhist character

If any of my Christian mutuals have any advice to share, feel free to reply!

this is a mix of both!!

favorite thing about them: omw okay so I love how much of a soft dork she is??? She acts all tough and confident in the beginning but she’s so sweet and I love that she’s gift giving and physical touch love languages?? Her making cupcakes for everyone is literally the most adorable thing I love my daughter sm

least favorite thing about them: her mindset of “cut people off so I don’t get hurt when I leave” bc it ends up hurting people (like Ricky ;-;)

favorite line (off the top of my head): [to Ricky] “I meant what I said at the skate park. I don’t even think I realized how much I meant it when I said it.” (I’m paraphrasing bc I can’t double check rn but I think I’m close)

brOTP: oh my word. Her & Carlos, her & EJ, her & Ashlyn, her & EJ, I literally can’t choose.

OTP: Her & Ricky💛💛

nOTP: her & EJ—he’s a senior and she’s a sophomore so he’ll be graduating in a few months so he’ll be leaving her life and she needs stability, plus I just don’t think their personalities mesh. EJ has difficulty empathizing/understanding his and other’s emotions and he needs to work through that before being in another relationship. Gina needs someone who naturally empathizes and can understand her.

random headcanon: she posts dance videos on TikTok like Sofia Wylie does😂

unpopular opinion: well since a lot of casual viewers seem to still see her as the antagonist, my unpopular opinion is that she is not an antagonist, wasn’t trying to “steal” Ricky from Nini, and is better for Ricky than Nini because she actually understands his issues on a level that Nini can’t and doesn’t

song i associate with them: well I have an entire playlist dedicated to her, but two songs I associate with her are: Someone To You by Banners and I’m Not That Girl from Wicked

favorite picture of them: she’s so happy here and it’s so cute😭😭