War Paint: Fearless

Fall 2012

Editors

Whitney Miller

Abby Buchanan

Riley Swab

Camila Mino

Leah Jean-Francois

Cover Art by Abby Buchanan

Medium: Digital Manipulation

A Note from the Adviser:

It is rare to come across such passionate and enthusiastic freshmen as the ones that

contributed to this issue. From the first day we worked on staff together to help bring the

talented voices and photographers, artists, and digital creators to our student body

and expose their excellent work. Please make sure to tell them what you think at

warpaintnorthcobb@gmail.com. They would be happy to hear what you thought of this

second issue, Fearless. They titled this Fearless because:

High schoolers are brave

High schoolers have a voice that is sometimes not heard

High schoolers are judged

High schoolers are accepting

High schoolers struggle

High schoolers get over their fears by jumping into difficult situations

High schoolers need to know someone is out there

This issue is dedicated by our staff to Sources of Strength, a fabulous group that works

hard in North Cobb’s freshman academy to help each and every voice that is

unheard.

Thanks,

Lindsay Kovel, adviser

Table of Contents

Artist Title Genre

Riley Swab Four Corners Photography

Kayley Rapp One Step Closer Short Story

Abby Buchanan Cute, Creepy Digital art

Toreus O’Neal Let Me Show You Poem

Riley Swab Snow Flower Photography

Susan Reyes I Have Never Felt a Breeze Poem

So Cold

Kayley Rapp Fighting Fire With Fire Digital art

Susan Reyes Drip Drop Prose Poetry

Whitney Miller Dipper Gravity Falls Digital art

Morgan White Home Digital art

Abby Buchanan Menegua Digital art

Halloween Contest Winner: Whitney Miller

I’ll Always Love You, Harry Stiles, digital manipulation

Riley Swab

Four Corners

Kayley Rapp

One Step Closer

After knowing me for less than two weeks, Destery Ingle decided it was perfectly normal

to show up at my house at 8 AM. No call. No text. Just a knock at the door! Don’t

mind me, Destery. Not sleeping up here or anything like that.

It feels like bricks are tied to my feet as I drag myself to the door and find him standing

there. He has sort of a puzzled look on his face.

“What do you want Destery?”

“Well, if you don’t want me here, just say so. Jeez.”

“Okay, bye!” I go to shut the door in his face, which is far too bright and happy at this

hour to be considered normal.

He stops the door with his foot. “Hey, not literally.” He walks into my house and plants

himself on the living room floor. “Yesterday,” and thus he starts to talk at oh, I

don’t know, two hundred miles per hour. “I was thinking about you, and I realized

something really, really strange about you. You, Storm Williams, live less than a

block from the beautiful beaches of St. Augustine, and since it is summer va-ca,

have all the fee time in the world. Yet…” Insert dramatic pause here. “I have

never seen you anywhere near that large body of water out there called the

ocean. I demand an explanation of this weirdness.”

I just can’t tell him. He would laugh like everyone else always did. It’s not like I choose to

be this way. Once, which seems like a million years ago even though I was only

seven, I loved the water. Dad and mom wouldn’t get me and my sisters out of it,

but that was before mom…no Storm, don’t even go there. You don’t need to cry

again. Not in front of somebody anyway.

“I’m terrified of the water.” I blurt out with courage I haven’t seen in a long time.

When I finally look at Destery’s face, he’s grinning that stupidly wonderful, crooked grin of

his. Awesome. Here comes the laughter! “Unacceptable! A girl who lives in a

beach town should be able to live out her days at the beach!” He bites his lip like

he’s thinking or something. “That’s it. I’m fixing you.”

“Wait? What? You can’t just fix a phobia! It doesn’t work that way, Des.”

“Yeah, well, I’m gonna make it work. Go put on a swimsuit ‘cause that’s what we’re

going to do. Go to the beach.”

“But I…”

“Storm, you gotta do this for yourself.”

I do go upstairs, but the thing is, I don’t even own a swimsuit. When you never go to the

water, there’s no point in getting one. Trust me: it’s a huge money saver for dad.

So, anyway, I have two choices here. One: borrow my older sister Persephone’s

blinged out thing she calls a swimsuit. Two: deal with wearing a wet tank top and

shorts. Ding ding ding! Number two! We have a winner! I throw that on and bolt

downstairs.

“Storm, that’s not a swimsuit.”

“I don’t own one.”

He sighs. “Honestly, that makes so much sense, but you really do need to wear one.”

“But I don’t own one, genius.”

“But you have two older sisters! I dunno. Don’t girls share stuff like that?”

Clearly someone doesn’t have any sisters.

“Okay, fine, whatever.”

I run back upstairs, and this time Des follows me. Why? I’m not sure. So we end up in my

other sister Willow’s bedroom, and it takes a good ten minutes to find one that

actually fits me. I lock myself in the bathroom to change.

Let’s be real for a second. Real talk? Good, real talk. Putting on a swimsuit for the first

time in nine years is so, so weird. Is this how everyone feels in one? I mean…I

guess I look nice in it. How am I meant to look? Willow’s swimsuit (well, mine

now), is bright blue and one of those 40s style one pieces. Well…argh! Let’s get

this over with.

“Better?” I ask as I leave the bathroom.

“Much.” We both smile shyly.

Destery then grabs my hand and practically forces me to run out the door. Maybe he

thinks if we run I won’t have time to change my mind and sprint back. Could I

even run if I wanted to? He didn’t even give either of us enough time to put

shoes on!

I don’t even notice what’s going on around me until I feel the ground below me is wet

and not dry.

“OH HEY! HOLY FUDGE MUFFINS!” I scream. Like an honest to goodness horror movie

scream.

“Storm, Storm, Storm…” I can hear Des saying over and over again. He’s trying to calm

me down, but the screaming is too loud for me to hear over it. Really? Did the

lifeguard really just look over here? Everything’s fine, bro. Go back to guarding

life!

“Storm,” he takes both my hands and looks are me, “Trust me. I promise I won’t let the

water hurt you, okay?”

I shake my head “no” like a two year old, but then I look up at him. He’s totally serious.

Maybe…this won’t be so impossible. Deep breath, Storm. I nod my head and

allow him to lead me into the water. Face first into my fears.

Abby Buchanan

Cute, Creepy

Digital manipulation

Toreus O’Neal

Let Me Show You

I close my eyes

To ignore

The cries before me

Instead of

Facing them.

Dreams running

While I’m

Chasing Them.

Pacing myself,

I’m racing

With Death.

Wasting my breath

To keep up.

I get left.

Now I’m

Tasting dust.

Catching up

Is a must

To prove to my love

It’s more than

Lust.

But it all begins

With trust.

Riley Swab

Snow Flower

Susan Reyes

I Have Never Felt a Breeze So Cold

I have never felt a breeze so cold;

never have I ever been so alone,

and been pleased with desolate silence

that hugged me tightly.

Snowflakes falling as sweet

as the taste of sugar,

wrapped me in a warm blanket

holding me in its lying embrace.

Never have I ever believed

that the snowflakes could drown me,

leaving everything that I loved

to be piled up in my own miseries.

Kayley Rapp

Fighting Fire with More Fire

Susan Reyes

Drip, Drop

Drip…drop…it was like slow angry slaps that soiled me not just on the outside, but my

insides, too.

The empty slick black road mocked me with its perfect looking surface from the rain,

but I knew t wasn’t.

It was like you, perfect, only when you were cleaned. But when the rain stopped it once

again would return to its dirty rough black surface, like you.

You would look into my eyes as if you could see into my soul, but you never could.

You would love me and then leave as if I was a teddy bear, only there when you

wanted me.

I finally could not take this sick thing you called love and left…only to find myself lose…

I never actually knew myself until I left YOU.

I could not smile when I loved YOU…I was not free when you loved ME.

But I thank you for the lesson you taught me…find yourself before you find LOVE.

Whitney Miller

Dipper Gravity Falls

Morgan White

Home

Abby Buchanan

Menegua

Digital manipulation

Halloween Contest Winner

Whitney Miller

I’ll Always Love You, Harry Stiles

Digital manipulation