In 7th Grade Revolution, Selena Woodham is the girl wearing the heels. She is the fashionista of the crew and wouldn’t go out of the house without her heels. But, perhaps a little predictably, while tromping around a tunnel in the dark, she breaks a heel.

     “Ow.” Ahead, Selena stumbled and James caught her before she fell.
     The gang stopped.
     Selena leaned against the tunnel wall and pulled off her shoe. “My heel broke.”
     Pfft. Of course, it broke. Heels weren’t meant for walking through tunnels with uneven terrain and potholes. Now they’d have to listen to her whine about her broken designer shoe and she’d complain about not being able to walk when one leg was four inches higher than the other one.
     Her lips skewed to the side. “Well, it won’t do me any good this way.” She raised the shoe over her head and whacked the heel against the tunnel wall. She gripped the heel and ripped it off. “There.” Selena slipped the now heel-less shoe on, and the other off.
     She whacked the unbroken shoe against the wall a few times until the heel twisted. Then she wrenched it and made herself a pair of flats.

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True darkness is not something we experience often in our current existence. Headlights and taillights add to the beams from the light stanchions on the road. Indoors at night, there is the glow from the alarm clock, or the blinking of the phone, or even an air purifier emitting a blue glow. These days we have light pollution from all the artificial light sources.

Imagine walking through a hand-hewn tunnel with the light of a single torch to see by. I doubt much could be seen ahead as the tunnel narrowed.

     The tunnel narrowed and Curtis’s arm jogged against hers (Rhonda’s) as they walked.
     “Sorry.”
     “It’s all right. Getting tight here.” She took her eyes off the ground for a second and her cheeks burned when he smiled at her. Good thing he couldn’t see her cheeks turn red in the dim light.
     Their voices bounced eerily through the tunnel, echoing against the rock. She wouldn’t want to be down here alone. Scary.
     Curtis stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Single file ahead.”
     Rhonda turned. With the light from the torch playing over their faces, it reminded her of evil witch and wizard cartoons when they stood over a flickering cauldron. Dennis and Maddie brought up the rear, and they were virtually silhouettes with the occasional gleam when the light touched on their hair. “Do we want to turn some flashlights on or light another torch?”

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As much as I’d love to have that straight open run toward a goal — a kind of see it and achieve it situation, there is value to overcoming the obstacles in our path along the way. With every obstacle or misstep, we learn more about who we are, and how important the goal is for us. If things are too easy, did we set our sights too low? Did we truly earn the accomplishment? Maybe I’m perverse, but I tend to value the things that were harder to achieve.

A rope ladder leading into a tunnel running under the school. The thrill of taking the next step along the way to finding the artifact. But then, a simple slip of the foot …

    Rhonda put her foot on the first rung and slowly lowered herself to the second. At this rate she’d take a few minutes to reach bottom, so Dennis worked on untying the knot to remove the cord. A little difficult to do one-handed. He rested the torch against the floor to use both hands.
    Rhonda yelped. The ladder twisted and swished while she clung to the rope, one leg dangling.
    Dennis dropped the torch. “Hold on.” He grabbed the ladder to steady it. The rope tugged against his grip as Rhonda twisted first one way and then the other. The sway slowed and finally stopped. “I’ll keep a grip on the rope. Make your way down.”

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What if you’re going skydiving for the first time and are afraid of heights? You would stand on the precipice and face your fear as you choose whether to jump or not. Up until that point, the decision can be postponed, but now — with the rush of air passing by the door, it’s decision time. How does the choice affect you? If you jump and have faced your fear of heights head on, is your fear gone? Or do you know that when you are in a situation where your fears come into play, you do have the fortitude to face them down? If you choose not to jump, does that mean you’re a failure? What kind of scar does that leave and how does that affect your decision making in the future?

A moment of truth on a personal level means the decision shows you your true self, and there is no going back from it. Can you change your mind? Yes. Say you chose the school across the country and attended for a semester, but then decided you’d rather attend somewhere closer to home. You might think you’re going back, but you have already been altered from your choice in the first place. You have life experiences you never would have had. In 7th Grade Revolution, some of the kids had to face such a moment of truth. Ellen was given the opportunity to go into the tunnel, and she couldn’t face it. For Dennis, the finding of the ladder into the tunnel was bittersweet. Being afraid of the dark, with good reason, he now had to face his fears head on with deliberation as to whether he would lower himself into the pitch dark tunnel.

     Rhonda knelt next to the door on the opposite side, curiosity bubbling. Oh my goodness. Silas had thrown them more curves than a sidewinder in the desert.
     Dennis snatched at the side of the door, and she searched more closely.
     There it was. A wooden nail. Gripping it with her stubby fingernails, she pulled it out.
     When they each held a wooden peg, Dennis grinned and pushed the bottom flap of the door down. He slid the slim plywood out and revealed a rope ladder within. A rope ladder with wooden planks for the crossbars.
     Dennis yanked the rope and dropped it through the hole. “Who’s going in?” Dust billowed through the opening.

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What is an epiphany? One of its definitions is as follows: “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.” What gave Dennis the insight he needed? His arms hurt from lifting the trap door to the tunnel.

     Dennis took a deep breath and cracked the door. He snaked through and rolled across the floor to the windowsill. Heck, he was already filthy; rolling on the floor wouldn’t hurt anything. He craned his head to look out the window and caught a glimpse of dark trousers and a hand holding a half-smoked cigarette. Good to know they weren’t on high alert.
     But what if the FBI had someone posted behind the school? He’d never make it. He crawled along the hallway. He hadn’t crawled this much since he was a baby.
     How could Silas, who had thought about everything else, forget something so key as a way to get in and out of the tunnel?

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Why was I excited about the kids entering the tunnel? Because as they did, story wise, I faced the unknown. Beyond the mouth of the tunnel, I didn’t know what they would find. I didn’t know how far it went, and in fact, the only thing I knew was what they were looking for (I had the edge over the kids on that one) and that they would find it … somehow … somewhere.

Most of the time when writing, I do have an idea of where the story is going, but there are times when I have to blindly follow my characters. I have to trust them to lead me in the direction we’re supposed to go, and that was the case when writing 7th Grade Revolution. I followed their homemade torch as much as they did, and could see just far enough ahead in the story to keep going.

     Trent tossed the matches to Dennis. He struck the match on the cardboard box and held it to the soaked fabric. Flames licked the outside of the ball he’d made. He took the homemade torch and knelt next to the trapdoor, lowering it into the hole. The flames continued to burn. Using the cord, he lowered the torch a few inches at a time.
     Rhonda knelt beside him and her classmates formed a ring around the hole, all eyes on the flames. No color changes, no wavering.

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