A/N: Welcome to my first original story available to the public! I will be working on this daily so you will see it as I'm updating it. Summary: A group of village people live in the forests of central Africa. As part of their culture, women are married off in arranged marriages and forced to produce children to work. There are two women who are coming of age at twenty-one years to be married off - will they go with the flow and be safe and secure within their society's standards? Or will they do something else? Chapter 1: Stand-Up For Yourself Kulele stared at the flowing river, watching as it split course and the water was forced to choose a direction. The water had traveled for miles and miles to get to this very fork in its path - and where time seemed infinite, everything and everyone had to go in a direction. She looked behind her at the villagers going about their day to day tasks, some young mothers with newborns, teens walking in groups with freshly picked crops. There were young pregnant women who were only slightly older than she, and she quickly turned her head back to the river. Taking a deep sigh she looks up towards the sky and mumbles a small prayer. She knew the day was coming where that young pregnant woman could become her. She would soon be married off to one of the village men to produce a child for the prosperity of the village. The intricate connect between life, aging, and death meant that the villagers had to be persistent in their survival efforts. She had never seen herself being interested in creating a child with one of the village men however - she couldn't fathom that existence. Was their something wrong with her? The sun was beginning to set and the sky became a hazy purple, reflecting itself on the flowing river. She basked in the metaphorical freedom of the water choosing a direction and the sun seemingly answering her prayer. She knew what she would have to do. She turns away from the west and heads to her family's place of residence. Dinner was finally ready and her older brothers and wives, two little sisters, and father and mother would not begin the meal without her. She sits on the floor next to her youngest sister, her family prepares a small portion of the food for the gods, then they prepare plates for everyone else. She looks across the table from her brother's and their spouses - in their culture, the wife moves in with the family of the husband until a child is produced. "Kulele-" Kuate, a middle aged handsome man with a cheshire cat grin calls to his middle child. "Yes, papa?" Kulele responds with a mouth full of food. "I want you to understand that you are doing this for the wellbeing of the village. Without this, we would not survive." All eyes simultaneously are on him and their plates as well. "I do understand, papa." The disappointment in Kulele's eyes speak volumes but the fake smile she slaps could fool the best of body language interpreters. "This is your last meal with us and I want it to be special." He pulls out a gourd of aged fruit wine. He passes it around for everyone to pour their portion. "I began aging this wine every time a daughter was born to celebrate this very moment." She nervously grabs the bottle from her young sister, Kelalu, who is unaware of the feeling of drinking aged wine. She spills a little on her hand out of nervousness but keeps her composure. There must be a way out. She couldn't go through with this ordeal, no matter how selfish it meant she had to be. Would doing a selfless act for the village truly make her happy in the long run? "To Kulele and her future! To many many children and success of the village!" He raises his cup to toast and everyone does the same. All but Kulele of course - her cup is held just a tad shorter than everyone else. They toast and drink. The entire duration of the event, an event for her, Kulele just feels empty and lost, unsure of the next step for her to take. Everyone is beyond intoxicated, under the influence of the aged wine and excitement. Their excitement becomes their downfall, as yawns begin to erupt across each individual. It was time to sleep and be prepared for the next day - marriage day. Kulele is seated in a chair, flaunting a beautiful, colorful marriage garment. Her mother is behind her, pinning the tresses of coils, moisturizing every strand in their family butters. She looks better than any princess ever could and with her appearance, any man would be happy to accept her. Her mother finishes and walks away and Kulele sees her reflection in the mirror. She looks beautiful, but in a way foreign to her - this appearance seemed foreign and strange. A tear slips from her eye as realization sets upon her; she will be given away in a matter of moments. She will be going to live with a completely new family, maybe to never see hers again. The demand will be high to produce children, that would be so disconnected from. She walks to the exit of the wardrobe into the open air. Ahead of her was a young gentlemen wearing his male marriage dress. The people around begin pointing to her and he sees this beauty and immediately smiles. She slowly approaches, giving an ingenuine smile. She knew this guy, having encountered him in her childhood. He definitely has grown into himself and he was a very nice looking man, just not for her. The banging of drums can be heard as she approaches him, the ritual beginning. The village leader had a bowl of concocted potions to seal the marriage in love and unity. She stops directly in front of him, trying her hardest to hide her inner feeling. The village leader holds his hands up and slowly lowers them and the volume of the drums lower as well. He puts his hand into the and grabs some of his concoction into his hands. He forces Kulele and her soon to be husband's hands together, smearing the substance between them. He closes their hands together. "This signifies unity between you, Kulele, and you Tunale. May love grow and prosper between you with time." He places the bowl to the side and raises his hands for the volume of the drums to increase. Everyone around begins chanting and praying as Kulele and Tunale stare at one another. He seems pleased with her and brings her in closer for a kiss to seal the agreement. She winces but allows it to happen, uncomfortable with the entire exchange and ready for this to be over. The chanting dies down and a path is laid out for them to walk upon. The path leads to the consummation room, where all the couples go after the ritual is over. The villagers step on either side of that path, and Tunale walks forward. Kulele is reluctant to move but he nudges her. She follows him slowly behind the beaded curtains, freaked out at the high expectation of her for the day. Upon entrance of this ceremonial place, there is more aged wine, a feast for two, and 'the mat of contraception'. Village stories say that when newly married women come out of this room, they have conceived and will bear many more children. Tunale begins undressing and seats himself on the mat. He pours wine from the gourd for the two as Kulele stands off toward the entrance. 'What am I supposed to do?' She thinks to herself. She begins to subtly look around, for any sign of escape. Looking to the left, she sees grapes, bread, and cheese along with a very sharp knife. To her right, there is a meal of lamb, greens, corn, cacao, but no way out. She turns back around to stare at the entrance but still hears the villagers surrounding the place. Tunale sees her hesitation and tries to increase her comfort level. "Why don't you come sit close?" He pats the area next to him. She walks over to the food instead. "I've been up all morning and am a bit famished. Can we eat first?" He nods and stays seated. "Would like two servings of everything." Kulele rolls her eyes and mumbles under her breath, "I didn't ask you." She brings the plates to the mat area and sits on the far side of him. "Will you not be removing your clothes? We need to complete the ritual." He makes a statement that Kulele was trying to escape from. She decides to be honest with him. "I do not want to remove my clothes." Tunale slowly turns his head around in disbelief. She really didn't have a choice in this situation and they must complete the ritual or the Gods may send bad luck to their families for decades. "We have obligations to fulfill and we must remain here until they are completed." He turns back around and continues eating. Kulele looks up and sees the knife next to the fruit and cheese from earlier. Being as sneaky as a cat, she grabs ahold and tucks it under her leg. If he was going to make this hard, she was going to make it harder. He sits his plate on the ground and lays his nakedness back upon the mat. She tightens her hands around the knife. He begins to reach towards the back of her garment and tries to removing the sleeves so that the garment would fall. Fall it did, but her arms remained in the loops and she stiffened. He began rubbing his hand down the spine of her back, ever so slowly - his member begins to rise. She tries to move away from his advances but also doesn't want to expose the knife.

A/N: I'm here with an example of fan fiction for this segment of the site. Here, I will write a short example of an original story. You can title however you like. Chapter 1: Community Nattie sat on the grass with her legs sprawled between its beautiful green layers. She had a book in hand as the sun beamed down on her, kissing her chocolate skin to perfection. Diogie, her dog, sat faithfully next to her, enjoying the presence of his owner and the serenity of the clear weather. They had been stuck in the house for months and that took its toll on both of them. .... ..... .... ....

As a queer community, how can we unite ourselves? This is intentionally a broad question. 😅

A/N (author's note): These are common openers to your fanfiction. This is where you can communicate various items with your readers. To all my peeps joining us for the first time, this is for you to create fan fiction or original stories. Please see the format below for what this story could look like. Use your imagination and take the story wherever you want, even if you have to change events that happened in the series. For example, this fan fiction is going to remove all of Brit's love interest and drive her to fall for Mina. Chapter 1: The Meeting It was a calm fall day at the University. The 1:00 PM class session was about to begin and the students filed in droves into their debate class. Mr. Salisburg stood quietly at the front of the class, waiting for the hour to arrive prior to starting. Just like that, it's 1:00 and the chatter in the class instantly dies down. "You all had an assignment over the weekend. Please pass those forward." He turns his back to the class and begins writing on the whiteboard. He writes, 'ALCOHOL' in all caps. The shuffling of papers can be heard as they are passed forward. He turns around to begin collecting - as he gets to the second row of students, the door knob to his class begins moving. To no avail, it does not open. Mr. Salisburg locks his door at 1:00 on the dot. He diverts his attention to the door handle as it continues to shake as he collects the papers. Walking over to the door, he stares back at the class, "Showing up late is unacceptable. If you come late to my class, I will not collect your homework assignments and I will not answer your questions. Simple as that." Knocking can be heard on the door as he turns the knob. On the other side of the door stands a flustered Mina, out of breath and with a crumpled paper in her hand. She tries to hand the paper to Mr. Salisburg who then takes it, rips it into pieces, then trashes it. Just like that, all of her beautiful work in the garbage. "Mina, you're familiar with my class policies. Please have a seat." She bashfully walks in and says sorry repeatedly as she walks to the nearest open seat. Her fingers begin tapping on the desk out of anger - she spent hours working on that paper. The nerve he has just ripping it up because she was a few seconds late. Was she supposed to tell him about her trip to the restroom prior to his class? Ridiculous! In the desk over was a young woman who was attempting to pay attention to the lecture for the day. However, Mina was incessantly tapping her fingers on the desk and obviously thinking out loud of the whole situation. She rips a piece of paper from her open binder and scribbles a note on it. She taps Mina's leg to hand it to her. "The portrayal of alcohol in certain communities is what causes higher rates of alcoholism which ultimately becomes linked to further health issues, and mental health issues. Anyone care to explain why?" Mr. Salisburg says. Mina grabs the note from this strange girl as she raises her hand to answer. The note says, 'Please stop thinking so loudly. The entire class can hear you'. She immediately becomes aware of the finger tapping, the leg shaking, and the closed body language. She stares over at this girl who passed her the note as she prepares herself to speak. "Advertisements have adverse effects on low-income communities - therefore, by placing an alcohol or even a cigarette ad in a low-income community, people who need coping mechanisms will utilize cigarettes and alcohol to cope with current situations. In the long-run, they will be forced to take long term medicinal prescriptions creating a cycle of cash flow from beginning to end of this individual. Would it be crazy to say that the cigarette and alcohol companies are in cahoots with pharmaceutical industry?" She finishes her statement and stares back at Mina and makes a face. "Very good point, Brit. This is debate class and it would be foul of me to not call on a different student to debate your point." Students begin raising their hands. "Louis, what do you have to say?" Brit mouths a 'what' to Mina. Mina mouths a 'sorry' as she was definitely disrupting the class flow. Brit accepts and faces back forward to be present for the rest of the class. _____ The clock hit 1:50 and the class is finally free to go. Mina rushes up to the front of the class to talk to the teacher about her tardiness. "Mr. Salisburg, I really am sorry for being late. I hope you would want to understand why?" Mina stands directly in front of him as he is seated at his desk. "I'm not sure that I too much care. You have my class for 50 minutes three times a week - you can make the effort to be here on time." "But my lady time-" "Like I said - three times a week. Be here on time." Mina turns around and sees that Brit just finished packing up and is headed towards the door. She flicks off Mr. Salisburg as he isn't looking then chases after Brit into the hallway. She taps her on the shoulder. "Hey, your name is Brit, right?" Mina's mood has changed as she tries a reintroduction. "Yes. Brit is my name." "I'm Mina." Brit looks at her confused. "Okay." Brit rolls her eyes and begins walking off. Brit follows. "I just wanted to apologize if I was disruption to your learning experience. I worked really hard on the whole alcohol topic and wanted him to read it over." "I can understand being upset over that - he ripped your paper up and threw it in the trash." Brit responds. "He indeed did. All because my lady time came a little early. I thought he'd be more understanding -" "Mr. Salisburg is a little old school. I'm surprised they don't have a chalkboard in his classroom." Brit's demeanor changes and she smiles, understanding the situation. "Yeah. You're right about that. I also wanted to say how much I admired your point about alcohol advertisements. I'd love to talk to you more if you're free?" "I have a few minutes to talk. Want to head to the library? "Mina doesn't do libraries, but if it means I get to talk to you about this, then yes!" The two walk to the library in awkward silence, not aware of the destiny their future holds. *************** Thanks so much for checking out chapter one of this sample story. Please use this to write about any web series or story you want!