A Cabot Creek University Challenge; My Roots Started Here
We’ve all come from somewhere. Whether that somewhere is a place or a feeling; our roots can define us. Some of us have happily married parents, some are children of divorce, while some have never felt quite at home no matter where they’ve gone. Whatever your beginning is, does it define you?
Feel free to do one or more of the following:
Create an aesthetic of your characters “roots.” Whether it’s their childhood home filled with memories (good and/or bad) or some of the places that they lived while growing up. It can include images from their parents/family members, a holiday memory, their bedroom, a defining moment in their life, a vacation to remember, the best day of their childhood, etc.
Write a drabble about their home life/childhood. It can be about anything- good or bad. Show us where your character came from.
Write a journal entry from the time your character was younger (a child, teen, etc) and living at home. Give us a glimpse about who they were.
Create a playlist about their “roots.”
Tag all completed challenges as ‘ccuchallenge’ :) Have fun!
James Michael Platt was born on October 31, 1993 as the eldest child and first son to a relatively unhappy couple bound together by marriage and his mother’s stifling, religious principles that keep her dutifully obeying her husband despite their differences. He grew up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in a medium-sized house that often felt crowded.
James was named after his father who was named after his father and his father before him. Although James remains unaware, he is not the child of the woman who raised him but he is the product of a sinful affair. His father, who has always battled addiction with drink, impregnated a younger woman from a bar he frequented. The girl, too young to afford a child, gave him up before she moved away. James’s parents never told him the truth, but he has never felt wanted by his mother.
After James’s birth, his parents had three other children, who all seemed favored by his mother as they grew up; it was subtle, but her preferences were there. Eleanor, his sister, was one he felt closest to and the one he preferred to hang around when long summer’s offered no relief from their home life. James often felt responsible as the oldest to watch his father, who often chose to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. If he wasn’t worried about him sending himself to the hospital from alcohol poisoning, James was worried about him getting in a wreck.
As soon as he was old enough, James got a job to save money and get out of the house as often as possible. When he got into Cabot Creek, a college far enough from his home that he would not be bothered by his drunk father but close enough to speed home if one of his siblings needed him, he was thrilled. He was even more thrilled when Eleanor, too, choose it for her education.
Sorry grey face. I’m not the type to play mind games. If the rest of you want to knock yourselves out, it’s your lives you are wasting, not mine. xxCCUConfessionsxx
Looks like a cinnamon roll but could actually kill you:
Looks like they could kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll:
Looks like a cinnamon roll and is a cinnamon roll:
Looks like they could kill you and could actually kill you:
Description: Hides a core of tangy sweetness under layers refreshingly sour and inimitably Finnish.
Ingredients: 3/4 cup lemon sherbet, juice of half a lemon, 1/2 cup vodka (recommended: Koskenkorva), 2 tbsp salmiakki liquor, two pieces liquorice
Preparation: Place sherbet into glass. Pour lemon juice on top until top of sherbet is slightly melted. Using the back of a spoon, layer the alcohol into the glass, starting with vodka, then adding salmiakki. Don’t stir!
Serve: In a large tumbler glass (recommended: Cover glass in water and place into freezer for a few hours before serving). Garnish with liquorice pieces.
She didn’t enjoy interviews of any kind, they made her nervous regardless of whether she had actually done anything wrong or not. As she had been at Cabot Creek University for a good few years, this wasn’t the first time she had been interviewed by the Sheriff’s office, although that was not a comfort in the slightest and her nerves were not eased. However, she was now well practised on the best tone to use when addressing the Sheriff and she she knew better than to rise to any jabs that he threw at her.
“Shall we get this over with Sheriff? I have a very busy day ahead of me and I am sure do do as well”. Interrogating my poor students, she thought bitterly, though the smile on her face never wavered.
“Right you are” he responded, “let us start with the basics. Could you please tell us your full name, age, and how many years you have spent at Cabot Creek University thus far?”
“Jennifer Elizabeth Mayhew, fifty-seven years of age and I have resided in Cabot Creek since my appointment as a professor, twenty-nine years ago”.
“You have a long history with Cabot Creek?”
She nodded, “I do. I studied here as a young girl as well”.
“When was the last time that you can recall seeing Melanie Whyte?”
She pursed her lips and thought back, folding her hands, one over the other, in her lap. “I believe it was the Tuesday, the 17th if I am recalling correctly”.
“Did you talk to her?”
“Yes, we talked”.
“How did she seem to you?”
“Perfectly fine, a little stressed though she was trying to cope with her workload and from what I understood, an ongoing family matter than was draining her of her energy. Poor dear”.
The Sheriff’s eyes searched her face, but she kept her expression frozen. When his eyes narrowed, she smiled softly and leaned back in her chair a little, observing him. She could almost hear the cogs turning in his mind.
“What was your relationship with Melanie Whyte?”
“I hired her” she said, simply, “I regarded her as a wonderful, intelligent woman, more than capable of doing the job I employed her to do”.
“Where were you between 5pm and 7pm on the 18th November, 2015, the day before Thanksgiving break?”
”In all honesty, I cannot remember, though I am sure that I was most likely in this here office, where I am talking to you, as it is where I spend most of my days and evenings, especially when a break in school is coming”.
”You weren’t eager to rush home to your family?” he asked.
”What family, dear?” she replied quickly, and he looked a little stunned, before his expression changed to embarrassment.
“I a p o l o g i s e...”
She waved his apology away quickly, with a flick of her wrist. “There is no need to apologise, it is what it is. Now, if there’s nothing more...”
“Actually, there is something else that I wanted to ask you”.
She had been hoping that their interview would have been finished there, but the look in his eyes, despite his earlier embarrassment, revealed a need to ask whatever question was burning through his mind.
“What do you think happened to her?”
She leaned back in her chair for a moment, pondering his question. It had almost been whispered to her, like a secret, as if he genuinely wanted to know because he was grasping at straws himself. She felt sorry for him and sighed, leaning forward, elbows on her desk and fingers clasped together.
“I don’t know what to think” she said, honestly, “all I can say is that Melanie Whyte was a beloved person around this campus. It was a terrible day here when we found out that she was missing and has been an even more distressing time since. I cannot offer explanations where I have none, but I do hope that you get to the bottom of what is shaping up to be a terrible t r a g e d y”.
He studied her for a moment, opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but closed it once more. Pushing himself to his feet he held out his hand for her to shake, which she took.
“Thank you for your time, Dean Mayhew” he half smiled, “we’ll be in touch”.
Lena sat in a familiar room, though now that it had been taken over by the police, it almost felt like she’d never been here before. She was nervous, though she didn’t have much to actually be nervous about, she didn’t even know Melanie that well, let alone know what happened to her. All she had to do was tell the truth, it should be fine.
When the officer walked into the room, Lena felt her throat go dry. She prayed this would go by quickly.
The officer sat across from her at the table, put his papers down and opened some file Lena couldn’t read.
“Could you please tell us your name, age, and how many years you have spent at Cabot Creek University thus far?“ He asked her, straight to the point, not even an introduction.
“Lena Marianne Elias. I’m 24 years old, and I’m a senior undergrad student, so this is my 4th year.”
The man across from her wrote something down before asking the next question, “when was the last time that you can recall seeing Melanie Whyte? Did you talk to her? How did she seem to you?”
“Uh...” Lena hesitated for only a moment “I honestly don’t remember. I think it was sometime around the start of the semester in 2015.”
Again he wrote something down. “What was your relationship with Melanie Whyte?”
“I barely knew her. We only talked in passing a couple of times. Mostly just friendly smiles in the hallway.” Lena smiled with her answer, almost automatic as a response to her saying the word.
“Where were you between 5pm and 7pm on the 18th November, 2015, the day before Thanksgiving break?“
“That was almost two years ago... I have no idea. Probably in my room at the sorority, packing to fly home I think.” Lena could feel herself start to sweat. She had no alibi, though she was sure she didn’t need one, the thought was terrifying.
“In your opinion, was Melanie Whyte someone who was well liked around campus?“
“I believe so. Like I said, I barely knew her. When she went missing it was pretty big news around the school.”
“Do you think Melanie Whyte could possibly have any enemies?“
Lena had to think hard. “It’s possible, but she was also always extremely friendly. I don’t know.”
The officer wrote again. Lena felt the moisture in the small of her back more now.
“In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, did you notice any strangers on or around campus?”
“Not anymore than usual, but I don’t know many people under my grade so a lot of people are strangers to me.”
“When it was reported that Melanie Whyte was missing, what was your reaction to the news?“
“Well, I was sad and scared for her and her family, but I really didn’t know her well so I didn’t feel very personal to me.” Lena could remember the day Melanie became an official missing person. Everyone around campus had a reaction to it one way or another. There were many tears, though Lena had a feeling most people just liked the attention that came from being sad, and that most people probably didn’t even know the girl that well.
“What do you think happened to her?“
“I have no idea. I hope she ran away though, and nothing worse.” Lena looked down, the horror of a different outcome weighing heavily on her.
“Do you have an other pieces of information that might help us with our investigation?“
“I don’t. I’m sorry. I hope you find out whatever happened to her.”
The officer wrote again for the final time before looking up at Lena with a polite smile. “Okay, Miss Elias, that’s all. You’re free to go. We will contact you if we require anything else from you.”
Lena smiled back as she stood up, her legs feeling a little shaky. She picked her bag off the floor before reaching her hand out to the officer for a handshake.
When Lena returned to her room, she immediately poured herself a drink. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she said aloud to no one in particular before finishing her drink in one gulp.
As a child, Ryan found it very difficult to stay focused on any one subject at a time and his grades suffered for it. He was an active child, never sitting still for too long and always seemingly doing a hundred things at once. Worried, his mother ended up taking him to see a professional and it was then that they discovered that Ryan suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. He was put on medicine for a short while but nothing seemed to work for him. It made him sick and not feel like himself at all, so he stopped taking it. The doctor he was seeing actually told him that he seemed to do better without it. Ryan simply learned how to deal with his illness and he realized that not everything can be solved with medicine. This is what got him interested in biology in the first place.
To this day, Ryan still struggles with his ADHD but he has learned how to manage it. He often finds himself hyper focused on one thing at a time, which may make him seem like he is distracted or scatter brained. It can be hard for Ryan to focus on something that he may find boring, which is why he does his best to throw himself into his work and find something interesting about it to share. It’s what makes him such a unique professor.
A Cabot Creek University Assignment; Class Schedules
Oh, the process of moving in! There is so much to do and so little time. Unpacking, catching up, meeting new people, shopping... Does it ever end?
Apparently not.
All students and professors must finalize their class schedules before the semester begins!
Go pick out your classes here and post them on the dash!
Review all of the classes and class times, assuring no classes overlap. Freshman must take entry level / intro courses unless they have special permission. All undergraduate students must take general education courses which are generally taken freshman & sophomore year; but juniors and seniors may need to do some catching up as well. General education can be described here.
Students generally take between 4-5 classes per semester.
Professors and graduate student teachers may choose which classes they are teaching this semester and post them as well. Graduate student teachers are allowed to teach lower level undergraduate classes; particularly intro level.
Post your schedule and tag it as ‘ccuschedule’ :) This will help to see if you have any classes that may overlap with any other player which may aid in plotting.
