Okay, this isn't a chapter in the story. Sorry if you didn't get that or if you forgot but you'll still benefit from reading this too. I need to explain my leave of absence and clear somethings up. I was gone because school was kicking my ass and it really got to me. I realized how "terrible" of a student was because I stopped doing homework halfway through third quarter (but kept up my grades in my honors classes because I'm not that bad of a student lol) because I could not concentrate and thought it would be okay…

I can literally feel you guys judging me as you read this.. Shoot, my own mother did and STILL IS given that she reads this story too! But yeah, my first year ended leaving me with a 3.4 or 3.3ish GPA and now that I am older (by a month or two) I can make better choices in my sophomore year and get better grades. I also had horrid time management skills and the attention span of a three year old but hopefully I can get past that.

That was the first reason I had for my leave but the second was due to how I wanted to write the story. I was going to add my OC into the canon plotline and build her story around it but then I was like, "Nah, that's dumb because you'd have all this character development for Rocky and then you'd try to fit her in the episodes that have nothing to do with her? No, sit down." You see, the problem with that way to go with my writing was that you would only read Rocky placed conveniently in Rebecca's storyline, limiting me to write Rocky's reactions to everything that has happened so far and leaving her just a somewhat mysterious teenage girl with serious daddy issues and a home to herself. That's pretty vanilla to me.

BUT.. Why not incorporate Steven's and Rocky's development together since they are both basically the same? That did cross my mind but then I was all like, "Pause on that forever. Rebecca's plot is for Steven and Steven only. My character is too different from him despite them having a mom giving up their gem and a regular human father. She is also older and needs to grow on her own due to circumstances. That's a neck." You seeing what I'm saying here to myself? I have too many serious plot things to put Rocky through to just let her tag along with Steven and the Gems and have their problems be hers. That's stealing and not writing in my opinion. It would be nauseatingly painful to have Rocky not develop at all while fighting alongside the Gems and hanging around. Not gonna happen, sorry.

I couldn't decide on what to write so I finished the previous chapter and looked at old reviews and checked my inbox for inspiration. I got an amazing message from October Autumn basically telling me to focus on my character and to not worry about the canon stuff so much amongst other things. I was really happy to get that and I then finalized my decision on how to write this story. I won't be fitting Rocky in every canon episode; I'll write the story around her and include some canon stuff as either fun fillers or when I need to for some reason. It seems and will probably be a lot easier this way.

So sorry I wrote y'all an essay but hey! At least you know I'm alive and not a robot! If you guys have anything to say to me PM me because this not a chapter and so I can respond to you better. I'd love to hear from you guys!

GuardianOfTheTARDIS15, out!