conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a plot for a book about Josie, Peter, Matt entitled Nineteen Minutes
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Nineteen Minutes: The story begins on March 6, 2007 in the small town of Sterling, New Hampshire, tracking the lives of a number of characters on an "ordinary day".\nThe characters include Alex Cormier, a superior court judge; her daughter Josie, a junior in high school; Lacy, Lewis, and Peter Houghton; Detective Patrick Ducharme; and several victims-to-be.\nAt the local high school, Sterling High, the story follows a routine day of students in classes, at the gym, and in the cafeteria.\nSuddenly, a loud bang is heard from the parking lot, which turns out to be a bomb set off in Matt Royston\'s car.\nAs the students are distracted by the noise, gunshots are fired.\nWhen Patrick, the only detective on the Sterling police force, arrives at Sterling High, he searches the school to seek out the gunman, who is alleged to be a student.\nAfter passing several dead and wounded victims, Patrick traps and arrests the shooter, Peter Houghton, in the locker room, where he finds two students, Josie Cormier and Matt Royston, lying on the floor surrounded in blood.\nWhile Matt is dead, having been the only victim shot twice, Josie is not seriously injured, but only shocked: she cannot remember what happened.\nThe shooting kills ten people (nine students and one teacher) and wounds many other people.\nThroughout the book, time flashes back and forth between events before and after the shooting.\nIn the past, the reader learns that Peter and Josie were once close friends.\nPeter was frequently the target of severe bullying at school, and Josie often stuck up for him.\nThe friends slowly drifted apart as they got older: Josie joined the popular crowd in order to protect her own interests, seeing her relationship to Peter as embarrassing.\nThe story pictures Peter as an outcast at home as well; Peter believes his older brother Joey is favored by their parents.\nJoey is a popular straight-A student and athlete, but feels it necessary to ridicule Peter to protect his reputation, even fabricating a story that Peter was adopted.\nWhen Joey is killed in a car accident in 2006, Lacy and Lewis Houghton are too upset to pay attention to their remaining son, causing a bigger rift between Peter and his parents.\nIn their sophomore year, Josie begins dating Matt, a popular jock who leads his friends Drew Girard and John Eberhard in bullying Peter.\nMatt often calls Peter "homo" and "fag," leading Peter to question his sexual orientation.\nThe bullying intensifies once Matt begins dating Josie, in his possessive efforts to keep her away from other boys.\nOn one occasion, Peter approaches Josie after school to try talking to her.\nMatt beats him up, leaving Peter humiliated in front of the school.\nThe flashbacks also reveal several subplots: the difficult relationship between Josie and her single mother Alex, Alex\'s dilemma of being a judge and a mother, Peter\'s escape from bullying into to the world of video games, Josie\'s fear of falling out of the popular crowd and her suicide back-up plan when she does, Matt\'s abusive behavior toward Josie, Josie\'s pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage, as well as Lewis Houghton\'s hunting lessons with his son Peter.\nOne month before the shooting, Peter realizes that he has feelings for Josie, and sends her an email expressing his love.\nCourtney Ignatio reads this email before Josie and has Drew forward it to the entire school.\nCourtney then convinces Peter that Josie likes him.\nPeter asks Josie to join him later during lunch, only to suffer public humiliation as Matt pulls down Peter\'s pants and exposes his genitals to a cafeteria full of students.\nPeter\'s psychotic break is triggered on the morning of the shooting when he turns on his computer and accidentally opens the email he wrote to Josie.\nAfter the shooting, Peter is sent to jail while the trial proceeds.\nThe probable cause hearing is waived as Peter admits to killing ten people and wounding nineteen others.\nJordan, Peter\'s defense attorney, uses battered person syndrome caused by severe bullying and abuse as a basis to convince the jury that Peter\'s actions were justified as a result of his suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.\nJordan argues that he was in a dissociative state at the time of the shooting.\nIn the final stage of the trial, Josie reveals that she was the one who shot Matt the first time after grabbing a gun that fell out of Peter\'s bag.\nHe was abusive.\nPeter later fired the fatal second shot.\nPeter promised her he wouldn\'t tell anyone what she had done, and he kept this promise, happy to have Josie as his friend again.\nPeter is convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison.\nA month afterward, Peter commits suicide by stuffing a sock into his throat.\nAt the end of the book, one year from the date of the massacre, Josie has received a five-year sentence for accessory of manslaughter and is regularly visited in jail by her mother.\nThroughout the book, Josie never told the whole story, instead repeating, "I can\'t remember".\nWhen Josie admits to shooting Matt, Peter\'s sentence is reduced.\nAlex and Patrick, who are expecting their first child, walk the halls of the high school.\nSterling High has been extensively remodeled after the shooting.\nThe cafeteria, the gym and locker room where the massacre took place have been replaced by a large glass atrium with a memorial to the dead in the center, a row of ten white chairs bolted to the floor.\nA plaque declares the building "A Safe Harbor".
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nThe characters include Alex Cormier, a superior court judge; her daughter Josie, a junior in high school; Lacy, Lewis, and Peter Houghton; Detective Patrick Ducharme; and several victims-to-be.\nAt the local high school, Sterling High, the story follows a routine day of students in classes, at the gym, and in the cafeteria.\nSuddenly, a loud bang is heard from the parking lot, which turns out to be a bomb set off in Matt Royston\'s car.\nAs the students are distracted by the noise, gunshots are fired.\nWhen Patrick, the only detective on the Sterling police force, arrives at Sterling High, he searches the school to seek out the gunman, who is alleged to be a student.\nAfter passing several dead and wounded victims, Patrick traps and arrests the shooter, Peter Houghton, in the locker room, where he finds two students, Josie Cormier and Matt Royston, lying on the floor surrounded in blood.\nWhile Matt is dead, having been the only victim shot twice, Josie is not seriously injured, but only shocked: she cannot remember what happened.\nThe shooting kills ten people (nine students and one teacher) and wounds many other people.\nThroughout the book, time flashes back and forth between events before and after the shooting.\nIn the past, the reader learns that Peter and Josie were once close friends.\nPeter was frequently the target of severe bullying at school, and Josie often stuck up for him.\nThe friends slowly drifted apart as they got older: Josie joined the popular crowd in order to protect her own interests, seeing her relationship to Peter as embarrassing.\nThe story pictures Peter as an outcast at home as well; Peter believes his older brother Joey is favored by their parents.\nJoey is a popular straight-A student and athlete, but feels it necessary to ridicule Peter to protect his reputation, even fabricating a story that Peter was adopted.\nWhen Joey is killed in a car accident in 2006, Lacy and Lewis Houghton are too upset to pay attention to their remaining son, causing a bigger rift between Peter and his parents.\nIn their sophomore year, Josie begins dating Matt, a popular jock who leads his friends Drew Girard and John Eberhard in bullying Peter.\nMatt often calls Peter "homo" and "fag," leading Peter to question his sexual orientation.\nThe bullying intensifies once Matt begins dating Josie, in his possessive efforts to keep her away from other boys.\nOn one occasion, Peter approaches Josie after school to try talking to her.\nMatt beats him up, leaving Peter humiliated in front of the school.\nThe flashbacks also reveal several subplots: the difficult relationship between Josie and her single mother Alex, Alex\'s dilemma of being a judge and a mother, Peter\'s escape from bullying into to the world of video games, Josie\'s fear of falling out of the popular crowd and her suicide back-up plan when she does, Matt\'s abusive behavior toward Josie, Josie\'s pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage, as well as Lewis Houghton\'s hunting lessons with his son Peter.\nOne month before the shooting, Peter realizes that he has feelings for Josie, and sends her an email expressing his love.\nCourtney Ignatio reads this email before Josie and has Drew forward it to the entire school.\nCourtney then convinces Peter that Josie likes him.\nPeter asks Josie to join him later during lunch, only to suffer public humiliation as Matt pulls down Peter\'s pants and exposes his genitals to a cafeteria full of students.\nPeter\'s psychotic break is triggered on the morning of the shooting when he turns on his computer and accidentally opens the email he wrote to Josie.\nAfter the shooting, Peter is sent to jail while the trial proceeds.\nThe probable cause hearing is waived as Peter admits to killing ten people and wounding nineteen others.\nJordan, Peter\'s defense attorney, uses battered person syndrome caused by severe bullying and abuse as a basis to convince the jury that Peter\'s actions were justified as a result of his suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.\nJordan argues that he was in a dissociative state at the time of the shooting.\nIn the final stage of the trial, Josie reveals that she was the one who shot Matt the first time after grabbing a gun that fell out of Peter\'s bag.\nHe was abusive.\nPeter later fired the fatal second shot.\nPeter promised her he wouldn\'t tell anyone what she had done, and he kept this promise, happy to have Josie as his friend again.\nPeter is convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison.\nA month afterward, Peter commits suicide by stuffing a sock into his throat.\nAt the end of the book, one year from the date of the massacre, Josie has received a five-year sentence for accessory of manslaughter and is regularly visited in jail by her mother.\nThroughout the book, Josie never told the whole story, instead repeating, "I can\'t remember".\nWhen Josie admits to shooting Matt, Peter\'s sentence is reduced.\nAlex and Patrick, who are expecting their first child, walk the halls of the high school.\nSterling High has been extensively remodeled after the shooting.\nThe cafeteria, the gym and locker room where the massacre took place have been replaced by a large glass atrium with a memorial to the dead in the center, a row of ten white chairs bolted to the floor.\nA plaque declares the building "A Safe Harbor".
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first five paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Nineteen Minutes
  Nineteen minutes is how long it took the Tennessee Titans to sell out of tickets to the play-offs. It's the length of a sitcom, minus the commercials. It's the driving distance from the Vermont border to the town of Sterling, New Hampshire.
  In nineteen minutes, you can order a pizza and get it delivered. You can read a story to a child or have your oil changed. You can walk a mile. You can sew a hem.
  As usual, Alex Cormier was running late. It took thirty-two minutes to drive from her house in Sterling to the superior court in Grafton County, New Hampshire, and that was only if she speeded through Orford. She hurried downstairs in her stockings, carrying her heels and the files she'd brought home with her over the weekend. She twisted her thick copper hair into a knot and anchored it at the base of her neck with bobby pins, transforming herself into the person she needed to be before she left her house.
  Alex had been a superior court judge now for thirty-four days. She'd believed that, having proved her mettle as a district court judge for the past five years, this time around the appointment might be easier. But at forty, she was still the youngest judge in the state. She still had to fight to establish herself as a fair justice—her history as a public defender preceded her into her courtroom, and prosecutors assumed she'd side with the defense. When Alex had submitted her name years ago for the bench, it had been with the sincere desire to make sure people in this legal system were innocent until proven guilty. She just never anticipated that, as a judge, she might not be given the same benefit of the doubt.
  Josie had once been so proud to have a mother as a judge. Alex could remember Josie broadcasting her career to the tellers at the bank, the baggers in the grocery store, the flight attendants on planes. She'd ask Alex about her cases and her decisions. That had all changed three years ago, when Josie entered high school, and the tunnel of communication between them slowly bricked shut. Alex didn't necessarily think that Josie was hiding anything more than any other teenager, but it was different: a normal parent might metaphorically judge her child's friends, whereas Alex could do it legally.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: four more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He pulled his next punch and got to his feet, leaving Peter curled on his side like a fiddlehead. "You're right. Why waste my time," Matt said, and he started walking, waiting for Josie to fall into place beside him.
  They were heading toward his car. Josie knew that they'd swing into town and grab a coffee before going back to her house.
  There was still an unleashed fury to Matt; his fists were curled at his sides. Josie reached for one, unfurled his hand, threaded their fingers together. "Can I say something without making you mad?" she asked.
  This was rhetorical, Josie knew: Matt was already angry. It was the flip side to the passion that made her feel as if she'd gone electric inside—just directed, negatively, at someone weak.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Josie, Matt, rubbing, kissing, pulling.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He pulled his next punch and got to his feet, leaving Peter curled on his side like a fiddlehead. "You're right. Why waste my time," Matt said, and he started walking, waiting for Josie to fall into place beside him. 
  They were heading toward his car. Josie knew that they'd swing into town and grab a coffee before going back to her house. There, Josie would focus on her homework until it became impossible to ignore Matt rubbing her shoulders or kissing her neck, and then they'd make out until they heard her mother's car pulling into the garage. 
  There was still an unleashed fury to Matt; his fists were curled at his sides. Josie reached for one, unfurled his hand, threaded their fingers together. "Can I say something without making you mad?" she asked. 
  This was rhetorical, Josie knew: Matt was already angry. It was the flip side to the passion that made her feel as if she'd gone electric inside—just directed, negatively, at someone weak.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last five paragraphs. End with the sentence ' They crossed the lobby and threshold of the front door, retracing the steps they'd taken.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: She felt Patrick's hand slip into her lap as she watched the soccer game. The teams seemed grossly mismatched, the kids who had already hit puberty playing against those who were still slight and small. Alex watched a striker charge a defenseman for the other team, leaving the smaller boy trampled as the ball hurtled high into the net.
  The last few minutes, of course, were the hardest. Alex found herself standing, her hands pressed flat against the glass. She felt the baby kick inside her, answering back to the darker hook of her heart. 10:16. 10:17.
  The striker returned to the spot where the defenseman had fallen and reached out his hand to help the slighter boy stand. They walked back to center field, talking about something Alex couldn't hear.
  She happened to glance at the maple tree again. The sap was still running. A few weeks from now, there would be a reddish hue on the branches. Then buds. A burst of first leaves.
  Alex took Patrick's hand. They walked out of the atrium in silence, down the corridors, past the rows of cubbies. They crossed the lobby and threshold of the front door, retracing the steps they'd taken.