Category: Fall 2015

Jen

“Get up, Honey!!!” my mom calls from downstairs. Today is going to be my first day of Middle School. I should be excited. I bet even Vanessa Chadwick, who hates school (probably because of the homework), is excited. But, the thing is, I bet Vanessa Chadwick’s BFF isn’t leaving for New York for a whole year.

Julie, my best friend, has left for New York for the first year of middle school because of her dad’s job. Yeah, I know she’ll come back next year, but I feel that the first year of middle school is when we’ll need each other the most. And yet, that’s the year that she has to leave.

I don’t get up, so of course my Mom has to climb up the stairs and drag me out of bed. “C’mon, Jen, honey,” she says, stroking my plain brown hair. Nothing compared to her silky blonde hair. Luckily for my older sister, Kylie, she inherited it. Kylie and Mom look a lot a like. Pretty and perfect. I look like my Dad. Average.

“I know that Julie’s gone for the year, but hey –– at least she’s coming back! And you can always FaceTime or Skype!!! You know in my Yoga class they said you should always look at the positive side of things.”

I look at my Mom like she’s crazy. How can I look at the good side of this?! There is no good side?! I sit up in bed. There’s no use of trying to stay at home. My mom and dad are probably gonna drag me out of bed anyways.

I trudge out of bed and walk towards the bathroom to freshen up. I look at myself in the mirror as I brush my teeth. I think about Julie. Our personalities are completely different. She is extremely girly, like the mean girls in our school, Jessica, Cassidy, and Emma. But she isn’t mean like them. She is one of the best friends anyone could have. I am completely different. I’m on the girls soccer team and I absolutely detest anything girly. Except my Mom, Kylie, and Julie. But they’re not exactly things… they’re people. I get dressed and walk into the living room.

“Honey, you’re running late!!!” I hear my mom call from the kitchen. I grab a piece of toast and get onto the bus. I am not looking forward to the first day of school without Julie.

Julie

I can’t wait for the first day of school!!! I miss Jen, but hey, always think positive!!! I get on the bus.

“Hi!” a girl says to me. She has brown silky hair and she seems nice.

“Hi!” I respond back. “May I sit here?”

“Sure!!” she responds cheerfully.

“Hey, are you wearing mascara?” she asks.

“Yaa,” I reply. “Are you wearing lipstick?”

“Mmhmm,” she responds.

We talk and laugh the whole trip. And the best part is that she is in my class!!! Life is amazing!!!

Bringgg! I hear my cellphone ring. Jen is calling from Skype.

“Hi,” I say, pressing the Skype app.

“Hi, Julie!!!” she says. “How was school?”

“AMAZING!” I exclaim. I can’t wait to tell her everything!!! But she looks taken aback.

“Had fun without me?” she asks in a completely different tone –– one that she never spoke to me with.

“Uhhh,” I reply. What had she gotten into?!

“You know, I thought we were best friends!” she says.

“We are!!!” I say, holding up the friendship bracelet on my wrist.

“Ya, sure!!!” Julie says and throws her friendship bracelet into the garbage. And after that, she just disconnects. What did I do wrong?

Then it hit me: I am supposed to say that my first day of school was “horrible” and that “I really missed her.” I do really miss her, and I was gonna say that. That part is true. But she asked me how my first day was, and it was AMAZING! She couldn’t have expected me to lie!!! Or did she? Friendship can be so complicated!

Jen

She should say that she missed me and that her first day of school sucked! Okay, maybe my mom thinks I’m being unreasonable… but I’m not. It’s been a month since that crazy Skype fight and Julie is sending me weird texts like “Are you okay?” Ugh, she annoys me so much!!!

School seemed especially long today because of the math test. But hey! Tomorrow’s Halloween! I’m going to be zombie! Can’t wait!!! I bet Kylie’s going to be a black cat. Whatever, I’m happy because I’ve been invited to Drake’s party!!! He’s the most popular and cutest boy in the whole grade!!! I got invited! That’s a big thing!!! He invited me!!! No need for trick-or-treating this year!!!

…

Yay!!! Today’s Halloween!!! I’m about to leave for Drake’s party!!

“Honey,” Mom calls before I go, “are you sure you don’t want to dress into something cuter?”

“Nah,” I say and leave the house. I don’t care what she says now.

Julie

This is exhausting. This is stupid. Whatever. I’m having a great time at my school. And for Halloween I’m being a black cat!!! But I still feel that although Jen can be immature at times, she is an amazing friend –– my best friend.

I walk downstairs to the kitchen.

“Mom!” I call.

“Yes, honey!!!” She says while baking her amazing lasagna. It is Saturday. My mom never cooks on weekdays. Never has the time.

“When are we going back home to Minneapolis?” I ask.

“Winter break, honey!” she replies.

“Thanks,” I say.

“Why, honey?” my Mom asks.

“No reason,” I respond. But there is a reason… maybe this fight between me and Jen is stupid. Nevertheless, it’s still a fight. And if there’s a fight with my best friend, it needs to be resolved. Christmas is the best time to get it resolved.

Jen

Why does she have to come for winter break?! Ugh… Mom had to invite her for Christmas Dinner and now I have to buy her a present!!! But she is my best friend and always will be 

I go to the mall with my Mom. I hate the mall, but Julie loves it. I go into the store Claire’s. Julie loves that store. I walk inside. Sooo girly, sooo Julie. Inside the store are flower hairbands, hair chalk, earrings, make-up bags, make-up, and more. And then something catches my eye –– a friendship necklace. Perfect.

Julie

I walk into Nike. Jen really wants new shoes. Her old ones are worn out and dirty. I look and look and then I find the perfect ones. Blue sleek ones. The latest model. Air design. She’ll love this. Christmas has magic in the air. Not because of the presents. It just has magic in the air. It’s the best time for us to become besties. Forever.

Jen

Christmas time is here!!! And so is Julie!!! Well, I mean, she’s not here yet, but –– ding dong! The doorbell rings. She’s here. Yay!!! This time I really mean it. Yay!!! My mom opens the door.

“Hi guys!!!” she says. I sit on the couch. Then I see Julie in the living room.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey,” she replies.

We sit at the table and have Christmas dinner. We say our prayers.

After our dinner we go to the living room to open the presents. The grownups are all laughing. I hand my present to Julie.

“Sorry,” I say as I had her my present.

“It’s okay,” she says as she hands me hers. True friendship never ends.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The storm was raging. My mother and father ran to the lifeboats, but they realized something was wrong: my sister and I weren’t there.

“The children!” my mother yelled at my father, and he quickly ran below deck to find us. But we weren’t anywhere near the ship. We were far, far away from the boat in the ship’s safest lifeboat. A while later, my mother had no choice, but to leave my father below the decks. When the ship’s crew was lowering the lifeboat into the water, the ropes snapped in mid air and my mother’s lifeboat hurtled downwards towards the water

“Mom!” yelled my sister. As the lifeboat went on its journey to find another ship that could bring us to New York, my sister and I were crying over the deaths of our parents. A few hours later we were safely aboard the Mississippi and heading towards Albany, New York.

 

Once we landed in New York, the Mississippi’s crew sent my sister and I to the nearest orphanage, but almost everything in it was so so old and dusty, even the food! The only good part was the kids that lived in the orphanage. They were all very, very nice. A few months later my sister and I could not stand the bad conditions of the orphanage, so we packed all of our stuff, said goodbye to our friends, and left.

That was about two years ago. Now we are working as doctors and scientists for the Atlas Corporation. When we came to New York we were wandering around the city until a undercover Atlas spy found us and took us to the main headquarters. So far, we have made dozens of grenades that unleash a deadly type of poison when it explodes. We have also cured thousands of soldiers from wounds, poisons, and a deadly type of illness that will burn you alive. Ten years later, Atlas asked me to join the spies that go around bustling cities to try to find homeless children about at least ten years old. And I said yes. So my sister became a doctor, and I became a spy.

I still remember the first kid that I found on the streets. His name was Edward and he was fourteen years old. He started to live on the streets when he was ten years old because his parents had died from a fire. The fire had started because their neighbor was cooking, and  “accidently” lit a napkin on fire. The napkin then dropped into the pan that he was cooking with, and it just so happened that there was oil in the pan. So the whole apartment exploded. I brought Edward back to Atlas headquarters, and the commanders trained him to be a soldier.

A few months later I became a soldier along with Edward. Now Edward and I are storming into battle at the Vespers main HQ. “Charge!” my General yelled and we all charged into battle, thirsty for blood. In the next hour, bullets flew, men fell, and machinery exploded.

When we got back to base, my General quickly changed into his kitty pajamas and went to sleep. A few minutes later a group of Atlas soldiers snuck into the general’s bedroom.  Inside the room there were lots and lots of Generals, but their General was very conspicuous because of his pink kitty pajamas. Suddenly all the Generals inside the room woke up and started to yell, “!@#$%^&*.” Finally, when the founder of Atlas calmed all the Generals down, he spoke very sternly to the soldiers. He told them that they should never ever sneak into the General’s room, and their punishment was that they must bathe in hot oil every day for every week for every month for every year for the rest of their lives. Edward and I both thought the punishment was unfair, but the general refused to release them.

A few days later my unit rolled into action at Bunker Hill. The first tent that my unit set up was the arsenal. Inside was hundreds and hundreds of firearms. The next day, Edward and I, along with some of our fellow soldiers, boarded a battleship and took off towards the Atlas fleet. When we finally got onto the ship we all took our positions. I probably got the most exciting job on the boat. It was firing the gun! When we lost sight of Bunker Hill we turned on the radar and the navigation device, so we could see if any enemy ships were coming and where we were going.

A few hours later, our Captain told us some big news. There was a whole fleet of enemy ships headed towards us he told us to be ready if they suddenly attacked. When we could actually see the enemy fleet, we all opened fire. A few minutes later we were surrounded by enemy ships and they blew us up. Edward and I were the only two crew members that survived.

By the time we spotted the island we were practically dead from thirst and and hunger. We boarded the island and right away felt like it was better to die than to live. That wasn’t an option, so right away we got out our army knives and tried to build a shelter so we could at least have a place to live in. By the end of the day, Edward and I had built the most magnificent shelter ever! (It was probably a lot better than Brian Robinson’s shelter). I told Edward to go and try to find some food, so he did. When Edward came back I had already  made the fire and was ready to cook the food.

When he came back he had some new cuts and a huge claw mark on the side of his head. I asked him what happened and he told me he had angered a huge chicken and it tried to kill him. Edward used his years of military training and killed the huge chicken. After he told me the whole story he asked me to go with him to where he had killed the chicken so I could help him drag it back to the shelter so we would have something to eat tonight.

When we finally got back to the camp, the fire had already gone out. I had to make another fire which was pretty easy since I got first place in survival camp when I was fifteen years old. After we finished our magnificent meal, I told Edward to go to sleep while I tried to fix the radio transmitter and call for help.

A few hours later, Edward woke and told me to go to sleep for a while. When I said no, he took the transmitter and started to do what I had done a few hours ago when he went to sleep. After a few minutes I was so tired I fell off the rock hit my head on another rock and blacked out. When I woke up it was morning, and Edward was already back from the morning hunt with a bunch of wolves following him. Wait, with a bunch of wolves!? I asked Edward why he had adopted a bunch of wolves and do you guys know what he said? He told me that while he was hunting he heard the growls of the wolves and seemed to understand what they were talking about.

In the morning Edward confessed that yesterday he had lied to me about the wolves (like I didn’t know that already). He told me that the wolves had followed him back to camp because he had a hole in his bag of meat and the meat had dropped onto the ground and then the wolves ate it all. They followed him back to camp thinking they would get more food. But they didn’t so they walked away. In the morning Edwards loud cry woke me from my deep slumber. ”Yay. Yay, were saved, Yay!!!”

I sat up and said, “Yo keep it down man.”

He said, “But I need to signal that ship!!!”

I took one look at the ship and wondered how Edward could be so stupid. “It’s one of the Vespers ship!!!” I yelled at him. And then I saw her Grandmama. “Stop it Edward!!! That’s Grandmama’s ship!!!” I yelled at him.

Then Grandmama turned her ship’s cannon towards our island and fired.

“Duck!” I screamed at Edward. He ducked and quickly fired back with the one of the many coconut cannons that Edward and I had built. After a few seconds I recovered from my shock and also started to fire back at Grandmama. After a few minutes I told Edward to stop firing because there was so much smoke we couldn’t aim correctly. Five hours passed. “Hey, yo Edward what do you want for dinner?” I said.

He said, “I’ll take some coconut water and that’s it.”

“Okay,” I replied.

In the morning, old Grandmama ran out of ammo and ran to ask her fat son Samuel to deliver some ammo to her. While she was trying to radio Samuel, Edward and I took advantage of that and started to fire some coconuts at her ship “The Death Bed.”

After a few minutes, Edward and I were looking at the ruins of old Grandmama’s ship “The Death Bed,” but I didn’t see that with the last bits of her strength she turned one of the ship’s last working cannon and fired at the island.

The next day one of the Atlas Ships found and picked me up.

When I got back to base I learned that my sister had died of grief and Grandmama killed Edward when she fired the cannon in the last few moments in her life. My legs had been blown off in the explosion, so I couldn’t walk for the rest of my life. I hope I’ll be able to go for at least one more mission, but until then, Shadow Killer Out.  

The people are still. Their mouths are open, but I can’t hear a thing. Behind them a man comes marching in. He is holding a gun.

Bang!

One of them is dead.

I wish I could do something, but my feet are stuck to the ground. I can’t watch this.

I try to lift my hands to cover my eyes, but my whole body is frozen. Instead I just try to think of good thoughts.

I remember my dad. Is he dead? I don’t see him in the line. I remember one thing. My dad said that, “I am the luckiest man on earth because I have you.” The thoughts aren’t strong enough, so there is nothing I can do but watch these people die one by one.

One person looks at me and makes eye contact. I can see fear in the person’s eyes and I feel as if these people can hear me. The man turns around, but then turns back and kills the person who looked at me.

I search through all the people and I find my sister in the end of the line. It isn’t really a line. Just a big blob of people. She looks like she is trying to find me in the line. “She can’t see me,” I think. What if she thinks I’m dead? The man looks back at me and he points the gun at me like he sees me, his face is covered, his hand on the trigger.

Bang!

Everything goes blank. I’m in a room and my sister is there. “The man is our father,” she says. I sink down to my knees and cry out, “HELP!”

No one answers.

One day, a kid named Ben went to school, and he had a great time until lunch came. At lunch there was only orange juice. Everyone had to drink 50 glasses of orange juice, because they didn’t have any food that day. Then everybody had to go to the bathroom. Ben went to the boy’s bathroom, but this time there was sign and it said: Please wait in line for one hour. Then he looked at the girl’s bathroom. The girl’s bathroom sign said: Please wait thirty minutes.

Ben started shouting out loud, “I hate today’s lunch!”

“Yeah, Ben’s right,” said everyone. Everyone started whispering to each other. He was waiting thirty minutes, and the girl’s bathroom line was gone. He was about to pee in his pants. He didn’t want to do it, but he did. He ran into the girl’s bathroom and started used it. He was glad no girls were in there. When he came out of the girl’s bathroom, everybody was crowded around the girl’s bathroom door.

A bunch of girls said, “Uh ooh!” and started hitting him. He got sent to the Principal’s office.

P.S. The Principal was very strict.

The Principal shouted, “WHY DID YOU GO TO THE GIRLS BATHROOM?”

I said, “Can you not spit on me please.”

The principal madly shouted again, “DON’T EVER TALK BACK TO THE PRINCIPAL, BEN HUCKLEBERRY!”

I said, “You have bad breath.”

The principal yelled out loud, “IF YOU TALK BACK TO ME ONE MORE TIME, YOU’RE GONNA BE KICKED OUT OF THIS SCHOOL AND BE KICKED IN THE BUTT!”

Ben was standing in front of the principal’s desk and was staring at the principal. Ben said, “Bye.”

The principal shouted again, “WAIT, DON’T GO YET. You cannot play on the playground for 1 week, and I will email your teacher.”

He said for the last time, “Fine.”  He quickly walked away, but the principal was so shocked.

After school, Ben went home. He did all his homework and played a video game. He saw his parents at 3:00 p.m. Ben was so tired he went to sleep at 6:00 p.m. When he woke up, he looked at his clock. It was 6:00 a.m., but the lights in the living room were on. It was very strange for Ben. He went downstairs and saw his parents, and his parents were making a frown on their face. Ben said, “Why do you have a frown on your face?”

His parents answered, “We heard that you were in trouble.”

So he was grounded, and that ground was about not playing video games and not watching TV and eating no desserts for one week. Ben was frustrated and thought in his mind, Why did I go in the girls’ bathroom?

He thought hard of an idea to make a time-traveler before one week. He went to the junkyard and got some things that he wanted to make a time-traveler with. He got an engine out of a car, a tire off a car, a window off a boat, etc. He quickly went back home and went into his room. He decided to make the time traveler on his mirror. He started putting those pieces together. He quickly turned on the button and the lights went off the house. Ben’s parents were like, “Ben?! What did you just do?”

He quickly hid his mirror under the bed. When the parents came in they didn’t notice. Then, when the parents went out, he started to make the time traveler again. The mirror started wiggling and he put his hand on it. His hand went through it. When he went inside the mirror, it was 1966. He could tell because he asked a stranger what the date was, and the stranger told him that it was 1966. So he went back in the mirror and came back to his room. After, he looked at his homework and saw that he needed to do science homework on a computer and it was due on Monday. So, he held the homework packet and showed his mom and his mom was like, “Ugh, fine.”

So Ben was like, “Yes!” He went upstairs with the laptop and started to get the USB’s in his room and connected his computer to the time traveler. He quickly typed in the date: 2014, Friday, September 2nd, 1 o’clock. After, the time traveler started to light up. This time, he went in and he was on the line of the boys bathroom, and he said, “Yes!”

So he waited one hour on the line and finally went to the bathroom. Then, he went into the mirror and back to his room. He went downstairs with his mom. His mom wasn’t mad at him and said, “Hi Ben, did you do all your homework?”

And Ben said, “Sort of.”

She said, “What do you mean by sort of?”

Ben said, “I only did my science homework.”

“Then go upstairs and do the rest of your homework and come downstairs. I have a big surprise for you.”

He did all his homework which took about an hour. He went downstairs and his mom was holding a big present, and he didn’t realize that it was his birthday today. So Ben ripped open the present. He was so surprised: he got his own laptop. He was finally waiting for that present, and a wish came true. He was so excited that he decided to put it in his room and his mom came up with him. Ben went quicker, so he hid the mirror under his bed, and he deleted the program on the computer. He placed his own computer on the place where his parents’ computer was. So he made a promise with his mom to say “I will never do bad stuff on this computer or inappropriate stuff,” and his mom said, “You make this promise, and if you break it, you lose your laptop.”

Ben said, “Okay Mom,” and his mom went downstairs. He went down too, and he ate cookies with his family, and it ends with a happy ending here.

Chapter 1

 

“JANET! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? THIS IS NOT NAP TIME!”

What?

My eyes slowly slid open. Ugh. It was still Monday, and I was still in English class.

“Mmmm… Sorry Ms. Brown. As you see, I had a hard time falling asleep last…”

“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT! NOW, CAN YOU TELL ME THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION?”

I looked at the board. Uh-oh. It read: x-y=n (3/8+ 5/0.)=n. Ok, I admit, I fall asleep in class a lot. But I mean, hey! I missed half the lesson! A kid can’t just do that from the top of their head!

I said weakly, “Zero?”

My teacher’s voice softened. “I understand that you were most likely up late last night doing your homework, although I highly doubt that you really had that much. Anyway,  you did have that project–”

Then, Ms. Brown raised her voice.

“–THAT WAS DUE LAST MONTH! ANYHOW, YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKE UP FOR THAT HOMEWORK THAT YOU ‘MISSED’ LAST WEEK, AND…”

My face turned a bright shade of red, and I probably looked like a tomato. By the time my teacher had finished her lecture, it was time for lunch, my favorite period. I grabbed my lunch and raced down to sit on my favorite bench in the school yard.  It was the place to be if you just wanted some peace. For some reason, no one ever bothered to sit there and talk to their friends. Since I’m the new kid, I only have one friend and she was absent that day. Sprawling out on the bench and closing my eyes for a nap, I probably looked like a hobo. Before I knew it, the bell went off and I had to wake up, and walk to the school like a zombie. The next two periods were art class, which was my favorite too. I did not have to do everything perfect, and the teacher did not blab on and on and on about Freida Colo, and other famous artists*. I got to art class, and made one of those really good pictures that the teacher always brags about to the class.  

After that, I decided to sculpt the same horse that I painted, and that was the rest of the period. I set my horse on a piece of paper to dry, got my book bag from the locker room that I was keeping it in, and left the school.

I was about one block away from my house, and I saw a dog on a park bench. I knew that it was Ms. Henderson’s. Ms. Henderson is a old lady who is our grumpy old neighbor, and she can barely hear anybody when they speak. She treats her dogs like she would a soccer ball. Now, I don’t want to offend anyone here, but she is super slow. She walks, like, not even one mile an hour. Here’s the bad part about all of this. She has tons of little puppies, and they need to run around, right? And Ms. Henderson is a really slow walker, right? Squish this information together, and you get that she pushes her puppies with her cane every so often to get them to wait up for her, even when the pups are not even moving a muscle, waiting for her. So, when I saw this little puppy, I thought, why in the world would Ms. Henderson let her puppy go around free? Ms. Henderson would NEVER let her dogs run free.

The puppy was brown, and her fur was nice and soft. Her eyes were big, and her nose was big and wet. The ears were so cute and dainty, so I couldn’t help but love her. I’m not Miss Little Perfect, but I do have a weakness for dogs. Since my neighbor does not give her dogs a good, fresh meal, I decided to take the dog in for a little while, you know. Maybe, just maybe, dad would let me keep her. While I was walking home, I tried to think of a name for her. Princess? No way. FluffBall? Nah, not really. Cutie Pie? Nuh uh. It had to be a real name… not a cutie poopsy name. Hmm… Hope. That was a perfect name.

Hope was following me, and I was glad. I’m not the type of person who wants to pick up a dog. I tested the name out. “How’s it goin’, Hope?”

She responded by rubbing her head on my leg, which I took to be a sign that she liked the name.

Finally, we reached my house. I entered. My dad was sitting at the table, doing his work. “Janet!” he said. “Hi.”

I looked at my dad. Something was troubling him, I could tell.

“What is it, dad?” I asked.

“Come here, Janet,” he said in his no-joking voice.

“What?” I knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, because dad always made a little molehill into a big mountain.

I put the dog under the table, and it was really easy, since she was really small. “Your grades.”

I groaned. Then, I plopped down in a chair. “You need to stop not paying attention.”

“Okay,” I said. Usually, he just tells me something and I say okay, and then it’s done. Not today.

“Listen. You need to get your grades up or else you are going to flunk out.”

I tried again, “Okay, dad.”

He sighed. “Honey, I really need you to focus.” That was the end of the conversation. I took a deep breath, ready to introduce Hope.

“Dad, this is Hope. I want to know if she can stay here for the night, because Ms. Henderson is so harsh.”

The immediate answer was, “No. Honey, you know that… um… it’s a school night…”

I picked the dog up from under the table. “Look at her, won’t you? She is adorable, and I just know that mom and the kids will love her.”

Dad sighed again. “Okay, fine. Just for today. Now make Timmy’s lunch, prepare Susie’s backpack, and clean out the dishwasher. Oh, also, remember Mark’s going to dance class tomorrow–”

I said it even before he did, “and I’m in charge of him. I know, I know, Dad.”

Being the oldest in the family, I had the most responsibilities. Mark was four, Timmy was three, and Sue was six, but she acted like the was ten.

“Here, Hope!” I said. Then, I walked up my stairs. They were carpeted, so I had to help Hope get her claws un-stuck from it. I tucked her in my bed, like a little kid would do to her dolly.

 Now, as I said before, I had only one friend. She was my one and only single friend, but she was also the best friend one could have. In the worst times, she would do anything to save me, even if it meant that she had to get some cuts and bruises. One time, I climbed all the way up to the top of a tree (yes, I love to get myself stuck in trees). Well, it was nine in the night, and my parents and siblings had gone out to our country house for a night. They had insisted that I stay home to work on a month’s work of missed homework. And the moment I got up to the very top branch, I knew that I was stuck. Well, you can imagine how I felt, at nine in the night, with no one to get me down from the tree. But, with knowing that Claire had excellent hearing and lived right next door to me, I felt just a little bit better. Then, when I completely understood that I could not get down from the tree without help, I screamed at the top of my lungs, “CLAIRE! CLAIRE!” My friend stayed up until midnight, so of course she came out to help me. Since it was dark, we both got a couple scratches, but ended up fine.

I absentmindedly did the chores that I was asked to do, took a shower, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and got in bed. I’m not the type of person who washes their hands, don’t ask me why. I picked Hope up, and plopped her down at the bottom of my bed. I would do anything for that dog, even if it meant giving up some of my meals for her lunch and dinner. I heard Mark crying for my mom to read him a story, Timmy whining for a snack, Susie complaining that she felt like she was going to puke because her pillow was not fluffy enough for her or something, and my parents scolding all if them.

“You kids have to just go to sleep! Janet is already in bed!” I knew that my mom was just using me as an example, I knew that she was not really that happy that I was in bed. That’s only because one time she caught me drawing when she thought that I was asleep. I thought that it was a pretty good time to fall asleep, just in case my mom said anything else about me.

 

Chapter 2

 

The week whizzed by, and by the time I knew it, it was Saturday. The very first thing I did was walk over to Claire’s house, and left a note on the counter that said where I went. Claire was an only child, and she woke up at, like, 6. I wake up at, like, 9. Hope was following me, and that was fine because I needed to show her to Claire.

But of course, getting into Claire’s house with a dog was not going to be that easy. No, they do not have a cat. And no, no one is allergic to dogs. BUT, Carmina, Claire’s mom, HATES dogs. And when I say HATES, I mean HATES, HATES, HATES dogs. She, like, has a thing for cats. I have a thing for dogs. I have always wanted a dog. Claire says that me and her mom are total opposites. This is how she put it: “You are mellow. My mom is super strict. You love dogs, she hates dogs. You hate cats, she loves cats.”

She is Mark’s teacher, and believe me, I know what goes on in his classroom. So, I decided to go back to my house and grab a bag to put Hope in. It worked really well. Well, kind of. I walked in, and zipped up the bag to that Hope’s head was not showing. Then, Carmina lifted her head up and said, “Hello. put the bag on the table.” Then, Hope snorted, and sneezed. Yep, I had to pretend that it was me.

“Uh… I have a… cold. Sorry.” I sniffled to add to my act.

Carmina sighed and said, “Mhmm. I said, PLEASE PUT THE BAG ON THE TABLE, sweetie.”

“Um… yes, I know that. But umm… me and Claire–”

Carmina interrupted, “Claire and I, sweets.”

“Okay, okay. Claire and I are going to play with something in this bag, so I probably should take it upstairs with me.”

“ALRIGHT, I get it, sweets. Go upstairs and play whatever stupid thing you are going to play with. BYE, sweets. Go along now swee-”

Suddenly, Hope started to move. Carmina said, “What stupid toy do you have in there, sweets? Could it be a DOG that you are trying to hide from me, sweetie?”

It really gets on my nerves how she calls everyone sweetie or sweets, and she calls everything that. She doesn’t know that it’s stupid. “No, I’m just showing her my new… um… cat.”

Carmina looked delighted. “Why, I thought you would never learn! Good for you, hon!”

Arrh! I hate it when people call me hon! I ran up the stairs, glad that I could get away from Carmina, and got to Claire. I burst into Claire’s room. It had a green bed, green curtains, a green closet, and a green rug. Claire was writing in her diary.

“Hey, girl!” she said the moment I walked in.

“Hi, sweets! How are you doing, sweetie! What is that stupid thing that you are writing in?” I said, mimicking her mother.

“Hey, hon! What is that stupid thing in your bag, sweetie?” Claire replied. We do this quite often, because it really gets on both of our nerves. Claire’s dad works all the time. His shifts are 6:00 a.m to 11:00 p.m.  He only gets two days off in the whole year, so Claire barely gets to see him unless he is sick and can not go into work. Even though I have never seen him, I can tell that he is the opposite of Carmina. I showed Claire Hope, and went home. My family just got home, and they were already unpacking. My mom stopped when I walked in the door, and said in a very stern voice, “Janet Eliza Mcnamara, come here this instant. I need to talk to you.” I slowly approached, trying to act like nothing strange was in my bag. “I got a call yesterday.”

“ Umm… That’s great. W-who was it from?” I said. My mother’s voice dropped dangerously low. She sure knows how to scare a kid.

“Well, who do you think?” Hope chose that moment to wiggle and sneeze. My mother prodded my bag. Then she said again, “Who do you think?”

Suddenly, it made sense. Ms. Henderson called, told my mother that one of her dogs were loose, said she was almost sure who had it, and that she was going to give that child such a beating. I couldn’t think about it anymore.

“I’m so sorry, don’t do anything. I was just trying to help her please,” I said in a voice that you just simply have to go, “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry, please don’t cry. Come, give me a hug.” And of course, that is just what my mother said, but without the give me a hug part. Just then, the doorbell rang, and Ms. Henderson walked in. Then, everything went black.               

 

Chapter three

 

I woke up to the sound of Ms. Henderson saying that she loves her dogs so much, and she would do anything for them. She was wearing a purple dress and a big frown.

“There, she’s awake now! Oh! And the dog is in that bag! Hi, Ms. Sugar Bunch!” Ms. Henderson said in her crackly voice. My mother was sitting at the table, and my father was sitting next to her. Timmy and Mark were playing with dolls, and Susie was setting the table for dinner. She always loves to please mom and dad.

“What are you doing here? And her name is HOPE, not Ms. Sugar Bunch.” I said, as  boldly as I could.

“Who are you to tell me what MY dogs name is?” Ms. Henderson snapped. My mother shot me a look saying, “I am so going to kill you,” but I honestly didn’t care.

Even though I knew that Hope was really Ms. Henderson’s dog, I said, “She is my dog now. Do you really think that she liked it with you? I mean, who in their right mind kicks their dogs for no reason?”

Ms. Henderson gasped. Hope now had gotten out of the bag, and was whimpering. She leaned on me, and her big sad eyes said it all. Don’t let me go with her, please!  I’ll never pee on your bed again! Yes, last night Hope peed on my bed, but I was able to spray Febreeze and wipe the pee up, and my room was as good as new. Timmy and Mark stopped playing, and were staring, open mouthed at us. Susie finished setting the table, and was now filling glasses, totally oblivious to what was happening. I knew that I was going to get grounded, but I would do whatever it took to help my dog.

“I think you should go to your room for a couple minutes,” my mom said quietly. Even though she said it calmly, I could see the anger in her eyes. I walked upstairs, and took Hope with me. The truth was, I did not go upstairs, but I kind of stomped in place, so that mom thought that I was going up. I crouched down, so they could not see me. Hope ran upstairs and hid under my bed, and I was fine with that. My mother and Mrs. Henderson were talking in hushed tones, so I couldn’t hear them. Mark, who is my favorite sibling (don’t ask me why), ran up the stairs, and sat down next to me. He was only four, and was adorable. He opened his mouth, probably to ask me why I was there, but before he said anything, I clamped my hand over his mouth. He was very loud, and I did not want to be in more trouble than I was already in.

“I’m eavesdropping. Either sit down, or go to your room,” I whispered. He sat down.

“What’s evedropping?” he whispered.

“Its eavesdropping, stupid. It means to listen in when you are not supposed to.” I picked Mark up and put him on my lap. Okay, I admit it, I was nervous.

I overheard Mrs. Henderson say, “Yes, but there would be a price to pay.” And then I think my mom might have asked if it would be money or chores? Really, I just heard little snippets of the conversation, but it seemed that I would be paying quite a bit of money for Hope. At one point, Mark went back down to play with Timmy. Then, mom yelled up the stairs, “JANET! COME BACK DOWN HERE! WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”

I wished myself good luck, and walked down the stairs. As soon as I got halfway downstairs, I noticed that Hope was right behind me, and I was glad. I can always count on that dog.

Right then and there, I promised myself that whatever it took to win Hope, I would do it. I would do it for two reasons. The first one was that I really did not want to give Mrs. Henderson the pleasure of keeping her dog just to kick it around, when it was the sweetest dog in the world. The other is that all of my siblings have pets. Timmy has a fish, and Mark has a frog. Sue had a cat, but only because she got all A’s on her report card, and she spent one month working on an extra credit project for school. I was the only one without a pet, even though I was the oldest. I reached the bottom of the stairs, and saw a very perplexing sight. Mrs. Henderson looked as if she just just lost a war, but got $1,000,000 out of it. We were all quiet, and it was really awkward.

Mrs. Henderson finally broke the silence and said, “Sugar Bunch, come here! I know that stupid girl…” Mrs. Henderson turned to me and glared. Finally, she took her gaze off of me and continued to talk to Hope, “I know that stupid girl has taken terrible care of you.” Then, in a whisper, she said, “Don’t worry. I’ll get us out of here soon enough.”

Even though she said it so she thought that only Hope could hear, I heard every word of it. I guess mom did also, because she looked at Mrs. Henderson in a funny way, and then started to speak. “Well, Janet, we thought that if you could maybe give Mrs. Henderson some of your own money, because she needs it for her health, and her other dogs. Also, maybe you could do some chores around her house. We still have to talk about how much money it would be and how many hours you would be working for, but–”

Mrs. Henderson interrupted, “I think that she should work for at least 100 hours in all, and maybe 500 dollars. This dog was worth a million dollars, you know. You’re getting a big discount.”

“Well, Janet, does that seem fair to you?” My mom asked me. No, I said in my head, but out loud, I said, “Okay, sure.”

Mrs. Henderson sighed, like she thought that this big ordeal was just too much for her old bones. She was 81, and she was a hunchback. I think she had Parkinson’s also, but you can never be too sure. She slowly got up, and I shook her hand. She hugged a happy Hope, and left without another word. Mark, Tommy, Sue, and I celebrated by calling Claire and  baking brownies.

 

EPILOGUE

 

I finally paid off the 500 dollars!!! Tomorrow I can finally stop working for old Mrs. Henderson! She is going to a nursing home in one month, and a girl who was my age is moving into her old house! YAY! Hope is in good health, and she found some doggie friends that lived across the street. Sue transferred to my school and I helped her with her homework, and it turns out that she is not so perfect after all! Timmy did everything he can to help out with Hope, and Mark decided that he would be a big boy, and do almost everything by himself. My life is good after all!!!

 

—————————————————————————————–

*Last year, my art teacher did that and I fell asleep in class half the time. Also, I got nightmares from all of the things she told us about the artists. She was probably the worst art teacher that I ever had!

 

There was an alien named Sam. He was purple, had stringy arms, had two eyes, his face was a circle, and last but not least, he always had a smiley mouth. He was watching TV.  He watched until there was a commercial about things that were called “Pets” on Earth.

“Ghtjdtyuuiikjdcbnmamagtrdhhhjhtrefggnjndsjkhevtye,” he said, which meant, “I want to see that really badly!” Then the commercial on TV said that the humans on earth are going to make a show about pets.

“lkjdkad;kadjf.” That meant, “Super, I want to see it.” But, he noticed it could only be bought in the pet shop! But it was on Earth!

I have to build a spaceship, he thought.

Two weeks later:

“Okay, it’s ready to try out! Okay, ready, set, blast off!! Ahhhhh, that didn’t work.”

A week later after a bunch of testing and fixing:

“Finally, I know it works because I tried it. But wait, I don’t have a map to know where the planet called Earth is!” He said in alien language, “Aljdflkaj;dlfaslaljfdadk hdakfja jdklfajsi.”

Suddenly, there was a mail delivery from the mailman. He was lime yellow. He had a tie-dye shirt. He was holding a magenta letter. He was wearing a pair of homemade shorts and he had purple shoes. His face was a weird shape and he had a little bit of lime green hair.

The mailman had been spying on Sam the whole time.  He actually traveled all the way to Earth to look for the pet shop and write where it is.  The letter said it was a map to go to Earth and the certain pet shop.

“Akdjljfldf,” or “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” Sam said. But then Sam said, “Akj,” which meant “Uh.”

“Skafjkfk jkdj kajiwjf,” said the mailman, which meant, “I’ve been spying on you the whole time!”

Sam was a little bit confused and happy. He was happy because now he knew he could go there and knew where to go.

“Can I go with you?” asked the mailman, which in alien language meant, “Askah djkc poona cada.”

“Oosa,” Sam said, which meant, “Yes.”

The trip to Earth was fun. On the trip, they ate asteroid pieces and comet nibbles. The trip was fun until…THERE WAS A FORCE FIELD!!!

“REALLY???!!!” Sam said. That means, “TFRGTF!!!”

Then the mailman said, “There’s a certain black hole that you have to go into to get to the other side, and inside that black hole are four other black holes, and you have to pick the right one.” That meant, in alien language, “kjhaiuhwe;fkjna.skjhiueh.”

Then Sam said, “dtfgfgfgffggffttfgffgghhgfdsdfdgfggggfd,” and that meant,  “But where is the black hole???”  

“Gythghgfhtfghgghghghhghggffgfddet,” said the Mailman. That meant, “Well that is what we are going to have to find out.” Done done DONE!!!!!

16 minutes later, there were two black holes.

“Which one is right?” said the mailman, which in alien language was, “uh;khkjhkjhjk.”

“Well, one black hole is black and one is brownish, and this one is a special black hole, so it’s not supposed to be like an actual black hole,” said the mailman.
“Okay, so we take the brownish hole,” said Sam, which in alien language meant, “lkuhkuhiuhui.”  So they took the brownish hole.  

Meanwhile… ECHO echo… QUACK quack.

Sam said, “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” That means, “bdcbhfdbhfdxdfjh!!!”         

“NO WHAT DID YOU SAY?” said the mailman. That means, “DFGFGHHGGGFHYTFTYHGT???”

Then they saw a duck before their eyes.

“AHHHHHHH!” they screamed. The mailman’s lime green hair shot up like a rocket.

Suddenly, this guy appeared in the black hole. He had the body of a genie but he was not actually a genie. He said, in a strange voice, “The duck is a creature from earth. It is a pet — sometimes. They were trying to make teleporters, but then instead they accidentally sent a duck into this black hole. So don’t worry.”

Then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Poof!

Then four black holes were in front of them each a different color.

“WAIT!!!!” said the mailman. “Don’t say anything. Because each of them means danger, but the yellow ones lead to quicksand, the blue one leads to really big waterfalls with alligators and mean fish in it, the red one leads to lava, the purple ones leads to an army of alive eggplants. So also, the walls are purple, so we should take the purple one. Anyway that’s the only one where there’s a possibility that we won’t die. All the other ones we’ll definitely die. Ready, set, hold your breath! We’re going in!”

They held their breaths and went inside. When they came out, they saw a giant army of eggplants with at least one yellow tooth sticking out of their mouths.

“Okay, did you bring the lava?” said the mailman.

They heard the eggplant say, “Okay, did you bring the boxing gloves?”

Then all said at the same time, including Sam and the mailman, “Yes! Ready, charge!”

Sam said to the mailman, “You know, just boxing, there’s a possibility we won’t die, but if the lava gun doesn’t kill the eggplants, then the red hole might be safe! But we have to first test the lava gun. And if the lava gun kills all the eggplants, then we know the red hole isn’t safe.”

“Ready, set, chaaaaaaarge!”

The eggplants all got blown away in the lava except one. The master of the eggplants. He was the size of a country house. He had the stinkiest breath ever and he had an an Alaskan headband that he stole from Alaska on Earth. He put it on his thumb because he was so big.

“Are you ready? Give it to him!”

They squirted lava in his eyes which were as big as a chandelier. They were bloodshot and bloody. The eyes fell out so he started thrashing about like crazy, so they spilled the lava on his heart and he died. But what the mailman forgot to say is, “Be aware, there also are live grapes everywhere.”

So then there were these little mini grapes who were like grape bombs. They look like grapes with little faces on them. But you had to go across them without getting hit by one, because they were explosive. So they carefully tiptoed across. Suddenly, Sam said, “Hurry, hop in the ship!”

That was because there was the end of the path in the purple black hole and if you stepped off, it would be like falling off a cliff. So, they rode in the spaceship and that black hole was meant to shoot you onto Earth so they shot up onto Earth.

The trip took two hours because of all the battling.

When they got to Earth they ALMOST forgot to put a human costume on! When they put the costumes on, they went to the pet store. At the pet store, Sam pointed at the TV so the pet store guy gave them the tickets to watch the show and then he watched it. It was the best! It was exciting and funny and awesome and cute and everything it could possibly be. Then he decided to go out on Earth and play an alien game on the grass before they left. The game is called Houhknoijij. When they went back to the spaceship, they took the video with them so they could watch it again.

It was a very long and exciting trip, especially when they made an eggplant shooter from the dead eggplants.

 

THE END

Dear whatever I’m supposed to call you,

 

I can’t believe my parents have been holding this secret from me all my life. I’m a witch!!! Not those fictional ones from the movies or books, but an actual witch. They told me on my sixteenth birthday, but to me I think they should have told me this when I was younger. They gave me this book because they want me to write all my feelings in it, which is stupid because I’m not eleven anymore, I don’t need a diary. Well, my mom is calling for me. I guess she’s going to tell me more things I didn’t know my whole life up until now. I wonder if they are even my actual parents.

Nope, turns out they are my actual parents. They said I need to go to a “witch academy” and learn more about who I am. This day sucks. If only I could go to the froyo store and gets some yogurt with my friends. But my life isn’t normal anymore thanks to my parents. Uh, I guess I’m not a human anymore. I’m a witch, a witch. I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! UGGGHHH! I feel like I’m two years old and my mom’s saying, “Darling you’re gonna be a witch for halloween,” but this is real. Like, I said it about a thousand times already and it still doesn’t feel right. While I’m here in my room reading witch books — roll eyes — my friends are hanging out without me. Could my life get any worse? Yep it can. My “parents’’ are calling me for a family meeting, which usually means, “I talk, you listen, and you better not argue with me young lady.”

“Darling I’m so worried about you,” said my mother. “You shouldn’t be up in your room. Jeez louise, it’s the summer. Go have fun.”

Great, I’m still treated like a baby. Why don’t they put me in a diaper, put a bib around my neck, and get me a play pen? Then I might actually look like one.

“Venesa, you are going to have to stop babying her. She going to study all day, everyday, for this whole summer till she knows everything she needs to know to become an amazing witch. I had to give that up because I married you. I want her not to give up her chance to learn all of this,” my dad says, starting to get emotional. Great, I have a mom who babies me and a dad who is over emotional. What else does life have to bring me? Well no point in having dinner, I lost my appetite already.

As I get in bed I imagine all the fun things my friends are doing without me. THIS LIFE SUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKSSSSSSS (again).

 

Why should I bother tittling you,

 

Here is another day of me spending in this house, ugh. My dad keeps on telling me ‘stop your attitude,’ but I really don’t care what anyone says anymore. As I open the book of wisdom, I notice all these amazing spells. One turns you into a duck, and another makes things come alive. As I flip through more pages I come up to one that can make you invisible. Maybe I can turn myself invisible to sneak out the house and have fun with my friends while my parents think I am learning these spells. I’m a genius. I’m totally getting the hang of this witch thingy. If only I knew what potions I need to make this spell.

I go into my parents bedroom to see if there was any potions there. As I was about to leave I noticed a pair of my mom’s high heels, but they didn’t look like any of her regular pair. There seemed to be letters and numbers all around. It was unusual and strange. I come closer to see and investigate more deeply.

As I touch the numbers and letters, I come upon a letter that looked different from the rest and I noticed it had ancient words around it. As I touch the surface of that weird looking number, a door opened out of nowhere. I peer inside and there were tons of witch books and spells, potions, and a pot that you could use to try out the potion. It seems as if someone was in there recently before I came. Maybe mom was in there because when I was walking by after I got a glass of water, I saw her go inside a door that I didn’t see before in their room. I didn’t pay much mind before because I was so mad. Every color you could ever imagine was in bottles that are used to make spells. WOOOOOOOOWWW. I never thought being a witch could be so cool! OMG, why did I just say that? This is getting weird.

As I look at the pair of pumps again, I notice a number that looked very strange. As I touch it, the door automatically shuts and turns into a wall again. I run out of their room just to see my parents outside. “Why were you in our room,” asks Dad.

“I was just looking for a pencil and I couldn’t find one,” I say. Just to tell, I’m a terrible liar, but I think they believed me. Wow, they’re so gullible. I better go before my dad sees me not looking at that stupid book.                    

I may be writing this stuff, but I still don’t like this journal idea.

 

Uhh you know what I am not even going to bother,

 

My mind keeps on wondering to that spells and potion room, but I keep telling myself to stop thinking about it. I made up this thing so every time I think about that room I have to pinch myself. You know what, I’m not going to do THAT. Maybe I could just sneak up and get the potions —

NO!!! I can’t do that.

But —

NOOOO!

Ugh. It’s just so tempting, soooo tempting, but I know I would get caught. It’s like water. I can’t live without going into that room.

Earlier that day my friend called me saying, “Come over to my house. My mom is not here and I’m throwing an awesome party.”

“I can’t,” I told her, which made her like, mad. So like, she said, “We aren’t, like, friends any more, like, dUUUHHHH!”

She’s there for, like, a good two minutes saying that. I think her “likes” are contagious. I can’t, like, stop saying/using them. I’m probably not popular anymore. Ugh. From one to ten, I used to be a ten and now I’m like a nine. WAAAHHH! I’M A NIIINNNE! Not even a ten, a nine. I might as well just stay in my room foooreeevvveeerrr!

It is not like they’re gonna let me out till school starts anyway.

 

Fine I’ll title you: Dear Diarrhea,

 

I have really bad stomach aches all the time. That is why I always need to do it… Ooops wrong story.

 

Dear Dairy,

You know dairy makes me gassy. That is why in class I am always farting and blaming it on other peop… Whoops, wrong again!

 

Dear Thingy majiggy I don’t want to use,

 

Sorry you got the wrong page. If you ever tell anyone I will find you, then kill you. Anyways, now that we are off that subject, I decided that I am like, (Sorry, the ‘likes’ are fading, but by time) gonna go since they’ve been so like, mean. Gosh, why can’t they be like grandma and wake up in the morning, then fall asleep on the couch listening to the radio. So here’s the plan (you better not like, tell my parents): I’m gonna wait till they go to sleep, then I will go into their room quietly, and take the stuff I need to make the invisibility spell, so I can sneak off whenever I like, want. I know, I am brilliant. You can scream it if you would like to now…

Sorry I couldn’t finish it, my mom and dad almost caught me not studying. Good thing I had this book in the spell book. My mom and dad are are asleep now, so I just have wait a few minutes till I hear their loud snores.

I finally heard their snores going through the walls, so I got up and opened the door quietly. I heard a creak (ugh, what a stupid door). I walk down the hallway carefully trying not to make any more noises. As soon as I opened the door I was greeted by my mother. She knew.

“Oh Oh,” I said aloud.

“Don’t worry sweetie, I didn’t tell your father. Hehehe,” she cackled. Then something changed. She looked like Medusa! No it couldn’t be. I blinked again just to make sure I was seeing correctly. She, or this thing, was still there. Suddenly my mom was back to normal.

“Go to sleep darling. We’ll talk about this in the morning.” I walk down the hall still confused, as I lay in my bed. I wonder if my imagination was playing tricks on me as I drift off to sleep.

 

Hello thingy,

 

As I slowly drifted back to the real world and out of my dream, I got up from bed. That was a strange dream. Something about my mom being Medusa. The smell of pancakes drifted up my nose. As I sat down with my mom and dad, I told them about my dream. My mom’s grin suddenly widened mysteriously, almost like the way Medusa did. Dad on the other hand looked like I smacked him in the face (which I wouldn’t mind doing) and told me never to speak of that again because Medusa killed his parents. He also told me she was the most powerful witch and she has been searching for him forever. Ugh, why do parents have to be overactive? But if Medusa killed me that would be a reason to cry like, come on. My mom’s grin quickly disappeared as a sorrow look appeared on her face. I was so flabbergasted that I didn’t know what to think. Ugghhh, why can’t my brain just get smarter. Life is just so hard.

 

Omg Diary,

 

I just saw my mother change into Medusa! I knew it all along. Of course, now her reaction to me dream this morning makes sense. Wait, she is probably trying to kill me and my dad. NOOO! This can’t possibly happen, then she is gonna be after me. I can’t die I am way too beautiful to die, like, I have to become a ten again and I can’t do that with Medusa on my back. You know what, I am telling my mo- Medusa to leave me alone.

As I walk up to Medusa I tell her, “You should leave, because like, you are way too bad to live here and my dad is gonna freak.”

“Sweetie, it’s ok. Besides, I was hoping that we could unite and have power over everyone. Mwaahaha” My mom- I mean, Medusa says savagely.

“NO, NEVER!” I say loudly, trying to get my dad to hear me.

“Fine, we’ll just have to do it the hard way. Guards!” My mother voice screeched and her snakes hissed. I felt my dad’s arms around me.

“Where should I take her?” He was hypnotized. That’s when I started screaming.

 

Dear Diary,

 

I am in a dark room. Wait I see a sliver of light. I touch the doorknob. It’s open! I escape quickly past the guards. I don’t know how.

 

Dear Diary,

 

These are my last pages. I want you to know that I am safe. I remember hearing the loud scream of Medusa as she finds me not in that place she locked me in. Wait, I remember the door being locked a few seconds and then when I woke up again it was unlocked. Somehow I knew Medusa didn’t open it. I don’t have anyone, but I am safe, that’s all I can tell. She, Medusa will be after be after me. I just know it.

 

Dear Diary,

 

NO! She is here! Medusa is here! I don’t know how she found me. I could feel her breath on my back. I won’t look into her eyes. Only I can defeat her.

I can feel my anger rising inside me. I screamed and light was all around me. I pushed it towards Medusa’s heart. That is when I noticed a wand in my hand. WHAT THE HECK? Is this Harry Potter or something?

I say some words in Latin. Wait, how did I speak Latin? That is why in school I knew all the Italian words and everything! They came so easily in my head.

Medusa vanished as quickly as she came. My dad suddenly came in the room confused. “What happened?” my dad says  dizzily as he sat at the edge of my bed. I quickly tell him.

I see tears emerge from his eyes as he snatched me into a deep hug. “I am so sorry sweetheart.” Ugh he is getting snot on my sweater.

“I won’t stay here for long. I know there are more monsters out their dad.”

“Fine but be safe.”

“I am still gonna finish high school.”

“Ok.”

Ugh, why can’t my family just pull itself together?

 

5 Years Later

 

Dear last page of my diary,

 

You know I found you in an old box in my attic? I’ve killed many other monsters:  Dracula, Darth Vader (yeah he is real), and many sirens.

I am in college, but don’t worry, I still fight the monsters.

Dad just died because he got cancer. I wish I spent more time with him instead of just being a teenager.

But I have bigger things to worry about. There’s a new monster in town, but they don’t know what they’re dealing with.

PROLOGUE

 

Lillian snuggled up in her covers. It was winter and she was under the heaviest blanket  she could find in her house. She was waiting until her father came back from his weekly shopping. Lillian was nodding, slowly asleep, then wide awake. When was he coming back to tuck her in and give her a gentle kiss goodnight?

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

Lillian crept up the stairs as the door closed. Her father had just went out to go shopping for groceries. One of the stairs creaked. Lillian froze. She got up and ran up the stairs. She didn’t know where she was going until she burst into her father’s lab. Since her parent’s divorce, nothing had gone right in her life. She barely saw her mom and when she did, her mom knew nothing of how her father had tried to do everything to keep her out of his laboratory. She walked around, inspecting every little piece of material she saw. After feeling a piece of felt, she suddenly saw a shiny, glowing object in the corner. She crept over and, picking it up, saw that it was pure gold. After that, she saw another piece: it was a diamond. All around in that little corner was everything that she had asked for for when she was younger. Just for old times sake, Lillian grabbed a piece of gold and stuffed it deep into her pocket.  

Suddenly, she heard the door open. She looked around frantically. Where can I hide? She dove into a large tube just as her father walked into the room. He looked around and picked up something that looked like a baby bottle. He opened the cap and took the tiniest sip. He started to shake and wiggle. He went out of focus. There was a bright light and when Lillian looked back at where her father had been standing, he was gone. Now I know why he’s been keeping me out, Lillian thought. She rested her arm, for she thought that she didn’t have anything to worry about. She thought that she was in just a regular tube. But, boy was she wrong. Her elbow touched a little button and in a gust of wind she flew up the tube.

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

She landed in rainbow grass. She got up, rubbing her sore leg. She looked around. This place was just what she had imagined when she read the book Alice in Wonderland. She heard a rustling in the bushes. She thought it would be a horrible creature so she ducked down to hide. As the creature emerged from the pink bushes, she only realized it was her cousin, Tom, who died two years ago. When he saw her, he smiled.

“I thought you would never come,” Tom said.

How did he know I was gonna be here? Is he alive again? It’s possible. She was about to ask those questions, but her mind was about to burst with more important questions, “WhereamiWhyamIhereWhatAmIDoingHere….”

“Wooooah! Calm down,” said Tom. “I can only answer one question at a time.

Lillian sighed. If she couldn’t ask all of her questions then why ask any? “Where are we?”

“That, only Time can answer.” And with that, Tom disappeared in a flash.

Lillian stared at the space where Tom had been standing. Who is Time? Lillian wondered. She walked around, very curiously. Suddenly, an animal with 400 legs and no arms crawled out from the hollow trunk of a large tree. She walked around trying to find where and how that animal had just walked out from that tree. There was no exit or entrance. Then, as if out of nowhere, a butterfly flew by and disappeared into the tree. More and more animals left and entered the tree, but Lillian still couldn’t understand how they got in. A tiny creature ran under Lillian’s feet and tripped her, making her fall toward the tree. Instead of bumping into the tree, she simply fell through it.

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

She woke up in a large fluffy bed. She couldn’t lift herself from the bed. It took her a long time to get her eyes even a millimeter open. When she did, she saw three strange creatures.

“This thing is trying to communicate. But nothing is happening!”  

Lillian then heard the familiar voice of Tom speaking.

“She is trying to communicate but she uses the same language as me,” said Tom.

“Let’s go wake her up. She has slept for three days already.” Lillian jumped to attention but she couldn’t open her eyes any wider than they already were. Have I slept for three days?! I must have been unconscious for a long time. At that moment, she heard a mix of suction cups walking towards her and some slimy gooey substance slinking towards her. A creature spooned a medicine that tasted like mangos into her mouth. Her eyes popped open and she was able to get up and walk around the new strange room. There were three interesting looking chairs in the corner. They each had one leg. There were shelves with bottles of peaches. It was very dark in the room.

“Where is the light here? I can’t see.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. what is this thing called ‘light’? I’ve never heard of it.”

“The more important question is, what is this creature’s species?” said a very tiny alien that had four legs and four arms.

“I’m Lillian!” Lillian cried. The tiny alien seemed to understand.

Lillian picked up a little piece of gold that had fallen onto the floor. It was the piece of gold she had stuffed in her pocket when she was in her father’s lab.  While wandering around the room, she fell over one of the chairs in the alien’s abode. The one legged chair fell over with Lillian. She stood up slowly, and saw she had a large scrape on her knee that was going to puss up. Lillian grimaced and muttered, with the piece of gold held tightly in her hand, “I wish my knee would heal up,” and it instantly healed up. Tom, Lillian, and the aliens were astonished. Lillian gasped, and let the thought of having a wishing piece of gold register in her mind. When she understood, she grumbled, “I wish I would know where I am.” A few seconds passed, and she still didn’t know. Suddenly a thought popped in her head. You are in boogoo land, otherwise known as tropical 956132.

Lillian smiled. With this little piece of gold, she realized she could get Tom to tell her everything.

“I wish that Tom would tell me what he remembers from being at home.”

“I do not remember very much. You are very lucky that I remember you,” Tom murmured without moving his lips. Lillian was shocked. She ran outside.

 

CHAPTER 4

 

Outside, Lillian ran and ran and ran and ran, until she came to the strange tree she had gone through. She walked to it but something stopped her. In the corner of her eye, she saw a lady, but she was a mix between a possum and a regular human.

“Call me Miss. Possum,” the possum lady said. “What are you doing here?” Before Lillian could say anything, Miss Possum took her hand and led her into a little cottage she had.

Tom picked up the piece of gold that Lillian didn’t realize she had dropped when she ran out. He could only remember that it granted him wishes, and he wished to be next to Lillian.

Tom appeared in Miss Possums cottage. She was pouring some herbal tea for Lillian in a delicate china tea cup.  

“Hello,” said Miss Possum. “Who might you be?”

“Sincerely, I don’t know,” said Tom.

“Do you remember anything about yourself?” asked Miss Possum.

“I don’t know.”

“Has this boy taken a magical potion before?” Miss Possum questioned Lillian.

“No. Not that I know of, and he wouldn’t be able to know.”

“Oh dear, oh dear. This will never work.”

“Huh?” Lillian wondered aloud.

“Well, I was thinking that maybe if we give him one of my potions, he will be able to get his memory back.”

“But why is that bad?” said Lillian

“Because since he’s never taken a potion, he won’t be used to it and we won’t know the results. But maybe……..”

Lillian said, “Just try!”

“I will.”

 

CHAPTER 5

 

Lillian screamed. The potion was put in a needle, and had been injected into Tom. He immediately fell to the floor. Lillian looked down at him, breathing hard. What is his name again? I think it’s Jon. No! She thought. Why can’t I remember? Lillian staggered back. She wondered for a split second if what happened to Tom was starting to happen to her. When the possum woman spoke she jumped, startled.

“I think he’ll be alright. He is just undergoing the side effects.” Tom sprung up, looking cheery.

Miss Possum leaned over and whispered, “He will give you all of the information he has gathered.

“Hey again, guys! Guess what? We have two more days until Lillian loses her memory! Isn’t that superb?” Tom exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Lillian gasped, looked around and fainted into Miss Possum’s arms.

 

CHAPTER 6

 

When Lillian came to, she realized she was back in bed. Her dad was shaking her awake. “Sweetie,” he was whispering. “Wake up!”

Lillian struggled to sit up in bed. “Dad? You’re not invisible anymore! Where are Miss Possum and Tom? Wait. I think I am losing my mind already!”

Her father looked at her as if she was out of her mind. “Honey, I just came back from the grocery store. Did you have a bad dream?”

Lillian looked at her dad and asked, “So… why don’t you let me go in your lab?”

Lillian’s father sighed, shaking his head. “I work with chemicals, chemicals that are too dangerous for you to come in contact with. I have nothing against you, dear. I never meant to offend you or anything of the sort. Just go to sleep, alright?” He kissed Lillian’s head and went out of the room. Lillian settled down to fall asleep.

 

THE END

                Or not…….

 

Epilogue:  Lillian, for the next couple of days, thought only about the crazy dream that had spawned unexpectedly in her brain, in her sleep. Maybe, she thought. Maybe it means something. I guess whoever controls all of the dreams wanted me to think about something.

 

THE real  END

Chapter One 

: (    My Job is Way Too Impossible    ):

 

Hi. I’m Gone, the Eraser. I hate my owner, Rafael. He is destroying my job! And his pencil leaves disgusting marks all over the place whenever he walks somewhere. My job is a lot harder because of him. His pencil is a pain in the butt. Literally. I try to grab the shark eraser to scare him and make him run away, but I don’t have arms. I try to talk to him but he has no ears.

I have not eaten any black marks since Saturday. My owner, Rafael, is a rude student. Really, HE is making MY job harder. He is so dumb. He uses numbers to write. So I go into his folders and try to erase everything before the class starts. He was held back three times by me erasing all his stuff. He thought it was so mysterious. When his class gets in with all their ugly people, I hide in my desk and start fake sleeping. At night I get tired, so I try sleeping, but he has a teacher who is never cold and leaves the AC on all the time, so it is so hard to sleep. In word study, the teacher tells people what to write (a lame word) and do VCV or CVC (Vowel-Consonant-Vowel or Consonant-Vowel-Consonant). So basically it is the teacher’s fault that she’s making people do all the work and I have to erase it. Rafael says the teacher is an evil mind. She actually is a really ugly head. The teacher is really the only bad one, because if Rafael doesn’t do his assignments he gets detention. He says detention is boring.

Maybe Rafael isn’t so bad after all… Notice I said “maybe.”

 

Chapter Two

Nights

 

Every night I go inside his folders and erase until I die. I could erase all his stuff easily, but the thing is that there are only 15 days of school left! And don’t forget I still have to erase notebooks. Today I am erasing and suddenly a bat comes in. His eyes gaze at mine, so I go in my pencilcase and lock it.

I don’t come out until somebody catches the bat. This guy named Wilson catches the

bat. He is the custodian. He is bald with a big beard. Rafael is very messy, so Wilson yells at him a lot. He comes at night. He leaves notes on top of his desk like, “WHY ARE YOU SO MESSY!?”or “BE NEAT!” It is actually a little funny. This night, I finish the final notebook. I erase the name on the front and I creep out of the building. I put the stack of notebooks in  the garbage can down the street. I’ve gotta go back quickly. The first student comes in. I run back to class 782. I have to stop erasing.

 

Chapter Three

All About Rafael

 

Rafael Luttmann has brown hair, brown eyes, and is always wearing a yellow and orange sweater. He likes the weird thing with numbers and reading. He is more of a troublemaker. This because he’s already been held back three times, so luckily I doesn’t have AS much to erase. Still a lot, though. He goes to the principal a lot when he gets in trouble.

Chapter Four  

The Final Countdown!

 

I have erased all Rafael’s notebooks and am left with the thing with numbers on the last day of school. Still, they have to do a worksheet. I have an amazing idea! I put the pencil inside the fast moving fan. And… CHOP! When it is worksheet time, Rafael has nothing to write with! He doesn’t do it, and the teacher doesn’t notice! I have erased Rafael’s 4th grade!

Yay!

Chapter Five

Report Card

 

Today I went to Rafael’s house. He gets all mad when he gets all F’s. He gets mad at me for erasing all his work, including tests.

He almost throws me in a big black thing. It is Mount Everest! It is very fun but stinky. There are yellow slides (I think he calls them banana peels) but that is the only good thing it had in there. There are orange peels and a couple glass bottles. But then his mom says, “No.” I am a very expensive eraser.

So I won’t erase needlessly anymore, ever. I turned a bad habit into a good one! Rafael will probably be happy with me. Future school days will be bright as Rafael’s cheeks!

THE END!

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a game called The Legend of Games. It was like Minecraft, but cooler. The person who created The Legend of Games was named Calli. She added a new update for lightning, a health, a food bar, and a drink bar. She added potions and a portal. She added one more cool update, a dragon with green eyes, and black scales.

In The Legend of Games, you can find ice-breathing dragons. There is Goo Land, it was very gooey, like jello. If you stepped into the pool and stayed there for two seconds you’d die. In Goo Land there are goo monsters and they drop poisonous goo potions.

There are diamond doors, and they lead to your house. There are security beams and security cameras for your house in the regular world. There are security beams and cameras cause the monsters are too hard to beat. There are magical keys that can open anything under the doormat.

 

Chapter 2

The main character in the game was a boy called Harry. He has ten health points, and ten food bars. Health points are how much more lives you have, and they always grow back. Food bars are how many times you need to eat your food, because if there is one food bar left, you die. Harry wants a ten-story house. He has to make the build all by himself.

He has to go to Mega Security Block to get supplies. Harry has ten thousand dollars because he’s been saving up. He has to walk five medium blocks. On his way to the store, Harry encounters an ice-breathing dragon. He felt afraid because he thought the dragon was going to eat him. He saw the dragon and he dug a hole in the ground and the dragon couldn’t go through because it was too small.

He knew where to go because he had a compass. As he was digging, he encountered a drill lion. He tried to go back and dig different holes. When he tried going towards the store, he tried going into one of the holes, dig more, and go to the building store. Harry got ten hundred blocks of mega block security. He bought things for his house, like: sofas, beds, flower pots, flowers, bushes, ladders, tables, torches, chairs, and swords.

 

Chapter 3

On his way back home, some slime got in his way. He tried to go back to his house five blocks in front of him. Five minutes later he made it through with his sword that he bought. He killed the slime with his sword, and after killing it he got poisonous slime potions.

He finally made it to his old house, and then he started building his ten story house. It was night time. It was hard to see, so he put a torch on the floor and tried to build. Then he put his bed next to the torch so he could see and then he went to sleep.

Morning came and Harry made his house two stories tall. There was a pool of sharks that can walk on land, and they were in the middle of his building.  He flew and tried to kill them on his building. When the sharks died, he got free shark teeth for potions. After twenty minutes, he made two more stories. Then it was night time again, so Harry got to sleep. Harry needed to eat five pieces of food before he died.

 

Chapter 4

He needed to kill some animals, like foxes. The plan was to get some food. When the foxes were drinking water he would kill them and he would get raw meat, and fox tails. He cooked the raw meat on his stove, but before that he has to go mining for coal. He goes mining underground. He gets the coal. He goes back home and cooks the meat. But a second later he realized he needed more food. He only got two pieces of food, so he decided to get more and put it in his chest with the food he doesn’t need. He goes to get gummies from the factory, but he got it on top of a tree. But first, he wanted to go back to the shop to get the gummy factory material, so he could make it himself, so he doesn’t have to go out in the morning or night. He gets the materials for the gummy factory.

 

Chapter 5

He goes to his house and he builds his gummy factory. He forgot one ingredient though, the magic milk that comes from the magical cow that lives on top of the cloud. But to get that, he needed to fly. When he was flying he found the magical cow, but he needed to find a magical bucket, so he went to his inventory and found his bucket. He only had one more bucket left for his factory, but he used it anyway. He could always make more buckets, from mining underground again. He tried to get milk from the magical cow, but the cow flew away. He kept following it until the night and he placed a torch on the cloud and then got the milk from the magical cow. After, he flew to his house and made the gummy factory. He used the gummy factory, so that he didn’t die. The factory made gummies that he could eat. He found people and put them in his house to fight off monsters. And then it was snowing. He was destroying snow for a magical snow potion so he could use it to go really fast.

 

Chapter 6

It was night again, so Harry went to his house and went to sleep. There was a lever for his house to turn the block invisible, so he could see if it’s night or day. Five seconds later, it was morning. Harry started his gummy factory because he knew there would be monsters that want to kill him and he switched the lever to see. He saw his pen of chickens, a lot of foxes, five small fire-breathing dragons, and he saw five magical cows. When all of the monsters disappeared from the sunlight, he went to get more milk because he needed it for anything. It can turn into things he wanted. He wants to turn the milk into a meat factory, a veggie factory, and a sweet factory.

Harry saw Ryan, his friend from his school. Ryan has five hundred coins and two dollars. Ryan likes to play volleyball in the summer with Harry. Ryan likes to read books with potions. They shared the house, so they went inside and got some more milk. He worked on her ten story building and built two more stories. Now there were six stories.

It was turning into fall and he needed a warm coat from the magical kitty. The bad thing about winter was the dangerous animals that come out. Dangerous animals like extremely mad polar bears and if you cracked the ice too deep there are sharks that are really strong.

 

Chapter 7

Harry and Ryan tried to get ice for their own ice-skating rink to ice-skate, but first they need some ice from the building store so they could get some ice skates and ice. It’s magic ice, so it doesn’t melt. They went to the store and got the ice and ice skates. They got some blocks to make the outside of the ice-skating rink. In winter, and before they made the ice skating rink, they went to sleep, because it was night. Five seconds later it was morning, and they made the ice skating rink. After they finished the ice skating rink they skated on the ice rink until it was night and they wanted to sleep again. They were excited for spring, so the ice would melt. It was morning and they went to the ice skating rink to skate, but first they got some gummies so they don’t die. After they skated, they went to their veggie factory and the meat factory and stored it in their buckets. After they got the veggie factory they realized they had to eat unless they would die, so they shared the bucket of food and got four health points.

After that, they went to the shop and they got food, cages, a bag of water, some gravel, some lights, and rocks.  When they were setting up the chickens cage and the dogs cage, the dogs were much easier than the chickens because the chickens need the litter box. There was a flame throwing fan because every time the wind blows the fire will come out.

They saw two of the flame throwers surrounding them and they got their ice breathing dragon that they tamed. They put the ice on the fire so it turned into water and then they made a river. It was getting darker. Tonight that was particularly bad because there was going to be a full moon. That meant there would be an eclipse. This caused every monster to come out and attack everything tall.

They were really worried, but they were really glad that they got an extra security block. It was night and they were right, all the monsters were outside. They saw ten thousand poisonous snakes with horns. When you touch the horns you get poisoned forever. They weren’t scared because they were monster killing experts and they knew a lot about the monsters because their pets are a lot like the monsters.

They had their own secret weapon that was a stone sword with special powers. With the sword, if you think of something it will happen. It was not only snakes outside, there were ten thousand million googleplex evil gummy bears. The only way to kill them is to burn them because if you get killed they will combine into any body.

The monsters start to attack their house, but Harry and his friends made the house clear with their switch, so the monsters didn’t know where to go. Harry and his friend knew they had saved their fight until morning because if it’s in morning then the monsters will burn to pieces. There was one reason for each one, the evil gummy bears will burn down, the snakes will be blind so they’ll poke into each other and they’ll die.

 

The End

Part Two Coming Soon

Qwercle is the size of a human’s stomach. He has thorns at the end of him, and has three long pink things in between and next to his two top thorns. He uses his long pink thingies to eat and drink. Although he has a mouth and two fangs for teeth, he uses his two fangs to drink blood out of people. Qwercle lives in a human-free territory, but everyday he goes out of his human-free house into the world where it is full of humans.

Everyone tries to hurt him, but he ends up sucking the blood out of them before he can get to them. He was known as the bravest of all the Kilafricks. The Kilafricks are known for the bravest of all vampire animals and vampires.

Qwercle has always wanted to get lukewarm Kile-Human Cake. But, there is a big rainbow fence blocking him from his delicious cake. He imagined the cake tastes like one million humans with flesh roasted and grinded bones. Qwercle imagined the cake would have one hundred humans in it, which would be the most amazing thing to taste in the entire world. If a human ever tasted something as amazing, it would have to be one million pieces of candy of your choice every second.

When he couldn’t bear another second, he decides to take the journey.

He decides to go out of his yard with his spatula and frying pan and pogo stick, (to jump over the fence.) He starts jumping through the woods, all the way through the village, and finally, after going a million miles, he arrives at his friends’ Gary, Harry, and Arry’s house. Their house is the complete opposite of a mansion. Everything is thrown around. Their house only has one room. There’s no bed, there’s no sink, there’s no bathtub. There’s no kitchen and the most important thing that they don’t have is a toilet! But Qwercle doesn’t care. He says goodbye to his friends. He was about to leave when Harry says, “Take me with you!”

Qwercle is so surprised and says, “No way! This is my journey to get my treat!” When Arry and Gary argue too, Qwercle says, “Alright you can come, it’s three versus one.”

They start their journey. The first thing they see was a marshmallow-breathing dragon. When the dragon sees them, it starts breathing marshmallows at them. Qwercle takes out his frying pan and they all lie perfectly in it. The marshmallows are magnetized to the frying pan. Qwercle knew this would happen and that’s why he brought the frying pan. The good thing is they have something to eat. Once they got past the dragon they start to eat.

They are amazed when they see Zilaons. A Zilaon can be very dangerous to a Kilafricks. A Zilaon looks like two million hundred kilafricks all put together. And they are big blobby things that say, “Bleh, bleh, bleh.” They are red from all the blood they eat from the Kilafricks. They have ten hundred million big teeth that they use to drink the blood out of the Kilafricks. Kilafricks taste like the perfect piece of candy that any human has ever tasted, and they get to eat that candy whenever they want without getting sick.

The Kilafricks have feared the Zilaons for 999,999,999 years. The Kilafricks made a deal with the Zilaons that they would stay on their side of the valley if the Zilaons stay on their side of the valley. The Zilaons accepted the deal so that they could have their own part of the valley.      

Qwercle is trying to avoid the Zilaons from seeing him, because he doesn’t want to break their deal with the Zilaons. Qwercle doesn’t want to endanger the rest of the Kilafricks and have his species go extinct.

Right then, a big Zilaon says, “Hey, is that a Kilafrick in our part of the valley? I thought we made a deal.” He shouts to all his knights in frying pan armor, “Get them!”

Then Qwercel says, “Don’t you dare! Or I will throw this marshmallow at you!” And he holds his fist high above him with a marshmallow the size of a fly in his fingertips.      

Everybody else laughs at him, even his friends. They said, “And what are you going to do with that marshmallow?”

His face turns pale. He says, “Um…um…it will turn you into frogs?”

“I don’t believe you. As a matter of fact, I don’t think your marshmallow can do anything. Guards attack!” the leader of the Zilaons yells.

The guard says, “But, but, what if his marshmallow can turn us into frogs? What if we have to live in an icky pond and eat flies for the rest of our lives?!?”

The leader of the Zilaons says, “There’s no such thing as magic, you silly fools! I should just fire you, get someone else to do a better job, and have you pay me one million Kilafricks along with your lives!”

The guard says, “But Sire, we have nothing we can pay you. We don’t even have a single drop of blood!”

Meanwhile, Qwercle is frozen with his friends thinking, Are we going to die? Are we going to survive?

All the stress was on the leader and the guards, but the Kilafricks didn’t realize that they could just run away because of all the arguing going around near them.

Next, the leader of Zilaons says, “You fools! Must I do everything myself? Now I shall raise my sword above you and you shall suffer death!” He runs to his workshop, gets his sword, ties them up and raises his sword above.

“But, but, but,” say the Zilaons. “Who will be your soldiers? Who will protect our tradition? We are the only ones. Please don’t sacrifice us!”

“You fools! Why do you think I would believe you. Of course there are others and I will just sacrifice the others if they say no. But of course they won’t because they would rather live than die. Especially live to be my slaves.”

“You are right master. We have made that up, but please don’t sacrifice us. ”  

“Oh, all right, but if it happens again, you are toast,” says the leader Zilon.

When Qwerkle and his friends realize that they could make an escape, they start to tip toe off. They didn’t get far when they run into a trap. “Barnacles,” Qwerkle says softly. The other Kilafricks keep their mouths quiet. The Leader Zilaon turns around and he sees them and says, “Ha ha ha! Did you really think that you could get away! You lousy Kilafricks, you’ll never defeat me! Wahahahaha!”

The Zilaon have dinner and eat Qwercle. The rest are scared. But they are able to escape before they are eaten. They make a run for it and see this big wall. They see a pole and use it to jump over. When they get over, they see what they’ve always been wanting. A lukewarm Kile-Human Cake. The lukewarm Kile Human cake is as tall as ten-thousand ten-foot tall men. They eat it all and then throw up. They are so happy they got the treat. But they are so sad that they lost Qwercle. Meanwhile, the Zilaons invade the Kilafricks and very few survive. The very few that survive are very lucky, but they got injured. While Qwercle was sitting in the Zilaon’s stomach, he was thinking about how he was disappointing everyone. And he was also thinking about how the Zilaons could have invaded the Kilafricks and how everyone could have died because of his wants and decisions.

He felt remorse.

THE END

I love to sing. My name is Kila, and I am two. I have a big sister who is 12. My other sister is six. The 12 year old sister‘s name is Mila, and my six year old sister’s name is Nila. It is a summer evening in California, where we live. We go to California Elementary School, but we are at home now.

“A, B, C, D, E, F, G!” I sing. While I am singing, my two sisters, Mila and Nila, cover their ears. I sing a lot of songs, but my favorite song is the ABC’s.

“STOP SINGING!” Nila and Mila shout at the same time.

Then, our mom says, “Okay, okay, she loves to sing.”

I stick my tongue out at Nila and Mila and start skipping around them and say, “Ha ha.”

Then they stick their tongue out back at me. I cross my arms and stomp to my room. I pick up my dog and start saying, “I love to sing!” I start singing the ABC’s again and say, “Come on Lila, start singing with me!” but she just barks.

I ignore Lila and walk away. I go down the stairs to get to the living room. My mom says, “Where have you been?”

I respond, “I was singing in my room with Lila.”

Then I say, “What’s for dinner?”

My mom responds, “There is mac and cheese and chicken.”

I jump all around. I feel excited because macaroni and cheese with chicken is my favorite food.

I walk to Mila and Nila, and I say, “Mommy only made me mac and cheese with chicken, and I’m gonna finish it all.”

Mila and Nila put their fists up in an angry way, besides their chests and in front of their chins.

Then I giggle behind my back. They heard me so they start chasing me, but Mom catches them. They roll their eyes at Mom, and Mom sees them so she says, “Go do your homework!” They race up the stairs to go to their room and then she says to them, “You cannot have mac and cheese and chicken.” She blinks at me, so I know she is joking. Then I giggle again behind my back.   

I sing the ABC’s song and now Mommy giggles.

Mom calls upstairs and says, “Dinner is in four minutes!” in a loud voice.

I say, “That’s gonna take for-ever!” Mom giggles again. Then I giggle back.

Four minutes later, “Dinner time!” Mom yells. Nila and Mila zoom down the stairs. I stand in the way and say, “Stop! You have to pay $5 before you pass me.”

Then, they just go under my arms and say, “Ha ha.” I put my hands on my hips and stomp to the table. I sit down on my high chair. It takes a long time for me to climb up on my high chair.

Mom puts a plate of mac and cheese with chicken and a spoon on my high chair’s tray. I start gulping my food up, and then I take the bone of my chicken and start eating it.

Mila and Nila say, “Ew!”

Then I say, “It’s not ew!”

And they respond, “Yes it is!”

And my mom said, “When you’re done eating, Mila and Nila, go to your room.”

Mila and Nila roll there eyes and say, “Ok,” in a rude way. (Actually in a really rude way.)  Later when Mila and Nila finish their food, they go upstairs to their rooms and do their homework. Later, Mila and Nila finish their homework. When they are done, they walk up to me. Nila and Mila whisper to each other and say, “Should we say sorry to Kila, for not letting her sing what she wants to?” And they agree that they should.

They tell me, “We’re sorry for not letting you sing whatever you want to.”

Then I say, “It’s okay”. And we all got along and lived happily ever after!

THE END!!!

A 12-year-old girl named Katie Daniels was staring out the window with her White Shepherd Bolt and Eskimo Snowflake, who previously ran across the streets of London (Bolt had stolen hot dogs from a hot dog stand, running away from Snowflake).

 

7 kittens were in a cardboard box next to a pet shop, and when Katie decided to walk with her 2 white canines, she saw the kittens. “Hey, kitty” whispered Katie. She took one of the kittens from the box and continued, “I’ll name you Jessie.”

 

When Jessie, Katie, Bolt and Snowflake got home, Katie told her mother and father that Jessie didn’t have rabies, and she was spayed by her previous owners. In just 2 hours, Jessie had a collar with a tag that said: “Jessie. 50th St. Between 8th and 9th Av.”, a food/water bowl, a bed, and toys– perfect for a kitten only 10 weeks old.

 

That night, Bolt and Snowflake tried to make nighttime the best time for Jessie. “Jessica” Snowflake said in a sing-song voice “You gotta get in the nighttime spirit!”

 

“Yeah!” Bolt sang, “Come on. Sing! Why Should I Worry? Why Should I Care? I may not have a dime, but I got street savior-”

 

“Okay, okay, I get it. But there are times you can get into the night time spirit and there are some times you need to sleep!” Jessie sleepily said. Snowflake’s jaws dropped. “How did you know?” she began. “I just do!” cried Jessie angrily. And she slept. And then the dogs slept.

 

The next morning, Jessie, Bolt and Snowflake were all singing “Why Should I Worry?” When Katie left, Jessie went crazy, finally going under the sitting room sofa, whimpering in fear. “Come on, Jess-Jess! Me and Snowflake had gone over it before. We are fine once Katie leaves for school!” But Jessie’s fear turned into anger as she went out the flap Bolt and Snowflake use. “Jessica! Wanna read Chapter 1 through 9 of The Kids From DISCO?” She followed Jessie as she (Jessie) ran into the London streets. “That’s easy for you to say!” cried Jessie, again angrily. Jessie lied down in front of a fence, guarding herself. When Katie got back from school, she found Jessie missing. “JESSIE! JESSICA! JESS-JESS! Where are you, Jessie?”

 

Jessie heard the yells of Katie, and ran across the streets, only to find a pack of dogs that belonged to Katie’s 9-year old friend, Alex. They were going to Regent’s Park.

 

Back at Katie’s house, Katie texted all her friends on her phone if they knew where Jessie was. Finally she got a call from Alex. Katie wanted to go to Regent’s Park before she needed to take a shower. “MUSH, BOLT! RUN LIKE A TRAIN, SNOWFLAKE!” yelled Katie. Off they went, faster than the wind carrying them. When they reached Regent’s Park, Alex gave Katie, Jessie. She still had her cute red and white collar, her Dalmatian-like spots and her big blue eyes.

 

Snowflake was very tired after getting Jessie home. Bolt told Snowflake she was amazing.  But Jessie responded “Screw you, man, I’d do what I want!” Buzz Mccallister, a cat that belonged to Ryder Adams, Katie’s classmate, jumped on Bolt, Snowflake and Jessie’s room window and heard everything. Snowflake was about to say ‘I want the pizza…NOW.’ when she saw Buzz Mccallister. “AHEM, Buzz Mccallister, but I was going to say ‘I want the pizza…NOW’ so I can get my wish for pizza…NOW. But because of you, nothing happened.” yelled Snowflake, not amused. Buzz Mccallister teased “It doesn’t happen because you are in the real world, not a EXTRAORDINARY world, you need to go read your mind, you need to get lost into it, you need to lose your mind and you need…you need…” Buzz Mccallister was very talkative. “You need a good kick in the butt, Buzz Mccallister.” finished Bolt.

 

But Jessie didn’t say anything. She wasn’t as brave as Bolt and Snowflake. Finally, she ordered the two dogs to throw Buzz Mccallister out the window, which had no bars. Bolt and Snowflake, who OBVIOUSLY had Buzz Mccallister as a pet peeve, started barking for Katie. Katie ran into the bedroom shouting “WHAT IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY ARE YOU THREE DOING AT 2:15 IN THE MORNING!” Bolt and Snowflake growled at Buzz Mccallister. Jessie was almost fully under her bed covers, even the sheet. She lashed her tail FAST at Buzz Mccallister. “Oh. I see you got your pet peeve, Buzz Mccallister, but I don’t want to blame him. He belongs to one of my friends, Ryder Adams.” Buzz Mccallister rolled his eyes at Katie. “Oh, WHATEVER!” yelled Katie “I will drop you on the count of three: THREE!” and down. Went. Buzz Mccallister. Nobody said anything for the rest of the night.

 

The next day, Katie went to school. Katie’s parents went to work. Everyone left the pets locked in their room. Of course, the dogs had a newspaper and Jessie had a litter box as a bathroom, the pets have 3 beds, 1 for each, each had a bowl of food and a bowl of water, all filled up to the brim, and toys to play with. But the three wanted to go outside. Finally, an idea came to Bolt’s brain. “I KNOW! LET’S CAUSE SOME MISCHIEF ON THE PASSENGER TRAIN!”

“Oh no” replied Jessie, who wasn’t very adventurous.

 

At the train station, you can guess who was there, but just in case, it was BUZZ MCCALLISTER. Bolt found a hot dog stand and grabbed all his mouth could carry. Snowflake bet Jessie if she could grab a rat from the train tracks without getting hit by a train. Jessie responded “Easy.” She grabbed a rat and hid under the train tracks as a train passed by. Bolt had the hot dogs wrapped around his waist, instead of around his chest. Misty, the alpha dog of Alex’s dog pack, smiled and said “Come on. I will show you the real life train station. “

 

Actually, the real ‘train station’ was an airport. “Great!” happily cried Bolt. “Let’s cause some mischief! Come on, Page! Come on, Molly! Come on, everybody!” Page was a mixed breed dog. Molly was a beagle. The other dogs were called: Pongo the Dalmatian, Perdita the Dalmatian, Domino the German Shepherd, and Polly the Beagle. All dogs were happy to meet Ryder’s dog pack, all Huskies: Wink, Addison, Basil, Tucker, Everest, Noah, Droplet and Splat. The Bark Park Adoption Center was closed for the day, so the not-adopted dogs got to go to the ‘real train station’ as well. Jessie was scared of a CROWD, so she ran away, all the way back to the train station.

 

Bolt could not cause mischief. Snowflake was speechless. Everyone was speechless, even BOLT! But then Misty knew what to say. “We are going to have to go back to the train station. MUSH! RUN LIKE A TRAIN! And off they went, to get Jessie. “I knew I shouldn’t have thought of mischief in the first place!” cried Bolt. “Just forget it! FORGET IT!” yelled Snowflake “Katie could come home in any minute!” Misty wasn’t listening. All she wanted was to get Jessie, and get Jessie ALIVE.

 

At the train station, Jessie was actually still alive. But she was being carried away in a cardboard box. The box was going to the caboose car of a passenger train. Misty gasped as Jessie was carried away on the train. The train was going into a tunnel. A very, very, VERY dark tunnel. “Who’s gonna get Jessie?” cried Misty in fear. She ran in little circles, which means she thought she was going to explode.

“I will!” shouted Snowflake. She was very brave.

“Alright?” responded Bolt. “But we will go with you.”

Snowflake hopped on the fast-moving train, and went in the little door of the caboose car. Bolt and Misty were running after the train. Wink found Buzz Mccallister. He talked to himself on Ryder’s phone: “Ryder, this is Buzz Mccallister. I’ve concluded the train prank on the Orient Express station.”

“Buzz Mccallister” said Wink.

“I’ve got a trophy. Put it with all my other trophies when I come home. And bring me a coffee when you get back.”

“Buzz Mccallister” said Wink.

Buzz Mccallister stopped texting and said “What is it? This is a very important call!”

Wink groaned “Ugh. My times have to go over this. ARE YOU AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS?! I THINK YOU NEED TO LEARN ABOUT ‘PRANKS’!” “You just want Ryder to pluck all my whiskers out! They’re pretty nifty, aren’t they?” Wink almost tied Buzz Mccallister to the train tracks when he saw everyone GONE. Wink shouted “Buzz Mccallister, stand aside!” But Buzz Mccallister was running away from the station, all the way to Ryder’s bedroom. “UGH” Wink once again groaned.

 

Snowflake only made things worse: She and Jessie hung from the train. Now EVERYONE, excluding Wink was running after the train. Snowflake had her left paw grabbing a wire. Bolt saw how close the caboose car was from the tunnel. “It’s still running 60 mph. Snowflake, LET GO OF THE WIRE!” cried Bolt. Half a second later, everyone (excluding Wink, of course) was chanting “LET GO! LET GO! LET GO!” to Snowflake. Finally, she yelled “I. Will. Let. Go.” Snowflake let go of the wire. She and Jessie fell to the train tracks and got up. Everyone-even Wink-watched as the caboose train went in the tunnel. “Yes! WE DID IT!” shouted Jessie in relief. Everyone helped each other off the train tracks. “WOW! That was amazing, Jessica!” shouted Bolt. “How?” asked Jessie, bewildered. “You made us go on a big adventure. I love big adventures. You really deserve those words, Jess-Jess.” answered Bolt. Just then, another train passed by. “Let’s go home.” Snowflake giggled.

 

That night, everyone was back at home. All the owners were afraid that they would be lost forever. How they got home? They found recycling trucks and tried to find their owner’s face (whenever a pet was lost, Katie, Alex, and Ryder  looked out their bedroom windows). The not-adopted dogs went back to the Bark Park Adoption Center. Katie put Jessie, Bolt and Snowflake to bed. Katie whispered “Good night, Bolt. Good night, Snowflake. Good night, Jessie.” She went to her bedroom. Bolt licked Jessie’s ears. Snowflake licked Jessie’s tail. “Now I know that Jessie’s not cowardly at ALL.” said Bolt. “Me neither.” said Snowflake. Pretty soon, everyone was asleep.

 

THE END

Chapter One

I’m a Jack-O-Lantern apparently. That’s what the pumpkins next door said.

“Your name is Squash,” they said. And one said its name was Gourd!

“The candle humans put inside of us lights us to life,” Gourd said, which is also pretty cool.

The world was awesome. One time a human accidentally kicked me down the staircase! Sure, I got a few scrapes, but for the most part, it was fun! I loved it! I couldn’t explain it, but I wished it would happen again.

But I soon realized that life wasn’t pure happiness. When I tried to visit my neighbors, I couldn’t move! That, I think, was the worst discovery of a lifetime. Even worse, I was only in the world for one day! Apparently, we only existed because of some stupid holiday called Halloween!

So I thought and thought. I could make them kick me down the staircase then become a stowaway. No, I couldn’t get into the car. I could make a big sign that said, “Long live jack-o-lanterns!” No, I couldn’t make the sign. I could tell the humans nicely to stop? NO! I doubted they understood Pumpkin. All my ideas wouldn’t work because we couldn’t move! So annoying!

 

Chapter Two

That afternoon, I saw a mouse. He looked so sad, so I asked him, “What’s wrong?” The mouse looked startled. “Sorry if I scared you,” I tried to reassure the mouse.

“No, no, it’s just not many people speak to me, much less a pumpkin,” the mouse said to me in a squeaky voice.

“What is your name? My name is Squash,” I said to the mouse.

“My name is Pippi.” Pippy looked around warily.

“I don’t want you to take offense, but what are you afraid of?” I asked Pippi.

“Well, I- Shh, come quick!”  Pippi whispered urgently.

“I can’t move!” I said, trying to figure out why I should hide.

All of a sudden a nest of mice came running towards me.

“Hey, you, pumpkin! Have you seen a little mouse named Pippi?” I didn’t know what to say — these mice were strangers. But still, Pippi had been a stranger.

“Um, actually yes, in fact she’s-” Pippi shook her head at me. She was hiding in the flowers that were on the porch.

“Um, Pippi went that way.” I pointed to the right.

“Thank you,” the mice sped down the street.

“Who were they?” I asked Pippi.

“NYPM,” Pippi responded.

“NY what?” I said, confused.

“New York Police Mice,” said Pippi.

 

Chapter Three

“What? Are New York Police Mice police for mice?” I asked Pippi.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about being in legal trouble for talking to people that are not mice,” Pippi said.

“Wait, what?” I asked, confused.

Pippi sighed and said, “This might take a while.”

“What?”

“Mice have unfair laws.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“The law says you may not talk to anything unless it is a mouse.”

I gasped. So Pippi was breaking the law. She was a criminal because of me.

“I‘m sorry,” I said, still unable to believe Pippi was a criminal.

Then, I had an, um, idea! I could show the police and the mice who make the laws, whoever they are, that they were wrong! And be able to live in the world for more than one day! “Pippi, I’ve got it! You can find a way to tell the people who own me that I should be in the world for more than one day! Which would probably be able to prove to the other mice that you can be friends with anyone!”

“Yes, that ought to do it. YEEEEEEEEESSS!!!”

“So, tomorrow, you will write a note and put it on the table inside the house. Sign it Anonymous.”

“Aahh, but in the mouse laws that’s called poison pen. We’re not allowed to do that.”

“OK, sign it Pippi Mouselington.”

“Tomorrow, deal.”

 

Chapter Four

The next day, Pippi and I woke up early to start. Pippi showed me a crumpled sheet of paper that said:

Your pumpkin is alive. He doesn’t like being in the world for only a day! He made friends with me and because he can’t write. I am writing this to you for you to find a way to keep Squash (that is your jack-o-lantern’s name).  -Pippi Mouselington.

“Great! Now go and slide under the door. Leave it somewhere they’ll find it. Then come back before the clock says 6:00. That is going to be when Mr. Ziernan comes for breakfast. So are you ready to begin your mission?”

“Yes, I am. My running and hiding days are over.”

I watched Pippi disappear under the door. I couldn’t help worrying about all the things that could happen to Pippi. I’m a fast speaker — what if Pippi missed something? And how could I help if something went wrong? I stopped myself. Pippi was going to be okay. How long did it take for someone to put something on a counter? It was 5:00. Fifteen minutes later, 5:15.  Another fifteen minutes later, 5:30. Hurry up Pippi, I thought. Mr. Ziernan comes down in half an hour! Twenty-five minutes later.

I heard footsteps. And not little mouse footsteps. Human footsteps. “Come Pippi, now!” I said out loud, even though it wasn’t going to help.

All of a sudden, I had an idea. I could move! Not really, but what could let Pippi know that she should send a note, and what could let Pippi know that I needed help? My voice!!! I took a deep breath, and let out the loudest, squealiest scream I could scream, “AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

All the people in the house opened their windows, rushed outside, and didn’t even glance at Pippi.

“Who was it?” asked Mrs. Ziernan.

“What was it?” asked Mr. Ziernan.

“Is it Santa Claus?” asked Sally, their four-year-old daughter.

I signaled to Pippi to go out the back door, now.

She scrambled for the door. They saw another crying little girl with her mother. Mr. and Mrs. Ziernan glared at the girl with her mother, and walked, well, more like stomped, back into the house.

 

Epilogue

That noon, I saw Mrs. Ziernan pick up a piece of paper on the counter. She read it, then stared wonderingly at me.

 

The End

I want to play, but I broke my leg and I tried to play. I tripped on a tree and I crashed in a old lady’s house. She hit me with her bat in the head and I started crying like a baby. My Mom came and threw me in the ocean and my Dad came and had to save me. I was about to dry and I went home and cried. My Mom lied. Ha ha! It rhymes!

I kept crying until I died. Then, I got flushed down the toilet. I went to the sewer and then I drowned, so I drank the yucky green water. I saw this little place I could go in and then there were these guards that smacked me in the face. I started crying again, and they pushed me back in the water and I had to go somewhere else. I got out and hit my head on the pole.  

I got past the guards and then there was a magic guy who put a power on me and he turned me into a frog. I said, “Blah blah blah,” to the man.  I drank the yucky water to turn back into a boy. It worked! I felt excited. Now I have to get past the guards, because they pushed me back into the water after the magic guy put a spell on me. I went to the side of the white and black poles that were around water, and then I tried to walk on top of the poles. Up high, the guards couldn’t see me. I felt really happy. The poles were connected to the hospital I needed to get to in order to fix my leg. I hopped from pole to pole. The guards didn’t see me. I made it to the nurse’s office. It had a lot of tools to fix people’s bodies.

And then, the guards went inside the nurse’s office because they knew I was missing. They picked me up and threw me into the water. Then someone flushed their toilet. The water squeezed me through the drain, and I ended up in an old man’s toilet. He had white hair. He was shocked that there was a boy inside of his toilet. All I wanted at that moment was to get home and play. I ran outside of the old man’s house. I saw a bus coming by. I knew it went to my house. There was a wet dollar bill in my pocket. I gave it to the bus driver and hopped on.

I told the bus driver to stop at 61st St, so I could get off, so I could go to my house and play with my dog. I was happy, and really wanted to take a shower because I had dirty water on me.

When the bus stopped, I walked down the front stairs and got off. I walked to my house. The outside was red and blue. When I walked in the door, I took a shower. Then I went outside to play on the grass with my dog, Macho. I was happy that I got home so I could play.

 

THE END!

Htrae

One day, when Seth was throwing snowballs at a rock, a bluish-green light caught his eye. He shuffled towards some bushes (partly from nervous excitement and partly from the cold), and saw a multi-colored, kind of transparent sphere-shaped crystal that was the size of a medium sized stone.

“Dang! I need to get that rock!”

He lunged for the bushes, stuck his head inside, and that’s how he found it. The moment he touched it, he instantly appeared in another dimension. When he let go of the crystal, he was back in his yard next to the rock. Since he was only in the other dimension for one split of a second he didn’t get to see what the other dimension looked like, but he didn’t really care at the moment because his first priority was to go and tell his friends.

“WOW!!!” he exclaimed. “I’ve got to tell Jason and Xavier about this!”

When he found them, they were having a snowball fight against a couple of other kids.

Seth said, “Guys, come over here! I need to tell you something!”

Jason said to the team they were playing against, “Maybe sometime tomorrow, 11, 11:30? Remember AM, not PM!” They trudged through the slush over to Seth, soon to be amazed by what he had to tell them.

 

Seth told them that he was going to bring them through a portal, but then he realized something: the portal was too small to hold all of them at the same time. The second that he thought that, the portal split into three pieces and each piece grew back to its normal size.

The reason that the portals reacted to Seth’s thoughts was because the portals can read the thoughts of their true owners. They contain a lot of magic, but the magic only works if the owner really wants it to happen. If anybody except the true owner of the portal wishes the portal to do magic, it won’t work and the person that stole the portal can’t go anywhere.

Seth told them each to hold the portal and then put it in their pocket once they noticed a change. So they all touched their portal, and got transferred to the dimension. Now Seth and the others had time to explore. They all put the portals in their pockets and then Xavier and Jason said to Seth, “Man, we thought you were kidding! We never expected you to find a portal. There’s only seven in the world!” When they looked around, the sky was purplish blue and it looked as though the ground was a large mirror. They saw a bunch of floating objects in the air with stairs leading up to them and it looked like they were made out of diamonds. They decided to travel to a building that was the closest to the ground. When they knocked they heard a voice say, “Come in!”

So they did. And they were very surprised because the people that they found inside looked like themselves. Their duplicates said, “Ah, we were expecting you. We saw in our crystal orb that you have found our portal. We were hoping that you did because our world is in grave danger!”  

“Quick question, what world are we supposed to save? And also we need to see the threat we are up against.”

Seth 2 said, “The planet is called Htrae, and for the second question, your answer’s outside. But before I take you out, be warned: not all human eyeballs can handle it. So if your eyeballs burn out, don’t blame me cuz technically I did warn you.”

“Sure sounds cool or something, take us there!”

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Seth 2 led them outside and brought them around the corner to the street. When they got there they saw the High King commanding his Legionnaires to kill everybody and then steal their money. Then, once the High King had their money, he created some spell and the people came back to life, but as his slaves. Seth couldn’t believe what he saw. How could the people let this happen? Why didn’t they start a rebellion or something? In the rush to leave, Seth, Jason, and Xavier dropped their portals and just at that moment that they realized it, they also noticed that the High King was holding the portals. Seth went and then started running toward the High King, but then Xavier 2 grabbed his ankle and dragged him back inside.

“Man, what were you thinking?!”

“Sorry, I was really mad. That portal was the one thing that made me special.”

“Then let’s get it back, but we need a plan first.”

Seth just realized something. “Hey Jason, Xavier, how did you know that any portals existed?” Both of them looked ashamed.

Finally, Jason said, ”You know how we always get A’s on our tests?”

“Yeah.”

“Well we have a portal that when we open it, it tells us all the answers. Oh and it said that if we share it with anyone else it will vanish from existence and show up on another planet.”

Seth said, “Okay, but now we need to come up with a plan.”

Jason 2 raised his hand and said, “The high king has a bunch of workers to help him in his scheme. Maybe, just maybe, if we pretend to be a few of his workers, then we might be able to slip through his defenses and take the portal, but that would take a really long time because in order to become his guards you have to work for him for at least five years. So that plan won’t work, but I know that there are a bunch of caverns that connect to one of the rooms of the palace. But we will need to wear white everything so we can blend in with the walls because the wallpaper is of a bunch spies wearing white so we’ll fit right in.”  

They were almost to the king’s chambers when it happened: Seth 2 tripped on his boots and fell to floor, but he got up in time and the guard didn’t notice him, but the guard did notice when Seth 2 banged into Seth on his way up then he fell again because he was paying closer attention. They had two options: run or fight. Obviously they chose fight.

Seth 2 reached for his grenades. The guards were faster. They took their laser guns out of the straps on their backs and pointed them at the kids faces. “RUN!!!” they all shouted in unison. As they ran down the hallway they heard the muffled sound of an explosion and shouts and kicks. As the smoke cleared the guards realized that the children had ran away.

The kids knew that there was no time to waste. They needed all the time that they could get, so they kept on running. As they started to think that they were lost and the hallway was never going to end, they walked into a giant ballroom. There were tables circling a stage in the center, and there were red cotton curtains that were hanging over stained glass windows describing how good the king was. They didn’t care about any of that. All they cared about was the polished oak staircase at the back of the room.

Before they went on, they knew they needed to change out of their white clothes. Seth motioned them with his hands and used Sign language to tell them that they needed to quickly take off their supply bags, go into different corners of the room and change into their black clothes. Once they finished changing, they made sure to take their grenades this time and put on better shoes so they can never be surprised again.

As they slowly tiptoed up the staircase they were annoyed at how creaky it was. One would think a new polished staircase wouldn’t creak so much. Must have been used a lot. They thought that would have been a good sign, but it was a bad sign.

Suddenly, the staircase ended and immediately opened up to a dark and dull hallway. There were messages smudged on the walls, but they were barely legible in the faint light. They slowly tiptoed toward the main attraction: an iron door that had smears on it that looked suspiciously like blood. By now they knew something was up, and that this probably wasn’t the king’s chamber. They also knew that there was probably a hint, or at least something that would help them face their upcoming obstacle: the king’s pet. (The king’s pet was a giant golem that could spit fire, and could poison you just by touching you. And sometimes, if you looked it in the eye, than it would make you feel nauseous. And it’s breath was poison also. They knew this because before they decided to go on this quest, they studied the maps of the kingdom – one, so they could make a hasty escape. Two, so that they could know what they were up against. On the original map, there was no sign of the golem, and no sign of the hallway that they were slowly making progress through. They knew that they were going to be tricked. So they took the map, and used Jason and Xavier’s portal to summon the same person who told them everything they knew, and asked him to reveal the actual structure of the kingdom. The strange man casted a spell, and then in a flash of light, and a three second silence, a new map appeared. It was a papyrus scroll, so they treated it with great care. It was very old, so they were not sure that things might have changed. They knew this because when they touched it, their fingers almost went through the piece of paper. When they took their fingers off of it, it was covered in dust. So they decided to just leave it where it was, and that’s how they knew of the golem.)

Jason 2, always the brave one of the group, reached out and knocked. They couldn’t just open the door because it was bolted, and they couldn’t turn the doorknob because there was none. Once they started to give up hope, they heard a raspy voice behind the door.

“Who’s there?”

They each one took turns saying their names, and where they came from. When it was Seth’s turn, and he said he was from Chicago, the man opened the door, and through a mass of tangled hair, he spoke, “I am the oracle of the newcomers. I am not on the king’s side, but I am not on yours. I used to give prophecies for everyone, but the king banished me to live my immortal life in this prison.”

“Prison!” The kids said. We thought this might be a secret entrance into the king’s chambers, or at least it would give us a hint –” They suddenly clamped their hands over their mouths, and they whispered to each other, “Maybe we could get this guy to help us. He said he is an oracle after all, maybe that’s why the king put him here.” Because he was helping people too much, and giving away secrets, they were over a googleplex reasons that he might kill them, or might help them. They decided to go with the risk, and they turned to the man, and said, “We will let you come along with us, and we could free you, but at a price. And that price is information.”

The man said, “Eh best hope I’ve had in over a millenia, and I’m immortal so nothing to lose, so why not.”

 

A preview of the next book!

 

Success and Failure

 

Earth

Back on Earth it was 1:30 and their parents expected the kids to meet them at the park on 59th for a picnic. One of the mothers was a pessimist and said, “They’re probably dead.”

“I highly doubt it, they’re in another dimension called Htrae.” She looks down at her phone, a little beep came from it. “Seth just texted me that they’re chasing down a bad king and trying to kill him. And that–”

“And what? Did they die?”

“What is it with you being all pessimistic?” said the optimist.

“No they didn’t die it’s just…”

“It’s just what?”

“Well…it’s just that, well I think that our kids just made the worst choice of their lives. They made a deal with the Oracle of Newcomers.”

“Ooh that is bad!”

“What can we do about it? Let them die!”

By now you should know who said that, so let’s just all say it on three. One, two, three. The pessimist.

“We have to go warn them!”

“But first, we need to prepare for what comes ahead, and we need to visit the Oracle of Oldcomers.”

“That’s far too dangerous to go without the Map of Vzifs.”

“Then we will do that first. It will be a long journey, and if you don’t see yourself fit for accompanying us, you can stay behind. We will send you pictures and you can like it on Instagram so that we can get more followers.”

So they went back to their houses and did the combination lock of the certain light switches in a certain order. They all dropped down and met in their emergency bunkers under their houses. They started to gather all of the things that they would need – a laser gun, a portal gun, a teleportation gun, baloney sandwiches, pepper spray, grenades, the kids’ favorite blankets, and a lot of other things including some fruit punch, pizza, disco ball, laser pens, and confetti.

 

Once upon a time there was a half dog, half taco, who tried to fit in but never could. To get a friend he wanted a pink, fluffy unicorn dancing on a rainbow for a pet. The problem was the pink, fluffy unicorn dancing on a rainbow shop just closed down. So Taco Dog wanted to go through the Enchanted Potato Woods. Everyone told him, “Don’t do that. It’s too dangerous.” But he never could fit in so he was determined to get someone who could share similarities with him. They were both different and lonely, and that’s why he wanted the pink, fluffy unicorn. If he was going to go into the woods he needed some gear. He went to the armory shop and got a marshmallow machine gun, a lightsaber, an old lady costume (hey, it was almost Halloween), and some banana armor. He also got some Pokemon that weren’t in the show that were never mentioned before, like Narwhalia and Farkillababajejaba.

He proceeded into the Enchanted Potato Woods and heard the sound of a rabbit. It was most terrifying. He started to walk into the Enchanted Potato Woods and he got goosebumps all over him, then geese started to pop out of the goosebumps. He found something that seemed like a shapeshifter. It was strangely shifting into all of the things that he saw in the last movie he watched. He was mad that he watched a horror movie. He watched the new Goosebumps movie. He saw a dummy named “Slappy.” He shot marshmallows out of his machine gun but Slappy started eating the marshmallows on the floor, so he got away from him. He took the banana caller out of Slappy’s pocket. After the encounter with Slappy, he started throwing up rainbows because he was scared. He scooped up those rainbows into his pocket for the pink, fluffy unicorn to dance on. In the Enchanted Potato Woods, he met his arch nemesis, Pizza Cat. They both put Jawa hoods on and drew out their light sabers. Strangely floating around their light sabers were tacos and pizza, since they were battling each other.

The pizza cats were sworn enemies with the taco dogs ever since the taco dogs were created. The taco dogs were created when a dog who really liked food walked up to a taco that fell on the floor. Just before he started to eat it, when he touched it, lightning struck and that fused the taco and the dog together. The same thing happened to someone else, and those two taco dogs started to make a taco dog civilization. The same thing happened with Pizza Cats. A cat got fused together with pizza. The pizza cats were very, very, very, very boastful. They thought that they should be the only race of food-animal mixes so they declared war on the Penguin Hot Dogs, the Lemon Mice and finally, they declared war on the Taco Dogs. The Taco Dogs were very, very wealthy so it was a very hard war to fight. The thing that triggered off the war with the taco dogs was that they were allies with both the Penguin Hot Dogs and the Lemon Mice, so the Pizza Cats threw an atomic marshmallow bomb at them. They created a Taco Dome, very much like the Iron Dome in Israel but to block the atomic marshmallow bombs they shot taco happiness and quesadillas from Taco Bell (Taco Bell was their national monument). They wiped out every single taco dog and pizza cat other than the two food animal mixes that were fighting right now with the lightsabers.

Taco Dog was having troubles with his lightsaber, so he called out to his Pokemon Narwhalia. Pizza Cat was stunned and called out his never before seen Pokemon called Munchcahn.

Then Taco Dog said, “Use cute tackle.”

A bunch of cute anime animals started to dance around. Munchcahn said “Awwwww!” Then they all got mini-lightsabers and stabbed Pizza Cat.     

   Munchcahn summoned “big mac.” A giant hamburger fell out of the sky and landed on Narwhalia, covering him completely. Then one million french fries stabbed Narwhalia. Then he started singing annoying jingle that went super fast saying, “Two all beef patties special sauce, cheese, lettuce, pickles, onion on a sesame seed bun.” Narwhalia fainted to the ground.

Taco Dog took out his Farkillababajejaba which summoned a banana bomb. A banana full of bombs exploded. It smelled like chocolate covered bananas when it exploded. Munchcahn flew away into the middle of nowhere. But Pizza Cat had returned his Munchan into his pizza-cat-customized pokeball. Taco dog said, “Why are you even here?”

Pepperoni tears fell down his cheek. He choked back his tears and said, “I’m lonely so I’m looking for a friend on the other side of the woods.”

Taco Dog said, “Me too.”

At the same second he remembered the unicorn! Both Taco Dog and Pizza Cat realized that they were both lonely so the similarity could bring them together and they could have a great relationship. Pizza Cat told him all about his journey so he could know what to watch out for, and Taco Dog did the same. They both agreed that when they got to their destination they would come back and conduct experiments to make more of their kinds. Then they left each other and continued on with their own journeys.

Taco Dog started to get hungry so he took out his banana caller from his pocket and pressed a button. Suddenly a big plane flew out of the sky that looked futuristic and dropped a giant box of bananas. He opened the banana box and took one out and started to unpeel it, but then a bunch of tiny garden gnomes that were only an inch high hopped out of the banana peel and started stabbing him. Then a bunch more tiny gnomes rolled out of the bushes.

Then they all held hands in a circle and screamed at the top of their lungs, “Boo baa boo baa boo baa boo baa.” Then they all sung together “Two all beef patties, special sauce, cheese, lettuce, pickles, onion on a sesame seed bun.”

And then one of the oldest garden gnomes walked and climbed up Taco Dog’s paw and said, “Greetings. I see that you are the last of the ancient species called the Taco Dogs.”

Taco Dog was at first a little confused, but then his eyes were wide open. Stumbling upon his own words, he asked, “Are you the gnomes who were allies to the Taco Dogs of the past in the Food War?”  

They said, “How did you know?” in a high squeaky voice.

“I learned about the war in the most evil place of all,” said Taco Dog. “History class.”

It gave the elder gnome the shivers. Then the elder gnome said, “Why are you here?”

Taco Dog answered, “I’m trying to find a friend.”

The elder gnome jumped up and said, “Would you like some of my warriors to protect you while going through the forest? They’re practically indestructible. Here, stomp on them as hard as you can.”

All of the gnomes were squished to the ground, but in five seconds – pop! – they came back up.

Taco Dog said, “Yes.” He walked forwards while the warrior garden gnomes followed him excitedly. He tripped on tripwire and then a bunch of evil, purple monkey-marshmallows heard an alarm. They got really mad and started spitting grapes at them. The grapes were sharpened. The garden gnome warriors kicked the grapes, redirecting them back to the apes, protecting Taco Dog. Then he used his banana caler and put the bananas a million thousand feet away. He called for the bananas to be extra banana-y. The scent slowly followed into the monkeys’ noses while they ran into the box of bananas.

“That was close,” said Taco Dog. He must have jinxed himself because then a bunch of really, really small narwhals started dancing around. It was the narwhal battle dance. Then they climbed on each other, forming a giant narwhal with a peculiar horn that spelt out “Narwhals Rule.” It was following Taco Dog. Taco Dog was cut. Meat was pouring out of his taco shell. He then got so aggravated that he summoned lightning to strike him to become a charged super Taco Dog. He held the garden gnomes hands and span in a circle at the center of the narwhal, constructed by narwhals. The narwhal construction blasted into one million, thousand pieces, and the narwhals then scrambled into spelling, “Ouch!” Then, they ran back into their little narwhal houses.

The Taco Dog collapsed on the floor, because he was tired and injured. The garden gnomes scrambled up a tree, picked up a leaf, and used some honey to paste it on the Taco Dog’s wound. The Taco Dog held out his paw while the garden gnomes climbed on, and he clutched them to his chest in an empathetic way. In this sky, he saw Flicklebickletown, where his pink fluffy unicorn dancing on a rainbow was waiting. He rushed over, passing the exploding pineapples and the evil sixty-eyed, one-foot, seventy-hundred-eared, twenty-headed, seven-hearted blowfish. The blowfish called out, “Hey, I was supposed to fight you on your journey!”

Taco Dog called out behind him, “Shut up! This is making the story more happy.” He frolicked into the Pink, Fluffy Unicorn Dancing on a Rainbow Shop, took out his glass eye (that was the currency in Flicklebickletown). The unicorn leapt into his arms, the garden gnomes blew their noses on mini tissues, since the sight was so happy. He took out the rainbows and the unicorn joyfully, with big round, bright eyes, jumped up and started endlessly jumping on the rainbow.

Then Taco Dog said, “I made so many friends in the forest I didn’t need to get the narwhal!”

Taco Dog wiped his tongue off with his paws. “Bleh,” he said. “I hate when the author puts these sappy words into my mouth. But it’s true.”

Then, Taco Dog brought them all back through the Enchanted Potato Woods, where the monsters were celebrating Taco Dog’s achievement. He invited all of his friends to dinner, and they all had ham bologna nugget biscuit chicken flying rainbow M&M whipped cream hot chocolate dancing sheep sandwich with one million calories, two percent trans fat, 32 percent carb, 99 percent sugar, and twenty percent sodium, with gravy. They all sang songs from the Wizard of Oz: “Ding dong, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch! Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!”        

They all then became the most popular people in Taco Dog’s school, because they went through the Enchanted Potato Woods and lived. But in the end, Taco Dog would have been fine even if he wasn’t the most popular. He just was glad he had friends.

 

THE END

Once upon a time, a swimming team went to a celebratory party for winning a grand swimming competition. The parents were watching us have fun, since we were having many stations like games. We were swimming, eating pizza, and drinking soda. We were having so much fun, but for some reason the lights went out.

“What happened, Jordan,” I said.

“I don’t know, it’s pitch black,” said Jordan.

“Let’s make sure everybody is okay,” I said. “Jordan, Sean, Nicole, Ashley…” Five minutes later, “…Ms. Eileen.”

“Where are you, Ms. Eileen!” Jordan said.

“Maybe she went to fix the the lights,” said Sean.

“But I saw her sitting in the chair,” I said.

“What if she is a ghost,” said Sean.

“Ooh, please Sean!”

The lights went back on, but there was a small flicker with the lights. It would go on and off each time there would be a scary voice.

“Ms. Eileen, are you there?” I said.

“Of course I’m here, I’m sitting right next you,” said Ms. Eileen.

“But I don’t see you,” I said.

‘Because I am right next to Sean,” the voice said.

“No you’re not,” said Sean.

“I am your greatest nightmare. I used to be talented like all you swimmers, but then I got into a horrible car accident, actually it was a team bus, but there is no difference! I was the only one that died because I was standing with no railing or seat belt. Those mean swimmers didn’t give me a seat. I would get bullied and teased and I would feel so lonely. Now I have come for revenge,” said the Voice.

“Why us? We don’t even know you?” I said.

“Or do you?” said the mystery voice.

It was actually young Ms. Eileen. So this means that our coach was actually dead.

“But I don’t understand how are you still alive,” Jordan said.

“I’m not, I just needed to give my soul to my twin sister,” she said.

“Can’t your sister act like you?” Sean said.

“Stop asking questions!!!!”

Everyone was trying to get Ms. Eileen’s soul out of her twin sister’s body.

War began with 15 young swimmers and the fake coach. The fight was in the pool: we got water guns, freeze guns, water nurf guns, and also water balloons. The war was crazy! People were diving into the pool. Water was spurting out of the pool, the floor was wet. It was a falling madness. It felt like someone really, really heavy was on top of you with lot of water. Nightmare, I tell you, nightmare!

Everyone was dizzy and confused about what had happened. That specific scary night was a night to NOT remember.  

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, let’s see if we saved our coach.”

“Help, help… wait just a second… HELP!”

“Jeez, we’re coming, we’re coming!”

“I am at the edge of the diving board!” Ms. Eileen’s twin sister was yelling about. When we came to save her, we saw a bright light with the real Ms. Eileen, but then a red bright light appeared. She was very evil. She told us her plan.

“I will dominate your small world and destroy every person that stands in my way. Literally if you stand in front of me, you got to move, brah.”

“Why are you going to do that? I thought we were the only ones you were going to get revenge on.”

“It started growing on me,” she said. “Quiet, all of you! You young swimmers aren’t leaving. You are going to start training to be my slaves. Of course once I dominate the world today, I will destroy the life supply of water and oreos that everyone in the world loves a lot!”

My friend Jordan said, “That’s not possible, because she’s already dead!”

“I don’t care, we should just have a war between all people and her,” said Ava, who had medium-length hair with glasses, freckles, and cool shoes.

That’s when I supplied everybody with their weapons, put posters up so everybody would join, and went to my house and got my weapons and joined the war. Then all my friends got heavy water guns, life supplies of water balloons, protection (shields, swords), and also cannonballs. That was when they told what’s her name (the evil teacher) that they were going to meet at this all-girls school.

When the time came, it was about 7:30 and it was getting super dark. At that time it was a lunar eclipse and that’s when the moon started getting redder and redder. The war started happening and the only thing you could see was a big blur of water and darts everywhere. Each time somebody would come hit the teacher to destroy her, the lunar eclipse moon would get redder and redder. Once it got super red another monster came. It was one of the evil spirits that came from the underworld. One person threw a water balloon at the evil teacher and she fell. It was six feet. She started choking from the water, “Ekekekek!”

The evil spirit wanted revenge and we found out from the records that he was a little boy that was friends with the teacher when they were kids, and he was also bullied like her, and he died in the same car crash that she was in, but they never met each other and were so lonely. He wanted to get revenge for every person who got bullied in the world, every person who suffered the tragedy of losing someone in their life because they got bullied. He wanted to avenge her in a big way. He said, “This war will never end and it will come soon enough, once I meet my full potential. This is not over. I will come back in approximately two years. Don’t underestimate what I will do to this world at that time.”

 

2 years later…

 

“That little boy is never coming back. We showed him that night that he will suffer if he comes back,” Jordan said.

“Wait, didn’t you hear what he said? He will come back in two years and he will reach full potential. Don’t you ever listen to anybody? What if he can really come back, but stronger than anybody else in the world?”

“Remember me? I told you I will come back. You thought I will never come back, didn’t you? But I did! I will destroy anyone in my path but not grandma and grandpa. Oh also not my parents, I love them too much.”

“You thought we would weaken but we still have the power to destroy you. We are always a team, even if sometimes it’s kind of hard, you know, caring for these people.”

“Really? So this war is going to end in a snap.”

Then he was completely gone, like a cloud disappearing.

“We need to always be ready. We don’t know when he can attack,” I said.

Just 30 minutes later, he said, “I’m here!”

The war started. Everyone was screaming and fighting and all you could see was the water for the weapons. At the end it was a blur, just a blur! But luckily we won. He was moaning and just arose.

“Thank you for everything,” he said.

“My pleasure,” I said.

My teammates then made a plan to congratulate me.

“We want you to be our swim coach,” they said.

“Seriously? Thank you!” I said.

“You are a really good leader ever since the beginning of the war and even before the war.”

My friends and I kept swimming and winning, especially when there were many fans. It was really great.

In the world of Minecraft, it was a beautiful day. It was nice. It was a warm blue sunny day. Then it started raining. Thunder boomed and lightning crackled. Then it became a dark and stormy night.

I’m just joking.

It was a sunny day, Steve came outside the door. It was April Fools day. Someone set a trap in front of Steve’s door. Steve took a step outside and plop. He stepped on the pressure plates and fell into lava.

Once Steve hit the lava he was saying, “Ow, ow, owww!”

Then he died.

“Nooo!!! I died!

So what, I’ll just respawn.”

And Steve respawned.

Now I’m gonna go check at school to see if I can find who did this. That way, I can troll him/her for the rest of his/her life. It’s gonna be so much fun mwahahahaha!

When I got to school, I asked all my friends, “Did you play Minecraft yesterday?” They all said, “Yes.”

That didn’t narrow things down. Who could it be? Maybe it was my brother or sister. This is gonna be a big mystery.

Maybe it was the school bully, but if you ever talk to him, people say he throws you in the garbage dumpster head first. He throws kids so hard hard that it hurts them. A lot of them end up crying. I heard that the bully caused some kids to break their arms, and damage their brains after crashing into the cold metal of the dumpster. Some kids forgot things because of the damage. The only good thing about being attacked by the bully was a guaranteed “get out of school” card. That sounded fun, but who wants to stay home all day?

I tried to find out the bully’s email, so I could text him and not end up like the other kids. When I realized I couldn’t find the email I knew I had to come up with a different plan.

The next day I decided I was going to spy on him at school. All I had to do was not get in trouble with the school, and not get caught by the bully. The sun was shining and the birds were singing when I woke up. I grabbed my hearing gear that allowed me to hear things that were far away without me having to be near it. If i got caught with this I’ll get detention for five days. The gear was red and black, and hid perfectly. It was the perfect gear for the situation.

I went to school and began my mission. The bully put his phone down long enough for me to quickly grab it.

No password! Yes!

I read his phone and saw how he was bragging to his friends about the prank he pulled on Steve. It really was the bully all along!

Time for phase two of the mission. It was time to sneak out of the school yard, get to the bully’s house, troll him, and all will be fine.

When I got to his house, I jumped over the back fence, climbed the wall and went in through his open window. Once I was inside, I heard the bully’s mom coming up the stairs. I quickly hid. I didn’t want to risk getting caught by the mom so I held onto the window ledge and dangled outside.

I was worried. If I fell, the bully’s mom would hear him. She would look out the window, see me and I’ll be busted. I heard her open the bully’s room door and she complained about the mess that was on the floor. She began collecting the bully’s laundry.

I heard the door click and pulled myself up enough to see that she left. I went back into the room, went to the bully’s laptop, opened it and turned on Minecraft. I went into all of his worlds and put TNT in them and watched them blow up one by one. I put his Minecraft character in a random world so he would be lost and the bully wouldn’t be able to find him.

No, that wasn’t good enough.

I changed the character’s skin to a super girly one.

Still not good enough.

I deleted the blown up worlds.

Still not satisfied.

I finally just deleted his whole Minecraft game together.

After I was satisfied, I climbed out of the bully’s room. Once my feet were on the ground I ran as fast as i could until I was back at school. I felt really good that I got back at the bully since he was really mean to everyone in school.

 

The End

Chapter 1

“Willa, I have a surprise for you, ” Willa’s mom said, otherwise known as Kelly.

Willa looked shocked because she never got surprises. At least they weren’t good enough.

“What is the surprise, mom?” Willa said in an excited voice running down the stairs.

Willa’s mom just said, “Go pack your bags.” She thought that her mom really wanted it to be a surprise, and Willa really did. Willa went to pack her bags. When she was done, there was a taxi out there waiting for her.

Her mom said, “Willa, you are going to Ecuador to your grandparents.” Willa never knew her grandparents, so she was curious to learn who they were. Willa also did not know how to speak Spanish and her parents were not going with her. She got in the taxi and the taxi driver spoke Spanish, only Spanish.

Willa said,“The airport? The airport … airport?” The man seemed to understand what she was talking about, unfortunately he drove her to the cafe. Willa was like, “No … Airport! Airport!” In her head she was like, why doesn’t he understand what I tell him? Willa just decided to get off the taxi and get another taxi, but Willa forgot to pay.

The taxi driver yelled, “Tienes que pagar!”

Willa just said, “Si … I’m getting off.”

The driver yelled again, “Paga! Tienes que pagar!”

Willa sort of understood what he was doing with his hands. She thought to herself, Si…Am I forgetting something? Oh my god! Yes, I forgot to pay. My mom would be so mad if she knew. I am not a thief! Because of that Willa had to pay thirty dollars, which wasn’t even worth it because the taxi driver did not even take her to the right place. Then Willa went to get a cab, but there were no cabs around because the taxi driver took her to Brooklyn. But she has never been to Brooklyn and didn’t know that the cabs were green. But then there was this friendly guy.

He said, “The taxis are green here madam,” and Willa thought that this guy was French.

That meant, “hello.”  

But the guy was French so he started a conversation in French. “Bonjour, Je m’appelle Jayden, je suis quarante cinq ans.” Willa was there just snoring, she had fallen asleep. Then she startled awake because her head went back. She forgot all about the French guy. She still remembered the part about the green taxis, and she got in one. The guy that was in the cab spoke English, thank god.

She said, “To the airport please!” The man brought her to the airport, but she forgot to say which gate she was going to. It ended up being like about three miles away. She thought to herself, I am not paying a cab. She chose to walk. Finally, she got there, but the bad thing was that she was late for her boarding pass and the airplane left without her. She was furious at herself, “why didn’t I just pay a cab?” she said. But there was this nice girl there, in fact, she was a little girl. She was three years old, had a British accent, and she also had blond hair and blue eyes.

The girl said, “I lost my family.” She lost them in the airport. “And nobody would ever help me, I would ask them and beg them, but I didn’t even know how to speak. But one time, this little boy came, and he taught me how to speak. The little boy wanted to keep me as a pet and he said to his mom and daddy, “Can I have this doggy?”

And for some reason, the parents said “No, you cannot have a pet until you’re eighteen years old.”

“I was left here alone and I talked and I talked and no one seemed to listen.  I thought I was invisible and I stole some food. But, I got caught by a policeman and he thought I was cute, and he gave me a lollipop.”

Willa felt horrible for the little girl and she said, “Would you like to go to Ecuador?” The little girl was surprised that she was jumping up and down and crying out of happiness.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Are you really going to take me to Ecuador?”

Willa pretended to think and then said, “Of course.” She grabbed her hand and brought her to the front desk and asked for two tickets.

 

Chapter 2

Because the little British girl was cute, they gave them two tickets for free. Normally they would cost a billion dollars. The little girl was super happy to know that she wasn’t invisible after all.

The little girl really wanted to know how to read, and she told Willa, “Willa, do you know how to read?”

Willa said, “Of course!”

The little girl said, “Can you teach me how to read?”

Willa said, “Of course, but I need a little tiny favor.” The little girl was worried for a second.

But then Willa said, “Can you please tell me your name?”

The little British girl said, “My name is Mia, what’s yours?”

“My name is Willa, and by the way, I love your name.”

“Willa, I need to tell you something, it’s very private. I think the people that left the airport robbed me and kidnapped me because there was a stack of money in the bag and my mom’s jewelry and they were dressed in black.” Mia began to cry.

Willa gave Mia a really big hug and said “Don’t worry, you have a friend now, and you’re never going to get rid of me, even if you try to.” That was when Will noticed Mia’s clothes. They were raggy, and had pee and poop on them. She also noticed Mia was really thin. She didn’t even think of giving her food.

 

Chapter 3

Willa said, “Oh, I am really sorry, do you want me to buy clothes for you? If you want me to buy clothes for you I can totally do it since you have been so nice to me. I want to pay you back for all that you have done, plus you are cute. What do I lose?”

Mia was surprised. She said, “I have never really wondered what is inside my pants. But there is this mushy, squishy stuff in my pants. It is really comfy. Do you have any idea what it is?”

Willa was in shock and told her, “Actually, that is poop. It is what comes out of your butt.”

Mia said, “Never mind, are you going to buy me clothes, or not?”

Willa said, “Oh, let’s go to that one right up there, it’s called Chanel.” They went inside the store and Willa the saw most cutest outfit for Mia’s age. It was called a “onesie” and it had pink flowers on it. Willa said “how about the onesies right there?”

“Oh, you mean the giant underwear?” Mia laughed.

Willa said, “oh no, it’s a onesie! And we also have to get you new underwear.” Willa said “First before you put on the clean clothes, we have to teach you how to go to the bathroom.” Mia and Willa got the bathroom, but Mia was really confused about what they were going to do. “Every Time you feel something coming out, go to this bowl, sit on it, do your thing, and wipe, and then flush, and then wipe your hands.”

Mia said, “I feel a thingy there, can I go use the bowl?”

Willa said, “Of course you can use it. But don’t forget to use the tips.” When Mia got out, Willa went to the bowl to look if she did okay, but when she looked in the stall, poop and pee was all over the stall. Willa thought to herself, maybe I should have explained it to her a little more clearly. Willa said, “Did you remember how to sit on the bowl?”

Mia said, “I followed your instructions, it’s not my fault.” Willa thought to herself, maybe I should buy her diapers, not underwear.

 

Chapter 4

Willa and Mia went to the store that sold diapers. Willa was surprised that this diaper said, “after the baby does their thing, it changes automatically.”

But when Willa saw the price, she said, “That is so cheap!” It only costs a diamond ring! And she had her mother’s diamond ring. She gave the man the diamond ring.

The man said, “Yay, now I have a diamond ring to give to my girlfriend.”

Willa was shocked, she said “What if your girlfriend says, where did you get the ring from?”

“Oh you know, I will just say, I got it from the store,” said the man like it was no biggy.

“That will be a lie,” Willa said.

The man yelled, “You, get out of my business!”

Mia said, “You don’t talk to my friend like that? You hear me?”

The man yelled “I’m calling the police!”

Willa said, “Okay, I have a plan. Since you’re really cute, like really cute, you can make the cutest face and the police will say, ‘Maybe you should go to jail old man.’”

When the police came, her name was Katie, and she said, “Who’s the robber?” She was holding up a gun.

The man said, “That little tiny little girl that is in front of your face.” The man was looking, and he put his head down like this.

“That little tiny girl? I think you’re drunk. Maybe you should go to jail,” said the nice police officer.

Mia whispered in Willa’s ear, “Willa? I think that’s the police officer that gave me the lollipop.” Katie put her hand in her pocket and took out a lollipop. The old man dropped the diamond ring, Willa picked it up and put it in her pocket.

 

Chapter 5

Willa and Mia went to the bathroom one more time and Willa took out the diapers. She pulled down Mia’s pants, took off her underwear, and saw poop, pee, smushed in her underwear. It looked like the poop and pee actually belonged in the underwear. But Willa, didn’t argue, she just took it off, put it in the garbage, and took out the diaper. She put it on and she saw an “off” and “on “ button and thought that the “on” button was when she pooped and peed and had to take the diaper off.  She turned the “on” button and it changed the diaper.  She thought she’d only pressed the “on” button when she needed to change the diaper, plus, after she peed and pooped the diaper automatically got perfume and sprayed it, so it won’t smell bad, and it also wipes your butt.

Mia loved her diaper and said, “Willa you are the nicest person on earth.”

 

Chapter 6

They didn’t have to worry about the pee and poop anymore. After that, they got ready to go to the plane. Since the lady that gave them their tickets thought that Mia was cute, she gave them business class in the middle, they were both facing each other.

They got in the plane and Mia yelled, “This is the best day of my life!” And then the poop fell.  She yelled proudly, “Oh, that felt good.” It smelled delicious because the perfume sprayed. Willa showed Mia the seats that they had. It was one, and two, the best seats in the airplane.

The TV was bigger. Mia and Willa sat on the bed. Mia heard an announcement that said, “Please turn off all electronic devices before takeoff.”

Willa said, “You can’t turn on the TV until the airplane gets in the sky.”

Mia asked, “What’s a TV?”

Willa said, “I’m just going to tell you all the electronics until you ask me all the questions in the whole entire world.”

Willa named the iPhone, the iPad, the TV, and so on and so forth and explained all of them and what they do. By the time she was done, their airplane was already in the sky. Willa showed her how to use the TV. She chose the movie for her. She chose Cinderella.

By the time Mia was done, Mia asked “Why does the princess never pee and poop?”

Willa didn’t answer the question very good, she said, “I don’t think they ever pee and poop.” Mia stopped talking for a moment and wondered, what if I never pee and poop?

 

Chapter 7

The announcement came on and it said that the airplane was about to land. When Willa looked outside, she saw mountains and one mountain was covered with snow. She looked in the magazine and saw that that mountain was called Cotopaxi.  

In the magazine, the mountain had snow and there was the moon and the sky and it was dark out.

When the airplane landed, Willa got up and went to tell Mia that it was time to get off the plane. When Willa went to see Mia, she found Mia asleep. Willa took a picture of her and said, “Awww”.

And then all the people in the airplane said, “Shhhh!” But then they saw Mia and said “Awwww.” Mia, while all of this was happening, was holding her pee and poo because she wanted to be a princess.

Mia woke up, the first thing that she saw, were the faces of the people that had kidnapped her.

 

Chapter 8

Mia whispered to Willa, “Pssstt. Willa, those are the people that kidnapped me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” Willa said.

The kidnappers came up to Mia and said, “My darling! I cannot believe I found you. I was searching everywhere for you! The day I left you at the airport, and I couldn’t find you, I fell to ground and my eyes filled with tears. And now that I found you, I’m going to take you and hug you (until you die),” she whispered.

“Woah, woah, woah, first of all, you’re not even her parent. Mia just told me you were the people that kidnapped her!”

“What are you talking about why would our beautiful Mia say that. I mean if it was true which it isn’t she wouldn’t even remember what we look like or even that we robbed her!” the robber hesitated.

 The very dumb robber said like he knew it all, “By the way, my name is Toto and my friend’s name- I mean my wife’s name is Lala. Lala, you said that we did rob Mia.”

“Great, now we have proof. Oh and by the way, I am going to tell the police. I filmed every word you said!” Willa said

Lala yelled at Toto and said, “My plan would’ve been fantastic if you hadn’t been in it!!!”  

“I’m sorry boss, but when we kidnapped Mia you told me to always lie after we did our business, but our boss always likes us not to lie. He told me never to lie again. I am never going to stop telling the truth unless you say to keep on lying,” said Toto in a sad voice.

“Well maybe we shouldn’t be friends anymore,” said Lala in a mad voice.

Toto said in a very sad voice, “Fine, but don’t you dare come and ask me for help. You never know when I can call the cops. Plus, I can lie as much as I want now that you are not my boss anymore!!!”

“Well that was awkward!” Willa said in a weird voice. “Now let’s get out of here while we have a chance.” Willa and Mia skipped to the other side of the aisle of the plane and quickly, but quietly, ran to the taxi station, got into the cab. She forgot that she couldn’t speak Spanish. So, she said the directions in English and it sounded like the direction in Spanish was the museum of Agua Blanca Museum. They got out and Willa wanted to cry, but she didn’t want to in front of Mia. She had no idea of what she could do.“I wish there was a app that you speak in English and that the app will repeat what you said but just speaking in Spanish. Well, we must just go in the sdcsdcoiIU or whatever it is called!!!” Willa said in so much frustration that her face was bright red.

 

Chapter 9

When they went into the aquarium, Willa took a deep breath and saw Mia was amazed. Her mouth was wide open. Her eyes were as big as a light bulb. All of sudden, she was happy too. Willa heard a squeaky sound and she heard water splashing all around. Willa pulled Mia’s arm and dragged her to the dolphins. She saw the dolphins jumping all around through hula hoops. They were the first ones watching and then it started getting crowded. When they wanted to leave to see another exhibit, they couldn’t get out. They just stayed to see the end of the show.

“Willa, I … I have never seen monkeys, but I heard people talking about them in the airplane. I saw a picture of one and they look really cute. Can we go visit them?”

“As soon as the show finishes, cause it looks like we can’t move.” Willa said laughing. She was in a much better mood. 

 

Chapter 10

Meanwhile Toto and Lala were trying to come up with a plan to make Willa and Mia come with them to make their secret plan to work. By the way they were in the museum. All of a sudden Lala came up with a very good idea.

“Toto, I know! We will pretend to be staff at the museum. We will go into a closet and we will grab some of the uniforms that the staff has. We will ask Willa and Mia if they need help.”

Toto responds, “That is the greatest idea that I ever heard!!”

“Let’s do it, pal!” They go to the exit of the dolphin show.

 

Chapter 11

Finally, the show ended and the people started leaving. Mia and Willa saw the staff. They went up to them and said, “Um can you please tell me where the monkey exhibit is?” Willa said very politely and slowly so they would understand.

“Please, no need to speak slowly. We very well understand English. Trust us, we’ve had a lot of tourists who speak English. Come with us and we will show you where the monkeys are,” Lala said like he knew everything.

They were weirded out because no one had ever said it like that, that he knew everything. They followed him, but when Willa began to walk, Mia realized that the “Staff” had the same mole that Lala had. It was right on top of the mouth. Mia said to Willa, “Willa, those are not the Staff, they are Toto and Lala.”

Willa was shocked. She just said, “Let’s follow and see where they are going to take us, so we can find out what their plan is going to be.”

Mia said to Willa, “You really don’t know what they could do. Just go away and ask a real staff!”

Willa just ignored Mia and just kept on walking. Mia kept on walking, but she was trembling. Willa held Mia’s hand just in case. They started realizing that it kept on getting darker and darker and darker until they came to this door that said something in Spanish that Willa did not understand. She kept on walking. She started to tremble too and she was positive that nothing was going to happen too.

Toto said to Willa and Mia, “These are the monkeys. We’re gonna enter this door and I’m gonna take Mia’s hand so she doesn’t get scared.”

Willa held Mia back and said, “I don’t know your name, but whoever you are, I am not gonna let Mia go. She’s gonna take my hand and show me where the monkeys are. Period.”

Lala didn’t care. She grabbed Mia and ran away and Willa ran where they were heading.

 

Chapter 12

Mia was screaming her head off. Willa felt bad for not listening to Mia. Now what was she going to do. Mia was all that mattered to her right now, but she had no time to be ashamed. She had to find Mia and go to her grandma and grandpa’s house.

She saw them getting into a taxi. Willa quickly got a piece of paper and wrote down the taxi’s number. The number was 3B51. She got into a taxi herself and tried to communicate with the driver and pointed to the taxi 3B51. Fortunately, the driver taxi understood her and followed the taxi.

Lala was in the front row with the taxi and he was looking in the side mirror and saw that the taxi holding Willa was chasing them. He told the taxi driver to go faster. Somehow he knew Spanish. The taxi driver went super fast and passed the red light. A police officer saw them beat the red light and chased Lala and Toto. All of a sudden, the police car was blocking Toto and Lala’s car and Willa couldn’t see them and was terribly worried about Mia.

 

Chapter 13

When the police had enough he got out the loudspeaker and said in English, “If you don’t pull over right now I will have to do my job and get my gun out” said police officer Tom.

Once Lala heard that she had no choice but to pull over. Lala pulled over and whispered, “Shoot.” She was so mad that her brain was about to explode.

Willa pointed at the car and said, “Stop.” Thankfully the taxi driver understood and stopped where the officer was. Willa got out of the car and headed to where Toto and Lala were.

 

Chapter 14

Then Willa was super mad and quickly ran and pulled Mia away from Toto. Toto didn’t even notice. He was too busy crying.

The police officer said, “Hi my name is Tom and you just made a very big mistake.”

Lala said very annoyed, “Ugh, like, do you think we care?”

Tom said very calmly, “The way you said it, I guess not. Can you tell me why you beat the red light.”

“Um, excuse me, I can explain. Me and Mia were at the Aquarium and Zoo. Mia wanted to go see the monkeys. We asked the ‘Staff’ where the monkeys were. The ‘Staff’ were Toto and Lala, the ones that beat the red light. They led us somewhere and then very quickly, grabbed Mia. They got into a car and I quickly got a taxi. Then you came in.”

Tom said, “Let me get this straight, you are Mia’s parents?”

Lala said, “Of course.”

Toto said confused, “I thought we were kidnapping Mia.”

Lala said so angry that she couldn’t even say it, “I told you to keep quiet.”

Tom said, “You are under arrest.”

          

Chapter 15

Tom said happily to Willa, “Thanks for helping. You were a really big help.”

Willa said even happier, “Thank you if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have my Mia here.” Willa hugged Mia and Mia hugged her back. They were really happy to see each other. Willa said very glad, “I found out this very cool app that will save us. It is an app that you can say something in English and it will translate to any language in this case it will be Spanish. My grandma gave me her address. I know exactly where to go.”

Mia said very excited, “Really? We can go home?”

Willa said, “Really.”

Willa got a cab and went to her grandma and grandpa’s house. Thankfully her grandma and grandpa thought that her plane was going to arrive at that time and that same day. Her Grandparents were relaxing on their chairs.

All they did was get up and give them a big hug.

Messi, the best soccer player, was shining in the light. The game was Barcelona VS Real Madrid. Ronaldo said hi to Messi. Messi said hi to Ronaldo. They were feeling good. But then Messi got hurt by trying to pass Ronaldo. But when he was doing that, he, by accident, tripped on his own foot. Before Messi got injured, Messi scored 99 goals. Ronaldo was impressed but felt sorry for him. Then, the GIANT RACCOON came in and killed everyone. He was a scientific experiment. What the GIANT RACCOON was trying to do was make all the raccoons in the world giant so he and his friends could take over the world, make all of humanity be his slave, and take over the entire galaxy.

“Muahahahaha,” said the GIANT RACCOON.

But one person said, “A raccoon is gonna make me a slave for the rest of my life? Just because he’s big and strong with a lazer gun? Okay that is pretty scary, but back to the story.”

“Blah blah blah, I won the World Cup,” said one of the slaves. The GIANT RACCOON was angry like an angry bird, and his face was as red as the red Angry Bird because from up there it sounded like “blah blah blah.” It was funny to the other racoons, but then the GIANT RACCOON got angry at them for laughing. But in that time, the GIANT RACCOON forgot all about the “blah blah blah” so he didn’t mind. Then the GIANT RACCOON hit one of the little racoons in the face.

“Haha,” said the GIANT RACCOON. “I hit you.”

Then it was a big argument, but in the meanwhile, the people were running for their lives. Once the argument finished, all the people were hiding far far away.

Now the racoons were arguing about that.

“It was your fault that they ran away.”

“No it was your fault that they ran away.”

In the meantime, all the people told the scientist with white lightning hair pointing up, a white scientist jacket, black shoes, and white pants to match with his shirt, to make some thing to destroy the raccoons for ever. So the scientist started to work in the lab, on his computer, and made pieces for the weapon that will destroy the raccoons. Meanwhile, the other people were getting their pitchforks and torches to kill the GIANT RACOON. Now the people want to test if forces can destroy the GIANT RACCOON, so they tried to hurt the GIANT RACCOON, but it didn’t work.

The GIANT RACCOON said, “Hahaha that tickles so much!” So the people went back to the lab to see if the scientist finished.

Once the people came the scientist said, “Done.”

Everybody cheered, “Hooray!” So then the scientist carried the gun to show the raccoon.

The raccoon said, “Haha, you think you will defeat me with that? How about you get the taste of your own medicine?”  Then he shot the gun and it hit the raccoon in the belly.

BOOOOOOOM!  The GIANT RACCOON was destroyed. Everyone cheered. The little raccoons even cheered. They didn’t like the GIANT RACCOON. So they shrunk themselves to be smaller again, and they all lived happily ever after.

“But wait!” cried L. Messi and C. Ronaldo. “We are still here and same as Neymar and James Rodriguez and Suarez.”

“But what about the soccer game?” cried someone.

”Yeah!” said someone else.

Chapter #1                         

Let me tell you a story where everyone has a shadow, and only I knew they were there.

My mom said, “Emily, come down and eat breakfast. You’re an adult, you need to send applications for colleges. Just because it’s spring break, doesn’t mean you actually have a break.”

I heard her walk up the stairs. One second later, I find my mother dead on the carpet of my room and a bloody knife in my hand. I just stood there, my insides melting, and my one tear trickling down my left cheek. I thought, Did I kill her? No I couldn’t have, I would remember, and that was the most I could cry.

At that moment I ran downstairs screaming, “How come I hadn’t heard her scream? She would always be there when I needed her, where is she when I need her now? She’s dead. If I would have come down sooner my shadow wouldn’t have murdered my mom.’’  I felt like I had killed her but I knew it was my shadow.

I took a delicate glass vase and smashed it on my head. When I woke up people in white bodysuits were dragging me into the vehicle for the mental institution. The neighbors must have called them; they must think I’m being paranoid by something supernatural. My instincts kicked in and I fought so hard so the men in the white suits couldn’t check my pockets and take my cellphone away.

 

Chapter #2

The next morning I woke up in a mental hospital. The room was grey because of the dimmed lights, like in World War Z. The bed was a steel bed set with a worn out mattress. I walked over into the bathroom that had no door. It had a mirror that was permanently foggy and a rusty bathtub, there was a faucet that only dripped.

I ran and peered into the hallway from the window and screamed to the doctor and guards, “You can’t lock me in here, my shadow will kill me like it did my mom. It follows me everywhere I go! Shadows aren’t supernatural, at least not the ones I’m talking about. They are the ones that need to be in this jail cell, they are the mental ones. They are smart, I don’t know why, and I don’t know why they like murdering people!”

The doctor came with two different types of poison, as I like to call them. They say it will help me, but it will blind some of my vision to see the shadows, then I will just have 20/20 vision, like the average person. Then I can’t see my shadow coming. They are dark and stay in corners, but when you look at them they leave out of sight.

Bing bing.

I got a text saying “you never can” and every whiteness goes into the dark.

Who texted me? Who’s there? And why am I in a mental hospital? Then I remember it’s those drugs, they’re making me forget everything and I’m so close. I get a text saying, “You were never so but never so close to what.”

 

Chapter #3

The next morning they let me go. But I didn’t know why my mom would let them take me. She and I needed to have a discussion.

Bing bing.

I get a text saying, “can’t wait to get into the dark again, it’s going to be killer.”

 

Chapter #4

I walk out of the car and go in my house to see the police pulling out a stretcher with a cover over it. It falls away and I see it’s my mother. I stand there in a state of shock.

The next morning I got dressed, ate breakfast, and had a morning of tears and emptiness. I decided I was going to investigate to see if my neighbor’s had any info on my mother’s death. I walk over to my neighbor Sarah’s house and she said she thought I had killed my mom, she claims to have seen me stab her and then run out my room screaming. That’s all she said before slamming the door in my face, acting like I was some sort of monster. I felt all alone and there was no one to comfort me.

Bing bing.

“Don’t be sad for long, your next victim will arrive. Guess who.”

 

Chapter#5

The next morning it’s back to school and I’m already ready to get my school on. I sent applications for Columbia University. I couldn’t stop thinking about that text I got last night.

Bing bing.

I get a text saying, “Thinking about me? So touching. Oh and don’t plan too far ahead, there’s going to be a bump in the road.”

One minute later I get a voicemail singing, “Look both ways before you cross the street.” As I listen to the voicemail, I go to the fridge to get some milk.

A toy car pops up on the kitchen table. I drop the milk, stare at the car and run up the stairs. Once I get upstairs I prepare for the shower, but when I got in the shower the car was there and I was half dry.

“Why is this car following me? Wait, why am I half dry?” I said in frustration.

“Is it…”

My head starts to ache and I yell, “Make it stop! Make it stop!”

But it wouldn’t, so I started pounding on my head so the aching would stop. After that I don’t remember much, but the car appeared on the sink in the bathroom, with a doll strapped to the bottom of the car. When it appeared I was out of the shower with my phone in my hand with a text that had not been sent, and that left me asking unanswered questions.

I was so freaked out I started babbling questions like, ”What just happened? Why aren’t I in the shower? Huh? I’m so confused. Why am I so confused?” I say frustratedly. I look at my phone to see the text.  

The text says, “You killed her.”

I say to myself, “Who?” I call the mental institution and see if I can get the footage of me in the hospital room . No one is going to believe I am the killer, I wouldn’t hurt a fly. When I ask him to see the footage of me, they say that it’s private information and then he hung up on me.

I say to myself, “Well he’s a jerk.”

I thought to myself, I’ll just have to sneak in. Then I yelled, ”Yes!” and then said sorry to the neighbors.

I dress up in a black shirt, stretchy leather leggings, boots, and a black beanie. I get in my car and drive to the hospital. When I get there, I remember I took a climbing class. I took a rock and aimed it,  making sure I wasn’t facing the security camera and so the alarm wouldn’t go off, before I threw it at the window. Then I climbed up the brick wall and climbed in the window.

I ran to the general office. When I got there I took a bobby pin from my hair and picked the lock. When I got in, the footage of me was left on the screen, so played it. I stood there in shock. I got a headache again and a few minutes later I got a text saying, “It was you? Let’s get back into the dark.”

Every day I look at that stupid text trying to convince myself it was probably just one of my friends pranking me. But I had all the evidence. It was me. I didn’t want to believe it.

From then on, I cried myself to sleep. Some nights I would sleep in my mom’s bed because it made me feel safe. The next morning was my birthday and I called my dad to celebrate it with him, because he’s the only family I’ve got. The call goes right to voicemail. So I decide to walk over to his house.

Since my mom and him were divorced they wanted seeing me to be very convenient for them. When I get there I knock on the door. He opened it and gave me a hug and said, ”Watch it, I have a garden knife in my hand.’’

I got a migraine. I howled, ”Make it stop! Make it stop, please‘’!

The next thing I knew was my dad was on the ground. His throat had been slit. ”He bled to death,’’ I said in shock. “What? Oh my gosh, what?’’ I screamed and ran.

When I got in the house I fell and cried with no one to hold me up. The next morning I went into my bright blue bathroom with a large marble white circular bathtub with a curtain and shower head. When I looked in the mirror, I saw something in myself.

I saw a murderer.

Even though I wasn’t certain, I had a feeling. I mean all those times my mom looked at me like I was a monster when I even mentioned a sleepover, or when I told my mom about me and my friends playing army. I wonder if she was thinking I am the enemy and not the hero. But the only thing that doesn’t add up is how would she know about my situation and not tell me. My mom was my best friend.

The next morning I awoke to a sudden loud alarm. I walk out of my room. As I walk down the stairs, I remembered I have school today. So I ran upstairs to take a shower, and get dressed in my crop top, donut leggings, and combat boots. I grab my black hoodie and backpack and ran out of the house.

I got in my car and drove very swiftly. I arrived and checked the time. The parking lot was half empty and the whole world became blurry.

“Brr,” I shake my head and run inside.

This girl had the nerve to walk up to me and say, “You know my dad’s a cop right?”

“So?”

“So I heard you killed your mom.”

“What did you just say? You don’t know me! You can’t just walk up to me and say that! If you ever mention that I will — ”

“What? You’re gonna kill me?”

After that a sudden spark of rage and fire controlled my body and mentality. The next thing I knew was that I … I attacked her and people had to hold me back.

“Get off of me!!!” I screamed.

I walked away with fire in my eyes and wiped the waterfall of hurt, agony, and ferocity. My friend came to comfort me.

“No. Just stay away from me, please. I always drive people away, so why not now. Bye.” I walked away rapidly, weeping silently.

 

Chapter #6

I get in my car, turn on the radio, and unexpectedly the song “All by Myself’’ by Celine Dion plays. I was right up to the part “All by myself, don’t wanna be all by myself anymore.’’

When I got home I saw my stepmom. She screamed when she saw my Dad. I got out of the car and ran to the house. I observed my dad’s body. He was rotting. Quickly, I turned my head and walked inside. My baby step sister was crying. I walked up the stairs and into her room. I saw her screaming. I said, “It’s ok. No one is going to hurt — Aaah my head!” I screamed. This time I knew and saw what I was doing.

“No I won’t kill this innocent child!”

I feel like I was straining my neck I could hardly breath, then I collapsed. Officers, that’s all I remember, “Now let me out of this interrogation room, please.”

“Ma’am, we are not authorized to do that,” they replied.

“Fine.”

I stabbed myself in the stomach. If you’re wondering how I snuck in the knife, just remember, always think dark and maybe you will figure it out. Everyone deserves a chance to go into the dark.         

Manhattan, 1657

 

Vulture Victor gave a bank worker $1,000 to put in his account. He earned $1,000 in trade, from trading his chicken eggs for money. As he was walking home, he sat down by this beautiful tree in the green hills of Manhattan. Then he picked some apples off the tree, for it was an apple tree, and ate them. He thought, What a fine day it is. Then the apple lulled him to sleep, as it was a magic apple, with a spell casted by Mellow Miser, Crafty Thief, PhD at Stealing Stuff and wanted by the police.

Before he fell asleep, Mellow Miser jumped out of a bush and hypnotized him with a spell that lasted two minutes.

Mellow Miser said, “I am Mellow Miser and I am going to hypnotize you…”

Then he made Vulture Victor tell him the password to his bank account. Vulture said, “ABC123ILikeMe is the password.”

Mellow Miser was so thrilled that he de-hypnotized Vulture Victor and ran off to the bank.

Two hours later…

After Mellow Miser stole the money and had it in his hands, he ran over the nice grassy hills and through a garden full of sunflowers, all of them not facing toward the sun.

Something is wrong, he thought. “Why are the sunflowers not facing the sun? They’re facing the moon.”

He ran out of the garden and ran into Buffalo Cow. Buffalo Cow asked him, “What’s wrong?”

Mellow Miser said, “The sunflowers are not facing the sun! They’re facing the moon!”

Meanwhile…

Vulture Victor had just woken up. He had no idea what he was doing, but he just remembered one word, maybe two: mellow and bank. Mellow sounded suspicious, so Vulture Victor started thinking of everyone’s name, but no animals names were Mellow or had Mellow in it, so he started thinking about people. That left one person, Mellow Miser. He was shocked.

“MELLOW MISER STOLE THE MONEY FROM MY BANK!” he bellowed out.

Vulture Victor ran to where he pray to the spirits, for they were important to him. He saw the spirit animals, the ones that represented him. The spirits told him to find someone caring and courageous, so he scanned through the names of everyone again. That left two people. Sitting Bird, who was a police officer, and Buffalo Cow. So he ran to Buffalo Cow’s wigwam. He told Buffalo Cow the news.

“MellowMiserstolemymoney!”

So that’s why Mellow Miser was carrying $1,000 in his hand, Buffalo Cow thought. And why sunflowers weren’t facing toward the sun. The sunflowers must’ve known that something was wrong.

“We need to tell Sitting Bird, the police officer,” said Buffalo Cow.

10 minutes later…

They reached Sitting Bird’s long house, out of breath, sweltering, and almost out of oxygen. A totem pole was standing on the ground next to the door. It was a bird–red, green, blue, yellow, and orange, and maybe a little speck of pink, or dots of black. There was this curvy beak and the animal somehow looked like a raven.

They ran in the house and told Sitting Bird about everything. Sitting Bird said that he would come, but first they had to stop Mellow Miser or at least delay him.

So Buffalo Cow ran to Mellow Miser’s wigwam. Mellow Miser was packing up his stuff to go to a nearby village so he wouldn’t be caught. When Mellow Miser was all ready, Buffalo Cow and Vulture Victor burst into his wigwam. They meant to delay him for seven seconds.

Buffalo Cow stood at the door. Mellow Miser kicked him in both shins and Buffalo Cow collapsed. Mellow Miser ran out the door and Vulture Victor screamed, “Sitting Bird, where are you!?”

About 10.3 seconds later…

Sitting Bird came. “Where’s Mellow Miser? Where’d he go?”

“There!” screamed Vulture Victor, pointing to the north.

Sitting Bird ran toward where Vulture Victor pointed. In five seconds, he was out of sight, for he could run three miles in five minutes — actually, that’s not right, just say three minutes and 49 seconds, that’s how fast he is.

One day later…

A tired, overheated Sitting Bird burst through Vulture Victor’s door, dragging Mellow Miser by his hand. His moccasins were drenched in disgusting dirt that looked liked dog dung. His fur clothing was covered in mud. He collapsed and fainted as soon as he burst through the door.

Vulture Victor took Mellow Miser’s hands and dragged him to Buffalo Cow’s wigwam. He was in the middle of telling Buffalo Cow what he was going to do, but before Buffalo Cow could respond, Sitting Bird burst through the door and said, “So what do you want to do about him?”

Buffalo Cow waited for his moment to say his response to what Vulture Victor said. “Mellow Miser should not go to jail and Vulture Victor should forgive him. It is just a human habit to take money. Everyone probably has stolen something in their life at least once. Maybe a pencil, or an eraser, or something that’s not important, but you should always forgive others. Always.” He turned to Mellow Miser. “You should give Vulture Victor his $1,000 back.”

Two hours later…

Everyone was happy, including Vulture Victor who got his $1,000 back and Mellow Miser who didn’t have to go to jail.

Two days later…

Buffalo Cow was swimming in the river. Then he lost his energy and fainted in the river. He managed to say one word, “Help!” He screamed with all his might.

Mellow Miser heard his scream from one mile away. He knew it was Buffalo Cow’s voice and he decided to repay him for telling Vulture Victor not to send him to jail.

For he is caring, thought Mellow Miser, and so should I.

He ran as quickly as a peregrine falcon diving into water to get a fish. When Buffalo Cow’s head was just about to sink in the water, Mellow Miser jumped into the river — splash! — and pulled him out. Then he ran to the doctor’s office immediately.

Buffalo Cow eventually recovered and he became good friends with Mellow Miser, who changed his name to Mellow Giver. Eventually, they lived their lives and went to the death spirits.

 

THE END

Chapter One

Most of my life it’s been just me and my Dad. That’s how I liked it. Every morning he would walk me to school, and tuck me in bed. But then all of it changed. It all started at school. I was looking at the bulletin board and I saw a sign-up sheet for a cooking club after school. One thing you need to know about me is I love cooking. I don’t want to be mean but I do not like my school. And this cooking club was definitely upgrading it. So I signed my name on the sheet.

 

Cooking club sign-up sheet:

Alexandra Smith

Michelle Tallania

Gabriela Shirlim ☺

Haley R. Benson ♡

Anna Bently

Arianna Makely

Rachel Arks

Samuel Benson

Zack Monsute

JAKE Bently☠

Bella Winsten ☃

 

Yep, that’s my name: Bella Winsten. Then my eyes caught on something else. I read the list over again. Alexandra, I knew Gabriela. I knew Haley, but of course, I didn’t want to. Arianna, Bella, Haley’s brother Samuel, Zack, Anna’s brother Jake, Anna, I knew ALL of them. But I never knew there was a girl named Michelle. I wondered if she was new. She better not have met Haley. If she met her, Haley would probably tell her I was a mean person. Well, what else is new? Now EVERYONE except Marcie thought I was MEAN (besides the teachers). That’s one reason why I hate my school. I made a list. I know it’s weird, but I keep track. Here’s the list I made:

Reasons Why I Hate School

 

1. They make terrible food and expect me (the school) to eat it.
2. The librarian is a hypocrite: she is the loudest person I know.
3. If I don’t wear a leotard to gymnastics, Mrs. Mord makes me do gymnastics in my underwear ( She is Evil! )
4. The only person I know that likes me is my best friend, Marcie
5. I HATE MATH
6. I HATE MRS. BURT (the math teacher)
7. One word: HOMEWORK

 

[Don’t show this to ANY teacher.]

 

Maybe I’m overreacting about how Haley told EVERYBODY I was bad. A few girls like me. Sasha, Ella, Sydney, Violet, Celia, Bryn, Sarah, Well, so on. Okay. Fine. Lots of people like me, but still some people don’t like me. And that’s ALL Haley’s fault.

 

Chapter Two

“Bella?” I heard a familiar voice say. It was my Dad. He knocked on my door.

“Come in,” I said, while rocking on my chair.

“What are you doing, sweetie?” he asked. I made a face.

“Homework,” I said.

“Oh,” he said, “how was school?”

“Fine,” I answered.

“Awesome, or fine?” he said. He smiled at me. I giggled. “AWESOME!” I said. Then I told him all about the cooking club and Michelle. I showed him my homework, and told him I couldn’t figure it out.

 

Name: ___________ Date: ___________

 

1. ¼ + ⅛ =

Why? Show your work.

 

2. 6,897 +10,894 =

Why? Show your work.

 

3. _ x 4 = 32 + 8 x 4 = _

Why? Show your work.

 

Bonus Problem:

What number multiplied by one, equals itself?

 

Chapter Three

I am so angry, I could just scream! I can’t believe it! I HATE MRS. BURT! This is what she put on my math test!

 

Name: Bella W.___ F

Date: 12/5/15           _

 

PLEASE SEE ME AFTER CLASS!

1. ¼ + ⅛ =

Why? Show your work.

 

I don’t understand.

 

2. 6,897 +10,894 =

Why? Show your work.

 

???

 

3. _ x 4 = 32 + 8 x 4 = _

Why? Show your work.

 

Bonus Problem:

What number multiplied by one, equals itself?

Is this a trick question?

 

Okay, fine. I did not do THAT well. FINE. I did HORRIBLY. But, it was very hard! They give you terrible math problems! Not even my Dad can figure it out. I mean, I never asked, but I know he couldn’t. It’s like torture. Children should have their rights not to go to school. When I have kids I’m gonna let them stay at home and watch TV, and eat candy all day.

Sam would say, “Mommy, more candy!” and Amy would say, “Mommy! Guess what I learned! I learned that you can buy lots of bras at Target!” And then Emma would say, “Mommy, why is that guy pushing that girl off a car, and why does she have red marker all over her? Is it because it’s a car commercial?”

Aww, kids are so adorable (and dumb) aren’t they? And yeah, I’ve pretty much got my future life planned already.

 

Chapter Four

I was lying on my bed, hitting my head against my bedroom door, when my Dad walked into my room.

“Bella?” he asked. “I have something to tell you.”

“Mrs. Burt is moving to another planet?” I asked.

“Really?” Dad said.

“Hey, I can dream, can’t I?”

Dad laughed. “No, this is serious!”

“Okay,” I replied.

“So you know you told me about this new girl named Michelle at your school?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“I know her mom. And uhh… ummm… we’re good friends.” My eyes lit up.

“Great!” I said. “We could have play dates!”

“More than that,” Dad replied. “Ummm…Michelle’s mom and I have been… well… ummm… how do you say it? Uhhh… well… we. We have been on dates.”

I felt like a ball had just dropped on me.

“Y-y-ou w-w-what?!” I sputtered. “How long?” I asked.

“Uhhh, well… ummm… about a year.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I thought it would be better to tell you later,” said Dad.

I could feel my face getting hot now.

“One year later?!” I screamed. I’m sure the whole world could hear. I wasn’t just mad at him. I knew everything was going to change. “You should have told me earlier.”

“Well, I knew you would bug me about it,” said Dad. He looked a little uncomfortable.

I stormed off to my room and made sure I slammed the door really loud. I jumped on my

bed and was waiting for my Dad to come into my room and apologize. Maybe he would know how I felt. What if he got married? Maybe he’d see that these new people in the family would make a big difference — a bad difference. Then he would change his mind, and then Dad and I would live together, just the two of us.

 

Chapter Five

I was still in my room; it had been an hour since we had that fight – well, I had that fight. I wasn’t crying anymore, but I was thinking about Mom. I bet she was awesome. Dad doesn’t like talking about her. She passed away when I was only three. Dad says she was in an accident. That’s why I am afraid of cars. I think Dad is too. I think that’s why we always take our bikes to school instead of the car. Dad said her name was Elsa. It’s a very pretty name.

When I finally got the courage to talk to Dad, I went to his room. When I went there, I saw Dad looking at a picture of Mom. I slowly crept into his room and put my hand on his shoulder.

“I miss her, too,” I said. Dad looked at me and smiled.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I should’ve told you.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

Dad smiled.

“Maybe you could meet her tomorrow?” asked Dad. I knew if I said yes, it would make him happy so I did.

 

Chapter Six

I was kind of freaking out today because today was the day I was meeting my Dad’s girlfriend. I wanted her to think I was kind of grown up, so I dressed very nicely. I put on my favorite blue dress. And blue necklace. I LOVE blue. Dad was also kind of dressing up too. He usually wears a plain white shirt, but today he went all overboard with the tie and coat thing.

We were going to meet her at a place called Dylan’s Candy Bar. I wasn’t just excited to meet her – I heard that Dylan’s Candy Bar was the best candy bar in NY! But then I heard the doorbell ring. Was she here already? I thought we were just meeting her at Dylan’s Candy Bar!

“I’ll get it!” said Dad. He opened the door and I saw a tall lady come out. She had light brown hair and hazel eyes and had a purple top on with a blue skirt. She looked kind of friendly.

“Bella, meet Margaret.”

“Hi,” I said, looking at the ground.

“Well, hello there,” said Margaret. She was in a very cheerful mood. “I thought it would be a good idea to bring my daughter, Michelle.” I saw a little girl peeking behind her that had the same hazel eyes but reddish-brown hair. She was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans.

“Uh, hi,” said Michelle.

“Hi,” I said back. I told Margaret I was going to go the bathroom. That is usually what I do when I want to talk to Dad and I can’t while people are watching. While I was in the bathroom, I pulled out my phone and called Dad. I really hate the sounds that the phone makes while you’re waiting for the other person to pick up their phone. The sound makes me annoyed and reminds me of Mrs. Burt glaring at me while we’re doing a pop quiz.

“Hello,” I heard my Dad’s voice say.

“Dad! Dad! Dad!” I thought Margaret was just coming, not Michelle too!”

“To be truthful, I didn’t know either. I guess she wanted Michelle to come and talk to you so you didn’t have to talk about boring grown-up stuff with us,” he answered.

“Oh, and Bella! Come back! Margaret and Michelle are waiting for you.”

We took a cab ALL the way there. During the cab ride, I noticed Michelle looking at her phone the whole time.

“Mommy?” she said. “Can we call Daddy tonight?”

“Honey! We’re with Dave! Don’t talk about your Daddy!”

I could see Michelle looked sad. So I looked at her and said, “I know how you feel. Losing one of your parents is hard.”

She looked at me and smiled.

“Thanks,” she said. She stopped looking at her phone, and looked at me.

“What happen to your mom?” she asked.

“She died when I was three. She was in a car accident,” I said.

“Oh,” she muttered. “My Daddy and mom got divorced when I was eight.”

“Girls!” Margaret interrupted, “Let’s take a picture!” Michelle and I groaned. “Come on, girls! One…two…”

Michelle and I put on our fakest smiles. “…three!”

FLASH!

When we got to Dylan’s Candy Bar, Michelle and I got sooo much candy! We got the exact same candy, and we had so much fun! Michelle and I became good friends! Before Dad said goodnight to me, he said, “Did you like Margaret?”

I put on a big smile and said, “Yeah, she was AWESOME!” Dad laughed.

“Great! Ummm…because I’m thinking of, well…asking her to marry me.”

I smiled. “I’d like that,” I said.

 

Chapter Seven

I woke up this morning and thought today was going to be a good day. Well, first of all, it was a Sunday, and I didn’t have to see Mrs. Burt. But it was mostly because Michelle was coming over to play with me while Dad and Margaret went to dinner and did their stuff. When Michelle came, the first thing she showed me was her bunny! She was sooo CUTE! She was named Sienna.

Then we talked about if we thought her mom and my Dad would get married and talked about if we became sisters, we’d be fighting about who would get the top bunk since we would be sleeping in a bunk bed.

When Dad and Margaret came back home, Margaret was crying. It looked like a happy crying.

“Mommy! Why are you crying?” Michelle asked.

“Sweetheart, meet your new Daddy, Dave Winsten!”

Michelle and I stared at each other and screamed. I was so happy! I looked at Dad and he winked at me. I still wasn’t used to Margaret. Before I went to bed, Margaret came to say goodnight to me.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” I said back. But I didn’t mean it.

 

Chapter Eight

When I got to school I was surprised to see that my first subject was math. I usually have art first. So I slumped all the way to the third floor, went into the math room, and saw Mrs. Burt glaring at me.

“Good morning,” she said in her terrible voice. I prayed that we did not have a pop quiz today.

She must have seen my reaction because she said, “We have a pop quiz today.”

I sat in my seat, and what I usually do is take a nap until everyone else comes. I know it’s weird, but it saves time and also I have to get a nice long rest before I have to go into the math war. But while I was in the middle of dreaming about candy canes and cotton candy, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked back and I saw Michelle’s body with a cotton candy head. I totally freaked out and screamed. I looked at Mrs. Burt’s desk and I saw Mrs. Burt’s boring brown clothes on her body but a lollipop head!

“What is happening!” I screamed.

“Bella, please calm down,” screamed the lollipop.

Then I saw Michelle’s mom come into the room but instead, she had a chicken head! Then I saw Dad come in with Michelle’s mom and he had a piece of candy for his head!

“Honey,” he said, “I’m taking Margaret and Michelle to go to the Grand Canyon while you’re stuck in school taking this pop quiz.” Then he did this mean cackly laugh. And then out of nowhere we were driving to the Grand Canyon and I was so happy even though I didn’t really get it. And then as soon as we got there, my Dad pushed me into a portal and I went flying into the Grand Canyon. I felt like the whole world was ending, what was I going to do? I could hear Margaret laughing at me while I was falling off the cliff so I just closed my eyes and wished my Dad had never met Margaret and had never got engaged or anything. But then the next thing I knew I woke up in my bed sweating. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, Thank goodness, it was all a dream.

I decided to call Marcie to tell her what had happened. I told her all about what had happened with Dad and then when I was finished with everything I told her about my nightmare.

“Do you know what this means if you’re having nightmares about your stepmom?”

“No!” I said. “I have no idea.”

“It means that you don’t want your Dad to get engaged to another woman. It means you still want your mom back!”

“Oh,” I whispered.

 

Chapter Nine

When I went to school, I pinched myself three times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming but I still had math, which was my first subject today. I was heading on my way to math when I saw Michelle stopping me. She looked like she had been crying for a while.

“Bella,” she said, catching her breath. “Your Dad had an accident.” I felt like my whole life had just flashed before my eyes.

In the one second she told me that, I didn’t care if he married anybody, I just wanted him to be okay.

“What happened?!” I yelled.

“He was riding his bike and there was a traffic cone and he fell off his bike and bumped his head on a traffic cone. I think he got a concussion.”

Now Michelle was really sobbing. I looked at the ground and without thinking I hugged Michelle and I started crying too.

The whole way home we sobbed together and I called the principal and told him there was a family emergency so I couldn’t go to school today. I stayed home the whole time and I was praying. I wonder what Margaret’s doing now?

I walked into my Dad’s room and I saw Margaret on the bed. There were a whole bunch of tissues on the bed.

“Margaret,” I said. “Are you okay?”

“Call me Mom,” she said, smiling at me.

I came over to my Dad’s bed and sat down with her.

“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

“It’s definitely not going to be forever, but he might need to stay in the hospital for a while.”

I hugged Margaret.

I smiled at her. “I love you, Mom,” I said, and this time, I really meant it.

 

The End

The army was a very strong force!

The army trained very hard. They climbed ropes, alligator crawled, and shot missiles and pistols. They went on helicopters and boats. They had officers to tell them what to do.

They ate lunch and had dessert, and then they had a mission. They went to France and protected the people. They went to a cafe, and there were terrorists inside. There were hostages inside. There were over 50 hostages. The army set bombs and went to their trucks, and then BOOM! All the army barged in. All the hostages came out, but the terrorists didn’t. They were hiding. The army commanded them to come out, but the terrorists had AK-47s and over 100 magazines (magazines are bullets) and one knife. They had one more hostage. The hostage was actually a French policeman. The French policeman took the knife and cut the rope that was over him around his waist. He took his taser and tased one of the terrorists. The other terrorist got handcuffed by the French policeman. The army took the bag of magazines and the knife. They put the terrorist in the Jeep and sent him to the police station. The armies took the tasered terrorist and brought him to a helicopter. The helicopter was the French Coast Guard. They took him away to the hospital.

The next morning, the terrorist named Robbie got up, got his gun, and ran from the hospital. He hid in the forest. Searching for him became a manhunt. The army got their guns and had to go back to Paris. They spread out. They saw something in the woods. They thought they would find a gun, but they hit the jackpot. They found Robbie. They tackled him and Jack arrested him. Jack is the best army person. He had the AK-47 that Robbie had.  Jack put him in his helicopter and then brought him to the French police.

Jack tased Robbie, and until they got to the police station, Robbie was on the floor. Then, Jack woke Robbie up by picking him up and shaking him. They put him in the same room with Rob, and Robbie had a bunk bed. The next morning, they had breakfast. They had more naptime, then the French police looked at the terrorists. Jack said, “You two are not going to leave the police station!”

To Be Continued….

“AHHH,”  I scream. I am falling and falling into the dark unknown. I hit something soft, like fur, and cushiony, like a pillow. I am so scared to open my eyes, but I do it anyway. I seem to have landed in some sort of moss bed.   

“Jason,” I hear a girl’s voice. I whip around. I see a beautiful girl about 15. She is tall and willowy, she has long auburn hair and a few freckles. She sort of looks familiar. You are probably about as clueless as I am right now. First things first, my name is Jason. I am 15 and  one of those boys who would rather do an art project, or read a comic book, than play dodgeball or field hockey. I am tall, lanky, and I have dark brown hair. The girl, compared to me, is like a greek goddess, and I was a bridge troll.

“Come on, Jason. I’ve been looking for you for hours, your mom wants you to come home,” she says.

“Who are you are you?” I ask.

“It’s me, your girlfriend, dummy,” she teases.

“My what,” I say

“Your girlfriend,” she says slowly.

“Ookaay,” I say.

We walk back to my house. It looks normal, thank god. I walk inside and smell something amazing. It smells like food. I bet my mom ordered takeout … agian.

“Hey, there’s my all star football quarterback champion!” my dad says.

Football… champion? I am the worst at football. Everytime we play it in gym, my mind always drifts away and I end up getting hit in the face. I look around the room. Where there is usually family photos and awkward christmas cards, it is decorated in pictures of me in soccer jerseys or holding trophies  

“Bye Jason,” my girlfriend says as she leans in to kiss me. I don’t kiss her, instead, I awkwardly hug her and sadly she leaves.

“Jason, you’re just in time for dinner,” my mom says happily.

“What restaurant did you order this from?” I ask.

“Restaurant, no, no, no. I always cook dinner for you when I get back from work.” she says.

I shudder my mom is a terrible cook. She can’t even cook the boxed kraft mac and cheese. I halfheartedly sit down at the table. I look up to see that we are having chicken parmesan, one of my favorites. Whenever we go to a italian restaurants I always order it. My mom serves me a piece, I cut myself a bite size piece and nibble at it. It is so good! It’s like a chicken parm roller coaster.

After eating four pieces of chicken parm, and three brownies, I am stuffed. I walk to my room feeling tired after the meal. I walk in and turn on the light. I look at the walls and shelves. Instead of my books on the shelves and superhero posters on the wall, there were sports trophies and photos of me and my girlfriend. Then I pass out.

 

I wake up. It is 1:30.

“Okay,” I say to myself reassuringly. “There has to be a logical reason why this is happening,” I say to myself. But it’s late and my eyes won’t stay open.

 

“Help this kid needs air!” a man yells.

“He needs to go to a hospital” Another man yells. Sirens wail, people wail.

“My poor baby,” a women says. I see the body all bruised and bloodied. Then I see the face.

It’s me.

 

I wake up screaming. I jump out of bed and I run.

“Jason,” my fake mom says, “I made pancakes.” Her voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard.

“This isn’t real!” I yell. I run faster until trip on something. Then I’m falling again into the black nothingness.

 

Beep…beep…beep, a monitor reads. I open my eyes and I look around. The walls are white, and mechanical objects are all around.

“He’s awake!” a man says.

“Oh my baby. My beautiful boy,” my real parents say as they embrace me.

“W-what happened?” I ask.

“You were crossing the street and you got hit by a car. You’ve been in a coma for three days” My parents said.