The Guy Who Only Struck Out

       

Chapter One: The First Game

“Oh hey, Janoris,” I yelled.

Janoris was my best friend on my baseball team. The difference was that Janoris was the best player and I was the worst player on our team. Our baseball team’s name was the Bronx Bandits, and we were an okay team. The reason why I was so bad at baseball was that I only struck out. My position was first base, and if there was a good throw I could catch it, but I couldn’t scoop any throws.

It was the day of our first game of the season, and we were playing the Burmington Sharks. We were the away team, so we batted first. The coach announced the lineup.

“Janoris is up, Josh is on deck, and Mike is in the hole,” Coach Dunlap announced.

Janoris worked the count to two and two and then swung and singled into center field. Four batters later, the bases were loaded and there were two outs, and I was up. We had scored no runs, but if I walked or got a hit, we would score. But I was probably going to strike out, and that was exactly what I did. Three pitches later, I was walking back to the dugout. In the bottom of the inning, when I was back at first base, a pop fly came my way, and I missed it.

Eight innings later, our team lost to the Burmington Sharks 5-1, and it was all my fault. I thought about quitting baseball. But after thinking about it, I decided not to quit. Baseball was too fun, even when you were really bad at it. As Babe Ruth said, “Don’t let the fear of striking out stop you from playing the game.”

After the game, my dad drove me home for dinner. My mom had made me my favorite meal to make me feel better. I ate two hamburgers, and then I went to my room. I thought it would be cool to swallow a baseball, so I did. I felt dizzy, and then I fell to the ground. Our next baseball game would be at a tournament at Ripken in Maryland. I was so excited even though I felt totally sick.

 

Chapter Two: Ripken

On the drive to Ripken, it was really bumpy, and I threw up the baseball that I had swallowed. I showed my parents, and they said I was just tricking them by pretending a baseball came out of my mouth. But I wasn’t.

When we arrived in Ripken, we were late. My team was already practicing. I thought they would be in our team’s dormitory, but I didn’t know the time. We were later than I thought. We were playing the Staten Island Badgers.

When I got to the field, I discovered that the fields were made of turf. That meant the baseball would bounce really high. I was sweating before the game even started.

I struck out every time at bat and made four errors, but we still won. No, actually, we crushed them 23-5. The tournament was a double elimination format. That meant that when a team lost twice, they would be out of the tournament.

In the afternoon, we played our second game of the day. It was a rematch against the Burmington Sharks. In the game, I was on the bench and not playing, so it was tied, and we went into extra innings. For the last inning, I played first base. They had scored no runs. The leadoff batter was me, and for once I got on base with a walk. Then, Janoris was up and hit a walk off home run.

 

Four days later…

“Yeah!” I screamed. We had just won the tournament.

“I don’t know why you’re so happy when you didn’t do anything to help,” Jerry said.

Jerry was the second best player on our team. I knew it was true that I never helped the team. I just struck out and made errors.

 

Chapter Three: The Mystery

When I got back to my house the next day, I wanted to go play catch with my dad, but my glove was missing.

“Dad, someone stole my glove,” I whined.

“No one took it. You just misplaced it,” he yelled back.

But someone did take it, and they were on my team. They didn’t want me to have my glove so I couldn’t play, and so they wouldn’t lose because of me. At the next game, I asked everyone on my team if they had seen my glove. “No” was the answer that everyone gave me.

“Guess you’ll just have to sit on the bench for the whole game,” Frankfort said.

Then right there I knew that Frankfort took my glove. I didn’t say anything to him because he would get mad and start throwing baseballs at me, and he was one of many pitchers on our team, and he threw like 65 miles per hour. When I was sure there were no baseballs around, I asked Frankfort.

“Did you take my glove because I’m bad and you don’t want me to play?” I asked him.

He looked offended. “I did no such thing,” he replied back.

After that, I got out of there really quickly because Frankfort was looking for a ball to throw at me.

 

Chapter Four: The Solution

For the past two weeks, I couldn’t play in any baseball games because of my missing glove. My dad was really mad that I couldn’t play in any games.

“How many times do I have to tell you, don’t misplace your baseball equipment!” he yelled.

I asked my dad if I could go to Frankfort’s house. I wanted to see if he had my glove. When I knocked on his door, Frankfort answered.

“Go away! I don’t want you in my house. My mom is not here!” he yelled.

“Please, just five minutes,” I begged him.

“Fine, but just five,” he said back.

When five minutes was up, I couldn’t find my glove. When I got home, all of my baseball equipment was gone. I convinced my dad to replace my equipment by saying, “You want me to play baseball, right? I can’t play without it.”

My dad agreed and went to get more equipment.

 

Chapter Five: The Guy Who ONLY Hit Homers

At the baseball store I got a new glove, a new bat, new batting gloves, and a new helmet.

At our next baseball game (which was the championship match) I was batting in the bottom of the second on the first pitch. I hit a long, high fly ball that was a home run! Everyone was so surprised, and even more surprised when I hit one again.

Then in the bottom of the ninth inning, the last inning, the bases were loaded. There were two outs, and we were down by three. My third home run would win the championship.

I pointed to right field calling my shot. Everyone started laughing and looking at right field. I ignored them. I let the first and the second pitches go by for strikes. Then, I hit a grand slam into right field. We had won the championship!

 

The End

 

Shortys and the Big Race

 

     Scene One: The Beginning

 

On stage, we see a bush and a red brick wall and no trees. It’s bright, sunny, and hot. There’s chirping birds.

 

MILLY (off stage)

Hey! Wait up.

 

Four girls run on stage. Emy first, Milly second, Kayla third, and Cat last. Emy touches the wall, and Milly closes her eyes and puts her hand in the bush.

 

EMY

First place.

 

Emy flips her golden hair with her hand.

 

MILLY

Second place.

 

Emy and Cat laugh as Kayla touches the wall.

 

KAYLA

Second place.

 

She puts an imaginary medal around her neck. Cat misses the wall by inches.

 

CAT

Third! I would be first if my mean sister Kay…

 

KAYLA

Watch it sissy.

 

EMY

I’m still counting!

 

Cat taps the wall with her finger.

 

CAT (muttering)

Third.

 

The narrator walks out as Cat silently argues with her sister, and Emy tries to break up the fight. Milly still has her hand in the bush, not noticing what’s going on. She has her eyes closed.

 

NARRATOR

The four girls called themselves the shortys because they each had long names that they had shortened. Emy was Emuleta, Kayla was Kaylamenta, Cat was Catrenen, and Milly was Milliana. They shortened them because they didn’t like them, and then people could pronounce them and couldn’t make fun of them.

 

EMY

Open your eyes, Milly.

 

Milly opens her eyes and sees her hand is in a bush. She pulls out her hand and touches the wall.

 

MILLY (muttering)

Last.

 

Their enemy Jane comes on with her sidekicks Lily, Gale, and Sadie.

 

JANE

Oh my. Lookie here.

 

CAT

Shut up, Jane.

 

EMY

You remember the time where we tricked you into jumping into the lake?

 

KAYLA

Don’t make fun of our names.

 

JANE

I challenge you to a relay race.

 

CAT

It is on!

 

Scene Two: The Training

 

We see a brick wall and Milly snoozing on the ground.

 

KAYLA

Come on, come on, come on.

 

Kayla runs on with Cat trailing behind her.

 

CAT

Hey, wait up! You got a head start! That’s cheating!

 

Emy walks on.

 

EMY

Okay, now the order. Cat, you first.

 

CAT

Why me?

 

EMY

Just, just…

 

KAYLA

You heard her. You’re first!

 

She turns to Emy.

 

KAYLA

Me next, right?

 

EMY

Sure.

 

CAT

Yeah, yeah,

 

EMY

Me next, of course!

 

KAYLA

And finally, Milly!

 

Milly sits up.

 

MILLY

Did I hear my name?

 

EMY

You did. You’ll be finishing off the race for us.

 

Milly faints.

 

EMY

Did I say something?

 

Scene Three: The Race

 

Narrator comes on stage.

 

NARRATOR

The race!!!

 

Narrator walks off stage and coach walks on.

 

COACH

Ready, set, go!

 

Cat starts to run off the stage, and narrator comes on.

 

NARRATOR

So they ran and ran and ran and ran, and Cat came in second behind Lily. And then Kayla started to run. And right behind her was Gale, but Kayla stayed ahead of her and finished before her. And then Emy started to sprint. She ran and ran and ran and ran. She was almost halfway there when Gale came home and Sadie started and Emy took first before Sadie. Then, Milly started to run.

 

Milly runs on stage with Jane close behind.

 

NARRATOR

Milly ran and Jane ran and Milly ran and Jane ran.

 

Milly and Jane turn towards the audience and run in place. They run off stage and come back on stage, and Lily, Emy, and Kayla come on stage to see the end of the race. And Jane has her hand out to touch the wall. And she touches something.

 

JANE

First.

 

Everyone laughs. And Milly touches the wall and cries with joy.

 

MILLY

First.

 

Jane opens her eyes and sees her hand in a bush.

 

MILLY

This memory is a keeper.

 

EMY

Good job!

 

Everyone bows.

 

ALL

The End.

 

Everyone walks off but Kayla.

 

KAYLA

See you in my next book, “Odd One Out.”

 

Emy walks on as Kayla takes a silly bow.

 

EMY

Come on, Kay. We don’t have forever!

 

Emy starts to pull Kayla off stage as she sends fake kisses to the audience.

 

 

 

Air France 447

It was 7:30 P.M. on June 1, 2009. No one on board thought anything could go wrong on this Rio to Paris flight.

However, things did not go to plan.

In a few hours, the A330 would be part of a three year-long investigation. It was four hours later when a gauge indicated that there was a rise in temperature. That was nothing that pilots Marc Dubois and David Robert were worried about. But that was only the beginning of the disaster.

An alarm lit up. Suddenly, autopilot and several instruments shut down by themselves. The pilot in control pulled up. The plane stalled and started a descent in a level position.

At 9:10 A.M. local time, the expected time of arrival, Flight 447 was nowhere in sight. The plane, Air France Flight 447, crashed.

There are two questions: Where is it? And what happened to Airbus A330?

Answers seemed to be gone with the plane.

Forever.

 

Forever Standing

        

When someone looks

Down on you

When they laugh

At your differences

When they criticize

Your similarities

When you want it all to end

So you hide away

Tears streaming down your cheeks

Thinking to yourself:

“You don’t deserve to be here”

 

Remember, to see is a gift

To come home to your loved ones and say:

“I love you”

Is a blessing

To stroll on the beach,

Sun shining down on your back

Water lathering your toes

Is a miracle

To have compassion and be able to give back

Love that others have given to you

Is a wealth that cannot be measured

 

When you are looked down upon,

Someone somewhere is looking up and saying,

“Thank you”

Because now those tears on your face won’t be on theirs

Because you didn’t give up and didn’t give in

Because maybe, just maybe, you powered through

All the hatred being poured onto your shoulders

Sweat drips down your face in effort

But you are still standing

You will keep standing

You won’t dare stoop down for a rest or a drink

You can’t

So you will keep standing,

Forever

 

Sean and Alex

           

Part One: Atlantis

Once there was a boy named Sean, and his friend named Alex loved to adventure. When they were teenagers, their parents told them to look for a different world without them, to be independent. They just graduated high school and came home from graduation when their parents said, “Good job, kids. Get out of the house. Be independent. Go explore.”

And then they went home and they started packing. They didn’t pack too much. They just packed as much as their blue and green backpack could hold. They packed diving stuff, food, and money. Their goal was to discover Atlantis. At first, they look in the marine area, wearing flippers and goggles and scuba tanks. It looked like water, green and blue water with a lot of sea animals, like blue, red, orange, and green fish.

They went on a boat to the sea to look for new worlds like Atlantis. Then, they jumped off the boat and went scuba-diving. They went deeper and deeper until they saw a squid. It looked like a black monster with eight tentacles and chased them until they went into a little hole where the squid couldn’t get in. And then one of them took the goggles off and said, “Hey, why isn’t there water in here?” Then, the other one took off the goggles, and they went exploring.

They found a boot, a sailing cap, and bones. Then, they started walking around, but it was a dead-end because there was a large shipwreck. They jumped on the ship and looked around to see if they could find anything, but there was nothing to be found. But then, they saw something glowing in the ship. Then, they went under to look. Then, they saw something glowing in a cap.  

They went in that room, and then Alex touched it, and a voice said, “Don’t touch it! Get out of here!” And then, bones came out of the ground. And the bones arranged into human forms. The bone people had swords, but then Alex and Sean started running to the other end to get out. While they were running, they put on their goggles, but then they went out into the water, the deep sea.

Again, they bumped into something bad. They saw a shark! Then, they took out swords they got from the skeletons. The skeletons were mad about that. Then, the shark saw them, so Alex and Sean took their swords out and stabbed the shark. The shark wailed and backed off, and left. Then, Alex and Sean wanted to go deeper until they saw a city. And a cobblestone sign said, Welcome to Atlantis! Then, they took out cameras and started taking pictures. Then, they went back up to the boat and went home to tell their parents about Atlantis.

 

Part Two: A Different Solar System

Alex and Sean asked their parents if they could go to space. The parents said yes. Then, Alex and Sean went to the space station. They took a bus there and a blue, white, and green rocket ship made by NASA. They felt really happy in the rocket ship, and the rocket said, “Five… Four… Three… Two… One… BLAST OFF!”

Then, they went into space. When they got into space, they put on space suits, and the space suits gave them air to go outside. Then, they went outside, and they went on Mars. Mars was cold and orange, and there were a lot of mountains. And he saw some aliens with some red spots. Then, they were hungry, and they wanted some restaurants to eat at. Then, they saw one named The Mars Hotel. Then, they went in. It looked like a huge place with tons of floors made of marble with carpets. They went to book a room and to order some food. And they ate the food, and it was pretty good, but they didn’t remember what they came there for.

There were a lot of video games there, and they got carried away until Alex said, “Should we leave?”

And Sean said, “Yes. I can’t remember what we came here for.”

Alex said, “Neither can I.”

But then, they left. They left that restaurant. They went back to their spaceship, and they flew off to a different solar system, and one of the planets there was named Candyland. Then, Alex said, “Please! Please! Please! Can we stop there?”

And Sean said, “Yes.”

And then, the auto-driven spaceship landed on Candyland. And then, Alex and Sean climbed out and went to eat some candy. The delicious-looking candy was peppermint and before Alex licked it, Sean smelled some poison in it, so he told Alex not to have it. Alex went back to the spaceship to take the map, and Sean took a walk. Sean went to look at the other candies, to see if they were poisonous. And then Mr. Candy said, “Get out of my land!” Then, Sean ran back to the spaceship and made his spaceship leave, and they left, going back home.

 

Part Three: Climbing mountains

Alex and Sean asked their parents once again if they could go climb on mountains. Their parents said yes. So they went to Mount Kilimanjaro. It was super tall, taller than the Empire State Building. Then, they started climbing. When it became dark, they were a quarter of the way there. They camped there. The campsite was just like rocks, and they built their own grayish, greenish fabric tent. In the night, they heard squawking. In the morning, they started climbing again. They were so fast, they climbed up and down the mountain until it became dark.

Then, they went to Mount Everest. At Mount Everest, they climbed it halfway. And then they had dinner. They had burgers and steak, and it tasted good. Then, they went to bed in their campsite. In the campsite, they heard a bear, and they came out of their tent in the middle of the night and saw a bear coming into their tent. They got out a knife and stabbed the bear. Then, they started climbing again with a flashlight. And they saw a man, sitting there, and they asked him, “What are you doing there?”

The guy said, “Can you help me climb this mountain?”

Sean said yes. Then, they started climbing. They went to the top. They were shivering because they didn’t have any jackets. The end.

 

Part Four: Conclusion

Alex and his mom and Sean and his mom talked. Sean and Alex said, “We want to stay at home. We’ve been on so many adventures.”

Sean’s mom said, “Okay, we’ll let you stay at home.”

Sean and Alex said, “Thanks!”

 

The End!

 

The Strong Pencil, the Weak Eraser, and the Evil Microphone

The eraser said to the pencil, “I want to die.”

“Why?”

“Because kids wipe me on the paper, and it hurts a lot, and they hit me with pencils when they play hockey.”

The pencil said, “Kids throw me around, and throw me on the ground, and they crack my friends in half, and write with me. Some kids put me into you, and it hurts a lot.”

Then, a microphone came and screamed at the children. “Don’t throw pencils, and don’t hit erasers,” said the microphone. Then, the microphone turned to the pencil and eraser, and the microphone said, “Pay me or else I will scream so loud I will break your ears!”

Then, the pencil and the eraser decided to run. The microphone was chasing them while screaming.

Then, the pencil and eraser ran away.

They went to the pencil box, and the microphone couldn’t fit, so it started screaming. It said, “Come, come, come out!”

Then, the pencil came out and tried to poke him off the table to break the SHHHHHH BOOM. The microphone cracked into pieces, but the eraser was still shivering with fear.

 

Even Death Has Morals

          

Charles

Hi, my name is Charles. I am ten years of age, and I have MVD. MVD is short for mitral valve disease. Almost all of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (the breed I am) get this disease by age ten. And I have it. Today I went to the vet, and she told us that I was going to die tomorrow. But I do not want to die. So I asked my friend Lola what to do because she is very smart.

 

Lola

Hi, I’m Lola, and I have FeLV. FeLV is short for feline leukemia virus. I am part of the 50% of FeLV cats to have FeLV-B. FeLV-B causes tumors and other abnormal tissue growth.

I learned about it today. I went to the vet today, and they told my owner. I do not know if i am going to die, but I sure do not hope so. Also, Charles asked me if I knew about MVD. But I do not know about it.

He said, “Hey, Lola. Today I was diagnosed with MVD. What do I do?”

I replied, “I do not know about MVD. I will go ask Sheldon.”

 

Sheldon

Hi, my name is Sheldon. And do not be the stereotype I know you are. Just because my name is Sheldon does not mean I am a turtle. I am a proud hamster! Today my cat friend Lola asked me if I knew anything about MVD or FeLV, but I said I do not know anything about them, and I am about to die! I am three, you know! (Three is a common age for hamsters to die.)

So I went to Charles and asked him, “Did the vet tell you more about MVD?”

He replied, “No! All he told us was that I am going to die tomorrow!”

 

The Owner

Hi, I’m the owner of Charles, Lola, and Sheldon. My name is Steve. Today is the day all of them died. I really wish I did something instead of just leaving them to die. But I have learned two things. The first is to not take things for granted because they can always go away. The second thing is that if someone or something is in pain, do not leave it. Get help. I wish you also learned these things too.

 

 

What He’s Become

       

(Warning: This is not for the lighthearted)

 

A cold darkness shifted throughout the room. It expanded, wrapping around the room, and for a moment, a light tucked in the corner flickered then gave way into the darkness. The room was now nearly pitch black, and you could only make out the slight outline of a bedside table idly waiting next to the bed.

The darkness grew in mass and balled together into a mass of darkness and shadow. A dark gas swirled around the figure then hardened into scales. It grew and

shrank, twisted and turned, and a slight hiss echoed throughout the room. A young boy shifted in the bed, hugging the blankets closer in the newfound darkness. The mass of darkness shifted its body towards the bed, a slight creak under its weight. Another hiss, vague but cold, came from the mass. It crept closer to the bed, now staring directly down on the poor boy, unaware of the darkness looking down at him.

The mass let out another hiss, making the bedside table tremble. The boy cautiously opened his eyes, sleep tugging at his limbs. He froze in fear, goosebumps crawling up and down his back. Though he could not see, he could hear a cold, satisfied hiss from the mass behind him. The boy hesitantly rolled over and froze once again. He could make out the slight outline of a large, bulky mass of teeth and scales, and on each hand, three distinct silver claws. The boy watched as a drop of drool trickled down the monster’s scaly back and dripped down onto the hardwood floor. The monster approached him, causing a large creak from the floor. The mass reached for the boy’s arm, gripping it with a cold, scaly hand. With the other hand, the monster used the tip of one of his claws and daintily pressed it onto the boy’s skin. The claw went deeper into the boy’s skin, and small streaks of blood bubbled around the claw. The boy shrank back, trembling with pain and terror, watching powerlessly as crimson red blood sprouted from the marks. He tried jerking his arm away from the monster’s tight grip, only to receive an irritated hiss from it. The monster continued, slowly carving letter-like marks into the young boy’s blood-soaked arm. Cringing, the boy blinked open his eyes, sleep tugging at them. He glanced down at the marks, fear masking the waves of unimaginable pain. It read Conner. The boy named Conner let out a small wail, and the monster let out an irritated growl, digging its claws into Conner’s mattress, now speckled with blood.

The monster readied a red tinted claw, and Conner’s breath caught in his throat as the monster continued to shave into Conner’s arm, Conner murmuring a plea of mercy under his breath. Tears formed in Conner’s eyes, dripping down his face and resting on his bed. That night, his mother had left a gentle kiss on his forehead and flattened the wrinkles appearing in his sheets as he moved. Smiling, she had playfully reminded Conner that it was his turn to make breakfast in the morning, then she had sidestepped out of the room, humming. Now Conner might never see his mother again. As if sensing Conner’s despair, the monster reached out and used a bloody claw to gently stroke Conner’s cheek, and Conner squeezed his eyes shut, as if he was hoping to place a wall of darkness between him and the monster. The monster growled in Conner’s ear, taunting him, daring him to open his eyes just once. Though all his instincts screamed at him to not give in, he cautiously opened his eyes. Conner trembled, forcing himself to scan over the markings. An “X” was carefully carved over his name, blood trailing down from the marks. Conner stared at the monster’s face, and a plea sparked in his eyes.

“Please… ”

 

The light was unbearable, and any movement was nauseating. Pain seared through Conner’s chest, and he gasped faintly. He closed his eyes, escaping into the darkness, leaving his body behind, and looking back to the night. The image of the mass flashed from the back of his mind, taunting him, frightening him, breaking him. He rolled over, sitting himself up as he cringed in pain. Darkness enveloped Conner, who was fighting to stay awake, fighting to keep the light that he held. But the darkness fought back, stronger than he would ever be. The darkness overcame him as he closed his eyes and shrank back into his bed.

The noise, the noise was terrible. Talking, beeps of equipment, crying, it all blurred into a single, ear-splitting noise. He rolled on his side, causing a sharp pain in his chest. The pain came in waves, and the end was nowhere in sight. Conner closed his eyes and moved his hands closer to himself, slightly putting pressure on his neck. He knew it would never go away, it would never stop, unless he ended it. He knew the monster would come back to finish the job, finish his life. This was the only way, no more fear, no more grief. This was the end to the river of pain. He gazed over to his mom, knowing the pain it would cause her. She would sit for hours on end, sobbing and hugging the blankets closer, and she would feel as he did now. Lost. Conner took a short breath, then applied more pressure, squeezing his hands tighter around his throat. He closed his eyes and waited silently for the pain to end.

Conner awoke in a hospital bed. Around him, a light hanging from the ceiling flickered, and he was left with the small circles of light being emitted from the machines around him. He sat up, sleep tugging at his limbs, begging him to rest, to lay down and let everything dissolve for one night. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around himself. He sat up, his back facing the door, and a small wooden desk stood solitary in the corner.

A familiar feeling washed over Conner’s body, a cold, dark feeling of anguish and hatred. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a small creak in the floor echoed from behind him. And another. Footsteps, louder and faster, ushered him out of bed and under the desk. Conner’s heartbeat quickened, and a bead of sweat dripped down his face.

A hiss, loud enough for only him to hear, came as a wave of shock. It had… found him. Conner whimpered, hugging his knees closer and burying his head in his hands. It was over: his life, his family, everything. The footsteps approached Conner, and a mass of darkness stopped in front of the desk. A taunting hiss echoed from it as if to say, “Where are you… ?” Conner shrank back into the wall, his breathing growing heavier. A tap on his shoulder administered a shriek of sheer terror, and Conner ducked out from under the desk and dove behind his bed, his feet slipping on the glossy floor. He pressed his back into the cold, hard surface and tried to control his breathing. The mass pointed at a clock resting on the wall, its cracked face distorting the 6. It glanced at him, drool trickling down its face and down the monster’s scaly back.

“Time,” Conner mouthed, pushing himself farther into the wall, wishing that, if he could just disappear, this would be over. The monster shuffled towards him, grabbing his arm and stabbing a claw into it. Conner howled, attempting to tear his arm away from the monster’s grasp as dark streaks of blood trailed down his arm. He glanced back at his arm and froze, the pain coming in waves of terror.

“Time is up.”

The last thing Conner saw that night was the monster’s twisted face, its long silver claws. It smiled at him… then, there was only darkness. The image of the monster appeared in his mind, its long face looking down on him. The night he was first attacked, he was helpless, alone, stranded. He swam towards the image of monster, its hiss echoing through his mind.

The night he was first attacked, his mother rushed toward him, tears blurring her vision as she dialed the hospital with shaky hands. She stroked his face, blood staining her trembling hands. She looked at him with loving eyes and pulled him closer, sobbing into his shoulder.

“Don’t go… ” she murmured. “Don’t go.”

Conner gripped his mother’s hand. He was younger then, with not a worry in the world. A crowd of people were gathered in front of a display, bright lights flashing from the monitors displayed. Conner’s mother rushed him away from the crowd, but not before he heard the muffled words being shouted from the screens.

“… There are reports of terrorist attacks all around this city. They are known for their large, quite loud explosions… ”

He looked up to his mother, who had her back straight and walked with an urgent pace. Lines of worry spread across her face, and she bent down next to Conner, delicately placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Conner,” she whispered. “Promise me something. Promise me that you will never, never become what those… monsters are. If someone… if they hurt you, remember, I will be there. If you are all alone, nothing in sight, I will be there. In here.” She moved her hand to his chest. She looked as if she were about to cry, but she held it in well. “Don’t hurt people, don’t give up, don’t give in. Promise me, Conner.” She stood up, brushing off her pants, and held out her hand for him to take. He looked into his mother’s eyes and rested his hand in hers.

Conner gasped awake, straining his eyes to adjust to the light. The beeps of hospital equipment rang in his ears as he sat up in the hospital bed. His mother was sprawled out on a large sofa, and his father on a chair. The room was surprisingly quiet: with no talking and no crying, there was nothing. Sitting himself up, he took a moment to absorb the quiet. With great effort, Conner stepped onto the cold floor and slowly walked towards his mother.

“Mom?” he whispered, moving towards her. “Mom?” He placed a hand on her shoulder and winced as sharp pain moved through his back. Her arm fell limp towards him, and he jumped back, startled. Gently, Conner rolled his mother over and gasped faintly. He placed a hand on her forehead, but there was no warmth, there was… nothing. Conner cupped her hand in his and recoiled at the sight of dark streaks of blood that stained his hand. Tracing the palm of her hand, he whispered, “Mom… ” Her head rolled towards him, and three gashes running down her face revealed themselves. “Mom, wake up,” he whispered. “Please, wake up!” He realized that tears were slowly dripping down his numb face, though he gave no notice. He tore his glance away from his mother’s lifeless body and looked towards his dad. Stepping towards him, Conner could make out faint mumbles tumbling out of his father’s mouth.

“I’m here, don’t hurt me… Please, don’t hurt him. I’m here… Don’t hurt me.” Conner spun around, only to be greeted by his own paranoia. He gasped in relief and turned back to face his dad. Startled, Conner jumped back as his father got to his feet, eyes glazed over.
“No… ” Conner whispered, stepping back as his father approached.
“Don’t hurt me… ” his father gasped. “I’m here.” His eyes shone in pain and terror. “Come here, son,” he whispered. “One last time… ” Conner took a step back, then another. “I will always be here.” His father advanced, and Conner searched his eyes for any sign of his father. “Don’t run… stay here. Come to me, my son.” His father paused. “Come, Conner.” Conner took another step back and pushed against the wall. He watched helplessly as his father put his hands on his neck, then let out one final gasp, “I will always be here, you can’t hide.” His father’s eyes rolled back into his head, destroying any trace of his father, and he collapsed backward.

Conner fell to his knees, the weight of tragedy causing his shoulders to give in.
“You can’t go!” he whispered to his father, searching his blank expression for any sign of relief. There was only pain. There was only pain. Conner stumbled out of the hospital room, then froze. The hallway was covered in oozing blood that was pooling in puddles on the floor. The blood of patients, doctors, and nurses lined the walls. Shaking his head, Conner stumbled towards the elevator. He lifted his head as the rusted elevator doors creaked open. The limp, blood-soaked bodies of the nurses, patients, and doctors were piled onto each other. Their eyes were glazed over, and tears of blood dripped from their tear ducts. Stumbling back, Conner found his way past the bodies and into his room. Leaning into his bed, Conner let his eyelids close and let the horror dissolve into darkness.

Conner blinked open his eyes as the sound of tapping streamed through the room. Sitting up, Conner adjusted his eyes to the light and moved towards a window where the sound came from. It was dark out, and you could hear the whistling of the wind from outside. Conner leaned into the window on his tip toes and scanned the outside. There was nothing, nothing that could have administered a tapping sound. Weird. Turning around, Conner shrieked as the large, scaly body, which had come to be known as the monster, shuffled towards him. Stepping back, Conner’s breath grew heavy, and he could feel a bead of sweat running down his face.
“Leave me alone!” he cried. “Go away!” Conner swatted at the monster, though it was easily dodged. The monster smiled, its teeth covered in ruby red blood. Conner’s brow furrowed as he cried words of hate; he fought to control his fear. “Why did they have to die?!” he whispered, icy tears dripping down his face. “Why did you do this to me? WHY ME?” The monster hissed in return as Conner continued, “They didn’t deserve this, I didn’t deserve this! My parents didn’t deserve to die.” He closed his eyes, all the death, all the hate. It was for nothing. It was for nothing. It was for the monster’s fun. Nothing more, nothing less. The monster felt no grief, no remorse. The monster felt no hate. It couldn’t be for nothing. Conner looked up at the monster, his cheeks flushed red, and the tears streamed down his face.

“It won’t be for nothing.”

Conner’s body shook in anger as he fought to control his emotions. Then, he snapped. Conner hurled himself at the monster, shutting his eyes and waiting for the impact. He flew into the monster, and then, despite the monster’s harsh appearance, it felt like he hit a pile of pillows. Opening his eyes, he gasped in shock as a dark void swallowed the light. The monster’s drive to kill engulfed him. With nowhere in sight, he walked, he walked till he realized one thing: He would always be lost. Looking around, he pulled his arms closer to him, and, to his surprise, a voice echoed in his head. Don’t be scared, it’s over. Conner is gone, and you were born. The monster.
“No… ” he whimpered. Yes. Now, come. Conner walked, nowhere in sight, but he walked. His mother appeared in his vision. See her? “Yes.” Kill her.
“I… I,” Conner whispered, unsure of himself. Do what I say. Stepping forward into the darkness, Conner moved towards his mother, unaware that her last few seconds of life were about to end. “Mom… ” Conner ran towards her, pulling her into a tight hug of rejoice. “I… I’m sorry.”

His mother looked at him with painful eyes and murmured, “I know.”

“Not for that.” Conner adjusted his grip on the knife that appeared in his hand. Don’t hesitate, Conner. Conner’s mother grasped her hand, dragging down his face, then fell to the ground. Good job.

The image of his lifeless mother dissolved, and he was alone again. But he wasn’t. There were all the people around the world to help… to be friends with. Their screams would fill his mind each night, and he would smile, he would laugh at what fun it would be. Their blood would line the walls of the empty void that was now his home. He would play with their bodies, and he would never be lost ever again. Conner knew who he was now. He was a monster.

 

A Friend’s Secret

There once was a tiny panda bear named Teddy who lived with his parents in a bamboo forest. They could talk, but they couldn’t expose their secret to humans. They were afraid that humans would capture the pandas, force them to talk to humans, and prove that pandas could talk. The humans would separate the panda families and would kill some of them because they were afraid of their talking because it wasn’t natural.  They would put the others in zoos and cages. This family had a house in the bamboo forest and had one child. They lived in a community with a couple of panda families that had kids that were much older than Teddy. When Teddy approached the older kids to play, they excluded him and pretended he was not there. Teddy was always really sad because nobody bothered to be his friend. Teddy always tried to talk to his parents, but they were always too busy or at work. When Teddy was lonely, he went to his secret hideout and drew pictures of him being friends with other pandas.

Teddy was a curious, little panda. The little panda named Teddy had no friends and hoped to make friends, but since pandas were in danger, he had less of a chance of making friends with other pandas. Teddy dreamt of being friends with humans, but he knew it wasn’t possible and he wasn’t allowed to. One day, Teddy was strolling in the forest when he suddenly saw a boy that was walking down the pathway through the bamboo forest. Teddy knew he wasn’t supposed to talk to the boy, but this was his only chance to make friends. The bamboo forest was surrounded by a national park and was protected by the rangers and only had a few pandas to worry about. Because of the small number of pandas, the park was about to close. So, he took his chance.

“Hello, would you like to be my friend?” said Teddy.

The boy literally jumped by the sound of Teddy’s voice. The boy’s name was Parker. He lived with his parents in a house near the forest. His parents were scientists studying pandas, and he was an only child.

“Who said that?” said Parker.

“I said that!” exclaimed Teddy. Teddy curiously got out of his hiding place and started to walk slowly to Parker because he was not so sure that he could trust Parker yet. Parker was speechless. It’s not everyday that you get to see a talking bear. Parker was confused and scared. Why is a panda bear talking? Is he dangerous? Is he going to hurt me?

“Don’t be afraid! I just want to be friends. Just don’t tell anybody I can talk,” Teddy said.

“Okay,” Parker said, but he was still confused how Teddy could talk.

“My name is Teddy, and I’m pretty lonely, so I really do just want friends,” Teddy said.

“Okay, but I can’t stay here for long because I have to go back to my parents,” Parker said.

“This is a secret. Even my parents don’t know that I’m talking to you because I’m not allowed to talk to humans,” Teddy said.

“Okay. I promise!” Parker said.

Teddy was still a little scared and wasn’t fully comfortable, but he wanted to be friends and didn’t want to cause harm to anyone. In the distance, both Teddy and Parker heard Parker’s parents calling for him.

“I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you soon,” Parker said, and then Teddy ran back to his parents and reached home just in time for his family’s dinner.

“Where were you?” Teddy’s mom asked.

“I was exploring the forest,” Teddy stammered.

“You aren’t allowed to go too far out, or else you’ll get lost,” Teddy’s mom reminded him.

“Okay,” Teddy said and got up and washed his dishes and went to bed.

The next day, Teddy woke up and made sure that nothing was a dream by pinching himself. It was not a dream! He had just talked to a human! Teddy had never lied before, and it didn’t feel good to lie. He realized that he shouldn’t have talked to Parker — it could put all the pandas in danger! He could always make friends with the other pandas that their neighbors would give birth to. Teddy felt awful for what he had done. Teddy combed his tangled fur, and he went downstairs for breakfast. For breakfast he had bamboo and fresh water from the stream. In the dining room there was a smooth bamboo table with comfy bamboo chairs and a little wash basin at the corner of the room. Teddy slipped outside and hurried through the winding trees of bamboo, moss, and rocks. When Teddy finally got there, he waited behind the tree just in case other people came and Teddy accidentally thought that they were Parker. When Parker finally came, Teddy slipped out of the trees and walked toward him.

“Hi!” said Teddy. “Come with me. I want to show you something!”

Teddy showed Parker how to climb over the fence and led him through the trees until they came across the stream behind the trees, so Teddy’s parents didn’t see them. They talked about their parents and about what they did. Parker said that his parents were scientists, so right now they were studying pandas. Teddy said that his parents worked at the food workshop and made sure there weren’t any bugs in the food. Once they got bored of talking, Teddy took Parker a little deeper into the woods and showed him his secret hideout. It had a ladder underground that led into a tiny room with drawings and a little chair pushed to the corner of the room. On the other side there was a tiny cupboard with bamboo inside in case Teddy got hungry. Teddy showed Parker all the other tiny rooms, and then they went back to where they started. Once they were done, they crawled back up and went back through the path of winding bamboo trees back to the walkway. They saw Parker’s parents coming down. Teddy quickly went behind a tree.

“See you later,” Parker whispered to Teddy.

Teddy strolled back to his house. Teddy reached his house just in time for lunch. He quickly ate his lunch and went upstairs to take a nap.

When Teddy woke up, he felt exhausted. Teddy heard his parents calling him downstairs to meet his aunt and uncle.

“This is your aunt and uncle. They have just moved in,” Teddy’s mom said.

“They will be staying the night in your room, so you will have to stay in our room,” Teddy’s dad said.

Immediately, Teddy went upstairs and started packing his belongings. He packed his stuffed panda bear, his book on the national park, his bamboo lava lamp, and his panda pajamas. Then, he put that all into a rucksack, and he left it by his bed. He then went back downstairs for dinner, which was bamboo stew. He slowly ate his stew, thinking about Parker. Is Parker going to stay here, or is he going to leave? And does he even like me?

When he was done with dinner, he took all the dishes and handed out dessert, which was bamboo pie. After dessert, he took the dishes and washed them in the sink and went back to the table for conversations.

“What if somebody told our secret? We’d be in grave danger!” his Aunt Beatrice said. Suddenly, Teddy thought twice about his actions with Parker and started feeling sick.

“I’m going to bed now,” Teddy told his parents.

“Why so early?” asked his Dad.

“I don’t feel too good,” Teddy stammered. He felt uncomfortable and just wanted to tell them what he had done, but then he would get in a lot of trouble, and he didn’t want to. He quickly rushed upstairs and changed into his panda pajamas and went into his parents’ bedroom, and laid awake on his back with his eyes closed, thinking about what he had done.

The next morning, Teddy didn’t want to get out of bed. He didn’t want to meet Parker and didn’t want to cause harm to anyone anymore.

Meanwhile, at the walkway, Parker looked around for Teddy and shouted out his name, but didn’t see him. He tried going to the hideout and looked for him, just in case he was there, but he wasn’t. Parker started to worry. What happened to Teddy? Parker slowly walked back, feeling mad that Teddy didn’t show up. He was really disappointed that Teddy didn’t want to come, because he told him he would be there. He walked towards his parents.

“Let’s go home,” he said to his parents.

The next day, Teddy went to the walkway.  He knew Parker had been looking for him because Teddy had heard Parker calling the day before, and he knew Parker had been mad because he had heard Parker stomping his feet.  Teddy didn’t see Parker at the walkway and went back home. Teddy realized that he should have gone to Parker, and he should’ve talked things out, but he didn’t. He also realized that telling Parker about his secret was really wrong, and he was not going to be friends with Parker anymore.

Teddy went home feeling really sad and disappointed in himself. He should’ve talked things out with Parker, but he couldn’t anymore because Parker was gone, and he deserved that.

Teddy went to his hideout and drew himself and Parker as not friends anymore. Teddy never realized that Parker had been to his hideout to see if he was there. He also never realized that Parker had accidentally told his parents that pandas could talk! Parker felt terrible! He promised Teddy that he wouldn’t tell his secret. Should I go back and talk things out with Teddy and say I am sorry? Will Teddy be waiting for me? He chose to do the right thing. He went to the walkway when his parents were at work.

Back at the walkway, Teddy sat on top of the fence feeling disappointed that Parker wasn’t there. Suddenly, Teddy saw Parker approaching him. As Parker walked toward him, Teddy said he was sorry for what he had done. He shouldn’t have left Parker alone and not responded to him. Teddy also told him that he shouldn’t have told him that pandas could talk. Parker said that what he did was even worse. He had accidentally told his parents that pandas can talk.

“Oh no! We have to do something about it and stop them from telling other humans!” Teddy said.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing when I told them,” Parker said.

“It’s okay. I understand. What I did was also really wrong. I should’ve worked things out with you. I shouldn’t have told you my secret in the first place even though I trust you,” Teddy said. “Let’s go to my hideout, and we can talk things out there.”

Parker followed Teddy back to the hideout, and they both sat at the table. Teddy pulled out two pieces of paper and two pencils. They both started brainstorming ideas on how they could solve their problem.

Suddenly, Teddy came up with an idea! “Parker, you can go home and tell your parents you were joking about how pandas can talk.”

“Great idea!” said Parker. “Then they will forget about what I said!”

Teddy led Parker out of the hideout and back to the walkway because Parker was still not used to all the bamboo trees and how to get through them. Once they got back to the walkway, Parker said goodbye and climbed over the fence. Teddy walked back to his hideout through the green, lush trees with moss covered rocks. In the air there was a scent of fresh dew on the moss. When Teddy got there, he grabbed all the weaved bamboo boxes he could find and carried them back home. He needed them because his family was moving into a different house, so his aunt and uncle would not have to sleep in his room. When he was done with packing, he heard the door open, and his mom, dad, aunt, and uncle entered. They carried bamboo boxes in their hands. Teddy left all the boxes with his belongings by the door. They were moving in two days. After everyone was done packing, there were a lot of boxes by the door. Teddy’s mom started packing all the dishes and pots and pans. Teddy stripped the sheets in the bedrooms and packed them into a box. Since Teddy’s hideout had a couple of rooms, they slept there for the night.

When they woke up, the scent of bamboo and fresh sunlight came in from the open light. For breakfast they had some bamboo. Teddy quickly got dressed and went for a walk outside. Surrounding him was a lush forest of dew, moss covered rocks, and a hundred bamboo trees. Teddy walked to the walkway and sat on the rocks eating bamboo and watched all the tourists stare in awe at him. He waited for Parker, but it didn’t take long. When nobody was looking, Parker snuck over the fence. Teddy told Parker about how his parents were in the hideout and how they were moving in one day. They sat on the grass behind the trees talking in whispers so nobody would see or hear them. In the distance, they heard Teddy’s parents calling him for lunch. Parker quietly snuck over the fence when nobody was looking. Teddy hurried back home through the path of winding trees and moss covered rocks until he came across the river. He grabbed a big log and carefully walked over it. He reached the hideout and went into the room with a table in the middle and a couple of cupboards on the side of the room. He quickly ate lunch and went back outside over the stream and through the winding path of trees. When he reached the walkway, Parker was waiting for him. They went back to Teddy’s old house and went up to his room.

Teddy asked Parker, “How did it go with your parents? Did they believe that you were joking?”

Parker said, “No, they didn’t believe me because I sounded serious when I said it. I’m sorry.”

Teddy said, “It’s okay, we can find another idea. Wait here. I’m going to go to the hideout and get a couple of pieces of paper.”

Parker said, “Okay.”

Teddy went back to the hideout and grabbed a couple of pieces of paper and then went back to Parker. They sat at the table and jotted down some ideas that they had, but none of them made sense. They didn’t know what to do, and they didn’t want Parker’s parents to tell anybody else.

Teddy came up with an idea that might work, which was Parker telling his parents that they can’t tell anybody, but then Teddy realized that then Parker’s parents would know that pandas can talk. They sat there thinking and thinking, but they didn’t know what they should do. Teddy told Parker that he should go home and that he will try to think of some ideas.

Teddy led Parker back to the walkway, and they both said goodbye. Teddy went back home. Teddy went into his bedroom in the hideout and sat at his desk and tried to think of some ideas, but he didn’t think any of them would work.

Teddy finally thought of an idea that might work. Parker would talk to Teddy in front of his parents, but Teddy wouldn’t respond, and then his parents would believe that Teddy couldn’t talk.

After dinner that night, Teddy went to bed and woke up eager to try his idea. He quickly got out of bed and packed his breakfast in a little container and ran back to the walkway. He waited until Parker came and told him his idea. Parker agreed to try this idea, so he got his parents to come with him. Teddy stayed behind the fence just in case they tried to take him to study him. Parker came back with his parents following him and showed them Teddy. Parker talked to Teddy, but Parker knew that Teddy wouldn’t respond. That was part of the idea.

Parker told him, “Hello. What’s your name?”

Teddy sat there and pretended to look confused. He tilted his head to make it even more realistic.

Parker told his parents, “See? Pandas can’t talk.”

His parents said to him, “So then why did you say that pandas could talk?”

Parker said, “Since you guys are really serious scientists, I just wanted you to laugh for once.”

Parker’s parents said, “Let us try to talk to him.” They tried talking to Teddy, but Teddy just ignored them. They said, “We have to go, so please don’t do that again. You disturbed us. You’re grounded. You can’t come here for two days.”

Parker said, “Come on!”

Once Parker’s parents went, Teddy said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Parker.

Parker slowly walked home, disappointed that he couldn’t see Teddy for two days. At least it wasn’t for four days. Plus, by the time he was ungrounded, he would be able to at least see some of their new home. Two days passed slowly in those days. Teddy moved to his new home which was pretty big, and it had a ton of rooms. Parker was really eager to see Teddy’s new home, at least on the outside. Finally, on the day that Parker was ungrounded, he went to the walkway and met Teddy, who led him to their new home on the outside.

“Wait here, I want to get something!” Teddy said.

“Okay,” said Parker.

When Teddy went inside, Teddy’s parents glanced outside the window and were shocked to see a human.

“Young man! Explain yourself!” his mom said.

“Uh oh!” Teddy said.

Teddy’s mom had a very stern look on her face.

“Did you tell a human our secret?” said his dad.

“Maybe… well… we kind of just maybe became good friends,” said Teddy.

“Do you know how much danger you put us in?” said his mom.

“Well, I trust him. He’ll keep the secret really safe,” said Teddy.

“How long have you been friends with this boy?” said his dad.

“Well, maybe a month or two,” said Teddy.

His parents were really angry. Luckily, his aunt and uncle were out for a walk. Thank goodness!

“I’m really sorry, but I just don’t have any friends!”

“Well, if our secret is safe with him, it should be good,” said his parents.

Teddy thought, Phew! I thought this was going to be worse.

“You’re going to be grounded for five days,” said his dad.

Teddy felt awful and didn’t know what to do. He went back outside and told Parker the disappointing news and how annoying it was. He would be grounded for five days!

“You should go. I’ll get in more trouble if you stay here longer,” Teddy said.

“Okay,” said Parker.

Teddy led Parker back to the walkway, since the path was a little bit different. Teddy felt awful. He had gotten in so much trouble, and he didn’t want Parker to also have the punishment of not seeing him. Teddy walked back home slowly and sadly. His parents told him to go to his room. Teddy laid on his bed on his stomach. He was hungry but didn’t have anything in his bedroom.

“Mom!” Teddy said. “Can I have something to eat? I’m hungry!”

“Come down here and get something if you want something!”

“Okay,” said Teddy.

Teddy slowly dragged his feet down the stairs into the kitchen to the pantry, opening the door with a sad face on him. He looked in the mirror and thought to himself, Oof! I look awful! There were wet stains on him and green patches of leaf stains on him. I better take a shower, he thought to himself. He quickly got his clothes and went into the fresh, lemon scented bathroom. It smells like lemons, he thought. He used his fur body wash from Pandaphora. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself cozily. Five days passed slowly, and in those days, Teddy stayed in his room, practicing his juggling. Usually the ball would bounce on his head and he would get a huge bump on it. His juggling got better and better every day. On the last day, he decided to just lie in bed and sleep. He was happy because he was ungrounded at last.

“Finally!” he said to himself. “Ungrounded!”

Parker was waiting at the walkway when Teddy was there.

“I’m ungrounded!” Teddy told Parker.

“Yay! Finally!” said Parker. “Those five days sure went by slowly.”

They went to Teddy’s hideout and hung out, talking about what had happened in those five days.

“Well, I’ve been getting better at juggling. Want to see?” Teddy said.

“Okay… ” Parker said, unsure.

Teddy grabbed three clementines and started juggling them, but they kept on falling on his head. Teddy and Parker laughed hysterically. They were on the floor, rolling on their backs cheerfully. They were friends in secret.

The End

 

Upsidedown

      

“Do you want a mint?” Nancy asked her friend Emma. “My mom just bought them.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Twelve-year-old Emma was having a sleepover with her friend Nancy. All of a sudden, there was a big boom.

 

Booooooooooooooooom. “What was that?!” asked Emma.

 

After the boom, they both fell asleep.

 

When Emma woke up, she realized that the whole world had turned upside down.

 

Nancy was still sleeping.

 

“Wake up!” Emma was shaking Nancy. Finally, Nancy woke up.

 

“What happened?” Nancy yelled.

 

“I don’t know,” Emma said.

 

“First,” said Emma, “we have to see what caused the world to turn upside down to see how to get it back to normal.”

 

“Do you see anything strange?” Emma said to Nancy.

 

“No,” Nancy said.

 

They pulled on their clothes and rushed outside.

 

Mrs. Doodler, Nancy’s next-door neighbor, was outside holding a bag of fruit she had just bought at the store.

 

“Nice day, is it not?” Mrs. Doodler said.

 

Clearly she had not noticed everything was upside down.

 

Emma ran behind a house with Nancy.

 

“Why do you think Mrs. Doodler hasn’t noticed everything is upside down?” Emma said.

 

“She is pretty old,” Nancy said.

 

Just then, in the house next to Mrs. Doodler, Emma and Nancy’s friend Lily came out of the house. She saw them and walked over to them. It didn’t seem like she noticed anything either. Lily asked them what they were going to be doing over the summer since school had just finished. Emma and Nancy said that they were going to be going away together, which was true. Lily said she was in a rush and that she had to be somewhere. So, Nancy and Emma told her she could go. When she was out of sight, they talked to each other about how she hadn’t noticed either.

 

“Maybe the world is only upside down for us,” Emma said.

 

“Why would it be only for us?” Nancy said.

 

“I don’t know,” Emma replied.

 

“How about we take a walk?” Nancy said.

 

“Okay,” Emma said.

 

They walked to the supermarket. When they got there, there were many other people. Some said good morning, some said nothing, but nobody noticed that everything was upside down.

 

“I bet it is only upside down for us,” Emma said.

 

“I mean, if it is upside down for them they would probably say something,” Nancy said.

 

“Let’s go to my house. We can tell my mom that we will be going to have lunch with Lily, and until then we will play with her.”

 

Emma normally never lied to her mom, but today she felt like she had to. Emma went to her house to tell her mom that she would be going to Lily’s house. Next, they took a little walk. While they were walking, they bumped into Lily, and she actually did invite them to lunch. She invited them to come at 1:00. It was 9:00 in the morning now. They had four hours until it was time to go to Lily’s house. They got ice cream and sat in front of the ice cream store on a bench to discuss what they would do.

 

“What should we do?” Nancy asked Emma.

 

“How about we go back to your house?” Emma suggested.

 

“Okay,” Nancy said.

 

Together they walked back to Nancy’s house. When they got to Nancy’s house, they discussed everything they did from when Emma arrived to the morning when they woke up. They remembered that Emma had come at 8:00 P.M.. The first thing they did was put on their pajamas, and then they both popped mints into their mouth.

 

“Those mints couldn’t have done anything,” Nancy said. “I’ve had them before and nothing happened.” Next, they went to bed. While they were sleeping, they heard a big boom.

 

“But that couldn’t have done anything,” Emma said.

 

Next, they fell back to sleep and when they woke up, everything was upside down. That’s all they had done.

 

“There’s one thing we forgot,” Emma said. “We both popped the mints into our mouth at the exact same time.”

 

Nancy thought about it. “I’ve never eaten a mint when I’ve had a friend over, so maybe the mints turned the world upside down.”

 

“That would make sense,” Nancy said. “Because when my mom got them at the store I was there, and that was the only pack like that.”

“So do you think we have to eat another one to get back to normal?” Emma said.

 

“We could ask my mom if we could have another sleepover at your house,” Nancy said.

 

“We’ll ask her after lunch,” Emma said.

 

“We still have two hours,” Nancy said. “What should we do?”

 

“How about we go on a little walk,” Emma suggested.

 

“Okay,” Nancy said.

 

While they were walking, they saw Mrs. Doodler again.

 

She invited them over for tea. They walked to Mrs. Doodler’s house.

 

They had their tea. Emma and Nancy both had chamomile and so did Mrs. Doodler.

 

Next, they went to Lily’s house for lunch. They had pizza with apple juice. It was really good. Emma and Nancy went to Nancy’s house to ask if they could have another sleepover. Nancy’s mom said she was okay with it as long as Emma’s mom was okay with it.

 

They walked over to Emma’s house to ask her mom. Emma’s mom was not okay with it, so Emma had to convince her mom

 

This is how it went.

 

“Mom, can I please have another sleepover with Nancy.”

 

“No.”

 

“Maybe I should go,” said Nancy.

 

“Oh yeah, bye. See you later maybe.”

 

“Mom, please.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Yay! Thank you so much Mom.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“See you tomorrow.”

 

Emma walked to Nancy’s house. When she got there, she told Nancy’s mom that her mom was okay with it.

 

It was 6:00 now. They played until 8:00. Then, they ate dinner.

 

At 9:00, they ate the mints.

 

Then, they went to bed. When they woke up the next morning, everything was the same.

 

They put on their clothes and went outside.

 

They did not want to wake Nancy’s mom up, so they went to the store to buy something to eat. When they went to the food section, Nancy had an idea. What if there was is something in the store they could eat before bed that would turn it back? They looked around and found a box of taffy that said reverse. They bought it.

 

They went to Emma’s house to ask her mom if she could have another sleepover with Nancy. Her mom said only if she would never have a double sleepover again.

 

“Okay,” Emma said.

 

They played until lunch.

 

They ate lunch. Then, they played until dinner. They ate pasta for dinner.

 

At 9:00, they ate the taffy. Then, they went to bed.

 

That night, there was a big boom.

 

Booooooooooooooooom.

 

They woke up the next morning, and everything was back to normal.

 

Emma and Nancy said, “Hooray!”

 

THE END!

 

Beautiful: A Feminist Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful teenage girl named Chrysanthemum. Her long, perfect nose inhaled the salty odor of the sweat trickling down her beautiful face. Chrysanthemum’s long fingers were clenched into tight fists, and her thin legs were driven into the soft carpet on her bedroom’s hardwood floor. Chrysanthemum breathed deeply and collapsed onto her hot pink bedspread. Her dark red hair fanned out in wavy strokes, clashing horribly with the repulsive shade of pink that decorated her blanket. Chrysanthemum opened her deep blue and amber eyes. She got up and looked at the pillow taped to the wall. One of the pieces of clear scotch tape was peeling. Chrysanthemum pulled another piece of tape off of the roll, enjoying the sharp sound of the thin strip snapping against the tiny spikes that stung when they pricked the bottom of a person’s finger. Chrysanthemum grabbed as much tape as she could and reattached the pillow to the pale pink and white wallpaper. She would need a lot of tape. Chrysanthemum definitely punched hard enough to knock a pillow off a wall.

Chrysanthemum’s body might have been in her bedroom, but her mind was at school. Earlier that day, she had heard something that was… disturbing.

She was in the schoolyard at lunch, and her less-beautiful-but-still-pretty-and-popular friends ran up to her.

“Oh, honey, are you okay?” they asked her, looking worried.

“Of course,” Chrysanthemum answered, wondering what they could possibly be talking about. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

The girls whispered among one another, sounding much like a frenzied flock of birds. Chrysanthemum managed to hear a couple of sentences, however.

“She stubbed her toe. She is too delicate for that.”

“The poor thing is clueless, like always.”

Chrysanthemum backed away, horrified at how her “friends” thought of her.

And then, a final blow: “It’s fine. She’s too pretty to handle herself without any friends. She’ll come back to us.”

Chrysanthemum shuddered, remembering how angry and alone she had felt when she had heard this. Chrysanthemum collapsed back onto her bed and sobbed into her second pillow. Everyone wished that they looked like her. They thought it was so easy to be pretty. They had no idea how wrong they were.

Whenever Chrysanthemum asked her parents to go to the store after school, they said no. Their excuse was that they were worried that she would get hurt or lost. This was the store that was a block away from school. She didn’t even have to cross any streets to get there. Whenever Chrysanthemum was about to climb the big, fake spider web in the yard behind her school, her teachers would run up to her and tell her that it was too dangerous. When she protested with the argument that everyone else did it, they would tell her that it was different because the time for being outside was about to end, and so she didn’t have time to climb it anyway. Chrysanthemum couldn’t exactly tell the teacher to stop lying about how long recess was, so she had never once gotten to climb the spiderweb. Nor had she ever gone to the store near school. The worst part about her being pretty was that everyone was always watching her. Chrysanthemum didn’t have any friends who weren’t popular and pretty, because everyone would judge her if she did. Chrysanthemum couldn’t show that she loved math and hated art because no one would like her if she did. Why would they? The kids no one could stand were the math whizzes. No one realized this, but Chrysanthemum was just as vulnerable and exposed as a turtle without a shell. Chrysanthemum wished that she could be ugly. Just for a day, to see what it was like. When Chrysanthemum looked at the calendar, she came up with a plan. The date was October 20th.

Over the next few days, Chrysanthemum worked nonstop. She worked with the teachers to plan a Halloween party in the gym at school. She made a deal with an unpopular seventh grader named Seraphina who was about her height and who had widely advertised that she was going to be dressed as a character from Star Wars: the green woman who served Jabba the Hutt. Chrysanthemum then told all of her “friends” that she would go as a mummy, and told them that she would be covering her face. Then, she started to make her costume.

 

It was Halloween. Chrysanthemum was ready. She put on a green mask and a lot of green clothes, and got ready to see what it was like to be disliked. Here was her plan: she would dress up like the green servant of Jabba the Hutt in the place of Seraphina, and she would dress up like a mummy with its face covered in the place of Chrysanthemum. This way everyone would think that Chrysanthemum was unpopular and treat her that way, and they wouldn’t wonder where Chrysanthemum was because Seraphina would be dressed as Chrysanthemum had planned to. There was only one problem. And it was called her parents.

“Honey, it’s not that I don’t trust you to go to the Halloween party alone, it’s just… ”

“That you don’t trust me to go to the Halloween party alone,” finished Chrysanthemum.

Her mom looked apologetic. “Well, yes. And I don’t understand why you really want to. You can have candy here. After all, you get almost everything you want.”

“You have to let me grow up! My whole life you’ve been babying me. You expect me to act like a little girl and to always need you to help me with everything, but how am I supposed to get independent enough to go out by myself if you won’t let me go out by myself? You say that I get everything I want, but has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don’t like all the things you give me? I know that this will come as a shock to you, but I hate pink and Barbies and dolls and unicorns! If I had a choice, I would never in a million years wear a dress! When I see ruffles, I’d rather set them on fire than wear them! When I go to the shoe store, I don’t actually want the tiny pink slippers with sparkles on them. I want the practical sneakers! But if this ruins me in your eyes or whatever, well then, you have to deal with it.

Chrysanthemum’s mom gave an annoying little giggle that made Chrysanthemum want to push her fingers into her ears and sing. “Honey, I know that’s not true. You asked me to give you pink wallpaper and pink bedding.”

Really?” Chrysanthemum hissed. “Because I seem to remember asking you for white paint and a red rug and bed.”

“Pink is the girl version of red. I just made you happy.”

Do I look happy to you???”

Chrysanthemum’s mother’s shoulders slumped. She sighed. “No. You don’t. I’m sorry, Chrys. I guess that I always wanted you to be like me, and I just didn’t understand how much it really affected you. You can go to the party.”

Chrysanthemum smiled and hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mom,” she said. “That means a lot.” Chrysanthemum then grabbed her bag and ran out the door. Her plan was in motion.

 

When Chrysanthemum got to the party, she immediately saw a girl dressed like a mummy, covered in linen from head to toe, but with slits cut out so that she could see and breathe. She gave little sign that she saw Chrysanthemum, except for giving her a small nod. Chrysanthemum returned the greeting and continued on into the party, bracing herself for whatever came next. But nothing came next, at least for a while. No one even gave her a glance. Chrysanthemum hated this. But it was a lot better than what did come next. Chrysanthemum was getting a piece of candy from the big bowl in the entrance when she was surrounded by a group of people dressed as a unicorn, a fairy, and a ballerina. These were the girls who she had previously called friends. Years later, this night came as a blur.

Chrysanthemum still could only remember one thing that they had said: “You’re nobody. You have no friends. So don’t expect sympathy from us.”

It was the first time Chrysanthemum had actually been bullied, so she ended up in tears. Tears that made the space under her mask hot and stuffy. Chrysanthemum ran to the bathroom, pushing people aside and forcing her way through the crowd.

There were drops of condensation on the dirty, cracked mirror. Chrysanthemum wiped away the fog and pulled off her mask. There were long tear marks on her cheeks, glowing in the fluorescent lights. Chrysanthemum turned on the facet and caught the glittering, transparent water in the cup of her hands. She poured the water on her face, wiping off the grime and snot. When she finished, it was impossible to tell that Chrysanthemum had ever been crying. Her skin was as clear and spotless as ever. Chrysanthemum steadied herself and turned to go back out. She was about to slip the mask back on, but was stopped. A unicorn, a fairy, and a ballerina were standing by the door.

“Oh my god! Chrysanthemum!”

“Weren’t you supposed to be a mummy?”

“We had no idea that was you!”

“I saw you dressed as a mummy!”

“We’re so sorry!”

“Yeah, guys, didn’t you see the mummy?”

“We would have never said those things if we had known it was you.”

“We thought we were talking to that dork, Seraphina.”

Chrysanthemum stared at them in horror. “How could you?”

“What?”

“How could you treat someone that way? If you had been talking to Seraphina instead of me, would you have apologized? And why did you follow me to the bathroom in the first place? To bully me even more? I didn’t want to believe it. Seraphina told me that you guys were mean, but I didn’t believe her. I thought you guys were bad friends… but it turns out you are even worse people.” Chrysanthemum then ran out of the bathroom and out of the gym and out of the school and into the cool scene of Manhattan in fall. Chrysanthemum breathed in the fresh, crisp air and let the familiar scents make their way into her sinuses. Chrysanthemum heard the banging of the big wooden door that led to the school, and turned around, ready to lecture her former friends some more. Instead, it was Seraphina.

“Hey, Chrys. You okay?”

In the last eleven days, Chrysanthemum and Seraphina had become close friends. It had turned out that they got along well. They both preferred math over art; they both thought that dogs were (very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very) awesome, but snakes were cooler; they both despised pink but loved blue. Most importantly, they got along very well. Well enough to hang out outside of school. Seraphina had changed Chrysanthemum’s entire perspective on beauty. She had helped Chrysanthemum with her plan to switch costumes. She was the one who had warned Chrysanthemum about her so-called “friends.” As far as Chrysanthemum knew, Seraphina was the first real friend she had ever had. Apparently Seraphina hadn’t had many friends either, except for a girl named Harper, who had also been bullied at her school until she decided to stand up to those bullies. Seraphina introduced Chrysanthemum to Harper, so now Chrysanthemum had two close friends to hang out with.

Over the next couple of weeks, people all over the school heard about how Chrysanthemum had stood up to the (formerly) popular girls, and people wanted to become her friend. And it wasn’t just because she was pretty! Meanwhile, people heard Seraphina’s account of being popular for a night, and how no one would talk to her because they were scared she would judge them. Everyone was happy that Seraphina hadn’t been judging them. Chrysanthemum’s former “friends” were being treated fine, but they were no longer popular or particularly well-liked. Chrysanthemum rarely talked to them, and when she did, they treated her with respect. The teachers still treated her the same, but Chrysanthemum knew she couldn’t control everything. Only herself. Middle school always has its ups and downs. But at least for now… they lived happily ever after.

 

Put on Your Game Face

 

Hmm…

Click.

Tap.

Crumple.

Arrgh.

Beep beep beep, goes my text tone.

“If London texts me again, I will throw my phone out of the window.”

Madeline Kate O’Brian

You have been selected for a game challenge.

You will have five days to complete this challenge.

If you don’t complete it in five days, there will be consequences.

If you accept, write back immediately.

 

Well, that is out of the blue. And who calls me by my full name (except for my parents when I get in trouble, of course)? Oh great, and now there is a five minute countdown. In red. This is definitely big. Very big.

I accept. Give me more details.

Immediately, the thing texts back.

Good, you accepted. Come to York Street, go to building number 33, and ring the buzzer three times. Come on September first at exactly 11:31 AM. Do NOT BE LATE!

“Well, that’s weird. 11:31? Who can pull that off?”

“I can.”

That is London, my very annoying twin sister who is also a gamer, and who thinks that she can do anything and everything, which isn’t all bad. But it is really annoying. Please don’t let her have gotten the same text as me, I think.

“Hey, little sis, what are you concocting now?”

“None of your beeswax,” I snap.

“Ohhhhh, someone’s in a bad mood.”

“I am not in a bad mood! I am just stuck. But why are you in here?”

“One, this is my room, too; and two, I think that something is up with you. You haven’t sent me an annoyed text in like 15 minutes.”

“So what?”

“So something is up.”

“No, I am down, I can’t think of a game, and… ”

“And what?”

“And I entered a contest with a deadline of three days.”

London walks over to my desk.

“Oh, so you’re making a game about random kids who have to ‘find their superpowers.’”

“Don’t you see that one is crumpled?” I say as I pick up the paper and throw it onto the soft, fluffy carpet.

Great, there goes my great idea. But now it probably isn’t my idea anymore because copycat London got it in her evil, evil clutches.

“Go bother Ryan or something,” I say to London.

“Oh, am I bothering you?” she asks in fake surprise.

“Yes,” I say through my gritted teeth. My fingernails are digging into my palms. I feel my anger rising and boiling up.

“Fine! I will leave. But keep in mind that I will come back, because this is my room too.” And with that, she slams the door.

I put my head down on the wood of my desk. Then, there comes another beep beep beep.

Here are the other people involved with this challenge:

Rose Apperad

Belle Mersa

Aaron Icer

Jack Canfor

And Beatrice Becomler.

Hmm. Those are interesting people. Really interesting. So, back to my thinking stage.

 

Tap.

Tap.

Crumple.

Crumple.

Headslam.

“Dinner time!”

Ugh! Dinner again. Ohhh! But it smells really good. I meet my older brother Ryan on the stairs.

“London told me you told her to bother me.”

“Well, yeah, because she was in my — our room, bothering me, and I am very, very busy.”

“Oh. Are you working on the other game?”

“Umm, yeah.”

“Can I test it?”

“Umm, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“It’s for a competition, and I am not sure on the rules.”

“Oh. Okay, then.”

When we get to the dinner table, London is already there.

“Mom called dinner two and a half minutes ago. You’re late. Funny! That’s how much older I am than you.”

“Stop it, London.”

“Why?”

“Oh, London, why don’t you just run away,” Ryan asks rhetorically.

“If I ran away, Mom and Dad would miss me too much. They would make a reward for anyone who found me, and I would turn myself in and get the reward, which would be pretty high.”

“Umm… London?” I say. “I am not sure that’s how it works.”

“Girls, could we have at least one dinner without you two arguing about something or someone?” Mom says angrily.

“Probably not,” mumbles Ryan.

“What did you say?” asks London, her face growing pink.

“I said that you couldn’t not argue.”

“I accept your challenge.”

“I didn’t challenge you.”

“Five bucks if I don’t argue.”

“Oh, whatever.”

I whisper to Ryan, “You just earned a free five bucks.”

Ryan chuckles.

“So, did anyone do anything fun today?” asks Dad.

“I went to the skatepark,” offers Ryan.

“You skate?” asks Dad.

“Well, kind of. I actually went to the skatepark in a video game.”

“That makes more sense,” Mom says.

At that moment, our neighbor, Mrs. Sweetson, (nicknamed Mrs. Grump by London and me, one of the only things we agree about) appears by our sliding glass door.

“Kids, did you do something?” Mom asks cautiously before she opens the door.

“Nope!” is our very speedy reply.

Mom gives us a cold, knowing look before opening the door.

“Did I see a For Sale sign on your front lawn?” she asks excitedly.

“I don’t think so. Do you feel okay, Mrs. Sweetson?”

“Yes,” she snaps, trying to hide her disappointment. “Well, I am sure that it’s there. I will show you.”

Mom goes outside, and we follow her. Mrs. Sweetson hates us because when we were six, we accidently told the petting zoo that we ordered for our birthday to go to her house. She still hasn’t forgiven us, six whole years later! Like, seriously, doesn’t she know the saying “forgive and forget”? Well, when we get to the sign, there really is a sign. I have a feeling Mrs. Grumps planted it there.

“I am very sorry, Mrs. Sweetson, but we are not moving. Kids, is this your version of a joke?”

“No. We aren’t that mean,” London says sweetly.

“I don’t think that that should be legal, because it is very confusing,” I say.

“We wouldn’t do such a thing. On top of that, we like our house and don’t want to leave if we don’t have to. Right?” says Ryan.

“Right,” London and I say.

“Fine,” Mom says and goes back inside.

“Okay, kids, you’ll get away with it this time. But next time, you won’t be so lucky, because next time I will have evidence. Now, get out of my sight,” Mrs. Sweetson says.

We all trudge back to the house and grab our favorite popsicles (mine is lemon cream) and walk upstairs. When I get back to our rooms, the thing had texted me a lot.

Start thinking of game ideas.

Unless you want consequences.

And then

I am putting you in the blueish-gray room.

And

You have to make your game out of the materials we give you and you get three extras.

All I am thinking is, What is this thing I got myself into? Blueish-grey room. Consequences. They give you materials. What is this, Chopped?

“Hmmm, what is this?” London asks slyly.

“Do you need to know?”

“Yes!”

“I entered a board game competition. Nothing new.”

“Did you tell Mom? Do you need parent permission?”

“No and no. And please do something for me for once, and don’t tell Mom.”

“Okay. I won’t tell Mom. But you have to tell me more about this contest.”

“Okay, it’s not a contest. It’s more of a challenge.”

“Fine! A challenge. Tell me more.”

“I don’t know more.”

“Uh , yes you do.”

“Uh, no I don’t.”

At that moment, Ryan walks into the room. Thank goodness, I think.

“What is going on here?”

“She won’t tell me about her challenge.”

“I don’t know enough to tell her without lying.”

“Okay,” Ryan says, “I will treat you to something… ”

“Anything?” asks London.

“Anything, if you leave Maddie alone.”

“Deal!”

“Thank you,” I whisper as Ryan walks out the door. He nods and walks off.

 

A few hours later, I am pacing around the house when the perfect idea pops up and makes its way into my central thinking system.

 

Why. That is a question I ask myself a lot. Like, why does London have to be my twin? And why do ideas just pop in my mind? And why do they not come to me when I really, really need them? But most of all, why am I in this challenge? I didn’t do anything to get in.

 

Later that night, I go to Ryan’s room. It’s the 24th of August, and school will start on the 10th of September. (It’s starting later because of technical difficulties with the sprinkler system.) I need help with getting to the place for the contest without my parents getting suspicious. And with kids like London, Ryan, and me, there is always a need for suspicion. I tell this to Ryan, and he doesn’t seem too worried.

“Maddie, keep in mind that I am sixteen,” he says.

“So?”

“So, what do you get when you turn sixteen?”

“Umm… a driver’s license?”

“Exactly!” he says. “And what can you do with a driver’s license?”

“Drive.”

“And what do you drive?”

I glare at him. “Ryan, stop. A car, obviously.”

How could I forget? Ryan is sixteen, and a few weeks ago, he got a used red sports car with money from his job as a caddy at one of the country clubs, even though he knows nothing about golf.

“Okay, so I have a way to get there now. I need an excuse.”

Ryan looks at me as if it is obvious. “Maddie, I provide the transportation, and you do the excuses. Okay?”

“Fine.”

I go back to my room to find London doing her normal nightly routine. Laying out her outfit, while checking the weather and her calendar to make sure that it is perfect for the next day. I roll my eyes. Shorts and a T-shirt work for me.

 

It is the night before the first day at the contest, and I still don’t have an excuse. Wait, London always has excuses. So, I ask London.

“Hmmm, I see your struggle,” says London. “I have the perfect thing. Say that you are going to get things for school.”

“That’s great! But remember, this is a five day contest.”

“Okay, go to a friend’s house on the second day, a movie on the third day, the park on the fourth day, and a drive on the fifth. Then you just have to leave at different times so you don’t create suspicion, which you should get an award for because you are really good at not creating suspicion,” she says sarcastically.

“London!”

“Just saying.”

“Anyway, thanks.”

“Wait, Maddie. My services have a price.”

“What do you mean, it has a price?”

“I mean, you have to pay. Two dollars.

“Why would pay you money?”

“Because… I just helped you a lot.”

“In other words, no.”

“Please!”

“NO!!!”

And with that, I storm out of the room, and I go out in the yard. A second later, Mom’s head peeks out of our sliding glass door. Ugh, I think I can never be alone in this house.

“Maddie, a girl named Rose Aperad is coming over in about five minutes. Do you know her?” I hesitate for half of a millisecond. Right! One of the other contestants.

“Okay,” I say. “But can you keep London very busy while she’s here?”

“Sure. I guess that not all of these things that you do have to involve London.”

“Thank you,” I say, then Mom pops back in the house.

A few minutes later, a girl named Rose Aperad comes. She has olive skin, brown wavy hair that tumbles down her back, and exotic looking green eyes.

“Hi,” the girl says. “You must be Madeline.”

“Yes, I am. Rose, right?” I ask.

“Yep.”

“Come on in.”

“Thank you,” she says. “But I can only stay for a few minutes. I am warning you that this challenge is very challenging and very dangerous. Good luck.”

And with that, she turns on her heel, gets on her bike, and leaves.

And for the second time that day, I ask myself what I had gotten myself into. And why would Rose, who I don’t even know, warn me?

Stunned, I walk into the kitchen. Mom notices and comes over. “Is everything alright?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say. “I just don’t feel very well.”

“Oh,” she says. “Well, then I hope you feel better. Why don’t you go get some rest? Call me if you need anything.”

“Wait,” I say when she is halfway up the stairs. “Where’s London?”

“Oh, I was busy, so I sent Ryan to go take her for ice cream or something.”

 

It is the day of the first day of the contest. I am so nervous. So nervous. I get out of bed, and I play a one person game of Quiet-as-a-Mouse as I tiptoe up the stairs to the loft, also known as Ryan’s room. “Ryan, Ryan!” I exclaim. He rolls over and looks groggily at me.

“London, go away.”

“Ryan, I am not London!” This happens a lot with us being identical and all. Even with our older brother.

“So sorry, Maddie. I am just tired.”

“It’s fine,” I say. He rolls over again to look at his alarm clock.

“Madeline Kate O’Brian, how dare you wake me up at 6:20. Let me sleep for at least three more hours.”

“Sorry, Ryan.”

I head back to my room. I need something to do, so I find a piece of paper and write out my game.

 

A Race to the Deadline.

Rules: There are at least three characters. You are each either a movie director, a writer, or a reporter. You all have a deadline that you have to meet. On different spaces you pick a card. It is either good or bad. It will either set you back or get you closer…

 

Then, London wakes up, and she is mad. “You turned on the light and woke me up.”

“Sorry,” I say.

“Maddie, since you choose to be up at this hour, where is that sleeping mask Ryan gave to me for my birthday?”

“Yeah,” I say, pulling it out of my desk drawer. Now I am glad that I saved this thing, because I was going to use it for a game, but I didn’t.

 

It is a few hours later, and I am putting on jeans and a Harry Potter T-shirt. I am racing downstairs, grabbing a bag of gummy bears (for stress eating), a bag of sea salt and vinegar chips (for a snack), and a bottle of water. I take my game idea and my mom’s old phone (also known as my new phone) out to the front stoop and into the front seat of Ryan’s car.

“Ready to go,” I say.

We get to York Street, and there are a lot of numbered houses: 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, but no 33. I am very confused. Then, I spot Rose going through the side wall. A hidden door. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I get out of the car and walk around the side door, my heart thumping like a drum. I check the time: 11:30. I look for cracks in the wall. Finally, I find the crack and push. Overhead, I hear a computerized voice say: “Welcome, Madeline Kate O’Brian.”

“You can call me Madeline,” I say, even though the computer probably can’t hear me.

“Yes, Madeline, and you can call me Viola.”

“Umm… okay,” I answer, not exactly sure what to say.

“Go down the hall, and take two rights. Then you will be at the blueish grey room, and then you will answer the riddle.” Oh great, I think. A riddle.

I walk down that hall and take my first right. I see a light pinkish-grey room with the names Aaron Icer and Rose Aperad. Then, I take another right and see the yellowish-grey room with the names Belle Mersa and Jack Canfor. I walk a little further, and I finally see the blueish-grey room with names Madeline O’Brian and Beatrice Becomler.

I step through the door, and a cranky old man’s voice says: “You will answer this riddle, and you will find that the password is the answer to this riddle. Here is the riddle: a cowboy rides his horse into town on Friday, two days later the cowboy leaves on Friday. How could this happen?”

I sit down on the cool tile floor. I think better when I sit down. Friday, cowboys ride horses. He rode a horse.

“Got it,” I exclaim. “The cowboy rode in on a horse named Friday.”

“Very good,” the cranky old man says. “You may enter.”

The door swings open to reveal two desks with fluffy roller chairs and a blueish carpet that probably used to be fluffy but was worn out by years of use, along with two hammocks with pillows and blankets, two bright green baskets, and a girl with dirty blond hair that is in beach waves. She wears thick black rimmed glass and a cheery smile.

“Hello,” the girl says. “I am Beatrice Becomler, and you are probably Madeline.”

“Yeah… ”

Just then, Viola’s voice blares through the speakers.

“Attention! The contest will start in two minutes. In the first round, you will have to draw out the plan for your game. With only the materials that we give you in the box. Then if the Master accepts your plan, you will move onto the next round. If not, then you will meet your fate.”

Beatrice and I freeze.

“Okay,” she says. “That was freaky.” I nod in agreement.

“Let’s open our baskets.”

My basket: One sheet of construction paper, a piece of charcoal, and a twenty-four count box of crayons. And a note: Try, Try, Try. Hun. Sounds like I have heard that before.

I get another text right as I am starting to draw out the cards for my game.

You have to work if you don’t want to meet your fate.

Great! Another creepy text.

I start working again. I look up at the wall. Ten minutes left.

Before I know it, the timer is going off. Beeee boooooo beeeeeeeep.

Then, Viola says: “Come to the front hall. Your work will be judged there.”

We all file into the hall. First up is Rose Aperad. Her work gets passed. Then Aaron Icer. His work is denied. A young woman leads a scared looking Aaron out of the room. Then everyone else goes, and then it is my turn. I walk up to the stand on shaky legs, where I put my work under a screen so that our judge can judge it.

“Your work is denied.”

I just stand there. I don’t move. The young woman comes back out and leads me to a small room where a girl about my age is standing. She looks just like me. She turns, and it’s…

“LONDON!”
“Madeline?”

“What the heck have you done?!”

“I made a contest. Nothing new.”

“Why would you do this?

“I am trying really hard to make you happy.”

“Yeah right.”

“No, really.”

“Are you judging our work?!”

“No. My friend Viola is.”

“Is this thing fake?!”

“Definitely not. You know that I don’t do the fake thing. I do the real thing.”

“London, you will never be able to repay me.”

“Madeline. Try me.”

“No wonder I never thought we were actually twins.”

“Oh, but we are.”

“I know that! But seriously, Why would you do this me?”

“I know how competitive you are, and that you needed a challenge. You were kind of on a gamer’s block all summer, and I wanted your creative juices to start flowing.”

“Thanks, I guess. But, wait, where is Aaron?”

“Safe and sound at home.”

“You know what, London, I actually kind of want to thank you. But now I know I will not read strange texts.”

“Remember Rose.”

“Yeah, did you set her up?”

“Sure, I did. I felt bad, so I wanted you to back down.”

“You did, did you?”

“Yes. Listen, Maddie, I am very sorry. I didn’t mean for you to take it that way. I was just trying to help.”

“I still do not forgive you. But I thank you.”

“Remember that story that Mom used to tell us about how on the first day of kindergarten, we wouldn’t separate, and our teachers had to come and literally pull us apart?“ London recalls.

“Yeah. Why don’t we get Ryan to pick us up and go home,” I suggest.

 

Epilogue.

I am sitting in my room, or at least my side of it. My side of the carpet is the fluffiest, and better for sitting on, whereas London’s side is worn from many years of practicing gymnastics and her horrible hip-hop. My bed is neat and cozy-looking, and London’s is the opposite. I am sitting on the fluffy carpet, bouncing a ball and eating a bowl of ice cream while mulling over yesterday’s events. (I am very good at multitasking.) I am still upset at London. I am wondering why I hadn’t picked up on how she knew about the 11:31 thing. Or how all of the texts mostly came when she was not in the same room as me. I look over at London’s bed. She had already done her silly ritual. Laying out her clothes. A scoop of ice cream trickles down my favorite Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Oh come on, I think. I hear London’s soft footsteps across the hall. Great, I think. London is going to barge in here and totally be rude. That will really drive me off the edge. Instead, London comes in and sits down next to me. Her eyes are full of remorse. We look at each other and go in for a hug. I look at London. Her clothes have smudges of my chocolate ice cream. She looks down and glares at me. We both giggle.

 

Dagger and the Bloodwolf

Dagger was a 21-year-old man living on Tracker Street in Orlando, Florida. He was the only one living on that street, but he was actually from California but moved because he got a job as a bartender in Orlando. Tracker Street was built in the 1950s, and now, by 2017, it had looked old and wrinkly, like no one had ever lived on the street. There was only one bar in the town, where Dagger worked. The rest of it was forest. The bar was named Beer’s Beer House and was very hard to work in, had a lot of fights, and was hard work because you had to protect yourself because people started bar brawls. There were so many brawls because people from all over the world came to have beer there. They could be friends, or they could be enemies, which was why people started brawls. Dagger had friends that he met when he started working there. Their names were Lash the trashboy, who mostly took out the trash, and Raker the waiter. Lastly, there was Jack the chef. Dagger and his friends usually went to a casino in the city of Orlando to have fun. They usually played games and had drinks.

That night, Dagger was walking home from the bar. That’s when it struck. Big, strong, deadly, the bloodwolf. Struck at the speed of light and never gave up when it was up to killing. When Dagger first saw it, he was scared to death. He ran as fast as he could, but the bloodwolf didn’t catch him. Not yet, at least.

The bloodwolf was a cross between a werewolf and a wolf. The people who made this terrible mixture was the government. They wanted to make an unbeatable weapon so no one would cross paths with them. That night, when the wolf tried to get out of their rusty hands, they took the wolf and threw him into a pit, thinking the wolf would become a weapon, but they were wrong. The wolf transformed into the bloodwolf. It was destructive, it was massive, and it killed everyone in its path that night. People said legend said that the bloodwolf still haunted Orlando, Florida, and they had assumed correctly. They put up warning signs, which was why everyone left. The bloodwolf wanted to get revenge for what the humans did to him, and what he ate was the flesh of human beings.

The bloodwolf had gotten Dagger’s scent and was now hunting Dagger. The next day, Dagger thought that was just a dream, seeing the bloodwolf in front of him.

He kept saying to himself, “It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, it’s just a dream.”

When he arrived at the bar, because his job was a bartender, his friend said, “Hey, what’s wrong, buddy?”

He said, “Well, you know, I saw a werewolf.”

Everybody laughed, making fun of him. The whole day he was miserable and trying to make his friends think about something else, but it never worked. Dagger was turning away from his friends, trying to ignore them. Okay, let’s face it, Dagger could sometimes be crazy, and his friends knew that. So this time, they thought this was really just stupidity or a dream. His friends were never so mean to him, but when they heard he saw a werewolf, they just laughed and laughed and made fun of him. Usually, they would have fun together, but they also made fun of each other sometimes for the fun of it. When he got out of the bar, he was very vigilant and alert of his surroundings, but the bloodwolf was smarter than he thought. He went in the forest for a nice walk, thinking that the bloodwolf wouldn’t come so far from the village and thinking that it was a werewolf, but it was not. Bloodwolves looked like werewolves. But bloodwolves were faster, smarter, and did not come out of humans. That night he thought, Oh well, who cares. It’s just a werewolf. What can a werewolf do to me. He was thinking it was just a dog, so he could just throw a stick and he would go fetch. But he was very much wrong. Bloodwolves were not dogs. They knew the difference between dogs and wolves, and they did not give up until their prey was destroyed. That night, Dagger actually enjoyed his time in the forest. It was nice because the night sky was blue, and there was a full moon and a lot of stars. When he was going home, it struck again. It was like the speed of light. It was so fast, Dagger didn’t even see it coming when the bloodwolf was right in front of him. He ran the other way, thinking he could outrun the bloodwolf, but it was faster than he thought. The chase was two minutes long and as he was running, he thought he could survive because he was kind of smart, and he thought the bloodwolf wasn’t. But no, the bloodwolf was smarter and quicker, so when the bloodwolf pounced to get him, it did some damage. But then, the bloodwolf caught him and killed him and ate him. At that moment, Dagger found out that the bloodwolf was really a bloodwolf, but it was too late. That night, the bloodwolf had a feast on Dagger’s body. Legend stated that whoever went into the forest again would be hunted by that bloodwolf that killed Dagger five years ago.

The End

Oh wait. The next day, Dagger was in digital heaven. That why it’s written like this. Dagger was playing sports like soccer and baseball and made his dream come true, becoming the best bartender ever. Dagger was a skeleton. Dagger was thinking how rich he could be in digital heaven. Dagger was seeing himself being the president of digital heaven.

Now that’s the end.

 

Persephona

        

Part One

Once there was a girl who got bullied. Her name was Parsephona. Everyone always thought she was all nicey-nice. This was her worst fear. People thought this because she was Persephone’s daughter, goddess of spring. She went to the underworld. No one understood Persephone either. She lived in ancient Greece. Ancient Greece was beautiful. But she was just a normal girl. She was a sweet girl with beautiful, green eyes She liked sports a bunch and gymnastics. She got bullied because she didn’t have any friends that lived close and because she was the daughter of a goddess.

Ava lived three hours away. She lived in a town named San Deana. Her friend, Parsephona, lived in Caler Dean. Every summer, she loved to go and stay with her friend because they were the only ones who understood each other. They met in the middle of preschool when both looked really sad and lonely. They were sitting next to each other and looked in each other’s eyes and saw that they were supposed to be great friends. In preschool, they lived in the same town. Then in the middle of fifth grade, her dad got a job in Caler Dean. Over the years they were together, they became inseparable. So when Parsephona and her friend had to be separated, their moms said they could see each other every summer. Ava liked soccer and gymnastics.

Parsephona always tried to make the bullying stop, but it never worked. One time, she was talking back to a bully, but then everybody laughed at her. She wanted to ask her parents to help her with what was going on at school. But she was too afraid that her parents would say something like, “You can work.” So, she had it as a secret. So she was so mad that she tried to call a hypnosis teacher. She thought that she should after the last day of school. Then, she realized that she was not allowed to invite someone without her parents’ permission.

So that summer, she asked, “Can I get something by myself before we go.”

Then her mom said, “You sure, honey?”

“I’m sure, Mom.”

“Alright then, go. But you must be back by 5:00.”

Then, she went out to find the hypnosis teacher. As she got closer, she got scared. She also started to think that she would have nightmares that night. Then, she thought that she should turn back, but she also wanted to keep going because she wanted to be less mad. She stopped and sat on the stairs of an awkward building to think what she should do. She also thought she should just go to her friend’s house now because that was the only person she could talk to. She found a car and decided to take it, so she stole it. She didn’t think correctly, so she just did. Then she went driving, and a cop saw her and put her in jail. She should have just called her mom. She called her friend, and she came to help her get out of jail.

When her friend got there, she told the police that it was just a misunderstanding. She said that she did this because she was really scared. She had never been in jail before, so she had no idea what happened. Then, the police let her out of jail and called her parents.

From that day, she realized that she should always tell her parents what was happening. Now she told her parents that people were bullying her, and they said they would talk to everyone’s parents. All the parents told them that they should be nicer.

Then, she realized that they were all really good friends. Her parents did give a punishment and that was that she had to take care of her new baby sister straight after school till she was in seventh grade, and she knew to be more responsible next time. Then every time she got mad, she went to her mom for help. She was now more responsible.

The moral of this part of this story is to count on everyone when you need help.

 

Part Two: My Diary

(Night)

Dear diary,

Why did I do this. Now I have to go home and not do any gymnastics. I guess I’ll do a backflip in the backyard while sis is sleeping. I wish we had a trampoline. I also wish I knew who my dad is. I think he is really fun. I’ve been struggling with this because when it’s winter, Mom is in the underworld. We know it’s not Hades, but who is it? I ask my mom, but she says that she would never tell. Back to now, sis is sleeping, Mom has something on Mount Olympus, so I’m technically alone. I’m having a lot of thoughts right now. Like what if the kids are being nice just because their parents told them to? I wish that people understood me. Now it’s getting really late, and Mom isn’t back yet. I will go to bed, but if she is not back by morning, I will freak out.

(Morning)

Dear diary,

Mom still gone. I tried calling her, but she didn’t answer. I’ll call Athena. She is a wise goddess. Mom told me Mom has to go down to the underworld because it’s going to be winter very soon and how Artemis is going to be my babysitter. She is so fun. She taught me archery, and the first time I tried, I hit the target right in the middle and tied with Artemis, the best person at archery in the world.

“How did I even get this good?” I asked Artemis.

“Your dad,” she said.

 

The end

 

Sequel coming out summer 2019.

 

A New War

Our story begins in the village of Dinval in a world where wars never end. Dinval is home to many of the race Redwood, and our character Rohan has a friend named Ralf. They are very good friends. Rohan and Ralf are going on a trip to Dinvel, home to the race of Ginvers. Dinvel is a small village. It was once a huge kingdom, but Zoros destroyed the place, and it is now only a village.

But before they go, there is a celebration of Vindor, the ones who have been protecting Inval from Zoros, the dark lord. It happened 1,000 years ago, when the great war was going on, but Vindor has protected them ever since. Some time later, Rohan and Ralf have made it to the celebration. As violins play, they dance for some time.

And then they realize they have to go, so Rohan goes up to Ralf. Rohan says to Ralf, “Hey, we need to go.”

Rohan and Ralf go to their home and sleep. Rohan can’t sleep. He keeps hearing whispers, so Rohan gets up and goes outside and walks around to think. And then Rohan hears two men talking, and Rohan eavesdrops on their conversion.

“Zoros will tear down every city to take over this world,” the two men say.

Rohan panics, and he looks up in the sky and sees a rain of arrows. Rohan takes cover.

Rohan sees Hourloks killing villagers. Hourloks are the darkest race to live. Rohan gets Ralf, and they start running. A Hourlok runs over and is about to stab Rohan, but a Vindorion soldier impales the Hourlok and tells Rohan to run. Rohan and Ralf run into the forest, and they escape the Hourloks.

A few weeks later, they make it to a village named Oostir. They go into a motel and rent it out as they talk about what happened, and then they go to bed. Rohan wakes up, goes downstairs, goes outside, and sees a man. He is an Adorian. Rohan hears horses far away. The man tells Rohan to go inside. They go into the motel.

Ralf yells, “WHO IS THAT?!”

“I don’t know,” says Rohan.

“YOU DON’T KNOW?” yells Ralf.

“I’m Arados,” the man says.

“Who?” Rohan asks.

“It does not matter who I am. We need to leave now. Jump out the window.”

“Um w… why?” says Ralf.

“Just do it,” says Arados.

“Okay,” says Ralf.

“What are those things, and why are they after us?”

“They are Singhul, and I do not know why they are after you, but just go. I will meet you at the gate. Run.”

Rohan and Ralf get to the gate. Arados runs to them and opens the gate. They run.

A few days later…

“Hey, where are we going?” Rohan asks Arados.

“We are going to Elvon,” Arados says.

“Where?” Rohan asks.

“We are going to go to Elvon,” Arados says.

“Why?” Rohan asks.

“To understand why the Singhul are after you and to know why they are back.”

“But why Elvon?” asks Rohan.

“The seers are there now. Stop asking stuff,” says Arados.

“Okay,” says Rohan.

“Hey, we are here. Just over this hill,” says Arados.

Rohan walks over the hill and sees a city like no other. They walk into the huge castle and see a meeting room with three men called the seers. Rohan starts walking up to them, and then a glass ball falls out of Rohan’s bag.

Then, the seers yell, “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?”

“I… I… my dad gave it to me,” Rohan nervously says.

“Do you know what that is?”

“No, I don’t,” Rohan says.

A bearded man comes into the meeting room and says, “Don’t be hard on the boy, just tell him.”

“So that’s why the Singhul were after you,” says Arados.

“What is it? Just tell me,” Rohan says.

“It is the key to the crystal of the knight’s guard,” one of the seers says.

“What is that?” Rohan asks.

“It is… ”

A huge boom hits the castle.

“What was that?” Rohan asks.

“OH NO!! IT’S ZOROS! HE’S ATTACKING!” Arados yells as thuds and booms go on. “Run! Get your men to the battlefields!” the bearded man says.

“Rohan, run,” Arados says.

“Where are you going?” Rohan asks Arados.

“Just run,” Arados says.

Rohan gets to the top of the castle tower and sees the Hourloks breaking through the gate. A boulder comes and hits the tower that Rohan is in, and then the tower comes down. Rohan falls out of the tower. He gets up and is slightly hurt. He sees two Hourloks coming at him, but Arados comes and uses his sword and kills them both. Arados tells Rohan to run inside the castle. They both run inside and close the gate. Rohan hears the Hourloks banging at the gate.

“Arados, we need to leave to Airadon,” the bearded man says.

A few days later, they walk into the the meeting room, and they talk.

“What is your name?” Rohan asks the bearded man.

“My name is Dilval.”

“Okay, what is the knight’s guard?”

“They are the ones that protected the world, but now they are dead.”

The king comes into the room and shouts, “We must break the key.”

“No, we must use the crystal,” Dilval says.

“No, we will not. I own the crystal,” replies the king.

Dilval whispers to Rohan, “You take the glass ball and get the crystal. It is beneath the castle. Go now. The king won’t understand. It is the only way to take down Zoros.”

“Okay,” agrees Rohan.

Rohan finds the gate under the castle. He goes in. He sees a slot to put in the glass ball. He puts it in. It opens, and he sees a bright light. He sees the crystal. He grabs the crystal and runs. He looks up in the sky and sees a dragon. Zoros is here. Dilval and Arados run to the wooden bridge to leave, but Zoros himself comes out of a portal of fire.

When he came out of the portal, it felt like all happiness was gone from the world. Dilval fights, but Zoros kills Dilval. Zoros uses his sword and kills Arados.

Rohan screams, “NOOOOO!!!”

“You are dark. I can feel it. Why not join me?” Zoros asks in a deep, dark voice to Rohan.

“No, I will not join you, you monster.”

“Okay, then I will just kill you,” Zoros says to Rohan.

Rohan grabs the crystal and shines it on Zoros. The crystal breaks, and Zoros dies. And now Rohan will live on, his life scarred by darkness.

The end

 

The Diary of Sir Littleton III

        

December 1, 1924

Hello, my name is Sir Littleton III. I live in London, England. I have been having some rough times lately. I only want a friend, but how could a little mouse like me find a friend in London? I also have to escape mean people who chase me with brooms!

And guess where I live? An old pipe in a wall! Aieeee! Mouse! Oops! Sorry, gotta run! Bye!

December 2, 1924

I’m back!

I went to the museum by sneaking into some lady’s purse to get away from those mean people with brooms. When I was there, I heard some priests talking about how they should respect all life. That’s it! I thought. I could live in the church! I am going to be a church mouse!

I rushed home, stuffed my things in my doll’s suitcase, and headed straight for the church.

I scurried through the crowd and found a pair of fancy, comfy shoes to live in. I felt like a one pound weight was lifted off my tiny shoulders (which is a lot for a mouse).

Then, I decided I needed to look like a church mouse. I snuck into the priest’s dressing room and cut a tiny robe from his big one and put it on. Then, I cut off the top of his hat and put that on too. Finally, to top it all off, I took the long stick he carries and broke off the top. I went back to my shoe to get dressed. I looked fabulous! Amazing! Beautiful! I was a real church mouse. While I sat in the shoes and read a torn off piece of the bible, I heard a THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The priest was coming! I shut my eyes tight and put my paws in front of my snout, hoping I would not get killed, when he picked me up and hugged me.

“My, my, you’d make a great pet,” he said.

Well, chop my cheese, I thought. He wants to keep me as a pet!

“And where did you get those adorable little clothes?”

My little snout went redder than a tomato.

“Oh, who cares? You are the cutest thing I ever saw!”

Suddenly, I heard a scream from the dressing room.

“Eek! Somebody ruined my clothes!”

“Lorenzo, what’s more important — clothes or animals?”

“FINE, but if I catch that dirty mouse doing anything with my things again, I promise, I will get revenge!” he snarled.

I shivered like I was in Antarctica.

That night, I slept in my shoe. When I woke up, I continued reading the torn off bible page. A cold, wrinkly thing pushed down on my snout. Wait a minute… that was Lorenzo’s foot! Ew! Lorenzo stomped into the shoes and started walking down the hall. I screamed for help, but to everybody else it sounded like SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK!

“Aw, are you okay, mouse?” Lorenzo laughed.

Great, now I’m stuck in a shoe getting crushed by none other than Lorenzo’s foot, I thought.

When I thought all hope was lost, the priest came running in screaming.

”MY MOUSE IS GONE! I WANT HIM BACK!” he wailed.

Now it was Lorenzo’s turn to go as red as a tomato. When the priest looked at his shoe, he went paler than a ball of mozzarella.

“Y-y-you… you took my mouse!” he stuttered. “YOU TOOK MY MOUSE!” he screamed.

Then, he ran over to the phone and dialed 9-1-1 to report animal abuse. The police rushed over and arrested Lorenzo. He was very mad. After that, the priest and I lived a happy and calm life together.

THE END

 

Goldfish

Once upon a time, there were two goldfish. One was Pretzel, and one was Cheddar. One day, they were swimming by a coral reef, and they found an extra cheddar goldfish, who was Cheddar’s mom. Extra Cheddar said that Pretzel and Cheddar needed to take a nap.

When they were supposed to be napping, they were whispering and talking, and Pretzel said to Cheddar, “I wish we were rulers of the sea.”
Pretzel said, “Ooh, me too. I wonder how we can become rulers.”

After their nap, Cheddar’s mother sent them out to play in the playground, which was the coral reef. When they got to the playground, they found Pizza goldfish. Then, Pretzel said, “Pizza, I wish we were all rulers.”

“I agree, I wonder how we could become rulers,” Pizza said.

Pizza, Pretzel, and Cheddar swam around the reef to try to think of a way to become rulers. They couldn’t think of anything, but then Pizza goldfish said, “I thought of something. We can go back to our house and have a snack there and think. Maybe we’re swimming around too much and can’t think about becoming rulers.”

So they went back, but they just ran into Pizza-Pretzel goldfish, Pizza and Pretzel’s mom. They asked their mom if they could go back home and have a snack, and she said, “Yes.” Then, they sat at the kitchen table and thought. Cheddar had an idea that they could go the ruler of the sea so they could ask to become assistant rulers. Pizza and Pretzel went to their mom to ask if they could go see the ruler of the sea.

She said, “No, you guys have been asking too much. When you guys are older, you can go out on your own and ask.”

Cheddar, Pretzel, and Pizza were all sad, and they had to think, think, think. Pretzel had an idea. “How about Pizza and I tell our mom that our birthday is coming up soon and if we can go then because we’ll be older.”

They asked their mom, and she decided it was okay with her, but Cheddar couldn’t go because she was younger. Cheddar felt sad because she wasn’t allowed to go, but Pizza and Pretzel were allowed to. She swam slow.

Pizza had an idea so Cheddar could come along with them. Cheddar saved just enough money to buy five pairs of sock. Each pair one size larger than the other. They went to Cheddar’s house and asked if she could measure Cheddar again to see how much bigger she’d gotten. Then, Cheddar put on all the socks to make her look taller to her mom. Her mom said, “How many pairs of socks is that.”

Then, Cheddar pulled up the largest sock to cover the smaller socks and said, “Only one.”

Her mom said, “Let me measure those socks,” and she saw that they were way too big on Cheddar’s fin, and she asked to take off the sock. Cheddar pulled them all off at the same time, and they came inside out. Then, Cheddar’s mom said “Cheddddarrrr, go into the house and have a time-out for five minutes.”

Cheddar was so upset that she started crying.

Pizza and Pretzel were having a playdate at Cheddar’s house, and they ran out and tried to see if there was any way they could become rulers and then make Cheddar a ruler too. They went to the ruler’s castle, but the drawbridge was up, so they went back to Cheddar’s house. Cheddar’s mom was in the kitchen. “We are going up to Cheddar’s room,” Pretzel said. They were really just going out the back door. They went out, and they went to the ruler’s castle. The drawbridge was down, and they went inside.

They asked the ruler, “Can we please be rulers?”

“Yes, but you need to take a test to see if you can rule properly. And it’s a very hard test, and nobody has passed it but me.”

“We’ll take the test!” they all said at once.

“Here are the questions: If another army comes, what would you do?”

Pizza, Pretzel, and Cheddar talked, and Pizza said, “Ask your army to fight back.”

“Yes. What would you do if someone came to visit?”
They talked, and then Pretzel said, “Give them your guest room and make them feel very welcome.”

“Yes. Name three good rules for the kingdom.”

Cheddar said, “Look both ways before you cross the street.” Cheddar was really frustrated because she was having lots of trouble coming up with rules. Then, she said, “Be nice to others.” Last, she said, “You have to brush your teeth every morning.”

The ruler said yes to all of them. They all became rulers, and they all got a castle. The castles had a big dining room, a huge kitchen, an amazingly large living room, lots of bathrooms, and lots of bedrooms. There was one tower where the throne was. The throne was made of red velvet. Pizza, Pretzel, and Cheddar had the castle to themselves, but their parents got to stay with them. They were very happy that they became rulers.

In their kingdom, real goldfish lived. They ate seaweed and sand. Their supermarket was a very sandy and seaweed-y place. They watched movies, read books, and played with their friends. Every day, the little fish went to a school of fish, and the houses looked like bubbles. Pizza, Pretzel, and Cheddar were the best rulers ever.

The End

 

Coco At The Circus

Coco is an elephant. She likes to go to the circus. In Coco’s world, there are no people because one day people invaded their world, but no one got hurt. Every year, there is a circus to celebrate that they are safe. Today is the day of January first, so they celebrate today! Coco goes to the circus and gets popcorn and cotton candy. She sits down and gets comfy. She is very excited. First, the horses come with beautiful feathers on the top of their heads. The ladies on top of the horses also have feathers on the top of their heads and beautiful headdresses. The riders twirl and dance on top of the horses. Coco really likes it. Every rider has a special color for their costume. Next, there are clowns. They are juggling eight bananas each. They hop on one leg. They also dance and juggle and do all different kinds of things when they juggle. Then, they start juggling with their feet and do the exact same things that they did when they were juggling with their hands. Next, there is a bear that can unlock itself from its cage. So, it unlocks itself. Everybody is surprised. Then, the bear goes back into his cage and locks himself up again. The audience is relieved. Then, the bear starts going in and out of his cage. In and out, in and out, over and over again. The audience laughs. When the circus is done, Coco is happy because there is another circus for animals that could not come today. But the next day, some of the things are missing! “Oh no!” cries Coco. So, she decides she would try and look for them. She looks in stores, her neighbor’s house, streets and sidewalks, but she still cannot find them. She goes back to the circus to look for clues, and she sees footprints. They look like bear footprints. That is odd, she thinks. She follows the footprints to the bear’s cage! She looks all around the cage, but she cannot find them. Then, she notices the bear’s blanket is bumpy, so she looks there, and she finds them! So, she tells the ringmaster she found the missing things. They have the circus the next day, thanks to Coco.

The End

 

Faller Killed Killer

Once upon a time there was a snowflake named Killer. He looked like he had many swords, and they were made of ice. His were semicircles. He was white and clear. He lived in Alaska on a tree. Next to that tree lived Faller, who was a snowflake, which was clear and was very irritating. Faller looked like he was a fan, so whenever you spun him, he would give you air. Before, when they both were not fighting, Killer used to spin Faller. When Faller thought, I don’t like it when he spins me, he started to irritate Killer. He would make lots of noise in the night when Killer was sleeping. Then, in the morning, he used to come in his living room and open the window shades and put music in his room and then wake him up. Then, Faller ran out, and he fell down. When he would fall down, he started spinning.

When Killer and Faller saw the biggest star in the sky in the night, Killer decided in the morning he was going to kill Faller because he irritated him so much

Killer had many swords, and he was holding seven swords. He was very dangerous. He was bigger than Faller. Faller was like snow and often fell.

One day, Killer put one of his swords in Faller’s body and took it out. He broke Faller’s flake. Then, Faller fell. Faller was flying again. When Faller had fallen on the ground, Killer came and tried to eat him up. Faller had no swords but had many flakes. He cut his flakes into two pieces, but then cut them off the middle and made them into swords. Faller pointed them on Killer, and he stabbed them through Killer. First, Killer had ten swords, but now Faller took three of his swords, and he only had seven left.

Faller thought, Why does Killer always try kill me and melt me? If Killer kills me, I can’t come back. He almost succeeded!

He saw one of his flakes on the ground and made a boomerang out of them to kill Killer.

But Killer took the boomerang and made that one of his swords. They both were fighting. Then, Faller broke one of Killer’s swords and made that his mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty sword. It was very sharp. It was very dangerous. It could go through Killer’s wings.

Then, Killer thought, I have to get revenge.

But Killer almost died. Faller used his mighty sword to cut Killer in half. Faller took part of Killer’s body to make another sword. Then, Faller took another part of Killer and made it into a mighty sword. He now had three more swords. Faller made one of his swords into metal by putting a metal piece he had and then put fire in that. Then, Faller went into Killer’s heart with his sword, and then Killer melted into water. Faller was happy, because Killer used to kill everyone. He was dancing!

The Twins that Never Fight

Once, there were two twins who lived in New York in Manhattan. Elizabeth and Grace were their names, and they were five years old. They both had brown hair, blue eyes, they were missing two teeth, and they had peach skin. They lived with their mom and their dad. They shared a room, and they liked each other a lot. They liked to do a lot of things together, and their favorite thing to do together was eat ice cream. And they were different in one way. Elizabeth played soccer, and Grace didn’t play soccer. She would rather fix her hair. They both liked to dance.

There was a big dance competition coming up. Grace and Elizabeth were dancing around in their uniforms for the dance competition. They had known about the competition for a month, and they practiced every day. They loved to practice. Grace remembered that they would get to go out to dinner after the competition, and they rarely get to go out to dinner. Their mom said they could get dessert. If they won, they would get to pick what restaurant they got to go to. If they didn’t win, their mom and dad would pick the restaurant. Grace and Elizabeth were excited, so they practiced really hard. They had five days before the dance competition.

Later that day, Elizabeth used Grace’s lip gloss. Grace got mad at Elizabeth, and she ripped her poster for soccer and threw her trophy on the ground. It broke in half. Elizabeth ran and told her mom, crying. Her mom told Grace not to throw trophies because someone can get really hurt. Grace thought maybe they would not make up, and they would miss the dance competition. So, Grace went and told Elizabeth that it was okay that she used her lip gloss. Elizabeth said that she wasn’t mad anymore. They made up and hugged and kept practicing for the dance competition. They turned on this weird music and thought it was the song for the dance competition, so they danced to the weird music.

The night before the dance competition, Grace thought as she slept, Am I gonna win? Am I gonna win? Am I gonna win? Then, she woke up and went to get water and went back to sleep.

In the morning, Grace and Elizabeth got their uniforms and matching bows on. They were red with white sparkles. They got in the car and drove off to Sag Harbor for the dance competition. It was a five hour car trip. At the competition, the judge called their names. They were first. They walked onto the big stage and started to dance with the weird music, but then different music came on, and they had to dance with that music instead. They just went with it and copied each other. Eight people danced after them. No one was as good as Elizabeth and Grace. At the end, they crossed their fingers that they would win first place. They jinxed that they would not win the competition. They put the first place on the board, and it was Grace and Elizabeth! They drove to the restaurant they picked, Maxwell’s, and ate dinner. They each got chocolate ice cream for dessert.

THE END!!!

 

The Evil Santa

Every night on Christmas Eve, Evil Santa takes toys from the innocent boys and girls. The Good Santa couldn’t help because he was kidnapped by the Evil Santa. Evil Santa first kidnapped Good Santa 200 years ago, and it had been going on since then. The old Good Santa tried to send a secret message to the elves to ride the reindeer sleigh to save them, but they couldn’t do it and couldn’t get back.

One day, an elf heard on the radio that someone was stealing presents on Christmas Eve again. So the elf said, “I’m going to finally stop this thief.”

He was going to go on Santa’s sleigh. He didn’t know how to ride the sleigh, but he did it anyway. They said the robber was in New York City, so the elf had to go with the reindeer to New York. When he got to New York, he saw a lot of beautiful stuff he never saw before. He saw the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

When he passed a few houses, he saw someone sneaking into someone’s house. He stopped outside of the building, and he went inside the elevator. There were too many floors, so he picked floor three. Then, he went into someone’s room, but they were sleeping, and they had a dog. The elf didn’t want to wake the dog and be seen, so he walked quietly. Then, he saw someone at the Christmas tree. He did a sneak attack. He went on the ceiling, and then he jumped onto Evil Santa. Evil Santa yelled, “How did you get up there?!” It was a little loud, but it didn’t wake the people. But it woke up the dog. The dog was barking, and the man saw Evil Santa but not the elf because the elf was too small. The guy went on Evil Santa. They were fighting for a long time until Evil Santa got away.

The elf was under the bed, and he still couldn’t get out. He was in big trouble. He didn’t know what to do until the dog saw him under the bed. The dog was growling at him. Then, the guy told the dog to be quiet. They went back to sleep. The elf went away, but the guy saw him. The guy told his wife that someone stole presents from their house, and an elf was in the house too. So he called the police and pressed the fire alarm.

The police came quickly. The elf was running so slow. The police were chasing him, and he was scared. His hands were sweaty, and his heart was beating quickly, so he called the reindeer. They came with the big sleigh. They were off again. The cops were so jealous that they were flying in Santa’s sleigh. The elf said, “Now the cops want to get me. I’m a criminal!”

The elf was hungry. He saw a restaurant, but he didn’t go in. He just saw a lot of stuff about Santa. He listened to his favorite radio and relaxed. He wanted to find Good Santa again so everyone could get back Christmas. He looked around for someone to help, but no one wanted to.

In the morning, the elf was off again to find his boss, Good Santa, and the Evil Santa. The elf was sleeping on the sleigh when they left, and he didn’t notice they were somewhere else. They were close to Pennsylvania. The reindeer were getting tired, and they were getting as hungry as the elf. So the elf gave them all carrots, and the elf got a boiled egg for his lunch.

The elf was back in New York. Then, he saw a big, giant building, and he saw Evil Santa with all these people. He didn’t know why he was up there. Then he thought, He was a criminal, a villain. So he couldn’t beat him by himself, and he needed help. Then, he thought for a minute. He built a talking dog leash, a leash that if you put it on a dog, it can talk. A police dog was walking, and he asked the dog if he could help. The dog barked, but then the dog put the talking dog leash on, and he said, “Yeah.” The canine dog told him about Evil Santa, and the dog said he also wanted to get rid of Evil Santa because he always saw him at bedtime stealing presents.

So, the elf and the dog went up to the building to get Evil Santa. The elf wanted to jump out of the sleigh, but the dog was scared and thought the elf was crazy. So the elf used his stick pads to get up the building. They used a laser to cut a circle in the window. Then, they went under the table and saw all the stuff Evil Santa stole. The dog saw his presents and wanted to get them.

“No, don’t get it!” said the elf, but the dog got it, and then they saw him.

They were chasing the dog, and the dog said, “Go get the presents and save everybody!” The elf got all the presents and also saw his boss. He wanted to save his boss, but he needed the keys. The Evil Santa had the keys, so the elf did a sneak attack like back in the house. He climbed up on the walls with the sticky pads and jumped and got the keys.

The Evil Santa was chasing the elf while everyone else was chasing the dog, until the dog jumped out of the window and used his parachute. It was a little windy, so he went too high and the parachute got broken. All the villains tried to jump with parachutes, but they were too heavy, so they fell. The dog tried to fly. Then, he used his grappling hook because he was a secret agent dog.

Evil Santa was still chasing the elf. Then, the elf fought the Evil Santa. The Evil Santa was much stronger than the elf, so the elf used all his powers. But Evil Santa grabbed the elf’s neck and was choking him. He said, “I always steal presents on Christmas, and no one sees me or stops me.” But then, the secret agent dog did his karate kicks. Evil Santa was on the edge of the window. The elf couldn’t move. He was injured very badly. The dog was mad, so he used the grappling hook on Evil Santa and shot him all the way to another building. The Evil Santa was shaking to get free. He fell on the ground and landed on all the bad guys that fell before.

Then, the police came and found out who was stealing the presents and arrested Evil Santa. The dog also found the keys on the ground and freed Good Santa. They all went back to the North Pole with the dog. The dog was happy to be there because he could help if anyone was in trouble. Good Santa said, “We have a new Santa: Jiminy Elf!” Jiminy Elf would now be the new Santa. Everyone planned a ceremony, and they were happy.

 

War of the Fruits

        

Note from the author: A lot of strange things have happened in the fridge. I hope you enjoy, and just saying, dried banana tastes quite good.

Chapter One

There once was a team of banana soldiers in a banana city in a fridge in a kitchen in a house in New York City on the Earth. They really wanted to take over more land in the kitchen, but the team of apple soldiers in the apple city in that same fridge in that same kitchen in that same house in New York City would not let them. It was easy enough to get out of the fridge, since in that house people were opening the fridge all the time, but it was harder to actually get to the landing that they wanted. Being fruit, they would land on the floor and not onto the glorious counters they so badly wanted.

The bananas needed to figure out a way to make a bridge to the other side of the kitchen to the counter. Luckily, they saw a plank and thought, That would make a perfect bridge. However, the plank was on the counter, the very counter they were trying to reach. Then, their time arrived: someone opened the fridge…

Chapter Two

Up on the higher shelf, the apples were thinking about the counter across the kitchen. The apples looked down and noticed their arch enemies — the bananas — talking about a plank on the kitchen counter. They immediately became interested.

“We have less of a chance of getting to that plank than the bananas do,” said an apple, noting how they would have to climb down from their higher spot in order to figure out how to get the plank.

Just as the apples began devising a plan to climb down from their shelf, the fridge opened…

Chapter Three

The bananas were super excited that their chance had come. They had everything planned out. Only two would go. The most agile and quick bananas of the bunch would go. When they fell on the floor, they would go to the drawers and climb up the drawers.

When the door opened, they made their jump. They quickly climbed up the side of the drawers, when they saw them… the apples, getting ready to jump down from their shelf in the fridge. They knew they had to move fast. They reached the plank and ran into some oranges. The oranges were big, muscular, and bright, bright orange. The plank was a bed for some oranges, and they would not give up their plank so easily. The oranges really valued their rest. They needed to sleep a lot because if somebody came and tried to attack them, they needed to be well-rested so they could fight back. So, the bananas thought, Maybe we could let the apples do the hard part and deal with the oranges, and once the plank is in the fridge, we could retrieve it. So, using their agility and quickness, the bananas hid and waited for the apples.

Chapter Four

The apples saw the bananas hiding and contacted their king. “The bananas are trying to get us to do their dirty work and battle it out with the oranges,” they reported.

So, the King replied, “Wait under the place you were going to climb, and wait for them to come down.” They did as they were told. A few hours later, they started to feel uncomfortable. Brown ickiness started to appear on their skin. It was hot.

“We’re beginning to rot!” they said, noticing they had been out of the fridge for too long. They needed to get back into the fridge. They tried to climb up, and they hid in the freezer until the fridge would be opened again. Three days later, they opened the fridge, and the apples jumped into the fridge. They were saved!

Chapter Five

The bananas were annoyed their plan was foiled. They jumped into the fridge, too. Then, they told the leader of the bananas, “It might take a little bit longer to get all of us out onto the counter.”

“We need to hurry,” the king said, “because the apples might get there first. We can’t let that happen! We have to go super fast, jump, and try to get a plank to make a bridge.”

The bananas decided to hide out in the freezer and make plans down there. It would take less time to get down, climb up, and get the plank that way. They went down, but the apples were down there, too! So, they hid behind an ice pack until the freezer opened. The stakes were high. If they were in the fridge for longer than four days, they would freeze into frozen fruit!

Chapter Six

The fridge opened, and the apples snuck up into the fridge so they wouldn’t rot. They were extremely strong, about as strong as the bananas were quick, so they were able to pull themselves up into the fridge. Then, it started warming up, so they could tell that the freezer had been opened. They realized this was their chance to get out and into the fridge. The bananas were on a lower level, so the apples needed to sneak up and past them to get back to their king on the high shelf. It was very important that they not be seen. The apples jumped onto the wall of the fridge and climbed up quietly and stealthily so that the bananas would not see them.

Chapter Seven

One of the bananas noticed an apple climbing up the side of the fridge to their high shelf. The banana ran to his chief, and the chief of the bananas said, “Follow them!”

The bananas climbed up the side of the wall after the apples. The banana chief was waiting for the bananas that were in the freezer to come back up. He noticed them climbing up and then climbing down the other side of the freezer. They ran as fast as they could to the drawers and climbed up. It was hard. There were not many places to grab on to climb, but they managed to do it. They hid and waited for the oranges to get off of the plank so that they could use it for their bridge. The oranges went off the plank and went to look for an intruder. They did not want anyone of those apples or bananas to come around and cause any of their chaos, and they especially did not want them to use their bed to make a bridge!

Chapter Eight

The apples were really angry because the bananas were closer to the goal than they were. They decided that they needed to be really quick, but the apples were still healing from their rot. They decided it was time for sabotage. The apples sent their strongest, but not most agile, apples to jump down out of the fridge and onto the floor. The strongest apple jumped out and grabbed the banana. He threw the banana off the shelf. The oranges heard a commotion, so they woke up. The strongest apple had the apples’ secret weapon: The Apple Slicer. He sliced himself into lots of more little apples.

Chapter Nine

The banana was about to get the plank, but an apple tackled him and threw him to the ground! He broke his leg from the fall! He ran as fast as he could, at least as fast as a banana can run with a broken leg. He finally climbed up and went back into the fridge. It took a while, so he started rotting a little too. He noticed a brown spot on his face… he was unripe. He had a smudge on his leg. Finally when he got up there, the bananas sent their strongest banana and with his bananas’ secret weapon: The Banana Cutter.

They sent their longest rope from the fridge to the counter, but only he could climb it because he was the strongest. He was there. He chopped himself into little, strong, and mighty banana pieces, and he used his skin as a rocket! He shot himself to the other side just so he wouldn’t waste time.

The apple and the banana called a truce just so they could team up to battle the oranges. But after that, they would fight again.

Chapter Ten

The oranges were furious to be woken up from their nap. The apple took on one orange, and the banana took on the other. Little did the two enemies know, the oranges unpeeled themselves and turned into lots of little oranges! So, it was basically an eight on eight battle! They fought and fought and fought! The apple called more apples to come and help. The apple jumped up, turned on the sink grabbed the bananas rocket that he flew there with, and used it as a raft to go across to the side with the plank!!!

Chapter Eleven

The bananas saw the apple calling for more help, so they did the same. “OH, NO. RETREAT!!!” said the oranges.

Meanwhile, back in the fridge, the banana chief said, “Hurry! Come help!”

A few planks across, the apple king said, “Go give them help, too!”

It took a little longer than it would for the banana and the apple because they were stronger, so they could just use the rope. They had to jump down from the fridge, climb a ladder, and catch the raft across from the sink. Then, when they finally arrived a few hours later, they surrounded the oranges. The oranges ran away, but the apple had the plank. He ran as fast as he could with all his other companions and made the bridge.

“Yay!! We made the bridge!”

Chapter Twelve

The bananas were quite angry that the apples got the plank. They turned bright green because bananas are green when they’re not ripe. They chased after the apples. One of the bananas was thinking, What is the point? So he just sat in the background, watching it like a movie, picking at dried banana. Then, the fridge door opened again. The apple put down the plank and said, “We win!!!” But then, right behind him, the bananas ran towards him. But, luckily, more apple warriors stopped them. Then, the apple king and the banana chief started screaming opposite things.

The banana king started weeping and weeping and weeping, and the apple king was jumping around on his throne, screaming “Yay! Yay! Yay!” Finally, the war ended. The apples had won.

They ran around screaming, “Yay! Yay! Yay!” just like their king. But every one of the bananas, except for one of them, was weeping and weeping, just like their king. He just kept on eating his dried banana.

Chapter Thirteen

I told you that dried banana is so good that you can eat it, even if everyone else is crying. That’s the whole point. Also, now I’m going to go eat some apples, and maybe a banana after, and the oranges, oh well. They’re just sleeping.

Hi, I’m the narrator. I told you some weird things that have happened in the fridge. My name is Fridge. Yeah, I’m a fridge. I hope you enjoyed. My pets are magnets, and my best friend is the counter. He’s quite sleepy, though, just like his pets, the oranges. Oh, and also, World War 2 is coming soon or, should I say, World War of the Fruits 2, so be sure to read it. Goodbye! Wait! Be respectful to your fridges, just because you might have me. Also your counter. Don’t wake him up. He’s grumpy. Now, for real. Goodbye.

They’re inside someone’s stomach. It’s gross, and they’re about to be pooped out. There’s a lot of brown stuff, and they’re unaware of what it is. They’re trying to swim in blood away from the toilet and the brown stuff that they’re still not able to identify. The apple and banana have also become friends. They look like chewed up fruit, and they’re very mushy, and there’s banana juice and apple juice dripping out of them. Also, they met a very nice broccoli that has not gone through the system yet. They’re all thinking, I’m doomed to see light again. Also, they met a frog which has been making their owner have a very weird voice. They’re looking at very gross puffy, brown stuff that they don’t want to touch.

 

The Road Trip

 

“Emma, start packing! We need to leave at 1:00 P.M.!” my mother yelled. Oh no… I forgot to pack! It was already 11 A.M.. I grabbed my shorts and a few shirts. I plugged in my phone and shoved my toiletries in my bag. My little sister came waddling in my room, holding her stuffed bear that she has had since she was born.

“Sis, did you pack yet?” I questioned her.

“Uh, I think Mommy did yesterday,” she replied, unable to pronounce “th” and “s.”

“Okay, well I need to pack.” I turned around, my words fading. “OH NO! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!” I screamed angrily. She was cutting my phone charger. I quickly ran over and picked her up, grabbing the cord out of her hand. What am I going to tell Mom? I thought. I brought my little sister down to the kitchen where my mother was.

“Uhh Mom? Kayla ruined my extension cord… ” I said with a sweet but harsh tone.

“O-M-G, is she okay?” she said, picking her up. “My sweet baby!” she cried.

“My sweet baby!” I mocked her under my breath.

“Why did you let her do that?!” she yelled as if I let her jump off a cliff.

“I did not! I was packing, and she just did it!” I panicked.

It was time to leave for the trip. We packed up the van and got in. I brought a lot of food like trail mix, Skittles, Twix, and beef jerky! When we started driving, my sister said it. What we all dreaded.

“I need to use the bathroom!” She grinned.

“Oh, for the sweet mercy of God! David!” my mother yelled to my dad.

“What should I do? Oh umm okay, sweetie? Pee in this bag.” He sweat.

Mom, Dad, she will not pee in a bag next to me!” I emphasized so they knew I was serious.

“BAG PEE PEE!” my sister squealed as she grabbed it and pulled her pants down. I heard the pee going in the bag.

Ewwww!” I exclaimed. I needed to take a nap…

I woke up from my nap. I was still tired, but I couldn’t fall back asleep because of my little sister eating. At least she was eating and wouldn’t start her “I’m hungry” campaign. I checked my phone, and it was 3:01 P.M.. We had been driving for two hours, so six more to go. I saw my phone was at five percent, so I asked to plug it in.

“Mom, can you plug my phone in?” I asked, full of hope.

“Sure, sweetie, but only till it hits 60. Daddy needs it,” she said. I could tell she was tired, but when you have a daughter like my sister, you are in for a long, annoying ride. I looked at my sister, eating a Twix.

“Hey, um, Kayla? Where did you get that?” I was worried she was eating my candy.

“I got from blue bag!” she said without a worry, but she better have been worried.

“What have you eaten?” I wasn’t in the mood to ask because knowing her, she ate all of it.

“I ate kittle, Twix, tale mix, and beef jerky,” she answered.

“OH NO! THAT WAS MY FOOD! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!” I screamed furiously.

“I ate you food?” she said, putting it down.

“YES!” I yelled at her. I felt kind of bad yelling at a three-year-old, but she needed to be disciplined to not steal other people’s food. I hated her so much. So much. Candy Thief, candy thief, candy thief. That is what she was. I was too tired to complain now that I got my emotions out, and besides, we were going to a beach resort. Relaxation awaited. So I went to bed.

“Sweetie, we are here. Get up!” my mother frightened me. Awww we are here, I thought. I opened my eyes in three, two, one.

“AAAAAAAHH!” I screamed.

“What is wrong?” my mother said, worried.

Well, the sign for this place is halfway lit up, it is hanging on by a screw, there is caution tape around the whole darn place, oh, and it is 12 miles away from the beach. And to top it all off, IT IS A MOTEL!” I scream with disgust. My parents and sister were silent. We went into our room, and it was gross. Spider webs were everywhere, bugs crawled up the walls, and wait. There was a queen bed and a twin. So I needed to share it with my sister. Oh. No. This. Would. Be. Torture! I grabbed my bag and laid my wash towel on the bed. I couldn’t bear sleeping on the bed, so I grabbed my backpack and used it as a pillow. My little sister kicked and talked in her sleep. But I knew it was just one night.

We woke up, and my little sister put the towel in my bag. “Thank you, Kayla,” I said. She just smiled. We decided to order food.

“Hi, we would like one breakfast burrito, a ham omelette, a chicken burrito, and a salad. Thank you.” I wanted the ham omelette. It sounded so good. When the food got here, I didn’t have an omelette. I got a weird carrot looking thing.

“Sister, do you want to trade? You don’t seem to like that,” my little sister said.

“Oh no, it is fine. But, I mean, sure?” I replied as she handed it to me. “Thank you!” I said. She smiled again.

It was now time for us to leave for the beach. We got in the van, and I was still tired after the kicking, talking, gross, bed phenomenon. I was ready to ride the waves. So was my sister. She fell asleep on my shoulder. So, you know, why not go to sleep too.

We got to the beach, and my sister wanted to swim. So, sure. I would swim with her. After all, she was the best sister ever.

 

Electro

 

Episode One/ Chapter One

There was once a boy named Jack, and he was a normal boy. But one day, there was an electrical storm, and he got struck by lightning. But instead of dying, he got electric superpowers, and he made his superhero name Electro. He could teleport, concentrate electricity in his fingertips, and release electricity. Jack was happy that he had these powers because where he lived was a crime ridden city, and a few days ago, criminals attacked his sister Lily. So he started teleporting around the city to test his powers, and when he was exploring, he found a gang of criminals attacking a man and taking his money, so he tried to cover his face as best as he could with his hood and went down to fight. When he landed on the ground, he shot an electric wave at the criminals. Then, the ones that he didn’t hit he hit with electric punches and kicks. When he did the punches and kicks, it felt like his hand was tingling and like it was surging with power. Then, after the battle, he helped the man that was hurt get up and gave his money back.

The man said, “Thank you for saving me, young man.”

Then, Jack said, “Anytime.”

After that, Jack teleported home and went to bed. Tomorrow, he was going to make his superhero suit.

 

Episode Two/ Chapter Two

In the morning, Jack put together his superhero suit. His suit would be a blue hoodie with sports goggles and a blue vogmask. He had one because of allergies. It nullified his allergies. Then, he went to school. School was going well for Jack. He got an A+ on a math test, and he then had science. Then, he heard a loud buzzing sound, and when he looked outside, there was a dark portal. Through the portal came a crimson demon, and the demon destroyed half of his school, and everywhere kids were screaming. Luckily, Jack brought his costume to school, so he hid in the janitor’s closet and changed and fought the demon. He shot an electrical wave at the demon, teleported behind it, and lightning punched the demon as hard as he could. Behind him, he heard everybody screaming. After Jack’s combo attack, the demon shot a fire blast at him, but Jack teleported away just in time. Then, Jack transformed into a lightning dragon and shot a mini electrical storm at the demon, and that destroyed the demon. But Jack used up a lot of his energy, and he passed out. When Jack woke up, he was in the school nurse’s office, and there was a bunch of kids all bunched up around him. His mask was on very loose, so he covered his face with his hands. Luckily, nobody recognized him.

One of the kids asked him, “Who are you?”

Jack replied, “I’m Electro.”

 

Episode Three/ Chapter Three

The next day, Jack asked his friends Ben and Mason to meet up with him after school. When Jack walked through the hallways, he saw all the kids talking about Electro and what happened yesterday. Then, when Jack looked at the school newspaper, he saw him/Electro on the front cover. It said: Yesterday, on April 22, a new superhero named Electro saved our school from a demon that came from a dark portal. Who really is this young superhero? And does he go to our school?

“Wow,” said Jack. “I’m really becoming a superhero.”

But inside, Jack was also worried about all the responsibilities of becoming a superhero.

After school, Jack met Ben and Mason behind the school, and Jack said, “Remember that Electro guy that saved the school from yesterday?”

Ben said, “Yeah.”

Mason said, “What about him?”

Jack said, “Did you know that I’m him?”

Then, Jack teleported in a circle to show them.

“Wow!” said Ben and Mason.

“But you have to remember this,” said Jack. “You can’t tell anyone that I’m Electro, okay? I only trust you because you’re my best friends.”

“Okay,” said Ben and Mason.

Then, they all went home. So now Ben and Mason knew that Jack had superpowers, but Jack didn’t know that Ben and Mason had their own superpowers. So that was why they weren’t freaking out when they knew their friend had powers. And Jack also didn’t know that the demon was after Jack’s powers because the demon ruler wanted his powers.

 

Episode Four/ Chapter Four

When Jack went to school, there was another demon attack, but there were two demons this time. Jack did everything he could. He shot the biggest electric wave he could make and shot two electrical storms at both of the demons, but it wasn’t enough, and just before both of the demons shot fire blasts at Jack, there was a plasma blast and a fire blast shot at the two demons. When Jack looked at the two new heroes, he saw the one that shot the plasma blast, which Jack figured out was Mason, because he didn’t see him with the rest of the kids. Mason was wearing a blue and green jacket with a green bandana over his mouth. And the hero that shot the fire blast was wearing a red shirt with an orange and black cloak and black gauntlets, which Jack knew was Ben because he didn’t see him in the crowd of students that evacuated the school either. Mason and Ben helped Jack with the battle. Mason shot huge plasma waves at the demons and hit them with plasma punches, while Ben used his fiery fists to attack the smaller demon and used fire breath to deal with the bigger demon. After a big fight, the demons retreated back through the portal that led to the demon world. When the battle ended, nobody knew that the two other heroes were Ben and Mason, so they interviewed them. Ben’s superhero name was Hellblaze, and Mason’s name was Retro. After school, Jack talked to Ben and Mason.

“I know those two heroes were you guys. Why didn’t you tell me you had powers when I told you I had them?”

Mason said, “I’m sorry. We should have told you.”

“Yeah,” said Ben. “We should have.”

“Well, at least I know now,” said Jack.

And then, all the boys came to Jack’s house to talk about their powers. Jack found out Mason got his powers by touching one of his dad’s radioactive experiments, so his dad knew about his powers. Also, Ben got his powers by being caught in the firestorm last week from a weather machine that the big science organization of the city made. They did a lot of testing with dangerous things. They decided to make a superhero group, but they didn’t know what to call it, so they would think of it later. And all the boys slept at Jack’s house.

 

Episode Five/ Chapter Five

When Jack was asleep, he had a dream that changed everything. He could see the king of the demon world ordering all of his strongest demon fighters to fight Jack and take his powers, because he wanted them to charge a weapon that would destroy the human dimension, so he could bring the human dimension into his empire. Also, he could use Mason’s and Ben’s powers for other uses. But he also found out that his powers were meant for him since he was born, because he could think of all the ways to use them, and the god of lightning was keeping them until he was ready for them. The lightning that hit him was supercharged by the gods. Then, Jack’s dream ended, and Jack was shocked by what he saw and what he found out.

“I can’t believe my powers were meant for me,” he said. “I thought it was just luck.”

And then, Jack woke up Ben and Mason and told them about his dream, and they told him they had dreams similar to his.

Mason said, “The demon king wants my powers to help power their weapon.”

“Same here,” said Jack.

Then Ben said, “The demon king wants my powers to be the source of the demon’s forge, so they can have stronger weapons to take over other dimensions.”

“Well, we’re not gonna let that happen,” said Jack.

Then, they all headed to school.

 

Episode Six/ Chapter Six

Now that the three boys knew what all of their powers were meant for and what was after them, they always had their guards up. When school started, everything was normal. Jack did history and a few other periods. Then, it was time for lunch, and still there was no attack on the school. The school lunchroom was much smaller now, because of the time when the demon destroyed half of the school, and also, some of the classrooms got destroyed, so there were less subjects, and school would let out early. At 1:30, school let out, and Jack, Ben, and Mason were surprised that there was no attack on the school. Jack thought there was something suspicious going on, so he called a superhero meeting. First thing at the meeting, Jack thought of a superhero group name: Thunder.

But Ben said, “That name is based too much on your powers. We have to make a name that makes sense to all of us.”

“Maybe we should call it the Force,” said Mason, and we all agreed.

“Another thing that we need to talk about is why there was no demon attack, because I have a feeling that there is going to be one tonight, if not today.”

Ben suggested, “Why don’t we have another sleepover, so we can protect each other?”

“Okay,” said Mason and Jack, so that’s what they did.

 

Episode Seven/ Chapter Seven

It was dark, and then there was a loud buzzing sound, and it woke up Jack, Mason, and Ben. Then, the three boys saw the demon portal, and then they all got ready to fight, but what came out were three demons the same size of the three boys.

One of the demons said, “We need your help to fight against the demon king, and we want you to be a part of the resistance.”

All the demons looked like normal boys, but with red eyes and red horns.

“Why would we trust you?” said Jack.

Another demon said, “Because we’re trying do the same thing: defeat the demon king.”

Then, one of the demon boys said, “Hi, my name is Kobal.”

Then, he pointed to his brother and said, “This is Leo.”

Then, he pointed to his other brother and said, “And this is Dagon.”

Then, Dagon said, “We promise you can trust us.”

“Okay,” said Jack. “We will come with you.”

“We will?” said Mason.

“Yeah,” said Jack. Then, he said, “If we come with you, you guys have to promise us that we can come back to our world whenever we want to.”

“Deal,” said Leo.

Then, Kobal said, “But first you have to help as much as you can.”

“Okay,” said Ben.

Then, Dagon said, “We’ll tell you our powers too: Kobal has fire magic, Leo has darkness magic, and I have earth magic, so we’re all very strong.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” said the boys.

“Now, step into the portal,” said Leo, and that’s when Jack, Mason, and Ben’s journey began.

 

The next day, Jack looked at the sky of the demon world. It was red and black, and for miles and miles, Jack saw flames with red grass and black trees. Then far away, Jack saw the demon king’s castle. It had red and white walls, and at the roof of the castle, there were two holes, and out of them came blasts of white hot flames.

“Wow,” said Jack.

Right now, Jack was eating a devil dog. It was basically a demon version of a hot dog and way more spicy.

“This is so spicy, and I love it.”

Jack’s blue hair was messed up, and his mouth was covered with ketchup, and his clothes were yellow and red.

Jack thought, What am I supposed to be doing? I know that I’m meant to fight the demon king, but when? And what if he and his army are too powerful to beat?

Jack was very worried how this was going to turn out.

Then, Jack saw his friends’ worried faces. Then, he said, “Guys, together, the Force is way stronger than the demon king.” But inside, Jack was having his own doubts about how this battle was going to turn out.

To be continued…

 

The Great Snowball Fight

It was the best snowball fight ever, but I won because I know the secret to winning all snowball fights.

This is what happened. I, a snowman, and my best friend, a snowman, met on a snowy day. We made two different snow forts and made a pile of snowballs. We made a snow ship and two snow cities. The cities were giant buildings made out of ice and little buildings made out of ice, too. We made ladders to climb up to different stories of the building, and the finishing touch was an icy, snowy statue of me in the middle of my city and a statue of him in his city.

There was only one thing left that I needed: a sign. But the time was up! We had an hour left of preparations, so we made catapults and cannons and a wall with little windows to blast out of.

The battle began. I dug a tunnel down under my base and into his, and I used ice bricks to hold up the top, just so I wouldn’t die.

I ran as fast as I could through my tunnel into his big ice castle. I snuck around and climbed up his highest building and threw a snowball at him.

Now the battle was really beginning. We threw snowball after snowball. I noticed there was an ice cannon on his roof, and I ran for it.

Noooooooo! I got hit by a snowball! I thought I was done for, but luckily I didn’t get hit in the face. I limped over to the cannon, even though I had no feet. I reached the cannon, and I put in some snowballs and fired. Or should I say snowballed.

It started to snow. It covered up my escape route. I thought, how would I escape? I thought I could dig a hole as fast as I could and get back into my lair. I limped over to my hole and started digging.

So, I started digging. I ran through my hole and tried to get to the other side.

I thought it was over. I was just out of his lair. I finally got into my lair. I took out a snowball and threw it at him. It missed. But then I threw another, and it hit. Yay!! It hit! I won!

I couldn’t fully win, though, without a sign that said I won. And that was the secret to winning all snowball fights. But then I realized that I couldn’t make a sign that said I won without a pencil, so I tried to grab my pencil. Then, I realized my pencil was on the floor. And I couldn’t reach it because I was on the top of one of my buildings. I ran as fast as I could to get to it, but by accident I tripped off the building. Then, I fell flat on my face onto the snow.

I got really bad frostbite, but I did wonder how a snowman could get frostbite, because he’s quite cold already. I warmed up by building an ice heater. It melted straight away, though. Luckily, it cured me. I grabbed the pencil. I drew the sign that said I won!, but I still had to climb up the giant tower I had made. So, I climbed up the ladder.

Meanwhile, my opponent was not fully on the floor. He was digging a tunnel and making a labyrinth to me.

Finally, he got into my base. I had just put up the sign. We shook hands and said good game, even though I won. Yaaaaaay!

THE END

“Liar, you got it totally wrong. I was the one who won,” said my opponent.

“Uhhhh. Fine, I’ll admit it. You won,” I said. “You had the secret to winning all snowball fights. But I’ll never admit it again.”

“Oh, wait! If you want, I’m good friends with the fridge,” he said. “So if you wouldn’t mind, read the fridge’s story. His story’s quite good, too. The books are called World War of the Fruits 1 and World War of the Fruits 2. They’re really funny.”

Now it’s really THE END.

 

Maddy the Gymnast

Once upon a time there was a girl named Maddy, and she was really into gymnastics. She started gymnastics when she was only one year old. One day, she asked her mom to ask her teacher if she could move up to the team. Her teacher said, “You can move up to the team after you know how to do a backhand walkover and a back handspring.”

Maddy said, “Okay, I’ll try my hardest.”

She went to her house because her mom was a girls coach for gymnastics. She said, “Can you teach me how do a backhand walkover and a back handspring?”

Her mom said, “Sure.”

They were in the gym, and she was trying to do a back handspring, and she sprained her arm. She went to the hospital for one day. She was quite emotional. She had a boyfriend. He got her ice cream. She got rainbow ice cream. Then, they kissed on the lips. She jumped around and smiled and watched lots of TV. Then, she got an ice pop. It was her favorite flavor.

The next day, Maddy felt better. She went back to gymnastics. This time, her mom taught her a back handspring and a backhand walkover, but she was really scared to do it. She tried one more time, and she got it. Her mom taught her how to get better at her posture and moves.

Later, there was a tryout for the team. Maddy did the moves that the teacher asked her to do and all the ones she was good at. It all went really well. The teacher saw how good Maddy was and said, “You’re on the team!” Maddy made the team, and everybody was happy, so they threw her a surprise party. There was a girl named Grace that Maddy was friends with who didn’t make the team, and Maddy forgot to invite her to the party. Grace told everybody that Maddy forgot to invite her to the party, and everybody gasped! But Maddy’s besties were on her team, and Grace’s besties were on her team.

Then, there was a competition to go to the Olympics. Grace told the judge to give Maddy a zero for the beam, but the judge gave her 100. Grace got mad at the judge for not listening, but the judge ignored her because she was cheating. Maddy also did her new moves, the back handspring and the backhand walkover, and she got a 100. She got into the Olympics.

Maddy threw another party, and this time she invited Grace. But Grace wanted revenge because she was still mad. Grace wanted to prank Maddy at a meet. One day at a meet, Grace put glue in Maddy’s water bottle, and then Maddy drank the water bottle, but then she felt glue, so she spit it out. She was angry. She was going to get another water bottle, but Grace poured it on her pants, and everyone was laughing. Maddy took the leotard and started changing, even though she knew it was Grace’s prank.

She wore her leotard, and she went to gymnastics. She pretended like nothing had happened. Even though everyone knew what happened, they still acted like nothing happened. Grace pushed Maddy down the beam and said, “I hate you.” She also laughed when Maddy fell. She also teased Maddy.

Then, the teacher saw what happened. The teacher said, “If you keep this up, you will get kicked off the team.” Maddy smiled. Grace kept being mean after the teacher gave her a warning, and she got kicked off the team.

Five days after Grace got kicked off the team, there was a competition. Maddy felt nervous that she would get last place and the teacher would be really mad. Maddy and her teammates all stretched together. They talked about how they were scared for the competition. Maddy’s first station was beam. She did a triple twist, then a roundoff, then a back tuck. Her score was 100. Next, she did bars and got 100. After that, she did trampoline and got 100. The last station was floor. She did a triple twist into a backbend. She got 500. Afterwards, Maddy thought, I know I’ll get first place. Then, the judges revealed that she got first! She was smiling so hard, and they had a party.

The end.

P.S. This time she invited Grace.

 

The Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Drawing

Once there was a girl, and she drew animal people. Her name was Sophia. In her dreams, she only thought of animal people. There were food and games and animals, but there was always this animal with big eyes wearing a suit. Sometimes, another character would be in it. One day, she couldn’t stop drawing the photos of the animal people. Ding ding! The bell rang, and class was over. Sophia, the girl, took her stuff and walked out the door. Oops, she bumped into a pole. She was drawing in a book, and she dropped all her pictures. Then, Sophia picked all of them up and ran into the bathroom. She was so embarrassed because her pants ripped while she was picking them up. She ran out the door and into the class, and it was hard because she was at the front of the class. And they had P.E.. They started doing jumping jacks. She was at the front of the class, and everybody was laughing, even the boys. She ran out of school. Sophia ran to the hygiene store to pick up some medicine for her pants. But, instead, she picked up lice maker. And then, she drank the lice maker, and in the morning, she had knits. So, she didn’t go to school. She felt dizzy, so she started drawing. Drawing and drawing and drawing. She realized it was a problem. She remembered people talking about Ms. Pig Wig. So, she called Ms. Pig Wig. She helped anyone cure things like the Non-Sleeper’s Cure and Don’t Want to Go To Schooler’s Cure. So now, she’ll cure the Start Stop Drawing Cure. She tried thousands of numbers, but they didn’t work. The last one did though.

But her phone died. Sophia marched over to Ms. Pig Wig’s house. She knocked. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Ms. Pig Wig answered. She was old, had long rainbow hair, and wore random clothes and a guacamole hat with an avocado on toast purse. Her favorite animal was a blobfish. She said, “What do you need?”

And Sophia said, “I need the cure to stop drawing cute animals.”

So Ms. Pig Wig said, “I’ll go get it.” Sophia gave her three gold coins. And Ms. Pig Wig gave her a big box that said Start Stop Drawing Cure.

“Thank you, but what’s in here?”

“Something special,” said Ms. Pig Wig.

When Sophia got to her house, she opened the box, and there were paper and pens and some ugly stuff like fake poop, gross but moldy Febreeze, and an old piece of chalk with some food smudges on it. So, she just drew all of it. She kept drawing and drawing and drawing. But, instead of drawing ugly stuff, she drew cute drawings.

Then, she found a letter, and it said to draw the ugly stuff. So, she drew the ugly stuff. And she couldn’t stop drawing it. Sophia used all the paper and pens. One day, she did not know which one to draw. So she went back to Ms. Pig Wig and returned it back to Ms. Pig Wig and told her it helped.

The next day, she went to school. She was happy, but when she opened the door, there were posters that said “Butt Girl Sophia,” and they had a photo of the rip in her pants. She ran to the classroom. She told the teacher and said, “People are bullying me!”

So, the teacher went out into the hall to see the poster. He laughed so hard that his pants flew off. So, her friends took a photo of his underwear, which had kittens, pugs, and rainbows. And then they started putting up posters of him and took down the posters of her. The other adults were in the teacher’s lounge. When they come out, they heard the bell, and all the kids ran out except for that one adult. All the teachers saw him in his underwear. Sophia was now happy because everybody forgot about the poster of “Butt Girl Sophia.” She thought she was so grateful that after school she went to Ms. Pig Wig’s house and thanked her with ten chocolate coins, which in this country is $100 dollars. That’s not the only thing. All her bad stuff disappeared, and she drew cute animals once in a while, but she knew it would never be the end of the Start Stop Drawing Cute Animals Cure.

 

Gone Girls

 

Hailee

Hi, my name is Hailee. I am 11 years old, and I have been friends with Riley for eight years. We met when we were three at a Mommy and Me class. Since then, we are inseparable. We do everything together.

I am the one who loves sports. I am on the school soccer, swim, and basketball team. What Riley and I share is that we are both on the dance team. My whole family loves sports, my dad especially. When it comes to sports, our family doesn’t stop screaming.

I have a younger brother, an older sister, a mom, a dad, and then of course, Riley.

The one thing I am allergic to is pollen, and I might have to go to the hospital and take medicine if it’s near me.

Riley and I live in townhouses connected to each other by a garden. Sometimes at night, we’ll sneak out to the garden and hang out to talk and play. We got caught once but still keep doing it because we lied to our parents, saying, “We will never do it again.”

This summer, we are going to stay in our house. We already planned everything this summer. We already babysit people in a different townhouse. We will do that and get money and then, when we aren’t doing sports, art, or dance, we will go around and help out and have fun. We also want to make enough money to buy more stuff for the summer and school.

Between the two of us, Riley is way smarter. She always gets full scores on her tests, and I get like half or a bit more. She never gets in trouble, but I am the opposite of that. But with her, we always get out of trouble.

So, now you know about me. Let’s get on with the story.

 

Riley

Hello, my name is Riley. As you already know, I am best friends with Hailee. When she is at basketball, I am there watching. When I am in a play, she is in the front row. Then, of course, we are always dancing together.

My family is difficult. I have twin sisters who are six years old and an older brother who is fourteen years old. I also have my dog Bailey. My sisters have a turtle. Then, my mom. My dad doesn’t live with us because my parents got divorced when I was two. But every Friday, I get a weekly call to talk to my dad about everything. Sometimes he comes over when he is in town. I mean, I miss him and I wish I could see him often, but at least we can talk sometimes.

Since being a lawyer and handling a dog and four kids alone is hard, we have a nanny. Sara is our nanny. She sleeps over every night except for Friday and Saturday. She is amazing. She helps out and plays with us. She is always someone I can talk to, along with Hailee.

I am mildly allergic to many things: horses, dust, grass, and gluten. If I eat or touch one of those I can get sick, and I need to take a lot of medicine.

The activities I do are dance, art, swimming, acting, and fashion. During some of my free time I do fashion. This means that I design clothes, try on clothes, and finally sew and make the clothes. Sometimes, Hailee and I wear clothes that I make or design. Those are the things I am mostly good at.

Hailee and I manage our schedules, so most of the time we are together. Well, I gotta go. Our summer is starting!!!

Bye!

 

CHAPTER ONE: HIDDEN PASSAGEWAYS

“Come on!” Hailee screamed from the garden, jumping so she could see what Riley was doing in her room.

“Coming,” replied Riley. She jumped out the window. She got down with a thud then landed on her feet, and they started to walk down to town to get some ice cream. It was a really hot day that day. After five minutes of walking and talking, they arrived at the ice cream place.

“Hi,” they heard someone say to them. Riley and Hailee turned around to see Riley’s cousin Sasha working as an employee at Scoop. Sasha was Riley’s cousin on her mom’s side. She had straight blond hair just like Riley and bright blue eyes too. Even though she was six years older than Riley, they were still really close.

“Hey, Sasha. What are you doing here?” Riley asked her, looking up at the different flavors.

“Oh, I am working this week and next week because one, I love ice cream and two, I need money,” she replied, looking down at the girls.

They looked at each other, and then Hailee said, “I’ll have a cone with mint chocolate chip and rainbow sprinkles.” She looked at Sasha when she said that. Sasha turned around to get her flavor and then handed it to her.

“Um… I’ll have the same but in a cup,” Riley said. Sasha handed that to her, and they went over to get sprinkles.

“Thanks,” they said at the same time. Sasha waved bye, and they left Scoop.

 

They started to walk back until Hailee stopped in her tracks. She started to look at something in the far distance and saw a sign and trees. She licked the sprinkles right off her ice cream and asked, “What’s that?” She almost started walking over there.

“No, we don’t know what it is, and it’s in the middle of the woods. The only thing we see is a sign that reads COME FORWARD, and that could mean anything,” Riley replied cautiously. She kept on walking away from the ice cream place.

“Come on, just for one minute.” Hailee sighed while Riley started to turn around. They walked, staying on the passage. When they got to the sign, they saw many more passages. They all looked different. They all had many unique colors on the ground and trees. On one of the passages there was a house. It looked different from their house because in their normal town there were townhouses and country houses, but here there was an apartment.

“Woah,” Riley exclaimed, while her skirt shimmered in the light. There were beautiful trees and a huge lake. Hailee ran over to the lake. They stood by the lake for a while until they heard a thud.

There was a long sound. Riley and Hailee looked around. There was nothing but forest. Their town had disappeared.

 

CHAPTER TWO: THE HOUSE

“AHHH,” Riley cried. She fell to the ground where Hailee was lying down. After a minute of lying down in shock, Hailee stood up. She looked around a bit and then looked down at Riley.

“Are we dreaming?” asked Riley, not knowing what was going on. She stood up and looked around. All she saw was forest, but she also saw a house. It was the same house from before.

She was confused, but then Hailee replied, “No… But where are we?” She stood on her tippy toes to get a better view of the place. She saw the house too. The last thing they remembered was that they were sitting by a lake.

They took a look around. The forest they were in before had disappeared. Now they were in a place that was dark with barely any trees and worst of all, the passage had disappeared.

“Okay, let’s calm down. Maybe our cell phones work?” Hailee shrugged and took her phone out of her light blue fanny pack, and the case sparkled in the light. Then, Riley took her phone out of her pink purse. They held their phones up to the sun, but nothing changed. There was no connection.

Then, they started to walk over to the house. The house had music coming from it, and the music got louder as they walked closer. It was a bright yellow house which was odd for an apartment. Riley grabbed Hailee’s hand, and they got closer. Red roses surrounded the house.

Hailee began to sneeze. Her allergies began to act up more and more. She reopened her fanny pack and poured five pills into her mouth.

“Are you okay?” Riley asked, putting her hand on Hailee’s back.

“Yeah, I just need to get away from these flowers. Let’s knock on the door,” Hailee replied. She walked towards the door as Riley followed. Before they could knock, a lady walked out. She looked old, she had gray hair but it was short, she was tall, and she was wearing a long, black dress.

“Hi, girls,” she said, walking out more. They walked back, a bit scared.

“Um… Hi. I’m Hailee, and this is Riley,” Hailee said and started to walk forward.

“Would you like to come in?” the lady asked.

“Um, okay,” Riley replied. They walked into a kitchen where another lady was sitting. The rock music was playing. It was warm and nice. They wanted to stay there forever.

 

CHAPTER THREE: THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN

After having tea and cookies, Riley said, “Thank you, but we better get going.” Riley and Hailee stood up, and they started to walk to the door.
“No, stay!” Annie, who was the old lady, shrieked. They pretended not to hear her and walked out together.

THUD.
Once they got out, the place had changed again.

Now, they were really scared. They were on the ground this time again. Riley stood up and then helped Hailee. They looked around. There was a castle and then the same apartment.

“O-M-G, what is that house? It is so creepy and so is this forest. Where are we?!” Riley said, looking around.

“Let’s go to the castle and see if someone can help us,” Hailee said while she started to run over there. Riley followed and when they got there, they knocked on the door.

The same woman from before was there, but this time she was wearing a big, red dress. They also saw the girl in the kitchen wearing a short, blue dress, but this time she looked more like Sasha. The two scared and shocked girls just smiled at her and then walked away.

Then, Riley realized, “These were all the pathways, and we just have to wait until we get to our pathway home.” She sat down on the pure, green grass.

“How about that lady?” Hailee whispered to Riley, sitting down. Riley shrugged.

“Let’s go to sleep and figure it out in the morning,” Riley said to Hailee and then took her phone out of her purse and put her purse under her head to sleep. Hailee sat down, leaning on a tree, and took Riley’s hand and thought, What if we never go home? What are our parents thinking?

 

CHAPTER FOUR: 100 PATHWAYS

When they woke up, they were in the middle of a room. They got up, only to see Sasha standing there. They were surprised.

“Sasha?” Riley asked, braiding her hair piece by piece.

Sasha walked closer to them and said, “Yes… I will explain later, but let’s get out of here.” Hailee put her hair up, and they followed Sasha out of the weird room. They were terrified. When they got there, they crouched down. “Okay, I am here because one day I was walking in the forest and I came in here, so Annie spotted me and said that she needed help. I was confused, but then she made me come back every single day to help because I heard rumors that if I didn’t, I could die. So I have my key back in my room to get out of this place. So all we have to do is get the key and go out,” Sasha said, looking at them. They spotted Annie looking for them.

“Shhh,” Sasha whispered. She moved a bit closer as a spider creeped up her leg.

“Ahhh, spider!!” Riley screamed and jumped back. Annie saw her.

“I knew you were here. So can you be my new assistant? If you want,” Annie asked. She stood there in silence, looking down at Hailee.

“NO!” Hailee screamed. She stood up. Annie walked closer.

“Why do you need help? What’s going on?” Hailee asked.

“Well, don’t you need to know everything,” Annie said, and she walked down and looked at Sasha. “Well, guess what, maybe while I am out working I need someone to do everything for me.” Then, it happened again.

THUD.

They woke up on the ground again back in the forest next to the house. Annie came out.

“Okay, sorry, whatever your name is, Saya. I am sorry you do everything for me. I can just get a maid,” Annie said surprisingly. The three girls who were scared walked closer. They took breaths and smiled.

“Thanks?” Sasha said. She was scared but also relieved that she didn’t need to read that much anymore, and she could just enjoy her summer at last. Then, the house disappeared.

THUD.

 

CHAPTER FIVE: HOME SWEET HOME

When they woke up, they were lying on a road and got up to see Riley’s parents and family standing there like robots. The three girls were really creeped out.

“Now is your chance to tell your family,” Hailee said to Riley. Riley looked scared and walked over to her parents.

“Um hi, Mom and Dad,” Riley said, with a different, more terrified voice than usual.

“Hi, sweetie. Where were you last night?” Riley’s mom asked.
“Oh, um… I slept over at Hailee’s,” she said, while pictures of what actually happened floated around in her brain. She looked over at Hailee, who motioned to her to talk.

“So… I have a question… It’s nice you like your job, but I was wondering if you could, you know, spend more time with me?” Riley questioned quietly.

Her mom put her hand on Riley’s back and said, “Sure, sweetie. I can go to the office this weekend and ask, okay?” Riley hugged her and moved on to her dad.

“Hey, Dad… ” she said and hugged him.

“Hi, sweet pea. Nice to see you,” he said to her, and then waved over to Hailee.

“Um, Dad… My question for you is can I spend more time with you?” she asked, scared to see the response.

“Actually, I just bought a house right near you, so you get to stay with me every weekend!” her dad replied.

She jumped up into his arms and whispered, “I love you.” Then, they waved goodbye and walked on the street home.

“I’m proud of you, Riles,” Hailee said to Riley, and they walked home together, holding hands. When they got home, they sat on their window sills and fell asleep.

 

Treasure Map

Once upon a time there was a treasure map. Ari was playing Minecraft, and it popped up on his computer out of the blue. When Ari saw this, he called his three friends, Hope, Linzi, and Mert, and told them to come to his house. His friends left their houses, and they reached Ari’s house in the span of five minutes. At Ari’s house, he showed them the treasure map. The boys and the girl decided to pursue it to find out what the mysterious treasure was.

They followed the map to a mysterious forest. There, they met a bear. In the bear’s den, there was a clue. They decided to get the clue when the bear was gone. Luckily, they weren’t caught by the bear. And then, the clue said, Up, up in the trees you will find another clue. But when Ari, Hope, Linzi, and Mert went up, up in the trees, they didn’t find any clue. They forgot that they didn’t read the clue fully — they turned the page. The clue said, Up, up in the tree, you will find it on a bird. Luckily, they went and caught the bird and got the clue. The clue was attached to its claws.

The clue said, Down, down underneath the surface, you will find a computer. But be very careful, it’s hot. Ari, Hope, Linzi, and Mert went down underneath the surface, and it was really hot. They found lava. And in the lava, there was another clue. To avoid the lava, they used two clues to make a little rope, and they got it. And then, they read the clue and the clue said, Read the treasure map and go to a different place. They followed the treasure map, and it led them to a swamp.

At the scary, smelly swamp, they found another clue, but they didn’t know how to get to it. Luckily, they had a little net and they used the net to get it. And then, they brought the net back, and they got the clue. And the clue said, Towards the right, you will find a fight. They went towards the right, and they found two animals fighting. A frog and a bullfrog were fighting. And then, they tried to get the clue in the middle of the fight, but everytime they tried to get the clue, they got hurt. Finally, they used the net to get in between the fight and get the clue. Accidentally, they picked up the frogs too. So, they let the frogs go and picked up the clue. The clue said, To the left, you will find flight. So, they walked towards the left, and then they found a bunch of birds, and one of them had a clue. The clue was attached to a bird’s claw. And they quickly jumped over the bird and got the clue. It said, The last place you will go is on the treasure map. They followed the treasure map to Skull Island. Everyone who tried to go there would never return.

Ari, Hope, Linzi, and Mert went to Skull Island and, luckily, they returned. They followed the treasure map, and they came across the huge skull of a giant T-Rex. And there, they found one clue. It said, Be very careful… Because above you, there is Blackbeard! They looked up, and they saw Blackbeard. He was a pirate with a black eyepatch, and he was a captain. He had a big, black beard. They saw a clue above him and jumped up to the clue, and they got it. Ari, Hope, Linzi, and Mert all worked together to throw Blackbeard off the island. They physically picked him up and threw him off. Then, they read the clue. The clue said, This is the last clue, and you must write a story about your adventure. And if you don’t, you will never return. They found a magical pen on the floor and wrote the story. Then, the story magically turned into a clue. The clue said, Finally, follow the treasure map to the treasure. They followed the map, and they got to the treasure. They opened it. There was a box of gold, and underneath the gold, there was another treasure map, but there were no clues with it. They followed the treasure map and took the gold and treasure chest with them. Then, they followed it, and it led to another treasure with a treasure map. And the treasure map said, There will be six treasure chests. And in the sixth one, there will be a key where you can open all six of them at once. You must stack all of them inside each other, and then you will get the real treasure.

They went to the third treasure, and the third treasure had a treasure map. They put the third treasure chest inside the other two. Next, the treasure map inside the third treasure chest said you must get three more treasures. There was one key, and when they opened it, they found a telescope and lots of things they would also need. Then, they followed the treasure map to the fourth map. The fourth treasure had more things they would need. Then, they followed the treasure map to the fifth one, but the fifth one was far away. Then, they took out some fake wings from their bag that they had, and they flew to it, and they got it. Then, it said the next one would give you the ultimate treasure. Then, they collected the fifth one, and the sixth one was very difficult to find. They didn’t find it, but they found a rocket ship, and they went to outer space.

In outer space, they searched everywhere, and still they couldn’t find the sixth treasure chest. They searched Mercury and didn’t find anything. They still had to go to the other planets. And then, they searched Venus, and it wasn’t there. Then, they went to Mars, and they couldn’t find it. They searched every single planet, and they still couldn’t find it. Then, they forgot they didn’t search inside the volcano in Mars. They searched inside the volcano at Mars and found the ultimate treasure. But since they were in outer space with zero gravity, the treasure spread everywhere. So everyone caught two pieces of the ultimate treasure, but there was some that were on the loose. All together, they got one quarter of the full treasure, but there were still three-quarters of it left out there.

They were too tired to look for it all, so they took a little break. Then, after that break, they took another break. After two breaks, they were still tired. So, they gathered all their stuff and went into their spaceship and traveled back to Earth. After a little rest and a water break, they got into their spaceship and went back to outer space. They searched and got two-quarters of the full treasure. Then, they put all of it together like a puzzle, and when they opened it, it was a cookie. When they took bites of the cookie, it was horrible. Then, they realized the treasure chest was a cookie making machine. They realized they could make cookies all day long. Then, they kept eating cookies. Soon, they were full. They wanted to take a break from adventuring, but then they found out that within the cookie machine, there was another treasure map.

The treasure map said, When you find this, there will be a huge surprise. So, they went to go and find the surprise but they could not find it. Then, they realized there was one place they did not look — the sun! In the middle of the sun, they found the surprise. However, they got trapped in the middle of the sun. They were all about to die because it was too hot. Finally, after they got out, they realized aliens took their spaceship. Then, they went to the moon to try and find the aliens. They couldn’t find the aliens, and they looked everywhere. Then, they went to work and found the aliens. They decided to put them on the moon forever and ever. Then, they found the treasure. The treasure was a cookie machine that could make delicious cookies. Then, Ari, Hope, Linzi, and Mert lived happily ever after.

The End.

 

Shadow Their Attack

      

Characters:

JACK: A boy, 15 years old, tries to be a good son to his mom, he is afraid of the trash alley

MOM: Jack’s mom

PROFESSOR ELECTRO MAN: A professor who makes wacky inventions that have to do with electricity, high school friend of Jack’s mom

SHADOWTHIEF: A monster who is invisible in the shadows, kind of like a zombie, lives in a trash alley even though it doesn’t like trash

 

Chapter One: Monsters Attack

“Jack! Time to take out the trash,” Jack’s mom screamed.

“Okay. I’ll go put it in the alley,” Jack responded, pausing Mario Kart, his favorite game.

Jack was sort of afraid of the alley. It was a dark and dirty place, and there were a lot of rats. Jack hated dirt because he thought it was gross. However, he still had to go because his mom would make him go to bed at 7:00 if the garbage truck didn’t take the trash, and the garbage truck picked up the trash in the alley. Jack was kind of scared, but normally he was brave — it was 7 p.m. and dark outside.

Jack stepped outside of his house, and his blonde hair blew in the wind. The leaves rustled and crunched beneath his shoes and made a big crackling noise. His sweater wasn’t warm enough, and a shiver went down his spine. He walked the block to the alley and threw the trash really hard before he was even at the entrance, because he just wanted to leave and run home because he was scared.

It slowly stood up and stretched and growled. It was sleeping and was hit by Jack’s trash. It walked slowly to the end of the alley and peeked its head out. It saw Jack going into his house.

Jack thought someone was lurking in the dark, so he looked around and saw nothing but shadows. He turned back around and rushed into his house and walked straight to his room.

It walked slowly down the block, like a zombie, and the leaves didn’t even crunch beneath its feet. Silently, it approached Jack’s house with the trash Jack threw at him dragging behind him. It rang the doorbell.

“Who is it?” Jack asked.

Nobody answered.

Jack opened the door.

Nobody was there. Jack slammed the door and walked back to his room, terrified.

It crawled into the open kitchen window and threw the trash on the floor and made a mess on the kitchen floor with a bang. It crawled back through the window and went back to the alley.

Jack’s mom walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes because she was tired. She saw the trash all over the floor and was devastated and disappointed in Jack.

“Jack! Get in here,” she shouted.

“I’m coming!” he mumbled, half-asleep. Jack walked into the kitchen, worried and confused. Surprisingly, the trash was still in the kitchen. “But I took it out!”

“No video games for a week,” his mom interrupted. “Jack, take out the trash again in the morning. Back to bed.”

 

The next day…

Jack thought things were getting strange. He hadn’t put the trash in the kitchen. What had happened? Jack was going to go back to the alley to find out what was going on.

“Mom, I’m going out to get some vegetables!” Jack lied.

“Sure thing, Jack.” Jack’s mom thought something sketchy was going on, but she trusted Jack and was making dinner, so she decided not to interfere.

Jack stepped outside. He didn’t want to go back to the alley, but he clearly remembered seeing someone a few days ago when he took out the trash. He slowly started walking towards the alley, trying to be brave.

The shadowthief saw Jack coming to the alley, so he thought of a plan. A plan to haunt Jack. As Jack approached the alley, he felt someone walking behind him. He turned around. No one. Jack felt cold. He felt alone. Who was there? He heard footsteps coming from behind him. In his mind he thought, Mom, help me! Suddenly, the shadowthief grabbed him and ran away.

Jack’s mom looked at the clock. How come Jack isn’t back yet? she thought. She waited and waited. An hour passed. Still no one. Jack’s mom grabbed her coat. Tears poured down her face. She rushed out the door. She looked all over town, but she still couldn’t find Jack. When she got home, she couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t eat. She tried calling the police.

“My son disappeared! Can you help me find him?” she said on the phone.

“Okay, we’ll try to find him,” the policeman said.

Meanwhile, Jack was in a trash can tied up.

He waited for somebody to notice.

And waited.

And waited.

The police looked everywhere but couldn’t find Jack. The policeman called Jack’s mom to report the news. Jack’s mom felt depressed.

Jack decided that he was tired of waiting and would break out. But how? He made sure no one was there in a 50 meter radius. He tipped the trash can over with all his might. The trash can broke into pieces. He saw some broken glass on the side of the street and used it to cut the ropes that tied him together. It was cold and foggy outside, although Jack didn’t feel the cold because he was struck with horror. He went back to his house, speechless and stunned, and told his mom that he was safe. It was so late at night, but his mom was still awake and waiting for him. Jack told his mom about the shadowthief and about how he was going to find it. His mom didn’t want him to go, but Jack really wanted to find the shadowthief, so she insisted that he bring a knife and a flashlight.

“Stay safe!” Jack’s mom said.

“Okay, I will,” Jack said. He gave her a hug and went back and hid in the alley waiting for the shadowthief.

The shadowthief came back from another alley a few blocks away and looked in the trash can, but Jack wasn’t there. He went back to the first alley, but little did he know that Jack was waiting for him with the flashlight and the knife. The wind was howling, and Jack was nervous when he saw the shadowthief. He shone the flashlight and was about to ambush the shadowthief, when he noticed that the shadowthief was struggling in pain under the light.

Jack realized that the shadowthief was afraid of light. Now he knew the shadowthief’s weakness, so he wouldn’t have to worry about him again. He kept shining the flashlight on the shadowthief until he got home. He rushed inside and slammed the door, happy that he figured out how to deal with the shadowthief. He told his mom about the shadowthief’s weakness, and his mom was worried and relieved. Jack went straight to his room and flopped onto his bed.

The shadowthief recovered from the light in a few minutes, stood up and stretched, and wanted to kill Jack. The shadowthief ran out of the alley with a new plan.

 

The next day…

Jack woke up feeling proud of himself, thinking that he defeated the shadowthief. His mom had made him cake, and they had a dance party to celebrate Jack’s victory. In the middle of the party, the doorbell started ringing over and over again. Jack looked through the mini-window on the door and saw multiple shadow thieves violently banging on the door.

Jack ran up the stairs and quickly got his flashlight. He ran back down the stairs and shone the flashlight at the shadow thieves. But this wasn’t enough light. The door was starting to break open.

“Do you know what we should be doing now?” Jack said. “Running!!”

Jack and his mom ran and literally jumped out the window. The shadow thieves went to every house in town to scare everyone’s pants off. The whole town was under attack of shadowthieves.

“If only I had a light big enough to defeat those shadow thieves,” Jack said.

 

A few hours later…

The whole town was under attack. The shadowthieves scared everyone, and no one felt safe in the town. People all started to hide in all sorts of places.

“Mom, we have to do something about these shadowthieves. Maybe we could build a light big enough to defeat all these shadowthieves,” Jack said.

“Jack, we first have to run from these shadowthieves because they’re dangerous.” Jack and his mom hid in a car.

“Hey, Jack, I remember a friend in high school that can help us with this situation.”

“Mom, who is this friend from high school?”

“Professor electro man. He specializes in making unusual things that have to do with electricity. He can build a huge light for us.” Jack and his mom tried to find Professor electro man, but they couldn’t find him anywhere in town.

“Maybe he’s terrified about the shadowthieves so he also hid.”

“I see him!” Jack’s mom said. Jack and his mom rushed towards Professor electro man.

“Sally, is that you?” Professor electro man said.

“Yes yes yes, it’s me, and this is my son Jack.” Just then, a shadowthief grabbed Jack’s mom and ran.

“MOM!” Jack screamed. “Please, professor, help me build an enormous light to defeat these shadowthieves. Please, please, please with a cherry on top?”

“Sure thing, Jack, as long as it saves your mom,” the professor said. Jack and the professor started to make the enormous light invention.

Jack and the professor got in a helicopter and shone the light all over the city. Soon, all the shadowthieves were in pain and down.

“Great job, professor, but we need to find my mom.” Jack and the professor looked all over the city, but Jack’s mom was nowhere to be found. Jack was determined to find his mom. The day started to turn into night. Jack had to take out his flashlight, so he could see. Jack shone his flashlight towards a trash can. There was writing on it: Jack, Kenya.

Jack used his knife to cut a hole in the trash can. Out slid a piece of paper, a map of Kenya.

 

Chapter Two: Hope

Hey, guys. It’s me, Jack. I just lost my mom a few days ago. I discovered a trash can and a map with writing on it. Now what do I do? I have to stay in Kenya with this crazy professor that I barely even know. This all started because of me. I hope to save my mom. I hope she’s safe. It all started when I threw some trash away. It hit this thing so-called the “shadowthief,” and now the “shadowthieves” stole my mom and pretty much destroyed the city.

Kenya is a hot place with sunny days. Normally, I would be happy because I love bright days, but how could I be happy when I lost my mom?

“Where do you think my mom will be?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe somewhere no one can see,” said the professor.

I realized that on the map, there was an X. The X was on the Museum of Shadows. “Wherever there’s an X, my mom is probably there,” I said.

“Let’s go find your mom!” the professor said.

“I’m glad that it’s night because the shadowthieves like the darkness,” I said.

The professor and I walked into the deserted museum, hearing screams of innocent people and carrying the enormous flashlight that the professor made. It was dark inside. We walked around, searching for my mom. Suddenly, I saw something run past me so fast that it was blurry. I froze. I realized that it was the shadowthief. The professor and I ran towards the shadowthief that ran past me. The shadowthief led us to a silent room. I started to hear my own heart beating.

“Professor, you go in first,” I whispered.

The professor nodded and went in. Five minutes passed. He didn’t come out. I was terrified. Sweat trickled down my head. I realized that the professor was also trapped by the shadowthieves. I slowly walked into the room, my legs trembling, hoping to find my mom and the professor. I turned gears and clicks and switches to turn on the light. When the light was on, I saw my mom and the professor both tied up.

I used the knife that my mom had given me to cut through the thick ropes that tied my mom and professor together. I hugged my mom and the professor. Right when I freed them, I felt footsteps coming behind me. I turned around, feeling seven pairs of footsteps coming. I know they’re the shadowthieves that captured my mom and the professor! I tried to run and escape, but I couldn’t find the door. I shone the light at the shadowthieves and hit them right away. I heard them collapsing on the ground. Meanwhile, the professor found the door, and we ran out of the museum. As we bolted out of the museum, we heard the shadowthieves running trying to catch us. I kept shining the flashlight at them, but it was no use because they kept dodging the light. I felt them gaining on me. The professor, my mom, and I slammed into a brick wall and were cornered by shadowthieves. They got closer and closer and closer…

“We had a nice life. Goodbye, Mom,” I said.

“Don’t worry, son — ” she said, but before she could finish her sentence, she was eaten. Tears escaped my eyes and poured down my cheeks. I tried to fight back but —

The end…

Or is it the end???

 

The War for Aspadus

        

Chapter One

The Guard: Michael

Six hundred years ago, on a planet called Aspadus, there was a country called the Irevalon Empire. They were a country where people had powers. But over time, they spread out over the planet and developed their own powers and their own languages. On one half of the planet, it was green, hilly, and warm, and they spoke Dragonese, and on the other half, it was mostly watery and cold. They spoke Lorainian. Eventually, they separated into two different Kingdoms: The Kingdom of Kilgore and the Kingdom of Lorain. The King of Kilgore was a good leader named King Ray. The King of Lorain was King Jensen. He was a greedy king and wanted to rule the entire planet. So, he went to war with Kilgore. The war was six years long, and Kilgore won. They just wanted to keep their half of the planet and have peace. Ever since the war, the Lorains had poured money into their military because the Kilgores were more powerful. The people of Lorain were just trying to defend themselves from the mess their king got them into. After the war, the Kilgores learned how to control dragons with their powers, and the Lorains learned how to train sea monsters just in case they had another war.

In the Kingdom of Killgore, some people had powers, and they were called the Iron Guard. They protected the Kingdom. The leader of the Guard was the most powerful Guard member ever. His name was Michael. He was seven feet tall with muscles all over his body, and he had black beady eyes and black hair with a big black beard. He was also the oldest Guard member ever. He was 500 years old. Michael could fly, shoot fire out of his hands, and turn invisible. Those were the powers that only he had, but he also had powers that all the Guard had, like strength, speed, and the ability to move things with his mind. All of the Guard had a dragon. Michael’s dragon was called DemonFire. The dragon’s powers depended on their owner. DemonFire was the strongest of all. He could turn invisible and breathe fire. The biggest enemy of the Iron Guard was the Lorain Shield. They also had powers, but instead of dragons, they had sea monsters.

One day, Michael was training in the Guard headquarters. In the training room, there were weapons like crossbows, flaming swords, and armor. They also had traps and a fake battlefield, so the Guard could train without going to war.

Michael was about to kill the last Lorain soldier, when Michael’s servant rushed in saying, “Lorain is attacking the Kingdom! Warn the rest of the Guard!”

“YES! FINALLY SOME ACTION!” screamed Michael.

Michael gathered seven of the best Guard members. They were called the Elders and had started the Iron Guard. They were the strongest, fastest, and smartest. Their names were Jack, Logan, John, Paul, James, Will, and Trevor. When the Elders got to the battlefield, the Lorains were already getting away.

“This should be fun,” screamed Michael.

“Would you shut up, please?” Jack yelled.

Michael lit his hands on fire and shot two big fireballs that lit up two Lorain soldiers and their sea monsters. Suddenly, he heard a scream, and it sounded like it was coming from his side. He saw Jack being shot by two long streams of water and dangling from his dragon with his feet hitting the water. Michael pushed Jack back up onto his dragon with his mind.

“You’re welcome!” screamed Michael.

“Be quiet!” screamed Jack.

Michael grabbed his sword, jumped off his Dragon’s back, and turned invisible. When he landed, he grabbed a Lorain and stabbed him in the back. Three down, twelve to go, Michael said in his head. Logan plucked two attacking soldiers off their monsters with his mind and threw them into the water. Trevor struck two Lorains with a lighting bolt. That killed them and their monsters.

“Eight more,” Michael said.

Michael used his flames as he flew, dodging arrows and water when the last Lorain was killed.

Michael said, “Let’s get back home.”

When Michael and the Elders got back to Killgore, the rest of the Guard was waiting for them at the Guard Headquarters. Thousands of Guard members were there. One of them stepped forward and asked Michael, “Why didn’t you take us?”

“Because we did not need all of you,” Michael said.

After Michael got home and took a shower, his servant told Michael, “The King wants to see you again.”

“Okay,” replied Michael.

When Michael got to the castle, the rest of the Elders were already there. They all went up to a room where they made decisions. It was a big room with a long wooden table and stone walls. The king had a chair at the head of the table, and the other Elders were gathered around. To people who didn’t know him, the king looked scary. He was big, with a beard and a scar across his cheek. But in reality, he was not. He was funny, and he was humble.

“What do you think we should do about the Lorains?” said King Ray.

“I think we should attack them and make them pay for what they did today,” Michael said.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with Michael,” Jack said.

“But we can’t just go into a big battle with the whole Lorain Empire,” said Logan.

“Come on, you’re always boring,” Michael said.

“Alright. You vote on it, but I’ll decide,” said King Ray.

“I say we attack with every member of the Guard and kill all of the Lorains,” Michael said. “Or do you want to stay here and let the Lorains take over the whole world?”

“Let’s attack,” Jack said.

“Attack,” Paul said.

“I say we stay here,” John said.

“Oh, come on, John. You would rather stay here and be a coward instead of have fun killing people?” said Michael.

“Still, I would rather stay here then risk killing the entire Guard. If we all die, what would happen to Kilgore?” John said.

“I think we need to get some revenge on Lorain. I want to punch King Jensen in the face so badly,” Trevor said.

“I like the way you think, T,” Michael said.

“I say we stay here,’’ Will said.

“Let’s stay here,” James said.

“Alright. What do you want, Ray?” Michael asked.

“That’s King Ray to you,” King Ray responded. “I think we should attack Lorain.”

“YES!!!” screamed Michael.

“We attack in three days,” said King Ray.

 

Chapter Two

The Shield: Jackson

When Jackson heard the news about the spies being killed, he was furious. He went straight to his dad, King Jensen. “I want to kill them all!” screamed Jackson.

“You will get your chance. We are attacking in three days — prepare your monsters and the Shield.”

“Perfect,” Jackson said.

Jackson went to his monster, WaveCrasher.

He said, “You ready, boy?”

WaveCrasher nodded all three of his heads.

One of Jackson’s powers was the ability to communicate with animals. Like all of the Shield members, he had special powers. Just he had more because he was the son of King Jensen and the most powerful witch ever, Queen Diana. Jackson’s powers were being able to talk to animals, breathing underwater, shooting water out of his hands, and being able to freeze the water as he walked.

“I can’t wait for the battle,” said Jackson to WaveCrasher.

When Jackson warned the rest of the Shield that they will be attacking Kilgore in three days, they were all excited because they hadn’t had a big battle like this for over 100 years.

“Prepare your monsters and the ships. We will kill every last Kilgores!” screamed Jackson.

When the entire Shield was on the boats, Jackson told all of the men to get ready to fight because the Kilgores were brutal.

A day later, Jackson saw ships and dragons. The dragons were huge. So was the Guard. Jackson knew that the Shield had more men and could eat them, but he also didn’t think the Guard was that big.

 

Chapter Three

The Battle: Michael

Michael was riding DemonFire when he saw a bunch of ships.

“It looks like the Shield,” he said. Michael told Jack who told the rest of the Guard.

“Let’s do this!” screamed Michael. All of the attacking line got on their dragons and charged. As soon as Michael got within 50 yards, arrows started firing at the Guard.

Michael said, “Make a shield.”

All of the members of the Guard made a shield with their minds, and the arrows bounced harmlessly into the water. Michael charged with DF, both of them burning boats and Lorains. Michael jumped off DM and told him to turn invisible. They both did and shot fire at the ships. Suddenly, something hit Michael in his back, and he visibly fell out of the sky. He called out to DF just in time, because he caught him before Michael hit the water.

“Thanks,” Michael said.

Going back to the battle, Michael was about to turn invisible when two arrows hit him in the shoulder and chest. Blood started pouring out of his mouth. He had to go back to the ship to heal.

 

Chapter Four

The Giant Jack

Jack saw Michael get shot three times and then retreat back to the ship. Jack thought, I’m going to have to make fun of him a little.

Jack said to his dragon, “Drop me.”

The dragon lowered him to the ground a bit, so Jack could jump off. Jack threw his dagger at a Lorain soldier in mid-air that hit him right in the head. When Jack landed, he flipped right over a soldier and stabbed him in the back.

“Come on, you’re making this too easy,” taunted Jack.

Jack flung two more soldiers into the the water without even touching them. All of a sudden, a Loric soldier twice the size of any other soldier jumped onto the boat. The huge soldier held a sword that was as long as Jack. In Jack’s head, he said, Oh no. Jack tried to hold the giant back with his telekinesis, but the giant easily broke through. The giant charged at Jack and punched him in the face. Jack went flying 20 feet backwards. Out of nowhere, Michael jumped off DF and shot the giant with fire. The giant screamed in pain as he jumped into the water.

“Thanks,” Jack screamed.

“Oh, look who learned some manners,” Michael said back.

As soon as Michael said that, three Loric soldiers charged him. Michael turned invisible and killed them all with his sword. Michael turned around and saw that the rest of the Loric ships were leaving.

“Look! They’re running!” screamed Michael.

When Michael got back to his ship, he talked to the Elders and asked them if they had ever seen a man that big. They all said no.

“We won the first battle. Do you think we should still attack Lorain while they’re weak?” asked Jack.

“I think we should attack them right now. It was fun,” Michael said.

“Of course you and Jack think it was fun. The rest of the Elders and I had to stay back and watch you guys fight,” Trevor said.

“Did we decide yet,” said Michael, “because I think we should attack.”

When Jackson got back to Lorain, he was a mess. He had one big burn on his back that was killing him. Who was that soldier that was flying and and shooting fire out of his hands, Jackson thought. I think I also saw him turn invisible when I jumped into the water. He was even too strong for the whole army to kill him.

Jackson went to his father King Jensen. “Do you know of a Guard member who can shoot fire out of his hands, turn invisible, and fly?” King Jensen and Jackson said at the same time.

King Jensen said, “Jackson, there is something that I never told you.”

“What is it,” Jackson said.

“He is your brother who was stolen by the Kilgores.”

Jackson was shocked when his dad said that. “So, he is Loric?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, he is, and he is the most powerful person in the world, and his name is Michael.”

 

Chapter Five

Round Two: Michael

When the Elders made the decision to attack the Loric island, Michael went out to scout the island by himself. When he got within 100 yards, he turned invisible. There are not that many Guards near the ships, so if we burn the ships, they won’t have a way off the island, Michael thought. When Michael got back to his ship, he told the Elders, and they all told the rest of the Guard the plan to burn the ships and kill all the Loric soldiers.

When Michael got back to the ships, he told the Elders the plan to beat the Lorains. Michael gathered the whole Guard and told them, “Anyone who can fly or shoot fire, step forward. You’re going to help me burn the Loric ships, so they can’t get away. Then, we will burn the rest of the Kingdom and kill them all.”

When the fleet was close to Lorain, Michael told the 20 men to get on their dragons and to start flying. Michael led the charge to Lorain. As soon as the Guard got within 100 feet, they started shooting flames at the boats. Michael thought, Good, all of the ships are gone. Hopefully, the rest of the Guard is destroying the rest of Lorain.

Jackson was awakened by screams, and his brother Jacob ran into his room screaming.

“The Guard is here.”

Jackson said, “What?” still half asleep.

“GET UP! LORAIN IS UNDER ATTACK!!!”

Now, Jackson was wide awake, and he put his armor on. He told his brother, “Get the people on the boats.”

Jacob said, “The Guard burned them.”

“Come on!!!” Jackson said.

Jackson got the Shield and told them that the Guard was attacking. When Jackson got outside, he saw that most of Lorain was already on fire and that the Guard was on their dragons. Jackson fired water at a few Guard members and knocked them off their dragons, but there were still a lot more. Suddenly, he saw the soldier that shot fire, his brother.

“Michael, brother.”

Michael was wondering why the giant was calling him brother. So, he jumped off DF and charged at him. Michael shot two fireballs at the giant, but the giant was too fast. This time, he stepped out of the way, so the flames went into the house behind him. Jackson made a wave and shot it at Michael. Michael blocked it with his telekinesis and threw another fireball at Jackson. This time, the fireball hit him right in his chest. The giant went flying back 30 yards with a big burn right in his chest. Michael started walking over to the giant, about to kill him, when two arrows flew over and hit Michael in his leg and back.

Jackson saw his chance and swept Michael’s leg. Michael fell and screamed in pain. Jackson looked over to see who shot the arrows and saw that it was Jacob.

Jackson smiled at Jacob and said, “Thanks.”

Right when Jackson said that, three Guard members walked over and started shooting at him.

Michael had blood coming out of everywhere. He was not sure who shot him and what happened after he got shot, because he blacked out. Michael tried to stand but couldn’t because of the pain in his back. His vision was blurry, and he couldn’t hear anything but 50 feet ahead of him. He thought he saw Jack, Logan, and John fighting the giant by themselves. Michael also saw DemonFire burning Loric soldiers. All of a sudden, a Loric soldier punched Michael in the back of the head. Michael was in no shape to fight but knew that he had to. Michael turned around and punched the man in the face. The man went flying backwards 45 feet. Michael had to help the Elders fight the giant. They couldn’t beat him by themselves. When the giant was not looking, Michael hurled three fireballs right at him. They all hit him in his back. He went flying, and when he landed, he didn’t get back up. John, Jack, and Logan all thanked Michael for killing the giant, but when they saw the two arrows, they started to get worried.

Jack said, “We have to get you to the hospital.”

 

The Castle of Love

Once upon a time, there lived a princess, queen, and king. They wanted to be very rich, but they did not have much money. They became king and queen because they were rich. Other people had $10, but they had almost $100,000, but there was someone way richer than them. They had $100,035, but that was from their army for fighting against England.

They became a little rich because they worked very hard for the high jungle every day to see plants and animals. The family had eight pet unicorns and 50 pet dragons and three horses. The first dragon was named Rainbow, the second was named Pretty, the third was named Beauty, the fourth was named Rainy, the fifth was named Rosie, the sixth was named Uni, the seventh was named Nature, and the final one was named Yummy. The unicorns were named the color hair they had. The first one was named Gold, and the next one was named Silver. The third was named Pink, the fourth was named Purple, the fifth was named Turquoise, the sixth was named Brownie, the seventh was named Rainbow, and the fifth was named Rainbow Gold. The army was named the Rich Army on Earth. Rainbow was a generous and kind unicorn. She could do anything for the family, but she was usually mean to everyone else because she didn’t like anyone else talking to her. Her friends didn’t know how this would happen. If she didn’t know anyone and she didn’t want to meet anyone new, how did she make friends?

Rainbow was almost a teenager because she was nine years old. Her next birthday was tomorrow. Maybe she must be magical. And the princess was very happy, but they had lots of money because they took care of all their pets, so they had been richer than ever. And they lived happily ever after.

The end.

 

Water “The Elixir of Life”

Water is the substance that is essential to life. Without water, we cannot live. According to www.worldwaterconcil.org (Water Supply & Sanitation), one in ten people lack the access to clean water and 1.8 million people die from diarrheal disease. This cannot happen anymore. People are losing their lives because they don’t have clean water. Right now people are offering two solutions, one is asking for donations to build a well, and two is selling water filters. Just donating money to different websites is not as productive as new inventions, and so we should focus on creating new inventions that can help with water problems.

One way that people are trying to help places with no water is that they are making organizations that try to persuade people to donate money and using the money that people have donated. They will get the equipment to build a well at a place that doesn’t have water. When they build a well, usually a whole village gets water, and nearby villages can also come and get water from them. There is this one website called Charity Water which raises money and helps build wells. My grade donated to the website, and in total we raised $25,130. This is not advertising or required, but if you want to donate, you can go to: https://my.charitywater.org. Donating will help many people worldwide. Charity Water also teaches people in the village how to take care of the well and how to repair it if it is broken. If the well is so broken that the people in the village cannot fix it, Charity Water will send someone there and help them fix it for free. These websites might be helpful for a bit, but soon people might not donate as much money as before because they need it for themselves.

Other than the organizations for building wells, people are creating new inventions such as lead detectors, water purifiers, etc. One company called LifeStraw makes water bottles with straws able to filter water so that the water will be safe to drink. Another cool invention is the Tethys, which is a water lead detector made by Gitanjali Rao, who is a 12-year-old. She won the Young Scientist challenge and got $25,000. The Tethys uses carbon nanotubes to detect lead in water and then sends the results to a smartphone with the Tethys app (Prisco). Attention: This device is not yet out on the market. One invention that has been around for a long time is Ceramic Water Filters. They are clay ceramic that have lots of tiny holes. The tiny holes are only big enough for water molecules to go through. Bacteria, dirt, and other bad stuff are too big to go through the small holes. This device was designed by Henry Doulton who is a British potter. This device was made in the early 1800’s (Kiger). Now, people are modifying the device by adding a silver coating to kill the bacteria and dangerous pathogens. There are still many inventions that are being made and are being tested. To me, all of these inventions are amazing and very cool.

Water filters are better than building wells. To build a well, it costs $6,000-$12,000 depending on how deep the water is (Brenner). People are going to have to donate at least $6,000 to build one well. On the other hand, buying a portable water filter costs $150-$275 (www.fixr.com). This difference lets you see how much money people need to donate to build a well compared to how much money a portable water filter costs. Lot of people argue that building wells can help more people, but people can share a water filter just like a well, and it’s much cheaper. Many people also say that water filters don’t work. Reasons that they might not work is because you have to change the filter once in a while. Some water filters might have a light to indicate that it’s time to change the filter, and others will have instructions that will recommend to change it every few days. Donating money to websites might not last as long as water filters. Ergo, people should focus more on developing new water filters. That work is more important than making organizations that ask for donations to build a well.

 

Work Cited

Brenner, Laurie. “The Average Cost for a Well & Septic System | Hunker.” Hunker.com, Hunker, 26 Nov. 2009, www.hunker.com/13402537/the-average-cost-for-a-well-septic-system

“Cost to Install a Water Treatment System – Estimates and Prices at Fixr.” Fixr.com, Fixr Blog, 22 Feb. 2016, www.fixr.com/costs/water-purification-system

Kiger, Patrick J. “10 Innovations in Water Purification.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018,

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/10-innovations-water-purification2.htm

Prisco, Jacopo. “The 12-Year Old Who Won a $25,000 Science Prize.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/health/gitanjali-rao-young-scientist-winner/index.html

“Water Supply & Sanitation.” World Water Council, www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation

 

Charlotte

      

Part One

Chapter One

One morning, the sky was so blue I could see white clouds and airplanes, which we never saw here in my town, so it started the day off with an odd but somewhat happy start. The happy part ended when mom came and told me that even though it was the middle of the summer, June 8th, 1941, I had to work. When I say work, I don’t mean writing. I mean babysitting the triplets.

“Noooooooooooooooooooo!” I said.

Meanwhile, my older brother Michael got to go out with his friends, and my twin sister, Madeline, got to lie on the other side of the room!!! Sorry for the delay. I am Adaline, and this is how the worst day of my life started.

My mom made me eat breakfast quickly. It was oatmeal, my least favorite. I had to get dressed in uncomfortable clothes for the middle of the summer. Agh, long sleeves, long jeans, itchy headband, long socks up to the knee, and boots. Then, my mom got ready in nice summer clothes. It took her twenty minutes. She did her hair and makeup, and she put on her nice sandals and dress.

“The triplets, Ava, Emma, and Samuel, are in their room in the cribs. Please get them dressed and change their diapers,” my mom said. Then, she added, “Remember, they need exercise. Take them to the park. Remember to take a diaper bag, a first aid kit, two pairs of shoes, sunscreen, and water. Don’t forget snacks! Bye!” Then, she left. I wanted to be like my siblings. They got to go and have fun while I was stuck babysitting.

I went to the room and changed the kids quickly (their diapers and their clothes). The triplets were one and a half years old. One of them was in the carrier on my back. The others were in a double stroller.

The one on my back started screaming. The screaming was so high-pitched! It sounded like me. I was so annoyed. I had three babies, one screaming and two in the stroller asleep, while they should have been eating. The screaming one was throwing her food all over me! I was only eleven years old. I shouldn’t have been the one taking care of these kids! Michael was fifteen, but mom said he couldn’t be helping out. Then, the two in the stroller woke up, wanting food. When I gave it to them, they started spilling it and throwing it everywhere! On our way to the park, they saw one of their friends who was going in the opposite direction.

No, I thought. Please help me.

 

Chapter Two

The triplets screamed happily when they were next to their friend. I talked to the other baby’s mother for a while, and then she said something.

“Hey, if anything happens to me, can you please adopt my child?”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll have to talk to my mom.”

I was not surprised, but I was very worried. I couldn’t have another sibling. Oh no, I thought. I was part of six kids already. The triplets, my twin sister, and my brother. I couldn’t take care of quadruplets! Wait! That meant my older brother and twin sister would have to help!

“And, if anything happens to me,” the mother continued, “can you pick my other daughter up from 104th street and West End? That’s where the bus stop is. Pick her up at 2:30, please. She doesn’t need to go to school tomorrow if anything happens. “I’ll be right back,” the mother said. “Wait here. If I don’t come back in five minutes, then just take the baby to the playground. If I don’t show up at two, please pick up my daughter. Her name is Alexei. Don’t look for me. It’s not safe in the building.”

“Okay,” I said, “Bye!” I took the baby, leaving the mother with the stroller, and put the baby in the front of the baby carrier. The mother started walking away with the empty stroller. She went into her building. I waited five minutes.

She didn’t come out. I waited a little longer, then we went to the park. I had kids. I couldn’t leave them. I’d get in big trouble!

 

Chapter Three

At 2:00, I went to pick up the little girl, but the mom never told me what she looked like!

“Alexei,” I called to the bus. She came off and looked for her mom. She was scared. But then I called, “Come here, Alexi. I’m your mom’s daughter’s friend. Your little sister is friends with my little siblings.”

Alexei came and said, “Oh! Are you Adeline?”

“Yep,” I answered.

She asked, “Where’s my mom? Are you babysitting me?”

I answered, “It’s a long story. You’ll be staying with us for a while.”

“I WANT MY MOMMY!” she wailed.

“I’ll tell you when we get home,” I soothed. “Why don’t you get onto the board on the stroller? You can ride.”

“Okay… ” she said quietly.

I gave her a ride home.

When we got home, I introduced her to everybody. Everybody met for the first time except for the triplets. My mom still hadn’t come home, but she said she would be back by 2:30. Oh, and I forgot, she was visiting her friend… whose daughter I just picked up! My heart was beating so fast. My hands were shaking. I was panting, I was running out of breath, and I had no words. What would I do?!

 

Chapter Four

I ran over to the TV room and turned it on, and I jumped onto the couch with the kids and the remote.

“HURRY UP,” I yelled for my brother. “We need to watch something! I think Mom’s in danger!” I heard my brother running.

“By the way,” I added, “we adopted two kids.”

“What on earth?! You adopted two kids without Mom’s permission?” my brother asked. Then, he hesitated.

“Where’s Mom? She should be home by now.” His voice was questioning and worried.

The TV was on, and we saw the news. There was a huge fire from 92th to 134th street! It was 42 blocks!

“EVERYBODY, GRAB A CHILD OR TWO,” I yelled. “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE BUILDING.” I turned to my brother. “You can drive, right?”  I asked. “If you don’t, you’re in big trouble, mister.”

“Sort of? I can sort of drive,” he said. “I can knock down a few trees and buildings, but I can still drive.”

“Good enough. INTO THE CAR!” I yelled.

 

Chapter Five

“Get into the driver’s seat,” I told my brother, “Everyone else, sit down, and I’ll buckle you in.” I began to buckle in one, two, three, four, five, six… we need more car seats. I unbuckled two seats and squeezed two into a car seat. I sat down and buckled up, and we were off, but we forgot the baby’s blankets in the fire.

Then, we drove off, and we saw the fire truck up ahead, and then the fire truck hit our car and turned it over. I yelled, “Again! Everybody, take a child, unbuckle them, and run. We will need to get as far away from here as we can. Follow Michael, then run to Grammy and Poppy’s house in Brooklyn!” On our way there, people in a minivan stopped us and asked us to get in.

Michael said, “It’s the only thing we can do.”

We hopped in the car, and the parents had two children in the car named Avery and Sophie. When we got in the car, everybody held three children, and we drove back to their house. At first, we were nervous, but as we got used to it, we felt more at home. They adopted all of us.

We lived happily ever after… for a few minutes.

 

Part Two

Chapter Six

One Sunday, everybody left for a trip to Australia. Everybody went except for me, my sister’s friend, and my sister, Alexei. My sister’s friend name was Amanda. Amanda couldn’t eat a lot of things. She was allergic to pretty much everything that everybody else in the house liked, and Alexei liked everything that Amanda didn’t like, and Amanda liked what Alexei didn’t like. They didn’t like any of the same things.

I was not very picky. So it made it hard for the seven months they were in Australia. Every night, we would put the blackouts up and went into the subway. I would put the kids to bed. The first Monday, things went a little differently. Usually, every day we would get a letter in a very bright color from our family letting us know that everything was fine and good, but today we got a black letter that didn’t seem very happy. It said:

 

Family of Samuel, Avery, Sophie, Emma, Ava, Michael, Madeline, Elizabeth, and Benjamin Smith,

Please come to Australia to attend the funeral of Benjamin Smith. It will be at the Waverly Cemetery in Sydney, at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday July 16, 1941. We will explain how they died when you arrive.

The babies are okay, but are sick because of the bomb, and aren’t doing very well.

From,

James Harrington

 

My shoulders drooped, and I began to cry. I was so upset. We rushed over to the docks, caught the first boat to Australia, and we were off. It would take one whole week to get there from London, and with all the bombing, I wasn’t sure if I should have taken all the little ones with me. But who would take care of them if I didn’t bring them along? So on our way to Australia, the boat stopped at Brooklyn so that people could get on to go to Australia, and I dropped off the little ones with our grandparents. Alexei stayed with me as we got on the boat and sailed away. The boat was rough, very crowded, and the food wasn’t very good. Both of us felt sick.

It was really hard to be on the ship alone with a five-year-old as an eleven-year-old. I had to take care of her, and I had to take care of myself, but as we got on the ship and started sailing away, I felt badly that I left the little ones with our grandparents. Our grandparents weren’t the nicest people. They found the worst in every situation, and I didn’t want the little ones to think I abandoned them. Also, I felt like our grandparents would teach the little ones to not like a bunch of things and be mean. They wouldn’t teach them manners, and I’d come back to rude little sisters. So after we went to the funeral, I would take back every child and go back to Brooklyn to pick up the little ones with all the other kids and Elizabeth.

 

Chapter Seven

I got really nervous that the kids in Australia got really hurt because the letter said they were not doing so well. I hoped Michael, Madeline, and Elizabeth were okay, because if they weren’t, who would take care of the little ones? I couldn’t take care of everybody by myself, especially while taking care of bandaged adults and all of the people who normally help me with the seven children.

There was a little boy on the boat with me whose mom was on the last ship, which sunk. His dad was in the war and died. So I thought, Maybe I could convince Elizabeth to adopt him!

“Hi, I’m Adeline. I heard about your parents. Do you want to come with me? I’m only 11, but you can trust me. I have triplet little siblings, an older brother, and a twin sister. We were adopted by another family, and then there are two siblings in their family, and then there was another family that got adopted by us, who were another family of two children, and now we can adopt you. If that’s okay with you. There’s a five-year-old girl over there whose name is Alexei, who is one of the kids that we adopted… And what’s your name?” I said.

The little boy answered, “I am Charlie. You heard what happened to my family, right? I have a newborn sister and an older sister who are over there taking care of each other. My older sister is seven, and I am four.”

 

Chapter Eight

I introduced Alexei to Charlie, and they started playing. I then went around the boat, asking if any of the other children needed a new home or didn’t have parents. In all, there were ten children who needed a new home, not including Charlie and his siblings. So, we adopted all ten children into our family, and I got all of their parents out of a few rooms on the boat and had all the children sit in a circle and introduce themselves. There were six girls and four boys. The girls were Amelia who was six, Olivia who was three, Emily who was nine, Jessica who was eight, Isabella who was four, and Isla who was seven. The boys were Oliver who was six, Jacob who was two, Harry who was nine, and Jack who was seven. There were two sibling pairs and three only children.

When we got off the boat, I had everybody get in a line. First was Harry, then Emily, Jessica, Isla, Jack, Amelia, Oliver, Amelia (Charlie’s sister), Alexei, Isabella, Charlie, Olivia, Jacob, and the newborn, Ava. Amelia had to switch over to hold Ava, but other than that, this was the line. As we were getting off the boat, I had the older kids pair up with a younger kid. We got onto a trolly and were off to go to the funeral. First, we went to our house in Australia to pick up everybody else, then we got our clothes on. I was terrified but happy to have all of these new siblings. I knew how it felt to be separated from your parents, and I knew how important family was in times like this. We were young, with any boy over the age of 16 being sent off to war. Us younger ones had to stick together. I reminded myself this as I got myself ready and helped all the new siblings get ready for the funeral.

 

Chapter Ten

All the girls would have a dress that was black or blue and a bow to put in their hair. All the boys would have a suit and a tie. Everybody got changed, and I put everybody that was younger than five in a stroller, that the kids that were older than five helped push. We got on a trolly and went to Sydney for the funeral. We met Elizabeth, Michael, and all the other kids that didn’t come with me. Elizabeth was very droopy and blue. Her eyes looked black, and I could tell she was really sad. Michael had just gotten a black eye while running with Samuel, so he wasn’t looking his best either. In spite of all of this, I was really happy to see them. They were my family. Even with Benjamin gone, it made me so happy to know that the rest were safe. Who knew how Benjamin was killed? I wondered. I decided not to ask Elizabeth, because I knew that it would make her upset.

Before I got to ask anybody, Sammy came up to me and said, “Ben got killed in a bomb while fighting. Elizabeth was on her way to save him, but she fell and got knocked over, and her eye isn’t actually a black eye… It’s an eye patch because she lost her eyeball while running. We had to run to the hospital, and it was a disaster. Michael had to carry three of us, and Elizabeth held her eye, and Madeline carried me. When we went to the hospital to try and find something for Elizabeth’s eye and Benjamin, Benjamin wasn’t there. They had taken him to a grave site, and laid his body over the dirt. They said that we would have a funeral for him soon, but it has been a week since it happened. It happened the first day we were here in Australia.”

I said, “Wow. You haven’t learned to talk any less! Has Emma learned to talk yet?”

“No! Not at all!” Sammy said. “She still makes baby noises even though she is almost two!”

“When you’re five,” I said, “you’re gonna be saying words from the dictionary! Your vocabulary will be far more advanced than mine!”

 

Chapter Eleven

Sammy walked away, and Elizabeth came over to me and asked, “Why are these other 13 children here?”

I said, “I know how it feels to have no parents for a while, so I decided we could adopt them! But if you don’t want too… I will.” There was silence. “Will you adopt them? Pleeeeeeease?” I begged.

Then, Amelia and Ava came up to Elizabeth and said, “Hi, are you Elizabeth? I’m Amelia! And this is Ava, my newborn sister. She will be two months old tomorrow! What happened to… Bean? Ben? Benjamin?”

“Benjamin,” Elizabeth corrected, “and he was fighting in the war when a bomb hit him and he died, and we are at his funeral today if you know what that is.”

“We know what that is,” Amelia continued. “We were going to have a funeral for both of my parents, but then we had to go to Australia to see our grandparents, who suddenly died from a bomb… Who knows how? So Adeline picked me up, my little sister, and my little brother. We helped collect ten other children who all really want new homes, even if it’s here. Pleeeeeeeeeeease?”

After a few minutes of silence, Elizabeth finally said, “Okay. After the funeral, we’ll go to court and get the adoption papers for everybody here, other than Sophie and Avery.”

 

Chapter Twelve

“Every week day, I’ll have to send all of you adopting children, and they don’t like it. So everybody is planning against you and the day so that I can do some work around the house, and it’s just too much for me. The kids that are eight and older will have to take care of the younger ones. I’ll send you all to your grandparents, also known as my parents, not yours. Michael, Adeline, Madeline, and Peter will be in charge. Peter is my nephew. He is 11,” Elizabeth said. “His parents, my brother, was in the war and died. His mother was very ill from the bombs, and she too passed. So he and his five siblings will be joining you and living with us. That makes 30 children. People know that you are other children. I want all of you to get together and get in a car. Michael can drive now. He runs into a few trees and buildings, but other than that, he can still drive. He will be driving, and you will be off. I want all of you on a boat by midnight every Sunday night. You will all be on a boat that fits 30 people over the age of one, including the captain. That will make there be able to be one captain and the 30 of you children. There are 29 children above the age of one, so it’s a really good fit, and you guys will have the whole boat to yourselves. Try not to spill anything on the bus driver or anybody else. I will see you every weekend, but let’s get to the funeral.”

Everybody stood in a line, and we would get to the ceremony. The kids under the age of five could leave unless they need to be supervised, then they were allowed to stay. There were special circumstances. Everybody would need to eat lunch while they were there, so this meant Amanda would stay with me, Ava would stay with me, and Charlie would stay with me.

“FROWN FOR THE CAMERA!”

 

Chapter Thirteen

After our photo, we walked over to the funeral. Elizabeth dropped off all of the kids at the restaurant so that they could eat and play for a bit during the service. Us older kids were at the funeral, and some stayed back to watch the little kids. I stayed to watch the little kids with Madeline, and then I got everybody the meal that they wanted and a teeny weeny piece of cookie, since sugar was scarce due to the war. We played with the little kids for a bit longer, until the funeral was over. Once it was over, we met up with Elizabeth, and she told us at 11:30 to go back to the trolley and meet her in order to get to the boat and load our things onto it.

“You are going to New Zealand to hide,” said Elizabeth, “and you will be taking the boat that Benjamin built. As I told you before, it will fit 29 people over the age of one, in addition to all of your stuff. The captain is one of my really good friends who will be driving the boat there and back every Friday and Sunday.”

 

Chapter Fourteen

We got ready to leave the next day. We spent the rest of the evening putting our stuff on the boat. We needed to load all of the babies’ blankets and pacifiers, and all of  the older kids’ books and learning tools. We also packed five cartons of milk for each of the older kids to give to the babies and sleeping bags to sleep inside of. Food and water went under the hatch of the small boat, along with clothing for all of us. After we loaded all of this onto the boat, we were feeling very tired. We slept in the cabin under the deck of the small ship. Ten people would sleep in a room, two babies would share each crib, and two kids over the age of five would share a bed. It was very crowded. I felt stuck inside but safe. There were so many people around to keep us safe, and we all knew how to swim, luckily.

That morning, the boat took off for New Zealand. I was feeling very happy to be going to New Zealand, but then I remembered I had to pick up the one triplet from my mean grandparents house. I had almost forgotten about them with all of the new adoptions, but I could not leave them behind! I ran and told the driver to go to Brooklyn, and he told me it would be a week’s long journey. We had to do it.

“Let’s go!” he said. “But I bet Elizabeth will be wanting you back by the time you get there.”

“I will send her a letter,” I said. “That way, she will know where we are.” I found a feather and ink, took a piece of paper, and began to write…

 

Dear Elizabeth,

 

I forgot all about the kids back in Brooklyn! We need to go back and get them, because they are with my grandparents who are not very nice, and I don’t want the kids there to be raised in a home that is not very nice. Hope you understand.

Love,

Adeline

 

I handed the letter to the driver and asked him for an envelope. Once the letter was sent out to Elizabeth, we began our voyage to Brooklyn. The time went by quickly, but not easily. It was a rainy and stormy voyage. None of us had been on such a long journey. Eighty percent of us were throwing up, the other 20% suffered from fainting. The babies were screaming like they had never screamed like before. Their screams sounded like people were dying and like seals were slurping water.

 

Chapter Fifteen

Once we reached Brooklyn, all of the children ran off the ship and tied it to the dock. The driver came out with them, and then we all ran to our grandparents’ house. We fixed our dresses and suits so that they looked presentable and rang the doorbell. Two kids came out, and they looked older than I remembered. They were wearing the most fancy clothes I had ever seen, and they both had really pretty purses covered in gems. The little girls, one years old, looked like they are five and rich, even though they weren’t rich. Though, they were half rich.

We had to walk into the house to pick up the little ones. I felt jealous and dirty in my sloppy clothes as I walked into the beautiful mansion. There were beautiful flowers outside, swings covered in pink and blue gems, and the yellow house that they lived in was beautiful compared to the house that we live in. Our grandparents said that Elizabeth told them to take us instead of going to New Zealand every week. We walked in, and our grandparents gasped at the sight of us in our dirty clothes.

They said, “Oh! We have some much nicer clothes for you on the bed. But you mustn’t walk in like that! You need to take a shower beforehand! I will give you towels to walk on… so that you don’t get the floor all sloppy.”

I stepped out, and my grandmother said, “Adeline! It is so nice to see you again! I haven’t seen you since you were a baby! Get changed, and we will have a bit of breakfast! And you are not allowed to step a foot into that little boat again! I will have the driver bring your stuff into the house from the boat!”

 

Chapter Sixteen

After he did this, the driver took off, and we were on our own with our grandparents. We cleaned ourselves and got changed. I began to brush my hair, which I hadn’t done in so long, and it felt really nice to be neat again. After my parents died, I’d been dressed in all of these rusty clothes which my parents would never have put me in.

The boys went fishing, and the girls cooked and took care of all of the little girls. I helped Grandma clean the house, set the table, make French toast, pancakes, fruit bowls, salad, eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, and lattes.

Then, our aunt took us from our grandparents. Our aunt lived in pretty much the same house as our grandparents, except it was in Alabama. There was a mansion that was painted a soft baby blue with guards covering the whole first floor of the house, which was pretty much what my house used to look like. It had flowers and vines covering some of the mansion, and it was ten stories high. Well, my house wasn’t ten stories high, it was 15… but this would do. We walked in wearing high heels and our blue poofy dresses and suits. Our aunt greeted us in a long, straight dress, and said she didn’t like the poofy dresses. She put us all into pink dresses with silver gems. Well, mine was covered in silver gems, and she did my hair.

She dyed my hair red, and I liked it. She had everybody else stay in their clothes, except for the triplets. She had the other 26 children go back to our grandparents’ house and kept the four of us.

 

Chapter Seventeen

She had two children of her own who looked just like me, and she told me that my parents had dyed my hair blonde when I was a baby…. Well, my fake parents… the people I thought were my parents. She told me that the four of us were actually her children! And that my parents took me from her. She introduced me to my actual brother and sister. One of them was 15 and named James, and my twin sister was Adeline. She told me my name was actually Charlotte! She said that the triplets were taken from her by her mother as she was giving birth to them. The other kids in my family were actually my parents’ kids, but who I thought was my aunt was actually my mom, and I got a little mad at my mom that wasn’t really my mom… She was my aunt, but she was dead. So she said that she would go to Elizabeth, and that the eight of us would go to the half adoption/half not adoption ceremony. My parents, my siblings, and I would go. Everybody else would live with my grandparents, who we would get to see every Christmas.

At the adoption ceremony, my siblings ended up deciding not to live with my grandparents. They lived with a new family that now had 23 more kids! Charlie, Amelia, and Ava stayed with my family that became a family of nine children.

THE END

 

Random Stories

     

Bob’s Story

Bob was a little kid. He was stranded in a forest. He needed water. But he did not need food that much because he stole his father’s gun. His problem was that he couldn’t shoot that well. When he tried to kill a baby pig, he missed by five feet and hit a bright green leaf on a tree. He thought he should make some shelter and then come back to kill the pig. Well, the pig oinked and ran away, so no more pig. So, he went out into the forest to find someone to help him. He looked all over, but he found no one but himself. It started to rain. After it rained, it got really muddy. So he ran, and he found a green house where he stayed. But it was a bear’s house. But he didn’t know and he went in, so when the bear came back to his house, Bob was scared. He ran away in a panic. It was muddy. But Bob did not have shelter, so he was soaking wet. Bob was cold and shivering. Then, he made a bed with leaves on the wet floor. The next morning, he was in a house. He was taken to a house where someone lived. That person didn’t look nice.

Bob said, “Thank you for saving me, and goodbye.”

Then, the strange man cackled. Bob really didn’t like him. He went to grab his father’s gun but found that it was gone. He asked the strange man where the gun was, but the man kept cackling. Bob really didn’t like him, so he ran to the front door and tried to open it. It was locked. A shiver ran down Bob’s spine. He ran to the back door and found it was locked.

The stranger said, “Ha ha! You are all mine now!” He cackled.

But the window was open, so Bob jumped out. The house then exploded!! Bob had gotten out just in time. He somehow found his way home and wrote a story about it. This is that story!

The End

***

Ezreke’s Story

One hot day, Ezreke was strolling through the desert. He had just seen some water, but now some people on camels were drinking it. They had on cutoff T-shirts, short pants, and flip-flops for shoes. Ezreke slowly made his way over in the hot desert and asked for some water.

“Please, can I have some water,” he said. The travelers said yes and gave him a cup full to the brim with water. After he drank the water, he asked if he could join them on their travels.

The travelers said, “Yes, you may come with us, as long as you come for a short time. We don’t have enough food and water for you and us.” Ezreke thanked them and hopped on one of the camels

After three days, one of the travelers said, “We don’t have enough food and water for you. Well? What are you waiting for? Go!”

Ezreke hopped on a camel that was alone. He said, “Take me to some shelter.” The camel didn’t understand Ezreke. He slid Erzeke off his back. He was so exhausted he took a nap on the ground. When he woke up, he felt sand on his face. He was buried! There was just enough room to sit up. He tried digging up, but whoever buried him had used wet sand, so he couldn’t get out. He tried digging to the side, but more sand fell. He was buried. He tried to think of what his dad would do.

“Always be resourceful. Use whatever you find.”

Ezreke groped around the hole and underneath him. He found a stick and a rock. He used the stick to make a hole. Then, he threw the rock to crack the wet sand. When the sand cracked, he used his hands to dig the rest of the way out. When he got out, he found a man who was digging a hole. An unconscious boy was lying at the man’s feet. Ezreke acted instinctively. He grabbed the rock he had used to crack the sand and threw it at the man. The rock hit the man on the head, and he slumped down, unconscious. When the rock was halfway through Ezreke’s outstretched hand and the man’s head, the boy had woken up. He saw his savior throwing a rock at the man who had kidnapped him, knocked him out, and tried to bury him alive. Naturally, he automatically ran towards Erzeke. This boy was a few years younger than Ezreke, and he was very scared.

“It’s all right. Look, an iPad! We can contact the city!”

The boy sniffed and smiled at Erzeke. He ran over and grabbed the iPad. But he wasn’t done. He pulled up Google Translate and typed something in French. It translated as Hi. My name is Francesco. I don’t speak English, but understand it well. My family lives in the city. Thank you for rescuing me.

Erzeke said, “You’re welcome,” and smiled at him. He smiled back. Erzeke contacted the police and his family. The man was arrested forever, and Francesco and Erzeke became friends.

The End

 

Awesome Airplanes!

       

“This is so awesome!” said Matthew as he pushed full throttle on his airplane and rushed through the clouds above the plains. Just then, a black enemy airplane from TCOEP (The Country of Evil People) dropped something on his plane. It started counting down. “A bomb!” he cried. Then, he heard a blast.

“Aaagh!” screamed Matthew as he fell toward yellow plains. But then, another airplane below caught him and his broken airplane by suddenly lifting the bottom of the wrecked airplane. That airplane is very strong, thought Matthew. Then, Matthew realized it was his brother, Michael’s Blackbird airplane. “Phew, that was a close one,” said Matthew.

“Ssh!” said Michael. “This is a secret mission. We need to destroy the TCOEP’s base. It is just over the hills. We need to surprise them by attacking at night.”

After they returned to their home base and repaired Matthew’s airplane, it was time to go on the mission.

As Matthew started up his airplane, he felt nervous, like he would never make it back from the mission. Soon, Matthew and his brother were soaring above the TCOEP’s base. Suddenly, the intruder alarm blared in the base. Er er eer, blared the alarm as the airplanes closed in to the base.

Just then, the roof of the base opened up, and two gigantic machine guns emerged from the depths of the base and soldiers dressed in black marched out of the base shooting with tiny pistols.

“Seriously?” laughed Michael through the walkie-talkie as he looked at the soldiers attempting to shoot their airplanes.

“Umm, I think we’re in big trouble,” said Matthew, as a giant machine gun shot down his brother’s airplane.

I got to save Michael! thought Matthew as he landed his airplane next to his brother’s wrecked airplane. Unfortunately, Matthew didn’t find his brother near the wrecked airplane, so he decided to go into the enemy base to find his brother.

Meanwhile, Michael was sneaking around the TCOEP base looking for the power system for the base. When he finally found the power system to the base, his brother, Matthew, was waiting for him there. “Let’s set a bomb in here and get out!” said Matthew.

Soon, Matthew and Michael had set a bomb, and it was counting down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one POW! Luckily, the brothers got out of the base in time, but the high winds whipped the smoke and dust into the air. Out of the shadows, a man stepped in front of them. Not any man, the leader of the TCOEP.

 

When Owner Left Me

          

Chapter One: Owner is Gone

Owner petted me with the softest, most serene pet, as usual. They patted my forehead calmly and sang me to sleep. A dream formed around me, surrounding my brain in sleep. Floating islands of delicate treats, singing birds, and a pack of fresh squirrels surrounded my dream. Owner was running on their machine, and I was free of work, obedience, and training. Giant fields surrounded my home, dotted with dogs, sticks, and trees. There was game to hunt, and dogs were all barking and playing, and the sun shone like a beacon of happiness, hope, and knowledge.

I skipped to my friends, fur freshly groomed, never to be unkempt again. They greeted me with a joyful bark, prancing about, delighted to see me. Their owners were lounging in chairs, talking cheerfully about the latest soccer game. Lin, my best friend, trotted up to me and gave me an invitation to play, so I joined him. We played chase, an average game, but the one I hungered for the most, for Owner never allowed me to play chase. My other friends approached me, and they all wanted to play with me, so we did. It was the world I wanted, a utopia, a dream. Owner was never disappointed with me, there were always friends to play with, and a happy home to go home to at the end of the day. Then, a jolt of light woke me up, and Owner was gone.

I scampered to the living room, as quiet as a mouse, expecting Owner to appear and push me outside to use the bathroom, but they didn’t. I poked around the house. It was dark and quiet except for the wind rustling behind the trees. I entered the kitchen, and I sniffed around to see if he was pouring food for me, but all I could smell was the smell of cheese, poisons, and… my food!

I clawed up the kitchen cabinets, and I grasped the handle and nearly slid. The metal was smelly and stung my paws, but I knew it was all worth it, for the bag opened and the food spilled out like a rainbow. I jumped down at full speed, and I gobbled the food as fast as a gazelle. The bundle of flavors was like dreams, and my head hurt a lot, and my stomach felt like a punchbag, and I fainted.

I woke up to a bright, sunny day, with boiling heat and an extremely cold floor. The temperatures were making me dizzy, and as I approached the door, a wave of cold hit me, and I realized that the pain in my head was coming from the temperature control machine, that thing Owner always played with, with the buttons. The buttons made the screen change, but that was all I knew. It changed the temperature in the room because whenever Owner said, “I’m hot,” they would walk over to the machine, and the house would get cooler, but I didn’t know which button did what.

I paced around the house, searching for a way to make the house warmer. The house was a mess, books scattered everywhere, food rolling out the kitchen, and Owner had not been seen since last night. The bed was rumpled, the toys were falling out of the bin, and Owner’s room was a disaster that even a service dog couldn’t clean up. There was no sign of a solution to this cold floor and boiling ceiling.

Everything I saw was covered in little, repeating scribbles that did not make any sense. Owner scribbled all of the time. They scribbled during meals, they scribbled during my nap, they even scribbled when I went outside. Then, I came across a paper with a vibrant, full-color picture of our temperature control machine, surrounded with black, repeating scribbles. The paper was white as milk, and the scribbles were black as night and glimmered like black holes. I felt like something was pulling me in. I felt an urge, a desire, to understand these scribbles and why Owner treasured them.

I quickly realized that I had to go outside, so I grabbed the handle, jolted backwards, and the door became a door to fairy tale land. I flew outside, and I looked at the sky, and I knew exactly what I had to do to fix my home.

 

Chapter Two: I Attempt to go to School

I could run free now! I raced out the front yard and down the street. I didn’t care if the pet control owners saw me. Running through the street like a cheetah, I jumped like a bird on five cars, and I slid onto the country road leading up to the school. Owner frequently passed the school on our walks, describing it as a big, red brick building with large windows and a giant course nearby. Today, I saw little owners barking like foxes in the front yard. Then, they all began to approach me.

“What a cute doggie!” one told their friend as they petted me.

“Let me hold it!” another shouted.

“Let me, let me!” they squealed!

The owners yelled at each other, pulling on my ears and patting my head constantly. I wanted to bite them, to growl at them, to even fight them, but I knew I couldn’t go to school if I fought with my new playmates. Then, I scampered to the entrance of the school, weaving my way around the forest of feet. I soon saw a pair of very large feet, and the forest was getting tighter. I could hear the cries of the owners that had petted me earlier, and their footsteps were quick like rabbits. Pushing forward, I attempted to weave my way through the big feet, tripping over lopsided bags laying on the floor. Fingers were slowly being added to the forest, owners reached their fingers and nabbed the bags next to me, nearly dragging me off of the ground.

The entrance felt closer now. I could smell the fresh smell of the red brick coming like waves through my nose. The wall was visible, but owners were still squealing like mice. Disorientated, I scuttled around trying to find the entrance to the school. Wafts of sweat, perfume, and breakfast floated around like clouds. The owners were so near each other now, the forest felt like a maze, and there was no sunlight.

I raced around this confusing, noisy place, barely able to see what was in front of me. I regretted going into this maze without Owner. The owners were suffocating me, I felt like there was no life left in this world. Then, the owners all fell silent, and I shivered.

The brick doors creaked open like a rocket, and I crawled inside. The school was made of dazzling marble with giant poles, large arches, and a stark, black floor. Brown boards were spread over the walls, covered with white papers full of small scribbles. Owners were everywhere, crawling all over the walls and floor. Larger owners were herding the smaller owners into small, colorful rooms, squealing and shouting at them. Some owners were pointing at a few of the papers, scampering away when the larger owners were close by. I followed a group of very small owners, toddling slowly to the door. Scuttling underneath their feet, I crept inside the room where a large owner was standing at the door.

“Hello, class,” the owner boomed. Is our name Class? “Let’s sing the alphabet,” the owner instructed the class. What’s the alphabet?

“Of course, Sir,” the little owners replied. Is his name Sir?

Sir pointed to a scribble on the board and said, “A makes two sounds, a and a.” One scribble can make two sounds at once? How do you know which sound to make? I was confused, how could all of these owners understand what the scribbles meant if each one made more than one sound at once? I quickly realized that an owner was staring at me and that I had five seconds until Sir kicked me out of the school.

I dashed out of the classroom, and I crept the hallways as silent as a fly. I could hear footsteps behind me, Sir was booming at other owners, and noise was growing. After scampering for some time, sensing a flash of bright light, I felt a drop in the floor, and the voices were much softer, but the hall was dimmer, and the floor smelled like dirt. I was now wading in water, surrounded by curved stone walls. I could feel the dirt in the water with my paws, and the water was getting deeper. I could see a small point of light at the end of the tunnel, but my paws were getting weaker, I was slowing down, and my head felt like rock.

Sniffing something, I bent down and tilted my head, smelling a familiar scent from back home, but I couldn’t quite identify what it was. Small lumps were floating above the water, and the water was now a murky green. The point of light I had seen earlier wasn’t very far away now, but the water felt more like sludge, and the lumps felt more like concrete. I could barely paddle, and I couldn’t even walk. Feeling weight on my back, I stopped to rest.

I crawled slowly through the muddy water, slipping and falling at various moments. The point of light was actually a gaping hole with a large waterfall coming from it, shimmering in the dark cave. I knew that the end was near, and unless I could paddle better, I wouldn’t emerge from the tunnel alive. I tilted my head ready to soar like a bird at the end of the tunnel. I paddled like a duck, and then an invisible force pulled me into the water. I sank underwater for a second, and then I did a straight vertical drop.

I dropped down like a cannonball to the ground. My paws were shaking, and my legs were freezing from the cold water. I could barely lift my head. I had dropped onto the ground and rolled over on one side. I licked my wounds from the drop. My paws were covered with dirt and mud, and I smelled like a skunk. I cried out for help, squealing in the blazing sunlight. Barking hurt my throat, so I settled down on the grass, and I fell asleep surrounded in agony and pain and devoid of care and love.

 

Chapter Three: The Pound

As I woke up, I could smell owners again, poking and prodding my paws, and legs, and even my head. Owner wasn’t here, though, and these owners were strange, new, and smelly. Their tools reminded me of the murky water from earlier mixed with treats. It probably had been used on at least fifty other dogs before me. Their voices were muffled, and I felt a needle near my leg.

“The dog doesn’t need it,” a voice commanded.

“How many shots has the dog got?” argued another.

Two owners were poking me with sharp stuff and yelling at each other, almost ignoring me entirely. They were screaming like gorillas, and poking me like tigers, and they had me pinned on their table. Then, I got a waft of air from another room, and smelling the scent of other dogs, I knew what this place was and how to get home.

After a little while, the owners released me from the table and took me to a gray crate, covered with scratches and broken nails. Dogs were barking around me like lions, and some large, lumbering owners were walking some dogs to a door at the other end of the hall. The dogs were scraping against the bars and were climbing up their crates. Above all, the dogs looked imprisoned, bored, and lonely, so before owners shoved me into a crate forever, I ran through the hall, opened the door, and crept away as fast as a cheetah.

I crept quietly through the streets, dashing from corner to corner hiding in the shadows. The owners had emerged from the building, the same ones that had poked me before, and shouted, “Find that stray dog!” I slid under a bench nearby, sliding like a snail on the ground. Running like horses, the owners checked under every corner, bench, and sidewalk, so I had to find a place where they would never look. I looked up. The blue sky went on forever, and the owners couldn’t fly, but I couldn’t fly either. The only way up was a set of slippery, metal stairs on the side of the building that Owner revealed were poisons. I did not want to get poisoned, but it was better than going back to a crate forever. I dashed up the stairs like a rabbit, and I scrambled up to the roof, and I admired the view. The buildings went on forever. Buildings surrounded me in every direction, and there was not an owner in sight. I could feel the wind blowing in my face, and I could sniff the fresh air. The giant owners were gone, and I felt free, but not happy.

 

Chapter Four: Home

Where was Owner? I could barely remember what Owner looked like. Was Owner a dog or a different animal? Was Owner nice? I slithered quietly off of the roof using another staircase. The ground was so far away, I felt the urge to jump off the roof, but I ended up on the second floor instead. It was still a shimmering, bright, sunny day, even though so many things had happened. Sniffing the staircase, I greeted five different cats and dogs on my way down, and by the time I jumped onto the street, I was exhausted and as slow as a turtle.
I twisted around and skipped down several streets, bouncy in my steps. I could finally return home! Huge buildings surrounded me, shades of brown, dark green, and gray. The tall owners were chasing their dogs across the street like cows, laughing and smiling like Owner probably did. The sky began melting into an orange color tipped with yellow, and the ground became a darker gray. I could hear the sounds of home close by, sounds of running, jumping, and playing like dolphins, having no worries, only fun. I missed my home, my friends, and Owner.

Where was home though? I wandered through the darkening roads, panting constantly. The sky was now a shimmering shade of purple with streaks of orange in the distance. Looking up, I could still see those scribbles drawn on every pole. If I understood them, I knew they would lead me home. Scratching at the poles, I gazed at the stars. They were like glowing dots, like small treats ready to be gobbled up. I got off of the pole and ran along the isolated, quiet streets, barely able to see. I peeked around the corner and saw glowing lights in the distance, covered by windows. I recognized it from somewhere, but I was not exactly sure where. I sniffed the ground, a mixture of gum, chips, stone, and plastic wrappers. I trotted slowly down the street, glancing at the dim, black sky. I turned my head, and I spotted a row of houses nearby, and I carefully lifted my head up, and I heard a calm, clear sound.

It was Owner. I hadn’t heard Owner’s voice since last night, when he sang me to sleep. This time though, something was different. Owner wasn’t angry or upset, but he knew something I didn’t, and it wasn’t the answer to the scribbles. I crept down my road, avoiding Owner. Hearing Lin’s bark in the distance, my panting fell silent. I didn’t want to be seen. I leapt over the fence near my house, falling like a ball. I pushed the door open with my paw, and I crawled into the house. I peered at Owner’s room. It was now clean, stately, but at the same time, empty. The whole house felt different, isolated and lonely. Was Owner lonely without me? I approached the bed, white and made of wood, and I noticed a lump in the pillows. I jumped up, eyes glowing, barely able to walk, I fell onto the bed, and I licked Owner’s face. I slept that night knowing that it was all worth it.

 

Candyland

Once upon a time, there was a student bunny named Isabelle who was six years old. One day, Isabelle called Jim the dog for a meeting because Isabelle was a new student in school.

“You’re so ugly,” Jim replied, and Isabelle had no idea he was a bully dog.

Isabelle cried and threw her phone away, because she was so sad. Once Jim’s mom heard what Jim said, she told him to apologize to Isabelle immediately and scolded Jim for being rude.

So the next day, Isabelle saw Jim at school, and he apologized to her, but Isabelle still did not forgive him. So when Jim asked Isabelle to play during playtime, she told him “no” because she knew what he said was true and was still mad. Isabelle just kept playing with the kind children.

When it was lunchtime, the students were allowed to go home and eat, so when Isabelle went home, she ate her mom’s food and made a card with an ugly face on it for Jim saying, You’re ugly too, doggy. But one day, Jim’s mom and Isabelle’s mom hung out and brought Jim back to Isabelle’s home. There, the moms told their kids to play with each other.

“I don’t want to play with the ugly doggy dumpling!” said Isabelle.

“And I don’t want to play with the bunny cookie!” said Jim.

“Oh, just be nice and play together,” said the moms.

So Isabelle and Jim made up to make their moms happy and played a tea game together for the rest of the day. When Jim left, Isabelle went to sleep and snored a lot. She dreamt of her and Jim turning into emojis. Jim turned into the meh emoji, and Isabelle turned into the princess emoji, and they then ran around in Candyland and ate all the candy, and they slept in the marshmallows. Then, they saw trees, and on the trees there was chocolate, and they ate the chocolate. But they didn’t know how to find their mom and dad, and whoosh! they saw their mom and dad, but the mom and dad were chocolate statues, and then they ate their mom and dad.

And then, the doggy said, “Let’s go to the little room in the ginger house,” and they stayed in the ginger house and made things to eat by themselves.

So one day, they went outside, and they saw big scoops of ice cream because the Candyland was snowing, and the snow was ice cream. And in the Candyland there was a tornado, and the tornado was made of spaghetti, and when it rained, there were gummy bears, and if there was a big rain, there were jelly beans. Sometimes, there were hamburgers falling down, and they ate them too. One day, there was a big sun, and it melted all the candy, so the Candyland turned into only candy rainbow, so they ate. The rainbow turned into jelly beans. Then, there was a big snow, and it turned the candy into normal candy, and you could eat the ice cream again.

Then, they slept one night, and when they woke up, they thought they were still in the Candyland because it was not a dream — it was real. One day, they slept again and got to the Popsicle-Land, and there was lemonade and gum that you could jump on. You could even take a lot and get it into your mouth and then you could have a big bubble, and the bubble would give you a helmet. There was candy water, and you could go inside, and there were gummy animals in the candy water. And then, they all saw cookies that could fly through the sky, and you could sit on them and see all of Candyland, and then you would see one big lollipop, and it would float you on the candy water. There was a little girl made of candy and another girl made of chocolates. You could eat them. Then, when they ate them, they returned back home and had chocolate on their mouths.

Their mom said, “Why do you have chocolate on your mouths?”

And the dog and the rabbit said because they went to the Candyland and ate a lot of candy, and when they got home, it was a lot worse because they had to eat a lot of vegetables. Then, they slept, and they lived happily ever after. Now they never go to Candyland ever.

The end.

 

Video Games

It was seven o’clock, and Tom had just woken up for the weekend. Tom couldn’t wait to play Fortnite with his friends. Just before, he brushed his teeth and ate his breakfast and then got onto his iPad to play Fortnite. Fortnite was really fun for Tom. It was his favorite game, so he played it for two hours. Tom and his friends also won a Fortnite battle which made Tom very happy. While Tom was playing the game, he got a lot of good guns, which meant he was able to kill a lot of people, which was exciting because it meant he was winning. He was also a bush, so no one knew it was him. Tom and his friends also got a lot of chests which also gave him a lot of good guns.

After he had a lot of fun playing Fortnite with his friends, he went outside to play soccer. It was really fun because his dad was playing with him, and it was a high scoring game, and Tom won.

After Tom won the game, he asked, “Can we go to the arcade and play some games?”

His dad said, “No,” but Tom still had a lot of things to do at home.

After 15 minutes, Tom couldn’t wait to go to his friend’s birthday party, but that wasn’t for a long time. It was his friend, Peter, and he was turning nine years old.

Time had passed, and it was finally Peter’s party. His parents drove him to Peter’s birthday party. When Tom got there, there was a lot of action going on. People were playing tag together. Some people were jumping on the bouncy house. Tom chose to jump on the bouncy house instead of playing tag.

Once Tom was on the bouncy house, Tom saw that Peter and his friends were having a lot of fun playing tag on the bouncy house. Tom asked if he could join. Peter and his friends said of course.

After Tom was playing tag with Peter’s friends, Peter was suddenly the tagger. Tom thought Peter was really fast, so Tom wanted to avoid him. Then, Tom realized that Peter was chasing after him. Tom tried to run away, but Peter tagged him. Then, Tom fell down and hurt his leg. He was crying because of the pain.

Peter said sorry, and Tom felt better. Peter meant a lot to Tom because he was Tom’s best friend, so Peter’s apology cured Tom’s pain.

On the other side of the party, Tom saw that there was another conflict. One of Peter’s friends named Bob, who was very athletic but a slow runner, was fighting with another one of Peter’s friends named Jeff, who was very fast and liked playing video games. They were also playing tag, so they were fighting about who was not going to be the tagger. Nobody liked to be the tagger.

Finally, Jeff offered to be the tagger, so the fighting stopped, and they all felt better.

After they played, Tom’s parents said to Tom that it was time to go. Tom was very sad, but he had a lot of fun.

When Tom arrived home, Tom went to his bedroom. He was exhausted, so he went to bed.

After he went to bed, Tom woke up and realized that Peter’s birthday party had been a dream! He realized that Peter was actually having a birthday party today, so Tom couldn’t wait to go to his party.

The End

 

The Super Sleepover!

Hi, I’m Sophia. I am ten years old. My mom’s name is Karen, and my dad’s name is Michael. I have a little brother named Charlie. He is three years old, I also have a newborn baby sister named Mia. She’s three months old. My two BFFs are Tracy and Maya. I have known them since we were three. We went to Mommy and Me music class together. My favorite thing to do with Maya and Tracy is to have sleepovers. During our sleepovers, we play truth or dare, watch movies, play with my baby sister, build forts, draw, talk, and sleep.

Tonight we were having a sleepover! I couldn’t wait. It was going to be a blast. I dressed Mia in her nicest outfit. My mom was being so annoying! I couldn’t stand it! She kept saying, “Honey, calm down. You’re making yourself stressed!”

“No, Mom. I’m not!” I screamed. Okay, maybe I was. I would try to calm down.

Later that night, Maya and Tracy came over with their purple sleeping bags. They were as excited as I was! I could not wait. I had so many activities planned. Maya brought over Uno, which she loved. So first, we played Uno. After that, of course my brother needed to storm in and start to burst out in tears. And then, naturally, my sister also started to cry.

Maya and Tracy both came over to Mia and picked her up and rocked her around, so she would stop crying. But she did not stop crying! So, Tracy handed her to me. I didn’t want to deal with this right now, but I didn’t have a choice. My mom was looking at me like, do it. So I did it. She stopped crying! Yes!

After that, we built a fort. Of course, my brother needed to join. But I was kind of glad, because Maya and Tracy didn’t really care if Charlie joined. We just told him that he needed to build his own room. After that, we were getting hungry. So my mom ordered fresh, hot pepperoni pizza. While we were having dinner, we also watched a movie. The movie was so good. And then we had dessert. Hot fudge brownies. Yummmmm!!!

Later, we were getting tired. Right before we got into bed, Maya said, “I need to get something from my bag. I’ll be right back.”

Tracy and I shrugged at each other. We didn’t know what Maya was getting. When Maya came back, there were Pop-Tarts in her hands. “We can snack on these if we’re getting bored,” she said.

I said, “No thank you,” and so did Tracy. I don’t like Pop-Tarts.

“Okay,” Maya said. “If you guys aren’t having them, I’m not having one.”

In the middle of the night, I swear to God I saw the Pop-Tarts glowing. I didn’t think it was a dream. I knew it was real. I got so scared I just went back to bed. In the morning, I told Tracy and Maya. Both of them believed me because they’re good friends. Right after that, I was getting a little worried, so I checked on my sister and brother and parents to make sure they were okay. Phewf! They were! After that, we made ourselves breakfast.

All of a sudden, Maya said that she wanted cotton candy! She hates cotton candy! Tracy and I were shocked. “Are you sure?” I said.

And then, Maya started talking in a deep voice! “I WANT COTTON CANDY!!!” she screamed. “You know what,” she said. “I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy!!!”

Tracy and I started to get worried. But then, we realized that the flavor of the Pop-Tart was cotton candy. And then, I realized that the Pop-Tart was glowing pink at night for cotton candy! Maya kept saying, “I want cotton candy,” over and over and over and over and over again. I told her to wash her hands and put orange juice over her hands. Maya didn’t want to, but Tracy made her.

And then, she was talking normally again, and everything was back to normal. Except, my brother was still crying.

The end…

 

(Hopefully, this will be our last crazy adventure!)

(Probably not… check out Maya’s adventure!)

 

Kingdoms Dragon’s Game

Once there was a kingdom called Goving. In Goving, the people were happier than the happiest person in the world, until one day, a dragon attacked. This dragon’s name was Billbaring and was so depressed that it couldn’t be described. This dragon saw the kingdom and got more depressed.

This happiness, he thought, I need all to myself. So, the dragon attacked the kingdom. Now you might have thought, Why is he depressed? It was its nature, oh, and the dragon just moved into the den.

Now you would think that the king would go and kill the dragon, but no, this was what the king said: “I can’t kill a dragon by myself. I am too old and weak, and my memory is fading. I can’t do this with a group, let alone do it solo. What should I do?”

Then, a knight said, “Make a group, high king of Goving!”

So, a group was made, including three of the bravest knights, that went to the den of the dragon. They found Billbaring, and Billbaring found them. The dragon opened fire, and the knight moved out of the way before you could say “fire!” Let’s stop here and see what the den looked like: just stalagmites and stalactites and damp walls. Back to the story. In the end, the dragon died by being sliced tons of times in the chest. Now you might think the story is done. No, it is not. You see, there was this kingdom which attacked Goving because the kingdom wanted more land. This time, the king helped. The great war of the kingdoms had begun. Goving was outmatched a ton because the other kingdom had ten dragons, so the king got a shield and a sword and lots of armor and set onto the battlefield. The king was scared of the ten dragons. Everyone was. When the king got there, the great battle had begun. Everything was dirty and was smelling really bad because the other kingdom didn’t take baths. The king was somewhat scared of the hygiene of the other kingdom. The king and his army somehow killed all the dragons with a lot of swinging swords and blocking the flames. The heat of the flames was molting hot. Then, the king charged past the smelly army, covering his nose. He climbed a cliff to face the other king.

The other king called, “King of Goving, I want to battle you!”

Goving’s king answered yes. Goving’s king attacked first, and the other king blocked. They did this for a long time. It was like it had no end. Then, the other king (without warning) kicked Goving’s king so hard… Goving’s king was hanging off a cliff.

 

Days after the battle…

The great battle was done days before, and Goving was safe at last. Now you may have thought about this: Was the king safe too? The answer is yes, yes he was. The other king thought he won that. He was blinded by the fact, so the king of Goving pulled himself up just in time and sliced the other king in the chest. Now the king was walking in the forest, taking in the sweet smell of roses and trees and the nice and warm day. The king loved it more than ever. Goving was happy once again.

The End

 

Writopia Land

Once upon a time there was a girl named Amy who was exploring around Writopia Land, where she just moved in. She was walking when she saw a cute bunny.

She asked the bunny, “Are you lost,” not knowing that the bunny would respond, but it did.

It said, “Actually no, my mommy is right over there.” When Amy heard the bunny speak, she went down on the ground and started to scream. When she looked around, the trees were becoming purple. The flowers were turning into mushrooms. When Amy screamed, every animal that was near her went into a huddle.

The frog took his glasses off and said, “My my my, why is this girl screaming.”

While the chipmunk was eating a golden nut she said, “Maybe she is scared of us. This would explain the screaming.”

The bunny from before said, “I think chipmunk is right.”

After the bunny spoke, Amy stopped screaming and took bunny by the ears and said, “What are you, and why are the trees purple and the flowers mushrooms?” The bunny bit Amy. Amy screamed and ran toward her house. When she saw her house, she quickly came inside and stayed there forever.

After she left the forest, she looked like a lady that just saw a bear. Her hair was everywhere, and her eyes were wide open. When Amy thought of that moment, she realized that she could have been more mature with her decisions and made friends with the creatures. She looked at herself and thought she also looked strange.

Till this day, she doesn’t dare step in that forest again.

The end.

 

Trouble in Disney World!!!

Some families do not go on vacation. Others do. Either way, I do not care. I am too busy anyway. Oh!! Sorry about my manners. My name is Erica, Erica Manning. As I was saying, I am very busy this summer because I have to catch up on some school work. You see, my mother and father are both explorers, and I usually go with them on their expeditions. I have seen many amazing sights, but I have missed a lot of school. Summer is my catch-up time.

Rumble, grumble. Oh dear, I think that was my tummy. In that case, I better head down to breakfast. At this moment, I was in Brazil, if you were wondering. I walked downstairs to breakfast, where I smelled something like cheese. No wonder, it was my mother. She loved cooking native dishes of the country we were in. As I got closer, the smell got stronger and stronger.

When I entered the kitchen, I curiously asked my mother, “What is this smell?”

She replied, “Erica, darling, it’s Pão de queijo, which is a little small-baked cheese flavored roll. Want to try?”

It sounded delicious, so I sat down on one of our chairs and gulped it down. It was amazing. No more rumbly tummy for me. Then, my father entered the kitchen. He had also tracked down the smell. Soon, he was gobbling those rolls down too.

“Guess what, Erica? We’re going to some place else. And this time, it’s not another city for exploring.” Now this caught my attention. My eyes were fixed on him. He continued, “Most kids your age go to this place for a summer holiday. We thought it would be nice for you.”

“Yes,” chimed in my mother. “We are going to take you to Disney World!”

I was astonished at just the thought of going there. It was supposed to be basically Mickey Mouse paradise. I remembered when I was little asking my mother and father again and again and again if we could go there. Finally, for the first time in my life, I was going to have a real summer vacation. I absolutely couldn’t wait. My head was bursting with a million questions.

The first thing that popped out was, “What! How soon? When?”

“Well, we are going to be going tomorrow at about 5:00 a.m., so you may want to go to sleep early tonight.”

This was really not a problem for me because I have been on airplanes at very early times a lot. Before I knew it, we were packing our bags.

“What should I bring?” I asked my mother.

“Make sure you bring some clothes that are good for walking with, and you might want to bring your Mickey Mouse ears, too.”

Obediently, I packed them and stuffed my favorite book, Robin Crusoe, in too. I couldn’t wait for the time to come. I got my wish. Since the plane we were going on was too crowded, we were put on an earlier plane right that night. When I woke up, I was soaring above Florida. All of the cars and buildings looked like little toy blocks to me.

An announcement came over the speaker. The captain commanded, “Please put your seat belts on for landing.” I looked at my seat belt. Sure enough, it was fastened. Must have been mother or father.

I told my father excitedly, “We’re landing? I can’t wait to see my first sight.”

Once we landed, I was jumping with joy. It was all kind of a blur, but I do remember getting into our hotel. It had long, silk curtains and a nice mini bedside table with all my necessities. I soon drowsed off on a very comfortable bed. After what I think was two or three hours, I was woken by my mother who was wide awake.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead. It’s a special day today! You’re going in the shower after your father.”

I yawned. “What time is it,” I asked.

“It’s 7:30, we let you sleep in. You do look very tired.”

Once we did all the preparations, which seemed to go on forever, we finally headed out the door to Disney World. We jumped into a rented car and road all the way to Disney World. I could not wait for my first ride! Ta-da, there it was, the legendary amusement park I have been dreaming about since I was little. I couldn’t figure out what to do first. I ended up doing Aladdin and his magic carpets. It was amazing. You got to control your own magical carpet. We were all tired out after this amazing day, but we had one more stop to go. The gift shop, of course! I wanted to get a special pair of Mickey Mouse ears for my collection, but we could sense something was wrong when we stepped into the shop. We saw someone who looked very important pacing and mumbling under his breath. He seemed very unhappy.

I walked up to him and asked, “What is wrong?”

“You would never understand. My Mickey Mouse ears designer all of a sudden has gotten very ill with some disease, I don’t remember. She’ll be alright. Though the ears parade is tomorrow, and if I can’t find another substitute, the ears parade can’t go on.”

“Maybe our Erica can be a help,” my father said.

“We always knew she was a good designer,” my mother added in.

As he was making up his mind, I was bursting with anticipation. I really hoped he would let me do it.

“Fine,” he said. “What does she charge?”

“I’ll do it for nothing,” I replied. “It’s an honor.”

When I got home that night with my new designers pad and a job to do, I felt like I could fly. But that feeling didn’t last so long. As I carefully examined the paper, all of a sudden these numbers didn’t really make sense. Neither did all the graphs. I had to call on my mother and my father. And I still didn’t understand. Then, at around one in the morning, I turned it over. Ooooh, I thought. All that time I was having so much fuss over that one little mistake. It was turned over the wrong way! Then, I saw how sensible it was. I got to work knowing I didn’t have much time. I was feeling a little anxious. Though, now that I understood it, it was much easier. I made one Mickey Mouse ears with only one bow in the center. They weren’t pink, they were rainbow. In another one, I put a unicorn horn in the middle. I hoped that Mr. I don’t know his name would like them.

Even though I stayed up practically all night designing those ears, I thought it was fun. In the morning, I got the designs back to the director. We were supposed to meet up in front of the gift shop at seven. I could practically bounce off the walls. I felt like I was on the top of the world. I put my little pad in my little satchel. For some reason, I always knew that would serve a purpose when we went to Disney World, so I packed it.

My parents and I arrived at the gift shop at 6:55. My father always insisted on being there early. I saw from the distance a man coming toward us. He looked exactly like the director. He was the director!

So, then he got to the gift shop. I handed him my designs. I crossed my fingers that he would like them and put them in the ear parade.

As he looked at them, I could see a smile slowly spreading over his face.

“They’re fantastic!” he exclaimed, once he was finished scanning them. “Will you design the ears every single year for my parade? This is even better than my old designer.”

I couldn’t say no. Even though he was a middle-aged man, he looked as excited as a six-year-old on Christmas Day. I couldn’t let him down, so I replied, “Yes.” After all, it was enjoyable once I figured out I had the pad the wrong way.

“Little did you know, that you had averted a huge disaster. There could have been no ears in the ear parade.”

“Thank you. It was a pleasure. It was a real pleasure.”

“You know what,” my mother told me as we were leaving Disney World, “I knew it always a good idea to let a designer know about your talent.”

“This is for you,” my father said as he was holding up amazing gold Mickey Mouse ears with my name written on it in cursive.

It was a perfect day. I couldn’t wait to go back to Disney World.

The End.

 

Walking Through a Cave

Mayuree Nin and her team had just won a great soccer game in Hat Yai, Thailand. Her team was walking through a cave, which they went through a lot because it was a shortcut to the ice cream shop. They also had granola bars and celebratory treats.

Mayuree was laughing with her friends. The youngest kid on the team was 13. She was hugging everyone around her. The oldest kid on the team was 16, and she was jumping up and down. Mayuree was 14.

Then, the monsoon rain started. It flooded the caves.

“Coach!” shouted Mayuree. She ran over and hid behind a rock. All of the girls started to scream. Coach grabbed Mayuree’s arm. The team ran further into the cave. They stopped and waited. After a while, they went back out. Not every place was flooded. They went to try and find a way out of the cave. They looked around. The only ways out were small little tubes filled with water. Mayuree fell to the ground. They were trapped!

“Let’s try to ration out our food,” Coach said. First, they looked for water. They found water in a corner on the right side of the cave.

“This water tastes weird,” Mayuree’s friend said. The team was trying to wait for the water to drain. But it didn’t.

On the seventh day of being in the cave, the team ran out of food.

“What are we going to do!” a girl shouted. The coach sat down.

“I don’t know,” the coach sighed. They were trapped for four more days in the cave. On the fifth day, an explorer popped in all dressed in scuba gear. The kids looked up.

“Do you have any food?” the girls asked.

The explorer shook his head. The girls sighed. The explorer immediately dived back in the tunnel and left the girls behind. The explorer told other people about the team in the cave. The story became worldwide.

Mayuree was starving. Her whole team was starving. The rescuers brought the team food. The girls all ate very quickly. But now they were active enough to find some more water. The rescuers brought the team water bottles, snacks, and meals. Now they were finally active enough to talk about finding a way out. The rescuers told the team that the only ways out were the small passageways that were a mile long. It took six hours for the rescuers to get to the team. Mayuree liked to sit and wait for six hours for the rescuers to come. It really was the only thing to really do in the cave. But for two days, none of them came. They thought that the rescuers had forgotten about the team. They grew hungry again.

A rescuer came a few days later. He reported that a rescuer died in the passage. He was trying to put air packages in the passageway. But he ran out of air. That made the team cry. They knew they were never going to get out.

But the next day, rescuers came with extra gear. “Okay, kids. I will take four of you through the passage. One rescuer will be in front and in back of you.” As the rescuer said this, he handed scuba gear. They gave gear to Mayuree and her friend Malliyalara. Mayuree got scared.

 

A few hours later, Mayuree and the group of her friends were getting ready to go in. Mayuree used to be scared that she was not going to be good at soccer and lose the game. But this was so much scarier. Mayuree said goodbye to her friends and coach. Then, one by one, the girls went in the passages.

The girls had been swimming for three hours. The girls were very tired. Then, Mallivalara started to fall to the bottom of the passage. A rescuer came up behind her. He could not come next her. The passage was too small for that. “She ran out of air!” the rescuer shouted. Mayuree looked behind her. But it was hard. The tunnel was three feet tall and two feet wide. She had to turn back forward. How was this possible? she thought. The words went through her head a million times. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend since diapers had died! But Mayuree had to focus. She went the rest of the trip focused and ready. When she got out of the cave, she could change out of her gear. She stared out of the cave. She took her mask off and took a deep breath. But she noticed none of the rescuers were holding Mallivalara’s body. Mayuree got filled with rage. She ran back to the tunnel. She dived in.

“Wait!!!” the rescuers cried. They grabbed Mayuree by the leg, then pulled her out.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the rescuers said to her.

“You left my friend’s body in the tunnel!!!” she shouted. Tears filled her eyes. She tried to pull back from the rescuer, but his grip was too strong. She gave up. She fell to the ground. The rescuers looked at each other. One pulled a mask out of his back pocket. He was about to put it on when Mayuree jumped up and grabbed it from him. Then, Mayuree jumped back into the tunnel. She started crawling towards her friend.

Three hours later, Mayuree came upon her friend. She was not moving, and Mayuree just wanted to cry. But she held herself together. She grabbed onto her arm and moved as fast as she could. She didn’t want to run out of air.

Four hours later, she was nearing the end of the tunnel. Then, she knew what was happening. She was running out of air. She tried to swim faster. She did exactly what she saw on shows. She had to take short breaths. She saw the exit. She started to swim faster and faster. Then, she totally ran out of air. She had a record of holding her breath for a minute, and she guessed that it was okay. She swam very fast and bursted through the top. She jumped out and grabbed her mask off. She took a deep breath and relaxed. She took Malmallikalara’s mask off. She sighed. At least she was okay, and her friend was not stuck in a tunnel. She took a deep breath. Then, she heard someone take an even deeper breath. It was Mallivalalara! She sat up. She looked around. Mayuree walked over and helped her up. Now this was a happy ending!!!

THE END

Inspired by true events

 

The Life of a Garbage Can

 

1

I’m mixed up. I’m crushed. I’m used as drums. I’m practically worthless. Recycling bins and compost bins have more value than me. They’re more organized. I’m a dump. A dump of trash. I’m basically nothing in this world. Dented all over. People use me, but not a lot. Why am I here? Do I have a sensible purpose?

 

2

It’s a windy day. I keep getting knocked over. Darn wind. I see lots of people with garbage in their hands. They don’t even bother to look at me seriously. The garbage dude drives by without even a glance at me. All alone, lying down, and no one to comfort me.

 

3

If only I was tidier, not dented and dirty. Just one glance at me and you’ll be disgusted. I just want to be known in this world. All the other garbage cans are even tidier than me. Yeah, a little jealousy going on here. They have a better outside. They have garbage bags in them. I’m just a dead, oversized tin can.

 

4

I’m rolling down a hill. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I’m in so much pain. I roll into a ditch never to be seen again. No, just kidding. I just keep rolling until I stop at a dead end. The back and forth of the whistling wind rocks me like a baby to sleep.

 

5

I wake up to see a little girl putting me upright. She’s not like other people. She actually looks at me with heart. She stares at me like I need something. She carries me up the hill. She stops in front of a building and puts me down. It seems like it’s her house. She goes in and comes back with gray polish, a garbage bag, some paint, and some glue. She does all sorts of things to me. She uses the gray polish all around me. I’m starting to look pretty good. Then, she puts glue all on my rims, top and bottom, so I stay sturdy. She opens up the garbage bag and puts it in me.

 

6

The girl leaves me in front of her building and walks away. Now, I feel known. I sigh and look up at the sun. The start of a new day feels really great. I’m a new a person now. I breathe in the cool air. This time, I’m not going to let the wind knock me over. I’m going to stand strong. No, literally, she put glue under so I stay sturdy. Who knew?

 

7

The sun is about to set. People use me now. Not the way they did before. Before, they would drop their garbage in me, and sometimes they’d knock me over without even picking me back upright. When the sun went down and the girl came back, she had a big garbage bag in her hand. She put it in me. It just feels good. The garbage truck drives by and takes out the garbage bag from me. I feel relieved. I look back at the sky waiting for a new day to come.

 

THE END

 

Secret Samurai

Cynthia felt like she was a daredevil. After all, why would an eight-year-old jump down the Empire State Building with virtually no protection? She felt as if her insides had turned upside down and gone haywire. As she fell, she had a flashback as to why she was doing it:

Just five hours ago, she was in Chicago doing homework. Her aunt had given a high-tech suit to her as a birthday gift, which had the powers of a Samurai. “Your cousin has superpowers. This suit has powers you can use to defeat villains.” Cynthia decided to test it. She boarded a first class plane trip to New York. On the trip, she thought about Skullkiller, the notorious villain who wanted to kill her cousin. She had to defeat him.

To test the durability of the Samurai suit, she took a fall off the Empire State Building. The suit reacted and added wings to the suit. I’m not Falcon, she thought. She carefully glided down and landed swiftly on the ground. This wasn’t any ordinary suit. It could respond to her feelings. Cynthia suddenly remembered the history of the suit.

Her aunt had created the suit when she was a young girl. She used it to stop crime. Unfortunately, Skullkiller had learned about the suit and was willing to steal it. The suit, though, was destroyed before it had been used for evil. Somehow, it regrew itself.

“BREAKING NEWS, BREAKING NEWS! Eight-year-old makes heroic fall down Empire State Building. She fell down more than 500 feet, as a matter of fact. Officials are now trying to confirm the girl’s identity, although it may take some time. Around the country, there have been strange occurrences lately.”

Skullkiller was in his lair, watching the news. He reacted as soon as he saw the breaking headlines. “That girl’s in a black suit. Why does it look so familiar? Wait, it is familiar. It’s the Samurai suit! I thought it was destroyed. I’ve got to capture her, and also get back to killing that boy.”

That “boy” was really Cynthia’s 12-year-old cousin, Hayden. Skullkiller had killed his parents. Hayden and his older sister, Catherine, then went to live with their aunt. Skullkiller wanted revenge on Hayden, who defeated him many times before.

Cynthia and her mother were boarding the plane. Skullkiller confronted them. At first, Cynthia and her mother were in shock. They didn’t know that he was going to find them. Then, Cynthia and her mom came up with a plan.

Skullkiller laughed evilly, “Hahahahahahahaha…. Hello. Expecting me, eh?”

Cynthia’s mother began to levitate Skullkiller. She threw him out of the plane.

“He knows that you have the suit. We have to be as careful as we can. Anything you do makes Skullkiller smarter.”

When they reached their home in Chicago, Hayden asked Cynthia, “How did it go?”

Cynthia replied, “Went well. Only bad thing was confronting Skullkiller.”

“I’ll help you train for the battle. I’ve defeated him about a dozen times. Besides, the prophecy chose you.”

Cynthia nodded, then went to her room.

She took her suit disguised as a pack of gum — not a good idea! — and found a record of the newscast on YouTube. She thought, Things aren’t obvious. People don’t know superheroes’ real identities.

So, weeks went on. Hayden trained her to defend at the right time, use important items in the suit, and much more. Then, she was ready to fight.

The battle started in an abandoned town. It was dusty. The dust flew through the sky. Skullkiller tried to pounce on Cynthia, but the dust made it hard for him to see. She defended. A sword came out of the suit because she was thinking, I really need some help here. Cynthia used the sword and cut Skullkiller, badly wounding him.

Cynthia carried Skullkiller and flew high. She threw him down. Skullkiller surrendered. “I’ll get you next time!” he screamed. Cynthia felt more confident now. She could defeat somebody that only expert superheroes could master. Even if she didn’t have the suit, she could still do it.

 

Two Doughnuts Sometimes Make the Perfect Match

 

Chapter One

I knew my night was going to be a disaster when I picked up my phone and saw how many calls I got from Alison. With all the work in the bakery, I totally forgot to check my phone, and now Alison was going to be mad at me for two reasons. First, for not picking up her calls, and second, for telling her I couldn’t go to her masquerade ball because I was helping my parents at the bakery. Alison’s dad was the mayor of our small town in California, so every month, Alison had a huge party at her house, and her dad always asks my parents to cater the party.

I still remember the first time we met back when we were four when she first moved here. Our parents introduced us to each other, and ever since then, we have been best friends. We were four then, and we were thirteen now, and we were still the same. Sometimes it felt really good to think about the past. That was, until you flashed forward to the present and realized that you had some problems on your hands. I saw my dress and mask laying on top of my bed waiting to be worn. That made my decision for me. I was going to go to the masquerade ball.

So, I picked up my phone and texted Alison, I will meet you at your masquerade ball.

Alison texted back, I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing Jade!

I grabbed my red long dress with gold designs and my gold mask and quickly put it on. I did my makeup and put on my golden high heels. I walked to the mirror and couldn’t recognize myself. I wondered if anyone else could recognize me.

With that thought in my mind, I walked out of my room and yelled to my mom, “Mom I’m going to Alison’s party! Bye!”

“Okay, Jade. Don’t get into any trouble, and if you need anything ask your dad. He is at the party!” my mom yelled from her room.

After hearing that, I quickly headed out the door because it was already 7:55 p.m., and the party started at eight p.m..

 

Chapter Two

It was a good thing Alison only lived two blocks away from me. As I walked underneath the night sky, I felt the breeze blowing my hair. The walk to Alison’s party was very peaceful, but once I got to Alison’s house, I couldn’t even recognize her house. Alison went all out for this party. The house looked like a winter palace, like the one Elsa made in the movie Frozen. There were so many people going in and out of the house. I walked up to the front door and opened the door and walked in. As I did, I could see that everyone was staring at me. I felt like Cinderella when she walked into the ball and no one could recognize her. I quickly walked to the center to join everyone because I hated being the center of attention. As I walked to the crowd of people dancing and talking to each other, I realized something. I couldn’t recognize anyone. Something else I realized was that I was the only one wearing red. At that moment, I regretted wearing that dress because I hated standing out. So I walked out of the dance floor and walked to one of the

empty tables. As I tried the maccaron and the doughnuts that were at the table, I overheard two girls talking about a celebrity.

They were saying, “Bella, did you hear the rumors that have been going around?”

“What rumor, Isy?”

“Well, rumor has it that Alison invited Cabe Swift to the masquerade ball because he is working on a movie here.”

“Anyways, Alison asked, and Cabe said he would come.”

O-M-G, I can’t believe I am going to see Cabe Swift,” said both of the girls.

When I heard that, I was so confused because I knew everyone who was invited to the ball, but I never saw Cabe Swift’s name on the guest list. I guess it made sense that she invited him because she was a really big fan. Alison watched every movie that Cabe had ever made and has had a huge crush on him since the sixth grade. She said Cabe and her had a lot in common because they were the same age. I, on the other hand, didn’t hate him, but I didn’t love him either, so I guess you could say I liked his acting. But Alison loved him.

As I was sitting there and thinking to myself, I suddenly heard someone ask me, “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“Sure, go ahead!” After that, we started talking.

Me: “Are you having fun at the party?”

Him: “Not really, I don’t have any friends here.”

Him: “Why are you sitting here all by yourself?”

Me: “Let’s just say I don’t like being the center of attention, and as you can see, I am the center of attention today thanks to this red dress.”

Him: “Anyways, do you have any hobbies?

Me: “Well, I like to bake and listen to music.”

Him: “I like to bake too! Who is your favorite artist?”

Both of us at the same time: “Selena Gomez.”

Me: “O-M-G! Did you hear her new song ‘Back to You?’”

Him: “Yes!”

Both of us: “LOVED IT!”

Me: “Anyways, did you hear that we have a celebrity here tonight?”

Him: “Who’s the celebrity?”

Me (rolling my eyes while saying the name): “Cabe Swift.”

Him: “So are you a fan of Cabe?”

Me: “Let’s just say I am not a big fan. He seems so spoiled.”

Him  (with a smirk on his face): “Wow!”

From that point on, our conversation took off, and we talked for the rest of the night. He was really nice and mysterious. He had the same haircut as Cabe Swift, which looked really good on him. We took a lot of pictures and soon realized the party was almost over. So when I was about to leave, he asked for my phone number, so I gave it to him and walked home. When I actually got home, I realized that we never got to tell each other what our names were. So I started wondering, what could be his name be?

 

Chapter Three

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of my parents arguing. I quickly got out of my bed and walked to where they were arguing because they didn’t usually fight. When I walked up to them fighting, I asked what they were fighting about, and my mom told me to sit down because I wasn’t going to take it well. So I did. My mom told me the most horrible thing I could think of. She told me that my dad got a letter in the mail saying that we would have to close the bakery if we couldn’t pay all the bills.

I asked, “How much are the bills going to be for the bakery?”

“About 15,000 dollars.”

“I am so sorry, sweetie, but we can’t afford to pay that much money.”

“Plus, we haven’t been getting a lot of customers lately.”

“Maybe if we get more customers, we can keep the bakery longer.”

“Right now we can only keep the bakery for ten days.” Hearing that made me want to cry even more than I had already been doing since I heard about the bakery. I ran to my room and laid down in my bed when I realized that I was going to be late for school. I got out of my bed and got ready as fast as I could while trying to look cute. Then, I ran to school, somehow managing to get before the bell.

When I walked into the hallway and walked to my locker, I looked around and saw that everyone was on their phone saying, “O-M-G, who is that girl?!

Then suddenly, I heard someone calling my name from down the hall, so I turned around and saw Alison running up to me and yelling, “Check Cabe Swift’s Instagram!”

So I got my phone out of my backpack and went to Cabe Swift’s Instagram. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

There it was, the picture of me and that mysterious boy at the party. I was so confused at first, wondering how the picture ended up in Cabe’s Instagram, when something finally clicked inside of my head, and I realized that the mysterious boy that I was talking to at the party was no one other than Cabe Swift! I started freaking out. I couldn’t believe it. I just spilled my heart out and embarrassed myself in front of the biggest teen celebrity!

I was about to faint when I heard Alison asking me, “Are you okay, Jade?”

I tried to play it cool by saying, “I am fine,” even though I was dying inside.

“So, did you check Cabe’s Instagram?”

“Yeah.”

“So who do you think that girl in the the red dress is next to Cabe? Who do you think it is?

“Well, I don’t know.”

“But whoever that is, she is a very lucky girl.”

“Also, did you read what it said under the picture?”

“No, what did it say?”

“Well, it said, ‘hashtag the best night of my life (Thank you mystery girl for making it the best).’”

Hearing that just made me scream out, “I am the girl in the red dress with Cabe in the picture!”

After screaming that out, I saw that everyone was staring at me in confusion, then started talking again saying how jealous they were that they didn’t get to be his mystery girl. After that, I looked at Alison’s face, and she looked so happy. She was congratulating me, and right at that moment the bell rang, and I had to get to class. After doing a lot of work in class, school was finally over. So, Alison and I walked and talked about last night and everything that happened. I also told her about the part when I gave Cabe my number.

Hearing that, Alison said, “I bet he’s going to text you to meet him later.”

“No way!” Right at that moment, I got a text from an unknown number. It said, Hey. You probably know who I am by now. It’s Cabe and I was wondering if you wanted to meet up? So text me your address and I will come pick you up in my limo!

So, I texted him my address and called my mom to let her know that I was going somewhere with a friend. Then, Cabe arrived in his limo. I said bye to Alison and got in the limo. As I sat in the limo, I could sense the awkwardness between us.

So, I asked, “How come you didn’t tell me you were Cabe Swift last night when we were talking?”

“Well, Jade… ”

“Wait, how do you know my name, because I never told you?”

“I might have done some digging around. Now back to what I was saying. Last night I had a lot of fun not having to be Cabe Swift, because whenever I talk to someone the conversation is always about me, and I really get tired of that. But last night, the conversation wasn’t only about me. It was about both of us, and I really liked talking to you. Plus, it didn’t sound like you were a really big fan of Cabe Swift last night, so I was hoping you would like Cabe better. So do you want be friends?”

“Sure.”

“Anyways, I was hoping we could go to your bakery.”

“Sure! It’s Friday, so the bakery is closed today, so we can have it all to ourselves.”

 

Chapter Four

Once we got to the Sweet Storm Bakery, I took out my spare key, and we both walked inside. I told him how our specialty was doughnuts, and since we didn’t have the doughnuts premade, we decided to make doughnuts from scratch. We went to the back of the the bakery and took out all of the supplies we needed. I had a lot of fun baking with Cabe. We decided to make two of my favorite doughnuts: ocean blue (vanilla doughnut with blue icing and and candies on top to make it look like the bottom of the ocean) and Choco coconut storm (chocolate doughnut with coconut and white frosting on top.) To my surprise, Cabe was a really good baker. I thought he was spoiled and wouldn’t even know how to crack an egg. I guess I didn’t really know who Cabe was on the inside. After we were done making the doughnuts, Cabe took a knife, cut two doughnuts in half and put the two doughnuts together into one. He took a bite from the side so that he could taste both of the doughnuts.

He said, “Wow! Two doughnuts can sometimes make the perfect match.”

Hearing that made me laugh, so I tried the doughnut the way he did, and I had to admit they tasted amazing together. After finishing our doughnuts, we started talking, and I told him about the bakery and suggested that we should let customers switch up the donuts, like making one side one doughnut and making the other side a different doughnut. He said he would post about it on his Instagram.

When I thanked him for his help, he said, “What are friends for?”

He also asked me if I wanted to audition for a small part in his movie. I told him I would think about it. After talking to him for what seemed like a few minutes, I realized that it was nine p.m.. Had we really been talking for two hours? After that, Cabe dropped me home, and for the rest of the night, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Talking to him felt different than talking to everyone else. Was I really falling for him?

 

Chapter Five

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of someone texting me. I picked up my phone and saw that my mom had called me two times and that Cabe texted me, Good Morning. So, I texted back, Good morning to you too.

Cabe: I posted about the bakery last night, and it looks like you might be getting a lot of new customers because it already has 2.6 million likes.

Me: O-M-G really. Thanks a lot.

Cabe: My pleasure. By the way are you auditioning for the movie?

Me: Uh I guess I will give it a shot.

Cabe: Awesome I will send you the script. The auditions are held at my hotel at 5.

Me: K bye.

After I was done texting Cabe, I called my mom, and she said the plan to get new customers was working. She also said that if we kept having this kind of customers, we could pay off the bills by next week, and we could keep the bakery. Hearing that made me really happy. So for the rest of the day, I helped my mom out at the bakery while trying to practice my lines. I wanted the day to slow down because I was not looking forward to the auditions. But when you want time to slow down, time does the opposite and goes as fast as it can. Soon, it was  five p.m., and I was at Cabe’s hotel waiting to be called in. There were a lot of girls auditioning for the same part which made me even more nervous.

Then, it was my turn. I auditioned in front of Cabe’s manager and the director for a character named Bella, the main character’s best friend. She helps her best friend Isabel and Jake (Cabe) get together. When I was auditioning, I was very disappointed not to see Cabe in the audition room. But I auditioned anyway, and the director told me they would let me know if I got the part by tonight. I walked home and was so happy the audition was over and done with. As I was walking I felt a sudden burst of happiness, and there I was again thinking about Cabe. I thought about Cabe all the way home. Once I opened the door and walked in, I saw both of my parents waiting for me at the door with their happiest faces.

“Jade, did you get the part?” asked my dad.

“I don’t know yet, Dad.”

After telling my parents everything that happened at the audition, I headed to my room and watched Netflix for the rest of the day, until I realized it was nine p.m.. I took out my phone and was going through Cabe’s Instagram when I got a call from Cabe.

I answered it and said, “Hello?”

“Hey, Jade. Guess what?”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Well, you got the part!”

“O-M-G, seriously!” My face turned bright red. I was so overwhelmed and in disbelief.

“Yeah, the director loved the way you really got into the character.”

After he told me I got the part, I told my parents, and we were all really happy. That night, Cabe and I talked until midnight. He told me about how he never really had a real friend on set and how lucky he was that I was going to be on set with him. When he said that, I blushed. He made me feel really special. The next morning, I headed off to set, bright and early. Cabe and I really had fun being on set together. For the rest of the week, I filmed after school on set. It was the best week of my life. First, because my mom was able to pay off the bills, so we got to keep the bakery, and second, because I got to spend the whole week having fun with Cabe on set. The parts of the week that I didn’t like were when Cabe and his co-star had to do a scene where they danced and went on dates. Even though I knew they were acting, it felt like they were an actual couple. For some reason, I felt a way that I never felt before. I was jealous. At that point, I knew I was falling for him. I didn’t want to tell him because what if he didn’t like me in that way — then it would be awkward between us. I thought he just wanted to be friends. That is, until he asked me to be his date to the movie premiere. I totally died inside when he asked me. I said yes. Now my problem was what was I going to wear to the premiere. I went shopping with Alison and my mom. I bought a long white dress with silver designs on the bottom. I also bought some silver jewelry.

Finally, premiere night arrived. Cabe came to my house in his limo and had a cupcake flower bouquet because he knew how much I loved sweets. He came up to my door and knocked. I opened the door, and when he saw me, he stared at me for a second, then said, “Jade, you look amazing!” I said thank you, and we got in the limo, and we drove to the premiere.

On the way there, he took my hand and said, “Jade, I really like you more than just a friend. Do you like me too?”

I said shyly, “I like you too.”

“I didn’t tell you because I thought things would be awkward between us if you didn’t feel the same way.”

“Well, I am glad this turned out well.”

“Me too.”

“You know you were right: two doughnuts can sometimes make a perfect match even if they are from two different worlds.”

After talking and embarrassing ourselves, we arrived at the premiere. He announced that he had a girlfriend at the red carpet, and then we watched the movie. It felt so weird to watch myself in a movie. But I had to say, Cabe made me feel comfortable when I wasn’t. We got a lot of questions about how we became a couple, and let’s just say I didn’t know how Cabe dealt with so many people asking questions and taking pictures, because I couldn’t deal with that kind of stuff. After we were done watching the movie, we went to the after party and had a lot of fun. From that point on, my life felt like a fairy tale. Even though we both had our own busy life, we made it work. But the bakery and I didn’t really work out. I wasn’t home a lot because of all the movies I was in. I mostly spent my time in LA, filming. But when I was at home, I spent as much time as I could at the bakery.

 

One Look is Friendship

 

JADA: Main character

GABBY: Jada’s best friend

JUSTIN: Jada’s brother

MADDIE, CORA, and STEPHANIE: Mean girls

DAD and MOM

NARRATOR

 

Erika: MADDIE

Samantha: STEPHANIE and MOM

Lydia: CORA

Ronni: JADA

Belinda: GABBY and NARRATOR

Andrew: DAD and JUSTIN

 

Waking up in bed. JADA puts clothes on, brushes hair, goes downstairs, brushes teeth, and eats cereal. Bus honks. Thirty minutes later, she is at school.

MADDIE: Hey, did you finish my homework? I’m not gonna pay you this week if you didn’t.

CORA and STEPHANIE cross arms. JUSTIN arrives.

JUSTIN: Stop bullying her. What did she ever do to you?

MADDIE: Fine.

JADA (to JUSTIN): Thank you so much.

JADA exits. GABBY enters.

GABBY: What happened over there? Did they want to get their homework again? You should stop letting them do that to you.

JADA: I have to get money to get a new car.

GABBY: Only until you get a new car.

Bell rings.

Thirty minutes later. Lunchtime. JADA sits down with GABBY. CORA, MADDIE, and STEPHANIE arrive at their table.

MADDIE: Where’s my homework? I’m literally not gonna pay you for three weeks!

JADA: Okay, okay, I’ll give it to you tomorrow.

MADDIE: Don’t tell Justin I told you this, or you know what’s gonna happen.

MADDIE exits. JUSTIN enters.

JUSTIN: Did she ask you for her homework again? Tell me the truth.

JADA: She did not ask me.

JUSTIN: Okay.

JUSTIN exits.

GABBY: Why didn’t you tell him the truth?

JADA: Because you know what’s gonna happen. She’s not gonna pay me for the whole month

GABBY: You can’t go on like this! You can get a job.

JADA: I don’t want a job! I have to do this.

GABBY: Whatever you say.

GABBY exits. Five minutes later, bell rings, and JADA exits the lunchroom. Three hours later, she is done with school, and GABBY is walking home with JADA. GABBY goes home first because her house is closer.

GABBY: Bye, see you tomorrow!

Five minutes later, JADA is home,

JADA (to her MOM): Um, Mom, the girls also want their homework, and I forgot where I put it, so I need to find it today.

MOM: Honey, you have to stop letting them do these things to you. You have to stop doing homework all the time, you have a life.

DAD enters.

DAD: What’s going on in here?

MOM: Oh, well the girls still want her homework, and they’re still bossing her around to get money.

DAD: You have to stop letting them bully you. I’m going to school with you tomorrow, and I’m going to talk to them.

JADA eats dinner, takes a shower, brushes her teeth, and goes to bed.

The next day, JADA sees GABBY, and they walk to school. JADA’s dad meets JADA at school, and JADA sees her dad talking to MADDIE, STEPHANIE, and CORA.

STEPHANIE: Hey, what do you want? Oh, and by the way, we still need our homework from your daughter.

CORA: Yeah we do! You know how much homework we gave her? We need it today.

JADA: Dad, what are you doing here? Go home! It’s embarrassing!

DAD: Okay honey, I’ll go home.

MADDIE: Dad calls you honey, not princess?

CORA: Where’s the homework? We need it today. You know that!

JADA hands them the homework.

JADA: Here’s your homework.

STEPHANIE: Okay.

Gives the homework back.

It doesn’t look like our handwriting. Just do one more line, and it will look like our handwriting.

JADA takes the homework back.

JADA: Okay, but you have to pay me extra this week, or I’m not giving your homework back.

MADDIE (rolling her eyes): Ugh, fine.

JADA walks off to class.

MADDIE: Where’s our homework? We need it now! She’s calling us up!

JADA: Where’s my money first?

MADDIE gives JADA the money, and JADA gives MADDIE her homework.

MADDIE: Finally.

MADDIE, CORA, and STEPHANIE go to the teacher and gives them the homework. Three hours later, she is done with school. Gets home and counts all her money and runs downstairs.

JADA: Oh my gosh, Mom, I have enough money to buy a new car! I don’t have to do their homework anymore!

Runs down the street and knocks on GABBY’s door.

JADA: Gabby, I have enough to buy a new car! I don’t have to do their homework anymore!

GABBY: We have to have a celebration at my house tomorrow!

JADA: Okay, tomorrow it is.

JADA gets back home.

JADA (to her parents): We’re gonna have a celebration tomorrow!

MOM and DAD: Okay, let’s go!

MOM: Go eat dinner, brush your teeth, get in the shower, and then get into bed.

JADA: Okay.

JUSTIN enters.

JADA: I don’t have to do their homework anymore! I have the right amount to buy a new car!

JUSTIN: Oh my god, I’m so proud of you!

JADA: Okay, could you come to my celebration? It’s tomorrow at eight.

JUSTIN: Sure, I’ll be there!

JADA exits. The next day. A huge celebration. GABBY calls JADA’s MOM and DAD.

GABBY: It’s time to do the decorations! Hurry, my house!

GABBY calls JUSTIN.

GABBY: Hurry, the celebration! We need decorations!

JUSTIN: Okay, I’m gonna call everybody from school to come. And I’ll get some decorations too.

MOM and DAD (to JADA): Honey, we’ll be back later.

JADA: Okay, see you later! Remember the celebration! Don’t be late!

MOM and DAD: Okay.

JADA arrives at GABBY’s house. GABBY opens the door.

Everyone: Surprise!!

JADA: Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you planned this!

JADA sees MADDIE, STEPHANIE, and CORA.

What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t like me or something.

MADDIE: I’m sorry for bossing you around with all these things. I got this car for you.

JADA: But what about all that money you gave me for doing your homework?

MADDIE: It’s okay. You can keep it and buy another car.

JADA: Well, do you want to hang out sometime? Just not this time because we’re having a party.

NARRATOR: And they had a great time.

 

Friendship Song

JADA: Friendship comes with a key everywhere,

MADDIE: Even if it’s harder than it looks.

GABBY: We’re all in it together,

JUSTIN: No matter if it’s rough.

EVERYBODY: We can do it,

Because it goes on, it goes on,

Because friendship is the key to victory.

JADA and MADDIE: We started off as enemies, but then we became good friends.

GABBY and STEPHANIE: We both found something interesting we like together,

EVERYONE: We all end up friends.

 

Typed by Belinda Becker Jacob

 

The Drawing Book

The most important object to me is the drawing book my old art teacher gave me when I was in second grade. The book is kind of ripped on the cover. It’s all black, and when you touch the cover it’s kind of rough. But in the inside there’s smooth white paper. The inside is filled with drawings I drew when I was little. The smell just smells like regular old paper.

The first thing I remember was when they were handing it out to all the art club kids, since it was the last day of art club. It was really sweet that he handed me that book because it was directly from him. He didn’t tell us what we had to draw. He let us be creative. My sister was also happy because it was her last year there. After that, I knew it would be different with the new teacher. She wasn’t that good of a teacher. He was. It was just so special because they only accepted kids from third grade and up. So, I was the first kid to enter that was in second grade. And it’s not just special because of that, but that art teacher left the school, so I never saw him again. He taught me that it doesn’t matter if you mess up, it’s art. When I heard he was leaving, it was really sad for me and my sister. We really missed him when he left. But that never stopped me from drawing. I don’t use it that often like I used to. I just found it again, and I began drawing again. And it reminds me of my teacher. What I’m filling the pages with now looks different than what I used to. But right now, it’s in my backpack.

 

The Haunted Circus Chronicles

 

CHAPTER ONE

It was a hot and sunny day when Jeff and Bob walked into the circus. The noise was loud, they could hear people laughing, carousel music, and an announcer calling over the loudspeaker, “Last call for a ticket to the Great Juggler’s Show!” Jeff bought a big bag of hot, buttery popcorn, which smelled amazing, and cotton candy. Bob bought a hot dog, and they both bought cold sodas. They walked down the grass eating their food, looking around for something cool. On each side of the grass were tents: white and silver for the acrobats, red and blue for the animal tamers, blue and silver for the magicians, and one more tent for refreshments.

“Do you like school?” asked Jeff, while eating his popcorn.

“Not really,” said Bob. “The teachers are so mean.”

“Yeah,” said Jeff. “Ms. Butterbottom is really strict. She didn’t let you celebrate your birthday! We never have parties for holidays, and we had a lot of homework.”

Jeff and Bob were both thirteen. They were both wearing T-shirts and shorts.

Bob looked up and saw a platform ahead of them. A crowd had gathered. They were watching silently in amazement while a clown juggled on a unicycle. The clown was wearing a red wig, a red nose, big shoes, and a bright yellow and red polka dot shirt.

“I hate clowns,” said Jeff.

“Me too,” said Bob.

“Especially after that movie last night,” said Jeff. They had watched a horror movie, Politics About Clowns.

Jeff and Bob avoided the platform. They saw a path to the left, leading towards the carousel. They kept walking, eating their popcorn, and talking.

To the left of the pathway, there was another tent. It was red and yellow.

“What time should we go home?” asked Jeff.

“Well, I want to invite some friends over for a party tomorrow. We could have a pool party at your house… ”

The clown on the stage did a backflip on his unicycle while juggling ten balls. The crowd looked amazed, cheering and clapping.

Suddenly, Bob and Jeff felt a hand wrapping around their arms and yanking them backwards into the tent. “AHHHHHHHH!” they screamed.

Nobody saw Jeff and Bob — they were too busy watching the clown. Outside the tent, all they could see was a bag of popcorn left on the ground.

 

Jeff and Bob were tied down in wooden chairs inside the tent. The chairs had blood all over them. They saw a whole bunch of clowns in a dark room holding knives.

Everything had happened so fast that Jeff and Bob were confused. “Who are you?” asked Jeff and Bob quietly.

“We are your worst nightmare,” they all said. One of the clowns stepped forward to tighten their ropes. The clown had a freaky face with blood all over it and a lot of white and black makeup. It had red blood all over its white clothes and ruffled collar. It had red hair, ugly teeth, and stitches all over its eyes.

Jeff and Bob were shocked and frightened to death.

The clowns explained their ugly plan. “You must be clowns, or you and your families will die.”

Jeff and Bob didn’t know what to say. There was no escaping the clowns.

“It’s better for only us to get hurt than all our families,” said Jeff.

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Bob.

Jeff and Bob answered. “We want to be clowns,” they said.

“Good,” said the clowns. “And we are killer clowns. So you will have to kill people.”

“We don’t want to be killer clowns!” said Bob. Jeff and Bob were very, very scared.

One of the clowns came up behind Jeff and Bob with a gun. He pointed it at their brains, but Jeff and Bob couldn’t see. Then, the clown put a hole in their brains and put a chip inside.

Jeff and Bob dropped their heads. When they woke up, they had red eyes.

 

CHAPTER TWO

It was a hot and sunny day when Steve and Joe walked into the circus. Steve and Joe were looking for Jeff and Bob at the circus. They had just come home from vacation yesterday. Jeff and Bob had told them they were going to the circus, but they were on the plane, so they couldn’t go.

Bob’s and Jeff’s parents had called Steve’s and Joe’s parents, but they didn’t know where they were. So then, Steve and Joe went to the circus to find them.

When Steve and Joe walked into the circus, they started looking. First, they got food because they were starving. They got strawberry funnel cake with whipped cream and powdered sugar on top. They also got popcorn, hot dogs, and cold sodas.

They started walking around, and they saw a whole bunch of tents. They walked in the first one, and they saw a security guard. The security guard said, “Do you have a ticket?” They said no.

“We spent all our money on food,” Steve said to Joe.

“We have to get in there,” said Joe. “Bob and Jeff could be in there. Maybe they stayed there all night, or maybe they joined the circus!”

Steve used his martial arts karate moves to attack the security guard. He was down in two seconds. And Joe was just standing there. He didn’t know any martial arts.

They looked in the tent, but they couldn’t find Jeff and Bob. Elephants and musicians were doing a show in the middle of the tent. There was a humongous crowd. They loved it! They were amazed!

Steve was feeling proud of himself for taking out a security guard, and Joe was worried about Jeff and Bob.

When they went out of the tent, the security guard woke up with ten other security guards. Steve and Joe knew that the guards were there for them. Steve and Joe tried to punch the guards, but then they had to run away because the security guards were chasing them. They ran into a white and silver tent.

It was dark inside the tent. There was creepy violin music. Then the lights turned on, and acrobats were surrounding them. They looked like normal acrobats — they were wearing sparkly silver leotards and no makeup except for jewels on their foreheads. But they were holding knives, and one had a chainsaw. Then, Steve and Joe saw clowns behind the acrobats. They couldn’t recognize Jeff and Bob.

Steve and Joe were shocked. They gasped.

The acrobats said, “Now you and your family will die if you don’t become an acrobat.”

The acrobats put chips in their brains with a microchip gun. Then, Steve’s and Joe’s brains forced them to obey the evil acrobats.

 

CHAPTER THREE

It was a hot and sunny day when Marie and Cooper walked into the circus. They were trying to find Jeff, Bob, Steve, and Joe. Their parents all knew each other, and they all called Marie’s and Cooper’s parents to see if they knew where Jeff, Bob, Steve, and Joe were. Jeff and Bob had been missing for two days, and Steve and Joe had been missing for one day.

Marie was a five foot seven Japanese young woman, and she was fourteen. Cooper was a five foot nine blond guy, and he was thirteen.

They were at the pool when they got the phone call from the parents. They were kind of annoyed about leaving the pool. They were kind of worried and mad at the same time.

The first thing they did when they got to the circus was buy food. They bought buttery popcorn, cotton candy, blueberry funnel cakes, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sodas. They also got a slushy. And that’s all they got.

They started looking for Steve, Joe, Jeff, and Bob. They called their friends, but no one answered. Marie and Cooper went to the big tent where the elephant show was going on. And then they found $300 on the ground. They were lucky! They bought two tickets and took turns watching the show and looking for their friends.

After the show, they still couldn’t find them. But then the SWAT team came, because the money that Marie and Cooper used was fake. The SWAT team went looking for Marie and Cooper, but they raced away. Marie was kind of slow, but then she punched them, and Cooper ran away to a tent that was blue and silver. It was nice outside, but inside the tent it was dark, stormy, and mysterious. And then, the lights turned on.

Marie and Cooper were circled by evil magicians, acrobats, and clowns. They couldn’t recognize Steve, Joe, Bob, or Jeff. Marie and Cooper were shocked. They had no idea what was going on.

So then one magician said, “Your family and you will die if you don’t become evil magicians. HA HA HA HA HA!”

He looked like a wizard. He was kind of ugly. He looked like he was 70, but he was only 40. He had a long, scraggly gray beard.

Marie and Cooper both turned into magicians with a chip inside their brain.

 

CHAPTER FOUR

It was a cold, dreary night at the circus. The clowns, acrobats, and magicians got together to do their really, really, really evil plan. Their plan was that they would attack the human race and rule the world. The plan was to attack the president first, to rule the world, and then they would attack the whole US, then North America, then South America, then the whole world.

They started going to Washington, DC. Then, when they got to the president’s house, they broke in, killed the security guards, and then murdered the president. Then, they took control of the United States, and then every United States citizen had to go to the White House immediately. Then, they turned all the people of the United States into clowns.

Then, they took over Mexico and Canada. Mexico turned into acrobats, and Canada turned into magicians. They took over South America, and they all turned into clowns. Europe turned into acrobats, and Asia turned into magicians. And Australia was the last defense of the human race. Then, they took over Australia, and they all turned into clowns.

But then, there was one more country left. New Zealand. They attacked. Half of them got demolished, but the clowns, acrobats, and magicians still won. Then, the only quest was to take over Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, and the other planets. So, they started creating rockets. Acrobats took over a third of the planets, and magicians took a third, and clowns took one third. But they couldn’t reach Neptune.

But then they all came to Neptune with a powerful rocket. Then, they started to defeat Neptune. The acrobats used their flexibility to catch the people on Neptune, the magicians used their spells to freeze the people, and the clowns used their knives to kill them. Now the Milky Way was called The Haunted Circus. No humans or aliens survived. There were nine million clowns, acrobats, and magicians spread out across the galaxy. They journeyed to each of the hundred billion galaxies. Now they had a billion billion recruits in the Milky Way, and they had about another billion billion in the Sunflower galaxy, and another billion billion in the Whirlpool galaxy, and another billion billion in the Black Eye galaxy. So, they had billions of recruits.

Now the six friends were the leaders of the Evil Haunted Circus, and they ruled the whole universe. They were friends again, because they were leaders, but they didn’t remember their old lives. They didn’t know who their parents were anymore, and their parents became clowns.

The End!

 

Animals

 

Warning: This story contains graphic violence, which may be disturbing to some readers.

 

Chapter One

When midnight came, the zoo started roaring because in this area, everything is a life sentence, for the animals were treated like they were slaves. The zookeepers walked around the zoo. They looked into the animals eyes and hit them. While the zookeepers did that, one animal was in its cage, lonely in the corner, thinking, Why is the world like this? During that time, it was raining. The animal’s name was Robin, and he was an elephant. He always thought that animals should be free in the wild and that they should be able to have freedom as a family and survive in the wild.

For a long time, the animals were enslaved in the zoo for Homo sapiens to see. Also, near there was a circus. The circus tortured animals even more. They would smack them, put them in chains, and rip them apart. They would hypnotize them, shoot them, put them in cages, everything you can imagine, and worst of all, they used elephants.

Oooh, you can’t imagine what people did to those elephants. They would put them in chains and make them dance. They would make them pull things. They would chop up their tusks. They would kill their young. They would put them in cages. They would face paint them. They would make them drink venom. And there was another creature. That creature was a lion. The lion always wanted the circus to be boycotted and thought that animals shouldn’t be treated so awfully.

The elephant and the lion, Alexander, knew each other. Each Sunday evening, they would break out of the zoo, meet up, and try to raise money to help animals go back into the wild. It never worked. A lot of animals suffered.

 

Chapter Two

One evening, the elephant and the lion went to the restaurant.

The elephant said, “How much money did we raise?”

The lion said, “We only raised 35 cents.”

Then, Robin had an idea. The idea was that Alexander and Robin would both go back and tell the animals this plan: the animals all station around town to raise money and if it didn’t work, they would meet back at the zoo, even the circus animals, and get a new plan. So they both set out back to where they came from and told everybody the plan.

All the animals agreed that it was an amazing plan. They set out stations all through town.

 

Chapter Three

All of the animals set out stations in these locations. Two were Times Square, three near the zoo, five near the circus, ten near the Empire State Building, thirty-five in Central Park, and fifty-two in the suburbs. All of them raised a little bit of money each day. They soon had over one thousand dollars. But they still didn’t have enough money to put the animals back in the wild.

While Robin was walking, he met a few humans: Curiosity, Philosophy, and Geography. They all wanted the exact opposite. They wanted all animals to be put back in the zoo and not to be bred. They wanted them to die easily, and they wanted them to cut their flesh for fun. They also wanted to destroy their habitats.

Robin did not like this. He was wondering if they even had brains. He wondered if any of them even grew up as actual animals (because all of the organisms were actually animals).

 

Chapter Four

All of the stations around the city raised over one billion dollars each, and that still wasn’t enough to overthrow the government. The government did not agree with this and wanted more animals to be tortured with an electric chair and a guillotine. They would also tie horses up by all their body parts.

 

Chapter Five

Robin and Alexander thought of a new idea. They would start a rebellion on Sunday evening, in the state park, at five pm, longitude 33 degrees.

 

Chapter Six

Sunday evening, at five pm and longitude 33 degrees, the polar bears broke out of their cages, using little ticks all night, biting in the cages with their little fangs, to open them up. The polar bears banged on the zookeepers and got the keys. The praying mantis killed many bugs and stuck them on the cage like super glue. Since there were five million of them, they pulled back all together and destroyed the cage.

The ants crawled out. The owls used their smarts to use telekinetic powers to open up the bird cages. The zookeepers were knocked, and the seals used them as floats to be able to be on land. The dolphins used little sea sponges to be able to jump on land and walk around. The animals that live in the coral reef jumped into the seals’ little tanks. Also, since the cage had mowers in it, the alligators took all of them and destroyed the cage. The elephants blew the cage down. Now, since the endangered animals all lived in the same cage, they all together got the keys from the polar bears and opened it up. Also, the parrots were able to use human to communicate with the people to open the door. The parakeets were able to text loony tunes and get granny.

Now they all together marched toward the White House. They marched through the door into the president’s office. First, the elephants smacked him the face, poked his eyes out with their tusks, and burned his brain at the stake. They also made his wife wear burning iron heels and had to dance in them for the rest of their life. Then, they took the dead president and buried him in a junkyard.

They came out and broke out and did these things.

 

Chapter Seven

On that day, all of the birds were spinning around and around the White House. They also had heavy balls that had atomic bombs with them, that they had to drop on the people. They threw them on Washington DC and to add on to that destruction, they put on anti-chemical masks, put chemicals in the jars, and banged them on Washington DC. They, too, went back in time with a time machine and took the most radioactive bombs in the world that were supposed to fall on Japan. They took them back to the present and threw them on Washington DC. Then, they also threw in human beings with cancer and the rash. Then, they also threw in computers that could be burned to make the radiation even stronger. Then, they just flew off. The birds also flew over to Florida and sawed it off.

They also sold Manhattan back to the American Indians. They took off the “locks” in the Panama Canal. They also destroyed Nickelodeon studios. They also threw donuts on the people of California. They exploded Columbia College. They shut down Niagara Falls and filled up the Grand Canyon with dirt. They also gave venom to the people of Barnard College. They also went back to Washington DC and went to a pottery studio and made president pottery and threw it into a vat of radiation. Then they started putting kittens everywhere and gave them to the Native Americans. They went back in time and killed Lewis and Clark, sunk the Mayflower, and killed Christopher Columbus. They also killed Teddy Roosevelt.

Then, they went on their phones and started looking at Pinterest. The end.

 

Chapter Eight

They also found out that America has a warship called the Intrepid. They took the Intrepid and sailed to India and bombed it. They sailed back to the circus. The owls flew around the circus people, picked their feathers off, and started poking the people with them. Then, they flew all the way to Kansas and then started collecting tumbleweeds. Then, they went and started throwing tumbleweeds at the people at the zoo. The tumbleweeds had toxins in them which made them fly to the foreign of the galaxy. They also collected twigs and made a fire with them and threw them at the cages to melt them down and make them into little molds.

 

Chapter Nine

As all the marine animals jumped into the water, they started swimming towards Antarctica. There, they met the polar bears, penguins, and sea lions and took them on a trip to Asia, and they went to Russia and invaded Moscow. Then, they started going to the big mosque, and they peeled off the big onion domes and then squeezed them into the ground and cut a door to make them portable homes. Then, they flooded India. After that, they went to Dubai and watched the dancing fountains. But, before they did that, they clogged up the system and made it so that the dancing fountains were like the ones at the Met, which were not inspiring and the people didn’t pay at all and also since they clogged it up, the water just went one inch tall each time it leaped. So the people saw that the fountains weren’t working and started dancing around in the water for no reason.

Then, the marine animals swam to NYC and flooded the subway through the Hudson and the East River. Then, they went up the East River upstate and clogged up every single tube they can see, even the toothpaste in your grandmother’s country home. Then after that, they started going back into the city and climbed up the Empire State Building and started shooting enormous volts of electricity into every single home until everybody in New York State was electrified. Then, they started swimming down the East River, went to Florida, and enjoyed the beach.

 

Chapter Ten: The Land Rover

All the land animals did something too. The first thing they did was go up the Nile River and climb up the Great Pyramid. Then, they started teleporting solar power to every home they saw, which made all of Egypt and almost all of Africa, shake. Then, they took a boat to Europe and started destroying the Colosseum. Then, they knocked down the Tower of Pisa and started destroying the Hoover Dam. Then, they went back to England and arrested the Queen. Then, they went back in time and put an earthquake in Los Angeles. Then they went further ahead in time, and they went to the earthquake of 1906 in California and started putting massive volts of electricity in the ground to make it shake more. They went back in time, and they started climbing up the biggest tower in the world and started throwing bacon at the world even though there was a pig there. Then, they split up and went to every single bank in the world and got the money to overthrow the government.

Then, the whole zoo marched up to the White House in 2018, with all of the money from all over the world, and went into the Oval Office. Since the president was already dead, they had a new president. He had paintings of himself all over the walls. He was even worse than the previous president. He made sure that all the animals in the zoos of the world were smacked in the face each millisecond and that they would pull out the tusks of all the elephants each millisecond. They also forced them to give birth to more elephants to produce more tusks. All the animals marched up to the new president’s desk and put the money on the desk.

Then, they said, “Will we be free of slavery and injustice if we give you this money?”

Then, the new president said, “No, no.”

Then, the animals overthrew the government one last time by marching out and knocking unconscious every single person in the White House and made the new president sign a paper saying all the animals will be released into the wild. The declaration was signed, and all the animals were free in the wild!

 

Sad Life of Peter

Peter was squirting toothpaste as he yelled at his mom for taking away his PS4. As he brushed his teeth, he said to himself, “I could think of a million ways to annoy my mom. I will use my mom’s credit card to buy millions of millions of V-bucks. I will burn her iPhone X. I will call the police and say mom did child abuse. I shall have my revenge.”

Then, he did all of the things he said he was going to do. The game console was important to him because he had every game in it, and all the games cost a fortune, and his mom took it away because he did badly on his test.

Since he had a credit card, he went out to get some McDonalds. He then saw a kid helping his mom, and after he saw that, he wanted his mommie, but she was going to be in prison for 30 years (because of child abuse). Then, he realized his mistakes and started doing chores till he was 16 and had quite a lot of money, but he knew it was not enough, and now he could get a real job, so he could gain enough money. Then later, when his mom was free, she felt proud that Peter changed.

After a while, he and his mom were walking down an alleyway, and a shadowy figure came up to Peter’s mom and said, “Give me all your money or I kill Peter.”

Strange, Peter thought. How did he know my name?

Then, he took Peter in his arms and stuck a gun at him and said, “Give me your money.”

So, his mom gave the figure the money, but he still shot his gun at Peter’s mom, and Peter fell to the ground devastated. In an anguished voice, he yelled “Why!!!”

That day, his mom got murdered.

After that, he worked his butt off and got a new name, Millionaire Peter. Then, he made a superhero base. He was now the M-Man. His superpower was money. He could purchase anything in the world. Then, he fought crime.

He was looking for the enemy that killed his mom. Then, his crime phone rang. Then, there was a crime in the warehouse, and the butler said to be very careful. Then, he entered the warehouse with his best superhero gear, and then he realized this was what he trained for his whole life. It was the same person who killed his mom. He had the same mask on as the time when he killed his mom. So to him, this was the final battle. They both fought, but M-Man took off his mask.

The killer said, “You again.”

Then, they fought to the death, and the killer almost fell off the plane (sorry, forgot to mention before). Then, the killer opened his mask, and he said, “Peter, I am your father.”

“Really???” Peter asked. Then, he said, “How did I know your name. Why did you kill her.”

“Son, I was being mind-controlled by the Man. I tried to fight it as much as possible, but he said he would kill, so I had no choice.” The killer, who was Peter’s dad, said, “Sorry, son.”

Peter gave his father a puzzled look.

 

Life of a Hermit Crab

 

DAY ONE

“Aaah! My eyes! They burn… ” I said. The waves crashed, causing me to fall asleep. But soon enough, one hour later, I was bought! I was finally going to be free at a gigantic house!

“Mom, can I get this crab? The young, blue shelled one so that he lasts long!” said my owner, Lucas.

“Sure, Lucas,” said my owner’s mom. “Whatever you want.”

And at first sight, I saw in his eyes that he was going to love and cherish me for all of my life. But right after he bought me, we had to go in this scary piece of metal that went so fast! And it was so fast, I almost got sick! It had all these bags and coolers in the very back, and that’s where my owner was sitting, all alone! And the worst part is that it took one hour and thirty minutes until we finally stopped! And when we finally did, they left me in the piece of metal! Then finally, one hour later, they came back! But the same thing happened! So for two hours, I had to sit in an uncomfortable cage in an uncomfortable piece of metal that was fast. And I didn’t even get food. And then, we finally came to a stop. For good. That’s when I saw it. A gigantic house! Where were we? We definitely weren’t in Bethany Beach… so where were we?

“Buddy, we’re in Maryland! Chevy Chase!” I stared at him in despair. “Buddy, this is all the peace and quiet you need. Let’s go inside!” said my owner. “This is the office. This is where I sleep. This is also where you sleep. Let me show you my brother’s crab. You guys are gonna have a great time!” said my owner.

So, he showed me my “friend” as he called him. But he was so massive. We both hid from each other, and my owner and his brother started laughing. Humans were idiots sometimes.

“I’ll call you The Flash. You’re so fast,” said my owner.

So after, we went to sleep, but I couldn’t because my owner complained to his mom that I was making too much noise, so she put me in a scary room, and I was up all night.

 

DAY TWO

The next morning, Lucas’ mom wasn’t there to wake him up. His dad was. He fed me, but I didn’t like the smell of the food. So, I didn’t eat it. And then, he put me back in his room. And then he let me exercise for a few minutes, fed me, and then just left the house with his dad. Where did they go to that took so long? He was finally back with his grandma and his brother like… five hours later! Then finally, Lucas went to get me out of my cage and let me exercise. Lucas was a cool dude. I tried to speak to him, but his response was way out of topic.

When I said I needed water, he said, “Looks like you need exercise!”

And then once again, obviously, he brought in my brother’s crab like… two hours later, and he put my face in front of his face. We both ran. That crab was huge!!! I didn’t like him. That crab was annoying. He spoke too much and smelled. He said things about the World Cup, trying to bet me 50 bucks that England was going to win over and over again, and he sang soccer songs, and shouted, “HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!” Take a shower, dude! I just ignored him, but I didn’t think he had any reason to ignore me… I was just a perfectly normal crab living a normal life. This time, Lucas didn’t get tucked in by his mom again. Where was she? So once again, I expected him to wake up in the middle of the night to my cage rattling and kick me from his room. But this time, he didn’t! So this time, I could finally get some sleep!

But I woke up to him in the middle of the night when he was moving in his bed while he was asleep…  so I said, “Dude! Quiet!” and rattled my cage.

Then, all bad was released. Lucas woke up, angry. This time, he didn’t take me to his parents’ room. He took me to the basement. I couldn’t sleep all night. It was so dark…

 

DAY THREE

I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten in two days. The food was so gross. Seriously, Lucas? Just give me a banana. Lucas was worried for me.

He said to his dad, “Dad! The Flash hasn’t eaten his food in two days. I’m worried… ”

“Don’t worry. I’ll try to get Gabe to get The Flash to eat. It’s going to be fine,” said Lucas’ dad.

Lucas got ready for where he was going and played on his iPad for a bit until he had to go. My water sponge was out of water.

Then, when they were about to leave, Lucas checked my sponge and said to his dad, “Can I quickly give my crab water in his sponge?” and Lucas’ dad hit the wall really hard.

I started to get scared.

His dad screamed at Lucas and said, “YOU SHOULD’VE DONE THAT EARLIER!”

“Well, do you want my crab to die?” said Lucas.

“Sure. Let him die. I am going to kill him!” said his dad angrily.

I started to get so scared… I started crying. “I don’t wanna die!” I said.

But Lucas’ dad didn’t kill me. He didn’t even come upstairs. I calmed down. I stopped crying.

“You need to go to Writopia! I’m going to be late for a ten o’clock meeting in downtown D.C.!”

So that’s where he went every day! What’s Writopia? Well, at least I knew where he went every day. And then, they left. And I heard some shouting outside. So, I just sat and waited for Lucas to come back. When Lucas came back from Writopia, he finally took me out of the basement. He put me up one floor, which was much cosier. Then, he gave me a banana, which I did not eat, but I usually would. Then, he just watched some TV. He let me out of my cage while he was watching TV and let me exercise. I liked Lucas, but sometimes he was scary… like… his hands were colossal. So, as usual, I was expecting to have to go face-to-face with my mortal enemy, The Soccer Dude, and yes, that was what I called the one who shouted, “HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!” all night long, and I was the only one who could hear it, but no. The happiest day of my life was today. God shined the light on me. Angels watched over me. I did not see The Soccer Dude today!!!

“HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!”

 

DAY FOUR

The next morning, as usual, he gave me water and went on his iPad for a bit. No questions asked. And I still had a headache from The Soccer Dude shouting Harry Kane all night. Lucas left to Writopia, once again, and I was all alone with a madman singing “Ole.” When Lucas returned, I heard a calm, soothing voice. Apparently, his mom was here! Even I was surprised! One day she was not here, the next she was!

“Mom. Did you bring anything from your business trip?” said Lucas.

“No, sweetie. I’m sorry. Next time I will,” said Lucas’ mom.

“It’s okay, Mom. You didn’t have to,” said Lucas.

Okay. Business trip. So… where did she go for the business trip? So, Lucas just picked me up like it was nothing and held me in his hand. Okay. Imagine this. You have to sit in the palm of a sweaty hand in a hot room for two hours watching a piece of metal that has a screen that projects people kicking a ball and flopping on the floor. Plus, my mortal enemy (The Soccer Dude) was in Lucas’ brother’s hand, cheering for England. That’s what his definition of fun was. At the end of the game, The Soccer Dude wept. The Soccer Dude snapped his pinchers in the air. You see, that’s why I only did normal things that crabs do.

“WHYYY!!! England! Ye lost! How? It’s only Croatia!!! Come ON England ye worthless scrubs! Wahhhhhaahhaahaa,” wept The Soccer Dude.

“Oh, come on, dude! It’s only a game! What’s the meaning of people kicking a ball and flopping on the floor?” I say.

“You really don’t get it, do you?” said The Soccer Dude in a weepy voice. “This is the World Cup. It happens only every four years, and this is very rare! England is way better than nasty ol’ Croatia!” The Soccer Dude pinched me!

“Aaah!” I started to cry. “Lucas!!! Aaah!”

Lucas heard the pinch. He immediately came downstairs. He threw The Soccer Dude on the hard floor. The Soccer Dude was hurt. Yay! Then, he quickly sprinted to me.

“Are you okay?” said Lucas. I was bleeding. It hurt! I frowned.

“Mom!” said Lucas.

“Yes, Lucas?” said Lucas’ Mom.

“The Flash is bleeding!” said Lucas.

“Oh, no!” said Lucas’ Mom. “I’m coming right now!”

“We need to put a tiny piece of folded paint to stop the bleeding,” said Lucas.

“Good idea,” said Lucas’ Mom. She ran upstairs to get toilet paper and put it where I was bleeding. And it stopped after a while.

At night, The Soccer Dude finally stopped yelling “Harry Kane” and singing “Ole.” For the first time, I was not taken to the basement. Instead, I was taken to Lucas’ room where I had to boringly watch Lucas sleep for 11 hours. But still, I loved him. I was growing to be comfortable with this house. And that, my friends, was when I realized Lucas’ family would cherish and protect me forever.

Fin

 

Credits

Lucas Gebrekristose (story idea)

Rita Feinstein (comments/helping/correcting)

Ebony Adkins (comments/helping/correcting)

Marina Cooper (comments/helping/correcting)

Sofia Laguarda (comments/helping/correcting)

Special thanks to my family and my wonderful crab who hold and cherish me, knowing I will do the same for them.

 

Adventure of the Orphanage

There were two teens at an orphanage, and they were twins. The twins were one boy and one girl, and they had to leave the orphanage to a foster family. The boy was named Alex, and the girl was named Artic. Alex was 13, and Artic was 15, and they had to be at least 21 to live alone in their own houses. They didn’t know the truth if their family had been killed or if they were hiding from their kids. The only memory they had was the half of their family’s picture where they see themselves and the body of their parents but, they don’t have a face. Now let’s get back to the teens at the orphanage. They were feeling butterflies in their stomachs. They were feeling that way because they felt like the family was not going to accept them at their house. They met the foster parents, and they felt suspicious about them.

The foster parents were named Cassie (as the mom) and Chris (as the dad). Cassie was 23, and Chris was 24, and they owned a mansion with two other teens that were “their kids.” Alex and Artic met the kids, and they were named Emma and Erick. The oldest was Emma because she was 17, and Erick was 15. The whole foster family had hate for Alex and Artic. The family made their foster teens do their chores (wash the dishes, clean the whole house, and take the trash out, etc.).

Alex and Artic woke up to a strange noise that sounded like someone was screaming in pain at the backyard at 5:00 am, and they went downstairs to check what happened in the backyard. They still heard the noise, then it stopped. They couldn’t believe what they saw. They felt suspense rushing down their blood. They saw the other half of the picture, and they saw a pile of dirt under the half. They connected both halves of the picture and found out that their foster parents found their real parents. Alex insisted that Artic dig the dirt to see what was under. Then, they saw a horrific picture of a dead body.

Alex heard the lights turn on in the house and told Artic, “Get out of here. Someone is awake, so we should go back to sleep.” Before they got caught, they put the pile of dirt back to how it was at the start. They went to the back door of the house and went in.

Alex and Artic went to their parents’ room and snuck under the bed and heard them talking clearly. The parents didn’t notice that Alex and Artic snuck in. They heard them saying, “Alex and Artic are our real children, and Emma and Erick are not our real children. They are villains, and they have superpowers of fire. Alex and Artic have superpowers of ice, but they don’t know it.”

Alex and Artic felt emotional because they finally found their parents, and they couldn’t trust them anymore.

Alex said, “Why would you keep a secret from your kids?”

They got out from under the bed, and it scared their parents.

The parents said, “You were not meant to hear that.”

Alex and Artic stormed out the room, and they went into their room and locked the door. They started sobbing, and finally their parents opened the lock and all had a family hug.

“We tried to keep you safe from them, and sorry for not telling you later that we were your parents and being rude toward you guys. Your siblings Emma and Erick are not actually your siblings. They are villains,’’ said their parents, who were really named Jess and Jessica.

Jessica asked the kids, “Why are you both covered in dirt?”

“We were digging a pile of dirt that was in the backyard because we heard a noise coming from there, and we saw a pile of dirt. Erick told me to help him dig the hole.”

“Did you know that you both have superpowers,” said Jess and Jessica.

They both went upstairs to see their real kids and put the villians back in their prison in a faraway island surrounded by a body of water. Emma and Erick heard the commotion and woke up and saw them in their bedroom. They both knew what was happening, but still got caught and were put in prison on a faraway island.

Artic asked the first question to the enemies. “Why were you playing to be me and my brother?” asked Artic.

“We were playing as you guys because our parents want to have your money for them only and not for us. They are just worried about themselves,” said Emma.

Alex said, “Who are your parents?”

“Our parents are Chloe and Cody,” said Erick.

Alex and Artic trusted Erick and Emma because they looked trustworthy and not like they were lying. Erick and Emma were crying and sobbing and saying that they didn’t belong there.

Alex and Artic both asked at the same time, “How did we both end up in different places that we both don’t belong in?”

“Our parents switched your birth certificates, pictures, and your names,” said Emma.

“Thanks,” said Alex and Artic.

Artic had a thought in her head, We should let them live with us, and there’s no more danger for them. That’s why our parents kept it as a secret.

So she asked them, and they said, “Yes.”

THE END

 

The World’s Smallest Dog

I am the world’s smallest dog. The world is too large and gigantic for me. All these big aliens are taking me by a red rope and naming me Ben, Fred, and Lilly! I can’t take it anymore! So, I run away. I mean, I will be left alone. No more “you’re a cutie pie” or “such an adorable munchkin” for me! So, with my short, stubby legs, I run down the road. I keep running until my small legs cannot take it anymore. I sit down to take a rest.

“Hey, you little doggie.” A big cat comes up on me.

I stand up to run away. My little legs don’t take me very far until the cat comes up to me. He grabs me up and bites me. I start to whimper. He drops me to the ground. Then, he walks away. I wait until he is gone, then I sit up. I have no idea where I am. The trees are swaying, and the wind is making me cold. I am hungry. Where is my soft and sweet doggie food? I am too small to do anything. So, I sit and stare hopelessly at a tree.

In the morning, I am awoken to the sound of chirps and baby birds. I look up. A bird’s nest is above my head. I run away from it. I never have liked birds. They were bigger than me. Anything bigger than me is sure to kill me. I am so small, my legs don’t even take me ten feet from the tree. I hate being so small. I hate it.

I walk as far as the town goes. I turn up onto a pole. There’s a picture of me!! I’m famous! All the world will know about me! For once, something goes well for me! Wait a second. I have seen that word before. I think it is “missing.” Or “massing.” I don’t know. Well, I’m famous. Who cares what it means. I walk down the street with my head held high. I hope people ask for autographs!

 

A few days later…

I am walking through a park with my head still held high. A van! It must be my special ride. I hop over to it and wait for the door to be opened to an inviting doggie food bowl and some doggie hair people to do my messy hair. The door opens with a slam. Not what I was expecting. But still, I’m excited for my new haircut. But a net falls over my head. What is going on here! I start barking. I get pulled by the net and dropped into a cage. Wait, I think I know what’s happening. I think I’m being taken to the pound! What am I supposed to do!!

 

One month later…

The pound is mucky and dirty, and it smells weird. The food is not that good. No one has adopted me yet. One more day in this stupid pound I will die!! Well, here comes another little girl who will pick any dog but the smallest dog in the world. We all have to line up and do tricks. At the end, the girl has to choose who she wants. All the dogs do handshakes and rolling over. The girl comes to me, and I look at her and smile. She smiles back at me. Then, she pets me. “I want this one,” she says.

“But you have not seen all the dogs yet,” the owner says.

“But I just know I want this one,” the girl says. The girl picks me up. She pets me once again. Then, she and her mom go out the door. I love this little girl, and she loves me, because I am the smallest dog in the world!!

The End

 

A Puffy Phenomenon

 

Life isn’t Fair

It’s hard being a rabbit with a disability. Kits look at you and hop behind their mom. Other bunnies hop away in fear. I just had to be chosen to have a disability. It isn’t fair. For the most part, I have a cool home. I find cool parts that humans leave in their shops, where those big machines sometimes come in, and live there for a while. Some say things on them like Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Jeep… I digress. Okay, back to my house. I steal parts from human shops and invent things to make my life easier. So far, I’ve invented a wheel for my missing leg, moving stairs for my house, and a robot to make me carrot cake. The project that I am working on right now is a little carrot mobile, and the wheel is made out of carrot stalks. It’s pretty cool, although my lifelong dream is to invent some sort of a friend, one who plays games with me and laughs with me. Something like that. Or, it could be easier to get a real friend. Much, much easier, but more complicated.

Right, let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Puffy Frank, and I am only six years old in human years (assuming this will be read by a human), and I think I am very intelligent for a six-year-old. My parents died saving me from a murderer. The murderer managed to cut one of my legs off, but I escaped and hid away in the sewers. I stayed there and cried for two weeks, because I was only five years old. It was so sad and terrifying at the same time. But I managed to get over it and used my skill of inventing to make myself a wheel for my missing leg. Well, I’m here now, so… I think I’m doing pretty well for a lone orphan, anyway. So, maybe you haven’t noticed, but this is my first long, real writing piece that I’ve written. I’m only six years old, anyways, so…

 

Test-drive

Just in case you were wondering, here is an example day from my life, just to show you how bad it is to be a disabled bunny:

So, I finally finished my carrot mobile, and I decided that maybe taking it out of my bunny hole and test-driving my carrot mobile might help me think of my next idea. So I tugged it out of my bunny hole, got in, and drove around Bugstown. Our village is named after the famous human bunny character, Bugs Bunny. We have pictures of him up all around town.

Anyways, I was driving around town and rabbits started “secretly” pointing at me. Kits stared at me. There was hardly any traffic around me. (Well, I will admit, that’s partly because I’m well… Okay, fine… I’m the only one who owns a car in Bugstown.) Still, the streets that I was on were almost completely empty. I drove on and on, still, rabbits scattering before me. Sometimes, I wondered if that was a good thing. To be feared by other bunnies. Either that’s my bad side, or I’m just trying to make myself feel better about myself. I don’t know. So, anyways, (I really have to get better at staying on one topic!) I was driving to nowhere, and then, I got my idea: a fake leg. I immediately turned around and started to drive back home. I was hungry. Maybe, if I made that fake leg and put on a disguise and made copies of my bunny mobile, I could sell them, and people wouldn’t be scared of me because I would just look like a normal bunny! Of course, my disguise would have to make me look older. (Or else someone would ask who my parents were and then, what would I say? If I told them the truth, they would just report me to the orphanage. And I am horrible at lies.) I think that could be a great plan! I would make enough money to buy myself food and toys, and other essentials. (Yes, I consider toys an essential.) Or I could make robots and program them to make bunny mobiles. Yeah, thats a better plan. I’ll would do that. As soon as I got home, I laid out the blueprint for the robot. All right! Awesome!

 

Perfect

First, I made the fake leg. It was easy. I took some fake rabbit hair and super glued it on to a plastic modeled leg. Then, I made two electrical cords running up from my fake leg to the stump of my real leg. Perfect. I tried to wiggle my fake toes. It worked! Amazing! I tried jumping. Yup! I could jump more gracefully than I had ever been able to in a year. Okay, next part of the plan: robots. In about three days, I finished six robots. Now, I just had to program them to make the bunny mobiles. I’m quite a very advanced bunny, if I say so myself. I quickly built a terminal to key the program in to them. Perfect! Making the program would be easy-peasy. There! Done! I washed my hands quickly to get all the oil off of me. Now, the next part of my plan: the disguise. I spent a lot of time pondering how to make it, walking back and forth, until finally I got it: a mustache and glasses.

It would look just like the human items humans sometimes wear on their face! I quickly made it out of fake rabbit hair and plastic. Perfect! Now, one more thing: a stand to sell bunny cars. I quickly threw together a stand. Perfect. The day was already over, so I went to bed with my fake leg. Wow! I was so excited for tomorrow!

 

Why Should I?

I woke up at 9:00 am. I don’t have to go to school, because I don’t want to. Why should I? No one ever told me to. I groaned, tired from the night before. (I’m a night owl, not a morning bird.) Then, I remembered today was the day to put my plan in action! And, I officially don’t have a missing leg. Hooray! I ran out of my bedroom. (Well, it wasn’t much of a bedroom… ) Yup, there was all my work from the past few days. My robots had made 30 bunny mobiles overnight (five robots each) just for me to sell. I quickly threw together a loooooong chain and a giant cart. I would attach the chain to the original bunny mobile, (which I would drive), and chain each bunny mobile to the chain. Then, at the end of the chain, the cart would be attached, and the stand would be in it. Perfect! Now I just had to find a busy corner. I drove around for a while, and then I found quite a busy corner, that people would pass by on their way to work. I set everything up, unlatched the chain from the original bunny chain, and connected it to the stand. Perfect. Now, the hardest part: waiting. I’ve never been patient. Never. Ever. I looked on the ground to see some parts that humans must of dropped. I picked them up and quickly made a puzzle where there was a big container with a lots of chutes inside, going in every direction. There was also a ball. You had to tilt the giant plastic container in every way to get the ball to go through the chute. I played around with that for a while, until an old man Mini Lop bunny hopped over.

I immediately stood straight up and said, “Hello, mister.”

He looked me up and down and said, “What you selling here?”

He had a long cigar in his mouth and kept moving it from side to side in his mouth.

I immediately said as politely as I could (I wasn’t trained in manners), “This, mister, is a one of a kind machine. If you get in it and press this thing down right here, this contraption will move forward. If you press down that and turn this wheel right, this contraption will turn right. Press down the button down there and turn the wheel left, and this contraption will turn left. If you press the other button down there, this contraption will immediately stop. I call this contraption, the ‘bunny mobile.’”

“Well, that’s certainly a unique contraption,” the old man growled. I held my breath. Then, the old man smiled. “How much for one?” he asked.

Oops. I forgot to make a price for the cars! “500 bunalls,” I blurted out.

The old man sighed. He grumbled, “Well, I guess it’s a new invention… ” He looked up at me. “How many do you have?” he asked.

“Thirty, sir.”

“Okay. I would like five for my whole family.”

I managed not to smile. “That would be 2,500 bunalls, sir,” I told him.

He gladly handed over five 500 bills. I unchained five cars, took another chain, and chained them all together.

“Thank you, sir!” I exclaimed.

“No, thank you,” he responded. He smiled.

Then, he hopped away with the chain of bunny mobiles. I sighed a sigh of pleasure. Business could be so pleasing! Unfortunately, in the next chapter, I learn that business isn’t always pleasing.

 

Unpleasant business

I was very happy. I had just sold five bunny cars! I was still smiling. Then, a pack of five teenager Rex Rabbits came up to me and said, “Haha! Look at this twerp. Selling giant carrots. Ha. He could never make it anywhere.” The teenagers were all smirking.

“Oh yeah?” I responded. “If you were smart, then you would know that these things are special, and I just started selling and already sold five of these things. Besides, even if they were a giant carrot, you wouldn’t have the brain to make one of these beauties.” I smiled.

I thought I had them beat! Unfortunately, I did not. The teenagers’ smiles fell off their faces.

“Well then, let’s see how good this junk really is.” One of the teenagers stepped forward and grabbed me in a bear hug. I squirmed, but it was no use. One of the other teenagers took one of my bunny mobiles. He signaled to all of the other teenagers. The teenager that was hugging me let go of me and dropped me to the ground. The teenager ran away with my bunny mobile, and all the other teenagers followed him. I was enraged. How dare they! I immediately called the police. They immediately came.

The police officer asked me, “Where’s your parents, kit?”

 

I’m a phenomenon

Oh no. Ohhhhhhhhh no. This was bad. I didn’t think ahead, and now they were asking me where my parents were. What was I supposed to say?

 

Flashback happens…

I was snuggled in my mother’s clutch.

“Puffy, I need you to promise something.”

“Anything, Mama,” I responded happily.

“Puffy, this will probably be the only lifelong promise I will make you make.”

“Okay, Mama. What is it?”

“I want you to promise to never, ever, lie to people. Okay?”

“Okay, Mama.”

“Deal?”

“Deal.”

 

Flashback ends.

“Kit! Kit!”

“Huh?”

Where are you parents?”

“Uhhhh… ”

Oh no. What was I going to say? I couldn’t break the one promise that I made. The one thing I have from my parents. But if I didn’t break the promise, my whole life could be in jeopardy if I didn’t lie. I tried to hear my parents like they do in movies, but I couldn’t hear anything. Then, I decided to tell the truth:

“I am an orphan.

I live in the sewers.

I have a missing leg.

My parents were murdered.”

The police gasped. The police who asked me where my parents were gasped. “You’re a phenomenon, kit.”

 

Downgrade

We walked to the orphanage. I looked away from the police. We were almost there. The police didn’t even have to tell me that we were there and to go into the orphanage. I did it myself.

 

Puffy v.2

I walked into the orphanage. The orphanage manager tried to introduce himself, but I ran by before he could. I hid out in my bedroom for most of the day. I was pretty sure I was going to have a horrible life from here. I slept for the whole day, not sure what to do. Then, the orphanage manager knocked on the door. I opened it.

The manager said softly to me, “Someone wants to adopt you, Puffy.”

 

Paperwork

I was sitting at the adoption desk. I stared at the people across from me. Both of them wanted to adopt me. They both were Holland Lops, and both had blue eyes. I gazed at them.

“What’s your name, son?” the man asked.

“Puffy,” I mumbled back.

“Well,” said the Holland Lop woman, “we would like to adopt you, Puffy. We live nearby, and we don’t have any children.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

“Alright, all the paperwork is done!” the man exploded. “Let’s go see our new house!”

 

Interrupted

This was it, wasn’t it? I was going to leave my home and live in a house. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. But did it matter how I felt about it? It wouldn’t change anything. Oh well, might as well try to be happy about it anyways. We got to our house, and then — oh! All my bunny cars! What ever happened to them!? Then, the orphanage director ran down to us.

“Excuse me!” the orphanage director called. “I believe this is yours!” Behind him, he was lugging the long chain of bunny cars!

“What in the world is that?” exclaimed both of the Holland Lops.

“Oh yes!” I exclaimed. “This, uhhh… ” The man laughed.

“My name is Bucky, and my wife’s name is Bun. Just call us Mom and Dad, though,” he responded.

“Okay then,” I started again. “This, Mom and — ”

“Can you just take this thing? It’s soooooooooo heavy,” the orphanage director groaned. Ugh, I keep getting interrupted! I thought to myself.

Dad took the chain and responded, “Start again, son.”

“Okay then,” I said. “Once again, this I — ”

“Sorry, but it’s getting cold outside.” Mom shivered.

Augh! I screamed in my head. What I said out loud was, “Okay.” We moved inside the house.

“Wow!” I exclaimed. The house wasn’t a house; it was a mansion! Beautiful! Even the bunny chains could be in the living room, and the living room could still be a ballroom! I dragged the bunny cars in.

“Mom and Dad, maybe you didn’t know, but I am an amazing inventor!”

“Really.” My dad smiled. “Could you invent something for us?”

 

A New Life

Now, my life is amazing. Better than ever before. I have a bedroom three times the size of my house in the sewers, and I learned how to slide down handrails. I‘m famous as the kid inventor, and my family makes a living out of bunny cars. I’m inventing new things every day, and I’ll never stop. I have one close group of friends, and they are all disabled!

Life is beautiful once again.

The end

 

The Canvas Who Wanted to be Loved

One day, before 5:00 a.m. in an art studio in Italy, canvases were waiting to be purchased and painted. That day, an artist came in and was looking for an old, priceless canvas to paint his next masterpiece. When he purchased his very first canvas, he brought it back to his own art shop so he could start painting. That canvas was not just a plain old canvas. It was ancient (who knew how old) and used by other famous artists. It could not talk, but it could do things. This canvas could change paintings if it wanted to. This canvas was magical, not alive. When the artist started painting, the painting started to come alive. The painter was painting a night sky, and the canvas was transformed into the scene.

The canvas saw all the shining lights and the dark blue night sky. The canvas was the scene. The canvas saw the dark mountains in the back, the shining lights of the village. Up in the sky, there were swirls of light from the stars. The canvas was feeling so lucky and colorful that he was the scene. When the painter, Vincent Van Gogh, was done with the painting, he started adding small details of sparks representing the stars. The final touch was the moon, shining and giving light to the village.

When he was finally done, he let the paint dry. The canvas felt lonely and cold. Once he was finally freezing, his artist put it in a room that was much warmer. The canvas saw more paintings and sat there until people came in admiring them. Years went on after his artist died. He was getting more and more admirers. One day, he was put into the MoMA, where even more people came to look at him. He felt loved. One day, it was so crowded, and someone took him. Stole him.

People were chasing him, and he saw the harsh life where all the policemen were chasing him too. He wanted to go back to the museum and not be stolen. He finally got back inside in a cool, chilly place — the thief’s house. When he was stolen, he felt lonely, but he had hope. He knew he was going to be rescued, but he didn’t know that everyone around the world was looking for him. No one loved him anymore — for now. He sat there by himself for at least two years. One day, when his thief died, he was recovered and put back into a safer museum.

People continued visiting him, and one day, because he was loved so much, he was sold. He continued living in a small house, where no one saw him besides his buyer. He didn’t like it. He wanted to go back where everybody got to see him and not just his buyer. He protested and protested. He defended himself by refusing to look good in the light and showing weird images instead of the beautiful blue and black night sky. He did not want to stay in this lonely house.

One day, his buyer had enough of him and sold him back to a different museum. There, he was loved even more and continued to show his beautiful image. No one wanted to buy him because they wanted to share him with the public. He wanted to stay right there and not be sold again.

THE END!!!

 

The British One

 

Intro

“What!” said Jackie. “You’re getting remarried?”

It was Saturday afternoon, and the family was having afternoon tea.

“Well, don’t you want me to be happy?” said Jackie’s mom, sipping her tea.

“Well, of course we do,” said Gabby, giving Jackie a look. “We’re just in shock, that’s all. But yes, we are very happy for you. Just one question: is he moving here, or are we moving to that big house we saw.”

Oh, please make him move here, thought Jackie. Or say that you think this is actually going too fast for you. Please say it’s the second one.

“Well, about that… ” said Jackie’s mom. “Remember the other house that only Gabriela and I saw? Well, we’re moving there.”

“What?!” Jackie screamed, spilling tea all over the table and jumping up. “I’m not moving!”

“Well, you have to,” her mom said.

“No,” said Jackie. “I’m running away.”

 

Two years later…

 

Chapter One

“Do any of them know what ‘on time’ means?” asked Will, cleaning an apple from the dirt on it. “They’re usually not this late.”

Jack and Will were sitting down near the pastry shop, waiting for the rest of their gang.

“They have the poet guy with them, right?” asked Jack, pacing back and forth. “I hope the poet guy won’t forget he’s the oldest out of all of them.”

“Well, how can he forget if he keeps reminding us about it,” said Will, snorting. “But really, if they got caught I’ll kill them before the police get to.”

“Hey!” said Jack suddenly. “It’s the poet guy!”

“Finally!” said Will as the poet guy got closer. “What took so long, Alan?”

“Captured,” said Alan, breathing heavily. “I just ran away from some policemen. They’re going to find us any minute. So move it!”

“I don’t know if this is the right time to point this out, but we have a small problem,” said Jack, looking past Alan and Will.

“You think I haven’t seen that before, British guy?” asked Alan. “I know that all of our group is gone except for me, German guy, and you.”

“No,” said Jack with a worried voice. “There are, like, ten policemen and a really tall guy coming toward us with guns.”

 

Chapter Two

“We could try and run,” said Will. “But whatever happens, Jack, keep your mouth shut. We all know how they hate British people.”

“We can’t run,” said Alan, leaning against the wall and taking a huge bite of the apple Will gave him. “Time to join our friends.”

“Shutting mouth,” said Jack. “Now!”

“What did you want to do with them sir?” asked one of the policemen to the tall man. “You want to take them to your school?”

“Yes, that’s right,” said the man. “And if you don’t mind, I would like to give them a proper hello.”

“Whatever you’d like sir,” said the same policeman.

The tall man came closer to the three of them and then crouched down, so he’d be face to face with them.

“I don’t think I introduced myself,” he said. “My name is Vincent. I am a director of a school for people like you. Your friends are also going to that school, so you won’t be very lonely there. Now may you please introduce yourselves?”

“Yeah sure, whatever,” Alan and Will mumbled. Jack still kept his mouth shut and didn’t dare look up.

“My name is Will,” mumbled Will, also not looking up. “I’m seventeen.”

“Nice to meet you, Will,” said Vincent. “I think that people at the school will call you German guy. Have you ever been called that before?”

Will nodded but still kept his head down.

“My name is Alan, and I’m the oldest of the group. I’m eighteen,” said Alan, picking his head up and looking Vincent straight in the eye. “People call me poet guy.”

“Well nice to meet you too, Alan,” said Vincent. “You like poetry?”
Alan nodded.

“Well, then we’ll get along,” said Vincent. “And what’s your name? You haven’t spoken at all.”

“That’s Jack,” said Alan quickly. “He’s a little shy sometimes.”

“I don’t think he’s shy,” said Vincent. “Say your name, or I’ll tell the policemen to take you away.”

“My name is Jack,” said Jack, trying to hide his British accent. “I’m sixteen.”

“Well, I guess people call you the British one.”

“No,” said Jack quickly. “We only call people ‘one’ if they are very important. They call me British guy.”

“Well, then,” said Vincent. “Poet guy, German guy, and British guy, I hope you’ll like your new school.”

 

Chapter Three

One hour later, Jack, Will, and Alan found themselves walking up to a big building.

All the way they were walking, none of them dared to speak.

Will was too shy to speak. He never liked talking to people he just met. It was different with their gang members.

Alan was too sad to speak. Vincent told them that their other friends refused to go and were now in jail.

And Jack was too scared to speak. The same thought kept running through his head. Her head, actually.

I just agreed to die. I’m a her. Not a he. Why did I agree to this. My foster parents wouldn’t kill me. Wait, thought Jack, I went through like two years without them, and I was perfectly fine. Whoever said I have to stop pretending.

They finally came to a tall building with heads sticking out of the windows.

“The other students like to give new students warm welcomes,” said Vincent. “I hope you’ll like it here.”

The three of them were still mute. None of them even paid attention to what he was saying. They all just kept their eyes forward.

When they got inside the building, they all gasped. Vincent smiled and said, “Welcome to your new home.”

The ceiling was at least ten feet tall, the walls were covered in amazing wallpaper. There was a sofa that took up a quarter of the room, a piano that took up half, and some chairs that took up the last quarter.

“Time to meet your classmates,” said Vincent. “You’ll be with them a lot, so try to be nice. If they try to kill you, either tell me or fight back. It happens here a lot.”
They walked down a long hallway to a room where there were two long tables.“This is where you’ll eat,” said Vincent. “You really don’t have to know where it is because everyone else will be rushing there every morning, afternoon, and night. You’ll memorize this whole place at some point. Now I really must show you were you’ll sleep.”

They walked down the hallway a couple of more minutes (it was really long) until they came to a door where loud sounds were coming from.

Vincent opened the door, and everyone got quiet.

“Students,” he said. “We have three new students today. Their names are Alan who is eighteen, Will who is seventeen, and Jack who is sixteen.”

Everyone was still quiet.

“I’ll leave you to say hello,” said Vincent. Then, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

“You guys have nicknames?” one of the boys asked. “Or should we give you guys one?”

“We have,” said Alan. “Mine’s poet guy.”

“Cool,” said another boy. “What about you?”

“Mine’s German guy,” said Will.

“What about the one that hasn’t spoken yet?” said the boy that first spoke. “What’s your nickname?”

“British guy,” said Jack

“Look at that!” said the boy. Jack saw he had a French accent, and the other boy that also laughed looked like a Romani. “We have a British guy in our room!”

“Well, what are you?” said Jack, not offended at all (he heard that before). “French guy and gypsy guy?”

The two boys looked at him blankly.

Then, the door opened, and Vincent came in.

“From now on, you shall call me by my last name: Mr. Rander,” he said. “Now all of you off to bed. What’s wrong with you guys? Michael? Alex? Hurry up!”

When everyone was in bed, Vincent put out the small candle on the windowsill. Then, he left the room.

The fire was still burning, so you could still see some things.

“Hey,” said the French guy. “British guy? We’re in France! What were your parents thinking of bringing you here after the war?!”

“I don’t have parents,” said Jack. “Besides, it’s easier to just keep your mouth shut and not talk about all the other things you stole if you get caught.”

Someone gave a small laugh.

“Well, in the morning you’ll really see how this room looks,” said the French guy. “It’s not the best room you ever saw.”

“I saw a bed,” said Jack. “That’s the most comfortable thing I ever saw!”

“How about your foster parents?” asked the French guy.

“Made me sleep outside,” said Jack, remembering the memory of him sleeping on the cold ground. “They really didn’t care if I died.”

“Well, now you’re here,” said the French guy. “You ever been to school?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I got kicked out all the time for stealing.”

“Well, this is a normal school,” said the French guy.

And that was their first day at that school.

 

Chapter Four

Three weeks later…

The bell rang, like usual, early in the morning.

“Today is telling secrets day!” said Mr. Rander. “We have this day every year. And no lies. So after classes, I want to hear your deepest secret! Now off you go!”

Jack’s eyes grew wide. His deepest secret? It’s that he’s a girl!

Time to die, thought Jack as he went to his first class of the day. Why did I ever agree to do this?

The morning classes got his mind off of things.

“German class is very important to everyone I hope,” said their teacher for German that morning. “And I know that you’re going to tell your secrets today, but you still have to pay attention!

That last part was for the kids in the back who always talked. Jack, Will, and Alan were one of those boys.

“Deutsche Geschichte,” said the German teacher. “Will! Translate that!”

Will stood up and said, “German history. And also, are the teachers going to share their secrets? Mrs. Ahif?”

“Nein!” said Mrs. Ahif. “Jetzt lese deutsche Geschichte in deinen Lehrbuchern!”

Everyone looked at Will for him to translate. He was the only one that could speak German fluently in the class, aside from Mrs. Ahif.

German class went on, and soon the bell rang which meant it was time for French class.

“French guy!” called Jack. “You better translate!”

“Yeah,” the French guy said as he sat next to Alan. “You owe me one.”

“No,” said Will. “I translated for German class, only fair if you translate in French class.”

“Fine,” said the French guy. “And you can call me Alex if you want.”

“Bonjour!” said Mr. Aubin coming into the room. “C’est le jour de l’histoire de France!”

“Today is French history day,” translated Alex. “I’m not helping you with anything else. Only what he’s saying, not what’s in the textbooks!”

“Sure,” said Jack. “The textbooks are in English. I think we all know English.”

“You’re supposed to know French!” said Alex angrily. “You’re in France! Not in America!”

“Is there something wrong in the back, boys?” asked Mr. Aubin.

“Non,” said Alex. “Nous allons travailler maintenant.”

“Good,” said Mr. Aubin and turned back to the boy he was helping

“You’re good at lying to teachers,” whispered Jack. “You said that we’re going to go and work now.”

“Well, I am,” Alex said and opened his book.

Half an hour later, the bell rang, and everyone ran out of the classrooms. Everyone couldn’t wait to hear the secrets of all the boys.

At least those were the only two classes of the day, thought Jack. Now I can live peacefully in a grave once they find out I’m a girl. Even if I don’t say I’m a girl, they’ll find out anyway at some point.

As everyone took their seats at lunch, Mr. Rander stood up and said, “We’ll go by tables, and then everyone will say their deepest secrets! No lying!”

“Last year this started,” said Alex. “I never lie to Mr. Rander. If you do, somehow he’ll find out and kick you out.”

“No lying it is,” said Alan.

Jack saw that Alan, Will, and Alex were also scared. It made Jack feel a tiny bit better.

Mr. Rander starting naming tables, and the boys went around and told their deepest secrets.

At least I’m going last, thought Jack, as a boy told everyone he’s not actually French. I can enjoy life for five more minutes!

Then, it was time for their table.

 

Chapter Five

“Alex,” said Mr. Renard. “Your secret.”

Alex stood up like all the other boys did and said, “My deepest secret is that I almost killed my dad.”

Everyone was quiet, and then Mr. Renard broke the silence.

“Well, I guess something in common with your friend Will over here,” said Mr. Renard. “I’m sure we all saw some anger in you when someone mentioned parents. Will, stand up.”

Will stood up and said, “My deepest secret is the same as Alex. I almost killed my dad.”

Mr. Renard said, “Well, we all get angry at our parents at some point. Alan your turn.”

Alan stood up and said, “I wrote ten poems, and they all were in a newspaper.”

“Well, that’s amazing!” said Mr. Renard. “Jack, your turn.”

Jack stood up slowly and said, “My deepest secret is that my name is actually Jackie, and um… I’m sort of like a girl really, and I’ve been pretending to be a boy for the past two years.”

It was deadly quiet in the room.

The whole room was looking at her with their mouths open.

Then, Will said, “You’re a girl?!”

“Yeah,” said Jackie. “But I can explain.”

So, Jackie told the whole story from beginning to the end.

“Forever this name will be with you… ” said Will. “The British One.”

THE END

 

Thunder the Tiger

Thunder the tiger lived in the jungle, but he wondered what New York City would be like. He lived on the north mountain which was actually very far away. He wondered if he would ever get to New York City because he was so far away.

His mom and dad said, “You can’t walk that far,” but he was confident that he could.

He walked a long distance to get to New York City. He saw an ostrich hiding in the bushes who wanted to kick him. He had to run a far distance, and he realized he was back where he started. He wondered again if he would ever get to New York City because there were so many dangers out there. But he wouldn’t give up. He swung on the vines and found a leopard. That was a real danger! He wondered if he would ever get past the leopard, and he tried and tried. However, the leopard found him again and again. But Thunder wouldn’t give up yet until he got tired. Then finally, he got past the leopard. Then, there was more trouble. He had to go back past the ostrich. He finally got past the ostrich too, and the ostrich tried to kick him.

But Thunder said, “Look, there’s another leopard!”

The ostrich looked, but nothing was there, He looked back, but the tiger was gone. Thunder had tricked him. But Thunder had more obstacles to get to New York City. He had to get past a whole big log pile that was blocking the path to New York. He tried to jump, but he fell down the log pile, so he went around the logs. But he had even more obstacles to do. He wondered if New York City even existed. He was so tired that he had to take a break.

The next morning, he had lots of obstacles to do, so he had to do his best to get to New York City. He had to get past a bunch of rocks that formed a wall. He had to make a hole in the ground and make another hole to get up. He tried and tried, but he couldn’t get past the craziest obstacles in the whole rainforest. He tried to get past the deer, but they were eating, and he knew they would think he was a predator and they were his prey. So he dressed up like a deer secretly and took off his costume when he finally got past the deer. But one of the deer saw him not in disguise, and the mother deer thought it was her baby, but it was just Thunder disguised as a deer. Then, when he took off his costume, the mother deer spotted him, and the deer realized they had been tricked.

The mother deer asked him where he was going, and the tiger said, “I want to leave the rainforest and go to New York City!”

The mother deer said, “Okay, you can go!”

He finally got past all obstacles, but then he realized New York City didn’t have the things he needed. It didn’t have a proper place to live, it just had tall buildings. They didn’t have water in pools on the ground, they only had water in fountains which he couldn’t reach because he was a baby. He realized he had gone this far for nothing, because New York City didn’t have the right things for him. Now he had to go past all the obstacles he had passed before.

The moral of the story is always be thankful for what you have, or else you’ll end up in a place you won’t want to be in ever again.

THE END.

 

The Debate Over the Weirdest Things

             

THE INTRO

(The Potato)

Once there was a world where not only people had the ability to speak, but so did other things…

(The Person)

We wish it was only us who spoke… Every morning, my friend has to wake up to more noise than himself. I’m glad that’s not me. I want to wake up to no noise other than myself.

 

THE BEGINNING

(The Person)

I wake up and feel happy. It’s a Saturday! For me that means that I don’t have to go to work! Yay!!

I go downstairs and make myself breakfast. I can eat in peace. My friend can’t. Too bad for him. At least he said he can’t. I think I’ll go visit my friend! I think. So, I clean up and go brush my teeth before I leave for my friend’s house.

 

(The Potato)

I never knew this would happen, but it did. I ended up leaving them and coming here to a different world from the one that I know, a world where not only I can’t speak, but I hear other voices, other voices that don’t belong to us. I don’t have the courage to talk to the new sounds I hear and the new figures that always seem to move around the room that I stay in, Well actually, I stay in a lot of rooms. Sorry, I don’t know the names of the rooms that I stay in. Okay, I know that I haven’t gotten to the point yet, so here it is: I left my Potato friends and now live with a thing I hear everyone call h-u-m-a-n-s, but I have no idea what they exactly are.

 

(The Person)

As I walk to my friend’s house, I think, How does he do this? This new companion of his?

When I get to the house, I don’t even knock on the door. All I do is push the door open, and wow, it opens!

“Hey yo!” I call into the house that seems pretty empty.

“Who are you?” a voice calls from inside the house.

“It’s me, your friend, Steve.”

“Oh,” says the voice, “you should knock the next time.”

“Well then, why do you leave your door open, huh?” I ask.

I hear some noises, and then my friend (whose name is Frank but we call Frankie when we are not in public) comes to the already opened door.

“How is your new companion doing?” I ask in hope that Frank is not in the mood to show me his new companion.

“Hey, you need to call me before you come to visit. I am not in the mood to show you my new friend or to see you! So you can go, bye bye,” Frank says, and he slams the door in my face. “By the way, I am still having breakfast!” I hear him shout from inside. I guess Frank doesn’t want to see me. Oh well, too bad, I think.

 

(Frankie)

Well, I guess that I’ll start from the beginning of my story:

My story!

There had been rumors about these Potato animals (who came from a place that is unknown to us humans) and how if no one adopted any of them, the government would have to probably do something to them that wouldn’t be so good. I felt bad for them and decided to adopt one and see how that went, so I might get more. I was also most likely one of the only people who decided to adopt any. This first poor Potato was really scared at first. I mean, really scared. He didn’t even want food, or when I put him down on my kitchen floor, he instantly ran for a hiding spot. But now he’s gotten a lot better. We play together, and the most amazing thing is that HE CAN TALK!!! Though he doesn’t talk much, he still talks sometimes. You’d be surprised how little work they are and how much company they keep you if you need it.

My potato’s name is Bob. Yeah, I know it’s a weird name, but he liked it, so that’s what matters. This morning, Bob and I were just starting our breakfast when my, sometimes annoying, friend Steve knocked on the door. Well no, he didn’t knock on the door. He just opened the door and called “Hey, yo!” I had no idea it was him until I asked who he was, and then he told me. Literally, he interrupted my nice Saturday morning breakfast with Bob! So I ended up going to the door and having a short conversation with Steve. Eventually, I got annoyed and told him to go away and slammed the door on him. I did that because, yes, he was annoying me, and two, he doesn’t like Potatoes. He is actually afraid of my Potato! Ha ha!! The good thing is that me and my Potato live happily and peacefully.

 

(Bob)

I was told not to come to the door when Frank went to open it, but I don’t know why he told me not to come.

Frank is a nice person to live with. He isn’t mean to me or anyone that I know (not that I know many h-u-m-a-n-s)! I also have started to figure out the life of h-u-m-a-n-s. Frank’s life seems pretty easy. He doesn’t ever leave the house without telling me. You know what? He never leaves the house. I think he is worried about me. Maybe he has a secret person who does stuff for him if he is with me all the time. I once asked him if I could write a letter to my Potato friends, and he was sooooooooo nice. He said, “Yes of course, Bob!” So here is what I wrote to my friends:

 

Dear Friends,

It’s me, your friend! My new name is Bob. I like it, do you?

Are you with a h-u-m-a-n yet? I am, I’m with a h-u-m-a-n who everyone calls Frank or Frankie. He is nice. I don’t know how I learned to write so well but I think it was Frank (or Frankie) who taught me.

I really hope some h-u-m-a-n takes you in.

All the best your Potato friend

Bob!

 

So now we just have to send the letter, but Frankie is working on that! I like my life with him. It is great!

 

(The Government)

“SILENCE!” Tom Raines shouts to all the important people in the courtroom, which is not being held for court. “What we are here for is to discuss the case of the Potatoes, so listen up everyone!”

“Ahem, sir, you haven’t gotten to the point,” an important man says impatiently.

“What do I care how you feel about time?!” Tom yells. “Okay, here is the point: We are going to vote on who thinks that the Potatoes should go and who thinks the Potatoes should get adopted by us.”

“They should go obviously!” the same important man says loudly, so everyone hears him real well.

“And why is the question!” Tom says.

“Are you on the other side?”

“No, I am a person. LET’S GET TO THE POINT! YOU ARE DISTRACTING ME!!!” Tom shrieks. “Who votes for no more Potatoes?

At first, everyone is silent. Then, a roar of cheers goes up. A lot of people are shouting, “No more live Potatoes on this planet!”

“Okay okay, and who wants Potatoes to stay?”

About half of the people stand up and cheer.

“Okay,” Tom says. “We’ll see what happens… ”

 

(Steve)

Well, I heard about the talk that the government had with important people. I’m never going to be part of that group. They voted, and seriously it was exactly even! I mean that’s not good, but still it’s pretty cool. I don’t know what side I’m on. Is it the good side or the bad side? There is no good side or bad side, is there? I think they are about the same. In a way, I wish the Potatoes weren’t here, but in another way it doesn’t really matter to me. Now I feel kind of sad that I never met Frankie’s Potato. So I decide to call Frankie and see if I can go over and meet the Potato.

 

(Bob)

I am doing my regular things when I hear a ring. Honestly, I don’t know where it came from, but then I hear Frankie groan and say, “Ugh the phone!” So, I go and pick up the phone.

Someone on the other end says, “Hi, Frankie. It’s me, Steve.”

Then, there is no more talking but just a pause. I don’t know how to use the phone, so I say something, “Hi… y-yes Frankie the h-u-m-a-n is h-home.” I am so surprised because there is a loud scream on the other side of the phone.

Frankie comes running into the room. “Who is on the other side of the phone?” he asks.

“Your friend Steve asked if you were home. I said yes.”

“Let me talk to Steve,” Frankie tells me.

“Hi, Steve. This is your friend, Frankie.”

Blah, blah, blah on the other side of the phone.

“Yes, okay. I’ll see if he’s in the mood.”

Blah, blah, blah.

“Yes, maybe see you later. Bye.” And with that last word, Frankie hangs up the phone.

“So, Steve called to ask if you were in the mood to meet him because he wanted to meet you now,” Frankie tells me.

“Umm… sure, but what do I say?” I ask, confused and a bit nervous. It’s the first time that I am ever meeting someone like a friend of Frankie. Of course when people were deciding what to do with us, we kind of met them, so I guess that counts as a person that I met.

“It will be okay. You just have to say: ‘Hi, I am Bob,’” Frankie says.

“Uhh… Okay you can call him and tell him to come if you want,” I say.

After a very little bit, Steve rings the bell. I get ready to say: Hi, my name is Bob. Three… Two… One… Bam! I think of all kinds of excuses to not have to tell Steve my name. I know this is kind of stupid, but I’m scared.

Steve comes through the door and into the room where Frank tells him to go to.

“This is my Potato. Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“Hi, I-I am B-Bob.”

Steve looks completely freaked out about how I can speak. Rude.

“H-hi, Bob. As you know I am Steve, Frank’s friend.”

The Steve person doesn’t seem freaked out when he talks to me, how strange, only when I talk.

“Do you like Bob?” Frankie asks.

“Yeah, sure.”

I start to get kind of nervous that Steve doesn’t like me, so I start to go to a different room when Frank says, “Where do you think you’re going?” But in a nice way.

“Oh,” is all I can say. This silence feels so awkward.

“Why don’t we go to the living room so we can relax and talk about stuff? Have you heard about the talk the government had with the important people? Come on!” Frank says.

Frank, Steve, and I walk into the living room and sit down on the couch and some chairs. I have to say that Frank has a really big house, at least for me it seems big because I have never been in a house before (just this weird room where these people decided what to do with us, but that room was a lot bigger. Still, I think that Frank’s house is way cooler).

 

(Frankie)

We watch some TV and talk about other cool stuff until it’s time for Steve to leave. Then, he says, “You know what? I like you, Bob!”

“Thanks, Steve,” Bob says.

 

(The Government)

“Uhh well, we have to vote again. Sorry,” Tom Rains says.

“What?!” the annoying but important man demands.

“I’m so sorry, but let’s get to the voting instead of wasting time!” Tom says impatiently. “Raise your hand if you think the Potatoes should stay. Okay. Now raise your hands if you think the Potatoes should go.”

 

(Bob)

Frankie was not very happy the next weeks. He said that he wasn’t happy because something was sad, but he wouldn’t tell me what was sad. I don’t really know much about what is happening in the outside world that is beyond the front or back door of Frankie’s house, but I wish I did.

 

(Steve)

I thought things would turn out much different than they did. Things were so sad and bad and annoying now. I wish I never disliked Potatoes.

 

(Frankie)

It was too much for me. At least I got to keep Bob.

 

(The Government)

Some people were sad, and some were happy. I don’t know what I was. That annoying man was sooooo happy. I think he threw a party for it.

 

(Frankie)

The government almost made me give Bob back, but I insisted to let him stay, and they finally agreed to let him stay. I should have adopted more Potatoes before this. I was an idiot. Now they all have to go! I can’t let them go! I hope Steve is sad. We haven’t spoken at all in the days that the news came. I could actually hear some people cheering and saying bad words about the Potatoes on the street

I felt so sad, but maybe we talk to the government or rather Tom Rains. The next day, I went to Tom and explained to him about 500,000 times that he was not going to send the Potatoes somewhere else without an argument! He didn’t seem to understand that much, but he surprisingly agreed to have a last vote.

 

THE LAST VOTE

(Bob)

We all went to the courtroom, and there were a lot of people. I hope no one would really would notice me because I am a Potato.

Soon enough, everyone had arrived, and Tom spoke a bit. Then came the moment that I had been waiting for.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The last-and-final-no-argument-against vote. Everyone of you has a slip. You will write down which side you vote for, then tomorrow we’ll see who won!”

Everyone wrote something on these slips of paper and gave them to Tom.

 

THE RESULTS

(Steve)

Today was making me soooooooooooooooo nervous! Today is the final announcement of which side won.

I went with my friend and Bob to see what Tom would say about who won. We all entered the same courtroom that we were in yesterday.

Tom seemed happy, but he kept a poker face. He instantly announced the results, though he did welcome us.

“So the results are that,” he paused then continued, “the side that voted for the Potatoes to stay won.

“YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I hear Frank shout with all the other people that are super happy.

“WHOO HOO! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I yell.

“LET’S GO!!! YESSSSSSSS!!! WE WON!” Frank and a bunch other people shout. Everyone is cheering. I mean, a lot of people are.

The annoying man is not happy at all.

“WE DID IT!” I shout to Bob. He smiles. I see a lot of people with big smiles on their faces. Then, something unexpected happens. Suddenly, everyone notices Bob.

“Oh my god, there’s a Potato!” Everyone crowds around the Potato.

 

(Frankie)

We all go back to my house and throw up signs and banners for how happy we are.

“Now maybe I can adopt a Potato!” Steve says, and we all laugh.

 

THE END

 

Princess Cat Makes a Friend

One day, Princess Cat was taking her walk, and she saw an orange carrot in the window of a supermarket. A dog raced in front of her and grabbed the carrot. So, Princess Cat followed the dog! She followed it all the way to the dog’s house, but then the dog ate it. So, she went back home.

The next day, she went back to the store. She saw the carrot! But the dog’s owner took it for him to eat. The dog’s owner was Mary. Mary was very responsible. She was twenty. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. She went home with the carrot, and she shared it with the dog. The dog’s name was Ronald. Ronald had white fur and was a poodle.

The next day, Princess Cat meowed and meowed and meowed at her owner until she agreed to get the carrot. Her owner’s name was Rose. Rose had long black hair and purple eyes. Rose went to the wrong grocery market! When she gave it to Princess Cat, the cat hated it! “This is not the right carrot!” she said. “You must go back and get the right carrot. I will go with you there.”

So, they walked back to grocery store. When they walked there, they saw Ronald and Mary walking there too. Ronald saw them too. Princess Cat scratched her owner and pointed to them. Both of them started running. But then, the dog started running faster! The cat caught up, and they both grabbed the carrot at the same time! It snapped in half, but then the dog’s eyes got wide, and he just grabbed the other half.

Then, the cat scratched the dog’s back and grabbed onto him until they got back to the dog’s house. Then, the dog slammed the door and locked it!

(This is a very tragic story.)

The next day, they both ran as fast as they could to get there. But the carrot was gone! They turned to each other and each thought that the other one had stolen the carrot. So, they both ran into each other and just started to tackle each other. They rolled around all the way on the street, tackling each other.

They got to the cat’s house, and the cat’s owner was holding the carrot. Then, the dog and the cat both tackled her because they both wanted the carrot. Then, the owner swiped it out of their paws. The owner ate it. It tasted like glory.

Rose had wanted the carrot all along because she knew that she liked the same things as Princess Cat, and the cat said it looked absolutely delicious, and she would die for it. So, Rose ate it. Princess Cat was furious and sad. She just ran away from her owner. She ran and ran and ran until she got to her secret hideout in the park.

(We can’t see what it looks like, because it is underground and secret.)

Ronald got there just in time to jump into the hole before it closed. Dogs are very perceptive and fast, so he sniffed out where her hideout was, and he got there just in time. Ronald felt very bad for her. He understood how she felt because he was sad when he didn’t get the carrot. He cheered Princess Cat up by giving her a cupcake that he was holding the whole time. It was a strawberry cupcake, her favorite fruit. They stayed in the hideout overnight.

Her owner, Rose, felt very bad for eating the carrot and making Princess Cat upset. And Mary felt very scared because her dog was missing.

The next morning, they ran to get food from the store. This time, the carrot was not there. So, they went home and ate waffles for breakfast. They really enjoyed being friends. Meanwhile, Rose and Mary were racing around the city puting “missing” signs everywhere of Ronald and Princess Cat.

Rose and Mary looked at Princess Cat’s and Ronald’s favorite spots. Rose looked under her couch, in her bed, and behind the TV. Mary looked for Ronald in the park, on a certain spot beside the reservoir. As Rose and Mary were looking, they started to feel scared. “Where are our pets?” they said.

(Back at Princess Cat’s secret hideout, they were playing.)

“I feel bad for eating the carrot,” Rose said.

“It’s all your fault,” said Mary. “Why did you have to eat the carrot?” Mary knew Rose ate the carrot because she walked in as she was taking the second bite. She was so mad she felt like exploding.

Meanwhile, someone else saw the missing sign. It was an eight-year-old girl named Lila. As soon as she saw it, she told her parents. She was really worried because she loved animals. Lila didn’t have any pets, but she always wanted one. Lila had really keen eyesight, so she was good at finding things.

The next day, Lila was walking in the park. Ronald and Princess Cat had been missing for two whole days. Rose and Mary were feeling so scared. They weren’t feeling like giving up though! Suddenly, Lila saw a weird hole come up and down in the ground. She was surprised. Then, she saw it open again. She ran as fast as she could and slid in the hole. She saw a cat and a dog. She was so surprised, she even gasped. “Huuh!”

Then, she remembered the “missing” signs. That’s the dog and cat that are missing! she thought. She grabbed them, and Princess Cat and Ronald were very startled.

“What’s going on?” Princess Cat said. Once again, the dog’s eyes got really big. He tackled Lila!

“Calm down!” said Lila. “I’m trying to save you!” The cat and the dog glared at her.

How are you trying to help us? they thought.

“I’m trying to help you because I saw a ‘missing’ sign and want to bring you back to your owner.” Lila would want to keep them because she wanted a pet but knew it was not right.

Back in Hawaii, the owners had just given up. They decided that Princess Cat and Ronald might have moved to a whole different state, like Hawaii! So, they decided to give it one last shot and go to Hawaii. It was a lot of money! It took them ten hours. When they got there, they looked everywhere in Hawaii, which took twelve hours. They even went in a boat and looked in the water! They went scuba diving and looked under the water. They saw other animals like crabs, fishes, bumble bees, snails, shrimp, lobsters, but luckily no sharks. But no Princess Cat! And no Ronald! They decided to give up and stay in Hawaii because it was too much money to go back.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Princess Cat and Ronald still didn’t trust Lila. Then, she went to their houses with them. They didn’t want to go, but she was strong enough to hold them. She rang their doorbells, and no one answered. Then, she found out that Rose and Mary were in Hawaii! She saw a note to their dog and cat on the door.

 

Dear Princess Cat and Ronald,

We are in Hawaii. We only wrote this note just in case you were here.

 

(It seemed like they were mad at them.) (Because they were.)

Maybe I could keep them! thought Lila. She promised them that she would keep alive and safe. For once in their life, they believed her. They believed her because they got used to her a little more. They had been with her for seven hours! She was very kind to them and to everyone.

They decided they didn’t want to live in their hideout anymore. They went to Lila’s house. Lila’s parents opened the door and saw the animals.

“What’s going on!” said her mom.

“Blehh!” said her dad.

He thought it wasn’t real, so he was trying to wake himself up. But it was real. “These are the missing animals that I saw on the sign, and I checked at their houses to find their owners, but their owners are in Hawaii!” said Lila.

“Fine. We can keep them. But, you have to take care of them,” her parents agreed. Rose and Mary were never going to come back from Hawaii.

The next day, Lila and Ronald and Princess Cat had so much fun together. But then, they remembered the carrot. They ran as fast as they could to the grocery store, but Lila stopped them. “What do you want?” she said. They barked and meowed and barked and meowed and barked and meowed. Them, she realized that they wanted a carrot, because she learned how to speak dog and cat. That day, she had learned how to speak dog and cat because she searched for it on the Internet. Princess Cat and Ronald were a little sad because they missed Rose and Mary, but they still wanted the carrot.

Princess Cat and Ronald decided to go to Hawaii. They knew that Rose and Mary were in Hawaii. They wanted to be with them. They liked Lila, but they really wanted to be with Rose and Mary. So, they asked Lila if she could go with them.

She said, “I will ask my parents if I could come with you.”

So, she went to her parents to ask them if she can go to Hawaii with Princess Cat and Ronald. They said only if she did chores when she got back. Her parents bought her a plane ticket, and she felt happy and sad. She was sad because she was going to miss her parents, but happy because she was going to reunite Princess Cat and Ronald with Rose and Mary.

Lila, Princess Cat, and Ronald packed their suitcases and went to the airport. Princess Cat packed a mirror, a bathing suit, and snorkel gear. Ronald packed a ball, snorkel gear, and a bathing suit. They got food and things to do on the airplane because it was a ten hour flight. They got off the plane. Now, they were in Hawaii. Hawaii felt really hot. They saw coconut trees and pineapples and fish. They found Rose and Mary after all the hard work they did. They ran and ran and ran as fast as they could to get across the streets. They searched for three hours. They can run really fast because they’re a dog and a cat, so Lila rode on Ronald’s back. They searched high, low, and everywhere. They searched in the trees, they searched everywhere. They searched in the ocean. (They saw many sharkies, by the way.) They used their snorkel gear. They loved snorkeling, they were so good at it!

After a while, they finally found them. They found them at a house! They felt weird. The house looked very beautiful. There were many plants, little statues of fishes, and little statues of crabs. It looked like the kind of place where Rose and Mary would live. They rang the doorbell, and they knocked knocked knocked. They finally got in. Mary opened the door! Ronald jumped with joy! And then, Rose walked up too. Princess Cat leaped with pride! They both ran up to them and jumped into their arms.

“We’re so excited to see you!” Rose and Mary said. “Where were you?”

“Meow meow meow meow, meow meow woof woof woof,” they said.

They had no idea what they meant. Luckily, Lila was there to translate.

“Your secret hideout?!” they said. “Well, at least we forgive you for leaving because you came back and found us. We didn’t expect you to do this for us.”

They all decided they wanted to go back to their home. They moved back in with Rose and Mary. Then, Lila wanted to move in too. So then, she took her parents and moved in with Rose and Mary too. And then, they all went to the grocery store and bought the carrot. They all shared it. It tasted like glory!

THE END

 

Falcin’s Pizza

Falcin is a robot that lives in California. Falcin has two yellow arms and two blue legs. His body and his head are green, and he has spikes on his neck and a lot of spikes on his back. He also has a spike on his nose.

Falcin’s friend is having a birthday party, and he is going to give her pizza. (I think that’s funny because no one should get pizza for a present.) Falcin goes to John’s Pizza. There is a long line. When he is at the front of the line, there is only pepperoni, and his friend only likes cheese pizza. So Falcin decides to go home and order from another pizza store. He orders the pizza from Joe’s Pizza, and he goes to the party.

The width of the pizza is 18 feet, and the length of the pizza is one foot long. It smells good! Far away there is a giant basketball who smells the pizza, and he wants some. Falcin is having a lot of fun at the party until the giant basketball bully comes and eats all the pizza and destroys everyone at the party. It is a sad ending.

The End

 

The False Accident

Martha was running in a race. Katie was winning. Martha really wanted to win, so she decided to trip Katie. She ran just a tad bit faster until she was right next to Katie.

She ran next to Katie and when she was ready, she said to Katie, “Hey, Katie! Do you like running?”

Katie said, “Yeah.”

Martha asked, “Well, have you ever fell?”

Katie said, “Why do you ask that?”

Martha stuck out her leg, and Katie tripped over it. She fell and busted her chin. It was bleeding. A second later, Katie started bawling. Martha shaded her eyes and looked away.

“Martha tripped me!” Katie screamed at the top of her lungs.

“No I didn’t,” yelled Martha. “Anna told Lucy to do it so she could win.”

“Did not!” snarled Anna.

“Did too!” shouted Martha.

“Actually,” said Lucy, “Anna did not tell me to trip Katie.”

“She did!” said Martha.

And it went on and on and on like that until the coach said, “Stop! The rest of the race is cancelled. You may all go home. Nobody gets the prize cup for the winner, but there is no winner, and I am saving it for next year. Tomorrow, I want someone to confess and tell me who tripped Katie. If you do not, I will write a letter to your parents telling them that no one told me who tripped Katie and you all, except Katie, will get detention for the rest of the week. The detention will be cleaning the toilets with your toothbrush!!! And while you are doing that, Katie gets some free time.”

They all went home with their parents. Martha thought about what the coach had said. Martha slumped on the couch and turned on the TV. Nevermind, she thought, I am feeling too bad for Katie that I can’t even watch TV. She went in her room and buried her face into her bed full of fluffy and furry pillows. She started to cry. One and a half hours later, her mom entered the room.

“I heard someone crying one and a half hours ago. What happened?” her mom asked. Martha did not know an excuse, so she sighed when she realized she would have to tell her mom.

“I tripped Katie,” she said. “I just wanted to win the race because Dad said that if I don’t win the race, he won’t be proud of me.”

Her mom said, “Well, your dad just loves sports so much. He just wants you to be really good at them. But you will have to tell your dad. You can’t keep it a secret for the rest of your life. Also, you will get detention, but not at the racetrack.”

During dinner, Martha told her dad miserably, “I tripped Katie.”

“Well,” said Martha’s dad, “your mom and I are going to have to think of a consequence, but you are not going to have a consequence from the coach.”

“Yeah,” Martha muttered.

That night, Martha lay awake all night thinking about what she should say to Katie and the coach. Finally, she fell asleep, dreaming nightmares about Katie, Lucy, and Anna turning into monsters and attacking her, pushing her away from the racetrack. At one in the morning, she woke up sweating and still had no idea what she was going to say to Katie. Of course she knew what to say to the coach; she would whisper in his ear, “I tripped Katie because I wanted to win the race.” She was so exhausted, she fell back to sleep.

Six and a half hours later, she woke up at seven-thirty to her alarm, and remembered what she had to tell Katie and the coach. Nervous butterflies swarmed in her stomach as she thought about it. She still didn’t know what to say to Katie. She put her best pants and top on and went downstairs to breakfast.

“Look, Martha,” said her mom as she stepped into the dining room.

“The newspaper said there’s a new movie coming out in theaters, this Friday. It’s called The Diary. It’s about two best friends who moved away from each other, and they figure out a new way to communicate by writing letters to each other. Would you like to come watch it this Friday, Martha? Martha?”

“Yeah sure,” she said, rushing up the stairs to her room. She had a plan of how to tell Katie. She grabbed her journal, ripped out a page, and slammed the door shut.

“Are you okay up there?” her mom shouted from downstairs.

“Yeah!” she yelled back, quickly scribbling a note saying:

 

Hi Katie, sorry I pushed you.

I hope you can forgive me, I was too scared to say it to you in person, so I decided to write a letter to you. Would you write back? I just wanted to win so I tripped you, sorry.

Sincerely, Martha.

P.S. Once again, sorry for tripping you.

 

She then dug around her junk pile and found the best envelope that fit, but it was little torn up, so she had to use tape to fix it.

“Martha! Breakfast is ready!” called her mother from downstairs.

“Coming in a sec!” she yelled back. She closed the envelope and rushed downstairs. She shoved all the breakfast in her mouth and ran to the car with her running equipment. When she was sitting in the car, she took out the pen she had packed in her bag, and she ripped open the envelope. In tiny letters, she wrote what she was going to say to the coach. She ripped that piece out, folded it in the tiny envelope shape, and put it in her bag.

When she got to the racetrack, she snuck into the boys locker room and stuffed the tiny envelope into the coach’s locker. She went into the girls locker room and stuffed the big envelope in Katie’s locker. She put on her running shoes and her sweatpants and jogged to the racetrack.

“Well,” said the coach, “who did it?”

“Look in your locker after class,” said Martha.

“Okay,” said the coach, “only if the thing inside tells me who tripped Katie.”

“It does,” said Martha nervously.

“Then I will,” said the coach. “Okay everybody, listen up. One-hundred laps around the track, Katie’s first, then Lucy, then Anna, then Martha. Martha’s last.”

After class, Katie went to Martha’s locker and said, “I know you just wanted to win,” and she turned and walked away.

Next, the coach came and said, “I’m glad you told me and Katie that you tripped her.”

Martha was smiling all the way home.

THE END

 

Horse Tails

          

HAZEL

The wind blew Jenny’s and Hazel’s hair into their faces. Their laughs mingled with the repetitive sound of the waves gently lapping onto the shore. The horses cantered through the waves, splashing onto their hooves. Hazel was wearing riding pants, with riding boots that had small silver stars on them, and a plain black tee-shirt. Jenny was also wearing riding pants and boots with blue and green patterns on the top. She was wearing a white tee-shirt with a horse on it.

“Race you to the stables!” Hazel said to Jenny. The girls took off in a gallop towards Cedar Ridge Stables. There was a big fence surrounding the paddock and a big building with windows in it. Hay was spread all over the floor. Horses whinnied, and people chatted. Horses were riding out the front gate toward the meadow.

“Come on, Ebony!” Hazel yelled.

“Calypso! Let’s go girl!” Jenny shouted. Jenny and Calypso galloped in front of Ebony and Hazel. Ebony reared, and Hazel lost her balance, almost falling off.

“Hey!” she cried, annoyed.

“Sorry! My bad,” Jenny replied and galloped away.

“Whoa boy,” Hazel murmured and slowed Ebony to a stop in front of the stable gates. She dismounted and looked around for Jenny.

“Jenny!” Hazel called. “Where are you?” She led Ebony around the fences of the paddock. The barn smelled of horse manure and hay bales. Horses whinnied, and people talked. She heard hooves clomping behind her and turned around.

“Told you I’d win,” Jenny giggled.

Hazel laughed and said, “Ebony and I would’ve won if it weren’t for you! Anyways, let’s go meet the others.” They led their horses through the gates where a girl and boy were standing. The boy was wearing an old black jacket and ripped jeans.

“Hi!” Jenny smiled, and Hazel waved to him. He mumbled something and walked away. Hazel glanced at Jenny. Well, he doesn’t seem very friendly, Hazel thought. The girl was wearing fancy riding gear and had light blonde hair with bubble gum pink streaks and was grooming her dappled gray appaloosa.

“Hello! I’m Stephanie, and this is my horse, Quartz. She’s already won nine championships, and I bet we’ll win our tenth. Everyone knows she’s the best dressage horse here. By the way, sorry about Alex, he and his lame horse Onyx are really moody. They share the same personality. I don’t even know how he could afford his horse though! But you’re lucky that I’m here!” the girl told them. She kept talking, but no one listened. She seems kinda snooty, Hazel thought. Ebony whinnied. Hazel nudged Jenny.

“You know what, the horses are getting kind of antsy, we better go,” Jenny said and pulled Hazel with her. “What a brat,” Jenny said once they were out of earshot.

“Yeah. I can’t believe she said that about Alex, but he is kinda moody,” Hazel agreed. A tall man wearing a cowboy hat called them over. He had a mop of messy brown hair and was standing next to his horse, a tan thoroughbred with a dark mane.

“C’mon, let’s go see what he wants,” Jenny said.

“Howdy y’all! I’m Patrick Chapman, the owner of Cedar Ridge stables. I’ll show

you around this place and give you some lessons along with Emily Barton,” he told them.

“That’s my cousin!” Jenny said happily. Her lips curled up into a grin. Emily arrived and chatted with Jenny. Emily was the one who taught Jenny about horses and how to ride! Jenny always looked up to Emily and loved to play with her. This was Emily’s last summer before she went to college, and she wanted to spend it with Jenny.

“So, Hazel and Jenny, today we’ll see your skills!” she said. Jenny and Hazel smiled.

“Perfect! That means we can show everyone how amazing Quartz and I are at dressage! We’ve learned a new move, and my private instructor said that I’m the best rider he’s ever seen.” Stephanie appeared out of nowhere, obviously eavesdropping. Jenny looked at Hazel and rolled her eyes. Stephanie saw Jenny and glared at her. She mounted her horse and trotted over to them and stuck out her tongue at Jenny and Hazel. Then went into the middle of the training area. She turned on music.

“Watch and learn,” Stephanie said and flipped her hair. She started doing some elegant moves that looked really advanced.

“I hate to admit it, but she’s actually pretty good,” Jenny whispered to Hazel.

“I know.” Hazel sighed. “Let’s go get our horses.”

They walked over to their horses stalls, but Calypso and Ebony weren’t there! “The horses! They’re gone!”

 

EBONY

Ebony and Calypso and some other horses were just waiting for their riders in their stalls, when this strange girl approached them. She opened the doors to their stalls. She picked up the reins and led them out. Ebony reared and neighed, but no one came. Another horse, a North Swedish horse named Emberdust, whinnied and said, “Let’s go! We’re free, finally!” Calypso neighed and took off after him.

“Hey! Wait up!” Ebony cried and ran after Calypso.

 

***

 

The majestic mountains towered over the free horses. They looked like they were piercing the sky. “It’s getting dark… We should go home,” Ebony murmured, trotting up to Emberdust and Calypso.

“Aww, come on! Don’t be a party pooper!” Emberdust complained.

“Yeah, it’s fun out here!” Calypso exclaimed and galloped in circles around them.

“We should go stop and graze,” Emberdust suggested. “I’m hungry.” The horses slowed to a stop and bent down for some grass.

“It tastes so sweet!” Calypso said with her mouth full.

“I usually only have hay,” Emberdust said.

“Fine, I’ll have some,” Ebony finally gave in. He bent over and started to graze. “Hey! You’re right!” He neighed, surprised, “It really is better than the stuff at home.”

Emberdust grinned. “That’s the spirit!”

The horses rested for a bit, then started to walk back to the stables. A deep howl echoed through the hills. Ebony’s ears twitched. “Did… Did you hear that?”

“Oh, it was probably the wind or something.” Calypso nervously pawed the dirt with her hoof. “Let’s keep going.”

“I’m so happy we’re free — ” A loud growl interrupted Emberdust.

“What was that?” Calypso asked, looking around. The horses could almost smell the wet, matted fur of the beasts that lurked in the shadow. A cold shiver crawled up Ebony’s spine. He shook it off.

“I don’t like this, guys… We should go back. Now,” Ebony said, walking a little faster now.

“For once, I agree with Ebony,” Emberdust agreed, hurrying to catch up to Ebony.

“Aww, come on guys! This is supposed to be an adventure. I can’t wait to tell Onyx and Quartz what they missed out on!” Calypso neighed.

Suddenly, a large shadow appeared. Ebony reared and yelled, “WOLVES!!!”

 

JENNY

“Where are they?!” Jenny asked anxiously. “They were here before the training!”

“We were only gone for half an hour!” Hazel said. Jenny tried to remember what happened before the horses disappeared.

“We dropped them off, went to the training place, Alex was waiting with us, Stephanie appeared out of nowhere, then we came here,” Jenny said. Then, she looked at Stephanie. “Hazel, can we talk. Privately.” They walked out of the track.

“What is it? Did you figure out who let the horses out?” Hazel asked.

“I think so. Remember Alex was waiting with us for his turn, and then Stephanie came out of nowhere? I heard a faint horse whinny, but I thought it was just the other horses. The only horses that weren’t stolen were Quartz and Onyx, but Onyx never stays in his stall. So that leaves Stephanie,” Jenny explained.

Hazel hesitated for a moment, then said, “She was probably mad that we ignored her. I can’t believe she let the horses free because of that.” Hazel shook her head.

“Let’s go tell Emily,” Jenny said and walked back to where the others were standing. Stephanie was practicing her dressage and talking to her horse.

“Emily, we think we know who let the horses out!” Hazel told her.

“Stephanie! It makes the most sense! She was the one whose horse didn’t go missing, and she doesn’t like us that much,” Jenny said.

Emily nodded. “It does make sense. But we can’t jump to conclusions.”

Jenny sighed. “But… Okay, fine.”

“We’ll go out to find the horses. They can’t have gone far,” Emily reassured them.

“How?!” Jenny cried, “We don’t have any horses! And there’s no way I’m trusting Stephanie around our horses again.”

“Oh! I know!” Hazel piped up. “Alex can do it! He’s a good rider, and he and Onyx know their way around this place better than any of us.”

Emily smiled. “That’s a great idea Hazel! Let’s go get him right now.”

Jenny ran towards the stable, where Alex was taking care of Onyx. “Alex!” Jenny called. He looked around, surprised that someone was talking to him. “I… I know this is a lot to ask, but… Can you please look for Calypso, Ebony, and Emberdust? Somebody,” she glared at Stephanie, “let them out, and we don’t know where they are! Please say you’ll help us!” She begged, bursting out into tears.

“I… Oh, okay, alright… ” Alex answered, getting up onto Onyx.

“Thank you!” Jenny said.

“No problem,” Alex replied, and he galloped away.

“I’m so happy he agreed to find the horses!” Jenny smiled.

“Finally, we’re actually making friends! Unlike at our old school,” Hazel said.

“I wish we could stay here forever!” Jenny laughed and ran to her and Hazel’s favorite place to relax. Beside the lake and under the gigantic weeping willow tree. They could spend hours there.

 

CALYPSO

The shadows formed into living wolves and slowly approached them, their mouths foaming, and teeth reflecting in the light. “RUN!” Calypso shouted. She and Ebony bolted, but Emberdust stayed back.

“My hoof! It’s stuck!” He whinnied. The wolves came closer, their low growls surrounding them.

“Emberdust! Hurry!” Ebony screamed. The wolves pounced.

“EMBERDUST!” Calypso started sobbing. She galloped back to where Emberdust was hiding.

“I’m fine, they missed me. A rabbit distracted them. But my leg, I can’t move it,” Emberdust’s hoarse voice tried to choke out. Ebony galloped over as fast as a he could, as if he were in an intense race. Calypso felt like her heart was going to break her ribs, it was beating so hard. Ebony reared, shouting for help.

Finally, they heard hooves clomping as loud as Calypso’s heart. A jet black horse appeared riding on the hill with a boy with black hair and ripped jeans and a jacket on him. The horse stopped, and the boy dismounted. “We’re here to help, don’t worry.” The horse had a deep voice. He approached Emberdust. “He’s just twisted it, nothing too serious. Did something attack you?”

“Well, it definitely feels serious! It hurts worse than the time I crashed into that tree! We were running from the wolves, but I tripped and got stuck. If I didn’t fall, I could’ve fought the wolves!” Emberdust said. Ebony rolled his eyes.

“I’ll just go talk to Onyx,” Ebony muttered and walked away.

“Emberdust, I’m so glad you feel better! I was so scared!” Calypso cried.

“What’s up with Ebony? Is he still mad we didn’t listen to him?” Emberdust asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s just cranky,” Calypso replied. The boy walked towards where the horses were talking and started to look at Emberdust’s leg.

“You’ll be back on your feet in no time,” he reassured Emberdust. Isn’t he usually really shy? Calypso wondered. The boy wrapped Emberdust’s leg and hoof in a bandage and helped him stand up. He whinnied and tried to rear, but fell over again.

“Forgot I can’t do that with my injury!” Emberdust said and stood up again.

“Come on, I’ll help you,” Calypso offered. “Let’s head back to the stables.”

 

ALEX

Alex mounted Onyx and galloped away to try to find the horses. They went through the forest first, but they couldn’t find anything there. The mountains weren’t very far, so Alex and Onyx went there next. Onyx galloped so fast, the wind almost blew Alex off his horse. It didn’t take long to find them. The horses were whinnying and rearing.

“Whoa. It’s alright, calm down,” he murmured.

He slowly went towards a horse who he remembered was named Emberdust. The horse’s leg was trapped under a rock and was causing it great pain. His whinny sounded almost like a howl. He lay helplessly on the grass A small horse, who he thought was named Calypso, protectively moved in of Emberdust. She reared and neighed. A dark brown Morgan horse who must’ve been Hazel’s horse, Ebony, neighed back at her and started to walk away.

Calypso hesitated and followed him. “Sometimes, it seems as though you guys can talk,” he said, laughing.

Alex got the first aid kit from his saddle bag and found the bandages. He searched in his saddle bag for a bottle of water and some towels, and finally found them. He tried to clean the wound, but Emberdust whinnied and kicked at him. Alex backed away and got some treats.

“Here boy, I know it hurts, but you can do it!” Alex reassured and put on the bandages. “There you go! You’ll get better soon. You’re a strong horse, aren’t you, Emberdust?” Alex reassured him. “When we get back to Cedar Ridge Stables, I’ll make you a splint.” Alex mounted Onyx and held Calypso, Ebony, and Emberdust’s reins.

They had to go slow, so they got back to the stables later than planned. Jenny, Hazel, and Emily were waiting for them.

“Calypso!” Jenny hugged Calypso and took her reins.

Hazel ran up to Ebony and said, “I’ve been so worried!” Jenny and Hazel brought Calypso and Ebony back to their stalls to care for them.

“What happened? Is Emberdust okay?” Emily looked at Emberdust to make sure he wasn’t bleeding.

“Don’t worry, he just trapped his leg under a rock. I’ll make a splint for him, the cut isn’t deep, just long. He’s a strong horse, don’t worry,” Alex reassured her.

“Thank you so much!” Emily cried.

“I-It’s alright,” Alex said, who wasn’t used to all the attention. “I should go now… ” he said, and he and Emberdust galloped off towards the stables. This camp is the best thing that has happened to me! he thought happily.

“Come on, Onyx. Let’s get you back to the stables.”

 

STEPHANIE

Right before training, Stephanie had snuck into the stables. “You can come on out now!” she told the horses, opening the doors to their stalls. The horses hesitated, not sure what to do. “Come on, go!” she yelled. The horses took off, their hooves echoing off the cobblestone path. Ha! That’ll show them, Stephanie thought.

“Come on girl. Let’s go, Quartz,” she said and mounted Quartz. She trotted over to where Hazel, Jenny, and Alex were. She steered Quartz over to the middle of the paddock and stopped. “You can do it girl. Just try your best, that’s all that matters,” she whispered to Quartz, stroking her horse’s neck. Stephanie started off with a passage, keeping in rhythm to the classical music that was playing. She led her horse into a half pass. “Great job Quartz! That’s the first time we did that move perfectly! I’m so proud of you. Just a little bit more,” she told Quartz. Stephanie guided Quartz to the middle, and slowed her to a stop. “It was good, wasn’t it?” She smirked. Without waiting for an answer, she jumped the fence of the paddock and took off into a gallop.

Stephanie rode towards her home on the beach. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents! They would be so proud of her. “Mom! Dad! Guess what?!”

“What is it, honey?” her mother asked.

“I mastered that dressage move I’ve been learning for months!” Stephanie beamed.

“Uh huh, that’s nice,” her mother said, without looking up from her newspaper.

Stephanie’s face fell. “Aren’t you proud of me?”

“Of course I am, but I’m even more proud of your brother. He got into all the schools he applied to!” her mom said proudly, who finally started listening.

“I — That’s great, Mom,” Stephanie choked out, struggling to keep her voice from cracking.

“We’ll throw him a party of course!” her mother went on. “Want to help plan it? I know how much you love that!”

“Yeah, sure,” Stephanie said, trying to keep her tears in before she got out of the

house.

“I-I have to go,” she lied, rushing out of the house just as the first tears started to

fall. “Let’s go, Quartz.” She sniffled and mounted her horse and started her favorite trail, still sobbing.

After a while, she heard hoofbeats behind her and turned around. “Hazel? Jenny? Go away.” Stephanie galloped away, towards the mountains.

 

HAZEL

Hazel and Jenny were going on a trail ride through the forest. The birds were singing, and the fresh nature scent filled their nostrils. They were heading towards their favorite place, the tall weeping willow. The girls had just found the place the day before, but they loved spending time there.

“I love these trail rides. I’ll miss it when camp ends,” Hazel said, bringing Ebony to a trot next to Jenny.

“Yeah, same,” Jenny agreed.

Hazel froze. She could faintly make out a quiet sobbing noise. “Jenny… Did you hear that?” Hazel asked, halting her horse.

Jenny listened for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll go ahead. Stay here, Hazel,” Jenny commanded.

“No!” Hazel yelled, scaring several nearby birds.

Jenny looked at her, “Why not?” Jenny asked, confused.

Hazel bit her lip, not sure what to do. “Just… Please, can I go with you?” she begged.

Jenny sighed. “Fine. Follow me.” Hazel nodded and got behind her.

The sobbing sound got louder the farther in the woods they got. They saw flashes of a white and gray horse through the trees. “Stephanie? Is that you?” Jenny asked.

“No. Go away,” she replied.

“Stephanie, we know it’s you. What’s wrong?” Hazel asked.

“It’s none of your business. Go, away!” Stephanie yelled and galloped towards the mountains. Hazel and Jenny exchanged worried looks. They followed her. The mountains got closer, and Stephanie’s silhouette was at the top of the peak. The clouds were getting darker, and rain threatened to fall. Hazel moved up closer to Jenny, but Ebony tried to move away. “Ebony, why don’t you like Calypso anymore?” Hazel asked. He whinnied and tossed his head. They approached the top of the mountains and looked around for Stephanie. “Stephanie!” Hazel shouted.

“Where are you?” Jenny yelled. Drops of rain fell from the dark clouds. Jenny and Hazel dismounted and ran around, trying to find Stephanie. A silhouette was at the top of the mountain. “That must be Stephanie,” Hazel said and mounted Ebony. Jenny followed her to where the figures were standing, against the cloudy sky. Jenny and Hazel approached Stephanie.

“Stephanie, whatever is wrong, you can tell us,” Hazel gently asked her. Stephanie turned around and wiped her eyes.

“I know we haven’t gotten along very well, but I think we can change that,” Jenny comforted. Stephanie opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything. She turned back towards the darkening sky. Jenny and Hazel got off their horses and walked up next to Quartz and Stephanie.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell us, but I think we could help you,” Hazel offered. Jenny put her hand on Stephanie’s arm.

“My — my parents, they never listen!” Stephanie burst into tears again.

“It’s okay, just let it all out,” Hazel said.

“It’s like I don’t even exist!” Stephanie blew her nose on a tissue she had in her pocket. The rain started to fall heavily, but the girls barely noticed. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. The horses reared and whinnied. The second clap of thunder sent them running back to the stables.

“Oh no, the horses!” Jenny looked back at where they ran to. Stephanie and Hazel turned to look.

“We better head back,” Stephanie sniffled.

“It’s gonna be a long walk without our horses,” Jenny muttered to herself. They started the path back to the stables.

Finally, they arrived and found the horses hiding behind bales of hay. “Ebony!” Hazel ran to her horse. “It looks like we made a new friend.” She glanced toward Stephanie who was grooming Quartz.

 

EBONY

Emberdust was almost healed, which meant Calypso could now go out and play with him. Whatever, Ebony thought. It’s not like we’re friends anymore. He looked longingly out of the window of the barn and saw Emberdust and Calypso running around together in the paddock. Ebony sighed and started to drink some water. He heard hoof steps behind him and looked around.

“Who’s there?” He neighed, startled. Hazel walked out from behind the wooden door.

“Hey, Ebony, it’s me,” Hazel said, slowly walking towards him. Ebony snorted happily and tossed his head. Hazel mounted him, and steered him out of the barn. Jenny and Calypso were waiting for them outside. At least Emberdust isn’t here, Ebony thought. Hopefully Calypso will notice I exist. Calypso went up ahead, and Hazel pushed Ebony up closer to her. Ebony walked away from Calypso. “Ebony, come closer to Jenny,” Hazel said. He tossed his head in annoyance, but moved towards Calypso.

“Hey, Ebony!” Calypso beamed.

Ebony grinned. “Calypso! I missed you!”

Calypso tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean, ‘missed me?’”

Ebony looked down at his hooves, embarrassed. “Well… Just… You and Emberdust have spent so much time together, and I… ” His sentence trailed off, not sure what to say.

“Oh… Ebony! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you felt left out,” Calypso apologized.

Ebony sighed. “It’s okay.”

Hazel halted Ebony. Jenny and Hazel seemed to argue for a bit, and then Hazel guided Ebony into a trot behind Jenny and Calypso. He thought he heard a sound, and he flicked his tail in alarm. “Looks like there’s a storm coming,” Ebony observed. Calypso nodded.

 

JENNY

“I’m so excited for dinner tonight!” Jenny squealed in delight.

“I know it’s gonna be the best!” Hazel jumped up and down with Jenny.

“Barbeque is my favorite!” Stephanie said.

“Same, but I rarely have, because I don’t have a grill,” Jenny agreed. Jenny’s aunt was hosting a barbeque, and Patrick was cooking. Alex, Stephanie, Hazel, and Jenny were all going to dinner together.

“It’s gonna be impossible to wait until six o’clock!” Hazel exclaimed.

Finally, at six o’clock, Jenny and Hazel arrived together. Alex was already there, but Stephanie wasn’t. Jenny and Hazel walked over to the buffet and got some food. The delicious smell of cooking ribs wafted over to the couch they were sitting on. After a few minutes, they heard a car stopping in the driveway. Stephanie stepped out wearing a fancy rose gold dress with flowers. She had her hair in a long braid down her back.

“Wow! Stephanie! You look amazing!” Jenny greeted her and smiled.

Stephanie blushed from the compliment. “Thanks!” Hazel grabbed her hand and showed her around the backyard.

“Be right back, just have to go to the bathroom,” Jenny said and walked inside. She passed through the dining room. She heard voices coming from the kitchen. They sounded like her Aunt Victoria and Patrick Chapman, the stables owner.

“I just don’t know how to tell them,” a worried voice that might have been her aunt said.

“I bet they’ll be fine,” a deeper voice reassured her. They talked a little more a bit, then Jenny ran back outside with a concerned look on her face.

 

My Dogs Baba, Ibiza, and Poppy

I have a puppy named Poppy, and my puppy has brown eyes. Her fur is kind of white but isn’t that white. She is only ten pounds. I got her in 2016 at a family reunion. We went to the mall, and there was a pet store. I had been asking for a puppy for about a year. So, my mother finally said, “Okay, let’s see.”

In the pet store, there were a bunch of puppies. But Poppy was the only one playing but didn’t look happy while doing it. She was so tiny. She was only ten weeks old! I asked the man if I could play with her in the playpen. I asked my mom if we could get her, and she said we had to ask my dad. He said yes. I have had her for about two or three years now, and I love her so much. On a scale from one to ten of how much I love her, I say a 100!!! Sometimes she runs away. It makes me so sad when she does that, but she always comes back. She goes in the corn field, the woods, and even across the street. My brothers don’t like Poppy. I don’t know why. I think she is the best puppy ever. She plays a lot, and she makes friends all the time, and sometimes my mom, my dad, and I go on walks with Poppy and our other two dogs Baba and Ibiza. Sometimes, I watch my iPad, and I go to the couch with my iPad, and my dogs come over to the couch.

Poppy and I are very similar. Poppy and I are both very crazy. I bite my nails, and she has very long nails, and she’s only two, and she tried to bite them off! Then, when that didn’t work, she tried to scrape her nails off with her other paw. I wanted to tell my mom because it was funny. We’re also both very fast runners. When she escapes, she runs away really fast. Poppy can climb and jump, and so can I. We’re not just crazy. We also do crazy things. Poppy and Baba like me more than my brothers. My brothers don’t like Poppy because she runs all the time on them because she’s only two. Their favorite is Baba, and Baba likes us all pretty much equally. Poppy still loves me the most though. Even my brother, Ibi, jokes that Poppy likes him more than me (I think). Ibiza likes my dad the most, even though he’s kind of named after my brother Ibi.

My dog Baba broke his leg after being run over by a car, but is okay now. But he is afraid of almost everything and has a habit of nipping people when he is afraid, but sometimes he just barks or growls. If he’s in a car with all of us together, and he sees other cars, he’s not afraid.

Ibiza is a Mini Australian Shepherd. She loves attention. She will eat anything and steals Baba’s food sometimes. We got her when I was around six years old or younger than that.

When we go on walks, my mom will take one dog, my dad will take another, and I take the third. If I could take my dogs anywhere in the world, I would take them to sleepaway camp. This is my first summer going to sleepaway camp, and it would be so much fun with my dogs there right beside me.

Poppy would love camp because there would be a lot of kids there, and we would run and play and do everything together. If my dogs could talk, I think they would ask a lot of questions and ask for a lot of belly rubs. Baba’s favorite place to get pet is his armpit, and he’d probably ask for armpit pets all the time.

Ibiza would say, “Pet me now! Don’t look at him! Just me.”

I would say in reply, “Okay, in a minute.” She’s very impatient.

If my dogs had superpowers…

Baba would be able to fly, Ibiza would have telekinesis, and Poppy would be able to teleport.

One day, I brought all three of my dogs on a field trip to a lab. In this lab, they make special dog food, and I wanted my dogs to get a sneak peek at the new flavors. The scientist, William, met us at the front door to give us a tour of the dog food lab.

“Hello, Scientist William. These are my dogs Baba, Ibiza, and Poppy. Can we taste some of your dog food,” I said.

“Yes,” Scientist William said. And he gave us a tour. And gave us the dog food. “Don’t open it until you get home!”

“Okay!” I said. Then, we got home. I gave my dogs the dog food, and they ate it really fast. Then, Baba started lifting off the ground. Then, Ibiza looked at something, and it started to float. Poppy all of a sudden was gone and somehow was on the couch. I realized something was off. My dogs got superpowers!

I ran to my mom and dad.

“Mom! Dad! Come look in the kitchen!” I shouted. We went downstairs. My mom and dad didn’t look too worried.

“Calm down! This is kind of a good thing,” they said. “Now, Baba can fly, Ibiza has telekinesis, and Poppy can teleport. Now, we don’t have to walk Baba — we can fly him! Ibiza can pick things up for us, and we can get Poppy to teleport something.”

“Okay, I guess it’s a good thing,” I said. Then, they digested the food, and Poppy couldn’t teleport anymore, Ibiza didn’t have telekinesis anymore, and Baba couldn’t fly anymore.

“Dang it! We’re going back to bed!” my parents said.

The end

 

Baseball Fever

          

One

“I can do it!” I said to myself. “I can do it!”

The ball was coming straight towards me. “STRIKE ONE!” Carter shouted.

“You can do this,” I mumbled to myself. The ball was coming towards me from high.

“STRIKE TWO!” Carter yelled. I breathed in and out. The pitcher was getting ready to throw. I got this. Fling! The ball was at full speed.

“STRIKE THREE, YOU’RE OUT!” Carter hollered.

“Maybe next season,” Coach told me.

“Maybe next season,” I said to myself.

Two

I walked home with confidence. Mom opened the door for me.

“We’ll be having lasagna and spinach. Okay, sweetie?”

“Alright, Mom. That’s fine with me,” I answered. I went upstairs to my room to change into my inside clothes. I came back downstairs to eat dinner with Mom. My older brother was at sleepaway camp, and my dad was running late.

“So how was baseball, Riley?” Mom asked.

“It was okay I guess.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be there.”

“No. It’s okay, Mom,” I said. “Nothing much happened.”

“Okay.”

I was not that kind of person who threw a fit over things, that was more like my older brother. I swallowed down my food and heated up some milk for Mom and me. I took my milk up to my room and started to write in my diary. Next season I’m gonna win that trophy. I closed my diary and gulped down my milk. I went under my sheets feeling proud that I tried.

Three

I started to feel Dad waking me up. “What is it?” I said, annoyed.

“Mom signed you up for extra baseball practice, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay then, wake up!”

I hopped out of bed to the morning sunshine. I did my morning routine and grabbed my cap, my bat, my mitt, and my water bottle. Mom passed me my lunch, and then I headed out. I met Coach at the field and shook his hand.

“You ready for some b-ball, ol’ youngster?” Coach asked.

“Isn’t that for basketball, Coach?” I questioned.

“No, silly goose. I meant baseball!”

“Oh. Okay. I was a little confused there for a second.”

“Alrighty then, let’s start.”

Coach was telling me about my positioning and my focus. I was pretty sure it was my focus that was taking me off track during the game. Maybe now too. It was rush hour, and the road that was closest to the field was a one-way road, which I thought was really stupid. Traffic piled up there the most. All the honking and yelling was making me lose my focus. I breathed in and out, in and out. I tried to bring as much focus as I could, but it was useless. I didn’t holler, I didn’t scream… I just closed my eyes and imagined me winning that trophy. A dream come true.

I closed my eyes and ignored everything around me. Swing. Hit. Run.

Four

Coach threw the ball. “I hit it!” I shouted to Coach. “I hit it!”

Coach was clapping so hard, his hands were turning red. Coach ran for the ball that I hit and tried to throw it at me, but he missed. There was a rumor that I was the fastest kid in the school. I was so fast that the second that he threw it, I was already at homebase. I was crying tears of joy. I did it. For the first time. I did it. Practice was over, and the traffic died down. I drank some of my water and looked up to see the beautiful sunset. I drank some more water and skipped the rest of the way home, excited for the next season. I was going to win that trophy. I came back home, and I noticed that I didn’t eat my lunch. I decided to eat it later, I was too excited to eat now. I had to tell Mom the good news.

“Mom, guess what?”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“Oh, nothing. Maybe just that I made my first swing!”

“That’s amazing!”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“I’m gonna go to the grocery, okay? I need to get supplies.We’re having pizza.”

“Okay.”

I went up to my room and stepped over the piles of dirty clothes. I flopped on my bed and sighed in relief that I did it.

Five

A few months flew by.

Ring ring. My alarm was going off. I just remembered that it was time for the championships for baseball. I got ready as fast as I could. My team was a mix of boys and girls. I alternated spots, so sometimes I was a pitcher, sometimes I was an umpire, and sometimes I was a batter. Mom and Dad still couldn’t be there for the game, but my friend’s dad was videotaping. I grabbed my lunch, and Dad dropped me off.

“Okay, Riley. Break a leg,” Dad shouted.

“Bye,” I shouted back.

I entered the stadium, and Coach was there with the rest of the team.

“Riley.”

“Here.”

“Jess.”

“Here.”

“Alexander.”

“Here.”

Everyone was here. The game was about to start. We named jobs quickly. I was batter. Alexander would be a pitcher in the next game and so on.

The game started.

Six

I was in front of a kid from another team. They named their team after a brand for popcorn. Boom Chicka Pop. I always thought that was a funny name, but I did like that brand of popcorn. The umpire was kind of like a referee. He had to yell really loud because the field was big, and everyone needed to hear him. My ears were ringing, and I was starting to get a headache. I couldn’t focus. Everything seemed so dizzy and shaky. I felt like I was going to topple over. When someone from the other team threw the ball, it looked like it was spinning in all sorts of directions. I still couldn’t see straight. I missed the ball, and the umpire caught it. Dammit. It was kind of funny. No one got mad at me. They said, “You got this. Maybe next time, Riley.” That made me feel really good.

Seven

My team didn’t win, but I still felt good that we tried, that we tried hard enough to feel good about it. There was a celebration after the game. Everyone went to the park and had a barbeque. I didn’t want to eat anything, I just sat in my fold-out chair knowing that I didn’t have to win the trophy. I won everything I needed. Family and friends.

La Fin

 

Shrink

The only bad thing about getting ice cream is probably looking forward to one flavor and finding out it’s not there. But things that you don’t think can happen, happen. I was so excited to go to my favorite frozen yogurt place, 16 Handles. I was looking forward to my favorite flavor, birthday cake. I also love getting a million toppings. It was a nice sunny day on the streets of New York City. I didn’t want to to tell Mom I was getting ice cream. She said, “We could get it tonight after dinner.” I could get it twice without her knowing! Hooray! But at that moment, I tripped over a bottle of Coke.

“Oof,” I said in pain.

I fell onto something that used electricity because I saw a light pop up, and for some reason, I felt like the sun was moving away from me and all the people around me were becoming giants. It was probably just a dream. At that moment, I heard a crack sound, like something was just destroyed. I was in pain.

“Eww,” I shouted.

There was a gigantic rat in front of me. Good thing it didn’t spot me, otherwise I could have been a snack! I didn’t know where I was for some reason. That was so weird. Everything looked bigger. I tried using Google Maps on my phone, but that failed. The cigarettes were the size of me. Maybe I was shrunken. Uh-oh. How would I get home? The crack sound was me destroying the Miniaturizer, and I couldn’t get back to real size. Oh shoot. I needed to get home before it became dark. Mom was going to kill me. There were way too many creatures down on the ground, and it smelled like smoke. Mom was definitely going to kill me. Now it was dark, and I had to sleep in a Coca-Cola bottle.

“Aww, it’s so liquidy and sticky in here,” I said.

At that moment, I saw a weird figure in the distance. It looked like a caterpillar from where I was. It could have been a spider.

“Oof,” I said.

I was being carried on the back of a spider. It was a really small spider, though it was uncomfortable to sit on. I was still in the Coca-Cola. Uh-oh. I was about to become spider snack! And be eaten alive!! I had to make a run for it.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I started screaming.

“Sssssssssss,” hissed the spider.

I ran for it. The cap to the bottle was on, so I kicked through it. Fresh air. Hallelujah. Oh gosh. There were too many people, and I was about to become as flat as a pancake. I was now as flat as a pancake. I was Flat Stanley! At that moment, something else picked me up. It looked like a hand. It was a hand.

“Hey Mom, can I keep this deflated toy?” asked a little boy.

“Sure,” said the mom.

Uh-oh, I thought.

This was the worst day of my life. On a nearby tree, I saw a missing sign that had a picture of me on it.

“Hey Mom, this toy looks like the dude on the sign,” said the boy.

“Yeah. The toy is probably supposed to look like the kid,” said the mom.

In less than five minutes, we were in an Uber going to a house. We made it. It was on 99th street between 1st and York. We got up to the apartment which was on the 68th floor of the awesome building. They went inside after 30 minutes of trying to open the door. We got in. It was as big as a mansion. Probably just an apartment room.

Let’s see what I knew.

One. I was small.

Two. I was almost killed.

I wanted to go home. I needed to leave. But how? I was now a toy. Dang it!

Maybe in the middle of the night I could sneak out.

It was now nighttime, but I was too tired to escape. I’d sleep in this really annoying toy bin with snoring toy Spider-Man and an ugly toy Superman. I slept through the night. I woke up when something touched me. Here we go again, I thought. Later that day, we went to some random place. I needed to leave now. I was going to make a distraction. I saw two sticks and a rubber band for a catapult, but I needed something to catapult. Like that marble. How would I get to it? I punched the kid holding me.

“Owww, what was that?!” screamed the boy in pain.

I made a jump for it and quickly hid under the nearest chair.

“Where’s my toy?” he asked.

There was no point in getting the marble now, but I did anyway and catapulted it at him on purpose. He started crying as soon as I started laughing. It was awesome. After that, I quickly escaped and walked home. I kept walking for about a week without stopping and eating until I reached 99th street. I was home and just got slobbered by the ugliest dog in the world. Eww. I walked in holding onto someone’s leg. She looked just like my mom. Wait, she was my mom! Free ride home!!! Yay!!! When I finally got home, I didn’t take my shoes off because I needed to make them normal size again too. I had to create a potion tomorrow while Mom was at work. I had eight hours to do it.

Okay. First, I needed to read my book about making people different sizes. I went outside. I found flowers, leaves, bark, and dirt. Perfect! I went back upstairs and threw some bark at the button to press it. I had perfect aim. I got upstairs and got under the hole at the bottom of the door and got back inside. I used the blender to blend up my ingredients, and I had my perfect potion. I also used some other stuff we had because the book wanted me to use that too. I took the potion and drank the whole bottle. I didn’t feel anything happening. I read the book carefully again. It said it took two days to kick in. I went under my bed and stayed there.

When my mom came home, I heard her crying. I saw her walk into my room and fall on my bed. She didn’t see me. I stayed there for two days, and two days later, I felt my body grow. I was finally normal size. I went out before Mom came home. I spied from a bush outside, and when she went upstairs, I went up too. I rang the doorbell, and when I walked in, my mom hugged me so tight I felt like my guts were being squeezed out. I was really happy. I told her the story, and I started eating right away because I was so hungry.

One day later, my mom came up to me and said…

“YOU’RE GROUNDED FOR ONE MONTH!”

 

THE END

 

A Wizard Who Can’t Talk

The wizard always dreamed to talk. He never went to school, that’s why he couldn’t talk. If he never talked, he could never make any spells. He was six years old. The wizard was called Cedric the Sensational. He was not the one who made that name — the wizard’s dad made it. Cedric the Sensational always tried to tell his dad that he hated that name. It was too fancy and too “sensational.” His real name was Potato, but his dad called him Cedric the Sensational because he was embarrassed that his son was called Potato. It was sort of his mom’s fault, because she named him that. He was also a little shy, because his name was Potato. People bullied him. They said, “Why is your name Potato? That’s, like, the worst name I ever heard of. And why are you so fat?”

One day, the wizard, Cedric the Sensational, said, “Now I know why they called me Potato — they thought I was fat. They called me that at school. Now I think I’ll ditch school and be homeschooled. But my mom doesn’t know how to speak English. So now, my mom can talk in the other language that she knows, which is Spanish, and I’ll understand, and I’ll say two or three words in English, and I’ll be like a two-year-old to people who don’t know Spanish. That’s what everyone says at my school — that I can’t talk at all.” He said in Spanish, “pero tú no sabes hablar en español,” which means “You don’t know how to talk in Spanish.” He was a little angry but mostly sad.
And Cedric the Sensational had enormous arm muscles that couldn’t even fit in the stores. He was always working out at his gym because he wanted to be the strongest at his school, so everyone would know that he was cool, but it didn’t work. So when he went in a store, he was knocking down everything, even other people. No one knew what happened to him, he just grew so big, as big as a building. He always wanted to be small again, but he couldn’t talk, and his mom didn’t teach him the spell, so he couldn’t make a spell to make himself small again.

So, his mom was going to do a spell in Spanish because she understood Spanish better than English. So then, Cedric the Sensational became a Spanish sorcerer. He learned lots of alphabets, but only two spell words, because his mom didn’t have any time to spend time with Cedric the Sensational. He really wanted to do spells, but he couldn’t talk, so he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t cast any spells. He couldn’t walk because he was too fat. He had one finger, two legs, three pairs of arms, and twenty pieces of hair. Cedric the Sensational looked really bad, and everyone called him fat, but he was actually an alien. Everyone looked at him as a wizard.

Cedric the Sensational met a unicorn with a birthmark that was in the shape of a heart, and the unicorn was mad at him. He was growling and baring his teeth, which were a little pointy. Cedric the Sensational had no exact idea why. The unicorn had a blue eye and was staring at him like he didn’t know anything. No one else knew what happened.

The unicorn was another alien, and he thought he looked like a normal, regular unicorn, and in his world, all the unicorns look exactly the same, but the unicorn had a rainbow horn, twenty eyes, one nose, forty-five arms, ninety-nine feet, and forty-nine legs. The unicorn came from their planet. The planet was called Forklimon. It was made out of forks and mon. No one knew what mon was, so that was why the planet was so mysterious. It had talking alligators and really, really long worms the length of buildings. It was a land of candy and pretzels and Goldfish and fruit snacks, and everyone was crying with happiness, and even if they broke their arms, they would still be crying with happiness. Everyone was cool there, but there were only two people who were really cool, as you can see, on the bottom.

“Come with me,” said the unicorn, grinning mysteriously. No one knew where Cedric went.

THE END

 

I Remember

    

I remember the white bunk bed and the smell of tomato and mozzarella

I remember reaching over the bunk bed

I remember falling at my own risk and cracking my head

I remember friend yelling and my mom screaming and crying for help

I remember us calling an ambulance and it taking too long

I remember dropping my friend and brother at the neborgiors apartment and calling a fast cab

I remember the blood on my shirt and my moms shirt

I remember my mom forgetting her wallet and the cab driver giving us a free ride

I remember the ER bringing me right in and being on a rolling bed, people running at my side, feeling like the Queen of the world

I remember the friends mom rushing in

I remember the staple tool and feeling nothing when the staple went in my head

I remember going into the head x ray room thing and the xray of my head

I remember laying in my bed hearing sounds of pain

I remember going home after a few hours to crying of joy and watching tv

I remember eating too cold strawberry ice cream and getting a painful freeze burn

I remember telling everybody at school what happened, being popular for a day and everybody wanting to see the staple

I remember me being only four

 

I Am Mehoko

My name is Mehoko. I live alone in New York City. My family threw me on the last plane here. “You deserve a better life than what you have here. Go, Mehoko, to a world I heard that has more!” My parents’ voices still echo in my ears as I repeat our last moment together. It hurt leaving my home in Quivik, where we always had rice for our meals. Quivik is in a distinct island off of China, and we speak Chinese, but we aren’t as advanced with life as they are. My life was still better, though. It might have been hard eating the leftovers of our old Emperor (who to say was actually quite nice), especially since we had to polish his house 20 times so we could get at least a dime’s worth of money (that’s how they say it in New York), but at least I had something. Here, I am lost and have only a bit of food. My authentic Quivik wear is ripping, and I have sort of started to lose hope, though I did have a decent day today.

I look to get a job, so I can fulfill my family’s wishes. I have run into some people here (by accident), and they were all so lively! I have observed how they speak, walk, and eat. Earlier today, I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and was greeted by two nice ladies, and they said they could possibly hire me.

They gave me a couple of dollars saying, “We few Chinese people need to stay together and watch out for each other.”

I nodded my head, though I am Quiviknese. But besides that, I know that I need to spend the money on food!

 

A few moments later…

I have been watching a little girl and her dad walk into a store that said Grocery Store. I have learned a few things about the language, and I now know a few words and their meanings. Anyways, I keep following them throughout the store without them knowing, picking everything they get and putting it in a crate/bag thingy. (I have never seen these helpful things.) Well, as I am following them, my heart is sinking. They keep playing together like me and my dad had once done. I only just stopped following them because they are now going to the “cash register,” and I can only be in the line. Now that they are leaving, I am desperately trying to put my things down exactly like the kid had.

“That will be $50.25,” the guy is saying, looking at me.

I don’t know the currency rules here, but I am just going to hand him a paper with a 20 on it. “Here.” I want to get out of the store because now there is no one to learn from, so I keep pushing the bill towards him.

“Oh, are you new here because that is only $20, and I need 30 more dollars and 25 cents,” the guy said once again, looking me up and down.

I can only nod because I really am having trouble with what the guy is saying. But he is full of surprises as he reaches for this black thing and dials numbers.

“Hey, boss, we have an Asian girl who looks like an immigrant who doesn’t have enough money… Yes… Okay… So I can give her the discount if she will work here to pay it off… Okay.” He hangs up. “Well, I will let you off the hook if you will work to pay it off.”

I keep nodding and repeating his words “work.” I am so surprised nobody ever leaves Quivik because you can’t work if you aren’t legal, and I learned in school that I could’ve gone to jail! I can’t stop myself from smiling, and he is reaching out his hand, so I will do the same. He continues to shake my hands, and I feel very proud right now. Mom, Dad, I will not fail you. One day, I will retrieve you from Quivik, I am thinking to myself.

I am looking at the shopping list thing that is coming out of this weird machine here. It says: bread, ham, banana, apple, watermelon, tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, crackers, cheese, hamburgers, hotdogs, water, juice, sugar, ice cream, cookies, cake, flour, pasta, lollipops, and gummy worms! My time here will be awesome and delicious! I feel better now that I have worked things out. Tomorrow, I start work, working. I am actually sort of happy I moved! But I will, I will, thank my lucky star, the one that made a difference! Quivik is my Home but New York is my City!

 

THE END!!!

 

Changing Towns

Once upon a time there was a princess named Celestia who was sixteen years old, and she liked colors. She really wanted more people in her town. It was a very lonely town, and she was wearing a black dress today.

So every day, she sat in her throne, and she said to herself, “How can I get more people in our town?”

But one day, on her birthday of turning seventeen, she thought, Maybe I should go and get more people in our town. So she told her parents that she was going to get more people in their town. The king and queen also wanted more people in their town, so they told their daughter Celestia that she could go do it. So, she packed her food, and she set off.

So first, she went to Chicago, and she told all the people there. Then, she went to Greece, and she told all the people there. Then, she went to Florida, and she told all the people there. Some said no, and some said yes in all the countries she went to so far. She convinced them to go to their town because she convinced them that it was a nice town, and there were hot tubs and pools all over it. The people that said no weren’t convinced with what she said.

And then, she went to Hawaii. All the people said yes in Hawaii because it was ten minutes before the volcano erupted in Hawaii, so they all said yes, they took all their stuff, and then they went with Princess Celestia. Once she got the Hawaiian people to safety in their town, the Hawaiian people thanked her for saving them. Then, it was nighttime. They all went to sleep, and Celestia promised herself that she would do some more talking to people tomorrow.

The morning after nighttime, she wore her color dress. The colors that it had were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. She had a rainbow dress on! She went to London. Most people there said yes, and some said no, so she took the people that said yes on a boat while she went to a different country or state.

She went to Australia. The cities she went to were Sydney and Melbourne, and all the people in Sydney and Melbourne said yes. So she took them to New York City. They had a great time. Then, she went to New Mexico. New Mexico was a busy town, and there was a gate at the airport before you entered New Mexico, and the gate had a passcode that you had to enter. There was no button that said Change Passcode, so she didn’t know how she would get into New Mexico. So, she tried all the passcodes she knew, but none of them worked because the gate felt your hand if it was New Mexican or American or any other city, state, or country. The gate knew that she didn’t live in New Mexico, so Celestia didn’t know what to do. So, she thought and thought until she came up with an idea.

Good thing she brought a pogo stick in her backpack! She could jump over the fence and no one who was New Mexican knew if she was New Mexican or American. But there were wolves guarding the New Mexican houses because the New Mexicans knew that someone could have a pogo stick from a different state and jump over the fence. So, they put more wolves to guard. The wolves charged at her. She didn’t know what to do. She was surrounded by wolves. She said her name to the wolves, and then they said theirs. Good thing she knew wolf language! She learned wolf language at school where they taught all about wolves. She told the wolves her name in wolf language. She told them that she wanted to be their friend. They said that they would be her friend. So, the wolves let her go into New Mexico, and then the people were astonished of how Celestia got in. Then, they glared at the wolves. The wolves got really scared.

There were only ten children who weren’t glaring at the wolves. Those were Celestia’s friends in New Mexico. She called them, and they came and helped protect the wolves. Now that the wolves were safe, Celestia asked her friends if they wanted to go to New York City with her. They all said yes because they were her best friends in New Mexico! They asked all the people in New Mexico. All the children’s parents that were Celestia’s best friends came with their children to New York City, and then she went to Africa. All the people in Africa said yes, and then she took the people from New Mexico and from Africa to New York City, and they lived happily ever after! The end.

 

Real facts about different countries:

Fact: If it’s July 5th in Australia, and you think it’s also July 5th in America, it’s actually July 4th! It could be with any date. So for example, today in America it is 7/19/18, and in Australian times, it’s 7/20/18. So in Australian times, it’s always one day ahead of American times, and when it’s evening time in Australia, then it’s morning time for America.

Fact: There are lots of animals in Africa, like zebras, and lions, and animals like that. Most of them are tame and will do what a person who owns them says. There are different climates in Africa. There’s the tropical rainforest, and there’s a place where they grow chocolate, and there’s a desert in Africa.

Fact: In Hawaii, there is hula dancing. There are lots of islands. On 7/19/18, a volcano erupted in Hawaii. All of the islands were formed when a volcano erupted underwater.

 

My 20’s Diary

My name is Billy, and I just turned 20, and it feels freaking awesome. I just started my first week at NYU majoring in advanced chemistry and minoring in algebra. It was a perfect choice. My family is very proud of me since I got into a good college but also because I’m Hispanic and I’m in a good college. I will write every year.

-Age 20

 

I woke up with pangs of hunger. That’s when I remembered… today was my family’s monthly brunch. I ran to the fridge where they put their requests. I put my bathrobe on and rushed to the store with the list. I ran to the local plaza. They have everything except… bacon!!! My family was going to kill me. My family was five minutes away. The nearest store was ten minutes away.

My aunt called me and asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m driving home right now.”

“If you’re not back there with all the food, I’m gonna kill you.”

“I’ll call you back, people are staring.”

I ran to the car and drove at sixty miles per hour to the next store. A police officer

stopped me. I thought, I’m dead. I told the police why I was driving so fast, and the police officer understood and let me keep driving. I grabbed the bacon, skipped the line, and threw the money to the cashier. I drove home, and now my family was two minutes away. I took a dangerous shortcut through hunting grounds. Somebody shot the window while aiming at a deer, but I kept driving. I made it home, but I had forgotten that I had to set the table and microwave all the food. I locked the door completely, bolted it shut, closed all the curtains, and turned off all the lights. I shoved all the food in the microwave at once. The bacon went into the oven. My family knocked on the door. I took the food out and set the table. I unlocked the door, opened the curtains, and turned on all the lights. I opened the door, and immediately my grandma slapped me in the face.

“I know when you are lying. I heard your conversation with your aunt, I was in the car. Now give me a hug.”

“Auntie, why do you always have to have Grandma in your car ?” I said while hugging my grandma.

“So I can tell when you are lying.”

I remembered ten-year-old Little John has to make brunch next month while everyone came in. Then I remembered that next month was just a test. Poor me will have to keep making breakfast until John is at least 20… Ugh.

– Age 21

 

It’s my second year in NYU, and my parents say I’m lucky that I got into a good college because other people my color don’t get a good education. This year I have to go to a prom, and it was mandatory. Weirdly, someone asked me already. I’m like, what!!! I asked my friends what I should do.

They said, “Just do it.”

I said, “Okay.”

I had to get ready for the big day. The next day, we gathered in the gym for prom. Our teacher made us go with the person that asked us out. I stood next to Linda. We danced and agreed to see each other again. Three days later, she ghosted me. She used me for grades. I have not focused on brunch.

-Age 22

 

I need to focus. My grades have been dropping. They have mostly been on average B’s since last year. That’s why I’m only writing this much. Until I go back to getting A’s, I will not write.

-Age 23

 

Well, I finally got that A ten times in a row for the end of year test, and it’s summer break. I want to have fun, and I’m ignoring brunch. I’m going to go to Splish Splash for a whole day. I invite my friends over for us to drive there. Since it’s in upstate New York, we have to pack a lot of snacks and jackets in case it rains.

It took a one hour drive, and then we made it. We ate lunch there, which was Subway. We went on every single water slide until six o’clock PM. That was one of the funnest days of my life. My grandmother sent me a text message and gave me the devil mask face. I feel bittersweet. Then my grandmother said, We went to IHOP instead, which was better than your food. I was so offended that this day became sweet. Since my grandmother roasted me, I realized that I didn’t miss making brunch today.

The next day, my friends and I went to Camelback Beach. It took us a four hour drive. It was very exhausting. I went on this huge water slide. When I fell into the pool, it was so fast that I broke my leg. I had to be saved by a lifeguard, and we had to go home right away. After my friends dropped me off, my family brought me to the hospital and sued Camelback. I told them not to, but they did it anyways. We won the case, and we got $100,000. Our lawyer was trash.

I couldn’t do things for a whole three weeks, and I’m definitely not going back on any waterslides soon. So we went camping. We put out food in a tight refrigerator so bears can’t get in it, and we tried to avoid camping in the hunting grounds. We set up a fire on a ridge near a mountain, and it was really exciting. I got third shift to watch the campfire and keep a lookout. We drove back home the next day. I can’t wait for next summer break.

-Age 24

 

This year I graduated, and I’m so excited!!! We’re graduating in Hersheypark Stadium. They do this to make it special. They didn’t want to have it in New York since most of us live in NYC. We all got a certificate, and our valedictorian gave us a wonderful speech and told us to throw our hats in the air. It was a sight to see. When I’m 30, I’m going to start to get my PhD. I’m ignoring brunch.

-Age 25

 

I teach chemistry at Brooklyn Tech. There are a lot of students, and I’m kind of nervous. The students are nice though. I think I should stay at this job until I turn 30. It’s really fun, and we do a lot of experiments. I think being a teacher has really improved my life. I have to focus on teaching.

-Age 26

 

Somebody got me arrested today. When I told the cops, they said, “Save it for the judge.”

 

Five days later…

When they looked for evidence of me at the supposed scene, they found nothing. We had a trial, and they arrested her. That “her” was Linda. The last time I met her was at NYU for prom. My family is glad I didn’t get arrested. We’re going to IHOP for brunch.

-Age 27

 

It’s summer break again, and I have to prepare for my class next year. This year for summer break, I decided to stay inside and catch up on all the shows I missed. Mostly American Ninja Warrior, which is a very funny show and is very awesome. This teacher life is pretty weird. Your summer break is not really a summer break. You are still working! Brunch is off. I invited some of my most interested students to a science fair at my old elementary school. When we were leaving, they said, “That was impressive.” I am ready for next year.

-Age 28

 

In my class, there was a bully. I freed a bunch of people from their lockers. The bully’s name was Alin. He was very cruel, and he never pays attention. I don’t know how he’ll survive in life. I hope he’s able to get over his cruelty. I hope he doesn’t become a criminal. He’s been sent to the principal and the guidance counselor many times. I hope he turns his life around.

-Age 29

 

This year, I went on a date. It went pretty well. Both of us majored in science. We had good conversation. It wasn’t awkward, Her name is Jada. We walked home together because we live in the same apartment building. So we know each other pretty well. Our parents said we can get married. We both were like, “Not yet.”

-Age 30

 

I quit my job and went to graduate school at Northwestern. I got married to Jada. We now live in the same apartment building. I can’t wait for what’s going to happen next. Little John has to make brunch now.

 

Aria’s Story

The only thing Aria had ever wanted to do was to help people. Her mother was the former Queen of Aura. The crown was recently passed down to her despite the fact that she didn’t want it. Her mother was worried that she wouldn’t be a good queen, so she still monitored every decision that Aria made. The law kept them from getting what they wanted. It was Aria’s tenth day as queen, but she still wasn’t used to waking up at the crack of dawn.

“Today is going to be a good day,” Aria whispered to her brand new dog while staring out a window overlooking Coal.

He was a chihuahua that she found in Aura. Her kingdom was split into two parts. One was called Ruby, and the other was called Coal. It was named that because Aura produced many gems on Ruby. Coal was a recently purchased land that her mother bought because it was said to have gold. Of course, her mother had never actually visited Coal. On her first day as queen, Aria visited Coal and had felt so guilty for never helping people before. Aria had never been able to make a decision by herself even though she was twenty-two years old. Her mother had actually attached a camera to her when she was eighteen.

“Good luck,” Maya yelled, who was also on her way to the conference room.

“Thanks,” Aria responded.

As Aria walked into the conference room, she quickly turned around and ran in the opposite direction, until she bumped into her with her mom. On her way to the meeting with her mom, she saw her best friend on the way.

“Good morning, Mother” Aria said, while trying her best not to slouch.

“Good morning,” she responded stiffly.

“Mother, I wanted to ask you if we could give Coal more money.”

“Why?”

“Have you ever been there, Mother.”

“Of course not, I don’t have time for that.”

Aria just rolled her eyes while saying, “I went there the other day, and it was very poor.”

“Aria, don’t be silly. You know that we need to use it to buy food for Ruby.”

“Mother, have you been to the main cellar in Ruby.”

“No.”

“There is a lot of food rotting there.”

They started yelling at each other as the tension started growing between them. Then, Aria left the room feeling defeated.

Aria had to make a speech the next night about her first act as queen. Her mother was telling her to give Ruby more money to make a new spa. Of course, Aria didn’t want to do that, so she spent the remainder of that night thinking about it, while sitting in her favorite spot by the window and constantly looking at the immediate difference between Coal and Ruby. Her mother was breaking the law by trying to make Aria do what she didn’t want, but Aria didn’t know. When she woke up in the morning, she had even more worries when she had to help settle something in court. There was a murder in Coal because of a fight about food. As Aria looked through the rule book for a page about regulations about murder trials, she saw something that was interesting. Before she went to bed, she arranged a meeting with her mother and studied the page that she noticed earlier. The next day, Aria confidently walked into the conference room.

“Mother,” Aria said coldly.

“Aria,” her mother replied anxiously.

“I am giving the money to Coal.”

“You can’t. I forbid you to,” Aria’s mother yelled.

“And I forbid you to break the law,” Aria shot back.

“What are you talking about?”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“You can’t tell anyone about this.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

As Aria exited the room, she worried that someone had been listening through the door. It would be very bad for her mother if someone found out. Aria scanned the hallway and saw no one. She went to her room and started preparing her speech for that night. It was very difficult to write a speech, but in the end, she completed it in time for the ceremony. Aria was very excited to announce her first act as queen.

When Aria began her speech, someone in the crowd shouted, “The queen is a criminal.”

Aria was very nervous.

Maya came up to the stage and said, “She forced Aria to do what she wanted.”

Aria’s mother came up to the stage and started denying that she ever did that. The whole room was filled with talking.

“Everybody, shut up,” yelled Aria.

The room suddenly became very quiet. The chief guard came up and arrested Aria’s mom. Aria started fidgeting and started thinking to herself, I will take care of her later.

“Tonight was very exciting, but hopefully it will be even more exciting. I know many of you don’t like that Coal is very poor. Hopefully, that can change. Aura’s money is split among Ruby and Coal, but not equally. Ruby gets 75% of the money, so that leaves Coal with 25% of the money. I am trying to change that so each section gets 50%,” said Aria once everyone calmed down. All of the people started clapping.

“First, I have a favor to ask. I need volunteers throughout the week to clean Coal and help with construction,” added Aria.

Many people raised their hands.

The next morning, Aria woke up in a chair and quickly got ready for a meeting about her mother’s punishment and then a meeting about Coal. As she looked out the window of her room, she saw a large gathering of people working in Coal. Aria pulled her hair into a very messy bun and ran through the halls. She was very tired from staying up all night, but it was worth it. She carried a huge binder with her, full of plans for Coal. Then, Aria realized something, being “Her Royal Highness Queen Aria Allgre of Aura” wasn’t that bad.

 

Twin Towers

        

Chapter One

Emma

“Miss Robinson, the answer? To number four?”

“Huh?” I said drowsily. “What are you talking about?”

“Miss Robinson! The answer! To number four!” Mrs. Stuart clarified, running her hands through her spiky hair. “When are you going to stop sleeping in my class? I wish you were more like your twin sister.”

I gasped, glaring at Mrs. Stuart. My twin, Evelyn, smiled, gave me a thumbs up, and buried her face in her math once more. I took that in a nice way, and looked up at Mrs. Stuart. “You can’t say that I’m worse than my sister to my face. That’s just plain horrible.”

Mrs. Stuart gaped at me, shook her head, then said, “I’ll deal with this later.” Then, she marched up to her “throne.” No, really — it looks like a real throne, one with a big armchair and a billion pillows with intricate design. It took up, like, a fourth of the small room. Mrs. Stuart would be proud of my fraction-math-equation… if she didn’t hate me at the time. I was probably at the verge of getting a C- anytime soon. Not that I wouldn’t without insulting her. I’m sort of a bad student. Oh, well.

Evelyn answered perfectly to the question she was given. Mrs. Stuart seemed to have deleted her bad self when she talked to my sister, but every now and then she shot me a disgusted look in the corner of her eye. Why did she hate me this much? Probably because I hated her as well. Sometimes she told me my homework was wrong, gave me a C, and then told me something had gone askew when she was checking my homework, but it went to my report card, so there was no way to undo it. She was my least favorite teacher, but Evelyn’s favorite. Obviously. Mrs. Stuart was the queen, Evelyn the princess, and I was the piece of mold stuck to the refrigerator door.

 

***

“I don’t know why we have to go to PE,” Evelyn whined, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “It’s useless. Not like I’m going to become a baseball player or anything.

“Well, what if you are going to be a baseball player?”

She gaped at me. “Ugh, I star in physics. How am I going to be a baseball player?”

“Well, ya never know.”

“O-M-G, you are so annoying.”

I grinned. “Well, that’s what twins are for, honestly.”

“Emma, you have to help me. I suck at PE. And you’re amazing at it.”

“Okay… but in return, you have to help me,” I bargained, raising my eyebrows.

“Huh? But Emma, you have it all. You aren’t the favorite of any academic teachers.”

I sighed. “That’s exactly why. I want at least one academic teacher to like me.”

Evelyn laughed. “Wow, ambitious. But deal. Deal?”

“Deal.”

 

Chapter Two

Evelyn

“Okay, the first step to soccer… what is the first step to soccer?” Emma said, uncertain.

“Uh, I’ll look it up.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “It means — ”

“The first step to soccer is no cell phones!” Emma shouted in my face, grabbing the device and slamming it down on the table. “The next step is kicking the ball… I think.”

I took my foot and swung it on the ball like Hercules’s club being used for attack. “Argh!” I shouted, but then realized my foot managed to barely nip the ball.

“You’re hopeless!” Emma growled, flopping backwards on the couch. “You can’t even kick a ball!”

You’re hopeless! You can’t teach me how to kick a ball!” I shot back at her.

“Well! Kicking a ball is easier!”

I didn’t know what to say to that. She had too much of a good point. Then, a thought struck me. “Hey! You’d be good at debate class!”

“Excuse me?”

“Debate class!”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Emma snapped. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“Of course you don’t know what debate class is! You only take the mandatory lessons. Well, debate class is when you’re supposed to argue. They have debate teams, and you have to go on about how your side is better. I’m in the class. We could go on the same team, even. It would be like twin bonding time!” I squealed, hopping in the air. But the truth was, I was sort of uncertain about Emma’s unexpected talent. I didn’t exactly have knack for debating, if that’s what you called being horrible at it.

“Well, this debate class seems fun.” Emma smiled. “Thanks for letting me know about it. I’ll def try it out. But… us? On the same team? We disagree on so many things, so have you lost your mind?”

“No, we don’t disagree! Okay, fine we do.” I rolled my eyes. “So now can you teach me how to kick a ball?”

“It’s so hard, I don’t think you should waste your time doing it,” Emma said sarcastically, popping her gum so loudly I thought it might explode on her face.

“Fine.”

“That was a joke! Huh, you didn’t realize that, did you?”

“No, I didn’t, thank you very much. Kicking a ball is actually hard. And don’t judge me.” I glared at Emma, and she stared back at me.

Emma scrunched her face up. “Well, then. What sport do you think you’re good at?”

“Picking up the balls when it’s time to clean up.”

“You’re hopeless. And it’s called shagging the balls.”

“Fine, tennis,” I said reluctantly.

“What? You’re not even good at tennis!”

“You said ‘pick a sport you think you’re good at,’ and now you’re telling me I can’t pick a sport I think I’m good at?”

Emma put her head in her hands. “Never mind. Pick a sport you’re good at.”

“Swimming?”

No!

“Badminton?”

“No.”

“Track?”

“Okay, sure. You’re not bad at running.” Emma sighed.

I hopped up and down. “Great, all I have to do now is run!” I ran out of the apartment door and went down the stairs to the lobby. Emma followed me. Then, I ran out of the building and started jogging next to the river. “Y’know, this isn’t so hard — WOAH!”

I fell flat on my face, and when I looked up, Emma was hooting with laughter.

“It’s not that funny!” I snapped at her. “Is it?”

“Of course it is! You have to look where you’re running. It doesn’t work if you’re running on cement and you trip on an umbrella!”

My cheeks reddened. “That’s what I tripped on?”

“Yes, duh! You thought it was a rock?”

“Um, yeah. I’ll try again.” I started running again, only to trip over my sandals and fall on my face again.

Emma started giggling again. “You forgot to wear sneakers! You need sneakers!”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I demanded, walking to where she was standing. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’ll just get my sneakers.”

“Okay, bye.”

As I walked up the stairs to our apartment, I heard Emma call, “You can’t go up to the apartment without your keys!” Emma waved the keys above her head.

“Ugh!” I shouted, circling back to the building porch. I jumped up, grabbed Emma by the shoulders for support, and took the keys dangling above her head.

Emma stared at me. “Wow, how’d you do that? You’re a good jumper.”

“Um, I’m a natural?”

“I think you just developed a talent for gymnastics.”

 

Chapter Three

Emma

“What?” Evelyn shot at me. “Gymnastics?”

I breathed in and out. Gymnastics was my only weakness. I was not a flexible person. “Yeah, gymnastics.” I winced at the word again.

“You’re kidding,” Evelyn said loudly. “It can’t be.” She shook her head mournfully. “I’ll never be.”

I knew what she was thinking, and I felt bad for her. Seven years ago, Evelyn had gone to a gymnastics meet, her first one ever. She was a complete failure (no offense, but it was true) and hated gymnastics from that moment on. Sort of intense, but that’s what happened. Maybe she developed a skill from devoting her physical life (which wasn’t a lot) to ballet.

I thought this over. “Yes, but you are. Sorry. From doing all that ballet, maybe you became more flexible and jumpy than you wanted to.”

“Um, okay.”

I could sense the horror and uncertainty in Evelyn’s voice, and I could also sense it in mine. Evelyn didn’t know that I was horrible at gymnastics. No one did. What if she asked me to teach her?

“Emma, stop bulging your eyes at me like a pufferfish. Now can you teach me or not?”

I backed away. “Uh, I only know the advanced stuff. Maybe it’s best if you get an actual teacher?”

“Okay.” Evelyn let it off easier than I had expected. Maybe it could be okay to tell her a white lie? Whatever.

“Okay, I gotta practice for debate class,” I told her, running up the stairs to our apartment. “I’m going to tell Mom the reasons why I should have more ice cream than usual.”

I could feel Evelyn smile to the back of my head.

Once I reached the top of the stairs, I pushed my key into the lock, and the door swung open. “Mom? Dad?”

Nothing. Guess I would have to wait for some ice cream.

I started up the stairs to my room (we had a double floor apartment) and pulled out my phone, then started texting Scarlett. Hi Scarlett. What are you doing?

She texted back. Hi Emma. I’m not doing anything.

I texted back. Want to come over?

Is Evelyn with ya?

No. She’s practicing gymnastics

I waited a while for her message. Okay I’ll come. She finally texted.

Or maybe I could come to your house. I countered.

This time the text came fast. No I’ll come over to yours.

I had never seen Scarlett’s house. She probably had, like, annoying brothers. Oh well. Okay, see you in fifteen. I texted her.

In exactly fifteen minutes, the doorbell rang. I rushed down the stairs to meet Scarlett. “Who is it?” I asked the door.

Scarlett’s muffled voice said a quiet, “Scarlett.” So, I pulled open the heavy door and saw my best friend with her long silky orange hair messily topped on her head in a bun. She was wearing a pink and yellow tye-dye top and nice sky blue jeans. It was only noon, but Scarlett had already made a sunset explode in my house.

“Like my nails?” she said, showcasing scarlet fingers.

“Yeah, what color is that?”

“Bloodthirsty Vampire,” she informed me, sending prickles up my spine.

What?” I shivered.

“Just kidding. It’s actually called Scarlet Girl, so I thought it was perfect for me. Just wanted to see you panic a little.”

“Right.” I nodded, motioning for her to come in.

About fifteen minutes later, Scarlett went to the bathroom. I patiently waited for Scarlett to arrive, when my phone started ringing with Evelyn’s number.

 

Chapter Four

Evelyn

Emma picked up when I rang her. “Hi, Evelyn!”

“Hi, Emma!” I chirped, a bit happier than I meant to be. “I got an instructor! I called Mom, and she got me one!”

“Cool,” Emma told me. I heard crackling in the line. “Oh, I’m breaking up… I gotta go.”

And she hung up, just like that.

Mom shook me. “Honey, your instructor is going to meet you.”

Mom and I walked to the register. “Hi, my daughter is going to be doing gymnastics. It’s her first lesson.”

The woman at the register nodded. “Oh, hello! Phone number, please?”

“Three four seven,” Mom told her.

The woman repeated it, then typed it up.

“Seven one nine,” Mom continued.

The woman said it over, then started typing it on her computer.

Mom said the last four digits.

The woman clarified, going on her computer again. “Now if you will please tell me your daughter’s first and last name.”

“Evelyn Robinson,” Mom and I both said at the same time.

The woman at the desk smiled. “Well then. You’ll be with Rebecca.”

Where had I heard that name before? The name rung a bell, but I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. Oh well.

Mom didn’t seem to notice, so I thought maybe a new girl in school?

The woman said she’d be back in a sec, after she checked in with Rebecca.

Mom waited until the woman was gone. “Evelyn, are you sure you want to do gymnastics? I mean, do you really want to?”

I glared at her. “Of course I do! Mom, I’ve never made a bad decision.”

Mom seemed unsure of that. “Are you sure?”

“Mo-om!”

“You’re making a bad decision from saying that in that tone, young lady.”

It would have been an amazing time for the woman to come in with Rebecca trailing behind her, but of course it didn’t. Things never work out that way.

We stood in silence for a couple minutes, when Mom said, “Where is the lunatic woman? She’s been missing for five minutes.”

“Maybe Rebecca’s not sure that she has to teach me, and the woman is telling her that she’s supposed to,” I explained. “It’s possible and logical. Actually, I have very good explanations — ”

“Shhhhh,” Mom hissed. “Did you say Rebecca?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because Rebecca is — ”

“The coach from when I was seven,” I finished, when the woman and Rebecca walked right in.

 

Chapter Five

Emma

I felt sort of guilty about crushing my fortune cookie wrapper right next to my phone, but I had to because I was busy. No distractions when doing homework! Scarlett and I were drilling each other on math and other academic subjects. If I was going to get my teacher charm on, there was no better way to do it than butter up the teachers with good grades and charmingness.

Surprisingly, Scarlett was really keen on getting to be Mrs. Stuart’s favorite, and I joked that if she were in my class it would be most hard because Evelyn would have taken the princess’s spot and was glued down onto it.

She cocked her head at me, like what are you talking about? And I explained it all.

From the unfairness and the deal and debate class and gymnastics. And she listened. But I didn’t tell Scarlett about being horrible at gymnastics. No one knew, and it was going to stay that way.

But I itched to tell at least someone. But then everyone would know. Word in Manhattan High got around fast, even if I told it to Scarlett. Someone would pick up a clue, start a rumor, and soon there would be lies, buzzing around the entire building. And soon people would make up more things about you, it would get to a teenage reporter, they would put it in a magazine, newspaper or something like that… and kazam! Everyone knows.

Then, completely out of the blue, Scarlett said, “I wish I had a twin.”

I stared at those six words, as if they had popped out of her mouth and were looming above her head like a cloud. Six words that would never go away. Words that were permanent, like a Sharpie on a plastic bottle. Never will be destroyed when you wash them. Will recycle over and over. Hard to cut. I looked at Scarlett again. “Why?”

Scarlett shrugged her shoulders, blushing a bit. “I don’t know, guess I don’t want to be so lonely anymore.”

I could see tears prick at her eyes. She was an only child, and her mom died when she was four. Scarlett’s dad was completely offensive, being rude and cooped up in his office, work, or in his room all the time.

I handed her a glass of water, and she blinked repetitively to make the tears go away. She swatted at her eyes like a gone mad kitten and gulped down the water, patting her lap softly to make her swallow in a more thorough and smooth way.

I elbowed her. “Hey, solve this.” I showed her a problem. “I’ve been stuck on it all day.”

She took the piece of paper from me, biting the tip of her eraser. “Fifty-six thousand, nine hundred forty, four hundred ninety-two.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” Scarlett said. She etched the number onto the paper.

“Okay,” I said submissively, grabbing some more homework. I showed Scarlett the stack. “I’ll work on these. Like I’m editing Little Women.”

Scarlett snickered at that, focusing on her math once more.

 

Chapter Six

Evelyn

I stared at Rebecca in terror, at her ginger cream hair, big round green eyes, pink smile, rosy cheeks, sparkly nails, and long legs. I hoped she didn’t recognize me.

“Why hello, Evelyn!” Rebecca cried, shaking my hand. “You remind me of someone, but I can’t quite put my finger on who.”

I gulped, knowing that I reminded her of me. And reddish brown hair wasn’t exactly common in this world.

“Well, okay then. Come with me.” Rebecca smiled again, and I wanted to punch her face. Not exactly well, though.

“Is it your first time doing gymnastics?” Rebecca asked me, pushing some equipment out of my way.

“Yes,” I lied, walking with her. “It’s my first time.”

“Okay!” Rebecca squealed. “Let’s start with some fun stuff, then.”

Fun stuff? That couldn’t be soooo bad. “Okay.”

Rebecca showed my a pit full of spongy squares. She stood a meter or two away from the edge, facing the gaping space of cushions. “Now, Evelyn, I want you to stand at the edge, and then face me. Then fall back, yelling ‘timber,’ and try not to move like a tree being cut down. Okay?”

She called that fun? I tried not to be a wimp, so I positioned myself where she told me to stand and yelled timber as I started my descend to the square cushions. I flapped my arms around, but my legs stood straight like they were tied together. I sank into the pit and emerged from it to see Rebecca giggling. When she saw me frowning at her, she blushed a bit but then laughed a little more. She kept on laughing until she was flustered and sweat dripped from her eyebrows. “It’s okay, hon. I wasn’t laughing at you, though. I was laughing at a funny dream. But you’re a beginner, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

She smiled at me, motioning for me to pull myself out of the big pit. I grabbed the handles and pushed up, swinging my right leg over the edge and then my left one. I pushed up to my feet and then walked after Rebecca, and then I started running after her, because wow, she was a fast walker.

“Okay,” Rebecca said, walking in a swift motion. “How ‘bout we go on the trampoline? We could work on some handstands and cartwheels there.”

Handstands? Cartwheels? Uh… no way. And those words are final. But… I had to. I mean, I didn’t want to be a wimp. So, I trekked over to the swimming pool size trampoline and clambered onto it.

Rebecca gave me instructions to do downward dog, push my feet up and swing them over. She also taught me to run forward towards the mat, in a skippy run.

I gulped, but I went to the start of the trampoline (where the red line was) and stood silently at it.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Rebecca said kindly. “Don’t stress yourself.”

I took a deep breath and started running. I pushed on my hands and lifted up my feet. I could feel my back hit the pink mat.

Then, everything went black.

 

Chapter Seven

Emma

“I think we’re good,” Scarlett said, all drowsy after the math. “My brain power needs a recharge.”

I passed her a popsicle without saying anything. She didn’t say anything to me, let alone thank you, but I didn’t really care. She just sucked on the delicious fruity frozen stuff.

I didn’t give her more homework yet, because I knew she would groan and moan and smack the homework out of my hand, which I didn’t want happening.

Scarlett took the homework herself, and muttered a little, “Thanks,” and soon her popsicle was ice because she sucked the flavor out of it. I told her I would gladly eat the ice, but she said no thank you.

An hour later, Scarlett and I were done with the homework. She smiled and said, “I’m meeting Abby in the diner. You want to come?”

“Oh, I can’t. Mom would wonder where I am, even if I call her. I don’t want them to panic. Plus I’m going to lunch with Dad.”

Scarlett nodded. “Okay, then. Bye!”

I waved to her, and she jogged out the door.

When Scarlett disappeared, I locked up behind her. I started up the stairs to my room, flopping backwards on my bed. Then, my eyes fluttered closed, and I started to sleep.

 

***

I woke up to a key opening the door. I yawned happily, trekking down the stairs after I stretched my arms and legs. Mom stood at the doorway with Evelyn, who was pouting greatly. “Hi Mom! Hi… Evelyn… !” I looked at the both of them. Then I asked Evelyn, “How was your gymnastics?”

“Fine,” Evelyn said. “Apparently I aced it, but sort of got dizzy when I did a handstand on the trampoline. But Rebecca said I did everything right.”

“Rebecca?” I asked. I thought I heard that name before. “Isn’t that…”

Evelyn nodded. “Yeah, she is. But I don’t really care. She doesn’t recognize me, so that’s good, I guess.”

I smiled. “Well, welcome to the house. I finished all my homework today.”

Evelyn jumped up and down. “Yipee! Wonderful! This has got you nice and disciplined.”

Mom puzzled over this. “Wait, what’s this?”

“Nothing,” we both answered. “It’s nothing.”

Mom seemed unsure about this. “Is there something I need to know, girls?”

“No, Mom,” we said, giggling all the way up the stairs.

 

Chapter Eight

Evelyn

“Okay, that was close,” I said, giggling again. “Let’s not tell her about the deal, okay?”

“Okay,” Emma agreed submissively, pushing me an ice pop. “Here, take this.”

I smiled. “You’re the best.”

Emma nodded and said, “I know.”

I started licking the popsicle like crazy.

 

***

At school, Emma walked up to Mrs. Stuart. “Mrs. Stuart, I was wondering if I could drop off my homework. There’s quite a lot of it, and I was feeling a little pain in my neck from walking around.”

Mrs. Stuart inspected Emma. I was holding my breath. But Emma seemed entirely confident.

My twin pulled her homework out of her bag. “Where should I put this?”

Mrs. Stuart’s eyes bulged out. “Wh-what? How could you finish all that homework?”

“Just some discipline and a million ice pops.”

I could see Emma was hoping for a laugh after she did a little heh-heh, but she didn’t get it. I popped out of the corner I was hiding in and said, “Emma, let’s get you in electives for debate class, shall we?” I pulled Emma by the T-shirt and contributed to Mrs. Stuart by giving her a bright, busy smile.

At the sign-up, I saw that there was an elective for… gymnastics? Maybe it would be worthwhile so Emma wouldn’t know I was horrible at debate.

“Emma, I’ll sign up for gymnastics,” I told her.

“But what about debate?” Emma seemed a little hurt, but I knew I couldn’t tell her. Could I?

Okay. I had to. “Emma… well, debate class is my weakness. I’m horrible at it! Every time I have to get on stage to fight for my opinion, I get this super blast of stage fright. I get so scared of the audience that’s currently staring at me I cut my script short and stutter a lot.”

Emma raised her eyebrows, then started laughing. Like crazy. I stared at her, upset she was cackling at the situation I had never told anyone.

“Evelyn, seriously? You didn’t tell me this before?” Emma said in between on-and-off laughter. She gasped for some more fresh air. “This is so… unexpected! I thought every time you got on stage you threw up and ran off, or something!” She fell to the floor in little high pitched giggles. “I can’t believe you!”

I gaped at Emma. Was she really laughing? “It’s not funny!”

“It totally is. But I have something to tell you.

I listened in. Emma usually didn’t have anything to tell me.

“I’m terrible at gymnastics.”

I watched in surprise as Emma pushed off the ground. “B-but you told me… you were advanced… !”

Emma apologized, straightening out her denim skirt. “I thought everyone would soon know that I was a fraud.”

I bulged my eyes out at her. “Fraud? No one can be a fraud!”

“I guess you’re right.” Emma said, finishing signing off her name. But when I looked closer, I saw she had written it on the gymnastics sign-up. “C’mon. Let’s go show them.”

And there wouldn’t have been a better place to do that other than walking through the hallway, with my twin sister right next to me.

 

Special Sandwich

One day, Emily went to the doctor. As she entered the tiny room, the smell of fresh air made her feel better after she was sweating. She had bad news. The doctor said she had diabetes and that he recommended a kind of sandwich that involved bread, lettuce, tomato, and potato. He also recommended paper towels in case she made a mess, apples, oranges, 100% juice, and maybe low fat chips as a snack for one week.

“This will make you feel better!” the doctor said, hopeful.

If she didn’t, she would have to stay in the hospital for ten years. She immediately drove to the store and bought all of these for ten dollars in total.

She panicked as she took a blue plastic plate from her drawer at her sleepy home and put 100% whole wheat brown bread on the plate, put cheese on top after, lettuce, tomato, and potato. Emily knew she felt herself sweating, but she realized that she would soon feel better. She slowly got better after about one week and she was beaming afterwards, crying tears of joy. But…

Then, five years later, she went to the doctor and found out she had diabetes again.

Oh no, this can’t be happening! Emily thought. The doctor said there were no more ingredients of that sandwich, and Emily started to panic and sweat.

“Doctor, what should I do?!” Emily cried.

“The only thing you could do now is take grape medicine for four years. Drink ½ cup of medicine every twelve hours,” the doctor said.

And that’s what she did. She made sure she drank the medicine. She even set 2,920 alarms on her phone for each time she had to take it in those four years! The medicine helped her a little bit. And the more she took it, the more she felt better!

 

A New Friend

Once there was a girl named Mary. She had black hair and was in kindergarten. She was five and liked playing games at recess like family. Her best friend was named Mimi. Mimi had glasses, played with Mary 24/7, and was five as well. Their teacher was named Ms. Rendy. All these people had brown eyes.

One day, walking home from school, Mimi asked, “Do you want to go to my house and study for our report on Native Americans?”

So, Mary answered, “Totally!”

After about two hours, they finally found a big, fat, dusty book called All About Native Americans. It seemed liked the perfect book to write a report that was being turned into Sunset Elementary. After 55 chapters full of tiny, hard to read print, (some including clothing and games) they reached the chapter on animals and food. And guess what the first sentence said? It said that Native Americans ate bunnies! This was heartbreaking. Even worse, since Mary loved bunnies, she felt like she had been stabbed.

The next Tuesday, Mary went into the shed in her backyard to get a leash for her dog. But the second she got inside, the little wood structure seemed to begin going downward, but not underground. Kind of like an elevator. The stomach-churning zooming went on for ten minutes. When the door opened, Mary was so surprised by the shockingly beautiful landscape. Her breath was taken away. The grass was greener than anything her small hometown in Wisconsin had to offer, and large, innocent deer darted away from flying arrows. No one seemed to care about the animals. (This was a quiet scene.) Suddenly, Mary felt something warm and fuzzy rubbing against her leg. She looked down and saw it was a bunny!

“Help!” it whimpered. “They’re going to eat me!”

Arrows suddenly began flying into the time machine. The door started to close, but an old cat scampered in.

“Choose your button carefully, or else you shall regret it!”

“Okay?” Mary said curiously.

So, the cat walked calmly out. The buttons on the time elevator were covered in Russian letters. A random one was pressed, and then both the girl and the bunny felt their stomachs turning somersaults. Then finally after five hours, the door opened again. They screamed. A giant T-Rex!!!

“Next time, we should be more careful,” Mary nervously said.

Then, they went back up to present day.

 

No Snooping!

            

September 22, 2018

Tomorrow’s the first day of middle school. I’m nervous, excited and worried! I’m nerworrited! Everyone says Mrs. Grag is mean, and guess what? She’s my teacher!!! I once heard my older sister, Lacey, talking to her friends about how mean Mrs. Grag is. They were saying she gave lots of homework, gave detention easily, and gave at least two tests a week! That doesn’t sound like a nice teacher to me, you?

Another thing I’m disappointed about is both of my best friends are not in my class. This is the first year that they haven’t been in my class, and I don’t know how I am going to get through the year. My best friend Sabina is disappointed about it too. She tried to reassure me about it.

She said, “It’s okay, we can see each other after school,” but it didn’t help. I haven’t talked to my other best friend, Helena, about it yet, but I’m sure she’s not happy about it aeither.

Although, the thing I’m most worried about is the basketball team. I really love basketball, and I hope I can get on the middle school team, but I’m not sure. I know the competition is pretty tough, and there are some pretty good players who are also trying out. I tried to convince Helena and Sabina to try out for the team, but they don’t have any interest in basketball.

Now I have to go to the store to get new books and binders.

Later,

Beatrice (Bea) Malcery

 

September 23, 2018

Today when I woke up, I was still feeling nerworrited. I forgot to set my alarm last night, and it was 8:30 A.M.. I had to be at school in 20 minutes! So, I quickly jumped out of bed, got my clothes on, and shoved my toothbrush into my mouth. I started to run down the stairs, but halfway down I fell.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” I screamed. “What is wrong with me this morning?!” My leg was bleeding like crazy, and it hurt like I had just fallen down the stairs. Oh wait — I did.

I quickly bandaged up my leg and gulped down my cereal. Finally, I was ready to go. I put my lucky basketball shoes on and grabbed my bike from the garage, put my basketball, binders, and books in the basket, and started riding to school.

When I finally reached school, I was panting and felt nauseous. I walked through the crowded halls of middle school hoping to find my locker, but I was having trouble finding it.

Crash!

I had just bumped into Charlie and dropped my books, my basketball, and my binder. Charlie helped me pick up my stuff and helped me up. Charlie had been in my class since kindergarten, but I had never really talked to him.

 

RIIIIINNNNNGGGGG.

“Oh my goodness, that was the second bell!” I said. “I’m late for my first class. UGGGGGGGGGG!”

I rushed to my English class, but I was late — not a surprise. My English teacher, Mrs. Johnson, gave me detention at 12:30. Luckily, the basketball tryouts were at 11:30. Geometry passed really slowly. It felt like it went on for hours. I started to not listen to Mrs. Johnson, but then she asked me a question, and I didn’t know the answer.

“Beatrice!” said Mrs. Johnson. “I want you to listen to what I’m saying.”

I wasn’t listening because I was thinking so much about the basketball tryouts. I told her I would listen from now on.

When geometry class was finally over, I took my backpack from under my chair and rushed to tryouts. As I arrived at the basketball tryouts, my heart was beating faster than it ever had before. It was finally my turn, and I was shaking all over. I dribbled up to the three-point line, and I shot. As the ball flew through the air, I double crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

“You made it!” I suddenly heard someone shout.

I had been closing my eyes and not looking. The coach told me I had made the team. Thanks to my lucky basketball shoes, I would be playing actual five on five basketball games! There were fifteen people competing, and I was one of the top ten. Yay!

As I left the gym, my heart was filled with joy. This had been my dream since kindergarten. The rest of the day at school went by very quickly. I didn’t even mind that Mrs. Grag (yep, that’s right, my mean homeroom teacher) gave us extra homework. I retrieved my bike from the bike rack outside of the school and started to ride home. I couldn’t believe I had made the basketball team! I was thinking about how proud I was of myself for making the team, but I wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of me.

“AHHHHHH!” I screamed. I had just bumped into a tree. My Band-Aids had fallen off from earlier, and I was super annoyed. “Twice in one day!” Suddenly, Charlie came over to help me up. He told me he had been in the store next door, and he had heard me fall. I told him thank you, and I rode the rest of the way home peacefully. As I was riding home, I started to think that maybe Charlie and I could become friends. I decided tomorrow I would invite him over.

As I opened the door to my house, my parents asked me how my day went.

“I made the basketball team!” I exclaimed.

“Let’s go out for ice cream to celebrate!” my parents said.

“Yay!” I said “Can we play basketball after?”

“Sure!” they responded.

See you,

Bea

 

September 24, 2018

Last night, I made sure to set my alarm so I didn’t have to rush getting out of the house. I got dressed in my most athletic clothes, ready for my first basketball practice. As I walked down the stairs, I made sure not to fall by holding onto the railing. My cut from yesterday was still healing.

I started to eat breakfast, but I heard the back door click open. Both of my parents were still asleep, so I decided to go check it out.

“Lacey, what are you doing?” Lacey was entering the house looking like she had been up all night. She had bags under her eyes, and she looked half asleep.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhh!” Lacey said, and she dragged me up to her room.

“I have been up all night partying with my friends,” Lacey whispered, “but you can’t tell anyone!”

“Mom, Dad!” I started to yell, but Lacey wasn’t taking chances.

“Shut up, Bea!” Lacey was whispering again. “I told you not to tell!”

Lacey said she would get me for this, so at this point I knew she wasn’t kidding, I decided not to tell Mom or Dad. I ran out of her room because I saw she had a jump rope. I wasn’t about to get choked.

While I was eating breakfast, I was thinking when I should invite Charlie over. A few minutes later, my parents woke up. I decided to ask them.

“Mom, Dad,” I said. “I’m inviting a boy over today. What time should I invite him over?”

“Honey, you’re inviting a boy over?” my mom said.

“What’s wrong with that, Marissa?” my dad said to her. “I like that idea. I think it’s good for her to not just be friends with girls.”

“I guess you’re right,” my mom said. “Bea, you can invite him over at five.”

When I got to school, I opened my locker to find a surprise. I had an invitation. It was a blue envelope with white stars, and it said my name on it. I opened it up, and I found a note to me. Here’s what it looked like:

 

Dear Bea,

Would you like to come over to my house for dinner at 5? I would really like to hang out with you and maybe we can play basketball after. If you like this idea, tell me in history.

– Charlie

 

I decided to tell him that I love the idea. I emailed my parents to tell them that Charlie wasn’t coming over after all, and that I was going to his house after school.

Today in math, we got a result on the quiz that we took before school. This quiz was to determine the class and level that we would be put in. I looked at my results, and I found out that I got put in the gifted and talented class. Yay! For the rest of the class, we did fractions and decimals. Boring!!!

When the class was finally over, I headed to history, determined to tell Charlie I would love to come over! Once I reached the class, I steered myself towards Charlie’s desk. I calmed myself down and told myself not to worry. Charlie was sitting at his desk drawing. “Hey, Charlie. I saw the note, and I’d really like to hang out with — ”

“What are you talking about,” Charlie said.

“I thought you invited — ”

Suddenly, Charlie P. walked over. “Hey, I’m the one who gave you that invitation!”

“With the white stars?” I asked.

“Yep!” he responded.

I mean, Charlie P. was a nice guy, but he thought so much of himself. He bragged to everyone at school that he had more than 100 trophies. Such a lie, right?

I could feel my cheeks getting hot. I tried to tell myself everything would turn out fine. How could I have assumed it was that Charlie. It didn’t have to be the Charlie that helped me up from my fall. How could I have been so dumb!!!

“So Beatrice, do you want to come over?” Charlie P. asked.

“Um — ” I started to say something, but Charlie P. interrupted me.

“So, you do want to come over?” he asked.

“I — ”

“It’s settled, you will come over at five,” Charlie P. said.

“Class, class, in your seats!” the history teacher said. “This is history, not playtime!”

“Yes, Mr. Williams,” the class said.

“A long, long time ago bla bla bla bla bla.”

I stopped listening to Mr. Williams because I was too busy thinking about Charlie P.’s house. I was thinking about how miserable I would be there.

“Beatrice!” yelled Mr. Williams. “I want you to listen to me!”

I had not realized it, but I had been daydreaming for 40 minutes. The class was almost over! I was just losing it today!

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Williams,” I said.

“You know what, Beatrice! I’ve heard from your other teachers that you haven’t been listening to them either,” said Mr. Williams. “I’m going to need to talk to your parents about this!”

I was very disappointed about this because I knew my parents would be very mad at me. They might even tell me I couldn’t be on the basketball team anymore. I guess I’ll find out soon.

As I was walking to the cafeteria, I saw Sabina.

“Hey, Sabina,” I said. “How are you doing?”

She looked at me like I was crazy and then walked away. I wondered what that was about. I thought we were really good friends. During lunch, I thought and thought about all the things that had gone wrong with me today. First the incident with the letter, then Mr. Williams getting mad at me, and then Sabina acting weird about me. Was it a coincidence, or were they all connected?

I tried to not think about going to Charlie P.’s house and pretend like it wasn’t going to happen, but eventually it did. Charlie P.’s chauffeur drove us to their house. They had a white limo with a personalized license plate that said, I RICH. I wondered how much fancier this car could get, but I didn’t have to wonder anymore when I got inside. The leather seats had no trace of dirt on them, and they had cupholders on either side. The seats could unfold into a bed, and there were extra pillows in the back. In the back, I also spotted a mini fridge and a mini basketball hoop. I asked the chauffeur if I could use the basketball hoop, and he said yes.

The ride to Charlie P.’s house was a long one, and when I got there, I figured out why. His house was a mansion in a grassy field with a perfectly neat garden in the next town over. This explained why Charlie P. was sometimes late to school.

As I stepped inside the house, I made sure my shoes weren’t muddy. I looked up from the floor and gasped.

“Your house is so beautiful!” I said to Charlie P.

“I know,” he replied.

“Would you like a snack, Beatrice?” Charlie’s mom asked.

“Sure!” I replied. “What do you have?”

“Follow me,” she said. I walked into the beautifully decorated kitchen with a marble floor and white walls. In the middle of the kitchen was an island, and it had two sinks and a bowl of fruit. The fridge was about as big as my bathroom. I opened it and found snacks galore. There were Goldfish, pretzels, cookies, crackers, and all kinds of juice. “That’s not it!” She led me into the bar. I sat down on one of the leather stools of the bar and ordered seltzer with a lemon and crackers from the butler. I wasn’t very hungry. But before I could take my first bite, Charlie pulled me off the stool and led me upstairs.

We entered a room labeled, Charlie’s trophy room. I wondered if the trophy rumor was true.

“C’mon Beatrice!” Charlie said. “I need to show you all my trophies.”

“Call me Bea,” I said.

“Whatever,” he responded.

Charlie’s trophy room was decorated in the most lovely red carpet. Glass cases filled with tons of trophies bordered the room. I started to look at one, but Charlie stopped me.

“Those are the off-limits ones,” stammered Charlie.

“Okay,” I replied. I never realized Charlie P. was this spoiled! As I looked at the trophies, I figured out that most of them were for horseback riding, but occasionally there were some for checkers.

“Sometimes, I stare at these all day!” Charlie said. “I just love looking at what I have accomplished!” I think I heard a bit of sarcasm in his voice, but I’m not sure.

“Yeah… sure… I could look at them all day, too,” I mumbled.

“So, Beatrice, do you want to look at my other trophy room, or do you want to do something else?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, trying to sound excited. “We can look at your other trophy room.”

This was the most boring experience that I’ve had in my life. Maybe if I was with someone else, like the other Charlie, then this would be so much fun! This house was super cool.

We headed into Charlie’s other trophy room and looked through all the trophies. I checked my watch to see when this would end.

“We could see my other eight trophy rooms if you want,” Charlie said. “But there’s still the medal rooms.”

We hadn’t even finished through the third medal room when Charlie P.’s mom called us for dinner.

“Charlie! Beatrice! Time for dinner!”

Charlie and I headed down the stairs for dinner. Meanwhile, I had a plan. When we got downstairs, we sat in the dining room. The table was the size of my bedroom, and the ceilings were high, decorated with a giant diamond chandelier that hung over the center of the table. The tablecloth just nearly covered the whole table. I don’t have any idea where they found that big of a tablecloth!

“Beatrice, we’re having Scandinavian steak and potatoes, do you like that?” Charlie’s mom said.

“I’ve never had it, but I’m sure I will,” I responded.

“Great, go ahead and sit at the table,” she said. Before I could take my first bite, I heard loud stomping footsteps. The footsteps were Charlie’s dad walking in. I hadn’t realized it before, that Charlie had a dad. I guess I was just too busy thinking about other things, like whether this was going to go well, or whether they were going to have good food for dinner. I just didn’t realize.

As Charlie’s dad sat down at the table, my mind was rushing. Was Charlie’s dad mean, was he nice, or just an average person? I soon learned what he was like. He sat down at the table and banged the table with his fork and knife.

“Where’s dinner?” he exclaimed, frustrated.

“The dinner’s coming, honey,” Charlie’s mom responded, sounding quite annoyed and tired.

Suddenly, I remembered my plan.

“Mrs. Pellock? May I go to the bathroom?” I asked Charlie’s mom.

“Sure!” she said. I wasn’t really going to the bathroom. I was just going up to the trophy room to look at his “off-limits” trophies. I quietly walked up the stairs and entered the trophy room. The trophy room was still as beautiful as before. I guess their maid had cleaned it since we had last been in. I walked to the back of the room to see the off-limits trophies. There they were.

I unlocked the case with my hair clip and took one of the trophies out. Under it, there was a Post-it Note.

It read, Trophy for horseback riding. Reminder: I cheated this one.

“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed. “He cheated!” But then I guess someone heard me, and booming footsteps came up the stairs. It was Charlie’s dad.

“Beatrice, what are you doing, looking at my son’s off-limits trophies?” he said.

“I just wanted, ummm, to see how amazing — ” I started to say.

“Beatrice, get back down to the table. I want you to eat dinner peacefully, and I’ll send you home after dinner.”

I had made a mistake, and I knew it. Now I was an enemy of the Pellock house. Mrs. Pellock and Mr. Pellock will probably call my parents. I will be in huge trouble. The teachers will call my parents, too. I’ll be in double trouble.

Mr. Pellock took my hand firmly as we walked down the stairs to the dining room.

“Look who I found,” he exclaimed. “Beatrice was up there looking at Charlie’s off-limits trophies.”

“Well, did she see anything? Like, the thing?” Charlie asked.

“I didn’t see anything,” I quickly stammered. “Just trophies.”

I’m just so frustrated, I can’t write anymore. I’ll just have to tell you what happened tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.

See you,

Bea

 

The Monster that Betrayed

There were footsteps. My heart was pounding. I was starting to think that this wasn’t a good idea. There was something looking through the window. It was hard to tell what it was. It was big, with a scar marked across his face, and that’s all I saw.

 

It was a windy night, and we were bored. My friend Sophia came over. We decided to do something fun. We hid behind the gates of a neighbor’s house and started to prank them. While they were away, we covered their house with loads of toilet paper. Then, we started to laugh hysterically. Sophia and I hid in a random closet and waited for them to come home. I could hear their car pull over as it kept on slowing down.

“Madison, I don’t know about this anymore,” Sophia whispered.

“Don’t be such a baby!” I jotted back. We both heard voices that we were blaming on each other. Sophia couldn’t help but to giggle.

“What’s that noise?” one of the neighbors said. All of a sudden, we didn’t know what to do! We had a mini panic in our heads, and suddenly we saw something that didn’t really look like a human. It had hair, or was it fur, all over itself. Its eyes were blue with a glimmer of gold in the middle. Sophia and I didn’t know what it was. Once they approached, something happened, and all I saw were two random people.

“What did you do to our place?!” he screamed out loud. When he was yelling at us for what we did, I wasn’t very focused on him… there was a mark, a mark that was on his neck. I had no idea why it was there and what it meant, but I knew I had to dig deeper and find out.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to contact your parents. You are invading our privacy,” he said at last. After everything got sorted out, I was at home grounded, Sophia was home also grounded, we were never allowed to see those neighbors again, and they never had to see us.

In the morning, I snuck a peek at my phone and quickly texted Sophia that I was going back. Before I did, I went on Google to try and find out what that mark was. There was nothing to see. None of them looked like the one I saw. The one I saw had a star that had a cross in the middle of it, and surrounding it was a circle that was carved into his skin. I could tell that it was old because of the color. For some reason, it kind of looked rusty.

 

The next day, I snuck out. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I had to. I had already called Sophia if she wanted to come along, but it was no use. She kept on making excuses to make me not go, like she was hiding something. Once I got there, I was going to begin my plan. It was to get in, look around, and try to get out. I knew it wasn’t the best plan, but it’s what I had.

 

Time for step one. I had to get in, but how? I tried to stay undercover, kind of like a spy! Not knowing what to do, I crept behind all the trees in the backyard and silently opened the door. Then, all of a sudden, squeak! That annoying door had to squeak! I was like, just why?! Luckily, no one heard because one of them was taking a shower and one of them was fast asleep. After that, I tiptoed upstairs and went into a room. What room was it? I wasn’t sure.

I quickly heard a voice that said, “Honey? I’m done! Do you mind getting my clothes?” With no one responding, I heard footsteps, getting louder and louder by the second. Then, I heard the door creak open, and all of a sudden it swung open! I ran into the closest thing I could find! And there I was, now stuck in a closet. Now the closet door cracked open, and there was a hand right near my face. I tried my hardest to avoid it, but all I did was make it worse. He was about to grab something, and his hand was pointing towards my face. Did he know I was there? Was he about to take me away? But then, what he did was… take out his clothes! I was soooooo relieved! Thank goodness I was good at hide-and-seek! I heard the door slam again, and that was a good sign. After what just happened, my plan now was to escape! I jumped out of the closet and stormed to the door, then I saw something, something unusual. It was a key. But where did it lead to?

 

It was finally a new day. I needed to discover more about this key. The key was rusty, and it had dust all over. I blew the dust off, and as it was dusting away, there was a symbol. It looked just like the one that was carved into the neighbor’s skin.

Beep, beep, beep! I turned over on my bed and saw my phone ringing, it was Sophia!

“Hey, Sophia! What did you want to talk about?” I said.

Then, she responded, “We need to talk.”

My voice suddenly trailed off, and she hung up.

 

I was going to meet her at our favorite private place to go. Then, she arrived.

“You know,” she said.

“What do you m — ”

Then she interrupted my sentence, “I know that you know You stole our key. I know you did.”

“What do you mean ‘our.’” I screamed back. Then, she looked away, and something happened. Her clothes started ripping into pieces and falling onto the floor. She started to grow fur on her body. Her eyes turned blue with a little bit of gold. She turned back around, and I saw a beast, a monster, a werewolf!

“This is who I really am! And you know your neighbors? They’re actually my parents!” Sophia screamed back.

“I was never your friend either.”

 

Foresta Sparking Chapter One

        

Chapter One: The Fire

Clink. Gavlin tensed. Clink. Clink. He turned to look at his companion, Denarth. Clink. Clink. Clink. Anticipation was painted across Denarth’s face. Clink. Clink. Clink. Gavlin turned back to the massive crater in the side of the ravine. Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink. His eyes narrowed. The gash began to omit a fiery glow. A shadowy figure appeared, dragging a sword along the stone. It solidified into a humanoid shape, charging at the two warriors, who raised their swords. The monster jumped out of the gaping hole (which was starting to look like a mouth more and more), and plunged its sword down. The blade hit the ground, shaking with power —

“AAAAAHHH!” Miles jumped up in his bed and hit his head on the low ceiling. He rubbed his head, thinking about the nightmare. He had it every night, and as a result, barely got any sleep. But today, he was going to need every last scrap of energy he had. Today, he would finally finish training and become a guard — one step away from being a full-fledged knight. He sighed and tried to fall asleep again. Thirty minutes later, he was still awake.

“Okay,” he whispered to himself, “I’ll go to my cove.”

He could climb to the roof of the bakery he lived in, and from there he could run across the rooftops until he got to his “cove.” The cove was a ledge that jutted out near the top of the local Count Tower. It was originally a window, but it had broken so many times that it had been covered with stone. The windowsill was still there, however, and some of the wet clay they had used to cover up the window had slid down and expanded the windowsill.

Miles rolled out of bed, threw on his squire clothes, and opened his door. It opened into a hallway with stairs at the end, but instead of walking forward, Miles turned to face the wall on the right and started climbing the loose boards. When he reached the top, he jumped to the other (repaired) wall and squeezed through a trapdoor. The night air felt good on his face. He stood on the roof for a moment, his eyes closed, the wind blowing his dark tufts of hair to either side.

He opened his eyes and started running across the roof. He jumped the gap between the roofs but tripped when he landed. As he lay sprawled across the stone roof (which was actually pretty comfortable), he noticed a fire coming from about three blocks away. He leapt to his feet, only to remember all his training gear was a block away in the Gladian Academy. He had a spare in his cove, but that was seven blocks in the other direction, and besides it would take him too long to climb the tower and then descend back to the rooftops. The fire was getting stronger; he didn’t have much time left to make a decision.

And so Miles made the best mistake of his life. He jumped from roof to roof, trying not to think about the hard cobblestone beneath. When he reached the street the fire was on, he swung down into an alleyway, then vaulted a fence and skidded to a stop in front of the inferno. It was a warehouse. The front door had collapsed, but a window on the upper floor was still partially accessible — the only problem being it was on the upper floor. He heard screams for help coming from the basement.

Miles turned around and climbed the storefront opposite the fire. Once he was atop the building, he ran to the back of the roof, and then bolted across it, jumped off the wooden shingles, and cleared the narrow street. He landed on the house next to the blazing warehouse and dropped onto a windowsill. Miles swung sideways and slipped through the semi-open window into a long, narrow wooden hallway. His shoe snagged on a bent board, and while he was bending down to free it, he heard another yell from below.

Miles rushed down the hallway to a stairway at the end, but before he got there the ground below creaked and gave way. A shower of dust and smoke followed him down two floors until he landed painfully on the cellar floor. The first thing he saw was a family tied to the wall: two parents, a girl, and a young boy. Smoke and fire licked at their feet but strangely avoided actually damaging them. The second thing he saw was the reason why.

A fiery beast was staring at him from atop a big keg of ale. It had narrow white slits for eyes and a forked tongue. Miles instinctively grabbed a charred stick of wood and held it defensively. The monster seemed to narrow its eyes even more and then lunged. Miles jumped out of the way and scrambled to his feet. Before the beast could attack again, Miles ran at it and stabbed its claw straight through into the floor. While it was trying to free itself, Miles ran to the family and tried to unhook the chains from the wall.

There was a pole embedded into the wooden wall; the end curved into a lasso-like shape. Five chains were clasped around the loop, running around the group of people and then circling back into the pipe. The chain links were made of pure steel, with veins of bronze running through the metal and clasping the links together. Miles would need a red-hot sword to cut through it, something he most definitely did not have. He could unhook the chains from the pipe, but there was even more steel binding the chains to the loop. The only option he had available to him was to pull the hook from the wall, unless he could magically conjure up a sharpened sword, which wasn’t exactly an option. Miles eyed the pipe. It looked aged, and the wooden wall surrounding it was coming apart. If he could pry the boards away, maybe he could —

SCCREEEEE!

Miles whipped around. The monster had ripped the makeshift spear out of its claw and threw it at Miles. He ducked just in time, and the blazing stick stuck in the wall above the chained family. Miles glanced down at the claw he had injured. Tar colored blood covered it, yet the monster showed no sign of pain. Sweeping his eyes around the room, he saw no other weapon, except — Miles suddenly realized what he had to do.

“Come on, beast. Kill me, or are you too dumb?”

He taunted the monster as he backed up, coming closer and closer to the chains. Finally, it lunged. Miles jumped away just in time, as the monster’s claws cut through the air and came in contact with the chains. Its claws made quick work of the steel, and before the beast had time to realize it, the family was free and running.

The monster roared at them and began to chase them, but before it got very far, it felt something in its back. When the chains had been broken, the force of the impact had yanked the pole out of the wall

Now, Miles had thrust it into the beast’s back. He pushed his shoes into the ground and pushed the pole through the monster. The beast saw the jagged end of the metal thing protruding through its chest and then collapsed on the floor dead. But when it died, it released its grip on the fire it had started, and the blaze kicked up steam.

He started to go for the stairs, but as he was running, some of the cross beams holding up the stairwell crashed down and blocked it off. The only other way out was the same way he got in, the hole in the ceiling. It was too tall to jump, but maybe he could climb the kegs and jump from there. The only problem was the kegs were big round barrels, and Miles didn’t see any place to gain purchase. He would have to climb on something else to get on top of the kegs. There was a rack filled with empty bottles, but it wasn’t nailed to the ground and would be risky.

BAAANNNGGG!!! A section of the wall caved in, almost crushing Miles. He climbed on the rack, balancing ever so carefully. It started to shake, and he lunged for the kegs just as the rack collapsed. He crashed into a keg and tried to regain his breath. He vaguely acknowledged the keg shifting and rolling under his feet. And then, he actually acknowledged the keg shifting and rolling under his feet, and a jolt of fear shot through his spine.

He backed up to the top of the keg, then ran and jumped like his life depended on it — which it did. He just barely managed to grab the edges of the hole and dangled over the raging fire. The wood he was holding was burning, and ash was getting everywhere. He choked on smoke and started to pull himself up. He hoped adrenaline would kick in, but it didn’t, until — “TIMMY! TIIMMY!”

The little boy Miles had freed was crying, and from the direction the sound was coming from, the toddler was near the front door. His plead for help gave Miles the adrenaline he needed. He pulled himself up into the hallway and raced down the hallway, vaulting a chunk of ceiling that had fallen. The stairway had broken, so he jumped out of the window and grabbed the shades from outside. Then, he jumped to a pole and slid down to the little boy. He looked up quizzically at Miles.

“It’s all okay! Just go over to your family!” Miles coaxed.

“NO! I want Timmy the Kitty!”

“Are you a knight?” the boy’s mother asked. “Timmy is our family cat. I thought he escaped with us, but apparently he got trapped in the front hall. And now little Kevin won’t leave. I mean, we all love Timmy, but there is no going back in there.”

Miles eyed the warehouse door. It had collapsed even more, and now most of it was smoldering on the street. He slipped through the opening and looked around. To his right, there was a long hallway that ended in a collapsed doorway, and to his left, there was a cat surrounded by flames. It was unconscious, meowing faintly every so often. He rushed to it, vaulted the flames, jumped back into the hallway, and started to run toward the doorway. However, he had pushed his luck too much.

The roof caved in, and he just managed to get the cat outside when the whole hallway crashed down on him. He was stuck in a tiny alcove, the fire drawing ever nearer… Miles closed his eyes.

 

Talia watched the Count Tower from across the street. She had been waiting over a week to get everything just right, and finally the day was here. It would be an easy job; so why was she so nervous? She had pulled off way more dangerous plans, why was this one so nerve-wracking? Because this is a Count Tower, she told herself. She ignored the fact that this was the third time she had stolen from a Count Tower. Before she could continue down this line of thought, two things happened. (Sort of.) The window opened, and Talia noticed a warehouse burning near Gavlin Street, about ten blocks away.

She glanced back up at the window, but hesitated. Why am I having so much trouble with this job? she thought. Talia took a deep breath and turned away from the Count Tower. She turned away from days of work. She turned away from clues to who she was that would threaten her life if found by the guards. Yet she turned away and raced toward the fire.

In almost no time at all, she was at the fire. There was a family near the front door. It seemed they were trying to pull a young boy away from the warehouse, who was wailing and yelling at the (collapsed) door. Suddenly, a boy about Talia’s age slipped out of a window, swung from the curtains to a pole, and slid down. He was about Talia’s height, with light brown skin and dark hair that he kept at his side. Talia recognized his red and black striped shirt as the Royal Guard colors, but he was too young to be a knight; he must be a squire.

The baby screamed something at the squire, and what appeared to be the toddler’s mother told the squire something that made him turn back to the house, slip through the door, and disappear into the wreckage. Talia watched the door with as much anticipation as the family. After a nerve-wracking minute, a cat sprang through the door, and the family rushed forward.

Suddenly, chariots dashed toward them. Atop the first was Prince Dengar VI, King Goliath’s third born. He was ruling Gladia while the king was sick. And, unfortunately, he wasn’t the nicest person alive. The prince got out of his golden chariot (yes, it really was a golden chariot), and walked over to the family. Talia didn’t want to see what Dengar was doing, and besides the squire was taking too long getting out. She slipped through a window and descended a couple of stairs. Near the door, the roof had collapsed. There were a couple of slits, and Talia could see the unconscious boy. The boards were too hot to touch, but she was a thief. She pulled a knife out of her dark cloak.

Any passerby would have thought the sight of Talia trying to free the squire would of been ridiculous, but any passerby hadn’t been a top-notch thief for almost a decade. She slid the knife between the boards, and within ten seconds, the boy was free. He was unconscious, so Talia kicked him in his ribs. Hard. The squire groaned. Talia rushed away. When she got back on the roof, she saw something she hoped she would never have to see. Prince Dengar was murdering the family.

Miles woke to someone kicking him in his ribs. At first he thought he was back in the roof of his bakery. Then, he remembered everything that had happened.

Am I in hell? he wondered.

It sure wasn’t heaven; his side hurt, his shirt stuck to his side, and he had several splinters in his hand. Screams nearby jolted him back into reality. He was up in a second and at the door in two more seconds. And then Miles, the youngest ever to fight a Flym, learned the truth about Prince Dengar the Sixth.

“What do you want us to do with these ones?” Five knights were with the Prince. Three were holding the family, one was at the chariot keeping the horses, and one was watching the rooftops.

“Kill them! And do it quickly. Dawn’s come early today, and soon Gavlin will be up. If the procession comes through, the whole plan will be for naught. We’ll have to wait another century, and §‡fl€ won’t like that.”

Miles couldn’t understand one of the words, but it sounded like a name. It reminded him of the roars of the monster in the play the castle put on every three months, Goliath the Hero. He wondered who Gavlin was. It rung a faint bell in his mind, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He charged outside, and before the knights registered what was happening, he had kicked the one with the horses in the stomach.

The others yelled, but the prince waved them down. Miles and the knight he had kicked exchanged blows. Miles kicked him in the shin. The knight grabbed Miles’s leg and threw him into the chariot. As Miles struggled to his feet, the knight charged him. Miles ducked under him and slipped the knight’s sword out of his scabbard. He quickly stabbed the knight in the back. Miles expected him to start bleeding, but instead fire spread throughout his body. Miles turned and faced the other knights.

One handed the child he was holding to his companion and drew his sword. He and the one who was watching the rooftops started to circle Miles. He raised his sword protectively. Everyone who was there couldn’t understand how Miles fought back, including him.

He was nervous until one of the knights charged him. Then, something instinctual took over. He parried the knight’s swing with ease. He pivoted in time to dodge a swipe to his legs and slid on the ground, cutting one of the knight’s legs. Like the other, it burst into flames.

But the wound wasn’t fatal. The knight — it — snarled at Miles and started to stab at him violently. Miles jumped to his feet and climbed onto the chariot. He fended off both knights, until the one he had stabbed through the back earlier climbed back to his feet and leapt back into the fray. He surprised Miles and soon had him dead to rights, when an arrow sliced through its head. It stumbled backward, and three more arrows pierced it through the heart. It burst into flames once more, this time burning to ashes.

Talia swung down from the rooftop where she had shot the monster and drew a pair of daggers. Together, she and Miles defeated the remaining guards. And then, piercing screams stung through the air. They turned just in time to see Prince Dengar murder the child, the bodies of the others strewed carelessly on the cobblestones. A burning rage overtook Miles.

“MURDERER!” he shouted, and charged the prince.

But Dengar was stronger, faster, and wiser than Miles. He easily overpowered the squire and would have killed him if not for Talia, who cut the ropes holding the horses to the chariots. The resulting mini-stampede distracted Dengar for enough time to let Talia jump on a horse and grab Miles, pulling him up with her.

Miles looked behind him. Dengar’s eyes switched from their usual dark green to a fiery red. Fire spread through his body; his hands and feet burned and reshaped themselves as claws. The prince became the same type of creature that Miles had just fought, albeit much more powerful — and much more terrifying.

Miles started to slip out of consciousness, slipping off the horse as well. Talia twisted around just in time to grab him, and the last thing Miles saw was Talia’s concerned face as she tied him in place with ropes from the chariot.

 

Pencil

Hey, my name is Bob, and I’m a pencil. I live in a pencil holder in a kindergarten classroom. Every day, I am sick of getting used to write and being sharpened until my eraser. All of my friends die, one after another, because they get sharpened too much and finally die. Our executioners are the 27 little boys and girls in small outfits that squirrels can fit into. These kids are cute, but they are killing my friends, I thought.

“We have to make a run for it,” said my wife, Bobbette.

“Agreed,” I said enthusiastically.

The number one thing I hate about being a pencil is always being bitten by the kids at the end of the day, then just being dropped on the ground. Once, I saw my friend Tim the pencil get stepped on and snapped in half. It was traumatizing.

The day after, we decided to make a plan to escape.

The teacher in the classroom, Ms. Lopez, said, “Hello, class. I’m Ms. Lopez, your substitute teacher. Tomorrow, we will have the one and only Dr. Seuss in our class for show and tell! One lucky student will also get to interview him! The student that won the writing competition is Hudson!”

Ten seconds after, we looked at each other and said, “This is our escape plan.” When Dr. Seuss walks in, we will slip into his bag, and he will take us away from this dungeon.

“But how do we get in the bag?” Bobbette asked.

“We get the kid, Hudson, to put us on Dr. Seuss’ desk,” I said.

“But how do we do that?” Bobbette asked.

“We have to get to Hudson’s desk. He’s that smart kid who always raises his hand. Hudson will get close enough to Dr. Seuss, and we can slip into his bag,” I explained.

“That’s a great plan!” Bobbette said.

“Tonight, we will climb into his desk and take out the other pencils while they sleep, we’ll tape ourselves together, and Hudson will bring us both to the doctor,” I said in great fashion. Bobette agreed.

The next morning, Hudson went up to Dr. Seuss’ desk with us taped to each other. The plan is working, we thought, but we didn’t know what was going to happen next. By the end of the interview, the tape came apart while I flew into his bag, and Bobette went with Hudson. We didn’t see each other ever again.

 

Keep Trying

Mackenzie is at the hospital for two months, because she has been paralyzed on one side of her body since she got in a car crash. Because she was gone for so long after the accident, Mackenzie wasn’t able to pay the rent for her house, so she lost it and became homeless. So to make Mackenzie happy after losing her house due to a car crash, Hayley, her best friend, buys her a house, a teddy bear plush, a drone, Jordan and Nike clothes, high-heeled boots, and 300 dollars from Target.

But while trying to get to the hospital, she realizes she is running out of time to get there, and there is also lots of traffic surrounding her. She also does not live near the hospital that Mackenzie is staying in Sleepy Hill. She lives in Cool Town. She starts to lose hope of getting there in time before Mackenzie wakes up. So, she decides to call the hospital and tells the nurse, “Can you please give Mackenzie a sleeping pill since she has not been sleeping well.”

The nurse responds, “Yes, we can give her one, but you have to give me your information.” Hayley tells her the information the nurse needs. Hayley hangs up.

Hayley then calls Mackenzie’s mother, Miranda. She picks up and says, “Why are you calling me, don’t you have better things to do with your life,” in a scary voice.

Hayley thinks to herself, Why did I bother calling her in the first place? “You should get your attitude together!” she says. “I never did anything to you for you to be rude to me. And if I did, tell me about it.”

Miranda replies, “That is not the way to respond to me, little girl!”

“Okay. I have had enough! I’m trying to help your daughter be happy and surprise her after feeling horrible for two months. I called for you to help me, not to give me an attitude like you always do. That is also probably why your daughter doesn’t like you,” Hayley replies.

“You should respect people that are older than you!” Miranda yells.

“You are nobody to be yelling at me like that!” Hayley yells back. “You’re the worst mother,” she says before hanging up the phone quickly. After hanging up, Hayley realizes that the cars in front of her have moved, and the ones behind her are honking at her. Hayley presses on the gas pedal and continues driving to the hospital.

Hayley makes it to the hospital and gets to Mackenzie’s room and wakes up Mackenzie. “Hey, Hayley. It’s good to see you!” Mackenzie says. “Thank you for coming.” Hayley gives Mackenzie a hug. Mackenzie feels warm in Hayley’s arms.

But all of a sudden, they hear Miranda’s voice. “She won’t be awake for long.” Hayley and Mackenzie get goosebumps down their arms. You are a crazy person! Hayley thinks.

 

Secrets

When I woke up, I saw Mother staring at the TV with a worried face. The channel was the news. I heard the reporter talking.

“Strange sightings of breezes and winds have been popping up lately.”

Mother sighed and turned off the TV.

“Breakfast, please!”

Mother trudged to the fridge and pulled out the milk.

“Cereal,” she said.

“The shadow-spirits, huh?”

She nodded. “Eat!”

When I was done eating, I went upstairs to my room and realized there was a note on my pillow. How had I not noticed that before?

I read the note and put my hand to my heart. This is what it said:

 

Dear Linda and Mary,

You can run, but you can’t hide.

Soon enough, WE WILL GET YOU!!!

– Shadow-spirits

 

I ran downstairs, trembling. I have to admit, I was scared.

“Mom! MOM? Where are you?” I heard the door slam open. I ran to it, in relief. “Oh Mother, the shadow-spirits, they’re coming to get us!”

I heard a quiet reply. I gasped. I knew that voice. It brought back bad memories.

“We know. We’re here, young Mary.”

 

I screamed and screamed. “This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare.”

The shadow-spirit made a movement. I think it was grinning.

“A real nightmare.”
I pinched myself. Ouch!! It was real. I backed away from the shadow-spirits, making sure that I was very far away from them.

“I’m not gonna turn into one of you,” I snapped.

“Will you do it for your family?” one shadow-spirit asked.

I looked at her more closely.

“Hey! Your height, the way you talk, sound, your posture. You remind me of — ”

“Yes, how is our little Mary?” the shadow-spirit next to my grandma asked.

“Grandma? Grandpa? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“It’s not us that wanted to see you. It’s him.” She pointed to the shadow-spirit in the front. I looked at him, and my heart stopped beating. Even though he was a shadow-spirit, I knew who he was.

“GET OUT!!!” I screamed. “All of you!!!” I felt like crying.

I heard Mother’s voice up the path. “Linda, do we have visitors? Don’t be rude.” The door opened, and suddenly I was left alone with Mother.

I felt like my world had fallen. My heart was crushed, and my soul had been destroyed.

My father was a shadow-spirit.

 

Poverty and Hunger in NYC

Homelessness and hunger are very closely related. People who are homeless have a higher chance of being hungry than anyone else. Forty-two percent of New York City households – 2.7 million men, women, and children — lack the income needed to cover basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, and childcare (cityharvest.org). Housing and food are necessities for life, yet they are overpriced. This is one reason why people don’t have a lot of the resources they need. Homelessness and hunger are two very important topics that are hurting our world, and they need to be stopped.

Nineteen point five percent of New York is in poverty. However, in April 2018, there were 62,498 homeless people, including 15,176 homeless families with 22,801 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population. The government can help, but they aren’t helping. Houses cost so much money, but people need them. Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction, doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing, domestic violence, job loss, and hazardous housing conditions.

Research shows that, compared to homeless families, homeless single adults have much higher rates of serious mental illness, addiction disorders, and other severe health problems. Studies show that the large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems. African-American and Latino New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity (coalitionforthehomeless.org). Some people with privilege aren’t helping either. Most people feel like it is not their problem. Therefore, people are homeless. Homelessness leads to another important topic: hunger.

Nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers face hunger every year, including close to one in five New York City children. The number of food insecure people in NYC is larger than the population of Dallas, Texas (cityharvest.org). The USDA defines “food insecurity” as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. One in six children struggle with hunger. One in eight people struggle with hunger. People facing hunger in New York are estimated to report needing $1,242,696,000 per year to meet their food needs. Thirty-four point seven percent of households receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits have children (feedingamerica.org). In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%. Forty-nine million Americans struggle to put food on the table. In the US, hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty (dosomething.org). There is enough food, but people aren’t helping. The government can take action, but they aren’t. A reason people are hungry is because they don’t have money and food is overpriced. Some people with privilege aren’t helping either because they feel like it is not their problem. Therefore, people are hungry.

As you can see, homelessness and hunger are very important topics that are impacting New York and all over the world in a bad way. We need food and housing, yet most people can’t afford them. More people can be helping, yet most aren’t. I hope this essay will encourage people to help people in need or share their resources to the less fortunate. Some people don’t care or don’t think it’s their problem, but I hope they realize it is. Most people with privilege think they are better just because they have money, yet they don’t realize some people don’t have money at all. A lot of people who help don’t have some of the necessities for life and some don’t have any. All in all, we need to help the less fortunate for a better future.

 

Works Cited

Ink, Social. “Facts About Hunger.” City Harvest, www.cityharvest.org/facts-about-hunger/.

“Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City.” Coalition For The Homeless, www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/.

“New York.” Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/new-york/.

“11 Facts About Hunger in the US.” DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change, www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us.

 

The Situation

I have a secret. I know that we’re moving and that Dad has to stay behind because he has cancer, and they can’t take care of him where we are moving. Now, I’m confused about what to do. I’m going to go and break everything to Jake.

 

MAYRA goes to JAKE’s room and knocks on the door.

 

MAYRA: Knock, knock.

JAKE: Come in!!!

MAYRA: Um, Jake, can I talk to you about Dad please?

JAKE: Um, sure. About what, and why are you so serious too? Are you okay? Like, you’re worrying me?

MAYRA: Okay, umm here I go, um um, okay, so um.

JAKE: Mayra, just spill it already! I can’t take the tension!!!

MAYRA: Okay fine, we’re moving, and Dad’s not coming because he has cancer. Oh, and Mom said if you want Chick-fil-A.

JAKE: Whoa, you can’t drop a bomb like that then ask me about Chick-fil-A! So let me get this straight. We’re moving, and Dad can’t come because he has cancer. I am overwhelmed. Wait, when did he get diagnosed, and why did they tell you and not me? I’m the older sibling!!

MAYRA: Okay, Jake. Calm down, deep breath, and they didn’t tell me I wa /

JAKE: / Wait, please don’t tell me you eavesdropped on Mom and Dad again!!!

MAYRA: Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay, I didn’t eavesdrop. I just happened to walk by at the right moment, and I heard everything, so I freaked out and came to tell you.

JAKE: I’m going to tell Mom and Dad!

 

JAKE says as he goes downstairs with MAYRA rushing after him, yelling to not tell on her.

 

MAYRA: Noooooo! Do not tell Mom and Dad. They will kill me for telling you and eavesdropping on them and an /

JAKE: / Aha, I knew you were going to eavesdrop. I know you so well.

MOM: Don’t tell Mom and Dad what, and why will we kill you, Mayra? You’re not answering me!

MAYRA: We can’t tell you about the surprise trip we planned to the zoo, and you’d kill me for not telling you ‘cause I know you lovvvvvve penguins.

MOM: Awww, thank you! Let me call your father. Eric!!!

DAD: Yeah, Marilyn?!

MOM: Come down here. Mayra made a surprise for all of us to go to the zoo tomorrow.

 

DAD comes down the stairs and into kitchen where everyone else is.

 

DAD: Oh, well that’s nice but I can’t. Do you remember the “incident?”

MAYRA: What “incident?”

MOM: Oh, nothing.

 

Scene 2: The Zoo (Where MAYRA gets in trouble)

MOM: Alright, everyone get in the car. We’re going to the zoo. Woo hoo!

JAKE: I call shotgun!!!

MAYRA: What, no fair! You always get shotgun! Mom, tell him it’s not fair!!!

MOM: Sweetheart, just let your brother sit here, and coming back you can sit here. Is that okay?

MAYRA: Fine.

JAKE: Ha ha ha. I’m the favorite child, I’m the favorite child, I’m the favori / Ow!!

 

/ MAYRA knocks JAKE in the head.

 

MOM: Mayra!!

MAYRA: What? He was being annoying, and I shut him up.

MOM: Still, that’s not an excuse. Say sorry!

MAYRA: Sorry, uh not fair!

JAKE: Hahahahaha!

DAD: Bye, guys. Love you. Have fun.

 

They get out of the car and go to the seal exhibition.

 

MOM: I appreciate Mayra making the whole trip just for us.

MAYRA: No problem, Mom.

JAKE: I’m going to go buy something to eat. You guys are welcome to come.

 

While they are walking to go get something to eat, they pass by the penguin exhibit.

 

MOM: Look at the penguin, it looks miserable.

JAKE: Oh, yeah, like someone I know.

 

Myra looks at JAKE sternly.

 

Myra: Jake, shut up!

 

MAYRA gives her mom a concerned look.

 

MAYRA: (scratching arm) Mom, I have to tell you something.

MOM: (raising her eyebrow) Yeah, what?

MAYRA: Mom, I overheard you and Dad’s conversations yesterday. I know everything, I know Dad has cancer, and that we’re moving.

MOM: I can’t believe you eavesdropped on our conversation. We’re going home!

JAKE: (mouth full of food) What!? I started eating!

 

End Scene

 

MAYRA is in the hallway and knocks on her mom’s door, concerned and disappointed with her actions.

 

MAYRA: I’m sorry, Mom. I know you’re mad at me, but please just let me explain.

MOM: What? Mayra, I’ve made my decision, and no, I’m not mad. I’m upset! I’m glad you told me that you know, but you are going to have to pay with three weeks of chores.

MAYRA: What!! Three weeks, uh fine, whatever makes you happy.

MOM: Go upstairs, kiddo. Good night.

 

MAYRA runs upstairs and into JAKE’s room while slamming the door.

 

JAKE: What do you want? You cost me my zoo food!

MAYRA: Let’s sneak out to steal a penguin.

JAKE: Okay, I know you’re obsessed with penguins, but this is a whole new type of crazy. Mayra, how do you suppose to keep the penguin cool in a hot house in summer, and how are you going to get there and not get caught?

MAYRA: You have a license, right?

 

JAKE nods and looks at MAYRA very concerned.

 

MAYRA: Looks like I have my getaway car and driver.

JAKE: Oh no, you are not dragging me into this!

MAYRA: Pleasssse. I’ll tell Mom about Brittany!

JAKE: No, you know how Mom hates Brittany’s mom. Fine, I’ll go!

MAYRA: Yay, we’re stealing a penguin!

JAKE: Ssshhhh, we’ll get caught!

MAYRA: Awww, you said “we.” Yay!!

 

End Scene

 

MAYRA and JAKE leave the zoo. They are walking slowly down the corridor towards the parking lot. Myra cups her hands tightly over her mouth in an attempt to cover her devious grin. JAKE rolls his eyes.

 

JAKE: Okay, Mayra, this is your last chance. Are you sure you want to steal this penguin?

MAYRA: Jake, I know you’re worried that we’re gonna get caught, but just trust me.

JAKE: Fine, whatever, but I called backup. We have to pick her up, okay.

MAYRA: Please don’t say it’s Brittany.

JAKE: What do you have against my girlfriend? She’s nice and pretty and really likes me, so please try to be nice to her please.

MAYRA: Fine, whatever.

MAYRA: You know, I don’t want to steal the penguin anymore. I’m going to bed. Good night.

JAKE: I knew it would work. Wow, she really hates Brittany. Eh, at least I don’t have        

to steal a penguin.

MAYRA (to the audience): So in the end, we ended up not moving, and Dad got better which is a win in any way we can get. And Mom is happier than before, but I’m still grounded so…

 

Double-Double

Blake was just a normal fifth grader. He did all the things a fifth grader would do. He would do school, homework, and he worked hard like any student. The only thing that was different about him was at the age of 11, high schools were already asking for him. Ballislife, a famous YouTube channel, was going to his games to film him. He had amazing handles and was great at shooting from anywhere from the half court line. He always got that satisfying sound of swish as the ball sailed through the net.

His dad always pushed him. He was an accountant, so he traveled a lot. At the age of six, Blake got his first phone, so his dad could call him and make sure he was taking 1,000 shots a day. His dad did this to look over how Blake shot the ball and to make sure his form was good. This was because Blake’s dad was a superfan of basketball. His favorite team was the Minnesota Timberwolves. Of course after two days, Blake lost his phone. But give him a break, he was six! So they just got powerful walkie-talkies, which he lost after three days. Blake played in the summer league, winter league, spring league, and fall league for the Radnor league in Springfield. But he had never played on a travel team. A travel team was something that was way more competitive. All his REC leagues were too easy for him. He won every game because of the mercy rule. He would score so much, the other team would just give up.

One day, he picked up the mail. He always hoped he would get something in the mail. But until that day, there was never a letter for him. Until he was looking through today’s, and he saw one addressed to him. He was excited and anxious that there was a letter for him. He quickly ripped it open and saw it was a letter from East Coast Power addressed to 4 Pivite Drive. It said that they were interested in his abilities, and they wanted him to join their team. The last line said, First practice tomorrow.

 

The next day, he went to the practice, which happened to be five minutes away from his house. He saw Lebron’s son, Dwayne Wade’s son, and a lot of other NBA stars’ sons. He was so nervous because he saw the superstars of the NBA sitting on the bleachers.
The kids seemed to know him. They all said it was an honor to play with him. He thought, Wow, I am a prodigy in the making, aren’t I. He was told he was going to be the starting point guard by coach Tim, the head coach of the team.

His dad said, “We are going to start practicing a lot more. You are the starting point guard for the team that has won states 57 years in a row. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on you, Blake.”

“I know Dad, but I also need to focus on school,” said Blake.

“That’s a good way to think, Blake,” said his dad.

Blake’s school was named Radnor Elementary School. He was one of the most popular kids at school. His best friend was Derrick. He just so happened to be Derrick Rose’s son. They always hung out and played basketball. He played for 10U East Coast Power because he was young for his grade. He might have been the best basketball player the school had ever seen. It was between them two, but they never competed or fought about it. It wouldn’t make sense because they were probably both going to play. Everybody knew him from SportsCenter and YouTube. His brother was 18 and was on track to be the greatest Uber driver of all time. He was being tipped a lot of money all the time. His whole family was extremely intelligent because they were really resourceful. Blake himself wanted to go to Duke because they had a good athletics team and a great school community. Blake was a very outgoing guy to people he knew. To unknown people, he was shy. But when it came to basketball, he was the best player on the court. His only problem was when his dad was watching. He got scared. He was still really good, but not as good.

 

The first game was in one week. He was taking 5,000 shots a day. His dad was planning on quitting his job. His mom was thinking about it too. He didn’t want them to, but they said, “It’s best for us. You will be making millions of dollars in just one week.”

That was true as long as he got at least a double-double. There was a 99.9 percent chance he’d get that. He was probably going to get a triple-double. The only problem was his dad was going. He was afraid of his dad. What if he messed everything up? If he did, they would go broke.

 

One week later…

Game time. Blake got on his signature shoes. He was so nervous. What if he let down Dad? If he did, that would be the end of his career.

In the car on the way there, his dad gave him a pep talk. “I know you better than anyone else in the whole world. You can do this,” said Dad.

As they pulled up at the gym, Competitive Edge, Blake was all pumped up. Still nervous, but pumped. The team they were playing wasn’t great. They were called the Sun Devils. The only threat was their point guard, number four on the leaderboard in Minnesota. Blake was one, but it was still a threat. Tipoff Power got the tip. Blake got it. I’ve got this. He passed it to Eric, and he took the three. Swish. One assist on defense, one steal. Five minutes later, subs. He ended with seven points, five assists, and four steals. It was close. Only five assists, one three pointer, and he’d be set in the next half. He came in. He took one three and hit it. He just needed five assists. One, two, three, four, but then he went for a layup and came down the wrong way.

His dad came out on the court. “Come on. Get up, son. I know you can.’’

“I-I-I can’t.”

“It will be okay. You’ll get em’ next time, bud.”

 

Two weeks later…

“Coach said you have one more chance. It’s a better team though, so look out.”

Blake was still recovering, so he would play the next game against an even better team. He had one week. He started practicing more than ever. He went to the gym every single day for eight hours. Then, it was tomorrow. He had practiced 48 hours in the last six days. Tomorrow was the game. He knew he could do it. His shot was on. He made ten out of ten shots. He was sure he’d do it. The only problem was that he was sore from all the work he put in. Next thing you know, he was feeling pain all over his body. He was tired. He went to bed at 6:00 that night.

He woke up at 10:00 in the morning. The game started at six. He went out to Starbucks for an egg sandwich. It was nice and warm, and it consisted of bacon, fried egg, and cheddar cheese, his normal breakfast. The whole day, he felt pretty good. He took a three hour nap. He had thirty minutes to get ready. He got his shoes. He opened his golden case with his signature shoes. He got out his jersey and his basketball shorts. He went to the game. All his friends were there. They asked him if he was good.

He said, “Yeah, still worried though.”

He was excited. He knew he could do it. He started the game with a quick three pointer. He got scored on at the other end. Three minutes later, he had five points, two assists, and one steal. He got taken out after this. He would have ten minutes. His team was down by ten now. He would have to take the win and the double-double. He went in and scored his five points in less than two minutes. He just needed eight assists. He passed the ball so many times. His team was missing a lot. He was at eight assists when Zhaire Wade, Dwyane Wade’s son, was able to dunk. Blake kept passing to him. He kept scoring. There were 20 seconds left. He needed one more assist. Time out. They were down by one. They called pick and roll on Blake and Zhaire. He passed it to Zhaire. He shot. Score!!! They won the game. He did it. He made his dad proud. He finished with 29 points, ten assists, four rebounds, and eight steals.

His dad came out on the court. “You did it, bud. Now you can go to the Apple store and get yourself an iPhone X and go to the candy store, because you are makin’ your own money now!”

Blake went home knowing he was making lots of money.

 

BLAKE WILL BE BACK!

 

A Love For Liberty

          

One

My hands were about to slip. I couldn’t drop it again! If I did, we wouldn’t have anything to eat! It was the first treat I had been able to get my hands on since we were on the street. My hands always got slippery when I stole. My sister, on the other hand, had no problem taking things off other people’s doorstep! I couldn’t even take something that I found on the ground! My bounty was a beautiful, creamy Milky Way bar that Libby would just love. She might even forgive me for taking Lady with me as my guard dog. Not likely though. The only thing she liked more than that scruffy excuse for a dog was maybe my mother. Well, now Lady was the only thing she loved. Because her number one special thing had passed away.

 

I managed to grip the delicate Milky Way until I got to my sister. She wasn’t looking happy. “I woke up to no food, no dog, and no sister! Where have you been?!” Libby looked as though being without an animal had turned her into a wild one.

I held up the fruit of my struggles. “To get this.”

Libby snatched the candy bar out of my hand. “I earned this!” She ripped open the wrapping that had protected the candy from getting covered in dirt. Out of it came the most beautiful sight an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old could want. A smooth, sweet chocolate bar. The beautiful sight soon disappeared. But the smudges of chocolate on my sister’s lips remained.

 

The average day for us wasn’t very active. When you live in New York, you already have all your options laid out in front of you. You can go on one of the subways and beg for money, but that is on Wednesdays. You can steal only on Tuesdays, but my sister usually broke that rule whenever she could. Although I pretended to look down upon it, I was actually grateful; we needed all the supplies we could get in order to leave this place.

 

Two

Ellis. That is what they used to call me. It is what she used to call me. My mother. Most of my school friends call me Ellie or just L. But my mother insisted that I allow her to call me Ellis. It was my proper name. My original name. And according to her, my correct name. But I always think. Is proper and original always correct? That question bounces around in my head from time to time. But today I couldn’t afford to daydream.

 

Today was the day that we needed to pack up. The day we needed to leave no trace. The day the police come to kick us out. I needed to quickly gather my and my sister’s stuff before the authorities arrived. My sister and I didn’t agree on many things, but we both agreed that we wouldn’t be put in an orphanage. We both knew that being in an actual home would just make us more homesick. Even more homesick than we were already. It would be like only seeing the chocolate on my sister’s lips. You can never have that sweetness.

 

Three

I had finally finished packing. I hadn’t seen Libby since I had told her to pack. I was hoping that she had gotten right to it and not put it off. For once I had trusted her, and I hope she didn’t abuse that. I hope…

Oh, what the heck! She’s my little sister! Why would she do anything that I told her to! I rushed over to our tent. Sure enough, she was grooming Lady. Our now pampered pet was loving it. She looked as though she was in a spa, having the time of her life. “Libby, the police are coming in five minutes! How could you! This isn’t a game, This isn’t pretend, it’s real life. And you keep treating it as a joke! Why can’t you just grow up!” I grabbed her wrist. I dragged her over to her stuff that was untouched in a giant mound. I scooped all of it up, and it went right into Libby’s lap. She opened her mouth to reply, probably with a snotty remark about it being a free country. I shut her down quickly with a small remark about how she was lucky I was helping her pack and not on my way.

 

Finally, we finished cramming our things into a bag. We turned to leave, but then I realized I had forgotten something. I turned back only to see the disconcerting lights that alerted me of the police that were so close. But I needed to reach it. I ran through the alley that we had slept in. I ran past the fire escape that we had used as a clothes hanger. I reached the place where I had tucked the package. I managed to stay out of sight of the police. I grabbed the package and dashed away from the scene. My sister and I sprinted away from the alley we had called home. I opened my hand, revealing a dirty handkerchief. And in my world, it was the “most correct” thing that came into my life.

 

Six months earlier…

 

Four

Everything was quiet. It seemed like we would never have a home. Maybe we were meant to be without a home for the rest of our lives. I still remember his last words. “Bring me a gift from the ocean.” Not “I love you” or “you will always have a place in my heart.” I was kind of angry. I admit I wasn’t expecting a request. But it did make sense. Every morning the old man would bring us to a beach and just stare out into the ocean. “It’s perfect,” he would always tell us. Even though it was a complicated request, I was determined to fulfill it. Since Libby, Lady, and I were now homeless once again.

 

Libby and I both knew we were going to do it. We were going to give the old man who had taken us in a gift.

 

Since we were homeless, traveling far had become more complicated. For one thing, we didn’t have any money. No, I mean we didn’t even have a penny. We could either walk to the nearest beach, which was Coney Island, or somehow gather enough money to take the train to Coney Island. We couldn’t walk because in Manhattan the chances are too high of being plucked out of the crowds that flooded the streets. My little sister would refuse to hold my hand, and she would 99.99999% get lost. All this rushed through my head while on the outside tears were running down my face. My hands making tiny fists. I was able to feel two emotions at once. I was able to cry and curl up into a little ball, but at the same time get back up again and stand tall. My sister was right next to me, but if you looked into her eyes, you would realize she was light years away. I needed to get started.

I whispered in my sister’s ear, “Follow me.” I walked out of the room that held the last person who would ever take us in.

 

Five

We walked along the sidewalk. My sister’s hands swaying at her sides. We both felt as alone as we did when we walked away from the police. When they told us we didn’t have a mother. No, we had a giant bottle of liquor. And a glass bottle can’t take care of kids. We only had Lady. And each other. But my sister and I were more distant than your average siblings. We were both reminders for each other that we used to have a real family. Sometimes, we were just objects to each other. Objects that could be hugged. Or yelled at. We weren’t sisters. We weren’t even companions. We helped out each other without talking.

“We need to get a job,” I told Libby.

Libby only nodded. Being at even the beginning of that funeral had softened both of us. “Where do I go?” My sister looked up questioningly.

I had an idea. “You go to a place with shade and start singing. You start getting people to come over and put money in your hat.”

I laid out what she should do by talking and drawing in the dirt. Libby nodded. She never sang. My sister was very self conscious, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t do whatever she could to make money. As a toddler she was always coming up with crazy money making ideas to get presents for people. Just because my sister comes across as a mean little sister, she gets beautiful things for the people she loves. This wasn’t going be like the time I told her to pack. She wasn’t doing this for me. She was doing it for the old man that had taken us in. The old man that had given us food. The old man that had taught us to care about other people. The man who showed us the bridges to different worlds.

 

When we came to the old man’s house, he took us to the ocean.

He said, “You need to understand.”

We went along with it because he had just fed us after he caught us looking through his trash. When we got to the beach, he showed us how we could see where the water ended. And that where the water ended was where the bridges to different worlds started. But for most people, the water just ended. The reason was because they hadn’t visited that world yet. My sister and I both knew that the oceans connected the different places in the world. But we thought that it sounded much more foreign to us. The way the old man said it, it seemed like he had visited these places. But we knew that the old man had never left America.

 

I left my sister at the spot she had picked to sing and set off to find a way for me to make money. I wasn’t born with a beautiful mellifluous voice like my sister’s, but I was older, and I expected myself to make more money than her. I could walk dogs. But I doubted anyone would want a 14-year-old girl to take care of their precious dogs. I could shovel snow? If it was winter. Suddenly, I had an idea. I set up a little stand and started to shout like someone at a carnival.

“Step right up, step right up! Get your fortunes right here! Told to you by a dog!”

As a little kid, I took ventriloquist classes. I could speak for our dog, Lady. It was a trick I took up to cheer my sister up in the days where we spent hours in our room. One little girl walked by and asked her mom if she could get her fortune told by a dog. They had a bit of an argument, but the little girl seemed to have the upper hand. They came over and asked how much it cost to get a fortune. I told them the price, and they looked surprised.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

“Yes, who told you to ask for that little amount of money?” The woman’s brows furrowed.

When I didn’t answer, she handed me three times as much as I asked her for. “Thank you so much,” I stuttered, shoving the money in my pocket. I would count it later…

 

I Won’t Stop Fighting

       

I am soaring

I am roaring

Protecting my innocence

No I’m not listening

 

I thought I failed

I thought I should bail

But that’s not me

And now I can see

 

I craved the attention

Oh and did I mention

I’m ready to start brand new

No more feeling blue

 

I give my hate to the wind

I’d give to have no more sins

But that’s just not how it goes

You and I both know

 

I’d take away the pain and suffering

My whole life I’ve been wondering

What it would be like without the mad and the sad

Without all of the hate and the bad

 

I dream of a place much simpler than this

A place I would surely miss

All I have to do when it gets too deep

A drift away to a happy sleep

 

I love how people can start to stand tall

How they peep above the wall

To see the other side

All the wonders it would hide

 

It hurts the most when I see it everyday

How they cause havoc with whatever they say

Pushing each other around doing whatever they want

The worst part is, they never caught

 

I fear of what people will become

Because we get judged from where we came from

Or the color of skin

Or whether they’re fat or thin

 

I forget that people could live as one

Because at the end of the day we bleed the same blood

It doesn’t matter where your from or where you go

Or if you’re different anywhere head to toe

 

I forgave the people long ago

Who did horrible things, but they didn’t know

But now it’s not a mystery

Come change the world with me

 

I won’t give up on hope and love

I’ll just wish on the stars above

Hoping for it to be different

But love is significant

 

I will persevere

But everyday, someone sheds a tear

Saving the world will be exciting

But I won’t ever stop fighting

 

The Amazing Aliens

    

Chapter One: The Awesome Idea

“Emily, Emily!” Sasha shouted. “I have the best idea ever. Do you want to hear it?”

“Yes please,” said Emily.

“How about we look for a new planet?” said Sasha.

“What about Kiki? Can she come?” asked Emily.

“Sure,” said Sasha.

“Let’s go to Tooth to get her,” said Emily.

“The planet is called Mint.”

“Woo hoo!” screamed Emily. The two best friends jumped over to Tooth (since Tooth was in close proximity to Cookie). The two friends went searching for Kiki. Within ten minutes, they realized that Kiki was chasing them (not for the spaceship, but as a joke). They were all laughing their heads off for one hour straight. Once they stopped laughing, they entered Sasha’s spaceship and flew around the big star, looking for an awesome planet.

 

Chapter Two: The Planet Mint

In only a few minutes, they reached planet Mint.

“This looks beautiful,” said Emily.

“I don’t know about that,” said Kiki.

“Well, it’s our very own planet, so the both of you should be happy, okay,” said Sasha.

“Now we have to build this planet’s furniture.”

“Okay, it’s a good thing Emily and I packed in advance,” said Sasha.

“Let’s build!” said Kiki.

There were beautiful decorations and purple wood paneling available for use. It took an entire week to build and decorate everything. Sasha wanted to get her old friends back from Cookie land. Sasha and Kiki decided to travel to planet Tooth to pick up Kiki’s friends as well. Emily stayed back to keep an eye out for potential villains. Within a few minutes, the other friends arrived. They had a party planned for that night and stayed up until 3:00 am. They were all incredibly tired but excited for the next upcoming party, which was promised to last until 11:00 pm. Everybody went home at 11:05 pm. Once Sasha, Kiki, and Emily arrived home, they immediately fell asleep. There was a scary creature slithering around the night sky.

It was an evil villain! It was tall in stature. Sasha didn’t see it, but it always came during the evening time. She heard it in the middle of the night. She told Emily and Kiki. They saw it flee before morning.

In the morning, they looked for it. But they were never successful in locating it. They went back to Chocolate Chip, but they still couldn’t find it. They went to Cookie land, and they still couldn’t find it. They went to a different planet called Blob. It looked like a green blob. They saw an evil villain. The creature was trying to go really fast, but Sasha, Emily, and Kiki collectively captured it. The evil villain was an alien snake. It had a long body and ten piercing eyes. It was a terrifying sight.

 

Chapter Three: The Evil Rattlesnake

They realized that the evil snake was actually an evil alien. The creature transformed back into an alien. It was a spitting image of Sasha. It looked similarly to when it was a snake, it was just in an alien form. It had a short body with arms and legs and two eyes, and it wore a shirt and pants. The creature was very cruel. He was continuously punching them. Finally, he decided to reveal his name.

“My name is Steph,” he said.

Steph was living on a planet where there were lots of aliens. Instead of transforming, he said it was just like Halloween every day for him. He apologized for punching them. Steph then went back to his planet. He wasn’t allowed to leave his other planet. He would sneak out every night. He traveled with Sasha, Kiki, and Emily to Space Town.

They arrived at Space Town and hid Steph in their house because he didn’t want to be seen. They went back to Blob, where Steph lived. They had the opportunity to meet his parents.

 

Chapter Four: Ten New Planets

The next morning, Kiki, Emily, Sasha, and Steph went to a bookstore on Chocolate Chip. This was their first time on Chocolate Chip, and it looked like a bookstore. After they got books at Chocolate Chip, they went to school. They had to go to Planet Blob for school. They floated to each planet. It went fast because there was a tunnel. You’re able to go to whatever place you want. Sasha, Emily, Steph, and Kiki were in class Z. Ms. P was the name of the homeroom teacher. In school, they had to have a contest. It was to find as many planets as you possibly could and write them down. If you found the most planets, you got a big prize for each of the aliens on your team.

Emily, Sasha, Kiki, and Steph made a team. They searched for ten planets. They began with Chocolate Chip, the bookstore, and they got to Blob, their town. They went to a camp that was named Clip, and they found another planet for evil people that was called Villains. That place had evil villains on it, and they were just like Steph before he became a friend, so they didn’t go on it for a while. Then, they went to a glass making place called Glass, and they found another place called Planet, and inside Planet there were four more planets that were named Oreo, Juice, Tree, and Jungle. And the last planet was named Pants. The next day, they were going to hand the paper in.

 

Chapter Five: Winners

The next morning, Emily, Sasha, Kiki, and Steph went to school. They gave the paper to Ms. P. Ms. P looked at it for a long time. Ms. P finally said, “Sit down and wait for the other aliens to come back.” They sat for a while. Still, nobody came. The other aliens were still looking for the planets. They finally came back with nothing on their papers.

Ms. P was so disappointed at them. They got detention, and Steph, Emily, Sasha, and Kiki were the winners. They got a huge golden trophy.

“Great job,” said Ms. P.

 

Chapter Six: The Big Secret

Steph went over to Sasha’s house to have a playdate. That’s when Sasha saw something on Steph’s face that looked the same as hers. It was the same ugly scar that she had. They also had the same eye color, a dark brown.

“Steph, what is your last name?” asked Sasha.

“Curry,” Steph replied.

“We might be brother and sister.”

“Why?”

“Because my last name is Curry.”

“What?! That’s awesome.”

“I know!!!”

Sasha and Steph hugged each other, and then Emily, Kiki, Sasha, and Steph all lived together.

 

Moving Away

It’s hard to move to a new house when your parents want to live and see a new place, but it is even harder to move to a new house when you are expecting a baby. Especially when almost all my friends are asking me these questions. They were asking questions like “when are you moving” and “where are you moving to.” It’s really annoying and stressful. Even if your best friend is always telling them that if they wanted to talk to me, they had to talk about something else. One day after Laura had told them what she told every day, they just stood there. I knew that after a few seconds they would burst out. Then when they just stood there, Laura took my hand and led me to the bench in the playground, away from everybody else. I felt a little nervous even though I’d known Laura since we were little kids. I knew Laura would want to talk to me about the new house and didn’t want to talk about the new house at all, but I knew I owed Laura an explanation to my behavior. And all my other friends… why were they acting so nosey and making me nervous and uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong, Aine?” she asked me in a concerned voice. “You seem different. A little bit paler and more quiet.”

“I don’t want to move,” I said. “I’ve lived in my house all my life, and I’m nervous and a bit sad to be leaving it. I’m excited about the baby, but I can’t believe I have to leave all my memories from my old house behind.” I thought about my bedroom and knowing where everything was. I could walk that house with my eyes closed. I was going to miss it. I knew that I had been acting less playful and being more quiet lately. It was only a matter of time that Laura would notice something was up.

“Your new house is going to be great, don’t worry,” Laura said, reassuring me.

“Let’s stop talking about the house,” I said, feeling a bit better. Laura usually gave good advice. I’m grateful for my clever, kind friend. “Maybe we should go on the swings.”

 

to talk with my parents about the move.

“Everybody at school keeps asking me when we are moving and where we are going to move to,” I said to them.

“We will be moving soon, sweetie,” my mom said, rubbing her belly, “and then they will all stop asking you these questions because they will know about it.”

“You know it’s unusual to move in our town,” Dad said.

We were sitting in my bedroom, the bedroom I loved and was soon going to move out of. I started to cry thinking about leaving this room.

My mom looked over at me and said, “Aine, it’s all right. All your furniture will be moved to the new house. We can make the room look the same.”

“But it won’t be the same,” I moaned.

I couldn’t understand why we have to move and see someplace new and have more adventures in the new place. It just wasn’t fair. I knew another person meant that we needed more space, but it all seemed unfair to me. The next day, Laura and I sat on the same bench we sat on yesterday outside of the playground.

I told Laura, “I’m moving in a week. You can tell the others that ‘cause they’ve obviously been wanting to know that for ages.”

I knew that as soon as the group of girls from my school walked by my house last week and saw me packing that they would start asking questions. They told everyone that I was moving, and now everyone was curious about when it would happen. People don’t usually move in our neighborhood, so everyone was curious.

“Don’t talk like that!” Laura said. I felt uneasy like I wanted to run away from that spot, but stayed on that bench in the playground. With Laura.

“Well, it’s true,” I said.

“Yes but even though I know I won’t tell anyone that you are moving in a week. So have you seen the house?”

“Not yet. I’m seeing the new house in two days, on Thursday.”

Ring, ring —

“There’s the bell. We’d better go to class,” Laura said.

“Yeah, let’s go, c’mon.”

 

“This is the first time I’m taking a half day of school, and I’m going to look at my new house,” I said. It was a bright sunny morning. There were very few clouds in the sky, and we were standing outside Green Hill Waldorf School. I was feeling nervous for the first time at my school.

And in my first few classes, I could not concentrate. By lunch I felt a little bit dizzy. And by the time Mom showed up, I felt so dizzy that the door frame seemed to be tipping slightly to the left. Mom definitely noticed something that Laura hadn’t. Mom brought me to the school nurse. She gave some pills to swallow. I felt better after that, but I was still shaking slightly. We got into the car. I waved to Laura. She waved back.

 

We pulled up into the driveway of a beautiful white house with a gabled roof. We got out of the car and walked towards the house. I was feeling nervous. We pushed on the door, and it swung open easily. We walked into the house, and we hadn’t put our furniture in there yet, but I could imagine all of it in place. The first room was a big room with a fireplace. Next to the fireplace there was a wooden door that led into a long narrow room with a sink, an oven, a dishwasher, and a lot of other kitchen supplies. We walked into a room to the left of the kitchen, and there was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. As we walked up the stairs, we saw a few rooms once we reached the top of the second floor. Almost all of them looked to me, like bedrooms — except one that stood out. It was the smallest room, and it seemed to be a bathroom because it had a sink and toilet and a bathtub. Then, there was the biggest room and two small ones. One for me and one for the baby, I thought. We checked out every room, but outside the sun was setting.

Mom said, “We have to go now,” before it gets too dark. I was surprised by how much I liked the house. It was nice, but this feeling turned bittersweet quickly when I remembered my old house and how much I would miss it.

The next morning, I told Laura all about the house.

She said, “It sounds nice!” trying to support me, “but I understand that you will miss your old house too.”

I felt that same bittersweetness I felt when I left the new house yesterday. Laura saw that something was different, so she didn’t say anymore.

The next morning, I woke up, and I knew it was the big day: moving day. I heard many trucks pulling up to take our things to the new house. I got up quickly, pulled on the first clothes I could find, and ran downstairs full of nervous sadness and excitement. Mom was packing some things to eat for breakfast so that we could go right away and start unpacking. We got our stuff, got into the car, and followed the trucks. I watched my old house out the window as we drove away, and I felt really sad to be leaving it.

I asked Mom who would be moving into our old house, and she replied “We have met them once… they were really nice!”

After a few minutes, she pulled up into our new driveway. We got out, and the truck drivers got out as well. We all started taking stuff into the house, and I began to quickly pick up boxes and move them into the new house. I was both nervous and excited, so I moved quickly. Finally, we had gotten most of the stuff into the house, and only had a few boxes left.

Mom said, “Let’s eat the stuff we packed for breakfast! It’s getting really late, and I am sure we all feel really hungry.”

We agreed. I was starving. We started eating our sandwiches and fruit.

Mom and Dad told me I could explore while they took the rest of the boxes in. I ran all around the house, eager to check out the new space. I saw a ladder going up to the attic that I hadn’t noticed last time. I was curious so decided to go take a look. I quickly climbed up the ladder, and finally, panting, I arrived at the top. When I stood up I saw a door leading to a room in the attic. I walked into the room, and there was just old furniture. In the middle of the room however, there was a creature. It had the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. I was scared. I ran out of the room, slammed the door behind me, and quickly climbed down the ladder.

I didn’t tell my family what I had seen in the attic. I probably will not see it again anyway, I thought to myself. We started unpacking the boxes, even though we knew we wouldn’t finish unpacking it all today. We decided to try anyway. By the end of the day, we had gotten out a couch and a few chairs and put them together, but nothing else. We slept on mats on the floor, and in the morning I woke up feeling sore and still tired.

I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. I was too much awake. With everyone else still asleep, and my mind free to wander, I started thinking about the creature I had seen. I thought about how the creature hadn’t harmed me, and I decided to go up again and see it. I needed to get breakfast, but I wanted to go up and see it as soon as possible. I went upstairs and climbed the ladder. I walked to the door, pushed it open, and was welcomed with a huge shock. The room had changed completely, except for the huge creature who still stood in the middle. Instead of old dusty boxes and furniture, it looked exactly like a kitchen. The kitchen did not look like the one in our new house, however, it looked like the kitchen in Laura’s house. I peered past the creature, and there was exactly what I needed: breakfast. Cereal and a jug of milk sat behind him, and so I walked towards it. I tried to get around the creature, but he roared at me with his lion face. Terrified, I ran out of the room and back down the stairs.

When I got downstairs, I saw that it looked like my parents were awake. I asked them for some breakfast, and it came right away. As I ate, I could not stop thinking about the creature, and how the room had changed, and how the room had exactly what I needed. Thinking about the kitchen, I remembered that it was Laura’s kitchen, and Laura was coming over today, and I could show her the creature and the room.

Finally, the doorbell rang. I jumped up and opened the door. There stood Laura and her parents. My parents and Laura’s parents started chatting, and Laura and I slipped upstairs. We climbed up the ladder and walked to the room. As we were walking, I told Laura all about the room, the creature, and how it roared at me. Laura seemed a bit scared by the time we had reached the room. She pushed the door open and gasped as she saw the creature. I looked at the room. This time, it was completely white, and there was nothing behind the creature now.

Laura was really surprised. “There is nothing in the room,” Laura said, “besides this creature!”

“We will come back when the room is more exciting,” I said. “Right now it’s just this creature.”

We walked back out and started helping unpack. I knew by the end of today that we would be finished unpacking.

My room was the last to unpack. We put my bed together, placed the covers on the bed, and put the carpet and the drawer next to my bed and lamp. We filled the room with everything else that was in my old room. Then we had lunch and went outside the house. We rested in some chairs outside my house and talked and played until dinner time. Then, I climbed into my bed. It did not feel the same even though it was the same. Finally, after laying for a while I fell asleep.

Mom was right when she said that everybody was going to stop asking me about the move. Everybody who had been asking me the questions became my friends again, but I still had the creature and the room in my mind. Laura and I spent our days trying to think about how we could get the creature to do what we wanted it to do. All we could think of was to train it like you do to a dog, but we knew that would not work. We had to think every day, and finally one day we were having a sleepover, and we went up to the attic to think. Then it came to me: if the room had whatever you needed, it would have the thing we needed to tame the creature.

“How would we get past the creature, to get the thing?” said Laura.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

We went into the room anyway. The creature seemed more aggressive than ever once we entered. It charged at us the minute that we got into the room. We jumped aside, terrified. The creature backed up and charged again — this time at Laura. I jumped on its back. As soon as I did this, it flew into the air with its eagle wings. It did not seem able to get down while I was on its back. Laura looked at the thing behind the creature. It seemed to be some sort of ball.

She picked up the ball and said, “Come down!” The creature did exactly what she said. We were amazed. I jumped off its back. “Don’t harm us!” she commanded again at the creature. We ran out of the room and hid the ball in my new bedroom. We knew the creature could not get it.

A few weeks passed, and Laura and I didn’t really know or need to use the ball or go visit the creature. That was until one Friday afternoon after a particularly rough day of school. I was finding it hard to focus on school work with all the newness of moving, so when I got my English essay back and saw that I got a C, I was pretty upset. The only thing that comforted me was the thought of Laura coming over later on after school that day. When she got here, she suggested we play ball and that sounded good to me. We went to take the ball outside, and when I walked to the screen door that lead to the backyard and tried to slide it open, it would not budge. I never had any trouble opening the screen door at my old house. We were thinking what to do when we remembered the creature. We ran up to my room and grabbed the glass ball, then hurried up the ladder. We pushed the door to the attic open and stepped inside.

The creature ran at us, but I shouted “Stop!” and held up the glass ball, and the creature froze.

Laura and I asked the creature to help us open the screen door, and he obeyed.

He flew around the house, and finally he got to the screen. We asked him again to open the door. Slowly, so that we could see what he was doing, the creature placed one of his hoofs on the handle, spun it around three times, and then pushed the door open. We ran outside and thanked the creature. We saw the creature fly away and back up to the attic, so we began to play with the ball. When it started to get dark, we had to leave, and my parents came home.

A few days later, I woke up before my parents, hungry for something to eat. I went into the kitchen and yanked on the handle of the cupboard the same way I always did to open it and get some cereal. It did not pull open.

“Oh yeah… different cupboard” I reminded myself.

I crept up to the attic to get the help of the creature. I had the glass ball, and I raised it up as I stepped into the room.

I whispered, “Can you help me open the cupboard drawer?” to him.

The creature flew quietly out of the room and down to the kitchen. I followed quickly and quietly. He put his hoof on the handle of the cupboard and put a lot of weight onto it. It flew open. I thanked the creature and did something I never had done before. I reached out my hand, and I pet the creature on the head and said, “Thanks” one more time. The creature nodded his head at me and flew quietly back to his room in the attic.

As I ate my cereal, I was thinking of what I could name the creature. I wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl, so I decided to ask Laura for advice when I went to school. Right before school, I hurried to Laura and told her about what I was thinking. I told Laura to come to my house after school so that we could figure out what to name the creature. That night, we took the glass ball once more and hurried up to the attic. We had our plan all ready. We ran into the room and called into the glass ball before anything else could happen.

“Fly to the top of the room if you are a girl, and stay where you are if you are a boy!” we commanded.

The creature flew into the air until it reached the top of the room.

“Thank you!” we said and then hurried out of the room. Now we knew that the creature was a girl.

“What are you going to name her?” Laura asked, once we got back downstairs.

“I don’t know!” I said. “You have to help me figure it out.” We went to my bedroom and sat on my bed.

“The creature is in your house, Aine,” said Laura.

“Yes, but you helped me get the glass ball,” I said.

“What about ‘Wings?’” said Laura.

“Just because she has wings doesn’t mean we have to call her Wings!” I said.

“… but she looks like a ‘Wings!’” said Laura.

“What about Wither Wings?” I said, offering a compromise. “That way it’s Wings and something else.”

“Okay,” said Laura. “Wither Wings is a nice name.”

 

Two weeks later, I woke up with a fever, and my mom would not let me go to school. All morning, I felt grumpy and bored, so I decided to entertain myself and visit Wither Wings. I grabbed the ball and climbed the ladder into the room. I wondered if I could ever make Wither Wings talk. That was probably impossible even with the ball.

“Hi,” I said to the creature, testing to see if it could speak. Wither Wings did not answer. I guess I had to communicate with Wither Wings by motions, since she couldn’t speak. I waved at Wither Wings, not entirely sure what “want” I had come there to fulfill. She flapped her wings back at me. Mom was about to leave the house, and I decided that maybe I could ride Wither Wings after she left and nobody would know.

Just then, I heard Mom call, “Bye!”

“Bye!” I called back. I heard the door shut, and the noise of car wheels driving down the driveway. I got on Wither Wings and called into the ball which I had brought just in case, “Fly!”

Wither Wings took off. She flew down the stairs and around the living room. I was having a lot of fun. I managed to spin the door knob once, then she zoomed around the room twice, and finally we went past the door knob once more, I spun it one last time and pushed it open. Wither Wings flew out of the door immediately out into the backyard and the open air. She zoomed around the backyard and made to go out on the street, but I turned her back around. Finally, it seemed Wither Wings was getting tired, so I called into the glass ball, “Go back home!” She flew back through the door, up the stairs, up the ladder, and into her room. I waved goodbye, and then I ran back downstairs to get some lunch.

The next day, I was feeling better, and Mom let me go to school. I told Laura all about riding Wither Wings and what an adventure it was. She asked if she could ride Wither Wings one time, and I told her she could if we had enough time when my parents were out and we were in the house alone. We decided to ask our mothers for a sleepover. After school that night, I waited for mom to come home. When she walked through the door, I asked her immediately for the sleepover.

She said, “Tomorrow night?” placing her hand on her belly with a tired look on her face… “Which house?”

“This house!” I said.

She told me she had to think about it.

After dinner, she looked a bit better. “Yes, you can have Laura sleepover tomorrow,” she said, “but your dad and I are going out so you will be here alone.”

“Okay!” I said. We were very excited. The day passed by slowly, but evening finally came. We ran all the way to my new house, and we slammed the screen door behind us. We raced up the stairs and appeared panting in front of the ladder.

“Well,” said Laura, “you go up first!” I climbed up the ladder still taking steady breaths as I climbed, Laura at my heels. When we reached the attic, we could hear the heavy breath of Wither Wings. We stepped into the room.

“We’re back,” I said. Laura swung her leg over Wither Wings. I did the same. “Fly,” I said absentmindedly. Wither Wings, to my surprise, rose into the air. The ball was still in my pocket.

 

The Magic Rhino

        

Chapter One: Hard Things

“It’s snowing!” MAGIC MAN said.

“It’s snowing,” mocked mathemagician.

“It’s snowing great! Snowing is bad. When will you learn your lesson?” said mathemagician.

“Never. Because snowing is good,” said MAGIC MAN.

“No it’s not. It’s bad for the Earth.”

“No it’s not!”

“Yes it is.”

“No it’s not.”

“Mother! Isn’t snowing bad for the Earth?”

“Not exactly.”

MAGIC MAN grinned.

His bro frowned.

Then, it was time for breakfast, so they sulked to the table.

At the table, MAGIC MAN told them how he broke his foot at school and that the nurse said he should wear a cast for two or three months.

His mother said, “Why didn’t you tell me? Let’s get it on right away.”

So, he got his cast on and went to Sunday school.

 

At Sunday school, he learned that rhinos have been around for 500 years.

And he wanted to be a rhino.

But then, he remembered that magic wands could not put a spell on themselves. He also remembered that he could turn into a parrot. Maybe then, he could turn into a rhino. So he tried, but he could not do it.

 

Chapter Two

Forty-five years later…

MAGIC MAN had almost forgotten it, but he tried again. Still no parrot.

Then, he remembered that he could not turn into a parrot unless he was a senior. So, he waited another 11 years. He tried and poof, standing in his place was a beautiful, golden, new parrot. But he realized he could not turn into a rhino.

Then, he remembered that he could have turned into a rhino 45 years ago. But not now. You can only turn into a rhino if you are 45 or younger. But then, a magician with no wand, one that knew this parrot wanted to be a rhino, turned the parrot into a magic wand. And all he did was sing a special song:

I don’t want him to be a parrot, rhino, or pooh. Just a magic wand.

With that, the parrot was a magician wand.

The magician picked him up, waved him a little, and walked away with a magic wand in his hands.

 

The End

 

The Orphans

Katherine sat on the porch of the orphanage and watched the sun go down.

“Katherine! It’s dinner time. The mistress is getting mad, and she won’t wait any longer,” said Sadie, who was her best friend. Katherine hopped off the porch banister and ran inside. Once she was in the dining hall, she saw the mistress red-faced, and she stomped towards Katherine and grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her to a seat.

“Katherine, I will be getting rid of you, and when I mean getting rid of you, you will be adopted,” the mistress said with a smile. Katherine knew that the mistress hated her the most. “But it will not only be you. It will also be Mackenzie,” she said, and everyone knew that Mackenzie was the mistress’s favorite.

After dinner, Katherine put everything in her ripped up farmers market bag and laid down, but before she could go to sleep, there was a knock at the door. Katherine walked to the door and opened it, and the second she opened it, Sadie hugged her.

“Don’t go. Please don’t go,” Sadie whispered. She knew why Sadie was saying this. It’s because Sadie did not have any other friends.

Katherine pulled herself away from Sadie. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here. I need a family. It’s been twelve years without a mom or a dad, and I need one,” Katherine said with tears in her eyes.”

“I get it. You care more about a family than your friends,” Sadie said angrily.

“No, it’s not like that,” Katherine yelled. Sadie shook her head and left the room. Katherine closed the door and headed back to bed.

The next day at 8:00 am, a carriage with a woman and a man stopped in front of the orphanage. Katherine ran down the stairs to the entrance. Once she saw her new parents, she felt happy inside, but she did not see Sadie. Then, sadness fell over her.

“Hi, girls. This is Lily and James, and they will be your new guardians,” said the mistress.

Katherine and Mackenzie shook Lily and James’ hands, and they both jumped into the carriage. Before Katherine got into the carriage, she saw Sadie looking out of the window. A tear rolled down Katherine’s cheek, and she jumped into the carriage. Once they got to their new house, Katherine was starving, and their house was huge. They even had a pool. Once they got inside the house, Lily and James showed Katherine and Mackenzie’s room.

“You girls will be sharing a room, and you each have your own bed,” said James.

“And you each get your own maid,” Lily said while pointing to a bell on each of the beds. Lily and James left the room.

“So Katherine, do you like this house?” Mackenzie said shyly.

“I guess,” said Katherine. Mackenzie turned around.

“Okay, you may think I was the mistress’s favorite, but I hate the mistress,” said Mackenzie.

“Girls, breakfast is ready!” said Lily from the dining room downstairs.

The girls trotted down stairs and sat at down at the long dining table.

“So Mackenzie, tell us about your parents,” said James. Mackenzie froze and ran away, and everyone stayed silent.

After breakfast, Katherine found Mackenzie crying on her bed. “I don’t know my parents,” Mackenzie said between tears.

“Well, I don’t know my parents either, but you should at least be truthful with Lily and James,” said Katherine.

The next morning, there was a carriage waiting for Mackenzie.

“Mack, there’s a carriage waiting for you,” said Lily.

Katherine looked outside the window and saw the mistress in front of the entrance. She ran out of her room and down the stairs to the entrance, but she was too late. The carriage was almost all the way down the road. Katherine went back to her room and laid down on Mackenzie’s bed. A couple minutes later, Lily and James were standing at the foot of Mackenzie’s bed. Katherine jumped up from Mackenzie’s bed and hugged Lily and James, and then Katherine looked up at them.

“Where did Mack go?” Katherine asked.

“Well she, for some reason, went back to the orphanage,” said James.

Katherine’s eyes started to water, and she hugged Lily and James again. That afternoon, it was so hot that they had to stay inside, so Katherine secretly started to plan a rescue mission. Her plan was to go out at 10:00 pm, grab one of the horses from the stables, and she would ride to the orphanage and sneak in and grab Mack.

At 10:00 pm, Katherine was already at the stables. She grabbed a beautiful white stallion named Snowball, and she hitched her up. When she got to the orphanage, she knew that there was a secret passage in the back which led to the kitchen, and the kitchen was very close to the bedrooms. Once she got in to the secret tunnel, she remembered the times she and Sadie tried to escape, but the mistress always caught them. She kept crawling. Once she got to the kitchen, she was glad that she could finally walk, but she also had to keep quiet or else the mistress would keep her from going home. Once she got to the bedroom hall, she got so worried that she would wake everyone up. When she got to Mack’s bedroom, she had to be very careful. Once she got the door opened, she quickly walked into the bedroom and quietly closed the door. Once she was next to the bed, she started to slowly shake Mack.

“Katherine, is that you?” Mack asked.

“Yes, now be quiet. I’m saving you from this dump,” said Katherine.

Mack climbed out of bed and quietly went to her dresser. “So how are we getting out of this dump,” said Mack while getting clothes out of her dresser.

“Well, we are going to climb out the window because we are so close to the ground,” said Katherine looking out the window.

After Mackenzie finished packing up, Katherine opened the window and started climbing out, but then the door burst open and there was the mistress. Katherine jumped out of the window followed by Mackenzie, and they ran right to Snowball while the mistress ran to the exit. The two girls got on Snowball and rode off with the mistress right on their tail.

“So where did you get the horse?” asked Mackenzie out of breath.

“Lily and James have a stable behind their house,” said Katherine.

Mackenzie nodded.

Once they got to Lily and James’ house, they put Snowball back in the stables and ran into the house. Katherine ran up the stairs to Lily and James’ room, and they were still awake.

“Lily, James, I rescued Mack. Come downstairs,” said Katherine, and they followed.

When they got downstairs, they found Mackenzie sitting on the couch. Lily and James hugged both of the girls.

“I’m happy that we are all one big family,” said James.

 

The Adventures of Melissa Momper

            

“Where are you going tonight, honey?” Major Moe Momper asked his wife, taking a sip of coffee.

“I’m going to review this place called The Garlic,” Melissa Momper responded, taking a sip too, but quickly put it down. “I can’t drink too much coffee; I don’t want to fill up.”

“The Garlic? Isn’t that the last place your friend Cathy went before she vanished?” Moe Momper replied, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes,” Melissa answered sadly, “The Garlic’s owner, Jessie Goodwin, told the police Cathy mentioned the idea of moving to Peru. But she never said anything to me. I’m going to ask Jessie about her. I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

“She didn’t tell me anything either. Or anyone, apparently. Her sister, Lila, says she hasn’t heard from her the whole seven months she’s been gone! And what about Sarah and Robert Churchill? Didn’t they vanish after eating there too?” Moe Momper said.

“The police said they moved to Idaho. Everyone’s worried about them, too. No one’s heard a thing from them! Or Cathy, for that matter. That’s weird, actually,” Melissa replied. She paused, then looked at her watch. Her watch said 5:45 PM. “Time to go. Dinner starts at six. I’m all dressed. I’ll be back in no more than two hours, honey!”

Melissa walked out of the room, out of her house, and into her car. Every time she went to work, she would wear her usual: a blue sweater with a white undershirt, white jeans, and blue high heels.

“The restaurant The Garlic is being visited tonight by the famous Melissa Momper!” the radio man exclaimed.

Melissa smirked. She was a famous restaurant critic, so she was always announced on TV, the radio, magazines, and social media. It was a tradition now. She loved being famous! But her smirk quickly changed. There was no one in the parking lot but one lonely SUV. It was black, and the windows were tinted. “That’s funny,” she whispered. She maneuvered her car to a parking spot far away from the SUV.

Sighing nervously, Melissa walked through the doors. There’s probably just no one because I’m here, she thought to herself.

Melissa expected pictures of garlic and many tables with fancy silverware, glasses, and plates. But she was wrong.

It was pitch dark inside, except for one light in the middle of the room. Under that light was a single armchair. No one was sitting there. Melissa frowned.

“I should probably wait here,” Melissa said. “I don’t want to sit there if Jessie is.”

“Don’t worry — it’s all for you,” a slimy voice cooed, coming out from somewhere. “Please, sit.”

Out from the darkness emerged a short lady with short brown hair in a bun. She was wearing a pink dress with a white apron. But the strangest thing was her earrings. They were… vampires’ faces.

“Uh, no thanks! I just… ” Melissa got out her review notebook. “I guess hospitality — check?”

“Don’t worry,” the lady said. “I’m Jessie. Sit down, and I’ll get you some dinner. Chicken?”

“That’d be nice,” Melissa whispered uneasily. “Can it come out fast? I’m in a rush. Moe — my husband — is waiting for me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Jessie purred. “How can Melissa Momper be busy? Any good critic knows it’s one restaurant a night.”

“Yes, that is true,” Melissa mumbled. “Is this it? Is this what happens every night? Just one customer?”

“Oh, sometimes there are more,” Jessie replied. “But we wanted it to be extra special for Melissa Momper.”

“Um… I like your earrings,” Melissa tried, unsure of how to react. “I have similar earrings… clovers?”

Jessie snickered silently. “Sit. I’ll be back soon.” She was gone.

Melissa didn’t feel so sure about sitting, because it might be a trap. But she didn’t want to make Jessie feel bad — even though she wasn’t sure if she would. She daintily walked over and sat. In about twenty minutes of doing nothing (she had a watch), Jessie finally came out with a big, decorated platter with roasted chicken on it. Garlic was sprinkled over the chicken, and there was a lemon on the side of the plate. Mashed potatoes were on the side. It smelled like no other chicken, and just the smell made Melissa’s mouth water. The chicken looked perfect. Jessie placed it on Melissa’s lap.

“Thanks… ” Melissa said. “Looks yummy.” She took a big bite. She stopped chewing. It was the best chicken she’d ever had. It was as if one of the chefs from the show Moe always watched had made it. “This is awesome.” She quickly took another bite.

“Now, while you’re eating, may I tell you a story?” Jessie asked, sitting on an old wood chair that had not previously been there.

“Sure,” Melissa answered, “about what?”

“Do you know Cathy Banks?” Jessie started, and Melissa nodded.

“Yes,” Melissa said. “Do you know any more details about why she left? She was my best friend.”

Jessie ignored this. “Robert and Sarah Churchill?” Melissa nodded again. “They’ve all come here, but I think you should know one thing.”

“That is?”

“Cathy’s not in Peru. The Churchill’s are not in Idaho.” Jessie smiled, and she clasped her hands together.

“Where are they?” Melissa trembled.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Jessie asked and lifted the big platter off of Melissa. “Follow me.”

Melissa didn’t want to, but she knew it would be for the better. “Okay.”

Jessie led her to the kitchen, a set of swinging doors that were further back from the chair. Inside was a counter, an oven, a stove, and other appliances. Melissa relaxed.

“Back here, through this door,” Jessie went on, making Melissa tense again. She wanted this to be over with.

Jessie led her through the other door, and in here was a black room. Inside the room were three people sitting on the floor, but Melissa couldn’t tell who because it was dark. As if on cue, Jessie turned on the lights.

“Melissa Momper?” Robert Churchill asked. He stood up. The thing was, he and the two women looked healthy. They were playing cards. “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“Robert and Sarah?” Melissa whispered. “Wow. Cathy? How have you been? Everyone was worried about you, and they didn’t know where you were and couldn’t contact you!” Melissa sat down with them.

Jessie looked nervous.

“I’ve been good! How have you been?” Cathy said. “Still in the critic business? Would you like to join us for a game of cards?”

“No, she was just eating here, and I was giving her a tour.” The four of them looked up to see Jessie. “Come on, Melissa.”

“Bye, guys!” Melissa reluctantly said, waving to her friends as Jessie pulled her out of the kitchen. And then she was out of the room. “Jessie — that was so weird!”

“I think you should leave now,” Jessie whispered. She had gotten quieter.

“But what are they doing there? I deserve an answer,” Melissa demanded. “Can I go speak to at least Cathy again?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jessie said and hustled Melissa out of the kitchen. “Why don’t you go write your review?”

“It won’t be a good one if you don’t tell me why they’re there,” Melissa murmured.

“You won’t tell anybody, though,” Jessie said. “You wouldn’t dare, would you?”

“Well, I might,” Melissa threatened, “if I don’t have an answer.”

All of a sudden, Jessie’s face turned bright red. “Why don’t you come with me, Melissa?”

“I think I better get home,” Melissa said, face turning red. “I won’t tell if you let me leave.”

“Just, before you leave, I might want to tell you one thing,” Jessie said, her face flushing now. “I locked you in.”

“What?” Melissa mouth widened. “Can you… unlock it? And why?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jessie mumbled. “You just have to take a test to get out. But it might be hard.”

“But why can’t you just unlock it?” Melissa asked.

“I can’t.”

“You’re the owner,” Melissa went on. “You own the place. Why can’t you unlock it?”

“I’m not the owner,” Jessie grumbled. “The owner — nevermind. Please. Just take the test.”

“What’s in the test?” Melissa was hyped up, her face getting redder and redder. “Jessie, I’m not a good test taker.”

“Sit here. I will come out with the first test,” Jessie ordered. “In the chair again.”

Out of breath, Melissa sat. A big frown took over her face. “Will this take long?”

“As long as you make it.” And then Jessie disappeared.

A few minutes later, the silence broke when Jessie came back, holding a deck of cards. “I just need you to be the victim of my magic trick.”

“Victim?” Melissa repeated.

Jesse ignored this. She spread out the cards. The backs looked like normal cards, red with a geometric design. “Pick a card — any card,” she demanded.

Melissa frown deepened, but she picked a card near the right end. “I pick this one.”

“Look at it, and follow the order,” Jessie instructed. “I will be back in ten minutes. The more tests you fail, the more you have to do. Oh! I almost forgot. I need your phone. No cheating.” Melissa reluctantly gave her phone to Jessie.

“Jessie? I don’t get it — ” Jessie was gone.

Melissa sighed and read the card.

It read:

 

Yay! You have selected me as your card. Your first challenge is to tie your shoes together and hop across the length of the room. Your time starts now! Good luck!

 

“But I don’t even have anything to tie my shoes!” Melissa cried. “I’m wearing high heels!”

She looked further down the card. There was a picture of rope, and under it said: Pick up the rope! Melissa was very confused. She put her fingers on either side of the tiny rope and pulled. All of a sudden, a real, long rope came out of the card.

“Okay,” Melissa whispered, “I’ll tie it around my ankles. Now where does the room begin?”

She walked to the door where she had come in. “This is so weird,” she said to herself.

She began hopping. This is not so bad, she thought. She had passed the armchair and near the kitchen door when she fell. She quickly got up. “It never said you had to start again at the beginning.” Soon she reached the kitchen door.

“Impressive,” Jessie said, suddenly appearing. “Almost record time. But sorry, you failed.”

“Why?” Melissa was still panting, out of breath. “Was it my fall? It never said anything against it.”

“No, that was fine,” Jessie replied. “You just put the rope around your ankles. It said shoes.”

“But that’s impossible!” Melissa yelled. “I’m wearing high heels! How do you think I’m going to do it? You’re a cheater!”

“Let’s move onto the next test.” Jessie spread out the cards again. “Pick another card.”

Melissa glared as she picked a card on the left side.

“I’ll be back,” Jessie cooed as she turned around and left into the darkness.

This card said:

 

Yipee! You picked me! My challenge is really hard. You have to stack cards, so the top card is a foot above the ground. You have ten minutes. Like always, your time starts now!

 

“Uh, where are the cards?” Melissa asked, then saw the drawing on the bottom of the card. She felt so weird that she was pulling a deck of cards out of a card. “Alright. I’m not that good at stacking. Maybe… ”

She made a teepee with the cards, carefully trying not to tip it over. After balancing a card horizontally on top of that, the teepee fell over.

“This is so hard,” Melissa groaned. She tried again, and it fell over. She wasn’t even close to a foot. She tried again, and again, and again, and again, but every time it still fell over. Finally, the ten minutes was up.

“Melissa, your time is up,” Jessie said. “This test wasn’t really about stacking the cards, but about finding the secret to it. You must have misunderstood the question. All you had to do was put them on top of each other. Even if you had found out the last second, I would’ve given it to you.”

“Well… ”

“Well nothing,” Jessie said. “Pick another card. This will be your last chance.”

Melissa glared at Jessie as she picked a card right in the middle.

 

This card read:

 

I can’t believe it! Another read to add to my record. This is my tenth time being read! Anyway, my challenge to you is to sit still for five minutes straight without thinking about anything. The only thing you’re allowed to do is blink every minute and breathe every three seconds. Clear your mind! Your time starts now!

 

Melissa put down the card. “The only hard part about that is clearing your mind,” she smiled. “But it should be fun. After all, I was the president of the meditation club in college.”

She walked over to the armchair and sat. She took a big breath to start. Her mind cleared. She was aware of her breath patterns.

Five minutes later, Jessie came. “Good job — again, but sorry, you failed,” she informed.

“What?” Melissa shouted. “This is a joke. How? I should have passed! I followed all the rules! I’m going to leave now! If you keep me longer, you will not want to see your review!”

“Shh! Quiet down,” Jessie demanded. “There’s no need to be loud. You failed because of your breathing patterns. You didn’t follow the rules.”

“It’s impossible, then. You try!” Melissa stepped closer to Jessie as Jessie stepped away. “I was president of my meditation club. We did stuff like this all the time! And I got it right!”

“But that wasn’t a test, was it?” Jessie said, turning back to Melissa. “Time for the next test.”

“I don’t want to do another one,” Melissa said.

“Well then you can join Cathy and the Churchills,” Jessie responded. “I would be happy to take you there.”

So that’s how they got there, Melissa thought. “But why did they even come? How did you trick them? They’re smart. They wouldn’t fall for anything.”

“You did.” Jessie remained calm. “And I’d like to think that you’re smart. Do you?”

“You’re messing with my head,” Melissa told Jessie. “You didn’t trick me. It’s part of my job to come here, it’s not part of theirs.” She tightened.

“I told Cathy that there would be a cat convention there,” Jessie went on. “She loves cats. And the day before the Churchill’s anniversary, I told them it would be the perfect place for dinner.”

“How do you know Cathy likes cats?” Melissa pressed. “And the Churchill’s anniversary date? And they didn’t recognize you? And why would they believe it?”

“I told you I’m good at disguises,” Jessie reminded Melissa. “I dressed up like an elderly man and told them what they would like to hear. And I know things.”

“You know things? So do I,” Melissa stated. “But how did you know the little details that make a difference?”

“I know things,” Jessie repeated.

“I want you to go and tell those poor people what you did!”

“I’ll go over there with you,” Jessie responded. “But only one of us is coming back.”

Melissa huffed, but followed Jessie. “At least they’re happy,” she mumbled to herself. “Moe, I’ll try and be back soon.”

“Who’s Moe? Didn’t you say something about him earlier?” Jessie asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” It felt good for Melissa to finally tell Jessie it didn’t matter.

Once they got to the room, Jessie swiftly opened the door.

“Guys, Jessie would like to confess that she lied and tricked you into coming here,” Melissa said sincerely.

“Oh — but she told us,” Robert said, and the others didn’t look fazed. “We know that already.”

Melissa opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She turned to Jessie, but she was grinning.

“Now, will you go in? I have work to do.” Jessie smiled, closing the door on Melissa.

Melissa leaned against the door, but heard nothing except footsteps walking away. Suddenly, she realized something.

“Guys, have you ever tried to open the door?” Melissa asked.

“No; it’s locked,” Cathy said, frowning. “And we’re happy here, just playing cards all day.”

“And why would we want to leave? Jessie would be there,” Sarah agreed.

“But I want to find out what she does when we’re not there,” Robert chimed in. “Don’t you, girls?”

“I suppose,” Sarah said, and Cathy nodded.

“So would I,” added Melissa. “But don’t you realize that the door is unlocked? I didn’t hear anything lock after she walked away. Maybe she forgot.”

Melissa twisted the door knob, and it opened. She went on, whispering, “Let’s find out what she does all day!”

The three followed her out into the kitchen. No one was there. There was a window on the swinging kitchen doors, so they peeked through that. There was Jessie, sitting on the chair, talking to someone. They didn’t see the four.

“That must be the real boss,” Melissa said, and the others nodded. “I’m going to get a closer look.”

Moving angles, Melissa saw a slimy creature as big as her or her husband. The slime was dripping down him, onto the floor, leaving puddles, yet he never was completely out of slime. There were holes where his eyes, nose, and mouth would be, and when he moved his lips, you could clearly see that he was. He had the shape of a normal human body, with a face, arms, legs, and a chest.

“You did a good job today,” he said, his voice slimy. “Keep it up. I haven’t been here in a while, so this is a good welcome. I like this restaurant much better than that warehouse we were in for the past three months. Who are you going to trick next?”

“I don’t know,” Jessie admitted, “but I think someone named Vincent. I saw a picture of him on TV, and he looks like someone who would be quite gullible.”

“Where does he live?” this monster asked, his voice slurring. “He has to be close by.”

“He lives on Acorn Street,” Jessie answered.

Melissa tensed. “I live on Acorn Street,” she told the group. “He’s my neighbor.” She leaned in closer to hear better.

“How are you going to invite him?” the monster questioned, more slime still dripping.

“He apparently likes to bake, so I’m going to tell him that there is a baking contest,” Jessie replied.

“I’ll get to bake when I’m human,” the monster grumbled to himself. “I’ll make cookies.”

“What was that?” Jessie asked.

“Nothing. So back to this Melissa Momper,” the monster said. “What are you going to tell her business? Her family? For her there’s going to be a lot of questions.”

“I’m going to tell them that she decided to become a cook here, and she’s going to stay here,” Jessie responded.

“But won’t her husband come back and ask if she wants to bring clothes?” the monster pressed.

“Yes,” Jessie said. “He loves her and would be worried because of that.”

“I’ll get to feel that emotion when I’m human.”

“I can tell him to drop it off at the restaurant, and I’ll pick it up,” Jessie offered.

“We can’t have him here at the restaurant,” the monster pointed out. “He would suspect something. And wouldn’t he ask to see Melissa?”

“We can say she’s busy,” Jessie went on. “Or we could quickly let her out. I trust her. She seems too fragile to tell anything.”

“She might blab everything,” the monster accused. “And watch out what you say, or I might have your blood next!”

“We could monitor her,” Jessie suggested. “But oh — that would never work out. She could tell her husband. He could tell the police. But we can’t let her go.”

“No we can’t,” the monster agreed. “Oh, did you take the cars away so that they can’t escape?”

“Yes,” Jessie answered.

Melissa flushed. “Guys, have you ever thought that we could leave?” she asked. “They seem so distracted that they would never notice.”

“But what if we’re caught?” Cathy asked. “And they took the cars away.”

“Can we at least try?” Robert questioned.

Melissa smiled. Robert was always on her side. “Sarah? What do you think?”

“I say we give it a go,” she cheered, and Cathy playfully sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Okay,” Cathy gave in, but the other three could tell she was smiling.

“Great.” Slowly but quietly, Melissa cracked the door open. “Follow me.”

The three followed her. Melissa smiled. They were actually listening to her. That meant they believed in her. No one had ever done that before. It felt strange, but also felt nice.

They were lucky it was dark. They managed to stay in the shadows, and soon they passed Jessie in the chair. All was going well, and they were close to the doors, then:

“Do I smell humans?” the slime monster asked. “Jessie — go check on them. I can’t stand the smell.”

“Yes, Zorth,” Jessie replied.

“Zorth?” Melissa mouthed to the other three. “What kind of name is that?”

Robert shrugged.

“We have to get out of here quickly,” Sarah whisper-shouted. “Jessie is coming!”

Melissa nodded. She led the others further.

“STOP!” a voice demanded. The voice was strict and harsh. Quick footsteps approached them. Melissa didn’t want to turn around. “How did you unlock the door? I always lock it!”

“Jesssssie,” Zorth said, stretching out the “s.”

“It was unlocked,” Melissa said, gaining confidence. “I guess you forgot to lock it.”

“But — how?” Jessie stammered, but made the mistake of stopping in shock.

“Go!” Cathy whispered to the others.

They scrambled out of the building. Melissa could hear Zorth the slime monster grumbling inside.

“At least the smell is gone,” he murmured. “When I’m human, I’m going to put on perfume.”

 

“Keep running,” Melissa panted, running fast with the others. “She could catch up.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have a car,” Robert said. “Then we could really get ahead of her.”

“I did.” Melissa slowed. “But where did they put it?”

In the parking lot where Melissa had parked her car (as far away from the black car with tinted windows as she could), there were no cars. Even the black car wasn’t there.

“Oh, well. But we know Jessie took them.”

“Keep running,” Sarah repeated, starting to jog again. “I think I hear Jessie behind us.”

Down the abandoned streets they ran. It was hard to make out things in the darkness, but soon their eyes adjusted. The cobblestones make echoing noises under their feet, and the trees loomed over them like that slime monster, Zorth.

Suddenly, a branch moved. The four all heard it. A head peaked out from among the other branches. “Hello,” the voice said. It was that same strict and harsh voice as before. Jessie.

“Ahh!” Melissa jumped back into Cathy, who fell into Sarah, who collapsed onto Robert.

“Guys, keep running!” Robert ordered, straightening up. “Keep going. Don’t stop!”

They ran for a while, Jessie behind them. How Jessie got there so fast, they didn’t know. Finally, they were completely out of breath and had to stop for a minute.

“Jessie is still coming, but I can’t run anymore,” Cathy whined, holding her chest. “I haven’t run this fast for a while!”

“Oh no! Jessie is about to be here! We’re doomed!” Melissa cried. “What are we going to do?”

“Hide?” Cathy guessed, and shrugged.

Honk, honk!

The four turned. “Moe?” Melissa said. “What are you doing here?”

They all got in the car, and Moe started driving away quickly. “I was looking for you,” he told them. “You were out so late, Melissa. It’s almost midnight. What were you doing? You were supposed to be back by eight at the latest. And Cathy, Sarah, Robert… I see you moved back.”

“We never moved anywhere,” Robert replied, confused.

Moe’s eyes widened. “Why were you running? Melissa, where’s your car?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I parked it in the parking lot, but it just… disappeared. I’m glad we have yours though.”

“So your solution was running home?” Moe asked, slightly laughing. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I forgot I had my phone,” Melissa lied. She was glad Moe hadn’t noticed Jessie, because that would have been a whole another set of questions.

Wait —

Melissa turned to look in the rear-view mirror, only to see Jessie, standing where they just were, seemingly smirking directly at Melissa. Melissa looked closer and realized Jessie was holding Melissa’s phone.

Le Fin

 

Tips to Business

    

JIMMY and BILL are walking on a New York City street together.

 

BILL

So, Grandson, you want to become a successful businessman, you say? Well, I’ve got a few tips and tricks for you!

 

JIMMY

I’m listening.

 

BILL

First off, when your boss asks for a plain hot dog, always get him a plain hot dog. If you get him any condiments, he’ll kill you.

 

JIMMY

Does that have anything to do with actual business?

 

BILL

Of course it does! Real business doesn’t mean numbers and paperwork! It’s about getting your boss the right dog! That’s how I got to be a businessman!

 

JIMMY

Did you actually move from the level you started at? Did your paycheck change at all?

 

BILL

Of course it did! When I retired, I was earning fifty fewer dollars a week than when I started!

 

JIMMY

Oookkkaaaayy. That’s one way to view it.

 

BILL

Anyways, let’s move on. Another trick to move you up the ladder of business is to always make sure there are missed calls on your phone. It makes you look important. The trick to that is you call yourself a bunch of times on your iPhone from the stall. It worked so well! Everyone thought I had stomach problems when I got back twenty minutes later!

 

JIMMY

I don’t exactly get what this has to do with becoming a well-known businessman…

 

BILL

Well that, my son, is because you are not experienced! When you grow up, you will understand the stress of stomach problems!

 

JIMMY

That’s not what I don’t understand. I don’t understand how missed calls make you look important. It just makes you look unresponsive.

 

BILL

Forget it.

 

JIMMY

Thank god.

 

BILL

One of my most useful tricks in being a successful businessman is to always be drinking coffee. If you have coffee, it makes you look like you stayed up late to do work. But really, all it did was keep me up late! I got to watch more of The Brady Bunch! Who’s your favorite character? Mine’s Cindy. She’s soooooo pretty!

 

JIMMY

I don’t get why any of what you said has anything to do with becoming a good businessman. Marcia’s the cute one.

 

BILL

No way. She dates ugly guys. Cindy’s really mature.

 

JIMMY

She still likes dolls! Do you call that mature?

 

BILL

I still play with dolls! And I’m mature!

 

JIMMY

I’d debate that. Anyways, let’s get back on track. Why exactly does drinking coffee help you become a successful businessman?

 

BILL

Well, let’s face it. I didn’t see any of my colleagues, like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, drinking coffee. And look where they wound up.

 

JIMMY

Um, Grandpa, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are two of the richest and most successful people in the world. And why didn’t you tell me that you worked with them? I should’ve asked them for advice instead of you!

 

JIMMY starts typing on his phone.

 

BILL

Are you kidding me? I have just gave you the greatest advice in the history of business! Bill and John don’t like Marcia! And trust me, I asked them!

 

JIMMY

Sorry, say that again? I was busy scheduling lunch with Gates and breakfast with Bezos the next day.

 

BILL

You don’t need any more tips, you just got the greatest advice ever! How many times do I have to say it!

 

JIMMY

To be honest, I haven’t really gotten any useful tips from you today. I’d rather take tips from the internet than from you, and I never listen to the internet. No offense.

 

BILL starts tearing up.

 

BILL

No, no, I understand.

(Snuffle)

You don’t listen to people who play with dolls. But listen. I went to Bill Gates’ house one day when we were friends, and he had a whole dollhouse. But I know, the internet doesn’t play with dolls.

 

JIMMY

No, no, that’s not what I meant.

(Puts arm around BILL.)

I just meant that you’re not the best advice person. I admire that you play with dolls. To be honest, I have the whole Barbie set at home.

 

BILL

You do? That makes me feel a whole lot better.

 

BILL hugs JIMMY.

 

The scene quickly changes to an apartment. BILL and JIMMY are playing with dolls. They have their arms around each other.

 

Blackout.

 

When I Woke Up

      

When I woke up this morning

There was something out of place

My nose is on the ceiling

The light bulb’s on my face!

My computer keyboard

Had turned into a mace?

Then I saw that the flowers

Had turned into the vase!

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong.

 

I got up and noticed

There was slime on the chair

I looked in the mirror

I had lollipop hair

My eyes were quite wide open

When I saw my room was bare

This is not what the teachers mean

When they say to share!

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

I quickly put my hat on

And got a horrid douse

I could not be seen like this

Walking out my house!

I tried to brush my hair

The hairbrush was a mouse

I wouldn’t let that ruin my day

I would never grouse

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

Everything was silly

I climbed back into bed

Even though the legs

Were small, green trees instead

I was rather hungry

But that would just be dread

Trying for hours to sleep

My foot must have been dead

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

Then I woke up again

It was all a dream!

I jumped around with glee

It made me want to scream!

Soon inside my mind

A plan grew, a scheme

I looked out my window

And I started to beam

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

There was nothing wrong!

 

Selena and the Big Secret

     

Chapter One: The Mist

I have brown hair, a blue shirt, black pants, and black shoes. I have blue eyes and brownish lips. We were on the Mist! The most famous boat on the whole ocean! I couldn’t even believe we had enough money to go to England! I felt like I was the luckiest girl in the world.

 

Chapter Two: Oh No!

I loved the ocean. The gentle breeze of the ocean. I wish I would never leave, but tomorrow I was going back home. I heard a big shrieking sound from below deck! I ran down to the source of the sound. The foamy ocean water was filling up the boat, and I went back up to the deck.

 

Chapter Three: Flashback!

I am Selena Sleek and the most unpopular girl in college. I am being bullied by the most popular kid in college, Ashley Kironoe. The most valuable thing I own is an antique-looking trophy. I won a swimming competition. I have a simple apartment, and it has a dresser with lots of perfumes, mascara, and all the makeup you could think of. I have a tiny, regular bed. I had a big closet with all the dream clothes of the world, all the dream shoes, shirts, pants. I go to the mall every Saturday. But I was still only the next popular from the mold in the girl’s shower!

 

Chapter Four: Flashforward!

We had crashed into a big rock, and I ran to the lifeboats, but I was too late. I was stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean. I took a deep breath and jumped. I got out of the water and kept swimming until I saw a dot. I got excited and swam until I fell on the beach. I got up and put together some palm leaves. I fell gratefully on the leaves and went to sleep. But before I went to sleep, I saw a small elephant and a tiny monkey crawling to me. And do you know what they had on their skin? They had names: Jimbo for the monkey and Lena for the elephant. I wasn’t scared, even though I saw them.

 

Chapter Five: The Island

When I woke up, I made a big fire. I saw a cruise ship and made a big HELP in the sand. I jumped up and down. The cruise ship didn’t see me because the fire went out. I ran to the hill and started the fire up again. Then, I ran back to the beach and jumped up and down.

 

Chapter Six: The Rescue

The cruise ship started turning and saw me. The boat came toward me, and someone threw down a liferaft. I got up a ladder on the side of the boat. The boat was called The Whale. I looked around the whole boat, but my parents weren’t on the boat. Then, I got a fruit salad and water. I ate it all and changed clothes. I wore a pretty dress, and this time I always stayed near the lifeboats. Now I was scared. After a few minutes, I washed my clothes and borrowed a towel to wrap them up.

 

Chapter Seven: UGH!

The boat went to the highest speed. Then we turned, and we got into a storm. I thought I must be jinxed or something. I grabbed a lifeboat, and I rowed away. I took one last look at the boat and rowed as far as I could. When I couldn’t row away anymore, I fell asleep on my towel. When I woke up, I looked at my watch inside the towel. It was 6:00 am, and I rowed until 9:00 pm. I saw land and rowed back home.

 

Chapter Eight: The Hospital

I woke up in the hospital, and I tried to get up. I couldn’t do it because of all the wires. My parents came in.

They said, “You are ready to come back home.”

“Yay!” I said.

We went back home, and we all stayed home the whole day. I slept the whole day. The next day, I went to school.

Ashley said, “Meet me after school in the yard, okay.”

I said, “Okay.” We both went to class, and I didn’t get a single question correct in worry of what Ashley was going to do to me.

 

Chapter Nine: The New Start

I saw Ashley in the yard. She was standing next to the flagpole and leaning on it. Then, I saw a limousine, and Princess Diamond told me to come inside. She was wearing a pink ball gown with a pink jeweled tiara on her head and had blonde hair, blue eyes, red lipstick, and pink ballet shoes. I went inside, and she told me why she hadn’t come before. The king said that she shouldn’t tell me until I was ready.

 

Chapter Ten: The Palace

We drove all the way to the palace, and I got cookies. We arrived, and people bowed. We went inside the palace, which was pink, and there were lots of turrets and lots of towers. We went inside, and I was awed by the sight. There were more pillars. The whole castle was pink.

We went to a huge bedroom, and princess Diamond said, “This is your room.”

I jumped on the bed. I went to Princess Diamond and said, “What is this all about?”

Princess Diamond said, “Didn’t you know you’re a princess?”

I was so shocked that I ran back to the bedroom and laid down on the bed. I looked around and thought that this was all a dream. I pinched myself, but I didn’t wake up. I realized this was actually happening to me. I picked up a comb and brushed my hair like it was the most relaxing thing in the world, which it was. It was a magical hair brush that changed hair styles and hair colors. I felt I could outsmile the sun. My hair was now blonde and all wavy, like it was the most beautiful hair in the world, which it was. I looked around in the dresser for something else magical. I figured out everything was. Then I got red lipstick, which made my lips all glittery. Then I sat on my bed with a face mask. I was wondering what it would do to me. Then when I took it off, I saw that everything I ever thought was bad about my face was gone.

A maid came and said, “Dinner is ready, and change clothes.”

I changed into a purple diamond dress and went down to dinner. I ate a big turkey and went back upstairs. I jumped on the bed and then went to sleep.

 

Chapter Eleven: The First Day

I woke up the next day in the big, fluffy bed. I changed my clothes and rang the tiny bell next to my bed. A servant came with a silver tray and set it on the bed. I ate my breakfast and went to explore the rest of the castle.

 

Chapter Twelve: The Treasure Room

I went to the treasure room and looked at the sight. The whole room was glittering from the gold. I went back to my room and found a little box. I found Princess Diamond and asked what was in the box. She said it was my tiara for princess school.

I said, “Wow, I didn’t know I was going to princess school!”

 

Chapter Thirteen: Princess School

The next day, I got ready for princess school. Princess Diamond said that I would need ballet shoes, tutu skirts, two ball gowns, lots and lots of makeup, lots of books, a magic scepter, and, of course, my princess crown tiara. I got all that into a pink, sparkly suitcase. Then, I went to explore the rest of the castle. I saw a throne room. I sat on my throne and pretended to be the king.

 

Chapter Fourteen: The Friend Walked In

Then, the king walked in! Princess Diamond was with him.

Then they said, “We have a special guest for you.”

Then, my friend from my old school, Cassie, walked in. We went to my room, and we played with the millions of dolls I had. Then, we played with my humongous dollhouse. It was so big, we could even play inside! Then, the king came in and said Cassie had to leave. I said goodbye to Cassie and gave her my humongous dollhouse, but shrunk it down first with a magic scepter.

Then, I said, “As soon as you touch it, go inside the bag, set it on the floor, and it will turn humongous again.”

Then, Cassie left my room, and I went to sleep. I felt really sad, and I wondered if I would ever see Cassie again.

 

Chapter Fifteen: The Truth

I grabbed my suitcase and went down for breakfast. I was feeling a little homesick.

I said “Bring my family here!”

Then, the servant left with the carriage, and a few minutes later, with the help of the magic scepter, my parents were in the carriage. I explained the whole story to them. Then, I saved the best for last, I was a princess!

My mom said, “You know what this means, right?”

I said, “Of course I do! I get to be a princess!”

Then, my mom said, “No, it means that you are not our daughter!”

Then, my dad spoke. “Let us tell you the real story. We found you in a pink basket on our doorstep. We got you a crib, and then we kept you because then we didn’t know who your parents were. Then you grew up, and you know the rest.”

I was so dissapointed. I felt like I was falling down a cliff.

My mom said, “Then what did you think when you found out you were a princess?”

I said, “I thought maybe you were keeping some secret from me, like you were the king and queen. I think that’s why you’ve been so secretive lately. Maybe the king gave you a message. And why your faces are so white right now. I am so mad at you two. Go away and never come back!”

They left using my magic scepter.

 

Chapter Sixteen: The First Day

I was really nervous. I wondered if I was going to make a new friend. I was in the royal carriage going to school. Now I was at the school. I went to my room at C4. I met my new roommate, Ashley. I couldn’t believe I had to room with her! She was my only enemy.

She said, “Don’t worry. I’m not rooming with you. I’m just here for a visit. Your new roommate is Princess Julie. I told my parents I was really good friends with you, so I came here.”

I was so relieved she wasn’t my roommate! Princess Julie came in.

She said, “Hello. What’s your name?”

I felt like I was going to be friends with her. We put on our practice princess crowns. The bell rang, and we went off to our first class, history. When we got to class, Miss J told us to sit in our seats and get our history books out. I got out History of a Princess. I turned to page one, and we wrote our names in. We read until the end of class. Then, we went to manners class. We went down, and we saw a big table with lots of spoons and forks on it. Miss M told us to place them in the correct order. Then, we took out our manners books.

Miss M gave a big speech: “You must learn how to do manners this year and not anything wrong, or I will expel you!”

Princess Julie said, “Sheesh. What a meanie!”

Then, the class was over, and we went to ballet class. We did pirouettes and balance. Then when that was done, we went to lunch. We ate our lunch of milkshakes and cookies and ice cream and then went to computer class.

Princess Julie said, “I wonder what we do here. I guess we just do some coding.”

Then, the computers turned on, and we ended up doing Minecraft the whole day. I like Minecraft.

Miss L said, “We’re not going to do something princessy today. We’re going to do Minecraft.”

We ended up doing Minecraft the whole day. Then, we went to magic class. We all made rainbows with our scepters. I felt like it was really, really easy. I read the Magic for Beginners book before, so I knew everything. Then, we went back to our room. We each took a shower, and then we went to bed. I reached out to turn off the light, but a little pink fairy came in and turned it off.

 

Chapter Seventeen: The Rest of the Year

Through the year, I met Princess Julie, Princess Tina, Princess Lily, and Princess Kylie. They all became my friends. I only made two enemies this year at Princess School. The princess’s name was Princess Precious, and the prince’s name was Prince Arthur. He was the youngest king who ever lived when he got older. They bullied me and called me names.

 

Chapter Eighteen: The Test

I took the last year test. It was called Princess Year. They tested us on all the things that we ever learned that year. But I say it wasn’t that much. I already knew how to do all that stuff. Most of what we did was reading. Before the last year test, I was really, really nervous because I didn’t know what Princess Year really was. But now that I finished it, I felt like I got everything correct.

Precious was still my enemy, and so was her new boyfriend, Prince Arthur. Do you know why Precious likes him? It’s because they both don’t like me. I wish she would like me. I didn’t do anything wrong to her; I even gave her a present! She got a tiara, and Prince Arthur got a new horse. Now he uses it for races and other stuff like that, and he still enjoys it, but he still doesn’t like me. I think they don’t like me because of my past. After the test, we all went to the Princess Tea. We all had some tea and some pastries. We celebrated later in the summer with all our 100s on the test, and do you know what Precious and Arthur got? They got zeroes on all of them. I bet they’re a little jealous too.

 

Chapter Nineteen: The End

When summer started, all of our friends hung out. We went to the beach, and we also went to my castle. We met some princes at the prince’s school, we went to my old house, and we went to the dance class. We did not meet my fake parents, and I’m really happy for that. I hope they never know what a traitor they were (my friends). I really like dancing. We still ate pastries, and we got new tiaras at the end of the year, but Precious and Arthur didn’t because they didn’t get anything correct, not even the questions were correct.

Our ones were all pink jeweled and identical. I wear it all the time in the palace, and I still have a lot of fun. Most of the time, I wear the pink gown that I wore on the first day that I came. And also, do you want to know something? I took a picture with all my friends, and I know they’ll be my friends until the end, except maybe Prince Arthur.

 

The End.

 

The Donkeys

The donkeys wait at the side of the road. One Westerly Hill Close. A dead end. No one has traveled down there for years until the doctor. The Doctor. The one. The ruler that changed everything.

 

The donkeys watched when he arrived. They didn’t know. They anticipated fear. Of themselves, of course. The traveler was just a lone man. He would survive. Maybe.

The donkeys didn’t know that he would survive, of course. They had no way of changing the course of nature. No cures could be invented, for the donkeys were just billboards, after all, advertising houses that would never be sold. However, what made them the donkeys, and not signs, was that they were sentient, and that is why the Doctor came. To cure them.

He had heard the rumors. That the donkeys enticed people through mesmerization and broke them mentally. There was only one rumor, of a young lad on a dare who never came back, but it was enough. Shattered. Mentally. Forever. That’s how those unfortunate souls were until their death.

He wanted to fix the donkeys, being the good doctor he believed himself to be.

At the tender age of twenty-one, he was already in medical school. He thought he knew what to do. The Doctor believed himself superior to all of his peers, skipping classes and refusing to take exams, saying he wanted to give the other students a fair shot. But if he had taken his classes, the fate that lay ahead of him at this moment would have had a chance of being averted.

The donkeys sensed his approach. From afar they knew he would be arriving soon. After conversing amongst themselves, they agreed to let him upon them. It’s not like they had much choice; they had no way of stopping him from coming. But making it sound like they were deciding to let him made the donkeys feel more confident.

The doctor edged upon them, noting their larger than life flanks and all of the grime and dirt covering the billboard (no wonder people weren’t buying those houses!). From the side of his long, white jacket, he drew his lethal weapon: a bar of soap.

The donkeys were in shock. He scrubbed and scrubbed the donkeys until you could see every speck of shine on them.

The donkeys were not used to this sensation of godliness and cleanliness. It felt pleasant, but almost as if they were bare. Vulnerable. This contrasted greatly to the mud balls they were used to, thrown by the schoolboys every Tuesday and Thursday, though the donkeys didn’t seem to find a pattern in the days that those muddy splotches were fired.

But the Doctor, being his cocky self, forgot to put on gloves when applying the “treatment.” That was his biggest mistake.

The donkeys, meanwhile, were in awe of this role that a person could play in helping the lives of others.

They wanted more. More of it. All of it. Soap. More.

Slowly, they started creaking. Back and forth. Back and forth.

If anyone were listening closely to the sounds they made, they could make out the word “soap” being chanted over and over again. But the doctor wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was staring at his hands, which were turning green.

The donkeys knew what was happening to the Doctor, but they couldn’t stop it. The real criminal was Microbial Mat, or Mat for short. He had driven the first man to see them in years, the one that the original rumor was about, insane, and now he was doing it again.

They wanted that soap bad, though, and the Doctor for sure was going to be the one that gave it to them.

The green hands were stage one, the donkeys recalled from last time. Stone hard knuckles happened around stage two, and mind brokenness was stage three, the final stage.

The doctor was freaking. He had never seen anything like this in all of his life. Why in the world this was happening, he had no idea. And then, when stage two rolled around, his hands drooped down to his sides, and he couldn’t pick them up.

The donkeys started to worry. This clean man had the soap that would make them all shiny and new. They could not let this opportunity slip away.

They creaked. Louder and louder. But alas, the man had slipped into insanity and was now walking to the highway.

The poor Doctor was never sighted by the public again. Alive.

 

The donkeys slowly stopped their chorus of creaks. The doctor had wandered away a while ago, and they felt almost certain that there were more stages, much worse stages, that they were unaware of.

They then focused on the new prize laying on the ground, a bar of soap that had fallen out of the man in the white coat.

The donkeys wanted that soap. They needed to feel cleaner and fresher, unlike the old, dirty selves they were moments before.

They needed that soap. Unfortunately, he soap they had on them had since been flung mistakenly. Wasted.

They tried. But alas, it was too far away for even the longest elder to take a whack at.

For time and time they tried. Their life had this purpose now. To be clean. To feel clean. But they needed more soap.

Day turned into night and night into day, and so on time went. It meant nothing to the donkeys. It never had. All that mattered in life was soap. Soap, and nothing else.

 

It was twilight and months later when their pleas were finally heard.

A stray mudball hit the soap exactly right so that it flew into the air, landing right at the donkeys’ leader’s figurative feet. Huzzah! was the word of the year while this feat, miraculous for all witnessing, happened. However, there was a small issue. No one could use the soap.

It lay on the ground. The soap had melted and reformed with the seasons, and it was now partially made up of sticks and mud. And Microbial Mat, of course, though the donkeys were unaware of that small matter.

There was nothing, once again, that any one of the donkeys could do. So simple, to pick up the filthy but clean morsel, yet none of them could.

On the five hundred and seventy-second day of waiting, just out of reach from the soap, the donkeys made a new note: the skies were full of birds migrating. One of those birds could come down and steal their precious soap!

They conversed about what they could possibly do, but no suggestions were made. Therefore, when a bird swooped down and plucked the soap from the grassy area, the donkeys just stayed still. No objections.

 

The bird later on would fly to a worldwide famous animal hospital in LA while it was migrating, where it would go crazy of a mental illness and later on die. Doctors were unsure of the cause, but noted that the bird, during its last days alive, was turning green and weighed significantly more than when he first entered their care.

 

Doctors that went to school with the one that will henceforth be referenced under the title “The Unfortunate” found his mentally insane self right before he died. Their notes were the same as the doctors under the care of the bird. As soon as the story of the bird hit the paper, the doctors that worked with “The Unfortunate” reached out to that LA animal hospital. The doctors, now to be referred to as “The Unfortunate’s Peers,” said that they knew what “killed the cat,” so to speak. They knew where he was before he died, and they thought that there should be something against this terror that no one was certain of. All they wanted was money. Money for info.

The hospital doctors agreed.

 

The donkeys were in dismay. All that seemed worthwhile in their lives was gone.

Gone.

Forever.

Or so they thought, until the guys in hazmat suits and oxygen masks showed up.

People! was their first reaction.

Soap! was their second.

 

The donkeys had no idea where they were.

They had gone through a machine that was taking photos of them, and then were scanned before placed in a giant tub of water where they were cleaned (soap!), and are now lying in.

They knew Mat must have followed them, and that Mat must be what they were trying to get rid of.

They knew that Mat could kill them all.

But the donkeys didn’t care. They had soap, and that was all that mattered.

Well, that was all that mattered until someone in the background confirmed that the donkeys had Microbial Mat, or Microbialis Mattias as they called it.

All of a sudden, the donkeys were whisked into the air, and, from gloved hands, were passed onto a conveyor belt. Gloves, water, everything that had touched the donkeys, including a poor cat, was thrown onto it.

“Send them to the shredder!” a person who appeared to be in charge proclaimed.

The conveyor belt slowly chugged to life and started to accelerate towards a furnace of a sort.

The donkeys, however, did not know what was going on. They understood that people were talking, but not what they were saying, and they thought this would lead them to Soapy Wonders Palace™.

Seventeen minutes later, all that remained of the donkeys was smoke, paper shreds, and ashes.

Eighteen minutes later, all that remained of the cat was a stain on the conveyor belt, from where she had a nervous accident.

 

However, the doctors were unaware of one thing: the bird that caused the unfortunate deaths of the donkeys had come in contact with no less than twenty objects and animals, all of which in doing so passed on Microbialis Mattias. Therefore, Mat was, and is, not dead. And, though the donkeys didn’t know it, they had Mat inside of them. That was why “The Unfortunate” got contaminated and why the scan showed up positive. So, while destroying the donkeys felt important, it means nothing unless all things contaminated by Microbialis Mattias are destroyed. And, as time goes on, more things are not only going to get contaminated, but many more living things will go insane and die.

So, the foolish plan to destroy the donkeys, therefore destroying Mat, was worthless, as of now, at least. Especially because the doctors now believe that Microbialis Mattias is an extinct germ.

The worst part of it all? The hospital notified the government after destroying every single sample they had of Microbialis Mattias. Now, not only is the “leader” fired, but they have nothing to reference to if there is an outbreak, or to find a cure for the people infected.

Boy, was that a mistake.

 

The remnants of the donkeys had hit a man’s pants. This man happened to be the person that yelled for the donkeys to be set to the shredder. He must have brushed past the conveyor belt as he was walking out. He was unaware of it, however, and proceeded to go home and wash his outfit with his little son’s clothes.

Those clothes were the first to touch the brand new slide of the public elementary school. As soon as that happened, fate was sealed.

Mat was there. Spread. And, it being July, he had plenty of time to grow.

The snake was born on that day. The slide didn’t believe himself to be the lousy self that he was moments before. He was the snake, and there was peanut butter in the air.

From his days as the slide, kids rode on him, with peanut butter dripping everywhere. He hated being dirty, but loved the smell of peanut butter.

The snake wanted peanut butter.

And would stop at nothing, just to taste peanut butter.

Nothing.

 

The Bad Sleepover

      

I’m in my room reading my book, but not really paying attention because I’m so excited for the sleepover I’m about to have with my best friend Lynn.

My dad drives me to Lynn’s house, which is only five minutes away. When I get there, I ring the doorbell and wait. Inside her house I hear her running for the door. Then, Lynn opens the door, and I run and hug her. I haven’t seen her for a few weeks.

“I missed you, Lynn!”

“Me too, Aliza!” she says, sounding a little nervous.

When we get inside, I follow Lynn to her room. Once I’m in her room, the familiar smell of strawberries greets me. If I was blindfolded, I would know exactly where I am. I also recognize the neatness of her room. The same mini elephant sculpture I had given her many years ago is still there. Then I turn around, and I’m surprised to see another girl in Lynn’s room that looks about our age. She towers over Lynn because she is so tall. I’m tall for my age, but she is still taller than me.

“Who is that?” the girl asks Lynn.

“She’s my best friend Aliza,” Lynn replies.

“You said that I’m your best friend though.”

“What is going on here?” I say, confused.

Lynn tells me that the girl’s name is Stella, and she just moved into the house next to Lynn’s. Then, she tells me that now she has two best friends.

I am so mad that I practically scream what I say next. “But is she sleeping over too?!

“Yes! Aren’t you excited?” Lynn replies.

“No,” I say quietly.

“Lynn, can we go to the bathroom and talk alone?

“I guess?” Lynn says, questioning me.

Once we are in the bathroom with the hospital smell, I ask why she had invited Stella to the sleepover. Lynn tells me that she can have more than one best friend.

“But I’ve known you for five years, and you’ve only known her for two days!” I tell Lynn angrily, looking at the bright pink walls.

Lynn has the same nervous look on her face, only ten times worse than when she saw me at the door. “Let’s go,” Lynn says.

We go back into Lynn’s room and find Stella putting on makeup in front of Lynn’s mirror. She spins around when she sees us.

“What were you guys doing in there?” Stella asks.

“Nothing,” I say.

“Yeah right,” she says quietly, but I could still hear her.

We go downstairs to eat dinner. It is mac ‘n cheese (my favorite.) But for some reason, I don’t think it is going to taste as good today.

 

After we are done eating dinner, Lynn asks us what movie we want to watch. Stella says she wants to watch Moana, but I want to watch The Secret Life Of Pets. Lynn says that we should watch Moana because Stella is the guest. She completely forgot that I am a guest, too.

 

Once the movie is over, we get ready to take showers. Stella asks if Lynn will take a shower with her, and I am sure that Lynn would say no because that would leave me out.

But Lynn says, “Yes!”

So then I am left alone. I could hear Lynn and Stella singing in the shower. I feel like Lynn turned into a totally different person.

 

When it’s finally time for arranging our sleeping bags and going to sleep, Stella wants to sleep next to Lynn. I do too. So I suggest that Lynn should sleep in the middle, but Stella takes her spot. I have to sleep next to Stella. The whole night, Stella and Lynn stay up whispering. I fall asleep hoping that things will be better in the morning.

 

When I wake up, Lynn and Stella aren’t in Lynn’s room anymore. I hear voices downstairs, so I walk down. Once I am in the kitchen, I see Stella and Lynn eating pancakes and talking. Lynn sees me and gasps.

“Oh my gosh Aliza! I’m so, so, so sorry! I totally forgot that you were still sleeping!” Lynn almost screams.

“It’s okay,” I say quietly even though it wasn’t okay.

 

When Lynn hands me my plate of pancakes, I sit down and think up a plan. If somehow I can get Stella to not like Lynn, then maybe Stella will leave us alone. After breakfast, when Lynn and Stella are brushing their teeth, I write a note in Lynn’s handwriting. This is the note.

 

Hi Stella!

I’m sorry to say this to you, but I like Aliza more

Than you. Actually I hate you. Once you see this

note make sure to never talk to me again or else!

Make sure you listen to this note or you will regret

it!

Lynn

 

 

The note is perfect. I slip it in Stella’s sleeping bag and go to brush my teeth. When Stella gets home and reads the note, she will never talk to Lynn again! Once I am done brushing my teeth, I go outside to find Stella and Lynn playing volleyball.

 

“Oh hi, Aliza,” Stella says with no expression.

“Hi, Stella,” I say back to her.

I notice that Lynn doesn’t say anything when I come out. I wonder if she feels bad for me. If she does, she shouldn’t have invited Stella for the sleepover in the first place.

 

Stella leaves Lynn’s house first. I hope I’ll finally have time with Lynn, but my dad comes right after Stella leaves. When I get in the car, my Dad asks how the sleepover was. I don’t like to upset my dad, so I say that it was fun.

 

As I walk to school on Monday, I worry that Stella will not listen to the note and talk to Lynn. If that happens, Lynn will say that she didn’t write the note, and they will figure out that it was me. Then, Lynn will be mad at me and be friends with Stella again. On the other hand, if Stella does listen to the note, then Lynn will notice that Stella isn’t talking to her and ask her why. They will figure out that it was me either way. This is bad. I have to fix things quick, or they will figure out that I wrote the note.

 

Waiting for class to start, I have an idea. I know that Stella is deathly allergic to peanuts. I decide to to tell Stella that last night at the sleepover I had been eating peanuts, and a few had fallen into Stella’s sleeping bag. That will scare her and cause her to throw out the sleeping bag with the note in it. So at recess, I go to find Stella. I see her eating pretzels near the front gate. I figure that she hasn’t unpacked her sleeping bag yet, so I go on with my plan. I walk up to her.

 

“Hi, Stella,” I say loud enough so that she will turn and look at me.

“Hi, Aliza,” she replies sounding sad.

“What’s the matter?” I ask her.

“I got a note from Lynn saying she hated me.”

 

Uh-oh, I think. My plan won’t work. She already saw the note. I have to think of something really, really fast. I start to think about what I already know about Stella. I think that Stella is really stubborn. I know what I can do. I will use Stella’s stubbornness to my advantage.

 

“Hey, Stella. I can’t imagine Lynn writing that, so maybe it was just a bad dream,” I say to Stella calmly.

“You’re right Aliza! It probably was!!” Stella says excitedly.

 

Problem solved! The only problem now is Stella will be friends with Lynn again. But I can deal with that. And besides, now Lynn will be happy, which makes me happy. And I like being happy.

 

The rest of the week is as ordinary as ever. On Friday though, I get an invitation from Stella to have a sleepover at her house with Lynn. I say yes before I even think about it. But I am worried that the sleepover will be like last week’s.

 

On Saturday afternoon, my dad drives me to Stella’s house, and I surprise myself by being excited. When I arrive, Lynn is already there. She and Stella are in a room playing cards.

“Hi, Aliza!” Stella and Lynn say at the same time.

 

Once their game is over, we head downstairs to eat dinner. We are having hot-dogs (another one of my favorites). After dinner, we take showers all together! We lay out our sleeping bags in a circle this time so that no one is left out. I remember how I felt last week when we went to bed. Today is the total opposite.

 

The next morning, I wake up first, so I creep downstairs to get a glass of water. When I get back to Stella’s room, Stella is awake. We play a card game together when Lynn starts sleep talking. Stella and I laugh so loudly that Lynn wakes up.

“What’s so funny?” she asks.

“You were sleep talking,” Stella and I say at the same time.

After breakfast, we sit on the couch with our arms linked together. I am in the middle. We are all wearing fancy dresses because in the afternoon we are going to watch a musical. I have the feeling that Stella, Lynn, and I are going to be best friends forever. And that would be awesome.

 

The Signs of Summer

    

The bright yellow sun

The tall grass

The big white clouds

The cold drinks

 

The fresh smell of flowers

The crash of small waves

The buzz of bees

The hot sand in the ocean breeze

The big trees

The birds flapping their wings

The fresh air

The clear blue sky

 

People walking by

As kids beam

At ice cream

On their bicycle rides

 

As the moon is bright during the night

And the bright yellow sun shines over it all

The tall grass

The big white clouds

The cold drinks

And the ice cream

These are the signs of summer.

 

Treasure in Washington Monument

Once, on a sunny day in Washington D.C., a girl named Lily stared out at the Washington Monument. A few hours earlier, her mom had gotten separated from her in the crowd.

***

She had my ticket, which meant that I couldn’t get out. I looked through the crowds, and I thought, so many people! As night fell, the crowd left. Then, it was only me. Or so I thought. I roamed around the monument, looking at the displays.

 

Creak! I heard a sound from the other room.

“Where is the treasure,” he whispered.

Just then, a piece of paper floated into the room I was in. My heart was beating fast. I picked up the piece of paper. It said, Treasure in Washington Monument.

“Ah ha, so he is looking for the treasure,” I said to myself. I decided to find it first.

I sat down on the floor and thought, What if this is just a rumor. But I decided to go with it. I stared at the paper. It said, Treasure in monument. Hidden in bricks. Top secret.

Not so secret anymore, I thought. Before I could do anything, I heard a whisper.

“Where did that paper go?” He sounded angry. I shivered and held the paper close. If I was going to find the treasure, I better find it fast. If it was a brick that the treasure was in, it would be loose. I wiggled some of the bricks, and l realized that this would take forever. I glanced down at the paper and saw that in the corner in tiny writing was, P.S. it’s on the second floor.

I now had a major lead. Heading down to the second floor wasn’t going to be easy, but I was determined. I could hardly wait to see my mother’s face. As I raced down the steps, I felt like I was being followed. When I turned around, I saw a shape. Uh-oh! I was stuck in the Washington Monument with a thief that could do anything to me.

I ducked into the bathroom and started thinking. He was bigger than me, smarter, stronger. Who knew what he could do to me. But I was going to find the treasure, no matter what.

I looked out the bathroom window and saw it was getting light. After staying up all night, I was really tired. I yawned and got up. I thought again. Was finding the treasure worth risking my life. If he had a weapon, he could kill me. I had to make a decision, should I look for the treasure or hide? I decided to hide. I really wanted to find the treasure, but I didn’t want to get hurt.

“Lily!” It was Mom. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry! Security made me get out. Are you okay?” she asked. She looked worried.

“I’m fine!”

The next day at school, my teacher was teaching math. I thought it was boring and wrote my adventure from yesterday down. My hair was all tangled, and my shoes were worn-out. That was fun, but I was glad it was all over. It was pretty scary! I thought. But I might go back to investigate!

 

Part Two

I was sitting in my classroom. I thought of what happened the day before.

Maybe, I thought, I can go back and see if the thief is there tonight. This time, I will take my mom with me.

“Attention, everyone. Mr. Poop is absent today. Music is canceled,” the principal announced. Everyone groaned. This meant math for the rest of the day.

That night, I told my mom about my idea. After some thought, she said, “I will come with you. However, you have to promise to stay with me. Let’s pack.”

We walked to the Monument, and I told Mom we should sneak in through the side. As we walked up the stairs, I heard a man’s voice. “I didn’t do music today, so I could plan.”

I couldn’t hear the rest because my mom interrupted. “Lily, hurry up!”

“Mom, someone is here in the monument!”

“Really?!”

“Listen!”

“The treasure is on the second floor. I pulled out the brick a little,” the man said. He knows where the treasure is, I thought.

We made our way up to the second floor, and I was thinking about what the man had said. I didn’t do music today so I could plan. Those words seemed to bother me a little. They sounded weird.

When we got to the second floor, I saw a brick that was half pulled out. I ran towards it and jerked it out. I heard footsteps. I looked where the brick used to be. In there, was a glimmering necklace. The footsteps were getting louder. I snatched the necklace and pulled my mom into a closet. I watched to see how the thief would react. It was too dark to see his face, but he groped around and stuck his hand in the hole. “Huh,” he made a weird noise. I tried not to laugh. “Where did that brick go,” he yelled.

He pulled out his phone.

“Mr. Snogglewartle, the treasure is gone!” the thief said. I gasped. Mr. Snogglewartle was my principal’s name!

“Mom, did you hear that! My principal is working with the thief!”

“Oh my!” she said, sounding surprised.

“Let’s get out of here!” I said. As we were going down, we heard footsteps. We started to run.

“What are you doing!” the thief said.

We ran faster. Finally, he caught up to us. “Mr. Poop! What are you doing here?” He didn’t answer. Oh well, at least that answers the, I didn’t do music today because I had to plan. He was my music teacher! We fled.

“Wait!” Mr. Poop yelled.

We ran all the way home. For about 20 minutes, just straight running.

At home, we slammed the door shut. “Where should we put the necklace?” I asked my mom.

“We want to keep it safe. If the story leaks, we are in big trouble.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because, if the story leaks, then thieves are going to try to steal the necklace.”

“So? Where should we put the necklace?” I asked my mom. After a while of thought, my mom thought that we should donate it to a museum.

“If we donate it to a museum, it could be seen by many people. For everyone to enjoy.”

Thief in monument caught. That was what it said in the newspaper.

The next day, I was at the museum. The necklace in its display case glimmered more than ever. Under the display was a small, yellow card. It said, Donated by Miss Lily Burger. I was happy it said my name on it.

I felt really glad that the necklace was in its place. Everything had turned out well, I thought. In the end, I was happy with everything that had happened.

 

Out There

 

Colors explode on everything around

Wind blows colors to new places

I smile in pure pleasure looking at the beautiful world

Floating in the now gentle breeze are thousands of leaves

Twilight comes, the sun lowers

Streaking the sky with purple and pink

Stars come out to play

Abstract reality surrounds our world in pieces

Sadly, I am not out there, but behind my window

 

Nightquake

Max knew that it wasn’t going to be a good day. Yesterday, everything had gone wrong, and now Max, a quiet kid who sat in the back of class and got good grades, had gotten himself into a fight. Everyone at school knew about it. It was as big as a pay-per-view boxing match. And it was today.

Yesterday was what Max expected to be another normal day, going to school, doing his work, and going home. Instead, the most unexpected things happened at every corner.

First, he went downstairs to get breakfast, expecting to see his mom and dad already eating and getting ready for work. They weren’t there. When he went to go get his breakfast, he saw a ripped sheet of paper on the fridge.

 

Hey Max –

We had to go to work early today — we wouldn’t have

gone if it wasn’t an emergency. We’ll be home at 6:30.

Love,

Mom + Dad

 

That was already abnormal. Max’s parents never had to go to work early. They were pediatricians at the children’s hospital downtown. They usually worked from 10 am to 6 pm in the emergency room. What could’ve happened that made them leave so unexpectedly?

Then, Max arrived at school, and the principal called him into the office. Max had never gotten into trouble. In fact, he had never even talked to the principal before. Why was he going?

Max walked into the office. It had smooth walls that were the color of sand in the desert, and there was a lady that looked as if she was born in ancient times at the front desk.

“Are you Max Smith?” she asked Max with a stern voice, and he got worried.

Could I be in trouble? he wondered.

“Yes,” Max gulped. “That’s me.”

“Great. The principal’s office is right down that hall.” She pointed to the hall on the right of Max.

“Thank you.”

Max was nervous, but he gathered up the courage to walk down that short hall that felt like it was never-ending.

Max finally got to the end of the hall and opened the door. He saw the principal, who had slight wrinkles on his face, graying hair, and a thick unibrow.

“Come in.” The principal had a deep voice, almost as deep as Batman.

Max sat down on the gray, cushioned chair in front of the principal’s desk, and the worry slowly worked its way down from his head, to his stomach, and then all the way down to his legs.

“Max, do you know why you’re here?” He asked the question in a way that seemed as if Max did something wrong, and he should feel sorry for it.

“No,” he quietly whimpered.

“Well, you don’t have to worry. You’re not in trouble.”

Relief quickly took over the worry that was swallowing Max whole.

“Why am I here?” asked Max.

“You are here to be what is sort of an undercover agent for the school. I recently found out about a secret group within the school that has been bullying and hazing some new and old students for no apparent reason. I want you to join them and find out why they’re doing this, then do your best to stop them without getting caught. This is dangerous, and it is up to you, but before you make your decision, I want you to remember that I chose you because you are my best student, and I believe you can do the best job.”

Max had to take a second to let those words sink in. Best student? Undercover agent? Of course he had to accept. The dangers didn’t matter to Max. If he stayed somewhat quiet, he could avoid trouble.

Or so he thought…

 

Max didn’t know what to expect when he went up to William Brown, the school’s biggest bully. He slowly walked up to him, trembling with the thought of getting beat up, or worse. He was still wondering what made him the principal’s pick to end this, but he knew he needed to be focusing on the present right now. He finally reached William and whimpered the word, “Hi.”

“What do you want, twerp?” William asked in a tough, strong voice with the power to destroy worlds.

“I-I-I w-wanna be a-a p-part of your gr-group.”

“Ah, you mean the Union.”

“Yep.” Max’s confidence rose after hearing the name Union. He had a name now, and he could easily slide in.

“I mean, you seem quiet enough to stay silent about all this. But how do I know you’re tough enough?”

“I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.”

“I guess I will. You’re in.”

 

Max knew what he had to do now. He had to challenge them from the inside. Refuse missions, let kids free from the horrors they were about to face, and of course, forcing them to give him information. He knew this wouldn’t be easy, but he had to try.

When he opened his locker to put his books away for lunch, he saw a folded up note that had been dropped inside through the small slits at the top.

 

Dude –

I gotta tell you our HQ location so

you can come to our daily lunch

meetings. It’s at the unlocked closet

nobody uses at the football field.

The lunch meeting is @ 12:30. Please come.

 

Max knew he had to go to that meeting. He quickly put his books away, checked the time (it was 12:07), and hurried to the cafeteria. He ate his lunch in four minutes, then ran to the football field, which was three minutes away. He arrived 16 minutes early, at 12:14, but he was there on time to catch them before they could beat up another kid. He ran over to where they were gathering around a kid sitting on a chair, and he saw that it was one of his very few friends, Kent Buckley. He was about to say something to stop them, but just as he was about to do something, Kent got punched in the face three times. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and his teeth were red with blood. Kent got up to run away, but Axel Foiger pushed him back into the chair. Kent was crying, but nobody was doing anything to help. Max knew he should talk to them, but he also knew he needed to gain their trust. So, without thinking at all, with a smile on his face, Max went up to Kent, and spit on his face.

 

The entire Union was going wild. Max Smith helping us? Max was usually a nice, quiet kid. Why was he joining the Union? However, they were so impressed, that they didn’t even have the slightest thought that he was going to try and destroy the Union.

“Alright, alright,” William’s voice turned the entire group silent. “Yes, we have a new member, but that doesn’t matter right now. We just need to go into the closet and have our meeting. I have an idea of who’s next.”

All of the members of the Union were ready to know who was next. When the reveal finally came, they were so shocked, they barely talked for the next hour. They were scared for this and definitely not ready.

They were going to publicly fight Max Smith, so he could prove himself worthy to the Union. If they had to know how tough he was, they didn’t just have to take his word for it. They could just watch him in action.

Max was terrified. It didn’t help that the whole school knew by 2:30, and by 2:45, a time had been planned for the fight. He knew he couldn’t fail his principal, and he knew he was still going to take down the Union. As long as he believed in himself, he could do it.

 

After school, he walked home, knowing he was safe from getting beaten up, but terrified of tomorrow’s fight. It was 3:17 when he arrived home, and his parents weren’t going to be home for another 3 hours, 13 minutes. All he could do was wait to find out what the emergency was.

His parents arrived home at 7:00 pm, half an hour after the time they said they would arrive at. They had very clearly been crying, and he knew something was very wrong when they told him to sit down on the couch.

They sat down on the couch across from Max and started talking.

“A kid from your school, Jimmy Phillips, was brought to the emergency room last night with severe injuries. He was found lying on the ground unconscious, with a note taped to his shirt that said From the Union. He survived, but he will be blind for at least the next five years, and he can never move his left arm again. We want to know if you know anything about this.”

“No. I don’t.”

Max was shocked. He knew that the Union was bad, but to this level? He now felt horrible about helping them beat up Kent. Spitting on his face was the worst thing he could’ve done. Now, he knew that he definitely needed to stop them. He went upstairs and thought about this. He started preparing for the fight, now that he knew who he was working with. He was weak, but as long as he believed in himself, he could fight.

When he woke up the next day, he was as ready for the fight as he could possibly be. He knew he would be able to beat them when he knew why the principal chose him to infiltrate the Union. That would help him realize his strengths, and how he could use them. He got dressed, and immediately went to school. No breakfast was necessary.

When he arrived at school, he was called to the principal’s office for the second day in a row. He once again walked down the short hall that felt like an eternity, wondering what it was this time. He opened the door, and the principal immediately started to talk.

“I heard about the fight. I’m confident that you’re ready for this.”

“I’m just as confident as you are.”

“Good. The fight is not why you’re here right now. You’re here so I can tell you why I chose you.”

Max knew that he would finally know the answer to the question that had been on his mind for the past 24 hours.

“I chose you for three big reasons. Reason number one is that you’re smart. You’re smarter than all of the members in the Union combined. You can easily outsmart them. Reason number two is that you’re a likable person. The Union can easily get along with you, leading you to gain their trust, leading me to have all of their information. Reason number three is that you’re loyal. I mean, I’ve known you for a day, and you’re already doing everything I want, without questioning it. Your loyalty means that you won’t actually become a member of the Union, but instead come back to me. In fact, you’re so loyal, I bet you won’t tell anybody that my name is actually Joey Smoith.”

Max had to take a second to let that sink in. Who has a name like Joey Smoith?

“Thank you for choosing me.” That was all he said before leaving the principal’s office.

 

In the hours before the fight, Max realized how sluggish classes really were. Time went by slower than it had ever gone before. Max fell asleep during class, and when the teacher woke him up, it was 2:43pm. 17 minutes until the fight. The minutes started going by faster. Fifteen minutes until the fight. Faster. Twelve minutes until the fight. Faster. Eight minutes until the fight. Faster. Three minutes until the fight.

It was finally time for the fight. After hours of waiting, it was finally here. He went up to the Union, and everything became a blur. Someone shouted a starting word, and the fight began. Max believed in himself, so he could do it.

Max punched William in the face, kicked all of the members of the Union in the stomach, and then they got angry. They charged at Max, and he got punched in the face twice. Then, he got kicked in the crotch. His hair got pulled, his leg got snapped, he broke at least five bones, and then, he got knocked out. He had lost the fight.

There was blood coming from all over his body. It looked as if someone painted him dark red. His leg was gushing out blood, he looked flat, and he didn’t remember any of it when he woke up in the hospital two months later.

 

It had been a year since Max woke up in the hospital. It had taken him five months to recover, and he still had many scars. These scars brought him to the realization that he wasn’t the only one that had these troubles. The scars made him remember the fight and how hard he fought against the Union. This made him feel powerful, like he had the power to do anything. He had the power to help. He wanted to be like his favorite superhero, Robin. He would become a vigilante and protect all of the people that were being attacked.

He began by making his costume. He made himself a black mask that covered his entire head, and a suit that had a black center, and blue arms and legs, with a large N in the middle. Then, he trained for seven months. He worked out, jumped across rooftops, practiced knocking out criminals using punching bags in his basement. Then, he was ready. That night, he jumped across rooftops, looking for crime. He finally found something. Seven or eight criminals gathered around a gagged man tied up to a chair. He wasn’t worried. He knew he could do it. He was… Nightquake.

 

Something Broken

 

Katnissa

As I walk into the dining room, my mom says, “Katnissa. You’re late.”

“Sorry,” I say. “I was out with Galeian at the park.”

Galeian is my best friend. He and I have been best friends since we started kindergarten when we were five. I still remember on the first day of kindergarten I wore my hair in two braids instead of one (now the only hairstyle I wear is one braid over my left shoulder) and I was so nervous. He was the only one who was nice to me. Now, we are going into eighth grade. This year is the year we try out for high school. If we don’t go to the same high school, we won’t be friends anymore, and that would be sad.

“What’s for dinner,” I say.

“Spaghetti with meat sauce,” my mom says. “You know tomorrow you have an interview.”

“I know,” I reply.

“Don’t you want to prepare?”

“No,” I say.

I walk upstairs and flop facedown on my bed. Uhh, I don’t want to do this. I wish I was in kindergarten again, then I could be friends with Galeian forever and never have to leave. That is my only wish.

 

I wake up the next morning and immediately feel the warmth and coziness of the blanket on top of me. Then, I realize that I have my interview today, so I am allowed the skip school to go to my interview at Lexington High School. My bedroom is literally covered with posters of Alex Morgan, Lionel Messi, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo.

I grab my phone off the nightstand and text Galeian, Hey are you nervous for our interview??

He almost instantly texts me and says, No, you.

And I say, Yes, a bit.

And he says, It’s okay don’t be nervous.

I then text, Meet you there.

When I stand up, I feel the shooting pain in my feet that you get when you first get up.

“Ow,” I mutter under my breath.

I open my drawer as it makes a low creaking sound. Creeeeeeeak. Then, I take my favorite shirt out of the drawer. It’s a black turtleneck sweaterish sort of thing. It’s plain, but I really like it. I also take out a pair of jeans. Then, I braid my hair into braid over my left shoulder, just like every morning. As I walk downstairs, I hear the slamming of our car’s trunk and the sound of our old garage doors closing. Yes, I can admit we don’t have the nicest house or the newest things, but we do live a good life. I walk across the lawn in my flip flops, and I feel the cold, wet grass on my toes. It must have just rained last night. I walk to the car and open the door. I get in the car, and my mom starts driving. It takes about 15 minutes to get there.

When I get out, my mom gives me a big hug and says, “I’m so proud of you.”

And I say, “Thanks, Mom,” but really inside it puts me under more pressure.

Then, I hear Galeian say, “Hey, Katnissa,” and I walk over to him.

“Hi, Galeian,” I say.

“Still nervous?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go in,” he says.

And I say, “Okay.”

As we walk into Lexington High School, I start to get butterflies in my stomach. The lady at the front desk tells us to go take a right through that door, then a left down the hallway, and then take a right right down the first hallway we see, and the room will be on our left at the end of that hall. We follow those directions, and we get there without getting lost. Yay!!! We go into the room and see a tall man with bright red hair.

He says, “Galeian, you’re up first.”

“Bye, Katnissa,” Galeian says.

“Bye,” I say.

 

Galeian

“Hi, Mom, I’m home,” I say as I walk through the front door.

“Good,” she says. “I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” I walk into the living room where she is watching a show. She pauses her show. I sit down on our couch and relax.

Then, my mom says, “How was your day.”

I then say, “Good.”

“Where were you,” she says.

“I was out at the park with Katnissa.”

We were practicing for our state soccer tournaments that we are both in the finals of. We play on the same team because Brooke Charter School only has one team, and it is for boys. Katnissa had to ask so many times and keep showing the coach her skills, and even then it took her a whole year to get on the team. She is really good.

“That sounds fun. Also, you have an interview tomorrow,” she says. That’s my mom alright, always worried about me when I don’t need her to be.

“I know, Mom, you have told me half a billion times,” I say.

“I know,” she says. “Still, do you want to prepare??”

“No,” I say. Actually, I kind of yell at her. Well anyway, I walk upstairs and lie down on my bed. I wish I didn’t have to switch schools. It’s so annoying. Now I might never be friends with Katnissa again.

 

I wake up the next morning and feel annoyed.

“Really, Mom,” I say. “It’s only 7:00 am. Why do you have to wake me up.”

“You have an interview today,” she says.

Uhhhhhhh, I think. “This is the quadrillianth time you have told me!!” I say.

“I know, I know” she says, “but really you have to get up.”

“Fine,” I say. I walk over to my dresser and take out an expensive top and my nicest jeans and get dressed. Then, I walk downstairs to have breakfast. My mom has prepared me a great breakfast. A bit of egg, a bit of bacon, and a bit of hash browns. Yum!! I scarf up my breakfast, and my mom and I drive to Lexington High School. I feel a little nervous, but I dont tell my mom, or she will start to freak out and tell me I don’t have to go if I don’t want to, but I do want to go.

When I arrive, I see Katnissa, and I say, “Hey, Katnissa.”

After that, everything’s a blur. Next thing I know, I’m being called in for the interview.

 

Katnissa

I walk into the interviewing room and sit down on a red velvet chair.

The man in front of me across the desk says, “Hello, you must be Katnissa.”

“Yes,” I say.

“How are you today?” he asks.

“Good,” I say.

“So I’m going to get to the point,” he says. “Why do you want to go to Lexington high school?”

“It is the best sports school in the state of Massachusetts,” I say.

“So you play sports I presume?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say. “If you look in my folder, you will see a review from all my past coaches.” He opens my folder and takes out a review from my middle school coach and looks surprised.

“What are your favorite subjects in school?” he asks.

“Math and gym,” I say. “I not only love soccer. I love all sports in general, although I will admit my favorite is soccer. I love math because I like mind games, and math includes a lot of them.”

“My last question is about friends.” He asks, “Do you have a lot of of them??”

“Honestly, I have a few, my teammates and Galeian who is also my teammate.”

“So boys are on your team,” he says.

“Yes,” I say. “It is an all boys team except for me.”

“Thank you, Ms. Katnissa. Watch for a letter,” he says.

“Thank you,” I say. Then, I walk out of the door feeling remarkably happy.

 

Galeian

I open the front door to my house. I walked home with Katnissa, so I had to hold back tears the entire time. Why did I do that interview so horribly?! I walk into my house and feel the tears hot and salty rolling down my face. My mom comes out of the kitchen holding a spatula covered in sauce.

She says, “Honey, how was your int — , what happened, sweetheart?”

She gives me a big hug. The tears are slowing, and I am calming down slowly. I am breathing heavy, and for once, I am happy about my mom’s protecting nature.

“What happened, sweetheart, do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” I say.

“Okay,” she says.

She goes into the kitchen and gets me a fresh cup of her famous chocolate milk. When I drink it, I feel even better. After that, my mom and I curl up and watch my favorite movie. Later that night, as I walk upstairs, I feel a kind of happy, a happy I’ve never felt before, like I might be able to accept the the fact that I most likely will not get in to Lexington High School, and that’s okay. And for that, I thank my mother.

 

Katnissa

It’s a week after my interview, and we still haven’t gotten a letter or email about the school. It’s super nerve-wracking!! Suddenly, my mom yells from downstairs.

“Honey, I would come down here if I were you.”

I race downstairs and exclaim, “What.”

My mom says, “Come here.” I run over as fast as I can and look over her shoulder, and on her computer I see a message from Lexington High School.

“Open it!” I yell excitedly. “Open it!!”

She clicks it with her mouse, and here is what the email says.

 

Dear Ms. Rail

I am very pleased to inform you that your daughter has gotten into Lexington High School. Below I will provide a list of all details on this matter.

Thank you for your time,

Peter Wayne

 

“YES!” I exclaim. “YES, YES, YES!!”

My mom gives me a big hug. “I’m so proud of you!!” When we finally let go of each other, which is about half an hour later, my mom says, “Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate.”

“Yes,” I say.

Later that night, I’m still smiling. We hop in the car. We decide that we are going to my favorite restaurant that is on Oak Street. It’s an Italian restaurant, and it’s so good. The only problem is that it’s 30 minutes away. Whatever, who cares. I’m so happy.

 

Galeian

Even though I expected that I wouldn’t make it into the school, I still feel sad that I didn’t get in. The thing that cheered me up the most was my mom. Do you know what she did?! She gave me a hard mad emoji pillow to punch and a sad emoji pillow to squeeze. I cracked up so hard when she gave them to me. I was laughing forever. It was hilarious!! But the funniest thing ever was when she asked me, “Why are you laughing?” After that, I laughed for 20 minutes. But then, I went upstairs. The fun was over, and the gloom started. I thought back to the day of the interview, and then I remembered the smirkish smile she gave me when she came out if the room. She told the interviewer bad things about me. Oh my gosh!! Why would she do such a terrible, terrible thing. What did I ever do to her?? Well, the day before our interview, I beat her at soccer for the first time. Now she thinks I’m a pushover and a baby, and I hate her for it.

 

Katnissa

As we get in the car, I say, “Oh shoot. I should call Galeian, right?”

My mom then says, “Yeah sure.”

I turn on my phone and call Galeian. “Hey, Galeian,” I say when he answers. “I got in. I’m so excited we are going to do all kinds of fun things together.”

“I didn’t get in,” he says, sounding quite upset like he just cried. “So go away.”

I look toward the front window and say, “I’m so sorry, Galeian, that’s aw — ” Then I see the big white headlights raging toward us. “AAAAAAA!” I scream. Then, I hear a crash!! I feel some kind of sharp glass hit my arm, and I feel a bit of wet blood. Everything becomes blurry, and then my world goes black.

 

Galeian

As I am relaxing on my bed and feeling sleepy, I suddenly get a call. I pick up the phone and answer it without looking who it’s from. When I answer it, I hear Katnissa’s voice ranting about what we’re going to do together when we get to Lexington. Really, now she is trying to make me feel bad. Is she serious. She sounds so excited.

Then in the middle of her sentence, I cut her off and say, “I didn’t get in.”

Then unexpectedly she says, “Oh Galeian that’s aw — ” Then, I hear two screams and then a big crash. Oh my gosh, she just got into a car crash. Should I go and help her. Then I decide no, she ruined my dreams. I will never help her again. She doesn’t deserve it.

 

Katnissa

I wake up hearing voices. What’s going on? I think. What happened? Ow, my whole body hurts.

When I open my eyes, someone yells, “She’s awake.”

“Call the doctor,” yells someone else.

I open my eyes even wider to find my mom sitting there. With several scars on her face yes, but alive and awake. I smell an odd smell, like we are at a hospital. I also hear a quiet buzzing sound from the big machine Then, I notice that I have a bunch of wires connecting to me.

I try to say, “Mom, are we in a hospital,” but what comes out is this awful croaking sound.

I try to sit up, but the pain in my neck and right leg are too much to bare. Oh the pain!! I lay back down. I decide if I can’t get up, I will at least find out where I am. I can’t talk, so I decide my strategy will be to look around the room. I see a night table with a plant on it on my left side. On the table there is my phone cracked and most likely unusable. Then, I look on the other side and see a bunch of medical charts. Okay, we’re definitely at a hospital. But why are we here? Then I remember those big white headlights, and then I put two and two together, and I know we were in a car crash. Then, the doctor comes in with this clipboard in his hand.

Then, he says “Hello, Katnissa. I am Doctor Modisett.”

“What happened to me?” I ask.

He responds to me by saying, “You have a concussion, a broken arm, and a broken neck.”

“Nooooo,” I croak.

Then, the doctor drops the biggest bomb I’ve experienced on me.  He says, “Soccer may be off the table for you.”

“Nooo,” I say.

“I have to go to the nationals.” Then I cry, and I feel the hot, salty tears slowly roll down my face.

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” my mom says.

“Noooo,” I cry back. I feel like I have no use in the world anymore, and my heart is crushed.

 

Galeian

My mom wakes me up the next day.

I ask her, “Why are you waking me up so early?”

She says, “We’re going to visit Katnissa in the hospital.”

Then I say, “Absolutely not, I will not go.”

“Yes, you will,” she says, “or you’re grounded, and don’t you care about your friend?”

“Fine,” I say.

I get dressed and walk down the stairs. She gives me breakfast, and we head off towards the hospital. When we get to the hospital, the person at the front desk says that she’s in room 302. Then, we take the elevator up to the third floor. The elevator is super slow. We open the door to her room, and I see her in the bed sleeping. My mom greets her mom and tells her how sorry she is that this happened. Then Katnissa wakes up. I glare at her.

She says, “Hi, Galeian.” I ignore her. “Galeian, did you hear me? Hello?” she says as she waved her hand in my face.

“Don’t put your hand in my face,” I say.

“Jeez,” she responds, “so harsh.”

I decide I would ignore her for the rest of the time we’re here. Then, I walk to the other side of the room and sit down facing away from her.

“What are you doing, Galeian?” my mom asks.

“You knew I didn’t want to come. Don’t expect me to talk.”

“But Katnissa is your best friend. Aren’t you happy to see her.”

I simply say, “No.”

 

Katnissa

The next time I open my eyes, I see Galeian walk through the door. I feel excited to see them, but still a little upset that he yelled at me when we were on the phone.

But I still try to be friends with him and say, “Hi, Galeian,” but he rudely ignores me. I don’t understand why he did that. I wave my hand in his face.

“Hello, why are you ignoring me.”

He yells at me again, telling me to not put my hands in his face. I don’t understand why he’s doing this. What did I ever do to him? Maybe it’s because I got into the school and he didn’t. May — that’s the only option. He’s mad at me because I got into the school and he didn’t. That’s not fair for him to do that. When I think about it, I should be the one mad at him. He hasn’t come to visit me and doesn’t even care that I’m okay. Then, Galeian leaves. He says he has to go to the bathroom, but I think he’s leaving for good.

I say to his mom, “Why is Galeian acting like this? Do you know?”

She says, “No, I have no idea. I don’t understand it either.”

Later that day, after Galeian and his mother left, my physical therapist comes for the first time to help me with my broken neck and leg. She has curly black hair and acts really nice.

She says, “Hello, I’m Ariana.”

“Hi, I’m Katnissa,” I say.

When I try to get out of bed, I realize just how bad my leg is. I almost fall over, but I catch myself using the bed.

“Ow,” I say. She tells me to sit down on the floor and slowly try to touch my toes. I do, and it hurts way too much to touch my toes.

“Ugh,” I say. “I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can,” she says. “If you want to get back to your passion, you have to work for it.”

“But it hurts to work for it,” I say.

“But you still have to do it,” she says.

Soon, she tells me to stand up and try walking but holding onto the railing. I get three steps before I have to stop. Each day, I get more and more steps, and eventually I start taking steps without needing to hold onto the rail. I’ve been working on getting better for two months, and every day I feel more and more confident that I could get back to soccer, and my neck is healing but not at as fast of a pace as my leg. I miss Galeian, but the old Galeian. Not the one who hates me.

 

Galeian

It’s been two months since I visited Katnissa in the hospital. I’m less mad now, and I was going to visit her and tell her I’m sorry, but I don’t know how. I think and think, and I decide that I’m going to visit her in the hospital today and make it right. I tell my mom, and she tells me that that’s great, and we should totally do that. So we get in the car and head towards the hospital. The drive is 20 minutes long. When we get there, I go to room 302, and I don’t see her. I walk down the hallway to check if she’s anywhere else and see her walking with her physical therapist practicing trying to walk. She’s doing a pretty good job, and I’m happy for her.

“Hello, I’m really sorry for ignoring you. I was wrong,” I say as I walk up to her.

“Why were you doing that to me? It was very mean,” she responds angrily.

I say, “I was upset because I thought you told the interviewer something bad about me, and I had already had a very bad interview. Did you do that?”

“Absolutely not!” she says. “I would never do that. I wanted us both to be at the same school.”

“Really?” I say.

“Yeah,” she says, “I would never try to hurt you.”

“Will you forgive me?” I say.

“I don’t know. I was really hurt that you didn’t come see me, and I think that was wrong. We’re best friends. You shouldn’t give up on your best friend without even trying to make it right.”

“I’ll make it right. I’ll visit you more, and I promise that will never happen again. I’m really sorry,” I say.

She says, “I’ll forgive you, but you can’t do that again.”

I leave the hospital that day feeling very happy.

 

Katnissa

Galeian visited me today. He seemed really nice, and I’m happy he came. Like I said before, I don’t know if I can forgive him. What he did was really wrong, and I don’t like it. I think I will forgive him though. He has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I can’t give up on him so easily. That would be just as mean as what he did to me. I can’t do that to him. Over the next few weeks, he visits me every day. And every day, he helps me walk a bit more than I did the day before. One day, I stop and tell him that it’s too hard, and I need to stop.

He tells me, “No, keep trying, keep going after it,” and I do.

I keep trying, and I keep working until I am allowed to stop physical therapy, as long as I keep taking walks with Galeian. So I realize that what I need is the promise that I can do it, that I’m not alone. And Galeian showed me that. So when he asks if I forgive him, I say yes.

 

Emma Learns How to Fly

Once there was a ladybug. Her name was Emma, and she loved to fly. Her mom was also a ladybug.

She told her, “Emma, you have to go to classes to learn how to fly!”

“But Mom, I know how to fly! You don’t have to teach me. I can fly by myself!” Emma said.

But her mom still insisted that she must go. But Emma was really scared because she didn’t really like going to different classes.

The day she needed to go, Emma said, “Mom, I don’t want to go! I can fly perfectly!”

“If you don’t want to go, you have to show me that you can fly!” her mom said.

So the next day, her mom said, “Show me how you can fly! Fly for ten minutes in the air and come back.”

“Okay,” Emma said.

She came back in ten minutes, and her mom said, “Wow, Emma! Did you perch on a branch for a minute?”

Emma froze. She said, “Uhh… Sorry, Mom. I didn’t! I’m trying to remember after such a long time. And have you noticed it’s actually been one hour? So you expect me to fly for one hour? I had to fly a little, but I perched on a branch for one minute.”

So her mom said, “Well done, Emma. You don’t need to go to flying school.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

The next day, Emma woke up feeling as fine as she looked.

She asked her mom, “Can I eat breakfast early? I want to go fly!”

“Of course,” her mom said. “I’m so happy that you love flying!

So she went outside and started flying. She was going too fast and hit a branch. Her wing slit a lot, and it started bleeding. She came home with one wing, and her mom said, “What happened? Are you okay?”

She took her to a ladybug hospital, and Emma stayed there for a month.

“The next time you go flying ask me to come, because if you get injured I can help you,” Emma’s mom said.

“Okay,” said Emma.

Then, she got better and came out of the hospital. She had enough courage that she could go flying with her mom.

Then Emma said, “Yay, I’m doing it! I’m not going to get hurt again.”

THE END

 

The End of the World

     

PART ONE

James was lying down in the sand with a big cut on his leg. His brother was trying to put a leaf over his cut to stop him from losing blood.

James yelled, “Stop it, Max!”

Max said, “I was only trying to help.”

Then, his brother said, “It’s your fault that we’re stranded in the first place.”

James remembered when he begged and begged his dad to let him go find spices and gold for his family, but when he set sail, a storm sank his boat, and he and his brother swam to the nearest island. The island was the size of a small building and was covered with huge poisonous spiders. It was very hot on the island. They had to spend most of their time in the water so that they didn’t get bitten. James went into the water, and he felt something stinging his leg. Then, he looked down and saw that the water was filled with millions and millions of jellyfish. He saw something huge and black that was approaching the island. It was magnificent. He ran out of the water to go tell his brother.

Then, he said, “Max! Max! We’re finally going to be rescued!”

Then, Max said, “That’s a pirate ship.”

The pirate ship stopped close to the island, and James ran through the jellyfish water and snuck onto the pirate ship. Max followed him.

Max said, “This is a bad idea, James.”

Then, James said, “The pirates are sailing to the end of the world. The treasure at the end of the world is the only way to fix our boat and go back home.”

James and Max went into the cargo compartment of the ship, and Max said, “You stay here. I’ll go search the captain’s quarters.”

James waited for hours for his brother to return. But he never did. James decided to go searching in the captain’s quarters. He didn’t see Max. He only saw a huge, mysterious metal box. The pirates started sailing, and James couldn’t get back on the island. A huge pirate with two hooks and two peg legs walked through the cargo compartment and took a paper scroll that looks like a map out of a wooden box. James found a place to sleep in the cargo compartment and still waited for his brother to come back. From the captain’s quarters, he heard a loud noise yelling for help out of the huge mysterious metal box. He woke up and realized he was dreaming. There was no one calling for help. He was alone in the cargo compartment. He couldn’t go back to sleep. He lay awake all night. He searched every corner of the ship, but his brother was nowhere to be seen. The huge pirate with two hook and two peg legs spotted him in the captain’s quarters.

The pirate yelled, “What are you doing in here?!”

James ran back into the cargo compartment and hid in a barrel.

James heard a voice say, “Over here.”

A ghost came out of the barrel, and James screamed and ran behind some wooden boxes. “I know where the map is,” said the ghost.

“What map?” asked James.

“The maps of the end of the world,” said the ghost. “I’ll help you get the treasure at the end of the world if you can get the map from the Captain Hank.”

“Who’s Captain Hank?” asked James.

“Captain Hank is the captain with two peg legs and two hooks,” said the ghost. “You’ll need to train first.

James learned sword play, but the ghost was better at it. James had several more wounds by morning. He was bruised on his knee, his arm, and his forehead.

A storm came. The boat rocked back and forth. A huge green sea serpent came out the water. It was as long as the Eiffel Tower. James drew his sword. Cannons fired, but nothing could penetrate the serpent’s skin. James was about to enter the battle when he saw a huge flash of green light, and the sea serpent disappeared. Captain Hank took the huge, mysterious metal box back into the captain’s quarters.

“What was that?” James asked.

“No one knows,” said the ghost.

James wondered all day about where his brother may have been and about the mysterious metal box. They finally reached the gates of the end of the world. There was a huge island behind the gates. The huge island was the size of Texas. There was a giant stone that had writing on it. The stone was as big as a ferris wheel. The writing said that you must sacrifice something valuable before entering the end of the world. Captain Hank threw one of his hooks into the water. The gates flew open. James jumped off the boat onto the island. He grabbed every key in the treasure chest, wondering which one would open the mysterious metal box. He climbed back onto the ship just as the pirates walked onto the island.

They grabbed the chest to get onto the boat. James ran into the captain’s quarters and grabbed the mysterious metal box and stuck every key that he had into the keyhole. He was finally down to the last key: a black rusty key with a green circle at the top of it. He stuck it into the mysterious metal box, and it opened. His brother Max came out of it, but so did a huge sea serpent. It was a huge green sea serpent that was as large as a the Eiffel Tower. The sea serpent destroyed the ship, and the two brothers grabbed the treasure of the end of the world and jumped off the boat. Max and James swam all the way to the island the size of a small building, and they built a boat and sailed back home. Their family was happy to see them, and they were happy to see their family.

 

PART TWO

James and his family were moving from their island to England. When James was packing his suitcase, he saw a letter in his mailbox. It was from the ghost. The letter said:

 

MCDLXVI (aka Roman Numerals for 1466)

Dear James,

I need your help. The sea serpent that you let out of the mysterious metal box last year is attacking sailors and sea creatures in the ocean. You need to stop it.

Sincerely,

Ghost

 

James asked his family if he could go back to sea. “It’s absolutely out of the question!” Max said.

“You know what happened the last time you went to sea.”

No one agreed with him. His father burned the boat that Max and James built the past year. James watched it burn until it was as black as night. The fire was out, and the boat had turned to ash. When everyone was asleep, James went into his parent’s room and grabbed a huge leather pouch of gold. It was as heavy as a bucket of water because it held all the gold his family owned.

Early that morning, James asked, “Can I walk by the dock?”

His father said, “Sure.”

James ran out the door. He looked at all the boats, but there was one that caught his eye. It was as big as three elephants. It had a huge gold mast. A short man was standing by it.

He said, “You can buy my boat with 100,000 gold.”

James handed him the huge leather pouch of gold even though it didn’t have 100,000 gold in it. “You sure you got the money?” said the short man.

“Yes,” James said.

The short man counted the money. While he was counting the money, James ran on the boat that was as big as three elephants and sailed it away from the dock.

“This isn’t 100,000 gold,” said the short man.

But James was gone. The ghost flew onto the boat the size of three elephants.

The ghost said, “If you destroy the sea serpent, I’ll give you 100,000 gold.”

So then James went right to work. He only had his sword and his spy glass with him. He saw something huge, black, and magnificent approaching the ship. He knew that it was the pirates. And Captain Hank. James heard cannons fire when the huge, black, magnificent pirate ship was capsized by a huge green sea serpent the size of the Eiffel Tower. James felt relieved that the pirate ship was capsized but worried about the sea serpent. He went to sleep for a couple of hours, and then the ship started to rock. The huge green sea serpent the size of the Eiffel Tower wrapped itself around the ship. James grabbed a piece of wood and struck his sword against a rock to make a spark. That spark started a small fire on the piece of wood. James threw the piece of wood into the sea serpent’s mouth. The sea serpent spit it out and swam away. James dove into the water. He didn’t see the pirate. All he saw was the mysterious metal box. He picked up the mysterious metal box and put it on the ship. He couldn’t believe that Captain Hank and the pirates were inside the mysterious metal box. He knew that he had to destroy the mysterious metal box before it could cause any more trouble. He found a match in his cabin, lit it with his sword and the rock, and put it through the keyhole of the mysterious metal box. He didn’t know if that would finish off the pirates, but in case not, he stopped at an island the size of a small building covered in huge poisonous spiders. He buried the mysterious metal box there. He still had to find the sea serpent.

The ghost flew over to James. It said, “The only thing that could destroy me is the sea serpent’s fangs.”

James said, “Then you have to stay away from the sea serpent.”

James realized that he had a problem. His boat was stuck in the sand, and huge poisonous spiders were crawling onto his boat the size of three elephants. James went back onto the boat and took out a lifeboat and jumped off. He left his spyglass on the boat, but he didn’t think he’d need it.

The ghost told James to sail to Spain, so he could read a book about the sea serpent and how to destroy it. The ghost showed him how to navigate the stars, so he could get to Spain. When he finally arrived at the bookshop where the book was, he broke into the bookshop and stole the book. Attached to the book there was a small box that had writing that said, Unbearable temptation lies within. James read the book about sea serpents and found out that the only thing powerful enough to destroy it were the gates at the end of the world. James navigated the stars to get to the end of the world, and he made a roaring fire to melt down the gates. With some of the metal from the gates, he made a small dagger, so he could fight the sea serpent. He saw something huge, green, and about the size of the Eiffel Tower approaching his boat. He knew it was the sea serpent. He grabbed the dagger and jumped off the boat onto the sea serpent. The sea serpent’s skin was as rough and as hard as rock. He stabbed the dagger into the sea serpent, and it turned to ash. The only thing that did not turn to ash was the teeth. He opened the box that said, Unbearable temptation lies within. The box was made of gold. He couldn’t stop himself. The second he opened it, millions of evil spirits came out of the box and surrounded the place.

The ghost yelled at James. He said, “You got all the evil spirits out, James!”

James was so angry with the ghost that he dove into the water and grabbed a sea serpent’s tooth. It was as blue as the sky. When he came up for air, he threw the tooth at the ghost, and the ghost faded away. James felt terrible. He could not believe that he destroyed the ghost and let all the evil spirits out. Out of the gold box, where unbearable temptation lied. The evil spirits flew away. He sailed to London, and his family was there. He knew evil was everywhere. He confessed to his family that he ran away, stole all their gold, destroyed his friend, and let all the evil spirits out. But there was still hope.

 

PART THREE

James was in the middle of the ocean. There was a horrible storm. Waves the size of Mount Everest. Thunderclouds as big as France. A small green evil spirit that looked sort of like a dragon approached him. It was a scaly evil spirit of death. It knocked him off his ship. The waves tossed him around like a ball. The small green evil spirit of death came towards him. James screamed.

“Wake up!” yelled Max.

James realized he was not in the middle of the ocean. He was lying in bed. He realized that it must have been a dream… or a warning.

James got out of bed and ate breakfast. He was about to leave the table when a small green dragon-like spirit approached their house. It breathed on the house, and Max disappeared. James’ mom and dad turned into zombie-like creatures. Their skin turned green, and their hair turned white. And they attacked James. James ran out the door and grabbed a sword. He jumped into the lifeboat from his past journey. He sailed away as fast as a cheetah. The small green dragon-like evil spirit of death howled in anger.

James wondered where his brother was. He wished that he did not destroy the ghost. The ghost would know what to do in this situation. James saw something at the bottom of the ocean that caught his eye. It was a blue stone. It was shiney as a sapphire. James wondered what it was. James dove off the boat to grab it. As soon as his hand touched it, he passed out. He woke up, but the blue stone that was shiny as a sapphire was gone. He was lying in the sand underwater. He seemed to be breathing. He snapped his fingers, and the water put him back in the boat, and he was perfectly dry. James felt extremely confused. Was he dead? Was he in the afterlife? James pinched himself and realized he was very much alive. James sailed to an island about the size of a small building covered in huge, poisonous spiders. He used his hands to dig up the mysterious metal box. He wondered if it was strong enough to hold all of the evil spirits. It was worth a shot. He put the mysterious metal box on his boat and sailed away with it.

James had the black rusty key with a green circle at the top of it in the boat. He knew that he couldn’t open the box until it was time to catch the evil spirits. He was sure that the evil spirits were going to the end of the world so he was going to wait for them there.

James sailed to the end of the world and navigated the stars like a map to get there. The island was the size of Texas. The gates were gone. He looked over the huge, empty land. He got off his boat, pulled out his sword, and searched the island. He found a prison made of lightning. It was the size of a small room. Inside there was a ghost who looked like his brother. James ran to the cell.

“Max!” he yelled. James was filled with excitement. His brother was not dead. “How did you turn into a ghost?” James asked. “The letter that the ghost wrote you turned me into a ghost.” James could’ve talked for hours to his brother.

But a small green dragon-like evil spirit of death approached him. James drew his sword. He ran to his boat, grabbed the mysterious metal box, put the key in the key hole, and unlocked the mysterious metal box. A pirate crew came out.

A huge pirate with two hooks and two peg legs pointed at the small green dragon-like evil spirit of death and yelled, “Attack!”

The small green dragon-like evil spirit of death turned all the pirates into zombies. James realized that all the other evil spirits were just temptation. If he could destroy the small green dragon-like evil spirit of death, he could destroy the temptation too. He opened the mysterious metal box and sucked the small green dragon-like evil spirit of death into the mysterious metal box. Then, a figure as golden as a wedding ring came down to the end of the world. James realized who it was immediately. It was the King of the World. James bowed.

“You have saved the world” said the King of the World. “I will give you one wish. It can be anything.”

James thanked the King of the World and wished he had not destroyed the ghost. And just like that, the ghost was right next to him. And the King of the World was gone.The ghost freed Max, and they sailed to England. And James was relieved that his adventures were over… or were they?

 

END OF BOOK ONE

 

The Story of Candyland

One early morning, Carly was asleep, and her mom was calling Carly up. So, Carly brushed her teeth, washed her face, ate breakfast and poof! She was in the Magic land of Candy.

Then, another poof came. It was her friend, Charlie. They thought they could use candy to make a house.

A fairy came and told them, “You can eat the candy, but you can’t make it into a house.”

So, the fairy used her wand to make a gingerbread house for them.

They saw a tree made of marshmallows, and the trunk was made of gum. They thought they could go to the ocean, but there was no ocean. There was only a cotton candy ocean. But there was a guard, and the guard told them that they couldn’t get in the ocean because it was very thick, and you could get stuck if you fall in. When you got stuck, you would sink. But the queen helped them out and used her wand to make the cotton candy smoother for them.

So, Charlie sat on a pizza to ride on the cotton candy ocean, and Carly used the cookie to sail on the cotton candy ocean. A little bear sat on a lollipop made of chocolate and sang. When they got on the island, the little bear was there too. They thought it was their home from before, but it was not. Her mom was in the home to find Carly, and Charlie’s mom was there to find Charlie. But their moms went to the room and didn’t find them anywhere.

They found a Coca-Cola pond, and they could drink Coca-Cola from the pond. They ate some of the fish made of jelly beans.

The moms saw them and said, “This planet is shaped like a jelly bean.”

But it was not their mom, it was the jelly mom. So, they ate the jelly mom because she wasn’t their real mom.

They found chickens in a farm where another chocolate bear was. This bear was eating half an egg, because the chicken was a magic chicken that could give you a chocolate egg if you gave her chocolate.

The bear said, “You should go to the Land of Food.”

So, they sailed on the big boat of candy and sailed to the Land of Food, and there was pizza mom. And they ate their pizza mom.

On the Land of Food, there was a machine that could give you anything you wanted, like pizza. And there was a unicorn made of every type of candy. The unicorn had a marshmallow mouth, and the cotton candy was her head. She had a jello body, and her four hooves were made of jello too. Her neck was made of chocolate. Her mane was made out of lollipops, and her tail was made out of golden candies and food coloring.

They saw a pile of mashed potatoes and jumped in the pile, and it felt very squishy. On the Food Land it was Christmas! The snow was made of all types of ice cream: vanilla, strawberry, chocolate chip, watermelon, lemon, pineapple, and all of the other flavors. They slept in a taco because it was nighttime, and they were tired. All of the candies turn into lights, and you still could eat them! And you couldn’t forget the taste of the popsicles because they tasted so good. You could eat a bit of fries and some hamburgers for dinner.

They ran into a goblin, and it was candy, and they ate the goblin like they did with the food moms. At midnight, when they slept in the taco, a fairy used her wand to send them to their own home.

When they got home, they were very unlucky because Carly’s mom said, “Where have you been!”

“We’ve been in Candyland,” Carly and Charlie said.

Carly’s mom said, “Your punishment is to only eat vegetables for four weeks!”

They never went to Food Land and Candyland because of the fairy who sent them away. And the fairy was made of jello, so they ate the fairy because they wouldn’t eat anything sweet for a month.

So, the next day, Carly and Charlie wished to go to Candyland again. But they could only go if they let the fairy out of their tummies. But Charlie and Carly said they couldn’t because they were people and weren’t magical and couldn’t easily spit her out. They went to the doctor and got the jello fairy out of their mouths. The fairy waved her wand, and Charlie and Carly could go to Candyland and never return. Their moms tried to find them for 2,000 years and didn’t succeed.

In Candyland, they did a lot of fun things. They found a princess that was a human, not candy. The princess showed them the way to the waterfall. And when they got there, there were four princesses that could change their hair magically. They could turn their hair into an island. But they didn’t because they could only do it if they were dreaming about it. Carly, Charlie, and the princesses used bubbles to go down the waterfall, and they had so much fun.

At the bottom of the waterfall, there was a crocodile! When the girls saw it, they quickly ran back to the castle to tell the queen about the crocodile. When they returned to the waterfall, they used a very sharp sword to stab the crocodile. After, they got into a big, big taco and had a tea party. The taco tipped over and fell inside the ocean of cotton candy. It was not a problem because the taco could still float. They ate cotton candy straight from the ocean. It was a rainbow cotton candy ocean that had all of the juicy flavors.

The queen used her magic wand to teleport them back to the castle, and they slept in a cloud that was in the castle! Carly and Charlie thought it was very comfortable. In the cloud bed, you could control your dreams. They dreamed of a basket, and they could see something in the basket. It would give you whatever you wanted, like cotton candy, jelly beans, and chocolate eggs. And sometimes, you could say you wanted chocolate bars. They shared their candy with the four princesses they met that day. When the dream was done, they fell asleep and didn’t dream more because the cloud could only give them one dream that they could control.

The next day, they were still in candy land. They got to a big lollipop and pressed a button, and all of the candy melted, and a tornado slurped up pasta and meatballs.

“What?” said Carly.

“It is yummy!”

“What is yummy?”

“Ruuuuuuuun… No… ”

“It is pasta and meatballs. Slurp, slurp, yum.”

They ate all of it, then they saw soup, so they drank some. They saw a little cute bear covered with pasta, so they slurped the pasta off him, and the bear thanked them and gave them some tea.

They saw a pond that was made out of Coca-Cola. They drank some of the Coca-Cola, so it made them cool. They saw the jelly donut fish in the Coca-Cola pond. They thought it was a very, very boring day because they didn’t play anything. They only ate and saw little chocolate bears. Tomorrow was Carly’s birthday, but they were very sad because it was a boring day.

A little bear heard them and thought he could give them a surprise, so at midnight, the little bear built a waterslide and a rollercoaster. In the morning, the little bear baked a cake and bought gifts to give Carly. He told the other bears to buy enough gifts for her. The first bear gave Carly a car. The second bear gave her a banana boat. The third bear gave Carly a box of M&Ms. The fourth bear gave Carly a pet dog. The fifth bear gave Carly a very special candy. In Candyland, it was called the Unicorn Mix. Carly was very, very surprised.

The next day, the seventh bear gave her a very, very special gift. It was called a cake pudding, so you could put cake on a plate and then put it on your hand, and when you turned and turned it, the machine would plop the cake on your face. The eighth little bear gave Carly a robot that could do homework. She was so surprised that they ran out the taco and started to play.

Charlie ran out too because Carly said, “Come out and play!”

It was so fun. Carly and Charlie played for 24 hours.

Then, a pile of lollipops and candies dropped down on them. They were stuck, and it was so sticky that a lollipop stuck to their heads. When a guard saw the lollipop on their heads, he used his own sword to cut it off.

They ate their hamburger lunch and were very tired. They slept in the taco for three days because they were so tired. After the three days, they thought they were in Candyland, but they were in their own house.

Their mom said they were sleeping for three days. They thought it was serious, so they watched TV for eight days. It was so good, and they got to do homework for eight weeks. It was good because Carly still had her homework robot. Her mom was surprised that she got 100 on her homework. Her mom was very surprised, so she gave Carly another pile of homework, and she got 100 on another homework too. Her mommy let her watch TV for 15 days. Her mom let her drink Coca-Cola and eat lots of chips and candies and no vegetables for a week.

Carly was very surprised that her mom let her drink Coca-Cola because she never let her drink Coca Cola and never let her eat chips. Her mom went to the restaurant with Carly. Charlie was at home learning math. Carly’s mom said that she could go to Charlie’s house and play.

Charlie’s mom said, “Yes, that’s a great idea,” so Carly went to Charlie’s house.

They played cards and made lemonade. They watched TV for 24 hours, and they had a sleepover. Robot was very sad because he didn’t go into anyone’s house. So the robot never worked for Carly, but her mom found out Carly’s trick and punished her for one year and let her do homework and locked the robot out of the house. Charlie was very sad about Carly, too.

One day, they wanted to do a trick on their moms. So Carly put poop on the plate, so her mom would go to the sink and wash her hands and then have a snake in the sink, so the snake would bite Carly’s mom’s hands. And then Carly put some rocks on the floor, so that when Carly’s mom would run away, her feet would be very, very hurt. She put a donkey out in the door, and so when Carly’s mom would go outside, the donkey would kick her very hard. So, Carly’s mom would freeze, and Carly would never have to do homework ever again.

THE END

 

Dragon Time

The light was as bright as a couch, which meant the light wasn’t that bright. Maria was in Albany sleeping. It was nighttime. She was on vacation from Florida. It was summertime, and she wanted normal weather instead of really hot and humid weather like in Florida. She got dressed, took a shower, and then she found an egg in her room. It was a blue-green egg. When she saw it, it was starting to get cracks. She was both scared and excited. She was going to have her own pet! She hoped it was a bird. Then, she heard a burst. The egg hatched, and standing there was a little baby dragon. It was blue-green. When she saw it a second later, she didn’t see it anymore. Then, it appeared again. It was using camouflage to change color, and it could understand and speak human language.

Then, she asked, “What do you want for breakfast?”

Then, the dragon said, “Bacon!”

So Maria’s dad made bacon, and then Maria named the dragon Jack. Then, Maria and her dad made waffles.

Then, the dragon said, “I want waffles!

So he got a waffle. And then, the dad made two pancakes, and he ate them.

And then, the dragon said, “I want pancakes!

So the dad made three pancakes, one for Jack and two for himself. And then, the dragon played a prank on the dad. He made his waffles taste like water from a sparkling lake. The dad ate the waffles, and his mouth was as sweet as a sparkling lake.

Then, the dragon said, “I want to go to the lake!

So they took him to the lake, and then he jumped in and started splashing everybody near the lake, and then they realized that he was a water dragon, which meant that he could shoot water out of his mouth.

The family yelled, “Yay! Now we can have free water!” They cheered.

Then, the dragon yelled, “I want to drink!

The dad asked, “What do you want to drink?”

So the dragon said, “Beer!

They asked him, “Why do you want beer?”

The dragon said, “Because, one, I want to be like a grown-up and, two, ‘cause I said so.”

So they gave him a bottle of beer. He drank the beer, and then he breathed out a jet of water into the dad’s face.

So Jack started laughing like mad, and the dad said, “That’s not funny!

Then, Maria went back to her room to play with Jack, and she found an orange-red egg in the doorway… Then she heard another burst, and there stood an orange-red dragon!

Then, he demanded, “I want to go into flames!

Then, Maria said, “Why do you want to do that? Isn’t that dangerous?”

So Maria took him into the fireplace, then lit a fire. Then, he burned the place, and then he shot a jet of fire out of his mouth into her dad’s hair, and his hair caught fire.

So he called, “Jack, put out this fire!” and Jack put out the fire in the fireplace, and then there was an ultimate dragon battle.

So Maria named the fire dragon Mark, and then the battle was Mark vs. Jack. Then, Maria went back to her room, and in the doorway she found a golden egg! Then, the egg hatched, and there stood a golden dragon!

She didn’t know what dragon it was, until the dragon said, “I’m a Dream Dragon!”

Then, she locked her eyes with Maria’s, and Maria immediately fell asleep and started dreaming right away. She dreamed about what would happen when the dragons became big. Maybe she would get the Dream Dragon, her dad would get Mark, and her mom would get Jack. She saw them flying across the skies flying back to Florida, putting out fires as they went, and Mark the prankster making fires. And then, she started playing with the Dream Dragon. Then, she named him Dreamer. Then, Mark and Jack came back into the room, and then they combined the water and fire in the room, and then Jack put it out, and there was a brown egg!

Then, the brown egg hatched, and it was an Earth Dragon. It could move stuff using its mind. So she called him Mind Mover, and then it was an ultimate dragon battle of Mark vs. Jack vs. Dreamer vs. Mind Mover. They were fighting because they were little dragons, and little dragons did crazy stuff. Dreamer put Jack and Mark asleep, so it was Dreamer vs. Mind Mover. Mind Mover used his mind to put Dreamer to sleep. Mind Mover won and then, using his mind, he put the other dragons onto a shelf. Then, he started flying around the room like mad. Then, he got the other dragons awake, so the three other dragons had to learn how to fly. Mind Mover knew how because he thought of himself flying and started flying. The other three dragons learned how to fly because Mind Mover used his mind to change their minds, so they learned how to fly. The fighting was by accident. They just felt like it one moment and felt bad that they did it the next. Then, they apologized to each other.

Then, the three dragons said to Mind Mover, “No, don’t apologize. Because of you, we learned how to fly.”

Then, they wanted to fly outside, so Mind Mover opened a window for them, and they all flew outside. They were flying around the house and, during flight, Mind Mover was planting trees left and right. They were apple trees because he liked apples. Then, Mind Mover planted a few grapes because Dreamer liked them. Then, some strawberries because Mark liked them. Then, some raspberries because Jack liked them.

Then, they came back and made another egg! It was black and white. Then, the egg hatched, and there was a dragon and its twin. It was a Moon Dragon, which was black, and a Sun Dragon, which was white. Then, since it was noon, the Sun Dragon made the sun come up, so the day would last even longer. Then, the Moon Dragon got angry that the moon would last shorter, so he made the moon come up so that it would be nighttime.

Maria was in the kitchen eating lunch, and she was like, “Wait, What?! The moon’s up already?” Then, she came back to her room, and there she saw six dragons planted in front of her. She was like, “Six dragons?! I thought there were only two!”

Then, when she left, the dragons named the Sun Dragon Light and the Moon Dragon Dark. And then, they made another dragon egg, but this time it was neon green, and out of that one rose the biggest dragon of all! He was three feet tall. He was as big as some children, even bigger than some, and he was only a few seconds old. Then, he came up and breathed fire. Then, he breathed water. Then, he put everybody asleep. Then, he made a bag of food fly over to him with his mind. He made the sun rise. Then, he made the moon rise, so that they would crash. Then, he used his own power. He could make things appear out of thin air. He made a luxury car appear outside the door out of thin air. It was a golden Lamborghini.

Then, he made the dragons get into it, and then he got into the driver’s seat and started driving around like a crazy dude. He started crashing everything, and when he crashed something, he immediately repaired the car. For the people inside the buildings and cars and on the street especially, it was really dangerous. Then, he made the car go flying over the city. Then, he made it crash land into the Great Hall to ruin a wedding feast. Then, he wrecked the place. The only place that he didn’t go to was Maria’s house. He made a force field around the house and all the berries and stuff. He didn’t want it to get hurt because that was where his family lived. Then, he came back and parked the car back into its place, and then he repaired the place.

Then, the dragons awakened, and they found themselves in the car, and they were like “What? When did we get this car?”

Then, the new dragon said, “Well, you’re lucky you do, ‘cause do you want me to turn it into powder?”

After years passed, they got older and wiser. Since they were wiser, they knew not to wreck the city and that type of stuff, and that made them nicer. They next made another egg, a white one. (Getting crowded, right?) Then, a white dragon hatched. They named him Wowy. He had all the powers. He could shoot water and fire out of his mouth, and he could put people to sleep and make them appear out of thin air, and he could make things happen only by thinking them. His own power was that he could make bigger things appear out of thin air. The green one could make a car, but this one could make a building.

Then the next year, they flew back to Florida. Then, it was the same as Maria’s dream. Maria got Dreamer, her dad got Mark, and her mom got Jack. When they got home, they were planting trees every now and then. And soon, their house was like a garden, and then they could get free food. Maria and the family and the dragons were happy. Then, Mark made steak.

Then, the family and the dragons ate the steak. The dragon ate most of it. Then, Wowy made a snake, and the dragons ate it. Wowy made a special building for the dragons, and the dragons all lived in it. Maria was allowed in it too.

They hired a special cook who made all their favorite foods and let them eat junk food. Then, Light wanted to make the day last longer, so he put the sun up higher. Then, Dark made the moon go full speed up into the sun, and they crashed!

Then, Mind Mover said, “Oh, you guys! Stop it.”

Then, he repaired the sun and the moon. Then, a mysterious egg appeared. When it hit the floor, it cracked, and it was a Sun and Moon dragon.

Jack said, “Water time!” and got out many bowls and shot a jet of water at all of them.

Then, they flew back to Florida where there were many fires, and Jack couldn’t possibly put out all of them, and the whole state burned. Mark kept making more fires. Everybody needed to evacuate out of Florida. So Maria moved into New York City. Wowy made a luxury car and started wrecking the city, and then he repaired it. Then, they met a unicorn, and Wowy started fighting with it, so he breathed fire, and the unicorn made a jet of water come out of his horn. Then, Wowy made the unicorn do a jig and breathed water at it, and the water made it crash into the wall and fall down. Then, he made the unicorn sprout wings, and they all flew together in a great formation. The unicorn was in the back with Jack. Then, they flew back to Dragon land, and they lived happily ever after.

The End!

 

Three Worlds

Once upon a time, there were three planets named The Fairytale World, The Otherworld, and Underpanty World. In Underpanty World, everyone wore only underwear. In Underpanty world, there were only two kids, named Dan and Jill, who wore clothes. In the Fairytale World, there were two kids named Jack and Goldie. In the Otherworld, there were two kids called Daniel and Port.

One day, Dan, Jill, Goldie, Jack, Daniel, and Port were in restaurants in each other’s worlds. While they were ordering, a giant beam of light came upon each table, and it started to suck everything up, including all of them, and suddenly in a beam of light, they were gone. Then, they magically appeared inside a river. They walked across it and started to see a road. Suddenly, they all bumped into each other. Dan bumped into Goldie, Jill bumped into Jack, and Daniel bumped into Goldie with Jill, and Port bumped into Jack. They greeted each other with warm welcomes, even though they had no idea where they were. They all said they got sucked into the same portal. They made a team and started trying to figure out how to get to their worlds. They started along the road. As they walked along the road, Jack noticed a little cottage. They noticed that one of the houses was free. They walked inside and looked in the house. It was perfect! They had enough beds for everyone. They started to set their home up.

Just then, a man appeared and said, “This house is free. You do not need to pay.”

They shouted, “Hooray!”

They started out of the house and looked for a way back to their worlds. As they started off, they found another road. They found two Jeeps. It was perfect. They had enough seats for everyone. As they went in the Jeeps, they noticed the trees started to get thicker. They got out of the Jeeps and noticed where they were. They heard of this place before. It was the Evergreen Forest. They started to walk across the misty air. Ground became bumpier. Just then, Goldie noticed a shadow. Just as she looked at it, it dashed away. Then, they got out of the road and into the real forest. As they walked, they noticed a wolf. It came closer. They froze.

Goldie said, “Do not move and stay calm. If you keep like that, it will not try to get you.”

The wolf charged towards Goldie because he noticed her mouth moving. The wolf took Goldie and ran with her. The other guys charged to the wolf. Jack noticed he had a knife in his pocket. He got on the wolf and stabbed him. He did not fall dead, but he fell very injured.

Jack said, “Maybe if we go to another restaurant, it might make another portal into our world.”

They ran into the nearest restaurant. They did exactly what they did in the other restaurant. It didn’t happen. Just then, Jack started floating, then Goldie, then Daniel, then Jill, then Dan.

“Guys, why is this happening,” Dan said.

“I don’t know,” Jack replied.

Then, Jack tried to shoot a portal out of his hand. It worked! It was blue and swirling. Just like the other portal. It sucked them up, and they returned to their own world.

The End

 

Priya: War Hero

My name is Priya Patel. I live in India. I was born in 1954. It is my birthday. My birthday is also the 51st anniversary of when I helped India. I’m a valued figure in my family. I’m going to cut to the chase and tell you why. On my 11th birthday, in 1965, there was a war between India and Pakistan. My father was a general. When I was little, he trained me in Morse code.

“One day it will be useful.” He smiled.

During this war, my father and brother were generals, so they rushed off to the war leaving me and my mother alone. I went to school. My friends’ fathers were also in the war. I couldn’t pay attention in class. I went home and found my mother weeping in the courtyard. I stroked the tears from her face and spoke Hindi to comfort her.

“Maan mat roo.”

Later, we got a letter from my father’s solicitor. He was dead. My brothers were also MIA (missing in action). I cried and cried. I couldn’t do anything else. I shut myself in my room and cried myself to sleep. My father was dead. My brothers were probably dead as well. It was just me and my mother. We were going to have to take care of each other. There was no time to cry. Our country was in need, and three of our generals were dead. The next day, my mother walked out the door to buy vegetables. As soon as she walked out the door, some men fully dressed in black creeped inside. Before I could react, I was drugged. I don’t really remember what happened after that. I just heard the sound of a train moving across the tracks. When I woke up, I was in a dark room.

I heard some mumbling. “Do not react and you will not be hurt. We are holding you for ransom.”

I then knew why I heard a train. I was in Pakistan. I was terrified, but I was also terrified to react. I shut my mouth and curled up into a ball. I was in the country I hated most, but I had one chance to help the country I loved. In my bag, was a small bag of Morse code equipment. There was also a telegraph pole wire outside my window. I could send them a message that I was captive. But if I stayed here, I would be able to learn about Pakistan’s next army operation and sneak attack on India.

“If I am held here for ransom,” I said. “May I please have the newspaper every morning?”

“I don’t see why not,” the voice said.

A small plate of bread was slid in front of me. I was too terrified to eat, but I needed sustenance if I was to live. I could not sleep. The drugs in my body kept me awake. The next morning, I heard the crumpling sound of paper being dropped on the floor of the room. I finally mustered the courage to look at the man’s face. It was scarred. They were all permanent scars. I looked down immediately and started reading the newspaper. There was nothing useful. It just said stuff about the next big cricket match and the new Polaroid camera. I sat for most of the day thinking of other ways to help my country. But right now, this was all I could do.

The next day, I read the newspaper. Once again, nothing. Finally, on the third day, I found something useful. The headline was Pakistan Plans to Infiltrate Indian Airbase. The man would just slide some bread in front of me and then leave. He did his usual. I was left alone for the day. I grabbed the wire outside my window and hooked up my Morse code equipment. .–. / .- / -.- / .. / … / – / .- / -. / -..-. / .. / … / -..-. / .. / -. / ..-. / .. / .-.. / – / .-. / .- / – / .. / -. / –. / -..-. / – / …. / . / -..-. / .. / -. / -.. / .. / .- / -. / -..-. / .- / .. / .-. / -… / .- / … / . spelled Pakistan is infiltrating the Indian Airbase. I waited. A few hours later, I got a message back. -.– / — / ..- / .-. / -..-. / — / . / … / … / .- / –. / . / -..-. / .. / … / -..-. / .-. / . / -.-. / . / .. / …- / . / -.. / -..-. / .– / …. / . / .-. / . / -..-. / .- / .-. / . -..-. / -.– / — / ..- / ..–.. My message was received. They were asking where I was. I wrote back .. / -..-. / .- / — / -..-. / -. / — / – / -..-. / — / -. / . / -..-. / — / ..-. / -..-. / -.– / — / ..- / .-. / -..-. / … / .–. / .. / . / … / -..-. / .. / -..-. / .- / — / -..-. / .- / -..-. / -. / .. / -. / . / -..-. / -.– / . / .- / .-. / -..-. / — / .-.. / -.. / -..-. / –. / .. / .-. / .-.. -..-. / …. / . / .-.. / -.. / -..-. / -.-. / .- / .–. / – / .. / …- / . / -..-. / .. / -. / -..-. / .–. / .- / -.- / .. / … / – / .- / -. .-.-.- It told them that I was a captive in Pakistan. …. / . / .-.. / .–. / -..-. / .– / .. / .-.. / .-.. / -..-. / -… / . / -..-. / … / . / -. / – / -..-. / .-. / .. / –. / …. / – / -..-. / .- / .– / .- / -.– / -..-. / – / …. / .- / -. / -.- / -..-. / -.– / — / ..- / -..-. / ..-. / — / .-. / -..-. / – / …. / . / -..-. / .. / -. / ..-. / — / .-. / — / .- / – / .. / — / -. -..-. They were sending help right away. I waited.

A few days later, when the scarred man was putting the plate of bread on the floor, another man knocked him out. He was wearing the uniform of an informant from the Indian Bureau of Intelligence. We opened the room next to mine and found my two brothers, drugged into a sleep. Now that one Indian general from the Patel family was dead, if the other two were drugged and kidnapped, India would be weaker. I stayed at home and watched the war happen. India won. The information I had given India helped Pakistan suffer a heavy loss. Only 22 out of the 93 soldiers returned to Pakistan. I was proud of what I did.

About 20 years later, I moved to Pakistan. It had become a peaceful country. I listened to the radio. Another radio priest started preaching.

Suddenly, he started shouting, “Women should not be going to school! Women don’t need education to run a house and cook for us!”

The Taliban takeover had started. I heard screams and gunshots from many houses. I went online and saw this blogger named Gul Makai, which meant cornflower. She was a heroine from an old folk story. I started reading her posts every day. She wrote about how terrified she was of this. I knew that I should also be doing something. I started organizing protests, and I paraded through town with other women. There were many times where I was nearly shot. Benazir Bhutto was shot as well. The minute she set her foot on Pakistani soil, she was shot. Later, I learned that Gul Makai was a girl named Malala Yousafzai. She took a bullet to the head. She was now recovering in a hospital in Birmingham, England.

I finally took my case to the government. I went with everyone I protested with. I yelled at the governor for a full half hour. I marched out with everyone else. Soon, the radio preacher was vanquished.

Women are now slightly more equal with men. That’s my story. Women are not fully equal with men, but I’m still working. My life has given me many hardships, but I got a great story to tell my grandchildren!

 

Morse Code Puzzle

.. / ..-. / -..-. / -.– / — / ..- / -..-. / -.-. / .- / -. / -..-. / – / .-. / .- / -. / … / .-.. / .- / – / . / -..-. / – / …. / .. / … / -..-. / -.– / — / ..- / -..-. / .– / .. / .-.. / .-.. / -..-. / -… / . / -..-. / …- / . / .-. / -.– / -..-. / ..- / … / . / ..-. / ..- / .-.. -..-. / – / — / -..-. / – / …. / . / -..-. / .. / -. / -.. / .. / .- / -. / -..-. / .- / .-. / — / -.– -..-.

What does this say? Try to translate the Morse code.

 

The Faded Sword

Eliza had her whole life planned out. She wanted to finish school, go to college then medical school, become a doctor, get married, then have three kids named Delia, Celia, and Ophelia. She should have seen this coming. She had always noticed the weary looks her parents gave her when she talked about how Delia would wear pink, Celia would wear blue, and Ophelia would wear green, as if they knew something she didn’t. She noticed the way they exchanged glances when she talked about applying for college (even though she was only twelve), but she figured it was because they thought she was too young to think about it. She never thought twice about it. She had always envisioned a relatively normal life, the way she liked it. She hated spontaneous spur of the moment actions, but just her luck, her life was about to become one big spontaneous spur of the moment action. The warm summer day Eliza’s parents sat her down and told her what she was, it had not been a normal day from the beginning.

Eliza opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming through the window. Eliza checked her clock.

“Eight-freaking-thirty?” Why hadn’t her alarm gone off? In all the eight (give or take) years she had used an alarm clock, it never just stopped working. It only got weirder from there.

It was breakfast. Eliza was having what she always had, cereal and a banana. She was in the middle of chewing a bite when an odd feeling came over her. She kept on chewing, but there was something off. Her food seemed to be gathering in her mouth instead of getting chewed. All of a sudden, the piece of banana she had been chewing, now whole, flew out of her mouth as if pulled by a magnetic force and reattached itself back onto her banana.

“Uhhhhh… ” Eliza spluttered. Was this normal? Had it been in that book about body changes her mom had gotten her? Was she just crazy? She decided finally that she should call the doctor. But what the heck would I say? ‘Oh, hey, I regurgitated my banana and then it flew back onto the rest of my banana. Have any meds for that?’ No, she would sound crazy. Then she noticed the note on the counter from her parents. Out shopping! Be back at 9:30! She hadn’t even realized her parents weren’t home. She looked at the kitchen clock.

“How is that even possible!?” Eliza found herself saying. It read 7:32. Eliza made a mad dash for her alarm clock. When she was back in the kitchen, alarm clock in hand, she compared the two. They both read 7:32. Just then, then the door opened and Eliza’s parents walked in. They weren’t supposed to come back until 9:30! She held up the clocks.

“Explain. Now,” she said, her voice unnervingly calm. Her parents’ facial expressions were grim, but not surprised. Her dad took her by the shoulders and steered her to a chair. She sat down.

“You’re an Arbitrium. A Controller,” her mom said.

“And that means?” Eliza said wearily.

“Exactly what it sounds like. You can control something. Time in your case,” her dad said, his voice expressionless.

“Sooo… I still don’t get it. Do I just go on with my life?”

“Should I tell her?” Eliza’s mom asked. Her dad nodded. “When you were very young, we were told that you were chosen to be part of the arbitrium team. They gave us this.” She went to the drawer and took out a battered card, the size of a credit card. She handed it to Eliza. Eliza read it.

 

International Institute of the Arbitrium

Eliza Breanna Frederick King

Controller of Time

Level 0

Arbitrium #275

Room #42 Floor #4

 

“I still don’t get it,” Eliza said. “How does this affect me, besides the whole superpower thingy, I mean.”

“Well,” said her mom. “Your life isn’t necessarily going to be normal from now on.”

“You’re going to go to a special training school for kids like you,” said her dad. “And once you’ve gotten the training you need, you and your team will be sent on missions.”

By now, Eliza was practically in tears. Her life wasn’t going to be normal? That meant no medical school, no getting married, and no Delia, Celia or Ophelia.

“When do I have to go?” she managed to say.

“Don’t be mad at us, Eliza,” her dad said, “This is the only way you’re safe. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t send you away. If you don’t go, they will hunt you down and take you by force.”

“But who is they? And who is the person that came to tell you who I was in the first place?”

“You’ll learn when you get there,” said her mom. “For now, you should go upstairs and pack your bags. We’ll leave now.”

Eliza went to her room and got together some clothes, a toiletry, and other necessities (such as her secret stash of candy and her rock collection). She went back to the kitchen.

Her mom said, “Come outside with us.”

Eliza went outside and spotted her parents standing next to the fenced off area of the backyard that she had been instructed to never go near. The one time she had dared try and pry open the fence had been when she was only about four years old, which had landed her in time-out. That traumatizing experience made her reluctant to go near the fence again, but her parents were there, so she decided it was okay.

“Why are we in this part of the backyard?” Eliza asked.

“Let us show you,” said her dad. He opened the gate using a key, which revealed a large hole with what looked like galaxy colored corn syrup in it.

“They had this installed after they told us what you were. It’s a portal right into the school,” her mom said.

Again with the they, Eliza thought, Why can’t they be more specific?

“Are you ready?” asked her dad.

Eliza wanted to scream, No, I’ll never be ready! Or, Why me, universe? But, against all her better judgement, she said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

She hugged her parents, made them promise to visit, (it was allowed, according to her parents), consoled her mom (and her dad) who were practically in tears, and jumped into the portal.

She thought her day couldn’t get weirder, but jumping into a galaxy colored corn syrup hole might have been the peak point of the weirdness. The sensation was kind of like jumping into a swimming pool, but ten times stickier, and she felt like she was moving in slow motion through the gunk. I really hope that this comes off! Eliza thought. After what seemed like forever (at this point, it really could have been forever) Eliza emerged from the other side into a dimly lit room that looked like some sort of a communal living room, thankfully not covered in goop. A lady with a huge updo spotted her from the other side of the room and hurried over.

“Oh, you must be the new arrival!” she cried. “I’m Patty. I’ll be one of your trainers here. I’ll take you to the orientation desk.” She led Eliza through several rooms, a couple similar living rooms, a couple small kitchens, and a very large dining room, until they got to a big desk with a man behind it.

“Hi! I’m Harold. You must be the new arrival we heard about.”

“How did you know I was coming?” Eliza asked.

“As soon as you jumped into the portal, we got a message about your arrival. We have expected you for a few hours. We’ll check you in, and you can get settled in your room and meet your roomates. What’s your name?”

“Eliza,” she replied.

Full name,” Harold replied.

“Eliza Breanna Frederick King. It’s long, I know.”

“Okay. Card please.” Eliza dug out the info card she had stuck in her pocket after reading it, what felt like so long ago. She handed it to Harold. He looked over it, then typed some things into his computer. When he handed it back, the Level 0 was replaced with Level 1.

“Patty will show you to your room,” Harold said.

Patty ushered Eliza away and led her to a fancy elevator which took them to the fourth floor. As soon as Eliza got off the elevator, she decided this whole arbitrium thing wouldn’t be so bad after all. No one would have guessed that a bunch of kids lived there. It was spotless. She followed Patty to an also immaculately spotless door. She knocked, and a boy about Eliza’s age with light brown hair and dark green eyes answered.

“Hey, Cody! I have a new roommate for you. This is Eliza,” Patty said. “Cody, will you introduce Eliza to your other roommates?” The boy nodded. Eliza went inside, dragging her bags behind her.

“Hi,” she said shyly. “My name’s Eliza. Eliza Breanna Frederick King.”

“I’m Cody Levine,” the boy said. “Hey guys, we have a new roommate!” he called out.

Two girls and two boys emerged from the rooms along the hallway. They took turns introducing themselves. There was black-haired, blue-eyed Bailey Copeland, tan skinned curly-haired Nicolas Rodriguez, blonde and green-eyed Jonathan Riley, and brown-haired hazel-eyed Brooke Holmes. Eliza introduced herself to everyone, and everyone greeted her warmly.

“So, like, what can you do?” asked Brooke.

“What do mean?” Eliza replied.

“She means what are your powers,” Cody explained.

“Oh… I can control time.”

“Coooool!” everyone said in unison.

“I can control fire!” said Nicolas.

“I can control the dead!” Bailey chimed in cheerily.

“I can manipulate people’s emotions. It’s lame, I know,” Brooke said disappointedly.

“It’s not,” said Nicolas. “It’s so cool. You might have the best powers of all of us.” This made Brooke blush.

“Anyway, I can control anything living,” Cody said. “So I’m like a plant and animal magnet. Oh, by the way, Eliza, do you want me to show you to your room?”

Eliza gratefully agreed. She felt like she could use a shower! She followed Cody past a bunch of rooms that looked identical besides the decorations. Cody pointed out his room, which had the most color and was definitely also the messiest. Eliza noticed him watching her cringe.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Do you ever clean up in there?” Eliza asked, appalled.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no,” he replied. Cody led Eliza the rest of the way to her room and bathroom.

“Great. I’ll leave you alone now, but we’re going to have dinner with everyone else at six o’clock, okay?”

Eliza nodded. Cody left the room and Eliza looked in the mirror. Okay, just-traveled-in-a-galaxy-colored-corn-syrup-portal was not a good look on her. Her normally wavy auburn hair was sticking out in all directions. She might have been allergic to the goop, because her violet blue eyes were red and puffy. There was also a layer of the slimy stuff all over her fair skin. She showered and brushed out her hair and chose out a sky blue dress to wear. When she got out of the bathroom, all of her roommates were sitting on the couch in the living room.

Everyone smiled at her, but Cody just goggled.

“You look nice.” Cody said.

Everyone made their way to the large dining room Eliza had seen on her way to her room, but now it was filled with kids and food. The ages of the kids seemed to range from eight to sixteen, and it looked like they were sitting with other kids their age, probably roommates. Eliza sat with her roommates at a table in the far corner, and they started eating the feast of roast chicken, potatoes, salad, and like twenty other things she couldn’t remember. After a little while of eating, a tall dark-haired man at the front of the room rang a gong to get everyone’s attention. Once everyone was looking at him, he smiled.

“Hi, everyone! Tonight we have a few new arbitriums among us, so for those who don’t know me, my name is Gideon Sullivan, and I run the Institute of the Arbitrium, the IA. I will call the new children up one by one, and test them for their weapon.”

Brooke leaned over and whispered, “He’s the one who chose us all to be controllers, Eliza.”

He then called up a bunch of kids and made a show of looking them over, measuring them, then having light emit from his hands, that, Eliza realized, must be magic. He would then conjure a weapon such as a sword, spear, or a bow and arrow. When it was Eliza’s turn, she walked to the front of the room, feeling everyone’s eyes searing into her. When she got to the front of the room, Gideon did what he done with everyone else. But when it came time for him to conjure a weapon, instead of conjuring a plain steel sword or a wooden bow and arrow, he conjured a bronze sword with a sapphire studded handle that matched Eliza’s eyes with intricate designs on the hilt.

“Well, I never,” muttered Gideon. “It looks like the rightful wielder of Soulblade is standing right in front of us!” Everyone stared at him. “Oh, I forgot I never explained that story. A thousand years ago, a special sword was forged, named Soulblade. It was the most desirable blade to wield, so people would steal it from each other. Then, there was a prophecy that said that only the person who the blade appeared for, the rightful wielder, could hold it. Anyone else would die instantly. The blade appeared for you, making you the rightful wielder.”

Eliza trudged back to her seat. She never wanted this! She sat down, frowning.

“You okay?” asked Cody.

“I hate it here!” Eliza said angrily. “I never planned any of this for myself! Nothing is normal here!”

“Sometimes,” Cody said quietly, “the best things in life are the ones we never planned.”

Right then, there was a big banging noise. Everyone looked up from their food in time to see three giants come lumbering into the dining room. Everyone whipped out their weapons. The biggest one, who Eliza thought looked like a hairy ball of fat and muscle, lumbered to the front of the room.

“We want the Soulblade!” it shouted in a deep, growling voice. “Give it to us now and no one dies!”

Gideon went right up to the giant even though the height difference was at least ten feet.

“You see, Mr. Giant,” he said, not even minding there was a large giant in grabbing distance from him, “you know about that prophecy? Back in the day, the one about the rightful wielder, any other wielder dies instantly, blah-dee-blah-dee-blah. You know the one?”

“Prophecy schmophecy. I am claiming the Soulblade!”

“You can’t really do that… ” Gideon said, but the giant was already scanning the room for the sword.

Eliza didn’t know what to do, but she impulsively willed it to turn into something else, and to her surprise, she found herself holding a stone. She pocketed her new stone-sword and went to Gideon.

“Why can’t those giants have my sword? Won’t that be better than people dying?” she asked him.

“You see, Eliza, this blade is as well as being the most desirable, is also the most destructive and formidable. And if you freely give it away you would not be the rightful wielder anymore, and it would have more of a chance of falling into the wrong hands,” Gideon explained. “In the past, this blade has been bestowed upon bad people, starting conflict, like the War of Ivory, The Battle of Occults, or the Siege of Burning Fields. We have been hoping the rightful wielder would be among us so that we could ensure it wouldn’t get into bad people’s hands. Okay?”

“Okay. But shouldn’t we be focusing on the giants?” Eliza and Gideon looked around, but the giants were still looking for Soulblade.

“Eliza… where’s the sword?” Gideon asked, looking agitatedly at the giants rummaging around. Eliza took out the rock. Gideon smiled. “Good. We have to kill these giants before they find the sword. You can use this so that they don’t find Soulblade.”

He took out a plain steel sword and handed it to Eliza. Eliza thanked him and ran off to the rest of the students. They were all standing with their weapons drawn, waiting for an order.

Someone yelled, “CHARGE!”

And after that it was a blur in Eliza’s memory. Students left and right were running to the giants, who had been in the middle of looking under tables and weren’t physically fit, so they couldn’t stand up fast enough to avoid a bunch of pre-teens and teenagers running at them with swords and spears. Everyone started slashing the giants with swords, driving their spears into them, and shooting their arrows at them. The giants were fighting back also by swinging their clubs and punching in random directions. Every now and then, a student would fly out from the crowd from a club blow or a giant punch. Eliza decided she would attack from the top. She look at the ceiling and noticed what looked like repair on a ledge, with a ladder leading up to a ledge. Eliza ran to the ladder and quickly climbed up. Eliza looked down from the ledge. She saw the battle playing out below her, the two smaller giants dead now, the larger one occasionally swatting a kid out of the way.

Eliza waited until the largest giant was under the ledge. The steel sword won’t do the job, Eliza thought. She pulled out the rock and willed it back to a sword. She jumped from the ledge and onto the giant’s head, and drove her sword right into its skull. The giant shouted, a horrible, ear splitting, sound, and dropped to the ground, dead. Unfortunately, that meant Eliza went down with him. When she hit the ground, she was knocked out, and her mind went completely blank.

Eliza woke up a day later in what she guessed was an infirmary. She took in her surroundings, stark white walls, stiff bed sheets, and wooden shelves with medicines and bandages and such lining the walls. She looked next to her where she saw Cody dozing in a chair. She tried to sit up and all of a sudden Cody’s eyes snapped open.

“Eliza! Thank goodness you’re awake! We were starting to get worried,” Cody said, relief evident in his voice.

“What happened?” Eliza asked.

“You killed the big giant! Even if everyone was working together, we wouldn’t have managed that!”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah. A couple broken bones here and there, but you probably got the worst of it.” Cody gave Eliza a hug. “I have to go now. Things to do. Training and stuff.”

Eliza realized she had learned a few things from this weird and not planned experience. First, she learned that good things in life are not always planned. On a related note, she learned that life often strays from the plan, sometimes for the better. Eliza looked down at the stone-sword she just realized she was still holding. Third, she decided that some things were just fated.

 

putovanje kroz vrijeme

A masked figure stood in a dark alley, muttering what seemed like nonsense. Meg, a 12-year-old girl, was walking down the street and stopped when she heard the female’s voice. She was a curious girl, so she stepped quietly into the alley, the masked figure’s back to her. The person sensed her and turned. The woman stared at her with eyes that glowed with anger. Her hands, which were covered with warts, were clenched into fists. She said a few words, then turned and left the alley. All of a sudden, Meg felt a cold chill behind her. She turned, but nobody was there.

She went home and eventually forgot all about the woman and what happened in the alley. Years later, she was walking by the alley, and the memories flooded back into her mind.

She heard a gravelly female voice behind her, saying, “Back again?” Meg turned.

 

Two thousand years later, Anna was lying asleep in her bed. At 6:30, her alarm buzzed, and she got out of bed. Her morning was perfectly normal, but at 2:41, everything changed.

She was sitting in math class, bored out of her mind, looking into the hallway through the little window in the door. She saw a woman wearing all black with a black mask over her entire face, her hand covered in warts. She was muttering to herself. She stopped walking, looked inside the classroom, and fixed her eyes on Mary, Anna’s best friend. As soon as the woman continued walking, Mary fell fast asleep. The students sitting near her tried to wake her up, but she didn’t wake.

 

Standing before Meg was the masked woman who she had met all those years ago, in that same alley.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Meg asked.

“You don’t even recognize your own mother?” the woman asked. “As for what I want,” she continued, “I want to see you before you die.”

 

Anna’s math teacher, Mrs. Smith, decided to continue class even though Mary was still asleep, so Anna continued to look into the hallway, hoping she would see the masked woman again. At the end of the class, Mary still had not woken, her parents were called, and they came and picked her up.

Anna was walking through the halls to her social studies class, when she heard a voice behind her call her name.

 

“You can’t be my mother,” Meg said. “She died years ago when I was four.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Then how did she die?”

“In a boat that was at sea during a storm.”

The woman removed her mask, and Meg realized that it was her mother.

“Where have you been for all this time?” Meg asked. “What do you mean about me dying?”

 

Anna turned. Standing in front of her was Mary, fully awake. “How did you get back to school so fast?” Anna asked.

“What do you mean?” Mary asked. “I’ve been here all day.”

At that moment, Anna realized that Mary was wearing different clothes than she was earlier in the day, but it had only been around three minutes since Mary had left the school, and her house was 24 minutes from the school, so she wouldn’t have had time to change clothes at her house.

The first bell rang, and both Anna and Mary ran to their classes. On the way to her class, Anna saw the masked figure standing at John’s locker, pouring green, gooey liquid on the top of it. In class, Anna was about to tell John what happened, when the last bell rang and everybody had to sit down and be quiet.

Class started, and the teacher, Mr. Pace, started talking and teaching. After 13 very boring minutes, John screamed a shrill shriek, fell to the floor, and started twitching uncontrollably.

 

“I will kill you,” Meg’s mother said.

“Why?” Meg asked.

“Because all of the sadness I felt turned to anger, and I used my power to become the greatest villain of all time. You can use your powers to kill me, so I have to kill you first,” the woman answered.

“I don’t have powers,” Meg replied.

“Yes you do,” her mother insisted, “but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to kill you now.”

“Are you going to kill my descendants who also have powers?” Meg asked.

“No,” the woman answered, “they won’t be powerful enough. Only you are, but you will be dead.” Meg’s mother raised her hand. She started chanting umrijet ćeš over and over again.

Meg’s screams echoed through the streets.

 

“Take John to the nurse,” Mr. Pace said to Steve and Paul.

Steve and Paul exited the room with John. After everybody calmed down, Mr. Pace continued the class. The rest of the class was incredibly boring because the entire time, Mr. Pace was lecturing the class. Everybody was glad when the bell finally rang. The school day was finally over.

Anna was happily walking home (her home was only a 20 minute walk from school), when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the masked woman. She was walking on the other side of the street. When Anna was finally only half a block from her house, the masked woman crossed the street and walked right in front of Anna.

“Who are you?” Anna asked.

“I am known as The,” the woman answered in a gravelly voice.

“What do you want?” Anna asked.

The laughed maniacally and answered, “I want to rule the world.”

“Why are you telling me that?” Anna asked.

“So you will know that whenever something bad happens unexpectedly, you will know it was me,” The answered.

“It was you,” Anna replied. “You made Mary fall asleep and John start twitching.”

“About time you realized,” The said.

“But how does doing that help you take over the world?” Anna asked.

“It doesn’t,” The answered. “I did it to show you that no matter how many powers you have, you can’t do anything to stop me.”

“I don’t have powers,” Anna said.

“Yes, you do,” The said, “but it doesn’t matter. Only one person can stop me.”

“Who?” Anna asked.

“My daughter and one of your ancestors, Meg,” The answered, “but I killed her 2,000 years ago.”

After she said that, The turned around and walked out of the alley. Anna continued walking, and when she got home, she went to her room and thought about the weird and scary conversation she had just had with The.

She decided to read a book to clear her mind. She went to her bookshelf and looked at all of the titles. She saw a title that she didn’t recognize. It was called Beginners Sorcery. She pulled out the book. The cover was purple velvet and was covered in jewels. Anna opened the book. The pages were yellow, cracked, and hard to read. Some of the spells were in languages she didn’t know, but most were in English. She found a levitation spell that was in English and started reading. When she finished reading, she realized that she was hovering one and a half feet above her bed. She stared at the space between her and her bed in amazement. She read the counter spell and fell down slowly and softly. Anna was amazed and started flipping through the book. She remembered that The said that only Meg would have the power to defeat her. Then, she saw a spell that made her sit up straight. It was a spell that allowed the castor to go back in time. Anna knew this was the spell she had to try.

 

Anna said the incantation and found herself in a dark alley with two people in it. She hid behind a garbage can and listened to their conversation.

“ — will be dead,” Anna heard The say.

Then, she saw The raise her hands and start chanting umrijet ćeš in her gravelly voice.

Anna flipped through the sorcery book, trying to find a force field spell she had seen earlier when she was flipping through the spell book (polje sile). She found it, said the spell, and a force field appeared around her and Meg. Before Meg could ask any questions, Anna grabbed her hand and said the counter spell for the time travel spell. She and Meg appeared in her room.

“Who are you?” Meg asked. “What are we?”

Anna explained to Meg how she had used a time travel spell to rescue her. She also asked Meg for help in defeating The.

“I found out that I had powers right before I died,” Meg admitted. “I’ve never used them.”

“I can help you learn,” Anna offered. “Then you can kill The.”

Meg accepted Anna’s offer.

“You can come to school with me during the day,” Anna said.

The next morning, Meg went to school with Anna.

“Who is this?” Mary asked.

“Mary, this is Meg, my friend from sleepaway camp who is considering going to this school,” Anna said. “Meg, this is Mary, my friend from school.”

“Hi,” Meg said.

Meg spent the rest of the day with Anna. After school, Anna and Meg studied many spells. They continued this pattern for a few days after, until Meg knew lots of spells. Among these were moć munje (which summoned lightning), snaga vode (which summoned water), and pobijediti (which summoned wind).

Finally, they decided to challenge The to a duel. What they didn’t know was that The was expecting them. They found her in the same alley that she had been all those years ago, when she had killed Meg.

“Hello, Mother,” Meg said. “You’re looking young.”

“Hello,” The said. Then, the fighting began.

Meg chanted Ja ću pozvati vatru, to summon fire. As soon as the flames touched The, they died down. Meg tried again. The same thing happened.

Then, she tried saying uništit ću to summon a sword. As soon as the sword touched The, it shattered into a dozen pieces.

During all of this, The was laughing maniacally.

“What’s happening?” Anna asked. “You’re supposed to be able to beat her.”

“Why do you think that?” The asked. “Because I told you so,” she said mockingly. “I was lying,” she said. “Nobody is powerful enough to beat me.”

Then, she held out her hand and chanted the same words she had 2,000 years ago in that same alley when she had killed that same girl, but this time, The also killed Anna.

 

The Booger Who Wanted a Friend

Once upon a time in New York City, there was a booger. The booger was named Buttface. He wanted a friend because he was so lonely. He tried being kind to the other boogers, but the other boogers didn’t like him because he was brown, and they were all yellow. Buttface started to cry. Then one day, he got blown out of his nose into a tissue. Then, he had the whole world to find a friend. He was a little scared because he didn’t know what was outside the nose. Then, he got thrown in the garbage. There were cans, candy wrappers, and other boogers in the garbage can. Buttface tried to talk to the boogers in the garbage, and they talked to him too. They were nice. So he ended up making friends. But then, the garbage got emptied. All the boogers got separated all over the dump.

Buttface tried to look for his friends. He went on a big journey to try to look for them. He started looking for them everywhere. He made a friend named Fartbutts. Fartbutts was a germ who lived in a can of beans. Then, he went on his journey to look for the other booger. Fartbutts went with him. The boogers were located at the other end of the dump. First, they ran into a guard dog. It was mean and big and had big teeth. They tried to go around it, but it didn’t work. They tried sneaking past, and that worked. Next, they ran into a big pile of garbage. It was too big for them to climb. After a while, they found a tunnel to go underneath the garbage pile. They were almost to where the boogers were.

After they came out of the tunnel, some garbage fell on them. They couldn’t get out from underneath the garbage. They had to wait until the garbage got cleared. For a day, they waited. Finally, another booger came and cleared the garbage. Buttface was happy to see the other booger.

“Thank you for saving me!” he said.

The other booger led Buttface and Fartbutts back to where the other boogers were. Buttface felt happy to be reunited with all his friends, and his friends were happy to see him too. They all lived together in the dump for the rest of their lives.

THE END

 

Raining Frogs

Once upon a time it started raining frogs. Everyone went inside because they thought frogs were slimy and gross. There was a frog named Slimey. He fell right into a pond. All the other frogs got hurt and didn’t go into the pond. And then, toads started to rain! Then, snakes started to rain! It was going crazy for about three days. Slimey was just watching everybody fall outside of the pond. But then, a shark came up and ate Slimey! He went into the shark’s tummy, but then Slimey farted, and the shark spit him out. The shark spit him out into a tree. He was stuck in the tree until a fox hit the tree, shaking the tree, and Slimey fell into somebody’s house.

He felt scared. He wanted to go back into the sky where he came from. Then, the person in the house saw him and trapped him in a garbage can! He threw Slimey into a hole where a groundhog lived. It was really dark and cold. The groundhog saw Slimey, and Slimey was scared, so he farted on the groundhog. The fart was so bad that the groundhog ran away. Slimey was trapped in the hole because it was too dark to find his way out. He ran into the mother groundhog, and she started to bite him. Slimey farted on her too, and she ran away. Through a tube in the groundhog tunnel, he found his way out, but a snake fell on him and pushed him back into the hole. The snake fell into the hole too. It was still raining animals. All the groundhogs started to bite the snake, and Slimey went back through the tube to get out while the groundhogs were distracted.

Slimey climbed into another person’s house and hid behind a can of tuna. Then, a girl lifted up the tuna can and started to open it with a can opener. The girl saw Slimey, picked him up, and put him in the garbage because she thought he was a toy. The garbage got dumped outside, and a whole bunch of animals fell into the garbage, squishing Slimey. Slimey was in the garbage, with all the other animals, for two hours before the garbage collector came and picked up the garbage and brought it to the dump.

Now, Slimey was in the dump with all the other animals that were on him. He was with foxes, snakes, toads, groundhogs, and gophers. Then, the garbage collector saw all the foxes, snakes, toads, groundhogs, and gophers, and he shot all of them. But Slimey didn’t get shot. He ran and hid in a pile of trash. It smelled like poop because there was donkey poop and dog poop and cat poop in there. So, Slimey got all dirty. Then when the garbage was going to be crushed, Slimey ran away and ran away to the pond.

Then, Slimey found a ramp that led to the sky. The ramp looked really purple, and there were other animals going up it.

Slimey talked to a snake and asked, “Where does this ramp lead to?”

And the snake said, “Back to the sky.”

Slimey felt very excited. So now he went in line to go up the ramp.

But then, a pile of garbage fell onto Slimey. He forgot everything. And he was really stinky, so no one wanted to talk to him anymore. He forgot about the ramp.

A snake was rushing away from a toad, because they were playing tag. But then, the toad bumped into Slimey. And when he bumped into Slimey, Slimey got back his memory. And Slimey went up the ramp and was back where he was from. In Slimey’s home, the houses were made out of stars, and the floors were made out of clouds, and the ceiling was sky blue, and Slimey could see all the planets through a telescope in the animal world.

Slimey saw his parents and all his cousins and aunts and grandparents. They looked happy to see him.

They said, “Where were you.”

And Slimey said, “In another world.”

And then Slimey hugged them, and they lived happily ever after.

 

The Witch and Isabella

        

The Witch

I’m an Elvish witch and I’m gonna take your soul

But hey I’m a witch so that’s my goal —

I got wind powers and light that makes two,

You gotta admit it’s quite a combination, it’s true —

But dude, you dope, you got no hope

That’s the reason you’re at the end of your rope!

 

You’re at the end of your line

So you can stop being a mime

I’m gonna put you out of your misery

‘Cause dude, you’re history!

 

You weren’t quite a find,

Dude you’re a crime to your time

You’re a zero so stop trying to be a hero.

So now that I’m breathing fire

And I keep going higher and higher

I’m at the top I can’t be stopped

You can’t stop me it’s true

I’m nowhere close to being a loser like you.

 

Isabella

My name is Isabella and I’m gonna tell ya about the finest fella

She got black hair and beads, that describes me

You might be thinking, “That’s not true, how could it be?”

But let me explain my philosophy

I’m good at math, and I got so much wrath

No one can beat me in a fight due to all my might

I’m at language arts and regular arts, too

But I’m really good at martial arts, it’s true

I got a musical core and so much more

So now that I’ve proven my philosophy

I got one more thing that gives me my bling

I got rapping skills that can pay bills

Excuse me, I need to take a pill because my rapping’s so sick, it makes me sick

You may call me weird, young, and bold

But this amateur has skills that are worth gold

 

Tim, the Mouse

It was a normal day for Tim. He was a normal house mouse, or to be more accurate, a castle mouse. The castle was five floors high, it was made of stone, it was chilly like the air conditioning was always on, there was a big front door, and there were two towers where the king and his children slept. But not anymore. The king welcomed Tim’s family to the castle, but as of an hour ago, the witch known as the queen (to the mouse family) moved in. When she saw Tim’s family, she was disgusted. She stepped on Tim’s brother, Tom. Then, she brought her ugly cat to the castle. It was scratching Tom with its magical nails, but Tim was able to save him before the cat finished. Now they lived in the junkyard. It was a big place. There were broken down cars everywhere. It was dirty. There was trash all around. Sometimes, there were other animals going through the junkyard. It was usually damp and warm in the junkyard. They slept in a car. It was a nice one. The only problem with it was a popped tire as they could see. They lived on the opposite side of the town. Anywhere was better than living with that cruel woman. Life was a bit rough. Tom was in bad shape. If they didn’t get a magic bear’s potion, he would be sick his whole life with the flu! Tim’s mother, Mama Mouse, called him.

“Tim. Tim, I know you can hear me.” Tim grunted.

“Yes, Mother. I hear you,” Tim said. There was a sound of annoyance in his voice.

“Tim, get your ratty butt over here,” yelled Mama Mouse.

“Yes, Mother,” said Tim.

As he was walking to the kitchen, he thought of what they wanted him to do. Probably wanted him to ask the wizard for help. But everyone knew that the wizard didn’t know any potions. Or maybe to write more mail to the magic bear. But everyone knew bears didn’t read mail. Why would a magical one? Especially when he’s busy making potions. The kitchen wasn’t really a kitchen. It was more a toy table that was purple, round, and big enough to fit the whole mouse family.

“Tim, I have a favor to ask of you,” said Mama Mouse.

Tim was hoping it was to cook grilled cheese because he had a big fear of bears.

Can you please go to the bear’s cave and ask him for a potion that cures the flu?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, thought Tim. Nothing but the bear. But everyone was counting on him.

Then out of nowhere, he shouted out, “Alright!” Tim gulped. Why did he say that???

“Good. I asked the wizard if she could mark trees to the bear’s cave.”

“Why didn’t she go ask the bear for the potion?” asked Tim.

“You know she has a grudge against the bear because she can’t make potions.”

“That’s stupid,” said Tim.

“Go now to get it while it’s late.”

Tim was in the magical forest. It was already nighttime, and Tim couldn’t see, so he went to sleep.

Tim was tired. It had been days on his trip toward the magical bear. He lived here somewhere. Wait, where was he? The wizard said she marked trees to the cave, but he didn’t see any marked trees. His hands were up in the air. Where was he?

“Don’t worry. I know where you should go.”

“Who are you,” said Tim, looking around for the creature that said those words, the words that gave him hope.

“Here, right here!” said a big, dirty tree. It looked almost dead.

“No, don’t listen to him. Go west,” said a small tree.

“No. South!” said the first tree.

“No, no. You are all wrong. It’s north. Hey, hey, hey, where are you going!” said a third tree.

Tim was pacing around. Where should he go? North? East? South? If only the trees could agree. Tim was thinking but getting nowhere. What direction should he choose?

“Follow north. It’s the best way you can go,” said the third tree.

“Alright,” said Tim.

While he was going north, he saw a giant tiger.

“Aaaahhhh!” yelled Tim as he ran away from the tiger. “Stupid tree,” mumbled Tim. As he was walking back toward the trees, he saw the third tree smirking.

 

“I told you it was south,” said the the first tree.

When he went south, he found a big, dirty wolf who was, of course, hungry. Luckily, Tim had some leftover bacon. He was able to calm the wolf down, but he did get scratched multiple times by the wolf. Rats aren’t pigs, he thought angrily. When he got back to the trees, he saw the first tree giggling as he looked at Tim’s scratches and cuts. Next, he went east. There was a bear trap!!! He went back to the trees. They were all roaring with laughter.

 

“Stupid rat,” they yelled and went back to laughing. Tim was furious. A rat. A rat? They had the audacity to call him a rat.

I am a mouse for your information,” he squealed. They ignored him.

Tim went west, as it was the only direction he could go. When he was walking, he saw a big cave. It was the bear’s cave! thought Tim.

When he entered, he heard a rough voice say, “Drink the potion.”

Tim looked around. He found a potion. He drank his bottle of water.

“You may pass. What do need,” said a big, hairy bear.

“Oh, that doesn’t matter right now. Do you want water?” said Tim.

“Oh yes, very generous.” Tim slipped the bear’s own potion in his water.

“Ahh ahh!” He was on fire. He left a patch of fur, and it exploded! It burned Tim’s fur off… THE END.

 

Oh wait, there’s more!!!

 

It was December. They were in a cave. It was pretty cold but nice. It smelled like wet fur. They were singing a song. Tim was sitting, singing a song with his family. “Oh Tom is okay, Tom is okay, he has no flu today, yay.” Tim’s hair was all burnt off. He got rest, but he was a bit tired. His family all looked normal. They just looked a bit more joyful. While they were singing, Tim got the biggest problem he faced this whole journey solved! When his family went to sleep, he could rip their fur off and glue it to himself. It was December after all, and if he didn’t have anything to protect himself against the cold, he’d freeze to death. Tim stared at the outside world and waited for his next adventure as the explorer of rats. Finally, the end.

 

Nope, there’s a sequel.

 

Storm

                 

PROLOGUE

It was a pitch black night when Jeremy went to the frozen storage room and picked out the person he would pretend to drive to the factory. He was strolling through the room when he saw a boy that looked perfect for this job. Jeremy looked at the nametag. James Park. He opened the tube of ice and wheeled out a frozen version of him. Jeremy began to cough. The Virus was getting to him. The Virus is too strong, Victoria is crazy, and she’s going to make everybody else pay for it, thought the short man. He looked at his wrist phone and was astonished at what destruction the Virus has caused. Earthquakes and tsunamis everywhere and people dying twice as fast. “We have to stop this.”

 

STORM

I woke up in the trunk of a car. It was pitch black and had a strong smell of gasoline. My stomach rumbled, and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Then I remembered that I had no clue what time it was. I tried to move my hand to access my watch, and I felt a strong rope keeping my hands tied. I tried wiggling around, and I accidentally broke an object. A thick liquid ran down my hand, and I felt a piece of glass cut my hand. A loud curse came through the thin divider, and the wheels pulled the car over and squealed to a stop. They must have heard the glass break, I thought scaredly. A door slammed shut, and a person wandered to the trunk and opened it. The first thing I felt was the sun burning my eyes like fire was let loose in my retinas.

“Get up,” said the mysterious man.

The man was a stout little man with bushy eyebrows and a bushy mustache. He had almost no hair, and he was wearing a dirty business suit. I groaned and sat up. Immediately, my vision doubled, and I gagged.

“Hope you can walk a couple miles, son,” said the man. “You have ten minutes, and here is your lunch,” the man told me.

Then, he put two slices of bread and a piece of cheese in my hands. As the man walked away, I could hear him grumbling about breaking something. When I began to eat the sandwich, I remembered that my hands were tied, and I would certainly drop it. Then, I remembered the shard of broken glass that cut my hand. So, I reached into the trunk and brought a piece of glass out. I started to very slowly cut the bonds on my wrists. Just then, the man appeared again.

 

“What are you doing?” the man asked.

“Trying to eat my lunch,” I said.

“We have to go now! We are on a tight schedule,” said the man.

Before I was done with cutting through my bonds, he took the food out of my hands and placed four green bottles with a syrup-like liquid inside into my open hands.

“I can’t believe you broke the other bottle!” shouted the angry man. It seemed that his mood changed every minute. “Follow me,” said the man.

I now realized that his name was on a tag right above his heart. Jeremey. He began to walk, and I began to follow him. I now saw that we were in some sort of desert or plain. We began to follow a trail marked by stones that eventually led us to a weathered building. It was small and grey, and when we entered it, Jeremy shoved me towards a man in a pearl white lab coat. The doctor showed me to a room and laid me down on a bed.

“We want all of our patients to feel comfortable when we do our exams.”

I stiffened with terror, readying for the pain. Then, he injected a needle into my vein, and I neither heard nor saw anything more.

 

I awoke to Jeremy and the doctor talking in hushed voices in the back of the room.

“The antidote works!” shouted the doctor.

“Shhhh. Mike, are you sure you want to put him in the testing system?” whispered Jeremy.

“Yes! Seventeen years old when we froze him, six feet tall, muscular, and very healthy,” said Mike the doctor.

“Fine! But, if you fail me, you know what the boss will do,” said Jeremy. “Look at what he did.” Then, the little man pointed to the broken bottle.

“I know. I’ll wake him up, and you two can be on your way.” Then, the doctor took out the needle, and I yelped in pain. Blood was dripping down my arm. Mike put a bandage on my cut and sent me out of the room.

Jeremy beckoned to me outside, and I went to meet him. “See this truck here? Get into the passenger seat and buckle in. It should be about an hour before we get to the factory.”

On that note, we both got into the car, and he started up the engine. Inside the black truck, the upholstery was in ruins and the radio was on the fritz. Once the tire treads caught the rough ground, we were on our way.

 

The hour getting to the factory was the worst hour of my life. It was one hundred degrees outside, and there was no air conditioning, not that that would of helped. There was no breeze, and the ride was super bumpy. Because I didn’t have lunch, I was more starved than ever. When we pulled into the blank concrete parking lot, the smell of food wafted towards me, and I almost fainted from hunger. When I recovered, I opened the door to the truck and bolted out like I was running from a monster. Before I could enter the building, Jeremy grabbed my shoulder and led me towards another building. This next one was in slightly better shape than the last. He led me inside the building and into room 236.

“This is your room. Your uniform is on the bed, your food tray is on the desk, and the bathroom is down the hall. Change, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

When he left, I changed and dug into the food he gave me. Mashed potatoes and steak. I immediately felt better. I heard a knock on the door. I opened it, and Jeremy came in.

“Time to meet your work mates!”

 

I followed Jeremy to a door labeled Work Area.

“Here is the key. You’ll be working here every day until you are ready for the field, like me. I know you have a lot of questions, but they will all be answered soon enough.” Then, Jeremy unlocked the door and gave the key to me. He shut the door and led me to another door. “There is an airborne antidote in here just to make sure you don’t contaminate everything inside.”

I nodded my head, pretending to know what was happening. He opened the second door, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were people in lab coats everywhere. Big forklifts were carrying hundreds of tiny green bottles. Conveyor belts were dispersing the bottles to little cubes. It was like everybody here was working in harmony.

Jeremy showed me to a cube in the far left corner and said, “Here is where you will work. Go inside and talk to Robert and Charlotte, they are the leaders of this cube.”

So, I went inside the cube and asked where Robert and Charlotte are. A woman named Caroline showed me to a room with many people in it. I opened the door and two thirty-year-old people welcomed me in.

“Hi, I’m Rob, and this is Charlotte. I’ll show you around and tell you all about Storm. Come on!” I followed Rob to what looked like a laboratory. “This is where you will work creating and improving the antidote.”

“Why do we need to have an antidote?” I said.

“The Virus.”

 

“What’s the Virus?” I asked.

“It’s the thing that has been destroying the world. The thing that is making everybody braindead. The thing that is causing the world to collapse.”

Then, Rob brought out a chart and started to teach me about what has happened since I was taken from my home to join Storm. He told me that the bottles in the car were antidotes to the virus, that Storm was founded by people who knew about the Virus, that the Virus is man made and was accidentally let loose, that the virus was for research purposes, and that the Earth is going through many tsunamis and earthquakes, which led to the Virus being released. He told me about the mission the company Storm has, which is to stop these natural disasters and the Virus. Then, before I could process all of this information, Rob led me to a little cubicle with a bunch of tools and empty glass beakers.

“And the reason Jeremy was mean to you, was because he didn’t want to rock the boat. Now, I will show you how to work everything here, and you’ll be on your way to saving the world!”

So, Rob showed me how to inject the antidote and use the subatomic microscope, and how to change the antidote. He led me back to my station and said to pack up, and when I’m done, to go to Jeremy in the office to become certified. Then if I need him, I can reach him in Room 254.

“What does being certified mean?” I asked Rob, but he was already gone.

 

When I was done packing up my limited things, I headed out the door, and I followed the signs to the office. Right. Left. Right. Left. I caught a glimpse of a door that said Office, and I entered it. Jeremy was in there, and I followed him to a quarantine room with people already in it. They laid it down and started to take my temperature. Then, they injected more antidote in me and another substance which missed my vein but, they didn’t seem to notice. They sent me out of the room very quickly, like they had to do something else. I went to the person at the desk, and I gave them my name so I could be in the system. James Park. They sent me to my room, and I thought about what happened. Everything went by so quickly it was hard to recall anything about it. I was so tired that I fell onto my bed and closed my eyes. Before I fell asleep, something crossed my mind. Something was definitely up.

 

The next morning, I went to my cube to do work because I had the morning shift. Work was actually very boring. All you did was slightly change the formula, inject into a test subject, and sit down and analyze the data. Rob and Charlotte were never there, so half the time I didn’t know what I was doing. You would think saving the world would be awesome, but it is very dull, unless you are in the field. When work was over, I went to the first building for lunch. Taco day. Because I was not starved, the food didn’t taste as good. After the tacos in the lunchroom, I went to the breakroom to spend the rest of the day because my shift was over. The break room was filled with air hockey, foosball, cards, and board games. There were no televisions anywhere. Spending five hours here would be a nightmare.

 

The first hour or two was spent doing almost nothing. I don’t know anybody here, so board games and card games were off the table. I also had no experience in foosball and the air hockey table wasn’t working. No television wasn’t the worst of it. There was not one library anywhere in the entire place. In school, I was the bookworm. A pluses in everything, part of the drama club, and not one sport, except for swimming. Once the third hour started, I went back to my room to take a nap. I now realized that the bed was stiff and the room was very cold. It was harder to take a nap than the first night. When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt about my family, out in the world without me. Then something hit me. I had to escape.

 

I decided I would do it during dinner, when everybody would be gone. Then I would sneak into the work area and steal some of the antidote to save my family. Dinner was in thirty minutes. I started to gather my stuff. Clothes, leftover food for the journey, key to the cube, and the family picture I forgot I had. It had me, my older sister, my younger sister, my mom, and my dad. It also reminded me of the reason I was breaking out of here. I knew it was dangerous, but I couldn’t stand the thought of letting my family die. I started to quietly cry. I knew that if I didn’t get to my family in time, I would never see them again.

 

Finally, it was dinner time. Everyone would be gone from work until the night shift. I quietly opened my door and slipped down the hallway. I pulled out the key from my pocket and opened the door. I went in the quarantine room to find that the door was locked. I pushed and pushed on the door. I kicked it and tried to force it open. The antidote was my family’s only hope. Then I remembered something about Rob being in Room 254 and that I could reach him if I needed anything. Right now I need the key to the work area. So, I went back out into the hallway and went into Room 254. Surprisingly, Rob left his door open on his way to dinner. It was almost like he knew I needed to break in. I went straight to his bedside table and grabbed his key. I closed the door to his room and dashed back to the work area. I went back into the quarantine area and opened the door with Rob’s keys. I quickly closed the door and entered the big room. It’s grandeur still surprised me. I went over to the storage cell and grabbed three bottles of regular antidote. Then I went over to my cube and went into my pockets for the keys. When I was pulling out the keys, I suddenly stopped. I realized that I was not only leaving for my family. I was leaving for a better life. I was leaving because there was no pay, because the cheese was horrible, and what I was about to find out, because they were brainwashing minds, and because they were the ones to release the Virus.

 

I now hurried to unlock the door with a newfound urgency. I opened the door and tiptoed in. I could hear voices in the meeting room in the back, very close to my desk. What are Robert and Charlotte doing here? I thought to myself.

“Victoria, are you sure we shouldn’t keep an eye on the new kid? He is not acting like the rest of them. I think he wasn’t brainwashed properly. He is going to be the downfall of the experiment!” yelled Charlotte.

“Charlotte, this has been going on for seven years! One puny little bookworm won’t stop us!” Then, Victoria laughed maniacally, sending shivers down my spine.

I now wanted to get out as fast as possible. I can’t believe that this has been a hoax the whole time. And that I am twenty-four! I completely missed college! I screamed inside me. I snapped out of it and grabbed what I had been working on. I special antidote that will destroy the Virus at its core. “Good thing I made a couple different bottles. I can use some for me and my family, and the extra to shutdown the machine making the Virus. As I tried to pick up all of the bottles, one of them fell and broke. The sound brought out three people I never want to see again.

 

“You are that receptionist at the cube, Caroline!” I suddenly realized.

“Yes, James, yes. Why don’t you come with me, and we can explain everything,” said Victoria softly.

I struggled to refuse the offer. My head began to swim. “No!”

She began to lunge at me, and Robert and Charlotte blocked the exit. I grabbed a syringe and the bottles and slid underneath Victoria. I got up and put the syringe in Charlotte’s arm. She fell to the floor, and Robert went to help her up.

“Thanks,” I said to Robert.

He looked at me confused. I slid out the door and moved some boxes so that they couldn’t get out. I went out both doors and went down the hall and out the door that I came in only a day ago. It seemed like a century. As I went outside, I knew that I would never see this place again. As I went down the road in the rundown truck I came in, I realized that the Virus was still going. So, I turned around and went into the only building I had never gone to. The one all the way to the left. I went down the road and stopped in the parking lot. I got out and started to crouch and sneak around. I opened the door and saw test tubes everywhere and five giant machines and Victoria at the other end.

“You are too late. You can’t shut it down. At first Storm was meant to help the human race, but now, Storm is creating chaos and destroying the world. Everybody is selfish, and they are taking up the world’s resources. The world’s population is going up by the millions.” Then, Victoria laughed maniacally and pressed a button on the side of the wall, and all the doors and windows closed and became locked. The place was on lockdown.

 

I started to run. I ran around the machines and dropped in the special serums. Immediately, they started to shut down and reverse directions.

“No! No! NO! You ruined everything! Now they are realizing the antidote!” yelled Victoria.

Then, Jeremy and Rob busted in through the door in the truck and told me to hop in.

“I owe it to you. Especially since I was so mean to you,” said Jeremy.

“And me, because I was such a bad mentor, and I didn’t support the decision to go bad, but majority rules.” Rob gave me a quick smile.

“Anyway, hop in. Victoria is coming this way. We can hold her off. Good luck! And just so you know, your family lives in San Diego. Right now, we are somewhere in northern New Mexico. Ask for the Park family, in building number 236 in apartment 25A.”

“Thanks for everything,” I said.

Jeremy nodded. Then, he got out of the truck and handed me the keys. I nodded back and sat in the driver seat. I started the engine and went in reverse to the road and went speeding away, with the remains of the Virus behind me.

 

EPILOGUE

As I rounded the corner to my building, I think about the time I spent making my journey getting here. From the desert pirates to the food shortages where I had to sneak inside of stores. When I finally figured out how to use the radio, and especially when I found out that Storm had shut down and were exposed for their horrible crimes. Rob and Jeremy got off on a light sentence, but Charlotte and Victoria were exposed as the leaders of the organization. They were pinned with most of the blame, and their sentence was one hundred percent worse than Jeremy’s and Robert’s. The officers inside discovered a serum that had brainwashing effects that had been used on the whole community of Storm. That’s why everybody was okay with no pay and other things. Then, I realized that that was what being certified meant.

As I went underneath the awning of my building, I saw the destruction that the Virus had caused. There was trash on the street, windows were broken, houses were abandoned, people lost their homes, there was no electricity in most buildings, and what I was about to realize, families taken away. I realized that my family must have moved because I don’t remember this new house. My old house was a two story house in the countryside. As I enter the building, the doorman was staring at me quizzically.

“Who are you? This is private property!”

“I am looking for the Park family, in apartment number 25A.”

He looked at me confused and told me that the Park family is gone, and that Storm took them to help stop everything has been happening. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I ran outside and got into the truck. I turned it on and zoomed out of the city. I will find my family.

 

The Girl Who Finally Got A Dog

   

Once there was a girl. It was her birthday. She had just woken up from her sleep. She couldn’t wait for her birthday party to start. She had invited all of her friends. She was so excited! She was having a spa birthday. Her birthday party was going to start at 10AM and end at 12PM. She got all the goody bags ready, and she couldn’t wait. She really wished she knew what kind of cake she was going to have, but her parents wanted to surprise her, and they always succeeded in surprising her with the most delicious cake she had ever had — at least, until the next year, when they got her an even better one. She couldn’t even imagine how good this year’s cake was going to have to be to top last year’s cake. Then, after she got the goody bags ready, she got ready. She had special pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes were special because they were birthday pancakes that were filled with nutella and had a smiley face of fruits with really yummy syrup on top. There was also one little candle on top, so she could make two wishes for her birthday: one with the real cake and one with her pancakes! She made a wish and blew it out. She really hoped that her wish would come true.

Then, she washed her face to make it super shiny. After that, she changed into her special party dress and put on a little bit of lipstick. Since she was just seven years old, she was only allowed to put on lipstick when it was her birthday or a special occasion. Then, she put on her special shoes, which were beautiful blue shoes with sparkles and blue glitter pom-poms on them. Next, she wanted to do her hair. She woke her parents up and asked them if she could use the curler by herself.

Her mom said, “No, sweetie! You’re not old enough, you’re only seven.”

So her mom got out of bed and did it for her. She didn’t really care if she curled her hair by herself or not. She just really cared about having her hair styled and in a pretty hairstyle. So after her mom curled her hair, she put it half up and half down. It looked fabulous and stunning. Now that she was finished getting ready, she went on her iPad and started to watch TV while she waited for her parents to get ready too. Her older sister woke up and also got ready. When her sister was done, she went on her phone and started texting her friends because her sister was 18 and old enough to have a phone. Her sister could also use the curler by herself, but she wanted her hair to be straight, so she used the flat iron instead.

Now that her whole family was ready, they drove to the spa in the dad’s car. They got everything ready. They put up decorations, put the goody bags in place, and put everyone’s names on them so the guests would know which one was theirs. Finally, all of her guests arrived, and the party could start. They danced, did their nails, got facials, played dress-up, and made their own lip balms. When they were done with all the activities, someone yelled out, “Pizza time!” so they all went and ate lunch.

When they were done with the pizza, someone yelled out, “Cake time!” Everyone got really excited, especially the birthday girl because she would finally get to see how good the cake would be and what type it was.

Her mom and dad brought out the cake and put it down on the table right in front of her. The flames from the candle were facing her, so she said, “Whoa!”

Her parents asked, “What, sweetie?”

She told them that the fire was right in front of her face and seemed dangerous, so they moved the cake a bit further away. Now that she was less worried, she took a good look at the cake. It was the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. It was a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, fondant flowers all around it, and a giant fondant statue of the birthday girl on it. The statue was also holding a small mini chocolate shaped like a cake, just for her. On top of the cake, it also said, in strawberry frosting, Happy birthday. There was a chocolate candle that was shaped like a seven too. She was so happy. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her, and she blew out the candle. She also made her second wish. She wished for the same thing that she had in the morning, just to make sure that the wish would come true. Suddenly, a giant box appeared at her house without her knowing because she was still at the spa.

When she was done with her party, she gave out all the goody bags and said goodbye to her friends. Then, when she got home, she saw the giant box. Her parents were confused because they had never gotten that for her. But there was a note attached and it said, From your wish. She told her parents what she had wished for. She opened the box and saw two adorable little puppies. One was a white Maltese, and one was a black Terrier. They were jumping up, and she let them out of the box. They started to lick her face. She was confused because there were two puppies. She realized that she had wished for the same thing twice and that her wish had come true twice too. She was so happy about the puppies, and her family loved them too. They had fun with the puppies as she opened her other presents. It was the best birthday she had ever had.

THE END

 

The Hat With Hands

Once upon a time there was a hat who did construction work and lived on Mars. He couldn’t do his construction work because he didn’t have any hands, so he started to cry. He got fired, and then he got kicked back to Jupiter. He told his friends and cousins and family that he lost his job.

The hat went to his house and cried and cried until it was the next day, then the next day, then the next day, then the next day, then the next day, until he got really, really hungry. Then, he went into his kitchen, and he looked in there, and he ate a bowl of cereal, and he was so hungry that he ate another one and then another one until the next day and the next day until he was really full.

Then, the hat’s parents said, “What are you doing? You’re eating all the food!”

Then, he remembered that he had no hands and said, “I want hands! Someone give me hands! God, give me hands! I want some hands! I’m going to go on a quest for hands! I’ll find someone who’s dead and chop off their hands and use their hands.”

He knew where dead people came from. The only way to get dead people was from Earth. He had a rocket ship, and he realized that he still didn’t have any hands, so he just had to jump onto a button to blast off and used the little handles on his hands to close the door, and he blasted off into Earth.

When he landed, he landed in the lake, and then he swam out of the lake and spun around and around to get all the water off of him. He looked in the city and looked at a graveyard, and he was like, “I don’t know, this is going to be scary. What if someone sees me? I had to pull my rocket ship all the way here, and if someone sees me, I’ll get in there and just blast off.” He saw a body with hands that could fit him, and then he cut them off.

Then, a police officer saw him and he was like, “Hey, what are you doing, hat? Stay there, I’m coming for you!”

Then, the hat was really scared. He grabbed the hands and ran into the spaceship and took off. He wasn’t even flying the spaceship; he was trying to put on the hands, but he realized that he needed to steer. If he didn’t steer, he would crash. He put the hands down, and then he steered it to his house. When he got there, he put on the hands and tried to fit them on, and then the hands were starting to move, and he realized that he was the one moving them. So he tried to learn how to move the hands, but he just hit himself in the face with one hand, then the other one, then the other one. Then, he said, “Stop,” and the hands stopped. He realized that he knew how to control the hands.

When he went into his house, the parents asked, “What happened to you?”

He said, “I went to Earth and chopped off someone’s hands who was dead and put them on.”

The mom replied, “Honey, why did you do that? You don’t need hands. You’re just like everyone. You can do whatever you want without hands.”

The hat said, “Mom, why can’t I have hands? I just want hands, so I can touch things and I can grab things.”

“You don’t need that,” said the Mom. “You can just jump on everything that you need. You don’t need the hands.”

And the hat said, “You’re right, Mom. I don’t need hands.” But then, he just put the hands back on.

The police, in the graveyard, had asked, “Are you still going to do this?”

And he had just said, “I’m blasting off, baby.”

 

THE END

 

Definitely Not Evil

Once upon a time, there was a guy who made really good muffins and was definitely not evil. He lived on top of a mountain. There was a construction worker on his lunch break, and he said, “Hey, what should I have for lunch?”

Then, someone threw a phonebook at the construction worker, saying, “Get out of the road, bozo!” Then, the construction worker saw on the phone book, Muffin House (Definitely Not Run By An Evil Guy). It was located on a mountain.

“Oh no!” said the construction worker. “I don’t like mountains, and I really want a muffin!” So, he got a wrecking ball from his work and destroyed the mountain, so he could get his muffins.

Then, the definitely not evil guy (who I didn’t make a name for) said, “Hey! You will pay for that.”

Then, the construction worker, whose name was Bob, said, “How much? $5.99?”

Then, the evil guy who was evil and who I thought of a name for (Evil Guy), said, “You destroyed my house!”

“No,” said Bob, “I destroyed your bakery.”

“House!”

“Bakery!”
“House!”

“Bakery!”

“House!”
“Bakery!”

“Okay,” said Evil Guy. “You destroyed my bakery/house.”

“Fair enough,” said Bob. “Now what?”

One hour later…

“Hmmm,” said Bob and Evil Guy. It had been so long that the narrator got bored and quit, so they had to hire a new one.

“Oh, I was going to make you pay with my monster muffin with ridiculously big eyebrows,” said Evil Guy.

“O-M-G!” said Bob. “Those are ridiculously big eyebrows.”

He was right, said the new narrator. Now the big muffin was trying to eat Bob, and Bob was like, “O-M-G! A gigantic muffin is chasing me!”

Then, he realized it was a muffin that made this mess and that he was hungry. The muffin didn’t last long after that. To make this long story short, chomp chomp, burrp! Bob ate the muffin, got his lunch, and went back to work, when he realized the evil guy was still out there!!!

Bob realized he needed help when someone threw a phone book at him, saying, “Get out of the construction site, bozo!!!”

“Hey, I work here,” said Bob.

“Okay, sorry,” said the guy in the car, but this was a different phone book. On the back it said, Need help? Call this guy (his name is Good Guy)! Definitely not located on a mountain!

Then, Bob realized he should get help, so he went to the place that was definitely not on the mountain, and he asked for help. So he got help, and then he tried to find the evil guy who made the muffin to catch him and put him in jail. So that’s exactly what they did.

Then, they got a truck and rode around, trying to think where the Evil Guy would go. First, they checked a ton of bakeries, then they checked a ton of evil bases that luckily had no one in them, and then they tried looking for bakeries that had secret evil rooms. And they found Evil Guy, but he escaped.

They chased him and chased him, and then they finally caught him, but he escaped again. Then, they caught him. They really, really caught him, and then…

 

THE END

 

I Forget

 

Most people live a normal life…

Some people’s lives are more extraordinary and adventurous…

I… for one live an extraordinarily abnormal life.

 

“Ms. Leo Bongores!” Yes, Leo, that’s my name. You don’t need to yell it in my ear. “Ms. Bongores, look up at me young lady.” I put down the book I was reading and looked up at Dr. Joel. “If you look at that book again, then I’ll send you to the office!”

I sighed and looked out the window. “Why did I let Mrs. A make me go to this school,” I whispered. I looked back at Dr. Joel. He was pacing around the room, back and forth, clip clop, clip clop.

“Your teachers just don’t know what do with you, always being a disruption in class, always causing problems.” He shook his head. “Sooner or later, we’ll have to call your mother.”

I burrowed in my arms on the desk. Foster mother,I said. My mother, Jane Bongores, died five years ago in a car accident. I had been living with a foster family since I was 12, and it didn’t help the fact that I was stuck living with two other kids. It was exhausting.

“Yes, foster mother.” He looked me in the eye. “Do you have anything to say to me, Ms. Bongores?” Dr. Joel asked.

“I forget.”

“Then you may be dismissed.” I stood up and grabbed my bag, and silently bid the yellow room goodbye, and cherished the fact that if my plan went well, I’d never have to be in this room again.

Stepping out, I saw the blinding lights of the hallway flash into my eyes and prayed that life would finally calm down for me and just leave me be.

But I could say that nothing went the way I hoped it would.

 

Chapter One: Backspace to hell

“Leo, what took you so long?” Mrs. A asked when I got back to the house. “I was worried sick!” She ran into the yard and started to guide me up the steps.

“I had art club.” I lied. Art club was only on Mondays. It would never be on a Tuesday like today.

Mrs. A frowned, deepening her wrinkles. She was a small, petite woman with a bundle of curly red hair covering her eyes, which were a dark shade of blue. She walked like a model which with the way she looked, made her look like a penguin walking away.

“Well, hurry up. Dinner is here.” She started to walk into the house. “It’s pork and chicken shumei. I ordered some vegetables too.” The door slammed on my face.

“At least it’s not ramen.” I sighed. I hated ramen. The soup part was disgusting.

 

“How was your day, Dave?” Mr. A asked. We were sitting at the dinner table, stuffing our faces with food.

“It was good. I played basketball with Sam and the other guys,” Dave said. Sam nodded in agreement. He was the only real child that was living with Mr. and Mrs. A.

Oh no, I thought, they are going to ask me next. I started to bite my nails, a habit of mine.

“So, Leo.” Sam cracked his knuckles. “Why were you at the office today? Did you get in trouble?” He smirked impishly.

“You little brat!” I stood up and started to chase him around the living room, jumping over seats and the table.

“That is enough, you two!” Mr. A slammed his fists on the table, and we stopped moving, dead silent. “Samuel Arnold Arson, we have raised you better than this young man. Snap out of it! And, Leo.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do with you anymore. You have been sent to the office five times this week, skipping classes, leaving the school to get lunch.” He sat down. “Why do we even put up with you, you aren’t even our child,” he whispered, so quiet I strained my ears to hear.

I ran to my room and slammed the door. You aren’t even my father, I thought. I guess the feeling is mutual.

I jumped up onto my bed. I had been living here for four years. They hadn’t bothered to decorate my room for me yet. It felt like the house would never be my home.

I rolled on to my back, looking at the glow in the dark stickers I placed on the ceiling when I moved here. They are forty cents per packet, or were. I used to collect them all those long years ago when I lived in San Francisco. On the harbor, there was Mikey’s Drug Store.

Mikey was a good friend of my mother. He would always be saying things like, “Y’all lookin’ fine today, little Leo. Ya look more like your mother each day” and “Where is Jane today, Leo?” And I would always answer, “At work” or “ I forget.” He always would greet me with a warm smile. I missed him. He was the only person that I had left.

 

“Don’t forget to take lunch with you.” Mrs. A waved as we walked to the school bus. “Have a good day.” Dave waved back at her.

“Hurry up, Dave,” I said.

He turned around and scurried after me, probably hoping that the bus would wait for him, or that he’d still have time to play Nintendo before the bell rang. When we got off the bus, he trailed off behind me.

“What are you following me for?” I asked.

“There are these two boys who beat me up, and all the boys are afraid of you, and I thought — ” He stopped in mid-sentence, pushing back his black bangs back from his forehead, which looked exotic against his pale skin.

“Boys, afraid of me?” We finally got to my locker. “Yeah right.”

“Oh.” Dave looked at his watch. “It’s time for class. I gotta go, bye.”

I put away my bag and started to head to class. “See ya.”

 

“So I, like, said, ‘Who do you think you’re talking to.’ And he was like, ‘A random girl?’ so I said… ” Britney, the Barbie girl of the class, chatted away with Harley.

“Carman claimed that they, “are as annoying as a chipmunk pretending to be a baboon,” and I believed her.

“Can you two please stop.” I covered my ears. It was Max talking. He was always the one to tried to stop them.

“Oooh,” Britney teased. “Maxie waxy doesn’t like noise. It wakes him up and scares him.”

Harley laughed. “Do you need a bottle to stop your pouting?” She held her canteen up in the air. “Drink up, boy.” I couldn’t help snickering to that, because as much as I hated them, their jokes cracked me up, and also because otherwise they’d drag me into this.

“I would appreciate it if you stopped teasing me as well,” he said, his face turning red. “It’s very irritating.” He looked at me. “Right, Leo.”

“Does Maxy waxy have a girlfriend?” Harley asked. “Is Maxy waxy’s feelings hurt, so he had to bring in little Leo?”

“Arghh!” I felt my nails digging into my head. “You just had to drag me into this!” Max looked as if he was going to say something, but I spoke first. “Really, Max? Really.”

“Oh, little Leo’s crying, wah wah.” Britney started to rub her eyes. “I’m Leo, and I’m a baby. Wah.” She grinned at Harley.

“Then you must be the first braindead blond to step on the planet!” I stood up and turned to Harley. “And you must be the only redhead to ever catch on fire!” I slammed my fists on my desk and ran to the girls bathroom.

I looked into the mirror and saw a girl. She looked like she was 15 or so, and she had long blond hair that trailed down to her hips, she was wearing a black T-shirt with words written on it saying I don’t go down without a fight, and baggy jeans. That girl in the mirror was me, or the person they saw.

I shut myself in a stall and started to cry, not because I was sick of the bullying, but because I couldn’t stand being here, here in this school, in this place, in this town. There was nowhere that I could go that would leave me be. Every day, it was the same thing over and over and over again. I’m sick of it! I thought. I can’t do this anymore! I’m leaving! That’s when I decided to run away. I couldn’t just stay at this place anymore. I’d stayed there for too long.

I walked out of the bathroom and thought to myself. Give it one day, I thought. One day until I’ll leave this place forever. Just finish today.

 

Chapter Two: Run Away

Clunk! The books fell into my bag one by one. I put in some clothes and put the bag on my back. I quietly opened the window, took a deep breath, and started to climb down. I stepped onto the window ledge and leaped to the nearest tree, which seemed a foot or two away, perfect for climbing. From stepping onto the ground I started to run.

“Goodbye, the Arsons!” I looked back at the yellow house and grinned. When I looked forward again, I smashed face first into something. I felt gravity push me into the ground, like a imposing force that was not to be reckoned with.

“God that hurt,” the person said. Their voice was deep, low just like…

I rubbed my eyes. “Max?” I backed away. “No, no. It can’t be. You have parents, nice parents. Why are you here?” Max didn’t move, and a chunk of his brown hair fell onto his face. “Max, are you okay?” I shook him. “Max!” I felt a hot tear run down my face. “Wake up!” I shook him harder.

“Ow… ” His eyes flickered open. “Leo?”

I sighed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought you were dead.”

He started to laugh. “Why would I be dead?” Then, he saw how serious I was. “Leo, were you crying?” He leaned in, examining the tear on my cheek.

I pushed his face away. “Stop it!”

“Sorry,” he said. “Why are you out here, Leo?”

I sighed. “I ran away from home.”

His eyes widened. “You’re running away?”

I felt a drop of rain fall on me, and I stood up. “Oh, it’s going to start raining soon,” I said, avoiding his comment. I started to walk away, but I felt a tug on my pants. I looked down at Max.

“Leo… ” He let go of my pants to my relief. “So am I.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You, yourself, are going to rain? Who are you, Aquarius? Yeah right.”

“No,” he sighed. “I’m running away, too.”

“What.” My eyes went to the men’s purse he carried with him. “But your parents, they’re so nice, they get along so well. I don’t understand. Why?”

“They are getting a divorce!” He stood up and stared at me, his eyes on fire. “Dad’s cheated on Mom, Mom’s sick, and we are not sure she’ll live.” He started to cry. But I couldn’t feel sympathetic. The same thing had happened to me, and no one was there to say anything to me, to help me, no one to reassure me, no one to say…

“I’m sorry.”

He looked up at me, surprised I said anything. I plopped down beside him, raindrops falling onto the concrete. Drop drip, drop drip.

“We’ve had it pretty bad, haven’t we,” he whispered.

I looked away and nodded.

But I’ve had it much worse. Much, much worse. Don’t you forget.

 

Chapter Three: Out in the Real World

“Nghh.” I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked around. Where am I? Was it just a dream? Where is Max? Thoughts rushed through my head, so many questions I thought I wouldn’t be able to bear it! Footsteps, I heard footsteps. I stood up. I was in an… apartment.

“Oh, did I wake you, dearie?” An old woman stepped into the room. She was very small and had a long nose that looked like the spike of the knife. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so loud.” She walked over to me and awkwardly patted my head and said, “Tee hee,” and walked out of the room.

I was flustered. Besides the fact I was in an apartment and why the woman patted my head, where in the world was Max?

Thousands of words swept through my brain as the sea swept the sand off the shore. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t settle on what to ask. Should I just look around or should I ask where Max is.

I heard snoring, and I swirled behind me. I saw Max sleeping on a blow up mattress. I looked down and saw the same mattress under me. It was long, about three meters long. Come to think of it, I was not even sure if it was a mattress at all, more like a long layered yoga mat.

I sighed in relief of finding him and collapsed on my half of the mat. I hadn’t realized before how tired I actually was. It was nerve-racking. I felt my head get drowsy and sleepy and let myself fall into a waterfall of dreams, and how could I forget, some nightmares too.

 

Chapter Four: The Old Dumpling Lady

Max and I were sitting at a small table, aghast, as the woman put a buttload of food on the table. As I looked closer, I realized that all the food was Chinese food, dumplings and rice. It was like we walked into a free restaurant.

It was amazing. She gave us clothes to change into while saying, “I used to have a son and daughter who were once your age. They moved out a while ago. I kept these clothes for their children.” She walked me to the bathroom saying, “Ladies should always get to change first.” I felt like at any moment she was going to lock the door and keep on repeating that line until the day I die. I shivered at the thought.

After we changed, she gave us back our clothes and bags.

Outside the building, she handed us two one hundred dollar bills and two MetroCards.

“Wow, thank you,” I said, breathless. This lady had just given away 200 dollars to two strangers, I thought. Wow.

“Good luck,” she bid us farewell and walked back into the building.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder and turned around in surprise. I kicked Max in the shin. “Stop it, alright!” I yelled. He backed away. “I’m not going to help you. Just because we’ve been in similar situations, doesn’t mean that I’m the person you go to for reassurance!” I kicked down a trash can, feeling as if I was about to burst into flames. “I don’t need help. I’ve escaped from an orphanage before. I don’t need you to help me!” I handed him a MetroCard and a 100 dollar bill, and I start running.

“Where are you going?” he yelled to me.

“The subway!” I yelled.

“To where?” he yelled back.

“To Mission Bay, San Francisco.” I ran down the steps. “Or anywhere besides here!”

I swiped my card through and ran to the first sign saying to San Francisco. The train was there, and I jumped on it and found a seat. I knew that the ride would take all day, so I wasn’t that worried.

I looked out the window as the doors closed and saw Max running to the door, out of breath and panting. I was happy that he didn’t see me looking out the window. It would have broken my heart.

I took my iPad out of my bag and put on some headphones and started to hum a jolly tune. My plan had worked after all. I highly doubted I’d have to see that yellow room again, or the yellow house, or the yellow school bus, or the yellow school that the yellow room resided in. So much yellow in such little time.

 

Chapter Five: San Francisco

I looked outside, the city’s view flashing by my window. I was so excited. It was five minutes until we got there, and I would see my hometown again. It was an amazing feeling, one I hadn’t felt in a long time, not since I was ten. I couldn’t wait to see Mikey again.

 

Chapter Six: Away

I stepped off the train and ran to the harbor. I saw a small shop, and I ran to it, hoping to find the place I loved for the people inside were so nice. I stopped in front of the shop and read the sign. Peter’s Pizza Palace. I stepped back, confused.

“I excuse me, ma’am, are you lost?” a man asked me.

“This shop used to be Mikey’s drugstore, right?” I asked.

“Yessiree. Mikey moved away with his fiance four years ago, why’d ya ask?” the man questioned.

“Just wondering,” I said.

I look at the ground. Mikey moved? No more drug store? Fiance? I was so confused. Since when did Mikey have a romance with anyone.

My mind couldn’t get any sense out of it, so I just sat down on the dirty floor in a big city.

“How could I forget?” I whispered. “Mikey and Mr. Frank were in love. They told me they wanted to adopt a kid last time I was here.” I wanted to run away from this town. It held more bad memories than it did good. I wanted to…

“Leo!” I heard a voice call to me, and it was Max, running toward me, waving the MetroCard in his hand.

I stood up in surprise. “How?”

Before I could finish, he ran up to be and hugged me, but to his disappointment, I pushed him away. He was hopeless.

I spent the day showing him the city and walking around and getting candy. It was a nice day. We jumped onto the train and went back to Tahoe, with posters, merchandise, and anything we could get our hands on.

When we got back, we got grounded for a week, but it was worth it.

And the rest… I forget.

 

Five Years of Him

Amie was nine months and two weeks into her pregnancy. Amie was in bed, and she woke up all wet. Her water had broke.

“Jules, my water broke!” Jules was the father and was so nervous to find out the gender of his kid. He just stood up, got the bag ready, gave Amie a new pair of clothes, helped her change, and they left. He desperately wanted a boy.

Amie was rushed to the hospital in their car. They ran three red lights and made a couple of wrong turns. Jules didn’t do well under pressure.

When they got to the hospital, Jules was out of breath and clearly sweating. Amie was rushed into the ER, and Jules waited outside. He didn’t want to make Amie nervous by seeing him nervous. Inside the ER with Amie, all the usual things happened, the breathing strategies and whatnot.

Three hours later, a beautiful baby girl was born in New York State Hospital named Xiomara, born on August 9th, 1987. Jules was told the news by a nurse, stood up, and walked away.

 

Twenty-six years later…

Jules knocked on the door of Xiomara’s house and said, “Hi umm. I believe I am your father. Is your name Xiomara?”

“Yes.”

 

Five years later…

The phone rang. Xiomara went to the phone slowly. She was nervous because it was from the hospital that her dad was staying in with stage four brain cancer.

Xiomara was speechless for a while on the phone. She finally said, “Hello, this is Xiomara.”

“Umm. Hello, this is New York State Hospital. I am so sorry. Your father has just passed away. You will have to come by tomorrow to pick him up, or we will burn him and put the ashes in the Hudson River. Sorry, but that is all we can do. We have already told your mom and your brother. They are here at the hospital.”

Xiomara wanted to cry, but she wanted to sound strong on the phone. “But I can’t. I have to read a poem tomorrow at an award ceremony!” Xiomara tried to explain.

“I am sorry. We can’t keep him here any longer. We don’t have the space,” he said as Xiomara hung up the phone.

“Oh, great. Now I can’t find my poem. I worked on that all week. I need a drink.” So Xiomara went to her local bar and instead of having one drink, she had 12 shots of tequila. Xiomara was wasted! There was no way she could find her poem, pick up her dead father from the hospital, and put him somewhere without getting arrested. With all of this on her mind, while being wasted, she walked into the street without looking, and she got hit by a car.

Xiomara ended up in a coma. Her mom, Amie, and her brother, Derek, stayed in the hospital with her and had been with her ever since she got hit by the car. That was last week. Xiomara’s foot twitched. Her mom stood up and started to cry. Xiomara’s brother started running to the doctor and told her that she had started to move. When they got back, Xiomara was sitting up and talking to her mom about what happened, but Xiomara couldn’t remember exactly.

“Hey, Mom. I know I got hit by a car because I was drunk. But I can’t remember anything else. I’m sorry,” Xiomara said in a soft voice.

“Oh, so don’t be sorry for getting hit by a car. I mean, it was your fault and the driver’s fault, but mostly yours. But don’t apologize to me for that. Apologize to you for that. Apologize to me for getting wasted and making me worry about you.”

 

Two weeks later…

Xiomara was riding her bike to work every day as a poem writer. Even though she didn’t get to read the poem, she still submitted it. Then, the judges got to read it, and they suggested her to a writing company, and Xiomara was offered a job. Now she had a well-paying job. And as for her father, Xiomara’s mom and brother took care of him by burning him and putting the ashes in the Hudson River.

 

Six months later…

Next week was Xiomara’s first family reunion without her dad. Xiomara was thinking about drinking, and she had been sober six months now, and that was one of the only labels that she wanted for herself. So she decided to go to a rehab class.

Xiomara arrived at the rehab class, paid the Uber driver, and got out of the car. She was so nervous to share her story, but listening to other people’s stories, especially if they were worse than hers, made her feel better. Xiomara went inside. The doors closed loudly behind her and class started.

In the class, Xiomara didn’t feel nervous. She felt lucky to be sober for a whole six months, probably because the other people in there had it harder, but they were sober and they were staying that way.

The day had finally come, Xiomara’s family reunion, the first one without her dad. She was pretty much up all night with her mom and her grandma, cooking her favorite mashed potatoes that her mom had taught her and that her grandma had taught her mom. Every year, three people worked together to make a dish. They always made mashed potatoes. Derek, Xiomara’s brother, her uncle, Jamey, and Xiomara’s dad would work together. But this year, it would just be the two of them, making rice and beans.

That afternoon, her whole family came except for her father. They all met at Fort Greene Park because most of her family lived in Brooklyn. They needed four tables to hold all the food and one other table to hold the plates and silverware. They even had to wash rocks to keep everything on the table. It was a windy and sunny Saturday with only a couple of clouds in the sky.

Xiomara’s uncle, Jamey, walked over to Xiomara and put his hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m so sorry you only knew your father for five years. But I will be here if you have any questions about him or just want to talk.”

“Okay, that is good to know. Thanks, Uncle Jamey,” Xiomara said with confidence.

The whole family ate and laughed, sent a prayer to Jules, and enjoyed life while they had it. And in that moment, Xiomara realized she could live a happy, full life without her father, and she had the rest of her giant family. I mean, she already lived 26 years without him. She’d be fine.

 

Rumble in the Jungle

There was a person in the deep dark woods, and no one had ever seen him. He used to live on the planet Mars, but he had left five years before. His name was Rumble. He had four of everything: four ears, four arms, four legs, four heads. On each head, he had two eyes. He had six hands. He had four houses. He even had four pencils. Rumble wanted the magic cupcake more than anything. It was supposed to be very yummy, and it was supposed to make you see everything and hear everything.

Five years ago, there were space astronauts that came to Mars. They had the magic cupcake. Rumble had heard about the magic cupcake from a messenger, but no one had ever seen it. But then, one day, he saw the astronauts with the cupcake on Mars. It was rainbow colored and looked really good. But, when he tried to grab it from them, they went back to Earth. So, he got his spaceship and went to Earth. But on Earth, he accidentally crashed in the woods. And now, he lived there.

One day, Rumble decided he wanted to go back to Mars to get the cupcake. But also, he wanted to destroy Mars to get bricks so he could build with them. Mars was made of bricks. He got the bricks from Mars. He had a special power — he knew where the astronauts were. He wore booboo bands that made him have every special power.

He built a path to the astronauts with bricks. They were yellow so he wouldn’t get confused. The brick path took him to the thousand knights. He beat 100 knights, then 200, then 300, then 400, then 500, then 600, then 700, then 800, then 900, then 950, then 960, the 970, then 980, then 990, then 991, then 993, then 996, then 999, then the king of the knights.

Then, Rumble almost got hit by a knife when a ninja hit the king with a sword, so he stepped back because he would have gotten hit with the sword. The ninjas just appeared out of nowhere.

Rumble said, “Thank you.”

But then the ninja tried to hit him with the sword. Just in time, he ducked under the sword.  

“You meany!” cried Rumble.

“I give up,” said the ninja, and he walked away.

Rumble went on another path of bricks. For some reason, he met the ninja again.

“Hi,” said Rumble.  

For some reason, the ninja said hi back. Somehow, they became friends and they went on the path together. Then, they went to the secret tunnel, but one of Rumble’s arms fell off! He didn’t have to care because it would grow back again. Sooner or later there was a split in the tunnel. There were two ways, but it was so dark that they couldn’t see. Good thing that Rumble brought a flashlight so they could see what the sign said!

The left said dead skeletons and the right said pokey leaves. Rumble remembered that he had to go to the pokey leaves to get the cupcake. So, they went that way, but they saw dead skeletons. Then, Rumble noticed a big monster. He looked like a skeleton but alive. So Rumble and the ninja tried to run to an open door at the end of the tunnel. The ninja made it, but Rumble was so slow. He couldn’t come out through the door because then the worst thing in the world happened. I’m not going to tell you what it was.

Fine, I’m going to tell you. THE DOOR CLOSED!!! Rumble was so scared. Rumble kicked the door as hard as he could, but it didn’t budge. Then, he kicked even harder. Then, he kicked it so hard that his face turned red, and then the door opened with a crack! The door magically opened. But it wasn’t Rumble who opened it, it was ninja.

“Thank you!” Rumble said. Then, he realized something. “I think I know who switched the signs! It was the monster!”

  When the monster heard them say its name, he stood up and ran after them. They ran like the wind back to the way that said dead skeletons, because they knew it was the opposite. Even though they got hurt a little, it was at least better than being eaten by a big monster. Then, they finally got out of  the dangerous tunnel and started to go to the mean king.

They saw the mean king and heard him because he was yelling so loud. So they snuck up on him. Rumble was shaking with fear when a knight found them. The knight grabbed Rumble and Ninja and took them to the dungeon. Good thing that Rumble had a mini-gun that could shoot arms. So, he shot the mini-gun at the person who had the key. He got the key to the dungeon. And then, they opened the dungeon. They opened all of the dungeons and let everything out. There was another ninja, so the ninja hugged the other ninja. They went to the other side of the castle and opened the dungeons on the other side. In the middle was a lava pit.

Once the guards saw them, they said, “Come over here, you! Hey, you!” They tried to get more ninjas out, but they were so close to the guards that they just ran.

But, there were guards on the other side! So, they had to push them from behind. Rumble grabbed one of the guards and threw him at one of the other guards, so both of them fell down.

“Yes!!” Rumble screamed.

There were two guards on one side and two on the other side. Ninja grabbed one of the guards and threw him on the other guard. And then, they noticed that two guards were in the corner, so the guards grabbed Rumble and Ninja, both of them. Then, Rumble threw the keys at the other ninja in the dungeon, opened all the cages, and then he made a whole team. The guards chased after Rumble and the ninja and the two guards that got them. But then, they defeated the two guards because the guards were so tired from trying to catch all of them. When one of the ninjas was tired, he could take a rest. And then, he had to go back to running. There were 100 ninjas now.

“Where should we go,” asked a ninja.

“Oh yeah, my sticks,” Rumble remembered.

“Oh yeah, I have my sausage for a snack ‘cause we are going to be here for hours and hours and I might get hungry,” said the second ninja.

“How could you use a sausage to find a cupcake?” asked Rumble.

“You just brought sticks and I don’t think you can use them.”

“Oh yeah! Watch this. Let’s go mega sticks! I felt it! This way, let’s go!”

“Is he feeling okay?”

Then another ninja said, “I don’t know.”  They were worried Rumble was going crazy. They just followed Rumble cause they didn’t want to be separated.

“So, are you still 100% sure it’s this way?” asked a ninja.

“I keep telling you guys I got this,” Rumble said. “I think I see an astronaut!”

They ran to the astronaut because there was one astronaut and one hundred ninjas.

They all said at the same time, “Where is the magic cupcake?”

He didn’t answer for a while. “In a secret room,” he finally said.

“Nobody has ever been inside except the guards.”

“I’m going in,” said Rumble.

“I don’t- ” the astronaut said.

Rumble didn’t hear his full sentence because Rumble already left. He teleported to the secret room where the cupcake was. The ninjas stayed with the astronaut and distracted him. There were fences around the cupcake, so he teleported himself over the 50-foot fence. When he saw the cupcake, he felt double happy! It was the biggest cupcake in the world, and it was rainbow. It had rainbow icing and rainbow icing. When he grabbed it, he noticed on his watch that he didn’t have any more booboo bands to walk or run. Because they gave him every power, Booboo bands made him stronger. Each booboo band had a different power, and he originally had ten. But now he had none!

He couldn’t teleport anymore! He started yelling for help. The astronaut guards heard the yell and tried to look through the hole of the fence.

“How did he get inside there?” the guards wondered out loud. As the guards were looking through the fence, the ninjas sneakily came behind them and poked them with the swords. Since the ninjas knew how to jump and climb, they climbed and jumped to the top of the fence and made a chain with their hands to the top, so someone was able to go to the other side but still hold on.

Rumble was still stuck in the middle with the cupcake, but he couldn’t see the ninjas coming to get him because he was out of booboo bands. Without them, he was so tired that he just fell asleep. Fifty of the ninjas came inside to get him. They made a chain with their hands over the fence and brought him up and over the fence with the cupcake in his hands. On their way out, they passed an astronaut guard. The guard gasped.

“How did you do that?” the guard exclaimed.

The ninjas ignored him and kept walking. They brought Rumble to his house back in the forest and put more booboo bands on him. All one hundred ninjas shared the cupcake with Rumble. It was delicious!

 

THE END

                                                                                                                                      

Bill and Her Mice

Once upon a time, there was an old lady. Her name was Bill. She had a lot of wrinkles, a very tall and skinny nose with a bump on the end, and a mole right next to her mouth. She was very fat, as fat as the biggest room in your house. Bill was very strict and mean and went poop a lot. This was because she had bathroom issues. She had to get food sent to her room by her servants, Timpson & Timpson. 

Timpson & Timpson delivered her food every day. They also had a tiny little room, because they were mice. They had to work together to push the cart of food because they were so tiny. Bill’s bedroom was also her bathroom. It was bigger than the biggest room in the whole world, except for the room of Earth. You could see Bill’s bed-bathroom from outer space, it was that big. It had a ton of lights and there was a button so Bill could lay down and go to the bathroom at the same time.

Bill would only talk to Timpson & Timpson when she wanted something.

“Get me my food!” yelled Bill.

Timpson & Timpson were scared of Bill.

“Okay, miss,” they said.

“Don’t you call me miss! Call me Bill!”

“Okay, miss,” Timpson & Timpson’s bodies were shaking.

“Bring me food right now, or I will not feed you for ten weeks! And never call me miss again! If you do, I’ll call the mayor and ask for servants that are people!” Bill was so loud that they heard her from outer space.

“Yes, miss.”

Bill picked up the phone and called Mayor Nosey.

“Hello, Mayor. This is Bill. Timpson & Timpson must leave.”

“Timpson & Timpson must stay,” said Mayor Nosey. “Why do you want them to go?”

“I want them to leave! I want a human servant, okay, Mayor Nosey? They call me miss too much! I do not want to be called miss,” screamed Bill.

“Okay, miss. I’ll get you another mouse servant, but you can’t kick Timpson & Timpson out,” said Mayor Nosey. Mayor Nosey knew that no other mouse would sign up for the job, so he had a plan.

“I want to be called Bill! You’re so terrible, you should be my servant!”

“I will not be your servant,” said Mayor Nosey. “I’m the mayor, and I’m famous.” But Mayor Nosey was not as famous as Bill. She didn’t know, but people took pictures of her through her window because of how large she was.

“You better get me new servants, or I’ll come out of my house!” yelled Bill. So many people were taking pictures of her. Keechew!

Mayor Nosey wasn’t the best mayor, even though he had stopped Bill from destroying the city once. Mayor Nosey just didn’t know how to be a good mayor. He walked into meetings with his arms swinging while he yelled, “Howdy doody, partners!” No one at the meetings liked that.

One time, while a news crew was filming a show about a man named Dude Cool who ate a lot of burgers, Mayor Nosey walked up to the camera and asked, “Can I be on TV?”

Dude Cool looked at him and said, “Whatcha doin, bro? Hey, check out my girlfriend.” He pointed to Sexy Lady, a hamburger.

Mayor Nosey was confused but still wanted to be on TV. He looked into the camera and said, “Put me on TV!”

Then, Bill shouted, “Get off TV and speak to me!”  

Mayor Nosey did not hear her. Mayor Nosey did not like talking to Bill. Neither did anyone else on Earth. Bill hung up the phone on Mayor Nosey. Mayor Nosey was so frustrated, he tried calling Bill back to tell her now she wouldn’t get any servants. Bill hung up on him right away.

Mayor Nosey called Timpson & Timpson on their old-fashioned phone.

Timpson & Timpson said, “What? Who is it?”

Mayor Nosey said, “Timpson & Timpson, please come to my office.”

Timpson & Timpson had two robots that looked just like them. They had built them long ago in case they ever needed a replacement. They had only used their robots once before in hide and seek with their parents. Timpson & Timpson left their robots hiding behind the table, and they went to hide in a better spot.

This time, Timpson & Timpson put their robots in the bed-bathroom and went out their tiny door. Timpson & Timpson had built a very tiny car while Bill was sleeping one night. She had no idea. They had kept their car in a secret garage.

It was ten miles to Mayor Nosey’s house. Timpson drove & Timpson rode. They listened to “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic movie the whole way.

Mayor Nosey’s house looked like a statue of Mayor Nosey. It had his beautiful clothes but his ugly face. Mayor Nosey was ugly because he had a lot of bruises and boo-boos because he didn’t sleep well.

Timpson & Timpson had to sign in to the house before Mayor Nosey let them in. Bill didn’t know this, but Timpson & Timpson and Mayor Nosey were best friends. They only saw each other at night. Timpson & Timpson walked to the office.

“Okay, Timpson & Timpson,” said Mayor Nosey, “I have a mission for you. I want you to dress up in other clothes so Bill doesn’t know who you are. You must go and dress up at Bill’s house.” But Timpson and Timpson knew Bill would be able to recognize them.  

“You — Timpson. Please dress up like an elephant in a work suit. You’ll look good. Timpson — you should be a monkey. Dress like one in these pajamas.” He held up blue and white striped pajamas.

“Okay, but I don’t want to be a monkey with striped pajamas. I’ll look weird,” said Timpson.

“You have to,” said Mayor Nosey, “because I’m the mayor. If you don’t, I’m going to send you to jail.”

“Okay… I’ll wear it,” said Timpson.

Timpson laughed at Timpson because he had to wear something he didn’t want to wear.

“Timpson! Stop laughing at me because I’m gonna tell Bill.”

Timpson said, “Well, Bill won’t know you’re Timpson, because you’re a monkey in striped pajamas.”

“Well, when I’m Timpson again. I’m going to tell Bill.”

The Mayor Nosy said, “Stop arguing!”

Timpson said, “I don’t want to do this. I’m nervous.”

Mayor Nosy, “I’m sorry for what Timpson did. Well, I can’t know who is Timpson and who is Timpson.”

“I’m Timpson,” said Timpson.

“And I’m Timpson,” said Timpson.

“We should change your names,” said the Mayor Nosy, and he pointed at one of them.

“Okay, my name is what?”

“Your new name is Magalio!”

“I do not like my new name. I want my new name to be Jack like the guy from the Titanic who froze in the water.”

“What’s my name?” said the other Timpson.

“Your name is Dadolo.”

“I don’t like that name! Why can’t my name be Magalio and Timpson’s name be Dadolo?”

“Okay, my name will be Dadolo,” said Timpson, “And Timpson’s name will be Magalio.”

So, they drove to Bill’s house. When they arrived at her house, they knocked on the front door.

“Who is it?” Bill grumbled. She was very, very grumpy.

“It is I,” said Dadolo and Magolio.

“Come in,” she groaned.

So they both came inside.

“What are you here for?” Bill grumbled.

“We are here for a discussion about your behavior.”

“Blahhhh,” said Bill.

“Should we begin?” asked Timpson & Timpson in disguise.

“Where’s Timpson & Timpson? They must have gone somewhere.”

“We don’t know who’s Timpson and Timpson.”

Hey, you two look a lot like Timpson and Timpson!”

Then, Timpson & Timpson said, “Who’s Timpson & Timpson?” But then they made a big mistake. They used their normal voice.

“You’re Timpson & Timpson!” Bill roared. She started to get out of the bathroom and walked outside.  

“Uh oh,” said Timpson & Timpson. “We did make a big mistake. Now Bill will destroy the world because when Bill gets mad, she sets off to destroy everything.”

Bill started to destroy the world — from Canada to Africa, to Norway, to France, to London, to Egypt, to China, to Japan, and finally she came to the place where we stay now. She came to New York City, and she destroyed all the people. Timpson and Timpson, because of what they had done, decided to save all the people. They took all the weapons and put on some gear, then they went off to save the world.

As Timpson & Timpson walked towards Bill, they started to chop up stuff. But it took an hour to chop up everything because they were super tiny, and their swords were super tiny. Soon, Bill couldn’t walk, talk, or even move her arms. Bill was furious! So, she started rolling towards Timpson & Timpson. But Timpson & Timpson were really high jumpers. So, they both jumped up as high as they could and landed on Bill’s tummy. And then Timpson cut one side of Bill’s tummy, and then Timpson cut the other side of Bill’s tummy. And then, they took Bill’s tummy and threw it away. Then, they took out Bill’s food. Then, they took out Bill’s heart. Then, they took out Bill’s brain and lungs. Then they threw it all out. Then, Bill died, and Timpson & Timpson saved the world!

“You’re our heroes!” everyone cried to Timpson & Timpson. But it wasn’t over yet. Bill had a sister who was growing and growing, and now she was as big as Bill. Her name was actually also Bill. So, Timpson & Timpson did the same thing. They ran up to Bill. They cut off her legs. They cut off her arms. Then, Bill couldn’t walk or move her arms. Then, Bill did the same thing. She rolled towards Timpson & Timpson. So, Timpson & Timpson jumped up towards Bill’s tummy and jumped on it. Timpson cut the side. Timpson cut the other side. Then, they threw Bill’s tummy away. Then, they took her food out and threw it away. And then, they took her heart, and her brain, and were still heros saving the world from Bills.

 

THE END

 

The Rat

Once there was a rat who lived on the streets. He had black fur and big ears, two big front teeth, a big nose, small hands, a chip in his ear, and a unibrow. He ate cheese every single day. He found the cheese from a trash can.

A human came and tried to kill the rat, but he slipped and fell. His snowsuit came down on the rat, and the rat thought that he could use it as a bed. But it was so soft on the inside that he sunk right in. There was a hole nearby, and he managed to escape. Then, he tried the other side. It was too rough, though.

So, he found some tissues and used them as a bed. He used his jacket to block the entrance, so people wouldn’t get in, because it camouflaged with the colors outside. But the tissues were used, so he found a fresh box of tissues. He tried to get up, but it was too high. His friends came and helped him, and he used a cotton ball as a pillow.

Unfortunately, the snow started to melt, but his friends got all of the sponges in his house and started squeezing them out with the water. The rat was hungry, so he went to the fridge, but there was no cheese in the fridge. Then, he went to the basement door, but he had lost the keys to it. He looked under the couch and found the keys. He opened the basement door and ate some of the cheese inside the basement. He had more left, so he gave the rest to his friend.

The human had caught a flu and had broken his leg. He started charging towards the rat, but then realized he had broken his leg and wasn’t using his crutches, so he fell down. He called his mom, but she was too tired to get out of bed, so she fell back asleep.

The human and the rat started to head back to their homes, but then the rat’s friend told him that he had broken his leg too. The rat made a cast for his friend. Then, it got dark, and he had trouble finding his way home, but he had eleven flashlights with him. So, the rat found his way back home.

THE END

 

Jeff

 

About The Character

My name is Jeff Stanley, and I am 28 years old.

 

Emergency

During the year of 1858, I went to a restaurant called Fallout. I really needed to go use the bathroom and couldn’t hold it anymore! My face turned red as I tried to hold it in. There were at least 20 people on the line as I waited. I decided to wait at my table and eat first. But after I ate my food, there were even more people on the line! When it couldn’t get any worse, hope started to shine. I could use the disgusting porta potties outside, I thought.

 

When I got there, there were five people on the line who probably had the same idea as me. But they took a long time. I wondered why they took so long. I found another porta potty that had two people on the line, which took about a minute until I went inside. It felt so good that I didn’t need to hold it anymore, but it was disgusting! I finally finished, and I felt like a caged bird being freed by its owner. If this happens again…

 

The Angry Man

One hour later…

It did. I had to go to the bathroom at a casino, but they had no bathroom. I finished up the game of poker and won $10 at the casino! I kept it in my pocket and waited to go use the bathroom. Since this was just as long as the line in the restaurant, I went to the porta potties outside. There was no line, so I went in. But inside, there was an angry man.

He was chasing me down the block! I was scared, so I ran and ran. Soon, I went back to the porta potty and locked it shut. I used the bathroom while the man was banging on the door. The porta potties saved my life, twice. When I washed my hands, the door broke, and the angry man chased me into my house, and I turned on my security. He must have got hurt badly from my tasers because he screamed in pain. He tried to break my door, but it was made of metal, so it broke his fingers instead. He ran to the hospital, and I was safe. I then turned my security off. Then, the police came and brought me to the court for breaking the man’s fingers.

 

The Court

Judge Quinn asked a few questions like, “How did you break this man’s fingers?” and “Did you use any weapons?” The big question was the last one though.

“Gerald, [the man’s name] why did you make this such a big deal?”

Gerald said, “I need my privacy.”

Quinn said, “Okay! The case is closed everyone. You will get the results next week.”

At bed, I wondered what will happen if I get fined or the press starts to talk to me. I stayed home because I wondered what will happen. I then decided to make a time machine and uses it to go to the future to next week.

 

Creating a Time Machine

I built the time machine by putting an engine to control time with electricity. After, I got a round platform which can fit up to one person. Later, I put two be with a dog’s heart together to have the fuel and the speed. Then, I put a few live wires and a clocuttons for the past and the future. Finally, I connected everything together with more live wire. Now since I finished the time machine, I could go to the past or the future. I stepped on the platform and pressed the future button and went to the future.

 

The Future

When I got to the future, the results said that I didn’t need to pay a fine. I was relieved, but the press was banging at the door for the news. I then went to the year of 2067 and found a shop for machines. I bought an invisibility cloak and a jetpack because I needed one to get away from the press, but I made another timeline for the present and created an evil person called Geoff.

 

Battle of the Gods

Geoff destroyed the whole city with one attack. The sun was getting blocked by the clouds. I told him to stop this mess, but he ignored me, so I activated my special green suit which allowed me to power my strength and speed by three times and fly. I tried to attack him, but he was so fast that he went behind me before I attacked him. I was just getting warmed up and punched him, but it had no effect on him. He was just too strong. I didn’t know what to do. I thought it was over, but then a power surged through me like never before. A gift from God helped me as I punched him and kicked him. I did severe damage to him as I punched him in the face for the finishing blow. The sun came out again.

People were cheering, “Jeff! Jeff! Jeff!”

I was a hero, and my heroic deeds scared all the criminals out in the world. I became a man for justice and got police equipment from the future for all the policeman out there.

 

Epilogue: 20 Years Later

Jeff is now 48 and has a wife named Stella who is 44. They have twins named Emma and Liam Stanley. They are both 19 years old and fight crime with special red and blue suits. The red one gives five times more speed and three times more strength to the user. The blue one gives three times more speed and five times more strength to the user. Both suits can go to the past or future and grants the user the power to fly. Emma wears the red one, and Liam wears the blue one. They have their names on the suit, and crime happens very rarely in the world now. But maybe one day, there will be someone who will take down the whole Stanley family…

 

Find out more in The Stanley Trio Book Two: The Sequel

 

The Three Portals Book No. 1 The Wizard

 

Chapter One: The First Portal

One night, I heard a whoosh! I quickly opened my eyes to see what was there. Before my eyes, I saw a huge portal.

I looked at my watch. Exactly 3:00 am. I heard a faint voice say to me, “Jump in!” So, I did. A wizard threw me a parachute. We started to fall faster and faster through different colors. I screamed. In a few minutes, the colors were changing so fast that I got lightheaded and passed out.

The wizard yelled, “Quick! Press your parachute button on the top right of your shoulder!” I woke, and I did as he said.

The parachute jerked my shoulders up in a weird position. A seat magically appeared on the parachute, and I got teleported to the seat.

The wizard and I floated to a stone floor. Beside us was a white and black portal. We both stepped into it. After we stepped through the portal, everything was white and black. We were both in a city.

A twig hit my eye. In the distance was a big tornado. The wizard tried to tell me, “Jump in!” But it did not work. After a few more tries to talk, he slowly started to realize sound only came out when he thought something. So we talked to each other through our ached and dizzy heads.

A pig started snorting at us through his head. The wizard said in his head, “We have to take down the tornado!” Every time he thought something, a beam of white light would shoot through the air and powerfully strike the other person right in the skull. If you were that person that got struck in the head, it didn’t hurt that much. It felt like a strong basketball pass that hit you in the head. But since our heads already ached, it hurt a lot by the end.

We ran toward the tornado, and it suddenly vanished. The wizard said, “Reality isn’t really in existence.” For the last time, a beam struck me again.

I said, “I don’t get it. If nothing really exists, then how are you here?”

“You are already dead. Time in the real world has already stopped.” A beam struck me in the head one more time, and then I collapsed to the ground.

Then, I woke in a pitch black world. I couldn’t move. Then, I felt like nothing. I woke in the real world with time frozen. I saw everything. Falling. A few things were floating. Some people too. I gasped. Then, everything around me vanished. Or maybe I did. Since I already did not exist. Some yelling woke me up. I was inside the tornado. I flew out of the tornado and smashed into a brick wall. The tornado pulled me in one more time, and we fell through a blue portal.

 

Chapter Two: The Second Portal

I started to fall really fast. I yelled and kicked and screamed. Thud. I fell on the ground. A fake ground. Then, I fell right through the hologram and fell for a few more minutes. Then, I saw a huge reflection mirror, and I hit it. I rolled off and fell in some snow. In front of me were two giant ice sculptures about the size of the freedom tower.

I said, “Hi! Can you help me?”

Then, one of the two sculptures said, “The wizard is not lying. He has the power to make dead people think big things. You can only save the real world by getting past the red portal and putting the rainbow stone into the empty hole.” Then, the wizard fell through the snow with a thud.

I fell in too. Then, we fell into a red portal.

 

Chapter Three: The Fire Dragon

I almost fell into the lava under us. I balanced on the unsteady planks. Then, we saw a dragon covered in fire. It roared a booming roar. I saw the rainbow stone behind it. A metal sword floated to my hand. I didn’t think I was ready for this. I tried to slice him in half. My sword went right through him. He breathed a fireball. I blocked it with my sword. The wizard flipped a hidden stone switch. The lava disappeared. The fire dragon turned into a dragon with no fire. The dragon couldn’t breathe fire. It had no powers. I sliced it in half and shoved the stone in to the empty hole. Then, the world started to spin, and I fell back into bed. I looked at my watch. Exactly 3:00 am. My mom and dad came rushing into my room.

They said, “What happened? Where were you? Where was I?”

 

The End

 

Reality Toddlers

 

Nothing

Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing. This story is about Nothing, who is somebody who is nothing. That’s why this story is called Nothing. Let’s get on with it. Can we just cancel this show and put our lives out of immediate danger?

Once there was a kid named Nothing, and she was nothing. She was three years old. One day, she pushed a chair until she moved it. There was a show called Reality Toddlers. Before she started pushing the chair, she had watched it for the first time. On the show, a toddler named Tiny had pushed a chair while his big brother was lying on the floor. He had kept pushing and pushing, but the chair wouldn’t move any further. On the TV it said, “Will there be drama at naptime?” Then, disaster struck: Teddy the dinosaur’s jaw was too small to bite the head off Dr. Mustache. Would someone please cancel this show and put our lives out of immediate danger? Find out on next week’s episode of Reality Toddlers.

Now Nothing wanted to fail super badly, so she tried to make herself fail by playing a game of chess with her dad. She closed her eyes when she moved the pieces, but she won. So, she went to the playground and went on the monkey bars, closing her eyes and trying to fall off on her first try, but she made it to the end without falling off.

“That’s weird,” said her mom and dad. “Why do you want to fail so much?”

“I want to be like the person from the show!” she said.

“Really?” said her dad. “Then I have a way to make you fail: get on a balance beam, close your eyes, and walk on it in different directions.”

Nothing did what he said, but she still didn’t fail. She did it again, and again, and again, until she finally failed. She kept doing things like this on purpose and kept trying to push the chair without moving it. One day, when she was walking up a hill, she slipped, and she didn’t do it on purpose. Then, she kept slipping and slipping and slipping, and she finally failed.

She got a job as an actor on Reality Toddlers. Her parents thought it was weird, but they let her do it so they could become millionaires.

 

Episode 1464: Crocs Apocalypse

This week, on Reality Toddlers… Somebody kicked a croc, and then everybody started crying and throwing crocs at each other. But then, disaster struck: a pacifier fell out of someone’s mouth. It got even worse when somebody threw their baby food up at the ceiling, and hit the light, and everything went black. Everybody thought that they were dead and in heaven, because the walls glowed white, and then somebody jumped out the window to check if it was a dream. Then, everybody jumped out the window, except four people. The daycare was on the 100th floor of the Empire State Building. The only survivors were Nothing, her brothers Chumball and Charlie, and her sister Panais. They just went out the exit and went home. The exit was similar to the window, except it had a ladder.

In real life, everyone was wearing a bungee suit that had a green screen on it so that it looked like their clothes. No one actually died — it was just a stunt. Nothing’s parents told the director that he should be ashamed of himself.

Nothing said, “Don’t say that! Everybody’s okay! We shot it on an actual 100-foot tall building, but we had bungee jumping things, so we wouldn’t die or fall off or make the show too violent.”

Right after everybody watched the episode, the news said, “BREAKING NEWS: The show Reality Toddlers is really violent, so everyone should forbid it and never watch it again.”

But the director said on TV, “But wait! Everybody had bungee jumping suits on, and no one got hurt! Take the L!”

Nothing’s parents said, “You can keep participating in it, but only if you do your chores ten times a week.”

Nothing really liked it, so she kept doing it; she actually lived in the studio. There were lockers, and behind them was a queen-sized locker bed for Nothing. Only Nothing and her family lived there, not the other toddlers. The director told Nothing that you can only get fired if you die. She was happy at first, because she loved it.

 

Seven years later…

Nothing was now ten, because she was three seven years ago. Three plus seven equals ten. The show had been going on for practically forever — for as long as its creator had been alive. There have been 1,464 seasons. Nothing now had to kneel to pretend she was a toddler. Nothing was really bored of the show, and she really wanted to quit, but the only way she could get fired was if she died.

Nothing was going to fake her own death. She got an actual arrow to stab herself with, but quickly switched it with one that was already split through the middle, to make it look like she’d been shot in the head. If that wasn’t enough, she had a back up plan: a knife that fit into her hip to make it look like she’d been stabbed. She succeeded. Her brothers and sister did it too, and it actually worked.

They brought the bodies back to the house, and their parents saw them. When their parents were crying, they sprung to life and said, “Hi” all at the same time. The parents’ jaws dropped to the bottom of the floor. “Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi,” they repeated, sounding like a computer.

“Don’t tell the toddler show that we’re still alive, because we still have millions of dollars.” Their house was actually a mansion now.

The parents carried the coffins to the cemetery without the children inside. Nothing became a normal kid. She didn’t go to school, though, because if people saw her in the public eye, she would have to go back to Reality Toddlers. She and her brothers and sister had to be homeschooled. But their parents were really bad at teaching them, because when they were homeschooled, their dad taught them, “Fried rice plus chicken noodle plus fried chicken equals ten bags of chicken noodle fried rice soup.”

 

The End

 

Tacos, Part 1

Once there was a taco named Bill. He was a happy taco until the enchilado army took control of Taco Square Central.

But Bill said, “You can’t just take over Taco Central!”

“I just did,” said Enchilado General 1.

“Move it, Bill,” said Enchilado General 2.

“Fine,” said Bill with a sigh. Bill thought about what just happened. “I know!” said Bill, and he got right to work, and in the morning he had a robot.

Then, he took the robot to the enchilado army, but they killed him. But then, two tacos came out of Bill. Bill just discovered the taco secret.

Then the Enchilado General 1 said, “You’re a freak, so I’ll burn you. Boy you so fat, when you go on an elevator, you have to go down.”

“Don’t you dare say a burn to a taco,” said Bill.

“I just did,” said General 1.

“Robot attack!!” said Bill, and then the robots kicked the enchiladas one by one until only Generals 1 and 2 were left.

And then General 1 said, “That robot’s a freak! Get out of here!”

Then, Bill used the chomp taco secret, and then General 1 got gobbled up by a big chomp of a baby’s mouth. And that shut him up.

General 2 ran away screaming and said, “CHOMP! CHOMP SECRET! TACOS ARE VILLIANS! THEY USED THE CHOMP SECRET.”

Bill walked with his robot back to his house in Taco Central. And when he was walking, some of the enchiladas were running in fear, and some of his best friends were giving him dirty looks. Bill ran straight into his garage, and he dismantled the robot code 1528. Then, he went outside in a disguise. And he went to the enchilada army.

A whole crowd of enchiladas came and said, “I want his skull! Kill him! I got a pitch fork in your head!”

Then, he ran straight back into his house and turned on the robot with the same code he used to turn it off and dismantle it. Bill upgraded it with laser eyes. But he found someone doing a little work on it. He was a baby.

Bill picked up the taco, gave it some milk, and said, “Go inside the machine,” in baby language. “Go inside the robot,” said Bill, and it followed the command.

Then, the robot turned into a baby inside a laser eyes robot.

The baby flew with the robot to the enchilada crowd outside that was getting really angry now and banging up his house. It accidentally used its laser eyes on them, and they turned crisp black into a pile of ashes. And then, the baby cried and wailed because he turned them into a pile of dust. So Bill had to get the baby out of the robot and inside, so he would get him to stop crying in public. His wish came true. The baby taco stopped crying. Bill told the baby everything about what the enchilada army was doing, but then something happened: a portal opened and a donut took him and the baby into the portal and then, in a couple of seconds, they were in Donut Land.

“Where are we?” Bill asked the donut who brought him there.

The donut said, “I live here. This is Donut Land.”

“Can you show me around?” said Bill.

“Okay,” said the donut. Then, they started walking up a hill and into Super Cake Donut Hill.

Bill said, “Can I eat some of it?”

“Only a little bit,” said the donut. “We’re not allowed to eat it.”

“Are you an outcast?” asked Bill.

“Of course,” said the donut. “Some of us are outcasts here. You want to be an outcast? Or be regular?”

“Regular,” said Bill.

 

Truth or Lie

 

One

I have never told a lie in my whole entire life. Not ever. And I don’t plan to. I have been part of a spy agency, Spyglass, my whole life also.

When I was born, I joined the agency. My parents have been in it, and their parents too. So when I came along, I joined it. So did my brother Jame. When I joined, I had to take a solemn vow saying that I always had to tell the truth. That way, whatever I picked up from my spy mission, I would tell them every little detail. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That’s why earlier today, I was in a pickle.

Miss Gloria Cabernette, my neighbor, had asked me to water her plants while she was away. Of course I agreed. Miss Gloria is the best. She is just so nice. Anyway, she just got back today, and when she opened her apartment door, she was not happy.

“For heaven’s sake! What has happened to my plants?”

Unfortunately, I was still there.

“Lindie dear, where have you been? It certainly doesn’t look like you’ve been watering my plants.” Miss Gloria locked eyes with me.

That’s when I knew I shouldn’t tell the truth, but I had to. If I didn’t, you could tell. I’m so bad at lying. I’m just so used to telling the truth. The truth was, I was busy with spy missions and homework. I was thinking of just saying I was doing homework, but then knowing her, she’d go to a Board of Education meeting and try to give kids less homework. Plus, it would be breaking my “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” vow. So I did the only thing there was to do.

“Well, I was doing a little homework. But mostly, I… I was out on missions. Spy missions.”

 

Two

As I walked back to my apartment across the hall, I felt guilty. Not just guilty that Miss Gloria now knew my secret, but more guilty that Miss Gloria would probably keep her distance from my family, now that she knew we were spies. I felt guilty for my family.

Suddenly, I saw Miss Gloria bolt into her apartment, grab a hat and a flag, and run down the stairs. I didn’t know what was going on with her.

“Where are you going?” I called. She didn’t answer.

I walked in the door to my apartment across from Miss Gloria. Ardin, my adorable little Westie, West Highland Terrier, and Gabriela, the cutest Corgi I’ve ever seen were waiting for me. Ardin was pure snow white, and Gabriela was mostly tan with black and white splotches. Gabriela, with her short stubby legs, waddled up to me, and I bent over, so she could lick my face. Ardin followed, with more of a bound than a walk. How it was with them normally, was one would go first, and the other would follow. It kind of seemed like they took turns, like one day Gabriela would go first, the next day, Ardin.

“Hey, you guys! If I get in trouble for what I did, will you guys back me up?” I asked with puppy eyes.

They just jumped up and down and licked me.

“I take that as a yes,” I said.

Just then, Mom walked in.

“Spilling our secret is not okay.” That’s all she said. Then, she walked out.

Okay, I had to give her credit for finding out that quick, I mean, she was a spy after all. Gabriela looked at me confused. Ardin just kept running in circles. That made me laugh. I knew they would cheer me up. Even if they ate my homework, and I got an F in Math, my best subject, it would be hard to stay too mad for long. I trudged over to my room. The apartment was kind of small, but it was feasible.

Basically when you walked in, you would see the kitchen counter on your right. Behind the counter was a large-for-an-apartment kitchen/dining room. We usually ate at the kitchen counter. On your left would be the den, or living room if you please. If you walked a little bit from the front door, you’d hit the hallway. If you turned left down the hallway, you’d go to Mom and Dad’s room and then the bathroom. If you turned right, you’d go to Jame’s room and then mine. In the middle of Mom and Dad’s room and Jame’s room, was the laundry room.

Anyway, I went to my room and got out my homework. It was Saturday, but I had a project due on Monday, and I wasn’t finished yet. It was a book report. Suddenly, Jame bursted into my room.

“Dude, I can’t believe you told Miss Gloria. Mom and Dad are talking about it in the den. Mom sounds really mad,” Jame whispered the last part.

“Shut up! You shouldn’t even know! Get out, I need to finish my project!” Unfortunately, I yelled the first part. Well, I yelled the whole thing, but the first part is what would get me in trouble.

“Lindie! What was that?” Dad called.

“Uh, I said… um, um, what’s up?! Heh heh heh. What’s up, Jame?” I improvised. I sometimes tell little white lies to my parents. But you can still tell I’m lying.

“I hear it again and you’re spending the night in your room, young lady,” said Mom, indeed sounding mad.

Jame got out quick because he knew what was coming. I relaxed a bit, but not a lot.

An hour later, smells of Mom’s famous Italian dressing wafted through the crack under my closed door. Gabriela barked. She could smell it, too.

“Ruff!” said Gabriela.

“Ruff, ruff!” echoed Ardin.

I slightly opened my door. As soon as she could fit through the door, Gabriela bolted. Ardin followed. They both barked the whole way. Ardin and Gabriela love Salad Saturday. Well, they also loved Taco Tuesday. And Make-Your-Own-Monday. And Waffle Wednesday. I guess you could say they loved every night at dinner. Ardin skidded behind Gabriela, both panting. Pieces of cucumber flew out from under the knife, and Gabriela scooped them up with her very long tongue. Ardin whimpered.

“Aww, here Ardin.” I giggled, handing him a piece of cucumber.

He licked my finger. His tongue was rough and thin. Around his neck he wore one of those collars with spikes sticking out. Last Christmas, we thought it would suit him more than his old red one. Ardin pretends to be all tough, but he really is a sweetie. So when he gets all confident, he puffs out his chest with the spike collar. It’s really funny because he’s so small. It’s adorable.

Gabriela on the other hand, was all sweet on the outside, but tough and defensive on the inside, kind of like me, with a pink collar that says, Girl Power. Gabriela was a stray until the Animal Rescue Center brought her to a shelter. She has always been ready to fight. That’s why she’s the one who comes on missions with us. Ardin usually stays back with Miss Gloria. But that might change.

The seat on the counter, farthest away from the front door, is my seat. My favorite seat. So, I sat down. Ardin sat at my feet. Gabriela wandered over to Mom.

“What is everybody waiting for? Serve yourself.” Mom sounded annoyed.

We ate dinner in silence. Except for the chewing and clinking of utensils. It was like all the time on TV when the family would be having dinner, and all they did was clink their forks and spoons. The thought of our family having a TV show made me giggle. Our family was the opposite of those perfect TV families. We were apart of a spy agency, for goodness sakes! Although that would make a good plot for a TV show. I could picture it in my head. It could be called “The Watson Spies.” No, too simple. Maybe “Spyglass Presents: The Watsons.” That sounds like Spyglass is a TV show producing company. Actually, how about “Watch Out World, Here Come The Watsons.” Way too long. Yeah, I’m not too good at naming things. Oooh! How about “The Watsons in New York.”

Like I said, I’m not the best at naming things. On the other hand, I did name Ardin. I named him the day we met him. Gabriela was already named at the shelter. Not to brag or anything, but Ardin is a pretty good name, don’t you think?

 

Three

“Who would come to our door this late in the evening?” Mom muttered after the doorbell rang.

Dad was washing dishes from dinner, Mom was flipping through a magazine on the sofa, Ardin and Gabriela were with me in my room as I was finishing up my essay for my project, and Jame was reading in his room. The ring that echoed through our apartment sent Ardin and Gabriela into loud barks and fast skids.

“Quiet down! We don’t want to wake the neighbors,” I shushed them.

Mom walked over to the door, in no hurry at all, reading her magazine as she walked. Her hand fell onto the doorknob, but before she could turn it, it turned itself. In walked three men in dark suits and shades.

“And who might you be?” the man in the front of the triangle they had arranged themselves in said in a low, and might I add, creepy voice.

“How did you get in here? I’m sure I locked the door.” Mom sounded surprised.

“Well, even if you won’t tell us who you are, are you apart of Spyglass?” the man to Mom’s left asked.

“That is none of your business,” Mom snapped.

“Ma’am, actually it is,” the man to Mom’s right said in a matter-of-factly tone.

“Oh really. Well, I don’t have tell you any of my information if I don’t want to,” Mom served back as if it were a tennis match.

By then, Dad wanted to see this exchange and wandered over from the sink. He took Mom’s hand.

“Lucy,” Dad warned.

But Mom pulled her hand away.

“I don’t know who you are, so why don’t you just leave my apartment. I have kids I have to put to bed. So, toodle-loo.” With her hand moving in a shooing motion, Mom ushered them to the door because by then they had made their way to the counter and sat down on the stools.

“Ma’am. We are part of an agency that shall remain nameless. Now that you know who we are, will you please let us know who you are,” the front man asked.

“Not a chance.”

Just then, I felt an urge. So, I relieved that urge. I started to cry like a baby.

“Waaaahhhh! Moooooomy! I so tired! Mooooomy! Waaaaaahhhhh! Tuck me in! Moooomy! Kissy! Huggy! Wahhhh!” Since we were spies, I knew what to do in these sort of situations. I cry and talk like a baby. The men in our apartment were like Ardin, I could tell. Tough on the outside, soft on the inside. Soft enough to leave a mother to put her children to bed. Even though I hate comparing guys as awful as them to adorable, sweet, hilarious Ardin, I had to explain it somehow.

“Oh, you… you do have little kids to put to bed. I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am. Good night.” With that, the three men got back into their triangle position and marched out.

Once Mom could see them out the window and see that they left the building, she came into my room.

“Thanks, sweetie. You saved us. I know you told Miss Gloria the secret, but if they found out too, that could’ve been bad. It could’ve have been dangerous. I forgive you, though. Those guys kind of freaked me out, anyways. That crying trick you made up is brilliant.” Mom forgave me.

“Works every time.” I smiled.

“Going to bed soon?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, just got to finish up this project,” I answered, and Mom walked out.

As soon as she walked out, I felt tired. You know what? I’ll just finish up my project on Sunday.

 

Four

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to leave my project until today, I thought to myself after Mom told me we had a mission.

“Umm, Mom? This might not be the best time to tell you this but, I have homework,” I kind of mumbled.

“Oh, Lin. What am I going to do with you?” Mom asked.

“Maybe you’ll let me stay home with Ardin and Gabriela and finish my homework?” I cracked.

Mom frowned. “That was a rhetorical question.”

That is how I ended up on the subway to Brooklyn at noon. President Marole Xander, the president of Spyglass, called talking about this other spy agency who was kind of on to us. They were last spotted in Brooklyn. So, that’s where we were headed.

“STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS, PLEASE,” the subway blared as we rushed out into the wintery air of Windsor Terrace.

“So, where to?” I asked.

“President Marole said the other spies headed to Prospect Park. Apparently Spyglass got a threat phone call from this rival spy agency, so Spyglass is now tracking the phone that called them,” Mom answered.

“Cool! How did they do that?” Jame asked.

“Some spy tech they used to track the phone number to the phone and… I don’t really know,” Mom said.

We happened to be a block away from the park, so the walk wasn’t too bad. Then again, we’re New Yorkers. We can handle a long walk. I saw ice cream carts who obviously weren’t getting any customers since it was the middle of winter! There were those horse and buggy things. Pretty normal day at the park, except that it was mostly empty. But then I saw something other than lonely ice cream vendors and old-fashioned carriages.

“Mom, what does that flag mean?” I pointed to the flag that was forced into a bush. The flag had a hand with about 15 fingers. No joke.

“Looks like something we should investigate.”

We headed over to the bush just to see a head with a pointy hat scurry behind a tree.

“That’s definitely got to be something,” I said.

“Follow the figure,” Dad whispered.

We sneakily followed this figure. We followed them all the way to the subway. They got on the subway we took to get home. Coincidentally, the figure got off at the stop that we normally got off at to get home. Even weirder, the figure entered the apartment building where we lived. You had to have a special card to open the door to the lobby, or a visitor needs a tenant’s permission. We followed the figure up the stairs, and when we got to floor three, our floor, the figure went into Miss Gloria’s apartment.

“What is that person doing?” Mom inquired.

“Wait, after leaving Miss Gloria’s, I saw her get a hat similar to the one that figure had on, and a flag, which is probably the one we found in the bushes!” I remembered.

“Good work, Agent Lindie.” My watch popped up with a screen with President Marole’s face on it. “Now just find a way to confront her. Good luck.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked. But President Marole had already hung up.

 

Five

Monday was here, and my project was not done. Great.

“I’ve got to call Violet!”

I went to the den and picked up the landline. I didn’t have my own phone, so yes, I had to use the phone plugged into the wall. I dialed 534-890-1162 and waited for her to pick up.

“Vi? I just realized… my project is not finished! I don’t know what to do! I’m freaking out!”

“Okay, I’m coming over. We still have time. I’ll help you finish,” Violet said.

“You are a lifesaver. Thanks.”

I live a block away from school, so I can be a little late. Five minutes later, Violet rang the doorbell.

“Oh my gosh, Violet! I need your help!”

“Show me.”

I showed her my half finished book report. All I needed was my three reasons why I liked or disliked the book.

“Okay, well, did you like it?” Violet asked.

“Nope. It was horrible. So boring. I almost fell asleep reading chapter eight. No kidding!”

“Reason one, you were bored. Reason two, didn’t like genre Reason three, didn’t like plot. Sound about right?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Violet. Just, don’t consider this cheating.”

“I won’t. Anything for you, Lin.”

“Thanks. You can just stay here until it’s time to go.”

“Yeah sure.”

I finished typing my three reasons and glued them to the poster. Soon, it was time to go.

I got home with no homework and a B+ on my project. Luckily, the project wasn’t in math. I would never forgive myself for getting an B+ in math. Okay, B+ is okay I guess. If it were B- or C, that wouldn’t slide.

“So, what’s the deal with Miss Gloria?” I asked as I was eating some pretzels at the counter. “Like, is this going to be our next mission?”

“We’re waiting to hear back from President Marole.” Right as Dad said that, President Marole was calling us on our TV.

“Hello, President,” Dad said.

“Warner and Lindie. Good afternoon. Gather Jame and Lucy. I need to talk to you guys.”

“Lindie, go get Jame,” Dad told me. Then, he turned to President Marole. “Lucy is out shopping.”

“Then forget it! I’ll call you back later.” The president hung up.

“I’m going to check on Miss Gloria. Okay, Dad?”

“No. Not unless Marole tells you to.”

“But Dad!”

“No, Lindie. Do some homework.”

“Don’t have any.”

“Watch some TV.”

“Don’t want to.”

“Go to Violet’s”

“… Okay fine.” I gave up.

I called Violet on our landline. It’s so annoying. I told her I’m coming over. I went to the coat closet to grab my faux fur coat. It’s really soft. At the store they had real fur, but I like the faux one because it’s… well… faux. I put on my boots and headed out the door just in time to see a strange man in all black enter Miss Gloria’s apartment. I immediately hide behind a coat rack. About two minutes later, Miss Gloria and this strange man came out. They held up a phone and started talking.

Miss Gloria: How did I find out? She was watering my plants and then —

Wait, is Miss Gloria talking about me?

Miss Gloria: Yeah, I’m really close with the family. I always knew something was up with them. Especially the girl… No, I’ve seen her try to lie. It isn’t pretty… I don’t think they know… No one is in the hallway! Stop freaking out.

It was hard not to laugh because I was in the hallway. Unfortunately, I laughed.

“Who was that?” Miss Gloria whipped her head towards the coat rack. She lifted the coats.

Uh oh.

“Lindie dear. What are you doing out here?” Miss Gloria made her voice sound sweet.

“I heard your whole conversation. There’s no use hiding it anymore,” I said.

“Well, if you want to play like that, I can too. Take her, Alfonso.” Miss Gloria’s sidekick, Alfonso grabbed me and dragged me to the stairs.

“Let me go!” I ordered. Alfonso didn’t listen.

We got to the bottom of the stairs, and Mom walked in the lobby with her hands full of groceries. She saw me and immediately dropped everything. Literally.

“Lucy. So we meet again. Wait, this is the first time we met as spies. I mean, I’m not a — ” Miss Gloria started.

“Okay, just stop. Anyway, let her go,” Mom said.

“Ha! You think I’m just going to give her to you? She knows. I can’t just let her tell everybody. So bye, Lucy. Out of my way. Alfonso!” Miss Gloria shoved past Mom.

Mom tried to fight Alfonso. She kicked him to the ground, and I ran away from him to Mom. But Miss Gloria grabbed my hood and pulled me back.

“Uh, uh, uh. Not today. Sorry, Lindie. Actually, I’m not that sorry. That was sarcastic. Well you probably knew that it was s-OOF!” Miss Gloria fell to the floor. Behind her was…

“Violet?! But, but — ” I stammered.

“You never hung up the landline, plus your door was still open I’m guessing, so I heard the whole thing. I panicked and rushed over here. Then I came in, kicked your neighbor in the back, she fell, and now we are here. This is the right neighbor, right?”

“Violet, you are literally the best!” I ran and gave my friend a huge hug.

“Violet, thanks sweetie. Where are your parents? Do they know you’re here?” Mom asked.

“Mom is home. I told her I was coming over here. Didn’t know I would be fighting crime though.” Violet smiled.

“Well, do you want to stay for dinner, or at least for a little while? I’ll drive you home,” Mom suggested.

“Thanks, Mrs. Watson. I appreciate it.”

Violet and I headed upstairs while Mom talked to President Marole about what to do with Miss Gloria and Alfonso.

Mom: Hi, President. I have Miss Gloria, I mean Gloria Cabernette and her sidekick Alfonso. They should be knocked out for a while. Should I bring them to you?

President Marole Xander: Bring them to me. Is everyone okay?

Mom: All good. Also, Lindie’s friend Violet came in, and she actually is the one who defeated Gloria.

President Marole Xander: Who is this Violet, and when can I meet her? Would this weekend work for you?

Mom: I’ll see. But Gloria and Alfonso are coming to you. See you soon.

President Marole Xander: So long, Lucy.

Mom followed us upstairs, and when she came in the kitchen, she asked Violet if she wanted to come to Spyglass to meet President Marole.

“Are you kidding? Me, a real spy?” Violet gasped.

“Well, you would have to take the test first,” Mom said.

“I could train her!” I declared.

“Yeah! Yeah!”

So, it was settled. Violet was to be trained by me to become a real spy. Amazing.

“Training starts next week,” I assured.

 

Six

Finally, it was next week! Violet and I had it all planned out. She slept over for the week, just because it was more convenient. Also, we got to leave school early!

“Okay,” I said, pointing to my white board leaning against my wall. It was one of the ones with every day of the week. “Monday: Try Not To Laugh, for morning YouTube, Master Pools for Netflix Binge. Snack ideas?”

“Oooh, oooh! Caramel corn and chunky cookie vanilla caramel swirl! And pretzels.” Violet just said our all-time favorite snacks.

“Perfect. This sounds like the perfect day, but what are we going to do the rest of the week? We just crammed all our favorite things into one day.”

“What about Try Not To Laugh on Monday, Master Pools Tuesday, Caramel corn Wednesday, chunky cookie vanilla caramel swirl on Thursday, and pretzels Friday!”

“Okay. Now we just have to fill in the blanks. Like what will we watch on Wednesday? What will we eat on Tuesday? Think, Vi, think.”

Soon enough, our whole week of fun had been planned. And nothing would come in our way.

 

Godly Mythical War

 

Introduction

Once there was a little boy who lived in Cuba, and a hurricane wiped out his village. He was the only person who survived in his village. He crawled for a couple of hours, but he was a baby, so he couldn’t go that far. Somebody found him and asked what his name was, and he said “James,” and then the person took him to a orphanage. Over the years, he started to hate the caretaker because the caretaker was mean. He made them work day and night! They had to clean toilets and make a TV. James also made some friends, and their names were Adam and Paul.

 

Story

Adam said, “Maybe we should break out of here.”

“Okay,” said James. “But we’ll need a plan.”

So they found some people who didn’t care if they helped, so they told the people the plan, and they did it. So now they got to the bathroom, while the kids asked if they could get more chores. The diversion occupied the caretaker, so then the three boys could go down the big toilet and get outside of the orphanage, and the toilet took them to a forest.

They started walking, and Paul said, “Hallelujah! We got out of that orphanage!”

James said, “I doubt we’ll ever have to go back to that place, we’re in the middle of nowhere. Let’s keep walking.”

But Paul didn’t stop feeling happy, and then the trees started dancing around him.

James and Adam both said, “You are outstanding, Paul.”

Paul said, “I had no idea that I could do that.”

“It’s so cool. Let me try,” said Adam. Adam tried to do what Paul did, but nothing happened.

Then, Paul had a vision of his father, and he saw himself in his father’s arms, and his dad, the earth god, was saying his name, telling him he was his dad and that he was a god.

“You, Paul, are a demigod.”

Then, things went black, and he woke up, and Paul asked James how long he was out.

“You weren’t out at all, Paul,” said James. “Why do you think you were out?”

Paul said, “I had a vision, and it was with my dad, and he said he was a god and I was a demigod.”

“Wo — ” and then an earthquake interrupted Adam. A gigantic chasm opened up in front and in the back, and when you looked into it, it looked like a man laughing.

Then, walls erupted out of the chasm.

Then, a hurricane swept the three kids into the air. It looked like James was standing. Or am I hallucinating? thought Paul.

Then, James used his hands and created another hurricane to fight the other hurricane, and it destroyed the other hurricane, and it also destroyed the wall of rocks.

James, Adam, and Paul ran out of the forest more scared than ever, and they ran and ran until the found a meadow.

Then, they set up camp, and they talked about what just happened.

Paul said, “How did you do it?”

Adam said, “I think I know what’s coming next.” Paul was not correct.

James passed out, and he had a vision. He saw the god that had almost destroyed his dad, and then he felt like he already died because he felt so scared. The god who destroyed his dad identified his dad, identified himself, and said he was the god who destroyed his dad, and he was coming to kill him and his friends.

Then, James woke up, and he asked Adam and Paul if he had been out, and they said yes.

And Paul asked, “What did you see?”

Then James said, “I saw the god who almost destroyed my dad, and he’s coming to kill us! Run!”

Then, with a burst of wind, a man appeared, and he was wearing black robes with a long beard, and his hair as wavy as wind. And he said, “I shall kill you.”

And then, he hurled a hurricane at James, which James stood on, and he did two hurricanes of his own, and they barely did anything to Pumpulus. Then, Pumpulus whipped up an F35 hurricane, and it knocked James a hundred feet away. And then, Paul joined him, helped him up, and then Paul made some trees fall on Pumpulus. And then, Pumpulus made a hurricane barrier around himself to make them bounce off and fly back at Paul. But Paul was quick and dodged both trees, picked up James, and got back to Adam.

And Adam said, “This guy is insanely powerful!”

But then, because of Adam’s anger with Pumpulus, he somehow created a tsunami, and then Adam knew he was a demigod. And then, a tsunami was overflowing the area and racing towards Pumpulus. It got to Pumpulus, got inside his mouth, and he coughed up a bit of water, then he was okay.

James said, “Maybe we should combine what we’re good at.”

And then, they combined hurricane, nature, and a bit of death and tsunamis. And then a humongous wall of all that stuff mixed together was racing towards Pumpulus. And then Pumpulus got hit by it, and he was very badly damaged and hurt. Even his godly healing powers weren’t enough to heal everything.

And then, he retreated back to his home and said, “I’ll be back to kill you, James, Paul, and Adam.”

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

 

Arly and Asher and The Missing Martial Arts Belt

Arly was eight years old. He loved to read, he loved to write, and he loved to do martial arts. He was a purple belt in martial arts. His best friend Asher was also eight years old, and they pretty much had everything in common. They were both in martial arts when Arly’s belt fell off. The instructor picked up Arly’s belt and put it on the side. Then when they were finished with the drill, he tied Arly’s belt onto Arly. After that, when they were finished with martial arts class, they went out to lunch together and Arly left his belt there.

When they reached Arly’s house, Arly said, “Where did my belt go, Asher?!” (You need a belt because it tells you what level you are).

Asher said, “You must have lost it at the restaurant. I don’t know where else it could be.”

So they went back to the restaurant, and Arly said, “It’s not here anymore. Maybe somebody took it.”

Asher said, “It’s a purple belt, so it’s a pretty high belt. They must want to be higher at martial arts. Do you know anyone who would do that?”

“Only one person,” Arly said. “He’s a yellow belt at martial arts, and he really doesn’t like me.”

“Why doesn’t he like you?” asked Asher.

“He thinks I show off too much, but I don’t show off at all.”

“And who is he?” asked Asher.

“His name is Max,” replied Arly.

“Okay, then let’s go find him!” said Asher.

“Where would he be?” Arly asked.

“Let’s look around the restaurant and see if he’s still around there,” said Asher.

“Okay,” Arly said.

After 30 minutes of looking around the restaurant, they came back together, and Arly said, “It’s no use. It took 30 minutes to look for it. It must not be here. Maybe Max took it and took it home with him.”

“Do you know where Max lives?” asked Asher.

“No,” Arly said.

“Oh look, there’s Max out the window. Maybe we can follow him and see where he lives without him knowing,” Asher suggested.

“Okay,” said Arly. “Let’s go!”

So they went and they followed him, and he did not know at all. When he opened the door, they snuck in behind him. They were army crawling, so he wouldn’t hear them. (If you don’t know what army crawling is, it’s when you crawl on your stomach.)

Arly whispered to Asher, “Do you think he has the belt in his mom’s bag or in his pocket?”

“He couldn’t fit the belt in his pocket,” Asher whispered back.

“Then it must be in the bag,” Arly whispered excitedly.

When the mom was in the bathroom and Max was in his bedroom, they snuck to the bag and looked all around in it, but they just couldn’t find the belt. They snuck out of the house and went back to Arly’s house to discuss it.

“I do not think that Max has it,” said Asher. “And also, how do you know that Max was in the diner?”

“He’s always in the diner,” Arly answered.

“Okay,” said Asher.

“How about let’s think about how we got to the diner?”

“Okay,” said Arly.

So they walked and walked and walked until they walked 50 blocks, going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

“My legs are tired,” Arly said

“How about we get some rest and then get back to the case,” Asher replied.

Asher went back to his house, and Arly went back to his house, so they both took a little nap and then met again at Arly’s house.

“How about we check people to see if they took the belt,” Asher suggested.

Arly said, “They always put our names written down on our belt, so we can look for that too.”

“Okay,” said Asher. “Let’s go!”

After an hour of looking, they couldn’t find anyone with a purple belt that had Arly’s name on it.

“It’s no use,” Arly said. “Nobody has my belt.”

“Let’s look harder. Maybe somebody does have your belt. We just haven’t seen it yet,” Asher said.

After another hour of looking, they finally found a purple belt on the sidewalk, but this belt had zero stripes on it and did not have Arly’s name. Arly’s belt had four stripes and had Arly’s name. After an hour more of looking, they finally found a purple belt with four stripes, and it said Arly’s name on it.

“Excuse me sir,” said Arly. “That’s not your belt.”

“Yes it is,” said the person that stole the belt.

“No it’s not,” said Arly. “It has my name on it and four stripes, and it’s my purple belt.”

“It’s mine now because I took it.”

“It has my name on it, four stripes, and it’s a purple belt. It’s definitely mine.”

The man ran away.

“HEY, COME BACK HERE!!!” Arly screamed.

The friends raced towards the man. The man ran around the block, crossing the street and making a turn to his house. They followed him the whole way. The man slammed the door right when Arly was going to go into the house. Arly banged into the door.

“Ow!” Arly screamed.

“We have to find a way to get into the house.” Arly explained to Asher.

“I know we do,” Asher joked. “Check if it’s locked. He might not have locked it.”

Arly checked if it was locked. He pulled. It didn’t work. He pushed. It didn’t work.

“I think it’s locked. I can’t get in” said Arly.

“Oh look! He has a back corridor. Let’s see if we can get into it through the back corridor,” Asher said.

They ran into the backyard. They walked up the steps to see if the door was opened.

“It’s our lucky day,” Arly said “He didn’t lock it!”

“Yay!” Asher shouted. “What are you waiting for? Open it!” Asher told Arly.

Arly opened it. They army crawled to the belt, so he wouldn’t see them. The belt was on the table. The man saw them.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!” he screamed.

Arly was standing tall with his hands on his hips.

“I’m sorry,” Arly said. “I’m just getting my belt.”

“NO YOU’RE NOT!” screamed the man.

Asher was shaking. He was so scared.

“Let’s get out of here,” Asher said stuttering.

They ran out of the house. They made a mad dash to the street. This time, the man was chasing them. They ran all the way to Arly’s house. The man managed to make it in through the door.

“Give me my belt back!” the man yelled.

“Maybe you should take martial arts classes. You need to earn the purple belt.”

“Why earn it when I can just steal it?” the man asked.

“Because stealing isn’t a good thing to do,” Arly said.

The man fake threw the belt to the table, but Arly thought he actually threw the belt on the table. The man ran away. He was so mad.

“Yay! Now we have our belt!” Arly said. He looked at the table to take the belt, but the belt wasn’t there.

“HE TOOK THE BELT!” Arly screamed. “Let’s chase after him!”

“Let’s go!” Asher said. They ran as fast as they could. They beat the man to his house. This time, they were in the house with the man. The man was very mad that they went to his house and figured out where his house was.

The man threw the belt on the floor and said, “I give up.”

“Thank you,” Arly said as he took the belt.

Arly went back to Arly’s house with Asher, and they had a dance party.

 

The End

 

Peace

 

The Prophecy

 

When two blades meet

When two arrows split

When all have met their final resting place

There will be peace

And life will start again

 

Chapter One

Long ago, in ancient northwestern Russia, a man came to exist. The man is only known as the father of civilization. He had nine children in his family. His children split into one group of five and one group of four. As time passed, they came across many disagreements, and they decided to settle them. The father had wisdom and asked them not to fight, but they went on. The group of five had crafted their own style of civilization, and the group of four did too. They decided that the feud would be settled in their father’s home.They split up. The group of five went to the Himalaya mountains, and the group of four went to the region of Arabia. The father was depressed that his children had left and they were fighting. So, he repeated the prophecy and hoped that the feud will be settled. Meanwhile, the siblings left their feud to turn to a battle and to a war as time passed. They trained each generation in their own type of civilization and trained them to fight for their civilization and to train the next generation.

 

Chapter Two

The civilization of four called themselves Aintisariuna, which meant victorious in their language. Their main activity was fighting because they trained so much. They were all training to solve the feud that the two civilizations had. There were levels based on skill and diversity of choice of weapons. The most advanced would train with the rayiys or the masters. All they did was train, eat, sleep, pray, and cook. The training academy was called Esubat Alqatala. The rayiys were of the highest level of the previous generation. More generations passed, and they considered the father of the four who created their civilization. He was considered god. They worshipped him as a god and prayed to him every day to get his grace so their civilization would defeat the other one.

 

Chapter Three

The group of five called themselves Huīhuáng, which meant glorious in their language. They didn’t train as much as the Aintisariuna, but they still trained. The Huīhuáng were better cooks. They couldn’t find much to eat in the Himalayas, but they still made it work and taste very good. They cooked with spices found in caves, which made the meat taste more salty but much more flavorful. They used the fat to cook the meat, and they also used the fat to give the people more energy. They did have to practice fighting at their home with their family. Their training academy was called Yǒngshì liánméng, and they had to work incredibly hard on their fighting. The students’ masters were called Zhus. They had belief in mythical creatures, such as the dragon. The dragon was supposed to mean luck, so they worshipped it. They also worshiped the father of the five who created the Huīhuáng. He was also considered sacred. They prayed to him to get luck for their training.

 

Chapter Four

“Wake up!” said Shajaea’s mom.

“Ughh, do I have to wake up now?” groaned Shajaea.

“Yes, today you learn to use your bow and arrow. Wake up.”

Grudgingly, Shajaea slowly rose from his bed and washed his mouth, got changed, and combed his hair. His mom gave him bread with butter and cheese for breakfast. Then, Shajaea made his way to Esubat Alqatala. When he showed up for class, everyone was there, and he was late. At first they made the students just slap water. Apparently it helped them draw a bow. Then, he had to dry fire a bow. That means to shoot the bow without the arrow. Then, they had to teach them how to load the arrow into the bow within half a second! They couldn’t eat until they finished their day at the academy. Then they fired at the targets.

“Bullseye!” exclaimed Shajaea.

They kept shooting until all of them got all of their five arrows in the bullseye. Shajaea was the first to do that! Then, he got to go home. He got home at mid evening, and his mom had his dinner ready.

Over dinner Shajaea said, “Mom, I was the first to finish shooting bullseyes!”

“That’s great! Do the same tomorrow,” his mom instructed.

Then, he said his prayers and went to bed.

 

Chapter Five

Yǒnggǎn woke up to the whistling sound of the wind. He got ready and had his breakfast, which was sweet rice noodles. Then, he took his sword and went. He was really early to practice, so he trained with the Zhǔs in the meantime. Then, his class arrived. They did one on one training with swords. Nobody was allowed to eat until the class had finished. There was a tournament on who was the best sword fighter in the class, and Yǒnggǎn won!

“Yes, I’m so pleased that I won! My mother will be fascinated and so will my father!”

The class was now dismissed. Yǒnggǎn went home. He arrived at late afternoon.

“Mother, Father, I won the sword fighting tournament today. Isn’t that great?” exclaimed Yǒnggǎn.

“That’s excellent!” said his mother.

“Great job, son!” his father remarked.

Yǒnggǎn had his noodles for dinner, and he said his prayers and went to sleep.

 

Chapter Six

Shajaea woke up bright and early because he didn’t want to be late again. He took his bread, butter, and cheese with him, and he made his way to Esubat Alqatala. He arrived as the earlybird of the class. Shajaea started training with the rayiys, and finally, his class arrived. They started teasing him because they thought he cheated yesterday in archery.

“I didn’t cheat!” said Shajaea.

“Yes you did. How did you get four bullseyes on your first round, then you got all five arrows in the bullseye? You cheated, that’s how,” said his classmate.

“Enough!” said the rayiy. “Let’s get on with training.” The rayiy handed everyone a sword. “Today we will do a round robin tournament with swords.”

You could hear the clanging of the swords and the thumps of when you punched or kicked someone. You could hear the clattering of swords dropping to the ground. Each person in the class had to fight everyone else, but not at the same time. There were twelve children, so everyone had to play eleven matches. It took up almost the entire day. The person who won the round robin would advance a group. Eventually, Shajaea won the round robin and joined the new group.

 

Chapter Seven

Yǒnggǎn woke up late. He quickly got dressed and rushed to the kitchen and grabbed his noodles. He slurped them down quickly and rushed to Yǒngshì liánméng.

“Finally, where have you been?” said the Zhǔ. “Whatever, we must start our lesson.”

The Zhǔ handed everyone a bow, arrows, and a small target. They all placed their targets on the wall and fired from across the room.

“The first one to get all bullseyes will advance to the next group,” said the Zhǔ.

Yǒnggǎn and the others shot for what seemed like forever. He could hear the sounds of arrows whizzing past and puncturing the target. He saw the string vibrate after he released the arrow. Yǒnggǎn could hear the low snap of the bow firing the arrow. Yǒnggǎn shot one bullseye, then the next, then two more. If Yǒnggǎn made this shot into the bullseye, he would advance to the next group. The arrow flew at great speed and went in the exact center of the bullseye.

“Yes, I made it up to the next group!”

That was the end of the day, and Yǒnggǎn started to make his way home.

 

Chapter Eight

Shajaea went home and told his mom the news.

“I moved up to the older group! Isn’t that great?”

“Yes, that is fantastic!” said his mom.

“Well done, I’m so proud of you! Always try your hardest,” exclaimed his dad.

“Thanks, dad,” Shajaea said.

Shajaea and his family had dinner and went to bed. The next morning, Shajaea woke up extra early to be able to bathe in the river. He dried himself after the bath, put on his clothes and went to Esubat Alqatala. Shajaea was still the first one there. He was especially excited for that day because he was meeting his new class! He shot some arrows for a while, and then his class came.

“Today we will be focused on fighting with your fists and your legs. You will normally use this strategy when and if your enemy knocks your weapon out of your hands.”

They all learned techniques and moves, and then they had a mini tournament. Throughout the day, Shajaea could hear the crack of a punch and the whip of a kick. Shajaea saw much more determination and energy in his opponent. The scores didn’t matter, but they needed to learn how to fight. They eventually finished the long day of training.

 

Chapter Nine

Yǒnggǎn reached home, and he was in perfect time for dinner. He shared how he aced archery and he moved up to the next group. And his mother and father seemed pleased. Then, he said his prayers and went to bed. The next morning, Yǒnggǎn woke up extra early to be able to take a bath. He got ready and had his breakfast and went to the river. He had his refreshing bath and went to Yǒngshì liánméng. He was perfectly on time. Yǒnggǎn arrived and met his new Zhǔ, and then his new class arrived.

“Today, we shall continue working on with our hands and feet.”

The fact that the Zhǔ said “continue working” intimidated Yǒnggǎn a little bit. He still participated in the training activity. In fact, Yǒnggǎn was doing better than half the other kids! Eventually, everyone had to practice with everyone. By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted.

 

Chapter Ten

Shajaea walked home and got there in great time for dinner. He ate and said his prayers and went to bed. The next morning, Shajaea woke and got ready on perfect time. He got to Esubat Alqatala right on time and so did the rest of class. The rayiy was standing in front of them all, and he had his hands behind his back and a stern face.

“What’s going on?” asked Shajaea.

“The time has come,” said the rayiy.

“What? What does that mean?”

“It means that you are in the right generation.”

“You’re making no sense, what are you talking about.”

“What I’m saying is that you guys are part of the generation that we want to fight the other civilization. I talked with all the other rayiys about your performance yesterday, and they said that their students also did extremely well. So we decided that we will have you as that generation to settle the feud.”

“Oh,” said the entire class at once.

Shajaea was confused as to if he should be happy to help his civilization or sad that he will actually be in a real battle and he might die.

“Today we will spend your training day on getting ready for battle. Each of you grab weapons. We will fight these exact weapons in the war. We will focus on how to use these weapons effectively together.”

Shajaea chose a bow and arrow, a sword, and a dagger. He hated axes. They are too large and big. Shajaea shot at moving targets while moving. He partnered up with someone else and practiced his sword and dagger. He learned to switch between bow and arrow, sword and dagger in a second. Soon the day was over, and the entire academy was prepared for battle. He was partially nervous, but he felt he was ready.

 

Chapter Eleven

Yǒnggǎn went home, and he was tired, so he quickly ate, prayed and went to sleep. The next morning, he woke, got ready, and ate his noodles. He headed to Yǒngshì liánméng. He got perfectly on time with the rest of his class, and his Zhǔ was pacing around the room with a grim expression.

“Ah, my class. I have news for you.”

“What is it.”

“Well, I’m not quite sure how to explain, but the Zhǔs think that, well, you’ve all been chosen.”

“Chosen for what?” questioned the class.

“Chosen to settle a feud.”

“You mean the feud between the ancient siblings that five of created our civilization?”

“Yes,” the Zhǔ blurted out.

“Oh my god.”

Yǒnggǎn was shocked. He was clueless about if he was nervous or proud to serve his civilization. He may die in the war. All Yǒnggǎn could say he was that he was shocked. Nonetheless, he trained for battle. He picked up his bow and arrow, his sword, and his dagger and learned to switch between them in a second, and he shot at moving targets while moving. And he fought with his sword with a partner, and he practiced his dagger. He practiced long and hard. Eventually, the day was over.

 

Chapter Twelve

 

Shajaea walked home slowly. He wanted time to think about his thoughts on the war. Eventually, he found that he wanted to serve his civilization. He got home and ate his dinner.

“Mom, Dad, I’m fighting to settle the feud.”

“I’m happy that you will serve our civilization, but please be safe,” said his parents.

“It’s war. It’s not safe.”

Then, he said his prayers. After his prayers, he sat a little longer and asked the god, “Why am I chosen to be one of the people in the generation to settle your children’s feud?”

Then, he went to bed hoping for an answer. During his dream, the father of civilization sent him a message.

“You have been chosen because you fight, but you also end.”

Shajaea woke in the morning and had his breakfast. He was still wondering about the message god sent him. Then, he got ready, he sheathed his sword, slung his quiver over his shoulder, and sheathed his dagger and left for Esubat Alqatala. When he got there, he left with his group for northwestern Russia. They went on for three weeks. And finally, they got there.

 

Chapter Thirteen

Yǒnggǎn walked home as slowly as possible. He couldn’t move on without an answer. So he thought and felt like he needed to ask god about this. So during dinner, he informed his parents that he was fighting in the war, and he said his prayers.

After, he asked, “Why am I in this generation? What would happen if i wasn’t in this generation?”

Then, he went to bed.

In his dreams, Yǒnggǎn received a message from god.

“You are in this generation to fight and resolve. If you weren’t in this generation, this feud would never be resolved.”

Soon, Yǒnggǎn woke up, and he had his breakfast. Then, he slung his quiver over his shoulder, sheathed his dagger and sword, and left for Yǒngshì liánméng. He arrived with his class, ready to leave for northwestern Russia. Then, they left.

 

Chapter Fourteen

The first thing Shajaea saw were little heads popping over the horizon. He pointed them out to everyone else, and suddenly someone yelled, “Charge!” and everyone was charging straight toward the little heads.

At first, Shajaea was confused, but within seconds he understood and drew his bow and charged ahead. He shot from about one hundred meters away just to clear the area he was in, and he went on. After his shot, many arrows were coming for him, so ran into the fighting space and rolled up to someone and stabbed them with his dagger. This battle was brutal. Once someone knocked his dagger from his hand. He’d lost his stealth, so he leapt up and flew down with his foot out and kicked an enemy straight in the stomach, and then he grabbed his dagger. He switched to his bow and arrow and shot three enemies approaching him. There were only around fifty people on each side.

 

Chapter Fifteen

Yǒnggǎn was luckily still alive. The sun was now directly above them. He fought three enemies at once with his sword and defeated all of them. He saw one other boy also taking on many attackers at once. He was doing the same thing that Yǒnggǎn did. Yǒnggǎn leapt up in the air and kicked someone in the head and stabbed the nearest enemy to him. There were only about ten people left on either side. They all spread out and fought their opponent. He’d helped the people in his civilization, but they all kept dying, and then Yǒnggǎn defeated them. He shot some of the enemies but so did that same boy, and like Yǒnggǎn, that boy seemed to excel in his training.

Eventually, one of his last enemies yelled, “Shajaea, help me!” and one of Yǒnggǎn’s friends yelled, “Yǒnggǎn, help me!” at the same time, and both fired at the enemy, and the arrow went straight into their enemies’ chests.

 

Chapter Sixteen

They both shot at each other, and the arrows split because they hit each other. They both had no more arrows, so both Shajaea and Yǒnggǎn drew their swords. Every place that one of them struck, the other one blocked. The crashing of swords was a constant sound. They kept fighting and fighting. They tried to stealthily stab the other, but they just blocked it. They fought day and night for eighteen days straight. They kept on fighting in the brutal cold of Russia. They each tried to win for their civilization which some of was still at home. They fought through the cold and through the night. On the nineteenth day, they were smashing their swords together, and they were blunt, and they both took out their daggers and stabbed each other at the exact same time. Then, both fell on the ground dead.

 

Chapter Seventeen

In the air was a large cracking sound, and it flowed through the entire universe. Then, a flash of light. Yǒnggǎn and Shajaea opened their eyes. They got up and so did everyone else. People vaguely remembered the war. They didn’t remember why they were fighting though. They all remembered being killed, and they were extremely confused as to why they were still alive. Every living being that had ever known about the feud had forgotten about it. There was now peace. Everyone went back to their home. The two civilizations were now at peace. They all branched out. Some people went to eastern Europe. Some went to Africa. Some went to southern Asia. Some went to western Asia near the Mediterranean Sea. But there was still peace. They all started their own life where they settled. Their families grew, and then they spread. Eventually, the entire continents of Africa, Europe, and most of Asia were inhabited. Then, there wasn’t any war there for a long time. The next war was still between two civilizations.

 

The End

 

Train Lines

 

01

One day, the 7th avenue line was getting ready to wake up. All the 1 trains woke up at the 238th yard. “Yaawn,” all the 1 trains yawned. “It’s time to get to work!” said all the 1 trains.

They had to get to work every single day. Only one of all the 1 trains in the yard didn’t want to get up, and that was 1871-1890. The reason that they didn’t want to get up was because it was Car 1872’s last day on duty. It was his last day because he didn’t have any air conditioning. The car replacing him would be 1872A. They didn’t know him yet because he was still getting built. They didn’t want 1872 to leave. He could just get fixed. All of the 1 trains were really sad. He had been all of the 1 trains’ good friends since the year 1984. 1872 had been a good friend. He helped other cars by being a set of five. 1871-1875 were his best friends. 1872 would now be out of service, but he hoped he would still be in the yard. 1872 had hard times on his motors, so he couldn’t move, and the other trains had to pull him.

The drivers got them ready for their day. The drivers didn’t know the trains could talk. The trains kept it a secret, because they didn’t want their drivers to take them out of service. All of the trains talked, so they had to keep their identities a secret. So the second a driver stepped into the car, they couldn’t make a single sound except rrr and beep. All the trains started the day.

Meanwhile, at the Pitkin Yard, the C train was very delighted by 1872 retiring, because he didn’t like 1872 at all. The C train was very jealous that 1872 got all the attention today. “It’s time for me to get the attention!” said the R32 C train.

At the end of the day, the R62 trains — 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s — made a cake for 1872, and all the trains that were retired but still alive came to the yard too.

 

02

At the party, the 2 trains coupled to the 1s coupled to the 3s coupled to the 4s coupled to the 5s coupled to the 6s coupled to the 7s coupled to the old trains. They all went down the line, all the way to South Ferry. They came and turned back, but this time, they went past the yard to Van Cortlandt Park! Well, at least the yard was one stop away. So, they went back and ate the cake. The cake was really good, and after that, all of the trains went back to their yards and went to sleep.

The next morning, 1872A was done. 1872 had to stay in the yard, so they uncoupled him and went away for 1872A. 1872A was very shiny and new. They went to to work. 1872A was pushing the train all the way to South Ferry. He did not want to stop at all. He just wanted to have fun. They got all the way to South Ferry, and they crashed through the wall! 1871 did not get hurt, though he was still crashed in the wall on Track 4. 1872A had to get retired. So they retired 1872A, and they fixed 1872 to be another car. 1872 was part of the same train. 1871-1875 and 1876-1890 were really happy that he was back. So they all went slowly and carefully and stopped at all the stops, and then they went back to the yard. They were right on time.

 

THE END.

 

AK-47

One day, there was a 32-year-old man named Mace from the planet NoBoo. He wanted to do target practice one morning to train for school, but he realized that he did not have an AK-47. He did not want to practice with a bow and arrow because it took too much time to load. He set out to find an AK-47. First, he went to the best gun store in NoBoo, The Great Guns.

“I need an AK-47 for target practice,” he said to the man at the counter.

“Sorry, we have horrible AK-47s here. They don’t shoot very well. They have horrible aim.” Mace started to leave, feeling defeated, but the man at the counter stopped him. “If you really want a good AK-47… I know where you can get one.” Mace was curious. “There is a greedy man,” said the man behind the counter. “Take my ship. It is very old, but it still works very well. Go to the Averdado System, that is where he lives.”

Mace smiled at him. He was so excited to finally get an AK-47 for target practice.

It was really important for Mace to learn to shoot at a target. In NoBoo, enemies were frequently trying to attack. Hackers were constantly trying to hack food, dentals, and other life necessities in order to be rich. This put a lot of lives in NoBoo in danger. Mace needed to protect himself and his things from the hackers. It was the most important thing. He reminded himself this as he climbed into the man from the shop’s old ship. The ship was small and it was very clearly used in a war against the Hackers a long time ago. It was covered in dents and the front of the ship, where there was usually a tip, was completely missing. Mace was confident in the ship, though. He climbed in and set off towards the Averdado System to get his AK-47.

Once he arrived in the Averdado System, Mace tried to go to the greedy man on a spaceship. On the spaceship, he went to the ship’s bridge, but he didn’t find him there. What he did find was crumpled weapons, and this made him feel not so good. How did these get here, and why are they so destroyed? Mace thought to himself. He had never fought before, and it was dawning on him that the greedy man may be more powerful than he expected. So what he did was that he went out to the bottom to try and find him, but the greedy man was actually on the bridge hiding.

The greedy man remembered his past and his childhood while he was under the bridge. When he was a child, he was a scaredy cat, because one day when he was five years old he was scared of his uncle. The greedy man couldn’t help it. He was born scared. His uncle didn’t do much to be mean or scary, but the greedy man was just scared. People made fun of the greedy man and said, “He he he he he is a scaredy cat!” This made the greedy man really upset, and it made him want to turn bad. One day, when he got home from a bad day of teasing, he was so upset that he destroyed a plane. It made him feel powerful. He got greedy and began destroying everything after that.

The greedy man was so lost in his memory that he forgot that Mace was his enemy. Mace was his enemy because he wanted the greedy man’s AK-47. The greedy man already had guards called Protocepters. The Protocepters went after Mace because they were robots and didn’t forget that Mace was the greedy man’s enemy. Mace went to the main hangar and found nothing. The guards went after him, but then one of the Protocepters called the greedy man and said, “Mace is your enemy.” The greedy man got so angry that he got the AK-47 and went down to the hangar. The Protocepters told the greedy man where Mace was and then met up with the greedy man. They had to wait for him or else they would’ve been fired, but Mace was escaping!

Mace managed to get off the ship eventually, but he didn’t get what he wanted. He decided to get a bow and arrow instead, but he changed his mind because he thought it would take too much time to load. Then, he thought of a rifle. Then he said, “Too long.” Then he decided to get a pistol. Then he said, “Too small.” This was a problem, a real problem. He decided to get a medium gun. Then he thought about getting the medium gun and figured it was not powerful enough. Then he said, “No.”

Then he went back to the spaceship and found the greedy man. He stared at his welcoming face and almost fell victim to his deception. “He is just in disguise as a nice man,” he reminded himself. The greedy man had guards called Protocepters. They were purple-eyed robot things standing tall and holding spears to defend the greedy man. When Mace got on the ship, he went to the bridge that was on the ship. He found the AK-47. He was so happy. A huge grin spread across his face. Oh! I’m the best! I’m the best! I found it! he thought to himself. He then quickly grabbed the gun and went to evacuate to the hangar. As he entered the hangar, he saw the greedy man and the Protocepters waiting for him.

Mace shot the AK-47 at a nearby Protocepter. It went down, and immediately a war broke out. First, one of the Protocepters grabbed his spear and started attacking Mace. But Mace was skilled. When the Protocepter jumped up as high as he could, Mace ran as fast as he could towards his ship. As he ran, another cruiser came out of space in light speed and got in his way. He was very surprised. Mace thought that there was just one cruiser! He looked into the driver’s seat and saw the greedy man’s brother sitting in the cruiser.

He said, “All cannons fire! Fire! Fire!” Then, a noise began to sound. It was the alarm button. The brother was hit. The cruiser spun out of control and crashed into the greedy man’s cruiser. Kaboom, it sounded. The greedy man said, “Come on! I was so close to winning!” and he died in his cruiser.

Mace looked around. The Protocepters threw their spears down outside of the cruiser and died one by one. Mace picked the spears up one by one. He flew back to his planet called NoBoo. He lived happily ever after!!!

 

The Dream

I wish I could go on the Empire State Building! I’ve never been on it. I first found out about it when my mom and dad went on it.

They came home one night and said, “Guess what we did? We went on the Empire State Building.”

I was like, “What’s that?”

“It’s the tallest building in New York City.”

And then, I started reading books about the Empire State Building. I thought it was so cool because it glows and it’s so tall. It’s one hundred feet tall. It has different colors every day. When it’s dark, it glows. My favorite color is purple, so I love when it glows purple. My name is Anna. I’m six years old. For two years I’ve wanted to go on the Empire State Building. I live in New York City. If I haven’t already told you, I really want to go on the Empire State Building.

I told my parents that I really wanted to go to the Empire State building. They were like, “You don’t have time. You have school, and we have work.”

“How about on the weekend?”

“Oh yeah, we forgot about the weekends. We could go this weekend if you want to. You can only go if you are six and up, so that’s good that you are six.”

I was so excited, and I couldn’t wait. The next day, I went to school and I told all my friends that I was going to the Empire State building this weekend. My friends all started talking over each other.

“Wow that’s the tallest building in the world!” said my best friend Grace.

“That’s so cool!” said Jennette.

“You could come with me! And then you guys could come to my house and we can play,” I said to Grace and Jennette.

“Yay!” they said. “That will be so fun!”

I felt good because Grace is my first best friend, and Jennette is my second. I’ve known Grace and Jennette since I was in nursery. They have a lot in common. They love talking and playing. Jennette talks the most and Grace likes to play, and I like to play board games. We go to Central park, we have picnics, and we hang out in school. And then, Ruby overheard that we were going to the Empire State Building. Ruby is not that nice. Everyone wants to be friends with her, but she says no. I decided to invite her. It wouldn’t be nice if I just invited Jennette and Grace and not Ruby.

“Ruby, do you want to come?” I said to her.

Ruby was just jealous because she didn’t want to go with Jennette and Grace. “Ehh. It’s just a building,” said Ruby.

“What? It’s just a building! No, it’s the tallest building in the world! And it glows at night!” I felt upset that Ruby would say that, because it was my dream since I was younger. I was just trying to be nice! “Well I like it and I want to go with Grace and Jennette.”

“Thanks for inviting us, we will always come.”

Ruby ignored them and said, “Ugh, I don’t care anyway.”

During school, we played and did projects. I loved making projects. I was making a project about the Empire State Building. I got black paper, lights, scissors, white paper, and a glue stick. I cut papers in the shape of the building. Then, I cut windows. Then, I put lights on it. I made twenty mini Empire State Buildings! I’m going to show the people in the Empire State Building too! I thought. I’m going to show them that it’s my first time going there. I gave a mini Empire State Building to Jennette and to Grace, to my teacher, and to my parents.

Finally, it was Saturday. The day I was going to the Empire State Building! I couldn’t wait! I woke up early and woke up my parents. I got dressed. I wore my favorite hot pink pants and light purple shirt. I put my light milk chocolate brown hair in a bun and put diamond barrettes in. I saw an Empire State Building clip in my drawer. I’ll wear that instead of my diamonds, I said! So my dad and mom woke up and got dressed. We were going to eat breakfast at the Empire State building with Grace and Jennette. We picked them up at their houses. They were really excited! We were all wearing our light purple shirts, and Grace was wearing light pink pants and Jennette was wearing sparkly pink pants. And then we drove back to our house and went to the subway.

On the subway, I was so excited. It was only one stop, so I could wait. I screamed, “EEEEEE.”

“I know you’re excited, but you can’t scream on the train,” said my parents.

There was a train station at the Empire State Building, so we got off at that stop. We got out of the station, and we were in the lobby of the Empire State building.

“We’ll miss you! Have a good time! Don’t talk to strangers! And stick together!” said my parents.

I dropped my mouth. I felt like it was going to hit the floor. “This is amazing!” I said.

We took the elevator to the top floor. On the elevator, I felt like I was about to happy-cry. I started dancing with Jennette and Grace. There was no one else in the elevator except the security guard.

“We’re going to the top floor!” I said to the security guard.

“Okay! I’ll press the button!” he said.

The elevator went really fast, but it felt like it took forever. It was moving as slow as a snail. We finally got to the top.

“Have fun!” said the security guard. “Wait! Where are your parents?”

“They dropped us off because they wanted us to have fun by ourselves.

“Oh, I thought you lost them,” said the security guard.

We stepped out of the elevator, and I saw so many buildings. Good thing I don’t have a fear of heights, and good thing that Grace and Jennette don’t either! We ran over to the telescope, put in the quarters I had brought and looked down. We felt like we were going to fall! I felt like I could see everything. I felt really really happy. It was everything I wanted. I saw people down below really really small like ants. But ants wearing pants! And shirts. Maybe some wearing hats, because it was early June. We stayed there for hours, but it felt like it was only a minute. I bought a snow globe with the building inside it, and I bought two other ones for Grace and Jennette. We went to another area to take some pictures. And then we took the elevator back down. In the lobby, my parents picked us up.

“How was it?” they said.

“Great!” we all said at the same time.

Grace and Jennette were tired, so we went back to my house. We had lunch and then drove my friends home.

“Did you really like it?” my parents asked.

“Yes! Maybe next weekend we can go back!” I said.

“Maybe once a month,” said my parents.

Back home, I put my snow globe on the night table next to my bed. I shook it and it glowed pink, purple, red, and green. I fell asleep, dreaming of going there every single day.

 

THE END!

 

Being a Fairy

Once there were three triplets who wanted to be fairies. Their names were Sophia, Chloe, and Stella. They were all identical, but they liked to wear different clothes and had different personalities. Sophia was funny, Stella was shy, and Chloe was a little rude. They all had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. They had a friend fairy named Sparkly, but they had to keep her a secret from everyone else.

One day when they were nine, they were playing in their backyard, and they heard a scream. Sophia touched something, but she didn’t know what. It felt like a little person! Sparkly covered herself in fairy dust, so they were able to see her. They were amazed! Chloe thought she was fake for a whole day. Eventually, she agreed that Sparkly was a real fairy. Since that day, Sparkly always stayed with them. They had just turned twelve, but their parents still didn’t know about Sparkly. Sparkly had blue hair and a blue dress, but she wasn’t sparkly. She also liked to eat candy. Her favorite was chocolate.

It was summer, and Sophia, Chloe, and Stella went outside to play in the backyard of their townhouse. They brought Sparkly with them, too. They took a bunch of chocolate pieces to give Sparkly. Sophia had an idea.

“We should try to make ourselves fairies,” she said.

“Yeah!” said Chloe and Stella.

“You guys could be fairies,” said Sparkly, “but you will have to pass a test.”

“How long will it take us?” asked Stella.

“The whole journey will take you guys about two weeks.”

“Okay,” said Chloe, “let’s just tell our parents that we’re going to go camping in the woods for two weeks.” Chloe always had good ideas.

So, they went inside and told their parents that they wanted to go camping for two weeks, far away from home and asked if they could.

“Yes,” said their parents, “but look out for each other.”

Their parents weren’t that strict with them.

“So, where are you guys going to go?” their mom and dad asked.

“We won’t go far. We’re just going to go to Central Park.”

“Okay. Be safe.”

“We might be home earlier!” said Sophia, trying to make them a little calmer.

They packed one big blanket, extra clothes, and some gifts just in case. Sparkly had told them that they might need gifts. The gifts they brought were a very, very big trampoline, floaties, and a tiny, tiny blow up pool.

So, Sparkly, Sophia, Stella, and Chloe went to Central Park. Sparkly took them to a magic tree. On the way, they saw a lot of big rocks and a lot of grass. The magic tree looked like a regular tree, but it had a hole in it.

“We’re going to have to go through that hole,” said Sparkly.

Chloe ran up to the tree and tried to fit in the hole, but she couldn’t fit.

“Ahh, I’m stuck!” yelled Chloe.

Sophia and Stella tried to pull her out, and Chloe went flying! She landed on poor Stella, who cried, “Oh man.”

“You can’t fit in the hole. I’m going to shrink you!” Sparkly laughed a little.

She used her fairy magic, sprinkling invisible shrinking fairy dust on them. She made Chloe, Sophia, and Stella as small as she was, or as big as a marker. They were so tiny! A wind blew, and they went crazy! They landed five inches back. None of them were happy, because they wanted to get back to their normal size. Stella was worried and scared, but Chloe felt brave, and Sophia felt confused. Before the next wind blew, Sparkly grabbed Chloe, Sophia, and Stella and pushed them in the hole. Sparkly went too.

Suddenly, they were falling. It felt like they were going to die! It was pitch black. They were going as fast as the Cyclone on Coney Island, and they felt as dizzy as spinning around one hundred times. Thump! They all landed on their feet, except Sophia, who landed on her butt.

“Ow! I hit my butt!” said Sophia.

“Too bad,” responded Chloe.

“Wow! Look around!” exclaimed Stella.

They did. It was like a beautiful dream. There were green vines hanging down, blue and pink leafy trees, tiny peacocks walking and parrots flying, and the floor was carpeted in blue grass. In the distance, they saw a big river. They heard a waterfall falling and the peacocks playing.

“Wow! Look around!” said a high-pitched voice. It was the parrot, standing on the tippy top of a pink tree.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” yelled Chloe.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” repeated the parrot.

“This is a fairy forest under the grass, where fairies live,” explained Sparkly.

“It’s amazing!”

Chloe turned around and saw an old woman. She had very curly leaf green hair and very light blue eyes. There were wrinkles on her face, she was holding a gray three-legged cane, was wearing a black raggy dress, and was barefoot. Chloe was about to go up to her and ask, “Can you point us to a fairy palace,” but Sparkly reached out and pulled Chloe back.

“No, don’t ask her! She’s the witch!” she whispered. That made Chloe feel a little scared.

The witch hobbled up to them and said, “You guys want to go to the fairy palace, don’t you?”

“Yes!” said Stella.

“Do you have any gifts for me?” the witch asked.

“Yes, we have a pool for you.” Sophia said confidently. Stella and Chloe were relieved, because they really liked the trampoline.

“Perfect,” said the witch. “Hand it over.”

Chloe took the tiny pool out of her pocket and handed it to her. The witch jumped up and down out of excitement. The triplets wanted to start laughing, but they held it in because they didn’t want to get her mad. Sparkly would’ve known the way to the palace, but once you leave the fairy castle and go out of the tree, you forget how to get back. The witch pointed the way. They turned left. Everything still looked like the forest, except suddenly they saw a huge castle. It was sparkly pink.

“This is where the fairy queen and king live,” explained Sparkly.

The triplets went inside. They couldn’t even see the walls because there were so many pictures of the past kings and queens! Pictures covered every inch. Kings were on the left side, and queens were on the right. They saw a label, throne room. In the back of the room, there were three thrones. They were all gold. The king and queen were sitting on their thrones, but one was empty. The king and queen didn’t look happy. They didn’t look sad. They just looked normal. They both had brown hair and were tall. Well, tall for a fairy, which meant tiny for a person. They were both the size of three markers. The king and queen saw Sparkly, and their smiles almost covered their eyes.

“My daughter is finally home!” the king cried.

Sophia, Chloe, and Stella were like, whaaaat. Sparkly could see the shock on their faces.

“Yup, it’s true. I’m the princess!” she said. “Dad, these are my three friends who have been taking care of me. Can you make them fairies?”

“Anything you want. But they have to take the test before they become fairies.”

“Yay!” said Sophia. “Wait… a test?”

The test was only one question.

“The big question is,” the king said, “what do you have to do to be a fairy?”

The triplets were confused because they didn’t understand the question. They thought the questions would be fact-based, like, “Where does fairy dust come from?”

“You have thirty minutes to answer the question,” said the king.

Sparkly started playing with her mom and dad while they had to search for their answers.

Stella asked, “Maybe we could all search together?”

“There’s no way I’m searching with you guys!” Chloe yelled.

“I’ll search with you, Stella,” said Sophia.

So, the search began! Sophia, Chloe, and Stella all left the palace. Sophia and Stella decided they were going to ask some people what they did to become fairies. They went to see what fairies did. They ran around until they came to a field. On the grassy field, they saw a lot of fairies playing. They noticed that whenever one got hurt, they all helped each other.

In the meantime, Chloe was just looking around nature. She first looked in the pink and blue leaves. She cut some of the pink leaves, so she could give them to the king. They were so pretty, and she thought that they would appreciate her giving them something. She also looked in the waterfall, but she just got wet. And then, the king rang a bell that meant 30 minutes was up.

The three girls all arrived at the castle at the same time. Chloe ran through the front door holding the leaves. Sparkly had spent the time knitting with her mom and playing a huge game of Candyland, or, Sparklyland, with her dad. Sophia and Stella saw that Chloe had brought the really pretty leaves and were a little worried that they didn’t have anything new to give the king. They all stood in front of the king, and Chloe put the leaves down in front of the thrones.

“I brought these leaves to show what it means to be a fairy.”

Sparkly stepped off her throne and walked over to look at them. Suddenly, she slipped on one of the pink leaves! She went flying! Sophia and Stella instantly ran and helped Sparkly up.

“Are you okay?” they asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you for helping me.”

“We’ll always help you!”

“She’ll be fine,” said Chloe rudely.

Ignoring Chloe, the king turned Sparkly and asked, “What are their names? The two that helped you.”

“Their names are Stella and Sophia.”

“Stella and Sophia can become fairies!” declared the king.

“What!” yelled Chloe. “But I brought leaves!”

“You brought leaves from the trees,” the queen piped up. “Stella and Sophia went and watched the fairies and learned what they did. They showed that they could help other fairies.”

The king took bright pink fairy dust to pour on Sophia and Stella. “They get magic dust, and I don’t?” yelled Chloe.

The king just poured it all over Sophia and Stella.

Suddenly, there was a cloud of glittery fairy dust. When the cloud cleared, Sophia and Stella were flying high with big smiles on their faces. They had beautiful wings! Stella had neon purple wings, and Sophia had dark red wings. They were dancing in the air they were so happy. Chloe just stared into space. Sophia and Stella looked at Chloe, then at each other.

Stella took a deep breath and looked at the king and queen. “Chloe is a little rude sometimes, but at heart she is really nice. She’s a good sister.”

“So please make her a fairy!” added Sophia.

“Okay,” said the king. “I believe that you will teach her to help people, so I will make her a fairy too.”

He poured the fairy dust again, and there was another cloud of glitter. Chloe popped up in the air next to Stella and had turquoise wings.

“Thank you so much!” said Chloe. “I promise I’ll try to be nice. I want to be a good fairy!”

The girls all hugged each other for ten seconds. They flew around the room and did somersaults in the air. After five minutes, they went back to the ground.

“I miss our parents,” said Stella.

“I miss not being the size of a pencil,” said Sophia.

“Do you want to go home?” asked Chloe.

“Yes!” exclaimed Sparkly. They all giggled.

Then, the triplets thanked the king.

“Now that you are fairies, you can come back whenever. Now that you know what it means to be a fairy, I know you will help people who don’t know. I hope I see you soon. Bye to my favorite daughter. Have fun outside the tree.”

They grabbed Sparkly and flew out of the castle, out of the forest, out of the tree, and all the way home. When they finally landed at their front door, they grew to normal size, and their wings became invisible. They felt exhausted, so they went to their room. Sparkly sat on the dresser and watched over them. Now, she would always watch over them. They soon fell asleep, with fairy dust in their eyes.

 

The Space Travelers

This is Gordon, and he is an alien. He lives in an ice cream shaped planet. The name of his planet is Lexicon. One day, he and his friend decided to go to a planet named Pizton. Gordon told his friend, Brain, to fire up the engines and off they went. When they were in the middle of getting to the planet, they found out that their spaceship was running out of gas, so they refilled it. But they didn’t refill it enough so, when they nearly got to the planet, they figured out that they were out of gas.

“Can you fix the engine?” Gordon said to Brain.

“No. We ran out of gas,” Brain said.

“Get the parachutes!” Gordon told Brain.

Gordon and Brain jumped out of the spaceship. They watched their spaceship crash land onto Pizton’s side. They ran over to the spaceship, and Gordon asked Brain, “Can you fix it?”

Brain said, “Yes I can, but I need lots of materials.” So, Brain and Gordon went to the nearest town to ask people for help.

The people said, “You should go ask the king.”

When they reached the palace, they went into the throne room.

The king said, “Yes, we will help you, but we have a lot of giant mutated rats in the caves next to the town, and they are scaring away the town folks.” The king asked, “Can you help us?”

Brain said, “Yes.”

Gordon was just standing there frozen in fear because he was scared of rats. The king got some cold water and put it on Gordon’s face.

“Snap out of it,” he said.

Gordon said, “Sorry, let’s go, Brain,” in a shaking voice.

Gordon and Brain made their way to the cave. When they went in, they heard some squeaking noise. Then, they saw the rats. Gordon got freaked out, so he grabbed a blaster from his pocket.

“Stop! They’re nice rats,” Brain said.

“Yeah, nice rats that eat people!” Gordon screamed. The rats made some very scary noises, and Gordon screamed, “I wanna go home!” and ran out of there.

The rats crept up to Brain, and Brain was frozen with fear, but then he remembered what he learned about rats, and he crept up into his pocket and grabbed some cheese. He threw it into the part of the cave where there was only one way to get out. The rats ran towards the cheese and at that second, Gordon ran into the cave and started shooting blasts all over the cave and a bunch of rocks closed the entrances, so the rats couldn’t get out.

“Why did you trap them in there? They’re not bad,” Brain said.

The rats screamed and tried to hit the rocks down.

Gordon was like, “They’ll never get out of there.”

The rats broke out of the rocks and ran towards Brain, and Brain was about to get attacked by the rats. Brain covered his face with his arms. Gordon threw a bunch of cheese into a part of the cave and the rats stopped running towards Gordon and started running towards the cheese. At that second, the cave started breaking apart.

Gordon said to Brain, “Come on, dude! We gotta get out of here!” Brain and Gordon ran out of the cave.

They got to the palace and told the king that they stopped the rats. The king told the people to give Gordon and Brain the materials. Brain fixed the spaceship, and Gordon and Brain got into the spaceship and waved to the king and people.

“What a day we had, eh Brain?” said Gordon.

“Yes, we did,” said Brain in a tired voice. Brain and Gordon made their way onto Lexicon.

 

THE END

 

The Secret Beneath Hakhito Island (Excerpt)

 

Chapter One: News to Die For

“Jake! Wait up!” yelled Jake’s best friend, a spunky, red-headed girl named Peri.

Jake turned around to see Peri’s big smile pressed right into his face. He didn’t know what she was about to tell him, but from that smile, he knew one thing: whatever she had to say included him, because whenever Peri got that twinkle in her eye, she was ready for adventure. It said she was ready for mischief. But worst of all, it meant that probably both she and Jake would be in a huge amount of trouble.

“And just what might be so important that you must sneak up behind me like a tiger and surprise me so greatly?” asked Jake, smiling goofily. He always loved to tease Peri with a professional attitude just to annoy her.

Peri pulled out a Choco-Nut from her pocket and popped it in her mouth. “Oh, you’re such a party pooper, Jake. Anyway, I have good news.” She offered another Choco-Nut to Jake, who took it gladly. They both loved the candy.

Through layers of melted chocolate, hazelnuts, and caramel, Jake managed to say, “Well, what is this ever so important news?”

“If you’d stop teasing me, maybe I’d tell you.” Peri stuck out her lip and turned her back on Jake. She was teasing him back. Jake and Peri would go through this cycle each day, and they both ended up laughing at the end after one person made the other happy.

Jake knew he wasn’t exactly ready for whatever the news was. On the other hand, Jake was a person who liked to know things. He wanted to know every secret at J. Bemink High School. He wanted to know every secret in England. He wanted to know every secret on Earth. He read the paper. He watched and listened to the news. He did everything he could do to find out every little tidbit of every single person in every single community of the world. He wanted to be a reporter for The London Times and learn about big important pieces of information. But for now, he would have to share only small information for working for the school newspaper. Still, Peri had good news, and any news is information.

“Okay, seriously, what is it?” asked Jake, trying not to tease.

By now, they were almost to school. They knew every little thing on the way to school. The crack in the sidewalk where Peri’s older brother had crashed his motorcycle. They drainpipe where people would splash in the puddles when it rained. And most importantly, the sandbox. A sandbox to anyone else would be just a place for little tots to make unrecognizable shapes of wet sand. For Jake and Peri though, this place was a memory.

When Jake and Peri were only two, Peri moved from Scotland to England. One day, Jake was a playing in the sandbox, making a mound of sand. Peri stomped over in her Wellington boots and kicked over the pile of sand Jake had been working on so lovingly. Jake started crying, but before his mother could even come to scoop him up, Peri was plopping down beside him and rebuilding his precious sculpture. Ever since, Peri and Jake were inseparable, and the sandbox was something of a heavenly monument.

“Jake!” Peri interrupted Jakes reminiscence. “You know, sometimes I don’t get you. You ask me to tell you something and then yo — ” Peri’s eyes widened as she glanced at the front yard of J. Bemink High School. It looked like she had just seen a ghost.

“Peri, what’s wrong? What’s the big d — ” Jake’s words pittered off as he turned to the front lawn. His eyes too, were as big as dinner plates.

On the front lawn, there were three main things. One, the principal was talking to three policeman, sweat beads running down his forehead. Two, there was a crowd of students huddling around an unseen object, some of them crying, some of them frozen in fear. Three, the unseen object was the dead body of Mona Barry, a freshman at the school. On her forehead, there was a note. Watch your back, the note said. Watch your back, or you’ll be next.

 

Chapter Two: A Note, A Call, And a Mission

Jake checked his watch. It was only 9:00 A.M., and he and Peri were walking home from school. They had sent everybody home that day because of the murder. Poor Peri, who usually was so cheerful about everything she did, was still in tears.

“Oh Jake! It was just so awful. Imagine that being me! It could happen to anybody! I mean, the note said anyone could be killed! And the killer’s still out there and it’s not safe and — ” She broke into tears again.

Jake put his arm around her. “It’s going to be okay. The killer isn’t going to choose just anyone. There must have been some reason. You don’t need to be afraid.”

Peri sniffled and finally went quiet. Too quiet. Jake hated seeing Peri upset. It was a heartbreaking sight. He decided that to make Peri feel better, he had to listen to her and keep her going so that she could be distracted from the horrid events that had occurred earlier that morning.

“So… erm, what was the good news you wanted to tell me?” Jake asked carefully, making sure not to startle her too much.

Peri perked up slightly. She looked up at him with damp eyes. “My uncle invited me and one friend to come to his house on Hakhito Island. It’s just south of Plymouth. I was hoping you would come with me.”

Jake agreed to go as long as his mother said yes, and they went to Peri’s house for the day. They walked to the store to get slushee drinks. They went to their special tree, and they watched their favorite show. They were having so much fun together. Peri was forgetting all about the disastrous morning. Jake, however, wasn’t sure about what he had said earlier that day.

Peri’s right, Jake thought. It could be just about anyone. Mona Barry didn’t do anything wrong. At least Jake didn’t think she did. It’s unfair, he thought, that one day, you’re just a good hardworking girl just at the most amazing part of your life, and it all ends to soon.

“Jake? Helloooo! Earth to the Jake-man!” Peri waved a hand in front of his face.

“Oh… sorry, erm… say again?”

“Honestly, Jake, are you alright? You looked like you were feeling ill. Anyways, my mother asked if you would like to stay for dinner.” Peri seemed concerned, and it looked she was about to cry again. It was quiet. Too quiet for Peri’s house in any case.

“Well, let me ask my mother.” Jake wasn’t sure about staying at Peri’s for dinner. He just wanted to go home and mull over this whole day. He felt uncertain, like someone was watching him.

He phoned his mother, who surprisingly wanted him to go back home. She was at work, but had heard of the murder over the radio. “I’m sorry, love, I’m just worried about you. You know I’ll always worry.” Her mother’s voice crackled on Peri’s old house phone.

“It’s alright, Mum. I’ll come home and heat up the casserole. Also, Mum — ”

Jake’s sentence was interrupted by a cough. Not a cough from his mother, but a man’s cough, a deep, low cough.

“Mum, did someone at your work just cough?”

“No, love, why?”

Jake’s eyes popped. Mum, I’m sorry, but I have to go. I’ll see you tonight.” He hung up so abruptly that the phone almost crashed to the floor. Someone had been listening to their conversation over the phone. Jake could only think that this was linked to the murder. This never happened to him or anyone else he had ever known. He said a quick goodbye to Peri, said thank you to Ms.Lee, and rushed out the door.

Jake was halfway down block when he felt cold, like eyes were covering him.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!” Jake shouted out suddenly. He raced home after he didn’t find an answer.

When he got home, there was a note on the door of his flat. Jake didn’t want to even look at the note.

Come on, Jake. Jake mustered up as much courage as possible. It’s just a note. It’ll be fine… Everything’s going to be fine.

Jake fumbled around for his old rusty key, looking around for anyone who might be scoping him out for their next murder. He opened the door, slid inside halfway, ripped the note from the door, and shut the door with such a bang it rattled the flat.

Jake heated up the chicken-eggplant casserole, settled on the couch, unfolded the pink paper containing the note, and started to read.

Watch out, Jake. We know where you are. We know who you are. The note was in cut and paste, the sign of a master criminal. Go to Hakhito Island. Go beneath the island. Retrieve the recording and leave it at the large pine tree at the center of the island. Do this if you want you and everything you know to be safe. You have one week.

 

Chapter Three: The Choice

The rest of the night went like it usually did, except for the brief moments when Jake would glance off toward the piece of pink paper laying on his desk. Jake watched his favorite television show, a show about a boy and a girl who communicated with animals, called Animal Maniacs. He brushed his teeth, got in bed, and shut his eyes. But in a minute, they were open again.

Jake was so overwhelmed and tired from the day, it seemed like he was too tired to fall asleep. He tried to concentrate on his breathing. He ended up staring at the ceiling. He tried listening to music. He just finished with his head down on his desk. He couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened. And he couldn’t stop thinking about the note on the door.

How did they know I was probably going to Hakhito Island? What is this a recording of? Is there something else going on on the island? Should I even be going to Hakhito?

His phone buzzed. It was Peri.

Hey, u still awake? Peri texted. Will ur mom let u go to Hakhito with me?

This was it. Where Jake had to make his decision. Of course his mom would let him go. She was always trying to get him to go on trips that she knows he will look back on. Jake just was worried that he wouldn’t look back on the trip happily if he went. On the other hand, he would have to get this recording, or else Peri, his mother, himself, and many other people would be harmed. This organization had tracked him down. He didn’t doubt the fact that they could harm him and all his loved ones.

“I can’t do this by myself. I just can’t. I’m going to need to tell Peri,” said Jake, all alone in his room. His mother didn’t get home until late that night. She worked late at the hospital doing paperwork and didn’t get home until 11:50. Jake asked her if he could go to Hakhito Island for a week.

“Well, I suppose it would be alright. Will you be going on Monday for spring break?”

It’s Friday now, thought Jake. Tomorrow’s my first day of the time limit. “I guess I could leave on Saturday or Sunday, Mum.”

“Alright, love. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Mum.” Jake slid into his room. He finally was able to sleep, but all night, he could only dream of eyes coming from the shadows, slinking towards him, devouring him, whispering a dark poem. He was finally able to pick up what they were chanting.

 

We’ll rise from underneath,

We have knives beneath our sheaths

We know what we’ll do,

When we rise from the beneath

 

Jake bolted upright in his bed. He checked the clock. It was only three in the morning. He knew he was dreaming, that he would go to Hakhito and everything would be fine. Except it wasn’t. Jake didn’t even know who these people were, or why they wanted this recording, or even what was beneath the island.

Jake suddenly had a new thought. What was on that recording? Was it evidence to get this killer (or killers) in jail? Was it a missile launch key recording to help these killers dominate the world? If it was, Jake could imagine it was. He could get in serious trouble.

Then Jake realized he had made a choice to go. But now, he had another choice. Whose life do you value more? Yours, or the others?

 

Chapter Four: A Departure

“Bye, Mum.” Jake waved goodbye to his mother as he and Peri got on the speedboat towards Hakhito Island. It had been what should be a boring drive with a time of 4 hours 30 minutes, for going to Plymouth from London is a not an easy trek. But two things were keeping Jake from going insane while looking at nothing but what seemed like boring scenery to Jake. The first thing keeping him joyful was Peri, for she was very talkative and would play the part of the entertainer in the friendship, with all her tidbits of funny thoughts. The second thing keeping Jake thoughtful, but not joyful in the least, was the pink letter.

Jake had thought all about that letter, what it meant, what the orders given by it meant, what he should do, what he shouldn’t do, and so much more. He had closed his eyes and wished every time that he could have both ways. A way where the tape wouldn’t possibly get him in trouble when he took it. A way where he and everyone else would be safe. A way where this wasn’t his problem.

They clambered into the speedboat. Jake was uneasy about the whole situation. One, he did not like boats. Two, he wondered, Are they going to the island too, to make sure I get the job done? Have they always been watching me? For how long?

All of Jake’s thoughts made his head swirl, and it didn’t help that Peri was still talking about something, probably rabbits (she had one of her own), the speedboat’s engine was revving up, and there was no driver.

“Who the heck is going to drive this thing?!” asked Jake over the crisp, loud wind.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you?” shouted Peri, for the wind was getting louder. “I’m going to drive the speedboat! I’ve been doing it for two years now!”

“WHAT?!” Jake almost stumbled back on to the dock. It wasn’t that Jake didn’t trust Peri, it was just that Peri seemed just a little too excited.

“Oh come on, Jake. Don’t be a chicken.”

Jake acted like he was shocked and gaped with his mouth unhinged. “Me? Chicken? Oh, how dare you.”

Jake. Let’s go! We’re going to be late.” Peri climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition. “Buckle up, Jake. We’re going to go hyper-speed!”

Jake buckled up in his seat, wishing there was a seatbelt for every part of his body. He was a chicken. He admitted it. He always had been. Peri was more of a… well, Jake would call here an unpredictable firecracker. You would have never guessed the two were best friends, except for being so opposite that they fit each other perfectly, both filling out the attributes the other didn’t have.

All of a sudden, Jake was drawn from his thought by a jolt, and the boat started across the ocean. It was so extraordinary, the salty ocean spray, the forever blue water, the fog. Fog. Why was there fog? It made no sense. Jake hadn’t seen any fog at the docks.

“Uh… Peri?”

“Mm-hm?”

“Are you sure you can drive through that fog?” Jake felt his uneasiness coming back, for it all seemed very strange and lost to him. He had not been out on the ocean much in his life. Before all of this, he was a normal fifteen-year-old boy. He hung out with his friends. He went to school and did well. He had a nice flat and a nice small family with his mother. It all seemed so… ordinary. Then all of a sudden, his normal lifestyle had been torn to pieces by the murder and the note. He couldn’t do anything but make one choice. To have him get caught and possibly sent to juvenile detention and then to jail, or to have him and his loved ones’ lives in danger. He couldn’t do anything else. He couldn’t call the police. The note-writers would surely kill him. He couldn’t tell anyone else. Well, maybe Peri. He was on his own.

Alone. Jake felt isolated when he realized. He didn’t like knowing that he couldn’t get help, that he would have to do this with his own abilities.

All of a sudden, Jake snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that they had been driving for quite some while. It had been 1 hour 15 minutes, and the boat ride was supposed to take two hours. There was no island in sight.

“Peri… erm, are you sure you know the way?”

“Yes, Jake. It’s just very foggy today.” Peri’s voice was reassuring, but her face was scrunched up, staring straight ahead. Either Peri was concentrating, or she was concerned. Jake was pretty sure she was concentrated, but he thought that Peri might have had something else on her mind. Did she know something he didn’t?

Suddenly, Jake saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked to his right, and his eyes became wide with horror. “Peri,” said Jake, certainly frightened. “Who, or what is that?!”

 

The Pirates and the Ninja

 

Chapter One

A ninja is practicing with his sword on a cliff because he is preparing for his fight with the pirates. The ninja takes a step backwards and suddenly falls off the cliff! He tumbles backwards until he grabs a branch, but the branch breaks, so he falls and breaks his leg.

After he lands, the ninja hops to the hospital frowning because he broke his leg. At the hospital, the doctors are surprised to see him. They love ninjas because they fight. They help him and give him a metal leg.

At nine o’clock, it is time for the fight. The ninja goes to an island and swims to the pirate boat. When the ninja is going to flip the captain off of the boat, the other pirates flip the ninja off, but he holds onto the boat.

“Good job,” the pirates say, because they think that they won. But the ninja comes back and flips everyone off the boat. The ninja sails away to Florida, and the pirates swim back to land.

 

Chapter Two

“Hi!” everyone in Florida says to the ninja. He waves back to them.

The pirates are watching TV and see that the ninja is in Florida. The pirates come back and take the ninja to their secret hideout and lock him in a cave that has a bear in it that is hungry. The ninja sees a rock on the ground and moves it, so he can get out of the cave. The ninja locks the bear in the cave.

 

Chapter Three

The ninja goes to find the pirates. They start fighting, and a lot people come to watch. Someone brings a truck with a stadium in it for the pirates and ninjas to fight in. They fight more, and people go get seats. And the ninja wins by cutting off the pirate’s legs with his sword.

At the end of the fight, the ninja feels proud and takes off his mask and reveals that he is a baby.

“You’re a baby?!”

Everyone gasps.

 

Chapter Four

The baby ninja goes back to where he lives on the boat. He sails back to his home in New York, and he goes upstate to where his house is. He retires and stays home.

 

The End

 

I Don’t Know What to Write

 

I don’t know what to write,

I’m going to have a big fight,

All the pages are white,

I have to think of something to write.

This is all the trouble with writing,

This is why I keep fighting.

I don’t know what to write,

Now the pages aren’t all white,

But I still don’t know what to write.

 

Why Is Everything in NYC So Expensive?

Do you ever wonder why everything in NYC (specifically Manhattan) is so expensive? Food, stuffed animals, rents for houses and apartments are just so overpriced. Well, in my opinion, everything in NYC is so expensive because of rent, there isn’t much space, and it’s so convenient.

One reason why NYC is so expensive is because the rent here is so high. For an example, the average rent of an apartment in Manhattan is $3,667. In New Jersey, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is $1,366. Big difference, people! The rent is so expensive because there are so many people, and there is limited space. The landlords make the prices go higher, so they can earn more money. Since there are so many people that want it, they rent the apartment. This is what I think. Since so many people want to live in NYC, landlords take advantage of this and raise the rent. People want to make money.

Another reason why everything in NYC is so expensive is because there isn’t that much space. For example, Manhattan is only 22.6 square miles, and New Jersey is 8,722 ml. There’s another huge difference here. Remember, Manhattan has only limited space. So, it’s harder to find space for new buildings. The construction price would be high because of limited space. So owners who spent money on the building want to get the money back since the construction price would be high.

The last reason why everything in NYC is so expensive is because it’s really convenient to live in NYC (specifically Manhattan). For example, you can just walk to go from place to place. Also, you’re usually near bus and train stops. So if you work somewhere outside of your borough, take the train or bus to work. Since it’s so convenient to get from place to place, this is making it more expensive because (I know I already said this example but) since building/house owners want to make a lot of money and people want to live in convenient places, those owners take advantage of these people and raise the rent to make money.

In conclusion, in my opinion, everything in New York City is expensive because the rent is really high, there isn’t a lot of space, and it’s really convenient. I think we can make Manhattan buildings’ rents lower because some people aren’t that rich, but they want convenience. This topic is important to the community because now people will know that Manhattan is so expensive and why it’s so expensive. Duh.

 

Works Cited

https://www.businessinsider.com/manhattan-rent-by-neighborhood-ranked-from-lowest-to-highest-2018-5

https://smartasset.com/mortgage/the-cost-of-living-in-new-jersey

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Manhattan,+New+York,+NY/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c2588f046ee661:0xa0b3281fcecc08c?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig0fOjh4bdAhVOMd8KHf2PDtsQ8gEwH3oECAYQCw

https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+Jersey/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c0fb959e00409f:0x2cd27b07f83f6d8d?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqn6Gxh4bdAhXhSt8KHeprCYgQ8gEwFnoECAYQCw

 

It’s Raining Frogs

One day, I was outside watering the plants. Then, I saw a frog hopping along the flowers. Then, it got really close. I was scared, but then out of nowhere, my dog Lucy came and bit the frog.

“Lucy, stop!” Then, she dropped the frog. “Come, Lucy. Hey, Mom. Let’s wash Lucy. She bit a frog.”

“Okay, Tim. Is the frog okay?”

“Yep it’s gone, so I’m guessing yes.” But then, I saw two frogs… wait three frogs… then so many frogs I couldn’t count. Then, it started raining. I couldn’t see it very well, but I saw people outside with frogs running after them. Good thing I came back inside before it started raining frogs like crazy.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Yes.”

“There are more frogs.”

“Huh?”

“How many.”

“A lot more than I can count.”

“Dun dun dun,” my mom said.

“Not joking!” I said.

“Sure.”

Then, the door swung open. It was Dad.

“It’s raining frogs like crazy.”

“Thank you! Mom didn’t believe me.”

“Well, she never believes this stuff.”

“Let’s watch the news.”

“Okay,” said someone on Channel 4. Blah blah blah Goldendoodle blah blah blah Tim.

Then, Dad shut off the TV. “You have to do this. We’ll be rich.”

“I will do it, but I need Lucy.”

“Fine.”

“Okay, let’s wait till after it rains.” After that, we all went to sleep, and my parents were watching their show that they never tell me what it is. The next morning, it stopped raining frogs, so I put Lucy’s harness on and her leash. We went to solve the problem. It took days to find the cause. After five storms of frogs, we got to a freaky cave with a light in a far distance. When I was walking towards the light, I tripped over something.

Then I said, “Hey, what was that for, Lucy.”

She said, “Bark,” but for some reason I understood what she said. She said, “That wasn’t me.”

“Then what was it.” Then, I looked at what I tripped on. It was a chicken. The chicken had an angry look in its eyes. Then, its eyes were gone but not to be found. So we went on. When we got to the crystal, I heard a funny voice that said, “You want crystal? You go through me.”

I looked around, and I saw this joker dude.

“Hahahahahaha.” Then, he threw a smoke bomb at the floor, but before he could go anywhere, Lucy bit him and then barked. I came to the bark and gave Lucy a treat. Then, the joker dude turned into a sledgehammer. I picked up the sledgehammer and smashed the crystal but took a shard. We went back home, and then I went upstairs and made it rain bills with the crystal.

 

Falling

 

I hear

The birds chirping

Below me

I hear

The laughter

Of children

On the school yard

The wind

Whispering past me

The sun beating

On my back

Sitting on

A pile of white fluff

In the lovely

Blue sky

Zooming above

The big city

I look down

At the school whizzing by

I spot her

Her blue shorts

White top

I look closer

I feel like I had been punched

In the guts

Then I fall

Down

My happy thoughts

Washed away

As I see the sky above

As the laughter and shouts

Of joyful children

Get louder

As I see her cold

Piercing

Blue eyes

Turn towards me

Down I go

And I can’t do anything to stop

Myself

 

Mason And The Battle Of The Gorgons (Excerpt)

 

Prologue:

As the rain started to fall harder and harder, my parents called me to dinner. As I climbed down the stairs, I heard a big crack, then a crash. Lightning must have struck a tree. I had always liked those trees. Big shady willows and towering oaks. BAM! Another one gone. I had been so intent on listening to the thunder booming and trees falling that I hadn’t realised I had reached the bottom of the stairs. “Mason!” Mother shouted. “I’m not going to tell you again!”

“Coming Mother!” I called in response and I sped into the dining room. Inside the dining room, there was a pot roast, some brussel sprouts and a salad with lettuce and tomato. For some reason, I had always hated meat so crossing out the pot roast, it was a pretty good dinner. As I sat down, I heard another crack.

“All this lightning will make us have to replant all the trees,” Mother was complaining to Father. Then she looked at me in disgust. “Why are you here?” she asked me.

“You told me to come downstairs for dinner, Mother,” I told her in the same tone.

“How dare you speak to me like that! No dinner for you!” she declared. I sulked back up the stairs in anger. My vision was turning red with hatred and wet from tears. As I looked out the window, I recoiled in shock. Lightning looked like it was aiming for the trees, as most of the trees in our yard were on the ground. And the rest, well they were taking a beating. Lightning was making the leaves sizzle. Suddenly, I heard a big bang.

“What was that?” Mother screeched

“I don’t know!” Father cried. “That was from the attic!”

We have a attic? I thought. My parents never told me we had a attic. They must have tried to keep it a secret. Well, they only kept it for 13 years, I thought bitterly. I thought what might they want to keep from me. I was thinking about this when I heard a series of thumps, and a crash. After I heard the crash, I went downstairs again. As I went around the bend into the kitchen, I saw two green things holding knives at my parent’s throats. Swords were strapped to their sides and quivers of arrows at  their shoulders.

“Run, Mason,” Father yelled

“Never!” I hollered.  “I’m not going to leave you to die!” One of the things threw their knife at me. I dodged and the knife ended up embeded up to the hilt in the wall. The other creature made up for it by stabbing my parents in their hearts.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed. I ran up the stairs in shock and fear, tears in my eyes. As I climbed the stairs to my room, I could hear laughter.  Those things had killed my parents and LAUGHED! I wanted to kill them, whatever they were, even if my mother treated me this way. Then, I heard a muffled voice speaking in a different language and more thumps. Those things were going to kill me. I assessed my options and thought of a plan. The only plan I had was bad. Really, really bad. Jump out the window. And as I jumped, the door burst open beholding not two but three beasts. Then, I looked down. I’m toast. I thought as lightning struck and my lifeless body hit the ground with a thud.

 

My name is Mason Jones and this is the story of how my life went downhill after I got killed. It may sound like maybe I was rushed to the hospital and miraculously saved. Nope. I died. Trust me, this may sound fun to read about but it’s no picnic. As I said,

trust me. I know.

 

Diaries of the Superdog Lover

 

2/4/19

Dear Old Diary,

Hi, I am Madison, A.K.A, the super dog lover. I really want a dog but, my mean old nanny claims she is allergic to fur even though she has a fluffy cat, which doesn’t make sense. My mom is on vacation, so I have to stay with my mean old nanny for a WHOLE ENTIRE month. NO! My old nanny just told me to clean my room. It’s ALWAYS so messy because of my annoying little brother. He throws Legos all over the place. He has blond hair like me, brown eyes like my mom does, and speaks English like Daddy. UH! I have to go to a fancy dinner in a white dress I have to wear that’s so itchy. I wish I could just watch TV instead. I have to stop writing now.

 

2/5/19

Dear Old Diary,

Where was I? Oh right! My nanny called me, “Go get ready!” So, I had to jump out of bed and zap into my clothes.

I had to go to the restaurant because my old nanny told me that if I didn’t go, then I couldn’t go shopping with Claire. When we got to the restaurant, my old nanny told me something CRAZY. It’s her birthday in TWO days! Isn’t that crazy? By the way, she’s turning… Wait for it… Wait for it… Wait for it… UH… My BFF just rang my doorbell gotta go! See ya soon!

Bye!

 

2/6/19

Dear Old Diary,

Tomorrow is old nanny’s birthday when she gets a year older! My friend Claire just came over. She has blond hair and green eyes. We’re going shopping together at the Golden Ring Shopping Center. But first I have to pick out a present for old nanna (old nanny). Maybe a frying pan would be nice!

Later that day…

So, I just got old nanna a Yankee candle, and I got her a coffee mug with her name on it since she drinks so much coffee everyday, and I had to use almost $30. And I got a leather purse, some lip gloss, an iPhone X, and a pair of puppy earrings.

And only spent…

$1,145

By the way, I got the money from my bank account which my Daddy had made for me.

Flashback…

It’s a sad story how my dad had died.

First, my brother was born, then two years after my dad had gone to work. When he came back, he got knocked off his shoes and fainted. We waited about two hours. He never woke up. My mom and I (my brother was too young for this) brought my dad to the hospital. Then, my mom broke into tears. The answer was obvious that my dad never woke up again, which meant he was dead…

I didn’t talk for about 14 days. My friends were concerned about me, but tears just rolled down my cheeks. I ran.

 

2/7/19

Dear Old Diary,

Today is my old nanny’s birthday. Finally I’m going to tell you how old my nanny is. Wait for it… Wait for it… Wait for it…

176 years old!

By the way, my nanny is going back to her house tomorrow because my really nice mom is coming back! My nanny is packing right now, and I did something really EVIL. I put on her ruby red lipstick. That’s the lipstick she loves. She usually doesn’t let me. Anyhow, I don’t think my wish is going to come true. I don’t think I will ever get a dog. My nanny is the only one who knows I like dogs. My mom can’t get me a dog, but I don’t want to tell her because I want a surprise. My nanny said she is allergic.

 

2/8/19

Dear old diary,

O-M-G!

The craziest thing happened!

My mom got me…

A DOG!

It is SO cute! I’ll show you a picture. I named her Daisy. It turns out that my nanny was not mean after all! Mostly because my nanny was going to get me a dog, but she is allergic, so she couldn’t. So, she told my mom to get me one because she thought that I was having a hard time with her and because she doesn’t want to be a mean nanny.

She is SO CUTE and SO SMALL!

So there is my life. It was first horrible, but now it’s complete. My wish was given and now, when you put it together, I can wrap it up in a perfect bow and finish.

 

The End

 

Pioneer Sightings (Excerpt)

 

Part 2

 

   The days sweep quickly, like the winds tumbling over the calm sea, or the waves swiftly slamming against the rocky shores of the American Pacific Coast.

   The next years, that is where I would be going: the Good West, where the Pacific is, where I’d seek my fortune. This land, where I’d finally set all this behind me . . .

 

Journal entry from the leather-bound journal kept once by Brennan Hester Jr. Journal entry written July 17, 1825 not to be mistaken with Michael Hester’s older brother Brennan Hester III

 

 

 I came back to the apartment to learn the news about Angela was, in fact, true. The family was up there.

It was clear to me that not all of them were drastically affected by it, though most were. I could clearly see the great changes in people’s behaviors and moods — it was very somber and heavy in the room. When I was walking down the hall to Room 96, the room my family was crammed in, I could already hear the meltdowns — sobbing, groaning, and fits.

 When we got to the room, I knocked softly on the door. I heard the loud noise die down followed by footsteps that I recognized as soft boots due to the gentle padding coming towards us. The door cracked open, and I saw who I recognized after adjusting my anxiety. Katherine. She managed a half-smile, though it quickly faded when the groans briskly began again.

She looked back with a quick look and a worried expression. Then she, quicker than I could think, opened the door wide and said something that sounded like an invitation to come in, and she rushed over to tend to a toddler on the other side of the room. The news about Angela was clearly causing strong anxiety and pressure then.

  I walked into the room. The first thing I saw was Good Ol’ Pa, guffawing so hard it seemed like he couldn’t breathe, slapping my brother who had his brim hat on and a stiff expression of slight worry, sitting on a rocking chair that I recognized as the rocking chair Brennan said was around since the Civil War.  I walked in, not bothering to even think about calming Good Ol’ Pa down like I’d usually do.

  I could see the lot of family members. It was loads of relatives, around forty of them crowded in this two-room apartment. I used to live in that apartment for about a month, but I managed to find a good job and to be able to afford my own house.

  The first room consisted of a kitchen on the right, with a weak stove, pots and pans, cabinets and drawers, silverware and cooking tools, and other things needed to cook breakfast and dinner (unless it was winter, the Hesters would usually get lunch at a restaurant or one of the occasional markets).

 The room to the left consisted of an unpleasant amount of people sleeping that I could easily recall finding uncomfortable to fit them all in. It was overcrowded with weary beds covered in odor and sweat for the old people who were unable to walk, but were respected by the rest of the family who imagined the pain the elders were feeling was due to the many things they saw.

  Of course, I did respect the elders and I imagine it wasn’t just me who had some jealousy for the old Hester men and women sleeping in actual beds. The children sometimes got to sleep in a real bed with the elders, though they’d usually be with their parents on a molding mattress that they’d managed to buy, or on the floor with some kind of blanket laid out on the ground or on the cold wooden floor, with only their clothes supporting their warmth, or only their pants in the summer if they felt the sun battering on their skin.

The second room was smaller, like a combination of an attic and basement. A lot of things (even treasures, such as a thousand-year-old diary from this Israelite Catholic whip, which as you may guess, in the family’s desperate state, an anonymous number of the Hesters wanted to sell it at any place that was likely to accept, such as the small museum in town, or maybe the saloonkeeper in town. We knew he was always interested in such artifacts, or so the rumors said.

As I was saying, the room also consisted of some stored things (whether it was dump-material or not) that the family members kept somewhere, though it was an unorganized cluster of things, so there was no organization and no division between the rubbish and the things managed presently.

A few who were uncomfortable enough around the snoring and all slept in some ancient blanket or lay down in a comfy chair still used. A distant brother that I’ve, not counting the times I saw him in the apartment (which was not as often as the others), only seen once, when I was a child and he was taking a bit of a vacation after his stressful veteranship in the Civil War. It was clear that he wasn’t much liked, for that whilst most of our family fought alongside our nation, he ran away for somewhat mysterious reasons and got deployed to the army, ranked Corporal.

  I can hardly remember his name, though when I occasionally think for one moment about him, I can remember the slight resentment that the rest of our family had toward him, though he doesn’t mind it (more specifically he seemed to have enjoyed it). Well anyway, he simply slept on an exceptionally molded mattress, with a desk on the right, in which he wrote non-fiction books (none have been published so far, but a small pamphlet for the Thom County, which hardly anyone paid notice to).

Well, I’ll get back to what was going on. J quickly rushed in a random direction in which I didn’t see. I quickly went up to my brother, and by that I mean I stood for about a minute in shock and confusion. It simply did not make sense, then Good Old Pa wandered away and stared at the kitchen.

I took the steps, and my brother, still with the same old expression, noticed me and said in a normal voice (or at least an attempt), “Angela.”

He suddenly violently choked. He lost eye contact with me, drumming the fingers on his right hand on the armrest. I stood there, a bit worried for a moment, but then he stopped, closed his eyes tight, and breathed regularly, and said with a calm voice, “Go ask — go ask someone else. Kathy’s over there.” Then he stopped talking and seemed like he was trying (I said trying) to look like an old man, then fell asleep on the rocking chair.

Kathy was still tending to the apparent toddler (my nephew Jack, who was the son of my brother). This time, I didn’t even bother to wait. I needed these answers that I could’ve had, but wasted the small precious moments.

“KATHY!” I shouted over all the fuss in the room.

She nearly fell onto Jack, but she managed to get a hold of the ground. She glared at me, then said in a loud and irritated tone, “What, Michelle?!”

I glared at her. I hated that name since when she first said that name back when I attended preschool in London. I liked it for the remainder, for that I thought she made it up, but then people started teasing me with that name, and I learned it was actually a girl’s name.

 It didn’t bother me that she would do that sometimes. It’s simply that I hated being treated like a child when nearly thirty. I calmed myself down. I looked at her calmly (though she wasn’t calm) and put my hands in front of me, my palms aiming at Jack, who was at Katherine’s feet.

“Katherine,” I said, and she seemed to be listening. For some reason, I forgot that though she enjoys Brennan calling her that, she hates me calling her that. I guess I must’ve been in a hurry. After staring at her for a moment, I opened my mouth and said, “Mrs. Hester,” — looked at my shoes for a moment and went back to eye contact — “Angela… Hester.”

“Oh,” she looked around the room, as if she was scared there were spies hiding in the walls. And so she began…

“I’m surprised, Michael, by how curious you are. Normally, people like you would’ve just went with it. Even some children.

“Well anyhow, it was simply our normal routine, up until the Argument. We couldn’t hear much. All we could hear from this room — they were arguing in the other room, by the way — were shouts. We all agreed… ” — she panted, then stopped.  “Okay, okay, sorry, let me start over. Angela and Brennan were having an argument. All of us were disturbed that night for we couldn’t get any sleep, even the three Noctur — ” She looked around, making sure the Nocturnals didn’t hear this insult. They had the hearing of a bat and they were only so far away. I was the one who made it up when a young adult, and I told Brennan and Katherine about it. Brennan thought it was rude and scolded me, but Katherine loved it. “The three Washington triplets is what I meant, were both annoyed and, like us, worried. What was it about? We wondered.”

“Well, so it was. Angela was the first to come out. We saw her crying, tears slicing down her cheeks and there was a deadened look in her once bright eyes. We wanted to comfort her, but before we could study the situation and stand up, she walked out the room. I’m not done yet.

“Then came Brennan, whom after she left the room for a while, rushed out of the apartment with her, carrying a pack with him, shouting, ‘WAIT! I’M SORRY!’

“Then, to take a look, one of the Washingtons, Stoney Washington, rushed out of the door.

“What happened next? Well, according to what we asked from Stoney. You know how all the Noc — ” She paused, her lips frozen in midair. “Well you know how ‘they’ are most of the time quiet. It seemed like Stoney preferred that, but he said nervously, looking the whole time at Brennan in the corner, that the argument was some ‘ridiculous thing that they disagreed about.’” They forgave each other soon enough. They took a walk, including Stoney.

“Well, Brennan by himself rushed to Stoney with a worried manner. He said ‘I don’t know what happened! It was simply — I — I left her on the stone, having her wait because I needed to get something back at the apartment!’

“And so it was. Angela disappeared just like that. Like smoke.”

This story, though not so detailed and which felt too quick for reality, changed my life.

This panicked the entire town, afraid there might be wild animals or even tramps. After about a month, the case was given up. I had given up along with the police.

Well, since then, my family got richer. At least rich enough to afford their own apartments. Now, only about three immediate families lived in Room 96. I stopped visiting the apartments and focused on my own life.

I heard about the places I’d been missing in the west. I heard that there was a rush for gold in the place they called California, and how the rush was only about thirty years ago. There were many living there.

I discussed these thoughts with J, who in the nine years that passed, was now a grown man. He told me of, after his studies on the Hesters, that not one person set foot on the land. Well, as I said, in between those nine years, we pretty much forgot about Angela. I was one of the few that still felt like it was only a few weeks ago that I’d been delivered the news by J: “Angela has disappeared.”

To these very days, those words echo in my head. I, a long time ago, realized I needed to look to the present and future rather than the once-present.

And so, me and J (I now called him by his actual name, Josef Hester) began to tell others this idea. Most of the Hesters thought it was a good idea to fully restore our family, though we needed to prepare.

We began the journey as we began our preparation.

So now, I must get on to my journey to California. A long trail, being on a slow wagon. It is miles and miles of hardship, but the flesh of the hardship is the most horrific event. It is something that gives me the chills every time I think of the West. Now, I’ll get on with the story.

I was in the same pub I was in nine years ago. I wasn’t sipping ale. I found myself telling a drunk couple made up of a woman Josef recently married named Mary and Josef himself about the trip. Josef already knew, but he’d usually forget things commonly when drunk.

Nowadays, the inn was quiet. Not many people came to the inn. There were rumors the Baby Heifer Inn pub was going out of business and it was becoming a simple motel. I wasn’t so sure about the rumors, but I liked going to the inn anyway, though it wasn’t as big of a symbol as it used to be about two years ago, when, as I’ve already said, the Hesters were able to get their own apartments or even a house like I.

Well anyway, we were the only ones in the pub except for the short, fat bartender and two men, calmly talking to each other.

As I said, I was talking jollilly about our plan.

“… And me and Josef believe that we should depart this town in a few months and catch the next train. By train, I mean the group of wagons travelling together, not those newfangled machines. Well, we’re going to make our family rich! Ain’t we, Josef?” I looked toward Josef, who was staring at me in a pose and had a smile that made it seem like he was flirting with me, though I could tell, due to the fact that his eyes were twitching and looking around, that he wasn’t. When I finished, his eyes shot to me.

“Oh!” he got out of that pose and he almost fell over as he rolled back. Then he grunted and sat up and pointed an index finger at the ceiling. “Indeed!”

Mary laughed so hard at Josef. I laughed a little as well. I didn’t bang my fist on the table though, unlike Mary. It caused Josef’s ale to fly up and spill all over him. The laughing stopped. I saw everybody in the tavern turned to us, looking at the mess. Josef was covered with fizzing, brownish liquid.

For a moment there was silence, then embarrassment, for that the bartender, his head poking over the table and the two men, were laughing hard at us, their heads turned toward us.

I stood up, and in order to not draw attention to myself, I instinctively pretended to check my watch. I looked over at the two men, still wheezing and looking like any moment they could get a heart attack from what I felt was superfluous laughter. I raised my other hand in a silence gesture and then gestured Mary and Josef to follow.

They both stood up almost extraordinarily at the same time and, with a little bit of pushing each other, walked out and behind. I was trying my best to ignore the laughter, thinking of yelling and bruising up the three of those men. I might’ve if I drank when I was talking, but I wasn’t. I still wore that half-embarrassed, half-enraged expression, still having a small feeling to antagonize the men.

“Come out here,” I whispered loudly, pointing to the cracked door. I walked towards the door and they quickly followed. I opened the door and caught the winds scented like the spring pines that are scattered across the forest. I smiled and looked around the town and looked at the setting sun. They were standing there, looking around at the sky. I sighed at the town.

“Look,” I said solemnly, spreading my hands at all directions of the town. They looked around, focusing their eyes.

No one was on the streets, except for a woman silently holding an ass by the reigns. That was it. I could see the lights were still on in people’s homes, but all the other buildings besides the Inn didn’t have any candles lit or so on.

“What? The buildings?” asked Mary after many long moments of silence. I looked toward her, grinning and shaking my head.

“This town, of course!” I exclaimed. “If the family cooperates with me and Josef, we could leave this town of silence. We’d be on the other side of the country, under the sun, getting tubes of chits after chits!” I paused for a moment, my hands raised in the air, then I put them down and continued. “Think about it! We’d be doing what the Hesters been missing out on! We’d go to what they call the Golden State!”

My words echoed there for a moment through the whole town. Through the alleyways, in the pub, to the ass driver, to the children on the other side of town. Then Josef grinned, seeming to recall this was partially credited to him. He pointed his index finger to the sky and leaned over.

“INDEED!” he exclaimed.

Mary looked around, no longer drunk. She said in her stern Southern accented voice, “Well, I’d like to hear a bit more. You must’ve thought it through.

“My,” she looked off to the distance, and nodded. “Two years. You must’ve planned out every detail. Whether we should live in San Francisco, or off in the countryside. Whether we should buy a house or build our own. Never mind, I’ll leave you boys up to it.” She looked back at us. “So, what’s your plan?” I looked at Josef in the eye, his hair got a bit dustier and grayer and sharp blue eyes dulled over the years of growth.

We smiled and we turned to her, and we said in unison in a jolly way, “We did indeed.” I sighed, still smiling. Josef’s smile faded and he turned toward me.

“I’d like to be the one to talk even further into our plans,” he said, then right after turning toward Mary. I nodded at him. He couldn’t see it, but I could tell he somehow sensed my nod. He walked over to Mary, took her hand and walked her into the inn.

I didn’t mind it at all. Despite the fact of being so far the one who mostly wanted to go to California. Even Josef didn’t seem as animated as I was to go to the very town we were planning.

I heard as they (Josef and Mary) walked through the door, Josef started talking fast and saying, “So, there’s this outpost we’d rest at on the first day of travel called Ben’s Goods of the Wild and then we’d travel through some… ” He became too far away.

I relaxed as I sat down, exhaling. I looked at the town in front of me. It was the town of Clauyer, Tennessee. As I’ve said before, I’d be missing this town. I could see all the buildings in front of me. People’s houses. The small fire station. Fancy restaurants open, with couples pecking each other. Part of me thought for some reason, “I’m finally going to leave this town” and another “I’ll miss it though.”

I smiled, relaxing my somewhat tense stomach. I realized I’d actually said those words. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the woman with the ass’s face. She was somewhat the average height for a woman. She was draped in a black cloak and a hood, so I couldn’t see her face completely, but I could see her lower face and her hair, so I could tell she was a woman. But she was walking toward me, with her feet out in in front of her, step by step.

She was walking toward me. My eyes widened. I had this odd feeling in my gut. I assumed I might’ve attracted attention by saying it. She’s just going into the inn, I told myself, but I could see her approaching.

I fidgeted my hand, and looked away from her. She’s just going to the inn, the Baby Heifer Inn. I get that most go to the Gray Chameleon, but not everybody does. I whispered to myself these very words over and over again till I finally convinced myself it was true.

Then suddenly, she stopped. She stood right there. I waited for her to come closer, but she didn’t. I stood up, confused and very unnerved and walked inside the Heifer. In there, things were slightly more filled with pleasantness than I remember. A pleasantness that I personally had a hard time finding pleasant. The room was filled with twelve more people, though they, rather than ten years ago, acted like they were at some family restaurant rather than a pub. They were just sitting, occasionally getting up if they needed to leak or something, and chatting and sometimes laughing.

How I remember it ten years ago is it was a pub filled with laughter. Like the few people, I called the inn this pub once was the Retreat House. People laughed and cried. The Retreat House was a place of warmth, where only there came to be total chaos (such as a man getting drunk and insane enough to kill someone) would there people be uncomfortable in it. Memories started flowing through my brain, from deepest memories from my childhood, to the present. The present.

A warm hand fell across my shoulder. An actual hand. It was from the door, right behind me. I didn’t bother to take it off. It sent waves of comfort through me. I had a sudden memory of me visiting the apartment that almost my entire family was once crammed into. I smiled, and laughed in my head at that memory. Even the rest of the family enjoyed some of the funny memories, despite the discomfort in Room 96. I was talking to Katherine, Brennan, Angela, Good Ol Pa (back when he was more sane, though he muttered some random old folk nonsense under his breath occasionally), the three Nocturnals, and a few others.

I loved ‘em all. Angela! I thought that name.

I’ve never thought about her so clearly and so much in only a bit of a slight lesser of a decade. I could then recall her beautiful face, my mind racing. It wasn’t as if I loved her, but for a long time, I started to think about Angela as if I just visited the apartment, asking Kate about how she disappeared, finally adjusting to her disappearance.

I felt like the hand was that of my imagination for warmth as my mind raced. Then suddenly, my memories all of the sudden halted and I looked at the hand in alert. The engagement ring and the wedding ring, the tenderness of the hand itself, it was so familiar!

In alarm, I turned around, surprised the hand still was on my shoulder. I saw the person’s face. It was the ass woman. Her face was soft and beautiful, with rosy cheeks, and had something that made my jaw drop: brown, sparkling eyes. It was Angela! It was beyond any shock I could’ve ever imagine I’d experience in my life.

I started speaking gibberish, though she was standing as still as a statue, only breathing. I turned around, about to tell the news, but then I heard a cry in the place of Angela. It sounded like that of an old lady. I turned around, and sure enough, there was a woman that looked like she was in her mid-fifties in the place of Angela. She was looking around, perplexed. She had the same robes and the same rings on her finger.

She stared down at the ass next to her, looking with her eyes opened. I approached, saying things like “Who are you? Why — ”

She turned to me with a glare and bellowed, “I DON’T KNOW, YOU — YOU!” I nearly fell over, but then I saw her breathing, pausing from her bellowing. She looked at her shoes, looking terrified. Her hands were pale and she was trembling. She looked at the ass after a while and said “Shoo!” and finished with a gesture as if she were swatting a bug.

The ass nickered and trotted away. I noticed tears started sliding down her eyes. She ran out of the tavern, screaming. I was chilled. No, no, I was scared. Very scared. It was a simple vision. A vision. This thought wasn’t reassuring, but I walked over to the table, knees trembling.

I waited for one of them to notice me and give me permission to sit down, but they were lost in a chat, and it was something horribly unrelated to me and Josef’s plans. I looked at the mugs of ale that were on the table in front of them. It was clear they were drinking again.

“Hey?” I heard the bartender call, directing toward our table. It was either that Josef and Mary were ignoring this while continuing to talk about the subject of “Indian racism,” or they could hardly notice one bit of their surroundings except for the side of the table they were on and themselves. I looked over and saw the bartender was standing on a stool, looking at me.

“What’s the matter? Look’s like you saw a ghost!” he yelled over.

I thought about this. Just a vision. Again! Just a vision… I thought about the vision for at least ten minutes, and, through thoroughly thinking about it, I convinced myself this. The bartender seemed patient for my answer.

“Now that’s the hearty smile I want in the Baby Heifer Inn!” he called over, with me realizing I accidentally smiled. I started to chuckle and the bartender chuckled back.

“It was absolutely nothing!” I said, not in a lying tone, but it really sounded the way I thought of it. I approached the bartender and put my arm on the table, in the sort of position as a vaquero (cowboy) talking to an old friend.

“I’d like one pound of whiskey,” I said jollily. I don’t know why I did at that time. I rarely drink whiskey due to how my family has a history of getting addiction to whiskey. The bartender smiled. He crouched down where I couldn’t see him, despite how short he was. I heard him shuffle around in some cabinet or drawer, I heard him pour something into a cup or mug and then finally, he placed a large mug of whiskey on the counter in front of me.

For the rest of the night, me and the bartender chatted about politics and life. I forgot all about my vision that night, though I couldn’t prepare myself for what was to come.

 

A Wizard and His Book of Spells

 

Hi, I’m Jack, a wizard with a book of spells. It’s a gift from my father Ionn. I live in a house by myself. My father died. His body is buried in a coffin in my house. I wanted to revive him, bring him back to life. My father was killed by a dark wizard, his brother. I was only nine. I surely smelled just fine, but I was too young. I wanted to go on a journey to save my father. I researched just the right thing to revive my father, the great wizard. I found out that dark elixir would work.

 

Another year passed. I thought about my trek. I was ready to journey to the planet Knowhere to get the dark elixir. It was hidden in a cave guarded by a dragon that breathed blue fire. I needed to go there… today.

 

Boom! I teleported to Knowhere. It was a small town, with very few apartment buildings, but then up ahead I saw a large cave. I met a lot of rude men there. Most of them were old and wrinkly. Some of them were young and tall. They wore animal cloaks and leather boots. They called me names such as trespasser and mindless.

 

I made the trek to the cave. There in front of me were 100 guards all in armored chest plates. My mind raced. What do I do? My spell book, use it! I started saying a spell. Elimination? Flames? Rise? All the guards started to burn. Flames rose up from the ground, and the guards screamed. They flailed in terror and fell to the ground.

 

And…

 

They died.

 

I entered the cave to the dragon. It was beautiful. It was filled with crystals that glowed like the sun. I saw the elixir, but… there was a dragon. It towered over me like a mountain. It had horrible yellow eyes, scales as green as a lizard, and a tongue as red as blood. I staggered backward out of the cave. I realized this was good. I could sneak back into the dragon’s cave and trap the dragon outside of the cave. It went exactly as I planned. It worked! I snuck past him by going through his legs. Then, I said eruption? Rocks fell and completely covered the entrance. I saw the elixir, took out my flask, and took a big scoop of the dark elixir.

 

On the way out I remembered I had to break the wall of rocks. So I chanted a spell on page 28 that was… cosmic creation? The wall exploded.

 

I walked out of the cave, and I was surprised to see a fallen dragon under a huge pile of rocks. I said to myself, That must have happened in the explosion. Boom! I teleported back to my house. I ran to my father’s coffin, opened it up, and poured the elixir into his mouth.

 

My father climbed out of his coffin and coughed. I hugged my father. Ionn hugged me back.

 

“How did you revive me?” Ionn asked.

 

“I went to Knowhere and defeated a dragon. Then, I retrieved the dark elixir and returned to you. I poured the elixir into your mouth. Then you woke.”

 

“Wow!” Ionn said.

 

“It’s so great to have you back,” I said in a weak voice.

 

“Oh, I must drink a strength potion. I’m very weak.” Ionn staggered to the potion stand where the potion was. Ionn drank the potion.

 

After that they lived happily, but then Ionn wanted to get revenge on his… brother!!!

 

Outer Space

 

Hi, I am the universe. I am made up of many beautiful things. Stars are one of those things.

My stars glisten in the moonlight, giving my planets light at night. My biggest star is the Sun.

My Sun is made up of hot gas. It shines so brightly you would get blinded at your first sight of it.

Some of my stars make shapes and items, and others make shapes of gods. I have more than billions of stars in my universe. My stars are a very beautiful part of me.

 

Now I will tell you about my planets. Mercury is the closest to my famous star, the Sun.

Mercury is gray with white spots. Since Mercury is the closest to the Sun, it is in the warmest area of all of the planets that orbit the sun. Mercury is often hit by asteroids and is made up of hard solid rock.

 

Venus is made of gas and rock and is extremely hot. Venus is the second closest planet to the sun. Venus looks like an erupting volcano with lava all over it. Venus is very beautiful. On Venus you will see fire and gas, and it is hard to breathe there.

 

Earth is a very beautiful planet. Earth is, for all that humans know, the only life-giving planet in the world. Earth is the third closest planet to the sun. It is 75% water and 25% land. Earth has a lot of nature, such as trees flowers and grass. There are so many different species. There are mammals, humans and lots of different types of living creatures on earth. Earth is brown, green, and blue and has lots of little colors on the planet.

 

The next planet I will tell you about is Mars. So far, humans do not know if there is even life on Mars, but they persist to investigate. Mars is the fourth closest planet to sun. Mars is made of rock, dust, and carbon dioxide. There used to be water on Mars, but now it is just the color of rust.

 

The next planet I will tell you about is Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth closest planet to the sun. Jupiter is the largest planet out of all the planets that orbit the sun. Jupiter is gray and brown with stripes.

Jupiter is a gas giant, and there is a storm that has been there nonstop for 350 years. Jupiter is made of all gas.

 

Here is another planet that I will tell you about. This planet is Saturn. Saturn is also a gas giant like Jupiter, so Saturn is made of gas too. Saturn is the sixth closest planet to the sun. Saturn has thousands of ringlets and seven rings that are made of rock and ice.

 

This is another planet I want to tell you about. It is the seventh closest planet to the sun, and it is an ice giant. Uranus looks like a normal bright clear sky on a sunny day. Uranus is made up of ice and also gas. It has helium, hydrogen, and methane.

 

This is last planet in the solar system. This planet is Neptune. Neptune is very, very beautiful.

Neptune looks like a clear dark and light sky combined. Neptune is an ice giant. Neptune also has the strongest winds in the solar system. Neptune is also so cold the gases on the planet freeze and turn into crystals.

 

Now I will tell you about Pluto. Pluto used to be a planet, and that is why I am telling you about it. Since Pluto is so small, it is considered a dwarf planet now, not a planet. Pluto is made of rock and ice.


Now since I have told you about my solar system, I will tell you about my galaxies. My galaxies explode with color, giving a beautiful flare of light, color, and life. In every single one of my galaxies, there are different planets with different colors and sizes. But this is me, and I am the universe.

 

Sarina’s Story

Gary is taking a walk and looking at the waterfall. Jenny is doing that too. The waterfall is the biggest waterfall in the world, so they both came to see it. With his dog ears, he hears the waterfall, and Jenny with her cat ears hears the waterfall too.

They bump into each other, and they see something dark. They think it’s a cave.
“Hello. Do you want to go in the cave with me?” Gary says.

Jenny says, “Yes.”

They walk into the cave, and they see a shadow.
“Do you think that’s a monster?” Jenny says.

Gary says, “Yes.”

They turn on the flashlights.

Gary says, “Actually, it’s a dragon.”
Jenny says, “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

The dragon comes out roaring and chases them all the way into the lake.

“We’re both soaking wet,” Gary says.

Jenny says, “What should we do?”

He says, “Do you have any towels?”

She says, “No.”

But then, the dragon comes and scares them, so they come out and run away all the way back to the city. They know the dragon followed them back, so they ask the governor if they can use the biggest weapon that can freeze anything big or small, so they can freeze the dragon.

The governor says, “Sure.”

They freeze the dragon.

They say, “Let’s ice skate.”

They go ice skating on the dragon, and they make really good friends.

 

The Water Problem

There once was a dog, cat, and bunny. The dog’s name was Ruff. The cat’s name was Meow. The bunny’s name was Hop. They lived in a forest. They all lived together in a house in the middle of the forest. In the forest, they played dog games, bunny games, and cat games. Ruff liked playing fetch. Hop liked to do hop races to see who could hop the fastest. Meow liked to carve yarn. Meow, Hop, and Ruff liked to see who could make the best figure. They went to a tennis court nearby and played with others who lived in the forest. The only problem was that they couldn’t drink the water from the lake or river because there were coyotes on each side of the lake and river.

They had heard stories about the coyotes not letting animals drink from the lake and river. They said that they looked scary because their eyebrows were firm, and they looked strong. The animals never went into the water unless they lived in the water. The animals felt scared because of the coyotes not letting them get water, and they were scared because they were sick and didn’t want to get more sick.

Ruff, Hop, and Meow looked a little unusual compared to real cats, dogs, and bunnies. They looked ill. Their throats and heads were sore. They were skinny, had problems walking, and had wrinkly faces, and they felt sad because they couldn’t get water and mad that the coyotes wouldn’t give them water. Without water they got grumpy; they firmed their eyebrows and got mad at each other for no reason because their brains were a little mixed up.

“Why don’t you, Ruff, try to get water,” said Hop.

“Because there are goats there!” said Ruff, confused.

“No, goats are not scary,” Meow exclaimed.

“Then what are they?” said Ruff.

“They’re goats! They won’t do any harm to you,” Meow responded.

But the coyotes didn’t know about the bunny, dog, and cat. The one that lived by the lake was named Jack, and the one that lived near the river was named Max. Max and Jack were the only two coyotes in the forest because the coyotes didn’t live in that particular forest, only these two coyotes did. Neither of the coyotes knew about each other. So, Hop and Meow and Ruff looked for help.

All of a sudden, Ruff saw his smart friend Garry.

“Oh look, there’s Garry!” said Ruff.

Hop and Meow didn’t know Garry, so Hop asked, “Can he help us?”

“He can! He’s the smartest turtle in the river and forest. Garry, we need your help!”

“Coming, one second, Ruff,” he said. But actually, it took him twenty minutes to get to Hop, Meow, and Ruff.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“We haven’t got water today, and we really need water because we’re sick,” said Ruff.

“Well, Max sleeps near the river, so at night you can drink. Fill your buckets to get as much water as possible. It is easier to get water from the lake even though Jack is the stronger coyote. Since the lake is a lot bigger, it will take a longer time for Jack to reach you guys if he catches you. I know someone who knows Jack. He said that the same way that Max sleeps at night near the river, Jack sleeps at night near the lake.”

Hop asked, “But, what if we want water in the daytime.”

“If you want to get water from the river, you have to ride on Max’s back. When he gets close to the river, you can jump into the river and drink as much as you want, but you have to be fast. Also, you have to be careful when you are on his back because if you move any bit, he will know that something’s fishy. If you want to get water from the lake, you should ask my friend. He’s right near Jack,” replied Garry.

Meow said, “First let’s try Max and do what you said.”

“Let’s tiptoe over,” said Ruff.

They jumped on Max’s back. But Max knew something was fishy and turned around quickly. The animals were scared because they never tried it before. They were too scared to speak. They began to quiver. They thought Max was going to eat them for being on his back. But Max was nice! He smiled at them without showing his sharp teeth to let them know he wasn’t going to eat them.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“We’re Hop, Ruff, Meow, and Garry. We came to the river to get water.”

“I’m a nice coyote. You can have as much water as you want.”

“Wow, Max is nice now?” said Garry, shocked.

Max was a little sad at Garry’s comment and said, “I was never mean.”
“I thought you were mean because a lot of people say that you’re mean and don’t let animals drink water from the river. I look at a coyote and all I think of is that they’re mean. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for apologizing.”

Ruff, Meow, Hop, and Garry were so happy that they finally got water. They asked Max to take them to the lake. Max asked Garry to guard the river. Garry said, “Yes,” and Max went with Hop, Ruff, and Meow to go to the lake. When they got over there, Max was scared because he didn’t know Jack, and Jack looked a lot stronger than Max.

“Can Ruff, Meow, and Hop get a sip from the river,” Max asked.

“Sure, I’m not a mean coyote. Who do you think I am?” said Jack.

So, Ruff, Hop, and Meow drank the lake’s water, and they said, “We like the water from the lake and river.” They asked, “Can we have your water whenever we want?”

Jack and Max said, “Yes!”

So, they had a party to celebrate that Hop, Ruff, and Meow could finally drink water. They lived happily ever after with the coyotes Jack and Max.

 

Kiku and Sophia

Once there was a pig name Kiku. Kiku was a baby pig. Kiku was not just a normal pig. She was a talking pig! She lived in a dimension with unicorns and pigs. It was very magical. Kiku didn’t have any friends — she was sad. So, she decided to try and make some. She tried to talk to other pigs and a unicorn, but they wouldn’t talk to her.

She asked them, “Can we be friends?”

But they said, “No, you’re too small”

Then she tried to talk to a baby unicorn; the unicorn’s name was Sophia. They bumped into each other, and they asked what each other’s names were.

Kiku said, “I’m Kiku.”

And Sophia said, “I’m Sophia.”

A sheep came along, and the sheep kicked Kiku. Then, Sophia saved Kiku. She put a magic spell on the sheep. The spell turned the sheep into a mouse, and the mouse/sheep ran away. Sophia asked if Kiku was okay, and they learned more about each other. And Kiku finally had a friend!

Kiku was so happy that she had found a friend that she squealed so loud that the hole universe could hear her. They liked to go to the water park together and also go to different dimensions together. The dimensions were very different from their home world. One dimension is just like a unicorn’s horn, another is a cloud world, and there’s a world made of triangle mirrors all over.

Kiku was jealous of Sophia because she had magic, and she didn’t. Kiku told Sophia that she was jealous, and she wanted magic.

Sophia said, “I don’t want you to be jealous, and I can give you magic.”

Kiku said, “Can you please give me magic. Please please pleeeaase?”

And Sophia gave Kiku wings and a magic horn. Kiku was jumping up and down, flying around in circles, and saying, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!”

Then, the sheep/mouse came along and was crawling around and saying, “What happened?”

He still sounded like a sheep. Their jaws were dropped down, and they walked away from the mouse/sheep. The mouse climbed up Sophia’s back and tore off her horn.

Sophia was crying, and she said, “It’s never gonna grow back.”

Kiku said, “I can make your horn grow back! Remember you gave me the horn, and now you just have to tell me how to control it.”

Sophia told Kiku how to control it. Kiku tried it, and her horn brought her all the way up into outer space. Luckily, because of Kiku’s wings, she could fly back. It took an hour because she had magic wings.

Sophia said, “Thank God you’re not dead! I was so worried! When you left you went ‘poof!’”

“I’m gonna try again” said Kiku.

She tried the spell again, and instead of whacking her horn forward, she swirled it around. That made her hit the mouse/sheep in the head with her tail. Then, Kiku landed on the mouse/sheep, and the mouse/sheep was gone forever. Kiku felt sad. When Kiku was walking back to Sophia, she was crying.

Sophia asked, “Why are you crying?”

Kiku said “I killed the mouse/sheep”

Sophia said, “How?”

Kiku said, “When I swirled my horn around, it made me fly in to the air, and I fell on the sheep/mouse.”

Sophia said, “That’s so sad.”

“Let’s give a funeral,” said Sophia.

“Let’s go,” said Kiku.

When they got there, they made a coffin.

They put him in the coffin, and they closed it. Suddenly, Sophia and Kiku heard a “baa.” Kiku and Sophia thought that it was the sheep/mouse‘s family, but it was sheep/mouse. But Sophia and Kiku didn’t know, so they dug up hole and pushed the coffin in, and then Sophia and Kiku heard a squeak. They thought it was a field mouse, so they walked away. They went back to try to put back Sophia’s horn, and it finally worked! Sparkles were floating around when Kiku put back Sophia’s horn.

The mouse/sheep came out of its coffin and dug out to the surface, and it took a whole day because it was such a small mouse. He was very excited. He finally got out and started walking around. He was very dizzy and walking around in a circles. It seemed like it was a whole new world. Then, he came to Kiku and Sophia, and he remembered that he tore off Sophia’s horn, but when he saw Sophia, he screamed and ran away.

Sophia yelled, “HE’S ALIVE!”

And then Kiku came and said, “Where is he?”

“He ran away,” Sophia said.

“Why did he run away?” said Kiku.

“I don’t know,” said Sophia.

“Well, let’s go find him,” said Kiku.

And they went off to find him. They walked day and night looking for him. They walked through the forest and had really bad blisters. At night they would make magic tents and camp out to sleep for a few hours, and they made ginormous doughnuts to eat for dinner. And in the morning, they ate from their magic giant neverending cucumber that is constantly growing. They had magic maps to track the mouse/sheep.

It took a month to find him. And when they found him, they took him back to their dimension. They were so tired that after they dropped him off at his house they fell asleep on the clouds. They woke up three days later! They felt great even though they didn’t know they had been asleep for three days. They made the cloud float back down and stepped off. They walked around, and they noticed that mouse/sheep was now a normal sheep.

Sophia said, “The spell must have worn off.”

Kiku said, “Do you think we should turn him back into a mouse so that he can’t make any mischief?”

“I don’t think we should,” said Sophia, “but if he does, then we definitely will.”

One day later, Sophia and Kiku decided to go to the walrus dimension to see their friend Wally. When they got there, they saw Sheep, and he was trying to kill Wally. He was gnawing on Wally’s tail. Wally had almost eaten Sheep, but he decided not to eat Sheep because Wally had already put two little holes in his back, and he felt sorry for Sheep. Sophia and Kiku ran over there and turned Sheep back into a mouse, but by accident they turned him into a human child. Then, they turned him back into a sheep, and then they turned him into a mouse again. Sophia, Kiku, and Wally started playing. The mouse fell into the water and swam away because it was a magical mouse, so it could swim.

After they played with Wally, Sophia and Kiku went to a cat dimension to see Mittens. They played with a bunch of yarn, and then Sophia and Kiku went home, and they told the other sheep that their baby sheep was making too much mischief and that Sophia and Kiku would turn him back into a sheep if the other sheep got him to stop making all the mischief.

“Okay,” the head of the sheep said.

And when sheep/mouse got home, they turned him back into a sheep and brought him to the head of the sheep.

“Stop making mischief!” the head of the sheep said.

“Pundjala dala,” said sheep/mouse.

The head of the sheep said, “Dun dala dun dala dun dala.”

 

“This is boring. Let’s just walk away,” said Sophia, so Sophia and Kiku walked away.

While they were walking they heard a boom noise, so they looked back and saw that all the sheep except for sheep/mouse had tripped and fallen forward. It was like a domino effect.

After they fell, there was an earthquake, and Archery Otter come out of the crack.

The otter said, “I’m here to help. I speak Sheep.” Archery Otter said, “Do Do Da Wa Wa.”

And the sheep said that, “Wa wa dee wa wa,” and Otter told Sophia and Kiku that the only way sheep/mouse is going to stop being mischievous is if everyone starts wearing shoes.

So Sophia and Kiku go to one dimension every day and try to find shoes. None of the dimensions had shoes, but they hadn’t checked two, and Kiku said one of them must have shoes. So the next day, they went to another dimension, but that dimension didn’t have shoes. So now there was only one left.

They went to that dimension, and there were no shoes! But then they noticed that there was another dimension connected to that dimension, so they jumped into space, and they landed on the second dimension, but there were no shoes there either. So they dug underground, and they found a treasure chest. They tried to open the chest, but it didn’t work! They tried to find the key, and then they remembered they were magic, and they both made different keys so that if one doesn’t work, the other should. They tried, and Kiku‘s worked! The chest opened, and there were a bunch of shoes in it, and so they brought the chest back to their home dimension, but it took a year because this dimension was very far away.

They were very tired of walking day and night, so they camped out, and they slept very long, and the next day they woke up, and magic giant cucumber was blocking them! So, Sophia and Kiku had to push the cucumber out of their way, and they ate some of it too. They continued their trip back. Once, giant doughnuts fell from the sky while they were walking. They put their mouths wide open, as big as the doughnuts, and the doughnuts just fell into their mouths to eat. It finally stopped doughnut-raining, and Kiku and Sophia were able to walk again.

A dragon came along and asked them, “Do you know Archery Otter?”

“Yes,” Sophia and Kiku said.

The dragon said, “‘Cause I only give rides to Archery Otter’s friends.”

So, the dragon flew them home. He was flying them home until it started raining doughnuts again, and the dragon caught doughnuts on his scaly back so that Sophia and Kiku could eat them. It stopped raining, and they went back on their journey. They finally got home, and they told the sheep that they had found shoes.

 

THE END.

 

meditating devil

“Greet the devil, the devil eats you, don’t greet the devil, the devil still eats you.”

 

Hi, I’m Jerry Johnson, and I’m in jail right now. This story is about how I ended up in jail which I like to believe is all my cell mate’s fault. It all started one hot summer morning on the last day of school when…

“Wake up!” called a raspy voice that could only belong to my dear old mother. “Hurry up, or you’ll be late,” she called from the kitchen. You don’t want to be late on the last day of school.

“Okay, okay I’m coming,” I said, and just like that, I was on my way to the last day of Katen Middle School.

When I got to class, I noticed a note taped to my locker. It said… Greet the devil, the devil eats you, don’t greet the, the devil still eats you.

During the rest of my school day, I could only think of one thing. What would happen if someone met the devil in real life? I thought. Well, my wish came true because later that day…

 

I went for a stroll in the park when I noticed something rather peculiar…

There was a person, no an e.t., meditating on one of the rusty park benches three feet to my right. This could only mean one thing, I thought excitedly. THE DEVIL was meditating right next to me.

This is my chance, I thought, so I cleared my throat and bravely walked past while saying hi devil.

He opened his eyes in three seconds flat while roaring, “LEAVE, OR I WILL BE FORCED TO EAT YOU!!!”
“Ahh!” I screamed as I ran away.

I had been running for 10 minutes before realizing I had left my phone right near the devil. It has all my bank accounts. Without that, I can’t go to a private high school. I quickly sprinted back in the other direction till I arrived at the meditating devil then I quickly walked past the devil hoping to not disturb him. But I realized I wasn’t as stealthy as I had imagined when…

I stepped on a twig, waking the devil yet again! If I thought he was really mad the first time around, boy was I wrong. He was black as night with a yellow smile, fire red horns, and bloodshot eyes filled with pure hatred.

“This time I actually really WANT TO EAT YOU!!!”

He lifted me up in an effortless fashion and put his face so close to mine that I could smell his breath in my nostrils, making me gag in disgust. This time I knew I was meeting my end when he opened his mouth and…

 

“Stop right there, mister,” called a policeman a little ways from us. “We have two rules in central park,” he called. “Rule number one, no littering, and rule number two, absolutely no eating each other,” he screamed orderly. “Now I’m afraid I’ll have to take both of you to jail.”

“Me? Why me?” I asked puzzled.

“Because everyone knows that you never ever go near the devil when he’s meditating,” the policeman said as though it was obvious.

“But, but,” I said pleadingly.

“This is out of discussion,” he said cutting me off.

 

Later that horrid day…

 

“Are we there yet?” I asked the police who put us in handcuffs for the 20,000,000 time.

“For crying out loud, when we’re there, we’re there,” he cried impatiently.

I was about to ask again when… “STOP TALKING!” screamed the devil.

Sheesh, I thought to myself. Someone’s got anger issues. But I still stayed quiet for the rest of the walk.

I knew we were there without even asking when I noticed a gray, gloomy building with many stories but surprisingly no windows. It looked foreign and out of place in the colorful and luscious forest.

When we got inside, they gave me and the devil each a gray jumpsuit and assigned us to our cells. I felt so angry and screamed like a baby because they thought it was a good idea to put me and… the devil in the same cell. It just goes to show you that some people don’t have any common sense. Am I right? Or am I right?

When we got into the cell, I saw the devil pull out a phone that could only be mine. It was an iPhone 4 with a red case and a cracked screen. It had all of my bank accounts on it because I need it to pay for school. I was so mad when I saw him on it, especially when I saw him on Facebook.

I thought to myself, He’s going to ruin my social media status before I even have one.

Devil,” I said, “can you please give me my phone back?”

“Fine,” he said, exasperated, “but only if you don’t make any noise when you’re in this cell.”

“Not even a peep?” I asked.

“Not even a peep,” he replied.

“Fine,” I agreed, annoyed, so we both got what we wanted: me, my phone, and the devil, peace and quiet.

 

THE END!

(Have a nice day!)

 

The World of Evil

               

PART ONE

This is a world of evil called “The Underworld.” There are two friends, a black spider as big as a 9-year-old boy, and a creepy ghost. Black Spider and Creepy Ghost won Champion Games in sixth grade for being creepy and tied in the championship. Their parents became friends, and then they eventually became best friends.

They love playing pranks on animals in The Underworld. When someone opens the door, a bucket of smelly slime goes on their head. Black Spider trips people with his sticky webs, and Creepy Ghost takes over their bodies and they do whatever he wants, like stealing Nintendo video games from their shelf under the TV.

They get promoted by everybody for being creepy. All the people think they should be King. Except for the grumpy guards for the King.

King Rotten Fart Strawberry gets jealous of them getting all the promotions, so he separates them.

Black Spider goes to Underworld’s version of America, to Long Island City. He likes it there because he likes taking the ferry to Brooklyn Bridge Park to get cherry ice cream. There are no people in the Underworld. There are only animals.

He meets a white tiger named Whitey, and then Whitey starts saying something like, “According to my calculations, you are — ”

Spidey stops him and kicks him to Manhattan.

Creepy Ghost goes to Underworld’s version of Japan, to Tokyo. He likes it there because he eats sushi and ramen all day. When he would take over the body of the sushi stand person, he would steal all the sushi, like one with salmon on it. Then, he would go to the ramen shop and take over a rich guy’s body and use his wallet to buy amazing things, like a mansion with a big pool. And then he would make the mansion with the pool his.

But he misses Black Spider, so they just FaceTime each other. But they are still bored, so they text each other a plan.

Creepy Ghost takes over the big mansion and then makes the big mansion move and turns it into a rocket and goes to America. It lands right on the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider gets on, and they fly to the castle in the Underworld to plan an attack on King Rotten Fart Strawberry. But it’s like a two-day ride, so they wait in the pool and eat sushi and ramen.

All of a sudden, Whitey comes out from under one of the five king-sized beds. He was hiding in the mansion!

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he says. He thinks the mansion is cool, but now he is crying for Mommy and Daddy.

Spider hears the crying, and then Spider gets out of the pool and puts his clothes on. He thinks, That’s annoying!

He sees Whitey climbing out of the bed and says, “If you want Mom, then go away!” And he kicks him out the window, and Whitey lands in his mom’s new apple pie out of the window in Massachusetts.

“Oh, what a coincidence. You’re already ready for dinner. Do you like my applepie!” says Whitey’s mom.

Black Spider and Creepy Ghost land right next to the Underworld Castle.

So, Black Spider and Creepy Ghost go inside and go pow pow to the bodyguards and then the King. King Fart Strawberry comes in and says, “What the heck is going on?”

Then, Black Spider says, “What’s going on is that we’re going to kick your butt!” And then Black Spider does exactly what he says.

Then, they become king and change all the bad laws, like that you can’t participate in the scaring games until you’re seven years old or that you can’t get married until you’re 100 years old. Then, people are happy because they didn’t like those laws. Then, they have Underworld Christmas, but it’s really the same as earth’s.

 

PART TWO

On one nice, sunny day, all the flowers get squished with Strawberry jam from… King Fart Strawberry’s new robot suit.

Strawberry says, “I’m itching for revenge and that bad mosquito bite I got… Wow it’s really itchy.”

Later, at the castle, Black Spider is relaxing in a nice, hot spring and gets out and has some pancakes with syrup, whipped cream, and blueberries.

Suddenly, King Fart Strawberry breaks off the roof of the castle with his robot suit!

Spider says, “Oh, hi there! What’s your name again? Are you that old man in the village who screams for no reason?”

Strawberry says, “Wait you don’t you remember me? Uh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now I can brainwash you.”

Black Spider says, “See look, you’re still screaming.”

Strawberry says, “Be quiet, and let me brainwash you”

Black Spider says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you look evil, and it sounds bad, and I’m also going get rid of that big jam shooting robot.”

Then, Strawberry says, “Well, then get ready to get jam’d”

Pow splash pow pow pow pow pow pow bang bling bam bam.

Then, all the citizens come and watch the battle.

Creepy Ghost comes and figures out a new attack that they have been training, where he tries to control Black Spider, and they become a big, red ghost with spider arms, with a cherry ice cream making machine inside.

Strawberry says, “It doesn’t matter how big you are. My robot’s stronger.”

And then, the big, red ghost robot shoots a web covered in cherry ice cream with poison that turns the robot into a statue.

A little kid comes and says, “Is this that new TV show? I want that robot!”

The citizens cheer, “Yay!”

But then, they look inside the statue, and Strawberry is not in it. And then, they see Whitey running away, but with something on his head… He is carrying Strawberry!

Creepy Ghost and Black Spider chase after him, and they get Whitey and say, “Why are you trying to save Strawberry?”

Whitey’s eyes are all green. Then, they see a big cage with a bunch of needles sticking out of Whitey’s head. Creepy Ghost carried both of them and take them to the castle. The guards take Strawberry down to the dungeon.

Black Spider uses his eight arms to take the needles out of Whitey’s head with tweezers and put bandages on him.

When they take the thing off, Whitey’s eyes goes back to normal. He says, “What in the world is going on?”

“You tried to save Strawberry!”

“Strawberry’s my worst enemy. Why would I try to do such a thing?”

Five minutes later, Spidey says, “I guess he was brainwashed.” They look at him, and Whitey has a black belt on and starts destroying all the dummies. He was a servant for Strawberry the whole time, but now, he is doing karate moves.

And then, they say, “How did you do all those moves?”

“I took karate lessons to kick you to Iceland.”

Two minutes later, they decide to let Whitey be their sidekick.

“Whitey, you can be our sidekick.”

Then, Whitey says, “Okay, you can be my helpful sidekick.”

Black Spider and Creepy Ghost say, “Sigh.”

A guard comes running and says, “Boss, I have a very important message: Strawberry has broken out of jail and ran towards Sumo Mountain.”

“DUN DUN DUN!” Whitey says.

“What’s Sumo Mountain?” Black Spider asks.

“It’s the most dangerous mountain ever. They say that if you go hiking on that mountain, Sumo Pandas will come and beat you up and throw you to Mars.”

Then, Creepy Ghost asks, “But why would Strawberry go there?”

Black Spider says, “Well, one way to find out!”

One hour later…

Whitey says, “Now we know that they don’t really throw you to Mars. They just throw you back to the bottom of the mountain.

So then they get some iron weapons and force their way up. Finally, when they are at the top, they see the Sumo Pandas making a super duper big strawberry jam shooting robot!!! So, Creepy Ghost takes over the robot and destroys it.

Then, Strawberry comes and asks, “What am I gonna do now?”

Black Spider says, “Well right now you’re gonna let us turn you into strawberry jam.”

POW POW POW BAM.

 

Five hours later…

 

Everybody is eating strawberry jam sandwiches.

Black Spider says, “I kind of feel sorry for Strawberry… Not.

 

THE END!

 

Stay out of the Attic

“Mom, no!” Evan was begging his mom not to make him go into the attic. The attic was very creepy and dark.

Evan’s mom said, “Okay, okay, I’ll do the work! I was really expecting more from you. You’re 12 now! I really thought you wouldn’t make me do all the work. You are in time-out. I want you to go to your room and lay on your bed.”

“I don’t want time-out! So, I’ll go to the attic,” Evan said.

He jumped from where he was standing to the top of the stairs. When he got into the attic, he found an old chest. He wanted to see if his mother knew what it was, so he took it downstairs.

His mom said, “What did you bring down?”

“I brought down this chest!” said the Evan.

“I haven’t seen that chest since I was a kid!” said his mom. “But I don’t think you should kid around. I remember it being dangerous.”

Evan would find out the true terrors of the attic the next night.

He crept up to the attic the next night, and a ghostly light fell over him. Then, he saw a shadow reaching out for him. It grabbed his shirt, lifted him off the ground, opened its mouth, and shot fire at the wall of the attic. Some of the wall crumpled away. Evan was very scared. Before him stood a dragon. His body was red, and his wings were yellow and orange. He had razor sharp black claws on his hands and his feet, and he had the tail of a scorpion. The dragon opened his mouth and let a roar. He snapped his mouth closed quickly, trying to bite Evan. Then, Evan wiggled out of his grasp. He ran down the stairs. The dragon was too big to follow him, so he flew out of the window and started to set the neighborhood on fire.

Evan ran outside and saw the damage that the dragon had done. Evan fought the dragon. Evan had a dagger, and he threw the dagger at the dragon. The dragon dodged it, and he jumped up high and burned it with his fire breath. Then, he opened his eyes real wide and shot lasers at Evan. Evan dodged. It hit a tree, and the tree fell on to a house. The house split in two. Evan knew they would think he was responsible. He jumped at the dragon and grabbed at his claw, but the dragon shook him off. Evan went flying across someone’s lawn. He landed in a flower bed. His vision was gone, but he heard the dragon coming for him.

He got closer, and then Evan bit the dragon’s toe. “Aaaaaaaaaahh!” The dragon screamed at the top of his lungs. It hurt Evan’s ears, so he got knocked out again. The dragon saw him, so he lifted his taiil off the ground and shot water at Evan. It missed Evan and hit the flowers. The dragon was very angry. He threw his head in the air, and his spine spikes shot out. The dragon’s spine spikes stuck into a fence, and one spine hit a man.

The man screamed at the dragon and said, “I hate you, dragon!” Then the man ran away because he saw it was a dragon. Then, the dragon turned its gaze back to Evan and breathed fire out of its nose.

Evan was hurt, but he wasn’t dead. Suddenly, Evan had an idea. He had noticed that the dragon had a soft looking glowing spot on his head. Evan was not a good climber, but he had to try. He climbed on the dragon for a few feet. Then, the dragon noticed him and shook him off. He slammed into a tree and felt sick. He got knocked out badly, but this time he knew the dragon was on top of him. It was stomping on him. He was very hurt. Evan began to slip away, and while he did, the dragon tripped and fell. This gave Evan a chance to run to his home. The dragon got up and flew in front of Evan’s home, keeping him from getting in.

The dragon could speak. He said, “Let me be king of your town, and then I’ll let you live. If you don’t, I’ll burn down your town and keep it to myself. Then there will be nobody there to tell me no.”

Evan had another idea. He jumped super high and punched the dragon in the glowing soft spot. The dragon fell over and died.

He ran into the house and burned the chest. He knew if he ever found another chest like that it could be a dragon, so he never opened another chest again.

 

Orcas are Fat

             

Orcas are fat because they eat cats

Orcas are fat because they don’t eat rats

Orcas are fat because they eat at Macs

Orcas are fat because they eat people’s hats

When an orca sat on land, it squished a band

into a pancake and poured maple syrup on it

If an orca jumps,

run away immediately

It will create a tidal wave and suck you in and get fatter

Orcas are FAT

 

What to Do in a Crowded Elevator

 

  1. Try to get to the door and escape.
  2. Wish that you took the stairs.
  3. Look at all the buttons and wish you could press them all to make a light show.
  4. Listen to the quietness that makes everything uncomfortable.
  5. Flash a smile at everyone who looks at you.
  6. Count the floors until it’s your floor.
  7. Try not to get super squished.
  8. Listen to the dings as the door constantly opens.
  9. Think about the freedom once you’re out.
  10. Remember to have this list.
  11. Finally, after you get out say to yourself, “Always take the stairs.

 

Superheroes are Finally Becoming Good: The Diversity of Superheroes

Superheroes are getting so much more diverse. Before comics went through changes, most of the superheroes were all white males. Then, it changed to white females, and then all the slightest changes of diversity brought us to our current diverse comic world. When I finished reading “Spiderman,” I started reading “The Ultimate Spiderman.” This version of “Spiderman” was more entertaining than the original. And since the main character, Miles Morales, is young, it makes him funnier. In this comic book, Peter Parker, one of the default white male superheroes, dies. Before that, Miles Morales, a young black child, gets bitten by a spider. He then becomes the new Spiderman because he was bitten by a black widow just like Spiderman was. But he had more abilities, like the ability to become invisible and taze people.

This proves my point that superheroes are getting more diverse. Race, religion, relationships, and so much more are becoming diverse. These changes didn’t just happen in 2018, but they started back in the 1900’s when there was still racism. The slightest changes in diversity brought us to 2018 where the world is diverse. There was this scene before Peter died in the “Ultimate Spiderman,” when Miles just gets his powers. Two firefighters are having a conversation, when Miles is running and can’t stop, so he jumps over the long box like “Spiderman,” and the black firefighter was like, “I told you Spiderman was black.” After that he smiled. Miles Morales is a revolutionary figure in the world of comic books. He is changing the perspectives of superheroes in people’s minds. Perspectives are changing, making a black person one of the default superheroes. Miles Morales is changing the superhero genre and world of comic. Because of him, the genre is expanding, and new characters with different races and religions are joining Marvel and DC. The comic books genre is creating hope and role models for everyone that didn’t have them before.

One of the changes is that superheroes are getting more diverse in religion. Comic books are expanding, and one of the branches of expansion is religion. The typical superhero, the default, used to be a white man with either no religion or Christianity. Now there are many superheroes that have different religions. For example, Ms. Marvel is a Muslim superhero who is like a superwoman but in Marvel. This is big because this is a religious superhero. She is not another race but another religion, creating another branch of diversity. Another superhero that is challenging norms is the Thing (from the Fantastic Four). The Thing turns out to be Jewish. A Christian superhero is Captain Salvation. He may not be one of the big superheroes, but if you search him up on the internet, he’s there. These are revolutionary superheroes because they have religions, and these religions aren’t usually the default. This tells us that comic books are rapidly changing and featuring perspectives and voices they have not before.

Another aspect of comic books that is changing is race. After changes occurred, more diverse races were being represented. A well-known superhero that’s black is Cyborg. Cyborg is a teenager who was a great athlete but had an accident. His scientist dad repaired his body with technology, and after that he became a superhero. Cyborg became one of the most popular superheroes, and he was black. Not only was he African American, but he was also one of the main characters on the Teen Titans. This was a huge change because the default main characters would be white males. Not only are there new superheroes of different races that are male but new ones that are also female. Katana, is an Asian female superhero from Suicide Squad. After her husband dies, she becomes a martial arts expert and samurai and is on a quest to find her husband’s spirit. She is one of the most well-known Asian superheroes, and there are not many Asian superheroes at all. Not to mention, she is also female. The first black superhero was Black Panther, and one of its recent hits was the Black Panther movie in 2018. The movie was extremely popular. This tells us that not only white superheroes will get viewers, but a more diverse set of superheroes will also get just as much and more attention. In fact, people seemed to enjoy Black Panther more than Captain America. People are accepting this new change and not hating the changes.

The last aspect of the change occuring in comic books is gender. Before changes occurred, there weren’t many female superheroes and the ones that did exist didn’t get as much attention as the men. As society changed over the past 20 through 30 years, it evolved and changed and became more diverse, segregation was stopped and equality was made causing massive changes to happen in gender. There were a lot of changes in gender. This wasn’t only for the comic universe but for current events too. For example a well-known female superhero is Black Widow. Black Widow was an orphan saved by Soviet Union officers who then trained her to be a fighting expert. According to CNN Politics, a recent protest was for women’s rights. People from all over the world came to protest about women’s equality. Although DC isn’t as diverse as Marvel, they still have well-known superheroes such as Wonder Woman. However DC Comics isn’t as diverse as Marvel. DC has tried making characters more diverse and sometimes succeeded but other times it couldn’t hold its place in the market. On the other hand, Marvel is successfully making more diverse characters. However, DC has some well-known superheroes like Harley Quinn and Raven. Although there are white women, there aren’t as many different races of women.

Representations of diversity are important because they relate to equality. People look up to superheroes as role models. As superheroes get more diverse, people get a chance to look up to new superheroes of the same race, religion, or gender as them. Then, people become more comfortable looking up to someone more like the person they are. It also makes people feel stronger because superheroes are made to help people and give them hope. Although, this means that society at large won’t be as comfortable receiving hope from people of different races and ethnicities as them. People of different races and ethnicities were new to some in the USA so if you met them in the street, the fact that you were meeting a person totally different from you was unsettling. Even though superheroes of different ethnicities may be uncomfortable for some, the more diverse superheroes that are made, the more people will get comfortable.

Bibliography:

Abad-Santos, Alex. “Marvel Misspoke about Diversity in Comics. Now It Has a Chance to Do Better.” Vox, Vox, 4 Apr. 2017, www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/4/15169572/marvel-diversity-outrage-gabriel.

Allen, Thomas. “Comics Color Outside the Lines, Drawing a Diverse Cast of Heroes.” National Geographic, 18 May 2017, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/06/explore-minorities-in-comics/.

Brown, Jennings. “Superhero Diversity Hasn’t Advanced In A Single Bound.” Vocativ, Vocativ, 4 Oct. 2016, www.vocativ.com/news/206915/a-timeline-of-superhero-diversity/.

Brown, Jennings. “Superhero Diversity Hasn’t Advanced In A Single Bound.” Vocativ, Vocativ, 4 Oct. 2016, www.vocativ.com/news/206915/a-timeline-of-superhero-diversity/.

Doll, Jen. “On the Importance of Having Superheroes.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/importance-having-superheroes/328461/.

“How Superheroes Are Changing the Way We Think about Diversity – Bloomberg L.P Diversity & Inclusion.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 31 Jan. 2018, www.bloomberg.com/diversity-inclusion/blog/superheroes-changing-way-think-diversity/.

“Opinion | Diverse Superhero Stories Are Drowned out by the Status Quo.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/superhero-narratives-striving-diversity-are-drowned-out-status-quo-ncna833431

 

Stupendous Sprinkles

 

Prologue

“Hee hee hee!” a young man wearing an evil smile and a Stupendous Sprinkles tee shirt with the name tag Jerry laughed evilly.

He grabbed a dirty, gray bucket on the ground with a food dye-covered hand. With the other, he held his nose because it smelled like rotten salmon with vinegar poured onto it that was left out for a week. Jerry yanked it up and sauntered past a glowing, red clock displaying 3:45 a.m. Anyone watching the scene could tell that his coworkers obviously would not be there for a few hours.

He poured the glowing liquid onto the conveyor belt, covering sprinkles in green goo. Jerry slapped the bottom of the bucket to make more of the toxic-looking slime ooze out.

Jerry frantically looked back and forth for a good hiding place. He decided on a musty, old closet with a Staff Only sign on it. At least, it used to say that. Now it said “S af nlv,” the mark of the sixteen years that it had been untouched, until very recently.
Jerry let the light streak into the room for the first time in sixteen years. He didn’t open the door all the way, though, so the sides of the room were still covered in the blanket of darkness. Jerry tucked the bucket under the folds of a dusty apron that left gray trails on his fingers so that his coworkers couldn’t read the side that said “Radioactive!”

Jerry positioned the apron back to how it had been and closed the door quietly. He turned off the lights and the conveyor belt. But he paused before leaving the factory. First, Jerry laughed maniacally.

 

Chapter One

Don Utshop was the owner of a donut shop. One day, he thought to himself that he should put rainbow sprinkles on his donuts, not just frosting. He had been getting bad reviews for not having sprinkles. People loved sprinkles, so Don decided to go buy some.

Don thought to himself, I’m so lucky! I’m a donut shop owner, and I live right around the corner from a sprinkles shop! Stupendous Sprinkles, here I come!

He grabbed everything he could find to store the sprinkles in. He found a Don Utshop’s Donut Shop tote bag, a Golden State Warriors backpack, and a brown paper Whole Foods bag. He intended to stuff as many sprinkles as he possibly could. “Every single sprinkle matters, right?” he concluded.

As he gathered up all the bags inside the shop, he was brainstorming donut ideas. I’m going to have sprinkles! Think about all the possibilities! So many donut ideas! He smiled.

As he pulled open the brass doorknob, Don’s head was filled with bright colors and flavors. Could he make a donut that was no donut, just sprinkles stuck together? Maybe a plain glazed donut, but covered five inches high in the sprinkles? He almost ran into the street, because he was so excited.

 

Chapter Two

Don halted so abruptly on the curb that he almost skidded backwards. But he just pivoted on the heel of his left foot and kept going towards Stupendous Sprinkles, like it never happened.

Even if he got hit by a car, Don wouldn’t let business slow. He would bake donuts in the hospital and hire his son, Pean Utshop, to sell them. He would have to make sure that Pean wouldn’t put nuts on all the donuts, though, because some customers were allergic. Pean wouldn’t eat anything besides nuts.

The reason that he wouldn’t let business slow wasn’t because he was a loyal shop owner, though. The reason was because Don really loved donuts. If he closed his store, he wouldn’t get free (maybe not free) donuts.

As he approached the big, pink building, Don got a whiff of sugar. He breathed it in and held it for a moment, delighted with the sprinkly goodness. He had forgotten how delicious they were, for he had not had a single one in sixteen years. That was when he had stopped working at Stupendous Sprinkles. (Dramatic foreshadowing!) (Dun-dun-duuun!!!)

 

Frenemies

 

Ellie

 

I am an ordinary kid. At least in the inside. I like ice cream like all other kids. I like riding my bike with my other friends. That was when I at least had friends. But last week, everything changed. It started like any normal day when I woke up from the ring of my alarm clock. Then I sprinted down the stairs to a delicious breakfast. But that is where the normal ended. As I ran to catch the bus, I didn’t see the car coming. I didn’t see anything at all except the bus. And the driver of the car didn’t see anything, just the green light in front of him.

 

The next thing I know I feel numb with pain, everything hurts, and I try to sit up. The bus driver’s head is swimming before my eyes. Then I hear the siren of the ambulance. I feel two people lifting me onto a bed that seem much softer than the ground. I hear my mom whisper in my ear that everything will be alright. Then, I black out.

I wake up to the sound of beeping above me. I open my eyes and see my mom peering down at me. I sit up and realize that my body does not hurt as much anymore. In fact, it almost doesn’t. I look down and see that both my legs and my right knee are in a cast of thick, hard white plastic. Then everything comes back to me. The car, the bus, and how normal the day had felt before this big accident. My mom and dad come visit me every day, but my best friend doesn’t. I reassure myself that school is still in session and that is the reason, but deep down I know that really in the small corner of my mind that actually they don’t want to come and visit. But I decide not to care, but I really do. We used to do everything together, but now she does not even want to see me. In my mind, I wish that this was just a dream.

After a few days, I am finally allowed to go home. The sad news though is that my knee and right foot will have to be in a brace for at least a few years. After a few days, I finally get the hang of it, and I can be left alone again without needing someone’s help. I am proud to be able to be left alone again. I just feel empty inside. I decide to call my best friend Annabelle. On the second ring, she picks up.

 

Annabelle

 

Ellie and I have been friends since we were in diapers. Our moms met each other when they both were pregnant at the supermarket. After that, they became fast friends, and when Ellie and I were born, they brought us to the park together, to each other’s houses, and to the baby group they were both a part of. Ellie and I were each other’s company day after day. I am not saying that I didn’t like it. I loved it. Every year when our birthdays rolled around, we always made our wishes together on each birthday cake. Even though we never told each other what we wished for, we always knew that the other person was always wishing that they would stay friends for the year to come. We didn’t have to tell because we always knew that we were Annabelle and Ellie, Ellie and Annabelle. Like two peas in a pod. I remember that we always cried together if one of us was hurt, and we always laughed together if someone said something funny. Always together, Annabelle and Ellie, Ellie and Annabelle.

But that all changed a few days ago. I remember it clearly because I was there. But of course not really. I saw the car coming, and I heard the tires squeal on the pavement. Then, the bus driver hearded the rest of the kids, including me, on the bus and drove to the side. The rest I didn’t see. Nervously, I sat on cool leather bench of the bus chewing my fingernails. After a few minutes, the bus driver came into the bus. He searched all the faces until he saw me and pulled me to the side. He said that Ellie had been hit with a car and that her parents and the ambulance were taking her to the hospital. Then, he patted me on the head and said that everything was going to be fine. But then I knew it was the first time anyone had ever lied to me. He walked up to the driver’s seat and started to engine. The force pushed me into my own seat. And just like that it was over. It was the same normal day that it had been before the accident. But it was not. Everything had changed. Maybe if Ellie didn’t know it yet, I did. I had enough of it, and it had to change. I wanted other friends, not just Ellie. The accident showed me that if you only had one friend, that friend could just be taken away from you in a snap. Then you have no one. The accident was way too hard to still be friends with Ellie.

I knew that some girls just didn’t like Ellie, but those girls were also the popular ones. And after the big accident, Ellie would just get more clingy, and I had really had enough. For example, I had been at her house, and we had been playing Monopoly. I had said that I wanted to go downstairs because I thought I heard my mom call me for something. As soon as I stepped out of the room and was on the top step of the stairs, Ellie had followed me and was waiting for me to go down the stairs. She was always with me anywhere I went. But when I said this to her, she could not get over that. I tried telling her, but it never worked. I think that Ellie does not even realize that she just changes the topic. I think that it just hurts too much to think that I do not want her. But that is not true. I swear that I am not a mean person! I just wanted a change.

A few days after the accident, my phone rings. I answer and hear Ellie’s voice on the phone. We talk for a few minutes, then I hang up. It was then I knew it was the last time Ellie could call me her best friend. Friends? Sure, but best friends never again. Because if I wanted to make it to the popular girls circle at school, I wouldn’t need Ellie or anybody else. Just me without Ellie.

 

Ellie

 

“Hello? Who is this?” Annabelle asked.

“Hi, it’s me, Ellie.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I was going to tell that I am coming back to school tomorrow!”

“Um, okay.”

“I was also going to ask if you wanted to meet up after school maybe?”

“Uh, sorry but no can do. I am meeting some friends after school. For um, homework.”

“Okay. I guess, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

As Ellie hangs up, she replays the conversation in her head. Something was up with Annabelle, and she had no idea what. Maybe something had happened at school when she was not there? Ellie decided that she would give it one more try to find out what was wrong with Annabelle. She would have a sleepover the following night. This sleepover would determine if their friendship was doomed or if she could save it from like coal from a burning fire. In truth, Ellie was really excited for the sleepover.

 

After dinner and playing board games and watching movies and eating popcorn, they were in their pajamas, and they started gossiping. Ellie knew that for every sleepover it was vital to gossip with one another. Tonight the topic was: crushes. As at every sleepover, they talked about who the liked and who they think liked them.

Ellie started by shyly saying, “I think that Henry really likes me.”

“Yes, duh,” Annabelle replied, smiling like a cat.

They always loved getting together like this. If she was even my friend still though, Ellie thought remorsefully while snuggling deeper into her bed. Right before they are both about to doze off, Ellie asks Annabelle if she wants to come home with her after school tomorrow. Annabelle ignores her and pretends to fall asleep. Ellie sighs and rolls over.

 

That night, long after she had heard Annabelle’s breath even out, she still couldn’t sleep. She thought about everything that Annabelle and she had gone through together, as friends. It hurt her so much to think that maybe Annabelle wouldn’t call Ellie her friend anymore. But the more she thought about it, the more it didn’t seem like a possibility anymore. She does not think that Annabelle would unfriend her after having a sleepover with Ellie. With that content thought in mind, she rolled over and fell fast asleep.

The next day was Ellie’s first day of school after so long! She could hardly wait! As she walked down the main hallway, she saw Annabelle whispering to Savannah, one person that they had never even dared to talk to before. She wondered why Annabelle was whispering to her, but she didn’t let her bother her as much. Then during lunch is where the big thing happened.

 

Annabelle

 

I sat at the popular table with my new friends: Savannah, Melanie, and Fiona. As soon as I sat down, the whole table applauded my choice.

“Finally! You decided to sit with us!” Savannah said.

I smiled inwardly, happy that I was being accepted into this new group.

“Hey, guys do you want to know a secret?” I said, doing something that I knew the old Annabelle would never do. “Ellie likes Henry!” I said, suppressing a giggle.

The rest of the table roared with laughter as they looked over at one of the boys tables where Henry sat and to the table where Ellie sat. All alone, eating her lunch quietly. For a second, I felt a little bit of regret as I saw her all alone. Just then, something weird happened. Melanie suddenly stood up on the bench that she had been sitting moments before and yelled out in a voice that carried through the whole lunchroom:

“Ellie and Henry kissing in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in a baby carriage!”

The whole lunchroom went dead silent. You could have heard a hairpin drop. Then, the whole boys table, except for Henry who stood red in the face, erupted with laughter. Then, all the boys started to make the kissing noise with their mouths and wrapping their arms around themselves as if they were kissing another person. Guiltily, I looked over to the table where Ellie was sitting and saw that her face was all red and there were tears starting to form beneath closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw me looking at her. She then gave me the dirtiest look she had ever given anyone and stormed out of the lunchroom. Meanwhile, the boys had stopped and were back to their annoying, obnoxious selves. The girls had also gone back to just talking quietly among themselves. It seemed like the teasing that had happened a few minutes before never even existed.

 

I ran from the lunchroom into the nearest girls bathroom and heard quiet sobbing coming from the stall the farthest away from the door. I stood in front of the door and saw Ellie’s feet. On one foot was a green converse shoe and on the other was the brace from her accident. Suddenly a wave of guilt washed over me as I saw the brace. The only thing I wanted right now was to hug Ellie, go back into the lunchroom, and sit at our normal table as if the last 15 minutes never even happened. But I know I can’t. I knock softly on the door.

“Who is it?” Ellie said quietly between sniffles.

“Me, Annabelle,” I say.

“What do you want?” she asks me rudely.

“I want to say that I am really sorry. I wanted to apologize. I don’t know what came over me. I hope you can forgive me,” I said, trying to stop myself from starting to cry.

She opened the door of the stall a little bit and peeked through the gap.

“Why did you do it?” she asked, looking at me questioningly.

“I really don’t know. I am still really sorry,” I whispered, still looking at her.

She opened the door a little more and stepped out.

“Well, I still don’t forgive you,” she said, still quietly.

I nodded and walked out of the bathroom. I walked into the lunchroom, but lunch had already ended and the grade below us was starting to eat their lunch. I walked back into the bathroom to see if Ellie was still there, but she left. I sat down on the floor and sighed. I just wished that the last 45 minutes of the day would just disappear.

 

Ellie

 

After talking to Annabelle, she ran out of the girls bathroom and speed walked into the nurse’s office. She walked in and sat down. The nurse asked what was wrong, and Ellie said that she wanted to go home because she was not feeling well. While Ellie waited to get picked up, she sat in the chair thinking about how just a few nights ago during the sleepover Annabelle seemed like the old Annabelle not like the Annabelle that hurt her by telling her secret to the whole grade. She knew that Annabelle the girl who used to be her best friend but definitely not anymore. She knew that she could never trust her anymore like she and Annabelle used to not trust other girls like Savannah, Fiona, and Melanie and the rest of their clique. But now Annabelle was part of that group as well.

 

Annabelle

 

After school was out, I ran over to my bike and unlocked it. Then, I started to bike to Ellie’s house, determined to make peace between Ellie and I. As I pedaled as fast as I could, I practiced saying to repair our friendship. But deep down I knew that even if she accept my apology I knew that we would never be friends like we were before. But I still wanted to try to repair our friendship. I ring the doorbell and a second later Ellie comes in view. She looks surprised but invites me in.

 

“I know I don’t deserve to be your friend anymore… ”

“I know, you really don’t, but I still can’t call you my friend anymore. I’m sorry.”

Ellie sighed and turned around, making her face her back not her face. I then stood up and gave her a hug.

“I understand,” I said.

I left and walked out to my bike, unlocked it, and slowly started for home.

 

Ellie

 

Ellie sat down on her bed in her room. She had been looking at the wall by her desk that had a bulletin board, and it was filled with pictures of her and Annabelle: at the beach together, at the bowling alley, at school, and many other places. She sighed and looked at her favorite pictures of them together. It was her and Annabelle standing together in front of the school on the first day of sixth grade. She was wearing coincidentally the same shirt that she had worn in that picture, but now the picture of the dolphin had faded and it looked more like a gray blur in the blue background. Will I ever have someone who I can trust? Like the Annabelle used to be? Ellie thought. A breeze fluttered through the room making the shadows of the pictures dance in the sunset. The picture fluttered to the floor. Ellie stood up and pinned it back on the wall.

 

The End

 

I Never Agreed to Go

 

Chapter One

 

The school. I don’t know how to describe it as I arrive. From the outside, it looks like a rectangle floating in space. But on the inside, there are only four types of spaces. The sleeping rooms, the mess halls, the hallways, and the fight room. The mess halls are on the ends of the rectangle, the dorms on the rest of the edges, and the fight rooms are lined up in the center.

The outside of the school is pitch black, to not be seen. When the ship arrives after a month-long journey through space, I don’t notice it at first. I just see the regular endless void of space. Then, the loudspeaker crackles.

“We have arrived at the school of battle tactics. Please wait while the ship docks.”

Finally! I had gotten tired of talking about how are families hated us. They all give a kind (or not) gesture by letting us train at a school in outer space. It is weird. They are all mean to us, but then suddenly do a supposedly kind act.

As I walk out of that annoying ship, there are people. They assign us groups. They hand a device to each person that walks out. There is a beam coming out of it, and they tell us that the beam of light shows where you need to be at that current time. As I settle in my bed, I notice that they grouped us in eights. The hallways are tubes, and I bounded of the “floor” and caught on to the “ceiling.”

 

Chapter Two

 

I wake up with a robotic hand prodding my arm.

“Wake up, Basil. Your presence is required in the mess hall. Get ready and use your device to find the mess hall.”

This startles me. How did I know that robotic hands woke you up each morning?

“I repeat. Your presence in the mess hall is required immediately.”

I start to get dressed behind the curtain that separates my bed and the room’s main space.

The robot keeps on repeating its sentence.

“Could you just stop!” I yell angrily.

“Okay. Be at the mess hall at 007030.”

I pick up my device and follow the beam.

 

***

 

“There is something to know about this place. One, and only one person, will come out of this school with knowledge learned about battle tactics. The rest of you? You did not win.”

The crowd of kids started murmuring, but it quickly stopped as the speaker raised their hand.

“At this school, there is a tournament. You go against everybody in your group, and then the seeding is over. The first place in the group fights the eighth. The second to the seventh and so on. The loser, well the loser… Death.”

So that’s why my parents sent me here. They wanted me to die. They just wanted death.

“The winner will come out of this place with 100,000 credits. During the seeding, you just have to get into the other’s gate to win. But when the knockout stage comes, it’s death. Go on, eat your breakfast!” The speaker puts a huge smile on their face.

Nobody starts eating.

“You only have ten minutes left to eat! Hurry up!” I start eating. Yuck! These dehydrated cereal cubes just taste like mush. I am hungry, so I eat.

 

Chapter Three

 

The person I turned out to be fighting is one of the friends I made on the trip here, Rob. We both wanted to escape this “school.”

“We both want to escape,” I whisper.

“Yes.”

“What happens if we both don’t try to go in the other’s gate?”

I was expecting an answer from a human, but a robot answered instead.

“The battle will go on for 0001051 after the start. Then, it will be a tie, both receiving 1 point instead of the two for the winner.”

“Well, I guess that solves it. Let’s tie!” I exclaim.

“Okay… ” Rob says.

We wait and we wait until the computer says something.

“The time for this match is up, but no action was detected. I will notify the principal of this bad behavior.”

We leave thinking to ourselves, Uh-oh. That was not a good idea.

 

***

 

As usual, that annoying robotic hand started prodding me to wake up. The “your presence is required” thing. I ignore it and continue to get my clothes on.

“Your presence is required in the principal’s office. You must be there by 006020. “

Oh. The principal’s office. Memories flood back to my head. That’s why I feel tired. It’s earlier than yesterday. I get dressed quick and still have some time left to surf the web. I find a simulator for the standard long-distance ship and play it a few times. It is a first-person view with the window having graphical ships and lumpy asteroids to dodge. I randomly mash buttons, and once I accidentally self-destruct the ship. I save the web ID to the computer and then move it to a personal memory stick to prevent the teachers from finding out.

I follow the beam sent out of my device and wait outside the door. Rob arrives close behind me.

The door opens automatically. The principal is sitting by their desk, which is made out of plastic. Wood is very rare these days, and that even includes genetically modified trees. We sit down on the inflatable chairs with thin plastic, to reduce storage space and make this huge rectangle smaller than it would have been.

“I’m sure that you know why you are here.”

Rob and I nod our heads.

“This school was built to have a competition to teach kids about battle tactics. Our strategy motivates kids to learn our curriculum.”

“We are just trying not to die!” I yell.

“I’m giving you a warning. Don’t do that ever again.”

“OUT!”

 

Chapter Four

 

I started to regularly practice on the simulator. Yes! I won level 10! I got the hang of it. Then, I look at the link more closely. They made this simulator. But I remember the cockpit of the ship, peering through the crack of the door. It looked exactly the same! They must have put in a few changes to the simulator to make it different.

I brainstorm ideas for changes. Locks! I needed to hack into the school computer system. I started to regularly find hacking tools and learn from the web.

 

***

 

It had been a few weeks, and there was a ranking battle every now and then, and most days were spent learning and brainstorming what tactics could be used in the battles. I learned, yes, but I mostly went to the hacking website and learned. I looked at the website again. All our information was being filtered. I would have to find a person who learned hacking before coming here. I sent a message over to Rob encrypted. He sent a message back, and we made a conversation:

 

Rob,

I need somebody who can hack. Someone who learned it at home. We need to hack the school computer system.

-Basil

 

Basil,

Why not learn from the web? It would be much easier that way.

-Rob

 

Rob,

Our information is filtered. The only way to learn how to hack the website is with the school’s website. Get my point?

-Basil

 

Basil,

I’ll try to find someone.

-Rob

 

Basil,

I found someone! Their name is Lily. Let’s talk during dinner.

-Rob

 

We meet up in the mess hall and quietly discuss what we all have to do. After dinner, we get to work.

Me? Figure out the escape routes, the time of escape, and so on. Lily? Hack into the system so we can get access to the actual web and access to the ship. Rob? Get more people to know and be ready to escape.

Lily was having a hard time hacking into the server. She almost made it, but the final password was known on another server. When she almost hacked the other server, it asked for a password that was known on the other server. She finally hacked in and could do anything to the school. We were ready do escape.

 

Chapter Five

 

We sneak out of our rooms, and a lot of kids I did not even know came with this escape. Lily has locked all the doors of the teachers and changed the password to the server. The door to the ship is open, and we all pile inside. Just as the last kids start to board, the door to the principal’s office opens. The principal runs after us. The door to the ship closes. I am frantically trying to find the button that turns the ship on, but it is nowhere to be found! I try voice activation.

“SHIP, TURN ON!” I yell.

The ship responds. “Voice not recognized. Please try again.”

I hear outside the ship, “The kids are escaping! They are turning on the ship!”

“Voice recognized. Thrusters… fire.”

“Wo-Ho!” I exclaim.

“Okay. Oxygen level depleting. Oxygen level depleting. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. WARNING!”

“Oops,” Lily murmurs. “Quick! Someone get me a computer!”

She starts rapid-fire hacking.

“WARNING!”

“Oxygen levels restored.”

“WARNING!”

“Oxygen levels restored.”

“WARNING!”

“Oxygen levels restored.”

“Yes!” Lily exclaims. “I booted them out of the server!”

 

Epilogue

We fly to a habitable planet and start the first colony not in the solar system. We all become famous, and the teachers? Jail, of course! I become mayor, and we explore the other life forms living here. We are now known solar system-wide.

 

The Roxanne Family is Falling Down

 

Introduction

 

“How much do we have?” my five-year-old brother asked.

“What do you mean?” Dad asked.

“How much money do we have?” he said.

“We have enough,” Mom said, not looking up. Truth was, I knew we had more than enough. While the other kids at school lived in apartments we lived in a townhouse.

“Ee, ee,ee!” my six-month-old adopted sister Evelyn “Evie” screeched from her playpen.

“Yes, but how much?” Tony asked.

That’s not something you need to know,” Mom said.

My name is Harriet “Hattie” Roxanne, age 11, and the money business was just starting.

How much?” Tony screamed. Temper tantrum. I knew the drill.

“Hattie,” Mom whispered. I nodded. Dad stood up. So did I. I walked over to Evie and picked her up. Then, we walked slowly up the stairs. I heard Tony screaming from below. I heard mom soothing him. Suddenly, there was no more of Mom’s voice. I looked at Dad. He looked at me. Oh no, oh no. You see when Tony gets real angry he hurts someone. One time he knocked Mom out. That’s why we created the drill. Dad and I slowly crept down the stairs. Mom had fainted. And Tony, well, Tony was drawing all over Mom’s most precious statues that had been with her family for a long long, time.

 

Evelyn

 

You see, since Evie was adopted, some kids at school assumed she had something wrong with her. But there’s nothing wrong with her. She simply had a mother who died at her birth and a father who died not long after because of heartbreak. When it was time for the Saturday shopping, Dad wasn’t home. Mom had hired a babysitter to take care of Tony and Evie. We drove up to New Jersey.

“Onions, Hattie. Help me find the onions,” Mom said. Just then, Mom’s phone beeped.

“Just a minute, Hattie,” she said. She answered the phone, then she began walking frantically.

“Mom! Watch it!” I shouted. Too late. She slipped on a loose piece of cabbage. She fell backwards. I pursed my lips to hide my laughter. But I couldn’t hold it. I burst out laughing. People stared. Finally, an employee helped her up.

“Young lady! In the car now!” she shouted. People looked at her. She blushed, then stomped out the door. I raced after her.

“Mom! I warned you!”

“Hurry up, Hattie!” she answered. What was she so mad about? I asked.

“We didn’t get the onions or anything else!” I said.

“I don’t care. Evie and Tony are stuck in the bathroom, and the babysitter can’t find the key. They’ve been stuck in that bathroom for hours!” she nearly shouted. I sighed with relief. It wasn’t about slipping on cabbage after all. But I knew my mother didn’t feel relief. She stormed into the house and unlocked the bathroom door. I followed her.

“Ah!!” Mom screamed. She fainted. Right on the spot. I looked inside and burst out laughing. My brother was drawing on my sister — with Sharpie.

“See, see,” he said. “Tiger!”

And that is how we learned never to leave the children with that babysitter.

 

Tony

 

“Down the hatch!” I whispered.

Evie slurped down half of the pea-flavored baby food, then spit out the other half of it. I sighed. Feeding Evie took long. Way too long. Evie would always eat half of the spoon then spit the other half out. Tony walked in.

“Hey, Hatt,” he said.

“Who’s Hatt?” I asked even though I knew who he was talking about.

“You!” he laughed like crazy.

“Ooo!” Evie said spitting half of the half baby food over the side of the highchair, then spitting the other half of the half onto me.

“Cool!” Tony shouted. “Food fight!” he screamed. He began looking through the fridge and finally grabbed Evie’s leftover yucky mucky spinach baby food. He poured some over me and some over Evie. I screamed. Now I was covered with yucky mucky half spinach and half pea baby food. Evie started crying. Satisfied, Tony poured the rest of the spinach baby food onto his own head.

“Stop that, young man! Stop that right now!” I screamed.  

Suddenly, Mom bursted in.

What is going on!” she shouted.

I pointed to Tony.

“TONY!” she screamed. “I am disgusted by you!”

“I tried to stop it,” I said.

Suddenly, Evie vomited all over Mom, who was standing in front of the highchair.

“Who’s disgusted now?” Tony said, shielding his eyes.

“Young man!” Mom screamed. “Time-out now!”

 

Mom (Carrie Roxanne’s POV)

 

“Mom! Come quick!” Hattie shouted.

“It wasn’t my fault, Mom!” Tony shouted back.

“Caroline! You didn’t forget the cabbage, did you?” Oren, my husband shouted.

“Ma… ma,” Evie said softly.

Sometimes, I feel like everything depends on me. I feel like if I wasn’t there, the whole house would fall apart. Sometimes, I feel jealous that Oren does not have to spend time caring for the kids.

First of all, I’m Caroline (Carrie) Becker Roxanne, Harriet, Tony, and Evelyn’s mom. Sometimes I don’t even know if I should have even adopted Evie. In fact, that’s an interesting story…

I was with Oren, visiting my friend Isabel, who was adopting a baby. I overheard the nurses talking about an orphan. I heard this baby was very sweet and intelligent, that was already making noises — noises that sounded like words. I thought, I have got to see this baby. I told Oren my thoughts. And the next thing I know, I’m staring at a baby who’s 6 pounds, 18 inches. Her big blue eyes stare back at me, her hand is curling around my finger. Less than a week old, and in good health and shape, and unnamed, one of the nurses say. Somehow, I know I’m going to see this baby again. The moment I saw her, I fell in love with her. The adoption papers took five months, but I was right. I did see that baby again — and I see her every day. So, who is that baby? That’s right! She’s Evelyn Williams Roxanne, the same baby I saw in that adoption shelter months ago. So every time I’m boiling mad at my family, I try to think of the four happiest days of my life — the day I got married, the day I had Harriet, the day I had Tony, and the day I brought Evelyn home.

I try to keep my temper when — for example — Oren goes on a boy trip with his friends. Why? Because it’s all worth it — adopting and giving birth to my three children, and my wedding.

 

Grandfather Crazy

Harriet Roxanne’s POV

 

Mom invited my favorite Auntie, Isabel, her son Bryan, grandmama and grandfather, and granny and grandpa, and some of Mom and Dad’s friends for a Christmas get together. I loved my new bottle green velvet dress that matched with Mom’s. I wasn’t too happy about Grandmama and grandfather coming though. Grandmama and Grandfather were on Mom’s side of the family. Grandfather cared a lot about manners. And when I say a lot, I mean we have to call him Sir instead of Grandfather. We had to walk properly, sit properly, get excused properly, and many more. He expected all women to be housewives, and all men to serve in the army. Grandfather “the Sir” and Grandmamma arrived first, as always.

“Straighten your back, young lady,” he said.

“Yes sir,” I said quietly.

“Huh?” Grandfather said.

“Yes sir!” I said. Grandfather was hard of hearing and seeing. Auntie Isabel and Bryan arrived next. They dumped presents in our hands and gave us a warm greeting.

“How’s my favorite girl?” she said, hugging me. She always held that soft, perfume smell that only Auntie Isabel had. Granny and Grandpa came. Then other people I didn’t really know. Yum, pie, I thought, as mom unloaded bags of food. Just then,the pie dropped. As Mom bent down to pick it up in, “The sir” came. He spanked Mom hard on the butt, in front of everyone, and her dress flipped up, revealing underwear with a hole in one of the buttcheek parts. The crowd gasped.

“How many times, Hattie, have I told you not to bend down like that?” The sir said to Mom.

What? I thought. I was right here! Wait a minute. Grandfather thought I was Mom!

“Sir, I’m right here!” I said.

Mom screamed. Loud. One by one, the guests left.

 

Oren Roxanne’s POV

 

Sometimes I feel bad for Carrie, staying in the house and caring for the children. I don’t know. Want to know my secret? I’ve been out dating with another woman, Suzanne. I feel like Carrie and I don’t share the same interests anymore. We don’t really talk anymore. There’s been issues. My boss gets mad at me because because I drink and smoke (I didn’t tell my family yet) and, I really love Suzanne. It’s getting serious now. I want her as a spouse instead of Carrie. I want a divorce. No one can stop us. I want a fresh family. The day I said that to Carrie, she fell apart.

 

Mom (Carrie Becker Roxanne’s POV)

 

I felt like a part of me had died when Oren told me he demanded a divorce. I felt like my heart was broken in half when I found out he was marrying another person, and especially Suzanne Marinata. The day I broke the news to Harriet, she sobbed. Sounds came out of her. Groaning. She was clutching her chest. I cried with her.

“Will we still live here?” she asked.

“We’ll figure something out,” I told her.

“Send that woman away!” She sobbed. “It was all her fault!” she screamed. “I hate Suzanne!”

 

Five months later…

 

The divorce wasn’t final yet, but Suzanne moved in, and the children and I moved in with my parents. I worked full time as a nurse. We split the money. I was tired.

“This is not you, you were made to be mine,” I told him desperately. I found out Suzanne was pretty nice, but I knew Oren was supposed to be mine.

 

Harriet’s POV

 

I don’t know how I feel sometimes. Like, one minute I’m washing the dishes, doing nothing, and the next minute I feel like I’m going to melt. Everything’s changed. I feel like my dad doesn’t love me anymore, even though Mom has told me they both still love me, and this has nothing to do with me. Tony’s changed too. He’s more quiet. More serious, too. He’s becoming a shy, hazel-eyed boy. I feel like everyone’s ageing.

 

Caroline Becker Roxanne’s POV

 

One morning, I heard knocking at the door. I looked through the peephole, and that’s when I saw — Oren.

“Go away,” I said.

“Caroline, please,” he said.

“I’m going to shatter to pieces if you argue with me. If I hear one insulting word, I will shatter. Please don’t,” I say. “For the sake of the children.” I turned away.

“I’ve come to say — ” he sputtered.

“No. please don’t talk,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. I opened the door. I sobbed. He hugged me.

“What happened to Suzanne?” I asked.

“She’s not my woman. My woman is in front of me,” he whispers. I sobbed harder.

“Does this mean… ” I started.

“Yes,” he said.

“I’ll only move in you stop drinking and smoking,” I whispered. We laughed together. He hugged me tighter.

“Where’s your ring, Carrie?” I ran upstairs. He placed the ring on my finger. I laughed, then sobbed. We stood there, cuddling for hours.

 

My New Nintendo 2DS XL

My 2DS XL is black and blue (mostly black). It is bigger than a normal 3DS XL, but it doesn’t have 3D. It could play any 3DS game. I would play “Pokémon X” and “Mario and Luigi: Dream Team.” When I play “Pokémon X,” the controls are smooth and easy to use, and they are white. The texture of the outside is smooth and bumpy. The 2DS and 3DS are handheld devices that have two screens. One screen is interactable, and the other isn’t.

 

I got my 2DS XL on January 2, 2018. Before, I asked my parents if I could get it, and they said, “Yes.” I was so happy about that. I was so hyper. So when I was in school on January 2, I had a feeling that the package was there. So when I got home, I rushed to the living room, and I found the package sitting on the table. I opened the package really quickly.

 

I thanked my mom for getting the package a million times. Even though it was a school day, my dad still let me play with it. Every time I hold the 2DS, I think of my mom. I always feel happy when I hold the 2DS if I have bad day. In exactly one month, I beat the game and got bored. Then by accident, my sister lost my charger, and my 2DS died. Then, my sister lost my copy of “Pokémon X.” I kept asking my mom if I could get another copy or the newest Pokémon game, but my mom said, “No, I already spent enough money on the 2DS.”

 

Now, my 2DS is sitting on the table doing nothing. Since I don’t have a charger, I can’t use it. If I get a charger, I would charge it for the night. I’ll get a new game called “Yokai Watch 2: Bony Spirits Fleshy Souls.” Once I get the game and the charger, I will link up with my friend, so we can trade Yokai and battle each other. I’ll wait until my mom has enough money to buy me “Yokai Watch 2,” but I want many other games for the Xbox One. So, I’ll have to make a big decision about what I want.

 

Jake, David, and the Eiffel Tower Adventure

 

Before

 

Have you read Jake, David and the Adventurous Volcano Adventure (Book 1) and/or Jake, David and the Super Bowl Surprise (Book 2) both by Logan Hunter Thomas? Well, whether you have or haven’t, you are lucky. Either way, you should definitely take a look at this before you read the book. The Jake and David series is a group of chapter books that go on adventures. When Jake and David meet each other, they discover that they both love writing books. So they opened up a bookstore so they could write books and get money. Throughout the Jake and David adventures, this series is ready to embark.

 

Chapter One

 

After what the Jones family had now called the Super Bowl Smash Mistake, ten-year-old Jake and David were finally getting to know each other. They decided to try and stay at home for a while. Jake and David worked in their bookstore for eight hours. They decided they wanted to see all the books that they had made with everyone. So the next day, they threw a big Celebration of Writing and Reading Fair. There were games and pizza and prizes and a ceremony to thank Jake and David for the years of books.

After the party, many children brought books to the boys that they made to show more of their appreciation. The very last kid to come was very shy but couldn’t wait to meet Jake and David. His name was John. He had tan hair and was wearing a tie-dye shirt with blue jeans and red Crocs.

“Hi,” he said quietly. His mom Annie came running over with his book from them, All You Need To Know About The Eiffel Tower. Jake didn’t remember making that book. Neither did David.

But instead of telling Annie and John the truth, they said, “Thank you for coming.”

“You’re welcome,” Annie said for John.

As Jake and David walked back to their house, Jake said to David, “Do you still not remember All You Need To Know About The Eiffel Tower.”

“Still don’t,” David replied.

When they got home, Jake and David ran down to the bookstore. They wanted to see if they still had a copy of the book. Under the fifth bookshelf, they both found a copy at the same time. They were fighting over who got the book, until they both saw another copy and both started fighting for that one, and they kept doing that for one hour until they both stopped fighting and got their own copy to read. They decided to go on a nonstop Amtrak train to Paris so they could maybe remember what inspired them to write the book. They bought two tickets for a Paris trip to the Eiffel Tower or in Spanish, la torre Eiffel. The train left at 5:27 A.M. on July 6 and stopped in Paris on July 10 at 4:18 A.M..

On July 6 at 5:45 A.M., David wanted to go upstairs and explore, but Jake was asleep. So David went up but carried Jake in a stroller. Upstairs was a playground that said, NO STROLLERS ALLOWED. David ran down the ramp and removed Jake from the stroller. He then slapped Jake to wake him up. Jake bit David. Jake also started to open his eyes. David pulled his brother up to the TeddyGround Country Train Park. The park was on every train in the world, so they could always use it. As soon as they arrived at the sign, Jake went wild.

“WOO!” Jake exclaimed.

“Incredible,” they both said as if they were hypnotized. They both skipped over to the moon bounce trampoline zone. Later, David climbed The Spooky Scary Dreadful Climbing Wall Where People Get Killed.

 

Chapter Two

 

David was waiting in line when he smelled the wonderful French toast tatter and croissants for breakfast. He tried one of each. They tasted delicious. Jake then got breakfast, and the boys talked about their next book. After their breakfast and hot tub time, David got in line to climb the wall. The line was short because people were nervous. David was second in line. But he didn’t mind. He was a super amazing climber. He had practiced every month at The School For Climbing. He ended up on the wall in less than 50 seconds. It was definitely an experience that Jake didn’t want to risk, but David on the other hand was proud to be doing it alone. David tried to convince Jake to give the climbing wall a “whirl,” but Jake couldn’t get over his fear.

There was fake lava on the sides, and it was in a room with no lights. The climbing wall was 1,004,580 centimeters with harnesses for ages six and under only. You had to go around the real fire and through the ice tunnel. Then you go through the real volcano quickly and if it erupts fake lava while you are in there, you must stay on the train for all eternity! But if you do better on the next level than the first, you are free to leave the train and get a free train ride home if possible, depending on oceans and seas. But if it erupts real marshmallows in a bag, then you can feel free to eat all you want. David made it to the top and got a wonderful trophy made of gold and an invitation to the Professional Teenager Climb Kickoff!

Jake loved the trophy but didn’t have enough bravery to continue. But he didn’t have the heart to quit. So he got in line for for The Spooky Scary Dreadful Possibly Deadly Climbing Wall Where People Get Killed. But he was so scared, he got right back out. Although, it wasn’t very delightful waiting in the dark. But they had to do it to get to the wall. At least for safety reasons, only one person could be on at a time and there were comfy beds on the floor in case you fell. You got two chances per day. When you get a trophy, you do the wall that is twice as scary as The Spooky Scary Dreadful Possibly Deadly Climbing Wall Where People Get Killed (which by the way is not on the TeddyGround Country Train Park). Jake was about to get in line when the train bell rang. That meant they were in Paris, France or Paris, Francia. At least the TeddyGround Country Train Park was on every train in the world. It was 4:18 A.M., so most people were exhausted. But Jake and David wanted to see the tower. They were wide awake!

 

Chapter Three

 

In Paris, Jake and David decided to first take their luggage to their rental house and spend some time there, then later go take a walk to The Eiffel Tower. Jake and David noticed a big pipe in their wall above their bed that read: DO NOT ENTER! Next to it was a pipe that said ENTER IF YOU WISH. The walk was a good ten minutes, but Jake and David got a lot of exercise on their way. At 8:15 A.M., Jake and David arrived at The Eiffel Tower. The tower was enormous! Jake and David had reached their destination. The boys wanted to explore The Eiffel Tower. It had 1,665 stairs and 1,680 levels. But they were tired. So they took the elevator to the 1,680 level. On that floor there was Gustave Eiffel’s Hidden Apartment.

“Do you think we should go in,” Jake said. “It looks kind of spooky.”

“Are you kidding,” David replied. “It’s the perfect time to start exploring, Wonderful Haunted Eiffel Tower.”

“Eek,” squealed Jake.

“I don’t want to go in,” cried Jake.

But David was finding Jake’s whining, crying, and moaning irritating. He was so furious that he grabbed Jake’s shirt, shoved him in the apartment, and locked them both in. David ran in so fast to stop Jake, that the key to unlock the door fell out of his pocket, and David shut the door before noticing. They were in locked in! They both howled for five straight minutes blaming the other person.

“Why’d you shove me in here,” scolded Jake.

“What are you talking about,” said David in a snotty voice. “It’s your fault that you are such a scaredy-cat!

As they were arguing, up from the chandelier came a ghost! It was like the creepy ghost photos on Halloween that babies were scared of, but somehow, it frightened David. Somehow, Jake had the courage to face the ghost, but David started to whine.

“See what scaredy-cat feels like,” teased Jake.

David had just noticed that the key was no longer in his pocket.

“Run!” David yelled.

“No way!” Jake replied.

The ghost was a nightmare to David. But to Jake, the ghost was one of the best parts of his life. They tried everything to open the locked door. Soon, when the fun for Jake was over, Jake had a great idea to leave. Jake and David both searched for a trap or back door. Finally after ten minutes, Jake and David succeeded in shoving the ghost in a bird cage. David found the secret door. Jake noticed that they had pipes like the ones in their hotel. One said DO NOT ENTER and one said ENTER IF YOU WISH. The boys took the secret door that said ENTER IF YOU WISH. It led to a slide. Jake and David rode down the slide. The slide came out of the room, but it didn’t exactly take them in the direction they wished to go in. When the slide ended, they landed in their hotel room.

“So that was what the pipes were for,” said Jake and David again like they were hypnotized.

“Well,” said Jake admittedly. “It’s been a long day, but I think we both learned a lesson.”

“Me too,” said David. They went out to dinner and went home to Paradise Countryside on August 1 at 1:47 P.M. and arrived on August 4 at 5:43 A.M. But Jake and David didn’t mind the length of the trip. They liked long train rides because they could come back with at least 50 newly printed books.

 

The End!

 

Cow

 

BOOK 1: COW VS. SUN

Once upon a time there was a cow named Cow. She loved flowers, but there was no water. It was so hot that the water evaporated. Plants were dying. Flowers were melting. The cow was moaning, sobbing. She tried to sob over the plants, but it evaporated. Her sobs were the only thing stopping her from melting. The tears evaporated off of her cheeks. She was so sad that she went to her house. She is a cow, so of course she lives in a big house all by herself. She went to the first faucet she found to get tap water for the plants. She filled a Swell water bottle because it keeps things cold. She only needed one. Then, she went outside and this time put the Swell water bottle right over the plant so that it wouldn’t be possible for the water to evaporate.

She took the cap off and shoved it down as fast as she could. The little plants started to grow! Tulips and sunflowers started to grow. Then, all of a sudden, they died. The sun was too hot, so they shriveled up and died. So, Cow tried to build a rocket to put water on the sun. This time she used at least fifteen Swell water bottles because the sun is so big.

She knocked her house down because her house was made out of metal. She started building the rocket. First the base, next the engine which takes a long time. Then the control panel, which was also metal. She named all the buttons: launch, start, release, anti-gravity, and emergency exit. She also needed to build a spacesuit. Cow went back to the dead plants and smashed them all together into a clothing material. She put it all over her body as a spacesuit. For the helmet, she emptied her dead fish’s bowl and put it over her head. She got a knife and cut a little hole through the back for the oxygen. For the oxygen pack, she grabbed a really big soda bottle and breathed into it, blowing it up like a balloon until it was completely full. She quickly put the top back on and quickly put a hole through and fed the tube through.

Now she needed to get fuel. She grabbed soil and squeezed all of the juices out of it. She used another soda bottle to catch all of the juice. Since soil is fuel for plants, Cow hoped that it would also work as fuel for the rocket! Once the bottle was filled with the soil juice fuel, she put it into the rocket. As the final touch, Cow moved her couch into the rocket as the seat.

She said to herself, “Three, two, one… blast off!”

The blast off looked like a giant explosion. Through a cloud of smoke, the rocket shot up into space! Cow was hoping it would work because of the fuel, and now it was! But Cow was worried because she couldn’t get in the rocket. It was too small for a cow! Her butt was sticking out of the front of the ship. She got into space and tried to turn the rocket by moving her legs since she couldn’t reach the control panel. Luckily, her legs worked. She was right on top of the sun. It was hot, and she was sweating. She reached out for the Swells, but she couldn’t reach! Luckily, she threw them in before she got in the rocket, so they were all there.

Out of nowhere, the Milky Way caught them! All of the Swells started rolling towards the Milky Way. The next day, they got right back on top of the sun. Cow grabbed the first Swell water bottle and poured it.

“Where did all of my other water bottles go?” Cow asked herself. “Oh right! I drank them.”

So then, Cow started slapping herself to make herself cry. She cried so much that a big glop of water just went rolling down, slowly because of anti-gravity. It got on the sun and covered the sun whole! It worked!

But the tears turned the sun into not the sun… it turned into a giant glop of water! Cow went back to Earth, barely missing the plants because of her legs. She landed right where her house used to be, next to her garden. For some reason, it wasn’t hot anymore. It was cold and rainy.

“Oh no!” said Cow. “A new problem, for me this time! For me and the plants this time!”

 

BOOK 2: COW VS. WATER

It was raining, pouring all over Cow and her rocket.

“I have to fix this! But the problem is that fire can’t go in space I don’t think!” Cow said to herself. “But maybe I could bring the rocket and not release the rocket until I get to the sun and not light it up as much as it used to be, that way it’s mostly sun, but still water because water is still good for the plants.”

Cow hoped this plan would work. She got right back in the rocket, but first she needed more fuel. She squeezed some more soil into the fuel bottle. She didn’t get any Swell bottles this time, instead she went right to the spaceship, filled the ship and got right into space. The vast cloud of smoke came again, right under the rocket.

Still sticking out of the rocket, but this time with her head, she thought to herself, Maybe I should lose some weight…

But there was no time for losing weight now, though! Cow had to save the planet. So then, once she got back in space, Cow got right up to the sun, well the water sun, and grabbed the light torch. She emptied the water off the the sun and evaporated all of the water that she could see by setting it on fire with the torch.

“Half fire, half water!” Cow went right back down to Earth.

Then, all of a sudden, it started raining again!

“Ah, crud!” Cow said. “Well, I need a new plan.”

Cow spent a few days trying to come up with a new plan while floating in an eight foot pool of water. The Earth was flooding.

“Maybe it would be better if we just didn’t have a sun at all!” Cow swam to the flooded supermarket, and nobody was there. She had her spacesuit on, so she could still breathe under the water. She went to aisle six, where all of the explosives are like fireworks, TNT and grenades, and took the TNT since nobody else was there. She swam back to her rocket (which was now her home) and after all of that wait, she now could kind of fit because what was there to eat in a flood? It had been a few days. She also noticed that she hadn’t dranken in two days too! She drank a big gulp of water. Oh no, now she couldn’t fit again!

Cow went back into the rocket, and luckily she already had fuel ready for the trip back to space. The rocket was now kind of flooded, and she said to herself for the second time, “Three, two one… blast off!!” The big puff of smoke didn’t appear for some reason. It went into the water, and the water started turning gray! It was getting polluted.

“We have to do this quick!” she said to herself.

She got near the sun when one one hundredth of the planet was covered with polluted water. She put the TNT on the big glob of water covering the sun, but right before she could do anything…

“No!” Cow screamed. She had lost her TNT. Right before she could push it down to blow it up, the Milky Way got her!

One day later…

“Finally!” she said. She threw one of her empty Swell water bottles, and it landed directly on the TNT handles, activating the explosion! Cow heard a big boom behind her. All of a sudden, her spaceship blew up too. She was right at the edge of the explosion and was thrown back into Earth’s atmosphere. She was falling but felt like she was flying. Except she didn’t know how to fly! She took off her helmet and fell as fast as a meteor. Cow hit Earth and bounced. Her fat made her bounce. She bounced all the way back to her house!

“Oh no, this is bad,” said Cow to herself.

Now there was no sun or rain. All of the plants were going to die for forever.

 

BOOK 3: COW VS. NOTHING

It was pitch black. Nothing anymore. Cow was out of ideas. No one was here. Everybody left for flode.

“It’s all my fault,” moaned Cow. “I wish I never did anything in the first place!” She was thinking of ideas to help the world. Finally, after an hour or two, she found out the solution! A rock gave her the inspiration. It was a small rock, maybe 3×3 and gray. She thought, Maybe I could get that rock and set it on fire! It could be a new sun.

She got back into her rocket with very little fuel left and blasted off with another cloud of smoke. She couldn’t see outside. It was too dark and cloudy. Luckily she knew where she was going. After the fifth try, she got her torch and let go of the rock in space.

Shhhhhhhh. Nothing happened to the rock.

“Ugh,” said Cow. “New plan, I guess. I can’t light rocks with fire… so how can the sun be on fire?” She immediately found out why. It was because the star had ashes in it. They were all over the sun, but Cow thought that they were bumps before. But then Cow remembered that that bumps weren’t black and peely.

Then, she went straight towards the volcano in Hawaii. There was nobody around her or anywhere on the beach. They were all on the other side of the world. Cow had never been to the ocean before. Cow’s rocket landed beside the base of the volcano, and she had to climb up to the top. Thankfully it was a tourist attraction, so they had special gloves on site in order to hold onto the rock. Of course, Cow’s hands are smaller than people’s hands. While hiking up the volcano, Cow didn’t feel very well. She had heard on the news about the guy who put his hand on top of a volcano, and one of the rocks popped up and went through his hand leaving a giant hole! But Cow was too busy thinking about saving the world to be scared.

Once Cow got to the very top, she had to wait until the rocks went upwards to try to catch them. She got one on her sixth try! She still had her space helmet on, so she didn’t breathe in the poisonous gasses. She grabbed the rock and took it all the way back to her rocket. Once she got there, she grabbed the soil and filled the tank up all the way. Then, she put more oxygen into the tank and blasted off. For the sixth time, she landed where the sun used to be. But this time, no sun. She grabbed the rock and threw it off and ignited it.

Pffffftt. The sun went back, but in a smaller version of itself. It didn’t grow. Cow went back to Earth feeling excited. In a few weeks, everybody was back!

 

BOOK 4: COW VS. CHICKEN

Until, someone got mad at Cow. A chicken, to be more specific because Cow caused everything. The chicken had a perfectly good life before because he had air conditioning. Chicken lived in the a/c apartment building in the city next to where Cow’s house used to be.

When Cow landed, Chicken started saying, “Hey you! You flooded my building!”

Cow heard him and said, “Well, I was trying to save the world from melting!”

“Well, you’re the only one without a/c!” Chicken responded.

“So what?” said Cow. “What if you had to go grocery shopping, it would’ve melted on the way.”

“Fine,” said Chicken, but he didn’t really mean it.

All of a sudden, a big grumble came. The sun was gone. The rock that Cow had put in space was now tumbling into Earth’s atmosphere. It came closer and closer and hit Chicken right on the head! He went on to tell a classic story called “Chicken Little.” Chicken ran away screaming, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

“Oh no,” said Cow. “I’ll have to find a better rock.”

Cow grabbed the rock where Chicken was once standing, and for some reason it didn’t hurt her. There was no more fire on it.

“Oh no,” said Cow. “The rock isn’t working! It only works for one week, and it’ll never go right. And in three years, all of the soil in the planet will melt and so will planet Earth.”

Cow did not have an idea. She did not know what to do other than run into the leftovers of his house and make a little shed of a room. Cow turned on the only thing to make it through the crash: The TV. Her favorite show was on: Dr. Who.

She watched episode one, and out of nowhere an alien came up. This time machine looks good… Hey! Time machine! That’s it! Cow thought. Without turning off the TV or anything, Cow threw out the remote and ran out of the shed. The moon was up in the sky. Cow started to take apart the shed and the TV and put them into a box-like-shape. She put the TV inside the box like a photobooth. The final touch was the remote: except Cow put the Triple A batteries backwards. Cow took a deep breath before turning on the TV. The screen said: Which one? Forwards or Backwards?

Cow understood that the TV was talking about time. “Phew,” said Cow.

 

BOOK 5: COW VS. SUN AGAIN

Cow pressed “backwards,” and it started spinning. The TV screen said 3… 2… 1…

But then Chicken popped in out of nowhere! “The sky is falling,” said Chicken. “Hey. What’s happening? We’re going back in time, but I don’t want to go back in time.”

“Well, too bad for you. You’re the one that popped in here,” said Cow. They heard another large pop.

And they were at the beginning of that day. “Hey Cow,” said Cow.

She said, “That’s me just before that day.”

They came out of the time machine. “We are here,” said the machine.

They started looking for Cow, well Cow did at least. Chicken was just running around and saying that the sky is going to fall. When Cow finally found her former self, she said, “Whatever you do, don’t try to help the plants from the sun.”

“Why not?” asked former Cow.

“Because everybody will hate you in the future.” Then, Cow went back into the time machine.

He heard a large pop. “Haha,” said Chicken. Cow didn’t notice that Chicken was happy.

“Why are you so happy?” asked Cow.

“Because of your little mistake,” said Chicken.

“Well, how would you’ve known that it was gonna happen?” asked Cow.

“I have this machine that allows me to control the weather. The next step is to buy a bunch of fans and T-shirt companies. I will be the richest man in the world. And then I’ll just drive up the prices of everything. Until I will become the king of the world.”

All of a sudden, Cow kicked Chicken out of the time machine and then heard a pop. After another five seconds, they heard another pop.

And then Cow said, “Don’t listen.” He saw both of the Cows talking to them. One was with Chicken, and the other was with Cow. Then, Cow pushed her former self out of the way. And she said to former former self, “Watch out, Chicken is going to take over the world.”

“Just keep going on with your life, save the plants, do whatever you can to save them.”

Former Cow heard all about Chicken. Then, Cow took Chicken back into the time machine.

They heard a pop and another pop.

Cow gave Chicken to the police. He took him straight to the police, without stopping. He gave Chicken in to the police. They decided to put him in a high security prison. Then, he told the police to take down his company.

They did so. All of a sudden, the weather turned back to normal. From there on forever.

 

The Best of Friends

As I slept in my comfortable bed, I did not know my life would change forever. I jumped out of bed when I heard a loud rarrr-ing over our small town. And like the other kids in the orphanage, I ran to the window. A dragon shining in the moonlight was asking where a girl was called Liriel. Then, I realized that he was looking for me. I was desperate to save my town, thinking that the dragon would destroy my town in anger, so I had a weird moment when I was super strong and ripped one of the bed posts of my bed off and smashed the double layer window with it.

 

Then I jumped, landing on the hard ground covered in soft, pointy grass. I shook off the pain at the point of crying because of the pain and threw the part of my bed on the swings that were right next to me. I climbed the short three-foot fence and ran across the street to the dragon. He was super big and red and had big, cute light blue eyes. His nose, horn, and tips of his fingers were black as midnight, and in his nose there was a little fire producing a small light.

 

I screamed, “O mighty dragon, my name is Liriel. I am the girl you were looking for. Take me as a sacrifice for my town.”

 

“I’m not going to destroy your town,” he said. “I heard you crying in the morning. I want to know why. I’m going to bring you to my town. Can you please get in my fluffy bag? It has a couch in it, if you wanted to know.”

The dragon held open his bag, and I jumped in. The bag was soft and comfortable and so was the couch. As the dragon took off, he asked me in a very deep voice, “Why were you crying in the morning?”

 

I answered, “In the orphanage… ”

 

“Wait, you lived in an orphanage?” the dragon asked.

 

I responded, “Yes. They beat the kids there, and I was severely beaten this morning for not putting my dish into the sink after I ate. I had put it on the counter next to the sink because the sink was full.”

 

The dragon asked, “Who hit you?”

 

“We call them beaters. All of the bedrooms, the front yard, the backyard, the kitchen — they all have a phone, so someone can call the beaters. When they’re called, they come to beat you. Today, they hit me so hard in the back with a baseball bat that I have a huge bruise.”

 

As I said that, I put my head over the edge of the bag and saw a small town. I asked the dragon, “Why is that town there?”

 

“I save people from horrible places for a living. Then when they are ready for a new family and life, I put them in the village. I save everyone. We are home!!” responded the dragon as I felt the bag softly hit the ground.

 

“Can I please get out?”

 

“Yes. Also, you can go on my shoulder and fly around.”

 

“Thank you,” I said as I jumped on the dragon.

 

Later, we went back to the dragon’s bag and into the dragon’s house. His house was huge, and the walls had big containers on wooden shelves. He carefully put me down on a king-size bed with soft blankets. The pillows were like little, hard clouds.

 

I asked the dragon, “Why do the pillows feel like little, hard clouds? How are the blankets so soft? Where did you get this king-size bed?”

 

The dragon responded with, “Oh, I just made the pillows, got the blankets from Walmart, and got the bed from a bed store.” Then the dragon said, “It’s kinda dark. You should get some sleep.”

 

Soon, I was snuggled into my bed, sound asleep from the comfortable softness of the bed. The next day, the sun was shining through a window right on top. I hadn’t noticed the window the night before because it was so dark outside. The light was shining off the dragon’s scales like it had the first time I saw him. But when I woke up, I felt something different. I had felt normal when I went to sleep, but when I woke up, I felt different — out of the box, not like other people. I didn’t know what had triggered that, but when I woke up, the dragon was calling my name. He made me one piece of toast and two scrambled eggs with cheese and avocado on the side.

 

While I ate, the dragon said, “Today will be the first day of school.”

 

I was so surprised by the news that I almost fell out of my chair! I was speechless. How could he set me up in the school so fast? But I couldn’t find the answer and went to get ready for school. When I got to school, kids started staring at me. I didn’t know why. Then I remembered: my hair wasn’t brushed. I ran back to my house and brushed my hair. The dragon was staring at me weirdly as I brushed my hair quickly and ran out the door. Back at school, kids called me names for some odd reason. They called me “Messy Hair.” That made me feel sad. They were making fun of me for arriving without brushing my hair. People with short hair do that all the time, but people with long hair have to brush it every day. That’s unfair!

 

I went through the day feeling sad and hanging my head down. As I got back into the dragon’s home, I saw the dragon reading some books. “Hey, dragon!” I yelled. Then, I realized that I’d never asked the dragon’s name. I yelled to the other side of the room where the dragon was sitting. “I never asked for your name. What is it?”

 

The dragon responded with, “Cornelius. My name’s Cornelius. Want to come here and tell me how your day went?”

 

So I went over there and told Cornelius about the horrible day I had. I saw that he was sad about my horrible day at school.

 

“Now you are going to be homeschooled, because of the horrible day that you had,” Cornelius said firmly.

 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, I thought in my head.

 

Days passed with no out of the box stuff. But on the 1st of May I saw a note. It had some weird writing on it.

 

I asked, “Cornelius, what is this note?”

 

“It is a note to a wishing well to give you one wish. P.S., it has old dragon language on it, so give it to me when we leave.”

 

“Can we go now?”

 

“If you are ready for an adventure.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well, let’s go,” Cornelius said as we walked out the door of his house.

 

I immediately gave the map to Cornelius, and Cornelius read, “Follow the path of something red till you find something you dread. It is a rhyme on the note. We need to find out what is the answer.”

 

“Hey, there is a path of roses over to the right of us into the wood in the direction of the town! That must be the path. And what we both dread is the orphanage, so let’s go!” I said happily.

 

We followed the rose path for ten minutes before we ended up at the orphanage. We saw a small pond with fish. Like magic, there was a small bottle with a piece of paper in it. Cornelius graved the bottle and lifted the top. There was no note, but only steam. Cornelius yelled, “I can’t see.”

 

“Me either!” I responded.

 

Soon, the thick steam went away. In Cornelius’ hand was the next note. Cornelius said, “Climb the tallest mountain you can find to find your prize. Drop it in a hole to get your next note.”

 

Cornelius and I flew around for ten minutes before we spotted the tallest mountain. It was Mount Camp. We went to the top and saw one plant of sage. Its purple flowers shone bright in the midday light. It was amazing how beautiful it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes. When Cornelius landed, I jumped off Cornelius and grabbed a handful of sage. “This must be enough!” I said. Then, we flew off to find the hole.

 

All the holes we tried throwing sage into never gave us a third clue, but when we went back to Mount Camp, we realized the hole had been next to the sage the whole time! I felt kind of stupid, but I dumped the whole handful of sage into the hole. Then, one small piece of paper popped out. I grabbed it and handed it to Cornelius. Cornelius was so excited that he almost ripped the whole piece of paper in half with his claws. Cornelius immediately started reading, “Dig five feet under the first door of the dragon’s house. You will find the next clue that will leave you dumbfounded about where you’re going.”

 

I immediately jumped on Cornelius’ back and shouted, “Let’s go home! Let’s go home!” He flew to our house. He tried to grab a shovel, but I had already started digging. Still unwilling to dig with his hands, Cornelius grabbed another shovel and started digging, too. I almost got hit a few times, but I didn’t care. I was on my way to get one wish! Five feet down, we saw a note, and Cornelius said, “In the deep forest, there is something to find in the biggest tree.”

 

“Let’s go to the forest,” I said, a little scared for my life.

 

We flew to the forest, and we had to fly past the clouds to find the biggest tree, because the type of tree was Redwood. After we flew down on a platform, and as soon as we landed, the floor fell from under us.

 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Cornelius and I yelled.

 

Soon, we were sliding down a tube with rainbow lights passing us. Then, we smashed onto something at the end. Then I saw it was a monster, with sharp teeth like a shark. It looked like a house with eyes and a mouth. It roared so loud that it shook the room. “We have to fight it,” I said, and I jumped on Cornelius’ back. Out of thin air, he gave me a steel sword. It was shining in the light of the room.

 

Cornelius flew over the monster, and I stabbed it 10 times. It started bleeding so bad that it died of blood loss in 20 minutes. We got the note that the monster was hiding.

 

Cornelius read, “Closer you are to the well, go into the door in the tree and find the monster of air. Get the note from its palm.”

 

“Let’s go, Cornelius, to the tree with the door. And get the note! Let’s go!” I said, jumping up and down on Cornelius’ back.

 

As we flew around the forest looking for the tree with the door in it, I realized, “Oh, it must be in the trunk, not in the trees!”


After five minutes of walking around the forest, we found the tree with the door in it. It was wide and brown and looked almost exactly like the tree trunk. We went into a super dark room. The only thing I could see was my dragon with his light in his nose. Cornelius had night vision. He saw some torches and lit them with his fire breath. I hadn’t known he had fire breath till now. I stared at him like he’d just done a flip. I was very surprised!

 

Then, I heard something rustling. Something walked in the room, and I felt an eerie presence on the other side of the room, but I did not dare to look there. When I did, I saw the silhouette of the monster of air and a note in his grip. I pulled out my steel sword, getting ready to fight. I jumped on Cornelius’ back, and he blew some fire on the monster of air. I saw the silhouette in flames. I knew this was my best chance to get the monster of air because he was visible in fire. I pulled out my steel sword and tried stabbing the monster of air. He always ducked out of the way, or tried to. I had an idea.

 

Cornelius and I went behind the monster of air to confuse him. First, I stabbed the monster of air. It turned around and saw us, so we had to go back! We went around the monster of air so many times, the monster of air fell down.

 

“This is our chance!” I jumped onto Cornelius’ back, and he flew above the monster of air.

 

I threw my sword, and Cornelius swooped down and grabbed it out of the monster of air where it had stabbed him. We did this so many times that the monster of air had ten puncture marks in his chest and stomach. The monster of air was so weak from all of his blood loss that he just gave me the note.

 

Cornelius read the note, which said, “Follow the rainbow to the pot of gold and grab one nugget.”

 

It started raining almost immediately after Cornelius said that. The rain was cold and coming down very hard. After five minutes, the rain quickly disappeared and left everything wet and soggy. I hated my hair being soggy because it stuck to my clothes and skin, but this was my chance to get one wish. After the rain disappeared, we saw one rainbow, then another and another.

 

Cornelius said, “Oh my gosh! They must be trying to trick us, so we go to the wrong one and something will happen!”

 

Cornelius started flying around the rainbows, seeing which one was the strongest to follow to the end. The first one had a puddle of green slime at the bottom. The second was the same. And the third, the fourth, the fifth!

 

But the sixth rainbow had the gold in a golden pot, so Cornelius immediately yelled, “Here’s the gold!” and flew back to me.

 

I hopped on his back and headed back to get the gold. What we did not know was that there was something in the bushes awaiting our arrival.

We flew around for five minutes trying to go to the end of the rainbow.

 

When we landed and started reaching for the gold, a hard, long stick hit Cornelius and me on our hands. Cornelius said, “Ow, that hurt!” as we both turned around to see one small leprechaun, about two feet tall, standing right next to Cornelius.

 

Cornelius was so mad that he looked like he had fire in his eyes.

 

I was scared as I heard what the leprechaun said. “You keep your dirty hands off my gold! It’s mine, not yours!”

 

I responded, “We need the gold!”

 

The leprechaun replied. “Well, why do you need the gold? It’s my gold, and if you want the gold, you’ll have to fight me.”

 

Cornelius gave me my steel sword as I hopped on his back and prepared to fight. First, the leprechaun moved, pouring hard gold on us, then making it disappear into thin air. Then, after that, Cornelius blew fire at the leprechaun, and Cornelius flew over for the leprechaun, letting me throw my sword down at him, but he blocked it with a light green shield. It started heading for me and Cornelius, but I grabbed my sword before it hit Cornelius and me. The leprechaun tried hitting me off of Cornelius to hurt me and make Cornelius fight him on his own.

 

But he failed and fell into the pot of gold. He gave up because the gold cut and weakened him, making him not be able to move. Cornelius and I pulled him out of the pot of gold and put him on the ground sofly. Cornelius and I put our hand out to grab the pot of gold, but when we touched the pot, the ground fell from under the pot, Cornelius, and me.

 

We fell straight down falling in water. The room was very dark, but the only light was the light of the wishing well. Cornelius and I grabbed the pot of gold and moved it next to the well. Cornelius and I grabbed one piece of gold. I thought of what I wanted for a wish. And something crossed my mind. It was, You are not normal. Wish to be normal. You must be normal to go to normal school!!

 

The voice was right. I wasn’t normal, so I threw in the gold and said, “I wish to be normal.”

 

Then, I heard a small splash, and there was a deep voice that made the room shake.

 

It said, “You can’t be normal. No one can be normal. Everyone is different.”

 

Then, the piece of gold came out of the well.

 

I threw the gold back down and said, “Well, if I can’t be normal, I want to not be bullied in school.”

 

“Your wish is granted,” said the voice.

 

I said to Cornelius, “I can go to normal school!!! YESSS!!!”

 

Cornelius said, “Let’s go home,” sadly, with a tear running down his hard, scaly cheeks.

 

“I must have made him sad by saying, ‘I can go to normal school!!! YESSS!!!’” Then, I had made my mind up. I would stay with Cornelius as my teacher, since he came all this way for me.

 

“I’m sorry that I said, ‘I can go to normal school!!! YESSS!!!’ You’re the best at teaching,” I said as we flew into the sunset.

 

THE END

 

The Lovely Lamb (Bugatti)

This toy is beautiful. It’s shiny, big, and expensive. I can ride up to 55 miles per hour!! It even has parking lights, and it’s like a real car but for kids to drive. It even has the lever to push and go on the road or to reverse or to park. People will eat my dust when I pull up in the driver’s seat in my ride. I can drive anybody in the front passenger seat. It has only driver and front passenger seats because it’s one of those expensive cars. I haven’t got it yet, but it’s my dream mini car. It’s so big and real that you could mistake it for a kid driving a real car, but it’s not dangerous. Even adults can comfortably drive it; that’s how big it is. My name is Uniqua, and this car is the best car you’ll ever see.

This is important because I am really wishing for it. It’s something I’ve always wanted. It’s so cool to have, and it goes really fast for a child. And it can help you for driving since it’s basically a real car. It even has a radio and a screen, like for YouTube or GPS, where usually you see the radio. It’s between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat like a regular advanced car. It’s a child’s dream car, this child’s dream car. It’s so good it’s 50,000 dollars, but that’s too much, so on my phone I have a cheaper one.

I see this item on display online. It looks so beautiful. Of course I have never tested it. First off, it’s a car, and second of all, I don’t even have it yet. Also, although I don’t have the car, by it’s looks I can just feel how shiny and smooth it is. It even has scissor doors. Scissor doors! Do you know how awesome that is! I will roam the world with that car. Ahh, now this is just my dream. I want this car… wait hold up, actually not even want, I need this car. Ooooooo look at this beaut. Don’t you just love this. Now I’m going to plead with my mom and persuade her to get this car because I must have it. I go home.

“Good afternoon, Mother. Can I get you anything to drink?”

I think, This car is gonna be mine. Haha. All I have to do is be respectful. I plot as I give my mother water. (Mother looks confused since I am disrespectful to everyone, but I am the youngest in the house.)

I hum, “Mm, hhm, mhmm. Mommy, can I please get this Mini Veyron for kids!”

“Haha,” Mom chuckles. “I will get that for you when you go to college.”

“But Moooom, this is for children. How would you feel if you needed something and then you didn’t get it, but you would rejoice if you did get it, right?” (Mom stays silent.) Grr, of course pathos didn’t work. She is heartless. It is time for logos and ethos. “Mom, don’t you know how well I’ve been doing in school? And you still owe me a trip to Taco Bell.”

“Fine. Since you won’t shut up, I will get it.”

 

Three months later…

 

Ding-dong!!!

“AHHHHHHH!!! THE CAR IS FINALLY HERE!!!”

(I open the door and hug the mailman, then snatch the car keys.) Finally, finally, I open the door to my new car.

Ooooooooo it’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I will cherish it forever. (But that’s only what I thought.) I decide to speak to it, and so I go to the road to drive it. Vroom. Wow, it even starts like a real car, but it wasn’t my car. As I get ready to drive, a Mercedes-Benz crushes me and the car together. The driver calls for help. Whoop, whoop go the sirens as I am rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, I am put on a monitor. I’m not looking too good. I literally looked crushed. I am badly hurt and look horrible.

 

One day later…

 

Uniqua is in a dark and grassy cemetery. She is lifeless, doing nothing with her arms crossed around her chest. Uniqua is thinking about nothing because she is limp and lifeless. She can’t see anything because her eyes are shut completely and forever in a casket. If she could see, which she can’t, she would see a soft and white blanket sewed on the inside of the casket. Unless Uniqua resurrects or reincarnates, she will never see what that casket looks like. Uniqua’s family was able to set up a GoFundMe account that afforded them the ability to give Uniqua a beautiful funeral service.

 

THE END

(LITERALLY)

 

The Magic Apple

 

Hello, my name is John. I was a slave from 1710, I think. So, I’m going to tell you a story about my slave life.

 

When I was six, I got separated from my family. People took me and my parents away from Africa. For the next seven years, we had been working and working, treated like peasants.

 

One day, I heard our guard, Mr. Simpoop, saying that there was a myth that there was an apple in a cave that could cure any sickness. Thousands of people had tried to get it, and no one had come back. I heard they were getting some soldiers to go inside the cave to get the apple. Our guard was cracking up when he heard that.

 

“Ha ha ha ha. Yeah right, there’s some magical apple in a cave. Hahah ha ha ha. Oh my god. Nice joke, but it can’t fool me. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

 

“Okay, whatever you say, Mr. Simpoop.”

 

Then, the guy left. In my head, I kind of wanted to do it. Get freedom. He would never let me though. I guess I would never try to do it.

 

When I went to bed, I had a dream.

 

I was working, and a voice told me, “Go get it. You are the chosen one. Wake up and leave.”

 

Suddenly I woke up, and I was not sure how, but I knew where to go. I left the house and went into this run down wooden shack. I saw a sword and took it. Suddenly, the ground disappeared, and I fell into a hole. There was a cave. I took out my sword and walked slowly down the cave. I did think that it would be very dark inside the cave, but it was really red, and it kind of had the feeling like it was evil. Suddenly, a rock fell behind me, and I knew I could not leave yet. This would be a big adventure.

 

I continued walking and realized I was being watched, but I didn’t know where. I continued, and I saw light. I felt like I had not seen light in years, even though that was not true. For a moment, I thought that I had found the apple, like I was done with the mission. But I had a feeling that this was only the beginning. Once I got to the light, it had disappeared. And I heard a laugh but not some ordinary laugh — an evil laugh, very evil, and it was coming from on top of me. So I went up the stairs, and it was still laughing, but there was no one there. Then, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, and there was a man but not some ordinary man. He was not a human. He was like a monster but in a human form. He had an evil smile. I swung my sword at him, and I could not move. I was stuck. I tried to swing at him with my sword, but it would not let me. I felt numb and lost consciousness.

 

Then, I woke up in a large cage filled with white people. They were all staring at me. I thought that these were the people who tried to get the apple but never came back. Most of them were dead. Everyone else was very, very tired. I had to figure out how to escape while I still had the energy. I was feeling sleepy. I looked around to see if the monster guy was there. I didn’t see him, but I felt like he was always watching. I looked around for my sword and realized he had taken it. But I saw one man who was looking at me, smiling, but not an evil smile — a nice smile.

 

Then, he said, “Hello, who are you?”

 

I did not know what to say because, well, I was a slave. And he was not a slave. He looked poor though. So, I told him that I was a slave and my whole story. I tried to hit the metal bars, but nothing happened. I looked in the pockets of the other people and found a penny. I didn’t pick the lock yet because I still had a feeling that he was watching. Suddenly I felt like he had gone. I knew that this was my chance. I picked the lock on the door and left, tip-toeing. I went inside a room with my “friend,” and I found my sword. I called it Byuma, the name of our tribe.

 

Then, I heard footsteps — the same footsteps as the monster. His big and loud footsteps. He was coming! So, I quickly went under a table with my friend. The monster went right past us. I felt like he saw us, but he did not look at us or stay in the room. He left the room, and it sounded like he disappeared. But I knew not to go because he might be at the exit of the room. And I didn’t think that he would be very happy when he saw us out of our cage. I looked up and saw a paper. I was not sure what it said, but I had a feeling that it was important. I wanted to get up from under the table, but I knew that I would have to wait. So, I waited about 30 minutes then finally got up and looked at the paper: You are here to trap the mortals, you cannot leave this area, do not try to leave you will regret it. That gave me an idea! If he wasn’t able to leave, maybe the best idea was to make a run for it. Try to leave the area and run. So I told my friend the idea — I think he nodded.

 

I went and ran towards the exit, and I saw the monster behind, levitating. He was very fast, but we managed to make it out in time. Woah, that was very close. We continued running and saw a blanket with a beam of light coming out. I took the blanket off, and there was the apple. My friend was silent, and I was too. We had found the apple. We turned around and saw the monster — he was not behind us. He was still in the area we had been captured in. Suddenly, he started to levitate towards us, but the second he left the area, he disappeared. And we saw the people in the cage walking out of the cage, and they were all energetic (except for the dead ones — they were really dead).

 

We all poured out of the cave, and everyone ran home. When I showed my owner the apple, I used it to heal his wife who was sick. After that, Mr. Simpoop gave us freedom. So, you would think this would be the end of the story. But you’re wrong. There were still some people that wanted this apple. The story is far from done. So, I’ll continue. So, I did get the apple, but that did not make a difference. I was free, but I had no house, no food, and people still tried to take it from me. I just wished I was still in Africa with my tribe, Byuma. Man, I really wanted to see my grandpa and grandma. Suddenly, five men came up with bats. They were big, tough-looking bullies. I started running and not surprisingly, they followed me. They were very fast. After five minutes of running, they stopped. They were cursing at me like crazy. I continued running and hid inside an alleyway. I thought I was safe. I was, for now.

 

But one day later, I was not. I went to bed inside this alleyway. And I woke up early. I didn’t know the time, but I could tell it was early. There was barely any sun. The wind howled like there were thousands of owls. But no other noises. So, I walked out of the alleyway thinking, What I should do with my life. How would I get back to Africa? Where should I eat? I had no money, no anything. I was so hungry. Suddenly, I realized that I had the apple. It was magic. Maybe it could cure my hunger. So, I had a bite of it, and I had no words. It tasted so good. And I wasn’t hungry at all. Maybe I could live with this apple: it regenerated each bite. I continued walking around the city, looking for anything I could do. Then, I thought about how I could get home. I just needed a boat. The problem was I did not know which way was east and which way was west. Could the magic apple do more than I thought?

 

I tried asking it how to get home, and I heard a voice saying, “Left, my friend. Left.”

 

Did that mean I had to go to the left? Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I went to the left. Was there a boat waiting for me? Was it an even bigger surprise? There was only one way to find out. I continued walking for about 30 minutes until I found a horse with someone on it. At this time, I was surprised someone else was awake. Maybe that was why she was telling me to go to the left. The person told me to get on the horse. So, I went on, and the guy hit me with a bat. And the horse ran off with me. Later, I woke up in a cage. Oh god, not again. The guys looked like bandits. They had tons of money on a table. And there was no one else in this cage. I nothing to do. The apple told me the wrong thing.

 

Then, I heard the a voice saying, “Do not worry. This was planned.”

 

I thought, What? Planned? But I didn’t say anything.

 

“Turn around, and you will be free. I must go now. Good luck.”

 

I turned around, and I saw my friend, the one I met while doing the apple quest. He took off his mask, and he was black. He was a slave undercover to get the apple. It all made sense now. He gave me a drink. So, I had it, and I felt weird.

 

Then he said, “Follow me.”

 

And he walked through the wall. So, I tried to copy him, and I walked right through the wall too. And when I looked, I saw a boat. He told me to go on the boat. And once I went on the boat, I was in Africa next to my tribe: Byuma. I was so happy to see my family.

 

The End

 

Soccer

Kevin was a nine-year-old soccer player from the USA. His dream was to win the World Cup. Right now, he played on a Little League team called Simply Sports FC. He played striker. He won the State Cup Finals, and he was now in Red Bulls Academy. His best friend, Shane, was also in the Red Bulls Academy. Shane was his strike partner. Shane hung out with him a lot, and they both made the USA U-Thirteen team, and they won under 13 Olympics.

On his 18th birthday, the USA team called him up for the World Cup team.

He screamed, “Best present ever!”

Shane, who also had the same phone, the iPhone X, was called right after that to also be in the World Cup with the USA.

They both went to each other and said, “Guess what just happened?” at the same time.

And both said at the same time, “I’m in the World Cup for USA!”

They said, “That’s what I was gonna say!”

Once they got to training, meeting all these famous players, like Pulisic and Tim Howard, would be hard. But once the real training started, they felt fine. They had all the skills to match the other players. When it came to shooting drills, the only person who could get the ball past Tim Howard was Pulisic. Their best achievement was scoring at least one goal on Howard.

The team was so good that they qualified for the World Cup! They had to play Messi, the great Ronaldo, Pogba, Griezmann, and David de Gea. So far, Kevin and Shane were doing well. They had three goals, and they were feeling great. USA was undefeated because of the “Stonewall,” Tim Howard. When they made it to the semi-finals, their match against Germany would be really hard because they would play against the “Keeper Sweeper,” Manuel Neuer. But they managed to score a few goals and win 3-1. When they made it to the finals, they had to play the hardest opponent, England, and they won. The score was 2-2 USA. Kevin scored once, and Shane did too. It was a really close match. When Kane scored two for England, the US team got nervous.

When it was overtime, both teams scored one goal, Kevin for USA and Sterling scored for England. It went all the way to penalties, and it was down to Kevin to make the winning kick for the USA. He was feeling so nervous. He made his run up short and smashed the ball into the top right corner of the goal. England’s goalie dove to the bottom left. He was so happy that they had won the World Cup finals. When he scored, he screamed, “Yes!” He did it. He finally won the World Cup.

THE END

 

The Mad Story

I was on the top of my van, and I was sunbathing. Suddenly, I heard the engine start. I looked down and saw a man, who had stolen my keys with a fishing rod, driving the van! I hung on the van and was so scared! I could die! The man was driving to a place where I saw many cars with water dripping all over them. They had men scrubbing them all over, and there was a place where I saw huge, scrubby soapy things all around with zero degree water. The man headed right there. It was so cold and scary he forced me to go there and give him my wallet and credit card, and he stole my car. I ran to my house and called 911.

I said, “Someone stole my keys with a fishing rod, stole my van, and my wallet, by forcing me in a car wash!”

The police officer just laughed. “Ha ha ha, ya weakling. They stole all of that by making you go into a car wash?! Think I’m gonna fall for that one, no way! Yer under arrest for three days for wasting my time!”

I ran from my house, saw a stranger on the street, and asked him if he saw a man riding in a van holding a fishing rod around here.

He said, “Yeah, I saw him. He told me he was going to Canada. Then, he stole my wallet! I’m going to get my car and chase him!”

I told him about what he did to me and how much I wanted my revenge. I asked the man, whose name was Bob, if he knew about the man.

Bob said, “Yes.” He said that the man was part of a gang. He also said that the man’s name was Olaf. When I asked him Olaf’s last name, he said it was Olaf. The name Olaf Olaf sounded very familiar to me. When I thought back to my dead family, it came to me! Olaf Olaf was the name of the man who had murdered my family! He was sent to jail, and he must have escaped.

When I told this to Bob, he didn’t sound so surprised. He told me he heard the news years back. We came up with a plan to track Olaf down, capture him, then turn him to the police. At that moment, we heard a police siren, and I told Bob to drive away together. We got away, but we were still on a police chase. Unfortunately, we came to a dead end. Bob and I were caught by the police and sentenced two weeks in jail, for running away from the police. I thought about Olaf committing more and more crimes. We were in our cell. It was hopeless. Life was gone. We grew beards, marked our days. For two days, we slept. All we ate was french fries. One day, we heard a blast in the wall.

“Blimey, what happened,” an officer said.

“Let’s get em, bub!” another said.

“CHARGE!!!” all of them said.

All of the officers charged, and criminals who had exploded the wall put down a gas bomb. Boom!!!

All the officers laid down on the floor. The criminals freed all the criminals, including me and Bob. We ran from the hotel, took one of the police cars, and drove to Canada.

“Wow,” I said to Bob.

“That was lucky,” he said to me.

As we drove all the way to Canada, we stopped somewhere to eat. While we were eating, we were watching the news.

Some news reporter said, “A man named Olaf Olaf has robbed the bank, and the police have currently been trying to track him down. There has also been another crime at a jail, too. A bunch o’ robbers broke into a jail and freed all the prisoners. Police have also been trying to track em down.”

“We gotta leave,” I said.

“Yeah,” Bob said.

We got back in the car and continued driving to Canada. We heard that Olaf Olaf was headed to Mount Robson, for no apparent reason. When we were driving, we saw a speeding vehicle ahead of us. When we looked who was inside of it, we saw Olaf driving my van! When we looked behind him, we saw more cars speeding behind him. Those must be the members of his gang, I thought. When we looked behind the gang member’s car’s, we saw the police.

“Hey, those were some of the other people who escaped from jail!”

“Let’s get ‘em too!!!”

“Oh no,” I said to Bob.

“What should we do?” he asked me.

Go!!!” I shouted.

We sped past the police and past the cars in front of us. We went as fast as we would go. I wondered how we would get Olaf in jail, also with proving our innocence. When we lined up with my own van, (which Olaf was driving) he yelled at me.

“Yer never gonna catch me!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

We directly aligned with the van, then I got my fishing rod and tried to get his/my keys. Unfortunately, I am not an experienced fisher, so when I tried to get his keys, I missed and got some hair. Then when I went for my wallet, I got it! When I got my fishing rod back up to my car, I opened my wallet, and it was empty!!!

I yelled at Olaf and said, “How is it empty!!!”

“I tricked you!!! That was a fake!!! Hahaha!!!” He shouted at me when he pulled out my real wallet. “You are so easy to trick!!!”

I growled at him with anger. I asked Bob if he wanted his revenge, and he told me that he did. If only I could have gotten those keys. I would’ve stopped the van, turned him over, explained our innocence, and gotten our money back. Olaf Olaf would pay for what he did. I thought back and remembered my last moment with my parents. I told them that I would be going to work, and then they died.

Bob and I kept thinking to come up with a plan to steal Olaf’s/my keys. We took a detour, to make the police stop following us and also to discuss our ideas. We stopped in a closed area, where the police would never find us. We made ourselves a sandwich, with some ingredients we found from the mall.

When we discussed our ideas, we finally came up with a plan: Bob would go and somehow distract the gang members of Olaf, while I would go and try to get the keys. I needed the police to keep Olaf distracted. Maybe I could sneak up on the top of the van and somehow steal the keys. I told this to Bob, and he said that it would not work. I told him that we should give it a try. He said okay. So we tried it.

We went on the path to Mount Robson. We drove and drove, until we came across Olaf’s gang. We came next to them, and Bob set out to distract Olaf’s gang. I auto drove my car and put my hands on the van. I thought about how much I needed the keys and the money. If I didn’t get that money, I would be considered a failure. I swung my legs over, put them on the top of the van, and grabbed the top of the van. I was on! I held on the top of the van for life. When the van was driving, it hit a bump. I flew off the top, only holding on with a finger. Bob had stopped his car, so I had to get back on the top of the van. I put my foot on a ledge of the van, grabbed the top, and swung myself over again. I grabbed my fishing rod with my hand and held on the van with one hand. I put the rod on top of the hole on the roof. I pressed the button, and the cord fell. Through the hole, inside the van, and next to the keys. I moved the rod, and it hooked on the keys. I let go of the van, got the keys, and flew completely off the van. I landed surprisingly unhurt on one of the other cars in Olaf’s gang with the keys in my hand! Thankfully, none of the cars had mirrors, so they didn’t notice me. I quickly stopped Olaf’s car and locked his doors.

People in his gang behind him quickly stopped, and the police caught up with them surrounded their car and said, “Yer under arrest, Bub.”

“They stole our car, stole our wallets, killed my family, and tried to get away with it. We are innocent. Don’t arrest us,” said Bob and I.

“Fine, I believe yer junk,” an officer said

“I’m coming for you!!!” Olaf Olaf shouted.

“You will pay for your crimes, Olaf,” I told him.

In the end, Olaf and his gang were arrested, and Bob and I got our money back. We got back to our houses, I got to use my own van. In the end I learned a valuable lesson: never sunbathe on the top of your van.

 

Italy to New York City

Hi, my name is Sonia. I live in Italy with my mom, dad, two brothers, and sister. My family is very poor. I want to go to New York City. I’m leaving in three days with my sister. We got our passports. We have to wait three more days before we can go on the train to get to the boat. I’m nervous and excited, and I have to pack my bags. I pack bread, clothes, and a special necklace that my mom gave me. The next morning it is time to go to the train. When we got to the train, I lose my sister. I’m so mad at myself for losing my sister in the crowd.

I look outside the window and see trees and water. We are almost at the boat, the SS Norden. The train stops, and I get off the train. All I could think about is my sister. My sister is tall and looks like me. She has a black dress and a white bow. She has very long, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She is carrying a black bag. I miss her so much. I go in the boat, and it is steering. I feel sick and eat some bread. I wish I never lost my sister. I hope I find her soon. The next morning, I go up on the top of the boat, and I sit. It smells weird. I have to sleep, so I go to bed. A month passes, and we still have not gotten there yet.

But then, I see a statue. Someone is screaming, “Statue of Liberty!”

We are almost at Ellis Island. Finally, we get off the boat. We walk into a big building and go into an area that is fenced in. There are people that look over our whole body. I saw other people with marks on their coats, but I did not have one. They tell us to walk down the stairs and take us into a big room and ask us questions. They asked me what my name is, and they change my name to Sofia. I walk out of the room, and we walk into the same room we were in before. People pass ten dollars around, and it comes to me. I am told to use it and then pass it on. We are then herded onto a boat and sit there for four minutes. We depart the boat and are free on the island. We are in New York.

My dad gives me a paper that tells me where I am going to live. The streets are so very crowded. I walk for a long time. Carriages and horses, fruitsellers, all different types of people. The noise and tons of buildings are crazy. I keep walking and am almost there. As I arrive, I see fabric on the walls and metal ceilings, but I have to go up the stairs. I open the door, and I see my sister sitting in the room. I am so happy to see my sister and am very surprised. We talk about our journey and how she got here.

“How did you get here so fast?!” I say.

“I took the boat before you. You missed that one,” Kiara says.

“That’s why my boat took so long.”

“I wish I never lost you,” Kiara tells me.

“Me too,” I cry.

This was a great experience.

 

Bob and Bobby the Weirdos

One day Bob woke up and went to the bathroom, so he could brush his teeth. When he finished brushing, his mom called him for breakfast. It was eggs breakfast. When Bob looked at the news, he saw that a bank was robbed. When he finished his breakfast, he went to his friend Bobby’s house to tell him what happened and asked him to help him find the robber.

Bobby said, “Sure.”

So, they took Bobby’s dad’s car and drove it without a driver’s license. They had multiple crashes, but they ended up where they wanted to be, with twenty-seven scratches. They arrived in twenty days because they crashed twenty-seven times, but they were there. The bank was twenty miles away from Bob’s house.

“Where to?” said Bobby. “Are we gonna look for the criminal?”

“No, we’re gonna go to Wolfgang Steakhouse! I just lost my head a little bit over there,” Bob said.

“Now I think we have to head to the bank,” said Bobby.

“Yes,” said Bob. “Time to go back to my house.”

“What?” said Bobby.

“I only came here to have a good thinking spot for the plan,” said Bob.

“This is the loudest place in the town,” Bobby said. “Because there’s a lot of traffic.”

“Time to walk back to the house,” said Bob.

“You’re annoying, Bob!” Bobby told Bob as they walked towards Australia to rent a car there.

They put the car in a plane, and they got arrested because you’re not allowed to put a car in a plane. But luckily, the jail was right next to Bobby’s house. And they were happy. And sad that they wasted tons of money for two cars and a first class plane. But luckily, Bob and Bobby were going to jail next to Bobby’s house.

When Bob and Bobby arrived, they sat in the jail cell. Bobby had an idea. His idea was to steal a police officer’s clothes, and since Bob and Bobby are both nine, Bob got on top of Bobby’s shoulders because Bobby is stronger than Bob. Then, Bobby wore the police’s pants. Then, Bob wore his shirt, and they took the key out of the big police pants. Then they got out of the jail cell and walked one mile an hour out of jail. Next, they went back to Bobby’s parents’ house and stole the other car. Then, Bob asked Bobby if he got the plan.

And then, Bobby said, “Probably.”

Next, Bob said, “Good.”

And then they did as the plan said. When they got out, they went to the car. The first part was perfect, but they forgot to take off their police suit, and then fell at the front door and broke the window. Next, they took off the police suit and got the car. But the garage door closed behind them, so when they got in the car, they started driving and smashed into the garage door and drove through it. The car’s lamps broke severely. And by accident they drove to New Zealand. When they realized that they were in New Zealand, they actually drove to the bank. Then, they saw the robber and a Wolfgang restaurant. But instead they went to the Wolfgang restaurant And Bobby went mad and ran all the way back to his own house. Bob was wishing for that to happen.

Bob was very happy. Now he could have steak without a non stop talker with very bad temper.

“Sir! Sir! Sir!!!” It was the waiter asking for the order, and Bob was daydreaming. Bobby was right next to Bob shaking him to wake him up.

“Cghdyetrpon?” said Bob.

“May I take your order?” said the waiter.

“Huh,” said Bob. “Me want steek.”

“One steek coming up,” said the waiter.

“No!” said Bob. “I want my food to come down, not up!”

“Okay okay okay,” said the waiter.

Thirty minutes later, the food came and the food was soup. But it was supposed to be steak.

Bob was sleeping, so he said, “Steek.” On the menu there was steek soup, so they thought that he wanted soup. Then, Bob sued the waiter immediately and walked out with a one hundred dollar bill.

He tried to be generous to the other tables that sat there and didn’t do anything, so he left the bill there. Then, the waiter took the bill back. Then, Bob and Bobby left and sat inside of the car. Bob turned on the wheel, and they started for home. They got into twenty-five car crashes, and then Bobby called Bob so forgetful because they forgot to stop the robber. Then, they took the same car they crashed and went slower than walking speed. They arrived with zero crashes because they were going so slow. Then when they arrived at the bank, they saw footsteps going one way. It was a fork in the road, so they chose to follow the footsteps. But the robber had put the footsteps there, so they would follow that path.

“This can only mean one thing,” Bob said. “We go the other way.”

They walked the other way, and then they saw a fifty dollar bill on the other road. So they picked it up and walked that way because that was probably where the robber was since he dropped the money.

“At least we got half of the money back!” Bob said and he put it in the bank because the bank never moved and to return some of the money the robber stole.

Then, they continued walking on that road which led into a driveway. They didn’t notice, so they kept walking, and Bobby got hit by a car. He got a concussion and broke his back, so they had to go back home on foot.

Three months later, they arrived bruised and barely breathing. Then, they went to the hospital, and Bobby got a lot of casts and wasn’t allowed to walk for another week, but he wasn’t going to die. Bob was sad, and Bobby was happy. Bob was upset that Bobby didn’t die because Bobby didn’t behave well on their vacation. So, Bob went alone while Bobby couldn’t walk. He walked and walked and walked, but soon he figured out that he wasn’t at the bank, he was in Hawaii.

“At least it’s not as bad as when I was in Australia, but it’s still really bad,” said Bob.

When he came back to New York, he bought a car, but sadly the car shop was right next to the bank, so he wasted all his money, and now he was broke. He didn’t get a receipt, so he couldn’t return the car. At least I got a new car for the family, he thought. But he was daydreaming and crashed the car into the bank. He tried to sue the guy that sold the car, but he couldn’t because it was his own fault. So, he couldn’t sue. So, he walked into the bank through the hole he made in the wall.

He saw the broken money holders inside the bank that the robber broke open. The robbery was over a year ago, so Bob was now ten. He was smarter now, so he followed the old money path which was actually a twenty-six mile loop. So then he followed the highway.

He was going to do anything to find food. At least he found Burger King. He tried to go inside, but it was shut down. So, he had to continue his road to the robber. Bob was exhausted. He wished that he had brought Bobby with him. Then, he saw Bobby right behind him. He looked even more exhausted than him and was wearing a ripped pillow case. He said that he broke out of the hospital, and the hospital dogs attacked him. He managed to outsmart them by making them slam into a wall. But while he was doing this, he was attacked, but he ran away. So. they broke inside the Burger King and ate all their food. Then when Bobby came out, he looked at Bob.

“You’re as big as a balloon,” Bobby said.

Bob agreed and tried to run, but he toppled over. He bruised his arm. Then, Bobby saw something. It was a person in a black ski mask. It was the robber. Bobby tried to catch up to him, but the robber was too fast, and Bobby ate too much, so he toppled over too. Bob and Bobby couldn’t get up, so they had to roll wherever they went.

Finally, they got to the wall and were able to get up. Then, they both threw up and lost all their weight. They ran the way the robber went. They finally saw the robber pickpocketing someone at a five star restaurant. Bob was just about to tackle him, but the robber took the guy he stole the wallet from, so instead Bob tackled the innocent person. Bob asked him what his name was and said sorry, and then ran after the robber with Bobby. Then, they saw the police. The robber pulled Bob to the side and put his ski mask on his head and gave the money to Bob. Then, the police thought that Bob was the robber.

Then, the guy that the robber pickpocketed said, “No, it’s not Bob. It’s someone else.”

They found the robber, and luckily the police were faster than the robber, and they caught him.

“Finally! It was an exhausting year, but we finally caught him,” said Bob.

Finally, Bob got to ride in a car with a good driver, and the police didn’t let him sit in the front seat. Bob and Bobby were put into jail because they broke out last time. They were there for two months and had a great time in jail. There was Wi-Fi, so they got to do everything they wanted to do on their electronics. And the food service was much better than at Wolfgang. They didn’t deserve to be sued.

“This is perfect,” Bob told Bobby.

“Yeah,” said Bobby. “I’ve never had an experience better than this one.”

“I love jail,” said Bob. “We should ask for an extra night.”

“Yeah. But sadly my parents are screaming outside for me, so I don’t think that can happen,” said Bobby.

When the two months were over, they were released, and they both went home with their parents. But when Bob got home, it turned out that his parents were at Wolfgang, and Bob walked all the way there on his bare feet. The moment he got there, his mom spanked him so many times because he crashed their cars and the Lamborghini. They had to sell all their property for more money and gave the money to Bobby’s parents so that they could make fun for all of them. They also built a new part of Bobby’s house to make the house bigger. But sadly, there was no Wi-Fi in Bobby’s house, so they stretched the Wi-Fi closer to their house. Then, Bob and Bobby got their Xboxes and played. After five hours of screen time, they finally left the TV.

Then, they saw the robber’s son outside the door looking for his dad in jail. So, Bob and Bobby picked up the baby and walked all the way to jail and threw him into the cell with a bottle of milk. Then, they bought a toy car for their house to learn how to drive. They were no better than they were in a real car. They bumped into everything and broke a vase and turned over tables in three minutes.

“This isn’t the worst we’ve done. Remember the Lamborghini?” said Bob. “We wasted so much money.”

While they were walking home, Bob saw his new best friend on the street. Because Bobby wasn’t his friend anymore, he was his brother because they lived in the same house. Bobby asked Bob’s mom what was dinner.

Bob’s mom said, “We’re going to Wolfgang restaurant.”

Bob said, “No way, I’m never going there. I sued them.”

“Too bad,” Bob’s mom said. “But this time instead of walking, we’re going in a taxi.”

When they arrived, the same waiter they sued was serving them. Bob and Bobby ran all the way home screaming. They ran into the bathroom and locked the door. The waiter did the same thing. All the parents sued the restaurant and walked home.

Wolfgang and their home were eighteen miles apart. They were exhausted when they got home and asked Bob and Bobby how they walked almost one hundred and fifty miles nonstop.

Bob said, “You just need a person with you who always wears a ripped pillow case for a shirt.” Then, Bobby’s mom glared at him. Bob said, “Sorry.”

Then, Bobby gave him a slap on the back, and they roasted chicken wings with bbq sauce, french fries, and mashed potatoes. They had salad for an appetizer. Bob and Bobby were so hungry that they gobbled everything down at the speed of sound.

Then Bob said, “Do you think we’ll do this again?”

“I don’t know,” Bobby said, and everyone laughed.

 

Jake’s Friends

Jake’s eight friends are at Logan’s house, and Logan is deciding in his room what they should do. Then finally Logan has an idea.

“Let’s watch some TV.” Then he asks Jake, “What should we watch?”

“Teen Titans Go.”

They watch Teen Titans Go, and in the middle of the show, Jake asks for Logan to get him a snack, so Jake pauses the TV while Logan goes off to get him a snack. They have ice cream, noodles, and crackers with only chocolate in them for snack. They only have two crackers at a time. They all have four crackers because they want a double serving of crackers. This is a special day, because they don’t usually stay at Logan’s house for so long. So when they finish their last cracker, and all their food, the show ends and the friends ask:

“Whaaat should we do?”

Jake says, “Let’s go over to my house! And let’s swim in the pool for about half an hour and then play with my dog, then we can come back to Logan’s house and watch more TV!”

While they get ready to go out the door, Logan says,

“I’m going to go to the store to buy a dog, so I’ll meet you at Jake’s house.”

And then Jake says, “Sure, but don’t be late.”

So Logan goes over to the store while Jake and his friends go to Jake’s house on their skateboards. Logan gets a dog and then remembers on his way that there’s a shorter way to Jake’s house. He goes from the store to Jake’s house fifteen minutes after Jake went to the house and started swimming, and then it was fifteen minutes later when Logan went to the house and met them there. Then Jake says,

“That was quite a long time, we only have fifteen more minutes to go and play in the pool.”

So they have fifteen more minutes in the pool; then they go back inside the house and dry off and then Jake says, “Let’s play with my dog and let’s see two songs that I wanted you guys to see.”

And Logan reminds them, “Wait, I brought my dog over here.”

And they say, “Well let’s play with both dogs, and we need a name for your dog.”

And Jake says, “And since you haven’t met my dog, you need to know his name is Joseph.”

So they name Logan’s dog, and they decide for it to start with an ‘L.’ They decide for it to be “Lake.”

Lake is a blond curly haired dog and bigger than Joseph. The dogs start wrestling with each other and Jake and his friends and Logan watch the wrestling of the dogs and then they start to watch these two songs called “Man’s Not Hot” and “Man’s Not Cold.” Then they see how many subscribers they have in Jake’s house and in Logan’s house; then they watch another episode of Teen Titans Go at Logan’s house. Then they see how many people have subscribed to the “It’s Everyday Bro” remix, and then they see how many have subscribed on “Man’s not Hot,” and then they see how many have subscribed on “Man’s not Cold” with Jake’s eight friends.                                                                                         

 

THE END

 

Peanut

My name is Peanut. I am a robot. Not one of those robots who takes over the world, or steals all of your jobs and makes you homeless. Instead, I am a helper robot. That means a robot who will help you clean the stinky bathroom, or clean the dusty attic, or wipe your butt. Right now, I am helping Red. I am helping him clean the stinky bathroom, and clean the attic, and wipe his butt.

Every Saturday, he goes out and does not come back until midnight. He wears something called a ski mask and comes back with a buttload of money. One day, I asked him what he was doing on Saturdays.

“None of your beeswax, stupid robot. Now wipe my butt.”

So, I wiped his butt.

 

Red Hood

 

Beep beep beep beep. Did I mention that I am also a portable alarm clock? It was Sunday, and as expected, he came back last night wearing a black ski mask and holding two bags with dollar signs on them. I knew it was weird, but I did not say anything. Today he woke up, and I brushed his teeth, and I dressed him, and he used the bathroom, so I had to wipe his butt. Then, he went downstairs and turned on the TV.

“In the year 3014, we have been having an all time record in crime thanks to the Red Hood who has attacked banks all over Brooklyn. He has stolen over 100 million dollars in one day and in total has stolen 600 million dollars. Watch out, Brooklyn. The Red Hood is a master criminal.”

Red just chuckled.

 

Morning Routine

 

Today I asked him what he doing again because I knew something was happening. I just could not put my robotic finger on it.

All he said was, “Nothing,” and my programming says to agree with Red no matter if I know it is false or not, so I nodded and went upstairs to clean the attic

Today is Tuesday, and we did our morning routine, which is to wake Red up, then brush his teeth, then wipe his butt, which was not even dirty today. There was no poop on that butt at all. Then, I cleaned the attic. Then, I did everything else that a helper robot is programmed to do.

 

Red Hood and Red

 

Today is another Saturday, so I expect Red to leave soon. I asked him again because I am starting to figure out that Red is not going to a bar and getting drunk or something, but he is doing something secret that he really does not want me to know, even though I can help him.

This time, he tells me this, “Okay, if I tell you, then will you stop asking me.” I nodded. “Okay, I’ll tell you.’’ He started to whisper, then he looked around to make sure that no one was around. “I am Red Hood.”

 

When the Police Get Involved

 

“Okay.”

“Wait, that’s it?”

“You’re not gonna say ‘what’ or ‘no way?’”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

Then, he got up and left to be Red Hood once again. Another part of my programming says that I have to tell the police if something bad may happen or if I find a criminal. So I called the police over to the house.

When they came, they said stuff like, “Who’s Red Hood.”

So I answered, “Red Revata.” (Red’s full name.)

“Where is he?” one cop said.

“Robbing a bank.”

“What??!! Oh dang it, we gotta go!”

“We got a Red Hood to catch!!”

Then, all the police got into the cars and went to the Boop Street Bank. But because I am programmed to help Red no matter what… I went to Boop Street Bank.

 

Red Hood and the Police (and a few sentences about me on the road.)

 

Inside the Boop Street Bank…

 

“I wonder how much I’ll get today ha ha.” Yuop yuop yuop yuop. “Oh come on, not the police.”

(Remember the year is 3014, so the tech is going to be a little bit more advanced.) Then, he pulled out his lazer gun. Then, he aimed at the ceiling and jumped right out onto the roof. Then, he ran and jumped from building to building while the police was still looking for him in the bank.

 

One the street…

 

“Get outta the road!!”

“Go to ya rich owner robots!!”

Then, I spotted Red! Well, it was Red Hood, but Red Hood is also Red, so it was Red Hood and Red. He stopped to breathe, and while he was doing that, I climbed up the building he was standing on. Then just as I got to the top, the police emerged from the hole in the bank roof.

 

We were talking a bunch.

“Peanut??!! What are you doing here??”

“My programming says that I need to help you when you are in potential danger.”

“How did you know that I was going to be chased on rooftops?”

“Because when I called the police on you — ”

“You did WHAT!!!”

“I called the police.”

“Yeah, you told me that.”

“Then I told them that you are Red Hood.”

“Uhhhhh why?”

“Because my — ”

“Right your programming blah blah blah.”

“You may want to run now.”

“Why?”

“Because while we were talking the police caught up to us.”

“Uh oh.”

 

The Escape

 

“Come here, Red Hood!! Your robot exposed you!!” Then he swung his nightstick around in the air like a lasso.

“Run, Peanut, run!!”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t have time for this.”

Then, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over the rooftops. We jumped from building to building to get to Red’s house. But the police were catching up slowly. So, Red pulled me harder, trying to make me go any faster.

Red is writing now: You don’t know how heavy a pure metal robot is.

Finally, we make it to the area where Red’s house is.

“How do we get down from here Peanut?” Red asked.

“I have plungers,” I said.

Red is writing now: I was confused that Peanut had plungers of all things. I mean plungers! Who has plungers!! But I guess they did help us get down from the building.

Red and I got down from the building thanks to my plungers. (I kiss my plungers in the background.) Once we got inside, Red ran to the kitchen and made a FOR SALE sign. Then, he went outside and hung up the FOR SALE sign. Then when the police came down from the building, somehow they came to the house and thought, I guess they aren’t here.

 

The Last One.

 

“I am so mad at you, Peanut!!”

“I am sorry, but I don’t really have feelings.”

“Then learn!!”

Then, he stormed up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door behind him with a bam!!

I carefully snuck up the stairs to make sure Red didn’t hear me. Then, I slowly knocked on the door. Clack clack clack.

“Get out.”

“My programming says — ”

“I don’t care. Just go.”

“Bu — ”

“Go… I said go!! Your stupid programming almost got me arrested!!” He took a deep breath and said, “For the last time… Go.”

Then, I walked down the stairs. Walked out the doors. And turned myself in to the police.

 

The End

 

Awesome Airplanes: The Escape From The TCOEP

 

The man, the leader of the TCOEP, told Matthew and Michael that he would be coming for them and walked away into the dust and disappeared.

 

“That was strange,” said Matthew after the leader of the TCOEP walked away.

 

“Yeah, he could have just got us right there,” said Michael as they reached their airplanes.

 

When they finally got to the base, it was already dawn. But the brothers didn’t get to rest for long. After they ate breakfast, the enemy alarm blared, startling Matthew and Michael. When Matthew walked over to the enemy detection screen, he saw something that surprised him! He saw that the enemy was in the control room of the base.

 

“What the?” said Matthew.

 

“Let’s go check it out,” said Michael as they went into the control room. In the control room, they heard a bomb, five, four, three, two, one.

 

“Uh-oh,” said Matthew as the bomb exploded.

 

When they woke up, Matthew and Michael found that they were in a jail cell in the TCOEP base. The jail cell was dirty, and there was a rusty bucket in the corner and an old bench and an emergency pack.

 

“Now what should we do?” asked Michael.

 

“I have an idea,” said Matthew, smiling and pulling out a chainsaw and slicing through the steel bars.

 

“Where did that chainsaw come from?” asked Michael.

 

“From the emergency pack over there,” said Matthew. “I bet they never check that emergency pack because all the criminals stuffed all their weapons in the emergency pack.”

 

“Now let’s get out of here!” yelled Michael as they broke out of the jail with weapons.

 

Getting out of the jail was not easy. There was a huge group of troopers guarding the base, so they had to sneak around a lot.

 

When they got outside, they saw that they were on a tall mountain and their base was in the distance.

 

“How are we going to get to our base?” asked Michael.

 

The brothers did not have a lot of time to think, because soon they were surrounded by troopers in black suits pointing rifles at them.

 

“Hands up!” said a trooper.

 

“Never!” Matthew yelled back as he and Michael got out guns from the emergency pack and started shooting.

 

Finally, the troopers surrendered.

 

“Where are the aircraft hangars?” asked Matthew to the troopers.

 

“They are right there,” said one of the troopers, pointing to a tall building.

 

Soon, they were on a helicopter flying back to their base. “Home sweet home!” said Michael as the helicopter landed.

 

Back in the base, the brothers received a message from their boss. The message said, Dear Matthew and Michael, please join the Navy. Sincerely, your boss.

 

The Animal Shelter

Once upon a time, Amy was walking through the village, when she was thinking of having a bake sale to raise money for the animal shelter that was going out of business. So, as the caring person that she was, she wanted to help the animal shelter. As a use to staff, she wanted to help the shelter, so no animal had to suffer and not have a family. When she looked at the shelter, there was a sign. It said, We will close on July 10 at 8pm, which was today, (goal: $1,000).

After she read the sign, she said to herself, “l can do this.”

So, she quickly went to the bakery and found some items. The first item in her shopping list was a pumpkin pie (the cost: $5.00). The second item on the list was a blueberry muffin (the cost: $2.10). The next item were brownies (the cost:$2.00). The second to last item was a red velvet cake (cost: $7.70). The last item on the list was, of course, lemonade (cost: $2.75). After finishing the list, Amy started building the bake sale stand. When the stand was finished, she started to sell. When she started, she noticed nobody wanted to buy anything, until an old woman came. This old woman was actually a witch with long white hair, long nails, a hunchback, and lots of pimples.

She told Amy, “Why did you make this stand.”

Amy said, “To help the animal shelter.”

When Amy finished serving the old woman, she said, “I would give you luck, my young one.”

Once she said that, a bunch of people were coming to the bake sale. When it was about 7:30, Amy closed up her stand and counted her money. When she finished counting her money, she started sprinting all the way to the animal shelter. When she was there, she started talking to the man next to the animal shelter.

“Wait, wait. I have the money to save the animal shelter.”

“Wait, what? We’re not closing for good. We’re just moving.”

“What about the goal?”

“That’s for moving.”

“What about the closing date?”

“That date was the last day it will be there, but if you don’t need the money, we can use it here.”

“Aggh, just take the money.”

Ever since that day, Amy always asked for more details. Dummy Amy lived happily ever after.

 

The end.

 

My Pencil

 

As my pencil dances the page

It etches words all in gray

I know every letter will stay

Even as the paper frays

 

My pencil feels as light as a feather,

Soon I am in another world

Stories are just as precious

As gigantic, shiny pearls!

 

In the end, words of all kinds

All written by different minds

Will bind people together

And make the world better

 

Nantucket Adventure

In June, I went to Nantucket with my grandma. In Nantucket, we have our own house and share one wall of the house with another family. It happened to be my birthday when we went to Nantucket, and I had a party where we ate cupcakes with jelly beans on top. I like having my birthday in Nantucket because there are lots of fun things to do there. I went to Children’s Beach, and I saw Moana. I liked that we watched Moana outside with all the nature. There was a playground on the beach and wet, nice grass. I put my chair on the grass and sat in it. My toes felt wet, and I felt peaceful. I saw boys on their bicycles doing crazy tricks and flipping upside down. One of the boy’s bike fell down, and he fell onto the grass. Thankfully, he was not hurt and got back up. After Moana, I took our Jeep home. The next morning, I went to a beach that we could drive on. Then, I went to watch the sunset, but my mom said we had to move because there was a sewage pipe, and there were too many clams. We went to a different beach where you can also drive your car. At the beach, we watched the sunset. The sunset was a pink and orange color, and it was really pretty. I was happy that we were there to watch the sunset.

After the sunset, we went home. I went outside our house, and I saw a bunny. The bunny was chubby and was eating clovers. I chased it, and it went all the way to my neighbor’s house across the street. I crossed the street to chase the bunny, but it ran away from me. Then, I found another bunny, and I chased that bunny too. It went across the street and ran away. Later that night, I had tofu and noodles for dinner. For dessert, I had chocolate chip ice cream. It was my favorite dinner. The next morning, my daddy went to buy Lucky Charms from Costco. Then, I asked my dad when we were leaving Nantucket. He said tomorrow.

I said, “I thought we were going to have more than a couple days in Nantucket.”

My dad said, “Well, we are leaving tomorrow, so we have to pack our things.”

The next day, we packed everything because we had to leave. We took our Jeep to the airport. The airplane got very frustrating because it was delayed. When it finally came, we took an airplane from there to New York City. We took a taxi from the airport to our house. When we got home, we unpacked everything. I was happy to be home because my friends were home. I was also sad because Nantucket had bike riding and beaches. I only have my balance bike at home, not a regular bike. At Nantucket, there were bikes that had training wheels and weren’t balance bikes, so I could ride them and go down a very big hill at the park. I like going down the big hills because I can go very fast without pedaling very hard. Nantucket was really fun, and I cannot wait to go back!

The End

 

My Marble

 

My marble is a circle. It is blood red. It looks like there is blood in it.

It is special to me because I found it

at my school. In my classroom.

I was eating my lunch. I took a bite…

The marble popped out. I washed it.

I put it in my backpack. At home I played with it. I like it because it

Sparkles in the light. It is smooth

and shiny. It has no

cracks.

 

The Fairy Who Didn’t Have A Friend

Once upon a time there was a little fairy whose name was Randall. Randall didn’t have any friends. She travelled all over the world to find one. She looked high, and she looked low. There were lots of other fairies in the world. Some fairies were mean, but Randall knew there were lots more fairies in the world, so she kept saying in her head, “I’m going to keep looking until I find a friend.”

So, that’s what she did. She kept looking. She had a little rhyme: just keep looking, just keep looking. Every time she felt like giving up, she kept saying that rhyme, until one day Randall found some friends. There was a boy fairy named Jack, and there was a girl fairy named Galia. They loved living together. Until one day, they had to face a very big task.

They were told to go to a tiki’s cave to kill it because it wrecked their world. So, they packed their food, and then they set off for the tiki’s cave. The tiki was a lava tiki. It was as tall as an adult with big black eyes, and it was speaking a weird kind of language. They had to take a plane and a boat, because the tiki’s cave was on an island. Then, they were right in front of the tiki’s cave. Good thing they had a rope and a cage, and they had packed it with their food.

They wanted to tie the tiki up and put her in the cage. So, while Jack gave the tiki an apple and a bunch of bananas to distract her, Galia tied her up, and then Randall put her in the cage. Then, Jack gave her the food in her cage. They had packed an arrow to kill her. But the tiki had a whole family of tikis!

They only had one cage and one rope. So, they thought and thought, and then they found an idea. Their idea was that they were going to open the tiki’s cage, untie her, and then Jack was going to put so much food in the cage so that all the tikis would go in the cage and eat the food. While they ate the food, Galia would tie them up, and then Randall would close the cage and lock it.

Their idea worked! The tikis fell for the trick! But now they were stranded on the island. They didn’t know what to do. So, they thought, and they thought, and they found an idea. First, they put the tikis in the water, so they would die. They would die because water melts lava, and then the friends would use the cage as a boat. And good thing they packed swimsuits, because in case they were too heavy for the cage, the cage would sink down, and they would have to swim. And they brought their swimming caps. The cage did sink, so they swam and swam until they reached their world. But the tikis did not die.

The tikis were special tikis. They came back to Randall, Jack, and Galia’s world. The tikis were really, really mad that they fell for the trick. They were speaking their weird language, and it sounded really mad. They started throwing lava balls at Jack, Randall, and Galia. Jack, Randall, and Galia dodged out of the way. Then, Jack, Randall, and Galia got mad too. They threw rocks at the tikis. The tikis got even madder. But then, there was some lava from the tikis’ lava balls. And then, Jack, Randall, and Galia realized that the tikis would melt in the lava. But they knew that the tikis wouldn’t fall for the trick again. So, they shoved the tikis into the lava. Then, the tikis melted down. Jack, Randall, and Galia lived happily ever after.

 

The End

 

Memories in My Year Book

My fifth grade yearbook is a book with a picture of the entire fifth grade in the auditorium, and everyone is wearing a black shirt on the cover. Inside are all the memories and photos of all the trips. For example, there is a picture of the time we went to the park. It is a picture of me and my friends near the swings. We are standing near the grass, but we are actually standing on gray tiles. The yearbook’s cover is very smooth and soft. The cover is also bendy and wavy.

 

When the class first got it, we all (including me) screamed and dashed to our desks, and we all flipped through the pages, remembering all the memories in the photos of the book.

 

“Oh, I remember that time we went to the movie theater!” said one of my friends. We were all jumping up and down. I remember when we were walking all around the room asking each other for signatures and writing messages for each other.

 

Some messages I remember in my yearbook are, Stay positive, Good luck in middle school, and Don’t forget about us.

 

I love my yearbook, and it is important to me because it reminds me of all the memories I had with the class in fifth grade. I know that I can never see them again. It makes me sad because I can’t spend time with them anymore. But I could just look at the yearbook, and I see them. And I can remember the memories we had at school, in class parties, and on trips.

 

Right now as I type, I keep it on a shelf, and sometimes I look through it and read the messages that my classmates wrote because the messages help me think I’m special like I think they are special.

 

Have an Ice Day

 

Hey, stop reading this. This is private!!!

 

Intro

 

July 1, 2019

 

“Let’s go!” Emily’s mom yelled up the stairs. “Time to get ready for camp!”

 

Blond-haired Emily got on her cat shirt and plain red shorts, then screamed back, “I’m ready. Are you ready?”

 

Then, she rushed down the stairs, snarfed down her breakfast, then got in the gray car with her mom. Emily was off to her first day of camp.

 

When Emily and her mom reached the Starry Sleepaway bus stop, they played would you rather with a few other kids for about 20 minutes until the bus arrived. A bus load of kids then got on, chatting loud as thunder.

 

Okay, now here’s the action part.

 

When Emily and the rest of the camp finally got off the camp bus (after three hours), they rushed into their cabins. After everyone had found their bunks (Emily’s bed was in cardinal cabin, right at the very edge of diamond-shaped Starry Sleepaway) they went to bed and had a good night’s sleep, not knowing what would happen the next day.

 

July 2, 2019

 

Now this is the action part.

 

In the morning, everyone in cardinal cabin woke up to a huge blizzard outside. The rest of the camp didn’t know what was happening in that corner. The rest of the camp was unusually cold, though. Everyone except cardinal cabin was fine. The only thing that could’ve been better was if anyone had something other than thin raincoats. Only the people in that corner cabin ever glanced in that direction. Suddenly, the people in lion cabin started screaming. The blizzard was spreading!!!

 

Right now, I am running out of my cabin, mouse cabin oh no my hands are numb waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt df aehlckhf hcgdfGCSTDXYCdyvu xBVFzhdhfgvcbzfhFfgddtuhcshjfey

 

July 2, 2019

 

Sorry! As I unclearly said, my hands were numb. And, as I didn’t say at all, my pencil went out of control.

 

And guess what? I found a way to duplicate overprotective Emily’s coats.

 

Then, I invented teleportation, and, after breakfast, everyone ran through the portal back to Los Angeles.

 

And I, “dumb” Katie Blake, saved Starry Sleepaway.

 

THE END

 

Being a Princess

 

Jelly on my face

Jelly on the table

Jelly on my dog I’ll clean it after I’m done

 

The pony pulls me on my cart

My teddy in my hands

Dog on my side

 

Ding dong another princess comes

It is tea time we eat cupcakes we sing and laugh we all get a big smile

 

Squirrel waits for me I feed her nuts I saw my friend bird

I feed her seed

 

The guard looks at me and gives me a good night smile

I sat on my chair and napped for a while

The guard put me on my bed

Goodnight

THE END…

 

NATURE

 

The trees are dancing in the breeze and eating the leaves

 

The trees’ arms are reaching for the butterflies but they can’t reach

 

The trees reach for the sky and when they do that they sometimes catch a butterfly

 

The trees like to make a band with the birds and the leaves

 

They love to boogie dance and they love to listen to their own music

 

They love to sway in the breeze

 

They love to talk to people and play lots of games

 

They sometimes even play soccer with the leaves

 

They love to play together

 

They love to play

 

The Girl Who Was Never Patient

Once, there was a little girl who really wanted to go to the playground. She asked her parents if they would take her, but they said, “No, we can’t take you because your little sister is sick, and we have to watch of her.” So, she went upstairs and tried to sneak out of the window by tying her blankets together to make a rope. Unfortunately, there was a window downstairs, and her parents were drinking tea near it, so they saw her climbing out. They caught her and brought her back to her room. They also locked her window, so she couldn’t get out again.

 

She tried everything to unlock the window, but she couldn’t, so she snuck downstairs to her sister’s room and tried to use those windows. Her sister screamed, and their parents came and saw her trying to sneak out again. They locked her sister’s windows too, then went back downstairs to finish their tea. She asked her sister, “Why did you scream?”

 

Her sister said, “Because you’re not allowed to go the park, and you have to listen to our parents.”

 

“Yeah, but it’s not fair. Because of you, I can’t go to the park.”

 

“Well, it’s not my fault that I’m sick.”

 

“Yes, it is!”

 

“No, it’s not, and besides, our parents said that you can’t go because I’m sick, and they have to take care of me, and also you can’t go by yourself.”

 

“I’m old enough. I’m already eight.”

 

“Yeah, but still. Maybe when you’re 12, you can go by yourself.”

 

“But that’s such a long time!”

 

“It’s not my fault that you’re not patient.”

 

“I am being patient.”

 

“No, you’re not!”

 

“I have to wait four years!

 

“Yeah, but that’s not so long you know.”

 

“Yeah, for you it’s not. Maybe I could wait for four minutes, but four years is way too long.”

 

“No, it’s not. Besides, four minutes is like one second.”

 

“No, it’s not.”

 

“Yes, it is.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Yeah, well at least I can wait for four minutes.”

 

“Yeah, but you can’t even wait for one hour. That’s so short.”

 

The older sister angrily walked away because she was frustrated that her sister was being annoying. She kept looking out the window at the park. Then, she went downstairs to the dining room where her parents were finishing their tea, and she made up a lie about how her sister’s fever was all gone and she felt better now. But the parents went upstairs to check for themselves. They came back down and said, “Well, it got a little better, so maybe you can go to the park.”

 

She asked, “So is that a yes?”

 

Then, her dad said, “Okay, it’s a yes. Mom will stay with your sister, and I’ll bring you to the park.” They got ready, and she did end up getting to go to the park after all.

 

The End

 

Feelings

 

Feelings are like waves in your body, going up and then crashing down. The waves can grow like a tsunami and come down, destroying everything. They can be calm sometimes, not able to wash away anything.

 

Feelings are like a rollercoaster of the unexpected. You could start going up and maybe never go down. Maybe it goes down and never stops.

 

Feelings are like a book with a twist at the end. You could be reading it and then feel confused or puzzled after reading the twist ending. Or that could be how someone else feels about it.

 

Feelings are like a bomb. Sometimes, you can detonate it. It can be stressful. Other times, you cut the wrong wire. Or it’s just impossible to detonate. Then, that giant explosion happens. People can get mad because of this. Your brain is like a magnet, while the feelings are the positive and the negative. Sometimes, the negatives somehow get stuck onto the magnet instead of the positives. And when that happens, that’s okay.

Christmas is My Favorite Holiday

Christmas is my favorite holiday. This is what we do on Christmas. When my younger brother and I (my older sister sleeps in much later than me and my brother) wake up, the same as we always do, we change our clothes, brush our teeth, and go down to eat breakfast. After we eat breakfast, we wait for our parents. (My dad sometimes is down before me and my brother, but my mom sleeps in late.) After my mom and my sister come down, the hard work begins. My family and I clean, and clean, and clean, and clean, and clean, and clean. After we clean, we all make cookies. After we make cookies, we all take baths. When we are done taking baths, we all put on nice clothes and go downstairs. Then, we wrap our presents that are for the family. After that, we put our presents under the Christmas tree. Then, we do something while we wait. After a little waiting, my sister, my brother, and I have to lock ourselves in a room, while my parents put the kids’ presents under the Christmas tree. They also put the cookies on a table. Then, my older sister, my younger brother, and I can finally come downstairs. Then, we take a lot of pictures. After taking pictures, we… open our presents! Then, we eat chocolate and candy and whatever we want, in front of a fire. We also get to stay up as long as we want. That’s our fantastic Christmas!

 

Monster Hunters

It all started with individuals who were monster hunters, Mike, Kevin, Chelsea, and Ruth.

Mike was by himself. He was in a Dragon Cave. It was damp and cold, and Mike was really scared. There was a big Fountain of Fire below the King Dragon. He was fighting a flying dark red thing. He was fighting the king dragon.

“Ahhhhhh!” said Mike as he got caught on fire. The dark scaled dragon just burned him with his fire breath. Mike ran at the dragon and sliced the dragon in half with his sword. Dragon got really hurt and fell to the ground.

“Did I kill him?” Mike asked. No, the dragon rose up and scratched him with his claws right in the face.

“Agh!” Mike screamed in pain. He was bleeding. Down his face with gushing blood. Mike ran at the King Dragon again and sliced him but instead of slicing him he first he jumped on the dragon’s arm. He jumped on his shoulder and stabbed him in his head. Finally, the dragon died. As he disintegrated into dust, more dragons came at Mike.

“Be ready,” Mike said to himself, and he killed all the dragons. Finally, he got what he wanted — the Sacred Sword, the most powerful weapon in the world. He still couldn’t believe he killed the most powerful dragon ever lived. The Sacred Sword was gold and unbreakable, and it had a diamond embedded in the middle of the handle. He went out and went to fight some more.

Meanwhile… Kevin was in the grasslands fighting thousands of zombies and a two-headed dragon. The grass was almost up to Kevin’s thigh in the middle of nowhere.

“This new planet is dangerous!” Kevin screamed as he was slashing the zombies. “I’m already burning!” he shouted. “Eh, at least I’m immune to fire,” Kevin said.

The two-headed dragon got really mad because Kevin didn’t get hurt. So it sprayed water out of its other head and almost drowned Kevin.

“Mmph!” said Kevin as he tried to breathe. He was drowning until…

Mike suddenly appeared. With his awesome new sword he killed all the zombies plus the two-headed dragon and broke the stone that was guarding the water that made Kevin drown.

“Hi,” said Kevin nervously. “How did you know I was here?”

“I was just wondering around fighting monsters looking for shelter,” replied MIke.

“Oh,” Kevin whispered in fear. Kevin was still scared about what just happened.

“My name is Mike. Do you have a shelter?” asked Mike.

“My name is Kevin. I don’t have a shelter. Want to go find one and team up?” Kevin said.

“Sure,” Mike said happily.

As they were wandering around, they heard something coming from the woods, so they got their weapons out. But instead of a monster, a small girl came out from the woods really really scared. She had brown hair and leaves were stuck to it. She was bleeding a lot and had a dagger in her right hand.

“You’re not monsters, are you?” the little girl asked.

“No,” they replied. “What’s your name?” they asked.

“Chelsea,” she replied. (Just so you know, I forgot to introduce this, but Mike was seventeen, Kevin was fifteen, Chelsea was ten, and Ruth was thirteen.)

“How much have you been fighting?” they asked Chelsea.

“I don’t know, but it’s been a lot of days,” Chelsea said. “Can I join you for fighting and team up?”

“Sure,” Mike and Kevin said.

All three of them were looking for shelter to sleep. They found a little cabin that was abandoned.

“Let’s sleep in there,” said Kevin.

“I’d rather sleep in the dragon’s cave,” Mike murmured.

As they approached, they got their weapons out in case any monsters were in there. When they went in, they heard a noise, but it was just spiders.

Chelsea said, “Should we break the spiderwebs and kill the spiders?”

“No! Well, yes. Break the spiderwebs, but don’t kill the spiders. They’re just harmless bugs.” But then…

Mutant spiders jumped out and attacked them.

“Ahhhhh!” they all screamed. But they all still fought back. After they killed all the mutant spiders, Chelsea found the lights. When the lights were on, they saw skeletons and spiderwebs.

“Looks like a lot of people died here,” said Mike.

“Yup,” Kevin agreed.

“Let’s clean this place up,” Chelsea said nervously.

After they cleaned the place up, they slept there for a night. “At least we have a shelter. We should track our places, so we can find it. Maybe it can be our home,” Kevin said.

They then went off into the woods, looking for other people. (I know what you’re thinking, Why don’t they have parents? Well this was why: their parents died because of the monsters, so the children want revenge.)

As they were searching, they saw a dragon. But immediately, the dragon died. “What just happened?” Chelsea asked.

As the dragon disintegrated, they saw another girl and slowly approached her.

“What’s your name,” Chelsea asked the girl.

“Ruth,” the girl said in pain. She was just caught in fire and was bloody. She was super scared.

“Why are you scared?” Kevin asked.

“How did you know I was scared?” replied Ruth.

“You look frightened,” said Kevin.

“Oh,” she said nervously.

“Want to team up with us?” Mike asked.

“Okay,” she said, feeling safe now.

“Let’s bring her to the shelter,” Chelsea said.

“Okay, let’s choose a leader,” Mike said. “I personally feel like I should be the leader.”

“Why do you think that?” Chelsea asked annoyed.

“Well, I have the strongest weapon, I’m the oldest, and I saved someone named Kevin,” replied Mike.

Noble enough, they all agreed, and Mike was their new leader.

As they were searching for the king of all monsters, Bast, if they killed him they just need to kill all the monsters in the world because Bast keeps on spawning new monsters. If he was dead, Bast wouldn’t be able to spawn new monsters anymore. And so they went off searching for Bast and his portal to bring him to a planet where no one can get to (well, they can get to it if they go in the portal).

As they were searching, they found lots of monsters and killed them. They still got hurt a lot.

They were all gushing blood. Ruth said, “We should really get stuff to stop our bleeding.”

“Yeah, we really should,” said Mike.

“Well, at least we can still fight and heal over time, just really slowly,” said Chelsea.

“You got that right,” said Kevin.

“Maybe we could craft access to chop down wood, and I have the strongest weapon, so we all have weapon, so we can get sheep, take the wool, and make it into little fluffy stuff. We could take the tree and maybe get some sap to make medicine. Then with the fluffy stuff, we could put it over our wounds to make the bleeding stop,” Mike said.

(This was what the characters looked like, if you’re wondering).

Ruth has blonde hair, white skinned, red eyes (not fully red, just the center), she has a light blue shirt green pants, and white shoes. Mike has blue eyes, light brown hair, a white shirt, red pants, and black shoes.

Chelsea has green eyes, blue shirt, white pants, and red shoes. kevin has grey eyes, blue pants, black shirt, and red shoes. Just so you know Mike was son of Poseidon, Ruth son of Hades, Chelsea son of Demeter, and Kevin son of Athena) Back to the story…

“Ruth! Mike! Kevin!” Chelsea screamed in fear.

“What!” Mike screamed.

“A dragon hoard!” Chelsea screamed in fear again.

The dragon heard Chelsea. They started running, but suddenly there was a 200 foot cliff. They couldn’t run anymore, so they fought back. Mike chopped off one of the dragon’s head, but suddenly, it grew back two more.

“I’ve heard of this monster before,” Mike said. “Hydra!” he yelled.

When they could run, they ran right to the shelter.

“We need wood to make a torch. The only way you can defeat a Hydra is by chopping off its head and lighting the neck on fire with the torch,” Mike said as he was hiding.

“I’ve stored some wood,” Ruth said.

“Great,” Mike replied.

Then, they made a torch with rocks and wood. They went out, Mike chopped off all of the Hydra’s heads, and quickly set the necks on fire. Mike got stabbed by one of their claws and was bleeding a lot. He was still alive, but really hurt.

As they got the fluff from the sheep they killed earlier, Mike put it on his stomach to heal.

“We need something better than sheep fluff,” Kevin said. “We need sheeps for beds.”

“How about we make rubber and take a tiny bit of sheep fluff to make bandages and wrappings?” Mike suggested.

“Okay, that will do,” Chelsea said.

“Okay,” Mike said. “We have to make teams. Ruth and I will cut down trees with our swords. Kevin and Chelsea, you kill sheep.”

“Okay,” they all agreed.

Ruth and Mike came back with 162 logs.

“All we need to do is turn the sap in this wood into rubber,” Mike said.

Meanwhile, when Chelsea and Kevin were killing sheep, they were attacked. But this time, not from a monster, but by a grizzly bear.

“This should be easy,” Chelsea said.

But it wasn’t. The grizzly bear was a monster. It transformed into a dragon.

“Actually, this is going to be hard,” Kevin said.

They kept on slashing the dragon until it finally died. They were all bleeding a lot. When they went back to the shelter, they came back with 652 pounds of wool.

“Great, now we just need to find leather,” Mike said.

“Maybe we can use the dragon skin as leather,” Kevin replied.

“Sure,” Mike said happily. At last, they were going to have four beds.

“Now we can sleep and also probably get annoyed, but still sleep!” Chelsea said excitedly.

“We need to make this shelter or bunker monster-proof, so they won’t annoy us at night,” Ruth said.

“Good thinking,” Mike complemented her.
“Thank you,” Ruth said.

Kevin and Chelsea were making beds, and Mike and Ruth were using sap to make rubber. Ruth and Mike finished make rubber. “Now we just need to add the cotton, also known as sheep fluff stuffing, onto the middle of the rubber,” Mike said.

Mike and Ruth finished at the same time as Kevin and Chelsea, and it was great timing. It was midnight.

Each of them went on their new bed and fell asleep immediately. In the morning, they went outside and collected some mint.

Then, all four of them went out and got some wood. They broke the back of shelter and then upgraded the shelter with the wood.

“Can we call the shelter home?” Kevin asked.

“Yes” Mike replied.

Their home was awesome. “Now we just need to go too the underworld!” Mike said.

“I thought you can’t get out once you go in,” Kevin said.

“Only for mortals, not demigods,” Mike said back.

They were searching and searching. “We should really get a car!” Chelsea complained.

“You’re right” Mike agreed.

Then they went and chopped some trees. Got sap, metal, and sand. Finally they had a car. they didn’t know where they going.

“We should really make a computer,” Mike said.

“You really know how to build anything!” Ruth said surprised.

Mike had the pieces to make a computer in his backpack, but he threw out the instructions because he didn’t need them. He was very smart. He removed the motherboard from its packaging, removed the processor from its packaging, inserted the processor into the motherboard, applied the thermal paste to the computer, attached the heatsink, installed the random access memory, and installed the backplate on the back of the case. They turned on the computer and it said, “You’ll find the Underworld in the country Russia, city Kazan.”

As they were driving to the Underworld, Mike asked Siri, “How many hours does it take to get to Kazan?”

“It’ll take two hours to go to the airport, and eighteen hours and thirty minutes to go to Kazan with the airplane,” said Siri.

“Okay, let’s go!” said Ruth happily.

“But we’ll need to stop by a hotel,” said Mike. “Siri, look up hotels.”

“Look, I found The Emerald Hotel,” Siri suggested.

“It looks like it’s really good, and it’s only $62. It has a massage place, a pool, lights for nighttime swimming, large parking lot, beautiful rooms, furnitures, and an awesome kitchen,” Mike said as he was driving to the airport.

“It’s $62 per night,” Ruth said.

“Oh,” Mike said.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” said Kevin. “I have like $375.”

“Good,” Chelsea said.

When they were at the airport, it was almost midnight. Finally, they were going to Russia. They were so excited to go to the hotel

When they got to Russia, it was six in the afternoon. They were in their hotel getting unpacked.

Ruth said, “Good thing they didn’t know about our weapons,” as they took their weapons out of their bag.

As they were resting, Ruth asked, “Can just chill out for a couple of days because we’re not timed, and I just want to look around first.”

“Okay,” Mike agreed. “I’ll be in the pool.”

“Right, son of Poseidon,” Kevin remembered. (If you think that the godparents died, well that’s not true. They’re immortal. If you keep on polluting, and there’s no more wilderness, then Pan will fade away. So only their foster parents died.)

Chelsea was exploring the forest. Ruth was looking around, and Kevin was practicing fighting in the forest so no one saw him.

Six days passed. They were finally ready to go into the Underworld. When they found the Underworld, it said on the dirt ground:

 

Αλίμονο σε όλες τις ψυχές που κατεβαίνουν εδώ

 

“Woe to all souls who go down here,” Mike translated.

Suddenly the ground opened.

They went in the hole. How deep was the hole? Chelsea asked herself. Suddenly the stopped falling.

“I think we’re there,” Ruth said nervously.

They opened the doors. Then they saw it, Bast’s throne was right in front of them. All of the ran at him at the same time. Mike stabbed him in the head, Ruth stabbed him in the chest and slice his heart in half, Kevin cut his arms of, and Chelsea sliced his body in half again and again until he finally died.

“Yes, we killed him,” Mike said.

Suddenly, four pearls floated down from where his chest was. Then, Mike passed out.

 

THE END

 

The Space Travelers 4

 

Part One

 

Gordon and David were sitting on the couch in Gordon’s house.

“Remember the lava people?” Gordon said to David.

“Yeah, those dudes were creepy.”

“Do you think they’re coming to get revenge?”

“Not sure. They don’t even have a spaceship, so how can they get here?”

“Let’s watch the news.”

David and Gordon looked at the news. The news said that a lava spaceship was about to land on Lexicon. David and Gordon freaked out and ran to where the spaceship was going to land. Brain was there.

“What’s going on?” Brain, David, and Gordon said at the same time.

The spaceship landed, and three dozen lava monsters came out and started chasing everyone. Everyone got on spaceships and took off. David, Gordon, and Brain’s families got onto one big spaceship and took off.

 

To be continued…

 

Part Two

 

At Lexicon, many more lava spaceships landed, and the entire population of the lava monsters, 5,000, took over Lexicon. At Pizton, Brain, David, and Gordon were practicing with their blasters. They tried to fight but not destroy lava monsters. Gordon asked the king to give them a few fighters because 3,000 of the 5,000 lava monsters were fighters and the 5,000 person population of Lexicon only had 1000 fighters, including Brain, David, and Gordon.

The mayor of Lexicon asked for 2,000 more fighters because the population of Pizton was 20,000 people. The troops of Lexicon made their way to the planets of Lexicon and started shooting with their tanks at Lexicon.

Pew! Pew!

But their tanks got destroyed by the lava tanks. They jumped at Lexicon and started shooting with their blasters. There was a giant fight. The lava monster captured 2,000 of the Lexicon troops. The Lexicon troops also captured 2,000 of the lava monster troops. Lexicon was winning! There were 2,000 more people left, and there were only 1,000 lava monsters left.

The lava monsters surrendered. Brain, David, and Gordon let the lava monsters free and, the lava monster let the Lexicons free. They combined forces and made a truce that they would never fight again. David, Gordon, and Brain went to bed because of the long fight.

On the lava planet, the red monsters had taken over, and they had 25,000 troops.

 

THE END

 

Cycle of Life

 

First, comes the baby, it can drive you a little crazy.

Next, comes the toddler, which craves peach cobbler.

Third, is the kid, and you get rid of the crib.

Fourth, is the pre-teen, who wants to be social media queen.

Fifth, comes the teenager, they get to choose their major.

Sixth, is the adult, who locks their possessions in a vault.

Then, come the seniors, they encourage everyone to be dreamers.

Last, comes the end, I’m glad I was your friend.

And that is the Cycle of Life.

 

The Mighty Tree

Once upon a time, there was a tree named Tom who was very weak because he had no water and sunlight. No one thought he would make very good wood, so everyone didn’t want to go near him. The tree was sad. He said to himself, “I wish somebody was here to help me grow.” The next day, he had completely forgotten about what he had said yesterday. All he was doing was staring at the dry grass. Suddenly, he saw a mouse walking by. He remembered what he had said about growing. He said to the mouse, “Can you please give me sunlight and water to help me grow.” The mouse agreed. First, he got a ladder and a lightbulb. Then, he climbed up the tree and put the lightbulb on top of the tree. The tree took in all the sunlight. Then, the mouse got a watering can full of water and watered every single bit of the tree. When the tree was feeling much better, he thanked the mouse for helping him.

 

The End

Alien Invasion

Once upon a time on Earth, there was a little town, and a few families lived there. The town was located in Canada. One day, there was an alien invasion. And all the families were scared. The aliens were trying to chase them, but the aliens got tired, so the aliens got into their spaceship and went back to Mars. The family consisted of a mom, a dad, one daughter — Alshia — and two sons — Varaaj and Daniel.

After returning to Mars, the aliens remembered they accidentally left their kid on Earth. So, they went back to Earth and found that one of the human families was taking care of the kid. At first glance, the aliens thought the family took the kid away. So, the aliens started chasing the family. The family gave the kid back, but the aliens still thought the family took the kid. Then, the other families in the town explained to the aliens that the family was taking care of the kid, and the aliens apologized about the whole invasion and promised not to bother Earth.

 

The end.

 

The Kiwi

           

Prologue

The mother ran and ran as far as she could. She had to get food for her young one! She could feel her feet getting laden, but she knew she had to go on. Her creation she had brought into the world had to live on.

She felt her chest screaming for air. Her mind was battling with her body. No grubs in this one. She realized she didn’t recognize the area anymore. Oh, no… If she didn’t recognize the area anymore, that meant… she felt the barrier sucking her in.

 

Chapter One

Kimi fluffed her brown feathers and waited for her mother to come home. She was achingly hungry, but still she waited. Finally, her hunger won over her. She knew she shouldn’t get out of the nest, but she wanted fooooood! She smelled with the nostrils at the end of her beak for grubs and detected one worming its way around the root of her tree, right outside her burrow. Gotcha! But the wriggling grub got out of her grasp. Bad grub!

Suddenly, she spotted a worm and snatched it up. This time, she was successful. Kimi hoped that was enough to sustain her hunger. Then, she sensed footsteps crashing towards her with her bristles on her mouth. Featherless! Kimi froze in terror.

“See, in the night it’s so beautiful here.”

She saw a bigger featherless speak to a smaller featherless, holding their longer wings that didn’t even look like wings. Then, the smaller one let go.

“Umm… you go on Mom. I’ll stay here for a sec,” the smaller one said.

They both had the long feathery strands on top of their heads running down (which indicated that both were female). For both of them, the color of the strands was light yellow. The kiwi wasn’t used to seeing in the dark, so it could see color.

Kimi was frozen now too, not in terror, but in curiosity. The bigger featherless nodded her head and left. The smaller one squatted down.

“Hey, little one. Are you lost?” it said.

Kimi wasn’t sure who the featherless was talking to, but she squawked in return. The featherless smiled.

“I’m Maddie. What’s your name?”

Kimi did not know what to do, so she sat and stared.

“You seem lost.”

Kimi turned around and shook her tushie. Maddie laughed.

“You are one silly little bird,” she said. “My mom would kill me if she saw me taking you… but otherwise you’re going to die… ” She frowned.

Kimi shook her tushie again. It seemed to make her laugh. She did. Then, she scooped Kimi up and into a slit in her thing she wore over her. The slit turned out to be very comfortable. In it was also a green fruit with a brown cover. Kimi was still very hungry, for the worm had not satisfied her hunger. She dug her beak into the green fruit. It was delicious. By the time the featherless was reaching in to scoop her out, she had finished the fruit. “Hey! You finished my kiwi!” Maddie said. Kimi burped.

 

Chapter Two

Kimi was in Maddie’s room. She seemed to be fretting about something. Kimi could not understand what. She couldn’t understand human language (okay, maybe a bit), so when Maddie talked to her she was very confuddled. “How am I going to get you on the plane?” Maddie looked worried. Huh? The pwane sounded weird. But it looked scary to Maddie. “I guess I’ll just have to put you in my pocket,” Maddie said. “In fact, let’s practice now.” Maddie scooped her up into one of her slits in her cover she was wearing. Ohhhh, so the slits were called pokets. Kimi nestled in and slept. An hour later, which seemed like a minute to Kimi, Maddie reached inside her pocket and lifted her out. She had a smile on her face. “That was really good! We might even survive the metal detectors!” She was so happy that she was dancing. Kimi tried to imitate her moves and ended up flat on her back. Maddie laughed and then froze, for she heard a voice calling her.

“Maddie, it’s time to go to bed! You have a flight to New York tomorrow!” Maddie quickly shoved Kimi under a pillow.

Maddie said, “Yes, Mom!” and left the room. Kimi crawled out from under the pillow and found an unused napkin. She nestled in and slept (again).

 

Chapter Three

Kimi woke up in the poket. Maddie felt very tense, and Kimi did not know why. Maddie reached her wing in (which Kimi later learned were called hands) the poket, and Kimi nuzzled against it. Then, she felt some sort of metal probing around Maddie’s clothing. What? Why is Maddie letting herself be probed by metal? This was not right. Kimi went as far as she could next to Maddie’s body to avoid getting probed. She successfully did not get probed. Yay. And she fell asleep. Again.

After she woke up, Kimi realized that she was in the air. She didn’t know how, she just knew. She could feel it, even though she couldn’t see the blue of the sky through her slit. Ahem. Poket. She could see a gray cushion with a bar. Maddie was sitting on most of the gray cushion. She took Kimi out for a little bit though, where no one could see her.

“Wait until you get to New York City,” she said. “You’re going to love it!”

The city? If this was the city, Kimi did not like it. Though it was pretty cool that the city was in the air. Kimi snuggled against Maddie’s shirt. Maddie smiled. Suddenly, a bright

looking featherless came down the aisle rolling a big square stone. Maddie shoved Kimi in her poket. The bright featherless asked Maddie something, and Maddie replied. Soon Maddie had a cup of yellowish, fizzy water in front of her.

“Thanks for the ginger ale.”

Jinjer ail? What were all these new words? Kimi was very tired of these — these words. Or so she thought, until Maddie leaned over and said to the big featherless — who she originally saw when she first met Maddie.

“It’s not so bad to be on the plane after all, Mom.”

There it is again! Pwane! So they were in the pwane, huh? Not so bad, for a pwane! And the big featherless was Maddie’s mother? She hadn’t seen her own mother in quite a while. Her heart ached for her. She had never returned from her food expedition. What if she got snatched by a predator? And she couldn’t fly away from it! Kimi then made up her mind that she was going to learn to fly. It didn’t matter how. And, plus, she was with humans now. Her mother told her they could do almost anything, right? Much more than a kiwi could do. (Her mother also told her to stay away from them, but that wasn’t important… right?)

 

Chapter Four

They were finally off the plane and in the… city. They were on something which Kimi learned was a kar. She was back in Maddie’s slit. The city seemed pretty gray. She squawked to let Maddie know.

“What was that?” Maddie’s mother exclaimed.

“What?” inquired Maddie.

“That squawk!” her mother cried.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Maddie looked utterly confused.

“Oh, well. I must be hearing things.” Kimi was amazed. Maddie was a very good actor! She also resolved not to make any more sounds. Soon they came to a big stone slab that was shaped in a rectangular prism. Maddie’s mother sighed. “Home, again.”

Home??? This slab was not home. In fact, Kimi wondered if she’d ever go home again.