Tippy Toothpaste

Tippy Toothpaste was a very good boy. He was very polite, and he helped old ladies cross the street. He was still in fifth grade, and all of his classmates made fun of him! It was because of his name: everybody laughed and laughed and laughed. That made him furious, furious, and more furious. But he was a smart boy too. He was the smartest kid in his class and knew how to build robots, time machines, and stuff like that.

When he got out of college, his face was red. The teasing had continued all the way through. He got so furious that he tried to take over the world and destroy laughter! He built a robot, made a time machine, and went back in time with the robot. He went back to fifth grade and threw all the people that were laughing into a cave that had a lot of tacos. The only person who was left was Tippy Toothpaste from back in time.

He told young Tippy, “Let’s go forward in time and try to take over the world! Yes, yes, yes!

“What’s our plan?” asked young Tippy.

“Let’s take all of their toilets away, so they can pee in their pants! That’s just the first step. Mwahahahaha,” said old Tippy.

So, they unscrewed the toilets in all of the towns, and all of the people went baonds in their paonds. They went aooooOOOO! And did the pee pee dance.

Then, small Tippy said, “Which one should we do next?”

“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” said old Tippy.

That was your plan?!” small Tippy yelled.

“Yeah. So what?”

“I’m going to crush you!!!” And small Tippy got into the robot and crushed him.

“Mwaahahaha, I’m taking over the world now!” But he didn’t notice that if you killed someone that’s actually you, you die too!

So, you know. That’s the end.


Dear Diary, “Amelie”

“Amelie” 9/10/18

Dear Diary,

I have a secret. I have a fake name because my real name is really long, and the reason is very embarrassing. My fake name is Amelie.

My real name is Amelie-Ellen-Ann-Emma-Katie-Emily-Rebecca-Susan-Jullian-Julia-Caroline-Ally-Amelie-Ellen-Ann-Emma-Katie-Emily-Rebecca-Susan-Jullian-Julia-Caroline-Ally-Hannah-Kate-Daina-Ella-Ellenor-Isla-Mary-Nora-Hannah-Kate-Daina-Ella-Ellenor-Isla-Mary-Nora.

The reason my name is so long is because my great 11-times-more great grandparents, for some crazy reason, I don’t even know why, decided to keep each name for every generation. Today is my first day of school because my old school is only K-4. My new school is called Jefferson Middle School. I think I am going to die during attendance. Also, I have ten classes a day. That means ten times each day for attendance. And school starts tomorrow. I don’t know what I am going to do. I am doomed.

“Amelie” 8/11/18

Dear Diary,

I am on the school bus, so I am writing really messy right now. I don’t think I am going to survive. I am going to write again at breakfast.

P.S. It is at school. Bye And I think I have a headache. Oh great, my stomach hurts now.

“Amelie” 8/11/18

Dear Diary,

It is first period. Well, it’s not exactly first period. It is called Breakfast, but it’s more like a brunch, since school starts at 10 o’clock. Oh no, it’s time for first period. I am doomed!!! Bye!

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

It is now lunch finally. First period was terrible we had attendance first thing. Since my last name is Bailey I was called first. My teacher had to say my whole name, and everyone was cracking up. I was so embarrassed. After I said, “Here,” I told the teacher to call me Amelie for short.

However, she said, “Don’t be embarrassed by your name.”

So already I have detention. My teacher is stupid. That’s why I have so much time to write right now. Luckily, detention just makes you sit and be quiet. Nevermind, spoke too soon. Oh great. Here comes Ms. Bradly. See you soon.

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

Ms. Clarck gave me another detention. Middle school is the worst!!! Sorry, let me backtrack. Now it’s snack, and I just had a meeting with the principal. Great way to start the day!! I just realized that the principal has the worst breath. (I bet she eats onions for breakfast on purpose to make us faint.) I literally fainted. Then, the principal thought I was making a joke and judging her. I actually fainted with I guess a dumbo like her of course wouldn’t understand. She sent me to another detention and had me sit outside because she needed to “calm” herself. However, I actually heard her crying like a baby. And I couldn’t hold myself in, and I burst out laughing. The vice principal heard the principal, and he heard me laughing. Oh great, another detention. She also tells me if I get five detentions in a day, I have to get suspended. Now I have to stay two hours after school, since detention is an hour long and I got two detentions. Oh! That’s the bell, got to go.

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

It is now lunch, and I got another detention because this time the teacher asked me if I wanted a nickname so I said, “yes.” Then he asked me what I should be called and since I had experience with the other teacher I said I think my name is the best out of everyone else’s and I don’t need a nickname. Then I didn’t realized that this teacher is really nice and hates obnoxious people. One more detention until I get suspended. Got to go, bye!!!

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

Phew!!! Finally didn’t get a detention. Oops, late for class. Got to go. I have to run.

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

Wow!!! I just got yelled at for not listening, but it’s not my fault. My teacher is most boringest teacher. Even her name. Her name is Ann. So, I just yelled at my teacher and told her that she is out of her mind and her voice is boring.

But then the teacher said, “What do you mean I am out of my mind and my voice is not boring?! That’s not how you talk to your step-grandmother!!! That’s it. I knew you were bad. That’s another detention for Amelie-Ellen-Ann-Emma-Katie-Emily-Rebecca-Susan-Jullian-Julia-Caroline-Ally-Hannah-Kate-Daina-Ella-Ellenor-Isla-Mary-Nora. In case you haven’t noticed, the name ‘Ann’ is in your name. Now go to detention, and don’t talk back to me!!!”

And the worst part was all the other kids started whispering to each other. I am never going to have friends!

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

Oh no. I am on my way back, and my mom is going to ground me. I hate my life. I got suspended for a week!!! And my mom is taking away my diary when we get back home!!! My life has officially ended.

“Amelie” 8/11/10

Dear Diary,

My mom just yelled at me so badly. I am grounded, and I have to do my homework even though I am completely clueless of what we are doing, and I can’t even use the Internet. My mom punished me to never use the Internet or my phone for the rest of the month. I am completely doomed. My phone is like my life. Also, this is the last time I am using my diary. Bye!!!


Corn Nut the Chipmunk

One day, Corn Nut the Chipmunk decides to buy a bag of corn nuts. Corn Nut is small, feisty, and loves corn nuts. Corn Nut walks into the busyness of the streets and into the corner store for some corn nuts. Something happens. Corn Nut’s chip bag explodes, and all the corn nuts fall out of the bag.

There is only one explanation for this thing: Corn Nut’s chip bag was already opened. Corn Nut decides then that he has bad luck. Corn Nut walks back, but on the way back, Corn Nut has an idea. He could go to a fortune teller and ask if he has bad luck and get cured.

While Corn Nut gets cured by the fortune teller’s mystic crystal ball, he wonders how he is going to pay the fortune teller. He has no money. So when Corn Nut is cured from his bad luck, he decides to run off.

But on his way home, he gets lost because he is not paying attention to where he is going. Fortunately, he finds a 70-year-old fat flying squirrel named Beth, who makes him happy.

In the end, not all is lost, because Beth is kind enough to tell Corn Nut where he is and tells him the directions to home.


Crossing the North Pole

Chapter One: Starting a New Life

This is a story that starts in the North Pole. Pezzy was a candy man, and he made a magical lollipop that talked and moved. It was shaped like a penguin, and its name was Pengui. Because Pengui was a penguin shape, he could talk to the other penguins at the North Pole.

Seals in the North Pole thought Pengui looked tasty. Pezzy had to make another lollipop that was a monster to scare away the seals. Then, there were other seals who were stronger, and they weren’t scared…

Pezzy was scared. He thought the seals might eat Pengui. So, he put Pengui in his pocket. To talk to Pengui, he made a tiny walkie-talkie for Pengui and a headphone for himself, so the seals wouldn’t hear them talking to each other. Their goal was to get a break from human beings. They didn’t want Pengui to end up in the New York Aquarium. If the scientists knew that there was a talking penguin lollipop, they would surely put him in the New York Aquarium.

But there were also scientists at the North Pole. The first scientists they met were in a truck. Pezzy hid behind a block of ice until the truck passed. Then, they saw a little town that had a hotel. They went to sleep there and warmed up. They heard ice cracking in the night and a snowstorm. They liked those sounds much better than the ambulances and all the trucks and yelling people of New York. They slept a long time, and when they felt rested, they left the hotel, and they built a home in the town made out of chocolate for the walls and gummy worms to help hold up the roof. They used more chocolate for the cozy floor. They made a brick place for the stove so that the fire wouldn’t melt the chocolate walls.

It was still cold, so they built a heater. The heater was made out of cotton candy, but there was no electricity. So, they called the city to ask if they could connect to the city’s electric cables. For now, they had a great start to life in the North Pole.

Chapter Two: Catching Food

They were hungry for candy. Pezzy was too tired to make some candy, so Pengui went to catch fish. They were still hungry. Afterwards, Pezzy took a nap, and he was not tired anymore. They were still hungry, but Pezzy wasn’t tired after, so he could make more candy, so he made Twizzlers for candy pasta. It was starting to get late, so they went to sleep. At night, a seal started to attack the walls. The walls started to shake so hard it woke them up. Two minutes later, the seal went away. They were so scared from the shaking walls. Seven hours later, they went to eat breakfast. After they ate, they went to a clothes store to buy a warmer jacket for Pezzy. Pengui, being a lollipop, didn’t get cold. The clothes store was closed, so they went to a different store. But it was the only store in town, so they made clothes for Pezzy from yarn they found at another store. They slept better.

After a while, it was time to wake up again. Accidentally the clock was broken, so it was still the middle of the night. Then, they swam in the water of the North Pole. After a while, they were cold, so they made a heating system in the pool. After that, they swam in it. They were freezing in there too, so they made the heating system even stronger. Then it was time to go to sleep, and they travelled back to where Pezzy wanted to go. Pengy needed to stay by himself at the North Pole.

Pezzy wanted to go home, so he did.

The End.


The Disney Cruise

One afternoon, Mckenzie went to her parents. She was curious about what she was doing today. Her mother said they were going to Upper Rapids Water Park. Mckenzie knew that Rapids Water Park existed, but she had never heard of Upper Rapids Water Park, but she knew her mother would never lie to her, so she trusted her. So, at 9:00 am, they left: Mckenzie, Mema, Mom, Dad, and Ives. It took about three hours to get to the water park, and then Ives pointed out a waterslide in the middle of the sea.

Ives yelled out, “It’s a Disney Cruise Ship!”

And then Mckenzie yelled, “You probably won’t be able to ride the water slide!”

Then Ives got a closer look, and when he saw it, he knew for sure it was a Disney Cruise!

But Mckenzie was not too excited… “I wish we were, but we’re not.”

Suddenly, Mema said in a soft voice, “We’re going on the cruise!”

Then, Mom screamed, “We’re going on a Disney Cruise — you are wearing your bathing suit because we are going on that cruise ship.”

Mckenzie stopped her in the middle and said, “Stop it! I’m not stupid!”

And suddenly, Mema showed Mckenzie the tickets, and Mckenzie asked, “How did you do it?”

Mckenzie said, “Ohhh! How did you get into our room?”

And then Mom said, “You were fast asleep.”

And then Dad drove up to the ticket inspector, who looked at the tickets and told them where to go. And Dad drove into the parking lot, and there she was: the Disney Cruise Ship.

Suddenly, when they got out, there was a man taking their luggage and checking them in. He asked them questions. Then, a man came up to them — he told the Miller family about the aquaduck. That’s the ride on the Disney Cruise Ship. And then he started making a duck squeak like, “Bok bok bok bok bok,” or however you do it. And then it was time to walk towards the ship. There were big escalators, and when you walked on it, the family had to get tags and go through a big Mickey door — that’s where you get onto the boat.

The Millers then went through security, and afterwards they took a picture of all of them. Then, they checked their cards to get on the ship — everyone, even babies, get a card. It kind of looks like a credit card. It says your name and has a picture of Mickey on it, as well as your room number. The Millers went through, and there were eight people standing there, and one of them asked the family their first and last names, and the grandma said, “Miller.”

And then the lady that she told the last name to said, “Welcome the Miller family aboard.” And then all those eight people started clapping!

Then, the family walked into a lobby with big, tall ceilings and beautiful chandeliers and staircases like you’d see in movies. There were wide elevators, singers, dancers, and instrument players, and there were photo booths and characters all around the ship. After that, they all got into an elevator and arrived on the 12th floor — there were big pools, big slides, and self-serve ice cream bars. Then, everyone was standing in the big parts where the pools and the slide were and music was playing. There was a big screen with a camera moving around the audience, so you get to be up on the board, and Mckenzie and her dad decided to go wait in the long line to ride the aquaduck.

It took about 20 minutes for them to get up there. There was a really long line as it was just when the ship was about to sail. When they finally got their time to go on it, Mckenzie’s mom had been waiting for her and her dad to go across it, but when it was their turn, her mom decided not to do it because she didn’t see them going up, and she missed it. And when Mckenzie and her dad got it again, her mom got the picture. Everyone was clapping and singing because the boat had just set sail. Then, everyone went back to their rooms.

About 30 minutes later, the Millers had to do a life vest training thing, and every family would stand in one line. Groups of three families had one coach, and it took about 30 minutes for them to start because they had to get everyone out of their rooms. Then when it was over, the family went to lunch. The ship had a big cafeteria with oysters, pizza, lobster, and many other delicious things. Mckenzie got chicken tenders and a Coke. And that’s what she got every single day after that. Dad, Ives, and Mom got that too.

Then, they went to the kids club, and since it was the first day on the cruise ship, the parents got to come. There was an animation center, cooking, boat driving, and there was this big light up floor where you could play games. Then, the parents left, and Ives and Mckenzie practiced being alone there. Then later, they left when their parents came to get them. Every night they would go to a different restaurant where all of the food was already paid for.

There was the Animation Palate. That was where the Millers had their first dinner. The second night, they would be going to the Enchanted Gardens. The third night, they went to the Royal Palace.

Every night, there were crazy characters like Cinderella, Rapunzel, Ariel, Mickey, and other fun things. Finally, it was Saturday night, and that meant it was the pirate day on the ship. Every Saturday night, there is a pirate night. It is where everyone on the ship would dress up as a pirate. Everybody was out on the deck, when suddenly Captain Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean came out. He was singing and dancing, and he had loads and loads of jolly deck pirates. Soon, the night was over, and the Millers went to sleep. The next morning, the boat arrived at Castaway Cay: Disney’s private island. Everyone walked onto the island, and Mckenzie’s dad grabbed everyone some towels, and suddenly there was someone counting his towels. Can you guess who it was??? Captain Jack Sparrow.

It was super cool. Suddenly, before they knew it, it was 4:30. That was the time everyone had to get back on the boat. The Millers showered up and went to dinner and then went to bed. When they woke up, they were docked to go back to Florida.
That was the tale of the Disney Cruise.

The end.

Killer Refrigerator

Chapter One

Once upon a time my mom was going shopping. She was getting ice cream and yogurt. Just as she slammed the door, a part of her hand got caught in the refrigerator, and her skin fell off. On our way to the doctor’s, I saw a bird that had been sucked into a car’s exhaust and was all smashed up. My mom got to the doctor’s, and they stitched her hand back together. She passed out for three days. Meanwhile, at the store, the janitor was cleaning the refrigerator, and right as she was about to wipe the blood away, it disappeared. The janitor was very curious and cut her hand a little and rubbed the blood onto the refrigerator. The refrigerator groaned and then snapped its door open and ate the janitor up!

Chapter Two

The refrigerator had fortunately been sleeping when I bought ice cream the next day. But when I went to get some ice cream from my home refrigerator, I realized there was no ice cream, but instead there was an eyeball in the tub. I decided to investigate the refrigerator. I set up a spycam at the supermarket, and the day after that, I remembered to check the footage. At midnight the previous night, a manager had gone to restock the ice cream. What I saw shocked me so much I almost passed out. The refrigerator had chomped up the manager, and I saw what its plan was. He used the janitor’s feet, and they popped out from the bottom of the refrigerator, and he used the manager’s hands to push himself up. I was about to save the files when my computer died because I’m bad at charging it, and it deleted all the footage.

I ran to the supermarket, and the refrigerator was gone! I decided to call a detective. I knew without the footage the police would never believe me. The detective’s name was Sherlock Holmes — just kidding. I can’t tell you because he’s a secret agent, so let’s say Sherlock for now. So, Sherlock came over to the house. He asked where the supermarket was, and I told him downtown. He went over to the store, and he used a new gadget that had only been available for one hour: it was a detective spyglass with a thermal camera on it that could show you where the criminal’s footsteps were. He asked the janitor what they’d seen, and they said the janitor had worn Crocs. We tracked the footsteps to an old abandoned theme park. The refrigerator had gone to the haunted mansion. We went to the place, and we heard noises coming from the back. I told Sherlock to stay back, and I snuck up. I remembered the refrigerator seemed to hate ketchup. I thought I would throw the ketchup. When I looked up at the refrigerator, he swallowed me whole!

The End… for now.


Diary of a 10-year-old Artist

September 17th, 2045

Okay. First off the bat, I just want to say one thing. I am not doing this on purpose! My name is Hannah Froll, I am 10 years old, and I am an artist!!! This is just a stupid assignment that I have to do for stupid school. If I don’t finish it by December, my art class will get cancelled!!! This is what Mrs. Beliani (my principal) wrote:

Dear Camilla and Stan Froll,

I regret to inform you that your daughter, Hannah, is failing in all of her classes except for art class. Enclosed, please find a journal that Hannah must complete before September 30th. Otherwise, Hannah will have to stop going to art class.

Deepest Sympathies,

Rholok Beliani

See what I mean?! I wish I could just fill this book with doodles, but no such luck. I have to do only writing, or it doesn’t count!!! Y’know what? I’m just going to start tomorrow. ‘Night!

September 18th, 2045

You would never believe what happened today. After school, I had soccer, and then math club, and then I had to go to this writing practice that my mom makes me go to.

But at writing class there’s this girl named Miela, and she is so mean! The worst part is, all the teachers think she’s an angel because she’s so good at writing. Her stories aren’t even that good!! She just writes about totally boring “perfect writing” stories that are “extremely well-written.” But today Ms. Perfect finally got in trouble. I know, right? Long overdue. The teacher caught her at last, being a jerk to me about my story, which was about a pig with superpowers.

She leaned over and said, “Really, Frolly.” (Her pet nickname for me.) “A pig could never get superpowers. Really.” That was when the teacher walked over.

Miela immediately switched back to “perfect mode,” but it was too late. The teacher had heard everything that she had said.

“Miela! I thought that you were better than that!”

I smiled, and Miela gulped. The teacher walked back to her desk and started filling out papers.

Miela glared at me and whispered through clenched teeth, “I’ll get you for this, Frolly.”

Oh, jeez. I never imagined that I would write this much. So, ‘night, future readers.

September 19th, 2045

Believe it or not, writing class might actually be bearable now!

I just found out that Miela was expelled!!!

She is such a tensndl! Oops. I forgot that I would get in trouble. I have to hand this in!!

But before that happened, I had a really weird day.

First, my best friend and I, Kiriana, had art, so I was really excited. We were talking about how we might get a new student tomorrow, so we were kind of happy (for school). But halfway there, my stomach seemed to contract, and I barfed all the way around the hallway, slipping and falling.

I woke up at home with my mom sitting over me, phone in hand.

“Hey,” she said. “Your writing class just called.”

That was when I learned that Miela had been expelled. I whipped out my diary, but then I realized what I was doing.

So, I’m just letting you know I still don’t like writing. Right?

September 20th, 2045

Today is officially the worst day of my life. You know the new student that I was talking about? It’s Miela!!! So now, I have made three enemies in school: Samson the football star, Onyo the cheerleader, and you-know-what. Mr. Aatri, my homeroom teacher, made an announcement to the class at the beginning of the day.

“Class, please welcome our new student, Miela.”

I was drinking a glass of water at the time and sprayed it all over Kalnis, who was sitting in front of me. He whipped around and glared at me.

“Watch it, dweeb,” he hissed, glaring at me.

At recess, Miela walked over to me, but I noticed a change in the way she looked at me. She looked almost… sorry.

“Hey,” she said. Then, she quickly said something like, “Really sorry. Do you want to be friends?” She looked up, and I smiled. She understood.

September 21, 2048

Guess what? Today, Mrs. Beliani called me to her office. The announcement was met with the typical response.

“OooOOOoooh,” the class said. All except for my now two friends.

I walked up the long hallway to my principal’s office. I was holding this diary in my hands, and I passed it to Mrs. Beliani. She flipped through it for a second, then looked up at me.

“Your work has improved greatly.” I was confused, so she spelled it out for me.

“You don’t have to do this anymore.” She expected me to smile, but I asked one question.

“Can I put in one more entry?”

She let me, but also asked me if I wanted to do it again.

And maybe I will.


The Life of Ash

One day, Ash was sneaking through the woods near his village, dodging the guards meant to keep things out not in, but his parents had told them to not let him out of the village except if they gave them express permission or if there was an emergency and they had to retreat to Castle Macindaw. Ash recalled the time that he was just wandering in the woods on a dare, and he saw something supernatural that scared him out of his wits. Something unexplainable. Something that would make him afraid of Grimsdell Wood for a long time.

Then, he had raced home and told his mother what had happened. That had led her to not let him outside of the village without permission. “For your own good,” she had said. He smiled ruefully at the memory. But he was twelve now, double the age of when he first got terrified in Grimsdell Wood, so he would not get terrified again. All the same, he went into a different wood just because he felt like it. (Alright, he was a little bit scared.)

The wood that he went into was called Stonebrook, and he had explored the wood when he was a little boy and therefore knew every inch of it. Today he decided to go very deep into the wood, to a spot that he had made a clearing with his father’s axe (“borrowed”) and a good sickle (also borrowed). Today he reached the clearing, then picked up the axe and sickle and decided to go deeper into the wood, where he had never been before. After about ten minutes’ worth of walking, he heard this faint growling noise coming from behind him.

Slowly, he turned around and found himself face-to-face with a bear! He tried to raise the axe, but he was too slow. The bear stepped forward and decapitated him with one swing of his mighty paw. His body (and head) crashed to the ground, covered with something that you should not think about if you are currently eating anything. The bear took one sniff of the air that smelled like gore and dropped to the ground, dead.

Ash’s life flashed before his eyes, particularly the time when he went into Grimsdell Wood on his own, to prove that he was inimitable. He recalled the time that he went deep into the wood and got terrified by that huge warrior and those snakes… Ash shuddered at the thought. He had been terrified out of his wits, then raced home and told his mother. That had led to him eventually being killed by the bear. Therefore, it was his mother’s fault. Then, he thought of her and how heartbroken she would be, and his anger melted away like dew on the sunshine. He eventually became aware that the bear was dead. Vengeance! he thought. Then, he died.

Epilogue

The next day, a fine day, a patrol ventured out of the village and into Stonebrook Wood. He went deep into the wood and eventually came across the bodies and took one whiff of the gore-and-corpe-smelling air. Then, he died.

Author’s Note: When you are done with the story, reread the epilogue until there is no one left in the village.

The End

Honey’s Storm

Prologue: The Death

Sky burst into the grass with a cry of pain as she fell. Tom, her husband, yelled at all the blood. Then, Honey was born. Tom knew that his mate would not live, so Honey would be the light of his life. He watched as a new kit, Silvermoon, was born. He was perfect. Then, Cinnamon, a new kitten was born. Sky let out a shriek of pain as she breathed in her last breath. Then, she died. Tom wailed. Then, he looked at the kits. He would give them to Ice, and she would help.

Chapter One: What?

I opened my eyes. “What? Where? Who?” I said.

“You’re finally awake,” Silvermoon said.

“Where is Ice? Can we get down?” Cinnamon said.

“What if we fall? What if we fall?”

From then on, Cinnamon was always the nervous one. Silvermoon, on the other hand, was always the adventurous one. I was in between, but I really wanted to get down from that cramped place. Also, what is that sound? It was loud… Suddenly, I didn’t want to go down.

Silvermoon said, “Those are basketballs. Anyway, let’s just get down.”

So, I found a route by jumping from box to box to get to the floor. Silvermoon followed me immediately.

Cinnamon was like, “Hmmm, should I?”

By the time she decided to come down, we were already halfway across the floor, but Cinnamon leapt a box too high. I caught my teeth and dragged her to the floor, or that is what I intended to do. Instead, she flopped on top of me and jumped onto the cement floor. I leapt and caught her, but then really it just hurt.

Silvermoon was like, “Come on, let’s keep going.” So, we did. Then, I heard the basketballs. I mean, really heard them. Then, I nearly got smacked in the face by one of them.

“Owwww.”

Some big creature with fur on top of its head said, “Oh, cute kitty.”

We ran from that point into a backyard. Then, Silvermoon, Cinnamon, and I just ran back. Then, we didn’t know how to get back up. First, Silvermoon leapt and fell. Then, I leapt and caught something with my nose which hurt, and then I grabbed it with my claws which ripped one of them. Then, everybody joined me. In the end, the worst injury of it was a scraped face which belonged to Cinnamon. No wonder she was always the scaredy-cat. She always had the worst luck. Then, we waited. And waited. Then finally, we saw a white she-cat. We stared at it and asked each other who she was. She was Ice, our adopted mother, according to Cinnamon. Well, apparently she was supposed to take care of us. I stared at her and decided okay, if she can feed me. Then, we went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, a figure was in the doorway.

He said, “Hi. I am Tom, your father.” Tom looked old. Then, he said, “C’mon, let’s explore.”

Then, he lifted me up and set me, Silvermoon, and Cinnamon down. I ran out. No basketballs this time.

Tom led us into the woods. Sniff sniff. Squirrel! And fox! Tom leapt in front of us. I did not know Tom very well. But he was our dad. All four of us ran! From that day forward, Tom came every day. And Ice came at night. But it could not stay that way…

Chapter Two: Ice Gone

I was three months! Tom came as usual.

He said, “Do you want to see something strange?”

We went outside, and there was a cat, Ice, and a dog! The dog leapt at Ice, but she dodged under its legs. The dog ran up and hit her. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. So, I thought, I could dodge in, jump on his back to distract him, and then he would buck me, and then he’d land on her anyway. Or, I could dodge under his feet and get myself killed. Well, while I was deciding, and I will regret this, the dog landed on her. We ran to her. The dog ran away at the sight of all three of us. Ice was dead.

We buried her in the woods. Then, we stood by her grave to wait for that dog. And then they could get revenge. Then, we went back. I crawled back that night, but there was no Ice. And from then till now, I regret that I had not died in her place.

Far away, in his own nest, Tom was trying to think. What would he do next? He thought, but there was nothing. He ran over to the hillside, but then he was in the garage. Honey woke with a start. Then, it was morning. It was a normal morning.

Chapter Three: Tom Gone People Come

Tom said, “Come on already.”

We hunted, but the woods were empty. Then, I saw people! Two grown-ups and a child.

Writer here: The child was me!

“Guys, come here,” I said.

And then I ran back inside, but the child saw me. She looked over at me, but gave me a weird look, like she closed one eye and then looked away. She looked super bored. Well, I better go inside.

“Inside,” Tom said. “Those things,” he spat out the word, “are going somewhere. We can follow them and find out where they’re going.” He ran out in front of us.

“I guess we should follow him,” I said. After that, we walked and walked.

Tom said, “Well, it looks like we should stop for the night.”

I said, “Are we going back?”

Tom said, “No, we should just learn how to camp in a place that’s not home.”

It was super hard to sleep that night. I was worried there were foxes…

In the morning, I was tired, but we ran on. We ran behind the car. I don’t know why the car had stopped all night, but we were lucky.

We kept running behind the car. A car was behind us. We ran to the side. We were lucky. The cars passed. And then, we were in a crowded place. I don’t know where. We decided to turn back, but we couldn’t. We kept running and running and running. But soon something was hurting my pads. But soon night was falling. We had to keep going! We had to keep going! The car stopped! Where were we? Who knew. We made camp. We were there for a week, but that’s a story for later. We waited and waited and waited. One day, we saw the car! We could go! We started walking and walking and walking. I smelled country air! We were here!! Then, we rounded the corner. A car!!! I ran, just ran. When I looked, an orange Tom was lying in the street. Tom! His chest was still! I wailed. What would I do now? I felt like a stranger in the world. Where? What? I felt a wave of despair. I wanted to collapse and die. It was the most painful thing that had ever happened to me. But just then, Cinnamon collapsed. I knew how she felt. I felt the same way. But I was the older sister. I had to be strong.

Chapter Four: Older Sister

I felt different, stronger but empty. I was older. But I was like no one, like my soul had been ripped out. But then I looked at Silvermoon and Cinnamon. I had to keep going. Again, I was the older sister, I had to keep repeating that in my mind.

“So,” I told Silvermoon and Cinnamon, “let’s keep going.”

I kind of felt like Tom’s soul was guiding me. So, I kept going too. We walked, and then night started to fall. We reached our home. That would have been a woot woot for me before. I remembered: I was the older sister, the one in charge. But then something weird happened. Three strange cats were standing outside the garage. When I say strange, I mean strange. One was black. I mean all black. I mean midnight black with the darkest blue eyes you’ve ever seen. She was creepy! Then, there was a ginger tom-cat that pained me to look at. He looked so much like Tom. Then, there was a caramel colored one. The black one stepped forward and introduced herself as Night. That made sense. She was as black as night. Then, the ginger tom-cat introduced himself as Maple. Good, it wasn’t Tom!

Right now, Maple is looking over my shoulder grinning at this.

Then, the caramel tom introduced himself as Caramel. Okay, that was obvious. I could tell he wasn’t that smart. He hissed and jumped at nothing. Night had to restrain him from going absolutely bonkers. So, I introduced myself and my two siblings. Then, they said they’d be living here. I was very welcoming, or I tried my best… Night looked a bit younger than me… Oh right, I was the older sister again.

Night came to visit, and now she’s also grinning over my shoulder while I’m writing this, and she said, “I did not look so young!”

Just a second, I have to tell her that she did.

Well, I knew a place where they could stay. I almost turned to Tom, but I stopped. Another wave drowned me in the ocean of despair.

“I’ll show you the way,” I said. I showed them to a nice stream where they could stay. I went back to the garage. I could not sleep that night. I kept seeing Tom lying in the street.

Chapter Five: Honey and Maple Sitting in a Tree

The next day, I saw Maple looking lost. I went over to see if I could help, and I told him the best spot to hunt. He looked completely lost with my directions, so I led him. I hunted with him and shared a mouse. Then, I invited him to the garage. A few minutes later, Cinnamon came in and started singing,

“Maple and Honey sitting in a tree… ” And then I jumped at her and slashed at her. She ran faster than you could say “Honey.” Embarrassment burned on my cheeks.

We went to sleep. When I woke up, Silvermoon was yelling at me. “Why are you snuggling with a stranger?”

It happened several more nights until… I started expecting my first kitten. Well, I felt like everybody was scuttling around me like bugs, giving me food and water. I could hunt for myself, thank you! And I could walk also.

Maple’s peering over my shoulder yelling at me, “I was not scuttling like a bug!”

Now Golden’s here and is peering at this and says to her dad, “You were scuttling.”

“How do you know? You weren’t even there!” That’ll end up in a long argument.

And I started to try and ignore them. It was hard. My kitten was coming and fast! It was a gray morning when my kitten happened. I doubled over in pain. I saw five kittens!

Chapter Six: Kittens

Maple and I sat down. We were discussing the names for our kittens: Golden, Time, Tulip, Rose, and Tawny. Perfect names, except for Maple wanted to name them Sun, Time, Tulip, Rose, and Rainbow. It ended up my way though. I liked it that way.

So, I went back to our kittens, licked Golden’s head, which she didn’t like. Their eyes and ears weren’t open yet. I slept with them for the first time and for many nights after that.

One day, their ears opened and their eyes! Golden waddled around on the floor. Time didn’t even bother getting up. Tulip and Rose weren’t doing so well. They didn’t look very healthy. They weren’t getting up, and their eyes and ears still weren’t open. We waited for their eyes and ears to open. They never did. That got me worried. What if they never did?

The next day, their eyes and ears did open though! But they still weren’t getting up. Their siblings were playing around in the grass, rolling and yelping and jumping. Every time (I’ve learned they’re called humans) the humans came, we hid in the woods and played there and tried not to be so loud to disturb them. But I’ve been seen by that little girl too many times. So have my kits and many other cats around here. It was settling into an everyday life, nothing scary. I was starting to like it.

Then one day, Cinnamon came up to me. She told me that she found a mate in a town nearby called Rhinebeck. I cried. What would I do without Cinnamon?

But things moved on. And I got used to it without her. One day, Golden was prancing through the grass when snow started to fall.

Tawny said, “What’s hitting my head?”

“It’s snow,” I told her. Soon it started to fall heavy though, and I had to bring them in. Maple was sitting in the garage waiting for me. Golden started complaining that she wanted to go outside, and I told her that she couldn’t. It was too cold. Then, she said that she could go outside. I told her to argue with her dad. And she did. Until finally Maple decided to let her out.

He told her, “You’re going to be the one getting cold.”

But she came inside five minutes later and said, “I think I’ll stay inside.”

Tawny was curled up in a corner snoring loudly. Tulip, Time, and Rose were meowing at the dogs outside. We’d learned the humans had dogs and to be wary of them. The small brown one was named Ella, and the small white one was named Phaedra. They didn’t care that it was snowing. Then, when the dogs went inside and the snow was done falling, my kittens ran outside and started rolling and playing. It was so deep I couldn’t see them! I got worried and plunged in looking for them. I found Golden first. She was digging out a tunnel.

I asked her, “You’re making tunnels?”

She said that it was the easiest way to get around under the snow, and they were digging lots of them, and they made a snow fort, and it was really warm in there. She was talking really fast. So, I ducked into the tunnel. When I got to this so-called fort, it actually was warm. They’d managed to build a fire under the snow. And when we got out, it was much colder outside than it was inside, so we went inside. It was very dark. Actually, it was dawn. We’d stayed in there all night! That wasn’t good. Sometimes I felt like the kit, not the mother. So, I kept my kittens inside all the next day. Maple came running towards me talking about how worried he’d been.

I told him, “Calm down. We were just in a snow fort.”

“Can’t we have some fun sometimes,” Golden said.

Maple got very stern and said, “You can’t talk to your father that way, missy.”

I took Golden to a corner of the garage for her to sit in and think about talking to her father that way. My other four kittens played and laughed, and Tulip almost broke her paw on the hard floor, but that’s another story. The main part of it was that I had to lick it and lick it and lick it all day, which was really irritating because my tongue got so cold, and Tulip hated it because she had to sit still all day. Over time, they started to grow older. Soon they were finding their own nests, not in the garage. And I was expecting new kittens.

Chapter Seven: Storm and Barry

My next litter consisted of three kittens. I barely remember their birth. There was a gray one, who had a lot of attitude like Golden. I named her Storm. And a multicolored one who was very shy and still. I thought she’d been born dead when I first saw her. She reminded me of Tulip. I named her Barry. And a third one so sickly and cold, born dead. Barry and Storm were born in the spring, as my other kittens were, and they played and rolled in the grass, or they would when their eyes were open. Storm’s eyes opened the day after she was born, which was strange. Most kittens take a moon for their eyes to open. I guess Storm was ready. Barry opened hers two months after she was born, very late. I was worried about her. Not Storm though — she was rolling and playing and laughing in the grass before you could say “Storm.” The snow started to fall again. Barry ran straight inside as fast as she could, but not Storm. Storm played and played, but there wasn’t enough snow this year to build the tunnels like I’d done with Golden and like I’d done when I was a kit. So, we just played in the sort of deep snow. Once, Storm sunk so deep that she landed in a hole one of those silly dogs had made. The one named Phaedra had made it. So, I had to go dig and dig and dig and dig all day with snow pouring into the hole, until I got Storm out shivering. I brought her back to the garage to warm her up.

And when she was warm enough to speak, she said “Let’s not go in the backyard again.”

But that never made her stop going outside. Looking at my kittens, I knew I was starting to get old. Then, Storm and Barry grew up too. Storm never lost her adventurous touch. She made a nest in the weirdest place she could find — in a tree!

I said to her, “What are you, a bird?”

She said, “It’s cool. You can fly from up here!” And she tried to jump. Luckily, I caught her, but not like I’d tried to catch Cinnamon. I caught her like I’d wanted to catch Cinnamon back when I was a kitten. And when I caught her, I found her a different nest. Storm wasn’t very happy about it. Barry, on the other hand, decided to adopt the garage as her permanent home. I found her a home by the garage, in the trees. I did not want to have my kitten living with me forever. She needed some independence. I was expecting my third litter, and by now I was really getting old.

Chapter Eight: Our Story Comes to a Close

I had four in my next litter, again in the spring. I knew this would be my last litter, but I still lived on strong. I wasn’t dead yet. So, I thought of names for my next litter. There was a black one that reminded me so much of Storm and so much of Golden before her. Why do I keep getting these adventurous kittens?

Then, there was also Flame and Fire, who were so similar they reminded me of Time, Tulip and Rose. Except they weren’t nervous, just not as adventurous as Raven. And then, finally there was Ripple. She was as adventurous as Raven, but she was not as daring. Raven and Ripple had their eyes open first and at a proper time, well, a few days before the proper time. And Fire and Flame opened them at the exact perfect time. Healthy! Very good. I was so happy. I’d had three litters of kittens, and then I took them all outside. When they were outside, they played and played and played. Raven tried to climb a tree. With my previous experience with Storm, I didn’t let her. Well, Fire and Flame decided to try to figure out what was inside the house, and Ripple just jumped around and jumped around and made as much noise as possible to try to lure something outside. I stopped every single one of them and made them play more quietly. And then, at the end of the day, I took them inside. I wasn’t taking any risks of leaving them outside in the night when they were so young. That night, Maple rushed towards me with a grin on his face. He told me that my brother had just had kittens. I was so happy for Silvermoon and Night that I ran right to their nest. Oh, did I forget to mention that they were mates? Well, they are. They had three beautiful kittens. Sun, Feather, and Tiger. Tiger was a lot like Golden, Storm, and Raven. I guess everybody has to have an adventurous kitten. I love them. Then, I ran back to my own kittens. Soon, snow started to fall again and for the last time in this story. My kittens played and played and played, but there wasn’t very much this year.

The people went out in their car yelling, “We’re going skiing! We’re going skiing!”

And they came back very happy. We were too.

And now I’m sitting in my cozy garage, writing this, my experiences. Raven is next to me, looking at this, though she doesn’t understand it yet, and Night had her second litter, who she gave the names of Red, Squirrel, and Bone. She named the white one Bone because he loved dogs for some reason. I don’t know why he loved dogs. And life has a nice, good rhythm. The humans have been coming and going. They’ve been here for a long time this week, like the whole week, which is unusual. But they’re gone. Somewhere, maybe the place I went with Tom. And that’s the end of our story.

Clean-Up’s Adventures

The girl living in the apartment above him was reading The Legend of Clean-Up. Yup, Clean-Up is a legend because he can make hot dogs fly. The little girl’s name is Zoe Is Awesome (Zoe for short).

Zoe was in her bed arguing with her mom.

“Is Clean-Up real?” Zoe asked her mom.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure that you’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure that I’m sure.”

Meanwhile, downstairs, Zoe’s dad was breaking the TV, so he could fix it again. He was very crazy.

Zoe wanted to know if Clean-Up was real because he was so awesome and could fly when he touched a hot dog!

“Zoe, stop thinking about Clean-Up,” her mom said sharply, as she turned the lights out.

“No! I want to know if he’s real or not,” said Zoe as she opened The Legend of Clean-Up, and she turned on her flashlight.

Chapter Two

The next morning, Clean-Up’s mother said, “Clean-Up, you need to go to school!

No,” said Clean-Up.

“Yes, Clean-Up. You need to,” said his mom.

“Ahem, what about my incredibly fancy shmancy ever so awesome powers,” said Clean-Up.

“You need to go school. Just don’t make any friends that like hot dogs,” said his mom.

“Okay fine,” said Clean-Up. “But I have to change my name. I’ll be… Kevin Up-Clean!”

So, it was official. Clean-Up was going to the six hour torture chamber (school).

Chapter Three

“Today is my first day of school!” said Clean-Up (or Kevin Up-Clean). So, Clean-Up went to school for his first time.

“So, class, today we have a new student who is also allergic to hot dogs, so if you have hot dogs, please stay away!” said the teacher.

Then, Kevin made a friend named Jacob. (He was very nice, and he showed Kevin where everything was, like where the bathroom was.) So then it was lunch time, and someone had a hot dog.

(So, someone had a hot dog. But luckily, they stayed away from each other secretly, so nothing bad happened.)

Then, Clean-Up and Jacob both went home to their houses and went to bed.

Chapter Four

Zoe was getting ready for school when she spotted The Legend of Clean-Up!

“I know he’s real,” Zoe cried.

“Who’s real, honey?” asked Zoe’s mom.

“No one,” said Zoe. Zoe grabbed The Legend of Clean-Up, stuffed it in her backpack, and ran to school.

At school, she told everybody about Clean-Up. When she said he was real, they thought she was crazy. There was still one person she hadn’t told Kevin Up-Clean. She walked over to Kevin Up-Clean.

“Do you believe in Clean-Up ?” she asked him.

“Yes,” said Kevin Up-Clean.

“Really?” said Zoe. She was so excited.

“Totally,” said Kevin Up-Clean.

“I never met anyone who believed in Clean-Up before!”

“Where do you live?” asked Clean-Up.

“86th Street,” said Zoe.

“Me too!” said Kevin Up-Clean.

“Want to come to my house after school?” asked Zoe

“Sure,” said Kevin. After school, Kevin Up-Clean went to Zoe’s house. Zoe’s house was awesome.

“Zoe, I have to tell you something. No one can know. I am Clean-Up,” said Kevin Up-Clean.

Chapter Five

One day, Clean-Up was walking with Zoe and talking. Then, the school bully walked by with a hot dog.

He said, “Clean-Up isn’t real. If he was, he would be really bad and do bad stuff.”

Clean-Up felt really mad. He wanted to eat the hot dog too, but he couldn’t touch it, because he would make it fly with his magical powers.

Zoe and Clean-Up tried to stop the bully from saying mean things.

Zoe said, “Stop it! Go away! Don’t bully a legend because it can be true, and it can also not be true. And it’s mean. And actually, if Clean-Up was real, I’d like him.”

“Yeah, Zoe. You’re right!” said Clean-Up, feeling awesome. Then they both went to Zoe’s house and ate Skittles!

Then, he had two best friends, Zoe and Jacob.

And he liked both of them.

A lot.

Chapter Six

After that, everything was okay until… One day at recess, the school bully came and cornered Clean-Up and then put him in a bag and took him to his secret lair, and he stayed there

for a long time…

Then, Clean-Up said, “I am awesome, so I can get myself out of here, and I am Clean-Up! I will survive!”

Two hours later, after trying very hard, he gave up. Then, he sat down and saw something very mysterious … a box of Oreos and a key to get out. Clean-Up was to scared to go outside because he knew that Dominic (the bully) was guarding the outside of his secret lair waiting for Clean-Up to try to get out. Then, Clean-Up had an idea… He threw the key out the window (because it was useless), and he started writing a letter to Zoe and Jacob … But then Dominic noticed what Clean-Up was doing and quickly took the note and crumpled it up and locked him up in the lair all alone, and Clean-Up was left alone to just have a feeling of hope that Zoe and Jacob would come and find him.

Chapter Seven

The next 20 weeks, when Clean-Up wasn’t at school, Zoe decided something was wrong. She called Jacob and asked him to come over. Jacob and Zoe agreed something was wrong.

Zoe sighed.

“Jacob, I didn’t want to know about Clean-Up because he’s awesome but because I’m a legend too,” said Zoe.

“Really?” said Jacob.

“Really. I’m Zoe Is Awesome. I have had my super powers ever since I was a kid and never told anyone,” said Zoe.

“Well, I’m Panda Jacob. And I can turn into a Panda! I have had my super powers since I was born and have not told anyone too,” said Jacob proudly.

“And I can fly when I touch a chicken and fall when it disappears,” said Zoe.

“Great, we’ll make an awesome team. We will save Clean-Up in no time,” said Jacob.

So that weekend, Zoe and Jacob set out to find Clean-Up, but first… they told Clean-Up’s mom where they were going. Afterwards, they went to Jacob’s treehouse.

“So,” said Zoe, “Clean-Up was probably kidnapped.” Jacob nodded.

“Here’s the list of suspects,” said Jacob as he gave her a notebook.

At the top of the list was Dominic’s name.

“It was probably Dominic,” said Jacob. Zoe didn’t say anything.

“Where could Dominic hide Clean-Up?” Zoe said finally.

“Anywhere,” said Jacob.

Zoe spread out a map. She looked at all the places on the map. “Crocodile Creek, Lobster Lagoon, Carrot Cavern, Crystal Cavern. Where could Clean-Up be?” asked Zoe.

“I say we check Crystal Cavern first,” said Jacob.

“Good idea,” said Zoe. So, Jacob and Zoe set off to Crystal Cavern with Zoe’s pet chicken, Alfred.

Chapter Eight

When Zoe and Jacob reached Crystal Cavern, they saw a crack in the stone wall of the cave. Zoe peered through the crack and said, “I don’t see anything. Check the ground for trap doors. I’ll search the wall for secret passages.”

“Ay ay, captain,” said Jacob.

“Ha, I am not the captain. I just read a lot of stuff about it.” Jacob dropped to his knees and began to search.

After one hour….

“I found a key!” Jacob hollered at the top of his lungs.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Not so loud. Dominic could hear you. Can I see the key?” Zoe whispered. Jacob handed her the key.

“This is the key to unlock Clean-Up,” she said.

“The entrance is over there. Let’s go,” Jacob said. Zoe and Jacob hurried over to the entrance and used the key to open the door…

Bam crash bang. Axes, hammers, and swords wouldn’t stop raining down from the sky. “How do we stop this!” Jacob said.

“We don’t stop them. We’re going through them,” said Zoe fiercely. Without another word, Zoe grabbed Jacob’s arm and pulled out Alfred and started floating, but as soon as she was in the air, she began to sink back down!

“What happened!” cried Jacob.

“You’re too heavy,” said Zoe.

“Me? But I’ve been on a diet for weeks!” said Jacob.

“Turn into a panda and give me your bamboo.” Jacob turned into a panda and handed Zoe his unlimited supply of bamboo. Zoe began to build a tunnel out of the bamboo. Zoe and Jacob walked through the tunnel. When they were at the other end, they saw Dominic guarding a door. It was a big metal door, and it had a big metal lock in it.

“Let us pass,” said Jacob.

“Go ahead,” said Dominic.

Jacob started to walk forward..

“Don’t do it. It’s a trap,” said Zoe. Jacob stopped and turned into a panda.

“What are you doing?” asked Zoe.

Jacob didn’t say anything. He inched forward towards Dominic.

“What are you doing?” asked Dominic.

When Jacob was an inch away, he pounced on Dominic.

“Hey, stop that!” said Dominic. When Dominic was on the floor, Jacob sat on him and smiled. Jacob made sure that Dominic was knocked out and then turned back into himself.

Zoe and Jacob ran over to the door. “How are we going to find the combination for the lock?” asked Zoe.

“I don’t know,” said Jacob. Jacob tried a million different combinations. Zoe was walking around the room, seeing if there were any other ways in.

Finally, Zoe said, “The door isn’t actually locked.”

Jacob was shocked, but he opened the door anyway. They walked through the door and saw Clean-Up chained up in the corner.

“How do we get Clean-Up now?” asked Jacob.

“The key wasn’t only for the door outside. It was also for the cage that Clean-Up was in.”

Jacob and Zoe ran over and unlocked Clean-Up. Then, they locked up Dominic and took the Oreos!

Clean-Up was saved! They paraded out of Dominic’s lair and went back to Clean-Up’s house.

Chapter Nine

Hip hip hooray! Three cheers for Jacob and Zoe!” cheered Clean-Up.

They were in a hot dog shop on 85th Street to celebrate their victory.

Clean-Up touched a hot dog, and the hot dog hovered above it. They ate hot dog cake and Oreos and played tag and Clean-Up was It. He could just tag someone with his string, and then Clean-Up would pull his string up. And when they wanted to tag him, they had to jump up to tag him!

Wherever Clean-Up wanted to go, he was just right above Zoe. If Clean-Up didn’t want to walk to school or he hurt his leg (or any other part of his body), Zoe would give him a hot dog and pull him to school. And then every day, Clean-Up and Jacob went to Zoe’s house to play and have fun and celebrate that Zoe and Jacob saved Clean-Up. And then everything was okay.

THE END


A Cat Called Sunny

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Pepper. She was 12 years old, and she had a cat called Sunny. Sunny was black and had big white spots. Pepper always thought something was odd about her. One time, Pepper had to do her homework and saw her cat drawing on paper with a pencil!

She jumped and screamed, “What the heck?!

The cat screeched because she got super scared and ran out of her room and went under her parents’ bed. Pepper was done with her homework, and her mom called her for dinner. Pepper was super, super hungry. Her favorite food was sushi!! And her cat also loved sushi (she liked salmon avocado rolls). Her cat came downstairs, and Pepper sat down in her chair. When Pepper started eating, her cat jumped on the table and ate up all her sushi rolls!

Pepper was surprised, and she said, “Bad kitty!!” And she pushed Sunny off the table!!!

Sunny said quietly, “These humans are so rude!”

Pepper heard Sunny and shrieked and said, “Did Sunny just speak?!”

Pepper’s parents said, “Sweetie, calm down. What are you talking about?”

Pepper said, “Sunny spoke. Did you hear? Did you hear?!

She screamed, and her mom said, “Honey, I said calm down, will ya!

Sunny said very, very quietly, “I’m afraid she knows.”

Luckily, Pepper didn’t hear. When Pepper was done with her homework, she went to bed. In her bed, she was thinking about the thing that happened during dinner when her cat talked, and she had the weirdest dream about Sunny! It was about her turning into a cat and Sunny turning into a human, and she was the one talking as a cat. So, it was the opposite! When she woke up, Pepper screamed because of her dream. By accident, she woke up her parents.

They barged in, and they said, “What is the matter with you lately?!”

Pepper said, “Uh… nothing. I just had a, uh… bad dream?”

Her mom said, “Oh, my poor baby.”

Pepper just ignored her and went back to sleep, but they said, “Why are you going back to sleep. It’s 7:50!”

Pepper freaked out and rushed down the ladder of her bed. She had a loft bed. Pepper put on her clothes and ran downstairs to eat breakfast, and her cat was there licking her paw and looking at the toy.

Pepper said, “Don’t worry, my wittle kitty Sunny! I’ll give you food. Here, let me get the cat food.”

Sunny didn’t want food, so she said, “Meow!”

Pepper said, “You don’t want food?”

Sunny meowed again and again and again and again. “Meow, meow meow meow!!!”

And Pepper said, “Ohhhh… you want your toy! Right?”

She meowed, “Yes.” Pepper gave the chew toy to Sunny, and Sunny ripped it like crazy! So, Pepper had to buy a new one that didn’t break easily.

Finally, Pepper brought the cat into her room and said, “Tell me the truth, Sunny. Can you talk or not?!”

Sunny said, “Meow!”

Pepper said, “Dang it!”

Sunny opened the door by herself and left the room. Pepper sighed and went on the computer to play Coolmath Games and played the dinosaur version.

Pepper’s mom screamed, “Honey, time for bed!! Oh wait, you’re right next to me. Sorry.” And then she laughed.

Then, Pepper said, “Seriously, Mom?! My ears popped, and that really hurt!”

Her mom said, “Sorry… I didn’t know you were there… ” She also said, “I’m just saying… it’s time for bed. Kay?”

She said, “Okay fine. I’ll go.”

“And make sure to take your — ”

I know!! My shower. Sure sure.” Her mom rolled her eyes. Pepper took her shower and went to bed. It was the morning, and it was Friday! Pepper was happy but not happy to go to school… at least she could have choice time today and go on her computer. Oh… and I forgot she’s in fifth grade. Pepper got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed her teeth, and went to the bus to go to school.

Her teacher was standing next to the board and said, “Good morning, class, and happy Friday!!!”

Pepper’s teacher was very joyful and happy all the time. Her teacher was nice! Pepper’s class screamed.

Good morning, Miss Heather!!” they said.

Pepper just fell asleep till miss Heather said, “Pepper Smith! Wake up!” She said that when it was time for recess and lunch at 12:00! Right when Pepper woke up, she heard a scratch under her desk. She peeked under it and realized it was Sunny!!

Pepper screamed, “What the!! Why is my cat here?!” The cat just meowed. Pepper just took the cat in her arms and asked the teacher to put Sunny in her bag and zip it up really tight. School was over. Pepper walked home. It was only a few blocks away.

When she opened her door, her mom screamed and scared Pepper and said, “How was your day?! Mine was fine. How about yours?!”

Pepper says, “Aaaaaaaaaaaa, a monster!!! Oh, it’s Mom! What is wrong with you? You can’t just scare me like that!

Her mom said, “Oh… I scared you? Weird, you barely even jumped.”

Pepper said, “Sorry… What was that? ‘Cause I jumped way higher than I usually do!!

Her mom said, “Sorry, I like doing that.”

And Pepper ignored her and went straight to her homework. But Sunny came out of nowhere and grabbed her homework and started to write on it, and Pepper screamed, “Sunny, come back here with my homework!!”

Sunny ignored her and started doing her homework and getting a pencil. Pepper was so confused because she started to see Sunny actually doing her homework and getting some of the problems right!

Pepper screamed and said, “What the freak?! How are you doing my homework and actually getting the problems right?! You’re a creepy cat, Sunny!” Sunny just meowed again and left with the homework paper.

And Pepper said, “Wait! Tell me the truth… what is your secret?” Sunny just… didn’t reply and left. Pepper was so mad at Sunny, and before Sunny left, Pepper grabbed her and said, “Sunny, you better talk ‘cause it’s going to get messy! Talk now!”

And Sunny said, “Okay okay okay. I’ll talk. The truth is I can talk. Please don’t kill me!”

Pepper said, “O-M-G, I knew it. I knew you could talk. Hahahah!!! Oh sorry… don’t worry, why would I kill my own cat? I love cats!” She also said, “Hey… also tell me how you wrote?”

Sunny said, “Well, when I was in your class earlier I kind of listened to what the teacher was saying. So, I copied it down on a piece of paper, and when we went back home, I did your homework.”

Pepper said, “That doesn’t answer my question. I said how did you learn to write?”

Sunny said, “Ohh… my parents taught me, and my mom’s owner taught my mom so yeah… that’s the story.”

Pepper said, “I’m so happy!! I can talk to you whenever I want. You are my BFFL now!!

Sunny said, “Wasn’t I always your BFFL?”

Pepper said, “Oh right. Yeah, of course!”

Sunny said, “Let’s go get some ice cream.”

Pepper said, “Wait, cats can’t eat ice cream. They get sick if they do… ”

Sunny said, “Oh fine, let’s get some sushi then.”

Pepper said, “Sure, quick because my mom is almost home.”


The Duck Dilemma

Chapter One: The Duck Dilemma

One day, Alex and her younger sister Sophia had a fight. Alex couldn’t join the same after-school program her sister was part of because her sister didn’t want her in the after-school program.

So, she went and talked to the ducks at the zoo. The zoo made her feel at home.

The ducks quacked back to her. “Hello.”

“What just happened?!” Alex said. Alex whipped her head around to see if anyone else was there. But no one was there.

The ducks start quacking.

“We can talk to you because you have a special power of the duck-adoo.”

What?!

“It is a special ability to talk to ducks.”

“Bu — but I could never do this before.”

“When a child turns fifteen, if they are chosen, they get the power of the duck.”

No way.

“Didn’t you just turn fifteen?”

“Yes.”

“Then you will have the power of the duck for the rest of your life.”

“But can I tell anyone?”

“I am the one to not tell you, for the emperor duck-too must tell you.”

Alex followed the duck to what looked like a miniature beaver lodge. The duck went inside and came back out with a duck that looked to be 100 years old.

“Welcome, Alex of Prospect Park,” said the emperor. Alex knew what to expect.

“Hello, emperor duck-too.”

“I am flattered that you know my name,” said the emperor. “Anyway, now let’s get to business. You must not tell anyone.”

“Why not?”

“Because duck-adoo is a very sacred thing.”

“Not even my closest friend?”

“Sometimes the person that you trust most turns out to be your worst enemy,” said emperor duck-too.

“What do you mean,” said Alex as her stomach flipped. She alway thought that she and her friend Lauren were a perfect match.

Chapter Two: Lauren and Tom

The next day, when Alex went into school, Lauren was waiting for her by the front door.

“Hi, Lauren,” said Alex.

“What do you want,” snapped Lauren.

“I just wanted to say hi,” replied Alex.

Suddenly, Alex realized that Lauren, who had been such a faithful friend since kindergarten, hated her. Suddenly, Alex felt tears sting her eyes. She ran off to the protection of the girls bathroom. As she ran into the bathroom hall, she ran into someone.

“Oh, sorry,” Alex stammered.

“Oh, it’s fine,” said a male voice.

“By the way, my name is Tom, Tom Walter.”

“Uh, hi. My name is Alex, Alex Myther.” Alex suddenly recognized the boy. He was the boy who always sat in the back of math class and never answered any questions.

“Do you like the zoo?” blurted Alex.

“Yeah totally,” said Tom.

“I like seeing the ducks at the zoo,” Alex said.

“Me too,” said Tom.

“Maybe we should go together sometime,” exclaimed Alex.

“That sounds great. Maybe Friday after school,” said Tom.

“Okay, see you then,” said Alex.

Chapter Three: Friday And The Truth

Soon, Friday had arrived. Alex was getting ready for school. Her stomach fluttered with butterflies, or I should say ducks.

As the day went by, Alex went to all her classes, and as usual, Tom sat in the back of math class, never answering any questions and staying quiet. Alex tried to pay attention in class, but she kept looking back at Tom.

After eighth period ended, which was math, Alex got up and was gathering her stuff when Tom brushed by her saying, “4:00. Flatbush entrance, okay?”

“Yup,” said Alex.

When Alex arrived at the zoo, Tom was waiting on the bench reading a book.

“Hi,” said Tom.

“Oh, hi, Tom,” said Alex.

“What should we do first?” asked Tom.

“Let’s see the ducks!” exclaimed Alex.

“Okay,” replied Tom. When they got to the duck pond, there was no one there. The ducks were all bustling around so fast it looked like they were on wheels.

“Wow, what do you think they are doing?” said Alex.

“Don’t know. Maybe getting ready for something,” said Tom.

Suddenly, a duck swam over to them and said to both of them, “Welcome, Alex of Prospect Park and Tom of Greenwood Heights.”

Alex and Tom looked at each other in awe.

“WAIT, YOU CAN DO THAT?” they both yelled.

THE END.


Penny Story

I am a penny. I can have different designs, like monuments and shields. Abraham Lincoln is on my head side, and I was born in 2018.

At school, surprisingly, they were giving out pennies to look at for reading. Jacob collected the pennies and gave them back to the teacher. But I am from Jacob’s house. I live in a safe. But today, I was taken on an adventure all around Jacob’s school. This morning, Jacob put me in his sock, and I thought, This feels like a much better place to live than in a safe.

Then, I got a real bump in my back when Jacob started pinball. I went all around and got so dizzy that I got really, really sweaty. I said, “I really think Jacob is very, very active.”

I finally had some peace time when Jacob had quiet time in math and centers. During all those things, I took a very long, long, long nap. I dreamed about me in a knight’s costume fighting a humongous, humongous, humongous dragon. It almost killed me. But once it started its flames, I blocked it and jumped so high with my rocket, and then I turned them off, and I stabbed my sword into the dragon. Then, there was another and another and another. And I woke up because I was so frightened.

Then after school, I took a peek outside, and I went on the bus to go to Writopia. Then, I got taken out by Jacob, and he laid me on my back, and I looked at Jacob’s story, and I thought, Hmmm, that’s not a bad story. I think it’s about me.

The End


Who To Trust

“It was a night just like this one,” said Melody.

“Seriously?” said Nate. “That’s how all stories start. Try something new.”

“Why don’t you tell the story then,” said Melody.

“Okay,” said Nate. “In a forest only a mile away, a little girl was walking in the woods. Suddenly, a big bad wolf came in front of her.”

“Is this Little Red Riding Hood?” asked Melody.

“No way, that’s such a lame story. This is much better. Let me continue,” he said. “Just then, the little girl turned into a dinosaur with squid tentacles and a lion mane and a mermaid tail. She slapped the wolf with one of her tentacles, and the wolf fell down. He was terrified.

‘Why are you hitting me? I was going to ask you to come to dinner.’ The wolf was actually a nice guy.

‘Oh,’ said the little girl. She turned back into a little girl.”

By now, Melody was bursting into giggles. “I don’t know if that was a horror story, but it was definitely funny. You should send that to the writing competition in school.”

“No way, Melody. Everyone will make fun of me. I am 12 years old and a boy. Boys don’t typically write stories. At least that’s what the kids in school think.”

“Who cares what they think? You know we could use the money. Father is suspended, and mother is very ill. We could use $800.”

“I know,” said Nate. “Okay, I will do it.”

Melody smiled. “Let’s go home and start working on it.”

One week later, the results came out for the contest. The loudspeaker announced, “Nate Machine, please come to the main office. You are in big trouble.” Nate’s eyes widened — what did he do?? As he left the classroom, he felt everyone staring at him. His cheeks were burning. His eyes were tearing up. Just then, he heard a voice.

“Can I go with him?” It was Melody. His little sister always cared about him so much. She was also extremely smart. She was only eight, but she was in sixth grade.

The teacher rolled his eyes and said, “Sure.” She got up and went with him. They walked together silently in the hall. When they got to the main office, the lights were dimmed.

Just as they walked in, the lights turned on, and everyone yelled, “Surprise!!!” The principal was holding a check of $800.

That means I won! thought Nate. In a second, all his emotions changed from scared to happy. He looked at Melody and saw his sister beaming at him.
When they got back to class, the whole class saw the check and gasped.

Another kid named Craig whispered to someone, “Melody must have helped him. No way he could have done it on his own.”

He said that just loud enough for Melody, Nate, and everyone in class to hear except the teacher. Craig was always jealous of the siblings. Melody was really smart but wasn’t so good at controlling her emotions. Nate thought she was about to blow. But Melody just breathed.

“Mr. Yellowstone, Craig is saying Nate cheated.”

Mr. Yellowstone said, “Craig, accusing someone of doing something wrong when you know they aren’t is a type of bullying. Our school has zero tolerance for that. Please see me after class about this.” Craig seemed completely fine with it. He was fine with it because he got a picture of Nate cheating in the whole class’s mind. Nate knew this, and he felt mad. Really mad. He wanted to take Craig and push him in the wall. But he controlled himself. Suddenly, the bell rang.

“Class dismissed,” said Mr.Yellowstone. “Craig, please stay.”

Melody and Nate started walking home when a strange man appeared in front of them. “Hello, children.” He looked at Nate and said, “I can make your problems go away.” The man was tall and had a long beard with silver eyes. He was super creepy.

Melody said, “It’s okay, we don’t have any problems.” She started to pull Nate away, but he wouldn’t budge. “Let’s go, Nate.” But Nate was in a trance-like state. “What did you do to my brother, you freak!” Melody cried. Her voice full of rage and fear.

“Nothing,” said the man with a evil smile. “Now run along home, little girl. Your brother and I have some business to take care of.”

“I will never leave him,” said Melody with all the courage she could summon.

“Yes, you will,” said the man. He raised his hand, and a strong gust of wind attacked Melody. “Now run along before I get really mad.”

“No,” said Melody. She loved her brother so much nothing could keep her apart from him.

“Okay, you asked for it.” Suddenly, a tornado appeared and swept Melody away to her home. Melody blacked out. The bright sun woke her up. She blinked.

What just happened, she thought to herself. She pinched herself. Was this a dream? She remembered her brother.

She ran back to the spot her brother and her were separated.

Meanwhile, Nate awoke from his trance.

“What happened? Melody, where are you? Why am I in chains?”

“Don’t worry about anything,” said the man. “Now drink this, and all your worries will go away.”

“No way, psycho. What is wrong with you? Where is my sister?”

“Kids like you are so annoying. Don’t listen to anyone. Your sister is back home — now just drink it, or I will do the same to you as I did to your sister.” The man smirked.

“What did you do to her?” asked Nate, worried.

“Just drink this, and you can go to your sister. She has no idea where you are, and she will never know until I release you. Just drink this, and you can see her.”

“Promise?” asked Nate. “And this is not poison?”

“Why would I want to hurt you my boy? I am your father.”

Nate’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about, no you’re not. I don’t have magical powers.”

“Yes, you do,” the man said with glee. “Try them out. Point your finger at the chains, and wish to be released. Pretty easy.”

Nate did as told, and it actually happened! Nate was so surprised. He pinched himself. Is this a dream, thought Nate. “Does Melody have magic too?”

“Obviously,” said the man. “Kids these days ask the dumbest questions,” said the man with an eye roll. “Okay now that you know, what other questions do you have? Hopefully they aren’t as dumb as the last one.”

“Who is the man I lived with so long? What’s your name?”

“The man you were living with is my brother. He is the only one in our family who doesn’t have magic. I gave you and Melody to your uncle to keep you safe. If the world found out about you, then you guys wouldn’t be safe. Your mother doesn’t have magic, so she agreed to pretend that she was married to your uncle, just to keep you guys safe. Also, my name is Frank. Should I bring Melody here?”

“Yes!!!” Frank used his arms, and then magically Melody appeared.

“Nate?” Melody asked curiously. “What’s going on?”

“This will take a while,” Nate said.

After Nate explained to Melody what happened and Melody tested her magic and Melody went into her shocked stage, Frank said, “Will you finally drink this? You to Melody.” They both nodded. It was weird, but they trusted him. They both drank a sip, and suddenly they felt this magical force come over them. They felt strange. They had never had this feeling before.

“Now you can go,” said Frank without giving any details.

“How?” asked the kids at the same time.

The man rolled his eyes and said, “With magic. Duh.”

The kids wished to get out and… boom they were home.

The next morning, the kids talked about whether they should tell their “parents” about yesterday. They had felt a whole bunch of emotions. They were sad, angry, confused, and most of all, they wondered who they could trust. They knew their “parents” were looking out for them, but they should have mentioned something to them. A little hint so this wouldn’t be such a shock. They also wondered if their “parents” actually knew about their confrontation with the man. They wondered if they were ever planning to tell them about magic.

“What should we do,” asked Melody.

“I’m not sure,” said Nate. “I think we should keep it to ourselves. I feel like they don’t know about us meeting Frank. They haven’t mentioned anything about it, and if they knew, I’m pretty sure they would say something.”

“I think you’re right,” said Melody. They decided not to because they didn’t want to worry them. After all, they were just looking out for them. They acted as if everything was normal. They said hi to their “parents,” ate breakfast, and left for school.

When they reached the schoolyard, they met Craig. Oh great, thought the kids. They tried to walk past him, but he wouldn’t let them.

“So, did you spend your money helping your dad pay for some food. You know when your dad got laid off my dad got a raise.” Unfortunately, Craig’s father and their uncle worked at the same place, so Craig knew about what happened with their uncle.

“Just stop, Craig,” said Melody, annoyed and a little hurt.

She felt like Craig was lying because her uncle said he got laid off because the company had lost so much money, but now she didn’t know who to trust. Nate was feeling the same thing. They suddenly felt a strange feeling come over them. Something they couldn’t control. The ground began to shake under their feet. They started an earthquake. Nate and Melody glanced at each other.

Magic, they both thought.

Wow, thought Nate. Who knew we could do such powerful magic.

A feeling came over Nate. One that had a mix of happiness and pride but also a bit of fear. He was scared that he would never be able to control it. Suddenly, the siblings relaxed a little. The earthquake stopped. The kids gasped. Craig was stuck in a hole in the ground. As the teachers came and helped Craig out, the kids shared a knowing smile.

“You! It was you,” shouted a voice. It was Craig. “You started the earthquake.”

“How could we do that,” said the siblings at the same time. Everyone thought either Craig hit his head or just became hysterical.

“Let’s take you to the nurse,” said their teacher, “and then the psychiatrist.”

“I’m on to you two!” shouted Craig. “I’ll prove to everyone you started this earthquake. Just you wait!”

“Do you actually think he will find out?” asked Melody.

“No way,” said Nate. “But we will have to be more careful. I think we should get some more training from Frank.”

“I don’t know,” said Melody. “Can we really trust him. What if he is lying? Maybe there are more people in the world who do magic. Frank could be tricking us. Maybe that’s why he is running from the government. He didn’t even seem sorry that he left us.”

“Come on, Melody, don’t keep being so negative. I trust him. Have some faith in him and me.”

“I don’t know,” answered Melody.

Oh my God, Melody,” Nate shouted “Why are you being so annoying, Melody? You don’t trust anyone anymore. Do you even trust me?”

“What are you talking about, Nate? I trust you. You’re the only one I can trust,” Melody replied, hurt by Nate’s words.

“If you trusted me, you would come with me to see Frank.”

“But I don’t trust Frank,” said Melody, holding back tears.

“Just forget it, Melody,” said Nate. Nate walked away from Melody. A tear slipped from both of their eyes.

Nate walked to the place where they first met Frank. As if he was expecting Nate, Frank was waiting at the exact same spot.

“Come on, Nate, let’s talk. We can have some father-son time,” said Frank with an evil gleam in his eye.

“Nate, don’t go.” It was Melody.

“What do you want, Melody? You don’t trust me anyway.”

“That’s not true, Nate. I trust you, but I don’t know who else to trust. Frank came into our lives all of a sudden, and now he is trying to split us apart. Can’t you see it?” Melody replied, sobbing at the thought of losing her brother to a guy who had just randomly appeared in their lives.

Nate thought about this. Could Frank have been lying or could he be trusted? Nate felt so much pressure choosing between sides. He looked at Melody then Frank. When he looked into Frank’s eyes, he saw something. He saw promise in his eyes. A ticket to something more. He went with Frank.

“Sorry, Melody,” said Nate. “Faith’s calling.”

That’s when Melody lost it. A ray of pure light shot out of Melody. It hit Frank with every ounce of power she had in her body. It made Frank stagger back, but it didn’t seem that effective.

“Melody, Melody, Melody,” Frank said with an evil tone in his voice. “You can’t become more powerful than me in one day. Seriously, I don’t even know why you try,” said Frank. He shot out a ray of pure darkness. Melody flew across the block and was left unconscious.

“Next time don’t make me angry, Melody,” Frank said in his evil voice. Nate’s eyes widened at the sight of this. But before he could say anything, Frank said, “Let’s go, Nate.” And with a wave of his arms, they were gone.

Meanwhile, hiding in the bushes was Craig. He had gotten everything on tape. He smiled.

“Let’s see you get out of this mess,” he said to himself and tiptoed away.

Nate found himself back in the place where he first tested his magic. The minute they set foot in the warehouse, Nate found himself yelling at Frank.

What’s wrong with you!!! Melody is my sister who you just shot across the block!!! What time of father are you anyway?!”

“Calm down, Nate. She’ll be fine.”

Calm down?! She will be fine?! What are you talking about. Are you crazy. She is eight years old, you idiot!!!” Nate yelled at him.

“Wow, I didn’t know raising kids was so hard,” said Frank “Oh well. Let me explain all this to you, Nate. After this, you will have a totally different type of view,” Frank said with a twinkle in his eye.

“So what actually happened was… ” Frank started. “When you and Melody were born, we found out that you both possessed magic. It was only meant for one of you, but somehow you both got it. Melody’s magic was much purer than ours. But even though hers is purer, ours is more powerful. Basically, you and Melody are opposite. Melody is light, and you are dark. Any questions?”

“Yeah, why is Melody pure and I’m not? Also why does Melody have pure magic if none of us are?”

“Well, your grandmother had pure magic. But she was taken by the government. That’s why I was running from the government. But your sister doesn’t believe me. Also you’re not pure because you have my genes. Do you believe me?”

“Yeah, but what about Melody? How would I act around her if she is suddenly my mortal enemy?”

“You can figure it out yourself. Do you want to go home?”

“Yes,” said Nate in a somber tone. He and Melody were so close, and now they were being pulled away from each other. Then with a snap of his fingers, Nate was home.

Meanwhile, Melody was awakened by the sun. As today’s events flashed by her, Melody felt a pain in her heart. She sobbed. “How could this have happened?” She got up and started walking home.

When Melody reached home, she saw Nate. She had no idea how to react or what to say. Neither did Nate. But as their eyes locked, they knew they had to talk.

“What should we do?” asked Melody.

“I think we need to talk to Mom and Dad.”

“Okay,” agreed Melody. They went downstairs to interrogate their parents.

“Hey, kids, what do you need?” asked their dad.

“Dad, why didn’t you tell us we have magic?” asked Melody and Nate, getting straight to the point.

“Uhhhh, what are you talking about, kids?” he said, nervously.

“Don’t try and hide this, Dad. We already talked to Frank,” said Nate.

“Fine,” their dad replied. “Yes, Frank is my brother and your father. We hid you, so you would be safe.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

“Who’s that?” all three of them asked at the same time. Melody and Nate felt as if there was something wrong. Their dad sensed it too.

“Go upstairs, kids.” They went upstairs as their dad cracked open the door.

As the door knob turned, ten government agents charged in.

“Search the house, and find the kids.”

Before their dad could say anything, the agents barged into the house and turned the house upside down. The kids were frightened and hid under their bed. As they hid under the bed, Melody found a trapdoor. She was shocked. How had she never noticed that? There was no time to think.

“Nate, help me push open this door.”

They opened the trapdoor and silently slipped inside and then closed the door. Just then, the agents ran upstairs and pushed open the kids’ door. But they couldn’t find them. The kids sighed a breath of relief as they left the room. But as they opened the trapdoor, they saw the agents still there.

“Hello, kids,” said one of the agents wickedly.

Melody and Nate shook with fear until Melody remembered that they had magic. That’s literally why the government was after them.

“Nate, we have magic powers,” whispered Melody. Then with a sly smile she added, “We should be nice and give them a preview.”

Nate smiled, “Definitely.”

Melody shot a gust of wind at them, and they stumbled backwards, losing their balance and falling on top of each other. Melody and Nate couldn’t help but laugh as they ran down the stairs, escaping the agents. At that moment, they didn’t care if Melody was good and Nate wasn’t. At that moment, they were just a pair of siblings who loved each other. They both smiled at each other lovingly.

Suddenly, Melody realized something and turned to Nate. “We can’t leave our parents here. We can take Dad but not Mom. She is too sick. Nate, what will we do?”

“We have magic powers. Can we use them to cure Mom?”

“Let’s try.”

Melody and Nate went to their mom’s room and saw her lying there, unconscious. She had lung cancer. Melody and Nate felt tears in their eyes as they saw their mom. As they walked to their mom, they felt afraid of what would happen to her if they did something. But, they knew they had to try. They put their hand on her and wished that she would be cured. Suddenly, a bright light came from their hands, and their mom opened her eyes.

“It’s working, Nate,” Melody said with tears in her eyes. Their mom was soon wide awake — she looked stronger. She smiled: she was okay. Nate and Melody cried tears of joy as they saw their mom waking up. But the happy moment was cut short when they heard the agents coming down.

“Come on, we have to go,” said Nate. The kids and their mom went to their dad. But before they could escape, the agents surrounded them. Nate and Melody looked at each other and smiled, while their parents were full of fright. Melody sent a tornado at the agent, and Nate shot out a blast of fire. Melody looked at Nate, and they shared a smile.

“This is who we are,” said Melody, and with that, they disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Epilogue

“Ugh, do we have to move again?” complained Nate.

“We wouldn’t have to if you didn’t blab about everything to your friends,” said Melody.

“Oh hey, my name is Nate, and I have magic powers. My family is running from the government,” said Melody, annoyed with him.

“It’s not my fault,” said Nate. “It just came out.” Melody rolled her eyes at him.

“Come on, stop fighting you two,” said their mother.

“But, this is like the 1,000th time Nate made us move,” protested Melody.

“Did not,” said Nate

“Did too,” said Melody.

They went back and forth like that a couple of times until their father broke it up. The family had been on the run since the day the government came to their house. By now, they had gotten used to moving around.

“Oh well,” said Melody, and just like the first time (and the last 100), in a blink of an eye, they were gone.


Radioactive

10:18 AM, 7/23/1999

In a city that is busy the whole day, something very extreme happens. The NASA rocket blasts off into space, but the rocket’s screws fall out, and a nuclear blast erupts and starts blasting radiation, gamma, plasma, and energy. Run!!! To the shelter!!! Run!!! Everybody tries. But they all die. The blast reaches high altitudes and blasts the whole earth. The world is gone.

The end of the world.

10:23 AM, 7/23/1999

There is one hope for humanity though. A 23-year-old named Joseph.

“I can’t believe I am the last,” he says. “But I played Fallout,” he shouts.

He goes to the basement and gets his food and puts it in a box. He goes and takes his solar panel and connects it to the circuits. He tries to connect the TV to the news, but no channel works. He then soon finds out that the circuit is limited, and he needs to find resources and dig deeper.

He takes a radioactive suit and puts it in a box. He goes and gets some food. He eats a sandwich and then goes to sleep. Then, he wakes up and starts playing Fallout 2.

Then, he says to himself, “I have a plan!!!”

He looks out the window and sees a really nice looking city. He takes his RMA, and it beeps 530 sieverts per minute. He takes out his computer, and it screeches the Windows XP welcome sound. He searches up how to survive an end of the world scenario, and he does what it says.

He then does some random things and wastes time.

He says, “Tomorrow is a new day,” and goes to sleep…

12:23 PM, 7/24/1999

“A new day,” Joseph says.

He does the same thing as yesterday. He goes and gets a drill to build a bunker, which he does. He goes and takes a drill to make a hatch. But then he takes his suit and goes outside. He goes and gets resources.

“Wow!” he says.

He is surprised at what he sees. He sees animals. But then he goes back home and puts the resources into a box. He walks to the circuit and puts in the electrical transformer and regulator. Then, the electricity goes back on.

… In the middle of 2000

He almost gives up as he stands on the mountain. But all the radiation is gone in this part. He sees a small town, and he says that he comes from a trip that took him over a year, with all the wild animals and living with a bear. Now he has come to rest as he has shown his best. He goes to his little house and lies down on his bed.

But before he closes both his eyes, a man comes in and asks Joe, who has one eye open, something important, “What land do you come from?”

“I come from Atlanta,” says Joe.

“It’s me, Mike.”

“Hello, old friend!!!”

THE WRITER WAS ABOUT TO DIE!!!

Today an ugly truck with mud and dirt scratched my aunt’s bumper of her car. I felt really sad because if the truck came in the car, I would’ve been dead. I felt scared. I felt mad. I felt sad. And I was upset with that big dummy! I should be taking all his money by now! I remember my dad told me how his dad passed away. He told me the story, but I forgot it. I was thinking the truck driver should get 9,000,000,000,000,000 paybacks. He should be in jail. My aunt did call the police about her car, and I was crying the whole entire time. My aunt gave me a tissue to dry my tears, and I felt much better. My cousin Zalah’s best friend named Afeni took lots of pictures and a video of what happened. I only took a video. I am going to show my mom, and I will ask her if can she call her friend who is a police officer and put that big dummy in jail. He deserves to be called a dummy because he crashed my aunt’s car, and that was her favorite car, and the bumper was my favorite part of her car. My aunt was really upset. She called her husband. While we were coming to Writopia, I told him I was on the side of the car. Afeni was holding my hand. Afeni was scared!!!

The next time, I will videotape it and show my mom, and then I’ll ask my mom to show her friend who is a police officer, and I will tell the whole story, and I’ll tell my mom what happened to me. Afeni called her mom, and I told her what happened and what happened to me. I talked on the phone first, and I told her that I was on the side of the car trying to have a nap in peace!!! But then that big dummy idiot almost made me die, and I was freaked out. On Monday I’ll tell my friends what happened and my teacher and my other teacher. My aunt got back the car! Hallelujah!

The Tale of Sir Beetle

There once lived a lonely old man named Sir Beetle. He was very rich. He was lonely because no one wanted to marry him. No one wanted to marry him because he was the world’s biggest idiot, at the time. He was very conceited. He had an imaginary wife who was beautiful, kind, and paid for everything he bought. His dream was to make her reality.

***

One morning, Sir Beetle awoke to the sound of kissing. He walked to his bedroom door, swung it open, and there in his hall stood two of his servants kissing. They looked very embarrassed.

“Um, hello sir,” said one of them.

Sir Beetle rolled his eyes and trudged back into his bed. He sighed. He hated the joy of other people. He thought that servants shouldn’t have feelings, or romances. He thought that all servants should never say anything except “Yes, sir” or “Yes, madam.” He thought that they should all dress the same way. He made the male servants wear a thin black shirt, thin black pants, and a gray cap. I do not know what the women wore, simply because no one has ever told me. He thought that servants should only do what they were told to do, and nothing else, and he thought all he should do for the servants was pay them extremely small amounts of money for all their hard work. In other words, he basically wanted his servants to be like golems. And most golems don’t really have a love life.

“Why don’t I have a real wife?” asked Sir Beetle. He obviously hadn’t considered the possibility that maybe it was because he was grumpy, snobbish, idiotic, and would definitely make the worst husband a woman could ask for. Just then, he got an idea. If he died, his servants would be out of work. That was a fact. So, he thought that they would save his life if he was in trouble. And what if a female servant saved his life? Then he could claim that she saved him because she was madly in love with him! He instantly jumped out his bedroom window. He was going to land in the garden. Two female servants were watering the plants. Then, they saw him.

“Sir Beetle is falling!” cried one.

“He’s going to die!” yelled the other.

And then, in unison, they cried “YAY!”

***

Unfortunately, Sir Beetle had not died. He had almost died, but God had taken pity upon him, and he had survived. He had fired the female servants who had not caught him after he had jumped out the window. When he got back to his mansion, he was more determined than ever to get married. Then, he remembered the tale of Cinderella and how the prince found a wife by having a ball. He wrote a letter inviting a girl to his ball:

Dear Elizabeth,

Would you like to go to my Dance ‘n Drink ball? There will be lots of beer and dancing from dawn till dusk!

From,

Sir William Beetle

But Sir Beetle had forgotten one very important thing: he didn’t know any women named Elizabeth. He told his messenger, named Henry Daggerpond, to deliver it to “Elizabeth.” He did not tell his Henry where Elizabeth lived… simply because Elizabeth didn’t exist! Henry Daggerpond got lost in the woods and was eaten by bears. Meanwhile, Sir Beetle had invested heavily in beer for “Dance ‘n Drink” ball. But when Elizabeth never responded, he drank all the beer he had bought. He was drunk. And being drunk, and also being a moron, is not the best way to woo a girl. Not long after he had gotten drunk, Sir Beetle got a letter from the mother of the messenger who he had sent to give the letter to Elizabeth:

Dear Sir Beetle,

The messenger who thou hath sent to deliver your letter was my son. Two hunters found his body next to a bear den. I would like to apologize that your letter was never sent, and I assure you that what happened was not your fault. You were simply sending a letter, and you had no way of knowing that my son would be killed.

Yours truly,

Anne Daggerpond

The idea of being guilty never crossed Sir Beetle’s mind, as it might have crossed the mind of you or I. As he read the letter, he began to think he was a murderer. He thought he was a murderer called Feared Sir Beetle, who was the death of all he could see. As soon as he thought this, he decided to kill anyone who he saw. He would kill all of his servants. He decided that anyone who met Feared Sir Beetle would not live much longer. That night, he told his servants to sleep in his garden. At 1:00 that night, he snuck into his garden. He killed every last one of his servants. Then, he snuck into his barn and killed all his animals. He ran into his house and killed his imaginary wife. He had entirely forgotten about how much he longed for a wife. He ran to an inn. He knew that any decent inn would have many sleeping travelers to kill. He quietly stepped into the inn. Then, he killed everyone in sight. From that day on, he had red eyes.

***

Eleanor of Antique had needed to help her horse’s hoof, which had been infected, all morning. She was not in the mood to judge any trials, but a queen must serve her country, and so that’s why she found herself listening to the story of a wealthy noble who killed dozens of servants and travelers. She was pretty sure he would be guilty, and if she said that he was, then it would be off to the gallows with him. She went to bed thinking about this murderous noble. And as she slept, Feared Sir Beetle killed all he saw…

***

It was still dark outside. The sound of a gavel thumping down on a desk could be heard for miles around. “Order in the court,” boomed Eleanor of Antique’s voice. “Bring in the verdict.” Sir Beetle was kicked into the courtroom by soldiers. He was in chains.

“ROAR!!!” roared Sir Beetle. Then, he looked at Eleanor of Antique. He noticed her dashing red hair. He stared at her dazzling crown.

“Want to go horseback riding after we get out of here?” asked Sir Beetle.

“Are you trying to flirt with me?” demanded the queen.

“Oh, yes,” replied Sir Beetle dreamily.

“I’m already married!” said the queen.

“Well, I am surely better than the man you are with.”

“The man I am with is the king!”

“Not my concern.”

“It should be your concern, because I am going to execute you!” Eleanor of Antique turned to face the court. “The verdict is guilty,” she said sweetly. “Take him to the dungeon,” she said to her guards, who had been standing beside her, looking like giant nutcrackers.

They hustled out of the courtroom, carrying Sir Beetle, who was still in chains. He was brought to a place so gloomy he was reminded of when he was a wealthy noble who had been loved by no one. The windows were very thin and looked as if they were about to fall apart. The most noticeable thing about the dungeon were the rats. They were huge, the size of bulldogs. They scampered and squeaked in a most unwelcoming way. There were no other prisoners in the dungeon; Sir Beetle was alone. This was not an unusual thing for Sir Beetle to be. He had always been alone. But it’s much better to be alone as a rich noble than to be alone as a prisoner in a dungeon. Around midnight, the thin glass windows crashed when hit by a large gust of wind. Not only did shards of glass come into the dungeon at this, but so did several notes. They were all the same thing: ink blotches. And they all ended the same way:

Yours truly,

Anne Daggerpond.

Sir Beetle tried to remember where he had heard that name before. Anne Daggerpond… the name seemed so familiar, but Sir Beetle couldn’t remember where he had heard it before. Anne Daggerpond… he fell asleep thinking about it. He did not know why, but Anne Daggerpond seemed so close by.

***

The day of Sir Beetle’s execution was very cold and rainy. It smelled of wet dog. It was in the courtyard of the Tower of London. Many nobles had come to see Sir Beetle get executed. One of them wore a yellow hoop skirt and had hair the color of a rotten banana. Another wore a blood-red hoop skirt and had hair the color of a dung beetle’s favorite food. They were both gossipping about how ugly Sir Beetle was. Eleanor of Antique was quite eager to get the execution over with. One of her friends, a duchess, was coming to see the execution, so she had decided to come too, but she was really not very fond of watching the lives of outlaws getting ended. The executor was a fat man with a beard that made it look like his face was being attacked by gummy worms. He picked up Sir Beetle with one hand and placed him on a table. He was about to end Sir Beetle’s life when a strong smell filled the air. It was the smell of perfume. Suddenly, a woman stepped onto the courtyard. She had long brown hair and was dressed entirely in purple. She wore a shawl. Her face was covered.

“Hello,” she said. Her voice made everyone feel like they had drunk a bit too much champagne. The executor stopped what he was doing, and so did everyone else.  “I am Anne Daggerpond,” she said. “You must be Sir Beetle.”

“I am, am, amamammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,” he said sleepily.

Anne Daggerpond pulled a large wristwatch out of her pocket. She began to hum a little tune. She put the pocket watch on her arm. She admired it for a minute, then did a little dance.

“This is a dance that birds do to attract mates,” said Anne Daggerpond. She tore her shawl. She stared dreamily at Sir Beetle. Her dreamy expression made Sir Beetle think of what it had been like to love, to love someone who didn’t love you back. He remembered pretty girls who he wanted to marry. He remembered a particularly pretty girl who didn’t want to marry him.

Sir Beetle had felt like a crumpled up piece of paper. The 85th girl who Sir Beetle had asked to marry him had rejected his marriage proposal. He was sobbing so hard that his shoulders shook.

“If no one recognizes greatness such as I, life is not worth living,” he had cried.

“And I do not think anyone ever will recognize my greatness. They are too dumb.”

He did not think a girl would ever like him. Not even his servants agreed to marry him, and before they started working for him he told them that if they rejected his marriage proposal, he would fire them. He stopped his crying briefly. Then, he howled loudly and began to sob more loudly than he had been before. He had now confirmed that no one would ever like him. Sir Beetle had felt miserable. And now, as he stared into Anne Dagerpond’s eyes, he remembered love. He remembered life before he had felt obliged to kill. Sir Beetle just wanted to kiss Anne. He knew he would soon be killed, and before that happened, he wanted to kiss someone who might, just might, kiss him back. Anne walked towards Sir Beetle, and as she did, the crowd parted.

“I am a widow,” said Anne now. “I would love someone to kiss, and I think you are the perfect person for me to kiss.”

And so Anne kissed Sir Beetle. It is a wonderful feeling to get kissed after people have hated you all your life. But the nobles were not really impressed that Anne had kissed a criminal.

“This is no place for lovebirds!” said Eleanor of Antique.

“Get out of here, please,” she said briskly to Anne.

“Now, it is so sad that a rich, formerly honorable man must be killed, and I hope this sort of thing won’t happen again. But now, this criminal must be killed.”

And so the executor picked up his ax. The crowd of nobles held their breath. Rain was making everyone absolutely drenched. Thunder was so loud that no one could hear anything. Sir Beetle knew that soon his life would end. He wondered what it felt like to die.

And before he knew what had happened, he was dead.

***

Sir Beetle felt as if he had fallen onto a brick floor. He saw color swirling around him. He saw everything that he had ever seen spin by so fast that it was a blur. He was feeling a strange feeling. He felt as if something was leaving his body. It was life, he thought. It had to be life. He felt a pounding feeling in his heart. He felt like he would see Anne again. And now, he felt as though life was slipping through his fingers. He had to hold on, he had to…

***

A tall figure stood before Sir Beetle. He had a long, flowing beard. It was pure white, and just looking at it made Sir Beetle shiver. He had gigantic wings sprouting from his back. They were as white as his beard.

“I am Saint Peter,” said the tall, winged, bearded figure. He smiled. “One might call me the Santa Claus of eternity.” He chuckled. However, his smile quickly vanished.

“I will determine if you will go to heaven or hell by using the Glass Ball Of Fate.”

He vanished for a few seconds, then reappeared holding a golden spector and a glass ball. He tapped the glass ball with the golden spector and screamed, “Sir Beetle!” at it. The glass ball turned blood red and started to scream. The sound was deafening. Saint Peter frowned and tapped the glass ball with his golden spector. The yelling stopped, and the ball turned clear again.

“Hell for you,” said Saint Peter said sadly.

But then the ball turned a bright shade of blue. Harp music came from the glass ball. And then, from the Glass Ball of Fate, came Anne Daggerpond’s voice.

“He’s not that bad,” it said. “He’s really not such a bad man… ”

The voice and the harp music gradually died out. The bright shade of blue faded. Saint Peter’s frown turned into a smile. Sir Beetle wished that Anne was right next to him. Saint Peter looked a bit confused.

“Well, well, well, what will I do with you?” said Saint Peter.

“I don’t know,” said Sir Beetle.

“Well, I could use an assistant,” said Saint Peter. “I need someone who can guard the Gates of Heaven when I’m not. I need someone who will help me in old age. Would you like to be my assistant?”

“I don’t think I’m worthy.”

“Then there is one more option: reincarnation.”

“Reincarnation?”

“Yes, I can take you back to Earth and turn you into an animal of your choice.“

“I like that idea.”

“What animal would you like to be?”

Sir Beetle’s response was instant: “A beetle!”

“Very well, come with me.”

Saint Peter and Sir Beetle dived down to Earth. They dived through clouds. At last, they landed on Earth. Saint Peter pointed his spector at Sir Beetle.

“SCARABÉE!” he roared. There was a blast of light, a rush of sound, and Sir Beetle was a beetle. He turned his head to thank Saint Peter, but by then Saint Peter had vanished.


MARS!!!

Once there was a girl who lived on Earth. She and her family were very happy on Earth, and they all had a great life… until a science experiment went horribly wrong and caused a hole in the center of the Earth. The whole world had to evacuate to Mars before the Earth exploded. All the people had started a new civilization on Mars. Two years later, they had discovered how to get technology and gravity and buildings and houses on Mars. They made all of their shoes out of led so that it would weigh them down so that they would not float away. All of the buildings were made out of led as well as all of the other stuff that needed to stay down.

She wanted to see what the rest of outer space was like. Little did she know she did not have the right equipment or skills to get back to Mars. She took off her big led shoes, and she jumped off Mars. She started floating out into outer space. Her parents said that she looked like a baked potato. They were standing outside in their led shoes. The mom was wearing Gucci Led Special Editions, and the dad was wearing led Air Jordans. Her parents were very young. Her mom was 45, and her dad was 47. The daughter was 11 when she floated off of Mars. Her parents went to the one and only best doctor on Mars, The Therapist. The parents had to get the therapist’s best staff to get a thousand foot long cord and rope to attach to one of the staff members so that the staff member could float out into space to get the girl back.

He started to float out into space, but then bang! The cord snapped! He went floating until he also looked like a baked potato just floating through space until he finally lost sight of Earth. He started to scream on the top of his lungs.

He started to hear a very faint screaming sound in the distance. As he got closer, he started to see a floating object that almost looked like a human! The sound started to get louder and louder until he finally realized that he had found the missing girl. He was extremely proud of himself… until he remembered that he was no longer attached to Mars! He was of just as much use as a floating baked potato in the middle of the very big ocean. So basically useless!!! He was terrified, but he had to remind himself that he had to be strong for this little girl.

“HELP!!!” Lulu screamed. “HELP!!” she yelled again.

“I’m over here,” yelled Nathaniel the employee.

How was he going to help her if she was so far off in the distance and if he couldn’t even find her! What was he going to do?! He looked around him but saw nothing but inky blackness. He heaved a big sigh and continued his journey to find Lulu the missing girl. He finally, after a long time, found her. Her throat was hoarse from yelling, and her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She looked like she had been crying for a long time. Nathaniel floated towards her. She started to squirm away from Nathaniel because she had never met him before, and so in that moment she had no idea what exactly was going on. She didn’t know what was going to happen. She didn’t even know if the man floating was even a man. Maybe he was a martian, and he was coming to kill her! Oh no, she thought. But as the man got closer, she began to recognize him. He went to her school. She started to loosen up and let him take her hand. He started to swim through space until Mars was in sight of them.

They finally touched the ground of Mars. Everyone from her school had been waiting for her to come back down. Once they saw her land on Mars, they all started cheering. She was safe again. Her parents ran up to her and gave her a huge hug. She quite enjoyed it. She then realized that she appreciated her parents and being back with them and back home. In that moment, she finally realized that she liked being back to everything on Mars.

The End


Pengy and His Friends

How to Make a Friend: A Penguin’s Guide (Book One)

Chapter One

Pengy is a penguin for sure. He lives in the New York Aquarium. He is trying to find a new friend, but he can’t. He is on a different schedule than all the other penguins because he goes swimming while they eat. And when they go swimming, Pengy goes to nap, and he naps for the rest of the day. So, Pengy wanted to switch his schedule, so he could be with the other penguins longer.

One day, Pengy the penguin was swimming around looking for friends. They all swam and dropped their eggs in the water, and Pengy went to save them. The other penguins knew that Pengy took their eggs, so then they started a fight. Next, they found that the other penguins laid eggs, so they also took them. Then, the zookeeper found out that the penguins were having a fight, and then they separated all the penguins from Pengy.

So, because of the fight, one of the zookeepers decided to take one of the penguins and train them to be on the same schedule as Pengy. But when Pengy and the other penguin had eggs at the same time, they had a fight because there were penguins falling in the water, and they didn’t know whose was whose, so they fought over them.

So, they split all the penguins away from Pengy and his friend to a different enclosure from all the other eggs that were hatching. Then, one of the eggs started to hatch, but they didn’t have any water or ice to slide on. The enclosure was warm to keep the penguin eggs warm because they didn’t have feathers yet. But once they started hatching, they were moved back to be with Pengy.

Pengy was happy because they were all on his routine, so he got a lot of friends to swim with.

The End… for now.

Chapter Two

One day, Pengy found out that there were new penguins coming to the aquarium. Pengy saw new penguins arriving into his enclosure.

And he started saying, “I’m going to go to surprise them!” to his friend.

Then, the penguins were going to a different shelter. He got so sad. He wanted more friends than just one and lots of baby penguin friends.

Then, everybody thought that the baby penguins were like actual penguins because they thought there were broken eggs in there, but no! There were actually eggs in there that thought they were going to be hatched. Then, they laid their own eggs because that was their only time to lay their eggs again — it was winter — and now there was snow for the penguins. They stayed in their shelter the whole winter until the penguins got a little older, but there was still some snow and ice.

They used their bellies, and they had so much fun!

The End… for now.

Chapter Three

So then the people came there to see the eggs hatch. They were still very small, so they were still in the warm enclosure because they still didn’t have their thick feathers. Peggy’s feathers are still brown instead of black and white.

He liked to play with other brown penguins, but there were a rare number of them. That’s why those brown penguins who were older had a different schedule. They ate before all the penguins, went for a swim, napped, went for another big swim, then stayed out to feel the cold air and get a slide.

That’s what Pengy would do in the winter, But in the summer, he would just keep sleeping until dinner time and show off to the people.

The End… for now.

Chapter Four

Pengy liked to show off to the people. One day, he woke up bright and early for a morning exercise. Except today it was his nap time, but people were bringing him food. All the black and white penguins were awake and ready to eat. While he was sleeping, they fed all the food to the black and white penguins without waking up brown and black and white penguins. When he woke, he was hungry. He wanted to see if there was any food left.

He finally found a way to get out of his tank and tell the people that feed him that he didn’t get any food. So next he told them to give him food, and he also told them that he was sleeping at the same time. So then he actually did not need food because he ate it all in one bite.

Chapter Five

The next day, he finally found a friend because they taught a penguin their new exercise, which was just Pengy’s routine. He was happy.

The End… for now.

Pengy and Pezy at the New York Aquarium (Book Two)

Chapter One: Pengy and Pezy with the Fight Beginning

Pengy and his friend named Pezy liked to swim in the water, but what Pezy liked doing best was snuggling up with Pengy, and the best thing that Pengy liked was playing with Pezy.

One day, they didn’t know what to do, and Pengy said, “Do you want to play? We both love to play.”

But Pezy was tired. “Can we both snuggle?”

Then, they had a fight. Pezy was snuggling, but then Pengy saw that his food time was coming up, but Pezy was sleeping. Then, Pengy went to eat. The food was delicious.

Chapter Two: The Delicious

One day, Pengy and Pezy woke up bright and early, ready for a swim. The swim was really refreshing. Then, they had a morning snack. The snack was fish. Then, they had a little nap. After their nap, they woke up ready for another swim. Then, they ate again. They had crill this time. Then, they did some stretching. Then, he just stayed outside feeling the evening breeze. They ate again. This time they ate lobster. And then they went for their good night sleep.

Chapter Three: The Food Chain

One early, bright morning, both Pengy and Pezy were ready to eat. They ate and ate until their tummies were full. Then, they had a nap until lunch time. Then, they woke up ready to eat again. But then the people that fed them by accident dropped the bucket of fish that they were going to eat into the water. The fish turned alive and swam away. Pengy and Pezzy jumped into the water ready to swim. Pengy clapped his wings and caught a fish, then he swam up to the top and ate it. Then, Pezzy jumped in, and he clapped his hands, and he got one. He also swam up to the shore and ate. Then, Pengy jumped in and clapped and caught a fish. They did this until there were no more fish in the tank.

Chapter Four: Pengy and Pezy and Coconut

One day, they saw a monkey driving to the aquarium. The truck drove zooming into the aquarium! The monkey fell out of the truck and into Pengy and Pezy’s enclosure. They found out that the monkey’s name was Coconut. Coconut loved to do the same thing as both of them liked to do, and he could do them at the same time. He was great at playing.

Chapter Five: Pengy and Pezy with the Solution of the Fight

They played and played until Pengy and Pezy started a fight because now they wanted to do a different thing again!

Pengy wanted to play, and Pezy wanted to snuggle, but then Coconut said, “I could split my body in half? And then you both could do what you want to do with me! You could play with me. You could go to sleep with me!”

Then they slept, ate, and did all their routine

Pengy and Coconut (Book Three)

Chapter One

Pengy was a penguin, and Pengy had a friend named Coconut. They both liked to do the same thing. They both liked to snuggle together, play together, and even talk underwater together! They had fun until Pengy wanted to play again, and Coconut wanted to dive in and have a fresh swim and climb the tree.

Chapter Two

Pengy was swimming, and Pengy saw a truck had a bunny. The bunny fell out right into their enclosure. In the enclosure they couldn’t see the bunny because the bunny was white, and it was lying down on snow because it fell out of the truck onto its front. And then the bunny started standing up to try and show them that he was alive, but they couldn’t see him and kept stepping on him.

Chapter Three

Then, the bunny jumped into the water, and they were finally able to see him! They asked the bunny his name.

He said, “Eeer eeeer eer eeeer!”

Then, they asked the truck driver what the bunny’s name was. Coconut the monkey told them the answer because he spoke monkey, human, penguin, and bunny. He said the bunny’s name was Pezy. They started playing.

The End.

Pangy, Coconut and Sammy (Book Four)

Chapter One

One day, Pangy and Coconut saw a branch from a truck. It was sticking out. Then, they saw an owl. The owl’s name was Sammy. They saw its wing sticking out, and it was about to move its foot up, and the wings were keeping it balanced. Then, they saw Sammy grabbing onto a tree with his back legs. He was about to fly off because he wanted to make a nest, but then the roof of the truck closed, and the back of it opened. But the back was too tiny to fly out of. Then, the truck rode zooming into the New York Aquarium, and Sammy flew out.

Chapter Two

The owl fell out right into his enclosure. He had no friends. His enclosure was tiny. Then, the owl flew out right into the enclosure right next to him. The next enclosure was Pengy and Coconut’s. When Pengy and Coconut asked Sammy his name, he didn’t know because he didn’t speak Penguin or Monkey. But then Coconut had an idea: he knew how to speak all the languages of animals and humans.

So, he used his owl voice and asked him, “What is your name?”

The owl said that his name was Samuel — because that’s his real name — but he said, “I really want to be called Sammy.”

Then, Coconut told Pengy how to speak Owl. Pengy knew how to speak in Monkey because Coconut already told him how. And Coconut taught Pengy to speak Penguin because Coconut already knew how to speak every other language except Penguin. And now he told Pengy how to speak Owl.

Chapter Three

Sammy liked the snow because he was a snowy owl and was used to the cold. But otherwise he was brown, and so many people thought that he was tropical because brown is kind of a tropical color. But how he got defense and stayed safe is that he flew into the snow, and then he stuck his white feathers up and his brown feathers down. And when he opened up his beak, he actually had white inside, so white would be only showing. He closed his eyes, so no water could get in. And then he just bent his feet to the back of him. And he was covered in snow, so he was camouflaged.

He like to play hide-and-seek in the snow, and the snow was as white as his feathers, which were used to the cold. But Pengy’s weren’t because his enclosure was not super cold. Then, Coconut jumped into the snow. He put his white side up and his black side down. Pengy put his brown side up and his black side down. And they all were talking to each other, but nobody could see them. Then, the food dropped onto the snow where they were lying down, but they didn’t see that their beaks and mouths were sticking out ready to eat. Then, they went chop. The aquarium keepers got so scared that they ran out.

Pengy, Coconut, and Sammy ate all the fish and then had a refreshing swim together.

The End!

Pengy, Pezzy, Sammy and Bamboo (Book Five)

Chapter One: The Seeing

Pengy saw a track in the distance, and it was heading near to their enclosure. The truck had a panda named Bamboo and an owl, but they didn’t know the name. So, they tried to ask the driver what the name was because Pengy knew all the names, but Pezy only knew Rabbit. So, he asked him in English, but he didn’t know. So then Pengy switched to his Panda language

Chapter Two: The Eating

Pengy was starting to feel hungry. They asked the owner for food. The owner got them fish, lobster, and crab. They were pleased with the food.

Pengy liked the food and said, “Oh, I like the food. Could you please give me that food again tomorrow? I still don’t know that owl’s name!”

But they didn’t see the truck about to drive in…

Chapter Three: The Knowing the Names of the Owl

Then, they looked over to a big blue truck driving in with a panda standing on top of a branch. They didn’t see the owl because the owl was right under the truck’s roof… They didn’t see the truck driving. They heard “Awoo” coming from nowhere They didn’t see an owl.

They said, “Why is there an owl’s noise?”

Then, they saw something trying to flutter from the sky! They saw wwo wings about to fly off the roof of the truck, which closed. The panda almost got stuck, but Pengy was happy because the people that owned the aquarium in New York saw that the owl was going to the zoo. Just kidding! He told the owners he was going to the zoo, when really he was going to the aquarium. They got so happy they wouldn’t have to have more animals. But then screech, the truck stopped at the gates… The gates went up, and it came in.

Then, they got Sammy and Bamboo out of the truck and into that same enclosure, and they all became friends and lived happily ever after.

The End!


Escape

I can never believe what happened yesterday. I was just flying around in the air happily, sucking on my favorite yellow flower nectar, when a huge thingy just came swinging at me, and I got tangled in it. The huge thingy had white strings in a pretty pattern, and there were holes in between the strings. There was a long red something attached to the strings. There was a round ball with a colorful ball in the middle staring at me hungrily.

I knew at once what those were. Those were the eyes of the big Hoomins! Mother told me about them. She said that they were super dangerous. She said they were the ones who captured Father! Revenge! I want revenge for that! But Mother always told me, “Don’t go looking for trouble!” Does Mother even want revenge? I think she does. She just doesn’t want me to get caught.

Well, I guess it’s too late now. I’ve already been caught. Those big eyes just stared at me even more, and without warning, the Hoomin opened her mouth. I fluttered my wings in terror. She was going to eat me! And before I could escape, a thunderous roar came out of the mouth yelling, “Marty! I caught a butterfly!”

The ground quaked as another one of the Hoomins came stumbling over. This Hoomin had straggly brown hair and big blue eyes. I just found out that his name was Marty. I was never so scared in my life. My hunger was still tingling around in my stomach when that Hoomin named Marty scooped me out of the big tangly thing with this scooper thing. Then, he put this white thing on top of the scooper, where the opening was.

I was trapped. My wings took me to the top of the scooper, and I headbutted the white thing. A big thing. One of the Hoomins Hainds pushed me down again, and I fell to the floor, my wings crinkling beneath me. A few moments later, the big Hoomins released me for a moment, and I flew up in the air gratefully, stretching my wings. But I barely got to fly around when the Hoomins pushed me inside this weird boxy thingy made out of a see-through thing. I’ve never seen this before. I wonder if Father was trapped the same way. When they first pushed me in, I thought they set me free inside their own home, but I learned the hard way. I tried to fly out but got banged in the head. I crumpled to the ground. I have never felt so sad in my life.

As I lay on the ground, I heard voices from the other room. Not just any kind of voice, big, loud, thundering voices. They said this: “Bye, Marty! See you at school tomorrow!”

“Bye, Rio!” A loud bang sounded as the home blocker closed. The girl Hoomin came over to the weird box, the ground quaking again. A bigger Hoomin followed behind, making the ground quake even more dangerously. I felt sick. I wanted to puke, but restrained myself. The big Hoomin gave me the hungry look again, her eyes closer to me than ever. I fluttered helplessly, scared half to death.

Oh, how I missed my sisters Curl and Murl. I missed the feeling of my other sister Twirl’s wings brushing against mine. I missed the days when my other sister Pearl and I went flying through the meadows together. And I missed Mother the most of all. I missed her delicate touch on my wing. I missed her beautiful scent. I missed her everything. I loved the patterns on my sisters’ wings. The pink background and the beautiful yellow circles. I missed my mother’s warm black eyes. And it was the Hoomins’ fault that I would probably never see her again. The Hoomins’ fault that I never got to meet my father. I needed revenge! The Hoomins ruined everything for me. Destroying our butterflies’ peaceful lives! I suddenly felt a wave of anger at the Hoomins. They destroyed my whole life!

Rio was still looking at me with a pretty gleam in her eyes. She turned away from me and straightened up, facing the bigger Hoomin. “She needs food,” she said. “I don’t know what butterflies eat, but maybe we can take some of Tibbie’s food for this butterfly.”

“Okay,” the huge Hoomin agreed. I folded my wings and sat down at the bottom of my cage, planning my revenge.

The Hoomins came back with one cricket. I was like, really? Do they expect me to eat a cricket? They opened the hole blocker and dropped the cricket in front of me. “Eat up, little one,” the big Hoomin said in a softer but still loud voice.

The cricket scrambled to his feet and started hopping around like crazy and chirping loudly as the Hoomins backed away from the weird box. Once the cricket saw me, he calmed down. “You’re not going to eat me, are you?” he asked uneasily.

“Heavens no!” I cried. “Who would say such a thing?!”

“The lizard named Tibbie.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I felt hungry, but not hungry enough to eat a poor cricket. I could still remember the terror I felt when the big Hoomin had opened her mouth, and I thought I was about to be eaten. “What’s your name?” I asked the cricket, hoping to change the subject.

“Nightingale,” the cricket answered. “You?”

“Whirl,” I answered back. Nightingale and I chatted a bit more until we got to the idea of escaping. When Nightingale started talking about escaping, I turned away.

“What’s wrong?” Nightingale asked, sitting beside me.

I sighed. “Father got killed because he tried to escape,” I told him sadly.

Nightingale scooched closer. “But we’re not going to be killed this time,” he said softly. “We’re going to survive.” I sniffled and looked at him. He smiled back. “Do you want to hear or not?” he chirped softly at me.

“Hear what?” I asked him.

“My plan,” Nightingale answered me.

I looked at his hopeful expression and made up my mind. “Yes,” I answered.

Nightingale chirped on and on, saying, “Let’s hide me somewhere, and then Rio and her family will think you ate me. And then, they will drop another cricket. To drop another cricket inside this box, they will have to open the hole blocker. Once they open the hole blocker, we will be able to escape through the hole!” As he was talking, I flew around the box, just in case there were some small holes that I could get through with Nightingale. Finally, when he finished rambling on, I flew down and lay myself on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Nightingale asked, worried.

“Hungry,” I answered in a croaky voice.

“What do you eat?” Nightingale asked fussily, pacing around the weird box. I shook myself. When somebody mentioned food, I would always have gone trying to find the yummy yellow flower nectar. But now since I had no food, I was nearly dying of hunger. “What do you eat?” Nightingale asked me louder.

“Yellow flower nectar!” I shouted back.

“Mom!” Rio’s voice shouted at the same time, “Stop those critters from being noisy!” Heavy footsteps came to the weird box, and the ground quaked. I folded my warm white wings around me, and my black antennas twitched with fright. I backed away from the Hoomin who was towering over us. A Haind hit the weird box, and it rocked dangerously, and Nightingale and I rocked along with it, clutching each other tightly.

“Try chirping again, and you’ll be sorry!” the mom snarled.

As the Hoomin left the room, I started searching for a spot where Nightingale could hide, so it looked like I ate him. I found a perfect spot under all the pebbles. I felt uncomfortable as I told Nightingale quietly about the hiding spot. I told him that he didn’t need to hide there since it would be very uncomfortable.

But Nightingale just answered, “I came from a pet shop, so I’m very used to uncomfortable places.” So, Nightingale lay in a little hole in the pebbles, and I buried him up.

I looked out this see-through thing and saw the beautiful sunshine. I longed to be out there with my friends. The yellow flowers weren’t in my sight, but I could still feel the tasty nectar down my throat.

The big Hoomins stomped into the room. The big one gasped so loud that it nearly knocked me right over. “We guessed right!” she gasped. “The butterfly ate the cricket!” Rio’s big Haind immediately swept over to the box of crickets. They opened up the hole blocker of the weird box and at that exact moment, I dug Nightingale out of the hole and, grasping him tightly, I flew out of the weird box.

The Hoomins chased after us, yelling like crazy and making the ground quake. We swerved and dived and got to a see-through thing. Lucky for us, it was open. We flew out, and I landed safely in lush green grass. I let Nightingale go, and he collapsed on the ground.

“Did that work well?” Nightingale asked.

“I guess,” I answered breathlessly.

Without warning, the ground began to quake. The Hoomins were coming.

“Watch out!” I hissed at Nightingale.

“No,” Nightingale said, “I’m tired of flying. I feel sick.”

“Well, too late,” I said, and I grasped him once again and flew into the air.

“No!” Nightingale shouted as he wriggled and squirmed, trying to go free.

“Careful,” I warned him, but it was too late. He wriggled free and suddenly, he was falling through the air.

“No!” I screamed. I looked behind me and saw the Hoomins running at full speed, Rio holding the tangly thingy. Then, I looked down once again at the falling Nightingale, screaming in terror.

I dove down towards Nightingale. My wings gave me even more speed as the wind whipped around me and slowed me down. Mother’s flying lesson lectures echoed in my head, and I felt even more determined and sad than ever. I wondered what Nightingale was thinking. Probably thinking of hitting the ground and dying. That’s what I would’ve been thinking about if I were him. And then I did it. I caught Nightingale just before he hit the ground. The wind had tore off part of his left foreleg, and his eyelids were red and puffy from the pollen in the air. Mother said that some other animals were allergic to pollen. I mean, literally! What do they eat?!

My stomach felt so empty that I couldn’t stand it. But I kept going.

“Nightingale!” I yelled over the wind as I flew quickly, “Where do the crickets live?”

“I think they live under the Hoomins holes and habitats!” Nightingale yelled back.

I dove down towards the bottom of the Hoomins home and ducked under the front steps. Footsteps of the big Hoomins shook the ground as they came after us. The Hoomins stopped by our hiding spot. I shivered. Did the Hoomins know that we were here? Nightingale and I stood still.

“Where are they?” Rio demanded.

“Let’s continue looking,” the mom said.

The Hoomins ran off again and at that moment, two eyes appeared from the dark. There was something queer about them. A figure appeared. It was the outline of a cricket.

“Ah,” the cricket said, coming into view, “another cricket.”

He patted Nightingale and said, “I will take care of him. You may go now.”

I nodded and flew out from under the home of the Hoomins and headed in the direction of the yellow flower gardens.

I saw the yellow flower garden ahead, and I sped up, my wings flapping frantically. “Hi, Mother!” I shouted. Mother turned her head in surprise. Her wings flapped with joy as she hugged me tight.

She touched me delicately once more. “Where were you?” she asked softly.

“Somewhere,” I answered mysteriously. She smiled down at me.

“Whirl!” a shrill voice shouted. Murl flew up to me and gave me a big hug. “Curl and I have been looking for you all day!”

“Really?” I felt stunned. “Where’s Curl?”

“She’s looking for you at the other yellow flower garden. C’mon! Curl will be so happy to see you again!”

I smiled to myself. What a lucky butterfly I am, to have the family I’ve got. Murl pulled on my antenna, and I let her drag me to the other yellow flower garden.

Curl’s greeting was the same as Murl’s. A shrill shriek of “Whirl!” and then a big hug. They were twins, after all.

We chatted a bit until a comforting antenna patted me on the back. I turned around… and there was Twirl! “Twirl!” I cried.

“Hello,” Twirl said. “Where were you?”

“Somewhere,” I said in that same tone I used on Mother.

“Pearl said that you were captured by the Hoomins. She was worried sick!”

I laughed weakly. “Oh, silly Pearl. She’ll probably be so glad that I’m here.”

At that moment, a shaken Pearl rose from behind Twirl. “Oh, Twirl. Can you please help with the rescue mission? It’s sooo impor-” Pearl noticed me standing there and flew over. “You’re here!” she cried, “That means a party!”

“True,” Twirl said, giving me a reassuring smile “This calls for a party!”

“You look so skinny! Go get some of that nectar! You’re also stressed out. Take a rest before this party starts!” Pearl fussed with me for a little while.

“PAR-TAY!” Curl and Murl sang, “We’re going to have a PAR-TAY!”

I thought of the scary Hoomins. I changed my mind. I don’t want revenge anymore. They’re too scary for butterflies to deal with. Never ever will I put myself in trouble again and never will I put my family in any.

I felt dizzy with happiness. Not only did I meet my family again, but I’m going to have a party! This is the best return ever!


My One and Only Haunted House Experience

“I can’t wait for the haunted house!” I screeched. It was 2014, and I was with my friend. We were about to go into the haunted house! But right before we went in, my friend somehow started to do a type of penguin dance.

“Wait! I need to go to the bathroom!” she hollered over the noise.

All the excitement washed away from me.

“Uhhhh!” I sighed.

Nine thousand billion trillion hours later…

“Finally! You came back!” I said with joy.

When we went in… we saw a person stab off a women’s neck and a butcher chainsawing off a man’s leg! But the part that locked in my memory the most (like my pool lock whenever I go swimming, I can’t even open it when I come back from the kid swimming section!) was when there was this zombie blocking our way to the next room. But since we were small, we could go under his arms. We just had to somehow distract him. I thought for a few minutes, and I finally came up with a plan. I whispered to my friend, and she agreed.

“You could go in front of me!” I told a stranger behind us.

“Oh! How nice of you!”

But they didn’t know our plan!

I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!!!” I heard the zombie who was blocking us say.

While all that action was happening, my friend and I snuck under the zombie’s arms, and finally, we made it to the next room! After the haunted house, I was surprisingly proud of myself for making up that plan! You have to admit, it was pretty impressive considering I was only five!!!

THE END!!!

“I will get you next Halloween! For I am… The Human Blocker!”


Ghost

Once upon a time there was a ghost who wanted to terrorize people. His name was Jacko, and he was able to go into things and make them grow and shrink. So first, he tried going into a house, and then he made it shrink to a super tiny size. There was a guy inside, and his name was Bob, and he was so scared that he ran and called 911. And then the police showed up, and the chief shot a gun at him, but it went right through him and hit a factory of gasoline which started a huge fire. Then, the firemen showed up, and the ghost ran away because water would kill him.

Next, he went to a wedding. When they were trying to kiss, the ghost stepped in, and they both kissed the ghost instead. Then, a man threw cake at the ghost, and it went right through the cake and hit somebody in the butt!!! The ghost flew to the Elmer’s Glue factory and took some glue. There was someone named Dodoooducky.

Dodoooducky was walking, and then the ghost squirted glue at Dodoooducky’s butt. Then, Dodoooducky sat on the Empire State Building!! He was stuck to the Empire State forever!!!

THE END


The Journey

A young lion, Egghead, was already a leader of his tribe and was so thirsty, but he couldn’t find any lakes.

The lion Egghead set out to find water, but wherever he went, he couldn’t find water.

He came across a zebra and asked the zebra if he knew where to find water.

“In this juicy patch of grass you will find water,” the zebra replied.

Then, for some weird reason, he saw…

A giraffe with a blueberry!!

Just so you know, blueberries were very rare on this side of the world. And they’re the juiciest fruits ever, in my opinion.

And the giraffe had the biggest blueberry ever!!

Egghead woke him up and said, “Hi, do you think I could have some of that blueberry?”

“No, I have a big family,” said the giraffe. “I need to share it with my two grandpas, two grandmas, my wife, three nephews, and two nieces! I’m almost tired just writing to them!”

But even if the giraffe did give Egghead the blueberry, he would have to share it with his two grandpas. “Ugh!” Egghead hated sharing with people. So, he asked, “Where did you find it?”

“I did not find it. I planted it,” the giraffe replied. “Do you know what I will do? I will give you the seed of this blueberry, and it will grow in a few hours.”

“Wow,” Egghead said “When can I have it?”

“Now,” said the giraffe, as he plucked out the seed. The lion immediately leapt on him and grabbed the seed from him and quickly said thank you.

Grinning, he ran away happily looking at his new prize. He ran home as fast as he could, and the minute he came home, he went to his garden as fast as his muscular legs could carry him.

And as soon as he was there, he started digging as fast as he could, and then he quickly covered up the hole. As soon as you could say, “Spaghetti on bread,” night fell. The lion started reading the seed stories and sang it songs. He didn’t get a wink of sleep.

As fast as night fell, morning came. He was sleeping so hard, so the women lions had to hunt instead of him. When he woke up, the women lions were all mad at him.

One said, “Why in the world were you not awake? We had to do all the work.”

“So do you still believe in that useless legend?” asked the women lions.

“Why did you call the legend useless?” asked the Egghead, now raising his voice.

“We, the mighty lions, respect the legend. You don’t dare insult the lion who was the first ever lion on earth. That’s why you are alive now. Because she produced babies — that’s why you are alive,” said the lion whose name was Egghead the Strong.

He liked his family, but inside his head he was thinking, Why has the seed not grown?

But secretly, the blueberry was growing right in his garden, of course, so he decided to check on it. When he got there, he saw that it was too big to keep there, so he cut the blueberry with his razor sharp teeth and divided it into small parts and ate one piece of the blueberry. The women lions were doing their gardening. One of the lions went to check on him, and when she saw the blueberry, she was obviously thrilled and went to fetch the other lions.

The other lions came, one by one, and had the same feeling as the first lion who saw the blueberry. They all tried to dive at the blueberry, but the male lion punched and kicked in each of the female lion’s face, and they tumbled down the hill, all of them black and blue.

Egghead swung himself onto a tree and scraped off a ton of bark, so he could make a fence strong enough to hold a lot of lions and high enough so they couldn’t spy on him. So, back to the story: Egghead had a lot of skills — he tossed the bark into the the air and kicked them into different places. He was screaming, “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” and finally landed. The women lions watched in disgust and soon retreated.

Egghead karate-chopped the air in triumph. He started walking to the Muffin Montoy, the best place to get muffins, and on the way he met Bring the bird who was always traveling around the world.

He asked, “Where are you going, Egghead the strong?”

“I am going to the Muffin Montoy,” Egghead the Strong replied.

So, Egghead finally arrived at the Muffin Montoy, but just when got there, he froze in fear. His biggest archenemy, Engonto the Terrifying, was at the the gate of the Muffin Montoy, stealing muffins from the other animals.

“If you steal in the Muffin Montoy, you go to jail,” Egghead the Strong said, bravely. “Or I unleash my little pet dragon.”

Engonto was now slowing down from all the muffins he had eaten.

“Oh, and you might be sent to the principal,” Egghead said, chewing a pickle and drinking water. “Oh, and also muffins are ubiquitous in the Muffin Montoy world, even in the bathroom.”

Egghead the Strong was feeling very active and wanted to help all the animals and stop Engonto from stealing from the Muffin Montoy. He was making them run out of muffins and draining them out of business.

So, Egghead the Strong decided to whistle out strongly to the speedy snake jailers who would lock him up, but Egghead the Strong needed evidence. So, he took his lean mean freezing machine and froze Engonto and all his muffins.

By the time the speedy snake jailers arrived and saw him, they sneered, “Well, poor little Engonto the Sneaky isn’t so sneaky after all.” And they took him away.

Egghead laughed and ordered the jazz muffin, his favorite muffin ever, and proudly went home singing happily “The Muffin Man.”

He finally reached home very happily, but found the women lions were not there. Egghead found this super peculiar. He figured out that the women lions had started their tree fiber afternoon weaving, and he knew that he was right because they wouldn’t be doing anything else. And he was surprisingly right because he hadn’t memorized the women lions’ schedule of what day they would do that day and what day they would take a break.

It was very hectic because half the time he knew where the women lions were and what they would be doing.

Today was his birthday, and the date was January 25th, 2028, and he was turning 17, so this was his final year of school. After school, he would be heading into college for 12 years because Egghead was doing many courses like fighting, being a doctor, and the course he was most looking forward in college was the secret agent course because he would learn to spy and do many other things, but also the secret agent course was four more courses thought.

So, he eventually found his partner, and he liked his partner, so he built phones for both of them even though they both knew how to make phones.

One day, he was whispering to his partner, and his partner told him that Engonto had broken out of jail… luckily, he got his partner’s message.

Just then he realized something — he didn’t know his partner’s name. So, he called him up and asked him what his name was.

“Slick!” his partner replied.

Today was the big day because he was heading for college, so he started to run fast. He ran nine miles by the time he took a bite of his blueberry and went to sleep.

He had a weird dream that the giraffe was very evil and was trying to kill him. He suddenly awoke with a start, sweating like crazy. He decided that now that he was awake he should get going so he would reach there earlier, but something was stopping him. He thought he didn’t have enough courage to go on, but he was wrong as usual.

He had recently discovered that a big, ugly, fat bee was so close to him. He decided to swat the big, ugly, fat bee, so he still missed, but he was very happy because the big, ugly, fat bee had gone away.

So, he started back on his journey to the Capital. While he was walking, he met his partner, Slick, and asked how far they were from college. He groaned. Slick the Hyena seemed very surprised.

Slick said, “Why, we’re only 900 feet away. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. You’re wrong. Hey, that’s really weird.”

“What’s really weird?” Egghead whispered.

“Egghead, some warts are on your skin,” said Slick. “Oh, and why are you spinning dude?” whispered Slick, confused.

They finally reached The Cats College. First, they signaled to the guards. Then, they walked through the heavy iron doors at the back of the castle.

Clang clang clang clong clang, the huge bells went, as the time turned 12:00 AM.

Yay, it’s lunch time. Oh yeah, because I get muffins,” exclaimed Egghead.

After they entered the iron doors, they saw a miraculous sight — a bunch of eagles swooping down and dive-bombing at least 100 pigs. But Egghead had two majestic black eagles of his own: a male and a female who were about to have babies.

But black eagles are the rarest and most powerful eagles, at least as big as five of the other eagles. So, Egghead let them loose — they made a deafening skreeleech!

All the eagles stopped to look at the eagles, but because eagles can’t hover, they fell down, down, down into complete darkness.

Kaboom!

A fire ball came down into the pit right after the eagles.

A few hours later…

Slick and Egghead were still exploring the huge castle. While they were exploring, they found a lot of eagle nests.

There were so many chicks with so many mother and father eagles, so as soon as they saw Egghead and Slick, they shooed them away like tiny flies.

Crash!

He stumbled upon something. It was a round, hard map preserved in clear plaster for hundreds, no, maybe thousands of years. Before he could do anything, the lunch bell rang.

THE END


Jiggling Giggling

“Golden spring,” said Ms. Giggling. “Better be on my way.” And then there was a big musical, and everyone started singing on the street.

After the musical, everyone said, “Phew, better be on our way.” And everyone started walking to work again.

“Wow,” she said, and she went to work.

As soon as she got in to the office, all the boys thought she was so beautiful. And then, the boys started a musical number, and then Ms. Giggling said, “Ohh, that was so sweet, boys!” And she clapped for them and gave them stickers.

They said, “That’s for children!”

And the boss came in and said, “My goodness, ma’am, I just came in to tell you, you just became so famous that everyone in the world knows you.”

She was one of the most kind people in the whole world, and word had spread. She put her hand on her cheeks and said, “Oh boy! Does that mean I get to leave work?”

And he said, “Well yes, of course!”

Ms. Giggling said, “Yippee!” and ran out of the building, all the way back home, and threw her clothes into the hamper and started falling asleep. Two minutes later, a lot of her fans came in wearing shirts with her face on them. The door was unlocked!

All her fans started saying, “Wake up! Wake up!”

She noticed she was naked and covered herself and said, “Get out of here!” Everyone laughed.

Everybody started talking. Ms. Giggling was worried she was probably not famous anymore, but she did not know someone took a picture of her naked and sent it to the news station!!! The next day, she woke up and wanted to get the news on the front step of her home. And right on the spot, she saw that picture of that old naked person. She could not believe her eyes when she saw it. She really had a bad night. She began crying her heart out.

Her friend came to the door — she felt bad for Ms. Giggling. “What is wrong?” she asked.

“I cannot explain! Is this the wrong reaction to not being famous anymore?” wailed Ms. Giggling.

“Yes, I joked you into telling me what is wrong,” her friend said.

“Ha ha, very funny,” she said. (She lied.)

Then, her friend said, “Tell me more.”

“I am fine, thank you!” Ms. Giggling replied.
The friend said, “Fine, I will leave you alone.”

Now reader, if you noticed they, um, they, um, stayed apart for a few months. She had other friends that noticed what was going on. She was pretty lonely and now, my reader, it is the end of her friendship for now. Later, the friend came back, and Ms. Giggling gave her a mad look.

She turned her face into a sorry one and said, “I know you had a bad day the other day. I am very sorry, but you just cannot take it out on your friends. Deal?”

“Deal,” said Mrs. Giggling, and now my readers it is…

The End


The Invasion of the Good Boyes


(Any misspelling is on purpose)

Once upon a time, there was a very thicc boye….. He was a lonely boye, and he wanted new doggo frens, so he did a sacred doggo ritual… Bork bork space boyes come be my fren am lonely boye!!!

And the space boyes came. The space boyes had called the lonely boye and said they had arrived. Lonely boye was so happ. But then the hoomans thought the space boyes had come to take over, so they tried to attack and failed. All doggos of every kind had seen this as war. So, they sent the whole doggo army to attack the hoomans. The doggos had come. The hoomans also did come. Some went to hide in shelters. The doggos attacked! They had a long fight with the hoomans and won. The hoomans had failed the first battle. The doggos are confident they will win the war, after all, aren’t doggos the superior race? Be quiet, yes they are. The doggos began their invasion in Africa. Since they are good boyes, they wanted to help the poor people in Africa. The Africans actually agreed to become part of the doggo empire! But not the governments. The dictators and presidents of Africa’s countries did not agree. And they tried to attack the doggos! But they failed. Another victory for the doggos! And a loss for the hoomans.

So now the doggos have taken over Africa and are now going for Asia. They attempt an invasion and fail! But how?! It is China and Russia, some of the most powerful countries in the world, but then the doggos have a new ally, a long lost brother to return… Gabe the Dog!!! The legendary Gabe!!! Now the doggos have a god himself on their side! They successfully invade Asia, then Oceania, then Europe! The doggos now have control of half the world! But now there is a problem. To get to the Americas, the doggos must swim, but they don’t know how! But they have a special force called… the Swim Swom Boyes! They swim! And they swom! As hard as they can across the Atlantic! And invade the Americas! Canada likes doggos, so they become part of the doggo empire with no problem. But the rest of the Americas put up a fight. Some people even join the doggos to invade the Earth! The swim swom boyes do the best they can! And they succeed! The swim swom boyes have finished the war to take over the world! The people of planet Earth now begin to like being under doggo rule, and so a new era of world peace begins. Also new language called Bork.

Bork.

The Rebellion

Ten years under doggo rule, hoomans are having a good time under doggo rule, a new era of world peace, better food, but new language that was easy to learn anyway! But… there are some people that do not enjoy doggo rule. They are called the bad boyes in doggo language. They come from across the world and have come together to take back the world from the doggos, but the doggos do not like them, so they fire a pointy thing, wait no that’s a big boye, or a rocket that is supposed to explode into a big mushroom. So, they fired it at the Rebellion Command Center or RCC. But the big boye was hacked and landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The doggos were angery, so they sent the entire doggo army to invade the RCC.

Again… Wait no I said it in English. Knock knock.

“FBI OPEN UP!!!” AAA —

A few years after my prison sentence…

Bork bork bork bork bork. Bork bork, bork bork. The Bad Boyes had already taken over Africa and Oceania. The doggos there have been imprisoned. The doggos do not deserve such punishment. After all, they are some of the goodest boyes. But then the Rebellion won, and the peace treaty said all the hoomans that wanted to go back home with the doggos could go, but the doggos had to return to their home planet of thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverses.

So, the doggos left, and a lot of hoomans with them, and they got in their big spaceships and went to thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverses.

I went with them.

The doggos said, “Bork bork, bork bork bork bork bork, bork.”

Translation: We will arrive to thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverses in about a month. It is very far, but we will make it, and you will all be given homes and government support. After three years, the government support will end, and you will be on your own.

The New World

We had arrived in the doggo world. They were very welcoming. One of them gave me a cookie that said Bork. We got free starter homes and help from the government. It seemed the doggo world had already gained world peace. It was very clean and futuristic, just like the books and movies, though we would have to get used to the new language. The planet was just like Earth, just the continents were shaped different, the native population is all doggos, and there is one language that dominates. Turns out, these doggos have interesting history. There were many civil wars and wars between different clans, but then, the supreme clan bork, had taken over.

It seems the supreme clan bork has had many support from across thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverse, and its culture has spread across thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverse. It seems on this world Atheism is illegal, so I should convert to Borkism, and start worshiping Gabe the Dog, and besides, I want to convert to Borkism! But first, I must learn about it.

I’m at the library of Borkism, looks like there are more gods in Borkism, like Doge, and it seems there is a Satan in Borkism, and his name is… Cade!

Okay well, time to go to bed, so I’ll see you next week.

The Hooman Invasion

Once upon a time, there was me, in my room, watching BorkTube, when suddenly: pew pew, pew pew bom. Somebody was invading the city! But it could not be other doggos, since there was one doggo clan that rules the planet. I went to my window, and I saw: hoomans! The hoomans were invading thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverse! The doggo army was fighting as hard as they could, and even the Bom Bum boyes had come! This was very serious, but the doggo army held off, so all the doggo people and I could escape. Luckily, we escapes, not my chocolate bar though. (Moment of silence for the chocolate bar pls.)

R.I.P. chocolate bar.

Okay, back to story… So, hoomans, invasion, doggos hold off, what’s next? Oh, just thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverse blowing up. Yea, that’s right, blown to smithereens, by the evil hoomans! Luckily, the citizens escaped with the doggo army, the doggos (and me) were very angery. So, we simply went to planet Earth and invaded it. And we took every bit. No more hoomans. Only doggos and good boy hoomans alive! So yea like we invaded the Earth and like removed hoomans from power, now doggos rule everything.

Victory

So, since the doggo army invaded the Earth, and thegreatestplaceinalltheuniverse was destroyed, the doggo leaders decided the doggo empire’s capital will move to the Earth. It was nice to be home, even though the cleanup was still going on. Some hoomans from before the invasion began liking doggo rule, just like the ones that came back with the doggos. But sadly, the story must end here. Maybe one day the doggos will return, maybe one day the hoomans will rise again, or maybe a new player will join the game. We will never know.

Bork

Extras

Explanation if your confuzzled:

Doggos are descendants of the Doge, which is a descendant of the Dog.

Only some Doggos have glasses. Also, there is not only one type of doggo in this story, there are all different types of Doggo, but, they are all considered Doggos because it would be too confuzzling to call them a bunch of different things, but for example if there was a Sh00berino, he would be considered a Doggo but still is considered a Sh00berino.

The cattos are watching.


The Night of the Hamsaurus

On a dark, stormy night in the hamster factory, one worker who was working late on robo-hamsters named Fred was minding his own beeswax when he suddenly heard a loud boom! And evil laughter. Fred looked behind him only to come face to face with a tall hamster looking thing with a hamster body and dinosaur head. Then after another loud boom, Fred was never seen again. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

But then two years later, a brave shoe named Tom wanted to see what happened to poor Fred, so he headed toward the now abandoned factory. It started raining once he got there. Lightning boomed as the door creaked open — suddenly, smoke started coming out of the 50-year-old chimneys. As he walked in, a loud scream filled the air. Suddenly, Tom was filled with the dreaded feeling — fear! Once Tom stepped in, the huge doors slammed shut! Terrified Tom tried forcing the doors open, but he couldn’t because he had no hands. Suddenly, another loud scream filled the air.

Tom turned around to see who made it, but all he could see was darkness. Suddenly determined to get out of the factory alive, he hopped into the darkness.

“MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!”

“Who’s there?!” Tom shouted into the darkness.

“Not telling,” said the same voice. “Come and get me.”

“Come and get me! Show yourself,” shouted Tom.

“Okay,” said the voice, and then suddenly a 10 foot tall monster stepped out of the shadows. It

had the head of the hamster and the body of a dinosaur. “I am the Hamsaurus.”

“AAAAAAAAAAA!” screamed Tom.

“Hello, dinner,” said the Hamsaurus.

“AAAAAAAAAAA!” screamed Tom. “I’m too young to die! I’ve only been on 426 feet!”

“You’ll taste very nice in a pie,” said the Hamsaurus.

“No!” screamed Tom,

“With extra pickle juice. A shoe pie with pickle juice,” replied the Hamsaurus.

“NOO!” screamed Tom, as the Hamsaurus picked him up and walked away.

Tom felt scared and bad as he was being carried off. He tried fighting the Hamsaurus, but it was

hard because he had no hands.

“Oh, shut up,” said the Hamsaurus.

“AAAAAAAAAAAA!” screamed Tom. The last thing he saw was a fist flying towards his head then he blacked out.

When he woke up, he was tied to a stick, and the stick was over a fire. It was really, really, really, really hot, and it smelled like burnt stick. Tom felt as if his brain was melting, but it was dumb because he didn’t have a brain because he was a shoe. He looked around the room and spotted the Hamsaures making some kind of stew. Then, Tom spotted a strange box in the corner of the room that was marked, TNT. Suddenly a plan formed in his non-existent mind.

He called out to the Hamsaures, “I need to go to the bathroom,” which was also dumb because he was a shoe.

Apparently the Hamsaures wasn’t very smart because he said, “Okay,” then untied Tom and threw him into a dirty, small, strange looking bathroom that had a half-eaten toilet.

Tom stayed in there for ten seconds and started to creep back into the main room which was much nicer than this strange, tiny toilet. After making sure the Hamsaures didn’t see him, he went over to the box of TNT and moved it a bit closer to the fire. He took a stick off the ground and crept over to the fire and set the stick on fire. Then, he crept back to the box of TNT and was about to set it on fire when the Hamsaures caught him…

Dun dun dunnn…

The Hamsaures started running towards Tom, but Tom was quick and kicked the stick onto the box of TNT.

The Hamsaures stopped, dumbfounded, and stared at the box saying, “Bu… bu… bu… but… !”

Tom smiled then heard a really, really, really, really, really, really, really loud boom!!! Then, he was shot to the sky by a huge explosion that was way too big to come from a little box of TNT. It launched Tom all the way to a different country, where he smooshed a hotdog that was about to kill a pillow named Pilo. Then, he hopped away.

Later that day, Tom heard that the factory was blown to smithereens, and the only remains of it was the skull of an odd Hamster looking thing. Tom smiled at the sky, knowing that the Hamsaures wouldn’t be seen again for another 4,468 years. But Tom wouldn’t be around then, so he didn’t care.

The End (for now). Dun dun duh.


My Swim Test Adventure

As the bugle faintly blurred out, so did my heart. It was time for my swim test. As I walked through the grass, I saw my friend Georgia. She was headed for the lake. She had a smile on her face and her towel in her hand. I slowly caught up to her. She was very excited because she was going swimming. Then when I said that we were having our swim test, her smile turned into a frown. She said she was worried she was not going to pass.

When I saw that she was frowning, I quickly tried to cheer her up by saying, “You’re a really good swimmer. I think you’re going to pass.”

She said, “Thanks,” and ran to get on line.

When I got changed into my bathing suit, I felt I had the power to change my swimming life forever. On my way to the lake, somebody gave me a clip with my name, Jules Alemany, on it. I put my clip on lane two, and then I hopped on the dock. I felt it shaking. So did my brain. I was going crazy. I thought I was going to make it, but I realized I wasn’t.

I couldn’t hop back on land before I hopped back into my lane. My swim instructor or counselor or whatever you want to say said that her name was “Elise” or “Alice.” I couldn’t tell because my ears were full of water.

Then, she said, “Let’s begin.”

The first thing that we had to do was show her what strokes we could do, back and forth. The seaweed was touching my legs, and it felt like it was pulling me down. I was freaking out. Next we had to do five long breaststrokes without breathing. Then, we had to tread water for five minutes, and it was killing me. Instead of treading, I was floating, and I didn’t realize it.

My counselor was looking at me and said, “That’s floating, not treading.” And I knew I wasn’t going to pass.

Next, we had to do the dead-man’s float for five minutes, and I couldn’t do it. Every time I tried to go up for air, my hair got in my face, and it stopped me from floating. The last part, I could not do. I had to float on my back for five minutes. After all the stuff I had to do, I was exhausted. After, when I got out of the water, I put my stuff back and went to change back into my clothes.

When I got out to go and sit and wait for the bugle to blow, the instructor said, “Wait, you didn’t pass. I’m sorry.”

I felt a wave of sadness coming on, but could not let it show, so I pushed it away. I was lucky because next was rest hour, so I went back to my tent and started to think. What did I do wrong? As I thought, I was wondering what my mom and family would think. As I thought that, my eyes felt like crying, but this time I did not hold them in. I let them out.

The next day, I was walking to breakfast. I was so sad I tripped on something shiny. It might have been a rock, but I still took a glimpse of it… I knew it! It said Time Machine, so I picked it up, shoved it in my pocket, and headed to breakfast. I knew that it was a toy and not a real time machine. After breakfast, I quickly took it out and started to investigate.

I noticed that there was a line that you could open at the back, so I did and found a bunch of buttons. I started typing, and all of a sudden, I remembered my swim test, so I said, — while I was pressing the button, which I did not know was the speaker button — “Wow! I really failed on that swim test.” All of a sudden, I felt super dizzy, and I fainted. Everything blacked out.

I felt something touching my head. I opened my eyes slowly, and I saw Piper and Jane, two of my counselors, saying, “Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?”

“Yeah yeah,” I said as I got up from the ground. “I just — wait — what? Where am I?”

“Uhh, you’re at your swim test,” said Piper.

Jane was so worried. She asked me, “Do you want to go to the Mary Nap?” That’s the nurse’s office.

I said, “No, I’m okay. Let’s get swimming!” I just remembered. I could help myself. Because I wasn’t actually there, I could fake it and also get an awesome grade for my swim test, and I would still pass.

Then, they said, “Everyone watch Jane do the examples, and I am going to be speaking while Jane acts it out.” I couldn’t stop staring at her bathing suit — it was atrocious. As she did her example, I was worried. I didn’t want to change the timeline. But I said to myself, Hey, at least I’ll get an A on my grade. I still had that sick feeling in my stomach I wasn’t going to pass.

But I stuck to my gut, and I said, “No, I can do this.” When it was my turn, I got up, and I walked to the lake. I changed my clip to lane two because that’s where I was swimming. Then, I hopped into the lake and began.

It was freezing cold, but I was ready. Once I adjusted to the water, it was not that bad. So, I listened to what the counselors were trying to tell me, and I started to do what they said. I did the strokes, then the breaststroke, the five minutes of treading, and finally I got on my back and did the dead-man’s float. But guess what happened? I got on my stomach and did the dead-man’s float! It wasn’t very hard, so I just kept doing it. I didn’t hear them because my ears were underwater — but what I did hear was, “GRRRLIA! GGRLIA! GT OUTTA THWATER!”

When I put my head up to see what was happening, everyone was in a circle around my lane trying to drag me because they thought I was drowning. I got up and said, “I’m fine! I’m fine!”

But they all were like, “We need the medics, guys!”

At that time, I was thinking, Man I really want to go home. Wait — am I at home? Wait, no I’m not. I’m back in time. I didn’t know where I was. I was lost in the lake. I wanted to get out. I wanted to go back… I wanted to redo it.

I hopped out, and I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran. And then I tripped. I fell on something shiny. Wait — I just remembered, didn’t I do that an hour ago? I picked it up — I found it — it was the time machine. But wait, if I did this, would it change the timeline? I took my chance.

I picked it up, pressed it, and said, “Normal timeline.”

Poof! Everything went black.

I saw the future. Wow, it looked different. Hold on, wait, this wasn’t my timeline — why did I say, “Normal timeline?” I should have said, “2018, 12:05, going to lunch.” I was searching and searching. I couldn’t find the time machine. What happened to it? Wait, was I stuck here forever? I felt terrible and lonely. I wanted my mommy.

I was laying on a concrete floor. It was super uncomfortable. Wait — if I said normal timeline and it didn’t bring me home, where was I really? Was this the normal timeline? Was I an alien? As I ran and ran, I saw nothing but tall black and white and purple buildings. But there was nothing in front of me, so how could I be seeing that? I didn’t know. But what I did know was I just ran into something. I was sitting on the floor — I think I twisted my ankle. Something went wrong, but there was nothing in front of me. So, I tried to stand up, but I fell right back down. My ankle hurt really bad, so I touched the invisible wall, and it was curvy.

I tried crawling around the wall, but it felt like it was a never-ending wall. So I went back — wait, I couldn’t go back. My back was stuck on something, and the walls were closing in. What was it? I had to get out. So, I tried pushing myself up and up and up. I felt an opening, so I took it. I jumped and landed in one of the buildings. There were weird chairs, and it looked like I was in a hospital because it had drips, bandages, shots, and needles everywhere, as well as lots of hand sanitizer. There was one person that looked like my mom, so I ran and I hugged it, but it stabbed me in the back. Then, I realized there was no blood coming out of me, and the not-my-mom paralyzed me and put me in one of the weird chairs, strapped me down, and put something over my mouth that made me go to sleep.

I woke up, and I was still in the chair, but I was in my timeline. So, I tried getting out, but then there was that lady that looked like my mom again, except she wasn’t really there. She had the time machine in her hand, and she started talking.

“Did you use the time machine to change the past? You can’t do that anymore, okay?”

“Okay,” I said. “Can I get out of here please? I’m really freaked out. I want to go home.”

The lady said, “Which home? Camp home, where you were when you used the time machine? Or home home, like in Colorado?”

I said, “Camp home, where I was. I’m really sorry — I’ll never use the time machine again. What was that thing?”

She said, “It’s a secret high tech technology. I’ll grant you one wish if you promise to never use any high tech technology that our people make ever again.”

I said, “Okay — please take me home — camp home I mean.”

The lady said, “Okay. Good night.” And she put the mouth thing on me again. I went to sleep, and I woke up. I was home in the exact place I was at camp, heading to lunch. Wow, I will never use that thing again.

THE END

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

 

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.