Month: February 2019

One Saturday morning, I sit up in my bed, get up, and run to my window. I lift up the shades and peer out the fogged up glass. I see the pond my older brother, Kyle, built yesterday in my backyard. I’d only helped him with a little bit, until I got tired and went back inside. Last night, Kyle’s college break ended, and he had to drive back to Massachusetts, so he didn’t get to finish his pond. I just stare at that unfinished pile of wood in my backyard. I guess I have to finish it myself if I want something done about it. I don’t mind about putting proper clothes on, so I stay in my saggy, old pajamas. I don’t ever care about my hair, mostly because I’ve just given up on tending to it.

I call to my mom as I drape myself over the railing and slowly slip down. “Mom, I’m hungry,” I say as I mope over to the kitchen.

“Get your breakfast yourself, weasel.”

I give her the stink eye as I attempt a grab at the cream donuts we got last night at The Donut Parlor. My mom doesn’t even have to turn around and look at me to say, “No.” I growl at that and slide open the glass back door that leads to our backyard.

“Put some shoes on, Anne, it’s bee season.”

I stare her down as I shuffle into my worn down flip-flops. I stumble outside onto the brick patio and run into the grass, until I get to the unfinished wooden pond at the end of our fenced-up yard. I look down at the slabs of wood.

“Better get my hands on this,” I say to myself, grabbing a plank of wood and holding it up to where it will be once this pond is finished.

“Whatcha doin’?” Mom says from the kitchen window. I growl again.

“Stop being so nosy. You don’t have to know what I’m doing all the time,” I say, not thinking.

Mom makes a face that looks hurt, but I know she doesn’t really care on the inside. “Okay, weasel, just get inside soon. Breakfast will seem to eat itself in this family.”

I grab the piece of wood again. I need gloves, nails, a hammer, and… that’s pretty much it, but whatever. I run back inside and grab a tiny index card from one of our island’s drawers. I shuffle around the drawer for a few more seconds, until I realize there’s no pens in there. I run down the hall to Mom’s office, where I think I can find a pen. I rustle and scramble through her stuff — twice — until I just can’t find any pens.

“Mom! Do you know where any pens are?” I call.

I enter the kitchen, and she shrugs. “I don’t know. Uh… maybe my office? I’m not allowed to barge into your life, anyways.”

I growl once more.

“Please, Mom, I need to finish this! I want to make Kyle proud, y’know?”

“Awww. You want to be a handywoman!” Mom gushes.

I pout. “Just ‘cause I want to make a pond that I promised Kyle I’d finish doesn’t mean I want it to be my full time job when I’m older.”

Mom shrugs. “What’s with the attitude, weasel? Anyway, why do you even need a pen to make a pond?”

I grumble. “You’re so annoying! And immature! Stop acting more childish than me! And I’m the actual child here.”

I feel kind of bad after I storm out of there, because Mom has this sad look in her eyes. She was only trying to help, and I got mad at her.

I’m about to go down to apologize, when I hear a voice that’s unfamiliar, yelling my name. “ANNE! ANNE!” I turn around my whole room and look out all the windows. “Hi, Anne. I’m up here.” I look up on my ceiling, and a strange blue substance is oozing off my ceiling.

“AAAAA!” I run downstairs, panting. I slide on my socks into the kitchen. “MOM! I think I’ve got a fungus or something in my room. It’s blue and disgusting! Can you help?”

Mom sighs. “Sorry, honey, I’m trying to be more adult-ish, like you said. I’m texting Alexandra, the insurance woman. I was looking through my work and found out about the money for the house we got lost year that we didn’t buy. We didn’t pay for the special fee to ignore the business emails the buyers would send us. I have to cover that up.”

I sigh. “Okay, you don’t have to help me. Anyway, sorry about earlier.”

I slouch upstairs and look at my little sister, Liliana. She’s holding a fluffy bear that’s on Care Bears.

“Play,” she says, holding out the pink bear to me. I pat her on the head and go to my room, scared. Liliana follows me. “Play!” she says, stuffing the bear into my stomach.

“Not right now, Lili,” I say. “Don’t come in, okay?” Liliana sadly walks away, and I feel bad for the second time in the last hour. “Wait,” I say, gently grabbing her arm. “I can play.”

I follow her into her and my other little siblings’ room and sit on the floor next to her. We shake around Barbie dolls, have tea that’s actually hot water from the bathroom sink, play with her Care Bears, and put on a princess fashion show. I’m pretty tired, and I have homework to do, so I start out the door.

“Play? More play?” says my three-year-old sister, waddling out of her room in a princess dress.

I sigh. “Sorry, Liliana. I can’t. I have work to do, Okay?”

She tilts her head. “You job like Mommy?” she babbles, hugging the bear close to her chest.

“No, it’s easier. I only have to read a book.” I give her and her bear a big hug. “When I’m done, we can play some more, okay?”

She nods. After I pick up my book, The Candlemaker’s Son #4, I read at least seven chapters before going down for breakfast.

“Mom? Can I have some breakfast?” I say, looking around the kitchen to see if she’s still here.

She’s yelling in the next room. I try not to snoop into her business, so I head out the door, feeling bad yet again. Whatever trouble she’s in, it’s my fault, because I forced her to do work she didn’t have to. I go up to Liliana’s room, and she’s playing with my other younger brother who’s older than her. They are playing ninjas, and she seems to hate it. I run to my room. I have to get rid of this weird slime, I say inside my head. I run down to the kitchen with a great idea. I grab a dirty spatula from the sink, the stepstool from the upstairs bathroom, duct tape, another roll of duct tape, another step stool, my beanbag chair, gloves, science goggles, a doctor mask, two headbands, a large tin bucket, and some pillows. I take the pillows and put them on the sides of the bucket. I duct tape the two step stools together and place my beanbag on top of them. That’s there for me to stand on when I remove the substance. I put the pillows out in case I fall. I have the goggles, so nothing gets in my eyes. I have the headbands, so none of it gets in my hair. I have the gloves for the removal. The only thing I don’t have is confidence, which I need most. I feel silly in my little costume as I tightly grip the spatula and step onto my wobbly structure. I go on my tiptoes and almost vomit when I see the stuff up close and personal.

“Hey there, how’s it goin’, weird thing. Well, I’m about to scrape you from my walls, so I can dispose of you. Goodbye!”

I push the spatula against the ceiling and the substance, and it easily glops off into the bucket, and a bit of it is on the pillows. I climb down and take a close look at the blue stuff. I don’t poke it, because no death please, thank you very much. I collect the extra bits that snuck onto my pillows and throw the cases into the wash. I go back upstairs and carry the large bucket downstairs, holding it away from my face. I gag as I pour the blue stuff into a trash bag. I throw it out front, since trash day is two days from now. I go back inside. What even was that? I really should tell Mom. But I realize she’s still working, yelling at the phone. I slump back upstairs, feeling that my room is unsafe, even though the substance is gone. I go to Liliana’s room instead of my own. I sit down next to her. My brother that was playing with her, George, has left.

Liliana looks really sad, so I say, “What’s wrong?”

Lili sighs. “Georgie only let us do what he wanted to do.” She pouts.

“I’ll do what you want to do, okay?”

Liliana nods, and before I know it, we’re drawing pictures of her imaginary friend. Actually, she’s just scribbling, but I don’t think about it too much. My worries seem to wash out of my mind like a big wave in the ocean at the beach. Then I look over at my shoulder, because it’s hurting. I notice something there.

“OH MY — ”

There is the blue stuff, on my favorite Ramones shirt. I almost wipe it off, but I run to get my gloves instead. Liliana is calling for me.

“Play!” she screams, but I don’t listen.

It must’ve been from the removal, or maybe when I was reading in my room. This wasn’t funny anymore. I washed the slime off. I could die! I run yelling to Mom.

“MOM!” I yell, about to cry. The blue stuff is all off, but I have to tell her. She is cleaning up plates from breakfast, but I am not hungry anymore. I feel like fainting, or vomiting. “Please, please, please, Mom, listen! I could die. Please.”

Mom sighs. “Honey, I tried all I could, but the buyers were fine, absolutely fine. I don’t have any work to do, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to die, so maybe I can do my taxes early, I guess — ”

I shake my head as I say, “Mom! No, it’s not that. I don’t care about that anymore! There was this weird fungus, and it dripped, and I read, and I removed it, and there was a step stool, and a trash bag, and it was blue, and it knew my name, and — ”

Mom stops me. “Wait, wait, wait just a minute! Why didn’t you tell me?”

I sigh. “Because you were so busy” — I did finger quotes — “That I didn’t want to disrupt you.”

Mom laughs a little bit. “Oh, Anne!” Mom says, leaning over to give me a squeezy hug. “You could’ve told me! I would’ve loved to have an excuse to stop that call!” I chuckle. “Well, wait here. I’m going to call Dr. Gantome, okay? I’ll see what he can do. That stuff fell on you, right?” Mom runs to the home phone and dials Dr. Gantome’s number. We haven’t seen him in a while, since Mom went on her healthy diet and forced us to go along with it. “Hello? Oh, you’re there! Dr. Gantome, hi!” There’s a short pause. “Oh, yes, I’m well.” Another pause, except shorter. “Liliana’s growing up! Oh, yes, everyone’s okay, healthy, and Kyle’s good!” Another pause, longer than the other ones. “Oh, it’s actually Anne this time. George and Mia are okay.” A very short pause, and then, “Well, she says there was a weird fungus… ? Right, sweetie?” I nod. “Yeah, and it was blue.” A pause as long as all of them combined. “Well, she got rid of it herself, and I was working… and she threw it out, but we just found a bit on her sweater.” Dr. Gantome talks on the phone for so long that I decide to leave. I hear Mom yelling to me, and I come back downstairs. “Did you get it off?” she whispers, holding the bottom of the phone. I nod, and she gets her phone back to her ear. “Dr. Gantome? Hi, yes, yes, I just couldn’t hear you — what? No, my hearing’s fine, it’s just there was static — Dr. Gantome? I’m sorry, yes… no, she hasn’t been acting strange since the incident. Actually, she just told me before our call… ” A short pause is there. “No, Dr. Gantome, everyone else is fine, everything’s okay, it’s just Anne… ” She pauses and talk and pauses and talks. I’m tired of listening by now.

There was a ghost. He was a haunter. He would haunt people, animals, and objects. One day, he lifted a pig that was going to be eaten, but kaboom, a ghost car smashed into the ghost.

“Dang it. Why does a car always crash into me,” said the ghost right before the car actually pulled over.

Out of the car came Garlic Man, a loaf of muscly garlic bread. He was mad at the ghost for trying to eat his pig and said, “Step away from the pig, buddy.”

“Who in the world are you? And why do you smell so bad?” the ghost said, holding his nose.

“Uh because I’m Garlic Man, duhhh?”

And the ghost killed the Garlic Man. Hahaha, that was so funny! The next day, the ghost went to a haunted house that was by the crooked crook. There was a tale that says if somebody drinks from the river, a ghost will haunt them forever. The ghost knew this tale and wanted to prove it right.

So, he hid behind a tree because the one man was really stupid and told the crowd, “I’m going to drink from the river!”

He bent his knees, crouched down, and took a sip! Then, the ghost appeared from behind. Then, the ghost lifted the haunted house and smashed it on the group of people. The people that got smashed by the haunted were flattened! Then, the lightning struck, and now the flattened people turned into a huge pumpkin with laser eyes. The pumpkin with laser eyes lasered the whole town like mad! Suddenly, the ocean splashed on the town. The ghost got on the pumpkin and rode away!

THE END.

Once there was a flying elephant. To fly, all Mae had to do was flap her ears, and she would start floating, and then she could fly, but the bad thing was all the other elephants were jealous of her. Their names were Grumpy, Unlucky, and Unhappy.

So, one day, Mae went for a fly. All the other elephants were so jealous they stuck their trunks up in the air and grabbed Mae’s foot and pulled her down.

Mae was furious. She yelled out, “Why do you hate me so much?”

Right away, the other elephants yelled out, “You can fly, and we cannot! Uhhhhhhhh, do you not see we are jealous of you!!! We want to fly too.” The elephants started crying and said, “We are sorry. We were jealous. We did not mean it.”

Then, Mae said, “To be able to fly like me, you have to travel through the Blue Creek Woods and under the Serpent Sea.”

So, the other elephants went on an extremely long journey to the Blue Creek Woods. The Blue Creek Woods had a bunch of really tall trees, and the trees made the shape of a really big letter B, which was so big it took up the space of the whole forest. But the danger was the animals could kill you with one scratch. Also, the animals looked very intimidating, but the elephants kept on walking. They were starving. They thought they might as well starve to death. But no way. They grabbed their ladder and walked up the ladder to some apples in an apple tree. The apples were rainbow, and inside there was a bunch of blackberry jelly.

“We’ve got food to eat, and we’ll even eat it for dinner!!!” they said.

They made a fire, so they could stay warm and eat the apples, which tasted like apples. Then, they went to sleep in their sleeping bags made of grass and bamboo and some rubber bands.

The next day, they had a nice walk to the middle of the woods, and even better, they had left over apples to eat for dinner and some leftover matches to stay warm. In fact, they had so much they could eat it for a living. A cyclops jumped out of the bushes, but they took the beast on with no fear. They fought. It was a hard fight, but they won. By that time, it was night again. The elephants made another fire, ate the apples, and went to bed. The next morning, they travelled out of the forest and made it out alive!!!

When they got out of the forest, there was a path, and it led to the sea. The path was under the water, but then the elephants transformed into ellaphmermaids. They had copper-colored mermaid tails with scales shaped like C’s and hooves at the end. They swam along the path, but then there was a siren. She had a very disturbing face with a mermaid tail with a shark fin on it, and she had gills instead of a nose. The siren lured the ellaphmermaids over by singing with her beautiful, luring singing voice, but the little ellaphmermaids had tricked the siren and grabbed their daggers and stabbed her. They had defeated a monster for the second time. They were undefeated.

So, they kept on swimming across the path. Then, a giant shark came, but the giant shark had tiny eyes like this. They were so tiny it could only see the tiniest things on earth. The shark couldn’t see them, but it could hear, so the elephants had to be super quiet like ninjas. The shark couldn’t see them and they made it. But then there was a surprise! In real life, Mae was following them the whole time, and in real life, she was a magical queen with powers.

Her powers were she could make anything fly, so the magical queen said, “You are very smart, and I trust that you will use your flying powers well.”

So, she gave them the power to fly.

But then the ellaphmermaids thought for a minute, and they were like, “Wait a minute, you tricked us?!” But then they said, “Whatever, we’re getting our wings!”
They flew all the way home. But then… They all lived happily ever after.

Chapter One: Confusion

Once upon a time there was a polar bear named Poley, and he had a friend named Pandy. Pandy lived in the jungle because he was a panda bear, and Poley lived in the Arctic.

Pandy once came over to the Arctic to visit Poley and said to him, “Do you want to come to the jungle, so you can see how I live”

“Yes, I would like to!” said Poley, and so Pandy brought Poley to the jungle.

Once they arrived, Poley was burning, burning hot with sweat, and Pandy said, “Are you okay? Are you getting tired?”

And Poley said, “No, I don’t know.”

Then, a jungle ranger came walking by, and the ranger said to Poley, “This is not your right habitat. No wonder you look so sweaty and hot. We have to get you back to the Arctic!”

But Pandy said, “No, I want him to stay!”

But the ranger said, “But he has to go, or he will get very sick.”

“Okay, fine,” Pandy said. “You can bring him, but only if I’m allowed to come with.”

“Okay, you can come with. But if you get hurt, I’ll take you back.”

Chapter Two: Going Back to the Arctic

They finally made it back to the Arctic, and once they got there, Poley still was a little sick but felt a teensy weensy bit better. And the ranger called a medical ranger… because Poley was still not feeling well.

The medical ranger was on his way. Finally, he arrived, and he said to the ranger, “What is going on?”

And the medical ranger said, “This polar bear was very sick because he went to the jungle and got very warm, so we brought him back here, and now this panda came also, and even though I brought Poley the polar bear back to the Arctic, he is still very sick. So… can you help?”

“Yes, I can help,” said the medical ranger.

Chapter Three: Helping Poley

So, the medical ranger took Poley’s temperature, and it was very very high. And then he checked his heartbeat, and it was slower, and he said, “Even though the heart beat is slower and the temperature is high, I know how to help him.”

“Phew! That is a-okay,” said Pandy in a not-very-well voice.

The medical ranger did everything he could, and Poley almost died, but in the end he was a-okay.

Chapter Four: Pandy Not Feeling Well… Uh oh.

Since Pandy spoke in a not-very-well voice earlier, he fainted.

“He is way too cold in the Arctic!” said the medical ranger. Nobody knew, but Pandy was actually faking.

“So, did you guys like my trick about how I was faking being sick?!” Pandy said.

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm… ” they responded questionably.

“Okay, okay. I guess it wasn’t the best trick ever,” said Pandy.

“Yeah, it wasn’t. I was really going to try and help you, and I was really worried,” the medical ranger said angrily, while the normal ranger was watching over Poley while he was laying in a bed of ice.

Pandy said, “Now that we’re all done arguing, let’s have some fun!”

Then, everyone else said, “Yeah!”

Then, they all went ice skating.

The End

Rudy was a little confused. Was it a dream, or did it really happen? Then, he saw the brass pot of gold that said ÞRASI in fancy lettering. A few days ago, Rudy’s family arrived in Iceland. The first tourist trap they visited was going to be the waterfall, SKOGAFOSS. His four sisters were arguing about who would get to decorate their cousin, Elaine, and Rudy was almost going to just shout out and just tell his sisters to stop talking or get out of the car when they reached the waterfall.

Riley skipped along the dirt path. One thing you should know about her is she loved to swim. Today Riley was going to the SKOGAFOSS waterfall. It was a special day. Riley loved being near water, where she felt like a bird. Little did she know that today would be different. She would bump into Rudy and find a great treasure.

One hour later…

Rudy got out of the car. Riley walked down the seven steps of the bus, clutching her tote bag. Clunk! They bumped into each other.

“Hi,” said Riley.

“Bonjour,” said Rudy sarcastically.

Riley was just about to walk off when a golden glint caught her eye. Half of a brass chain was sticking out from the waterfall, at an angle, so if Riley was one step forward, she wouldn’t have seen it at all.

”Look over there!” Riley shouted to Rudy.

Rudy suddenly yanked at the top of the fence, and he now had an iron bar. Rudy hooked the end of the strong iron bar to the end of the chain and then grasped the end. Riley quickly grabbed the bar too. All Rudy’s siblings started pulling, and his sisters completely forgot about decorating Elaine. Then, Rudy realized that the girl he had bumped into wasn’t behind him. Just as he thought that, she appeared with a swimsuit and goggles on. She leapt into the water and swam perfectly behind the waterfall. Rudy had watched in awe. Then suddenly… YANK! The thing behind the waterfall leapt into the air and landed in Rudy’s arms.

It was a pot of gold. Now what really happened was that Riley had swum behind the waterfall and pushed the pot as hard as she could. The reason Riley was so excited about the brass chain was because she did research on Iceland, and the book said that a settler named THRASI had hidden a pot of gold behind the waterfall, where it would be hard to reach.

You can imagine it was pretty hard for Rudy’s family to get the gold back. They had split the gold with Riley’s family, and it was loaded up in their trunk. Rudy’s brother clapped him on the back and said, “Ya gotta real treasure today, eh?”

But the real treasure was the adventure they had.

THE END

August 5

Hello. My name is Kelly Jones, and the only reason I am writing in my new, so secret, red leather diary that locks is because I am bored. I have always not liked airplane rides, especially because they make me dizzy. I am on my way to Yellowstone National Park because, well, frankly, I am very excited. I am very into science, and I heard there are wild animals in Yellowstone and erupting geysers. But, my uncle says there is going to be a great surprise. I don’t expect that it’s going to be much because my uncle’s surprises are never exciting.

August 7

We arrived one day ago. Our hotel is kind of cozy, and our room has a soft gray rug, a huge TV, a springy white sofa, and three nice, cozy beds with green tea colored blankets. My dad is sitting in one of the plum colored squishy chairs and sipping his coffee and reading his newspaper.

August 8

So far, my father hasn’t stumbled upon any good news in the newspaper, considering that he’s had his nose in the newspaper for the last few days. He has been keeping us home, so we can watch TV and play Chutes and Ladders, and he reads newspapers. He’s made up his mind that we aren’t going to go out until he finds something good. He has also been searching for something interesting, because, unlike me, he thinks Yellowstone is going to be pretty boring. Finally, this morning, Father found something good.

“Aha!!”’ my dad exclaimed. “Kk, come over here.’’

I came. This is what I saw:

YELLOWSTONE SCIENCE PRIZE

This prize is for children from 8-16. Competitors must present a report about Yellowstone Wildlife and Yellowstone geysers. Adults can help if needed, and the project must be turned in by 3-5. The essay must be about a way to prevent hunting. The prize is a gold trophy for each participant of the winning team, plusa salary of 6,000,000 dollars for the winners to split up. If you are interested, please contact Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft. Submission due AUGUST 15.

Okay. It’s still August 8.

And Daddy is loading up the car, and if you were paying attention, you’d know why. Right now, we are off to Old Faithful, so I can take notes for the competition and also take a chance at finding who to work with on the competition. Meanwhile, my aunt is helping my mom register for the Bill Gates competition, and my father is doing the happy Snoopy dance because he is so happy.

Now we are at Old Faithful, and I am looking for some nice looking girls to do the competition with. Just as I was going to give up, I spotted a familiar face.

“Hello, Kellania.”

“Hello, Josephine. What are you doing here?!”

“Don’t panic, Kell. I was invited by your uncle. I am here to help you out, with your contest thingamabob. Speaking of Bobs, how about I take you over to Bob’s Pizza for Lunch??” Things were going on in my mind. Why had Josephine wanted to help anyways?? Besides, I barely knew her. She was the smartest, the prettiest, and the most perfect girl in the school, maybe even in the world!!! And her parents were billionaires!!! Man, gazillionaires!!!

Over at Bob’s Pizza, a girl and boy that were probably twins were arguing about something. When they saw me, they stopped arguing and waved at me. When I went over to them, I said, “Do you want to join me in the competition???”

“Sure. My name is Jack, and that is Julie,” the boy said.

Now only one more person, I thought.

“Time for the eruption,” Jack and Julie said together.

We ran to get a last slice of pizza and then caught a bench in front of Old Faithful. The boy sitting next to me had blonde, almost white hair and was reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and looked as if he was in sixth grade. Every once in a while, he would look at his phone and text to Mom.

“Hey.” I was startled by his voice and glanced at his book.

“I have read Jane Eyre too,” I said. “Care to join me in the contest??”

“Sure.”

“Isn’t it weird when the jerk who runs the school makes Jane stand on the stool??” Him again. End of conversation. Deal made. Then, just about when he picked up Jane Eyre again, Old Faithful erupted.

August 11

Today I am supposed to meet Josephine, Julie, Jack, and James (this is the boy who was reading Jane Eyre yesterday) at James’ house, just a few blocks away from our hotel. At eight in the morning, I set off for James’ house for our meeting. Once I walked in, I knew James’ parents were well-educated. James told me to guess what his parents’ jobs were. It was pretty easy to tell what his mother’s job was. I mean, whose house plays flute music on the stairs and has sheet music on the coffee table and a music stand with a silver flute laid across it? Next, James made us guess what his father’s job was. That was also pretty easy because the moment we went into one of the upstairs rooms, a man with a white lab coat stepped out of the room.

“Hello. My name is Michael. Nice to meet you. I am a science professor.”

After, we had some pretzels, we went into his room, which was huge, and sat down on his big huge couch that could probably fit way more than five people comfortably, and Josie (Josephine) began.

“First things first, what is a problem about the animals?”

“They poop too much,” said James.

“Very well, James,” said Josephine. “You may do an extra report for the competition on how animals digest and the shape of the waste and how to identify their footprints.”

James groaned.

“Okay, now for you,” Josephine said.

“Josephine, you are acting way too much like the boss. I think Kelly should be the boss.” Julie stuck her hip out and glared at Josephine. Josephine blushed.

“I think that we should do a report on geysers and animals combined,” I said. Jack thought that was a great idea.

“And by the way, James, you do not have to do your poop report alone. That extra report will be very important, so Josephine can help you with it.” Julie smirked. Now it was Josephine’s turn to glare.

Jack said, “Don’t the geysers come from under the crust of earth?”

“Isn’t the earth supposed to have a lot of minerals?” Josephine was now madly typing on her silver and diamond computer. “It says here that the geysers are exposed to a lot of different metals and moreover, exposed to, drumroll please.” Jack and James made a drumroll on a fake army drum. “Arsenic!!!” shouted Josephine.

“Okay, so you guys get to go to different geysers and actually have fun, while Josephine and I have to go to parks to collect dung??” James whined.

“That’s not fair,” wailed Josephine.

“No one asked for your opinion,” Julie retorted.

“Well, you never have to collect dung,” Josephine shot back. The two got into a fight and were rolling around in the bed. Basically, they were just shouting. (“Excuse me, I am not going to collect dung!!”)

Meanwhile, I was sitting on the couch thinking. Then, I rolled around on the couch, and I thought, Isn’t the water supposed to be hot? If it was hot, wouldn’t it lure animals in the winter?? Maybe it would. What would happen if the animals drank the water, or even worse, bathed in it? Something was forming in my mind. “Josephine, Julie, come over here!! I ran over to them and pushed them apart. The two girls stopped fighting and walked over here.

I said, “Okay. So if James and Josephine collect the dung, I’ll explain.” Josephine had a defeated look on her face.

“Oh, all right. Now get on with it.”

“So what if the animals drink the geyser water!”

“Big deal.” Josephine snorted. Clearly she was still angry with Julie.

“But, that means they have arsenic in them!!” Julie said. “So, if the hunters hunt the animals and eat them, they’ll get sick!!”

“Absolutely!” I shouted. The boys had went out to collect some elk and bison dung, and now they came back with a plastic bag with brown stuff. I am not lying, they look funny. They had nose plugs, too large plastic lab coats, and yellow rubber gloves with matching boots.

“So, have you guys figured out anything yet?”

“Loads,” I said, or I squealed.

“Hey, isn’t your father a science professor?” Julie asked.

“Bring the dung to your father, James, he’ll have it analyzed, and you, Jack, go get us some more pretzels,” Josephine ordered.

“Josephine,” said Julie warningly.

Anyways, Dr. Michael says that he can get the dung analyzed in a few days. I guess I won’t have time to write these days. It’s okay. I think I could fill you up once I have time. James’ mother had an exercise to keep us going. Basically, she wanted us to write a paragraph on what we love. That was a pretty good exercise, but I couldn’t stop thinking about The geyser’s animals and how they connect. I guess I got so distracted that I fell asleep.

August 16

Okay. Don’t get mad. I will fill you up on everything, after I am done eating this pretzel. Jack is talking away about how the pretzels at June’s Super Deli are really good and that we should really try them and the Cokes there have frost down the sides. It’s driving me crazy. Right now, we are sitting on one of the plum colored squishy chairs in the hotel, and my older sister is lounging on the springy white sofa that she has made into one of her private lounging places.

She says that all younger children, “Don’t have the responsibility to recline on regal couches with beautiful ladies.” She is annoying too.

We have just gotten a reply from Dr. Michael, which you might remember if you cared. The results are coming out on the 20th of August, and Dr. Michael says that the dung shows definite signs of Arsenic. Josephine and I wrote up the report about the geysers, and James and Jack are still working on the extra poop report that they still have to do. Josephine got out of doing it by who knows how. Our report is mostly finished and Julie, who is good at arts and crafts, is making a beautiful diorama that shows the geysers, the animals, and the hunters, creeping up behind. Then, all of us pitched in to write a few words about how we came up with this idea, and I helped Julie write a few words about what was in the diorama. Josephine figured that she needed to help the boys because she thought they were getting on too slowly. While all the ladies sat down to see when the prizes of the competition would be given, all the men, and I am not kidding, were sitting and reading newspapers just like my dad.

Jack was responsible for getting the pretzels from June’s Super Deli. Except, he ate them all before he could get back. The boys are really close to finishing because, as a matter of fact, Josephine is writing for them. I am really anxious because well, if you were paying attention, the results are coming out in four days. Only four days!!! Now Josephine is coming up with an ending sentence for the boys, which means they are almost done. Okay. The ending touch. Julie is now pasting the extra report and the main report to the diorama then adding the sparkly sign I had made to the diorama. It was finished. In four days, we are going to The Yellowstone Caldera, where the contest is going to be held. It is said that Bill Gates himself is going to make an appearance to announce the winner of the contest. There are butterflies in my stomach. Also, we have to pick out the clothing for the contest/party. Josephine already has her gown picked out. It is a silver gown studded with diamonds. Pretty cool. James’ suit is a red tailcoat and green army pants. At first, Jack wanted to wear a blue sweater and jeans but Josephine plainly said no. Instead, Julie picked out a blue army coat for him and yellow smart-looking pants. I still can’t choose between a slim, wide skirted green gown and a full skirt blue and silver dress. Julie is wearing a yellow dress with hoops. I am just so tired and stressed out. Maybe I should take a break.

August 20

Ahhh!

It’s the day. Yellowstone Caldera is just a few miles away. I am just trying to be calm, but I can’t!!! Our diorama is tucked safely under a blanket in a cushiony basket in the trunk. My head is spinning around in circles. My brain is singing a song.

It’s the day. Yellowstone Caldera is a few miles away. Bill Gates is eating lemon ice cream, but everyone else is screaming!!!

I can’t stand it!! Jack is so annoying. He is actually singing his brain song out loud! This is his song:

“Bill Gates is eating pretzels la la la la la la la la. I love eating pretzels, so we are similar!! La la la la la la la la la!”

Two more miles, one and a half more miles, one more mile, a half mile, we are here!! Ahhh!

By the way, I chose the blue and silver dress for the party, so I have to lift my skirts. Josephine is helping Julie lift the diorama out of the car and into one of the racks. We are five minutes early, and the adults are helping me get the banner saying THE 4 JS AND 1 K STRIKE AGAIN!!! up on to the top of the rack. Okay. Bill Gates is arriving. All the Honda and BMW and Mercedes and Toyota cars follow him. Bill Gates gives the other groups a few minutes to set up, then we clear, and he takes a bunch of looks around. By now, I am the only one not looking at Bill Gates. I am writing in this diary. He stops at our diorama and stares at it for a long time. Then, he moves on. He stops at another report and examines it closely. Then, he whistles to his housekeeper, and she brings a tan colored chair that was probably from India onto the stage.

Bill Gates stands up and says, “The winner is… ” I squeeze my eyes shut, and Josephine pinches my hand. “… The 4 Js and 1K!!!” Did you know that your heart can stop when you are like totally excited??

One year later…

It’s been a year since I have written to you, and you must remember that I won the contest, and that I had loads of help, and that we now have $1,200,000. And a gold trophy. Well, we got a new house, and now I have my own room. Last year included one of the most exciting events of my life. And this journal was part of it.

THE END