September 2020 – The (Parenthetical)

Potato Land Book One: Humans Try to Take Over Potato Land But One Awesome Team Will Stop the Humans!

Chapter 1: Evacuate!

“Ring, Ring!” The lunch bell rang and all the students of the Potato School filed together inside the cafeteria to eat lunch. William, a young potato child, sat down on a table to eat his yummy ham and cheese sandwich. Shortly after he took his second bite out of his sandwich, he heard a “THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.” The ground shook fiercely.

“Oh my!” a potato child exclaimed.

“What is happening?” another said. And all the potato children ran outside their school and saw huge pieces of floppy laces with what looked like shoes attached to them. (The potatoes themselves usually just wore t-shirts and shorts.) Then they saw humans! William felt very scared at the moment. He shivered.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!” Everybody screamed including the humans because they were so surprised to see talking potatoes. So all the potato children and potato teachers went to the evacuation center and pressed a big red button that set an alarm off to every building in Potato Land. Every Potato Land citizen knew exactly what it meant. They all went to an underground hole and sat there.

Chapter 2: William Barely Escapes the Hands of a Human!

For days and days they sat in that big hole. Until one day brave William thought to himself, we can’t just hide here forever, someone has to stop the humans from destroying our land! So William carefully climbed out of the emergency hole and went out to stop the humans!

“William?” his parents called out. Where are you?”

“Oh no. I guess he went exploring again,” his mom said. His parents were used to him getting lost.

“Oooh, what is this?” A human had come to William and had been licking his lips.

“Ahhhh!” screamed William. He slowly looked up and saw a human looking down hungrily at him. “Please don’t eat me,” whimpered William, his braveness fading.

“What else do you think I will do?” boomed the human. “Not eat you? Ha ha ha!”

William scrambled up to the top of a building barely escaping the hands of a big scary human.

Chapter 3: William Creates a Team!

He went back to the hole and thought about going outside again to fight the humans but he realized that he would need a team. As he climbed back into the hole, his parents rushed over to him.

“What were you thinking, William?!” cried William’s dad.

“We were so worried about you!” said his mom while hugging him tightly.

“I was trying to save Potato Land. Our land! But I will need a team to fight the humans and to keep them from eating us,” said William.

So William went to find some people to join his team. First, he went to find his friends, but when he found them they were so cowardly that they wouldn’t even come out to see him. So then William went to find some random people in the deep dark hole who were brave and adventurous to join his team. At last he found four other potato children who volunteered to help fight the big, bad humans! There were two girls and two boys.

“Hello everyone.” William said. “Thank you for coming and joining my team! I am very grateful for that. Shall we call ourselves The Brave?” Everybody nodded in agreement. “Then great! Let’s go!” The Brave set off into the dark night trying to wake the humans from their sleep.

Chapter 4: Defeating the Humans!

It turns out, the humans made a whole city out of Potato Land! Oh no! thought William. He saw some humans clustered around his school using hammers to break it down and turn it into a new building!

“Over there!” William told his team. They rushed toward the humans and started hitting them. William had lots of bad luck because he saw the human who tried to eat him earlier! Oh no. William thought. Had he come to try and eat me again?

“Hey!” said the human who tried to eat William. “Aren’t you the tasty potato that I tried to eat earlier?”

“No offense, but you do look very tasty.”

“I take offense very much!” said William.

“Hey, let’s get on with fighting them,” whispered one of his teammates.

“Okay, sorry,” answered William. The potato children charged at the humans and surprised them but when they hit the humans, the humans didn’t feel a thing.

“AAARRRGGGHHH,” William shouted so loudly that the humans flew back from the impact.

“How did you do that?” His teammates asked.

“I… don’t know.” William said, just as surprised as them.

“Get him!” cried the human who tried to eat William.

“Run!” William told his team.

“I shall defeat them once and for all!” “YYYEEEAAAHHH!!!” Once again, William did the cry so loud this time even louder than the first one and all the humans around them flew back millions of miles away from them.

Chapter 5: Announcing the Hero of the Day!

“YES!” his whole team yelled. “WOO-HOO!”

“We did it!!!” All the potatoes in Potato Land crowded the hero of the day. The mayor himself came up to William and told every potato in the land that William was the hero of the day and from then on, he and his team were called, “The Mighty Brave.”

The End

Rain

I was only inside for the fourth day in a row and it was killing me. It was finally camp time, the time I look forward to all year, and it just wouldn’t stop raining. I wished I was back in Miami with Jenna, Ryder, Mom, and Dad. Instead, I had to be in this terrible sleepaway camp bunk. Don’t get me wrong, I love camp. It’s just I’d way rather be stuck at my mansion in Miami then in a tiny bunk. At camp, you can do lots of things, just not when it’s pouring rain. We don’t even have a TV. Thank god Katey, a girl from my camp, brought her iPad. Without that iPad, we’d be dead.

As the sunlight peaked out over the lake, I got out of bed. The rest of the girls in my cabin were already up and waiting for me to wake up. We all put on our coats and sprinted to the dining hall. That was the only place that we could see other people from camp. Today’s breakfast was blueberry muffins and apple juice. When I got into the dinning hall, I overheard a girl ask my BFF Julia if the clouds would ever stop peeing. At least Julia’s in my bunk, I thought to myself.

“Penny,” I heard Julia call, and I realized I was still at the juice counter.

Julia

Julia is Penny’s best friend. They have been in the same camp cabin with the other girls forever, but have a strong relationship. They are both born in October and both love to dance. Though all the girls in the cabin are friends, they are besties. Julia is from Illinois and is in fifth grade.

Katey

Katey is the coolest girl in the bunk and who the girls rely on for snacks. She is obsessed with water skiing and is very good. She’s from the Hamptons so she is an expert swimmer. We always have our spring break sleepover at her house, even though some people have to fly.

Carrie

Carrie is the fancy person in the bunk. She lives in Connecticut and her dad is a lawyer. She does swimming and lacrosse. We have our winter sleepover at her house because she has an indoor pool and spa.

Jenny

Jenny is the DIY queen and is super nice. She is really good at soccer and she always wins the games for us. Her parents write to her every week (sheesh). She lives in Texas and always brings BBQ to the sleepovers.

Adley

Adley is the funniest person in the world. She always makes us feel better with a joke. She’s also the best makeup artist in the world, and makes us look so good for the end of year party. She is from New York and is such a city girl.

Brin

Brin is the rider. She does super high jumps on horses. That girl is from Florida and she is very good at cooking southern food. She cooks fried chicken for us every year and it’s so good. She taught us all to play Gin-Rummy and now we play it every night.

Audrey

Audrey is our counselor. She is super arts & crafts-y and loves water polo. She was a camper here for 7 years and she loves camp. I’m glad she’s our counselor because she’s super fun. She always talks about how one time, she was at camp and it snowed!

After a long night of watching TV and sleeping, we got up for breakfast. We went to the dining hall and ate some fruit and oatmeal, then trudged back through the rain to our cabin. We got dressed into elastic pants and t-shirts, then headed over to the gym. Today we had dance class and basketball. I wish we could swim in the lake, but we can’t. At least we can go to the gym today. It’s finally open. Usually, we’d be camping tonight on top of Mt. Shirly. It is a tough climb, but worth it.

It’s 7:00 pm and we are having a movie marathon with candy (which we do every night and love). Tonight, I’m not very focused because of the rain. It is pattering and pouring down from the sky so, so hard. Julia and I are next to each other whispering while the other girls watch Mamma Mia. I grab my phone and tell the camp girls that I’m gonna go get cookies from the cafeteria house. I step outside expecting it to be pouring, but it’s not. The rain is falling slower and slower until it completely stops. I call the girls and we celebrate. One by one, the cabins empty and the path fills. The counselors set up a campfire and we all roast s’mores together. There’s still one more week of camp to do fun things outside. I can’t wait for tomorrow, which is something I haven’t said in awhile.

Fortnite

Editor’s Note: This story is inspired by the game Fortnite, which was developed by Epic Games. Content Warning for gun usage and video game violence.

One day I was playing squads on Fortnite with my friends when all of a sudden my TV started glowing. I put my hand up to the screen and my hand went through it. I was confused. Then I said into the mic, “Hey guys, are you seeing this?”

Zaniya asked, “Seeing what?”

Then I realized only I could be part of the Fortnite world. Maybe. Is this what I actually think it is? I cautiously walked in, and I realized I was in a lobby. I thought Fortnite had a lobby. I was in a Fortnite lobby! I remembered I was with my friends. I slapped my forehead thinking, am I dreaming or hallucinating? I thought if I was in Fortnite I could change what I was wearing. I went into the clothing section and saw all my skins. In order to test my theory that I was not dreaming or hallucinating, I went to the emote section and saw all my emotes. Next to Vbucks, I saw everything that I had in real life I had here in this virtual world. It’s like I entered Fortnite – or did I?

I heard a voice say, “Games starting in 3, 2, 1!”

I was immediately transported through the air and brought to what looked like the waiting place from my gaming experience. This was different. It looked exactly like Fortnite but you could not get killed. I floated over to the Battle Bus, and then we flew into my favorite game. I figured I was in Fortnite, so I got ready to win a game. I dropped and landed at a humongous house and walked inside. I picked up a gun and started firing it. Firing the gun felt good and I thought, I think I’ll like it here. I grabbed the loot and after I was done, I had an AR, a shotgun, an RPG, and healing. A few seconds later, I could hear footsteps and got ready. As soon as they came inside the person tried to shoot me but I jumped so high. I was surprised how high I could jump! I shot at him and lasered him and he died. I looked up and watched in amazement as I saw my kills, my health, my ammo, and my building materials. I wondered if someone was playing me and I was the character in Fortnite. I did a move only I knew to test my theory. I set C4 bombs everywhere, got a gun, and shot the house down. The loot rained down on me. Then I built my own house/base to live in and protect myself. I made windows and doors and everything that belongs in a base and more. A few more people came to the house. I bombed, sniped, shot out the air, and killed everyone. I, ZRC, ended the game with a win and 20 kills.

Later that day, I, ZRC, was relaxing and partying at Party Hub. I was thinking about how good I was and how I won every game I went to. I knew this was a dream come true and I would never leave. The excitement was like a bubble about to burst when I heard over the intercom, “Come to the lounge where you will meet all agents.” I ran to the inter-lounge and saw Skye, Midas, Meoscles, Pelly, and Brutus. Over the intercom, I heard they were going to pick one person to become a new agent in Fortnite. Everyone cheered! I was full of excitement. Midas said “Drum roll please, the new agent also the best Fortnite player here other than us is ZRC!” I said, “YES!” and jumped for joy! My friends said “Yeah man!”

After everyone left the lounge, the agents told me to stay behind and pick my favorite gun to be my weapon as an agent, and to make a new skin.

I picked a shotgun and the skin I made had a wolf mask. My hands and arms were covered in ice and my body was very muscular with abs and biceps. I looked down. I was wearing an ice skin with an ice shotgun and ice arms and hands. Being an agent was hard work. I had to pick henchmen to work as assistants. I had to pick a place to stay where I lived. I chose to make Salty Springs into an ice land with a mansion in the front with henchmen as guards. I had become a hot drop, which means everyone is coming here to get my gun. Whenever someone killed me, I would just respawn into another game. I checked my pocket to see if I had my phone. When I pulled out my phone, a piece of paper appeared in my hands and told me to call myself. I called myself and on the phone screen. It said, Zahir has answered. He heard my voice saying, “Hello? Hello?” Then I asked, “Can you play me on Fortnite?”

“Wait, what do you mean to play you? Don’t you see me the new agent bro? I don’t know what you’re talking about, bye.”

ZRC thought that maybe he did not know he was in the game. He knew he wanted to be the best Fortnite player in the world, but to do that he had to defeat Ssunde and the X Brothers. The X Brothers are a glitch that prevent people from winning but they don’t have an external body. They are bots programmed into the game. They just think they are real people but they are actually glitches programmed to ruin the game. My team is the Beard. His special ability is that he can drive things really well like helicopters, boats, and stuff. Zanirock’s special ability is that she can shoot really fast, faster than me, ZRC 2008. I have the special ability to have the best aim in the world and the best leadership in the world. I also have a specialized gun and henchmen. My team and I were itching to battle Ssundee after we placed second best in the world, but Ssundee is always in front. I sometimes wonder how he is so good. Gameday was in 2 days. Today, everyone was partying at Party Royale. Me and my team were having a good time laughing and joking around when our opponents came and said, “Good luck, you’ll need it ‘cause you’re going down!”

When the X Brothers turned around, I saw them glitch for a second. I told my team, and they said, “What are you talking about?”

“We saw nothing man, just worry about having fun,” we replied.

It was Game Day. My team put on their game faces and walked out into the lobby.

We heard the last words from this bot, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

We were launched into the Battle Bus and jumped out.

Skye dove into the tallest building there. They looted the place and then saw one of the X Brothers. They said, “3, 2, 1,” and killed him in 3 shots.

His brother was hot in pursuit when both X Brothers came out of a bush and said, “We are still here.”

“I talked about how I killed you. Are you hacking at the same time?”

They said, “We are a hack.”

Ssundee came up from the ground and surrounded them. As the leader I am, I took the lead and I shot Ssundee then 360 no-scoped one of the X Brothers. I one-pumped the other X Brother, but they rose back up. We did the only other thing we could do: Trap them with traps. We got spike traps and built a tower so they could not get out and ran 5 seconds later. They heard a noise. Then we heard, “You have won the place of the Best Fortnite Player in the World!” Ssundee and the X Brothers came out of the tower by hacking them. They tried to shoot us but then they went stiff. We all looked up and saw the Fortnite agents controlling him. They said, “You cheated! The penalty is that you get banned from Fortnite FOREVER.”

Me and my team said, “Yes sir!” and we heard my voice in the real world say, “Yes sir!” I got a VIC-Roy and won the place of Best Fortnite player. A machine transported me back home. Now, I had two powers: being able to have the best aim in the world and being able to go in and out of video games whenever I wanted. When I stepped out of the game, my sister, Kyle, and my real self were frozen for a second. Then I thought maybe I freeze time every time I go into a game. After that, I joined my real body, and I played Fortnite.