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.

Spelling Bee Champ

On Monday night, Taylor Chris was sitting on her couch next to her mother. They were watching Taylor’s favorite reality show: Spelling Bee Champ. It was the last round and it was a boy, Marc, vs. a boy, Harry. Marc had to spell nefarious. If he got it right, he’d win the challenge.

Under her breath Taylor spelled, “N-e-f-a-r-i-o-u-s. Nefarious.”

Taylor’s mom chuckled. “Taylor, you should be on this show. Every word they’ve shown, you’ve spelled correctly.”

Taylor shook her head. “No way! Hundreds—no, thousands of people watch this show! Maybe even millions.” Taylor shuddered. 

But little did Taylor know her mom registered her anyway. Taylor loved talking and interacting with other people. The only kind of shy she is, is camera shy. She just doesn’t like being on camera. Marc answered nefarious incorrectly. Next was Harry. Harry had to spell claustrophobic – much harder than nefarious.

“C-l-a-u-s-t-r-o-p-h-o-b-i-c. Claustrophobic. Fear of being in small spaces,” Taylor muttered. Taylor high-fived her mom when she got it correct. Maria Spindle was just about to crown Harry the new Spelling Bee Champ when someone in a sweatshirt and headset came and whispered something in her ear.

Maria Spindle smiled. “Guess what? We’re starting a new promotion: The International Spelling Bee Championship! We’re not just in the US any more!”

Taylor’s mom looked nervous. “Taylor… I registered you for the next spelling bee.”

Taylor was laughing until she saw her mother’s face. “Mom, I know you meant well, but next time make sure that I won’t be going up against the best spellers from around the world before you register me for a contest.” Taylor thought for a minute. “Where are we going?”

“All over. But the first stop is Sydney, Australia, then London, England, then Paris, France, then more.”

Taylor was tired so she went to bed but before she did, she packed one carry-on suitcase. She packed two weeks worth of clothes, pajamas, and shoes for any and every condition. And in her book bag she packed her coloring book, colored pencils, encyclopedia, thesaurus, and dictionary. Finally she went to sleep. She supposed she was excited for the trip but she was too tired to tell.

The next morning, Taylor got up quickly. Their plane for Sydney left at 1:00 pm. They could not be late. Taylor choked down her toast and slurped her orange juice as quickly as she could before her mom stopped her.

“Taylor? Stop this nonsense.We have three hours to get to the airport! It’s only 9:00 am.” Taylor slowly calmed down, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the Spelling Bee. Were there going to be a lot of kids? Was everyone going to be much more sophisticated than her? What if she was the only one her age?! But her mom kept reminding her to calm down. It sort of worked. She supposed. S-u-p-p-o-s-e-d. Usually spelling calmed Taylor down. D-o-w-n. But now those questions just flooded through Taylors head like a storm. S-t-o-r-m. Ugh. Not even spelling could get these questions out of her head. H-e-a-d. Taylor didn’t understand. She’d been in spelling bees before. Why did this bother her? Maybe it was because this would be on international television. T-e-l-e-v-i-s-i-o-n. Taylor was starting to relax and let her guard down, until she thought of a new question. Q-u-e-s-t-i-o-n. Aye. She couldn’t stop thinking of words – but what if during the Spelling Bee she stopped completely? While Taylor’s mom drove them to the airport, Taylor flipped through her dictionary. She pointed her finger to the word wicked. W-i-c-k-e-d. Next cerebrum. C-e-r-e-b-r-u-m. Taylor played this game until they arrived at the airport.

“Mom, can you quiz me on some of the words in my thesaurus?” asked Taylor.

“Of course,” said her mom. The first word was crimson, c-r-i-m-s-o-n, the next catastrophe, c-a-t-a-s-t-r-o-p-h-e, the third private, p-r-i-v-a-t-e, and the last extreme, e-x-t-r-e-m-e. Soon they boarded their flight. Their tickets said first class! They were served hot fudge sundaes with peppermint syrup, and brownies for lunch. As it turned out, it was the captain’s birthday. There was a confetti cake with rainbow frosting and white sprinkles and the party favors were huge bags of toys and fancy chocolates.

At the bottom was a dictionary with a note that said, “Bring home the trophy for the good old US of A. Captain Lenora White.” This dictionary was huge, many more words than her beat up old one. Taylor loved it. Taylor flipped to the middle and pointed to the word crustaceans. C-r-u-s-t-a-c-e-a-n-s. Hyacinth. H-y-a-c-i-n-t-h. Taylor always thought everyone should know the beauty of words.

When they arrived in Sydney, Taylor and her mom took a cab to their hotel. Once there, Taylor’s mom quizzed her with words from the new dictionary.

“Disconcerting!”

Taylor thought for a moment before saying, “D-i-s-c-o-n-c-e-r-t-i-n-g.” Taylor clapped her hands.

“Triumphant!”

Taylor immediately answered, “T-r-i-u-m-p-h-a-n-t.”

Taylor’s mom thought for a moment before saying, “Nonchalant.”

Taylor quickly said, “N-o-n-c-h-a-l-a-n-t!”

Taylor’s mom paused for effect, “Last but not least… unforeseen!” Taylor memorized this word in the cab on the way to their hotel.

“U-n-f-o-r-e-s-e-e-n.”

The next day the Bee began. Taylor’s mom tugged her curly brown hair into pigtails with pink ribbons. Taylor pulled on the pink lace dress she brought, the white tights, and pink sneakers. Taylor took her dictionary and she practiced the word demonstrations. D-e-m-o-n-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n-s. Then mystery. M-y-s-t-e-r-y. And so on. Right before they left for breakfast, Taylor did the word duplicate. D-u-p-l-i-c-a-t-e.

Taylor sat next to a girl with red hair and green eyes wearing a pink sweater and pink jeans.

“Hi I’m Joanna Kelley. Nice to meet you. This is my sister Amelia Kelley. We’re from England.” Amelia smiled.

“I’m Taylor Chris. Nice to meet you too.”

Amelia asked if the girls wanted to quiz each other. Joanna volunteered her dictionary. Taylor got quizzed on malicious, m-a-l-i-c-i-o-u-s, empty, e-m-p-t-y, and harmonious, h-a-r-m-o-n-i-o-u-s. Joanna got quizzed on trivial, t-r-i-v-i-a-l, classic, c-l-a-s-s-i-c, and charisma, c-h-a-r-i-s-m-a. Amelia got quizzed on marvelous, m-a-r-v-e-l-o-u-s, unruly, u-n-r-u-l-y, and admiration, a-d-m-i-r-a-t-i-o-n.

Soon the Bee started. Maria Spindle called a girl named Karen Lee up first.

“Karen Lee, your word is devotee. Please spell devotee.”

Karen said nervously. “D-e-v-o-t-e-y, devotee.” Taylor sucked in her breath and she knew that was the wrong spelling.

Maria Spindle grimaced. “I’m sorry Karen, but that is the incorrect answer. Devotee is spelled d-e-v-o-t-e-e. You may exit through the double doors.” Maria plastered a smile on her face and said, “Next up… Taylor Chris. Taylor, your word is triskaidekaphobia.”

Taylor sighed in relief. She knew this word. “T-r-i-s-k-a-i-d-e-k-a-p-h-o-b-i-a, triskaidekaphobia.”

Maria beamed. “That is correct Taylor! You’ll be moving onto the next round.” After she went, Taylor didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the other people. The last person to go was a girl named Justine Fleur from Paris. Justine got the word sapphire, s-a-p-p-h-i-r-e. She got it incorrect. She spelled it with only one p.

After the Bee, there was a banquet for lunch. There was roast chicken, steamed broccoli, vegetable quinoa, and boiled peppers. Taylor didn’t eat much. She was too nervous about the Bee tomorrow.

After the banquet, Taylor repacked her things. At 6:00 pm, Taylor and her mom left for London. When they arrived in London, Taylor and her mother were escorted to a fancy motel. The man at the front desk gave them the key to room 5 on floor 1. Taylor picked out a pair of faux leather leggings and a blue button down shirt for her outfit for the bee. As Taylor brushed her teeth, she mentally quizzed herself on: horrible, h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e; gangly, g-a-n-g-l-y; pneumatic, p-n-e-u-m-a-t-i-c; and conundrum, c-o-n-u-n-d-r-u-m. All done, she thought.

That night she had nightmares about words, shouting unpleasant things. She woke up quickly and tip-toed out of her bed. She went to the dresser and looked at the clock. It was only 2:00 am. Rats. She went back to her bed and eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning Taylor dressed into the outfit she picked out the night before, and just pulled back her hair with a headband. Taylor’s mom was still sleeping and Taylor didn’t want to wake her so she just went to breakfast quietly. At breakfast, Taylor got two chocolate glazed donuts and sat down next to a boy wearing jeans and a tee shirt.

“Hi,” Taylor simply said.

“Hi,” said the boy, taking another bite out of his scrambled eggs. The boy tried to comb his shaggy red hair, but it didn’t work. He just waited, and waited.

“So are you waiting for something?” asked Taylor.

“Yeah, my grandad.”

This is awkward, thought Taylor. “I’m Taylor,” she said, holding out her hand.

“Uh, hi, I’m Mason. Okay, so are you here for the spelling bee? I am.” Taylor just moved away from the boy whose name was Mason.

Mason shook his head. “I came on too strong again didn’t I? I do that a lot, sorry!”

Taylor grabbed her plate and moved to a different table.

At 4:00, the Bee started. First they called up the boy Mason.

“Mason Kall, your word is superstition,” announced Maria Spindle.

Mason said, “S-u-p-e-r-s-t-i-t-i-o-n, superstition.”

Maria Spindle did not look that impressed. “Alright, Mason, that is correct. You’ll be moving on.” Taylor had a feeling Maria Spindle found Mason as annoying as she did. 

“Next… Lisa Wu! Your word is desolate.” Lisa got desolate incorrect, then was Louie Martino who got sriracha incorrect, then Georgie Smith who got necessary correct, and Lila Jane Parks who got international correct. Then it was Taylor’s turn.

“Taylor Chris, come on down. Your word is astonished.”

Taylor thought for five seconds. “A-s-t-o-n-i-s-h-e-d, astonished.”

Maria Spindle put on a wide toothy grin and looked straight at the camera, “Correct Taylor! You may sit down at your seat.” Taylor walked back to her seat meekly, when she saw a beefy kid snarl at her.

“Karlo Yang, your word is finance.” The beefy kid walked up.

“F-y-n-a-n-s-e, finance,” the beefy kid said proudly.

Maria Spindle winced. “I’m sorry Karlo, that is incorrect.” 

Veins bulging, eyes bugging out, hands ready to smash some bones, Karlo screamed, “What!” He smashed the podium. Maria stood at his feet and pounded against the hardwood stage.

As even beefier security guards held him back, Karlo screeched, “Lemme at ‘er! Give me Maria Spindle!!! I know I got finance right! You just want me to lose my cool on international TV! Well it will not work!” 

Karlo took one look at the mess he made and fell to his knees sobbing about forgiveness. The beefy security guards hauled Karlo away.

“Well… that was interesting. Next is Mick Torrent. Mick, your word is silhouette.” About a dozen more kids went but Taylor just couldn’t stop thinking about Karlo, the way his eyes bugged and how he fell to his knees sobbing. It made Taylor think about reality, or whether they were all just pawns in somebody else’s imagination. The thought made Taylor shudder. S-h-u-d-d-e-r. When she was nervous she spelled. Ugh. U-g-h. It’s happening again. A-g-a-i-n. Taylor remembered her mom’s sweet voice, and how when it was time for bed, her mom would bring her a glass of milk and sing her a lullaby when she was younger. She thought about how they played double dutch, and checkers, and monopoly. She thought about snuggling together on the couch when Spelling Bee Champ was on and just spotting clouds that looked like bunnies, and lying together on the sun dried grass. These happy memories calmed Taylor down. When they exited the stage, Taylor’s knees wobbled, but this time not with nerves. Excitement.

At lunch, Taylor found out why Mason bugged Maria. Listen: “Maria Maria Maria Maria! Am I winning? AmIwinning? Am I? Am I? Am I? Am I?!”

Maria sighed. “Look! Mason I cannot tell you,” Maria said slowly.

Mason just frowned. “Not fair! Not fair! Not fair!” he screeched.

“Security!” Maria cried.

Taylor grabbed a red velvet cupcake, a confetti cupcake, and a chocolate fudge cupcake, with a side of Milky Ways, Kit Kats, and M&Ms for lunch. Taylor took the goodies to the room she shared with her mom. Tomorrow was the final challenge. Whoever got three words in a row won!

The next morning, Taylor went up last. Everyone else only got two words in a row correct. 

Taylor’s first word was skulduggery. S-k-u-l-d-u-g-g-e-r-y. She got it correct. Then burglar. B-u-r-g-l-a-r. Correct. Last, modicum. M-o-d-i-c-u-m. She got them all correct. 

“Jacklin, tell Taylor what she’s won!” Maria shouted to a woman in a red sequined leotard, with bright red lipstick, black tights, and red, six inch heels.

“Well Taylor, you’ve won ten free trips to Disney World, 250 million dollars, and a 40 million dollar gift card to every bookstore in the world!” Jacklin said. “Plus…” the crowd murmured about how much more Taylor’d win, “your own private plane, which includes a coupon for the next 10 repairs, 4 bedrooms that have their own bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 3 TVs, 2 dining rooms, and 2 TV rooms.”

Taylor’s jaw literally fell open.

A lady that looked like Mason climbed onto the stage and said, “My Mason should’ve won!”

Mason looked embarrassed. “Mother.” Security guards started pulling her back.

“He should’ve won!” she screamed.

“Well that was odd,” said Jacklin.

Grades

They say the more you practice, the better you get,

But my grades are getting worse.

I always practice doodling on my desk.

Is there some kind of sketching curse?

In math, Madame says there’s an answer to everything.

So, after work, when everyone else is done, 

I kindly ask her in my high pitched voice:

“I forgot. Is there an answer to 2 + 1?”

He said that hard work translates to good grades,

But I don’t think he really understood.

For I’m working hard at recess time, 

And my grades have not yet changed for good.

Mr. Smith says that good spelling makes good writing.

Now, at least I know how to spell.

I’m still at the kindergarten spelling level.

I’m sure he thinks I really excel.

Tech teacher says to stay safe on the computer,

So I email a hacker my real password.

I figured he’d help me keep my account safe.

Lily thinks that’s absolutely absurd.

Music teacher said to play nice and loud.

I told her there were no songs called loud nor nice.

Apparently, that was my third strike

Teacher says, “You’ll have to pay the price.”

Everyone says that library class is bad. 

I think it is super super boring.

So when we are picking books to check out,

I spend time sleeping and snoring.

In cooking class, teacher tells me to drain the pasta.

So I put my pasta down the drain.

In choir, the teacher tells me to sing from the start,

So I decide to skip to the refrain.

Spanish teacher says that Spanish is useful in trade,

But I really don’t think that that is true.

Everyone doesn’t know any trade words

And I only know just one and two.

Tom says reading’s always the hardest subject.

I really really really agree with that too.

The book of letters is so super hard to read.

Teacher always says “It’s x, not u!”

Gym teacher says a pull-up is really great.

But I get splinters from the bar of wood.

I get 0 almost every time I try.

I assume one below great is good?

She said concentrating gives you higher grades.

I intensely concentrate on my need to pee.

Everyone says I’m the dumbest kid in grade 4, 

Is there something wrong with me?

Bob

May something, 2075

Dear Diary,

This is the most stupid thing I did in my life. I mean who writes in a diary these days? My stupid wife told me to write in one so I can get my thoughts on paper. Do you think I care about that? If you said no, then congratulations, you’re right. I’m Bob. I have a few things that I need to tell you about me. First, I have eight sons. Second, I’m drunk and, instead of water, I drink vodka. But really think about it. Who drinks water anymore? It’s either beer or vodka. Third, I am 50 years old. Also I’ve had five wives and I’m obese. Oh and lastly, I smoke a lot.

My wife tells me to eat healthier so I don’t get sick. I don’t get sick so I guess I eat healthy. I eat McDonald’s and Burger King. If my wife makes me eat healthy then I eat corn with a lot of salt (otherwise it’s not OK) or I eat a rainbow bagel with loads of nutella (no lots of nutella, not good).

May something, 2075

Dear Diary,

It’s morning and my wife gave me some yogurt with honey. I was like, “Who eats that?” So instead, I took fruit loops and chocolate milk. Unfortunately, she caught me and threw it away. I started screaming like a maniac because that was the last bowl of fruit loops left. I took the honnynut cereal off the shelf and poured it into the salad bowl which is used for cereal not salad because salad is unhealthy, I think. Please tell me I’m right.

Anyway, my wife said we have to go outside to breath some “fresh” air. Ugh. So, I decided that I’d go to the deli and buy myself some airheads. At least I’m walking a bit. I got there and guess what happened. They were sold out. You’re asking why. Well, I bought them all yesterday. But then I looked to the side and guess what I saw. Cheetos. My friend Jimmy loves them so I’m gonna try it. BRB.

June something, 2075

Dear Diary,  

I’m back at home watching tv and writing in this stupid thing, and guess what’s for dinner. My favorite, not. A burger with lettuce and tomato. Why eat that when you could get a Big Mac at McDonalds for a buck or a really juicy burger from Burger King. That would be much better than whatever burger that cost $18.99.

In case you were wondering, I work at the worst place ever. A buffet with, you guessed it, salads and omelets and, the worst of all, salads. Wait, did I already say that? I think I did. Right. Or did I just think it? You know that feeling when you think you say something and you’re not sure if you actually did? Or did you? Because you could have just thought it or said it. Y’know.

Anyway, so about my job. Well, it sucks. I could’ve gotten a better job and I’d rather get assassinated. I stand at the register being like, “Hey, want to sit at this buffet that is so disgusting you will get food poisining.” It’s more than a nightmare.

June something, 2075

Dear Diary,

I’m going to the gym to get some exercise. And I think that what I’m doing right now is really smart because I always see these ads on youtube that are explaining that to stay healthy, you need to exercise. So I’m gonna try it. My wife was proud and I don’t care. I’m there and I see all these weird things that somehow help you stay healthy. There is the conveyer belt thingy that I see a lot in the buffet stocking area. It brings the food and tins to the kitchen to wash. I wonder what you do with it. I’m going to the info desk to check what it’s for.

So I asked this man what the stuff is for and he started out like this:“I see you’re new here.”

How does he know that I’m new? I never even met him before. He was the skinniest person I ever saw in my life and he is a stalker. I’m gonna call him Stalker Dude. Why not? I mean, he is a stalker. I wonder what being a stalker is like. You get to spy on people. Oh, and in case you’re wondering I’m writing in a really uncomfortable position. I’m on the treadmill (I figured out what it was called) rolling off over and over again. It’s annoying.

Next, I went to the peloton (I only know what that is called from youtube). That stalker dude came and told me how to use it. So I’m sitting on it and it was supposed to help me burn calories, but I don’t think that it’s working really well. Lastly, I went to the dumbbells and I have no idea how those stick men lift them. Stalker Dude came and told me how to use it like I have no idea how. Ill need to put this diary down and lift some stuff.

So, now I’m in an ambulance. You’re asking why. Well, I dropped the dumbbell on my ribcage and I broke it. It was 50 lbs. I have to rest now so I’m gonna write tomorrow.

June something, 2075

Dear Diary, 

I forgot to tell my boss that I’m in the hospital so he called me and threatened that if I don’t come to work then he will rob me and take away Youtube premium. I was raging. No, he is not taking away Youtube premium from me. Youtube is also a part of my life. I cannot live without Youtube and especially not Youtube premium. My rage though. I was just furious. Even all the people that needed surgery who got put to sleep woke up. I was also supposed to be sleeping, but who cares. The doctor said I’ll have to be in the hospital for another month or so, until my rib cage heals, but they said that I have to rest if I want it healed. I guess I do. I mean, who wants to spend a year in bed doing nothing, but sleeping with a bunch of almost dead people?

June something, 2075

Dear Diary, 

So the doctor checked in with me and said my treatment wasn’t working. That sucks. And you know why it didn’t work? Because I was watching youtube to spend my last hours of happiness on Youtube premium. I told my doctor what my boss said and you know what he said? Good for you. Who says that? He’s lame. I’m gonna call him Lame Dude. So, Lame Dude came in and told me to breathe deeply. I don’t know why though. He said it was because he needs to see if my heart is working properly. I was thinking about that and it came to me that what he said meant I could die. And when you die, no Youtube premium! So, I guess this is my life now (that is soon ending).

I don’t know what to do now because, unfortunately, Lame Dude took away all devices and said, “If you keep watching Youtube or playing video games then you might die.” That made me scared so it was the first time in my life that I let someone take away my devices. But still, I’m not so sure I can trust lame dude because he’s lame!! Lol.

June 6, 2075

Dear Diary, 

Lame dude came in and told me that he will start the surgery. I was surprised. He never told me about a surgery. Just then, he pushed something into my leg and I fell asleep. No idea how it happened, but it did. So guess what. Now I need surgery and Lame Dude put me to sleep in like a second. Sounds weird, don’t you think? Ok, now I’m struggling and suffering. I will end now. I will not be writing until, like, next month. Going to the gym was a very bad idea. Very bad idea.

Dear Diary,

I am out of the hospital! In case you want to know, it’s been a month since I wrote here. I actually thought of giving up, but nope. My wife forced me to keep going and this time, no exceptions. Ugh. Why does my life suck?

June 27, 2075

Dear Diary, 

It’s the next day and now I’m getting really frustrated. I forgot to give my boss a note about why I was away and he didn’t believe me when I said my story. He said I was a liar and by liar I mean big fat liar. That’s supposed to be quoted but who has time for quotation marks and grammar? Grammar is stupid. It just takes up a lot of time and even if you don’t use it everyone can understand you. For example, if you text someone R U OK, they will understand it. Anyway, I am going to work now and I have to stop, bye!

 June something, 2075

Dear Diary, 

When I came in, I noticed that the register was covered in tomato sauce. I checked inside and there was no money! Just then, my boss came in and noticed me with the register open and then he barked, What are you doing with our money!!! This is unexceptable!!! Again I do not care about quotes.

So, if you are reading this, which you shouldn’t, don’t comment on any mistakes I make. It’s already a pain in the butt to just write this.

I told my boss that I was just waiting for the first customer to come when I realized that the money was gone. He didn’t believe me so he told me he would go to my house and search all of it for the money. One thing I can say is he’s a dum dum.

In the meantime, I will just serve the customers that come and pretend like nothing happened. I feel bad for them. The only problem for my boss is that he doesn’t know where I live and I live all the way in the Bronx and the buffet is in Brighton beach. I really don’t know how I get here every week day.

Anyway, the buffet isn’t so popular so I had to wait a whole hour for the first customer of the day to come. It was already 12 pm. We open at 10. Something that is really weird about this buffet is that we pre-set everything the night before so we won’t have to do it in the morning And because it also is supposed to save time. Heh, like we need to save time.

June something, 2075

Dear Diary,

So the first customer came and I gave them a table to sit at. They were mad because I gave them the table near the bathroom when everything else was free. I can see that on their faces that they were mad. We don’t have enough money to buy a janitor so the bathrooms stink. I’d rather go to McDonalds to go to the bathroom.

So anyway, the customers went up to get their plates and to get the food. We have a chef that makes custom food and everyone goes up to him. The customers noticed that and quickly ran up to him and asked for something. Don’t ask me what because I don’t know what they asked for. So the chef started working and gave me a wink. You are asking why. Well, you shouldn’t even be asking this question because you shouldn’t be even looking at this diary! I mean I don’t even care. Not like my personal stuff is in here, but still close this right now. Or, if you are snoopy, don’t and keep reading. If you are still reading this then it is obvious that means that you are snoopy and guess what? I don’t care.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh right! The chef giving me a wink and you asking why. Well, we were childhood friends and we were trouble. What I mean by trouble is big trouble. We were pranksters. I remember when we were 5 (or was it 6? Or 10? I don’t know) we put dead rats in the jars of candy at his grandmother’s house. It was a great experience to see her faint. I know what you are thinking. Why is there so much dark humor? Well, again, you shouldn’t be thinking that because you shouldn’t have read what I wrote before. Again, not like I wrote anything personal here but still! So I’m guessing that he is pulling another one of his chef pranks like putting sugar instead of salt on sushi. The customers are heading to their seats to wait for the food when the second customer comes in. I give them the table closest to the second bathroom. The second bathroom is even more stinky because everyone forgets about it. About two people enter it each day. The other bathroom however, I don’t even know.

I started spying on the first customers again. The first bite of the meal and the ladies tongue stuck out. The food was gross. I quickly went over to the chef to see what he did.

What did you do?

Again I have no time for quotes. Anyway, he said that the woman of the couple ordered bread. Turns out that the chef had used his last batch of ground up cricket flour and made it into cricket bread. Then the man of the couple ordered chocolate chip cookies and the chef made chocolate chirp cookies which have crickets in them. He made the crickets not visible in the cookie so when you took a bite there were crickets inside. Their butts were sticking out and eventually into your mouth. Unless you aren’t respectful to bugs and don’t get how nutritious they are and decide that you are not eating them.

Anyway, I see that the second set of customers are going up to get cole slaw. I mean, why cole slaw? Why? It is like the most expensive item on the menu. The coleslaw is supposed to have fresh grown cabbage that is not organic. We have a garden, but nobody ever goes in because it is filled with clouds of pesticides. Ya, the gardener quit his job. Hm, that gets me thinking. I can quit this job, but then what if I don’t get another job and I’ll be homeless? And I won’t be able to pay for… Youtube Premium!!! You know what? I’m better with sticking to this job before deciding to quit. Especially because I’m getting a dog soon. It will be the biggest moment in my life. Only maybe after when I divorced my least favorite wife, which is my fourth! She was the meanest person on Earth!!! She made me eat salad! Like, why salad?! I can’t even hear the word salad, it sounds so gross!!! OK let’s change the subject. Nevermind, next customer.

I gave these customers a seat right next to the corner where everyone pukes because our food is so gross. It always stinks there and there are stains on the floor. I had to go to the bathroom so I went across the street to McDonald’s. Such a disappointment when you work in the worst restaurant and then across the street you look over and you see the best restaurant. The fourth customer came in and this time they were single. It was a woman that had long black hair. She had a dog at her side. I ran up and started petting it. I think it was a siberian husky puppy. It was jumping on me just like any playful puppy would, when I noticed that the puppy was in here because the person wanted to eat, not because the puppy wanted to see me. Again, I feel like I’m starting to go through a phase of depression. I’m going to start looking for a better job. The job I’m looking for is a job that I will get tons of money from. I want to get a job that is not torture like this one. Hopefully, one day that will happen. Anyway, I need to give the customer a seat. I gave her the seat next to the custom food chef. Lol. I don’t feel like writing anymore so I’m going to just end it here. See you tomorrow, Diary. Or should I say stupid Diary. 

July something 4th, 2026

Dear Diary,

It is another day of work and I am not happy. It is Tuesday, which is my least favorite day of the week. That is the day when the restaurant is empty and I don’t get paid as much. So I guess I can come a bit late. I am right now getting off the stop on the train and now walking down the block. I see a group of people standing behind a couple and then they are standing behind someone. The only problem was that they were angry. Their eyebrows were pointed down and according to a Youtube video I watched, scrunched eyebrows meant anger. I didn’t know why, so I went up to the entrance of the restaurant when I saw the customers waiting in line to go in. Uuuh. This was strange. Whatever. I opened the restaurant up and all the tables were filled.

That is when the last customer told me in an angry voice, “Great way to start off a holiday.” I guess he was being sarcastic but wait, what holiday? I asked him and he told me and said that it was the 4th of July. I almost started crying. 4th of July is my favorite holiday of the year and I missed it all. I didn’t even check the date.

Like I even ever check the date. About twenty people everyday ask me the date and I’m like, “How would I know?” It’s very annoying. I can’t even imagine those poor kids having to put the date on every little thing of school work. Now, I’m too scared that the customers are going to leave because of the bad service and writing isn’t really going to help with this so ya, bye.

July something, 2075

Dear Diary, 

So it is the next day and I am taking a day off from work. Work has been really tiring the last few days, so I’m staying home and relaxing, aka watching Youtube and eating Pringles on the couch. I always take a day off of work because once a week my boss goes to a place with no reception so he can’t tell me to go to work or whatever. That day is usually on Wednesdays, like today. But what is funny is that he pays me the same amount as the workers that work there for six days a week. Lol. Wait, I have a call from someone, just a sec. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I am dead!

The call was from my boss. He had called telling me that he was mad that I wasn’t at work! No, no, no, no, no, no, no! I thought that he was in a place with no reception. He wasn’t! He was in the building where the restaurant is and he noticed that I wasn’t there. I am doomed. He knows where I was all these weeks because he secretly installed an app on my phone that let him see where I was the whole time. I know this because I was looking frantically on my phone for something and I came across a calculator app. Um, why is there a calculator app on my phone? I thought I got rid of math from my life. I opened the app and it wasn’t a calculator (thank god), but as I guessed it was a tracker. My boss was tracking me since the hospital. How did he download it though? I’m not even going to answer that. I’m just going to delete the app and he won’t be able to download it again because my phone is going to be on me the whole time. I’m still not going to work. I’m just going to pretend that I’m sick and tell my boss that. One second. I don’t want to write anymore. I’m depressed again. Maybe I can get away with not writing anymore for a bit. I want to go to the hospital again so I won’t have to go to work or write in this diary again. But the only problem is that I won’t have any Youtube videos to watch because of what my doctor said last time I broke my rib cage. I really want some type of excuse so I can get out of the stupid Earth and into my world, which is a place where everyone agrees with me and there is only the food I like to eat. A world where I can do whatever and won’t have to pay for anything. I will have Youtube Premium for free!!!! That would be great. Ok, so this is getting boring to write now so ya, bye. 

July something, 2075

Dear Diary, 

Now Thursday. I really don’t like Thursdays. Well, to be honest, I don’t like any days of the week except Saturdays and Sundays. All the days at work are boring. It really is time to get a better job. Well, not necessarily a more money job, but a job that is more fun than the trash place where I work at. It literally smells like animal poop. Well, at least I think it does. I don’t really know how animal poop smells. Like, I just think that it smells like someone’s poop that ate beans in their last meal. Hopefully, my prediction is correct. Well, I don’t want it to be correct because if animal poop smells like that then that is just disgusting. This topic is very disturbing and makes me cringe just thinking about it. I’m just really tired of this job now. I’m going across the street to use the bathroom and eat some lunch. If you are wondering, across the street means McDonald’s. I’m going to ask if they have any free spots to work there. Be right back.

Ok, so I’m back and good news! Finally something good! I am going to work at McDonald’s now! I am really happy because I actually get to work in a place where life would be good. I get good food and a clean bathroom. I really hope that I will get enough money from this. I will go to my boss and quit now. I hope that my friend won’t care that I have left him at hell. I will text my boss saying that I quit and I will start working at my second favorite restaurant ever. In case you were wondering, my favorite is Burger King and my third favorite is Dunkin Donuts. Is Dunkin Donuts even a restaurant? If not, then KFC is my third favorite. I’m really tired now so I’m going to stop writing. 

July something, 2075

Dear Diary,

I am now writing this because I am going to try the gym again. My wife is proud of me that I tried again. My goal this time is to get a concussion.

So, I am on the way there. I am hoping that the stalker dude won’t be there. Ok, so I am entering the doors to the gym and there is a different person at the help center. He asks if I need any help. I ask him why would I need any help and he says because I look new. I tell him that I am not new. Then, I start to get annoyed because both help people thought I was new at the gym. Ok, maybe the first was right, but still! I am going to lift a one-pound weight and hope that that won’t break my rib cage. Ok, that was pretty light and now I don’t know how that helps with losing your weight. Now I’m going to the peloton. The peloton is actually pretty fun. I was on it for about twenty minutes. Then I went to the treadmill. I put it on one mile an hour. It isn’t really going so fast but I like it. It reminds me of one of those slides that I used to use when I was a boy. I still don’t get how this lets you lose weight. I am just sliding off the platform. This is boring. Anyway, I’m going to come back here later to go on the peloton more. I’m going to go get some lunch at Burger King and then go to my favorite candy shop, Candytopia, to get some Nerds. I am on the walk there and at a crosswalk, so I should stop writing for now.

Okay, so that was a successful cross. Anyway, I am almost at Burger King so now I am thinking of what to get. I do want a big burger with cheese, bacon, and french fries. That is my usual order though. Then, I will take a large Fanta out of the fridge. I went to my usual table right near the kitchen so I can smell all the good stuff being cooked. The cashier called my name and I went up to get my food. I sat down at the table and began to eat. I don’t want to keep writing while I eat, so I will come back later.

I had my usual order and it was delicious. It was all juicy and chewy, my favorite consistency of a burger. The drink was really fizzy and sweet. I love when my soda tastes like that. I mean, it kind of always tastes like that, so there is nothing special about it. But you know, whatever. I am heading out to go back to the gym. I want to go on the peloton more. It feels relaxing. I don’t really remember where the gym is though. Is it to the right or left? Maybe it’s to the front? I don’t know, but I’m going to figure it out. I might have gone into the subway before and I think that that is right, but you know, it could not be. I am around 70% sure that I went to the subway to the gym. I am going to take the 7 train and hope that the train will take me there. I am not going to write in the subway because it is embarrassing, so I will come back later.

I am out of the train and looking around. I have never been here before. I don’t think that this is where the gym is because apparently this place I am in now is called Williamsburg. That is a strange name for a neighborhood. Is it named after a person named William that ate a burger here? I don’t know and I don’t care. I am going back to the subway to go back to where I was. Let’s see, I went in the L train and got off at the last stop which was… I don’t know. Somehow, from there I need to get back to Burger King and from Burger King somehow get to the gym. I am going to stop writing because I am going to be in the subway now. When I come out, I will write again.

Okay, so now I am out of the subway and writing again. I am so confused now. I don’t see any Burger King or gym. This is really weird. I thought that I got off at the right stop. I know I did. I remember this station and I know for sure that I got off here. Did I go straight to here? I think I did, so let’s try to get there. Ok, so now I am walking to who knows where and hopefully getting to Burger Ling. Now that I think about it, saying and writing Burger Ling so many times makes me hungry again. I need my order. I’m craving it right now. I need my large fries and double burger with bacon and cheese. Wait, I just remembered! I wanted to go to Candytopia! How did I not remember this? I am going to get another order from Burger King and then go to Candytopia to get some Nerds. Why are they called Nerds? You know what? I do not care what they are called and I never will. But something I do care about is how good Nerds are. They are really good and come in many different flavours. I can write you a ten page essay on why they are good, but guess what? Yay! You are correct! I will not write an essay because I need to get my food. I am dying from hunger and nobody can stop me. I need to get to Burger King and eat my usual order!!! It is the only thing that will make me live a good life, even though my life is already bad. Wait, is this what I’m seeing? It’s the gym! Why haven’t I seen this before? I am really pissed off right now. I walked right past it on the way to the subway! You know? I really don’t care about anything right now. I want to go eat!!! Has anyone died from being hungry? I think so. So, where is Burger King?! I thought that it was supposed to be right here. Why is there a sign on the door? You know what? I’m not even gonna try to read it. The lettering is too small, anyway. I am going into Burger King and getting my usual order. The door is locked!!! What is wrong with this place? How can they be closed at a time like this? It is literally 7pm! Oh, um. That took me a long time to get back. Well, looks like I am going home!

July something, 2075

Dear Diary,

So I am back! Yay! No! Hmph. I am going to try to go to the gym and actually get on the peloton again. Hopefully, it’s not very crowded. Pelatons are usually everyone’s favorite thing, which kinda sucks. I am headed to the gym and a second ago I realized I can use Google Maps to help me get there. I am so dumb. Actually, I am the smartest. Only that incident was dumb. I mean, that incident was not dumb. It was just incorrect. Whatever. I am following the GPS and it says that I should be at the gym in a minute, which I am partially happy about. I am happy that I will get in the peloton, but I am not happy about being at the gym in general. I’d rather go get nerds. Wait, I just forgot, I was gonna go to the candy shop. I’m going to go there now and go to the gym later. I search up the candy shop on Google Maps and start walking. It isn’t too far away. It took me a half an hour to get there! Whatever. OK, I will go to the 5th aisle. Wait no, 1st aisle, no, 3rd aisle. Wait no, the Nerds are in the 6th aisle. Ok, I’m starting to get dizzy from all that walking and looking at candy.

I’m breathing hard. I don’t think I have asthma. Or do I? Whatever. I’m walking through the aisles to see if there are any new flavours of Nerds. Everything is the same. I am just walking, getting five packs of each flavour, but still no new OMG, there is a new flavour!! Not of Nerds though. It’s a new flavour of Hershey chocolate. Hershey chocolate is my 3rd favorite candy. After Nerds and Airheads. Anyway. Is it annoying I keep saying anyway? If it is I‘m sorry, but I don’t care so, ya know, deal with it. I don’t even want to write in this so don’t give me a hard time. Anyway, I bought my stuff and went to the gym. On the way there, I was eating my candy. It was a great taste. I got all the flavours of Nerds, all flavours of Airheads, wait—I didn’t even eat the Airheads I bought at the deli before. Whatever. Now for the new flavour of Hershey. Why is there no taste? I thought it was supposed to be a really good flavour. Let me guess, they made so many flavours they decided to make it flavourless. I hope not. Ok, what!? The packaging says extra sweet with enriched flavour!!! Those pathological liars!! I’ll eat the Airheads now because the Hershey bar ruined my day. Finally something actually good!

Wait a second, this has no taste too!!! What is up with this candy? I am going home!!! I got home faster than I thought I would, probably because I was running. It is hard for me to breathe and my wife is concerned. I don’t see why though. We are on the way to the hospital now. Ugh, it’s taking so long and I don’t even need to go there. I am fine. Anyway, I will stop writing because I am literally raging again.

Ok so, we just got to the doctors in the hospital and now I am being tested for this disease that apparently killed a lot of people in 2020. It was a global pandemic. Now, don’t ask me what that means because I don’t know. Anyway I feel weaker right now so I will stop writing and update you tomorrow.

August 2nd, 2075

Dear Diary,

Anyway, now I am in the hospital diagnosed with something called corona. My doctor said there is a low chance that I will survive. Well, it’s not like I care. At least my eight sons will think the same. My wife took pity on me and said that this could be my last diary entry and I should spend my last few months well. I am surprisingly not sad because I do get to spend my last few months of life watching Youtube and stuff. They tried to give me medicine, but it didn’t work. Anyway, I guess all I can say is bye. So, bye, hope you all are not like me and make sure to not get uh, what’s it called? Something with a c. Co, co—oh ya, Corona.

Super Saber-Tooth Tiger

The Saber Tooth Tiger was walking in the jungle and he saw a red door. He knocked on it and Superman and Supergirl opened the door. They had laser eyes, they could fly, they could run really fast, and they were super strong. They wanted to adopt the Saber Tooth Tiger as a pet. The Saber Tooth Tiger said yes! He was going to be a super pet! As a super pet, he could save the world. He had super powers and laser eyes. He could fly and was super strong. He had a cape and was called Super Saber Tooth Tiger.  

One day Superman, Supergirl and Saber Tooth Tiger got captured. 

“ROAR!” said Saber Tooth Tiger. 

“It’s okay Super Saber Tooth Tiger,” they said.

Superman and Supergirl were going to use their laser eyes and sneak out, but there was a guard. Saber Tooth Tiger distracted him. Then Superman and Supergirl snuck out of prison and Saber Tooth Tiger left and followed them 

“Come on, hurry up,” Superman said. “Back to the hideout okay?” 

Before they got to the hideout, Supergirl said “Can we adopt that bird over there?”

They did not know that the bird was from the prison, but they were going to find out soon. The bird had a camera. A few weeks later the bird captured Saber Tooth Tiger but not Superman and Supergirl. He brought him to the prison and locked him up.

“ROAR!” said Saber Tooth Tiger. 

Superman and Supergirl snuck in and unlocked the cage.

“Come on Saber Tooth Tiger,” they said. 

They flew out of there, but the bird saw them and went after them.

Superman shut the windows and doors of the prison. Then they ran, but when they got back they could not find the hideout. They tried to find the hideout, but the people from the prison turned it invisible, so they walked right past it. There was an invisible cage that they didn’t know was right above them, so they were captured again. They went to another prison this time because it was someone else that captured them. All three of them used their laser eyes and they punched their way out of there. When they got out, the hideout was not invisible anymore. They went back to the hideout and locked it. They were safe.

Both of the prisons were having a battle to try and capture Superman, Supergirl, and Super Saber Tooth Tiger, but neither of them did. 

The End

HS Travels the World

Chapter One:

The Battle between GSS and S.E.W.W.F.T.C.R.H

HS went to Egypt and to find the SPHYNX. But before he found the SPHYNX, he found Gus and S.E.W.W.F.T.C.R.H. battling. And then GSS and S.E.W.W.F.T.C.R.H made HS get into battle. They put a force field around him and then GSS and S.E.W.W.F.T.C.R.H used the power of hieroglyphics to defeat him. And then he found the SPHYNX’s magical power teleported him to Madagascar, closer to his destination.

Chapter 2: Robot Spiders

HS went to Madagascar, and then found robot spiders. And then he battled with all the robot spiders, and he used his power of being legit and using the power of hieroglyphics. And then he defeated the robot spiders.

Chapter 3: I Don’t Know The Flea

He teleported himself to the Lost City of Atlantis! But then, he met up with I Don’t Know The Flea. Since that flea is 110,889 times bigger than a flea and he can jump 110,889 times farther and higher, but HS used the power of legit hieroglyphics and Sebas. 

Chapter 4: Legit Legit LeSplit

HS was still in the Lost City of Atlantis. But then he met up with Legit Legit LeSplit. So then they started battling. And the  Legit Legit LeSplit was splitted. And then it erupted like a volcano, and then it started chasing HS. But then, HS used the power of legit, and during the battle he found a little interesting friend named Lappy. And then he used the power of legit hieroglyphics Sebas and Lappy AND Legit Legit LeSplit. And then he defeated Legit Legit LeSplit. 

Chapter 5: Run Away From What?

HS accidentally teleported himself to the Australian Outback. And then all the animals said “RUN AWAY” And then he said “RUN AWAY FROM WHAT?” And then the animals said “RUN AWAY FROM WHAT.” And HS said “What?” And the animals said, “You said it! RUN AWAY FROM WHAT!” 

Chapter 6: Now I Know What to Run Away From

HS was still in the Australian Outback, but now he saw Run Away From What. And then they came together. And they became a team! 

Chapter 7: Entering the Falcon Fury

Run Away From What and Lappy and HS accidentally teleported themselves to the Falcon Fury. “Hey look, it’s Falcon Man and Dynamut.” And then they became a team, but they saw Scooby and Shaggy!!! And then they all became a team. 

Chapter 8: Just Seeing It

Run Away From What, Lappy, HS, Falcon Man, Dynamut, Scooby, and Shaggy teleported themselves to Where. And then Run Away From What HS, Falcon Man, Dynamut, Scooby, and Shaggy saw this giant nightmare character. And then it was coming after them. But then they realized they were stuck in quicksand. And then they realized that all of the greatest carnivores in the world were coming after them. Then they woke up. 

Chapter 9: Who’s This Dragon?

They accidentally teleported themselves to a mysterious place where no one knows what’s gonna happen the next second. And then they saw a dragon and then they said “Who’s that dragon?” DUN DUN DUNNNN! And then the dragon said “Who’s That Dragon.” But there is also an evil dragon behind all of them. And that dragon said “Who’s that dragon?” And also because that’s his name. And Who’s That Dragon went into the team. Everyone worked together to defeat the evil dragon!

Chapter 10: I Think I Found Snoopy!?

The gang (which is called The What No Next) said “I think I found Snoopy!?” And then, Snoopy became part of the gang. 

Chapter 11: (The What No Next) Disappears (or did it…)

The What No Next thought they disappeared because they didn’t see themselves. And they’re like “Oh! Where am I?!!! Oh! Where am I?!!! Oh! Where am I?!!! Oh! Where am I?!!!” 

Chapter 12: (The What No Next) Did Not Disappear

The gang felt everyone else but they didn’t see it because in front of them there was a mirage (a make yourself invisible mirage). And then they found out that it was just a mirage. 

Chapter 13: Entering the new dimension

HS found a new portal that was sucking them into a new dimension, which is the video game dimension!!! Because video games are awesome. It looks like all the characters are little blocks, like minecraft. They found something super crawsome (a mix between crazy and awesome). They found Captain Underpants!!!! And they also found crawsome again: George and Harold. And they found another crawsome thing! Three ultimate villains. Which they are… LaserLightmare! Poopocabra, and Socktopus! But then they realized they were good guys! And then Captain Underpants, George and Harold, LaserLightmare, Poopocabra, and Socktupus went into the team. 

Chapter 13.5: Entering a new dimension part II

They got sucked into another dimension! Which was the Dream Dimension! You can dream what you want in there.

Chapter 13.10: Entering a new time part III

They found another portal and it sucked them in and then they went through time.

Chapter 15 

The World of Yot Dogs 

HS teleportaled to the world of yot dogs. And then, all of the yot dogs became friends and all of the yot dogs became his food, but they are magical. And each one makes a power. He ate all the infinity yot dogs and each yot dog has a power, so he got infinity powers. HS had every single power in the world. 

Chapter 16 

The World of Cot Dogs 

HS accidentally teleportaled himself to the world of Cot Dogs. And they looked exactly like the yot dogs (from chapter 15). He ate all of them and they took away all of his powers. (He didn’t really know that he lost all of his powers.)

Chapter 17 

The World of Bot Dogs 

HS found a portal and then he was go for my life or don’t go for no life. And then he went in the portal. And then he found Bot Dogs. (They look exactly like the Cot Dogs and Yot Dogs from Chapter 15.) And then he ate all of them. And then HS got all his powers back.

Chapter 18

The horrible Hackensack of the horrible Hackensack

HS teleportaled himself to the horrible Hackensack of the horrible Hackensack. And then he found a horrible Hackensack of the Horrible Hackensack. And then they battled. And then the horrible Hackensack of the Horrible Hackensack did a punch in the H and then he lost his powers!

Chapter 18.1

HS to Bot Dog land

HS had one remaining power left for only one minute. He teleportaled himself to Bot Dog land. And then he ate all of the Bot Dogs there as fast as he could and then there was only three seconds and one Bot Dog left! And he tried to eat the Bot Dog as fast as he could. And then when he finished it and then only one millisecond was left! And then HS teleportaled himself back to where the horrible Hackensack of the horrible Hackensack was (HHHH). 

Chapter 18.2

HS returns…

HHHH couldn’t punch HS because HS put a closing forcefield with disintegrating spikes around him. And then, HHHH dies!

Chapter 19

Monopoly Man 

(and he has to get to the top of the castle to be able to get out of the Monopoly World)

(And he only has 2,500 Monopoly coins)

(And if he gets to 0 Monopoly coins, then he dies for the rest of his life!)

(and if he gets three doubles he also dies for the rest of his life!)

(If you roll a double you get a second turn)

HS didn’t realize the forcefield when HHHH died and gave him the same powers that HS had. And then HHHH made him teleportaled to Monopoly Man (with fancy music). And then Monopoly Man forced him to roll the dice and then he rolled the dice. He rolled a 6 and a 6. And then he landed on a hotel and the cost 100 Monopoly coins. (And now he only has 2,400 monopoly coins.)

He rolled another 6 and a 6 and then he gets 200 and more Monopoly coins. (And then he had 2,600 Monopoly Coins)

And then he rolled a 5 and a 6. And he got to the second level of the castle. And then he rolled another 6 and a 5. And then, now, he went to jail. And he paid111 Monopoly coins to get out of jail (and now HS has 2,489 Monopoly Coins) and then he rolled a 6 and a 5. And then he’s to the fourth level of the castle. And now he got a 6 and a 5. And then he got to the 5th level of the castle and now he went out of Monopoly World. 

A giant hieroglyphic keyboard, but luckily HS knew his hieroglyphics. And then he entered the code, which was 

And then it was on the fritz, and then disintegrated. And before it disintegrated, it exploded. But then, HS found someone named AS. There was HM (hieroglyphic monster), and then he battled and battled and battled and battled and battled and battled and battled and battled and battled (x 1000). And HS won. 

A Day Underwater with the Dolphins

I am going swimming this weekend and it’s time to go. Underwater there are fish nibbling at my feet. It is very unpleasant, but I keep walking deeper and deeper into the sea. I see dolphins jumping and doing loops in the water. I see ripples in the water as they disappear in the distance. The fish are a turquoise-yellow with green scales. I try to run but I just bonk my head on the bottom of the ocean. The fish gets scared and swims away. The dolphins gently lift me on their backs and bring me to the dock. I get off and thank the dolphins. I eat lunch at the mini-bar. I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then I go back to the sea. I call Beth the Dolphin and she comes. Beth gently swims out farther and farther into the sea. That is the end of my vacation. 

The Scary Ghosts

One Halloween, the ghosts were trick or treating. A boy saw them, and he scared them and they ran away. The ghosts stole their candy! They were stealing everybody’s candy. 

The kids were mad that their candy was stolen, because they had gone everywhere and had worked so hard to get it. They stole sour candies, chocolate candies, skittles, M&M’s, and regular candies like gummy sandwich candies. 

The ghosts flew up to their treehouse. There was no ladder, since they could fly, and there was no entrance, since they could just float through. The room on the top was where they kept the candy. It was their most secret room. 

The kids went on a long walk in the forest and they walked a long way until they found it. The kids came prepared. They had a truck and a ladder. They had an extra tall ladder and they put it at the top. The ghost house was protected. They pushed hard to get through, but the walls were so hard that they couldn’t get through. A big storm happened and the house blew down. The kids also found a cave. One day, the kids tried going in to get the candy, but they got kidnapped by the ghosts. They tried to hypnotize them so that they could find more candy, because the kids were really good at finding candy. It worked!

The ghosts woke up and they were trapped. But they couldn’t go through the wall, it was a ghost wall! The kids found the candy and then they stole the ghosts’ lair so no one could get in. The kids put extra protection. You even needed a code so that you could get in. They made another ghost wall over the ghost wall, and another one with ghost walls and ghost walls. They were trapped, so it would take them a while to get out. The ghosts hadn’t made any progress getting candy.

After the ghosts woke up from their sleep, the ghosts turned good. They became ghost heroes. They realized that if they were bad, they would starve to death and be stuck in this little room forever. So they screamed and somebody heard them. The person opened the door and another door. They finally opened up the wall and let the ghosts out. 

A few more ghosts came along. They chased after the ghosts and brought them to the ghost planet, where they are all ghosts. There were no ghost walls and no doors. Everything was for the ghosts. The ghosts were happy, and they had all the candy they wanted. (Ghost candy!) 

In the end, they were all happy, because they all had what they wanted and were not in battle. There were two big planets and they were like, “Yaahh!!!” 

The Crazy Meatball Incident

This has been translated from Marshmallowian by The Institute of Marshmallow and English. Except from some parts with a * on either side of it.

One day, on Meatball Land, there was a big enormous explosion from the meatball volcano. On Meatball Land, everyone is a marshmallow and they only eat meatballs. On the day when the explosion happened, all of the tiny marsh-villages got covered completely in meatballs and tomato sauce. The marshmallows had to evacuate before all of the land got covered!!! They had to think of a way out. Maybe they could dig a tunnel to the unknown Cow Land. That’s how it all started.

Chapter Numero Uno

My name is Bart, Bart DeFulletgrominu van Grickenshpein. I am a Jumbo Marshmallow. I am the richest on all of Meatball Land! Right now, my loyal servants are digging a tunnel to Cow Land where only the greatest explorers have been. But now it’s different. It is an emergency for all of Marshmallowanity to evacuate the surface and go underground to where the cows live. It is a hard time for us marshmallows.

“Servants, dig dig dig. It’s going to blow soon. I don’t want to die. Do you? No – so get digging.”

Then suddenly I heard a big boom!! Could that be the volcano? I looked in the direction of where it came from. It was not the volcano! It was TNT. That gave me a good idea. Maybe we could use TNT!

“Servants, get the TNT. We’re gonna blow it!!!”

This turned out to be a bad idea. You will see why later.

My servants piled all of the TNT into the hole they made. From that hole they set a long piece of flammable rope with fire. When it exploded, something very bad happened: the volcano exploded too!! Just then I had forgotten about violation code #45627, which says that if you’re less than a mile away from the volcano, you can not use TNT. This is because it will explode into the meat caverns and will make the volcano erupt! I thought through this. After a little while, I realized that I was the one who made the Meatball Volcano explode!!!

I was astounded! I could not believe I had forgotten about violation code #45627 It was is the most important code in our area! 

*What will happen next in The Crazy Meatball Incident?!*

Chapter 2

Two days later…

I just escaped going to jail because of that TNT incident. I ran away from Meatball Land on a train, a car, my own feet, and a roller-coaster (the roller-coaster was actually kind of fun). Now I am pretending to be a poor marshmallow in the streets of the dreaded Beyond Meatball Land, which is 300 miles away from any real meat. But I am safe here. No real marshmallow would ever come here. That would be disgusting! Well, there are no more things to talk about. I will just go and beg for more moolah. 

Chapter 3

Twenty-four hours later…

Hello. 

I just saw a silver and white airplane fly over.  It had something that said “NASA” on it and it had an alien in a white jumper as the driver. I think it might be trying tooh no I am floating through a green tunnel going to the NASA thing!

They greet me with a taser in my leg, but too bad for them, marshmallows can not be electrocuted.

They try to talk to me: “Hello, we have come to extract you.”

But I cannot understand what they are saying. I try to talk to them, but they cannot understand me! I have only heard of real aliens in fairy tales. But these aliens are much different. You see, they have fluff on the top of their heads and five sausages at the end of their hands.

Wait, I think, these are Humans!!! OMG, are they going to bring me to earth?

Ever since I first read about Humans, I have always wanted to go to Earth. It’s my dream planet! 

Chapter 4

Three days later… 

I am on Earth.

I am so excited.

I want to live here.

This is awesome!

I love this place. I wonder why they brought me here.

I don’t think I’ve said this yet but: this is awesome!

Have I said this is awesome?!

Wow, I really like this place as you can tell. I think I am becoming famous here! There are reporters everywhere and they are asking me questions I do not understand. Everyone is taking pictures of me and one of the kids is eating a marshmallow! Holy moley! They do that here?! I hate Earth now! But I guess that is just one kid, so I love Earth now, again!

Well, that’s all I am going to share of my life (the rest is private), But it was a fun experience sharing it with you. So until then, adios!!!

What are you looking at? The story is over!

You’re still looking at this! 

You are still looking, now go and drink your coffee or go finish your life.

The ABCs of Animals

A is for alligators who bite people

B is for bees who sting people

C is for cats who meow a lot

D is for dogs who bark a lot

E is for elephants who drink water from their trunk

F is for flamingoes who stay near water

G is for gorillas whose fur is black and cozy

H is for hippos who love water

I is for iguanas who are green and other colors 

J is for jellyfish who live in lakes, oceans, and rivers

K is for kangaroos who hop

L is for lions who RRR AAA!

M is for monkeys who swing on branches 

N is for nocturnal animals who sleep in the morning and wake up at night

O is for owls who hhhoooo in the night

P is for penguins who live in the arctic

Q is for quails who are birds 

R is for rabbits whose fur is white 

S is for snakes who go sss and slither

T is for turtles who are small

U is for urchins that are in food

V is for vultures who eat carrion

W is for whales who live in the water

X is for x-ray fish who live in the water

Y is for yaks who have their own type of big yap

Z is for zebras who have black and white stripes

The Value of a Trophy

I stare up at the mountain, my legs ready to give out beneath me.

My ski coach announces, “I know this is challenging, but we’re going to try to ski down this easy green.” So far, my beginner ski group has only skied down the Magic Carpet. 

Glancing down at my feet, seemingly permanently stuck in a pizza shape, I tell my coach, “I think maybe I will be injured on that super steep trail.” 

My coach laughs. “It’s basically flat. You’ll be fine.” The basically flat trail looks like it is 90 degrees steep. My coach calmly skis to the lift, completely parallel and with poles in his hands. I keep peeking up at the mountain as I slide over to him and my group. Distracted, I trip over my own skis and sprawl on the ice. My face burns, and I jump up as fast as I can and jump on the lift. Soon, I regret doing that. I just hurried up the process of getting to the steep trail. Under my new, soft, warm mittens my hands tremble, and I am glad I don’t have ski poles, for I would have dropped them. The wind stings my face like evil grains of sand. I lean back on the ski lift, my heart pounding. But I soon realize that in doing that, I am making the lift go a mile a minute. It seems like a couple seconds when we come off the lift. 

As I look down the rugged terrain of the easy green, I wish I never came. As soon as I had turned 12, I should have given up hope of skiing. But no. I persisted and begged my parents to take me. My tired, busy parents. They had work, but they did bring me, and for what? I was in the little kids group, and I saw other kids my age, even younger, skiing down the mountain in a blur of color, their manageable skis skidding against the icy ground with a loud crunch. But…really, I’m still a kid, and it’s never too late to start stuff when you’re a kid.

I know I’m a kid, I think confidently. After all, I can still order from the kid’s menu at restaurants. So I can always improve! Even if I am three times the age of the other kids in my group and still not better than them, so what?

“We’re going down now.” My coach yells. 

I blurt out, more to myself than him, “I’m not afraid!” 

My coach gives me a weird look. “That’s – that’s great, Olivia!” Then he starts down the mountain. I clutch my legs, steadying them. I close my eyes and the pounding in my head stops.

 “I will get good – great – at this sport,” I whisper. I force my skis to turn parallel, and I fly down the mountain. “Yeahhh!” I cry. “I’m so fast!” But after scanning my surroundings, I realize that I’m the slowest person on the trail. Before I know it, I fall head over heels. My skis are teared off and my poles are wrested from my hands. I scream, then I realize that I am still, for I am on a flat part of the trail, called a catwalk. 

My coach bends down to help me. “Whoa, that was a big yard sale fall for a catwalk!” I’m so embarrassed. I will never get good at skiing. I trail behind as we ski to lunch.

A month ago

I hurried down our stairs, wriggling into my scratchy school sweater. I heard sounds of enthusiastic and loud talking in the dining room. “Mom, Dad-” They weren’t even at breakfast. Mom was in her office, writing, and Dad was probably at his lab in the middle of the city. The only people that were there were my younger brother and sister. They were six and twins, and had brown hair. Sadly, six is when kids start to annoy you and stop being quiet and obedient. 

George whispered loudly to Lily, “Olib looks sad.” 

I scowled at them. “Don’t call me Olib.” George and Lily giggled and threw stale cereal at me. I stomped into my mom’s office, wrenching the cold, silver door handle open and immediately I got hit by a stuffy smell. It seemed like my mom’s office didn’t have any oxygen in it. It looked like a common, messy office. Mom was sitting at her desk with her back to me, typing furiously on her laptop. Her trash bin was overflowing with crumpled pieces of paper, but random pieces floated through the room, and my mom was forced to look up and snatch at the air once in a while. “Mom, I really want to go skiing for spring break,” I say, choking on the musty air.

My mom turned around, bags under her eyes. “Olivia, for the last time, NO! How many times do I have to tell you?” 

“But, we’ve never gone for my whole life! All my friends have gone since they were small, and everyone except for me knows how to ski. Besides, it would be good for me, don’t you think?”

“Your father and I have jobs. What about George and Lily? We can’t bring them. You never want them to come anywhere with you.”

“Ugh, don’t other people have families too? They take time off for trips. We’ll bring George and Lily. Mom, it’ll be good for you and Dad’s health too.” 

My mom smiled and said, “Alright, we’ll go for a week and a half for spring break. Lucky for you, your dad’s boss is expecting a baby, and I just completed a piece of writing so I get a break. Your father or I will bring you tomorrow after school to buy ski gear for the whole family. Now get ready for school, the bus is coming soon.”

“Thank you, Mom!” I cried, hugging her. Then I hurried out of her office.

Back to the mountain.

I stomp into the crowded lunchroom with barely enough space to move, and the scent of french fries and chicken nuggets hit me. I am glad that we stopped skiing for now. I am also glad that George and Lily are not in my group. Imagine, my own siblings, in the same ski group as me. I sit down, yanking my ski helmet off. Suddenly, a group of kids come clamoring into the cafeteria. I hear an animated voice. “Nuh-uh, Scooby Doo! Barbie sucks!” I immediately recognize it as Lily. That meant George must be with her. I see his bright green ski helmet bobbing above the helmets of the four year olds in the group, and he seems to be ordering them around somehow. My siblings must be young enough to fit in, but old enough to have authority to be the leaders of this group. Lucky them. I scuttle to the lunch line, avoiding my siblings. But oh, I had to buy a neon rainbow ski helmet. George and Lily see me, and they cry out, “There’s our sister, Olib! She is on the same level  as us!” The whole cafeteria looks at me, every person turning in their black metal chairs to see. The food on the round, ugly table is forgotten, and as my siblings’ group erupts in raucous laughter, I erupt in fury.

I turn away, not wanting to show my bad side in front of so many people. My eyes well up, so I widen them to keep tears from spilling out. I grab the nuggets and fries from the lunch lady and hurry back to my seat. When I pick up the food, I squeeze it forcefully in my rage. In a moment, my hand starts to throb painfully. I release the soggy, wretched, and deformed chicken nugget, and I see that it has burned my palm and left my hand oily and shiny. I pick the nugget  up, and with no mercy, I shove it in my mouth. My favorite food has always been chicken nuggets, but it doesn’t taste so good anymore. The mood at lunch guarantees my mood for the rest of the day, and I decide to ask my parents to go home when I get back to the hotel.

“Can we go home?” I ask my parents at the hotel when my siblings are sleeping. They look at me in disbelief.

“But, didn’t you beg us to come here?” My dad asks, glancing at my mom to confirm.

“Yes, but it’s horrible. I came here too late, and now I’m so much older than all the other kids in my group. George and Lily are on the same level as me, and the kids my age are skiing like, double blacks and blacks!” I cry.

“Honey, you’ll improve,” my mom says. “If you try harder than everyone, you’ll improve faster. Soon, you’ll be rushing down the mountain like wind!” My mom pushes her hand in front of her as fast as it would go and makes a whoosh noise with her mouth. She thinks it sounds like the wind, but she is wrong.

“Sure,” I mutter. “But how much more of this do I have to endure? George and Lily taunting my every move?”

My parents look at each other, and my dad ruffles my hair. “You can do it, kiddo.” They climb into their bed, and sighing, I walk over to me and my brother and sister’s bed, shove them over, and climb in. I’m sure that I cannot sleep.

A year ago, at school

I walk into middle school. It is crowded by ugly and dented maroon lockers that are overflowing and people hurrying around to get to class. The lumpy gray walls are stained with who knows what, and the doors required full effort to be opened and the hallways smelled like rotten eggs. Hurrying to my locker, I open it and grab out my mini fluffy pink carpet. It feels so soft! I need it for school, because of the rotten egg smell. I press the carpet to my nose and inhale the smell of detergent. Without warning, I hear a crackling sound of the static of the speaker. The principal’s voice blares, “Class time,” and everyone rushes to their different rooms. I slam my locker closed and suddenly, a shadow falls over me.

Jessica, Britney, Hawke, and Ace stand over me. They are the Mean Machines. Ace and Hawke are famous for being loyal accomplices, Jessica is famous for being the heir to Britney, and Britney is famous for her hundred different expressions and being able to tell whether someone was lying or not.  I tremble all over. Hawke and Ace block my route to safety and Jessica and Britney advance toward me. “You don’t have any fashion style, do you?” Britney asks with the first of her one hundred different expressions, and I looks down at my purple sweater, green pants, and yellow sneakers. It hits me that she was right. “And, uh, what level did you say you were at skiing?” she asks.

“I never said anything about that,” I answer defiantly, regretting that I had discussed that topic so loud, so close to the Mean Machines during homeroom. “Now why don’t you get to class, it’s getting late.” Britney rolls her eyes and acts like she didn’t hear me. 

Jessica adds, “Britney and I go skiing every spring break. We’re skiing hard trails.” I didn’t say anything. She continues. “And I just can’t accept your fashion choices. Also, you’re not good at anything. You can’t play any sports, and skiing is easy. So why don’t you give it a try? I’d love to see you tumbling down an easy Magic Carpet trail.” The Mean Machines turn and walk away, Hawke and Ace flashing evil smiles at me.

I cry. There is nothing else to do but feel sticky tears run down my cheeks. When I walk into class, my nose is runny, my eyes puffy and red, tear streaks on my face, everybody stares at me. The teacher murmurs lazily, “Sit in your seat. You’re late.” He turns back to the chalkboard. I am staring at my desk the whole class.

Morning at the mountain

I wake up from the dream. The Mean Machines’ faces swim in front of my eyes, and I grit my teeth. But there is nothing I can do. They have continued tormenting me all the way up till now. I eat breakfast with my family, then I go to ski school.

Going there, I get a nasty surprise. Jessica and Britney are there with their parents, in matching pink skin tight ski suits. “Oh…hi, Olivia,” Jessica says. “Remember how Britney and I skied hard trails a long time ago? Well, now we’re racers, and very fast and good.” I look at her. She looks at me. 

Without warning, Britney interrupts in her sickly sweet voice, “Olivia, are you going to be here next week Tuesday?”

I think about it, then I say, “Yes, that’s my last day before I go back.”

“Well,” Britney says, “There’s a skiing competition at the back of the mountain. We would love it if you’d join.” She smiled, and the real meaning was clear: We would love to watch you make a fool of yourself. But that wasn’t going to happen. 

“Sure,” I said. “Do I need a skin tight suit?”

“No, you can wear that ski suit of yours. But be warned, you’ll be slowed down by the bulkiness.”

“Thanks for the tip!” I smile. Jessica and Britney walk past and their parents follow.

As Jessica walks past, she whispers, “It’ll cost money. You might want to rethink your choice, because it is pretty expensive.” She flips her hair and continues walking. 

“Where’s Ace and Hawke?” I call after them. 

Jessica glances at me and shrugs. “They’re back at home, gaming together. Why would you care anyways?” She doesn’t wait for an answer, but links arms with Britney and skips away, which is a feat I do not know how she manages with the awkward ski boots.

I practice as much as I can, and even after class ends I ski down trails by myself.

At night, I beg my parents for something again. But this time, it is the money to participate in the ski competition. But they say, “We don’t want to waste the money, there’s no point. It’s not even going to help you, and it’s not fun anyways. You’re probably not going to win anyways.”

“Please!” I implore. “Just this one competition.”

My parents look at each other, and my mom says, “I saw it on the ski map. It’s way back behind the mountain, and two hundred dollars. Olivia, do you really think we’re going to spend that money just so you can not even have fun?”

“I will have fun!” I cry out. “I have to beat Jessica and Britney!”

“What?” My parents ask, and I tell them what happened. 

My mom grinds her teeth in anger, and she says, her brown eyes flaming, “Olivia. You’re entering that ski competition, and you’re winning it.”

I ski hard. Every day, I stay out late, practicing. I work harder than anyone in my group. I level up quickly. And finally, I’m ready for the ski competition.

Jessica and Britney stand close to each other as my parents grudgingly hand over the money that is crumpled from them clutching it so hard. Jessica and Britney see me, but I cannot see their expressions under their ski helmets, but I’m pretty sure it’s not pleasant. A man in a ski cap talks into a gold microphone that says SKI on it. “Welcome to the Annual Kids Ski Race! All participants get on the ski lift to the trail.” I look back at my parents, who give me encouraging nods and thumbs up. I follow the other participants. My legs tremble a little bit, and the butterflies in my stomach start fluttering again. I almost regret my choice of joining, but not quite. 

After we’re on top of the icy trail, we get into a line. I’m nearly the last one because my last name starts with an X. I stop and inhale. I’ve come to love the cool and fresh smell of the mountain. When Jessica goes, it’s perfect. She’s like a bullet, whizzing around the obstacles. Britney isn’t so successful. She teeters for a moment in the middle, but regains her balance very fast. But one second in skiing is enough. It’s for sure, she can’t win. At the bottom, Britney screams and throws her poles on the ice, making a weird aaaaahhhh And boing sound. I smirk a little bit.

When it’s my turn, I crouch and lean forward. As soon as the buzzer sounds, I’m off, skiing like mad. I can’t believe how much I’ve improved since the first day I arrived at this ski resort. I forget everything when I ski, with the wind whipping around me. Jessica and Britney stare at me, and I can see Britney tremble in anger. I focus on turning my feet parallel. I’m skiing so fast that I can feel a shudder run through my legs as I ski over the bumpy ice. I stop at the bottom, and my mom and dad erupt in cheering. They aren’t the only ones. Most of the people there are clapping and nodding at me. I hardly notice the last couple of racers coming down the mountain.

The man in the ski cap talks into the microphone again. “It was very close, there were some ties. But third place goes to…Goyle Fredericks!” A burly boy takes the tiny trophy made of bronze and  snorts in disgust as he walks away. “Second place goes to…Jessica Hall!” The Ski Cap man says. Jessica looks so happy when she takes the medium sized trophy made of silver. I cross my fingers. “And,” the Ski Cap man yells, “The winner is…Olivia Xu!!” He holds out the huge gold trophy to me. My parents are screaming. I feel like I’m in a trance as I walk over to the man and take the trophy. My mom snaps a few pictures, and we start to walk back to the hotel.

On the way back, Britney catches up with us. Her parents, Jessica, and Jessica’s parents are way behind talking. Britney looks nervously at my parents. “Cengrejulshins,” she mutters without moving her mouth. 

“Sorry?” I ask. 

“Cengrejulshins.”

“Oh. Would it be any easier for you to spell it out?”

“I just wanted to say congratulations, okay?” she says.

“Thank you, Britney. Remind me why you hate me again?” I ask. She frowns and stalks away, but my spirits are too high to be quelled by her annoying manner, so I skip in front of my parents to the hotel. I realize that if your spirits are soaring, they can lift up your feet in those clunky ski boots.

My mom opens the door with the room card and I run inside. I’m upset when my parents don’t look happy. “Why are you guys looking sad?” I demand.

My dad glances at my mom. He seems to need confirmation for every word he says. “Well, uh, there’s this, um, problem with our jobs, er, we left, so, ah-”

“That’s enough,” My mom says. “I will explain it without hesitation. Do you remember when, in my office, I told you your dad’s boss was expecting a baby and I just finished a piece of work? Those were all lies. Our bosses don’t let us off, for some reason. That is why we haven’t brang you and the twins on vacation, ever. But we did, because your dad and I decided that you guys deserved it.”

It takes a moment for me to realize. “YOU LOST YOUR JOBS?” I scream. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME? WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT? THAT IS THE LEAST WORTHIEST SACRIFICE EVER!”

My dad winces. “Olivia, you waited so long to go skiing, and look, you got a gold trophy! We didn’t want to worry you.”

I glare. “THAT WAS NOT WORTH IT! YOU GUYS BOTH GAVE UP YOUR JOBS SO I COULD GO SKIING????!!!! AAAAAAAAAH! WE COULD’VE NOT GONE!” I remember when my mom and dad had locked eyes when they were paying at a ski shop, and how they so grudgingly handed over the money for the ski race. “THAT’S WHY YOU DIDN’T WANT TO PAY FOR ANYTHING! DID YOU GET A NEW JOB?”

The foolish humans peek at me and my dad says, “Uh, I got a job as a trash guy, because nobody else wanted it. Your mom, nah.” I groan and roll my eyes— in classic Britney-style. Britney! Britney’s family has billions of dollars and they live in a mansion. Now, they are residents in the most chic hotel in the mountain. How badly does Britney want this trophy? Would she pay money for it? But those thoughts would have to wait for later. I have to get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow I will be going back home.

I shove my backpack into the car and squish into the backseat with George and Lily. It is very early in the morning, so thank god, the twins had fallen asleep as soon as they got into the car. My dad drives a tall car rolling on huge wheels. He starts the monster, and I lean my head on the window and stare out. Suddenly, I see a crazily flat car, looking like it got bashed with a hammer but stayed sleek and cool. I recognize it as Britney’s family’s car, and it’s driving right next to us. She looks despondent, so I sit up tall in my seat to look at her phone. Britney is watching a replay of herself skiing. Their car rushes past us, and I stare after it, pondering, for a long time.

When we get home, I throw my bag on my bed and collapse. The trip had been so long! It is already evening, so I decide that I need to do some research on Britney and her family, and then I would sleep for 11 hours.

Morning, I jump out of my soft and warm bed. The air is alive with the yells of George and Lily – and my mom and dad! Then I remember why I am hearing them. Because they are not at their jobs! It is the last day of spring break, so I take the chance to wear my fluffy sweater and sweatpants. Grabbing a handful of Fruity Cheerios and my gold-plastic trophy, I hurry out the door. I don’t even bother yelling at my siblings when stale cereal hits me on the back of my head, but I do bother yelling a good morning to my parents.

I run all the way across town to Billionaire’s Row. The biggest house looms in front of me. It is similar to the White House, just smaller. Still, it is very intimidating, with its white walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. I stare up and I see a window decorated with pink window stickers. I can just see the ceiling, which is pink. I know it is Britney’s room. I ring the doorbell, with much coaxing from the brave half of me. A narrow face flashes in front of Britney’s window and disappears. A couple of seconds later, the huge door creaks open.

Britney is standing at the door. “What?” she snaps, then spots the trophy and her eyes narrow. She probably thinks that I’ve come to brag in her face. “Fine, you won. I don’t care,” she growls.

“Did you want to win or did you want the trophy?” I ask. Some people like to just have trophies shining on their shelf. I hope Britney is like that. Her eyes widen, and I know that she’s deciding whether to lie or tell the truth.

“Just the trophy.” She lowers her head, miserable, like she just revealed her life’s biggest secret.

“Would you like to buy it?” I ask.

Britney’s head jerks up and she stares at me suspiciously. “Why would you want to sell it? It’s first place, and plastic mixed with gold.”

“I know.” I say, nodding.

Now that it is confirmed, Britney’s eyes light up with greed. She reaches into her pocket and extracts a pink purse. Then she freezes, and says, narrowing her eyes, “Why? What is the reason you would want to sell it? I am not buying it until you tell me.”

I try to coax her. With difficulty and with both arms, I lift the trophy up and wave it in front of her face. Then I tilt the trophy so it catches the glare of the sun. Britney does not move a muscle. I groan and say, “I want money to buy my favorite thingamajig from a store, alright?”

“Lie,” Britney says simply. She waits. I wait. She waits. I wait.

“I’m sure there are plenty of other people who would want this trophy and don’t want the reason.” I snap, but I don’t walk away. 

Britney smirks and starts to giggle. Then she starts to snort, then laughs full time. Suddenly her face becomes expressionless, and she looks at me and says, “Enough. Just tell me.”

So I do. It spills out of my mouth like a waterfall. It seems to me that I wanted to tell it before, but I didn’t want to at the same time. It is a relief to get it all out. Britney stands like a statue, her eyes fixed on me. When I’m done, Britney looks at me with a weird expression on her face. Then I realize that it is concern. I remember that her family used to be very poor. “Britney,” I say seriously. “I think you’ve just gotten your number one hundred and first expression.”

“Come with me,” Britney says. I’m pretty confused, but she leads me to an ATM machine and she inserts her credit card inside. Then Britney turns to me and frowns. “Don’t look, Olivia, I’m entering my passcode.” I turn away and look around. We appear to be inside a bank, and it is pretty empty. An old woman with white hair and glasses is slowly moving around behind a desk, doing stuff to papers from time to time. 

She looks up at me, takes around thirty seconds to process that I’m there, and says, “Oh, hello, may I help you?” Without waiting for an answer she turns and walks to the other end of the desk. 

Then Britney calls, “Okay, come here, Olivia.” I turn around and I see cash flowing out of the ATM machine as fast as words had flown out of my mouth. Then it jerks to a stop. “This is, I’m guessing, 500 dollars or so?”

“Oh my gosh, that’s so much, thank you!” I gasp.

She gives me a weird look. “That’s not enough! I’m giving you like, 200 million dollars. It’s just that the machine won’t give me anymore. ” I nearly DIED right then and there. 

“NOOOOOOOOO! Just pay the amount the trophy is worth!” The fact that I can take SO MUCH of someone’s money without doing anything will be enough to to make me guilty for the rest of my life.

“Okay, okay, 100 million dollars!” she cries.Without waiting for an answer, Britney marches up to the old bank lady. “Helga. 99 million, 999 thousand, 500, please.” She holds out her ATM card.

Helga smiles. “Hellllooooo, Britney.”

“Hello, Helga. 99 million, 999 thousand, 500.”

“How may IIIIII help you?”

“I would like you to take 99 million, 999 thousand, 500 out of my bank account.”

“Sooooooo. We are taking money out of a bank account.”

“Yes. 99 million, 999 thousand, 500, please.”

“Nooooooo. IIIIIIII cannot. You are underaged, Britney.”

Britney sighs in exasperation. “Okay, fine then. My parents will let me anyway.” She calls her parents. She glares angrily at Helga for being difficult. Helga blinks back at her slowly. Something similar to a staring contest happens between them, except Helga blinks constantly while Britney does not.

There’s a whirring sound outside the bank door and the flat car pulls out. Britney’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, walk arm in arm. “Yes, Britney? If you called us here for nothing, I shall be extremely upset,” Mrs. Tucker snaps.

I’m pretty sure Britney shrank a little. “Can Olivia get…100 million dollars?” She asks in a small voice.

“NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY?” Mrs. Tucker roars. The sudden movement nearly jerks Mr. Tucker off his feet. Mrs. Tucker is furious. A hundred daggers shoot out of her eyes, ten at Britney and ninety at me. “DON’T YOU DARE TAKE MONEY FROM US, YOU UNSCRUPULOUS RASCAL!” She yells at me. Now she turns to Helga. “WHY DID YOU LET THEM DO THIS?” Mrs. Tucker screams.

Helga blinks. “Wellllllll, Mrs. Tucker, what is your question?”

“WHY DID YOU LET THEM DO THIS?”

“Because they-”

“TOO SLOW! WHATEVER!” Mrs. Tucker turns her angry gaze on everyone. This had never occured to me, but right now, Mrs. Tucker seemed 50 feet tall, while everyone else is as tall as an ant. At any second, she can stomp on us and crush us. 

Britney says, “Your motto is, ‘No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.’ So…?”

“BRITNEY! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU MY MOTTO! I MEANT FOR THAT MOTTO TO MEAN THAT EVERYONE SHOULD BE NICE TO ME! I ONLY SAID THAT ON MOTHER’S DAY! AND YOU GUYS WERE LOUNGING AROUND, AND PROBABLY FORGOT THAT IT WAS MOTHER’S DAY!” Mrs. Tucker howls in frustration.

“Mother, you don’t want to be hypocritical, do you? And Dad and I did remember, it was SUPPOSED to be a surprise at night!”

Mrs. Tucker looks like a volcano, ready to explode. Her feet are shaking in their 7-inch thick heels. “Why didn’t you give me the surprise? Also, an act of kindness that I was referring to is like, giving a beggar a crumb!”

“No, your motto says any act of kindness, no matter how small. We didn’t want to because you were being mean to us.”

“YOU ARE BEING PLAIN HORRIBLE!” Mrs. Tucker stamps her foot, screeching like a howler monkey. She takes a deep breath. “Well then, isn’t it our choice how much to give?”

“Yes, OUR. Now I think we should give $100 million. Also, she is not taking money. I’m paying for this trophy.”

“Okay, pretend the trophy is an act of kindness from that human and let’s get out of here.”

“NO. I AM NOT DOING THAT.” Suddenly Britney stops, a smile on her face. “I’m sure that my followers on Instagram and Snapchat would love to hear about EVERYTHING my hypocrite of a mom did.”

Mrs. Tucker blanches. “You wouldn’t. I forbid you. Give me your phone RIGHT NOW.” 

Britney takes out her phone, takes a few steps backwards, and says, “I can send it immediately, but I’m not. Are you giving Olivia money or not?”

Mrs. Tucker hesitates. “Fine. Just don’t send it.”

But I didn’t want the money! I racked my mind to think of an excuse. “Guys, NOPE. I can’t bring it home anyway.” 

There is a triumphant look on Mrs. Tucker’s face as she looks smugly at Britney.

But Britney asks me, “What’s one of your parent’s phone numbers?”

“Uh, 4975935676.” 

“No it’s not.” Britney is using her crazy power again.

“9368036854.”

“Stop lying to me.”

“9175694589.”

“That’s better.” Britney dials the number and my mom picks it up. “This is Britney. Hi Mrs. Xu, you have to come to Bank of America. It’s an emergency. Bring Mr. Xu if possible. Olivia and I are on the third bank on Billionaire’s Row.” Then Britney hung up. “They’re coming,” she said, smiling widely. 

I know that my parents will be here any minute, because our once-happy house is right next to Billionaire’s Row, so I plead for Helga to help me, to hide me behind her desk. Britney forces me away. I start hyperventilating. Britney grabs my shoulders. “Stop it, Olivia. $100 million dollars is only a small portion of Dad’s money. It will not make a dent in it. So stop hyperventilating and take it!” 

Suddenly my mom and dad burst into the bank, panting. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” they cry. 

I glower at Britney, and she grins at my parents. “May I talk to you guys privately?” My parents shoot me worried looks as they follow Britney to the other side of the bank, glancing at the pile of cash at the feet of the ATM. I am in a trance as I watch them talk.  I groan and cover my eyes. 

“Mr. or Mrs. Xu, do one of you guys have PayPal? The money I have here is…” Britney checks the ATM. “$500, so you guys are going to get $99,999,500.” 

My dad nods slowly, almost as slow as the woman behind the desk. He takes out his phone. My hands take over. I run over to him and snatch the phone from him, clutching it tightly. “We are NOT receiving 100 million dollars. This trophy is more plastic than gold. It is worth less than 100 million.”

“Oh. Kay. Fine. Then. One. Mil. Lee. Un. Dol. Ar. S,” Britney says in something close to a growl, and I know that she isn’t going to take no for an answer. “But…….that’s x200 less than what I was going to give you, so how about-”

My dad and I speak at the same time with me saying: “No no no no no, that’s okay” but with him saying with a shrug: “Um, sure.” There is a tiny gleam in his eye.

My mom just frowns. Finally she says, “Don’t pity us. We can get on fine.”

Britney turns to me and my dad. “So I’ll give you $1 million. And there’s an extra $500.” I regretfully hand my dad his phone and turn away. He’s going to take the money. 

 I decide I should constantly be giving Britney’s family stuff, but there probably isn’t anything I can give her that her dad can’t get or doesn’t have. “Britney,” I say, “What is your biggest desire, your need, your want?” I want to know so I can get her something.

But she shrugs and answers, “I don’t have one. I don’t need anything.” 

“What is your biggest secret?”

“My secrets aren’t big, they’re barely even secrets.” Wow. This is getting to be way harder than I thought it would be.

“Well then, tell me your biggest.”

“The biggest…why do you want to know?”

“AAAAAAAAH, WE ARE NOT DOING THIS AGAIN!” I scream.

“Okay, okay, the biggest is Jessica does my reading homework for me.”

“Why?”

“Um, I kind of am bad at reading.”

“Oh my. Okay,” I say thoughtfully. “Do you have any books at home?”

“No. And don’t push it.” Britney’s face is as red as a tomato. I don’t. Mrs. Tucker grabs Britney and marches out the door, growling like a starved animal the whole time. Tomorrow, over to Britney’s I go.

When I wake up, I don’t want to get up because my bed is soft, but then I remember why I even woke up, and I jump out of bed. My dad has to leave now because of his job as a trash guy, so he is wearing his old and faded Snoopy T-shirt, cargo pants, and a cap. He waves as I grab some cereal from the box. We walk out together, but I turn right and he turns left at the crossroad. We did not speak for the whole time, not even a “bye” when we split. It was a good kind of silence though.

I go into Barnes & Nobles with some money and buy the best books I can think of, the Harry Potter series. The line is long, and the cashier is about as slow as the lady in the bank. Finally, carrying the bag of books, I step out of Barnes & Nobles and continue on to Billionaire’s Row.

Once again I knock on the tall wooden door, and once again the door is opened by Britney. “It’s so early….” she yawns. “Whaddya got in that bag?” 

I hold it out to her. “It’s yours. I got it for you.”

“What’s in it?”

“Books.”

“Oh. That’s nice.”

“They’re Harry Potter.”

“Uh, the problem is, I can’t read Harry Potter.”

“Oh man. I’ll teach you!”

“Haha.” Britney smiles, then she gasps. “Wait. You’re not joking?”

“No, of course not.”

“Okay…”

“This time every morning, on your doorstep?”

“Sure…”

“You’ll try hard, right?”

“Yes. Duh! I am the queen of trying hard! Come to think of it, I am the queen of everything!”

I leave Britney, who is flipping through the first book with doubt. True to her word, Britney works crazy hard, as hard as I did on skiing. Every day we struggle through a chapter or so, and finally, one day, we finish Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.

“I’m going-to have a lot of fun…with Dudley this sum-mer.” Britney stutters through the last sentence. She flips the page, but the only thing there is the About the Author. Britney looks up at me in shock. “I finished the book?” she asks in disbelief. I nod, grinning a little bit, and she starts to laugh. It is crazy. She throws back her head and shrieks, which I assume is manic laughter. Then she stands up, still shaking with laughter, and says, “Thirty minutes are up. I’m getting back inside.”

We speed through the rest of the books and finish all seven. It is nearly summer already. When we finish Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Britney turns to me. “I will ask my repetitive question. Why?”

“It’s a long story…” I say.

“I have time. And tell everything, and what you thought of it, and how you processed it.” So I tell her. Fun fact: when she is interested, Britney is very good at listening. Once I finish, Britney is looking very, very sad. “I’m moving away this summer,” she says quietly. 

I gasp. “On the first day?” 

“Yes.”

“That’s in a week!”

“I know.” We sit side by side. Britney’s head is lowered, the success of finishing all the books forgotten. I don’t know how long we sat there. Finally, Britney stands. “What are you doing?” she asks.

“Just thinking,” I answer.

I left Billionaire’s Row that summer. My dad decided that “we should move to somewhere richer and fancier”. I wanted to stay, but I couldn’t. So on the first day of summer, I stood in front of our fancy car, clutching a book and the plastic/gold trophy. Olivia and her family were there to wave us off. “In the car,” my dad said, and I did, waving to Olivia. My dad started the car, and I looked out the window, waving until the Xu family was out of sight. That was the last time I ever saw Olivia, but she had given me something my dad couldn’t, and I remembered her. I still have the trophy. It sits on my counter, higher and separate than the other trophies. I learned how to write better, in a class in the city, and I wrote down in a journal, my first entry, everything that Olivia told me on the day we finished Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, and I created this. The trophy is a souvenir of my old life in Billionaire’s Row.

Britney

Where Have All The Goslings Gone?

Today the mayor of the town has gone out and stated that the entire pond has been dumped and taken away by an unknown villain. The mayor stated that there would be a $500 dollar gift for anyone who caught the person who stole it. The most important thing is that all the goslings are gone! The police are investigating and so far they have found some clues and suspects. One of them is named Jacob Hendreson. If you see him with a big truck that has animals quacking in it, tell the police immediately. We have seen him at the time of the stealing, but there were a few others there so we don’t know for sure. The other thing is that if you see someone by the pond, you should try to interrogate them. We also know that another suspect is Jimmy, who works at the doughnut store. He was seen close to when the crime happened as well. If you see him with a big trailer or a pond in his backyard then tell the police immediately.

It was early and I was going to get a doughnut from my friend Jimmy. I decided to go to the pond and sit for a bit, since I was tired. I saw a guy pull up in a big red truck and rip out the entire pond!!! I ran over, got into his truck and pushed him out. I drove the truck back to my house. I knew that someone was going to notice so I put the pond in the basement, and the goslings in the pond into my rabbit cage (they were so small that they all fit). A few hours later the police came in. They wanted to know if I had a pond. I knew what they meant and I was really scared.

I fake laughed and said, “No pond here!”

They left and I knew that I had to hide or destroy the pond. But I really did not want to because the pond was the town’s pride! But then I thought, what about the goslings? Where would they live? So I hid the pond in a better place. I put it in my closet. It didn’t fit too well but I didn’t think that people would go searching closets for ponds. I remembered the doughnuts and went and got some.

My friend Jimmy said, “The mayor went out and listed you as a suspect and said that if you saw anything suspicious tell him.”

Jimmy was nice so I was sure that he was not lying to me because he was nice and he was my friend. I was scared about that warning so I went back to my house and didn’t come out for the rest of the day.

I wanted to put the pond back but I would probably go to jail. I had an idea to put the pond back at night when no one was watching. I woke up that night and drove my truck with the pond in the back to the area where the pond used to be. I was about to put the pond down into the hole where it was when all of the sudden a police car went down the road. It was odd because there was no one else out. Then I remembered that it was take your duck to work day and that the police were taking their ducks to the pond to see if people were there. It was the only day of the year luckily. It took so long to remember that by the time I looked up I saw the policeman with handcuffs. Then I was being escorted away to jail.

I was in jail and I had to think of a way out. I saw a few keys that looked like they fit in the lock on a bench across the hall. I picked them up. The hall was very tiny. I opened the jail cell and looked for my car. I found my car with the pond still attached to it. I got in, got my keys, and drove away. I was ready to put the pond back when I realized that it was morning and my friend jimmy would be going to work at the doughnut shop, so I went back to my home. I felt really mad so I didn’t sleep too much so I went to my friend Jimmy’s store. I thought it would be nice to buy a doughnut from him, so I did. After that I looked and found out that there was nothing tonight and that nobody would be out so I could put the pond back. I got up at around 2 am and I got into my car and drove to the old pond area. I was about to put it back again when all of a sudden a bunch of people in birthday hats started singing the happy birthday song. This was the second time this happened! I was wondering what were the odds that this would happen two times? I was really mad so I went back to my house. I ate my doughnut in silence because everyone else was at the party. I then went to sleep. After that I had another normal day and I hoped that that night I would finally put the pond back into the hole that it was once in. I woke up that night and I got in the truck and drove over. I then put the pond in finally and drove back home. I really hoped that nobody would notice the pond back or they would trace it back to me. I was wrong.

The next day police came to my house and put me in court. The judge was Mr. Duck. A duck. He sentenced me to two years in jail. That’s when I saw the bad guy, the man in the truck. He looked super happy, like he was enjoying the fact that he wasn’t going to jail. He looked like a big guy that had too many doughnuts and he had a big scar across his face. Then I knew who it was: it was Jimmy all along! I had him come up and he said that he did it. Finally it was over. And I had ended this craziness. I went back home and got into bed. I saw on the news that the bad guy had gone to jail. I was so happy that I just went to sleep and stayed in bed for a day. Mostly because I was super tired though. I looked in the mirror and was shocked that I was so tired (well not really) and that I looked like I was really hungry. So I got some food and got back into bed. I was just so tired.

Crabby the Crab

It began silently when my mom’s friend bought a box full of live crabs. My mom went downstairs to get the box of live crabs since my mom’s friend was not able to go inside my home. My sister and my whole entire family were waiting for that box for a long time.

I was practicing piano at the time when my mom came home in a hurry. I closed my piano and went to see her. I didn’t see a box of live crabs but I saw one huge black bag. So I went to play with my sister for a while.

Then my mom screamed, “I will now show you what is called big crabs.”

Then she carefully placed a box in front of me and she told me to back off. Suddenly, something came to my mind! That was the box full of live crabs!

The box was yellow-brownish and it seemed like it was made out of bamboo. She opened up the box and then… there were live crabs! I was right. There were live crabs. They were blue female crabs. Their shells were brown. I knew they were female crabs because their backs are not a T shape like male crabs.

After my mom opened the box full of female crabs, I asked her if I could have the most active one. I said that because we were going to eat half of the crabs. We were going to boil them and eat their claws and bodies and mouths. Then I asked my mom if I could have a bowl. She gave me a big silver bowl and then she put the most active female crab in it. I immediately told my sister to give me a chopstick and a cup that was filled with water, but not drinking water. After that, I told my sister to give me the cup and the chopstick. She gave it to me and I started to play with the crab! But before I played with the crab, I poured the cup of water into the silver bowl and the crab was swimming in it!

The game we played was called Try to Catch My Chopstick. The crab was trying to get the chopstick and if the crab got the chopstick, then the crab got one point. If the crab didn’t get the chopstick, then the chopstick got one point. If the crab did a sudden attack and almost got the chopstick, then she won ten points! She did ten sudden attacks so she got 100 points.

We were amazed by how active she was! We went to the sink and told her how to dance! She started to dance! She jumped out of the water! She was beginning to be too wild! I noticed it and I took the chopstick that my sister gave me and I rubbed it against the crab’s shell and she calmed down. This was the time when I knew what to call her. The perfect name for her was… Crabby!

***

Night came and we knew where to put her bowl. We put her in the window because there was a lot of space and she could suntan. Before we put her in her new home, we moved her into a blue bowl. It was big so that Crabby could do anything in it. We made her a sun cover so that she would not become too hot. We looked at her for the last time of the day and went to sleep.

The next day came and we visited her. We fed her salt and day by day went and every morning we checked on her because we were worried that she was going to die. The third day came and we thought that she died, but surprisingly, she was still alive. The fourth day came. In the morning we looked at her for the last time. In the afternoon… she died.

From that day on, I would always remember Crabby. She was active, kind, sweet, and a survivor. I will never forget her, and even though she died, she will never forget me too.

Weird Food World

Chapter 1

Once upon a time… there was this guy named Bob, and stuff, I think. He lived in a house near a gurgling river. And in that river, instead of fish, there were swimming watermelons! And he lived underground with moles that were pears! And the oven was a heated banana! And the world was a hollow coconut! So he went above ground and saw a sunflower seed ant! The grass was hard like coconut skin and a pumpkin seed beetle.

If only I could find the Fruitanator 3000 and reverse it, thought Bob. So he set off to find the Fruitanator 3000. First he found a map and it said to go to The Pineapple Forest. So he went there and found the next clue. It said to get to the other side of the forest and find the next clue. When he got to the edge of the forest he found the Plains of Rambutan. There he found a colony of banana seed termites! They were running toward him. But they weren’t coming for him. He looked behind him. There were about 3000 grape bees! They came in groups from 30-400 per hive! Their hives were as big as fourteen golf balls. But their hive was made of Saltines. The bees could sting and that hurt! So Bob slithered every which way, dodging the bees.

Once that was over he saw an old wall covered in moss. It wasn’t just a wall though… it was a whole house! Who would live here? Bob whispered to himself. He went over to the house. There he saw the second clue! It said: Now go to the tundra made out of whipped cream, there you will find the last clue. Finally you will find the Fruitanator 3000. 

Finally! he thought. 

Chapter 2: The Fruitinator 3000

He found out that it was a long walk to the whipped cream tundras and he didn’t have proper gear. But on the way, he saw a small hut. He went inside and found out that there were a whole ton of jackets, boots, and hats. There were even sweatpants. He found out that it was a shop. He went to go pay for the things he wanted. He grabbed two hats, one jacket, three pairs of sweatpants, and two pairs of boots. Then he paid and it was a total of only thirteen dollars. Then he left to go on his adventure to the tundra.

A few days later he got there and he started looking. After a while he found a huge house and went in. Then he fell down a secret doorway.

He walked down the hallway and finally, enclosed in glass, there was the Fruitanator 3000. But then he realized he would have to go back home, through plains, through The Pineapple Forest, and finally back home where the moles were as green as the grass (FYI they were pears). On the long walk home he met one final animal. It was a giant lion made out of more than a trillion different seeds. He got past it by sneaking past him carefully. Then he went home and reversed the Fruitanator 3000 and zapped everything back to normal. 

UFO Universe

A UFO was spotted yesterday on June 7th over Brooklyn NY.

Meanwhile, mysterios MIBs (men in black) have been popping up all over Brooklyn.

Nobody knows where they have come from. On a side note, local pigeons have gone missing.

Here are some precautions to keep in mind: 

1: Try to have nothing to do with MIBs (men in black).

2: If you see a UFO, STAY AWAY, and call 911.

3: If anyone you know, their pets, or their children disappear, call 911.

4: If you notice a family member acting strangely, call 911.

5: If you see anything weird JUST CALL 911!

Here, Mrs Jane Landrish, 46, tells us about a UFO she spotted; she was one of the first to see them:

“It was 8:00 at night, and I was out for a walk. I was on 11th street and 6th avenue. I saw a shape in the sky. At first I thought it was an airplane, but then it lit up with a blinding white light. I closed my eyes, and felt it whoosh past. I opened my eyes. It was a strange, saucer shaped object, and it was hovering over a stray cat. I watched, as some sort of tractor beam pulled the cat into the ship. (I’ll just call that thing a ship.) I ran, terrified, back home, and locked the door.”

The interview ended there, with Mrs Landrish breaking into a cold sweat.

That’s what the newspaper said this morning. Yes, I read the newspaper, but only because my grandfather leaves it lying around. Anyways, I found that pretty intriguing. UFOs in Brooklyn! I put down the newspaper and turned to lie on my back. Ahhhh, Saturdays. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. No school. As I lie in bed and I stare up at the ceiling, I wonder if there really are UFOs in Brooklyn, or if it’s just a hoax.

I heard my door open. I look towards it. My dad’s standing in the doorway.

“You okay, kiddo?” He asked. 

“Yup.” I replied.

“Phew,” he said. “I was starting to think that you would never wake up!”

With that, he closed the door. I rested my arm on my night stand and knocked over my glass of water. I screamed. The water was still freezing. I heard footsteps. My door burst open. My grandpa was standing there. He took in the scene and then closed the door.

“False alarm!” I heard him yell to my mom and dad. I heard them run back down the stairs.

I sighed. It wasn’t enough that I was unpopular, I had to be clumsy. Plus I lost my favorite manga yesterday. And I was pretty sure I was coming down with a cold. AND a dog bit me yesterday. Thankfully, it was not a stray, it had been spayed. Yay, I didn’t have rabies. Still, stuff was pretty bad for me. I grabbed my phone. It was time to text my best friend, Amelia.

Hey!  Amelia!

What?

U free for laser tag at 1?

Of course, it’s Saturday!

I don’t have any other  plans! 

Oh yeah, how could I forget? LOL

See ya at 1!

I will so beat u today!

That’s what u think!

I turned off my phone. Well, at least now I had something to do. To be honest, just lying here in bed on my back was pretty boring. I got up, went to my closet, and pulled out some clothes: a turquoise size 12 t-shirt, a midnight blue hoodie, and some jeans. Then I checked my apple watch. It was 10:07. I had exactly one hour and fifty three minutes before I had to be at Lighting Lasers, the laser tag place. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a blueberry muffin. I ate it, then poured some orange juice into a cup, and took a swig. Nice and refreshing. Then I pulled on my turquoise converse high tops, and tied them. Then I grabbed my turquoise water bottle. Okay, you can say it. I like turquoise. Nearly everything I own is turquoise or blue. I ran outside and started my morning run.

I stepped outside and felt a warm, fresh breeze. It was a warm, sunny spring day. As I went to close the door, my pomeranian puppy, Emory, came through the open door, running, and jumped on me.

“Whoa!” I shouted, my arms flailing as I tried to regain my balance. Then I fell on my butt. “Ow!” I yelped. I stood up, trying to act as though that hadn’t just happened.

I heard someone say, “That looked painful.” 

I whirled around, trying to find the person who had spoken. It was my brother, who was standing in the doorway. He was fifteen, three years older than I am. He smirked at me, and I could see that he had his phone in his hand, which was replaying a video of what had just happened.

“You *censored* *censored* *censored* *censored* *censored*!” I screamed. “You’d better not post that!” 

“Okay, okay, I won’t post it.” he said.

“Good.” I said, turning away.

“Oops!” I heard him exclaim. I turned around, and he was smiling at me. “Posted it!” 

“Aaghhh!” I yelled. I ran at him, my fists clenched, and punched him in the face. 

“Ouch!” he yelled. It didn’t stop with one punch, though. I had been taking taekwondo lessons, and I was a black belt. I punched him again, hit him with roundhouse and snap kicks, hit him with a neck chop, and punched him some more. By the time I was done, he was sporting a bloody nose and lip, a black eye, several bruises, and a broken arm.

He lay on the ground, curled into a fetal position. He had no idea that I had been taking taekwondo, and he had no idea how good I was.

“You know what?” I said. “I think that’s enough exercise for now. I’m going inside.”

I stepped over his trembling body, and into the house. I set down my water bottle, and picked up my phone. 

At that very moment, my phone rang. It was Amelia. Funny, I was just about to call her. I answered the call and heard her voice on the other line.

“Maia! Come quick! We’ve got a situation at laser tag.”

My dad drove me to laser tag. When I stepped inside, I saw Amelia arguing with two boys. The owner of Lightning Lasers, Josh, was sitting in the corner, reading a book.

“You can’t be here right now!” I heard Amelia saying. “We made a reservation!”

“We?” One of the boys said. “I don’t see anyone else with you. Who are you talking about, your imaginary friend?”

I could see Amelia getting angry. I decided that now would be a good time to step in.

“Oh, hi Amelia. Want to tell me what this is?” I asked, gesturing at the two boys.

“Maia! Thank goodness you’re here! I’ve been trying to tell these two that they can’t be here, because we made a reservation, but they won’t listen to me, and Josh has not done us a whit of good!”

“Huh?” Josh asked, looking up from his book.

“Don’t just sit there like it’s tea time, help us out!” Amelia screamed.

Okay, I should probably explain all the British-y stuff. See, Amelia’s mom is from England, and whenever Amelia gets angry, she starts talking like she’s British. Including a British accent. But the accent is only when she’s really mad, so it probably won’t come up now, over a thing like laser t-oh, the accent has kicked in.

“Listen, we were here first, so just leave and nobody get’s hurt.” She said, now with a British accent. To show that it wasn’t an idle threat, she punched one of the boys in the stomach.

“Hey!” he exclaimed. That’s when a full fledged fight broke out. Fists and feet flying everywhere. 

That’s when I heard a voice.

“Ahem.” I looked toward the sound of the voice. It was Josh. He had finally looked up from his book. “If it helps, we have a new version of laser tag. It’s a four person game.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” I demanded.

“I was occupied.” He held up his book and pointed at it.

“Ugh. You are SO annoying,” I said. “But yes, we will play the four person game, IF we get to be against them.” I pointed at the two boys. 

“Sure, whatever you want,” he said. “I don’t care.” 

I turned to look at the boys. It was payback time!

As I stepped into the huge, darkened room, designed for laser tag, I noticed that it had changed a bit. The walls were taller, and there were a few more power ups on the walls. I strapped on my gear and grabbed my laser tag gun. Then I was ready to go. 

The five minute timer started, and it was time to play. I hid in my favorite spot, in the corner behind the wall with a hole for a window. I saw the boys sneaking around, staying close to the walls. I jumped out from behind the wall.

“Payback time!” I yelled. Then I noticed the laser tag guns in their hands. They looked like something you would see in a sci-fi movie.

“Whoa.” I said. “Where did you get those? Did you bribe Josh?”

“No, foolish human.” One of the boys laughed. “These are ours. And they are real.”

“Wait, I’m sorry, what? A, you’re not allowed to have real guns in here. B, you’re not allowed to scare your opponents on purpose. And C, we’re all humans.”

“Those rules do not apply to us,” he said. Now he and his friend were walking towards me. The lighting was making their skin look grayish.

“Um, yes they do. They apply to everybody.” I said.

  “But not to us.” he replied. Now it looked like his hair was shrinking back into his head, and his teeth were growing sharper. It also looked like his eyes were turning completely white. That’s when I realized that everything that I thought was happening was actually happening!

“Y-you’re aliens!” I stammered.

“Yes. We knew that you would make that connection eventually. You, of all people, believe that we might be real. And we are. However, we are planning to conquer Earth, and if you had figured out that we were real, then you would have been a serious threat to our plan. So, we must stop you from figuring out that we are real. And there is only one way to do that.”

I started backing up. “W-what are you t-talking about?” I asked, fearing that I already knew the answer. I kept backing up, and then tripped and fell on my butt. I kept backing up, using my hands to pull and my feet to push. I felt my back hit the wall. 

The aliens were still walking towards me. I covered my face with my arms. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was one of the aliens pointing their gun at me. 

Alex Armado

Basilisk was not kidding about the Markothies. Right when Alex and Fistinis left the gates, the creatures came right out of the shadows.

Alex and the wizard made their way across a grassland to an old fort called Fort Ranger.

“You go and look around,” Fistinis said. “I’m going to see an old friend… He’s a cyclops. And if there is a shiver down your spine or you see a cloaked figure, run. Leave me. And head towards the mountains about two hills away.”

Alex looked around. He knew he was in enemy territory now.

“Hello,” said a boy. “My name is Will.”

Alex picked up a sword on the ground.

“Will!” he said. “Why are you walking around the castle? Tell me your name and your business!”

“You just said my name and my business,” said Will.

There was a sound. And light getting close to them. 

They hid behind a rock.

They saw three tall cloaked skeletons. They each had two giant swords.

“Their swords are made from Condor blades,” Will said.

They were Markothies.

Space is the Place

Any planet is cool but not “cool”

But the best planet is earth because it has life on it

Cool planets orbit the sun (which is really a star)                                                          

Did you know there are more planets in space

Even more solar systems

Feeling happy makes me think of space because… Space is the place

Giving trees to the earth will make it so so happy

Hot hot sun is the star we orbit around (which makes us cool)

I have nothing else to do but 

Just sit down and think of what earth might look like next

Kenya might look different

Little Rhode Island might look different too

Maybe Rhode Island might actually be an island like Hawaii

Now being an island might be funOver a billion stars are in the universe

Places in space have asteroids

Quintillion planets are in space and some have rings

Rovers might be taking pictures of planets with rings on them

Saturn has rings maybe rovers will take pictures of saturn

The gas giants all have rings

Under the planets are even more stars

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system so DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT

When earth is not a planet we will move to mars

Xtra trees would help earth

You know that 300 billion stars are in space

Zero sound in space because space is the place

French Fries

French fries, french fries you are

so salty, you taste like Greece, but a 

little more foggy How greasy, how greasy

you get my hands wet, I will pick one up 

and not break a sweat 

I get I get on the racing track

and see and see a big french fry

a ginormous french fry zips and zooms 

pass the checker finish line

At McDonalds, there is a line 

That you can see but there’s only one 

That stretches thus far a french fry

The line at McDonalds is all for 

A french fry, the line seams to

have french pies   

Just don’t forget the yellow marranet

A french fry

French fries, french fries, you are so hot,

And is it so yellow and tasty or not?

Oh melo my belo who are you?                              

A supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Or are you a french fry?

French fry, french fry how lovely you are

Detective Frog

Detective Frog was looking into the murder of Ribit Wonton, the wealthiest frog in Frogville (some monkeys lived here too). Detective Frog went to the scene of the murder in the biggest place in the whole world quintillion stories high!

Dang it! I can’t reach the top — that’s where the murder happened. Uhhhhh!

“Well, if you want to finish this creepy case, then you’re going to have to suck it up, buttercup,” said Sergeant Monkey, his best friend. 

“I guess I will then. Hey, will you come with me? I’m so scared I’m going to pee in my suit. Please!!!

Detective Frog’s suit was the best in the country, equipped with heat sensed missiles, rocket launchers, machine guns, and laser guns. It was called BOB.

“Why are you scared? You have a freakin’ BOB — why do you need me?” asked Sergeant Monkey.

“I don’t know how to use it… ” replied Detective Frog.

Fine, you are so dumb!!! Uggg!

Detective Frog and Sergeant Monkey took an elevator all the way to the quintillionth floor. 

24 hours later… 

Bleh!!!” Detective Frog said in disgust.

“Dude, there are just guts spilled everywhere. His tongue ripped apart in pieces everywhere, and blood spilled on the whole entire floor.”

“What? It looks beautiful,” Detective Frog said.

“What is wrong with you? Are you mental?”

“No.”

“I’m fine!” Detective Frog shouted.

“Okay, let’s get to work. I’ll take part of the tongue and analyze and see who murdered Ribit Wonton.”

Leave it to me!

Out of the elevator a large, fat pelican jumped out his fat chest and pushed in his stomach. Detective Frog could notice that he was trying to be a hot shot.

“What’s up, dudes? I’m the scientist here, and I am going to see this body and analyze it and catch the killer. Isn’t that awesome?”

Um, no it’s not, and you can’t speak proper English,” said Detective Frog and Sergeant Monkey in unison.

“This guy is so dumb,” Sergeant Monkey whispered to Detective Frog.

“I heard you say that,” Bobby said (the pelican).

He pulled a knife on both of them and stabbed Sergeant Monkey and knocked Detective Frog out. (Detective Frog thought he liked him.)

Four hours later… 

“Uhh, what happened?”

“I knocked you out. I am Buuuuuuooooooooby. Muhhhahahahahahahhahhahhahahhah!”

“Bff, your name is Buuuuuuooooooooby? That name is so dumb. Are your parents idiots, or is that a pelican thing?” Sergeant Monkey said.

Dude, what is your problem? That’s a cultural thing, and I am the one who murdered Ribot Wonton. I have all the money here. Muhahahahhahahahahhahaha.”

Behind him was so much money.

“Dude, what are you going to do with all this?” Detective Frog said.

“I am going to buy a Ferrari and a mansion and a lot of stuff.

“Well, I’m not going to let you.”

Detective Frog tried to use the BOB and fired a laser beam at Buuuuuuooooooooby. Buuuuuuooooooooby deflected it.

“You really think it would be that easy? I have super powers. Muhuhauahaauahahauahahahaa!”

“What?” 

“This… ”

Buuuuuuooooooooby fired a laser beam out of his eyes. Detective Frog teleported out of the way, and right behind him was Buuuuuuooooooooby. He knocked out Buuuuuuooooooooby and put him in jail and untied Sergeant Monkey. 

Ouchy!!!” Sergeant Monkey said and passed out.

Seven hours later… 

Sargeant Monkey started hyperventilating. 

“I have to get to Buuuuuuooooooooby. He’ll know what to do,” Detective Frog said to himself.

Detective Frog flew to Buuuuuuooooooooby.

“He got cut by a special sword called jshjkabjhkfbsfhhjfksakbhas. He can only be healed if you go to space and retrieve it. You will need me to guide you… ”

Nope!” And he murdered Buuuuuuooooooooby.

THE END… 

Detective Frog will come back soon… in… Detective Frog in Space… 


Appalled at the Art Museum

Wendell and Monico Milk Goats were at the art museum. It looked cool on the outside. It was golden and ancestors were etched on the sides. They were ancestors of gods. Wendell and Monico Milk Goats booked tickets to go inside and take a tour. The manager warned them they might smell like a dirty diaper for at least one month.

They said, “I don’t care! I just want to see what else is cool inside.” They booked it for five months later, and exactly five months later on the exact same second they went to the museum. 

They didn’t know that inside was just a huge garbage dump. It was only chewed up food. Also, they might smell and look like a dirty diaper for at least a month.

Monico Milk Goats said, “Uh, this is not an awesome museum.”

In Monico’s head, the manager said, “Uh, I warned you!”

Monico said, “We shouldn’t have gone. The manager warned us.” They had to stay in the garbage because they booked to stay in it for five years. 

They were really dumb and greedy and rich. There were these plants that were sweet in a circle in the museum. They were sweet, like they were good to eat.

Monico Milk Goats said, “That’s interesting!” Then he said, “That’s odd.” Then they tried to pick the plants and they turned out to be alive. It stirred because it was sleeping. Then they backed away, but then they were like, “Oh, it’s fine,” because it didn’t leap at them.

They whispered, “Let’s rip it out of the ground,” because they wanted to eat it. It was the only food.

So, they said, “Hey, it’s your friend!”

And the plant came closer and closer and the plant said, “What are you gonna do?” 

And they said, “Oh, nothing. Just gonna rip you out of the ground to eat you.” The plant had sharp teeth and almost killed them.

They ran out of the garbage and people were like, “Ew, why would a dirty diaper be let in there? The museum’s so cool!” And then a bunch of people went inside and it was the same story so Monico Milk Goats and Wendell were marked the greatest people in the world because they ventured inside, but actually it was just so they wouldn’t get mad at the people for calling them dirty diapers. Plus, they looked like dirty diapers before they went into the garbage dump, because they were rich and dumb idiots.


Love

Chapter 1

I’m Cloud, the only male wolf in the Best Pack Anyone Could Wish For – although Storm, my sister, said we might want to change our pack’s name and Emily, my best friend, seems to agree with her. Oh, well.

I was roused from my shaky sleep when I heard bickering at the entrance of the cave where the Best Pack Anyone Could Wish For lived.

“Emily! I thought I told you not to go outside in the middle of a thunderstorm!” Storm scolded.

“Yes, Alpha,” Emily said sarcastically, “but would you rather let Cloud starve to death?”

Storm, who was most likely shocked by the Alpha remark, didn’t respond. The leader of a wolf pack is called Alpha, and if Emily thought Storm should be Alpha, I’d agree in a heartbeat. But first, I needed to stop Storm and Emily from arguing.

“Thank you for the prey, Emily. And Storm, you should be Alpha,” I declared, which made both she-wolves whip around to face me with with a we-weren’t-arguing expression.

“Oh, you’re awake!” Emily said cheerfully, as if she had forgotten her previous argument, “I brought you a mouse!”

“I know. I smelled it. Thank you,” I said, wrapping my tail around my paws as the warm amber brown she wolf licked her paws and sat down next to me.

“Are you sure?” Storm said, shock flaring in her olive green eyes.

“Yes!” Emily and I declared simultaneously.

“We should call you Alpha from now on,” Emily joked.

“If you’re sure…”  Storm whispered.

“Alpha! Alpha! Alpha!” Emily and I howled her new name.

“Who’s Beta?” I asked. The Beta was second in command of a wolf pack.

“Well, one of you decides the new name for the pack, and the other becomes Beta,” Alpha decided.

I turned to face Emily. “You should be Beta,” I said, and after only a moment of hesitation, she nodded.

“Beta! Beta! Beta!” We cheered.

“Well, Cloud? What’s our pack’s new name?”

I studied Beta’s soft brown fur, and thought of her lost sister, Keelin. Then I thought about my brother, Sticks, who I hardly remember, but if I was able to recall more than just a faint memory of my brother’s tangled brown gray fur and stubby tail, I’m sure I’d miss him.

“The Pack of Stars,” I said in a hushed voice, “After Keelin and Sticks.”

“And Lola,” Alpha added. I didn’t think it was the right time to mention I don’t have a single memory of our mother.

“And Shadow,” Beta said, which sent me and Alpha’s heads tilting with confusion. “My mother,” Beta explained.

Alpha curled her tail around Beta’s, “You’ve lost all of your family,” she said sympathetically, then added quickly, “well, all of your family that’s worth anything.”

“Worthless murderer,” Beta agreed, snarling, no doubt thinking of her father, Claw, who had killed Keelin.

I studied my sister’s olive eyes that were filled with grief. Keelin was Alpha’s best friend. Alpha is very pretty, I mused, momentarily distracted. And she was — for a wolf her age, at least. Her silver gray moonlike fur was well groomed and she seemed much more mature than when we first started The Pack of Stars, which would be… a month ago, I think. Her muzzle had grown slightly longer and her silver fur was a sharp contrast to the cold, dark stone of this cave. She’s pretty, I thought, but Beta is outstanding.

“Hello, Earth to airhead! Ahem, Cloud? Yoo-hoo!” Alpha said, interrupting my chain of thought by waving her tail in front of my face.

“Airhead yourself,” I retorted, momentarily distracted from my daydreaming about Beta. But then I began thinking again.

Beta’s gray gold eyes contrast her soft mud and amber fur so perfectly and her laugh… I wonder if she knows I’m falling in love with her.

Chapter 2

“Do you hear that?” Beta asked, angling her ears towards a tall bush that was covered in thorns which made the bush look like jagged lightning. She was right, of course. I could hear shuffling and the occasional thwak! thwak! thwak! We were out hunting at night, so of course at this time we had to be way too alert.

“Yes,” I murmured, “should I go talk to them?”

“Sure. Wow, Alpha’s talk about you not being impulsive must have worked — although I guess she was pretty intimidating.”

“She gave you the same speech?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” she said. She tried to give me a menacing look at the hidden wolf(es), but mostly it looked like she was glaring at some random bush. After she must have decided she was scary enough, she raised her voice and howled, “show yourself!”

“Um… sure,” came the reply.

“Be quiet, you!” another voice scolded, but the wolves came out of hiding. It was two wolves. At least, I thought it was two. One of them had to be midnight black unless there was somehow magically floating golden eyes. Probably not. The other wolf was more visible, with his glowing silver white fur and dark blue eyes.

“I’m Silver and this is my younger brother, Galaxy,” the silver wolf said, his voice low and hoarse.

“Yeah, hello! Are you guys in a pack?” If you are, are you anything like the Pack of Dark Wolves? If you aren’t, can we join your pack? Please?” The black one, Galaxy, asked. His voice, compared with his brother’s, was light and fast — also full of questions.

“You know the Pack of Dark Wolves?” Beta asked, ears tilted with confusion. Then understanding dawned in her eyes. “Oh. Oh Silver, it’s you, “Beta said, with such a longing in her voice, I nearly stumbled over my paws in… hmm. I don’t actually know how to describe what I was feeling. Something like anger… but more than that. Maybe she’s sharing some of her longing with me, and I was longing for Beta. I have a strong feeling I’m not going to like this Silver.

Chapter 3

“Alpha! Guess what?!” Beta yelped excitedly as she marched into our home cave.

“I doubt you actually want me to guess,” Alpha replied, sliding out of her den. “What is it?”

“I found Silver and Galaxy, friends of mine from when I was in the Pack of Dark—”

“Wolves. Yes. Good for you. Guards, take them out a kill them, where my offspring can see them.” Then, smiling at Beta, Alpha said, “inside joke.”

“Oh, good,” Beta said, flicking her tail, “because if not…” she trailed off.

“What were you going to say?” I prompted.

“I finished what I was going to say!” Beta retorted.

“Oh,” Alpha and I said simultaneously. Then we heard a low, rumbly growl. I whipper around to face the entrance, thinking the Pack of Dark Wolves was attacking us again, but the only wolf nearby was Galaxy, whose tail was wrapped around himself in embarrassment.

“Sorry, just hungry,” the black wolf muttered.

Beta flicked her ears in amusement. “I’m sure we all are. Silver, wanna come hunting with me?” she asked with a shy glance in his direction. Now I can name the emotion I was feeling a bit earlier. Jealousy. I know because I’m feeling it now.

Chapter 4

“Here you go, Cloud!” Beta said cheerfully while tossing me some prey. She bounded away, calling over her shoulder, “I’m going to go play with Galaxy. See ya later!”

Silver padded over to where I was eating, regarding me. “Beta’s mine,” he said in his fierce but quiet voice.

“She doesn’t belong to anybody,” I announced.

“No. Claw promised her to me. She is destined to be my mate,” Silver snarled.

My hackles rose. “She can choose her own mate now!”

Silver growled, then launched himself at me. I instinctively raised my paws and batted him away. A small line of blood sprung from his underbelly. Growling, he landed on all fours and crouched down, looking ready to spring back up at me. I swerved to the side just as Silver leaped. I launched myself at his flying silver body and tried to pin him down, but he rolled over and ended up on top of me, teeth near my already bleeding throat.

“Silver. What. Are. You. Doing?” It was Alpha! Thank the Pack of Starry Wolves!

Once Silver heard her voice, he spun around and swiped at her, causing her one of her eyes amd muzzle to drip with blood. My sister released an ear splitting shriek of pain and Beta rushed over.

“Alpha! Cloud! Are you okay?”

Silver responded for us, which might have been a good idea, since he nearly ripped my vocal chords out and Alpha had fallen unconscious, but his answer was completely wrong. “They’re fine. Come on, Beta, I’m leaving this pack —- and your own father told you that you had to come with me!”

When Beta responded, her voice was hushed. “No, Silver. Father isn’t here now. I make my own choices. I choose to be called Emily. I met the wolf I love with that name, and I will die with that name, too!” Silver’s eyes seemed to brighten at this, most likely assuming that Emily was talking about them. Emily delivered the final blow, “and cloud is the one I love!”


Jack’s Saviors

Chapter One: Lily

Hi there. My name is Lily Bolt. My brother is Jack Bolt. Our mother is the boss of The New Press™ (a writing company), and our father is a high school teacher. We go to MS:11 (a middle school). I am in the same homeroom as my brother! We are always together. It’s annoying (sometimes).

As we walked to our homeroom, I started to write.

“Ms. Bolt? Can I have your attention? Please stop writing in your diary,” my teacher, Ms. Miller, said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Ms. Miller, it’s… it’s not a… a diary. It’s a journal,” I stammered as other kids snickered. I’m not good with talking to adults (in front of other kids, at least).

“Ms. Bolt, do you think I care if it is a diary or not? Just close the book,” Ms. Miller said.

After math class, Ms. Miller called me as I was leaving the classroom. “Ms. Bolt?” She tapped me on the shoulder. “Please meet me in the classroom during lunch.”

I tried to ignore her but it was hard. Like, really hard.

“Okay.” I crossed my fingers, hoping Ms. Miller would forget.

“What happened?” Jack asked me.

“Nothing. Just getting pizza with Ms. Miller,” I lied. As I walked away, I looked over my shoulder. Jack was still standing there, jaw dropped. He is kind of like the teacher’s pet.

As he stood there, a jock walked over to him and said, “Hi, teacher’s pet!”

He punched him in the shoulder and laughed as he walked away. Jack rubbed his shoulder and walked to the boy’s bathroom, glaring at me.

“What did I do?” I yelled at the boy’s bathroom.

As I walked away to the library, the jock looked at me. Before I didn’t see the jock’s face when he punched Jack. Now as he looked at me, I had a gush of anger. The jock that punched my brother was Jeff, the popular athlete, and he had a huge crush on me. Everyone knew that. Maybe that’s why Jack glared at me.

I stormed up to Jeff and screamed, “Why would you do that?! That was my brother!”

As I walked away from Jeff to the library for computer class, Jeff ran up to me and gave me his “dashing” smile.

“I’m not falling for that again.”

Last week he ran to me after I did cheerleading tryouts and said, “I hope you got in,” and gave me his dashing smile.

I fell into my brother’s arms and fainted. (I used to like him).

“I’m not… I’m not… ” I muttered to myself as he said, “Look, I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t know that was your brother!”

“Huh. Totally. I saw you when you punched him! You said, ‘Hi, teacher’s pet!’ And you then punched him. He is the only ‘teacher’s pet’ around here!” I yelled at him, right outside the library.

“Look, people will get punched around here! I don’t want you to get hurt,” Jeff said to me kindly.

“Why? ‘Cause I’m pretty? Huh?” I said to him.

Then I ran into the library, right before the bell rang. Students ran into the library. Girls gossiped, boys threw footballs, nerds read while they walked, loners walked, you guessed it, alone. Then I understood what Jeff meant. People will get hurt.

One girl ran up to me, hair in her face, yelling, “Lily! Lily!”

“Yes?” I asked calmly. 

“Lily, come,” the girl said.

Her hair was purple-blue-green-brown. Then I recognized her. She was Ms. Miller’s daughter, Amy Miller. As I followed Amy, Jeff was talking to his jock friends, glancing at me at random times, girls were still gossiping, and other people were sitting on the ground, reading or playing video games.

“Come on!” Amy said.

When we got to where Amy brought me, I gasped. It was beautiful. School was suddenly over! (But that wasn’t the beautiful part.) The beautiful part was the snow. There were five inches of snow already, and it was still snowing! I ran to my locker and heard something.

“Everyone, there are already five inches of snow, and it is still snowing. So go to your locker and get your bag. No homework, just get home. Oh, wait, you do have homework. Don’t go outside when you get home!” the speaker said.

I got my bag, and put on my coat. I ran outside. It was still snowing. I felt a snowball against my back. I heard laughing. I turned around. Three boys were laughing at me. I felt anger. I ran home. Winter has begun. So have mean boys.


Chapter Two: Jack

As I walked home, I looked at my arm. I remember Lily saying, “It can’t be that bad.” I know she only said that because of Jeff. My shoulder looked badly bruised. I sighed. It is bad. It is, I thought. I took out my phone and noticed that Jeff wasn’t in the group chat. It was only me, Amy, Lily, and Noah (my best friend).

Hey sis. I noticed that Jeff isn’t on the group chat anymore. Why? Is it that you two broke up…? I texted Lily in our private chat

She didn’t answer for 10 minutes. She was usually on her phone or in her journal.

“Huh,” I muttered. “Whatever. Maybe she hates me. I don’t care anymore.”

I opened the door to our house, and Lily wasn’t in her special chair. Okay, this is getting suspicious. Of course she would be in the special chair either when she is sad or if she is… lazy, I thought.

I saw a note that said, Go upstairs. Or else. It wasn’t Lily’s handwriting, or Mom’s, or Dad’s. It couldn’t be Mom’s or Dad’s. They stayed at work for another five hours. I didn’t like threats, so I hurried up stairs. Nothing was in the hallway, except for another note.

It said, Go to your room. Stay there until your sister comes home. I walked into my room and sat on my bed. I waited there for about one hour. I got really impatient (and I don’t really get inpatient) and walked downstairs. I saw a bucket of paint hanging on the door, and I swear I saw, like, five boys around our house, with snowballs. Then I saw three boys and two girls with Nerf Guns.

“Huh.” I wondered aloud.

I quickly put my hand on my mouth and stood really still. Then I quietly walked over to the fridge and took an apple. Then I saw all the people that surrounded the house scurry away. Then I saw a girl, snow all over her back and front.

“Lily?” I said. Just then she opened the door. I screamed, “Noooo!!!”

Paint splattered all over her. She was wearing a bright green shirt. The paint was pink. Believe me, it looked like… gross. I had a yellow shirt. I jumped in too. I didn’t want Lily to be alone. But then she pushed me away and ran outside, just to get more snow on her. I ran outside too, and I got Nerfed. Those three boys and two girls shot Nerfs at me.

I pulled Lily inside. “What happened!?” I screamed at her.

Lily started to cry and ran into the bathroom. I felt guilty. I got towels for her and knocked on the door.

“What is it?!” she yelled.

“I… I just… brought… some towels,” I stammered. I opened the door, not looking in, and threw the towels in. Then I said, “You know… I’m really good at handwriting… You want me to do your homework?”

“Sure,” she said.

I ran downstairs, took her homework out of her bag, and saw a note. It said, Ms. Bolt, come early tomorrow to school. Come to my classroom. – Ms. Miller.

I gasped. I’ll tell her later, I thought. I finished her homework with a, Ms. Miller, I will not write in my journal during class anymore. I did my homework and then ran to Lily’s room. Lily was dry, all clean in her pajamas. 

“I know who made those notes. Those kids out there,” she said out of nowhere.

“Um… here,” I handed her the note.

“Ugh,” she groaned.

“What? You get to have pizza and ice cream with Ms. Miller!” I was shocked.

“That’s during lunch! Right now… tomorrow morning… I’m going to be in big trouble!” She groaned again.

“No you’re not. Just show her your homework, and then she’ll let you go,” I said.

“Why?” Lily asked me.

“Because I wrote, Ms. Miller, I will not write in my journal during class anymore,” I replied.

“You have to ask me when you write stuff like that before you write it!!!” Lily said.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

“It’s okay,” Lily said quietly.

I put my pajamas on and went downstairs. I heard the door click open.

“Honey… darling,” a voice came from outside.

I opened the door and then I didn’t know if it was just me or a real one, but there was suddenly a blackout. 


Chapter Three: Amy

Ding dong, the doorbell rang. The door opened.

“Yes?” A girl answered the door.

“Hi, Lily!” I said excitedly.

“Go away,” Lily said.

“Why?” I asked, trying to be annoying (believe me, I can be really annoying!) but sometimes Lily knew me better than I knew myself!!

“Don’t try,” she said, grunting and slamming the door in my face.

I took out my phone. I looked at my phone case. I got it on my 10th birthday, in London. Lily was there with me (and Jack), and she gave me a phone case with leaves all over it. Then I got a PopSocket with a puppy (collie) barking. I smiled. I turned my phone over to the front and texted Lily.

Hey Lils, whatcha doing? Y didn’t u answer me?! What happened? And y didn’t u let me come in?! I’m still standing outside ur house. Waiting 4 u!!

After one minute, she answered. Ugh… y u, of all peeps?! Y u!? Ok, i’ll give u 10 mins in my house. Mom and dad aren’t home yet.

She opened the door, and said, “Come in, quickly.”

When we got in, she set a timer for ten minutes. “Wow. I’m starting to feel rushed,” I said to her, joking.

“Okay, so basically I got ambushed by some kids, (whatever!) Jack did my homework, (lucky!) and he… ” I didn’t listen to this part. It was already nine minutes!

“And then… ready for the mystery?” Lily asked me.

“Yeah!” I said, nervous, but still excited.

“He… he went… down… downstairs… but… but he never… never came… came back,” Lily said, sadly.

“Oh, Lily!” I said.

I felt really bad. I don’t have any younger siblings, so I don’t really know how it feels to lose one.

“Oh, Lily,” I started.

But just right then the timer rang. 

“Goodbye!!” Lily said and pushed me outside.

I took out my phone again and texted Jack this time.

Hey jack. Where r at? Lily’s worried mad. She just kicked me out of the house. I know u don’t text a lot, but I need u to text me back now! Like, right now!! Or I’ll have to tell ur parents that they need to hire some detectives.

He didn’t answer after five minutes. Then he texted back. 

Amy. Help. I’m kidnapped. Right now I’m in a sack. Just woke up. Tell Lily. I need you, Lily, and Noah. Get Jeff, if Lily wants. I just need all the help I can get!

I sighed. He was still alive. I ran back to Lily’s house and wrote a note to her.

Lily. Meet me in the girl’s bathroom, middle stall.

I got a text from Jack. Tell you details then. We need a team. I like, ‘Jack’s saviors’ cool, huh? Wait, getting off topic. Bye! Text ya at 9:00. K? Bye.

I put the note under her door. As I walked home, everything seemed… different. So many things would happen tomorrow. The high school dance would be in one week (Valentine’s Day dance). I also had so many questions. Who would I go to the dance with? Who kidnapped Jack? Would this “team” work out the way I thought it might? Would I make more friends? Would we invite Jeff? After that last question, I was home. I sighed.

I unlocked the door and yelled, “Mom? Dad? Y’all home?”

“Yes, honey!” my dad said calmly from the kitchen.

“Mom isn’t home yet?” I asked, surprised.

“No. She has a meeting about how to deal with girls or boys who like to write during class. I think you know who I’m talking about,” he said, glancing at me.

“Lily,” I sighed. 

“Honey, your food is at the table. Eat quickly,” he said, smiling. 

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s a surprise!” he teased me, laughing. “Fine. I’ll tell you. We are going to Avengers: Endgame with some friends from preschool.”

“Ugh,” I groaned. I’m usually really friendly, but I haven’t seen them since I was two years old!

“Honey. You love Marvel!” he exclaimed.

“I know, but… I haven’t seen them for a while,” I said sadly.

I finished eating and went upstairs to get my Marvel merchandise. When I came down, I looked in the mirror. I wore a baseball cap saying, Avengers: Endgame: Friday, April 26, 2019. I had a ponytail up under my cap, a shirt that said, Captain Marvel will return in Avengers: Endgame on the back and on the front it said, Captain Marvel. I wore pants that on the side said, Black Widow. I wore simple shoes that were gray.

“Okay, dad, I’m ready!” I said, running to the living room.

I heard a buzz from my phone. I looked at the text message. It was from Lily, and it came with a picture.

Hey Amy, saw note. I gtg to ur mom’s room early tho. When Jack disappeared, I saw 2 peeps (adults) leaving my house. I took a picture of it. I sent it to u. I’ll go to ur mom’s room (fingers crossed u might be there!) and after our ‘talk’ w/ ur mom, I’ll meet ya at bathroom. Bye!

I smiled. Kk, I texted her back.

Then I put my phone in my pocket and saw my dad running downstairs.

“We are late! Five minutes ‘till movie!!” he yelled. “Hop in! Hop in!”

We quickly got into the car and drove to the movie theater. We got our seats and sitting right next to me was a girl. Sitting next to her was another girl. Then a boy. Then five more girls. I recognized them all. They were my preschool friends! Laila, Willow, Liam, Maya, Georgia, Sole, Ciri, and Alison. I smiled. I knew they went to my school. Eight more people on our team now.


Chapter Four: Noah

I am really worried, worried sick. I saw Amy texting Jack on her private chat. Oh, I’m a hacker. My name is Noah. I texted Jack, but he didn’t answer back. So I hacked his private chat with Amy and saw the texts. I knew it was Jack texting Amy ‘cause… he kind of has a crush on her. Jack was kidnapped and in a sack full of apples! (I know it’s apples. In every book/movie it’s apples.) I’m so worried! Okay, get back in the present. Noah, get back into the present. Okay, so now I just got a text message from Amy.

Hey Noah. Meet me and Lily. We are making a team to find Jack. Don’t call the police. They will take you and me out of this.

I’m still really nervous, but I am Jack’s friend, not his overprotective friend like his mother. No. I’m his friend. The next morning, I got up at 5:00 and met Amy in Ms. Miller’s classroom. Lily wasn’t there yet. Neither was Ms. Miller.

“Where’s your — ”

“Shhh!” Amy interrupted, gesturing around her.

“What?” I whispered.

Amy ran up to me. “There’s a secret room around here. That’s where Mom and Lily are,” she told me, like it was obvious.

“Okay… why Lily though?” I asked her.

“She’s in trouble. And be quiet! Mom doesn’t know we are here!” she hissed at me.

I took out my phone. Jeez. Okay, Ms. Bossypants! I texted her. Amy glared at me.

Don’t you even dare, she texted me back.

K. yeesh, I texted her. Since I got in the classroom, I could hear distinct chatter. Now it stopped.

“Uh oh,” Amy said. “Out, quick.”

As we scurried away, Lily and Ms. Miller came out of a door with a blue handle. The room was pink. How could I have not noticed that?! I wondered. As I saw Lily leaving, her face was pale, and she was holding her math notebook.

“Good job, Lily!” Ms. Miller called out.

“Thanks,” she said back.

Ms. Miller was holding her homework. We went to the library, which was open from 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM. When we came in, eight people were in there already.

“Um… who are these people?!” I asked Amy, who was smiling, and Lily, who was just as puzzled as I was.

“These were my friends from preschool, and now they are in our team!” Amy said. “This is Ciri,” she said, pointing at a girl with dark brown fuzzy hair. “This is Solé,” she said, pointing at a girl with cool earrings that were made out of yarn. “This is Georgia,” she said, pointing to the tallest girl there. “This is Maya,” pointing to a girl with brown hair. “This is Liam,” pointing to the only boy there. I waved to him. He waved back. “This is Laila,” pointing to a girl with short black/brown hair. “This is Willow,” pointing to a girl who had a green bow in her hair. “And this is Alison,” pointing to a girl with round, redish-pinkish glasses.

“This is Lily,” she said, pointing at Lily. “And this is Noah,” she said, pointing at me. “And, well. I’m Amy, as you all know!” she said, trying to be humorous.

Kids laughed faintly. So did I.

Lily stepped in and said, “Okay, everyone. My brother, Jack, got kidnapped at 8:30 PM, yesterday night. It’s now 5:30 AM, nine hours after he got kidnapped. Amy here, knows something we don’t know.”

“Okay, so here. Do we have a board or… ” Amy started.

“Oh, yes! Yes!” I said excitedly. I was happy to help, but then with those ten faces all looking at me, my happiness quickly faded away. I said, “Um… I mean, there’s a Smartboard… ” I walked to the Smartboard and asked for Amy’s phone.

“Why?” She asked me.

“Because… because I need to connect it to the… ”

“Okay!” she said, putting her phone in my hand.

I felt her hand for a second. It was soft and smooth. I sighed. It made me feel better. I took the phone and connected it to the Smartboard. Then I gestured to Amy to take the lead.

“Thank you, Noah.”

“You’re… you’re welcome,” I said, sheepishly. I saw her eyes. They were beautiful. They were golden brown. I… I think… I started to like her. As in, like like like her… 

“Okay, everyone?” she asked, bringing me back to the present.

“Um… what?” I asked her, completely forgetting the text message I hacked into.

“Um… the text message??” she said.

“Oh yeah. Okay.” I read it through again and said, “Yep. I’m done reading.”

“Okay, everyone. The picture of the adults only reminds me of one family. Jeff. I met his parents, and one was enough,” she said, joking.

“Okay, let’s question him first,” Lily said. 

Just then I got an idea. “Hey guys. Um… Jack’s message… it said invite Jeff if wanted. Should we? He might know more than us, if that’s his parents. I know he would help Lily.” I glanced at her. “For anything.”

The school bell rang.

“Everyone, we will meet at lunch, table three!” Lily shouted over the ringing bell.

Everyone got their bags and ran to their homerooms. Eleven kids in the team. Only one kid to find. How hard can it be, really?


Chapter Five: Jeff

Hi. I’m Jeff. You might think of me as a cool, tough jock. But on the inside, I’m a small writer and a boy who wants a girl. My parents did something incredibly, horribly awesome. They kidnapped someone!! And they still aren’t in jail! I’m not going to tell the police anything. But what happened with Lily and Jack… Okay, I’ll be honest. I meant to punch Jack. I knew it was him, but… it was only because Ms. Roma (our homeroom teacher) let us do trivia.

She asked the only question about sports, and it was, “In inches, how big is the diameter of a basketball hoop?”

“I am really bad at math,” I said.

“But you are really good in sports,” Ms. Roma challenged me.

“Yeah. I remember last year we had to measure it in gym,” a girl, Rose, said.

“Just what was it?” Ms. Roma asked us all. “Put a thumbs up when you know it. Don’t yell it.”

Everyone suddenly remembered (or so I thought). I lied, and put a thumbs up.

“When I count ‘three, two, one’, raise your hand first,” Ms. Roma said. “Three, two, one!” she yelled.

Everyone quickly put their hand up.

“Ms. Rose, what do you think it is?” she asked Rose.

“Ten,” Rose said triumphantly.

“No, Ms. Rose. Now you are out of the game.”

“Mr. Outi, what do you think?” she asked Outi.

“Five!” he shouted.

Before Ms. Rome could even say, “I’m sorry,” he jumped on a table and screamed, “I’m the winner of this round! Me, me, me!” he screamed, louder. It hurt my ears so much!!!

“Mr. Outi! You are out of the game and of the classroom,” Ms. Roma shouted.

Ms. Roma is pretty nice, so we were all surprised when she shouted.

“Next?” she said quieter than shouting but still loudly. “Ms. Alison? What do you think the answer is?” she asked calmly to Alison.

I met Alison before. She is Lily’s friend, Amy’s, friend. (I mean, I think so.)

“Sixteen,” Alison said.

“Close, Ms. Alison, but no,” she whispered. No one heard except for me, since I was right next to Alison.

“I’m sorry, Alison, but no,” Ms. Roma said loudly, as she would call it, “inside voice.” 

When she first said that, Outi said, “I lost my inside voice in an accident.” It was funny. 

“Mr. Jeff?” Ms Roma asked me.

“Um… seventeen?” I said the closest number to sixteen.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Jeff. Maybe the top star athlete will not be the top star in athlete facts,” she said to me.

Many people laughed or snickered.

One of them patted me on the back and said, “Next time, low star in athletic facts.”

Everyone laughed. I was blushing.

“You’re out! You’re out!” people teased.

As I walked to the section with Alison and Rose, I asked them, “Are you guys embarrassed because of losing?”

“No! Everyone loses at something,” Alison replied.

“Yeah. Agreed, but what I’m embarrassed of is you asking things a little kid would ask,” Rose said.

She said that last part loudly so everyone could hear. People laughed again.

“Hey, Jeff. Don’t be a sore loser. I like what Alison said. ‘Everyone loses at something.’ Like me. I lose at sports but I still have friends! And no one is perfect,” a boy said, named Jack. 

Ms. Roma cleared her throat. “Thank you, Jack, for the pep-talk.” Everyone laughed, including Jack. “But can we please get back to trivia?”

“Yes, Ms. Roma,” everyone said in harmony.

“Okay, Ms. Chelsea?”

“Call me Chels,” Chelsea said.

Everyone likes her. Not because of her singing, or how she looks, but because she takes everything chill. People call her Chill Chels. Everyone is her friend. 

“Um… let’s see… sixteen and up?” Chill Chels said.

“Ms. Chelsea, you have to pick an exact number,” Ms. Roma said.

“Oh then… okay… fifteen?” Chill Chels said, but in a question sort of way.

“No, Ms Chelsea. But thank you for being like Rose and Alison. Not some boys.” She looked at me. “And thank you for being ‘chill’ about it,” Ms. Roma said calmly.

“Okay,” Chill Chels said.

She walked towards me, Alison, and Rose, only to invite them to come to her house today.

“Sure!” Rose said.

“Yeah, I’m free!” Alison said.

They walked to a different corner, talking. Then Jack got it correct, and I got really mad. That’s why I punched him. But don’t get me wrong, I had no idea that Jack didn’t come to school the day after I complained to my parents about him, and then they kidnapped someone!

At lunch today, I ate at table three, all alone. But then eleven people came up to me and sat at that table. The one in the lead was Lily. In the cafeteria, there were security guards because of the kidnapping. But outside, anything could happen. And guess what? We could go outside!

So Lily said, “Outside, now.”

When we got outside, we picked a place with lots of grass. I thought we were having a date, and the people behind her were guards, so we wouldn’t get harmed (even though the kidnappers were my parents)! Lily introduced me to the gang behind her. I only knew three people. Alison, Amy, and Noah. So they questioned me about my parents, if anyone knew who was missing, and Noah said if I gave them the information they needed, I could help look for Jack. I told them that my parents did kidnap Jack, but I didn’t know where he was or why he got kidnapped. I told them no one knew who got kidnapped, but I could go tell a guard that I knew who it was.

They quickly said, “No! No! No! No! No! No!”

Then I said, “Why?”

And they said because they would hire a real detective, and only Lily would be in this, but they wanted to help. I answered their questions and soon enough, Noah’s promise was correct. I got on their team! It was private though. No telling anyone, ect. The team was called “Jack’s Saviors.” We all made a group chat called that. I couldn’t wait to help! I wasn’t just helping because I was nice, but I was also doing it for Lily! (And her friends, but… yeah.)


Chapter Six: Jack’s Saviors (Group Chat)

December 15th 2020, 7:50 AM

Lily: Hey saviors. 3rd day already and NO CLUE OF JACK! Well, that was my turn of investigating. Whose turn is it? Oh yeah, Jeff, it’s your turn. Try to ask your parents about Jack, and he’s been missing for 3 days already and maybe he might have been kidnapped? Before you do this, do your parents know that you know they are the kidnappers? And also say it was weird how Jack disappeared the day you complained about him. And say you two are friends. Make it seem like you like Jack as a friend and you miss him, or just spend lots of time with your parents to figure out where he is.

December 16th 2020, 7:40 AM

Jeff: Ok. Just did that for a whole day!!! Didn’t find out where Jack was, sadly. 

9:50 AM

Alison: Aw… I haven’t met Jack yet. He seems like a nice guy worth saving for!!

9:59 AM

Georgia: Hey! He’s Lily’s brother! We made new friends! Come on. We would save him for Lily and for Amy!

10:00 AM

Amy: We should all look for Jack at the same time to move faster. Here. I’ll send a photo of him. 

IMG.3958

10:17 AM

Noah: Ok. I think we should all look at where this kidnapping thing started. Lily’s house.

Ciri: Agreed. But, everyone should bring a microscope or something that would let us see closer in. 

Sole: Yeah. Lily’s at home with her mother and father, rushing them to go work. Just texted her on private chat. She said they still think that Jack is sick in bed. LOL!! 

Maya: Really?! I’m still so happy winter break just started!!! So many days to investigate!

Liam: Maya, you’re ALWAYS happy! And I think Noah, Jeff, and I should go for more clues. Maybe at Jeff’s house? I dunno.

Laila: Yeah. Maybe I can go sneak into my mom’s science room. I might find some good tools… 

Willow: YEAH! I’ll find some books about solving kidnap mysteries in the library. We could all meet at Lily’s house after. We all know where she lives… so yeah. See you guys there! GO SAVIORS!

11:11 AM

Lily: GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!! STOP DOING WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING!! WE FOUND HIM! Well, at least we know where.

Amy: where?

Noah: where?

Ciri, Alison, Sole, Georgia, Maya, Liam, Laila, Willow said the same thing: where?

Jeff: MY PARENTS HAVE A SECRET LAIR IN D.C. HE’S THERE!!!

11:20 AM 

Lily, Amy, Noah, Ciri, Alison, Sole, Georgia, Maya, Liam, Laila, and Willow said the same thing: Yay!!!

To be continued… 


Bonus Chapter: Jack’s Saviors (Group Chat)

Jeff: Hello? Anyone? Well, in my parents’ room, I found a paper. I’ll post it. But… I’m sorry. I have to leave the team. I won’t tell my parents, but I feel guilty reading this. Here. I posted it. 

We have a secret. We are secretly kidnappers, because our son, Jeff, has a public crush on this cheerleader, Lily. He punched her brother, by accident (well, he said that). He told us what happened, how Lily got really mad at him and left him. He told us that before Lily got mad, he told her, “Listen, Lily. People will get hurt around here. I don’t want you to.” After he told us that, he ran up stairs and didn’t come down. We didn’t disturb him because he was making a phone call. But we heard some words. “On 12th avenue, on 6th street. Yes. I know that’s where they live. I’m sure. Yes. Nerfs and snowballs. Okay. Bye.” And he hung up. So we went to their house, and there was paint all over the door. Nerfs were on the ground. We tried to open the door. We had a huge sack of apples. A boy opened the door, and instead of being nice to Lily, we knocked him out. Yes, I know. Mean and rude. But this boy stopped our Jack from getting the chance to have Lily like him!!

-Jeff’s parents


The Time When Unicorns Existed, or Shall I Say the Time When I Got Famous, or Maybe Not

Just remember, if you’re reading this story, don’t freak out. If you freak out, just stop reading this story right away.


Chapter One

Do you know the time when unicorns used to exist? Well, I know when. So this is the story: once I was dreaming about some unicorns — I saw unicorns flying in the air. That was amazing, really just to tell you. I loved it.

Guess what happened next: the unicorns were dancing for real! I know right.

Then the unicorns started to dance — it was so funny that I woke up and started laughing.

Crazy!

My mom said, “Hey, why are you laughing like that?” I was still laughing. That was surely crazy. My mom said, “Come on, stop laughing. Come on, get up.”

I still sat there. I was laughing like crazy.

My mom got so mad that she carried me up to the table and said, “Explain, explain, explain to me what this nonsense is all about!”

I said, “It was nothing to worry about, okay.”

Then my mom said, “The next time you do that again, you are going to get a toy.”

I was so surprised!

That was just one sentence that I loved!

Loved it!  

I think I just saw a unicorn right now in 2019 — dun, dun, dun.

That means unicorns really do exist. It looked so beautiful, and it had so many colors I couldn’t believe. I was sitting there on a chair in the morning just waiting for something. Then a unicorn just popped up running through the house! That was so amazing. It wasn’t my dream. It was in real life, actually! I really couldn’t believe that. I was the first person in 2019 to see a unicorn. Maybe I would be famous one day because of that. But I’m not actually sure if other people know about that. I know that my family knows, but… I am not really sure if other people know about this. Or people from the news, or anyone except for my family. That was really odd.

I said to my mom, “Did you see the unicorn just run in our house? It had so many colors! It was so cool! I was the first person in 2019 to see a unicorn! Isn’t that amazing?”

My mother said, “I know! I know! I saw that too!”


Chapter Two

I remembered when my mom said that when I have a crazy dream and laugh all the time, she’ll get me a new toy. I thought it was suspicious. So I did that again.

Then something weird happened. She actually didn’t give me a toy. She gave me something else.

It was a toy unicorn that you can ride on when you push the play button, and when you reverse it, you can go backwards. You can do that without even moving your legs. It does it by itself! That was actually kind of cooler than a toy.

I play with it all night and all day. I never stopped riding on it. I play with it all night, all day, every month, and every year. I got it when I turned eight years old. But I wonder if that was just for my birthday present or because… I was… laughing.

I was so confused. I was afraid to ask because if I asked my mom, she would take advantage of it and maybe take away the unicorn. So I didn’t want that to happen, so I just took it away from my mind and not care about it anymore. Then I just had fun with it as usual. I was thinking to myself why my mom would get something like that for $1,339.

I think I’m losing my mind! Is it actually true, or am I just dreaming? Are my eyes working right now?

Okay. Now let’s get to a new topic. Do unicorns actually exist? (That’s the title of the story.) I think they do. If I told the news that unicorns actually exist, I might be famous in some way. But I don’t know how.

I think I got an idea! I will go to the Mayor of New York.

I arrived there and said to her, “You dare call me a liar? But I was the first in 2019 to see a unicorn. This is true. I could even show you a photo, if you’d like. Put it on a newspaper, and send it to everybody in the whole world. Then I would be famous!”

“Neighhhh… ”

“What was that?” I said. “It’s a unicorn! Unicorns actually exist! I will look here, and you look there. And if I see a unicorn cross by, I will tell you to look there. And if you see a unicorn cross by, then you will tell me. Then we will see if unicorns really exist. This is my time to prove to you.”

The mayor said, “If it’s true that unicorns actually exist and you really saw it, I will make you famous.”
I said, “Hold on, hold on. Are you serious? You’re going to make me famous? No kidding? Are you?”

The mayor got frozen for a while. She was staring at something — it was huge and enormous. I looked there, and I saw a unicorn. The mayor was shocked, really shocked! I tried to unfreeze the mayor, but she kept staring at the unicorn. It was no joke. She was truly shocked.

Then the mayor unfroze.

I said to the mayor, “You see. Unicorns actually exist, and I was the first one in 2019 to see it. You see?”

The mayor said, “That unicorn that just crossed by… it was so beautiful. It had so many colors. My eyes were about to explode.”

I told the mayor, “Okay. Okay. Okay. Calm down now. If you want a photo of that unicorn, luckily, I took a photo. I have a printer at my house! I can print out a picture of the unicorn that crossed by and send thousands of pictures of it around the world. And give you one.”

I was willing to give the mayor one the next day, and printed off thousands of the photo, but then I forgot and fell asleep. I forgot and the mayor forgot to make me famous… dun dun dun. Man, the mayor was just totally off. All my work of being famous was off. And that was just bad. I couldn’t believe it.

The next day I woke up, and I stretched out. I took a deep breath, and my memory was wiggling. My memory caught up and at just that second, I remembered something big: do you know what it is? If you said I forgot to send the mayor a picture — you are correct. *Ding!* If you did not say that, you are wrong. *Err!*


Chapter Three

Okay, this story about when the unicorns existed is starting to get… totally out of hand. Anyway, let’s just get back to the story. If you’re still reading this story, great. If you like it, tell your friends about it. Okay, let’s just get back to the story.

Remember when I told you about when the mayor and I saw the unicorn? That was a way better unicorn than I saw at my house — it had more colors and was way more beautiful. And to be honest with you, that was actually good. Really good.

It was getting dark, and the sun was going down. The moon was rising, and the stars were out. Some feeling I have… in the night, I feel like I’m lonely for some reason. Maybe because it’s dark. Maybe unicorns liked to be in the dark, and people think unicorns don’t even exist. Oh yeah! Did I or did the mayor forget to make me famous? This is the worst day ever. I was supposed to be famous, and I am not. I must go back to that mayor and should have a plan to do something. I know! I’ll go to the mayor and tell her, “Weren’t you supposed to make me famous? Did you lose your mind?”

Then I went to the mayor and said to her, “Wasn’t I supposed to be famous?”

But the mayor said, “You forgot to give me the photo.”

And I said, “Oh yeah.” I had hidden the photo behind my back, and I said, “Do you want the photo? Surprise!!!” I pulled out the photo from behind my back. 

The mayor said, “Okay! Now let’s make you famous. Tomorrow, watch the news. I’ll make you famous on the news. I promise.”


Chapter Four

I woke up the next day, and I watched the news.

The news guy said, “Unicorns! Lovely unicorns!”

For some reason the news guy didn’t even mention my name or anything about me.

I was so mad about that, so I went back to the mayor and said to her, “I was watching the news just today, and the news man didn’t even make me famous at all or even mention my name or anything. He just said ‘unicorns lovely unicorns!’”

The mayor looked at me, with fake surprise.

Then I said, “You’re just faking, so if I go to the building where the news people go, and I ask them if you told them about me, or even mentioned my name, what do you think they will say? Every day I drive past the building, and I have written the name and address of where it is.”

The mayor said, “Okay okay. The only reason I didn’t make you famous was because… um… okay, I didn’t make you famous because usually when people make you famous the news people give out the address of where you life, and they might come to your door and ring your bell and do something. They might kidnap one of your daughters or your sons.”

I said, “I have daughters? I have sons? Well that’s cool, and plus that is new news for me!” 

The mayor, “No! No! No! You are getting off track. You have no kids. You are only a kid. Anyways, let’s just get back to what we were talking about before. So remember when I told you that when you get famous on the news, they tell your address and someone can knock on your doorbell and when they open the door they can do something bad to you.”

I said, “Okay, you’re right, but I’m thinking that usually no one does that.”

But the mayor said, “Do you want to live a nice and peaceful life or keeping on working to be famous because once you are famous people can forget about you once you stop doing your work of being famous.”

Then I said, “Actually, you are kind of correct.”

So the mayor said, “What do you think now?” 

“I have a plan actually. With your advice that you just told me, now I don’t want to be famous anymore. Now, for the news, I have a plan! A very special plan! Do you know what it is? Something special and crazy!!! I’m going to tell you something cool. Here we go! Are you ready for it? You’re going to go tell the news to someone named Mr. Piko Piko. Let me tell you a secret. That’s a fake person and a fake name. But don’t tell the news especially! Okay, let’s get back to what we were saying. Next, you are going to say about Mr. Piko Piko to the news and that he lived on 97th Street between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue. So you got it? I’m going to write it down on a paper, and tomorrow I’m going to give it to you. And then after tomorrow, you’re going to go to the news and say everything that I told you about Mr. Piko Piko.”

The next day, I woke up and got a loose piece of paper and wrote everything about Mr. Piko Piko. Then, I went off and gave it to the mayor.

The mayor said to me, “Could I tell you something? Your plan is excellent! Give me a high five! And when someone tries to go to Mr. Piko Piko’s address and rings the bell, someone will open the door and the person who came will ask, ‘What is your name?’ They will say something else than Mr. Piko Piko. They are going to be so surprised!”

The next day, the mayor went to the news people and said there’s someone named Mr. Piko Piko and he lives on 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenue.

The news people said, “Okay! Sure, no problem! But in the first place, why are you telling me this?”

“I’m telling you this because Mr. Piko Piko is willing to be famous.”

The news people said, “Okay.”

The next day, the mayor and I sat next to each other and watched the news.

Then the news people said, “Mr. Piko Piko is famous! He lives on 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenue.”

He became famous at Rock and Roll music bro. The mayor closed the TV. Then the mayor and I started laughing so badly.

“Where did the news people get the Rock and Roll bro?”

“That was so crazy!”

We laughed for a while. It was a success!


Chapter Five

The mayor and I gave a high five to each other. But then, someone went to Mr. Piko Piko’s house and remembered that Mr. Piko Piko is not real. So, they rang the bell on the door and a guy opened the door.

He asked him, “What’s your name?”

The guy said, “My name is Pearator.” Pearator said to the man, “But who are you?!”

“Nevermind, I shall say.”

Then, the man just closed the door and left.

Pearator said, “That’s odd.”

The man went to his house.

The next day, the man went to the news people, and he said to them, “You guys tricked me! Guess what happened! You said the guy, Mr. Piko Piko lived on 97th street between Columbus and Amsterdam, but when I went there and knocked on the door and asked what his name was just to make sure and he said his name was Pearator.”

The news people said, “Wait, hold on. the mayor clearly told me in front of my eyes and ears this information and it’s not true. Something’s fishy around here. Time to animate the plan! We’re going to go to the mayor and go capture her.”

The guy said, “That’s a good plan. High five! If they are going to trick us, then we are going to trick them.” 

The next day, the news people and the guy went to the mayor and said to the mayor, “We went to ‘Mr. Piko Piko’s’ house.” When the news people said this to the mayor they used their hands to make air quotes. They continued and said, “We rang on the door and asked what his name is and he said his name was Pearato.”

The mayor looked at me and said to them, “Just one second. We need to go and do something.” 

The mayor and I went to this private room and said to each other, “Uh oh, they got us.”

“Time to operate another plan. So, we’re going to go back to them, and we’re going to shout ‘run!!!’”

So, we went back to them and said to each other, “Run!”

And the mayor and I ran away as fast as we could. But they still caught the mayor but not me because I’m too fast. Too bad for the mayor. She lost her job.

I said to the people, “You might have caught the mayor but not me because I’m so fast and you guys are so slow.”

They said, “Whatever, we don’t care.” And that was the end.

 THE END


Amber Diaries

If found, please contact Amber Charleston.


Monday, January 20

I can’t believe this is happening to me. I’m in the girl’s bathroom panicking! There is no way I’m going to make it through eighth grade. I just made a complete fool out of myself in front of my crush (Matt)! Oh no!

And to make matters worse, I sit next to Rebecca Hills in just about every class, who, by the way, is the most popular girl in the whole school. Calling her vain is an understatement. She’s a killer shark with sparkly lipstick and a designer jacket. 

But, for some reason, everybody adores her.

Rebecca and I do not get along!

She is always gossiping behind my back saying super mean stuff, like our school mascot Manny wears cuter clothes than me, which could be true, but still, she doesn’t have to say it.

I do not appreciate that girl blabbing about my personal business like that.

Today, Matt asked me to be his partner for math class, and I was so happy that I flipped, and I bet Rebecca was super jealous, because right before French class she said, “He’s mine, Amber, so don’t you dare get close to him, or you’ll be sorry you ever met me.” In my head I said, “Then why does he never pay attention to you?” But on the outside I just ignored her like I always do.

Anyway, I just had the best math class ever, even though all Matt and I did was stare into each other’s eyes like lovesick puppies, and when he said, “Um… Amber could you pass me the pencil” it was so romantic I thought I was going to die.

Tuesday, January 21

Ugh! That was me screaming, by the way. My parents just told me that I’m grounded for three months just for getting an F in math. Geez! Parents can overreact so much sometimes. I bet Rebecca Hills never has these problems. She’s an only child and her parents’ sweet little girl.

And to make matters worse, when I walked into my room I discovered that my two younger siblings, Juli and Lolo, had completely trashed my room — my door was scribbled all over with purple marker. Unfinished homework was flying everywhere. My bed was soaking wet. I couldn’t tell if it was water or pee. Eww. “Mom, Dad, I can’t believe you let Juli and Lolo do this.” Their answer was, “Oh really, um, what did they do? Can’t be that bad, can it?” I was so frustrated with my parents and my siblings I kicked them out of my room and then had a very good private scream.


Wednesday, January 21

Yes! After all the drama from yesterday, I’m happy to have something good to say for once — today was the best day of my life I just won $3,000 dollars in a fashion design competition. Just a week ago my best friends, Estella, Emily, and Luna, entered a dress (without telling me of course) that I had made in second grade. Surprisingly, it won! Who would have thought an old dress would beat Rebecca’s awesome 3D fashion crush designs.

My friends and I are going out for pizza tonight. Then we’re going to go to my house for a celebration party and a sleepover — it’s going to be the best and the good news is: there’s no school tomorrow in honor of me, so we can stay up as late as we want!


Thursday, January 22

Well, the party’s over. I’m kind of sad it’s done. We had the best time. We ate so much junk food and drank so much soda that we were practically bouncing off the walls. Around 5 AM we finally decided to settle in and sleep

We slept till 1PM. By that time it was time for Estella, Emily, and Luna to go home. We said our goodbyes, and they left anyway. I just had the best night of my life!


Monday, January 26 

I cannot believe that girl. I just got home from school to find my entire front yard trashed. Plus our fancy rocking chair was broken, and when I went inside it was an even bigger mess glasses, and bowls were shattered, my siblings’ toys were scattered everywhere, and my entire wardrobe was on the floor. I have to clean this mess up before my parents get home, or I’m going to be in big trouble, and I’ll get all the blame. So excuse me, but I have to clean up a big mess and there’s not enough time to do it.

It’s half past midnight, and I’ve finally finished my homework. I’m so bored. Plus I’m not one bit sleepy — I have nothing to do but play with my Barbie dream house tucked away in my closet in case someone comes to visit. Yes, I’ll admit it. I play with Barbies, but if anyone is reading this, don’t you tell anyone or you’ll be sorry — I’d die of embarrassment if they knew.


Tuesday, January 28

I can’t believe what I just did! Right now I’m lying in bed pretending to be sick all because of my SSSBFF (super super secret best friend forever) Rebecca Rainbow Sparkles, who is the daughter of the senator of Rainbow Republic. I’m not supposed to tell anyone about it, but I figured writing about it wouldn’t hurt. The reason I’m lying in bed is to help Rebecca plan the upcoming war against pink fluffy unicorns, and I totally support her plan to dress up as a boy and join the war, but to make it clear Rebecca Rainbow is not Rebecca Hills. I hate that girl. So when I say Rebecca, I mean my friend, not my enemy. Note to self: Never stay up answering your SSSBFF emails.


Tuesday, January 29

Ahhh! I really don’t think that I’m going to survive this war. Rebecca Hills just joined the pink fluffy unicorns against me. Hopefully I make it out alive.

One year later… 

Okay, this is Amber. Still me, just one year older, and I’m not entirely sure if the war is over, but it seems to have paused for now. Anyway, last night I got the weirdest text from Rebecca saying, What’s your name?, Was it bongly boo boo?, or something like that. And then she made a promise to stop Rebecca Hills from torturing me. I totally believe in her, but let’s face it. There’s only so much a talking rainbow can do.


Friday, January 26

O-M-G! I am so excited. Rebecca is finally coming to the human world to stop Rebecca Hills. I offered to let her stay at my house. She can sleep under my bed, and so far it’s been working out really well. We have so much fun in the night. The only catch is I have to leave meals three times a day. I convinced mom and dad to let me stay home from school for a month if I did all their chores plus my chores in one day. It was a lot of work for one day, but I did it, so now I can spend all day at home!


Monday, January 30 

I am so happy!!! Rebecca just came inside. She’s finally here. I’m going to show her to my room. I’ll be back when I’m done with the tour. Also by the way, Rebecca looked different. She looked like a human. I asked her why, and she said it was a magical disguise. I’m glad she will be easier to hide now that she’s not as big. But I just want to say she looks fabulous. I wish I could have hair like her.

Saturday, February 17

O-M-G!

Today Rebecca and I were at the mall, and guess who showed up?!

Rebecca Hills!!!

We were enjoying ourselves and hanging out when all of a sudden we saw her with her friends. When she spotted me, she smiled one of her big fake smiles and wrapped me in a big “bear hug” as if we had been friends for life (which we had not) and then she walked right up to my face and said, “Amber, I’m so happy to see you. Congrats for winning all that money. Had I known the judges wanted old clothes, I would have brought my little sister’s poodle vomit stained dress.” I was both appalled and insulted by her rude ”compliment.”

Why is my life so miserable?!


Saturday, January 24

I am so nervous. Today Rebecca and I are finally going to get revenge on her by pushing her into the void.

Here’s our plan:

  1. Trick Rebecca into boarding a chariot to Rainbow Republic
  2. Disguise ourselves as pink fluffy unicorns, and when we’re close, we’ll push her in

Though seriously, this disguise might take some getting used to. You might be wondering what the void is. Well, it’s a pitch black space where anyone who falls in disappears forever. I have to go. Our chariot is getting impatient.

O-M-G, we just did it!!!

As soon as she got on, I made sure to act convincing. Boy was she pushy. No wonder the unicorns love her. They’re identical twins separated at birth. Anyway, I looked out the chariot and told her that the view was spellbinding, and just when we were about to enter Rainbow Republic, I pushed her, and she fell into the void never to be seen again.


Epilogue 

Rebecca and Amber went on to live long, exciting lives. Amber moved herself and her whole family to Rainbow Republic and lives there now with her mom, dad, and little brother and sister, who are now two and six. For more info, read pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows.

The Anderson Sisters

Chapter One: Meet the Anderson Sisters

Once there were five girls. They were sisters. They weren’t just sisters. They were orphans, too. They were trying to sleep on the hammocks near the horse pen because they were assigned to that sleep there. But they couldn’t because the horses were so loud. 

The Anderson sisters’ names were Ashlyn, Allison, Alice, Anna, and Audrey. 

Ashlyn and Allison were both nine-year-old twins that had different personalities. Ashlyn always wanted adventure. She was dark haired and had beautiful brown eyes. She was silly and always made Allison laugh. She also wanted to be free. She had a million plans to escape. But their evil orphan teacher was always on the lookout. Allison, however, was shy and had thin, lightish brown hair and rose pink cheeks. She never ever wanted anything to do with adventure. But she wanted to be free too.

Alice was seven years old with a ponytail. She had dark hair like Ashlyn. She was silly and wanted to be free also. Sometimes she would be upset, and she would be impatient with the orphanage teacher. But the orphanage teacher really deserved it.

Anna was five years old and was more silly and rough than Alice. She had blond hair with a few light brown streaks. She was small and never kept things to herself. She was a real chatterbox and always wanted to be the center of attention.

Audrey was three and loved animals (except the scary and mean ones). She wasn’t good at spelling or reading. That’s because their parents died when she was one year old, and the orphanage teacher never taught her. She didn’t exactly speak as much as the others. She had beautiful blond hair. 

That night, the girls at the orphanage were either assigned to sleep on tables, hammocks near loud horses, beds, or cauldrons.

Although the sisters had different personalities, they always worked together, like once when the orphanage teacher made them do the hardest thing in the world (picking veggies and sweet stuff and making a treat out of it).

They never fit in with the other girls in the orphanage. Everyone else had no siblings while the sisters, well, you know, had siblings. So the other girls thought that they would be weird. Also, they didn’t like them because Audrey would cry almost every night about their old dog. 

They used to have a dog named Hamlet, but he ran away after the orphanage teacher threatened to hunt him if he didn’t leave the orphanage. They have missed him forever. 

The orphanage teacher was named Mrs. Quincy. She was very wealthy and had everything she wanted. She wasn’t nice to the orphanage girls. That was because she thought they would go wild if they didn’t follow her orders. So she had been pretty tough and rich.

The Anderson sisters were very busy on their plan to escape that night. It was their turn to sleep on the tables the next night. They were planning to do it at twelve o’clock. But Ashlyn was too excited. She took a newspaper to keep her occupied. 

What is on the news now? she thought as she picked it up from the floor. 

That’s when she saw that the footprint mystery has been solved.


Chapter Two: The Footprint Mystery

The footprint mystery had been going on since four years ago. There was a person who walked in the mountains. Someone found the footprints, and there was a named carved right beside them. It said, Lily Rockstone, but no one knew who Lily Rockstone was. That’s when the footprint mystery began.

Ashlyn has been dying to find out who it was. It turned out that “Lily” was a 16-year-old girl who was an orphan, too. Her mom collapsed in a boulder accident when Lily was three years old. She left the mountains four years ago. All Ashlyn could see of her was her long, dark brown curly hair. Ashlyn was shocked and surprised. She kept reading more about Lily. She was so into it that she didn’t even notice her sisters wake up at twelve o’clock. 

“Ashlyn,” whispered Allison. “Ashlyn!”

“Sorry,” said Ashlyn. “You guys won’t believe what I just read in the newspaper!”


Chapter Three: Escape Plan 264

All the girls were shocked when they heard the news, except Allison.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Allison as the girls paid no attention to her and kept asking Ashlyn questions. “So, the plan, everyone?”

“Yes!” said Ashlyn. “Now we had, like, 262 plans. Right?” 

The girls nodded. 

“Well, this might be our final straw, so make it good!”

After the girls were finishing listening to Ashlyn’s instructions, they leaped into the air and landed on the fire escape. But Anna’s stomp was way too loud, and Mrs. Quincy woke up. 

All the girls glared at Anna. 

“What?!” exclaimed Anna. 

I see you!” screeched Mrs. Quincy. “Get back here!” 

The girls raced for their lives, but it was too late. The girls got trapped. 

Mrs. Quincy dragged them all the way to the orphanage. 

“Guess what?” said Mrs. Quincy in a weird voice. “How about you spend the night in the snowflake?”

Oh no! thought Ashlyn. The “snowflake” wasn’t nearly as cute or pretty as it sounded. 

The snowflake was an awful dome that was below temperature. Girls would go in there if they tried to escape from the orphanage or did something really bad, like the sisters did just a few minutes ago.

There were still girls from about 30 years ago stuck there all frozen. 

Mrs. Quincy led them to the “snowflake.”

“In you go,” she said. 

She shoved them in, and they were freezing already.

They slowly ran almost all the way to the end of the snowflake. 

Once there, they found sticks and coal and frames and wood and bricks!

They built a warm house there in no time! 

They also tried to discover who killed their mom. They know who killed their dad and who killed the murderer who killed their dad.

It happened two years ago. Ashlyn saw a dark man. He had a suitcase. Then when their dad just opened the door, they saw a crazy stranger that looked like a robber. Then he killed their dad. Then some other stranger killed the robber. When they ran away, they heard crying. Then mumbling. Then loud noises. Then the next thing they knew, they were knocked out and in a strange place called the orphanage.

They had no idea what happened to their mom.

“Okay, people,” said Ashlyn. “We need to escape and find where our mom is.” 

“First things first,” said Allison. “Get your suitcases.” 

The girls quickly got their suitcases, clothes, cookie jars, and books. 

“Okay,” said Anna, munching the sixth sugar cookie she had that evening. “Whath nexth?” 

“Now, who’s a really good climber?” asked Ashlyn. 

“Me! Me!” said Allison.

“Are you really strong?” asked Ashlyn suspiciously.

“Positive,” said Allison.

“You sure?”

Yes!!!

“Okay, Alice. Can you tie ropes?”

“Yep,” said Alice.

“Okay. Allison, after I throw the rope really high so that it goes over the hole on top of the dome, you climb up the rope to the top. I need you to carry each of us one by one. But first carry Alice to the top, so she can tie the rope on the hole. Then after you take all of us. I will get the luggage. Are we good?” said Ashlyn cheerfully with a thumb up. 

The girls nodded.

“Great! I’ll go check on Mrs. Quincy,” said Ashlyn. She put her coat on, grabbed all the luggage, and secretly crept out of the dome. The other girls couldn’t do this because they weren’t really trained to. 

Ms. Quincy was in her fancy room, on her bed.

Ashlyn noticed a frame on top of Ms. Quincy’s desk. 

Ashlyn didn’t have time to see who was on it. She had to meet her sisters on time. 

Ashlyn got to the door and waited behind a fire escape. Her sisters were running down the fire escape next.

“Free!” Ashlyn whisper shouted. They went to a bush to rest.


AL the Alien

In a world very, very far away, there lived an alien named AL. He was a very good Sweed, the species of alien. One day, he was in Sweed’s camp for boys. They were going to sell cookies to other Sweeds.

“Hello,” I said from the table to a man walking around.

Hello,” he said back, staring straight at me. Trust me, it was creepy. 

“Do you want some cookies? It’s only 20 ockes a b — ”

No!” 

“Why?” I asked. I didn’t know anyone who would not take a box of cookies from us. 

Because I said so!” 

I could not hold it in. I started laughing like crazy. “You never said ‘so!’” I managed to say. I thought that he would be smart enough to know that.

Aahhh!” he yelled.

I noticed that he was getting bigger by the second. He was also getting boxier. He was a Gacter, the Sweed’s mortal enemy!

I did not know what to do. But then, I remembered our safety code. 

“Ghfksotkswlbjsjuf!” I yelled.

This means that my friends would come and help me with what I needed. In this case, destroying the Gacter.

“Here!” said all of my friends, Fany, Eswat, Yater, and Gutony.

I told them about the problem. What happened next was awesome. First, you need to know that we have magic powers. When we think about a happy moment, a dim spiral of light comes out of our antenna and can destroy small life forms and plants. However, if we combine all of our spirals of light, we can destroy a Gacter, if we wanted to. 

“Go!” I yelled.

All my friends did. I thought of when I won the SSEHC tournament and got a gold medal. A dim spiral of light came from my antenna, and same with my friends. It created a black ball of power, and then, bam!

“We won!” I yelled.

The Gacter was dead, and we were getting azzip (pizza) at the best restaurant. We did it.

THE END


Glooey Glob the Alien

Glooey Glob is a very weird alien, as you probably already know. 

He’s green, like normal aliens, and his name is Glooey Glob.

He can transform into any forms he wants, like a tiny skyscraper, or a scary monster with razor-sharp teeth. (If you touch them, they feel so squishy and sink back in)

Glooey Glob wants to be able to do something else than just show off; he really wants to eat human food. 

For him, it’s like, well, he doesn’t know because he never tried, but it looks and smells so good.

Oh! But how is he able to smell? Good question.

He thinks of transforming into a mouth, tries to put food in it, but before he can do anything, the mouth sticks back together. 

The substance of his body is made of this kind of weird jello that you can see through, except with a weird eyeball in the middle. Glooey Glob can’t talk (but he can scream). 

He can’t eat because he has no mouth, though he does not need to.

Well actually, he can have a giant mouth that squishes down right when something goes in it! 

One day, Glooey Glob gets up, but when Glooey Glob gets up, for him he just transforms into something taller than a squishy puddle. 

Today is a big day, the day to do his plan he has been working on for weeks, the day he gets to eat foooooooooddd!!!

To hold his mouth when he is going to eat food, he thinks of putting sticks to keep it up. 

But then, there is another problem. 

He sees there are a lot of humans near the human food.

So, he goes to his old friend, whose name is Non Glooey Glob (he is not glooey), 

and borrows human clothes. 

Glooey Glob goes out and would go and get some food, except he realizes he has no human money. 

Then, he sees someone taking out money from their bag, and rushes up, secretly takes the bill, and gets back to buy some food.

Except, he steps on the person’s foot and the human says, 

“Help someone is stealing my money!”

Every single human looks at Glooey Glob, and Glooey Glob is scared he will be discovered, so he stands as still as a stick. 

The problem is, when he thinks about a stick, it makes him transform into a stick!

So, the clothes he is wearing fall off and everybody sees he is an alien, and they all scream out,

“An alien! An alien!” 

Weird things called cars with lights flashing and people in blue start coming out,

toward him. 

So, he thinks that transforming into a tree, and blending in with the other trees around would maybe make them not see him. 

But, apparently, his idea is bad because a tree cannot move. 

He is taken by the humans in blue, and brought to this weird place with metal bars in front of him, a bed that he did not know how to use, and toilets that he thought might be a good way to take a bath.

After he has enjoyed his small bath, he does not know if the bars were supposed to stop him from leaving or not, but he just transforms into a snake and slides through them to then transform back into a human-ish form.

He starts walking around, looking for something to do. 

He sees a door with a sign that says “cafeteria” and thinks it might be good to investigate. 

But when his one eye sees what is inside, he runnnnnns in, and screams

“Foooooooooddd!!!”

But the only sound that comes out is, 

“Oaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeee!!!”

Because, remember, he can’t talk.

Well after that you would think there would be no food left, but the problem is when Glooey Glob eats, the food has nowhere to go, so it just shoots back out with slimy bits on it.

So after a few minutes, all that was left was food everywhere, a nice and happy Glooey Glob, and a very mad cook.

When the cook sees Glooey Glob, he runs and says, “Help, guards, help!!!”

A bunch of humans in blue come and take Glooey Glob to a room almost the same as the other one, with a bed and toilets (for him a small bath). The only thing that is different is instead of metal bars, there is a door.

This time he was sure he was not supposed to escape.

He thinks humans are dumb because there is a latch that can be opened on the side of the door, so he opens it to escape, but on the other side is a tray of food, so he takes it and swallows it instantly. 

After that, he hears the bell ring, and out of nowhere a voice says, “Lunchtime! Everybody head to the cafeteria!” 

So, he remembers the word on the door and runs to the door! He sees a bunch of other prisoners. 

They all have an orange outfit, and he is jealous he didn’t get one. 

When Glooey Glob first arrived, they were about to give him one of those outfits, but he doesn’t get why they took it back after trying it on (because he obviously did not fit).

In the cafeteria, after about five minutes, all that was left was a bunch of humans in orange lined to the wall, trying to dodge from the food flying everywhere, that obviously was Glooey Glob eating. 

This is what happens when Glooey Glob eats: it looks like a giant monster with a thousand hands (not exaggerating). 

Each of them is holding a piece of food, trying to be the first one to put it in the big mouth that was not even chewing them, but ejecting them right out.

After a while, more humans in blue came and when they saw the mess, they ran out.

A week went by, every day the same, the humans eating and eating the same food in the cafeteria. every human in the prison left giving the whole prison to Glooey Glob.

But this day is special because a lot of humans in blue come and have this pokey thing that they use and poke the jello, and then Glooey Glob passes out.

Glooey Glob wakes up in a circular room, but before he can do anything, there is a big rumbling sound and then, 

“Five, four, three, two, one, blast off!!!”

Glooey Glob goes to a window that is circular and when he looks out, he sees blasts of smoke and fire under him. 

Then he realizes that he is moving upward toward the sky, and suddenly he is scared that he will never come back.

It has been a week, and Glooey Glob has just been sitting there the whole time in the circular room.

And then he suddenly sees an opening in the ceiling that he never saw before.

So, he tries going through it.

When he goes through it, he sees a lot of humans running around, some of them pushing on buttons all around, some of them putting on weird suits, and some of them eating food!

He has missed that thing for so long! 

So he runs up to it and grabs it, and doesn’t even worry about making a mouth. He just sticks it into his skin and it shoots right back out. Every human looks at him with a scared look, and all of them disappear into a different room. 

But then, he realizes no one is pushing the buttons! 

And the whole place is starting to slow down! 

He thinks, “Oh, if I control this thing, I can bring it back to earth.” 

So, he starts pressing weird buttons, but when he presses one button, he hears a loud screeeech from the door the humans went through, and the door detaches, and on the other side he sees darkness. 

After looking for a few more seconds, he sees the part of the spacecraft that detached and thinks it is pretty funny, that it is just this weird square thing in the middle of nowhere. 

So, he just goes back to his work, pressing buttons.

After a few more buttons, the spaceship kind of turns right, and after a few more minutes, he starts getting really hot, and sees this giant ball of fire.

And he’s heading straight for it! 

But, when he’s about to touch it, the spaceship just starts disappearing into smaller pieces, kind of like melting metal. 

But then, he touches the hot surface. 

For him, it’s as if he was taking a little bath, just a little hotter. 

After a while, swimming underneath, he starts feeling that heat go into him, like starting to actually feel the heat. 

So, he tries weirdly swimming back to the surface of the fire and lava. 

He bursts out, and instead of him starting to go back in, he just flies away, towards nothingness.

After a day of flying and nothingness, not being able to do the slightest thing, he sees a giant rock flying in the middle of nothing, and he is about to collide with it. 

He wants to dodge it, but in nothingness, he can’t move. 

So, he splats straight into the rock, and re-forms immediately, but then he feels the rock moving really fast, and he’s being pulled with it.

He can finally kind of move around on the rock. 

He sees it’s way bigger than he thinks. It’s about 30-feet long, and 15-feet high. 

And then he sees a small hole in it. When he goes in, he sees this really weird kind of creature that has eight eyes, and one leg. 

So, he comes up to it, and asks what’s going on, and then he says “Hello, what is this place?” 

But all that comes out is “Greak, glaa as scke ascrh.”

But surprisingly, the other creature seemed to understand, and responds,

“Rekiegl rk ro kreak rkar!”

Which means, in Alien language, “Welcome to my giant rock!”

Glooey Glob says, “Do you know how to go to earth?”

Alien says, “Simple! You just use my teleportation machine!”

Glooey Glob says, “What is a teleportation machine?”  

The alien says, “It’s a machine that will transport your body in a second to anywhere you want. But I can only take you to the moon, because I don’t want to be seen on earth.”

“So, can I use your machine?” Glooey Glob says.

“Aw, you don’t want to stay for a little longer?” the sad alien says.

“Well, I really want to eat food, and I’m really going to die if I don’t eat food,” Glooey Glob says. (Even though he does not need food).

“Well, okay, follow me!” says the alien.

He brings Glooey Glob into this stone cavern, and through the side, there’s what looks like a toilet. 

Which is what Glooey Glob thinks is the bath. 

The alien brings him to the toilets, and pushes a button next to it. 

And says, “To the moon!” 

The water in the toilet turns purple, and the alien jumps in. 

Glooey Glob follows. 

It feels like something is sucking him through nothingness, but it’s not like nothingness he’s been around; it’s purple nothingness.

Glooey Glob gets up and sees he’s on another asteroid, but this one is way, way, way bigger, and in the distance, he sees… earth!

Next to him is the sad alien and the toilet.

The alien says “Well, good luck,” and jumps into the toilet, disappearing with it.

Glooey Glob looks around and notices a stick with a piece of cloth on it near a spaceship, and humans around it jumping really high. 

But these humans are not normal humans — they have giant helmets that have a big piece of round glass and they are way bigger and have white suits. 

Glooey Glob, knowing that the humans will probably run away when he gets close, stays far away, but get closer and closer to the spaceship. 

When he gets there, he goes in, notices a human, but doesn’t mind, and goes to lock the doors. 

When the human sees him lock the door, he gets all scared, and screams out for the other human, but it’s too late! 

The spaceship starts going up as Glooey Glob starts pressing button after button in the control room. 

The humans that are still on the moon try jumping up towards the spaceship, but without luck, and fall back down, and stay there forever.

Another two days passed and Glooey Glob finally managed to tell the human to go back to earth, because obviously the spaceship is just going in a circle right now, with Glooey Glob controlling it. 

The human is really scared, but he still controls the spaceship back home, because this monster is going to be rewarded for bringing it back to earth.

So, another day passes, and Glooey Glob finally sees clouds around, and well, the human says something weird like, “Take this parachute and jump off!” but Glooey Glob doesn’t get what he means, and he is thinking to go eat tacos. 

The human starts running around the ship, grabbing weird material, and then he says, “Gooooo!” and jumps off the ship. 

Glooey Glob thinks this is a little weird, because he noticed the humans aren’t as squishy as him, and will probably not manage to survive the hit. But, he doesn’t care. He’s jumping off to go get tacos.

After a few minutes of freefall, he sees the human flying around with giant wings that are like 10 feet over him, and is wondering how the human is holding onto them. 

But, he doesn’t know what is happening, so he just forgets about the human, and finally lands on a weird blue surface he’s never seen before, besides in a bath. So, thinking it’s bath time, he does his usual bath, splitting into 15 pieces, and then splitting into another five pieces, and the biggest piece is juggling with the smaller pieces. After a while, the human finally arrives for bathtime, but he looks like he’s scared of the bath, because he goes onto a little floaty that is yellow with two other humans in it, and they are looking like they were waiting for him. 

The boat starts going toward Glooey Glob, and Glooey Glob, thinking it is a scary monster that is ruining his bath, tries going away, but because he is thinking of an elephant, but it’s really not working to try and swim away. 

So, they grab him, put him in the boat, and the boat starts going back towards a big tall mountain that he recognizes as the mountain right next to his house! 

Getting there, he starts walking towards the mountain, and wanting to say goodbye to the humans for bringing him back home, tries to do a nice hug. 

But, the humans are super scared of being hugged by a giant jello monster, and take out a weird looking item, click on a button on it, and a weird black ball shoots out of it, and goes through him. 

Thinking it’s a funny thing, he transforms into a piece of cheese with a bunch of holes that are the same size as the black ball. 

The human, looking even more scared, starts running away with his two other friends. Not really caring about what he was doing, he starts walking home, maybe, just maybe, having fun with a few more humans walking past.

But, without taking too much time, he arrives at his house and notices a small piece of paper on his doorstep (which is a mousehole). 

The thing is, he has a giant underground castle, but a super small door that is the size of a mouse hole. 

Glooey Glob transforms into a snake, passes through the door, grabs the piece of paper along the way, but has a hard time fitting it through the hole. 

After a few attempts at pulling it as a snake, he thought of transforming into a pair of big tweezers, which was way easier than to grab the piece of paper. 

When he reads it (it is in Alien language) he notices it is a recipe for cake! 

Which he remembers as Foooooooood!

And realizes the person who sent it is his friend, Cakeman. 

Glooey Glob is so happy to be home, especially to be able to make cake. 

But, that’s another story.

The End. 

Olivia Kokoefer

Chapter One

There once was a bowl of ramen named Olivia Kokoefer. Olivia, no matter what, would never eat bread or sandwiches cut diagonally. Never. She had kept this up for the 11 years she had been alive for. Olivia is unique. She also has unique qualities. For example, she can float magically from any height down to the ground with an umbrella, like Mary Poppins. Another one of her unique qualities is that her limbs are as skinny as a stick person’s. Although Olivia has some odd qualities, her appearance is mostly normal (other than the fact that she’s a bowl of ramen). She is the average height of an 11-year-old bowl of ramen and has short, wavy black hair. 

Olivia doesn’t necessarily go to school. She just sits at home on the counter. For her it’s quite exciting. She finds it exciting mostly because her human mom won’t let anybody eat her, and Olivia finds it funny what people will do to resist eating her. Once somebody tried to kidnap her. After that, her mom just put other not alive bowls of ramen on the counter. It kind of worked. Now Olivia just floats away when somebody glances over their shoulder to look at her. 

It may seem like Olivia lives her life without a care in the world, but that’s not true. Going to school is where most people meet their friends, and she kind of missed out on that, so now her only friend is her mom. You could consider her friends with the people who try to eat her because she sees them a lot, but Olivia doesn’t think about it that way. One day, she decided that having no friends was seriously getting to be an issue, so Olivia jumped off the counter and opened up her umbrella. It was time for an adventure (around her house, but still very exciting).

Whoosh, Olivia flew by holding onto her umbrella. Olivia does have feet. She just preferred the umbrella. When Olivia is in her Mary Poppins mode, she can control where the umbrella goes, straight, left, right, backwards, up, anywhere. Olivia flew by and took a few turns until she realized her mom went to work! She saw a truck and hopped onto the back. Now it was actually going to be an adventure.


Chapter Two

Olivia made herself comfortable over the watermelons that were spread over the bed of the truck. It was a little hard because the watermelons were big, hard lumps. Olivia stays in her house 50 percent of the time, but her mom likes to take her to her work, and sometimes they go on tours around town. After awhile, Olivia started to recognize where she was, her mom’s work. The truck didn’t slow down. It was going around 25 miles per hour. She would have to jump. The thought that went through her mind was, If I can do this, I’ll have two ways of getting out of the car. Plus she was also thinking, Ahhhhhhhh! She took three deep breaths and jumped.

Olivia opened her eyes and saw white around her. She was in heaven. Olivia saw many relatives that had passed away. 

“Grandma?” Olivia asked.

In her mind, she was in what she thought was heaven, while in reality she was just laying on the ground saying, “Grandma?”

People started to stare. When she opened her eyes and stood up, she saw she wasn’t in heaven. Olivia stood up and looked around. Suddenly, she saw her mom’s company, Clara and Kriss’s Upholstery. Clara was a good friend of her mom’s. They had started the company together. Olivia had to take two crosswalks to get to the building. But she wasn’t the kind of ramen that knew how to cross the street on her own. Her mom always carried her across. She just remembered to stay inside the striped lines on the ground, so she marched forward and figured nothing could happen. A car suddenly sped by right in front of her face.

The entire time Olivia was screaming, “Ahhhhhhhhh!”

She decided to run the rest of the crosswalk. When she approached the next crosswalk, there was a small white person in a black box. Plus everyone else was walking, so she decided to go. Finally, she reached the building. It was a tall, rectangular building that always smelled good. It was basically a really clean warehouse on the inside. Olivia never really understood why people needed doors, so she never really bothered to know what they look like or how to use them. She walked forward, stuck her little stick arms out, and walked straight into a wall. She fell flat on her back and tried again, this time in a different spot. She found what she thought was the door and walked towards it. Again, she fell flat on her back. She got up again and decided to ask somebody where the door was.

She walked into a crowd of people and asked gently, “Excuse me, could you point me in the direction of the door?”

A woman with long brown hair turned around and looked at Olivia. On the woman’s name tag were the words, Clara Tjen. Suddenly, Olivia recognized this person! It was her mom’s old business partner, until she left to do some other job that she didn’t tell them about. Clara suddenly picked her up and started running. At first, Olivia thought she was heading in the direction of the door, but then she put her in the back of a sketchy white van and drove away. Olivia started to get more nervous and worried as they got closer to their destination. All she was thinking was, Nothing good can come of this ‘adventure.’

Fifteen minutes later, the old, creaky sliding door slid open. Olivia got onto her feet, and she looked up to see a man with seriously messed up yellow teeth and a bad haircut.

He picked her up and walked halfway to the door to hear Clara say, “I’ll be back later. There were sightings of a talking orange.”

The man nodded and kept walking towards the door. Olivia noticed that Clara had a strangely deep voice. She was also thinking, How dare they compare me to a talking orange! When the man opened the door, Olivia looked around and saw different foods with some sort of ability being tortured in some way, as if they were taking their powers! Tubes were coming out from their chests and into a huge watermelon. What are they doing? thought Olivia. She finally realized they were going to do the same thing to her! She had to make a run for it! She opened her umbrella and attempted to fly away. Sadly, she looked around, and she was still in the man’s arms. She tried again. No success. Until she finally flew!

“Sweet victory!” she yelled.

She was free! Then, she took a wrong turn and banged into one of the poles in this, well, interesting building. Olivia laid there for around 20 minutes. She glanced at her wrist, remembering she could never get a watch because her wrist was too small, and all the ones that did fit her were incredibly expensive. She looked around and noticed a clock on the wall. Since she never went to school, she never learned how to read time. And she never bothered to ask her mom how to read time, so let’s just say she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Olivia thought to herself, I really should just go to school. That really would solve a lot of my problems! Olivia looked up to see the same man with five others looking at her too.

“Get back to work!” a tall woman who looked like she could beat anybody in a physical confrontation barked.

Like Clara, this woman also had a name tag, but her straight, black hair was blocking part of it, so all she saw was, Soph and ng. Olivia didn’t recognize her, but she also didn’t not recognize her. It’s like she was around when Olivia was just a small cup of ramen or something like that. The woman picked Olivia up, looked left and right, and headed for the bathroom. Was she trying to save her? The woman sat her down on the edge of the bathroom sink, looked at her closely, and looked all directions, even under the bathroom stalls.

“Run,” the woman said and then put Olivia on the floor and motioned for the door near the back of the room.

Olivia nodded and headed for the door.

I guess she was going too slow because the woman had to say, “Go, go now,” a lot.

Olivia began to pick up the pace, but again she never learned how to use a door, so she slammed right into it like she did with the other door, plus the pole too. Again she fell flat on her back. The woman sighed and shook her head. She ran over (it was actually more of a casual jog) and pushed the door open. Olivia watched her open the door for future reference. The woman motioned with her hand for her to go be free in the dark, scary alleyway. Olivia began down the road and looked back to say “thank you” to the woman, but she had already turned around. Her hair spun around and revealed more of her name tag. It read Sophia Wong. Though Olivia now knew this mysterious person’s name, she still was not sure who this person was.

Olivia continued down the alleyway until she heard a low growl coming from some old trash cans a few feet away. Olivia stopped and looked straight at the trash cans. There were no signs of movement. Then, Olivia heard the low growl again, only this time it sounded closer, much closer. She turned around and saw a huge black dog, slobber running from its snout. The dog looked rather skinny, as if it hadn’t eaten in a while. Olivia slowly started to walk in the other direction, then she turned around and began to run, still only looking at the dog. Bang! Olivia hit a fence. She thought to herself, How can such an awesome bowl of ramen hit so many things?! The dog crept closer. This time it seemed much more angry.

The dog kept creeping closer to Olivia, when a person suddenly said, “Frankie, don’t traumatize the ramen.”

The person got closer. It was hard for Olivia to get a good look at the person because the dog was blocking her view. The thing she could see was, like Clara and Sophia, he had a name tag, only she couldn’t read his. The man finally picked up the dog, and it turned out it was actually quite a small dog. The man was wearing a blazer and a turtle neck along with, what looked like, fancy pants. This man was not like the others. He had a nice haircut, smelled good, and had very straight, white teeth. 

“Hello, Olivia,” the man said in a calm, evil voice, like the one bad guys in movies use. “I’ve been waiting for you.” He looked at Olivia and laughed quietly. “I have plans for you,” he said, along with his evil, slow laugh.


Chapter Three

Olivia opened her eyes to see at least half a dozen men standing in a circle around something. She waited for her eyes to focus. Finally, she saw it. It was a talking orange with ropes wrapped around its arms and legs, plus duct tape over its mouth. Olivia was startled when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She turned and saw the same man from before, the well dressed one. The man plopped her down next to the orange. The orange turned and looked directly into Olivia’s eyes. Chills went down her spine when she saw the fear in his eyes. A rush of adrenaline coursed through her veins, as if her body was telling her, Run!!! But Olivia refused to. Every bad scenario happened either because she hadn’t gone to school or because she attempted to run. She was going to stay put with this orange.

Olivia turned and caught a glimpse of somebody tied up in the closet. Who was that? Olivia thought to herself. The evil man strode by Olivia and the orange. He kept walking until he reached a wooden door. He wrenched it open and disappeared into the room. Finally somebody walked out. It was Clara! She’s here to save me! Olivia hoped, until she remembered Clara was the one who snatched her into the van in the first place.

Three hours later, Olivia was starting to get hungry. She looked around and didn’t see anything. She stood up but fell back down because the orange pulled her down, plus she was tied up with ropes too. The orange gestured to the duct tape covering his mouth. She got the hint and ripped it off when no one was looking.

He whispered into Olivia’s ear, “I have a plan.”

“You want to do what?!” Olivia exclaimed a little too loudly.

One of the men in the circle around them turned around but didn’t seem to have heard anything. 

“You want to do what?” Olivia said quieter this time.

The orange shot her a look clearly saying, Was I not clear? 

Olivia looked around and thought, Is this a good idea? She finally decided.

Olivia leaned over and whispered into the orange’s ear, “Let’s do this thing.” 

The orange smiled from ear to ear. They were ready.

After ‘rehearsing’ several times, the plan was in motion.

 “Remember, you fly away and distract the men while I run into the escape hole.” The orange gestured to a small hole, big enough for a bowl of ramen and an orange, but too small for a human. “Then I’ll distract the men while you run into the hole, and we’ll have sweet victory!”

Olivia nodded, remembering the time she thought she had sweet victory. She wasn’t sure if the plan would work, but she didn’t want to tamp down the orange’s enthusiasm, and she did not want to have to make up a plan of her own, so she went with it. 

Olivia took three deep breaths and thought, Go big and go home. First, she untied the orange. It was a bit of a struggle to try and untie him with stick arms, plus trying to do it without being seen. It was a little easier than it would’ve been if she didn’t have stick arms, because who can tightly tie stick arms together? The orange pretended like he was still tied up, then he nodded to the direction of the dining room table behind the wall of men watching a football game and drinking beer, gesturing to fly over there. Then, one of them stood up, creating an opening. Consequently, Olivia opened up her umbrella and glided right in between them. She wanted them to notice her, but not quite yet. Sadly, she accidentally clipped one of the men’s ears and caught their attention a little too soon. She looked behind the men to try and see whether or not the orange had made it in the escape hole that the rats use, and yes there are rats! At first she couldn’t see him, but then she looked at the spot where they were tied up before and saw his big foot stuck in the edge of the carpet. She had to save him or else the men would get both of them. Suddenly, she had a plan.


Chapter Four

Swoop in, grab the orange, and fly to the escape hole. Swoop in, grab the orange, and fly to the escape hole. Olivia repeated to herself over and over. She didn’t have much time to rethink her plan because half the men were just starting to realize Olivia was free and just hovering in the air, while the other half of the men were processing the fact that the orange was attempting to escape. All in all, they could agree the “very well-thought-out” plan was failing miserably. Olivia flew through the small crowd of clueless men and grabbed the orange’s hand. To Olivia’s surprise, the orange came out of the crack really easily.

“Well, that was a close one!” Olivia exclaimed.

She was so surprised by how easy it was. She accidentally went out a door and into the world. However, this was better than the hole, much better. Olivia landed in a nearby park. When she looked behind her, she realized she wasn’t holding onto the orange’s hand. She was holding onto a smooth twig. You have got to be kidding me! Who holds a twig in the air! Olivia, without even thinking, flew back to the building. She landed on the window sill and tiptoed in through the door, as not to alarm anybody. When she looked left and right, there was nobody there. She flew backwards to notice she went to the wrong building. Olivia jumped out the doorway and headed out the window. She flew to the right building this time and did the same thing. She landed on the window sill and quietly headed in the doorway. She looked left and right again. This time she saw the men flinging something into the closet where she saw the other thing or person from before. The orange! Olivia thought and, well, hoped. She raced in through the crack in the doorway before it closed.

“What was that?!” one of the men asked, but then didn’t seem to care after a while.

Olivia glanced around the corner. Nothing. Then, around the other corner. Nothing. She walked forward and, yet again, bumped into something. Olivia fell flat on her face.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” a voice said from the shadows.

Olivia, rubbing her bowl, looked up to see a very slim figure that seemed to be sitting on a chair.

“Mmm hmm,” Olivia mumbled.

She looked closely at the figure. Again she couldn’t make out when or where she might’ve encountered this person before. Olivia realized one of the only solutions would be to use her communication skills.

“Hello?” Olivia mumbled/whispered.

She could see the figure readjusting in their seat. The more Olivia examined this person, the more she came to the conclusion it was a woman whom she’d met before. 

“Yes?” the woman replied hopefully.

Who is that? Olivia kept thinking to herself. She felt somebody pick her up and put her on their lap. The woman leaned forward and turned on the light in the small closet. 

Olivia put her stick arm up to block the blinding light. She finally took her arm away. She saw a woman with long, wavy brown hair. Olivia looked at this person as if it was someone she used to be very close friends with.

“Do I know you?” Olivia said, hoping for an answer.

“That hurts,” the woman mumbled. “I am your mom’s business partner.”

Olivia racked her brain to think of who this person might be. Finally, a name popped into her head. Was it Clara?

“Clara?” Olivia asked, “Clara Tjen?” Olivia then thought, No, it can’t be her. She left here earlier! 

“Yes!” Clara laughed with joy.

“But you left here earlier. How are you here?” Olivia asked.

Clara sighed and said, “Let me explain.”


Chapter Five

“Uh-huh, you expect me to believe that you were kidnapped and shoved in this closet while a man put on your clothes?” Olivia asked as she sat in Clara’s lap. 

“This is why I don’t chat with talking food anymore,” Clara mumbled.

“What was that?” Olivia asked.

“Nothing.” 

“Have you seen a talking orange recently?”

“You mean that one?” Clara asked as she pointed to the back of the room.

Olivia turned her head to see an orange duct taped to a wall.

“You duct taped him to a wall?” Olivia asked.

“Yep,” Clara replied.

Olivia nodded, and then they high-fived.

“Nice job,” Olivia told her old friend.

“We need a plan to get out of here,” Clara said. “You guys had an interesting plan I watched play out a while ago.”

Olivia looked over to the orange and asked, “Who holds a super smooth stick in the air?”

“Did you keep it?” he asked

“Nope, I threw it out the window. It didn’t appear useful in any way.” Olivia smiled at the orange as if to say, Ha.

“Back to making a plan, people. We need to get out of here, those people are monsters!” Clara encouraged. “Who came up with that last plan?”

“I did the first one. The ‘rescue mission’ one was her idea,” the orange replied.

“So, Olivia is the better plan maker,” Clara said. 

“Why don’t we just sneak out the window right on the other side of this door? It’s like right there,” Olivia replied, agreeing with Clara that she was the better plan maker.

“Sure, why not?” Clara asked.

The orange stayed taped to the wall in awe by how simple and flaw-ful their plan was.

“I’d like to see how that turns out for you two,” the orange added.

“Oh no, mister, you’re coming with us,” Clara and Olivia said in unison.

Clara walked to the back of the closet and untaped the orange. Clara held the orange as Olivia quietly crept over to the door.

“Now, there could be a group of men right there, so be cautious,” Olivia warned.

Olivia very quietly crept the door open, as Clara tiptoed up next to her. Olivia peered out of the opening between the door and the doorway. Nothing. Where is everybody? Clara peered out above Olivia and also saw nothing.

“They must be on their lunch break!” Clara said, nodding her head.

“Really, you knew they had a lunch break the whole time?!” Olivia asked.

Clara just shrugged and motioned for Olivia to go towards the window. Olivia hurried to the window and sat on the ledge and waited for Clara and the orange to get there.

“Let’s go, let’s go, people!” Olivia rushed.

Clara and the orange ran over.

“Hold on to me somewhere, and I’ll fly us to wherever you guys want to go,” Olivia said.

Clara grabbed onto Olivia’s leg, and the orange grabbed onto Olivia’s other leg. Olivia opened up her umbrella, and they flew!

“Where to, orange?” Olivia asked as if she were a bus driver.

“Right here on top of that house,” the orange replied.

Olivia looked to the right and saw a whole bunch of oranges standing on the roof of a short building waving their arms side to side. Olivia landed right next to the parade of oranges and set the orange down.

“Thank you!” the oranges told Olivia.

“No problem,” Olivia replied as she flew away. “Where to, Clara?”

“Over there,” Clara exclaimed as she pointed to a tall apartment building next to a grocery store.

Olivia landed on the top and said her final goodbyes to Clara as she flew off to her house.

A few minutes later, she was in her house knocking on the door. Her mom opened the door and greeted her with a huge hug.

“I missed you!” her mom told her as they were hugging. “But it’s time to go to bed, so shoo shoo.”

Olivia headed upstairs to go to bed. She got under the covers and said, “Oh well, one day I’ll have some friends.”

“Hello?” a muffled voice asked.

Olivia sat up.

“Yes?” she said. “Who’s there?”

“Us!” they said.

Olivia looked around but couldn’t seem to see anything.

“Up here, in your bowl!” one voice said.

Olivia looked in her mirror and saw a whole bunch of foods in her bowl waving. Olivia smiled. She had friends!

THE END


the big issue

Crash is the sound I hear. I quickly grab my brother. He was hit in the crash. I throw him out my door just before I get out. I grab my phone and call 911. The ambulance arrives. I help them take my brother in the car, and they drive away with me running. I trip. Bang, I hear as my head hits the pavement. I reach for my phone. Dang. It broke when it hit the pavement. My vision is fading. I prepare myself for a bright light, but it doesn’t come. Then I pass out. I wake up in the hospital next to my brother, who isn’t moving. I’m worried. The doctor comes in.

I ask him, “What happened?”

He says I fell, but I don’t understand. I have fallen before. Why is this different?

Then I ask, “Is my brother okay?”

He says, “He’s fine, just in a coma.”

Then I ask, “Where are my parents?”

He says, “Outside.”

Then I say, “Wait, what happened to my brother?”

He says, “He was with you in the car.”

I say, “I wasn’t hurt?”

He says, “You were not.”

“How about my parents?” I say.

He says, “Your parents were not harmed.”

Three days later… 

“But Mom, I don’t want a new car. I will not get in it in my whole life.”

“Yes you will,” says Mom.

“No I won’t,” I say.

“Okay, no dinner for you,” says Mom.

“Fine, I would rather not eat than take another chance at death,” I say.

Four days later… 

“Fine, I’ll get in the car,” I say as I take a load of food and put it on my plate.

One day later… 

I get in the car, horrified of what happened one week ago.


Cloudy With a Chance of War

Chapter One

One day in Southern Foodafonia, the King of the Hot Dog Empire called a meeting with the Lord of Hambergria.

“We must go to war!” shouted King Hot Dog.

“With who?” asked Lord Hamburger, who was more intelligent than the hot dog.

“The humans!” shouted King Hot Dog.

“Okay?” said Lord Hamburger.

Back in human land… 

“La la la!” shouted the King of Lord of King 2 of Human Land. “I am so cool!!” he shouted. 

“King!” shouted a random person who ran into the throne room/bathroom/kitchen/cheese storage.

“King Hot Dog and Lord Hamburger have gone to battle!”

“With who?” asked the king.

“With you!” screamed the very random person.

“How do you know?” asked the king.

“Because they told me,” answered the person. 

“What? How? Why did they tell you?” asked the king.

“They told me, so I can kill you!”

Then he fell down. Confused, the king looked around the room.

“Die!!!” 


Chapter Two 

The King of Humans spun around and saw a hot dog running from the person who was actually a hot dog in a costume. The king ran from the room, shouting more curse words than a normal person should know — with the hot dog still running after him. The king ran into the town and jumped into the well. The hot dog fell into the water and died.

One hour later… 

After the king was pulled out of the well, he made an announcement. “The hot dogs have attacked us! They tried to kill me! And they ruined this nice shirt I had on — but anyway! We will now go to war! To war! To war!! To war!!!


Chapter Three

“Sir!” said the man.

“What do you want?” snapped the general of the weapon makers of the humans.

“The king needs 40 cannons by Flusday!” said the man.

“Fine,” said the general.

“Oh, also can you make me a carrot gun?” asked the man.

“Why?” asked the general.

“For fun,” replied the man.

“Okay,” said the general.

“Excellent… excellent!” said the man who was rubbing his hands together.

“Wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo!” screamed the Hot Dog King as he danced on the toilet. “Wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo!” he shouted.

“Uh… what are you doing?” asked Lord of Hambergria.

“Wo!” shouted the King of the Hot Dog as he shook his red butt at Lord Hamburger.

“Um… I need to go now,” said the Hamburger King as he walked out the door.

“Not so fast!” screamed the Hot Dog King as he pulled a lever behind him.

Suddenly the door slammed shut and locked itself.

“Lock activated,” said a computer voice.

“Eat some bread,” said the Hot Dog King as he tossed a loaf of bread at the Hamburger Lord.

“Fine,” said King Hamburger, and he started to cut the bread. 


Chapter Four

Ding dong! rang the doorbell.

“Who is it?” asked the person inside.

When no one answered, he came to the door. The man opened the door. He was the general. The general looked around and saw a letter on the ground. The general picked up the letter off the ground. He started to read the letter. Suddenly his face looked angry.

“Boom boom monkey!!!” he shouted.

“Sir, the cannons are ready!” said the general of the weapon makers.

“Good… they will pay for what they did to my shirt!” said King Human.

“And they will pay for the letter they sent to me!” said the general as he ripped up the letter in his hands.

“The hot dogs and the hamburgers will die!!!” screamed the king and general at the same time.

“Ho ha ho ha ho ha he he he he he ho!!! With cheese and peas! So go to come!!! Come! Come! Come! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Yay! It’s my birthday today!”

“Do we get cake?”

“And fun?!”

“Yes!”

“Yay!” screamed a group of kids at a birthday party.

“Stop screaming! Stop it!” shouted an angry parent.

“Yay cake!” screamed the kids. 

Boom!

“Run for your life!” screamed someone outside. “The hot dogs are attacking!”

The kids ran to the window to see what was happening.

Soon they started to scream, “The city is gone!”

“Mommy!”

“Run!”

“I want my mommy!”

Suddenly the building exploded. Boom!


Chapter Five

“We need help! We must defeat the hot dogs! So I asked for help. Meet… the cows!!!” said the King of the Humans as he opened the door behind him.

“Moo,” said a cow.

The general blinked. “So all the humans in this world are ruled by a crazy person who hires cows to do his bidding?!” said the general.

“Yes!” said the king as he shook his head.

“Well… hello!” said a voice.

The general jumped. He looked around the room but saw no one.

“I’m over here!” said the voice again.

The general looked at the cow. “You can talk?!” said the general.

“I am smart, so I can talk,” said the cow, “and I have a suit, so I am a business cow.”

The general’s mouth dropped. “Bu-bu… ” he said.

“Pizza army, come come come come!!!”

“Pizza!”

“Pizza!”

“Pizza!”

“If hot dogs win this war, we all die! So listen up! This is the battle strategy! We sneak the 100-foot tank past the great hot dog wall, then boom bam boom boom boom bam boom!!! Ha ha ha!” said the King of Humans. “Now… go!!!” he screamed.

The human army ran up the hill as fast as they could.

“Stop!” said a voice.

The man?” said the king. “What are you doing?” asked the king.

“Killing you! Pizza, attack!!!” said the man.

“Pizza!” screamed a lot of voices.

Then everything went black.

“Moo!”

“Moo moo moooooo!”

“Moo!” said a lot of cows.

“Yes… okay. Tom, more pizza… no… no pepperoni!” said the cow in a suit.

Beep-boop-beep.

“Yes?” said the cow in a suit as he picked up a phone.

“Help!!!” screamed a voice from the phone.

“Okay — but who are you?” asked the cow.

The King of Humans!!!” screamed the human phone.

“Okay, but can you wait a few hours? Tom wants pizza,” said the cow.

“No, come now!” screamed the king.

“Fine,” said the cow.

“He has no interest in business,” said the cow sadly.


Chapter Six

“Moo.”

“No. Not now, Fred. We need to save them.”

“Moo!”

“I said no! No more talk.”

“Moo!”

“Fine… you can go… but be quick!” said a cow who was wearing a suit.

He watched as Fred ran off to the bathroom. Beep… boop… beep!

“Who is it?” asked the cow as he picked up the phone

“Help!” screamed the person who called.

“Is this the King of Humans?”

“Yes!” screamed the King of Humans.

“Help!” he screamed again.

“Okay, I’m coming,” said the cow.

“Come faster!!!” screamed the king.

“Do you have an army to come save me?! And me only! Who cares about everyone else?” said the king.

“Yes, I have an army of cows with me,” answered the cow.

“Cows?! What can cows do?!” screamed the king.

“My cows know kung fu,” answered the cow calmly. “Bye,” said the cow, and he put the phone down.

Boom!

“No!” said the King of Humans.

“Don’t blow my head off!”

“Pizza pizza,” said a voice.

“No!” he screamed 

Crash!

“No!” he screamed.

The king closed his eyes.

Please no,” he whimpered.

“Get up,” said a voice.

The king slowly opened his eyes and saw… a cow standing in front of him.

“Cow!” shouted the king happily.

“Business cow,” corrected the business cow.

“Come with me please,” said the business cow.

“Okay,” answered the king.

“Can I have water?” he asked. 

Ten minutes later… 

“Are the tanks ready?”

“Yes.”

“Are the cannons ready?”

“Yes.”

“Are the guns ready?”

“Yes.”

“Is all the other stuff ready?”

“Yes.”

“Good… ” 


Chapter Seven

“Charge!!!” screamed the general as the two armies crashed into each other.

Boom!

“General!” screamed a soldier.

The general ran to him.

“What?” he asked.

“This person exploded!” said the soldier.

“What?” asked the general.

“This person exploded!” repeated the soldier.

“I know that!” said the general. “But people don’t explode?!”

“But he did!” said the soldier. “And if you don’t believe me, your brain is smaller than dirt!!!”

Then he fainted.

Boom! The head of a soldier came flying and hit the general in the head.

“What was that?!” the general said to no one.

Boom!

“Die!!” said a hot dog.

The general jumped out of the way and ate the hot dog.

“General!” said a soldier.

“What?” asked the general.

“My friend blew up!” said the soldier.

“Another person?!” asked the general.

“Yes!” said the soldier.

“Did something seem strange today?” asked the general.

“Um… yes, the food person seemed really old, and he had a lot of carrots,” said the soldier.

“The man! He must have used the carrot gun!” exclaimed the general. “How many people ate the carrots?” he asked the soldier.

“Everyone! But not me. I hate carrots,” answered the soldier.

“No… ” said the general slowly. “Run!” he screamed to the soldier.

Boom!!! The general and the soldier ran as fast as they could. Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

“Ow!” said the soldier.

“What?” asked the general.

“Something hit me… ” said the soldier, then he fell asleep.

“Wha… ?” said the general.

Then everything went black.

“Wake up!”

“I said wake up!”

“Wake up!!!”

“Blok?” said the general sleepily.

“Wake up!!!”

“What? Where am I?” asked the general.

“You’re in the kingdom!” The general blinked twice and then looked around.

“The king?!’” the general exclaimed.

“Yes,” said the king.

“What happened? Did we win?” asked the general.

“Yes,” answered the king.

“Why am I tied up?” asked the general.

“I was bored,” replied the King of the Humans.

The general looked around the room — the soldier was asleep next to him. Suddenly, somebody in a different room screamed.

“Who was that?” asked the general.

“That was the man,” said the king. “We found him running toward the cheese city. We put him in the fart chamber with the Hot Dog and Hamburger King,” said the king.

THE END

What Happened?

Olivia’s Chapter

Jessica is hosting a perfectly calm birthday sleepover at her house until her mother hears “Ahhhh!” She gets nervous, so she quickly runs upstairs to us. 

“What happened?” Jessica’s mom questions us.

“Nothing,” Jessica and I say at the same time.

“Okay, but where is Bella?” Jessica’s mother, Ms. Jada, asks.

“In the bathroom,” Jessica quickly answers.

Then her mother stares at us suspiciously as she walks out of the door. We think that she leaves, but she is actually still standing by the door eavesdropping.

“Do you think we should tell someone?” I say. 

“Someone like who?” Jessica replies.

“What are you two hiding?” Jessica’s mother says in a really serious voice as she sticks her head in the door.

“Nothing,” we say at the same time again.

“Tell me now, or I will send Olivia and Bella home and never ever let you have a sleepover or a playdate again,” Jada says as she crosses her arms.

Jessica and I stare at each other and don’t talk. But after a while, we stare at each other again and nod.

“The news we are going to share to you is good and bad,” Jessica says in a serious voice. But finally after a silent moment, Jessica blurts out really fast, “The bad news is that we dared Bella to do Bloody Mary in the bathroom, and when we went back in there to check on her, she was not there.”

What?” Jessica’s mom yells.

“But the good news is that we found on the mirror a note written with lipstick that said Kiss Your Friend Goodbye.

That is not good news!” Ms. Jada shouts at me.


Jessica’s Chapter

After Olivia finishes sharing her “Good News” to my mom, she rushes quickly into the bathroom and sees the red letters and starts to panic. Bella is a really good friend of mine, but she is not as close to me as Olivia. Olivia and I have been friends since we were three years old, eight years ago, and I met Bella when I was 10, last year. The only reason that I dared Bella to do Bloody Mary is because before she went missing we were playing truth or dare, and I dared Bella to do Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary basically is a folklore legend consisting of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. At first I am a little mad at myself for daring Bella to do Bloody Mary. But at the same time, I am dying on the inside. I am dying because my mother is having a dramatic seizure panic attack thing. For the past like 10 minutes, Olivia and I have been exchanging weirdly confused looks.

After a while of no one talking, Olivia speaks up and says, “Should I go home?”

And before I even get to answer, my mom comes out of her panic attack, grabs Olivia’s arm, and yells no.

After another ten minutes of not talking, my mom says, “We have to write a note back to whoever took Bella.”

“What?” Olivia and I shout.

“What do you mean by ‘what’? You got yourself into this mess, and you’re lucky I am trying to get you out of it,” my mom yells.

“But this is not our fault,” I say to my mom.

“Oh, yes it is,” my mom snaps. 

Then I look over at Olivia and ask, “This isn’t our fault, right?”

But all Olivia does is look down on the ground and doesn’t say anything.

But after one minute of silence, Olivia speaks up and says, “It is our fault.”

Then I yell out, “What?!

And from out of nowhere, my mom says, “What did I tell you?”

“Cut it out. Right now all we need to do is find Bella. Am I right?” Olivia says.

Then my mom and I look at each other, nod, and say, “Yes” at the same time.


Olivia’s Chapter

Jessica, Ms. Jada, and I sit in a circle on the carpet in the living room and brainstorm what could have happened to Bella.

Before anyone can speak, I say, “Maybe she is just pranking us.” 

“No she isn’t,” Jessica replies.

“How do you know that she isn’t pranking us?” I respond.

“How do you know that she is?” Jessica questions back to me.

“Girls, I think that is enough. We should go back to brainstorming,” Ms. Jada says.

Then Jessica walks over to the sofa and turns the news on, and on the news is a big muscly man on TV, and the headline is Criminal Released out of Wisconsin Jail after several months of incarceration.

“O-M-G, I think I know what happened to Bella!” Jessica yells.

“What?” Ms. Jada and I say at the same time.

“Olivia, do you remember when Bella told us about her father and how he is a criminal,” Jessica says to me.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Well, maybe he was the one who took Bella!” Jessica yells.


Jessica’s Chapter

So Bella told Olivia and I that her dad got arrested a few months back for robbing people, and he would be released some time late October, and it is late October! She says that she and her mom moved from Wisconsin to California so they could hide from Bella’s dad. Bella loves her dad even though he is a criminal. She says that she misses him so much sometimes. And they have been getting lots of voicemails saying, “I know where you live,” and stuff like that.


Bella’s Chapter 

O-M-G! I am so freaked out. A big muscly man with a mask on grabs me by the neck and jumps out of the window with his hand over my mouth. I do not get hurt because there is a mattress that these other men with masks are holding. But right now I am in the back on a black van yelling and screaming for help with my hands and feet tied together, and one of the men hops in the back. He puts tape on my mouth and puts a blindfold on my eyes. After a while the van stops, and all I hear is the backdoor of the van opening and someone hopping into the back, which makes the van rumble and shake a bit. Then this person takes the blindfold off of me, and all I see is a man with a black mask and cut out patches where his eyes are. But then he takes off his mask, and I recognize this face. While I am staring deeply at this person, he is untying my hands and arms.

After five minutes, I shout out, “Dad, is that you?”

And my dad nods. I am just so shocked and filled with questions, but all I do is hug him.


Jada (Jessica’s Mom)

To be honest, I am not worried about Bella being missing because anyone who would take that girl will return her the next minute. She is cute and all, but her attitude isn’t. Her mother is a pretty nice person, but she gets on my nerves when she gives me that fake smile of hers. When Jessica showed me that guy on TV who was Bella’s dad, what I said in my head was, No surprise that Bella’s mom would marry a criminal.

“Hey, Jessica, can you pass me the phone?” I ask Jessica.

“Sure,” Jessica replies and hands me the phone.

Then I hold the phone in my hand and ask Jessica, “What is the number of Bella’s not so good, fake smiling, no good taste in men mother?”

“Well, Mom, stop being rude, and by the way, here’s her number.”

Then I enter the number and press call. Then Bella’s mom answers the phone.

“Hey, Jada, how are you and the girls doing?”

“I am doing good.”

“And the girls?”

“Olivia and Jessica are good.”

“What about Bella?”

“Sooo… Bella technically went missing, and the girls think her father took her, and by the way, you have no good taste in men. Bye,” I say, then hang up the phone.


Caroline (Bella’s Mom)

Right now I am literally freaking out! I am taking a cab over to Jada’s house. Oh that… rat is going to get what she deserves. She will never ever be able to watch Bella, and Bella will never be able to be friends with Jessica. The kid is a nice girl, it’s just her mother. I never really liked Jada, but I let Bella go because I do want her to make some new friends, and I do not want to get in her way. I know that Bella’s only friend is Jessica, and I really don’t want to break their friendship. Then, there’s this other girl named Olivia who’s always trying to take Jessica away from Bella. Bella tries to tell me that they’ve been friends for a while and they can talk, but that’s not what I think. When Jada first told me Bella went missing, my heart jumped. Bella is my only child, and I really do not want to lose her. And if her father took her, and I catch him, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind. When I first found out that Bella’s father was a criminal, I was shocked, because at home he was the most caring husband. I would not have thought that he would ever do that. But ever since we moved away from Bella’s dad, Bella has felt like not having two parents in her life is the worst thing in the world. I always tell her that it isn’t, but I know that Bella and her father have always had a strong relationship that I never wanted to end, but I could never trust someone who was a thief around my child. That is just a bad influence.


Alex (Bella’s Father)

Bella, Caroline, and I have always had a strong relationship. But ever since they found out that I was stealing, they started feeling uncomfortable around me, I guess. I get why they would feel uncomfortable, but it broke my heart. The only reason why I was stealing is because there’s an agency, and I used to work for this guy named Jeffrey Siegel, and basically he paid people $100 a week for every five items we stole. I stole many things, but I never told Caroline or Bella the reason why. Bella and I have always had a really close relationship. Even Caroline and I had one too, but Bella is a forgiving person. But on the other hand, Bella’s mother, Caroline, is not. Once, I accidentally broke one of her favorite hair accessories, and she wouldn’t talk to me the whole day. I even offered to buy her a new one, but she refused. And once, I broke one of Bella’s squishy foam balls, and she forgave me and said I didn’t have to buy her a new one. There’s a big difference between Bella and her mother, but I still love them both equally. I’m not sure if I already mentioned this, but Bella’s mother is a drama queen. She just wants to make everything she says a big deal, around me at least. I regret taking Bella, but if I had told Bella to come with me, I just know she would have refused. After all the stealing I’ve done, I probably lost her trust. All the people who helped me “kidnap” Bella had told me that if I do this, I will lose her trust even more, but I told them I desperately wanted to see my daughter.


Bella’s Chapter

I just remember that I had my phone in my back pocket, so I ask my dad if I can call my mom. 

“No! Please, no! She is going to get really pissed off, like really really pissed off!”

“Please, Dad!”

“No.”

“But what if she’s worried about where I am?”

“Okay, fine.”

Then I quickly pull my phone out of my pocket and call my mom. Before I dial my mom’s number, I see that there are 27 missed calls from her. I know that she is definitely worried about me. Then she picks up. 

“Hello, Mom?”

“Bella, is that you?”

“Yeah, Mom. Were you worried about me?”

“Yes, absolutely. Where are you?”
“I… actually don’t know.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean by that is, long story short, Dad kidnapped me when I was in the bathroom at Jessica’s house, and he put me in the back of a van, put a blindfold on me, and now he’s here with me in the middle of nowhere with his crew.”

“What?!” Mom shouts. “Pass the phone to your dad right now!”

Then I take the phone off of my ear, cover the microphone, and I mouth to my dad, “She wants to talk to you.”

My dad takes a deep breath and grabs the phone out of my hands. “Hi, sweetie,” my dad says over the phone in a scared voice.

“Who you calling sweetie, ‘cause I know you’re not talking to me!”

“I’m so sorry for what I did to Bella.”

“One, you should not be apologizing to me, and two, why would you do it?” 

“I only did it because I knew that if I asked your permission to spend time with Bella, you would say no, so the only way I could get Bella is to kidnap her.”

“Seriously? You had to kidnap her? I would’ve let you spend time with Bella if you just asked, because I know that Bella has missed you over the years.”

“I am very, very, very sorry, and I hope you and Bella forgive me.”

“I do forgive you. I just have one question. How did you find out that Bella was having a sleepover with Jessica?”

Right now I just love this moment but hate this moment. I love how my dad is apologizing and being all nice, but I hate how my mom is just asking so many questions, and she seems very annoyed. I really hope that will change later on in the conversation.

“Well, there’s a guy who lives around there, and I asked him if he saw a girl around there with long brown hair and hazel eyes, and he said yes.”

“Are you serious? You did all of this just to find out where Bella is?”

“Yes, I’ll do anything to see my daughter again.”

“Well you did not have to kidnap her.

“Well I kind — ”

Then my mom interrupts before my dad could finish and says, “Well you kind of what?”

“Well I kind of think your face is… pretty?”

“My face being pretty should not be something you kind of think. It should be a true fact for you. Bye.”

Then my dad hands over the phone to me and mouths the word “crazy” to me.


Jada’s Chapter (Jessica’s Mom)

I suddenly hear a ring coming from my door.

“Who is it?” I shout. 

“It’s Bella’s mom, Caroline,” she says in an angry voice.

Then I yell back, “Before you come in my house, you have to lose that tone!”

“Fine,” Caroline says, sounding annoyed.

“I still need you to fix that tone.”

“Okay,” Caroline says in a sweet voice.

The first thing Caroline does when she walks in is roll her eyes.

I hate it when people roll their eyes at me, so I say, “Keep rolling your eyes, and maybe you’ll find a brain.”

Then she fires back and says, “Excuse me? I don’t even want to be here. I’m just here because you lost my daughter,” she says while pointing her finger directly at my face. 

I slap her finger out of my face and say, “I didn’t even want your daughter to be here. Jessica did.”

Then she moves one step closer to me, and this time her face is two inches away from mine. She starts screaming stuff at me like, “I trusted you with my daughter!” Blah blah blah. And all I do is cover my nose because her breath really stinks.

“It’s not my fault your daughter got kidnapped. You think I’m going to expect her to get kidnapped while she’s in the bathroom? No. Not my problem.”

We suddenly hear a knock on the door, and I yell, “Who is it?

The answer is, “Bella and my dad, Alex.”

Caroline runs to the door, opens the door, and picks Bella up and kisses her all around. For Alex, she just gives him a glare.

He goes in for a hug, and she responds. “I never thought I’d see you again, Caroline.” 

Then they reach in for another hug, but I push them out the door and yell, “Go home!” 

Then she says, “Bella, come on, let’s go!”

Bella gives Jessica and Olivia a hug and runs out the door. On her way out, she yells, “Thank you, Ms. Jada, for letting me come over!”

“You’re welcome, Bella.” 


Part of Book Two


Bella’s Chapter 

One year later… 

Jessica, Olivia, and I are at school. My mom has been dead for a few months now. She died from breast cancer, and the doctors said she was going to make it but… she didn’t. This is our first day back. I really hate school. We are sitting at a smallish rectangle table in science class. James, an annoying boy in our class, keeps on throwing wet paper balls of paper at our heads. Right now we are doing an experiment to see what is more dense between cold and hot water. Jessica and Olivia tell me that they hate science (like me), so Olivia is slouching down on the table with her long light brown hair over her face. One of her eyes is closed, and the other one of her hazel eyes is open. And Jessica is lying her head down on the table with her black hair beside her shoulder, and there are bags under her blue eyes. Sometimes I wish I could just be homeschooled because there is no getting in trouble by your principal, no learning with annoying kids, and no getting snitched on, but unfortunately my dad can’t afford it. Suddenly, my very old science teacher falls to the ground.

Ten minutes later… 

Right now all I see are doctors, and all I hear are sirens.

I also see Principal Lee on her knees by the door wailing and crying, “No, not you too Uncle Stanley.”

I am just so confused right now, and I bet Olivia and Jessica are too. The expression on theirs face are saying that they are very confused.

One hour later… 

Right now this lady with tall heels and a blood red dress walks in, and a man with a suit walk in too. 

“Mom!” Jessica yells.

“Yes,” Ms. Jada says.

“Dad!” I yell.

“Hi, Bella. Jada and I will be your new science teachers,” my dad says as he holds Jada by the waist.

What?!” Jessica and I yell simultaneously.

“Dad, can we talk outside privately?” I say to my dad.

“Can no be the answer?” he responds.

No, oh my god you are so annoying!” I yell on my way to the door.

“That is no way to talk to your dad. You are very disrespectful just like your mother was,” Jada says to me right before I open the door.

Then I turn around and say, “Excuse me.”

Then Jada says, “Yes, you heard me.”

“First of all, you can’t tell me what to do, and second of all, you are not my mom, and you never will be, and third of all, never put words in your mouth about my mother again.”

My dad says, “About that… I have something important to tell you outside real quick, Bella and Jessica. Jada, come on.”

Then we all step out of the room, and my dad is the first one to speak. “Jada and I have been thinking about it, and we want to get married.”


Spring Has Sprung

         

Spring has sprung, spring has sprung

I hear that chant from everyone

As I frolic from here to there

The breezy breezes breeze my hair


Walking down the cobble lane,

The change of weather feels so strange

But I look up and grin at the sun

‘Cause spring has sprung, spring has sprung


Ma puts the hats and coats away

We all go on outside to play

And my seashell necklace is finally strung

Spring has sprung, spring has sprung

The Dark Lord and the Prince

One day there was a prince who lived in a beautiful blue 15-room tower. The prince loved dogs. The prince decided to go to the adoption center to get a cat and dog. On his way to the adoption center, he heard something crawl through the bushes. He ignored it.

He heard it again, and he said, “This is getting weird.” 

He continued walking until he heard a voice behind him that said, “Run… ” 

The prince was scared, so he ran. When he looked behind him, he saw the Dark Lord! The Dark Lord was the most dangerous villain. For years he attempted to kill the prince, and disguised himself as the prince. When he did, he planned to kill the king and take over. This was his tenth attempt. The Dark Lord ran after the prince with a knife, mace, and a bag. The Dark Lord caught up and put the prince in the bag. The prince tried to talk, but the bag was too tight. The Dark Lord succeeded.

When the prince woke up, he found himself on a table with cuffs on him. He saw knives, chainsaws, swords, and a juicer. He was very scared. He had tape on his mouth, so he couldn’t talk.

Back at the king’s castle, the king was watching TV, and the newsman said, “A young prince has been captured by the Dark Lord. Who’s going to save him?”

The king was shocked. He gasped a very long gasp. The king decided it was time to defeat the Dark Lord. The king took his army to the Dark Lord’s lair.

At the Dark Lord’s Lair, the Dark Lord kicked open a huge wooden door. A dragon slowly approached out of the door and then… roar! The dragon roared very loudly. The prince was terrified.

The Dark Lord said, “Get eaten by the dragon or get cut up with all of these weapons. It’s your decision.” The Dark Lord took the tape off of the prince’s mouth. The prince was speechless. The Dark Lord said, “Choose, or I will kill you with my bare hands.”

“Hmm… maybe I’ll choose nothing.” The prince whistled, and his horse, Sir Jonathan came. 

“Uh oh,” the Dark Lord said.

Sir Jonathan charged through the door, and as fast as a blink of an eye, the Dark Lord was lying on the floor moaning and groaning. The Dark Lord came back up all weak.

He said, “You’re no match for me! Dragon!” 

The Dragon stepped out from his cage, “Roaaar!”

“Eat him,” the Dark Lord said. 

Back with the king, his army was lined up behind the Dark Lord’s lair.

“King, what are we going to do?” Justin the Knight asked. 

“We fight!” The king raised the lance in his fist. 

“Charge!!!”

The king broke the door open and said, “Well, hello there… ” 

The Dark Lord was standing next to the prince who was lying on a table. There were a bunch of ceiling lights on and a feast with big chairs for the dragons. “Brother,” the Dark Lord said to the king.

Everyone gasped. 

“Dad, you never told me that the Dark Lord was your brother!” 

“I had to keep it a secret so no one thought I was evil, which I am not. Let’s just forget about this and get you out of here.”

“Not so fast,” said the Dark Lord. “I’m going to press this button and your son goes in the juicer.”

Beep. “Justin, get your hammer to break the metal cuffs,” said the king.

“Got it, King.” Click! Justin swung the hammer and broke the cuffs.

“Son, are you okay?”

“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine.” 

“Let’s fight the Dark Lord,” the king said. 

“I always have a plan,” said the Dark Lord. 

“I hear footsteps, King,” Justin said. 

Roaaar. A bunch of dragons came out, and everyone gasped.

The king said, “Let the fight begin. Charge!”

The dragons started breathing fire and spitting out acid, and the king’s army started running for their lives.

“Hahahahahahaha,” the Dark Lord laughed. “Now who’s the winner”

“Everyone retreat!” said the king.

Everyone got back to the castle safely but one… Sir Jonathan! 

The prince went back for Sir Jonathan, but Sir Jonathan was down on the floor next to the Dark Lord.

“There is nothing to do now, prince.” Before the Dark Lord did anything, the prince took Sir Jonathan and ran back to the castle with the rest of the army and the king. 

The second the prince got to the castle, he took Sir Jonathan to the vet. The veterinarians put Sir Jonathan on the table and said they would need a few minutes. The prince was worried. A few minutes later, the prince came in to check on Sir Jonathan. The veterinarians said that Sir Jonathan needed a few days to rest. The prince was relieved. 

The prince went to talk to the king.

He asked “What’s going to be our next move?” 

“I don’t know yet, but soon I will come up with a plan,” said the king.

Since the prince had a little free time, he went to the pet store to adopt a dog.When he got to the pet store, he got a Golden Retriever. The prince named him Goldy. A few days later, the prince went to the vet to check on Sir Jonathan. Sir Jonathan was okay! The prince hugged Sir Jonathan and went back to his room. When Sir Jonathan went in the room, he started playing with Goldy. Goldy also played with Sir Jonathan. They bonded really well, and the prince was happy. 

The king knocked on the door, and the prince let him in.

The king said “I have a plan. The plan is make silent acid. Then come from the back door, and when the dragons are sleeping, pour the acid on their wings. When the dragons wake up, they won’t be able to fly, so we’ll put them in a dragon-proof net. Then bring them back to the castle and… tame them!

“Wow, Dad, that is a really good… and crazy plan! How are we going to tame dragons?!”

“We obviously give them whatever they want.”

“That’ll actually work,” said the prince.

The next day, the prince and the king went to the forest to collect gems, crystals, and acid bugs. The prince collected five gems and three crystals. The king found two crystals and five acid bugs. They went back to the castle and mashed everything up and mixed the ingredients in a pot. There was enough acid for everyone to use on the dragons. The king gave everyone in the army a bottle of silent acid. At midnight, everyone went to the Dark Lord’s lair and silently walked through the back door. Everyone picked the dragon cages’ locks with paper clips.

Then the army poured acid on the dragons, and the dragons started screaming. “Rooooar!”

Quickly they put the nets on the dragons and went back to the castle to their rooms. They fed the dragons and bathed them. Then the army put the saddle on their dragons. They all went on a test fly. It worked!!! They all quietly went to the Dark Lord’s lair. They left their dragons out of the door and busted the door open.

The Dark Lord saw them, and they said, “We surrender!”

The Dark Lord said, “Now let me kill all of you!”

“But wait you forgot our… dragons!” the king shouted, and the dragons flew into the lair, destroying everything in their path.

“Rooooar!”

“Where did you get those dragons? 

“They’re yours! Well… they were yours! We have tamed them!” said the king. 

“You wouldn’t!”

“I already did it… Fire!”

The dragons all shot the fireballs to the Dark Lord.

The Dark Lord said, “Nooo!”

The fireballs were thrown so close to the Dark Lord they blasted him away into the sun.

“I will get my revenge!!!” he shouted, right before he burned.


Cinnamon’s Story

Prologue

Cinnamon! Cinnamon!

Please wake up, Cinnamon! 

Tears filled Branch’s eyes. Cinnamon’s body was lifeless. 

She was not breathing. Was that a breath?!

No, it was just the wind. No no no! Please no! But his mate’s body was lifeless as stone. Blue, his daughter, buried her nose in her mother’s flank. 

“If only Wise were here,” sighed Goose.

Branch’s son looked as lifeless as Cinnamon. First Wise left and now Cinnamon… Please, oh, Cinnamon. No!


Chapter One: New Thoughts 

I crouched at the edge of the road in pure shock. Honey, my sister, slowly crept toward the ginger body in the road. Tom, our father, was dead. Silvermoon, my brother, paw by paw crept down his tree. Shock rippled down his spine. But I was too terrified to move. It had all been so sudden, a loud roar and one of the cats I loved most in the world was gone. No, no, I thought. Honey slowly dragged their father’s body off the road.

“Let’s go home,” Honey said.

We plodded along, no one saying anything. Grief was strong in the air. I looked up as they reached the driveway. I squinted at the end, three cats were there. Who could it be? I wondered. As we approached, the black she-cat stepped forward.

“I’m Night,” she said.

A ginger tom stepped beside Night. “I’m Maple,” he said. “And this is our brother, Carmel.”

Night finished with a glare at her brother.

“I’m Honey,” Honey said. “And this is Silvermoon,” she continued.

I tried to pull myself together, but part of me did not want to. “I’m Cinnamon,” was all I could muster.

Honey twisted and licked her dark brown tabby fur.

“Well, where are you from?” Silvermoon asked, stretching, his silver fur gleaming in the sunlight.

I looked at my own ginger fur. It looked rough and scarred. Just like I felt. I just wanted to go somewhere to start over. Rhinebeck! In a flash, I remembered the town. All those human and cars, yet something had drawn me. The happy spirit, the friendly cats. What was I thinking, my family. But something tempted me, drew me to Rhinebeck.

Silvermoon drew me out of my thoughts. “I thought we were going hunting! What had I missed.”

“Honey’s showing Night and co. a place they can stay.” I nodded mutely.

I quickly caught a mouse and a bluebird, then I followed Silvermoon. He caught three mice. Then he opened its jaws. What are you doing? I thought. Silvermoon went to the new bush. The berry tree was poisonous. Then he brought all three mice back. I saw cold, hard anger in his eyes. Anger at the world. All I felt was grief, grief that nothing would be the same. After the whole I can’t believe you tried to poison Honey nonsense, we went to sleep all together. Well, Honey and Silvermoon fell asleep. I turned over and over in my nest. I contemplated over and over as the first light of dawn shown in the garage with absolute serenity I made my choice.

Chapter Two: The Journey Begins

I woke up to Silvermoon prodding me.

“What?” I said groggily, a bit annoyed.

“Honey’s missing,” he said worriedly.

“How do you expect me to know where she is?” I snapped, very annoyed now.

He ran out. Twenty minutes later, Honey came in.

“Silvermoon’s looking for you,” I said.

“I know we had a run-in,” she answered.

“Can I confess?” we said at the same time.

“You first,” I said awkwardly.

“Okay, well I have a mate.”

 “Maple is so nice.” she said.

At that moment, my decision was confirmed.

“Oh, Honey, I’m leaving. Going to Rhinebeck, for good.”

“W-what,” she sputtered.

“Oh, Honey, I never really had a future here.”

“Oh, Cinnamon. Oh, Cinnamon.”

Tears flowed down Honey’s face.

“Oh, Cinnamon, no, I need you.” I licked her.

“I’ll always be right here in your heart.”

I said, “I love you.”

It was all words, but the look Honey and I shared said it all more than words could ever.

“Silvermoon, I love you.” I turned to my brother. “Oh, I love you.”

I walked up the driveway. Then I knew I would never see my siblings again. The journey began. 

As I walked, I looked around at the familiar street as I left forever. I left , I turned down the corner where Tom had died.

“I hope you’re with me,” I said to his grave. “I’ll need all the help I can get. I love you.”

The sun was setting, and I slept on his grave. When I woke up, I was sitting on the road, and Tom was sitting next to me.

“Tom!” I cried.

“Cinnamon,” he said warmly. “I am always with you. Now listen close. You will find your friend and savior in a place you don’t expect. Don’t turn down my gift, Cinnamon.”

And with that, he vanished. The dream faded around me, and I woke with a start. Then I looked around Tom’s grave. Right time to move. I walked up a road.

“Ruff.” A cat’s worst enemy: a dog. “This is my house. Get out, scoundrel.” The dog growled in a queer way.

I bared my teeth, and the dog the yellow dog leaped. I twisted and bit his ear hard. Then as I dropped to the ground, he scared my face.

“Errrrrrrr, get out right now, tyrant cat.”

I will, stinky dog.” And with that, I ran.

It was noon, and I was hungry. There was a house and a huge grass lawn with a small pond that trickled into a woodland stream. Water and food. The water was fresh and cold. Mouse! I found a used squirrel nest with a squirrel in it. It made up for mice. I continued on. The ground started sloping, and the sun started sinking. I slept by the road that night. Something icey woke me. Someone was watching me. At the end of the hill, I looked down the road. There was a big building. It looked warm and cosy. I saw cars and more cars and then wam! And there was a dog, a despicable dog. But at the sight of anything killed by a car, even a dog, I felt horrible. That dog had been killed like Tom. 

Then it struck me. No matter what, cat or dog, no one deserved this. Because we are all the same inside. I slowly dragged her body out of the road, and I saw a pup in her jaws dead too. She was a mother, and I thought of Sky and Ice. My mothers. A young life never lived. At that moment, I despised humans with a bitter hate. Hated life. Why so many lives and this pup would never feel joy, happiness and sadness. Then a thin yelp of, Momma! The pup. It was still alive. I looked at the mother dog. I would save her. The pup was my life now. Death couldn’t have her. The pup was injured. It needed care. I looked at the building. Humans might have been this pup’s only chance. We would look for help there. I picked up the pup.

“What is your name, little one?” I asked.

“Wind,” said the pup pitifully.

I put Wind on the grass.

“What’s your mother’s name, little one?” I asked.

“Rebecca,” said the pup, then promptly passed out.

I looked at the road, No cars. I raced onto the road. Vroom Mmmmm! I grabbed the body and ran. Safe. Then the terror of the whole thing hit. I was far far away from home with only this injured pup for company. I picked up Wind. We, or I, ran to the big building. There was someone outside.

“Kitty. Oh, and a puppy,” the child squealed, and a mom came (to us cats, you humans say uwqgdiuqgyuiefyq or other weird things, but the editor has translated to human.)

“Sweetie, come. Ooh, cat and dog?

“Come, sweetie, can you watch the pup for a second?”

Yay! Puppy!!!”

The sound would have deafened me, but it did not.

“Teddy!” she called.

“Yes,” said a gruff man’s voice.

“Teddy, this cat was trying to bring an injured pup.”

“Well, this cat does not look well.”

“Bring the pup.”

A second later, Wind was lying next to me.

“I’ll take um… ”

“Ohh, thank you!”

Then the two voices ceased I realised. She was unconscious, then the world faded around me.


Chapter Three: Farm Life

I walked through the field. I knew I should not. I felt disappointed in myself, my life. Living as a pet. With a human. I saw Honey and Silvermoon flourishing as wild cats. They would have been disappointed in me. Yes, this was my life now, living with humans. A tear surprised me by trickling down my cheek. I lived for Wind now. Without her, I would crumble of self shame. My life out the window for this. For Wind, I reminded myself. I gave my leg for Wind. Literally. It had been broken. I looked at it. I sat and remembered. One year ago came to the farm. Wind had always had an interest in the road where her mother died. One day, Wind ran into the road. A car was barreling toward her. I ran into the road and pushed her out of the road, with a crack! and a fiery pain. Then the world went black.

Now I was healed and fit again and I wanted to go. Wind sat next to me. 

“Wind, I’m leaving.”

“I know, and I’m coming,” said Wind in her normal gruff voice. 

“Oh, Wind, you have such a nice home here… ” 

I have it because of you. If you go, so do I.” 

Her sentiment warmed me, but I could not let her abandon her life for me.

“I have a deal,” I said.

What.

“You will come to Rhinebeck and come back.” 

Deal.

Then I started second-guessing myself. She would come back by herself… If she went with me would that be fair? And if she was that devoted, shouldn’t I be too? I should tell her not to come. But inside me, selfish me, I wanted her.

“Elosa!” This was from Teddy. He called me Elosa. 

When I walked into the FarmHouse/Farmers Market, it was a large white ‘building,’ I think you call them. There was a large ‘door,’ another word I picked up from living near humans. I walked in. As I did, I thought, Can I let Wind give this up for me? She might never come back… No, l would not let Wind… l would not even think it. And that’s when I found a CMail.

(Editor’s note: CMail is a cat version of Gmail, but for cats. It’s not on an iPhone. It is a long distance thing where they feel the message, but for your reading abilities (since I don’t think you read cat) it is formed like a letter.)

Dear Cinnamon, 

We miss you at home. I would like to talk to you more like this. I just had my first litter of kits with Maple! Their names are Golden, Tawny, Tyme, Tulip, and Rose! Silvermoon is mated with Night. He will write you soon. Silvermoon and I wanted to know, where are you? Do you have a mate, Kits? Please write answers to help your worried sister and brother. And I will ask you and ask you, will you come home? You still have a home here, Cinnamon! The CMail was sprinkled with tears. Probably Honey’s. Well I hope you are okay at least.

Your Always And Deeply Devoted Sister, 

Honey

The letter made me think, would it be easier to just go home? A second time in my life I wrestled with a big decision, but by morning I knew in my heart that I would not be able to go back, but as a sister I had to write back.

Here was my CMail:

Dear Honey,

I miss you a lot too! I semi had a pup (yes a dog). Her name is Wind, and her mother got hit by a car, and I adopted her. I am at a farm called Small Queen Farms and Market. My owner is Teddy Wert. I am leaving for Rhinebeck tomorrow. Also l can’t come home. Sorry. You and I, we miss each other equally. 

Sincerely, 

Cinnamon

Then I turned around. Wind was next to me. 

“Okay, time to go,” I said. 

“Yes,” said Wind as she looked around for what I did not know then but would be her last day, if I had known I probably would have made her stay, but I did not know, so we walked away. 

First we passed a big house and a sleek cat out on the lawn.

I am Queenie, and I am Queen!” said the cat. 

“Okay?” said Wind. 

We kept walking.

“Where is Rhinebeck?” Wind asked. 

“Across the road, then jump the big gap with the stream at the bottom.” Seeing the worried look on Wind’s face, I added, “Don’t worry, I jumped it as a kitten.”

Winds face relaxed. I should have known Wind would never see the other side of the chasm. At the road I watched. Wind made it. Barely three seconds slower and she would have died. Yeah, roads are rough. I didn’t know why those humans made then. (So if you are human, please stop killing us with your roads.) My turn. With five seconds to spare, I reached the other side.

“Well,” I said, winded (no joke intended).

Well is right,” said Wind, gasping and laughing. 

We forged on. When we arrived at the chasm, I jumped. For a second I felt myself plummeting. And then I landed, safe.

“Your turn!” I called.

“Okay, by the way, I’m glad I came.”

“I am too,” I said.

Then Wind jumped, and then the wind and Wind changed direction (joke intended), and she slipped away crashing into the other side hard, too hard. I ran to her. Wind was still.


Chapter Four: Without Wind (which is a short chapter)

Without Wind we could not breathe, without Wind, our earth would die… 

Bored, just kidding or stalling rather… I could continue my boring and factually incorrect poem. No, I thought not, okay, back to the story then… 

I stood over the body of the closest I had come to family since leaving the big greenhouse (sadly enough now back to the poem… okay, are all readers this mean?!) I stood there a long time. At nightfall, I picked up Wind. Then I thought, We must look strange, a cat with a dead dog in her mouth. Then I came upon a grove, and I… without Wind we would never shiver without Wind our hats would not fall of…

(Don’t laugh, I’m making myself feel better.) 

Without Wind our jackets would be useless, Without Wind We Will Wane! 

(Okay, I feel better now, well not really… But if you insist… okay)

I buried… Wind. There, I said it.


Chapter Five

I walked on aimlessly. Then I saw a big red barn, the Center for Performing Arts.

I realized I had made it. You know that empty feeling when determination and anxiety fill you up and then it is over? I do. That’s how I felt. I realized that I was alone. For the first time I felt lonely. And hungry. So I caught a mouse. Then I saw a brown tom-cat. 

“Hello!”

“Who are you. Are you a new member of Bee’s pack? If you are I’ll shred you for killing.”

“Hold your mice!” I said. “I’m Cinnamon.”

Then I told him my story.

“Bee is the leader of a group of cats who what to rule,” he told me. “They kill cats who don’t listen. I am a member of Cecilia’s tribe. We are fighting, Jenny is my mother.” 

This cat had lost his mother. I know that tearing feeling, a feeling of the world turning upside-down. He took me to Cecilia. She was kind and understanding, almost like the mother I had never had. The first moon was challenging. There were 16 cats in the tribe. My first mission was learning to fight. A cat, Deer, was supposed to teach me.

“So, I want to see what you know. Attack me.”

I crouched. I was exhausted when I got back to the tribe. 

A month later, Cecilia was standing on a tree. 

“Cats of my tribe. Today is the day when we will fight. I invite Woody, Deer, Cinnamon, Evelyn, Branch, and Rachel.” 

“M-me?” I said.

“Yes,” said Cecilia. So we lined up. 

We walk through the town that had become home. Right toward Bee’s camp.

“Attack” sliced through the air. I ran in. I slashed and bit everything in sight. I faced a cat I recognized, Typo. He stepped over a body. A cat who would never know victory. I yowled.

It was Woody. I carefully balanced on my front paws, and Typo reared. Perfect. I slashed his belly with grim determination, then imagined killing the thing that had killed my mother so I never knew her, my father right when I was little, Wind in that chasm, and I felt no fear. I would fight to the death. I knocked over Typo, finishing him, not killing. But if no one helped him, he would die. I felt Sky next to me.

“Evelyn, my love, she’s dying, help. I love you. You will be an amazing mother that I never was to you to those kits.”

“Sky!” I gasped. My mother!

“Go, my love. I’m right next to you.” 

So I sprang on the attacker. 

No one,” I hissed, “can mess with my tribe and get away with it. I cut a long line down Yu-Yu’s back. He tried to roll and shake me of but, and I wasn’t not proud of it. Another cat would never see the light of day. I felt Yu-Yu go limp. I ran to Evelyn.

“Are you okay,” I said.

She was alive. Rachel ran over. 

“I will take her find Cecilia and Branch. We won!” she said. 

“Okay.”

I looked around. Branch was leaning over a body. 

“Cecilia!” I wailed and raced over, grief radiating from me in waves.

“It’s okay, my love,” Branch said. “She is alive for now, but dying quick.”

“I’ll take Cecilia, you take Woody. He is dead,” I said. He raced off. I gently picked up the only motherly figure in my life. Then it hit me. I was expecting Branch’s kits. Okay so in the month I’d been with the tribe, Branch and I had gotten close.

Branch!” I called.

Yes,” he yelled back. 

“I’m expecting your kits!” 

“W-What.”

When we got back to camp, we put down the bodies. Uina, the healer, came over. 

“So, Woody’s alive, Evelyn’s dead and — and Cecilia’s dead.” 

I knew before she said it. 

“Katle is second, so now leader, and Kamel, being her brother, is second,” was the announcement. I did not care. Life was so beautiful and so short, and as Branch came over, I felt pure joy at life. And soon I hoped to enjoy it with my kits.

The End (for now)


The Pearl Necklace

Once upon a time, there was a mermaid. She used to always sing with her sisters, and it was by far the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. She missed hearing and singing with them a lot. She had six sisters.

A half-bald man had a stepdaughter who became a “sister” with the mermaids because she so badly wanted to get away from her stepfather. He was mean and cruel and hated his stepdaughter and the mermaids more than anything else, and he hated a whole lot of things. 

He hated the mermaids so much because his own stepdaughter left him to go to them. The half-bald man’s stepdaughter’s name was Charlotte, and she heard the most divine sound in her life — the seven mermaids singing that very moment. Charlotte, at that point, was thinking about her mother, who was presently on a seven-month business trip. When Charlotte heard the singing, she walked toward the ocean, which just happened to be right outside her house. Charlotte listened to the sounds of the mermaids and knew her stepdad wouldn’t understand to care to listen to them. 

“Here.” Charlotte heard a thin and high-pitched voice. She turned and saw one mermaid, with six following behind her. For some strange reason, Charlotte was attracted to both their beauty and the thought that mermaids actually existed.

“Become one of us,” said the first mermaid. 

“Grow into us,” said the second.

“Develop into us,” said the third. 

“Turn into us,” said the fourth.

“Emerge as us,’’ said the fifth.

“Eventually be us,” said the sixth.

“Come to us,” said the seventh.

“Um, no offense, but you’re making this whole ‘come be us’ thing weird to the extreme,” said Charlotte.

“Sorry,” said the first. 

“Regrets,” said the second. 

“Apologies,” said the third. 

“Remorse,” said the fourth. The fifth mermaid was about to say another synonym for ‘sorry,’ but Charlotte interrupted, “It’s okay. But why do you have to use a different word for everything you say?” 

“It’s our thing,” said the first.

“Instinct,” said the second.

“Sixth sense,” said the third.

“Intuition,” said the fourth.

“Aptitude,” said the fifth.

“Impulse,” said the sixth.

“Inclination,” said the seventh.

“Please, one of you talk. I can barely understand what you’re saying, and if this is typed, it would be extremely long and tedious work for the typer. Agree?” said Charlotte.

“Yes,” said the first.

“Precisely,” said the second.

“Gladly,” said the third.

“Beyond a doubt,” said the fourth.

“Naturally,” said the fifth.

“Unquestionably,” said the sixth.

“Yep,” simply said the seventh.

“Okay, do not answer me. This is all too much for the typer. If I ask a question, one of you will get to answer me and explain what is happening.”

“Wait, someone’s recording what we’re saying?” said the first. “That’s awesome!”

“That’s amazing!” giggled the second.

“Psychoneurotically disturbing,” muttered the third. 

“Sick!” exclaimed the fourth.

Stop talking!” screamed Charlotte.”We need to find a way to settle this.”

“She’s triggered!” whispered-screamed the scared first.

“I swear, if any of you join in, I will lose it,” said a triggered Charlotte, trying so hard to stop them. 

“One person,” started Charlotte, “I mean, mermaid, will explain everything to me. And there’s a lot I’m confused about. I don’t know how to choose though, because I realize how much you all love to talk.”

“Rock paper scissors!” exclaimed the first.

Charlotte agreed, and all seven mermaids played at the same time. The first mermaid beat the second, who was also beaten by the fifth and seventh who were both beaten by the sixth, who was beaten by the third and fourth, and the fourth beat the third who was beaten by the first. This was all very complex. Charlotte figured the first mermaid won. 

“Okay, you are officially one of us mermaids. We can’t stay in such shallow water for much longer so come in with us,” said the first mermaid.

Charlotte dove in the water with the first mermaid and her sisters. 

“Here, this may sound ridiculous, but trust me, if you use something of mine, like this pearl necklace, you will be able to breathe.”

Charlotte took the necklace and held it to her lips. It actually worked, but strangely Charlotte wasn’t surprised. That was probably because of the series of astonishing events that had just happened.

Emma didn’t mention the fact that whoever wore the necklace would transform into a mermaid, but Charlotte found out soon enough. In Charlotte’s eyes, everything turned black for a nanosecond. Charlotte’s eyes weren’t closed, but soon the faze stopped. She looked down and didn’t know what to think. I mean, she put on a pearl necklace and now looked exactly like Emma and her sisters. I don’t exactly have experience with that kind of situation either.

“Um, how do I turn back into… into myself?”

“Take off the necklace.”

Easy enough, I guess.

“So where do you sleep?” asked Charlotte. 

“In a pineapple under the sea,” said the first mermaid, rolling her eyes. 

“Really?’’ asked Charlotte. 

“No, I’m not a sponge. I’ve heard it before, but don’t ask questions just yet. We don’t really sleep, only swim around, not exactly thinking at that moment. It’s really hard to explain.”

“What’s your name, anyway?” asked the first mermaid. “Mine’s Emma.”

 “Charlotte. Charlotte Olivia Williams. What’s your last name?” asked Charlotte.

“Well, I don’t have a last name, or even a middle one. I can’t remember who my dad is or even if I have one. Did anyone ever mention you have the initials ‘COW’?” said Emma.

“Yes, I realized that. But everyone has a dad. Maybe not mermaids, though, as I’ve never even seen one before today,” said Charlotte.

“I’m not really sure, but we have more necessary things to talk about,” said Emma.

“Significant,” said the second.

“Crucial,” said the third.

“Relevant,” said the fourth.

“Essential,” said the fifth.

“Urgent,” said the sixth.

“Substantial,” said the seventh.

“You promised that you wouldn’t all talk at the same time!” cried Charlotte. 

“As I was saying… ” started Emma. 

“You were saying we had more important things to talk about. Here’s one. Why do you and your sisters always use a different synonym for every word?” asked Charlotte.

“That’s insignificant in comparison to what you really need to know,” said the third mermaid.

“Shut up,” said Emma.

I never knew that even mermaid sisters said “shut up” to each other. Anyway, Emma explained Charlotte’s question.

“Well, we’re so close that we used to say the same exact thing at the same exact time. So my sister, Sophie, the sixth one in line, thought we should think of other words while we’re talking in line and all use synonyms for every common word, so we don’t sound so ‘weird to the extreme’ like you mentioned earlier. We don’t get all that many chances to talk to other mermaids, much less humans, besides ourselves because both acquaintances are quite rare, so we take the chances we can get,” Emma explained.

“I’m sorry I said that. I’d like to see you guys tomorrow. What should I tell my stepdad I was doing? I’ll figure it out by the time I get home, in about seventeen seconds.”

But Charlotte’s stepdad did notice. Charlotte’s mom definitely would have noticed, if she wasn’t on a seven-month business trip. Charlotte’s stepdad noticed because every night Charlotte would leave to go to the ocean. He was horrified that anyone would prefer someone else more so than him. Even if it wasn’t a human. (That’s how ignorant he was.) He noticed her move her lips and go deeper into the ocean on Day One. Charlotte clearly never noticed his watching because she would have informed the other mermaids. Day One was the first day Charlotte saw the mermaids. That was 33 days ago.

Soon, Charlotte became good friends with each of the mermaids and memorized all their names. In the line in which Charlotte saw them on Day One their names were Emma, Grace, Hannah, Lily, Nora, Sophie, and Zoe. The seven mermaids had a thing with alphabetical order. 

They all looked very similar, and each resembled her sister even more so than herself. I don’t know if that is physically possible, but it was true for them. All of them kind of had the same face, yet different color eyes, colored hair, and texture hair.

Charlotte came to the ocean and met the mermaids. She loved them more than anything. She asked to become one of the mermaids, as that was what the mermaids wanted her to do on Day One. But the mermaids regretted saying that because they thought she should stay with her own kind above the waves, because she should get used to not being around the mermaids so much. The mermaids didn’t want her to have a hard time in the real world and didn’t want her to become a sister with them, regardless of their love for her. It was because of what happened the last time they made a human girl a sister of theirs.

 But then the mermaids learned that she was too sick without the care of the mermaids, and if she stayed with her cruel stepfather, she would surely die. They noticed her changes in behavior, like how she seemed to never want to leave the mermaids and knew she needed their help. And so the mermaids relented, and one night Charlotte joined them, and there were eight sisters. Charlotte loved being one of them, and she was no longer sad. The only reason she was sad was because she was without them. Pain can only be felt if experienced.

Charlotte soon realized that her stepfather was furious. He went out to the ocean with an extraordinarily large fishing net. He was an especially good swimmer, and he put his one and only talent to work. Of course, he didn’t hear the mermaids singing. Only people who really cared about the mermaids could hear them singing. Neither Charlotte nor the mermaids knew about the half-bald stepfather and his trying to murder mermaids, until Charlotte did, which was too late.

Before I go on, I suppose I should tell you several things about that ugly half-bald stepfather of Charlotte’s. The first thing is his name is Farley. Yeah, you heard it right. His name is Farley. That was part of the reason he was so evil, corrupt, unpleasant, cruel, vicious, bad, and downright ugly. I don’t think I had to use seven synonyms for the same kind of word, but I was kind of used to doing it because that’s one of the things the mermaids would say in line. 

So when Farley (yes, Farley, get over it, I have to call him Farley too) first set out with the net, Charlotte quickly went over to the mermaids to warn them. But that was no help. Grace was long gone. (I think that was the most depressing sentence I’ve written so far besides “his name was Farley.”) Emma and her sisters realized that the seaweed beds and plentiful food were a trap from Farley, so they made sure to steer clear of them. Charlotte informed them to move to the colder, more dangerous waters where Farley (hopefully) wouldn’t find them. Unfortunately, the mermaids weren’t very lucky, and the results weren’t very hopeful. Charlotte had no idea how it happened, and she would soon find out, but about a month later, he had captured Hannah, Sophie, Lily, and Zoe. A week later Farley had Nora in his clutches. Emma and Charlotte were worried sick about the other mermaids and devastated, dismal, sorrowful, perimmistic, sympathetic, pitiful, and very, very, depressed. (Again with the seven synonyms for one word thing. I need to stop.)

Charlotte didn’t want to, but she had to. She bid Emma farewell.

Charlotte thought she knew where Farley was spending all his free time — at home, but it wasn’t there. Charlotte decided to follow Farley to wherever he was keeping the mermaids. In order to rescue them, she needed to know where they were, of course. From their house, Farley swam underwater until he reached a continuous dim and shady tunnel. There was an immense glass box filled with water where Lily and Hannah, the mermaids three and four, were in. Their vivid and innocent eyes shone with delight in hopes that Charlotte would be able to rescue them. Of course, they couldn’t talk, because Farley still hadn’t seen that Charlotte was right behind him, and Charlotte hoped he wouldn’t. 

Charlotte saw the other tanks in front of her. She looked at the spiral staircase where viewers could go up and see the mermaids from there if it was too crowded, which of course had never happened before. There were a lot of ways to see the mermaids. For example, next to the risers above the staircase, one could sit on the reclining comfortable and large chairs. 

Charlotte viewed the modern and comfortable looking aquarium. The well-lit room easily expressed the mermaids in a beautiful way. A soft and mellifluous voice echoed through the room. 

“Charlotte, we’re here… ” the mermaids’ voices drifted off. 

“We have so much to tell you!” the mermaids whisper-shouted at once.

Charlotte turned on the opposite side of the glass and walked under the glass arched tunnel where mermaids could swim inside. Charlotte could see Emma right beside her inside the glass. Charlotte didn’t know how to react or respond to Emma. She hadn’t seen her in months. 

“I’ll find a way. I promise,” Charlotte declared. 

“What we need most is a plan. We can discuss it after Farley leaves but please don’t talk, because I know how much you love to, and it can get way out of control.”

All the mermaids seemed extremely excited to speak for the first time in months.

“Okay,” said the first mermaid.

“All right,” replied the second.

“Permitted,” declared the third.

“Fine by me,” said the fourth.

“Approved,” replied the fifth.

“Tolerable,” said the sixth.

“Surely,” declared the seventh.

Charlotte tried to be sensitive about how the mermaids hadn’t spoken in such a long time and allowed them to talk as much as they did, but it became difficult for her to tolerate. Charlotte gritted her teeth while smiling. She attempted doing this a lot, and most times she didn’t realize how ridiculous she looked while doing it. It is, as one most likely knows, one of the most preposterous actions one can do. 

“I have to find out more about Farley before I can help you, okay?” Charlotte said hastily.

Charlotte sprinted past the glass tunnel, tanks, and an unfinished kind of snack shack on the far left through an exit. She found another door with buttons for numbers locks, a keyboard, and switches. I know the drill by now, Charlotte thought confidently. She turned the handle and grinned as the door creaked open. 

Charlotte was shocked by what she observed in the bright modern-looking corner of the room. A desk. No, not a desk, but what was on the desk. A laptop. Well, not that either. Charlotte didn’t find laptops that exciting and exotic. It was a progress report on Word on the screen. Charlotte didn’t find it shocking until she read it. Charlotte revised all the spelling and grammar mistakes and changed the font as she read the reports. She also interpreted it the best she could because it could be vague and difficult to read. After revisions, it read:

Progress Report #1 4/7

I captured the mermaids today. Two of them. They all look the same so I can’t tell which one is which, though. I only realized that there were mermaids today anyway. I was wondering why Charlotte was spending so much time in the ocean. She appeared to be talking, also. I thought maybe she had gone insane, like me.

So I thought there was something in there. I decided to look. I couldn’t find anything at first. But I began to discover, little by little, more about mermaids. They like to rest near beds of seaweed. They love coral and live near it. They also can’t stand to be away from fish and all sea creatures and their sisters. I made all of these things they like happen. And they were baited. 

My plan had worked, and I was so proud! And I found a few things in Charlotte’s room. She had journal entries describing what she had learned about the mermaids, which also helped me grasp the knowledge. I figured out that mermaids only present themselves to little girls, so this was going to be more difficult than I thought. The mermaids had given Charlotte the gift of being able to transform into a mermaid whenever she wanted. 

Anyway, I baited the mermaids. I knew that the best time to capture them was when Charlotte and the mermaids were talking together. The mermaids were so close to me, I felt the urge to just snatch them. 

I don’t know why.

Now Charlotte just wanted to hurl the laptop against the wall. She wasn’t even editing the report that much. She knew that it was important, in order to see change, to not edit. By the end, it didn’t even sound like Farley anymore. But it was. She continued reading. Barely even editing. Regardless, back to the report:

I grabbed my fishing net and tugged it underwater. I scooped up the mermaids with the net. Mermaids #1 and 2 were light and easy to pull. I had already created the tanks. On the bottom ocean floor, I created a path of stones to the tanks. After following the stones for a long time, I reached a small, round red door. But when the door opened, water wouldn’t gush in, either. I don’t know how it works, it just another thing that’s magical I discovered.

I repeated this process several times, until there were no more mermaids seen. They tried, they tried, they tried to escape but it didn’t work. NO. Nothing worked for them. They were emotionally hurt, vulnerable and I just mindlessly took them away, out of a place where they were once so happy… 

She pressed her head against the keyboard as she struggled to think up a plan. A plan that would work. But she couldn’t think here. The perfect corners in the room seemed to be limiting her imagination. 

But the gears in her brain began to turn as she gathered all her information and researched more. At first, Charlotte thought it wasn’t complicated at all. 

“All I have to do to rescue you,” Charlotte started explaining, “is come to the aquarium at a time where Farley isn’t, smash the glass tanks, and bring you right back into the ocean. Then all will be settled, and we’ll live happily together. I know it has to be more complicated than that because everything looks easier on the surface than it actually is.” 

“I know.”

Charlotte was used to hearing that response. Emma knew everything Charlotte knew.

“I mean, I feel, like you, as if nothing will work, and my sisters and I will be worse off than now,” Emma added.

If a mermaid shuts down your idea to save their life, well, let’s just say you need another plan. Mermaids are known for some awful lies like taking sailors to the bottom of the sea and drowning them in the process, but you won’t hear about a pessimistic mermaid. Like, ever. 

Charlotte wasn’t about to waste her time reading another progress report or research any longer. Now, she was onto doing. 

“It’s now or never,” Charlotte began, “I’ll rescue you now, or never. It’s simple. Either it happens or it doesn’t. Farley’s gone, but soon he’ll have security guards. My mom’s gone now, but in a few days? She’ll just have to know about you. And some things are just easier not to have to explain. So is this what you want? To stay here forever and never had tried to escape? Do you want to feel hopeless for the rest of your life? If we do get caught, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Farley’s an idiot, but not idiot enough to have you killed. He realizes how important you are. If we wait any longer, the whole world will know about you. Do you want that to happen? You know what? I’m going to try, no matter what you say about it. I don’t care if it doesn’t work. I don’t care if you don’t want to risk it. I’m doing it for you.”

“I didn’t predict that that was going to come out of your mouth,” Emma admitted. “And I’m sorry for what I said.”

“Also, your mother would completely understand years ago, but not anymore. What I need to tell you is that the mermaid who abandoned us years and years ago is uh, well, there’s no easy way to say this. She’s your mother,” said Emma. 

Soon, all the mermaids emerged into Charlotte’s sight next to the transparent tunnel.

“We detect regret,” Grace announced. “That doesn’t exactly happen frequently to us.”

“What’s the matter? My sixth sense has been off all day,” said another.

“I told Emma my true feelings, and I want to rescue you, if you’re down for it or not,” Charlotte explained.

The sisters smiled sadly and for once, in unison said, “My beautiful, brave girl. Even though you’ll free us now anyway, we’re down for it.”

The mermaids watched as Charlotte vanished away to Farley’s headquarters. The doors were all created with those pulleys, codes, and combinations, and all had the same way to unlock them. The top-secret room with the most valuable items was located in one of the most genius and basic ways possible. It was located from the tanks in the rudiment of a paradiddle. I don’t even know how Charlotte knew to find it this way. My guess is that she had way too much experience in locating things by now. Anyway, she took the exits in the order of right-left-right-right, then looked for the room. It wasn’t there. Then she took the opposite paradiddle – left-right-left-left. She found a small round red door with the same pulleys, codes, and combinations. Charlotte smiled as she turned the doorknob open, but she wasn’t grinning anymore when she heard a blaring alarm go off.

Farley probably only created this alarm because he realized if anyone was smart enough to get into the building and figure out the order to finding the most valuable room in the building, they are most likely something along the lines of psychoneurotically disturbed. 

Charlotte’s mouth dropped open at the sound. She looked inside the room and saw that there was nothing at all in the room besides a fishing net. It wasn’t valuable, but was all she needed at this point to free her sisters. 

Charlotte had never run so quickly in her life as she had that day. Nothing mattered right now besides the mermaids, and it was her job to save them.

The fishing net trailed behind Charlotte as she struggled to remember which turns she had made. She found herself in the wrong place several times, and was not merely nervous about it. She was completely anxious. Nervous and anxious are two very, very different words. I’m joking. I’m not going to explain something to you that you already know at a time like this. Also, I have no desire to be educational. You are probably one of those two while reading this — nervous or anxious. If I were reading this instead of writing it, I wouldn’t be nervous or anxious because I would have no control over what was written. I know, I know. No one asked me.

Charlotte was anxious because she had complete control over what would happen. But she wasn’t feeling or thinking as she gripped the fishing net harder and sprinted faster. Trial and error, she thought. She wasn’t doing trial and error, but thinking about the paradiddle. She thought about how the mermaids needed her desperately. She thought about how it was it her fault if she didn’t succeed. And the alarm was still going off. Charlotte grit her teeth, and, eventually, out of sheer willpower, got back to the mermaids.

Charlotte sprinted past the mermaids. She opened the entrance to underground, as it was the easiest and fastest escape route. Charlotte first followed the path she had taken to get to the aquarium following Farley to make sure that it would lead her to the ocean. As she darted along, she noticed a perfectly ordinary, barely noticeable, heavy rusted door. 

The door creaked as Charlotte pushed it open. 

She took in the briny sea air and observed the vast and turbulent body of water in front of her. Her eyes lit up at the thought of rescuing her sisters.

Charlotte knew that she had an opportunity, and she had to take it right away or else she’d never be able to save the mermaids. Eventually she’d forget about them and if not forget, she wouldn’t care about them anymore. The mermaids told her that. When they had made one other girl with them, the new sisters weren’t faithful to their promise — to never forget about her sisters and always help them through tough times. “It was one,” Emma told Charlotte months before. “We were sad for so long, and we tried to forget her but we couldn’t. We promised not to forget her even if she forgot us, but it was so, so hard to get past the thought that she would abandon us that way.”

Charlotte had always wondered why they spoke about her so frequently. It was about her connection to her mom. The mermaids had always hinted at it but never had gotten into detail. Charlotte wondered why her mom abandoned the mermaids — her guess was that it was because of Farley, her work, Charlotte, and mostly the whole scheme of things.

Charlotte left the small iron door open as she ran toward the mermaids’ tanks. She spotted all of them fluttering around anxiously in the tall water. 

“I have an escape plan!” Charlotte declared.

Of course, for any sea creature to survive in captivity, over the tank there must be an opening. If the glass is hacked away with an axe, it will all shatter, and the mermaids will not be able to survive without water. They can survive without water for about 30 seconds, at most. It’s not like how humans can stay underwater for about two minutes for mermaids. 

“I have something to tell you, even though it may seem ridiculous,” Zoe, the last mermaid said. “Because I’m last in everything I wanted to tell you this: Us mermaids can live above water for as long as we want if we are holding the seashell we had given you way back. It works for mermaids on land as it does for humans on water. Do you still have it?”

Charlotte undid a hook-latch in her neck and showed the seashell necklace to Zoe. “Tonight you’ll be the first one saved,” Charlotte said.

With that, Charlotte vaulted, grasping the fishing net, up to the top of the tank. She gripped the top end of the glass with her right hand. Pain surged through her body, but Charlotte was willing to experience pain for the mermaids. Charlotte dropped the fishing net, and Zoe got in, while swimming to the top of the tank. She pulled herself over and plummeted into Charlotte’s arms. Charlotte quickly put the pearl necklace around Zoe and placed her on the ground. If it weren’t for the necklace, there would probably be no other way for the mermaids to be set free.

Charlotte and Zoe didn’t at all talk the whole way, except when Charlotte asked about 20 times in five minutes if she was breathing all right. She was so worried about Zoe that she nearly missed the open exit. Charlotte finally reached the opened door. There was a very short walkway outside it. Charlotte ran onto it and dropped Zoe into the water, already inches away. 

Charlotte repeated this process with Sophie, and she joined Zoe in waiting for the rest of the mermaids. The process was then repeated five more times. 

When Emma and all the sisters were freed, Charlotte joined the mermaids, bright-colored fish tails shimmering in the dark and deep sea.

Even though they had their differences and an entire world that set them apart, the eight sisters would never forget each other, because they were sisters no matter what.

Epilogue

Farley notices the mermaids gone, and now realizes that it’s better that way. He was wrong, and like most bad things, misunderstood. Regardless, Charlotte’s mother realizes the truth about him.

At 40 years of age, Charlotte continues to visit the mermaids daily. She has a daughter who learns about the mermaids and how her mother saved them. She eventually becomes a mermaid, too.


The Story About How A Banana’s Face Got Peeled Off

The banana’s face was a little face on the banana peel. On all of the sides, the banana had emotions. On one side it was sad, on the other side it was happy, and then on the other other side it was angry. When he was feeling an emotion, his body made him turn to that side of the peel. Then a person peeled off his peel! The person took a bite out of it! But, luckily there was a baby banana and a mama banana left. The dad got eaten. His name was Frederick. They felt really sad.

The baby said, “I wuv Daddy. I miss him.”

Then, the mommy said, “Me too.”

They walked home sadly. They were hanging their heads. 

Then, they had to go to the funeral. A banana funeral is when bananas get together and talk about how much they loved how he smelled. He smelled like a banana that loved to smell other bananas. Then, they went around the house and looked for the last thing he did, and then they found it! The last thing he did was… dun dun dun… scream!

The mommy banana said, “I banana love him.”

The baby banana said, “I want banana jaddy.”

Everyone was so sad. Even his boss was sad.

He worked in the hospital as an MRI technician. The MRIs were so noisy. They sounded like a tornado. There was a baby who did the MRI once.

The baby banana was calling, “Banana peewing! Banana peewing!”

The MRI was five hours long. 

Then later the baby sang, “Smell banana, smell banana, smell banana, smell.”

In the middle of the song, a monster came out for 120 hours. One hundred and fifty-seven years later, everyone died, because a Lolo monster, which looks like a human but with pointy teeth, ate them, and they went to the Land of Bananas. It looked like bananas were dancing in the sky having fun, smelling each other.

And there was Daddy!

He said, “Hi, Sweetie, you’ve grown up so fast.’’

Then he gave her a hug.

The mother thought, “Excuse me? Someone else needs a hug!”

Then the dad gave her a hug. He showed them around. They saw a statue of his great-grandmother. His great-grandmother looked like a banana that had never died, but she had died.

Then he showed them the banana house, the banana house bouncy house.

The daughter said, “Can I pwease go in?”

The mom said, “Yes!”

The mom and the baby were jumping there for 24 hours. Then they were tired. Then they went to the kids arcade. Then they really needed a nap. They went home and took a nap for three days. But then they wanted to do the banana air balloon ride. They went to the by (banana sky).

And then… they went to the castle!! There was a king, queen, and princess. They were also bananas. The princess and the daughter became great friends. Then they went to the children’s museum. Everybody went. They played restaurant. The baby banana was the waiter. The princess was the chef. 

Another friend of the princess was there at the museum.

She said to the princess, “How wong has it been?”

The princess said, “Too wong!”

Then, the baby banana said, “Do you guys know eachuddar?”

Then, they all started playing all together.

The friend asked the princess, “When did you meet this cwazy banyanya?”

The baby banana heard.

She said, “Ecuse me? I not cwazy! I smart, and if you shink I cwazy, then you the cwazy me!”

Then they started slapping each other on the face for one hour.


Tsunami Boy

There was a boy named Peter. He went surfing, and a big wave came and washed him away, and he was never found again for three years. Then a girl named Despina, Peter’s fifth cousin, didn’t know until now. She called her brother, Demitri, and they went to the beach. They took their oxygen tanks and their best swimming gear and went to the beach. They started searching for Peter. After three hours of searching, they realized he wasn’t there, and they were hungry. So, they stopped their search for the day, and they went home and ate some pizza. The next day, they took their surfboards and went to the beach. Despina knew how to surf, but Demitri didn’t, so Despina had decided to teach him. Despina didn’t know how to fight, but Demitri did, so he taught her how to fight. While Despina was teaching Demitri how to surf, he fell off. Despina had to save him before he drowned. While Dimitri was teaching Despina how to fight, he accidentally punched her unconscious. When Despina woke up, she was furious.

“Why’d you punch me unconscious? You know I don’t know how to fight yet,” Despina said. Then Despina took a shoe and started hitting Demitri.

“You know, I still don’t know how to surf, and by the way, ow!” Demetri yelled at Despina. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Despina

They got on their surfboards and saw a big wave, so they started paddling. The wave went over them, and then they got trapped in a different dimension. There was water everywhere, and monsters, and Peter was sitting on his surfboard, and he looked like he was eighteen.

Help!” Peter said when he saw them.

Despina and Demitri saw 123,456,789,012,345,678,901,234,567,890,123,456,712,345,678,901,234,556,678,913,267,890,213,456,789,023,456,789,036 monsters. They were scared of the amount of weird-looking monsters that they saw. Some had long spikes everywhere, and they were shooting fire from their mouths and hands. Despina and Demitri were dodging the fire that was being launched in their direction.

“These monsters are crazy!” they both yelled over the roaring waves. They started to surf on the waves, avoiding the fire at the same time.

Davuuutiii, Davutiiii!!” one of the monsters yelled from the shoreline.

They surfed to a clear area on the shore and took off running when they reached it. Despina was the faster one out of the two and sprinted toward the barn where Peter was. Demitri, however, was extremely slow by comparison, and Despina had to run back to carry him the rest of the way. Half way through, Despina started to stumble under the weight of Demitri. Behind her she heard the monsters yell, “Gooongalaaa!!”

Despina tried her best to hold Demitri, but the monsters eventually caught up with them.

They captured Despina and Demitri and threw them into the barn with Peter. The monsters chained them up and left them there. Peter sat in front of them in the darkness. The inside of the barn was dim, and it had horses inside of it. Peter had dirt all over knees. His hair was extremely long and unkempt. His vest and jeans were torn.


Looking For Joy

Part One

The Book

One night, the boy Jack was reading in his room, when the smell of his grandma’s brownies replaced the plain, old, airy smell. Just a month before, his pops died. Later on, feelings still carry through the tragedy. The day this all triggered, his mom came up to him; tears came dripping down her face. ¨Son,” she takes a heavy sigh, ¨Pops died.¨ That was it. Those were the only three words she said before walking out the door. In memory of him, he was buried in the graveyard across the street from Jack´s house. Every night, Jack would view the picture of Pops that he placed under his pillow. Tears would roll down his cheeks, just like his mother’s when she told him about Pop’s death. But this night, this night felt different for him. Winds howled at the milky white moon and blew through the dark lonely streets in a hurry. Clouds started to group together; the sky grew darker as he kept reading.

He thought and thought. There were some hmms and ahhs then an aha! He discovered the thing behind all this. Jack thought about this for a long time. The winds continued to howl, followed by the lightning striking out of anger. Jack yawned, and, as he did that, put his book away and into bed he went. He tucked the covers on in one swift move and fell dead. 

The bell struck twelve o’clock, and in one shake Jack woke up. In a panic, he got out of his bed and took a look around. Winds still blew and howled, but not as much as before. The book, that was what was on Jack’s mind right now. Slowly and carefully, he took the handles on the window and nudged it, aware to not make a single sound. A small mouse squeaked as he pulled the window. He kept doing this motion despite it making a little noise. Now, the window was big enough to fit an entire human, enough to fit Jack. Thinking, Jack leaned towards the window and took a look down, not too deep. His body trembled and shook. He was thinking and wondering. He started back to his bed, then turned around, making his final decision. He ran the edge of the room, where there were closets and posters and down to the left corner, a door. He took two big steps toward the window in a fast pace and one giant leap, flying out the window. Kicking his legs, Jack managed to have a decent landing right in front of a rose bush. At the time, a car hustled by, and Jack ducked in the sharp rose bush, making sure not to be seen. 

The lights lit up the sidewalk, shining almost as much as the full white moon that stood out in the pitch black sky. Jack, who was very scared, made a sprint, staying very low across the street, and climbed over the low graveyard fence. He checked his watch: 12:10. He still had time, but not a lot. He crawled across the graveyard. Jack had memorized where his grandpa was buried to rest. One left, two rights, another left, then the final right turn. He kept repeating this to himself over and over again until he felt confident. He kept going through the graveyard, passing stones carved with letters. Though Jack was used to the graveyard, as if it were a normal thing, and it never really scared him, now was when he was really tested. Shaking and shivering, from not just the cold but the intensity and how freaked out he was, Jack continued step by step on the clumpy dirt through the graveyard. He took his final turn as a light shined on him. Jack froze. I’m dead. The light though continued to shine throughout the graveyard and left him frozen in his tracks. Jack, now with more caution, took his last steps to get to Pop’s grave. He took his frozen, bare hands and started to dig on the hard, dirt ground. Jack’s hands started to bleed with pain, but the boy Jack didn’t stop. Shoveling the dirt with exhaustion, he took a breath. The boy Jack studied the head stone, reading everything, then fixed his head down, staring at the dirt. Though, not just dirt was in his sight, but a golden, thick book stuffed with pages you could see sticking out. 

Now, the boy Jack was not just any boy. He was a smart boy. And with that, what he was searching for was positively lying right in front of him. Any other kid wouldn’t know that his or her desire lied right in front of them. 

Jack immediately identified this book, unlike others could have done. He snatched the book and made a run for it. Jack traced his steps back, following them back home. He looked up at the sky and couldn’t help it but stop and stare. The stars were twinkling in the pitch black sky and the moon showed the path for the lost aliens who were probably trying to find their way home.

Jack suddenly realized what he was doing and went back to running, clutching the book so tight that his palms were starting to turn a bright pink just like his face from the cold, intense weather. Jack climbed over the fence and froze in his tracks. How do I get back up there? Jack clutched the book even tighter and then jumped on the tree, hugging it. He climbed the tree, grasping every part he could. Jack then switched over to climbing the nearest branch to the window. Though there was quite a big gap between them, Jack was up for anything, my reader. You should know that. Jack gripped the book one more time, and then risked himself, and then made the jump.

At first, Jack just closed his eyes as he was flying through the air, then opened them, then hit the floor followed by a thud that could have woken everyone up. Jack threw his clothes off, closed the window, ran to bed, and then placed the book under the pillow where Pop’s picture was.

“I cracked the code, Pops. I did it.” 

The next day was Saturday. It was seven o’clock when Jack’s alarm clock went off. No one was up yet, but Jack felt something peculiar. He dug under his pillow and found the dusty, golden book. He opened the book and blew off the dust, and it flew in his face. Jack started to read; it was hard, but he put his all into it. 

In big, bold, handwritten letters the book said, “One left, two rights, another left, then a final right turn. This is how you found this book.”

Jack found this odd, because it was right. He peeled through the pages. “There are three steps to joy. One: Find it. Two: Use it. Three: Share it.”

Step number three was scribbled out. Jack also found this odd. What could this mean? He closed the book and thought. Now was when his brain was really working. 

Jack was stunned. He decided to go down for breakfast. Grandma was cooking downstairs; the smell of juicy bacon and gooey eggs combined in the air. Everybody else was sitting at the table, Grandma, Mom, Dad, everybody except Pops. He knew he couldn’t tell them about the book. Jack’s dad was reading the newspaper, sipping his coffee. Jack tried his best to act like it was a normal day, but he failed, still thinking about the book. He sat at the breakfast table when the smell of eggs and a subtle amount of bacon combined onto a plate that lay right in front of him. Everybody dug into their plate, devouring the beautiful smell of the meal, though, Jack wasn’t very hungry. In fact, he wasn’t hungry at all. 

“Jack, aren’t you hungry?” His mom asked.

“No, I’m fine.” 

Jack would have gotten up, except he knew the rule: you sit at the table until everyone is done eating, only then can you be excused. So as a result, Jack waited. 

When breakfast was over, he climbed the stairs and into his room, shutting the door behind him. He hopped onto his bed and curiously decided to keep reading. He picked up the golden hardcover book.

Jack found nothing. He started to get his hopes up and then, he found more information. “Looking for joy?” That’s what the book said. Jack stumbled upon the words, trying to make sense of them. 

“Land of dead”

This wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. 

He started to sweat.

To chatter.

To imagine.

To wonder, most of all.

All of this was blended in Jack’s brain.

This couldn’t be. There was something else; Jack knew it. He flipped through the pages once again. Examining every detail. Most of the pages had designs on them in golden ink. Swirls and curls were carefully printed on each piece of paper. Jack opened his laptop. “The land of the dead,” he typed in the computer. Nothing. The screen went black, dark. 

His quest for joy just had begun. However, there was no telling what was out there.

Again, it was night. Thunder ruled the sky and lighting cackled away. Jack was puzzled about the book. He knew going back to the grave would bring him more clues and ideas. A full moon just appeared up on the big, blue, black sky. That was the signal. Jack carefully opened the window, and again, jumped. This time, he was not scared. Yet. As he crossed the street, he was starting to see everything. Dead bodies rising, ghosts floating. And that was when he fainted. Face first. When he woke up, the first thing he saw were zombies with scabs. Ghosts. White, clear. A big, deep black dropped jaw. If there was one thing Jack knew about ghosts, it’s that you can walk right through them. And that’s what he did. If there was one thing Jack knew about zombies, it’s that you can’t walk through them. So that was when he encountered a zombie. The zombie’s scabs were as red as fire. Jack, though, wasn’t giving up. He ran right past it, being as free as a bird. The investigation just started. Jack scanned the area, while still being aware of the fact that he was engulfed by the dead. He just didn’t understand. He was stunned.

Now, my reader, the expected is never going to be expected, not in Jack’s case.

So, when a big, black hole popped up, he didn’t know how to react. However, even in the most troubling, hard times, you can always learn or realize something. Jack was just uncovering another layer to the mystery. The big, deep, purest, darkest, blackest hole. Now, what this was, was unknown to Jack. Except, there is one thing he realized, that the zombies were guarding it, and when this discovery was made, another layer was peeled off and swallowed just like an onion. Now, it wasn’t that easy, Jack now had to make it back to his apartment, and safely.

Except, he wasn’t done. There was a feeling, a buzzing signal that flowed through his body. He did not know what this was and neither do I. Except, Jack had a clue, it meant to stay. He daringly, boldly stayed. Although, one moment later, no matter what, Jack knew he had to go. And fast. Except, something caught his eye. More and more zombies and ghosts were appearing out of the hole, more and more. Jack’s head was debating whether to leave or stay. Eventually, he had to leave. It was too dangerous. The hole clearly mattered to the dead though. He had to think more.

The next day, Sunday, was time for more investigating. However, last night left a mark on his head, and Jack was especially curious about that. And so, not much happened on that day, until, of course, the signal. It was, again, twelve o’clock. Jack woke up, but this time just took the stairs down and walked across the street. But that’s when he saw it. He had woken up a little before 12, now, he didn’t know this. As the narrator, it is my job to inform you of this information. And so, what he saw were whirling winds, tornadoes, and hurricanes. They were all forming one black hole. The winds were getting faster and faster, the hole was getting bigger, and the winds howled louder and louder. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, it stopped. Jack knew he had his opportunity, so with no thought, he stuck his hand into the hole, blindly. Now, when I said it’s my job to inform you on important information, I didn’t mean all information, though. This is something I can’t tell you, though, and what Jack saw in the hole. But all I know is that soon the zombies and ghosts came to defend the hole, and like yesterday, he had nowhere to go besides home, and that’s where he went.

And today was Monday. And that means school. As Jack left the house, he felt as far away from Pops as he’s ever been.

The bell rang, giving the entire school the symbol of recess. As Jack packed up his stuff, he felt a great deal of relief of excitement. Finally, an opportunity.

However, reader, life isn’t problem free. And that’s when Jack ran into Polly Jones, a seventh grader, which made her one year older than Jack. As she was heading out for recess, Jack realized she was talking about the same topic which had been on his mind all morning, and was holding the same book that was hidden under his bed. 

“And I figured out a way to see the dead!”

 And so, there are more people than just Jack with the same mission. 

And after school, Jack did his homework, however, from what I saw, everything was incorrect:

What is X in 4,043+X=7,657 pops

4,567+6,123=  land Of Dead

(5+7) * 42 – 17=  The book

And tonight was the first night that Jack went to bed, with a mind clouded with thoughts.

And the next morning, Jack didn’t eat breakfast; he wasn’t hungry. And so, with an empty stomach and a full mind, he went to school.

The first person he saw was Polly Jones of the seventh grade. She was reading a book, but not just any book, the book Jack also had. I guess Jack knew it was his time to act, because right then he said, “Hi,” to her.

“Whatcha readin’ Polly?”

Polly just glared at Jack and kept reading.

“Where’d you get that book from?”

This time, the minimal response. “A graveyard.”

“Which one?”

“The one my grandmother was buried in.”

And then Jack walked away, and that could’ve been the longest conversation he had and will have with Polly Jones of seventh grade.

The bell rang and all the middle-schoolers piled into their classes. However, Jack is different from your average sixth grader. He was smarter, faster, stronger, more athletic, and, most of all, more curious. And, due to these traits, Jack turned away from school, in search of a trash can to dump all of his questions into.

His mom and dad both had jobs, so they weren’t home at this time of day. But, Mrs. Moretti always left keys under her mat outside the door. He dumped his backpack onto the floor, and, immediately, with no more thought, rushed out the door. Instead of going to Pop’s grave, Jack had the intention to go to another grave instead. He dug and dug until there was a hole in the ground with a golden, dirt-covered book. He went from grave to grave, and at every grave he saw the same thing: dirt-covered golden books.

And on every book, it read, “Looking for joy.” And when you flipped the cover it said, “Lost your loved one? Bring them back by reading this book.”

And so, Jack concluded that in every death, there is a way to see the dead once again.

And that is when the binder clicked.

Today was the day Jack was going to face Polly Jones of the seventh grade.

“I need that book!” 

A group of sixth, seventh and eight graders surrounded the two right after they heard Jack scream at Polly. 

“Well, get it.”

And so, Jack swiftly swiped the book out of her hands, but she swiftly canceled his move by taking it back. 

“Who do you think you are?”

“Uhhh… A guy searching for his grandpa!”

“And I am a woman searching for my grandma, so out of my way!”

Jack swiped the book from her once again, and ran. This time, all the way home. To Polly Jones, it seemed as if she’d never get the book back again. But that was soon to change…

End Of Part One


Goo Goo’s Story

Chapter One (The Whole Story)

One day in X-City, there were three Friendly Monsters, and one was a baby. The baby’s name was Goo Goo, and Goo Goo wanted to have a flower on her head. It’s hard to get one on your head. You need to get a bubble from the Bubble Store, and then you can get a flower on your head. You pick the flower and push it into your bubble, but the bubble doesn’t pop. 

It sounds easy, but not for Goo Goo, because when she goes to the Bubble Store, she’s too small, and the person at the counter can’t see her, so she never gets a bubble. She’s staring at a bubble that can change colors and has a star on it. One side of the star can be blue or pink, and the outside can be pink or blue. She says, “I want a bubble!” But it sounds like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!” They clap because they like the song, but they don’t even know who’s singing, so they don’t know who they’re clapping to. Then Goo Goo shouts at them, and then they hear her. Then they ask, “Who are you?!” and then Goo Goo jumps up so they can see her, and then she says, “I want the Star Bubble!” In this world, you have to say “I want.” If you say, “Please, may I have it,” people will ignore you. 

They gave her the wrong bubble. They gave her a pink and black bubble that had a star heart. Instead of a point at the top, there’s a heart shape at the top. It kind of looks like a bug. The bugs have lassos, and if you get caught in a lasso, then you will get banished to the bug’s lair, and somebody who so, so much cares about you has to get rid of the bug, since there’s only one bug to a cage. Three-thousand, 6,000 100 people can be in one lair, so there’s only two or three bugs, since they can fit a lot of people in the lair. People pop their bubbles, and the bubble traps the bug when they see one. People who don’t have bubbles share one with another person. If you’re brother and sister you can share, but dad and daughter can’t share and son and mother can’t share. Goo Goo shares with her mom. They have a Book Bubble. You can get any book out of the bubble. She likes to get baby books. But Goo Goo wants her own bubble so she can have a flower on her head.

Goo Goo’s mom doesn’t always use the bubble. It’s only helpful for bugs, cooking, and books, and it helps her take care of Goo Goo. Her dad always is in the bubble because the bubble has every power and he needs it for work. They don’t have cars so they float in bubbles everywhere. Everyone has their own level. Her dad has the highest level. He’s a lawyer. When Goo Goo gets her bubble, she will be on the same level as her dad. Her dad has something on his head. It’s a piece of work. Her mom doesn’t have one because she only needs a couple of powers, not all the powers. Goo Goo wants all the powers because she wants to be able to do everything everybody else can do. 

Then, Goo Goo shouts at the man in the Bubble Store again. “I want the other Star Bubble! The pink and blue Star Bubble!” she shouts. When she starts getting angry, mad or frustrated, she starts sprouting two other arms. When she stops being angry, mad or frustrated, they go back in, but if they’ve grown all the way to the length of her other arms, they won’t go back in. They’ll keep on growing until she stops. When she sees the arms and sees if they’re growing too long, she thinks of things that she liked when she was littler and in her mom’s tummy to calm down. She thinks of going upside down, some colors of mashed up foods, spinning around in a spinny chair, and her mom’s heartbeat, and the arms go back in. 

“I want the Star Bubble because you gave me the wrong bubble, and that’s not really a star. I want the Star Bubble because I’m sick of being a baby,” she shouts because she got mad again, and everybody turns and looks at her. Then, her mother comes running up to her and shouting at her in her face. Now they both had six arms, because they started with four.

Goo Goo does not feel good. “Sorry,” she says. Her mom says, “Thank you.” She got the bubble, but the flowers are still rare, even if you have a bubble. The flowers look like how you would draw flowers, with a center and petals around it. They smelled like white chocolate. 

Goo Goo went to sleep. She dreamt that she got the flower. Her mother gave it to her. Goo Goo said, “Thank you.”

In the morning, Goo Goo sets off to find the flower. Goo Goo found many things, but not any flowers. She walked 30 miles. After 65 more miles, she found a flower. Then she put it on the bubble, but then the bubble popped. But then the bubble reappeared when she took the flower off of it. Then she even more lightly put it back on the bubble, but then the bubble popped. Then she dropped the flower onto the bubble, and the bubble did not pop. Soil went on the top where the flower was, and the flower grew bigger and bigger.

Then suddenly it started to grow smaller so then they needed to water it. Even if they watered it, it would still go smaller. So they took it out of the soil and put it somewhere sunny. Then it grew so small that they could barely see it. Then it grew as tall as outer space. Then it was too heavy for her to pick up. Then it was still that size, but so light that she could hold it with her fingernail. They shortened the flower and then it became so light that she could hold it with her toenail. Then it became so small and so heavy that you had to lift it with a 35,000-pound pickup truck. Then it became so heavy that a pickup truck that was a billion pounds had to pick it up. Then the flower grew so heavy that a million pickup trucks that made a thousand pounds had to pick it up and Goo Goo had to walk around all of them. Then the flower grew so heavy that a million-thousand pickup trucks that weighed a million-thousand pounds picked it up.

But then Goo Good could hold it up with just air. Then the flower went back to its regular size.

Just a Nightmare

Jake ran as the nightmarish creatures followed him, their horrible screeches cutting through the still night air like knife grating on stone. Jake felt drops of sweat fall on the stony ground as he ran into the foggy black. Running from the evil witch Baba Yaga and her foul tiger and lion felt sapping of his strength. Jake ran into the inky black as the nightmare ensued. The ground stopped as Jake tumbled, as he fell into a hateful, scorning darkness. Jake snapped awake, and awoke to a bed drenched with sweat. Looking around, Jake saw the drooping, sleepy-eyed moon through the open blinds and thought to himself, It was just a nightmare, just a nightmare… Knowing he wouldn’t sleep again, Jake walked into the kitchen and was immediately greeted by the warm smell of pancakes wafting through the room. Jake entered the kitchen thinking, Russia could not smell better than this. Being a P.I has its perks. Just as he was about to bite into his fluffy warm syrupy mountain, the phone rang. Ring! Jake almost shouted his favorite Russian curse word “mudak,” meaning sh*thead. Suddenly, his pet gnome, Tret Elponocks — wait, scratch that — his gnome roommate, Tret Elponocks, entered the room. He was a serious no-profanity believer and would’ve punched Jake had the phone call not been from B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence) central.

“Jake, we found a frog nest in the woods 15 minutes from your base.” 

“Copy that central.”

Jake scrambled to pull on his gray B.P.R.D. logoed suit and jumped into his dark silver modified DeLorean, thinking, This is how to drive in style. Arriving at the cave where the frog nest was and pulling out his silver bullet submachine gun (and thinking he was not the lone ranger), he entered the cave and saw a horrible sight: all of the frogs were dead, but, more interestingly, most were covered with bloats and burns. Whoever had killed them was fast. The sulfur-like smell of magic, of a supernatural being, wait, the smell of smoke and gunpowder? Jake jumped as the cave collapsed in a fireball much like the fireball of an 1800s Russian hand grenade. Whoever was behind this was old or old-school. It was time to go to info central, a.k.a the gossiping horse tavern. Walking to the counter, he ordered a 1% proof beer. Obviously Jake was a weak drinker.

Jake asked the bartender, a bald man with a dark beard and eyes that seemed to always be half-way peering at someone, “Have you seen anything… weird.”

Keeping his voice low, the bartender replied, “Na’w, but I been hearing whispers, whispers about Baba Yaga and children going missing, little children… ”

 After having another beer, Jake walked back to the house. Then grabbing his computer, he dug into the vast files of the B.P.R.D. online library. Entering into the search bar, ‘Baba Yaga,’ the results were limited only to Hellboy’s personal report after fighting the witch. Hellboy believes she escaped, but her whereabouts as well as powers, allies, and all other weaknesses were unknown except one: Christian artifacts. He would have to call the Vatican, which meant calling his ex-wife turned nun who he had not seen or spoken to for 20 years. He hated making calls like this. Every number he dialed made him weaker. 

“Victoria,” Jake said. 

Victoria coldly replied, “Jake, what do you want?” 

Setting his jaw, Jake replied, “I need you to pull some strings.”

“For what?” Victoria asked.

“I need a holy pendant.”

 “Why?” asked Victoria.

 “To kill Baba Yaga,” was Jake’s reply.

 “Jake, where are you?

 “Russia,” was the only reply from Jake.

 “Fine. Bye.”

 And that was the last thing Victoria said before hanging up. A couple days later, a package arrived with a note:

Handle with great care. (Do not break unless your paycheck is over a million dollars.) (Still don’t break.) P.S. This is the holy pendant of Charlemagne. 

“Wow, she really overdid that. I have a weird feeling she wants me to break this.”

Carefully unpacking the 2,015-year-old pendant and praying it wouldn’t break, he heard a knock on the door 

“No, I don’t,” replied a tactical gear clad Victoria (with holy water shotgun).

After hastily getting dressed, Jake was stopped by an armed Tret Elponocks.

“And you are going where without me?”

Jake was shocked at the sight of his battle ready ex-wife and gnome. He watched her as she unpacked her vast set of ancient weapons and artifacts.

“Here,” she said as she handed Jake a set of 1800’s Russian hand grenades.

“You said you thought this was what was in the cave?” Jake examined the items before confirming. “How the hell did you get your hands on these?” He turned to her, obviously impressed.

She shrugged. “Black market, that’s all.”

Jake’s eyes widened. “You seriously broke the law just to get your hands on these?”

“Hell yeah,” was Victoria’s response. “We need to find out if these are really what caused the explosion.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I caught the explosion on the suit cam. So if we do some math, scratch that, a lot of math, we can analyze the blast and check the blast to the charge. We’ll figure it out,” Jake explained.

“Suit cams, forgot you had those.” Victoria frowned. “Ugh, I just wasted 13,000 on those just for nothing!” She was yelling a little too loud now.

“No, you just got us the iron that we needed for attacking Baba Yaga. Plus, it blows up,” was Jake’s smart*ss reply.

“Okay, if you’re so da*m smart, where’s Baba Yaga?”

“Well?” said Jake.

“That’s problem number two.”

Plugging in her computer, she searched for an obscure Youtube video that just happened to be on the B.P.R.D. channel. (She crunched the numbers.) Only 0.0000000000001% of 1,300,000,000 watched. But, it said what they needed. Thy got hooked up with the B.P.R.D. Russia Kazakhstan-Russia border agent, who had been hearing reports of children going missing in the border town of Kongelsk. Kongelsk was a small town with a thick surrounding wood and a small stream. Then, Jake, Victoria, and Tret flew to the nearest airport and then helicoptered in.

In the town, after ordering local vodka (just ‘cause), they headed over to the agent’s house to discuss Baba Yaga. The agent welcomed them with freshly baked gingerbread and more vodka.

Later, they hopped in an SUV and headed into the surrounding wood. After driving into a clearing, they saw (after blinking in the sun for quite a while) a small cottage on chicken legs. Seeing smoke coming out of the firepit, and after drawing weaponry, they headed closer to the cottage. Baba Yaga opened the door and immediately the house started running.

After jumping back in the SUV, revving the engines, and going as fast as possible, they finally caught up to the quite fast chicken-legged house. Victoria opened the car door and fired off a holy water shell. The house briefly stopped, as if in pain, and then continued. An hour and 20 bucks in gas later, Baba Yaga’s house stopped, cornered in a limestone quarry. Baba Yaga then opened the door, and after chanting words in ancient Slavic, a strange red light emitted from her hands, destroying the SUV. Promptly, Victoria fired another round from the holy water shotgun, and Jake fired some silver bullets from the submachine gun. 

After a bullet hit Baba Yaga, she yelled, “You cannot kill me! As long as Russia endures, I will survive!” 

All firing stopped. A silence fell over the quarry. 

Back at base, another round of torture came from Abe Sapien (who just happened to be the Russia/Kazakhstan border agent in disguise). More terror awaited… Paintball guns.


Spell Casters

I Almost Pee In My Pants

“Reflectiao!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

A small mirror the size of a piece of paper floated in front of me. It swung. I ducked. It plunged. I screamed. Luckily, the mirror protected me. I lifted my head from beneath my arms. The SpiderBright was gone. Somehow, the mirror looked bigger. Now, it looked around the size of a stove. I put on a triumphant face before anyone could see that I almost peed in my pants because I was so scared. I looked over my shoulder to see a girl holding a God SpellBook. 

“You know, I made the mirror,” she said, annoyed.

 “Oh,” I said, my jaw dropping.

“Name’s Adrena,” she said, “Professional Spell Caster and Detective.”

Bzzz Bzzz, my watch buzzed. ‘5:30,’ it read. I got three new texts, all that said, ‘Come to Clover City.’ I quickly told Adrena that I needed to leave. I got a train there. It took about one hour. I watched the city disappear as the train spread into the station. As I got off the train, a note taped to a sign was about to be blown away. “Oxxiel,” I whispered to myself. The note flew off from the sign and landed in my hand. It read:

Dear Adrena,

Meet me at Cristoffs Magic Shop.

8:30 P.M.

Sincerely,

Francisco.

One thousand questions crowded my brain. Well, there’s only one way to get answers, I thought.


I Get Attacked By A Killer Meatball

“Ouch ahh ooh,” I said warily.

There it is! There it is! As I emerged from the forest, I said a smoke spell, and it turned into a smoke cloud. I found a crack in the windows, then drifted in. I saw Adrena and another guy, who I guessed was Francisco, talking.

Pop! The smoke spell wore off. Whoops.

“Escalaza!” yelled Adrena. Their bowls of spaghetti grew till they were the size of a refrigerator. Boom! Okay, that meatball just grew eyes. (Typical.) With that it came lunging at me. I grabbed a piece of MagNet (or as you humans call it: yarn) and made Jacob’s Ladder with it.

“Mi,” I whispered to no one in particular. The MagieNet flew and trapped the Meatball Monster. Ftth. The monster disintegrated. “What’s going on?” I demanded. 

“Alright alright,” Adrena confessed, “I got a letter from my brother, and he told me he was seeing weird things around the city. So the Crystill told him to find a few people he could trust and try to find out who was doing this. That’s why we brought you here to — ”

“You didn’t bring me here!” I interrupted. “I found a letter.” 

“You think that O.X.X.I.E.L spell was yours?!” she snorted. “If you said that spell, you would probably blow it away even more!”

This whole time Francisco hadn’t said anything. Wait… he was levitating. Oh no, oh no, oh no! He was about to say a death spell. I ran out as fast as my legs would go. If I said a single spell, it would trigger his spell to charge up even faster. Bam! I jumped out of spell range before the green light engulfed. I wasn’t going down without a fight. I positioned my hands, so it would look like I was holding an invisible sword. I pulled my hands apart as far as I could. A green shimmer was forming between my hands. A long wooden bamboo staff was now in my hands. I ran toward the siblings.

 “Yah!” I said with gusto.

As I was about to blast off their heads, I tripped.

“Sorry,” said Adrena, “Imp.”

A portal opened beneath me. I fell in, screaming as I fell into my dark death.


My Funeral

I landed on something slimy. That’s when I realized what it was. A tongue. I tried to summon my magic bamboo staff to help me escape the Realm Of Monsters. I started moving. I knew it was only a matter of time before I died. I tried all the spells I knew. I could smell its bad breath by now. Chomp! I was swallowed into the monster. All the people I knew had a party to celebrate my life, even though they didn’t find my body. If you’re wondering how I knew this, I knew this because this was just a near-death experience. Just one of many more to come.


The Road Boys: The Halloween Mystery

Chapter One: Where is the Candy?

I just went to the office in the main hall at my school. Then I came back to the hall, and the Candy for Gratitude was gone. I’m sure I saw it was there before school started, but now it was gone! Candy for Gratitude is candy that people give to the soldiers. We share some of our candy from Halloween.

Whoosh! A person ran into the boy’s bathroom with a full big bag. I couldn’t see who it was, but I knew I shouldn’t tell anybody. But as I kept thinking, I said to myself, “That shouldn’t keep me from including Nikan and Ashton.”

I decided to tell my friends Nikan and Ashton because I knew I couldn’t finish this big Halloween mystery. The only time we could keep looking for clues was at Beyond The Bell, which was after school. We could do anything we wanted after school. We could play in the yard or the field. We could also do our homework. We ran right after school and hid before the coach saw us and told us to go to the lunch benches for him to count us. My friends, Nikan, Ashton, and Kourosh, and I ran into the boy’s bathroom and looked around for clues using four of our senses: sight, smell, hearing, and touch. We found letters on the walls that spelled Trista, and we also found a big white wall. We freaked out because we knew someone named Tristan and a person named Trista. All my friends, Ashton, Nikan, and Kourosh, started running and hiding from our coach to the other boy’s bathroom. We hid there for a couple of minutes. Then we went out. Just after we went out, we saw a girl go into the boy’s bathroom. Her name was Madeline.


Chapter Two: The Creepy Guy!!!

“He should really get a shower,” I said to Kourosh when we passed an old man around 120 years old.

I thought he was a criminal in disguise, but Kourosh thought it was just an old man. He was with a cane carved like a totem pole. The cane had faces of a raven, frog, wolf, and a bear. We went to the park, and Ashton said he could eat 2,000,000,000 elephants. We then played soccer. Ashton missed an open goal and then tried to make an excuse.

Later that day, Ashton missed the ball 987 times, and when he was in the goal, he missed all the other team’s shots. We lost 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 0. 

Ashton said, “But it was not my fault,” and made up an excuse. “The other team cheated by pulling my arm, so I couldn’t dive far enough to reach the ball, and the other team’s coach was distracting me.” 

By this time, Ashton was really mad because we did not believe in his excuses. We knew

he was making excuses because when someone else was in goal, the other team only scored once.

We went back to school, and we saw the same girl who went into the boy’s bathroom. She thought nobody was watching her, but we were spying on her because we knew she was up to something. Kourosh, Ashton, and Nikan thought she was a boy, but I knew she was a girl. She even had a girl name. After school, Kourosh’s parent named Mr. Jeffffffersoz came to pick us up. We made a plan to catch the thief. Ashton, Nikan, Kourosh, and I decided to ask her why she went into the boy’s bathroom. The next day, we went in the boy’s bathroom, but we didn’t see her. 

“That is weird,” I said.

The bell rang. Ring! Oh no, we are going to be late, we all thought. We ran to our class room. It was number 5,668. There were 7,000 classes in the school. It is the biggest school in the world. After school, we followed her to the library. We saw her hide behind the recycling bin while we were hiding behind a bush. She was talking to another person, but we didn’t know who that person was. Ashton was looking on the right side of the bush, Nikan was looking on the left side of the bush, and Kourosh and I were looking above the bush. We had to crawl to another bush to get a better view of who the girl (Madeline) was talking to. The first thing we saw was a carved cane. We all recognized the cane. It was the cane of the creepy guy.

“I am so close. Those boys think I stole the candy,” said the girl.

“I am ¼ finished with the candy,” said the old guy.

“Guys, the girl we saw was a distraction. It is the creepy guy,” said Ido.

We followed him to his house, and we called the police.


Chapter Three: Police

Weeyoo weeyoo ahh police,” said Kourosh.

“Relax,” I said.

 “I called them,” said Ashton. 

The police cranked open the door and saw the man eating candy. They brought the guy in handcuffs and took off his wig. O-M-G! The robber was the strongest man in the Donald Trump buildings. He was the best robber in all the world. We brought the candy to the soldiers.

One of the soldiers said, “I saw the news. Are you guys the ones who stole back the candy?”

We were known as the best robber catchers.


The Road Boys: The Labor Day Mystery

Chapter One: What’s Gone Wrong in the City?!

“Sadly, on Labor Day, Kourosh and Ashton moved all the way to Saudi Arabia and met Princess Wurayf,” Ido mentioned. 

“Ooohhhh,” Nikan said, “this grill smells good, and it’s fun to use it at my new house.”

Meanwhile, a bad robber named Harry Kane left his house and headed over to the jail. At the jail, he let 100,000,000 other robbers out. They broke all the handcuffs and the keys to the cells. Then, they all jumped into police cars and went over to the Diamond District, where all the stores were abandoned because the shopkeepers were at Labor Day barbeques. They broke in and put the jewelry in big gold and white bags that they dragged out the door.

In another part of the city, another robber, named Jojo Casias, snuck into a barbeque and stole the grill while the happy tan man was using the bathroom. He also stole medicine from the happy tan man’s house.

Then Jojo drove back to the Diamond District and then smashed open the cash register and started to do Fortnite dances after the robbers stole all the money. Then, they went to people’s houses and started shooting the front windows. The police left their barbeques and sprinted as fast as injured cheetahs to the police station. When they got there, they saw they had no cars. Also, the sobbing people from the bank noticed their cars were stolen, too. Then the robbers went to the bank and stole over 10,000,000,000,000 dollars, which was the first record high since Christmas of last year.

Back at the boy’s barbeque, Nikan and Ido heard a crazy scream. 

“Robbers are invading!!”

As they put down their hamburgers, they heard bombing sounds. They were ready to take serious action.


Chapter Two: Clues from The Road Boys

The Road Boys rushed into Nikan’s room and got the number three best disguise robber catching costume: a gun, a shield, disguise powers, a watch to communicate, plus a button that could let you choose the power you want.

“Let’s go,” said Ido.

The boys rushed out of the house and jumped onto the bank. They saw thousands of police cars. On top of the roof, they saw a list of where Harry Kane was planning to go. 

The list:

  1.  Get the robbers
  2.  Diamond District
  3. Bank
  4. Chocolate factory
  5. Steal all the barbeques
  6. Mall
  7. School
  8. Houses
  9. Offices
  10. Shoot people 
  11. Leave City
  12. Steal stuff from airport and fly away. 

“I’ll go to the chocolate factory,” Nikan said.

“If they left the chocolate factory, I’ll go stop them from stealing all the barbeques. And alert me if you’re in trouble. You know my number,” said Ido. 

Nikan was terrified as he ran through the streets faster than Jesse Owens. He arrived at the chocolate factory. Then, when Nikan snuck in, he saw the robbers stealing like crazy, stealing all the stuff.

Then Nikan called Ido and said, “I need your help. There are over 2,000 robbers.”

“Sure,” Ido responded.

When Ido arrived, they activated a power named invisible speed with their special watches and jumped on down.

“Let’s go,” Nikan whispered.

The boys snuck by the whole gang and screamed to call the police. The robbers got scared and ran out.

Then Nikan called the police and said, “The robbers just went out and are trying to steal all of the barbeques.”

“Sure, I’ll go chase them,” said the policeman named Mr. Writopia.

The boys headed out and started using their superspeed power and tripped the police cars that the bad guys were in and broke the wheels. Boom! The robbers were totally injured, and some couldn’t walk. They did not know what to do without their lost cars. They heard sirens. There were more police cars from another city! Then, Harry Kane swooped in on a helicopter and picked up all the injured robbers and the robbers who were suffering from really bad pain. Also, Harry Kane saved the robbers who were on the loose getting chased by policemen.

Then, the helicopter distracted the police, and people came out to help out. The robbers inside the helicopters helped the injured robbers feel better by giving them the stolen medicine. Next, they jumped out of the helicopter and stole all the barbeques because that’s what was next on their list.

Chapter Three: Catch ‘Em Boys

The boys ran 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles per hour and caught two robbers, and gave them to the police who brought the poor robbers to jail. They were poor because they were the only two out of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 robbers.

Then, the boys said, at the same time, “We need a trap.” 

The boys had the plan. They whispered it to the police and got started. First, the police chased the robbers toward Schanbel Boulevard. Schanbel Boulevald looked like a perfectly normal street with light posts all over because Mayor Melon lived on it. But the horrible robbers, all with concussions, ran over the trap that they didn’t know was a deadly trap and fell into it. It was 10 billion feet deep, and when all of them fell in, the friendly boys put up a firm gate so the deadly robbers didn’t get out, and if not all were caught, the boys made the same trap over and over again till the robbers were all caught. And, at the bottom, the boys put a machine that put handcuffs around the non-innocent robbers who destroyed the whole Labor Day!

After all the robbers were caught, they were put into dump trucks with a lot of trash, like stinky bananas and banana peels, which were totally awful.

Chapter Four: Jail

When they finally arrived at Kick Your Butt Jail, the robbers were in a moving tarp and were one by one loaded into a jail slot and were surrounded by chainsaws, and there was not even a single way to let the robbers escape.

After all the robbers were put into the jail slots, dinner was served: edible horse poo mush. There were no utensils or silverware given, only a plastic window if the robbers wanted to cover the open area which had iron poles around it so the robbers could not escape or shoot the city to death or kill people right out of the window.

The ground was all black and dusty. The walls of the mini cube had cracks and holes. It was just a plain room. Nothing was inside a plain room.

The robbers were whining to annoy the police and guards, so they would go away so that the robbers could make up a cruel plan. The guards finally called their wives to bring them earphones, so they couldn’t hear and at 10:00 sharp at night they all went to bed.


Chapter Five: Celebrate the Boys

The next day, the city met at town hall with misplaced artifacts.

The mayor, named Mayor Melons, said, “We must honor the people who saved our town… ”

As the mayor got ready to speak, he reached out his neck as tall as he could and got ready to speak loud and very proud, “Nikan Jafari and Ido Levertov. I must thank them so much for saving our town from such cruel robbers we were about to get killed by. Thank you so much. Thank you boys for saving our city.”

They planned to make a picnic to honor the boys.

“We will honor them at 12:00 sharp at Royal Mellow Yellow Park, and my servant Petit will serve appetizers, drinks, and food with his crew.”

When the church bell rang, everybody in the city arrived on time and was getting served from Petit and his crew.

It was an awesome celebration, and at the end, they had a yoga class, and finally at the very, very, very end, Mayor Melon, Governor Chicken, and President Taft, who was stuck in a bath, gave a speech and then at last awarded the boys with medals, Teslas, Lamborghinis, 1,000 billion dollars, trophies and so much more. And the boys thanked them so much and bowed to the crowd.


Little Short Nuggets of Life

Little Short Nuggets of Life is an ongoing collection of vignettes about events in the author’s life. The stories below are highlights from the seven snippets that have been written so far. Enjoy!

Some guy died on the freeway, and my dad was late picking me up. I think it was some biker who got hit. My dad says he drove past a bike and a white sheet with a person-shaped lump under it on Highway 24. Anyway, I got dropped off at the bus stop at 3:20 in the afternoon. And after waiting for about five minutes, I began to become restless. I know that sounds lame, but first, I usually get picked up within at least the first two minutes. And second, five minutes is so long when you’re just sitting there. Like, seriously. Have somebody set a timer for five minutes and just sit there and try to guess when five minutes have passed. I’ll bet you say, “Stop,” around three minutes. A minute is a long time! And then when you put five of them together, it’s like, six times as long a time. Around minute seven, I started practicing jumping up and clicking my heels twice. I only got it twice. Again, it sounds easy, but it really isn’t! Then I started trying to teach myself Patty Cake. I am an expert now. Then, I just sat there a bit more. The bus and everyone else had left by now. Then I counted how many birds I could spot in a minute. It was eight. Then I practiced what I would say to my mom when she finally came. I started talking to myself. Not because I was going insane, but because that’s what I do when there’s nothing else to do. There was a car this whole time that would circle the block with a woman in it with AirPods. She went around four times. I think she was lost. Everytime she came back, I was like, “Oh it’s you again!” There was a pea plant and I would pick a pea pod and squeeze it to see how far I could shoot the peas. Turns out, not all that far.  So I just waited. A bit more.

A random thought I had today, “What if there was a store that was filled with people and mosquitos could just come along and be like, ‘O negative, please.’ And the cashier would say ‘Oh, try aisle four on the right side.’ And then the mosquito would go to aisle four and pick out the human they wanted and take it home to drink the person’s blood.

Then what would happen is when a mosquito bought a bunch of humans, they would get to the exit and see one of those huge bins for food that gets donated to the food bank and stick in a baby or two. How would a mosquito check if a human was good? By how long their hair is? Or how soft the bottom of their feet are? And there would be farms for humans that are B+ and farms for humans that are A-. How would they pay for the humans? What do mosquitoes use for currency? What do ants use for currency? Ants are so advanced and have such complicated ant hills that maybe they use money, too. I wonder if bees know that they will die if they sting somebody. I heard that all bees are female except for the workers, who basically get treated like slaves. They just work until they aren’t needed anymore. Then the queen just pushes them out the door and leaves them to die. That’s so sad! Imagine if humans did that. “Oh, little Billy. We don’t have a use for you anymore! Well, you’re on your own now!” While writing this I thought, “What are some other insects I could talk about?” So I Googled, “Cool Insect Facts.” And here’s what popped up: Did you know that 90% of species on Earth are insects? I mean, that’s just so many. And I learned that 290 million years ago there was this dragonfly that had a wingspan of three feet! It went around terrorizing lizards and being a jerk to everybody. Do insects name their babies? I also found out that termite queens can lay 7,000 eggs in a day. Imagine how painful that would be. Just laying eggs all day long. You would never get to just relax. Just eggs and eggs and eggs and eggs and eggs upon eggs upon eggs. Anyway, that’s what I have to say about insects. I guess insect life will just remain a mystery. 

So in Berkeley around this time it’s been getting really hot. And everyone is rejoicing. For the past two months, we have had rain almost every single day, and when it’s not raining, it’s overcast. But recently I have been able to wear short sleeve shirts and shorts. At the same time, I am melting onto the sidewalk practically, but it’s a small price to pay for all this glorious sunshine. I just constantly want to be outside. Sometimes, in the middle of class, I just feel a strong, burning desire to go run in a meadow or jump in a pool somewhere. Although today might have been an exception. We have this thing at school called Endurance Day and it was today. We ran the 800-meter dash. And everyone was so slow. One kid took seven minutes. It was so boiling, like somewhere someone had dropped an atom bomb. But instead of, you know, leveling a whole city, it released an insane flood of sunshine. The quickest time was four minutes, sixteen seconds. To put that in perspective, the average 800-meter time is from 3:16 all the way to 3:30. That’s around a minute slower than what your time should be. At the end, I was so tired that I rubbed my face against a cool pole that was in the shade. And by the way, it felt wonderful. This afternoon, I am going to take full and complete advantage of the heat and throw a backyard dance party. Maybe I’ll invite the really weird recluse tenant in our backyard. She works at the lace museum and spends her weekends going to Renaissance fairs and jousting in actual chainmail on actual horses. And when you look up “awkward” in the dictionary, a picture of her comes up. She seems to not really participate in the normal hobbies people in society participate in. What’s the morale? I don’t know. Maybe rub a pole to cool down. Anyway, that’s the end I suppose.


the man in a bird suit that hardly looked like a bird. but i shot it down anyway. like a bird.

Hi there! Rosie here. And I’m going to tell you the famous tale of how I came across the bird that showed me the meaning of life: Have no mercy.

So, I was just strolling in my backyard when I saw this funny-looking bird. It had blue feathers and a red mohawk of feathers on top of its head and green eyes. Plus, it was unusually large. And it kind of creeped me out. At first, I thought it was a normal bird, but then it began to scream like it was the end of the world. Then my head hurt. Within five seconds. So, I shot the bird with a potato gun. Not dead, just “taken out.” Like they do in movies. It fell to the ground, and I looked up on Google what to do with an injured animal when you find one. The first thing that came up was to go to an animal shelter and give it to them to deal with. So, I put the knocked out bird in a sack and carried it to the nearest shelter. (Wow. That bird must’ve been very bad at defense if it could be taken out with a potato gun that I got at the 7-Eleven store.)

When I reached the shelter, I thumped the unconscious bird in my sack down at the desk and said, “One totally alive bird delivery.”

And then I walked out before they realized that I was basically kidnapping a bird. Run! But then, my legs began to hurt, and I gave up. Nailed it. When I got home, they asked why I had been gone so long, and I answered that I had been on a nature bird walk. And I walked away thinking to myself about how much they didn’t know. 

And that’s the tale of the bird that showed me the way to my destiny. Later, I found out that it wasn’t a bird at all. It was a man in costume.


Sharpclaw (Chapter One)

Chapter One

Sharpclaw soared through the sky. Finally, free, he thought. Sharpclaw looked behind him at the army chasing him. Sharpclaw flapped furiously, and the landscape blurred. Forests with tall pine trees, mountains with tall peaks, and deserts with prickly cacti and large blue pools whirled by until he reached the sea. The world swam before his eyes and soon, out of sheer exhaustion, he passed out.

Sharpclaw woke to the crackling of a fire. Sharpclaw, with his dark blue scales and dark, unforgiving gray eyes, tried to sit up, but someone said in a fresh but dark voice:

“Do not try. You are very tired and on the verge of death. I will bring you back in due time but for now, you need rest.”

Sharpclaw closed his eyes, and the human spooned some soup into his mouth. It was delicious, the perfect combination of buttery and salty with chunks of vegetables and meat. Then he felt horrible, like someone was sticking a red hot needle into his back. Then he felt it on his tail, on his wing, and in his neck. Sharpclaw thrashed and kicked, but it did nothing. Finally the pain stopped, and Sharpclaw stopped kicking. Everything hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as before. Sharpclaw wondered what was happening to him, but he was too tired and closed his eyes. The next day, Sharpclaw awoke to someone petting him.

“Brave one. You escaped the King Albitroix’s wrath. I’m proud of you,” said the person, who now Sharpclaw could identify as a young boy with black hair and freckles that lightly dotted his face.

Sharpclaw closed his eyes as the human commented, “You are Sharpclaw, aren’t you.”

Sharpclaw replied without speaking, by telepathy. ‘Yes, little one, I am Sharpclaw. That is obvious, but who are you?

‘My name is Darius. I am honored to meet you. How did you escape, and what will you do now?’ asked Darius.

‘I will destroy everything the Albitroix owns and loves. I will kill all his men, and I will pillage every village in the entire kingdom of Endview who are all loyal to the tyrant of a king that we have,’ Sharpclaw ranted.

‘Yes. I agree. Will you join me to defeat the king?’ asked Darius.

Yes, on one condition: I kill the king,’ replied Sharpclaw.

I will talk to Shadowcourt about it,’ Darius told Sharpclaw.

‘Shadowcourt? You mean the mythic clan that is hidden from everyone?’ asked Sharpclaw, surprised.

Why yes, how did you know?’ questioned Darius.

I heard my, ugh, master the king talking about finding and destroying Shadowcourt,’ Sharpclaw answered.

Yes, if you would like to come to Shadowcourt in less than three weeks, I suggest we start now,’ suggested Darius. The sun warmed his face and reflected of Sharpclaw’s body. The birds tweeted.

Sharpclaw tested his body. His wings rose up and down, and his legs made circles in the sand. It felt surprisingly good. Sharpclaw had expected to feel sore, but he felt like he could fly around a mountain.

Let’s go. Climb onto my back,’ Sharpclaw ordered.

Darius climbed onto Sharpclaw’s back and gripped the curved spikes that protruded from his back. Then Darius leaped onto Sharpclaw’s scales, where the saddle would be if Sharpclaw had one, and Sharpclaw took a running leap, stretching his wings out wide. The wind caught at his wings, and Sharpclaw began his ascent. It tore at Sharpclaw’s wings as he fought to fly higher. Darius gripped Sharpclaw’s scales, and his face turned white. Sharpclaw flew faster and faster, then dove down through the forest, leaving Darius’s stomach far behind. And his guts. Sharpclaw weaved between the pine trees that dotted the forest floor. Then, Sharpclaw lunged at a rather plump chicken who was resting on the ground and raced towards it before he caught it in his mouth. After that, Sharpclaw rose out of the forest..

That’s what real fun looks like,’ declared Sharpclaw as he launched himself higher.

Cluck cluck cluck,” clucked the chicken, terrified at the big flying thing that had appeared in its life.

Sharpclaw landed at an incredible speed, but the landing was completely smooth. Darius fell off Sharpclaw’s back and ran to the bushes where Sharpclaw heard some pretty disturbing noises that consisted of “Ugh,” “Blech,” and things like that. 

Little one, was that too much fun?’ Sharpclaw questioned.

“Blech!” replied Darius.

Wow, Sharpclaw thought. Darius really does not look good. Maybe I should help. Sharpclaw was astonished at how he was thinking. Just yesterday, he would have thought: Eww. Gross, get away from that disgusting creep. But now Sharpclaw wanted to help. Sharpclaw arranged stones in a circle.

Cluck cluck cluck!” the chicken clucked.

Sharpclaw silenced the chicken once and for all by breathing fire. That singed the feathers off the chicken, and the chicken died a fast death. Sad but delicious. Then, Sharpclaw gathered some leaves and made a place for Darius to sit himself. Then, Sharpclaw sent a message with his mind to Darius:

‘Come, little human, sit down and eat. You must be starving. I will go and hunt for myself.’

With that Sharpclaw launched himself into the air and sped off. Darius groaned.


The Fennec Fox and the Clouded Leopard

Vapor the Fennec Fox was sitting on a rock when suddenly a No-fur with a stick came over to him. Vapor knew that sticks were dangerous, so he started running as fast as he could when he ran smack into a palm tree. At the same time, hundreds of miles away, Hang-down the Clouded Leopard was chasing a Vole for dinner when a Chihuahua blocked his way. Hang-down was very surprised. Suddenly, the Chihuahua howled in his face!

“Ruh-ruh-ruh-AWOOO!!!”

The Chihuahua started chasing Hang-down. Hang-down climbed up all the way to the forest canopy. Now the Chihuahua could not get him — he was stuck on a branch, and he couldn’t climb any higher.

Hang-down stared down at the Chihuahua and growled, “You little foo — ” when — crrrrk! — the branch cracked, and the Chihuahua fell, his tail getting caught on another branch. 

Hang-down burst out laughing because the Chihuahua fell, and he hated the Chihuahua. Then the branch that he’d been stuck on fell too, and it landed on the Chihuahua. The Chihuahua was stuck in a branch sandwich! And then the branch on top of him started to wobble. Then he started to wobble. And they fell!!!

Hang-down burst out laughing again. The Chihuahua landed on the hard, hard forest floor. Suddenly, a No-fur appeared. He was holding a stick, just like the other one. He also had a big spider web. He threw it at Hang-down, who tried to dodge it but got caught in the big web. There was an opening to the net, so he climbed out, but he didn’t know there was a trap. It looked like a rectangular big shaped spider web, so he went inside, but then it lifted off the ground, and he heard a sound — bririririririr!!! Hang-down zoomed past the canopy of the forest. Then he saw the forest end and a lot of little dots, black and tan colorish. Suddenly, he was over the water. Then he felt himself being lowered until the rectangular spider web was touching the water. It started tilting, and then water started rushing in. Then all of a sudden, the big rectangular spider web hit a rock. There was a big rectangular shaped cave with no entrance. Hang-down was very surprised and frightened.

Back in the desert, Vapor the Fennec Fox woke up to find himself sitting in a dark cave. He couldn’t see a thing and didn’t know where he was. He could hear a strange sound — bririririririr!!! He could hear something clinking below him (which was the big rectangular spider web Hang-down was in). At the same time… the dark place where Vapor was in and the big rectangular spider web got unleashed by something that looked like a scorpion tail. Both went sliding into a little opening of the huge rectangular cave. Once inside, it was very light and they saw a little, little cave which had a scorpion inside. When everything was opened, they saw how the scorpion looked. It was shiny and turquoise blue, and when the light darkened, it was sky blue and transparent.

Poison-Sting, Hang-down, and Vapor looked at each other. Vapor and Hang-down sniffed each other. They didn’t say anything for awhile.

Finally, Poison-Sting broke the silence by saying, “Hello, Fennec Fox and Clouded Leopard. My name is Poison-Sting, the blue scorpion.”

Then Vapor said, “My name is Vapor.”

“My name is Hang-Down,” said Hang-Down.

“Where did you guys come from?” asked Poison-Sting.

“I came from the Sahara — ” said Vapor until he was suddenly interrupted by a baby white devon rex. The baby was one foot and six inches shorter than Hang-Down.

“My name is — ” it said in a baby voice, because it was a baby obviously, “Oakheart.”

Poison-Sting inched his stinger but didn’t say anything. Hang-down opened her mouth but didn’t say anything. And Vapor just wagged his tail. 

He repeated, “My name is Oakheart,” still in a babyish voice. “Hello. I came from an animal shelter, and I escaped. Then some weird No-Fur came and brought me here… Do you want help to escape? I’ve been wanting to escape ever since a No-Fur with a stick that had fur on the end (a broom) tried whacking me with it,” said Oakheart.

“Yes, we would love to,” said Poison Sting.

So the four of them planned their escape that very night. Poison-Sting used his stinger to unlock the hidden cave entrance that the No-Furs would come in and out through, then they creaked open the cave entrance and crept out into the darkness of night… 

To be continued… in the next chapter of this book, Oakheart.


Ketchup Pool

A ketchup packet named Lucas went to the ketchup pool, and he was all red, and people thought he was covered in blood, so they took him to the hospital. Then, the nurse screamed and took him back to the pool, and then he turned pink. The pool turned pink. Then Lucas turned into a mouse. He was the same size, but he had whiskers, a tail, and no hands, and he had a ketchup sign on his chest, and then he got freaked out. 

Then he made a mysterious shoe fly off of someone’s foot, and then it smacked him right in the head. He fought back with his black Sharpie marker. He colored on the top of the shoe. The shoe got really mad and smashed him right in the legs.

The shoe said, “You’re weird.”

Lucas said, “You’re rude.” 

Then they had a battle. They had fire and a stick. Then the mouse got fire, and the shoe got a stick. Then they fought, and the mouse burned the stick, and then he burned the shoe down, and it turned into pieces, and then the shoe died. 

Then he got born again. He was a baby shoe. He was super small. He said nothing. He was in a field of shoes. Lucas went home, and then he turned back into a ketchup packet. He felt tired, and then he went to bed.


The Gingerbread Man

Once upon a time there was a gingerbread man. It started raining, but it wasn’t raining regular rain — it was raining frosting. The gingerbread man, whose name was Melanie, ate the frosting while he was walking to his house. He bought dinner on the way — he never knew it was going to rain frosting. He ate so much frosting that his stomach was too full to eat dinner, and that happened for ten whole weeks. He kept buying dinner on his way home from work because he didn’t think it would rain frosting, but then it did!

Melanie, the gingerbread man, carried a suitcase in his hand because he worked at a watch store: an Apple watch store. He ran the Apple watch store, and he only hired other gingerbread men. The reason he only hired gingerbread men was because they worked well together, but he could only find one other gingerbread man to hire, and he needed more — so one day he decided to make a gingerbread man. 

So he went home and made another gingerbread man, and since he also needed to find a wife, he made it a girl gingerbread man. And her name was Max. In the gingerbread world, girls had boys names, and boys had girls names.

Melanie and Max were walking together one day when he noticed he was late to work, so he said to his wife, “I have to go to work now! I’m late!”

As he was running to work, he saw another gingerbread man. And then four more gingerbread men with him!

So he asked them, “Are you looking for a job?”

And they said yes, so he hired them. 

They all went to the Apple watch shop together, and he introduced them to the other guy who worked with him in the store. But the five new gingerbread men didn’t actually work well in a team. They broke the glass, they made a mess, they threw the watches in the dump, and they stole a hammer and broke the whole store. The store was broken all over the place and was no longer a store. It was a new place for the dump. The owner fired them, but then the five gingerbread men got a hammer and destroyed the whole store, and it fell on them all, and they died. And that was the end of the owner and the five gingerbread men.

His wife was still alive, crying, “Where’s my husband, where’s my husband!”

She laid down in her house.

That was the end of her life.

The End.


The Game Show

So, I am a game show host, and I’m kind of the funny one. I announce the winner — not you! Okay? We have two contestants: Joe and Bob. Okay, I think I should tell you my name… My name is… the host!!! Don’t call me anything else. Especially not my real name, which I’m not going to tell you.

Fine, I’ll tell you. My name is beep.

  I won’t tell you my name. Hahahaha.

“Now it’s time for the Game Show. Bob, you can go first.”

“Hi, I’m Bob! I’m doing this so I can raise money for nothing! And I’m super dumb. Just so you know.”

“Thanks, Bob, for coming to this Game Show. Now Joe, introduce yourself.”

“Name’s Joe! I’m here because I have no reason… Okay. Done with my interview.” 

“Great. I ask the questions, just so you know. You press the button, and whoever gets it first gets to answer the question. And if you don’t get it right, you transfer $1 to the other team. If you have $0, you still lose $1, so you will have -$1. And if you end on a minus, you have to pay us!”

“So my first question is: who won the 2018 FIFA World Cup?”

Beep!

“Okay! Joe, you pressed the button.”

Joe says, “France!”

“He is right. Because he’s an expert in soccer. Also, if you win, you get $10. Actually $15. Actually no, $10. So Joe has $10, and Bob has $0. The next question is: Hmm… let me think. I didn’t prepare for the questions because I didn’t have time. Who won the 2022 FIFA World Cup?”

Beep!

“Spain!”

“Bob is wrong! It’s the future, so nobody knows. So Bob has to give $1 to Joe. Now Joe has $11 and Bob has -$1.”

“Aw. So much for my guess.”

“Now another question. What’s 100 plus 100?”

Beep!

“150!” says Joe.

“Wrong! Okay.”

Beep!

“150!” says Joe.

“You already said that! I said no!”

Beep!

“150!” says Joe.

“Oh my gosh, you’re annoying me so much! It’s not 150!!!”

Beep!

“150!” says Joe.

“Okay, I’ll tell you the right answer! It’s 200!”

Beep!

“200!” says Joe.

“It’s too late! You can’t copy me! You have to give the other team $4! Now Bob has $3, and Joe has $7. Okay, next question. Who is the dumbest person here?”

Beep!

“Me!” says Bob.

“You’re right! You get $10! Now Bob has $13, and Joe has $7! So because this question is super, super hard, it’s worth $50.”

Joe and Bob gasp.

“The question is: where do babies come from?”

Beep!

“Baby co.” 

“No!”

Beep!

“I have no idea.”

“No, you’re wrong!”

“Okay, that’s the end of the question. No one got it.”

No!

“That’s the end of the game show, guys! It’s time to tally up all the work… Dang it! I forgot all of the scores.”

Joe and Bob faint.

The End.

Cactus

Guy and Cactus are punching each other in zero gravity floating in space. They are right above the moon. They’re waiting for a shuttle than can take them to Uranus. They are punching each other because one wants the border wall between Uranus and its moon, Myanus.

Guy

The wall is good!


Cactus

The one between Uranus and Myanus? That one is shit!!!


Out pops a map from behind the stage. It shows “Uranus” and “Myanus,” with a wall between them. Then the map flips around, and it shows what Cactus wants. An empty space and a bridge between them.

The shuttle picks them up. (Cactus and Guy are walking around the stage.)

(They are on Myanus now.)

There is a tree that says, “Welcome to Myanus,” on a sign.

They start punching each other again.

Cactus 

We’re on Myanus?!


Guy 

No, we’re on Myanus!!!


Cactus 

No, we’re on Myanus!!!


Guy

No, we’re on Myanus!!!

Guy runs to the border and starts piling bricks for the wall.

Cactus runs over and starts taking bricks to the bridge.

(This keeps on going for 10 hours.)

(Both people faint.)

The next day… 

Guy eats a Big Mac burger.

Cactus eats a watermelon.

An hour later… 

Guy

We’re on Myanus!


Cactus

No, we are on Myanus!

Random guy wearing a shirt that says “no wall.” Guy whacks random guy on the head.

(Random guy does not like Guy because he does not like the wall.)

Guy is dead.


Cactus 

Hooray! 


He now gets everything he wants (that is reasonable). Some things that are reasonable are gold, gold, and gold. Cactus gets showered in gold.


Aliens Living on Mars

One day Alex was going to work as an astronaut. He was helping them build a spaceship they would soon go to space in. And today was the test for who was going to be on the mission. He hoped it would be him! And he also hoped that the test wasn’t going to be too hard. 

When he opened the door to the work space, Alex found that the only thing they needed to add to the spaceship was the top. The top was the most important part because the driver had to sit there, and it was where they saw from, so they didn’t run into a part of space where they couldn’t go back to earth.

Then Alex went into the part of the workspace where the test was being taken. He took a piece of paper and found the test was 40 pages long. This was probably going to take the whole day, so the ship wouldn’t take off till Monday, and today was Friday. They didn’t work on Saturday and Sunday. After the work day was over, he had 15 more pages to do, so now the ship wouldn’t take off until Tuesday — because there were more people still working on the test.

Alex went home and had his normal routine. He asked his mom if he could go out with his friends, and she said yes, so he went to the bar nearby. He and his friends watched baseball on the TV and drank some tequila. He was feeling good and hoped that he got to be on spaceship soon. 

***

On Monday, Alex got back to work, went into the room, and got his test back. He went back to work on the last 15 pages. Then, an hour before the work day was over, he finished the test. Then he went to see how the spaceship was doing. They’d added the top, and now they were painting it to look like one of the fiercest spaceships because they were painting it as a tiger! Then the work day was over.

When the Tuesday work day started, he saw the sheet of paper announcing the people who were going on the spaceship to space. There were 20 people in total going, and he was number 13!!! He was so happy he jumped up and down! It also said when it was leaving: it was leaving on Friday that week. Alex was so happy. He got out his phone and texted his mom. Right away, his mom texted back.

I’m so proud of u!

Alex needed to go prepare the spaceship for blastoff with all his stuff. He put all his gear in the trunk near his seat — all the seats had labels, and since he was #13, he put it in the one that said #13. Plus, best friend Miles was also in the spaceship. He was #12! He was right next to Alex. Then the work day was over and he was all packed up. As he was leaving, the boss said he could have Wednesday and Thursday off, because he was going on the spaceship. Then he had an idea: he was going to make a whole sculpture on Wednesday and Thursday of space. The only thing he didn’t know was what planet they were going to, so he just made a sculpture of the whole solar system. He hoped he was going to Venus because that was his favorite planet.

***

He got to work on Friday. He was so happy, and then he heard an announcement. It said: “All people on the list going to planet… Mars! Please proceed to the locker room to get your suit, and then please proceed to the spaceship. We will be taking off in 20 minutes.”

Alex went to the locker room to get on his suit. He got it on — it was also designed as a tiger! It had the number 13 on it and his last name, which was Zabbanegan. Then he made his way to the shuttle. He was feeling really excited, but he was also really happy because he’d get to eat those little dehydrated foods, like an ice cream sandwich. Plus he knew he would survive because he had previously been in the marines and survived World War 3!! Alex was sure taking off to space would be cool — getting to see the whole of earth from so far away. The ship would blast off higher and higher into the clouds, higher than an airplane can go — way up into space where you could see the whole galaxy. Alex had really, really wanted to go since he was only six years old, and now his dream was coming true!

Then another announcement came: “Please board the shuttle.” Alex got onto the shuttle using the little runway, and he got into his seat, and Miles was already there. And then he heard the countdown… 

“Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one! Blast off!” 

Then it was true: he was heading to space! A few minutes later, he was deep into space, and they let off the boosters. Then Alex could see all the galaxy from just his window, and he could see a whole world right behind him. He was very excited. Back in the 2020’s space travel took a long time, but now with super speed travel, it took only a matter of hours. 

Deep into space Alex could see a tiny little brown planet which looked like Mars! It came closer and became bigger, and then he saw light…

“How could it be no shuttle blasted off since 2019? Why is there light?” he asked himself.

Then it got closer and then the light was bigger. And Alex wondered what could be that big with all that light. And then they started to look like tiny houses. Then it looked like there were green people walking all over. Then it looked like the people had antennas with eyes and no eyes on their foreheads. Alex felt an exclamation mark go off above his head! He thought aliens weren’t real, but now he knew it was true. It sounded like alarms were going off in his head because he was so shocked, amazed and surprised.

“Aaaahhhh!!!”

And miles said, “What? What happened?”

“I-I saw aliens!!!”

And then Miles said, “Aaaahhhh!!!”

Finally Alex and Miles got tired of screaming. By that time, everyone in the whole ship was staring at them. Alex told them what happened. Then the captain made an announcement that they were going to land on Mars in 10 seconds.

“Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… ” Boom!!!

They landed on Mars.

When they looked out the window, a bunch of green people were staring at the spaceship. But some wore blue caps, which were the exact same as a police officer’s on earth. And they had giant guns! 

But also they were aiming at the ship, getting ready to fire. Quietly, all the astronauts went to get their suits of armor — which were emergency suits with armor on top. And they got their human guns. Dun dun. They got out onto the ladder and down… Then… 

The war began!!! It was 20 human astronauts versus 100 aliens, but they were dumb. The aliens fired first, but he shot space because he was so dumb. He was the dumbest of them all. Then all the other ones started firing, but they were closer to the astronauts. And then things only got worse because all of them started to fire. But Alex — he was the best of all the astronauts because he had marine training. After all, he was in the marines when World War 3 happened!!! But luckily the war wasn’t that long, so he survived. Alex had really good aim and was really good with a gun, and so he killed most of them. But then out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw a giant giant building with more green people heading out of it with giant guns too.

Then he knew he was outnumbered, so then he took his little walkie-talkie and said to earth, “We need more astronauts that are trained for combat, because we have a little World War One in space going on here with the aliens.”

The commander said, “Yes sir, we will send 10 more ships up there.”

In just about ten more minutes, the spaceships arrived, and when the aliens saw that, the smartest guy of them all (but still pretty dumb) said in his walkie-talkie, to that big building probably, “We need more aliens! They sent 10 more ships with about 20 more people, so that’s just about 200. It’s war.

And then it really started to happen. Then there were just about 2 million aliens, and it started to get bloody. But the alien’s blood was yellow. So just about the red Mars turned yellow Mars.

And then one of the astronauts went to go spy in that building, and when he came back, he said into his walkie-talkie, “There’s literally a machine that makes aliens. This is going to go on forever, people!!!”

Soon, Alex’s 20 men were running out of air. They had to go back into the ship, refill, and then go back out. When they came back out there were only half the amount of astronauts because they were getting air too. But they were winning. They kept destroying and destroying the aliens and then finally Alex sent himself and randomly picked 20 other astronauts, not only from his group but also the other — and then went all the way behind that big giant building. Then they broke the window, climbed in, and hid behind the machine. They didn’t want to destroy it right away because then all the aliens would know, and they didn’t have enough people to destroy all the aliens coming out of the machine.

The machine looked like a giant door — which opens and closes — and when it opened, five aliens came out at a time, each holding a gun. The sound went — brum brum brum brum brum brum brum. A smell coming from the machine smelled like rotten eggs. The first thing Alex knew they had to do was destroy the aliens operating the machine: there were five of them. Because they could make as many aliens as they wanted to. But before they almost destroyed those aliens, they saw the commander come in and say they were losing the fight, so they could turn up how many aliens were coming out of the machine. The aliens operating the machine switched it from ‘5’ up to ‘100’! And then the door turned almost as big as how tall the building was, and the aliens were floating in the air and then fell down, balanced on the ground. Then Alex knew just what to do — he shot the five, and then all the aliens started to look behind them — and then Alex took a grenade out of his back pocket and threw it at the aliens, and it kind of hit the machine and exploded. Basically all the aliens got destroyed — and the machine!

They had basically won the fight, but there were still a lot of aliens out there. And so Alex and his crew destroyed all the aliens that had survived the grenade, then they exited from where they came from and went outside to destroy all the remaining aliens. But when they went out to Mars, all the aliens were already dead, and almost all the astronauts were gone, and even some of the ships. So it was over a long time ago. There was one ship remaining for them. The 20 soldiers got on board, and they went super-speed all the way back to earth! When they got back, basically all the astronauts were waiting, and they were celebrating, and they had a secret surprise party for Alex. They had a cake shaped like a rocket ship and cupcakes shaped like green aliens, with yellow lemon flavored filling. And then they had lemonade with tequila. Meanwhile, they were sending more people to Mars to clean up all the yellow alien blood and destroy the buildings, because humans were going to build a dome up there for scientists to study Mars. The 200 men who fought the aliens went to the news tower, and they told the president of the network to put it on the news and make them famous. That night, Alex’s mom saw him on the news, and she was so proud! She messaged him to say:

Wow saw u on news! what happened??

And then Alex texted back:

It’s a looooooong story!

THE END


Leg Breaking

Once I was with my mom, sister, and dad. My sister and dad were ahead a lot. My mom and I were behind. I told my mom that I was going to run to my sister, so I waited until we were on a road, and then I ran to them. I was almost there, but I slipped and banged my knee on the bricks. There were three puddles of blood on my right knee. I started to cry. My mom hurried over. She told me that we would be home soon.

She said, “I’ll get you a Band-Aid when we get home.”

I stumbled home. I plopped on the bed and said, “Owwww!”

My mom gave me three Band-Aids because the bruise was very big and bloody. My sister gave me a Danimals drink. I felt scared. I started to cry. 

The next few days, I went to summer camp, and we had a field trip to the playground. I climbed, but fell down, and then there was a bruise on my left knee and big bloody puddles. The instructors gave me an enormous Band-Aid.

Then it was snack time. So, I sat down on a bench. There, I rested my foot and ate some pretzels and Goldfish. After we went back home, I had to go to shower, and I had two plastic bags around my knees. When I slept, I was very, very, very scared because my knee was bloody. When I touched it, it felt like I was dying, so I didn’t touch it.


Lea’s Unicorn (Books One and Two)

Book One

Once upon a time there lived a girl named Lea. She lived in Toronto, Canada. Every night Lea had always dreamed of owning a unicorn, but she was bullied at school for believing that unicorns were real.

Her friends and classmates told her things like “Unicorns aren’t real” or “You’re stupid.”

One day, Lea met a woman at a museum in a unicorn section.

“Are unicorns real?” asked Lea after the woman was done saying about Unicorn magic.

“Yes,” said the woman.

“Where do they live?” asked Lea.

“They live in Cloudymay Falls, just above the clouds you see in the sky,” said the woman.

After Lea and the woman talked for a while about unicorns, Lea eventually left and went home. When the time came when she had to go to bed, she looked up in the sky instead of falling asleep. Finally, at 12:00 midnight, she saw a big group of unicorns flying through the clouds. 

“Unicorns! Here! Right now!”

Lea ran to get her phone from downstairs and took a picture of the gorgeous sight. She could not believe her eyes! Lea wished she could meet and get a unicorn! But, there was a problem. How could she get up in the clouds? Lea had to use her creative mind right now. Poof! She had an idea. What if she could search up ‘how unicorns can use magic?’ Then, she could use magic to make her be able to fly! The next day she searched it up, hoping for an answer. Today was a great day! She followed the steps carefully and after about half an hour, she got it! The first thing she wanted to do was use magic to give her body extra rest, since she was up really long last night. With a few magic words and hoof movements (which she used her feet for, since humans did not have hoofs) she felt a lot more rested than just a few seconds ago.

“I can’t believe it!” gasped Lea.

I can use magic now! Lea thought. Now I’ll wish for a Unicorn! She tried to say the magic words, but instead of a unicorn appearing, she started rising in the air and fell down on her back.

“Ouch!” cried Lea, in pain.

She tried to search why that just happened, and she found that you couldn’t wish for unicorns. Lea thought again.

“I know!” said Lea in excitement. “I can wish to be up in the clouds, and then I can meet Unicorns there.”

But she couldn’t try right now, because she had to go to school soon. Lea got dressed, brushed her teeth, and put away her breakfast dishes from earlier. Then Lea put on her backpack, shoes, and coat and headed over to school. All day, Lea thought so much about meeting unicorns in the clouds that she could barely focus and almost couldn’t hear the teacher. Once she even got stuck in a daydream for half an hour! During recess, her friend Goldie showed her a diamond ring.

“I can control it with my mind!” said Goldie.

Lea watched as Goldie made the ring fall and fly and do loop-the-loops with her eyes.

“Wow!” Lea said, thinking even more about magic.

“I can do magic too,” she said. “Look!” Lea whispered special words underneath her breath, and then she started to fly.

Goldie was so shocked. She almost fell over.

“How — Wh-wh-what?!” Goldie cried. “You need to show me how to do that!”

Lea thought for a moment. “I would, but if I tell you how, the magic will take advantage of me and will break our friendship forever!

Lea had learned that morning as a little part of her research. Goldie quickly changed her mind and shuddered at the thought.

“Okay!” Goldie quickly spluttered. Goldie handed Lea her ring. “Would you please examine this ring for magic?” she said. “I want to see if it has any magic you have.”

Lea looked at it closely. She made sure not to miss even a speck of the ring. Lea handed the ring sadly to Goldie.

“The only magic I can find is the magic of controlling the ring,” she said, frowning.

“It’s fine,” Goldie said. “You’re a very lucky girl.”

After school, Lea went to her backyard and made sure no one was watching her. Then, she made a crystal orb appear in her hands, and, with that, Lea shot up into the sky like a rocket and landed into the clouds.

She heard unicorn noises.

“Hello!” said Lea, to a unicorn beside her. “I’m Lea. It’s a dream to meet you!” The unicorn slowly backed away. “Don’t be shy,” Lea persuaded her. “I’m a nice person, and I know what it’s like to be shy. When I was in first grade, I wouldn’t talk to anyone, not even my parents!” Slowly, the unicorn walked back to Lea.

“I’m, uh, I’m… ” The unicorn got quiet. She was now shaking. She felt like crying, when finally, she spoke up a little. “I’m Celestine,” she said, almost bursting into tears. “Sorry, I’m just a very shy person. That’s how I was created to live in this world.”

“That’s definitely okay,” said Lea. “I totally understand. I have a question. You don’t have to say yes, but it would be a dream come true if you did. Can I please own you?”

Celestine thought and thought. “Sure!” she said. “I’d love that so much!”

Lea couldn’t believe her ears! She was accepted to own a real life unicorn! Lea and Celestine flew back down to where Lea lived.

“Would you like it if I used magic to make a home in my big backyard for you?” Lea asked.

“Sure!” Celestine nodded happily. She was not at all shy anymore. She loved Lea! Lea whispered some words under her breath, and then the most magic cloudy colorful cloud house appeared in her backyard!

“O-M-G — ” Celestine paused. “Thank you so much!” Celestine flew straight into the cloud house with Lea. “This is so big, colorful, and fluffy!” Celestine giggled. “Wait — are those unicorn cupcakes?! This is the best!” Celestine cried.

“I totally agree!” Lea said.

“This is 75,000 times more fun than my house!”

“Can we both come in here whenever we want?” Lea asked, with hope in her eyes.

“Of course!” Celestine said.

The next day, Lea went to the library after school. She was reading a book called ‘Unicorns Past and Present.’ She had just finished it and put it back when she noticed a book with something glowing behind it. Lea was curious. She simply took out the book.

“Sparkles and magic, would you look at this!” Lea cried. Where the book was a pink thing that looked exactly like a portal. “I want to go in!” Lea bounced. She took a few steps back and ran straight in the portal! “Wow!” Lea said.

The portal was smooth and nice. At the end it was super bright! She got to that part and landed on a huge gummy bear! It felt like a squishy dream! Lea looked around. She saw candies of all sorts, from huge Skittles to huge lollipops, and huge lollipops to huge cupcakes!

“This is so yummy looking!” Lea said. She took a bite of a gummy bear. “Ow!” Lea said. She looked at the gummy bear. “A stick was in here!” Lea said disgusted. “Eww!” Lea found a different gummy bear and ate it. “Ah!” Lea said. “Much better!”

She used magic to make a magic phone appear in her hands. She called Celestine.

“Come to the Emerson Library and find a bright pink glowing portal” Lea said. “Jump in that, and you’ll find me!”

Celestine agreed and flew to the library and jumped straight into the portal.

“This is so smooth!” Celestine said, rubbing her hoofs against the walls of the portal. Then, Celestine came to the end, the super bright part of the portal. “Ah!” Celestine cried, falling. She landed on a cupcake.

“Celestine!” Lea said. “Nice to see you!”

Celestine looked a bit angry. She had frosting all over her.

“Want me to help you get the frosting off” Lea asked.

Celestine nodded happily. After they got off the frosting, they looked around.

“Look at those candies on the ground!” Celestine said. “I want to try one!”

Celestine picked up a raspberry gummy. So did Lea.

“This tastes kind of funny,” Lea said.

All of a sudden, Lea and Celestine turned into raspberry gummies! Then, they shot up into the sky and back in the portal.

“Why did that happen?” Celestine was confused.

Lea picked up the phone she made earlier and Googled why that happened.

“I think those were poisonous gummies,” Lea said, putting the phone away. “But we aren’t poisonous anymore.”

Lea and Celestine landed back in the library, and they both flew back home.

“This day has been so fun!” Celestine said. Lea agreed.

“I hope we have more adventures like this!”

The End!

Book Two: Lea’s Surprise

Chapter One: A Nice Morning

Lea was sitting on her couch. She was thinking about the portal in the library. I can’t believe that was only one book ago! thought Lea. It was 9:30 am, and Saturday, Lea’s favorite day of the week.

“Hey, Lea!” Celestine called from the basement, rather sadly. “Look what I found!”

Lea flew to the basement. There was a big, probably bigger than Lea, hole in the wall.

“Oh no!” Lea cried. “How did this happen?”

“Well,” Celestine said, “I was eating Cloud Cake, a food from the Unicorn world, when a big flash appeared. Then what do you know, the wall was broken!”

Lea studied the hole. Something looked odd. Very odd. Extremely odd. What was that little blue glowing thing? It started growing. Now it was inside every bit of the hole. Oh! It was a portal!

“It’s a portal!” Lea said. “Should we jump inside?”

Celestine thought, staring at the hole. “Okay,” she said.

“Three, two, one, go!” Lea said.

Celestine followed Lea.

“This portal is huge!” Celestine said.

“Oh no, aahhh!” Celestine and Lea fell from a 350-foot drop. Luckily, so luckily, of everything, including a chokie to land on, they landed on a huge cotton candy cloud.

“Thank god I landed on something so soft!” Lea said, panting.

“And tasty!” Celestine said, with a mouth full of cotton candy.

Lea wondered why the cloud was on the ground. Whatever. Lea and Celestine looked around. They looked like they were in a magical, tropical place. They saw a sign that said ‘Wavie Swirl.’

“That must be the name of this place,” Celestine said.

Lea nodded. She glanced at a castle. She read the sign beside it.

“It said something about an extremely magical and famous baby. Can we go in?” Celestine asked Lea.

“Of course!” Lea said. They walked in and went to the third floor. It said the baby would be there. 

“Who are you guys?” the baby asked. “Are you guys from Wavie Swirl? And by the way, my name is Cameron Green.”

Lea was shocked. Since she knew she lived in a book, she jumped out of it. She flipped the pages to the beginning of her own story you’re reading right now. What?! It said the author’s name was Cameron Green! She flipped back to the page she was on before she left.

“We are visitors,” Lea said. “Also, how are you in this story, but also the author of it?!”

“Long story,” Cameron said. “But, I can tell you the reason I’m so famous is because, since I can write this story in my head, I can decide my future and everything that happens in the book you and me and Celestine are in.”

“Cool!!” Lea and Celestine said together.

“Hey, um, can you make this book so that me and Celestine can go to Disney World tomorrow?” Lea asked.

“Fine,” Cameron said. “But, can I please come too?”

“Sure,” Lea said.

Celestine agreed. Then Lea and Celestine left Cameron and the magical building, and headed toward some coconut trees.

“How can we get back home and cover up the hole?” Lea asked Celestine. “I don’t want to worry my parents.”

Celestine and Lea looked around. Lea spotted the cloud Lea and Celestine had landed on. The portal to Lea’s house should be above it. They could fly up to the portal. Lea told Celestine her plan.

“That sounds unicornilliant!” Celestine said.

Lea stared at Celestine. “What does that mean?” Lea asked.

“It’s just the unicorn way of saying brilliant. Unicorn language is slightly different from humans.”

“Oh, aha. Now it made more sense. Let’s go!” Lea smiled.

They started flying toward the cloud. They hopped on it, staring closely at the swirling blue portal. “Ready?” Lea asked, grinning.

“Ready,” Celestine replied, also grinning.

“Three, two, one, go!” Lea yelled.

Lea and Celestine went shooting up into the sky. Whoops! Might have gone 100 feet too high. They tried again. Ugh! Twenty feet too low. Three’s a charm, right? Let’s hope so. Yes! Just high enough to reach the portal.

Chapter Two: A Note From Fairyland

“Hey, what’s this?” Lea asked.

In the portal, she saw a piece of paper. She picked it up. It said, This note you are reading right now is from a fairy named Ariela. And since I’m magical, I know your name, yes, Lea.

“Wow!” Lea gasped.

She continued reading, I also know your unicorn friend, Celestine.

“Osh kosh my gosh!” Celestine said. They giggled and giggled.

Then they continued. The note said, I know you two are very smart, with you, Lea, getting all fours on your report card this year. Lea blushed. I challenge you two to a very important task. I live in fairyland, as you probably guessed, but there’s a problem. Kayla, a super smart and talented fairy, just (I start to cry) Kayla just died last week. The whole kingdom is crying and really misses her. I’ve been looking at you since one book ago, Lea’s Unicorn, with my magic globe, and based on how creative, determined, sweet, and clever you are, I was wondering if you’d take her place. Please write a note back to me and drop it in the Marigold Lake, near your home. You don’t need to write any addresses, because, since that lake is magical, its magic can send the note straight to me, as long as you say Ariela, my name, at the end. Hope I hear back from you soon. Have a great day! 

“The portal is ending!” Lea said. Celestine and Lea carefully landed on the couch. “I can’t believe we get to go to fairyland!” Lea said. But. Lea started to cry. “I feel so bad for that fairy!” she said. “Poor Kayla!”

Celestine started to cry too. Then they stopped.

“We should write a note back saying that we’d love to!” Celestine said.

Lea agreed. Celestine wrote the first part.

“Dear Ariela, we’d love to hlep!”

“That’s not how you spell help,” Lea said. “It’s H-E-L-P.”

Celestine corrected herself. She continued, saying, “We need to kno- 

“The word know is not K-N-O,” Lea said. “It’s K-N-O-W.”

Celestine corrected herself and continued saying, “where FairyLand is, and if you kud –”

“You don’t spell could K-U-D, it’s C-O-U-L-D. Can I please do the rest of this so you don’t make silly mistakes?”

“Fine,” Celestine said, rather sheepish.

Lea wrote the rest of the note, ignoring Celestine. Celestine was upset that Lea had treated her like if Lea was a teacher, and that Lea was completely careless about her (or it seemed like that). Celestine tried to hold in her tears, and, since Lea was paying no attention, she opened the Wavie Swirl portal, went through, and closed it like it had been before. Not long after, Lea finished the note.

“Hey, Celestine, the note is finished!” she said. “Come! Hello? Celestine?” Lea looked around the house over and over. An hour later, there was still no luck. “Where are you?!”

Oh brother, Lea thought. She was about to cry.


Chapter Three: Celestine’s Gone Missing!

Celestine landed on the same fluffy cotton candy cloud she had landed on with Lea. She grabbed a handful, and with that, bounced of the cloud. Celestine saw a little girl, so beautiful, on a swing. Her shirt had a tag with her name, which looked like it was Candice. Celestine saw a paper beside her with her name on it. It was math she did.

She’s really smart! Celestine thought, eyeing the paper. When she looked up, Candice was smiling at her, really happily.

Are you a unicorn?!” Candice said, almost falling off the swing.

“Yep!” Celestine said.

“Can I please own you?!” Candice said, with hope in her eyes.

Celestine thought. Lea was kind of a witch to Celestine, so Celestine was glad to get rid of Lea. “Sure!” Celestine said, smiling.

Candice screamed in excitement.

“Want to visit Cameron Green?” Celestine asked.

Candice nodded, still speechless. They went up to the third floor of the building and saw Cameron, looking just as before.

“How may I help — wait — Celestine!!! You were supposed to be in the human world with Lea! I’m the author of this book, and Lea is your owner. Why did you not tell Candice you already have an owner?”

Celestine snorted. “Because — well — I’m about to reach my boiling point.” Celestine’s face turned red. “Because Lea’s a brat!”

Cameron and Candice gasped.

“That’s it,” Cameron said. “I’m making Lea appear here and controlling your mouth to tell her what you said!”

Nooo!!!” Celestine cried.

She used her magic powers to make Candice appear on her back, and they disappeared into the sky.

“This is fun!” Candice squealed.

Although, Cameron had just made Lea appear.

“Why am I here?” Lea said confused. “I’m busy. I’m on the lookout for Celestine.”

“Celestine was just here,” Cameron said. “But, she has a new owner now named Candice. Celestine said you were a brat.”

Lea gasped. “But — how?!” Lea cried. “Well then, I don’t want to be her owner anymore.”

“I can make her appear,” Cameron said.

In a flash, Celestine was standing there with Candice.

“How could you act like such a beast?!” Lea yelled at Celestine.

“Me?!” Celestine gasped. “No, no, no. I’m pretty sure you meant to say you are the beast!”

“How could you though?” Lea said.

Lea started to cry. Celestine started to feel like someone poked her in the stomach with a knife.

“I’m sorry,” Celestine said. “It’s just, you were acting like you knew it all, and you were ignoring me like a brat, and you acted like I was the dumbest person ever. I’m pretty good for someone who just learned English not that long ago!”

Lea looked sad but guilty. “I’m sorry,” Lea sighed. “I guess I was a brat kind of. I really am sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Celestine said. She turned to Candice. “With all due respect, you are no longer my owner.”

No!” Candice screamed. That was really loud! Oh. My. Goodness. The room felt a little shaky. More shaky. The floor crumbled. The walls broke. The building tilted.

Emergency escape!” Cameron yelled. “Follow me!” Cameron led everyone to a small door that hadn’t gotten damaged. It led to a big cupcake. “Jump inside!” Cameron yelled. They all jumped into the cupcake. 

“This icing is amazing!!!” Candice yelled. After breaking — and eating — through the cupcake, they landed on the nice grass.

“Phew!” Lea said. “We made it!” But the building did not. It was all in a bazillion pieces. Only about one small quarter of the building stayed undamaged. Celestine came over, sliding on a giant gummy bear.

“Who knew gummy bears could be so slippery!” she smiled.

“I want to try!” Candice and Lea yelled together.

Cameron agreed. Just a few moments later, everyone was sliding on gummy bears. Candice was going to do that too, but she ate her giant gummy bear instead. Candice was an audience member.

“Okay, guys,” Lea said. “Three, two, one, go!”

Everyone went sliding across the field. Some people even went to watch. The gummies were so powerful that they were sliding for 20 minutes.

While the race was happening, Celestine asked Cameron a question. “How are you a baby but are so talented?”

“It’s because I’m magical,” Cameron said. “I spent 20 weeks training to be ahead in my speech and abilities!”

“Oooooooh,” everyone said.

“There’s the finish line!” Lea said.

So far, Celestine was in the lead. Cameron was next, and Lea was last. Oh! Lea just got ahead of Cameron! Just before Celestine got to the finish line, Lea got ahead of her!

“Yes!” Lea said. “Good game, guys.”

“Congrats, Lea,” Cameron said as they all shook hands.

“Thanks,” Lea smiled.

Woohoo!” Candice cheered.

After they spent a little longer in Wavie Swirl, Lea and Celestine went back home.

“Today has been an unbelievable adventure!” Lea said.

Celestine nodded. “I’m so lucky to have you, Lea. I can’t believe I tried to get rid of you!”

“It’s fine,” Lea said. “I kind of deserved that.”

“Anyway, I really hope we’ll do this again!”

The End


Gummy Bears V.S. Pirates

Gummy Bear is a red gummy bear in a stinky cardboard box in the jail cell of a pirate ship. He’s thinking it smells bad and hoping he could get out. He’s inside a box with other gummy bears because they are in the pirate’s feast. The pirates are going to eat the gummy bears. They don’t know the gummy bears are alive. 

He says, “I need to get out or else I will throw a bunch of old stinky feet at you!”

The pirate says, “Those are our ancestor’s stinky feet.”

The stinky feet are in the box next to the gummy bears.

The next night, the gummy bears have a little bit of blueberry shampoo for their smelly belly buttons. They’re upset that they’re going to get eaten, but the pirates don’t like blueberry anything, so they put on the shampoo so that the pirates won’t eat them. Then, they take out their knives, and then they smash the box and get out of the box. They packed the knives. They didn’t do it earlier because they had to put on the blueberry shampoo, and you could only put it on in the gummy bear box. 

So one of the gummy bears accidentally sprains his ankle because they were trying to open the box of stinky feet, and then that gummy bear’s ankle got cardboard cut by the box. Gummy Bear does a silly and weird dance because it cures the sprained ankle. Fingernails are also inside the stinky feet box. The pirates are going to eat the gummy bears tomorrow. Mr. Burke is the rich king of the strong pirates.

Their ancestors fought an army of blueberries, and the pirates lost, so the pirates’ ancestors had to give away most of their smelly feet to the blueberries that were inside their laundry, so they gave away the laundry. 

The gummy bears see a speed boat floating next to the pirate ship, so the gummy bears climb inside it and escape.

They say, “In your face, pirates!”

THE END


The Lost Princesses

It was 10:00 am in San Francisco, and our main character, Angel, was getting out of bed and ready for the day. The sun was shining, and the birds were chirping. It was a normal day and a school day. 

“Get ready to go to school,” said Angel’s mother.

“Okay,” said Angel. She got ready, ate breakfast, and went onto the school bus.

Hey!” screamed Carol, Angel’s best friend.

“Hey,” Angel muttered, obviously embarrassed.

Angel climbed into the seat next to Carol, and they talked about random things like ads. The bus got to school, and for some reason, Kathy, the popular girl, was all by herself. 

“Why is Kathy all by herself?” asked Carol.

“Well, that is a strange sight, but to be honest with you, I don’t care all that much,” whispered Angel.

The bell rang, and everyone ran inside. Kathy walked inside slowly, looking very miserable. The teacher, Mr. Q, was confused as well because he was used to yelling at Kathy to be quiet because she talked so much in class. Then at lunch, Angel saw Kathy’s two best friends Adrian and Alison. They were talking to the other popular girls at the school, snickering and looking over at Kathy. Then Alison went over to Kathy and snatched her weave, and then Kathy went over to the bathroom crying, but who cares? Angel and Carol were eavesdropping because they wanted to know what was going on with Kathy and her friends.

Adrian said, and I quote, “I don’t know why Alison and I even hung out with her. She is so lame.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that Alison and Adrian had such high standards for friends,” said Carol.

“They are snooty, popular girls. What did you think?” said Angel.

The time passed by quickly, and it was time to go home. Carol and Angel were going to have a playdate at Angel’s million dollar mansion, because why not? They were going to play Fortnite, and Angel was going to beat Carol so hard in Fortnite. So they went to Angel’s mansion, and they started to gossip because they could. On the news it said that a chicken tornado was coming to town. Carol was running in circles because she was terrified. Angel was scared, but thought it was a good chance to get chicken nuggets. Then they heard a big bang. A chicken tornado was outside, throwing chickens everywhere. Suddenly, a strange glowing started coming from the ground, and the walls were twisting up. It was obvious that they were entering another dimension… but that’s not possible, was it? The two girls were hearing an explosion somewhere in the distance. They were in mist, seeing a strange figure coming out of the fog. Carol was obviously freaking out because she was choking for air, but was alright… somehow. Angel was in shock, but was slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and that explained where her parents were. It was a person, with long wavy hair and crystalized eyes.

“Hello,” said the strange being.

“Hello, what’s your name?” asked Carol.

“My name is Tyra, Carol,” said Tyra.

“How do you know my name?” asked Carol.

“I am the being that controls the whole earth. You can say that I’m basically Mother Nature,” said Tyra.

“Oh okay. Wait, what?!” said Carol.

“Well anyways, I am glad that I have brought you here, since the world is in danger, and I need your help,” said Tyra.

“Why our help?” asked Angel.

Well, let me tell you a little backstory,” said Tyra, doing some weird magic do to a flashback.

It was a beautiful day on Mewni, the dimension where Angel was from, and Angel was the princess of that dimension. There was a war between Mewni and another dimension called The Terror Dimension. The Terror Dimension wanted to take over all of the dimensions, starting with Mewni. Angel’s parents, Eclipsa and Dusk, sent Angel to earth so that she wouldn’t get hurt. The butler, Alfred, was actually from Mewni, and he was sent to protect Angel, since she was the princess.

A similar tale of events happened to Carol’s dimension. Carol was also a space princess that was sent to earth. The dimension that she was from was called The Blessed Dimension. The Blessed Dimension was also under attack by The Terror Dimension. Carol’s parents were named Mythil and Peridot. Carol had to leave The Blessed Dimension when she was very young. But since she was a space princess, she had super memory.

The two girls heard their backstories and were amazed with how this secret was kept from them for a super long time. Since the two girls were space princesses (which totally makes sense), for some odd reason they could remember everything, so their memories were wiped. They still had their super memories, but they were not activated for some reason.Then something random happened. The girls started to float, transforming into weird but useful space princesses. Then something magical happened. A sudden blast appeared, and Angel had a magic royal wand. It had a crystal star on it, and the star was made out of who knows what. The wand also had two devil horns on it. Carol’s wand had a heart on it, and it also had a material of who knows what. When Angel touched her wand, it glowed, and a blast came out of it. All of a sudden, there was a hole in the space time continuum. The blast of the magic wand had literally ripped a hole in the space time continuum. But Tyra quickly patched the hole up. 

“Hmmmmm… ” said Tyra.

“What?” asked Angel.

“I don’t remember the royal magic wand being this powerful. Maybe it has something to do with your persona,” said Tyra.

Carol tried to blast her wand, but it was an epic fail. A little fart noise came from the wand and a little sparkle came out.

“Hey! Why doesn’t my wand work as well as Angel’s wand?” asked Carol.

“Well it might be because of your aura and your personas,” said Tyra.

The two girls continued to practice their wand magic stuff, and Angel was doing way better at the magic than Carol. Carol was about to rage quit when suddenly a spark came from her wand. Then, when she tried doing the spell lumos — a spell that would make the tip of her wand light up, producing a source of light — her wand produced a source of light. But that fantasy only lasted about 3.1 seconds. She tried to smash her wand on the ground, but it smacked her in the head. 

“Are you okay?” Angel asked.

No! I’m not okay! My wand just hit me in the head!” she sobbed.

Carol was upset. She couldn’t deal with this. but then she had a ‘smart’ idea. The quotation marks mean that this was actually a horrible idea, but who am I to judge? I mean it’s her decision, right? Anyways, let’s get back to the story. When Angel wasn’t looking, Carol snatched her wand and tried to use it. Turned out that both wands had attitudes, so Angel’s wand sent a blast towards Carol’s face. Turned out that it was a strange but effective tickle spell. Carol fell on the floor and hit her head on… the dimension floor! Angel turned around to see Carol. 

Okay, Carol, we might be best friends forever after, but that was so rude of you,” said Angel in an obviously upset tone.

These wands are evil and corrupted!” Carol screamed. “I don’t want to do this anymore.

“Well, it is only a couple of days from now that the world will be destroyed. I guess I will have to summon another warrior to fight alongside Angel,” said Tyra, popping in from out of nowhere.

What! You can’t replace me. I am irreplaceable!” screamed Carol.

“Sorry, girl, but you are not all that!” said Tyra.

Carol had a tantrum in the corner, while eating ice cream. Where did she get it from? Nobody knows. Eventually Carol came around because I need to get back to the story. Carol actually managed to make a spark come out from her wand, without it making a fart noise.

Ahhhh! Progress!” said Carol. She actually managed to do a spell without almost blowing herself up. Then, her wand lit up, and she tried to do a powerful spell, and it almost worked. Angel was obviously determined to get the spell right, since she was always succeeding in life. Angel wasn’t really practicing her spells since she didn’t want to make Carol feel bad about her “magic abilities.” But then Angel was going to do a spell that could easily rip a hole in the space time continuum. Being the child that she was, she did the spell, and it succeeded. Tyra didn’t notice, and somehow Angel easily patched up the hole. So it turned out that Tyra did notice and gave Angel a book of spells. 

“Use this book to study, and then you’ll be ready,” said Tyra.

“Ready for what?” asked Angel.

“To save the world from The Terror Dimension,” says Tyra.

Wait a minute. You’re saying that she gets to be advanced, and I don’t?! This is an outrage!” screamed Carol.

Tyra had to seal her in a magic bubble to stop her from murdering someone. Angel was becoming more advanced with every passing moment. The wand seemed to glow more. 

“You are ready,” said Tyra.

“But what about Carol?” asked Angel.

“Well, she will have to use what she knows already to help you in this battle,” answered Tyra.

“I can train her!” blurted out Angel.

“It will be a challenge, but it’s good to take risks and stuff,’’ said Tyra.

Angel used all of her energy to try to train Carol. It had an outcome. The outcome was that Carol actually knew how to do magic. She wasn’t as good as Angel, but it would do.

“She too is ready enough to face pure evil,” said Tyra.

“Why don’t you help us out?” asked Carol.

“Well, I’m lazy. Well, good luck,” said Tyra.

Tyra started to open up a portal so that Carol and Angel could go and face the mastermind behind The Terror Dimension.

“Well, like I said, good luck.”

They went on a journey like no other. They went through galaxies, and they destroyed meteors. Finally, they made it. Well, not to the Terror Dimension, but to the entrance to the Terror Dimension. They went in. They needed a way to get past the guards, because they did not want to use their magic because they were being lazy.

“Okay, so let’s sneak past the guards by sneaking past them,” said Carol.

“That’s not a very well-thought-out plan, but okay!” said Angel.

So basically they snuck past the guards somehow. They entered the Terror Dimension, and it was horrible. There were lost spirits everywhere, and they looked lost. With all of their courage, they carefully walked to the dark castle, where the mastermind of the Terror Dimension was reigning. 

“Okay, so let’s knock on the door,” said Carol.

Before Angel had a chance to respond, Carol knocked on the door. So that was a mistake because then the guards found them out and put them in a jail cell. They escaped because they had magic, after all. The two girls that had no idea what they were getting into were about to face the evil mastermind himself. Oh and by the way, nobody knew his name, just because. Anyways, they snuck into the throne room, seeing that the ruler of the Terror Dimension was playing Monopoly, all by himself. They somehow snuck behind his throne and managed to do a sneak attack on the ruler.

Ahhh!!!” screamed the mastermind.

But somehow he dodged the sneak attack. Probably because Carol wasn’t really contributing to the spell. The mastermind was silently laughing.

“What are you laughing at!” screamed Carol.

“You girls can’t even do a spell, and you have been sent here to end my reign? Well, I’m afraid that you won’t be able to stop me,” said the mastermind.

The two girls attacked, fighting for the whole universe. Not like there was any pressure, or anything. They tried to defeat him, but the mastermind was too strong for them. Then, something happened. Angel gained spade marks on her cheeks. They lit up. Then she said a spell that she never learned before. I call the spell which has no name, created by my mother from which she reigned, I call this spell for all its power, now stand before the queen and cower. The spell had no name. 

The wand let out a big blast that made a big explosion. The mastermind was harmed a lot, but he didn’t die since this story is kid friendly. You’re welcome.

“Woah, what was that!” screamed Carol.

“Well, I don’t know,” replied Angel.

“Your mission is complete,” said Tyra, coming out of nowhere.

What!” said Carol.

Tyra explained how since Angel was in need of a really powerful spell to “defeat” the mastermind, it was something that the wand did automatically for people with a really strong persona. 

“Now what is going to happen? Will we be going to earth? Or will we be going to our own dimensions?” asked Angel.

“Well, I recommend that you stay on earth, not to call any attention,” said Tyra.

“What about these cheek marks that just showed up out of nowhere?” asked Angel. 

“The cheek marks will disappear only if you think hard enough. They appeared because of your persona. This has a lot to do with your magic,” said Tyra.

Angel thought hard enough, and then the cheek marks disappeared from her face. 

“Now I will open up a portal so that you can get back to earth. Keep practicing magic. I will give Angel some dimensional scissors so that you girls can visit any dimensions any time you want to. Just think of where you want to go, and pretend to cut the air. That’s how you create a portal. Come to me for training anytime you want to,” said Tyra.

“Okay, bye!” said Carol and Angel at the same time.

Angel made them a portal to earth. They arrived, processing what just happened. 

“Okay, so let’s study some magic. Tell me all of your magic tricks!” said Carol, like their situation didn’t affect her whatsoever.

“Okay,” said Angel.

They studied their magic, with Angel eventually getting her own indestructible training room for very powerful spells. They eventually visited their dimensions, seeing their families for the first time. 

The End


Went to the Movies

On a dwarf planet called Ceres, there was a telephone booth. No one knew how it got there. It was just there. No one used the telephone booth. The telephone booth did not want anything. Then, one day, the telephone booth disappeared. Then, there were two telephone booths. And then the scientists thought that the second one was a clone. They asked someone to volunteer to visit Ceres, but no one volunteered. Then the two telephone booths disappeared. And then they appeared with four telephone booths. The scientists asked someone to volunteer, but no one did. 

Then the four telephone booths disappeared and appeared again into eight. Still no volunteers. So they decided that they didn’t need to visit Ceres. Then one day, all the people fell asleep for five days. And when they woke up, the scientists found out that there were 128 telephone booths on Ceres. And then they fell asleep for another five days. By the end of that, there were 2,048 telephone booths.

The telephone booths stopped multiplying. Then the 2,048 telephone booths jumped off Ceres and landed on the moon. And then all 2,048 telephone booths ran to the movies. Then they went to the movies again. Then they went to the movies again. Finally, when they had seen all the movies, they jumped off and onto Earth. They got popcorn. And then they jumped back to the moon and went to the movies. They saw movies about 2,048 telephone booths. They wanted to know what the people on Earth thought about them.

Then they jumped back onto Earth and got candy. Then they went back to the moon and went to the movies. And then, somewhere in the movies, purple stuff came from the telephone booths. And then they all touched the Earth, and the people fell asleep for five days. 

And then more purple stuff came from the telephone booth and landed on Earth. The people slept for five days. And they also touched the movies. And the movies fell asleep for five days. And they also touched the moon, so the moon fell asleep for five days. And they also touched Ceres, so Ceres fell asleep for five days. 

When they woke up, they just went to sleep again for five days. One day, the telephone booths fell asleep for five days.

The scientists discovered what was really going on. The telephone booths were purple. And then, for no apparent reason, the purple color turned into purple stuff, and people fell asleep for five days. All the people in the world fell asleep for five days. And then the 2,048 people landed on the Earth, and the people fell asleep for five days. 

Then the telephone booths went back to the Earth and got popcorn and went to the movies. And then the purple stuff landed on the movies, and the movies fell asleep for five days. And the moon also fell asleep for five days. And then Ceres falls asleep for five days. 

And then the telephone booths ran out of purple stuff. And then they jumped onto Earth, and got popcorn, and jumped back to the moon, and went to the movies. And everyone else woke up and went to the movies. And then they went inside the telephone booths. And then they made a movie about telephone booths with people in the telephone booths.

And the people on Earth got popcorn and went to the moon and went to the movies. And when they watched the movie, they saw people inside the telephone booths. And then people started calling the other people on the telephone booths. And then the moon went to the movies. And the movies dropped onto Earth. And then the moon got all the movies. And then the moon bounced on Earth. And then people jumped on Earth and got candy and jumped back onto the moon and went to the movies. 

And then all the people jumped back on Earth. And then there was news about the telephone booths. And then, one day, a person touched the telephone booth, and the person turned into a telephone booth. And another touched a telephone booth, so he turned into a telephone booth.

And the 2,050 telephone booths jumped back onto the moon and went to the movies. And then 50 animals touched the telephone booths, and they all turned into telephone booths. And then 900 more animals touched them. And then 3,000 telephone booths jumped onto the moon and went to the movies. 

And then 7,000 animals touched the telephone booths, and then they turned into telephone booths. And the 10,000 telephone booths jumped onto the moon and went to the movies. And then 90,000 animals touched the booths, and then the 100,000 telephone booths jumped onto the moon and went to the movies. And then all the people and animals were gone. 

And they went on Earth and went to the movies. And after the movies, they jumped on Ceres and went to the movies. And then they filled the whole Earth with telephone boxes. And the telephone booths disappeared. And then the 100,000 telephone booths landed again on Pluto. And then they went to Earth, and got popcorn, and jumped back on Pluto, and went to the movies. And the movie was about a chicken in a spaceship that was in space, and the person was inside the egg. And then all the telephone booths fought the spaceship, and they saw a place called Earth. And on Earth, they got popcorn and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. 

They jumped back on Earth and went to a place called Writopia. And then they picked a random place, and, when they went inside, there were comics and popcorn. And they took the comics and took the popcorn and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got ice cream and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. 

And then, one day, all the planets turned into telephone booths, except Earth. And then all the planets jumped back on Earth and got ice cream and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. (Pluto did not turn into a telephone booth because it was a dwarf planet.) And then they jumped back on Earth and got purple stuff and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then purple stuff came from the movies. And everyone fell asleep for five days. 

And then they jumped back on Earth, and went to Writopia and got comic books and got popcorn and jumped back onto Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got a toilet and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then purple stuff came from the movies, and then everyone fell asleep for five days. And then they jumped back on Earth and got a potty, and then they jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and went to Writopia and got more comic books and popcorn and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got paper and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got chocolate and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. 

And then they jumped back on Earth and got a rocketship and went back to Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got beds and jumped back on Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back on Earth and got monsters and jumped back onto Pluto and went to the movies. And then they jumped back onto Earth and got markers and jumped back onto Pluto and went to the movies. And then they saw a planet that wasn’t called anything. And then they used the rocketship to jump onto that planet. And then there were 1,000 more telephone booths. And then they talked to each other all day long.

And then they got fish tanks from the planet. And then they started going to the bathroom. It took four hours. And then they saw two rainbows. And then they turned into donuts. And then they divided. Everybody got donuts. And then they got rainbow cream cheese. And then they went to sleep for one day. And then purple stuff came out of the planet, and everyone fell asleep for five days. And when they woke up, they got popcorn, jumped back onto Pluto, and went to the movies. 

THE END


The So-Called First Book of Stickman

Prologue

A note from Stickman: Hi, my name is Stickman, and I am the richest person in the world! Not to brag or anything… but today I will tell you how by going in this time machine!!! Um, guys… I said — in this… time machine.

The TV producers looked at each other. “We forgot to bring the fake time machine.”

Cue to an hour later…

Producers call, “Action!”

“As I was saying… the time machine!”

Two seconds later, Stickman ends up in his kindergarten class.

Oh, that’s why when I was little random time machines appeared out of nowhere.


Chapter One

It was a Saturday. He sees himself as a little kid trying to sell everybody Pokémon cards and gum. 

Stickman: “Yes, I was selling products since I was a kid. But I did get in trouble once or twice. Or three times. Or the whole school year… ”

All the cool kids had Supersoaker 3000’s and leather jackets. But me? Probably just wearing my Ninja Turtle’s shirt and my bag full of products. And at the end of the day, I always have a hand full of money and put them in my piggy bank! It was full of 1, 10, 20, and even 100 dollar bills! I even bet my family tries to steal my piggy bank! And that’s why ever since I was 10 years old I spent 500 dollars on a high tech laser lock and a pressure plate trap, which was later used as a chair… Anyway, that’s why my family probably hates me from the overwhelming alarm. By the time my brother goes to college, he will probably be deaf.

Speaking of college, when I was 18 I got accepted into Harvard Business School. At first I got a $1,000 scholarship, but soon enough I did magic and got a full scholarship (by scolding the school council) and started my first year. I threw away all my Pokémon products and filled my backpacks with instant coffee! I became an instant hit (soon enough I went into instant tea and instant noodles).

And no, it is not magic or anything…

Anyway, that’s when I met Centman.

Centman was a jerk. When I sold Cup Noodles, he would tell on me, then sell them himself to have less competitors. You might be asking, “Why didn’t you tell on him?” Well, my little fans, he would lie and find any way to change the topic and get me in trouble! Da da da da!!!


Chapter Two

Ever since kindergarten, this little rascal and I were put together in the same classroom.

The teachers would always say, “Ohhh, you’re best friends. You’re just debating, not arguing.”

But to tell you the truth, we hated each other. And hated each other’s guts. He was very annoying, and he was just horrible. He would always wear a beanie and a red T-shirt I didn’t like. (Sometimes I think he’s wearing the same shirt every day. Ew!) Not only that, as I mentioned for some reason we always get put to the same class every year! By the time I was in sixth grade, we both expected to be put in the same class and have the teacher say “you two are friends!” over and over again! And that is why he will always be there and haunt me… 

For example, when we were seven years old, at recess he tripped and cried, and once the teacher came to ask what happened, he told them that I pushed him even though I was like 300 feet away!!!

That’s why we hate each other. But now I think that I was the person who pushed him because I got a little carried away when I came thought the time machine… Anyway I’m not in NASA, so I don’t know how the time thing works. Oh, that’s why we hate each other… Anyway, uh, now I feel bad for him. So back to the story! But even though I did push him once, what I did to him was not even close to what he did to me. I bet if I counted the thing I did to him compared to the things he did to me, it would probably be 1 to 100,000,000,000,00,000,000,000,000,00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000,000,000,000,000,00.

You might be wondering, When is the story of how you got rich? Well, hold your horses because that story will start at the next chapter.

(Note: There will be a big prank I will do to Centman in the end. Stay tuned.)


Chapter Three

Today I am back in the present thinking of my big master plan.

So I ran to my table and put a big piece of paper and started my plan. And this is when I realized that in all of those action movies it is harder than it looks to forget everything and think of a plan. So for the next three hours I thought and I thought. In the end I came up with a bunch of lame pranks and in the end none of them worked. Oh no, I forget to tell my life story, so stay tuned.

The End… for now


Sneak Peak for Book Two. Rules: Do not tell anybody. 

Stickman: “Hi fans, I’m back and better than ever, and today is the day I will tell you the story of my life… after I drink this coffee.”

One hour later… 


“Ahhhhhhhhhh, much better. Back to the time machine.”

*This is not sponsored by Back to the Future.*

“If I can find the on button… ”

Two seconds later, he ends up at his college.

“Ah, back in the day… ”

To be continued… 


The Stolen Diamond

On a February morning, everyone was crowding, waiting for the opening ceremony of the new and only diamond shop in town. My name is Jake, and I’m the owner of the shop. I was really excited for the opening ceremony, because when I looked out, I saw a huge amount of people waiting for it to open. But then I got this feeling. I thought, If many people are here today, that means that I will have to be sure that no one will try to steal any of my precious diamonds.

On July 14th, in Napoli, Italy, I inherited a jewelry store in the city center. The store was owned by my father, who, sadly, had passed away about a week before. I was extremely sad, and yet I was happy.

I was happy that I was going to continue a business that was owned by my father. Another reason that I was happy was because I was going to have the experience of being a shop owner, which was new for me. The reason that I was sad was because it made me think too much about my father, whose name was Jake, just like mine. Well, my name is Jake the Second, so, technically, it is not the same name.

At 9:00 am the next day, I woke up, and it was my first day being the owner of the shop. I opened the doors and stepped into the store, and, far back behind the counter, I could see a small motion. I walked further into the shop — I took a peek behind the counter and saw nothing. Eh, it was probably just something that I was thinking about, I thought. When I dropped off my backpack behind the counter, I saw all of the employees walking in. After I saw the security guard walking to the front door, all of the people came flooding inside. Then I saw an employee named Ali walk to the security guard. They both whispered to each other, and then Ali walked off back to his counter. I walked to the cashier to see if there were people there.

I took a look and saw a line that went all the way to the exit. But soon I got the suspicion that someone was going to walk outside the door with a diamond, and I would not know about it. Then, I saw a guy walk out of the store with a small bag and little case. 

“Hey, security guard, follow that guy,” I said.

The guy started to run and so did the security guard. Since I was a track and field runner when I was younger, I started sprinting to the guy. We turned the corner, and I heard my voice huffing and puffing. I almost had — 

“Ah, I got you,” I said.

 I turned back and saw the security guard making his way over. 

“Call the police,” I said.

 I took a look at the case that he had in his hand and got a sudden flashback.

***

I was peeking through the keyhole in the door, and saw my dad putting one of the most valuable diamonds inside this case. He closed the case, put it inside his backpack, zipped it up, and put it in the corner of the room. Then he made his way to me, which was near the exit. I started to run away from the door. I rushed down the stairs. As soon as my front foot hit the ground, the door upstairs opened.     

***

The guy who was trying to run away from us had the exact same black case as my father. I heard the sirens of the police cars in the distance. My heart was still pounding from when I had chased the guy all the way here to where we had caught him. I knew the policemen were going to be here any second, so I grabbed the case and started sprinting to the jewelry store. I felt my heart pounding so hard, like it was about to explode. All I had to do was make it to the top room without the police getting me and asking me what the case had in it, and all these other questions. Come onnn. I am almost there. Just two more steps. Onetwo. I sat down, and apparently there was no one in the shop. Everything that I saw was getting blurry, and I felt my body falling to the ground. I put all my effort in, and I was just barely able to tuck the case under the desk.

The next time I woke up, I was in the hospital bed with a lot of doctors around me. 

“He is alive. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes,” I replied, still wondering why I was there. “Excuse me, I have a quick question. Why am I here, and what happened?”

“Okay, so this morning when one of the employees who worked at the shop was coming in, they found you laying on the floor with your clothing from the past day still on. So they called us, and now we are making sure if you are okay,” the doctor said.

“Okay.” I said, acting like I was listening the whole time.

I had this feeling in me that they had taken the suitcase and did not tell me about it. I tried to get up, but then I felt this thing that pulled all of my chest hair off. I started screaming at the top of my lungs. All the doctors turned around with a shocked face.

“Why were you moving so much? We were trying to see if your vitals were okay.”

I didn’t want to end up having to pay so much money to the hospital for nothing. Meanwhile, as the doctors were talking, I slowly detached all of the vital cords. At night, when all of the doctors were gone, I slowly got out of my hospital bed, put my shoes on, and made my way to the front of the hospital. I thought that it was going to be super easy to get out of the hospital without getting caught by the security guard, who was probably sleeping, like always. Instead, the security guard was wide awake on his phone. On the side of the desk, there was a water jar from a hookah. Somehow, I managed to grab the jar. I threw it on to the other side of the desk, where the security guard was sitting. He ran over to the glass jar. Meanwhile, I snuck my way out the exit. 

Outside, I saw a person who looked familiar smoking. I took a good look at him. Then, I suddenly realized that he was the guy who attempted to steal my father’s case. As soon as I saw the guy, I also noticed the black suitcase that looked like the one he tried to steal from me. For some reason, he still did not see me, probably because he was in the distance. I tried to creep my way up to him. I made no noise at all. When I was so close to him, my foot crunched on top of a leaf. In the guy’s hand there were some broken pieces of glass. They looked so familiar to the ones that were part of the hookah, and he also had a green tube in his other hand. I grabbed his hand. Since I was so amazing, I had pepper spray in my pocket. I grabbed the pepper spray out of my pocket, and sprayed it directly into his eyes. The guy screamed in pain and fell to his knees. 

I was still confused why he had a green hookah in his hand. I walked into the hospital to see if the security guard was there. But he was not, and not even the green part of the hookah was there. I was so confused, but then realized that it was the security guard. I turned my back to the thief and tied his arms behind him. Then, I picked him up and carried him on my shoulders to the bus, throwing him in the luggage space underneath the bus. When it was our stop, I got off and brought him to my very big house. Once we got inside, I laid him down on the couch and slapped his face to make sure he was awake — since he had passed out due to the pepper spray. 

He suddenly got up and asked, “Where am I?” 

And then I came out from a corner to scare him and said, “You’re at my house.” 

“Wha, wha, wha — I’m — what?” he asked.

“Yeah, I pepper sprayed you and then you fainted, and then I brought you here using public transportation,” I said.

“Well that’s stupid,” he replied.

“Shut up and listen to me. Now tell me why you stole that suitcase from my store, then why you attempted to run away with it,” I said.

“Because as a little child, my mom and dad would always come to the store and admire how beautiful all of the diamonds and gems were. As I got older, I realized that I could be crazy rich if I stole some of the diamonds and sold them. One day, when your father was still working at the shop, I saw him bring into his office a black suitcase that had a mold of a really big diamond. On it was labeled ‘122 carats.’ I was shocked. So when he left the store, I snuck in before the store closed and waited until everyone was gone. I went up to his office and looked for the diamond. Then when I had found it, I closed the drawer and left the store. Before I got out the store, I checked the time and I saw that it was 4:30 am. I was so tired that I sat down on the bench and fell asleep. In the morning, when the store opened, the people saw me laying down on the bench. So I went to jail for two years for committing grand larceny. Your dad, the owner at the time, got really mad at me. So I went to jail and also got banned from the store.” he said.

After a while of explaining, I finally understood everything. I eventually called the police on him and the policemen took him away. 

When the policemen were about to put him in the car I said, “I hope you have a good time in jail.”

“Ohhh I will come for you” he said. 

That night I heard the guy’s voice repeating and repeating in my head, “I will come for you.”

But after that night I was all fine.

And then I lived a happy life with no more people stealing from my shop.

The End


Trumpet

Once upon a time there was a bunny, and he had a friend. The bunny had no name. His friend was a piece of paper, who also didn’t have a name. They lived in a blanket. It was really cozy. They wanted a Trump. No one knew why. The bunny asked his parents for a Trump.

They said, “Go find coins.”

The bunny and the paper went to find coins. They went to a hill in the grass. They couldn’t find any coins. They felt disappointed. They went to tell their parents.

Their parents said, “Go back to bed.”

But they didn’t listen. They ran out, and then they started goofing around. They still wanted a Trump. They tried to find it. They went to a store, but they couldn’t find it. They went to the mall, but they didn’t find it, so they went back to bed. They felt really sad.

The end.


The Humbug

Chapter One

This is the ship that the Humbug owned. He was an immensely rich Humbug. But he was also a thief. One day, he went to the temporary bank, a.k.a. the school, to steal a high security and top secret object. It was an iPad that could hack into anything. He dodged the lasers and ran past the almost always sleeping security guards. They were called Unael and Arwen. Then he started fighting the security robots with his mega-sword. One robot, called Sam, started winning a baseball bat fight with The Humbug. (The mega-sword could transform from a giant broadsword to a baseball bat.) But suddenly, Sam tripped. And the Humbug started whacking Sam. Sam fell down with a broken robot leg. And Unael awoke and started chasing The Humbug. The Humbug ran up the stairs, and Unael ran down the stairs. The Humbug went down the stairs and went into Ms. Maverick’s classroom. He started looking for money, but then he saw animal tracks on the floor. He followed them to a slightly opened closet. Then, suddenly, a giant dog jumped out of the closet and started chasing The Humbug. The Humbug ran down the stairwell to the bottom floor. He ran into the science room. And something happened… 


Chapter Two

The Humbug started making a potion to turn the giant dog into a regular dog. When he was done, he snuck out and started looking for the giant dog. It was 1:00 when he found the dog gorging itself with the cafeteria’s leftover food. Then, the Humbug stabbed the syringe that held the potion into the dog. Instead of growing smaller, the dog grew bigger! It started charging towards The Humbug. The Humbug thought fast and threw his really cool shoe at the monster. The monster got really mad and started punching the floor, but that really hurt. The monster started punching the wall, but that hurt also. It tried to punch the ceiling but he fell over.

And it said, “I want my mommy!”

Then it fainted. Then The Humbug turned the corner and bumped into Unael, the lazy security guard. They started sumo wrestling, and backup for Unael came, such as 909 S.W.A.T. teams and 101 C.I.A. agents. The S.W.A.T. teams were waiting outside. The C.I.A. was wrestling The Humbug. The Humbug epicly defeated every single S.W.A.T. officer and C.I.A. agent. 

Then The Humbug started running. He jumped over everybody and punched and kicked every security guard that wasn’t already knocked out. Then he jumped into his hover car and drove into the skies. He drove to Fez, Morocco and landed in his private airstrip. Then he took off his cool burglary suit and changed into his awesome auction suit. He drove to the auction house. He owned it. Then he sold every single object that he stole from the school, whether it be pencil or bills each worth 9,999,999 for $9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999. People bought the bills because they worshipped Bsmzzcd, the god of no money. After 100 years, 9,999,999,999,000 S.W.A.T. teams and 1,000,000 military police officers besieged The Humbug’s mansion. But The Humbug sumo wrestled every officer to the ground. Then he lived happily ever after. Until he died.

To be continued… 


3041

Chapter One

Alleyville, L.A. Year 3041

It all started when you got to school. You practically dropped your e-book when she told you. 

***

It was a normal morning. You had gotten up, told the computer a quick good morning, and went into the kitchen. But, that day, nothing had felt right. It was quite foggy out, unlike the normal sunny LA weather. You shoved some dry cereal with milk down your throat and headed into your room to get dressed. 

“Benny, clean my shirt.” The washing machine whirred.

(Benny was your computer.)

You slid on your newly clean shirt and some jeans.

You then hopped on your flypod and headed over to school. On the way to school you met up with your friends. One of them had a mischievous smile on her face — your friend Abby. She had been your friend since kindergarten, but you had recently drifted apart when she had started to become popular. When you got to school, Abby’s mischievous smile got bigger. When you were getting your ebooks from their ports, you looked at your friend, and her face looked like she was about to pop!

Finally you turned around and said, “Okay, what do you want to say?!”

She released her smile and said, “You know how everyone and everything is microchipped, right?”

“Yes,” you said.
“Well, my brother and I found an artifact from way back from 2017!” she squealed. You gazed at her in amazement.

“It’s called the iPhone X, and you can only see the person you are calling on the screen. Unlike now, the person is virtually standing there!!”

While you were getting your head together, Abby was ranting on and on about how she was going to have a party and everyone could see the phone.

While the school day droned on, you kept thinking that the police might find out. You are the person who always worried about grades and getting in trouble.

Finally, the day ended, and you went over to Abby’s house. You still felt a little unsure about having the phone without permission. Not even an adult knew about this phone! If the police found out, Harvard would not be happy. Once you had arrived, Abby let you know that she and her friends had decided to make a video to sell the phone to collectors on eBay, and she wanted you to film it. You took out your phone and clicked camera and started filming:

“I found an iPhone X in my backyard. It is retailing on ebay for 7.5 billion dollars. All the apps are in perfect condition and the settings work fine,” Abby said.

You and her friends all took a close look at it. You were all amazed as you scrolled through all of “Allison’s” old texts from 2017. You then heard a siren. The police were coming. You all ran into the closet, hiding the phone. The siren came closer and closer. You felt like the world was going to end. Abby was the popular girl. She would always take easy classes so she could get straight A’s without even cracking a textbook. All the teachers liked her and even got her special gifts when no one was looking. Unlike you, who would always be worrying about your grades and projects and things like that. 

But at this moment — no, you were not worried about your grades. You were worried that you would not be able to go to an Ivy League college! Harvard would never accept a criminal. Unlike everyone hiding in the closet (where the police would obviously find them), you hid Abby’s dads bathroom cabinet. As the sirens neared even closer, you thought you were going to faint. A few seconds later, you heard the police knock down the front door. Your heart was thumping so hard, you thought the police officers in the other room might hear it! You heard screams, shouts, and all your friends plead for their lives.


Chapter Two

“Is this all of you?” the police officer said sternly.

In your best friend’s best strong voice, she said the dreaded… “No!!! The person who brought the phone is in the other room!” 

You thought you were going to die. You heard the police push down the door to her dad’s room. Haven’t they ever heard of opening the door normally?! Anyways, you had to escape. For Harvard, you thought, for Harvard. Like a snail, you crept out of the cabinet, you slowly climbed on top of the toilet, and you opened the window. You looked down. Thank goodness her house was not a tall building. You slowly slid out of the house and delicately hopped into the backyard. What you didn’t realize was that the living room window (where everyone was) overlooked the backyard. 

There she is!!!” you heard a voice say.

You turned around to see four of the cops scrambling out of the door frame. You rolled your eyes and took out your phone and had it make a teleport and you stepped into it. Your world soon turned into a wavy black and white picture. Everything lost its color. Everything came into a wavy type of form. You waved obnoxiously at the cops, and seconds later you regretted it. 

You landed in a forest. Your watch told you that you were located in the Davy Crockett National Forest. Great, this was about an hour away if you took a flypod. You rolled your eyes. With today’s technology, it would take a snap of a finger. You were walking around for a few minutes, and then you heard a whirring noise. You looked up. Against the sapphire-blue sky, you saw a camo looking helicopter. The deafening noise of the helicopter soared above you. So they invented a talking toilet, but not a helicopter that does not have an ear-splitting noise? Sheesh. You ran so briskly that the S.W.A.T helicopter had to wait a few seconds before chasing after you. The wind blew around your ears, and they turned as red as a stop sign. At a quick glance you saw what looked like a tent and got a whiff of what smelled like beef soup. It smelled out of this world amazing. You glanced up to see the S.W.A.T. team was gone. A notification popped up on your watch. 8:08. Your stomach rumbled. It would have been so nice to have some dinner around now. You turned around to see all of these tents in a horseshoe. Just looking at it made you starving. You made the decision to go into the group of tents. You walked into the horseshoe of tents and knocked on one of the tent flaps.

A kind looking old lady greeted you with a not-so-subtle: “Who are you!!!” What seemed like her sons came running towards you. They were both wearing two rings in the shape of a skull. Their dirty hands came closer and closer to your face. They reeked of old cabbage and turnips. In a moment that was completely unlike you — who was usually meek and little — you slapped them both in the face. 

Never touch me without permission!” you yelled. This made their faces turn red and embarrassed. The grandma soon shoved her boys behind her and welcomed you into her tent. 

Before you could make out an answer she said, “Excuse my boys, they can be rowdy.” She reached into a gold box of tea, pulled out a travel cooker, and started to boil some water and took out some eggs. She took out a pan and said, “Fried or scrambled?”

“Fried please,” you replied.

She cracked an egg over the pan. The egg sizzled and bubbled over the pan. She motioned for you to sit down on a tiny velvet cushion. Her two sons sat behind her and as she flipped the egg over the tea kettle whistled. You quickly ran over to the kettle and poured the steaming hot water into the mugs she had laid out. She thanked you and turned back around. You sat back on your cushion. She sprinkled in some peppers, cheese bits, and onion into the omelets. The smell danced under your nose. As she placed the last omelet on the plate, she smiled at the delicious smelling food. 

“So, what brings you to these parts?” the lady inquired. She brought over the plates, and before you took a bite of the delightful looking omelet, you answered.

“It’s a very long story,” you said. You stared down at your plate. 

“Tell me,” she said. So then you sighed and told the whole story including the flypod, the phone. Through the whole entire story all she did was nod. 

At the end of the story, she glanced at her boys and said, “Well, some of my kids are looking for a friend. They are really lonely. You see, us backpackers are always traveling, and we could always use a fourth addition.” You felt your face turn red. You obviously wanted to say no, but you didn’t want to hurt her feelings. 

“Sorry,” you said. “My mom is very protective about where I go.” She hardly let you go to sleep-away camp. You forced a quick smile.

When she turned around to tend the stove, you exhaled. How were you going to get home, clear your name, and blame all the other people and tell them the truth?! Later that night, as the kind lady propped a pillow over the sleeping bag, you put your watch to vibrate for 4am.

4AM… 

You groaned as your watch vibrated. You rolled over and threw on your checkered Vans and sweatshirt. You slowly unzipped the tent’s flap and headed out. You walked for around 20 minutes and then stopped to check your watch: 4:21.

As you turned your head around, you heard, “Put your hands in the air in the name of the law!!!” the officer yelled through the microphone.

He sent down a ladder, but as he could tell by the look on your face, you yelled, “Nope! Not today, bro!

You ran as fast as your feet could take your. The helicopter followed you as you ran. He yelled in the microphone more and more about how he was going to catch you, so you gave in and climbed up the helicopter’s rope. But, as you were halfway up, you realized that this was not a cop helicopter. Instead of the camo pattern, it was covered in graffiti. You jumped off of the helicopter and into a tree. Behind the fake helicopter was a SWAT helicopter. You waved your hands in the air, and that somehow got their attention. 

The next day… 

As you stepped out of the chamber that you were kept in to get to the courtroom, you dusted off your now clean Vans that you spent all night trying to clean, along with your lifeguard sweatshirt. Twenty minutes before you had braided your hair. All of this was because you parents were going to be there, and they always knew you as smartie and a good girl. As you entered the courtroom, they handed you a paper. It talked about how to address the court. Your throat started to hurt. As you looked around, you heard a familiar laugh. You whipped your head around so fast your two braids slapped your neck. You saw all of your friends who were at the party. They all looked so confident that they were going to convince the judge that they were just innocent little girls when they were really annoying little brats. While the judge was talking, they all had their heads down in their phones. They took you out of the cage and into a seat — and you remembered to look straight at the judge when talking to him and say “your honor.”

“Order to the court, order to the court please,” the judge said.

He had gray hair, but was balding and he had a very raspy voice — he looked like he was a grandpa. He looked at you with a smile that said, ‘you’re going to win.” For once, you felt your heart be warmed again.

The judge looked at the other side of the court, at the other girls, and then looked back at your lawyer and said, “Proceed.”

Your lawyer had been assigned to you. She had blonde hair and freckles, and had a strict face.

Her name was Rachel, and she stepped forward and told the judge, “My client would like to tell her part of the story, if this pleases the court.”

You stood up from your seat and found yourself saying, “Your honor, our world is being watched over by the government. So much so that each person has to have a microchip implanted in their hand. Now, I’m not saying that it’s stupid that our government wants to watch over us. But, what I think I did wrong was to let my head take me places. Meaning that I let my head tell me to go to the party where the phone was held. Now, let me point out that I was not the person who brought the phone. It was Abby Lee-Ann Diaper!”

Abby’s face turned bright red. She stared so hard at you, you could swear she would have thrown daggers if she had them. Her mouth looked like she was about to yell at you so hard that it was going to knock down the whole entire building. She was about to say something, but her lawyer put his hand over her mouth. He whispered something to her parents, who were sitting in the row ahead of her. Her face turned even redder. Her face was now the color of flames. 

You felt a smile creep onto your face, but you quickly realized that it was better to keep to yourself. You turned your face forward towards the podium. Your lawyer stood up to speak and your mind started to wander. You started to imagine that you won the case, but everyone still decided to hate you. You groaned and turned your head back to the judge, who was still rambling on about how the government made the decision to have every single living thing microchipped (including smart-things).

Minutes later, while the judge was getting more and more off topic, you shook your head. You had been here for hours.

While the judge was getting water from his cup, you stood up and said, “May this please the court, for I have something to say. I think that we are getting a little off topic. May we please resume to the case?”

The judge turned his head at you with an annoyed glance. 

“Well, we have been talking here for two hours,” he said, “and you are the cause of this case.” 

Your hands rolled up into fists. Your face turned bright red. You looked at him straight in the eye. 

“Don’t give him what he wants,” your lawyer said.

Your face turned into a sly smile. You remembered your mom always telling you to not yell at your brothers when they would annoy you. You started thinking about what to say to the judge. This could be an opportunity, you thought.

“Well, me being the cause of the case is a little off,” you said.

Then you pulled out your phone and clicked on your photos. The judge gave you an odd look. You clicked on the recent category and started scrolling through to find pictures from the party. Your eyes lit up when you saw a video from the party. The video was you filming Abby talking about how they found the phone. 

“Perfect!” you murmured under your breath. You then went up to the judge with your phone in your hand.

You tapped your finger on the phone and the video started to play.

“I, Abby, found an iPhone X in my backyard. It is retailing on ebay for 7.5 billion dollars. All the apps are in perfect condition and the settings work fine.”

And then the video ended.

Later… 

Saturday, June 19, 3041

You woke up the next morning feeling refreshed with all the stress off of your shoulders. You were in your room. Not in a forest with a bunch of backpackers. Not in a jail cell or in a courtroom. You turned over to grab your phone from your nightstand and swiped up on your phone screen. You frowned when you saw the wallpaper on your phone, with all of your friends from the party. You quickly went to settings and changed your wallpaper to a picture of you and your camp friends. You smiled as you rolled out of bed. Your parents were already out of bed, making what you liked to call a “guilty breakfast.” The smell did what felt like cartwheels under your nose. 

The End

A Bad Day (Kinda)

Tom, Steve, and Bob were driving a car. But the gas ran out in three seconds. So, Bob went to get money.

“Bob is dumb,” Tom said.

He took some quarters out of his pocket, filled the tank, and both of them took off in the car. Steve was dumb too. Let me tell you why.

“Let’s run this cliff,” Tom said.

What do you think happened? They missed by 300 feet.

Presenting… the three stories about Tom, Bob, and Steve… 

So, Steve came along, crashing with Tom because he thought Tom was stupid. Anyway, Tom went back to the garage to see what was happening to Bob. But when he got there, all he saw was an armored truck with a heavy machine gun or a four-DC Tri-blaster rifle. He didn’t know which one.

“Hey, Tom,” said Bob, “I pickpocketed a rich dummy who was smoking.”

“Gimme that money!” said Tom.

Steve came to see what was going on. “What are you doing?” Steve said.

Bob literally crushed Tom and rolled away.

“Let’s team up,” said Tom.

So Tom and Steve bought a wrecker truck and sped up to the heavy truck and burned a tree so that Bob couldn’t get away.

“Hey,” said Bob.

“Stop trying to burn my… Boom!”

“Wrong type,” said Tom.

“Sorry.” Steve smiled.

Tom was actually trying to invent a potion that would blow up anything and was called a super TNT. It would have been able to blow up Bob’s truck, except for a tiny problem. How do you get into Bob’s truck? So Tom tried to use his brains, but he ended up getting blown up and flew into Steve who went driving like crazy, and literally died. 

Meanwhile, Bob entered the story. Tom and Steve bought a car with the money Tom stole when he head-dived into Bob’s truck (thank goodness) and made a run for it. They drove all the way into the city. Just then, the car ran out of gas. So they ran to the police office and busted the safes to steal the money so they would strike it rich. Meanwhile, the villain enters the story. Officer Thug went inside and saw Tom and Steve.

“What is going on here?” he said.

He was a regular person and a skilled officer. So Tom and Steve were locked in jail playing with VR goggles. Since Tom and Steve had snuck into college, they were also fumbling with potions. Tom was making a poison potion to kick the guards in the butt. And Steve was trying to make a hole in the cell. First, Tom enchanted a bow and shot both guards in the butt. Steve invented a chain saw and sawed through the whole cell.

“We are free!” said Tom and Steve.

And they rushed out of the prison. Tom got an enchanted diamond sword and armor. They were in Minecraft! (They were in it all alone.) Tom went to rob some clothes because there weren’t any cops around now. Tom head-butted some dudes.

“Hey, I found a good place to make a house,” Steve called out to Tom.

It was an old castle. They gathered up their trusted team and fixed everything up. Soon, it looked awesome and even had an epic potion room. Tom and his friends were bombing other cities and crushing enemies they didn’t like. They burned cities until they rusted. Soon, they were making complicated potions and enchantments. Tom was the engineer, and Steve was the leader. Everybody was alive and had everything they needed, so they all were wise and kind of strong.

THE END!


Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows

Prologue

Hi. My name is Rebecca Rainbow. I am a rainbow, if you’re curious. I hate pink fluffy unicorns. Oh, you don’t know why? I’ll tell you.

I was out one day, settling another argument between Sally sun and Randy rain (the sun, Sally, and the rain, Randy, are my best friends) when my pink fluffy unicorn friend asked me to dance. We did, but then she started dancing on me! Then all the other unicorns started dancing on me! And that is why I hate pink fluffy unicorns.


The Story

I stomped home. I decided to talk to my dad about how the pink fluffy unicorns had danced on me.

“Dad?” I called when I got home.

My dad immediately popped up when he heard what I had to say. I soon discovered that this had been happening to other rainbows, and now they were ticked off. Since my dad was a senator in Rainbow Republic, he could recommend declaring war on pink fluffy unicorns.

I was so excited!!! My dad had said that the president of Rainbow Republic had agreed to declare war on pink fluffy unicorns. I had my heart set on joining the war against pink fluffy unicorns, but I would have to convince my dad first.

I was home after hanging out with my friends, Sally and Randy.

“I have something to tell you, Dad.”

He asked me what it was.

I told him that I wanted to join the war against pink fluffy unicorns.

“No way!” he screamed. “It’s much too dangerous,” he added in a quieter voice.

Fine, I thought. I’ll go to war myself.

In the morning I woke up early so I would have time to disguise as a man and run away to war. I got on all his armor and grabbed his color gun, then slinked out of the house and over to the battlefield. 

Battle was not dangerous for rainbows, unicorns, and other magical things. Us rainbows used classic color guns, which pink fluffy unicorns hated, because they did not have sparkly pink. Pink fluffy unicorns used sparkle guns, which irritated rainbows like me. 

Today was the first day of battle!

Sorry. My hands are so tired it takes a while to switch from one letter to the next. I never knew how tiring shooting Dad’s color gun would be!!! It was so not my size. I was also covered in sparkles!!! Those pink fluffy unicorns had their guns loaded!

I don’t think I liked this fighting so much. I was pretty sure that the only thing that was pushing me on was my hate against pink fluffy unicorns.

Wow!!! Something amazing happened. I met a human girl named Amber, and she was fighting on the rainbow’s side. Turned out that humans were great fighters. The battle went great. We won the war!!! The only thing that went wrong was that this horrible girl named Rebecca Hills joined the pink fluffy unicorn’s side. She was almost as good as Amber! Luckily, the classic color guns drove her away. But Amber would still have to deal with her. I thought I’d try to help her.

The End


Unicorn Academy

Hello, my name is Cornpuf, and I am a pink fluffy unicorn. After being banned from Rainbow Republic — my original home — forever, we started a new life in the sun, since we had to get as far away as possible from the rainbows. Thanks to our shield-protected ship and our super power sun gear, we landed safely, so now we all lived inside a giant bubble that stretched up to six miles, so as you could imagine, it was pretty crowded here. We struggled to survive and ate whatever we could find, even broccoli. Bleh, we hated broccoli, but even with that we still had to go to school. It was called Unicorn Academy. Since we planned to get revenge on the rainbows one day, all of our classes involved skills. They were all taught by Rebbeca Hills’ family even if she was no more.

 Staff

  1. Defense Against Rainbows: Professor Reea Hills (little sister) 
  2. Color Gun Use 101: Mr. Hills (dad) 
  3. Unicorn Heroes and Heroines: Ms. Hills (mom)
  4. Surviving Life on a Different Planet 302: Mr. Alex Hills (little brother)
  5. Surviving a War: Mr. Aron Hills (uncle)

See what I mean? Anyway Professor Reea was really nice and so was Ms. Hills, but Mr. Hills and Mr. Alex were a little sharp, and Mr. Aron was really fun. Today Professor Reea Hills’ lecture was about the properties of hitting the unicorn way.

“You cross your arms, then release and punch,” she said. Then she told us how to blend in with rainbows and some new words, like pharaoh. Yeah, it never hurts to learn human words.

O-M-G! Today I got excused from Mr. Aron’s class to go to the principal’s office. I was totally paranoid that they discovered that I cheated in my How to Kick a Human’s Butt test, but no, the case was they had a secret mission for me tomorrow. At midnight, when everyone was sleeping, they would send me in a rocket and disguise me as a rainbow (all the humans love them) to another planet which I would investigate and see if it had all we needed.

Today I landed in Star Statues. Oh boy, I landed in the middle of Rainbow Republic, and I didn’t know how to get back. Ugh, there was also Rebbeca Rainbow’s new book on the shelf. She was such a show-off.

It was called “Encyclopedia of Rainbow Republic.” Yeah right, as if she knew anything, and I bet she didn’t mention what the poor pink fluffy unicorns had endured! She started the war, and I was going to end it. It was not our fault we were addicted to dancing on rainbows.


Journey to the Rest of the Universe

My name is Universe. I like the possibility of infinity. Infinity means the highest number possible, which I like to say means anything is possible. I like that anything is possible. My favorite class is science. Anyway, my journey started one day after a long, boring day of school. I was talking to my friends.

Suddenly, the science teacher popped up and said, “Universe, the U.S. wants a kid to go to space, and I thought about you.”

This was the chance of a lifetime.

I said, “Of course!”

The very next day I went into the rocket.

I heard them say, “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, blast off!”

Next, I went to look at my suit. It was a smaller, newer version of the other suits. The other astronauts helped me put it on. It was a little bulky, but otherwise comfortable. It was hard to get up once you fell down in it. When we finally got up to the moon, I went in space for the first time! When I first stepped on the moon, I fell because of the lack of gravity. After that, I grew accustomed to the gravity, and didn’t fall again.

I asked, “Can we go to the rest of the universe?”

They laughed and said, “Can we? I don’t think we are allowed to do it, Universe.”

They were being really weird, but I expected that. What else should I expect from grownups? If they expected me to put up with them, I would jump out the window. I wished that grownups wouldn’t be so weird. I did jump out of the window. It was fun. I climbed in and jumped out a couple more times. I had a jetpack with me. I liked the jetpacks best. You could steer them, and mine gave you candy, roasted marshmallows, and s’mores. I loved space because you feel like you could do anything if you could breathe in space. I started to go to the sun. Soon, I shifted it to heat protection, and a suit of fire appeared to shield me from the heat.

“Yahoo!” I yelled when I flew to the surface.

I wished that I could do that again and again and again. Instead I explored the sun. Through the suit, I could see the light and heat particles. They were so full of light that I couldn’t believe that on Earth you couldn’t see them. I could’ve stayed there for hours and hours, but I had to leave almost too soon. I wanted to see more particles. The particles were much better than the weird grownups. I wished that I could stay there forever, but too bad that I couldn’t.

Suddenly, I heard something say, “Hello.”

I nearly wet my pants. It was an alien. It looked surprisingly human, but no other human has gone to the sun. It was weird, but it wasn’t something from the weird grownups because they weren’t that smart. (For the grownups that are reading this, yeah, I really said that, but it’s true. Grownups are naturally stupid and weird.) It wasn’t that surprising, because I’d seen many crazy things. I went to Mercury to see if I could make another remark about grownups being stupid. There were a lot of craters, but I didn’t even need my fire protection. I found a lake of good drinking water. This was proof that grownups were not that smart after all. They were easy to fool. Their robots had a lens that made them see a desert. They were very gullible. I wished teachers were that gullible with homework. Actually, I take that back. They forget that they’d given it and they gave more. Now, grownups couldn’t deny that. They should go to jail. It certainly was a crime to abuse kids with homework. Abuse was a crime! They couldn’t deny that, could they. Recesses were abusively short, and school was abusively long. There were twelve months in a year, and there were ten months of school. Horrible! Why weren’t there six months of school and six months of vacation. That was also abuse. I went next to Venus next to clear my mind of grownups. Venus helped. It only helped because Venus was so boring. Or maybe because nothing ever happened. Wait! That’s just the same thing.

Next, I went to Mercury. At Mercury, I had a close call. Grownups were there, and for all I knew, they were still there. I decided to play a trick on them. I danced in front of them and put blindfolds on their faces. They were probably still swiping at the air. It reminded me of my friends doing my boring homework. At home, I spent my time reading or exploring. At least I brought my books. I still liked the Harry Potter books. The people at home thought that I was crazy to like books. I didn’t miss them at all. I definitely didn’t miss the homework. I hated homework, but who didn’t?

Next came Venus. It was very, very hot. You thought the sun was hot? Go to Venus! I was protected, so I wasn’t affected, and neither were the aliens. They were made of fire. (They also agreed that grownups were too much trouble.) They could talk and do everything that humans could do, as well as the things that they couldn’t. They were good friends, so we kept in touch.

I went to Neptune next. It looked cold, and it was just as cold as a snowstorm, but without the wind and snow. Those aliens were made of ice. Their sad, surprised faces reminded me of my teachers when they realized that I hated their classes. It just showed how crazy grownups were. I didn’t want to think any more about grownups. The aliens gave me drawing paper, since I left mine at home. I drew croctupuses and illigels for them. A croctupus was an octopus and a crocodile. An illigel was a lion, a snake, a butterfly, a cat, and an elephant.

I visited the rest of the universe next. It was really hard to go to another solar system. You had to run through the portal before it disappeared. It took me eight tries to make it. I visited a planet that I named Planet Chocolate because it was made of chocolate. As soon as I bit off a piece, it grew back. There were chocolate aliens. Everything except me was made of chocolate. The aliens gave me a bucket of everlasting chocolate. It was the best planet.

Next, I visited Planet Cheese. It was made of cheese, stinky cheese. I held my nose the whole time without even visiting the aliens. Then, I visited Vanilla Planet. It was made of vanilla. Of course the aliens were made of vanilla. They gave me a bucket of everlasting vanilla. I was pretty sure that Cheese Planet was the only disgusting planet. Next up, Vegetable Planet. I made a mistake. That was a disgusting planet. I spent about two seconds there. I hoped that the next planet would be better, and it was! It was Cotton Candy Planet. Yummy! They gave me a whole box of everlasting cotton candy. After that, I went to Lollipop Planet. The lollipops were delicious. I loved the chocolate lollipops. I got a lot of lollipops. Next, I went to Eclair Planet. It was one big eclair. It had a lot of cream. I got so many everlasting eclairs. I loved it! Next up, Macaron Planet. It was made of chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and so much more. The best part of each planet was getting the everlasting candy. After that, Ice Cream Planet! That was the best planet yet! There were so many flavors! I took most things from there. Then came Cookie Planet. That was a flat planet. It was a giant chocolate, chocolate chunk, sugar cookie. When I got my loot I started eating the everlasting cookies right away. They all smelled fresh, right out of the oven, and so did the planet. I couldn’t help it. To stop my mouth watering, I went to Planet S’more. (I didn’t want to offend them.) I thought that this solar system should be called the food solar system. Though Planet S’more was so mouthwatering, it was the best planet ever! The marshmallows weren’t too dark or too light. They were toasted to perfection. The chocolate wasn’t too syrupy or too hard.

Next, I went directly to Planet Fruit. It had all kinds of fruit. All of the fruit was in season all year long. The fruit that they gave me would never spoil, and it was everlasting fruit. After that came Planet Gummy. Everything was made of gummy. Yummy yummy! Hey! That rhymes. The people were even made out of gummy. It was the first planet I had gotten up the courage to talk to the aliens.

“Hi,” their leader said, “You are the first visitor. Sorry it looked deserted. We were afraid a grownup had come.”

“Nah, grownups aren’t that smart,” was my response. “Don’t forget that.”
“Won’t,” they promised.

Then, suddenly, a little boy asked the leader, “She help us?”

“With what?” I asked.

“With war.”

“A war with who?” I asked.

“With Bob,” they said.

I screamed. Bob was the name that struck fear in everybody, everytime, everywhere.

“Is he the B… B… B… Bob?” I stuttered.

“Bob. Real Bob.”

“I’ll help,” I said, trembling.

I soon learned that Bob put the poison in the gummies food that prevented them from growing back when bitten into. After that, he bit them. That was why they were scared. Bob was a grownup. Now do you see why I was so prejudiced against them? And it was not just Bob. It was all of them. Teachers especially. The homework. Anyway, enough about grownups. We would have a war across the galaxy. We would beat the legendary Bob. I just thought of something.

“Bob and his accomplice?” I asked.

They answered, “Bob accomplice.”

Bob’s accomplice was Pink Fluffy Unicorn. The last time they were heard from was when they danced on rainbows. They were brave. Very brave. I wouldn’t dare fight Bob. I was crazy. So were they. We were going to warn the other planets. They wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe they would help. I did it. The other planets would help. We had an army. We would beat Bob!  Bob fought with boxes of textbooks. Scary. We fought with everything we had. I nearly got hit! We were beating him back. We saw him wetting his pants.

Suddenly, he shouted, “I surrender!”

We won! The shout we gave was so loud that we fell.

We shouted, “We beat Bob! We beat Bob!”

After, I asked, “Can I move to S’mores Planet?”

The answer was, “Yes.”

The End


Afterword

I wrote a letter:

Dear Mom and Dad. I live on S’mores Planet. I will never do my homework or brush my teeth. Or brush my hair. If you care. I most certainly don’t. Just in case.

Love, 

Universe


The Mom and the Sweetie and the Dad

First, the mom was getting food for the little girl. Then, Dad was fighting with Mom.

The little sweetie turned off the lights of the kitchen, and then she put the lights back, and she said, “Stop, don’t do that.”

Then the sweetie put the dad back in his own room and her mom in her own room. And then they went to sleep, and there were bad guys coming in from the pool door. The family woke up, because the bad guys opened the door and hid behind the door. The family came down and saw the bad guys hiding behind the door, one in the mom’s room and one in the dad’s room. And then another bad guy came, and he was behind everyone in the whole family and even the little girl. He tapped everyone’s toes. Then there was a small bad guy the size of the little girl, but he had more big numbers on his head, and that meant how old he was. The number was 20 because he was 20 years old. Then another one came from the little girl’s room and went in front of the people, and then they looked behind, and they counted how many bad guys that were there. There were seven. They stole all the toys from the little cat, and the mom was letting the cat play with her toys from when she was a little girl. And then they went under the bed with the toys where they played. The bad guys were trying to find the cats, and they went on top of where the beds were, and then those bad guys didn’t find those cats, but only the toys. But they didn’t look like the same thing because one of them had pointy teeth, so they took all the toys out of their bags and gave them back to the cats. They didn’t find the cats, and they thought they went to the bathroom, but they weren’t there, and they checked in the bathtub, and they didn’t find them under the bed anymore. The cats ran downstairs and bit one of the bad guys and then bit all the bad guys. That made the bad guys go away. The family called the police.

The little girl said, “Hello? A bad guy came into my room.”

And then she gave the phone to her mom. The police caught the bad guys.


The Rabbit and Her Mom

There is a baby bunny named Lucy, and her mom is a bunny named Urwut, and her daddy’s name is Simon. Lucy wants a baby sister to take care of like a mom. She’s going to try to wish for her mom to get a baby. She is going to wish to herself, and then maybe her mom will get a baby. Then she can be the older sister, and then she will have a baby to take care of, like her mom. 

She imagines they will work together, play together, do fun stuff together, and even help, like if she can’t reach stuff, Lucy can reach, because she’s a big sister. She goes to a place where if you wish for something, it will come true. It is at West Side East. It’s called University Come True. Lucy has to come through the bushes, through the park, and through her house. Her friends are trying to get her to play with them, but she just moves away. Even when they do something, nothing will bother her at all. She’ll just look back, and go on. 

Finally, she arrives to University Come True. It looks like lots of people are wishing because they want to have something that they don’t have. She goes to University Come True without her mom looking. Her mom says she is going to sleep for 20 hours because she’s so tired that then she’ll wake up in the afternoon. She thinks, That’s so good, because then, tomorrow, I can have a baby sister, and Mommy would not even notice that I went out to University Come True.

University Come True is a big place, and there’s a king and a queen, and they’ll answer you and then tell you if they can do that or not.

Lucy says, “I wish I had a baby sister so I could act like a mom, and I don’t have one, so can you please help me to have a baby sister to take care of?”

The king says, “I can help with that, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl. If it’s a boy, then don’t get mad because I know you want a girl, but it doesn’t mean that you get mad. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”

Lucy says, “Okay, but if it’s a girl, then you give me all your money. If it’s a boy, then I give you all my money. That’s a deal.”

He says, “Okay, that’s a deal.”

Then she goes home.

She says, “Yay, yay, now my mother’s not even going to notice. I’m going to pretend to be asleep, and she won’t even know that I went outside. But first I need a set-up. I need to get my sweater and my coat and make it look like I am sleeping, and then when she wakes me up she won’t even notice that I went outside.”

The next day her mother is like, “I have a baby in my tummy. I need a doctor. Go call a doctor!”

Lucy says, “Okay.”

The doctor comes, and Lucy has a baby sister!

Then she goes to University Come True, and then she tells the king, “I got a girl, so now you give me all your money.”

He says, “Ugh. It’s not fair, but whatever it is, I can’t get upset because I can’t act like a perther, which is a bad person. Okay, here’s all my money.”

The king is angry that she has a baby girl because he doesn’t want to give her his money. 

Then she leaves home and tells her mom, “You didn’t even notice when I left the house for 24 hours. I went to University Come True, and I said to the king that I want a baby sister, and my mom doesn’t have one, so can you please make it come true? But the king said if you get a boy, don’t get upset, and it doesn’t matter what baby you get, so don’t get upset at all. And I said okay, but if I have a girl, then I get all your money. If I have a boy, then you get all my money. And then the next day I got a girl baby, so I went back to University Come True and said give me all your money, and he said okay, that’s not fair, but you get what you get and you don’t get upset.”

The mom is surprised.

She says, “Wow!”

The End


The Crime Kitty

Hi! Sorry I scared you there. My name is the Crime Kitty. No, it actually isn’t. My name is Cuddles! I am a black, fluffy, tiny kitty, but I have a dark side. You may not know me, but I am more than this so-called “adorable, cute, fluffy, and innocent” kitty. So, let me tell you why.

It was a dark and stormy night in New York City! I was with my owner (Emma). She is a 24-year-old adult who is in college, but she is super mean! I don’t remember her being mean when she got me from a pet store! Or maybe it’s because ever since she got me I made her life even harder. But she could have thought of that before! Well, back to the story. When I was with her, all of a sudden she told me, “Sorry, Cuddles, I have to go to the mall with my friends. Bye.” And then she just threw her sandals at me and left with a new pair of shoes. I mean, how rude! I have been planning for an escape ever since, and tonight was the perfect shot.

***

Ughhhh. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Why is it so hard to reach the doorknob!!! Oh wait!

Ten seconds later… 

Finally! I knew there was a stepstool around here. Now I can reach the door knob and wait! I need to pack necessities for the long trip ahead! Let’s see… 

Mini kitty backpack: check

Cat food and, well, food: check

My favorite cat jacket: check

And my milk: check

Well, I’m ready. Wow, I’m leaving now. Well, goodbye, house!                      

***

Doo doo doo doo doo do. Hmmm, well, since Emma’s not here to boss me around, I can do whatever I want! But I have to keep a low profile, so here are some personal rules for myself:

1: No making friends! (Keep a low profile. Tell no one your real name! Try not to be seen.)

2: If someone sees you, quickly run away without a trace!

3: Have fun! Do whatever you want!

Now I’m going to get a donut!

***

Hmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmmmm, hmmmmmm.

I love donuts! But I have to focus on getting money! How am I going to buy stuff for myself if I have no money! And how are humans supposed to understand me when I want to buy something! Ugh, it was so much easier when Emma was taking care of me! But she was so mean! Wait a minute, I can just steal stuff. It’ll be much easier. I won’t have to lose a single penny! Well if I had one, but that’s not the point! But stealing is bad. Oh no, I’m hyperventilating again. Agh! Breathe in, breathe in, breathe out. Whoooo, that was way better. Hmmm, let’s see what time it is. If only I had a watch. Oh wait, there was a watch store near the city that Emma used to go with me. I think I have a clue where it is.

***

Creak. Wow, I never realized how creaky this door was. I guess the owner isn’t here today. Well, let me just take a look at this clock, and I will be heading out — Beee oooh, beee, oooh, beee, oooh!!!

Argh!!! So loud! Sensitive ears can’t take much longer! Meow.

***

Beee oooh, beee, oooh, beee, oooh!!! Ugh! What, where? Where am I? Am I in kitty heaven?! Tick tock tick tock. Oh, I guess not. Oh wait, I’m in the clock shop from last night. Hmm, I must have set off the alarms and passed out. Well, off I go.

Doooo, doooo, do, do, do,do — 

“Psssssssttttt.”

“Aghhh! Who was that?”

“It’s me,” someone whispered.

“It’s who?”

“Wow, I can’t believe you don’t recognize me!’’ A kitty stepped out of the shadows!!!

“I can’t believe it. Is that really you?!”

“Yep, it’s me!” My best friend of all time came towards me.

“I can’t believe my eyes. I’m so happy to see you. Whiskers, I haven’t seen you since you got adopted!

“You too! I missed you so much! But what are you doing here in the middle of the city unattended?” Whiskers said to me curiously.

“Ummm, what are you doing here in the middle of the city unattended?”

“You tell me first,” Whiskers said.

“Fine, well I ran away.”

“Why?’’ Whiskers asked.

“Well because I don’t like my owner. She is always so mean to me, and I just can’t stand it! I don’t even know why she’s so mean to me. Reow reow reow.”

“It’s okay, Cuddles. You have me?” Whiskers tried cheering me up.

“Yeah, I do have you. Thanks for cheering me up. But why are you in the middle of the city unattended?”

“Well, my owner took me to the park, and guess what?! She said she was going to go to the coffee shop to get a ‘latte,’ and when she left, she never came back!” said Whiskers angrily.

“Well, maybe she just forgot about you?”

No, she left! So I was left all alone in the park until I got hungry, so I went to the donut shop to the city,” Whiskers told me.

“Well, I have to get going. I am going to go explore. Want to come?”

“Sure,” Whiskers said happily.

So we went off to seek adventure! But then it was turning dark, and we saw nowhere to stay or sleep until we saw a jewelry store. So we decided to go in. But the door was locked, so we started walking away until there was the animal control truck came rolling in our direction! I knew that they were going to take us to the pound, and I will not go back there again, so we started running around the block.

Ahhhh we’re going to die!!!” yelled Whiskers.

“Don’t worry, Whiskers.” I panted. “We will lose him. I just know it.”

So we went running and running until we came back. But then, when I was running, I got shot with something, and I fell asleep, but then I saw Emma running towards me and saying, “That’s my cat!”

But when I woke up, Emma was hugging me, saying she was sorry she was super mean to me. I was so happy that she starting to act nice to me! But yeah, that was my story! I told you I am dark inside, so bye.

The End.


The Adventures of UNICAT!

Hello, I am a unicorn. Well, sort of!! I am in the slammer. I am a unicat to be exact! I got put here after I used my dark magic to hypnotize a man to do my evil bidding! Okay, so maybe not all of that is true! Okay, none of it is true!! Okay! I actually just used my half unicorn magic to get a free corn dog in McDonald’s and then tried to escape using my kiddy car after the cops came and told me to stop, but then I didn’t get far after I forgot to change the battery in that thing! They put this mask on me, and I imagined flying. Then I was on the moon! I think that mask had some of this gas that makes me feel all woozy and stuff!

Anyway, I have to escape!!! So I have a brilliant plan! As a unicat I need to keep my creative mind open. After all, brilliant ideas like mine come naturally in a unicat like me. Well the only unicat like me. I am the only unicat in the world! So lonely! Well anyway! I will use this plastic spoon to dig my way out of here! According to my calculations, I should be getting out of here in about… umm… years. Oh well! I am still digging, and I am super exhausted! Ahhh! I am a unicat, not a manual labored slave!!! That is it! I will use my amazing power to escape this place! If I spend one more day in the slammer, I think I’ll break! Okay, so this is my plan. I’m going in. First, I have to use my magical unicorn powers to bend the steel bars and squeeze between. Then, I have to drop kick the cops! (If that is possible.) After I do that, I’ll kick open the gates with my mighty strength (not really, I’ll just use my magic) and then I’ll try to get another free corn dog! I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. I need to learn my lesson… I need to get two free corn dogs, duh!

Five minutes later… 

*Sounds of missiles crashing into the ground.*

Ahhh, these people are trying to kill me! I just open the gate quietly and start prancing to my freedom! I am also running with another one of my cellmates called Screamy Sam. He is a pony, and I should have known that he would have freaked once I opened the gate! Well anyway, we had a deep conversation about why he shouldn’t scream in the middle of operation escape prison and don’t scream! Well, I told him we couldn’t scream.

He says back, “Fine, then I’ll go, and you can stay here. I don’t want to close the gate on you by accident.”

I reply maybe a bit too brutally, “Why? ‘Cause you think that when I trip and fall and then the gate closes on my hoove that I’ll be limping and you’ll be calling me Limpy for the rest of my life and there will be a huge hideous scar across my eye, but all the real scars will be on the inside where my heart should be?”

He says, sounding a bit concerned, “ Ummm… are you okay, or should I call Dr. Phil?”

I say back, “No. Sorry you had to hear that.”

Anyway, recap. I am running as fast as my little hooves can go. I would fly, but I don’t want to leave my new (and only) friend, Screamy Sam.

A few seconds later… 

Yes, we are finally off! You may be wondering where, but we are going to… McDonald’s (to get two corn dogs, well, three for Screamy Sam)!

Anyway, Screamy Sam says he wants to go and visit Las Vegas, and I am all like “Who needs Las Vegas when you got all the corn dogs in New York?

Then he says back, “Umm… everyone?”

I go right up in his face and practically scream, “Wrong! Dude, ya gotta keep up with the program!”

We finally get there, and the owner of the McDonald’s throws a broom, and it lands on Screamy Sam’s hoof, and guess what! Turns out he sprains it! So I have to carry him all the way to a cloud, so he can rest! Man, boys are complicated. I have to go dumpster diving and find a bandage. This reminds me of the story my cat mom used to tell me about my birth.

She said, “Oh, Caticorn, when you were born, the day was bright and sunny and warm. The breeze smelled as if someone sprayed Febreeze in the air, and when you finally were born, your unidad was so happy, and so was I. You practically flew out of there. You were always the seeker of adventure we raised you to be. So wrap this bandage around your leg, so your scrape will feel better. You’ll be flying around in no time!”

Well anyway, I go back to the cloud, and then I wrap the bandage around his hoof. After that, we both just daze off into sleep mode I guess. Oh, I guess I might have forgotten to tell you that Screamy Sam has a black hood that covers his mane. He is pretty weird though. When I tried to yeet his hood off, he dodged my hoof!

I was all like, “It’s hot, dude, take off your hood! You’re going to get a heat stroke!

But he wouldn’t budge for anything I tried! So I just let the dude do whatever he wants. To be honest, I refuse to tell him this to his face, but he is pretty fun, okay. He has a sense of humor! But there is no way we could be best friends since he is a pony and I am a unicat! Other species can’t be friends! It’s part of RuleBook of Animaltopia, rule five, page two, paragraph 16, sentence eight: You shall not be friends or have any sort of relationship with other species other than your kind. It kind of sucks to be honest.

Anyway, Sam — I mean Screamy Sam — just woke up, and he sounded like an alarm clock. He almost scared the glitter out of me. When he woke up, instead of like normal animals, he screamed his head off!

I am like “Dude, are you okay!!! Do you need the hospital or anything!

He responds very calmly and rationally as if nothing at all happened. “What are you talking about? I just yawned, yeesh. I think you might need the hospital!” And then he laughs a little.

I am like, “Ummm, you’re joking right?”

He looks so puzzled I think even maybe I was wrong and I was crazy, not him! But then I remember I am never, never wrong, so that isn’t exactly an option. I really don’t know who is crazy (probably him), but it totally doesn’t matter at all to me! (It really does.) Anyway, his hoof is feeling better, so I decide why not — like civilized savage animals — we go to a diner for breakfast. So, I have to go dumpster diving to try and find a little bit of money while Screamy Sam just watches me go dumpster diving! It is so embarrassing. He has to take a banana peel off of my head after I get out of there. I smell like a dog barfed all over me that had eaten pickles, a squirrel, smelly gym socks, moldy bread, and a part of a shoe for breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, we are still Screamy — what am I saying? I meant to say screamingly hungry! If I don’t get my morning cat juice with rainbow unicorn sprinkles on top, I think I’m going to die of immensely low sugar! Do you even know what that can do to a unicat?!

I need to survive!” I tell Screamy Sam, while running in circles panicking.

“You mean we need to survive, right?” he says, looking a bit concerned.

“Uhhh, yeah did I say I? I meant we. I meant we totally,” I blurt out.

So we go to this diner place. It has an organic smoothie (ew) but whatever. At least I get to eat my pancakes with maple syrup topped with some whipped cream, frosted edible bananas, with rainbow sprinkles, and a unicorn toy on top of it all. These pancakes are my usual everyday breakfast. I really think I need more sugar in my body! That “organic, good for your health smoothie” totally makes my mouth bitter! Talk about yuck! Anyway, after Screamy Sam finishes his confetti flavored cupcakes we steal — I mean borrow — we head to the police because we found this stray cat on the street, and when I tried to clean it with my tongue like how mommy cats do to their young, it clobbered out of my hooves with drool leaking from its mouth and started chasing a car! Screamy Sam thought it was a dog! Pshhh he is so, wait a second, maybe that cat wasn’t really a cat! Oh! It was obviously… a tiger! You find them all the time in those shops. Except they don’t really move, and they are usually on display. I thought maybe tigers would be at least a little more territorial. But hey I’m not hating, just stating!

So once we get there, I see some really cool photos of me and Screamy Sam on a pole! I can’t really read, but it has a number on it and some words on it, too. I think they are going to give us money or something! You don’t think we are wanted right… Nah! Well, the police sure must have been jealous of us or something, ‘cause they keep on saying we’ve got ‘em or something. Then there are these silver thingies that they pull out, and they look like pretty stylish bracelets. So when I ask them if I could have one, they say, “Get ‘em!

But before I could say, “Hey, that’s not really nice,” Screamy Sam grabs my hoof, and we start flying. We settled on a cloud to get some sleep and rest since it is getting dark out.

When I wake up the next morning, I find Screamy Sam’s hood on the floor. But he is nowhere in site.

Scream Sam?!” I scream. Hey, that’s kind of ironic!

Then when I look down, I see another unicat! I am like, O-M-G, I’ll catch Screamy Sam later! I have another friend now, maybe!

So I fly down to the floor, and when I see the other unicat, I say, “Hey! What’s your name? Are you just like me? Are you nice? Are you funny? Are you competitive? And most importantly, do you have magical powers and can fly? Wait, that’s not important. What is, is… do you puke hairballs, too?

The other unicat totally ignores me! So I go up and turn their face around, and it is a boy unicat, with sky blue and turquoise hair colors, and he has light blue eyes.

“Ummm, hi?” I say, totally bewildered for I don’t know what reason.

“Ummm, hey Unica — ”

Actually more importantly, can we be friends?” I say.

“Ummmm, Unicat — ” says the boy unicat.

“I have another best friend that is called Screamy Sam, and he is great, really, did you know — ” I say, being interrupted by the boy unicat.

Unicat, I am Screamy Sam! Well, actually, my name is just Sam, but whatever,” he says, staring at me and smiling.

Then everything goes black, and I wake up staring at the sky.

Then I murmur, “How long was I out?

Then I hear Screamy Sam’s voice say, “About an hour or so.”

Then I fly up and say “What have you done to Screamy Sam???”

“I am Sam!” says Screamy S-Sam.

“Oh, forgot” I say. “So you have been pretending to be my friend , too?” I say, hurt.

“What! Are you crazy! You are so much fun! Of course we’re friends!” replies Sam quickly.

Oh good,” I say, relieved.

Well anyway, I guess we are friends now.

But I say to Sam, “But I wish I knew I was the only unicat in the world. I felt so unique and special. I don’t know, I kind of liked feeling I was special and one of a kind.”

Then Sam puts his hoof around me and gives me a big bear, well, unicat I guess, hug. 

Then I say, “Okay, that got weird, so where are we going now?”

Sam and I just stand there bewildered.

Then he says, “Vegas… ?”

I don’t want to disappoint the guy, so I say, “Okay, let’s take our wings and fly to vegas!”

So after a few hours by flight, we crash onto a cloud and are waiting for the snack cart to come around until I realize we aren’t in an airplane. Anyway, I get there, and we meet a nice walrus called Wally T., but I just call her Wally. She helps us “borrow” some pizza, and she asks us if we have a place to stay for the night.

I say, “Hmmm… well that bench looks pretty comfy!”

She is shocked and grabs us by our manes, then brings us deep into the woods, ties a string to what she calls “the special trees,” then she hangs a carpet thing onto the string (it looks more like a clothing line if you ask me) and then throws us in there. Then I see white or black, but I don’t really remember… Anyway back to the story, we are in the North Pole! But Sam says that walruses live in the Arctic, but I complain and say that she is magical. Hey, she never had a life-threatening crisis or anything! That makes her pretty magical to me. Anyway I’m going to have to leave now, but I’ll write again in a few days! (Wally T. is serving crumpets. But they feel and taste more like rocks… ) Anyway, bye!!!

The End!!!


The Hot Dog Robber

One day a very nice man came to his house right next door to my house. His name was Alexander. He never robbed and never bullied people. He never said bad words, but sometimes my mom went to his house and gave him cupcakes. He always said “thank you,” but one day he wanted some hot dogs. So, he went to my mom’s house and asked her for some hot dogs.

And my mom said, “No more hot dogs. I gave you enough hot dogs.”

So Alexander ran home. Then one day, everyone was sleeping. I saw Alexander come out of his house. I got scared because he never came out of his house at 2:00 in the morning. I knew that as a fact because every time my mom and I tried to come and visit, he was always sleeping. And when we tried to go to the park with him to run, he was still sleeping, so we never could go to his house. So I didn’t expect him to be up at this time. So I decided to lock all the doors. Then after I locked all the doors, I looked out my window. He was standing in front of my door, ringing the doorbell so many times and knocking at my door.

And then I screamed out the window, “Leave us alone!”

He said, “I want hot dogs!” very loudly.

I decided to give him 21 hot dogs, so he could leave us alone.

He said, “I want more.”

I told him, “For what?”

And he said, “I have a huge family.”

And I kind of felt bad until I heard that he was lying. I knew he was lying because his lights were off. I knew he was lying because if his family was there, it wouldn’t be closed.

He told me, “Fine, I am lying. I just want hot dogs.”

Then Alexander ran to another house, and the woman gave him a lot of hot dogs because she trusted that he had a lot of family to feed. He just ate them. I got frustrated and went to go talk to the lady, but she didn’t believe me because she hated my mom because my mom didn’t want to work with her in the store because she didn’t know how to make cupcakes. So she closed the door in front of me.

And she said, “Leave me alone.”

So I decided to go to his house and knock on the door.

I said, “Give me back my hot dog.”

He said, “I’m never going to give you your hot dogs back.”

I said, “Why?”

“Because I ate them already.”

I said, “Poop them out or something.”

“I am not pooping them out because I do not have them. My dog has them.”

“Then tell your dog to give me your hot dogs.”

Alexander said, “No. I can’t afford much food for my dog. He might die.”

“Couldn’t you tell me that earlier,” I said. 

“No, because you would get mad at me.” 

“If it was for life, I would never get mad,” I said.

I gave him 100 hot dogs, and we got along for the rest of our lives.


The Classroom Escapade

Chapter One

“Lilly! Feed Bon-Bon, and quickly!”

“Okay, Mrs. Sanchez. Yes, ma’am.”

I walk up to the class pet hamster, Bon-Bon, and drop in some hamster food, only to be nibbled myself.

Ring!

Great, I missed the late bell for chorus and Miss Loxern will be mad because I stayed to feed a stupid, stupid hamster. I can hear her from here, saying, “Quiet, please. Single file lines only. Jeremiah, please stop chattering this instant!”

I better hurry up before the ice fountain starts up. “Shhhh!” Too late. It has started. The school’s wonky hours from 10-12 have begun, and I am trapped in unsafe zone (the only one). The hall.


Chapter Two

Gahhh! The ice has spread to the bathrooms! (And I really need to go!) I better seek shelter, quickly.

Okay, I am now in the janitor’s closet, and my pencil is getting its time to shine. I mean, it was at the bottom of my book bag, and I never use it. Oh great, here comes the liquor stage. As the ice from the ice fountain melts and turns into fog, the smoke detectors are set off, but instead of water, they rain liquor. I can hear it coming. 

Burp!

There goes Mr. Mcgail getting drunk, and Mrs. Berkowitz.

Just the typical, and I should probably stop eavesdropping on their dropping of glasses.

For my second time getting trapped in the schools wonderland-symmetrical labyrinth, this isn’t so bad… 

Aaaahhh!


Chapter Three

As the dragon stage commences, I scream in terror as an assortment of colored dragons roam the halls, turning everything into smoldering dust. The ash stings my eyes as I break the glass on the emergency fireproof shield that the school keeps for any stranded students in stage three and hold it up like an umbrella, ella, ella,and run continuously towards the gazebo in the economics classroom, daring myself to not look back. Suddenly, I come to a bump in the speeding lane. There is a gaping hole between the gazebo and the floor. I start to wonder if this is a curse anymore, or if it’s starting to get real. I mean, even back in 856, the dragons stayed in the halls. This is very unusual. Then again, everything is unusual about dragons. 

Anyway, there I am, about to die, when some marauder-like figure emerges from the dust and whispers into my ear, jump. To make a long story short, I did. As I look back to thank him, I realize he’s gone, and wonder if I was hallucinating, from all the ash. At the same time, I also want him to have not left and to stay and tell me what the heck was going on. Without realizing, an hour has passed, yet somehow I am still in the third stage, which makes no sense. Last time, I fainted from the liquor and didn’t wake up until I was in the nurse’s office. What the — nothing is moving! What is happening? Did everything just stop? This must be the fourth stage, then.

“Time stop.”

Just great. Then why are the biggest dragons moving? Am I stuck in some nightmarish world?

Lilly!

Bah! Did someone just speak to me? Here?


Chapter Four

Wait a minute, is that my grandma? What is she doing here? How did she get here from our house in Westchester? I saw her at home when she was sending me off, but, how did she get in? There are a million jillion things I want to ask her, but then again, I might overwhelm her.

“My dear Lily,” she said in a so un-grandma-like voice. I mean, she sounds like a Korean pop idol. “How long I have waited for this moment to tell you the truth; hiding it has been so hard.”

Suddenly, spikes start coming out of her head, and her arms start issuing slime from tiny slits in her arms while her head starts turning snout-like and rockish. Standing before me, I see a huge, cute, but still terrifying dragon who, based on the facts, I assume is my grandma. 

I am speechless. How could she keep this from me? Like seriously? If she is my grandmother, am I a dragon too?

As if reading my thoughts, the dragon, who I will call Grandma, says, “I am not your grandmother, but yes, you are a dragon. You are a morphUs — a being that has the ability to turn from a dragon to a human, who of course has mind reading powers that manifests at 13 when you establish a close relationship with an animal, which in this case, is that hamster Bon-Bon that you are always raving about.”

Okay, info overload, but instead of joking about it, I just rub my temples to try and process this new “vital” information. Anyway, as I try to blow my auburn brown hair from my eyes, even though I know that even if I succeed, the ash will still obscure my vision.

“Pay attention please.” Geez, for a grandma, she is pretty sassy. “Young woman, I can hear you thinking!” Okay, if you can, you are hands down so creepy! “Now, listen to me. You are the lost dragon heir, and you have to save us from the tainted King Erik. He was cursed, when you left, and until the true heir shows the greatness of good to him, he will reign over the dragon realm with terror. So now, concentrate on yourself as a dragon, and your stripes will light up.”

As I concentrate, my body becomes engulfed in light as what seems to be my skin sheds off and I land on the ground in a heap as a dragon. Whoa, it actually worked!

“Come on, quickly, Siena!”

I assume it is my dragon name as I take flight for the first time, admiring my shining burnt sienna and flame-like scales, absorbing the wind and feeling free. As we approach the palace though, my stomach twists itself into knots when I see all the poor citizens working in coal mines. Barging in is easy, but his face, his deep wounds and blood red eyes, his gleaming scales and spikes, I am not so sure of myself anymore. But when I see him snicker at a child begging for mercy, that is when I swallow any last feeling of pity or fear, because that is not how to treat a child of any sort.

“King Erik,” I state. In fury, I bellow out my speech that had suddenly burst from my heart. “You are, in my opinion, a good person who has been tainted, and I believe in second chances, so I wish no harm to come to you, unless you want that.”

He interrupts, saying only this, “Puny girl, you’ll never turn me back!”

By this time I have spotted an amulet on his horn and have realized it as the source of evil.

I continue, “I believe in you, if you would let me just… ”

Then I lunge. Straight for his head, I rip the amulet off and shatter it into a million pieces, never to be seen again. As the newly restored king awakens, I realize something. I might miss school, have to make new friends, and start a new life, but no matter how hard I fall, I will always, always, get up, because I am strong.


Lily Big Help and Her Idea

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lily. Lily was seven years old. She lived in Paris. Lily’s parents had work that was very bad because they got $10 per hour. She lived in a small house with five rooms. There was the living room, bathroom, kitchen, and two other rooms. That was not enough space for herself, her two brothers, her mom and dad, and her grandparents. They all had to be squeezed together in two rooms. They were not comfortable. Lily wanted to help her family to get a bigger house, so they can have a bigger house. 

The next day, an idea came to her. She would do a lemonade stand in the park because she was seven years old. First, she had to get all her supplies. But that cost money, and she didn’t have any. She would ask her parents for some. She got $20 from her parents. She went to the supermarket and got the cups, lemons and sugar. When she got home, she started making the lemonade right away. First, she put water, then she squeezed the lemons to get the juice out and then put the sugar and then she mixed. Lastly, she put ice. She made her stand and put it up in the park where everybody runs. The first day, she didn’t get any customers. She was very sad for not getting any customers. But that did not stop her from trying again.


Sydney’s Poems

A lovely room

The opposite of the night,

Drapes a shimmery white,

A plant of bright dark green,

Nothing you’ve ever seen.

White doors opening wide 

To a sandy beach.

You’ll love the room so much, 

You won’t be able to speak.


What teachers seem to be!

My teacher’s name is Ms. Plumpagee and she is very plump.  

She acts like she’s stuck in the 1900s and her hair is rather a stump.

She never washes her hands, after a lesson of history.

I’ll ask my father to sue her, yes he is really quite rich, you see. 

Then next year I had a teacher, she was horrid and a snitch.

Then I really wished Ms. Plumpagee, was mine and was here stick.

I was really rather quite generous,

After I sent her away. Wow, a year ago I was rather quite mean to Ms. Plumpagee.


Witches

All skinned in black,

Can’t say no to drab,

Mysterious creatures.

Hidden in the cape of black are feelings,

Not well known,

Be them from the dead or be them from the alive.

Who knows the beauty, the flaws, the ugliness, of these power stricken people?

And I am one of these people,

Safe from being underestimated.


My piece of hope

My lips are blue

My hair turned blue

My skin turned blue

Everything blue

A cry of sadness 

And despair

A grave of white

Surrounding by few

A willow hanging

On top of a pond

With grass surrounding

Like your front lawn

A swan of white

With an orange beak

You’ll love her too

So to speak

Lily pads 

On the water blue 

A girl praying 

Crying too

A rising sun 

A golden hope

Falling hills

A golden rope

Climbing up

And climbing down

But you can’t ever

turn around

The journey hard

The path so clear

Don’t turn around

You’re nearly there

Don’t let the blues

Get in your way

For your mountain

Is here today

Climb it first

Climb it next

And you’ll find

Your golden rope

A piece of sun

And some hope.


Panda Spies

PROLOGUE

Screech!!! The truck with the panda inside was finally here. Oh right, I forgot. My name is Eve, and I work at the AAC (Awesome Animal Center).

Right now we just rescued a panda from the RIA, Rebel Inc. Agency (or as everyone else knows them) the government, which was doing an experiment on the poor panda. They stole him from the rainforest to see what would happen when they took him away, and when nothing happened, they decided to kill him. But we knew about this plan, and we came to the rescue just in time. 

Let me tell you what happened to me and my BFF Mia. We ran after the truck holding the panda which was a pretty stupid idea considering we were just kids and that was a giant truck. If Mia wasn’t an amazing inventor (she had invented rocket shoes that carry you above the ground going six times faster than the truck) we would have been toast. We put the shoes on our feet, flew after the truck, and caught it up in no time. But one thing remained: how we would get in. We tried to lift the latch on the back of the truck, but it wouldn’t budge. Finally we got it open, and we saw the panda inside. It was so adorable! We got her back to the rescue center and fixed up her scratches and got her to her pen. The rescue center called the zoo manager, and he said we could keep the panda because we were the ones who had saved the panda. And from that day and on, us girls became best friends and never left each other’s side.


Chapter One: The Voice

Back to school. Ugh, stupid school. Eve and Mia carried themselves into class. The dumb teacher Mr. Beg boodey or Big boody wrote something that looked like neat gibberish. Then he suddenly collapsed and started snoring.

“Finally!” Mia said sarcastically. “Something exciting today!”

Something was wrong. He didn’t usually snooze off like that, if you didn’t count the time that he did snooze off. And if you didn’t count the other time he also snoozed off. Eve observed him. Suddenly, Eve and Mia heard a faint voice.

“My name is Lunala. I am the ghost of the panda that you saved. After saving me from the government, you have proved that you are worthy of being spies! There’s a new mystery you must solve. But it won’t be easy alone. Go to the stone wall in the park. Wait for me there… ”


Chapter Two: I Spy with My Little Eye… 

Mia turned to Eve. “Did you just hear what I just heard?” Eve was still looking towards the man.

“I wonder why he collapsed when this case may have nothing to do with him?” 

“I don’t know how or why, but it probably does have something to do with him. And if it does, I’m going to fire him and get a less boring teacher,” Eve said with a grin.

“Well, don’t get your hopes up!”

She started walking towards the door but noticed that Mia was still grinning and staring, so she went back and slapped her in the face. Mia popped out of her “revenge bubble,” grabbed her backpack, and followed her. When they got there, Mia leaned on the stone wall.

“I think this whole thing is a dumb prank that pranksters set up,” she said.

And at that moment, the wall she was leaning on opened up and revealed a long misty hallway. Mia stumbled backwards. There was a ghostlike woman that was so faint that the girls had to squint to prove to themselves that she was actually there.

Excuse me?” she said with the same ghostlike voice as the voice they had heard before.

“No prank, no prank,” Mia said, stepping away.

“Are you the ghost voice?” said Eve with curiosity in her eyes. The woman only turned around and started walking down the misty hallway. “C’mon!” Mia said.

“No way.”

“Why not? You were the one who was all, ‘Are you the ghost voice?’ — she’s getting away!”

And Eve was pulled after her. The hall turned into a slanted slope that seemed to get steeper and steeper. But the girls kept following her. When they got close enough, they saw a wall in the distance. It led straight up, and there was no way around it. As it got closer, they started to wonder how they would get past it. Lunala didn’t stop walking when she got to it though. Suddenly, as if gravity had changed, she walked up the wall, sideways. Eve gasped, and Mia grinned.

“And she expects us to do that?!”

“Poor you,” Mia said.

“Why? You know that we both have to climb that wall right?”

“Well, I think you’ll be on your own for that, because I have these.” From out of her bag, she brought out her rocket shoes.

“Better start climbing girl!”

She was right. There a long way to go. After a few minutes, instead of climbing, she felt as if she were crawling. Slowly but carefully, she stood up. And a few seconds after that, Mia, on her rocketties, fell to the ground. (She liked to name everything she invented. For example, her Ultra-Dishwasher who also did all the cooking and cleaning in her house was named Suzie.)

“What happened to the gravity?” she asked.

“I had the same question. It must be what happened to Lunala.”

Eve and Mia jogged the rest of the way, catching up to Lunala. They stopped at a vine-covered wall. Lunala faced the girls.

Put your hands on the wall.”

The girls looked at the wall and found two bloody but dry hand shapes carved into the wall. Lunala blew away the blood and the vines on the wall with one blow. They placed their hands on the stone carved wall, and suddenly, all the concrete in between the small square stones started to light up. So much light came out that all the stones flew out of the places and turned into ash. Soon the hand shapes also turned into ash. Even though the holders were gone, Lunala still held their hands in place.

When there was nothing left but light, she said, “Step into the light.”

And they walked in together, holding hands. Inside was warm; the light was getting brighter. Eve looked back only to see more light. They were holding their breath (except Lunala) as if they were under water. But they weren’t. They were in a light teleportation wave that was impossible to hack. Only the chosen ones could open it. Well, as long as you had a key card you could get in. They moved closer and closer to the light until Eve could just make out a beautiful technology-filled inside of a building with many testing rooms with new inventions waiting to be tested. They finally entered the palace like world.


Chapter Three: New Dimension

It was beautiful. It was bustling with people. A girl on floating shoes whizzed passed everyone and into their view.

“Hi! I’m Lia, and I’m going to show you around.”

The girls liked her already. She was wearing headphones, a dark blue tank top with a hoodie, jeans, and those floating shoes Mia was jealous of. Out of her watch, she popped out a hoverboard. “Get on, and try to keep up.” She put on her hood and turned on her music.

“Go. She will be important to your mission.”

“How? She doesn’t seem to be that helpful anyway.”

“You will see. Now go.”

They were as obedient as ever. They hopped on, she tapped the hoverboard twice, and it zoomed to the Grand (but very plain) Stairway. Lia was sitting there looking at her phone. She looked up.

“Oh! You made it! I didn’t expect that actually… Well, that doesn’t matter. Follow me.”

She showed them so many different rooms, including her own workout rooms and inventing rooms. (She is an inventor, and she built the shoes and the watch/hoverboard.) There were amazing rooms. Some rooms were beautiful and peaceful. Some were huge and full of people working out. After the tour, the girls were surprisingly tired. So Lia showed them their room. It. Was. Huge!!! I wouldn’t even call it a room. It had waterfalls and gigantic beautiful flowers. It was pretty much a hotel paradise if you ask me. It was getting dark, so they went to bed for the night, and suddenly, the voice appeared again. Out of nowhere.

Meet me at my office. Lia is outside to guide you.”

“Well, I guess we should go?”

“Duh!”

They raced out the door and almost fell into Lia. Lucky for their reputation, Lia dodged them just in time. They stumbled into the hall, missing her by a tinsy winsy millimeter. Also lucky for them, they fell on the hoverboard. And within a few seconds of zooming around people, they were outside a wall. The board hovered for a few seconds, and once the wall opened, it zoomed through. Inside was another beautiful estate. And they weren’t alone. Many other people were sitting around a table and smiling. Some were floating around. And some were ghosts, like Lunala.

“What is going on? You haven’t even told us where we are!” Mia said.

That’s why we called you here. Also to explain your mission.

Mission???” Lunala grinned.

“Hehe, yup. This is a long story, so get comfy. Once upon a time, there lived two royal blooded sisters. One represented nature, birth, sky, and light. The other represented destruction, death, lava, and darkness. They hated each other, as they were opposites, and they made no attempt to hide this. They harmed each other and the world around them to show who was stronger and more powerful. But they had no idea what was happening to them. An evil sorcerer known only by a rhyme… dark as the night, swift as a kite, wins all his fights, with a jaguar’s sight… had taken their good side and was sinking bad into it. The sister of light quickly realized and tried to tell her sister, but the magic was too powerful. She was only so powerful until the sorcerer showed her a chance to become his apprentice. Now this, was a chance she could not deny. In her eyes, it was like, ‘This man is giving me the chance to take over the world. Ha! Foolish. I’ll skin him ALIVE once I get everything out of his knowledge.’ But in real life, he was using her to do all his crimes FOR him. Now this was a smart move. In fact, he made such smart moves that he even kept his identity a secret. And that’s pretty impossible to do in a place like this especially if you are a well-known threat to everyone. Now, everyone knows the BAD sister as, ‘the sorcerer’s apprentice.’ It’s a proven rumor that she and her master are planning something. Something big. And we NEED to know what or else… or else…


Chapter Four: The Mission

“Or else what?” Eve asked.

Or else all the dimensions in the whole unalaxy will be controlled by one evil man.”

But how can one man control the entire unicycle-thingy that you were talking about that sounded really big?!” Mia asked, baffled.

This man is much more powerful than you think, and he’s a master of disguise. On his first attempt to control the whole unalaxy, he killed many lives. But luckily, unlike the rest of the people that died, the royal blooded ones, instead of perishing into thin air, turned into ghosts.” Lunala smiled.

 “You are the good sister!!!” Eve and Mia exclaimed in unison. “I can’t believe it!!!” they said again.

“Keep the celebration short, because things have only gotten worse now. So far, we’ve sent two spies, and only one has come back, barely escaping death. She said that the pair had created their secret base somewhere in the amazon. And that ‘spy,’ is actually Lia. And do your, ‘I can’t believe it!!!’ thing inside your heads this time.” Eve and Mia took Lunala’s advice and did it in their heads.

“… Okay… Well, anyways, you’re going to be the next spies. Lia will — ”

Wait! Don’t we need training before we go on our first real mission?” Eve asked.

“You were born to be spies. You don’t need training. Now, as I was saying… Lia will show you how to teleport. Then, you can start your mission however and whenever you want. This is just about getting information, so you can come back anytime you want. Oh, and also, this might help you get started.” She gave them an old, yellowing photo. Eve studied it and looked to Mia.

“It’s of a dragon bracelet. It might come in handy, so keep an eye out for it.” 

“Just know that I’ll always be with you!”

Okay…

“Suis moi!” Lia said. “Uhhhh, follow me, in French.”

Eve stashed the photo in her pocket. Suddenly, the world started to fade. A couple moments later, they spawned to Lia’s workout gym. It was quite a sight.

“Just now, you teleported. To teleport, first think of the place that you want to go to. Discuss it before you do so because you can’t do it without each other. Then say who you are to the Atom Spirit, one of my old friends who will give you advice. So in your case, say Eve, Mia, Panda Spies. Go ahead. Try it.”

“Eve.”

“Mia.”

Panda spies!!!” And for the second time that day, the world around them faded away.

So, where should we go?”

“Definitely to our classroom,” Eve answered.

Why? It’s Sunday, right? Or is my calendar another cheap New Year sell 50% off?”

“Ummm… I don’t have an answer to whatever you’re talking about, but we need to go there because we need to investigate. Yesterday our teacher fainted, and we think it has something to do with this ‘bad guy’ we were informed about,” Mia said.

Say the word, and I’ll send you straight to your destination!!!”

“Well, what’s the word?” Eve asked.

Your mom!!! Hahahahahaha, I’ll never get tired of my jokes!! Haha oh, umm, well, the actual word is cute cat puppy dog. I made it myself.”

Eve and Mia looked at him with a ‘seriously?’ look.

What! I can’t resist them!!!”

That’s what you named the word?”

“Well, I guess we should get going,” Eve said.

Cute cat puppy dog!” they said together. And then the world started spinning into their old classroom. 

The teacher should have still been lying there because the nurses wouldn’t bother to come to their classroom. 

“That’s weird. He’s not here.”

“Maybe the nurses decided to for some out of their minds but reasonable reason to check this room?”

“Probably not.” Something caught Eve’s eye.

“Is that a dragon bracelet on the floor???

“O-M-G, it is!!!” The girls danced around happily as if they had completed the mission… but soon came to realize they hadn’t. 

So, now what?”

“Uhhhhh, how am I supposed to know?” Eve asked putting the abandoned bracelet on. Something shot through her. Maybe magic. But whatever it was, it was growing fast. 

Ugh!!! We’re getting nowhere!!!” Lunala said that the photo of the dragon bracelet would help us. Well now that we’ve found it, something should happen right?”

”Mia? Something weird is — ” But before Eve could finish her sentence, they found themselves in the atom spirit’s home, and then in a deep in a dark wood, nowhere they had ever been before.

“ — wrong. Wow. Where are we, and how did we get here?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like we’re in the amazon.

The magic, or whatever that was inside of Eve had taken them to this forest! They heard footsteps and scrambled behind a tree before they could be spotted. The footsteps, were in fact two people’s footsteps. They were both unrecognizable, wearing dark cloaks and were discussing something.

“… need you to do this. I’m too old to do this stuff.”

“I’m starting to think you’re just using me. Even if you are too old, you can at least step through a portal! Besides, you don’t seem to be getting older at all!” The first voice was dark and low, a man’s voice. The second was a young woman’s voice, and she was about Lunala’s age, but a little younger.

“Just hustle, someone might see us!”

The duo shuffled over to a mysterious tall rectangular shape covered by a black sheet. The girls hadn’t seen it when they entered the forest, and there was a strange opening around the shape in the repeating cluster of trees. The man pulled the sheet off the shape and revealed an old dressing mirror.

“Ahhh, here it is. The portal to Earth. Now, I want you to slowly step inside and retrieve the materials that I had you remember last night.”

“How am I supposed to find them? It’s not like I know where it is already.”

“Just look for a yellow M, which’ll stand for McDonalds. Once you get the things, protect them with your life. Sacrifice anything to get them safe and sound in my clutch. Then, you are dismissed.”

And with that, the man disappeared into thin air. The woman took off her hood and revealed a beautiful face. She seemed familiar, and yet the girls couldn’t remember who she was. She stepped into the mirror.

“Well, she seemed pretty familiar!” Mia said.

“Yeah! I can’t remember what I know her from though!”

“I think the ‘materials’ they were talking about has something to do with our case!!!”

“Well, either way, we should follow her into the portal before it’s too late!”

“Good idea.”

They hopped into the mirror just as the magic was fading from it. The portal was just like the one that had led them to where Lia and the other ghosts were.

“I wouldn’t think earth is important to any of these things going on,” Eve said.

“If it has anything to do with it, maybe we should follow her.”

“Yup.”

And with that, the girls followed the distant cloaked woman. She was fast, and following her required lots of skill. But the girls managed by teleporting to her every few minutes. They arrived in a restaurant with a giant yellow M as its mascot. Ugh. McDonald’s. The woman seemed very interested in the fact that all of the customers had gathered in this particular spot and went around asking innocent people questions about why they had came here while the girls were busy crawling to the kitchen. 

“Now what?” Eve asked.

“Just fit in until she takes action. And worry not, I’m a pro at fitting in.”

“Uh-huh,” Eve said sarcastically. 

“Jealous?” Eve rolled her eyes, and Mia stuck her tongue out. “Okay so here’s what we’re going to do… ”


Chapter Five: The Plan

Mia reached inside her backpack, spread out a long sheet of blueprints, and grabbed two soda cans.

She placed them on the print and said, “This is us. First, we make some noise when the mascot is nearby and lure him over into the kitchen. I’ll throw a sack over his head, tie his hands and feet, and you’ll push him down. Once he’s lying down, I’ll pull off the person’s costume and hop inside. You help me up and also get inside. Then we’ll be ready to explore outside without being caught!”

“Let’s do this!

“Also, lets try to do all of this quietly… ”

But, how am I supposed to be loud when I’m trying to be quiet???”

“Just do what I do okay? Monkey see monkey do.” Eve nodded, and they started their loud improvising band.

Eventually, the mascot guy came in. They did as planned, and when Eve pulled the costume off the man, she didn’t just notice the man. She noticed that the man was a very handsome man indeed. Mia was in position to throw the sack over his head, but when he turned to look at her, she nearly trampled him and ended up falling in Eve’s arms, laughing hysterically. She hit her head on the counter top and went nuts.

 “Oh, hello, my dear old granny Bob!” Her words didn’t match her confused expression. “Oh, and what is Mr. Big boody doing here?”

“Uhh, is she always like this?” the handsome guy asked.

“No, she just hit her head on the counter top.”

“You should get her back to the Central Spy Base.”

“Wha — how did you know?!” Not every day did someone know that they were spies.

“I used to work there. And you two have the same sparkle in your eyes as another spy I know.”

“Well,” Eve said looking back at the mysterious woman. She sighed. “Okay… but I was in the middle of catching the woman… oh wait! Why don’t you go take Mia there while I deal with the case? What? What a great deal!!! I would definitely take the job.”

“Nice try, but I’m prohibited from going back.”

“So you were a spy. Hmm, interesting! So tell me, why why why did you become prohibited from the Central whatever it’s called?”

“Chickens eat barf-arf-arf! I’m a pig!!!” Mia exclaimed after taking a self tour of the kitchen.

“Let’s not get too personal. We should probably get going, and fine, I’ll go with you. So it’s fair.”

“Oh, and what’s your name?”

“Jason. And yours?”

“I’m Eve, and this is my friend Mia.”

“Mia, Mia Mia — ”

“And Eve,” Eve cut in.

Jason picked up Mia and held Eve’s hand. It was warm, and it seemed like such a gesture even though it was only for a short time. 

“Jason. Eve. Mia. Panda spies!!!” Eve said. The world spun into the misty land of the Atom Spirit.

“Hello up there, fat guy!” Jason turned, and his rocket shoes blasted him upwards so that he and the Atom Spirit were face to face. Well mostly nose to face (because the Atom Spirit was so huge!!!).

“You again??? I thought you were banished from the Central Spy Base!!!”

“Well, yeah I was banished. But I’m going to sneak in.” Jason started walking towards the opening in the floor, but the Atom Spirit blocked him.

Nu-u-u!!! Where do you think you’re going???

Eve just stood there while Jason defended her.

“Uhhhh, the YKW. Duh!!!

“… ”

“The you know where. Now get outta my way so I can go. Besides, I have a girl to save” For the first time, the Atom Spirit noticed Eve, standing there behind Jason.

“Ohhh, so it’s you creating all the commotion?! I thought you were on a mission to save the world??? I guess you’re going to be in lots of trouble!!!”

“Whatever, just let us pass,” Eve mumbled pushing past the Atom Spirit.

Just before she stepped in, she motioned Jason to follow her. Jason tipped his imaginary hat to the Atom Spirit and skidded off with Mia on his shoulder.


Chapter Six: Revival

The Central Spy Base was strangely deserted. Normally, there were at least a hundred students roaming about, but today, absolutely no one was there. As if there was something more important than taking a walk!!! Okay, nevermind, there were things more important than taking a walk, but who cared!!!

“I-it’s been such a long time since I’ve been here… ” Jason said, “that I, I forgot how beautiful this place is… ”

Eve noticed he had dropped Mia and that she had started to wake up from a nap.

“It’s strange, nobody here. We should probably stay quiet and alert.” Eve nodded.

“Why?”

“Something is going on… Uhh, I don’t want to talk about it, so yeah!”

“But then what are we going to do about… ”

The pandas brought us together!!!” Mia fell back into her sleep.

“Her.” Eve sighed, looking down.

“Do not fear, Jason is here!!! We’ll just drop her in this closet!!!” When Eve looked up, she saw him slam a closet door closed, lock it, and mash the key into pieces.

No!!! She was like a sister to me!!! Why!!!” 

“Jeez, I was just kidding.” Jason stepped aside, so she could see where he had really hidden her.

“On the shelf, huh? I like your sense of humor, but we should seriously get going.” Eve walked towards the stone wall, Lunala’s meeting place.

Wait!!! You might want to know, the reason I wanted us to be quiet, is because… because… whenever someone comes here, the place automatically knows. Lunala’s been on the search for me for a long time so now that I’ve shown up, she’s obviously looking for me.”

So why’s that bad???”

“I wanna stay hidden, because if Lunala finds me, I’m going to become the future ruler of the Central Spy Base. And I don’t like the whole, ‘ruling’ process.”

Eve nods, not in understanding, for she did not get why he didn’t want to be ruler of the Central Spy Base, but because she wanted him to think she was cool. Eve started to think about how Mia would turn out. And about how life would have been like if she and Mia hadn’t saved Lunala. Something grabbed her and pulled her out of her day dreaming and into another room. 

“What did you do that for???” Eve yelled, pushing away from whoever it was that pulled her. Noticing that it was Jason, she shrank back into her usual hunched position.

“Lunala just walked in, so I ran here, but you were just standing there, so I grabbed you and got over here. If it wasn’t thanks to me, we would have been caught.

“Oh… well thanks,” Eve mumbled without meaning it. Eve looked around to see what room they were in, but she was startled by what she saw.

“Jason? I think you brought us into Lunala’s meeting room!!!” Jason turned and saw what she saw. Tons of people, including Lia were staring at them.

“J-Jason… what are you doing here?” She stepped forward.

“I thought you had left us for good… ” Eve glanced at Jason. He had turned red.

“Guilty as charged,” he murmured. Lia looked straight into his eyes. Her dangerous side had come out.

“You said we would come back together.” She grabbed him by the collar.

You said we could share the deal.” She stopped. She took a deep breath. 

“Excuse me. I will work this out myself, alone.” With that, she walked out of the room, still holding Jason.

“Whoa! That was crazy!” Eve laughed, but nobody else did. They stared at her. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, was that not funny to any of you?” She looked around and saw a snail in its cage laughing along with her. “See, the snail agrees!!!”

Eve plastered a fake smile on her face. She slowly walked out of the room, not wanting to deal with any more snails or grumpy ghosts. Suddenly, it came to her. She took out the picture of the dragon bracelet, and in the background was a forest, too familiar to miss. That was where the magic inside of her had taken them. Just before that, they had found the dragon bracelet in the classroom. She decided to go there. But before she did that, she grabbed Mia. Poor Mia had a scar from the counter incident. 

“Eve. Mia. Panda spies!!!” She tried to do her best imitation of Mia. The world turned white and the Atom Spirit appeared.

Well hello there, Eve dear!!!” he said, patting her head. Eve appreciated it, especially because recently there had been nobody around to love her.

“I would like to go to my classroom.”

“… ”

“Even though it’s Sunday.” The Atom Spirit nodded, and in a blink of an eye, the smokey colorless place became her old classroom. Summer break had sent all the kids sprawling out on the fresh grass. Jealous, Eve rolled her eyes at the thought of it. I need to focu — Ow!!! When she looked down she saw Mia, grabbing her foot. 

“W-what happened?” She looked around. “How did we get here? What’s going on???”

“You passed out when your head hit the counter top in the kitchen of McDonald’s.” Mia nodded in understanding.

“Ohhhhh, I think I remember that… ”

“You need to help me figure this out. I-I can’t do this alone.”

“Well tell me the clues!” Eve explained everything that had happened that day. But she left out the part about Lia and Jason.

So, can you help me???” Eve pleaded with pleading eyes.

Mia smirked and said, “I think I know what the evil man’s plan is!”


Chapter Seven: The Truth

“Eve, I need you to teleport us to the forest using your magic inside of you. It is a place where only special magic can take us. 

“How did you learn all of this stuff?” Eve asked.

“While I conked out, I learned a lot of things you may have not known,” Mia said. 

Eve used the magic inside of her, and it came swirling out of her chest into the world. The forest appeared. Mia walked up to one of the trees. She jumped and grabbed a leaf. She smelled it.

“I knew it!!!”

“Knew what???” Eve had no idea of how a leaf could be so important.

“These leaves are called dragon leaves, and that’s what the picture was supposed to represent, not the actual bracelet. And it makes sense. Mr. Beg Boodey likes and knows the agriculture of dragons by heart.”

“But why is the tree important?”

“The dragon leaf tree’s leaves are the key ingredients to the hypnotizing spell. I think that the evil man was planning on taking over everyone’s minds. They went to McDonald’s to collect supplies.”

“Well, that explains a lot” 

“It would have been nice if Lunala had put in the word, ‘McDonalds’ in her story.”

The story! The man and the woman must have been from Lunala’s story, uhhh, what was his name again, Mia? “

“The evil man.”

“Thanks, pal. And Lunala’s sister. We need to deliver this info before Lunala and the CSB get hypnotized!!!”


Chapter Eight: Surprise!

As Eve and Mia ran down the hall and pounded on the hard stone wall leading to Lunala’s room, Eve felt a sensation of worry drift through her. What if she was too late? What if everyone was already hypnotized??? No, it couldn’t happen. No! No! No! Eve pushed harder and harder on the wall, but it wouldn’t budge. Finally, Mia smiled as she realized.

“Eve, just use your magic!” Embarrassed from not knowing, Eve took a step back and let her miracles begin. She had learned about it when it had magically transported her and Mia to the forest. When she opened the door, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“SURPRISE!!!” everyone yelled. “HAPPY PROMOTION!!!”

Eve couldn’t believe it. She and Mia were getting promoted! She glanced over at Mia, whose eyes bulged out of her face. Music and laughter filled the room. 

Hey, so nice job… on the job! I heard that you’re getting promoted to professional spy with Mia!” Lunala said.

“Yep. But how did you know we were here?” Mia stammered. Lunala smiled.

Remember when I said just before you left to go searching for clues that I’ll always be with you?

“Yeah… what about it?” Eve asked.

So I never left you. Like you never left each other after you saved me. I guess panda Lunala really brought you together.”


Killersx

Today I was going to the beach. Then I realized something, something very strange. I saw dead bodies wash up to shore and slowly come to life. I ran but saw only more and more, like they were invading New York. I don’t know where they came from, but I want to know. Badly.

Back in 2010, the first wave of the apocalypse hit, and my family was taken and murdered, and now — by the beach — I saw them all coming up. I saw my cousin Jeffrey, my dad Bobby, my mom Rhona, my brother Tim, and my sister Shelby. They were all the same people, but they’d been dead for a long time. Before, they had bright orange hair, but now their hair has been darkened and looked maroon, with streaks of black. Their skin was all bloody, and their clothes were raggedy, ripped, and had blood stains on them. 

I know that I’m probably going to die or life is going to be like this forever. For my kids and then theirs too. But I also have a good feeling I am going to have to fix this fast. I really have to find how they got here and how to get rid of them. I don’t know how, so I might need some help.

***

I have been really questioning where the sugar honey ice tea they came from. So I have been calling everyone, hoping to find some people to help me do this thing, even though I think I am the last person because of the apocalypse.

So, I have been dialing a ton of random people, and so far I only have one. His name is jyeugwdgwhd. I can’t pronounce it. It sounds just like gibberish.

Life is hard. Life is hard. Life is hard.

I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Todd, and I hate horror movies. I get really nervous, and now I’m experiencing one by myself. I’m thirteen years old, and so far my favorite thing to do in life is not die. It’s not that I want to be immortal. It’s just I don’t want to die the hard way.

Because I’m not rich, all I’m living in is my basement, and yes, you think I could go to some house like somewhere fancy, but most of them have been destroyed burnt or just plain gross. So far it has worked well because there hasn’t been another wave of the apocalypse since years ago in 2016. The waves come every three years, and I don’t know why. And I really want to find out.

Right now I hope I’m safe because dead bodies have been arriving on the shore, awakening from some place in the middle of the ocean. And I don’t know how I can do all of this with a guy that doesn’t even know how to spell his name.

***

The guy said that his backstory is that he was a sad man that lived at the end of gfhj j street. I think he is from another world. Another another.

***

Hmph… the guy is actually named Gus, and he lived in Angola, Africa. He said he was just joking with everything he said. Though he told me something dark and freaky. He said he has a photographic memory, and he saw his parents one day when he was a kid. He was one month and three days old. He saw one thing, a “person” with ripped clothes, and he saw them with scissors and then stabbed his mom and dad in front of his eyes. And he thinks it was a zombina (zombie), and so he wants to get revenge and kill all the zombinas in the world.

Well one, his backstory it is really disturbing and gross. But he might help me… 

Ten days later… 

So, ummm, zombies have been really invading our houses, and well, I found one more person named Hope, and she is not that smart, but her name might be the key to win this. 

I feel like all of this was a dream, and it is all not real because before all of this, when I was nine, everything was normal. So do we live in the Matrix or what… Nevermind. 

Thirteen days later… 

Hope said that this is all a dream, and she can read the future with her magical sword, and her sword’s name was rebelitoticomarama and her name is really I’m going to take a walk. 

I started walking, but then a blue green blue portal came out under my foot, and I slipped, and I screamed, but then all of my friends came in and half of a zombie and then I saw something amazing… 

To be continued… 


Untitled

Chapter One

What in the world was happening!!! Everything seemed blurry. I was trying to take in my surroundings, so I went and grabbed onto something. It could not hold my weight, and it fell on my head, making me see things ten times worse than I could before, and a glass of some sort of liquid fell on me and shattered. Then, I looked around and saw numbers everywhere. Somehow I found a pattern and began making the numbers into shapes and real things. I did not know how this happened. I was never really sharp in math. In fact, I got D’s in math. I kept on looking around, and I saw a nice futuristic building. It had an all you can eat fro-yo station, a massive safe, a bunch of computers, and a bunch of iPads, iPhones, and Apple watches. That’s when it hit me! There were so many products from Apple. I knew it was the huge company’s storage room! Then suddenly I was turning a shade of yellow. I got so freaked out that I screamed!! I heard footsteps coming, so I ducked behind a nearby shelf full of iPads. The door creaked open, then a dark shadow pounced onto me.

I heard a little voice say, “Savanna, what in the world are you doing here?”

I recognized that voice.

“Mr. O’Malley?” I asked.

Even in the dark I could see him looking surprised.

“How do you know it is me?” he asked me.

I did not know why I told him the truth, but it just slipped out. “Your breath smells like onions.”


Chapter Two

The next thing I knew I was in the math room, which is where Mr. O’Malley taught. I was really drowsy, and I checked my pulse. I had been knocked unconscious for about two hours. I got up and steadied myself with one of the desks in there and went to the vending machine. I was so hungry. However, when I wanted a healthy energy bar, after I entered the code, the tile underneath the floor started to open. The next thing I knew, I was on a trampoline that broke my fall. I looked around and did a quick scan of the room. It had a nice and soft couch, a vault, a bed, and a huge TV screen. Then I decided to sit on the couch and reflect on what had just happened. I was so confused. Why did I check my pulse to see how long I had been unconscious? What was suddenly making me so smart? How did I fall into the floor? Is Mr. O’Malley evil? Is this his hideout? I thought I was on to something. I knew how this happened. Mr. O’Malley needed privacy, so he picked the only thing in the vending machine that he knew we would never touch. Wait, this did not add up. How was I suddenly becoming so smart? I saw the tile slowly creeping open. Therefore, I jumped to safety under the couch. I heard a creak coming from the trampoline. I took a little quick peek, and I saw Mr. O’Malley. Thankfully he did not notice me. He went straight to the computer and began typing something. He kept on looking around to see if anyone was in there spying on him.

This was what made me to jump out and say, “What are you doing!!!”

Instead of responding with an answer, he asked me, “What are you doing here?”

“I asked you first!” I said in response.

He gave me a hard stare and said, “If you don’t tell me now, I will give you an F on your report card.” 

Here is what I found for, “If you don’t tell me now, I will give you an F on your report card.”

I don’t know how, but I sounded like Siri. I was so freaked out. Wait!! I’ve got it. This was all caused by the liquid thing that fell from the table. Everything was falling into place! Since we were at the Apple store, I was accidentally exposed to their top secret liquid that made Apple products so smart. That was why I was so smart, and that was why I knew so much suddenly. Also Siri was part of Apple. That’s why I sounded like Siri, and that’s also why I was turning colors based on my mood. That’s an app called D.I.Y. mood clothes and skin. I couldn’t believe that I just found that out! That was so awesome! Now I could know every strategy, be smart, and know every app that would either help me or just be really fun.

Mr. O’Malley on the other hand seemed a mix between mad, shocked and horrified!!!

He instantly started to yell at me. “How did you figure that out!”

After I sounded like Siri, I replied, “I started thinking about pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, and right then and there I started to say the entire definition of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Noun, an invented long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust. Do want to hear the definition of Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?”

Mr. O’Malley instantly said, “No!”

He sounded like he didn’t want to hear another word from me. 

Also I knew myself well, so I knew that I would have never known the definition to pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I would only know that if a miracle happened. Other than that I would probably not know, like, not even at the end of time. That’s how bad I was at vocabulary. Wait, hear me out. I have a good reason for not studying vocabulary. I personally thought that was a waste of time. For example, vocabulary was just a harder and fancier way to say a simple word. Therefore it was absolutely useless to waste your time to memorize them.

Then Mr. O’Malley inched in my face… I woke in my bedroom, and I thought it was all a dream until looked at the clock. It was 4:00 pm. Therefore, it wasn’t possible that I slept from morning to 4:00PM!!! I was actually an early bird. I woke up everyday at 6:30 to catch the bus, so I had a habit of waking up early. Ugh, Mr. O’Malley was so obsessed with knocking people out. Also not to mention, how did he get me in my bedroom? For now, all I could conclude was that he had a problem.

O-M-G! I totally forgot all about my science project. It was due tomorrow, Monday!! I kind of got distracted and ended up eating my project supplies, and there was no time to get more. (Also did I mention I lived in the Apple store? My parents worked there and didn’t have much money, so we slept in my mom’s and dad’s office. Also they worked for a long time, and I was not supposed to go outside without permission.) The assignment was to make an electron out of candy. Also, it was assigned like three weeks ago. Oh no, I just realized that if Mr. O’Malley already hated me for figuring out some classified stuff, he would hate me even more for forgetting to do my assignment that was assigned three weeks ago. Three weeks was literally the longest time he’d ever given us to do the assignment. I was dead.


Chapter Three

Monday.

At school.

I ended up with no assignment, so I got detention.

“Great, nothing like thinking about what I have done for an hour.”

(Our school was strict about detention. There were even rankings to see how long you needed detention. Once, a kid named Blade got detention for five hours every day for the rest of the school year. It was September. He got this because he skipped school for a week. That probably explained why he moved to Alaska. Also he said he went there to “study penguins and how global warming is impacting the Earth” in October. However, we all knew that he was still here because I saw him around my house in December, and I told it to my bestie, and she spilled the beans to my other friend, and just like that everyone knew. I don’t know how, but then I was elected class president, and we never had a class president!) 

Finally, detention was over. I was walking back from school when Mr. O’Malley ran like his legs were on fire from a doughnut store across the street. Then a person who looked like the manager came out running, and his face was red to the point he looked like tomato.

Then, Mr. O’Malley came running towards me and looked into my eyes and said, “If you tell anybody about me stealing doughnuts, I am telling Teddy Herman to fire your parents.”

And just like that he ran away. Ugh, I hated how he was so close to Teddy Herman! 

When I got home I scanned the whole room for bugs. I actually found three, one under the couch, another one resting on the pipes in the bathroom sink, and another one in the light hanging from the ceiling. I took them out and went into the store for a “stroll.” I put all three of the bugs in random peoples bags, and I was on my way home. (By the way, Teddy Herman was the owner of Apple.) I had decided to tell my parents what happened.

As soon as both of my parents were home, I made them sit down at the dining table, and it got serious. I told them everything that happened so far. Then they freaked out and gave me a lecture about not telling them sooner. And they were planning to sue the company because I found bugs in our apartment. Then I told my parents about how Mr. O’Malley stole a bunch of doughnuts from Delish Doughnuts. Then I kept on rambling on about how I hated him and how he threatened me.

Then in the middle of that, my dad said, “You shouldn’t hate him. He’s your uncle… ”


Emma Williams

Preface

Hugo reaches his hand out to mine. Our fingers touch and stay like that. It may be the happiest moment of my life, if M. Clément hadn’t just stormed in the room.

“You lied to me!” I snarl at M. Clément.

Watch out!” he yells.

Just then, something very large hits my head, and I black out.


Chapter One: M. Clément’s Bakery

On my walk to school, I always pass M. Clément’s bakery on the corner. 

“Hello!” I say and wave.

M. Clément waves back, and I smile.

“Come for your usual?” he asks me.

“Sorry,” I say. “I’m a little late for school.”

He shrugs. “Next time.”

I look back at him one last time and make my way to school.


Chapter Two: The Hourglass

The next day, Mr. Clément motions to me to come inside his bakery. It is the weekend, so I have time to spend with him. I give a little tug on Daisy, my dog’s leash, and we cross the street.

When I walk in the door, Penny, M. Clément’s cat, greets me with her usual rub on the leg.

“Bonjour! Mon petit assistant,” he says, grabbing a croissant de chocolat for me.

He passes it to me, and I sit down in one of his boutique coffee tables. I munch away vigorously, and when I am done, M. Clément sweeps my crumbs off the table with one graceful motion of his little broom.

“Merci, M. Clément,” I say to him. I love how it is now, like old times.

“Always,” he smiles. Then he pauses and adds, “Emma, I have to talk to you about something.” That’s weird, he never uses my first name, I think it’s because he doesn’t think it’s classic French.

“Yeah, about what?” I ask, suddenly getting very interested.

“Come, I will show you something.” M. Clément leads me to the back of his bakery. 

I see Hugo Bergeron kneading the dough for a croissant — or maybe an éclair, I can’t tell. 

I wave to him, and he gives me a toothy smile. I silently laugh.

“Hey,” Hugo says to me and goes back to kneading his piece of dough, and when M. Clément pulls me along with him even further back, Hugo replaces his “hey” with “ou, au revoir!”

M. Clément leads me further than I have been before, and we enter a small room with the label M. Clément on the door. 

It is very cozy in here, with furniture lining most of the walls, except for the wall with the door and the one with the fireplace. I do not know how M. Clément manages to get the fireplace in his little suite he rented for his boutique bakery. It just grows and grows every time he shows me a little more of what I had thought to be un petit boulangerie.

M. Clément motions for me to sit down, so I find myself seated in the most comfortable sofa I have ever sat on and with peppermint tea (my favorite type).

“Emma Williams,” he says, rummaging through a knapsack he has lying on the floor. “Do you know what this is?” M. Clément finally finds what he is looking for and brings it out, so I can examine it carefully. 

In his hands sits an hourglass with two oiseaux winding around it. The birds look like white swans but with red stripes forming around their necks. 

“They look to me like regular oiseaux, swans, M. Clément,” I say. 

“Emma, look closer, look inside!” M. Clément says with much enthusiasm.

Inside there is clean, white sand flowing forever toward… the top? Okay, I admit, that’s a bit odd but otherwise… I don’t know.

“Well, the sand’s going toward the top — is that what you’re getting at?” I ask M. Clément.

“Yes yes, but don’t you feel it?” I have no idea what M. Clément is talking about.

I rack my brain for anything I might feel and surprisingly, I feel something. I just have this feeling that something is getting low. I don’t know why, but I feel like I need to refill the thing or else… I trail off. 

“Is… is something getting low?” I ask, feeling very stupid in doing so. 

“Yes yes, now you’re getting it,” M. Clément says. “We have one more minute.”

“Sorry?” I ask him, getting confused.

“Emma, do you notice the draining feeling?”

“Yes,” I do actually feel it.

“When it feels this depressing… there is only one more minute,” M. Clément pronounces minute like minuuuuuuuuuuute. Well, I guess everyone here does.

I think M. Clément sees my puzzled face because he says, “When someone spreads a bad rumor around about me, the hourglass will slowly start losing its sand, and if not stopped, will cause mass destruction. An old friend gave it to me as a gift, but over the years, I have started to question if it is really a gift or a curse in disguise.”

“What kind of destruction will it cause?” I ask.

“Well, the sand will start slipping out of ze hourglass, and then I do not know. Anything could happen from there!”

“Like what?”

“The ‘ole city of Paris could be consumed by sand for all I know!”

“Is there any way to stop it?” I ask in my very American accent.

“Well I do not know! I would guess you could somehow prove the rumor wrong,” M. Clément says with a sigh. “It has never worked.”

“But — but every problem has multiple solutions, if you are thinking! Being creative!” I pause. No one says anything for a few moments. “Isn’t that what you always tell me?”

“Yeah, yeah… I guess.” 

“Um, M. Clément? Are you okay?” 

“Yes, of course,” he says quickly. “Why don’t you go back to your house and spend some time with your papa?”

Well that was the end of our little discussion. I head home for dinner.


Chapter Three: Family

Mama has dinner ready for me. It is pasta and potatoes. Matthew, my brother, is already sitting at the table. We don’t talk much, and that is when I get lost in thought. 

I realize now that I haven’t yet told you that my family are immigrants from the United States. Well, my papa went to university here in Paris and met my mama — and he stayed. I guess we are originally from Africa ‘cause we’re African American, but you get the idea, anyway. 

I have frizzy dark brown hair like milk chocolate. I have the same bright sky-blue eyes as my Mama — very much unlike my Papa’s hazelnut eyes. And of course my caramel skin. I love caramel. It is my favourite thing in the world.

Now back to dinner. Mama is already washing the dishes. Wait — dinner is done? I look at my plate. I have eaten a half a potato, nothing else.

“Yes, that’s right Emma,” Mama says. “You have a lot more eating to do.”


Chapter Four: The Bergerons

I, yes, you’ve already guessed it, stop by M. Clément’s Bakery this morning. I rub Penny’s tummy, say hello to Hugo, and follow M. Clément to the back.

He tells me almost exactly what he told me yesterday, but with one more thing that catches my eye — or wait no, my ears?

After the part where he tells me about proving the rumor wrong, and the “It has never worked” part, he says, “Unless … no, never mind.”

Of course, I say, “What? Please tell me, M. Clément!” 

“No no, it wouldn’t work.”

“Just tell me,” I urge. 

I think he gives up on my obstinate attitude, because he says, “Oh, okay. If we must.” He pauses to clear his throat. “Well, I’ve tried and so has most of the generations of people here in Paris, but never has anyone else. So, I thought partly because your father is originally from the United States, well maybe you would be able to help me?”

“Yes, yes, M. Clément! Of course I’ll help you!” I say in excitement. “So, what is the rumor, and who spread it?” 

“Well, I believe one of my old friends from school still holds a very nasty grudge on me. His name: Monsieur Thomas Bergeron.”

“You mean Hugo’s father?” I say very loudly. 

“Yes, I do indeed. And that is why I would like Hugo to come with you on your little adventure. I think he will be key. Do you agree?”

I blush almost as red as a tomato. I have a crush on Hugo Bergeron. There, I said it to you. Yes! Now it feels so much better. I have so many secrets. And sometimes it’s hard to keep them totally sucked inside. So they come out in emotions. 

And here’s what I say to M. Clément: “Yes.” And then all of my emotions I have been trying to keep in come rushing out, all right in front of M. Clément. 

Anger. Guilt. Fury. Joy. And something in between all of them. And I start crying. 

M. Clément just sits there. Then he walks out of the room. He comes back carrying a little brown bag. He holds it out to me, and I open it. Inside is a croissant de chocolat. 

“Go home, Emma. We can get started whenever you feel ready.”

“Thank you, M. Clément.”

“Of course.” He smiles mega-big.


Chapter Five: Thoughts

When I get home, I lie down on my bed and just think. I think about my whole big life. All the years I’ve passed, all the years to come.

In French, we say, instead of I am (how old you are), I have (your age) years.

I like it better that way. (No offense, English.)

I have so much longer to come, and I’ve only lived a tiny bit of my life. 

I have honestly considered saying no to M. Clément, and just ignoring him. Never going into his bakery again. But he’s the only true friend I have. I mean, I have some friends from school and other places, but none of them really understand me, and how hard it was to leave New York. And not just the city, but all my friends, my family, and my apartment. 

We moved to Paris because Papa found a spot in a big law firm here. We were all so happy for him at the time, but I didn’t realize then what it would mean in the long term. 

So, on the weekend, I will go to M. Clément’s bakery and be ready to confess. 


Chapter Six: My Confession

He sits me down in one of his awesomely comfortable armchairs, and I tell him everything. I don’t even miss the part about New York. And I tell him about my crush on Hugo. 

“Emma,” he says once I am done. “I will go get Hugo now, and we can keep your little crush a secret.”

“I will if you will.”

“Deal.” The few minutes of waiting for M. Clément to come feel like hours. 

Finally, M. Clément comes back with Hugo trailing behind him. 

“Oh, hey, Emma,” Hugo says. “I didn’t realize you were here, too.”

M. Clément saves me from a very embarrassing answer by saying, “Yes. We want you to help us.”

“Help you with what?”

M. Clément tells Hugo our plan. While he is talking, Hugo just nods. “I know it’s a lot to ask you, Hugo. You know, asking you to believe your father spread this horrible rumor and then getting you to work against him,” M. Clément finishes. 

“I know,” Hugo says.

I am suddenly all confused. “You know? What?”

“My father. He hated when I told him that I had been going to M. Clément’s bakery.”

“Then how do you still go?”

“I sneak away after school.”

“But you have after school, right?” I ask. “With Madam Dejardin.” I know that because my older brother is in grade eight with Hugo. 

“I sneak away from that.”

“But my brother said you’re always at after school.” This will go on forever: me asking something, Hugo proving me wrong, me trying to prove him wrong, etc.

“That our little secret,” Hugo says with a hint of a smile. “Now anyway, Emma, are you free next Saturday?” 

“Yeah.”

“Okay, cool. You can meet at my place, then.”

And that was it. Hugo walked out of the room leaving me and M. Clément alone in the room.

“Okay then,” I say and walk out.


Chapter Seven: Papa and Me/Our Sleepover

Friday night, I cannot sleep. I stay up all night wondering what will happen. I don’t understand. It just seems so vague. 

Papa knocks on my door at 3:43. 

“I don’t hear you snoring,” he says. 

“You’re back?”

“Yep.” He sits on my bed. “Fill me in on what’s happening in your life. School. Friends.”

“Can we pinky promise you won’t tell Mama, Matthew especially, or anyone?”

“Promise.” We latch pinkies. And shake. “Now you tell me.”

I spill. Everything.

“Wow,” Papa says when I’m done. “No kidding you’re having trouble sleeping.” He pauses. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t we have a dad-daughter sleepover?”

“Sure!” We talk about things the rest of the night. And I kind of just drift to sleep, listening to my father’s soothing drawl.


Chapter Eight: Waking Up

Papa is shaking me in my dream — wait no, not a dream. I bolt awake. 

“Hey, kiddo,” he says. “Time to have breakfast.”


Chapter Nine: The Bergeron’s House/Mansion

I arrive at Hugo’s place at exactly 11:26. I’ve never realized how big it is. 

There is a gateway in which I open and follow a stone path with lamps along it surrounded with trees. 

I finally get to the big wooden door. I ring the bell. Hugo greets me with his classic toothy grin. 

He leads me through a living room and to another, smaller living room. M. Bergeron is sitting there. 

M. Bergeron has teal eyes, quite like Hugo’s, which compliments his jet black hair. 

“Are you Matthew’s sister?” he asks. 

“Yeah.”

M. Bergeron opens his mouth to speak again, but is cut off by Hugo. 

“So, getting to the point, we were wondering if we could go up to my room.”

A woman, I’m guessing to be Hugo’s mother, walks into the room. 

She has a bob in her perfect dirty blond hair, just like her son. 

“Sure,” she says. “I’ll make you guys a snack.” She smiles.


Chapter Ten: The Diary

Hugo leads me to what I’m guessing to be his room. It is so big. One wall is covered with windows from ceiling to floor with long ornate drapes covering the view. Dirty clothes line the floor, and his shelf is covered with photos of him, Matthew, and Oliver. 

“So, I snuck into my dad’s office, and here’s what I found,” Hugo says. He is about to bring out a piece of paper when I cut him off.

“Wait — you snuck into your dad’s office?!” I smile really big now. 

“Yup,” Hugo shoves a battered black leather book into my face. “My dad’s diary from 19 years ago. I figured out that’s when the person, my dad, as you’ll see, gave M. Clément the hourglass.”

 I open up the diary, very curious. Curly cursive covers the pages in French, but I will translate it for you. Here’s what it says:

03/09/00

Dear Diary,

I gave my old friend the hourglass today. It feels like such a big weight lifted off my shoulders. M. Clément will pay for what he did to our family. Tomorrow I will spread the rumor. He was the rich, famous one. I had to fight for my position. Not him. Now everyone will think he lied. He will be fired, and I will be the next mayor. My son will be happy. We can live as a family. Not a broken family because of Hugo Clément, but a real, happy family. 

M. Bergeron

“Wow, Hugo,” is all I can say. 

“Yup.”

“That changes everything.”

“We have to tell M. Clément!” I yell. 

“No, but I think he already knows. The rumor makes him look really bad.”

“Hey, you’re right!” I say. “Am I ever mad at him. I trusted him!” I start pacing. 

“Hey, Emma. Don’t get so upset. Just face it. One o’clock tomorrow in front of my house.”

“Cool.”


Chapter Eleven: Back To the Unfamiliar Yet Familiar Bakery

I get to his house at 1:02. Two minutes late. Whatever.

I ring the doorbell, and Hugo emerges.

“You ready?”

“Yup,” he says.

We walk to the bus stop near Hugo’s house and take it seven stops. We get out exactly two blocks from M. Clément’s bakery.

When we get there, I open the door and take a deep breath. M. Clément is nowhere in sight.

Hugo reaches his hand out to mine. Our fingers touch and stay like that. It may be the happiest moment of my life, if M. Clément hadn’t just stormed in the room.

“You lied to me!” I snarl at M. Clément.

Watch out!” he yells.

Just then, something very large hits my head, and I black out.


Chapter Twelve: At the Hospital

I wake up in a bed that is not mine. I realize I am in a hospital because a nurse comes up to me.

“You have lots of visitors,” she says in French. 

“Who?” I ask.

“Do you want your family to come in?”

“Yes.”

The nurse opens a door and Mama, Papa, and Matthew rush in. They hug me super tight. 

“You have a concussion,” says Matthew. “Apparently it’s really bad and could cause severe brain damage if not treated properly.” 

“Don’t just say it like that,” Mama scolds. 

“Sorry.”

“Are you okay?” Papa asks. “We’ll always be here for you.”

“I know. I love you.”

“We love you too, always.”

I smile.

The nurse enters the room again. She says, “You have more visitors. Hugo Bergeron, and M. Clément.”

“You can let them in.”

She opens the door again, and Hugo rushes to my side. “Are you okay?” he asks. “That was a really big piece of concrete that hit your head!”

“Wait — that’s what gave me the concussion?”

“Yup, and you’re lucky you survived!” 

M. Clément pushes past Hugo. He says, “I am so sorry, Emma. I guess there isn’t anything that can make up for it.”

“What about a croissant au chocolat every day?”

“Sure. And hey, you should really get your ceiling fixed!”

M. Clément smiles. I smile even bigger. 

The End!


Dragon Time (Part Two)

In New York City, Maria and the dragons were fooling around in Maria’s new room. They were making a mess and knocked a mug off a dresser, and it was a mug that Maria hated, so Maria was okay with it. And then they burned the dresser for fun. Nothing was in it, so Maria was okay with it. She knew that the dragons liked breaking stuff.

When the dragons were about to break her bed, she said, “No! That’s my bed!”

The dragons said, “Fine!

They went into the kitchen, and then Maria heard screaming. It was the cook! The dragons made her omelette burnt. Then, she had to make bacon, and when she left, the dragons cooked it for her and shoved it on a plate, took it to Maria’s room, and started eating. They snuck a bottle of beer into Maria’s room. Maria knew the dragons loved beer, so she was okay with it. The dragons drained the bottle very quickly. The dragons then trooped back down to the kitchen. They grabbed a jar of jam, took some pancakes, and trooped back up. And they gobbled them down. And then they drained up a whole jar of jam.

Maria was like, “Guys, what are you doing?”

And just then their tails were disappearing behind the door. Then the cook heard someone screaming. It was Maria. The tails had closed the door, and she heard the lock. And then she heard it again. When she tried to open the door, it opened smoothly. Then Maria heard someone screaming.

The cook was yelling at the dragons. “Bad dragons! Bad dragons! No beer for you!”

Then they heard something being scratched. It was the dragons scratching at the walls. Maria went to the wall and sighed. The dragons had completely ruined the wall. Then the earth dragon trooped in and fixed the wall. He used his mind to transport himself to Maria’s room. Then he flew out the window and circled over the city doing what everybody desired. But when somebody needed a shower, he used his mind to bring the water dragon into the house, and he gave a shower with nice and cool water. When somebody needed some quiet, he made earmuffs and put them around somebody’s ears. And when people were building a building, he always used his mind to make it spring out of nowhere.

Wowy made cars appear when somebody needed to go somewhere, and he delivered mail. He came home and had some beer.

Maria said, “Look, I found something!”

She pointed to an enormous black egg. Then she hit it with a hammer, and a dozen little brown dragons came out. And they looked exactly the same as Wowy! Then all 13 dragons made a pink egg. When it hatched, a pink dragon came out. And then it made a cupcake go on to a plate. It also made a delicious steak.

And then Maria said, “Pretty cool, huh?”

No!” screamed the dragons.

Then Maria said, “Why not?”

They said, “Because we can do that!”

Then the dragon made an exact copy of Wowy. Then, it made an exact copy of the sun and moon dragons. Then it made a copy of their pet unicorn. Then it said that it could make things duplicate and it could make things appear. Then it made an exact copy of some ground beef. Then it made a really tall beer bottle appear. He did this process several times, and there were ten beer bottles. They also made an exact copy of dreamer and the earth dragon. It also made a copy of itself. Then there was an ultimate dragon battle… 

In the end, the pink dragon won. Once they finished, they duplicated all the bushes with the pink dragon. The pink dragon also sneakily made some apple trees appear. Then she duplicated them, too. Then she duplicated herself, and she made her second self go around duplicating everything she saw, except for living things because otherwise things would get mixed up. Then, the real pink dragon made an illusion appear and an obstacle course. She made the dragons go through it. Most of the dragons failed. Once they failed, the pink dragons made them appear in front of her and were disqualified from the second challenge. The others who succeeded went through the rest of the course. Eventually, there was only one left, the earth dragon. 

The pink dragon went to oppose the earth dragon. The last stage was a battle. They shot fire and water, and they used everything they had, until suddenly the earth dragon used his power which no one else had found out. The power was… 

Instant Death.

The earth dragon used his power, and boom, the pink dragon lay dead. And then the pink dragon dissolved into powder, and the powder melted into the ground. The powder then exploded out of the ground in the shape of an egg. 

It was an egg! Then the egg collapsed, and there stood a snake. (Do snakes stand?) Then the snake laid eggs out of its mouth.

And to the snake, Maria said, “Be gone!”

The snake walked away. (Do snakes walk?) Then the eggs opened, and there were many tiny pink dragons. But they were vicious and sinister! They started swarming, the dragons, except for one… that one grew and grew until it became the healing dragon! 

Maria ran toward it and told it to heal the others. The dragon healed them, and then he became invulnerable, which meant his skin turned to iron except for one spot. His weak spot was his toenail. And then it just so happened that the dragons attacked him in the toenail. And it so happened that the healing dragon ran. And then he flew away, the pink dragons after him.

Then he screamed, “Incoming!” and he flew straight into a hospital.

The pink dragons went after him, but he used his power on hospitals, and they exploded as soon as they got in range. And on that happy note, he flew back. And while he was doing his hospital thing, Maria found out the pink dragon’s weakness. The weakness was beer! It was weird because all the other dragons loved beer — that was all they wanted to drink. That’s why they couldn’t defeat the pink dragons with their own weapons. And it was sad because they had beer. 

Only one dragon was left, and he charged. And then Jack had a brilliant idea.

“Burrito fight!!!” he yelled.

They got out frozen burritos, defrosted them, and hurled them at the pink dragon. The pink dragon dodged a guacamole one with no problem, but then the salsa one smacked him in the face. He went spiralling into the air, and with a quick swipe from a potato one, he crashed down. 

Then for the final thing: the earth dragon hurled a pork one and made the pork burrito grow fists, a head, feet, and wings, and then it started punching the pink dragon, and it was a sumo wrestling fight in the air. And so the burrito faked left, and the dragon faked right, and then the burrito whirled around kicked the dragon in the face.

Maria yelled, “Yeah!” and then the pork burrito opened up, and a flying pig charged out and finished off the dragon by blowing beer out of its mouth.

And they flew back to Dragon Land and lived happily ever after. The end.

Not!

The pink dragon fell onto the ground, and the ground absorbed him. And there, the grass started singing. The earth dragon groaned and fell. The green dragon danced a jig and also fell. Then Jack extinguished Mark. Mark dried up Jack in the process. And then, all of them got back up and forgot the earth dragon’s power was instant death. It was actually knockout. So, they all got back up, including the pink dragon. It was the good one, not the vicious and sinister one. Then the flying pig became a pet. The pig started playing with the unicorn. And then the dragons played tag. The earth dragon made walls in front of the others while Wowy made them disappear. So they were playing tag, and Maria was playing with them. Then the earth dragon made bigger walls, so Maria couldn’t jump over, but he made weak walls, so she crashed through them. Then the earth dragon made them harder, so she couldn’t break them, but she tried to dodge them. But the walls just kept moving themselves in front of them.

Then the dragons raided the kitchen for some beer. The cook was nice, so she let them have it. Then they fried an omelette and ate it. Then she got mad.

Then a new dragon dropped from the sky and said, “Wh-at’s n-ext?”

And another dragon of that type dropped from the sky onto his head and said, “What’s next?” Then the dragon made a shield and threw it into Dragon Land. Then he said, “What’s next?”

Then the shield hit him on the head, and he tried to stay conscious as he said, “What’s next?” Then he passed out. When he was conscious again, he threw a sword into Dragon Land. Then he said, “What’s next?”

Then the sword came back and struck the new dragon in the heart, but nothing happened. The dragon said, “What’s next?” Then the shield slammed him in the face and killed him.

Then the dragons drank some more beer because the dragons were being obnoxious. They were partying because he died. They didn’t exactly not like them. It’s just that they were being annoying. If anything, they wanted reinforcements for their army.

What the dragons didn’t know was that Maria was a cannibal monster who was going to overthrow the dragons once they took over the world.

Not!

Actually what the dragons didn’t know was that the dragons they killed were very annoying but had extraordinary powers. Their powers could even heal death. The powers absorbed into the ground, and then the ground could heal death. But it could only heal those dragons. It healed those dragons, and then they became actual earth dragons as the earth had their powers. And they had the earth’s powers. Those dragons again began to be annoying, but when they got mad, they rose evil enemies from the ground. And then they had to defeat them again. The worst time was when they rose the pink dragons. They walked around trying to kill the humans (the pink dragons, I mean. Not the annoying ones). But one of the annoying dragons powers was making death. 

The dragons flew around, and the annoying dragons also flew around. When the annoying dragons saw someone, they pestered them by throwing rocks, and then when they wanted someone to come back from the dead, they made that someone come back. Afterward as a sacrifice, they killed that flying pig. But after, it blew beer in their faces. But before it could reach their faces, the water dragon manipulated the water and the beer to make it rapid fire machine gun mode at the pig. The pig got soaked, and then it ran toward the wall and slammed its head into the wall. Then the dragons flew, and the fire dragon barbequed the pig. They killed the pig, but the annoying dragon made the pig come back to life. The dragons walked away, and they lived happily ever after. Not!

Then an army of vicious snakes, which could fly, attacked. They fought them, and they got bitten, but it didn’t affect them. After the siege of the snakes, they partied… not! Another army of snakes attacked. These had a different weakness. Not claw. Their weakness was unicorns. But they didn’t know that, and they did the same strategy that they did with the pink dragons. The healing dragon did his thing with the hospitals, and they did a burrito fight. But this time they were pizza burritos. A pizza burrito the size of a grenade hit the army of snakes and exploded. Pepperoni flew through the air, blinding the snakes. The snakes slithered around, bumping into each other, and then Maria figured out the weakness. She got out a regular burrito — it was a pork burrito. She made the dragons breathe on it and… she threw it! It landed in the army, and a unicorn charged out. The unicorn romped around until all the snakes were dead, and that was what the dragons called The Siege of the Snakes.

And then they lived happily ever after… 


The Weird Pig

Once there was this pig named Kograt. He was 1,000 years old and very young for a pig.

One day, Kograt felt ill. He thought, Is it the potato smashed with tomatoes or the hay smushed with onions? Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the illness still didn’t get better! 

One winter morning, Kograt found himself farting ice cream!

So immediately he yelled, “Author!!!

And a pig dressed as a doctor came running,  “What is it this time?” the pig doctor named Author asked. 

“I’m farting out ice cream!” Korgat sang in an opera voice.

“You’ll be fine. It’s just a sign that you’re becoming a computer!” Author said in a calming voice. (That, my friends, was totally not true. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, so just saying!) 

“Lskdjf lkjoijehoiuk jslkdjf iw jlsejf sdlkfj dijweoifjio jwijfihrglkjdhfglksjdfhglsjfdh bla bla boiufijfjjd lba lb bla bla b6la,” Author said.

While Author was babbling on about scientific stuff, Kograt slowly dozed off and suddenly woke up, and he felt he was sinking in his bed of hay. And he dropped down a portal that led him inside a toilet. Since he was a weird pig, he had taco wings. So he used them to fly around the toilet and then after a few laps, the taco wings got smelly and just broke off. Now the pig had nothing to do, so he searched around the toilet and found a computer.

And he said, “Hi, my future self. You do know that I am going to be a computer someday, right?”

But the computer just answered him back with a funny cat video.

Sixteen hours later… 

Kograt had nothing to do, so he just wandered around the whole time. Suddenly a snake appeared in the bathroom and ate him. And he turned into an owl. He didn’t know he turned into an owl at all, because he was dumb. In the snake’s belly, all he found was dust. So he tried eating the dust, but that didn’t turn out so well because the dust had poisonous snake venom. It was the exact type that will turn any owl into a pig, then a rabbit, then a sofa, then a tissue box, then a pig again, then a rabbit, then a sofa, then a tissue box, then a pig, then a rabbit, then a sofa, then a tissue box over and over again… so… Kograt changed back into a pig. Then changed into a rabbit. Then changed into a sofa. Then changed into a tissue box. And finally, after many, many, many changes, he finally changed back into a pig, then stopped.

But Kograt wasn’t the only one having a bad day. (Well, it wasn’t bad for Korgat since he was dumb). The snake was having a bad day too, a bad flu day. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and the snake’s flu still didn’t recover.

One autumn afternoon, the snake started farting books.

So he immediately called out, “Gunther!”

And a snake dressed as a doctor came slithering. “What is it this time?” Gunther asked.

“I’m farting out books!” the snake howled.

“You’ll be fine. It’s just a sign that you’re going to puke out a pig,” Gunther said calmly.

That, my friends, was true. After eating a lot of medicine, the snake finally puked out Kograt. Since Kograt was free, the snake was hungry. So the snake ate Kograt again. And the same thing happened over and over and over again.

First, the snake felt sick.

Then, he called out, “Gunther!”

Then, he ate medicine. Then, he puked out Kograt. Then, he ate Kograt again and on and on and on!

Finally, Kograt escaped and then went and tried to get out of the toilet. But then he found an X-ray, and he tried it on himself. And he found out that all this chaos happened because he ate hay smushed with onions, plus tomatoes smashed with potatoes together (which gives all pigs constipation).

Being in and out and in and out of the snake’s belly made him smarter, so he put his taco wings back on, since the smell had drained away, and sang, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” in an opera voice as fast as he can.

And so that made his taco wings charge up and out of the toilet.

But suddenly, a dark shadow appeared behind him, and there was a Frankenstein. Not like other pigs, Kograt was really fond of Frankenstein! He even read all Frankenstein’s comics! So, Kograt climbed on his back and pulled off his head and used Frankenstein’s mouth to shrink Frankenstein’s head to keep as a souvenir. That, Frankenstein found really interesting — that his mouth was a shrinking machine and that he could still see even though his head had been pulled off by a pig to keep as a souvenir.

Kograt suddenly felt his taco wings droop down slowly… 

“AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Korgat was falling backwards down a 100,000,000,000,000 foot toilet! Then Kograt woke up, his heart still racing, and realized it was a dream! Relieved, Korgat felt something bumpy underneath him, and he looked, and it was a teeny tiny Frankenstein head… 

The End


The Head Family

Mr. Big Head

When Mr. Big Head was a little kid, his parents told him not to get so angry. But did he listen? No. Mr. Big Head is an angry man. Every day he gets madder and madder and madder. One day that got too far. It was a normal day for Mr. Big Head. He was mad because his breakfast was a tad bit too hot and spicy. Mr. Big Head was really grumpy. When he went to work, he was really mad because his computer wasn’t starting. So he smashed it! Everybody in the room stared. That made Mr. Big Head even madder. Then he went over to his boss’s computer. Boom! He smashed it! And he kept doing that until everybody’s computer was smashed.

“Okay, now everything’s fine!” said Mr. Big Head.

Then a little kid was making too much noise on the street. That made Mr. Big Head really angry. He took his broken computer and threw it out the window at the little kids. All the little kids ran home.

And Mr. Big Head ran after them yelling, “Puny little kids!”

Work was over for Mr. Big Head. He decided to take a cab. Somebody by accident on the way bumped him lightly. So he punched them out of the atmosphere! Finally he got into his cab. The cab was smelling bad. So he started yelling at the driver. Eventually he punched him. He Finally he reached home. The door wasn’t opening for five seconds, so he kicked it down. The cat was in front of his way, so he kicked it to who knows where. He was eating dinner, and he was getting angrier and angrier about his dinner. His dinner was yuck in every way.

“Me want candy!” he screamed.

Finally, it happened. Kaboom! Mr. Big Head’s head exploded. After he died, the rest of his body lay in jail because he assaulted a cab driver.

The End.

And the moral of this story is don’t be like Mr. Big Head in any way. I mean, unless you want to die by getting too angry.


Mrs. Little Head and The Deadly Laughter

Mrs. Little Head was a really happy person.

When she was a little kid, her parents told her, “You should control your emotions. You shouldn’t be too happy all the time. It isn’t good for you.”

Did she listen? Well, no. She didn’t really have a choice — she was just happy all the time! It was a special day for Mrs. Little Head. New neighbors had joined the neighborhood, and two little puppies were giving birth to other puppies. Mrs. Little Head was really happy. She set off for the ceremony of the puppies. She had arrived just in time. The ceremony was starting. Mrs. Little Head thought the ceremony was really good. She was super happy. On her way out of the ceremony, she passed the two new neighbors.

She said, “Hi, new neighbors, what are your names?”

The neighbors answered, “Mason and John.” And they added, “Stay away, or else!”

Mrs. Little Head was like, “Okay! I’ll stay away!” She smiled at the neighbors. 

She overhead the two neighbors saying, “That woman is too happy. She should really not be this happy.” 

Then Mrs. Little Head said, “It’s good to be too happy! It’s not too good to be too angry like Mr. Big Head, my brother.”

Mrs. Little Head set off for work. Today was a big day for their company. They were getting so many orders all over the world. Can you get me one pack of pencils and two pillows? was one of the orders. Can you get me one king bed and two twin beds? was another order, etc. 

Mrs. Little Head was really happy. She was known throughout the office for being really cheerful and happy. At lunch break, a lot of people came up to Mrs. Little Head and started telling her jokes.

One of the jokes was, “What do you call someone who steals burgers?”

Mrs. Little Head said, “What do you call someone who steals burgers?”

“A burger-lar,” they said.

Mrs. Little Head started roaring with laughter. Then other people also started laughing really loud, which made Mrs. Little Head laugh even louder and harder. Soon the whole neighborhood was laughing. Because of one man. Mrs. Little Head laughed so hard that she choked on a piece of rotting bologna sandwich and couldn’t breathe. Nobody realized she was choking because they were all laughing so much. Five minutes later, Mrs. Little Head had passed away. The guy who told the joke went to jail because Mrs. Little Head had died. Nobody ever forgot about Mrs. Little Head, and the joke was added to the “don’t-dos” around the world.

The End. 

Mr. Normal Head

Before you start reading this chapter about Mr. Normal Head, there is one thing you need to know about him. He is very different than Mrs. Little Head and Mr. Big Head. Unlike Mrs. Little Head and Mr. Big Head, Mr. Normal head has absolutely no feelings whatsoever.

Mr. Normal Head was waking up on a normal day. Any day was normal for Mr. Normal Head. It didn’t matter if he won the lottery or not, pooped in his pants, or received a bill from the bank, or was robbed. His trademark reaction was just to shrug. He didn’t really know what to do in any situation.

Mr. Normal Head was eating cereal for breakfast. He accidentally spilled it on his pants. He just shrugged. “Eh, whatever. Just cereal. Could have been worse.”

Mr. Normal Head went outside to work. It was pouring really hard, and there were thunderstorms and tornadoes and any bad thing you could think of. Even Mr. Big Head. He shrugged. “Eh, it’s just all the bad things in the world that could ever happen. Who cares?”

Mr. Big Head came over. “Hey, I care!” Mr. Big Head said.

Mr. Normal Head said, “You may care, but I still don’t care.”

Mr. Big Head got so mad that he punched him.

Mr. Normal Head just continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Mr. Normal Head arrived at work with one arm missing, a chunk of his leg missing, and a black eye. Everybody started staring at him. Mr. Normal Head shrugged with one arm. Suddenly a man came rushing into a room.

He said, “Which of you do I want?” Then he said, “Oh, this guy looks like General Material.” He looked battle-scarred, that’s why the man picked him. He said, “Do you want to be a general, sir?”

Mr. Normal head shrugged with one arm.

The man said, “Okay, I’ll take that as a yes.”

The man took Mr. Normal Head away and started his training immediately. 

Mr. Normal Head just kept getting the best grades for his training, except when it came to the guns. Mr. Normal Head just stood there doing nothing. 

Soon enough, World War I, one of the deadliest battles ever, started. The problem was that Mr. Normal Head the General was assigned with a gun. He didn’t know how to operate it. So, he just stood there. And that wasn’t good for his health. Later, he was dying. He had several wounds, none of which were good. The doctors tried to revive him. But the wounds were just too much, and Mr. Normal Head passed away. 

The End.


Mrs. Blue Head

Mrs. Blue Head was crying one morning because she didn’t have any food, and she had to go to the supermarket to get some. The supermarket was only 15 feet away. She trudged along, depressed, to the supermarket. Then she finally entered the supermarket. Everybody was staring at her. That made Mrs. Blue Head cry even harder. She got her food and exited the supermarket as soon as she could.

She cried all the way back home. Then she ate her cereal. Then she left for work.

Mrs. Blue Head worked in a private office because no one wanted to hear her crying, wailing, and howling. She entered her private office. There were no people in the building because Mrs. Blue Head was really loud, and her crying could give you a headache. Mrs. Blue Head didn’t get right down to work. For the first hour, she was crying. The second hour, she was working and crying. And for the rest of the hours, she was mostly working and crying.

Mrs. Blue Head was proud of herself. She had done a lot of work today and a lot of crying today. She exited the building and saw someone crying. That made her cry even harder and harder! All the cars sped by — no one could bear to hear Mrs. Blue Head’s wailing. Even the person who was crying left. When they all left, she started to cry even harder. Mrs. Blue Head was crying so hard she was literally covered in water. She ran to the store to buy a muffin. All of the people in the store closed their ears, and the customers ran out. Mrs. Blue Head cried even harder.

Finally, all the protein that she had eaten was lost. She grew very pale, and she fell to the ground. Somebody called 911. But even before they called 911, the medics came and said that she was already dead.

The news made everybody cry, but then someone said, “If we cry, we will end up like Mrs. Blue Head.”

The End.


Mr. Thrilled Head

It was not a normal day for Mr. Thrilled Head (unlike Mr. Normal Head). It was his birthday today! And he was going on a sleepover, a vacation, and he was getting his driver’s license, and a promotion, and he was moving, and throwing a party!

The first thing on Mr. Thrilled Head’s schedule was to brush his teeth. Then eat his breakfast, then take his morning jog. But Mr. Thrilled head was too excited for a jog — it was more like a sprint! Mr. Thrilled Head had eaten ice cream and cake for breakfast (like he always did). After his morning sprint around his house, which was pretty big (the perimeter was 57 feet), Mr. Thrilled Head went to work.

He had an essay to write. That didn’t take him long. He was so excited he finished in five minutes. And his essay was so good that he got a double promotion. Now he was his boss’s boss.

Next on his list was his office party! They were having a really good time for four hours until they agreed to call the party off.

Then he had his birthday party. When he arrived at his house, he saw so many presents! He was so excited he ran straight through ten buildings, knocking down zero presents. Then he ran up to his office room and started circling around and around, searching for something. Then he was like, “Whatever!” and fell and broke his head, which wasn’t good for his health. Then he died.

The End.


Mr. Lightbulb Head and His Great Ideas

“I have an idea!” said Mr. Lightbulb Head. “I will eat breakfast today! I have another idea! I will prepare breakfast before eating it! I have another idea. I will eat oatmeal for breakfast.”

Okay readers reading my book. You understand that Mr. Lightbulb Head has a lot of ideas, and his superpower is to be annoying. Nobody liked Mr. Lightbulb Head from his neighborhood to seven neighborhoods down. Whenever he went to the supermarket, he said, “I will buy a watermelon! I will buy a mango! I will buy everything!”

“Ugh!” everybody would say.

Mr. Lightbulb Head would not reflect on his past. He thought he was a great person who was not annoying. Like Mrs. Blue Head, he worked in a private office.

He said, “I will invest in Whole Foods! I will invest in Trader Joe’s. I will invest in everything!”

Recently the building next to him was demolished because no one wanted to hear him say, “I will invest in Whole Foods! I will invest in Trader Joe’s. I will invest in everything!”

They just left a sidewalk there because if they had put a park there, they wouldn’t be able to maintain it.

He was getting a promotion party today. He may be annoying, but his boss couldn’t deny his good work. He went to his boss’s office. His boss couldn’t deny his good work, but he could have a wicked plan. And that he had right now. His plan was to use champagne, and the cork would hit Mr. Lightbulb Head in the head, and it would shatter and he’d die.

Mr. Lightbulb Head’s boss was not having a good time at the party.

He asked, “Can I have some champagne or wine or whatever you have?”

“Sure,” said the boss.

Mr. Lightbulb Head said, “I have an idea!”

“What’s your idea?” said the boss.

“I will drink champagne, not wine,” he said.

The boss started laughing. Then everyone started laughing. Then the boss opened the cork for the champagne, and it flew and hit Mr. Lightbulb head square in the face. His lightbulb shattered on the ground, and he died.

The End.


The Murder Mishap

Clarice was running up the stairs of the old abandoned building. Suddenly a dark figure jumped out of the blackness.

“Hands up!” His voice shattered the darkness.

Boom! He had a cannon, too. Clarice fell swiftly to the ground. It was the end… 

William turned on the light. He looked at his witness, Arry. “Where were you last night?”

Arry looked startled. He was sitting in the chair across from William. “You know where I was. In the building.”

A smile crossed William’s face. He loved it when a case came together, and he was the detective.

Arry looked nervous. No surprise there. He had just seen a murder yesterday.

“Yes, but what were you doing there?”

Arry started sweating. “I was… sightseeing… because… it’s for school… ”

Sweat was trickling down his neck. He suddenly got up and ran out of the room.

“Poor kid,” William muttered. “He has no idea what’s going on.” 

William walked down the moonlit street. He sighed. Why can’t things be better for me? he thought. If I just had something nice in my life… It would be okay. My job is hard. I don’t have any family. I just need something good.

Arry was pretty scared. He sat down at the kitchen table and waited for his dad to come in. But his mom came first. She was dressed in a pink overcoat.

“Arry, I’m going out tonight. Your father is on a business trip, so be good. He’ll be gone for a week. I might not be able to see you. Be responsible, okay?”

Arry sighed and heated up some leftovers. His mom left and slammed the door.

Mr. Davies sat in the van. He was leaving his home on a business trip. He thought about his son, Arry. Then he thought about the success of his latest… recreation. He smiled. “So I murdered Clarice. Amazing. I have also left my home on a business trip. I don’t care. This isn’t even my real job! I’m crazy!”

William sat down again across from Arry. “So, Arry, can you tell me, what were you doing last night?”

Arry sighed. He didn’t want to give his game away. But his dad was away and didn’t really like him anyway. So it wouldn’t hurt… 

“William, my dad is the murderer. I can’t tell anyone. But I just… ” Arry burst into tears and dashed away.

That was unexpected for William. William had no idea who Arry was or who his dad was. So this wasn’t much of a clue. He sighed. “Nothing turns out right for me,” William said to himself. “I need a coffee.”

Mrs. Davies sat on the plush chair in the library and sighed. She pulled her favorite book out of her handbag. Even as she read, her mind drifted elsewhere. She was sad about her husband, who was leaving them without saying goodbye. She was worried for her son Arry, who was only ten and left alone. She slammed down her book and walked out.

“I need a break,” she told herself. 

Outside it was raining. William walked into a cafe and ordered a coffee. He sat down and started sipping. Then something caught his eye. His gaze traveled to the door, where a young woman in an attractive pink coat was walking in, complaining about the weather. Wiliam leaned in close to her and started to sweat. He walked up to her, got up close and personal — then coughed, unexpectedly.

“Oh, well ex-kee-yooz me,” she said.

Everyone there laughed. William felt his face turn red. He sat down feeling angry at himself.

“This was my big break!” he told himself. “I can’t ruin this. I still have my ace in the hole.”

So, William gathered up all of his courage and walked up to her again. He started feeling nervous and blushed.

Mrs. Davies looked at the man with disgust. He had coughed in her face, for goodness sake. But he was young and charming. Give him a chance, she thought. She smiled at him. “Hello, charmer. Did you remember your tissues this time?” She knew that telling a joke was a good way to be friendly. But this guy didn’t look so happy. He looked worried, embarrassed even. He smiled at her hopefully. She laughed and said, “So, you want a piece of me, hmmm? I think that can be arranged. 

Mr. Davies was sitting in the back of the van. He was a crazy person. So he almost didn’t notice when his cell phone buzzed. It said: You have a message from #AriannaDavies… click here to read. Mr. Davies clicked it. She had written: You need to come back ASAP srsly! No detours srsly!

“So my old wife is up to something?” he muttered. “I wonder what this could be.”

Arry picked up his head from the kitchen table. The sound of his mother’s high heels, click clack, had woken him up.

“Mom? What’s going on?” he asked.

“Shhhh, honey,” she soothed him. “Go to bed. Your father and I just need a little talk with each other.” She led him up to bed.

Arry was confused. His dad was here?

Mr. Davies looked across the bed to his wife. She said she needed to talk to him.

“It must be something big,” he reasoned to himself, “because I came from half across the country in Oregon.”

Mrs. Davies looked at him seriously. “I need to talk to you about us,” she began. “I… met a guy. I like him. He likes me too. A lot. You… I don’t think you are the most devoted husband. So I want to marry him and you… you and me can end. For his sake and mine… I’m sorry. But this is my choice.” 

Mrs. Davies was very hopeful. She looked at her husband. Tears were almost forming in her eyes. She looked like a begging child.

Finally Mr. Davies nodded. “Sure, I don’t care,” he said, willingly.

William sat down in the hard chair. “Once again, Arry.” His voice struck the silence. “What were you doing that night? You have told me your dad was a murderer. I take it you were at the crime scene. But is there anything else you have to tell me? Anything at all?”

Arry shivered. He looked worried once again. He took a deep breath. “He’s not my dad. They’re divorced, and no one wants the kid. I’m a nobody to them… Wahhh.” Arry was crying very hard.

William frowned. There must be something I can do, he thought.

Mrs. Davies and William Davies walked out of the real estate company. By chance, they passed the orphanage. A sad Arry was sitting by the window.

“I feel bad for him,” William told her.

“Make your move, then, William,” she told him.

They walked in.

“Excuse me,” said Mrs. Davies to the manager. “We are the Davies couple, and we would like to adopt Arry?”

The manager looked surprised but willing. “Of course, ma’am.”

They walked out a happy family.


Laura on 318th Street

Prologue

Laura Wilder Ingalis stared out of the car window. New York City was so busy and packed, while London was much quieter. Laura decided that she liked her old home much better than this one. She adjusted the strap of her seatbelt and squeezed her suitcase with her legs. Laura’s suitcase was turquoise with lightning bolts embroidered with her initials. She took it wherever destiny took her (or, erm, wherever her foster parents lived), and it was caked with memories. She glanced at the driver, but he kept his eyes on the road.

“How much longer?” she pondered out loud. The driver didn’t answer right away.

“About ten minutes,” he slowly responded.

Her shoulders sagged. The driver was about 50 years old, judging by his beard, which was covered in gray. He wore an old brown romper with a red and black checkered shirt underneath the dirt colored overalls. The Jeep he owned was the same age as him and was groaning with every right turn.


Chapter One

When the driver announced that Laura had arrived, she was ecstatic. Then the driver took out her folder of records, and her grin turned into a sour frown. That record held all the things she wanted to keep secret. All the things that had happened to her and by her. All of that important information slipping through her fingers, and into theirs. Yes, she did not like that manilla folder. Not a bit. The chauffeur of some kind opened the door, and Laura stepped out. Outside was a little restaurant called Delilah’s Diner. It was a small brick house with a door that jingled when it opened. On top was a red brick house with two little windows perched in the wall. Her gaze shifted to the narrow hallway in between the restaurant and the cheery bright green house next to Delilah’s Diner. 

“Well?” the driver asked. “Come on!”

Laura grabbed her suitcase and ran after him into the restaurant. Her brown hair flowed behind her as she ran across the street. A strong gust of wind sent chills down her back. Then she jumped onto the curb and rolled her suitcase into the restaurant with her. The door opened with a creak. Laura jumped. The inside of the restaurant was not that different from the outside. There was a long drapery of white fabric above the doorway. She pushed through the drapery and entered the restaurant. It was a small shabby one, with wood planks as the floor. The walls were covered in peeling crimson wallpaper. There were tables crammed into every corner. They each had napkins and utensils and water glasses, but they were all empty. Laura turned around to face the door and saw that it was closed. She peered around, then suddenly noticed that the driver was missing. 

“Hello?” she said, her heart beating. She heard stairs creaking.

“Laura? Is that you? I thought you wouldn’t be arriving until noon!” said a female voice.

Laura moved forward, avoiding tables and dodging boxes until she came across a staircase with a woman standing on top. She smiled warmly. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and she had on a neat black dress with a white apron tied at her waist. Her eyes were a deep blue and were weirdly familiar. The driver followed her down the stairs as she stepped down the stairs. She pulled her into a tight hug, and Laura dropped her suitcase to her side. She smelled faintly of cinnamon. 

She pulled away and said, “I’m Murial. You can call me Miri. I heard your parents were umm… ” Miri hesitated. “Anyway, I have your room all ready for you, and you must be starving, so I will make pasta or something for lunch. Is that okay? Here I’ll take your bags… ”

Laura found it easier to nod to all Miri’s questions and say as little as possible as she followed her up the squeaky stairs. When she entered the next floor, she was surprised. It was much neater than the down stairs. Miri recognized the look of shock on Laura’s face and explained.

“We own the second floor. Mr. MaCaya owns the restaurant. I work here, and every morning I come downstairs and wait on all the people, which isn’t a lot. If you can’t tell, we aren’t getting that much mon — ” She stopped speaking for a moment, and Laura’s head shot up like a rocket and looked Miri right in her sad eyes.

She shook her head and walked down the hallway, Laura at her heels. She gazed around. The walls were a robin’s egg blue and basically, you entered the stairs and there was a room a few feet before you had a room, which Miri told Laura was her room, and then on the other side of the room was another room which was the bathroom. She took her to the last room in the hallway, and here Miri informed Laura that this was her room. She opened the wooden door and pulled along her suitcase. Caplunk, kerplunk, went the suitcase as she slid it over the cracks in the entrance. She looked around. The walls were a beautiful yellow, and a large window was opposite to where she was standing. She gasped. There was an old fashioned bed with blue sheets and a blinding white pillow. There was a fancy patterned rug on the floor and a large desk with a blue spinning chair. There was a lime green beanbag chair right next to the bed. This room was much fancier than Mr. Joseph T. Pennyworth’s “room” as he called it. Laura thought it was a retired broom closet. The curtains were covered in little hedgehogs, and Miri parted them and switched on the light.

“Why don’t you put that suitcase on your bed? We will unpack your things later,” Miri said cheerfully.

“Okay,” she said and obliged to heaving her almost bursting suitcase on her bed.

When she plopped it down, a cloud of dust flew into her face. Laura coughed. She heard the stairs creaking and knew that Miri was going downstairs. She turned around and walked down the stairs toward the dining room. On the way there she crashed into a large man squished into a tiny tuxedo. He turned around. His face looked so much like a pig that Laura snorted and then tried to cover it up with a cough but failed miserably. 

“Hello,” the man said with a forced smile. Laura immediately recognized this person. It was Mr. MaCaya.

Chapter Two

That night, after a helping of bread and potatoes, Laura couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned and tried the trick someone at her old school taught her, but it was totally useless. So she went downstairs to ask Miri for a cup of warm milk or tea, but came across someone speaking. Laura could barely make out the noise, and so the young girl crept quietly down the stairs, bent over the railing and strained her ears to hear the conversation. It was definitely Miri’s voice. 

“I know, I’m living off my savings now. It’s a shame really. He won’t let us tell anyone. Barely pays us a dime a day.” 

Laura suddenly felt a pang of guiltiness for eavesdropping. She ran up the stairs as quickly as she could and jumped under the covers. The next morning, she woke up tired. She suddenly remembered everything that happened that night. It all rushed back to her. She sat up in bed for about ten minutes, thinking and going over everything she heard in her mind. One thought came across her and stayed in her mind for the entire day. The young girl couldn’t stop thinking about Miri and that she was not getting paid. She knew that it was illegal of course. But because he was technically paying them, there was nothing Laura or Miri could do. Unless Laura made up a new law that he couldn’t pay his employees less than ten cents a day. It was just wrong. It wasn’t the way this was supposed to go. Miri should have been paid fairly. All the other people probably quit. Why didn’t Miri? It was a puzzling question.

I’ll start with what I know, she thought. Laura checked for her suitcase and saw that it had been unpacked. The curious girl zipped it open and found her secret pocket on the back. Unzipping it, she dug around for her notebook, and finally felt the familiar grip of her journal. She sighed in relief. Quietly, Laura tiptoed over to the window and opened the curtains, but it was still dark out, so Laura turned on the light switch which was conveniently located right next to the window. She slunk noiselessly back to her bed and jumped into the bed. She fished for a pen under the bed. Then she opened up to a blank space (which were scarce) and started writing:

 What I Know About House 365 on 318th Street

  1. It is home to Murial and me
  2. The boss is Boston MaCaya
  3. They barely have any customer

Laura stopped writing. Then, the answer hit her like a sack of potatoes. That was it. They had no customers, no money. They couldn’t afford to pay the workers, let alone the rent. Laura suddenly remembered a book she read about this. It was really funny, but this wasn’t because it was actually happening.

It was real.


Chapter Three

Laura had terrible sleep last night. It wasn’t just because of last night. It was the feeling in her gut that she was missing something. Mr. MaCaya was a liar and a thief. Why was she feeling differently about that? And, to push those thoughts out of her mind, she got dressed and thumped down the stairs, only to remember that the kitchen was on the one floor Miri could afford. She ran back upstairs, got momentarily lost in the hallways, and finally found the kitchen quiet. The table was covered in a tattered tablecloth, and the chairs were pointed in all directions. There was a bread basket that was left over from last night with a few pieces of half eaten slices of them lying alone on the table. Suddenly, a shadow rose from the darkness of the kitchen. It was large. It was tall. And it picked her up and put her in a sack. Everything went black.


Chapter Four

When Laura woke up, she found herself lying on the floor of a strange house. Her head was beaded with sweat. Her eyesight was fogged and cloudy. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. The puzzled girl looked around her. She was in a small cottage with wet walls that were caving in like a sand castle, but made of straw. There was a small chair and table in the middle of the only room in the house. The one window opened the dark sky into the cottage. Laura stood up from the floor. On the table, there was a small white scrap of paper. As she walked over to the table, she looked around, but there was nothing else to see. It was scary. The paper lay flat on the table. She snatched it up in her hands. It said:

This is the place that you will be staying in for the rest of your life. You have witnessed a crime, and you are willing to tell others. Your precious Miri will be nothing against me when I get ALL the money of the world. I will be in control. I WILL RULE THE WORLD whether you like it or not. The door is locked. You will never stop me, for I am the amazing BOSTON MACAYA.

Laura was shocked. She thought Mr. MaCaya was doing it for a reasonable reason. But he wanted to rule the world. Laura was the only one who knew the truth. But she would never get to anyone in time before Mr. MaCaya finished his plan. She would have to save everyone. The world was depending on her.


Chapter Five

Laura knew how to get out. The window, of course. But the thing she was worried about was actually getting back to her home in Wisconsin. This was Colorado. Toot toot.

“I got it!” Laura said. She would ride a train to Wisconsin. The problem now was how to catch a train. But, that was easily solved because there was one right outside the “House.” Laura ran outside, the note clenched firmly in her hand, and ran outside. She barely made it. Now, she was in a crowded train with no idea where she was going. Hopefully it was Wisconsin. Tweet tweet!

“Police coming through. Make way! Make way!” a gruff voice said. She looked up and saw a police officer glaring at her.

“Where is your parent, young lady?” he said. And Laura began. By the time she finished, the police officer said, “You are on the wrong train, princess!” Laura cursed under her breath. “I’ll take you home, and we’ll sort this MaCaya thing out.” Laura grinned. 

“Thank you, sir!” she beamed. And she was almost home.

WISCONSIN NEWS! 

YOUNG GIRL GAVE PROOF! BOSTON MACAYA ARRESTED! GIRL ADOPTED.

A young girl named Laura Wilder Ingalis saved the city! She was adopted by Murial Smith! See more on page 16!

The End. For now.


The Quail

I had a quail who drank ginger ale

and always got the mail. 

It was great, 

amazingly great 

but I had to grate cheese, 

wait that’s the same word

but spelled differently,

it’s a homophone!

Okay, back to the poem

and my quail surprised me

by eating a whale.

Before she ate the whale,

I wondered if it was

my pet whale, 

but it wasn’t 

then I gave my quail

a slice of blue whale 

and she swallowed it

before the mail.

Then she got up

and asked for ginger ale 

with her slice of blue whale

and she said that she failed

on her test of hammering nails.


Circus of Talents

I was in the garden of the Queen of England’s palace when it happened. Let me explain. My name is Haven Shelly Dean. I’m thirteen years old. My father sold me for a new house and a flock of sheep. Now I live as a servant for the Queen of England. I work in the kitchen. Now, from 2 pm to 3 pm is my only off-hour.

I was walking next to the pond, when I saw a duck. And that’s when I found out my magical powers.

The duck said, “Quack quaaaack!” But to me, it sounded like, “Hello Haaaaven!”

I blinked. Then I blinked again. Then twice more. Then again. I was sure I had heard wrong.

“How do you know my name?” I asked. 

Except my voice sounded more like, “Quack quack quick honk quaaack.”

I ran back to the palace to start cooking early. I volunteered to make the salad, which was a hated thing to make at the kitchen. I did that so I wouldn’t have to help with the duck.

***

It must have been a coincidence. It must have. Because, two days later, on Lesson Day (Lesson Day is the day that all servants under the age of 15 have off to learn math, writing, and reading) I saw a notice. The notice said, 

Do you think you have a talent?

Servants, come to the Library on May 2nd to show off your talent. You will be viewed privately, and the winner will join the Circus of Talents. Sign up on the sheet below!

I was the third one to sign up.

***

May 2nd was the next day, and since so many servants were trying out, the Queen’s Advisor gave us the day off. We gathered in the library. 

A man with important looking clothing on was standing on a table.

“Hello,” he said. “My name is Carter Marlon. I am the director of the Circus of Talents. You will be viewed one at a time, and then I will announce the winner. You will be viewed in the order that you signed up in.”

“First up: Benny Dennis.”

Benny stepped forwards. He was a skinny kid who worked with the laundry. He went into the next room. A few minutes later, he came out practically crying. He ran out of the room. 

“Next up: Matilda Scott.” 

A girl who I didn’t recognize walked up. She walked into the room and came out with a worried face. She sat at a table in the back. 

“Haven Dean.” 

I walked into the room.

“Hello, Haven,” said Carter. “What is your talent?”

“Umm… I think I may be able to talk to ducks?” I said. 

Carter looked so happy, I thought he was going to explode. “Yes, yes! This is exactly the talent!”

Carter snapped his fingers. A duck, the duck I had seen in the garden, appeared. “Yeah, that’s my talent. I can summon things.” 

“Um, hello?” I said.

“I heard quack!” said Carter. “Perfect! You’re hired! But I still need to test everyone else, just to be fair. But go sit at the table across from Matilda.” 

I nodded and left the room. My head was exploding with thoughts. How did this happen? Am I really actually leaving the palace? Wow! This is crazy! Is Carter always this way? Wow!

About thirty minutes later, Carter got back up onto the table. “The winner is… ” he paused for dramatic effect. “Haven Dean!” The whole room clapped and cheered.

***

I got into the back of Carter’s van. He said we were driving a little to the real site of the Circus. Almost everyone had come to see me off. Even the Queen of England was there. After the palace had disappeared, I turned around to face Carter.

“Are you ready?” he asked. 

I nodded my head. Yes, I thought. I’m ready.


Clueless

The door opened to the front of my office. My assistant walked in looking flustered. 

“There has been a murder!” he yelled. I looked at him and shook my head. 

“We see murders every day,” I said.

“Not like this,” he said. “This person was brutally killed, then the body was stolen while the cops were searching the house.” 

Let me tell you a little about me. I am a detective. I work on a lot of murders, but usually they’re easy to solve. Like once, this man killed his high school enemy, and when I walked into the room he confessed that he was getting payed $100,000 to kill that man. Then, he was found dead in his jail cell, but the stupid man who had killed him had forgotten to put on gloves, and we found him right away.

“Who was murdered?” I asked. 

“This lady named Yvonne Harrison,” said my assistant.

“Rich?” I asked.

“So-so,” he said.

“We have to search her house,” I said.

***

Her house was small, about the size of my office. I looked around. There was barely anything around. A small television and a rag couch sat in the middle of the room. There was a patch of dry red blood stuck to the rug. 

“Have you tested her blood?” I asked a CSI man.

“Yes. And we found it didn’t actually belong to the Miss Harrison.” Interesting!

“Who did it belong to?” I asked.

“It belongs to a man named Gregory Doff,” said the CSI guy.

“Where does he live?” I asked.

“In a cemetery. He died a year ago.” 

Right now, I had no suspects or clues. Just a mere ‘the pool of blood this lady was lying on is not actually hers! It belongs to someone who’s been dead for a year!!’

I searched the bedroom. There was a Rolex watch on the bedside table, and next to it was a lamp. The bed had flowered linen sheets over a three inch thick comforter. I walked out the door. 

“Who are our main suspects?” I asked Jonathan Fedley, the head of the CSI. 

“Well, for starters, we have her brother-in-law. He is her only living relative.”

“In-law? Miss Harrison was married?”

“Yeah. To a man named Greg Doff who died in January of 2002.”

I have a good memory, so I don’t know why I thought my mind was tricking me of that name being familiar.

“Who?” I asked.

“We don’t have much information on him, except for that he was very poor and he probably married Mrs. Harrison for her money — ” There were suddenly shouts from across the hall in the crime scene.

At first, it sounded like the CSI investigators that were investigating the murder were shouting, “This house has been clean!” but then I realized they were saying, “The house has been swiped clean!”

In police code robbery equals 211, but this was not a robbery. Even the flower sheets were gone!

“How is this possible!” I yelled at the same time Mr. Fedley yelled, “This is not acceptable!”

The CSI investigators didn’t even find a trace of a footstep. Or a fingerprint. The only way we knew anything was stolen was because it was missing.

“Inspector Krysley, we have found out more information and a motive for Tristen Doff, Mrs. Harrison’s brother-in-law,” said Jonathan after we had searched the entire house for clues. 

“What did you find out?” I asked.

“We found out that Mrs. Harrison hated on him because of some sort of romance with her sister.”

“Anything else?”

“Oh yeah. We found out that Mrs. Harrison supposedly hit Doff with her car almost over a decade ago. We still don’t know why.” Another mystery!

Now it was time to round up the clues. Also, round up the suspects, motives, and alibis.

“Blood on the ground suggests she was either shot or stabbed,” said a clueless CSI member.

“But it’s blood of another person!” said another CSI member.

“Blood of another person suggests someone unlawfully blood banked Greg Doff’s blood,” said Jonathan. I groaned. It was hard to work with someone who was as smart as me.

“Small house and rag couch suggests revenge and not money,” I said.

“Stolen body in plain sight of cops suggests disguise,” said Jonathan.

“Rolex watch suggests a small wealth,” I said.

“Flowered comforter suggests living mother,” said Jonathan.

“But that’s absurd!” I said. “All her relatives are dead except Tristan!”

“But maybe she died, like, a few days ago!” said Jonathan.

Everyone gasped. There was no police code for Double Agent, but everyone in the system knew the signs. I started suggesting more stuff.

“Dead husband suggests grief,” I said. Jonathan glared at me.

“Everything stolen in plain sight suggests more than one person working for someone,” said Jonathan.

“Suspect affair with victim’s sister suggests connection of families,” I said.

“Suspect hit by victim in car suggests private connection with each other,” said Jonathan. I wrote everything down, except the silly stuff.

  • Blood of another person suggests unlawful blood bank
  • Rag couch and small house suggests revenge and not money
  • Stolen body in plain sight of cops suggests disguise
  • Rolex watch suggests small wealth
  • Dead husband suggests grief
  • Many items stolen in plain sight suggests more than one person/double agents
  • Suspect affair with victim’s sister suggests connection in families
  • Suspect hit by victim in car suggests private connection

And I added something.

*Jonathan knows something we don’t

How did I know Jonathan knew something we didn’t? Well, he’d been showing lots of signs. For example, Jonathan knew that Tristan Doff was the brother-in-law before the conversation. And I know that because he was one of the people searching the house. He didn’t have time to discuss it with the CSI people. And if he knew that, he must have known more about the case than we did. And I was going to get it out of him. 

When we finished our meeting, it was time to go home. I called my assistant, and he got me a car. The driver dropped me off at the front of my apartment building.

“Thank you,” I said.

I walked into the building and rode up to the 12th floor. I was the only person who lived on the 12th floor. The rest of my neighbors probably had vertigo or something, but I liked the 12th floor. It was so quiet and never smelled like food. I opened the door, and what I saw was a big surprise. A few CSI investigators were in my house, poking around in my kitchen. 

“What are you doing!?” I yelled at them.

They turned to me, then each of them talked at the same time. Luckily, when they stopped, one of them who I recognized as Rupert Hackett told me something that sounded pretty much like the truth.

“Mr. Fedley, he suspects you,” he said.

I knew that’s what they thought, but I was pretty sure that Jonathan was lying. 

“Where did he go?” I asked him.

“He said he was going to investigate more,” he said. 

“Where?” I asked.

“At the crime scene,” said Rupert. 

“Thank you!” I said. “Get me the camera footage. I think he’s guilty.”

Rupert looked at me uncertainly, then pulled up the camera footage. 

Jonathan is not alone. He is with Chief Inspector Harper and most of the crew. He looks around at the numbered evidence. He picks up evidence number 33 and talks to Miss Harper about it. Then he picks up a lot more evidence and talks to many different inspectors about it. I recognize Johann Dreyfus, Blanche Mac Lottery, Lauren Aaren, and Henry Kensington. So many detectives! They can’t all be Double Agents! Then, Jonathan writes something in his notebook. Dreyfus nods at him. Jonathan says something, then hugs Dreyfus, and walks out the door.

“See? He’s innocent!” said Rupert.

“Wait. Go back to when he’s hugging Dreyfus,” I said.

Rupert rewound the video.

So many detectives! They can’t all be Double Agents! Then, Jonathan writes something in his notebook. Dreyfus nods at him. Jonathan says something, then hugs Dreyfus — 

That watch!

“Zoom in on his hand!” I said.

Rupert looked at me like I had three dinosaur heads, then did as I said. 

“Jonathan is the killer,” I said. “At least one of them… ”

I rode in a cab to Jonathan’s house with my assistant. The lights were on, and I knocked on the door. The lights suddenly were turned off, and the curtains were closed. An old lady answered the door. 

“Are you looking for Than?” she asked. Than.

“Yes,” I said.

“He’s out. I’m his mother. Visiting from Orlando,” said the old lady. 

“Where?” I said doubtful and suspicious. 

“He’s gone,” she said. I frowned.

“Do you want a cup of tea?” she asked.

“Sure.” It would give me a chance to search the house. “Come in,” she said.

I walked into the house, following the old lady. She sat me down at the table, and I put my hands on the checkered tablecloth. The lady faced away. 

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Leana Krysley. I’m a detective,” I said. 

“Leana. Such a beautiful name. Why do you want to see Than?” she asked. She poured the hot water into the cup.

“Well, we need to question him — ”

“Ahhhh,” said the old lady.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“My name is Carla Fedley. And I know Jonathan is not guilty of the murder. And yes, I lied. He is in the house.” Then, the old lady smiled and got back to my tea. “Do you want your tea to go?” she asked. 

“Yes please,” I said.

Then I turned and walked out the door without my tea. Jonathan wasn’t the murderer. He couldn’t have been if he was at home. It only took me three minutes to get to my house to his house, but from Mrs. Harrison’s house to his house, it took an hour. So he couldn’t have taken that much time from Mrs. Harrison’s to his house, so he was at his house all along. There were only two questions. Why did Jonathan say that he was going to investigate, and who had rigged the camera system in Mrs. Harrison’s house? 

When I got home, I saw a letter on the table from my assistant.

Dear Leana,

I am really scared that I am going to get killed. Since you told me everything you know, will they kill me first? I ran away to my upstate house. I QUIT!

Sincerely,

Your Assistant

I put the letter down and went to bed. 

The next day, I returned to the crime scene. After all, nobody had ever solved a murder in just a day. 

Dreyfus was there to greet me, and Jonathan was there too. They were investigating like it was any other day. I looked over at Rupert, and he looked away. So he didn’t tell Dreyfus. I looked around to see a new piece of evidence. A note.

“Where did this come from?” I asked Dreyfus.

“I found it under a floorboard. Read it. Maybe you can figure out what it says,” said Dreyfus.

1/4/02

A chara Yvonne,

Tá a fhios agam gurb é seo an uair dheireanach a scríobhfaidh mé chugat, ach táim ag imeacht ó New Jersey chun cónaí le mo chara is fearr a bhuail tú le cúpla bliain ar ais. Mar sin féin, chuir mé litir chuig Than agus Tristan Tá mo dheartháir ag teacht go Nua-Eabhrac ach níl mé ag iarraidh aghaidh a thabhairt air tar éis duit é a bhualadh le You-Know-What. Bí ullamh aghaidh a thabhairt air.

Grá,

Greg

“I didn’t know Mrs. Harrison was Irish!” I said. “I’m Irish!”

“So read it!” said Dreyfus.

January 4, 2002. Dear Yvonne, I know this will be the last time I ever write to you, but I am running away to New Jersey to live with my best friend who you met a few years back. Anyway, I have sent a letter to Than and Tristan my brother is coming to New York but I don’t want to face him after you hit him with your car. Be prepared to face him. Love, Greg.” THAN!!!

Then I remembered the day before on the first day of investigation. 

I had asked who the suspects were. Then, Jonathan had said it was Mrs. Harrison’s brother-in-law. I had asked if she was married, and Jonathan had said yes, to a man named Greg Doff! Greg!

“You were friends with Gregory Doff?” I asked. And then I remembered the date.

“And the last time he was ever seen alive was January 4, 2002! That means you were the last one to see him alive!” I yelled in realization. Jonathan looked at me sheepishly. “And did you… kill him?” I asked quietly. Jonathan nodded.

“But I swear I didn’t kill Mrs. Harrison. She was nice! And I would never kill her!” I frowned.

“But what about the watch?”

“That’s my watch.”

“Then who killed Mrs. Harrison?” 

I wrote suspects, alibis, and motives in my notebook.

Suspect: Tristan Doff

Motive: He hated Mrs. Harrison for some reason

Suspect: Gregory Doff

Motive (Or what we think is a motive): He knew that he would never see her again/needed the money?

Alibi: He was murdered before Mrs. Harrison, so he can’t be the murderer

So I crossed him off.

Suspect: Johann Dreyfus

Motive: Found the letter; maybe knew what it was?

Suspect: Carla Fedley

Motive: (Unknown)

Suspect: Police Chief who guarded the house

Motive: (Unknown)

Jonathan was arrested the next day, and the next day was also a return to the crime scene.

“Let’s meet some new suspects,” said Dreyfus. He brought in five people. 

Suspect: Karen Calhun (Best Friend)

Motive: (Unknown)

Suspect: Jeremy Rolfson (Brother in-law’s best friend)

Motive: Helping his friend

Suspect: George Harris (Friend’s husband) 

Motive: Stealing away time with his wife

Suspect: Doctor Trenton Murray (Victim’s doctor)

Motive: (Unknown)

Suspect: Jenny Wolfson (Best Friend)

Motive: (Unknown)

I questioned all of them, but none of them seemed to have a motive except Tristan Doff’s friend who might have done something for his friend and killed her.

“I’m really stuck,” I told Dreyfus. 

“Then let’s do a walk through of the crime scene.”

We entered through the front door. I walked to the kitchen. 

“Have you guys checked the fridge?” I asked. Dreyfus nodded.

“We have, but you can check again.” 

“Okay.” I opened the fridge and gasped.

Dreyfus gasped when he saw too. In the fridge was a dead body. On it were carved letters.

Good Work, Detectives! -C .F 

“Who’s initials are C F?” asked Dreyfus.

“I think I know,” I said.

When we got to Carla Fedley’s house, Dreyfus knocked on the door. No one answered. Dreyfus was about to knock again, but I said no. He drove me back to my house. There, I rode the elevator to the 12th floor and went into my house. I made myself some tea, then got disgusted and drank matcha instead. Then, I watched some TV, and at 12:00, went into my bed and fell asleep.

It must have been just a minute later when I woke up. I checked the time, but it was only 12:46. I heard a rustle. I turned my bedside light on and looked around. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows. Carla Fedley

“Leana, you figured it out at last,” said Carla Fedley said.

She held the knife above my head. I ran out of bed, grabbing my phone on the way. I ran out of the door and locked it and called the police. They came in an instant, and I showed them Carla. She was arrested the next day.

It turned out, Tristan Doff bribed Carla into killing Mrs. Harrison by saying he would expose Jonathan’s secret if she didn’t kill Mrs. Harrison. When the body was still in sight, she told everyone to check the fridge masked as a CSI member. After they checked the fridge, she put the body into the fridge disguised as a CSI person. Then, she and some of Tristan Doff’s friends stole everything, all dressed as CSI members. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink tea again.


Princess Lou’s Adventure

Once upon a time, there was a princess named Lou, and she had one sister and one brother, and she lived in a castle in a place called London. One day, she went on an adventure with her brother, mom, and sister to an island called Wasabi Island. So they took their family’s royal boat. Once they got to the island it was already dusk, and so they all went into their rooms on the boat and slept until a bright light woke the mom up.

She opened her room’s door on the boat, and she said, “What are you?”

The thing said, “I am a good witch. Really, I promise, but my old best friend’s mom put a spell on me. I am really a good witch, so please don’t hurt me please.”

The mom said, “Oh fine, I won’t hurt you. But why are you here?”

The witch said, “I am here because the spell made me get trapped here too.”

The mom said, “What spell did she put on you?”

The witch said, “I have no idea.”

The mom said, “One minute.”

The witch said, “Okay,” and then there was a big cloud of smoke, and she disappeared.

The mom went and got her daughters and her son, and then somebody else came onto the boat.

He said to the queen, “I am really your husband. I just got trapped here somehow.”

All the children said, “Daddy!”

The mom said, “Now now, kids, we don’t know if it is really Daddy. So I am going to ask you some questions alright. Kids, go into Lou’s room and watch TV on my computer. Here is my computer.”

The kids said, “Yes, Mommy.”

“Okay now here is your first question, where was our wedding?”

“Here is my answer, at Sunken Gardens.”

The queen said, “Yes. Here is your second question, what is your mom’s friend’s dogwalker’s full name?”

“Here is my answer, Jessie Rose Robinson.”

“Correct,” the mom said. “Here is your third question. What is your sister’s boyfriend’s favorite color?”

“My answer is gold.”

“Yes, correct. Here is your fourth question. Where was our first date?”

“My answer is Daisy’s Diner.”

“Correct. You got all of them correct, so you must be my husband.”

She hugged her husband, and the mom said, “Kids, let’s go home now. But first say hi to Dad.”

They all said “Daddy” at once.

The dad said, “But who will drive the boat?”

The mom said, “I will.”

The dad said, “Alright.” 

So once they got home they all took a nap, and something woke Lou up. Surprisingly it was her brother and her sister, whose names are Dorothy and Charlie.

They said in childish voices, “Lou, there is somebody at the door!”

“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll get the door.” So she checked her phone because they had a Ring doorbell, and she checked the app, and it was somebody with a hoodie on that said anonymous on it, and she was freaked out.

So she said to her little brother and sister who were two, “Please go into your room or go into Mommy and Daddy’s room.”

They said, “Okay, Lou.”

So they went into their room and locked the door and watched their favorite movie on their tablet. So Lou locked all the doors and windows, including the courtyard. Lou wanted her mom and dad and sister and brother to be safe. The human tried throwing a brick at the window from outside, but it didn’t work, so he tried climbing over the fence. It didn’t work. It seemed there was no way of getting in.

She said to herself, “I only do this because somebody is forcing me to, and I don’t want to do it.” She sighed.

The next morning she checked her Ring app, and she was gone. So she called her best friend, Emma, and told her what had happened. But first Lou had to tell her parents what had happened. So she did. After that, she called her best friend Emma.

The end.

The Adventures of the Cat Club

Mittens is a brave little kitty. He is black, and his paws are white. He loves to travel around the world! He has a treehouse with lots of toys, blankets, and robotic machines. He loves fish and has a talent to catch them with his paws. But the most impressive thing about Mittens is that he is a tap dancer! He performs everywhere, like in France, New York, and Bubble Gum City! He lives on cat island, and since he has a ton of money… everything is made for cats! But, out of all the money, fame, and cat toys, Mittens has always wanted to travel to Hawaii to become a hula tap dancer! He also has a best friend named Jerry. Jerry is very funny and orange. They decided to travel to Hawaii together.

On the plane, Mittens asked Jerry, “What is your dream?”

Jerry said, “Probably to learn the alphabet!”

“Interesting!” Mittens answered, hoping his best friend really would learn the alphabet. 

As Mittens ate a few fancy treats and played tic tac meow with Jerry, he became tired, so he went inside his fluffy mini house that has his bed in it and is shaped like a star and fell asleep. 

In at least an hour later, he woke up from Sally, the waiter, saying, “We’re all going to die!”

All the workers were screaming. Catnip was flying everywhere.

Mittens meowed, “What happened?”

“You mean what’s happening?!” Jerry meowed back. “Birds were flying by, and John, our pilot, saw them and tried to catch them but didn’t realize that he couldn’t break through glass and lost control of the plane!”

“Oh, John!” Mittens sighed as he looked at John. “Have you been eating too much catnip? You know we’ve been telling you to stop! It’s bad for you!”

“Well… ” Mittens whispered to Jerry. “It’s pretty good!” John scrambled away, and Jerry laughed.

But his laughing stopped shortly after the plane crashed and all the cats meowed.

“Is everyone okay?” Mittens asked.

Meow!!” they all answered.

“Okay then… !”

So it turned out that they crashed in Hawaii and were near a volcano.

“It’s not going to explode, right?” Jerry asked.

“Of course not,” Mittens answered.

“People live here.”

People!!” Jerry screamed and fainted.

“Well ya,” Mittens scoffed as he got Jerry back on his feet.

“Oh my, I had a bad dream!” Jerry said. “Your plane crashed, and we went to Hawaii, and you said people were here. Mittens, I mean really!”

“Jerry? Jerry?” Mittens asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah! Of course! Why would I not — Oh no no no no!

“Jerry, calm down!”

No no no no no!!! Wait, Mittens, can I have some water please?”

“Umm yeah, yeah! Catnip flavor or plain?”

“Catnip flavor!” Jerry said as he wobbled into a tree and fell down.

“Okay!” Mittens said, partly laughing. “Here,” Mittens said as he gave the water to Jerry and splashed some on his face.

Hey! You got my fur wet!”

“Jerry, let’s go!” Mittens said.

“Okay, okay,” Jerry said, walking behind Mittens.

“Everyone else, try to find or rebuild the plane.”

They said, “Meowwwwww,” which meant okay in cat language, or as cats call it, Meowster talk.

As Jerry and Mittens ran into a restaurant, Mittens spotted a white, fluffy, beautiful female cat!

He stopped in his tracks, walked in a weird way that he thought looked cool, grabbed some shades, and said, “Hellooo, kitty.”

Mittens flexed his tail and put on his handsome face.

“Hi,” the girl cat said. “What’s your name? Mine is Snowflake.”

“My name is Gregory Von Chad the III Meower. Ummm, I’m Mittens! You like to hang around these parts of the woods — oops, I mean these parts of the restaurants? Umm, I mean you like fish? Ummm, no I mean I-I-I like your eyes. They’re so blue!”

“Thanks! Yours are nice too, and Mittens is a cute name!” Snowflake said dreamily or that’s what Mittens thought.

“Thank you, do you like tap dancers?”

“I guess, because you’re one!” Snowflake gave Mittens a piece of paper and then ran off.

Mittens opened the paper, and her number was on it!

Jerry found Mittens, and they ran through the restaurant when Jerry asked Mittens, “Who was that girl you were talking to?”

“Snowflake,” Mittens replied. “The most coolest, prettiest, mysterious kitty!”

“Cool… Got her number?” Jerry asked, gesturing toward the paper in Mitten’s paw.

“Yeah! We’re going to the movies tonight… or at least I think that’s what her eyes said… girls are confusing!”

“You’re telling me!” Jerry laughed. “My mom once liked peanut butter, and I said I do too, but then she kicked me in the basement! I’ll never eat peanut butter again!”

“Okay, good to know… but let’s find the hula place… I want to fulfill my dreams!” Mittens said heroically.

So Mittens and Jerry found the hula place, and Mittens tap danced with a skirt and blew people’s minds away!

“Go Mitty the Kitty!” Jerry screamed. 

As Snowflake ran, she stopped at a store to get some catnip. As she was walking out of the store, she saw a little gray mouse with an eyepatch and then blacked out. She woke up and found herself underground, tied to a chair, and a mouse was in front of her.

“Hello, pretty one,” the mouse said. “I am Cheesenstine! (The evil mouse who captured you and is now going to torture your kind!) I come from Cheesetopia, and I will trick your little boyfriend Mittens into coming to the movies with you and then capture him, and then steal his popcorn, and then watch the movie with you two tied, and then bring you back to my lair and keep you there while I destroy cat-kind with my Robotic Cheese Cat Exterminator 1000! And if you’re wondering why I’m against cats, it’s because I’m a mouse of course, and because one time someone stole my cheese, but mostly because when I was a little mouse, cats invaded my family’s hole we were living in and ate my mom, dad, and two sisters. I was the only one left, and I barely made it alive! That’s why I have this eyepatch! Because the cat stole what was supposed to be under it. So I will get my revenge! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!” He coughed loudly. “Ha-ha-ha, okay I’m done!”

“That was a lot to say for a little mouse like you!” Snowflake teased Cheesenstine.

“Oh you think you’re so tough!” Cheesenstine said, offended.

“Well… ” Snowflake said as she untied the ropes that were around her wrists with her claws. “I think I am actually pretty tough.” Snowflake busted out of the ropes and jumped on Cheesenstine.

“Yay!” Jerry continued screaming. “You’re the best hula tap dancer ever!”

“Thanks!” Mittens said as he took a water break. “Oh, I need to go! I have a date with Snowflake!” Mittens exclaimed.

“Go get her!” Jerry said proudly for no reason.

“Okay, I will!” Mittens ran off to pick up Snowflake at the restaurant where they met and couldn’t find her.

So he decided to call her with his cat phone (much more high tech… buy one today!) She picked up the phone apparently but seemed busy.

All he heard was, Meow meow. OW, STOP IT! HELP ME! MEOW! Oh hi, Mittens, I’m at Oloha Street, underground, where the sign is. Come quick. This guy is feisty.

Snowflake hung up, and Mittens ran to Oloha Street.

He looked at the ground and up at the sign and jumped. The ground opened, and he slid into a tunnel that led to an underground lair. There he found Snowflake and a mouse with an eyepatch and a bad temper fighting.

“What’s going on?” Mittens meowed over the noise.

They stopped fighting, and Snowflake said, “You’re here. Good. Now help me get this guy tied up!”

“Wait, what?” Mittens asked. “Who is he, and why were you two fighting?”

“Hello!” Cheesenstine said evilly. “I was going to capture you during your date at the movies, but this will work too! I am Chesenstine! And I captured your little friend to lure you into coming so I could keep you two from keeping me to destroy all cats with my Robotic Cheese Cat Exterminator 10000! Now you two are stuck here! Wonderful, right? Now bye bye!”

Cheesenstine said that he dug a hole upward? That made no sense, but Mittens and Snowflake were stuck.

“We have to find a way out of this!” Snowflake said as she stomped her paw in a cute way.

“Yeah totally,” Mittens agreed. “But what about the movies? I mean, like, is our date off?” Snowflake looked at him and instead of her slapping him, which is what he thought she was going to do, she smiled and laughed! “You really are a special cat,” she said to Mittens.

He blushed and quickly said, “Let’s go!”

“Umm, how again? Aren’t we trapped?” Snowflake asked.

“Yes,” Mittens said. “But… remember you’re with a really special cat?”

“Of course I do,” she exclaimed, laughing a little.

“Okay,” Mittens sighed. “But it’s crazy!”

“I’m in for crazy!” Snowflake assured.

“Okay, you see right there?” Mittens asked, pointing to a dark space in the lair.

“Yeah,” Snowflake said. “There’s nothing there.”

“That’s what you think,” he said smartly. “Look.” He walked in the dark and pushed out a black machine that digs threw dirt and throws cats around. “It has two seats, so we can dig upward and throw around Cheesenstine!” Mittens said happily. 

“Okay. Let’s try it!” Snowflake said, hopping into one seat, and Mittens hopped into the other.

They drove the machine through the dirt and came to the surface. 

People and cats were screaming and running everywhere as Cheesenstine destroyed buildings and tried to throw cats with his machine.

Jerry ran up to Mittens and Snowflake and asked, “So, no movies?”

“No movies!” Mittens answered.

“Let me guess,” Jerry started. “That mouse wants to destroy all cats because cats destroyed his family and his name is Cheesenstine?”

Mittens and Snowflake were stunned.

“What?! I watch a lot of movies!”

“Yeah, Jerry,” Mittens managed to say. “Now let’s destroy that guy.”

The three ran and jumped up on the Robotic Cheese Cat Exterminator 1000 (because cats can jump high) and started to bite the thing with their sharp teeth.

“This is useless!” Snowflake started.

“Yeah, we need a stick,” Jerry said. “That breaks everything!”

“Okay, then get your stick!” Mittens told Jerry.

So Jerry jumped off the machine and grabbed a big stick that was actually a log with his mouth, jumped back up on the machine, and hit the thing.

Ahhhh!” Cheesentine screamed from inside the Robotic Cheese Cat Exterminator 1000. “You stupid cats will pay!!!

Thunk!

The Cat Exterminator 1000 hit the ground, and Snowflake said to Jerry, “Wow, sticks really break everything!”

“Well, big sticks,” Mittens corrected.

“Yeah yeah,” she said. “So, Mittens, now that Cheesenstine is destroyed, want to go to the movies? I think Captain Meower is still playing tonight at 6!”

“Yeah, of course!”

“Ummmm, Jerry, want to go grab cheeseburgers?”

“Okay, dude, but never say ‘cheese’ again after what happened today!” Jerry said.

“Okay, let’s go… Bye, Snowflake!”

“Bye,” she replied.

After Jerry and Mittens got cheeseburgers, it was already 5:59, so they picked up Snowflake, and Jerry said bye when they got to the movies. Mittens and Snowflake went in the theater and started watching the movie Captain Meower!

As it got to the middle of the movie, Mittens said to Snowflake, “I thought my dream was to become a hula tap dancer, but now I realize it was to meet you. To find love.”


Santa

Word from the author

People say I’m plagiarizing because there’s already a book about this, so I did some research. Apparently there is. But I continue writing this because it’s not plagiarizing if you do it without knowing you are, so for those of you who would like to sue and make me pay a lot of money, not happening, because now I’ve given credit so, yeah… HAHA!

-Kai Tschopp (aka the author)


Prologue

Far, far out in the South Pole howling winds could be heard. The snow blizzard blocked a beautiful structure composed of stone bricks, white glass pane, and quartz. Inside, even louder then the wind, howling laughter could be heard… echoing past every hallway in the entire building.

“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! shouted a figure from his throne.

The figure looked surprisingly like Santa, but he wore all blue.

“I will bomb the North Pole! My twin brother will die, and all the children in the entire world will be sad. And while they’re so sad, I will take over the world!!!


Chapter One: Nuke!!

Luke Marrow’s head banged on the floor.

“Ow… that hurt,” Luke said absentmindedly.

He stood up from the floor and sat on his bed. Suddenly, a message blared from the intercom at Santa’s secret base at the North Pole:

Attention, all elves report to Santa’s throne room!

Luke paled.

“Oh, no I need to get to the throne room now!”

Luke raced down the hall, zigzagged across the stairs, and finally ended up in the spacious throne room alongside hundreds of other elves. Luke looked over at Santa. His gray eyes seemed so sad, and his long, long beard drooped. Sure, he was 2,000 years old, but he always seemed so… upbeat, but today not so much.

Santa raised his wrinkled hand for attention: “My fellow elves, I have an announcement to make! My evil twin (who is nothing like me!) is planning to nuke the North Pole!” Santa exclaimed.

Several elves gasped. Three or four elves even fainted.

“Yes, he is! And he is launching the nuke now!”

He snapped his fingers, and a projector projected an image of someone that looked exactly like Santa but was wearing all blue! Elves gasped. Wearing blue was just about as bad as swearing in front of a three-year-old to the elves. The man in the screen turned around and laughed maniacally as he pressed a red button on his control panel and smoke rose around the screen.

“Mwaahahahahahahahahahaha!” the blue man yelled.

“The Drakon nuke will destroy the North Pole, and I will get my brother back for accidentally misplacing my teddy bear and sending it to someone across the world!”

Santa turned red. The elves turned their eyes to Santa.

“Hehe… continue elves… I didn’t do that… Yes I did… ” Santa added quietly.

Luke turned back to the screen. So did the other elves. Smoke was still rising from the nuke. Suddenly a voice appeared from the nuke: “Countdown for Drakon nuke model #3459 in T-minus: Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six… Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Blastoff!

Blue quickly took cover and watched in awe as the nuke slowly raised in the air.

“In ten hours exactly the nuke will strike the North Pole and blow up everything!” Santa announced.

“And say thank you to Andrew the spy who hijacked the camera viewing this from the South Pole. Now… run as fast as your butts can carry you!” screamed Santa.

Several elves screamed. Some cried. Another even begged for mercy. Luke felt the blood drain out of his face. Blue could not do this to the North Pole. Luke would not allow it. But Luke felt helpless to do anything. It’s not like he could just storm the South Pole and demand that Blue surrendered. The South Pole was built like a fortress. He couldn’t do that… Could he?

While Luke was trapped in the tornado of his own thoughts, his home that he had been born in was being abandoned… No! Luke couldn’t let this happen! He had to stop Blue! Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder.

“Hey, I know it’s hard, but you have to leave. Otherwise you’ll get destroyed alongside the North Pole. You can’t do this” pleaded Luke’s friend, Kat.

“Please… ” whispered Kat.

Luke shook himself and awakened himself out of his trance.

“You’re right. We can’t let Blue do this… ” said Luke to Kat.

“But… I don’t know how we are supposed to get to him,” continued Luke.

I know! We could borrow the planes that Santa uses!” exclaimed Kat.

“Great idea, Kat!” exclaimed Luke.

“To the artillery!” shouted Kat.

“And… let’s get out of here before we’re nuked!” replied Luke unenthusiastically.

“Yeah… ” whispered Kat.

Luke and Kat stormed out of the room, raced down the halls, and followed the signs pointing to the artillery. One of the signs read:

To the artillery guns, bombs, planes, retired reindeer, and rockets. Please be responsible with tools!

(Sidenote from author) Hold on a minute. You thought Santa still rode reindeers? This, my friend, is the 21st century and people do not ride reindeers. They ride jets, cars, planes, and Santa’s personal favorite, the Boeing 777. This is the latest fashion, and it will be for quite a while. Thank you, and now keep reading your book. Now. Please. Thank you.

“We will… ” Luke said to one of the signs sarcastically.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to Kat and Luke, they arrived at the artillery. They raced around old reindeer slowly walking for their lives, the newest model of a gun, and even an old cannons, but they ignored all that stuff. It seemed that a lot of elves had the same idea as Luke and Kat and had snatched up the jets, airplanes, and Boeing 777’s before they could. They tried to hitch a ride with other elves, but they didn’t exactly seem in the “Christmas spirit.” Finally, the only thing left was an old helicopter.

“Let’s go!” yelled Kat.

They jumped into the helicopter and Luke pressed the ON button. The blades started whirring. They spun into the air.

“Do you by any chance know how to fly a helicopter?” Luke asked.


Chapter Two: To Antartica!

Kat stared at Luke.

What? You don’t know how to fly a helicopter?” screamed Kat.

I thought you said jump in!” retorted Luke.

But you pressed the button!” screamed Kat.

So?” asked Luke.

There was no time for arguing, and they both knew it, so they just faced the controls. It seemed pretty simple. There were a few buttons with titles like: Eject, Guns, ON/OFF, and things like that. There was a lever that was labeled: Altitude. And lastly, there was a joystick labeled: Steering. The controls seemed simple enough, so Kat and Luke sat down in the two seats. Luke took the steering joystick, and Kat had the altitude lever. Kat looked out of the window and suddenly pulled the lever up as hard as she could. Luke felt as if his stomach had fallen out of his body one hundred feet below.

“What was that for?” asked Luke.

“There was a mountain that we were about to crash into!” explained Kat.

Sure enough, when Luke looked down, he saw a snow-capped mountain just twenty feet below them.

“If this is what our ride is gonna be like, I’d have stayed at Santa’s place!” said Luke, his face green.

“Errrrrr… in that case if I was you… ” said Kat.

And that was what the ride was like all the way down to the South Pole (not including stops at Greenland, Alaska, Canada, San Francisco, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Chile, and not to mention avoiding being spotted by humans). At last, one cold, snowy day, Luke spotted a cold, snowy mountain… They had arrived at the South Pole.

“We have to ditch the helicopter now, or Blue’s forces will spot us!” said Luke.

“I heard that Blue sends troops out to alert him if there is an invasion, so that forces people to travel in small groups to avoid being caught. And even then, they can easily be wiped out in his fortress if they manage to somehow avoid being caught.”

“Oh boy,” said Kat, unenthusiastically.

Kat slowly cranked the Altitude lever downwards, and the helicopter slowly descended. Luke steered in a circle, and so the landing wasn’t too bad, but Luke and Kat were still terrible pilots.

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow… ow,” wailed Luke.

“You are a terrible pilot, Luke,” replied Kat, holding her shoulder.

“Oh, let’s just get on with it!” retorted Luke.

So, Luke and Kat wandered and wandered around in hopes of finding the fortress, staring at the empty whiteness that looked like an empty canvas. They suddenly came across some elves dressed entirely in blue, marching south.

One elf said, “Wow, I can’t wait to pull off my mittens and sit by the fire and have a nice warm cup of hot chocolate.”

Kat and Luke looked at each other. They had just found their ticket to Blue’s fortress…


Chapter Three: Into the Fortress

Luke and Kat slowly followed the marching troop that they hoped was leading them in the direction of Blue’s fortress.

“We can’t keep following the troop. They’ll spot us. We need to steal their clothes and be disguised as them!” said Luke quietly.

Are you kidding me?” whisper-screamed Kat.

“Is it a good idea to take off your clothes in Antarctica?” she continued.

“Well, we’ll just put them over our clothes. Happy?” replied Luke, a little miffed.

So Kat and Luke ran up to a soldier elf quickly and quietly, so as to not be seen or heard, and tackled one soldier while holding his mouth shut. The soldier fell on the ground with a thump.

“Sorry, this might be embarrassing,” Kat told the soldier, and he let out a shriek when he realized what was happening.

Luckily, no one heard. Then, they started working. The soldier screamed to much, so they stuffed snow in his mouth. Since elves had been given the gift of heat from the snow lords (let’s not go into elf religion, here) they could not freeze to death. Elves only wore clothes so that they wouldn’t be naked.

“Bye, bye,” whispered Luke.

Then, they repeated the process. Soon, the rest of the troop was about 200 meters ahead.

“We’ve got to catch up to them,” Kat told Luke.

“Yeah,” agreed Luke.

They left the two naked (but warm) elves buried in the snow and hurried after the elven troop.

Luke started gracefully running to catch up with the troop while Kat started sprinting full out. The snow made a crunch-crunch sound when they stomped in it. They ran and ran and ran until they finally caught up.

“Are you excited to have hot chocolate, Robert?” asked one hulking elf while looking in Luke’s direction.

For a second, Luke thought, Who is Robert? Then, he looked at the way the bulky elf was looking at him and almost said, “Ummm, am I Robert?” But, Luke came to the conclusion that he was Robert and said, “Um, yeah totally.”

Kat shot Luke a dirty look that said, If we get caught, it will be all your fault.

Luke tried again. “Definitely, I’m really excited to have that hot chocolate,” Luke said excitedly and tried to hide the fact that he didn’t know what hot chocolate was.

“Good, so am I,” the elf said.

The other elves nodded in agreement.

As Luke and Kat walked toward the palace, they were both thinking different things. Kat was thinking, I hope Luke’s not gonna be an idiot and give us away. And Luke was thinking, Did I just give us away?

They were both startled when there was suddenly shouting

“Hooray for hot chocolate! We are here!” one elf shouted.

“Yay,” another elf shouted.

“Ummm… ” said Luke quietly.

“Well, let’s go get some hot chocolate!” shouted a small elf that had a very loud voice.

“Yay!” everyone said, except for Luke and Kat.

As they stormed into the palace, someone declared that they were as loud as rioting monkeys screaming for bananas. Kat thought about what they were doing. Suddenly, with a shock, Kat realized the ugly truth… They didn’t have an actual plan beyond getting in the palace. Kat walked up to Luke.

“We have a problem.”

“What? Nothing could be wrong while you’re drinking hot chocolate. This is as good as… as… ummm… a police officer!” Luke exclaimed.

Kat broke the bad news.

“We don’t have a plan,” she said.

As this registered in Luke’s pea-sized brain, Kat sat down and tried the hot chocolate.

“So… that’s bad?” asked Luke, puzzled.

Yes!” whispered-screamed Kat, exasperated.

“Oh,” said Luke sounding very depressed.

“So here is my plan,” said Kat, pulling out a piece of paper.

First, she drew a stick figure and labled it Blue. Then, she drew two people with a dotted line behind them. First, they walked into a room and grabbed what seemed to be a big bomb. Then, they snuck around guards and into Blue’s throne room. The stick figures threw the bomb at Blue. And there wasn’t a picture for that, but you can just imagine what happens next…

“Perfect,” said Luke. “Now, just try some of this hot chocolate!”

Kat sipped the hot chocolate.

“Wow, this is good,” Kat exclaimed.

The two adventurers were so busy sipping their hot chocolate that they didn’t notice…

(Ahem, hi, guys! Kai here.) This is the part in a story every good writer has to have. A twist. The part of the story where the reader thinks, Oh, they’re going to do it! And then the writer adds something just to annoy you. If you noticed the words “the two adventurers were so busy sipping their hot chocolate that they didn’t notice… ” then you could have maybe predicted this. Now I can annoy you. Yay.

… two elves reading their paper. Then, they looked up. Rage filled the elves’ faces, but they could not act erratically. The two elves had to play this smart. The two elves walked up to the elf guard on duty and whispered into his ear. They quickly spread the message in this manner. So then, just as Kat put her mug down, the guards threw a bag over Luke and Kat’s chocolate covered faces.


Chapter Four: Bombs

Luke woke up in a cold, damp room. What happened? Luke wondered. Then, as if his wish had been answered, a guard came up to him.

“Trying to bomb Master Blue, eh?” the elf asked in a mid-westernly sounding gruff voice. “That ain’t gonna get ya anywhere. Master Blue has got at least 15 soldiers surrounding him at all times. Dat guy has got some serious safety problems.”

“Yeah, I guess… ” said Luke quietly.

“Hey, tell you what, you seem like a good lad. If ya promise not to do anything bad, I will think ‘bout giving you the keys. Eh?”

“Um… yeah, okay” Luke said, even though he felt bad lying.

“Good,” the guard said and handed him the keys.

Luke opened his cell and in a flourish, stood up and looked around. The dungeons were miserable, and he looked at the cells next to him. They were all empty and wet except for one. And it housed Kat. Luke quickly opened the lock. It opened with a satisfying click.

“Kat, Kat, can you hear me? Kat wake up!” Luke said softly.

“Hi, Luke,” said Kat.

“Listen, I have the keys. We have to get out of here right now!” Luke said in a commanding but nice tone that made him sound really dumb.

“Really?” Kat said in a voice that made her sound slightly insane.

“Yes, really, now! We have to go!” Luke whispered-not-whispered.

“Okay, okay fine. Wait — you’re completely right. We have to go now!”

The two friends sprinted out of the prison by following signs that were placed conveniently all around, leading up some stairs to a circular room. There were five doorways leading to a cafeteria, a lobby, an armory, barracks, and a nuke bunker. Luke chose the door with a sign marked armory. He and Kat raced down the hallway and around a corner when Luke’s eyes met the most beautiful sight ever. The armory. It was filled to the brim with tanks, the latest technology guns, fighter jets, bombs, and best of all, nuclear bombs. If you wanted a weapon of mass destruction, this was the place in the palace to find it.

“Hey, Kat, can you come over here and help me pick a bomb?” Luke asked.

“Sure, Luke. We could use grenades because we can carry lots of them and throw them easily, but we could also try to sneak in a bomb for the full effect and a big boom. We could also try small bombs which we could arrange into a pyramid for the fun of it.”

“Good idea, Kat, let’s try the big bomb. Let’s try to find one with a big timer that says fancy things like: you will die in approximately T-minus 2:00.000 minutes. Beep, beep, beep. That would be cool,” exclaimed Luke.

“Sounds good to me!” agreed Kat.

And so our two unlikely heroes went on a mission to find a bomb. Luke was looking around for a bomb when he noticed the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The biggest, scariest, and most awesome bomb he had ever seen.

Luke felt himself tearing up just by looking at the bomb and then regained his senses and yelled, “Kat, come over here and look at this bomb I just found!”

Kat immediately ran over to the bomb, and she too felt in awe at the greatness of the bomb.

“This is the one! We need to do this with this bomb. It’s sort of an inner feeling. Like we absolutely have to do this,” announced Kat earnestly.

“Yes, I agree. You should feel honored to be in this godly presence,” replied Luke.

“Now, to destroying Blue,” Kat said.

The two adventurers lifted the bomb and started staggering out of the room. Kat and Luke finally lifted it out of the room. They set it down, exhausted, and rested their hands on their knees and panted.

“That pant — was pant — good. Keep pant — Going pant,” panted Luke.

“Yes pant — ” agreed Kat.

The two adventurers then put their hands under the bomb and lifted and lifted, and slowly the bomb lifted. Then, the two adventurers staggered down the hallway and finally to the throne room door, which was filled to the brim with at least twenty tons of rubies, diamonds, emeralds, gold, silver, copper, piles of hundies and most importantly, Blue himself.

They shoved the bomb through the door, then, the two dove headfirst under a giant pile of dollar bills. If you were there, you might have heard a slight beep, beep as our heroes had preset the bomb. Then, you might have heard the bomb speak its message of doom, but it was muffled by the dollar bills. But Blue was too distracted playing with his riches and didn’t hear.

“All is good — wait, how are we going to get out of here in time?” exclaimed Kat.

At that very moment, there was a loud crash and a boom, and Luke and Kat heard, “Like this — Ho ho ho!” someone said in a familiar voice.

“Santa!” Luke said.

“Hop in!” Santa replied.

“You horrible traitor! You freak!” Blue shouted.

Luke and Kat hopped into the sleigh, and they sped off. Everything whizzed past and Luke realized suddenly, hey, this is how Santa delivers all those presents.

“Wait, are those your reindeer? I thought they didn’t fly!” Kat asked, startled.

“Oh, they do. They just like to rest and be lazy,” Santa said in a teasing voice.

So this is how our two heroes found themselves speeding along in Santa’s secret sleigh at top speed. In less than an hour, the party were gliding over the North Pole over a dark, jaggedy mountain.

“Wait, wasn’t this place wrecked?” Luke asked.

“It was, but it so happens that I too have a little bit of magic,” Santa replied.

The sleigh came down towards a jet black strip of concrete… the landing strip! The sleigh slowly lowered down, and Luke and Kat covered their heads and tucked into a ball around their knees. This was going to be a rough landing. Boom. The sleigh crashed to the ground with a sickening crash. The reindeer took off running, pulling the sleigh and going slower and slower until they finally arrived at the foot of a mountain. Most people thought that this mountain was just a mountain, but in reality, it was the secret entrance to Fort S or Fort Santa. The Fort could only be accessed by elves whom Santa trusted. Santa pulled a garage door opener out of his pocket and pressed it.

“Activating sequence open door. Do you want to do this?” a hidden speaker in the button asked.

“Yes,” Santa said, enunciating clearly.

The mountain then rumbled as a part of the cavern door pulled in and put to the side by powerful pistons. The party sleighed through. They passed hallways, displaying monitors, art, and technology that neither Luke nor Kat had ever even heard of. Then they entered a large room and finally slid to a stop.

Suddenly, there were elves jumping out from behind furniture and at the top of their lungs yelled, “Surprise!

There were various shouts of “We love you!”, “Yay!”, and “Thank you for stopping Blue!” It was a surprise party. Kat and Luke had never felt so overjoyed. They were surrounded by the elves they loved, who were all cheering their little elven hearts out for them. It was the best feeling in the world.

Now, my reader, my job as a writer is done. I have finished the book. You now know the story of Luke, Kat, Santa, and Blue. It was a joy writing for you all, and I want to thank you for reading this book. Thank you. Now I must go. I really never wanted to say these words, but:

The End


Journey to the Heavens

Storm Search

My eyes flew open as the door swung open. My mom was standing in the doorway, her eyes wild. Outside, rain poured out from the bleak night sky.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The rain was just super cold,” she muttered, but I knew she was lying. I made a silent decision to sneak outside afterwards. “Go to sleep, India Hollyblade,” she added.

I trudged to my bed, but as soon as my mother began to snore, I crept outside after putting on a long sleeved navy blue dress with thick tights. I wore a long crimson coat with white faux fur and tied my chocolate brown hair into a bun before I slung a bag of emergency tools that my mother gave me. Then I created a forcefield and ran outside, whistling for Windra, my giant white wolf. I hopped onto her back, and we raced around the garden, looking for anything that might have spooked my mom. Then I saw the light.


Volcano Light

It was silvery and soft, and at first I thought the light was just a trick of the moonlight, but then I realized the moon was hidden behind the clouds. I urged Windra to go forward, and as we climbed the hill, I noticed that the light was coming from the dormant volcano. Could the volcano possibly be erupting? I thought. Nah, volcanos don’t have silver lava, do they? As soon as Windra and I reached the volcano, I ran up to it and balanced on the rim of the volcano. I had done this many times, but it still made me nervous to know that a slight misstep could get me into an even more dangerous position. I realized that a swirling light had appeared inside the volcano. Before I could think about what I was seeing and actually get it into my head that this wasn’t a dream, the moon broke free of the clouds, and the silver light grew brighter, making the earlier light seem dim in comparison. I was so busy staring in awe at the breathtaking sight that I did not notice that the wind was picking up up until it was too late. A strong gust of wind hit me hard, and I started to topple over. Windra tried to grab me, but my weight made her lose balance, and we both fell into the silver light, the wolf, howling, and me, screaming as the silver light engulfed us.


The Test Of The Sleeping Moon

I was still screaming when I realized that first, I wasn’t burning up or dying or anything horrible like that, and second, I could breathe and everything felt peaceful and I felt so relaxed as the light turned dark and my eyelids started to close… Slurp!!! My eyes shot open as I felt the horrible sensation and wetness of wolf saliva. Blinding light hit me like someone had shone a flashlight in my eyes. Then I realized we were sitting on a cloud.

Then a voice said, “Congratulations! You have passed the test of the Sleeping Moon!”

An old wizardly man who looked blurry in the mist surrounding him pointed to snoring people that had appeared around us.


Information

“The Test of the Sleeping Moon is what people go through when they enter Faunaree, our world. Hostiles are sent to the land of nightmares forever, which is all the way north. Here is a map of where Twilight Hotel is, and see you later!” the old guy (whom I had named Mr. Tedious) said. “If you fail the Test of The Sleeping Moon, which you didn’t, you are considered a Hostile.”

Now that I could see him more clearly, I knew he had stunning blue eyes, a silvery robe, and white hair that covered his face almost entirely. Then I sank through the clouds.


Getting To The Hotel

As I landed softly on the ground with Windra, I contemplated the map. It showed a desert, and after a while I spotted the hills of sand for real. I walked through the desert for days, then weeks then months, until I couldn’t keep track of time. Just as I let go of my last hold on reality, there were two pathways, one going downhill and one going up. I decided to go up because I loved sliding down hills, so I hopped onto Windra and skidded down the hill. Suddenly we were in the middle of swirling light, and everything was soft and like a feather, like I was in a flock of doves until it dissipated so that I could see a marvelous castle that looked like an abandoned royal palace. Lightning struck the mountains in the distance, and the windows glowed an eerie purple-pink. Obviously I took a photo (by the way, it was in my emergency bag, in case you were wondering) as I ran down the walkway and knocked. No one answered, so I knocked again. Still, no one answered. Impatient, I opened the door that led to what changed not only my life and future, but almost everyone else’s.


Twilight Hotel (with little comments from the author)

Now, first, I must remind you that I was a young and rather impulsive child at this age. For the story’s sake, do not treat the me in this book as you would treat me if my older and wiser self were making these decisions. What’s that you say? Oh, right, the story. On we go! Wait, what?! There’s barely enough room for me to finish my little comments! The story starts… now! Oh, and if you want the story in wolf language, that can be arranged.*

*Bark howl woof arf howl! Bark arf bark woof arf howl!


Twilight Hotel

(Joyful to say, and also hopefully joyful for you readers, no more serious chapter titles after this.)

Like I said, I had opened the door and was stepping in when I remembered my manners.

“Sorry for trespassing! I hope you will forgive me, and I am returning this map to you, or at least I assume this is yours,” I said (very politely). Windra barked, ruining my charming manner. I dropped the map, and immediately I fell face first into a fluffy bed. “Huh,” I said, and then fell asleep.


In Which I Meet My Friend The Puppy

As soon as I woke up, I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a room full of snow. Strangely, it wasn’t cold at all! In fact, the snow was pretty warm. I stepped in hesitantly, and 45 minutes later, when a puppy stepped in, she found me building a giant snowman that was nine feet and nine inches tall. (We checked.)

“Hello?” she asked. “I am Mocha, your new transportation ride.”

I looked at her, threw a snowball at Windra, then studied her some more. “But you’re smaller than a chair!” I exclaimed, offended.

Who would dare send me a tiny little puppy and pretend that I was smaller than that.

“True,” Mocha said. “But I can grow.”

Then the world (or at least everything within my eyesight) grew big and furry and smelled like dog fur.


In Which I Eat Some Chicken

Aaaahhhh!!!” I yelled as Mocha flung Windra and I onto her back and leaped out the window.

We’re gonna dii-ie, we’re gonna dii-ie! a singsong voice chanted in my head. As we hit the ground, we dissolved into millions of tiny particles and reformed on top of Mr. Tedious’ head. As Mr. Tedious sank through the cloud, yelling at the top of his lungs, we bounced upwards, only because Mr. Tedious has a rather bouncy head. As I grabbed a piece of delicious chicken, I felt a little bad for Mr. Tedious.

“Oops,” said Mocha.


In Which I Eat (And Describe) Chicken and Go to a Palace

As we flapped towards the portal, I munched on the chicken. It was salty and juicy, but a little chewy, too, like how a chicken born in fire would taste: A little crispy on the outside, but soft and buttery on the inside. I was just stuffing the last of the fire chicken in my mouth when we arrived in a palace.


In Which I Meet My Mom

I entered the palace hesitantly, one foot at a time, only me, just me. I had tried to get Windra to come, but the scary guards wouldn’t allow the wolf. My footsteps echoed along the hallway, and Mocha had disappeared to wherever giant dogs spent their free time. I walked at first, but then wonderful aromas wafted down from wherever the hallway led to, and I began to run. Even though I had just had the fire chicken, my stomach still growled. Suddenly, I ran into my mom.


In Which I Eat Some Lunch

“Mom?” I asked, unable to believe it.

“I know, sweetie,” my mom said. “But let’s have lunch first.” She took a sip of the tea.

Why didn’t you tell me about this place; it is so awesome — oh,” I shouted at first, but then I took a sip of the tea. It was like drinking liquid sugar, but with a hint of a creamy spice. It was sticky, yet it slid on my tongue, and soon, my mind began to clear. “Let’s eat first,” I agreed.

A chicken scrambled towards me, balancing a tray of what looked like leafy green vegetables on his head. I took one of the leaves, nibbled on the edge, and immediately my mind exploded. It tasted like someone sprinkled wasabi on it and then poured chocolate milk on the leaf. Brown speckles on the leaf added creamy, salty, bursts that exploded in my mouth.

“Now, by all means, let us talk!” my mom said.


A Face-To-Face Chat

“I knew of this world, but I didn’t tell you because this world would fry a lesser brain like the dragon eggs over there.” She nodded at some purplish-black eggs that I hadn’t seen before. “Obviously I underestimated you. We will be living here from now on.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “Can we eat now?”

“Of course!” my mom said, obviously relieved to be freed of the awkward conversation.


In Which I Get Three Awesome Tools and Eat Some More.

I wolfed down two more leaves and grabbed a sparkly brown square from a box labeled Unicorn Creamtoys. I bit into it and blinked. The creamtoy melted in my mouth, but then it reformed back into a square, like it was trying to last as long as it could. I felt a ball pop out of my mouth, and then it filled with a sweet taste that my mouth wanted to dispose of. I spat it out, and it self-cleaned itself. Out of it popped out three things: a belt, a glowing rod, and a bunch of glowing sticks. A voice in my head (because of the creamtoy) said, The belt is a magical thing that allows you to pluck anything you want from its pockets. The rod is stunner that is safer than an electric staff. You can use it to charge the glow-throwers. After that, as I fingered my stuff, I knew this story would have a happily-ever-after.


By The Way

Thank you! Thank you! I don’t have much time, but I just want to say how much I thank India’s mother, Hazel Hollyblade, for cooperating. (Of course, she insisted on her own story, but yeah.)


The Rise of the Evil Enchilada Empire

Once there was an enchilada named Chicken. By the way, his middle name was Pot, and his last name was Pie. He was the meanest enchilada in Enchilada Estate. One day he was walking in the woods and teasing a leaf (that’s what he does to be mean) when he got struck by lightning, and that made him meaner, so he was now Meanachilada. He demanded that he should be Emperilada.

So, Nationwide said, “Yes,” so it was a new rise Eviladas.

And they wanted revenge on leafmanity.

So that was how World War II started.


Pack

Chapter One

I am Storm, a lone she-wolf. I am traveling with my much younger brother, Cloud. Before we talk about anything, let me tell you my backstory.

“Go to sleep, darling,” Lola, my mother, whispered.

“I can’t,” I protested.

“Your brothers can. And you’re much older than them. If they can sleep, so can you,” Lola whispered again.

“Tell me about dad before I do,” I pleaded.

Lola sighed, giving in. “Doobie was a brave wolf. I met him when he was hunting for our pack… ”

“Run! Run! Cloud, run! Storm, where’s Sticks?” Lola yelled.

I woke up with a start. Why was she yelling? Then I saw the golden-red branches that radiated heat. Then I recalled something from Lola’s stories. Fire. The thing that had killed my father, Doobie.

“Run,” Lola repeated.

Then we heard a voice: “Mommy, Mommy, help!”

Then that gray stuff that floated around the sky — smoke, I recalled — cleared, and I saw my brown-gray younger brother who supposingly looked like Doobie.

“Help!” Sticks called, a panicked look on his face.

Lola glanced at me and whispered, “Find Cloud, then run. Please.”

I couldn’t do anything but nod. I ran to the other side of the large cave, which was filled with sickly, small-looking trees that were already catching flames. It was where our pack used to hunt. But now the fire will kill all the prey, probably the hunters, too.

Anyway, as soon as I found my white-furred brother, Cloud, I grabbed him by his neck fur and, against my mother’s will, turned to find her. At last, I saw her. Sticks was in her jaws, and she was trying to run past those evil flickering red branches.

“Leave!” she yelled.

I shook my head. No way was I going to leave her! I took a running leap towards her, trying to push her away from the flames, but it was too late. A large birch tree, perhaps larger than the rest, was staggering down as flames burned away at its roots. The fallen tree landed in front of my mother, startling the somewhat elderly Lola. The grayish-white she-wolf scrambled back, trying to get away from the flames, but she was surrounded.

“Mother! Sticks!” I yelled.

Cloud was trembling by now. I curled my tail around his eyes, which were navy-blue in color, like staring out at a lake at the darkest time of night, so he couldn’t see our mother, well, die. And here I was, unable to help my own family without killing myself.

“Go,” Lola whispered. And I did, though I made the mistake of looking back. The last time I saw my mother was her gazing at me lovingly, with Sticks perched on her head, tiny brown paws on Lola’s ears, grabbing on in any way he could.

That was the last time I saw any of my pack, unless you count Cloud as a pack, but I don’t, so… Oh, and FYI, I don’t react well to pity, so please don’t sympathize with me. That just makes it worse.


Chapter Two

So, now that you know my backstory, it’s best if you know my future — or at least, the future I want. And judging from my luck, this isn’t going to happen. Basically, Lola, Sticks, and the rest of my pack are supposed to be fire-resistant,  then me and Cloud find them, and we all live happily ever after. Like that’s going to happen.

“Hey, Stormy!” That’s Cloud, calling to me. No, my name is not Stormy. It’s Storm. He just adds a “y” to annoy me.

“Yes?” I said.

“I have a brilliant idea!” I was about to say that his version of “brilliant” was about as brilliant as a snail’s brain, but then he said, “Let’s join or create a pack!” and I just stared at him, jaw hanging open that it was even possible for such an annoying, not-so-brilliant wolf to say something so brilliant. Cloud took my mouth’s floor-magnetizing as a bad sign and mumbled, “I mean, we’re just so lonely right now, and I can’t even hunt yet. I mean, your okay, but — ”

He trailed off, and I surprised him and myself by saying, “Cloud, that’s brilliant. Three howls for my brilliant, brilliant brother!”

We did howl, but way more than three times. It’s a wolf habit, howling. I don’t know why, but it just feels… right.

Anyways, that night, as I curled up with Cloud in our den, I wondered, I know getting a pack is a good idea, but is that possible?

So, I said something about my den, so I’m getting the feeling I need to describe the appearance. It’s this small cave with a low, narrow entrance made of thick pure black stone. Tall spruce trees, which my brother calls “Spricey trees,” were littered above our cave, like several stars fell down and became trees. One of those spruce trees must have fallen over, because long branches of dark green hid our cave from sight, like a warning: Do not enter, or us leaves will slive you into shreds and leave your remains so a vulture can eat you.

Yeah, okay, maybe that warning was a bit intense, but whatever. That is what it looked like.

I remembered a brief dream about Cloud and Sticks and I running in the snow, as I taught them how to hunt snow hares before I woke up.

“Cloud,” I yawned once I nudged my brother away, “What you said yesterday, about getting a pack, I was considering it last night.”

“And?” the white wolf pup asked, shaking the sleep from his eyes in a cute-ish way.

I responded with an, “It’s okay,” but Cloud — annoyingly– stared at me with those big, water-during-the-middle-of-the-night eyes, as if he was was repeating the question “And?”

I sighed. Wolf pups tend to have more control over us older wolves, with pure adorability, and it’s so tempting to just say yes, accept anything those pups want to do.

“It’s an idea we can try out, okay? I mean, if we join a pack we don’t like, we can always leave, right? But let’s go get some wolfish friends tomorrow, and play in the mud today, ‘kay? Yes? Good,” I said, just to get his mind of the topic so I could think about it in solitude.

I was right. Cloud’s mind floated away from packs and stuff like a, well, like a cloud.

I splashed around in the mud with Cloud for a bit, changing my fur from silvery-gray, like the moon, to deep, rich brown. Meanwhile, I was thinking, on one paw, Cloud’s right, and we’d be safer in a pack. But on the other paw, wouldn’t taking a pack mean I would be saying that I was done with Lola and my former pack? Ugh, Storm, stop making this decision harder for yourself.

But in the end, I didn’t really make the decision. It turns out it was someone else made the decision for me. He had cornered us while we were walking back to our den.

“Why, hello,” he hissed. “I heard you were looking for a pack. So, would you like to join mine?”


Chapter Three

“Who are you?” I howled, curling my tail protectively around Cloud. The other wolf grinned in amusement at my anger.

I studied him. The wolf looked like an ordinary brown wolf. He was the color of mud, like what we had just rolled in (I double-checked to make sure it was his actual fur color, instead of being mud-covered). He had broad shoulders and his leg muscles — I wasn’t sure I wanted to face those. He had long, sharp, wickedly curved claws that glinted almost as dangerously as his eyes. His eyes, speaking of, were a beady, malicious black balls that glinted with greed. Deep red-pink scars were scattered among his brown pelt. Hmm. I wasn’t sure I should trust this wolf.

“Why, I’m Claw, leader of a pack of wolves. And don’t be scared of me. I only fight to protect my pack.” The strange wolf studied us. “And you don’t seem like much of a threat.”

“Well, he may not be, but I definitely am,” I informed him, pushing Cloud behind my back.

Claw smiled in such an odd way. It seemed more like a smirk.

“The bond that connects siblings. It’s always so … adorable,” he said. “Do you want to meet the rest of my pack?”

I was going to say no, thank you when Cloud did his annoying impulsive little brother thing and said, “Sure!”

I sighed. Broth-ers. But Claw led us — well, led Cloud and I followed — through the forest, until we reached a wide clearing. It was this light shade of grassy green with this really tall sort of tree I had never seen before. One of those trees had the largest branches, spread out. The trunk was so wide, it took up at least have of the clearing. And scattered among those branches, or on the trunk, was at least 20 wolves. I mean, a few were on the ground, but they were mostly on the tree.

“Emily! Keelin!” Claw called.

Two small, female wolf  cubs who looked around the same age ran up to us. They both had short snouts, long tails, and fluffy fur. The only difference between them was that one was the exact same color as Claw, while the other was a shadowy color of gray-black. The brown one was slightly more wiry and had a playful expression and rather tall ears. She looked like she didn’t have a care in the world, constantly chasing her tail and pouncing on some fallen leaf. The gray-black one was large, with a thick, furry scruff and a thoughtful expression.

“These are my twin daugh — Emily, get your tail back here! — daughters. Emily’s the jumpy one, and Keelin is the smart one. Emily, give me that leaf! Stand here like a proper wolf, for once! Ugh.”

Keelin looked at us with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. Emmie’s not normally this annoying.”

Emily appeared at her side. “That’s ‘cause I’m never annoying!” she said innocently — though I saw through the act, because she said it with a smile. “Dad, can we give them the tour?”

Claw sighed. “If they’re staying, go ahead. Are you staying?”

“Yep!” Cloud shouted.

“We are?’ I asked.

“Yes, we are!”

“Yay!” Emily cheered. She bounced off — literally bounced — with Cloud following, equally jumpy. Claw sighed, than slithered away.

Keelin regarded me, now that we were alone.

“We’re facing the same problem, I suppose.” She didn’t say it as a question — just a statement, clear and true as day.

“Yeah.”

Emily and Cloud swooped back to us.

“Guys! Are you coming?”

Keelin and I nodded, simultaneously. Emily and Cloud beamed, simultaneously. And at that moment, I realized that this pack was a great pack — friendship, happiness, and trust.


Chapter Four

“Storm! Storm! Help me!” Cloud called.

“Why? What is it?”

“The Pack of Dark Wolves is chasing me!”

I shuddered in my sleep. The Pack of Dark Wolves was a wolf pack so evil, their hearts were darker than the shadows, their claws as sharp as a splinter. If they caught you, even if you didn’t do anything, they’ll kill you in the slowest, most painful way possible. There was a very understandable reason I was having these dreams: it’s because The Pack of Dark Wolves are the most scary, deadly pack in the world. I mean, they’re mostly a legend, but they always manage to creep themselves into your nightmares, and it’s just so easy to believe in those myths.

A small paw woke me up from my dreams, then said the most coincidental coincidence ever said.

“Uh, Storm, we really have to leave,” Cloud mumbled.

“Why? This is a good pack. We’ve been here for over a month, and nothing bad has happened to us,” I grumbled.

Then Cloud told me the most horrifying thing in the history of this forest — and trees live a long, long time.  

“I woke up early, and so did Emmie, so we went outside, hoping the sunlight would warm us up. But then Claw wanted to talk to Emmie, alone, so when Emmie talked with him, I eavesdropped — ”

Brothers.

“ — and found out they were the Pack of Dark — ”

“Wolves. Yes. Good for you. Guards, take them out and kill them, where my offsprings can see them,” a voice interrupted. He said the word offsprings like they were distasteful. Claw stormed (not my storm, different storm) into the den, with at least ten bodyguards — not like he needs them — behind him.

The bodyguards grabbed us by our scruffs and hauled us out into the open — though my guard’s teeth were slightly too deep, and it really hurt.

“Keelin! Keelin, help!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Two small shapes, one brown and one black, came to help us, not like that would help us very much.

Fighting broke out, and I could feel a wolf’s claws on my spine. I kicked out with my hind paws and winded the opponent.

Then I saw Cloud… being cornered against the tree we’ve called home for a while now, blood leaking from a gash in his shoulder. Then I heard Keelin wail in pain, and I glanced in her direction. Claw was towering over her, claws poised at her chest — but he was glancing in my direction, like he was waiting for me to chose — my best friend… or my brother.

I can’t believe I did this, and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I chose Cloud. I lunged toward the wolf standing at Cloud’s throat, and I heard heart-shattering wails of pain at the same time. Knowing I couldn’t change my mind now, I slashed my claws across that wolf’s heart and… you know what? I’ll not go into the details. Let’s just say that I killed him.

Claw snarled at us, “You’ll live for now, you annoying wolf pups. I’ll swear I’ll kill your family one day!”

“Good luck, since my family’s dead,” I said.

“But feel free to kill yourself,” Emily said, tears staining her eyes, and I had a quick estimate why.

Claw snarled, then ran away.

Then I spotted the body.

The body of a fluffy, bloody wolf. Keelin.

“No!” I sobbed, lifting my snout to the sky with a wailing howl.

For around a minute I sat there, swallowed by my grief, barely noticing Emily until she spoke.

“Stormy, you should help with Cloud’s shoulder. I’ve tried to stop the bleeding, but… ”

I nodded.

“Be there in a moment. Oh, and Emily?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for choosing Cloud.”

She brushed her fur against my shoulder.

“It was the right choice. I mean, I’ll miss her, but still, it was the right one. I bet Keelin is watching us from the Pack of Starry Wolves.”

The Pack of Starry Wolves was the pack dead wolves joined when they died, so that they could watch over their family and friends in peace.

I ran over to Cloud. His shoulder was bleeding like crazy, so it was rather obvious he’d lose so much blood he’d die unless we stopped the endless red river sprouting from Cloud’s shoulder.

“Emily, can you get me some moss?” I asked.

She nodded, then she was off.

While she was gone, I cleaned off his wound with gentle, careful strokes of my tongue. Cloud sat up blearily and gazed at me with his midnight-blue eyes.

“I’m sorry for being the other option,” he apologized. I tilted my head. That made no sense.

“If I wasn’t here, Keelin would still be alive,” he continued.

“And you wouldn’t be,” I said, continuing to gently lick the blood of the wound, “Listen to me, Cloud. We don’t need another pack. You’re the best pack anyone can wish for.”

“Uh… can I join the best pack anyone could wish for? Wow, that needs an abbreviation. BPACWF?” Emily interrupted.

I chuckled.

“Of course, Emmie,” I said with a smile.

Emily tossed me the ball of moss, and I caught it with my jaws. I set the ball on the jagged cut on Cloud’s shoulder and spread it around until it soaked up all the blood. Then I nudged the moss aside and helped Cloud up.

“Come on, pack,” I grinned, “let’s find a place to stay the night.”

And maybe all nights, living together… as a pack.


The Library

ACT ONE

SCENE 1

PLUTO is sitting in the library, reading books. This is the only place where he is not bullied. A lot of people in his class make fun of him for reading a lot.

PLUTO

Excuse me, Miss Agnes? I wanted to know if you had the book under the library code 6712.

MISS AGNES

Let me check the system. I suppose it’s here. Not many people read about law enforcement.

PLUTO

Thank you very much.

After PLUTO receives his book on law enforcement, he heads over to his classroom.

BULLY #1

Ha ha, you’re spending your whole recess in the library!

BULLY #1 says this while punching PLUTO in the stomach.

BULLY #2

Stupid boy here was in the library, it seems.

BULLY #3

Oh shut up, I have worse things to say about him. He’s a cake-sniffing brat. And he eats pizza.

BULLY #2

What type of insult is that?

BULLY #3

It’s a cake-sniffing brat pizza eater insult.

BULLY #1

Okay.

BULLY #3

Oh, and did I tell you he loves to eat pasta?

BULLY #2

He eats pasta? What the heck?

BULLY #3

Also, he watches television.

BULLY #1

He can’t. He spends all his time in the library, don’t you?

As PLUTO walks away, he sees MISS AGNES in trouble. MISS AGNES is trying to put back some books according to library code, but seems to be tripping. PLUTO runs as fast as he can and catches MISS AGNES before she falls off the ladder. As MISS AGNES thanks him, he hears the bell ring. He runs to the classroom to see his teacher waiting.

TEACHER

You’re late. I heard from a lot of kids that you were spending your time in the library. You’re supposed to be outside playing. And you skipped lunch. What an embarrassment! Now shut up and get to your seat. Oh, and did I forget to tell you that Owen, Justice, and Michael said you punched them in the stomach and said they were cake-sniffing, pizza-eating, television-watching, pasta-swallowing brats? What an embarrassment. You are the worst kid in the class, and you shall be banned from the library. You will sit out all of your recess in here, reading the Bible. And you shall skip lunch, and I will starve you until you die! And, as your punishment for today, I will dump you in a box full of box jellyfish, the most venomous jellyfish in the world. I hope you’re happy!


ACT TWO

SCENE 1

         PLUTO dumps himself in a glass showcase full of Australian box jellyfish. The stage goes black, and a huge nest appears out of the black. An egg hatches, and out comes a lightbulb, and a very deep voice comes out:

BRAIN

Bring food to school.

Another egg hatches.

BRAIN

Kill box jellyfish using a Band-Aid. Put the Band-Aid on top of the jellyfish, and the jellyfish will stop and drop to the bottom of the tank.

All eggs hatch.

BRAIN

Use modern witchcraft and wizardry!

Stage goes black


ACT THREE

SCENE 1

In “prison cell” a.k.a box jellyfish tank.

TEACHER

What does it say on page 397,000?

PLUTO

As God sent down the ten commandments… Oh, I’ll just stop talking. I already know the whole history of the golden lamb.

TEACHER

You have to keep on reading or else I’ll kill you. You have to keep on reading or else I’ll drive a knife through your stomach. I’ll also shred you like cheese. Or I’ll bring in my pet cobra!!!

PLUTO

5556677mkilopuutg

TEACHER
Stop that! And keep reading!

PLUTO dissolves.


ACT FOUR

SCENE 1

PLUTO enters the locked-up library.

MISS AGNES

Pluto, what are you doing here? And how did you — Oh. I know. I should have never let you look at that modern witchcraft and wizardry book.

PLUTO

I need books 667, 789, and 2394.

MISS AGNES

Okay. I’ll search the system. It seems they’re all here.

As PLUTO starts reading the books, MISS AGNES locks the library and leaves. She knows that PLUTO will be able to leave on his own.

PLUTO

1234567890-=[][ppoiuiyt54rfgbhytgytfhfjgjhgbvv cdftghbvdhdtfghb erhgfeyjk,.kiuhtfdsete6d5g3ef!!!!@#$%^&*()

PLUTO disappears into a book.

END OF BOOK ONE


The Sloth Who Gave Up Being Mean to the Pythons

Once upon a time there lived a sloth named Bob. Bob liked his name. He liked it because it was the only name he had. But… when Mom left with Ms. Python to get breakfast, the kid pythons stayed, and they had very sharp teeth. They ripped his toys. And when Mom got home, she would blame it on him.

He said, “I’m getting revenge.” And he did. Dun dun dun!

The next day, he set up a camera, and he turned on the camera when the pythons slithered in. Then he started the camera, and then they came in. The mother python left, and Mrs. Sloth left, and they started ripping and ripping and chewing the toys, and Bob got it all on footage. The next night he showed his mom, and his mom never invited those pesky snakes again.

At night, they slithered in the house and started chewing up his toys. He got it on footage and showed in to his mom. She locked the door extra tight and even used the slither block, which is a cage that drops on baby pythons, but not on Mrs. Snake. Then, the pythons hid in the bushes when she set up the trap. So, they knew to put a fake snake in the trap so it would drop and then move it to the side, so then they could get in the house again, but the door was locked. So they tried to slither under the door, but she even put out the little slither pincher, so it would pinch them if they went under!

The next morning, Mrs. Python came over and said, “Can we go out to breakfassssssst?”

“Sure!” said Mrs. Sloth.

“And can I leave the ssssssnakeesssss here?”

“Just this last time.”

Bob was really, really mad that the snakes stayed over again, but it was surprising. They didn’t chew up any more toys. They didn’t take any branches. They didn’t take anything!

After breakfast, Mrs. Python and Mrs. Sloth came home.

Mrs. Sloth said, “I know why they’re chewing up the toys. Because they don’t have a home, so they need fur blankets and shelter, and they make them out of the sticks and cotton.”

Bob said, “Oh. You can share a home with us! We have two extra rooms.”

They said, “Thank you! We’ll be back in a few minutes. We need to grab all our stuff.”

THE END


Monodogs

Hello, my name is Twix. I would like it if you would give me a belly rub because I have been a very good boy! Still no?! How rude! What if I give you a kiss and a hug and you give me a belly rub? Ugh! How about five kisses and three hugs, and in favor, I would like a belly rub, and that’s all. You are so rude! I am calling Mom over. See what she has to say about your behavior.

Hello, my name is Lavender. I like to stay in my garden of lavender because I hate mosquitos. They are the most annoying, pesky bugs in the universe! They buzz by your ear, and when you try to eat them, they fly away. Again, they are so annoying!! If I had one wish that could come true, I would like for all mosquitos to become extinct. Hmmmmmm, but I want a lifetime supply of treats. What to do??? Help!!

Hey, it’s your pal, Rusty. Back in my days I used to love romping around with my sister, Piper. But now these days I just want to stay at home and sleep all day. Did you get that, Mom? Hey, I do have a job. I guard the house, so nobody breaks in!!! Sorry, reader, may I have a moment with my mother?! You are so dead, Mom, and you yell at me when I bark at another dog. Well, you are getting a piece of your own mind. (Sorry, Piper, that you didn’t get any credit.)

Hello, my name is Twilight. I like being in the spotlight because my parents are William Shakespaw and Sophia Vergrra. They always tell me to be on my best behavior because when I am in the spotlight I go crazy. I really just want to be a singer and an actress. I was going for more of an opera singer and a comedy performer, but I don’t see those two jobs being a very good mix. So, I need a bit of help. Both, opera singing, or comedy performing? Or maybe I can do each of them for a third of the year?!

Hello, my name is Forest. I am kind of stuck… as you can see. I would love it if you could help me with this… human! Well, they are on their way. I have been in this light tangle situation for about two hours. Well, one hour and 59 minutes. Still the same! Okay, let me tell you what happened. I was playing with my buddies, Hunter and Ace. And we were playing hide-and-go-seek, but it didn’t go as planned. I got stuck. I am not very surprised they didn’t help me. That time that they got chased by a bear and almost fell off of a cliff was pretty funny!! And the other time they got close to a horse, and it bucked.

Hello! My name is Ace. You may know me as Forest’s friend. Yes, he got stuck. Hunter and I didn’t help Forest because he had let us get bucked by a horse, and we nearly fell off a cliff! That was so scary, and when I got back, I got this piece of refreshing watermelon! It tastes so good!!! I am in heaven!!! I really want some more watermelon. If you were going to give me a surprise, I would love some watermelon.

What’s up! I am Hunter, and I really don’t know what to do. I am stuck modeling for a dog company that sells dog clothes, and since I am used to wearing clothes I feel very naked. I am only doing this and smiling because I want some treats here! Come on, you can’t blame a dog for wanting something to eat! I will succeed and model for a dog company, naked! Sorry I have to say this, dog company, but… I quit. I don’t want to model naked!! In fact, I don’t think anyone wants to model naked, so I quit!!!

Hey! It’s Hazel, Hunter’s sister, and Piper is my best friend, but I can’t find her right know… I am looking for her, and in Tahoe it is so cold, and I just want to go to sleep. No, I will keep on finding her, and we will dogopoly like she promised. We live in Australia, so it has definitely not been a long couple of days until getting up here! I really don’t know where she is! What if I try calling her on my woofy-phone?

“Hello, Piper, I have been looking for you! I looked all around the house looking for you, and you weren’t there, so now I am in Tahoe looking for you, and I am very frustrated with you. Why didn’t you tell me that you were under your parents bed! Ugh, Piper, you are in very big trouble, Piper! I am coming back right now!”

So, you probably already heard what is happening. And I have some bad news… I used up all of my money on food. Now that is a big problem!

Hi, my name is Poppy. Quick question, do you want to try and find my bone? I hid my bone for this game, so you better say yes!! Yes? Yay! Okay. Ready, set, go. Wow, Mom’s doing better than Dad and sissy! Go, Mom! Oh no, Dad’s ahead. Oh no, sissy gives up and doesn’t want to do it anymore. Only Mom and Dad are in. Oh, they don’t want to do it anymore, so there is another problem… I forgot where the bone is. No!!!

One eternity later…

As you can see, I just had a mental breakdown. I wish that I could have found that bone, but it now is long gone. I need a bit of personal space.

We are all from the SF Bay organization. We were all named after something that means a lot to us or something that we really like.

Twix likes to follow his parent around when he eats Twix.

Lavender loves the smell of lavender.

Rusty likes to help his dad with his metalshop business.

Twilight likes to be in the spotlight, and she is known for always having a twinkle in her eyes.

Forest likes to romp around in the forest with his friends.

Ace likes to watch his family play card games. His favorite card is the Ace of Spades.

Hunter likes to chase rabbits.

Hazel likes to snack on hazelnuts when she is bored.

Poppy likes to steal poppyseed goods.


What Blood Can Do

Preface

Sara was a vampire, and everyone who knew her noticed something unusual about her the moment they saw her.


Chapter One: People

(Sara)

I opened the front door and walked out into the fresh spring breeze of L.A. and started walking down my block, keeping my pace quick and swift. That was mostly why everyone stopped me on the street to ask me why I was walking so fast. As I walked, I spotted a nice patisserie shop, and I walked in to avoid the people that would mostly look at me and question why I was walking so fast. And you know, I really don’t know why I walk so fast, but actually I do. It’s because I’m a vampire. I knew that before my mom did. When I was born, the people at the hospital noticed something that shone in me and that was that I was a vampire. It’s not that bad being a vampire. I actually like it.

“Excuse me, miss, is there anything we can help you with?” the man at the counter in the shop asked.

“Oh, yes! Could I get a hot chocolate with whipped cream please?”

“Yes, coming up! And that would be $5.30,” the man said.

“Sure,” I said as I handed him the money.

As I left the store, I noticed how the man looked at me, like I was different or suspicious, but I totally ignored him and kept doing my things.


Chapter Two: Walk

(Sara)

My walk back was actually pretty good, not so many stares. (At first).

But then a girl that looked about my age stopped me and asked me, “Are you magical? ‘Cause you walk unusually fast!”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I said, “I guess some people just walk fast.”

“Okay, I guess so too,” the girl responded. Then she stuck out her hand, “Emma,” she said.

“Sara,” I said.

Emma decided to walk to my house with me, and I was okay with it, so it wasn’t weird. We talked about random things that usually come to girls’ minds when they hang out.

Then when we got to my house, I said, “Do you want to come in?”

“Is that okay?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

“K.”

***

Soon enough, it was time for Emma to leave, and she did.

But before she left she asked me, “Can we meet again tomorrow?”

I thought for a moment and then said, “Yes.”


Chapter Three: Friends

(Sara)

The next day, Emma came over, and she already had plans for us. I was actually really happy that she already had plans because then we would have probably been doing nothing since I’m not very good at making plans. Anyway, since Emma had plans she decided that we would go to a science museum.

“Does this museum have any blood or anything that has to do with blood?” I asked.

“Why?” Emma asked. “Do you faint at the sight of blood?”

“N-no, just does it?”

“Yeah, it does have a human body exhibit, and that includes blood.”

“Okay, then we better not go to this museum,” I mumbled.

“We can skip that part,” Emma suggested.

“Yeah, true, but still let’s do it another day,” I complained.

“Okay, fine!” Emma said, clearly annoyed.“Then where do you want to go?”

“Let’s go to a park. How does that sound?”

“Okay, I guess.”

I probably shouldn’t have been so picky, but how could I have resisted killing things, even people, maybe. You may not know how much I have to try not to kill Emma when I’m with her, and it would have been even worse at a museum with a blood exhibit.


Chapter Four: Blood

(Emma)

It was pretty annoying because Sara was being really picky about where we were going to go for fun. I suspected something about her that might have been the reason for why she didn’t want to go to this museum. But honestly I have no clue! Why would someone not want to go to a museum? Like, it’s just a museum! I thought, but then again blood. Blood was what was stopping Sara from going to this museum. Then I wondered why blood was stopping Sara.

“So which park do you want to go to?” she suddenly asked.

Since I was annoyed with her I said, “My friend texted me earlier and said that she was going to go to Griffith Park, and I said that I might meet her there, so let’s go there.”

“Okay, that sounds reasonable,” Sara murmured, clearly not very excited at my park choice with another friend.

When we got to the park, I spotted my friend (Madison), and I ran over to give her a hug!

“This is my friend, Sara,” I said as I introduced Sara to Madison. I noticed that Sara didn’t seem to mind how I had said the word friend.

“Hi, I’m Madison,” Madison said cautiously.

“Hi,” Sara whispered.

“So, what should we do?” Madison asked.

“Let’s go to the lake!” I suggested. “It will be about a 5-10 minute walk from here, so we can chat along the way! How does that sound?”

Madison and Sara just nodded. While we walked, I noticed how Madison stared at Sara just the way I had yesterday when I met Sara.

“I heard that you guys just met yesterday,” Madison said still looking at Sara.

“Uh, yes,” Sara whispered again.

“You don’t have to whisper you know,” I said.

Sara just shrugged. It was too peaceful. I didn’t think that Madison would notice Sara the way that I did. It was just very quiet, and it felt silent. Suddenly we heard a scream. We all turned around. There was a boy crying on the ground, and there was blood. Lots of blood. I glanced over at Sara. Her teeth were clenched, and she was shaking.

“Sara?” I asked.

“Yes?” she whispered.

“Are you okay?”

“Sort of.”

Madison glared at Sara. “Why are you whispering?” she demanded.

“Leave her alone,” I mumbled.

Then Sara lunged forward on top of the boy and then almost, just almost (and that is if I hadn’t come in and grabbed Sara) bit the poor boy.

What were you thinking??” I yelled at her.

“Okay, okay I should have told you!” Sara moaned.

I looked over at Madison, and she was glaring at me and at Sara.

Then Madison started to scream, “Sara, why did you just do that?! That kid was already hurt, and you just went to hurt that kid even more?! I can’t believe you! You can be such a jerk!

When I looked at Sara, she had tears in her eyes. Then when I looked at Madison, she was glaring at both of us very hard. She looked furious.

“Okay, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I’m a vampire!!! I couldn’t help it” Sara burst out.

“I’m sorry. I may have heard you wrong,” Madison said. “But I don’t think vampires exist. Is this some kind of joke?”

“You don’t understand!” Sara protested.

“Okay, whatever you say.”

I was so confused. Sara was a vampire? That must have been why she didn’t want to go to the blood museum, and that was also probably why she lunged for that poor boy. I was upset with Sara for not telling me, and I was upset with Madison because she was being so mean to Sara.

“Okay, let’s go, Emma. I’m done!!” Madison said.

“Bye,” I whispered to Sara.


Chapter Five: Friendless

(Sara)

I walked home unusually slowly. I was miserable because I didn’t know if Emma would still be my friend. It was for sure confirmed that Madison hated me. Why did I have to be a vampire? Why couldn’t I be normal. Why did Madison have to be so annoying? I wish that I hadn’t done what I had done. Oh, that poor kid, and it was all my fault. If I wasn’t a vampire then I would have never done any of the things that I did. Now I was totally friendless. Yay, I guess? This is how it was before I’d even met Emma and Madison, though I didn’t consider Madison a friend.

When I got home I went to my room and dialed Emma’s number. She didn’t answer, so I decided to text her. Here is what I texted:

To: Emma

Hi, it’s me, Sara. I hope you forgive me for what I did.

From: Sara

Then I decided to email her instead:

To: Emma

Hi, it’s me Sara I just called you, but you didn’t answer which is okay.

I am emailing you to tell you that I would like to be friends again and to explain what/why I did what I did earlier today at the park. Here is my explanation:

Since I told you earlier that I am a vampire, and it’s true, that’s why I lunged for the kid. Vampires have to try not to kill people, or rather humans, when they are near each other. I’m not trying to scare you. I promise that I will never kill you. We are attracted to human blood, so that’s why I went for that kid (because of all the blood on the floor).

I really hope you forgive me.

From: Sara

All I had to do was hope that Emma would respond quickly.


Chapter Six: Email (Part One)

(Emma)

Madison and I walked with me to the ice cream truck where I got chocolate and she got vanilla. We ate in silence.

“I have to go,” I told Madison when we were halfway through our ice cream.

“Why?” she asked. “Need to apologize to the jerk?”

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

“Okay, fine. Bye! Can we meet up tomorrow?”

“No,” I whispered.

“What! Why?”

“Let me go please. I’ll text you later maybe.”

“Bye.” She waved at me.

I walked home quickly. I knew that I needed to talk to Sara. Not that I was sorry yet. I actually started to run. I ran home, fast. I opened the front door and quickly locked it behind me. I ran upstairs and opened up my MacBook to Gmail. I had gotten an email from Sara! Yay! After I was done reading it, I understood why she had acted so weird. I quickly responded:

To: Sara

Hi! I got your email, and now I am responding.

I understand why you did what you did. Madison will never forgive you just so you know, but I will.

I hope that we can be friends again even though we were never not friends.

From: Emma

All I had to do was hope that Sara would respond quickly.


Chapter Seven: Email (Part Two)

(Sara)

Yes! Emma responded. I really hoped that she wasn’t mad, and from reading her email I could tell that she was not mad!

I decided to write Emma another email:

To: Emma

I am so relieved that you will still be my friend even though I probably don’t deserve it. Thank you so much!

Also, can you come over tonight or tomorrow?

From: Sara

Chapter Eight: Email (Part Three)

(Emma)

I read Sara’s message and responded this:

To: Sara

Hi! I’m glad that you are willing to be friend, and yes you deserve it. What could you have done? You couldn’t help yourself. I obviously forgive you as I said before. Earlier Madison asked if I could meet her tomorrow, and I said no! But we can definitely meet tomorrow. Can we talk on the phone instead? I think it would be much easier. Also, sorry that I didn’t pick up the phone earlier. I was still at the park, and my phone was silenced.

Talk to you in a sec (on the phone).

From: Emma


Chapter Nine: Phone Call

(Sara)

I read Emma’s email and then called her on my phone.

“Hi, Emma?” I asked.

“Hi, Sara!” she said.

“So I’m really sorry for what I did earlier.”

“It’s fine, really.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, positive.”

“So you said that Madison asked to meet tomorrow and you said no?” I said.

“Yup.”

“Why? For me?”

“Sort of, mostly because I got pretty sick of her, and if you didn’t know she is someone who is very easy to get sick of, and because I wanted to make it up to you.”

“Oh, thank you, but shouldn’t I be the one apologizing?” I asked Emma.

“Only if you want.”

“Yes please!” I cried.

Emma just laughed. “So should I come over tomorrow, or do you want to come over. Actually I think you should come see my house for once.”

“Okay! Sounds good” I said excitedly.

“Bye, Emma!”

“Bye, Sara!” And we hung up.


Chapter Ten: Fake Friends

(Madison)

We are totally fake. Me and Emma, no way am I ever going to like her or her friend “the jerk.” How could she leave me to go home and probably go talk to “the jerk.” Oh well, I’m never going to forgive her anyway, so she better be sorry. We are fake friends. I wonder was she faking it the whole time because I sure wasn’t. When I first met Emma she seemed like such a nice girl, but now? Oh, god! I should probably call her to see if maybe, just maybe I can convince her to meet me again tomorrow.

I dialed Emma’s number, and she responded almost immediately

“What do you want?” she asked, annoyed.

“Could you please meet me tomorrow?”

“No, I already told you.”

“Ugh.”

“Plus I made plans with Sara for tomorrow. She’s coming over!

What?!” I yelled.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

You betrayed me to go with — ”

Emma stopped me and and said, “She is not a jerk.”

Fine!” I yelled. “If you don’t want to be my friend then I guess I’m better off without you!

“Same here.” Emma agreed.

“Why are you so mean?!” I asked.

“You are the one who is mean,” she remarked. “I’m just standing up for my friend and what’s right.”

I didn’t even bother to say goodbye to Emma. I just hung up.


Chapter Eleven: Hiking

(Emma and Sara) or (2nd person)

The next morning, Sara walked over to Emma’s house, and Emma explained that she thought that they should go hiking. Sara agreed and went back to her house to get a sandwich and hiking gear. When she was done, Emma and Sara met at Emma’s front door.

“Let’s do this!” Emma said.

“Cool!” Sara responded.

The two of them hiked in Griffith Park (the same park where Sara and Madison had met). They started to hike at the very beginning of the trail, and all they really talked about was what had happened earlier.

They hiked and hiked until Sara stopped in her tracks.

“What is it?” Emma asked.

“I smell something.” Sara said.

“What!”

Blood,” Sara whispered. “Also you probably don’t want to see this, so you should go.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m probably going to hunt.”

“Wouldn’t that be cool?” Emma asked.

“No,” Sara said. “Please go, I don’t think you want to see me hunt.”

“Can I just watch from a distance?”

“Okay fine, but a far distance.”

“K,” Emma said.

Emma walked away from Sara about 20 steps and stood to watch her.


Chapter Twelve: My View

(Emma)

As I moved back, I saw Sara take a deep breath. Then I saw a wolf come into view.

“Ahh,” I gasped.

“Shhh… ” Sara said looking back at me. “Move back five more steps.”

I moved back and watched as Sara lunged for the wolf…


Chapter Thirteen: What’s Going On

(Madison)

I was really upset, but maybe just maybe I could call Sara and see if she would pick up. So I dialed Sara’s number and waited. Ugh she didn’t pick up, I thought. I wonder where she and Emma went, but apparently they are not at Emma’s house or Sara’s house. Don’t tell me that she went to a park or rather Griffith Park. No, no, no! I thought. To me Griffith Park is a devil. I decided to leave my mom a note about where I was going, it said:

Hi mom.

I went to Griffith Park, and I’ll be back in about 1-2 hours. See you then!

-Madison

I headed out, and when I got to the park, I was very annoyed. If Emma and Sara were here, then I would have to check all over the park. Ugh! How was I ever going to find them? Oh no, I thought to myself. I had just gotten hungry, and I would have to go get food before I could go look for my “friends.” I decided to go to Taco Bell since I love tacos!


Chapter Fourteen: The Wolf

(The wolf)

I was just strolling nearby, and yes I did hear some voices, and maybe I should have gotten scared, but I didn’t. Then I saw two girls talking, and then one of them backed away from me or from the other girl. (I don’t know.) No one needs to be scared of me. I’m just a wolf. Wait — are people scared of wolves? Is that normal? I know that I’ve been pretty calm, but something else happened. Suddenly the girl closest to me lunged at me! I was not expecting this. Ah, now I understand this girl is a vampire, and she wants to eat me.


Chapter Fifteen: Kill

(Sara)

As I jumped at the wolf, I thought, Should I be doing this? Yes was the answer. The wolf dodged me. I bared my teeth at him and jumped on top of him and dug my teeth into his neck. (Yum!) The wolf tried to shake me off, but I held on and bit deeper. I took a quick glance at Emma. She was frozen to her spot. I bit again, and this time the wolf stopped moving. He just fell peacefully on the ground… dead.

I looked at Emma again. She looked really sad and amazed at the same time.

“You just killed a wolf,” she managed to say.

“Yeah, that’s kind of how we hunt,” I said.

“But that was a life that could have lasted a couple of years more,” she protested.

“I’m sorry that’s just how we hunt,” I said.

“Well, that was cruel!” Emma said.

“I’m sorry, but you were the one who wanted to see this,” I said.

“That’s true. Let’s go now,” Emma said.

“Umm… you can go, but I’m hungry.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. I guess I’ll wait for you.”

“You probably don’t want to see this. It’s a little bit disturbing.”

“Okay, right. But it’s okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

I devoured the wolf’s blood quickly and then just left it like that.

“You’re just going to leave the poor wolf alone like this?” Emma asked, worried.

“Unfortunately, yes,” I said.

Emma did not look too happy about this.


Chapter Sixteen: How It Feels to Be Dead

(The Wolf)

Now I’m dead, and I was just trying to live, and now I’m dead. Oh well, what can I do? Nothing I guess. That other girl did not look too happy to see her friend kill a wolf. Vampire. I officially do not like vampires. Not at all! They are dirty little creatures who go around sucking blood from other things. I wonder if they think that they can kill teddy bears? Or objects in general! Well, it doesn’t matter because I am dead, and being dead feels like being dead, or it might feel like lying on the ground and reflecting on your bad life where an annoying girl just randomly jumped on top of you and killed you. Not so fun if you ask me. Now what will happen to me? Will I become a wolfire (wolf-vampire)? Or will I just melt into the ground? If I become a wolfire, I will go kill the girl who thought she had an appetizing meal of a magical wolf who came back for her in the next life! Haha, revenge!


Chapter Seventeen: Found Them

(Emma, Sara, and Madison) or (2nd Person)

When Madison finished her lunch, she went to the part of the park where there was lots of grass, and she sat down to wait and see if Emma and Sara would show up. And yes, just as Madison sat down, she saw Emma and Sara come into view.

“Emma! Sara!” she yelled as she jumped up.

“Hi, Madison,” Emma said wearily.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, well, something.”

“Can you tell me?” Madison asked.

“Okay,” they both said.

So Emma and Sara told Madison what had happened, and Madison finally understood. She apologized to Sara, and they were all at peace.

“You know we should all go to my house!” Madison said.

“Cool, yeah!” Sara agreed.

“Okay, let’s go!” Emma said.

And the three girls walked off to Madison’s house in the quiet evening.

The End

A word from the wolf:

This is amazing. I came back to life as a wolf, so yeah I’m the same, but I’m fine with it. I don’t think I’m ever going to go near that girl again. But I do hope that wolves can be more friends with humans.


Beauty at Its Finest

Content Warning: Depression, Suicide, Eating disorders

Author’s Note: Not based on a true story.

I’m Isla. Since I was a child, I have always aspired to be a model. I saw them on TV, and they were my role models, like Beige Inc. and CL Beauty models. The models there, they were beautiful, happy, and rich! I longed to be those things. I remember wearing my mom’s clothes, putting on her makeup and high heels, and doing my greatest catwalk in front of her. I loved pretending to be a model. I loved doing it because I was happy. But I never thought the fashion world would be like this. Hello, I’m Isla Middleton, and this is my story.

I started working at 11 as a small-time actress. At the time, all I wanted to do was get famous through modeling or show biz, and at this age I was starting to put my dream into motion. I started acting in movies as small roles, but worked hard on those roles. When I was on set acting, an actress by the name of Olive Flores watched me and supported me. When I was done with my scene, she said good job to me and referred me to some people she knew. She also winked at me.

After Olive did that, I started getting more roles and started getting more and more popular. Even though I was burnt out from working a lot, I was happy and proud.

Then I got a lead role in a movie (when I was 14), and that changed everything for me. When I learned I got the part, I was smiling ear to ear. I was beaming with glee since I got a lead part! When I got home from work, I told my mom what happened. (She raised me by herself. She was a single mom.)

“Hey, Mom,” I said.

“Yeah?” My mom asked smugly, already knowing the situation (my grin gave it away).

“I just got a lead role in the movie, Guardian of the Lilac!”

”I’m so proud of you, honey! I knew I raised you well.”

When she said, that we both laughed, then hugged.

After that movie, I got more roles, and then I got asked to do an ad with CL Beauty when I was 17. When I learned I could actually become a model, I was so happy. After that ad, I exclusively did modeling. That was my dream anyways. I starred in more ads until… I got invited to walk on the catwalk! I was 19 and one of the youngest to ever walk across on the catwalk. It was what I had always wanted to do. I’d finally achieved my goal.

When I got there, we were on a strict routine. Wake up, eat food, get dressed, go to the gym, go back home, shower, get ready for practice and fitting, go to practice and fitting, then go home, put on face masks, sleep. Sometimes we got manicures and pedicures. At the practice we were all yelled at. This wasn’t fun. This wasn’t what I had thought it would be like. It wasn’t like the ads. They were fat shaming us, saying that we were not the best, saying that our stomachs weren’t flat enough, saying that the only way to fix your “pretty” face is to get plastic surgery, saying that you aren’t perfect, that you aren’t enough.

My heart shattered into pieces, I thought, Is this the actual modeling world? Is this what I want? I didn’t know what to do. I loved modeling, but did I want to endure this torture? No, I didn’t want to be called worthless and ugly, but this was my dream. So I stayed. Probably the worst decision I have ever made. At times the insults got so bad I wanted to give up on my dream. I wanted to die. But I still stayed, because it’s my dream and I didn’t want to give it up, even if my emotional health was low and damaged. I just can’t believe my young self made such a mistake.

One day when I was in my studio apartment, I was admiring it before I went to bed (yep, that’s me). My studio room is small and homey. I installed heaters and air conditioning, so I could be comfortable.

I have a small twin bed with white sheets and a pastel pink blanket. There’s a small desk near my bed that’s a pastel blue color with two drawers. Inside the drawers are books. I love reading in my spare time, but I rarely have free time. On top of the desk is a pastel yellow lamp dimly, softly illuminating the entire room, making the room feel… nice. I have an icy purple furry rug. It’s super soft.

The walls have a white background with limes on it. The floor was wood, but the bathroom was tiles, and the kitchen was marble.

My kitchen was normal. Oven, stove, sink, fridge, and a microwave on top of the stove. Inside my bathroom is a bath and shower, a sink, a toilet, and a vanity full of makeup. The mirror on the vanity has lights. Inside the vanity drawers was a lot of makeup. On the desk of the vanity were curling irons and straightening irons. I have a little table with shaving cream, a razor, hair oil, body lotion, hand lotion, face lotion, leave-in conditioner, spray shampoo, and sunscreen (I don’t use spray tan, I think I’m bronze enough).

During the night I couldn’t sleep, I thought it was because I was looking at my phone, so I put it down. A few hours later, I still couldn’t sleep. I was really confused. I tried everything, but I couldn’t sleep. Then I started to think about my future. I thought if I was going to be treated like nothing for the rest of my modeling career, if I was going to be told to do stuff like a slave. I just didn’t know what to do. Then I was thinking some pretty dark thoughts. I was thinking of what I would do if my mom died. At that point I thought I would kill myself to be with her. I wasn’t in the right state of mind. At around two in the morning, I finally fell asleep.

A week after the sleeping incident, I was getting worse. I felt like pain was the only thing I had. I felt like I didn’t need a therapist. I thought they would try to make me not “myself.” I needed to be this terrible version of myself to feel free. I was happy I felt free. It was me and the blood, me and the deep cuts in my arms and wrists, me and the razor blade, me and the over the counter medicine that I popped in my mouth like candy. But in reality, I wasn’t actually free. I was trapped. Trapped in a jail cell, made of pain and self-doubt. My mom noticed I wasn’t talking to her. She started sending me message after message, call after call, trying to ask if I’m okay. I thought she wouldn’t help. She was like the therapist, trying to trap me. I can’t believe I thought that about my own mom. That time was the lowest I’ve felt mentally. I can still feel scars from those cuts. And they still let me model.

About a month later from the sleeping incident, I finally decided to reach out to my mom. She noticed my voice was raspy, that I was tired, that I was sad. She asked what’s wrong, and I broke out sobbing.

In between the sobs I muttered, “I’m not your perfect daughter” and “why do you stay with me?”

I thought my mom didn’t even deserve me. I thought no one deserves me, no one should love me. But I felt free, and that’s why I didn’t stop. My mom wanted to know why I thought this. She wanted to know the root, what caused me to be like this. I didn’t spill. I said it was due to stress, even though that was a complete lie. She believed it. She said I could talk to her any time. I complied.

After that call with my mom, I decided to meet a therapist. The call wasn’t the only reason I went. I went because the modeling agents said, “If you don’t put on your A-game, we will fire you! We will tell everyone you just break at the slightest touch, and you won’t get hired again. So get your head in the game, Miss Snowflake.”

The therapist said that I’ve gotten really bad through the course of a month. He gave me medication and told me to follow the dose. He consoled me, told me everything will be okay. He treated me like I wasn’t nothing, like I wasn’t a slave, but the modeling industry treated me like a slave. They used me for what they needed, they threw me around, then sold me. He helped me a lot.

There were two months before the catwalk, I stopped hurting myself. I wanted to do this catwalk. The two months flew by. I just hung out with the other models and had fun (the therapist told me that socializing was a key part to my recovery).

Then catwalk day came. We got hair stylists, makeup stylists, and outfit stylists pounded on us. We were in Paris. I got an old timey red dress with white polka dots (it looked like it was from the 50’s). I had red heels as well. My hair was in a classic night-out 50’s hair style, and my make-up was also the classic night-out 50’s style. I was beautiful. I was second to walk. I walked gracefully with the catwalk I made up in when I was a toddler, but I added a graceful twirl. Everyone clapped and cheered at all of us. I was beaming with fake glee, my grin was ear to ear, just like when I got the offer to walk on the catwalk. But this grin was a bit different. I wasn’t happy.

Want to know why I wasn’t happy? It was because of all the things I endured to show up on the catwalk for a few minutes. It was because I had to seek solace in cuts, blood, and drugs, but “nothing” serious, I just smoked. But after the catwalk I got poked fun at. People said that I was too fat for the catwalk, or they could see my glumness on my face. So it started again, my cycle of cuts, blood, and something new, starving myself. I decided not to do drugs. I still wanted to model. I hated being laughed at for trying my hardest.

I always felt hungry when I starved myself. But when I looked at the scale and the numbers were low, it somehow felt redeeming. But when the numbers are high I barely eat any food for days or weeks at a time.

I stopped talking to my therapist. I tried to distance myself from my mom, but when she did call I lied. I sounded as happy and jolly as I always was. The insults, the laughs, the taunts, it was torture. I decided to go do some more magazine cover photoshoots because you could hide your feelings in the photos. You could hide the cuts in the photos. You could hide it all.

I slowly started becoming a more famous model. I still had the scars, but they didn’t show as much. Then one day, three months after the catwalk, I became Australia’s next big hit. Everybody loved me. They asked about how thin I was, how pretty I was. All the girls wanted to be me. I was happy they loved me, and I decided to talk to my therapist again.

He noticed everything. He gave me some medicine, antidepressants, and told me to go to a clinic for people who are anorexic. I obliged. I wanted to keep my title. I went to a clinic. I took the medicine. I did everything to keep my title. Even though I still have depression to this day, I’m not anorexic anymore. That clinic probably saved my life. You had to finish all your food and drink or else you would get in trouble. It wasn’t fun, but if I didn’t do that I probably would’ve died.

I was happy. I was famous. I was an actress and model. All I wanted to be. I became friends with a lot of famous people, I was on the red carpet winning awards, everything I dreamed of doing. I even became best friends with Olive Flores, the girl who started my career. She’s also young, three years older than me. She’s like the older sister I’ve never had. On our days off, we hung out. We went to my house, I went to her house, we watched movie premieres, we got food at restaurants, we got ice cream and boba together, we did everything teenage girls did. I was 17 at the time, and she was 20. She said on her 21st birthday she would sneak me into a bar, so we could hang out. I loved her. I told her everything, and in return she told me about her own experiences and she gave me guidance. But she never told me she had the want to die.

On her 21st birthday she really did sneak me in a bar with her other friends. We were talking, and I was the only one who stayed sober. Everyone else was drinking. I thought it was funny when they stumbled or said dumb stuff.

Olive told me to have a drink, but then I chuckled and said, “Well then who’s going to drive y’all home?”

Then she understood and laughed. She then said “Fine. But next time you need to try alcohol.”

I said, “Okay, Olive I’ll try it on my 21st birthday, and I’ll invite you too! If you’re still friends with me.”

“Oh silly, I’m obviously always going to be by your side. I love you like a sister, Il. I would never leave you behind.”

“I love you like a sister too, Livy.”

“Oh, stop being so cute, and let’s dance!”

I laughed and said, “Okay, I’ll dance, only if you dance with me.”

She said, “I was obviously going to dance with you. Let’s go!”

I followed. That night was fun. I loved it. We hung out and danced, we laughed and told jokes, and at the end of the night I drove everyone home.

A month after her birthday I tried to call her to ask her if she wanted to hangout on the weekend. It transferred immediately to her classic voicemail, “Hey, it’s Olive! You missed me, probably because I’m busy with work or hanging out with some of my friends! Well, call me back, okay? See you later!” She never liked saying bye. She always said see you later. I was really confused, because Olive always takes my calls, even if she’s working. If she answers me when she’s working, she tells me to call back soon. Or she would text me after hanging up. I know her voicemail because she hasn’t changed it for years. I called her mom. She answered.

I asked, “Hey, Ms. Flores, do you know where Olive is?”

She said in a shocked tone, “I thought she was with you. She hasn’t been home. She hasn’t answered my calls either.”

“Oh no… I hope she’s not hurt. I’m going to file a missing persons report. We need to find her.”

“Thank you so much. You’re like the younger sister Olive never had. If you find her please take care of her and bring her to me, okay?”

“I would never hurt Olive. I promise you I will find her and bring her back home.”

“Okay, goodbye, sweetie.”

“Bye, Ms. Flores.”

I went to my local police station and filed a missing person report for Olive. The last time I saw her, and I think everyone else saw her, was on her 21st birthday. When I dropped her off at home she was wearing a black sparkly party dress that ended at her knees. She was wearing a white fur coat on top of that. She was wearing white stilettos, six inches high. She had black fishnet leggings for pants. She wore a black and white hat with a gray feather. Her hair was down and curled, tight party curls. Her makeup was the normal night out makeup. Without the heels she would be 5’4”. Her hair was black, thick, and long. She’s a brown Latina. Specifically, Central American.

The police found her in a forest one week after I filed the report. She hanged herself on a tree. Her suicide note said, I love you all, but I don’t think this is the right time for me to be on earth. The acting and modeling industry has given me many scars that I don’t want to live with. This industry has pushed me off the edge many times. In my head I have battles between living or dying, between staying or leaving. And I decided to leave. To my best friends, some of the best people in the world, I love you, and please don’t linger on me. Forget about me, please. I want you all to live a good life. Especially you, Isla, you have a bright future. Please don’t be influenced by me. Okay? I love you all, but I need to go now. I love you all. See you all later.

I collapsed when I read that at the police station. I remembered her being all jolly and happy. Now she’s… dead. This isn’t true. She wouldn’t leave me. I was in denial. I became a ball on the floor crying. I was heartbroken. She was the one who guided me through my career. Heck, she even started it. When I finished reading the note I felt like a knife had been stabbed in my heart. Olive’s mom and some of her friends were crying in their seats. They were trying to comfort me too. They knew I was really affected by her passing. I owe everything to her. My mind was in denial, but in my heart, I knew she was dead.

A week after I learned she died, her story was aired on the news. I was still heartbroken, and I couldn’t bare to watch her story on air. So I blocked out all news about her passing. I didn’t want to be reminded again and again of her death.

A month after her passing, I went to her funeral. She promised she would drink with me. I brought a bottle of wine and drank a cup of it. With her near me, but not with me. At her funeral I talked about her. I sang to her. “She was my beacon light in my dark times. She was the best.” I talked about her to cope with her death.

It took me months to recover. When I fully recovered, I realized that the modeling and show biz industry was not for me. I’ve already pretty much gone to hell and back. I didn’t want to die. I couldn’t die. I needed to live for her. So I quit my jobs, and I fell under obscurity again. I still miss her, even to this day, but I’ve cried so many tears for her that I have none left.

I woke up in my bed, covers over me, my head resting on a pillow. I sat up after laying there for a long time, thinking and breathing slowly, something I haven’t done in a long time.

I looked like a mess. My hair was everywhere, and I hadn’t showered or put makeup on yet. I haven’t shaved my legs and mustache in a long time.

I was thinking about Olive. I wasn’t crying. I was thinking happy thoughts about her. I felt at ease. I was thinking that I might be feeling peace, something I haven’t felt in so long, I was finally okay. I was at peace. I was happy.

I saw the sun was rising through the window, one of the most beautiful sunrises I have seen in a while. The mixture of pinks, oranges, yellows, and that little hint of red that mixed together and shining through my window.

I was happy.

I asked, “Was that good?”

Maria said, “Perfect.”


Softy the Unicorn

Softy gazed at the sky as beautiful fairies flew past with shimmering wings that made her dreamy. The sweet grass tasted bitter on her tongue. If only she could fly, the grass would have been sweeter than ever.

“Wings,” she whispered. She always wanted wings. “This is it, I’ll start researching now.” She went to a tree. There she lifted up a map with her magical horn spell and brought it down. She stared at the map for a while. “Aha! Magical lands of unicorns, here I come!”

Softy always imagined going to a ball with her pink hair and white wings.

That night, she could not sleep. A blue magical light was leading her to the magical lands of unicorns. Somehow she knew it.

She packed the map and pink, yellow, green, and blue potions. One book of magical spells fell down, and she kept it too.

She was walking through the pumpkin patch. It was about 12 o’clock. All the pumpkins would eat her if she didn’t make it through in time. Pumpkins can only wake up at 12:00. She figured out that she can command the light, then she commanded the shimmering light to turn black, surrounding her on all the sides. At 12:01, she started walking again.

That night, at 1:30 she fell down into the world’s deepest sleep as the light turned into a soft, cozy blanket.

“Oh no! I think the big bad wolf and gingerbread man are coming.” She took the map out as she ran quickly. She ran down a hill and turned left at a cave. “Let’s go inside the waterfall of the cave.” After a quick drink, she and the light continued on the path again.

A day turned into night, and she was working hard, walking with the quick light, making her trot. A gate appeared, her destiny. “Finally!” A huge gasp broke the silence, but she needed to unlock the gate.

Peeping from the gate, it looked like an abandoned garden not touched for ages. The grass was dried out, and moss was covering the trees. Taking the potions she brought, she took four drops of green, mixed it with a drop of pink and blue together and one drop of yellow.

She dropped it around the place, and life came back with green growing up the roots, and the gate opened. “Wow!” she exclaimed.

She entered the palace named The Castle Maze. It was a crystal castle. It had blue crystal carvings, and it was the most magical castle in the land. Spookiness was shattered in between unicorns’ deadly neighs and ticking clocks.

She found something that she didn’t know existed. A button. She pressed it. She stepped in an elevator — again, she didn’t know it existed, so she was scared to get on at first.

In the top of the palace, unicorns were captured in a cage. There was a bomb, but nobody knew. They were cursed by humans. Blood kept bleeding from the unicorns, and they had deadly magical horns.

She opened the last item, an ancient looking book. There was the hardest spell, the only one to free and bring everything to life. Her strongest magical powers came together in a burst of magic.

As she opened her eyes, she had wings, and the light turned into a star-shaped crown. The unicorns happily looked at Softy and bowed. They were finally free. The last unicorn leader bowed. She had orange hair and wings. Softy looked curious for just a second. Then, she had the biggest smile. She saw her mother and father bow in front of her.

They told Softy that this was a curse by the humans, and they had left this magical land where she was born. “It was raining,” they said, “and every magical element was closing one by one, except this castle. There was no hope now, and all of our kind was trapped, and we were the only ones where we were living, called the Magical Lands of Everything. We were scared that all of our kind would die after three minutes exactly because of the fiery ball in the corner.” Softy named it a bomb. “We never knew that you would run out of our sight and come here. But this is great, you freed us all.”

Softy blushed, and inside her a tear was saved. She almost cried, but she kept it inside.

She took her first flight, and success! She was whooshing through the land and found another waterfall, the source of water for the land of unicorns. She stood on a rock in the middle, and she looked up to the sky. She knew that she could protect this land as long as she could live. She looked at her wings and tried to look at her crown. It was raining, but this time not for sadness but for happiness as a rainbow appeared in the sky.

The End.


Star and the Dilemma

Chapter One: Hi

Hi, my name is Star. I like to sword fight with my brother, Ash. I am a really good archer. I get a bullseye every time I shoot the arrow.

“Bullseye!” my dad shouted every time I shot.

Then Ash said, “Can you teach me?

So I said, “Not now.” But today I said, “Okay, Ash, but tomorrow, okay?”

“Fine,” said Ash.

“Oh, and did I tell you I am not allowed to use my bow without grown-up supervision?”

The next day I woke up to the delicious smell of pancakes and my brother jumping on me yelling, “Wake up! Wake up! Dad made pancakes!”

I was annoyed. “Did you have to wake me up by jumping on me?” I said.

“Yes, yes I did,” Ash said as he walked out of my room.

I got out of bed and put on my slippers, then went downstairs.

When I got downstairs, I saw a delicious looking plate of pancakes.

As soon as I saw the pancakes, I ran to the table and started to shove pancakes in my mouth.

Then Ash, rubbing his hands together and grinning evilly, said, “Time to teach me.”

I stopped shoving pancakes in my mouth and said, “Mumumumu,” but I meant to say, I’m going camping with my friends.

Ash said, “What? I thought you were going to teach me how to shoot the bow and arrow correctly.”

I said, “Sorry, but I already arranged the sleepover in the woods with my friends.”

Ash ran upstairs and slammed his door. Then I went upstairs into my room and started to pack.

Chapter Two: The Camping Trip

After I finished packing, I went to my friend’s house and knocked on the door.

She opened the door and said, “Hi.”

I said, “Hi, Julia. Is Abby here yet?”

Julia said, “Not yet, but she’s coming soon.”

I said, “Great!”

“Did you bring your equipment for the trip?” Julia said.

We heard a knock on the door, so we opened it. It was Abby!

Chapter Three: It Begins

We went outside into her backyard. We saw the path to the forest. As we stepped in, I realized that I forgot something.

I said, “Be right back,” and I ran home.

I grabbed my bow and arrows and snuck out of the house. Then I ran back to my friend’s house. Her mom let me in, and I went back to the forest. They had already set up camp. So we started to make dinner. We made pasta, corn, and salmon. And for dessert we had packaged cake. After we finished eating, we went to bed. I woke up first, and then I fell back to sleep. I woke up for the second time to the sound of a scream.

I stuck my head outside and said, “What’s wrong?”

And that’s when I saw it… a giant black bear. I went back into the tent and grabbed my bow and arrows. Then I remembered I wasn’t allowed to shoot it without grown-up supervision. Then I thought, Would I rather have a giant black bear chasing me? Or would I rather be safe? I went outside the tent and told them to go to the side of the forest. I raised my bow, and I shot. I got the bear right in the arm, and it got pinned to a tree.

Chapter Four: The Plan

The bear was pinned to the tree. I felt bad for it and so did my friends. So we tied the rope to the arrow. Our plan was to pack up everything that we had, get far enough away, and then pull the rope, so the bear would be set free. We started to pack up things, and then we started off toward the house. And then we tugged the rope. The bear was set free. It was scared, so it didn’t run toward us. It just turned around and ran farther into the forest. When we got inside, we were panting. We ran because we thought the bear would chase us. But luckily it didn’t. Julia’s mom gave us a snack. The snacks were chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow icing. Then I went home.

My dad saw me with my bow and said, “Why do you have that? I thought you left it in your room.”

I told him that I used it to save my friends.

Chapter Five: The Conversation

My dad told me that I shouldn’t have brought my bow and that I was grounded for a month. Then I told my dad that there would be a bear scratching at my window if I didn’t bring my bow. He still thought it was wrong, but he took back the punishment after a while. I went up to my room, and I unpacked. I ran over to my friend’s house, and I invited her to my house to camp in my backyard.

She said, “Okay,” and she started to pack.

She went to my backyard, and she saw that there was a tent, a campfire, and there was some food. We went inside, and we got a few snacks, like cookies, strawberries, whipped cream, and hot cocoa mix. We started to make dinner, and then we went to bed. The next morning we woke up, and it was 8:00 in the morning. All the lights were off in the house, and that was unusual for my family. Everyone woke up early. Neither my parents nor my brother were there. They always woke up early. I was the only late sleeper in the house. We went inside, and we heard nothing. We were scared.

“What do we do?” said Julia.

“I don’t know,” I responded, staring at the dark kitchen.


Revenge of the Demon Chicken

Once there was a chicken named Donald Toot. He was very mean because he bullied pigs. One day he was walking when a pig came. His name was Potty Piggy.

Then he said, “Snort snort snort,” and he started throwing Boom Boom Hippos. When they hit him, they went boom boom.

Dun, dun, dun. He died. Then he became the Demon Chicken and took over the world.


Lost in Outer Space

Everyone around was panicking because they only had two more hours of oxygen. His head hung low. The whole reason they were about to die was his fault, and everyone was shouting at him. The whole reason it was his fault was because he was driving the cramped, smelly form of transportation, and he had crashed into something that they didn’t know about.  Actually, he was happy. His boss, who hated everything and was so mean, had lowered the pay, fired all of his best friends, and while he was driving, his boss had turned his phone on too loud.

When they had crashed, they couldn’t turn around, and they were going to get lost, but they only had a limited amount of oxygen.

The oxygen would only last for two hours. Then the rocket burst open, and they all died except him, who stole the yellow oxygen tank and ate his spaceship by cutting it up with a knife that he had in his pocket. Then he ate a planet. First, he felt a weird, tingly feeling in his head. Then, he got bigger and bigger and became a spaceship!

Then he crashed into Earth, and humans went everywhere. Some ended up on Mars, some on Jupiter, some on Saturn, but none on Pluto. Pluto, which was the first place that he looked at and loved, was nice and empty, so that’s where he chose to live. After years of living alone, he decided that he felt sorry for the humans who could no longer live on Earth. Then he decided to get a job selling groceries on Mars, and the pay was good.

He liked Mars because there, nobody cared if he was a rocket. He liked Jupiter because it was a nice, safe place. He hated Saturn because everybody there despised him because he was a rocket, and there were a lot of burglaries. One day, on Pluto, he found his boss. Pluto was too cold, so he had to live on a different planet. So then, he tried to get his boss a job on Mars, but Mars was packed. He couldn’t live on Jupiter because people didn’t like him because they knew he was mean. Finally, he got a home on hateful, miserable Saturn. After about a week, he was a nicer, changed man. The best thing about him was that he always turned his phone on mute, so he could live on Jupiter.

One day, a person who lived on Neptune was dead and was having a funeral. Then they went to Neptune, but once they had launched, they got lost. He did not want to get lost because he had already gotten lost, and he didn’t like it one bit! At last, he realized he forgot the oxygen tank! They wandered around space for awhile. Suddenly, they saw another rocket! The rocket had oxygen, so the people climbed onto it, and the rocket showed them the way to Neptune, where they attended the funeral. After the funeral, they got more oxygen and flew back to Mars. After a few weeks, his boss died of pneumonia, and he was very sad, but he had gained a lot. He had made friends with his boss, had gotten a job at the grocery store, and had lived a nice, happy life.

The End!

Thank you for reading!


The Happy Dragon

There was a big, green, happy dragon from California who wanted a spiky banana split. They tasted like love. There was another dragon, and he was right in front of the happy dragon, and he bought the last spiky banana split, but then it had mold on it! So, he threw it out, but it was not actually mold. It was purple sprinkles.

The mad dragon went to the back of the line, and his arms were crossed. The happy dragon started to laugh because he knew it was sprinkles the whole time. The happy dragon was now a sad dragon.

He started to turn around when he saw this new ice cream store, and he walked in, and he saw no line and one last spiky banana split, so he ran in line, but he didn’t make it. Someone got in front of him, and they were thinking of getting the spiky banana split.

The dragon started shivering, but that person didn’t get it because he actually wanted the rainbow smoothie, and then the dragon could get it, and he went home and ate it. He was really happy, and he ate it, and it was super good, and then he went back to the store to get the recipe.

They didn’t have a printer, so they had to go somewhere to get it printed, and they decided to go to the printer’s office next door.

The happy dragon said, “Hi, can I print the recipe for the spiky banana split?”

The printer said, “Yes.”

“Yay!” the happy dragon said, and he started flossing.

He ran back home to go bake it.

When he got home, his little sister ran to get the door. She was small and purple. All younger dragons were purple, and all older ones were green.

She said, “Hi!”

His mom said, “Why are you home so late?”

“I went to the printer’s office to print something.”

The happy dragon took a shower, ate dinner, made the banana split for dessert, and then went to bed.

In his dream, he saw the ice cream man and the long line, and one person was talking in front of him.

He kind of looked like a banana split, so the happy dragon went up, and he tapped him on the shoulder and said, “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting my babies back,” said the banana split.

The dragons helped cut in front, so they could get the babies. They were a bit hot because it was a hot summer day. Then an alien invaded the banana babies and took them and the parent to their home because they were from outer space.

The dragon woke up and got dressed and ate breakfast and went to the store and yelled, “Those are babies! Not spiky banana splits!”

But the people thought they were just spiky banana splits.

Then, he saw the new flavor, which was the kiwi spiky sundae, but he got it, and it was super good. It tasted like a rainbow.

That night, he dreamed about the kiwi saying, “Don’t eat me! We have lives too.”

It was trying to swim back into the ice cream, and he didn’t eat it.

He wanted to shut down the shops, so he went to the mayor. The mayor lived downtown, and the happy dragon lived uptown, so he had to take the train. He saw people eating fruit, so he was really scared because he thought they were babies, and then he finally got off at the stop, and he saw this big fruit garden. He went into the fruit garden. He picked the fruit and put them in a shed and talked to them. He talked to them in the shed so that no one knew he was talking to them, so no one thought he was really weird.

He said, “Why do you keep appearing in my dreams?”

The bananas answered first and said, “Because you eat us.”

Then the kiwis answered, and they said, “Because you eat us.”

Then the raspberries answered, and everybody answered,  “Because you eat us.” He ate them every day for breakfast on his pancakes.

“I’ll bring you to the mayor, and you can discuss with him,” he said.

At the mayor’s office, the fruit wrote on a piece of paper, Shut down all the shops. The banana wrote on a little stick, We don’t like you mister mayor, and then the tomatoes wrote, We don’t like your cooking, because the mayor never washed his hands.

The mayor had red clothes, green hair, and red cheeks, and he looked like a tomato.

I know that’s weird… but it’s true.

The end


Is a Kiss Just a Kiss?

Content Warning: The content of the following piece includes an active shooter situation in school

Chapter One

Awww!” I groan. I peek into my locker at school.

“What’s the issue?” Erika says. Erika says it with an attitude, so I wonder why Erika is acting so rude.

“Oh jeez, why do you have to say it like that? I just forgot my history book at home,” I say.

“Did I ask you for your personal information? I did not need to know that,” says Erika.

I slam my locker shut and start walking to my next class.

Bang!!! Chase and I bang heads, but we are okay. Chase is the cutest boy at Washington High.

Owww!” I say at the same time as Chase.

“Sorry,” Chase apologizes.

“It’s okay,” I say.

“Well, well… ” Chase says nervously.

Chapter Two

“Yeah?” I say. “You can tell me anything.”

“I was just wondering if you would like to see a movie with me?” Chase says nervously as he looks down at his blue jeans.

I don’t know what to say because I am shocked. I have liked Chase since sixth grade when we met at Washington Middle.

“Ummm… “Sure?” I say that like I am going to ask a question.

“What movie do you want to see?” Chase says that excitedly. “Oh, what about Bird Box?

“Sure,” I answer. I am confused why Chase asked me to go out with him. I secretly like him, but I didn’t know that Chase actually wanted to go out with me. “So what time and day,” I ask, “and I’ll need your phone number.”

“Tomorrow night, 6:00,” Chase says.

Chase takes out his phone and hands it to me. I put my phone number in his phone and hand his phone back.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say.

Chapter Three

I set my alarm for 6:30 am. I am a bit nervous for my date. I am not sure if I should bail on him or go on the date.

I pick out a sweater with ripped shorts and a tank top with my favorite pair of Vans. I switch the sweater and don’t like it, so I pick out another sweater, and I hate it so much that I just go with the even worse sweater that I put on.

When I arrive at school, Chase runs to me and gives a hug.

“Hey bae — I mean Evelyn,” Chase says.

“Hi?” I say weirdly. It is weird how Chase called me “bae” because I thought Chase liked Erika, not me. Maybe he likes me, maybe he doesn’t. I don’t know.

“‘Kay. I’m leaving. Bye.” I walk away to English class, but before I leave…

Chapter Four

“Wait!” Chase says. He runs to me and kisses me. His soft lips pressing against mine feels like heaven.

“O-M-G!!! Was that a dream?” I say. I feel really good, but I am worried that someone saw the kiss.

“No. It wasn’t. It was real. I’m in love with you,” Chase says. I can’t believe that he’s in love with me!

“Ummm… I have to go to class right now. Love you — I mean see you later,” I say nervously.

“See you later, Ev,” Chase says.

During English class, there is an announcement.

“Hello, students, can Evelyn and Chase come to the principal’s office? Evelyn and Chase to the principal’s office.”

“You know what that means, go to the office,” the English teacher says.

I am confused. I don’t know why I have to go to the principal’s office, but I just go along with it. I am also confused why Chase has to go as well.

“Hello, Chase and Evelyn. You have come to the office because there has been a rat infestation in your locker Chase.”

“What?” Chase freaks out so badly that his face turns red, like the color of blood.

“And Evelyn, you have an empty locker next to yours, so we have decided that Chase is going to be next to you.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… ”

Chapter Five

“Excuse me, Ms. Campbell. Please bring Chase to his new locker,” the principal says.

“Okay,” I say. I show him to the locker next to mine.

“See you later,” I say.

“See you,” Chase says. I walk to my class blushing. I was going to kiss him, but don’t want to make a scene and also I don’t want to be late for class. I’m kind of starting to have feelings for him, but I know that he doesn’t have feelings for me.

Wait!!!” Chase yells. “Here is a letter for you.”

I open up the envelope and start reading:

Dear Evelyn,

I have to confess this to you. I love you. I’ve loved you since middle school, and I’ve been nervous to tell you this, so I put it in a letter. You are the most prettiest person I’ve ever met, not Erika. I love you, and I hope you feel the same way.

– Love, Chase

O-M-G!! He loves me! Ya! But why say it now when we already went out on a date, or just a hang out.

A few minutes later, I’m in math class.

Ring! Ring! Ring! The principal makes an announcement that someone broke into the school.

“Everyone! There is a robber in the school! Everyone form a line, and evacuate the school ASAP!!!” the principal says.

We are now standing in a line, being very silent because I’m scared. Now I’m with Chase to evacuate the school. I can see a man with a gun!

He’s aiming his gun at Chase. I have to save him. I have to be brave. I jump in front of Chase to save him.

Oh no! Evelyn!!” Chase cries…


Under The Same Stars

Why are things stressful? I don’t know! Then why did I ask myself? That I don’t know either! My thoughts are so weird. I thought.

Why do people have to write book reports? I DON’T KNOW? I have to stop asking myself these questions!

Face in my hands, out of my mind, trying to write a book report that is due tomorrow, this is torture. I wish James was here to help me… NO, don’t think different thoughts. James will be back soon enough! Think Moby Dick thoughts!

After what seemed like HOURS (it was more like 30 minutes) I got my book report done. James would be SO proud… I miss him. Maybe when I go to Hollywood to visit him I can show him this, it being my one of my better book reports.

***

“Time for dinner!” my mom shouts from the kitchen, her voice echoing through the silent hallway where James used to rant the poems that had wrote moments before. All of them hitting you with the feeling and passion they were written with. But now it is just echo.

This feels so unnatural… Why would she shout??? She KNOWS it is going to echo! Okay, NO, it is not her fault, Sam! How dare you think that!

I run down stairs with my eyes shut and sniff the air.

I know exactly what this is!!!

“It is soup dumplings!” I shout, excited about my guess.

“Correct!” my mom exclaims with a smile. “Now as your prize for guessing correctly, you don’t have to do the dishes after dinner!”

Does she sense my loneliness? She would NEVER do this if she didn’t. I hate that she can read my mind! If James hadn’t left then I wouldn’t feel so lonely! SAM! How dare you put your own good in front of your brother’s dreams! James deserves to take this chance!

“Yes!!!” I exclaim, hoping that my mom doesn’t notice the awkward tone I say it in.

“Let’s go sit down,” she says in a more melancholy tone.

Holy crap! She figured it out. Shoot shoot shoot shoot No….

We go and sit down at the table, and by then I have a plan for not talking.

I am going to ALWAYS keep my mouth full to the brim with soup dumplings. That way I can’t talk and if I wolf it down like that, then I can be excused then BOOM! No sharing feelings!!! Why do i not want to keep my feelings to myself? Again, Sam, STOP IT WITH THE QUESTIONS!

I sit down to a full plate of 10 dumplings. The aroma is irresistibly incredible.

This is going to be a piece of cake…

I gather my composure with a smile and pile three dumplings into my mouth at once.

And then it hits me…

These are soup dumplings… They have hot broth in the center… I just bit into THREE OF THEM without poking the dumpling and letting the broth cool down…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I holler, mouth sizzling and burning like an egg in a frying pan.

Ice, ice, I need ICE!!!

I jump from the table and sprint to the freezer.

***

That was embarrassing… Why didn’t I think that through!? Maybe because I was so focused on getting things in my my mouth swallowing and running back up the stairs that I didn’t consider the ABSURDLY HOT BROTH! Why am I so stupid!? Again. Sam… STOP IT WITH THE QUESTIONS!!

My mom looks at me with that pity look she uses only when someone has truly embarrassed themselves.

Great.

“Honey… ” she begins awkwardly. “You need to start to talk about your feelings! You’ve always been a quiet introverted person, but lately it has been abnormal and depressing.”

Hey, Mom, ever heard the phrase TOO MUCH INFORMATION??

“Meh,” I respond, quieter than I have ever been attempting to make a joke. “Not a big feelings person. More into baggy sweats and graphic novels.”

OH GOD I literally NEVER make jokes OUT LOUD. Was that funny? SAM, YOU WILL FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF IN JUST A MOMENT!! NO. QUESTIONS!!!

“I never hear you make jokes. You are incredibly funny! You should really use those skills more!” my mom suggested after a fit of laughter.

And right after I feel like I have actually socialized. (I know, shocker.) The doorbell rings.

***

There is a letter. From James. For me. MY BROTHER HAD FINALLY WRITTEN!!!

My mom grins at me, her pearly whites flashing with intensity, and if I am right, a little bit of hope.

“Go up to your room and read it, since it is for you specifically then come back down and I can reheat your dinner,” she says with a wink, and then swiftly glides back into the kitchen.

I am so excited!!! But also nervous… What if Hollywood changed him? He is my brother. I want the best for him, and when he wrote a play for his high school, never in a million years would I think that a famous producer and director would want to turn his play into a Hollywood production. To be honest, I would be TERRIFIED. But nevertheless, I must read this. To tell the truth, I would still read this if he had shoes growing out of his forehead.

Okay… moment of truth…. Let’s read this letter.


Sam,

You are probably wondering if Hollywood has changed me, and in fact it has for the better. I have learned life skills and improved my abilities in the driving. Now let me ask YOU a question. Have you done the same?

Oof. Way to give me a punch in the gut. He knows I have always compared myself to him. Anywho, I have to continue.

Look, I know you have been a reserved, introverted person, but you have ruined your social life! And to fix this, I have a challenge for you.

Man… the dude may be a soon to be superstar, but he sure remembers how to catch my attention. He knows I love challenges. And before I read the rest, challenge accepted.

I challenge you that in ten MONTHS you will have a big group of friends, soaring grades, an appearance that pleases you, and what you feel is a healthy, fit body. But I know you can’t accomplish this without having a little comforting poetry before it.

Think about this:

When you’re in bed

And looking up through your skylight

Watching the bright, gleaming stars

Think about this:

We all sleep under the same stars

We all have a connection

Through thick and thin

Through light and dark

Through the stars above your head

So tonight in bed remember that

And hopefully

It’s comforting

I hope that you know I love you with all my heart,

James


Wow, what an inspiring letter. I wish I could be that inspiring.


Epilogue

Hi… Remember me? The trainwreck of a girl where the person inside her head was bubbly and funny and outgoing but the girl on the outside couldn’t manage to bring her to life. But you would never imagine how now the sixth grade me is a whole new girl. And now walking down the brightly colored hallways with the neon yellow lockers and the locks that make the soft clicking noise when you spin them, I don’t feel like I am in a death trap at the bottom of the world and praying it didn’t come crashing down on my shoulders. Instead I feel like I am on top of the world and pulling my friends and family up with me. And now you’re thinking, friends?! Since when did Sam have friends? And my answer to that is: since ten months ago. I have built up my self esteem, built up my social life, improved my grades, and the amount of things I am actually sharing and explaining to my (rather large) group of friends. And even now I am entertaining many of my friends with a rather entertaining and enlightening story.

Also my appearance changed quite a bit too! I used to wear baggy sweats and loose T-shirts that usually hung to my knees and my hair in a big frizzy ponytail. But now? I wear a number of jeans and leggings (especially high waisted ones with belts. black preferably) I wear neat, flowy T-shirts in soft creamy colors. And wear my hair in neat double buns. It’s funny, I never ever thought a letter could change my life. I thought I would always be the annoying introverted girl with no friends yet, here we are. And remember, you can always make a change in your life, all you have to do is let someone motivate you and put your mind to it and you can always get it done.


Christmas Eve Tree

I wake up to Leo, my brother, screaming in my ear, “Wake up! It’s Christmas morning!

I jump out of my bed and whack him with a huge pillow. I look at my alarm clock, and it says 3:00, the witch hour. My brother runs downstairs to the Christmas tree and is amazed about how many presents are under the tree.

Then he screams my name, “Grace!

I see him reach for a present. “Don’t!” I shout. “Didn’t Mom tell you about what happened to Grandpa when he touched a present before he was supposed to?”

“What happened?”

“He almost died.” After I tell my brother that, he touches the present and disappears.

I go and get my parents from their bedroom and yell, “Leo is gone forever!”

“Why? What happened?” my mom asks.

My dad is still snoring.

But then I scream in his ear and wake him up. He screams and jumps out of bed. Then I tell them what happened.

Then we rush downstairs and see the present that Leo touched. Then my mom and dad grab it and disappear. And then I look around to see an old mirror that I’ve never seen before. Then I run to the present and touch it.

I land in a dark place. Surprisingly, I see my mom. Then shortly after that I find my dad. We all look for my brother, but he’s nowhere to be found. This place smells sweet, like candy. Then suddenly a light turns on. And then we see a rabbit, and we find a door and we walk through it.

Then the rabbit says, “I’m your brother.”

But I argue with him. I say, “If you’re really my brother, then what’s your name?”

“My name is Leo, Leo Maxwell.”

“What’s your full name?”
“Leo James Maxwell.”

“That’s not my real brother’s middle name,” I say.

“Imposter!” I shout. Then I suddenly see my mom and dad in a dark room with checkered floors. Then I see my brother in the same room. But then when I go and walk up to them, they don’t reply.

The next thing I see is a small glass bottle on a bookcase. It looks interesting, so I drink the green liquid without even thinking.

Then I’m back at home with my family.

I suddenly wake up in my room. I feel tired. I look around and see my bright blue walls, but my room is dark. I run to my parents’ room, and turns out it’s just a dream.

I go downstairs and see the Christmas tree, and I quickly touch the present.


The Dryplace

October 2, 1996

Dear Diary,

My name is Lee Jordan. I am an explorer for the Australian Nature Society. Yesterday we set off on my first expedition. We are in the outback. In my giant backpack I packed three big water bottles, six days of food, three changes of clothes, a raincoat, a compass, a pocket knife, a box of matches, this diary, a sleeping bag, and a tiny tent.

Your very own,

Lee

October 3, 1996

Dear Diary,

It’s currently 5:00 AM. Everyone is asleep. Today we check if this part of the forest’s koalas are healthy and strong. We set out at 8:00 AM. Oh, Alex just woke up. We are supposed to make breakfast for the other troupe members.

Your very own,

Lee

October 3, 1996

Dear Diary,

OH MY GOD! Somehow I ended up in the desert!!! Let me tell you about it. So we had set out on the trail, and I stopped to tie my shoe. I was tying my shoe for two minutes. When I looked up, the troupe was all the way across the field. So I ran to catch them, but they had turned a corner. When I caught up to where I last saw the troupe, it was dark and full of rocks. They had turned one of two corners. I turned the other one, and I ended up here!!! Now I don’t know what to do. Like I told you, I have six days worth of food, so if I don’t get out of here fast enough I am dead meat.

Your very own,

Lee

October 3, 1996

Dear Diary,

I finally found a place to stay tonight. It’s in a little valley surrounded by sand dunes. As soon as I set up the tent, I got a fire started and cooked a sausage. It was okay. Oh, and did I mention that it is fa-reezing, like so cold. I have my sleeping bag and tent, but that’s about it for warmth. I mean, I could heat up rocks over the fire and stick them under the sleeping bag. But that would give warmth for about an hour. I think I’m going to bed now.

Your very own,

Lee

October 4, 1996

Dear Diary,

I just woke up 15 minutes ago, restarted the fire, and started making some breakfast when I realized that I still had my emergency transponder in my backpack. When I went to look for it in my backpack, I found it in the lower right inside compartment. But to my “pleasant” surprise, the transponder was smashed from when I dropped my backpack two days ago. Now I have no idea what to do unless I can figure out how to get this thing fixed soon.

Your very own,

Lee

October 7, 1996

Dear Diary,

I know I haven’t written in a while, but I was busy working on the emergency transponder. But I think I finally cracked the code. I have some emergency parts in my backpack, and the part that was smashed was not the satellite, and I finally figured out how to take the satellite out of the transponder. So now I have to send the emergency signal with my location. It’s starting to warm

up in the desert, but at night it gets absolutely freezing.

Your very own,

Lee

October 8, 1996

Dear Diary,

I finally fixed the transponder!!! I reattached the wire that connected the microchip and the satellite, and I had sent the distress signal. They should be here in about three hours, and I am going to explore a little bit of the wildlife for now until the helicopter gets here. I will kind of miss the desert because it’s a world of wonder and exploration, and I will be sad to leave it. But hopefully I will get a chance to come back another day.

Your very own,

Lee

July 16, 1997

Dear Diary,

Hi… Remember me? Lee, the girl who got lost in the desert? Today, I’m in my lab. After the incident, I decided to keep up my research on the Australian outback. So the Australian Nature Society has agreed to help me with my research on the outback. The society and I have created a team made up of wildlife professionals and naturalists, including me. I try not to speak of the incident, but when I have to, people find it a very interesting topic. I would like to become a naturalist for all the world to see some day.

Your very own,

Lee


Taco

Once there was a small King Charles Spaniel named Taco. He lived at an animal shelter in California. He was very shy. His only friends were his brothers, who already were adopted, so actually Taco didn’t have any friends. All Taco really wanted was for a nice little girl to come and adopt him, so they could live on a farm together. Across from Taco there was a big Great Dane. Taco was very scared of the big Great Dane. In fact, he was terrified of the big Great Dane. The really bad thing was the big Great Dane thought Taco was cool which meant he was always trying to talk to Taco, which made him even more terrified. Next to Taco was a super cute Golden Retriever puppy that came to the shelter only two days ago. The Retriever puppy sometimes liked to play with Taco. Another thing about Taco was that he loved to chase things. Whenever Taco was bored he would chase his tail, and he was usually bored.

One Sunday morning at 8:00, Taco was about to start chasing his tail. He stood up, but then he stopped. He heard the door open. He saw a bunch of kids come in. They came and toured Taco’s aisle. Taco saw the kids turn the corner. Taco started wagging his tail. All the kids looked at the super cute Golden Retriever puppy. They all ran over to the small Golden Retriever. Taco stopped wagging his tail and sat down and tilted his head staring at the kids. A little girl came out of the crowd and came to Taco. She bent down in front of him. Taco stood up and started wagging his tail again but this time even harder. She was about to say something to Taco. He could tell. But then out of nowhere there was a big, loud, deep bark. The girl jumped. She looked behind her. It was the Great Dane. (By the way, the little girl’s name was Sophie.) Sophie forgot about Taco and went to look at a different dog. Taco stopped wagging his tail and frowned. He laid down and fell asleep.

When Taco woke up, he was not in his cage anymore. He was in a small moving box (also known as a car). Sophie was sitting next to Taco. Taco didn’t know what was happening, but he walked onto Sophie’s lap and licked her face.

Hi, what is your name? Do you want to be friends? You smell good. Can I chew on your hair?

Sophie giggled. Sophie’s mom said, “We’re here.”

Taco and Sophie hopped out of the car.

“Come on, Taco,” said Sophie.

As she ran Taco followed her. They were in a big yard in front of a barn. Taco ran as fast as he could, his ears flopping behind him. Taco was so happy. Sophie was too.


The Mirror

Hello! My name is Penelope. I am 12 years young. I am an orphan. I have the most boring life on the planet. People think it would be fun being an orphan. But it is not fun because there is no one to talk to. The moms and dads always choose the little “cute” kids while us 12-year-olds are starving to death, literally. Also, the room is so dusty it’s hard to even breathe!!!

There are no other 12-year-olds, but there’s a 24-year-old who is so strong it’s scary!

It’s now officially been 10 and a half years since I came here. Crazy, right?! I want to find a way to get a family, not a way to sneak out. I want to look mature and nice at the same time! I walk in front of the broken mirror. While I do a smile, the mirror does big eyes.

“Ahhhhhh!!!” I scream.

“What?” says the mirror.

“You can talk?” I say in a confused voice.

“Yes, yes I can,” the mirror says. “I’m the better you, if you didn’t know.”

“That’s rude!” I say.

“Well, you couldn’t get any worse,” the mirror says.

“I would shatter you if I could,” I say.

“Why can’t you? Are you too shy?” the mirror says.

“Try me,” I say. I put my hand on my hip.

“I would if I could,” the mirror says.

“Why can’t you? Are you too shy?” I say.

“Hey, I said that!” the mirror says.

“Hey, I said that!” I say.

“Hey! Stop copying me!” the mirror says.

“Fine,” I say.

The mirror starts making weird motions. I don’t know what they are. Maybe she’s trying to help me get my parents. Probably not. She starts posing in weird ways. The mirror starts grinning. It’s smiling as well. She puts her hair to the front of her head and looks slightly up.

I start to cringe. I go into the bathroom and look in the mirror that’s not broken. I put my hair to the front and look slightly up.

“I do look mature and nice,” I say. I go back to the mirror. I say thank you.

When I walk away from the mirror, somehow the person’s not there anymore. I shrug. I look out the window, since I’m on the first floor. I put my hair to the front and look slightly up. The person who owns the orphanage rings my door. I open the door, and there they are, my two new parents.

The End


Pencils and Alligators

“Oy yoy yoy! Another cat and doggy day. I can’t believe it. Our home is going to be destroyed in about a week when we have another cat and doggy day!” Jaz was ranting again. Her brother, Josh, always listened to her. That was the problem with Josh. He was too submissive. And Jaz was way too talkative and extroverted. The siblings were complete opposites, yet they were the only friends each of them had.

“Well, that would be longer than the last one,” Josh said.

“Josh, why do you always look on the bright side even when there is none? All the pencils we’ve been in have lasted longer than the last but still not long enough. I hope one day we will have enough money to finally move into a mechanical pencil. Those things last forever. Once you’re there, you pretty much have a spot there for the next one or two years. Sometimes they do get damaged, but they’re always okay in the end.” Jaz leaned forward in her seat, daydreaming about mechanical pencils. Doing so, she exposed herself to the falling cats and dogs outside and quickly leaned back in with the dreamy look still on her face.

It was Sage PM, which meant it was two hours until the glowing point went down in the sky. When the glowing point went down in the sky, everybody had to be inside their homes. That was when the greater forces controlling the pencil tried to wipe everybody away. They might succeed if you aren’t inside, but ever since Steven, people have been less against that rule.

Jaz and Josh’s favorite part of the city was their small deck. They put up a small tarp, so they could sit on it even when it was raining alligators or it was cat and doggy out. The weather in this pencil was especially bad. They have been in warm pencils, cold pencils, humid pencils, and dark pencils. But they had never been in a pencil with this much bad animal weather.

“I have to get to the kitchen. My shift starts in 20 minutes,” Jaz said.

Jaz worked at an alligator restaurant. Every time it rained alligators, they got a whole new batch of food to cook. Everyone loved it, and it was a good way to get rid of the extra alligators roaming the streets. Jaz was the best alligator chef the restaurant had.

“Okay, just come right home. You don’t want to be stuck outside when the glowing point goes down,” Josh said.

“I know, I know,” Jaz said. “Why is it that we’re the same age, but you are always telling me to be safe and come home on time. You’re not my parent. I know what to do.”

Jaz winked at Josh before grabbing her cat and doggy-proof umbrella and coat and walking out of the tarp. Josh sat there, waiting for his sister to come home. Little did he know he would never see her again.


Looking For Joy

Chapter One: A Book

One night, one cursed night, the boy Jack was reading in his room when the smell of his grandma’s brownies replaced the plain old airy smell. Just a month before, his pops died. Later on, feelings still carried through the tragedy. One day, the day this all triggered, his mom came up to him, tears came dripping down her face. “Son,” she took a heavy sigh, “Pops died.” That was it. Those were the only three words she said before walking out the door. In memory of him. He was buried in the graveyard across the street from Jack’s house. Every night, Jack would view the picture of Pops that he placed under his pillow. Tears would roll down his cheeks just like his mother when she told him about Pops’ death. But this night, this night felt different for him. Winds howled at the milky white moon and blew through the dark, lonely streets in a hurry. Clouds started to group together. The sky grew darker as he kept reading.

He thought and thought. There were some hmms and ahhs then an aha! He discovered the thing behind all this. Jack thought about this for a long time. The winds continued to howl, followed by the lightning striking out of anger. Jack yawned, and as he did that he put his book away and into bed he went. He tucked the covers on in one swift move and fell dead.

The bell struck, twelve o’clock. In one shake, Jack woke up. In a panic, he got out of his bed and took a look around. Winds still blew and howled but not as much as before. The book, that was what was on Jack’s mind right now. Slowly and carefully, he took the handles on the window and nudged it, aware to not make a single sound. A small mouse squeaked as he pulled the window. He kept doing this motion despite it made a little noise. Now the window was big enough to fit an entire human, enough to fit Jack. Thinking, Jack leaned towards the window and took a look down. Not too deep. His body trembled and shook, thinking and wondering. He started back to his bed, then turned around making his final decision. He ran the edge of the room, were there were closets, posters, and down to the left corner, a door. He took two big steps toward the window in a fast pace and one giant leap flying out the window. Kicking his legs, Jack managed to have a decent landing right in front of the rose bush at the time that a car hustled by. Jack ducked in the sharp rose bush, making sure not to be seen.

The lights lit up the sidewalk, shining almost as much as the full white moon that stood out in the pitch black sky. Jack, who was very scared, made a sprint staying very low across the street and climbed over the low graveyard fence. He checked his watch, twelve ten. He still had time but not a lot. He crawled across the graveyard. Jack had memorized where his grandpa was buried to rest. One left, two rights, another left, then the final right turn. He kept repeating this to himself over and over again until he felt confident. He kept going through the graveyard, passing stones carved with letters. The bitter cold air pinched on Jack’s tongue. Though Jack was used to the graveyard, as if it were a normal thing, and it never really scared him, now was when he was really tested. Shaking and shivering, from not just the cold but the intensity and how freaked out he was, Jack continued step by step on the clumpy dirt through the graveyard. He took his final turn as a light shone on him. Jack froze. I’m dead. The light though continued to shine throughout the graveyard and left him frozen in his tracks. Jack, now with more caution, took his last steps to get to Pops grave. He took his frozen bare hands and started to dig on the hard dirt ground. Jack’s hands started to bleed with pain, but the boy Jack didn’t stop shoveling the dirt. With exhaust, he took a breath. The boy Jack studied the headstone, reading everything, then fixes his head down staring at the dirt. Though, not just dirt was in his sight, but a golden thick book stuffed with pages you could see sticking out.

Now, the boy Jack was not just any boy. He was a smart boy. And with that, what he was searching for, was positively lying right in front of him. Any other kid wouldn’t know that his or her desire lied right in front of them.

Jack immediately identified this book, unlike others could have done. He snatched the book and made a run for it. Jack traced his steps back, following them back home. He looked up at the sky and couldn’t help it but stop and stare. The stars were twinkling in the pitch black sky and the moon shown the path for the lost aliens who were probably trying to find their way home.

Jack suddenly realized what he was doing and went back to running, clutching the book so tight that his palms were starting to turn a bright pink just like his face from the cold, intense weather. Jack climbed over the fence and froze in his tracks. How do I get back up there? Jack clutched the book even tighter and then jumped on the tree, hugging it. He climbed the tree, grasping every part he can. Jack then switched over to climbing the nearest branch to the window. Though there was quite a big gap between. Jack was up for anything, my reader. You should know that. Jack gripped the book one more time and then risked himself, then made the jump.

At first, Jack just closed his eyes as he was flying through the air, then opened them, then hit the floor followed by a thud that could have woken everyone up. Jack threw his clothes off, closed the window, ran to bed, and then placed the book under the pillow where Pops’ picture was.

“I cracked the code, Pops. I did it.”

The next day was Saturday. It was seven o’clock when Jack’s alarm clock went off. No one was up yet, but Jack felt something peculiar. He dug under his pillow and found the dusty golden book. He opened the book and blew off the dust. It flew in his face. Jack started to read. It was hard, but he put his all into it. In big, bold, handwritten letters the book said:

One left two rights, another left, then a final right turn. This is how you found this book.

Jack found this odd, because it was right. He peeled through the pages.

There are three steps to joy. One: find it. Two: use it. Three: share it.

Step number three was scribbled out.

Jack also found this odd. What could this mean? Jack closed the book and thought. Now was when his brain was really working.


Knights At Sunset

Chapter One

There was a person named Jack. He lived in a big house, and there was a lot to do where he lived, like biking, a lot of sports, mountain climbing, video games, and more. His mom always told him to put sunscreen when he went outside. As usual, he never did it. He lived in a place called Piermont. It was in New York state. It was fun. His dad was always working and did nothing else and worked from six to eight. Mackie, his cousin, came once a week. They got along very well. They did a lot of naughty plans, like going outside of the house at 12 o’clock. He was 10 years old.

Jack exclaimed to his mom, “I want to go to Mackie’s house one time.’’

Jack and Mackie were very adventurous. They did many adventures, but there was one thing they were crazy about, going in a castle! They thought about going in a castle in their house for about five minutes every day.

The problem was that they didn’t like to go to school because they wanted to go on adventures a lot, but they still wanted to get educated. They went to the same school. On weekends, they woke up at about 9:30. They wanted to play outdoors a lot. It rained often in Piermont.

He liked the winter because he could play in the snow; they liked to have snowball fights in winter. Jack liked pizza. Jack and Mackie started to go out of the house and did not tell their parents. They went on the street and walked to 72nd Street. They started to wander off, and they got lost.

Mackie said, “Where are we?”

Jack responded, “I don’t know.”

They kept walking around.

They asked somebody, “Where is 89th and Columbus?”

But he thought they knew where Jack and Mackie were going. The man said, “Look for yourself.”

They were still walking and bought some cupcakes.

Jack said, “I found something! It looks like it’s far. It looks like a really big building. I think it’s two miles away.”

And Mackie said, “Wow, let’s go to it!”

They walked to the place. Mackie and Jack said, “I’m tired, and we have to walk about three more miles.”

Mackie said, “Let’s just take a break as we go.”

Jack said, “Good idea!”

They got eight more bars from Bob’s Cafe. They were very excited about the really big building. They thought, Why is there a forest around it?

Jack said, “Going by myself somewhere is not that bad.”

“I know,” responded Mackie.

Jack was feeling determined to go to the castle. Suddenly, they didn’t know where they were.

Jack said, “Where are we?”

Mackie said, “We’re in a forest!”

Jack exclaimed, “That’s fun. Let’s explore.”

“Look at this tree,” exclaimed Mackie.

The trees tilted.

Jack told Mackie, “Let’s get back to going to the castle.”

Mackie said, “Let’s explore for like five more minutes.”

Jack said, “Okay, but we’re going to leave right after that.”

Mackie said, “Okay.”

Jack said, “Woah, look at the plant.”

Mackie came over and said, “I think it’s a tobacco plant. There’s a bunny next to the tree.”

“Let’s feed them some carrots,” said Jack.

“Okay,” said Mackie.

They fed the bunny carrots.

Jack said, “We have got to go to the castle now.”

They kept walking to the castle.

Jack said, “Actually, it looks very distinguished from a castle.”

“Oh yeah,” said Mackie. “It looks like a very, very tall building with stone and bats all around it.”

Jack said, “We’re still pretty far away from the building.”

Mackie said, “We have to keep going.’’


Forever

Chapter One

Hi, I’m Anastasia Forever. My mom is a queen, and my dad is a king. I also have servants. They are really fun. I finally realized that I was getting more attention than my older sister (Sofia Forever). Everyone in the kingdom always wondered why my family’s last name is Forever. No one really knows actually. But I think it’s a cool last name. Sometimes when I go to school, I pretty much know all the answers. Most of the time I usually wander off in the woods by myself.

One day, while wandering off in the woods, I thought I found this animal I’d never seen before. I bent down, so it would not see me. I examined the unknown animal. It looked like a wolf. But instead the wolf had the same exact mark that was by my eye. Was this my own type of animal?!


Chapter Two

The animal got closer to me, and the animal said my name.

“Anastasia.”

“H — how do you know my name?” I said with fear in my voice.

“Do not be afraid. I’ve been by your side since the day you were born.”

I felt kind of nervous at first, but I started to believe the unknown animal. I actually had fun with the unknown animal.

Before I left, I stopped.

“Wait, I never asked you your name.”

“Well, my name is Emily Forever.”

That really made me wonder. Why does she have the same name?


Chapter Three

The next day, I went over to the woods to see the unknown animal. The animal came out. Before I could say anything, the unknown animal gave me a necklace.

“Use this if you want to get in contact with me anytime of the day.”

Before I could say anything, she said, “If you see any other animals like me, our animal names are jewel ivy.”

I finally said something, “Thank you!”

As soon as I came home, Sofia was in my room.

I said, “Hey! What are you doing in my room?!”

“Tell me where you’ve been for the past days, and I’ll get out.”

I felt annoyed by her disgusting behavior. “I won’t tell you where I’ve been because it is none of your business!”

“Well, if you don’t tell me, I will tell your teacher you cheated on your test!”

“You would not dare!”

Before she could take another step, I trapped her in the dungeon for two hours straight. We were allowed to do that to each other. I was glad she did not notice my necklace…


Chapter Four

After a couple of hours, I let her free of course. She told on me. I called Emily with my necklace before I could get in trouble. I put some sporty clothes on. I hopped on Emily and escaped from the castle. I was so tired I fell asleep on Emily.

Hours later, I woke up. I was hungry, so I decided to eat.

I asked Emily if she could take me back, but she said, “I must show you something.”

I agreed to let her take me there.

“River.”

When she said that word, I felt like there was color to it.

She said this, “River is magical.”

I felt a little a bit of a shiver go down my spine. It was really cold. I fell fast asleep…

When I woke up, she took me straight home without saying anything. Before I went back on my porch, she told me to clap three times to a beat. I did what she told me to. When I did what she told me too, I went invisible.

“Cool!” I said.

I snuck into Sofia’s room, and I saw her crying. I asked her why she was crying. She got a low score on her test. She printed out a copy for me to do. I did it, and she came back home with a 100. My parents were full of joy!


Chapter Five

Sofia was in her room crying. Mom, Dad, and I went to check up on her. My mom and dad sent her to the dungeon while we were feasting on delicious food, while Sofia was sobbing sadly.

I kind of felt bad in a way. I always wondered why my older sister got treated differently.

The next day at school, our teacher Mrs. Villa asked the class what their favorite type of animal was. I politely raised my hand.

I said, “Jewel ivy.”

The teacher looked at me like I was crazy or something. I said it was real. I called Emily with the necklace she gave me.

Emily crashed through the wall and was in the class. My teacher fainted. The whole class was surprised. When class was dismissed, a whole crowd came running up to me and asked what my necklace could do and where I got it from. For the first time, I felt like I meant something to my school.


Chapter Six

As soon as I got back home, I rushed to my room and jumped on my bed. Relief!!! I changed into my sporty clothes and called Emily with my star necklace. She came. I hopped on her back, and we headed to that magical river.

We got there. I hopped in the water and started to splash Emily. She disappeared.

“Where did she go?”

Before I could finish what I was saying, she jumped up behind me and threw a big wave at me. I laughed. I was soaked. I went home and put my cozy p.j.’s on and fell into a deep sleep.


Chapter Seven

The next day it was Saturday. I decided to play on my laptop when I noticed that someone had done something to my laptop. I clicked on a video. It was my sister who sent me a video. I listened. She said she would get revenge. I was scared, so I told my parents, and they told me it would be okay. I was scared of my older sister who I was never scared of. I was so surprised…


Chapter Eight

The next day I went to school. My teacher asked me to speak with her, so I did. She asked me to take off my necklace and put it in my bag. We had a test today. She gave me the test, and I started to take the test. The next day we got the scores, and of course I got a 100. When I got home, my sister said that she found out where I been every day. I was super frightened. So, she told me I had to bring her. I said I was sorry so many times, but she decided to just laugh.

Right at that moment, my mom came in the room saying, “Hide hide hide!”

I did not know what was going on, so we just hid under my bed. I asked what was going on, and she said that our kingdom was having a war with my dad’s brother’s kingdom (Uncle Charles). I was disappointed. I always relied on him.

My mother said that we might have to use the secret door under my bed to have safety for now. We landed in the secret room and waited for two days. Our messenger had bad news for us. My dad would not be coming back until the next two years. My mom did a really long sigh. Sofia cried, and I just did the silent treatment…

Chapter Nine

The next day, I didn’t go to school. I was very sad. I would not be able to see my dad in the next two years. I did not do anything. I just sat there thinking. One day I told myself, Wait, what about Emily?! I jumped out of bed and ran to the cave. She was sitting there with my sister?!

For the rest of the day I just stared at the ceiling. But something unordinary happened. My father was back?! Wait, wait, what was going on! They pranked me. I was so angry I stormed off to my room, and I just decided to talk to Emily. I went to the cave, and she wasn’t there. I felt confused because she was usually there. I decided to go back to the castle. But when I got to the castle, no one was there either. So I decided to go lay in my bed and go to bed.


Chapter Ten

It was a couple of weeks, and I still hadn’t seen anyone. I just wanted to see my family and Emily again, so I decide to go on a short adventure. The first stop was the magical river! I checked there. I didn’t really see anything. But I did see the paw prints of Emily. I decided to follow them. There was a puzzle. I looked around, and when I did, I saw something that would help me solve the puzzle. I solved it. Then a door opened. I crossed the swap. And I saw them. Wait, a surprise party.

They all said, “SURPRISE!!!”

I was so happy. My parents told me that Emily was my great-grandma. Everything went great ever since.

THE END


The Bored Hero

Once upon a time, there was a knight. This knight’s name was Sir Edmond. Sir Edmond had completed many great deeds of heroism (99 to be exact). His most famous deeds were: The Flaying Of The Most Ferociously Ferocious Ferret and The Defeat Of The Antarctic Abusive Armadillo. Sir Edmond was trying to do one more deed, so he could get to one hundred deeds, so he could get the one hundred deeds medal and become the knight of one hundred deeds. The knight of one hundred deeds was the most important knight in the land.

Sir Edmond went looking for a monster to defeat, but he had defeated all the monsters in existence (except one, which we’ll get back to later)! So he went looking for other deeds to do, but he had done all the deeds there were to do (except one, which we’ll also get back to later). The rule was you can only use one deed once.

When he went to a town and said, “What can I do?” the answer was always, “Nothing.” Sir Edmond was now desperate, so he went to The Place Where Nothing Happens, a town on the border of the Really Bad Forest, where, as you might have guessed, nothing happens.

As he was walking, he saw a magic umbrella for sale, “Magic umbrella! Even protects you from rain when it’s not raining!” The sign advertised, only $99,999,999,999.99! And one cent for shipping, handling, selling, and ripping people off!

That’s a horrible thing that person’s doing, thought Sir Edmond. I’ll stop him and get my hundredth deed!

But when he looked back, the advertisement said, Colorful Umbrellas $1.99, a perfectly reasonable price.

What happened?! thought Sir Edmond. I could swear that was there a second ago!

Suddenly, Sir Edmond heard the sound of someone cackling coming from a nearby alleyway. Sir Edmond turned, and gathering all the courage he could muster, stepped into the dimly lit alleyway. Sir Edmond was surprised at what he saw in the alleyway, for it was nothing he had expected. No evil witch stood there mixing her equally evil potions, nor did a demonic demon with nails as sharp as knives laugh over his evil plan to enslave the universe. Instead it was just a plain old umbrella leaning against a neighboring house. Wait, that was the umbrella from the shop that had disappeared!

“Finally!” Sir Edmond cried. “I can take this umbrella, arrest its owner, and get my hundredth deed! But nobody will believe me. They will think me mad! I need some evidence.”

While Sir Edmond thought about how to get some solid evidence, he heard a shuffle in the bushes.

“You get back here!” shouted Sir Edmond as he saw the umbrella go running off into the Really Bad Forest. Should I not follow the umbrella into the Really Bad Forest and try to get a deed somewhere else? thought Sir Edmond. Or should I follow it into the deep scary Really Bad Forest and possibly, no, probably get myself killed in a horribly painful way?

After a while of deciding and weighing the pros and cons (Sir Edmond was very good at weighing the pros and cons) Sir Edmond decided to chase the umbrella into the Really Bad Forest. As he was doing so, he stumbled upon an old man sitting in the forest with an umbrella.

“Aha!” exclaimed Sir Edmond. “You were the one!”

“Yes, I was!” said the old man in an inhuman voice. Then, the old man turned into an evil demon!!!

***

We interrupt this book to inform you that this demon was indeed the dreaded Pkeuxblo Demon, the stealer of leftover food on the kitchen counter, and Sir Edmond’s arch-nemesis!!

***

Just then, with a sudden burst of speed, Sir Edmond stabbed the demon in the upper left eyebrow, which, as Sir Edmond had known from his history of dealing with demons, is their only weak spot! Sir Edmond had killed the Pkeuxblo Demon! Sir Edmond was awarded the one hundred deeds medal and was awarded the title of the knight of one hundred deeds. Now, because of Sir Edmond’s brave deeds (and a little bit of luck), you can sleep in your beds assured that the Pkeuxblo Demon won’t come to your house and steal your precious leftovers.

The End


Pig Island

Last day of school. Woohoo! Okay, let’s move on. My dad told me this morning that when I got home, I should do some research on where we were going to go this summer. So, I looked up best places to go in the summer on my computer, when all of a sudden as I was scrolling down, there were some words that said, best place to go, Pig Island!!! I clicked new tab, searched Pig Island, and there it was: best place to go, Pig Island, and underneath it said 4.5 stars for Pig Island!!! I knew I had to get to Pig Island.

That night, when my parents came home and my sister, Katie, came home from high school, and we were all sitting down, I told them, “I looked up places to go for the summer, and it came up with Pig Island, and we’re going to go there!!!” I let it out all in one breath and breathed heavily afterwards.

“Oh, hun, I love that you are so excited about it, but you know I’m allergic to pigs,” my dad said. “How long will we be there, because you know you have to do Spanish camp for most of the summer too.”

“I’m sorry PaPu, but we can’t,” my mother added. Don’t laugh. That’s my nickname. My real name is Pua.

We have to go. I love pigs, and you did name me Pua because that’s Moana’s pig’s name, right?”

“Yes hunny, but that’s not an excuse.”

Fine,” I said as I stomped upstairs.

“If she leaves, then can I go too?” I heard Katie say after I left.

They gave her a stern look.

The next morning, I sat up in my bed all happy that it was the first day of summer, but worried that I might not be able to go to Pig Island. I hopped out of bed and started pacing around my room, thinking about if I had any good ideas of how I could get there. After five back and forth paces, I finally had a good idea. I thought to myself, Maybe there is a medicine that my dad could take that would make him not allergic to pigs for the day. Then I realized the other problem we had of going there. I had to go to Spanish camp. So now I had to figure out two problems and fast.

I looked over at the clock. It was 6:00. Time for my morning run. I could think about the problems while I was running. I changed my clothes, grabbed my jacket, slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my phone and my earbuds, and raced out the door. I slipped in my earbuds and went into my own secret world like a parallel universe. I ran for half an hour around the neighborhood and looped back to my house where I took a shower and ate breakfast.

My sister came down with her head in her phone and still in her llama pajamas and asked, “How long have you been down here?”

I took another bite of my cinnamon bread and looked up at the clock. It said 7:00. I calculated it in my head. “An hour.”

She put down her phone and answered, “Cool. Have you figured out the two problems?”

Shoot,” I accidently said out loud. I never figured out the problem. Well, that was a waste of time. I looked up at my sister and said, “No, I haven’t figured out the problem. Wait, I have an idea.”

I plopped down my cinnamon bread and ran to my computer. I looked up if there was a cure, and I scrolled down and found a bunch of medicines. One of them was a medicine from a doctor named Dr. Anderson. Boom, out of nowhere it was like a lightbulb went off in my head.

“Sis, get out your computer and see if there are any Spanish camps.”

Okay,” she said as she slowly strolled over to her computer.

She opened it up and did what I told. I looked back at my research and realized that there could actually be a way for me to go to Pig Island. I smiled inside my head.

After 20 minutes, I asked, “Have you found a camp?”

“Yeah, it says it’s a two week camp and will teach you beginner or advanced Spanish.”

“Great, can you see how old you have to be.”

“K.”

Thirty minutes later…

“Have you figured it out?”

“Yeah, it says that you have to be 8 to 15 years old. That seems great right, because I was going to go take a shower.”

“I need one more thing for you to do.”

Driving to the doctor…

“Thanks again for driving me to the doctor. I looked up a cure for pigs, and it said that there was this doctor who figured out how to cure being allergic to pigs. His name is Dr. Anderson.”

“No problem. Don’t tell Mom and Dad, but I actually want to go to Pig Island.”

“Pull over, we’re here.”

Seeing the doctor…

We step in and see a woman on an office chair looking at her computer.

“Hello?” I ask.

She turns and answers, “What can I do for you?”

“We’re here to get a medicine for allergies to pigs.”

“Great, are you Emily Paterson?”

“Yes.”

Thirty minutes later…

“So you need to have one pill every morning and make sure his vitals and blood pressure are normal every night,” she said.

“Great, is that all,” I say.

“Yep.”

Getting home…

“Okay, Katie, get back on your computer and sign us up for that Spanish camp,” I said.

“I will work on getting tickets to the Bahamas.”

Ten minutes later…

“So we have a hotel, plane tickets, in a camp, and we’re going to Pig Island.” I started dancing around and doing my happy dance.

A week later…

“Let’s go everybody. Let’s go!

We drove to the airport and hopped on the plane. I was smiling on the whole plane trip there. My mouth still hurts. I even made a song on the way there to sing to the piggies. We landed smoothly, got off the plane, and rode to our hotel. We stayed the night there and got ready to take our boat to Pig Island.

The next morning, I woke up and woke everybody up, and I mean everybody in the hotel accidently, to go to Pig Island. We gave my dad his pills and started to get ready. An hour later, after we got all ready for Pig Island, we jumped onto the boat and sailed to Pig Island.

At Pig Island…

The sailors anchored us in, and we had to take a rowboat to shore. That was the best moment in my life, because there were pigs swimming close to us, but they didn’t let us touch them because they were afraid of the oars. The sailors helped us onto shore and then said that they were going back to the boat and we would be leaving in an hour.

I thought to myself, An hour? That’s not enough time. I want to spend my whole life with these piggies.

They started rowing away, and I was the first person to dive into the water head first. I played with them for so long I felt like I was becoming a pig. They were just so cute, and pink, and swam with me, and even sunbathed on the sand. I even named the pigs Pinky, Cracker, Bunny, Wilbert, Buttercup, Flower, Fluffy, Asparagus, Fuzzball, and Strawberry. The sailors said that we had one more minute, and we had to wrap it up. Oh no. At the last minute, Wilbert jumped on top of me, and he hugged me to death. I loved Pig Island and all the pigs here!!!

THE END!!!


The Legendary Monument

When I saw a Legendary village I froze, and watched.

It really was the land of mysterious dragons I wondered…

Then does that mean that Scarlett Bones has been here?

That must have been quite a unique adventure for her.

She must have seen the beautiful horizon of the mountains.

When it started to rain I saw a bright flame.

Then I realized that it was a giant comet soaring.

But I felt a light sprinkle on my head Rain…

The rain eroded the whole cliff and I started falling.

Thank Goodness I was rescued by a beautiful mythical beast.

That Legendary village froze me.

It was the dragons land.

Scarlett’s favorite color is Scarlet.

I saw many mythical creatures.

A comet flew past me.

I looked at the horizon.

I thought, What an adventure.

I went hiking, then fell.

Then it started to rain.

In the distance a flame!

The legendary village.

The dragon’s land.

Scarlett Mary Bones.

Observing mythical creatures.

Comets flying past.

The melting horizon.

“What an adventure.”

Then I fell.

It started raining.

Then seeing flames.


Tasty

I went grocery shopping, sure that that was a wise decision. You see, the previous evening I had prepared and consumed a massive amount of my homemade chili. Some pretty tasty stuff, but it’s very spicy to the point of it being painful. It comes with a guarantee (from me) that if you eat it, your body will fall apart the next day.

Here’s the thing. I awakened that morning, and even after having two bowls of my homemade chili, nothing happened. Despite the habanero peppers swimming throughout my body, I appeared to be fine. Knowing that a time would come, yet not sure of just when, I bravely set off for the market, a local Costco that I often hunt in to find hot dogs and tater tots. I heard from one of my friends that Costco was having a ketchup sale, so I decided to go.

Upon entering the store at first, everything seemed fine. I pulled out a shopping cart and pushed it into the food aisle while dropping every single item on the shelves in not caring what they were. It wasn’t until I was at the total opposite side of the restrooms that the pain hit me like a train. Stop looking at me like you don’t know what I’m referring to. It’s the “oops, I gotta go” pain. But this was different.

The habaneros in the chili from the night before were planning revenge. In a mad rush for freedom, they bullied their way through my intestines. Before I could take one step in the direction of the restrooms, they fired a shot. I stood alone in the aisle, eyes wide. I was afraid to move, frightened that the odor might escape to another aisle. I slowly moved up the next aisle just as an elderly woman turned her disgusted face to me. I watched as she walked into an invisible wall of odor losing all her senses. This made me laugh. When you laugh, it’s hard to keep things down. Another explosion came. It was so loud, it echoed down all the aisles. I gasped, fearing that someone would think it was someone firing a gun. I ran down all of the aisles to the nearest restroom.

As I walked out, an employee ran towards me.

“Ah sir, there has been a report of you setting an, um, stink bomb here,” the man said.

People were staring at me, which set me off again. I sprinted towards the exit sign and drove back home.

Home again, I grinned as I took a peek into the refrigerator and realized that there was nothing to eat but a leftover bowl of chili, so I consumed it. The day after that, I made a brave journey to Walmart. I can’t say anymore information about what had happened in Walmart because I am currently in court.


Moon

Moon

                                   ivory rolling in the sky

                                                       A balloon of drunken silver

                                                         Dancing, bouncing through the

Delicious chocolate sky as a dollop of

                                                                          Milky whipped cream

                                                        Shining steel across the sea in the deep swirling night across the slowly churning sky sober on the final

steps to the gates of dawn

                                          for a needed rest upon the

                                                                                                           pillow of soft green hills


The Amazing Fluffy’s Adventures

Once there was an orange kitten named Fluffy. And she wanted a lifetime supply of cat treats. Salmon flavored was her favorite. But there was an evil kitten blocking her way. She had a superpower, so she shot lasers out of her paws. And it got in the evil kitten’s eyes and blinded him. Fluffy, by the way, found an envelope on the ground. And what was in there were two 1,000 dollar bills.

She thought, Wow, that’s enough for two lifetime supplies of cat treats. But the problem is, I don’t have two lifetimes. She had magic, so she made herself another lifetime. By the way, how she got magic was she was born with magic because her father was a cat and her mother was a unicorn. She thought, I’m so happy! And then her owner went to the pet store, and she bought the two lifetime supplies of cat treats.

The End! (Oh no!)


copy and paste adventure: part one

Once upon a time there was a robot chicken, and he looked like a normal chicken.

He lived in a robot village. It was Earth, but robots. Robots took over Europe, and they turned French words and food and other French stuff that’s in France into English.

“Cockadoodledoo! Cockadoodledoo! Cockadoodledoo! Cockadoodledoo! Cockadoodledoo! Cockadoodledoo!” the chicken said.

And by the way, his name was Copy And Paste. His nickname was Copy. He had a friend named Rainstorm. He had powers that were the same as his name was. And one day, they went on an adventure with weapons. He met the elemental powers, and they chose him. He was lucky because the powers stated that they would go into the wrong hands. But they always saw Copy And Paste do good things.

Then they met a random goblin. And Copy And Paste tried to use his new powers. Fire came out of his hands. And then when he killed the goblin, he got a random whiteboard. Then he tried his teleportation and jumped off a cliff and teleported back up.

When they walked around, they found an evil Santa. They killed the evil Santa because he was about to kill them with their lightning powers. They then earned a marker for the random whiteboard.

After the long journey beating up monsters, they found a powerful demon, and they had to fight it because they had seen him try to kill people for many, many years. Then they used their magical swords to fight the demon, but the demon blocked them. They teleported to the back of the demon and used their firepower on the demon’s back. It hurt him a little bit, but then the demon punched them. They fell down and almost couldn’t get up. They got up and made their hands giant and punched the demon super hard.

“This is how you’re going to live now!” they yelled.

The demon exploded, and they found a spaceship! They flew to the moon with their space helmets.

PART ONE OVER…


Jonas and Matthew

This book is dedicated to Jonas, my good friend and also a creator of Jonas and Matthew.

Hi! My name is Matthew, and I live with my friend Jonas in a mansion. We’ve got an arcade, a zoo, a water park, and an amusement park. One morning at our mansion we were in our arcade playing the Transformers game.

“Yeah! This is awesome!” said Jonas as we were finishing the hardest level.

“How about let’s play the Angry Birds game,” I suggested.

Soon we were at the Angry Birds game. In the middle of when I was playing, suddenly a crazy pig took up the whole screen! Jonas and I burst out laughing. Jonas laughed so hard that he fell to the ground, rolling with laughter.

That night it was Halloween, so we dressed up in our trick-or-treating costumes, so we could scare other people trick-or-treating. I was dressed up as a vampire, and Jonas was dressed up as a werewolf. We both hid next to our door and waited for some trick-or-treaters to come. First, a kid with a bunny costume rang our doorbell. Ding dong! The doorbell rang. Jonas jumped out of the bushes.

The trick-or-treater screamed, “Get me out of here!!!” and dropped his candy and ran away.

Then, a kid wearing a sheet with holes cut into it for eyes (which I realized later was a ghost costume) came up to our door and rang the doorbell. Ding dong! I jumped out of the bushes.

The ghost kid then dropped his candy and screamed, “Mommy!” and ran away.

After a whole night of scaring, we picked up all the candy and went inside our mansion to our room to check out the candy. We started eating the candy, but the pile in front of us just would not grow smaller. Then we started stuffing candy in our mouths frantically. Soon, all we could hear were the sounds of ourselves munching on candy. Suddenly Jonas had accidently ate some slingshot gum. Slingshot candy is a candy that makes you go crazy trying to get it out of your mouth. He chewed some and made a bubble. The bubble expanded until it was almost touching me from across the room and then shot back. Splat! All of the gum landed back onto Jonas’s face. After an hour of pulling gum out from Jonas’s face and hair, we got the mess cleaned up. Then I saw something in my bag. It was a soda bottle. Before I could take it, Jonas took it and drunk it all up.

“Hey! I was going to drink that… ”

Jonas spat out the soda. It was slingshot soda! Before I knew it, Jonas was chasing me down the stairs.

“Aghhh!” I screamed as Jonas spit all the slingshot soda on me.

“Sowwy bubby,” said Jonas. I got angry really fast. I started chasing Jonas around the room as fast as I could.

“Get back here!” I said.

Finally, after I stopped chasing Jonas, it was already midnight. I decided to have one last candy before I went to bed. I grabbed a random candy and opened the cap and drank it. Uh oh, I thought. I had drank slingshot soda. Jonas had realized that too, because he was already getting out of his blanket tent, ready to dash out of the room. Ptoooooooo! I spit out the slingshot soda all over Jonas.

“Why you little… ” said Jonas as he chased me all over the house.

An hour later, we finally came back to our bedroom and collapsed on our beds from exhaustion. It seemed like we had only slept for one second when our alarm clock started beeping. Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Hey!” I said as the alarm clock fell off of the nightstand and onto the floor with a crash.

“We need a new alarm clock,” groaned Jonas as he woke up.

We decided to turn into our animal forms. We had gotten the powers when we were born because our whole family had the same powers. My mom and dad and his mom and dad were very rich and could turn into animals, so they got enough money for us to have our own mansion and explore our powers.

First, we both turned into dogs. We snuck around town, looking at things from a dog’s eye view. Suddenly, a hand scooped us up and put us in a car.

“Hey, let us go!” I said, but I am pretty sure it came out as, “Ror, ror, ror!”

Jonas and I clawed at the door, trying to get out as the car drove away. (We could not turn back into our human forms because we could only turn back into humans in our mansion.)

Being in an adoption center is a lot worse than you think it is. As soon as we pulled up in front of the adoption center, I knew it was bad news. Outside the center, there was a rusty sign that said Doggy Doo-Doo Adoption Center. The inside was not any better. All of the dogs, cats, turtles, birds, lizards, fish, frogs, and other animals were buried under piles of dog poop and looked like they had not eaten in two days. When Jonas and I got in, I immediately started trying to think of a plan to get out. Then I had a idea! I told Jonas to get us out of the adoption center.

“First, let’s bark very loudly to attract the staff’s attention. Then, while they are distracted, we run away.”

After we made it a far distance away, we turned into snakes and slipped down into the sewers. We slithered in silence for one sewer snake day until we passed another manhole that was lined with muck and dirt. We slithered up into the sunlight.

The first thing I saw was that we were in a grassy field that looked like a savannah.

“What! Are we in Africa?!” we both said at the same time. We slithered back into the sewers.

Another sewer snake day later, we passed by another manhole. This time, it was spray painted with a lot of graffiti and smog was drifting into the sewer tunnel.

“Should we check out what is out there?” I asked Jonas.

“Yeah, I think we should see what is up there,” said Jonas. I knew what he was also thinking. It could be right under our mansion. We slithered up above the ground again… only to find ourselves wrong.

We saw that we were in a bustling city. Everywhere, smoke billowed. A truck zoomed down the road, almost smooshing us. A big wall loomed far in the distance. There was only one place this can be…

“What? We are in China!?” said Jonas.

“This is worse than before!” I said. We were about still halfway across the world from our mansion.

We retreated back into the shadows of the sewers and started slithering the way we thought our mansion.

Finally, we came upon a manhole that said Jonas and Matthew were here!We gazed up at the manhole.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked Jonas.

“Let’s go!” we both said at the same time.

We emerged onto the street near our mansion, startling a demented chicken. “Bok-bok-bokao?!” it said angrily.

“I think we should be… running!!!” shouted Jonas as he turned back into a dog. I turned into a gecko and held onto Jonas’s tail for my life.

The demented chicken flapped its black wings and hobbled after us.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed from Jonas’s tail.

We jumped through the doors of our mansion at the last second as the demented chicken flapped and hobbled and rolled towards me.

After we got through the doors of our mansion, I sighed in relief. We were back in our mansion. Jonas jumped into the elevator and pressed the button which said Jonas and Matthew’s room in big letters. Ding! The elevator doors opened, and Jonas jumped out. With me still on his tail, he collapsed right in front of his bed, tired. We both slept, knowing that tomorrow would be a good day.


Stranded in Paradise

I, Vera Richardson, woke up sweating. I quickly looked around to make sure it was just a dream. Then I slowly sat up in bed. I swung my legs over my flower patterned blanket and slipped my feet into my soft, fuzzy slippers and got out of bed. While I walked over to the closet, I felt a shiver go down my spine. Was the window open? No, something was not right. I quickly got dressed and hurried downstairs.

The stairs creaked under my weight. I tried my best to noiselessly slip down the stairs and quietly open the door to my parents’ room. The door opened silently, and I walked in. I walked over to my parents’ bed and shook my mom.

“Mama! Mama, wake up!” She didn’t answer. She stayed still. It looked as if she couldn’t see me.

I tried my dad, but I only got the same response. Now I was starting to get pretty freaked out. I tried sticking my hand through her face. It didn’t go through, which wasn’t exactly comforting, but confirmed that I was not a ghost. Now the only question was: where was I?

Roaming The Underworld

I couldn’t explain where I was or what I was doing here, but I did know that I was trapped in some sort of dream. A dream where, I couldn’t wake up. A dream where when I woke up, if I woke up, I couldn’t say it was just a dream. I was pretty much about to pee my pants. I decided to go outside and see what was happening.

I shuffled into my shoes and opened the door. I was bewildered by what I saw. In the little town of Greensboro I had never seen any monsters. And even if I did, it would never be as many as these. They all had at least one extra leg or a wart on their face. I wanted to run back inside and never come out again. I wanted to cry for help. I wanted to barf. But I couldn’t move. My bones just wouldn’t do it. My brain screamed to run. My bones did. My hands did! But I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, and I didn’t. Until I came to my senses. I had to find the person who ran this place, or something. I gathered my courage and asked a monster.

“Excuse me? Mr. Hairy guy with warts?” He looked over at me. “Ummm, pardon me sir, but is there a high king or president here? I need to speak to him.”

“Eerfnooblegarfpuiyrtfegds,” he said and pointed to a tall building.

“So, the tall tower?” I confirmed.

“Erftooknjihgty,” he mumbled, which I took as a yes. And so off I went to the high king. (I hope.)

I learned a lot of things while I was looking for the head person.

  1. That monsters can smell really bad when it is 93 degrees out (or they just smell in general)
  2. That you get very thirsty very fast when you’re hiking up the avenue
  3. Lastly, I’m craving a cheeseburger
  4. Now I want a hot dog
  5. With lemonade
  6. That sounds really good
  7. But I’m getting off track
  8. I should stop writing like this
  9. Yeah, I should
  10. Okay this is my last comment

The High Queen

When I finally reached the top of the hill I was… wait for it… wait for it: Parched, thirsty, hungry, tired, I probably had athlete’s foot, I was having heat stroke, and I really needed to pee. So, in other words, I was pooped. I couldn’t move one more inch. Unless, unless I had some sort of inspiration, something that would give me power and would motivate me to do it. I collapsed on the ground, and rolled over. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was big. And purple. And it looked very fancy and queenie. Somehow, the only thing I could think about at this second was that this was a huge coincidence and that it just so happened that less than ten seconds ago I was thinking that I would never ever ever get home and I would be stuck in this nightmare land forever and I would never see my parents again. But somehow I rolled over, and there was the High Queen’s castle, just waiting for me. Again, this was all a coincidence.


Trying To Convince The High Queen To Release Me (But Not Actually Convincing Her)

I was so relieved to finally get to the High Queen’s palace. I knew she would immediately let me go, because I was not a monster and she was obviously not evil. Or at least I really hope she wasn’t. Now that I thought about it she probably was evil and would probably not let me go because she was probably the Queen of Nightmare Land. This made me a whole lot more nervous. I used to be a lot more excited, but now I just felt like giving up and being trapped in Nightmare Land instead of being trapped in a prison cell with no food, water, or sunlight. I decided that I should go back and live as a ghost for the rest of my life. But then my survival instincts kicked in, and I knew that if I wanted to escape this land, I needed to go to the High Queen and convince her to let me go. And if that turned out well, I would ask her about why she trapped me in this land and that she should never do that again. And so I proceeded to walk to the door.

I walked up the stairs and rang the doorbell. Ding-dong. I waited. There wasn’t an answer. And so I tried again. Ding-dong. I twiddled my fingers behind my back.

Oh well, she’s not here. I better go, I thought to myself when suddenly the door opened.

“Hello?” the man said.

I turned around slowly, and stared. My mama told me it’s rude to stare, but I couldn’t help it. He was just so short. His head barely was up to my hip, and he just looked so ridiculous in his mini suit from the kids department store.

It was stunning. The walls were a bright red with gold drapery on the magnificent windows. There was fancy furniture everywhere you went. When I looked up, the ceiling was covered in glass paintings. I was dumbfounded. But I didn’t have time to look around, because he had already grabbed my hand and took me inside without even asking my name or why I was here. While we walked, I studied him a little closer. He was a short, stubby man. His chin was rounded, but his mouth was covered by a huge, bushy, curly mustache. Like the ones you see in the movies. It was accompanied by a tuxedo and black dress shoes. His eyes kept shifting around, like he was late for something, or he was going to get in trouble.

“Umm, excuse me? I need to see the queen. I don’t know where I am or why I’m here or why you are taking me wherever you are taking me, but I need to see the queen.”

I was surprised by myself. I was usually not this forceful, but I was mad. I was mad at the queen and Mustache Man here for taking me to a place I didn’t know how to get out of. I breathed heavily. My chest heaved up and down. The man stared at me.

“Okay,” he said.

“Um, yeah! And take me to the queen!” I responded, a little confused.

I had expected him to start a fight. He turned around and started off in the other direction. I didn’t move.

“Well? Aren’t you coming?” I shrugged and followed behind him. On the walk, he asked me my name.

“Vera Richardson,” I had responded. “What’s yours?”

I just wanted to stop thinking of him as the Mustache Man.

“Picher Lennox. Mr. Lennox to you,” he snapped.

The rest of the walk we walked in silence. It was probably just one minute, but it felt like a century. We finally arrived at the High Queen’s office.

“Here we are,” he said.

He opened the door and let me in. I was floored. It was by far the most amazing place my eyes had ever laid sight on. It was better to look at than a lottery ticket or an all-you-can-eat ice cream buffet coupon (not that I have seen one of those before). My jaw hit the floor, not literally, but it might as well have!!! Well, now I’m keeping you in suspense, so you really want to know what it looks like don’t you? Okay, okay I will tell you.

The walls were painted a wonderstruck shade of gold, and the floors were covered in a velvet carpet with yellow on the edges. There was a desk in the middle of the room, with two large windows on each side, pouring light into the dark room. Then there were the shelves. There were shelves. Lots and lots and lots of shelves. They carried books and games and toys, they held marvelous things that lured you in, wanting to touch them so badly. I looked at the desk, and peering down at me was the queerest woman I’ve ever seen. She was tall, with red hair on one side and blue on the other. She kept them each parted down her slim shoulders, like she didn’t want them to mix. She wore the glasses that you see librarians wearing, hanging from a chain on her ears. She wore dreamcatcher earrings, and her face was wrinkled up like she just sucked on a rotten lemon. I thought, Hey, she looks just like a bulldog, but of course I didn’t say that to her face, because she looked pretty scary, and I was afraid to make her angry so she didn’t blast me to ashes.

“Who are you?” she asked.

I didn’t hesitate to say my name.

“Vera Rihcardson, with an H before the C.”

“And do you know, Vera, why you are in the land Paradise?”

“Ummm, no,” I responded.

“You are here because you have been having dreams, Ms. Rihcardson. Very lively dreams. And, as you might know, I feed on human dreams. If I notice that you have started to have very juicy, very, very scary dreams, I send for you here. As your time here grows, you will turn into a monster, like these.” She pointed to the monsters outside. I shuddered. “To have the dreams you dream, my dear, is very unnatural. And so I bring you here, to the land of nightmares. To the land we call Paradise. And so all of your soon to be equals outside are all, I guess Stranded in Paradise.”

I gaped. I didn’t actually think that I was here for a reason. I thought that there was a mistake. I was dumbfounded for the billionth time today. I looked at the wall behind the desk. To my suprise, there was a giant dreamcatcher hanging on the wall. As I looked closer, I noticed that it was the exact same dream catcher as the earrings the High Queen wore.

Huh, I thought. I wonder what happens when I touch it. I ignored all of the High Queen’s yammering, and I started to walk over to the dreamcatcher, my hand stretched out in front of me. Something was pulling me towards it.

Don’t touch that!!!” she screeched. I jumped back in surprise. She smoothed her skirt and adjusted her glasses. “Sorry about that. Just do not touch that dreamcatcher!!!

I cowered in fear. But of course, as soon as she told me not to touch it, all I wanted to do was touch it. We just stared at each other for ten minutes. The door opened, and Mr. Lennox stepped inside.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, your majesty, but there has been a plumbing problem, and you are the only person who knows the plumber’s phone number — ”

“And the kingdom needs me, I know,” she cut Mr. Lennox off. She started to turn around and then faced me again. “And you, Vera Rihcardson, do not move a muscle, or there will be consequences.”

I nodded my head and stayed where I was. The High Queen turned around and headed out the door. The door slammed behind me, and I turned around. I walked inch by inch slowly getting closer and closer to that marvelous dreamcatcher. It had a dark wood outline with holes everywhere and rainbow string coming from all the holes, tied in the middle with a bow. Red ribbon hung from all the sides and tied together in a knot. It was hung on the wall by a simple red hook. I couldn’t help myself. I touched it.

The Ending of the Story You Are Reading Right Now

The world started spinning. I saw blurs of the castle falling apart and coming back together again. Spinning. Spinning. Spinning. I was getting dizzier and dizzier and dizzier and dizzier. And then it all stopped, and I was right where I was in my bed, laying there, panting. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. My dream was so… vivid. So real. I got out of bed, but I heard the High Queen yelling in anger when I brushed my teeth.

The End


I Am Not Friends With My Nose Anymore

I am not friends with my nose anymore

We used to be the best of friends

We’d play for hours in the park

Then I would go to school

But I would take my nose with me

And then he would show me

Smelling things

Just the two of us

But then

Winter came

No more park

I was sad

At least I had school

He didn’t like the cold either

Then he turned all red

I would rub him

But it would only hurt more

Then no more school

A little bit later I stopped being friends with him

Then my nose stopped letting me smell

No more anything

In about two weeks my nose gave me a lesson

It started to bleed

We couldn’t fix it

My nose wouldn’t stop

He was being a meanie

Then we went to the hospital

They gave me something round and green to swallow

It didn’t really help

More and more blood

Then my parents were whispering to the people in the white suits

Then I suddenly felt really sleepy

When I woke

And now we’re not friends anymore


Allergens

I had to get out of the space. There was a faint smell of Goldfish and Fig Newtons, and it was warm. The hives were starting, and I couldn’t resist itching them. Although the hives seemed to always be there, I hadn’t gotten used to them. Besides, I usually had the goggles. They didn’t eliminate the allergens completely from my body, but they certainly helped. I lay down on the rug in a hopeless attempt to get away from the allergens, but they were everywhere. The rug smelled like mango bubble tea, probably from a spill the day earlier. I needed out, but was trapped. I asked myself for the billionth time: what the heck am I doing here? I thought I could stay here to hide from the allergens, but it did not work. In fact, it epically failed. But I had to do this for Batina. Batina, my beautiful best friend.

Batina was like me. She was the only one that got it. The allergens everywhere. The weird looks we got when walking down the street. We met here, and I had to be here. I knew she wouldn’t come back, but I needed to try. Her death had scared me. Her death was because of the allergens. No one on earth has the same condition, but I’m scared I won’t be able to keep my secret any longer. If I get discovered, I’ll become something like a display case and scientific wonder. By the way, that’s not a good thing. But if I just look like a moron who wears funky goggles in the summer, no scientist is going to put me on a lab table.

Anyways. I survive. But I admit it’s extremely annoying. Humans are obsessed with the allergens. They wear them all over their body, but only Batina and I seemed to care. Only Batina. We used to buy each other packs of goggles every year for New Years.

We were the best of any friends, more similar and different than any other friends. The allergens ruin my life, but I admit, they led me to what keeps me alive. Kept me alive. Emphasis on kept. When Batina died, I’m ashamed to say that I did not attend her funeral. She wouldn’t have wanted me to anyway.

The allergens were getting stronger. I could feel them crawling on my skin like grubs. I shuddered, thinking of The Bug Incident. Let’s just say it involved bugs crawling on me. I’ll leave it at that.

People sometimes ask my favorite hobby. Actually, that’s not true. I’m extremely antisocial, so no one asks me anything. But… my favorite hobby is reading. There are no allergens. Wait. No. There are mentions of the allergens, which causes my throat to itch, but there aren’t actual allergens.

But sometimes I think I see Batina in the distance, but of course, it’s not her. I really hope that, wherever she is, in whatever dimension, she can be around the allergens. The colors.


My Sacred Friend

Chapter One: The Real Stuff

One morning, I, George Lonerfin, my older brother, Hugo Lonerfin, and my friend, Gande Hulkin, were playing at our HQ, which is in an abandoned house near the theater on 1387th st. in Alabama in an imaginary dimension. It’s outside the solar system, which is in my fiction story from my elementary school called, “Space Bananas.”

“Hey, who wants to know the secret of this abandoned house?” Hugo said, holding a flashlight under his chin. He knows that that scares me and Gande. Even though we were scared, we nodded.

“Listen up, boys, because I’m only going to tell you this once,” Hugo said.

He knows that we hate being called boys, because that’s the worst name to be called by, but he got away when we tried to hit him last time, so we got closer like he wanted to. I think.

“In this abandoned house, there lived a scientist. He made technology and tried to invent things that helped the world, and they all failed, and when I mean all of his inventions failed, I mean all of them. Rumor has it that one night, on 2/2/2222 at 2:22, one of his inventions was a success.”

At first I thought this was a normal, non-scary story, but then I thought about two things that made no sense at all. First of all, it was 2019, and the house says it was from 1375, and second, that’s a little weird. They all have 2s! I tried to talk over him, but it was no use.

“He made an ogre. An ogre that can eat your soul!!!” Hugo said. He raised his eyebrows under the flashlight that made him look scary under the flashlight. Well, I thought it was scary, but Gande looked satisfied.

“Well, it’s a rumor. It’s not like anyone would believe in those stupid rumors,” Hugo said so casually, but all of a sudden, there was a swift wind in the room.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw a glimpse of a green, war-prepared monster! Then we saw it. The green, war-prepared monster was an ogre! He must have been from the story! He must have heard Hugo saying that ogres weren’t real!

“How dare you say ogre not real?! You die for saying nonsense!! I’m not just an ogre! I’m an ogre spirit!!!” the ogre said.

When I heard about spirits, my head got dizzy. My eyes got blurry, and then I passed out. Then all I could see was darkness. When I opened my eyes 30 seconds later, I was in the hospital.


Chapter Two: One More

When I was at the hospital, I was on a squishy bed and those cool pillows which are so huge. I really wanted to see who was around me, but I just sank into the huge pillow and all I could see was a mix of black and white. But it’s okay, because I heard them.

“What happened at your so-called-hideout?!” I heard Mom say. I think that she was screaming at Hugo.

“Why are you saying that I did it?! Look, it’s not my fault that an ogre came into our hideout! Well, like you say that so-called-hideout, which we do have. It’s in the abandoned house that’s near the theater! Remember? We took you there for our show and tell, right?” Hugo whined.

I remembered that show and tell, and I don’t want to take fatty Joe, big fat Bill, and big Stanley to the house anymore. How much do they weigh?! Joe, Bill, and Stanley are the top three fattest people in the school! And the weird thing that’s impossible is we’re the youngest grade. They’re eight grades older than Joe, Bill, and Stanley, but Joe, Bill, and Stanley are heavier than each and every kid! And I have never seen them eat junk food. That was until they went to our hideout and went to the junk food section. Next day, they came to school saying to people that they finally had diabetes. I was surprised about two things. One: they didn’t have diabetes until that day. Two: they were happy that they had diabetes. Back to the story.

“You mean that wretched place where those three fat boys were also there? The day after that, I got a scolding from all of the boys’ parents. Back to this scolding.”

Wow. Just, wow. I can’t believe that Mom just said that to her own son! She would never scold me like that! Now we know who’s Mom’s favorite, I thought in my head with no guilt at all. I was smiling like crazy, and no one even noticed. Fake sleeping has a lot of upsides.

“I don’t care what kind of excuses you have, but we will not tolerate with your excuses with an ogre!” I heard Mom screaming.

So the ogre was real. I wasn’t dreaming at that part.

“You are grounded for making your brother pass out no matter what excuse you have, young man!” Mom screamed.

I decided to “wake up.” I twisted my head, and fortunately it looked like I was waking up. I owe one to the acting class that Mom forced me to take. I felt bad for calling it a piece of cake though. Then I saw Hugo getting angrier and angrier and getting hairier and hairier turning into a car-sized ogre. I don’t know how it happened, but it turned out horrible. He wrecked the machine that turns your bed up and down. Then the ogre saw me with his bloody, green eyes. I freaked out, sweat dripping down my face. The ogre who’s supposed to be my brother, stomped his feet so hard that everywhere he stomped, the floor cracked. He looked at me freakishly and grabbed me by the shirt.

I am going to die!!! I thought with horror.

Then all of a sudden, the crack in my head was now fine! He let go of me and then became human. He wasn’t awake though. He was actually thinking of his girlfriend, Liz.

“Liz… will… you… ” Hugo moaned. I didn’t want to hear the rest. Then all of a sudden,  Mom, Dad, and all the nurses and doctors dashed in through the door.

Oh my God. I’m glad you’re safe!!!” all the strangers and non-strangers screamed joyfully.

“Liz… let’s… marry… at… my… house… ” Hugo moaned.

His cheeks looked pinker than usual. Then he got my pillow, and you don’t want to know what happened next. All the people in the room either barfed, looked to the other side and went to the corner, or left the room and ran to see if other people got hurt. I still think that that’s just an excuse to leave this one room after what Hugo just said right now.

But why did he turn into an ogre?It makes no sense!! I thought. Then all of a sudden, he opened his eyes. I’ll tell him about the Liz thing later. But before I could even talk to him, Mom and Dad shoved me to the side and screamed at Hugo.

“What happened to you?!” Mom and Dad said.

“I don’t know, but I met Gande in my head. He said that I’ll give you the power to heal your brother. Of course, ‘cause he’s my friend. By the way, ogres are real, and they’ll come for people’s souls. We need to refresh anyways. Then he left out of my memory, and then I slept!” Hugo said.

I believe that’s true, and I need more details, but Mom and Dad interrupted when I was trying to talk to him.

Why were you tired?!” they said in unison.

Well, I guess, why was he tired is about to be answered.

“I don’t know, right after Gande left, I felt a poke in my head, and then I went sleepy. Anyways, what happened here?!” Hugo questioned after he answered our question.

The room was still full with blood and quarks and stuff. By the way, when I mean “quarks and stuff,” I mean bent doctor utensils, broken beds, and ripped up lab coat-like stuff. When all the doctors came in and saw the room, the doctors all fainted on the clear floor. They fainted for three days. Back to the story.

We went back to our house, and Mom, Dad, and Hugo had a huge conversation. I was stuck in my room doing homework.

“56 times 7, 42, carry the 4, 35, 35 plus 4, 39, 392. Next!!!” I speak when I do my work.

“45 minus 72, 72 minus 47, 25, minus 25, 34 times 675, 3 times 600, add the zero, 3 times 70, add the zero… add them all up… next.”

I think I slept. Then, I looked up. I was in a new dimension. I thought this is a dream. But it didn’t feel like a good dream…


Chapter Three: A Dream

I was walking in a pitch darkness. When I ended up in a wall, it had a sign. It was a wanted sign for a scientist. I took it just in case. It was for a guy named June. June was a boy who made all kinds of stuff. Then all of a sudden, I ended up somewhere else. It looked like a village. It seemed like a peaceful one.

“I’m telling you the truth!!!” I heard a boy say from a big crowd. When I turned around, I saw a boy who I thought that I would’ve seen here. It was Gande. Here he was, standing like a president. Like he was standing saying a speech.

“June, it’s 3,548,672,197. After that big explosion that blew up earth, we barely have any technology. All we have is this planet that the ogres gave us politely,” a villager said.

After I heard that news, I fell down. Strange thing is, I fell on a villager’s feet, but I went through his feet.

“AAAHHH!!!” I screamed. I screamed as loud as I could, but no one heard me.

Am I a ghost? Am I going to die? Am I dead? What do you mean by OGRES? What do you mean by earth exploding? What number is that? Is that a year?! I don’t know what’s going on?! I thought in my head while I also listened to mini future Gande.

“Please believe me. I know who the ogres really are. Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpa Gande’s journal told me.”

Mini-Gande had to grab onto his dad and left. I really wanted to know more, but I had to go in a library and search for more information. I watched in a movie that I forgot what it was called, always something something. I forgot. I knew that I had to search for more information about this place, so best place to look, the library. Normally, I hate going to the library and studying, but I had to. I walked around, but no library was found. I was actually kind of bummed that there was no library. I was stuck to a villager’s rusty ol’ shoe. Then all of a sudden, everyone around me and every place that was in my sight also vaporized, and then I ended up in that black pitch again. Now I know why Hugo called me a crybaby, and now I know that I still am. I was a crybaby then and a crybaby now and a crybaby then. Then out of nowhere, I appeared at my house again.


Chapter Four: Mysteries

What are you talking about?!” Hugo said to me while we were in our treehouse. Ever since that day, we weren’t allowed in that abandoned house anymore. Instead, we had to deal with the treehouse that had many dead rats. We got it last year, and Dad said that he wouldn’t touch it, Mom wouldn’t touch it, and none of us would touch it. We avoided it for a while, and it was there ever since. Back to the story.

“You had a dream about the future? Why isn’t your dream seeing your nephew?” Hugo replied. I think he’s still thinking that Liz agreed to marry him. I had to say that he was wrong, but that’s not the important part. I told Hugo everything. And when I mean everything, I said everything. I told him about the wanted June poster, the town, and all about Gande.

“Well, I still think that you should start having dreams about you being an uncle, but I still don’t really believe you. Sorry.”

I couldn’t believe that out of all these people, my own brother, who became a ogre, wouldn’t believe me! I thought that he was the only person who would believe me.

“Then why did you turn into an ogre, huh?” I complained back. I knew it was bad to complain to people who are older than you, but I got permission from destiny this time.

“I don’t know! Okay? I don’t know everything!”

“Oh no you don’t,” said a voice from afar. (When I say afar, I mean eight feet away.) Then, when we looked at who it was, it was Gande, wearing his midnight robe. His midnight robe had full moons all over them. He knotted it in a double knot, like he always did. He must have been in his meditation class. I really know everything about Gande. Well, I thought I knew everything. Turns out not…

“What do you want?“ I asked. Then I was scared at what Gande was going to say, and I knew it was going to be scary, and it was.

“I want my best, successful invention back,” he said.

What are you talking about?!” I screamed. The wind was coming all at once. Then I couldn’t hear him, but I knew what he said. Those words pierced my heart so badly.

He said, “I want your brother, the ogre, back.”

Then all of a sudden, Gande was gone.

“Why was he here?” Hugo asked me.

“I don’t know. But I think we’re going to go through a lot this year.”


Chapter Five: Lost

I was now pretty much scared of Gande now. The next day at school, I tried to avoid Gande as much as I could. I couldn’t imagine that nice Gande being so mean! I know that he was on the wanted poster, but I didn’t know what he did! Did he do something wrong? Did he do something so horrible? I didn’t know! Today was going to be hard avoiding Gande, because we were reading buddies, writing buddies, math buddies, science buddies, and social studies buddies!

“Gande? Do you remember, uh, I don’t know, that time you came into my house last night and told me that you really wanted my brother because he’s the ogre and a swift wind came and then all of a sudden you were gone?” I asked, with my lungs out of breath.

“What are you talking about?” Gande said like he had no clue at all.

What is going on?! How can he not remember what he did to us last night?! As a matter of fact, how is it possible?!

“You don’t remember last night?” I said, trying to be calm. Unfortunately, my face blew my cover. I should have got into that lying class that Hugo recommended for me. It was a lesson that Hugo and his friend Mason made up. I was such a good kid. Back to the story.

“What happened last night, George? Did you have a bad dream?” Gande asked me. A bad dream?! No way that was a dream.

“I have to tell you something,” I said. It seemed like Gande was listening to me. When I tried to open my mouth to say a word, someone pushed me into the school president, Emily. She was the strictest president in the world. The person who pushed me was Andrew, a person who had a crush on the school president. If you want me to say this lovey dovey-like, I’ll do it.

Lovey dovey mode: on.

We fell to the floor with quite a fall. Our eyes met, and our lips touched. We were all shocked, especially Andrew, but we didn’t care. We lost track of time, and the teacher came in.

Lovey dovey mode: off.

Basically meaning, we kissed. Andrew was jealous, and the teacher came in. Emily pushed me away, ran away, and it looked like she was blushing. I got in trouble by Andrew and Emily, but mostly, Andrew was screaming at my face, and Emily was punching me lightly, but the more she punched me, the more Andrew got jealous and yelled at me. That took a whole day. I got detention, and Emily always looked away whenever I tried to talk to her. Andrew always tried to pick a fight with me, but because of that, he got 45 detention slips.

When this was all finally over, I told Gande to come to my house. Gande said that he would, but he had to bring Mila and Samantha. Mila was their dog, and Samantha his sister. And that was not all his family members. There were still his three older sisters, Ava, Amila, and Sivan, his two other younger sisters, Milan and Tammy, his two older brothers, Nicholas and Nathaniel, and his four younger brothers, Christ, Alex, Bob, and John, and he had five dogs, including Mila, two cats, three hamsters, four birds, and two gorillas. His parents were veterinarians, and sometimes they had to take the animals home. Their house was big, and they did need a big house. He had 30 family members, including the animals and him. The older brothers and sisters were all married, had babies, were pregnant, or in college. Must have been hard for Mr. and Ms. Hulkin to have 14 kids and 16 animals to deal with. They always had to pay for all the food, and they always made the food on their own. They made their own dog food, cat food, all kinds of food! Gande had a lot of babysitters. It was crazy. I wondered what harm he did to his family if he had this power… especially Nicholas. He bullied Gande for his whole life. And everybody had teased him once in a while, but the thing about Gande was that he didn’t know what the difference between a joke and the truth was. Oh boy… Back to the story.


Chapter Six: Track Team

Gande did bring Mila and Samantha, and Liz was here. Before Gande, Mila, and Samantha came, I told Hugo about the confession thing. He was crying in his room for 30 minutes when he heard that he couldn’t have his nephew. He said that it was a waste of time and life. He said that he was wondering why he was first in our beach house, and then we were in a hospital, but just not quite the right hospital. Then he came out when I said that I would try to invite Liz over.

I did invite Liz over when I said. She popped up, closed her computer, ignored all her phone calls, and then told me to get my butt up and start walking. (My butt was already up though).

We walked to my house. It was actually pretty quiet and pretty normal. The only thing that wasn’t normal was that her ex-boyfriend came and said that he wanted to make up. He was a pretty cool guy. That’s what I thought until he pushed me away and walked away with Liz. Geez. But then she pushed him away, pulled me back up, then grabbed my hand and ran away. I felt like a teddy bear blowing away by the wind. It was weird.

Thirty seconds after, we were at my house. I was actually surprised because our house was one mile away from where she was. My arm felt like it was dislocated after Liz ran. I wanted to have credit for some running, but it was impossible to stop Liz running away from her ex. I told Liz that she could be on the track team, and surprisingly, she took the advice.

When Hugo came to the door, he saw Liz, and he invited her to his room. They were all lovey dovey like they always were. I felt bad for the ex.

Gande was already at the treehouse. Mila and Samantha were playing in my room. Hugo said that he let them touch my skyscraper model that I worked one year on. I told Hugo why in the world he would do such a thing to me. But that wasn’t important to me. All I was worried about was Gande.


Chapter Seven: Panic, Run, Dream?

When I came to the treehouse, Gande was still fine. When I got up to the treehouse, he was looking around like he was trying to find something. When he was done looking around, he grabbed on to my shoulders and said,

“ListenverycloselysomethingiscomingforyouandthebookthatyouhaveIneedyoutorunfarawaywithallyour — ”

I told him to calm down. He took a deep breath and just grabbed a piece of paper from my homework and grabbed my lucky pencil from my lucky notebook. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to get something from my lucky notebook or lucky pencil. They’re the reason why I got a 100% on my test. Gande wrote a lot down. He was a fast writer, but he was writing faster than ever.

Then he handed the piece of paper over to me, and when I thought I wanted to run away, I was running as fast as Liz could run. Then out from the bushes behind me, the ogre was chasing me. I tripped over a rock and I fell. My knee was bleeding. It felt like this life was going to be over as soon as I was about to be eaten, then I tried to think of all the positive thoughts. Then when I wished that I wanted to die, I closed my eyes, trembled, and suddenly, the next thing I knew I was in my bed. It felt like nothing happened. Same bed, same Rolling Stones poster, same old bedroom that I always had since the Gande incident. Then I finally noticed that it was just a freaky nightmare. I noticed the time. 10:54 AM!!! School started 2 hours and 34 minutes ago!!! I ran over to the door with my pajamas, and I just went to school. Then I found out. It was a Sunday!!

I ran back to the house. At the dining room, Hugo called me a stupid little dummy. I stuffed my sandwich into my mouth.

My mom asked me in shock, “What kind of dream makes you wake up at 10:54 in the morning???

“A weird dream,” I replied, and the strangest thing is, I never had that dream again.


Winter and Scott

Chapter One: The Beginning

“I still can’t believe you two got the best-looking girls in the year,” muttered Seamus as the boys left the dorms.

“Don’t be jealous, Seamus,” Charlie said, catching James’s eye. James couldn’t blame Seamus, because he was going with Lila Brown, who was not very, ummm, attractive?

Sylvia Winter, James’s date, was very pretty and very popular. Charlie was going with Sophia Smith, who was also very pretty, and smart. Sophia, Sylvia, Lila, and Katie Chiu, who was Harry’s date, were waiting at the foot of the staircase leading up to the boy’s dorms.

“Hey, Harry. Hi, Charlie. Hi, Seamus. Hi, James,” Katie said when she spotted them.

“Hi, Katie,” said Harry. “Hi, Sophia. Hi, Lila. Hi, Sylvia,” Harry said, returning a smile to Katie.

“Shall we go then?” asked Sylvia awkwardly.

“Yes, alright,” replied James, taking Sylvia swiftly by the arm and leading her towards the Entrance Hall.


Chapter Two: The Fall Dance

The Entrance Hall, when they arrived, was filled with couples, all waiting for the music to begin. The Entrance Hall looked great for the fact that it was almost always covered with a coat of baby blue paint. There were rather large oak leaves hanging on the ceiling in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, brown, and red. There were pumpkins and apples piled in the corners and against the walls, and to top it all off, there was a large banner designed with pumpkins, acorns, and apples and the words Fall Dance on it.

When the doors opened, Professor Blume was standing in the doorway,

“The Fall Dance is now open. You may enter,” said Professor Blume wearily. “Mister Scott, a moment if you will, please.”

“Go on, Sylvia, I’ll be there in a moment,” James told Sylvia.

Turning back to Professor Blume, James’s mind started racing. What did Professor Blume want with him? Sure, he hadn’t handed in his Care for Magical Creatures homework two weeks in a row, and it was the subject Professor Blume taught. Or was it about the argument he had with Peter Paterson the day before, where he had accidentally hexed Peter.

“Mister Scott,” said Professor Blume. “The headmistress has ordered me to give you this.” She handed him a neatly rolled piece of parchment.

James unrolled the parchment and read it:

Mister Scott,

It has come to my attention that the sister of Miss Sylvia Winter has recently been taken ill by the deadly disease of Dragon Poxs. Mr. and Mrs. Winter would like to come and pick Sylvia up to visit Ms. Sadie Winter at the Mooniago Medical Center for Magical injuries, and have asked me to ask you, Mr. Scott, if you would like to join them. Please send me your cat with your answer.

Sincerely, Professor Pythonia

James’s stomach tied itself into a hard knot at the pit of his stomach.

Why hadn’t Sylvia told him? She had been his girlfriend for two years and seven months, and she trusted him… or at least he thought so.


Chapter Three: James’s Question

Professor Pythonia,

The answer to your question: please tell Mr. and Mrs. Winter that I would like to go with them to visit Sadie at Mooniago’s. But before that, could I ask something? Why is it that Sylvia never told me about Sadie’s Dragon Pox? Surely she trusts me, right?

Sincerely, James Scott

James reread the letter, then rolled up the parchment and sealed it. He tied it to Whisker’s black, slim torso.

“Go, Whisker,” he muttered to his cat. “I’ll be here.”

James collapsed into an armchair, thinking about Sylvia.

Normally, he would never, ever ask a professor about Sylvia or his personal feelings or problems. But Professor Pythonia was different. She was James’s mum’s best friend when they were in school. So, Padme Pythonia was basically his aunt.

Whiskers returned a half hour later, a new piece of parchment tied neatly to her back.

My Dearest James,

Sylvia knows you well enough to trust you. But do you know her enough to trust her? Ponder the question, my dear. Send Whiskers along if you’ve got any questions, James.

Sincerely, Aunt Padme

Chapter Four: Dragons

When Eva and Eric Winter arrived a week later, James had his black duffle bag packed and Whisker was napping in her woven traveling basket. He put on his navy blue traveling cloak and walked out into the cool courtyard to find Sylvia, in her sky blue traveling cloak, sitting on the Winter’s Diamond-light dragon, Loche. She had her cat, Scotty, napping on her lap.

“Hello, James!” said Mrs.Winter. “You can sit next to Sylvia, dear.”

James walked over to the far end of the courtyard where Loche was sitting.

He climbed onto Loche, sat next to Sylvia, and scratched Scotty behind his ear. Sylvia looked out onto the lake and slipped a small piece of parchment into James’s duffle bag, before he could notice.

Chapter Five: Sylvia’s Note

When they arrived at the west wing of Mooniago’s Medical Center, where the families of patients stayed, the witch at the front desk greeted them and showed them to their rooms.

James would be sharing a room with Sylvia, and Eva Winter would be sharing with Eric Winter.

When James started to unpack, a small piece of parchment fell out of his duffle and onto the carpet. James read it:

My Dearest James,

I’m sorry I’ve been a bit… off lately. You see, Lila’s older sister, Lulu Brown, she works with Dragons. And the Dragons, well, they went a bit mad and they… killed her. They slashed her across her chest. I promised Lila you would be at Lulu’s funeral. I hope you’re not angry.

Love you always, Sylvia Winter

James glanced over at Sylvia. She was sitting on her bed, tears streaming silently down her face.

“It’s okay, Sylvi, it’s okay,” James cooed. Sylvia looked up at James.

“You’re coming?” Sylvia asked. James sat down next to her,

“Of course, Sylvi,” James whispered. “Always.”


Chapter Six: Mooniago’s

The following morning, James awoke early, dressed, and tapped Sylvia softly.

“Wake up, Sylvi,” James whispered. “It’s time.”

Sylvia stirred, opened her brilliantly blue eyes sleepily, and snuggled closer to James, resting her head on his lap

They headed down to breakfast ten minutes later, meeting Mr. and Mrs. Winter as they went.

After breakfast, they fastened their cloaks and headed towards the east wing, where Sadie lay, half dead, and infested with Dragon Pox.

“Hi, Mum. Hi, Sylvi,” said Sadie weakly. “Hi, Dad.”

“Oh, Sadie,” Mrs.Winter, tears pouring down her flushed face.


Chapter Seven: Sadie’s Fate

They left for lunch when Sadie had dozed off three hours later.

“Mum?” asked Sylvia, as they headed back to the west wing, where they would have lunch and then head back to the east wing.

“Yes, dear,” Mrs. Winter responded, dabbing her sooty-gray eyes with a tissue.

“Sadie will be alright, won’t she?” Sylvia asked, every ounce of her hoping her older sister would be cured.

“Of course she will,” replied Mr. Winter, his face white with blotchy red spots. “We’re in a hospital, remember?”

***

When they returned to the east wing, Nurse Suki greeted them sadly.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Winter,” said Nurse Suki. “We couldn’t save her.”

No!” shouted Sylvia, tears pouring down her red cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Sylvi,” James whispered, as he pulled her into his arms, trying to comfort in any way he could.

Chapter Eight: The Return

Sylvia, James, and Mr. and Mrs. Winter headed back to school the next day, after a great deal of tears, tissues, white and blotchy faces, and more sobbing.

When Loche landed softly on the green grass just beyond the courtyard, Professor Pythonia, Charlie, Seamus, Harry, Lila, Sophia, and Katie were all rushing across the courtyard towards them.

“Well?” asked Charlie, when James slid off Loche and onto the ground.

“Guess,” James replied, cocking his head at Sylvia, who was in tears again and being comforted by her friends and Mrs. Winter. James had a strong urge to run over and hug her, but he resisted.

“Dead?” Charlie guessed. James winced and nodded slightly, eying Sylvia, who was hugging Lila.


Chapter Nine: Two Funerals

A few months later, once the grief had blown over the Winters and the Browns, two funerals were scheduled. One for Sadie Winter, the other for Lulu Brown.

“You okay?” James asked Sylvia quietly, as they took their seats.

“Y-yeah,” Sylvia said, her face white and blotchy again.

“You sure?” Sylvia sighed loudly.

“Yes.”

The funeral ceremony lasted forever, and it looked as if it was torture for Sylvia and Lila. The graves were dug on the edge of the woods surrounding the courtyard, where two headstones were placed.

Sadie Winter

1972-1991

Beloved daughter, sister, and student

Lulu Brown

1973-1991

Beloved sister, student, dragon trainer, and daughter

“C’mon Sylvia, I want to show you something,” James said, taking Sylvia by the hand and strolling down to the lake’s edge.

“Sit,” he said, patting the ground beside him. Ten minutes passed in silence.

“This,” said James, “is what I do when I leave dinner early.” He gestured towards the lake in front of him and the beautiful sunset reflecting on the water.

“Wow,” murmured Sylvia softly.

“Sunsets,” whispered James, “always make me feel good.”

“I agree,” Sylvia whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes, imagining what it would be like to have Sadie standing on her other side.


Missile Tensions with North Korea

Most of the United States have heard about the recent tensions with North Korea on the subject of missiles. Most recently the meeting between the American president and the dictator of North Korea. America and North Korea has had a long history of relations together and none of the talks turned out well for the U.S. and while North Korea enjoyed lessened sanctions while still making missiles. The original tensions came about because of the Korean war in which North Korea backed by China invaded South Korea because it was a communist country and it wanted to spread communism. Then America intervened because it was very scared of the spread of communism and pushed the combined  forces of North Korea and China back into North Korea where a cease fire was made at the 49th parallel. So ever since North Korea lost they wanted missiles to defend themselves most recently they used missiles so the president had a meeting with the dictator of North Korea. Nothing will come of the recent meeting between our president and the dictator of North Korea.

There have been 3 main deals with North Korea. These deals were about maintaining world peace  in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea The first happened in 1994 it was a very wide agreement it was called the Agreed Framework. This said that North Korea will freeze its nuclear program then dismantle it inreturn for oil and nuclear power that cannot be used to make bombs. This means that the places that could be hit by North Korea’s bombs were safe. Then a little time after that, as the NY times says, “At the end of 2002, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, restarted its nuclear facilities and announced it was withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. The Agreed Framework was dead.” This meant that North Korea was going to start testing missiles again. This meant that North Korea betrayed its agreement which means that they cannot be trusted for further deals.With the Bush administration the negotiations happened with six countries and they made a  deal with North Korea but it was never vitrified. The final deal before the current one was in return for food aid North Korea will dismantle its nuclear program. That deal fell apart too so there is a large risk that the current one will fall apart.

The recent Meeting between Kim Jong un and Donald trump was heralded a historic event  because it was the first meeting between two leaders of the united states and North Korea and was supposed to unfreeze the relations on the korean peninsula. Many promises were made this time but they were very broad and unclear especially on  the american side.This shows that the treaty might not be up to standing with all the promises. A very broad promise on the korean side is the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. This is a very large promise that will not work because North Korea has many missile facilities and last time it promised this it did not carry through on its promise. Another promise is that  America will provide “very good”economic opportunities in the words of president trump to North Korea. This shows that since the promises are so broad they might be hard to follow through on. This shows that it is very hard to follow through on broad promises.

Many things are expected from the Trump Kim summit but the best that the United States can hope for is Korea joining the nuclear countries and allowing nuclear inspectors in to the country For the U.S. To have safety North Korea must agree to the nuclear treaty. One other thing that was proposed in the summit it North Korea  is a modern North Korea with beach resort hotels and more. This though is unlikely to happen if economic sanctions do not lift Donald trump specified that economic sanctions will not lift unless north Korea gets rid of its nuclear missiles. So this vision is also very unlikely.so the most that the United states and korea can hope for is North korea becoming a safe nuclear nation.

This essay gave a plethora of information about the North Korean missile crisis but what does it mean, why is it important?  The North Korean missile crisis is important because the people of the united states need to be prepared and be ready as to not start world war 3. One way the united states can avoid this is by starting diplomatic relations and accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. Also the people of the world need to be ready to step in and prevent conflict.


Missile Tensions with North Korea

Most of the United States has heard about the recent tensions with North Korea on the subject of missiles. Most recently the meeting between the American president and the dictator of North Korea. America and North Korea have had a long history of relations together and none of the talks turned out well for the U.S. and while North Korea enjoyed lessened sanctions while still making missiles. The original tensions came about because of the Korean war in which North Korea backed by China invaded South Korea because it was a communist country and it wanted to spread communism. Then America intervened because it was very scared at the spread of communism and pushed the combined forces of North Korea and China back into North Korea where a cease fire was made at the 49th parallel. So ever since North Korea lost they wanted missiles to defend themselves most recently they used missiles so the president had a meeting with the dictator of North Korea. Nothing will come of the recent meeting between our president and the dictator of North Korea.

There have been three main deals with North Korea. These deals were about maintaining world peace in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea The first happened in 1994 it was a very wide agreement it was called the Agreed Framework. This said that North Korea will freeze its nuclear program then dismantle it inreturn for oil and nuclear power that cannot be used to make bombs. This means that the places that could be hit by North Korea’s bombs were safe. Then a little time after that as the NY Times says, “At the end of 2002, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, restarted its nuclear facilities and announced it was withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. The Agreed Framework was dead.” This meant that North Korea was going to start testing missiles again. This meant that North Korea betrayed its agreement which means that they cannot be trusted for further deals.With the Bush administration the negotiations happened with six countries and they made a deal with North Korea but it was never vitrified. The final deal before the current one was in return for food aid North Korea will dismantle its nuclear program. That deal fell apart too so there is a large risk that the current one will fall apart.

The recent meeting between Kim Jong-un and Donald trump was heralded a historic event because it was the first meeting between two leaders of the United States and North Korea and was supposed to unfreeze the relations on the Korean peninsula. Many promises were made this time but they were very broad and unclear especially on the American side.This shows that the treaty might not be up to standing with all the promises. A very broad promise on the Korean side is the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This is a very large promise that will not work because North Korea has many missile facilities and last time it promised this it did not carry through on its promise. Another promise is that America will provide “very good” economic opportunities in the words of president trump to North Korea. This shows that since the promises are so broad they might be hard to follow through on. This shows that it is very hard to follow through on broad promises.

Many things are expected from the Trump Kim summit but the best that the United States can hope for is Korea joining the nuclear countries and allowing nuclear inspectors in to the country For the U.S. To have safety North Korea must agree to the nuclear treaty. One other thing that was proposed in the summit it North Korea is a modern North Korea with beach resort hotels and more. This though is unlikely to happen if economic sanctions do not lift Donald trump specified that economic sanctions will not lift unless north Korea gets rid of its nuclear missiles. So this vision is also very unlikely.so the most that the United States and Korea can hope for is North korea becoming a safe nuclear nation.

This essay gave a plethora of information about the North Korean missile crisis but what does it mean, why is it important? The North Korean missile crisis is important because the people of the United States need to be prepared and be ready as to not start World War 3. One way the United States can avoid this is by starting diplomatic relations and accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. Also the people of the world need to be ready to step in and prevent conflict.


“Good” Schools

For a developed country, American schools — higher-tier ones included — are surprisingly lacking in many different categories, from student admissions to their ineffectual “learning” processes that make it largely ineffective. This directly affects our standing as a nation, as while we head into the future and literacy rates are expected to increase, statistics in this area for the United States stall and even decrease, allowing that of our European and Asian counterparts to put us to shame. In spite of these facts, it can be speculated that the country is in no position to better its school system due to the nation facing political meltdown and there being too many steps toward achieving this goal that cannot currently be taken until they are prioritized by the government (which may never happen). But until then, the vast majority of American schools will continue to suffer.

American schools are far from adequate. The topic has received ample recognition, but little is being done to solve the issue at hand. My school is for the talented and gifted (in fact, that’s even its name). It’s one of a handful of its kind in the state of New York and is currently rated ninth place for middle school. And the reasons why its critical acclaim may be largely undeserved? The answer to that question originates from a matter of the students: Stemming from the issue of the students is the work they are tasked to complete.

In the nineteenth century, the nation’s youth had been expected only to pursue careers in factories, so that was what schools were tailored to prepare them for. If you go to any school in the United States today, you’ll be shocked by how effective this approach must have been, for dozens of students are crammed into rooms for eight hours at a time per day for five days a week (far too much time to be spending there, but that’s an entirely separate discussion). They are forbidden to move or speak amongst one another and only ever do anything when they are told to by their instructors.

Now, more jobs are available, a plenitude of which involve some degree of creative or critical thinking. Schools, on the other hand, do not encourage this sort of thought. I find it particularly ironic that a system intended to be centered around knowledge involves instead what can be identified as forced memorization —no wonder nearly seventy percent of American adults can only read and write at a fourth-grade level! Even major newspapers are written as a reading level no higher than eighth grade. We’ve fallen behind European schools, which are well-renowned, for the very flaw I’m detailing here. Impressive? I think not.

In Scandinavia, around three hours of homework is assigned to students per week (the amount of homework American teenagers are assigned in a day) and their grades are not entirely at the mercy of tests. But in the States? Let me tell you something:

Whether you pass or fail depends on tests. Whether you gain acceptance into a “good” school of your choosing is heavily reliant on test scores.

Basically, whether a student lives or dies depends on tests. Sad to say, but those words carry more truth than quite a lot of people will readily face. Students know this truth, though, and this stresses them out to immeasurable heights. They know that where they go in life will eventually come down to their schoolwork, but the immense amount of pressure this puts on them may cause them to do worse. But this is only what they’re told. As a matter of fact, many influential figures were barely even “C” students. John Lennon. Albert Einstein. Most notably, Winston Churchill, who many know to have failed classes. So why all the pressure? Why all the stress on “good” work?

Returning to anecdotal information, the school I attend is supposed to be one of the better ones, as I’ve said. But a common misconception is between a “good” school and one that is just demanding, the latter of which being a description fitting talented and gifted schools everywhere, while around ninety percent of what a student learns will not apply on any level to what they’ll go on to do in real life.

If you want an example, look no further than math class. Practice problems given to students are often written as word problems in what teachers may call “real world situations” to trick us into thinking we’ll actually need a fraction of what we’re taught. For instance:

Sarah has a science project concerning fluids. She requires 15 9/10 cups of orange juice, 7 3/13 cups of soda and 20 1⁄8 cups of water. How many cups of liquid does she need in all?

(The real answer is, Sarah doesn’t actually need to know. She just has to measure out the right amount of cups for each fluid, which is why we have measuring cups.)

Or in English class:

“When Sarah leaves her house to go outside, what does that symbolize?”

(Nothing at all. In real life we read to pass the time, not to overanalyze every little detail to unlock some “hidden meaning”. We won’t be entirely clueless as to the whole point of the book unless, of course, we’re not really reading.)

If, by any chance, we should need to know any of this information (which I don’t think we will, for obvious reasons), there is Google for that.

As for the topic of students: the entire academic method isn’t helping. You have one or two students who are struggling, a mass that are in a middle ground, and a few kids that have already mastered the material and thus have nothing to learn. Why are all these types of kids doing the same work? I can’t speak for other students, but my own teachers often say that they’re going to divide the class based on skill level so that nobody is confused or bored, but this never happens. Instead of trying to teach in a way where everyone can learn at a good pace in a way that works for them, teachers instead take the route of giving everyone work that is dumbed down to the point where everyone can understand it. But like this, nobody learns memorizes anything, whether it be useful information or not!

Summer vacation consistently appears to be the only way to shed all the mounting pressure of a school year long since past, right? HA! Psych! You’ll be so preoccupied with summer homework and the stress that your very first grades of the new school year will bring that the two months (may be less, may be more) that you have to relax will seem more like a single week of free time! And right after I began sixth grade (exactly following a week’s closure) guess what they do to us?

As if the regular state tests, which are infinitely more intimidating to a student than standard tests, weren’t enough, my school does preparations for the state tests, which isn’t effective either since they aren’t until April. There’s a test for ELA and another for math, each spanning two days. Though teachers constantly tell us that they don’t count for our grade, the preparation state tests can actually make the difference between being stranded with the same old boring, useless work and being stepped up to the next grade to be force fed slightly more complicated but equally useless information.

A student is permitted to opt out of being given the state test, but if they are to do so, they won’t have a grade to vouch for them if they are to apply to a “better” school. Basically, as stressful as it is, students are getting guilt-tripped into taking it anyway.

At this point, one may ask exactly how we can improve the American school system so that it’s actually effective (to some degree, at the very least). However, this is far easier said than done. The United States, as we all should know, is one of the largest countries in the world, and as such, ridiculously large amounts of government spending would be required in order to achieve a nationwide improvement, along with quite a bit of time for the legislative and executive branches to come together on a method of which to make this admittedly vague goal a reality (if they agree on it at all). Additionally, based on the current state of the country politically, it’s hard to say whether any attention whatsoever will be brought to the issue. Due to all of these factors, it’s speculated that little significant change regarding the school system will come about in future years, so maybe the real test is to see how long it takes for everyone else to recognize that the academic system is just digging itself deeper and deeper down into its own grave.


What is Sexism?

What is sexism? Is it when someone says “Boys can’t wear pink!!?” Is it when kids call girls bossy but they call boys captains or leaders? Or is it that girls get paid 20% less than men? These are all examples of sexism. Sexism is when people are discriminated against on the basis of sex. However, we don’t always realize that we are judging people on the basis of sex because of the very narrow gender roles in our current society; these gender roles are caused by the way we are socialized to think and act.

SELF CONFIDENCE

Girls are taught to be perfect, to make their lives a straight line, no excitement, and no grief… no mistakes. They’re taught to stay out of the mud and dress in beautiful clothes. They are told “You can do anything,” but they aren’t shown that. On the other hand, boys are taught to take risks, to let their lives be a roller-coaster. They are taught to roll in the mud and let their hair be a mess. In the Reshma Saujani TED talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection,” Reshma Saujani tells us: “An HP report found that men will apply for a job if they [meet] 60 percent of the qualifications, but women [will] apply only if they meet 100 percent of the qualifications.” This comes to show you that men are more self-confident and because of that, they are more willing to take a risk. However, many women lack this self-confidence and as a result, they are more afraid of rejection and they lose more opportunities than men. If we can teach girls from young ages that they are just as smart and powerful as boys, then they will be more self-confident and then the amazing ideas that women have would be recognized.

IS SHE BOSSY?

Why are women called bitchy or aggressive in the same situation in which men would be called captains or leaders? We are used to seeing a man give orders, and we don’t usually see women in a high position. All of our presidents have been men; 182 out of 190 heads of state are men, 87% of parliament are men, and in the nonprofit world at the top 80% are men. Because not many women are high up in the chain of command, we have prejudiced beliefs that lead us to think that a woman can’t give orders to a man, and that it is unreasonable for a woman to be chosen over a man for any job. However, over time and with more laws these prejudiced beliefs could change. If we were able to convince women that they are capable of doing everything a man can do, then our world would advance much faster in science, education, technology, and architecture: with more women — and therefore people — in different fields, new advancements and ideas would be made more frequently.

THE BEAUTY STANDARDS

Women do think about their careers, education, and general success, but outside pressure to follow certain beauty standards are oftentimes equally important. Male beauty standards don’t hold as much weight in a man’s life in comparison to the weight that female beauty standards hold in a woman’s life. These standards have to be challenged and changed. Because of these stereotypical beauty standards, women often feel forced to buy and use beauty products for their hair and makeup to leave the house, whereas men can easily put on a t-shirt and pants and go outside without being judged. However, if a woman walks outside without makeup they will be given comments like, “Are you feeling sick?” or, “You look tired today.” These are the kinds of comments that bring down a woman’s confidence, making them feel that it is necessary to wear and buy beauty products. These comments also prove how over time we have gotten so used to women wearing beauty products that it has turned into the default.

A CHANGE

What we watch, what we read, what we see, and what we hear affects what we think about certain groups of people. We are products of our environment. In the case of women, they are affected by all of these things to uphold certain standards regarding appearance, attitude, and demeanor. To change all of these stereotypes, parents have to be aware of their subconscious biases and educate their children outside of gender roles.

To challenge the beauty standards women have to stand up for themselves when they are given sexist comments. Women can also support each other to look and act in ways that they feel comfortable with. Once these changes are made, women won’t feel held back by the stereotypical gender roles, and our society as a whole can advance much faster.

9/11 A New York Tragedy

9/11 was a national tragedy, but it especially affected New Yorkers. 9/11 changed our way of living as Americans and as a world. However, to New Yorkers it was a very personal time and tragedy. 9/11 literally changed people’s lives mentally, physically and environmentally. The attacks changed New York’s finances and New Yorkers’ way of living forever. 9/11 was a world tragedy but also mostly affected New Yorkers concretely. The media rightfully focused on the victims but should have also focused on the survivors.

A lot of people that experienced 9/11 in New York City got sick both physically and mentally. 1,000s of people from NY are sick from the 9/11 reasons mentally and physically. There are a lot of sicknesses that are linked to the 9/11 attack such as cancer because of all the smoke. Many of the illnesses linked to the attacks were breathing and digestive diseases, cancer and PTSD. Also, there was an increase in mental problems because the attack and its effect paralyzed some people. Some people that worked at 9/11, who were there or even people who had friends or relatives worked there suffered from mental health disorders. Also there where kids near the towers like in Stuyvesant that got mental disorders. Some people even have terrible dreams which affects their sleep.

The people living near the towers got affected just as much as the towers. The buildings surrounding the towers got either on fire or destroyed when the towers fell. Many families had to wait for their houses to be rebuilt and some of them did not even get rebuilt and they had to find new houses. They were permanently displaced. Not commonly known, but students were also displaced and affected by the towers. Famous Stuyvesant High School experienced structural damage and students were displaced for half of the academic year, having to transfer temporarily to another schools building. The towers falling meant that the rest of the school year they would be crowded in this other building with students that they never meet. People don’t think about all the money that they spent making the memorial for 9/11 and rebuilding everything. Some people did not get any money from the government to rebuild their home and they did not get any money to even replace their belongings.

Many of the first responders and people who looked for their families were affected in their sleeping and eating habits. From an interview with Dennis Hanrahan, a first responder firefighter that was at the scene the day after 9/11 said: “I was in shock.” Hanrahan was in shock from the sight of the towers destruction They were searching in pockets of stairways hoping to find people alive. Every day they would get up at 7 am, go to 9/11, and search all day, they wouldn’t even stop to eat. The animals, like the dogs, had to work just as much as the humans had to work. The people would go 24/7, so a lot of them didn’t sleep. Some of them slept at the towers because either they where there late or they did not what to go home. Further, many of the first responders and people who looked for their families were affected in their sleeping and eating habits. People mostly look at all the people that died when they should be looking at all the people that survived.

The media portrayed 9/11 in a terrifying way, emphasizing the horror — and it was horrible. However, the survivors, their families and first responders, who are still dealing with the consequences of 9/11 — should be further highlighted as courageous heros today.

9/11 is not only a national tragedy but also a local one. It mostly realistically affected New Yorkers: their mental and emotional health, the New York economy and many friends and family from New York who were either killed or hurt. People should care about what happened because it might happen in another city. Many people in New York thought it would never happen. We should learn from this tragedy so that it never happens again.

A Lesson Learned for the World

What Happened

The Twin Towers were two of New York City’s most famous skyscrapers. The towers were built in 1973, and they were knocked down in 2001. They stood for 38 years. They stood where the two pools are today. They represent where the two towers were. They are two fountains. 2,996 people died at the Twin Towers. A terrorist group called Al-Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks. They do not like the United States. The group was led by Osama bin Laden. He was killed by a team of US Navy seals in 2011.

They also hit the side of the Pentagon because that was also a big landmark of the USA. Only 27 people died there, and it was fixable. You can go to Washington, D.C., and you can see it there. Also, a plane was coming from Newark Airport going to San Francisco, but it was hijacked, and that was going to go into the White House or the Capitol, but it took too long. Passengers attacked the hijackers, who crashed the plane in Shanksville. The crash killed 40 people, including the crew members. The Pentagon is the main office for the military, and if that got knocked down, then that could’ve been even bigger than the Twin Towers when they came down.

The Story

The first attack was from the same terrorist group (Al-Qaeda). Ramzi Yousef rented a van and parked it in the garage of the North Tower, and the van was filled with bombs. They hoped that it would blow up the South Tower, but it didn’t work. That attack happened in 1993. So, it took eight years for them to plan 9/11, which happened in 2001.

The Timeline

At 7:59 am on September 11, 2001, flight number 11 was going from Boston’s Logan Airport to Los Angeles. The reason why all of the flights were going to the west coast is because the more fuel that is used, the bigger the fire. Flight 175, coming from Boston’s Logan Airport, was also going to Los Angeles. Another flight, number 77, was leaving from Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport and going to Los Angeles. Finally, at 8:41 am, Flight 93 took off, coming from New York’s Newark Airport going to San Francisco. Five minutes later, at 8:46 am, Flight 11 smashed into the North Tower. Then 17 minutes later, at 9:03 am, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. 34 minutes later, at 9:37 am, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Finally, 26 minutes later, at 10:03 am, Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

What Will Happen Now?

I think that the World Trade Center will be a big part to New York City. There is the 9/11 Memorial, The Oculus, One World Trade Center, Greenfield Mall, Two World Trade Center, and Three World Trade Center, and there is still more to come. Also, it’s not hard to get there. There are 12 subways that are connected to the Oculus and one that leads you straight to One World Trade Center, and also the PATH train from Jersey City. Also, it is on one out of the two highways in New York City (the West Side Highway). I think that the World Trade Center is going to become a big landmark of New York City and Manhattan. I think that it will be a big trademark of New York City and Manhattan.

One World Trade Center

One World Trade Center is one of the tallest buildings in the world! The World Trade Center is one hundred and four stories tall, and it is one thousand seven hundred seventy-six feet tall. If you don’t believe me, you can see it for yourself. Tours are available! For a standard trip it is 34 dollars, for an ungraded experience it is 44 dollars, and it is 54 dollars for the best experience. It’s a great view of Manhattan from the highest point in the city (great pictures!). But don’t be worried to see it. The city is doing everything they can do to keep it safe, because it cost 2.3 billion dollars and they don’t want to waste that money. I don’t think that the World Trade Center is coming down anytime soon. It is pretty new. It opened in 2014. So far, the city says that it was a good investment.

Two World Trade Center

Two World Trade Center is going to be One World Trade Center’s big brother. It will be one of the tallest residential buildings in the US. Two World Trade Center is a futuristic building. It might not be done by 2023 because they haven’t even started the building and the process. They’re still coming up with designs for the building. But I don’t think you’ll be living there if you aren’t rich or you haven’t won the lottery.

The Oculus

You might think from outside that it’s just a cool design, but inside it is a very big mall. There are more than 30 stores in the mall and 12 trains connecting to it. The Oculus was finished on March 3, 2016, and it was built because there is another mall on the other side of the street (Brookfield Place). People have been waiting a long time for something like this to be in New York City. Plans for the Oculus began in 2003. People thought that it would never come to life, so when it opened, everyone was very happy! The Oculus is one of the three malls in Manhattan. The other two are the Time Warner Center and Brookfield Place. So that’s what the Oculus is. It is bigger than the Time Warner Center. That’s what I know about The Oculus. People like the Oculus because it’s connected to the PATH and subway trains.

Brookfield Place

Brookfield Place is a large mall in Downtown Manhattan. It is the biggest mall in New York City. It has more than fifty stores in it. It also has a huge food court with great food. Brookfield Mall opened on March 25, 2015, about a year before the Oculus opened. People call Brookfield Place the Oculus’s brother. The Brookfield Mall also holds private events. The mall is known for the great food court because they have more than 20 restaurants. People love it for their dumplings and pizza. Everything is great there! But they were planning for it to hold more stores, and when it it was constructed that’s when they realized it couldn’t, so they made the Oculus. Some stores there are the same ones in the Oculus. They are trying to have more stores there, but everyone wants the Oculus because it connected to the PATH and subway trains. But it is connected to the 9/11 Memorial. It is just a huge mall overall. It has a lot of stores!

The Pools

Each year on September 11, thousands of people crowd around the memorial pools to cry together about the horrible deaths that occured. All 2,996 names are engraved on the rims of the pools. Pools lay where the towers stood, and also if this happens to One and Two and Three World Trade Center, then it is designed so that the building will fall into the pools. It took seven years to make the pools, three for the South Tower because it wasn’t as wide as the North Tower because more people worked in the North Tower, and it was also taller, and it had the garage under it. So many people go there all the time to see their former friends and family. So many people come there every day that they needed to make sections for everybody by last name. There are 450 sections, 30 people in each section.

The Survivor Tree

The Survivor Tree is a tree that survived the 9/11 attacks. The tree only had its stem left. They took it to the Bronx Zoo, and it took more than six years to regrow. It was ready in time for the new grand opening, and people loved seeing it. I am wondering how the leaves on this tree are always green, in all seasons. What I’m thinking is that maybe they are fake leaves because they never fall, and they never change the color. Even when the seasons change, they stay green as grass. I wonder if it was at the zoo for so long because they needed to put the fake ones on it and make sure when it is a wind storm or a snow storm, they don’t fly away. I think all the roots were wiped away from the attack, and you can’t put new veins in a tree when the stem is only left. So, I think that they are fake leaves, and they don’t even feel real at all. I say that they did that for the media, and so it will be known as the Survivor Tree.

How We Honor Loved Ones

People from all over the world honor their loved ones who died in 9/11. In NYC, streets are named after people who lived on those streets. This happens even in Japan, France, Mexico, and England. People were affected by this all over the world because so many people lost so many family members. Marianne Simone was one of the people who died in the attack.

There was a firefighter that was a first responder, and he unfortunately died. His name was Paul R. Martini, and there was a street named after him. Many more people are honored all over the world because of this event. Even in China. Maybe one day it will become a national holiday all over the world. I think that all of us should take a very good lesson away from this unfortunate event. At airports, security got much tighter. This was a big lesson for people all over the world.

Bibliography

O’Connor, Jim. What were the Twin Towers?

“9/11 Timeline.” The History channel website. https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/911-timeline-video

“9/11 memorial timeline.” The 9/11 memorial website.

https://timeline.911memorial.org/#Timeline/2

“2nd Plane Hitting WTC – LIVE News Coverage – 9/11.” BoulevaradeTV, youtube.com

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!!!


PLANES: Chapter One

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.

Three Poems

The Weirdo

A person that is crazy

Under sand

The name of this person is purple


The Crazy Airplane

First, airplanes are at a beach on land

The airplane’s going as fast as a person

The lame unicorn ate a dragon

This unicorn loved a person

The airplane was going so fast that it crushed the unicorn right before it kissed the human


Insect Eve

The silly person on Christmas Eve

that has a beetle on a spider

And had a cruel butterfly

Had a dream that there was a weird genie on Christmas Eve

And she gave them presents

Even though they didn’t know each other


The Bad Ghost

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.


Elephant

The jungles of South Asia are noisy, warm and dark;

Then titan longhorn beetles stand up and chirp the dawn,

And Borneo goes silent as footsteps shake the bark,

While a strange, gigantic creature lumbers out onto the lawn.

It lifts up its proboscis and bugles in delight;

Its dark gray wall of iron hide scrapes branches of bamboo;

It has large arrays of wrinkles and scars from many a fight;

Instead of many animals with no tusks, it has two.

In the middle of that forest, in the brightening light of day,

The elephant loudly yodels another morning-call.

Why not believe in goblins, in pixies, trolls and fey,

If such a marvelous creature even exists at all?


MAE

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.

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.


Arctic Jungle Adventure

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


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.


Funky Fairy Tales

This story draws inspiration from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”

Grammy White and the Seven Foxies

Once upon a time, there was a great, sweet queen who gave birth to a very sweet baby girl named Grammy White. Also, there was once an evil queen who gave birth to an evil baby girl named Snow Black. The two queens were neighbors. They hadn’t met yet, because between their castles there was an enchanted wall that was built by a wizard, and also, they were too busy taking care of their baby girls, ruling their kingdoms, and doing whatever it was that all of the powerful and amazing queens did, like teaching their daughters magic!

One day, when Grammy White was twenty-eight years old, she asked her mom, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go over the wall and explore?”

“Yes, honey! But we’re too busy doing things, and besides, it’s better if we stay here, safe and sound,” the queen told Grammy.

On the other side of the wall, young Snow Black asked her mom, “Mom, wouldn’t it be nice to go to the other side of the wall? You could teach me how to cast a spell on people. Please?”

“Of course, honey! We’ll go next summer at 10:30!”

Then, the two queens went back to work.

Snow Black let out a huge sigh. Grammy White also did the same, but then, the girls suddenly cheered up, and each said to herself, When my mom is in bed, I will sneak over the wall and explore the garden on the other side of the wall.

Then, the girls ate their supper and pretended to be asleep. When the moms left, the girls put on their T-shirts with a huge heart on it, pulled a pair of jeans out, put on their flip flops, pulled their long, beautiful hair in a ponytail, and climbed out the window.

“Wow!” Grammy White said.

“Gross,” Snow Black said when she saw all of the gross pink and yellow flowers.

Grammy White decided to take a very fine walk in the garden, which was more like a forest, between the walls. While Grammy White was walking, she found a very cute cottage.

“How very odd!” she said.

On the other hand, Snow Black was running very fast. She was running to the other wall and didn’t even see Grammy White passing by! While Snow Black was running, Grammy White opened the cottage door. The door made a very loud creak!

Snow Black turned around and screamed at the sight of Grammy White!

“Well, hello,” Snow Black said to Grammy White.

“Hello? Who are you?” Grammy asked Snow Black.

“I might as well ask you the same question,” Snow Black said in her sweetest voice.

“Well, I’m Grammy White. Now, who are you?”

“Oh me! It’s better to not ask! Hehe!” Snow Black said while sweating with guilt. “Hey… I smell… I smell… I smell a good princess standing in front of me,” Snow Black said.

“Well, you sure do!” Grammy told Snow.

“Oh! Good to know!” Snow said evilly, for she had found the perfect person for her mom to cast a spell on.

Chapter Two

Grammy White was surprised by the sight of seven talking foxies.

“Hullo! You have entered MDLV!” one of the foxies with a pink nose said.

“MDL what?” Grammy asked.

“MDLV. It means 1555 in Roman numerals,” a grumpy-looking fox said. “No one ever comes to Synthia ever since the evil Veneficus came here and made everything so bright and happy. It was better when it was nice and shady, but now he’s banished from the forest.”

“Oh, well, can I stay here for the night?” Grammy asked.

“Only if you do our chores.”

So, Grammy stayed and did the chores, like sweeping and washing the dishes, and then slept.

Chapter Three

Meanwhile, Snow Black was wondering which way to go to get home, for she had lost her way, so she cast a spell, so she could turn a stick into a GPS. “Verto hic scipio indu quidam via aquilex!!!” she said while sparkles appeared around the stick. Snow Black picked up what used to be a stick and went home.

Chapter Four

Grammy White made friends with Grumpy and Happy the foxies. She was getting water when she heard, “Apples! Get your free apples!” and she dropped the bucket to get apples instead. Hopefully the foxies wouldn’t be mad for getting food instead of water.

“Excuse me, can I have a bite of an apple?”

“Of course!” Snow Black said when cackling in her head. (Snow Black put a sleeping potion on half of the apple.)

Grammy White took a bite and was fine. But when Snow Black took a bite, she fell asleep. Grammy White found Snow’s spell book and cast a spell to find the closest castle to stay in. She said, “Invenio unus castra etenim memet,” and found one. When she arrived with sleeping Snow, she met Prince Warren, and they immediately fell in love with each other. He let her stay.

Chapter Five

“Where did Grammy White go???” Panic the foxie asked.

“I don’t know,” Grumpy said grumpily.

“Maybe she’s somewhere better!” Happy said, thinking of how happy she might be right now.

Oh, how much they missed her! Even Grumpy was crying!

Chapter Six

Grammy White missed her friend foxies, and she felt bad for not telling them she left, so she wrote them a letter and gave them some chocolates and muffins.

Dear foxies,

I miss you guys a lot, but I have moved to Prince Warren’s castle. I hope you guys like the treats! Also, you can come over whenever you want!

Love, Grammy White.

Chapter Seven

“I told you that she is in a better place!” Happy told the other foxies.

“Let’s visit her today! She said we could visit anytime!!!” Grumpy said, surprisingly happily!

So, they started their journey. When the foxies arrived, the prince and Grammy were dancing! The dancing brought a tear to Grumpy’s eye!

“So sweet!” Grumpy said.

Then, Grammy saw them and said, “Hi, little foxies!”

But when the prince saw them, he screamed, “Grammy! Get away!

But she told the prince that they were nice, so they got to live at the castle now.  

Wedding Day

Many years had passed, and Grammy was getting married.

“Grammy White, do you take Prince Warren for your handsome husband?” the priest asked.

“I do!” she said.

“And do you, Prince Warren, take Grammy for your loyal, royal queen?”

“I do!”

“You can kiss the bride.”

And they lived happily ever after. But Snow Black didn’t. She lived in the dungeon, still sleeping, of Queen Grammy and King Warren.

The End.


Thrasi’s Pot of Gold

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


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 Time I Was Left in the Elevator

I was staying in a hotel in Montauk, New York with my grandma and my uncle from Seattle, and I was having a wonderful time in the pool. I tried to do these cool dives, but I was only three years old, so it was impossible. I did not want to risk it and belly flop hard. As soon as we ended swimming, I suggested to my family that we should go into the hotel room and relax, so we did.

We got into the elevator. We were with these 70-year-old people in the elevator. I pressed the number seven, which was the floor that we were staying on. When we arrived at our floor, I did not notice because I was looking at my Nemo towel, even though I don’t like Nemo. When I looked up, no one was there except the old people. That is when I realized that my parents had accidentally left me. The old people held my hand as we went back down. I was so scared.

When we got down, the nice people stayed with me even though they had to go to their floor. I arrived at the seventh floor, hoping that I would see my parents. The doors opened. I saw my whole family. I was so happy to see them. I hugged them.

This was a true story…

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.


A Trip to Yellowstone

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


Busch Gardens

We were pulling into an amusement park called Busch Gardens in Virginia. My dad hit the switch that turned off the radio. I was kind of annoyed because it was in the middle of my favorite song from Hamilton.

“Dad,” I said, “turn it back on. That was my favorite song.” There was no response. I saw him out the window walking away. I opened the door and ran after my dad, calling for him. I finally caught up with him. “Dad, you left without me,” I complained.

We kept on walking to the entrance. It read Busch Gardens! I smiled. Today was the day I was going to overcome my fear of big roller coasters. I was a little nervous but still excited. My dad handed me my ticket and told me to give it to the person when we go through the turnstile. I handed the lady the ticket.

She said, “Thank you.”

We walked on to meet Audrey and Brian. Brian had just had a party to celebrate a book he wrote. Audrey was Brian’s daughter. She was 11 at the time, and I was eight.

“Hi,” I said to Audrey in a cheerful tone to make a good impression.

She said, “Hi” back.

We had a conversation until we got to the actual park. She took an iPad out of her bag and showed me videos of all the rides. She pointed at the ride that we were going on first. I looked at it in horror. It had loop-the-loops, big drops, and twists. That was everything I was scared of. I shivered slightly.

We were lining up for a roller coaster called the Loch Ness Monster. I was very confused because everybody was talking so fast. We used our fast passes to skip the line. I sat down in the middle because I was the smallest. My hands were sweaty, and I was shaking. I was so nervous. I had never been on a rollercoaster this big. I felt a small drop down. The ride had started. “Ahhhhh!” I was so scared. The roller coaster was shaking my head back and forth. My least favorite part was when you were about to go down a hill and you’re going up with the cranking noise. My head tilted backwards, and my neck started to hurt. The cranking stopped. There was a small pause. Oh no, we were about to go down the drop. I put my hands up. “Ahhhhhhh!” Then because we were going so fast, the first loop-the-loop was unnoticeable. There was another drop. When going up, I looked down. It looked like 5,000 feet. I could already feel sweat trickling down my face. I had just noticed one more thing. At the bottom of the drop, there was a pool of water. I was so focused on how scared I was that I didn’t noticed that we stopped. I felt a sudden jerk. “Ahhhhhhhh!” I lifted my arms up like everybody else. It felt like we were falling for ten minutes. My arms started to hurt from holding them up for so long. We finally made a big splash in the pool of water. Water creeped up my arms and legs. It got into my shirt. We came to a stop. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped off. I was still pretty dizzy because of all the twists and turns. I waddled off with my mouth hanging open.

We went to the bar to get a drink. On the screen I clicked on Sprite. A gazillion different kinds showed on the screen. I never knew there were more than one kind. I wanted to try them all. First, I clicked on the vanilla flavor and put a little in my cup. It was too sweet. I tried every other kind. There was cherry, orange, blueberry, strawberry, and grape. My favorite was original. I tried a mix of every kind. I spit it out and filled with lemon-lime. I jumped up and down from all the sugar. Then, we got ice cream.

I picked up the map and looked at it. It was huge. I had to stretch out my arms to hold the whole thing. I asked my dad where we were.

He pointed to the bottom of the map and where we were going. He pointed to the very top. “There,” he said.

I looked at the map in horror. We had just passed the ice cream store. And even though we had walked for five minutes, we had only walked an inch on the map.

After 20 minutes of walking, we got to the ride. This one was even bigger than the other one. Big drops, five loop-the-loops, and it was going much faster.

“Here we are,” said my dad in an enthusiastic voice.

Neither Audrey nor I wanted to go on this one. Then, I saw a girl who looked like she was younger than me, and when she came back around, it looked like she was having fun. My feet felt like they were locked in place. My dad nudged me to move forward because the cart was here. I took a big step on to the cart. I sat in the middle again. I looked at the ride in front of me.

After the ride, I stepped off, my head still bobbing like a chicken. I was very proud of myself. The biggest ride I had been on before this was the mouse ride at Rye Playland. I think it had one drop, not steep at all and maybe 20 feet. I had definitely loved the first two rides here at Busch Gardens, but I knew there was more to come. After being on those rides, I knew I was ready for anything.

Simone La Unicorn

Chapter 1: Simone La Unicorn


Once upon a time, when Simone was an ordinary foal, she was being trained to run. Run, run, run. Every day, every night, and in between. Her trainers were awful. They beat her if she was bad and took away food if she fell down. She hated it there. She really wanted to escape. One day, she decided to try to jump over the fence. She tried three times, and on the fourth try she succeeded. It was dramatic irony because her trainers wanted her to be fast, but then she used that skill to escape.

Now Simone was alone in the world, and she was scared. She wandered for miles. After four days, she met a calf that was hurt. She nursed it back to health, and the calf said he would grant her one wish because it was a magical calf. She wished she could be a unicorn. When her transformation was complete, she had a golden horn and white wings.

She touched her horn on the ground, and a unicorn swept her away to a rainbow land. Then, she was adopted by another unicorn and treated with kindness.

Chapter Two: The Witch in the Woods


The day after she arrived, her adoptive stepmother said, “You must never go into the wicked woods — for a wicked witch lives there and will turn you into a cockroach.”

But Simone was curious. She went into the woods, even though her mother told her not to. After she went deep into the woods, she came across a beautiful house.

She saw stables and lots and lots of carrots. She saw these things and started toward them. She laid down in the soft hay and munched on the carrots. Then, an old lady came out from the house.

She saw Simone and said, “Well, well, well, a unicorn.” And she went back into the house. She came out again with a wand and magically locked the stable. Simone whined impatiently. She kicked the door to see if she could knock it down. She was trapped.

The room she was locked in was a small wooden stable with itchy hay and rotten carrots because the witch had magicked it to look lovely even though it wasn’t.

This must be the witch that my stepmom told me about, Simone thought, and she went to sleep. The next day, the witch came out of her house and woke Simone up. She had rotten oats and moldy bread. Simone didn’t touch her food. Then, she took a nap.

While she was sleeping, the witch snuck up on her with a pair of magical pliers, a sword, and other instruments for extraction. But what the witch didn’t know was that each tool in turn made a very, very loud noise. Simone had woken up from the loud noises that the tools had made. She started fighting. She kicked and stabbed with her horn.
Finally, the witch was trapped in a corner. “Why do you want my horn?” Simone asked.

“It was for a spell, to wipe out all unicorns!” said the witch.

“Why?” said Simone.

“Um well, um… I don’t know!” replied the witch.

“This is why my stepmom told me to avoid you. She was right. I should have never gone into the woods,” sighed Simone. “Set me free!”

The witch had no choice. She said, “Okay.” But as soon as Simone got a few feet from the stable, she was drawn back by a forcefield.

“Hey, you trapped me!” Simone hollered. The witch had snuck back into her house.

Chapter Three: Cockroaches and Fears

The witch had officially given up on trying to steal Simone’s horn, so she turned her into a cockroach.

Bzz bzz bzz!” Simone cried as an Australian Wood cockroach. She tried to find a weakness in the witch’s forcefield, bumping her head until it throbbed. Unsuccessful, she decided to try something else. Then, she noticed she was hungry. She started eating a hole in the witch’s house. Five days passed, and finally the hole was complete! Then, she had to wait a day because she was very full. After that day, she crawled through the hole to see if the witch could turn her back into a unicorn.

When the witch saw the cockroach, she jumped up onto her dining room table and got her feet in ketchup.

“Aah! A cockroach! Mama! Save me!!” the witch cried.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz,” said Simone.

“Oh, it’s you,” said the witch. “And yes, I can understand cockroaches.”

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz.”

“Oh no you won’t,” the witch said.

Bzz bzz bz bzz.”

The witch grabbed for her wand and started firing curses at Simone, and Simone started scuttling around, trying to avoid the curses.

Bzz bzz bzzzzzzz bzzz bzz bzz bzz!!

“No!” the witch yelled. “Please don’t bite me!”

Bzz, bzz bzz bzz bzz!

“Absolutely not!” said the witch, and magical gavels started banging around the room. Simone scuttled around again, trying to avoid the gavels.

After an hour, the witch had gotten tired and said, “You and I will propose a truce and have tea together.”

So, the witch made a tiny little cup for Simone and then made tiny little cakes which Simone ate all up. “Okay,” the witch said. “Now the truce is over.” And she started throwing chairs at Simone and overturning the tables and smashing all the tea cups. After she had destroyed all of her furniture, she went into her bed and went to sleep.

Well, Simone was also tired, so she crawled back into her hole, so she wouldn’t get smashed by anything and fell asleep there. The next morning, the witch found Simone in her bedroom again, eating her dresses.

“Stop eating my dresses!” the witch said and overturned her bed trying to get to Simone.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz!” said Simone.

“No they are not, and I should know because I accidentally turned myself into a cockroach and took a bite of my dresses. It tasted terrible,” said the witch.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz.

Simone started dodging around, avoiding the witch’s hand. “Stop destroying my stuff!” the witch said.

Bzz bzz bzz bzz bzz,” Simone said.

“Well, I’m tired,” the witch said. “I’m going to go back to sleep… ” And then the witch magicked the overturned bed back to its original position and laid her wand on the bedside table. Simone was hungry, and as an Australian Wood Cockroach, she wanted to eat wood. The witch’s wand was made of wood, so she climbed up her bedside table and started eating the wand. By the time the witch woke up, her wand was destroyed, and Simone was back to her original form as a Unicorn.

“Oh no!” the witch said. “You are now a unicorn.”

And then Simone ran as fast as she could, kicked the door down, and ran back home with her mother.

Chapter Four: The Mysterious Murderer

When Simone got back to her house, she laid down and rested for a million years. Then when she woke up, her mother was an old granny with five hundred kids with a walker and fake golden teeth.

Then, Simone met a handsome young male unicorn named Isaac, and she said, “Will you marry me?”

“No,” he said, very, very rudely. Then, Isaac immediately died. There was an arrow stuck in his throat with poison in it — it said Gunjabar on the side.

“I must find this mysterious murderer!” said Simone. “They have murdered my loved one.”

Then, she went home and consulted the library to find out what Gunjabar was. She found out it was the most deadly poison, and it would raise the dead after an hour. So, she put posters up quickly with her horn, and soon everyone in town knew that someone had died from Gunjabar, but nobody thought it could actually raise the dead. So after an hour, Isaac the male unicorn rose from the dead and terrified all the unicorns into their homes where they shut themselves in with 500 million bajillion locks.

Simone walked carefully and quietly to the library to see if there was a cure for Gunjabar. The librarycorn looked through a little peephole in the door, unlocked the 500 million bajillion locks, let Simone in, closed the door, and locked the 500 million bajillion locks. She read every single book about poisons, and she could not find a cure. But one book called What Happens in Poisons said there was another book that might help cure the effects of the poison before it was irreversible, but she had to do it by dawn of the fifth day. There was only one copy, and it had been lost for a century. She decided to look for it.

She flew across the Atlantic Ocean, in and out of clouds. She finally came to a small island about fifteen feet wide and two miles across. There were two palm trees at each side, and in the middle was a poem and five rocks, and the poem said, The one palm in the middle of the island and five rocks split evenly on the ends will sink the island like a boat until you figure out how the puzzle bends.

“This is… this is… it,” Simone said. “This is where the book is.”

Chapter Five: The Book

Simone dug up the whole island in search of the book. She had dug up a whole island, and it was now a big mound of dirt with two palm trees and five rocks, when she noticed that it was only ten feet across. It had sunk five feet. So, she had two more days. She decided that another unicorn had cast a spell, so it would appear when they solved the riddle. So, she picked up the piece of paper again, read it over, and decided it made no sense because she knew that there were two palm trees not one. And five was an odd number, so it could not be split evenly. Simone decided to try anyway.

She walked around the now seven feet across island and looked at the palm trees from every single angle there could be. Finally, the last angle made sense. She could only see the first palm tree, and there wasn’t another one. But she still didn’t know how to split the rocks evenly, and she only had five hours left. She got an extra rock from the ocean and put three on each side — that didn’t work. She tried to use herself as a rock — that didn’t work either. And Simone was getting tired because the rocks were very heavy. Then, after five more tries, she finally thought of splitting one in half. It still was five rocks, but it had one split in half and two and a half plus two and a half equals… five! Simone saw the book hovering above the island. She made a bag out of the tree leaves and made sure it didn’t blow away by putting rocks on it. She flew across the ocean, landed in her hometown, and locked herself in her house.

She read the book, and she discovered the cure: a corpse flower, a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and rare gems like pearls, amethyst, desert rose, and an especially one of a kind, toucorrall. The toucorrall was different blues, and it looked exactly like the ocean, which made it hard to find because it was found in the ocean. Simone quickly looked up where everything was, except the Madagascar hissing cockroach because of course that was in Madagascar. She flew over the Pacific Ocean and landed on another island, except it wasn’t as small as the first. She covered every inch of the island, even though she thought that the corpse flower would be easy to find because it was as tall as a five story building. She suddenly smelled a repulsive smell. She followed the smell, and she came to a clearing.

“P.U.!” Simone said. What is that?! Simone wondered.

Hello, welcome to … Dun da da duuuuun… What The Heck Is That Thing! The game show in Simone’s mind!

“Okay, Lazy, what do you have to say for yourself?” said the judge. He looked like a carrot, as in he was a carrot.

CHH-SHOO CHH-SHOO, Lazy snored. Lazy is one of the contestants. There’s Lazy, Magic, and Cute. Cute is always cute, Magic isn’t really there because she’s magic, and Lazy is always asleep. Those were all Simone’s personalities.

They had booths, and Mr. Carrot the judge asked, “Now, Magic, what do you have to say for yourself?” And Magic didn’t answer because Magic wasn’t really there.

“MAGIC!” Mr Carrot shouted. “Come here immediately, or you will be severely punished.”

And then Magic appeared and said, “I’m not sure what it is, but I can destroy it or make it live forever or… or… or… or… ”

“SHUT UP!” Mr. Carrot shouted. “Now, Cute, what do you have to say for yourself?”

And Cute said, “I don’t know what it is either, but it’s not cute, and it smells horrible, and it’s going to ruffle my fur.”

“That means only one thing… It is a corpse flower!” Simone said.

Simone took a petal from the corpse flower with some difficulty and used it as an umbrella because it was raining. She went home and added it to a big pot her adoptive stepmother usually used for soups or Simone’s favorite thing ever: hummus. So, she crossed the corpse flower off her list. The next thing on her list was the Madagascar hissing cockroach. She suddenly felt something scuttling up her leg. She used her horn to levitate it and found it was a Madagascar hissing cockroach. I didn’t know this was Madagascar, Simone thought. She put it in the pot and then put a lid on it so it wouldn’t escape and crossed the cockroach off her list. The next were the rare gems. She knew exactly where to find them because her mother sometimes used them for a spell, but they were pretty far. She memorized which gems she needed and decided that if she found any others, she would use them for a spell. She set out for all the rare gems except toucorrall.

She found the pearl first and put it in a little bag she wove from fresh leaves. Then, she flew across a lake and into an underwater cave in a stream a little while off. In the cave, she found an amethyst crystal. She cut the rock in half with her horn and carved out three amethyst crystals. They were purple, and they filled all around the inside of the rock. Simone came up for air and dragged herself out of the stream. Her next target was the desert rose. She flew to the desert. She scoured every inch of the desert and found some jade, some papery diamond, and some coyote skulls. Simone flew to the next desert and immediately spotted a whole pile, about seven stories high, of desert roses. But the moment she took one from the top, a huge — about ten stories high — coyote roared a really loud roar, and Simone smashed the desert rose into powder and sprinkled it over the cactus to make the thorns disappear. The coyote, who survived on his own saliva, leapt aside to lap up the cool cactus water. Simone stole five desert roses and flew to her house and put it in the big pot.

Only one gem left! Simone thought.

The toucorral was found only once in the Tasman Sea. So, Simone mashed up one of the extra desert roses again, looked in the pantry, and mixed it with exactly one gallon of water. She mixed them and produced a sandy colored liquid that would turn her into a mermaid-unicorn. She put it in a bottle, put it in the basket she wove from fresh leaves, and set off across the Tasman Sea to the exact spot where it was found last. She drank the whole bottle of potion and dove in. She swam past the Intertidal zone, the Subtidal zone, through the Bathyal zone, past the Abyssal zone, and all the way into the Hadal zone. She found the cave where the toucorral was found and searched every tunnel, every twist and turn. But she did not find any sign of toucorral. Simone searched five other caves, each bigger than the first, and only found terrifying fish. Then, she scoured every coral reef and lit her horn to see through fish, if they had eaten the toucorral accidentally. She was just giving up hope when she thought of Isaac and the unicorns at home. She decided she would never ever give up for Isaac. She kept her horn lit and dug and dug and dug and dug until her hole was fifteen million bajillion miles deep. She dove into it and was dazzled with what she saw. Toucorral was all around her, behind her and on her sides. The toucorral was exactly like the ocean except much more beautiful and with streaks of yellow, pink, and purple. She carefully inserted her horn and cut out two pieces of the toucorral. She flew back home at superspeed and dropped one part in the pot.

Simone took a wooden spoon and started stirring. It turned into a sun-yellow mixture. She magicked a dummy of herself and pushed it outside. Isaac the unicorn spotted it and galloped toward it. Just when he was about to take a bite of her stuffed ear, she stuffed a spoonful of the yellow liquid down his throat. Isaac turned back to normal!!! He went to all the unicorns and apologized for what he did when he was a zombie, giving Simone time to carve a special pendant out of the second toucorral piece. She gave the special pendant, which was shaped as a heart, to Isaac as their engagement necklace, and he agreed to marry her.

The End


Lost

Introduction

Hi, I’m Sunny! I’m six months old! I’m a polar bear, if you’re wondering. I live in Antarctica.

Two months ago, my best friend Mark asked, “Do you want to go party in two months?”

I said yes…

Chapter One: The Guy with the Muscat

Now it is three in the morning, and I am cuddled up with my mom and excited to go to the party.

“Is it time yet?” I ask desperately.

“It’s too early,” Mommy says.

“Okay,” I say before I go to sleep.

Now it’s 7:30, and I’m waking up. “Mommy mommy, wake up!!!” I exclaim.

“Yes?” Mommy says.

“Time to wake up!” I say.

I go to the sweater closet and grab my blue sweater. Mommy grabs her sweater, and we head to the party.

We live on Sixth Avenue on the corner of Polo Street.

Now we are at the party, and we are eating cupcakes, and someone shouts, “Piñata time!

Someone smacks a piñata, and a bunch of pondy (candy) comes out, and anyways we all grab pondy, and then we hear big, big footsteps. Then, we see a big human man with a muscat. We all drop our candy and run. I don’t know what to do. I see Mommy, and then I don’t.

Chapter Two: Where’s Mommy?

“Mommy mommy!” I shout. No one responds. I drop to the floor and start crying. “MOMMY!!!” I shout. My tears grow bigger.

Later that day, I find my house.

“Yes!” I shout. I go inside.

There is no one there, and I start to cry even more. I start to think about all the fun things Mommy and I did, and I go back to my first thought.

“This all happened because of the party,” I say to myself.

Now it is close to night time. Time for supper! I go to the waterfall to catch some fish. I am tired. I should go to bed now. Later that night, I hear a noise. “Hoo hoo,” says the noise.

“AHHH! I wish Mommy was here,” I say, trying not to cry.

Now it is 6:00 in the morning. “I guess I can go look for Mom,” I say.

While I am walking, I see a drama sign. What I mean by drama sign is it says, Drama this way. I followed it. Now I am on a cloud. “Where am I?” I say, trying to get someone’s attention. I hear no one. “HELLO!” I shout. I crawl forward. Someone jumps up. “AHHH!” I shout while I fall over in surprise.

“My job is done,” the someone says as she walks away.

That moment, I remember I am on a cloud, and clouds are made of gas and water, and water is a liquid that I can drink. I then stuff my face in cloud.

Chapter Three: Drama

“Well, well, well, look who it is,” a man says.

He is tall and is wearing black boots, a black hoodie, and black jeans. I sit up and brush the cloud off my fur.

“Who is it?” I ask.

“You!” the man says.

I get confused. “Me?” I ask.

“Yes, you,” the man says.

“Oh, okay,” I say.

“Where’s your mom?” the man asks.

“Uhh, I don’t know,” I say.

“Well, that’s a problem,” the man says. “Then I guess I’ll have to take you to the polar orphanages,” the man says.

“No, please, no!” I say. I shiver in fear.

“Okay, fine. You’ll just have to pass this obstacle.”

“Okay,” I say.

The man leads me to the road. He shows me a bunch of cars that have no one in them. He tells me, “If you could jump over all these cars nonstop, you’ll move to the next one. Okay?”

“Got it,” I say.

“No, you’re supposed to say ‘okay,’” the man says.

“Okay?” I say, confused.

“Come on.” He grabs his timer, and then he times me. “Three, two, one, go!” the man says.

I start jumping over the cars. When I’m near the finish line, the man holds out a cone, and I have to avoid it.

“Ah!” I scream, but I avoid it.

Now he leads me to the next obstacle.

“Good, my boy,” he says.

“Thanks,” I say back.

Now for the next obstacle, he leads me to a bunch of cones and a little scooter, and he tells me, “Get on that scooter, and avoid all those cones in under ten seconds!”

That second, I realize that there are not a lot of cones. I feel confident for a second though. I hop on the scooter, and the man says, “Go!”

I go as fast as I can. “I’m making it! I’m making it!” I shout. “Oh no,” I say. There are a bunch of cones in the way. Now I have to avoid them all. I do that in five seconds. I’m at the finish line!

But the man says, “It took fifteen seconds. You didn’t complete it. Say goodbye to your dreams of living away from the orphanage.”

I look to the ground. The man picks me up and throws me in a car.

“Please, no!” I shout one more time.

“You shouldn’t have listened to the sign,” the man says.

“Well, then why do you have it?” I ask.

“Because, to make people fall for this. Duh,” the man says.

He drives away really quickly. Then, he gets out of the car and opens the door of the back seat, and he picks me up. Then, he gets on his boat and goes to another island. I try not to cry. The man looks at me and looks happy. Soon, we are at the other island. He picks me up, and I see a sign that says Polar Orphanage.

He shoves me in a room, and it doesn’t look so much like a room. It looks more like a bunch of bars. He shoves me in with a plate of food. Little does he know that I am strong. When he leaves back in his boat, he does not take the same boat. He takes a different one.

“How come?” I say to myself.

Now, since I am strong, I open the bars. I jump out. I see a bunch of other animals. Some of them like it, and some of them don’t. For those who don’t like it, I open their bars. Soon, I see a gorilla.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Well, I couldn’t find the gorilla orphanage, so I came here. But I really don’t like it. The ceiling is too low.” Bang! He hits his head.

“Okay,” I say.

I open the bars, but it is not big enough. I keep trying and trying, but it’s just not opening. I look around the room. Hmmm. I find the keys to his room.

“Yes!” I shout with excitement.

“Well, are you going to get me out or not?” the gorilla asks.

“Oh, right,” I say.

I run over to his room, and I open it. But quickly, I grab all the food I can and run out with all the animals. Then, I see a big yacht.

I go over and ask the gorilla, “Can you steer boats?”

“In my sleep!” the gorilla says.

“Great,” I say.

Everyone climbs on the yacht, and we drive away, back to Antarctica. I find some instruments on dock, and everyone plays one. Soon, we are at Antarctica. I see someone on their boat.

“Oh no!” I shout. “Quick, everyone, hide!”

We all kneel. The gorilla runs downstairs, because he doesn’t have anywhere to go. We all crawl downstairs with the gorilla.

“Woo, that was a close one!” I say.

We all run back to the main dock. The gorilla keeps steering. Finally, we are at Antarctica. We all see the man. I run into a wig shop with the animals.

“I have a plan. So, we all buy wigs and costumes, so we look like different animals to the man. Then, gorilla, you dress up as a human, so he knows that you own the yacht, okay?!” I say.

“Okay!” everyone says.

I get all of the wigs and costumes, and gorilla is all dressed up. He has a mustache, and a beard wig, and he has on a Santa costume, even though it’s January.

“I’m excited to go on the yacht to go see my gorilla friends!”

Chapter Four: Back to the Orphanage

We all go outside looking different.

“Do you know if there are six bright white polar bears and a big handsome gorilla in the wig shop?” the man asks the gorilla.

“Uh no,” the gorilla says stressfully.

“Oh, okay,” the man says. “Well, I think I know where they are. They might be right in front of my face!” the man says as he rips of all of our disguises.

“I need a new plan,” I mutter to myself. The man throws us in a go-kart. “How come it is not a boat?” I ask myself.

He puts us all in cozy seats and puts the gorilla and three polar bears in a different go-kart and the rest of us in another.

We are now going to a different orphanage, and they put three polar bears in one room, and the other three polar bears in the other room, and the gorilla in a go-kart. The man drives him away to a gorilla orphanage, and his mom is sitting on the steps waiting for him. I wish my mom was sitting on the steps for me. I start to cry again.

The room the man puts us in is very cozy. It has three big cushions that I want to sleep on, it has a big, bright, and shiny window, a beautiful rug, and three little places to do your business… Anyways, I sit in front of the window and sit there a long, long, long, long time, and then I hear a pulling noise. It sounds like a curtain. I turn around, and I see a polar bear pushing a curtain.

“Yay, we have a curtain. So we have some privacy!” I say.

The polar bear who was pushing and pulling the curtain says, “I know! It’s so fun!”

Then, I look around the room, and I also find a bookshelf. I run over to it and start pulling out a million books.

“Whatcha doing?” the other polar bear says.

“Oh, just pulling out a million books,” I say.

“I’m just tired. I want to go to sleep,” the other polar bear says, while he’s pulling the curtain shut.

Once he is fast asleep, I mutter to myself, “This is not going to be fun if everyone hates me because my plan didn’t work.”

The polar bear who was pushing and pulling the curtains says, “I won’t hate you!” He pats me on the back. “I thought your plan was amazing.”

I go over to the polar bear that was pushing and pulling the curtains, and I go over to ask his name.

He tells me that his name is Jeremy.

I tell him mine. “Hi, I’m Sunny,” I say.

Chapter Five: A New Chapter Begins

When the other polar bear wakes up, he goes straight to the business section, and when he is done, I go over to him, and I ask him his name.

He tells me, “The name’s Danie, bro.”

“Oh, my name is Sunny,” I say back.

“Well, then you’re a rare one,” he tells me.

“I am?” I say, confused.

“Yes,” he pauses. “The name Sunny is a rare one, kid,” he tells me and soon says, “I know a lot about the name Sunny, and one thing I know about is that if your name’s Sunny and if you lose your mom, the name Sunny will not grow stronger.”

“Oh,” I say sadly.

Quickly, he says, “But if you really feel like you’re important, you will grow stronger.”

“Hmm,” I say to myself.

“What?” Danie asks.

“Oh, nothing,” I say.

“Well then,” he says. He runs over to the door, and he tries to open it, but it’s locked. “Dang it!” Danie says.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing, it’s just that the door is locked,” Danie says.

“Duh, it’s always going to be locked!” I say.

“Oh,” he says.

I look around the room, and I see a hammer. I walk over to it.

“What’s this?” I ask everybody.

They both tell me, “It’s a hammer.”

“Well, I’ve got a plan, then.”

“Your last plan didn’t work, so how can we trust you?” they say.

“Just watch. Maybe you don’t have to, but I will!” I say.

“Okay, then we’ll just watch,” they say.

I run over to the window, and I take a peek.

They say, “You’re really going to jump out the window? That’s too risky!”

“No, it’s not!” I say. I take another peek. I see how high up we are, and I say, “Yes, it is too risky.”

I put the hammer down and walk away. Then, I try to get on my hind legs. Then that doesn’t work, and I find a stool and jump on it. It’s not high enough. Then, I jump on a higher stool. It’s too high. Then, I look around the room again. I find the perfect looking stool. It’s just the right size! I run over to it and jump on it. Everyone was looking at me the whole time.

“Uh, what are you doing?” they ask.

“Hehe,” I say. “Just trying to get this, uh, thing.”

“Oh, okay!” Danie says.

“I want to see it!” Jeremy says.

“Ugh, fine,” I say. “Just a little peek!”

“What, we never agreed to that,” Jeremy says angrily.

“Even though we didn’t decide on it, doesn’t mean I can’t hide it!” I say.

“Hey!” Danie says. “Rhymes won’t work this time.”

“Hey, you just said a rhyme!” I said.

“You can’t keep rhyming, we don’t have much time.”

“Hey, you just rhymed again!” he said.

“Okay, let’s just both stop rhyming,” we say together.

“Jinx! You owe me a Coke,” we both say.

“No, you owe me a Coke.”

“No, you owe me a Coke!”

“No, you owe me a Coke!”

“No, you do!”

“No, you do!”

“Can you guys shut the noise?!” Danie screams.

“Sorry,” we both say.

“Jinx! You owe me a Coke!” Jeremy says.

“Hey, there’s no vending machines in here,” I say back.

“Well, then why did we just start this huge fight?” he says.

“Uh, I don’t know.”

I run up the stool and go get my thing.

“Hey! You said I could have a peek!” Jeremy screams.

“Stop screaming!” Danie said.

I hide the thing with both of my arms. I fall off the stool. “Ahh!” I fall to the business section. “Ew! Ew! Gross! Gross!” I say.

I hear a loud banging noise. I think it was the window cleaner.

I shout at the window, “Hey, window cleaner! Can you let us out?”

Then, I realize it’s just a fight in the window next door. And then I run across the room and look out the other window. It is the window cleaner! I run over to him and start tapping on the window. Then, I draw a sign that says, Let us out to be free! I hold it up to the window. He ignores the sign. Well, at least I thought. I hear the door unlock. He has three little cages.

I ask him very quickly, “Are you trapping us in those or are you letting us free?”

He hesitates. “Uhhhh.” He runs away. A construction hat falls onto the ground.

“Thanks, window cleaner!” I say.

Then, I go to the corner of the room and say, “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed.”

Danie and Jeremy run to their bed. “I call this one!” they both shout.

“Okay then, I’ll go in the middle one,” I say.

Chapter Six: Jeremy’s Life

Now it is eight o’clock. I’m up, but still, no one else is up. I take a look around the room. It looks like someone has been eating my crackers. I look outside the window. I see a creepy man in a hoodie.

“Oh no,” I say. I bang on the window. The man turns around — it’s just the window cleaner. “Phew!” I say.

He takes a look at me — a very strange look. And then I look at his molars, and I see some bits of crackers.

“Hey, you ate my crackers!” I shout so loud that he can actually hear me. He looks at me so strange, but it actually looks more like shock. I immediately say, “Oh, do animals not talk on this continent?”

He falls over. Since we are so high up, he keeps tumbling and tumbling down. There is a man walking on his phone with earbuds on below him. The man who has earbuds in looks up. He sees a falling man coming towards him. He doesn’t know what to do! He doesn’t want to walk away. The man falls on him. Plump! I feel bad for the man. But it would be fun if that drop was a roller coaster… Anyways, wait, what is that? I smell something awfully terrible. It is Danie doing something.

“Nevermind,” I say.

“Hey, Sunny, come over here!” Jeremy shouts.

“Okay!” I shout back. I walk over to Jeremy.

“So the best way to be a friend is to tell them about their life,” he told me.

“Sounds great!” I say.

“Okay, I’m going to tell you about my life,” he says.

“So, are you going to tell me?” I say.

“Of course I am!” he says. “So, when I was born, it was not a good time. My dad died at the age of sixteen, and my mom was very, very brave to make me as a child. And then my mom, she got taken away, so now I was on my own, and I decided to travel around Antarctica. But that was a mistake. Some person found me, and he made me go to an orphanage, but I escaped it through a little hole in the window. I found a bowl of food outside the door, so I ate that and ran. Then, I went back to our house that we used to live in, but it was destroyed. It was practically melted. But there was one thing left in there: it was a piece of my mom’s fur.”

He reaches for the locket on his neck and pulls out his mom’s fur.

“Oh my gosh!” I say.

He keeps on with the story. “Then, I saw this drama sign, and I went the way that it said there was drama. Then, I was on a cloud, and someone jumped up behind me and scared me. I fell over. I got up and kept running. Then, I bumped into this weird creepy man. He picked me up with no hesitation and put me in a boat and locked me up. He steered the boat all the way to an orphanage. And then I met you!”

“Wow,” I said.

Chapter Seven: Escape

After Jeremy told me the story of his life, I take a look back at my life. “Wow, they’re pretty similar,” I say to myself. “Maybe he’s related to me.”

“Huh?” Danny says.

“Oh, nothing,” I say.

“Please tell me,” Danny says.

“Okay,” I say, ready to tell him a lie. “Well, so, basically I was thinking we could escape if someone who’s related to me could get us out.”

“Oh,” Danny says. “Who’s related to you?”

“My sister,” I said.
“Where is she?” Danny asks.

“I don’t know.” I shrug.

He takes a look out the window. He looks at the skyscraper right next to the orphanage building. He sees a bright white polar bear on the street that looks a bit like me.

“Hey, Sunny!” Danny says. “Come over here! I think I found your sister.”

“Really?” I say.

“Yup, really,” he says.

“Great!” I say. I run over to him. I take a look out the window. I shout, “That is my sister!” I take the hammer that I found, and I turn it around and use the wood part to bang on the window. “Hey, Lexi! Here! Open up!”

She looks up. She looks at me with her bright yellow smile. She does not brush her teeth. She runs to the door of the orphanage. She doesn’t ring the doorbell; she doesn’t knock. She finds a hole in the door, and she runs up the stairs.

She peeks through the mail hole, and I give her the hammer.

“Great!” she says. She smashes through the door.

“We’re out!” we shout.

I give my sister a big hug. “Wait, but what about the other people?” I say.

“Oh, right! Let’s go smash down their door.”

“Help! Let us out! Help! Let us out!” they shout.

We smash down their door.

“Yay!” they scream.

We all run out the door.

“Thank you,” I say to Danie.

We run out the building.

“Wait! We’ve got to put on our disguises,” I say.

“Why?” Danie asks.

“Because we can’t look like ourselves, because then they’re going to notice us and put us back in our cages!”

“Ohh,” they both say. “Hey, there’s an ice cream shop. Maybe we can stop and get ice cream.”

“We don’t have any money,” I say.

“Oh, right,” Jeremy says. “I was hoping for some ice cream.”

“Well,” I say. “I only have one dollar, and the only thing I can buy us with one dollar is something from the vending machine over there.”

“Let’s do it!”

I look at the options. There are a lot of gummy options, and I go for the Welch’s pack.

“We’re all going to share,” I say.

“Okay,” everyone says.

I push the button 74. The Welch’s pack falls, and falls, and falls. Finally, it reaches the bottom. I reach my hand in, and I grab the Welch’s pack. I open the bag. Everyone reaches for a gummy.

“Thanks!” everyone says.

“No more time for dilly-dallying. We’ve got to go,” I say.

“Okay,” everyone says. They start skipping out the door.

“What are you guys doing?” I say.

“Ummm, just skipping.”
“I said no dilly-dallying!” I say.

“Oh, right,” Jeremy says.

We walk as if we’re people going over to a boat.

“Hey, someone left this boat on! Let’s go in.”

Before I go over to the steering wheel, I see the guy running back to his boat.

“Uh oh!” I shout. I turn it on, and I go across the ocean.

“Hey! Get back here!” the man shouts.

He doesn’t realize that there’s no fence, and he starts to run over to his boat. He falls into the ocean.

“We’ve caused a lot of trouble today,” I say.

Chapter Eight: Fat Daddy Taco

When I go downstairs, I see a treasure chest. I open it, and there’s millions of dollars!

“Oh my gosh!” I shout. “Everybody, come downstairs!”

“What?” they all shout.

“I found a treasure chest full of money!” I bring it upstairs, up to the dock.

“Woah!” everyone says.

I see a sign. It says New York instead of Antarctica. I accidentally go to New York City. I see a statue. It’s the Statue of Liberty! We get off the boat, and we dock it. Everyone takes a shocked look at our boat, because they all have cars, and we’re the only ones dragging a boat on land. Everyone tries to not look away. Soon, we reach Fifth Avenue.

“Why is it only the Fifth Avenue? Then this avenue must be ancient!” I say. I go down one more avenue. It says Fourth Avenue. “This avenue is even more ancient!” I shout.

All the polar bears look at me, confused.

“Why are there polar bears in blue, and pink, and purple wigs?” one of the humans says.

I ignore it. I look at the avenue. Now that we have millions and millions of dollars, I look at the shops. I see McDonalds. Eh, too cheap! I look around again. Fatty Daddy Taco! I tell everyone to go over there and act like real humans. I see them go up to the counter.

They go in and ask the man, “Hello, may we please have 600 tacos to go, please?”

The man looks at me, but he doesn’t look away. He falls to the ground.

“Oh, do animals not talk in this dimension?” they say.

They go in the back of the kitchen. They find 600 tacos! They take them and run out.

“Here, let’s leave 1,000 dollars behind. This place might be too cheap,” they say.

They leave. I see them come back with the 600 tacos.

“What took you so long?” I say.

They tell me.

“Now I get it,” I say. “We have to find a house that we can live in.”

“Which house do we pick?” they say.

“We can’t just pick a house!” I say. “Here, let’s buy a million dollar house in the suburban areas.”

“Okay!” they all say.

I wander off into Red Hook. I see a giant Tesla shop.

“Ohh, let’s buy one of these!” I say.

I take another million dollar bill, and we choose a Tesla. I choose a bright white Tesla. I give them the million dollars, and that moment I realize that I don’t have a driver’s license, and we all can’t fit in one car! Uh oh!

Chapter Nine: Tesla!

I sit down on the ground. I sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asks.

“Oh, it’s just that we all can’t fit into one Tesla, and I don’t have a driver’s license… ” There is something poking me on my tush. I look under me. It’s a driver’s license! “Never mind, I have a driver’s license!” I go back in the Tesla shop. I see a Tesla with six seats! “Our problems are solved!” I see another person in a black hoodie. He takes my briefcase. “Hey!” I shout. I run after them. My wig flies off. “Oh no!” I shout and run back to get it. Then, I realize the burglar is already down the block. “Oh no!” I say.

I see a police officer eating a giant burger. It looks like a skyscraper.

The police officer says to the guy, “What are you doing with that briefcase?”

“Uh, uh… ” He gives it to me right away and runs off. The police officer leaves.

We buy the Tesla, and we drive to New Jersey. There’s a big sign that says New Jersey. I see a house right in front of us. It says For Sale. It’s a giant mansion that costs 10 million dollars. It’s white, it has a large arrangement of stairs going up to the front door, and two big columns that are holding up the roof of the front door. It kind of looks like the White House.

“Eh, not cozy enough!” I say.

We drive down the block a little further. I see two houses right next to each other. They say For Sale. They’re supposed to be connected; that’s why the For Sale sign is between them. It has a fountain right in between both of them, two cars can fit in the driveway, two floors for each house, and a porch swing in front.

“Cozy house! Let’s buy it.” I call the number that is on the sign.

Ring ring ring! goes the phone.

“Hello?”
“Yes, I would like to buy your house in New Jersey on St. Adams Street,” I say.

“Okay,” he says. I look at how much money it is. It’s 20 million dollars! “20 million dollars, please!” the man says. “What’s your credit card number?” he says. I look at the bottom of the briefcase. I see a credit card. It has 30 million dollars on it.

“Okay.” I give him my credit card number.

“Okay,” the man says. “The house is yours! I’ll give you the key in ten minutes. I’ll be there. Goodbye.”

Ten minutes later, I see a black BMW pull up in the driveway. He gets out of the car. He gives me the key. He gets back in the car. He leaves.

“Okay,” I say. I take the keys, and I fit them into the door hole. It fits perfectly. “I’ve never seen something fit so perfectly!” I say. I twist it right. The door lets me open it. “So easy!” I say.

I walk inside the house. It’s full of clutter. It’s a bunch of chairs stacked up and a sofa right on top. Not a lot of dust, though, which is good, because Jeremy’s allergic to dust mites. There’s a sink, and possibly some food in the cupboards, and also some rooms.

“All we have to do is organize this!” I say.

Chapter Ten: Wake-Up Call

As I finish organizing, I see Dannie on the sofa eating chips.

“Really, Dannie?” I say.

“What?” Dannie says.

“I want a chip, dude!” I say. “The Doritos blue pack is my favorite.”

“Okay.” He reaches into the bag and gives me one.

“Thanks!” I say. I take a look around the room. “You know, guys, this isn’t what I really want.”
“Really?” everyone says to me.

“Yeah. I kind of want my mom.” I start to cry again.

That moment, I wake up.

“Wake up, wake up!” my mom says.

“What?” I say. “Mom, you’re not a polar bear?!”

“You were probably dreaming,” she says. “You were sleeping for two days!” she yells at me.

“Oh,” I say.

I get ready for school, and then I go downstairs to eat my cereal.

“Bye!” I say to my mom. I walk out the door.

THE END!

Introduction

Hi, I’m Sunny! I’m six months old! I’m a polar bear, if you’re wondering. I live in Antarctica.

Two months ago, my best friend Mark asked, “Do you want to go party in two months?”

I said yes…

Chapter One: The Guy with the Muscat

Now it is three in the morning, and I am cuddled up with my mom and excited to go to the party.

“Is it time yet?” I ask desperately.

“It’s too early,” Mommy says.

“Okay,” I say before I go to sleep.

Now it’s 7:30, and I’m waking up. “Mommy mommy, wake up!!!” I exclaim.

“Yes?” Mommy says.

“Time to wake up!” I say.

I go to the sweater closet and grab my blue sweater. Mommy grabs her sweater, and we head to the party.

We live on Sixth Avenue on the corner of Polo Street.

Now we are at the party, and we are eating cupcakes, and someone shouts, “Piñata time!

Someone smacks a piñata, and a bunch of pondy (candy) comes out, and anyways we all grab pondy, and then we hear big, big footsteps. Then, we see a big human man with a muscat. We all drop our candy and run. I don’t know what to do. I see Mommy, and then I don’t.

Chapter Two: Where’s Mommy?

“Mommy mommy!” I shout. No one responds. I drop to the floor and start crying. “MOMMY!!!” I shout. My tears grow bigger.

Later that day, I find my house.

“Yes!” I shout. I go inside.

There is no one there, and I start to cry even more. I start to think about all the fun things Mommy and I did, and I go back to my first thought.

“This all happened because of the party,” I say to myself.

Now it is close to night time. Time for supper! I go to the waterfall to catch some fish. I am tired. I should go to bed now. Later that night, I hear a noise. “Hoo hoo,” says the noise.

“AHHH! I wish Mommy was here,” I say, trying not to cry.

Now it is 6:00 in the morning. “I guess I can go look for Mom,” I say.

While I am walking, I see a drama sign. What I mean by drama sign is it says, Drama this way. I followed it. Now I am on a cloud. “Where am I?” I say, trying to get someone’s attention. I hear no one. “HELLO!” I shout. I crawl forward. Someone jumps up. “AHHH!” I shout while I fall over in surprise.

“My job is done,” the someone says as she walks away.

That moment, I remember I am on a cloud, and clouds are made of gas and water, and water is a liquid that I can drink. I then stuff my face in cloud.

Chapter Three: Drama

“Well, well, well, look who it is,” a man says.

He is tall and is wearing black boots, a black hoodie, and black jeans. I sit up and brush the cloud off my fur.

“Who is it?” I ask.

“You!” the man says.

I get confused. “Me?” I ask.

“Yes, you,” the man says.

“Oh, okay,” I say.

“Where’s your mom?” the man asks.

“Uhh, I don’t know,” I say.

“Well, that’s a problem,” the man says. “Then I guess I’ll have to take you to the polar orphanages,” the man says.

“No, please, no!” I say. I shiver in fear.

“Okay, fine. You’ll just have to pass this obstacle.”

“Okay,” I say.

The man leads me to the road. He shows me a bunch of cars that have no one in them. He tells me, “If you could jump over all these cars nonstop, you’ll move to the next one. Okay?”

“Got it,” I say.

“No, you’re supposed to say ‘okay,’” the man says.

“Okay?” I say, confused.

“Come on.” He grabs his timer, and then he times me. “Three, two, one, go!” the man says.

I start jumping over the cars. When I’m near the finish line, the man holds out a cone, and I have to avoid it.

“Ah!” I scream, but I avoid it.

Now he leads me to the next obstacle.

“Good, my boy,” he says.

“Thanks,” I say back.

Now for the next obstacle, he leads me to a bunch of cones and a little scooter, and he tells me, “Get on that scooter, and avoid all those cones in under ten seconds!”

That second, I realize that there are not a lot of cones. I feel confident for a second though. I hop on the scooter, and the man says, “Go!”

I go as fast as I can. “I’m making it! I’m making it!” I shout. “Oh no,” I say. There are a bunch of cones in the way. Now I have to avoid them all. I do that in five seconds. I’m at the finish line!

But the man says, “It took fifteen seconds. You didn’t complete it. Say goodbye to your dreams of living away from the orphanage.”

I look to the ground. The man picks me up and throws me in a car.

“Please, no!” I shout one more time.

“You shouldn’t have listened to the sign,” the man says.

“Well, then why do you have it?” I ask.

“Because, to make people fall for this. Duh,” the man says.

He drives away really quickly. Then, he gets out of the car and opens the door of the back seat, and he picks me up. Then, he gets on his boat and goes to another island. I try not to cry. The man looks at me and looks happy. Soon, we are at the other island. He picks me up, and I see a sign that says Polar Orphanage.

He shoves me in a room, and it doesn’t look so much like a room. It looks more like a bunch of bars. He shoves me in with a plate of food. Little does he know that I am strong. When he leaves back in his boat, he does not take the same boat. He takes a different one.

“How come?” I say to myself.

Now, since I am strong, I open the bars. I jump out. I see a bunch of other animals. Some of them like it, and some of them don’t. For those who don’t like it, I open their bars. Soon, I see a gorilla.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Well, I couldn’t find the gorilla orphanage, so I came here. But I really don’t like it. The ceiling is too low.” Bang! He hits his head.

“Okay,” I say.

I open the bars, but it is not big enough. I keep trying and trying, but it’s just not opening. I look around the room. Hmmm. I find the keys to his room.

“Yes!” I shout with excitement.

“Well, are you going to get me out or not?” the gorilla asks.

“Oh, right,” I say.

I run over to his room, and I open it. But quickly, I grab all the food I can and run out with all the animals. Then, I see a big yacht.

I go over and ask the gorilla, “Can you steer boats?”

“In my sleep!” the gorilla says.

“Great,” I say.

Everyone climbs on the yacht, and we drive away, back to Antarctica. I find some instruments on dock, and everyone plays one. Soon, we are at Antarctica. I see someone on their boat.

“Oh no!” I shout. “Quick, everyone, hide!”

We all kneel. The gorilla runs downstairs, because he doesn’t have anywhere to go. We all crawl downstairs with the gorilla.

“Woo, that was a close one!” I say.

We all run back to the main dock. The gorilla keeps steering. Finally, we are at Antarctica. We all see the man. I run into a wig shop with the animals.

“I have a plan. So, we all buy wigs and costumes, so we look like different animals to the man. Then, gorilla, you dress up as a human, so he knows that you own the yacht, okay?!” I say.

“Okay!” everyone says.

I get all of the wigs and costumes, and gorilla is all dressed up. He has a mustache, and a beard wig, and he has on a Santa costume, even though it’s January.

“I’m excited to go on the yacht to go see my gorilla friends!”

Chapter Four: Back to the Orphanage

We all go outside looking different.

“Do you know if there are six bright white polar bears and a big handsome gorilla in the wig shop?” the man asks the gorilla.

“Uh no,” the gorilla says stressfully.

“Oh, okay,” the man says. “Well, I think I know where they are. They might be right in front of my face!” the man says as he rips of all of our disguises.

“I need a new plan,” I mutter to myself. The man throws us in a go-kart. “How come it is not a boat?” I ask myself.

He puts us all in cozy seats and puts the gorilla and three polar bears in a different go-kart and the rest of us in another.

We are now going to a different orphanage, and they put three polar bears in one room, and the other three polar bears in the other room, and the gorilla in a go-kart. The man drives him away to a gorilla orphanage, and his mom is sitting on the steps waiting for him. I wish my mom was sitting on the steps for me. I start to cry again.

The room the man puts us in is very cozy. It has three big cushions that I want to sleep on, it has a big, bright, and shiny window, a beautiful rug, and three little places to do your business… Anyways, I sit in front of the window and sit there a long, long, long, long time, and then I hear a pulling noise. It sounds like a curtain. I turn around, and I see a polar bear pushing a curtain.

“Yay, we have a curtain. So we have some privacy!” I say.

The polar bear who was pushing and pulling the curtain says, “I know! It’s so fun!”

Then, I look around the room, and I also find a bookshelf. I run over to it and start pulling out a million books.

“Whatcha doing?” the other polar bear says.

“Oh, just pulling out a million books,” I say.

“I’m just tired. I want to go to sleep,” the other polar bear says, while he’s pulling the curtain shut.

Once he is fast asleep, I mutter to myself, “This is not going to be fun if everyone hates me because my plan didn’t work.”

The polar bear who was pushing and pulling the curtains says, “I won’t hate you!” He pats me on the back. “I thought your plan was amazing.”

I go over to the polar bear that was pushing and pulling the curtains, and I go over to ask his name.

He tells me that his name is Jeremy.

I tell him mine. “Hi, I’m Sunny,” I say.

Chapter Five: A New Chapter Begins

When the other polar bear wakes up, he goes straight to the business section, and when he is done, I go over to him, and I ask him his name.

He tells me, “The name’s Danie, bro.”

“Oh, my name is Sunny,” I say back.

“Well, then you’re a rare one,” he tells me.

“I am?” I say, confused.

“Yes,” he pauses. “The name Sunny is a rare one, kid,” he tells me and soon says, “I know a lot about the name Sunny, and one thing I know about is that if your name’s Sunny and if you lose your mom, the name Sunny will not grow stronger.”

“Oh,” I say sadly.

Quickly, he says, “But if you really feel like you’re important, you will grow stronger.”

“Hmm,” I say to myself.

“What?” Danie asks.

“Oh, nothing,” I say.

“Well then,” he says. He runs over to the door, and he tries to open it, but it’s locked. “Dang it!” Danie says.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing, it’s just that the door is locked,” Danie says.

“Duh, it’s always going to be locked!” I say.

“Oh,” he says.

I look around the room, and I see a hammer. I walk over to it.

“What’s this?” I ask everybody.

They both tell me, “It’s a hammer.”

“Well, I’ve got a plan, then.”

“Your last plan didn’t work, so how can we trust you?” they say.

“Just watch. Maybe you don’t have to, but I will!” I say.

“Okay, then we’ll just watch,” they say.

I run over to the window, and I take a peek.

They say, “You’re really going to jump out the window? That’s too risky!”

“No, it’s not!” I say. I take another peek. I see how high up we are, and I say, “Yes, it is too risky.”

I put the hammer down and walk away. Then, I try to get on my hind legs. Then that doesn’t work, and I find a stool and jump on it. It’s not high enough. Then, I jump on a higher stool. It’s too high. Then, I look around the room again. I find the perfect looking stool. It’s just the right size! I run over to it and jump on it. Everyone was looking at me the whole time.

“Uh, what are you doing?” they ask.

“Hehe,” I say. “Just trying to get this, uh, thing.”

“Oh, okay!” Danie says.

“I want to see it!” Jeremy says.

“Ugh, fine,” I say. “Just a little peek!”

“What, we never agreed to that,” Jeremy says angrily.

“Even though we didn’t decide on it, doesn’t mean I can’t hide it!” I say.

“Hey!” Danie says. “Rhymes won’t work this time.”

“Hey, you just said a rhyme!” I said.

“You can’t keep rhyming, we don’t have much time.”

“Hey, you just rhymed again!” he said.

“Okay, let’s just both stop rhyming,” we say together.

“Jinx! You owe me a Coke,” we both say.

“No, you owe me a Coke.”

“No, you owe me a Coke!”

“No, you owe me a Coke!”

“No, you do!”

“No, you do!”

“Can you guys shut the noise?!” Danie screams.

“Sorry,” we both say.

“Jinx! You owe me a Coke!” Jeremy says.

“Hey, there’s no vending machines in here,” I say back.

“Well, then why did we just start this huge fight?” he says.

“Uh, I don’t know.”

I run up the stool and go get my thing.

“Hey! You said I could have a peek!” Jeremy screams.

“Stop screaming!” Danie said.

I hide the thing with both of my arms. I fall off the stool. “Ahh!” I fall to the business section. “Ew! Ew! Gross! Gross!” I say.

I hear a loud banging noise. I think it was the window cleaner.

I shout at the window, “Hey, window cleaner! Can you let us out?”

Then, I realize it’s just a fight in the window next door. And then I run across the room and look out the other window. It is the window cleaner! I run over to him and start tapping on the window. Then, I draw a sign that says, Let us out to be free! I hold it up to the window. He ignores the sign. Well, at least I thought. I hear the door unlock. He has three little cages.

I ask him very quickly, “Are you trapping us in those or are you letting us free?”

He hesitates. “Uhhhh.” He runs away. A construction hat falls onto the ground.

“Thanks, window cleaner!” I say.

Then, I go to the corner of the room and say, “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed.”

Danie and Jeremy run to their bed. “I call this one!” they both shout.

“Okay then, I’ll go in the middle one,” I say.

Chapter Six: Jeremy’s Life

Now it is eight o’clock. I’m up, but still, no one else is up. I take a look around the room. It looks like someone has been eating my crackers. I look outside the window. I see a creepy man in a hoodie.

“Oh no,” I say. I bang on the window. The man turns around — it’s just the window cleaner. “Phew!” I say.

He takes a look at me — a very strange look. And then I look at his molars, and I see some bits of crackers.

“Hey, you ate my crackers!” I shout so loud that he can actually hear me. He looks at me so strange, but it actually looks more like shock. I immediately say, “Oh, do animals not talk on this continent?”

He falls over. Since we are so high up, he keeps tumbling and tumbling down. There is a man walking on his phone with earbuds on below him. The man who has earbuds in looks up. He sees a falling man coming towards him. He doesn’t know what to do! He doesn’t want to walk away. The man falls on him. Plump! I feel bad for the man. But it would be fun if that drop was a roller coaster… Anyways, wait, what is that? I smell something awfully terrible. It is Danie doing something.

“Nevermind,” I say.

“Hey, Sunny, come over here!” Jeremy shouts.

“Okay!” I shout back. I walk over to Jeremy.

“So the best way to be a friend is to tell them about their life,” he told me.

“Sounds great!” I say.

“Okay, I’m going to tell you about my life,” he says.

“So, are you going to tell me?” I say.

“Of course I am!” he says. “So, when I was born, it was not a good time. My dad died at the age of sixteen, and my mom was very, very brave to make me as a child. And then my mom, she got taken away, so now I was on my own, and I decided to travel around Antarctica. But that was a mistake. Some person found me, and he made me go to an orphanage, but I escaped it through a little hole in the window. I found a bowl of food outside the door, so I ate that and ran. Then, I went back to our house that we used to live in, but it was destroyed. It was practically melted. But there was one thing left in there: it was a piece of my mom’s fur.”

He reaches for the locket on his neck and pulls out his mom’s fur.

“Oh my gosh!” I say.

He keeps on with the story. “Then, I saw this drama sign, and I went the way that it said there was drama. Then, I was on a cloud, and someone jumped up behind me and scared me. I fell over. I got up and kept running. Then, I bumped into this weird creepy man. He picked me up with no hesitation and put me in a boat and locked me up. He steered the boat all the way to an orphanage. And then I met you!”

“Wow,” I said.

Chapter Seven: Escape

After Jeremy told me the story of his life, I take a look back at my life. “Wow, they’re pretty similar,” I say to myself. “Maybe he’s related to me.”

“Huh?” Danny says.

“Oh, nothing,” I say.

“Please tell me,” Danny says.

“Okay,” I say, ready to tell him a lie. “Well, so, basically I was thinking we could escape if someone who’s related to me could get us out.”

“Oh,” Danny says. “Who’s related to you?”

“My sister,” I said.
“Where is she?” Danny asks.

“I don’t know.” I shrug.

He takes a look out the window. He looks at the skyscraper right next to the orphanage building. He sees a bright white polar bear on the street that looks a bit like me.

“Hey, Sunny!” Danny says. “Come over here! I think I found your sister.”

“Really?” I say.

“Yup, really,” he says.

“Great!” I say. I run over to him. I take a look out the window. I shout, “That is my sister!” I take the hammer that I found, and I turn it around and use the wood part to bang on the window. “Hey, Lexi! Here! Open up!”

She looks up. She looks at me with her bright yellow smile. She does not brush her teeth. She runs to the door of the orphanage. She doesn’t ring the doorbell; she doesn’t knock. She finds a hole in the door, and she runs up the stairs.

She peeks through the mail hole, and I give her the hammer.

“Great!” she says. She smashes through the door.

“We’re out!” we shout.

I give my sister a big hug. “Wait, but what about the other people?” I say.

“Oh, right! Let’s go smash down their door.”

“Help! Let us out! Help! Let us out!” they shout.

We smash down their door.

“Yay!” they scream.

We all run out the door.

“Thank you,” I say to Danie.

We run out the building.

“Wait! We’ve got to put on our disguises,” I say.

“Why?” Danie asks.

“Because we can’t look like ourselves, because then they’re going to notice us and put us back in our cages!”

“Ohh,” they both say. “Hey, there’s an ice cream shop. Maybe we can stop and get ice cream.”

“We don’t have any money,” I say.

“Oh, right,” Jeremy says. “I was hoping for some ice cream.”

“Well,” I say. “I only have one dollar, and the only thing I can buy us with one dollar is something from the vending machine over there.”

“Let’s do it!”

I look at the options. There are a lot of gummy options, and I go for the Welch’s pack.

“We’re all going to share,” I say.

“Okay,” everyone says.

I push the button 74. The Welch’s pack falls, and falls, and falls. Finally, it reaches the bottom. I reach my hand in, and I grab the Welch’s pack. I open the bag. Everyone reaches for a gummy.

“Thanks!” everyone says.

“No more time for dilly-dallying. We’ve got to go,” I say.

“Okay,” everyone says. They start skipping out the door.

“What are you guys doing?” I say.

“Ummm, just skipping.”
“I said no dilly-dallying!” I say.

“Oh, right,” Jeremy says.

We walk as if we’re people going over to a boat.

“Hey, someone left this boat on! Let’s go in.”

Before I go over to the steering wheel, I see the guy running back to his boat.

“Uh oh!” I shout. I turn it on, and I go across the ocean.

“Hey! Get back here!” the man shouts.

He doesn’t realize that there’s no fence, and he starts to run over to his boat. He falls into the ocean.

“We’ve caused a lot of trouble today,” I say.

Chapter Eight: Fat Daddy Taco

When I go downstairs, I see a treasure chest. I open it, and there’s millions of dollars!

“Oh my gosh!” I shout. “Everybody, come downstairs!”

“What?” they all shout.

“I found a treasure chest full of money!” I bring it upstairs, up to the dock.

“Woah!” everyone says.

I see a sign. It says New York instead of Antarctica. I accidentally go to New York City. I see a statue. It’s the Statue of Liberty! We get off the boat, and we dock it. Everyone takes a shocked look at our boat, because they all have cars, and we’re the only ones dragging a boat on land. Everyone tries to not look away. Soon, we reach Fifth Avenue.

“Why is it only the Fifth Avenue? Then this avenue must be ancient!” I say. I go down one more avenue. It says Fourth Avenue. “This avenue is even more ancient!” I shout.

All the polar bears look at me, confused.

“Why are there polar bears in blue, and pink, and purple wigs?” one of the humans says.

I ignore it. I look at the avenue. Now that we have millions and millions of dollars, I look at the shops. I see McDonalds. Eh, too cheap! I look around again. Fatty Daddy Taco! I tell everyone to go over there and act like real humans. I see them go up to the counter.

They go in and ask the man, “Hello, may we please have 600 tacos to go, please?”

The man looks at me, but he doesn’t look away. He falls to the ground.

“Oh, do animals not talk in this dimension?” they say.

They go in the back of the kitchen. They find 600 tacos! They take them and run out.

“Here, let’s leave 1,000 dollars behind. This place might be too cheap,” they say.

They leave. I see them come back with the 600 tacos.

“What took you so long?” I say.

They tell me.

“Now I get it,” I say. “We have to find a house that we can live in.”

“Which house do we pick?” they say.

“We can’t just pick a house!” I say. “Here, let’s buy a million dollar house in the suburban areas.”

“Okay!” they all say.

I wander off into Red Hook. I see a giant Tesla shop.

“Ohh, let’s buy one of these!” I say.

I take another million dollar bill, and we choose a Tesla. I choose a bright white Tesla. I give them the million dollars, and that moment I realize that I don’t have a driver’s license, and we all can’t fit in one car! Uh oh!

Chapter Nine: Tesla!

I sit down on the ground. I sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asks.

“Oh, it’s just that we all can’t fit into one Tesla, and I don’t have a driver’s license… ” There is something poking me on my tush. I look under me. It’s a driver’s license! “Never mind, I have a driver’s license!” I go back in the Tesla shop. I see a Tesla with six seats! “Our problems are solved!” I see another person in a black hoodie. He takes my briefcase. “Hey!” I shout. I run after them. My wig flies off. “Oh no!” I shout and run back to get it. Then, I realize the burglar is already down the block. “Oh no!” I say.

I see a police officer eating a giant burger. It looks like a skyscraper.

The police officer says to the guy, “What are you doing with that briefcase?”

“Uh, uh… ” He gives it to me right away and runs off. The police officer leaves.

We buy the Tesla, and we drive to New Jersey. There’s a big sign that says New Jersey. I see a house right in front of us. It says For Sale. It’s a giant mansion that costs 10 million dollars. It’s white, it has a large arrangement of stairs going up to the front door, and two big columns that are holding up the roof of the front door. It kind of looks like the White House.

“Eh, not cozy enough!” I say.

We drive down the block a little further. I see two houses right next to each other. They say For Sale. They’re supposed to be connected; that’s why the For Sale sign is between them. It has a fountain right in between both of them, two cars can fit in the driveway, two floors for each house, and a porch swing in front.

“Cozy house! Let’s buy it.” I call the number that is on the sign.

Ring ring ring! goes the phone.

“Hello?”
“Yes, I would like to buy your house in New Jersey on St. Adams Street,” I say.

“Okay,” he says. I look at how much money it is. It’s 20 million dollars! “20 million dollars, please!” the man says. “What’s your credit card number?” he says. I look at the bottom of the briefcase. I see a credit card. It has 30 million dollars on it.

“Okay.” I give him my credit card number.

“Okay,” the man says. “The house is yours! I’ll give you the key in ten minutes. I’ll be there. Goodbye.”

Ten minutes later, I see a black BMW pull up in the driveway. He gets out of the car. He gives me the key. He gets back in the car. He leaves.

“Okay,” I say. I take the keys, and I fit them into the door hole. It fits perfectly. “I’ve never seen something fit so perfectly!” I say. I twist it right. The door lets me open it. “So easy!” I say.

I walk inside the house. It’s full of clutter. It’s a bunch of chairs stacked up and a sofa right on top. Not a lot of dust, though, which is good, because Jeremy’s allergic to dust mites. There’s a sink, and possibly some food in the cupboards, and also some rooms.

“All we have to do is organize this!” I say.

Chapter Ten: Wake-Up Call

As I finish organizing, I see Dannie on the sofa eating chips.

“Really, Dannie?” I say.

“What?” Dannie says.

“I want a chip, dude!” I say. “The Doritos blue pack is my favorite.”

“Okay.” He reaches into the bag and gives me one.

“Thanks!” I say. I take a look around the room. “You know, guys, this isn’t what I really want.”
“Really?” everyone says to me.

“Yeah. I kind of want my mom.” I start to cry again.

That moment, I wake up.

“Wake up, wake up!” my mom says.

“What?” I say. “Mom, you’re not a polar bear?!”

“You were probably dreaming,” she says. “You were sleeping for two days!” she yells at me.

“Oh,” I say.

I get ready for school, and then I go downstairs to eat my cereal.

“Bye!” I say to my mom. I walk out the door.

THE END!


Ruth to the Rescue

Chapter One: The Perfect Life

“Children, time for breakfast!” Papa shouted.

Ruth jumped out of bed, threw on her clothes, and ran downstairs. It was her birthday, so Mama told the best stories.

As Ruth sat down, she thought life never would be better. But soon her life was about to change… very soon.

Chapter Two: The Evil Army

Dogs barked. Wolves howled. Ruth knew something was not right. She tiptoed downstairs and peeked out. She gasped. It was Mama’s story come to life. She remembered every word. But she never thought that it was true. The evil army was here next to her house, and she could do nothing about it. Or maybe she could.

Chapter Three: The Chase

Ruth grabbed food, water, and a bike. She also left a note. She started pedaling. Soon she was so close to the army that she could smell them. They reeked like dead bodies. She chased them for a month until finally she ran out of food, not to mention water. Eventually, they got to the hideout. Ruth went as fast as she could, but she was too late. Her mom was dead, and the army were well on their way. She had to find the weapons.

Chapter Four: The Boy

Ruth saw a small boy and said, “The army is coming, the army is coming!’’ But the real army sent a fake army to distract them. She quickly learned that his name was Deano. “Goodbye, Deano. My name is Ruth,” she said.

He finally found the words to say, “Goodbye, Ruth.’’

And she ran to find the first weapon mentioned in her mother’s story.

Chapter Five: The First Weapon

After three tiring days, she came to the cave entrance and went in, hoping that the army had not come yet. She heard the army behind her. She saw the weapon, which was glowing, and she jumped up, grabbed it, and hid. The army’s leader walked right past her. So, Ruth sort of ran and tiptoed to the entrance, hiding when he looked her way. Suddenly, he saw her and pounced. She remembered his weakness: his neck. She snapped his neck, and he howled. She ran out, snapping necks as she was going. When she was safe, she saw that the weapon was a book, and she knew that it was the real weapon.

Chapter Six: The Second Weapon

Ruth began to tremble; she knew that the army would be after her life for killing their leader. But she knew she had to find weapon number two. She set out for the west to find the weapon — for the second weapon was always in the west in her mother’s story. Ruth made a compass to find the west. Finally, finally she found the desert. She also found the fake rock and crawled through it, grabbed the weapon, and ran out. The second weapon was also a book. She nearly cried with joy.

Chapter Seven: The Third Weapon

Ruth saw the army coming, and so she hid and hoped they wouldn’t notice. But they did, and the new leader came and started to fight her. The new leader was the son of the man Ruth had killed, and he fought even more than his father had. Ruth fought back and finally won. Ruth ran to New York City, to the Empire State Building, and started running as fast as she could to the 600th floor where her mother’s story told her the third book would be hidden. She hid and waited and waited, waiting for the right moment to strike because if someone caught her they would kill her. Finally, she grabbed the book from the pool and then tried to blend in, but she looked suspicious.

Chapter Eight: The Fourth Weapon

Next, Ruth needed to travel to Israel where she knew the fourth book would be hidden. After many tiring days, Ruth reached Israel and went directly to the Kotel to pray and climb. She put her own paper in the wall, with her own note. She started the long climb up and up and up. Finally, she reached the top of the Kotel. Israel was so beautiful from there. She took the book and jumped down. The last place where the weapon was the most dangerous, so she crawled away.

Chapter Nine: The Fifth Weapon

Ruth crawled to a book burning place and winced. She took the book and ran right into the Demon King!

“Your time has come,” he hissed.

“Cut it out,” her mom said. “She did well, and you have lost. Ruth, fight! We will help.” Seeing Ruth’s puzzled looks, she said, “I pretended to die, so you would win, and you have done so well — ”

Suddenly, the Demon King started fighting. Her friends and family fought better, and soon he was dead. Ruth gathered the books together, and they multiplied, so they made a library.

The End.


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

The Paint Palette


Chapter One

Maya was already plenty stressed about her first day of school. She decided that waking up to her annoying alarm clock and tumbling out of her bed was in the “not a good way of starting the first day of school” column. She groaned and got up. She walked over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Maya’s mom always told her that her smile was the best good first impression. She brushed her teeth and got dressed. When she saw her reflection in the mirror, she almost screamed. Her hair was a rat’s nest. And it was sticking up in all different directions, not to mention that her eyes were saggy, and she looked like a racoon. She immediately washed her face and started ferociously brushing her hair. At least now her hair looked a little calmer.

“Well, so much for a good first impression,” she mumbled under her breath.

She walked downstairs, where her mom was waiting for her with a plate of piping hot pancakes in her hands. “Mmmmmm,” Maya said, and she sat down and wolfed down her pancakes. After a refreshing drink of orange juice, she flung her bag over her shoulders and went to the door. Her mom stopped her in her tracks and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.

“Mooom,” Maya groaned and walked out of the house.

She had to run to catch the bus. Fortunately, she managed to find a seat that did not smell like dirty socks and boys underwear. By the second stop, the bus was packed. Kids crammed in in any space they could find. Her best friend Clara swooped in next to Maya before a little boy could.

“Sorry, this seat is taken,” she said to the boy.

He pouted and trudged to the back of the bus. Maya had scolded Clara for treating a kindergartener like that.

“Now we are older and wiser. We are in fifth grade now!!!” Maya screamed.

Right. Older and wiser,” Clara responded.

The bus ride to school had been the most suspenseful ride ever. It was almost a relief when they arrived at school. Almost. She knew that she had Mrs. Garnish for homeroom. She was definitely one of the meanest teachers in the world. But she was grateful that Clara was in her class. At least she would get tortured with her BFF. The bus doors opened with a swish, and all the kids filed out. Everyone went to separate places. The kindergarteners to the cafeteria, the high schoolers to their classrooms, and the fifth graders to the stinky, smelly, humid auditorium. Maya walked out of the bus and went up the stairs to the auditorium. She was usually in the cafeteria with the lower graders, so the path to the auditorium was unfamiliar. When she finally arrived at the auditorium, the place was buzzing. She walked over to the place where her class was sitting, and took a seat next to Clara.

“So, how did convincing your dad that you are a fabulous artist go?” she asked.

“Horrible. He started lecturing me on how I should get a real hobby. Again,” Maya replied.

Clara tried to stifle a laugh. At that moment, the bell rang, which meant that everyone needed to go to homeroom. The two girls walked (more like trudged) to their homeroom class. Maya opened the door to the classroom and confidently marched in. She picked a seat, not in the front, but not in the back. Clara took a seat next to her. The teacher walked into the room, and the classroom fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The door closed behind Mrs. Garnish. She was a slim woman with black ravens hair. Her eyes were striking green, while her nose was pointed and flat. The dress she wore was black as night and seemed vaguely familiar to Maya. Her black hair was pulled into a tight bun. She surveyed the class and walked across the room. Her heels click clacked against the marble floor. They looked so tight on Mrs. G as she walked across the room.

Mrs. G’s personality was much like her appearance. She was a no-nonsense teacher! She was a very strict person, yet there was something kind beneath that rock hard outside.

“As all of you know,” Mrs.Garnish said in a sharp voice, “I am your homeroom teacher, Mrs. Garnish. I have many rules, and I expect you to follow them all. Number one: Listen to me when I talk. Number two: Always be respectful… ”

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Maya wasn’t looking forward to spending the whole morning listening to their teacher drone on and on about being respectful. Blah blah blah blah… She didn’t have time for that nonsense! Finally, Mrs. G stopped. Maya was relieved. All that talking had made her brain feel like it would explode. Over the loudspeakers, the principal said, “Fifth graders, the first period is now ended. Please proceed to your second period.”
Maya slipped on her backpack and went out the door. She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. It was was slightly crumpled, but it was readable. It read, For second period, you’ll be having history at room 305 with your teacher Miss McGonagall. She walked over to the classroom, dodging students all going in different directions. She finally reached room 305. Over the door it had the words Miss McGonagall printed in yellow and pink letters. They had flowers all over the door and their walls. It seems like a very cheery classroom, Maya thought. And with that thought, she pushed the door open and walked inside.

There are classrooms, and there are classrooms!!! Then, there are Super Mega Ultra Awesome Classrooms!!! This is what Maya was thinking as she walked into room 305. There were mountains of books piled in every nook and corner. Pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln with bulging heads were staring at him from the walls. The place was humid and steamy, like a sauna, and smelled faintly of toasted marshmallows. Maya was awestruck at the sight of this classroom, but it was nothing compared to the teacher herself.

She popped up right in front of Maya. “Hello, you must be Maya,” she said in a dreamy voice. It took Maya some time to process that this teacher was someone real, and that she was not in fact dreaming. Miss McGonagall had glasses that were simply too large for her face. Her long blond hair was draped around her shoulders. She was wearing a black T-shirt and a short skirt with bright pink stockings. She was wearing blue, sparkly flats and was staring at Maya with much curiosity. The teacher seemed to be wearing lots of eyeshadow, for it looked unnatural on her pale face. Miss McGonagall was so close to Maya’s face that she could practically hear her breathing. “Come, take a seat,” she whispered.

Maya walked over to an empty desk. The only person who was sitting in that room with her was a pale boy with black hair. He was reading a book, and he didn’t seem to notice Maya’s arrival in class. She looked over to the door, hopeful that soon a new kid would come into the classroom and break the awkwardness. Her wish came true. The door opened with a creak. In came three girls. One of them was clearly a leader. She had a short bob for hair, bangs that were pinned to the side, and was wearing the most fashionable outfit that Maya had ever seen. Wow, Maya thought. She is so cool. Maya was convinced she was Taylor Swift’s daughter! She sat down right next to Maya, and the other girls sat next to her. The girls smiled and waved at Maya. Maya felt that she was blushing. She waved back.

“Hi, my name is Carolyn,” the girl introduced herself. She seemed very nice, and Maya couldn’t wait to be her friend.

Maya said, “Hi, my name is Maya. It’s nice to meet you!”

Just then, the door opened, and many kids filed in. Everyone got a seat, but some grudgingly took a seat that was not next to their best friend.

“Settle down, settle down,” the teacher said. “I am Miss McGonagall. I will be teaching you about history and everything you need to learn about it.”

Maya thought that this teacher would be different from other history teachers, but it turned out she wasn’t. This year was no different. This year they’d still be learning plain old boring history. Miss McGonagall introduced them to a lot of famous people from history. By the time she walked out of the room, Maya was humming a tune that went, “George Washington,” with other various heroines. She checked the list again.

Miss McGonagall came running after her yelling, “Everyone in my class, your homework is to read chapter twelve!”

Maya nodded and briskly walked away to her science class.

Suddenly, a magical flyer came out of the blue and hit Maya in the face. (Well, not really. Maybe Maya was just walking and saw the flyer on the wall. But this makes the story more exciting.) The flier said, Join the art club! Fun! Make new friends! Paint! Afterschool. Room 101! Sign up today! Maya took a picture of it and sent it to Clara. The clicking of the phone echoed in the silent corridor.

Clara texted back, OMG you should totally join.
Then, Maya texted, R U Sure? Dad might kill me.

Clara said, BRB Got2Go.

Then, Maya put her phone away.

Chapter Two

Maya had been thinking about the flyer all day. She decided that she would ask her father about it when she got home. When she got off the bus at her stop, she knew what she would say. Maya shouldered her backpack and stepped off the bus. The bus lurched forward and bellowed exhaust into her face. She turned around and started to her house. She knew the path by heart and didn’t bother to look where she was going.

***

Maya dug into her pocket and felt the familiar grip of her keys. She fumbled with the door and heaved it open. “Dad, I’m home!” she called half-heartedly. She knew it was way too early for him to be home. Unsurprisingly, there was no answer. Maya closed the door behind her and turned on all the lights. She plopped her bag on the floor and went up to her bedroom. She took off on the stairs and skipped a few. When she got to her bedroom, she pushed her door wide open and flung herself on the bed.

Her bedroom was the only place that was comforting to her. Maya reached into her back pocket and pulled out the crinkled flyer. She read it again. Maya then decided that she better be ready for when her father came home, so she went downstairs and started microwaving some leftovers. Her father would probably be disappointed. The pesto pasta and fried vegetables didn’t look inviting, so she added a Caesar salad.

She heard her dad (the major chef) creak open the door. Finally, she thought. She quickly busied herself with setting the table. Her dad had probably had a bad day at work, because he heaved himself onto a chair and started shoving pasta into his mouth.

“Dad?” she said, nervously. “I saw a flyer today. It was an art club. I was wondering if I can join it?”

Her dad mumbled something like, “Sceektkiyrimefil.”

“Dad?” she repeated loudly.

“Maya, you know that I disapprove of your fondness over art. I will talk about this with your mother,” he said, without looking at Maya.

Maya’s heart fell. She knew her dad would never give this conversation a second thought, much less mention it to her mom. Maya ate some pasta halfheartedly and slowly trudged back towards her room.

Chapter Three

The next day, Maya had the usual classes. During the day, she was lectured by Mrs. Garnish, bored to death in English, picked at her school lunch, doodled on her math assignment, and then plopped herself down on a bench in the school playground, where she was right now.

She was having an argument with herself, debating whether she should go to the club or not. Sure, Maya’s dad had said no. But she could do it if he didn’t notice, right? Maya finally concluded she would do it. Besides, it was just an art club. Her dad couldn’t get that upset, could he?

Chapter Four

Maya checked her flyer. Yep, this was the spot. Room 101. Just like the flyer stated. Maya hesitated before she opened the door. What was I thinking? Dad is going to kill me!! she thought. But it was too late. Maya pushed the door open. As she looked around, she felt a heavy rock in her stomach but pushed it down. She walked into the room and heard laughing coming from one of the tables. Maya shut the door behind her. She walked farther into the room and saw a tall boy with red hair and freckles spreaded across his face. He grinned.

“Hi! I’m Jacob! Nice to meet you!” he said cheerfully.

“Hi, my name’s Maya. This is the art room, right?” Maya asked.

He laughed. “Yep, this is it!” he said. “We work for the school newspaper. Each week we write a comic strip for it. I’m really glad you could join this place. We only have about six people. It’s really hard to write comic strips with that little people.”

Someone yelled, “Hey, Jacob! Who’s the new girl?”

“Guys, this is Maya. Maya this is Ruby, Patrick, Ava, Jake, and Evan.”

There was a series of people mumbling their hellos. Maya walked over to where they were all sitting. She looked around the room. All around the walls there were paintings and murals and all sorts of different paintings. Crammed into a corner was a blank easel, just waiting for someone to make a beautiful picture out of them. There was a small rug with a couple of chairs around it in the middle of the room. Above the rug was a shelf holding markers, paper, paints, pencils, and brushes. (No, not toothbrushes, silly. That is totally different.) Maya stared at the room. In the direction she was headed was the table they were sitting at. She pulled out a seat and sat down in it. Ruby handed her a sheet of paper with five boxes in it.

“Each box will be part of the comic,” Ruby explained. “When you put it all together, it will be a funny scene. It will have to be a short one to capture laughter, comedy, or drama.”

Maya understood this. She did this at home sometimes. She took a pencil from the table and started. She knew what she would draw. She started sketching her ideas.

Chapter Five

When Maya got home, she was ecstatic. The art club had been a great success. She walked into her house and put her bag on the floor. She pulled her flyer out of her pocket and threw it onto the table and started to make pasta. She hummed a song that she heard on the radio while she boiled it and hugged her dad when he got home. When her dad got home, he picked up the flyer on the table.

“Honey, what’s this?” her dad asked.

“Ummmmmm,” Maya struggled to find words.

“Maya, did you go to this afterschool?” her dad asked furiously.

“Yes,” Maya responded without looking at her dad.

“Maya, this is unacceptable. Go to your room. You are grounded. I told you not to do it, yet you did it anyway. That is why you are grounded.”

“Wait, Dad, I really love art! I don’t want to be a chef! I hate to cook! My real passion is art. It’s the only time I feel at peace.”

Her dad considered this. “Maya, I never knew this. If you had told me this before I would have let you paint a lot earlier. So, yes, you may join the art club.”

Epilogue

Maya was in her bedroom. It was quiet and peaceful. She stroked the easel with her paintbrush. Maya’s hair was pulled back into a messy bun. Her jeans and T-shirt were covered up with a paint splattered smock. Maya surveyed the paining. “Hmmm… more yellow,” Maya confessed. She dipped the brush in the yellow paint and continued to make the painting. Her mind wandered, and she thought about all that had happened lately. She put her paintbrush down on the table and walked over to the window. She pushed it open and stared out at the open blue sky. She thought about her passion for art, how the chef (her dad) had disapproved. How she had shown him the painting she made. How her dad had smiled. How he signed her up for it. How she went to that classroom for the second time without feeling guilty. How she felt at home.


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


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!!!”

Being on the Verge of Death: Chapter One, Just Great

Chapter One: Just Great

“Being on the verge of death.” There’s a saying like that around town. How great it feels to be like that. Then come back up to your position and fight. Well, those things are for stories. Nothing like that happens in real life.

It’s Valentine’s Day. Well, to be precise, two weeks before it. So let’s just say, it’s Drama Season. The time of the year in our school when there is the sixth grade Valentine’s Day dance. Just great.

Well, since we’re talking about school already, I’m going to do one of the things teachers love. Not Straight As, but Intros. “Clappy Clappy everyone.” So, basic things first. My name is Daisy. I’m in middle school, the class where there is the most drama. That’s it. Intro Shut Down.

Well, anyway, the Valentine’s day dance is in two weeks. Everyone’s super excited since there’s always drama every minute this time of year. People getting accepted and rejected. And it gets worse for the kids who have a lot of friends. That doesn’t mean popular though. It just means a lot of people know you, and sadly, a lot of people know me. That was nice until this time of the year. I know someone might ask me, but I might want to reject them, but at the same time, I don’t want to crush them. Well, fun fact, two of my friends, Alena and Sapphire, attract a lot of boys, so I’m off the hook for a while. Also, attract doesn’t mean boys liking them. They’re the girls that boys say to other boys you like them, but they don’t.

I’m in class now, and the flyers are already up. Great. Just great. Well, I might as well act like nothing has happened until Harmony comes up to me.

“Hey, Daisy. Let’s go tell the class about dance.”

Great. But what choice do I have? I’m part of the student council, and it’s our responsibility to tell the class. Just great.

“Sure,” I reply.

We slowly walk up to the front of the classroom to tell the class about this “fun” event.

“Okay, so we’re going to have a Valentine’s dance. It costs $10 to come to the dance. There’s going to be prizes, games, food, and a DJ. The dance is on February 14, 2019. And you need to get a partner to play some games. But you can’t ask them until each game. We’ll tell you ahead before each game starts, so just keep that in mind. Your partner can be your friends also. It doesn’t have to be a date unless someone asks you at the dance. It starts at 3:00 and ends at 7:00,” says Harmony.

And suddenly, nearly the entire class is coming to pay. Wow. Great. Only one third of the class went to the Halloween dance, and now the entire class is coming. Great. After everyone paid, Harmony and I paid since every student council member has to come. Well, this was a positive start. Rraaahh!


Adventures of Hazel Hollyblade

Hazel Hollyblade awoke with a start. Someone was knocking on the door of her little house beside the colorful Delesquari Fields next to the ocean. Red, pink, blue, and purple flowers bloomed, and the fields seemed like an endless rainbow of color, and as Hazel got up to change into a dress, she saw a woman with raven black hair and a rather uncomfortable-looking black and white dress uniform standing near the doorway.

It was Laira, the head commander. Moments later, Hazel opened her door in an emerald green dress that fell to her knees. Gold streaked down her dress and ended in flowers on the border, and the silk swirled around her legs. Her tights felt warm, and brown hair tumbled down her back.

“A monster has broken loose from the prisons!” Laira blurted out hurriedly. “The queen would like to see you.”

Hazel nodded excitedly before reaching out to the saddle gear and mounting her horse, Macadamia. This could be her big chance to actually work as a team with Great Commander Laira. As they rode across the dirt path, the salty sea breeze mixed with the sweet smelling flowers made a wonderful aroma. Once they reached the palace, Hazel dismounted and walked to the queen. She was wearing a white dress with a long red leather coat.

Without even looking, the snowy haired queen said with a regal expression, “You know your job. Now go do it.”

“Yes, Queen Dewri,” said Hazel. She knew that she was supposed to be in the Inner Circle, guarding the Sundew Tribe’s sacred mango tree while the warriors got to fight on the Outer Circle. The OC (Outer Circle) would always defeat the monster before the IC (Inner Circle) could do anything.

She took her place in between her friends, Fern and Lily. Fern had wavy brown hair and was wearing a green dress. Lily had straight dark blonde hair that fell over her shoulders and was wearing a white dress tinged with pink around the edges and a petal shaped bottom.

“I wonder what the monster is like?” pondered Fern nervously. Fern was always very nervous, while Lily was more practical.

“Probably some big, scary, gruesome monster,” sneered Violet, who loved to scare others. Her short cropped black hair and dark purple dress fluttered in the warm breeze. Shy Asphodel said nothing. Asphodel was wearing an indigo dress and had wavy black hair that tumbled down her back.

Suddenly, they spotted a shadow lumbering towards them. Hazel readied her stun sword that was safer than a regular electric sword.

“Who’s that?” wondered Lily.

As it came closer, Hazel gasped. Violet and Fern ran away on the spot. Asphodel and Hazel stepped forward while Lily and the rest of the others stepped back. Another girl named Heather also stepped forward.

Heather had dark brown hair that was tied into a braid and wore a light purple blouse and skirt. The monster had a lion’s head, dragon wings, and scaly legs. His tail whipped back and forth like a whip, the ends curving into a stinging scorpion tail. Hazel jumped towards the monster as Heather and Asphodel flanked the sides.

The monster blew out a cloud of mist, and Hazel could hear a deep voice bellow, “Me is Sharptooth!”

Hazel swung blindly and felt her blade connect with the edge of Sharptooth`s tail. Sharptooth howled in anger as his tail went numb and all the power drained out of it. As Hazel swung and slashed, she could hear Heather and Asphodel fighting too. Suddenly, as Hazel was about to swing down on the monster, she heard Asphodel shouting, “Stop!” Hazel leaped down from Sharptooth.

“What?” she questioned.

“I called the Monster Control. They’ll be here any moment now since they were too scared to come here in the first place,” Asphodel replied. They walked to Heather, and all three of them skipped over to the palace to tell the queen that they had defeated Sharptooth.

Once the queen heard the news, she was delighted.

“For this, you can all be in the outer circle!” Queen Dewri cried, smiling. Hazel looked at her friends and her bullies, and she thought of the uniform, the endless fighting, and the loss of her friends if she went to the OC. When she looked at Asphodel and Heather, Hazel could tell that they had come to the same decision.

“Nah,” said Hazel. “I think I’ll pass.”

Her friends gaped at her, but Asphodel and Heather were nodding. As Queen Dewri dismissed them, and they walked out, laughing and chittering like raccoons, Hazel felt… content.

A few months later…

“Hazel!” Heather called, peeking into her friend’s dusty cabin. “Hazel?” She wasn’t there.

“Woohoo!!!” shouted a voice nearby.

Heather rushed around the corner to find Hazel riding Macadamia the horse onto a hill. Heather smiled as her best friend zipped down the hill and out into the endless fields of Heavenly Plains.

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


When Hot Dogs Take Over the World

Written in 3018

Hi! I’m Beatrice! I write books about things that could happen in the future. Everyone must be prepared. The beginning of my story always starts with the object I’m talking about. This story should prepare you for when… hot dogs take over the world!

(This story is not fictional.)

When hot dogs take over the world, here are some things you need to know. If you are eating food right now, stop!!! When hot dogs take over the world, the only way to escape them is to eat the hot dogs. If you are eating, you are a threat to the universe. If you have ever eaten before but you are not a threat to the universe, you are a threat to the world. You have to save space for all those hot dogs. Another thing is that now, every night, you must carry a knife to bed to fight off the hot dogs in the middle of the night. Also, hot dogs hate backpacks, so anyone who has a backpack could possibly die. In that case, anyone who’s reading this should hand me their backpack right now. They also hate pillows. And jackets. And snacks. All those things should be handed to me right now. This is not a scam. Another thing hot dogs don’t like is cars and money. And you should also give me the world. Hot dogs are taking over the storyworld, so they must not like it. That’s the end of my story, but my life isn’t over, so my personal story continues.

Beatrice!!! You are once again late, and this time I will not tolerate it!!! You are three quarters fired, young lady!”

That’s my not best friend, Ashley. She thinks she’s the boss of everyone. She publishes, edits, types, and receives money for the stories I write. Whenever I’m late, she fires me three quarters. Now I’m down to two tenths. Ashley claims that I never contribute to my stories and that’s why I never get paid. But I do!!! Ashley is such a two-faced butthead! I hate her. No. In fact, I hate Ashley. If I could dump someone into a trash compactor, it would be her. And then there’s Sunny. Sunny is my cat. My talking cat. Sunny is everything to me. I come after a very, very, very, very, very long lecture by Ashley. Look at the size of that font. Then times it by the biggest number you can think of. Argh. But the worst part is, when I got home, I saw that my dad had left me a hot dog. He had also left me a note in his scribbly, fancy handwriting. It said… it said… I didn’t have time to think about it, because just then, something hit me in the head, and everything went black. Dun dun dun…

Chapter Two

I woke up in a big, fat, smelly room. Someone was standing over me, and I felt scared. Wait a second. That wasn’t a person! That was a hot dog! Then I remembered. I had forgotten to take off my backpack! No! I was about to die, and it was all my dad’s fault. Then, I heard a small purring sound. Sunny! Yes! I tugged at the hot dog. Then, a layer of the hot dog came off revealing… a person! And it wasn’t any old person, it was Ashley!

“Ashley! What are you doing at my house in a hot dog suit at MIDNIGHT?!”

“Okay, okay! Yeesh! Chill out! I was just looking for the hot dog story, so I could type it!”

“In a hot dog suit?” I say.

“Okay, I was trying to scare you. I thought maybe if I scared you, you would quit writing stories, and I could take all the credit without having to feel bad about it!”

“Yeah… No. I would never quit writing stories, it’s my life!” I said.

“But… but… ” stammered Ashley. Suddenly, Sunny jumped on Ashley. “Help! Get your stupid cat offa me! Are you crazy?!”

“No way!” I said.

“Fine! Type your own stupid stories! ‘Cause I QUIT!”

I was astonished. Ashley picked up the hot dog costume and threw it onto my bedroom floor.

Chapter Three

The next day at school, I noticed a girl at lunch sitting all alone. I felt exactly the same, so I came over and introduced myself.

She looked up at me and quietly said, “I’m Maya. I just moved here from Japan.”

“That’s so cool!” I said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Japan!”

Maya looked up at me. “Really? I thought people would tease me about it.”

“No way!” I said. “I know millions of kids who’d love to meet you. Also, I write stories. Would you like to help me write one? I’m almost finished, but I could use some help.”

“Really?” asked Maya.

“Yeah! We can work on it at my house after school.”

“Let’s be best friends!” Maya said.

“Okay,” I said.

Finally! A friend besides Sunny! A whole new chapter of my life was beginning to unfold. And I couldn’t wait to get started.

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.


Adventures of Hazel Hollyblade

Hazel Hollyblade awoke with a start. Someone was knocking on the door of her little house beside the colorful Delesquari Fields next to the ocean. Red, pink, blue, and purple flowers bloomed, and the fields seemed like an endless rainbow of color, and as Hazel got up to change into a dress, she saw a woman with raven black hair and a rather uncomfortable-looking black and white dress uniform standing near the doorway.

It was Laira, the head commander. Moments later, Hazel opened her door in an emerald green dress that fell to her knees. Gold streaked down her dress and ended in flowers on the border, and the silk swirled around her legs. Her tights felt warm, and brown hair tumbled down her back.

“A monster has broken loose from the prisons!” Laira blurted out hurriedly. “The queen would like to see you.”

Hazel nodded excitedly before reaching out to the saddle gear and mounting her horse, Macadamia. This could be her big chance to actually work as a team with Great Commander Laira. As they rode across the dirt path, the salty sea breeze mixed with the sweet smelling flowers made a wonderful aroma. Once they reached the palace, Hazel dismounted and walked to the queen. She was wearing a white dress with a long red leather coat.

Without even looking, the snowy haired queen said with a regal expression, “You know your job. Now go do it.”

“Yes, Queen Dewri,” said Hazel. She knew that she was supposed to be in the Inner Circle, guarding the Sundew Tribe’s sacred mango tree while the warriors got to fight on the Outer Circle. The OC (Outer Circle) would always defeat the monster before the IC (Inner Circle) could do anything.

She took her place in between her friends, Fern and Lily. Fern had wavy brown hair and was wearing a green dress. Lily had straight dark blonde hair that fell over her shoulders and was wearing a white dress tinged with pink around the edges and a petal shaped bottom.

“I wonder what the monster is like?” pondered Fern nervously. Fern was always very nervous, while Lily was more practical.

“Probably some big, scary, gruesome monster,” sneered Violet, who loved to scare others. Her short cropped black hair and dark purple dress fluttered in the warm breeze. Shy Asphodel said nothing. Asphodel was wearing an indigo dress and had wavy black hair that tumbled down her back.

Suddenly, they spotted a shadow lumbering towards them. Hazel readied her stun sword that was safer than a regular electric sword.

“Who’s that?” wondered Lily.

As it came closer, Hazel gasped. Violet and Fern ran away on the spot. Asphodel and Hazel stepped forward while Lily and the rest of the others stepped back. Another girl named Heather also stepped forward.

Heather had dark brown hair that was tied into a braid and wore a light purple blouse and skirt. The monster had a lion’s head, dragon wings, and scaly legs. His tail whipped back and forth like a whip, the ends curving into a stinging scorpion tail. Hazel jumped towards the monster as Heather and Asphodel flanked the sides.

The monster blew out a cloud of mist, and Hazel could hear a deep voice bellow, “Me is Sharptooth!”

Hazel swung blindly and felt her blade connect with the edge of Sharptooth`s tail. Sharptooth howled in anger as his tail went numb and all the power drained out of it. As Hazel swung and slashed, she could hear Heather and Asphodel fighting too. Suddenly, as Hazel was about to swing down on the monster, she heard Asphodel shouting, “Stop!” Hazel leaped down from Sharptooth.

“What?” she questioned.

“I called the Monster Control. They’ll be here any moment now since they were too scared to come here in the first place,” Asphodel replied. They walked to Heather, and all three of them skipped over to the palace to tell the queen that they had defeated Sharptooth.

Once the queen heard the news, she was delighted.

“For this, you can all be in the outer circle!” Queen Dewri cried, smiling. Hazel looked at her friends and her bullies, and she thought of the uniform, the endless fighting, and the loss of her friends if she went to the OC. When she looked at Asphodel and Heather, Hazel could tell that they had come to the same decision.

“Nah,” said Hazel. “I think I’ll pass.”

Her friends gaped at her, but Asphodel and Heather were nodding. As Queen Dewri dismissed them, and they walked out, laughing and chittering like raccoons, Hazel felt… content.

A few months later…

“Hazel!” Heather called, peeking into her friend’s dusty cabin. “Hazel?” She wasn’t there.

“Woohoo!!!” shouted a voice nearby.

Heather rushed around the corner to find Hazel riding Macadamia the horse onto a hill. Heather smiled as her best friend zipped down the hill and out into the endless fields of Heavenly Plains.

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

Too Short

Once upon a time there was a face. This was no ordinary face. This was a floating face! And what this face wanted to do most was play volleyball. Now this was a very hard thing to do, for as you know, it was a floating face and had no arms. But still, it wanted to play as much as ever. So, the face went along its normal face life — as normal as floating faces lives are — until one day it went to its therapist and asked what it could do to play volleyball. The therapist said that it could write a book and make some money, so it could get a pair of mechanical prosthetic arms. The face thought that that was a good idea and started to write a book. The book went like this:

Once upon a time there was a face. This was no ordinary face. This was a floating face! And what this face wanted to do most was play volleyball. Now this was a very hard thing to do, for as you know, it was a floating face and had no arms. But still, it wanted to play as much as ever. So, the face went along its normal face life — as normal as floating faces lives are — until one day it was walking around its block when suddenly it saw a magical beacon of light in the distance:

“Come, play volleyball,” it said. Then, there was a blinding flash of light, and the face woke up. It had all been a dream! Then, the face reached up and scratched its face with its finger. Wait, it had a finger?! It looked down, and there they were, two perfect, glistening arms attached to its chin. Wait, its chin?! Then, it went and played volleyball for the rest of its life.

The End

Then, he took it to the publisher but got rejected because it was “too short.”

THE END


Hen

Once the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus)

And restricted to Laos and southern Cambodia,

When we noticed the chicken bore no malice,

We traded to farms in the West for some modia.

Now the hen’s plumage is mostly lackluster,

And the tail of the cock has lost all of its gold,

But both of their tempers are all they can muster,

And as a result are aggressive and bold.

As their sons in America continue to flourish,

And spread their loud crowing all through the land,

You must never forget all the birds that we nourished

To bring agriculture right into our hand.

I wonder, on farms, when the sunset has passed, if

The faded and bruised hens stare up at the stars

And wonder, when we have permission at last, if

Our ancestral acres could someday be ours?


The Guy Who Only Struck Out

       

Chapter One: The First Game

“Oh hey, Janoris,” I yelled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Chapter Two: Ripken

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

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

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

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

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

 

Four days later…

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

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

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

 

Chapter Three: The Mystery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Chapter Four: The Solution

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

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

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

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

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

“Fine, but just five,” he said back.

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

My dad agreed and went to get more equipment.

 

Chapter Five: The Guy Who ONLY Hit Homers

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

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

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

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

 

The End

 

Forever Standing

        

When someone looks

Down on you

When they laugh

At your differences

When they criticize

Your similarities

When you want it all to end

So you hide away

Tears streaming down your cheeks

Thinking to yourself:

“You don’t deserve to be here”

 

Remember, to see is a gift

To come home to your loved ones and say:

“I love you”

Is a blessing

To stroll on the beach,

Sun shining down on your back

Water lathering your toes

Is a miracle

To have compassion and be able to give back

Love that others have given to you

Is a wealth that cannot be measured

 

When you are looked down upon,

Someone somewhere is looking up and saying,

“Thank you”

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

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

Because maybe, just maybe, you powered through

All the hatred being poured onto your shoulders

Sweat drips down your face in effort

But you are still standing

You will keep standing

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

You can’t

So you will keep standing,

Forever

 

Air France 447

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

However, things did not go to plan.

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

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

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

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

Answers seemed to be gone with the plane.

Forever.

 

Shortys and the Big Race

 

     Scene One: The Beginning

 

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

 

MILLY (off stage)

Hey! Wait up.

 

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

 

EMY

First place.

 

Emy flips her golden hair with her hand.

 

MILLY

Second place.

 

Emy and Cat laugh as Kayla touches the wall.

 

KAYLA

Second place.

 

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

 

CAT

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

 

KAYLA

Watch it sissy.

 

EMY

I’m still counting!

 

Cat taps the wall with her finger.

 

CAT (muttering)

Third.

 

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

 

NARRATOR

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

 

EMY

Open your eyes, Milly.

 

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

 

MILLY (muttering)

Last.

 

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

 

JANE

Oh my. Lookie here.

 

CAT

Shut up, Jane.

 

EMY

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

 

KAYLA

Don’t make fun of our names.

 

JANE

I challenge you to a relay race.

 

CAT

It is on!

 

Scene Two: The Training

 

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

 

KAYLA

Come on, come on, come on.

 

Kayla runs on with Cat trailing behind her.

 

CAT

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

 

Emy walks on.

 

EMY

Okay, now the order. Cat, you first.

 

CAT

Why me?

 

EMY

Just, just…

 

KAYLA

You heard her. You’re first!

 

She turns to Emy.

 

KAYLA

Me next, right?

 

EMY

Sure.

 

CAT

Yeah, yeah,

 

EMY

Me next, of course!

 

KAYLA

And finally, Milly!

 

Milly sits up.

 

MILLY

Did I hear my name?

 

EMY

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

 

Milly faints.

 

EMY

Did I say something?

 

Scene Three: The Race

 

Narrator comes on stage.

 

NARRATOR

The race!!!

 

Narrator walks off stage and coach walks on.

 

COACH

Ready, set, go!

 

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

 

NARRATOR

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

 

Milly runs on stage with Jane close behind.

 

NARRATOR

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

 

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

 

JANE

First.

 

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

 

MILLY

First.

 

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

 

MILLY

This memory is a keeper.

 

EMY

Good job!

 

Everyone bows.

 

ALL

The End.

 

Everyone walks off but Kayla.

 

KAYLA

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

 

Emy walks on as Kayla takes a silly bow.

 

EMY

Come on, Kay. We don’t have forever!

 

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

 

 

 

Even Death Has Morals

          

Charles

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

 

Lola

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

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

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

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

 

Sheldon

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

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

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

 

The Owner

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

 

 

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

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

“Why?”

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

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

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

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

Then, the pencil and eraser ran away.

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

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

 

Sean and Alex

           

Part One: Atlantis

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Part Two: A Different Solar System

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

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

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

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

Alex said, “Neither can I.”

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

And Sean said, “Yes.”

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

 

Part Three: Climbing mountains

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

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

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

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

 

Part Four: Conclusion

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

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

Sean and Alex said, “Thanks!”

 

The End!

 

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.

 

Beautiful: A Feminist Fairy Tale

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The poor thing is clueless, like always.”

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do I look happy to you???”

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

“Oh my god! Chrysanthemum!”

“Weren’t you supposed to be a mummy?”

“We had no idea that was you!”

“I saw you dressed as a mummy!”

“We’re so sorry!”

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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

“Hey, Chrys. You okay?”

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

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

 

Upsidedown

      

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

 

“Sure.”

 

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

 

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

 

After the boom, they both fell asleep.

 

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

 

Nancy was still sleeping.

 

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

 

“What happened?” Nancy yelled.

 

“I don’t know,” Emma said.

 

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

 

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

 

“No,” Nancy said.

 

They pulled on their clothes and rushed outside.

 

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

 

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

 

Clearly she had not noticed everything was upside down.

 

Emma ran behind a house with Nancy.

 

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

 

“She is pretty old,” Nancy said.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

“I don’t know,” Emma replied.

 

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

 

“Okay,” Emma said.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

“What should we do?” Nancy asked Emma.

 

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

 

“Okay,” Nancy said.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

“Okay,” Nancy said.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

This is how it went.

 

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

 

“No.”

 

“Maybe I should go,” said Nancy.

 

“Oh yeah, bye. See you later maybe.”

 

“Mom, please.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Yay! Thank you so much Mom.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“See you tomorrow.”

 

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

 

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

 

At 9:00, they ate the mints.

 

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

 

They put on their clothes and went outside.

 

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

 

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

 

“Okay,” Emma said.

 

They played until lunch.

 

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

 

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

 

That night, there was a big boom.

 

Booooooooooooooooom.

 

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

 

Emma and Nancy said, “Hooray!”

 

THE END!

 

Dagger and the Bloodwolf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The End

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

Now that’s the end.

 

Put on Your Game Face

 

Hmm…

Click.

Tap.

Crumple.

Arrgh.

Beep beep beep, goes my text tone.

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

Madeline Kate O’Brian

You have been selected for a game challenge.

You will have five days to complete this challenge.

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

If you accept, write back immediately.

 

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

I accept. Give me more details.

Immediately, the thing texts back.

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

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

“I can.”

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

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

“None of your beeswax,” I snap.

“Ohhhhh, someone’s in a bad mood.”

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

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

“So what?”

“So something is up.”

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

“And what?”

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

London walks over to my desk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the other people involved with this challenge:

Rose Apperad

Belle Mersa

Aaron Icer

Jack Canfor

And Beatrice Becomler.

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

 

Tap.

Tap.

Crumple.

Crumple.

Headslam.

“Dinner time!”

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

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

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

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

“Umm, yeah.”

“Can I test it?”

“Umm, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

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

“Oh. Okay, then.”

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

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

“Stop it, London.”

“Why?”

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

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

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

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

“Probably not,” mumbles Ryan.

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

“I said that you couldn’t not argue.”

“I accept your challenge.”

“I didn’t challenge you.”

“Five bucks if I don’t argue.”

“Oh, whatever.”

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

Ryan chuckles.

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

“I went to the skatepark,” offers Ryan.

“You skate?” asks Dad.

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

“That makes more sense,” Mom says.

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

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

“Nope!” is our very speedy reply.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Right,” London and I say.

“Fine,” Mom says and goes back inside.

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

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

Start thinking of game ideas.

Unless you want consequences.

And then

I am putting you in the blueish-gray room.

And

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

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

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

“Do you need to know?”

“Yes!”

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

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

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

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

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

“Fine! A challenge. Tell me more.”

“I don’t know more.”

“Uh , yes you do.”

“Uh, no I don’t.”

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

“What is going on here?”

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

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

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

“Anything?” asks London.

“Anything, if you leave Maddie alone.”

“Deal!”

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

“So?”

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

“Umm… a driver’s license?”

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

“Drive.”

“And what do you drive?”

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

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

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

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

“Fine.”

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

 

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

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

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

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

“London!”

“Just saying.”

“Anyway, thanks.”

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

“What do you mean, it has a price?”

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

“Why would pay you money?”

“Because… I just helped you a lot.”

“In other words, no.”

“Please!”

“NO!!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes, I am. Rose, right?” I ask.

“Yep.”

“Come on in.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

“London, go away.”

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

“So sorry, Maddie. I am just tired.”

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

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

“Sorry, Ryan.”

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

 

A Race to the Deadline.

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

 

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

“Sorry,” I say.

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

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

 

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

“Ready to go,” I say.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah… ”

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

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

Beatrice and I freeze.

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

“Let’s open our baskets.”

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

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

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

Great! Another creepy text.

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

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

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

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

“Your work is denied.”

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

“LONDON!”
“Madeline?”

“What the heck have you done?!”

“I made a contest. Nothing new.”

“Why would you do this?

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

“Yeah right.”

“No, really.”

“Are you judging our work?!”

“No. My friend Viola is.”

“Is this thing fake?!”

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

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

“Madeline. Try me.”

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

“Oh, but we are.”

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

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

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

“Safe and sound at home.”

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

“Remember Rose.”

“Yeah, did you set her up?”

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

“You did, did you?”

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

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

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

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

 

Epilogue.

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

 

Goldfish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheddar was so upset that she started crying.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The End

 

The Diary of Sir Littleton III

        

December 1, 1924

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

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

December 2, 1924

I’m back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My little snout went redder than a tomato.

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

Suddenly, I heard a scream from the dressing room.

“Eek! Somebody ruined my clothes!”

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

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

I shivered like I was in Antarctica.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE END

 

A New War

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ralf yells, “WHO IS THAT?!”

“I don’t know,” says Rohan.

“YOU DON’T KNOW?” yells Ralf.

“I’m Arados,” the man says.

“Who?” Rohan asks.

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

“Um w… why?” says Ralf.

“Just do it,” says Arados.

“Okay,” says Ralf.

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

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

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

A few days later…

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

“We are going to Elvon,” Arados says.

“Where?” Rohan asks.

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

“Why?” Rohan asks.

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

“But why Elvon?” asks Rohan.

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

“Okay,” says Rohan.

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

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

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

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

“Do you know what that is?”

“No, I don’t,” Rohan says.

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

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

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

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

“What is that?” Rohan asks.

“It is… ”

A huge boom hits the castle.

“What was that?” Rohan asks.

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

“Rohan, run,” Arados says.

“Where are you going?” Rohan asks Arados.

“Just run,” Arados says.

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

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

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

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

“My name is Dilval.”

“Okay, what is the knight’s guard?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay,” agrees Rohan.

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

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

Rohan screams, “NOOOOO!!!”

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

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

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

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

The end

 

Persephona

        

Part One

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

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

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

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

Then her mom said, “You sure, honey?”

“I’m sure, Mom.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Part Two: My Diary

(Night)

Dear diary,

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

(Morning)

Dear diary,

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

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

“Your dad,” she said.

 

The end

 

Sequel coming out summer 2019.

 

The Evil Santa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Twins that Never Fight

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

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

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

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

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

THE END!!!

 

Faller Killed Killer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then, Killer thought, I have to get revenge.

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

Coco At The Circus

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

The End

 

Electro

 

Episode One/ Chapter One

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

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

Then, Jack said, “Anytime.”

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

 

Episode Two/ Chapter Two

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

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

Jack replied, “I’m Electro.”

 

Episode Three/ Chapter Three

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

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

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

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

Ben said, “Yeah.”

Mason said, “What about him?”

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

Then, Jack teleported in a circle to show them.

“Wow!” said Ben and Mason.

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

“Okay,” said Ben and Mason.

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

 

Episode Four/ Chapter Four

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

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

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

“Yeah,” said Ben. “We should have.”

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

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

 

Episode Five/ Chapter Five

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

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

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

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

“Same here,” said Jack.

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

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

Then, they all headed to school.

 

Episode Six/ Chapter Six

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Episode Seven/ Chapter Seven

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

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

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

“Why would we trust you?” said Jack.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We will?” said Mason.

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

“Deal,” said Leo.

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

“Okay,” said Ben.

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

“Okay.”

“Okay,” said the boys.

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

 

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

“Wow,” said Jack.

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

“This is so spicy, and I love it.”

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

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

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

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

To be continued…

 

The Road Trip

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“AAAAAAAHH!” I screamed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

War of the Fruits

        

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

Chapter One

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

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

Chapter Two

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

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

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

Chapter Three

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

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

Chapter Four

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

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

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

Chapter Five

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

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

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

Chapter Six

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

Chapter Seven

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

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

Chapter Eight

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

Chapter Nine

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

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

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

Chapter Ten

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

Chapter Eleven

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

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

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

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

“Yay!! We made the bridge!”

Chapter Twelve

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

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

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

Chapter Thirteen

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

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

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

 

The Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Drawing

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

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

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

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

“Thank you, but what’s in here?”

“Something special,” said Ms. Pig Wig.

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

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

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

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

 

Maddy the Gymnast

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

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

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

Her mom said, “Sure.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The end.

P.S. This time she invited Grace.

 

The Great Snowball Fight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE END

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

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

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

Now it’s really THE END.

 

Shadow Their Attack

      

Characters:

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

MOM: Jack’s mom

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

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

 

Chapter One: Monsters Attack

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

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

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

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

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

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

It walked slowly down the block, like a zombie, and the leaves didn’t even crunch beneath its feet. Silently, it approached Jack’s house with the trash Jack threw at him dragging behind him. It rang the doorbell.

“Who is it?” Jack asked.

Nobody answered.

Jack opened the door.

Nobody was there. Jack slammed the door and walked back to his room, terrified.

It crawled into the open kitchen window and threw the trash on the floor and made a mess on the kitchen floor with a bang. It crawled back through the window and went back to the alley.

Jack’s mom walked into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes because she was tired. She saw the trash all over the floor and was devastated and disappointed in Jack.

“Jack! Get in here,” she shouted.

“I’m coming!” he mumbled, half-asleep. Jack walked into the kitchen, worried and confused. Surprisingly, the trash was still in the kitchen. “But I took it out!”

“No video games for a week,” his mom interrupted. “Jack, take out the trash again in the morning. Back to bed.”

 

The next day…

Jack thought things were getting strange. He hadn’t put the trash in the kitchen. What had happened? Jack was going to go back to the alley to find out what was going on.

“Mom, I’m going out to get some vegetables!” Jack lied.

“Sure thing, Jack.” Jack’s mom thought something sketchy was going on, but she trusted Jack and was making dinner, so she decided not to interfere.

Jack stepped outside. He didn’t want to go back to the alley, but he clearly remembered seeing someone a few days ago when he took out the trash. He slowly started walking towards the alley, trying to be brave.

The shadowthief saw Jack coming to the alley, so he thought of a plan. A plan to haunt Jack. As Jack approached the alley, he felt someone walking behind him. He turned around. No one. Jack felt cold. He felt alone. Who was there? He heard footsteps coming from behind him. In his mind he thought, Mom, help me! Suddenly, the shadowthief grabbed him and ran away.

Jack’s mom looked at the clock. How come Jack isn’t back yet? she thought. She waited and waited. An hour passed. Still no one. Jack’s mom grabbed her coat. Tears poured down her face. She rushed out the door. She looked all over town, but she still couldn’t find Jack. When she got home, she couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t eat. She tried calling the police.

“My son disappeared! Can you help me find him?” she said on the phone.

“Okay, we’ll try to find him,” the policeman said.

Meanwhile, Jack was in a trash can tied up.

He waited for somebody to notice.

And waited.

And waited.

The police looked everywhere but couldn’t find Jack. The policeman called Jack’s mom to report the news. Jack’s mom felt depressed.

Jack decided that he was tired of waiting and would break out. But how? He made sure no one was there in a 50 meter radius. He tipped the trash can over with all his might. The trash can broke into pieces. He saw some broken glass on the side of the street and used it to cut the ropes that tied him together. It was cold and foggy outside, although Jack didn’t feel the cold because he was struck with horror. He went back to his house, speechless and stunned, and told his mom that he was safe. It was so late at night, but his mom was still awake and waiting for him. Jack told his mom about the shadowthief and about how he was going to find it. His mom didn’t want him to go, but Jack really wanted to find the shadowthief, so she insisted that he bring a knife and a flashlight.

“Stay safe!” Jack’s mom said.

“Okay, I will,” Jack said. He gave her a hug and went back and hid in the alley waiting for the shadowthief.

The shadowthief came back from another alley a few blocks away and looked in the trash can, but Jack wasn’t there. He went back to the first alley, but little did he know that Jack was waiting for him with the flashlight and the knife. The wind was howling, and Jack was nervous when he saw the shadowthief. He shone the flashlight and was about to ambush the shadowthief, when he noticed that the shadowthief was struggling in pain under the light.

Jack realized that the shadowthief was afraid of light. Now he knew the shadowthief’s weakness, so he wouldn’t have to worry about him again. He kept shining the flashlight on the shadowthief until he got home. He rushed inside and slammed the door, happy that he figured out how to deal with the shadowthief. He told his mom about the shadowthief’s weakness, and his mom was worried and relieved. Jack went straight to his room and flopped onto his bed.

The shadowthief recovered from the light in a few minutes, stood up and stretched, and wanted to kill Jack. The shadowthief ran out of the alley with a new plan.

 

The next day…

Jack woke up feeling proud of himself, thinking that he defeated the shadowthief. His mom had made him cake, and they had a dance party to celebrate Jack’s victory. In the middle of the party, the doorbell started ringing over and over again. Jack looked through the mini-window on the door and saw multiple shadow thieves violently banging on the door.

Jack ran up the stairs and quickly got his flashlight. He ran back down the stairs and shone the flashlight at the shadow thieves. But this wasn’t enough light. The door was starting to break open.

“Do you know what we should be doing now?” Jack said. “Running!!”

Jack and his mom ran and literally jumped out the window. The shadow thieves went to every house in town to scare everyone’s pants off. The whole town was under attack of shadowthieves.

“If only I had a light big enough to defeat those shadow thieves,” Jack said.

 

A few hours later…

The whole town was under attack. The shadowthieves scared everyone, and no one felt safe in the town. People all started to hide in all sorts of places.

“Mom, we have to do something about these shadowthieves. Maybe we could build a light big enough to defeat all these shadowthieves,” Jack said.

“Jack, we first have to run from these shadowthieves because they’re dangerous.” Jack and his mom hid in a car.

“Hey, Jack, I remember a friend in high school that can help us with this situation.”

“Mom, who is this friend from high school?”

“Professor electro man. He specializes in making unusual things that have to do with electricity. He can build a huge light for us.” Jack and his mom tried to find Professor electro man, but they couldn’t find him anywhere in town.

“Maybe he’s terrified about the shadowthieves so he also hid.”

“I see him!” Jack’s mom said. Jack and his mom rushed towards Professor electro man.

“Sally, is that you?” Professor electro man said.

“Yes yes yes, it’s me, and this is my son Jack.” Just then, a shadowthief grabbed Jack’s mom and ran.

“MOM!” Jack screamed. “Please, professor, help me build an enormous light to defeat these shadowthieves. Please, please, please with a cherry on top?”

“Sure thing, Jack, as long as it saves your mom,” the professor said. Jack and the professor started to make the enormous light invention.

Jack and the professor got in a helicopter and shone the light all over the city. Soon, all the shadowthieves were in pain and down.

“Great job, professor, but we need to find my mom.” Jack and the professor looked all over the city, but Jack’s mom was nowhere to be found. Jack was determined to find his mom. The day started to turn into night. Jack had to take out his flashlight, so he could see. Jack shone his flashlight towards a trash can. There was writing on it: Jack, Kenya.

Jack used his knife to cut a hole in the trash can. Out slid a piece of paper, a map of Kenya.

 

Chapter Two: Hope

Hey, guys. It’s me, Jack. I just lost my mom a few days ago. I discovered a trash can and a map with writing on it. Now what do I do? I have to stay in Kenya with this crazy professor that I barely even know. This all started because of me. I hope to save my mom. I hope she’s safe. It all started when I threw some trash away. It hit this thing so-called the “shadowthief,” and now the “shadowthieves” stole my mom and pretty much destroyed the city.

Kenya is a hot place with sunny days. Normally, I would be happy because I love bright days, but how could I be happy when I lost my mom?

“Where do you think my mom will be?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe somewhere no one can see,” said the professor.

I realized that on the map, there was an X. The X was on the Museum of Shadows. “Wherever there’s an X, my mom is probably there,” I said.

“Let’s go find your mom!” the professor said.

“I’m glad that it’s night because the shadowthieves like the darkness,” I said.

The professor and I walked into the deserted museum, hearing screams of innocent people and carrying the enormous flashlight that the professor made. It was dark inside. We walked around, searching for my mom. Suddenly, I saw something run past me so fast that it was blurry. I froze. I realized that it was the shadowthief. The professor and I ran towards the shadowthief that ran past me. The shadowthief led us to a silent room. I started to hear my own heart beating.

“Professor, you go in first,” I whispered.

The professor nodded and went in. Five minutes passed. He didn’t come out. I was terrified. Sweat trickled down my head. I realized that the professor was also trapped by the shadowthieves. I slowly walked into the room, my legs trembling, hoping to find my mom and the professor. I turned gears and clicks and switches to turn on the light. When the light was on, I saw my mom and the professor both tied up.

I used the knife that my mom had given me to cut through the thick ropes that tied my mom and professor together. I hugged my mom and the professor. Right when I freed them, I felt footsteps coming behind me. I turned around, feeling seven pairs of footsteps coming. I know they’re the shadowthieves that captured my mom and the professor! I tried to run and escape, but I couldn’t find the door. I shone the light at the shadowthieves and hit them right away. I heard them collapsing on the ground. Meanwhile, the professor found the door, and we ran out of the museum. As we bolted out of the museum, we heard the shadowthieves running trying to catch us. I kept shining the flashlight at them, but it was no use because they kept dodging the light. I felt them gaining on me. The professor, my mom, and I slammed into a brick wall and were cornered by shadowthieves. They got closer and closer and closer…

“We had a nice life. Goodbye, Mom,” I said.

“Don’t worry, son — ” she said, but before she could finish her sentence, she was eaten. Tears escaped my eyes and poured down my cheeks. I tried to fight back but —

The end…

Or is it the end???

 

Treasure Map

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The End.

 

Gone Girls

 

Hailee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Riley

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bye!

 

CHAPTER ONE: HIDDEN PASSAGEWAYS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

CHAPTER TWO: THE HOUSE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

CHAPTER THREE: THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

CHAPTER FOUR: 100 PATHWAYS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THUD.

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

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

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

THUD.

 

CHAPTER FIVE: HOME SWEET HOME

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Hey, Dad… ” she said and hugged him.

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Castle of Love

Once upon a time, there lived a princess, queen, and king. They wanted to be very rich, but they did not have much money. They became king and queen because they were rich. Other people had $10, but they had almost $100,000, but there was someone way richer than them. They had $100,035, but that was from their army for fighting against England.

They became a little rich because they worked very hard for the high jungle every day to see plants and animals. The family had eight pet unicorns and 50 pet dragons and three horses. The first dragon was named Rainbow, the second was named Pretty, the third was named Beauty, the fourth was named Rainy, the fifth was named Rosie, the sixth was named Uni, the seventh was named Nature, and the final one was named Yummy. The unicorns were named the color hair they had. The first one was named Gold, and the next one was named Silver. The third was named Pink, the fourth was named Purple, the fifth was named Turquoise, the sixth was named Brownie, the seventh was named Rainbow, and the fifth was named Rainbow Gold. The army was named the Rich Army on Earth. Rainbow was a generous and kind unicorn. She could do anything for the family, but she was usually mean to everyone else because she didn’t like anyone else talking to her. Her friends didn’t know how this would happen. If she didn’t know anyone and she didn’t want to meet anyone new, how did she make friends?

Rainbow was almost a teenager because she was nine years old. Her next birthday was tomorrow. Maybe she must be magical. And the princess was very happy, but they had lots of money because they took care of all their pets, so they had been richer than ever. And they lived happily ever after.

The end.

 

The War for Aspadus

        

Chapter One

The Guard: Michael

Six hundred years ago, on a planet called Aspadus, there was a country called the Irevalon Empire. They were a country where people had powers. But over time, they spread out over the planet and developed their own powers and their own languages. On one half of the planet, it was green, hilly, and warm, and they spoke Dragonese, and on the other half, it was mostly watery and cold. They spoke Lorainian. Eventually, they separated into two different Kingdoms: The Kingdom of Kilgore and the Kingdom of Lorain. The King of Kilgore was a good leader named King Ray. The King of Lorain was King Jensen. He was a greedy king and wanted to rule the entire planet. So, he went to war with Kilgore. The war was six years long, and Kilgore won. They just wanted to keep their half of the planet and have peace. Ever since the war, the Lorains had poured money into their military because the Kilgores were more powerful. The people of Lorain were just trying to defend themselves from the mess their king got them into. After the war, the Kilgores learned how to control dragons with their powers, and the Lorains learned how to train sea monsters just in case they had another war.

In the Kingdom of Killgore, some people had powers, and they were called the Iron Guard. They protected the Kingdom. The leader of the Guard was the most powerful Guard member ever. His name was Michael. He was seven feet tall with muscles all over his body, and he had black beady eyes and black hair with a big black beard. He was also the oldest Guard member ever. He was 500 years old. Michael could fly, shoot fire out of his hands, and turn invisible. Those were the powers that only he had, but he also had powers that all the Guard had, like strength, speed, and the ability to move things with his mind. All of the Guard had a dragon. Michael’s dragon was called DemonFire. The dragon’s powers depended on their owner. DemonFire was the strongest of all. He could turn invisible and breathe fire. The biggest enemy of the Iron Guard was the Lorain Shield. They also had powers, but instead of dragons, they had sea monsters.

One day, Michael was training in the Guard headquarters. In the training room, there were weapons like crossbows, flaming swords, and armor. They also had traps and a fake battlefield, so the Guard could train without going to war.

Michael was about to kill the last Lorain soldier, when Michael’s servant rushed in saying, “Lorain is attacking the Kingdom! Warn the rest of the Guard!”

“YES! FINALLY SOME ACTION!” screamed Michael.

Michael gathered seven of the best Guard members. They were called the Elders and had started the Iron Guard. They were the strongest, fastest, and smartest. Their names were Jack, Logan, John, Paul, James, Will, and Trevor. When the Elders got to the battlefield, the Lorains were already getting away.

“This should be fun,” screamed Michael.

“Would you shut up, please?” Jack yelled.

Michael lit his hands on fire and shot two big fireballs that lit up two Lorain soldiers and their sea monsters. Suddenly, he heard a scream, and it sounded like it was coming from his side. He saw Jack being shot by two long streams of water and dangling from his dragon with his feet hitting the water. Michael pushed Jack back up onto his dragon with his mind.

“You’re welcome!” screamed Michael.

“Be quiet!” screamed Jack.

Michael grabbed his sword, jumped off his Dragon’s back, and turned invisible. When he landed, he grabbed a Lorain and stabbed him in the back. Three down, twelve to go, Michael said in his head. Logan plucked two attacking soldiers off their monsters with his mind and threw them into the water. Trevor struck two Lorains with a lighting bolt. That killed them and their monsters.

“Eight more,” Michael said.

Michael used his flames as he flew, dodging arrows and water when the last Lorain was killed.

Michael said, “Let’s get back home.”

When Michael and the Elders got back to Killgore, the rest of the Guard was waiting for them at the Guard Headquarters. Thousands of Guard members were there. One of them stepped forward and asked Michael, “Why didn’t you take us?”

“Because we did not need all of you,” Michael said.

After Michael got home and took a shower, his servant told Michael, “The King wants to see you again.”

“Okay,” replied Michael.

When Michael got to the castle, the rest of the Elders were already there. They all went up to a room where they made decisions. It was a big room with a long wooden table and stone walls. The king had a chair at the head of the table, and the other Elders were gathered around. To people who didn’t know him, the king looked scary. He was big, with a beard and a scar across his cheek. But in reality, he was not. He was funny, and he was humble.

“What do you think we should do about the Lorains?” said King Ray.

“I think we should attack them and make them pay for what they did today,” Michael said.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with Michael,” Jack said.

“But we can’t just go into a big battle with the whole Lorain Empire,” said Logan.

“Come on, you’re always boring,” Michael said.

“Alright. You vote on it, but I’ll decide,” said King Ray.

“I say we attack with every member of the Guard and kill all of the Lorains,” Michael said. “Or do you want to stay here and let the Lorains take over the whole world?”

“Let’s attack,” Jack said.

“Attack,” Paul said.

“I say we stay here,” John said.

“Oh, come on, John. You would rather stay here and be a coward instead of have fun killing people?” said Michael.

“Still, I would rather stay here then risk killing the entire Guard. If we all die, what would happen to Kilgore?” John said.

“I think we need to get some revenge on Lorain. I want to punch King Jensen in the face so badly,” Trevor said.

“I like the way you think, T,” Michael said.

“I say we stay here,’’ Will said.

“Let’s stay here,” James said.

“Alright. What do you want, Ray?” Michael asked.

“That’s King Ray to you,” King Ray responded. “I think we should attack Lorain.”

“YES!!!” screamed Michael.

“We attack in three days,” said King Ray.

 

Chapter Two

The Shield: Jackson

When Jackson heard the news about the spies being killed, he was furious. He went straight to his dad, King Jensen. “I want to kill them all!” screamed Jackson.

“You will get your chance. We are attacking in three days — prepare your monsters and the Shield.”

“Perfect,” Jackson said.

Jackson went to his monster, WaveCrasher.

He said, “You ready, boy?”

WaveCrasher nodded all three of his heads.

One of Jackson’s powers was the ability to communicate with animals. Like all of the Shield members, he had special powers. Just he had more because he was the son of King Jensen and the most powerful witch ever, Queen Diana. Jackson’s powers were being able to talk to animals, breathing underwater, shooting water out of his hands, and being able to freeze the water as he walked.

“I can’t wait for the battle,” said Jackson to WaveCrasher.

When Jackson warned the rest of the Shield that they will be attacking Kilgore in three days, they were all excited because they hadn’t had a big battle like this for over 100 years.

“Prepare your monsters and the ships. We will kill every last Kilgores!” screamed Jackson.

When the entire Shield was on the boats, Jackson told all of the men to get ready to fight because the Kilgores were brutal.

A day later, Jackson saw ships and dragons. The dragons were huge. So was the Guard. Jackson knew that the Shield had more men and could eat them, but he also didn’t think the Guard was that big.

 

Chapter Three

The Battle: Michael

Michael was riding DemonFire when he saw a bunch of ships.

“It looks like the Shield,” he said. Michael told Jack who told the rest of the Guard.

“Let’s do this!” screamed Michael. All of the attacking line got on their dragons and charged. As soon as Michael got within 50 yards, arrows started firing at the Guard.

Michael said, “Make a shield.”

All of the members of the Guard made a shield with their minds, and the arrows bounced harmlessly into the water. Michael charged with DF, both of them burning boats and Lorains. Michael jumped off DM and told him to turn invisible. They both did and shot fire at the ships. Suddenly, something hit Michael in his back, and he visibly fell out of the sky. He called out to DF just in time, because he caught him before Michael hit the water.

“Thanks,” Michael said.

Going back to the battle, Michael was about to turn invisible when two arrows hit him in the shoulder and chest. Blood started pouring out of his mouth. He had to go back to the ship to heal.

 

Chapter Four

The Giant Jack

Jack saw Michael get shot three times and then retreat back to the ship. Jack thought, I’m going to have to make fun of him a little.

Jack said to his dragon, “Drop me.”

The dragon lowered him to the ground a bit, so Jack could jump off. Jack threw his dagger at a Lorain soldier in mid-air that hit him right in the head. When Jack landed, he flipped right over a soldier and stabbed him in the back.

“Come on, you’re making this too easy,” taunted Jack.

Jack flung two more soldiers into the the water without even touching them. All of a sudden, a Loric soldier twice the size of any other soldier jumped onto the boat. The huge soldier held a sword that was as long as Jack. In Jack’s head, he said, Oh no. Jack tried to hold the giant back with his telekinesis, but the giant easily broke through. The giant charged at Jack and punched him in the face. Jack went flying 20 feet backwards. Out of nowhere, Michael jumped off DF and shot the giant with fire. The giant screamed in pain as he jumped into the water.

“Thanks,” Jack screamed.

“Oh, look who learned some manners,” Michael said back.

As soon as Michael said that, three Loric soldiers charged him. Michael turned invisible and killed them all with his sword. Michael turned around and saw that the rest of the Loric ships were leaving.

“Look! They’re running!” screamed Michael.

When Michael got back to his ship, he talked to the Elders and asked them if they had ever seen a man that big. They all said no.

“We won the first battle. Do you think we should still attack Lorain while they’re weak?” asked Jack.

“I think we should attack them right now. It was fun,” Michael said.

“Of course you and Jack think it was fun. The rest of the Elders and I had to stay back and watch you guys fight,” Trevor said.

“Did we decide yet,” said Michael, “because I think we should attack.”

When Jackson got back to Lorain, he was a mess. He had one big burn on his back that was killing him. Who was that soldier that was flying and and shooting fire out of his hands, Jackson thought. I think I also saw him turn invisible when I jumped into the water. He was even too strong for the whole army to kill him.

Jackson went to his father King Jensen. “Do you know of a Guard member who can shoot fire out of his hands, turn invisible, and fly?” King Jensen and Jackson said at the same time.

King Jensen said, “Jackson, there is something that I never told you.”

“What is it,” Jackson said.

“He is your brother who was stolen by the Kilgores.”

Jackson was shocked when his dad said that. “So, he is Loric?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, he is, and he is the most powerful person in the world, and his name is Michael.”

 

Chapter Five

Round Two: Michael

When the Elders made the decision to attack the Loric island, Michael went out to scout the island by himself. When he got within 100 yards, he turned invisible. There are not that many Guards near the ships, so if we burn the ships, they won’t have a way off the island, Michael thought. When Michael got back to his ship, he told the Elders, and they all told the rest of the Guard the plan to burn the ships and kill all the Loric soldiers.

When Michael got back to the ships, he told the Elders the plan to beat the Lorains. Michael gathered the whole Guard and told them, “Anyone who can fly or shoot fire, step forward. You’re going to help me burn the Loric ships, so they can’t get away. Then, we will burn the rest of the Kingdom and kill them all.”

When the fleet was close to Lorain, Michael told the 20 men to get on their dragons and to start flying. Michael led the charge to Lorain. As soon as the Guard got within 100 feet, they started shooting flames at the boats. Michael thought, Good, all of the ships are gone. Hopefully, the rest of the Guard is destroying the rest of Lorain.

Jackson was awakened by screams, and his brother Jacob ran into his room screaming.

“The Guard is here.”

Jackson said, “What?” still half asleep.

“GET UP! LORAIN IS UNDER ATTACK!!!”

Now, Jackson was wide awake, and he put his armor on. He told his brother, “Get the people on the boats.”

Jacob said, “The Guard burned them.”

“Come on!!!” Jackson said.

Jackson got the Shield and told them that the Guard was attacking. When Jackson got outside, he saw that most of Lorain was already on fire and that the Guard was on their dragons. Jackson fired water at a few Guard members and knocked them off their dragons, but there were still a lot more. Suddenly, he saw the soldier that shot fire, his brother.

“Michael, brother.”

Michael was wondering why the giant was calling him brother. So, he jumped off DF and charged at him. Michael shot two fireballs at the giant, but the giant was too fast. This time, he stepped out of the way, so the flames went into the house behind him. Jackson made a wave and shot it at Michael. Michael blocked it with his telekinesis and threw another fireball at Jackson. This time, the fireball hit him right in his chest. The giant went flying back 30 yards with a big burn right in his chest. Michael started walking over to the giant, about to kill him, when two arrows flew over and hit Michael in his leg and back.

Jackson saw his chance and swept Michael’s leg. Michael fell and screamed in pain. Jackson looked over to see who shot the arrows and saw that it was Jacob.

Jackson smiled at Jacob and said, “Thanks.”

Right when Jackson said that, three Guard members walked over and started shooting at him.

Michael had blood coming out of everywhere. He was not sure who shot him and what happened after he got shot, because he blacked out. Michael tried to stand but couldn’t because of the pain in his back. His vision was blurry, and he couldn’t hear anything but 50 feet ahead of him. He thought he saw Jack, Logan, and John fighting the giant by themselves. Michael also saw DemonFire burning Loric soldiers. All of a sudden, a Loric soldier punched Michael in the back of the head. Michael was in no shape to fight but knew that he had to. Michael turned around and punched the man in the face. The man went flying backwards 45 feet. Michael had to help the Elders fight the giant. They couldn’t beat him by themselves. When the giant was not looking, Michael hurled three fireballs right at him. They all hit him in his back. He went flying, and when he landed, he didn’t get back up. John, Jack, and Logan all thanked Michael for killing the giant, but when they saw the two arrows, they started to get worried.

Jack said, “We have to get you to the hospital.”

 

Water “The Elixir of Life”

Water is the substance that is essential to life. Without water, we cannot live. According to www.worldwaterconcil.org (Water Supply & Sanitation), one in ten people lack the access to clean water and 1.8 million people die from diarrheal disease. This cannot happen anymore. People are losing their lives because they don’t have clean water. Right now people are offering two solutions, one is asking for donations to build a well, and two is selling water filters. Just donating money to different websites is not as productive as new inventions, and so we should focus on creating new inventions that can help with water problems.

One way that people are trying to help places with no water is that they are making organizations that try to persuade people to donate money and using the money that people have donated. They will get the equipment to build a well at a place that doesn’t have water. When they build a well, usually a whole village gets water, and nearby villages can also come and get water from them. There is this one website called Charity Water which raises money and helps build wells. My grade donated to the website, and in total we raised $25,130. This is not advertising or required, but if you want to donate, you can go to: https://my.charitywater.org. Donating will help many people worldwide. Charity Water also teaches people in the village how to take care of the well and how to repair it if it is broken. If the well is so broken that the people in the village cannot fix it, Charity Water will send someone there and help them fix it for free. These websites might be helpful for a bit, but soon people might not donate as much money as before because they need it for themselves.

Other than the organizations for building wells, people are creating new inventions such as lead detectors, water purifiers, etc. One company called LifeStraw makes water bottles with straws able to filter water so that the water will be safe to drink. Another cool invention is the Tethys, which is a water lead detector made by Gitanjali Rao, who is a 12-year-old. She won the Young Scientist challenge and got $25,000. The Tethys uses carbon nanotubes to detect lead in water and then sends the results to a smartphone with the Tethys app (Prisco). Attention: This device is not yet out on the market. One invention that has been around for a long time is Ceramic Water Filters. They are clay ceramic that have lots of tiny holes. The tiny holes are only big enough for water molecules to go through. Bacteria, dirt, and other bad stuff are too big to go through the small holes. This device was designed by Henry Doulton who is a British potter. This device was made in the early 1800’s (Kiger). Now, people are modifying the device by adding a silver coating to kill the bacteria and dangerous pathogens. There are still many inventions that are being made and are being tested. To me, all of these inventions are amazing and very cool.

Water filters are better than building wells. To build a well, it costs $6,000-$12,000 depending on how deep the water is (Brenner). People are going to have to donate at least $6,000 to build one well. On the other hand, buying a portable water filter costs $150-$275 (www.fixr.com). This difference lets you see how much money people need to donate to build a well compared to how much money a portable water filter costs. Lot of people argue that building wells can help more people, but people can share a water filter just like a well, and it’s much cheaper. Many people also say that water filters don’t work. Reasons that they might not work is because you have to change the filter once in a while. Some water filters might have a light to indicate that it’s time to change the filter, and others will have instructions that will recommend to change it every few days. Donating money to websites might not last as long as water filters. Ergo, people should focus more on developing new water filters. That work is more important than making organizations that ask for donations to build a well.

 

Work Cited

Brenner, Laurie. “The Average Cost for a Well & Septic System | Hunker.” Hunker.com, Hunker, 26 Nov. 2009, www.hunker.com/13402537/the-average-cost-for-a-well-septic-system

“Cost to Install a Water Treatment System – Estimates and Prices at Fixr.” Fixr.com, Fixr Blog, 22 Feb. 2016, www.fixr.com/costs/water-purification-system

Kiger, Patrick J. “10 Innovations in Water Purification.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018,

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/10-innovations-water-purification2.htm

Prisco, Jacopo. “The 12-Year Old Who Won a $25,000 Science Prize.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/health/gitanjali-rao-young-scientist-winner/index.html

“Water Supply & Sanitation.” World Water Council, www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation

 

Charlotte

      

Part One

Chapter One

One morning, the sky was so blue I could see white clouds and airplanes, which we never saw here in my town, so it started the day off with an odd but somewhat happy start. The happy part ended when mom came and told me that even though it was the middle of the summer, June 8th, 1941, I had to work. When I say work, I don’t mean writing. I mean babysitting the triplets.

“Noooooooooooooooooooo!” I said.

Meanwhile, my older brother Michael got to go out with his friends, and my twin sister, Madeline, got to lie on the other side of the room!!! Sorry for the delay. I am Adaline, and this is how the worst day of my life started.

My mom made me eat breakfast quickly. It was oatmeal, my least favorite. I had to get dressed in uncomfortable clothes for the middle of the summer. Agh, long sleeves, long jeans, itchy headband, long socks up to the knee, and boots. Then, my mom got ready in nice summer clothes. It took her twenty minutes. She did her hair and makeup, and she put on her nice sandals and dress.

“The triplets, Ava, Emma, and Samuel, are in their room in the cribs. Please get them dressed and change their diapers,” my mom said. Then, she added, “Remember, they need exercise. Take them to the park. Remember to take a diaper bag, a first aid kit, two pairs of shoes, sunscreen, and water. Don’t forget snacks! Bye!” Then, she left. I wanted to be like my siblings. They got to go and have fun while I was stuck babysitting.

I went to the room and changed the kids quickly (their diapers and their clothes). The triplets were one and a half years old. One of them was in the carrier on my back. The others were in a double stroller.

The one on my back started screaming. The screaming was so high-pitched! It sounded like me. I was so annoyed. I had three babies, one screaming and two in the stroller asleep, while they should have been eating. The screaming one was throwing her food all over me! I was only eleven years old. I shouldn’t have been the one taking care of these kids! Michael was fifteen, but mom said he couldn’t be helping out. Then, the two in the stroller woke up, wanting food. When I gave it to them, they started spilling it and throwing it everywhere! On our way to the park, they saw one of their friends who was going in the opposite direction.

No, I thought. Please help me.

 

Chapter Two

The triplets screamed happily when they were next to their friend. I talked to the other baby’s mother for a while, and then she said something.

“Hey, if anything happens to me, can you please adopt my child?”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll have to talk to my mom.”

I was not surprised, but I was very worried. I couldn’t have another sibling. Oh no, I thought. I was part of six kids already. The triplets, my twin sister, and my brother. I couldn’t take care of quadruplets! Wait! That meant my older brother and twin sister would have to help!

“And, if anything happens to me,” the mother continued, “can you pick my other daughter up from 104th street and West End? That’s where the bus stop is. Pick her up at 2:30, please. She doesn’t need to go to school tomorrow if anything happens. “I’ll be right back,” the mother said. “Wait here. If I don’t come back in five minutes, then just take the baby to the playground. If I don’t show up at two, please pick up my daughter. Her name is Alexei. Don’t look for me. It’s not safe in the building.”

“Okay,” I said, “Bye!” I took the baby, leaving the mother with the stroller, and put the baby in the front of the baby carrier. The mother started walking away with the empty stroller. She went into her building. I waited five minutes.

She didn’t come out. I waited a little longer, then we went to the park. I had kids. I couldn’t leave them. I’d get in big trouble!

 

Chapter Three

At 2:00, I went to pick up the little girl, but the mom never told me what she looked like!

“Alexei,” I called to the bus. She came off and looked for her mom. She was scared. But then I called, “Come here, Alexi. I’m your mom’s daughter’s friend. Your little sister is friends with my little siblings.”

Alexei came and said, “Oh! Are you Adeline?”

“Yep,” I answered.

She asked, “Where’s my mom? Are you babysitting me?”

I answered, “It’s a long story. You’ll be staying with us for a while.”

“I WANT MY MOMMY!” she wailed.

“I’ll tell you when we get home,” I soothed. “Why don’t you get onto the board on the stroller? You can ride.”

“Okay… ” she said quietly.

I gave her a ride home.

When we got home, I introduced her to everybody. Everybody met for the first time except for the triplets. My mom still hadn’t come home, but she said she would be back by 2:30. Oh, and I forgot, she was visiting her friend… whose daughter I just picked up! My heart was beating so fast. My hands were shaking. I was panting, I was running out of breath, and I had no words. What would I do?!

 

Chapter Four

I ran over to the TV room and turned it on, and I jumped onto the couch with the kids and the remote.

“HURRY UP,” I yelled for my brother. “We need to watch something! I think Mom’s in danger!” I heard my brother running.

“By the way,” I added, “we adopted two kids.”

“What on earth?! You adopted two kids without Mom’s permission?” my brother asked. Then, he hesitated.

“Where’s Mom? She should be home by now.” His voice was questioning and worried.

The TV was on, and we saw the news. There was a huge fire from 92th to 134th street! It was 42 blocks!

“EVERYBODY, GRAB A CHILD OR TWO,” I yelled. “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE BUILDING.” I turned to my brother. “You can drive, right?”  I asked. “If you don’t, you’re in big trouble, mister.”

“Sort of? I can sort of drive,” he said. “I can knock down a few trees and buildings, but I can still drive.”

“Good enough. INTO THE CAR!” I yelled.

 

Chapter Five

“Get into the driver’s seat,” I told my brother, “Everyone else, sit down, and I’ll buckle you in.” I began to buckle in one, two, three, four, five, six… we need more car seats. I unbuckled two seats and squeezed two into a car seat. I sat down and buckled up, and we were off, but we forgot the baby’s blankets in the fire.

Then, we drove off, and we saw the fire truck up ahead, and then the fire truck hit our car and turned it over. I yelled, “Again! Everybody, take a child, unbuckle them, and run. We will need to get as far away from here as we can. Follow Michael, then run to Grammy and Poppy’s house in Brooklyn!” On our way there, people in a minivan stopped us and asked us to get in.

Michael said, “It’s the only thing we can do.”

We hopped in the car, and the parents had two children in the car named Avery and Sophie. When we got in the car, everybody held three children, and we drove back to their house. At first, we were nervous, but as we got used to it, we felt more at home. They adopted all of us.

We lived happily ever after… for a few minutes.

 

Part Two

Chapter Six

One Sunday, everybody left for a trip to Australia. Everybody went except for me, my sister’s friend, and my sister, Alexei. My sister’s friend name was Amanda. Amanda couldn’t eat a lot of things. She was allergic to pretty much everything that everybody else in the house liked, and Alexei liked everything that Amanda didn’t like, and Amanda liked what Alexei didn’t like. They didn’t like any of the same things.

I was not very picky. So it made it hard for the seven months they were in Australia. Every night, we would put the blackouts up and went into the subway. I would put the kids to bed. The first Monday, things went a little differently. Usually, every day we would get a letter in a very bright color from our family letting us know that everything was fine and good, but today we got a black letter that didn’t seem very happy. It said:

 

Family of Samuel, Avery, Sophie, Emma, Ava, Michael, Madeline, Elizabeth, and Benjamin Smith,

Please come to Australia to attend the funeral of Benjamin Smith. It will be at the Waverly Cemetery in Sydney, at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday July 16, 1941. We will explain how they died when you arrive.

The babies are okay, but are sick because of the bomb, and aren’t doing very well.

From,

James Harrington

 

My shoulders drooped, and I began to cry. I was so upset. We rushed over to the docks, caught the first boat to Australia, and we were off. It would take one whole week to get there from London, and with all the bombing, I wasn’t sure if I should have taken all the little ones with me. But who would take care of them if I didn’t bring them along? So on our way to Australia, the boat stopped at Brooklyn so that people could get on to go to Australia, and I dropped off the little ones with our grandparents. Alexei stayed with me as we got on the boat and sailed away. The boat was rough, very crowded, and the food wasn’t very good. Both of us felt sick.

It was really hard to be on the ship alone with a five-year-old as an eleven-year-old. I had to take care of her, and I had to take care of myself, but as we got on the ship and started sailing away, I felt badly that I left the little ones with our grandparents. Our grandparents weren’t the nicest people. They found the worst in every situation, and I didn’t want the little ones to think I abandoned them. Also, I felt like our grandparents would teach the little ones to not like a bunch of things and be mean. They wouldn’t teach them manners, and I’d come back to rude little sisters. So after we went to the funeral, I would take back every child and go back to Brooklyn to pick up the little ones with all the other kids and Elizabeth.

 

Chapter Seven

I got really nervous that the kids in Australia got really hurt because the letter said they were not doing so well. I hoped Michael, Madeline, and Elizabeth were okay, because if they weren’t, who would take care of the little ones? I couldn’t take care of everybody by myself, especially while taking care of bandaged adults and all of the people who normally help me with the seven children.

There was a little boy on the boat with me whose mom was on the last ship, which sunk. His dad was in the war and died. So I thought, Maybe I could convince Elizabeth to adopt him!

“Hi, I’m Adeline. I heard about your parents. Do you want to come with me? I’m only 11, but you can trust me. I have triplet little siblings, an older brother, and a twin sister. We were adopted by another family, and then there are two siblings in their family, and then there was another family that got adopted by us, who were another family of two children, and now we can adopt you. If that’s okay with you. There’s a five-year-old girl over there whose name is Alexei, who is one of the kids that we adopted… And what’s your name?” I said.

The little boy answered, “I am Charlie. You heard what happened to my family, right? I have a newborn sister and an older sister who are over there taking care of each other. My older sister is seven, and I am four.”

 

Chapter Eight

I introduced Alexei to Charlie, and they started playing. I then went around the boat, asking if any of the other children needed a new home or didn’t have parents. In all, there were ten children who needed a new home, not including Charlie and his siblings. So, we adopted all ten children into our family, and I got all of their parents out of a few rooms on the boat and had all the children sit in a circle and introduce themselves. There were six girls and four boys. The girls were Amelia who was six, Olivia who was three, Emily who was nine, Jessica who was eight, Isabella who was four, and Isla who was seven. The boys were Oliver who was six, Jacob who was two, Harry who was nine, and Jack who was seven. There were two sibling pairs and three only children.

When we got off the boat, I had everybody get in a line. First was Harry, then Emily, Jessica, Isla, Jack, Amelia, Oliver, Amelia (Charlie’s sister), Alexei, Isabella, Charlie, Olivia, Jacob, and the newborn, Ava. Amelia had to switch over to hold Ava, but other than that, this was the line. As we were getting off the boat, I had the older kids pair up with a younger kid. We got onto a trolly and were off to go to the funeral. First, we went to our house in Australia to pick up everybody else, then we got our clothes on. I was terrified but happy to have all of these new siblings. I knew how it felt to be separated from your parents, and I knew how important family was in times like this. We were young, with any boy over the age of 16 being sent off to war. Us younger ones had to stick together. I reminded myself this as I got myself ready and helped all the new siblings get ready for the funeral.

 

Chapter Ten

All the girls would have a dress that was black or blue and a bow to put in their hair. All the boys would have a suit and a tie. Everybody got changed, and I put everybody that was younger than five in a stroller, that the kids that were older than five helped push. We got on a trolly and went to Sydney for the funeral. We met Elizabeth, Michael, and all the other kids that didn’t come with me. Elizabeth was very droopy and blue. Her eyes looked black, and I could tell she was really sad. Michael had just gotten a black eye while running with Samuel, so he wasn’t looking his best either. In spite of all of this, I was really happy to see them. They were my family. Even with Benjamin gone, it made me so happy to know that the rest were safe. Who knew how Benjamin was killed? I wondered. I decided not to ask Elizabeth, because I knew that it would make her upset.

Before I got to ask anybody, Sammy came up to me and said, “Ben got killed in a bomb while fighting. Elizabeth was on her way to save him, but she fell and got knocked over, and her eye isn’t actually a black eye… It’s an eye patch because she lost her eyeball while running. We had to run to the hospital, and it was a disaster. Michael had to carry three of us, and Elizabeth held her eye, and Madeline carried me. When we went to the hospital to try and find something for Elizabeth’s eye and Benjamin, Benjamin wasn’t there. They had taken him to a grave site, and laid his body over the dirt. They said that we would have a funeral for him soon, but it has been a week since it happened. It happened the first day we were here in Australia.”

I said, “Wow. You haven’t learned to talk any less! Has Emma learned to talk yet?”

“No! Not at all!” Sammy said. “She still makes baby noises even though she is almost two!”

“When you’re five,” I said, “you’re gonna be saying words from the dictionary! Your vocabulary will be far more advanced than mine!”

 

Chapter Eleven

Sammy walked away, and Elizabeth came over to me and asked, “Why are these other 13 children here?”

I said, “I know how it feels to have no parents for a while, so I decided we could adopt them! But if you don’t want too… I will.” There was silence. “Will you adopt them? Pleeeeeeease?” I begged.

Then, Amelia and Ava came up to Elizabeth and said, “Hi, are you Elizabeth? I’m Amelia! And this is Ava, my newborn sister. She will be two months old tomorrow! What happened to… Bean? Ben? Benjamin?”

“Benjamin,” Elizabeth corrected, “and he was fighting in the war when a bomb hit him and he died, and we are at his funeral today if you know what that is.”

“We know what that is,” Amelia continued. “We were going to have a funeral for both of my parents, but then we had to go to Australia to see our grandparents, who suddenly died from a bomb… Who knows how? So Adeline picked me up, my little sister, and my little brother. We helped collect ten other children who all really want new homes, even if it’s here. Pleeeeeeeeeeease?”

After a few minutes of silence, Elizabeth finally said, “Okay. After the funeral, we’ll go to court and get the adoption papers for everybody here, other than Sophie and Avery.”

 

Chapter Twelve

“Every week day, I’ll have to send all of you adopting children, and they don’t like it. So everybody is planning against you and the day so that I can do some work around the house, and it’s just too much for me. The kids that are eight and older will have to take care of the younger ones. I’ll send you all to your grandparents, also known as my parents, not yours. Michael, Adeline, Madeline, and Peter will be in charge. Peter is my nephew. He is 11,” Elizabeth said. “His parents, my brother, was in the war and died. His mother was very ill from the bombs, and she too passed. So he and his five siblings will be joining you and living with us. That makes 30 children. People know that you are other children. I want all of you to get together and get in a car. Michael can drive now. He runs into a few trees and buildings, but other than that, he can still drive. He will be driving, and you will be off. I want all of you on a boat by midnight every Sunday night. You will all be on a boat that fits 30 people over the age of one, including the captain. That will make there be able to be one captain and the 30 of you children. There are 29 children above the age of one, so it’s a really good fit, and you guys will have the whole boat to yourselves. Try not to spill anything on the bus driver or anybody else. I will see you every weekend, but let’s get to the funeral.”

Everybody stood in a line, and we would get to the ceremony. The kids under the age of five could leave unless they need to be supervised, then they were allowed to stay. There were special circumstances. Everybody would need to eat lunch while they were there, so this meant Amanda would stay with me, Ava would stay with me, and Charlie would stay with me.

“FROWN FOR THE CAMERA!”

 

Chapter Thirteen

After our photo, we walked over to the funeral. Elizabeth dropped off all of the kids at the restaurant so that they could eat and play for a bit during the service. Us older kids were at the funeral, and some stayed back to watch the little kids. I stayed to watch the little kids with Madeline, and then I got everybody the meal that they wanted and a teeny weeny piece of cookie, since sugar was scarce due to the war. We played with the little kids for a bit longer, until the funeral was over. Once it was over, we met up with Elizabeth, and she told us at 11:30 to go back to the trolley and meet her in order to get to the boat and load our things onto it.

“You are going to New Zealand to hide,” said Elizabeth, “and you will be taking the boat that Benjamin built. As I told you before, it will fit 29 people over the age of one, in addition to all of your stuff. The captain is one of my really good friends who will be driving the boat there and back every Friday and Sunday.”

 

Chapter Fourteen

We got ready to leave the next day. We spent the rest of the evening putting our stuff on the boat. We needed to load all of the babies’ blankets and pacifiers, and all of  the older kids’ books and learning tools. We also packed five cartons of milk for each of the older kids to give to the babies and sleeping bags to sleep inside of. Food and water went under the hatch of the small boat, along with clothing for all of us. After we loaded all of this onto the boat, we were feeling very tired. We slept in the cabin under the deck of the small ship. Ten people would sleep in a room, two babies would share each crib, and two kids over the age of five would share a bed. It was very crowded. I felt stuck inside but safe. There were so many people around to keep us safe, and we all knew how to swim, luckily.

That morning, the boat took off for New Zealand. I was feeling very happy to be going to New Zealand, but then I remembered I had to pick up the one triplet from my mean grandparents house. I had almost forgotten about them with all of the new adoptions, but I could not leave them behind! I ran and told the driver to go to Brooklyn, and he told me it would be a week’s long journey. We had to do it.

“Let’s go!” he said. “But I bet Elizabeth will be wanting you back by the time you get there.”

“I will send her a letter,” I said. “That way, she will know where we are.” I found a feather and ink, took a piece of paper, and began to write…

 

Dear Elizabeth,

 

I forgot all about the kids back in Brooklyn! We need to go back and get them, because they are with my grandparents who are not very nice, and I don’t want the kids there to be raised in a home that is not very nice. Hope you understand.

Love,

Adeline

 

I handed the letter to the driver and asked him for an envelope. Once the letter was sent out to Elizabeth, we began our voyage to Brooklyn. The time went by quickly, but not easily. It was a rainy and stormy voyage. None of us had been on such a long journey. Eighty percent of us were throwing up, the other 20% suffered from fainting. The babies were screaming like they had never screamed like before. Their screams sounded like people were dying and like seals were slurping water.

 

Chapter Fifteen

Once we reached Brooklyn, all of the children ran off the ship and tied it to the dock. The driver came out with them, and then we all ran to our grandparents’ house. We fixed our dresses and suits so that they looked presentable and rang the doorbell. Two kids came out, and they looked older than I remembered. They were wearing the most fancy clothes I had ever seen, and they both had really pretty purses covered in gems. The little girls, one years old, looked like they are five and rich, even though they weren’t rich. Though, they were half rich.

We had to walk into the house to pick up the little ones. I felt jealous and dirty in my sloppy clothes as I walked into the beautiful mansion. There were beautiful flowers outside, swings covered in pink and blue gems, and the yellow house that they lived in was beautiful compared to the house that we live in. Our grandparents said that Elizabeth told them to take us instead of going to New Zealand every week. We walked in, and our grandparents gasped at the sight of us in our dirty clothes.

They said, “Oh! We have some much nicer clothes for you on the bed. But you mustn’t walk in like that! You need to take a shower beforehand! I will give you towels to walk on… so that you don’t get the floor all sloppy.”

I stepped out, and my grandmother said, “Adeline! It is so nice to see you again! I haven’t seen you since you were a baby! Get changed, and we will have a bit of breakfast! And you are not allowed to step a foot into that little boat again! I will have the driver bring your stuff into the house from the boat!”

 

Chapter Sixteen

After he did this, the driver took off, and we were on our own with our grandparents. We cleaned ourselves and got changed. I began to brush my hair, which I hadn’t done in so long, and it felt really nice to be neat again. After my parents died, I’d been dressed in all of these rusty clothes which my parents would never have put me in.

The boys went fishing, and the girls cooked and took care of all of the little girls. I helped Grandma clean the house, set the table, make French toast, pancakes, fruit bowls, salad, eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, and lattes.

Then, our aunt took us from our grandparents. Our aunt lived in pretty much the same house as our grandparents, except it was in Alabama. There was a mansion that was painted a soft baby blue with guards covering the whole first floor of the house, which was pretty much what my house used to look like. It had flowers and vines covering some of the mansion, and it was ten stories high. Well, my house wasn’t ten stories high, it was 15… but this would do. We walked in wearing high heels and our blue poofy dresses and suits. Our aunt greeted us in a long, straight dress, and said she didn’t like the poofy dresses. She put us all into pink dresses with silver gems. Well, mine was covered in silver gems, and she did my hair.

She dyed my hair red, and I liked it. She had everybody else stay in their clothes, except for the triplets. She had the other 26 children go back to our grandparents’ house and kept the four of us.

 

Chapter Seventeen

She had two children of her own who looked just like me, and she told me that my parents had dyed my hair blonde when I was a baby…. Well, my fake parents… the people I thought were my parents. She told me that the four of us were actually her children! And that my parents took me from her. She introduced me to my actual brother and sister. One of them was 15 and named James, and my twin sister was Adeline. She told me my name was actually Charlotte! She said that the triplets were taken from her by her mother as she was giving birth to them. The other kids in my family were actually my parents’ kids, but who I thought was my aunt was actually my mom, and I got a little mad at my mom that wasn’t really my mom… She was my aunt, but she was dead. So she said that she would go to Elizabeth, and that the eight of us would go to the half adoption/half not adoption ceremony. My parents, my siblings, and I would go. Everybody else would live with my grandparents, who we would get to see every Christmas.

At the adoption ceremony, my siblings ended up deciding not to live with my grandparents. They lived with a new family that now had 23 more kids! Charlie, Amelia, and Ava stayed with my family that became a family of nine children.

THE END

 

Awesome Airplanes!

       

“This is so awesome!” said Matthew as he pushed full throttle on his airplane and rushed through the clouds above the plains. Just then, a black enemy airplane from TCOEP (The Country of Evil People) dropped something on his plane. It started counting down. “A bomb!” he cried. Then, he heard a blast.

“Aaagh!” screamed Matthew as he fell toward yellow plains. But then, another airplane below caught him and his broken airplane by suddenly lifting the bottom of the wrecked airplane. That airplane is very strong, thought Matthew. Then, Matthew realized it was his brother, Michael’s Blackbird airplane. “Phew, that was a close one,” said Matthew.

“Ssh!” said Michael. “This is a secret mission. We need to destroy the TCOEP’s base. It is just over the hills. We need to surprise them by attacking at night.”

After they returned to their home base and repaired Matthew’s airplane, it was time to go on the mission.

As Matthew started up his airplane, he felt nervous, like he would never make it back from the mission. Soon, Matthew and his brother were soaring above the TCOEP’s base. Suddenly, the intruder alarm blared in the base. Er er eer, blared the alarm as the airplanes closed in to the base.

Just then, the roof of the base opened up, and two gigantic machine guns emerged from the depths of the base and soldiers dressed in black marched out of the base shooting with tiny pistols.

“Seriously?” laughed Michael through the walkie-talkie as he looked at the soldiers attempting to shoot their airplanes.

“Umm, I think we’re in big trouble,” said Matthew, as a giant machine gun shot down his brother’s airplane.

I got to save Michael! thought Matthew as he landed his airplane next to his brother’s wrecked airplane. Unfortunately, Matthew didn’t find his brother near the wrecked airplane, so he decided to go into the enemy base to find his brother.

Meanwhile, Michael was sneaking around the TCOEP base looking for the power system for the base. When he finally found the power system to the base, his brother, Matthew, was waiting for him there. “Let’s set a bomb in here and get out!” said Matthew.

Soon, Matthew and Michael had set a bomb, and it was counting down. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one POW! Luckily, the brothers got out of the base in time, but the high winds whipped the smoke and dust into the air. Out of the shadows, a man stepped in front of them. Not any man, the leader of the TCOEP.

 

Random Stories

     

Bob’s Story

Bob was a little kid. He was stranded in a forest. He needed water. But he did not need food that much because he stole his father’s gun. His problem was that he couldn’t shoot that well. When he tried to kill a baby pig, he missed by five feet and hit a bright green leaf on a tree. He thought he should make some shelter and then come back to kill the pig. Well, the pig oinked and ran away, so no more pig. So, he went out into the forest to find someone to help him. He looked all over, but he found no one but himself. It started to rain. After it rained, it got really muddy. So he ran, and he found a green house where he stayed. But it was a bear’s house. But he didn’t know and he went in, so when the bear came back to his house, Bob was scared. He ran away in a panic. It was muddy. But Bob did not have shelter, so he was soaking wet. Bob was cold and shivering. Then, he made a bed with leaves on the wet floor. The next morning, he was in a house. He was taken to a house where someone lived. That person didn’t look nice.

Bob said, “Thank you for saving me, and goodbye.”

Then, the strange man cackled. Bob really didn’t like him. He went to grab his father’s gun but found that it was gone. He asked the strange man where the gun was, but the man kept cackling. Bob really didn’t like him, so he ran to the front door and tried to open it. It was locked. A shiver ran down Bob’s spine. He ran to the back door and found it was locked.

The stranger said, “Ha ha! You are all mine now!” He cackled.

But the window was open, so Bob jumped out. The house then exploded!! Bob had gotten out just in time. He somehow found his way home and wrote a story about it. This is that story!

The End

***

Ezreke’s Story

One hot day, Ezreke was strolling through the desert. He had just seen some water, but now some people on camels were drinking it. They had on cutoff T-shirts, short pants, and flip-flops for shoes. Ezreke slowly made his way over in the hot desert and asked for some water.

“Please, can I have some water,” he said. The travelers said yes and gave him a cup full to the brim with water. After he drank the water, he asked if he could join them on their travels.

The travelers said, “Yes, you may come with us, as long as you come for a short time. We don’t have enough food and water for you and us.” Ezreke thanked them and hopped on one of the camels

After three days, one of the travelers said, “We don’t have enough food and water for you. Well? What are you waiting for? Go!”

Ezreke hopped on a camel that was alone. He said, “Take me to some shelter.” The camel didn’t understand Ezreke. He slid Erzeke off his back. He was so exhausted he took a nap on the ground. When he woke up, he felt sand on his face. He was buried! There was just enough room to sit up. He tried digging up, but whoever buried him had used wet sand, so he couldn’t get out. He tried digging to the side, but more sand fell. He was buried. He tried to think of what his dad would do.

“Always be resourceful. Use whatever you find.”

Ezreke groped around the hole and underneath him. He found a stick and a rock. He used the stick to make a hole. Then, he threw the rock to crack the wet sand. When the sand cracked, he used his hands to dig the rest of the way out. When he got out, he found a man who was digging a hole. An unconscious boy was lying at the man’s feet. Ezreke acted instinctively. He grabbed the rock he had used to crack the sand and threw it at the man. The rock hit the man on the head, and he slumped down, unconscious. When the rock was halfway through Ezreke’s outstretched hand and the man’s head, the boy had woken up. He saw his savior throwing a rock at the man who had kidnapped him, knocked him out, and tried to bury him alive. Naturally, he automatically ran towards Erzeke. This boy was a few years younger than Ezreke, and he was very scared.

“It’s all right. Look, an iPad! We can contact the city!”

The boy sniffed and smiled at Erzeke. He ran over and grabbed the iPad. But he wasn’t done. He pulled up Google Translate and typed something in French. It translated as Hi. My name is Francesco. I don’t speak English, but understand it well. My family lives in the city. Thank you for rescuing me.

Erzeke said, “You’re welcome,” and smiled at him. He smiled back. Erzeke contacted the police and his family. The man was arrested forever, and Francesco and Erzeke became friends.

The End

 

Candyland

Once upon a time, there was a student bunny named Isabelle who was six years old. One day, Isabelle called Jim the dog for a meeting because Isabelle was a new student in school.

“You’re so ugly,” Jim replied, and Isabelle had no idea he was a bully dog.

Isabelle cried and threw her phone away, because she was so sad. Once Jim’s mom heard what Jim said, she told him to apologize to Isabelle immediately and scolded Jim for being rude.

So the next day, Isabelle saw Jim at school, and he apologized to her, but Isabelle still did not forgive him. So when Jim asked Isabelle to play during playtime, she told him “no” because she knew what he said was true and was still mad. Isabelle just kept playing with the kind children.

When it was lunchtime, the students were allowed to go home and eat, so when Isabelle went home, she ate her mom’s food and made a card with an ugly face on it for Jim saying, You’re ugly too, doggy. But one day, Jim’s mom and Isabelle’s mom hung out and brought Jim back to Isabelle’s home. There, the moms told their kids to play with each other.

“I don’t want to play with the ugly doggy dumpling!” said Isabelle.

“And I don’t want to play with the bunny cookie!” said Jim.

“Oh, just be nice and play together,” said the moms.

So Isabelle and Jim made up to make their moms happy and played a tea game together for the rest of the day. When Jim left, Isabelle went to sleep and snored a lot. She dreamt of her and Jim turning into emojis. Jim turned into the meh emoji, and Isabelle turned into the princess emoji, and they then ran around in Candyland and ate all the candy, and they slept in the marshmallows. Then, they saw trees, and on the trees there was chocolate, and they ate the chocolate. But they didn’t know how to find their mom and dad, and whoosh! they saw their mom and dad, but the mom and dad were chocolate statues, and then they ate their mom and dad.

And then, the doggy said, “Let’s go to the little room in the ginger house,” and they stayed in the ginger house and made things to eat by themselves.

So one day, they went outside, and they saw big scoops of ice cream because the Candyland was snowing, and the snow was ice cream. And in the Candyland there was a tornado, and the tornado was made of spaghetti, and when it rained, there were gummy bears, and if there was a big rain, there were jelly beans. Sometimes, there were hamburgers falling down, and they ate them too. One day, there was a big sun, and it melted all the candy, so the Candyland turned into only candy rainbow, so they ate. The rainbow turned into jelly beans. Then, there was a big snow, and it turned the candy into normal candy, and you could eat the ice cream again.

Then, they slept one night, and when they woke up, they thought they were still in the Candyland because it was not a dream — it was real. One day, they slept again and got to the Popsicle-Land, and there was lemonade and gum that you could jump on. You could even take a lot and get it into your mouth and then you could have a big bubble, and the bubble would give you a helmet. There was candy water, and you could go inside, and there were gummy animals in the candy water. And then, they all saw cookies that could fly through the sky, and you could sit on them and see all of Candyland, and then you would see one big lollipop, and it would float you on the candy water. There was a little girl made of candy and another girl made of chocolates. You could eat them. Then, when they ate them, they returned back home and had chocolate on their mouths.

Their mom said, “Why do you have chocolate on your mouths?”

And the dog and the rabbit said because they went to the Candyland and ate a lot of candy, and when they got home, it was a lot worse because they had to eat a lot of vegetables. Then, they slept, and they lived happily ever after. Now they never go to Candyland ever.

The end.

 

When Owner Left Me

          

Chapter One: Owner is Gone

Owner petted me with the softest, most serene pet, as usual. They patted my forehead calmly and sang me to sleep. A dream formed around me, surrounding my brain in sleep. Floating islands of delicate treats, singing birds, and a pack of fresh squirrels surrounded my dream. Owner was running on their machine, and I was free of work, obedience, and training. Giant fields surrounded my home, dotted with dogs, sticks, and trees. There was game to hunt, and dogs were all barking and playing, and the sun shone like a beacon of happiness, hope, and knowledge.

I skipped to my friends, fur freshly groomed, never to be unkempt again. They greeted me with a joyful bark, prancing about, delighted to see me. Their owners were lounging in chairs, talking cheerfully about the latest soccer game. Lin, my best friend, trotted up to me and gave me an invitation to play, so I joined him. We played chase, an average game, but the one I hungered for the most, for Owner never allowed me to play chase. My other friends approached me, and they all wanted to play with me, so we did. It was the world I wanted, a utopia, a dream. Owner was never disappointed with me, there were always friends to play with, and a happy home to go home to at the end of the day. Then, a jolt of light woke me up, and Owner was gone.

I scampered to the living room, as quiet as a mouse, expecting Owner to appear and push me outside to use the bathroom, but they didn’t. I poked around the house. It was dark and quiet except for the wind rustling behind the trees. I entered the kitchen, and I sniffed around to see if he was pouring food for me, but all I could smell was the smell of cheese, poisons, and… my food!

I clawed up the kitchen cabinets, and I grasped the handle and nearly slid. The metal was smelly and stung my paws, but I knew it was all worth it, for the bag opened and the food spilled out like a rainbow. I jumped down at full speed, and I gobbled the food as fast as a gazelle. The bundle of flavors was like dreams, and my head hurt a lot, and my stomach felt like a punchbag, and I fainted.

I woke up to a bright, sunny day, with boiling heat and an extremely cold floor. The temperatures were making me dizzy, and as I approached the door, a wave of cold hit me, and I realized that the pain in my head was coming from the temperature control machine, that thing Owner always played with, with the buttons. The buttons made the screen change, but that was all I knew. It changed the temperature in the room because whenever Owner said, “I’m hot,” they would walk over to the machine, and the house would get cooler, but I didn’t know which button did what.

I paced around the house, searching for a way to make the house warmer. The house was a mess, books scattered everywhere, food rolling out the kitchen, and Owner had not been seen since last night. The bed was rumpled, the toys were falling out of the bin, and Owner’s room was a disaster that even a service dog couldn’t clean up. There was no sign of a solution to this cold floor and boiling ceiling.

Everything I saw was covered in little, repeating scribbles that did not make any sense. Owner scribbled all of the time. They scribbled during meals, they scribbled during my nap, they even scribbled when I went outside. Then, I came across a paper with a vibrant, full-color picture of our temperature control machine, surrounded with black, repeating scribbles. The paper was white as milk, and the scribbles were black as night and glimmered like black holes. I felt like something was pulling me in. I felt an urge, a desire, to understand these scribbles and why Owner treasured them.

I quickly realized that I had to go outside, so I grabbed the handle, jolted backwards, and the door became a door to fairy tale land. I flew outside, and I looked at the sky, and I knew exactly what I had to do to fix my home.

 

Chapter Two: I Attempt to go to School

I could run free now! I raced out the front yard and down the street. I didn’t care if the pet control owners saw me. Running through the street like a cheetah, I jumped like a bird on five cars, and I slid onto the country road leading up to the school. Owner frequently passed the school on our walks, describing it as a big, red brick building with large windows and a giant course nearby. Today, I saw little owners barking like foxes in the front yard. Then, they all began to approach me.

“What a cute doggie!” one told their friend as they petted me.

“Let me hold it!” another shouted.

“Let me, let me!” they squealed!

The owners yelled at each other, pulling on my ears and patting my head constantly. I wanted to bite them, to growl at them, to even fight them, but I knew I couldn’t go to school if I fought with my new playmates. Then, I scampered to the entrance of the school, weaving my way around the forest of feet. I soon saw a pair of very large feet, and the forest was getting tighter. I could hear the cries of the owners that had petted me earlier, and their footsteps were quick like rabbits. Pushing forward, I attempted to weave my way through the big feet, tripping over lopsided bags laying on the floor. Fingers were slowly being added to the forest, owners reached their fingers and nabbed the bags next to me, nearly dragging me off of the ground.

The entrance felt closer now. I could smell the fresh smell of the red brick coming like waves through my nose. The wall was visible, but owners were still squealing like mice. Disorientated, I scuttled around trying to find the entrance to the school. Wafts of sweat, perfume, and breakfast floated around like clouds. The owners were so near each other now, the forest felt like a maze, and there was no sunlight.

I raced around this confusing, noisy place, barely able to see what was in front of me. I regretted going into this maze without Owner. The owners were suffocating me, I felt like there was no life left in this world. Then, the owners all fell silent, and I shivered.

The brick doors creaked open like a rocket, and I crawled inside. The school was made of dazzling marble with giant poles, large arches, and a stark, black floor. Brown boards were spread over the walls, covered with white papers full of small scribbles. Owners were everywhere, crawling all over the walls and floor. Larger owners were herding the smaller owners into small, colorful rooms, squealing and shouting at them. Some owners were pointing at a few of the papers, scampering away when the larger owners were close by. I followed a group of very small owners, toddling slowly to the door. Scuttling underneath their feet, I crept inside the room where a large owner was standing at the door.

“Hello, class,” the owner boomed. Is our name Class? “Let’s sing the alphabet,” the owner instructed the class. What’s the alphabet?

“Of course, Sir,” the little owners replied. Is his name Sir?

Sir pointed to a scribble on the board and said, “A makes two sounds, a and a.” One scribble can make two sounds at once? How do you know which sound to make? I was confused, how could all of these owners understand what the scribbles meant if each one made more than one sound at once? I quickly realized that an owner was staring at me and that I had five seconds until Sir kicked me out of the school.

I dashed out of the classroom, and I crept the hallways as silent as a fly. I could hear footsteps behind me, Sir was booming at other owners, and noise was growing. After scampering for some time, sensing a flash of bright light, I felt a drop in the floor, and the voices were much softer, but the hall was dimmer, and the floor smelled like dirt. I was now wading in water, surrounded by curved stone walls. I could feel the dirt in the water with my paws, and the water was getting deeper. I could see a small point of light at the end of the tunnel, but my paws were getting weaker, I was slowing down, and my head felt like rock.

Sniffing something, I bent down and tilted my head, smelling a familiar scent from back home, but I couldn’t quite identify what it was. Small lumps were floating above the water, and the water was now a murky green. The point of light I had seen earlier wasn’t very far away now, but the water felt more like sludge, and the lumps felt more like concrete. I could barely paddle, and I couldn’t even walk. Feeling weight on my back, I stopped to rest.

I crawled slowly through the muddy water, slipping and falling at various moments. The point of light was actually a gaping hole with a large waterfall coming from it, shimmering in the dark cave. I knew that the end was near, and unless I could paddle better, I wouldn’t emerge from the tunnel alive. I tilted my head ready to soar like a bird at the end of the tunnel. I paddled like a duck, and then an invisible force pulled me into the water. I sank underwater for a second, and then I did a straight vertical drop.

I dropped down like a cannonball to the ground. My paws were shaking, and my legs were freezing from the cold water. I could barely lift my head. I had dropped onto the ground and rolled over on one side. I licked my wounds from the drop. My paws were covered with dirt and mud, and I smelled like a skunk. I cried out for help, squealing in the blazing sunlight. Barking hurt my throat, so I settled down on the grass, and I fell asleep surrounded in agony and pain and devoid of care and love.

 

Chapter Three: The Pound

As I woke up, I could smell owners again, poking and prodding my paws, and legs, and even my head. Owner wasn’t here, though, and these owners were strange, new, and smelly. Their tools reminded me of the murky water from earlier mixed with treats. It probably had been used on at least fifty other dogs before me. Their voices were muffled, and I felt a needle near my leg.

“The dog doesn’t need it,” a voice commanded.

“How many shots has the dog got?” argued another.

Two owners were poking me with sharp stuff and yelling at each other, almost ignoring me entirely. They were screaming like gorillas, and poking me like tigers, and they had me pinned on their table. Then, I got a waft of air from another room, and smelling the scent of other dogs, I knew what this place was and how to get home.

After a little while, the owners released me from the table and took me to a gray crate, covered with scratches and broken nails. Dogs were barking around me like lions, and some large, lumbering owners were walking some dogs to a door at the other end of the hall. The dogs were scraping against the bars and were climbing up their crates. Above all, the dogs looked imprisoned, bored, and lonely, so before owners shoved me into a crate forever, I ran through the hall, opened the door, and crept away as fast as a cheetah.

I crept quietly through the streets, dashing from corner to corner hiding in the shadows. The owners had emerged from the building, the same ones that had poked me before, and shouted, “Find that stray dog!” I slid under a bench nearby, sliding like a snail on the ground. Running like horses, the owners checked under every corner, bench, and sidewalk, so I had to find a place where they would never look. I looked up. The blue sky went on forever, and the owners couldn’t fly, but I couldn’t fly either. The only way up was a set of slippery, metal stairs on the side of the building that Owner revealed were poisons. I did not want to get poisoned, but it was better than going back to a crate forever. I dashed up the stairs like a rabbit, and I scrambled up to the roof, and I admired the view. The buildings went on forever. Buildings surrounded me in every direction, and there was not an owner in sight. I could feel the wind blowing in my face, and I could sniff the fresh air. The giant owners were gone, and I felt free, but not happy.

 

Chapter Four: Home

Where was Owner? I could barely remember what Owner looked like. Was Owner a dog or a different animal? Was Owner nice? I slithered quietly off of the roof using another staircase. The ground was so far away, I felt the urge to jump off the roof, but I ended up on the second floor instead. It was still a shimmering, bright, sunny day, even though so many things had happened. Sniffing the staircase, I greeted five different cats and dogs on my way down, and by the time I jumped onto the street, I was exhausted and as slow as a turtle.
I twisted around and skipped down several streets, bouncy in my steps. I could finally return home! Huge buildings surrounded me, shades of brown, dark green, and gray. The tall owners were chasing their dogs across the street like cows, laughing and smiling like Owner probably did. The sky began melting into an orange color tipped with yellow, and the ground became a darker gray. I could hear the sounds of home close by, sounds of running, jumping, and playing like dolphins, having no worries, only fun. I missed my home, my friends, and Owner.

Where was home though? I wandered through the darkening roads, panting constantly. The sky was now a shimmering shade of purple with streaks of orange in the distance. Looking up, I could still see those scribbles drawn on every pole. If I understood them, I knew they would lead me home. Scratching at the poles, I gazed at the stars. They were like glowing dots, like small treats ready to be gobbled up. I got off of the pole and ran along the isolated, quiet streets, barely able to see. I peeked around the corner and saw glowing lights in the distance, covered by windows. I recognized it from somewhere, but I was not exactly sure where. I sniffed the ground, a mixture of gum, chips, stone, and plastic wrappers. I trotted slowly down the street, glancing at the dim, black sky. I turned my head, and I spotted a row of houses nearby, and I carefully lifted my head up, and I heard a calm, clear sound.

It was Owner. I hadn’t heard Owner’s voice since last night, when he sang me to sleep. This time though, something was different. Owner wasn’t angry or upset, but he knew something I didn’t, and it wasn’t the answer to the scribbles. I crept down my road, avoiding Owner. Hearing Lin’s bark in the distance, my panting fell silent. I didn’t want to be seen. I leapt over the fence near my house, falling like a ball. I pushed the door open with my paw, and I crawled into the house. I peered at Owner’s room. It was now clean, stately, but at the same time, empty. The whole house felt different, isolated and lonely. Was Owner lonely without me? I approached the bed, white and made of wood, and I noticed a lump in the pillows. I jumped up, eyes glowing, barely able to walk, I fell onto the bed, and I licked Owner’s face. I slept that night knowing that it was all worth it.

 

Kingdoms Dragon’s Game

Once there was a kingdom called Goving. In Goving, the people were happier than the happiest person in the world, until one day, a dragon attacked. This dragon’s name was Billbaring and was so depressed that it couldn’t be described. This dragon saw the kingdom and got more depressed.

This happiness, he thought, I need all to myself. So, the dragon attacked the kingdom. Now you might have thought, Why is he depressed? It was its nature, oh, and the dragon just moved into the den.

Now you would think that the king would go and kill the dragon, but no, this was what the king said: “I can’t kill a dragon by myself. I am too old and weak, and my memory is fading. I can’t do this with a group, let alone do it solo. What should I do?”

Then, a knight said, “Make a group, high king of Goving!”

So, a group was made, including three of the bravest knights, that went to the den of the dragon. They found Billbaring, and Billbaring found them. The dragon opened fire, and the knight moved out of the way before you could say “fire!” Let’s stop here and see what the den looked like: just stalagmites and stalactites and damp walls. Back to the story. In the end, the dragon died by being sliced tons of times in the chest. Now you might think the story is done. No, it is not. You see, there was this kingdom which attacked Goving because the kingdom wanted more land. This time, the king helped. The great war of the kingdoms had begun. Goving was outmatched a ton because the other kingdom had ten dragons, so the king got a shield and a sword and lots of armor and set onto the battlefield. The king was scared of the ten dragons. Everyone was. When the king got there, the great battle had begun. Everything was dirty and was smelling really bad because the other kingdom didn’t take baths. The king was somewhat scared of the hygiene of the other kingdom. The king and his army somehow killed all the dragons with a lot of swinging swords and blocking the flames. The heat of the flames was molting hot. Then, the king charged past the smelly army, covering his nose. He climbed a cliff to face the other king.

The other king called, “King of Goving, I want to battle you!”

Goving’s king answered yes. Goving’s king attacked first, and the other king blocked. They did this for a long time. It was like it had no end. Then, the other king (without warning) kicked Goving’s king so hard… Goving’s king was hanging off a cliff.

 

Days after the battle…

The great battle was done days before, and Goving was safe at last. Now you may have thought about this: Was the king safe too? The answer is yes, yes he was. The other king thought he won that. He was blinded by the fact, so the king of Goving pulled himself up just in time and sliced the other king in the chest. Now the king was walking in the forest, taking in the sweet smell of roses and trees and the nice and warm day. The king loved it more than ever. Goving was happy once again.

The End

 

The Super Sleepover!

Hi, I’m Sophia. I am ten years old. My mom’s name is Karen, and my dad’s name is Michael. I have a little brother named Charlie. He is three years old, I also have a newborn baby sister named Mia. She’s three months old. My two BFFs are Tracy and Maya. I have known them since we were three. We went to Mommy and Me music class together. My favorite thing to do with Maya and Tracy is to have sleepovers. During our sleepovers, we play truth or dare, watch movies, play with my baby sister, build forts, draw, talk, and sleep.

Tonight we were having a sleepover! I couldn’t wait. It was going to be a blast. I dressed Mia in her nicest outfit. My mom was being so annoying! I couldn’t stand it! She kept saying, “Honey, calm down. You’re making yourself stressed!”

“No, Mom. I’m not!” I screamed. Okay, maybe I was. I would try to calm down.

Later that night, Maya and Tracy came over with their purple sleeping bags. They were as excited as I was! I could not wait. I had so many activities planned. Maya brought over Uno, which she loved. So first, we played Uno. After that, of course my brother needed to storm in and start to burst out in tears. And then, naturally, my sister also started to cry.

Maya and Tracy both came over to Mia and picked her up and rocked her around, so she would stop crying. But she did not stop crying! So, Tracy handed her to me. I didn’t want to deal with this right now, but I didn’t have a choice. My mom was looking at me like, do it. So I did it. She stopped crying! Yes!

After that, we built a fort. Of course, my brother needed to join. But I was kind of glad, because Maya and Tracy didn’t really care if Charlie joined. We just told him that he needed to build his own room. After that, we were getting hungry. So my mom ordered fresh, hot pepperoni pizza. While we were having dinner, we also watched a movie. The movie was so good. And then we had dessert. Hot fudge brownies. Yummmmm!!!

Later, we were getting tired. Right before we got into bed, Maya said, “I need to get something from my bag. I’ll be right back.”

Tracy and I shrugged at each other. We didn’t know what Maya was getting. When Maya came back, there were Pop-Tarts in her hands. “We can snack on these if we’re getting bored,” she said.

I said, “No thank you,” and so did Tracy. I don’t like Pop-Tarts.

“Okay,” Maya said. “If you guys aren’t having them, I’m not having one.”

In the middle of the night, I swear to God I saw the Pop-Tarts glowing. I didn’t think it was a dream. I knew it was real. I got so scared I just went back to bed. In the morning, I told Tracy and Maya. Both of them believed me because they’re good friends. Right after that, I was getting a little worried, so I checked on my sister and brother and parents to make sure they were okay. Phewf! They were! After that, we made ourselves breakfast.

All of a sudden, Maya said that she wanted cotton candy! She hates cotton candy! Tracy and I were shocked. “Are you sure?” I said.

And then, Maya started talking in a deep voice! “I WANT COTTON CANDY!!!” she screamed. “You know what,” she said. “I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy, I want cotton candy!!!”

Tracy and I started to get worried. But then, we realized that the flavor of the Pop-Tart was cotton candy. And then, I realized that the Pop-Tart was glowing pink at night for cotton candy! Maya kept saying, “I want cotton candy,” over and over and over and over and over again. I told her to wash her hands and put orange juice over her hands. Maya didn’t want to, but Tracy made her.

And then, she was talking normally again, and everything was back to normal. Except, my brother was still crying.

The end…

 

(Hopefully, this will be our last crazy adventure!)

(Probably not… check out Maya’s adventure!)

 

Video Games

It was seven o’clock, and Tom had just woken up for the weekend. Tom couldn’t wait to play Fortnite with his friends. Just before, he brushed his teeth and ate his breakfast and then got onto his iPad to play Fortnite. Fortnite was really fun for Tom. It was his favorite game, so he played it for two hours. Tom and his friends also won a Fortnite battle which made Tom very happy. While Tom was playing the game, he got a lot of good guns, which meant he was able to kill a lot of people, which was exciting because it meant he was winning. He was also a bush, so no one knew it was him. Tom and his friends also got a lot of chests which also gave him a lot of good guns.

After he had a lot of fun playing Fortnite with his friends, he went outside to play soccer. It was really fun because his dad was playing with him, and it was a high scoring game, and Tom won.

After Tom won the game, he asked, “Can we go to the arcade and play some games?”

His dad said, “No,” but Tom still had a lot of things to do at home.

After 15 minutes, Tom couldn’t wait to go to his friend’s birthday party, but that wasn’t for a long time. It was his friend, Peter, and he was turning nine years old.

Time had passed, and it was finally Peter’s party. His parents drove him to Peter’s birthday party. When Tom got there, there was a lot of action going on. People were playing tag together. Some people were jumping on the bouncy house. Tom chose to jump on the bouncy house instead of playing tag.

Once Tom was on the bouncy house, Tom saw that Peter and his friends were having a lot of fun playing tag on the bouncy house. Tom asked if he could join. Peter and his friends said of course.

After Tom was playing tag with Peter’s friends, Peter was suddenly the tagger. Tom thought Peter was really fast, so Tom wanted to avoid him. Then, Tom realized that Peter was chasing after him. Tom tried to run away, but Peter tagged him. Then, Tom fell down and hurt his leg. He was crying because of the pain.

Peter said sorry, and Tom felt better. Peter meant a lot to Tom because he was Tom’s best friend, so Peter’s apology cured Tom’s pain.

On the other side of the party, Tom saw that there was another conflict. One of Peter’s friends named Bob, who was very athletic but a slow runner, was fighting with another one of Peter’s friends named Jeff, who was very fast and liked playing video games. They were also playing tag, so they were fighting about who was not going to be the tagger. Nobody liked to be the tagger.

Finally, Jeff offered to be the tagger, so the fighting stopped, and they all felt better.

After they played, Tom’s parents said to Tom that it was time to go. Tom was very sad, but he had a lot of fun.

When Tom arrived home, Tom went to his bedroom. He was exhausted, so he went to bed.

After he went to bed, Tom woke up and realized that Peter’s birthday party had been a dream! He realized that Peter was actually having a birthday party today, so Tom couldn’t wait to go to his party.

The End

 

Trouble in Disney World!!!

Some families do not go on vacation. Others do. Either way, I do not care. I am too busy anyway. Oh!! Sorry about my manners. My name is Erica, Erica Manning. As I was saying, I am very busy this summer because I have to catch up on some school work. You see, my mother and father are both explorers, and I usually go with them on their expeditions. I have seen many amazing sights, but I have missed a lot of school. Summer is my catch-up time.

Rumble, grumble. Oh dear, I think that was my tummy. In that case, I better head down to breakfast. At this moment, I was in Brazil, if you were wondering. I walked downstairs to breakfast, where I smelled something like cheese. No wonder, it was my mother. She loved cooking native dishes of the country we were in. As I got closer, the smell got stronger and stronger.

When I entered the kitchen, I curiously asked my mother, “What is this smell?”

She replied, “Erica, darling, it’s Pão de queijo, which is a little small-baked cheese flavored roll. Want to try?”

It sounded delicious, so I sat down on one of our chairs and gulped it down. It was amazing. No more rumbly tummy for me. Then, my father entered the kitchen. He had also tracked down the smell. Soon, he was gobbling those rolls down too.

“Guess what, Erica? We’re going to some place else. And this time, it’s not another city for exploring.” Now this caught my attention. My eyes were fixed on him. He continued, “Most kids your age go to this place for a summer holiday. We thought it would be nice for you.”

“Yes,” chimed in my mother. “We are going to take you to Disney World!”

I was astonished at just the thought of going there. It was supposed to be basically Mickey Mouse paradise. I remembered when I was little asking my mother and father again and again and again if we could go there. Finally, for the first time in my life, I was going to have a real summer vacation. I absolutely couldn’t wait. My head was bursting with a million questions.

The first thing that popped out was, “What! How soon? When?”

“Well, we are going to be going tomorrow at about 5:00 a.m., so you may want to go to sleep early tonight.”

This was really not a problem for me because I have been on airplanes at very early times a lot. Before I knew it, we were packing our bags.

“What should I bring?” I asked my mother.

“Make sure you bring some clothes that are good for walking with, and you might want to bring your Mickey Mouse ears, too.”

Obediently, I packed them and stuffed my favorite book, Robin Crusoe, in too. I couldn’t wait for the time to come. I got my wish. Since the plane we were going on was too crowded, we were put on an earlier plane right that night. When I woke up, I was soaring above Florida. All of the cars and buildings looked like little toy blocks to me.

An announcement came over the speaker. The captain commanded, “Please put your seat belts on for landing.” I looked at my seat belt. Sure enough, it was fastened. Must have been mother or father.

I told my father excitedly, “We’re landing? I can’t wait to see my first sight.”

Once we landed, I was jumping with joy. It was all kind of a blur, but I do remember getting into our hotel. It had long, silk curtains and a nice mini bedside table with all my necessities. I soon drowsed off on a very comfortable bed. After what I think was two or three hours, I was woken by my mother who was wide awake.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead. It’s a special day today! You’re going in the shower after your father.”

I yawned. “What time is it,” I asked.

“It’s 7:30, we let you sleep in. You do look very tired.”

Once we did all the preparations, which seemed to go on forever, we finally headed out the door to Disney World. We jumped into a rented car and road all the way to Disney World. I could not wait for my first ride! Ta-da, there it was, the legendary amusement park I have been dreaming about since I was little. I couldn’t figure out what to do first. I ended up doing Aladdin and his magic carpets. It was amazing. You got to control your own magical carpet. We were all tired out after this amazing day, but we had one more stop to go. The gift shop, of course! I wanted to get a special pair of Mickey Mouse ears for my collection, but we could sense something was wrong when we stepped into the shop. We saw someone who looked very important pacing and mumbling under his breath. He seemed very unhappy.

I walked up to him and asked, “What is wrong?”

“You would never understand. My Mickey Mouse ears designer all of a sudden has gotten very ill with some disease, I don’t remember. She’ll be alright. Though the ears parade is tomorrow, and if I can’t find another substitute, the ears parade can’t go on.”

“Maybe our Erica can be a help,” my father said.

“We always knew she was a good designer,” my mother added in.

As he was making up his mind, I was bursting with anticipation. I really hoped he would let me do it.

“Fine,” he said. “What does she charge?”

“I’ll do it for nothing,” I replied. “It’s an honor.”

When I got home that night with my new designers pad and a job to do, I felt like I could fly. But that feeling didn’t last so long. As I carefully examined the paper, all of a sudden these numbers didn’t really make sense. Neither did all the graphs. I had to call on my mother and my father. And I still didn’t understand. Then, at around one in the morning, I turned it over. Ooooh, I thought. All that time I was having so much fuss over that one little mistake. It was turned over the wrong way! Then, I saw how sensible it was. I got to work knowing I didn’t have much time. I was feeling a little anxious. Though, now that I understood it, it was much easier. I made one Mickey Mouse ears with only one bow in the center. They weren’t pink, they were rainbow. In another one, I put a unicorn horn in the middle. I hoped that Mr. I don’t know his name would like them.

Even though I stayed up practically all night designing those ears, I thought it was fun. In the morning, I got the designs back to the director. We were supposed to meet up in front of the gift shop at seven. I could practically bounce off the walls. I felt like I was on the top of the world. I put my little pad in my little satchel. For some reason, I always knew that would serve a purpose when we went to Disney World, so I packed it.

My parents and I arrived at the gift shop at 6:55. My father always insisted on being there early. I saw from the distance a man coming toward us. He looked exactly like the director. He was the director!

So, then he got to the gift shop. I handed him my designs. I crossed my fingers that he would like them and put them in the ear parade.

As he looked at them, I could see a smile slowly spreading over his face.

“They’re fantastic!” he exclaimed, once he was finished scanning them. “Will you design the ears every single year for my parade? This is even better than my old designer.”

I couldn’t say no. Even though he was a middle-aged man, he looked as excited as a six-year-old on Christmas Day. I couldn’t let him down, so I replied, “Yes.” After all, it was enjoyable once I figured out I had the pad the wrong way.

“Little did you know, that you had averted a huge disaster. There could have been no ears in the ear parade.”

“Thank you. It was a pleasure. It was a real pleasure.”

“You know what,” my mother told me as we were leaving Disney World, “I knew it always a good idea to let a designer know about your talent.”

“This is for you,” my father said as he was holding up amazing gold Mickey Mouse ears with my name written on it in cursive.

It was a perfect day. I couldn’t wait to go back to Disney World.

The End.

 

Writopia Land

Once upon a time there was a girl named Amy who was exploring around Writopia Land, where she just moved in. She was walking when she saw a cute bunny.

She asked the bunny, “Are you lost,” not knowing that the bunny would respond, but it did.

It said, “Actually no, my mommy is right over there.” When Amy heard the bunny speak, she went down on the ground and started to scream. When she looked around, the trees were becoming purple. The flowers were turning into mushrooms. When Amy screamed, every animal that was near her went into a huddle.

The frog took his glasses off and said, “My my my, why is this girl screaming.”

While the chipmunk was eating a golden nut she said, “Maybe she is scared of us. This would explain the screaming.”

The bunny from before said, “I think chipmunk is right.”

After the bunny spoke, Amy stopped screaming and took bunny by the ears and said, “What are you, and why are the trees purple and the flowers mushrooms?” The bunny bit Amy. Amy screamed and ran toward her house. When she saw her house, she quickly came inside and stayed there forever.

After she left the forest, she looked like a lady that just saw a bear. Her hair was everywhere, and her eyes were wide open. When Amy thought of that moment, she realized that she could have been more mature with her decisions and made friends with the creatures. She looked at herself and thought she also looked strange.

Till this day, she doesn’t dare step in that forest again.

The end.

 

Secret Samurai

Cynthia felt like she was a daredevil. After all, why would an eight-year-old jump down the Empire State Building with virtually no protection? She felt as if her insides had turned upside down and gone haywire. As she fell, she had a flashback as to why she was doing it:

Just five hours ago, she was in Chicago doing homework. Her aunt had given a high-tech suit to her as a birthday gift, which had the powers of a Samurai. “Your cousin has superpowers. This suit has powers you can use to defeat villains.” Cynthia decided to test it. She boarded a first class plane trip to New York. On the trip, she thought about Skullkiller, the notorious villain who wanted to kill her cousin. She had to defeat him.

To test the durability of the Samurai suit, she took a fall off the Empire State Building. The suit reacted and added wings to the suit. I’m not Falcon, she thought. She carefully glided down and landed swiftly on the ground. This wasn’t any ordinary suit. It could respond to her feelings. Cynthia suddenly remembered the history of the suit.

Her aunt had created the suit when she was a young girl. She used it to stop crime. Unfortunately, Skullkiller had learned about the suit and was willing to steal it. The suit, though, was destroyed before it had been used for evil. Somehow, it regrew itself.

“BREAKING NEWS, BREAKING NEWS! Eight-year-old makes heroic fall down Empire State Building. She fell down more than 500 feet, as a matter of fact. Officials are now trying to confirm the girl’s identity, although it may take some time. Around the country, there have been strange occurrences lately.”

Skullkiller was in his lair, watching the news. He reacted as soon as he saw the breaking headlines. “That girl’s in a black suit. Why does it look so familiar? Wait, it is familiar. It’s the Samurai suit! I thought it was destroyed. I’ve got to capture her, and also get back to killing that boy.”

That “boy” was really Cynthia’s 12-year-old cousin, Hayden. Skullkiller had killed his parents. Hayden and his older sister, Catherine, then went to live with their aunt. Skullkiller wanted revenge on Hayden, who defeated him many times before.

Cynthia and her mother were boarding the plane. Skullkiller confronted them. At first, Cynthia and her mother were in shock. They didn’t know that he was going to find them. Then, Cynthia and her mom came up with a plan.

Skullkiller laughed evilly, “Hahahahahahahaha…. Hello. Expecting me, eh?”

Cynthia’s mother began to levitate Skullkiller. She threw him out of the plane.

“He knows that you have the suit. We have to be as careful as we can. Anything you do makes Skullkiller smarter.”

When they reached their home in Chicago, Hayden asked Cynthia, “How did it go?”

Cynthia replied, “Went well. Only bad thing was confronting Skullkiller.”

“I’ll help you train for the battle. I’ve defeated him about a dozen times. Besides, the prophecy chose you.”

Cynthia nodded, then went to her room.

She took her suit disguised as a pack of gum — not a good idea! — and found a record of the newscast on YouTube. She thought, Things aren’t obvious. People don’t know superheroes’ real identities.

So, weeks went on. Hayden trained her to defend at the right time, use important items in the suit, and much more. Then, she was ready to fight.

The battle started in an abandoned town. It was dusty. The dust flew through the sky. Skullkiller tried to pounce on Cynthia, but the dust made it hard for him to see. She defended. A sword came out of the suit because she was thinking, I really need some help here. Cynthia used the sword and cut Skullkiller, badly wounding him.

Cynthia carried Skullkiller and flew high. She threw him down. Skullkiller surrendered. “I’ll get you next time!” he screamed. Cynthia felt more confident now. She could defeat somebody that only expert superheroes could master. Even if she didn’t have the suit, she could still do it.

 

The Life of a Garbage Can

 

1

I’m mixed up. I’m crushed. I’m used as drums. I’m practically worthless. Recycling bins and compost bins have more value than me. They’re more organized. I’m a dump. A dump of trash. I’m basically nothing in this world. Dented all over. People use me, but not a lot. Why am I here? Do I have a sensible purpose?

 

2

It’s a windy day. I keep getting knocked over. Darn wind. I see lots of people with garbage in their hands. They don’t even bother to look at me seriously. The garbage dude drives by without even a glance at me. All alone, lying down, and no one to comfort me.

 

3

If only I was tidier, not dented and dirty. Just one glance at me and you’ll be disgusted. I just want to be known in this world. All the other garbage cans are even tidier than me. Yeah, a little jealousy going on here. They have a better outside. They have garbage bags in them. I’m just a dead, oversized tin can.

 

4

I’m rolling down a hill. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I’m in so much pain. I roll into a ditch never to be seen again. No, just kidding. I just keep rolling until I stop at a dead end. The back and forth of the whistling wind rocks me like a baby to sleep.

 

5

I wake up to see a little girl putting me upright. She’s not like other people. She actually looks at me with heart. She stares at me like I need something. She carries me up the hill. She stops in front of a building and puts me down. It seems like it’s her house. She goes in and comes back with gray polish, a garbage bag, some paint, and some glue. She does all sorts of things to me. She uses the gray polish all around me. I’m starting to look pretty good. Then, she puts glue all on my rims, top and bottom, so I stay sturdy. She opens up the garbage bag and puts it in me.

 

6

The girl leaves me in front of her building and walks away. Now, I feel known. I sigh and look up at the sun. The start of a new day feels really great. I’m a new a person now. I breathe in the cool air. This time, I’m not going to let the wind knock me over. I’m going to stand strong. No, literally, she put glue under so I stay sturdy. Who knew?

 

7

The sun is about to set. People use me now. Not the way they did before. Before, they would drop their garbage in me, and sometimes they’d knock me over without even picking me back upright. When the sun went down and the girl came back, she had a big garbage bag in her hand. She put it in me. It just feels good. The garbage truck drives by and takes out the garbage bag from me. I feel relieved. I look back at the sky waiting for a new day to come.

 

THE END

 

Walking Through a Cave

Mayuree Nin and her team had just won a great soccer game in Hat Yai, Thailand. Her team was walking through a cave, which they went through a lot because it was a shortcut to the ice cream shop. They also had granola bars and celebratory treats.

Mayuree was laughing with her friends. The youngest kid on the team was 13. She was hugging everyone around her. The oldest kid on the team was 16, and she was jumping up and down. Mayuree was 14.

Then, the monsoon rain started. It flooded the caves.

“Coach!” shouted Mayuree. She ran over and hid behind a rock. All of the girls started to scream. Coach grabbed Mayuree’s arm. The team ran further into the cave. They stopped and waited. After a while, they went back out. Not every place was flooded. They went to try and find a way out of the cave. They looked around. The only ways out were small little tubes filled with water. Mayuree fell to the ground. They were trapped!

“Let’s try to ration out our food,” Coach said. First, they looked for water. They found water in a corner on the right side of the cave.

“This water tastes weird,” Mayuree’s friend said. The team was trying to wait for the water to drain. But it didn’t.

On the seventh day of being in the cave, the team ran out of food.

“What are we going to do!” a girl shouted. The coach sat down.

“I don’t know,” the coach sighed. They were trapped for four more days in the cave. On the fifth day, an explorer popped in all dressed in scuba gear. The kids looked up.

“Do you have any food?” the girls asked.

The explorer shook his head. The girls sighed. The explorer immediately dived back in the tunnel and left the girls behind. The explorer told other people about the team in the cave. The story became worldwide.

Mayuree was starving. Her whole team was starving. The rescuers brought the team food. The girls all ate very quickly. But now they were active enough to find some more water. The rescuers brought the team water bottles, snacks, and meals. Now they were finally active enough to talk about finding a way out. The rescuers told the team that the only ways out were the small passageways that were a mile long. It took six hours for the rescuers to get to the team. Mayuree liked to sit and wait for six hours for the rescuers to come. It really was the only thing to really do in the cave. But for two days, none of them came. They thought that the rescuers had forgotten about the team. They grew hungry again.

A rescuer came a few days later. He reported that a rescuer died in the passage. He was trying to put air packages in the passageway. But he ran out of air. That made the team cry. They knew they were never going to get out.

But the next day, rescuers came with extra gear. “Okay, kids. I will take four of you through the passage. One rescuer will be in front and in back of you.” As the rescuer said this, he handed scuba gear. They gave gear to Mayuree and her friend Malliyalara. Mayuree got scared.

 

A few hours later, Mayuree and the group of her friends were getting ready to go in. Mayuree used to be scared that she was not going to be good at soccer and lose the game. But this was so much scarier. Mayuree said goodbye to her friends and coach. Then, one by one, the girls went in the passages.

The girls had been swimming for three hours. The girls were very tired. Then, Mallivalara started to fall to the bottom of the passage. A rescuer came up behind her. He could not come next her. The passage was too small for that. “She ran out of air!” the rescuer shouted. Mayuree looked behind her. But it was hard. The tunnel was three feet tall and two feet wide. She had to turn back forward. How was this possible? she thought. The words went through her head a million times. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend had died. Her friend since diapers had died! But Mayuree had to focus. She went the rest of the trip focused and ready. When she got out of the cave, she could change out of her gear. She stared out of the cave. She took her mask off and took a deep breath. But she noticed none of the rescuers were holding Mallivalara’s body. Mayuree got filled with rage. She ran back to the tunnel. She dived in.

“Wait!!!” the rescuers cried. They grabbed Mayuree by the leg, then pulled her out.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the rescuers said to her.

“You left my friend’s body in the tunnel!!!” she shouted. Tears filled her eyes. She tried to pull back from the rescuer, but his grip was too strong. She gave up. She fell to the ground. The rescuers looked at each other. One pulled a mask out of his back pocket. He was about to put it on when Mayuree jumped up and grabbed it from him. Then, Mayuree jumped back into the tunnel. She started crawling towards her friend.

Three hours later, Mayuree came upon her friend. She was not moving, and Mayuree just wanted to cry. But she held herself together. She grabbed onto her arm and moved as fast as she could. She didn’t want to run out of air.

Four hours later, she was nearing the end of the tunnel. Then, she knew what was happening. She was running out of air. She tried to swim faster. She did exactly what she saw on shows. She had to take short breaths. She saw the exit. She started to swim faster and faster. Then, she totally ran out of air. She had a record of holding her breath for a minute, and she guessed that it was okay. She swam very fast and bursted through the top. She jumped out and grabbed her mask off. She took a deep breath and relaxed. She took Malmallikalara’s mask off. She sighed. At least she was okay, and her friend was not stuck in a tunnel. She took a deep breath. Then, she heard someone take an even deeper breath. It was Mallivalalara! She sat up. She looked around. Mayuree walked over and helped her up. Now this was a happy ending!!!

THE END

Inspired by true events

 

One Look is Friendship

 

JADA: Main character

GABBY: Jada’s best friend

JUSTIN: Jada’s brother

MADDIE, CORA, and STEPHANIE: Mean girls

DAD and MOM

NARRATOR

 

Erika: MADDIE

Samantha: STEPHANIE and MOM

Lydia: CORA

Ronni: JADA

Belinda: GABBY and NARRATOR

Andrew: DAD and JUSTIN

 

Waking up in bed. JADA puts clothes on, brushes hair, goes downstairs, brushes teeth, and eats cereal. Bus honks. Thirty minutes later, she is at school.

MADDIE: Hey, did you finish my homework? I’m not gonna pay you this week if you didn’t.

CORA and STEPHANIE cross arms. JUSTIN arrives.

JUSTIN: Stop bullying her. What did she ever do to you?

MADDIE: Fine.

JADA (to JUSTIN): Thank you so much.

JADA exits. GABBY enters.

GABBY: What happened over there? Did they want to get their homework again? You should stop letting them do that to you.

JADA: I have to get money to get a new car.

GABBY: Only until you get a new car.

Bell rings.

Thirty minutes later. Lunchtime. JADA sits down with GABBY. CORA, MADDIE, and STEPHANIE arrive at their table.

MADDIE: Where’s my homework? I’m literally not gonna pay you for three weeks!

JADA: Okay, okay, I’ll give it to you tomorrow.

MADDIE: Don’t tell Justin I told you this, or you know what’s gonna happen.

MADDIE exits. JUSTIN enters.

JUSTIN: Did she ask you for her homework again? Tell me the truth.

JADA: She did not ask me.

JUSTIN: Okay.

JUSTIN exits.

GABBY: Why didn’t you tell him the truth?

JADA: Because you know what’s gonna happen. She’s not gonna pay me for the whole month

GABBY: You can’t go on like this! You can get a job.

JADA: I don’t want a job! I have to do this.

GABBY: Whatever you say.

GABBY exits. Five minutes later, bell rings, and JADA exits the lunchroom. Three hours later, she is done with school, and GABBY is walking home with JADA. GABBY goes home first because her house is closer.

GABBY: Bye, see you tomorrow!

Five minutes later, JADA is home,

JADA (to her MOM): Um, Mom, the girls also want their homework, and I forgot where I put it, so I need to find it today.

MOM: Honey, you have to stop letting them do these things to you. You have to stop doing homework all the time, you have a life.

DAD enters.

DAD: What’s going on in here?

MOM: Oh, well the girls still want her homework, and they’re still bossing her around to get money.

DAD: You have to stop letting them bully you. I’m going to school with you tomorrow, and I’m going to talk to them.

JADA eats dinner, takes a shower, brushes her teeth, and goes to bed.

The next day, JADA sees GABBY, and they walk to school. JADA’s dad meets JADA at school, and JADA sees her dad talking to MADDIE, STEPHANIE, and CORA.

STEPHANIE: Hey, what do you want? Oh, and by the way, we still need our homework from your daughter.

CORA: Yeah we do! You know how much homework we gave her? We need it today.

JADA: Dad, what are you doing here? Go home! It’s embarrassing!

DAD: Okay honey, I’ll go home.

MADDIE: Dad calls you honey, not princess?

CORA: Where’s the homework? We need it today. You know that!

JADA hands them the homework.

JADA: Here’s your homework.

STEPHANIE: Okay.

Gives the homework back.

It doesn’t look like our handwriting. Just do one more line, and it will look like our handwriting.

JADA takes the homework back.

JADA: Okay, but you have to pay me extra this week, or I’m not giving your homework back.

MADDIE (rolling her eyes): Ugh, fine.

JADA walks off to class.

MADDIE: Where’s our homework? We need it now! She’s calling us up!

JADA: Where’s my money first?

MADDIE gives JADA the money, and JADA gives MADDIE her homework.

MADDIE: Finally.

MADDIE, CORA, and STEPHANIE go to the teacher and gives them the homework. Three hours later, she is done with school. Gets home and counts all her money and runs downstairs.

JADA: Oh my gosh, Mom, I have enough money to buy a new car! I don’t have to do their homework anymore!

Runs down the street and knocks on GABBY’s door.

JADA: Gabby, I have enough to buy a new car! I don’t have to do their homework anymore!

GABBY: We have to have a celebration at my house tomorrow!

JADA: Okay, tomorrow it is.

JADA gets back home.

JADA (to her parents): We’re gonna have a celebration tomorrow!

MOM and DAD: Okay, let’s go!

MOM: Go eat dinner, brush your teeth, get in the shower, and then get into bed.

JADA: Okay.

JUSTIN enters.

JADA: I don’t have to do their homework anymore! I have the right amount to buy a new car!

JUSTIN: Oh my god, I’m so proud of you!

JADA: Okay, could you come to my celebration? It’s tomorrow at eight.

JUSTIN: Sure, I’ll be there!

JADA exits. The next day. A huge celebration. GABBY calls JADA’s MOM and DAD.

GABBY: It’s time to do the decorations! Hurry, my house!

GABBY calls JUSTIN.

GABBY: Hurry, the celebration! We need decorations!

JUSTIN: Okay, I’m gonna call everybody from school to come. And I’ll get some decorations too.

MOM and DAD (to JADA): Honey, we’ll be back later.

JADA: Okay, see you later! Remember the celebration! Don’t be late!

MOM and DAD: Okay.

JADA arrives at GABBY’s house. GABBY opens the door.

Everyone: Surprise!!

JADA: Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you planned this!

JADA sees MADDIE, STEPHANIE, and CORA.

What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t like me or something.

MADDIE: I’m sorry for bossing you around with all these things. I got this car for you.

JADA: But what about all that money you gave me for doing your homework?

MADDIE: It’s okay. You can keep it and buy another car.

JADA: Well, do you want to hang out sometime? Just not this time because we’re having a party.

NARRATOR: And they had a great time.

 

Friendship Song

JADA: Friendship comes with a key everywhere,

MADDIE: Even if it’s harder than it looks.

GABBY: We’re all in it together,

JUSTIN: No matter if it’s rough.

EVERYBODY: We can do it,

Because it goes on, it goes on,

Because friendship is the key to victory.

JADA and MADDIE: We started off as enemies, but then we became good friends.

GABBY and STEPHANIE: We both found something interesting we like together,

EVERYONE: We all end up friends.

 

Typed by Belinda Becker Jacob

 

Two Doughnuts Sometimes Make the Perfect Match

 

Chapter One

I knew my night was going to be a disaster when I picked up my phone and saw how many calls I got from Alison. With all the work in the bakery, I totally forgot to check my phone, and now Alison was going to be mad at me for two reasons. First, for not picking up her calls, and second, for telling her I couldn’t go to her masquerade ball because I was helping my parents at the bakery. Alison’s dad was the mayor of our small town in California, so every month, Alison had a huge party at her house, and her dad always asks my parents to cater the party.

I still remember the first time we met back when we were four when she first moved here. Our parents introduced us to each other, and ever since then, we have been best friends. We were four then, and we were thirteen now, and we were still the same. Sometimes it felt really good to think about the past. That was, until you flashed forward to the present and realized that you had some problems on your hands. I saw my dress and mask laying on top of my bed waiting to be worn. That made my decision for me. I was going to go to the masquerade ball.

So, I picked up my phone and texted Alison, I will meet you at your masquerade ball.

Alison texted back, I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing Jade!

I grabbed my red long dress with gold designs and my gold mask and quickly put it on. I did my makeup and put on my golden high heels. I walked to the mirror and couldn’t recognize myself. I wondered if anyone else could recognize me.

With that thought in my mind, I walked out of my room and yelled to my mom, “Mom I’m going to Alison’s party! Bye!”

“Okay, Jade. Don’t get into any trouble, and if you need anything ask your dad. He is at the party!” my mom yelled from her room.

After hearing that, I quickly headed out the door because it was already 7:55 p.m., and the party started at eight p.m..

 

Chapter Two

It was a good thing Alison only lived two blocks away from me. As I walked underneath the night sky, I felt the breeze blowing my hair. The walk to Alison’s party was very peaceful, but once I got to Alison’s house, I couldn’t even recognize her house. Alison went all out for this party. The house looked like a winter palace, like the one Elsa made in the movie Frozen. There were so many people going in and out of the house. I walked up to the front door and opened the door and walked in. As I did, I could see that everyone was staring at me. I felt like Cinderella when she walked into the ball and no one could recognize her. I quickly walked to the center to join everyone because I hated being the center of attention. As I walked to the crowd of people dancing and talking to each other, I realized something. I couldn’t recognize anyone. Something else I realized was that I was the only one wearing red. At that moment, I regretted wearing that dress because I hated standing out. So I walked out of the dance floor and walked to one of the

empty tables. As I tried the maccaron and the doughnuts that were at the table, I overheard two girls talking about a celebrity.

They were saying, “Bella, did you hear the rumors that have been going around?”

“What rumor, Isy?”

“Well, rumor has it that Alison invited Cabe Swift to the masquerade ball because he is working on a movie here.”

“Anyways, Alison asked, and Cabe said he would come.”

O-M-G, I can’t believe I am going to see Cabe Swift,” said both of the girls.

When I heard that, I was so confused because I knew everyone who was invited to the ball, but I never saw Cabe Swift’s name on the guest list. I guess it made sense that she invited him because she was a really big fan. Alison watched every movie that Cabe had ever made and has had a huge crush on him since the sixth grade. She said Cabe and her had a lot in common because they were the same age. I, on the other hand, didn’t hate him, but I didn’t love him either, so I guess you could say I liked his acting. But Alison loved him.

As I was sitting there and thinking to myself, I suddenly heard someone ask me, “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“Sure, go ahead!” After that, we started talking.

Me: “Are you having fun at the party?”

Him: “Not really, I don’t have any friends here.”

Him: “Why are you sitting here all by yourself?”

Me: “Let’s just say I don’t like being the center of attention, and as you can see, I am the center of attention today thanks to this red dress.”

Him: “Anyways, do you have any hobbies?

Me: “Well, I like to bake and listen to music.”

Him: “I like to bake too! Who is your favorite artist?”

Both of us at the same time: “Selena Gomez.”

Me: “O-M-G! Did you hear her new song ‘Back to You?’”

Him: “Yes!”

Both of us: “LOVED IT!”

Me: “Anyways, did you hear that we have a celebrity here tonight?”

Him: “Who’s the celebrity?”

Me (rolling my eyes while saying the name): “Cabe Swift.”

Him: “So are you a fan of Cabe?”

Me: “Let’s just say I am not a big fan. He seems so spoiled.”

Him  (with a smirk on his face): “Wow!”

From that point on, our conversation took off, and we talked for the rest of the night. He was really nice and mysterious. He had the same haircut as Cabe Swift, which looked really good on him. We took a lot of pictures and soon realized the party was almost over. So when I was about to leave, he asked for my phone number, so I gave it to him and walked home. When I actually got home, I realized that we never got to tell each other what our names were. So I started wondering, what could be his name be?

 

Chapter Three

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of my parents arguing. I quickly got out of my bed and walked to where they were arguing because they didn’t usually fight. When I walked up to them fighting, I asked what they were fighting about, and my mom told me to sit down because I wasn’t going to take it well. So I did. My mom told me the most horrible thing I could think of. She told me that my dad got a letter in the mail saying that we would have to close the bakery if we couldn’t pay all the bills.

I asked, “How much are the bills going to be for the bakery?”

“About 15,000 dollars.”

“I am so sorry, sweetie, but we can’t afford to pay that much money.”

“Plus, we haven’t been getting a lot of customers lately.”

“Maybe if we get more customers, we can keep the bakery longer.”

“Right now we can only keep the bakery for ten days.” Hearing that made me want to cry even more than I had already been doing since I heard about the bakery. I ran to my room and laid down in my bed when I realized that I was going to be late for school. I got out of my bed and got ready as fast as I could while trying to look cute. Then, I ran to school, somehow managing to get before the bell.

When I walked into the hallway and walked to my locker, I looked around and saw that everyone was on their phone saying, “O-M-G, who is that girl?!

Then suddenly, I heard someone calling my name from down the hall, so I turned around and saw Alison running up to me and yelling, “Check Cabe Swift’s Instagram!”

So I got my phone out of my backpack and went to Cabe Swift’s Instagram. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

There it was, the picture of me and that mysterious boy at the party. I was so confused at first, wondering how the picture ended up in Cabe’s Instagram, when something finally clicked inside of my head, and I realized that the mysterious boy that I was talking to at the party was no one other than Cabe Swift! I started freaking out. I couldn’t believe it. I just spilled my heart out and embarrassed myself in front of the biggest teen celebrity!

I was about to faint when I heard Alison asking me, “Are you okay, Jade?”

I tried to play it cool by saying, “I am fine,” even though I was dying inside.

“So, did you check Cabe’s Instagram?”

“Yeah.”

“So who do you think that girl in the the red dress is next to Cabe? Who do you think it is?

“Well, I don’t know.”

“But whoever that is, she is a very lucky girl.”

“Also, did you read what it said under the picture?”

“No, what did it say?”

“Well, it said, ‘hashtag the best night of my life (Thank you mystery girl for making it the best).’”

Hearing that just made me scream out, “I am the girl in the red dress with Cabe in the picture!”

After screaming that out, I saw that everyone was staring at me in confusion, then started talking again saying how jealous they were that they didn’t get to be his mystery girl. After that, I looked at Alison’s face, and she looked so happy. She was congratulating me, and right at that moment the bell rang, and I had to get to class. After doing a lot of work in class, school was finally over. So, Alison and I walked and talked about last night and everything that happened. I also told her about the part when I gave Cabe my number.

Hearing that, Alison said, “I bet he’s going to text you to meet him later.”

“No way!” Right at that moment, I got a text from an unknown number. It said, Hey. You probably know who I am by now. It’s Cabe and I was wondering if you wanted to meet up? So text me your address and I will come pick you up in my limo!

So, I texted him my address and called my mom to let her know that I was going somewhere with a friend. Then, Cabe arrived in his limo. I said bye to Alison and got in the limo. As I sat in the limo, I could sense the awkwardness between us.

So, I asked, “How come you didn’t tell me you were Cabe Swift last night when we were talking?”

“Well, Jade… ”

“Wait, how do you know my name, because I never told you?”

“I might have done some digging around. Now back to what I was saying. Last night I had a lot of fun not having to be Cabe Swift, because whenever I talk to someone the conversation is always about me, and I really get tired of that. But last night, the conversation wasn’t only about me. It was about both of us, and I really liked talking to you. Plus, it didn’t sound like you were a really big fan of Cabe Swift last night, so I was hoping you would like Cabe better. So do you want be friends?”

“Sure.”

“Anyways, I was hoping we could go to your bakery.”

“Sure! It’s Friday, so the bakery is closed today, so we can have it all to ourselves.”

 

Chapter Four

Once we got to the Sweet Storm Bakery, I took out my spare key, and we both walked inside. I told him how our specialty was doughnuts, and since we didn’t have the doughnuts premade, we decided to make doughnuts from scratch. We went to the back of the the bakery and took out all of the supplies we needed. I had a lot of fun baking with Cabe. We decided to make two of my favorite doughnuts: ocean blue (vanilla doughnut with blue icing and and candies on top to make it look like the bottom of the ocean) and Choco coconut storm (chocolate doughnut with coconut and white frosting on top.) To my surprise, Cabe was a really good baker. I thought he was spoiled and wouldn’t even know how to crack an egg. I guess I didn’t really know who Cabe was on the inside. After we were done making the doughnuts, Cabe took a knife, cut two doughnuts in half and put the two doughnuts together into one. He took a bite from the side so that he could taste both of the doughnuts.

He said, “Wow! Two doughnuts can sometimes make the perfect match.”

Hearing that made me laugh, so I tried the doughnut the way he did, and I had to admit they tasted amazing together. After finishing our doughnuts, we started talking, and I told him about the bakery and suggested that we should let customers switch up the donuts, like making one side one doughnut and making the other side a different doughnut. He said he would post about it on his Instagram.

When I thanked him for his help, he said, “What are friends for?”

He also asked me if I wanted to audition for a small part in his movie. I told him I would think about it. After talking to him for what seemed like a few minutes, I realized that it was nine p.m.. Had we really been talking for two hours? After that, Cabe dropped me home, and for the rest of the night, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Talking to him felt different than talking to everyone else. Was I really falling for him?

 

Chapter Five

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of someone texting me. I picked up my phone and saw that my mom had called me two times and that Cabe texted me, Good Morning. So, I texted back, Good morning to you too.

Cabe: I posted about the bakery last night, and it looks like you might be getting a lot of new customers because it already has 2.6 million likes.

Me: O-M-G really. Thanks a lot.

Cabe: My pleasure. By the way are you auditioning for the movie?

Me: Uh I guess I will give it a shot.

Cabe: Awesome I will send you the script. The auditions are held at my hotel at 5.

Me: K bye.

After I was done texting Cabe, I called my mom, and she said the plan to get new customers was working. She also said that if we kept having this kind of customers, we could pay off the bills by next week, and we could keep the bakery. Hearing that made me really happy. So for the rest of the day, I helped my mom out at the bakery while trying to practice my lines. I wanted the day to slow down because I was not looking forward to the auditions. But when you want time to slow down, time does the opposite and goes as fast as it can. Soon, it was  five p.m., and I was at Cabe’s hotel waiting to be called in. There were a lot of girls auditioning for the same part which made me even more nervous.

Then, it was my turn. I auditioned in front of Cabe’s manager and the director for a character named Bella, the main character’s best friend. She helps her best friend Isabel and Jake (Cabe) get together. When I was auditioning, I was very disappointed not to see Cabe in the audition room. But I auditioned anyway, and the director told me they would let me know if I got the part by tonight. I walked home and was so happy the audition was over and done with. As I was walking I felt a sudden burst of happiness, and there I was again thinking about Cabe. I thought about Cabe all the way home. Once I opened the door and walked in, I saw both of my parents waiting for me at the door with their happiest faces.

“Jade, did you get the part?” asked my dad.

“I don’t know yet, Dad.”

After telling my parents everything that happened at the audition, I headed to my room and watched Netflix for the rest of the day, until I realized it was nine p.m.. I took out my phone and was going through Cabe’s Instagram when I got a call from Cabe.

I answered it and said, “Hello?”

“Hey, Jade. Guess what?”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Well, you got the part!”

“O-M-G, seriously!” My face turned bright red. I was so overwhelmed and in disbelief.

“Yeah, the director loved the way you really got into the character.”

After he told me I got the part, I told my parents, and we were all really happy. That night, Cabe and I talked until midnight. He told me about how he never really had a real friend on set and how lucky he was that I was going to be on set with him. When he said that, I blushed. He made me feel really special. The next morning, I headed off to set, bright and early. Cabe and I really had fun being on set together. For the rest of the week, I filmed after school on set. It was the best week of my life. First, because my mom was able to pay off the bills, so we got to keep the bakery, and second, because I got to spend the whole week having fun with Cabe on set. The parts of the week that I didn’t like were when Cabe and his co-star had to do a scene where they danced and went on dates. Even though I knew they were acting, it felt like they were an actual couple. For some reason, I felt a way that I never felt before. I was jealous. At that point, I knew I was falling for him. I didn’t want to tell him because what if he didn’t like me in that way — then it would be awkward between us. I thought he just wanted to be friends. That is, until he asked me to be his date to the movie premiere. I totally died inside when he asked me. I said yes. Now my problem was what was I going to wear to the premiere. I went shopping with Alison and my mom. I bought a long white dress with silver designs on the bottom. I also bought some silver jewelry.

Finally, premiere night arrived. Cabe came to my house in his limo and had a cupcake flower bouquet because he knew how much I loved sweets. He came up to my door and knocked. I opened the door, and when he saw me, he stared at me for a second, then said, “Jade, you look amazing!” I said thank you, and we got in the limo, and we drove to the premiere.

On the way there, he took my hand and said, “Jade, I really like you more than just a friend. Do you like me too?”

I said shyly, “I like you too.”

“I didn’t tell you because I thought things would be awkward between us if you didn’t feel the same way.”

“Well, I am glad this turned out well.”

“Me too.”

“You know you were right: two doughnuts can sometimes make a perfect match even if they are from two different worlds.”

After talking and embarrassing ourselves, we arrived at the premiere. He announced that he had a girlfriend at the red carpet, and then we watched the movie. It felt so weird to watch myself in a movie. But I had to say, Cabe made me feel comfortable when I wasn’t. We got a lot of questions about how we became a couple, and let’s just say I didn’t know how Cabe dealt with so many people asking questions and taking pictures, because I couldn’t deal with that kind of stuff. After we were done watching the movie, we went to the after party and had a lot of fun. From that point on, my life felt like a fairy tale. Even though we both had our own busy life, we made it work. But the bakery and I didn’t really work out. I wasn’t home a lot because of all the movies I was in. I mostly spent my time in LA, filming. But when I was at home, I spent as much time as I could at the bakery.

 

The Haunted Circus Chronicles

 

CHAPTER ONE

It was a hot and sunny day when Jeff and Bob walked into the circus. The noise was loud, they could hear people laughing, carousel music, and an announcer calling over the loudspeaker, “Last call for a ticket to the Great Juggler’s Show!” Jeff bought a big bag of hot, buttery popcorn, which smelled amazing, and cotton candy. Bob bought a hot dog, and they both bought cold sodas. They walked down the grass eating their food, looking around for something cool. On each side of the grass were tents: white and silver for the acrobats, red and blue for the animal tamers, blue and silver for the magicians, and one more tent for refreshments.

“Do you like school?” asked Jeff, while eating his popcorn.

“Not really,” said Bob. “The teachers are so mean.”

“Yeah,” said Jeff. “Ms. Butterbottom is really strict. She didn’t let you celebrate your birthday! We never have parties for holidays, and we had a lot of homework.”

Jeff and Bob were both thirteen. They were both wearing T-shirts and shorts.

Bob looked up and saw a platform ahead of them. A crowd had gathered. They were watching silently in amazement while a clown juggled on a unicycle. The clown was wearing a red wig, a red nose, big shoes, and a bright yellow and red polka dot shirt.

“I hate clowns,” said Jeff.

“Me too,” said Bob.

“Especially after that movie last night,” said Jeff. They had watched a horror movie, Politics About Clowns.

Jeff and Bob avoided the platform. They saw a path to the left, leading towards the carousel. They kept walking, eating their popcorn, and talking.

To the left of the pathway, there was another tent. It was red and yellow.

“What time should we go home?” asked Jeff.

“Well, I want to invite some friends over for a party tomorrow. We could have a pool party at your house… ”

The clown on the stage did a backflip on his unicycle while juggling ten balls. The crowd looked amazed, cheering and clapping.

Suddenly, Bob and Jeff felt a hand wrapping around their arms and yanking them backwards into the tent. “AHHHHHHHH!” they screamed.

Nobody saw Jeff and Bob — they were too busy watching the clown. Outside the tent, all they could see was a bag of popcorn left on the ground.

 

Jeff and Bob were tied down in wooden chairs inside the tent. The chairs had blood all over them. They saw a whole bunch of clowns in a dark room holding knives.

Everything had happened so fast that Jeff and Bob were confused. “Who are you?” asked Jeff and Bob quietly.

“We are your worst nightmare,” they all said. One of the clowns stepped forward to tighten their ropes. The clown had a freaky face with blood all over it and a lot of white and black makeup. It had red blood all over its white clothes and ruffled collar. It had red hair, ugly teeth, and stitches all over its eyes.

Jeff and Bob were shocked and frightened to death.

The clowns explained their ugly plan. “You must be clowns, or you and your families will die.”

Jeff and Bob didn’t know what to say. There was no escaping the clowns.

“It’s better for only us to get hurt than all our families,” said Jeff.

“Yeah, you’re right,” said Bob.

Jeff and Bob answered. “We want to be clowns,” they said.

“Good,” said the clowns. “And we are killer clowns. So you will have to kill people.”

“We don’t want to be killer clowns!” said Bob. Jeff and Bob were very, very scared.

One of the clowns came up behind Jeff and Bob with a gun. He pointed it at their brains, but Jeff and Bob couldn’t see. Then, the clown put a hole in their brains and put a chip inside.

Jeff and Bob dropped their heads. When they woke up, they had red eyes.

 

CHAPTER TWO

It was a hot and sunny day when Steve and Joe walked into the circus. Steve and Joe were looking for Jeff and Bob at the circus. They had just come home from vacation yesterday. Jeff and Bob had told them they were going to the circus, but they were on the plane, so they couldn’t go.

Bob’s and Jeff’s parents had called Steve’s and Joe’s parents, but they didn’t know where they were. So then, Steve and Joe went to the circus to find them.

When Steve and Joe walked into the circus, they started looking. First, they got food because they were starving. They got strawberry funnel cake with whipped cream and powdered sugar on top. They also got popcorn, hot dogs, and cold sodas.

They started walking around, and they saw a whole bunch of tents. They walked in the first one, and they saw a security guard. The security guard said, “Do you have a ticket?” They said no.

“We spent all our money on food,” Steve said to Joe.

“We have to get in there,” said Joe. “Bob and Jeff could be in there. Maybe they stayed there all night, or maybe they joined the circus!”

Steve used his martial arts karate moves to attack the security guard. He was down in two seconds. And Joe was just standing there. He didn’t know any martial arts.

They looked in the tent, but they couldn’t find Jeff and Bob. Elephants and musicians were doing a show in the middle of the tent. There was a humongous crowd. They loved it! They were amazed!

Steve was feeling proud of himself for taking out a security guard, and Joe was worried about Jeff and Bob.

When they went out of the tent, the security guard woke up with ten other security guards. Steve and Joe knew that the guards were there for them. Steve and Joe tried to punch the guards, but then they had to run away because the security guards were chasing them. They ran into a white and silver tent.

It was dark inside the tent. There was creepy violin music. Then the lights turned on, and acrobats were surrounding them. They looked like normal acrobats — they were wearing sparkly silver leotards and no makeup except for jewels on their foreheads. But they were holding knives, and one had a chainsaw. Then, Steve and Joe saw clowns behind the acrobats. They couldn’t recognize Jeff and Bob.

Steve and Joe were shocked. They gasped.

The acrobats said, “Now you and your family will die if you don’t become an acrobat.”

The acrobats put chips in their brains with a microchip gun. Then, Steve’s and Joe’s brains forced them to obey the evil acrobats.

 

CHAPTER THREE

It was a hot and sunny day when Marie and Cooper walked into the circus. They were trying to find Jeff, Bob, Steve, and Joe. Their parents all knew each other, and they all called Marie’s and Cooper’s parents to see if they knew where Jeff, Bob, Steve, and Joe were. Jeff and Bob had been missing for two days, and Steve and Joe had been missing for one day.

Marie was a five foot seven Japanese young woman, and she was fourteen. Cooper was a five foot nine blond guy, and he was thirteen.

They were at the pool when they got the phone call from the parents. They were kind of annoyed about leaving the pool. They were kind of worried and mad at the same time.

The first thing they did when they got to the circus was buy food. They bought buttery popcorn, cotton candy, blueberry funnel cakes, hamburgers, hot dogs, and sodas. They also got a slushy. And that’s all they got.

They started looking for Steve, Joe, Jeff, and Bob. They called their friends, but no one answered. Marie and Cooper went to the big tent where the elephant show was going on. And then they found $300 on the ground. They were lucky! They bought two tickets and took turns watching the show and looking for their friends.

After the show, they still couldn’t find them. But then the SWAT team came, because the money that Marie and Cooper used was fake. The SWAT team went looking for Marie and Cooper, but they raced away. Marie was kind of slow, but then she punched them, and Cooper ran away to a tent that was blue and silver. It was nice outside, but inside the tent it was dark, stormy, and mysterious. And then, the lights turned on.

Marie and Cooper were circled by evil magicians, acrobats, and clowns. They couldn’t recognize Steve, Joe, Bob, or Jeff. Marie and Cooper were shocked. They had no idea what was going on.

So then one magician said, “Your family and you will die if you don’t become evil magicians. HA HA HA HA HA!”

He looked like a wizard. He was kind of ugly. He looked like he was 70, but he was only 40. He had a long, scraggly gray beard.

Marie and Cooper both turned into magicians with a chip inside their brain.

 

CHAPTER FOUR

It was a cold, dreary night at the circus. The clowns, acrobats, and magicians got together to do their really, really, really evil plan. Their plan was that they would attack the human race and rule the world. The plan was to attack the president first, to rule the world, and then they would attack the whole US, then North America, then South America, then the whole world.

They started going to Washington, DC. Then, when they got to the president’s house, they broke in, killed the security guards, and then murdered the president. Then, they took control of the United States, and then every United States citizen had to go to the White House immediately. Then, they turned all the people of the United States into clowns.

Then, they took over Mexico and Canada. Mexico turned into acrobats, and Canada turned into magicians. They took over South America, and they all turned into clowns. Europe turned into acrobats, and Asia turned into magicians. And Australia was the last defense of the human race. Then, they took over Australia, and they all turned into clowns.

But then, there was one more country left. New Zealand. They attacked. Half of them got demolished, but the clowns, acrobats, and magicians still won. Then, the only quest was to take over Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, and the other planets. So, they started creating rockets. Acrobats took over a third of the planets, and magicians took a third, and clowns took one third. But they couldn’t reach Neptune.

But then they all came to Neptune with a powerful rocket. Then, they started to defeat Neptune. The acrobats used their flexibility to catch the people on Neptune, the magicians used their spells to freeze the people, and the clowns used their knives to kill them. Now the Milky Way was called The Haunted Circus. No humans or aliens survived. There were nine million clowns, acrobats, and magicians spread out across the galaxy. They journeyed to each of the hundred billion galaxies. Now they had a billion billion recruits in the Milky Way, and they had about another billion billion in the Sunflower galaxy, and another billion billion in the Whirlpool galaxy, and another billion billion in the Black Eye galaxy. So, they had billions of recruits.

Now the six friends were the leaders of the Evil Haunted Circus, and they ruled the whole universe. They were friends again, because they were leaders, but they didn’t remember their old lives. They didn’t know who their parents were anymore, and their parents became clowns.

The End!

 

The Drawing Book

The most important object to me is the drawing book my old art teacher gave me when I was in second grade. The book is kind of ripped on the cover. It’s all black, and when you touch the cover it’s kind of rough. But in the inside there’s smooth white paper. The inside is filled with drawings I drew when I was little. The smell just smells like regular old paper.

The first thing I remember was when they were handing it out to all the art club kids, since it was the last day of art club. It was really sweet that he handed me that book because it was directly from him. He didn’t tell us what we had to draw. He let us be creative. My sister was also happy because it was her last year there. After that, I knew it would be different with the new teacher. She wasn’t that good of a teacher. He was. It was just so special because they only accepted kids from third grade and up. So, I was the first kid to enter that was in second grade. And it’s not just special because of that, but that art teacher left the school, so I never saw him again. He taught me that it doesn’t matter if you mess up, it’s art. When I heard he was leaving, it was really sad for me and my sister. We really missed him when he left. But that never stopped me from drawing. I don’t use it that often like I used to. I just found it again, and I began drawing again. And it reminds me of my teacher. What I’m filling the pages with now looks different than what I used to. But right now, it’s in my backpack.

 

Adventure of the Orphanage

There were two teens at an orphanage, and they were twins. The twins were one boy and one girl, and they had to leave the orphanage to a foster family. The boy was named Alex, and the girl was named Artic. Alex was 13, and Artic was 15, and they had to be at least 21 to live alone in their own houses. They didn’t know the truth if their family had been killed or if they were hiding from their kids. The only memory they had was the half of their family’s picture where they see themselves and the body of their parents but, they don’t have a face. Now let’s get back to the teens at the orphanage. They were feeling butterflies in their stomachs. They were feeling that way because they felt like the family was not going to accept them at their house. They met the foster parents, and they felt suspicious about them.

The foster parents were named Cassie (as the mom) and Chris (as the dad). Cassie was 23, and Chris was 24, and they owned a mansion with two other teens that were “their kids.” Alex and Artic met the kids, and they were named Emma and Erick. The oldest was Emma because she was 17, and Erick was 15. The whole foster family had hate for Alex and Artic. The family made their foster teens do their chores (wash the dishes, clean the whole house, and take the trash out, etc.).

Alex and Artic woke up to a strange noise that sounded like someone was screaming in pain at the backyard at 5:00 am, and they went downstairs to check what happened in the backyard. They still heard the noise, then it stopped. They couldn’t believe what they saw. They felt suspense rushing down their blood. They saw the other half of the picture, and they saw a pile of dirt under the half. They connected both halves of the picture and found out that their foster parents found their real parents. Alex insisted that Artic dig the dirt to see what was under. Then, they saw a horrific picture of a dead body.

Alex heard the lights turn on in the house and told Artic, “Get out of here. Someone is awake, so we should go back to sleep.” Before they got caught, they put the pile of dirt back to how it was at the start. They went to the back door of the house and went in.

Alex and Artic went to their parents’ room and snuck under the bed and heard them talking clearly. The parents didn’t notice that Alex and Artic snuck in. They heard them saying, “Alex and Artic are our real children, and Emma and Erick are not our real children. They are villains, and they have superpowers of fire. Alex and Artic have superpowers of ice, but they don’t know it.”

Alex and Artic felt emotional because they finally found their parents, and they couldn’t trust them anymore.

Alex said, “Why would you keep a secret from your kids?”

They got out from under the bed, and it scared their parents.

The parents said, “You were not meant to hear that.”

Alex and Artic stormed out the room, and they went into their room and locked the door. They started sobbing, and finally their parents opened the lock and all had a family hug.

“We tried to keep you safe from them, and sorry for not telling you later that we were your parents and being rude toward you guys. Your siblings Emma and Erick are not actually your siblings. They are villains,’’ said their parents, who were really named Jess and Jessica.

Jessica asked the kids, “Why are you both covered in dirt?”

“We were digging a pile of dirt that was in the backyard because we heard a noise coming from there, and we saw a pile of dirt. Erick told me to help him dig the hole.”

“Did you know that you both have superpowers,” said Jess and Jessica.

They both went upstairs to see their real kids and put the villians back in their prison in a faraway island surrounded by a body of water. Emma and Erick heard the commotion and woke up and saw them in their bedroom. They both knew what was happening, but still got caught and were put in prison on a faraway island.

Artic asked the first question to the enemies. “Why were you playing to be me and my brother?” asked Artic.

“We were playing as you guys because our parents want to have your money for them only and not for us. They are just worried about themselves,” said Emma.

Alex said, “Who are your parents?”

“Our parents are Chloe and Cody,” said Erick.

Alex and Artic trusted Erick and Emma because they looked trustworthy and not like they were lying. Erick and Emma were crying and sobbing and saying that they didn’t belong there.

Alex and Artic both asked at the same time, “How did we both end up in different places that we both don’t belong in?”

“Our parents switched your birth certificates, pictures, and your names,” said Emma.

“Thanks,” said Alex and Artic.

Artic had a thought in her head, We should let them live with us, and there’s no more danger for them. That’s why our parents kept it as a secret.

So she asked them, and they said, “Yes.”

THE END

 

Life of a Hermit Crab

 

DAY ONE

“Aaah! My eyes! They burn… ” I said. The waves crashed, causing me to fall asleep. But soon enough, one hour later, I was bought! I was finally going to be free at a gigantic house!

“Mom, can I get this crab? The young, blue shelled one so that he lasts long!” said my owner, Lucas.

“Sure, Lucas,” said my owner’s mom. “Whatever you want.”

And at first sight, I saw in his eyes that he was going to love and cherish me for all of my life. But right after he bought me, we had to go in this scary piece of metal that went so fast! And it was so fast, I almost got sick! It had all these bags and coolers in the very back, and that’s where my owner was sitting, all alone! And the worst part is that it took one hour and thirty minutes until we finally stopped! And when we finally did, they left me in the piece of metal! Then finally, one hour later, they came back! But the same thing happened! So for two hours, I had to sit in an uncomfortable cage in an uncomfortable piece of metal that was fast. And I didn’t even get food. And then, we finally came to a stop. For good. That’s when I saw it. A gigantic house! Where were we? We definitely weren’t in Bethany Beach… so where were we?

“Buddy, we’re in Maryland! Chevy Chase!” I stared at him in despair. “Buddy, this is all the peace and quiet you need. Let’s go inside!” said my owner. “This is the office. This is where I sleep. This is also where you sleep. Let me show you my brother’s crab. You guys are gonna have a great time!” said my owner.

So, he showed me my “friend” as he called him. But he was so massive. We both hid from each other, and my owner and his brother started laughing. Humans were idiots sometimes.

“I’ll call you The Flash. You’re so fast,” said my owner.

So after, we went to sleep, but I couldn’t because my owner complained to his mom that I was making too much noise, so she put me in a scary room, and I was up all night.

 

DAY TWO

The next morning, Lucas’ mom wasn’t there to wake him up. His dad was. He fed me, but I didn’t like the smell of the food. So, I didn’t eat it. And then, he put me back in his room. And then he let me exercise for a few minutes, fed me, and then just left the house with his dad. Where did they go to that took so long? He was finally back with his grandma and his brother like… five hours later! Then finally, Lucas went to get me out of my cage and let me exercise. Lucas was a cool dude. I tried to speak to him, but his response was way out of topic.

When I said I needed water, he said, “Looks like you need exercise!”

And then once again, obviously, he brought in my brother’s crab like… two hours later, and he put my face in front of his face. We both ran. That crab was huge!!! I didn’t like him. That crab was annoying. He spoke too much and smelled. He said things about the World Cup, trying to bet me 50 bucks that England was going to win over and over again, and he sang soccer songs, and shouted, “HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!” Take a shower, dude! I just ignored him, but I didn’t think he had any reason to ignore me… I was just a perfectly normal crab living a normal life. This time, Lucas didn’t get tucked in by his mom again. Where was she? So once again, I expected him to wake up in the middle of the night to my cage rattling and kick me from his room. But this time, he didn’t! So this time, I could finally get some sleep!

But I woke up to him in the middle of the night when he was moving in his bed while he was asleep…  so I said, “Dude! Quiet!” and rattled my cage.

Then, all bad was released. Lucas woke up, angry. This time, he didn’t take me to his parents’ room. He took me to the basement. I couldn’t sleep all night. It was so dark…

 

DAY THREE

I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten in two days. The food was so gross. Seriously, Lucas? Just give me a banana. Lucas was worried for me.

He said to his dad, “Dad! The Flash hasn’t eaten his food in two days. I’m worried… ”

“Don’t worry. I’ll try to get Gabe to get The Flash to eat. It’s going to be fine,” said Lucas’ dad.

Lucas got ready for where he was going and played on his iPad for a bit until he had to go. My water sponge was out of water.

Then, when they were about to leave, Lucas checked my sponge and said to his dad, “Can I quickly give my crab water in his sponge?” and Lucas’ dad hit the wall really hard.

I started to get scared.

His dad screamed at Lucas and said, “YOU SHOULD’VE DONE THAT EARLIER!”

“Well, do you want my crab to die?” said Lucas.

“Sure. Let him die. I am going to kill him!” said his dad angrily.

I started to get so scared… I started crying. “I don’t wanna die!” I said.

But Lucas’ dad didn’t kill me. He didn’t even come upstairs. I calmed down. I stopped crying.

“You need to go to Writopia! I’m going to be late for a ten o’clock meeting in downtown D.C.!”

So that’s where he went every day! What’s Writopia? Well, at least I knew where he went every day. And then, they left. And I heard some shouting outside. So, I just sat and waited for Lucas to come back. When Lucas came back from Writopia, he finally took me out of the basement. He put me up one floor, which was much cosier. Then, he gave me a banana, which I did not eat, but I usually would. Then, he just watched some TV. He let me out of my cage while he was watching TV and let me exercise. I liked Lucas, but sometimes he was scary… like… his hands were colossal. So, as usual, I was expecting to have to go face-to-face with my mortal enemy, The Soccer Dude, and yes, that was what I called the one who shouted, “HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!” all night long, and I was the only one who could hear it, but no. The happiest day of my life was today. God shined the light on me. Angels watched over me. I did not see The Soccer Dude today!!!

“HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE! HARRY KANE!”

 

DAY FOUR

The next morning, as usual, he gave me water and went on his iPad for a bit. No questions asked. And I still had a headache from The Soccer Dude shouting Harry Kane all night. Lucas left to Writopia, once again, and I was all alone with a madman singing “Ole.” When Lucas returned, I heard a calm, soothing voice. Apparently, his mom was here! Even I was surprised! One day she was not here, the next she was!

“Mom. Did you bring anything from your business trip?” said Lucas.

“No, sweetie. I’m sorry. Next time I will,” said Lucas’ mom.

“It’s okay, Mom. You didn’t have to,” said Lucas.

Okay. Business trip. So… where did she go for the business trip? So, Lucas just picked me up like it was nothing and held me in his hand. Okay. Imagine this. You have to sit in the palm of a sweaty hand in a hot room for two hours watching a piece of metal that has a screen that projects people kicking a ball and flopping on the floor. Plus, my mortal enemy (The Soccer Dude) was in Lucas’ brother’s hand, cheering for England. That’s what his definition of fun was. At the end of the game, The Soccer Dude wept. The Soccer Dude snapped his pinchers in the air. You see, that’s why I only did normal things that crabs do.

“WHYYY!!! England! Ye lost! How? It’s only Croatia!!! Come ON England ye worthless scrubs! Wahhhhhaahhaahaa,” wept The Soccer Dude.

“Oh, come on, dude! It’s only a game! What’s the meaning of people kicking a ball and flopping on the floor?” I say.

“You really don’t get it, do you?” said The Soccer Dude in a weepy voice. “This is the World Cup. It happens only every four years, and this is very rare! England is way better than nasty ol’ Croatia!” The Soccer Dude pinched me!

“Aaah!” I started to cry. “Lucas!!! Aaah!”

Lucas heard the pinch. He immediately came downstairs. He threw The Soccer Dude on the hard floor. The Soccer Dude was hurt. Yay! Then, he quickly sprinted to me.

“Are you okay?” said Lucas. I was bleeding. It hurt! I frowned.

“Mom!” said Lucas.

“Yes, Lucas?” said Lucas’ Mom.

“The Flash is bleeding!” said Lucas.

“Oh, no!” said Lucas’ Mom. “I’m coming right now!”

“We need to put a tiny piece of folded paint to stop the bleeding,” said Lucas.

“Good idea,” said Lucas’ Mom. She ran upstairs to get toilet paper and put it where I was bleeding. And it stopped after a while.

At night, The Soccer Dude finally stopped yelling “Harry Kane” and singing “Ole.” For the first time, I was not taken to the basement. Instead, I was taken to Lucas’ room where I had to boringly watch Lucas sleep for 11 hours. But still, I loved him. I was growing to be comfortable with this house. And that, my friends, was when I realized Lucas’ family would cherish and protect me forever.

Fin

 

Credits

Lucas Gebrekristose (story idea)

Rita Feinstein (comments/helping/correcting)

Ebony Adkins (comments/helping/correcting)

Marina Cooper (comments/helping/correcting)

Sofia Laguarda (comments/helping/correcting)

Special thanks to my family and my wonderful crab who hold and cherish me, knowing I will do the same for them.

 

Sad Life of Peter

Peter was squirting toothpaste as he yelled at his mom for taking away his PS4. As he brushed his teeth, he said to himself, “I could think of a million ways to annoy my mom. I will use my mom’s credit card to buy millions of millions of V-bucks. I will burn her iPhone X. I will call the police and say mom did child abuse. I shall have my revenge.”

Then, he did all of the things he said he was going to do. The game console was important to him because he had every game in it, and all the games cost a fortune, and his mom took it away because he did badly on his test.

Since he had a credit card, he went out to get some McDonalds. He then saw a kid helping his mom, and after he saw that, he wanted his mommie, but she was going to be in prison for 30 years (because of child abuse). Then, he realized his mistakes and started doing chores till he was 16 and had quite a lot of money, but he knew it was not enough, and now he could get a real job, so he could gain enough money. Then later, when his mom was free, she felt proud that Peter changed.

After a while, he and his mom were walking down an alleyway, and a shadowy figure came up to Peter’s mom and said, “Give me all your money or I kill Peter.”

Strange, Peter thought. How did he know my name?

Then, he took Peter in his arms and stuck a gun at him and said, “Give me your money.”

So, his mom gave the figure the money, but he still shot his gun at Peter’s mom, and Peter fell to the ground devastated. In an anguished voice, he yelled “Why!!!”

That day, his mom got murdered.

After that, he worked his butt off and got a new name, Millionaire Peter. Then, he made a superhero base. He was now the M-Man. His superpower was money. He could purchase anything in the world. Then, he fought crime.

He was looking for the enemy that killed his mom. Then, his crime phone rang. Then, there was a crime in the warehouse, and the butler said to be very careful. Then, he entered the warehouse with his best superhero gear, and then he realized this was what he trained for his whole life. It was the same person who killed his mom. He had the same mask on as the time when he killed his mom. So to him, this was the final battle. They both fought, but M-Man took off his mask.

The killer said, “You again.”

Then, they fought to the death, and the killer almost fell off the plane (sorry, forgot to mention before). Then, the killer opened his mask, and he said, “Peter, I am your father.”

“Really???” Peter asked. Then, he said, “How did I know your name. Why did you kill her.”

“Son, I was being mind-controlled by the Man. I tried to fight it as much as possible, but he said he would kill, so I had no choice.” The killer, who was Peter’s dad, said, “Sorry, son.”

Peter gave his father a puzzled look.

 

Animals

 

Warning: This story contains graphic violence, which may be disturbing to some readers.

 

Chapter One

When midnight came, the zoo started roaring because in this area, everything is a life sentence, for the animals were treated like they were slaves. The zookeepers walked around the zoo. They looked into the animals eyes and hit them. While the zookeepers did that, one animal was in its cage, lonely in the corner, thinking, Why is the world like this? During that time, it was raining. The animal’s name was Robin, and he was an elephant. He always thought that animals should be free in the wild and that they should be able to have freedom as a family and survive in the wild.

For a long time, the animals were enslaved in the zoo for Homo sapiens to see. Also, near there was a circus. The circus tortured animals even more. They would smack them, put them in chains, and rip them apart. They would hypnotize them, shoot them, put them in cages, everything you can imagine, and worst of all, they used elephants.

Oooh, you can’t imagine what people did to those elephants. They would put them in chains and make them dance. They would make them pull things. They would chop up their tusks. They would kill their young. They would put them in cages. They would face paint them. They would make them drink venom. And there was another creature. That creature was a lion. The lion always wanted the circus to be boycotted and thought that animals shouldn’t be treated so awfully.

The elephant and the lion, Alexander, knew each other. Each Sunday evening, they would break out of the zoo, meet up, and try to raise money to help animals go back into the wild. It never worked. A lot of animals suffered.

 

Chapter Two

One evening, the elephant and the lion went to the restaurant.

The elephant said, “How much money did we raise?”

The lion said, “We only raised 35 cents.”

Then, Robin had an idea. The idea was that Alexander and Robin would both go back and tell the animals this plan: the animals all station around town to raise money and if it didn’t work, they would meet back at the zoo, even the circus animals, and get a new plan. So they both set out back to where they came from and told everybody the plan.

All the animals agreed that it was an amazing plan. They set out stations all through town.

 

Chapter Three

All of the animals set out stations in these locations. Two were Times Square, three near the zoo, five near the circus, ten near the Empire State Building, thirty-five in Central Park, and fifty-two in the suburbs. All of them raised a little bit of money each day. They soon had over one thousand dollars. But they still didn’t have enough money to put the animals back in the wild.

While Robin was walking, he met a few humans: Curiosity, Philosophy, and Geography. They all wanted the exact opposite. They wanted all animals to be put back in the zoo and not to be bred. They wanted them to die easily, and they wanted them to cut their flesh for fun. They also wanted to destroy their habitats.

Robin did not like this. He was wondering if they even had brains. He wondered if any of them even grew up as actual animals (because all of the organisms were actually animals).

 

Chapter Four

All of the stations around the city raised over one billion dollars each, and that still wasn’t enough to overthrow the government. The government did not agree with this and wanted more animals to be tortured with an electric chair and a guillotine. They would also tie horses up by all their body parts.

 

Chapter Five

Robin and Alexander thought of a new idea. They would start a rebellion on Sunday evening, in the state park, at five pm, longitude 33 degrees.

 

Chapter Six

Sunday evening, at five pm and longitude 33 degrees, the polar bears broke out of their cages, using little ticks all night, biting in the cages with their little fangs, to open them up. The polar bears banged on the zookeepers and got the keys. The praying mantis killed many bugs and stuck them on the cage like super glue. Since there were five million of them, they pulled back all together and destroyed the cage.

The ants crawled out. The owls used their smarts to use telekinetic powers to open up the bird cages. The zookeepers were knocked, and the seals used them as floats to be able to be on land. The dolphins used little sea sponges to be able to jump on land and walk around. The animals that live in the coral reef jumped into the seals’ little tanks. Also, since the cage had mowers in it, the alligators took all of them and destroyed the cage. The elephants blew the cage down. Now, since the endangered animals all lived in the same cage, they all together got the keys from the polar bears and opened it up. Also, the parrots were able to use human to communicate with the people to open the door. The parakeets were able to text loony tunes and get granny.

Now they all together marched toward the White House. They marched through the door into the president’s office. First, the elephants smacked him the face, poked his eyes out with their tusks, and burned his brain at the stake. They also made his wife wear burning iron heels and had to dance in them for the rest of their life. Then, they took the dead president and buried him in a junkyard.

They came out and broke out and did these things.

 

Chapter Seven

On that day, all of the birds were spinning around and around the White House. They also had heavy balls that had atomic bombs with them, that they had to drop on the people. They threw them on Washington DC and to add on to that destruction, they put on anti-chemical masks, put chemicals in the jars, and banged them on Washington DC. They, too, went back in time with a time machine and took the most radioactive bombs in the world that were supposed to fall on Japan. They took them back to the present and threw them on Washington DC. Then, they also threw in human beings with cancer and the rash. Then, they also threw in computers that could be burned to make the radiation even stronger. Then, they just flew off. The birds also flew over to Florida and sawed it off.

They also sold Manhattan back to the American Indians. They took off the “locks” in the Panama Canal. They also destroyed Nickelodeon studios. They also threw donuts on the people of California. They exploded Columbia College. They shut down Niagara Falls and filled up the Grand Canyon with dirt. They also gave venom to the people of Barnard College. They also went back to Washington DC and went to a pottery studio and made president pottery and threw it into a vat of radiation. Then they started putting kittens everywhere and gave them to the Native Americans. They went back in time and killed Lewis and Clark, sunk the Mayflower, and killed Christopher Columbus. They also killed Teddy Roosevelt.

Then, they went on their phones and started looking at Pinterest. The end.

 

Chapter Eight

They also found out that America has a warship called the Intrepid. They took the Intrepid and sailed to India and bombed it. They sailed back to the circus. The owls flew around the circus people, picked their feathers off, and started poking the people with them. Then, they flew all the way to Kansas and then started collecting tumbleweeds. Then, they went and started throwing tumbleweeds at the people at the zoo. The tumbleweeds had toxins in them which made them fly to the foreign of the galaxy. They also collected twigs and made a fire with them and threw them at the cages to melt them down and make them into little molds.

 

Chapter Nine

As all the marine animals jumped into the water, they started swimming towards Antarctica. There, they met the polar bears, penguins, and sea lions and took them on a trip to Asia, and they went to Russia and invaded Moscow. Then, they started going to the big mosque, and they peeled off the big onion domes and then squeezed them into the ground and cut a door to make them portable homes. Then, they flooded India. After that, they went to Dubai and watched the dancing fountains. But, before they did that, they clogged up the system and made it so that the dancing fountains were like the ones at the Met, which were not inspiring and the people didn’t pay at all and also since they clogged it up, the water just went one inch tall each time it leaped. So the people saw that the fountains weren’t working and started dancing around in the water for no reason.

Then, the marine animals swam to NYC and flooded the subway through the Hudson and the East River. Then, they went up the East River upstate and clogged up every single tube they can see, even the toothpaste in your grandmother’s country home. Then after that, they started going back into the city and climbed up the Empire State Building and started shooting enormous volts of electricity into every single home until everybody in New York State was electrified. Then, they started swimming down the East River, went to Florida, and enjoyed the beach.

 

Chapter Ten: The Land Rover

All the land animals did something too. The first thing they did was go up the Nile River and climb up the Great Pyramid. Then, they started teleporting solar power to every home they saw, which made all of Egypt and almost all of Africa, shake. Then, they took a boat to Europe and started destroying the Colosseum. Then, they knocked down the Tower of Pisa and started destroying the Hoover Dam. Then, they went back to England and arrested the Queen. Then, they went back in time and put an earthquake in Los Angeles. Then they went further ahead in time, and they went to the earthquake of 1906 in California and started putting massive volts of electricity in the ground to make it shake more. They went back in time, and they started climbing up the biggest tower in the world and started throwing bacon at the world even though there was a pig there. Then, they split up and went to every single bank in the world and got the money to overthrow the government.

Then, the whole zoo marched up to the White House in 2018, with all of the money from all over the world, and went into the Oval Office. Since the president was already dead, they had a new president. He had paintings of himself all over the walls. He was even worse than the previous president. He made sure that all the animals in the zoos of the world were smacked in the face each millisecond and that they would pull out the tusks of all the elephants each millisecond. They also forced them to give birth to more elephants to produce more tusks. All the animals marched up to the new president’s desk and put the money on the desk.

Then, they said, “Will we be free of slavery and injustice if we give you this money?”

Then, the new president said, “No, no.”

Then, the animals overthrew the government one last time by marching out and knocking unconscious every single person in the White House and made the new president sign a paper saying all the animals will be released into the wild. The declaration was signed, and all the animals were free in the wild!

 

A Puffy Phenomenon

 

Life isn’t Fair

It’s hard being a rabbit with a disability. Kits look at you and hop behind their mom. Other bunnies hop away in fear. I just had to be chosen to have a disability. It isn’t fair. For the most part, I have a cool home. I find cool parts that humans leave in their shops, where those big machines sometimes come in, and live there for a while. Some say things on them like Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Jeep… I digress. Okay, back to my house. I steal parts from human shops and invent things to make my life easier. So far, I’ve invented a wheel for my missing leg, moving stairs for my house, and a robot to make me carrot cake. The project that I am working on right now is a little carrot mobile, and the wheel is made out of carrot stalks. It’s pretty cool, although my lifelong dream is to invent some sort of a friend, one who plays games with me and laughs with me. Something like that. Or, it could be easier to get a real friend. Much, much easier, but more complicated.

Right, let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Puffy Frank, and I am only six years old in human years (assuming this will be read by a human), and I think I am very intelligent for a six-year-old. My parents died saving me from a murderer. The murderer managed to cut one of my legs off, but I escaped and hid away in the sewers. I stayed there and cried for two weeks, because I was only five years old. It was so sad and terrifying at the same time. But I managed to get over it and used my skill of inventing to make myself a wheel for my missing leg. Well, I’m here now, so… I think I’m doing pretty well for a lone orphan, anyway. So, maybe you haven’t noticed, but this is my first long, real writing piece that I’ve written. I’m only six years old, anyways, so…

 

Test-drive

Just in case you were wondering, here is an example day from my life, just to show you how bad it is to be a disabled bunny:

So, I finally finished my carrot mobile, and I decided that maybe taking it out of my bunny hole and test-driving my carrot mobile might help me think of my next idea. So I tugged it out of my bunny hole, got in, and drove around Bugstown. Our village is named after the famous human bunny character, Bugs Bunny. We have pictures of him up all around town.

Anyways, I was driving around town and rabbits started “secretly” pointing at me. Kits stared at me. There was hardly any traffic around me. (Well, I will admit, that’s partly because I’m well… Okay, fine… I’m the only one who owns a car in Bugstown.) Still, the streets that I was on were almost completely empty. I drove on and on, still, rabbits scattering before me. Sometimes, I wondered if that was a good thing. To be feared by other bunnies. Either that’s my bad side, or I’m just trying to make myself feel better about myself. I don’t know. So, anyways, (I really have to get better at staying on one topic!) I was driving to nowhere, and then, I got my idea: a fake leg. I immediately turned around and started to drive back home. I was hungry. Maybe, if I made that fake leg and put on a disguise and made copies of my bunny mobile, I could sell them, and people wouldn’t be scared of me because I would just look like a normal bunny! Of course, my disguise would have to make me look older. (Or else someone would ask who my parents were and then, what would I say? If I told them the truth, they would just report me to the orphanage. And I am horrible at lies.) I think that could be a great plan! I would make enough money to buy myself food and toys, and other essentials. (Yes, I consider toys an essential.) Or I could make robots and program them to make bunny mobiles. Yeah, thats a better plan. I’ll would do that. As soon as I got home, I laid out the blueprint for the robot. All right! Awesome!

 

Perfect

First, I made the fake leg. It was easy. I took some fake rabbit hair and super glued it on to a plastic modeled leg. Then, I made two electrical cords running up from my fake leg to the stump of my real leg. Perfect. I tried to wiggle my fake toes. It worked! Amazing! I tried jumping. Yup! I could jump more gracefully than I had ever been able to in a year. Okay, next part of the plan: robots. In about three days, I finished six robots. Now, I just had to program them to make the bunny mobiles. I’m quite a very advanced bunny, if I say so myself. I quickly built a terminal to key the program in to them. Perfect! Making the program would be easy-peasy. There! Done! I washed my hands quickly to get all the oil off of me. Now, the next part of my plan: the disguise. I spent a lot of time pondering how to make it, walking back and forth, until finally I got it: a mustache and glasses.

It would look just like the human items humans sometimes wear on their face! I quickly made it out of fake rabbit hair and plastic. Perfect! Now, one more thing: a stand to sell bunny cars. I quickly threw together a stand. Perfect. The day was already over, so I went to bed with my fake leg. Wow! I was so excited for tomorrow!

 

Why Should I?

I woke up at 9:00 am. I don’t have to go to school, because I don’t want to. Why should I? No one ever told me to. I groaned, tired from the night before. (I’m a night owl, not a morning bird.) Then, I remembered today was the day to put my plan in action! And, I officially don’t have a missing leg. Hooray! I ran out of my bedroom. (Well, it wasn’t much of a bedroom… ) Yup, there was all my work from the past few days. My robots had made 30 bunny mobiles overnight (five robots each) just for me to sell. I quickly threw together a loooooong chain and a giant cart. I would attach the chain to the original bunny mobile, (which I would drive), and chain each bunny mobile to the chain. Then, at the end of the chain, the cart would be attached, and the stand would be in it. Perfect! Now I just had to find a busy corner. I drove around for a while, and then I found quite a busy corner, that people would pass by on their way to work. I set everything up, unlatched the chain from the original bunny chain, and connected it to the stand. Perfect. Now, the hardest part: waiting. I’ve never been patient. Never. Ever. I looked on the ground to see some parts that humans must of dropped. I picked them up and quickly made a puzzle where there was a big container with a lots of chutes inside, going in every direction. There was also a ball. You had to tilt the giant plastic container in every way to get the ball to go through the chute. I played around with that for a while, until an old man Mini Lop bunny hopped over.

I immediately stood straight up and said, “Hello, mister.”

He looked me up and down and said, “What you selling here?”

He had a long cigar in his mouth and kept moving it from side to side in his mouth.

I immediately said as politely as I could (I wasn’t trained in manners), “This, mister, is a one of a kind machine. If you get in it and press this thing down right here, this contraption will move forward. If you press down that and turn this wheel right, this contraption will turn right. Press down the button down there and turn the wheel left, and this contraption will turn left. If you press the other button down there, this contraption will immediately stop. I call this contraption, the ‘bunny mobile.’”

“Well, that’s certainly a unique contraption,” the old man growled. I held my breath. Then, the old man smiled. “How much for one?” he asked.

Oops. I forgot to make a price for the cars! “500 bunalls,” I blurted out.

The old man sighed. He grumbled, “Well, I guess it’s a new invention… ” He looked up at me. “How many do you have?” he asked.

“Thirty, sir.”

“Okay. I would like five for my whole family.”

I managed not to smile. “That would be 2,500 bunalls, sir,” I told him.

He gladly handed over five 500 bills. I unchained five cars, took another chain, and chained them all together.

“Thank you, sir!” I exclaimed.

“No, thank you,” he responded. He smiled.

Then, he hopped away with the chain of bunny mobiles. I sighed a sigh of pleasure. Business could be so pleasing! Unfortunately, in the next chapter, I learn that business isn’t always pleasing.

 

Unpleasant business

I was very happy. I had just sold five bunny cars! I was still smiling. Then, a pack of five teenager Rex Rabbits came up to me and said, “Haha! Look at this twerp. Selling giant carrots. Ha. He could never make it anywhere.” The teenagers were all smirking.

“Oh yeah?” I responded. “If you were smart, then you would know that these things are special, and I just started selling and already sold five of these things. Besides, even if they were a giant carrot, you wouldn’t have the brain to make one of these beauties.” I smiled.

I thought I had them beat! Unfortunately, I did not. The teenagers’ smiles fell off their faces.

“Well then, let’s see how good this junk really is.” One of the teenagers stepped forward and grabbed me in a bear hug. I squirmed, but it was no use. One of the other teenagers took one of my bunny mobiles. He signaled to all of the other teenagers. The teenager that was hugging me let go of me and dropped me to the ground. The teenager ran away with my bunny mobile, and all the other teenagers followed him. I was enraged. How dare they! I immediately called the police. They immediately came.

The police officer asked me, “Where’s your parents, kit?”

 

I’m a phenomenon

Oh no. Ohhhhhhhhh no. This was bad. I didn’t think ahead, and now they were asking me where my parents were. What was I supposed to say?

 

Flashback happens…

I was snuggled in my mother’s clutch.

“Puffy, I need you to promise something.”

“Anything, Mama,” I responded happily.

“Puffy, this will probably be the only lifelong promise I will make you make.”

“Okay, Mama. What is it?”

“I want you to promise to never, ever, lie to people. Okay?”

“Okay, Mama.”

“Deal?”

“Deal.”

 

Flashback ends.

“Kit! Kit!”

“Huh?”

Where are you parents?”

“Uhhhh… ”

Oh no. What was I going to say? I couldn’t break the one promise that I made. The one thing I have from my parents. But if I didn’t break the promise, my whole life could be in jeopardy if I didn’t lie. I tried to hear my parents like they do in movies, but I couldn’t hear anything. Then, I decided to tell the truth:

“I am an orphan.

I live in the sewers.

I have a missing leg.

My parents were murdered.”

The police gasped. The police who asked me where my parents were gasped. “You’re a phenomenon, kit.”

 

Downgrade

We walked to the orphanage. I looked away from the police. We were almost there. The police didn’t even have to tell me that we were there and to go into the orphanage. I did it myself.

 

Puffy v.2

I walked into the orphanage. The orphanage manager tried to introduce himself, but I ran by before he could. I hid out in my bedroom for most of the day. I was pretty sure I was going to have a horrible life from here. I slept for the whole day, not sure what to do. Then, the orphanage manager knocked on the door. I opened it.

The manager said softly to me, “Someone wants to adopt you, Puffy.”

 

Paperwork

I was sitting at the adoption desk. I stared at the people across from me. Both of them wanted to adopt me. They both were Holland Lops, and both had blue eyes. I gazed at them.

“What’s your name, son?” the man asked.

“Puffy,” I mumbled back.

“Well,” said the Holland Lop woman, “we would like to adopt you, Puffy. We live nearby, and we don’t have any children.”

“Okay,” I mumbled.

“Alright, all the paperwork is done!” the man exploded. “Let’s go see our new house!”

 

Interrupted

This was it, wasn’t it? I was going to leave my home and live in a house. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. But did it matter how I felt about it? It wouldn’t change anything. Oh well, might as well try to be happy about it anyways. We got to our house, and then — oh! All my bunny cars! What ever happened to them!? Then, the orphanage director ran down to us.

“Excuse me!” the orphanage director called. “I believe this is yours!” Behind him, he was lugging the long chain of bunny cars!

“What in the world is that?” exclaimed both of the Holland Lops.

“Oh yes!” I exclaimed. “This, uhhh… ” The man laughed.

“My name is Bucky, and my wife’s name is Bun. Just call us Mom and Dad, though,” he responded.

“Okay then,” I started again. “This, Mom and — ”

“Can you just take this thing? It’s soooooooooo heavy,” the orphanage director groaned. Ugh, I keep getting interrupted! I thought to myself.

Dad took the chain and responded, “Start again, son.”

“Okay then,” I said. “Once again, this I — ”

“Sorry, but it’s getting cold outside.” Mom shivered.

Augh! I screamed in my head. What I said out loud was, “Okay.” We moved inside the house.

“Wow!” I exclaimed. The house wasn’t a house; it was a mansion! Beautiful! Even the bunny chains could be in the living room, and the living room could still be a ballroom! I dragged the bunny cars in.

“Mom and Dad, maybe you didn’t know, but I am an amazing inventor!”

“Really.” My dad smiled. “Could you invent something for us?”

 

A New Life

Now, my life is amazing. Better than ever before. I have a bedroom three times the size of my house in the sewers, and I learned how to slide down handrails. I‘m famous as the kid inventor, and my family makes a living out of bunny cars. I’m inventing new things every day, and I’ll never stop. I have one close group of friends, and they are all disabled!

Life is beautiful once again.

The end

 

The World’s Smallest Dog

I am the world’s smallest dog. The world is too large and gigantic for me. All these big aliens are taking me by a red rope and naming me Ben, Fred, and Lilly! I can’t take it anymore! So, I run away. I mean, I will be left alone. No more “you’re a cutie pie” or “such an adorable munchkin” for me! So, with my short, stubby legs, I run down the road. I keep running until my small legs cannot take it anymore. I sit down to take a rest.

“Hey, you little doggie.” A big cat comes up on me.

I stand up to run away. My little legs don’t take me very far until the cat comes up to me. He grabs me up and bites me. I start to whimper. He drops me to the ground. Then, he walks away. I wait until he is gone, then I sit up. I have no idea where I am. The trees are swaying, and the wind is making me cold. I am hungry. Where is my soft and sweet doggie food? I am too small to do anything. So, I sit and stare hopelessly at a tree.

In the morning, I am awoken to the sound of chirps and baby birds. I look up. A bird’s nest is above my head. I run away from it. I never have liked birds. They were bigger than me. Anything bigger than me is sure to kill me. I am so small, my legs don’t even take me ten feet from the tree. I hate being so small. I hate it.

I walk as far as the town goes. I turn up onto a pole. There’s a picture of me!! I’m famous! All the world will know about me! For once, something goes well for me! Wait a second. I have seen that word before. I think it is “missing.” Or “massing.” I don’t know. Well, I’m famous. Who cares what it means. I walk down the street with my head held high. I hope people ask for autographs!

 

A few days later…

I am walking through a park with my head still held high. A van! It must be my special ride. I hop over to it and wait for the door to be opened to an inviting doggie food bowl and some doggie hair people to do my messy hair. The door opens with a slam. Not what I was expecting. But still, I’m excited for my new haircut. But a net falls over my head. What is going on here! I start barking. I get pulled by the net and dropped into a cage. Wait, I think I know what’s happening. I think I’m being taken to the pound! What am I supposed to do!!

 

One month later…

The pound is mucky and dirty, and it smells weird. The food is not that good. No one has adopted me yet. One more day in this stupid pound I will die!! Well, here comes another little girl who will pick any dog but the smallest dog in the world. We all have to line up and do tricks. At the end, the girl has to choose who she wants. All the dogs do handshakes and rolling over. The girl comes to me, and I look at her and smile. She smiles back at me. Then, she pets me. “I want this one,” she says.

“But you have not seen all the dogs yet,” the owner says.

“But I just know I want this one,” the girl says. The girl picks me up. She pets me once again. Then, she and her mom go out the door. I love this little girl, and she loves me, because I am the smallest dog in the world!!

The End

 

Thunder the Tiger

Thunder the tiger lived in the jungle, but he wondered what New York City would be like. He lived on the north mountain which was actually very far away. He wondered if he would ever get to New York City because he was so far away.

His mom and dad said, “You can’t walk that far,” but he was confident that he could.

He walked a long distance to get to New York City. He saw an ostrich hiding in the bushes who wanted to kick him. He had to run a far distance, and he realized he was back where he started. He wondered again if he would ever get to New York City because there were so many dangers out there. But he wouldn’t give up. He swung on the vines and found a leopard. That was a real danger! He wondered if he would ever get past the leopard, and he tried and tried. However, the leopard found him again and again. But Thunder wouldn’t give up yet until he got tired. Then finally, he got past the leopard. Then, there was more trouble. He had to go back past the ostrich. He finally got past the ostrich too, and the ostrich tried to kick him.

But Thunder said, “Look, there’s another leopard!”

The ostrich looked, but nothing was there, He looked back, but the tiger was gone. Thunder had tricked him. But Thunder had more obstacles to get to New York City. He had to get past a whole big log pile that was blocking the path to New York. He tried to jump, but he fell down the log pile, so he went around the logs. But he had even more obstacles to do. He wondered if New York City even existed. He was so tired that he had to take a break.

The next morning, he had lots of obstacles to do, so he had to do his best to get to New York City. He had to get past a bunch of rocks that formed a wall. He had to make a hole in the ground and make another hole to get up. He tried and tried, but he couldn’t get past the craziest obstacles in the whole rainforest. He tried to get past the deer, but they were eating, and he knew they would think he was a predator and they were his prey. So he dressed up like a deer secretly and took off his costume when he finally got past the deer. But one of the deer saw him not in disguise, and the mother deer thought it was her baby, but it was just Thunder disguised as a deer. Then, when he took off his costume, the mother deer spotted him, and the deer realized they had been tricked.

The mother deer asked him where he was going, and the tiger said, “I want to leave the rainforest and go to New York City!”

The mother deer said, “Okay, you can go!”

He finally got past all obstacles, but then he realized New York City didn’t have the things he needed. It didn’t have a proper place to live, it just had tall buildings. They didn’t have water in pools on the ground, they only had water in fountains which he couldn’t reach because he was a baby. He realized he had gone this far for nothing, because New York City didn’t have the right things for him. Now he had to go past all the obstacles he had passed before.

The moral of the story is always be thankful for what you have, or else you’ll end up in a place you won’t want to be in ever again.

THE END.

 

The British One

 

Intro

“What!” said Jackie. “You’re getting remarried?”

It was Saturday afternoon, and the family was having afternoon tea.

“Well, don’t you want me to be happy?” said Jackie’s mom, sipping her tea.

“Well, of course we do,” said Gabby, giving Jackie a look. “We’re just in shock, that’s all. But yes, we are very happy for you. Just one question: is he moving here, or are we moving to that big house we saw.”

Oh, please make him move here, thought Jackie. Or say that you think this is actually going too fast for you. Please say it’s the second one.

“Well, about that… ” said Jackie’s mom. “Remember the other house that only Gabriela and I saw? Well, we’re moving there.”

“What?!” Jackie screamed, spilling tea all over the table and jumping up. “I’m not moving!”

“Well, you have to,” her mom said.

“No,” said Jackie. “I’m running away.”

 

Two years later…

 

Chapter One

“Do any of them know what ‘on time’ means?” asked Will, cleaning an apple from the dirt on it. “They’re usually not this late.”

Jack and Will were sitting down near the pastry shop, waiting for the rest of their gang.

“They have the poet guy with them, right?” asked Jack, pacing back and forth. “I hope the poet guy won’t forget he’s the oldest out of all of them.”

“Well, how can he forget if he keeps reminding us about it,” said Will, snorting. “But really, if they got caught I’ll kill them before the police get to.”

“Hey!” said Jack suddenly. “It’s the poet guy!”

“Finally!” said Will as the poet guy got closer. “What took so long, Alan?”

“Captured,” said Alan, breathing heavily. “I just ran away from some policemen. They’re going to find us any minute. So move it!”

“I don’t know if this is the right time to point this out, but we have a small problem,” said Jack, looking past Alan and Will.

“You think I haven’t seen that before, British guy?” asked Alan. “I know that all of our group is gone except for me, German guy, and you.”

“No,” said Jack with a worried voice. “There are, like, ten policemen and a really tall guy coming toward us with guns.”

 

Chapter Two

“We could try and run,” said Will. “But whatever happens, Jack, keep your mouth shut. We all know how they hate British people.”

“We can’t run,” said Alan, leaning against the wall and taking a huge bite of the apple Will gave him. “Time to join our friends.”

“Shutting mouth,” said Jack. “Now!”

“What did you want to do with them sir?” asked one of the policemen to the tall man. “You want to take them to your school?”

“Yes, that’s right,” said the man. “And if you don’t mind, I would like to give them a proper hello.”

“Whatever you’d like sir,” said the same policeman.

The tall man came closer to the three of them and then crouched down, so he’d be face to face with them.

“I don’t think I introduced myself,” he said. “My name is Vincent. I am a director of a school for people like you. Your friends are also going to that school, so you won’t be very lonely there. Now may you please introduce yourselves?”

“Yeah sure, whatever,” Alan and Will mumbled. Jack still kept his mouth shut and didn’t dare look up.

“My name is Will,” mumbled Will, also not looking up. “I’m seventeen.”

“Nice to meet you, Will,” said Vincent. “I think that people at the school will call you German guy. Have you ever been called that before?”

Will nodded but still kept his head down.

“My name is Alan, and I’m the oldest of the group. I’m eighteen,” said Alan, picking his head up and looking Vincent straight in the eye. “People call me poet guy.”

“Well nice to meet you too, Alan,” said Vincent. “You like poetry?”
Alan nodded.

“Well, then we’ll get along,” said Vincent. “And what’s your name? You haven’t spoken at all.”

“That’s Jack,” said Alan quickly. “He’s a little shy sometimes.”

“I don’t think he’s shy,” said Vincent. “Say your name, or I’ll tell the policemen to take you away.”

“My name is Jack,” said Jack, trying to hide his British accent. “I’m sixteen.”

“Well, I guess people call you the British one.”

“No,” said Jack quickly. “We only call people ‘one’ if they are very important. They call me British guy.”

“Well, then,” said Vincent. “Poet guy, German guy, and British guy, I hope you’ll like your new school.”

 

Chapter Three

One hour later, Jack, Will, and Alan found themselves walking up to a big building.

All the way they were walking, none of them dared to speak.

Will was too shy to speak. He never liked talking to people he just met. It was different with their gang members.

Alan was too sad to speak. Vincent told them that their other friends refused to go and were now in jail.

And Jack was too scared to speak. The same thought kept running through his head. Her head, actually.

I just agreed to die. I’m a her. Not a he. Why did I agree to this. My foster parents wouldn’t kill me. Wait, thought Jack, I went through like two years without them, and I was perfectly fine. Whoever said I have to stop pretending.

They finally came to a tall building with heads sticking out of the windows.

“The other students like to give new students warm welcomes,” said Vincent. “I hope you’ll like it here.”

The three of them were still mute. None of them even paid attention to what he was saying. They all just kept their eyes forward.

When they got inside the building, they all gasped. Vincent smiled and said, “Welcome to your new home.”

The ceiling was at least ten feet tall, the walls were covered in amazing wallpaper. There was a sofa that took up a quarter of the room, a piano that took up half, and some chairs that took up the last quarter.

“Time to meet your classmates,” said Vincent. “You’ll be with them a lot, so try to be nice. If they try to kill you, either tell me or fight back. It happens here a lot.”
They walked down a long hallway to a room where there were two long tables.“This is where you’ll eat,” said Vincent. “You really don’t have to know where it is because everyone else will be rushing there every morning, afternoon, and night. You’ll memorize this whole place at some point. Now I really must show you were you’ll sleep.”

They walked down the hallway a couple of more minutes (it was really long) until they came to a door where loud sounds were coming from.

Vincent opened the door, and everyone got quiet.

“Students,” he said. “We have three new students today. Their names are Alan who is eighteen, Will who is seventeen, and Jack who is sixteen.”

Everyone was still quiet.

“I’ll leave you to say hello,” said Vincent. Then, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

“You guys have nicknames?” one of the boys asked. “Or should we give you guys one?”

“We have,” said Alan. “Mine’s poet guy.”

“Cool,” said another boy. “What about you?”

“Mine’s German guy,” said Will.

“What about the one that hasn’t spoken yet?” said the boy that first spoke. “What’s your nickname?”

“British guy,” said Jack

“Look at that!” said the boy. Jack saw he had a French accent, and the other boy that also laughed looked like a Romani. “We have a British guy in our room!”

“Well, what are you?” said Jack, not offended at all (he heard that before). “French guy and gypsy guy?”

The two boys looked at him blankly.

Then, the door opened, and Vincent came in.

“From now on, you shall call me by my last name: Mr. Rander,” he said. “Now all of you off to bed. What’s wrong with you guys? Michael? Alex? Hurry up!”

When everyone was in bed, Vincent put out the small candle on the windowsill. Then, he left the room.

The fire was still burning, so you could still see some things.

“Hey,” said the French guy. “British guy? We’re in France! What were your parents thinking of bringing you here after the war?!”

“I don’t have parents,” said Jack. “Besides, it’s easier to just keep your mouth shut and not talk about all the other things you stole if you get caught.”

Someone gave a small laugh.

“Well, in the morning you’ll really see how this room looks,” said the French guy. “It’s not the best room you ever saw.”

“I saw a bed,” said Jack. “That’s the most comfortable thing I ever saw!”

“How about your foster parents?” asked the French guy.

“Made me sleep outside,” said Jack, remembering the memory of him sleeping on the cold ground. “They really didn’t care if I died.”

“Well, now you’re here,” said the French guy. “You ever been to school?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I got kicked out all the time for stealing.”

“Well, this is a normal school,” said the French guy.

And that was their first day at that school.

 

Chapter Four

Three weeks later…

The bell rang, like usual, early in the morning.

“Today is telling secrets day!” said Mr. Rander. “We have this day every year. And no lies. So after classes, I want to hear your deepest secret! Now off you go!”

Jack’s eyes grew wide. His deepest secret? It’s that he’s a girl!

Time to die, thought Jack as he went to his first class of the day. Why did I ever agree to do this?

The morning classes got his mind off of things.

“German class is very important to everyone I hope,” said their teacher for German that morning. “And I know that you’re going to tell your secrets today, but you still have to pay attention!

That last part was for the kids in the back who always talked. Jack, Will, and Alan were one of those boys.

“Deutsche Geschichte,” said the German teacher. “Will! Translate that!”

Will stood up and said, “German history. And also, are the teachers going to share their secrets? Mrs. Ahif?”

“Nein!” said Mrs. Ahif. “Jetzt lese deutsche Geschichte in deinen Lehrbuchern!”

Everyone looked at Will for him to translate. He was the only one that could speak German fluently in the class, aside from Mrs. Ahif.

German class went on, and soon the bell rang which meant it was time for French class.

“French guy!” called Jack. “You better translate!”

“Yeah,” the French guy said as he sat next to Alan. “You owe me one.”

“No,” said Will. “I translated for German class, only fair if you translate in French class.”

“Fine,” said the French guy. “And you can call me Alex if you want.”

“Bonjour!” said Mr. Aubin coming into the room. “C’est le jour de l’histoire de France!”

“Today is French history day,” translated Alex. “I’m not helping you with anything else. Only what he’s saying, not what’s in the textbooks!”

“Sure,” said Jack. “The textbooks are in English. I think we all know English.”

“You’re supposed to know French!” said Alex angrily. “You’re in France! Not in America!”

“Is there something wrong in the back, boys?” asked Mr. Aubin.

“Non,” said Alex. “Nous allons travailler maintenant.”

“Good,” said Mr. Aubin and turned back to the boy he was helping

“You’re good at lying to teachers,” whispered Jack. “You said that we’re going to go and work now.”

“Well, I am,” Alex said and opened his book.

Half an hour later, the bell rang, and everyone ran out of the classrooms. Everyone couldn’t wait to hear the secrets of all the boys.

At least those were the only two classes of the day, thought Jack. Now I can live peacefully in a grave once they find out I’m a girl. Even if I don’t say I’m a girl, they’ll find out anyway at some point.

As everyone took their seats at lunch, Mr. Rander stood up and said, “We’ll go by tables, and then everyone will say their deepest secrets! No lying!”

“Last year this started,” said Alex. “I never lie to Mr. Rander. If you do, somehow he’ll find out and kick you out.”

“No lying it is,” said Alan.

Jack saw that Alan, Will, and Alex were also scared. It made Jack feel a tiny bit better.

Mr. Rander starting naming tables, and the boys went around and told their deepest secrets.

At least I’m going last, thought Jack, as a boy told everyone he’s not actually French. I can enjoy life for five more minutes!

Then, it was time for their table.

 

Chapter Five

“Alex,” said Mr. Renard. “Your secret.”

Alex stood up like all the other boys did and said, “My deepest secret is that I almost killed my dad.”

Everyone was quiet, and then Mr. Renard broke the silence.

“Well, I guess something in common with your friend Will over here,” said Mr. Renard. “I’m sure we all saw some anger in you when someone mentioned parents. Will, stand up.”

Will stood up and said, “My deepest secret is the same as Alex. I almost killed my dad.”

Mr. Renard said, “Well, we all get angry at our parents at some point. Alan your turn.”

Alan stood up and said, “I wrote ten poems, and they all were in a newspaper.”

“Well, that’s amazing!” said Mr. Renard. “Jack, your turn.”

Jack stood up slowly and said, “My deepest secret is that my name is actually Jackie, and um… I’m sort of like a girl really, and I’ve been pretending to be a boy for the past two years.”

It was deadly quiet in the room.

The whole room was looking at her with their mouths open.

Then, Will said, “You’re a girl?!”

“Yeah,” said Jackie. “But I can explain.”

So, Jackie told the whole story from beginning to the end.

“Forever this name will be with you… ” said Will. “The British One.”

THE END

 

The Canvas Who Wanted to be Loved

One day, before 5:00 a.m. in an art studio in Italy, canvases were waiting to be purchased and painted. That day, an artist came in and was looking for an old, priceless canvas to paint his next masterpiece. When he purchased his very first canvas, he brought it back to his own art shop so he could start painting. That canvas was not just a plain old canvas. It was ancient (who knew how old) and used by other famous artists. It could not talk, but it could do things. This canvas could change paintings if it wanted to. This canvas was magical, not alive. When the artist started painting, the painting started to come alive. The painter was painting a night sky, and the canvas was transformed into the scene.

The canvas saw all the shining lights and the dark blue night sky. The canvas was the scene. The canvas saw the dark mountains in the back, the shining lights of the village. Up in the sky, there were swirls of light from the stars. The canvas was feeling so lucky and colorful that he was the scene. When the painter, Vincent Van Gogh, was done with the painting, he started adding small details of sparks representing the stars. The final touch was the moon, shining and giving light to the village.

When he was finally done, he let the paint dry. The canvas felt lonely and cold. Once he was finally freezing, his artist put it in a room that was much warmer. The canvas saw more paintings and sat there until people came in admiring them. Years went on after his artist died. He was getting more and more admirers. One day, he was put into the MoMA, where even more people came to look at him. He felt loved. One day, it was so crowded, and someone took him. Stole him.

People were chasing him, and he saw the harsh life where all the policemen were chasing him too. He wanted to go back to the museum and not be stolen. He finally got back inside in a cool, chilly place — the thief’s house. When he was stolen, he felt lonely, but he had hope. He knew he was going to be rescued, but he didn’t know that everyone around the world was looking for him. No one loved him anymore — for now. He sat there by himself for at least two years. One day, when his thief died, he was recovered and put back into a safer museum.

People continued visiting him, and one day, because he was loved so much, he was sold. He continued living in a small house, where no one saw him besides his buyer. He didn’t like it. He wanted to go back where everybody got to see him and not just his buyer. He protested and protested. He defended himself by refusing to look good in the light and showing weird images instead of the beautiful blue and black night sky. He did not want to stay in this lonely house.

One day, his buyer had enough of him and sold him back to a different museum. There, he was loved even more and continued to show his beautiful image. No one wanted to buy him because they wanted to share him with the public. He wanted to stay right there and not be sold again.

THE END!!!

 

Falcin’s Pizza

Falcin is a robot that lives in California. Falcin has two yellow arms and two blue legs. His body and his head are green, and he has spikes on his neck and a lot of spikes on his back. He also has a spike on his nose.

Falcin’s friend is having a birthday party, and he is going to give her pizza. (I think that’s funny because no one should get pizza for a present.) Falcin goes to John’s Pizza. There is a long line. When he is at the front of the line, there is only pepperoni, and his friend only likes cheese pizza. So Falcin decides to go home and order from another pizza store. He orders the pizza from Joe’s Pizza, and he goes to the party.

The width of the pizza is 18 feet, and the length of the pizza is one foot long. It smells good! Far away there is a giant basketball who smells the pizza, and he wants some. Falcin is having a lot of fun at the party until the giant basketball bully comes and eats all the pizza and destroys everyone at the party. It is a sad ending.

The End

 

Princess Cat Makes a Friend

One day, Princess Cat was taking her walk, and she saw an orange carrot in the window of a supermarket. A dog raced in front of her and grabbed the carrot. So, Princess Cat followed the dog! She followed it all the way to the dog’s house, but then the dog ate it. So, she went back home.

The next day, she went back to the store. She saw the carrot! But the dog’s owner took it for him to eat. The dog’s owner was Mary. Mary was very responsible. She was twenty. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. She went home with the carrot, and she shared it with the dog. The dog’s name was Ronald. Ronald had white fur and was a poodle.

The next day, Princess Cat meowed and meowed and meowed at her owner until she agreed to get the carrot. Her owner’s name was Rose. Rose had long black hair and purple eyes. Rose went to the wrong grocery market! When she gave it to Princess Cat, the cat hated it! “This is not the right carrot!” she said. “You must go back and get the right carrot. I will go with you there.”

So, they walked back to grocery store. When they walked there, they saw Ronald and Mary walking there too. Ronald saw them too. Princess Cat scratched her owner and pointed to them. Both of them started running. But then, the dog started running faster! The cat caught up, and they both grabbed the carrot at the same time! It snapped in half, but then the dog’s eyes got wide, and he just grabbed the other half.

Then, the cat scratched the dog’s back and grabbed onto him until they got back to the dog’s house. Then, the dog slammed the door and locked it!

(This is a very tragic story.)

The next day, they both ran as fast as they could to get there. But the carrot was gone! They turned to each other and each thought that the other one had stolen the carrot. So, they both ran into each other and just started to tackle each other. They rolled around all the way on the street, tackling each other.

They got to the cat’s house, and the cat’s owner was holding the carrot. Then, the dog and the cat both tackled her because they both wanted the carrot. Then, the owner swiped it out of their paws. The owner ate it. It tasted like glory.

Rose had wanted the carrot all along because she knew that she liked the same things as Princess Cat, and the cat said it looked absolutely delicious, and she would die for it. So, Rose ate it. Princess Cat was furious and sad. She just ran away from her owner. She ran and ran and ran until she got to her secret hideout in the park.

(We can’t see what it looks like, because it is underground and secret.)

Ronald got there just in time to jump into the hole before it closed. Dogs are very perceptive and fast, so he sniffed out where her hideout was, and he got there just in time. Ronald felt very bad for her. He understood how she felt because he was sad when he didn’t get the carrot. He cheered Princess Cat up by giving her a cupcake that he was holding the whole time. It was a strawberry cupcake, her favorite fruit. They stayed in the hideout overnight.

Her owner, Rose, felt very bad for eating the carrot and making Princess Cat upset. And Mary felt very scared because her dog was missing.

The next morning, they ran to get food from the store. This time, the carrot was not there. So, they went home and ate waffles for breakfast. They really enjoyed being friends. Meanwhile, Rose and Mary were racing around the city puting “missing” signs everywhere of Ronald and Princess Cat.

Rose and Mary looked at Princess Cat’s and Ronald’s favorite spots. Rose looked under her couch, in her bed, and behind the TV. Mary looked for Ronald in the park, on a certain spot beside the reservoir. As Rose and Mary were looking, they started to feel scared. “Where are our pets?” they said.

(Back at Princess Cat’s secret hideout, they were playing.)

“I feel bad for eating the carrot,” Rose said.

“It’s all your fault,” said Mary. “Why did you have to eat the carrot?” Mary knew Rose ate the carrot because she walked in as she was taking the second bite. She was so mad she felt like exploding.

Meanwhile, someone else saw the missing sign. It was an eight-year-old girl named Lila. As soon as she saw it, she told her parents. She was really worried because she loved animals. Lila didn’t have any pets, but she always wanted one. Lila had really keen eyesight, so she was good at finding things.

The next day, Lila was walking in the park. Ronald and Princess Cat had been missing for two whole days. Rose and Mary were feeling so scared. They weren’t feeling like giving up though! Suddenly, Lila saw a weird hole come up and down in the ground. She was surprised. Then, she saw it open again. She ran as fast as she could and slid in the hole. She saw a cat and a dog. She was so surprised, she even gasped. “Huuh!”

Then, she remembered the “missing” signs. That’s the dog and cat that are missing! she thought. She grabbed them, and Princess Cat and Ronald were very startled.

“What’s going on?” Princess Cat said. Once again, the dog’s eyes got really big. He tackled Lila!

“Calm down!” said Lila. “I’m trying to save you!” The cat and the dog glared at her.

How are you trying to help us? they thought.

“I’m trying to help you because I saw a ‘missing’ sign and want to bring you back to your owner.” Lila would want to keep them because she wanted a pet but knew it was not right.

Back in Hawaii, the owners had just given up. They decided that Princess Cat and Ronald might have moved to a whole different state, like Hawaii! So, they decided to give it one last shot and go to Hawaii. It was a lot of money! It took them ten hours. When they got there, they looked everywhere in Hawaii, which took twelve hours. They even went in a boat and looked in the water! They went scuba diving and looked under the water. They saw other animals like crabs, fishes, bumble bees, snails, shrimp, lobsters, but luckily no sharks. But no Princess Cat! And no Ronald! They decided to give up and stay in Hawaii because it was too much money to go back.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Princess Cat and Ronald still didn’t trust Lila. Then, she went to their houses with them. They didn’t want to go, but she was strong enough to hold them. She rang their doorbells, and no one answered. Then, she found out that Rose and Mary were in Hawaii! She saw a note to their dog and cat on the door.

 

Dear Princess Cat and Ronald,

We are in Hawaii. We only wrote this note just in case you were here.

 

(It seemed like they were mad at them.) (Because they were.)

Maybe I could keep them! thought Lila. She promised them that she would keep alive and safe. For once in their life, they believed her. They believed her because they got used to her a little more. They had been with her for seven hours! She was very kind to them and to everyone.

They decided they didn’t want to live in their hideout anymore. They went to Lila’s house. Lila’s parents opened the door and saw the animals.

“What’s going on!” said her mom.

“Blehh!” said her dad.

He thought it wasn’t real, so he was trying to wake himself up. But it was real. “These are the missing animals that I saw on the sign, and I checked at their houses to find their owners, but their owners are in Hawaii!” said Lila.

“Fine. We can keep them. But, you have to take care of them,” her parents agreed. Rose and Mary were never going to come back from Hawaii.

The next day, Lila and Ronald and Princess Cat had so much fun together. But then, they remembered the carrot. They ran as fast as they could to the grocery store, but Lila stopped them. “What do you want?” she said. They barked and meowed and barked and meowed and barked and meowed. Them, she realized that they wanted a carrot, because she learned how to speak dog and cat. That day, she had learned how to speak dog and cat because she searched for it on the Internet. Princess Cat and Ronald were a little sad because they missed Rose and Mary, but they still wanted the carrot.

Princess Cat and Ronald decided to go to Hawaii. They knew that Rose and Mary were in Hawaii. They wanted to be with them. They liked Lila, but they really wanted to be with Rose and Mary. So, they asked Lila if she could go with them.

She said, “I will ask my parents if I could come with you.”

So, she went to her parents to ask them if she can go to Hawaii with Princess Cat and Ronald. They said only if she did chores when she got back. Her parents bought her a plane ticket, and she felt happy and sad. She was sad because she was going to miss her parents, but happy because she was going to reunite Princess Cat and Ronald with Rose and Mary.

Lila, Princess Cat, and Ronald packed their suitcases and went to the airport. Princess Cat packed a mirror, a bathing suit, and snorkel gear. Ronald packed a ball, snorkel gear, and a bathing suit. They got food and things to do on the airplane because it was a ten hour flight. They got off the plane. Now, they were in Hawaii. Hawaii felt really hot. They saw coconut trees and pineapples and fish. They found Rose and Mary after all the hard work they did. They ran and ran and ran as fast as they could to get across the streets. They searched for three hours. They can run really fast because they’re a dog and a cat, so Lila rode on Ronald’s back. They searched high, low, and everywhere. They searched in the trees, they searched everywhere. They searched in the ocean. (They saw many sharkies, by the way.) They used their snorkel gear. They loved snorkeling, they were so good at it!

After a while, they finally found them. They found them at a house! They felt weird. The house looked very beautiful. There were many plants, little statues of fishes, and little statues of crabs. It looked like the kind of place where Rose and Mary would live. They rang the doorbell, and they knocked knocked knocked. They finally got in. Mary opened the door! Ronald jumped with joy! And then, Rose walked up too. Princess Cat leaped with pride! They both ran up to them and jumped into their arms.

“We’re so excited to see you!” Rose and Mary said. “Where were you?”

“Meow meow meow meow, meow meow woof woof woof,” they said.

They had no idea what they meant. Luckily, Lila was there to translate.

“Your secret hideout?!” they said. “Well, at least we forgive you for leaving because you came back and found us. We didn’t expect you to do this for us.”

They all decided they wanted to go back to their home. They moved back in with Rose and Mary. Then, Lila wanted to move in too. So then, she took her parents and moved in with Rose and Mary too. And then, they all went to the grocery store and bought the carrot. They all shared it. It tasted like glory!

THE END

 

The Debate Over the Weirdest Things

             

THE INTRO

(The Potato)

Once there was a world where not only people had the ability to speak, but so did other things…

(The Person)

We wish it was only us who spoke… Every morning, my friend has to wake up to more noise than himself. I’m glad that’s not me. I want to wake up to no noise other than myself.

 

THE BEGINNING

(The Person)

I wake up and feel happy. It’s a Saturday! For me that means that I don’t have to go to work! Yay!!

I go downstairs and make myself breakfast. I can eat in peace. My friend can’t. Too bad for him. At least he said he can’t. I think I’ll go visit my friend! I think. So, I clean up and go brush my teeth before I leave for my friend’s house.

 

(The Potato)

I never knew this would happen, but it did. I ended up leaving them and coming here to a different world from the one that I know, a world where not only I can’t speak, but I hear other voices, other voices that don’t belong to us. I don’t have the courage to talk to the new sounds I hear and the new figures that always seem to move around the room that I stay in, Well actually, I stay in a lot of rooms. Sorry, I don’t know the names of the rooms that I stay in. Okay, I know that I haven’t gotten to the point yet, so here it is: I left my Potato friends and now live with a thing I hear everyone call h-u-m-a-n-s, but I have no idea what they exactly are.

 

(The Person)

As I walk to my friend’s house, I think, How does he do this? This new companion of his?

When I get to the house, I don’t even knock on the door. All I do is push the door open, and wow, it opens!

“Hey yo!” I call into the house that seems pretty empty.

“Who are you?” a voice calls from inside the house.

“It’s me, your friend, Steve.”

“Oh,” says the voice, “you should knock the next time.”

“Well then, why do you leave your door open, huh?” I ask.

I hear some noises, and then my friend (whose name is Frank but we call Frankie when we are not in public) comes to the already opened door.

“How is your new companion doing?” I ask in hope that Frank is not in the mood to show me his new companion.

“Hey, you need to call me before you come to visit. I am not in the mood to show you my new friend or to see you! So you can go, bye bye,” Frank says, and he slams the door in my face. “By the way, I am still having breakfast!” I hear him shout from inside. I guess Frank doesn’t want to see me. Oh well, too bad, I think.

 

(Frankie)

Well, I guess that I’ll start from the beginning of my story:

My story!

There had been rumors about these Potato animals (who came from a place that is unknown to us humans) and how if no one adopted any of them, the government would have to probably do something to them that wouldn’t be so good. I felt bad for them and decided to adopt one and see how that went, so I might get more. I was also most likely one of the only people who decided to adopt any. This first poor Potato was really scared at first. I mean, really scared. He didn’t even want food, or when I put him down on my kitchen floor, he instantly ran for a hiding spot. But now he’s gotten a lot better. We play together, and the most amazing thing is that HE CAN TALK!!! Though he doesn’t talk much, he still talks sometimes. You’d be surprised how little work they are and how much company they keep you if you need it.

My potato’s name is Bob. Yeah, I know it’s a weird name, but he liked it, so that’s what matters. This morning, Bob and I were just starting our breakfast when my, sometimes annoying, friend Steve knocked on the door. Well no, he didn’t knock on the door. He just opened the door and called “Hey, yo!” I had no idea it was him until I asked who he was, and then he told me. Literally, he interrupted my nice Saturday morning breakfast with Bob! So I ended up going to the door and having a short conversation with Steve. Eventually, I got annoyed and told him to go away and slammed the door on him. I did that because, yes, he was annoying me, and two, he doesn’t like Potatoes. He is actually afraid of my Potato! Ha ha!! The good thing is that me and my Potato live happily and peacefully.

 

(Bob)

I was told not to come to the door when Frank went to open it, but I don’t know why he told me not to come.

Frank is a nice person to live with. He isn’t mean to me or anyone that I know (not that I know many h-u-m-a-n-s)! I also have started to figure out the life of h-u-m-a-n-s. Frank’s life seems pretty easy. He doesn’t ever leave the house without telling me. You know what? He never leaves the house. I think he is worried about me. Maybe he has a secret person who does stuff for him if he is with me all the time. I once asked him if I could write a letter to my Potato friends, and he was sooooooooo nice. He said, “Yes of course, Bob!” So here is what I wrote to my friends:

 

Dear Friends,

It’s me, your friend! My new name is Bob. I like it, do you?

Are you with a h-u-m-a-n yet? I am, I’m with a h-u-m-a-n who everyone calls Frank or Frankie. He is nice. I don’t know how I learned to write so well but I think it was Frank (or Frankie) who taught me.

I really hope some h-u-m-a-n takes you in.

All the best your Potato friend

Bob!

 

So now we just have to send the letter, but Frankie is working on that! I like my life with him. It is great!

 

(The Government)

“SILENCE!” Tom Raines shouts to all the important people in the courtroom, which is not being held for court. “What we are here for is to discuss the case of the Potatoes, so listen up everyone!”

“Ahem, sir, you haven’t gotten to the point,” an important man says impatiently.

“What do I care how you feel about time?!” Tom yells. “Okay, here is the point: We are going to vote on who thinks that the Potatoes should go and who thinks the Potatoes should get adopted by us.”

“They should go obviously!” the same important man says loudly, so everyone hears him real well.

“And why is the question!” Tom says.

“Are you on the other side?”

“No, I am a person. LET’S GET TO THE POINT! YOU ARE DISTRACTING ME!!!” Tom shrieks. “Who votes for no more Potatoes?

At first, everyone is silent. Then, a roar of cheers goes up. A lot of people are shouting, “No more live Potatoes on this planet!”

“Okay okay, and who wants Potatoes to stay?”

About half of the people stand up and cheer.

“Okay,” Tom says. “We’ll see what happens… ”

 

(Steve)

Well, I heard about the talk that the government had with important people. I’m never going to be part of that group. They voted, and seriously it was exactly even! I mean that’s not good, but still it’s pretty cool. I don’t know what side I’m on. Is it the good side or the bad side? There is no good side or bad side, is there? I think they are about the same. In a way, I wish the Potatoes weren’t here, but in another way it doesn’t really matter to me. Now I feel kind of sad that I never met Frankie’s Potato. So I decide to call Frankie and see if I can go over and meet the Potato.

 

(Bob)

I am doing my regular things when I hear a ring. Honestly, I don’t know where it came from, but then I hear Frankie groan and say, “Ugh the phone!” So, I go and pick up the phone.

Someone on the other end says, “Hi, Frankie. It’s me, Steve.”

Then, there is no more talking but just a pause. I don’t know how to use the phone, so I say something, “Hi… y-yes Frankie the h-u-m-a-n is h-home.” I am so surprised because there is a loud scream on the other side of the phone.

Frankie comes running into the room. “Who is on the other side of the phone?” he asks.

“Your friend Steve asked if you were home. I said yes.”

“Let me talk to Steve,” Frankie tells me.

“Hi, Steve. This is your friend, Frankie.”

Blah, blah, blah on the other side of the phone.

“Yes, okay. I’ll see if he’s in the mood.”

Blah, blah, blah.

“Yes, maybe see you later. Bye.” And with that last word, Frankie hangs up the phone.

“So, Steve called to ask if you were in the mood to meet him because he wanted to meet you now,” Frankie tells me.

“Umm… sure, but what do I say?” I ask, confused and a bit nervous. It’s the first time that I am ever meeting someone like a friend of Frankie. Of course when people were deciding what to do with us, we kind of met them, so I guess that counts as a person that I met.

“It will be okay. You just have to say: ‘Hi, I am Bob,’” Frankie says.

“Uhh… Okay you can call him and tell him to come if you want,” I say.

After a very little bit, Steve rings the bell. I get ready to say: Hi, my name is Bob. Three… Two… One… Bam! I think of all kinds of excuses to not have to tell Steve my name. I know this is kind of stupid, but I’m scared.

Steve comes through the door and into the room where Frank tells him to go to.

“This is my Potato. Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“Hi, I-I am B-Bob.”

Steve looks completely freaked out about how I can speak. Rude.

“H-hi, Bob. As you know I am Steve, Frank’s friend.”

The Steve person doesn’t seem freaked out when he talks to me, how strange, only when I talk.

“Do you like Bob?” Frankie asks.

“Yeah, sure.”

I start to get kind of nervous that Steve doesn’t like me, so I start to go to a different room when Frank says, “Where do you think you’re going?” But in a nice way.

“Oh,” is all I can say. This silence feels so awkward.

“Why don’t we go to the living room so we can relax and talk about stuff? Have you heard about the talk the government had with the important people? Come on!” Frank says.

Frank, Steve, and I walk into the living room and sit down on the couch and some chairs. I have to say that Frank has a really big house, at least for me it seems big because I have never been in a house before (just this weird room where these people decided what to do with us, but that room was a lot bigger. Still, I think that Frank’s house is way cooler).

 

(Frankie)

We watch some TV and talk about other cool stuff until it’s time for Steve to leave. Then, he says, “You know what? I like you, Bob!”

“Thanks, Steve,” Bob says.

 

(The Government)

“Uhh well, we have to vote again. Sorry,” Tom Rains says.

“What?!” the annoying but important man demands.

“I’m so sorry, but let’s get to the voting instead of wasting time!” Tom says impatiently. “Raise your hand if you think the Potatoes should stay. Okay. Now raise your hands if you think the Potatoes should go.”

 

(Bob)

Frankie was not very happy the next weeks. He said that he wasn’t happy because something was sad, but he wouldn’t tell me what was sad. I don’t really know much about what is happening in the outside world that is beyond the front or back door of Frankie’s house, but I wish I did.

 

(Steve)

I thought things would turn out much different than they did. Things were so sad and bad and annoying now. I wish I never disliked Potatoes.

 

(Frankie)

It was too much for me. At least I got to keep Bob.

 

(The Government)

Some people were sad, and some were happy. I don’t know what I was. That annoying man was sooooo happy. I think he threw a party for it.

 

(Frankie)

The government almost made me give Bob back, but I insisted to let him stay, and they finally agreed to let him stay. I should have adopted more Potatoes before this. I was an idiot. Now they all have to go! I can’t let them go! I hope Steve is sad. We haven’t spoken at all in the days that the news came. I could actually hear some people cheering and saying bad words about the Potatoes on the street

I felt so sad, but maybe we talk to the government or rather Tom Rains. The next day, I went to Tom and explained to him about 500,000 times that he was not going to send the Potatoes somewhere else without an argument! He didn’t seem to understand that much, but he surprisingly agreed to have a last vote.

 

THE LAST VOTE

(Bob)

We all went to the courtroom, and there were a lot of people. I hope no one would really would notice me because I am a Potato.

Soon enough, everyone had arrived, and Tom spoke a bit. Then came the moment that I had been waiting for.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The last-and-final-no-argument-against vote. Everyone of you has a slip. You will write down which side you vote for, then tomorrow we’ll see who won!”

Everyone wrote something on these slips of paper and gave them to Tom.

 

THE RESULTS

(Steve)

Today was making me soooooooooooooooo nervous! Today is the final announcement of which side won.

I went with my friend and Bob to see what Tom would say about who won. We all entered the same courtroom that we were in yesterday.

Tom seemed happy, but he kept a poker face. He instantly announced the results, though he did welcome us.

“So the results are that,” he paused then continued, “the side that voted for the Potatoes to stay won.

“YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I hear Frank shout with all the other people that are super happy.

“WHOO HOO! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I yell.

“LET’S GO!!! YESSSSSSSS!!! WE WON!” Frank and a bunch other people shout. Everyone is cheering. I mean, a lot of people are.

The annoying man is not happy at all.

“WE DID IT!” I shout to Bob. He smiles. I see a lot of people with big smiles on their faces. Then, something unexpected happens. Suddenly, everyone notices Bob.

“Oh my god, there’s a Potato!” Everyone crowds around the Potato.

 

(Frankie)

We all go back to my house and throw up signs and banners for how happy we are.

“Now maybe I can adopt a Potato!” Steve says, and we all laugh.

 

THE END

 

The False Accident

Martha was running in a race. Katie was winning. Martha really wanted to win, so she decided to trip Katie. She ran just a tad bit faster until she was right next to Katie.

She ran next to Katie and when she was ready, she said to Katie, “Hey, Katie! Do you like running?”

Katie said, “Yeah.”

Martha asked, “Well, have you ever fell?”

Katie said, “Why do you ask that?”

Martha stuck out her leg, and Katie tripped over it. She fell and busted her chin. It was bleeding. A second later, Katie started bawling. Martha shaded her eyes and looked away.

“Martha tripped me!” Katie screamed at the top of her lungs.

“No I didn’t,” yelled Martha. “Anna told Lucy to do it so she could win.”

“Did not!” snarled Anna.

“Did too!” shouted Martha.

“Actually,” said Lucy, “Anna did not tell me to trip Katie.”

“She did!” said Martha.

And it went on and on and on like that until the coach said, “Stop! The rest of the race is cancelled. You may all go home. Nobody gets the prize cup for the winner, but there is no winner, and I am saving it for next year. Tomorrow, I want someone to confess and tell me who tripped Katie. If you do not, I will write a letter to your parents telling them that no one told me who tripped Katie and you all, except Katie, will get detention for the rest of the week. The detention will be cleaning the toilets with your toothbrush!!! And while you are doing that, Katie gets some free time.”

They all went home with their parents. Martha thought about what the coach had said. Martha slumped on the couch and turned on the TV. Nevermind, she thought, I am feeling too bad for Katie that I can’t even watch TV. She went in her room and buried her face into her bed full of fluffy and furry pillows. She started to cry. One and a half hours later, her mom entered the room.

“I heard someone crying one and a half hours ago. What happened?” her mom asked. Martha did not know an excuse, so she sighed when she realized she would have to tell her mom.

“I tripped Katie,” she said. “I just wanted to win the race because Dad said that if I don’t win the race, he won’t be proud of me.”

Her mom said, “Well, your dad just loves sports so much. He just wants you to be really good at them. But you will have to tell your dad. You can’t keep it a secret for the rest of your life. Also, you will get detention, but not at the racetrack.”

During dinner, Martha told her dad miserably, “I tripped Katie.”

“Well,” said Martha’s dad, “your mom and I are going to have to think of a consequence, but you are not going to have a consequence from the coach.”

“Yeah,” Martha muttered.

That night, Martha lay awake all night thinking about what she should say to Katie and the coach. Finally, she fell asleep, dreaming nightmares about Katie, Lucy, and Anna turning into monsters and attacking her, pushing her away from the racetrack. At one in the morning, she woke up sweating and still had no idea what she was going to say to Katie. Of course she knew what to say to the coach; she would whisper in his ear, “I tripped Katie because I wanted to win the race.” She was so exhausted, she fell back to sleep.

Six and a half hours later, she woke up at seven-thirty to her alarm, and remembered what she had to tell Katie and the coach. Nervous butterflies swarmed in her stomach as she thought about it. She still didn’t know what to say to Katie. She put her best pants and top on and went downstairs to breakfast.

“Look, Martha,” said her mom as she stepped into the dining room.

“The newspaper said there’s a new movie coming out in theaters, this Friday. It’s called The Diary. It’s about two best friends who moved away from each other, and they figure out a new way to communicate by writing letters to each other. Would you like to come watch it this Friday, Martha? Martha?”

“Yeah sure,” she said, rushing up the stairs to her room. She had a plan of how to tell Katie. She grabbed her journal, ripped out a page, and slammed the door shut.

“Are you okay up there?” her mom shouted from downstairs.

“Yeah!” she yelled back, quickly scribbling a note saying:

 

Hi Katie, sorry I pushed you.

I hope you can forgive me, I was too scared to say it to you in person, so I decided to write a letter to you. Would you write back? I just wanted to win so I tripped you, sorry.

Sincerely, Martha.

P.S. Once again, sorry for tripping you.

 

She then dug around her junk pile and found the best envelope that fit, but it was little torn up, so she had to use tape to fix it.

“Martha! Breakfast is ready!” called her mother from downstairs.

“Coming in a sec!” she yelled back. She closed the envelope and rushed downstairs. She shoved all the breakfast in her mouth and ran to the car with her running equipment. When she was sitting in the car, she took out the pen she had packed in her bag, and she ripped open the envelope. In tiny letters, she wrote what she was going to say to the coach. She ripped that piece out, folded it in the tiny envelope shape, and put it in her bag.

When she got to the racetrack, she snuck into the boys locker room and stuffed the tiny envelope into the coach’s locker. She went into the girls locker room and stuffed the big envelope in Katie’s locker. She put on her running shoes and her sweatpants and jogged to the racetrack.

“Well,” said the coach, “who did it?”

“Look in your locker after class,” said Martha.

“Okay,” said the coach, “only if the thing inside tells me who tripped Katie.”

“It does,” said Martha nervously.

“Then I will,” said the coach. “Okay everybody, listen up. One-hundred laps around the track, Katie’s first, then Lucy, then Anna, then Martha. Martha’s last.”

After class, Katie went to Martha’s locker and said, “I know you just wanted to win,” and she turned and walked away.

Next, the coach came and said, “I’m glad you told me and Katie that you tripped her.”

Martha was smiling all the way home.

THE END

 

Baseball Fever

          

One

“I can do it!” I said to myself. “I can do it!”

The ball was coming straight towards me. “STRIKE ONE!” Carter shouted.

“You can do this,” I mumbled to myself. The ball was coming towards me from high.

“STRIKE TWO!” Carter yelled. I breathed in and out. The pitcher was getting ready to throw. I got this. Fling! The ball was at full speed.

“STRIKE THREE, YOU’RE OUT!” Carter hollered.

“Maybe next season,” Coach told me.

“Maybe next season,” I said to myself.

Two

I walked home with confidence. Mom opened the door for me.

“We’ll be having lasagna and spinach. Okay, sweetie?”

“Alright, Mom. That’s fine with me,” I answered. I went upstairs to my room to change into my inside clothes. I came back downstairs to eat dinner with Mom. My older brother was at sleepaway camp, and my dad was running late.

“So how was baseball, Riley?” Mom asked.

“It was okay I guess.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be there.”

“No. It’s okay, Mom,” I said. “Nothing much happened.”

“Okay.”

I was not that kind of person who threw a fit over things, that was more like my older brother. I swallowed down my food and heated up some milk for Mom and me. I took my milk up to my room and started to write in my diary. Next season I’m gonna win that trophy. I closed my diary and gulped down my milk. I went under my sheets feeling proud that I tried.

Three

I started to feel Dad waking me up. “What is it?” I said, annoyed.

“Mom signed you up for extra baseball practice, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay then, wake up!”

I hopped out of bed to the morning sunshine. I did my morning routine and grabbed my cap, my bat, my mitt, and my water bottle. Mom passed me my lunch, and then I headed out. I met Coach at the field and shook his hand.

“You ready for some b-ball, ol’ youngster?” Coach asked.

“Isn’t that for basketball, Coach?” I questioned.

“No, silly goose. I meant baseball!”

“Oh. Okay. I was a little confused there for a second.”

“Alrighty then, let’s start.”

Coach was telling me about my positioning and my focus. I was pretty sure it was my focus that was taking me off track during the game. Maybe now too. It was rush hour, and the road that was closest to the field was a one-way road, which I thought was really stupid. Traffic piled up there the most. All the honking and yelling was making me lose my focus. I breathed in and out, in and out. I tried to bring as much focus as I could, but it was useless. I didn’t holler, I didn’t scream… I just closed my eyes and imagined me winning that trophy. A dream come true.

I closed my eyes and ignored everything around me. Swing. Hit. Run.

Four

Coach threw the ball. “I hit it!” I shouted to Coach. “I hit it!”

Coach was clapping so hard, his hands were turning red. Coach ran for the ball that I hit and tried to throw it at me, but he missed. There was a rumor that I was the fastest kid in the school. I was so fast that the second that he threw it, I was already at homebase. I was crying tears of joy. I did it. For the first time. I did it. Practice was over, and the traffic died down. I drank some of my water and looked up to see the beautiful sunset. I drank some more water and skipped the rest of the way home, excited for the next season. I was going to win that trophy. I came back home, and I noticed that I didn’t eat my lunch. I decided to eat it later, I was too excited to eat now. I had to tell Mom the good news.

“Mom, guess what?”

“What is it, sweetie?”

“Oh, nothing. Maybe just that I made my first swing!”

“That’s amazing!”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“I’m gonna go to the grocery, okay? I need to get supplies.We’re having pizza.”

“Okay.”

I went up to my room and stepped over the piles of dirty clothes. I flopped on my bed and sighed in relief that I did it.

Five

A few months flew by.

Ring ring. My alarm was going off. I just remembered that it was time for the championships for baseball. I got ready as fast as I could. My team was a mix of boys and girls. I alternated spots, so sometimes I was a pitcher, sometimes I was an umpire, and sometimes I was a batter. Mom and Dad still couldn’t be there for the game, but my friend’s dad was videotaping. I grabbed my lunch, and Dad dropped me off.

“Okay, Riley. Break a leg,” Dad shouted.

“Bye,” I shouted back.

I entered the stadium, and Coach was there with the rest of the team.

“Riley.”

“Here.”

“Jess.”

“Here.”

“Alexander.”

“Here.”

Everyone was here. The game was about to start. We named jobs quickly. I was batter. Alexander would be a pitcher in the next game and so on.

The game started.

Six

I was in front of a kid from another team. They named their team after a brand for popcorn. Boom Chicka Pop. I always thought that was a funny name, but I did like that brand of popcorn. The umpire was kind of like a referee. He had to yell really loud because the field was big, and everyone needed to hear him. My ears were ringing, and I was starting to get a headache. I couldn’t focus. Everything seemed so dizzy and shaky. I felt like I was going to topple over. When someone from the other team threw the ball, it looked like it was spinning in all sorts of directions. I still couldn’t see straight. I missed the ball, and the umpire caught it. Dammit. It was kind of funny. No one got mad at me. They said, “You got this. Maybe next time, Riley.” That made me feel really good.

Seven

My team didn’t win, but I still felt good that we tried, that we tried hard enough to feel good about it. There was a celebration after the game. Everyone went to the park and had a barbeque. I didn’t want to eat anything, I just sat in my fold-out chair knowing that I didn’t have to win the trophy. I won everything I needed. Family and friends.

La Fin

 

My Dogs Baba, Ibiza, and Poppy

I have a puppy named Poppy, and my puppy has brown eyes. Her fur is kind of white but isn’t that white. She is only ten pounds. I got her in 2016 at a family reunion. We went to the mall, and there was a pet store. I had been asking for a puppy for about a year. So, my mother finally said, “Okay, let’s see.”

In the pet store, there were a bunch of puppies. But Poppy was the only one playing but didn’t look happy while doing it. She was so tiny. She was only ten weeks old! I asked the man if I could play with her in the playpen. I asked my mom if we could get her, and she said we had to ask my dad. He said yes. I have had her for about two or three years now, and I love her so much. On a scale from one to ten of how much I love her, I say a 100!!! Sometimes she runs away. It makes me so sad when she does that, but she always comes back. She goes in the corn field, the woods, and even across the street. My brothers don’t like Poppy. I don’t know why. I think she is the best puppy ever. She plays a lot, and she makes friends all the time, and sometimes my mom, my dad, and I go on walks with Poppy and our other two dogs Baba and Ibiza. Sometimes, I watch my iPad, and I go to the couch with my iPad, and my dogs come over to the couch.

Poppy and I are very similar. Poppy and I are both very crazy. I bite my nails, and she has very long nails, and she’s only two, and she tried to bite them off! Then, when that didn’t work, she tried to scrape her nails off with her other paw. I wanted to tell my mom because it was funny. We’re also both very fast runners. When she escapes, she runs away really fast. Poppy can climb and jump, and so can I. We’re not just crazy. We also do crazy things. Poppy and Baba like me more than my brothers. My brothers don’t like Poppy because she runs all the time on them because she’s only two. Their favorite is Baba, and Baba likes us all pretty much equally. Poppy still loves me the most though. Even my brother, Ibi, jokes that Poppy likes him more than me (I think). Ibiza likes my dad the most, even though he’s kind of named after my brother Ibi.

My dog Baba broke his leg after being run over by a car, but is okay now. But he is afraid of almost everything and has a habit of nipping people when he is afraid, but sometimes he just barks or growls. If he’s in a car with all of us together, and he sees other cars, he’s not afraid.

Ibiza is a Mini Australian Shepherd. She loves attention. She will eat anything and steals Baba’s food sometimes. We got her when I was around six years old or younger than that.

When we go on walks, my mom will take one dog, my dad will take another, and I take the third. If I could take my dogs anywhere in the world, I would take them to sleepaway camp. This is my first summer going to sleepaway camp, and it would be so much fun with my dogs there right beside me.

Poppy would love camp because there would be a lot of kids there, and we would run and play and do everything together. If my dogs could talk, I think they would ask a lot of questions and ask for a lot of belly rubs. Baba’s favorite place to get pet is his armpit, and he’d probably ask for armpit pets all the time.

Ibiza would say, “Pet me now! Don’t look at him! Just me.”

I would say in reply, “Okay, in a minute.” She’s very impatient.

If my dogs had superpowers…

Baba would be able to fly, Ibiza would have telekinesis, and Poppy would be able to teleport.

One day, I brought all three of my dogs on a field trip to a lab. In this lab, they make special dog food, and I wanted my dogs to get a sneak peek at the new flavors. The scientist, William, met us at the front door to give us a tour of the dog food lab.

“Hello, Scientist William. These are my dogs Baba, Ibiza, and Poppy. Can we taste some of your dog food,” I said.

“Yes,” Scientist William said. And he gave us a tour. And gave us the dog food. “Don’t open it until you get home!”

“Okay!” I said. Then, we got home. I gave my dogs the dog food, and they ate it really fast. Then, Baba started lifting off the ground. Then, Ibiza looked at something, and it started to float. Poppy all of a sudden was gone and somehow was on the couch. I realized something was off. My dogs got superpowers!

I ran to my mom and dad.

“Mom! Dad! Come look in the kitchen!” I shouted. We went downstairs. My mom and dad didn’t look too worried.

“Calm down! This is kind of a good thing,” they said. “Now, Baba can fly, Ibiza has telekinesis, and Poppy can teleport. Now, we don’t have to walk Baba — we can fly him! Ibiza can pick things up for us, and we can get Poppy to teleport something.”

“Okay, I guess it’s a good thing,” I said. Then, they digested the food, and Poppy couldn’t teleport anymore, Ibiza didn’t have telekinesis anymore, and Baba couldn’t fly anymore.

“Dang it! We’re going back to bed!” my parents said.

The end

 

Horse Tails

          

HAZEL

The wind blew Jenny’s and Hazel’s hair into their faces. Their laughs mingled with the repetitive sound of the waves gently lapping onto the shore. The horses cantered through the waves, splashing onto their hooves. Hazel was wearing riding pants, with riding boots that had small silver stars on them, and a plain black tee-shirt. Jenny was also wearing riding pants and boots with blue and green patterns on the top. She was wearing a white tee-shirt with a horse on it.

“Race you to the stables!” Hazel said to Jenny. The girls took off in a gallop towards Cedar Ridge Stables. There was a big fence surrounding the paddock and a big building with windows in it. Hay was spread all over the floor. Horses whinnied, and people chatted. Horses were riding out the front gate toward the meadow.

“Come on, Ebony!” Hazel yelled.

“Calypso! Let’s go girl!” Jenny shouted. Jenny and Calypso galloped in front of Ebony and Hazel. Ebony reared, and Hazel lost her balance, almost falling off.

“Hey!” she cried, annoyed.

“Sorry! My bad,” Jenny replied and galloped away.

“Whoa boy,” Hazel murmured and slowed Ebony to a stop in front of the stable gates. She dismounted and looked around for Jenny.

“Jenny!” Hazel called. “Where are you?” She led Ebony around the fences of the paddock. The barn smelled of horse manure and hay bales. Horses whinnied, and people talked. She heard hooves clomping behind her and turned around.

“Told you I’d win,” Jenny giggled.

Hazel laughed and said, “Ebony and I would’ve won if it weren’t for you! Anyways, let’s go meet the others.” They led their horses through the gates where a girl and boy were standing. The boy was wearing an old black jacket and ripped jeans.

“Hi!” Jenny smiled, and Hazel waved to him. He mumbled something and walked away. Hazel glanced at Jenny. Well, he doesn’t seem very friendly, Hazel thought. The girl was wearing fancy riding gear and had light blonde hair with bubble gum pink streaks and was grooming her dappled gray appaloosa.

“Hello! I’m Stephanie, and this is my horse, Quartz. She’s already won nine championships, and I bet we’ll win our tenth. Everyone knows she’s the best dressage horse here. By the way, sorry about Alex, he and his lame horse Onyx are really moody. They share the same personality. I don’t even know how he could afford his horse though! But you’re lucky that I’m here!” the girl told them. She kept talking, but no one listened. She seems kinda snooty, Hazel thought. Ebony whinnied. Hazel nudged Jenny.

“You know what, the horses are getting kind of antsy, we better go,” Jenny said and pulled Hazel with her. “What a brat,” Jenny said once they were out of earshot.

“Yeah. I can’t believe she said that about Alex, but he is kinda moody,” Hazel agreed. A tall man wearing a cowboy hat called them over. He had a mop of messy brown hair and was standing next to his horse, a tan thoroughbred with a dark mane.

“C’mon, let’s go see what he wants,” Jenny said.

“Howdy y’all! I’m Patrick Chapman, the owner of Cedar Ridge stables. I’ll show

you around this place and give you some lessons along with Emily Barton,” he told them.

“That’s my cousin!” Jenny said happily. Her lips curled up into a grin. Emily arrived and chatted with Jenny. Emily was the one who taught Jenny about horses and how to ride! Jenny always looked up to Emily and loved to play with her. This was Emily’s last summer before she went to college, and she wanted to spend it with Jenny.

“So, Hazel and Jenny, today we’ll see your skills!” she said. Jenny and Hazel smiled.

“Perfect! That means we can show everyone how amazing Quartz and I are at dressage! We’ve learned a new move, and my private instructor said that I’m the best rider he’s ever seen.” Stephanie appeared out of nowhere, obviously eavesdropping. Jenny looked at Hazel and rolled her eyes. Stephanie saw Jenny and glared at her. She mounted her horse and trotted over to them and stuck out her tongue at Jenny and Hazel. Then went into the middle of the training area. She turned on music.

“Watch and learn,” Stephanie said and flipped her hair. She started doing some elegant moves that looked really advanced.

“I hate to admit it, but she’s actually pretty good,” Jenny whispered to Hazel.

“I know.” Hazel sighed. “Let’s go get our horses.”

They walked over to their horses stalls, but Calypso and Ebony weren’t there! “The horses! They’re gone!”

 

EBONY

Ebony and Calypso and some other horses were just waiting for their riders in their stalls, when this strange girl approached them. She opened the doors to their stalls. She picked up the reins and led them out. Ebony reared and neighed, but no one came. Another horse, a North Swedish horse named Emberdust, whinnied and said, “Let’s go! We’re free, finally!” Calypso neighed and took off after him.

“Hey! Wait up!” Ebony cried and ran after Calypso.

 

***

 

The majestic mountains towered over the free horses. They looked like they were piercing the sky. “It’s getting dark… We should go home,” Ebony murmured, trotting up to Emberdust and Calypso.

“Aww, come on! Don’t be a party pooper!” Emberdust complained.

“Yeah, it’s fun out here!” Calypso exclaimed and galloped in circles around them.

“We should go stop and graze,” Emberdust suggested. “I’m hungry.” The horses slowed to a stop and bent down for some grass.

“It tastes so sweet!” Calypso said with her mouth full.

“I usually only have hay,” Emberdust said.

“Fine, I’ll have some,” Ebony finally gave in. He bent over and started to graze. “Hey! You’re right!” He neighed, surprised, “It really is better than the stuff at home.”

Emberdust grinned. “That’s the spirit!”

The horses rested for a bit, then started to walk back to the stables. A deep howl echoed through the hills. Ebony’s ears twitched. “Did… Did you hear that?”

“Oh, it was probably the wind or something.” Calypso nervously pawed the dirt with her hoof. “Let’s keep going.”

“I’m so happy we’re free — ” A loud growl interrupted Emberdust.

“What was that?” Calypso asked, looking around. The horses could almost smell the wet, matted fur of the beasts that lurked in the shadow. A cold shiver crawled up Ebony’s spine. He shook it off.

“I don’t like this, guys… We should go back. Now,” Ebony said, walking a little faster now.

“For once, I agree with Ebony,” Emberdust agreed, hurrying to catch up to Ebony.

“Aww, come on guys! This is supposed to be an adventure. I can’t wait to tell Onyx and Quartz what they missed out on!” Calypso neighed.

Suddenly, a large shadow appeared. Ebony reared and yelled, “WOLVES!!!”

 

JENNY

“Where are they?!” Jenny asked anxiously. “They were here before the training!”

“We were only gone for half an hour!” Hazel said. Jenny tried to remember what happened before the horses disappeared.

“We dropped them off, went to the training place, Alex was waiting with us, Stephanie appeared out of nowhere, then we came here,” Jenny said. Then, she looked at Stephanie. “Hazel, can we talk. Privately.” They walked out of the track.

“What is it? Did you figure out who let the horses out?” Hazel asked.

“I think so. Remember Alex was waiting with us for his turn, and then Stephanie came out of nowhere? I heard a faint horse whinny, but I thought it was just the other horses. The only horses that weren’t stolen were Quartz and Onyx, but Onyx never stays in his stall. So that leaves Stephanie,” Jenny explained.

Hazel hesitated for a moment, then said, “She was probably mad that we ignored her. I can’t believe she let the horses free because of that.” Hazel shook her head.

“Let’s go tell Emily,” Jenny said and walked back to where the others were standing. Stephanie was practicing her dressage and talking to her horse.

“Emily, we think we know who let the horses out!” Hazel told her.

“Stephanie! It makes the most sense! She was the one whose horse didn’t go missing, and she doesn’t like us that much,” Jenny said.

Emily nodded. “It does make sense. But we can’t jump to conclusions.”

Jenny sighed. “But… Okay, fine.”

“We’ll go out to find the horses. They can’t have gone far,” Emily reassured them.

“How?!” Jenny cried, “We don’t have any horses! And there’s no way I’m trusting Stephanie around our horses again.”

“Oh! I know!” Hazel piped up. “Alex can do it! He’s a good rider, and he and Onyx know their way around this place better than any of us.”

Emily smiled. “That’s a great idea Hazel! Let’s go get him right now.”

Jenny ran towards the stable, where Alex was taking care of Onyx. “Alex!” Jenny called. He looked around, surprised that someone was talking to him. “I… I know this is a lot to ask, but… Can you please look for Calypso, Ebony, and Emberdust? Somebody,” she glared at Stephanie, “let them out, and we don’t know where they are! Please say you’ll help us!” She begged, bursting out into tears.

“I… Oh, okay, alright… ” Alex answered, getting up onto Onyx.

“Thank you!” Jenny said.

“No problem,” Alex replied, and he galloped away.

“I’m so happy he agreed to find the horses!” Jenny smiled.

“Finally, we’re actually making friends! Unlike at our old school,” Hazel said.

“I wish we could stay here forever!” Jenny laughed and ran to her and Hazel’s favorite place to relax. Beside the lake and under the gigantic weeping willow tree. They could spend hours there.

 

CALYPSO

The shadows formed into living wolves and slowly approached them, their mouths foaming, and teeth reflecting in the light. “RUN!” Calypso shouted. She and Ebony bolted, but Emberdust stayed back.

“My hoof! It’s stuck!” He whinnied. The wolves came closer, their low growls surrounding them.

“Emberdust! Hurry!” Ebony screamed. The wolves pounced.

“EMBERDUST!” Calypso started sobbing. She galloped back to where Emberdust was hiding.

“I’m fine, they missed me. A rabbit distracted them. But my leg, I can’t move it,” Emberdust’s hoarse voice tried to choke out. Ebony galloped over as fast as a he could, as if he were in an intense race. Calypso felt like her heart was going to break her ribs, it was beating so hard. Ebony reared, shouting for help.

Finally, they heard hooves clomping as loud as Calypso’s heart. A jet black horse appeared riding on the hill with a boy with black hair and ripped jeans and a jacket on him. The horse stopped, and the boy dismounted. “We’re here to help, don’t worry.” The horse had a deep voice. He approached Emberdust. “He’s just twisted it, nothing too serious. Did something attack you?”

“Well, it definitely feels serious! It hurts worse than the time I crashed into that tree! We were running from the wolves, but I tripped and got stuck. If I didn’t fall, I could’ve fought the wolves!” Emberdust said. Ebony rolled his eyes.

“I’ll just go talk to Onyx,” Ebony muttered and walked away.

“Emberdust, I’m so glad you feel better! I was so scared!” Calypso cried.

“What’s up with Ebony? Is he still mad we didn’t listen to him?” Emberdust asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s just cranky,” Calypso replied. The boy walked towards where the horses were talking and started to look at Emberdust’s leg.

“You’ll be back on your feet in no time,” he reassured Emberdust. Isn’t he usually really shy? Calypso wondered. The boy wrapped Emberdust’s leg and hoof in a bandage and helped him stand up. He whinnied and tried to rear, but fell over again.

“Forgot I can’t do that with my injury!” Emberdust said and stood up again.

“Come on, I’ll help you,” Calypso offered. “Let’s head back to the stables.”

 

ALEX

Alex mounted Onyx and galloped away to try to find the horses. They went through the forest first, but they couldn’t find anything there. The mountains weren’t very far, so Alex and Onyx went there next. Onyx galloped so fast, the wind almost blew Alex off his horse. It didn’t take long to find them. The horses were whinnying and rearing.

“Whoa. It’s alright, calm down,” he murmured.

He slowly went towards a horse who he remembered was named Emberdust. The horse’s leg was trapped under a rock and was causing it great pain. His whinny sounded almost like a howl. He lay helplessly on the grass A small horse, who he thought was named Calypso, protectively moved in of Emberdust. She reared and neighed. A dark brown Morgan horse who must’ve been Hazel’s horse, Ebony, neighed back at her and started to walk away.

Calypso hesitated and followed him. “Sometimes, it seems as though you guys can talk,” he said, laughing.

Alex got the first aid kit from his saddle bag and found the bandages. He searched in his saddle bag for a bottle of water and some towels, and finally found them. He tried to clean the wound, but Emberdust whinnied and kicked at him. Alex backed away and got some treats.

“Here boy, I know it hurts, but you can do it!” Alex reassured and put on the bandages. “There you go! You’ll get better soon. You’re a strong horse, aren’t you, Emberdust?” Alex reassured him. “When we get back to Cedar Ridge Stables, I’ll make you a splint.” Alex mounted Onyx and held Calypso, Ebony, and Emberdust’s reins.

They had to go slow, so they got back to the stables later than planned. Jenny, Hazel, and Emily were waiting for them.

“Calypso!” Jenny hugged Calypso and took her reins.

Hazel ran up to Ebony and said, “I’ve been so worried!” Jenny and Hazel brought Calypso and Ebony back to their stalls to care for them.

“What happened? Is Emberdust okay?” Emily looked at Emberdust to make sure he wasn’t bleeding.

“Don’t worry, he just trapped his leg under a rock. I’ll make a splint for him, the cut isn’t deep, just long. He’s a strong horse, don’t worry,” Alex reassured her.

“Thank you so much!” Emily cried.

“I-It’s alright,” Alex said, who wasn’t used to all the attention. “I should go now… ” he said, and he and Emberdust galloped off towards the stables. This camp is the best thing that has happened to me! he thought happily.

“Come on, Onyx. Let’s get you back to the stables.”

 

STEPHANIE

Right before training, Stephanie had snuck into the stables. “You can come on out now!” she told the horses, opening the doors to their stalls. The horses hesitated, not sure what to do. “Come on, go!” she yelled. The horses took off, their hooves echoing off the cobblestone path. Ha! That’ll show them, Stephanie thought.

“Come on girl. Let’s go, Quartz,” she said and mounted Quartz. She trotted over to where Hazel, Jenny, and Alex were. She steered Quartz over to the middle of the paddock and stopped. “You can do it girl. Just try your best, that’s all that matters,” she whispered to Quartz, stroking her horse’s neck. Stephanie started off with a passage, keeping in rhythm to the classical music that was playing. She led her horse into a half pass. “Great job Quartz! That’s the first time we did that move perfectly! I’m so proud of you. Just a little bit more,” she told Quartz. Stephanie guided Quartz to the middle, and slowed her to a stop. “It was good, wasn’t it?” She smirked. Without waiting for an answer, she jumped the fence of the paddock and took off into a gallop.

Stephanie rode towards her home on the beach. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents! They would be so proud of her. “Mom! Dad! Guess what?!”

“What is it, honey?” her mother asked.

“I mastered that dressage move I’ve been learning for months!” Stephanie beamed.

“Uh huh, that’s nice,” her mother said, without looking up from her newspaper.

Stephanie’s face fell. “Aren’t you proud of me?”

“Of course I am, but I’m even more proud of your brother. He got into all the schools he applied to!” her mom said proudly, who finally started listening.

“I — That’s great, Mom,” Stephanie choked out, struggling to keep her voice from cracking.

“We’ll throw him a party of course!” her mother went on. “Want to help plan it? I know how much you love that!”

“Yeah, sure,” Stephanie said, trying to keep her tears in before she got out of the

house.

“I-I have to go,” she lied, rushing out of the house just as the first tears started to

fall. “Let’s go, Quartz.” She sniffled and mounted her horse and started her favorite trail, still sobbing.

After a while, she heard hoofbeats behind her and turned around. “Hazel? Jenny? Go away.” Stephanie galloped away, towards the mountains.

 

HAZEL

Hazel and Jenny were going on a trail ride through the forest. The birds were singing, and the fresh nature scent filled their nostrils. They were heading towards their favorite place, the tall weeping willow. The girls had just found the place the day before, but they loved spending time there.

“I love these trail rides. I’ll miss it when camp ends,” Hazel said, bringing Ebony to a trot next to Jenny.

“Yeah, same,” Jenny agreed.

Hazel froze. She could faintly make out a quiet sobbing noise. “Jenny… Did you hear that?” Hazel asked, halting her horse.

Jenny listened for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll go ahead. Stay here, Hazel,” Jenny commanded.

“No!” Hazel yelled, scaring several nearby birds.

Jenny looked at her, “Why not?” Jenny asked, confused.

Hazel bit her lip, not sure what to do. “Just… Please, can I go with you?” she begged.

Jenny sighed. “Fine. Follow me.” Hazel nodded and got behind her.

The sobbing sound got louder the farther in the woods they got. They saw flashes of a white and gray horse through the trees. “Stephanie? Is that you?” Jenny asked.

“No. Go away,” she replied.

“Stephanie, we know it’s you. What’s wrong?” Hazel asked.

“It’s none of your business. Go, away!” Stephanie yelled and galloped towards the mountains. Hazel and Jenny exchanged worried looks. They followed her. The mountains got closer, and Stephanie’s silhouette was at the top of the peak. The clouds were getting darker, and rain threatened to fall. Hazel moved up closer to Jenny, but Ebony tried to move away. “Ebony, why don’t you like Calypso anymore?” Hazel asked. He whinnied and tossed his head. They approached the top of the mountains and looked around for Stephanie. “Stephanie!” Hazel shouted.

“Where are you?” Jenny yelled. Drops of rain fell from the dark clouds. Jenny and Hazel dismounted and ran around, trying to find Stephanie. A silhouette was at the top of the mountain. “That must be Stephanie,” Hazel said and mounted Ebony. Jenny followed her to where the figures were standing, against the cloudy sky. Jenny and Hazel approached Stephanie.

“Stephanie, whatever is wrong, you can tell us,” Hazel gently asked her. Stephanie turned around and wiped her eyes.

“I know we haven’t gotten along very well, but I think we can change that,” Jenny comforted. Stephanie opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything. She turned back towards the darkening sky. Jenny and Hazel got off their horses and walked up next to Quartz and Stephanie.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell us, but I think we could help you,” Hazel offered. Jenny put her hand on Stephanie’s arm.

“My — my parents, they never listen!” Stephanie burst into tears again.

“It’s okay, just let it all out,” Hazel said.

“It’s like I don’t even exist!” Stephanie blew her nose on a tissue she had in her pocket. The rain started to fall heavily, but the girls barely noticed. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. The horses reared and whinnied. The second clap of thunder sent them running back to the stables.

“Oh no, the horses!” Jenny looked back at where they ran to. Stephanie and Hazel turned to look.

“We better head back,” Stephanie sniffled.

“It’s gonna be a long walk without our horses,” Jenny muttered to herself. They started the path back to the stables.

Finally, they arrived and found the horses hiding behind bales of hay. “Ebony!” Hazel ran to her horse. “It looks like we made a new friend.” She glanced toward Stephanie who was grooming Quartz.

 

EBONY

Emberdust was almost healed, which meant Calypso could now go out and play with him. Whatever, Ebony thought. It’s not like we’re friends anymore. He looked longingly out of the window of the barn and saw Emberdust and Calypso running around together in the paddock. Ebony sighed and started to drink some water. He heard hoof steps behind him and looked around.

“Who’s there?” He neighed, startled. Hazel walked out from behind the wooden door.

“Hey, Ebony, it’s me,” Hazel said, slowly walking towards him. Ebony snorted happily and tossed his head. Hazel mounted him, and steered him out of the barn. Jenny and Calypso were waiting for them outside. At least Emberdust isn’t here, Ebony thought. Hopefully Calypso will notice I exist. Calypso went up ahead, and Hazel pushed Ebony up closer to her. Ebony walked away from Calypso. “Ebony, come closer to Jenny,” Hazel said. He tossed his head in annoyance, but moved towards Calypso.

“Hey, Ebony!” Calypso beamed.

Ebony grinned. “Calypso! I missed you!”

Calypso tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean, ‘missed me?’”

Ebony looked down at his hooves, embarrassed. “Well… Just… You and Emberdust have spent so much time together, and I… ” His sentence trailed off, not sure what to say.

“Oh… Ebony! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you felt left out,” Calypso apologized.

Ebony sighed. “It’s okay.”

Hazel halted Ebony. Jenny and Hazel seemed to argue for a bit, and then Hazel guided Ebony into a trot behind Jenny and Calypso. He thought he heard a sound, and he flicked his tail in alarm. “Looks like there’s a storm coming,” Ebony observed. Calypso nodded.

 

JENNY

“I’m so excited for dinner tonight!” Jenny squealed in delight.

“I know it’s gonna be the best!” Hazel jumped up and down with Jenny.

“Barbeque is my favorite!” Stephanie said.

“Same, but I rarely have, because I don’t have a grill,” Jenny agreed. Jenny’s aunt was hosting a barbeque, and Patrick was cooking. Alex, Stephanie, Hazel, and Jenny were all going to dinner together.

“It’s gonna be impossible to wait until six o’clock!” Hazel exclaimed.

Finally, at six o’clock, Jenny and Hazel arrived together. Alex was already there, but Stephanie wasn’t. Jenny and Hazel walked over to the buffet and got some food. The delicious smell of cooking ribs wafted over to the couch they were sitting on. After a few minutes, they heard a car stopping in the driveway. Stephanie stepped out wearing a fancy rose gold dress with flowers. She had her hair in a long braid down her back.

“Wow! Stephanie! You look amazing!” Jenny greeted her and smiled.

Stephanie blushed from the compliment. “Thanks!” Hazel grabbed her hand and showed her around the backyard.

“Be right back, just have to go to the bathroom,” Jenny said and walked inside. She passed through the dining room. She heard voices coming from the kitchen. They sounded like her Aunt Victoria and Patrick Chapman, the stables owner.

“I just don’t know how to tell them,” a worried voice that might have been her aunt said.

“I bet they’ll be fine,” a deeper voice reassured her. They talked a little more a bit, then Jenny ran back outside with a concerned look on her face.

 

I Remember

    

I remember the white bunk bed and the smell of tomato and mozzarella

I remember reaching over the bunk bed

I remember falling at my own risk and cracking my head

I remember friend yelling and my mom screaming and crying for help

I remember us calling an ambulance and it taking too long

I remember dropping my friend and brother at the neborgiors apartment and calling a fast cab

I remember the blood on my shirt and my moms shirt

I remember my mom forgetting her wallet and the cab driver giving us a free ride

I remember the ER bringing me right in and being on a rolling bed, people running at my side, feeling like the Queen of the world

I remember the friends mom rushing in

I remember the staple tool and feeling nothing when the staple went in my head

I remember going into the head x ray room thing and the xray of my head

I remember laying in my bed hearing sounds of pain

I remember going home after a few hours to crying of joy and watching tv

I remember eating too cold strawberry ice cream and getting a painful freeze burn

I remember telling everybody at school what happened, being popular for a day and everybody wanting to see the staple

I remember me being only four

 

A Wizard Who Can’t Talk

The wizard always dreamed to talk. He never went to school, that’s why he couldn’t talk. If he never talked, he could never make any spells. He was six years old. The wizard was called Cedric the Sensational. He was not the one who made that name — the wizard’s dad made it. Cedric the Sensational always tried to tell his dad that he hated that name. It was too fancy and too “sensational.” His real name was Potato, but his dad called him Cedric the Sensational because he was embarrassed that his son was called Potato. It was sort of his mom’s fault, because she named him that. He was also a little shy, because his name was Potato. People bullied him. They said, “Why is your name Potato? That’s, like, the worst name I ever heard of. And why are you so fat?”

One day, the wizard, Cedric the Sensational, said, “Now I know why they called me Potato — they thought I was fat. They called me that at school. Now I think I’ll ditch school and be homeschooled. But my mom doesn’t know how to speak English. So now, my mom can talk in the other language that she knows, which is Spanish, and I’ll understand, and I’ll say two or three words in English, and I’ll be like a two-year-old to people who don’t know Spanish. That’s what everyone says at my school — that I can’t talk at all.” He said in Spanish, “pero tú no sabes hablar en español,” which means “You don’t know how to talk in Spanish.” He was a little angry but mostly sad.
And Cedric the Sensational had enormous arm muscles that couldn’t even fit in the stores. He was always working out at his gym because he wanted to be the strongest at his school, so everyone would know that he was cool, but it didn’t work. So when he went in a store, he was knocking down everything, even other people. No one knew what happened to him, he just grew so big, as big as a building. He always wanted to be small again, but he couldn’t talk, and his mom didn’t teach him the spell, so he couldn’t make a spell to make himself small again.

So, his mom was going to do a spell in Spanish because she understood Spanish better than English. So then, Cedric the Sensational became a Spanish sorcerer. He learned lots of alphabets, but only two spell words, because his mom didn’t have any time to spend time with Cedric the Sensational. He really wanted to do spells, but he couldn’t talk, so he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t cast any spells. He couldn’t walk because he was too fat. He had one finger, two legs, three pairs of arms, and twenty pieces of hair. Cedric the Sensational looked really bad, and everyone called him fat, but he was actually an alien. Everyone looked at him as a wizard.

Cedric the Sensational met a unicorn with a birthmark that was in the shape of a heart, and the unicorn was mad at him. He was growling and baring his teeth, which were a little pointy. Cedric the Sensational had no exact idea why. The unicorn had a blue eye and was staring at him like he didn’t know anything. No one else knew what happened.

The unicorn was another alien, and he thought he looked like a normal, regular unicorn, and in his world, all the unicorns look exactly the same, but the unicorn had a rainbow horn, twenty eyes, one nose, forty-five arms, ninety-nine feet, and forty-nine legs. The unicorn came from their planet. The planet was called Forklimon. It was made out of forks and mon. No one knew what mon was, so that was why the planet was so mysterious. It had talking alligators and really, really long worms the length of buildings. It was a land of candy and pretzels and Goldfish and fruit snacks, and everyone was crying with happiness, and even if they broke their arms, they would still be crying with happiness. Everyone was cool there, but there were only two people who were really cool, as you can see, on the bottom.

“Come with me,” said the unicorn, grinning mysteriously. No one knew where Cedric went.

THE END

 

Shrink

The only bad thing about getting ice cream is probably looking forward to one flavor and finding out it’s not there. But things that you don’t think can happen, happen. I was so excited to go to my favorite frozen yogurt place, 16 Handles. I was looking forward to my favorite flavor, birthday cake. I also love getting a million toppings. It was a nice sunny day on the streets of New York City. I didn’t want to to tell Mom I was getting ice cream. She said, “We could get it tonight after dinner.” I could get it twice without her knowing! Hooray! But at that moment, I tripped over a bottle of Coke.

“Oof,” I said in pain.

I fell onto something that used electricity because I saw a light pop up, and for some reason, I felt like the sun was moving away from me and all the people around me were becoming giants. It was probably just a dream. At that moment, I heard a crack sound, like something was just destroyed. I was in pain.

“Eww,” I shouted.

There was a gigantic rat in front of me. Good thing it didn’t spot me, otherwise I could have been a snack! I didn’t know where I was for some reason. That was so weird. Everything looked bigger. I tried using Google Maps on my phone, but that failed. The cigarettes were the size of me. Maybe I was shrunken. Uh-oh. How would I get home? The crack sound was me destroying the Miniaturizer, and I couldn’t get back to real size. Oh shoot. I needed to get home before it became dark. Mom was going to kill me. There were way too many creatures down on the ground, and it smelled like smoke. Mom was definitely going to kill me. Now it was dark, and I had to sleep in a Coca-Cola bottle.

“Aww, it’s so liquidy and sticky in here,” I said.

At that moment, I saw a weird figure in the distance. It looked like a caterpillar from where I was. It could have been a spider.

“Oof,” I said.

I was being carried on the back of a spider. It was a really small spider, though it was uncomfortable to sit on. I was still in the Coca-Cola. Uh-oh. I was about to become spider snack! And be eaten alive!! I had to make a run for it.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I started screaming.

“Sssssssssss,” hissed the spider.

I ran for it. The cap to the bottle was on, so I kicked through it. Fresh air. Hallelujah. Oh gosh. There were too many people, and I was about to become as flat as a pancake. I was now as flat as a pancake. I was Flat Stanley! At that moment, something else picked me up. It looked like a hand. It was a hand.

“Hey Mom, can I keep this deflated toy?” asked a little boy.

“Sure,” said the mom.

Uh-oh, I thought.

This was the worst day of my life. On a nearby tree, I saw a missing sign that had a picture of me on it.

“Hey Mom, this toy looks like the dude on the sign,” said the boy.

“Yeah. The toy is probably supposed to look like the kid,” said the mom.

In less than five minutes, we were in an Uber going to a house. We made it. It was on 99th street between 1st and York. We got up to the apartment which was on the 68th floor of the awesome building. They went inside after 30 minutes of trying to open the door. We got in. It was as big as a mansion. Probably just an apartment room.

Let’s see what I knew.

One. I was small.

Two. I was almost killed.

I wanted to go home. I needed to leave. But how? I was now a toy. Dang it!

Maybe in the middle of the night I could sneak out.

It was now nighttime, but I was too tired to escape. I’d sleep in this really annoying toy bin with snoring toy Spider-Man and an ugly toy Superman. I slept through the night. I woke up when something touched me. Here we go again, I thought. Later that day, we went to some random place. I needed to leave now. I was going to make a distraction. I saw two sticks and a rubber band for a catapult, but I needed something to catapult. Like that marble. How would I get to it? I punched the kid holding me.

“Owww, what was that?!” screamed the boy in pain.

I made a jump for it and quickly hid under the nearest chair.

“Where’s my toy?” he asked.

There was no point in getting the marble now, but I did anyway and catapulted it at him on purpose. He started crying as soon as I started laughing. It was awesome. After that, I quickly escaped and walked home. I kept walking for about a week without stopping and eating until I reached 99th street. I was home and just got slobbered by the ugliest dog in the world. Eww. I walked in holding onto someone’s leg. She looked just like my mom. Wait, she was my mom! Free ride home!!! Yay!!! When I finally got home, I didn’t take my shoes off because I needed to make them normal size again too. I had to create a potion tomorrow while Mom was at work. I had eight hours to do it.

Okay. First, I needed to read my book about making people different sizes. I went outside. I found flowers, leaves, bark, and dirt. Perfect! I went back upstairs and threw some bark at the button to press it. I had perfect aim. I got upstairs and got under the hole at the bottom of the door and got back inside. I used the blender to blend up my ingredients, and I had my perfect potion. I also used some other stuff we had because the book wanted me to use that too. I took the potion and drank the whole bottle. I didn’t feel anything happening. I read the book carefully again. It said it took two days to kick in. I went under my bed and stayed there.

When my mom came home, I heard her crying. I saw her walk into my room and fall on my bed. She didn’t see me. I stayed there for two days, and two days later, I felt my body grow. I was finally normal size. I went out before Mom came home. I spied from a bush outside, and when she went upstairs, I went up too. I rang the doorbell, and when I walked in, my mom hugged me so tight I felt like my guts were being squeezed out. I was really happy. I told her the story, and I started eating right away because I was so hungry.

One day later, my mom came up to me and said…

“YOU’RE GROUNDED FOR ONE MONTH!”

 

THE END

 

My 20’s Diary

My name is Billy, and I just turned 20, and it feels freaking awesome. I just started my first week at NYU majoring in advanced chemistry and minoring in algebra. It was a perfect choice. My family is very proud of me since I got into a good college but also because I’m Hispanic and I’m in a good college. I will write every year.

-Age 20

 

I woke up with pangs of hunger. That’s when I remembered… today was my family’s monthly brunch. I ran to the fridge where they put their requests. I put my bathrobe on and rushed to the store with the list. I ran to the local plaza. They have everything except… bacon!!! My family was going to kill me. My family was five minutes away. The nearest store was ten minutes away.

My aunt called me and asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m driving home right now.”

“If you’re not back there with all the food, I’m gonna kill you.”

“I’ll call you back, people are staring.”

I ran to the car and drove at sixty miles per hour to the next store. A police officer

stopped me. I thought, I’m dead. I told the police why I was driving so fast, and the police officer understood and let me keep driving. I grabbed the bacon, skipped the line, and threw the money to the cashier. I drove home, and now my family was two minutes away. I took a dangerous shortcut through hunting grounds. Somebody shot the window while aiming at a deer, but I kept driving. I made it home, but I had forgotten that I had to set the table and microwave all the food. I locked the door completely, bolted it shut, closed all the curtains, and turned off all the lights. I shoved all the food in the microwave at once. The bacon went into the oven. My family knocked on the door. I took the food out and set the table. I unlocked the door, opened the curtains, and turned on all the lights. I opened the door, and immediately my grandma slapped me in the face.

“I know when you are lying. I heard your conversation with your aunt, I was in the car. Now give me a hug.”

“Auntie, why do you always have to have Grandma in your car ?” I said while hugging my grandma.

“So I can tell when you are lying.”

I remembered ten-year-old Little John has to make brunch next month while everyone came in. Then I remembered that next month was just a test. Poor me will have to keep making breakfast until John is at least 20… Ugh.

– Age 21

 

It’s my second year in NYU, and my parents say I’m lucky that I got into a good college because other people my color don’t get a good education. This year I have to go to a prom, and it was mandatory. Weirdly, someone asked me already. I’m like, what!!! I asked my friends what I should do.

They said, “Just do it.”

I said, “Okay.”

I had to get ready for the big day. The next day, we gathered in the gym for prom. Our teacher made us go with the person that asked us out. I stood next to Linda. We danced and agreed to see each other again. Three days later, she ghosted me. She used me for grades. I have not focused on brunch.

-Age 22

 

I need to focus. My grades have been dropping. They have mostly been on average B’s since last year. That’s why I’m only writing this much. Until I go back to getting A’s, I will not write.

-Age 23

 

Well, I finally got that A ten times in a row for the end of year test, and it’s summer break. I want to have fun, and I’m ignoring brunch. I’m going to go to Splish Splash for a whole day. I invite my friends over for us to drive there. Since it’s in upstate New York, we have to pack a lot of snacks and jackets in case it rains.

It took a one hour drive, and then we made it. We ate lunch there, which was Subway. We went on every single water slide until six o’clock PM. That was one of the funnest days of my life. My grandmother sent me a text message and gave me the devil mask face. I feel bittersweet. Then my grandmother said, We went to IHOP instead, which was better than your food. I was so offended that this day became sweet. Since my grandmother roasted me, I realized that I didn’t miss making brunch today.

The next day, my friends and I went to Camelback Beach. It took us a four hour drive. It was very exhausting. I went on this huge water slide. When I fell into the pool, it was so fast that I broke my leg. I had to be saved by a lifeguard, and we had to go home right away. After my friends dropped me off, my family brought me to the hospital and sued Camelback. I told them not to, but they did it anyways. We won the case, and we got $100,000. Our lawyer was trash.

I couldn’t do things for a whole three weeks, and I’m definitely not going back on any waterslides soon. So we went camping. We put out food in a tight refrigerator so bears can’t get in it, and we tried to avoid camping in the hunting grounds. We set up a fire on a ridge near a mountain, and it was really exciting. I got third shift to watch the campfire and keep a lookout. We drove back home the next day. I can’t wait for next summer break.

-Age 24

 

This year I graduated, and I’m so excited!!! We’re graduating in Hersheypark Stadium. They do this to make it special. They didn’t want to have it in New York since most of us live in NYC. We all got a certificate, and our valedictorian gave us a wonderful speech and told us to throw our hats in the air. It was a sight to see. When I’m 30, I’m going to start to get my PhD. I’m ignoring brunch.

-Age 25

 

I teach chemistry at Brooklyn Tech. There are a lot of students, and I’m kind of nervous. The students are nice though. I think I should stay at this job until I turn 30. It’s really fun, and we do a lot of experiments. I think being a teacher has really improved my life. I have to focus on teaching.

-Age 26

 

Somebody got me arrested today. When I told the cops, they said, “Save it for the judge.”

 

Five days later…

When they looked for evidence of me at the supposed scene, they found nothing. We had a trial, and they arrested her. That “her” was Linda. The last time I met her was at NYU for prom. My family is glad I didn’t get arrested. We’re going to IHOP for brunch.

-Age 27

 

It’s summer break again, and I have to prepare for my class next year. This year for summer break, I decided to stay inside and catch up on all the shows I missed. Mostly American Ninja Warrior, which is a very funny show and is very awesome. This teacher life is pretty weird. Your summer break is not really a summer break. You are still working! Brunch is off. I invited some of my most interested students to a science fair at my old elementary school. When we were leaving, they said, “That was impressive.” I am ready for next year.

-Age 28

 

In my class, there was a bully. I freed a bunch of people from their lockers. The bully’s name was Alin. He was very cruel, and he never pays attention. I don’t know how he’ll survive in life. I hope he’s able to get over his cruelty. I hope he doesn’t become a criminal. He’s been sent to the principal and the guidance counselor many times. I hope he turns his life around.

-Age 29

 

This year, I went on a date. It went pretty well. Both of us majored in science. We had good conversation. It wasn’t awkward, Her name is Jada. We walked home together because we live in the same apartment building. So we know each other pretty well. Our parents said we can get married. We both were like, “Not yet.”

-Age 30

 

I quit my job and went to graduate school at Northwestern. I got married to Jada. We now live in the same apartment building. I can’t wait for what’s going to happen next. Little John has to make brunch now.

 

Changing Towns

Once upon a time there was a princess named Celestia who was sixteen years old, and she liked colors. She really wanted more people in her town. It was a very lonely town, and she was wearing a black dress today.

So every day, she sat in her throne, and she said to herself, “How can I get more people in our town?”

But one day, on her birthday of turning seventeen, she thought, Maybe I should go and get more people in our town. So she told her parents that she was going to get more people in their town. The king and queen also wanted more people in their town, so they told their daughter Celestia that she could go do it. So, she packed her food, and she set off.

So first, she went to Chicago, and she told all the people there. Then, she went to Greece, and she told all the people there. Then, she went to Florida, and she told all the people there. Some said no, and some said yes in all the countries she went to so far. She convinced them to go to their town because she convinced them that it was a nice town, and there were hot tubs and pools all over it. The people that said no weren’t convinced with what she said.

And then, she went to Hawaii. All the people said yes in Hawaii because it was ten minutes before the volcano erupted in Hawaii, so they all said yes, they took all their stuff, and then they went with Princess Celestia. Once she got the Hawaiian people to safety in their town, the Hawaiian people thanked her for saving them. Then, it was nighttime. They all went to sleep, and Celestia promised herself that she would do some more talking to people tomorrow.

The morning after nighttime, she wore her color dress. The colors that it had were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink. She had a rainbow dress on! She went to London. Most people there said yes, and some said no, so she took the people that said yes on a boat while she went to a different country or state.

She went to Australia. The cities she went to were Sydney and Melbourne, and all the people in Sydney and Melbourne said yes. So she took them to New York City. They had a great time. Then, she went to New Mexico. New Mexico was a busy town, and there was a gate at the airport before you entered New Mexico, and the gate had a passcode that you had to enter. There was no button that said Change Passcode, so she didn’t know how she would get into New Mexico. So, she tried all the passcodes she knew, but none of them worked because the gate felt your hand if it was New Mexican or American or any other city, state, or country. The gate knew that she didn’t live in New Mexico, so Celestia didn’t know what to do. So, she thought and thought until she came up with an idea.

Good thing she brought a pogo stick in her backpack! She could jump over the fence and no one who was New Mexican knew if she was New Mexican or American. But there were wolves guarding the New Mexican houses because the New Mexicans knew that someone could have a pogo stick from a different state and jump over the fence. So, they put more wolves to guard. The wolves charged at her. She didn’t know what to do. She was surrounded by wolves. She said her name to the wolves, and then they said theirs. Good thing she knew wolf language! She learned wolf language at school where they taught all about wolves. She told the wolves her name in wolf language. She told them that she wanted to be their friend. They said that they would be her friend. So, the wolves let her go into New Mexico, and then the people were astonished of how Celestia got in. Then, they glared at the wolves. The wolves got really scared.

There were only ten children who weren’t glaring at the wolves. Those were Celestia’s friends in New Mexico. She called them, and they came and helped protect the wolves. Now that the wolves were safe, Celestia asked her friends if they wanted to go to New York City with her. They all said yes because they were her best friends in New Mexico! They asked all the people in New Mexico. All the children’s parents that were Celestia’s best friends came with their children to New York City, and then she went to Africa. All the people in Africa said yes, and then she took the people from New Mexico and from Africa to New York City, and they lived happily ever after! The end.

 

Real facts about different countries:

Fact: If it’s July 5th in Australia, and you think it’s also July 5th in America, it’s actually July 4th! It could be with any date. So for example, today in America it is 7/19/18, and in Australian times, it’s 7/20/18. So in Australian times, it’s always one day ahead of American times, and when it’s evening time in Australia, then it’s morning time for America.

Fact: There are lots of animals in Africa, like zebras, and lions, and animals like that. Most of them are tame and will do what a person who owns them says. There are different climates in Africa. There’s the tropical rainforest, and there’s a place where they grow chocolate, and there’s a desert in Africa.

Fact: In Hawaii, there is hula dancing. There are lots of islands. On 7/19/18, a volcano erupted in Hawaii. All of the islands were formed when a volcano erupted underwater.

 

I Am Mehoko

My name is Mehoko. I live alone in New York City. My family threw me on the last plane here. “You deserve a better life than what you have here. Go, Mehoko, to a world I heard that has more!” My parents’ voices still echo in my ears as I repeat our last moment together. It hurt leaving my home in Quivik, where we always had rice for our meals. Quivik is in a distinct island off of China, and we speak Chinese, but we aren’t as advanced with life as they are. My life was still better, though. It might have been hard eating the leftovers of our old Emperor (who to say was actually quite nice), especially since we had to polish his house 20 times so we could get at least a dime’s worth of money (that’s how they say it in New York), but at least I had something. Here, I am lost and have only a bit of food. My authentic Quivik wear is ripping, and I have sort of started to lose hope, though I did have a decent day today.

I look to get a job, so I can fulfill my family’s wishes. I have run into some people here (by accident), and they were all so lively! I have observed how they speak, walk, and eat. Earlier today, I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and was greeted by two nice ladies, and they said they could possibly hire me.

They gave me a couple of dollars saying, “We few Chinese people need to stay together and watch out for each other.”

I nodded my head, though I am Quiviknese. But besides that, I know that I need to spend the money on food!

 

A few moments later…

I have been watching a little girl and her dad walk into a store that said Grocery Store. I have learned a few things about the language, and I now know a few words and their meanings. Anyways, I keep following them throughout the store without them knowing, picking everything they get and putting it in a crate/bag thingy. (I have never seen these helpful things.) Well, as I am following them, my heart is sinking. They keep playing together like me and my dad had once done. I only just stopped following them because they are now going to the “cash register,” and I can only be in the line. Now that they are leaving, I am desperately trying to put my things down exactly like the kid had.

“That will be $50.25,” the guy is saying, looking at me.

I don’t know the currency rules here, but I am just going to hand him a paper with a 20 on it. “Here.” I want to get out of the store because now there is no one to learn from, so I keep pushing the bill towards him.

“Oh, are you new here because that is only $20, and I need 30 more dollars and 25 cents,” the guy said once again, looking me up and down.

I can only nod because I really am having trouble with what the guy is saying. But he is full of surprises as he reaches for this black thing and dials numbers.

“Hey, boss, we have an Asian girl who looks like an immigrant who doesn’t have enough money… Yes… Okay… So I can give her the discount if she will work here to pay it off… Okay.” He hangs up. “Well, I will let you off the hook if you will work to pay it off.”

I keep nodding and repeating his words “work.” I am so surprised nobody ever leaves Quivik because you can’t work if you aren’t legal, and I learned in school that I could’ve gone to jail! I can’t stop myself from smiling, and he is reaching out his hand, so I will do the same. He continues to shake my hands, and I feel very proud right now. Mom, Dad, I will not fail you. One day, I will retrieve you from Quivik, I am thinking to myself.

I am looking at the shopping list thing that is coming out of this weird machine here. It says: bread, ham, banana, apple, watermelon, tomatoes, grapes, strawberries, crackers, cheese, hamburgers, hotdogs, water, juice, sugar, ice cream, cookies, cake, flour, pasta, lollipops, and gummy worms! My time here will be awesome and delicious! I feel better now that I have worked things out. Tomorrow, I start work, working. I am actually sort of happy I moved! But I will, I will, thank my lucky star, the one that made a difference! Quivik is my Home but New York is my City!

 

THE END!!!

 

Aria’s Story

The only thing Aria had ever wanted to do was to help people. Her mother was the former Queen of Aura. The crown was recently passed down to her despite the fact that she didn’t want it. Her mother was worried that she wouldn’t be a good queen, so she still monitored every decision that Aria made. The law kept them from getting what they wanted. It was Aria’s tenth day as queen, but she still wasn’t used to waking up at the crack of dawn.

“Today is going to be a good day,” Aria whispered to her brand new dog while staring out a window overlooking Coal.

He was a chihuahua that she found in Aura. Her kingdom was split into two parts. One was called Ruby, and the other was called Coal. It was named that because Aura produced many gems on Ruby. Coal was a recently purchased land that her mother bought because it was said to have gold. Of course, her mother had never actually visited Coal. On her first day as queen, Aria visited Coal and had felt so guilty for never helping people before. Aria had never been able to make a decision by herself even though she was twenty-two years old. Her mother had actually attached a camera to her when she was eighteen.

“Good luck,” Maya yelled, who was also on her way to the conference room.

“Thanks,” Aria responded.

As Aria walked into the conference room, she quickly turned around and ran in the opposite direction, until she bumped into her with her mom. On her way to the meeting with her mom, she saw her best friend on the way.

“Good morning, Mother” Aria said, while trying her best not to slouch.

“Good morning,” she responded stiffly.

“Mother, I wanted to ask you if we could give Coal more money.”

“Why?”

“Have you ever been there, Mother.”

“Of course not, I don’t have time for that.”

Aria just rolled her eyes while saying, “I went there the other day, and it was very poor.”

“Aria, don’t be silly. You know that we need to use it to buy food for Ruby.”

“Mother, have you been to the main cellar in Ruby.”

“No.”

“There is a lot of food rotting there.”

They started yelling at each other as the tension started growing between them. Then, Aria left the room feeling defeated.

Aria had to make a speech the next night about her first act as queen. Her mother was telling her to give Ruby more money to make a new spa. Of course, Aria didn’t want to do that, so she spent the remainder of that night thinking about it, while sitting in her favorite spot by the window and constantly looking at the immediate difference between Coal and Ruby. Her mother was breaking the law by trying to make Aria do what she didn’t want, but Aria didn’t know. When she woke up in the morning, she had even more worries when she had to help settle something in court. There was a murder in Coal because of a fight about food. As Aria looked through the rule book for a page about regulations about murder trials, she saw something that was interesting. Before she went to bed, she arranged a meeting with her mother and studied the page that she noticed earlier. The next day, Aria confidently walked into the conference room.

“Mother,” Aria said coldly.

“Aria,” her mother replied anxiously.

“I am giving the money to Coal.”

“You can’t. I forbid you to,” Aria’s mother yelled.

“And I forbid you to break the law,” Aria shot back.

“What are you talking about?”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“You can’t tell anyone about this.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

As Aria exited the room, she worried that someone had been listening through the door. It would be very bad for her mother if someone found out. Aria scanned the hallway and saw no one. She went to her room and started preparing her speech for that night. It was very difficult to write a speech, but in the end, she completed it in time for the ceremony. Aria was very excited to announce her first act as queen.

When Aria began her speech, someone in the crowd shouted, “The queen is a criminal.”

Aria was very nervous.

Maya came up to the stage and said, “She forced Aria to do what she wanted.”

Aria’s mother came up to the stage and started denying that she ever did that. The whole room was filled with talking.

“Everybody, shut up,” yelled Aria.

The room suddenly became very quiet. The chief guard came up and arrested Aria’s mom. Aria started fidgeting and started thinking to herself, I will take care of her later.

“Tonight was very exciting, but hopefully it will be even more exciting. I know many of you don’t like that Coal is very poor. Hopefully, that can change. Aura’s money is split among Ruby and Coal, but not equally. Ruby gets 75% of the money, so that leaves Coal with 25% of the money. I am trying to change that so each section gets 50%,” said Aria once everyone calmed down. All of the people started clapping.

“First, I have a favor to ask. I need volunteers throughout the week to clean Coal and help with construction,” added Aria.

Many people raised their hands.

The next morning, Aria woke up in a chair and quickly got ready for a meeting about her mother’s punishment and then a meeting about Coal. As she looked out the window of her room, she saw a large gathering of people working in Coal. Aria pulled her hair into a very messy bun and ran through the halls. She was very tired from staying up all night, but it was worth it. She carried a huge binder with her, full of plans for Coal. Then, Aria realized something, being “Her Royal Highness Queen Aria Allgre of Aura” wasn’t that bad.

 

A New Friend

Once there was a girl named Mary. She had black hair and was in kindergarten. She was five and liked playing games at recess like family. Her best friend was named Mimi. Mimi had glasses, played with Mary 24/7, and was five as well. Their teacher was named Ms. Rendy. All these people had brown eyes.

One day, walking home from school, Mimi asked, “Do you want to go to my house and study for our report on Native Americans?”

So, Mary answered, “Totally!”

After about two hours, they finally found a big, fat, dusty book called All About Native Americans. It seemed liked the perfect book to write a report that was being turned into Sunset Elementary. After 55 chapters full of tiny, hard to read print, (some including clothing and games) they reached the chapter on animals and food. And guess what the first sentence said? It said that Native Americans ate bunnies! This was heartbreaking. Even worse, since Mary loved bunnies, she felt like she had been stabbed.

The next Tuesday, Mary went into the shed in her backyard to get a leash for her dog. But the second she got inside, the little wood structure seemed to begin going downward, but not underground. Kind of like an elevator. The stomach-churning zooming went on for ten minutes. When the door opened, Mary was so surprised by the shockingly beautiful landscape. Her breath was taken away. The grass was greener than anything her small hometown in Wisconsin had to offer, and large, innocent deer darted away from flying arrows. No one seemed to care about the animals. (This was a quiet scene.) Suddenly, Mary felt something warm and fuzzy rubbing against her leg. She looked down and saw it was a bunny!

“Help!” it whimpered. “They’re going to eat me!”

Arrows suddenly began flying into the time machine. The door started to close, but an old cat scampered in.

“Choose your button carefully, or else you shall regret it!”

“Okay?” Mary said curiously.

So, the cat walked calmly out. The buttons on the time elevator were covered in Russian letters. A random one was pressed, and then both the girl and the bunny felt their stomachs turning somersaults. Then finally after five hours, the door opened again. They screamed. A giant T-Rex!!!

“Next time, we should be more careful,” Mary nervously said.

Then, they went back up to present day.

 

Special Sandwich

One day, Emily went to the doctor. As she entered the tiny room, the smell of fresh air made her feel better after she was sweating. She had bad news. The doctor said she had diabetes and that he recommended a kind of sandwich that involved bread, lettuce, tomato, and potato. He also recommended paper towels in case she made a mess, apples, oranges, 100% juice, and maybe low fat chips as a snack for one week.

“This will make you feel better!” the doctor said, hopeful.

If she didn’t, she would have to stay in the hospital for ten years. She immediately drove to the store and bought all of these for ten dollars in total.

She panicked as she took a blue plastic plate from her drawer at her sleepy home and put 100% whole wheat brown bread on the plate, put cheese on top after, lettuce, tomato, and potato. Emily knew she felt herself sweating, but she realized that she would soon feel better. She slowly got better after about one week and she was beaming afterwards, crying tears of joy. But…

Then, five years later, she went to the doctor and found out she had diabetes again.

Oh no, this can’t be happening! Emily thought. The doctor said there were no more ingredients of that sandwich, and Emily started to panic and sweat.

“Doctor, what should I do?!” Emily cried.

“The only thing you could do now is take grape medicine for four years. Drink ½ cup of medicine every twelve hours,” the doctor said.

And that’s what she did. She made sure she drank the medicine. She even set 2,920 alarms on her phone for each time she had to take it in those four years! The medicine helped her a little bit. And the more she took it, the more she felt better!

 

Twin Towers

        

Chapter One

Emma

“Miss Robinson, the answer? To number four?”

“Huh?” I said drowsily. “What are you talking about?”

“Miss Robinson! The answer! To number four!” Mrs. Stuart clarified, running her hands through her spiky hair. “When are you going to stop sleeping in my class? I wish you were more like your twin sister.”

I gasped, glaring at Mrs. Stuart. My twin, Evelyn, smiled, gave me a thumbs up, and buried her face in her math once more. I took that in a nice way, and looked up at Mrs. Stuart. “You can’t say that I’m worse than my sister to my face. That’s just plain horrible.”

Mrs. Stuart gaped at me, shook her head, then said, “I’ll deal with this later.” Then, she marched up to her “throne.” No, really — it looks like a real throne, one with a big armchair and a billion pillows with intricate design. It took up, like, a fourth of the small room. Mrs. Stuart would be proud of my fraction-math-equation… if she didn’t hate me at the time. I was probably at the verge of getting a C- anytime soon. Not that I wouldn’t without insulting her. I’m sort of a bad student. Oh, well.

Evelyn answered perfectly to the question she was given. Mrs. Stuart seemed to have deleted her bad self when she talked to my sister, but every now and then she shot me a disgusted look in the corner of her eye. Why did she hate me this much? Probably because I hated her as well. Sometimes she told me my homework was wrong, gave me a C, and then told me something had gone askew when she was checking my homework, but it went to my report card, so there was no way to undo it. She was my least favorite teacher, but Evelyn’s favorite. Obviously. Mrs. Stuart was the queen, Evelyn the princess, and I was the piece of mold stuck to the refrigerator door.

 

***

“I don’t know why we have to go to PE,” Evelyn whined, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “It’s useless. Not like I’m going to become a baseball player or anything.

“Well, what if you are going to be a baseball player?”

She gaped at me. “Ugh, I star in physics. How am I going to be a baseball player?”

“Well, ya never know.”

“O-M-G, you are so annoying.”

I grinned. “Well, that’s what twins are for, honestly.”

“Emma, you have to help me. I suck at PE. And you’re amazing at it.”

“Okay… but in return, you have to help me,” I bargained, raising my eyebrows.

“Huh? But Emma, you have it all. You aren’t the favorite of any academic teachers.”

I sighed. “That’s exactly why. I want at least one academic teacher to like me.”

Evelyn laughed. “Wow, ambitious. But deal. Deal?”

“Deal.”

 

Chapter Two

Evelyn

“Okay, the first step to soccer… what is the first step to soccer?” Emma said, uncertain.

“Uh, I’ll look it up.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “It means — ”

“The first step to soccer is no cell phones!” Emma shouted in my face, grabbing the device and slamming it down on the table. “The next step is kicking the ball… I think.”

I took my foot and swung it on the ball like Hercules’s club being used for attack. “Argh!” I shouted, but then realized my foot managed to barely nip the ball.

“You’re hopeless!” Emma growled, flopping backwards on the couch. “You can’t even kick a ball!”

You’re hopeless! You can’t teach me how to kick a ball!” I shot back at her.

“Well! Kicking a ball is easier!”

I didn’t know what to say to that. She had too much of a good point. Then, a thought struck me. “Hey! You’d be good at debate class!”

“Excuse me?”

“Debate class!”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Emma snapped. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“Of course you don’t know what debate class is! You only take the mandatory lessons. Well, debate class is when you’re supposed to argue. They have debate teams, and you have to go on about how your side is better. I’m in the class. We could go on the same team, even. It would be like twin bonding time!” I squealed, hopping in the air. But the truth was, I was sort of uncertain about Emma’s unexpected talent. I didn’t exactly have knack for debating, if that’s what you called being horrible at it.

“Well, this debate class seems fun.” Emma smiled. “Thanks for letting me know about it. I’ll def try it out. But… us? On the same team? We disagree on so many things, so have you lost your mind?”

“No, we don’t disagree! Okay, fine we do.” I rolled my eyes. “So now can you teach me how to kick a ball?”

“It’s so hard, I don’t think you should waste your time doing it,” Emma said sarcastically, popping her gum so loudly I thought it might explode on her face.

“Fine.”

“That was a joke! Huh, you didn’t realize that, did you?”

“No, I didn’t, thank you very much. Kicking a ball is actually hard. And don’t judge me.” I glared at Emma, and she stared back at me.

Emma scrunched her face up. “Well, then. What sport do you think you’re good at?”

“Picking up the balls when it’s time to clean up.”

“You’re hopeless. And it’s called shagging the balls.”

“Fine, tennis,” I said reluctantly.

“What? You’re not even good at tennis!”

“You said ‘pick a sport you think you’re good at,’ and now you’re telling me I can’t pick a sport I think I’m good at?”

Emma put her head in her hands. “Never mind. Pick a sport you’re good at.”

“Swimming?”

No!

“Badminton?”

“No.”

“Track?”

“Okay, sure. You’re not bad at running.” Emma sighed.

I hopped up and down. “Great, all I have to do now is run!” I ran out of the apartment door and went down the stairs to the lobby. Emma followed me. Then, I ran out of the building and started jogging next to the river. “Y’know, this isn’t so hard — WOAH!”

I fell flat on my face, and when I looked up, Emma was hooting with laughter.

“It’s not that funny!” I snapped at her. “Is it?”

“Of course it is! You have to look where you’re running. It doesn’t work if you’re running on cement and you trip on an umbrella!”

My cheeks reddened. “That’s what I tripped on?”

“Yes, duh! You thought it was a rock?”

“Um, yeah. I’ll try again.” I started running again, only to trip over my sandals and fall on my face again.

Emma started giggling again. “You forgot to wear sneakers! You need sneakers!”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I demanded, walking to where she was standing. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’ll just get my sneakers.”

“Okay, bye.”

As I walked up the stairs to our apartment, I heard Emma call, “You can’t go up to the apartment without your keys!” Emma waved the keys above her head.

“Ugh!” I shouted, circling back to the building porch. I jumped up, grabbed Emma by the shoulders for support, and took the keys dangling above her head.

Emma stared at me. “Wow, how’d you do that? You’re a good jumper.”

“Um, I’m a natural?”

“I think you just developed a talent for gymnastics.”

 

Chapter Three

Emma

“What?” Evelyn shot at me. “Gymnastics?”

I breathed in and out. Gymnastics was my only weakness. I was not a flexible person. “Yeah, gymnastics.” I winced at the word again.

“You’re kidding,” Evelyn said loudly. “It can’t be.” She shook her head mournfully. “I’ll never be.”

I knew what she was thinking, and I felt bad for her. Seven years ago, Evelyn had gone to a gymnastics meet, her first one ever. She was a complete failure (no offense, but it was true) and hated gymnastics from that moment on. Sort of intense, but that’s what happened. Maybe she developed a skill from devoting her physical life (which wasn’t a lot) to ballet.

I thought this over. “Yes, but you are. Sorry. From doing all that ballet, maybe you became more flexible and jumpy than you wanted to.”

“Um, okay.”

I could sense the horror and uncertainty in Evelyn’s voice, and I could also sense it in mine. Evelyn didn’t know that I was horrible at gymnastics. No one did. What if she asked me to teach her?

“Emma, stop bulging your eyes at me like a pufferfish. Now can you teach me or not?”

I backed away. “Uh, I only know the advanced stuff. Maybe it’s best if you get an actual teacher?”

“Okay.” Evelyn let it off easier than I had expected. Maybe it could be okay to tell her a white lie? Whatever.

“Okay, I gotta practice for debate class,” I told her, running up the stairs to our apartment. “I’m going to tell Mom the reasons why I should have more ice cream than usual.”

I could feel Evelyn smile to the back of my head.

Once I reached the top of the stairs, I pushed my key into the lock, and the door swung open. “Mom? Dad?”

Nothing. Guess I would have to wait for some ice cream.

I started up the stairs to my room (we had a double floor apartment) and pulled out my phone, then started texting Scarlett. Hi Scarlett. What are you doing?

She texted back. Hi Emma. I’m not doing anything.

I texted back. Want to come over?

Is Evelyn with ya?

No. She’s practicing gymnastics

I waited a while for her message. Okay I’ll come. She finally texted.

Or maybe I could come to your house. I countered.

This time the text came fast. No I’ll come over to yours.

I had never seen Scarlett’s house. She probably had, like, annoying brothers. Oh well. Okay, see you in fifteen. I texted her.

In exactly fifteen minutes, the doorbell rang. I rushed down the stairs to meet Scarlett. “Who is it?” I asked the door.

Scarlett’s muffled voice said a quiet, “Scarlett.” So, I pulled open the heavy door and saw my best friend with her long silky orange hair messily topped on her head in a bun. She was wearing a pink and yellow tye-dye top and nice sky blue jeans. It was only noon, but Scarlett had already made a sunset explode in my house.

“Like my nails?” she said, showcasing scarlet fingers.

“Yeah, what color is that?”

“Bloodthirsty Vampire,” she informed me, sending prickles up my spine.

What?” I shivered.

“Just kidding. It’s actually called Scarlet Girl, so I thought it was perfect for me. Just wanted to see you panic a little.”

“Right.” I nodded, motioning for her to come in.

About fifteen minutes later, Scarlett went to the bathroom. I patiently waited for Scarlett to arrive, when my phone started ringing with Evelyn’s number.

 

Chapter Four

Evelyn

Emma picked up when I rang her. “Hi, Evelyn!”

“Hi, Emma!” I chirped, a bit happier than I meant to be. “I got an instructor! I called Mom, and she got me one!”

“Cool,” Emma told me. I heard crackling in the line. “Oh, I’m breaking up… I gotta go.”

And she hung up, just like that.

Mom shook me. “Honey, your instructor is going to meet you.”

Mom and I walked to the register. “Hi, my daughter is going to be doing gymnastics. It’s her first lesson.”

The woman at the register nodded. “Oh, hello! Phone number, please?”

“Three four seven,” Mom told her.

The woman repeated it, then typed it up.

“Seven one nine,” Mom continued.

The woman said it over, then started typing it on her computer.

Mom said the last four digits.

The woman clarified, going on her computer again. “Now if you will please tell me your daughter’s first and last name.”

“Evelyn Robinson,” Mom and I both said at the same time.

The woman at the desk smiled. “Well then. You’ll be with Rebecca.”

Where had I heard that name before? The name rung a bell, but I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. Oh well.

Mom didn’t seem to notice, so I thought maybe a new girl in school?

The woman said she’d be back in a sec, after she checked in with Rebecca.

Mom waited until the woman was gone. “Evelyn, are you sure you want to do gymnastics? I mean, do you really want to?”

I glared at her. “Of course I do! Mom, I’ve never made a bad decision.”

Mom seemed unsure of that. “Are you sure?”

“Mo-om!”

“You’re making a bad decision from saying that in that tone, young lady.”

It would have been an amazing time for the woman to come in with Rebecca trailing behind her, but of course it didn’t. Things never work out that way.

We stood in silence for a couple minutes, when Mom said, “Where is the lunatic woman? She’s been missing for five minutes.”

“Maybe Rebecca’s not sure that she has to teach me, and the woman is telling her that she’s supposed to,” I explained. “It’s possible and logical. Actually, I have very good explanations — ”

“Shhhhh,” Mom hissed. “Did you say Rebecca?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because Rebecca is — ”

“The coach from when I was seven,” I finished, when the woman and Rebecca walked right in.

 

Chapter Five

Emma

I felt sort of guilty about crushing my fortune cookie wrapper right next to my phone, but I had to because I was busy. No distractions when doing homework! Scarlett and I were drilling each other on math and other academic subjects. If I was going to get my teacher charm on, there was no better way to do it than butter up the teachers with good grades and charmingness.

Surprisingly, Scarlett was really keen on getting to be Mrs. Stuart’s favorite, and I joked that if she were in my class it would be most hard because Evelyn would have taken the princess’s spot and was glued down onto it.

She cocked her head at me, like what are you talking about? And I explained it all.

From the unfairness and the deal and debate class and gymnastics. And she listened. But I didn’t tell Scarlett about being horrible at gymnastics. No one knew, and it was going to stay that way.

But I itched to tell at least someone. But then everyone would know. Word in Manhattan High got around fast, even if I told it to Scarlett. Someone would pick up a clue, start a rumor, and soon there would be lies, buzzing around the entire building. And soon people would make up more things about you, it would get to a teenage reporter, they would put it in a magazine, newspaper or something like that… and kazam! Everyone knows.

Then, completely out of the blue, Scarlett said, “I wish I had a twin.”

I stared at those six words, as if they had popped out of her mouth and were looming above her head like a cloud. Six words that would never go away. Words that were permanent, like a Sharpie on a plastic bottle. Never will be destroyed when you wash them. Will recycle over and over. Hard to cut. I looked at Scarlett again. “Why?”

Scarlett shrugged her shoulders, blushing a bit. “I don’t know, guess I don’t want to be so lonely anymore.”

I could see tears prick at her eyes. She was an only child, and her mom died when she was four. Scarlett’s dad was completely offensive, being rude and cooped up in his office, work, or in his room all the time.

I handed her a glass of water, and she blinked repetitively to make the tears go away. She swatted at her eyes like a gone mad kitten and gulped down the water, patting her lap softly to make her swallow in a more thorough and smooth way.

I elbowed her. “Hey, solve this.” I showed her a problem. “I’ve been stuck on it all day.”

She took the piece of paper from me, biting the tip of her eraser. “Fifty-six thousand, nine hundred forty, four hundred ninety-two.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” Scarlett said. She etched the number onto the paper.

“Okay,” I said submissively, grabbing some more homework. I showed Scarlett the stack. “I’ll work on these. Like I’m editing Little Women.”

Scarlett snickered at that, focusing on her math once more.

 

Chapter Six

Evelyn

I stared at Rebecca in terror, at her ginger cream hair, big round green eyes, pink smile, rosy cheeks, sparkly nails, and long legs. I hoped she didn’t recognize me.

“Why hello, Evelyn!” Rebecca cried, shaking my hand. “You remind me of someone, but I can’t quite put my finger on who.”

I gulped, knowing that I reminded her of me. And reddish brown hair wasn’t exactly common in this world.

“Well, okay then. Come with me.” Rebecca smiled again, and I wanted to punch her face. Not exactly well, though.

“Is it your first time doing gymnastics?” Rebecca asked me, pushing some equipment out of my way.

“Yes,” I lied, walking with her. “It’s my first time.”

“Okay!” Rebecca squealed. “Let’s start with some fun stuff, then.”

Fun stuff? That couldn’t be soooo bad. “Okay.”

Rebecca showed my a pit full of spongy squares. She stood a meter or two away from the edge, facing the gaping space of cushions. “Now, Evelyn, I want you to stand at the edge, and then face me. Then fall back, yelling ‘timber,’ and try not to move like a tree being cut down. Okay?”

She called that fun? I tried not to be a wimp, so I positioned myself where she told me to stand and yelled timber as I started my descend to the square cushions. I flapped my arms around, but my legs stood straight like they were tied together. I sank into the pit and emerged from it to see Rebecca giggling. When she saw me frowning at her, she blushed a bit but then laughed a little more. She kept on laughing until she was flustered and sweat dripped from her eyebrows. “It’s okay, hon. I wasn’t laughing at you, though. I was laughing at a funny dream. But you’re a beginner, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

She smiled at me, motioning for me to pull myself out of the big pit. I grabbed the handles and pushed up, swinging my right leg over the edge and then my left one. I pushed up to my feet and then walked after Rebecca, and then I started running after her, because wow, she was a fast walker.

“Okay,” Rebecca said, walking in a swift motion. “How ‘bout we go on the trampoline? We could work on some handstands and cartwheels there.”

Handstands? Cartwheels? Uh… no way. And those words are final. But… I had to. I mean, I didn’t want to be a wimp. So, I trekked over to the swimming pool size trampoline and clambered onto it.

Rebecca gave me instructions to do downward dog, push my feet up and swing them over. She also taught me to run forward towards the mat, in a skippy run.

I gulped, but I went to the start of the trampoline (where the red line was) and stood silently at it.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Rebecca said kindly. “Don’t stress yourself.”

I took a deep breath and started running. I pushed on my hands and lifted up my feet. I could feel my back hit the pink mat.

Then, everything went black.

 

Chapter Seven

Emma

“I think we’re good,” Scarlett said, all drowsy after the math. “My brain power needs a recharge.”

I passed her a popsicle without saying anything. She didn’t say anything to me, let alone thank you, but I didn’t really care. She just sucked on the delicious fruity frozen stuff.

I didn’t give her more homework yet, because I knew she would groan and moan and smack the homework out of my hand, which I didn’t want happening.

Scarlett took the homework herself, and muttered a little, “Thanks,” and soon her popsicle was ice because she sucked the flavor out of it. I told her I would gladly eat the ice, but she said no thank you.

An hour later, Scarlett and I were done with the homework. She smiled and said, “I’m meeting Abby in the diner. You want to come?”

“Oh, I can’t. Mom would wonder where I am, even if I call her. I don’t want them to panic. Plus I’m going to lunch with Dad.”

Scarlett nodded. “Okay, then. Bye!”

I waved to her, and she jogged out the door.

When Scarlett disappeared, I locked up behind her. I started up the stairs to my room, flopping backwards on my bed. Then, my eyes fluttered closed, and I started to sleep.

 

***

I woke up to a key opening the door. I yawned happily, trekking down the stairs after I stretched my arms and legs. Mom stood at the doorway with Evelyn, who was pouting greatly. “Hi Mom! Hi… Evelyn… !” I looked at the both of them. Then I asked Evelyn, “How was your gymnastics?”

“Fine,” Evelyn said. “Apparently I aced it, but sort of got dizzy when I did a handstand on the trampoline. But Rebecca said I did everything right.”

“Rebecca?” I asked. I thought I heard that name before. “Isn’t that…”

Evelyn nodded. “Yeah, she is. But I don’t really care. She doesn’t recognize me, so that’s good, I guess.”

I smiled. “Well, welcome to the house. I finished all my homework today.”

Evelyn jumped up and down. “Yipee! Wonderful! This has got you nice and disciplined.”

Mom puzzled over this. “Wait, what’s this?”

“Nothing,” we both answered. “It’s nothing.”

Mom seemed unsure about this. “Is there something I need to know, girls?”

“No, Mom,” we said, giggling all the way up the stairs.

 

Chapter Eight

Evelyn

“Okay, that was close,” I said, giggling again. “Let’s not tell her about the deal, okay?”

“Okay,” Emma agreed submissively, pushing me an ice pop. “Here, take this.”

I smiled. “You’re the best.”

Emma nodded and said, “I know.”

I started licking the popsicle like crazy.

 

***

At school, Emma walked up to Mrs. Stuart. “Mrs. Stuart, I was wondering if I could drop off my homework. There’s quite a lot of it, and I was feeling a little pain in my neck from walking around.”

Mrs. Stuart inspected Emma. I was holding my breath. But Emma seemed entirely confident.

My twin pulled her homework out of her bag. “Where should I put this?”

Mrs. Stuart’s eyes bulged out. “Wh-what? How could you finish all that homework?”

“Just some discipline and a million ice pops.”

I could see Emma was hoping for a laugh after she did a little heh-heh, but she didn’t get it. I popped out of the corner I was hiding in and said, “Emma, let’s get you in electives for debate class, shall we?” I pulled Emma by the T-shirt and contributed to Mrs. Stuart by giving her a bright, busy smile.

At the sign-up, I saw that there was an elective for… gymnastics? Maybe it would be worthwhile so Emma wouldn’t know I was horrible at debate.

“Emma, I’ll sign up for gymnastics,” I told her.

“But what about debate?” Emma seemed a little hurt, but I knew I couldn’t tell her. Could I?

Okay. I had to. “Emma… well, debate class is my weakness. I’m horrible at it! Every time I have to get on stage to fight for my opinion, I get this super blast of stage fright. I get so scared of the audience that’s currently staring at me I cut my script short and stutter a lot.”

Emma raised her eyebrows, then started laughing. Like crazy. I stared at her, upset she was cackling at the situation I had never told anyone.

“Evelyn, seriously? You didn’t tell me this before?” Emma said in between on-and-off laughter. She gasped for some more fresh air. “This is so… unexpected! I thought every time you got on stage you threw up and ran off, or something!” She fell to the floor in little high pitched giggles. “I can’t believe you!”

I gaped at Emma. Was she really laughing? “It’s not funny!”

“It totally is. But I have something to tell you.

I listened in. Emma usually didn’t have anything to tell me.

“I’m terrible at gymnastics.”

I watched in surprise as Emma pushed off the ground. “B-but you told me… you were advanced… !”

Emma apologized, straightening out her denim skirt. “I thought everyone would soon know that I was a fraud.”

I bulged my eyes out at her. “Fraud? No one can be a fraud!”

“I guess you’re right.” Emma said, finishing signing off her name. But when I looked closer, I saw she had written it on the gymnastics sign-up. “C’mon. Let’s go show them.”

And there wouldn’t have been a better place to do that other than walking through the hallway, with my twin sister right next to me.

 

The Monster that Betrayed

There were footsteps. My heart was pounding. I was starting to think that this wasn’t a good idea. There was something looking through the window. It was hard to tell what it was. It was big, with a scar marked across his face, and that’s all I saw.

 

It was a windy night, and we were bored. My friend Sophia came over. We decided to do something fun. We hid behind the gates of a neighbor’s house and started to prank them. While they were away, we covered their house with loads of toilet paper. Then, we started to laugh hysterically. Sophia and I hid in a random closet and waited for them to come home. I could hear their car pull over as it kept on slowing down.

“Madison, I don’t know about this anymore,” Sophia whispered.

“Don’t be such a baby!” I jotted back. We both heard voices that we were blaming on each other. Sophia couldn’t help but to giggle.

“What’s that noise?” one of the neighbors said. All of a sudden, we didn’t know what to do! We had a mini panic in our heads, and suddenly we saw something that didn’t really look like a human. It had hair, or was it fur, all over itself. Its eyes were blue with a glimmer of gold in the middle. Sophia and I didn’t know what it was. Once they approached, something happened, and all I saw were two random people.

“What did you do to our place?!” he screamed out loud. When he was yelling at us for what we did, I wasn’t very focused on him… there was a mark, a mark that was on his neck. I had no idea why it was there and what it meant, but I knew I had to dig deeper and find out.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to contact your parents. You are invading our privacy,” he said at last. After everything got sorted out, I was at home grounded, Sophia was home also grounded, we were never allowed to see those neighbors again, and they never had to see us.

In the morning, I snuck a peek at my phone and quickly texted Sophia that I was going back. Before I did, I went on Google to try and find out what that mark was. There was nothing to see. None of them looked like the one I saw. The one I saw had a star that had a cross in the middle of it, and surrounding it was a circle that was carved into his skin. I could tell that it was old because of the color. For some reason, it kind of looked rusty.

 

The next day, I snuck out. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I had to. I had already called Sophia if she wanted to come along, but it was no use. She kept on making excuses to make me not go, like she was hiding something. Once I got there, I was going to begin my plan. It was to get in, look around, and try to get out. I knew it wasn’t the best plan, but it’s what I had.

 

Time for step one. I had to get in, but how? I tried to stay undercover, kind of like a spy! Not knowing what to do, I crept behind all the trees in the backyard and silently opened the door. Then, all of a sudden, squeak! That annoying door had to squeak! I was like, just why?! Luckily, no one heard because one of them was taking a shower and one of them was fast asleep. After that, I tiptoed upstairs and went into a room. What room was it? I wasn’t sure.

I quickly heard a voice that said, “Honey? I’m done! Do you mind getting my clothes?” With no one responding, I heard footsteps, getting louder and louder by the second. Then, I heard the door creak open, and all of a sudden it swung open! I ran into the closest thing I could find! And there I was, now stuck in a closet. Now the closet door cracked open, and there was a hand right near my face. I tried my hardest to avoid it, but all I did was make it worse. He was about to grab something, and his hand was pointing towards my face. Did he know I was there? Was he about to take me away? But then, what he did was… take out his clothes! I was soooooo relieved! Thank goodness I was good at hide-and-seek! I heard the door slam again, and that was a good sign. After what just happened, my plan now was to escape! I jumped out of the closet and stormed to the door, then I saw something, something unusual. It was a key. But where did it lead to?

 

It was finally a new day. I needed to discover more about this key. The key was rusty, and it had dust all over. I blew the dust off, and as it was dusting away, there was a symbol. It looked just like the one that was carved into the neighbor’s skin.

Beep, beep, beep! I turned over on my bed and saw my phone ringing, it was Sophia!

“Hey, Sophia! What did you want to talk about?” I said.

Then, she responded, “We need to talk.”

My voice suddenly trailed off, and she hung up.

 

I was going to meet her at our favorite private place to go. Then, she arrived.

“You know,” she said.

“What do you m — ”

Then she interrupted my sentence, “I know that you know You stole our key. I know you did.”

“What do you mean ‘our.’” I screamed back. Then, she looked away, and something happened. Her clothes started ripping into pieces and falling onto the floor. She started to grow fur on her body. Her eyes turned blue with a little bit of gold. She turned back around, and I saw a beast, a monster, a werewolf!

“This is who I really am! And you know your neighbors? They’re actually my parents!” Sophia screamed back.

“I was never your friend either.”

 

No Snooping!

            

September 22, 2018

Tomorrow’s the first day of middle school. I’m nervous, excited and worried! I’m nerworrited! Everyone says Mrs. Grag is mean, and guess what? She’s my teacher!!! I once heard my older sister, Lacey, talking to her friends about how mean Mrs. Grag is. They were saying she gave lots of homework, gave detention easily, and gave at least two tests a week! That doesn’t sound like a nice teacher to me, you?

Another thing I’m disappointed about is both of my best friends are not in my class. This is the first year that they haven’t been in my class, and I don’t know how I am going to get through the year. My best friend Sabina is disappointed about it too. She tried to reassure me about it.

She said, “It’s okay, we can see each other after school,” but it didn’t help. I haven’t talked to my other best friend, Helena, about it yet, but I’m sure she’s not happy about it aeither.

Although, the thing I’m most worried about is the basketball team. I really love basketball, and I hope I can get on the middle school team, but I’m not sure. I know the competition is pretty tough, and there are some pretty good players who are also trying out. I tried to convince Helena and Sabina to try out for the team, but they don’t have any interest in basketball.

Now I have to go to the store to get new books and binders.

Later,

Beatrice (Bea) Malcery

 

September 23, 2018

Today when I woke up, I was still feeling nerworrited. I forgot to set my alarm last night, and it was 8:30 A.M.. I had to be at school in 20 minutes! So, I quickly jumped out of bed, got my clothes on, and shoved my toothbrush into my mouth. I started to run down the stairs, but halfway down I fell.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!” I screamed. “What is wrong with me this morning?!” My leg was bleeding like crazy, and it hurt like I had just fallen down the stairs. Oh wait — I did.

I quickly bandaged up my leg and gulped down my cereal. Finally, I was ready to go. I put my lucky basketball shoes on and grabbed my bike from the garage, put my basketball, binders, and books in the basket, and started riding to school.

When I finally reached school, I was panting and felt nauseous. I walked through the crowded halls of middle school hoping to find my locker, but I was having trouble finding it.

Crash!

I had just bumped into Charlie and dropped my books, my basketball, and my binder. Charlie helped me pick up my stuff and helped me up. Charlie had been in my class since kindergarten, but I had never really talked to him.

 

RIIIIINNNNNGGGGG.

“Oh my goodness, that was the second bell!” I said. “I’m late for my first class. UGGGGGGGGGG!”

I rushed to my English class, but I was late — not a surprise. My English teacher, Mrs. Johnson, gave me detention at 12:30. Luckily, the basketball tryouts were at 11:30. Geometry passed really slowly. It felt like it went on for hours. I started to not listen to Mrs. Johnson, but then she asked me a question, and I didn’t know the answer.

“Beatrice!” said Mrs. Johnson. “I want you to listen to what I’m saying.”

I wasn’t listening because I was thinking so much about the basketball tryouts. I told her I would listen from now on.

When geometry class was finally over, I took my backpack from under my chair and rushed to tryouts. As I arrived at the basketball tryouts, my heart was beating faster than it ever had before. It was finally my turn, and I was shaking all over. I dribbled up to the three-point line, and I shot. As the ball flew through the air, I double crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

“You made it!” I suddenly heard someone shout.

I had been closing my eyes and not looking. The coach told me I had made the team. Thanks to my lucky basketball shoes, I would be playing actual five on five basketball games! There were fifteen people competing, and I was one of the top ten. Yay!

As I left the gym, my heart was filled with joy. This had been my dream since kindergarten. The rest of the day at school went by very quickly. I didn’t even mind that Mrs. Grag (yep, that’s right, my mean homeroom teacher) gave us extra homework. I retrieved my bike from the bike rack outside of the school and started to ride home. I couldn’t believe I had made the basketball team! I was thinking about how proud I was of myself for making the team, but I wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of me.

“AHHHHHH!” I screamed. I had just bumped into a tree. My Band-Aids had fallen off from earlier, and I was super annoyed. “Twice in one day!” Suddenly, Charlie came over to help me up. He told me he had been in the store next door, and he had heard me fall. I told him thank you, and I rode the rest of the way home peacefully. As I was riding home, I started to think that maybe Charlie and I could become friends. I decided tomorrow I would invite him over.

As I opened the door to my house, my parents asked me how my day went.

“I made the basketball team!” I exclaimed.

“Let’s go out for ice cream to celebrate!” my parents said.

“Yay!” I said “Can we play basketball after?”

“Sure!” they responded.

See you,

Bea

 

September 24, 2018

Last night, I made sure to set my alarm so I didn’t have to rush getting out of the house. I got dressed in my most athletic clothes, ready for my first basketball practice. As I walked down the stairs, I made sure not to fall by holding onto the railing. My cut from yesterday was still healing.

I started to eat breakfast, but I heard the back door click open. Both of my parents were still asleep, so I decided to go check it out.

“Lacey, what are you doing?” Lacey was entering the house looking like she had been up all night. She had bags under her eyes, and she looked half asleep.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhh!” Lacey said, and she dragged me up to her room.

“I have been up all night partying with my friends,” Lacey whispered, “but you can’t tell anyone!”

“Mom, Dad!” I started to yell, but Lacey wasn’t taking chances.

“Shut up, Bea!” Lacey was whispering again. “I told you not to tell!”

Lacey said she would get me for this, so at this point I knew she wasn’t kidding, I decided not to tell Mom or Dad. I ran out of her room because I saw she had a jump rope. I wasn’t about to get choked.

While I was eating breakfast, I was thinking when I should invite Charlie over. A few minutes later, my parents woke up. I decided to ask them.

“Mom, Dad,” I said. “I’m inviting a boy over today. What time should I invite him over?”

“Honey, you’re inviting a boy over?” my mom said.

“What’s wrong with that, Marissa?” my dad said to her. “I like that idea. I think it’s good for her to not just be friends with girls.”

“I guess you’re right,” my mom said. “Bea, you can invite him over at five.”

When I got to school, I opened my locker to find a surprise. I had an invitation. It was a blue envelope with white stars, and it said my name on it. I opened it up, and I found a note to me. Here’s what it looked like:

 

Dear Bea,

Would you like to come over to my house for dinner at 5? I would really like to hang out with you and maybe we can play basketball after. If you like this idea, tell me in history.

– Charlie

 

I decided to tell him that I love the idea. I emailed my parents to tell them that Charlie wasn’t coming over after all, and that I was going to his house after school.

Today in math, we got a result on the quiz that we took before school. This quiz was to determine the class and level that we would be put in. I looked at my results, and I found out that I got put in the gifted and talented class. Yay! For the rest of the class, we did fractions and decimals. Boring!!!

When the class was finally over, I headed to history, determined to tell Charlie I would love to come over! Once I reached the class, I steered myself towards Charlie’s desk. I calmed myself down and told myself not to worry. Charlie was sitting at his desk drawing. “Hey, Charlie. I saw the note, and I’d really like to hang out with — ”

“What are you talking about,” Charlie said.

“I thought you invited — ”

Suddenly, Charlie P. walked over. “Hey, I’m the one who gave you that invitation!”

“With the white stars?” I asked.

“Yep!” he responded.

I mean, Charlie P. was a nice guy, but he thought so much of himself. He bragged to everyone at school that he had more than 100 trophies. Such a lie, right?

I could feel my cheeks getting hot. I tried to tell myself everything would turn out fine. How could I have assumed it was that Charlie. It didn’t have to be the Charlie that helped me up from my fall. How could I have been so dumb!!!

“So Beatrice, do you want to come over?” Charlie P. asked.

“Um — ” I started to say something, but Charlie P. interrupted me.

“So, you do want to come over?” he asked.

“I — ”

“It’s settled, you will come over at five,” Charlie P. said.

“Class, class, in your seats!” the history teacher said. “This is history, not playtime!”

“Yes, Mr. Williams,” the class said.

“A long, long time ago bla bla bla bla bla.”

I stopped listening to Mr. Williams because I was too busy thinking about Charlie P.’s house. I was thinking about how miserable I would be there.

“Beatrice!” yelled Mr. Williams. “I want you to listen to me!”

I had not realized it, but I had been daydreaming for 40 minutes. The class was almost over! I was just losing it today!

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Williams,” I said.

“You know what, Beatrice! I’ve heard from your other teachers that you haven’t been listening to them either,” said Mr. Williams. “I’m going to need to talk to your parents about this!”

I was very disappointed about this because I knew my parents would be very mad at me. They might even tell me I couldn’t be on the basketball team anymore. I guess I’ll find out soon.

As I was walking to the cafeteria, I saw Sabina.

“Hey, Sabina,” I said. “How are you doing?”

She looked at me like I was crazy and then walked away. I wondered what that was about. I thought we were really good friends. During lunch, I thought and thought about all the things that had gone wrong with me today. First the incident with the letter, then Mr. Williams getting mad at me, and then Sabina acting weird about me. Was it a coincidence, or were they all connected?

I tried to not think about going to Charlie P.’s house and pretend like it wasn’t going to happen, but eventually it did. Charlie P.’s chauffeur drove us to their house. They had a white limo with a personalized license plate that said, I RICH. I wondered how much fancier this car could get, but I didn’t have to wonder anymore when I got inside. The leather seats had no trace of dirt on them, and they had cupholders on either side. The seats could unfold into a bed, and there were extra pillows in the back. In the back, I also spotted a mini fridge and a mini basketball hoop. I asked the chauffeur if I could use the basketball hoop, and he said yes.

The ride to Charlie P.’s house was a long one, and when I got there, I figured out why. His house was a mansion in a grassy field with a perfectly neat garden in the next town over. This explained why Charlie P. was sometimes late to school.

As I stepped inside the house, I made sure my shoes weren’t muddy. I looked up from the floor and gasped.

“Your house is so beautiful!” I said to Charlie P.

“I know,” he replied.

“Would you like a snack, Beatrice?” Charlie’s mom asked.

“Sure!” I replied. “What do you have?”

“Follow me,” she said. I walked into the beautifully decorated kitchen with a marble floor and white walls. In the middle of the kitchen was an island, and it had two sinks and a bowl of fruit. The fridge was about as big as my bathroom. I opened it and found snacks galore. There were Goldfish, pretzels, cookies, crackers, and all kinds of juice. “That’s not it!” She led me into the bar. I sat down on one of the leather stools of the bar and ordered seltzer with a lemon and crackers from the butler. I wasn’t very hungry. But before I could take my first bite, Charlie pulled me off the stool and led me upstairs.

We entered a room labeled, Charlie’s trophy room. I wondered if the trophy rumor was true.

“C’mon Beatrice!” Charlie said. “I need to show you all my trophies.”

“Call me Bea,” I said.

“Whatever,” he responded.

Charlie’s trophy room was decorated in the most lovely red carpet. Glass cases filled with tons of trophies bordered the room. I started to look at one, but Charlie stopped me.

“Those are the off-limits ones,” stammered Charlie.

“Okay,” I replied. I never realized Charlie P. was this spoiled! As I looked at the trophies, I figured out that most of them were for horseback riding, but occasionally there were some for checkers.

“Sometimes, I stare at these all day!” Charlie said. “I just love looking at what I have accomplished!” I think I heard a bit of sarcasm in his voice, but I’m not sure.

“Yeah… sure… I could look at them all day, too,” I mumbled.

“So, Beatrice, do you want to look at my other trophy room, or do you want to do something else?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, trying to sound excited. “We can look at your other trophy room.”

This was the most boring experience that I’ve had in my life. Maybe if I was with someone else, like the other Charlie, then this would be so much fun! This house was super cool.

We headed into Charlie’s other trophy room and looked through all the trophies. I checked my watch to see when this would end.

“We could see my other eight trophy rooms if you want,” Charlie said. “But there’s still the medal rooms.”

We hadn’t even finished through the third medal room when Charlie P.’s mom called us for dinner.

“Charlie! Beatrice! Time for dinner!”

Charlie and I headed down the stairs for dinner. Meanwhile, I had a plan. When we got downstairs, we sat in the dining room. The table was the size of my bedroom, and the ceilings were high, decorated with a giant diamond chandelier that hung over the center of the table. The tablecloth just nearly covered the whole table. I don’t have any idea where they found that big of a tablecloth!

“Beatrice, we’re having Scandinavian steak and potatoes, do you like that?” Charlie’s mom said.

“I’ve never had it, but I’m sure I will,” I responded.

“Great, go ahead and sit at the table,” she said. Before I could take my first bite, I heard loud stomping footsteps. The footsteps were Charlie’s dad walking in. I hadn’t realized it before, that Charlie had a dad. I guess I was just too busy thinking about other things, like whether this was going to go well, or whether they were going to have good food for dinner. I just didn’t realize.

As Charlie’s dad sat down at the table, my mind was rushing. Was Charlie’s dad mean, was he nice, or just an average person? I soon learned what he was like. He sat down at the table and banged the table with his fork and knife.

“Where’s dinner?” he exclaimed, frustrated.

“The dinner’s coming, honey,” Charlie’s mom responded, sounding quite annoyed and tired.

Suddenly, I remembered my plan.

“Mrs. Pellock? May I go to the bathroom?” I asked Charlie’s mom.

“Sure!” she said. I wasn’t really going to the bathroom. I was just going up to the trophy room to look at his “off-limits” trophies. I quietly walked up the stairs and entered the trophy room. The trophy room was still as beautiful as before. I guess their maid had cleaned it since we had last been in. I walked to the back of the room to see the off-limits trophies. There they were.

I unlocked the case with my hair clip and took one of the trophies out. Under it, there was a Post-it Note.

It read, Trophy for horseback riding. Reminder: I cheated this one.

“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed. “He cheated!” But then I guess someone heard me, and booming footsteps came up the stairs. It was Charlie’s dad.

“Beatrice, what are you doing, looking at my son’s off-limits trophies?” he said.

“I just wanted, ummm, to see how amazing — ” I started to say.

“Beatrice, get back down to the table. I want you to eat dinner peacefully, and I’ll send you home after dinner.”

I had made a mistake, and I knew it. Now I was an enemy of the Pellock house. Mrs. Pellock and Mr. Pellock will probably call my parents. I will be in huge trouble. The teachers will call my parents, too. I’ll be in double trouble.

Mr. Pellock took my hand firmly as we walked down the stairs to the dining room.

“Look who I found,” he exclaimed. “Beatrice was up there looking at Charlie’s off-limits trophies.”

“Well, did she see anything? Like, the thing?” Charlie asked.

“I didn’t see anything,” I quickly stammered. “Just trophies.”

I’m just so frustrated, I can’t write anymore. I’ll just have to tell you what happened tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.

See you,

Bea

 

Keep Trying

Mackenzie is at the hospital for two months, because she has been paralyzed on one side of her body since she got in a car crash. Because she was gone for so long after the accident, Mackenzie wasn’t able to pay the rent for her house, so she lost it and became homeless. So to make Mackenzie happy after losing her house due to a car crash, Hayley, her best friend, buys her a house, a teddy bear plush, a drone, Jordan and Nike clothes, high-heeled boots, and 300 dollars from Target.

But while trying to get to the hospital, she realizes she is running out of time to get there, and there is also lots of traffic surrounding her. She also does not live near the hospital that Mackenzie is staying in Sleepy Hill. She lives in Cool Town. She starts to lose hope of getting there in time before Mackenzie wakes up. So, she decides to call the hospital and tells the nurse, “Can you please give Mackenzie a sleeping pill since she has not been sleeping well.”

The nurse responds, “Yes, we can give her one, but you have to give me your information.” Hayley tells her the information the nurse needs. Hayley hangs up.

Hayley then calls Mackenzie’s mother, Miranda. She picks up and says, “Why are you calling me, don’t you have better things to do with your life,” in a scary voice.

Hayley thinks to herself, Why did I bother calling her in the first place? “You should get your attitude together!” she says. “I never did anything to you for you to be rude to me. And if I did, tell me about it.”

Miranda replies, “That is not the way to respond to me, little girl!”

“Okay. I have had enough! I’m trying to help your daughter be happy and surprise her after feeling horrible for two months. I called for you to help me, not to give me an attitude like you always do. That is also probably why your daughter doesn’t like you,” Hayley replies.

“You should respect people that are older than you!” Miranda yells.

“You are nobody to be yelling at me like that!” Hayley yells back. “You’re the worst mother,” she says before hanging up the phone quickly. After hanging up, Hayley realizes that the cars in front of her have moved, and the ones behind her are honking at her. Hayley presses on the gas pedal and continues driving to the hospital.

Hayley makes it to the hospital and gets to Mackenzie’s room and wakes up Mackenzie. “Hey, Hayley. It’s good to see you!” Mackenzie says. “Thank you for coming.” Hayley gives Mackenzie a hug. Mackenzie feels warm in Hayley’s arms.

But all of a sudden, they hear Miranda’s voice. “She won’t be awake for long.” Hayley and Mackenzie get goosebumps down their arms. You are a crazy person! Hayley thinks.

 

Pencil

Hey, my name is Bob, and I’m a pencil. I live in a pencil holder in a kindergarten classroom. Every day, I am sick of getting used to write and being sharpened until my eraser. All of my friends die, one after another, because they get sharpened too much and finally die. Our executioners are the 27 little boys and girls in small outfits that squirrels can fit into. These kids are cute, but they are killing my friends, I thought.

“We have to make a run for it,” said my wife, Bobbette.

“Agreed,” I said enthusiastically.

The number one thing I hate about being a pencil is always being bitten by the kids at the end of the day, then just being dropped on the ground. Once, I saw my friend Tim the pencil get stepped on and snapped in half. It was traumatizing.

The day after, we decided to make a plan to escape.

The teacher in the classroom, Ms. Lopez, said, “Hello, class. I’m Ms. Lopez, your substitute teacher. Tomorrow, we will have the one and only Dr. Seuss in our class for show and tell! One lucky student will also get to interview him! The student that won the writing competition is Hudson!”

Ten seconds after, we looked at each other and said, “This is our escape plan.” When Dr. Seuss walks in, we will slip into his bag, and he will take us away from this dungeon.

“But how do we get in the bag?” Bobbette asked.

“We get the kid, Hudson, to put us on Dr. Seuss’ desk,” I said.

“But how do we do that?” Bobbette asked.

“We have to get to Hudson’s desk. He’s that smart kid who always raises his hand. Hudson will get close enough to Dr. Seuss, and we can slip into his bag,” I explained.

“That’s a great plan!” Bobbette said.

“Tonight, we will climb into his desk and take out the other pencils while they sleep, we’ll tape ourselves together, and Hudson will bring us both to the doctor,” I said in great fashion. Bobette agreed.

The next morning, Hudson went up to Dr. Seuss’ desk with us taped to each other. The plan is working, we thought, but we didn’t know what was going to happen next. By the end of the interview, the tape came apart while I flew into his bag, and Bobette went with Hudson. We didn’t see each other ever again.

 

Foresta Sparking Chapter One

        

Chapter One: The Fire

Clink. Gavlin tensed. Clink. Clink. He turned to look at his companion, Denarth. Clink. Clink. Clink. Anticipation was painted across Denarth’s face. Clink. Clink. Clink. Gavlin turned back to the massive crater in the side of the ravine. Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink. His eyes narrowed. The gash began to omit a fiery glow. A shadowy figure appeared, dragging a sword along the stone. It solidified into a humanoid shape, charging at the two warriors, who raised their swords. The monster jumped out of the gaping hole (which was starting to look like a mouth more and more), and plunged its sword down. The blade hit the ground, shaking with power —

“AAAAAHHH!” Miles jumped up in his bed and hit his head on the low ceiling. He rubbed his head, thinking about the nightmare. He had it every night, and as a result, barely got any sleep. But today, he was going to need every last scrap of energy he had. Today, he would finally finish training and become a guard — one step away from being a full-fledged knight. He sighed and tried to fall asleep again. Thirty minutes later, he was still awake.

“Okay,” he whispered to himself, “I’ll go to my cove.”

He could climb to the roof of the bakery he lived in, and from there he could run across the rooftops until he got to his “cove.” The cove was a ledge that jutted out near the top of the local Count Tower. It was originally a window, but it had broken so many times that it had been covered with stone. The windowsill was still there, however, and some of the wet clay they had used to cover up the window had slid down and expanded the windowsill.

Miles rolled out of bed, threw on his squire clothes, and opened his door. It opened into a hallway with stairs at the end, but instead of walking forward, Miles turned to face the wall on the right and started climbing the loose boards. When he reached the top, he jumped to the other (repaired) wall and squeezed through a trapdoor. The night air felt good on his face. He stood on the roof for a moment, his eyes closed, the wind blowing his dark tufts of hair to either side.

He opened his eyes and started running across the roof. He jumped the gap between the roofs but tripped when he landed. As he lay sprawled across the stone roof (which was actually pretty comfortable), he noticed a fire coming from about three blocks away. He leapt to his feet, only to remember all his training gear was a block away in the Gladian Academy. He had a spare in his cove, but that was seven blocks in the other direction, and besides it would take him too long to climb the tower and then descend back to the rooftops. The fire was getting stronger; he didn’t have much time left to make a decision.

And so Miles made the best mistake of his life. He jumped from roof to roof, trying not to think about the hard cobblestone beneath. When he reached the street the fire was on, he swung down into an alleyway, then vaulted a fence and skidded to a stop in front of the inferno. It was a warehouse. The front door had collapsed, but a window on the upper floor was still partially accessible — the only problem being it was on the upper floor. He heard screams for help coming from the basement.

Miles turned around and climbed the storefront opposite the fire. Once he was atop the building, he ran to the back of the roof, and then bolted across it, jumped off the wooden shingles, and cleared the narrow street. He landed on the house next to the blazing warehouse and dropped onto a windowsill. Miles swung sideways and slipped through the semi-open window into a long, narrow wooden hallway. His shoe snagged on a bent board, and while he was bending down to free it, he heard another yell from below.

Miles rushed down the hallway to a stairway at the end, but before he got there the ground below creaked and gave way. A shower of dust and smoke followed him down two floors until he landed painfully on the cellar floor. The first thing he saw was a family tied to the wall: two parents, a girl, and a young boy. Smoke and fire licked at their feet but strangely avoided actually damaging them. The second thing he saw was the reason why.

A fiery beast was staring at him from atop a big keg of ale. It had narrow white slits for eyes and a forked tongue. Miles instinctively grabbed a charred stick of wood and held it defensively. The monster seemed to narrow its eyes even more and then lunged. Miles jumped out of the way and scrambled to his feet. Before the beast could attack again, Miles ran at it and stabbed its claw straight through into the floor. While it was trying to free itself, Miles ran to the family and tried to unhook the chains from the wall.

There was a pole embedded into the wooden wall; the end curved into a lasso-like shape. Five chains were clasped around the loop, running around the group of people and then circling back into the pipe. The chain links were made of pure steel, with veins of bronze running through the metal and clasping the links together. Miles would need a red-hot sword to cut through it, something he most definitely did not have. He could unhook the chains from the pipe, but there was even more steel binding the chains to the loop. The only option he had available to him was to pull the hook from the wall, unless he could magically conjure up a sharpened sword, which wasn’t exactly an option. Miles eyed the pipe. It looked aged, and the wooden wall surrounding it was coming apart. If he could pry the boards away, maybe he could —

SCCREEEEE!

Miles whipped around. The monster had ripped the makeshift spear out of its claw and threw it at Miles. He ducked just in time, and the blazing stick stuck in the wall above the chained family. Miles glanced down at the claw he had injured. Tar colored blood covered it, yet the monster showed no sign of pain. Sweeping his eyes around the room, he saw no other weapon, except — Miles suddenly realized what he had to do.

“Come on, beast. Kill me, or are you too dumb?”

He taunted the monster as he backed up, coming closer and closer to the chains. Finally, it lunged. Miles jumped away just in time, as the monster’s claws cut through the air and came in contact with the chains. Its claws made quick work of the steel, and before the beast had time to realize it, the family was free and running.

The monster roared at them and began to chase them, but before it got very far, it felt something in its back. When the chains had been broken, the force of the impact had yanked the pole out of the wall

Now, Miles had thrust it into the beast’s back. He pushed his shoes into the ground and pushed the pole through the monster. The beast saw the jagged end of the metal thing protruding through its chest and then collapsed on the floor dead. But when it died, it released its grip on the fire it had started, and the blaze kicked up steam.

He started to go for the stairs, but as he was running, some of the cross beams holding up the stairwell crashed down and blocked it off. The only other way out was the same way he got in, the hole in the ceiling. It was too tall to jump, but maybe he could climb the kegs and jump from there. The only problem was the kegs were big round barrels, and Miles didn’t see any place to gain purchase. He would have to climb on something else to get on top of the kegs. There was a rack filled with empty bottles, but it wasn’t nailed to the ground and would be risky.

BAAANNNGGG!!! A section of the wall caved in, almost crushing Miles. He climbed on the rack, balancing ever so carefully. It started to shake, and he lunged for the kegs just as the rack collapsed. He crashed into a keg and tried to regain his breath. He vaguely acknowledged the keg shifting and rolling under his feet. And then, he actually acknowledged the keg shifting and rolling under his feet, and a jolt of fear shot through his spine.

He backed up to the top of the keg, then ran and jumped like his life depended on it — which it did. He just barely managed to grab the edges of the hole and dangled over the raging fire. The wood he was holding was burning, and ash was getting everywhere. He choked on smoke and started to pull himself up. He hoped adrenaline would kick in, but it didn’t, until — “TIMMY! TIIMMY!”

The little boy Miles had freed was crying, and from the direction the sound was coming from, the toddler was near the front door. His plead for help gave Miles the adrenaline he needed. He pulled himself up into the hallway and raced down the hallway, vaulting a chunk of ceiling that had fallen. The stairway had broken, so he jumped out of the window and grabbed the shades from outside. Then, he jumped to a pole and slid down to the little boy. He looked up quizzically at Miles.

“It’s all okay! Just go over to your family!” Miles coaxed.

“NO! I want Timmy the Kitty!”

“Are you a knight?” the boy’s mother asked. “Timmy is our family cat. I thought he escaped with us, but apparently he got trapped in the front hall. And now little Kevin won’t leave. I mean, we all love Timmy, but there is no going back in there.”

Miles eyed the warehouse door. It had collapsed even more, and now most of it was smoldering on the street. He slipped through the opening and looked around. To his right, there was a long hallway that ended in a collapsed doorway, and to his left, there was a cat surrounded by flames. It was unconscious, meowing faintly every so often. He rushed to it, vaulted the flames, jumped back into the hallway, and started to run toward the doorway. However, he had pushed his luck too much.

The roof caved in, and he just managed to get the cat outside when the whole hallway crashed down on him. He was stuck in a tiny alcove, the fire drawing ever nearer… Miles closed his eyes.

 

Talia watched the Count Tower from across the street. She had been waiting over a week to get everything just right, and finally the day was here. It would be an easy job; so why was she so nervous? She had pulled off way more dangerous plans, why was this one so nerve-wracking? Because this is a Count Tower, she told herself. She ignored the fact that this was the third time she had stolen from a Count Tower. Before she could continue down this line of thought, two things happened. (Sort of.) The window opened, and Talia noticed a warehouse burning near Gavlin Street, about ten blocks away.

She glanced back up at the window, but hesitated. Why am I having so much trouble with this job? she thought. Talia took a deep breath and turned away from the Count Tower. She turned away from days of work. She turned away from clues to who she was that would threaten her life if found by the guards. Yet she turned away and raced toward the fire.

In almost no time at all, she was at the fire. There was a family near the front door. It seemed they were trying to pull a young boy away from the warehouse, who was wailing and yelling at the (collapsed) door. Suddenly, a boy about Talia’s age slipped out of a window, swung from the curtains to a pole, and slid down. He was about Talia’s height, with light brown skin and dark hair that he kept at his side. Talia recognized his red and black striped shirt as the Royal Guard colors, but he was too young to be a knight; he must be a squire.

The baby screamed something at the squire, and what appeared to be the toddler’s mother told the squire something that made him turn back to the house, slip through the door, and disappear into the wreckage. Talia watched the door with as much anticipation as the family. After a nerve-wracking minute, a cat sprang through the door, and the family rushed forward.

Suddenly, chariots dashed toward them. Atop the first was Prince Dengar VI, King Goliath’s third born. He was ruling Gladia while the king was sick. And, unfortunately, he wasn’t the nicest person alive. The prince got out of his golden chariot (yes, it really was a golden chariot), and walked over to the family. Talia didn’t want to see what Dengar was doing, and besides the squire was taking too long getting out. She slipped through a window and descended a couple of stairs. Near the door, the roof had collapsed. There were a couple of slits, and Talia could see the unconscious boy. The boards were too hot to touch, but she was a thief. She pulled a knife out of her dark cloak.

Any passerby would have thought the sight of Talia trying to free the squire would of been ridiculous, but any passerby hadn’t been a top-notch thief for almost a decade. She slid the knife between the boards, and within ten seconds, the boy was free. He was unconscious, so Talia kicked him in his ribs. Hard. The squire groaned. Talia rushed away. When she got back on the roof, she saw something she hoped she would never have to see. Prince Dengar was murdering the family.

Miles woke to someone kicking him in his ribs. At first he thought he was back in the roof of his bakery. Then, he remembered everything that had happened.

Am I in hell? he wondered.

It sure wasn’t heaven; his side hurt, his shirt stuck to his side, and he had several splinters in his hand. Screams nearby jolted him back into reality. He was up in a second and at the door in two more seconds. And then Miles, the youngest ever to fight a Flym, learned the truth about Prince Dengar the Sixth.

“What do you want us to do with these ones?” Five knights were with the Prince. Three were holding the family, one was at the chariot keeping the horses, and one was watching the rooftops.

“Kill them! And do it quickly. Dawn’s come early today, and soon Gavlin will be up. If the procession comes through, the whole plan will be for naught. We’ll have to wait another century, and §‡fl€ won’t like that.”

Miles couldn’t understand one of the words, but it sounded like a name. It reminded him of the roars of the monster in the play the castle put on every three months, Goliath the Hero. He wondered who Gavlin was. It rung a faint bell in his mind, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He charged outside, and before the knights registered what was happening, he had kicked the one with the horses in the stomach.

The others yelled, but the prince waved them down. Miles and the knight he had kicked exchanged blows. Miles kicked him in the shin. The knight grabbed Miles’s leg and threw him into the chariot. As Miles struggled to his feet, the knight charged him. Miles ducked under him and slipped the knight’s sword out of his scabbard. He quickly stabbed the knight in the back. Miles expected him to start bleeding, but instead fire spread throughout his body. Miles turned and faced the other knights.

One handed the child he was holding to his companion and drew his sword. He and the one who was watching the rooftops started to circle Miles. He raised his sword protectively. Everyone who was there couldn’t understand how Miles fought back, including him.

He was nervous until one of the knights charged him. Then, something instinctual took over. He parried the knight’s swing with ease. He pivoted in time to dodge a swipe to his legs and slid on the ground, cutting one of the knight’s legs. Like the other, it burst into flames.

But the wound wasn’t fatal. The knight — it — snarled at Miles and started to stab at him violently. Miles jumped to his feet and climbed onto the chariot. He fended off both knights, until the one he had stabbed through the back earlier climbed back to his feet and leapt back into the fray. He surprised Miles and soon had him dead to rights, when an arrow sliced through its head. It stumbled backward, and three more arrows pierced it through the heart. It burst into flames once more, this time burning to ashes.

Talia swung down from the rooftop where she had shot the monster and drew a pair of daggers. Together, she and Miles defeated the remaining guards. And then, piercing screams stung through the air. They turned just in time to see Prince Dengar murder the child, the bodies of the others strewed carelessly on the cobblestones. A burning rage overtook Miles.

“MURDERER!” he shouted, and charged the prince.

But Dengar was stronger, faster, and wiser than Miles. He easily overpowered the squire and would have killed him if not for Talia, who cut the ropes holding the horses to the chariots. The resulting mini-stampede distracted Dengar for enough time to let Talia jump on a horse and grab Miles, pulling him up with her.

Miles looked behind him. Dengar’s eyes switched from their usual dark green to a fiery red. Fire spread through his body; his hands and feet burned and reshaped themselves as claws. The prince became the same type of creature that Miles had just fought, albeit much more powerful — and much more terrifying.

Miles started to slip out of consciousness, slipping off the horse as well. Talia twisted around just in time to grab him, and the last thing Miles saw was Talia’s concerned face as she tied him in place with ropes from the chariot.

 

The Situation

I have a secret. I know that we’re moving and that Dad has to stay behind because he has cancer, and they can’t take care of him where we are moving. Now, I’m confused about what to do. I’m going to go and break everything to Jake.

 

MAYRA goes to JAKE’s room and knocks on the door.

 

MAYRA: Knock, knock.

JAKE: Come in!!!

MAYRA: Um, Jake, can I talk to you about Dad please?

JAKE: Um, sure. About what, and why are you so serious too? Are you okay? Like, you’re worrying me?

MAYRA: Okay, umm here I go, um um, okay, so um.

JAKE: Mayra, just spill it already! I can’t take the tension!!!

MAYRA: Okay fine, we’re moving, and Dad’s not coming because he has cancer. Oh, and Mom said if you want Chick-fil-A.

JAKE: Whoa, you can’t drop a bomb like that then ask me about Chick-fil-A! So let me get this straight. We’re moving, and Dad can’t come because he has cancer. I am overwhelmed. Wait, when did he get diagnosed, and why did they tell you and not me? I’m the older sibling!!

MAYRA: Okay, Jake. Calm down, deep breath, and they didn’t tell me I wa /

JAKE: / Wait, please don’t tell me you eavesdropped on Mom and Dad again!!!

MAYRA: Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay okay, I didn’t eavesdrop. I just happened to walk by at the right moment, and I heard everything, so I freaked out and came to tell you.

JAKE: I’m going to tell Mom and Dad!

 

JAKE says as he goes downstairs with MAYRA rushing after him, yelling to not tell on her.

 

MAYRA: Noooooo! Do not tell Mom and Dad. They will kill me for telling you and eavesdropping on them and an /

JAKE: / Aha, I knew you were going to eavesdrop. I know you so well.

MOM: Don’t tell Mom and Dad what, and why will we kill you, Mayra? You’re not answering me!

MAYRA: We can’t tell you about the surprise trip we planned to the zoo, and you’d kill me for not telling you ‘cause I know you lovvvvvve penguins.

MOM: Awww, thank you! Let me call your father. Eric!!!

DAD: Yeah, Marilyn?!

MOM: Come down here. Mayra made a surprise for all of us to go to the zoo tomorrow.

 

DAD comes down the stairs and into kitchen where everyone else is.

 

DAD: Oh, well that’s nice but I can’t. Do you remember the “incident?”

MAYRA: What “incident?”

MOM: Oh, nothing.

 

Scene 2: The Zoo (Where MAYRA gets in trouble)

MOM: Alright, everyone get in the car. We’re going to the zoo. Woo hoo!

JAKE: I call shotgun!!!

MAYRA: What, no fair! You always get shotgun! Mom, tell him it’s not fair!!!

MOM: Sweetheart, just let your brother sit here, and coming back you can sit here. Is that okay?

MAYRA: Fine.

JAKE: Ha ha ha. I’m the favorite child, I’m the favorite child, I’m the favori / Ow!!

 

/ MAYRA knocks JAKE in the head.

 

MOM: Mayra!!

MAYRA: What? He was being annoying, and I shut him up.

MOM: Still, that’s not an excuse. Say sorry!

MAYRA: Sorry, uh not fair!

JAKE: Hahahahaha!

DAD: Bye, guys. Love you. Have fun.

 

They get out of the car and go to the seal exhibition.

 

MOM: I appreciate Mayra making the whole trip just for us.

MAYRA: No problem, Mom.

JAKE: I’m going to go buy something to eat. You guys are welcome to come.

 

While they are walking to go get something to eat, they pass by the penguin exhibit.

 

MOM: Look at the penguin, it looks miserable.

JAKE: Oh, yeah, like someone I know.

 

Myra looks at JAKE sternly.

 

Myra: Jake, shut up!

 

MAYRA gives her mom a concerned look.

 

MAYRA: (scratching arm) Mom, I have to tell you something.

MOM: (raising her eyebrow) Yeah, what?

MAYRA: Mom, I overheard you and Dad’s conversations yesterday. I know everything, I know Dad has cancer, and that we’re moving.

MOM: I can’t believe you eavesdropped on our conversation. We’re going home!

JAKE: (mouth full of food) What!? I started eating!

 

End Scene

 

MAYRA is in the hallway and knocks on her mom’s door, concerned and disappointed with her actions.

 

MAYRA: I’m sorry, Mom. I know you’re mad at me, but please just let me explain.

MOM: What? Mayra, I’ve made my decision, and no, I’m not mad. I’m upset! I’m glad you told me that you know, but you are going to have to pay with three weeks of chores.

MAYRA: What!! Three weeks, uh fine, whatever makes you happy.

MOM: Go upstairs, kiddo. Good night.

 

MAYRA runs upstairs and into JAKE’s room while slamming the door.

 

JAKE: What do you want? You cost me my zoo food!

MAYRA: Let’s sneak out to steal a penguin.

JAKE: Okay, I know you’re obsessed with penguins, but this is a whole new type of crazy. Mayra, how do you suppose to keep the penguin cool in a hot house in summer, and how are you going to get there and not get caught?

MAYRA: You have a license, right?

 

JAKE nods and looks at MAYRA very concerned.

 

MAYRA: Looks like I have my getaway car and driver.

JAKE: Oh no, you are not dragging me into this!

MAYRA: Pleasssse. I’ll tell Mom about Brittany!

JAKE: No, you know how Mom hates Brittany’s mom. Fine, I’ll go!

MAYRA: Yay, we’re stealing a penguin!

JAKE: Ssshhhh, we’ll get caught!

MAYRA: Awww, you said “we.” Yay!!

 

End Scene

 

MAYRA and JAKE leave the zoo. They are walking slowly down the corridor towards the parking lot. Myra cups her hands tightly over her mouth in an attempt to cover her devious grin. JAKE rolls his eyes.

 

JAKE: Okay, Mayra, this is your last chance. Are you sure you want to steal this penguin?

MAYRA: Jake, I know you’re worried that we’re gonna get caught, but just trust me.

JAKE: Fine, whatever, but I called backup. We have to pick her up, okay.

MAYRA: Please don’t say it’s Brittany.

JAKE: What do you have against my girlfriend? She’s nice and pretty and really likes me, so please try to be nice to her please.

MAYRA: Fine, whatever.

MAYRA: You know, I don’t want to steal the penguin anymore. I’m going to bed. Good night.

JAKE: I knew it would work. Wow, she really hates Brittany. Eh, at least I don’t have        

to steal a penguin.

MAYRA (to the audience): So in the end, we ended up not moving, and Dad got better which is a win in any way we can get. And Mom is happier than before, but I’m still grounded so…

 

Poverty and Hunger in NYC

Homelessness and hunger are very closely related. People who are homeless have a higher chance of being hungry than anyone else. Forty-two percent of New York City households – 2.7 million men, women, and children — lack the income needed to cover basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, and childcare (cityharvest.org). Housing and food are necessities for life, yet they are overpriced. This is one reason why people don’t have a lot of the resources they need. Homelessness and hunger are two very important topics that are hurting our world, and they need to be stopped.

Nineteen point five percent of New York is in poverty. However, in April 2018, there were 62,498 homeless people, including 15,176 homeless families with 22,801 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population. The government can help, but they aren’t helping. Houses cost so much money, but people need them. Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction, doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing, domestic violence, job loss, and hazardous housing conditions.

Research shows that, compared to homeless families, homeless single adults have much higher rates of serious mental illness, addiction disorders, and other severe health problems. Studies show that the large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems. African-American and Latino New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity (coalitionforthehomeless.org). Some people with privilege aren’t helping either. Most people feel like it is not their problem. Therefore, people are homeless. Homelessness leads to another important topic: hunger.

Nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers face hunger every year, including close to one in five New York City children. The number of food insecure people in NYC is larger than the population of Dallas, Texas (cityharvest.org). The USDA defines “food insecurity” as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. One in six children struggle with hunger. One in eight people struggle with hunger. People facing hunger in New York are estimated to report needing $1,242,696,000 per year to meet their food needs. Thirty-four point seven percent of households receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits have children (feedingamerica.org). In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%. Forty-nine million Americans struggle to put food on the table. In the US, hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty (dosomething.org). There is enough food, but people aren’t helping. The government can take action, but they aren’t. A reason people are hungry is because they don’t have money and food is overpriced. Some people with privilege aren’t helping either because they feel like it is not their problem. Therefore, people are hungry.

As you can see, homelessness and hunger are very important topics that are impacting New York and all over the world in a bad way. We need food and housing, yet most people can’t afford them. More people can be helping, yet most aren’t. I hope this essay will encourage people to help people in need or share their resources to the less fortunate. Some people don’t care or don’t think it’s their problem, but I hope they realize it is. Most people with privilege think they are better just because they have money, yet they don’t realize some people don’t have money at all. A lot of people who help don’t have some of the necessities for life and some don’t have any. All in all, we need to help the less fortunate for a better future.

 

Works Cited

Ink, Social. “Facts About Hunger.” City Harvest, www.cityharvest.org/facts-about-hunger/.

“Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City.” Coalition For The Homeless, www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/.

“New York.” Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/new-york/.

“11 Facts About Hunger in the US.” DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change, www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-hunger-us.

 

Secrets

When I woke up, I saw Mother staring at the TV with a worried face. The channel was the news. I heard the reporter talking.

“Strange sightings of breezes and winds have been popping up lately.”

Mother sighed and turned off the TV.

“Breakfast, please!”

Mother trudged to the fridge and pulled out the milk.

“Cereal,” she said.

“The shadow-spirits, huh?”

She nodded. “Eat!”

When I was done eating, I went upstairs to my room and realized there was a note on my pillow. How had I not noticed that before?

I read the note and put my hand to my heart. This is what it said:

 

Dear Linda and Mary,

You can run, but you can’t hide.

Soon enough, WE WILL GET YOU!!!

– Shadow-spirits

 

I ran downstairs, trembling. I have to admit, I was scared.

“Mom! MOM? Where are you?” I heard the door slam open. I ran to it, in relief. “Oh Mother, the shadow-spirits, they’re coming to get us!”

I heard a quiet reply. I gasped. I knew that voice. It brought back bad memories.

“We know. We’re here, young Mary.”

 

I screamed and screamed. “This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare.”

The shadow-spirit made a movement. I think it was grinning.

“A real nightmare.”
I pinched myself. Ouch!! It was real. I backed away from the shadow-spirits, making sure that I was very far away from them.

“I’m not gonna turn into one of you,” I snapped.

“Will you do it for your family?” one shadow-spirit asked.

I looked at her more closely.

“Hey! Your height, the way you talk, sound, your posture. You remind me of — ”

“Yes, how is our little Mary?” the shadow-spirit next to my grandma asked.

“Grandma? Grandpa? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“It’s not us that wanted to see you. It’s him.” She pointed to the shadow-spirit in the front. I looked at him, and my heart stopped beating. Even though he was a shadow-spirit, I knew who he was.

“GET OUT!!!” I screamed. “All of you!!!” I felt like crying.

I heard Mother’s voice up the path. “Linda, do we have visitors? Don’t be rude.” The door opened, and suddenly I was left alone with Mother.

I felt like my world had fallen. My heart was crushed, and my soul had been destroyed.

My father was a shadow-spirit.

 

I Won’t Stop Fighting

       

I am soaring

I am roaring

Protecting my innocence

No I’m not listening

 

I thought I failed

I thought I should bail

But that’s not me

And now I can see

 

I craved the attention

Oh and did I mention

I’m ready to start brand new

No more feeling blue

 

I give my hate to the wind

I’d give to have no more sins

But that’s just not how it goes

You and I both know

 

I’d take away the pain and suffering

My whole life I’ve been wondering

What it would be like without the mad and the sad

Without all of the hate and the bad

 

I dream of a place much simpler than this

A place I would surely miss

All I have to do when it gets too deep

A drift away to a happy sleep

 

I love how people can start to stand tall

How they peep above the wall

To see the other side

All the wonders it would hide

 

It hurts the most when I see it everyday

How they cause havoc with whatever they say

Pushing each other around doing whatever they want

The worst part is, they never caught

 

I fear of what people will become

Because we get judged from where we came from

Or the color of skin

Or whether they’re fat or thin

 

I forget that people could live as one

Because at the end of the day we bleed the same blood

It doesn’t matter where your from or where you go

Or if you’re different anywhere head to toe

 

I forgave the people long ago

Who did horrible things, but they didn’t know

But now it’s not a mystery

Come change the world with me

 

I won’t give up on hope and love

I’ll just wish on the stars above

Hoping for it to be different

But love is significant

 

I will persevere

But everyday, someone sheds a tear

Saving the world will be exciting

But I won’t ever stop fighting

 

A Love For Liberty

          

One

My hands were about to slip. I couldn’t drop it again! If I did, we wouldn’t have anything to eat! It was the first treat I had been able to get my hands on since we were on the street. My hands always got slippery when I stole. My sister, on the other hand, had no problem taking things off other people’s doorstep! I couldn’t even take something that I found on the ground! My bounty was a beautiful, creamy Milky Way bar that Libby would just love. She might even forgive me for taking Lady with me as my guard dog. Not likely though. The only thing she liked more than that scruffy excuse for a dog was maybe my mother. Well, now Lady was the only thing she loved. Because her number one special thing had passed away.

 

I managed to grip the delicate Milky Way until I got to my sister. She wasn’t looking happy. “I woke up to no food, no dog, and no sister! Where have you been?!” Libby looked as though being without an animal had turned her into a wild one.

I held up the fruit of my struggles. “To get this.”

Libby snatched the candy bar out of my hand. “I earned this!” She ripped open the wrapping that had protected the candy from getting covered in dirt. Out of it came the most beautiful sight an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old could want. A smooth, sweet chocolate bar. The beautiful sight soon disappeared. But the smudges of chocolate on my sister’s lips remained.

 

The average day for us wasn’t very active. When you live in New York, you already have all your options laid out in front of you. You can go on one of the subways and beg for money, but that is on Wednesdays. You can steal only on Tuesdays, but my sister usually broke that rule whenever she could. Although I pretended to look down upon it, I was actually grateful; we needed all the supplies we could get in order to leave this place.

 

Two

Ellis. That is what they used to call me. It is what she used to call me. My mother. Most of my school friends call me Ellie or just L. But my mother insisted that I allow her to call me Ellis. It was my proper name. My original name. And according to her, my correct name. But I always think. Is proper and original always correct? That question bounces around in my head from time to time. But today I couldn’t afford to daydream.

 

Today was the day that we needed to pack up. The day we needed to leave no trace. The day the police come to kick us out. I needed to quickly gather my and my sister’s stuff before the authorities arrived. My sister and I didn’t agree on many things, but we both agreed that we wouldn’t be put in an orphanage. We both knew that being in an actual home would just make us more homesick. Even more homesick than we were already. It would be like only seeing the chocolate on my sister’s lips. You can never have that sweetness.

 

Three

I had finally finished packing. I hadn’t seen Libby since I had told her to pack. I was hoping that she had gotten right to it and not put it off. For once I had trusted her, and I hope she didn’t abuse that. I hope…

Oh, what the heck! She’s my little sister! Why would she do anything that I told her to! I rushed over to our tent. Sure enough, she was grooming Lady. Our now pampered pet was loving it. She looked as though she was in a spa, having the time of her life. “Libby, the police are coming in five minutes! How could you! This isn’t a game, This isn’t pretend, it’s real life. And you keep treating it as a joke! Why can’t you just grow up!” I grabbed her wrist. I dragged her over to her stuff that was untouched in a giant mound. I scooped all of it up, and it went right into Libby’s lap. She opened her mouth to reply, probably with a snotty remark about it being a free country. I shut her down quickly with a small remark about how she was lucky I was helping her pack and not on my way.

 

Finally, we finished cramming our things into a bag. We turned to leave, but then I realized I had forgotten something. I turned back only to see the disconcerting lights that alerted me of the police that were so close. But I needed to reach it. I ran through the alley that we had slept in. I ran past the fire escape that we had used as a clothes hanger. I reached the place where I had tucked the package. I managed to stay out of sight of the police. I grabbed the package and dashed away from the scene. My sister and I sprinted away from the alley we had called home. I opened my hand, revealing a dirty handkerchief. And in my world, it was the “most correct” thing that came into my life.

 

Six months earlier…

 

Four

Everything was quiet. It seemed like we would never have a home. Maybe we were meant to be without a home for the rest of our lives. I still remember his last words. “Bring me a gift from the ocean.” Not “I love you” or “you will always have a place in my heart.” I was kind of angry. I admit I wasn’t expecting a request. But it did make sense. Every morning the old man would bring us to a beach and just stare out into the ocean. “It’s perfect,” he would always tell us. Even though it was a complicated request, I was determined to fulfill it. Since Libby, Lady, and I were now homeless once again.

 

Libby and I both knew we were going to do it. We were going to give the old man who had taken us in a gift.

 

Since we were homeless, traveling far had become more complicated. For one thing, we didn’t have any money. No, I mean we didn’t even have a penny. We could either walk to the nearest beach, which was Coney Island, or somehow gather enough money to take the train to Coney Island. We couldn’t walk because in Manhattan the chances are too high of being plucked out of the crowds that flooded the streets. My little sister would refuse to hold my hand, and she would 99.99999% get lost. All this rushed through my head while on the outside tears were running down my face. My hands making tiny fists. I was able to feel two emotions at once. I was able to cry and curl up into a little ball, but at the same time get back up again and stand tall. My sister was right next to me, but if you looked into her eyes, you would realize she was light years away. I needed to get started.

I whispered in my sister’s ear, “Follow me.” I walked out of the room that held the last person who would ever take us in.

 

Five

We walked along the sidewalk. My sister’s hands swaying at her sides. We both felt as alone as we did when we walked away from the police. When they told us we didn’t have a mother. No, we had a giant bottle of liquor. And a glass bottle can’t take care of kids. We only had Lady. And each other. But my sister and I were more distant than your average siblings. We were both reminders for each other that we used to have a real family. Sometimes, we were just objects to each other. Objects that could be hugged. Or yelled at. We weren’t sisters. We weren’t even companions. We helped out each other without talking.

“We need to get a job,” I told Libby.

Libby only nodded. Being at even the beginning of that funeral had softened both of us. “Where do I go?” My sister looked up questioningly.

I had an idea. “You go to a place with shade and start singing. You start getting people to come over and put money in your hat.”

I laid out what she should do by talking and drawing in the dirt. Libby nodded. She never sang. My sister was very self conscious, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t do whatever she could to make money. As a toddler she was always coming up with crazy money making ideas to get presents for people. Just because my sister comes across as a mean little sister, she gets beautiful things for the people she loves. This wasn’t going be like the time I told her to pack. She wasn’t doing this for me. She was doing it for the old man that had taken us in. The old man that had given us food. The old man that had taught us to care about other people. The man who showed us the bridges to different worlds.

 

When we came to the old man’s house, he took us to the ocean.

He said, “You need to understand.”

We went along with it because he had just fed us after he caught us looking through his trash. When we got to the beach, he showed us how we could see where the water ended. And that where the water ended was where the bridges to different worlds started. But for most people, the water just ended. The reason was because they hadn’t visited that world yet. My sister and I both knew that the oceans connected the different places in the world. But we thought that it sounded much more foreign to us. The way the old man said it, it seemed like he had visited these places. But we knew that the old man had never left America.

 

I left my sister at the spot she had picked to sing and set off to find a way for me to make money. I wasn’t born with a beautiful mellifluous voice like my sister’s, but I was older, and I expected myself to make more money than her. I could walk dogs. But I doubted anyone would want a 14-year-old girl to take care of their precious dogs. I could shovel snow? If it was winter. Suddenly, I had an idea. I set up a little stand and started to shout like someone at a carnival.

“Step right up, step right up! Get your fortunes right here! Told to you by a dog!”

As a little kid, I took ventriloquist classes. I could speak for our dog, Lady. It was a trick I took up to cheer my sister up in the days where we spent hours in our room. One little girl walked by and asked her mom if she could get her fortune told by a dog. They had a bit of an argument, but the little girl seemed to have the upper hand. They came over and asked how much it cost to get a fortune. I told them the price, and they looked surprised.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked.

“Yes, who told you to ask for that little amount of money?” The woman’s brows furrowed.

When I didn’t answer, she handed me three times as much as I asked her for. “Thank you so much,” I stuttered, shoving the money in my pocket. I would count it later…

 

Double-Double

Blake was just a normal fifth grader. He did all the things a fifth grader would do. He would do school, homework, and he worked hard like any student. The only thing that was different about him was at the age of 11, high schools were already asking for him. Ballislife, a famous YouTube channel, was going to his games to film him. He had amazing handles and was great at shooting from anywhere from the half court line. He always got that satisfying sound of swish as the ball sailed through the net.

His dad always pushed him. He was an accountant, so he traveled a lot. At the age of six, Blake got his first phone, so his dad could call him and make sure he was taking 1,000 shots a day. His dad did this to look over how Blake shot the ball and to make sure his form was good. This was because Blake’s dad was a superfan of basketball. His favorite team was the Minnesota Timberwolves. Of course after two days, Blake lost his phone. But give him a break, he was six! So they just got powerful walkie-talkies, which he lost after three days. Blake played in the summer league, winter league, spring league, and fall league for the Radnor league in Springfield. But he had never played on a travel team. A travel team was something that was way more competitive. All his REC leagues were too easy for him. He won every game because of the mercy rule. He would score so much, the other team would just give up.

One day, he picked up the mail. He always hoped he would get something in the mail. But until that day, there was never a letter for him. Until he was looking through today’s, and he saw one addressed to him. He was excited and anxious that there was a letter for him. He quickly ripped it open and saw it was a letter from East Coast Power addressed to 4 Pivite Drive. It said that they were interested in his abilities, and they wanted him to join their team. The last line said, First practice tomorrow.

 

The next day, he went to the practice, which happened to be five minutes away from his house. He saw Lebron’s son, Dwayne Wade’s son, and a lot of other NBA stars’ sons. He was so nervous because he saw the superstars of the NBA sitting on the bleachers.
The kids seemed to know him. They all said it was an honor to play with him. He thought, Wow, I am a prodigy in the making, aren’t I. He was told he was going to be the starting point guard by coach Tim, the head coach of the team.

His dad said, “We are going to start practicing a lot more. You are the starting point guard for the team that has won states 57 years in a row. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on you, Blake.”

“I know Dad, but I also need to focus on school,” said Blake.

“That’s a good way to think, Blake,” said his dad.

Blake’s school was named Radnor Elementary School. He was one of the most popular kids at school. His best friend was Derrick. He just so happened to be Derrick Rose’s son. They always hung out and played basketball. He played for 10U East Coast Power because he was young for his grade. He might have been the best basketball player the school had ever seen. It was between them two, but they never competed or fought about it. It wouldn’t make sense because they were probably both going to play. Everybody knew him from SportsCenter and YouTube. His brother was 18 and was on track to be the greatest Uber driver of all time. He was being tipped a lot of money all the time. His whole family was extremely intelligent because they were really resourceful. Blake himself wanted to go to Duke because they had a good athletics team and a great school community. Blake was a very outgoing guy to people he knew. To unknown people, he was shy. But when it came to basketball, he was the best player on the court. His only problem was when his dad was watching. He got scared. He was still really good, but not as good.

 

The first game was in one week. He was taking 5,000 shots a day. His dad was planning on quitting his job. His mom was thinking about it too. He didn’t want them to, but they said, “It’s best for us. You will be making millions of dollars in just one week.”

That was true as long as he got at least a double-double. There was a 99.9 percent chance he’d get that. He was probably going to get a triple-double. The only problem was his dad was going. He was afraid of his dad. What if he messed everything up? If he did, they would go broke.

 

One week later…

Game time. Blake got on his signature shoes. He was so nervous. What if he let down Dad? If he did, that would be the end of his career.

In the car on the way there, his dad gave him a pep talk. “I know you better than anyone else in the whole world. You can do this,” said Dad.

As they pulled up at the gym, Competitive Edge, Blake was all pumped up. Still nervous, but pumped. The team they were playing wasn’t great. They were called the Sun Devils. The only threat was their point guard, number four on the leaderboard in Minnesota. Blake was one, but it was still a threat. Tipoff Power got the tip. Blake got it. I’ve got this. He passed it to Eric, and he took the three. Swish. One assist on defense, one steal. Five minutes later, subs. He ended with seven points, five assists, and four steals. It was close. Only five assists, one three pointer, and he’d be set in the next half. He came in. He took one three and hit it. He just needed five assists. One, two, three, four, but then he went for a layup and came down the wrong way.

His dad came out on the court. “Come on. Get up, son. I know you can.’’

“I-I-I can’t.”

“It will be okay. You’ll get em’ next time, bud.”

 

Two weeks later…

“Coach said you have one more chance. It’s a better team though, so look out.”

Blake was still recovering, so he would play the next game against an even better team. He had one week. He started practicing more than ever. He went to the gym every single day for eight hours. Then, it was tomorrow. He had practiced 48 hours in the last six days. Tomorrow was the game. He knew he could do it. His shot was on. He made ten out of ten shots. He was sure he’d do it. The only problem was that he was sore from all the work he put in. Next thing you know, he was feeling pain all over his body. He was tired. He went to bed at 6:00 that night.

He woke up at 10:00 in the morning. The game started at six. He went out to Starbucks for an egg sandwich. It was nice and warm, and it consisted of bacon, fried egg, and cheddar cheese, his normal breakfast. The whole day, he felt pretty good. He took a three hour nap. He had thirty minutes to get ready. He got his shoes. He opened his golden case with his signature shoes. He got out his jersey and his basketball shorts. He went to the game. All his friends were there. They asked him if he was good.

He said, “Yeah, still worried though.”

He was excited. He knew he could do it. He started the game with a quick three pointer. He got scored on at the other end. Three minutes later, he had five points, two assists, and one steal. He got taken out after this. He would have ten minutes. His team was down by ten now. He would have to take the win and the double-double. He went in and scored his five points in less than two minutes. He just needed eight assists. He passed the ball so many times. His team was missing a lot. He was at eight assists when Zhaire Wade, Dwyane Wade’s son, was able to dunk. Blake kept passing to him. He kept scoring. There were 20 seconds left. He needed one more assist. Time out. They were down by one. They called pick and roll on Blake and Zhaire. He passed it to Zhaire. He shot. Score!!! They won the game. He did it. He made his dad proud. He finished with 29 points, ten assists, four rebounds, and eight steals.

His dad came out on the court. “You did it, bud. Now you can go to the Apple store and get yourself an iPhone X and go to the candy store, because you are makin’ your own money now!”

Blake went home knowing he was making lots of money.

 

BLAKE WILL BE BACK!

 

Moving Away

It’s hard to move to a new house when your parents want to live and see a new place, but it is even harder to move to a new house when you are expecting a baby. Especially when almost all my friends are asking me these questions. They were asking questions like “when are you moving” and “where are you moving to.” It’s really annoying and stressful. Even if your best friend is always telling them that if they wanted to talk to me, they had to talk about something else. One day after Laura had told them what she told every day, they just stood there. I knew that after a few seconds they would burst out. Then when they just stood there, Laura took my hand and led me to the bench in the playground, away from everybody else. I felt a little nervous even though I’d known Laura since we were little kids. I knew Laura would want to talk to me about the new house and didn’t want to talk about the new house at all, but I knew I owed Laura an explanation to my behavior. And all my other friends… why were they acting so nosey and making me nervous and uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong, Aine?” she asked me in a concerned voice. “You seem different. A little bit paler and more quiet.”

“I don’t want to move,” I said. “I’ve lived in my house all my life, and I’m nervous and a bit sad to be leaving it. I’m excited about the baby, but I can’t believe I have to leave all my memories from my old house behind.” I thought about my bedroom and knowing where everything was. I could walk that house with my eyes closed. I was going to miss it. I knew that I had been acting less playful and being more quiet lately. It was only a matter of time that Laura would notice something was up.

“Your new house is going to be great, don’t worry,” Laura said, reassuring me.

“Let’s stop talking about the house,” I said, feeling a bit better. Laura usually gave good advice. I’m grateful for my clever, kind friend. “Maybe we should go on the swings.”

 

to talk with my parents about the move.

“Everybody at school keeps asking me when we are moving and where we are going to move to,” I said to them.

“We will be moving soon, sweetie,” my mom said, rubbing her belly, “and then they will all stop asking you these questions because they will know about it.”

“You know it’s unusual to move in our town,” Dad said.

We were sitting in my bedroom, the bedroom I loved and was soon going to move out of. I started to cry thinking about leaving this room.

My mom looked over at me and said, “Aine, it’s all right. All your furniture will be moved to the new house. We can make the room look the same.”

“But it won’t be the same,” I moaned.

I couldn’t understand why we have to move and see someplace new and have more adventures in the new place. It just wasn’t fair. I knew another person meant that we needed more space, but it all seemed unfair to me. The next day, Laura and I sat on the same bench we sat on yesterday outside of the playground.

I told Laura, “I’m moving in a week. You can tell the others that ‘cause they’ve obviously been wanting to know that for ages.”

I knew that as soon as the group of girls from my school walked by my house last week and saw me packing that they would start asking questions. They told everyone that I was moving, and now everyone was curious about when it would happen. People don’t usually move in our neighborhood, so everyone was curious.

“Don’t talk like that!” Laura said. I felt uneasy like I wanted to run away from that spot, but stayed on that bench in the playground. With Laura.

“Well, it’s true,” I said.

“Yes but even though I know I won’t tell anyone that you are moving in a week. So have you seen the house?”

“Not yet. I’m seeing the new house in two days, on Thursday.”

Ring, ring —

“There’s the bell. We’d better go to class,” Laura said.

“Yeah, let’s go, c’mon.”

 

“This is the first time I’m taking a half day of school, and I’m going to look at my new house,” I said. It was a bright sunny morning. There were very few clouds in the sky, and we were standing outside Green Hill Waldorf School. I was feeling nervous for the first time at my school.

And in my first few classes, I could not concentrate. By lunch I felt a little bit dizzy. And by the time Mom showed up, I felt so dizzy that the door frame seemed to be tipping slightly to the left. Mom definitely noticed something that Laura hadn’t. Mom brought me to the school nurse. She gave some pills to swallow. I felt better after that, but I was still shaking slightly. We got into the car. I waved to Laura. She waved back.

 

We pulled up into the driveway of a beautiful white house with a gabled roof. We got out of the car and walked towards the house. I was feeling nervous. We pushed on the door, and it swung open easily. We walked into the house, and we hadn’t put our furniture in there yet, but I could imagine all of it in place. The first room was a big room with a fireplace. Next to the fireplace there was a wooden door that led into a long narrow room with a sink, an oven, a dishwasher, and a lot of other kitchen supplies. We walked into a room to the left of the kitchen, and there was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. As we walked up the stairs, we saw a few rooms once we reached the top of the second floor. Almost all of them looked to me, like bedrooms — except one that stood out. It was the smallest room, and it seemed to be a bathroom because it had a sink and toilet and a bathtub. Then, there was the biggest room and two small ones. One for me and one for the baby, I thought. We checked out every room, but outside the sun was setting.

Mom said, “We have to go now,” before it gets too dark. I was surprised by how much I liked the house. It was nice, but this feeling turned bittersweet quickly when I remembered my old house and how much I would miss it.

The next morning, I told Laura all about the house.

She said, “It sounds nice!” trying to support me, “but I understand that you will miss your old house too.”

I felt that same bittersweetness I felt when I left the new house yesterday. Laura saw that something was different, so she didn’t say anymore.

The next morning, I woke up, and I knew it was the big day: moving day. I heard many trucks pulling up to take our things to the new house. I got up quickly, pulled on the first clothes I could find, and ran downstairs full of nervous sadness and excitement. Mom was packing some things to eat for breakfast so that we could go right away and start unpacking. We got our stuff, got into the car, and followed the trucks. I watched my old house out the window as we drove away, and I felt really sad to be leaving it.

I asked Mom who would be moving into our old house, and she replied “We have met them once… they were really nice!”

After a few minutes, she pulled up into our new driveway. We got out, and the truck drivers got out as well. We all started taking stuff into the house, and I began to quickly pick up boxes and move them into the new house. I was both nervous and excited, so I moved quickly. Finally, we had gotten most of the stuff into the house, and only had a few boxes left.

Mom said, “Let’s eat the stuff we packed for breakfast! It’s getting really late, and I am sure we all feel really hungry.”

We agreed. I was starving. We started eating our sandwiches and fruit.

Mom and Dad told me I could explore while they took the rest of the boxes in. I ran all around the house, eager to check out the new space. I saw a ladder going up to the attic that I hadn’t noticed last time. I was curious so decided to go take a look. I quickly climbed up the ladder, and finally, panting, I arrived at the top. When I stood up I saw a door leading to a room in the attic. I walked into the room, and there was just old furniture. In the middle of the room however, there was a creature. It had the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. I was scared. I ran out of the room, slammed the door behind me, and quickly climbed down the ladder.

I didn’t tell my family what I had seen in the attic. I probably will not see it again anyway, I thought to myself. We started unpacking the boxes, even though we knew we wouldn’t finish unpacking it all today. We decided to try anyway. By the end of the day, we had gotten out a couch and a few chairs and put them together, but nothing else. We slept on mats on the floor, and in the morning I woke up feeling sore and still tired.

I tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use. I was too much awake. With everyone else still asleep, and my mind free to wander, I started thinking about the creature I had seen. I thought about how the creature hadn’t harmed me, and I decided to go up again and see it. I needed to get breakfast, but I wanted to go up and see it as soon as possible. I went upstairs and climbed the ladder. I walked to the door, pushed it open, and was welcomed with a huge shock. The room had changed completely, except for the huge creature who still stood in the middle. Instead of old dusty boxes and furniture, it looked exactly like a kitchen. The kitchen did not look like the one in our new house, however, it looked like the kitchen in Laura’s house. I peered past the creature, and there was exactly what I needed: breakfast. Cereal and a jug of milk sat behind him, and so I walked towards it. I tried to get around the creature, but he roared at me with his lion face. Terrified, I ran out of the room and back down the stairs.

When I got downstairs, I saw that it looked like my parents were awake. I asked them for some breakfast, and it came right away. As I ate, I could not stop thinking about the creature, and how the room had changed, and how the room had exactly what I needed. Thinking about the kitchen, I remembered that it was Laura’s kitchen, and Laura was coming over today, and I could show her the creature and the room.

Finally, the doorbell rang. I jumped up and opened the door. There stood Laura and her parents. My parents and Laura’s parents started chatting, and Laura and I slipped upstairs. We climbed up the ladder and walked to the room. As we were walking, I told Laura all about the room, the creature, and how it roared at me. Laura seemed a bit scared by the time we had reached the room. She pushed the door open and gasped as she saw the creature. I looked at the room. This time, it was completely white, and there was nothing behind the creature now.

Laura was really surprised. “There is nothing in the room,” Laura said, “besides this creature!”

“We will come back when the room is more exciting,” I said. “Right now it’s just this creature.”

We walked back out and started helping unpack. I knew by the end of today that we would be finished unpacking.

My room was the last to unpack. We put my bed together, placed the covers on the bed, and put the carpet and the drawer next to my bed and lamp. We filled the room with everything else that was in my old room. Then we had lunch and went outside the house. We rested in some chairs outside my house and talked and played until dinner time. Then, I climbed into my bed. It did not feel the same even though it was the same. Finally, after laying for a while I fell asleep.

Mom was right when she said that everybody was going to stop asking me about the move. Everybody who had been asking me the questions became my friends again, but I still had the creature and the room in my mind. Laura and I spent our days trying to think about how we could get the creature to do what we wanted it to do. All we could think of was to train it like you do to a dog, but we knew that would not work. We had to think every day, and finally one day we were having a sleepover, and we went up to the attic to think. Then it came to me: if the room had whatever you needed, it would have the thing we needed to tame the creature.

“How would we get past the creature, to get the thing?” said Laura.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

We went into the room anyway. The creature seemed more aggressive than ever once we entered. It charged at us the minute that we got into the room. We jumped aside, terrified. The creature backed up and charged again — this time at Laura. I jumped on its back. As soon as I did this, it flew into the air with its eagle wings. It did not seem able to get down while I was on its back. Laura looked at the thing behind the creature. It seemed to be some sort of ball.

She picked up the ball and said, “Come down!” The creature did exactly what she said. We were amazed. I jumped off its back. “Don’t harm us!” she commanded again at the creature. We ran out of the room and hid the ball in my new bedroom. We knew the creature could not get it.

A few weeks passed, and Laura and I didn’t really know or need to use the ball or go visit the creature. That was until one Friday afternoon after a particularly rough day of school. I was finding it hard to focus on school work with all the newness of moving, so when I got my English essay back and saw that I got a C, I was pretty upset. The only thing that comforted me was the thought of Laura coming over later on after school that day. When she got here, she suggested we play ball and that sounded good to me. We went to take the ball outside, and when I walked to the screen door that lead to the backyard and tried to slide it open, it would not budge. I never had any trouble opening the screen door at my old house. We were thinking what to do when we remembered the creature. We ran up to my room and grabbed the glass ball, then hurried up the ladder. We pushed the door to the attic open and stepped inside.

The creature ran at us, but I shouted “Stop!” and held up the glass ball, and the creature froze.

Laura and I asked the creature to help us open the screen door, and he obeyed.

He flew around the house, and finally he got to the screen. We asked him again to open the door. Slowly, so that we could see what he was doing, the creature placed one of his hoofs on the handle, spun it around three times, and then pushed the door open. We ran outside and thanked the creature. We saw the creature fly away and back up to the attic, so we began to play with the ball. When it started to get dark, we had to leave, and my parents came home.

A few days later, I woke up before my parents, hungry for something to eat. I went into the kitchen and yanked on the handle of the cupboard the same way I always did to open it and get some cereal. It did not pull open.

“Oh yeah… different cupboard” I reminded myself.

I crept up to the attic to get the help of the creature. I had the glass ball, and I raised it up as I stepped into the room.

I whispered, “Can you help me open the cupboard drawer?” to him.

The creature flew quietly out of the room and down to the kitchen. I followed quickly and quietly. He put his hoof on the handle of the cupboard and put a lot of weight onto it. It flew open. I thanked the creature and did something I never had done before. I reached out my hand, and I pet the creature on the head and said, “Thanks” one more time. The creature nodded his head at me and flew quietly back to his room in the attic.

As I ate my cereal, I was thinking of what I could name the creature. I wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl, so I decided to ask Laura for advice when I went to school. Right before school, I hurried to Laura and told her about what I was thinking. I told Laura to come to my house after school so that we could figure out what to name the creature. That night, we took the glass ball once more and hurried up to the attic. We had our plan all ready. We ran into the room and called into the glass ball before anything else could happen.

“Fly to the top of the room if you are a girl, and stay where you are if you are a boy!” we commanded.

The creature flew into the air until it reached the top of the room.

“Thank you!” we said and then hurried out of the room. Now we knew that the creature was a girl.

“What are you going to name her?” Laura asked, once we got back downstairs.

“I don’t know!” I said. “You have to help me figure it out.” We went to my bedroom and sat on my bed.

“The creature is in your house, Aine,” said Laura.

“Yes, but you helped me get the glass ball,” I said.

“What about ‘Wings?’” said Laura.

“Just because she has wings doesn’t mean we have to call her Wings!” I said.

“… but she looks like a ‘Wings!’” said Laura.

“What about Wither Wings?” I said, offering a compromise. “That way it’s Wings and something else.”

“Okay,” said Laura. “Wither Wings is a nice name.”

 

Two weeks later, I woke up with a fever, and my mom would not let me go to school. All morning, I felt grumpy and bored, so I decided to entertain myself and visit Wither Wings. I grabbed the ball and climbed the ladder into the room. I wondered if I could ever make Wither Wings talk. That was probably impossible even with the ball.

“Hi,” I said to the creature, testing to see if it could speak. Wither Wings did not answer. I guess I had to communicate with Wither Wings by motions, since she couldn’t speak. I waved at Wither Wings, not entirely sure what “want” I had come there to fulfill. She flapped her wings back at me. Mom was about to leave the house, and I decided that maybe I could ride Wither Wings after she left and nobody would know.

Just then, I heard Mom call, “Bye!”

“Bye!” I called back. I heard the door shut, and the noise of car wheels driving down the driveway. I got on Wither Wings and called into the ball which I had brought just in case, “Fly!”

Wither Wings took off. She flew down the stairs and around the living room. I was having a lot of fun. I managed to spin the door knob once, then she zoomed around the room twice, and finally we went past the door knob once more, I spun it one last time and pushed it open. Wither Wings flew out of the door immediately out into the backyard and the open air. She zoomed around the backyard and made to go out on the street, but I turned her back around. Finally, it seemed Wither Wings was getting tired, so I called into the glass ball, “Go back home!” She flew back through the door, up the stairs, up the ladder, and into her room. I waved goodbye, and then I ran back downstairs to get some lunch.

The next day, I was feeling better, and Mom let me go to school. I told Laura all about riding Wither Wings and what an adventure it was. She asked if she could ride Wither Wings one time, and I told her she could if we had enough time when my parents were out and we were in the house alone. We decided to ask our mothers for a sleepover. After school that night, I waited for mom to come home. When she walked through the door, I asked her immediately for the sleepover.

She said, “Tomorrow night?” placing her hand on her belly with a tired look on her face… “Which house?”

“This house!” I said.

She told me she had to think about it.

After dinner, she looked a bit better. “Yes, you can have Laura sleepover tomorrow,” she said, “but your dad and I are going out so you will be here alone.”

“Okay!” I said. We were very excited. The day passed by slowly, but evening finally came. We ran all the way to my new house, and we slammed the screen door behind us. We raced up the stairs and appeared panting in front of the ladder.

“Well,” said Laura, “you go up first!” I climbed up the ladder still taking steady breaths as I climbed, Laura at my heels. When we reached the attic, we could hear the heavy breath of Wither Wings. We stepped into the room.

“We’re back,” I said. Laura swung her leg over Wither Wings. I did the same. “Fly,” I said absentmindedly. Wither Wings, to my surprise, rose into the air. The ball was still in my pocket.

 

The Amazing Aliens

    

Chapter One: The Awesome Idea

“Emily, Emily!” Sasha shouted. “I have the best idea ever. Do you want to hear it?”

“Yes please,” said Emily.

“How about we look for a new planet?” said Sasha.

“What about Kiki? Can she come?” asked Emily.

“Sure,” said Sasha.

“Let’s go to Tooth to get her,” said Emily.

“The planet is called Mint.”

“Woo hoo!” screamed Emily. The two best friends jumped over to Tooth (since Tooth was in close proximity to Cookie). The two friends went searching for Kiki. Within ten minutes, they realized that Kiki was chasing them (not for the spaceship, but as a joke). They were all laughing their heads off for one hour straight. Once they stopped laughing, they entered Sasha’s spaceship and flew around the big star, looking for an awesome planet.

 

Chapter Two: The Planet Mint

In only a few minutes, they reached planet Mint.

“This looks beautiful,” said Emily.

“I don’t know about that,” said Kiki.

“Well, it’s our very own planet, so the both of you should be happy, okay,” said Sasha.

“Now we have to build this planet’s furniture.”

“Okay, it’s a good thing Emily and I packed in advance,” said Sasha.

“Let’s build!” said Kiki.

There were beautiful decorations and purple wood paneling available for use. It took an entire week to build and decorate everything. Sasha wanted to get her old friends back from Cookie land. Sasha and Kiki decided to travel to planet Tooth to pick up Kiki’s friends as well. Emily stayed back to keep an eye out for potential villains. Within a few minutes, the other friends arrived. They had a party planned for that night and stayed up until 3:00 am. They were all incredibly tired but excited for the next upcoming party, which was promised to last until 11:00 pm. Everybody went home at 11:05 pm. Once Sasha, Kiki, and Emily arrived home, they immediately fell asleep. There was a scary creature slithering around the night sky.

It was an evil villain! It was tall in stature. Sasha didn’t see it, but it always came during the evening time. She heard it in the middle of the night. She told Emily and Kiki. They saw it flee before morning.

In the morning, they looked for it. But they were never successful in locating it. They went back to Chocolate Chip, but they still couldn’t find it. They went to Cookie land, and they still couldn’t find it. They went to a different planet called Blob. It looked like a green blob. They saw an evil villain. The creature was trying to go really fast, but Sasha, Emily, and Kiki collectively captured it. The evil villain was an alien snake. It had a long body and ten piercing eyes. It was a terrifying sight.

 

Chapter Three: The Evil Rattlesnake

They realized that the evil snake was actually an evil alien. The creature transformed back into an alien. It was a spitting image of Sasha. It looked similarly to when it was a snake, it was just in an alien form. It had a short body with arms and legs and two eyes, and it wore a shirt and pants. The creature was very cruel. He was continuously punching them. Finally, he decided to reveal his name.

“My name is Steph,” he said.

Steph was living on a planet where there were lots of aliens. Instead of transforming, he said it was just like Halloween every day for him. He apologized for punching them. Steph then went back to his planet. He wasn’t allowed to leave his other planet. He would sneak out every night. He traveled with Sasha, Kiki, and Emily to Space Town.

They arrived at Space Town and hid Steph in their house because he didn’t want to be seen. They went back to Blob, where Steph lived. They had the opportunity to meet his parents.

 

Chapter Four: Ten New Planets

The next morning, Kiki, Emily, Sasha, and Steph went to a bookstore on Chocolate Chip. This was their first time on Chocolate Chip, and it looked like a bookstore. After they got books at Chocolate Chip, they went to school. They had to go to Planet Blob for school. They floated to each planet. It went fast because there was a tunnel. You’re able to go to whatever place you want. Sasha, Emily, Steph, and Kiki were in class Z. Ms. P was the name of the homeroom teacher. In school, they had to have a contest. It was to find as many planets as you possibly could and write them down. If you found the most planets, you got a big prize for each of the aliens on your team.

Emily, Sasha, Kiki, and Steph made a team. They searched for ten planets. They began with Chocolate Chip, the bookstore, and they got to Blob, their town. They went to a camp that was named Clip, and they found another planet for evil people that was called Villains. That place had evil villains on it, and they were just like Steph before he became a friend, so they didn’t go on it for a while. Then, they went to a glass making place called Glass, and they found another place called Planet, and inside Planet there were four more planets that were named Oreo, Juice, Tree, and Jungle. And the last planet was named Pants. The next day, they were going to hand the paper in.

 

Chapter Five: Winners

The next morning, Emily, Sasha, Kiki, and Steph went to school. They gave the paper to Ms. P. Ms. P looked at it for a long time. Ms. P finally said, “Sit down and wait for the other aliens to come back.” They sat for a while. Still, nobody came. The other aliens were still looking for the planets. They finally came back with nothing on their papers.

Ms. P was so disappointed at them. They got detention, and Steph, Emily, Sasha, and Kiki were the winners. They got a huge golden trophy.

“Great job,” said Ms. P.

 

Chapter Six: The Big Secret

Steph went over to Sasha’s house to have a playdate. That’s when Sasha saw something on Steph’s face that looked the same as hers. It was the same ugly scar that she had. They also had the same eye color, a dark brown.

“Steph, what is your last name?” asked Sasha.

“Curry,” Steph replied.

“We might be brother and sister.”

“Why?”

“Because my last name is Curry.”

“What?! That’s awesome.”

“I know!!!”

Sasha and Steph hugged each other, and then Emily, Kiki, Sasha, and Steph all lived together.

 

The Orphans

Katherine sat on the porch of the orphanage and watched the sun go down.

“Katherine! It’s dinner time. The mistress is getting mad, and she won’t wait any longer,” said Sadie, who was her best friend. Katherine hopped off the porch banister and ran inside. Once she was in the dining hall, she saw the mistress red-faced, and she stomped towards Katherine and grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her to a seat.

“Katherine, I will be getting rid of you, and when I mean getting rid of you, you will be adopted,” the mistress said with a smile. Katherine knew that the mistress hated her the most. “But it will not only be you. It will also be Mackenzie,” she said, and everyone knew that Mackenzie was the mistress’s favorite.

After dinner, Katherine put everything in her ripped up farmers market bag and laid down, but before she could go to sleep, there was a knock at the door. Katherine walked to the door and opened it, and the second she opened it, Sadie hugged her.

“Don’t go. Please don’t go,” Sadie whispered. She knew why Sadie was saying this. It’s because Sadie did not have any other friends.

Katherine pulled herself away from Sadie. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here. I need a family. It’s been twelve years without a mom or a dad, and I need one,” Katherine said with tears in her eyes.”

“I get it. You care more about a family than your friends,” Sadie said angrily.

“No, it’s not like that,” Katherine yelled. Sadie shook her head and left the room. Katherine closed the door and headed back to bed.

The next day at 8:00 am, a carriage with a woman and a man stopped in front of the orphanage. Katherine ran down the stairs to the entrance. Once she saw her new parents, she felt happy inside, but she did not see Sadie. Then, sadness fell over her.

“Hi, girls. This is Lily and James, and they will be your new guardians,” said the mistress.

Katherine and Mackenzie shook Lily and James’ hands, and they both jumped into the carriage. Before Katherine got into the carriage, she saw Sadie looking out of the window. A tear rolled down Katherine’s cheek, and she jumped into the carriage. Once they got to their new house, Katherine was starving, and their house was huge. They even had a pool. Once they got inside the house, Lily and James showed Katherine and Mackenzie’s room.

“You girls will be sharing a room, and you each have your own bed,” said James.

“And you each get your own maid,” Lily said while pointing to a bell on each of the beds. Lily and James left the room.

“So Katherine, do you like this house?” Mackenzie said shyly.

“I guess,” said Katherine. Mackenzie turned around.

“Okay, you may think I was the mistress’s favorite, but I hate the mistress,” said Mackenzie.

“Girls, breakfast is ready!” said Lily from the dining room downstairs.

The girls trotted down stairs and sat at down at the long dining table.

“So Mackenzie, tell us about your parents,” said James. Mackenzie froze and ran away, and everyone stayed silent.

After breakfast, Katherine found Mackenzie crying on her bed. “I don’t know my parents,” Mackenzie said between tears.

“Well, I don’t know my parents either, but you should at least be truthful with Lily and James,” said Katherine.

The next morning, there was a carriage waiting for Mackenzie.

“Mack, there’s a carriage waiting for you,” said Lily.

Katherine looked outside the window and saw the mistress in front of the entrance. She ran out of her room and down the stairs to the entrance, but she was too late. The carriage was almost all the way down the road. Katherine went back to her room and laid down on Mackenzie’s bed. A couple minutes later, Lily and James were standing at the foot of Mackenzie’s bed. Katherine jumped up from Mackenzie’s bed and hugged Lily and James, and then Katherine looked up at them.

“Where did Mack go?” Katherine asked.

“Well she, for some reason, went back to the orphanage,” said James.

Katherine’s eyes started to water, and she hugged Lily and James again. That afternoon, it was so hot that they had to stay inside, so Katherine secretly started to plan a rescue mission. Her plan was to go out at 10:00 pm, grab one of the horses from the stables, and she would ride to the orphanage and sneak in and grab Mack.

At 10:00 pm, Katherine was already at the stables. She grabbed a beautiful white stallion named Snowball, and she hitched her up. When she got to the orphanage, she knew that there was a secret passage in the back which led to the kitchen, and the kitchen was very close to the bedrooms. Once she got in to the secret tunnel, she remembered the times she and Sadie tried to escape, but the mistress always caught them. She kept crawling. Once she got to the kitchen, she was glad that she could finally walk, but she also had to keep quiet or else the mistress would keep her from going home. Once she got to the bedroom hall, she got so worried that she would wake everyone up. When she got to Mack’s bedroom, she had to be very careful. Once she got the door opened, she quickly walked into the bedroom and quietly closed the door. Once she was next to the bed, she started to slowly shake Mack.

“Katherine, is that you?” Mack asked.

“Yes, now be quiet. I’m saving you from this dump,” said Katherine.

Mack climbed out of bed and quietly went to her dresser. “So how are we getting out of this dump,” said Mack while getting clothes out of her dresser.

“Well, we are going to climb out the window because we are so close to the ground,” said Katherine looking out the window.

After Mackenzie finished packing up, Katherine opened the window and started climbing out, but then the door burst open and there was the mistress. Katherine jumped out of the window followed by Mackenzie, and they ran right to Snowball while the mistress ran to the exit. The two girls got on Snowball and rode off with the mistress right on their tail.

“So where did you get the horse?” asked Mackenzie out of breath.

“Lily and James have a stable behind their house,” said Katherine.

Mackenzie nodded.

Once they got to Lily and James’ house, they put Snowball back in the stables and ran into the house. Katherine ran up the stairs to Lily and James’ room, and they were still awake.

“Lily, James, I rescued Mack. Come downstairs,” said Katherine, and they followed.

When they got downstairs, they found Mackenzie sitting on the couch. Lily and James hugged both of the girls.

“I’m happy that we are all one big family,” said James.

 

The Magic Rhino

        

Chapter One: Hard Things

“It’s snowing!” MAGIC MAN said.

“It’s snowing,” mocked mathemagician.

“It’s snowing great! Snowing is bad. When will you learn your lesson?” said mathemagician.

“Never. Because snowing is good,” said MAGIC MAN.

“No it’s not. It’s bad for the Earth.”

“No it’s not!”

“Yes it is.”

“No it’s not.”

“Mother! Isn’t snowing bad for the Earth?”

“Not exactly.”

MAGIC MAN grinned.

His bro frowned.

Then, it was time for breakfast, so they sulked to the table.

At the table, MAGIC MAN told them how he broke his foot at school and that the nurse said he should wear a cast for two or three months.

His mother said, “Why didn’t you tell me? Let’s get it on right away.”

So, he got his cast on and went to Sunday school.

 

At Sunday school, he learned that rhinos have been around for 500 years.

And he wanted to be a rhino.

But then, he remembered that magic wands could not put a spell on themselves. He also remembered that he could turn into a parrot. Maybe then, he could turn into a rhino. So he tried, but he could not do it.

 

Chapter Two

Forty-five years later…

MAGIC MAN had almost forgotten it, but he tried again. Still no parrot.

Then, he remembered that he could not turn into a parrot unless he was a senior. So, he waited another 11 years. He tried and poof, standing in his place was a beautiful, golden, new parrot. But he realized he could not turn into a rhino.

Then, he remembered that he could have turned into a rhino 45 years ago. But not now. You can only turn into a rhino if you are 45 or younger. But then, a magician with no wand, one that knew this parrot wanted to be a rhino, turned the parrot into a magic wand. And all he did was sing a special song:

I don’t want him to be a parrot, rhino, or pooh. Just a magic wand.

With that, the parrot was a magician wand.

The magician picked him up, waved him a little, and walked away with a magic wand in his hands.

 

The End

 

When I Woke Up

      

When I woke up this morning

There was something out of place

My nose is on the ceiling

The light bulb’s on my face!

My computer keyboard

Had turned into a mace?

Then I saw that the flowers

Had turned into the vase!

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong.

 

I got up and noticed

There was slime on the chair

I looked in the mirror

I had lollipop hair

My eyes were quite wide open

When I saw my room was bare

This is not what the teachers mean

When they say to share!

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

I quickly put my hat on

And got a horrid douse

I could not be seen like this

Walking out my house!

I tried to brush my hair

The hairbrush was a mouse

I wouldn’t let that ruin my day

I would never grouse

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

Everything was silly

I climbed back into bed

Even though the legs

Were small, green trees instead

I was rather hungry

But that would just be dread

Trying for hours to sleep

My foot must have been dead

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

That there was something wrong

 

Then I woke up again

It was all a dream!

I jumped around with glee

It made me want to scream!

Soon inside my mind

A plan grew, a scheme

I looked out my window

And I started to beam

I took to it that morning

Even so early on

I very quickly realized

There was nothing wrong!

 

Tips to Business

    

JIMMY and BILL are walking on a New York City street together.

 

BILL

So, Grandson, you want to become a successful businessman, you say? Well, I’ve got a few tips and tricks for you!

 

JIMMY

I’m listening.

 

BILL

First off, when your boss asks for a plain hot dog, always get him a plain hot dog. If you get him any condiments, he’ll kill you.

 

JIMMY

Does that have anything to do with actual business?

 

BILL

Of course it does! Real business doesn’t mean numbers and paperwork! It’s about getting your boss the right dog! That’s how I got to be a businessman!

 

JIMMY

Did you actually move from the level you started at? Did your paycheck change at all?

 

BILL

Of course it did! When I retired, I was earning fifty fewer dollars a week than when I started!

 

JIMMY

Oookkkaaaayy. That’s one way to view it.

 

BILL

Anyways, let’s move on. Another trick to move you up the ladder of business is to always make sure there are missed calls on your phone. It makes you look important. The trick to that is you call yourself a bunch of times on your iPhone from the stall. It worked so well! Everyone thought I had stomach problems when I got back twenty minutes later!

 

JIMMY

I don’t exactly get what this has to do with becoming a well-known businessman…

 

BILL

Well that, my son, is because you are not experienced! When you grow up, you will understand the stress of stomach problems!

 

JIMMY

That’s not what I don’t understand. I don’t understand how missed calls make you look important. It just makes you look unresponsive.

 

BILL

Forget it.

 

JIMMY

Thank god.

 

BILL

One of my most useful tricks in being a successful businessman is to always be drinking coffee. If you have coffee, it makes you look like you stayed up late to do work. But really, all it did was keep me up late! I got to watch more of The Brady Bunch! Who’s your favorite character? Mine’s Cindy. She’s soooooo pretty!

 

JIMMY

I don’t get why any of what you said has anything to do with becoming a good businessman. Marcia’s the cute one.

 

BILL

No way. She dates ugly guys. Cindy’s really mature.

 

JIMMY

She still likes dolls! Do you call that mature?

 

BILL

I still play with dolls! And I’m mature!

 

JIMMY

I’d debate that. Anyways, let’s get back on track. Why exactly does drinking coffee help you become a successful businessman?

 

BILL

Well, let’s face it. I didn’t see any of my colleagues, like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, drinking coffee. And look where they wound up.

 

JIMMY

Um, Grandpa, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are two of the richest and most successful people in the world. And why didn’t you tell me that you worked with them? I should’ve asked them for advice instead of you!

 

JIMMY starts typing on his phone.

 

BILL

Are you kidding me? I have just gave you the greatest advice in the history of business! Bill and John don’t like Marcia! And trust me, I asked them!

 

JIMMY

Sorry, say that again? I was busy scheduling lunch with Gates and breakfast with Bezos the next day.

 

BILL

You don’t need any more tips, you just got the greatest advice ever! How many times do I have to say it!

 

JIMMY

To be honest, I haven’t really gotten any useful tips from you today. I’d rather take tips from the internet than from you, and I never listen to the internet. No offense.

 

BILL starts tearing up.

 

BILL

No, no, I understand.

(Snuffle)

You don’t listen to people who play with dolls. But listen. I went to Bill Gates’ house one day when we were friends, and he had a whole dollhouse. But I know, the internet doesn’t play with dolls.

 

JIMMY

No, no, that’s not what I meant.

(Puts arm around BILL.)

I just meant that you’re not the best advice person. I admire that you play with dolls. To be honest, I have the whole Barbie set at home.

 

BILL

You do? That makes me feel a whole lot better.

 

BILL hugs JIMMY.

 

The scene quickly changes to an apartment. BILL and JIMMY are playing with dolls. They have their arms around each other.

 

Blackout.

 

The Adventures of Melissa Momper

            

“Where are you going tonight, honey?” Major Moe Momper asked his wife, taking a sip of coffee.

“I’m going to review this place called The Garlic,” Melissa Momper responded, taking a sip too, but quickly put it down. “I can’t drink too much coffee; I don’t want to fill up.”

“The Garlic? Isn’t that the last place your friend Cathy went before she vanished?” Moe Momper replied, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes,” Melissa answered sadly, “The Garlic’s owner, Jessie Goodwin, told the police Cathy mentioned the idea of moving to Peru. But she never said anything to me. I’m going to ask Jessie about her. I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

“She didn’t tell me anything either. Or anyone, apparently. Her sister, Lila, says she hasn’t heard from her the whole seven months she’s been gone! And what about Sarah and Robert Churchill? Didn’t they vanish after eating there too?” Moe Momper said.

“The police said they moved to Idaho. Everyone’s worried about them, too. No one’s heard a thing from them! Or Cathy, for that matter. That’s weird, actually,” Melissa replied. She paused, then looked at her watch. Her watch said 5:45 PM. “Time to go. Dinner starts at six. I’m all dressed. I’ll be back in no more than two hours, honey!”

Melissa walked out of the room, out of her house, and into her car. Every time she went to work, she would wear her usual: a blue sweater with a white undershirt, white jeans, and blue high heels.

“The restaurant The Garlic is being visited tonight by the famous Melissa Momper!” the radio man exclaimed.

Melissa smirked. She was a famous restaurant critic, so she was always announced on TV, the radio, magazines, and social media. It was a tradition now. She loved being famous! But her smirk quickly changed. There was no one in the parking lot but one lonely SUV. It was black, and the windows were tinted. “That’s funny,” she whispered. She maneuvered her car to a parking spot far away from the SUV.

Sighing nervously, Melissa walked through the doors. There’s probably just no one because I’m here, she thought to herself.

Melissa expected pictures of garlic and many tables with fancy silverware, glasses, and plates. But she was wrong.

It was pitch dark inside, except for one light in the middle of the room. Under that light was a single armchair. No one was sitting there. Melissa frowned.

“I should probably wait here,” Melissa said. “I don’t want to sit there if Jessie is.”

“Don’t worry — it’s all for you,” a slimy voice cooed, coming out from somewhere. “Please, sit.”

Out from the darkness emerged a short lady with short brown hair in a bun. She was wearing a pink dress with a white apron. But the strangest thing was her earrings. They were… vampires’ faces.

“Uh, no thanks! I just… ” Melissa got out her review notebook. “I guess hospitality — check?”

“Don’t worry,” the lady said. “I’m Jessie. Sit down, and I’ll get you some dinner. Chicken?”

“That’d be nice,” Melissa whispered uneasily. “Can it come out fast? I’m in a rush. Moe — my husband — is waiting for me.”

“Don’t be silly,” Jessie purred. “How can Melissa Momper be busy? Any good critic knows it’s one restaurant a night.”

“Yes, that is true,” Melissa mumbled. “Is this it? Is this what happens every night? Just one customer?”

“Oh, sometimes there are more,” Jessie replied. “But we wanted it to be extra special for Melissa Momper.”

“Um… I like your earrings,” Melissa tried, unsure of how to react. “I have similar earrings… clovers?”

Jessie snickered silently. “Sit. I’ll be back soon.” She was gone.

Melissa didn’t feel so sure about sitting, because it might be a trap. But she didn’t want to make Jessie feel bad — even though she wasn’t sure if she would. She daintily walked over and sat. In about twenty minutes of doing nothing (she had a watch), Jessie finally came out with a big, decorated platter with roasted chicken on it. Garlic was sprinkled over the chicken, and there was a lemon on the side of the plate. Mashed potatoes were on the side. It smelled like no other chicken, and just the smell made Melissa’s mouth water. The chicken looked perfect. Jessie placed it on Melissa’s lap.

“Thanks… ” Melissa said. “Looks yummy.” She took a big bite. She stopped chewing. It was the best chicken she’d ever had. It was as if one of the chefs from the show Moe always watched had made it. “This is awesome.” She quickly took another bite.

“Now, while you’re eating, may I tell you a story?” Jessie asked, sitting on an old wood chair that had not previously been there.

“Sure,” Melissa answered, “about what?”

“Do you know Cathy Banks?” Jessie started, and Melissa nodded.

“Yes,” Melissa said. “Do you know any more details about why she left? She was my best friend.”

Jessie ignored this. “Robert and Sarah Churchill?” Melissa nodded again. “They’ve all come here, but I think you should know one thing.”

“That is?”

“Cathy’s not in Peru. The Churchill’s are not in Idaho.” Jessie smiled, and she clasped her hands together.

“Where are they?” Melissa trembled.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Jessie asked and lifted the big platter off of Melissa. “Follow me.”

Melissa didn’t want to, but she knew it would be for the better. “Okay.”

Jessie led her to the kitchen, a set of swinging doors that were further back from the chair. Inside was a counter, an oven, a stove, and other appliances. Melissa relaxed.

“Back here, through this door,” Jessie went on, making Melissa tense again. She wanted this to be over with.

Jessie led her through the other door, and in here was a black room. Inside the room were three people sitting on the floor, but Melissa couldn’t tell who because it was dark. As if on cue, Jessie turned on the lights.

“Melissa Momper?” Robert Churchill asked. He stood up. The thing was, he and the two women looked healthy. They were playing cards. “I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“Robert and Sarah?” Melissa whispered. “Wow. Cathy? How have you been? Everyone was worried about you, and they didn’t know where you were and couldn’t contact you!” Melissa sat down with them.

Jessie looked nervous.

“I’ve been good! How have you been?” Cathy said. “Still in the critic business? Would you like to join us for a game of cards?”

“No, she was just eating here, and I was giving her a tour.” The four of them looked up to see Jessie. “Come on, Melissa.”

“Bye, guys!” Melissa reluctantly said, waving to her friends as Jessie pulled her out of the kitchen. And then she was out of the room. “Jessie — that was so weird!”

“I think you should leave now,” Jessie whispered. She had gotten quieter.

“But what are they doing there? I deserve an answer,” Melissa demanded. “Can I go speak to at least Cathy again?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jessie said and hustled Melissa out of the kitchen. “Why don’t you go write your review?”

“It won’t be a good one if you don’t tell me why they’re there,” Melissa murmured.

“You won’t tell anybody, though,” Jessie said. “You wouldn’t dare, would you?”

“Well, I might,” Melissa threatened, “if I don’t have an answer.”

All of a sudden, Jessie’s face turned bright red. “Why don’t you come with me, Melissa?”

“I think I better get home,” Melissa said, face turning red. “I won’t tell if you let me leave.”

“Just, before you leave, I might want to tell you one thing,” Jessie said, her face flushing now. “I locked you in.”

“What?” Melissa mouth widened. “Can you… unlock it? And why?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jessie mumbled. “You just have to take a test to get out. But it might be hard.”

“But why can’t you just unlock it?” Melissa asked.

“I can’t.”

“You’re the owner,” Melissa went on. “You own the place. Why can’t you unlock it?”

“I’m not the owner,” Jessie grumbled. “The owner — nevermind. Please. Just take the test.”

“What’s in the test?” Melissa was hyped up, her face getting redder and redder. “Jessie, I’m not a good test taker.”

“Sit here. I will come out with the first test,” Jessie ordered. “In the chair again.”

Out of breath, Melissa sat. A big frown took over her face. “Will this take long?”

“As long as you make it.” And then Jessie disappeared.

A few minutes later, the silence broke when Jessie came back, holding a deck of cards. “I just need you to be the victim of my magic trick.”

“Victim?” Melissa repeated.

Jesse ignored this. She spread out the cards. The backs looked like normal cards, red with a geometric design. “Pick a card — any card,” she demanded.

Melissa frown deepened, but she picked a card near the right end. “I pick this one.”

“Look at it, and follow the order,” Jessie instructed. “I will be back in ten minutes. The more tests you fail, the more you have to do. Oh! I almost forgot. I need your phone. No cheating.” Melissa reluctantly gave her phone to Jessie.

“Jessie? I don’t get it — ” Jessie was gone.

Melissa sighed and read the card.

It read:

 

Yay! You have selected me as your card. Your first challenge is to tie your shoes together and hop across the length of the room. Your time starts now! Good luck!

 

“But I don’t even have anything to tie my shoes!” Melissa cried. “I’m wearing high heels!”

She looked further down the card. There was a picture of rope, and under it said: Pick up the rope! Melissa was very confused. She put her fingers on either side of the tiny rope and pulled. All of a sudden, a real, long rope came out of the card.

“Okay,” Melissa whispered, “I’ll tie it around my ankles. Now where does the room begin?”

She walked to the door where she had come in. “This is so weird,” she said to herself.

She began hopping. This is not so bad, she thought. She had passed the armchair and near the kitchen door when she fell. She quickly got up. “It never said you had to start again at the beginning.” Soon she reached the kitchen door.

“Impressive,” Jessie said, suddenly appearing. “Almost record time. But sorry, you failed.”

“Why?” Melissa was still panting, out of breath. “Was it my fall? It never said anything against it.”

“No, that was fine,” Jessie replied. “You just put the rope around your ankles. It said shoes.”

“But that’s impossible!” Melissa yelled. “I’m wearing high heels! How do you think I’m going to do it? You’re a cheater!”

“Let’s move onto the next test.” Jessie spread out the cards again. “Pick another card.”

Melissa glared as she picked a card on the left side.

“I’ll be back,” Jessie cooed as she turned around and left into the darkness.

This card said:

 

Yipee! You picked me! My challenge is really hard. You have to stack cards, so the top card is a foot above the ground. You have ten minutes. Like always, your time starts now!

 

“Uh, where are the cards?” Melissa asked, then saw the drawing on the bottom of the card. She felt so weird that she was pulling a deck of cards out of a card. “Alright. I’m not that good at stacking. Maybe… ”

She made a teepee with the cards, carefully trying not to tip it over. After balancing a card horizontally on top of that, the teepee fell over.

“This is so hard,” Melissa groaned. She tried again, and it fell over. She wasn’t even close to a foot. She tried again, and again, and again, and again, but every time it still fell over. Finally, the ten minutes was up.

“Melissa, your time is up,” Jessie said. “This test wasn’t really about stacking the cards, but about finding the secret to it. You must have misunderstood the question. All you had to do was put them on top of each other. Even if you had found out the last second, I would’ve given it to you.”

“Well… ”

“Well nothing,” Jessie said. “Pick another card. This will be your last chance.”

Melissa glared at Jessie as she picked a card right in the middle.

 

This card read:

 

I can’t believe it! Another read to add to my record. This is my tenth time being read! Anyway, my challenge to you is to sit still for five minutes straight without thinking about anything. The only thing you’re allowed to do is blink every minute and breathe every three seconds. Clear your mind! Your time starts now!

 

Melissa put down the card. “The only hard part about that is clearing your mind,” she smiled. “But it should be fun. After all, I was the president of the meditation club in college.”

She walked over to the armchair and sat. She took a big breath to start. Her mind cleared. She was aware of her breath patterns.

Five minutes later, Jessie came. “Good job — again, but sorry, you failed,” she informed.

“What?” Melissa shouted. “This is a joke. How? I should have passed! I followed all the rules! I’m going to leave now! If you keep me longer, you will not want to see your review!”

“Shh! Quiet down,” Jessie demanded. “There’s no need to be loud. You failed because of your breathing patterns. You didn’t follow the rules.”

“It’s impossible, then. You try!” Melissa stepped closer to Jessie as Jessie stepped away. “I was president of my meditation club. We did stuff like this all the time! And I got it right!”

“But that wasn’t a test, was it?” Jessie said, turning back to Melissa. “Time for the next test.”

“I don’t want to do another one,” Melissa said.

“Well then you can join Cathy and the Churchills,” Jessie responded. “I would be happy to take you there.”

So that’s how they got there, Melissa thought. “But why did they even come? How did you trick them? They’re smart. They wouldn’t fall for anything.”

“You did.” Jessie remained calm. “And I’d like to think that you’re smart. Do you?”

“You’re messing with my head,” Melissa told Jessie. “You didn’t trick me. It’s part of my job to come here, it’s not part of theirs.” She tightened.

“I told Cathy that there would be a cat convention there,” Jessie went on. “She loves cats. And the day before the Churchill’s anniversary, I told them it would be the perfect place for dinner.”

“How do you know Cathy likes cats?” Melissa pressed. “And the Churchill’s anniversary date? And they didn’t recognize you? And why would they believe it?”

“I told you I’m good at disguises,” Jessie reminded Melissa. “I dressed up like an elderly man and told them what they would like to hear. And I know things.”

“You know things? So do I,” Melissa stated. “But how did you know the little details that make a difference?”

“I know things,” Jessie repeated.

“I want you to go and tell those poor people what you did!”

“I’ll go over there with you,” Jessie responded. “But only one of us is coming back.”

Melissa huffed, but followed Jessie. “At least they’re happy,” she mumbled to herself. “Moe, I’ll try and be back soon.”

“Who’s Moe? Didn’t you say something about him earlier?” Jessie asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” It felt good for Melissa to finally tell Jessie it didn’t matter.

Once they got to the room, Jessie swiftly opened the door.

“Guys, Jessie would like to confess that she lied and tricked you into coming here,” Melissa said sincerely.

“Oh — but she told us,” Robert said, and the others didn’t look fazed. “We know that already.”

Melissa opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She turned to Jessie, but she was grinning.

“Now, will you go in? I have work to do.” Jessie smiled, closing the door on Melissa.

Melissa leaned against the door, but heard nothing except footsteps walking away. Suddenly, she realized something.

“Guys, have you ever tried to open the door?” Melissa asked.

“No; it’s locked,” Cathy said, frowning. “And we’re happy here, just playing cards all day.”

“And why would we want to leave? Jessie would be there,” Sarah agreed.

“But I want to find out what she does when we’re not there,” Robert chimed in. “Don’t you, girls?”

“I suppose,” Sarah said, and Cathy nodded.

“So would I,” added Melissa. “But don’t you realize that the door is unlocked? I didn’t hear anything lock after she walked away. Maybe she forgot.”

Melissa twisted the door knob, and it opened. She went on, whispering, “Let’s find out what she does all day!”

The three followed her out into the kitchen. No one was there. There was a window on the swinging kitchen doors, so they peeked through that. There was Jessie, sitting on the chair, talking to someone. They didn’t see the four.

“That must be the real boss,” Melissa said, and the others nodded. “I’m going to get a closer look.”

Moving angles, Melissa saw a slimy creature as big as her or her husband. The slime was dripping down him, onto the floor, leaving puddles, yet he never was completely out of slime. There were holes where his eyes, nose, and mouth would be, and when he moved his lips, you could clearly see that he was. He had the shape of a normal human body, with a face, arms, legs, and a chest.

“You did a good job today,” he said, his voice slimy. “Keep it up. I haven’t been here in a while, so this is a good welcome. I like this restaurant much better than that warehouse we were in for the past three months. Who are you going to trick next?”

“I don’t know,” Jessie admitted, “but I think someone named Vincent. I saw a picture of him on TV, and he looks like someone who would be quite gullible.”

“Where does he live?” this monster asked, his voice slurring. “He has to be close by.”

“He lives on Acorn Street,” Jessie answered.

Melissa tensed. “I live on Acorn Street,” she told the group. “He’s my neighbor.” She leaned in closer to hear better.

“How are you going to invite him?” the monster questioned, more slime still dripping.

“He apparently likes to bake, so I’m going to tell him that there is a baking contest,” Jessie replied.

“I’ll get to bake when I’m human,” the monster grumbled to himself. “I’ll make cookies.”

“What was that?” Jessie asked.

“Nothing. So back to this Melissa Momper,” the monster said. “What are you going to tell her business? Her family? For her there’s going to be a lot of questions.”

“I’m going to tell them that she decided to become a cook here, and she’s going to stay here,” Jessie responded.

“But won’t her husband come back and ask if she wants to bring clothes?” the monster pressed.

“Yes,” Jessie said. “He loves her and would be worried because of that.”

“I’ll get to feel that emotion when I’m human.”

“I can tell him to drop it off at the restaurant, and I’ll pick it up,” Jessie offered.

“We can’t have him here at the restaurant,” the monster pointed out. “He would suspect something. And wouldn’t he ask to see Melissa?”

“We can say she’s busy,” Jessie went on. “Or we could quickly let her out. I trust her. She seems too fragile to tell anything.”

“She might blab everything,” the monster accused. “And watch out what you say, or I might have your blood next!”

“We could monitor her,” Jessie suggested. “But oh — that would never work out. She could tell her husband. He could tell the police. But we can’t let her go.”

“No we can’t,” the monster agreed. “Oh, did you take the cars away so that they can’t escape?”

“Yes,” Jessie answered.

Melissa flushed. “Guys, have you ever thought that we could leave?” she asked. “They seem so distracted that they would never notice.”

“But what if we’re caught?” Cathy asked. “And they took the cars away.”

“Can we at least try?” Robert questioned.

Melissa smiled. Robert was always on her side. “Sarah? What do you think?”

“I say we give it a go,” she cheered, and Cathy playfully sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Okay,” Cathy gave in, but the other three could tell she was smiling.

“Great.” Slowly but quietly, Melissa cracked the door open. “Follow me.”

The three followed her. Melissa smiled. They were actually listening to her. That meant they believed in her. No one had ever done that before. It felt strange, but also felt nice.

They were lucky it was dark. They managed to stay in the shadows, and soon they passed Jessie in the chair. All was going well, and they were close to the doors, then:

“Do I smell humans?” the slime monster asked. “Jessie — go check on them. I can’t stand the smell.”

“Yes, Zorth,” Jessie replied.

“Zorth?” Melissa mouthed to the other three. “What kind of name is that?”

Robert shrugged.

“We have to get out of here quickly,” Sarah whisper-shouted. “Jessie is coming!”

Melissa nodded. She led the others further.

“STOP!” a voice demanded. The voice was strict and harsh. Quick footsteps approached them. Melissa didn’t want to turn around. “How did you unlock the door? I always lock it!”

“Jesssssie,” Zorth said, stretching out the “s.”

“It was unlocked,” Melissa said, gaining confidence. “I guess you forgot to lock it.”

“But — how?” Jessie stammered, but made the mistake of stopping in shock.

“Go!” Cathy whispered to the others.

They scrambled out of the building. Melissa could hear Zorth the slime monster grumbling inside.

“At least the smell is gone,” he murmured. “When I’m human, I’m going to put on perfume.”

 

“Keep running,” Melissa panted, running fast with the others. “She could catch up.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have a car,” Robert said. “Then we could really get ahead of her.”

“I did.” Melissa slowed. “But where did they put it?”

In the parking lot where Melissa had parked her car (as far away from the black car with tinted windows as she could), there were no cars. Even the black car wasn’t there.

“Oh, well. But we know Jessie took them.”

“Keep running,” Sarah repeated, starting to jog again. “I think I hear Jessie behind us.”

Down the abandoned streets they ran. It was hard to make out things in the darkness, but soon their eyes adjusted. The cobblestones make echoing noises under their feet, and the trees loomed over them like that slime monster, Zorth.

Suddenly, a branch moved. The four all heard it. A head peaked out from among the other branches. “Hello,” the voice said. It was that same strict and harsh voice as before. Jessie.

“Ahh!” Melissa jumped back into Cathy, who fell into Sarah, who collapsed onto Robert.

“Guys, keep running!” Robert ordered, straightening up. “Keep going. Don’t stop!”

They ran for a while, Jessie behind them. How Jessie got there so fast, they didn’t know. Finally, they were completely out of breath and had to stop for a minute.

“Jessie is still coming, but I can’t run anymore,” Cathy whined, holding her chest. “I haven’t run this fast for a while!”

“Oh no! Jessie is about to be here! We’re doomed!” Melissa cried. “What are we going to do?”

“Hide?” Cathy guessed, and shrugged.

Honk, honk!

The four turned. “Moe?” Melissa said. “What are you doing here?”

They all got in the car, and Moe started driving away quickly. “I was looking for you,” he told them. “You were out so late, Melissa. It’s almost midnight. What were you doing? You were supposed to be back by eight at the latest. And Cathy, Sarah, Robert… I see you moved back.”

“We never moved anywhere,” Robert replied, confused.

Moe’s eyes widened. “Why were you running? Melissa, where’s your car?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I parked it in the parking lot, but it just… disappeared. I’m glad we have yours though.”

“So your solution was running home?” Moe asked, slightly laughing. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I forgot I had my phone,” Melissa lied. She was glad Moe hadn’t noticed Jessie, because that would have been a whole another set of questions.

Wait —

Melissa turned to look in the rear-view mirror, only to see Jessie, standing where they just were, seemingly smirking directly at Melissa. Melissa looked closer and realized Jessie was holding Melissa’s phone.

Le Fin

 

The Bad Sleepover

      

I’m in my room reading my book, but not really paying attention because I’m so excited for the sleepover I’m about to have with my best friend Lynn.

My dad drives me to Lynn’s house, which is only five minutes away. When I get there, I ring the doorbell and wait. Inside her house I hear her running for the door. Then, Lynn opens the door, and I run and hug her. I haven’t seen her for a few weeks.

“I missed you, Lynn!”

“Me too, Aliza!” she says, sounding a little nervous.

When we get inside, I follow Lynn to her room. Once I’m in her room, the familiar smell of strawberries greets me. If I was blindfolded, I would know exactly where I am. I also recognize the neatness of her room. The same mini elephant sculpture I had given her many years ago is still there. Then I turn around, and I’m surprised to see another girl in Lynn’s room that looks about our age. She towers over Lynn because she is so tall. I’m tall for my age, but she is still taller than me.

“Who is that?” the girl asks Lynn.

“She’s my best friend Aliza,” Lynn replies.

“You said that I’m your best friend though.”

“What is going on here?” I say, confused.

Lynn tells me that the girl’s name is Stella, and she just moved into the house next to Lynn’s. Then, she tells me that now she has two best friends.

I am so mad that I practically scream what I say next. “But is she sleeping over too?!

“Yes! Aren’t you excited?” Lynn replies.

“No,” I say quietly.

“Lynn, can we go to the bathroom and talk alone?

“I guess?” Lynn says, questioning me.

Once we are in the bathroom with the hospital smell, I ask why she had invited Stella to the sleepover. Lynn tells me that she can have more than one best friend.

“But I’ve known you for five years, and you’ve only known her for two days!” I tell Lynn angrily, looking at the bright pink walls.

Lynn has the same nervous look on her face, only ten times worse than when she saw me at the door. “Let’s go,” Lynn says.

We go back into Lynn’s room and find Stella putting on makeup in front of Lynn’s mirror. She spins around when she sees us.

“What were you guys doing in there?” Stella asks.

“Nothing,” I say.

“Yeah right,” she says quietly, but I could still hear her.

We go downstairs to eat dinner. It is mac ‘n cheese (my favorite.) But for some reason, I don’t think it is going to taste as good today.

 

After we are done eating dinner, Lynn asks us what movie we want to watch. Stella says she wants to watch Moana, but I want to watch The Secret Life Of Pets. Lynn says that we should watch Moana because Stella is the guest. She completely forgot that I am a guest, too.

 

Once the movie is over, we get ready to take showers. Stella asks if Lynn will take a shower with her, and I am sure that Lynn would say no because that would leave me out.

But Lynn says, “Yes!”

So then I am left alone. I could hear Lynn and Stella singing in the shower. I feel like Lynn turned into a totally different person.

 

When it’s finally time for arranging our sleeping bags and going to sleep, Stella wants to sleep next to Lynn. I do too. So I suggest that Lynn should sleep in the middle, but Stella takes her spot. I have to sleep next to Stella. The whole night, Stella and Lynn stay up whispering. I fall asleep hoping that things will be better in the morning.

 

When I wake up, Lynn and Stella aren’t in Lynn’s room anymore. I hear voices downstairs, so I walk down. Once I am in the kitchen, I see Stella and Lynn eating pancakes and talking. Lynn sees me and gasps.

“Oh my gosh Aliza! I’m so, so, so sorry! I totally forgot that you were still sleeping!” Lynn almost screams.

“It’s okay,” I say quietly even though it wasn’t okay.

 

When Lynn hands me my plate of pancakes, I sit down and think up a plan. If somehow I can get Stella to not like Lynn, then maybe Stella will leave us alone. After breakfast, when Lynn and Stella are brushing their teeth, I write a note in Lynn’s handwriting. This is the note.

 

Hi Stella!

I’m sorry to say this to you, but I like Aliza more

Than you. Actually I hate you. Once you see this

note make sure to never talk to me again or else!

Make sure you listen to this note or you will regret

it!

Lynn

 

 

The note is perfect. I slip it in Stella’s sleeping bag and go to brush my teeth. When Stella gets home and reads the note, she will never talk to Lynn again! Once I am done brushing my teeth, I go outside to find Stella and Lynn playing volleyball.

 

“Oh hi, Aliza,” Stella says with no expression.

“Hi, Stella,” I say back to her.

I notice that Lynn doesn’t say anything when I come out. I wonder if she feels bad for me. If she does, she shouldn’t have invited Stella for the sleepover in the first place.

 

Stella leaves Lynn’s house first. I hope I’ll finally have time with Lynn, but my dad comes right after Stella leaves. When I get in the car, my Dad asks how the sleepover was. I don’t like to upset my dad, so I say that it was fun.

 

As I walk to school on Monday, I worry that Stella will not listen to the note and talk to Lynn. If that happens, Lynn will say that she didn’t write the note, and they will figure out that it was me. Then, Lynn will be mad at me and be friends with Stella again. On the other hand, if Stella does listen to the note, then Lynn will notice that Stella isn’t talking to her and ask her why. They will figure out that it was me either way. This is bad. I have to fix things quick, or they will figure out that I wrote the note.

 

Waiting for class to start, I have an idea. I know that Stella is deathly allergic to peanuts. I decide to to tell Stella that last night at the sleepover I had been eating peanuts, and a few had fallen into Stella’s sleeping bag. That will scare her and cause her to throw out the sleeping bag with the note in it. So at recess, I go to find Stella. I see her eating pretzels near the front gate. I figure that she hasn’t unpacked her sleeping bag yet, so I go on with my plan. I walk up to her.

 

“Hi, Stella,” I say loud enough so that she will turn and look at me.

“Hi, Aliza,” she replies sounding sad.

“What’s the matter?” I ask her.

“I got a note from Lynn saying she hated me.”

 

Uh-oh, I think. My plan won’t work. She already saw the note. I have to think of something really, really fast. I start to think about what I already know about Stella. I think that Stella is really stubborn. I know what I can do. I will use Stella’s stubbornness to my advantage.

 

“Hey, Stella. I can’t imagine Lynn writing that, so maybe it was just a bad dream,” I say to Stella calmly.

“You’re right Aliza! It probably was!!” Stella says excitedly.

 

Problem solved! The only problem now is Stella will be friends with Lynn again. But I can deal with that. And besides, now Lynn will be happy, which makes me happy. And I like being happy.

 

The rest of the week is as ordinary as ever. On Friday though, I get an invitation from Stella to have a sleepover at her house with Lynn. I say yes before I even think about it. But I am worried that the sleepover will be like last week’s.

 

On Saturday afternoon, my dad drives me to Stella’s house, and I surprise myself by being excited. When I arrive, Lynn is already there. She and Stella are in a room playing cards.

“Hi, Aliza!” Stella and Lynn say at the same time.

 

Once their game is over, we head downstairs to eat dinner. We are having hot-dogs (another one of my favorites). After dinner, we take showers all together! We lay out our sleeping bags in a circle this time so that no one is left out. I remember how I felt last week when we went to bed. Today is the total opposite.

 

The next morning, I wake up first, so I creep downstairs to get a glass of water. When I get back to Stella’s room, Stella is awake. We play a card game together when Lynn starts sleep talking. Stella and I laugh so loudly that Lynn wakes up.

“What’s so funny?” she asks.

“You were sleep talking,” Stella and I say at the same time.

After breakfast, we sit on the couch with our arms linked together. I am in the middle. We are all wearing fancy dresses because in the afternoon we are going to watch a musical. I have the feeling that Stella, Lynn, and I are going to be best friends forever. And that would be awesome.

 

The Donkeys

The donkeys wait at the side of the road. One Westerly Hill Close. A dead end. No one has traveled down there for years until the doctor. The Doctor. The one. The ruler that changed everything.

 

The donkeys watched when he arrived. They didn’t know. They anticipated fear. Of themselves, of course. The traveler was just a lone man. He would survive. Maybe.

The donkeys didn’t know that he would survive, of course. They had no way of changing the course of nature. No cures could be invented, for the donkeys were just billboards, after all, advertising houses that would never be sold. However, what made them the donkeys, and not signs, was that they were sentient, and that is why the Doctor came. To cure them.

He had heard the rumors. That the donkeys enticed people through mesmerization and broke them mentally. There was only one rumor, of a young lad on a dare who never came back, but it was enough. Shattered. Mentally. Forever. That’s how those unfortunate souls were until their death.

He wanted to fix the donkeys, being the good doctor he believed himself to be.

At the tender age of twenty-one, he was already in medical school. He thought he knew what to do. The Doctor believed himself superior to all of his peers, skipping classes and refusing to take exams, saying he wanted to give the other students a fair shot. But if he had taken his classes, the fate that lay ahead of him at this moment would have had a chance of being averted.

The donkeys sensed his approach. From afar they knew he would be arriving soon. After conversing amongst themselves, they agreed to let him upon them. It’s not like they had much choice; they had no way of stopping him from coming. But making it sound like they were deciding to let him made the donkeys feel more confident.

The doctor edged upon them, noting their larger than life flanks and all of the grime and dirt covering the billboard (no wonder people weren’t buying those houses!). From the side of his long, white jacket, he drew his lethal weapon: a bar of soap.

The donkeys were in shock. He scrubbed and scrubbed the donkeys until you could see every speck of shine on them.

The donkeys were not used to this sensation of godliness and cleanliness. It felt pleasant, but almost as if they were bare. Vulnerable. This contrasted greatly to the mud balls they were used to, thrown by the schoolboys every Tuesday and Thursday, though the donkeys didn’t seem to find a pattern in the days that those muddy splotches were fired.

But the Doctor, being his cocky self, forgot to put on gloves when applying the “treatment.” That was his biggest mistake.

The donkeys, meanwhile, were in awe of this role that a person could play in helping the lives of others.

They wanted more. More of it. All of it. Soap. More.

Slowly, they started creaking. Back and forth. Back and forth.

If anyone were listening closely to the sounds they made, they could make out the word “soap” being chanted over and over again. But the doctor wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was staring at his hands, which were turning green.

The donkeys knew what was happening to the Doctor, but they couldn’t stop it. The real criminal was Microbial Mat, or Mat for short. He had driven the first man to see them in years, the one that the original rumor was about, insane, and now he was doing it again.

They wanted that soap bad, though, and the Doctor for sure was going to be the one that gave it to them.

The green hands were stage one, the donkeys recalled from last time. Stone hard knuckles happened around stage two, and mind brokenness was stage three, the final stage.

The doctor was freaking. He had never seen anything like this in all of his life. Why in the world this was happening, he had no idea. And then, when stage two rolled around, his hands drooped down to his sides, and he couldn’t pick them up.

The donkeys started to worry. This clean man had the soap that would make them all shiny and new. They could not let this opportunity slip away.

They creaked. Louder and louder. But alas, the man had slipped into insanity and was now walking to the highway.

The poor Doctor was never sighted by the public again. Alive.

 

The donkeys slowly stopped their chorus of creaks. The doctor had wandered away a while ago, and they felt almost certain that there were more stages, much worse stages, that they were unaware of.

They then focused on the new prize laying on the ground, a bar of soap that had fallen out of the man in the white coat.

The donkeys wanted that soap. They needed to feel cleaner and fresher, unlike the old, dirty selves they were moments before.

They needed that soap. Unfortunately, he soap they had on them had since been flung mistakenly. Wasted.

They tried. But alas, it was too far away for even the longest elder to take a whack at.

For time and time they tried. Their life had this purpose now. To be clean. To feel clean. But they needed more soap.

Day turned into night and night into day, and so on time went. It meant nothing to the donkeys. It never had. All that mattered in life was soap. Soap, and nothing else.

 

It was twilight and months later when their pleas were finally heard.

A stray mudball hit the soap exactly right so that it flew into the air, landing right at the donkeys’ leader’s figurative feet. Huzzah! was the word of the year while this feat, miraculous for all witnessing, happened. However, there was a small issue. No one could use the soap.

It lay on the ground. The soap had melted and reformed with the seasons, and it was now partially made up of sticks and mud. And Microbial Mat, of course, though the donkeys were unaware of that small matter.

There was nothing, once again, that any one of the donkeys could do. So simple, to pick up the filthy but clean morsel, yet none of them could.

On the five hundred and seventy-second day of waiting, just out of reach from the soap, the donkeys made a new note: the skies were full of birds migrating. One of those birds could come down and steal their precious soap!

They conversed about what they could possibly do, but no suggestions were made. Therefore, when a bird swooped down and plucked the soap from the grassy area, the donkeys just stayed still. No objections.

 

The bird later on would fly to a worldwide famous animal hospital in LA while it was migrating, where it would go crazy of a mental illness and later on die. Doctors were unsure of the cause, but noted that the bird, during its last days alive, was turning green and weighed significantly more than when he first entered their care.

 

Doctors that went to school with the one that will henceforth be referenced under the title “The Unfortunate” found his mentally insane self right before he died. Their notes were the same as the doctors under the care of the bird. As soon as the story of the bird hit the paper, the doctors that worked with “The Unfortunate” reached out to that LA animal hospital. The doctors, now to be referred to as “The Unfortunate’s Peers,” said that they knew what “killed the cat,” so to speak. They knew where he was before he died, and they thought that there should be something against this terror that no one was certain of. All they wanted was money. Money for info.

The hospital doctors agreed.

 

The donkeys were in dismay. All that seemed worthwhile in their lives was gone.

Gone.

Forever.

Or so they thought, until the guys in hazmat suits and oxygen masks showed up.

People! was their first reaction.

Soap! was their second.

 

The donkeys had no idea where they were.

They had gone through a machine that was taking photos of them, and then were scanned before placed in a giant tub of water where they were cleaned (soap!), and are now lying in.

They knew Mat must have followed them, and that Mat must be what they were trying to get rid of.

They knew that Mat could kill them all.

But the donkeys didn’t care. They had soap, and that was all that mattered.

Well, that was all that mattered until someone in the background confirmed that the donkeys had Microbial Mat, or Microbialis Mattias as they called it.

All of a sudden, the donkeys were whisked into the air, and, from gloved hands, were passed onto a conveyor belt. Gloves, water, everything that had touched the donkeys, including a poor cat, was thrown onto it.

“Send them to the shredder!” a person who appeared to be in charge proclaimed.

The conveyor belt slowly chugged to life and started to accelerate towards a furnace of a sort.

The donkeys, however, did not know what was going on. They understood that people were talking, but not what they were saying, and they thought this would lead them to Soapy Wonders Palace™.

Seventeen minutes later, all that remained of the donkeys was smoke, paper shreds, and ashes.

Eighteen minutes later, all that remained of the cat was a stain on the conveyor belt, from where she had a nervous accident.

 

However, the doctors were unaware of one thing: the bird that caused the unfortunate deaths of the donkeys had come in contact with no less than twenty objects and animals, all of which in doing so passed on Microbialis Mattias. Therefore, Mat was, and is, not dead. And, though the donkeys didn’t know it, they had Mat inside of them. That was why “The Unfortunate” got contaminated and why the scan showed up positive. So, while destroying the donkeys felt important, it means nothing unless all things contaminated by Microbialis Mattias are destroyed. And, as time goes on, more things are not only going to get contaminated, but many more living things will go insane and die.

So, the foolish plan to destroy the donkeys, therefore destroying Mat, was worthless, as of now, at least. Especially because the doctors now believe that Microbialis Mattias is an extinct germ.

The worst part of it all? The hospital notified the government after destroying every single sample they had of Microbialis Mattias. Now, not only is the “leader” fired, but they have nothing to reference to if there is an outbreak, or to find a cure for the people infected.

Boy, was that a mistake.

 

The remnants of the donkeys had hit a man’s pants. This man happened to be the person that yelled for the donkeys to be set to the shredder. He must have brushed past the conveyor belt as he was walking out. He was unaware of it, however, and proceeded to go home and wash his outfit with his little son’s clothes.

Those clothes were the first to touch the brand new slide of the public elementary school. As soon as that happened, fate was sealed.

Mat was there. Spread. And, it being July, he had plenty of time to grow.

The snake was born on that day. The slide didn’t believe himself to be the lousy self that he was moments before. He was the snake, and there was peanut butter in the air.

From his days as the slide, kids rode on him, with peanut butter dripping everywhere. He hated being dirty, but loved the smell of peanut butter.

The snake wanted peanut butter.

And would stop at nothing, just to taste peanut butter.

Nothing.

 

Selena and the Big Secret

     

Chapter One: The Mist

I have brown hair, a blue shirt, black pants, and black shoes. I have blue eyes and brownish lips. We were on the Mist! The most famous boat on the whole ocean! I couldn’t even believe we had enough money to go to England! I felt like I was the luckiest girl in the world.

 

Chapter Two: Oh No!

I loved the ocean. The gentle breeze of the ocean. I wish I would never leave, but tomorrow I was going back home. I heard a big shrieking sound from below deck! I ran down to the source of the sound. The foamy ocean water was filling up the boat, and I went back up to the deck.

 

Chapter Three: Flashback!

I am Selena Sleek and the most unpopular girl in college. I am being bullied by the most popular kid in college, Ashley Kironoe. The most valuable thing I own is an antique-looking trophy. I won a swimming competition. I have a simple apartment, and it has a dresser with lots of perfumes, mascara, and all the makeup you could think of. I have a tiny, regular bed. I had a big closet with all the dream clothes of the world, all the dream shoes, shirts, pants. I go to the mall every Saturday. But I was still only the next popular from the mold in the girl’s shower!

 

Chapter Four: Flashforward!

We had crashed into a big rock, and I ran to the lifeboats, but I was too late. I was stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean. I took a deep breath and jumped. I got out of the water and kept swimming until I saw a dot. I got excited and swam until I fell on the beach. I got up and put together some palm leaves. I fell gratefully on the leaves and went to sleep. But before I went to sleep, I saw a small elephant and a tiny monkey crawling to me. And do you know what they had on their skin? They had names: Jimbo for the monkey and Lena for the elephant. I wasn’t scared, even though I saw them.

 

Chapter Five: The Island

When I woke up, I made a big fire. I saw a cruise ship and made a big HELP in the sand. I jumped up and down. The cruise ship didn’t see me because the fire went out. I ran to the hill and started the fire up again. Then, I ran back to the beach and jumped up and down.

 

Chapter Six: The Rescue

The cruise ship started turning and saw me. The boat came toward me, and someone threw down a liferaft. I got up a ladder on the side of the boat. The boat was called The Whale. I looked around the whole boat, but my parents weren’t on the boat. Then, I got a fruit salad and water. I ate it all and changed clothes. I wore a pretty dress, and this time I always stayed near the lifeboats. Now I was scared. After a few minutes, I washed my clothes and borrowed a towel to wrap them up.

 

Chapter Seven: UGH!

The boat went to the highest speed. Then we turned, and we got into a storm. I thought I must be jinxed or something. I grabbed a lifeboat, and I rowed away. I took one last look at the boat and rowed as far as I could. When I couldn’t row away anymore, I fell asleep on my towel. When I woke up, I looked at my watch inside the towel. It was 6:00 am, and I rowed until 9:00 pm. I saw land and rowed back home.

 

Chapter Eight: The Hospital

I woke up in the hospital, and I tried to get up. I couldn’t do it because of all the wires. My parents came in.

They said, “You are ready to come back home.”

“Yay!” I said.

We went back home, and we all stayed home the whole day. I slept the whole day. The next day, I went to school.

Ashley said, “Meet me after school in the yard, okay.”

I said, “Okay.” We both went to class, and I didn’t get a single question correct in worry of what Ashley was going to do to me.

 

Chapter Nine: The New Start

I saw Ashley in the yard. She was standing next to the flagpole and leaning on it. Then, I saw a limousine, and Princess Diamond told me to come inside. She was wearing a pink ball gown with a pink jeweled tiara on her head and had blonde hair, blue eyes, red lipstick, and pink ballet shoes. I went inside, and she told me why she hadn’t come before. The king said that she shouldn’t tell me until I was ready.

 

Chapter Ten: The Palace

We drove all the way to the palace, and I got cookies. We arrived, and people bowed. We went inside the palace, which was pink, and there were lots of turrets and lots of towers. We went inside, and I was awed by the sight. There were more pillars. The whole castle was pink.

We went to a huge bedroom, and princess Diamond said, “This is your room.”

I jumped on the bed. I went to Princess Diamond and said, “What is this all about?”

Princess Diamond said, “Didn’t you know you’re a princess?”

I was so shocked that I ran back to the bedroom and laid down on the bed. I looked around and thought that this was all a dream. I pinched myself, but I didn’t wake up. I realized this was actually happening to me. I picked up a comb and brushed my hair like it was the most relaxing thing in the world, which it was. It was a magical hair brush that changed hair styles and hair colors. I felt I could outsmile the sun. My hair was now blonde and all wavy, like it was the most beautiful hair in the world, which it was. I looked around in the dresser for something else magical. I figured out everything was. Then I got red lipstick, which made my lips all glittery. Then I sat on my bed with a face mask. I was wondering what it would do to me. Then when I took it off, I saw that everything I ever thought was bad about my face was gone.

A maid came and said, “Dinner is ready, and change clothes.”

I changed into a purple diamond dress and went down to dinner. I ate a big turkey and went back upstairs. I jumped on the bed and then went to sleep.

 

Chapter Eleven: The First Day

I woke up the next day in the big, fluffy bed. I changed my clothes and rang the tiny bell next to my bed. A servant came with a silver tray and set it on the bed. I ate my breakfast and went to explore the rest of the castle.

 

Chapter Twelve: The Treasure Room

I went to the treasure room and looked at the sight. The whole room was glittering from the gold. I went back to my room and found a little box. I found Princess Diamond and asked what was in the box. She said it was my tiara for princess school.

I said, “Wow, I didn’t know I was going to princess school!”

 

Chapter Thirteen: Princess School

The next day, I got ready for princess school. Princess Diamond said that I would need ballet shoes, tutu skirts, two ball gowns, lots and lots of makeup, lots of books, a magic scepter, and, of course, my princess crown tiara. I got all that into a pink, sparkly suitcase. Then, I went to explore the rest of the castle. I saw a throne room. I sat on my throne and pretended to be the king.

 

Chapter Fourteen: The Friend Walked In

Then, the king walked in! Princess Diamond was with him.

Then they said, “We have a special guest for you.”

Then, my friend from my old school, Cassie, walked in. We went to my room, and we played with the millions of dolls I had. Then, we played with my humongous dollhouse. It was so big, we could even play inside! Then, the king came in and said Cassie had to leave. I said goodbye to Cassie and gave her my humongous dollhouse, but shrunk it down first with a magic scepter.

Then, I said, “As soon as you touch it, go inside the bag, set it on the floor, and it will turn humongous again.”

Then, Cassie left my room, and I went to sleep. I felt really sad, and I wondered if I would ever see Cassie again.

 

Chapter Fifteen: The Truth

I grabbed my suitcase and went down for breakfast. I was feeling a little homesick.

I said “Bring my family here!”

Then, the servant left with the carriage, and a few minutes later, with the help of the magic scepter, my parents were in the carriage. I explained the whole story to them. Then, I saved the best for last, I was a princess!

My mom said, “You know what this means, right?”

I said, “Of course I do! I get to be a princess!”

Then, my mom said, “No, it means that you are not our daughter!”

Then, my dad spoke. “Let us tell you the real story. We found you in a pink basket on our doorstep. We got you a crib, and then we kept you because then we didn’t know who your parents were. Then you grew up, and you know the rest.”

I was so dissapointed. I felt like I was falling down a cliff.

My mom said, “Then what did you think when you found out you were a princess?”

I said, “I thought maybe you were keeping some secret from me, like you were the king and queen. I think that’s why you’ve been so secretive lately. Maybe the king gave you a message. And why your faces are so white right now. I am so mad at you two. Go away and never come back!”

They left using my magic scepter.

 

Chapter Sixteen: The First Day

I was really nervous. I wondered if I was going to make a new friend. I was in the royal carriage going to school. Now I was at the school. I went to my room at C4. I met my new roommate, Ashley. I couldn’t believe I had to room with her! She was my only enemy.

She said, “Don’t worry. I’m not rooming with you. I’m just here for a visit. Your new roommate is Princess Julie. I told my parents I was really good friends with you, so I came here.”

I was so relieved she wasn’t my roommate! Princess Julie came in.

She said, “Hello. What’s your name?”

I felt like I was going to be friends with her. We put on our practice princess crowns. The bell rang, and we went off to our first class, history. When we got to class, Miss J told us to sit in our seats and get our history books out. I got out History of a Princess. I turned to page one, and we wrote our names in. We read until the end of class. Then, we went to manners class. We went down, and we saw a big table with lots of spoons and forks on it. Miss M told us to place them in the correct order. Then, we took out our manners books.

Miss M gave a big speech: “You must learn how to do manners this year and not anything wrong, or I will expel you!”

Princess Julie said, “Sheesh. What a meanie!”

Then, the class was over, and we went to ballet class. We did pirouettes and balance. Then when that was done, we went to lunch. We ate our lunch of milkshakes and cookies and ice cream and then went to computer class.

Princess Julie said, “I wonder what we do here. I guess we just do some coding.”

Then, the computers turned on, and we ended up doing Minecraft the whole day. I like Minecraft.

Miss L said, “We’re not going to do something princessy today. We’re going to do Minecraft.”

We ended up doing Minecraft the whole day. Then, we went to magic class. We all made rainbows with our scepters. I felt like it was really, really easy. I read the Magic for Beginners book before, so I knew everything. Then, we went back to our room. We each took a shower, and then we went to bed. I reached out to turn off the light, but a little pink fairy came in and turned it off.

 

Chapter Seventeen: The Rest of the Year

Through the year, I met Princess Julie, Princess Tina, Princess Lily, and Princess Kylie. They all became my friends. I only made two enemies this year at Princess School. The princess’s name was Princess Precious, and the prince’s name was Prince Arthur. He was the youngest king who ever lived when he got older. They bullied me and called me names.

 

Chapter Eighteen: The Test

I took the last year test. It was called Princess Year. They tested us on all the things that we ever learned that year. But I say it wasn’t that much. I already knew how to do all that stuff. Most of what we did was reading. Before the last year test, I was really, really nervous because I didn’t know what Princess Year really was. But now that I finished it, I felt like I got everything correct.

Precious was still my enemy, and so was her new boyfriend, Prince Arthur. Do you know why Precious likes him? It’s because they both don’t like me. I wish she would like me. I didn’t do anything wrong to her; I even gave her a present! She got a tiara, and Prince Arthur got a new horse. Now he uses it for races and other stuff like that, and he still enjoys it, but he still doesn’t like me. I think they don’t like me because of my past. After the test, we all went to the Princess Tea. We all had some tea and some pastries. We celebrated later in the summer with all our 100s on the test, and do you know what Precious and Arthur got? They got zeroes on all of them. I bet they’re a little jealous too.

 

Chapter Nineteen: The End

When summer started, all of our friends hung out. We went to the beach, and we also went to my castle. We met some princes at the prince’s school, we went to my old house, and we went to the dance class. We did not meet my fake parents, and I’m really happy for that. I hope they never know what a traitor they were (my friends). I really like dancing. We still ate pastries, and we got new tiaras at the end of the year, but Precious and Arthur didn’t because they didn’t get anything correct, not even the questions were correct.

Our ones were all pink jeweled and identical. I wear it all the time in the palace, and I still have a lot of fun. Most of the time, I wear the pink gown that I wore on the first day that I came. And also, do you want to know something? I took a picture with all my friends, and I know they’ll be my friends until the end, except maybe Prince Arthur.

 

The End.

 

Out There

 

Colors explode on everything around

Wind blows colors to new places

I smile in pure pleasure looking at the beautiful world

Floating in the now gentle breeze are thousands of leaves

Twilight comes, the sun lowers

Streaking the sky with purple and pink

Stars come out to play

Abstract reality surrounds our world in pieces

Sadly, I am not out there, but behind my window

 

Treasure in Washington Monument

Once, on a sunny day in Washington D.C., a girl named Lily stared out at the Washington Monument. A few hours earlier, her mom had gotten separated from her in the crowd.

***

She had my ticket, which meant that I couldn’t get out. I looked through the crowds, and I thought, so many people! As night fell, the crowd left. Then, it was only me. Or so I thought. I roamed around the monument, looking at the displays.

 

Creak! I heard a sound from the other room.

“Where is the treasure,” he whispered.

Just then, a piece of paper floated into the room I was in. My heart was beating fast. I picked up the piece of paper. It said, Treasure in Washington Monument.

“Ah ha, so he is looking for the treasure,” I said to myself. I decided to find it first.

I sat down on the floor and thought, What if this is just a rumor. But I decided to go with it. I stared at the paper. It said, Treasure in monument. Hidden in bricks. Top secret.

Not so secret anymore, I thought. Before I could do anything, I heard a whisper.

“Where did that paper go?” He sounded angry. I shivered and held the paper close. If I was going to find the treasure, I better find it fast. If it was a brick that the treasure was in, it would be loose. I wiggled some of the bricks, and l realized that this would take forever. I glanced down at the paper and saw that in the corner in tiny writing was, P.S. it’s on the second floor.

I now had a major lead. Heading down to the second floor wasn’t going to be easy, but I was determined. I could hardly wait to see my mother’s face. As I raced down the steps, I felt like I was being followed. When I turned around, I saw a shape. Uh-oh! I was stuck in the Washington Monument with a thief that could do anything to me.

I ducked into the bathroom and started thinking. He was bigger than me, smarter, stronger. Who knew what he could do to me. But I was going to find the treasure, no matter what.

I looked out the bathroom window and saw it was getting light. After staying up all night, I was really tired. I yawned and got up. I thought again. Was finding the treasure worth risking my life. If he had a weapon, he could kill me. I had to make a decision, should I look for the treasure or hide? I decided to hide. I really wanted to find the treasure, but I didn’t want to get hurt.

“Lily!” It was Mom. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry! Security made me get out. Are you okay?” she asked. She looked worried.

“I’m fine!”

The next day at school, my teacher was teaching math. I thought it was boring and wrote my adventure from yesterday down. My hair was all tangled, and my shoes were worn-out. That was fun, but I was glad it was all over. It was pretty scary! I thought. But I might go back to investigate!

 

Part Two

I was sitting in my classroom. I thought of what happened the day before.

Maybe, I thought, I can go back and see if the thief is there tonight. This time, I will take my mom with me.

“Attention, everyone. Mr. Poop is absent today. Music is canceled,” the principal announced. Everyone groaned. This meant math for the rest of the day.

That night, I told my mom about my idea. After some thought, she said, “I will come with you. However, you have to promise to stay with me. Let’s pack.”

We walked to the Monument, and I told Mom we should sneak in through the side. As we walked up the stairs, I heard a man’s voice. “I didn’t do music today, so I could plan.”

I couldn’t hear the rest because my mom interrupted. “Lily, hurry up!”

“Mom, someone is here in the monument!”

“Really?!”

“Listen!”

“The treasure is on the second floor. I pulled out the brick a little,” the man said. He knows where the treasure is, I thought.

We made our way up to the second floor, and I was thinking about what the man had said. I didn’t do music today so I could plan. Those words seemed to bother me a little. They sounded weird.

When we got to the second floor, I saw a brick that was half pulled out. I ran towards it and jerked it out. I heard footsteps. I looked where the brick used to be. In there, was a glimmering necklace. The footsteps were getting louder. I snatched the necklace and pulled my mom into a closet. I watched to see how the thief would react. It was too dark to see his face, but he groped around and stuck his hand in the hole. “Huh,” he made a weird noise. I tried not to laugh. “Where did that brick go,” he yelled.

He pulled out his phone.

“Mr. Snogglewartle, the treasure is gone!” the thief said. I gasped. Mr. Snogglewartle was my principal’s name!

“Mom, did you hear that! My principal is working with the thief!”

“Oh my!” she said, sounding surprised.

“Let’s get out of here!” I said. As we were going down, we heard footsteps. We started to run.

“What are you doing!” the thief said.

We ran faster. Finally, he caught up to us. “Mr. Poop! What are you doing here?” He didn’t answer. Oh well, at least that answers the, I didn’t do music today because I had to plan. He was my music teacher! We fled.

“Wait!” Mr. Poop yelled.

We ran all the way home. For about 20 minutes, just straight running.

At home, we slammed the door shut. “Where should we put the necklace?” I asked my mom.

“We want to keep it safe. If the story leaks, we are in big trouble.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because, if the story leaks, then thieves are going to try to steal the necklace.”

“So? Where should we put the necklace?” I asked my mom. After a while of thought, my mom thought that we should donate it to a museum.

“If we donate it to a museum, it could be seen by many people. For everyone to enjoy.”

Thief in monument caught. That was what it said in the newspaper.

The next day, I was at the museum. The necklace in its display case glimmered more than ever. Under the display was a small, yellow card. It said, Donated by Miss Lily Burger. I was happy it said my name on it.

I felt really glad that the necklace was in its place. Everything had turned out well, I thought. In the end, I was happy with everything that had happened.

 

The Signs of Summer

    

The bright yellow sun

The tall grass

The big white clouds

The cold drinks

 

The fresh smell of flowers

The crash of small waves

The buzz of bees

The hot sand in the ocean breeze

The big trees

The birds flapping their wings

The fresh air

The clear blue sky

 

People walking by

As kids beam

At ice cream

On their bicycle rides

 

As the moon is bright during the night

And the bright yellow sun shines over it all

The tall grass

The big white clouds

The cold drinks

And the ice cream

These are the signs of summer.

 

Something Broken

 

Katnissa

As I walk into the dining room, my mom says, “Katnissa. You’re late.”

“Sorry,” I say. “I was out with Galeian at the park.”

Galeian is my best friend. He and I have been best friends since we started kindergarten when we were five. I still remember on the first day of kindergarten I wore my hair in two braids instead of one (now the only hairstyle I wear is one braid over my left shoulder) and I was so nervous. He was the only one who was nice to me. Now, we are going into eighth grade. This year is the year we try out for high school. If we don’t go to the same high school, we won’t be friends anymore, and that would be sad.

“What’s for dinner,” I say.

“Spaghetti with meat sauce,” my mom says. “You know tomorrow you have an interview.”

“I know,” I reply.

“Don’t you want to prepare?”

“No,” I say.

I walk upstairs and flop facedown on my bed. Uhh, I don’t want to do this. I wish I was in kindergarten again, then I could be friends with Galeian forever and never have to leave. That is my only wish.

 

I wake up the next morning and immediately feel the warmth and coziness of the blanket on top of me. Then, I realize that I have my interview today, so I am allowed the skip school to go to my interview at Lexington High School. My bedroom is literally covered with posters of Alex Morgan, Lionel Messi, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo.

I grab my phone off the nightstand and text Galeian, Hey are you nervous for our interview??

He almost instantly texts me and says, No, you.

And I say, Yes, a bit.

And he says, It’s okay don’t be nervous.

I then text, Meet you there.

When I stand up, I feel the shooting pain in my feet that you get when you first get up.

“Ow,” I mutter under my breath.

I open my drawer as it makes a low creaking sound. Creeeeeeeak. Then, I take my favorite shirt out of the drawer. It’s a black turtleneck sweaterish sort of thing. It’s plain, but I really like it. I also take out a pair of jeans. Then, I braid my hair into braid over my left shoulder, just like every morning. As I walk downstairs, I hear the slamming of our car’s trunk and the sound of our old garage doors closing. Yes, I can admit we don’t have the nicest house or the newest things, but we do live a good life. I walk across the lawn in my flip flops, and I feel the cold, wet grass on my toes. It must have just rained last night. I walk to the car and open the door. I get in the car, and my mom starts driving. It takes about 15 minutes to get there.

When I get out, my mom gives me a big hug and says, “I’m so proud of you.”

And I say, “Thanks, Mom,” but really inside it puts me under more pressure.

Then, I hear Galeian say, “Hey, Katnissa,” and I walk over to him.

“Hi, Galeian,” I say.

“Still nervous?” he asks.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go in,” he says.

And I say, “Okay.”

As we walk into Lexington High School, I start to get butterflies in my stomach. The lady at the front desk tells us to go take a right through that door, then a left down the hallway, and then take a right right down the first hallway we see, and the room will be on our left at the end of that hall. We follow those directions, and we get there without getting lost. Yay!!! We go into the room and see a tall man with bright red hair.

He says, “Galeian, you’re up first.”

“Bye, Katnissa,” Galeian says.

“Bye,” I say.

 

Galeian

“Hi, Mom, I’m home,” I say as I walk through the front door.

“Good,” she says. “I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” I walk into the living room where she is watching a show. She pauses her show. I sit down on our couch and relax.

Then, my mom says, “How was your day.”

I then say, “Good.”

“Where were you,” she says.

“I was out at the park with Katnissa.”

We were practicing for our state soccer tournaments that we are both in the finals of. We play on the same team because Brooke Charter School only has one team, and it is for boys. Katnissa had to ask so many times and keep showing the coach her skills, and even then it took her a whole year to get on the team. She is really good.

“That sounds fun. Also, you have an interview tomorrow,” she says. That’s my mom alright, always worried about me when I don’t need her to be.

“I know, Mom, you have told me half a billion times,” I say.

“I know,” she says. “Still, do you want to prepare??”

“No,” I say. Actually, I kind of yell at her. Well anyway, I walk upstairs and lie down on my bed. I wish I didn’t have to switch schools. It’s so annoying. Now I might never be friends with Katnissa again.

 

I wake up the next morning and feel annoyed.

“Really, Mom,” I say. “It’s only 7:00 am. Why do you have to wake me up.”

“You have an interview today,” she says.

Uhhhhhhh, I think. “This is the quadrillianth time you have told me!!” I say.

“I know, I know” she says, “but really you have to get up.”

“Fine,” I say. I walk over to my dresser and take out an expensive top and my nicest jeans and get dressed. Then, I walk downstairs to have breakfast. My mom has prepared me a great breakfast. A bit of egg, a bit of bacon, and a bit of hash browns. Yum!! I scarf up my breakfast, and my mom and I drive to Lexington High School. I feel a little nervous, but I dont tell my mom, or she will start to freak out and tell me I don’t have to go if I don’t want to, but I do want to go.

When I arrive, I see Katnissa, and I say, “Hey, Katnissa.”

After that, everything’s a blur. Next thing I know, I’m being called in for the interview.

 

Katnissa

I walk into the interviewing room and sit down on a red velvet chair.

The man in front of me across the desk says, “Hello, you must be Katnissa.”

“Yes,” I say.

“How are you today?” he asks.

“Good,” I say.

“So I’m going to get to the point,” he says. “Why do you want to go to Lexington high school?”

“It is the best sports school in the state of Massachusetts,” I say.

“So you play sports I presume?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say. “If you look in my folder, you will see a review from all my past coaches.” He opens my folder and takes out a review from my middle school coach and looks surprised.

“What are your favorite subjects in school?” he asks.

“Math and gym,” I say. “I not only love soccer. I love all sports in general, although I will admit my favorite is soccer. I love math because I like mind games, and math includes a lot of them.”

“My last question is about friends.” He asks, “Do you have a lot of of them??”

“Honestly, I have a few, my teammates and Galeian who is also my teammate.”

“So boys are on your team,” he says.

“Yes,” I say. “It is an all boys team except for me.”

“Thank you, Ms. Katnissa. Watch for a letter,” he says.

“Thank you,” I say. Then, I walk out of the door feeling remarkably happy.

 

Galeian

I open the front door to my house. I walked home with Katnissa, so I had to hold back tears the entire time. Why did I do that interview so horribly?! I walk into my house and feel the tears hot and salty rolling down my face. My mom comes out of the kitchen holding a spatula covered in sauce.

She says, “Honey, how was your int — , what happened, sweetheart?”

She gives me a big hug. The tears are slowing, and I am calming down slowly. I am breathing heavy, and for once, I am happy about my mom’s protecting nature.

“What happened, sweetheart, do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” I say.

“Okay,” she says.

She goes into the kitchen and gets me a fresh cup of her famous chocolate milk. When I drink it, I feel even better. After that, my mom and I curl up and watch my favorite movie. Later that night, as I walk upstairs, I feel a kind of happy, a happy I’ve never felt before, like I might be able to accept the the fact that I most likely will not get in to Lexington High School, and that’s okay. And for that, I thank my mother.

 

Katnissa

It’s a week after my interview, and we still haven’t gotten a letter or email about the school. It’s super nerve-wracking!! Suddenly, my mom yells from downstairs.

“Honey, I would come down here if I were you.”

I race downstairs and exclaim, “What.”

My mom says, “Come here.” I run over as fast as I can and look over her shoulder, and on her computer I see a message from Lexington High School.

“Open it!” I yell excitedly. “Open it!!”

She clicks it with her mouse, and here is what the email says.

 

Dear Ms. Rail

I am very pleased to inform you that your daughter has gotten into Lexington High School. Below I will provide a list of all details on this matter.

Thank you for your time,

Peter Wayne

 

“YES!” I exclaim. “YES, YES, YES!!”

My mom gives me a big hug. “I’m so proud of you!!” When we finally let go of each other, which is about half an hour later, my mom says, “Let’s go out to dinner to celebrate.”

“Yes,” I say.

Later that night, I’m still smiling. We hop in the car. We decide that we are going to my favorite restaurant that is on Oak Street. It’s an Italian restaurant, and it’s so good. The only problem is that it’s 30 minutes away. Whatever, who cares. I’m so happy.

 

Galeian

Even though I expected that I wouldn’t make it into the school, I still feel sad that I didn’t get in. The thing that cheered me up the most was my mom. Do you know what she did?! She gave me a hard mad emoji pillow to punch and a sad emoji pillow to squeeze. I cracked up so hard when she gave them to me. I was laughing forever. It was hilarious!! But the funniest thing ever was when she asked me, “Why are you laughing?” After that, I laughed for 20 minutes. But then, I went upstairs. The fun was over, and the gloom started. I thought back to the day of the interview, and then I remembered the smirkish smile she gave me when she came out if the room. She told the interviewer bad things about me. Oh my gosh!! Why would she do such a terrible, terrible thing. What did I ever do to her?? Well, the day before our interview, I beat her at soccer for the first time. Now she thinks I’m a pushover and a baby, and I hate her for it.

 

Katnissa

As we get in the car, I say, “Oh shoot. I should call Galeian, right?”

My mom then says, “Yeah sure.”

I turn on my phone and call Galeian. “Hey, Galeian,” I say when he answers. “I got in. I’m so excited we are going to do all kinds of fun things together.”

“I didn’t get in,” he says, sounding quite upset like he just cried. “So go away.”

I look toward the front window and say, “I’m so sorry, Galeian, that’s aw — ” Then I see the big white headlights raging toward us. “AAAAAAA!” I scream. Then, I hear a crash!! I feel some kind of sharp glass hit my arm, and I feel a bit of wet blood. Everything becomes blurry, and then my world goes black.

 

Galeian

As I am relaxing on my bed and feeling sleepy, I suddenly get a call. I pick up the phone and answer it without looking who it’s from. When I answer it, I hear Katnissa’s voice ranting about what we’re going to do together when we get to Lexington. Really, now she is trying to make me feel bad. Is she serious. She sounds so excited.

Then in the middle of her sentence, I cut her off and say, “I didn’t get in.”

Then unexpectedly she says, “Oh Galeian that’s aw — ” Then, I hear two screams and then a big crash. Oh my gosh, she just got into a car crash. Should I go and help her. Then I decide no, she ruined my dreams. I will never help her again. She doesn’t deserve it.

 

Katnissa

I wake up hearing voices. What’s going on? I think. What happened? Ow, my whole body hurts.

When I open my eyes, someone yells, “She’s awake.”

“Call the doctor,” yells someone else.

I open my eyes even wider to find my mom sitting there. With several scars on her face yes, but alive and awake. I smell an odd smell, like we are at a hospital. I also hear a quiet buzzing sound from the big machine Then, I notice that I have a bunch of wires connecting to me.

I try to say, “Mom, are we in a hospital,” but what comes out is this awful croaking sound.

I try to sit up, but the pain in my neck and right leg are too much to bare. Oh the pain!! I lay back down. I decide if I can’t get up, I will at least find out where I am. I can’t talk, so I decide my strategy will be to look around the room. I see a night table with a plant on it on my left side. On the table there is my phone cracked and most likely unusable. Then, I look on the other side and see a bunch of medical charts. Okay, we’re definitely at a hospital. But why are we here? Then I remember those big white headlights, and then I put two and two together, and I know we were in a car crash. Then, the doctor comes in with this clipboard in his hand.

Then, he says “Hello, Katnissa. I am Doctor Modisett.”

“What happened to me?” I ask.

He responds to me by saying, “You have a concussion, a broken arm, and a broken neck.”

“Nooooo,” I croak.

Then, the doctor drops the biggest bomb I’ve experienced on me.  He says, “Soccer may be off the table for you.”

“Nooo,” I say.

“I have to go to the nationals.” Then I cry, and I feel the hot, salty tears slowly roll down my face.

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” my mom says.

“Noooo,” I cry back. I feel like I have no use in the world anymore, and my heart is crushed.

 

Galeian

My mom wakes me up the next day.

I ask her, “Why are you waking me up so early?”

She says, “We’re going to visit Katnissa in the hospital.”

Then I say, “Absolutely not, I will not go.”

“Yes, you will,” she says, “or you’re grounded, and don’t you care about your friend?”

“Fine,” I say.

I get dressed and walk down the stairs. She gives me breakfast, and we head off towards the hospital. When we get to the hospital, the person at the front desk says that she’s in room 302. Then, we take the elevator up to the third floor. The elevator is super slow. We open the door to her room, and I see her in the bed sleeping. My mom greets her mom and tells her how sorry she is that this happened. Then Katnissa wakes up. I glare at her.

She says, “Hi, Galeian.” I ignore her. “Galeian, did you hear me? Hello?” she says as she waved her hand in my face.

“Don’t put your hand in my face,” I say.

“Jeez,” she responds, “so harsh.”

I decide I would ignore her for the rest of the time we’re here. Then, I walk to the other side of the room and sit down facing away from her.

“What are you doing, Galeian?” my mom asks.

“You knew I didn’t want to come. Don’t expect me to talk.”

“But Katnissa is your best friend. Aren’t you happy to see her.”

I simply say, “No.”

 

Katnissa

The next time I open my eyes, I see Galeian walk through the door. I feel excited to see them, but still a little upset that he yelled at me when we were on the phone.

But I still try to be friends with him and say, “Hi, Galeian,” but he rudely ignores me. I don’t understand why he did that. I wave my hand in his face.

“Hello, why are you ignoring me.”

He yells at me again, telling me to not put my hands in his face. I don’t understand why he’s doing this. What did I ever do to him? Maybe it’s because I got into the school and he didn’t. May — that’s the only option. He’s mad at me because I got into the school and he didn’t. That’s not fair for him to do that. When I think about it, I should be the one mad at him. He hasn’t come to visit me and doesn’t even care that I’m okay. Then, Galeian leaves. He says he has to go to the bathroom, but I think he’s leaving for good.

I say to his mom, “Why is Galeian acting like this? Do you know?”

She says, “No, I have no idea. I don’t understand it either.”

Later that day, after Galeian and his mother left, my physical therapist comes for the first time to help me with my broken neck and leg. She has curly black hair and acts really nice.

She says, “Hello, I’m Ariana.”

“Hi, I’m Katnissa,” I say.

When I try to get out of bed, I realize just how bad my leg is. I almost fall over, but I catch myself using the bed.

“Ow,” I say. She tells me to sit down on the floor and slowly try to touch my toes. I do, and it hurts way too much to touch my toes.

“Ugh,” I say. “I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can,” she says. “If you want to get back to your passion, you have to work for it.”

“But it hurts to work for it,” I say.

“But you still have to do it,” she says.

Soon, she tells me to stand up and try walking but holding onto the railing. I get three steps before I have to stop. Each day, I get more and more steps, and eventually I start taking steps without needing to hold onto the rail. I’ve been working on getting better for two months, and every day I feel more and more confident that I could get back to soccer, and my neck is healing but not at as fast of a pace as my leg. I miss Galeian, but the old Galeian. Not the one who hates me.

 

Galeian

It’s been two months since I visited Katnissa in the hospital. I’m less mad now, and I was going to visit her and tell her I’m sorry, but I don’t know how. I think and think, and I decide that I’m going to visit her in the hospital today and make it right. I tell my mom, and she tells me that that’s great, and we should totally do that. So we get in the car and head towards the hospital. The drive is 20 minutes long. When we get there, I go to room 302, and I don’t see her. I walk down the hallway to check if she’s anywhere else and see her walking with her physical therapist practicing trying to walk. She’s doing a pretty good job, and I’m happy for her.

“Hello, I’m really sorry for ignoring you. I was wrong,” I say as I walk up to her.

“Why were you doing that to me? It was very mean,” she responds angrily.

I say, “I was upset because I thought you told the interviewer something bad about me, and I had already had a very bad interview. Did you do that?”

“Absolutely not!” she says. “I would never do that. I wanted us both to be at the same school.”

“Really?” I say.

“Yeah,” she says, “I would never try to hurt you.”

“Will you forgive me?” I say.

“I don’t know. I was really hurt that you didn’t come see me, and I think that was wrong. We’re best friends. You shouldn’t give up on your best friend without even trying to make it right.”

“I’ll make it right. I’ll visit you more, and I promise that will never happen again. I’m really sorry,” I say.

She says, “I’ll forgive you, but you can’t do that again.”

I leave the hospital that day feeling very happy.

 

Katnissa

Galeian visited me today. He seemed really nice, and I’m happy he came. Like I said before, I don’t know if I can forgive him. What he did was really wrong, and I don’t like it. I think I will forgive him though. He has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I can’t give up on him so easily. That would be just as mean as what he did to me. I can’t do that to him. Over the next few weeks, he visits me every day. And every day, he helps me walk a bit more than I did the day before. One day, I stop and tell him that it’s too hard, and I need to stop.

He tells me, “No, keep trying, keep going after it,” and I do.

I keep trying, and I keep working until I am allowed to stop physical therapy, as long as I keep taking walks with Galeian. So I realize that what I need is the promise that I can do it, that I’m not alone. And Galeian showed me that. So when he asks if I forgive him, I say yes.

 

Nightquake

Max knew that it wasn’t going to be a good day. Yesterday, everything had gone wrong, and now Max, a quiet kid who sat in the back of class and got good grades, had gotten himself into a fight. Everyone at school knew about it. It was as big as a pay-per-view boxing match. And it was today.

Yesterday was what Max expected to be another normal day, going to school, doing his work, and going home. Instead, the most unexpected things happened at every corner.

First, he went downstairs to get breakfast, expecting to see his mom and dad already eating and getting ready for work. They weren’t there. When he went to go get his breakfast, he saw a ripped sheet of paper on the fridge.

 

Hey Max –

We had to go to work early today — we wouldn’t have

gone if it wasn’t an emergency. We’ll be home at 6:30.

Love,

Mom + Dad

 

That was already abnormal. Max’s parents never had to go to work early. They were pediatricians at the children’s hospital downtown. They usually worked from 10 am to 6 pm in the emergency room. What could’ve happened that made them leave so unexpectedly?

Then, Max arrived at school, and the principal called him into the office. Max had never gotten into trouble. In fact, he had never even talked to the principal before. Why was he going?

Max walked into the office. It had smooth walls that were the color of sand in the desert, and there was a lady that looked as if she was born in ancient times at the front desk.

“Are you Max Smith?” she asked Max with a stern voice, and he got worried.

Could I be in trouble? he wondered.

“Yes,” Max gulped. “That’s me.”

“Great. The principal’s office is right down that hall.” She pointed to the hall on the right of Max.

“Thank you.”

Max was nervous, but he gathered up the courage to walk down that short hall that felt like it was never-ending.

Max finally got to the end of the hall and opened the door. He saw the principal, who had slight wrinkles on his face, graying hair, and a thick unibrow.

“Come in.” The principal had a deep voice, almost as deep as Batman.

Max sat down on the gray, cushioned chair in front of the principal’s desk, and the worry slowly worked its way down from his head, to his stomach, and then all the way down to his legs.

“Max, do you know why you’re here?” He asked the question in a way that seemed as if Max did something wrong, and he should feel sorry for it.

“No,” he quietly whimpered.

“Well, you don’t have to worry. You’re not in trouble.”

Relief quickly took over the worry that was swallowing Max whole.

“Why am I here?” asked Max.

“You are here to be what is sort of an undercover agent for the school. I recently found out about a secret group within the school that has been bullying and hazing some new and old students for no apparent reason. I want you to join them and find out why they’re doing this, then do your best to stop them without getting caught. This is dangerous, and it is up to you, but before you make your decision, I want you to remember that I chose you because you are my best student, and I believe you can do the best job.”

Max had to take a second to let those words sink in. Best student? Undercover agent? Of course he had to accept. The dangers didn’t matter to Max. If he stayed somewhat quiet, he could avoid trouble.

Or so he thought…

 

Max didn’t know what to expect when he went up to William Brown, the school’s biggest bully. He slowly walked up to him, trembling with the thought of getting beat up, or worse. He was still wondering what made him the principal’s pick to end this, but he knew he needed to be focusing on the present right now. He finally reached William and whimpered the word, “Hi.”

“What do you want, twerp?” William asked in a tough, strong voice with the power to destroy worlds.

“I-I-I w-wanna be a-a p-part of your gr-group.”

“Ah, you mean the Union.”

“Yep.” Max’s confidence rose after hearing the name Union. He had a name now, and he could easily slide in.

“I mean, you seem quiet enough to stay silent about all this. But how do I know you’re tough enough?”

“I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.”

“I guess I will. You’re in.”

 

Max knew what he had to do now. He had to challenge them from the inside. Refuse missions, let kids free from the horrors they were about to face, and of course, forcing them to give him information. He knew this wouldn’t be easy, but he had to try.

When he opened his locker to put his books away for lunch, he saw a folded up note that had been dropped inside through the small slits at the top.

 

Dude –

I gotta tell you our HQ location so

you can come to our daily lunch

meetings. It’s at the unlocked closet

nobody uses at the football field.

The lunch meeting is @ 12:30. Please come.

 

Max knew he had to go to that meeting. He quickly put his books away, checked the time (it was 12:07), and hurried to the cafeteria. He ate his lunch in four minutes, then ran to the football field, which was three minutes away. He arrived 16 minutes early, at 12:14, but he was there on time to catch them before they could beat up another kid. He ran over to where they were gathering around a kid sitting on a chair, and he saw that it was one of his very few friends, Kent Buckley. He was about to say something to stop them, but just as he was about to do something, Kent got punched in the face three times. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and his teeth were red with blood. Kent got up to run away, but Axel Foiger pushed him back into the chair. Kent was crying, but nobody was doing anything to help. Max knew he should talk to them, but he also knew he needed to gain their trust. So, without thinking at all, with a smile on his face, Max went up to Kent, and spit on his face.

 

The entire Union was going wild. Max Smith helping us? Max was usually a nice, quiet kid. Why was he joining the Union? However, they were so impressed, that they didn’t even have the slightest thought that he was going to try and destroy the Union.

“Alright, alright,” William’s voice turned the entire group silent. “Yes, we have a new member, but that doesn’t matter right now. We just need to go into the closet and have our meeting. I have an idea of who’s next.”

All of the members of the Union were ready to know who was next. When the reveal finally came, they were so shocked, they barely talked for the next hour. They were scared for this and definitely not ready.

They were going to publicly fight Max Smith, so he could prove himself worthy to the Union. If they had to know how tough he was, they didn’t just have to take his word for it. They could just watch him in action.

Max was terrified. It didn’t help that the whole school knew by 2:30, and by 2:45, a time had been planned for the fight. He knew he couldn’t fail his principal, and he knew he was still going to take down the Union. As long as he believed in himself, he could do it.

 

After school, he walked home, knowing he was safe from getting beaten up, but terrified of tomorrow’s fight. It was 3:17 when he arrived home, and his parents weren’t going to be home for another 3 hours, 13 minutes. All he could do was wait to find out what the emergency was.

His parents arrived home at 7:00 pm, half an hour after the time they said they would arrive at. They had very clearly been crying, and he knew something was very wrong when they told him to sit down on the couch.

They sat down on the couch across from Max and started talking.

“A kid from your school, Jimmy Phillips, was brought to the emergency room last night with severe injuries. He was found lying on the ground unconscious, with a note taped to his shirt that said From the Union. He survived, but he will be blind for at least the next five years, and he can never move his left arm again. We want to know if you know anything about this.”

“No. I don’t.”

Max was shocked. He knew that the Union was bad, but to this level? He now felt horrible about helping them beat up Kent. Spitting on his face was the worst thing he could’ve done. Now, he knew that he definitely needed to stop them. He went upstairs and thought about this. He started preparing for the fight, now that he knew who he was working with. He was weak, but as long as he believed in himself, he could fight.

When he woke up the next day, he was as ready for the fight as he could possibly be. He knew he would be able to beat them when he knew why the principal chose him to infiltrate the Union. That would help him realize his strengths, and how he could use them. He got dressed, and immediately went to school. No breakfast was necessary.

When he arrived at school, he was called to the principal’s office for the second day in a row. He once again walked down the short hall that felt like an eternity, wondering what it was this time. He opened the door, and the principal immediately started to talk.

“I heard about the fight. I’m confident that you’re ready for this.”

“I’m just as confident as you are.”

“Good. The fight is not why you’re here right now. You’re here so I can tell you why I chose you.”

Max knew that he would finally know the answer to the question that had been on his mind for the past 24 hours.

“I chose you for three big reasons. Reason number one is that you’re smart. You’re smarter than all of the members in the Union combined. You can easily outsmart them. Reason number two is that you’re a likable person. The Union can easily get along with you, leading you to gain their trust, leading me to have all of their information. Reason number three is that you’re loyal. I mean, I’ve known you for a day, and you’re already doing everything I want, without questioning it. Your loyalty means that you won’t actually become a member of the Union, but instead come back to me. In fact, you’re so loyal, I bet you won’t tell anybody that my name is actually Joey Smoith.”

Max had to take a second to let that sink in. Who has a name like Joey Smoith?

“Thank you for choosing me.” That was all he said before leaving the principal’s office.

 

In the hours before the fight, Max realized how sluggish classes really were. Time went by slower than it had ever gone before. Max fell asleep during class, and when the teacher woke him up, it was 2:43pm. 17 minutes until the fight. The minutes started going by faster. Fifteen minutes until the fight. Faster. Twelve minutes until the fight. Faster. Eight minutes until the fight. Faster. Three minutes until the fight.

It was finally time for the fight. After hours of waiting, it was finally here. He went up to the Union, and everything became a blur. Someone shouted a starting word, and the fight began. Max believed in himself, so he could do it.

Max punched William in the face, kicked all of the members of the Union in the stomach, and then they got angry. They charged at Max, and he got punched in the face twice. Then, he got kicked in the crotch. His hair got pulled, his leg got snapped, he broke at least five bones, and then, he got knocked out. He had lost the fight.

There was blood coming from all over his body. It looked as if someone painted him dark red. His leg was gushing out blood, he looked flat, and he didn’t remember any of it when he woke up in the hospital two months later.

 

It had been a year since Max woke up in the hospital. It had taken him five months to recover, and he still had many scars. These scars brought him to the realization that he wasn’t the only one that had these troubles. The scars made him remember the fight and how hard he fought against the Union. This made him feel powerful, like he had the power to do anything. He had the power to help. He wanted to be like his favorite superhero, Robin. He would become a vigilante and protect all of the people that were being attacked.

He began by making his costume. He made himself a black mask that covered his entire head, and a suit that had a black center, and blue arms and legs, with a large N in the middle. Then, he trained for seven months. He worked out, jumped across rooftops, practiced knocking out criminals using punching bags in his basement. Then, he was ready. That night, he jumped across rooftops, looking for crime. He finally found something. Seven or eight criminals gathered around a gagged man tied up to a chair. He wasn’t worried. He knew he could do it. He was… Nightquake.

 

The Story of Candyland

One early morning, Carly was asleep, and her mom was calling Carly up. So, Carly brushed her teeth, washed her face, ate breakfast and poof! She was in the Magic land of Candy.

Then, another poof came. It was her friend, Charlie. They thought they could use candy to make a house.

A fairy came and told them, “You can eat the candy, but you can’t make it into a house.”

So, the fairy used her wand to make a gingerbread house for them.

They saw a tree made of marshmallows, and the trunk was made of gum. They thought they could go to the ocean, but there was no ocean. There was only a cotton candy ocean. But there was a guard, and the guard told them that they couldn’t get in the ocean because it was very thick, and you could get stuck if you fall in. When you got stuck, you would sink. But the queen helped them out and used her wand to make the cotton candy smoother for them.

So, Charlie sat on a pizza to ride on the cotton candy ocean, and Carly used the cookie to sail on the cotton candy ocean. A little bear sat on a lollipop made of chocolate and sang. When they got on the island, the little bear was there too. They thought it was their home from before, but it was not. Her mom was in the home to find Carly, and Charlie’s mom was there to find Charlie. But their moms went to the room and didn’t find them anywhere.

They found a Coca-Cola pond, and they could drink Coca-Cola from the pond. They ate some of the fish made of jelly beans.

The moms saw them and said, “This planet is shaped like a jelly bean.”

But it was not their mom, it was the jelly mom. So, they ate the jelly mom because she wasn’t their real mom.

They found chickens in a farm where another chocolate bear was. This bear was eating half an egg, because the chicken was a magic chicken that could give you a chocolate egg if you gave her chocolate.

The bear said, “You should go to the Land of Food.”

So, they sailed on the big boat of candy and sailed to the Land of Food, and there was pizza mom. And they ate their pizza mom.

On the Land of Food, there was a machine that could give you anything you wanted, like pizza. And there was a unicorn made of every type of candy. The unicorn had a marshmallow mouth, and the cotton candy was her head. She had a jello body, and her four hooves were made of jello too. Her neck was made of chocolate. Her mane was made out of lollipops, and her tail was made out of golden candies and food coloring.

They saw a pile of mashed potatoes and jumped in the pile, and it felt very squishy. On the Food Land it was Christmas! The snow was made of all types of ice cream: vanilla, strawberry, chocolate chip, watermelon, lemon, pineapple, and all of the other flavors. They slept in a taco because it was nighttime, and they were tired. All of the candies turn into lights, and you still could eat them! And you couldn’t forget the taste of the popsicles because they tasted so good. You could eat a bit of fries and some hamburgers for dinner.

They ran into a goblin, and it was candy, and they ate the goblin like they did with the food moms. At midnight, when they slept in the taco, a fairy used her wand to send them to their own home.

When they got home, they were very unlucky because Carly’s mom said, “Where have you been!”

“We’ve been in Candyland,” Carly and Charlie said.

Carly’s mom said, “Your punishment is to only eat vegetables for four weeks!”

They never went to Food Land and Candyland because of the fairy who sent them away. And the fairy was made of jello, so they ate the fairy because they wouldn’t eat anything sweet for a month.

So, the next day, Carly and Charlie wished to go to Candyland again. But they could only go if they let the fairy out of their tummies. But Charlie and Carly said they couldn’t because they were people and weren’t magical and couldn’t easily spit her out. They went to the doctor and got the jello fairy out of their mouths. The fairy waved her wand, and Charlie and Carly could go to Candyland and never return. Their moms tried to find them for 2,000 years and didn’t succeed.

In Candyland, they did a lot of fun things. They found a princess that was a human, not candy. The princess showed them the way to the waterfall. And when they got there, there were four princesses that could change their hair magically. They could turn their hair into an island. But they didn’t because they could only do it if they were dreaming about it. Carly, Charlie, and the princesses used bubbles to go down the waterfall, and they had so much fun.

At the bottom of the waterfall, there was a crocodile! When the girls saw it, they quickly ran back to the castle to tell the queen about the crocodile. When they returned to the waterfall, they used a very sharp sword to stab the crocodile. After, they got into a big, big taco and had a tea party. The taco tipped over and fell inside the ocean of cotton candy. It was not a problem because the taco could still float. They ate cotton candy straight from the ocean. It was a rainbow cotton candy ocean that had all of the juicy flavors.

The queen used her magic wand to teleport them back to the castle, and they slept in a cloud that was in the castle! Carly and Charlie thought it was very comfortable. In the cloud bed, you could control your dreams. They dreamed of a basket, and they could see something in the basket. It would give you whatever you wanted, like cotton candy, jelly beans, and chocolate eggs. And sometimes, you could say you wanted chocolate bars. They shared their candy with the four princesses they met that day. When the dream was done, they fell asleep and didn’t dream more because the cloud could only give them one dream that they could control.

The next day, they were still in candy land. They got to a big lollipop and pressed a button, and all of the candy melted, and a tornado slurped up pasta and meatballs.

“What?” said Carly.

“It is yummy!”

“What is yummy?”

“Ruuuuuuuun… No… ”

“It is pasta and meatballs. Slurp, slurp, yum.”

They ate all of it, then they saw soup, so they drank some. They saw a little cute bear covered with pasta, so they slurped the pasta off him, and the bear thanked them and gave them some tea.

They saw a pond that was made out of Coca-Cola. They drank some of the Coca-Cola, so it made them cool. They saw the jelly donut fish in the Coca-Cola pond. They thought it was a very, very boring day because they didn’t play anything. They only ate and saw little chocolate bears. Tomorrow was Carly’s birthday, but they were very sad because it was a boring day.

A little bear heard them and thought he could give them a surprise, so at midnight, the little bear built a waterslide and a rollercoaster. In the morning, the little bear baked a cake and bought gifts to give Carly. He told the other bears to buy enough gifts for her. The first bear gave Carly a car. The second bear gave her a banana boat. The third bear gave Carly a box of M&Ms. The fourth bear gave Carly a pet dog. The fifth bear gave Carly a very special candy. In Candyland, it was called the Unicorn Mix. Carly was very, very surprised.

The next day, the seventh bear gave her a very, very special gift. It was called a cake pudding, so you could put cake on a plate and then put it on your hand, and when you turned and turned it, the machine would plop the cake on your face. The eighth little bear gave Carly a robot that could do homework. She was so surprised that they ran out the taco and started to play.

Charlie ran out too because Carly said, “Come out and play!”

It was so fun. Carly and Charlie played for 24 hours.

Then, a pile of lollipops and candies dropped down on them. They were stuck, and it was so sticky that a lollipop stuck to their heads. When a guard saw the lollipop on their heads, he used his own sword to cut it off.

They ate their hamburger lunch and were very tired. They slept in the taco for three days because they were so tired. After the three days, they thought they were in Candyland, but they were in their own house.

Their mom said they were sleeping for three days. They thought it was serious, so they watched TV for eight days. It was so good, and they got to do homework for eight weeks. It was good because Carly still had her homework robot. Her mom was surprised that she got 100 on her homework. Her mom was very surprised, so she gave Carly another pile of homework, and she got 100 on another homework too. Her mommy let her watch TV for 15 days. Her mom let her drink Coca-Cola and eat lots of chips and candies and no vegetables for a week.

Carly was very surprised that her mom let her drink Coca-Cola because she never let her drink Coca Cola and never let her eat chips. Her mom went to the restaurant with Carly. Charlie was at home learning math. Carly’s mom said that she could go to Charlie’s house and play.

Charlie’s mom said, “Yes, that’s a great idea,” so Carly went to Charlie’s house.

They played cards and made lemonade. They watched TV for 24 hours, and they had a sleepover. Robot was very sad because he didn’t go into anyone’s house. So the robot never worked for Carly, but her mom found out Carly’s trick and punished her for one year and let her do homework and locked the robot out of the house. Charlie was very sad about Carly, too.

One day, they wanted to do a trick on their moms. So Carly put poop on the plate, so her mom would go to the sink and wash her hands and then have a snake in the sink, so the snake would bite Carly’s mom’s hands. And then Carly put some rocks on the floor, so that when Carly’s mom would run away, her feet would be very, very hurt. She put a donkey out in the door, and so when Carly’s mom would go outside, the donkey would kick her very hard. So, Carly’s mom would freeze, and Carly would never have to do homework ever again.

THE END