My Move

   

*Diary! Secret! Mia’s diary!*

Chapter 1: We are Packing

I was sewing in my room. My walls were pink with black and white polka-dots. The curtains in my room were pink with black and white polka-dots too. The covers of my bed were green with orange polka-dots. I was sewing a scarf. I stopped sewing and went to check what Lexi was doing. Lexi was sewing mittens.

“For whom are these mittens?” I asked.

“For me,” Lexi said. “Who did you think I was sewing it for?”

“Don’t know,” I replied.

“Anyway, what were you doing?”

“I was sewing a scarf,” I told Lexi.

“For who?

“For Kira,” I answered.

“Well, okay, get out of my room,” Lexi said. “I’m not mad, but I want my privacy!”

“Don’t be so mean,” I said jokingly as I was going out of Lexi’s room.

I went back to sewing my scarf. My scarf was blue, pink, and yellow. I kept on sewing for half an hour, and finally I was done with the scarf. I went out of the house to give the scarf to Kira. Just then, I remembered that I wanted to wrap it in wrapping paper.

When I went to get wrapping paper, Mom said, “Slow down, girl, where are you going?”

“To get wrapping paper,” I replied.

“For what?” my mom asked.

“For a scarf,” I replied.

“Where did you get a scarf, and who is that scarf for?”

“I sewed a scarf, and the scarf is for Kira.”

“Wait, I want to tell you some news,” my mom said with a smile on her face. “And also call Lexi and Dad to the living room.”

“Fine,” I said.

I was really happy we’d have family news again. Family news was always something good. Like, for example, one time, it was that Grandma Emma was in town, or that we were invited to a birthday party. I skipped happily to Lexi’s room, and told her to go to the living room. Lexi went straight to the living room. I skipped to my dad’s room, and told Dad to go to the living room. Soon, my family was all settled in the living room.

“Lexi and Mia, Dad and I have some news for you,” Mom said.

“What news? What news?” Lexi asked, really happy.

“We… we are going to move!”

“Move? Move… where?” said Lexi. Her voice wasn’t as happy as it had been.

“To New Jersey,” Mom replied.

“Is Kira going to move?” I wondered out loud.

“No, she’s not.”

“Then I’m not going to move!” I yelled.

“Is my best friend going to move?” asked Lexi.

“Did you forget your best friend’s name?”

“No,” Lexi answered. “Her name is Lily. And if Lily’s not going to move, then I’m not going to move.”

“Yes, you are going to move,” said Dad calmly.

“Are we just going to move for fun, or is it because Mom is gonna open a store?” I said.

“Not exactly. Mom’s going to open a new store and my work has a new location,” Dad explained to Lexi and me.

“BUT WE CAN’T MOVE! I’M NOT GOING TO LEAVE KIRA!” I cried.

“Yeah, we can’t move,” Lexi said. I was sure Lexi was on my side.

“But we are going to move,” Mom and Dad said at the same time.

“So I have to give the scarf to Kira right now, right?” I asked Mom.

“Right,” Mom said. “Well, wrong,” Mom corrected herself. “She can visit you and — ”

I interrupted my mom. “It’s a long ride to New Jersey, right?”

“Yes,” my dad answered.

“So, we’re going to end up not visiting each other, right?” I asked.

“We are going to visit Kira, just not so much,” Dad said.

“Is not so much once a week?”
“No,” Dad said. “Not so much means once every two months.”

“No! I have to see her at least once every two weeks!”

“You can use Facetime,” Dad suggested.

“Does she have Facetime?” I asked.

“Yes,” Dad answered.

“Yes,” Mom said, “we Facetimed Kira’s mom.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure,” Mom and Dad said at the same time.

“Well, anyway, I got some boxes. Go pack your things,” Mom said. “We leave in two days.”

“Can we leave in three days?” I asked.

“Well… I’ll think about that,” Mom answered, giving Dad a look. “But let me get the boxes first.”

I whispered something to Lexi.

“Lexi, on one two three, let’s chant ‘we’re not moving!’”

Lexi nodded her head.

“One, two, three!”

Lexi and I began chanting, “We’re not moving! We’re not moving! We’re not moving!”

“Yes we are! Yes we are!” Mom began chanting. She motioned for dad to chant with her.

Mom and Dad began to chant, “We are moving! We are moving! We are moving!” Soon the whole family was chanting. Lexi and I were chanting, “We’re not moving! We’re not moving! We’re not moving!” and Mom and Dad were chanting, “We are moving! We are moving! We are moving!”

Soon Mom started chanting:

“Let’s be quiet! Let’s be quiet!”

The Kitaigorodsky family quieted down.

“Start packing already,” Mom suggested to Lexi and me.

“But we don’t have any of the boxes,” Lexi and I complained.

“Oh, I forgot about them. Let me go get some,” Mom said with a sigh. Then she added, “It’s hard to live here with you and Mia screaming that you’re not going to move. We’ll just move, and everything is going to be okay.”

 

Chapter 2: Moving Party

I forgot all about my scarf! I had to tell Kira that I was moving, and I could not move because I could not leave Kira at New York when I’m in New Jersey. I had to think of a way, and fast, to convince my mother and father that we could not move to New Jersey. I had to think fast, but I couldn’t make up at least one lame idea. I went over to Lexi’s room. Maybe she’d have an idea. I asked Lexi, “What are you doing?”

“What do you think?” Lexi answered.

“Doing nothing,” I answered.

“Well, what are you doing?”

“I was thinking of an idea to convince mom that we could not move,” I said.

“That’s exactly what I was doing!” Lexi seemed surprised.

“Have you thought of anything?” I asked Lexi. “Do you even have one lame idea? Why are you so quiet?”

“Nope, nope, and I’m not quiet.”

“Well, now you’re not, but you were.”

“Can we change the subject?” Lexi asked.

“To what?”

“To getting out of my room.”

“Don’t be so mad at me, girl!”

“I’m not mad! I just need my privacy.”

“Girls, are you packing?” Mom called from the kitchen.

“Um, we’re starting to pack,” I said as I was running into my room. But then I added, “I HAVE NO BOXES!”

“Go get some in the kitchen, Mia,” Mom yelled.

“Okay, okay,” I said as I as was rushing from my room to the kitchen to get some boxes. “You think I can pack all my stuff by myself?”

“Yes,” Mom said.

“Well, I need your help.”

“Okay, okay. Just put your boxes in your room, and I’ll pack them when you’re sleeping or tomorrow morning.”

I ran back to my room with boxes and put them right next to my bed.

“Now what should I do?” I called from my room.

“Now you should get your pajamas, brush your teeth and go to sleep,” Mom said.

“What time is it?” I called.

“8:30.”

“But my bedtime is at 10:00.”

“You know how long you brush your teeth.

“Oh fine.” I quickly changed into pajamas and rushed to the bathroom. There was a clock in the bathroom. I looked at it. It was already 8:45. I started brushing my teeth. Brush brush brush. I thought this was the shortest time I had brushed my teeth! But when I was done, I looked at the clock and it was 9:45. I had taken a whole hour to brush my teeth. Usually, I only took half a hour. This was a record for me! Actually, two records. One record was that I brushed my teeth one hour, not half an hour. And I never make such a big mistake like this. That was already two records! I rushed to the bedroom and plopped on my bed. Then I looked at the clock. it was still 9:45. I had a lot, well, not a lot, of time to read in my bed.

When it was 10:00, my mom called from the kitchen, “Turn the light off!”

“Okay, Mom.” I quickly looked at what page I was on, put my bookmark in, put my book away, and turned off the light.

The next morning, when I woke up, I looked at my bedroom. It was empty, except for boxes. I looked in drawers, but in only one of my drawers, I found some clothes. I quickly put the clothes on, and looked around. Boxes, boxes, and boxes. Boxes, boxes, and boxes. It was like I was a robber, and lots of police officers were surrounding me. I quickly stepped over all of the boxes (a.k.a. police officers). I looked in the boxes, and the boxes were actually, well, huge! Bigger than they were yesterday.

Suddenly the phone rang. I dashed to the kitchen with all my might, and right in time I got the phone. It was from Kira. She had already found out that I was moving from her parents. I didn’t know how they found out, so I asked my parents. You know what they answered? They answered that when they were Facetiming Kira’s mom, they told her. And Kira’s mom told Kira. And then Kira suggested a moving party! I was going to a moving party at Kira’s house! It was just going to be, me, Kira, and her mom. And it was going to start now. I went to Kira’s house and knocked on the door. Kira answered it.

“Welcome to your moving party!” she said.

I looked around her house. It was all decorated with pink, with black and white polka dots, just like my room is! I hugged Kira and said, “I DON’T WANT TO MOVE!”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t want to move either,” Kira said, and then added, “and I mean it.”

“Tell that to my parents,” I suggested to Kira.

“What’s your parents phone number?” Kira asked.

“Why are you asking?” I asked Kira.

“‘Cause then I can call them now,” explained Kira.

“Can’t you just walk to my house?” I asked Kira.

“Fine, I’ll tell your parents after your moving party!”

“Oh yeah, let’s start the moving party!”

I walked into Kira’s house and saw all my friends from school. I was surprised that all of them were here! Rachel, Pamela, Mallory, Areile, Kelly, Talia, Tara, and Nancy. I ran to Rachel, Pamela, Mallory, Areile, Kelly, Talia, Tara, and Nancy to hug all of them. After all, they were all my friends. Kira ran to get something. She came back with a blindfold. She tied it around my eyes. She led me into the dining room and then she took my blindfold off. On the dining room table was a big chocolate cake and in the middle it said with icing: We’ll miss you, Mia! All around the cake were ten cupcakes. One for each of us. Also in the middle of the cake it said:

Mia is nice

Inspiring

Amazing

“Thank you so much!” I yelled with all my might.

We all sat down and I found nine presents under the table. The first one I picked up was from Pamela. I unwrapped it, and inside was six sets of nail polish. There were the colors of the rainbow in each set. “Thank you so much!” I said to Pamela. “My nails will always be painted no matter what.” Next I grabbed Kelly’s present. I unwrapped it. Inside were two twin dolls! “I love them. They’re so cute!” I told Kelly. Next, I grabbed Mallory’s present. It was a picture of Rachel, Pamela, Mallory, Ariele, Talia, Nancy, Kira, Tara, Kelly, and a picture of just me. Next, I grabbed Ariele’s present. It was a gift card to Toys R Us. Ariele told me that inside there was $150. “Oh my gosh! That’s a lot of money! Thank you so much,” I told Ariele. “Now my parents won’t have to spend money. Next I took out Nancy’s present. It was a book and a diary with a pen. I tried to open the diary. I could not. “How do you open this diary?” I asked.

“There’s a password,” Nancy answered.

“What’s the password?” I asked.

“Mia,” Nancy answered. I typed the password Mia, and then I tried to open the diary. It opened! And then I could change the password to whatever I wanted. This was amazing! No one could look in my diary. Also, there was a book. it was Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Next, I opened Tara’s present. It was a cookbook, and things for me to sew. The cookbook was called Cookbook of the Year. I looked at  all the recipes. Amazing! There were recipes for cupcakes and cakes and cookies. Suddenly I got an idea! I could start a cupcake club in New Jersey with my new friends. If I got any friends, that is. We could bake cupcakes for people and get paid for that. They could be $5 a cupcake. So if someone wanted five cupcakes from us, they would pay $25.

Next, I saw two presents left. I picked them up at the same time. I unwrapped them at the same time. One of them was from Rachel, and it was a laptop. One of them was from Talia, and it was earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. I ran to Kira’s room to put on the earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. I came back with the earrings on my ears, the necklaces on my neck, and the bracelets on my wrists. Everyone stared at me with OMG eyes. I stared at them.

“What?” I asked them.Their mouths just dropped open. No one said a word.

”What?” I repeated.No one said a word. I ran into Kira’s room and looked at myself. Oh! I laughed. I was just so, so pretty!!! Then I came back and quickly logged into my laptop. I quickly downloaded things on my laptop. We started playing games on my laptop. Then it was time to eat. Kira’s mom came into the room, and sliced the cake into ten parts. She gave a piece to each of us. The cake was awesome. It was chocolate and vanilla cake, and the icing was half chocolate and half vanilla too. It was yummy! Delicious! I could eat this cake forever. I told Kira’s mom that. And then in my new cookbook, she found the recipe for that cake. it was called “Chocolate Vanilla Cake.” That was even better! I could eat that anywhere. Mom could just bake it, and then tada! We could have it. And I could have this cake for my birthday party. Awesome and amazing!

Then parents started to come to pick their children up. Before they even came into the house, I motioned for all of my friends, including Kira, to come into Kira’s room with me. I wanted to tell them something, and that had to be private without anyone sticking their nose into my business. When we were all in the room with the door closed, and I told them all how I felt.

“I feel very sad that I have to leave you, and I feel nervous that I have to go to a new school, and that I won’t get any new friends,” I said. “I don’t want to move. And I want you all to know that –– I will miss you all the same amount.” I motioned to all of them that I was done talking. We all went out of the room.

While we were going out of the room, Tara said, “Everything will be okay and we can Facetime each other, and I’m sure you’ll find new friends because this is your second time moving.”

“But this is different. The first time I moved, it was from Queens to Staten Island. That was just different boroughs. But I’m going to move to a different state. That’s way farther. And we’re gonna end up never ever visiting each other.”

Suddenly Tara’s mom told her that she had to leave this second because her sister had a ballet lesson. Tara hugged me and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll at least Facetime each other, and I think we’re going to visit each other.”

Tara hugged me, and I hugged her again. Then Tara and her mom left. In five minutes, Mallory’s parents appeared. We hugged each other, and Mallory said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find friends, and even if you don’t, we can Facetime each other and visit.”

“I don’t know about that visiting part,” I said to Mallory. “It’s a long way from New York to New Jersey, or New Jersey to New York.”

“But anyway we will get to Facetime each other.”

“Are you sure you have Facetime?” I asked Mallory.

“I’m sure.”

“You sure?” I asked Mallory, because maybe she made a mistake.

“I’m sure,” Mallory said to me once again.

“Triple sure?” I asked Mallory.

“Triple sure,” Mallory said.

“Then, bye,” I said and then added, “I’ll miss you sooo much!”

“i’ll miss you even more than you’ll miss me,” Mallory said.

“Nuh-uh. I’ll miss you more, and it’ll be more harder for me because I have to go to a new school find new friends, and I have to leave. You just have to let me leave, and you can just keep playing with our other friends. You don’t have to do anything! You don’t have to worry, there’s no nerves for you!”

“Do we have Facetime, mom?” Mallory asked her mom.

“Of course,” Mallory’s mom answered Mallory.

“Gygygaga” Mallory’s little sister said.

“So cute,” I said to Mallory.

“You think so?” Mallory said. “Spend a week with her. Then you’ll find out.”

“I’m not going for that,” I said.

“There you go. You proved my point,” Mallory said. “You don’t want to live with her.”

“We have to go!” Mallory’s mom said.

“Gygygaga,” Mallory’s little sister said.

“Goodbye,” I said to Mallory. Mallory and I hugged again. Then she left. Everyone but Rachel and Talia left because their parents had the wrong time so we played some games until they left. Then it was just me and Kira. Me and Kira talked a little bit and played some games. Then, I left.

I looked at the time when I came home. It was 3:30 p.m. When I came home, I told Mom that my moving party wasn’t a moving party. it was a amazing moving party. And that was true.

 

Chapter 3: Texting in the Car to New Jersey

I was riding in the car to New Jersey. I didn’t know what to do. I’d already been in the car a half an hour, and the ride to New Jersey was two hours. A whole two hours and I couldn’t do anything! I took out my phone and started texting Kira.

MK: Riding in the car to New Jersey.

KM: What do u see around u?

MK: Nothing. 🙁

KM: What r u doing?

MK: Riding in the car to NJ.

MK: What r u doing?

KM:Texting u.

MK: What were u doing b4 u started texting me?

KM: Homework.

“Uhhh! This so boring! Am going to ride in the car for two hours doing nothing?” Lexi yelled. I ignored her. I kept on texting Kira.

MK: :p  

KM: For what are u sticking out ur tongue?

MK: U still have to do HW, and I’m riding in a car.

KM: I’m giving u a look through the phone. :/

MK: Well I’m giving u a look through the phone!

KM: I see u have less nerves about the move now. 🙂  

MK: No I don’t!

MK: I feel WAY more nervous because I know there’s no chance I’m NOT moving now.

KM: Look I know u’ll find a new friend.

KM: U’ll be happy with ur new school, and it’ll be like u never moved.

KM: U’ll just have no me, and new friends!

KM: The first time u moved here, u told us how nervous u were to move.

KM: But u found us! it’ll be the same adventure like last time.

MK: But this is different!

MK: I was moving from a different borough.

MK: Now I’m moving to a different STATE.

KM: Wait, what’s a borough???

MK: it’s like Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten island.

KM: Oh. Wait, then what’s a state??

MK: A state is NY, NJ, illinois, MA, and so on.

KM: Oh. Kk.

MK: So continuing.

MK: I’m moving further than I was this is totally different and it’s a two hour ride and we’re never EVER going to see each other again.

KM: I think we should end texting.

KM: I see ur getting upset, and I have to finish my HW

MK: Maybe we can text again soon? 🙂

“We’re here!” Dad said.

 

Chapter 4: The House

Mom had told me that she was going to unpack for me while I was sleeping. I had agreed, because it was good that I didn’t have to unpack. That would be hard. I wouldn’t had known what to put where, and it would take forever. But Mom seems to take only a minute or five when unpacking the family stuff. I looked in all my new drawers and everything. The room was completely empty. It was kind of like I was in jail, because in jail the person gets barely any stuff, and that’s it. There was nothing on the walls, just plain white. I had to remember to paint my room. Suddenly, I felt so sleepy. I lay on the bed.

That was a good nap. I looked all around my room.The walls were pink with black polka-dots. Everything was like my old room! Just my covers weren’t green and orange with green polka-dots. Wait a sec. This wasn’t my room. This was… Mom and Dad’s room. I went into my room. The walls were pink with white and black polka-dots and so were my curtains! Just like my old room! The covers of my bed were green with orange polka-dots. Mom and Dad and maybe Lexi had carried me from my room to Mom and Dad’s room! I took out my phone. I started texting Kira.This is how it went:

MK: at New Jersey

KM: When did u arrive?

MK: 10 minutes ago.                  

KM: exactly 10 minutes ago?

MK: About 10 minutes ago.

KM: U r a weirdo

MK: meanie!

KM: excuse me

MK: just joking

KM: I knew that

KM: u think that I didn’t know that

MK: I knew u knew that

MK: Whatever

MK: C u soon

KM: I want to keep on texting!

MK: fine we’ll say some more words and then we’re done talking

KM: do u not want to be my best friend anymore?

KM: we used to be twinsies.

MK: I want to be your best friend. Wait. let me correct that. I NEED to be your best friend. NEED.NEED.NEED.NEED.NEED.

KM: doesn’t look like it

MK: looks like it and I know it’s true

KM: o well. having fun in New Jersey?

MK: BORiNG

KM: what’s so boring

MK: well I don’t know a lot about this place. By the way, this looks basically like my old home

KM: o well.doing anything

MK: No

KM: I think it’s time that we should stop texting

MK: I think so to.

 

Hmmm. I think I should probably go out and try to make a new friend.

To be continued…

A Second Chance

 

a second chance pic1
Chapter 1: First Day

On her first day of tryouts, she got her gymnastics suit and her backpack and went on a plane. The plane was two hours. She was at the very back and there wasn’t anyone else next to her. She was feeling shy because it was her first day of gymnastics tryouts. She was wondering if she would get into the Olympics.

The teacher had said to them, “If you guys aren’t friends, I’ll kick you off the team.” Since it was a long time after the teacher said that, Maddie was thinking of Chelsea and maybe her other friends when Chelsea took the bus. Chelsea lived in Florida and Maddie lived in New York. When Maddie got out of the plane she took the bus. When she went to gymnastics, she saw Chelsea. She was shocked because Maddie and Chelsea actually weren’t friends, so she was extra shocked. Then they got teams, and Maddie and Chelsea didn’t have a team to go in, so they had to make their own group. But they barely got along. They kept saying mean things about each other’s ideas for the competition and they both wanted to win for the competition. So, they said sorry for real this time, because the wanted to win to go to the competition.

Then the coach came over and said, “Ready to start?” They both said yes and began. They worked on the floor and did the hardest stuff, because they wanted to go to the hard squad. They were glad that they were friends; it was better than just complaining. The only problem was that the other team was better than their group. They would never ever win, so they were really sad. They wished they would win but that would never happen. Well, maybe, but that would just be a dream.

Chelsea said, “What should we do about it?”

Maddie said, “Let’s both come up with an idea.”

The teacher said, “Come up with an idea, girls, quick! Before time is up and we practice.”

Chelsea said, “Quick, come up with an idea!”

Maddie said, “No, you are the one who comes up ideas. And I do it and you see if it’s right.”

Then Chelsea said, “Okay, I don’t want us to argue again. So, we should do what you say. You should do a handstand and a forward roll.”

Maddie tried to do it, but she kept on falling. They decided to switch places and Maddie had a good idea. She did a cartwheel, two back handsprings, and a fold-twist in the air. Chelsea did it and they both thought that they were going to get into the Olympics, and that they were better than the other teams. So, they kept on doing it over and over again until it was time for them to come up with a new idea and add it together.

Chelsea decided to do her routine from the last time she did gymnastics. They put it together and it worked out really well. Then, it was time for them to go home. Maddie called her mom and said, “Can we please have a sleepover with Chelsea? We need to practice our routine.”

He mom said, “Sure, just meet you tomorrow night.”
a second chance 2
Chelsea and Maddie went to the backyard of Chelsea’s home and practiced. Then they found out that the Olympics were in four days and they wanted to practice; but first they thought about each other and they thought it was nice to be friends. Then they hugged each other and then they went to work. They were really rushed so they both did the routine and they were so happy that they forgot when they were mean to each other. Then it was time for them to go to gymnastics and then they went and kept on practicing. Then it was time to go home and Maddie went home. Then four days later it was the Olympics day and they had to do the routine, and after the teams did theirs they found out that they won. Yay! Then the next day they went and the team was much harder so they worked their butts off. The teacher named Ella was so nice. Then they just found out that Chelsea’s mom is having a baby, so Chelsea had to sleep with the group and Maddie wanted to join. So the next night they went to the cabin and went to sleep. Then in the morning the teacher woke them up, except Chelsea and Maddie, because they were from her group and they needed sleep.

Then the teacher woke them up and they got dressed up and they went to work. Then they did hard things (well, kind of). Then they found out that the country they were in would have the Olympics in five days. So they really needed to get to work.

Then they picked a song called “Shake it Off” for the tryouts .

Chapter 2: Getting Ready for the Olympics

a second chance 3

Then they had lunch and they ate an apple and other great foods. Then it was time to do their gymnastics work. They had a hard time because they got it done and they were bored while they were waiting for others to finish their routines. Then it was time to do gymnastics. They did easy things like cartwheels. Then, it was time for lunch and they forgot their lunch boxes, so the teacher gave them lunch from the restaurant the teacher went to last night. They had pasta but it wasn’t as good as their mom’s. Then they went to sleep.The next morning, they practiced a lot.

Chelsea said, “Let’s do new things!”

Maddie said, “Okay.”

Then it was the day of the Olympics and they were doing the first competition. If Chelsea and Maddie won the competition they would win $1,000 and they would split it, $500 and $500. But, they wouldn’t be in the real Olympics — that happens once in awhile in that country. The next year, the Olympics would come. They almost didn’t win when Maddie was about to fall. Maddie felt disappointed for herself and for Chelsea. She was feeling that no one else would want to be her partner for the next competition. Her knees were shaking, but she didn’t fall and she was imagining her knees were shaking. Then, she hears Chelsea’s baby sister yelling and it wakes up her brain and she’s able to finish her routine. And they did their thing and they were on tv and they won. Yay! Then they got on the final team their moms and dads were watching. Then Chelsea saw her old friend.

Chelsea said, “Hi.”

Her old friend Zoe said, “I thought you did not like Maddie.”

Chelsea said, “Now I am her friend.”

Zoe said, “Well, now I am not your friend anymore.”

Chelsea said, “Why?”

Zoe said, “Well, I hate Maddie.”

But Chelsea did not care because she liked Maddie better than Zoe. The very next day, Chelsea went to Maddie’s house for a sleepover and they were doing their routine. They were doing a back handspring into a split and then a cartwheel. They wanted to go to sleep because it was getting late. The very next day they took a cab to the gymnastics place. They did their routine. Maddie said, “We should add more things to our routine.”

Chelsea said, “Good idea, but what should we add to our routine?”

Maddie said, “We should do bars.”

Chelsea said, “Good idea.”

“Thanks,” said Maddie. And then they tried it out and did a flip on to the bars and swung. But they didn’t like it: it was too short. Instead, they used the beam and did a dismount.

Chapter 3: Working on New Things

It was easy so they did it just fine. Then Chelsea went to Maddie’s house.  And they wanted to practice so they did it and they did it over and over again. Then it was time to go to bed but they could not go to sleep.

The very next day the teacher said, “We will be moving to a new class for the tryout team,” and they did. They got coach Mia. She is so nice; everybody likes her so she must be good.

The coach said to Chelsea and Maddie, “You are on the tryout Olympics.” Then it was time to practice, but they were bored.

They came up with a new idea. They were doing handstands into a roll. It was really fun, so they did that. Then it was time to have lunch, so they had a sandwich and an apple.

They had to eat healthy things because it makes you stronger. Then it was time for them to go home. So they went home together and they worked on a dance that was good. Then they had sweet potatoes for dinner. It was so yummy that they even had seconds. Then they went to bed and they fell right asleep. They were so sleepy. The next day was the competition, so they hurried to the gymnastics place and they hurried to change. They went to their teacher and they practiced. It was related to the Olympics. They forgot the competition was on Sunday and it was Monday, so they had to wait another week. Then they went to practice. And they added more to their routine.

Maddie said, “We should do a back handspring into a flip into a split.” That was the best idea she ever had.

Chelsea said, “Sure.” And they did the whole thing. Then they went home and they did their best to do well in the competition. Then they ate dinner. They had soup; it was yummy (Maddie’s mom is a great cook).

Before they went to bed, Zoe came in and said, “Sorry.”

Chelsea said, “It is okay.”

And then Zoe said, “Sorry,” to Maddie.

She said, “It is okay,” and they all hugged. Then they all practiced and they all went to sleep the very next day.

They all went to the gymnastics place and they said hi to the teacher and they went to work. They had to practice for the show but first they ate some cereal and then they went to work. After they were done they all chatted.

Maddie said, “I’m glad we’re friends,” to Zoe.

Zoe said, “Me too. I was wrong about you; you are nice.”

Chapter 4: Shopping

a second chance 4

Then they went to a shop to buy new phones. Maddie got a blue one, Zoe got a yellow one, and Chelsea had a red one. Then they went to buy some new clothes. They got the same things: green shorts and a black tank top. It looked great! Then they all went to Maddie’s house and they had a chance to go to the Olympics.

In the morning they went in the car and they drove to the gymnastics place: it was the day of the competition.

Then they changed and they did their dance and they went to do the best dance ever. When they were done, they won! They were the best ever. Then they all had treats: they had cupcakes and cookies and other treats.

Then they all did a high five. And they all were the best gymnasts ever. 

second chance 5

The next day they all got their picture taken and they were famous.

 

The End
second chance 6
This is when she is at the play date. The other picture is when Addie asks her mom to go to Chelsea’s house.

Atlas

The storm was raging. My mother and father ran to the lifeboats but they realized something was wrong –– my sister and I weren’t there.

“The children!’ my mother yelled at my father, and he quickly ran below the decks to find us. But we weren’t anywhere near the ship. We were far, far away from the boat, in the ship’s safest lifeboat. A while later my mother had no choice but to leave my father below the decks. But when the ship’s crew was lowering the lifeboat into the water, the ropes snapped in mid air and my mother’s lifeboat hurtled downwards towards the water.

“Mom!” yelled my sister. As the lifeboat went on its journey to find another ship that could bring us to New York my sister and I were crying over the deaths of our parents. A few hours later we safely boarded the Mississippi and heading toward Albany, New York.

Once we landed in New York, the Mississippi’s crew sent my sister and me to the nearest orphanage, but almost everything in it was so so old and dusty –– even the food! The only good part was the kids who lived in the orphanage they were all very very nice. But a few months later my sister and I could not stand the bad conditions of the orphanage so we packed all of our stuff, said goodbye to our friends, and left.

But that was about two years ago. Now we are working as doctors and scientists for the Atlas corporation. When we came to New York, we were wandering around the city until an undercover Atlas spy found us and took us to the main headquarters of Atlas. So far we have made dozens of grenades that unleash a deadly type of poison when they explode. We have also cured thousands of soldiers from wounds, poisons, and a deadly type of illness that will burn you alive. Ten years later, Atlas asked me to join the spies that go around bustling cities trying to find homeless children about at least ten years old, and I said yes. So my sister became a doctor, and I became a spy.

I still remember the first kid that I found on the streets. His name was Edward and he was fourteen years old. He started to live on the streets when he was ten years old because his parents died from a fire. It had started because their neighbor was cooking and he “accidently” lit a napkin on fire and dropped it into the pan that he was cooking with. It just so happened that there was oil in the pan. So yeah, his whole apartment exploded. So I brought Edward back to Atlas headquarters and the commanders trained him to be a soldier.

A few months later, I became a soldier and so did Edward. Now Edward and I are storming into battle at the Vespers main headquarters.

“Charge!” my general yelled at us. So we all charged into battle, thirsty for blood. In the next hour, bullets flew, men fell, and machinery exploded.

When we got back to base, my general quickly changed into his kitty pajamas and went to sleep. A few minutes later a group of Atlas soldiers snuck into the general’s bedroom. Inside the room, there were lots and lots of generals but their general was very conspicuous because of his pink kitty pajamas.

Suddenly all the generals inside the room woke up and started to yell, “!@#$%^&*”

Finally, when the founder of the Atlas calmed all the generals down, he told the soldiers very sternly that they should never ever sneak into the general’s room. Their punishment was to bathe in hot oil every day for every week of every month of every year for the rest of their lives. Edward and I both think the punishment was unfair but the general refused to release them.

A few days later my unit rolled into action at Bunker Hill. The first tent that my unit set up was the arsenal. Inside there were hundreds and hundreds of firearms. The next day, Edward, some of our fellow soldiers, and I boarded a battleship that took off towards the Atlas fleet. When we finally got onto the ship, we all took our positions. I probably got the most exciting job on the boat. I got to fire the gun! When we lost sight of Bunker Hill, we turned on the radar and the navigation device so we could see if any enemy ships were coming and where we were going.

A few hours later, our captain told us some big news. There was a whole fleet of enemy ships headed towards us. He told us to be ready if they suddenly attacked. When we could actually see the enemy fleet, we all opened fire. A few minutes later, we were surrounded by enemy ships and they blew us up. Edward and I were the only two crew members that survived.

By the time we spotted the island we were dead from thirst and water. We boarded the island and right away felt like it was better to die than to live. So right away we got out our army knives and tried to build a shelter so we could a least have a place to live in. By the end of the day, Edward and I had built the most magnificent shelter ever! (It was probably a lot better than Brian Robinson’s shelter.)

I told Edward to go and try to find some food, so he did. When Edward came back, I had already made the fire and was ready to cook the food. But when he came back he had some new cuts and also a huge claw mark on the side of his head. I asked him what happened, and he told me he had angered a huge chicken and it tried to kill him. Edward used his years of military training to kill the huge chicken. So after he told me the whole story he asked me to go with him to where he had killed the chicken so I could help him drag the chicken back to the shelter so we would have something to eat that night.

When we finally got back to the camp, the fire had already gone out so I had to make another fire which was pretty easy to make since I got first place in survival camp when I was fifteen years old. After we finished our magnificent meal, I told Edward to go to sleep while I tried to fix the radio transmitter and tried to call for help.

A few hours later, Edward woke and told me to go to sleep for a while. When I said no, he took the transmitter and started to do what I had done a few hours ago when he went to sleep. After a few minutes, I was so tired, I fell off the rock, hit my head on another rock, and blacked out. When I woke up, it was already morning and Edward was already back from the morning hunt with a bunch of wolves following him. Wait, what? A bunch of wolves!?

I asked Edward why he had adopted a bunch of wolves. Do you guys know what he said? He told me that when he was hunting, he heard the growls of the wolves and he seemed to understand what they were talking about.

In the morning, Edward confessed that the day before he had lied to me about the wolves. (Like I didn’t know that already.) He told me that the wolves had followed him back to camp because he had a hole in his bag of meat and the meat had dropped onto the ground. And then the wolves ate it and they followed him back to camp thinking they would get more food. But they didn’t, so they walked away.

In the morning, Edward’s loud cry woke me from my deep slumber. “Yay, yay, we’re saved, yay!!!”

I sat up and said, “Yo, keep it down, man.”

And he said, “But I need to signal that ship!!!” I took one look at the ship and wondered how Edward could be so stupid.

“It’s one of the Vespers’ ships!!!” I yelled at him. And then I saw her. Grandmama. “Stop it, Edward!!! That’s Grandmama’s ship!!!” I yelled at him. Then Grandmama turned her ship’s cannon toward our island and fired.

“Duck!” I screamed at Edward. He ducked and quickly fired back with one of the many coconut cannons that Edward and I had built. After a few seconds, I recovered from my shock and also started to fire back at Grandmama. Then I told Edward to stop firing because there was so much smoke we couldn’t aim correctly.

Five hours later, I said, “Hey yo, Edward, what do you want for dinner?”

And he said, “I’ll take some coconut water and that’s it.”

“Okay,” I replied.

In the morning old Grandmama ran out of ammo and ran to ask her fat son Samuel to deliver some ammo to her. While she was trying to radio Samuel, Edward and I took advantage of that and started to fire some coconuts at her ship, The Death Bed.

After a few minutes, Edward and I were looking at the ruins of old Grandmama’s ship The Death Bed, but I didn’t see that. With the last bits of her strength, she turned one of the ship’s last working cannons and fired at the island.

The next day, one of the Atlas ships found me and picked me up. When I got back to base, I learned that my sister had died of grief. Grandmama killed Edward when she fired the cannon in the last few moments in her life. My legs had been blown off in the explosion, so I couldn’t walk for the rest of my life. I hope I’ll be able to go for at least one more mission, but until then, Shadow Killer Out.

The Necklace Chase

It was eight o’clock at night when I realized that the necklace was missing, but nobody knew who could have taken it. Then I asked Sadie if she could help me find my necklace. Sadie told me to retrace my steps. That was when I realized a girl was looking at my necklace, so I took it off and gave it to her. I told Aliza that she could hold it but to give it back as soon as I was finished.

Sadie was watching this whole entire thing. Sadie saw Aliza running away with my necklace. In the bathroom, I could hear Sadie telling Aliza to stop running away with my necklace.

When I was finished with my business Sadie said, “Hurry Claire, we have to catch her!” Sadie and I started running after her.

Now we had to find Aliza!

“Where do we start, Claire?” Sadie asked me.

I said, “I was in the bathroom, how should I know?”

I said, “It’s raining. Maybe we can track her with her footsteps in the mud.”

“Good idea,” Sadie said.

“Hurry,” I said, “before her footprints wash away too.”

We were running in the rain hoping that the footprints will not wash away anytime soon.

Five minutes later…

“Sadie, do you see her footsteps?”

“No, I think we lost her!”

Now Sadie and I had to track her a different way. Sadie and I were looking for clues when suddenly we discovered that Aliza was a litterbug (yuck). Now that we knew Aliza was a litterbug, we were going track her with candy wrappers.

30 minutes later…

“Claire, I see Aliza. We’d better stay quiet so we can get her by surprise.” Sadie said.

“Okay, but how are you going to get your necklace back?”

The necklace was in Aliza’s pocket. Sadie’s idea was to throw a piece of candy so Aliza would bend down to pick it up and then the necklace would fall out of her pocket.

“Claire, do you have a piece of candy?” Sadie asked.

“Always!”

“Great can I have it … now?”

“Sadie right now is not a great time to eat candy!”

“It’s not for me. Just trust me, okay?”

“Fine.”

After Sadie threw the piece of candy, everything went as planned. I got my necklace back and found another one on the ground. I decided to keep it.                                                                                                                              

That was the biggest surprise of all. I would never have figured it out without Sadie’s help.

Ice Cream Is Great

   

with milk inside, and the 14 grams of sugar, and the variety of flavors, strawberry, vanilla, mint chocolate chip, chocolate, and superman, plus the taste in your mouth, and how your tongue turns into a glacier when you eat too much at once, also how sometimes the cone is edible, so your parents can’t scold you for wasting anything, and how the edible cones are sometimes made of waffles which are also great and add to the sweet taste of ice cream, and how, with sundaes, there are a bunch of different flavors plus the literal meaning of the phrase “with a cherry on top,” and how you can choose your own toppings like rainbow sprinkles or chocolate sprinkles or pretty-much-whatever, and that is why I love ice cream, what do you think?

sundaes with the fancy glass and how you can combine different flavors and how at some places you get a fancy spoon and you can stuff your face and how you would have a fudge mustache and then your parents get mad but it is still worth it because you have five scoops of ice cream and it’s way better than normal ice cream because it lasts way longer and you get a brain freeze but your tongue is still like antarctica.

at 7g of fat, 29 mg of cholesterol, 53 mg of sodium, 131 mg of potassium, carbohydrates, 16g protein, 2.3g vitamin A, 5% Ben and Jerry’s

And don’t forget Peachwave!

going to Ben and Jerry’s

with my dad

me and him

laughing

marshmallow sauce mustache

strawberry ice cream dribbling down my chin

laughing while licking

with everything everywhere

people looking at us like we’re crazy

I can’t imagine

anything better than that.

The Banana’s Life Change

Hello, my name is Banana, and this evening I was browsing the web on a website about trains. It is an amazing video game web. After that, I went into the bathroom to brush my banana peels. This was how I looked: I had really fluffy hair.

It was great to be a banana. I looked so beautiful… So I went to bed, and then I woke up. It was a really fast sleep. Bananas sleep really well. I looked in the kitchen to say “Good Banana Day’’ to my parents, but they were GONE!

This is how my parents usually looked:

They were two long bananas with furry lips and long hair they were hugging.

This was how they looked when they were gone:

They looked like NOTHING or ______. I was really sad.

Waaah!

But then a minute later the whole story zoomed right on my HEAD. I said, “Story, don’t zoom on my head!” And then I suddenly thought, I can go on a quest to find my parents.

I was going to have a super powerful spear and hair… hehe, AWESOME! So I took a stick from the garden and started training right away. I was swinging my stick at a wall, but then suddenly a massive lightning beam shot out of my body and vaporized the wall.

“WOW, that was new!” I shouted and vaporized another wall. “I am ready to fight anyone who stole my parents! They will get CHIP-CHOPPED TO A MILLION TINY LITTLE BABY PIECES BY MY SUPA BABY STICK!” I screamed extremely loudly. There was a strange creepy echo.

OH! I forgot to show you my stick. Here it is: it’s tiny and brown and little, and it looks like a baby little tree without the creepy eyes that glare at you and eat your soul. It destroys you and makes you die in less than two tiny little milliseconds. It makes you barf out yesterday’s breakfast (which was really yummy). Isn’t it AMAZING?! A second later I found out that the power wasn’t coming from the stick. It was coming from ME! That’s the last thing I remember before I fell asleep.

                                                              ***                                                                             
I woke up to the sound of grunting outside. It was like “GRAAA, GRAAA, GRAAA.” It was really annoying, ugh. Then I thought, All of that was a dream? But then I quickly flicked my arm, and a bunch of lightning flew right out. “YES, it isn’t a dream,” I said. Then I made my breakfast and ate it. This is how it looked: it had A LOT of amazing eggs and muscular pieces of bacon. Ooh, pretty good. My mom made it better. I was starting to miss her.

Then I went outside to check out the grunting noises. There was a massive donut eating my stick and saying, “BANANA WILL DIE! BANANA WILL DIE!” This is how it looked: it was really hairy and had FANGS!

It was REALLY CREEPY. He was also was holding a MASSIVE club. He was saying “HAHA, YOU HAVE COME TO FIGHT ME AND GET YOUR HEAD RIPPED OFF AND CHOPPED INTO TWO PIECES! I ALSO TOOK YOUR PARENTS!” in a really metallic voice.

I was OUTRAGED! I closed my eyes and then suddenly a plane just flew two meters by me. I looked down, and I noticed that I turned GIANT! And the donut still was pretty big. Then suddenly, the story zoomed right on my head. (Again, ugh.) So I thought, I am UNSTOPPABLE and I am going to get that evil, stupid, big, horrible, terrible, donut brat.

So I swung my big hand, and out flew twelve unstoppable blue lightning bolts. But the monster donut was quicker than he looked! He dodged the bolts and spat out fifty donut holes. I dodged and stepped on the donut monster. I squashed him, and then he turned into a thousand tiny donuts. The donuts jumped on me and bit me!  “MEAN TINY DONUTS!”

I summoned some lightning to take care of them (not in a good way), and they all got vaporized and turned to pink powder. And then I shrunk, and I was small again. “WEEE.” My parents were tied up to a tree. I went to them and broke the ropes. They hugged me, and we lived happily ever after.

Tim and Spud

When Tim looked back on it, he didn’t know when it started. Was it when Spud did the unspeakable, or was it when when his mother Leanne died seven years ago? No, he thought. It had started on his 12th birthday.

Sarah was in for the day. Sarah was his older sister, who was 18 and in college. Even Dad was in a good mood. Sarah had given him a scrapbook, and Dad was just cutting his cake (which was lemon, his favorite), when he paused.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Tim asked.

“Sarah will you get the present.”

“What?”

“Oh, wait.”

Just then, Sarah walked out with the strangest dog Tim had ever seen. It was brown and gold-specked with a long pink tongue hanging out of its mouth.

“He’s all yours,” Tim’s dad said. Tim looked at the dog and it pounced on him.

 

********************************************************************************************************

Down, Spud!” Tim tried to pull his dog down. He sighed and gave up. Then, the ice cream came. Maggie O’Connor, the kid of the rich couple next door, was nice, but her parents spoiled her. She wasn’t that bratty, but her parents would do anything for her.  

Maggie taunted Spud with her ice cream. Then, he broke free of his leash and jumped on her. Now, Spud was a pouncy dog, but this was too much.

“The blood!” Tim’s dad yelled.

The hospital monitor bleeped. Tim stepped into the room. Maggie was lying on the bed, her blonde curls spread out. Tim wished that she would be okay and that her green eyes would open again.  

Her mother sat with her head in her hands while her father sat reading the Bible. No one looked up.

“Um… ” Tim began. “I’m sorry about Maggie.”

Mr. O’Connor looked up. “That is enough, Timothy,” he said.

“Okay, well, bye,” Tim said awkwardly. He went home.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Dad said.

“What?” asked Tim.

“The O’Connors are filing a lawsuit against us. I don’t want to have to pay for this. We have to get out of the country, Tim.”

 

Chapter 2

 

Dad’s plan:

  • Cross the border to Mexico
  • If anyone finds out, go to Cuba
  • If anyone finds out, go south

 

Tim packed some clothes, a picture of his family, some school supplies, a flashlight, and three tubes of toothpaste.

Then they left with Spud, of course. They climbed into Dad’s gray Porsche, and Tim smelled his old home one last time. Tim clutched the photo and the car drove off.

They drove on into the sunset, never stopping. Dad drove all night, or at least Tim thought he did. He fell asleep against his best efforts at 9:45. When he woke up, the sky was brightening again. It was almost as if the sunset was sinking again. His dad threw something in the backseat.

“Um, what is this?” asked Tim. He read the label:

SUPA-Cinnamon! Cinnamon rolls: three per pack. Microwavable. SUPA_YUMMY!

EW! Tim thought. He tore it open and ate it because he was hungry. It did not taste good — at all. It probably would have tasted even worse when it was heated. He saved one for Dad and gave the other to Spud, who ate it hungrily. He stared ahead and took out his math book. He made a solemn promise in his head to do three hours of schoolwork every day, except for weekends, and got to work on fractions.

A few hours later, Tim said, “Dad, I’m hungry.”

“Wait until dinner. No lunch on the road. We’ve only got 13,489 more miles to go.”

Tim wasn’t very good at math, but he knew this would take a while.

 

The road was dull. It was hot, and Tim was bored. Three weeks had passed, Dad stopping at delis at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Tim had been the proud digger of seven holes because of some bad sandwiches from delis.

Just then, they came to a big gate. A man was standing in front of it, looking bored. Dad drove up to him. To Tim, he hissed, “Say ‘YES!’” Tim had no idea what he was talking about. Dad handed the man two passports.

“Liam McKinley, history professor doing research on the social aspects on Mexicans?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Dad.

“Your son Adam McKinley is coming with you because his mother lives there?”

“Yes… ?” said Tim.

They passed.

“Could you have been more obvious?” Dad asked.

“Dad, what was that all about?”

“We did it. We’re in Mexico!”

They still had a while to go, and Dad stopped in a pub, promising he’d bring Tim back something.

Tim waited. At 1:55 a.m., Dad came.

“Dad!” said Tim, but stopped when he saw his dad. He was as drunk, but Tim did not know.

“Gotta go. Gave it away, stupid,” he slurred.

“Dad, you can’t drive.” Tim grabbed the keys, but his father grabbed them back. He looked at Tim with a fire in his eyes Tim had never seen before.

“GIVE THEM TO ME, YOU USELESS #%$@!” Tim leaned back, tears pricking his eyes.

He doesn’t mean it, Tim thought. But he wasn’t sure.

Dad drove a lurching five miles before he hit a sign and the car flipped over. Dad passed out, so drunk he didn’t even know what was going on. Tim helped flip back the car. No one was hurt. No one saw; no one was around for miles. Spud was in the grass. Tim knew what he had to do. He grabbed his dad’s phone out of his pocket. He went into contacts and saw the name Leanne next to a heart. Leanne was his mother’s name. Tim pressed Sarah, which was next to it. The phone rung. Please pick up, Tim thought. It rung again. Please, Sarah.

She picked it up and said, “Hello?”

“Sarah, it’s Tim. Dad is drunk, we’re in Mexico illegally, and the car is messed up. Come, Sarah, PLEASE come.”

“OH MY GOD, Tim, I had no idea. What town are you in?” Tim looked at the sign.

“El Diablo.”

“Ironic,” she said.

“I love you. Mom would never have wanted this.” The phone went dead. Tim slipped it back into his dad’s pocket and tried to think of a plan.

He didn’t need to. Dad was so hungover, they stayed in the car for two days, and then a taxi drove up. Sarah came out, Tim came out, and they hugged.

“Whassat? Dad said.

“Dad, we need to talk,” said Sarah.

“Tim, get in the car,” said Sarah. Tim got in the car and plugged in his iPod. He could still hear Dad and Sarah shouting at each other.

“HOW DARE YOU COME IN HERE INSULTING MY FAMILY?”
“HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME YOU WERE MOVING TO MEXICO?”
And on and on, just like that. Dad stomped off to the pub, and Sarah climbed into the car with Tim. Sarah took Tim’s hand.

“Timmy, how would you like to live with me?”

“You know, Tim, maybe you should, while I… get back on my feet,” TIm’s dad said.

They took a plane to Sarah’s house in California. Tim had convinced Sarah to let Spud come too.

“Well, we’re home,” said Sarah. “Here’s your room.”

Tim loved the blue room, which was perfect for a 12-year-old boy.

The school was also great. The kids were nice and they accepted him and Spud, who had mellowed down after seeing the neighbors’ dog, Felicia.

Maggie was fine, and so was her family. But one night, Tim couldn’t sleep. He went downstairs.

“Sarah,” he said.

She looked up. Her wispy blonde hair was in her face and her glasses were on the end of her nose. “Tim?”

“Is Dad okay?”

The words came tumbling out. It was not what Tim was going to say, but somehow he knew it was right.

“Oh, Tim,” said Sarah, hugging him. He hadn’t realized how stiff his body had been. “Dad is okay, he just needs to get a better life. He’s going somewhere where people will help him. I think he misses Mom.”

“I miss her too,” said Tim, “and I don’t even remember her.”

“I was only 11, but I miss her every day. But I see her in you, Tim, in your smile, in your laugh. Tim, Dad misses her, but it’s going to be ok. For all of us.” The siblings cried together until Sarah said, “I’m going to medical school to cure people with the disease Mom had.

Tim didn’t say anything, for he was asleep, and then Sarah lay down her head and slept with him.

Just a Girl, Part 1

Chapter 1: The Mechanic

Creak went the bulky android arm as I screwed it on.

“Here you go,” I said, handing an astounded old man back his newly-fixed android.

“Wow,” he said. “When old Darla broke, I never thought that she’d run again. Really,” he said, looking up at me with true happiness in his eyes. “Thank you, Julia”  

“No problem” I said, smiling.  The old man handed me 50 shonis, highly  overpaying me; but as I looked at him walking away with a bounce in his step, I thought I understood why.  Father had always told me, ever since I was a little girl, that being a mechanic is the best job you could ever have. You get to fix broken things and make people happy. Plus, it pays well. Father always got more than other mechanics even, because he was known throughout Newistonia  as being one of the best mechanics around. Back when Queen Maria still ruled, Dad would apparently sometimes go to the palace. But now that Queen Zarfina is in charge, everything’s different.

I straighten my long brown ponytail and put the CLOSED sign on the door of my small mechanic shop. I catch a glimpse of my bright green eyes in the glass and smile. According to Papa, my eyes are my best feature. I clamber into my hover. I turn it on and hear the familiar creak of the engine starting up. I pull back on the steer lever and slowly rise into the air. I love the feeling of flying above all the passersby without a care in the world. As I’m cruising along a memory floats back to me….

There you go,” Mom says. “Now, just put your arm on the lever.” I try, but let go of the startup drive in the process. The hover drops two feet in the air, but Mom swoops her strong arms behind me.

“You’re doing excellent,” she says, laughing. I smile as she carefully maneuvered our way down.

I frown and shake off the memory. Just after that fine spring day nine years ago when I was just nine, Mom had left to, “pursue her acting career.” Two weeks after that we received a sid link from the Speshona City Hospital, saying that Camilla Roberts had died of mental illness. We didn’t get any further information.

To get my mind off things I decide to send a sid link to Papa telling him I’m almost home. I’d already turned on my edonscreen when a maniac driver cuts me off. “$%&@#” I say and slam on the horn.

“Command unclear, Julia,” my edon, Ida, says.

“It wasn’t a command,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“Okay Julia” she says as I pull into the spot outside of our small town house.

I get out of my hover and lock the door. I walk up the front steps and open the front door.  “I’m home, Papa” I call out.

 

Chapter 2: Home Again

I walk in and go to Papa on the couch. He greets me with his usual “There’s nothing on T.V.”

“I love you too, Dad.” I say, and kiss him on the cheek. Suddenly he starts coughing. I frown. This hacking cough is one of his many ailments. He used to be a fine, healthy, middle-aged man; but when he hit 50 he started, as he put it, “getting old.” I made him stop working. What he mainly does now is watch football on T.V. and go for walks in the park. He doesn’t need to do that, but I want him to. It must seem like I’m being overprotective, but I just want to keep him as healthy as possible. I couldn’t bear to lose him, too.

I’m about to go to the cupboard and grab his medicine, but he says, “I’m fine honey.” I smile weakly. I put my arm down and open the fridge. “Anything good?” he asks.

“If half a slice of pizza and two chicken wings counts as good,” I reply.

“Can we order Italian?” he asks, as if I’m the parent here.

“Sure,” I say and send a sid-link to Bonnie’s Italian for three plates of their delicious steaming hot spaghetti. Our family loves Bonnie’s. My great-great-great grandparents went there all the way back in 5050. Now, 200 years later, Bonnie’s is still our family hangout. I sit on the couch next to dad and smile.

20 minutes later, I hear the buzz meaning weight has been detected near our front door. Our creaky old android Annie rushes to the door. She opens it to reveal the delivery android, Frank. We see a lot of him here.

“That will be 30 shonis,” he says, handing over our spaghetti. I put the money in his built-in cash register and close the door as he’s rolling away. I turn around to face Dad.

“Spaghetti time” I say.

Half an hour later, full with spaghetti we plop down on the couch. We turn on the news. What I see nearly makes me jump out of my skin. BREAKING NEWS: QUEEN ZARFINA, DEAD.

Queen Zarfina, dead??? It can’t be. I pinch myself on the arm and blink. Nope, the headline’s the same. It was no secret that she had killed her sister Maria to be queen. Everybody thought that she would do whatever it takes to stay queen. She has dozens of the best doctors in the world working tirelessly in her research labs. But I guess karma has caught up to her.

I turn to Papa and see he is wearing the same shocked expression as me. “Wow,” we say in unison.

 

Chapter 3: The Surprise

As I climb into my hover the next morning I still can’t believe that Zarfina is actually dead. It seems like she’s still here. Now I wonder who is going to be queen. She never had any kids, but no one ever worried about it, because like I said, we all assumed that she was going to live forever. Curious, I say to Ida, “Turn on newsfeed.”

“All right, Master Julia” she says. I look at the screen and the hover almost skids out of the lane. HONK. An old man glares at me as he passes me.

“Sorry!” I say. But honestly, anyone in my position would have done the same thing. Usually, handsome newscaster Tristan Cooper would cheer me up, but today, I want to punch him on the nose.

“WAR,” he says. Apparently everyone wants to be ruler. The first battle was only 2 miles from here in the rural Commentoy. “It could be coming to Speshona next.” Tristan says, before it cuts to ads.

I curse under my breath. “Ida, send a sid-link to Papa saying that there is a war.”

“I can’t do that, Master.”

“Why not?”

“Adam Roberts’ edonscreen has been disabled due to the fact that he is now a patient at the Speshona City Hospital.”

“WHAT??

 

Chapter 4: At the Hospital

I shriek so loud the old man driving next to me says, “Watch it, kid.” I’m so confused. Papa, in the hospital? He was fine this morning… Or was he? I don’t know.

“Ida, I need the directions to Speshona City Hospital. Now.”

“Turn left on Bridge street….”

“Papa!!” I call out down the long sterile hallway of the hospital.

I see a kiosk on the wall and type in Adam Roberts. Hall 6, Room 4, it says. I rush there and bang open the door. I see Papa lying unconscious on a white hospital bed. It’s my worst nightmare. I see a doctor taking notes in a corner and say, “What-what happened sir?”

“Are you family?”

I nod frantically.

“Adam suffered from an unexpected heart attack. He might not make a full recovery.”

“Not a full recovery?”

“He had been unconscious for 30 minutes before our sensor picked up on his body. Because of that, he was getting sicker and sicker before he received help. But we will try our best. And what is your relation to him?”

“He’s my Dad,” I say weakly.

“We will keep you updated, Miss Roberts,” the doctor who I now see has a name tag saying Dr. Roth says. He briskly walks out of the room.

I collapse into a chair next to Papa’s bed and squeeze his hand tightly. “Please be alright,” I whisper. “Please.”

When I wake up the next morning I’m blinded by the bright white lights of the hospital. At first I’m confused and expect to see my pale blue wallpaper, but then I realize where I actually am. I quickly open my eyes and see Papa on the bed.

“Jules,” I hear him whisper.

“Yes???” I say and jump up out of my seat.

“If I…”

“Don’t say it, Papa, don’t.”

“Well, keep running the shop for me. The month’s rent for the house is 400 shonis. You must have that.” Then he breaks into a hacking cough and I rush to get him a glass of water, tears pouring down my face. I try to hand it to him but he’s too weak to accept it. I anxiously pour it into his mouth.

“Papa…” Than he squeezes my hand. But soon, I no longer feel the pressure of his hand. Tears slosh down my face like big, heavy raindrops as a beeping sound fills the room.

A white medical android rolls into the room. It says, “Mr. Adam Roberts of Speshona, Newistonia has, as of 10:32 a.m., died. I will now take his body to the research labs.”

I stand there, helplessly, as the android takes away Papa, my papa, to some foreign research lab. I rush to the bathroom, sobbing,

 

Chapter 5: Hank’s Message

An hour later, all cried out, I sit in the clean white bathroom stall and think about how alone I really am now. No parents, or even annoying little siblings. I start sobbing again, but pull myself together.

“What should I do?” I mutter. I take a deep breath and take out my edon from my back pocket. In a shaky voice, I say, “Ida, locate my hover.” My voice breaks and tears start flowing again. I wipe them away and follow Ida’s directions to Lot 12, Row 49. I climb into the hover and rise into the air. The wind hits my wet face, making it red and raw. I try to ignore it and think, Just wait until you get home, Julia.

Just then, Ida says, “Incoming sid-video from Hank Brennan.” This lifts my hopes a little bit. I’ve had a crush on Hank since elementary school. Now he’s moved to Acconio, the capital, to work at the palace. But I still get to sometimes talk to him, even if it’s not often. His face appears on the screen and I quickly wipe my tears away.

“Hey Jules,” he says.

“Hey,” I reply.

“Listen, I don’t have much time to talk, but I just wanted to tell you something.” I nod. “So, the other day I heard some royal advisors talking about you in the conference room. They said that ‘Julia should be notified soon, it’s getting late. She needs to be here, now.’ So I just wanted to let you know that you should come here, to the palace, ASAP.” Then the screen goes blank. Hank has hung up.

Great, I think. Just what I need, a 200 kilometer trip to the capital. Although, it does seem like I should be there, but…

I frown and pull into the parking space outside of the townhouse I now live in, alone. I slam the door of the hover and run to the family room, where I fall down onto the couch, hug my knees together and start to cry, my back shaking with sobs.

 

Chapter 6: Getting Ready

I walk to the small chest where we keep the blankets and pull out an old, ragged brown one. It was Papa’s favorite. Wrapping it around me, I walk back to the couch and curl up in a ball, inhaling his scent of the mint gum he’s always chewing mixed with a tinge of Bonnie’s spaghetti sauce, and I am filled with nostalgia for my pop. What do I do, what do I do? I think, rocking back and forth. Well, I’ll pack for Acconio.

I smile shakily, grateful for something to do. I slowly walk to the room I’ve had my whole life, and go to the brown dresser in the corner. I pull out ten t-shirts, one (shudder) skirt, and eight pairs of pants. I go to my closet and take out my blue suitcase. I throw the clothes, as well as sneakers, sandals, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and five big shirts for pajamas into it. I grab an orange waterproof sleeping bag and a small travel pillow and throw that in there too. Then I get the brown blanket from the living room. Satisfied, I zip up the suitcase and call for Annie. “I’m going on a trip,” I tell her. “And I’m bringing you with me.”

20 minutes later, I have put Annie in the seat next to me in the hover, thrown my suitcase in the trunk and given Ida the directions to Acconio palace. I pull into the air and have Annie turn on music. Suddenly I wonder how long it will take to get there. I ask Ida this who replies, “17 hours.”

Not too bad, I think. If I spread that over the course of two days, I could get there by Tuesday. Then I remember when Papa and I used to go on road trips to the ruins of the American cities each year for years. Tears well up in my eyes, sloshing onto the leather seat in big heavy drops. I try not to think about how I’m going somewhere far away solely based on something someone overheard but about Ally Clarkson’s new song, “Rainbows!!” I laugh, and am slightly cheered up.

Later in the day, I’m bored out of my mind. Even though auto-drive has caused many hover crashes, I still set the hover to it. As the wheel turns, I turn on Ida and begin playing Candy Crush. I twirl the candies together and my thoughts begin to drift. To Mama, Papa… I begin to wonder about my mother’s death. When she died, I was too little to really understand. But now I wonder, why didn’t they give us further information. Mental illness??? Sorry, hospital, but that’s not much to go on. But maybe Pop got more information and just didn’t tell me. Poor, fragile nine-year-old me. Now I think I know what happened. Had Papa been hiding something from me? As I pull into a motel that looks like it’s from 2050, I begin to feel upset. My father’s perfect untarnished memory is now being ruined. I settle into a restless sleep in my room with a twin bed that barely fits into the room.

 

Chapter 7: The Storm

I wake up at around six the next morning, used to getting up to go to the shop. I grab my suitcase and walk out of the room. Instead of the transporter usually installed at hotels, there’s just an ugly, hot pink, tiny elevator. Well, this looks like it’s the best I’m gonna get, I think, looking down the empty hallway.

I shove myself in, barely fitting with my suitcase and press LOBBY. When I get there, I see the concierge asleep at the front desk. I slip a 20 shonis bill onto the desk and hurry out. I clamber into the hover and rise into the air. I see some storm clouds ahead and steer away, thinking once again about Mom. Hadn’t I seen the sid-link from the hospital saying Ma was dead? I think. But maybe the hospital was lying to Papa as well. I sigh. Maybe she really did just die of mental illness.

An hour later, I see a storm about  20 feet away. I press the WEATHER PROTECTION button on the front panel as Ida says, “Incoming sid-video from Hank Brennan.” Hank’s face pops up.

“I know why they want you here!” he says in an urgent whisper. I gasp, but then the screen is filled with static. I look out the window and curse when I see that we’ve hit the storm.

“Annie, can you try and fix the receptor?” Although Annie is an old android, she’s still equipped with weather protection. Or so I thought….

As Annie climbs up the side of the hover, a particularly ferocious wind hits it. The water gets in her head cables and I gasp as Annie’s dark brown eyes turn black. She falls down the side of the hover. “No!” I cry out as Annie tumbles down into the raging storm. I yank out the brown blanket and collapse under it, mourning dear old Annie. I peer out of the sides of the blanket and begin to steer. Annie….

 

Chapter 8: Newsfeed, Water, Getting There

Annie. How could she be gone? She’s always been there. The comforting, ever-present friend. She had been Papa’s android ever since he fixed her up when he was a little boy. Even though Papa’s gone, I thought that I’d always have Annie. She was the only connection I had with Papa left. Now….. I cry and wrap the blanket around me. About half an hour later I begin to wonder why they want me at the palace. Wrapped up in grief, I hadn’t had time to really think about that until now. I try to send a sid-video to Hank, but then realize that the internet receptor is now permanently damaged. I could fix it, if only I had the tools. I never had the best forward thinking abilities. Well, I guess I’ll just have to make do with what I have. Which is… nothing.

An hour later, I turn on newsfeed, thinking about the war going on. It seems like ages ago that I was driving to work and my life changed forever. “Now we are deep into war,” Tristan Cooper says. “It is spreading, and the palace guards have yet to do anything about it.”

I think about poor Hank, who is a palace guard. Newistonians are very strong-willed, so he and his co-workers must be getting tons of angry letters this very moment. I tune back in to hear Tristan say, “And the battles are getting closer and closer to our capital each day. In fact, channel nine has exclusive information on the recent battle in our own Speshona.” I gasp and think about all my friends that might have been harmed. As Tristan goes over the list of casualties, I cling to my seat and am relieved when I don’t see Big Joe, who has been like a grandfather to me, or any of my other childhood friends.

When the show ends, I realize that although I changed into a new t-shirt at the hotel, it’s sticking to my chest. I feel like a little kid again as I say “Ewww,” and pull over the hover. I go to the back of the hover and put up the wash partition. I undress and press the WATER button. “Aah,” I say as the warm water pours into my dirty hair. I’m so glad that I installed the shower update two years ago. At the time, I found it unnecessary, but now, I’m so grateful that I did. Thank goodness for dear old Papa, who said, “You never know when you’ll need a shower.” I laugh at the memory. 20 minutes later I’ve wasted hot water and gotten back into the driver’s seat. Then, towering in the distance I see the tall spikes of the Acconio palace.

 

Chapter 9: Arrival at the Palace

When I reach the palace gates, a guard brusquely says, “Identification.”

“Julia Roberts.” I pull out my identification tag, which the guard harshly scans. I remember going with Papa when I turned ten to get registered and be given an I.D tag. By the age of 11, all Newistonians are required to be registered with an I.D tag.

I sigh as the guard opens the gate and I drive through. Unsure of where to park, I pull the hover down on the side of the parking lot and climb out. I take Ida and shove her into my pocket. Sadly, there’s no Annie any more, so I just take my suitcase and walk to the front door. I spot a familiar face and wave at Hank, who smiles and opens the door. Looking left and right, he deserts his post and ushers me inside.

“I’m glad you came,” Hank says. “Where’s your dad? And… where’s Annie?” Right. He doesn’t know. This is going to be hard. I shakily take a deep breath and begin to tell him everything. About Papa’s death, and the storm. In a way, saying it makes me feel better, but it also brings back memories I’ve been trying hard to forget. Hank looks at me, his bright green eyes filled with sympathy.
“I’m so sorry, Jules,” he says, his voice barely more than a whisper. I smile weakly. Just then, his edon, which is clipped to his belt, buzzes.

Startled, I say, “Who’s that?”

He plasters a grin onto his face and says, “My boss, Royal Adviser Evan Patterson. He says to escort Ms. Roberts to her chambers.”

“How does he know I’m here?” I ask, clueless.

He points to the walls and I see that security cameras are on almost every single wall. “Well then, ‘Ms Roberts’ let me bring you to your chambers.”

I laugh, and hold out my hand regally. “Why certainly, Monsieur Brennan.”

He takes my hand and brings me down a long, carpeted (I would say hallway, but that seems too drab, sooo) corridor. He stops at a large, wooden double door. He pushes it open to reveal the most lavish room I’ve ever seen. Shocked, I stare at the queen size bed, large wardrobe and plush white carpet. I walk in, stunned, and plop myself onto the teal comforter. I’m ready to fall asleep, when Hank pulls me up and says, ”You havent even see the bathroom yet.”

“I have my own bathroom?!” I squeal like a kindergartener. Hank laughs at me, and I playfully punch him on the arm. “In my defense, I’ve never had my own bathroom before,” I say. He just keeps laughing, and leads me to the bathroom. A grin breaks across my face. There’s a separate bathtub! This bathroom is as big as my room back home in Speshona. I twirl around, taking in the shower with a thousand different settings on the shower head, the double sink…. I smile and walk back to the main room, noticing a door I hadn’t seen before. I push it open and see a humongous walk in closet, filled with ugly frilly dresses, but also, and I’m shocked to see this, a few plain cargo pants and about ten t-shirts. I happily pull them out. I only packed a few t-shirts, and have been running low on clothes.

Then I hear a buzz behind me. I turn around and hear Hank mumble something into his edon. I turn around and he says, “They want you in the conference room.”

Chapter 10: New Job, New Life

20 minutes later, I’m seated in at a long table with about 15 stern-faced men. They introduce themselves as royal advisers. The one name that I remember is Evan Patterson, Hank’s boss. “Julia,“ he says seriously.

“Hey,” I reply, unsure of how to address a royal adviser.

“We have some very serious matters to attend to….” It seems like he’s about to say something, but refrains. “Well, let’s just say that Zarfina never really was the true queen of Newistonia.”

My eyes widen. I mean, I knew she was never the best queen, but taking over someone’s throne… well that’s just pure evil.

“We unearthed some shocking information that some extremely upset palace doctors gave. We also found some files in her private quarters,” he continues. “We found out not only that she was never really the true queen, but also something more about her past. She was a poor orphan girl who Queen Amanda and King Andrew adopted. They took her in as their own,and raised her along with their daughter Maria.”
“Wait, so Zarfina was adopted?!”

Patterson nods angrily and I can tell he wants to get back to the story.  

“As time passed, most people grew to forget that Zarfina wasn’t their true child. When Amanda and Andrew died, the crown passed to their first-born, Maria. Zarfina became extremely angry at Maria because in her opinion the crown should have been passed to her.”

“Why? Maria was their first-born.”

“Zarfina was a mere month older than Maria, but the royal advisors of that time decided that the royal bloodline must prevail. As you may know, after just five months into her reign as queen, Maria mysteriously died. People have long suspected that Zarfina killed her, but there was never any proof. You probably don’t know that Andrew and Amanda did have another girl, Camilla.”

I gasp. “Like my mom Camilla?” He nods solemnly. “How do I know that you’re not lying? Besides, if that was true, everyone would know about this. Zarfina wouldn’t have become queen.” I say frantically, biting my nails.

Patterson smooths down his bright red and gold robes and sighs, “Alas, there is more to tell.”

I wrap my arms tightly around myself, worried about what Patterson is going to say. I take a deep breath as he continues with his story.

“Zarfina, that clever mastermind, blackmailed the palace doctors into inventing the most powerful brainwashing device that ever existed. She then used it on all of the citizens through parties and meetings. She made everyone believe that she was her parents’ only child, and that Camilla didn’t exist at all. Camilla herself is brainwashed. She now believes that she was the late queen Maria’s hand maiden. Now that Maria is dead, Camilla moves to Speshona and begins a new life.”  Shocked, I sit in the comfortable brown leather chair and begin biting my nails.

I think I know what’s coming.

“15 years later, she called Camilla back into the city. Camilla, having no idea about her true past, thinks that she is being called by the queen for some important business. She unknowingly lies to her family and travels to Acconio. Zarfina then –– ” he stops and says quietly, “I think you know what happens next.” I nod and tears begin to leak out of my eyes. All this time, my mother was the true queen. Which means… Patterson nods.

“You are the true queen of Newistonia.”

~ End of Part 1~

Star, My Doll

Star is nice.

She looks like and feels like rose petals.  

She makes me feel home.

When I go to sleep I go to sleep

with my little Star

that cuddles me tight with love and joy.  

Sometimes I feel like I’m alone and I remember

she is there.

You might think this is crazy but

I think Star is my Sister and she is my

Superstar

Superhero

Superlove.

 

If people say she looks crazy

I don’t care,

I love her because of the way she is.

 

If I know I’m in danger

I run back to her

and she makes me calm.

If you think she’s just a doll

you should get to know her.

 

You’ll see, she feels like a human.

The Drum Set

Chapter 1

On a nice and sunny day, Stewart, the hero of the book, went to his uncle’s drum store called “Get Your Percussion Here!” So he went in, said hi to his uncle, then saw a drum he really liked. He looked at it every day.  And then finally, it was ten days until his birthday. Ten days later, he came back to the shop.

He asked his uncle, “Can I get a present here for my tenth birthday?”

His uncle said, “Sure, why not?” Then he went with his uncle to the drum he looked at every day. That drum didn’t only have the bass drum and the snare drum and the high-hat, and the low drum and the high drum, it also had the medium drum, cymbal one, two, and three, and the cowbell, and the main cymbal. He went to test the main cymbal. Once he hit it every thing that he saw stopped. Time stopped. Everyone around him stopped, even his uncle. The drums stopped. Something weird happened to his mind. It started to hurt. And he saw a picture.

Then he thought, maybe it could be the future.

He was like, “Why is everything frozen? Wait a second. Everything’s frozen! That’s awesome!”

Then he went outside his shop. Since the boy’s favorite food was candy, he went to Dylan’s Candy Bar and he looked at his watch to see what time it was. All he saw was 12:57 p.m. The seconds were 53 and they didn’t move one inch. Then he took some of his favorite candy bars, finished them, and threw them in the garbage. He went back to his uncle’s shop, went in and said these words: “Abra cadabra. I demand the world to unfreeze!” Then he looked at his watch. It was still 12:57 p.m. and fifty three seconds. Then he got a little bored. So then he wanted to go play the drums. After a while, he hit the main cymbal and then everything as he knew it started to go as if nothing had stopped.

His watch started to go, his uncle said, “Yeah sure,” and he didn’t know about Stewart stealing the candy bars.

Then Stewart said, “Wow!” with excitement. “Uncle,” said Stewart. “Can you please help me carry the drumset home?”

His uncle said, “Yeah sure, why not?” So they moved the drum to his house, said hi to his mom and dad, read a book, and went to bed.

The next morning he went to school. He had the worst day of his life. All his friends weren’t there and there was nothing to do, just him and all the girls in his class. He wondered where all of his friends went. When he came back home he rang the cymbal again. Everything as he knew it stopped. Time stopped. His parents stopped. And when he threw a book it didn’t go down, it just stayed in mid air. He went to his friend’s house and looked to see if they were home. Guess what he saw? He saw all his friends with chicken pox watching a movie, eating popcorn at Neymar’s house. That makes him feel he was just left out and they were not friends with him anymore.

He went back home. On the way, he went to the supermarket and took a snack or two. Then at home, he took his book, moved it back where it was supposed to be, and then rang the cymbal again. He thought, Should I keep this cymbal a secret, should I give to anyone, or should I just throw it away? You know what, I’ll just throw it away. And then he threw it out the window into the trash, read a book for a minute and went to bed.

 

CHAPTER 2

The next morning the first thing he did was look at his drumset outside. Then he was like, What the heck? Where is it? It was in the garbage. Where could it have gone? Then he looked at his room and right in front of him was his drumset.

Stewart said, “What in the world? How is my drumset still here? Didn’t I throw it out last night? This is so confusing. I wonder what happens when I hit them bottom of the main cymbal. I’m gonna do it now.”

Then Stewart hit the bottom of the main cymbal. A giant sized computer came out of the bass drum on the right side.

It said, “Hello Stewart, when would you like to go today?”

Then Stewart said, “I think you mean ‘where’ not ‘when.’ But anyway, how can you talk, Computer?”

The computer answered, “Oh, you programmed me ten years in the future.”

“Future? How do you know all this?” Stewart said.

The computer answered, “Because you made me. Ten years from now.”

“B-b-b-but how did you come from the future? This is just a normal drum set. I think…”

“But Stewart, it’s not. You made this drum set ten years in the future and then you came back here fifteen years ago and put it in your uncle’s drum shop.”

“Computer,” Stewart said in a confident voice, “why did I program you to come here?”

“Because five years from now there will be an alien invasion, and it’s going to destroy all of humanity and all of the world. You’re our only hope.”

“M-m-me? Why me?”

“Five years from now you’re going to survive the invasion, and in the future three years from now you are going to be super smart, but only if I tell you this. And Stewart, the next two years after those three years, you build something that can take you to space. You go there and look for aliens, ‘cause then they will still just be planning to take over Earth. You’re going to need to go to an alien, try to be friends with him and not say anything mean, and ask if you can take one of his hairs on his body. That will be some alien DNA. Go back home and make a machine that can make a forcefield around the earth to stop the aliens and in the next couple of months they can’t invade our planet and we can live our lives in peace. But don’t forget to test it in a little size on your alien friend.”

“But I’m not going to be smart enough to do that!”

“Remember what I said. Study hard for the next three years in school. Raise your hand as much as you want in class, and after school go home and do your homework and research on any device how to be smart. For the next three years. And also if you want to stop time with this drum set, just tap the main symbol and you can study for the next five hours of the day. And don’t forget, if you want to speed up time, which I don’t recommend to do, play the snare drum.”

“Okay, thanks, Computer.”

Now I will go and destroy the aliens that are trying to invade Earth! In the next book called The Drum Set: Alien Invasion!

The Revolution

“Your home planet, Planet X, was a very peaceful planet until it was invaded by aliens. You were just a baby and you were separated from your birth parents. You cautiously wandered into the town hall. You looked around and slowly started to walk forward, except after two steps you heard a crunch under your feet and you looked down. You saw that you stepped on the broken transporter tile, well, at least you thought it was broken. Slowly, you were enveloped in golden light, and then darkness. Suddenly, you appeared in the middle of a foster home on Earth. That’s when we found you. Being fellow aliens from Planet Y, we immediately understood your predicament and took you in. We brought you home and taught you how to improvise and how to survive. We taught you those things because when you are a survivor of a supposedly destroyed planet, and all of your family, relatives, and friends are dead, you have a target on your back. A big red one. Many monsters out there, or aliens, as you call them, would be rewarded by the Kraken, the one who destroyed your planet and many others, like ours. So we started to train you. We gave you lifelike illusions to teach you how to think on your feet. Then, in the middle of a practice session, when you were a little over thirteen years old, our little TV switched on and reported supernatural behavior and aliens being sighted on Earth. We were worried that they had come to get you, so we went outside to prepare. But we realized that preparing would do nothing when we saw what lurked in the shadows. And there he was. The Kraken. Waiting for us so he could kill us the second we stepped outside. As he crushed our puny little bodies, we shouted out to you, ‘Run, Warren! You don’t deserve the same fate as us!’ Remember, there can always be peace, you just need to find it. And remember Warren, wear your name proud, just as a true Peace would. To remind your enemies that they can never win, tell them your name, Warren Peace.”

Warren wanted revenge. His anger at the Kraken awakened his power to create things with his mind. He was thinking about his parents and what they said when he heard a voice in his head.

“Don’t worry Warren! We will always be in your head.”

Warren recognized that voice. It was the voice of his mother. Then Warren thought, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Then he heard his father’s voice respond, “You know we can hear you, son.”

“Sorry, but sometimes you can be a bit annoying.”

“Well, I guess every parent has their quirk. Well, back to the point. We believe in you. Now that you’ve discovered your newly-awakened powers, you should be able to build The Destroyer. But, it will take a year of work even with your powers. Once you’re done, you will have to shrink it to the size of a cup so you can put it in your pockets. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to move it because it will be the size of this whole house.”

“Ok, bye.”

The vision of them in his head flashed out of view. Warren mumbled to himself, “Ok, now I need to get to work.”

Two months later…

“Finally, I have all the equipment to build it,” he said as he’s walking into his house with the last of his supplies. Then he walked face first into a note that he wrote two months ago.

Remember, you don’t have to get supplies, you can just use your powers.

Then he remembered right after his vision, he had thought, “Wow, I need to take a nap.” But then he remembered that he always forgets things after naps. Therefore, he wrote a note so that he wouldn’t forget about his powers. But then when he woke up, he forgot all about the note. He should have put it in a better spot. And then a phrase that he heard on T.V. flashed through his mind: “Shoulda woulda coulda.” He slapped himself in the face and imagined that there were two hundred million dollars on his credit card. All the money that he just wasted back in an instant. He started feeling woozy and his knees gave way. He face-planted onto the cold wooden floor. It happened in a split second, but for him, it felt like it took an hour. Everything went black.

He woke up to the feeling of a cold washcloth on his head. He saw a kid about his age. He had the picture of Planet X and it’s many stars on his shirt (even though he had been a baby, he could still remember every single moment of terror that he went through on that day). He suddenly jumped up.

He screamed, “Who are you?”

The boy said, “How about a ‘thank you’? I just saved you from The Kraken.”

“Ok, thank you. I guess I was a little rude there. But seriously, who are you?”

“My name is Gagaroth. And I’m also from Planet X. It was very unfortunate what happened there. Now may I know your name?”

“My name is Warren. But how did you find me? And how did you even know that I’m here?”

“Well, our kind has a very special tracking system. All we have to do is envision the type of person, or even better, if that person has a name, and boom! We know the location of that person. You see, I’m looking for other survivors, and just happened to find you. I suppose you’re a little different from the rest of us. I walked in just as you conjured up the money out of thin air, and then you fainted. You realize there has only been one other that possessed the power that you behold.”

“So, what happened? Why did I black out?”

“You know, you need to be more careful. you should start with smaller things, if you use your power too much, then you start to get really sick. And it may cause death. But, with proper training, and it’s not that I’m recommending any specific trainers,” he gestured to himself.

Warren rolled his eyes.

“You can use more of your powers at any time without any consequences. I can help you with your problem if you help me with mine. Unfortunately, I haven’t found out a way to live life on Earth. You see, I just got here. Sometimes teleporting is a bit tricky, I suppose. Well, back to the point, I can’t seem to make a living, and since I don’t have your powers I can’t just make the money. Finding food, water, and housing has been a bit tricky. So the deal I’m offering you is for me to help you learn how to control your powers if I can live in your guest room. And you can spare a little food.”

“Ok. Seems like a good deal to me. But first, can I have some aspirin? I still have a bit of a headache.”

“Sure,” he pulled a bottle of Aspirin out of his supposedly empty pocket and held it out. “Here you go.”

Warren stared in wonder. “How did you do that? I thought you said you didn’t have the power to create?”

“Well, I don’t. But as my parents put me into the teleporter, they gave me this pair of pants. It allows me to pull small items, that would fit into a pocket, out of them. Conveniently everything except for money. Sense the sarcasm? Huh? Huh?”

“Calm down, man. I’ll get you some money. Except first you need to teach me how to do that without half killing myself.”

“Sure I’ll teach you. But I’m pretty sure you have 200 million leftover dollar bills from that incident from before. Doncha?” He held out his hand.

Warren looked around. He realized what Gagaroth was talking about. He saw piles of money everywhere. And when he said everywhere, he meant he couldn’t see the shining floor anymore. “Take what you want.”

“Really?” he responded into his pockets.

“Not a wise move, trust me.”

“Ok, b-”

“Nope, can’t take it back anymore,” he said as he rushed around the room, piling endless amounts of money into his pockets. Clearly, the effect was double sided, if you can pull anything out, then why not put anything in?

“Okay, now can you teach me how to use my powers?”

“Sure, let’s start next morning, 6 a.m. .

“Next morning?” Warren responded, annoyed for having to wait.

“Yes, next morning. Well, whatever and good night.”

He went downstairs to the guest room. Once he was gone, Warren felt a chill go up his spine. His head spun around and he saw what looked like a mix between a shark, octopus, hyena, panther, black mamba and cyborg. Suddenly, he heard a loud booming voice that echoed through his head. It said in a metallic voice, “I will do to you what I did to your planet, and your so-called puny ‘parents.’”

Warren said, “What the—”

The one thing he could see was a giant fist coming at him, and the next thing, darkness. When he woke up, the first thing that he did was rub the grogginess out of his eyes. It was a little blurry, but he could still make out that he was in a dark room with a giant figure looming over him. He heard the same voice that he heard before he was knocked unconscious.

“Good, you’re awake. You see, the reason that I brought you here is because you have something that I need. And if you don’t give it to me willingly, I’ll use force.”

He managed to mumble, “What do you want?”

The monstrous figure chuckled, “Huh. It’s not one thing that I want, it’s many things. The first thing that I’ll need from you is your employment.  And then I’ll tell you more about my plans.”

“What if I refuse?”

“Funny you should ask that. For your answer, why don’t you just look across from you.”

Warren looked to his right, he saw nothing. Then he looked to his left and he saw Gagaroth. He had wide eyes and a frantic expression on his face. There was one problem. He had a gag and his arms and legs were chained to a hospital bed. Just as he saw the chained up legs and arms, he realized that he couldn’t move any of his limbs either. When he looked down, all he saw were ropes and chains and a few red splotches here and there that he assumed were blood. The Kraken roared in rage and shouted, “Well, make up your mind! Are you going to work for me or not?”

The Kraken roared in rage and shouted, “Well, make up your mind! Are you going to work for me or not?”

“And if I don’t work for you?”

“I thought you would have guessed that by now, but I guess you’re even dumber than you look. But, I guess you do have the right to know. You see, if you refuse my offer, then I’ll torture your friend here. And don’t try to use your powers to stop me. I have an electromagnetic field that has momentarily made you helpless.”

Warren stared at him with his mouth hung so wide it looked as though he could swallow the Internet. He finally replied, “Ok. I’ll work for you. What is my first task, ‘Master’?”

“Hey. I’m not deaf. I can hear the sarcasm clearly. Keep it up, if you want your friend to die in front of your eyes.” He stood up and walked away, knowing that he had clearly won.

Now Warren wondered what to do. He was restrained and he couldn’t use his powers. Suddenly he heard, “Warren!”

He looked to his left and he saw that somehow Gagaroth must have gotten the gag off because it was now laying on the floor beside him. Warren said, “What happened? All I remember was his fist and then I was out.”

“Well, once he knocked you out, he came for me downstairs. He was so loud that I could hear your conversation all the way downstairs. But thankfully since I got that head start, I built myself a clone. And all offense to him, he’s stupid. He went after the clone even though it doesn’t look remotely like me.”

Warren suddenly felt embarrassed that he hadn’t realized that it was a clone. Gagaroth continued, “Then he walked into the room just as I put the microphone inside the clones mouth. And then he took the clone and I was just left by myself in the house.”

“So you’re really safe? You’re back at home? Where am I? Can you come get me? How are you able to make the clone so fast? Is this really all true?” He blurted out.

“Whoa there, one question at a time. So for the first question, if that was a clone, of course, I’m safe and at home. Also, you are currently a mile beneath your house. And, or course this is true. Also, I’m right behind you.”

“What! Free me!”

“Hold on, hold on, I’m not finished. I’m not literally behind you, but the little drone carrying an Ipad on Facetime is right behind you, so turn around and say ‘Hi!’”

Warren said, “I understand that you have a clone in here, but the drone…isn’t that a little much?”

“Well you see, I kept the drone in my pocket, well, my clone’s pocket, I mean. So when I noticed that we were clear I just sent it out so you could actually see what happened up here.”

“Well I’ll do that but first you kinda, you know, need to free me from my chains. How bout it, huh?”

“Sure.”

Suddenly the clone of Gagaroth broke free of his chains, took out an Adamant Knife and slashed the chains away from Warren’s body.

“There. Good now?”

“Yes,” Warren said as he hopped off the bed and spun around. He had a picture of what the drone would look like in his mind, but he never expected it would look like a cupcake with frosting.

Gagaroth noticed Warren’s confused look and said, “Well I didn’t really have much time, I only had a few times to pull it out of my pocket. You see sometimes I don’t control what the thing looks like, all I control is what it is.”

“Wow.” That was all he could say. His home looked like a construction crew teamed up with a bombing squad and his house was the target. The furniture was ripped to shreds, and all of his food was on the floor with bites bit into it. There were claw marks on the floor. Warren thought he might be able to fix things, but he would need some serious coaching from Gagaroth first. He wouldn’t want to faint again.

Gagaroth looked at Warren and said in a disappointed voice, “Yeah, I know, it’s bad. But it could be worse, at least we didn’t die.”

“Well, I guess you’re right, it could’ve been much worse. Wait a second! Did he steal the project that I was working on?”

“Yeah, why would you ask?”

“I need an advil,” he mumbled to himself. “Well, you see, that project I was working on? It was a thing that might be able to save our planet and bring it back to the way it used to be. And it would have been able to kill the Kraken.”

Gagaroth screamed, “DUCK!”

“Why is there a duck in my house? And if there is, why are you screaming at the top of your lungs?”

“No! I mean DUCK!”

“Seriously, what are you-” Warren suddenly caught his drift. He ducked his head a second before a boulder the size of his head slammed into the wall behind him. If that boulder hit him, he would be dead by now. It would’ve cracked his skull right open.

He muttered “thanks” to Gagaroth. Then he turned to his attacker. He expected to see the Kraken, but instead he saw a cute little butterfly…that was arming a catapult.

On the catapult, there was a sign that said: Oh you like my new little plaything?

Seriously, I hope you enjoy it.

Sincerely, THE KRAKEN.

 

Warren thought “How is he controlling that butterfly?” As soon as he thought that in his head, the old sign vanished and a new sign appeared.

This one said: So, you’re wondering how I controlled the little butterfly’s mind?

Well, here’s the simple answer. I got pro skillz yo.

Suddenly an image popped up in Warren’s mind. It was the Kraken stomping on this planet and saying “If you don’t become my servant, I will do to this planet what I did to yours.” Suddenly, someone said, “Drumroll, please! The mighty man himself: THE KRA-”

“Edward!” The Kraken roared. “It’s a little late for that.”

Warren said to the vision of the Kraken in his mind, “I’ll leave you two to discuss this. I’ll just go. So yeah, bye!”

He snapped his eyes open only to find another boulder flying at his face. He thought “It was a distraction!” but he didn’t have time to worry about the Kraken’s cleverness. He dodged out of the way and lunged for the catapult. He grabbed the butterfly in his hands, and he was sad to admit, he squashed it. He wiped away the guts and blood on Gagaroth’s clone’s shirt and then walked back to the catapult. He imagined he was holding a sledgehammer and then smashed it to bits.

Suddenly he heard Gagaroth’s voice saying, “Wow. You just imagined a giant sledgehammer the size of your body, and you didn’t even break a sweat. Seriously man, good job.”

Warren realized that for the first time, “Wow, that’s right!” Just as he finished celebrating, he took a step forward and fell on his face. Then everything was black.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. I did not recognize my surroundings, but I did recognize the face that was hovering a few inches from mine. It was the face of Gagaroth, my best friend, and my only friend. He spoke, “Yeah, as you were saying, you didn’t faint at all that time.”

“Quit it with the sarcasm, okay? But really, what happened? I don’t really remember much, you know with the whole being unconscious thing.”

“So once you fainted, I walked towards you, and me and my clone brought you up to the house. Once we got there, we realized we couldn’t leave you there because the house was a wreck. So instead, we brought you to the local hospital.”

“What? How could you? We need to be off the grid! It’s enough that we’re running from monsters, but we can’t have the police knowing who we are! I mean, come on man! We’re probably going to cause some destruction if we destroy the Kraken. And we can’t be arrested after all of that. That would ruin everything.”

“You mean WHEN we defeat the Kraken. When. Have faith my brother, we can do this. We just have to bide our time. Also, you need to rest, you hit your head pretty hard when you collapsed. It was a big bump, and it needs time to heal.”

Warren lifted up his arms and felt his forehead. Instead of feeling his usually smooth skin, he felt a lump the size a tennis ball and instantly starting to panic. But then he remembered about his powers and summoned a Med Kit out of thin air. But this wasn’t just any normal first aid kit. I was the special first aid kit from his planet. He faintly remembered what it looked like so he summoned it from his memory. When he opened it, memories rushed back to him. Learning how to ride a bike, when his father patched up his knee when he scraped it on the sidewalk. And how his mother gave him some medicine when he got sick. No, he couldn’t worry about them now. He had work to do to avenge his parents.

He went back to the present, took out some Grocklack, and applied some to his forehead. In moments, the throbbing stopped and the bump decreased to the size of a little teeny pebble.

“Wow,” Gagaroth said. “Kinda forgot you could do that. But that reminds me. I haven’t fulfilled my promise yet. I have to show you how to use your powers with all your possible energy, without collapsing from the exhaustion of it. Because it would kinda suck if you defeated the Kraken, and then fell off the George Washington Bridge and into the water. You know what I mean? So first thing tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. , you’re going to the training room so I can get you back on your feet and teach you how to use your powers with maximum power.”

“Wow, that was a mouthful. But okay, I guess so. Let’s find a table so I can summon us some food for lunch. I assume it’s time for lunch, right?”

“Actually, it’s time for brunch, so even better. I saw some tables on my way here, let’s go over there.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

They walked over to the seating area and while the employees weren’t looking, Warren summoned some club sandwiches and some Coke. They ate in silence. Once they finished their meal, they went their separate ways to do some daily activities and just have some fun. You know, if you’re going to live on Earth as a teen, you should have some fun doing it. They said goodbye and the first very, very fun activity Warren was going to do was to clean up his house. When he walked in, he officially decided the world was against him, so he blew up the rest of the house with explosives. It was beyond repair. All the furniture was shredded, there were dirt marks and claw marks every few feet. So instead, he just decided to get a new house. He decided the perfect one for him and Gagaroth was a 37 room mansion on a cliff in Florida overlooking the ocean. So he summoned up some money (this time only a little at a time) and bought the house. After he furnished it, he summoned some blank pieces of paper and some pens, and started to draw up a battle plan.

The first step was to map out the Kraken’s hideout so that they didn’t get lost, because that would kind of suck. Once he mapped out the lair, he started thinking of ways to take down the Kraken. So far, the best one was to torture him for ten years and then slaughter him. I know that might sound gross, but trust me, he deserved it. But then he had to figure out how he was going to get the Kraken in a defenseless position. So far, his best idea was this: Gagroth would make some clones of himself and Warren, and then while they were distracted, Warren would slowly be building up weapons and ammunition. And explosives. Finally, once they realized the clones were, well, clones, they would come in and blow the whole thing up, leaving the Kraken and his crew exposed. While they stood there in shock (assuming that the explosion didn’t kill them) Warren and Gagaroth would come in for the kill with the new and improved DESTROYER 2.0.

It was going to be like the rocket slash missile he built before, except Gagaroth would build a smart computer inside of it, and add arms and legs. The missile would launch itself at the Kraken, hopefully killing him, or at least weakening him. If he wasn’t dead by then, a metal shell from the robots midsection would rise and the robot would become a killing machine with two energy chainsaws, the sacred sword, and 37 machine guns and bazookas.

So now that that was over, he summoned himself some early dinner and went to sleep. Later that morning, both Warren and Gagaroth went inside of the local gym. They had talked to the manager, and I’m not saying they bribed the manager to let them have the whole gym to themselves for the day, but they basically bribed the manager. Once they were all ready and warmed up, Gagaroth said, “The first step: always be calm and patient no matter what. Second: always have your goal in mind, and never change want you want to happen halfway through. There will be consequences. Third: never, EVER use your powers for evil. Only for good. Fourth, you have to have complete concentration. Fifth, when you become super famous, always remember how ‘Uncle Gagaroth’ helped you all that time. Ok?”

“Har, har, so funny. And when you said there will be consequences, what did you mean by that?”

“Well, first of all, have you ever wondered how the Kraken became so powerful?”

“Well actually, I never really thought of it. How did he become so powerful?”

“I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a long one but I think that you have the time to hear it. Ok, it all started when the Kraken was born. He was born on a planet like ours except it was all different. You may have heard of it, the legendary planet A. It was like ours in the sense that everyone was trying to make peace, except that it was also different in the sense that they expected so highly of everyone that when the Kraken, aka ‘Johnny’, was playing around with his friends and having some fun, he accidently cracked the portal and it sent a beacon out into space. It attracted all the monsters in that galaxy to the planet, they banished him to the planet of Askard.

At the planet of Askard, he was mutated, turned into a monster. He was stranded there until he came. He taught the Kraken how to have a thirst for revenge, and taught him how to live the life of a criminal. That was when he started his journey. Your planet was the 13th planet that he conquered. If you can’t stop him, then Earth will be the 15th.”

“That just means that we have to take him out soon,” Warren said.

“Agreed.”

To Be Continued.

The Wedding

It all started with my parents’ umpteenth wedding. Yup. My parents have been divorced more times than I can count. They do all of the divorce papers and everything, and then, about two weeks later, they both feel lonely and get back together again.

At first, I got sad when they get divorced. But now it’s just normal. Yesterday, they got divorced. I happened to have my best friend over, Jonny. So when he heard them saying they were getting a divorce, he looked at me with that I’m-so-sorry face. But I said I didn’t care and it was totally fine.  

Back to the wedding. I think this is their 100th wedding, so they made a big deal about it and invited everybody they knew. My mom started to get really anxious, as if she had never been married before, and started ordering me around.

We live in the suburbs of Chicago. I think it’s really boring, but my parents love it. My name is Jones. My mom, Josephine, got divorced with my father for the first time when she went into labor with me. I have brown hair, some freckles, and am five feet tall. I am 11 years old. My dad, Jack, looks exactly like me, except he’s six foot eight.

“Help Aunt Jo Jo in, okay, Jones?” my mom asked me.

Right then my world started ending. Let me tell you that she is not old, and that I don’t need to help her because she is frail. I have to help her by moving things away from the entrance, because she is too fat to fit in. So when I got down, things got embarrassing. It started like this.

“Aw, look at my baby boy! For some reason, you seem smaller!” she bellowed.

Actually, she probably just got bigger.

She then ran to me to hug me. I swear, I could see my life flash before my eyes. She basically tackled me. I fell to the ground.

I stood up, and asked, “Can you maybe be a little less rough?”

“Oh, of course, baby boy!”

So then it was sort of a real hug. It must have looked pretty weird because I was about as big as her finger, and I’m tall for my age.

“Now, be a good boy and remove all the flower pots and anything in my way so I can budge through the door.”

“Yes, Aunt Jo Jo.”

Well, it took, like, 20 minutes to get her in. But besides that, the wedding was good. People were a little cramped, because Aunt Jo Jo took up about twenty seats, but it was mostly okay. Until the vows. Here’s what happened:

The minister said, “Now it’s time for the vows.”

My father said,“Oh, we can skip that. We have done this tons of times, and it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

My mom said, “What do you mean? Is this just an excuse, because you forgot to write yours?!”

My dad said, “It doesn’t matter, Josephine! We have done this millions of times!”

My mom said,“You are always like this! Why would I even think of marrying you?”

I’m just gonna skip a lot of the conversation, because it got pretty ugly.

So ten minutes later, my mom and my dad said:

“We’re getting a divorce!!!”

They both stormed off. Wow. They have been divorced many times, but they have never gotten divorced at their wedding! That’s a new record for them.

Nobody in the audience was surprised. They just left. I left too. I wasn’t gonna help Aunt Jo Jo out. Not again.

………………………………..

My parents were divorced for about a week, and I thought it ended when I heard flirting coming from the backyard of my mom’s house. There are around ten houses on my block, and all of the backyards are attached. My dad’s house is actually right next to my mom’s house, so they were probably the ones flirting.

But when I went outside, my dad wasn’t there. My mom was flirting with the village drunk, Joseph. It was pretty hard to believe. Joseph is a heavy drinker, has a beer belly, and owns five mean pitbulls. And his house is the one that my mom says to always keep my distance from. He’s been married, like, five times before, and every one of the girls that he has married were huge and fat. And he is VERY conservative. My mom is a proud liberal. And guess what. My mom seriously just asked him out. Maybe this divorce is serious.

Apparently, the date went well. Joseph drank five beers, and got really drunk. He was polite and let my mom pay for it, and then they both came to my house. I finally got to meet him.

“So, this is the Jones I’ve heard all about, eh?” he said, not soberly. He then said, “You seem like a pretty good guy!”

I got a closer look at him. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in about six years, and there were tons of food scraps in his beard. I did not like him. Not at all.

He helped himself to a beer in the fridge, and then lay down on the couch with his shoes still on.

“I’m gonna teach you a life lesson,” he said. ”Education doesn’t matter. Just play football and get paid millions of dollars, and that’s all you need.”

My mom would usually be super against that, but she tried to ignore it. I saw her face turn red though, like she wanted to punch Joseph.  

So this was not good. I need to get him out.

……………………………………………………….

I woke up and went to my secret stash of candy and sweets for breakfast. Without sugar, I cannot stay awake, so I always need sugar at every meal. So, I opened the cabinet, unscrewed the loose screw, and opened the secret door.

But here’s the problem: all of the cakes and candy and food were gone. I glanced over at the couch, where Joseph was sleeping. On his shirt were cake crumbs, and by the side of the couch were candy wrappers.

I started to freak out. I would fall asleep in school, even during gym class, without sugar, I thought. I went to the fridge, and looked for some orange juice. At least that had some sugar in it. But when I looked in the fridge, instead of orange juice, there was a note. Here’s what it said:

 

Dear Kid,

Here’s a life lesson. Don’t eat too much sugar. That’s my job. If you are looking for the orange juice, it’s in my stomach and it’s not available. That’s all I have to say.

Signed,

Gosef

 

Wow. He was too drunk to even remember how to write his name.

I searched the whole house, and everything with sugar was gone. I was desperate.

I ran out to the deli, but it was closed, so I was forced to go to school without my morning dose of sugar.

First period, I have gym. We were doing the pacer test, which is basically running from one wall to another, but I was too tired to listen and did the endurance, which is just running. So while everybody was running from one side of the gym to the other side of the gym, I was running in a circle around the gym. The gym teacher shouted at me, and I didn’t hear a word he said.

I finally realized that I was running wrong, so I started the pacer. I ran back and forth about four times, and then I collapsed.

I was fast asleep, so the gym teacher had to carry me to my next class. I slept all the way to the end of lunch. But here’s the worst part. If I had been awake for lunch, I could’ve gotten candy. I missed my chance to not only have sugar, but my chance to eat too! So now, I was an incredibly tired boy, who was also incredibly hungry! I was even more screwed. It was all Joseph’s fault. I need to get him out.

I slept through science, and my classmates were tired of carrying me, so they just left me there. And I slept there until 5:30 p.m. Apparently the teachers had tried, and failed, to wake me up. They were getting pretty desperate, so the custodian punched me really hard in the arm, and I finally woke up. That custodian really can punch! I went home rubbing my arm.

When I got home, my mom was really mad at me for coming home late. I explained everything that had happened that day, and I asked her why Joseph was here and that I hated him. It took her a long time to say something good about him so she could prove me wrong. She ended up saying, “You just have to accept the way he is.”

Wow. We all know that she was dating him to get back at my dad and make him jealous. I went up to my room and went to sleep.

…………………………………………….

That morning, I got up early. I was ready to fight back. I knew the minute Joseph wakes up, he heads straight to a fridge to help himself to a beer. So I decided to pour oil right in front of the fridge. This was an easy, good solid prank – he would slip and fall on his back.

I waited for him to get up. Sure enough, he went straight to the fridge. But it didn’t work. He walked straight over it. He didn’t slip one bit. That was weird.

I tried again the next day, but with a different prank. I replaced one of the beers with maple syrup and cough medicine. But when he opened the fridge, he accidentally dropped that beer, and he just chose another one. Was he prank resistant?

Another day without sugar –– it didn’t go so well. At least I was going to live in my dad’s house for a week. He’s pro-sugar.

When I got home, something wasn’t right. He’s usually chipper.

“Dad?” I called out.

I heard a groan from his room. I ran up. He was lying in bed, miserable.

“Whats wrong?” I asked

He answered with some more groaning. I saw that the pillow was tear stained. Then I figured out why. He was sad because my mom and Joseph were together. He still loved my mom!

“Is it because of Joseph?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, I hate him too. He took all of my sugar!”

My dad sat straight up. He knew that I had to have sugar. He was the same way. “He couldn’t have!”

“He did. You know what, Dad?” I asked him, “We should get him out. Together.”

“How?” he asked.

“I think I have an idea,” I told him

………………………………………….

Joseph came home from a long day at the bar. He had to leave because the barkeeper kicked him out for starting a bar fight. He opened the door of his girlfriend’s house and was ready to pass out on the couch. He sat down on the comfy couch and was happy until…

“YAAA!” The couch popped up!

“AHH,” Joseph screamed.

He ran out of the house and sprinted to the bar to get away from the haunted couch.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

My dad and I high-fived. He had dressed up in a couch suit, and we waited for Joseph to sit down, after which my dad popped up. We scared the crap out of him!

One of the few things Joseph loved in life (his couch) was taken away from him –– at this house, at least. Maybe he would leave now! He did not really love my mom, I don’t think, he just loved our couch and our food. He didn’t like our couch anymore but maybe he would love….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Joseph finally built up the courage to go back into his girlfriend’s house. He opened the door and found someone sitting on the couch. She took up the whole couch. Her waist was the size of the couch. Trust me, it was an extra large couch too. Her finger was as big as his arm. There were crumbs all over her face and shirt. To Joseph, she was beautiful.

“Hello,” she bellowed. “My name is Jo Jo.”

“Do you like beer?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she answered

“Do you like food?” he asked.

“Hell yeah!” she said.

“Take me with you!” Joseph pleaded. “You’re perfect for me!”

“Okay, honey bun!” she said. She picked him up and squeezed through the door. They ran away together.

And those two lived happily ever after. They were almost the same people! As for Jones….

Both my dad and my mom watched the whole thing. When Jo Jo and Joseph left, both of my parents started kissing.

“That was horrible, Jack! I hated Joseph so much! All he loved me for was my fridge, my couch, and my food!” my mom said between kisses.

“I missed you so much!” my dad said.

“I never want another situation like this again! Let’s never get divorced again!” my mom said.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

After that, my parents didn’t get divorced any more. They didn’t want to have such a bad situation again.

We all lived happily ever after. As for Jo Jo and Joseph, they were happy too. Everybody was happier.

I was happier to not be around Joseph. My dad was not miserable anymore. My mom didn’t have to deal with Joseph anymore. We were all happier.

THE END

 

Epilogue –– Ten years later

 

We were all sad yesterday. We had to attend the funeral of Joseph John.

Yup. Joseph died. At the age of 73. He was drunk and climbed on Jo Jo’s back. She lost balance and fell out the window. Joseph died, but Aunt Jo Jo was saved by her fat belly. She started bouncing when she fell, but she didn’t get hurt. Aunt Jo Jo was very sad that day. They had been perfect together.

 

The author that inspired me to write this genre was Jeff Kinney, the author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series. The Genre is Realistic Fiction, but with Comedy in it too. In both my story and his book, Something bad happens to the main character, and they plot many schemes to stop it. None of the schemes work, but in the end, the bad thing goes away and they live happily ever after. Although it is a serious topic, I made it funny, because I like comedy.

The Titanic

One day Bob woke up. He remembered he was going to go on the Titanic. He was rushing because he was late. He got all of his stuff, grabbed his ticket, and he got some food and materials. He was going to play jacks and some cards with people on the Titanic.

Then he got in a taxi, and he told the driver to go to the Titanic. He got on the Titanic.

He was in room 100. He wanted to look outside to see a nice view. He met somebody outside on the deck. Her name was Scream. So he asked her, “Do you want to play jacks?”

She said, “Yes!” Ten minutes later, the ship crashed into an iceberg, and it was sinking.  They tried to get in a lifeboat, but it was too late. They tried to get in another lifeboat, but it was full. There were no more lifeboats. They were all full except the captain’s, but it was too far away. It had sunk already. It was near the end of the ship, but half of it was already sunken.

It became really cold. They had to get in a lifeboat! They tried to make a lifeboat, but it didn’t work! Bob took his axe and chopped some wood off the Titanic, so they could make a lifeboat. They quickly made it. They got some paddles, and they lifted it off. Then they jumped in it.

They got back to England and went to their houses. Then Bob said, “Do you want to go on another boat, the Titan?”

Scream said, “Sure! What day are you free?”

“Saturdays and Sundays.”

“How about Sunday?” Scream said.

“Sure,” Bob said. So they went back to their houses and they rested. They lived happily ever after!

Alexander Percy Lawrence Peter Henry Winkharp’s Cellar Peddlers (Excerpt)

The girl holding a basket on the street.

Filled with neatly rolled newspapers, plain white rags, and red apples without so much as a speck of yellow or green on them, the woven container is in almost perfect condition, as if someone has worked hard every night to repair its every scuff and scratch. All strange things, considering the fact that she is obviously homeless and extremely poor. There are many other girls much the same as her in looks, except of course for their patched-up baskets filled with newspapers, green apples, or white rags with remains of old stains showing through, but never more than one of these options lies in their contraptions. These children are scattered around quite a lot, almost hiding this strange girl if it were not for the calls advertising her goods. It is also evident that she is better-dressed than all of these forlorn-looking creatures, who are letting their last morsels of hope shine through small cracks in iron barred windows, hoping that the bits of golden warmth will be enough to attract customers on the crisp day. It is not. But she, just this one girl alone, with the blue-gray rag around her head and the simple sweater and skirt that must have once have been red, does not seem to be having any trouble attracting the busy passerby crossing the narrow street to her small walled in corner, surrounded on two sides by solid brick, drenched in a stench of rotten fish and murky fog from the old days. Yet the girl always seems to be standing on, or perhaps next to, a clean sheet something like a welcome mat that she invites her customers to wipe their feet on, perhaps to increase her chances of customers. But is this really the cause of the steady stream of pedestrians hurrying over from the street, not a rushing river, not any real type of river, but a forest stream, a stream just the same? I think not. Perhaps it has something to do with the extra coins dropped at her feet with a quiet whisper, “For your master, dear, blessings to him for all he’s done for our world.” the girl’s quick nod is a gesture of thanks, almost a “The same to you, for all your generosity.” Perhaps this has something to do with the words embroidered, neatly enough, on one of her sweaters:

Alexander Winkharp’s Cellar Peddlers

Chapter  1

It was quite a while ago when the first of what came to be the cellar peddlers sprung up, scattered through the narrowest streets of London, of which there remain many. It was the revolutionary idea of the great Alexander Percy Lawrence Peter Henry Winkharp, though few knew of his middle names. As one of the most generous of his time, Alexander had felt compelled to help those whom he saw every day standing in rags on the street. For a while, he did what one would expect from someone with these motivations: daily he would go out, delivering food and blankets to the poor. But Alexander did not feel satisfied. He wondered, rightly, why, if he happened to spill a bottle of shoe polish at the shoe polish factory where he worked, and had to pay for it out of his salary, and if he couldn’t afford extra food for the day, why should someone else suffer? For days and nights, Alexander wracked his brain for a solution. What he came up with was what would grow to become the Cellar Peddlers.

Alexander saved up enough to buy a few small cots at a junkyard sale. After fixing them up quite a lot, he sold them off again, making a reasonably sized profit; then again, these were cots. This simple process of buying, fixing, and selling once more to make a profit has been titled over our many years of existence as “Flipping,” and is indeed considered a distinguished profession in its own right. Alexander, though he would die before sinking to the level of his day’s low down “Flippers,” discovered that the art came quite naturally to him and made a mental note of doing it some more, secretly, of course, in the future. Now, enough on the subject of flipping, as this is not a matter that should venture to the center of your attention.

With a fraction of his small wages and the profit from the cots, Alexander did the most surprising thing you could imagine: he bought another four tiny, dirt-strewn cots that reeked with a vigorous stench of garbage. Alexander hurried to clean them up as fast as he could, for winter was approaching, and the extreme generosity of this person who challenges that of any other could not possibly permit his less fortunate friends to be forced to bear the harsh conditions of the winter, entirely out of doors and in the snow and slush – especially, with his plan in the workings, they might possibly, for perhaps just a couple of days, have a warm place to sleep and food for a day or two.

This done, on the very next Saturday when Alexander left his respectable shelter for his usual route – on which he often brought food to and dropped coins around the small community of beggar families where that rumor of his kindness had assembled – he stood atop the low rickety stoop of his building, scrutinizing the dusty, rat-ridden landscape beside the Thames, searching for just the right subjects on whom to test out his new plan, namely any groups containing children. He took a deep breath before taking a single step, remembering the long hours he had been up the night before, and thinking of the perfect way to do this. An announcement would not work. The ragamuffin families were not acquainted with him enough, and speaking to them as if he were their king would no doubt be dangerous. Nor would flyers, he knew, as many of the destitute population could not write their own names.

At last, though, in the darkest hours of night, Alexander knew that what he must do was speak to the groups he chose individually, to decipher the slang that made up their distinct tongue, and to convince them that he could indeed brighten their family’s’ futures. That he, though he lived in a tenement, lived throughout the entirety of its three low-ceilinged floors as its owner and was more than willing to share, if it were for the better.

So out and onto the roughly paved streets went he, out went the man with a heart as soft as silk and as big as an elephant. Out as a hero he would go when he was set to save the world, a feat which there is little doubt that Alexander achieved throughout his life. Out with long strides toward the first group he had set his sights on, whilst laying out the usual things he laid out on these trips: piles of food wrapped in thin blankets, dumpster clothes fixed up good as new, rusted trays nobody wanted except those who were sensible enough to know how to fix such a simple thing. But oh, save the sensible, for by the time any one of those poor souls who live in a world that seems so cold and far away from them got ahold of one of those trays, the once fine and shining metal under the rust was scratched and scored, and the crevices that lined the surface were filled with dirt. It was in this sort of moment that Alexander wished dearly that he had prepared much more. Through his head that seemed to be turning on and off repeatedly, he searched for the words he had planned so carefully in the night that seemed to have disappeared, calling to them and begging them to stay.

In vain Alexander tried to delay each placement of a gift, in vain he tried to ignore the ever-nearing lamp post, under which lay a few ratty blankets and tin cans, a home not fit for a hog, nor any living being. But a home it was, for a poor threesome of the human race itself: a man, a woman, and one small girl who had barely a scrap of cloth in her possession. They had lived in the shadow of the same post since before Alexander moved into the neighborhood, and the two groups were something close to friendly neighbors, but never daring to admit it and make the friendship official. However, it was truly because of them that any of the new arrivals had any trust for Alexander whatsoever, and they, of all people, he thought, as the lamp post grew nearer, would help him with his plan even if no one else did. Slowly, Alexander walked closer, comforting himself with the fact that he often stopped to talk with little Nellie and her family, and they would most definitely not be curious if he did so once more.

So Alexander took one last package from the sack he was carrying, and he knelt down to place it down. He recalled wrapping a thick shawl around a stack of warm cakes, then enclosing the package in old rags. Knelt in the same way as all those around him, the most generous man in the entire city lowered his head to exchange a few murmurs with the lamp post family. Nellie tugged at her mother’s dress and the two engaged in even quieter conversation before Mrs. Ledwell raised her head.

“It is true. You do seem to have something on your mind.” Then little Nellie raised her eyes and whispered in her own small voice, light as a feather.

“Relieve us of our curiosity, oh, if you could!” Nellie’s voice had always been subdued, her face always lowered, causing many to believe that her time of dreams and fantasies were over. But day by day, Alexander saw a glint in her eye, and knowing that the flame would hurt its master if extinguished, he liked to replenish it by slipping her a package of her own – a coin wrapped in a rag – which she would slip into the small brown box that the first coin had come in. Alexander often wondered how much she had saved up, for that was the only way a poor child knew how to use money. He believed she must be fit to be rich now, with all the little copper pieces filling her box. Then Alexander saw the faces of Nellie and her mother, and remembered their question. He recalled his thoughts and the plans he had made, just for this moment.

And Alexander spoke.

Ogre and Sophie and Most of All Sophia

Once upon a time… wait! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sophocles –– Sophie for short. I love the cool colors; blue, purple, and green. I am a boy. I am a leprechaun who is kind, and NOT full of mischief. I want to make the world better.

All the people in my village were scared of the ogre, but I thought that the ogre was probably actually kind. The ogre was just misunderstood.

One day, I was playing with my best friend Sophia, and we started talking about the ogre.

“Why are they scared of the ogre? I think he’s just nice. What has he done?” I asked.

“I agree with you,” Sophia said.

“Let’s find out, and let’s talk to her.”

“Sophie, why? I’m really glad you want to go see the ogre, but we need to do it in secret.  We can’t tell our parents. They’d be worried. Do you agree?”

“Yeah.”

“But I hate lying to our parents. What should we do?” Sophia was worried.

“Maybe just say ‘Hi’ to the ogre and run away?”

“That’s a good idea. Maybe we should tell them after. Then it’s not really lying.”

“That’s a good idea.”

They walk through the forest.  

“It’s so dark in this wood. Hold my hand, Sophie! I’m scared,” Sophia said.

An owl hooted.

“What’s that?” Sophia screamed.

“It’s just an owl.”

“Oh! Look!” Sophia pointed. “It’s her.”  

The ogre was singing a song about loneliness and love and how she wanted to have friends. She was playing the cello.

“Oh, how I wish I had friends, but I’m so ugly to the end. Oh, how I wish I had love, but I sigh and eat a dove.” She was holding a dove and apologizing for using the rhyme.

“Hello!” The ogre said, noticing us. “Who are you? You’re so cute!”

“I’m Sophie, and this is my friend Sophia! Who are you?”

“Why, I’m Pip Bounce.”

“I just wanted to know why the villagers are afraid of you.”

“I don’t know, maybe because I’m ugly. I was a princess, but a witch turned me into an ugly ogre! The only way to break the curse is if I become friends with the people of the village!”  

“M-maybe you could help the villagers. We’re having a harvest and we could use your height!” Sophia suggested.

“Good idea,” Pip Bounce said.

“Sophie!” My mom entered the clearing. “Where have you been?” She saw the ogre and screamed while running away, “AHH!”  

We all ran after her, and Pip Bounce followed us all the way into town, filling a large basket with apples.

“They’re friends with the ogre!” someone cried. Pip Bounce leaned down and handed apples to the people. With a flash, she transformed back into the princess she was. Everyone now knew she was a trustworthy princess who was actually kind.

Thanksgiving Turkey

This is what I look like. I have big feathers on my back, a big stomach, a red neck, a beak, two legs, and toes on each foot.

I am a turkey living on Farmer Brown’s turkey farm. It is November. So you know what that means, don’t you? I will be roasted and barbecued on the grill the day of Thanksgiving! Then you will see the fat part which is our breast. Then you see two legs. We are usually surrounded by gravy and cranberries.                  

I have to come up with a plan to get out of the farm before the horrible day, Thanksgiving. I spent all night thinking of a plan to get out of the farm. Finally, after a long time I come up with an amazing plan. I will disguise myself as an animal. I will wake up my friends and my mom, but not my dad because he was already roasted last year.

So I wake them up to tell them my plan. They are all really mad that I woke them up, but they agree with me and say that they will escape the farm with me. The only problem is that I don’t know which animal to disguise myself as. Also, Thanksgiving is only two days away. I hear a coyote howl and I know it is midnight.

Suddenly I remember Farmer Brown always shoos away the coyotes. I think that if I became a coyote Farmer Brown would shoo me away and never let me in again. I wake the other turkeys up again but they won’t let me talk, they just yell at me. I go back to bed frustrated.

Finally it is morning and all the turkeys are awake but not because of me. I tell them my disguise and we immediately get to work on finding materials for the disguise. I really hope this works. Nothing can stop us from not escaping. That is, unless we fail, which is probably 50 percent.We also have a 50 percent chance of succeeding.

 

(Only one day until Thanksgiving)

 

We find hay in the shed, for the fur. For the ears we use two feathers that we plucked from our body. The tail will be yarn from our name tags which are wrapped around our necks. Finally, since coyotes walk on all four legs we will need to make fake legs. My mom says that we can use sticks. I think it’s a clever idea. So we find sticks and practice walking with four legs. However, when we finish practicing it is already dinner time.

Farmer Brown comes out of the barn and says, “Eat up because you better be plump so we can roast you and eat you up.

I look at my friends and smile. We won’t be roasted.

Exactly at midnight we put on our costumes and howl. I am so nervous that my plan will work. So I tell the other turkeys, “I am sorry if this doesn’t work but you would’ve been roasted anyway. I enjoyed my time living with you. I was really sad that this might be the last time I ever see them again.”

Farmer Brown runs outside and yells, “Don’t go in my turkey farm.”

We run away and don’t stop until we were off the turkey premises.

 

(The day of Thanksgiving)

 

In the morning I hear Farmer Brown yell to his wife, Mrs. Brown, “The turkeys are gone!”

Mrs. Brown yelled at the top of her lungs, “Thanksgiving without turkey? NOOO!” Her voice echoed throughout the city.

 

SO REMEMBER, NEVER EVER EVER EAT A TURKEY EVER AGAIN BECAUSE NOW YOU KNOW HOW US TURKEYS FEEL ABOUT IT.

Tornado Boy

Hello, I am Emy, the main character of this story. My grandfather died reading a book (I do not know the title) because a tornado came out of the book. Now, let me tell you the story.

So, it was a regular day at school (Friday, if you want to know) and my friend Elvis kept reading this weird book. Because my name is Emy, he calls me Emmanuel.

Back to the book: it was all ripped up, and the title was Bressling. The pages were dark, the words were light. You could tell it was a very old book. One day, during recess, Elvis was reading this book. He said that he liked this book. I sat next to him, reading my own book. Suddenly, a tornado came out of the book and sucked Elvis in. I got so scared that I ran home.

I asked my dad, “What was the name of the book that Grandpa was reading when he got sucked in?”

“Oh, I don’t know… Bressling, I think. Why do you want to know?” asked my Dad.

Without answering my Dad, I ran to school terrified and breathing heavily. When I finally got to school, I took the book from Elvis’s desk. I looked. The title was “Bressling.”

“I knew it!” I said. I looked at the page where Elvis stopped because the book was still open to that page. I knew it was the correct page. Then, I looked at the sentence where he had gotten sucked in: “Then the book took in a man and a boy, Albert Senstein and Elvis Toddler.”

Albert Senstein was my grandfather. Elvis Toddler was my friend. “This book’s haunted!” said my friend, Nate. He was sitting in the room the whole time paying attention to his work until I ran to Elvis’s desk. Then I thought, The only way I get to Elvis is to read the book until a tornado sucks me in.

I started reading the book from the beginning. Then, a tornado came out of the book and sucked me in. The last thing I saw was Nate running out of the room. Next, I was falling from the sky and landed on the floor of a desert. Next to me was Elvis. He pulled me up and started talking.

“Hey! Emmanuel! Look at this old man. This is a character from the book.” He pointed at a white-bearded man. “His name is Zalen.”

“Hi, Zalen, I’m –– ”

“Emmanuel, I know. Hello, Emmanuel,” said Zalen, in an old, old voice that reminded me of my friend’s grandpa. That’s when I realized there was another man who looked about 72 years old.

I didn’t even know him, but he must’ve known me because he came up and hugged me and said, “Emy, I only saw you as a little baby. I always wanted to see you when you were nine years old. Now look at you –– you have grown. I am your grandfather who was sucked in by a tornado from a book.”

Then Nate came plopping on my head and said, “I started reading the book and then a tornado came out and I ended up here!”

I was annoyed. “So not only did I come here, but you did too. Now I have to get all of you out!”

Then my grandfather Albert looked at me. “Hey. Who put you in charge? I’m the oldest… I’m supposed to be in charge.”

Zalen looked at him as if he were blind and said, “I’m the oldest. Look at you. You’re 72. I’m 137!”

Then Albert said, “You’re in the book! You’re supposed to be inside the tornado!”

Zalen said, “Right, yeah. I wish the author of this book had never written it. Now I’m stuck here for the rest of my life!”

“It’s fine,” I said, “but how are we going to get out?”

Then Zalen said, “I know this witch that lives in the north. All we have to do is walk 100 miles to the north and then we’ll find her. She is the author of this book. She’ll know how to get us out.”

“Okay, not helping. 100 miles?!”

Zalen said, “Okay, fine, fine. But it’s better than nothing. What other choice do we have?”

“Good point. Isn’t there any faster way to get there?”

“No, sorry. We could camp. I have tents and food –– a whole lot of food!”

“Ok,” said five-year-old Nate, who did not know what was going on. He was only pretending to know what was going on.

Then, we heard a strange noise. The next thing we knew, Nate was gone.

We looked around for Nate, until Zalen said, “Where could he be? In this desert, there’s nothing but sand. There’s no hiding places.”

Albert said, “I disagree. There are cactuses all over this place.”

He was right: the desert was full of cactuses. I got an idea.

“How about the four of us split around and look for him? He always plays around with jokes,” I said. Then we heard the same noise again.

“It doesn’t sound anything like Nate,” Elvis said. “I think he is making one of his stupid noises.”

Suddenly, a little dwarf came out holding Nate.

Elvis said, “How much do you want for that stupid little boy?”

“Five hundred bucks,” said the dwarf in the same voice they heard earlier.

Zalen said, “You came to exactly the right person! I’m a billionaire!” Then he held up a wallet, which was not exactly a wallet. It was a big bag of money and gold. “I got it from my father!” he exclaimed, pulling out five $100 bills and giving them to the dwarf.

The dwarf said, “Give me another $500, or I’ll kill the boy.”

Then Elvis said, “Oh, whatever… Hey, dwarf, I know dwarves like big hats. Do you want this hat?” He took off his own hat.

The dwarf said, “No!” and pulled out a knife.

Then Elvis said, “I go to karate!” He wrestled the dwarf to the ground, took the knife, and threw it into one of the cactuses.

“I knew it would become useful someday!” said Elvis. He got off the dwarf and grabbed Nate. Then he said, “Don’t mess with me again!” The dwarf ran away.

Zalen took out a compass and said, “Go that way. Let’s go!” He pointed North, and we started walking. After 50 miles (we walked really fast) Zalen said, “Okay. My feet can’t walk anymore. Let’s rest.”

“Okay,” said Albert. “Do you boys agree?”

“Yes!” said Elvis and I.

“What about you, Emmanuel?” asked Elvis.

“I said yes!”

“Oh,” said Elvis.

Zalen pulled out a big tent and sticks from his backpack and started unfolding it. Then he put the sticks up and put up the tent and it was standing.

Zalen said, “Get inside the tent unless you want to stay outside. It’s getting dark.” Albert tried to go inside the tent but Nate pushed him aside and went in first.

Then Albert went in and said, “Nate! That was rude.”

Elvis got in next and asked, “Emmanuel, are you coming in?”

“Yeah,” I said, climbing in.

When I woke up, I was not in the tent….

 

I was not in my tent, and I was not even lying down –– I was in a chair. I looked around. There were other chairs, and Zalin, Elvis, Nate, and Albert were sitting in them. I tried to stand but could not because I was in front of a desk. So were my friends.

A man came into the room. He had dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, yellow teeth, black skin, black glasses, black pants, white t-shirt, and white sneakers.

He said, “Why don’t we take a test? Why are all of you the same? I’m not included.”

Then Nate raised his hand.

“Yes?” said the man. “Oh, by the way, if you cheat on this test, you will be eliminated. Oh, sorry –– did I say eliminated? I meant executed. Now that will calm you down.”

Nate said, “We all have to answer your stupid questions?”

“Um, no,” said the man.

Albert raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“We all have white teeth.”

“No.”

Then I raised my hand. “Yes, we are all captured, but we don’t care.”

“What do you mean?”

“You captured us, but none of us seem to care.”

“OH, now I get it. No. Now I will kill you…. Actually, no. I will spare you and give you one more chance. When I say ‘hey,’ you will race to the end of the room. I will kill the loser.”

We lined against the wall.

Then Albert said, “Hey!” and ran. When he got to the other side of the room, everybody looked at him, surprised.

Then the man said, “Look dude. I didn’t say ‘hey.’ You did. Get back to the other side of the wall. And when I say hey, you run. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” we all said.

Then the man said, “Hey!” and we all ran.

To Elvis’s luck, he got to the wall first. Then I got there and then Albert and then the limping old Zalin. We all looked at Nate, but he wasn’t running –– he was looking at the man.

The man said, “Okay. The little boy in the pajamas will be killed.”

Elvis wrestled the man to the floor and took the man’s gun and pointed at his face.

Then the man said, “Shoot, you stupid idiot.” He smiled a creepy smile that showed his yellow teeth.

Elvis shot. There was a great big sound that sounded like a bomb exploded. We all looked at the man, but the man was laughing. The gun was blank.

So, Elvis punched the man in the face, and the man fainted. Then, we found a bucket of bullets in one of the corners of the room. We loaded the gun and Elvis shot the wall. The gun worked because there was a hole.

“Let’s go,” he said.

We all stepped out and Zalin said, “What? This was the desert we were walking through until we woke up in that stinking room that smelled of rotten poop.” Then, we saw the tent. We all turned around and saw the room. But it wasn’t really a room –– it was a few cactuses built up into a room. We saw the hole we had gone through and then we understood everything: the man had taken cactuses, built up the room, and dragged us in there.

“I am keeping this weapon,” said Elvis.

“Listen, you kept the knife. Now you’re keeping the gun? You gotta be kidding me,” I said.

“Okay, fine, fine. You get the knife. I get to keep the gun.”

“No, I want the gun. You get to keep the knife.”

“No, I do.”

“No, I do.”

“Nope, I do.”

“No, I do.”

“No –– ”

“OK, can I say something?” asked Zalen.

“No!” Elvis and I said in unison.

“Okay,” said Zalen, and he walked away.

“Fine –– you get to keep the gun. I keep the knife,” said Elvis. He put the knife in his belt and handed over the gun. I put the gun in my belt (we both had belts because they were part of the school uniform).

Then we started walking. Soon, we had walked another 50 miles, and Zalen said, “Stop!” If we’d walked one more step, we would’ve crashed into a big hut with a roof that looked like a witch’s hat.

“This is it!” said Zalen. We knocked, and a very old woman opened the door.

She had a hat that looked exactly like the roof.

“Come in, dears,” she said in a very kind voice. Inside the hut there were many pictures. In the middle of the room there was a small black table, with pot of some green liquid on top.

“Can I drink that?” asked Nate.

“If you want to explode, yes,” she said, pausing. “Ah, yes, you don’t know my name and I don’t know yours. I’ll go first: my name is Minerva. What’s yours?”

“Zalen,” said Zalen.

“Albert,” said Albert.

“Emy,” I said.

“Elvis,” said Elvis.

“Poopy Pants!” said Nate.

“His name is Nate,” said Elvis.

“No, my name is Poopy Pants!” cried Nate.

“Alright,” said Minerva. “I believe that your name is Nate… but I am going to call you Poopy Pants.” Then she asked, “Why did you come?”

“We want to get out into the outer world,” I said.

“Who? All of you? And what do you mean by the outer world?”

“The answer to the first question: Nate –– well, Poopy Pants –– me, Elvis, and Albert want to get out. To the second question, we were trapped in a book called Bressling…” And I told the story about Bressling but kept forgetting to say Poopy Pants instead of Nate.

“Ah, yes, Bressling. I wrote it, and I cast a spell on it. And I read it and I got sucked in because I wanted to. And then I forgot something, so I cast a spell to write in the names that got sucked in. Now, all you need to do is drink this little potion that I am going to make right now… Here it is. Hokatee pokatee lokatee pookatee shokatee nokatee sokatee… ah, where was I…?” she interrupted herself. “Oh, right, yes. Noopatee kloopatee crumpatootatee, and, last of all… compoopatee! Oh, how dumb am I? I forgot the bowl, the water, and my wand.” Minerva got the bowl and the wand, and pointed at the bowl and said, “Shoompatee, gloompatee.” And then some water burst out of the wand and flew into the bowl. “Enough! Enough, you stupid spray!” The wand stopped the water and she said, “Now, what was the spell? Hokatee pokatee lokatee pookatee shokatee nokatee sokatee noopatee kloopatee crumpatootatee!” Then the water turned red, then orange, then yellow, then light green, then dark green, then light blue, then dark blue, then pink, and finally purple. And then it turned every color, in a mix. She took four cups and put them on the table. She took the bowl and poured equally into each cup.

“Alright. All of you who want to go back to the outer world, please drink this.” We all drank it except for Zalen. Then Minerva said, “Alright. Now, in ten minutes, you will go back into the outer world, in front of the book in the place where you were reading when you got sucked in. Why don’t you find something that’ll entertain you for the time being?”

Then, she pointed her wand at the table and said, “Shoompatee, loompatee, gloompatee, foompatee!”

A chessboard with chess pieces appeared on the table, and Elvis and I sat down at the table and started playing. “Thanks for the chess board,” I said.

She conjured a magic carpet using some other words I couldn’t hear correctly.

“Here you go, Poopy Pants,” said Minerva. Nate jumped onto the magic carpet and started flying around, and he went out the window and flew around the yard. Nine minutes later, the magic carpet landed. Nate got off. Elvis and I finished the chess game with a stalemate. Elvis was so close to winning –– he had a queen up –– but I drew into a stalemate.

Minerva shouted, “One minute to go!”

Sixty seconds later, we appeared in the classroom where we’d started.

“I miss Minerva and Zalen,” I said.

“I miss them too…. If we want to see them, we have the book.” Elvis pointed at Bressling. Then Nate started crying. We looked at him.

“What’s wrong now?” we asked him.

“I miss my flying carpet!” he cried.

I slapped my head. “He’s so stupid!”

Elvis and I ran home with Albert. We came home (by the way, I forgot to tell you, Elvis was my neighbor. I lived in apartment 5D and He lived in 6D).

My father sat up and said, “I do recognize you, Daddy. How the heck did you get here from that book?” He pointed at Bressling, which I was holding in my armpit.

Then Albert said, “You should’ve met Minerva.” And the three of us laughed.

 

The Adventures of Digger and Scrappy

Chapter 1

“Hi, my name is Scrappy, and this is Digger. We’re in the shelter with all the other dogs. WOOF WOOF,” Scrappy said.

The shelter door opened, and two girls came in with their dad.

“Their dad looks like the president!” said Scrappy.

“He is!” said Digger.

“Wow!” said Scrappy.

The two girls came over to their pen and said, “I want those two!” Digger and Scrappy were so happy. The girls took them out of the pen and picked them up. Then their dad paid for the dogs, and they went to the car. Scrappy wondered if they lived in a house, so he asked Digger. Digger thought that Scrappy had lost his mind.

“Scrappy, they live in a mansion!”

“Oh, yeah,” said Scrappy.

Then they tried to guess the girls’ names.

 

Chapter 2

“Maybe Fuzzy!” said Digger.

“Or maybe Coco!” said Scrappy.

“Wait!” said Digger, “What about human names? We’re saying dog names.”

“Maybe Megan!” said Scrappy.

“Hey, Megan, are you excited that we’re going to Hawaii for Christmas?” said the dad.

“Yeah!” said Megan in an excited voice.

“Score!” said Digger. “Bridget, are you going to go in the pool in Hawaii?”

“Yes!” said Bridget.

“This is going to be great!” said Digger.

 

Chapter 3

They were in the park when Scrappy saw another dog. He wanted to play with the dog. The dog was a golden retriever like Digger. Digger was right next to Scrappy, so Scrappy started to walk over to the other golden retriever. Digger followed. Scrappy asked if they could play with the golden retriever.

The golden retriever said nothing. He couldn’t hear Scrappy because Scrappy was so small. Scrappy felt sad and began to walk away.

Digger asked, “Why are you sad?”

Scrappy said, “I feel tiny… That dog couldn’t hear me, and I wanted to play with him.”

“That’s sad,” said Digger. “I’m going to go talk to the dog and tell him that you want to play with him.”

Digger started to walk over to the big dog. He asked, “Can Scrappy play with you? By the way, my name is Digger, and this is my best friend Scrappy.”

“Hi!” said the big dog.

“Oh, I forgot, what is your name?” Digger asked.

“My name is Whiskers,” the big dog said.

“Good name!” said Digger.

He whispered to Scrappy, “Funny name.”

“Yeah,” said Scrappy, giggling.

A few minutes later the girls called them to leave, so they ran and jumped on them, knocking them down. They started to lick their faces. Then their dad called them from the front porch of the house. The girls stood up, with Scrappy still holding on to Bridget’s leg. Digger told him to get off Bridget’s leg, so he did. They started to run up to the house, and they went through the doggy door upstairs to their room.

Chapter 4

When Digger got up the stairs, he and Scrappy talked about what they were going to do the next day.

The next day, when Digger woke up, he looked around, but Scrappy wasn’t in his bed. He washed his paws in the little doggy sink and went down to have breakfast. When he got down the stairs, Scrappy was there waiting for him.

“Did you hear the news, Digger? They’re going to Hawaii!”

“Who’s going to what the what?” asked Digger

“They’re going to Hawaii!” said Scrappy.

“Who is going to Hawaii?” said Digger.

“Bridget is going and Megan is going and the president is going,” said Scrappy.

“Ohh!” said Digger. “Are we going?”

“No! Of course not. I wouldn’t even want to go. Get stuck in the airplane for, like, 100 hours? I wouldn’t even be able to stay alive for two minutes!”

“What did you say?” said Digger.

“Oh, whatever,” muttered Scrappy.

That night, Digger and Scrappy helped the girls pack their bags. The next day, Digger and Scrappy said goodbye to the girls. They felt sad and confident at the same time because they were going to be left alone.

 

Chapter 5: The Robbers

For the next few hours, Digger and Scrappy slept. The doorbell rang. They started to bark – a package for the president! Digger opened the door. The delivery man ran in, stole everything, (chairs, tables, and the medal that Megan had won) and tried to get out. But, before the robber got out, the dogs already had a plan. They got the rope from the basement, tied it to the staircase, ran across the room, out the door, put the doorstop in, and waited. Then, they took the table and chairs and smashed them into the door. A few minutes later the dogs were fast asleep again while the robbers were taking all the stuff, but they were faking it. The robbers got out the back door by cutting a hole in it with their knife. Digger and Scrappy woke up, and they climbed up the wall and wrapped the rope around the door. As soon as the robbers opened the door, a big punching jack-in-the-box punched them in the face. They fell down and landed on the table.

Digger and Scrappy called the other dogs from the neighborhood. They ran through the door and started licking the robbers’ faces. Finally, Scrappy came out and gave the robbers a supergalactic lick. The robbers got up as soon as they could and left.

 

Chapter 6: The Return of the President

Twenty minutes later, the president parked the car in the driveway. Digger and Scrappy climbed on the heater and started to bark. Bridget and Megan ran to the door, swung it open, and picked Scrappy and Digger up and twirled around.

“My little fluffies!” said Bridget.

They squirmed like worms until they finally put them on the sofa. Digger and Scrappy rolled around amd couldn’t see anything. Then, Digger bumped into Scrappy and he almost fell off, but he caught him with his paws. They ran up the stairs and jumped onto the girls’ bed. They ran after the puppies but went to the wrong room. Then Digger and Scrappy went to another room because they were coming to their room. Eventually, when they found them, the puppies jumped on their legs.

“Arf, arf, arf-dee-arf,” said Digger.

“We can talk, Digger!” said Scrappy.

“Oh yeah!” said Digger.

From that day on, Digger and Scrappy had the best life any dog could wish for.

The Ice Cream Monster

Jack was at the park eating ice cream. He was alone. He was sitting on a bench. He finished his ice cream and decided to play on the swings. He was feeling good. He was joyful. When it was night, he started to become worried because a big ice cream monster tried to attack him. The ice cream monster had a big mouth with goopy ice cream in his mouth. He had an ice cream ninja sword, and threw it at Jack.

Jack ran away. He ran to Manhattan, but the monster followed him. Jack stood up in a big tower, and he told the people, “Help! A monster is coming!”

They said, “We’re going to attack the ice cream monster!” They were getting ready to attack the monster. They used a lot of ice cream with a big pile of ice.

Jack was doing something different. He was trying to get an ice cream shooter. He got it from the ice cream material store. It was near the ice cream shop on Sesame Street.

He went back to the group. He said, “We’re going on the train to find the ice cream monster. He is always in the ice cream store next to Toys R Us.”

All of the police were blocking Jack when he went to the ice cream shop because the store was closed. One of the teammates distracted the police. Jack was distracting the police too. All of the teammates went inside the shop and the ice cream monster was inside. The teammate shoot the ice cream monster with a lot of ice cream and ice. It caused him to vomit ice cream. It caused him to have a broken eye and slime was going over him.

He fought back with a ninja star and one of the teammates fell down. Jack had sleeping potion and put it on the police. The police fell asleep. Jack came in in slow motion. His body is like he’s actually cool. His arms and his legs are moving slow and his arms are in his pockets. The ice cream monster had melted. And all of the teammates were happy and they went back home. Jack went to his mom and he told his mom that a big monster came, but Jack attacked the monster. All of the teammates said bye to Jack and Jack went back to sleep. And the teammates went back to sleep. And it was the next morning, and another monster came. They cooked up a plan. They smashed the monster with a big giant hammer and he was dead. THE END!

loser.com

“Donald Trump is a big fat loser because his facial expressions are not good,” said Peaches.

“Well, you need to pee every second,” said Donald Trump.

“Well, actually,” Peaches said, “I only pee every sixty-one seconds.” Peaches hated Donald Trump, because once, Peaches was on loser.com. He loved being on it because he wanted all the media, but Donald Trump took his place. They were enemies.

“You are a peach. You should be ashamed of yourself. And I am a real person.” Donald Trump made fun of Peaches.

“Excuse me? Hold up here. Your face is so ugly that when you wanted to join the ugly contest, they said no pros allowed.” Peaches stood up for himself.

“Donald Trump! Can I take a selfie with you?” a fan of his said.                                                              

“See, Peaches? People love my face so much that they want to take pictures with me,” Donald Trump said.

Peaches grunted, and Donald Trump went to take a selfie with one of his fans.

Donald Trump said, “You’re so fat that when you got locked in Sleepy’s, you had to sleep on the floor.”

Peaches said, “Shut up. Bye.”

Donald Trump said, “I have to go to a party with all of my fans.” Donald Trump threw Peaches in the garbage.

There was a homeless person named Calvin Klein. He was in the military, and he had no legs. He decided to help Peaches, not because he wanted to eat him, but because he wanted to help people who are hurt like him.

Calvin Klein took Peaches out of the garbage can and threw him at Donald Trump. Calvin put padding under Donald Trump just in case Peaches fell. Peaches and Calvin Klein high-fived each other.

Peaches started to have a population of fans walk toward him. The people were making a heart shape.

“Boo, Donald Dump.”

After, Donald Trump said, “I am walking towards my fans’ party anyway, so bye.”

A minute later, Donald Trump saw all of his fans coming toward the heart shape.

Donald Trump and Peaches started a debate.

Donald Trump said, “If anybody wants to marry me, I’m rich.”

And everybody except the man with no legs went to go from a heart shape in front of Donald Trump.

Obama came in, and since he was president, he had the right to put Peaches on loser.com. Now all of Donald Trump’s fans became Peaches fans. Peaches was so happy that he gave each homeless person $500 for food.

“My plan for 2020 is to get every homeless person a home and food.” One thousand people clapped and two people booed. Since the clapping was so loud, no one heard the boos.

So now, it was time to vote, and 90 percent of the whole world voted for Peaches except for Donald Trump’s wives and daughters. (The reason it was 10 percent was because Donald Trump married so many people.)

My Life

Chapter 1

I hear my mother making breakfast. The sun’s warmth is on my face, opening the morning to another wonderful day. I walk out of my room down to the kitchen to get breakfast. I eat my breakfast, nice warm pancakes topped with strawberries.

“Ellie, wake up!” I wake up to my friend Claire lightly shaking me to get me up. All the wishes I’ve ever had were in my dream, disappointing me, waking me up to a day trapped in a building I don’t like. I am in an orphanage with other people, people who wish their lives were better. I get out of bed get dressed in the ragged clothes that the orphanage provided for me. I walk out my room, go downstairs to another disgusting breakfast of cold eggs that haven’t been cooked fully. Staring at the eggs, I get the feeling that I should eat them. I have gotten used to it. I’ve been here since I was five. I am fourteen`now, and still stuck in the orphanage.

I remember the day when I was five, waiting for my parents to pick me up at school. It was rainy and foggy. The only person who picked me up was this creepy woman, named Ms. Kunzier. She told me to come with her. She brought me to my house and told me to pack my bags. Then she drove me to this building covered with vines. “You’re staying here now,” she told me. A burst of pain shot up my back; a tear rolled down from my eyes, making its way down to my cheek. She opened the door and walked me to where I was staying. I remember thinking that I would be home soon. But I never went home. An hour later she came back to my room and told me that my parents had been in a car accident.         

***

I used to play outside in my backyard all the time. Now, I cannot go outside whenever I want. The only outside I have is my imagination. I imagine being outside, running free. No one to tell me what to do and what not to do. A big field of grass, trees swaying, the smell of fresh grass. The wind blowing on me. Running away so that no one can find me. Growing up on my own.

No one ever visits this orphanage. I guess it’s because of how creepy it looks. Only once a while someone comes around and takes a tour. I’m probably going to be in here until I’m 18, and then I’ll start a life of my own.

In the orphanage, my life feels a video game, with someone outside the machine controlling every move I make. When the video game gets too old or out of order, I will get out. The video game of life. Obstacles here and there popping up in my face. I wish I was like someone not in an orphanage, someone who has a perfect life.

***

I go back to my room, get into my bed and lay my head on the pillow. My eyes slowly close into a nice soft sleep. I slowly drift off into a weird dream, where Ms. Kunzier is pulling my arm and taking me to a tiny walk in closet. She ties me up in a chair. I jerk my body away from the chair to brake the rope. but the chair gets up with me and follows me wherever I go. I go to the door of the closet and try to get out, but Ms. Kunzier locked the door to keep me in. My eyes slowly open. It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream, I keep telling myself.

 

Chapter 2

“Hey, people!” Claire says.

“Hey!” Molly, my other friend, replies.

“What’s up?” I say.

“You know, the usual, nothing much,” Claire replies.

“Wait!” Molly shouts.

“Shhh,” Claire and I whisper.

“Sorry, but wait — I have an idea!” Molly says.

“Then what is it?” Claire replies impatiently.

“Um… I forgot,” Molly says.

“Ugh” Claire sighs.

“No, really… what were you going to say?” I ask.

“Well, it was probably a really stupid thought,” Molly hesitated.

“Just tell us,” I reply, ignoring Molly. “We’re your friends.”

“Okay, fine,” Claire says.

“It’s impossible, but it’s sort of about how we can escape from here. I mean, I never wanted to be here in the first place,” Molly blurts out.

“Same,” Claire and I say in unison.

“I’ve just always felt blocked up in a jail cell here.”

“Let’s think about a plan. Meet me in Secret Headquarters after lunch,” I say.

Secret Headquarters is a secret place that no one has discovered yet except for us. There is a little door in the bottom of the wall… actually, it’s not really a door, but a little square shaped hole in the wall that functions like a door. When you go inside, there is a little space where you can sit. When Claire and I met, we found a hiding place, and our friendship began. Six months later Molly came along and joined our little friendship. Claire and I showed her Secret Headquarters, and that is how we all became close friends.

When I get to Secret Headquarters, I find Molly quietly reading. “BOO!” I scream.

“Ahhh!” she screams, but then she sees me and starts laughing.

Shortly after, Claire barges into the room. “The worst thing almost happened… well, one of the worst things.”

“What?” I ask.

“Well, Ms. Kunzier stopped me and asked me where I was going, but I said I was going to the bathroom and she let me go,” Claire explains.

“Good thing she didn’t find out about Secret Headquarters,” I say. “Okay, anyway, let’s get started. First, let’s think of a plan.”

“The only way for us to get out of here is to get the key to unlock the main door,” says Claire.

“Well, I know where the key is kept,” replies Molly.  

“Where? How do you know?” I question.  

“Let’s just say that I went into her room once,” Claire answers.

“Was there actually blood and spider webs in her room?” I ask. Everybody says that Ms. Kunzier’s room is filled with blood marks and spider webs.

“Not at all, surprisingly,” Claire replies.

“That’s good to know,” I mutter. “So, back to the planning… How does tomorrow night sound to you guys for the first attempt of the escape?” I ask.

“Sure, I’m fine with that,” says Claire.

“What do you think, Molly?”

“I’m also fine with that,” says Molly.

“Okay, maybe at 1 in the morning, since Ms. Kunzier is probably going to be asleep… even though people say she sleeps with one eye open,” I add. “So, when she is about to close her door to go to sleep, let’s run up to it and push it a crack open. About one hour later we can get the key to open the front door. Sound good?”

“Yes!” says Molly.

“Sure!” says Claire.

“Okay, remember… tomorrow,” I confirm.

We walk out of secret headquarters, quietly chanting, “Escape attempt number one!”

I go to bed thinking that finally I will get out of here.

 

Chapter 3

The next day, Molly, Claire, and I try to get as much sleep as we can so that we’ll be ready for our big night. We pack what is really special to us. I get an old sack and put my stuffed bunny in it. My stuffed bunny’s name is Bun-Bun. I have had Bun-Bun since I was born. In the sack I also pack a bottle of water and some clothes.

At midnight, Molly, Claire, and I sneak to Secret Headquarters. We discuss what we are going to do, and prepare ourselves for the things coming ahead. At 1:30 in the morning, we hear Ms. Kunzier walking down the hall and going to her room.

”Oh my gosh, she is coming!” Molly blurts out. Luckily, in this case, Secret Headquarters is about a meter away from Ms. Kunzier’s bedroom. We hear Ms. Kunzier approach her bedroom door. We rush out to near the entrance of Secret Headquarters. When she opens the door, we quietly run out and slowly close her door until it is open just a crack. Exactly 45 minutes later we take a peek through Ms. Kunzier’s room and see that she’s snoring.

“Okay, Molly, since you are the quietest and you know where the key is, you are going to get the key,” I whisper. Molly tiptoes down to where the key is. Molly sneezes and Ms. Kunzier turns and moans a bit. Molly runs out of the room.

“That was close!” She whispers, relieved. When we get downstairs to the main door, Molly places the key into the key slot.

“Who is that?” a voice says. Molly, Claire, and I jump up in unison. Ms. Saltine, the orphanage maid, comes into the same room as us. “Found you! Girls, you know you should not be down here at this time of night,” she says.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to–”

Ms. Kunzier cuts me off by coming into the room. “Girls! Go to your room. All of you will have to wake up extra early tomorrow and help make breakfast. We will be having fresh pancakes, and you girls will have fresh leftovers. And bonus! You will clean up all the dirty dishes!” She walks away and cackles her very annoying cackle. She never gives us orphans fresh food – we always have leftovers.

“Ugh…” We all walk back to our bedrooms.     

***

“Try again on your adventure,” Ms. Saltine says to us the next morning. We are all shocked. We do not understand what just happened. It takes us time to understand what she meant. Even though we just did a lot of work by cooking a meal for 25 orphans and are now eating food scraps, we feel like we just accomplished something. Ms. Saltine is on our side.

Untitled

Chapter 1

I admired the little brown houses as I walked through the quaint village. I stopped at the end of the road and saw a beautiful valley in front of me with a tiny stream. I could smell the jasmine and honeysuckle in the air.

Then a stranger with silvery blond hair approached me and with a welcoming smile. She said, “Welcome to the City of ––

Suddenly, she got shot in the back with an arrow. Slowly her eyes turned black, her skin turned grey, she looked at me with a disturbing smile and ––

I jolted up, banging my head on the wooden headboard of my bed. When, I wondered as I rubbed my throbbing head, are these visions going to stop? Although the beginning of the vision felt safe and slightly familiar, I did not like the end when the lady transformed into a creepy creature. Out of all the visions that I’d had, I felt that this one was the worst. Many questions started popping into my mind. How come these visions only started two months ago? Where was the beautiful valley that I saw? And most importantly, what do the visions mean?

“Kayla, the school bus is here!” yelled my mother.

I groaned. Those six words were the words that I dreaded the most every morning. The thought of walking into a seventh grade classroom full of judgmental kids and strict teachers made me shiver, especially when I could have a vision at any time. I grabbed my schoolbag and headed downstairs. Of course my brother was already waiting for me, tapping his foot impatiently when I walked into the tiny kitchen. Why was he so excited about school? I guess because he still was in first grade, and in first grade all you do is play games and read books. Sometimes I wished I was still a little kid: oblivious, carefree, and vision-free.

“Hurry up, Kayla!” My mother snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, Kayla, hurry up!” Henry (my brother) mimicked. Rushed, I shoved

a muffin in my mouth, grabbed Henry’s small pudgy hand, and hurried toward the dreaded school bus.

I dragged him into the seats in the front row as fast as I could. The kids in the back could be dangerous. They had bullied Henry before (he is very gullible) and I wanted to keep him as safe as possible. The ride to school seemed to go on for a long time, even though it was actually quite short. As we passed the fountain near the park, I thought about the memories of my father there when I was just a little bit younger than Henry.

In books where the protagonist’s mother or father dies, the character always remembers only a snippet or two about their parents. But I could remember every little detail about my dad. Weirdly, my mother never appeared in these memories, it was just me and my dad. Me and Dad racing down the streets of New York. Me and Dad sliding down the slides in the park. Me and Dad reading a book together. I also remembered the night he left. Before he drove off into the foggy night and left me with my mother he said, Reach deep down into your heart and remember.

Before I knew it, hundreds of children were rushing out of the bus. Grabbing my brother’s hand we pushed our way to the exit.

“Bye Kayla!!! See you after school!” Henry bounced away into the small building on the left side of the field of grass. Sighing, I waved goodbye to him and walked to the huge building on the right side. After putting all my books away, I found the English classroom. It was covered with school projects and decorations that brought back bad memories of the past years: Ms. Gutter’s attempt to make the classroom seem like a ‘happy environment.’ Ms. Gutter finally walked in, wearing her long weird robes (where did she buy those from?) and lipstick. Even though she was very cheerful, she always gave us a quiz every three days.

“Oh no! I forgot the classical music today! Why didn’t you kids remind me?”

… No response.

“I see, aren’t we all tired today!”

… No response. That’s basically how the whole class went.  

The morning flew by and soon it was time for history class. History class was the most boring class ever!! Ms. Rath drones on and on during the whole class, so you would understand my ‘excitement’ for history class. I walked into class and took my usual seat in the middle. Ms. Rath started her lecture about World War II (or something). She started talking about the book we were going to read when I felt a nauseous feeling in my stomach and the desks in front of me started fading to white. The whole world around me changed into diluted colors. I always felt this familiar feeling in my stomach when I was about to have a vision. Panicked, I stumbled out of my seat and trudged to the corner of the faded room, attempting to hide from the other people in the room. I looked out the window and saw…

the same breathtaking valley. But this time a dark, curly-haired little girl pranced through the green grass and spun in circles. Then another figure appeared beside her and lifted her up on his broad shoulders, let out a deep rumbling laugh that vibrated through my chest. I then felt a pang of familiarity that disappeared as fast as it came. When the little girl ran into the small cabin the whole vision flickered into a dark, cloudy scene with demon-like arrows flying into people’s hearts, but then the beautiful landscape came back.

A moment later, the desks materialized again and then the shocked faces of my peers popped out from the fog, and lamely I replied, “I have a stomach ache.”

… Silence.

“Of course you do!” Ms. Rath cut in, “Let’s get you to the nurse. Don’t worry, Kayla!”

Ms. Rath dragged me into the enclosed hallways and once we got to a small corner she stopped and faced me, her cheerful and serene smile twisted into a dark frown. “What were you thinking, going to school without consuming the right medication this morning? You never had a vision before during school, are you running out of the pills?” She scolds, looking down at me. I was shocked.

“Uh, I, um, what?” Ms. Rath’s anger bubbled down to confusion.

“Your medications, the one you take to prevent the visions. Your father gave them to you! You will obviously be getting visions when you are this far away from the City.”

I paused for a second, the shock of finding out that Ms. Rath knew about my visions faded away and was replaced by the realization that the question that had clouded my mind for almost a month had been answered.

“You know why I’m getting these visions? You know?”

“Of course I know! I was assigned as your father’s advisor when he took you and left the City. You grew up there, that’s why you’re getting visions. Why didn’t your father tell you all of this?”

“My father left me and my mom, and from what I remember, he never told me anything about this ‘City’!” After saying this, it felt like ten weights were dropped on my heart; I couldn’t take all this information. “Okay, I think I feel a little — ” I searched for the right words to say to Ms. Rath’s impatient face, “overwhelmed.”

Without saying anything else, I pushed past her to get inside the classroom to grab my stuff, ignoring the weird looks with confidence. Then I called my mom, saying that I had a headache and I wanted to walk home.

I finally took my first full breath of air walking outside onto the bumpy sidewalk; watching the big puff of air dissolve into the cold winter sky. This was how I escaped: I had to be by myself, outside with no walls surrounding me. I started to think about what Ms. Rath had said. She used to be my father’s advisor in this whole different city (that I didn’t remember), why would my father need an advisor? She had also mentioned that I grew up there.

That was why these visions seemed so familiar! There was also a medication I could take to prevent the visions? How come I didn’t remember all of this? By the time I passed the Choo Choo Train Park, where I had fallen and broken my knee a while back (I never played in there ever again), I figured out the answers to my questions, I needed to see my father.

I climbed up the stairs two steps at a time up to my room and flopped face down onto my old worn quilt. My aura of peace quickly faded away once I was inside my room. After a few minutes of silence, I heard the steps of my mother’s soft slippers climbing up the stairs. I sighed ready for her to interrogate me. She walked in and looked at me for a good ten seconds and then walked over to sit beside me. Her blond hair tickled my cheek.

“How was your walk?” She looked at me with kind eyes. I laughed. My mother always asked the smart and unexpected questions, I loved her personality.

“It was relaxing and it cleared my mind,” I told her, smiling. My mom nodded with an understanding face and we just sat there quietly. I then thought about my idea to find my dad. Should I tell her? No, then I’ll have to tell her about my visions and I can’t do that, there must be a reason for why my dad left. I then crawled into my bed to lay down and calm my pounding head. Soon after that, I felt the weight of my mom leaving the bed and walking out of my room.

 

Chapter 2

I loved little children. They were so innocent. Henry was innocent but he was also very smart and educated about the world. Kids were not judgmental at all. That was why I was excited when my mom told me that my baby cousin Maureen was coming over to barbeque with us. Finally, I had somebody to spill my problems to! I felt like telling Henry about our dad might be too overwhelming. I didn’t want him to feel the same way I felt and I didn’t want to frighten him.

After hearing the shrieking of my two little cousins entering our quiet house, I rushed downstairs. Immediately guilt crept over me when I saw Henry realize that he had gotten home on the bus by himself.

“Oh Henry, I’m so sorry I didn’t come down earlier when you came home!” I reached over to ruffle his fluffy blonde hair.

“That’s okay, I know you have a bad headache,” he replied. I felt lonely realizing that he and my mom didn’t know about about the visions, or about this whole other life in this crazy demonized city that our dad potentially lives in. A high-pitched squeal broke mye away from my thoughts ––

“Maureen!” I looked to the doorway and saw my tired but bright-looking Aunt Pearl (I had always loved that name) and Uncle Thomas carrying little two year old Maureen and her brother, Peter, who was two years older than her.

My mother shrieked as she ushered the small group of people into the living room.

“Hi! Come in, come in! I missed you so much.” That was probably true, my mother’s whole family lived in Brighton so having them come to visit us in New York state was only a once-in-awhile type of thing. Aunt Pearl nodded and followed my mom into the cheerful room chattering excitedly and admiring Henry’s artwork from school hanging on the walls. Henry makes a beeline to Peter soon after the family settles down. I think Henry liked to boss him around after being bossed around by me (I tried my best to not tell him what to do, but sometimes the orders just slipped out!) so he chosed to play with Peter. I brought Maureen to the small playroom filled with random toy trucks and cars that Henry played with. I watched her grab and whack a small purple car. I sighed remembering the happy carefree times before I got my visions, two months ago, I didn’t have to take some medication to be able to go to school and there were no gaping holes in my life.

“Maureen, do you know who my father is?” I asked her.  Her little blonde head perked up after hearing her name and she stared at me blankly. “That’s okay, I don’t know who he is myself. I don’t even know where he lives. I mean, is he still alive?” I rambled on and on about my dad not caring about what the little girl next to me was thinking. Suddenly, Maureen pointed at the window behind me, her face pale. Whimpers started to come out of her tiny mouth. I stopped, my mouth seeming to zip up like the jacket hanging on the wooden rack. I turned around slowly, this was probably how the characters in horror movies felt; that rush of panic in your stomach.

The person standing –– no, floating –– was smiling at Maureen with black, empty eyes. His skin was grey, and there was a black arrow that seemed to vibrate stuck in his back. A picture flashed through my mind: the woman who approached me in my vision. I shrieked when I made eye contact with his ghostly eyes. Weirdly, fear appeared in his eyes and the man started to disappear, limb by limb. I looked at Maureen, she stared back at me, and screamed.

My mother rushed into the room. She stopped when she saw my eyes. I looked at her, scared and confused. After she grabbed Maureen she walked toward me slowly and almost cautiously. I followed her gaze to the antique mirror that hung above the small table on the wall. I rushed to it and stared at myself. Frizzy brown hair, pale skin, orange eyes –– WAIT! I do not have orange eyes! I started to panic, I looked down at the scratched wooden floor and then stared at the mirror again. The fiery orange faded into its usual, normal, dull brown color that I saw every time I looked at myself in the mirror. I heard Aunt Pearl and Uncle Tom walk over and turn silent in the back of my mind. I looked to the left and saw Henry staring at me, his mouth wide open. I just stared at the mirror in horror, what am I? What thing did I become?

 

The night went by in a blur, and all I saw was the fear in my mother’s eyes, imprinted in my mutant eyes. Never in my life, had I felt so terrified and uncomfortable. My visions started to come into the world; they were actually real. So that meant that this city was actually real, this whole mess was real. There was a hole in my chest –– you know, that sour feeling that you get when you drown in panic and confusion. The feeling that I got when I was lost in the new gigantic building in the beginning of middle school? That feeling was taking over my heart.

My mother stopped talking to me altogether. I think she was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that I’m a creepy mutant person with wonky eyes. I’m also trying.

I realized that I was the only person in this realistic world who knew about these visions. Except… except for Ms. Rath. Ms. Rath knows about the City. She was my father’s advisor. It seemed like my teacher had more to tell me before I ran away.

 

During the evening, we went out to our well kept lawn to stargaze. I tried to make out each constellation but failed. How are you able to organize so many stars into one constellation?

I sighed when I went under the covers. Another day of potential visions. Another day of fear. Another day of confusion.

 

Chapter 3

My next mission was to find Ms. Rath and make sure that she told me everything she knew about my dad and my eyes. Without going to school. Do you really expect me to be able to go to school the day after having a frightening (and embarrassing) ‘stomach ache’? No you don’t. That was why I was never going back to that history classroom. Fortunately, I didn’t have a vision last night, and I was granted permission miss school. That means I had a whole day to think about my eyes. My weird eyes.

My mom and I were both a little bit rattled after the incident last night and I got a refreshing vision-free night to let the idea of my mutant facial body part sink in. I hoped my mom was as understanding as she always was. I sighed as I walked down the hall to the bathroom. It seemed like I’d been sighing a lot lately. I wondered why. I was stopped by Henry.

“I have been having dreams.” That sentence that came out of my brother’s mouth stopped me on my tracks. “Weird dreams. Weird dreams with big orange eyes staring at me, with Dad telling me to ‘remember’ or something like that.” Henry seemed to get more frightened with each word.
You have been having dreams about my eyes? Since when?” My brother may know more about me than I do.

“The first dream started two months ago, but I have only gotten three in total.” Henry paused, it seemed like he wanted to tell me more, but his emotions were holding him back. A few seconds later Henry whispered in a timid voice “I’m worried, Kayla.” My insides crushed. I was able to deal with my visions but the thought of Henry having to go through them too made me feel horrible.

“It’s ok to be afraid, Henry. I’ve been having visions too. They’re about our dad and a city where demons are invading. I’m trying to find out more about this mess and I think I know someone who might know more about our dad and my abilities,” I told him, trying to help Henry understand.  His eyes lit up, he probably saw this as some sort of adventure in the comic books… Kayla and Henry’s Adventure to Find Their History Teacher to Find Out More About Their Father!!!

I want to read that comic.

“Kayla, you may not think so, but I think your powers are really cool. In my dreams, your eyes have saved lives, actually, they called it Kratos?” Henry said thoughtfully. I saved lives? Me?

“You know what? We are going to find out more about this whole situation. My history teacher, Ms. Rath, knows about our father and ––

“Wait, your history teacher, the one who is friends with Mom? She babysits me while you’re gone!” Henry interrupted me. Ms. Rath babysits Henry? Knowing that she has been inside my home for something not related to school creeped me out. A lot. But that also meant that I could talk to her about everything. Finally, I felt so relieved to talk to someone about my visions.

 

Chapter 4

I stared at the demon towering over me, trying to get into its ugly mind. I snapped my fingers and the demon, with the five demons behind it, disappeared into ashes. I felt a fraction of my energy fade away as I stumbled to the safe house nearest to me. My energy seemed to be dissolving more and more every time I destroyed demons. I moved around the many injured people and went to go find my sister who told me specifically to meet her in the safe house near the Lily River after three in the afternoon. I heard shouts from out of the window and the whistle of an arrow. I wanted to scream in frustration. Why wasn’t General Lucien sending in the city’s powerful troops? Was he only relying on the talents of the Mutatia? The General’s intelligence seemed to be dimming after his advisor left. Our proud and beautiful city cannot be turned into a wasteland of demons.

“ Clairementine! Over here!” I turn my head to my sister sitting on the bench, finishing up wrapping a big bandage around a wounded Mutatia. I sighed at the sound of her childhood nickname for me. “Finally, I was so worried after the General sent the alarm to the Mutatia and you didn’t come back!” Her gentle face was eerily calm as she stared me down. I avoided her look by looking at my small signal panel on my wrist that was buzzing with an alert –– ALL MUTATIA MUST RETURN TO THE SAFEHOUSES BY THE FOURTH HOUR.  –– General Lucien. Oops. That’s why I did not recognize anyone on the battlefield.

“How did you even know about the alert, Grace?” I interrogated my sister. She sheepishly pointed at the wrist of her old Mutatia patient. I sighed and slumped into the dated, out-of-place, armchair. The springs squeaked under the new weight. I ripped of the silver mask that proved my status.

“Claire!” I just closed my eyes, not wanting to deal with anyone at this moment. “Claire! Wake up!” I inwardly groaned and opened my eyes. I see Brendan’s concerned face staring down at me. “Oh, good you’re awake.” I really wanted to laugh but I knew it would be unseemly for this situation.

“The General wanted all the captains to repower in the safehouses.” I nodded and dismissed my messenger. He still lingered. I turned my head and was about to question it when he said, “Most of your Saplings died overusing their power and the general was very angry.”

WHAT!!! Okay, calm down. I’m the leader I have to stay calm. “Oh! That’s awful! I will have to speak to him later to get some advice. Thank you so much for the information.” I said through gritted teeth. Brendan seemed to be disgusted at my lack of sympathy for the young Mutatia who died, but still understood my cue to leave. Even though he was almost a year older than me, it didn’t matter, he would still take my orders –– I was his captain. All of us trained and fought together equally. Anyone could also be your group’s captain, if you worked hard and wanted the responsibility. The responsibility. That was probably the worst part of my job. I was good at battle plans and organizing everyone and I loved being a leader; someone people could respect and look up to you, but I disliked having to always be bothered, always having to discuss things with other leaders, saying the right thing to be a good role model for my Saplings and, of course, making sure that they were trained the right way and using their privileged powers correctly. The young fighters were always so passionate about defending their city, they overused their talents, some were more powerful than others, and didn’t get to recharge in the madness of battle, therefore, they died.

I was used to all these tragedies –– people dying, turning into demons, etc.

I followed the signs of the safehouse to the repowering station, slipping my mask back on, and feeling a bit self conscious, as I do each time I put it on. Once I saw the small enclosed room, I waited on the line of Mutatia. Energy was extremely important to us. No energy? No powers, and no defending our city. Some Mutatia used different types of energy, but most used electricity. The general tried to experiment with other types of energy; water,  fire, wind, and solar. Different Mutatia reacted to different types, so the General decided to just use all of them. I was assigned to do tests on the energies for my project as captain last year. It took maybe about ten million years and ten million pounds of hard work to complete it. But the outcome was useful for my group and my battle friends. I figured out that the most powerful type of energy is electricity, and the least powerful was solar power. The line shuffled forward.

When I finished charging up I set off to find the General to talk about the situation. I tapped my wristband on my arm to to turn on the green light in the corner of the screen, to turn on my tracking device so my leader can know where I am. (You have to turn it off while in the power station). Every time I saw the lime green light flash on, I  felt a vibration between the vertebra of my neck which sent shudders down my spine. I seemed to be the only captain who has not adapted to this feeling, the feeling of people watching you and your every move. Maybe if they had chosen somewhere else to place the device, like my arm, I would not feel the vibrations.

Even though the battles outside my window are ruthless and bloody, the enemies do have some sort of organized plan that we have learned to live around. It goes mostly by hours. Because I have gotten used to the war scene after many years, I had learned the “schedule” and memorized it. I had to, all captains had to. Out of all the inhabitants of this city, the ones I pitied the most were the newborns, the toddlers. They have to grow up and figure out who they were while this war was raging outside their windows. While they took their first steps, and babbled their first words, there would be sounds of battle and demons in the background. Their first memories would be of having to hide in their shelters, and they would not be able to enjoy the amazing landscape of the city. While my childhood was full of oblivious, carefree, and battle-free memories: bounding down the valleys with Grace and spending time with my mother baking goods for our neighbors, (our city prides ourselves on the value of community that all children are being taught in their daily lives). There were little of these precious memories but I kept them close to my heart.

Sometimes I wondered if inhabitants of this city were actually going to experience that kind of life now that it has changed so much. Instead of superiors being the mayor, politicians, educators, the most important leader of our society was the General and people here looked up to the military: the fighters and their captains, and at the moment it was the Mutatia.

I wondered what the change “back to normal” will be like. Hard? Quick? Or will things slowly start to change. How will we ever forget the hours of when the demons will strike or when they rest and we can finally run back home that are lodged into our brain? I would never be able to stroll across town in the middle of the fifth hour (when the demons fight their second to last attack) calmly, weaponless.

Getting rid of these thoughts that came across my mind daily, I readjusted my mask that never seemed to form comfortably over my skin like it did for my fellow leaders. I then took a sharp turn left in a small alley way, ducking my head to avoid eye contact with anyone else.

 

Chapter 5

The General’s office was right in the middle of the city, for easy access. Usually he had many visitors, but at that hour, most inhabitants were “enjoying” their time in their homes. As I walked up the steps, a figure came into view. She had a silver mask on, covering her face the same way mine covers my face. The long dark braid that tumbled gracefully down her back was the only way I recognized the captain. Rayna. Funny how it took so long for me to determine who someone, that I have worked with for many years, was. She rudely bumped into me to acknowledge me.

“Oh, Claire, I did not see you in any of the safehouses. I was worried,” she said in a polite manner (but fake), even though she was obviously trying to embarrass me for not paying attention to the alert. She had always been like this, since we were younger and we just started learning how to be captains. Once, I smuggled in a bag of chips during a training to eat during break and, of course, Rayna was there and saw me take a bite out of a crunchy, greasy potato chip. She immediately told our trainer and he has hated me ever since. I have hated her ever since.

“I did not notice the message,” I replied stiffly. I did not want to give her any satisfaction with my tone.

“I heard what happened to your group,” she smiled. Wow, she just went straight into it. She didn’t even try to be polite this time. She was with me during the lecture about how keeping the fighters in your group safe and by saying that, she reminded me of why I should be ashamed. For once I was glad my mask was over my head because I am not good at hiding the emotions on my face. I roughly shoved past her, and strode up the rest of the stairs.

Lost Kids

Once upon a time, there were two boys who hated school. They went to recess and decided they wanted to run away, so they ran off into the forest and got lost.

 

SCENE 1

ALAN

I don’t want to go to school! I don’t want to go to school!

 

ALAN’S MOM

Too bad, so sad. You. GO.

 

ALAN

I left my homework at school and I don’t want my teacher to be mad at me.

 

ALAN’S MOM

Tell me the truth, I saw your homework at home.

 

ALAN

Fine. The teacher said I have… (takes a deep breath) D-Y-S-L-E-X-I-A.

 

ALAN’S MOM

No, you don’t! When you were three you told me you read the whole series of Harry Potter.

 

ALAN

No, I didn’t, I actually lied to you.

 

MOM

I’ll call your teacher and ask.

 

ALAN

Fine, go ahead.

 

MOM

        She picks up the phone to call, but then puts it down. 

Actually, I believe you. Maybe you do have dyslexia. But you still have to go to school.

 

ALAN

Ugh. Fine.

 

Lights out.

SCENE 2

        In reading class (ELA).

 

TEACHER

Write a whole paragraph on what we just learned.

        The TEACHER turns to write on the board.

 

ALAN

(To himself) Should I try or should I sleep? I’ll just sleep, I don’t need this rubbish.

 

He falls asleep. The TEACHER comes to him and pokes him on the shoulder. Then the recess bell rings. ALAN wakes up.

 

TEACHER

Just keep trying! It’s okay to mess up, just keep trying!

 

Everyone else has gotten up to get their coats and walks out of the classroom, JACK looks at ALAN with understanding and pity. ALAN rolls his eyes at the teacher and leaves, with JACK following behind him.

 

SCENE 3

        ALAN sits on the bench crying at recess.

JACK

Are you okay?

 

ALAN

No. I just went to sleep because I didn’t understand.

 

JACK

You don’t understand what?

 

ALAN

Don’t tell anybody, okay?

 

JACK

Okay, I promise.

 

ALAN

(whispers) I. Have. D-Y-S-L-E-X-I-A.

 

JACK

Let me tell you a secret. I have dyslexia too.

 

ALAN

       ALAN looks at JACK in awe, and then gives him a big hug.

 

JACK

I have always thought of getting lost and not going to school.

 

ALAN

That is a great idea!

 

JACK

Since we’re at recess, let’s do it now!

 

ALAN

Wait, but the teacher wants to talk to me after school.

 

JACK

Oh whatever, forget about it.

 

ALAN

Where should we go?

 

JACK

       He writes down “Bahamas” and shows ALAN.

 

ALAN

What’s Bamahams?

 

JACK

(gently) It’s called the Bahamas.

 

ALAN

That would be too hard, let’s go somewhere else. Oh, I know! The forest!

 

JACK

Uhh, I’m a little scared of bears, and like cats, and like bunnies, and like trees.  But… okay.

 

ALAN

Are you scared of something?

 

JACK

(lying) No, not at all.

 

ALAN

Whatever. Let’s get the heckster out of here.

 

SCENE 4

        In the forest, the sounds of birds and animals can be heard. They’ve just arrived.

JACK

Oh. T-t-trees!

 

ALAN

Okay? Dude, are you scared of something?

 

JACK

Fine, yes. I’m scared of the things I mentioned before we left to go to the forest.

 

ALAN

Dude, why didn’t you tell me this? Before, you said that you were not scared of those things. We could have gone somewhere where you wouldn’t be scared.

 

JACK

I’ll be honest next time.

 

ALAN

Okay.

 

JACK

(looking up at the sky looking at the birds) I wish I was a bird and I could be free and not have dyslexia.

 

ALAN

(standing there in silence with his arms crossed looking up at the sky, talking to himself) That was my dream when I was little, to be a bird.

 

JACK

Oh well.

       JACK walks with his head down, sad. JACK bumps into a tree.

 Ahhh!

 

ALAN

Jeez, Jack! Calm down!

 

The boys see something on the tree.

 

JACK

Oh my gosh! The t-tree said something.

 

ALAN

Let me read it. Hmmm… Pelh pere.

 

JACK

I don’t think that is was it says. Our teacher told me a trick. Let me try it. Hmmm. I think it says, “Help here.” Yes, that must be it.

 

ALAN

Who wants to help us?

 

JACK

Alan, I have one question. Why does it say it on the t-tree and not the mud or something?

 

ALAN

Well, maybe somebody was scared of the trees and they needed to escape very fast because they just can’t handle trees and they said “help’’ because they just can’t find the way out of here.

 

JACK

O-o-okay. How can we help?

 

ALAN

Oh my gosh. Look at the footsteps on the floor that are right next to the tree. Maybe that’s where the man tried to escape.

 

JACK

Should we follow them?

 

ALAN

Okay. I hope these footsteps don’t lead to a dangerous place.

 

JACK

Wait, what do you mean a dangerous place?

 

ALAN

Listen, dude. We are in the middle of a forest. Anything can happen.

 

JACK

I’m starting to think that what we are doing is very bad. I mean, we’ve been in the forest for two days now. Don’t you think our parents will worry? Our parent sent us to school to learn right? If we are struggling we should tell the teacher and learn together. We can learn to read with dyslexia.

 

ALAN

Are you alright, man? But…

        JACK starts crying.

 

ALAN

I forgot about going back home and being in my mom’s arms. And her kissing me good night.

 

JACK

Let’s go back.

 

ALAN

Go back were? We are in the middle of the forest and it’s 3:00. By the time we get to school, it will be tomorrow at 1:00 in the morning.

 

JACK

How do we get out?

 

ALAN

The same way we came in.

 

JACK

Which is…?

 

ALAN

Man. We’ve got to be brave and follow the footsteps.

 

JACK

I don’t know about that.

 

ALAN

Jack… man up you have to face your fears.

 

JACK

I guess.

 

The boys walk more into the forest.

 

ALAN

Looks like the footsteps we saw earlier lead into a cave.

 

JACK shivers.

 

ALAN

Dude, this is the last time I’m telling you to man up and face your fears.

 

JACK

But…

 

Trees make sounds.

 

JACK

Ahhh. T-trees.

       JACK runs straight into the cave.

Uhhh, Alan you here, bro?

 

ALAN

JACK!!! Where are you???

 

JACK

I’m in a cave without t-trees.

 

ALAN

Ummm, is this the cave?

 

JACK

Hurry up! I am suffering in here!

 

JACK

Oh Alan, I see you!

 

ALAN

I see you too! But why are you holding a leaf in your hand from a tree?

 

JACK

Wait… WHAT?! Oh, this isn’t that bad.

 

ALAN

Oh look, there are more footsteps.

 

JACK

Let’s follow them.

 

ALAN

Okay.

 

ALAN and JACK follow the footsteps.

 

JACK

Oh look, there is our school.

 

ALAN’S MOM and JACK’S MOM are looking for them and crying.

 

JACK’S MOM

Jack, where were you? I was worried sick.

 

JACK

Well, we just couldn’t do it anymore.

 

JACK’S MOM

Couldn’t do what?

                

JACK

Well, long story. Well, actually, first thing’s first… I have dyslexia. Let’s talk about what happened at home. Just one thing…. All Alan’s fault.

 

ALAN

Dude, you agreed to it!

 

ALAN’S MOM

Agreed to what?

 

ALAN

Never mind.

 

JACK

Just saying, it’s you who should be blamed.

 

ALAN

Jack, I’m not talking to you anymore if you are going to blame me for it.

 

JACK

Fine.

 

ALAN

Good.

 

JACK

And one more thing: it’s Bahamas, you idiot.

 

ALAN ignores JACK.

 

ALAN

Why are you bringing that up now? Bye.

 

ALAN goes home with his mom.

 

SCENE 5

        The next day.

 

JACK

You know what? I was a huge idiot yesterday for blaming you.

 

JACK looks into ALAN’s eyes and cries and gives him a huge hug.

Never Betray Someone

Yesterday, my friend betrayed me. The teacher asked her if I was talking. I don’t know why. He must have thought I was talking because my hand was placed over my mouth. I was really uncomfortable in my chair. I didn’t want to get in trouble. I had already had a bad recess, and now I had a headache because my friend was really inappropriate at lunch. I don’t want to say what happened, because it was too gross.

Mr. Monserati asked my friend, “Is Matthew talking?”

My friend hesitated. She laughed and said, “YES.”

I really wasn’t talking. She betrayed me. She was no longer my friend.

Because I am not God, I did not forgive her for getting me in trouble. I felt mad at my friend. God would have felt sad for her because she committed a sin by betraying someone. Judas turned his master in for thirty pieces of gold. Judas saw his sin and hung himself. My friend did not do that – all she did was hang out with other people. Judas had also betrayed him. It is bad to betray. I hope she will apologize. If she does, I will forgive her. Amen.

A Vehicle That Can Fly: The War Against Syria

Chapter 1

We were in a big fight with Syria. One day, when I was flying to Syria to defeat them, I was talking to my pilot, Matthew. Matthew was my first friend.

“Take a left turn and shoot a missile,” said Matthew.

“Roger that,” I said.

Sometimes I would just get bored and talk to my pilot Matthew. We had nothing in common because I am a vehicle and so is he…

Matthew wanted a special army helmet. I wanted to help him by forcing the U.S. Army to give every soldier a helmet. It could save him from dying. It was bulletproof, and when he put it on, it would make the whole suit bulletproof and create a facemask.

I looked down, then up. I saw a whole group of Syrian army planes. They were green with army waves. So I talked to the captain, but he didn’t really agree with me. I said that it would be very good –– we could win everything. He still didn’t believe me. Finally, I convinced him, and he believed me. So he gave me and my pilot a helmet, but not anybody else. I didn’t really care. Everybody else cared. They said, “That’s not fair at all!”

They said, “That’s not fair at all!”

I felt sad. But the captain said, “Hurry up, get in the sky!”

I was too busy daydreaming, so he hit me. I finally stopped daydreaming and took flight. Maybe you don’t understand what that means … neither do I. But what I mean is that I took off. Now, let’s get back to the story.

 

Chapter 2

After that, there were a whole bunch of army planes pointing at me because they thought that I would start daydreaming again. I got mad and told everybody that I would stay focused. Finally, they left.

It was daytime and kind of windy. I started to run low on gas. There was still one plane next to me who didn’t believe that I had stopped daydreaming, so it passed over a tiny bit of its gas to me. I went as high as I could. I became frozen and I couldn’t control what I was doing. I was a little bit curious, especially about how to control myself again. I turned my jets on and was finally able to control myself again. We were all so happy!

 

Chapter 3

Then I started going so high, I almost touched space. I couldn’t go down. I tried and tried.

I asked Matthew to help me, but he was too busy watching TV on his phone. (He thought that I was controlling myself). He was watching CNN news.

I yelled, “Matthew!!!”

I realized that he was asleep and felt disappointed.

He eventually woke up.

“Where am I? Is it already night?” asked Matthew.

“Now we’re in space,” I said.

“What?? Why did we go into space? I thought you would be controlling!” he said.

“No! You never said that.”

“I did, but you were just daydreaming.”

I really was daydreaming. I was in big trouble. I just knew we weren’t going to win the war with Syria.

There were 300 stars all over the place! “Wow! I never thought that was actually true!” I said.

As I got back from space, I heard a reporter say that we had won! I got back and landed. I got pushed back by an airplane.

“Wow,” I thought. “I never knew that would happen.”

“Well, you know, it wasn’t really as bad as I thought it was,” I said to Matthew.

Matthew said, “Seriously, I don’t care.”

He was still watching CNN.

Masters of the Universe (Excerpt)

  

Book 1: The Monsters Army

Chapter 1

A group of three kids named, John, George, and Steve seemed like normal average middle schoolers, but even though they didn’t know it, they would soon become great heroes. One day, they were having a math test that would be fifty percent of their grade. Normally, people would be really freaked out about stuff like that, but these kids were calm; they didn’t really care about tests. After the test was over, they talked in the hall while going over to Reading.

After that, Mr. Goodman, the math teacher, walked over to them, mumbling, “…have to escort them to town, but the army of Cyclop Giants is coming to the school…”

Once the math teacher left, George said, “Well, that was weird.”

Steve and John agreed. They looked out the window, and all three of them jumped back in shock.

“Is it just me, or is there a giant army of Cyclop Giants charging towards the school?” Steve exclaimed.

“No, it’s not just you. This is pretty freaky now. I guess what Mr. Goodman mumbled was right,” George said.

“Does that mean we have to be escorted to some kind of town?” John asked,  startled.

“Yes, it does,” Mr. Goodman said loudly. He suddenly picked up the boys, flew out the window, and into the sky. Of course, the three kids were screaming. Mr. Goodman flew them to a giant city with massive skyscrapers, but it didn’t look like any city the boys had seen before, and since they traveled a lot, they’d seen every single city in the U.S. They highly doubted they had gone out of the U.S. in the last thirty seconds.

When they landed, they were greeted by a bunch of other high schoolers that seemed about fourteen years old. All of them seemed pretty weird. Some had big wings and sick jetpacks, as well as big machine guns and  awesome bazookas.

George was really into those weapons because he was really good with technology. He made a working jetpack when he was five!

John, on the other hand, did very strange things when he was little. He weirdly talked to a wolf when he was seven, and he saw a Giant jump off a building.

Steve seemed to like the fighting aspect of things, considering he was always getting into fights. If it weren’t for John and George, he would’ve broken at least five people’s arms by now.

The trio was pretty freaked out about what just happened and how they just flew to a giant city. Everyone was talking about cabins and who would be in which cabin, when John’s head suddenly started to flicker between a wolf and a human. When it finally stopped, a group of people ran over to him and guided him to a small house that looked like a wolf.

Everyone claimed John was the son of a guy named Hoxarth, the master of wolves and bravery. Right after that, George’s hands were flickering back and forth from sword to normal hands. Just like John, after his flickering finished, another group of people came over to him to bring him to a small place that looked that a workshop. Everyone said he was the son of Foldis, master of Technology and explosives. Finally, armor started flickering around Steve, and a group of people brought him to a house that looked like a battlefield. He was apparently the son of Battlemark, the master of war and strategy.

They were all freaked out, but they agreed that this was pretty epic. Steve’s cabin was filled with armor and weapons just like an armory. George’s cabin was like a workshop with everybody building crazy axes and epic battle ships. John’s cabin was a lot less active than George’s and Steve’s, but it was also interesting because some random people were turning to wolves, and some people were talking about going on adventures.

Adventure sounded great to John since he loved action and traveling. After the trio got a tour of the city and their cabins, they went to a group meeting at 8 p.m.

Godigon, the leader, asked John, George, and Steve to approach the front of the room since they were the newcomers. He also mentioned that the Cyclop Giant’s army was attacking nearby and mentioned if anyone was willing to stand up to an adventure that may cause death. The mission was to scout their base and maybe even stop the army from reaching the city. He also said if they succeeded, they would be rewarded greatly.

John, George, and Steve had the urge to stand up for the city they’d only known about for four hours and help the almost four hundred people, even if they had to risk their lives. This left everyone else whispering about how they were the first newcomers to go on a quest in a century.

Godigon stood up tall and said “It’s settled. These three newcomers will be the ones to go to California, scout the Cyclop Giant’s base, and stop the army from attacking the city by February 1st, six days from now. All I can say is good luck, great heroes.”

The discussion was over. Everyone had dinner and went to sleep. John, George, and Steve were going to have a long day ahead of them when they left for California. All three had very strange dreams. John dreamt about the army of Cyclop Giants sitting by lots of fires in a large military site, which could possibly be their base. George’s dream was less about the quest and more about Happy Party where the show went on fire. And Steve dreamed of the same, but with Wheel of Bad Luck. They were all going to have exciting days tomorrow.

Creme Brulee

Characters:

CAT

SOPHIE

MYRTLE

JAKE

BAKER 1

BAKER 2

Scene 1

In a dark room with trash all over the floor.

JAKE is right outside the window of the dark room. He’s standing protectively outside of the house, so the BAKERS don’t enter.

JAKE

Nothing here, you Bakers. Now get a move on!

The BAKERS don’t move.

Sophie is standing in the dark room. She sneakily looks out the window, so they don’t see.

SOPHIE

The bakers are here. We have to hide!

CAT

Well, maybe you have to, because you stole that magic cinnamon from the spice stand.

SOPHIE

Well, you helped!

CAT

No, I did not!

SOPHIE

The bakers might come in.

CAT

I’m scared.

SOPHIE

I’ll be on the lookout.

SOPHIE looks out the window again.

SOPHIE 

The bakers are probably looking for that creme brulee recipe.

CAT 

Cool.

BAKER 1 is standing outside the window.

BAKER 1

Let us in, farm boy!

JAKE

I’m not a farm boy! Also, I don’t even know how to make toast!

 

BAKER 2

Let’s go. He’s innocent.

BAKER 1

Copy.

In the dark room.

SOPHIE

The bakers are gone.

CAT

I’m going to work.

SOPHIE

Work? I thought there weren’t any jobs to go to. I thought you could only –

CAT walks out of the room with some pep in her steps.

SOPHIE

I need to get to Kimmy’s house.

Scene 2

A cobblestone street. The very few people that are there are looking very scared. CAT is walking down the street.

CAT

Hello!

CAT tips her hat.

CAT

Have a very nice day!

Scene 3

A dusty shop with many old things in it. MS. MYRTLE is standing behind a desk.

 

CAT

Hello, Ms. Myrtle. How are you?

MYRTLE

I am very good, Cat. How are you?

CAT

I’m good.

MYRTLE

There are some new things in the back. Can you please unpack them for me? Take the creme brulee recipe from the pile. Also, can you give a message to the cook and say that I don’t have the recipe?

CAT

Okay.

CAT walks through the piles of junk.

Scene 4

A dusty room with bags of things.

CAT

Where is the new delivery?

Shows a bag that says “New Delivery.”

CAT

Oh. There it is.

CAT opens the bag.

CAT

Whoa! That’s the recipe!

A picture of a creme brulee is on a scrap of paper.

CAT

Whoa! I understand why the cook wants this so much!

One cup of sugar

Four egg whites

One teaspoon of flour

One half cup of cream

Cook for as long as pleases you.

(It will come out perfect only if you cook it as long as your favorite number.)

MYRTLE

(distant sounding) What are you doing back there?

CAT

Just being a good assistant! Hehehe.

MYRTLE

Okay.

CAT

This is gonna rock!

Scene 5

The Bakery. Many sweets are being eaten at pink tables. Happy music is playing through hidden speakers.

COOK

That recipe is mine. Well, I hope it is.

COOK stops waiter.

COOK

I’ll be right back, I just forgot something.

WAITER

Okay.

Scene 6

The street. Same as before. Because of COOK’S huge ego and her huge mansion, people on the street are staring in awe at her.

COOK goes into the old shop

COOK

I want the recipe right now!

MYRTLE

Why would I have it? I’m an innocent old woman! You are acting like some stupid recipe is a matter of life and death!

COOK

It is a matter of life and death. It’s magic. According to legend, it can bring people back to life.

MYRTLE

Why are you relying on a legend?

COOK

Well, legends are sometimes real.

MYRTLE

Okay, but don’t blame me if you go through this entire pursuit of trying to find something that isn’t real.

COOK

It probably is real, but don’t blame me if I become richer from this recipe.

CAT and COOK walk out of the shop at the same time.

Scene 7

CAT and COOK are on the street outside of MS. MYRTLE’S. CAT is standing a few feet away from COOK and muttering to herself.

CAT

(whispering to herself) I can’t let the Cook have the recipe. She already has too much money as it is.

COOK walks up to CAT.

COOK

Are you sure that Ms. Myrtle doesn’t have the recipe?

CAT

Yes, I’m very sure. Hehehe.

Scene 8

SOPHIE and CAT are in their dusty kitchen. On the table, are the special ingredients for the magic creme brulee.

CAT is stirring all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

CAT

Come on, Sophie. Let’s try the batter.

SOPHIE

Okay!

They try the batter.

SOPHIE and CAT

It’s so good!

They put in the oven to bake.  

Scene 9

SOPHIE and CAT’s dusty kitchen –– fifteen minutes later.

CAT pulls the creme brulee out of the oven.

CAT

Whoa….

SOPHIE

Let’s try it!

They both take a bite.

COOK opens up the kitchen door and slams it shut.

COOK

I know you have the recipe! Now give it to me!

SOPHIE and CAT are bouncing around, giggling.

SOPHIE and CAT

I think this made me really happy!

COOK

You are stealing something really powerful!

The girls continue to bounce and laugh.

CAT

(to COOK) Really?

SOPHIE shoves a mouthful of creme brulee into COOK’s mouth. COOK starts bouncing around and smiling.

COOK

This is magic!

SOPHIE

Why?

COOK

Because it’s so good! Let’s open a new bakery together and live eating creme brulee forever!

SOPHIE and CAT

Yay!

THE END

Trees

When I think of trees

I think of leaves, bright green.

When I think of the leaves

I think of the branches that hold the leaves

Steady and strong.

When I think of the branches,

I think of the trunk

That holds the tree up

Straight and true.

When I think of the trunk

I think of the tree.

When I think of the tree

I think of the air it gives

Us to breathe.

Riding A Pug

   

A bat came flying in the room!

(I shouldn’t have lived so close to the dugout.)

The flower was in bloom.

My sister kicked the pug out.

I shouldn’t have lived so close to the dugout

old ruins (that were falling in the sea).

My sister kicked the pug out:

The pug, of course, is me

Old ruins that were falling, don’t you see,

are a good place to ride a horse.

The pug was coarse as me.

The pug named Thor was Norse.

 

Our good place to ride (I’m hoarse —

I swallowed a bug and screamed)

the thug outdoors was north

of here. For days I dreamed

 

I followed a bug and screamed

at the bug, he was so dear,

you hear? For days I dreamed

of standing on the pier.

Bah humbug, he was a deer.

The flour was in the room,

you hear? For days I dreamed

a bat came flying in the room.

The One and the Best Girl: Book III

Chapter One: Shopkins

Hi, my name is Daisy and I am ten years old. I have one Shopkins toy. My sister is only a year old and has twenty eight Shopkins. This is not fair – I hate that my sister has twenty eight. I like Shopkins because they’re little, and my dog doesn’t eat little things. I like playing with them with my mom and sister. For Easter or Valentine’s Day I can get more. Valentine’s day is next week!

 

Chapter Two: Valentine’s Day

I woke up with a basket on my bed! Inside the basket were shopkins! I opened them… I got the worst one! I looked at its name without noticing that it was a limited edition. It was called Roxie Ring. My sister came in and screamed, “Ahhh, you have a limited edition?”

That’s when I realized I got a limited edition Shopkins!

I opened the other one that was in the same basket. It was Sally Scent. My sister screamed again, “Ahhh! Sally Scent! That’s not fair!” (That time she knew from the beginning that it was a limited edition. Now, whenever she screams, it means that I have a limited edition.)

I opened the other one, which was –

“Ahhh!” My sister screamed again. “Sunny Screen! That is not fair!”

Before I could stop her, she opened the other one. It Papa Tomato. She hesitated before moaning again.

I went downstairs and found the pups still sleeping. Me and my sis found another present with both of our names on it, so we opened it together. It was from Mom and Dad, and it said that we were going to move to a bigger house because we were going to have four new siblings!

My mom was pregnant with quadruplets!

Crying, I went to my room. I was shocked. I called my best friend, The Hair.

“I am moving to NYC,” I said.

“What? That was what I was going to tell you! I’m actually moving to New Jersey,” he said, “but I’ll be right across the George Washington Bridge!”

 

Chapter Three: Moving Day

I woke to a moving truck outside of my window. I did not know that we were moving today (I thought that we were moving this weekend), but whatever!

We drove to the apartment. My sister had a blue and pink bedroom, and I had a hanging bed. There was even a playroom with a whole collection of Shopkins! I found seventy seven Shopkins outside of the box and forty four inside of another box, and I opened them all. They were limited edition! And, I got all the Shopkins from seasons one and two!

After, we went to the Empire State Building. It was so cool! The Hair came with us!

 

Chapter Four: School

The next day, I discovered that The Hair went to the same school as me. I could not find him, so I went to the principal’s office to see if he knew where he was. The one problem was that the principal was not in his office at the moment. I looked on each floor.

The principal was still not there when I went back to class, so I asked my teacher if he knew where he was. It turns out that the principal was in the classroom the whole time! I asked him if I could transfer to The Hair’s class. He looked scary, but luckily he said, “Yes, of course! Are you new?’’

I told him I was, and then I looked for The Hair next door.

That night I learned that my mom had had her babies when I was at school. Their names were Hayden, Molly, Hudson, and Sarah!

We lived happily in New York.

The One and the Best Girl: Book II

Chapter One

Hi, my name is Daisy. My sister’s name is Chloe. My dog’s name is Olivia. We have a playhouse that we like to hang out in. You need to put a cover on it overnight, or else it will get wet. Last night, I forgot to put the cover on the playset, and it got soggy and wet and nearly fell over. Now we’re going to get a new piece of cardboard to start off our new playhouse. But, I’m torn because I don’t know what color cardboard I should get! I’m thinking of getting blue, but I don’t know… I’m also thinking about getting yellow because that’s my favorite color, and whenever I think of the color yellow I want a banana. I started to get stressed out because I didn’t know what color to get.

I asked my dad, “Surprise me: yellow or blue?” So he ordered the cardboard, and we went home and waited for it to come in the mail. When it arrived, I opened up the package and saw the cardboard – it was awesome. We set up the new playhouse and my sister went in first. It was her first time walking. She walked because she was so excited. And the color was… dun-dun-dun… BLUE!

Meanwhile, it was time for Halloween. We had to get our Halloween costumes, so we went to the Halloween store. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a journal, a pencil, or a playhouse, so, as usual, I asked my dad to surprise me. And, as usual, to get the costume in the mail.

After, we went home, waited for it for ten days, and by then it was already the day before Halloween. We got it, and it was a… dun-dun-dun… a pencil! I tried it on, and it fit me perfectly, so now I had to go and find something for Chloe.

So, we went to the Halloween store again. She seemed to like Elmo but I said, “Nah, not for you!”

I asked if she wanted to be a matching pencil but my dad said, “No, too cute,” but then I had an idea.

“Even better! You can be a piece of paper!” I told my dad, as usual, to mail it to me. We got it that day. We opened it up and it was a piece of paper. Then it was time to find a costume for Olivia. She’s a mini-Golden doodle. We went to the store and looked for different stuff, like Cotton Candy, Robots, People… but nothing seemed to work! Then, me and my dad ran to a different Halloween costume store, and it was the best one ever. It was ice cream with a dog cone!

 

The next day…

 

It’s Halloween! We got all dressed up and started with a nice, simple halloween set-up for the party. Then, at around – hmmm –  two o’clock, we started the party. At around five o’clock we had dinner. Then we went out, all dressed up.

I carried my sister, and we went to one house that had a sign that said “We have a sale!” There was something for Nick Jeff that I wanted to get. If you all don’t know, Nick Jeff is the Hair’s brother. I got it and, as usual, I said, “Ship it to Nick Jeff.” I gave his address and after that I was pretty tired. I went home and went to bed.

While I was lying in bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I wanted a phone. I’m going to ask her for one for my birthday. If I haven’t told you yet, my mom said that for my birthday – which is around the corner – I can be on the cover a magazine!

The next day, I went to the playhouse with my sister and my dog. My sister helped me with my homework. My mom told us that we could play after I finished my homework, so my sister helped me with it, and soon it was time to play!

 

Chapter Two

It was the morning of my birthday and my sister was awake. She woke me up. She says “Happy Birthday!” in her baby voice, and then she brought me downstairs. There were so many balloons and presents. My mom said I could open up one, so I did. I opened the smallest one, and it was a ring! It had a golden diamond shaped like a heart and a golden band. I was psyched! I ate cake for breakfast. It was my favorite kind of cake: ice cream cake. My sister got it all over her face and her nose. She had ice cream snot all day.

Guests started to come, and I got more and more excited. I like to start opening my gifts before we do all the other fun stuff, so I opened them. I got lots of stuff, but my favorite two were a phone and an interview at an agency to see if I could get on a magazine cover.

Once everybody left, I opened up a small gift. It was a card that said Olivia was pregnant. There were going to be puppies in the house.

 

A few months later…

 

Soon enough the puppies were here! We went back to the old list of names, and decided that the names would be Liz, Hayden, Emi, and Rose.

The pups got big, but not too big! I wanted to get an interview for the puppies for Weekly Magazine because they were so cute, but I couldn’t because it was too much money. The interview cost $15 per hour.

When I finally saved up enough money, I told my parents, “I think today will be the day I go to the interview.”

They said, “No, because you have to practice for next week’s skiing race.”

So I went to the mountain to practice, but the next morning I went to the interview. It was a small room that felt like a lobby. The butler offered me water, and then I went into the room, which smelled like puppies.

The butler hadn’t told me that this week was puppy week, which I discovered when I sat down (in this beautiful hard wood chair) and one of the thirteen writers told me. He also told me that on January 20th next year they are going to feature my pups in the magazine! By the time I left it was dark outside, but I was so excited!

When I got home, I ate dinner and went to bed.

 

The next day…

 

Emi was not in bed with Olivia.

Olivia came in and told me she was missing. We looked and looked but could not find him. It felt like we’d looked all over the world. But then, I remembered that there was one place left to look: the interview room.

The next day we went to the interview room. He was there! I said to him, “Emi, you cannot do that ever again!”

On the way out, I learned that we were to come here next month.

 

Next month…

 

Me and my mom went to the agency, and Olivia and Chloe came a bit later with Dad. They did it – we saw all the magazines the puppies were in!

The One and the Best Girl: Book I

 Chapter One

This is Daisy. She is the best student in the whole class – she wants to go to school every day.

It was the first day in 3rd grade, the best grade, and Daisy was jumping up and down (Daisy loved school). She told her mom that she did not need lunch because she could get it at school.

‘’Ok,” said Mom, “let’s go!”

“Yay!’’ exclaimed Daisy.

 

12 hours later…

 

“I’m performing my first science experiment!” Daisy told her mom. “I’m gonna go upstairs and start.” She worked and worked, and then she worked some more. She skipped dinner and she went to bed at 10 p.m. – which was late for her. She fell asleep on the table while working on her project.

When she woke up, the table, which used to be blue, was gluey and full of red feathers. She cried and cried because she hadn’t finished her project, but then her mom said, “Believe in yourself, you can do it.”

Daisy tried and tried and tried. She went to school with a frown on her face.

“Why are you so sad, Daisy?” asked her friend Sofia.

“Because I didn’t finish my science project,” she moaned. “I’m so disappointed with myself.” Daisy’s stomach hurt.

“Why don’t you just go into the science room? You have half an hour to work, which means that you could probably finish it.”

So Daisy did, and half an hour later she was done with her project.

The next day, she went to get the table. She put it in the van and drove off, and told her mom that she hadn’t been able to finish her project.

Her mom said, “It is what it is,” and dropped her off at school.

Then, the school bell rang, but it turned out that someone was messing around and had rung it accidentally. Daisy was glad it was a joke, because she was counting on getting to school a few minutes early so that she could retrieve her finished project.

Daisy jumped up and down until her stomach didn’t hurt anymore.

“Wow!” exclaimed her teacher.

“I can’t believe I did it!” she said with a big smile on her face.

The first class was science. Daisy went to the science room and shared her project, which was a feather table on which she would see if sugar would dissolve in gatorade. She did it, but the feathers that were going to go on the gatorade to make it look pretty had just been glued. The jar of feathers fell over and stuck to the table. Finally, she put her project on the table and it became fixed to the surface, making her experiment easier to perform (and prettier).  

The next subject was writing. Daisy wrote about her science project.

Five hours later, she came home through the back door and saw a puppy! “Why is there a dog in the back of our house?” she asked her mom.

“Because you did it! You did it – you finished your project! The puppy is my reward to you.”

“Mom, I have something to tell you.” Daisy hesitated. “I wrote it all down and asked my teacher if I could bring it home, and she said yes, so I brought the note home so that I wouldn’t have to explain it to you. Anyway, I’ll be up doing my math homework.”

One hour later, her mom came up, and she didn’t look that mad. “That was the best story ever! I’m not mad that you glued the table, but I didn’t like that table anyway, because your dad picked it out. Now, let’s go out with your puppy, and while I’m looking for a new table, you can think of a name for him.

Daisy made a list of possible names for the puppy:

Rose

Kate

Hudson

Olivia

Jessie

Jess

Hayden

Emmy

Chloe

Liz

Elizabeth

“That’s enough, that’s enough…” her mom said. “Let’s think of less serious names, cuter names, like Dandelion, or Cloudy, or Bubbles, or something like that.”
“Let’s name him Olivia! I love it, I love it! Please, please, please?” Daisy pleaded.

“Okay, fine. Let’s go to the pet store and get a collar for him. What’s his middle name going to be?”

“Let’s make it… Cloudy!”

They went and got him a sparkly pink collar. Then they went to the furniture store and ordered a new table. It would come that afternoon.   

Later that day, the table arrived!!! Daisy and her mom opened the package… and it turned out to be a bed!

“What?” cried her mom. “This is not a table. This is a bed!‘’ Her mom shouted.

 

Chapter Two

The next day was Saturday. They sent back the bed and ordered the right piece of furniture this time. When it got to their house, they opened it up and discovered it was… a… nothing.

’What?’’ exclaimed Daisy.

They gave up on looking for a table. Her mom asked her, “Did you love that table?”

“Yes, I loved that table! But it’s okay if I don’t get it back.”

“You can get it back your own way! What do you want?”

“Let me think about it… let me go to the Hair’s house.”
When Daisy got to the Hair’s house, he said, “You should get a brand new rainbow TV!”

Daisy was about to walk out the door. She had been thinking for a while and did not have the patience for the Hair.

“Wait, what do you want?” the Hair chased after her.

“I want something, but I don’t need it… ” Daisy sighed. “Actually, for a long time I’ve wanted a rainbow shelf that gives me everything I want while lying in bed. But Nick Jeff never gave it to me. My mom says that Christmas is around the corner and I might get one for Christmas, but who knows? I might not.”

She ran back home and asked her mom to buy her a rainbow shelf that would give her anything she wanted while in bed. “And the Hair also said I should get a rainbow TV!”

 

Chapter Three

The next day, a big, big box was delivered to Daisy’s house. The box was almost as big as the house! She opened the package and found the biggest, most ginormous rainbow TV she’d ever seen! That was only the outside. In another box, she found a tiny rainbow TV, which was awesome. Opening the third box, she discovered the rainbow shelf.

Forty six hours later, it was Christmas. Daisy marched downstairs. The Hair came over. They started opening presents. The sad thing was, he wanted to open the rainbow shelf last. Nick Jeff got a new wand, Daisy got clothes for her dog, and then she found a note saying “Go to Mom.”

Daisy went to Mom. Mom said, “Go to Dad.”

Dad said, “Go to Grandma.”

Grandma said, “Go to Grandpa.”

Grandpa said, “Go to Mom.”

So, she went to Mom, who said, “Go get everyone who was in the circle.” When everyone came, she said, “We’re going to have a baby!”

All of them had the best day, and celebrated the coming of a new family member. Daisy’s mom had been hiding this for two weeks!

 

Two Months Later…

 

Daisy went to school, and she told her class that she would have to miss some class in nine months, because of the new baby. She didn’t tell her class that she was going to have a new sibling, but she went to the Hair the next day, who was very excited for her. Two months after that, the Hair began to visit every day to see if the baby had arrived yet. One day, when he asked if the baby had come, Daisy’s family, sick of his questions, groaned, “Nooo.”

 

Chapter Four

Daisy and her mom started thinking of names. They went back to the list of dog names. Then, they went to the doctor to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, and they found out it was a girl. Her name would be… Chloe! The idea came to Daisy, and her parents loved it. Two months after that, her mom’s belly was as big as two watermelons. It felt like just yesterday Daisy learned that she was pregnant!

Two weeks after that, her mom went to her seven month check-up. The doctor wasn’t sure if it was a girl anymore. Daisy and her mom would find out for sure when the baby was born. Two weeks after that, she went back to school, and finally told her class that she was going to have a sibling.

 

Chapter Five

Two months later, it was time! It was 9:45 A.M. Daisy didn’t go to school – instead, at 10:30, she went to the hospital to visit her new baby sister.

“Hi, Chloe!” she cried. It was a girl. Daisy was so excited.

Chloe’s first birthday was September 12th, 2239. It was the best day ever. Her first word was “Daisy.”

 

Pure Blonde

“TESS! TESS, GET DOWN HERE! SET THE TABLE!” Mother yelled from downstairs.

I groaned. I brushed my long brown hair off my shoulders and face. I sat up on the hardwood floor and pushed my only blanket off. It was the middle of winter, and this was Angelica’s first baby blanket. By now it was worn and faded, torn at all four edges. It didn’t even cover my legs anymore, and came down to about my waist.

If there was one more snowstorm this season, I would most likely get frostbite or even hypothermia.

I climbed out of my faded red nightgown and put on an ugly dark dress the color of a half rotten orange. Then I put a gray apron over it. The apron had been originally white but Mother refused to wash it because it was mine. I now looked like a pilgrim.

I guess this is what you get if you are born a Moreno. A Moreno is someone born with brown hair to a pure blonde family.

A pure blonde family is extremely rare and extremely cherished. If you are pure blonde, you are very rich and every relative in your family is blonde.

I “ruined” our family. Our family wasn’t pure anymore because of me, the Moreno. At first, when I came to understand what I was, I was ashamed and never showed my face to anyone. But now, I was changed. I didn’t really care anymore because I’d adjusted to their cruelty. I was used to it by now.

I rushed down the stairs from the attic. The small, cramped, slanted attic was the room where I slept. I wouldn’t even consider it mine because Annie shared it with me. Annie, the terribly annoying, noisy, clumsy cat.

I kept on going down flights and flights of stairs of our huge house, zigzagging past maids and butlers, who served my family members but did nothing for me, the Moreno.

I sighed. I ran into the dining room to face Mother.

“TESS! You took longer than you should’ve. Now set the table for me and your two sisters,” Mother scolded, and shoved me into the kitchen. Mother and my sisters had never stepped one foot into the kitchen –– they’d never even breathed near the door of it. Only maids and butlers went in there. And me, the Moreno.

I grabbed the fancy and expensive white lace tablecloth and spread it across the table. I started to walk back into the kitchen but Mother stopped me.

“Tess! You know that there aren’t supposed to be wrinkles in the tablecloth!” Mother shouted. So I fixed all the little tiny wrinkles, even the smallest ones that weren’t noticeable at first. Then, I finally set up all the plates, utensils, cups, napkins, food, and drinks. I waited for my sisters to file in.

“Good morning Mother. I thought you were going to get rid of the little Moreno?” my oldest sister, Angelica, said. She was wearing her flowing white dress, and her luxurious, silky hair was tied back in a french braid three-quarters of the way down her back. She scowled at me.

“Mother! I am terribly hungry. May we have breakfast now?” my other older sister, Evangeline, asked.

“Yes, darlings, sit around the table,” Mother said, and they all sat down. I started to sit in a chair but Evangeline stopped me.

“Tess, you have to sit on the ground over there. You don’t deserve to sit with us.” Evangeline gestured to the corner where the kitchen wall meets the dining room.

Angelica handed me a plastic plate with a plastic fork, two strawberries, and a mini waffle. They get more food than I do because they are blonde.

I took the plastic plate. They didn’t want me to make their fine utensils and plates as impure as I am, the Moreno.

I sat down in the corner where Evangeline told me to sit. I looked down at my food. I shoved the two strawberries into my mouth because I was beyond starving. I quickly ate the mini waffle and then threw out the plastic plate, which was now pink from strawberry juice, and took the garbage outside and left it in the bin for the garbage men to collect.

“TESS! GO TO TOWN AND BUY SOME MILK AND EGGS!” Mother yelled, and I made my way through the rocky path without shoes. Mother never bothered to get me shoes; she thinks I’m not worth it.

I saw the town coming closer and closer. My feet hurt. All the little pebbles, sharp stones, and tiny pieces of broken glass were unavoidable and dug into the soles of my feet.

Then the town came full into my sight and was right in front of me.

I ran to the paved road. I sat down and started picking all the sharp things out of my feet because I couldn’t stand it any longer.

I stood up and was relieved. There was no pain at all anymore.

I walked down the road to the farmer, Farmer Greene. He always sells milk and eggs.

“Hello, Mr. Greene. May I please have some milk and eggs for Mother?” I asked.

“How many, Tess?” Farmer Greene asked.

“Five milk cartons and five boxes of eggs,” I responded. If I got fewer than five, Mother would kill me and send me out on that horrible road, and if I got more than that Mother would send me back to return it. Either would involve going back on that horrible, sharp, painful road.

“Here you go, Tess, have a nice day. My wife noticed that whenever you come to town you never have shoes, so she decided to go out and buy you some,” Farmer Greene said thoughtfully.

“Oh, I am sorry, but I can’t accept that. You see, I am a Moreno, and Mother would kill me if I did. I truly appreciate it, but you see, Mother… ” I started to say, but Farmer Greene interrupted.

“It’s okay, take them –– I will escort you home. When you are done shopping, come here when you are done, Tess,” Farmer Greene said. I walked down the street into the heart of town.

I continued walking down the side of the street and came face to face with Mr. Warner.

“Good morning, Mr. Warner,” I greeted him. Mr. Warner was in his 70s and was the sort of man who was very prejudiced against anyone who wasn’t blonde, especially Morenos.

“Shut up, you foolish child! Your mother should have sent you away, little Moreno. She is stupid enough to keep you! You are a disgrace to the Faircastle family name! You are as impure as ever! Get out of my sight!” Mr. Warner screamed, and everyone in town stared. He threw me to the ground and all my groceries flew everywhere around me.

I recovered and knelt down to pick them all up. Then a boy kneeled down and started to help me.

“It’s not fair for Morenos to be treated like this,” the boy said.

“Are you a Moreno?” I asked, and then I looked up to see his perfectly blonde hair with not even one hint of brown in it. He was very tall and had small freckles covering his nose. He was wearing the most expensive pixelgram t-shirt you could get and fancy jeans.

“No, I’m pure, but that shouldn’t make a difference. It is just hair color, people, come on! This is like 20th century discrimination all over again,” the boy said.

“I know!” I agreed, and stuck the last of the groceries back in the bag.

“I am trying to stop all this stuff. It isn’t really working. My father won’t change the law. He just won’t do it. He likes people to be separated,” the boy said.

“Wait, you mean your father is the king?!” I was surprised. I mean, really surprised.

“Yeah. By the way, I’m Brad,” he said. He looked sort of embarrassed at my reaction to him being the prince.

“ I’m Tess. Just Tess. Mother won’t even let me use my last name,” I sighed.

“Oh, I am so sorry. Maybe I can convince my father to change the law and make everyone equal. It’ll be hard but I’ll try. Meet me by that rock tomorrow, same time,” Brad called and turned to go.

I stood up and walked back to Farmer Greene.

“Here you go, Tessie,” Farmer Greene said kindly, as he helped me slip on my new shoes. They were the softest, best-fitting, most soothing things I had ever put on. I had never really felt comfortable being a Moreno and all, but this was great. I guessed this was what normal feels like.

We walked back home together.

“TESS! WHY ARE YOU WEARING SHOES?” Mother yelled furiously. She was like a lion and I was a defenseless lamb.

I quickly ran into the kitchen and put away the groceries. I left Mother to talk this through with Farmer Greene.

I finished up my daily duties. I am never allowed to have lunch.  At most I have two meals a day, if I am lucky.

I did the rest of my chores and was sent up to bed.

I sat down on the creaky floor of the attic and crawled under the blanket. Actually, I couldn’t crawl under it –– it was way too small for that.

I lay down. Annie jumped on the floor from the top of the ancient bedside table Grandma Bessie so “thoughtfully” gave to me (she just wanted to get rid of it), and an antique vase from 2017 was sent into the air and came down with a smash.

“Oh, you clumsy little cat. Annie! Look what you’ve done! I am going to get in trouble with Mother now. Annie, I wish you weren’t so clumsy… move into Angelica’s room and annoy her! I’d like to see that,” I said and shooed Annie away from the mess.

“TESS! You darn Moreno, stop being so clumsy and clean this mess up. When you are done, get into bed,” Mother scolded, and went back down stairs. I swept up the mess and fell asleep.

The next day I was sent to town. I walked there happily in my extremely comfortable shoes.

I met Brad at the rock. He seemed excited.

“TESS! Guess what! Look at this!” Brad squealed happily and showed me a hologram of the show News On The Go.

“Hello, citizens of Carolina! Today the King has changed a law. The law has been changed so Morenos will have equal rights and will be treated the same as Pures. If you are not treating Morenos the same, you will go to prison,” the hologram said.

I was beyond excited. Mother would finally treat me the same as Evangeline and Angelica. I would get new blankets, and I would actually get a bedroom and I wouldn’t have to share with Annie anymore. The best part was that I wouldn’t be a servant or slave anymore.

“That is amazing! Thanks so much, Brad! But, I guess that means I won’t come here much anymore,” I said sadly while looking at the ground. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.

“You don’t have to be sent here –– you can just come here on your own and sit at the rock, and I’ll be there,” Brad suggested, and that brought my spirits back up.

And that is what I did. I was still despised by my family, who held onto the old prejudices, but outside I was treated as an equal. Life was great. Every morning I would head into town, but instead of looking like a pilgrim, I looked like a normal girl.

That was all I had wished for, and it came true.

I was free.

Song of the Wolves

Tala

I trekked through the damp forest, which had been washed recently from the rain during day. The night air felt damp against my skin. My moccasins made no sound as I walked on the soggy grass. I was quiet, trying not to disturb the newborn fawns and the deer who were sleeping. The wind brushed lightly against the trees, making them move and rock like a crib. The sound of water became louder, which made me know I was going in the right direction.

I finally made it to the clearing of my favorite spot. I sat down on a log as I watched the waterfall blend in with the moon, making the water look like stars coming out of the moon. The creek rushed the stars to a place I don’t know. I sighed, looking at the marvelous picture that was set before me. I love it here. Peace and quiet. It was a full moon, and the moon seemed bigger and brighter here than any other part of the land. It made me feel like I could touch it, even though it was impossible. The rushing of the water soothed my troubles and the view erased all of my thoughts. I sighed as I listened to the water splashing and closed my eyes. I knew that someday I wouldn’t be able to listen to this sound anymore. Something told me that there would be a time when I wouldn’t be able to sing in harmony with the water and the wolves at this place.

The wolves where our tribe is are named the Wolf Clan. I opened my mouth and let out a still note that echoed across the valley. I stopped and heard a wolf let out the same note. I started to sing the stories our ancestral people told us about the wolves, as the elders said. I sang songs of wishing for peace and forever bonding with the magnificent creatures. The wolf accompanied me as we sang a duet that no other Cherokee people can sing. A song so full of harmony that it seemed to be a single language. When we ended, I heard something run on the soggy grass. I turned around and saw a wolf, a young pup. Its eyes were like the moon, glistening and shining. It came close to me and sniffed my hand when I reached out. I walked in circles and it followed me.

“You should be my pet wolf. I will name you Usgiyi, which means ‘Snow Moon.’ You like the ancient songs, and while it is the snow moon, the elders tell stories in the village,” I said.  Usgiyi gave a playful yip and I rubbed its silver fur.

“My name is Tala, and you will be my companion forever,” I whispered. Usgiyi rubbed its face in my arm.  

**********************************

Ama

I was lying in my teepee, listening to the breathing of my sister, who was asleep next to me. I crept from the blanket and pulled on my moccasins. I opened the flap of the teepee slowly, and then crept outside. I almost tripped over my grandmother Tala’s old moccasins. I put them back where they were supposed to be and continued to go out. My moccasins thumped loudly against the dry dirt ground. I ran around the neighbors’ gardens and their huge wagons that they used from the marching, and bumped into a few rocks. I reached the huge lake a little bit away from the camp. I was sweating from the run and the warm, humid air stuck to my arm like flies. I breathed in the freshness of the lake and saw the moon’s reflection on the lake along with the stars, even though there was no waterfall like great-grandmother Tala had described to my mother. She had told me the stars shone brightly around the moon, like it was saying that the moon was special and important.

The mysterious owls hooted around and fluttered here and there, their feathers falling like the moon’s light dropping to the ground. I heard footsteps and turned around. I saw one of the wolves from our tribe. I sighed in relief and reached my hand out. I rubbed the silver coat and hummed the song my mother always sang, saying that Tala started the song with the wolves. The wolf caught on and we sang quietly, the song of the ancestors. The song that brought peace to the clan and helped us be at peace with the wolves who help us when we are in trouble. I knew it wasn’t as good as Tala’s, but I finally knew what it felt like to bond with a wolf like Tala. A bond I knew would last forever.

“I will name you… Svnoyi. I am Ama. I want you to be my partner forever,” I said, like Tala had said to her wolf. It liked that name. I smiled as I rubbed its soft, warm head against my cold arm. I remembered the stories of the old tribal camp and the march that the whites’ government made us march. I was angry at them. Because of them we had to move to new, filthy land with not many trees. A lot of our tribe, the Cherokee, died from the journey. I remembered the stories the elders told, the stories that Tala knew and  named her wolf after. I also remembered what Tala did for the tribe, and I wanted to be like her. To be brave and carry on the tradition of the wolves and our forever bond with them. I gave Svnoyi a necklace I was wearing.

“Here is a necklace I made. I have another one. I will wear it and you will wear yours.  This will show our bond. We will work together to save our people, like what Tala did,” I said.  Svnoyi nodded and jumped up and down, determined to do that.

 

****************************************

Immokalee

I was walking on a frozen path, huddled in a worn, faded jacket, my bracelet jingling from my shivers. I kept scolding myself that I was crazy, being outside in the middle of the night in winter in Alaska, the coldest state, but I kept going. Tonight was a full moon, and I wasn’t going to miss it. It was going to be a beautiful night. The coldness touched my arm, and making it ice cold and giving me goosebumps. The wind flew through the icy bare trees and made a howl against the icicles. Ice crunched under my tight leather shoes, sort of like a moccasin that was way too small for me. I wished that it was warmer, like in Oklahoma where great-grandmother Ama was. I hiked through the woods and finally reached my destination.

I swept away the snow on a stump with my hand, covered by a part of the jacket, before sitting down. I was staring at a river, which froze a few weeks ago. The moon reflected onto the ice, like it was stuck frozen in the river. The stars were twinkling, like they was trying to get out and help the moon to break free from the ice. I breathed, and my breath hung in the air like father’s tobacco smoke. I couldn’t stop myself from going open-eyed at the sight.

I was happy we didn’t have to pay to watch this scene, because our family didn’t have money since the Great Depression. I knew that looking at the moon angled on top of water was a family tradition in my Wolf’s Clan. I remembered stories that my mother used to tell me before she passed away from a disease that my father never told me about. Stories like what my ancestor Tala did when she hiked to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears and what my great-great grandmother Ama did to save the tribe. I remembered that they all had wolves, and they bonded with them. I also remembered that it was Tala who first sang a song full of peace and forever bonding with the wolves who helped us when we were in trouble.

I sang the song, my voice echoing through the icicles. I sang the stories that were passed down by mouth and of the forgotten people who died while protecting our tribe and those who died while we were forcibly moved to Oklahoma. A howl accompanied me and I stopped, surprised. I looked around and saw a wolf. I sang, looking at the wolf. It sang with me and we continued to sing to the end of the song. I felt a huge bond between me and the wolf. It was a warm feeling, a feeling that someone loved and trusted me. It walked up to me and nuzzled its muzzle onto my leg.

“Hey, I am Imookalee,” I whispered.

It yapped.

“I think I will name you Nvda,” I said.

It nodded.  

“I want you to be my partner forever,” I said.

Nvda nodded.

I took off my cold bracelet and motioned Nvda to lift it’s paw. I put the bracelet on it’s leg. “This will represent our bond,” I said.

It nodded and I wondered how I was going to feed it. Father didn’t have a job and there are no animals in the winter time. But, I figured that Nvda would figure out on its own.

“I will make one like it and we will wear it always,” I concluded. I touched the glossy silver fur and Nvda gave a happy yap.

*****************************************

Amadahy

I stayed still in my bed. I made sure no one was awake when I crept out of my bed. My ancestor Tala’s moccasins, my other ancestor (a few generations younger) Ama’s necklace, and my great-great-grandmother Immokalee’s bracelet were in their special spot on my desk, glimmering from the moon’s light.

I slowly opened my door, little groans coming from the hinges, and crept down the stairs. I tiptoed across the living room and into the kitchen. I made sure not to rattle the pots and pans  on the drying rack. I shoved on my worn-out blue Nike sneakers and opened the back door slowly. I went outside, closed it, and walked to the woods in my backyard. I walked on the trail we made, but swerved to the left around a fourth of it and walked straight ahead. The trees swayed a little from the breeze and the leaves rustled. Fireflies blinked everywhere, making little lights to guide my way through the forest. The wind tickled my arm and my pajama shirt fluttered a little. I finally came upon a waterfall and a creek rushed the water to somewhere else. The moon blended in with the moon in the water, and the water was like stars coming out of the moon and rushing along the creek, like what Tala saw a few centuries ago. I am in the exact place where Tala saw her waterfall and met Usgiyi.

Here is my brief description of my family, Tala, Ama, and Immookalee, and me. I am currently in Tennessee, where the Wolf’s Clan was before. The Wolf Clan was part of a Native American tribe called the Cherokee. Tala lived near the end of the 1700s, around when the European settlers moved west in the United States. A few decades later, in about 1835, they were forced to move to Oklahoma. Ama’s story takes place in Oklahoma, about 20 or more years after the move. Then, Immokalee’s parents moved to Alaska when the Great Depression hit, which was about 1929, by horse and wagon, which took a really long time. All of them were pretty well known in the Cherokee history for their bonding with wolves and what they did with them. Tala and Usgiyi were the most well known out of the three of them, and were very well known for saving the tribe a lot of times. She sang about the stories when the tribe was fighting against the wolves when the wolves were too close to the clan. She sang that it was no use to fight them and that the wolves would help the tribe later. The wolves stayed and they helped the tribe when the ‘evil’ Beaver Clan went into the tribe to take over the land.

The wolves helped and they won the battle by taking the weapons and biting them. Tala also brought the idea of helping animals, which helped the tribe a lot. She gave hope to the Cherokees when they were marching to Oklahoma. She sang the stories and helped the others continue to remember the stories of their ancestors and the myths. Usgiyi had pups, which stayed with the tribe forever. She got the title “Singer of Hope and Peace,” and continued to help the tribe. She had a daughter later on, who later had Ama.  Ama loved Tala and she helped the tribe by also bonding with a wolf.

When the white people came, Tala and Ama stood up for the tribe and helped fight, and later they died together. Ama saved the tribe and the wolf helped too, which gave her the title “Warrior of the Wolves.” She had a girl before she died, who had the grandmother of Immokalee. Immokalee’s father moved to Alaska with her mother because he wanted to see the world, but was at the wrong time. He moved to Alaska, hoping to find leftover gold, which he never found.

After bonding, Immokalee stayed in Alaska, had a few kids, and lived with the wolves. She protected them from harm and poachers. She later moved back to the clan, who were still living in the same spot in Oklaholma. She lived there and inspired a few people to protect the land of the Cherokee. She got the title “The Bringer of Justice and Truth.” One of her kids had my great-grandmother. I came later on and here I am, in the 21st century. I feel proud of them, each facing a difficult time with a fellow wolf, who they trusted and stayed loyal to.

I closed my eyes and breathed in the air. I was sad that I couldn’t sing the song. It had gotten lost someplace in history after Immookalee sang the song with her wolf. Someone didn’t sing the song or didn’t pass it down, so no one knows what the exact words were. Not many people remember the stories the ancestors told of the wolves and the tribe, or even knew there was a song about it at all.

Not many people even know the Wolf Clan; only the people whose ancestors were in our tribe. Most are still in the same spot where Ama was about two centuries ago. I was sort of envious of my ancestors. They got to sing the song, but here I am, a descendent of some of the greatest people in Cherokee history, and I don’t even know half the lyrics of the song my ancestors sang.  

I opened my eyes and sighed. I knew I had to enjoy the view. There isn’t much chance to see it, since there is school on most of the nights there is a full moon.

I sang the beginning unknowingly, singing the first few lines. Then I forgot the rest, like I usually did when I tried to sing the song. I sighed, annoyed at myself. Then, I heard a faint howling in the rhythm of the song. I followed its lead and we sang, without words, of the song that my ancestors sang. I sang the parts I knew, but sang the notes for the places I didn’t. I heard the song echoing in the woods when we finished our duet. I heard something come behind me and I whirled around, my body in defensive mode. You never can be sure if a person might kidnap you, which is sort of common in the 21st century, but not really in Tennessee.

I relaxed my pose when I saw a wolf pup. It whined and put his head onto my lap. I awkwardly pet its head. I don’t have a pet. Its blue, beady eyes looked at me and it started to howl the song. I realized this was the wolf who sang the song with me.

“You are the one who sang it with me?” I asked the wolf, hoping it knew some English.  It nodded and yapped a few times.

“I am Amadahy. Nice to meet you, uh… wolf,” I said.  It sighed at the word “wolf.”

“I guess I will have to name you. I will name you Waya,” I said, thinking of my limited Cherokee language. Waya is basically “wolf” in Cherokee, one of the words my mother told me to memorize. It yapped (I am pretty sure it doesn’t know the meaning) happily. I remembered a story of the bonding, and I held out my bandana I was wearing.

“I want you to be my partner forever,” I said.

It nodded and lifted its paw, like it knew what to do. I wrapped the bandana around the leg and knotted it twice, making sure it couldn’t fall off. When I finished, it jumped into my lap and slept soundly. I smiled as I brushed its fur. I knew that I would pass on the rhythm of the song forever and ever and not make a mistake. I also knew that it was my turn to continue the tradition of the ancient song that brought peace and forever bonding to my clan.

Pete the Pirate Cat and Charlotte

Once upon a time, there was a pirate cat named Pete. Pete had always wanted to marry a cat that wore the most beautiful shoes ever. One day, he decided to go on his ship and search the mysterious islands of Hawaii. The first island he was going to search was Kauai. He held a ball to see who would wear the fanciest shoes. He met at least one thousand cats before a sleek black and white feline walked proudly to him.

“Hello, my name is Charlotte,” she purred.

“Hello,” he replied.

Charlotte was pretty, but Pete couldn’t help noticing her purple shoes decorated with sparkly diamonds. They were so magnificent that he knew that she was the one he should marry.

Pete asked Charlotte if she wanted to dance to the slow song and she said, “Okay.”

After the song Pete asked, “Will you marry me?”

When she first saw Pete, she immediately knew she wanted to marry him. She was very nervous because no one had ever seemed interested enough to ask for her hand, let alone even ask her out on a date. Charlotte was about to say yes, when suddenly a giant bear came out of nowhere.

The bear said to Pete, “I am going to get you, because you sprayed me with green spray paint, and I hate the color green.”

Pete knew exactly what he was talking about. Two years ago, he sprayed the giant bear with green spray paint because the giant bear was trying to steal Pete’s pirate ship.

Then Charlotte said, “Mom, I thought you said you were going to stop stealing boats!”    

“That’s your mom?!” exclaimed Pete.

By then, everybody at the party was staring at them. Shyly, Charlotte nodded. Charlotte’s mom was a bear, but her dad was a cat. They met when Charlotte’s mom was stealing a boat and the owner said, “Stop stealing my boat.” Charlotte’s mother liked that he stood up to her, so she married the cat who owned the boat.

Pete then said, “Why don’t you want your daughter to be happy?”

“I do,” said the giant bear.

“Well, if you want her to be happy, you will let me marry her,” said Pete.  

“I don’t think you deserve my daughter.”

“I do, and I’ll prove it to you by telling you why and spray-painting you blue,” said Pete. “I deserve your daughter because It was always my dream to marry some cat with the most beautiful shoes.”

“Oooh, I like blue, and that story makes sense so I guess you do deserve my daughter,” said the giant bear.

So he sprayed the giant bear with blue spray paint.

Then Charlotte and Pete got married. Their ceremony was amazing. Charlotte wore her shoes that she wore at the party. She also wore a sparkly purple dress with a real diamond on it. There were flowers, a huge cake with Pete and Charlotte on top, and there was also a turquoise arch with white flowers on it.

They lived happily ever after.

 

The End

Sucked In

Chapter 1

I slam the back door of the farmhouse and run over to the barn. I have just gotten home from the last day of school and am ready for a nap (a.k.a. watch a movie on my computer and eat popcorn). My mom is out and my dad is still at work, so I have the house to myself. But I love the barn almost as much as Biscuit (my dog).

A couple years ago, my dad cleaned out the hayloft and said I could have it. It’s now my favorite place in the whole world. I climb up the shaky ladder and plop down in a pile of hay. Woof woof!  My dog comes running over to me.

“Hey, Biscuit!” I yell and he jumps onto my lap, licking my face. “You wanna see a movie?” I ask him, and he licks my face again. I assume that means yes.

I grab my computer from the floor where I keep it and flip it open. A picture of my horse, Dusty, appears on the screen. My parents got him for me for my fifth birthday and now I’m 12, so we’ve been together for a while.

“Sandra! Where are you? I’m home!” my sister’s voice rings out.

I didn’t know she was coming home! I think.

Her name is Arra and she’s perfect, with her straight blond hair and blue eyes. Also, she has pink lips and rosy cheeks. My parents say I’m pretty, and I think so too, but my sister is beautiful. The hard thing to believe is that we’re twins. She takes after my gorgeous mother and I take after my father, with my straight black hair and not-so-pink lips.

“I’m in here!” I yell.

“Be more specific!” My sister likes to correct me at any time possible.

“The barn!” Soon I hear Arra climbing up the ladder. The first thing I can see is the top of her head before the rest of her body climbs up onto the hay loft. I groan. She eyes the movie that’s on the counter.

“Is that really Snow White? Is that what we’re watching?” she asks.

What we’re watching? I think. Oh no, no, no!

Instead, I say, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.”

When she looks puzzled I say, “In other words, yes, that’s Snow White. And yes, that’s what I’m watching.”

She plops down next to me, seemingly not taking the hint. I sigh and put in the disk. There’s a buzzing noise and it gets louder by the minute. Soon, my sister and I are covering our ears. Then everything is silent and I’m falling through darkness.

 

Chapter 2

There’s a zap, then a world forms around me.

“Where are we?” my sister asks.

I look around me and see a cottage. It looks so familiar.

But where have I seen it? I think. Then it hits me. There is only one place I’ve seen a cottage like this. And that’s ––

“I think we’re in the movie!” I yell. “But in the end of it, where I left off.”

“But that means Snow White’s inside the cottage choking!” she says.

“So you have seen the movie!” I tease and her face turns red. My sister and I run toward the cottage.

“Hello!” my sister yells as we enter the small house. I pause in the doorway.

“He –– ” and then there is a strangled scream. We race into a yellow room and find a girl with hair as black as coal and lips as red as blood lying on the floor. It can only be one person. Snow White.

“Ah!” we scream, and race to her aid.

“Quick!” I yell, “I’ll pick her up and you pat her back!” I grab Snow White and Arra grabs a broom. She starts to whack the her back. A apple falls out of her mouth and Snow White opens her eyes.

“Gasp! Wha- what happened?” she asks, touching her forehead.

“You were choking on that apple,” my sister says, sitting down on a chair nearby. I help Snow White onto a sofa and then sit down next to her.

“Oh my! Thank you!” she whispers covering her mouth. My sister yawns.

“You must be exhausted,” Snow White says. “Why don’t you stay with me? We almost never have visitors, let alone girls.”

“We’d love to, but what do you mean by we?” my sister asks.

“The dwarves,” says Snow White standing up.

“Oh right,” my sister mutters.

“What was that? Oh never mind. Follow me, please.” Snow White herds us out of the room and up some wide stairs. At the top she leads us down a long hall and stops beside a oak wood door. “The dwarves are out so there is plenty of room,” she says and opens the door.

I gasp. I can’t help myself. The room is beautiful. The fire place at the end of the room is polished, and there was a large bed with a pink canopy pushed up against the blue wall. My sister smirks and I turn away.

“Hey,” I say. “There’s only one bed. We’ll have to share.” My sister’s smile fades. Now it’s my turn to smirk. I think she’s going to say something, but she doesn’t. I guess she’s too polite.

That night, I can’t sleep. I can’t stop wondering about my parents. I wonder if they’re worried. I lay awake thinking. “Sandra? Are you awake?” my sister’s voice asks from the dark.

“Sandra? Are you awake?” my sister’s voice asks from the dark.

“Yeah.”

“Um, I’ve been thinking –– ”

“Yeah.”

She sighs. “You know how at the end of the movie the prince sees Snow White in the coffin and decides to marry her?”

I’m silent.

She continues, “Well, what happens if he doesn’t see her in the coffin?”

I think. Then I gasp.

“He will never see her or know her, let alone marry her!” I yell, jerking myself upright. “Arra, we might have just made a humongous mistake!”

 

Chapter 3

In the morning Snow White makes us a good breakfast of eggs and bacon. We laugh and talk but then it’s time for Arra and me to get going. We say our goodbyes, get directions for the capital (we stayed up late last night making a plan to visit the prince, you see), she gives us some money, and we head out.

We walk a while then reach a small village. We find an inn with a love bird on its sign and get a small lunch with the little money we have. Then we set out again. By around sunset, we come upon the capital. “Now what?” my sister asks as we enter the large town.

“Now what?” my sister asks as we enter the large town.

“We find an inn,” I say, confidently taking the lead.

“How do we pay?” she asks.

“We have some money left –– ah! Here it is!” We walk up to an oak wood building labeled the Just Right Inn. I open the door and we troop in. Right when we slam the door, it starts raining.

“We’re going to sleep in the inn, right?” Arra stares out the window wearily. I don’t respond. Don’t want to get her hopes up.

We trudge wearily out of the inn and into the pouring rain fifteen minutes later. There are no rooms left thanks to the annoyingly cold rain. A man dressed in royal clothing comes up to us and bows to Arra. “Your Highness,” he says, kissing her hand. “Into the carriage, the prince is worried sick!” He shoos us into a carriage despite our complaints and reasoning. Soon, we’re sitting across from each other on velvet cushioned benches. Then I get an idea.

“Arra!” I exclaim.

“Mmm?” she asks.

“This guy, and the prince too, they think you’re the prince’s bride-to-be. We could use you –– or whoever you’re playing as –– to our advantage.” I lean over and whisper the plan in her ear.

We finally reach the castle at around midnight. The steward rushes us down dank corridors and past suits of armor. We stop at a wooden door and he knocks. Another man in the same clothing answers and lets us in. He leads us into a waiting room and disappears into the room beyond. A second later he appears and beckons to us. By now the first steward had disappeared so we walk through the doors alone. The doors bang behind me and I wince slightly.

“My love,” the prince says standing up and smiling. He stops smiling as soon as he sees me. His brow furrows. “And who’s this?” he asks.

“She’s my cousin. She –– ” I stammer.

“You sure you’re related? You’re beautiful and she’s, well, not,” he interrupts. I jerk back in surprise, but before I can answer, my sister butts in.

“Anyway, she’s been reminding me of our childhood friend, Snow White, and I want you to meet her.”

Wow, Arra’s got this in the bag! I think to myself.

“Anything for you, my love. Tomorrow we will meet her! Now to bed, my beauty!”

He waves us out of the room. So far so good, I think smugly. Now for the hard part.

 

Chapter 4

The next morning the prince, Arra (also known as Lady Sabrina), and I get in a carriage, and are whisked away to Snow White’s.

When we get there, Snow White answers the door. She looks flustered. “Your Highness,” she says and bows deeply. The prince looks dazzled.

“Milady,” he says, and kisses her hand. She looks utterly surprised. “I hear you are friends with my bride-to-be.” Snow White definitely looks disappointed at the mention of the words bride-to-be.

“Please, um, come in,” she says, motioning for us to enter. But Arra holds the prince back.

“I need to talk to you.” The prince’s brow furrows and he resists, but finally gives in.

“Of course.” The “couple” walk around to the back of the house.

“Um, I’m going to pick some berries.” I bluff, then before she can object, I race around to the back of the house and duck behind some bushes just as the “couple” come into view.

“Um, listen,” says Arra. “I asked you to come here for two reasons.”

“And what would those be?”

“One, to see my friend. And two, I needed to talk to you in private.”

“Why?”

“Well, I don’t know if you’re the right person for me, or if I’m the right person for you –– ”

“You mean you do –– ”

“But I do know someone who would be good for you.” The prince was silent. “Snow White.” Arra slips the ring she found in her room last night off her hand and hands it to the prince.

“Well, she is nice, and pretty so I gue –– ”

“Great! I’ll go get her so you can ask her to marry you!” Arra dashes off around the house and I follow her. Snow White is waiting in front of the house for us. “The prince would like to talk to you,” Arra says as we approach Snow White. She turns beet red.

“Um, okay,” she says and runs around to the back of the house.

A few minutes later, (a few minutes that felt like a few hours) the two come back. I notice that Snow White is wearing a ring she wasn’t wearing before. I smile.

I’ve never been more relieved to hear a piece of news as I was to hear this news. “We’re getting married!” she said.

Then there is a loud zap and I’m laying next to Arra on the hayloft like nothing had ever happened.

“What just happened?” I ask, standing up and brushing the hay off my lap.

“All I know is that there’s hay all over me, and I need to take a shower,” she says, standing up.

Some things just never change, I think. Then she does something she hasn’t done since we were five. She hugs me.

Then again, some things do change, I think to myself and smile.

The Secret Case File of Donald Trump

Case file noted by Guy T. Bloom of the paranormal branch of the FBI.

Prologue

Donald Drumpf was an ordinary man… NOT! He is by far, the best candidate that you can vote for…. but there is a dark secret about him that nobody knows…. and this secret is about to destroy the world.

Chapter One: What happened?

Donald Drumpf was sleeping in bed. And he woke straight up. He was having a nightmare about his science test at school tomorrow.

“At least I don’t have the pressure of running for president,” he said to himself, and went back to sleep.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” said the ghost of a rogue wizard, before using his magic teleportation powers to go into Drumpf’s room. He started chanting a Darke spell while waving his hands over Donald Drumpf. There was a flash of light, and Drumpf woke up to a man in black wizard robes from the fifteen hundreds waving his hands over Drumpf.

“It’s already over,” he said. “YOU WILL AVENGE MY FRIEND!” There was a flash of light, and the wizard disappeared.

“Ah, whatever,” Drumpf said to himself. “I’ll just go back to sleep.”

Chapter Two: The Unknown Effects

That morning, when he woke up, he was worried about his test again. What are all the parts of the Bohr diagram again? he thought to himself. He went to the kitchen and poured himself some milk for his Captain Crunch cereal. When his parents got up and went near their son, strange effects started happening in their head. They wanted their son… to win some sort of election. They weren’t sure that he was going to, yet at the same time they were.

“Hey, son?” Mr. Drumpf asked. “Is there a class president election in your class going on?”

“Yes,” he answered. “But I didn’t tell you…. How did you know?” Now there was even more pressure on him. His parents wanted him to be class president? There were 43 kids in his class… that meant he had a  3.333…  percent chance of winning, because only 30 kids were running. At least he was good at math…

“Well, son, I expect you to win this,” Drumpf’s dad said.

“Look, Dad,” Drumpf started. “I already have a test today, and winning the election is even more pressure.”

“You will be grounded if you don’t get at least second place.”

“GROUNDED?! THAT’S INSANE! THERE ARE 30 KIDS RUNNING!”

“No arguing, Donald,” Mr. Drumpf started. ‘’You will win!” There was now a faint red glow from his father’s eyes.

“Dad? Are you oka –– ?”

“SHUT IT SON! YOU MUST WIN THE ELECTION!” his father said angrily, his eyes glowing a very bright red. Donald looked at his mother, because she would obviously be on his side. To Donald’s surprise, his mother had the same red eyes as his father, and she was pretty much just glaring at Donald for a few seconds.

She broke the silence by saying, “Must have son election win,” in a deep zombie like groan.

“What’s going on?!” Donald screamed, before running out of the house to his schoolbus. On the schoolbus, he met his friend Harry.

“Dude, my parents are going ins –– ” Donald started, before screaming. He saw the same red eyes he saw on his parents.

“Win election Donald must,” his friend groaned like a zombie, no… like his parents.

“Oh, shoot,” Donald said.

Chapter Three: The Deal

When Donald got to school, there was a crowd following him, all groaning like zombies.

“UURGGGH!” the kids repeated. From an aerial view, it looked like Donald was a powerful magnet, while the other students were magnetic sand.

“Win election Donald must,” they all chanted. Donald noticed that they all had red eyes.

“Um…” Donald started. “I gotta use the bathroom.” He dashed to the bathroom, and locked the door. He could still hear their constant groaning.

What is going on!? he asked himself. The ghost of the rogue wizard was right in front of him, yet Donald didn’t see him. The ghost then appeared to Donald. Donald flinched.

“Whoa!” Donald screamed. “Who are you?”

“I am the ghost responsible for everything happening to you.”

“Why did you do this?”

“Donald J. Drumpf,” The ghost started. “Be my apprentice.”

“Okay, rewind,” Drumpf said, confused. “WHY DID YOU NEED TO PUT THIS DUMB CURSE ON ME!?”

The wizard smirked. He then snapped his fingers. The constant groaning stopped. “You see, that’s what you can do to people if you get trained as my apprentice.”

“Why me?”

“Because I saw what a Darke heart you have.”

“Okay, you know what?” Donald started in a ‘smart alec-y’ voice. “I would have been your apprentice, but I was seriously going insane after you put that spell on me. If that was you, because I mean –– ” He was cut off.

“I was the person who put that spell on you, and you didn’t really freak out that much.”

“Well, give me some proof that I didn’t fre –– ” He was cut off by the wizard snapping his fingers. A misty projection of the scene popped up- He started chanting a Darke spell while waving his hands over Donald Drumpf. There was a flash of light, and Drumpf woke up to a man in wizard robes from the fifteen-hundreds waving his hands over Drumpf.

“It’s already over,” he said. “YOU WILL AVENGE MY SON!” There was a flash of light, and the wizard disappeared.

“Ah, whatever,” Drumpf said to himself. “I’ll just go back to sleep.” The projection turned into golden dust and fell to the ground before disappearing.

“Okay, maybe I didn’t freak out that much,” Drumpf said. “But I was really freaked out when the effects started happening.”

“I can’t disprove you that time.” The wizard said. “But will you be my apprentice?”

“Um, I don’t know. Let me think about –– NO,” Drumpf said. “You put my through the most dramatic night and day of my life.” Drumpf started walking toward the bathroom door.

“You know you haven’t suffered all the effects of the spell, right?” the ghost smirked. Donald stopped walking.

“What’s next, you make it so I actually fail everything that I do?”

“No, I made it so every single election you run, you win.” Drumpf thought he saw him mutter something under his breath, but disregarded it.

“And that’s a curse because?” Donald said. He could win EVERYTHING. This was insane.

“If you ever lose an election, the world will come to an end and everyone will be alerted it was you.”

“I mean, that’s kinda –– whatever.” Drumpf walked out of the room. What Drumpf didn’t hear in that conversation were the most important parts.

“No, I made it so every single election you run, you win. But the flaw is, you lose the power for your biggest election,” was what the wizard actually said. His next line? Here’s all the secrets: “If you ever lose an election, the world will come to an end and everyone will be alerted it was you. So be warned about your biggest election.” He was just following the code of conduct: You must state all of the effects of your spell. He started chanting a Darke chant to summon his master. A ghost of an old frail man appeared. He was also wearing robes.

“The deed is done, my master. But Drumpf didn’t accept the offer,” the Rogue Wizard said, bowing down to his master.

“The offer is meaningless now. So you did the deed, huh. Good,” the Wizard’s master began. “Very good.” The master then snapped his fingers. His apprentice began to shrink.

“What… WHAT IS GOING ON?!” the apprentice screamed with a feeling of betrayal, but he was more surprised than anything. “STOP THIS RIGHT nooow!” His voice was drowned out while he shrunk. His master created a bubble with his hands, and pointed his finger at his apprentice. The bubble traveled in the direction of his apprentice. When the bubble got to his mini-apprentice, he was encased in the bubble. The master then used telekinetic Darke powers to lift his apprentice bubble into the air, to eventually land in his hands. The apprentice  repeatedly smacked and punched the inside of the bubble. The master held the bubble in his hands as if it was a valuable vase…. then he crushed it with his bare hands.

“I didn’t need him,” he said to himself. “I looked into his mind… he was going to betray me… side with Drumpf. It’s over now. The world will fall to ashes. And all of it will be Donald Drumpf’s fault.”

Chapter Four: The Meeting

When Drumpf went out of the bathroom, he didn’t have a mob following him. He didn’t have zombies groaning “Election Win Donald Must” with red eyes. All the kids were back to normal. He wasn’t sure he could trust that wizard.

After school, when he got home, he did his homework in his room. Little did he know, the ghost master of the other Rogue Wizard was floating right beside him. He chose to appear to Donald. Donald flinched.

“Why do people keep –– ” Donald began, but was cut off by the Wizard.

“I hear that my apprentice has given you the offer of being his apprentice. Well, he said his apprentice, like he was supposed to.”

“What do you mean?” Drumpf asked.

“I mean you really would have been my apprentice.”

“Okay… you came here just to tell me that? I declined.”

“Well, he told you about the other effects, right?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Well in order for those effects to work, you need to shake my hand. I made a change to the effects.”

“What?”

“They won’t be zombies anymore.”

“Who?”

“The people who are around you, idiot. Everything else he said is still intact.”

“Okay, do I need to sign a paper or anything?”

“Nope, you just need to shake my hand.” He took out his hand for a handshake. Donald took out his. Then he made the biggest mistake of his life: He shook the hand.

Chapter Five: Cause & Effect

Donald then got used to winning everything –– he didn’t have to fit any requirements. He got cocky. He started going under those requirements on purpose. He started having bad debates for the debate club, he brought a stuffed animal for a dog contest, he didn’t even try. And he is being faced with the biggest challenge of his life right now –– becoming president of the United States. Little did he know that the wizard was rubbing his hands together, laughing so hard he fell to the ground. He had almost succeeded in avenging his son who tried to destroy the world himself, DomDaniel. The effects of the spell were going away. In only a few months, the world will be ashes. If only he had accepted the offer as his apprentice. Then they would stay together on the planet Dorghast, the planet of Darke ghosts. You could come in if you are not a ghost, but you needed a Supreme Darke Ghost to escort you. You get there via Darke flying, or using the NoAir spell in space, what he was planning to do after the world explodes, maybe after using a Shield spell for the explosion. The presidential campaign is still going on, so if you don’t want the world to explode, VOTE FOR DONALD DRUMPF!

The Terrrerian

Once upon a time, there was a terrrerian that consumed stars. The terrrerian consumed stars by piling dirt up until he was at the stars. Then, he ate the stars after they fell from the sky. To get down from the dirt mountain, he flew from tree to tree until he found maple syrup. Then, he boiled the maple syrup to make sand. He used the sand in a mixifier with stone, and he got sandstone. He ate the sandstone, and then jumped from the mountain and landed safely.

He used the extra sandstone to greenify the hooligans that were smashing the buzzlight bottles, that were made by the magical buzzlight fairy, who made the buzzlight company. When the terrrerian greenified the hooligans, they turned green and stopped moving. The buzzlight fairy was very happy, so the terrrerian got a bunch of green bobbleheads that yelled at greenery. The bobbleheads were magical, so they could grant wishes. But, when the bobbleheads granted wishes, the bobbleheads yelled even more at the greenery, which would make the greenery sad. The greenery would cry, which made the greenery grow. When the greenery grew the bobbleheads evaporated slowly till there were no bobbleheads left. The greenery somehow had magic powers because the greenery absorbed the bobbleheads.The bobbleheads reproduced because one bobblehead refused to grant wishes, and then there were 100 bobbleheads again.The terrrerian accidentally wished that he had an obsidian skull, and then he got his face stuck in a skull made of sponge marshmallows. The terrrerian wished the skull off his face and wished for a walnut salad, but when he ate the walnut salad he turned blue. Luckily, he had one wish left, so he wished that he was back to normal again.

But then there were no bobbleheads left. He still had some walnut salad left, so he fed it to the stars, and the stars fell all the way down to earth. Then the earth dissolved and became a star planet. He jumped off the star planet and turned it into a huge sponge marshmallow that broke gravity. He made three-dimensional televisions, took them to the sponge marshmallow planet, and ate them.

When he ate the three-dimensional TVs he could travel into the three dimensions. Then he traveled into the world of Potonia and bought a reversal potion. Then he travelled back into his own dimension. He threw the reversal potion at the sponge marshmallow planet, and it turned into a regular planet. He jumped back down to his planet and realized that the hooligans that were smashing the buzzlight bottles. They were still smashing them because they were ungreenified.

The buzzlight fairy was really angry, so she tried to destroy Jupiter, but instead she turned Jupiter into a firecracker. The firecracker exploded into the sun, which sent the whole galaxy hurtling into space.The galaxy crashed into a humongous spiderweb and there was a galaxy-wide spider apocalypse. But the spiders were peace loving creatures, and said that they would forgive the humans if they made it illegal to hurt a spider. Then the humans outlawed hurting a spider and outlawed spider farming. The humans were happy living in a world with spiders. Everyone had no fear because the spiders would protect them.

 

SADLY, TH
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MESSAGE

People, and he subliminally messaged everyone to eat carrots. When everyone ate the carrots, they had super eyesight. The terrrerian still needed to remove the hooligans that kept smashing the buzzlight bottles, so he ran around the earth really fast, and that turned the earth into a super-friction planet, which only a few creatures would not survive. One of those creatures were the buzzlight-bottle-smashing-hooligans. After that, the buzzlight fairy was happy, so she gave the terrrerian time in a can. When the terrrerian opened the time in a can, there was a potent poultry powered popcorn machine that exploded exactly every elephant Ecuador ever executed. Then there was a worldwide Ecuador-executed elephant deficiency, which started a nuclear fallout. Because of the fallout, the spiders started spewing superheated spasm gas. The gas disabled the nuclear fallout by personifying it and sending it on a trip in its favorite rocket ship.The only side effects of the superheated spasm gas is that baby chickens turned green, and all the spiders shrunk again.

When the terrrerian saw the green chickens he thought he had greenified them by accident. So he fed all the baby chickens his spare walnut salad, and the baby chickens turned yellow again. The unbalance of color was balanced, so everything that was green turned yellow. The terrrerian realized that he didn’t greenify the baby chickens, and they were green before. Then, thanks to the transdimensional televisions, the terrrerian totally consumed, he transported himself into the rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet dimension.

In the rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet dimension, everything was rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet. In the dimension, the terrrerian went into the color utility store and was going to buy a color unbalancer, but when the terrrerian walked in, he saw that a thief stole all the color unbalancers. Then everything in the rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet dimention turned green because color spectrum looked like this: rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet instead of this: rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet. Because green was the same in both spectrums, the rainbowredorangeyellowgreenblueindigoviolet dimension turned green. Then the terrrerian bought a cannon and it hit the thief.

The terrrerian then put the color unbalancers back, and then got one for free because he got the color unbalancers back. Then the terrrerian went back home and used the color unbalancer. Then the color was unbalanced again. One side effect of the color unbalancer was that the hooligans were ungreenified, so they were yelllowified. Yellowifing something made it faster, stronger, and greenify resistant. When the terrrerian tried to greenify the hooligans they just smashed the buzzlight bottles faster. So, the terrrerian used a purplify potion to normalify the hooligans, and then the terrrerian greenified the hooligans using a green explosion.Then the terrrerian was hungry again. The terrrerian destroyed all of the stars near earth and destroyed Jupiter, so he visited buyyourownstar.com and bought a star,but the shipping was  $100,000,000,000,000,000. The terrrerian called Subway Steve and asked him to come to the terrrerian. Then Subway Steve came and the terrrerian rode him to planet with a realy confusing name: hfdjmzcnjnbvmcfk,l.kjhnmlkdfgjfkvlijbnndmgjbrn gnkhb5rilkfnghnktuhbnjhutjhutktjnbjknufmjrknvbtmbnhjkvthukbtnjkukidvmnkbktjhbvgrjnvnjxjkrmthn, AKA Planet 9.

The terrrerian went to planet 9 to get the star, but they ran out of stars, so the terrrerian used a crazily confuddled corn cob powered cod liver oil cannon to shoot cod liver oil at a star. Then the star was supercharged and spun to Earth. The terrrerian walked to earth and saw that the hooligans were ungreenified. The terrrerian realized that greenifying the hooligans wouldn’t do anything, so the terrrerian created a giant Buzzlight bottle and sent the hooligans to it. The hooligans stayed there and never bothered the buzzlight fairy again.

 

Or did they…?

The Buzzlight Fairy was just minding her own business, drinking a cup of tea and  watching buzzlight-bottles network. Suddenly she felt a massive pain in her side. She dropped her tea on the floor and the china shattered. This was no ordinary pain. It was as if a thousand knives appeared in her side. Suddenly the pain stopped. The Buzzlight Fairy then envisioned a being with immense capabilities, known as “the terrrerian”, creating a massive buzzlight bottle in place of Jupiter, which had been destroyed. She then saw the being place four hooligans on the planet who started smashing it immediately. The Buzzlight fairy became frustrated. Why would one make such a beautiful thing only to have it destroyed? It was then when the Buzzlight fairy swore she would get revenge against this being.

The terrrerian smiled gleefully as he saw the hooligans smashing the buzzlight bottle,without paying the slightest bit of attention to the buzzlight bottle that the terrrerian was holding. Then the ground started to shake as bits of the buzzlight bottle rose into the air. A blinding ball of light appeared. As the light faded,the terrrerian saw a fairy whose eyes were flaming. The buzzlight fairy.

“The buzzlight bottles you’ve destroyed. That you’ve sacrificed to the void. You must stop destroying them tonight or else your soul will take flight,” the buzzlight fairy said cryptically before disappearing in a ball of light.

The terrrerian then took the hooligans in a net and moved them to MarZ. On MarZ, there was zombies everywhere.When the terrrerian dropped off the hooligans off on MarZ, he expected the hooligans to get zombified, but they turned the zombies into Buzzlight Bottles! It turns out that the hooligans absorbed the magical powers from the bobbleheads, like the greenery, in The Terrrerian. Now the hooligans could turn anything they wanted into buzzlight bottles and smash them! The terrrerian tried to talk to the hooligans and asked them to stop smashing buzzlight bottles. All the hooligans said was “rfgfhtvfdzycuy,” and they walked away. Then the terrrerian felt a pulling force, like a vortex. A ball of light flickered to life and started to expand.Then it faded away and the buzzlight fairy hovered in its place.

“Hello, terrrerian. Now before you say anything, I must ask you; why did you make a giant buzzlight bottle just to have it destroyed?”

“I didn’t know that you existed before. If I knew, I never would have made it. I tried to stop the hooligans, but apparently they can turn anything they want into buzzlight bottles,” the terrrerian telecommunicated

“Can they turn each other into buzzlight bottles?” inquired the buzzlight fairy.

“I don’t know.”

The terrrerian then flew to MarZ. He took the hooligans to the nearest planet that didn’t turn into a firecracker and explode, SaTURN. On SaTURN everyone fell sideways.The terrrerian placed the hooligans in a small room and hoped the hooligans would turn each other into buzzlight bottles. What the terrrerian didn’t know, is that they placed the hooligans above the six percent helium that was on Jupiter. The hooligans turned the room into a buzzlight bottle and escaped. Before the terrrerian could react, the hooligans turned the helium into buzzlight bottles.Then SaTURN, with all the hooligans on it, started falling sideways. The terrrerian and the buzzlight fairy, who was with him, chased SaTURN. Because SaTURN was falling sideways, it crashed into Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Out of the disproportionate mush of planets the terrrerian and the buzzlight fairy saw the trapped hooligans.

“I got it!” said the buzzlight fairy, racing towards the hooligans.

No, I’ll do it, telecommunicated the terrrerian, speeding up. The terrrerian raced the buzzlight fairy to the hooligans but the terrrerian took them out of the planets first with a net.

I told you I could do it, the terrrerian thought.

“This time, my attempt will work,” said the buzzlight fairy.

The terrrerian and the buzzlight fairy went to MarZ next. There, the buzzlight fairy tried to put a zombie mask on a hooligan, but the hooligan kept resisting. Finally, when the buzzlight fairy was able to put the mask on the hooligan, the other hooligans turned the mask into buzzlight bottles.

See? I told you it wouldn’t work, the terrrerian communicated telepathically.

“Why don’t we work together? It might work, ”said the buzzlight fairy defeatedly.

Fine, the terrrerian transmitted.

The buzzlight fairy and the terrrerian then created a plan. They were going to summon a magical warlock called Asmoth. To summon Asmoth, you place candles around an altar made of stone, place an axe on top of it and chant “htomnomsamusyberehi” three times. The thing about the axe is that it has a buzzlight bottle hidden inside it. When Asmoth is summoned, he will grab the axe and yell, “WHO SUMMONED ME?” When the hooligans see Asmoth pick up the axe, they will start attacking him. Then Asmoth will get angry at the hooligans and destroy them.

It was time to put their plan into action.The terrrerian and the buzzlight fairy set up the altar and brought all the hooligans to it.Then they put the axe on the altar and chanted the word three times. Then they flew away to a safe distance.They saw a tornado of axes which then disappeared, with Asmoth the warlock in its place.

“WHO SUMMONED ME?!” inquired Asmoth. He then picked up the axe. The hooligans attacked him. From the distance that the terrrerian and the buzzlight fairy could only see explosions of dust and massive mushroom clouds. Then they heard Asmoth say “I AM ASMOTH THE WARLOCK,YAS YAS YAS!” before his shape blurred, and disappeared. When they inspected MarZ they saw that the whole planet was no longer there. Another planet had been destroyed. Now the only planets left were Earth,Venus,and MerCUREy.

“Guess my job’s done here,” said the buzzlight fairy.

“See you around,” thought the terrrerian.

“Bye,” said the buzzlight fairy.

Then the buzzlight fairy disappeared in a puff of smoke. The hooligans were gone forever.

Or were they…?

One month after the disintegration of the hooligans, the terrrerian was on a beach walking past a tree. He kicked a rock at it. The rock hit the tree. Unluckily for the terrrerian, that tree was a palm tree. Palm trees have leaves filled with greenify potion, which is what makes them green. Normally, this wouldn’t have any effect on anything, but because of the Earth’s brief moment as a sponge marshmallow planet, the palm trees, which become super absorbent around sponge marshmallows, retain their sponge-marshmallow-like insides. The combination of the vibration of the rock hitting the tree, the sponge marshmallow minerals, and the greenify potion create a silent propulsion system for the palm tree. The palm tree then silently rocketed into the atmosphere, without the terrrerian noticing a thing.

As the tree zoomed past Earth, it passed the previous location of MarZ. The sponge marshmallow, which is a superabsorbent material, absorbed the disintegrated hooligans. The palm tree rocket would have crashed into Venus, but because Venus is made of iron and rock, which boost the effects of greenify potion, the palm tree rocket blasted straight through the center of Venus, leaving a cylindrical hole in the middle of it. Then the rocket, burning through the last of its greenify potion fuel, crashed into MerCUREy. The minerals on MerCUREy started to cure the hooligans of their death, reviving them.The hooligans combined with the palm tree, the sponge marshmallows, and the last of the greenify potion. The hooligans combined into one hooligan who could jump higher, was immune to greenify potion, and was extremely smart. The hooligan didn’t want to smash buzzlight or buzzlight bottles anymore.

The terrrerian, oblivious to the fact that he caused the resurrection of the hooligans, turned around towards the glimmering ocean and saw out of the corner of his eye the empty place where the palm tree should be. Then the terrrerian thought Wasn’t there a tree there? Then the terrrerian kept on walking.                                                                                                    

 

Two days later…

 

For the past two days, the hooligan had been working on a way to escape the nonexistent atmosphere of MerCUREy. The hooligan cooled the small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen in the air until they became a liquid. Then the hooligan put the liquids in a bowl and mixed it with the merCUREic sand. This created a gigantifier. The hooligan consumed part of the mixture and grew to the size of ten giraffes. Then he jumped to earth (with his super jump ability) and started to smash everything. The hooligan left smashed trees and upturned grass in his wake. Then the hooligan did something terrible. The hooligan combined the nitrogen in earth’s atmosphere with the merCUREic mixture he had, and threw the mixture to the moon. This caused the moon to enter a sped up orbit, making the moon go into a solar eclipse. Because the moon used all of its orbital energy in those five seconds, the moon couldn’t move for the next 100 years. That meant there was a solar eclipse for the next 100 years. MWAHAHAHA!!!

The eclipse was the first thing the terrrerian noticed. Then the terrrerian heard the smashing of trees and grass.

“TERRRERIAN,” said a voice.”I’M COMING FOR YOU!”

The terrrerian saw a massive figure stomping toward him. Then, he saw the figure was a hooligan, combined with greenify potion and palm tree wood. Then the terrrerian realized what he had done. The terrrerian realized that kicking the rock against the palm tree caused it to rocket into space and collect the hooligan dust. The terrrerian realized that the palm tree rocket landed on MerCUREy and revived the hooligans. The terrrerian realized that this was all his fault.

The terrrerian needed to defeat this monstrosity. He teleported to Potiona and back and threw a greenify potion at it, but the hooligan absorbed it and only seemed to grow more powerful. Then the hooligan picked up a star from earth’s sky and smushed it in his hand. He poured the starjuice on another star that he picked up. This made a starbomb that would explode and suck all the air out of earth’s atmosphere.

“I HAVE A STARBOMB,WHICH WILL SUCK OUT ALL THE AIR OF EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE,” the hooligan said. “IT WILL EXPLODE IN three… two… one.”

The bomb exploded and there was a blinding flash of light.Then all the air was sucked out of earth’s atmosphere.The terrrerian saw the plants withering, and turning brown.

Somewhere, somewhen, there was a Star-god. Star-god envisioned the hooligan exploding a starbomb, with the terrrerian standing frightened in the background. I must help this being, the Star-god thought before he teleported to the terrrerian.

The terrrerian turned around and saw a blinding flash of yellow light.

“I am Star-god. I am here to help you,” said the Star-god.

Then the terrrerian and the Star-god started fighting the hooligan. First, the terrrerian built a missile made of maple syrup and shot it at the hooligan, but the hooligan grew stronger and absorbed the maple syrup. Then the sun god tried to ignite a mini star and throw it at the hooligan,but the star couldn’t ignite because there was no oxygen. Then the terrrerian used a return-oxygenizer 5,000 to return the oxygen to earth, but he accidentally returned 5,000 times as much as there was before. Because there was 5,000 times as much oxygen, all the spiders became huge. Then the terrrerian saw his best spider friend Aragag.

“Aragag!” the terrrerian called. ”It’s been so long.”

“Terrrerian!” Aragag greeted. ”How are… BLEEEH!”Aragag said as he barfed on the hooligan’s shoes.

“HEY!” the hooligan said. “THOSE WERE MY NEW SHOES!”

The hooligan, in a fit of rage, lifted his foot to stomp on Aragag, but Aragag was quick. Aragag shot a web at him, but the web wasn’t strong enough. Then the Star-god extracted hydrogen from a star and coated the web with it. Then the Star-god lit the rope on fire, so if the hooligan struggled, he would get burnt. Then Aragag shot the hooligan at the moon. The hooligan flew into the moon, Venus and MurCUREy, sending all three planets hurtling into the sun with the hooligan. When the moon went into the sun, the sun absorbed the moon which caused the sun to send out a radioactive shrinkamatronization asteroid that fell on earth, which caused all the spiders to shrink and caused the oxygen level to return to normal.

The hooligan was never seen again.

Unikitty in Big Letters

   

This line I must rhyme

Unikitties are awesome

They can be good or commit crimes

They smell better than possums

Unikitties are awesome

Meow can be their battle cry

They smell better than possums

Unikitties can also fly

Meow can be their battle cry

They can hide in human form

Unikitties can also fly

You’ll never see one in a storm

 

They can hide in human form

Unikitties can eat robots

You’ll never see one in a storm

They can also eat astronauts

Unikitties can eat robots

They can battle with Batman

They can also eat astronauts

They are mean and tease fat-man

They can battle with Batman

They can be good or commit crimes

They are mean and tease fat-man

This line I must rhyme

 

 

Through the Woods (Excerpt)

Chapter One:  The Encounter of Sorts

Pat stared out of the thickly layered window pane at the flurry of small white flakes of snow that were quickly piling up upon the rough ground. He turned to look at the clock that he had nailed to the wall.  Its thin hands read 4:35. He knew he should be asleep, but something about the snow fascinated him. He thought of what Sam would’ve said. “Not surprised. You’re probably the strangest boy in Arkansas.” He would’ve chortled absent-mindedly in his thick Irish accent while cleaning his bowie knife that everyone in the whole town recognized. That’s what he would’ve said. But Sam was taken by a bear while hiking in Blackwood forest two months ago. Everyone assumed he was dead. Pat had gotten an entire lecture from his father about being safe when hiking alone in the wilderness, but Pat didn’t care. He loved Blackwood forest, and nothing would stop him from hiking there.  

Suddenly, Pat straightened his back. He thought that he must be seeing things because he had been awake for half the night. This species was rare around these regions and should be hibernating, but no. A black bear was trudging through the snow, its thick fur flecked with white.

Pat slung his satchel, with its fat four-hole button he’d found on the wooden table in the tailor shop, over his scrawny shoulder and rushed outside.  The cold immediately shot through his small stature and overcame his body. Still, Pat fought on and pulled forward toward the corner of the town with the big hill.

Once he had gotten there, Pat pulled his binoculars from the bag and raised them to his squinting eyes. The bear wasn’t very far off.  A mere twenty minutes north east. Pat’s hands were shaking.

Suddenly, his bony arms lost grip of the heavy binoculars, which swung down to his chest.  They knocked him backwards and the satchel flew to the bottom of the hill, making a loud clunking sound. He climbed back to the top of the hill and raised the device to his eyes. The gear that focused the vision of the lenses had been pulled far right. Pat saw a blurry black shape rushing toward him. Lowering the lenses, he saw the bear galloping towards him. A bolt of fright shot through Pat’s entire body and, in a wild state of mind, he dropped everything and sprinted toward Blackwood forest. The binoculars bounced against his chest and he turned to see the Bear gaining on him.

Pat caught a glimpse of the treehouse he had made thick in the trees of Blackwood forest one summer. It was constructed from the strong oak in one of it’s famous dark-wooded trees. Pat dashed through the thistles and brambles as they cut against his arms and legs. Finally, the treehouse was straight ahead of him. He struggled and climbed up the thick rope leading to the small cabin. Pat made it and felt the tree shake as the bear clawed against the bark. He sat on the wooden floor and panted breathlessly. He glanced to the corner of the room to see his BB-gun with it’s wooden frame and black markings smudged onto the end of the steel barrel as it glistened in the sunrise. He scooted over to it and reached for it, then propped it up against the balcony overlooking his small town and the barren wasteland of snow riddled with foot prints.

Pat peered down the end of the barrel and at the black bear who was retreating back north. He pulled the trigger and a brief burst of flame and sparks spurted from the gun. This was followed by a sluggish trail of smoke and a whistling sound. The small pellet flew through the air and easily punctured the bear’s thin flesh. It fell on its side, but Pat knew a single BB couldn’t’ve killed a bear of such power as a black bear. He pulled the binoculars to his eyes and squinted to see the bear up close.  It was a female, her thin flesh was dark in places, and her ribs were visible. Now Pat understood. The bear had been hunting for food because it was starved. Even though it had attacked him, Pat felt bad for the animal. He cared for and loved all nature.  

Pat lowered himself down from the tree on the knotted rope, dug into the emergency knapsack he had sewn himself, which was safely nestled in a secret compartment in the wall of the treehouse, to find a small jar full of salted pork. He dropped a juicy piece of the pork in front of the bear.

Afterwards, Pat decided to stay in the forest one night until the snow storm let up. He wasn’t worried about his parents. They were probably relieved he was finally out of their hair. Pat was content as he drifted to sleep on the floor of the cabin suspended in the tree.  

He awoke at sunrise to a horrible sight.

The ground was damp and littered with pine needles. Pat stopped to see it. A Blackwood was on it’s side. The lower half had been splintered by lighting, Pat gathered from the blackened ash-stained wood.  He counted the seemingly endless rings in the tree to see that this “Blackie,” as old countrymen say, was about 27 years old. A tree of that age could be the strongest wood in any market. This tree had fallen and covered hundreds of feet of land –– including Pat’s escape route. Pat muttered a curse, but he knew that he had always been preparing for a situation like this.

He climbed up to the treehouse and reviewed his inventory. He dumped the backpack onto the floor to examine his belongings. A six-inch Kings matchbox with 46 matches. A roll of thread with a pin jabbed into it. A thick hunting knife with a leather cloth wrapped around the blade, and a week’s worth of salted meat and a few onions that had grown deep underground while Pat was treasure hunting. In the treehouse itself, Pat had a 6-48 mosquito BB-gun with it’s signature long and thin barrel. There was also a small shelf with a jam jar of pellets, and 3 books: The Hardy Boys: murder in an alleyway, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and Robinson Crusoe.

By mid-afternoon, Pat was bored and scared. Powerful winds made him shiver and dig his feet deeper into the mossy ground. He was sculpting a rock with his hunting knife. The rock was thin and had a needle-sharp tip. Many curves bore through it because it had been sitting at the bottom of Ratchet creek,  a playful brook that flowed through most of Blackwood. Pat suddenly dropped the rock as he heard a faint growl. He turned to see the black bear awakening, it’s eyelids slowly reaching toward the thick, dirty fur of the forehead.  Pat knew he was supposed to be frightened, but somehow he wasn’t. He edged closer to the bear and picked up the dew-stained piece of pork, then threw it closer to the bear’s mouth. She immediately gobbled it down and slowly pulled herself from the dirt, a swarm of fleas quickly succeeding from her thick fur. For the next few days, the bear would lumber alongside Pat, not making any sort of violent movements, not really interacting with Pat at all. Pat was a bit jittery about the presence of the bear, but thought about all of the incorrect things his father had said to him, and that this was fully indulging in nature. However, he lied awake at night wondering, what his friends would say. Bear boy! You love animals so much you’re practically becoming one! He drifted into an uneven sleep.

Pat sat on a small boulder, motionless.  He didn’t talk much and barely ever tried to socialize with others at school.  At his small school house, there were eleven boys and ten girls.  The two genders broke into separate groups and nobody in the boys group really had specific friends.  To Pat, all of the boys were pretty much the same.  But he was different.  

The bear scratched her paw against her flank to rid herself of what seemed to be a very annoying parasite. Pat found his eyes drooping and climbed to the treehouse to take a nap. Suddenly, his eyes were open again, and the blurred tint of his small wooden life force faded into focus. He peered out the frame of open air to see the sun glint through clumps of leaves. It was about 3:17 in the afternoon, according to his calculations from examining the sun.  

“You drool in your sleep,” said a voice suddenly from behind him. It made the hair on the back of Pat’s neck stand up straight. He immediately jerked his head around to see a girl. She was tall, with brown hair, and was staring at him with penetrating eyes.

Pat ignored any sort of salutations required for a situation like this, and blurted, “Who are you? What the hell are you doing here!?”

She tilted her head to the left and looked at him, unfazed. “Well, you seem very polite. I was out exploring here in Blackwood, when I noticed a Blackie on it’s side. I climbed over it, because I’m not a midget, and saw your treehouse.” She paused for a reaction and then pointed to the corner of  the treehouse. “Nice mosquito, by the way.”  

Pat stared at her in disbelief. “First of all,” he began, “people who can’t climb over 6 ½  feet tall trees aren’t midgets. Second of all, you just barge into someone’s home?  You’re the one who should be working on politeness.”  

She brushed her hair out of her eyes and said matter-of-factly, “I thought you would be an interesting person to meet.” 

Pat rubbed his eyes.  

“My name is Aliza, by the way,” Aliza said, sticking her hand out toward him.  

“Pat,” he said, simply swinging his hand out to join hers.  They sat there together on the wooden plank floor for a few empty minutes before Pat broke the silence by saying, “Well, time for you to go back to your jerk parents. I’m not going to be able to use you for anything.”   

“Excuse me?” Aliza said, raising her eyebrows. “What do you expect?”

Pat almost yelled, “You’re a girl. I’d like to see a girl hunt.”

Aliza huffed with anger and slapped Pat across the face. He was stunned as his cheek stung with pain. Aliza picked up his gun from the corner of the treehouse and said soberly, “Well, then, try and stop me.”

Pat walked behind Aliza uneasily as they stepped along the wet grass and dirt. Aliza raised a finger to her lips and rushed quickly to another, much younger, fallen Blackwood. She stabilized the gun in a ridge of cracked wood. She squinted one eye and steadied the barrel. Pat walked up next to her to see she was aiming at a rabbit, which was nibbling on some beige fungi.  She fired the gun briefly and it released the same flurry of sparks as before. Pat heard the whizzing sound once more, but the rabbits ears perked up and it ran stubbornly into a nearby patch of bushes.  Aliza cursed and Pat laughed, “You’re a good shot, but you don’t know anything about nature. Rabbits have some of the best hearing in the entire animal kingdom. They would be able to hear a BB coming easily.”  

Aliza jerked to attention before letting out a response probably littered with swears. She moved back into her hunting position, but angled the gun upwards and fired it a second time. An ear piercing squawk was heard and a small bird dropped from a branch above to the soft soil below. Aliza turned to face Pat and smirked. She jumped over the tree trunk and snatched the small bird from the ground, then walked back to the treehouse. Pat followed her reluctantly and grabbed some of the few dry sticks lying on the ground near him to start a fire.

“So, sure, you can hunt, but that is my treehouse that I assembled myself. I am not letting you sleep there,” Pat remarked by the fire late at night.

“Fine,”  Aliza responded soberly, “I’ll sleep on the ground.” Pat stomped his foot onto the dying fire, which made a slow hissing noise as it was quenched.  

“I’m turning in,” he said, lowering his voice unnecessarily and then marched off to the treehouse. Aliza patted the sleeping bear besides her whom she had been introduced to by Pat, and it growled in its sleep. She turned to a nearby patch of moss and lay onto it.  

That morning the sun shot through the old wood of the treehouse, spreading slats of masked light across the small room. Pat’s eyes adjusted to the smaller flurries of snow floating lazily down from the sky. He snatched his cracked glasses, which were sprawled on the ground, and fitted them onto his face. Suddenly, as Pat’s foggy vision subsided, he noticed his gun abandoned from the usual spot. Groaning, he looked out the window to see Aliza tanning a deer hide with the rock he had been sharpening the day before.

“Good morning!” she yelled up to him, her voice echoing across the sleepy forest.

“What have you been doing?” bellowed Pat.

“I woke up early, grabbed your rifle, and went out hunting,” she smirked. “The deer like eating the frozen dew. Then I cooked the meat and gave it to your bear.”  

“It’s not my bear,” Pat retorted.  

“Well, she basically lives with you,” countered Aliza.  And, how long have you been here? Who would want to live like this?”  

Pat scampered down the ladder.  “About 2 days, and I’m the one who would want to live here,” he paused. “My parents give me these boundaries –– I feel like I’m just an obstacle to them.”  

Aliza frowned. “Sorry about that.”  

“Well, that’s the real reason I’m out here. I could’ve climbed that tree, but I want to prove to them that I could survive by myself.”

“You can’t just stay out in this forest forever,” she looked Pat in the eyes. “You’re eventually going to have to go back.”

Pat turned away from her and looked up to a tree. “Well, I’m going to stay out here as long as possible. If my father was out here, he wouldn’t survive a month.” Pat chuckled, “He only hunts for sport and doesn’t care at all about the effects it has on this forest. We’re lucky that no one has tried using this forest for lumber.”  

Aliza tilted her head, “But you hunt too!”  

“I only hunt for survival,” Pat responded condescendingly.

“Thanks for telling me, that explains your attitude,” she said.  

Pat should’ve been offended by this, but he ignored the comment.

Aliza looked down and began, “Well, I have the opposite situation. My parents, they don’t care about me. I barely ever go to Blackwood, all I’ve heard about was when Sam went missing. Ever since, I have wanted to go out here and see if they would care. Seems as though they don’t.”

Pat glanced at her and smiled grimly. Suddenly, a noise in the bushes startled the both of them. They swung around to see a swaying light emerging from the clearing. Pat quickly grabbed his gun from the mossy earth and aimed it toward the noise. A figure came into view. He was bulky, had a crippled and grizzled face slashed with a long scar, and had short, darkened hair. It was Pat’s father.  

“What are you doing here, Pat?!”

“Father, I ––”

“You left me in the middle of the night to go to Blackwood?  You’ve been living out here for three days!” Pat opened his mouth to speak, but his father interrupted him, “We are going, right now,” his father gestured to Pat.  

“No,” Pat responded stubbornly.

His father stopped abruptly and turned to face Pat. “What did you just say to me?”  

Gaining confidence, Pat stood and rooted his feet into the ground, “I said no.” He paused. “You have been giving me obstacles and rules for my entire life! Will you for once just leave me alone!?”  The father looked disgruntled, as if this had never occurred.  

“Fine,” Pat’s father said, containing a bloody outburst of anger.  “Do you really want me to just let you die alone in this forest? Fine, then I will.” He looked livid.  “Sooner or later, you’ll come from this retched place and you’ll be begging me for a real home and food.”

A tear trickled down Pats face as he held an indescribable expression of sadness, anger, and hatred.  

The father trekked off into the darkness of the night and soon vanished. Pat sat back down as Aliza stared at him, dumbstruck with her mouth gaping, “What in the world just happened?”  

Pat leaned down towards the ground and said, “That was my father.”

Aliza responded candidly, “Well, yeah, I got that from context, but there is a girl and a sleeping bear right next to you, and he didn’t notice?”  

Pat looked up and said, “That’s because he’s a self-centered ––”  A gust of wind made the trees creak and sway, shielding Aliza from the curse Pat emitted. “He gets very unreceptive of thing that are going on around him when he is involved in certain exchanges.”  

“Okay… ” said Aliza, tilting her head, “but that doesn’t explain why he didn’t notice the bea ––”  

“Listen, Aliza,” Pat snapped, “My father’s an idiot.” Aliza raised her eyebrows and frowned.  “Now, it’s been a long day, so good night.” Pat croaked. Aliza scratched the bear once more in it’s favorite place, behind the ear, and went to sleep.  

To be continued…

Birds

Bluejays chirping at my window,

Waking me up from sleep,

I stay awake because I want to hear them.

 

The sound of their wings fluttering

makes me want to come out,

They turn to stare at me,

Making me feel like I did something wrong.

 

Then I stare back into their beady brown eyes,

And remember that they love their food,

 

So I go back inside,

Finding breadcrumbs from my toast to give them.

 

I sprinkle crumbs all over the yard.

They dive for their food,

Pecking towards those that had bread with their pure black beaks,

I laugh merrily.

 

Their eyes seem to say that they want me to stay,

I say goodbye,

And they seem to do the same,

 

I walk to my mom’s car where she is waiting to drive me to school,

 

And when I come out to see the birds after school I jump and laugh,

I came back through the garden where I found a big worm,

It was as long as my arm!

I picked it up and went back to them,

Where they fought for their food,

I began peeling two birds off of one that were attacking for the bread,

 

I laughed for what seemed the hundredth time,

And I ran towards them for a game of tag,

Where they took off.

 

And I don’t notice that there are houses around me,

I don’t realize where I am,

I just feel like I want to play,

And you know what?

No matter how many times they beg me for food,

Or how many times they woke me up,

I love them.

Haunted House

Once upon a time, there was a haunted house. Inside, there were a lot of monsters. A little girl went inside the house. Then she saw a skeleton, and then the skeleton put a knife in her. She died. The little girl turned into a ghost. Now she was a monster! She had sharp teeth, eight legs, and was purple.

She called all of the monsters. The monsters came, and then they left the haunted house with their powers. They destroyed the EARTH. Then they made a huge time machine!

They all went inside of the time machine. They went to a nice world in the future! It had palm trees, flowers, trees, and bees.

The monsters said, “Ew, I don’t like this world, it’s too nice!”

They went in the time machine again. They went to Evil Place. There was goo and webs and slime everywhere. The monsters loved it. There was a lot of evil, and there was an evil guy who had sharp teeth and a knife! His name was Mr. Killer.

They were all evil too. They all worked together to make the biggest evil potion. Then they ran around in a circle and made a huge EVIL TORNADO!!!

In the evil tornado, they went back into the time machine and took their evilness into the human world. Then the tornado turned the humans into evil humans. They formed an army!

The army took over the world. After that, there were webs, trees were broken, and there were bats and skeletons.

They lived evilly ever after.

Battle of Revenge II: Traitors

Prologue

In the last story, Max, Finton, and Freddy had defeated Lord Robbers and were free of his threat… for a while. They were trying to figure out the medical potion to heal all of the men lost in the last battle. Their fleet needed to be repaired too, so there were lots of repairs that needed to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, Lord Robbers was also preparing his little surprise….

 

Chapter 1: Evil Meeting

Zilbon, Lord Robbers, Quantuo, Xanga, Jumba, Kaka, and Strangehead (members of the Red Strikers) were sitting down on a table back at Larbazako. Lord Robbers was showing them secret plans for some strange secret weapon that they were going to use to crush the Blue Lions and the Squag, which now was named the Blue Squags. The strange secret weapon was a laser, a very powerful laser that could destroy a whole base with one blast. They were going to go to Slankamos to destroy the Squags’ main building. The Squag’s main building was guarded by the Blue Lions’ troopers.

The 105th Legion was very powerful. It was the highest ranking troop squad of the whole Blue Lion space. The 301st Legion was the second highest ranking squad. They were planning to send thousands of Quinns, evil henchmen of Lord Robbers, to attack the place, but Lord Robbers knew that wouldn’t work. He needed more. He told all of his people that they had to lead the Quinns into battle. They all agreed to do it. At the mention of this, every person at the meeting turned on their superswords and stabbed them into their slots, making a blue hologram of their grand master appear in the center with all of the secret information. The only thing that could power this strange source of different blueprints was the super swords from every Red Striker. The master was very happy, but also extremely mad because they hadn’t killed the person the master had said to kill. The master’s name was Extreme.

“You have done well, my apprentices. But that battle we could not afford to lose.”

“Sir, they were outnumbering us,” said Xanga.

“I do not care,” screamed Extreme.

“Many of our troops died out there, master,” said Zilbon.

“We shall win our next battle,” said Jumba.

“Why don’t we discuss our next battle plans?” asked Extreme.

 

Chapter 2: Squad Healing Center

Max was very worried about all the injured soldiers because there were so many of them. Fortunately, a recipe could stop death, but it was far away in another land, guarded by many enemy soldiers. That was their next mission. They needed to pack up for it. Finton and Freddy were also coming. Trevor wanted to help, so he came too. Erin decided to drop them off at the spaceport. This is what Max packed: a gun, extra ammunition, lunch, a lot of food (food from different planets like Sakalato and Yfdghh,kb c), an extra bottle of hydrating juice, and a bottle of lava in which he would cook the actual food. In addition to providing a place to prepare his meals, the bottle of lava would keep the food from cooling, thus preventing rock from forming on it.                                      

Trevor also packed a super sword, a charge plug, two extra charging stations, food that Lulu had cooked for him, a training droid, and an extra robe.

Finton packed a rifle, extra ammunition (like Max had), frozen food, a blender to liquefy it, a bottle to drink to drink it from, some roots from trees you could eat, and vegetables.

Freddy, of course, packed five boxes of trick stuff, a mobile toilet, toilet paper, and a baby seat for the toilet. He liked copying other people, so he bought two packs of frozen food, sixty-five miniature trees, a giant lava bottle, and a twisted gun, bubble gum instead of ammunition packs, an extra pair of dirty socks, two extra underwears, a giant piece of metal, a soldering kit, and a second twisted gun.

Suddenly, Erin came into the room. “What’s going on? Time to leave, people. Rise and shine. We’re leaving,” he said. “The crawler’s here. Hello!?”

Suddenly everyone grabbed their packs and hurried out the door.

“Move it, move it, move it! This no drill!” Erin was obviously not happy.

Trevor followed his mentor out the door. When they got downstairs, the guards opened the door. Like Erin had said, the crawler was waiting outside, along with other Squags, who said said “Good luck“ and “Be safe.” Max and Trevor said goodbye to Lulu and Lucy. When they got on board the crawler, the driver helped them with their luggage.

“To the nearest spaceport,” said Erin. The driver turned the crawler onto the road as fast as it could go and zoomed away.

On the way there, Freddy took out one of his miniature trees and asked Finton, “¿Para qué se usan esos árboles?”

“You use the roots to make smoothies, dummy!”

Freddy suddenly had an idea to lift the humor. “So, waz sup, dude?”

Trevor and Max burst out laughing.

“It’s pronounced What’s up,” Trevor said.

Finton whacked Freddy.

“Waz dat for?”

“Stop fooling around, Freddy! This is real stuff, bud! We’re going all the way to the center of the whole enemy core,” said Finton. “And in your language, daz foi yo foolin’ around.”

 

Chapter 3: Second New Planet

When they arrived, they got a cart and put their luggage inside. Since Freddy was a weakling, Finton had to help him. Max was nervous. Trevor wanted everything he saw.

“Hey, look at that! That’s the new kind of bubble gum that came out precisely three seconds ago,” shouted Trevor.

“We have to walk three platforms,” said Erin. “No fooling around here.”

The stairs were as high as skyscrapers. Max and Freddy had never been to a spaceport, except for the one back at the base.

Suddenly, the stairs started moving. “Look at that! We don’t need to climb it!” said Max. The elevator ride was awesome. You got to see the whole spaceport from up there. There were thousands and thousands of platforms. There were starships floating in midair anchored with chain to keep it on the platform. There were millions of people and different aliens. There were guards keeping order. The restaurants served exotic foods of other planets. There was even a pilot diner.

Unfortunately, the gum Trevor wanted was sold out. There was a giant starship in front of them with big letters on it that said: Destination to Main Government Planet. Thousands of guards were guarding the top level. Erin ignited his super sword and the guards stepped away.

On the side of the platform, a little sign said: “Rating: ★★★★★ Food Served: Every Planet Known to The Government Space Possible: ∞.”

The doors to the ship opened. Trevor, Max, Finton, and Freddy walked through them. Erin said goodbye and the doors closed. The ride was on!

 

Chapter 4: Battle at Fortress Destroy

The juice was delicious, and the space cruise was going smoothly. The ride to the capital of the Government was nearly over, and Finton, Max and Freddy were at the diner eating, while Trevor was discussing how he loved to train. He said the battle was gonna be hard, so they all had to train their best.

“Hey, Finton! Mind passing me the — ”

BOOM!! Erh, erh, erh. The alarm had gone off. The space cruiser was under attack… Outside, thousands of enemy cruisers had just come out of the turbo engine, which was going at the speed of light. They were firing at the cruiser at full blast. Aboard the cruiser was Freddy’s greatest enemy, the dreaded Trick Destroyer — a gun that turned off every trick onboard the spaceship. Two soldiers came out of the hallway.

“Please report to the main deck,” said the soldiers. Trevor, Max, and Freddy rushed up to the top deck. Finton was commanding a huge army of soldiers. Every enemy cruiser was shooting at our cruiser.

“Fire at sector ten!” BABOOM!!! Smoke was coming out of the hole where Finton used to be standing. “Darn, that cannon!” Finton came out of a smoking hole. Two enemy cruisers were on fire. The cruiser had fire all over. Every battle station was smoking. The laser fire rained through the sky like flies at a garbage dump.  As the cruiser returned fire, Max, Finton, and Freddy went under the deck to ignite the turbo engine. Trevor tried to deflect the laser fire with his swinging super sword.

“Hit the turbo engine button, Freddy!”

“¿Cuál es eso?”

BEEP!

“Self destruct engaged.”

“Freddy!!!”

“Incorrecto.”

“Run to the escape pods!” said Max. Everyone was running to their escape pods.

“Where’s Trevor?” asked Finton. Trevor appeared right next to them. Smoke was all around him. His face was black.

“Stupid cruisers,” Trevor muttered. Two guards were standing around the last escape pod available.

“Run for it!” said Trevor. Beep. The escape pod was launched. Chances were lost.

“No!”

“Self destruct in ten… nine… eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two — ”

Finton pushed Max outside. Freddy and Trevor fell into space. Finton jumped out. The explosion pushed them forward, and a great big ball of fire behind them that used to be their cruiser was now debris fluttering around them. Now they were lost in space.

 

Chapter 5: Evil Knows How to Plan

“Success achieved! The boss will be extremely happy!” The members of the Red Strikers were having a giant party.

“They died! Three cheers for the trick destroyer!” There were all types of food at the evil feast.

BAM!

The door burst open. Jumba came in.

“We’re under attack.” Rocks started falling from the ceiling.

“The feast is ruined!” cried Lord Robbers.

“Send all units!” cried Xanga.

Diong, diong, diong.

The battle outside was tremendous. Thousands of wounded Quinns were lying on the ground. Few were left. The other side was looking much better than its evil match — only a few soldiers were down.

“Send more troops!” ordered Kaka. More came rushing out, only to be killed.

Suddenly, sides changed: the Quinns had taken control of the battle. They were forcing the 105th legion back to their ships.

“Retreat!” ordered the 105th general. The troops rushed back, and the Quinns fired the cannons while the 105th legion tried to escape. Many ships fell from the sky.

Despite their heavy losses, the Quinns had won.

“Now we can’t have a feast about anything! We didn’t win or lose!” Strangehead said.

“I wanted more of that candy bread!” cried Lord Robbers.

As they went back inside, a war drum sounded in the distance.

“What the heck was that?” said Zilbon.

“Quinns into battle positions!”

Ten rows of Quinns stood strong. Twenty spearmen were in the front guarding for any close combat intents. Out of nowhere came a band of aliens with swords, guns, and spears. They were green and had eyes like those of a fly, a green snout in the middle of their head, and brown robes.

AAAheee!!! Chang! Blahg, wago dapo boom! Chang wayyyaaagggooo! Tambow!!! Mwakamaka! Dwaga! Traga! Die!!! BOOM! Weheee!!!

“Now we have something to celebrate about,” said Lord Robbers, “I get my candy bread!”

“No, I get it,” said Xanga.

“Don’t fight, guys!” said Jumba

 

Chapter 6: The Continuation of Chapter 4

“Now what?” said Max. The space around them was peaceful. They had been floating for hours.

“¿No crees que va a venir una nave para salvarnos?” asked Freddy. Suddenly, a bright light interrupted their conversation, and Trevor turned on his super sword. A ginormous space cruiser appeared out of nowhere. Its shiny decks looked as beautiful as gold, and its twenty-six engines looked super shiny with flaming blue jets shooting out.  

“It’s a Model 58.73 Code 97597.725.7000. I used to have a bunch of those in my room,” said Max.

“Uh, looks like we’re boarding, people.”

Trevor was right. The airlock on the 27,000 foot-tall, 123,000 foot long, and 29,000 foot wide spaceship was opening, letting out seventy-five spaceships that were ten feet tall and twenty feet long.  

“Now that’s an airlock,” said Finton.

“I guess we board one of these ships!” said Trevor.

Max, Finton, Freddy, and Trevor boarded the nearest ship. There were fifty-seven Quinns  on board. “Ahh! Battle positions!” yelled Finton. He loaded his gun and aimed at the Quinns. That was when they realized the Quinns were all tied up.

¨Greetings, noble Squag Trevor!¨ said the mysterious, double-mysterious, even more mysterious, superbly mysterious, totally mysterious, amazingly mysterious, terribly weird, with a terrible face, weird, antennae-headed weirdo named Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota. “Welcome aboard my spaceship. We shall take you to meet my master.  Meet my loyal assistant, Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta.¨

When they arrived at the spaceport, the first guy they had met led them up the stairs to a door.  And when the door opened, what they saw was unimaginable.

 

Chapter 7: Normal Day for Erin

Erin was pacing through when he bumped into Simon.

¨Want to duel?” said Simon.

“Pleasure,” said Erin.

Erin pulled off his glasses. Simon did, too. They extended their glasses. Then, they burst out laughing!

“Hwahwahwahwa… dueling with glasses! Blahaha,” laughed Erin.

“So funny! So funny!” said Simon.

“This is serious,” said Erin. He turned on his super sword and slashed at Simon’s legs. Simon flipped backwards and extended his super sword in 0.3 seconds. Erin attacked. Simon counterattacked. Erin flipped backwards and lashed the air with his extreme super duo combo, stabbing into the middle of the air where Simon was supposed to be. Simon was actually behind him and Erin sensed him. He arched his blade backward, deflecting the jab. Then Simon and Erin burst into a two-hour laugh. Hahaha! They laughed hard because their swords were only styrofoam training superswords.

Erin waved goodbye to Simon and walked into the library. He loved to study, and he also loved to read. Erin had a lot of favorite series. He remembered that he needed to see how the mission was going. When he turned on his mission tracking computer, the screen turned blurry and his mission tracking computer exploded!

“Something must be going wrong!” thought Erin. He went to the main communications system to speak with Eramag, Sofia, Mateo and Aaron.

“Eramag,” Erin said. “I have lost communication with mission 5.0.2600261000.”

“Find communication with mission 5.0.2600261000 and increase to maximum capacity to see if there is any sign of this mission,” Eramag yelled at nearby communications officers.

“We’ll find ‘em,” said Sofia.

 

Chapter 8: Getting to Zanklazumos

Inside the doors were hundreds of troops of the 576th legion troopers.

“What the…?” said Finton.

“I didn’t know this!” said Trevor.

“Cool!” said Max. “I thought all of you guys perished!”

“Esto es assustador,” said Freddy.

“Welcome to the 576th legion troopers headquarters!” said Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota.

“Let us show you around!” Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta said.

Around them was a large room full of computers. There were three floors to it and probably more because of the elevator. Lots of different troopers were working around the computers. Different things kept on popping up on the screens that they couldn’t even read. The computers were flat touchscreen pieces of transparent glass that showed what you were working on in the center. There was a lot of talking. It sounded like they were on a completely different planet… but they knew they weren’t.

Freddy secretly reached into his pack and pulled out a canister. The canister read “Super Stinky Fart Gas.”

“Esto va a ser bueno,” whispered Freddy.

There was a hissing sound in the air.

“What’s that sound?” said Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota.

“I don’t know, sir,” said a nearby trooper.

Suddenly, the air smelled bad. Freddy pulled a whoopie cushion out of his backpack. Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta said, “Sorry for the stinky smell.”

Freddy placed the whoopie cushion under Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta’s behind. When Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta sat down a loud fart filled the air. Suddenly, another fresh coat of stinky air flew out. Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota says “Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta, how dare you fart in front of our visitors?”

Freddy couldn’t help but laugh.

“Freddy!” yelled Finton, Trevor, and Max.

“How dare you do that in front of our hosts! I am so ashamed of you!” yelled Finton.

Then they turn toward Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota. “Sorry for this misunderstanding. My friend is a joker,” said Max.

“And he won’t do it again,” added Finton, clenching his teeth and staring so hard at Freddy that Freddy started to sweat.

“Quieren prender el aire acondicionado,” said Freddy.

After a bunch of sorrys, the ship started to move.

 

Chapter 9: Mass Invasion

The fleet contained fourteen starships. Each one had one hundred billion troops, small blockade runners, blockade ships, troop deployers, troop transports, crew transfer shuttles, supply carriers, and X-class escorts to make a billionaire die of the zeroes. The fleet was an exquisite combination of different capital ships, frigates, and flagships, and all of them were prepared for a mass invasion of the planet Zanklazumos, one of the outer rim planets of the Red Strikers’ force. It contained the recipe to heal the lives of dead troops. It was guarded, but with strategy you could break in. They were going to use the plan below.Copy of Battle of Revenge II- Traitors (by Diego Gonzalez)

“This is going to be great!” said Finton.

“We’re going to have so much fun invading them!” said Max.

“Esto va a ser excelente!” said Freddy.

“What ship are we boarding?” asked Finton.

“You will be on board the troop transporter,” said Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota. The troop transport descended. It was a steady, low descent. Freddy, Max, and Finton were aboard the troop deployer. There was very little light. The ambience was silent. Everyone was ready to deploy. The suspense was unbearable.

“Suddenly, the troop deployer blew up and everyone died. Even our main characters. Yes, I know you people say we can’t kill our main characters, but this story says otherwise. Yes, people, we killed them, get over it,” read the crew report aboard the troop deployer, named ALADA (which stands for Air Land Action Depositor A-transport).

“Ha, what story? And how could the main characters die?” asked Finton.

“Ja, eso fue lo mas chistoso, no se pueden morir los personajes principales,” said Freddy. The troop deployer safely landed on the planet and deployed the troopers. The air was smoky. Suddenly two Red Strike guards walked up.

“Identify yourselves!” they said. Suddenly, a crew transfer shuttle zoomed into its landing site. A figure dropped right in the middle of the two guards. A super sword extended from its hands and the two guards dropped dead beside him. Max and Finton drew out their blasters and aimed at the unknown figure. Suddenly, the blasters flew out of their hands and the ground erupted in front of them. Dirt flew and then it was all silent. The figure turned around and took off its hood.

“Seriously? You were trying to kill me?” said Trevor. “Not nice!” Trevor’s hand stretched out to reveal the electromagnet. He moved his hand up and Max and Finton instantly rose. He moved his hand to the side and back in the direction of Max and Finton. The blasters dropped into their hands.

“Sorry, Trevor,” said Finton.

“How could you scare us like that?” Max asked.

“It seemed like the right thing to do to save you lives,” said Trevor. They walked a long time til they reached the evil fortress. The door was bolted shut. Trevor placed some detonators and got out of there real quick. The door blew open.

“Aren’t you scared that they’ll find out we’re here?” asked Max.

“It’s not a stealth mission,” said Trevor. “They told us to get in there, get the recipe, and get out.”

“Yeah, but we shouldn’t warn them of our presence,” said Max.

“Of course we should! That way they’ll all come out and get their butts kicked,” said Trevor.

The massive capital ship landed, two turrets dropped out of the front. Trevor screamed at the camera that had also dropped down. “What! I thought you had enough arsenal to blow this planet to shreds!”

“That is understood,” replied the robotic voice. 4,000 other turrets came out of the bottom.

“Fire!” yelled Trevor. The turrets released so much laser fire that all three walls surrounding the base were smashed to splinters — or, more accurately, goo — because they were metal. And then, they walked in.

 

Chapter 10: Kill Them Now!

Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota clicked the walkie-talkie.

“Prepare to destroy those crazy heroes!” said a creepy voice.

 

Chapter 11: Destroy Them

Back at the Red Strikers’ evil base, Lord Robbers was preparing the super weapon for transportation to Slankamos, and the massive weapon looked like a giant needle. It was seventy feet long, forty feet wide, and twenty feet tall. The big needle was being carried by a huge robotic arm into a spaceship that was going to carry it to Slankamos. Then, Lord Robber would look through the little screen, move his little joystick until the little mark was over the right place, and click the button that said FIRE. And then the giant laser beam would melt his enemies and he would defeat them once and for all.

Lord Robbers cackled, “HA HA HA!” before getting his little pad that fired it and testing the weapon by firing randomly into space. Lord Robbers clicked the big button that said fire. Suddenly, the hangar around them exploded in flames.

FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, the alarms blurted.

Lord Robbers cleaned up the mess and tried again, clicking the FIRE button a bunch of times. Water came down from the ceiling and a bunch of fire bots came out looking for the fire. He cleaned up the mess again and tried once more. He clicked the BIG red fire button and the giant green laser beam cut through the sky and KABLAMO — they heard an explosion.

“Was that supposed to happen, Commander?” Lord Robbers asked.

“No. It was not,” said the commander. Suddenly, a little screen popped out of the ceiling. There was a scared Quinn commander on it.

“OUR BRAND NEW SHIP WAS JUST BLOWN UP!” yelled the Quinn commander.

“Wait! Was it that one that I just wasted all my money on?” asked Lord Robbers.

“I think so!” said the Quinn commander.

“No! No! No! How could this happen?!?” said Lord Robbers. Lord Robbers accidentally stepped on the self destruct button and his brand new weapon blew up.

 

Chapter 12: Funny Does Not Mean Good

Every single computer screen on every Government-controlled planet showed a message:

“Haha! I am Lord Robbers and I will eat all your food by using this teleporting device! HAHAHA! I will also blow up your planet for the sheer fun of it! I will also achieve universal domination, and if you astrophysicists down there say that it is impossible because the universe goes on forever, and you quantum physicists thinking about the Schrodinger’s cat say that I have a 50 percent chance of world domination and a 50 percent chance of getting my butt kicked, let us change that principal to having 100 percent of world domination. Shaboom, suckers! So for the big shazam, I will blow up your planet!”

When the Government planet saw what was happening, they immediately reacted by calling forth an entire fleet and prepared to destroy Lord Robbers once and for all.

 

Chapter 13: The Preparation of the Super Weapon

Lord Robbers had decided to demonstrate his super weapon to the rest of the Red Striker leaders, by destroying a random civilian planet. He walked to his live feed media room in his ship, hovering above the main base (the cannon was actually on the planet below him and not on the ship.) He went to his console room and clicked the big red firing button (this was the right button). The green laser bolt flew toward the planet and detonated a whole entire city. The Red Strikers clapped and Lord Robbers said, “This laser is the emblem of our destructive name. We are called the Red Strikers. We strike and destroy! Clunk clunk clunk!” (He is a cyborg, so that is how he laughs.)

 

Chapter 14: The Deep Dark Hallways

Trevor, Max, Finton, and Freddy walked into the base. There was no one. It seemed abandoned. There was no light; the electricity was cut off. You couldn’t even see your hand in front of you. Trevor turned on his supersword. The sword extended from its hilt and started buzzing, glowing green in the darkness. They walked down the steel hallways, their footsteps resonating on the ground. There was a red light glowing in front of them in a circular chamber and a dark figure hovering over a panel. Max, Finton, and Freddy silently drew their guns. They were all holding Maf 2345’s (Maf is short for MFLP, which stands for Multi-Function Laser Pistol). The Maf had a tiny viewscreen in which you could select the good guy or the bad guy. If you accidentally pointed the gun at the good guy, it would lock the trigger and not allow the laser to pass. If you did, for some reason, sweep the gun over the bad guy and not pull the trigger, it would automatically do it for you. It also had a stun mode, a knockout mode, a kill mode, and a melt mode. They selected the dark figure in the chamber on their Mafs as a bad guy, and put it on knockout.

The man turned around and they finally realized who it was. It was Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota.

“Oh, I see you have come to my greetings party. Or garage sale, since I’m selling proton grenades! MWAHAHA.”

“You’re actually evil?” Finton said. “I didn’t know that!”

“No, but I have just told the secret location of your base to Lord Robbers! HAHAHAHAHA! And now that I am done with you guys, I will kill you all with a single proton grenade while I escape, smooching my crazy girlfriend who is dressed in a sports bra, even though it is extremely cold in here and she will probably freeze to death… which is sad. Now you will play your part. Please stand right where you are while I go click the button to deploy my hovercraft.”

Meanwhile, Freddy had gotten distracted. He had gone to the basement and captured the healing potion, which was why they were there in the first place. He went upstairs again and appeared behind Trevor.

“Ya tengo la poción!” said Freddy.

Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota said, “How did you get that? It was covered by the maximum security fence.”

“Creo que fumigue” said Freddy.

“You farted, Freddy?” said Finton.

“Whoa, I didn’t know your farts were so powerful,” said Max.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” said Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota. “You just stay where you are and let me click the button.”

“Hello, honey pie,” said Yamakazamotamotamotadomanota Xambagotamezinitabedagota, Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota’s girlfriend.

“Ah, hello, sweet pea. I was just about to assassinate these evil people,” Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota said.

“Aw, but that guy looks really cute!” said Yamakazamotamotamotadomanota Xambagotamezinitabedagota.

Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota set the proton grenade to fifteen seconds. He then clicked the button for the escape craft. Fortunately, Max and Finton weren’t stupid. They still had the Mafs, so they pulled the trigger. Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota and Yamakazamotamotamotadomanota Xambagotamezinitabedagota fell to the ground, stunned.

Trevor, Max, Freddy, and Finton ran to the hovercraft and clicked the escape button. The explosion of the proton grenade resonated behind them. Unfortunately, they had to get out of there quickly, and since Yamakazamotamotamotadomanota Xambagotamezinitabedagota, Wamakazamotamotamotadomanota Zambagotamezinitabedagota, and his assistant Wombazengasambataheenga Zambeegotosanjamotameta were traitors, and so was the whole fleet. So they decided to escape in the stealthy way, a way which I will not explain right now. They hijacked a capital ship, went out into space, proton torpedoed all the other ships, and hit the megadrive button.

 

Epilogue

Lulu and Lucy were sitting at home for a girls night in when Lord Robbers snuck in. He grabbed them both by the neck and smashed them into his craft. Both of them were knocked unconscious, and Lord Robbers put them into his craft. The iron bars lit up and you could see Lord Robbers creepy cyborg face.

“Clunk clunk clunk!”

The cyborg’s laugh faded into the cool night air.

 

I Can’t Remember the Last Time I Used a Tissue

I can’t remember my college address. I’m 365,422 years old, and I went to college when I was 19. It was 365,403 years ago when I started. It’s been a while now. I live in an apartment above the clouds, in HEAVEN. It’s weirder in Heaven now. I have to remember my college address because I want to go to a movie with my girlfriend, and I have to give my college address to buy the ticket.

I will tell you how I died: All I wanted was a tissue. I had a cold. I was walking to the market to get medicine and a box of tissues, when I saw my neighbor in her yard. She was watering a Venus fly trap. It leapt out, and its head grabbed mine and swallowed me whole.

In my grave last night, I saw a blood curdling, rabbit toothed, polka dotted tissue box boasting pictures of llamas with hats.

“Finally!!!” I shouted. I peeked in.

The tissue box was infested with pencils and beetles. The beetles had already eaten half of the pencils, and it smelled of musty old cheese. My heart split in two. There were no tissues. I died for the second time.     

My Home

What does it mean when you move from one house to another?

For me, it means sadness and a feeling that I will miss my home.

It makes me upset because

 

My home is where I belong,

It is the place where I live,

And where I store everything.

I love my house.

 

My room is there to greet me every morning when I wake up,

The light shining through the windows,

Everything just so…

It makes me feel cozy.

 

My kitchen has my knives and dishes and pots for cooking and eating,

I can cook for hours,

I hear the wind and I bake.

 

My dining room is where I eat,

spend time with my family,

And talk all day with them.

I can play and have fun at the table too.

 

My living room is there to meet me when I want to relax,

The couch is cozy,

The chairs are soft.

 

When it comes time to leave the house to find a new one,

I always feel sad to leave.

Camp River

I could feel the motorboat all throughout me. The vibrations circulated throughout my chest and arms. It was actually kind of uncomfortable, frankly, but the feelings were scaled down from the experience of the motor boat gliding along the black, shining water of the lake. Slight sprinkles of water tread from the back of the boat sprinkled on my back, causing me to get wet. They say you’re supposed to stay two motorboats behind the driver in front of you, but sadly the ocean has the same deal as the Los Angeles freeways-some people just stop in the middle of a ride.

“Move up! Move up!” I scream every time someone stops dead in the middle of the ride. I use the wheel, which really isn’t that sturdy or accurate, to turn left and go around. When I looked around to the driver, it was a teenager with chocolate brown skin whose legs had given up on him, leaving him dead in the middle of the water.

“Goddamn,” I said, and drove right in front of him and kept on going. The time: 5:00 PM. And it was already pitch black outside. But I had multiple things to do. Get back to the cabin, get dressed, get to dinner on time, which was at 6:30, and then try to make an impression on Sophie, the girl I liked at the camp who was going to be dancing at 7:45. But I put all those worries aside and focused on the cool breeze. The air slapping my cheeks as I drove the motorboat.

Josie, a good friend of mine who also goes to this camp, was sleeping right next to me. She was all about this activity. She first drove the boat before we switched in mid-ocean, but the peaceful driving and the serenity of the black sky made her fall right asleep. She didn’t notice how much water was on her, on her brown hair and freckled face. She was also drooling, which added to the stream. But I just let her sleep and kept on driving the motor boat. Looking back behind me, I couldn’t really tell what was back and was ahead. Everything was as black as a dark pearl.

It was that minute later when two unexpected things happened.. The clouds in the sky, black but puffy and thick like cream for Belgian waffles at breakfast, started to rain. I just imagined water flowing from the cream on those waffles as the water poured onto my hair and Josie’s cheek. Thankfully, Josie and I brought hooded sweatshirts on the hike here. The hike to the boat station was intense, and painful. We were both barefoot and the ground was covered in rocks, so it was very painful to walk. And when we got to the station, the wind started to pick up, so we had these sweatshirts. So, I lifted my back off the seat and raised the hood above my head and started to feel splotches of rain clash with the fabric.

Then, I lifted Josie’s back off the seat and lifted the hood over her head. She woke up and screamed, which completely startled me.

“What the hell’s going on?” she asked, and her head turned towards me. “Alex?” Oh, that’s my name.

“I’m just lifting your hood over your head,” I said. “It just started raining. Chill out.” The boat kept gliding along until we heard the boat bump against a sunken buoy in the water.

“Aaah!” Josie exclaimed, but I tried to stay as calm as possible, but I still wondered what the hell just happened.

“Calm down.” I said. But then the boats ahead of us started to speed up, so I put more gas in the tank and the levels on the tiny speedometer started to increase and kept increasing until I was going maximum speed. I didn’t pick up that the boats ahead had turned left, so when I saw the buoy, I actually became a bit scared that we were going to crash into the object and the steel chains holding it across and have a part of the boat damaged. So, I made a sharp left and the boat tipped. None of us were prepared for it. The motor stopped and we both fell into the black, cold water. The taste of the water was disgusting in my mouth and I could feel the koi fish that swam beneath me glide gently against my stomach, but I made my way up into the water and Josie did as well.

“Are you okay?” I asked, still bewildered.

“I’m fine,” she replied. “It just scares the you-know-what out of me.” I couldn’t help but agree. With all our strength, we pushed the boat back up on the surface and made sure the motor was running. Thankfully, no water got in the sensitive parts. We tried activating the flashlight so we could make an effort of trying to find out where we were on the lake. Dammit, out of batteries. And we left our flashlights, which were pretty good, back at the boat station. There was nothing left we could do, so we figured we just drive the boat forward without any way of knowing if we were supposed to go that way, or turn back and head to the station, which seemed impossible because of the blackness. So, we progressed. When we started, the motorboat was a bit bumpy when trying to spew out the gasoline, which worried me every single time. Thankfully, the engine got all the water out and we were back on the water again. Even though I couldn’t see behind me, I kept on looking back if there were any signs of light.

It was 5:30 at this point and my body was just ready to give up and leave me and Josie stranded in the middle of a lake for the night. We had been driving the boat for an hour and it only took us half the time to get lost on a wrong turn. I mean, we could manage to drink some of the lake’s water, even though it was probably infested with marine feces, cuddle up with each other, and use our hooded sweatshirts for warmth. We could wait until the morning when there was light and have a better chance of navigating where we were and how to get back. The thing is, we didn’t have a compass, or even a phone’s compass for God’s sake, and if we slept overnight, the motorboat might float and we would end up in an entirely different location.

But at that very moment, the boat bumped over another sunken buoy, startling me, which seriously had the slimmest chances of happening again. I was afraid we were going to tip over and Josie, who had been trying to stay as calm as possible, let out a small shriek. I was even worried that we were going to tip over again. I pulled to an abrupt stop, just trying to process what had just happened. Then I heard a sound.

A loud scream seeped into my ear, and I thought the voice was screaming hey.

I shuffle Josie. “Did you hear that?” I ask. “Is it them?”

“Let’s find out.” Josie said. So, I put all the gas on the motorboat until it was speeding across the water. And it was them. When we got there, there was a small group of motorboats in a circle. We stopped just near them.

“Camp River?” I asked.

“Camp River,” someone said, but it was too dark to recognize them by face. “One of the kids here went a bit too fast, fast enough that you two were blown off track. And, on top of that, it was pitch black. Give me your names so I know who you are.”

“Alex and Josie.” I confirmed.

“Aaah, it’s Raymond,” he said. The instructor. “You wanna start heading back.”

“Yeah, but I got somewhere to be, so can we go as fast and as spread out as we need?”

“Sure thing,” Raymond said.

“By the way, do you have four nine-volt batteries on you?”

“Why?”

“Our boat’s flashlight rain out of power, and that was the one thing we needed to try and find our way back to you guys.”

“Sure.” Raymond took out a little bag he had kept stored near the gas pedal and pulled out four backup batteries. We pulled our boat a bit closer to him and he opened up the flashlight compartment, which was located in the front of the boat, and replaced the batteries with the new ones. The flashlight worked, and Raymond closed the compartment tight. So, I left the flashlight on and we were off once again into the black of night.

 

 * * *

 

To get to the start of the hike which leads to the motorboat station, you have to get through a forest. This forest takes one hour to walk through and 25 minutes to a half-hour by running. So after I leave Josie, I take off at maximum speed through the forest, trying to avoid as many rocks and bumps as I can, even though it is still pitch black. So, I use my flashlight. I just can’t sacrifice being late to this dinner party and not making an impression while dancing with Sophie.

I don’t care about bumps. Getting up after getting hurt and continuing along is a piece of my psyche. So, after the first two trips, I still keep running, even with the cuts, and start to see faint light coming from a distance, but I still am perplexed that I am not anywhere near this light. That doesn’t mean my feet have stopped, though. Pacing from left to right at an incredible but almost impossible tempo for an ectomorph. Trying to avoid any obstacles nature gives. Rocks and whatnot. This forest, unfortunately, has tons of narrow turns up every way, and with only a teensy bit of clear vision, it is a mind game getting through the trail.

The running becomes painful on my feet after twenty minutes. Josie is screaming now, at me, even though she is probably a mile behind me, and I can’t understand what’s she saying. But I assume she’s lost.

Girls’ camp was a ways away from boys’ camp. The directors didn’t want any hanky-panky. But soon, about after five minutes, I see that my watch says the horrific time of 6:15. Trees leaves sway from left to right in synchrony but frantically. My flashlight is dimming, and my vision is scaled down at night by the need of prescription glasses, which don’t really work at night, but I don’t give a damn. I don’t seem to trip over as many rocks because the rocks that are falling are little pebbles and are tumbling towards me. I don’t care. The wind blows in my face and blows my hair backwards, and my breathing increases.

I’m stressed but brisk, though my arms are going to give out. I feel the tension all throughout. I’m racing and pacing and my mind is going out of the place. Like an Ozzy Osbourne song. I instantly feel like I’m going to lose consciousness, like my mind is going to collapse all over the place and I’m going to fall out dead. Dead. With no sign of rescue for months. That can’t happen, but I’m going completely insane!

 

* * *

 

But I soon exclaim,“Thank God!” because my feet land on the familiar surface of the rocky path the boy cabins are located on. And when I find my cabin, I use the fifteen minutes to quickly take a hot shower and get dressed into nicer clothes. My clothes are wet, dirty, and scrappy. It’s still raining, and my shoes got covered in mud on the run in the forest. And this time around, since there are tons of boys in the cabin, I don’t feel weird being naked around them like I usually do, because I’m that guy.

Their questions protrude my brain and I’m probably not conscious enough to answer them. They’re asking where I’ve been, and what happened? But I don’t have time to answer their questions. In a snap, my dirty clothes are thrown in my over-stuffed dirty laundry bag. And I’m in a black T-shirt with a padded leather jacket and black jeans, and running the same running shoes I was wearing before, no matter the dirtiness. And then it’s all me.

 

  * * *

 

I’m famished from all the previous events, and it’s nice to be in the environment of the crowded tables, water jugs, and overhead music, and the lighting is just the icing on the cake. I’m still flabbergasted that I made it here on time. My watch is 6:32 PM, so I got swiftly on time. It was just a matter of time before the future events of my evening were determined just by probability. I know Sophie’s the girl of my dreams, and I just can’t stand not to be with her, and this is basically the only opportunity. She’s smart, she’s intelligent, she looks hella good, and she loves writing. I need to love somebody that has the same interests and career I mean, if there was any alternative option to spending time with her, it would have to be doing girly activities with the rest of her friends. But she wouldn’t pay any attention to me –– I would just be a third wheel. She’s going to be dancing… I’m going to be dancing. She’s going to be dancing. It would make sense that we dance together. I’ve met her before, and we’re friends. I’ve seen her signals before.

For dinner there are calzones, an option of either beef and cheese or just cheese. I get two, one of both option, and I’m so filled I can’t have dessert, which is the camp’s signature apple pie. I’m digging into my food like a barbarian, so hungry, until I feel a forceful pull on the back of my shirt. I turn around to see Josie, scraped up and arms crossed.

“What’s up?” I ask. “What happened?”

“You’re just really an asshole, Alex,” she said. “I was screaming your name a mile back in that forest. A tick bit me and left a sting that left me in agony. Oh, the human ––”

“You don’t need to be overdramatic,” I reply. “And your scream sounded distorted from where I was. How could I tell? I was running non-stop with nothing else in my mind deserving attention!”

“You hear my voice, you run to help me. Isn’t every guy supposed to do that with every chick?”

“If every guy was supposed to do that with every chick, you’d have a flock of guys around you. Maybe like two billion.” I said.

“You’re such a class act jerk,” Josie said. “Screw you.” And she stomped off into the depths of the dining hall. But I didn’t feel ashamed of myself. She wasn’t really my friend, anyway. Maybe she was my “friend.” Should I feel ashamed? I go back to eating dinner until one of the other boys, Lukas, taps my shoulder.

“What happened back there?” he asked, puzzled.

“Nothing you need to be involved with,” I said. “Just a situation with a friend of mine.”

“A girl?” he asks.

“Yeah. So?” I sassily reply.

“Treating girls like crap won’t get you anywhere here.” he said. Why should I listen to Lukas though? Sure, this isn’t his first year here, but what would he know about my particular situation?

“You’re right, but what does it matter here?” I ask. “This is summer camp, not behavioral school.”

“Well, why won’t you treat people with respect?” he asked. “You’re kind of being a jerk… you don’t want to respect people.”

“Who are you to call me a jerk?” I ask, angrily. “Shut up!” And he turns away and continues to eat, and when I turn to my right to see him, I can see some small tears swelling inside his eyes. He is probably known for being the most sensitive in the bunch, anyway. He has a tendency to get really emotional. What a wimp.

 

  * * *

At 7:30, the dining hall was dramatically different than what it was earlier. A silver, glittery disco ball was hanging from the middle of the ceiling, and there were tons of tables spread all across the room. There was another table with food and soda and a big dance floor in the smack center. In fact, there were already even people on it! And to the corner was a DJ spinning some music on an old-school turn-table, which was pretty cool, I have to admit. The music got louder and more people started to crowd onto the dance floor. There were so many people, in fact, mostly nobody could find their way around.

Luckily, I could see Sophie, in a pink dress, alone in the corner of the dance floor, dancing by herself. Now was the perfect opportunity. I dropped everything and walk to her, weaving in and out of the crowd. I finally made my way over to her. My heart started rapidly thumping, and sweat starts to pump. When I reached her, I held out my hand.

“Would you like to dance?” I said, not sure if I would regret it.

“No” she said, her face turning angry and disappointed, which definitely caused my heart to drop and made me regret the effort I put into running through the forest.

“But why?” I asked, with expectation for a good reason.

“My best friend told me that you weren’t being that nice,” she said, her face angry. “That’s not acceptable. Not in a million years I would dance with you.”

“Who is your friend?”

“Josie.” Shit.

“Oh…” I said, then when she turned her head, I turned off and ran, weaving in and out of the crowd, but then made my way out of the dining hall. When I was far in a corner behind the hall, where nobody could see me, and started to cry. Crying in disbelief, regret, and overall sadness. Why did this happen? Was it me? Why am I asking, of course it was. Girls don’t want to hang out with jerks. It’s all logic. It turns out that my actions really do affect the outcomes of situations. What have I done?

 

 * * *

Later that cold night, I hear a few footsteps and turn to see a kid of no recognition to me but older than me, walking towards me. The cold air brushes against my face. He told me that he had been informed of the situation, but what he said to me that night changed the rest of my life and the rest of the decisions I would make for the rest of my session. “Disrespect does not find you well at Camp River.”

Kitty Ranchero’s Adventures

Part 1

There lived a kitten named Kitty Ranchero. He had gray fur, black stripes, and dark gray spots on his belly. He lived in a duplex near a rain forest with a nice man and woman. They didn’t have any children, but they did have a dog named Emma and another kitten named Perry, who was Kitty Ranchero’s sister.

 

Part 2

He wanted to find his sister, Perry. He wanted to find her because she ran away. She ran away because a guy named Todd saw Perry outside, thought she was a stray cat, and tried to capture and keep her as a pet.

There was a forest by their house so he thought she would run that way. He started to sneak out of his house and find Perry. When he walked into the forest, he realized that it was a rain forest. As soon as he got there, he realized that he forgot to pack up some stuff. So he ran back and packed up some green gum, tooth paste, some bug spray, and some magazines just in case.

When he finally got back to the rain forest, he started his search for Perry. It was cold and windy in the rain forest.

Part 3

The next day he started looking for Perry. Shortly into his journey — ROAR! Tigers jumped out from behind a bunch of bushes and wouldn’t let Kitty Ranchero go through. He was terrified but managed to pull green gum out of his backpack.

“This green gum is delicious. Would you like a piece?”

While the tigers were chewing Kitty Ranchero ran around them as fast as he could go. When he was safe he stopped to catch his breath at a river. But then he remembered that he hated water, and he couldn’t swim. He saw lily pads and walked across them.

He started to get very concerned about his sister. He was worried that she was alone and scared in the cold. He worried that she didn’t have any food or someplace warm and dry to sleep. It was later and darker. So he curled up in a pile of leaves under a plum tree. He dreamed of finding Perry, and going back home, and living happily ever after. But then he woke up and realized that he was still in the rain forest. He felt sad and cried for a while.

But then he heard a monkey in the distance. He heard the monkey say, “Hello. Are you lost?”

“I’m trying to find my sister, Perry. Have you seen her?” Kitty Ranchero asked.

“Wait. I think I saw a kitty. Is she light grey with blue eyes?”

Kitty Ranchero got excited and said, “You saw her? Can you please take me to her?”

“Okay. Climb up this tree and I’ll take you right to her.”

“But I can’t climb up trees,” he said sadly. “I’m a kitten.”

“How about you stay down there, and I’ll jump from tree to tree, and you can follow me from the ground.”

“Okay. Sounds good,” Kitty replied.

Kitty Ranchero started to follow the monkey through the rain forest. The monkey led him to a pond.

“Wait,” said the monkey. “I thought I saw Perry. Where is she?”

Kitty Ranchero felt angry and said, “Thanks for nothing! I’m just gonna go find Perry myself.”

“Okay,” the monkey said. “I like your snaggletooth.”

“Thank you. Sorry I got frustrated. I know you were just trying to help but I’m so worried about my sister. How about both of us keep trying to find her.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

After a long day of searching they finally went to sleep on top of a tree. Unfortunately, there were mosquitoes everywhere and they couldn’t sleep. Kitty Ranchero asked the mosquitoes, “Hey, you guys want a bath?”

And the mosquitoes replied, “Sure! We’re pretty stinky!”

“Let’s climb down the tree and I’ll give you a bath in the pond.”

Once they get to the pond Kitty Ranchero pulled the bug spray from his backpack, aimed it at the mosquitoes and said, “You wanna a piece of this?”

And then he sprayed them in the face. The mosquitoes immediately started coughing and they flew away.

“Let’s never come back here again!” the mosquito leader said. 

Then, Kitty Ranchero climbed back up the tree.

“That was a great idea!” the monkey said. “Where’d you get that bug spray?”

“My teacher gave it to me at Kitty-garden,” said Kitty Ranchero.             

“Cool,’’ replied the monkey. Then, they both fell asleep on top of the tree.

The next morning they continued looking for Perry. Then they saw a dark and scary house in the middle of the jungle.

“I see Perry,” said Kitty Ranchero excitedly. There were vines and ripped curtains. Kitty Ranchero saw Perry in a cage with people guarding her.

“Wow, what’s going on?” said the monkey. Then a guy started chasing Kitty Ranchero and the monkey away. While they were running, Kitty Ranchero said, “By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“My name is Tails,’’ replied the monkey.

“I like that name,” said Kitty Ranchero. The guy, who had black ripped clothes, stopped chasing them because he was tired.

The people who were guarding Perry took her into the scary house. Before the door closed Kitty Ranchero and Tails ran inside quickly. When he got inside they saw that it was dark. They could barely see a thing. But then they saw a shadow of a man holding a lantern so they hid behind a box that said, “OPEN.” As the man passed by the box he smelled Tails and he almost got close to finding them but luckily, they ran through the hallway where the man came from. In the hallway they saw an open door leading into a room. And to their shock, Perry was locked in a cage right inside the room!

Kitty Ranchero’s eyes popped wide open.

“This is easy. Let’s just walk inside,” Tails said.

“But we don’t have the key to unlock the cage,” Kitty Ranchero said, “And there might be booby-traps!”

“Just come on, Kitty Ranchero.”

As they walked in the room, Kitty Ranchero stepped on a button on the floor and a cage with a gorilla in it dropped down from the ceiling and landed right in front of Kitty Ranchero. He screamed like a little girl.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was that?”

“That was me,” Kitty Ranchero said, embarrassed. But then he remembered that gorillas loved magazines. So he took a magazine from his backpack and handed it to the gorilla through the bars.

“Here. You will love this magazine about a girl gorilla that you might want to go out on a date with.”

“Thanks!” the gorilla replied.

While they were talking, Tails found the key to Perry’s cage in a little box that was sitting on a table. Kitty Ranchero was so happy. Tails opened the cage and then Kitty Ranchero hugged Perry. But then Kitty Ranchero realized… it was a fake Perry! It was a robot!

Fake-Perry said, “Intruder!”

Kitty Ranchero and Tails ran out screaming like women. They were sad when they left, but then, one of the guards saw them. He said, “What are you doing in here?”

They ran out of the scary house. Outside they saw an evil king, who looked really ugly with a weird, small, stinky palm tree growing on his head. He was hovering over Perry, who laid in the grass. The evil king had big muscles and he was holding a knife to Perry’s throat.

Kitty Ranchero saw this and ran over to the evil king. He slapped his butt! The evil king turned around and got really mad.

Kitty Ranchero said, “Who are you looking at?”

“Did you spank my butt?” the evil king said. He was about to cut Kitty Ranchero with the knife, but Kitty Ranchero was so fast, he grabbed Perry and ran away with her.

Tails yelled behind them, “Hey! Wait up!”

They hid behind a tree and Kitty Ranchero said, “Are you okay, Perry?”

Perry started laughing and said, “I can’t believe you didn’t find me!”

Kitty Ranchero was confused. “How could we have found you?” he said. “You were so far away!”

Perry said, “That’s not a king, and those are not guards! Those are just friends, and they’re pulling a prank on you.” She told Kitty Ranchero that they set up all those obstacles themselves.

Kitty Ranchero was so surprised. “What?” he said. “I came all this way for nothing?”

“What’s going on?” Tails said.

“Never mind,” Kitty Ranchero said.

Tails said, “I’m getting out of here.”

Kitty Ranchero and Perry walked back home laughing. Kitty Ranchero felt both mad and happy at the same time.

When they got home, their master asked, “Where were you, dude?”

Kitty Ranchero cocked his head to the side. Emma, the dog, started to laugh and said, “I know all about this.” And the whole family, including the owners, posed for a picture.

Diary of a Rebel

Chapter One

New Year’s Day

January 1st, 2016

 

Dear diary,

I’m pooped. Pooped, as in tired. Very tired. Last night, I got to stay up until 12:00, (because last night was New Year’s Eve), in Times Square, watching the ball drop. I’m Nola H. Anderson, citizen of Manhattan, New York. The troublemaker of the family. I’m twelve going on thirteen. I have a twin sister. An honest truth about her is that even though I was born after her, she got a bigger name: Grace Isabella Bella Hinder Anderson. She also has sweeping blond hair, perfect teeth, and the softest baby blue eyes I have ever seen. Someone once called her the class model. Me, no way. I have braces, frizzy brown hair, and murky green colored eyes. Someone in third grade called me an elephant mixed with a chicken.

In life, all I want is for people to treat me equally. That will be hard because I’m in middle school, specifically seventh grade. And I’m a trouble maker. Well, my best friends are basically the only friends I have at Homer Middle School: the one and only Ella, a girl I met in the second grade, Kone, a dude on my block, and Mia, my mom’s best friend’s daughter. Those guys stick by my side, although I’m sort of worried about our relationship. Maybe it’s just because we’re getting older, and people change. I’m going camping with them tomorrow night in a suburb of New York. I feel like I’ve known them forever, although it’s only been eight years. Gotta go, I have to pack. Wait, where are my boots?!

 

Chapter Two

The annual camping trip

January 2nd, 2016

 

Dear awesome diary,

 

I’m so excited! Ella, Kone, Mia, Ella’s parents, and I will be at the campgrounds in fifteen minutes! I have out my camera, my card deck, and my travel puzzles to use on the ride there. I can’t believe that today is only the second day of 2016! I’m on winter break, so it makes sense. Ella is making earrings in the way back of the Jeep, Mia and Kone are giving each other massages, and I’m playing solitaire in the way back. My sister had to go to this Girl Scout Camp thingy (with all of her besties) that is supposedly a lot of fun. I’m in Girl Scouts too, but I didn’t want to go. I had plans. Take that, Girl Scout Camp! Anyway, the ride to the campgrounds is two hours, so we spent a third of the time playing “Create a Sentence,” a third of it looking out of the windows and telling jokes, and a third of the time doing what we’re doing now. We are already having tons of fun, and we’re not even there yet!

I had this really weird dream last night that really worried me. It was of a girl who got stuck in a convenience store. It scared me. A figure had just appeared when Mom woke me up. I hope that dream didn’t mean anything.

 

Dear diary,

We get to the campground at 5:00. We unload all of the bags from the trunk. It’s beautiful here! There are grassy hills (perfect for rolling on), a lake, and snow everywhere! There is even a mini stove on the rocky ground where we’ll probably cook!

We pop open our big fold out tents (woof, it’s hard), and I have to bunk with Mia. Ella is bunking with her mom, and Kone is bunking with Ella’s dad. I love all the bugs here (they’re fun to play with), except for the mosquitos. I’m pretty sure I have sweet blood. Every time I go camping, or try to go camping, I get mosquito bites all over my body.

At night, we watch a basketball game. I sit next to Mia and she huddles under the blanket that we share. The Golden State Warriors crush the Houston Rockets. I wear my Stephen Curry jersey and sparkly black leggings. I don’t really care who wins, but I’m cheering for them because I’ve always wanted to tour California. Also, my family cheers for the Rockets, majorly, but I don’t want to be teased if I wear my jersey. Anyway, the game is fantabulous. Everyone is cheering for the Golden State Warriors, because one of the players on the team is Mia’s uncle. The game ends with a whopping score of 121 to 94. We all screamed and yelled when the Warriors won, but I secretly feel weird because my parents will think that I would be cheering for the other team.

We have a glow stick party in the dark while listening to music. We listen to dancing and neon stripes were flying around the grounds, people thinking that we were crazy, but do we care? NO. We fall fast asleep at ten o’clock, after brushing our teeth and putting on our pajamas, and a good pillow fight. My pillow bursts open and the feathers flew everywhere. They cover Ella’s parents, and I have to admit, it is funny. Thank goodness I have an extra pillow.

 

Chapter Three

The next day

January 3rd, 2016

 

Patient diary,

 

I’m tired! This morning, I wake up at 11:00. (I checked my watch.) Mia wakes me up by splashing freezing cold lake water on my face. Rude!

Anyway, the others are already making breakfast, which is pancakes, and they all say “Good morning, konnichiwa,” and Ella calls me bedhead.

We eat breakfast, play lots of board games, swing in the hammock that the McDonald’s has hung up in between two trees, and braided lots of hair. I’m a hair fanatic, so I end up braiding all the hair. As for Kone and Mr. McDonald, they play Uno. Kone wins. After that, we listen to Gwen Stefani and Bruno Mars.

My iPhone rings. Doo-woop! Doo-woop! I pick the phone up and looked at the number: (323) 921-1008. My sister! Doesn’t she know I’m camping?!! I pick it up anyway.

“Hello?” I ask. “I’m camping.”

“I know … ” she says. “I was just wondering how’re you doing. Cut me some slack. At camp, we have been doing crafts. I slept in ‘till 6 a.m. What time did you wake up?”

“Eleven. Oh. We’re making friendship bracelets. Gotta go. Bye.”

“Bye, oh, by the way, a girl secretly said she doesn’t like you. Toodle-oo,” she says, and hangs up disappointedly.

I frown and roll my eyes. I run to the friendship bracelet circle. Mia has saved me a spot behind her. As I’m making my bracelet, I totally forgot that I was still doing half of the stitches wrong. My design is the Chinese staircase, which is purple and blue, and the one Ella is making me a “friendship” special, which was the crow formation, which looks like a V, in red, white, and blue.

I end up getting pushed in the deep end of the lake after lunch. SO cold. I’m even shivering as I write this. Here’s how it happened, we were eating ham and cheese sandwiches, Kool Aid, and popsicles. The afternoon sun was shining on our sunburnt faces as we laughed and talked. I had mentioned that I was really warm, and that the Kool Aid was refreshing. That’s when Ella got the idea. Mia, Ella, and Kone started whispering. Then they laughed. When everyone finished lunch, they lured me to the deep end of the lake. I didn’t know what I was in for. Mia told me a fascinating story about a fish, I got distracted, and they pushed me in. When the cold water hit my face, I stopped daydreaming and screamed. I fell into the water and rushed back up for air. How could they do this to me?! I was so angry I felt like I could rip my head off. My clothes were soggy. I decided to get them back.

That night, at one in the morning, I ruffle through my duffle bag to get whipped cream, syrup, and crushed up toilet paper. (You never know what is in my bag.) I sneak up to Mia and swirl the whipped cream on her face as she slept, hoping that she doesn’t notice. I creep into Ella’s tent and secure a bucket of syrup to the zipper on the door of Ella’s tent. Then, stealthily, I tiptoe into Kone’s tent. He is fast asleep. I sprinkle the toilet paper into the mobile heater and aim the heater toward Kone’s face. I unzip the tent and fly back to my own tent, lay down, and fall straight asleep. I fall asleep knowing that the kids are the first people to get up, and to do the morning routines that my pranks were set up for. Told you I was a troublemaker.

 

Chapter Four

The day when leaving the campgrounds

January 4th, 2016

 

Dear delightful diary,

 

I wake up at 6:00 (not normal for me), and I sit outside of the tents, on the benches next to the unlit fire. Mia is the first to come out of her tent, face splattered in whipped cream. She is cursing under her breath so that I won’t hear her. She is mad, but I don’t care. She knew she would get it anyway. Then Kone comes. His bedhead hair is in knots, with teeny-tiny bits of toilet paper in his hair. He is as mad as he will get, arms crossed and scowling at me. In his ducky pajamas. I laugh. Hysterically. Ella comes out, drenched in syrup, hair soaking and clothes stuck to her sticky body. Ella’s hair is dark, dark, brown, and it has little glittering spots on the tips. Her tiny bunny slippers have been syruped, and her stuffed bear, is mounted on her jutted-out hip, frowning.

“We get it, you got us back. I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to poke fun at you,” Kone said.

All of them frown. They go to the campground’s walk-in closet to get their stuff. Then they go to the restrooms to change. They all come out fresh and new. Ella appears. Ella’s beady brown eyes glitter in the morning sunlight like dew on a freshly mowed field. I am flipping through a Teen 13 magazine while waiting for the people to finish. When Kone comes out, his mohawk is perfectly gelled in place as is if the wave of his hair had never parted. When Mia comes out, she looks so pretty. She has a white dress with pink little flowers and sparkling show-toe sandals. She has on her little silver earring studs and a silver chain that has her initials on it.

We eat breakfast next to the lake, promising not to push each other in. We laugh like normal, not planning to gang up on each other any more. Then the McDonalds get up, tired and stretching from their sleep. They have sleep in their eyes, and are yawning like crazy. I think they don’t have an alarm clock. We check the time, and start to pack.

I load my light, purple duffle bag into the van. I climb into the way back of the blue van, buckle my seatbelt, and flopped back onto my blue pillow that I fluffed up seconds before. I start to doze off when Ella and Mia get into the car. They are talking loudly, but I can barely hear what they were saying. I open my eyes and yawned. That’s when they notice that I am trying to sleep. They quiet down, and I fall right back asleep. Until the motor starts. But after that, I am asleep for the rest of the ride.

When we get home, it’s starting to get dark out. It is dim and gloomy. I am the first to get dropped off. I look at my green one-story house, and to my bedroom window. It is shaded off with my pink curtains. Ella is walking me down my stone path and to my red front door. My mom opens the door and, with her curly brown hair on my shoulders, hugged me with all of her might. I gently pushed her off of me and she grabbed my bags.

I step into my house, in front of the cushioned couch and as soon as I peer into the kitchen, my dad yells, “Nola?!”

My sister hears this and she steps out of her neat, clean, room, and screams the same thing. She runs into my arms like I’m her long-lost twin. But only part of that is true. The twin part. Not the long-lost part. But she still runs into my arms. I push her off too, because she was just mean to me over the phone. I jog into my room hoping not to get hugged by my little brother, but it was hopeless.

He runs out of his room, and he screamed in his four-year-old high-pitched voice, “Nooolllaaa.”

He jumps on my back like he always does, because, in his own mind, he is a monster. I walk into my room and hold my pillow tight. I flop down on my twin-sized bed.

“Freedom. Please. Help me. I just need a little freedom for a day. I know I have already got a lot of it, but that’s not the same. Just a little, by myself. In the big world.”

My sister peeks her head into my room. “Whaddya say?”

“Nothing. Go away.”

“Okay. Sorry.”

She nods and went out. She shuts my door and goes out. I look at my pendant collection and cry. For no stupid reason. I look at the photos of me and her and cry some more. I fall asleep without dinner. I know right then that something creepy is going on.

 

Chapter Five

The convenience store

January 5th, 2016

 

Dear diary,

 

I wake up with a weird feeling in my stomach. It feels something like a stomachache. I eat breakfast slowly. Oatmeal and orange juice. My father is reading the newspaper when he tells me to go to a stupid mall for a few hours to pick out whatever I want. Weird. He gives me some money and off I go. The mall is right down the street from our house, so I take the sidewalks. 

I get to the big mall with its enormous glass doors and its brick building. When I get there I close my eyes and pray that I won’t go crazy. But I do. I go into absolutely every store in the mall until I come up with a list of what I want to buy. And I buy all of the stuff on the list. After I spent hours in there, and when I have a little money left, I come across an old convenience store that is still in shape.

I don’t hear the warning over the loudspeaker that said, “Two minutes till closing. Two minutes till closing.”

I step into the old convenience store and the shopkeeper is nowhere to be found. He probably went to the restroom or is on break. The walls of the store are brick, like in many movies. On the walls there are pictures of comics. All of the stuff from movies. The store is filled with costumes and fantasy outfits that glamour queens like my sister would flip over.

I run through the aisles of costumes, slowly ruffling them. There are hats on top of the costumes, and stilettos, vans, converse, and different types of shoes, of all colors, shapes and sizes are piled under each costume neatly.

Nor do I hear the announcement that says “Closing. We are now closing.”

Busy going through the silver tiaras. Quiet footsteps tiptoe into the room. The shopkeeper’s quiet ding-a-ling of his keys was too quiet for me to hear, but I hear a faint ring. His keys are sticking out of his pocket, I can see it out of the corner of my eye. The footsteps stop and I hear a little slam of a metal door and a turning of keys in a lock.

Five minutes later I jump up from daydreaming and walk out to the front of the tiled shop. I try to open the door, but they look like they are super-glued together! But they aren’t. They were locked! I bang with all of my might but I can’t get out. I bang for five minutes and by the end my hands are throbbing and my ears are ringing. I walk into an aisle and sink down to the hard, concrete floor. I guess I am in here for now. I look at the friendship bracelet Ella made me and sigh. My friends pop into my head and I close my eyes. I think about the fun camping trip we had (other than the pranking part), and I smile.

“Hello.” A voice was heard that sounded like Ella’s. “I suppose you need help.”

I turn around and stare. There is a masked person in black staring at me. I know that Ella can scheme, but I can’t believe that this is happening. She can prank and everything. Planning too. She tricked me.

The Facts I Learned About Jupiter

Hi! My name is Malia de Pario. I am twelve years old. I have blue eyes and strawberry blond hair because I used to dye my hair, because I thought it was ugly. But it was washed off, and I got tired of dying my hair. A long time ago I thought my hair was ugly, so I dyed it red. One day I went to the beach and while I was surfing I fell in the water and the dye washed out. That is why it is strawberry blond, and not red.

I have a Saturn report I need to accomplish before I go to my gymnastic competition in fifty-five minutes, so I guess I should get to it. I have been doing gymnastics since age three. I love it! It makes me feel all grown up. I am so nervous because anything can go wrong, any second of the competition. I look up facts about Saturn and things popped up about Jupiter! I feel so annoyed and irritated! Anyways, I’m so tired and dizzy (because my practices for gymnastics are so hard) but I decide to read one link anyway, and this is what it says:

Calling All Kids! Here Are Some Facts About Jupiter You Need To Read!

Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Milky Way. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. Jupiter was named after the king of the Roman gods.

 I read on and it’s the best nonfiction story I have ever read. I love it because it is so interesting! And it relates to my life so much because I am a nerd (I love school). Suddenly my mom calls and says I have a gymnastic competition in a few minutes, so we have to go in one minute. I feel so irritated and mad with myself! Argh!  I totally forgot about my Saturn report for school! Help me! OMG!

Trent Pearson: The Lightning Man

“Wake up!” my ten-year-old brother, Sean, squawked as he banged two pans together manically.

You see, my brother can be pretty freakishly annoying. Like when he wakes me up at five o’clock in the morning. My name is Trent Pearson, and I am twelve years old. I want to scream my head off and jump off a building for living in the same room as my brother. Everyday he does the same thing: drive me crazy. Every time he has a nightmare, he gets up off his bed screaming and crying and then he crawls onto my stomach, creaming me.

Well, he’s not too bad – at least he keeps me company when we both get in the school’s idiotic detention.

I looked out the window; it was a very cold day, and a lot darker than usual. But I just assumed it was normal for a New York day. Then I remembered something: the first day of school was today! I sighed and almost walked out the door.

Until a fat bloated man stood in front of me.

“Guys, are you kidding me?” yelled my dad, who was still in his boxers with, thankfully, a shirt on. “Waking me up at four o’clock! You know I need to at least sleep until two o’clock in the afterno-”

He tumbled to the floor, snoring

That was another reason I hate my life. My dad literally hollered at me every day. In fact, he screamed at me so much I’m actually kind of used to it. My mom then came in the room with her hair all messed up and all over her face.

She mumbled, “Go play something for 2 hours, and then get ready for school. When you two get home from school, I’ll make you your favorite cupcakes.”

She fell onto Sean’s bed. My mom had always been my favorite. She was the nicest mom anyone could have. I never realized, but Sean had been silent the whole time – he must’ve been scared of dad. He was hugging (more like squeezing) one of my pillows so tightly that I actually felt bad for it.

***

Two hours passed by and I have done absolutely nothing. I had actually felt relaxed until my brother came screaming out of our room.

“HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT SCHOOL!” my brother complained. I was surprised that my brother had actually cared about school today since we had been sent to detention about every day last year.

When we got to school, the teachers gave us morning detention for three hours for being late. I didn’t really care but my brother was scared to death. When we got to the detention room, there was a man who looked like a hobo sitting at a table. He was wearing shaggy tan pants, and a torn blue shirt. Why was he in a detention room? I sat down and looked at my brother.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom, I’ve been holding it in for the whole day.”

And yet, he was stupid enough to not go during the whole day.

He rushed out the door and so did the hobo. Why did the hobo follow him? I didn’t care.

It had been 20 minutes, and my brother still did not come out of the bathroom.

What’s taking him so long? Is he stuck in the girl’s bathroom again? I thought.

I dashed out of the detention room, ran into a teacher eating a hamburger, took the hamburger, threw it into the detention room, and went into the boy’s bathroom eagerly.

He was gone, and so was the hobo.

The window was open, which meant the hobo had escaped with my brother.

“Wait, why did they add windows in the bathroom?” I asked, shocked.

I panicked and dashed out the door; the hobo was getting away fast, carrying my brother.

“Help! This guy’s armpit smells like when my dad farts, which means it’s really stinky!” Sean bellowed as he kept waving away the armpit stink.

I kept chasing the hobo until something happened that didn’t happen very often. The man lifted his hand up for no reason, and the whole world turned dark. The hobo and Sean disappeared.  I knelt to the ground, crying that I lost my brother. What did this man want, and why did he kidnap Sean? That’s when it happened. A piece of a roof landed next to me.

“Gah! What the?” I questioned and looked up.

There was a fifty-foot dark figure, literally made out of dark stuff, heading towards me.

I gasped and made the mistake of running. Did the hobo send this? The dark figure put his arm out, and a piece of concrete formed in his hands. He threw it and it hit my mom’s apartment.

“Mom! No! Dad! I don’t care about him.” Tears came out of my eyes. Suddenly, I felt anger.

Then the monster put its other arm out. I was floating towards it. No matter what I tried, I kept coming closer and closer to it. It looked like an ordinary man, except for the fact that he was made out of dark clouds and was the biggest thing ever. He opened his palms and grabbed me! Being high in the air had never scared me, but the smell of the monster did. It smelled like a billion skunks had farted directly in my face. I had never known that the monster was solid. Then, something no one could expect happened. A lightning bolt struck the dark evil cloud guy in the chest. The monster was going crazy with electricity emerging out of his body. I fell to the floor, wondering what had just occurred. Then I felt victory – the monster exploded into soft dark clouds in the sky.

“Take that, dark poopy guy,” I said, and I wish I hadn’t, because it reminded me of Sean. We used to prank teachers and feel victorious, just like right now, but a maniac just kidnapped my brother, and he will pay for the destruction of my family.

***

I wandered miserably to, well, nowhere. My mom’s apartment got mashed to smithereens, and I doubted my parents survived that piece of concrete…not that I cared about my dad. But I still had a question: what the heck happened back there and why did a lightning bolt strike the monster out of nowhere on a (kind of) sunny day? Now I was going to rot and die next to the trash can (my new home) like a hobo.

“Hey, you okay?” a voice appeared next to me.

I looked up and saw my old friend Max. He was standing with his jaw open, and with a man that I didn’t recognize. The mysterious new man was wearing an expensive tux with dark glasses that covered his eyes. Under there, I felt like there was darkness.

“What is the meaning of this?” the man barked. “I am the new principal, Mr. Momo, and  because you ran out of school for no reason, you will have a month’s worth of detention!”

I made a choice and I will never regret it.

I ran.

As I ran, I heard footsteps behind me,  I looked back and saw that Mr. Momo and Max were chasing after me. To lose them, I cut around the school corner and grabbed a trash can lid.

As soon as I grabbed the lid, I realized that it was a dead end. Mr. Momo had already caught up to me, but he was breathing like a demented person. Now was my chance.

“Hey, why ya holding a trash can lid?” he asked.

“Uhhh, I’m a trash guy,” I lied.

He charged at me, and there was only one thing to do.

I hit him directly on the head, and then he tumbled to the ground, lying very still. Fear flowed through me – I had just killed a man. Max came running down, gasping for air. When he saw Mr. Momo on the floor, and me holding a trash can lid, I was sure he was going to run. He was wearing a ducky shirt, like he always had, with words that read: Duckies Rock!!!

“Uhhhh, why is Mr. Momo sleeping on the floor,” he said with a stunned expression. He looked up from Mr. Momo, still looking at me still with shock.

“I can explai-”

Kaboom! Blocks of brick from the school flew right next to me and hit Mr. Momo on the head.

“Ughhh oww-”

“Ah!”

“Ah! What, hey, you magical talking lollipops should be in my mouth, come here-” Mr. Momo yelled as he woke up. He wasn’t dead after all.

We were gone in a flash. We ran away and left Mr. Momo yelling like a confused baby. Max and I regretted going in the direction we ran because that was where the blast came from. A forty-foot robot hovered over us, and as we tried to run away screaming like little girls, the robot grabbed us both just like the dark poopy guy did to me. This might’ve been another thing the hobo sent after me!

Max had the good luck of not hanging upside down. Sadly, I was hanging uncomfortably.

“Hey, giant robot dude! Fight me like a man, or man robot, whatever you call a grownup robot,” Max shouted.

He shouldn’t have said that.

The robot let go of us and we were falling out of the sky. I had an urge to strangle him, but something told me that strangling a kid who was also falling out of the sky was useless. That’s it, I was going to die falling out of the sky.

***

Am I dead? I thought.

Everything was black, so I couldn’t see a thing. But something did make me freeze, the groaning of a kid.

Max was alive, and so was I.

He ignorantly struggled to get out of the pile of cement.

“How did we survive? he asked. “And where did that robot thingy majiggy go?”

He was right, that robot was going to regret dropping us like a toy, but where were we and how did we survive? I guess Max read my expression because we both sprinted outside curiously. The mysterious robot left a big trail of footprints to an odd building with all the lights on.

“There must be someone in there, let’s go!” I suggested.

As we approached the bizarre and huge looking building with flags and skulls at the top, guards with spears across their chest randomly appeared. Max’s response was a shriek. They stayed absolutely silent and paid no attention to us as if we weren’t there.

I wonder if they’ll stop me from getting in…. nah. I thought. When I moved just an inch towards the door, the first guard pointed his sword at me. I spoke too soon. My response to that was punching him in the face, kicking the other guard, and moving on. Max looked at me in complete shock.

“Are you going to knock out every person you meet?” he questioned.

When Max put his hand up to knock on the door, I just kicked the door open impolitely, no problem.

“All right, who sent a demented robot out to drop me out of the air a million feet from the ground?!” I said.

No one but one hairy man raised his hand. He was wearing a striped colored turtleneck and striped socks. This guy sure liked stripe stuff.

“That would be me, and no one calls Patty ‘demented!’” he finally answered. “The guards you knocked out there are in fact one of you, and, by the way, my name is Bob!”

We looked at him suspiciously. What did he mean by one of us? I took out the trash can lid I used to knock Mr. Momo out back at the school. Max had just ran outside like a coward to hide from this deadly (not) fight. The hairy man took out a curved stick with a string attached to it, a bow, and an arrow. When I flung my weapon at him, he pulled out a shiny weapon and cut the lid in complete half. When he took his turn, his first arrow nearly hit me in the skull and landed right between cowardly Max and me.

“Wow, you really think––”

KaPooo!

Air ran through my hair, and explosions made my ears ring as I flew into the air. The arrow was explosive, and I probably died.

***

Five hours later, I was laying in a bed that was as hard as steel. Seriously, you could at least give me a comfy place before I die. The room was somber and mysterious, with pictures of people fighting things like the dark poopy guy! As I looked to my right, Max was lying unconscious on the bed with a scar on his head. Quickly, I got up and  slapped him in the face, no biggy.

“Owee!” he said.

“Get up!”

“Okay, jeez louise.”

We dashed silently out the door, when two arms, as fast as cheetahs, grabbed our shoulders. As I was struggling, I heard footsteps behind me. Could that be…

“Well, well, well, I see you guys woke up!” Bob said.

Duh, why do you think we’re standing? I thought.

“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked. “That robot brought you here to be safe, not to be killed. That hobo, well, he’s Mr. Momo. He kidnapped Sean to destroy humanity. This place is called Base Flash. Oh yeah, you are a mon-fighter, a warrior who kills monsters.”

“Wait, how do you know about Sean?” I asked cautiously. “I don’t believe that the hobo is Mr. Momo.”

“I want you to go get Sean and save the – wait, what is it called again? – oh yeah, the world!” he said as he ignored my question.

He took something from behind him. It was a red dagger. I thought he was going to kill us with it since we had tried to run out of the room. Man, he must have been really mad. That doltish man, he lied to us!

“Here, this dagger is from me and your father; he just made it,” he offered.

I was mistaken that he was stupid, but how did my dad just make this? He’s supposed to be dead, unless…

Quick footsteps interrupted me, and I was very surprised to see my dad running down the hall. He was skinnier! He was wearing overalls, with mysterious stains, marked, “Jack Pearson.”

“I’m guessing you’re wondering why I’m not fat…well, that was a disguise so the other side couldn’t kidnap me,” he said. “And that lightning bolt, well, you did that, and that dark stuff the hobo did – that was his potential. I saw through the window.”

“What happened to MOM!” I yelled.

“I tried to warn Mom, but she just slapped me as if I was lying, and she kept slapping me until I was outside. Then, she locked me outside. The apartment blew up as I sat on a bench and thought about my life.”

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I work as a blacksmith here, so I make weapons.”

He told me that I had used my true potential, which was lightning. My response was a wide open mouth. Max fainted.

“Yeah, all that is great, but Trent and I need to go to save Sean!” Max demanded as he got up.

Bob took out what looked like a stained old paper and showed it to us. A bunch of squiggly lines roamed the page. I realized it was a map.

“Walk down the Trail of Darkness, and you will find your brother,” he said.

***

As we walked down the road, uncanny things stalked us behind tree leaves and branches. I got a feeling we were definitely on the Trail of Darkness. The eyes made me shiver and made my hand tremble. The ground was very moist, and crows kept flying around us, almost like they were tracking me.

“We’ve been expecting you,” a very familiar-looking kid said as he alighted from a tree.

“Sean!” Max yelled, astounded.

As I turned my head to see my brother, a loud blast emerged right next to me.

Oh, shoot! Max!

White smoke emitted from the middle of Max’s shirt. His chest was caked with black stuff I didn’t recognize.

“S-Sean! Why did you do that!” I said.

He just smirked evilly. Had he joined the hobo?

“Ha! I’ve turned your dopey brother against you,” said the hobo, as he came into view.

“Hey! You’re the hobo!”

“You may call me Mr. Momo.”

I had a very confused expression on my face. If he was the hobo who kidnapped Sean, who was the lunatic who pretended to be the new principal?

“Oh! That principal was a robot. We had the old principal kidnapped and sent to the Himalayas for vacation. The robot was meant to kidnap you too,” he said annoyingly as if he read my thoughts. “Now, Sean, your brother has annoyed me – kill him, please.”

His face darkened, so I was pretty sure that he wasn’t kidding about that. I knew I would have to fight my brother unless I could persuade him not to listen to Mr. Momo. So I took out the only  thing I had for defense, my red dagger. He snickered, and before I knew it, he had a pure white sword in his hands. I was doomed for sure.

“Time to end this,” he thundered.

***

He made the first move. I should’ve done some training before I came here because as I tried to block his attack, I missed and the blade of Sean’s sword sliced through my skin. After it slashed, it emitted fire from the tip and sent me forty feet behind. It felt like I had fallen from the Empire State Building, and that’s saying a lot.

“Come on, attack me, even though you suck at combat,” he commented.

I couldn’t attack my brother. He could get hurt, and plus, like he said, I suck at combat. I just needed to convince him, but I’d probably die in the process.

“Dude, why did you join his side? He’s evil, cruel, and selfish. He’ll probably eliminate you after he takes over the world. I think you’re under a spell. He killed mom…think of the happy days we spent together, and when we pranked the lunch aid!” I screeched.

That got him thinking, I slowly marched towards Sean, and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was my brother floating in the air with fire circling him.

That was his true potential.

Fire.

Maybe I’m dead now, finally, some peace, I thought.

Or maybe not. The air smelled of dirt, and my vision blurred. I saw a figure with its hand out.

Dang it, Sean is going to kill me.

Not this time.

I kicked him hard in the chest, and I hit his sword hard with my dagger. The weapon clattered to the floor, leaving Sean rolling across the pavement.

“Hey, I’m on your side now!” he protested.

Part of me didn’t trust him, but I might as well have agreed because Mr. Momo was going to kill both of us anyway. When I looked over his shoulder, Max was (stupidly) sneaking up to Mr. Momo for the kill, but the insane kid got intercepted by a kick in the stomach by the ex-principal. “Stop trying to be the hero!” My brother and I looked at each other. We both had the same thought about what to do.

“Hey, Principal, what time is it?” Sean asked.

“Uhh, it about-”

“It’s kabob time!”

Our two powers collided, and we threw the massive ball of lightning and fire at the hobo. A yellow dome emerged, but after, nothing was left but a hole in the ground. We had finally killed Mr. Momo.

“Listen, Trent, I’m sorry for knocking you out, even though it was funny and I kind of liked it,” my brother apologized. “But is there a way to get Mom back?”

He was right; there had to be a way to get Mom! But I doubted anyone knew how. We picked up poor Max and headed back to the building. On the way, I ran into a pole, but my two friends picked me up.

When we walked in the house, I was sure my dad was going to kill Sean. But as we entered the blacksmith’s area, he was still wearing his overalls and was hammering an ax. I never knew I would see my dad be hardworking.

“Oh. My. God! I’m so glad you’re safe. I’m sorry for being mean…you know I’m grumpy when I’m tired. But Sean, you didn’t do anything stupid, right? Even if you did, I forgive you. Come here, you guys,” my father said as he put his arms out to hug us.

I guess he really did change. We went to the game room and played on the Pac-Man machine.

For once, I felt happy to be with Sean and my dad, but what about Mom?

The End!

Be sure to read Part II in the adventure with Trent, Sean, Max, Bob, and Mr. Pearson.

Immigration

My family is almost all made up of immigrants. My mom is an immigrant, and my dad’s grandma is too. Everyone in my family came here to find a better life. Some people are against immigration and think that immigrants are drug dealers or terrorists, but this is not true. Every family has an ancestor who was once an immigrant, so everyone should respect immigration and realize that immigrants help build community in a positive way.

It started when my great-great-great-great-grandma came from Spain to Colombia. She married a Native American, and they created a home in Colombia. Generations later, my grandma was born and had my mom, who immigrated from Colombia to the United States. My mom went to college in Bogota and got her degree in engineering. After college, my mom was going to move to Germany in order to be an engineer, but my grandma said that Germany was too far from home. So my mom moved to the U.S. instead, in order to be an electrical engineer and get a better job. Her arrival the U.S. was a step toward building our family.

My dad’s great-grandma came from Italy to Ellis Island and then moved to Oregon. For college, my dad moved to New York. He met my mom in New York, but then left for Paris. He came back from Paris to be with my mom in New York. Eventually, I was born in New York with dual citizenship in Colombia and the United States.

My mom and dad are only two of millions of immigrants in the world. Many immigrants come from Mexico to the U.S through the border into El Paso. Some immigrants go through illegally and others legally. The legal immigrants get through the border with a passport.

Illegal immigrants who escape from Mexico to find a better life in the U.S. shouldn’t be kicked out of the country just for crossing the border. The majority of illegal immigrants are not harmful to society; rather, they get jobs and work hard. Some illegal immigrants commit crimes, but so do some citizens of the U.S.

A lot of people are against immigrants coming from Mexico and the Middle East, like Donald Drumpf. Drumpf insults Mexicans and Muslims. However, most Mexicans and Muslims really help the U.S.; some help by working at restaurants, others are painters, doctors, construction workers, etc. Furthermore, a big percentage of the U.S. population is Mexican and Muslim.

All in all, we should think about immigration optimistically, because everyone’s family is made of at least some immigrants. Without immigration, most of our families wouldn’t exist. At their core, everyone is an immigrant –– including myself.

Hummingbird

I look outside my kitchen window,

hoping to see the sun.

The day is beautiful,

kids play tag across the street.

 

The neighbors’ wind chime whistles,

singing melodies.

The breeze is delightful,

swaying all the trees.

 

I look at my garden,

at the hummingbird feeder.

A little hummingbird whizzes past,

seeming to say hi.

 

I watch it fly up,

then fly down.

It sips the sparkling red juice

from the feeder.

 

It shakes its head

from the sweetness,

then comes over to my window,

and gives me a small kiss.

 

It sways,

flies back to the feeder.

It feeds,

and flutters away.

The Town of Randomness

Chapter 1: The Alliance

I crouched under a stone table as a laptop hit the ground. On the back, it had the emblem of my sworn enemy. The Swastika of Hitler and his reckless Nazi party. Then I realized Hitler and all the other terrorists that have ever lived were alive currently, right now. I told you this town was random. Suddenly, my back throbbed and I looked behind me. There he was. I knew what was to be done, and I did it. I jumped on top of the table, and my heart stopped beating. I fell off the table, my head splitting on a rock. I woke up. “It was just a dream.” I thought. But I was wrong. My nightmare had found its way out of my head, and it possessed my world. My roof was on fire. There were holes in my skin with splintered bone sticking out, and I shivered. I looked outside and saw the reason I fell off the table. Mahatma Gandhi was Hitler’s ally.

Chapter 2: The Liquid

Out of the blue, an enormous, blue-green, earsplitting UFO crashed into my house sending metal and Astro-Glass, which is a combination of glass and iron, everywhere. All that was left of it was one wall and a few windows. It turned into the Western Wall like in Jerusalem when Judah and his Maccabee gang ran out from behind it.

I felt a flush of warmth as they attacked with fierce, hostile strikes from their swords and staffs. They did a great job of preventing Hitler and Gandhi from reaching their destination, or point of interest, which was my house. But soon, my warmth turned to stone cold fear as Hitler tied my brother and sister to dynamite, which was tied to a chain, which was being lowered into an unidentified liquid, as the scientists said later on.

I threw a handcrafted diamond tipped drill bit at the iron chain, jumped up, caught my brother, and missed my sister as she was absorbed into a murky, brownish-green liquid that looked as if it were venom. A few chunks of happiness went in and out of my heart because I didn’t like her, but I also lost her. My brother, whom I caught for two reasons. One was because he is three and I wanted to stop his awful wailing. Two was because he is a little kid and I didn’t want him to get hurt.

I plunged into the poison after my sister was sucked into it, and my life changed, starting that day, that minute, that second, that nano-second.

Chapter 3: Arcade Machine

It was dark, with dim pixel-like chandeliers. There were video game machines. One screamed in enormous green letters: DIMENSION TRAVELER.

I bet I came out of that one because this does not look anything like ‘Random Earth.’” I thought.

Then there was a flash of purple light, and my sister was launched out of the DIMENSION TRAVELER game. But before I could say hi, a tremendous force charged me into the wall, and my world went blank. I was sitting on a hospital bed, and a sort of energy was pulsing in my fingertips; a bolt of lightning shot out of them.

“Wow, I did not know you could do that.”

“Neither did I,’’ I replied to my sister, in a panicked way.

All of a sudden, an abominable snowman burst through the wall and tossed a sack over me, and another sack over my sister. I felt a forceful jolt as the “Yeti” threw us over his shoulder and stormed out of the hospital. I felt the pulse again, aimed my fingernails at the side of the bag, and squeezed my eyes shut. I opened them and it looked as though Saint Elmo’s Fire had been launched out of a cannon and shredded the fabric. For a split second, I saw the concrete groundbut it wasn’t concrete. It was some sort of portal, the color of a setting sun in the sky. Just as I went through the portal, I saw my sister fall through another portal the color of a wave collapsing on the ocean floor. My mind was empty, and my body was the only thing that seemed to race with thoughts.

Chapter 4: The Chocolate Dog

I came to my senses and felt my ribs throbbing, and knew that I fell on them after I fell in the portal. I got up and felt in my pocket. Phew! I was so glad I had my cell phone. I called my sister immediately but stopped in my tracks before I dialed her number as I saw that I was in a forest. I was shocked that I was in a forest after I had just been in a hospital, and I wanted to know more about where I was. I climbed up a nearby mountain and at the top, I saw nothing but emerald-green treetops. I pulled a bar of chocolate out of my other pocket. I heard something and listened, straining my ears so hard I thought they would dissolve, and found a dog, thumping its tail on the ground, sitting patiently. It was staring at my hand.

“What do you want?” I asked.

I looked at my hand and saw my Hershey bar, half-eaten. I ripped off a piece, and hesitated, but made my decision quickly. I tossed it to the dog, but it bounced off his nose and tumbled down the cliff.

“YOU WASTED THE LAST PIECE OF MY CHOCOLATE!!! But you would make a gr … ”

Then, the dog was pulled into a bush by a pair of silvery-white gloved hands, and the branches smacked my face. I sputtered dry leaves out of my mouth and pushed them aside.

There, I saw a knife in each eyeball, and half of the dog’s leg was cut off and it sent a fountain of gooey yellow liquid all over the rich dirt, the color of gold.

“Random Earth,” I said disappointedly.

I bent down to touch the dog, and once again, the pulsing energy in my fingertips. ZAPPP!!! The dog turned to ashes and the knives launched into the air. I tried to grab the handles but instead, it ripped my hand off and had a play-date with it above the clouds. I was too busy sobbing over my hand to notice the other knife falling from a hole in the clouds. Luckily, I looked up to the heavens so I could pray for a new hand and moved out of the when I saw the blood-stained blade glistening in the sunlight, spiraling downward. It came down hard on a moss-covered rock and slid into a big hole. Then, the other knife was coming down. It landed (blade down) straight through my neck and out my nose.

Chapter 4 ½: The Castle

As if they read my mind, the angels of God sent me a new head and a new hand. I just had an instinct and threw one on top of the other. They combined and turned into a robot suit the size of Canada. My test subject was a sheep. Apparently, his name was “Creep Sheep the Third,” according to the nametag saying “Hello! My Name Is Creep Sheep The Third, But Call Me Bob.” My new body parts snaked around my legs and my torso, creating the suit that had a built-in pancake-and-coffee breakfast machine in the living room, which was in the brain. I readied the plasma-cannon in the shoulders with 170,000,000 bullet capacity, while picking up the best-selling novel LOL. I shot Creep Sheep and left a crater with burnt wool in it. I walked around the forest for a while when I found a path. It could be dangerous! I thought. I stomped 70 feet per second because of my Israel-sized legs and saw a tower on a mountain far away. I went to the Siri-Bot and asked it what in the name of Baloney and Cheese Sandwiches from Jupiter a castle was doing there and Siri-Bot said it was called Hell’s Elf Nightmare, a castle ruled by the Elven King Mr. Sunshine.

I got out of my suit and walked up the almost infinite stairway to heaven. I opened the surprisingly mouse-hole-shaped door that I crawled through. I was thrown into the jail cell across from my sister for “intruding.”

The next morning I told my sister we had to escape. We escaped by hiding in barrels on the lunch break. Those were from the winery in the hall across from our cell and my sister fell down the waterfall on the opposite side of the mountain, and I was close behind as the elves lobbed us down. As the barrels landed with a psha-splash-boom I heard a curse word from my sister as she landed upside down.

“Hahaha!!!” I yelled at her.

I landed right-side up, crouching on my new converse, which were unreleased, model 27px 2018. Then, my fingertips.  

“Okay,” I sighed and tore open the reinforced wood-and-metal barrel, but the lasers were green and purple this time.

“Huh?” I said, breaking my sister’s barrel too.

But unfortunately, it replaced her shoulder with a pile of ashes, doing the same with three-quarters of her head. All that was left was the corner of her mouth and the right side of her chin. Before I could react to the fact that I cut off my sister’s head, I heard a scream come from nowhere. A button fell from the sky. Without thinking, I pressed it.

A robotic and deep voice said, “You now have a new power to reverse anything you do with your lasers.”

“Okay?” I pointed my hand at her head and shoulder.

Her face was instantly revived. I walked with my sister in the direction of the scream. We found a bloody, dead body in a prairie, and an assassin standing next to it holding a DuMbLeDoRf bow with a CoreVein arrow. The DuMbLeDoRf bow was made of stone instead of wood, so it is more durable. I had read about it in my school library. The CoreVein arrow had human veins in it.                              

Chapter 5: Back Home

The assassin’s name was Rikki Doucornet Sheppard Josh Max DuPeublo Ancadar Sedaka Neandorie Goyashu Monet Edgar Shushan Huluco Czynok Abar Nomwaque Eehopratt Lopandez Jalepeno Fillifar Boqua Twitter Snapchat Facebook  Flickr Vimeo Instagram Youtube Xander Lopez Bryant Triupoa Noijus Dodperea DaVinci Sealone Eedraz Gomez Golem Wockeel Udoe Sushi Burger Fatboy Momma Jin John Jones Bones Smith Jefferson Washington Lincoln Roosevelt Wasabi. Call him Rick Wasabi for short. My sister kicked him in the face and he stumbled. I shot him with his bow and he died. A green glow appeared in front of me. I was sucked in, and I saw my ceiling. It was all a dream. Thank you for letting me tell you my dream. My name is George Melez and I will tell you a story about a boy named Hugo Cabret and a drawing that changed his life.

The End (P.S. if you want to hear the rest, read the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret!)

The Big Crystal

One day there lived a puppy who was three weeks old. Her name was Sugar and she lived on a corner block in the city. She was a black dog with straight, shiny fur. Her tail was long and her ears flopped down. There were six dogs in Sugar’s family. There was her mother and father who also had black, shiny fur, her sister, Chewy, and two brothers. She was the baby of the family and the smallest, and she felt very nervous when her brothers chased her. Sugar always wanted to play with Chewy, but Chewy liked to play at the dog park with her friends, and never invited Sugar to come along. This made Sugar sad. Her mom and dad were always so busy with her brothers and sister that they couldn’t spend much time with Sugar.

What Sugar wanted most in the world was someone to show her attention. She thought and thought about how she could get an owner. It took her a week to come up with a plan, but she needed more information. So one day when Chewy went to the dog park, Sugar snuck out behind her and followed her.

The dog park was a large area of dusty dirt. There were a lot of trees scattered around the park, but strangely, there were more people than dogs. It was a cool day. Sugar didn’t think it was actually a dog park, but Chewy had told her it was. Sugar tried to hide from Chewy by hiding in a bush. She listened to the kids walking by and talking to try and find out where she could get a crystal. She overheard a kid say that there was a very big crystal at the end of the woods. At this, Sugar wagged her tail, and stayed around to see if she could find out more. When she heard nothing else, she went home to prepare to find the crystal.

Sugar packed in a big backpack a pillow, her favorite dog toy (a chewy squirrel that squeaked!), some food (nobody paid attention to her, so this was quite easy), and her food and water bowls. She planned to leave the next morning after Chewy went out to the dog park again. Unfortunately around her there were a lot of woods, so she wasn’t sure which one she had to go in. Despite this, she felt happy because she really wanted someone else to take care of her besides her parents. She was ready for the challenge. The backpack was big enough for her to curl up inside, so she slept on the pillow, excited for the morning.

But Chewy didn’t go to the dog park the next day.

Sugar asked Chewy, “Are you going to go to the dog park later tonight, or are you never going again?”

Chewy said she never planned to go to the dog park again.

Sugar felt sad, but didn’t say anything to Chewy. She just walked away, and came up with plan B: to jump out of the window that night.

Sugar went into the living room while the other dogs received their treats. Out the window there was a rose bush. She knew the rose bush had thorns so she went into the kitchen and opened a window. Outside that window there was nothing but grass. She jumped outside, but she forgot to put her backpack on! She remembered there was a doggy door, so she went back inside. She ran to get her backpack and slipped it on her back. Sugar returned to the kitchen. Chewy was waiting by the entrance of the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” she asked Sugar.

“Going to the dog park,” Sugar said. She felt nervous because she realized that Chewy didn’t know she’d been to the dog park. She thought she might get caught.

“Do you want me to come?” Chewy asked.

“Tomorrow,” Sugar said. With that, she jumped out the already open window.

She worried that when she returned she wouldn’t get any treats because her parents would be so mad at her. She didn’t want her parents to find out she was gone. The night was cold, and she realized she hadn’t packed a blanket. She thought about the blanket that her parents kept outside, but she didn’t know where it was stored. She sniffed around the backyard and found the blanket underneath her favorite tree. She felt sad to leave that tree because she always lay under it no matter the weather. But she had to find that crystal, so she went to the gate. It was locked, and she couldn’t jump over it, so she had to get the key that was placed in a box by the door. There were twenty-three keys on the key-ring, and Sugar tried every single one, until finally the twenty-third key worked! She opened the gate and went on her way.

There were three different ways to get into the woods, but she didn’t know which way to take. There was a piece of paper that told her which path to take, but the paper got ripped, so she didn’t know which path to take. She remembered that she’d been given a sign, so she took it out and read it, and that told her which way to go. She took the middle path.

There was a big, big bridge. The bridge was very low, and mice walked underneath it. Sugar looked around for a rope so that she could climb the bridge and get on top of it, but she couldn’t find one. Sugar barked and howled for someone to help. There was a car on top of the bridge. A person in the car was talking to another. “Are we going to be here for a long time?” said one person.

“Yes,” said the other.

Sugar tried to get their attention but couldn’t, so Sugar decided to wait. The people on the bridge left their car there, and didn’t come back until the next day. Sugar opened her backpack, got out her pillow, and went to sleep for the night.

Sugar woke to the sound of the two people’s voices, and this time got the attention of one of them. The person said, “I think that dog needs help!” But the other person ignored her needs to get up onto the bridge. The two people got back into their car and drove away.

This made Sugar feel frustrated and upset. She thought and thought about how this could’ve happened and then she remembered that the day she got the sign that told her to take the middle path was the day that the signs had changed, and she wasn’t given the right one. But this still didn’t solve her problem. She decided that she had to take the left path instead. It took her a long time to get back to the start of the path, and she was exhausted when she got there, but she knew she had to keep going.

Along the left path she encountered a gigantic bear with three bear cubs. She felt very nervous that the bear was going to eat her alive, but it turned out that all the bear wanted was water to give to her cubs. Sugar took a bottle of water out of her backpack and offered it to the mother bear, who was very grateful to Sugar for helping her babies.

Sugar said goodbye to the bear, and continued on her way down the path. As she walked, Sugar thought about what else she might encounter. Would she run into another bear? Or an owl? Or maybe a less friendly animal, like a fox? For a while, there were no other animals. She was alone and the path began getting darker, and she saw dying trees. She was nervous now. But she continued walking, because she wanted that crystal. And suddenly, she heard a loud thump right behind her. When she turned around, she quickly realized it was a giant tree that had fallen and had barely missed her by three inches. At that moment, she wished she had asked someone to come with her. But she kept moving. Then she got thirsty, so she checked her backpack for a bottle of water. She didn’t have any water, but noticed a cabin nearby. She headed to the cabin and reached the door. Thankfully, the doorbell wasn’t too high up, because she was able to hop and ring it with her nose.

And owl with sharp, sharp claws opened the door and said, “Hello?” But Sugar had run away and hid behind a tree. She was scared of owls, because she knew they were birds of prey. “Hello… anyone out here?” the owl said in a friendly voice.

Sugar began to shiver. Finally, she peeked her head a little, and the owl spotted her.

“Hey there, I see you. It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you,” the owl said.

Sugar didn’t respond; she kept shivering.

The owl walked outside. She had a wide wingspan, but her claws were hidden now. She had white feathers and black stripes.

Sugar stepped out and showed herself.

“Want me to bring you inside?” said the owl. “You look scared.”

“I’m a little thirsty.”

“I can get you some water. I’ll be right back.”

When the owl came back with a glass of water, she said to Sugar, “Do you want to come inside and spend the night?”

“No, thank you. I’m just going to drink my water and then I have to continue on my journey.”

“Can I join you on your journey?”

“Sure.”

“Great! I’m Owlette by the way. What’s your name?”

“Sugar.”

“Let me just pack a few things and I’ll be all ready to go.”

“Okay. Don’t take too long.”

So Sugar and Owlette set off to find the big crystal. While Sugar was glad to have the company she was also worried. She didn’t know if she could trust Owlette, because she’d never met an owl before.

It started to get dark so they stopped to have dinner. Fortunately, they found an abandoned tent so they went in it and ate. The next morning, after they woke up, Owlette folded up the tent and realized that she could fit it inside her backpack. Sugar felt happy that they would always have a dry and cozy place to sleep. And after that Sugar started to trust Owlette a little more.

As they headed down the path Sugar started thinking about her parents back home.

“I’m worried that my parents are going to be mad at me for leaving home. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Oh well,” Owlette said, thinking that she didn’t want Sugar to be worried, so she was going to change the subject to get Sugar’s parents off her mind. “Are we almost there?” Owlette asked. “I’m getting tired’’

“Yes,” replied Sugar.

“How much further?” Owlette asked.

“Just past that pond over there. Can you see it?”

Owlette squinted and looked into the distance. “Yes, Sugar, I can see it. But just barely.”

“It looks further than it is. We will be there soon.”

Sugar and Owlette set off to the pond. It didn’t take them long to get there; however, they soon realized that they had no way to cross it. Neither of them knew how to swim and it was too deep to walk across.

“Oh, no problem. I can fly across the pond.”

“But I can’t fly,” Sugar said sadly.

“I have an idea. Why don’t I carry you on my back while I fly across?”

“Okay! Let’s try it.”

Owlette ducked down and Sugar jumped on her back, but once Owlette started to take off Sugar got scared.

“I’ve never flown before,” she explained, “I think I’m too scared to do this.”

“I understand. I have an idea. I see that there are big lily pads leading across the pond. Why don’t you hop on each one while I fly across?”

“Okay. I’ll try.”

When Sugar got to the other side of the pond, she said to Owlette, “I’m so glad I made it. I nearly drowned hopping on one of the smaller lilly pads, but I was able to get across.”

“How much further now?” Owlette asked.

“It is behind that tree in the ground.”

Then Owlette said, “But what are we going to use to get in the ground?”

“I can dig really well,” Sugar responded.

Then Owlette said, “But I can’t dig. I don’t have paws like you.”

Sugar looked then in her backpack to see if there were any tools in there that Owlette could use. But there were no tools that Sugar could find for Owlette to use.

Sugar said, “It’s okay. I can dig and you can watch me.” Owlette sat and watched Sugar dig, but it was taking a while. Owlette told Sugar she was going to go back to where she lived because there wasn’t anything for her to do there. Just then, Sugar saw something in a bush and said, “Before you go I want to see if there is something in the bush that you could use.”

When she looked in the bush she found a shovel that was easier to hold. Owlette decided to stay and use that tool. They dug and dug and dug, until finally, they reached the crystal! When they reached the crystal, they figured out it was not that big. It was only the size of Owlette. They were expecting it to be as big as an ostrich. They were happy that they found the crystal, and that there was enough room in the backpack for it to fit. But Owlette and Sugar were sad because they wanted it to be bigger.

“What are we going to use to split up the crystal?” Owlette asked.

“We never planned that we would split it up,” said Sugar.

“I came on this journey because I thought I would get some of the crystal.”

“But you never told me that you would.”

Just then Sugar saw more of the crystal.

“You can get all of the crystal that we found, and I can get all of the one in the ground.” Sugar said.

Owlette agreed. When they got the crystal out of the ground it was much bigger — it was the size of an ostrich!

Owlette said, “Why do you get the bigger crystal and I get the smaller crystal?”

“Because I was the one that was going to get all of the crystal, but I let you have some.” Owlette seemed disappointed, but eventually said it was okay.

They walked back to Owlette’s house and said goodbye. Sugar asked for more water and food for the way. And then, Sugar was alone. When she got back she told her family about her journey. They used the crystal for what they wanted and lived happily ever after.

The Subway Tragedy

CHAPTER 1

I was walking toward the subway station with earbuds ringing with the sound of 50 Cent in my ears to help me walk on. When my tired legs got to sit down on the subway seat…

“Kasye,” Mom said.

I looked up to see Grace (my sister) holding her hand out. I rolled my eyes to Mom. Her green eyes pointed at my hand. I knew what my sister wanted. I stopped the music on my phone, pulled out my earbuds from my ear, and handed everything to Grace. Grace played a game while listening to Justin Bieber. Grace says she’s a “Belieber” (she’s obsessed with Justin Bieber). Then, all of a sudden, the subway lights went out. I heard someone scream, then the subway car stopped. I heard a huge CREAK and then the subway car fell sideways.

 

CHAPTER 2

My head throbbed. I heard my sister cry. People were holding up their phone flashlights for light.

“Listen up!” a man’s voice said, “Point your flashlights at the subway door. We’ll try to open the doors.”

“What will happen after that?” a voice said.

Everybody was silent, shining their flashlights on the door.

“We walk,” he said.

“One… two… three… push!” Creeeak went the door.

“Oh –– ” I covered Grace’s ears.

“It’s open,” the guy said.

The silence broke and everybody started toward the door. I went out into the track and saw more closely the guy who opened the door. He had light, straight, gold hair, sky-colored eyes with a hint of jade. Tall and strong. Right when I walked out of the car, he started to walk with me.

“Hi,” he finally said.

“Hi,” I said back.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Should I tell you my name?” I asked.

“I’m Carter,” Carter smiled.

“I’m Kasye.” I said.

“Cute name,” he said.

“I look like a poppy,” I blushed.

“No, you look more like a rose.”

I blushed more.

 

CHAPTER 3

I was scared. It was cold. I squeezed my sister’s hand.

“It’s okay,” Carter said, rubbing my back.

People tried to call 911, family, police, but there was no wifi. The driver was dead and his walkie-talkie was broken.

We were stuck.

We had to walk.

And I wanted to survive.

I put Grace on my shoulders to try to call 911. I shivered. Walked to the right of the tracks where there was a hill in the middle of the tracks going down, so we didn’t get electrified. Mom was helping an old woman whose leg was broken. 

“I’m scared too,” Carter said.

“Can I trust you?” I asked in my serious voice.

“Yes,” he said, not smiling but looking me in the eye.

I put Grace down. Then I hugged Carter and cried on his shoulder. He hugged back. And in that moment I felt safe.

 

CHAPTER 4

Dead mice and trash covered the area, sewage and mud pooled into my shoes, and the worst part, I was in love.

Yes. Carter. My heart thumped in me as he came closer.

“It’s so hot in here!” Grace complained.

“Go ask Mom for water,” I said.

Grace was right. People had bare skin showing right now. Even Carter had his sweater off.

“STOP! Don’t drink that, honey!” a woman’s voice shouted.

I turned to look as a kid found a puddle of swampy, muddy, sandy sewage water. The worst part was the kid put a scoop in his hand and gulped it down. The mom ran over as the kid threw up on the track. This was getting bad. Luckily, there was a doctor with his tools in his bag. The doctor made the kid throw up again. And the problem was that more people got sick. Even Mom did, and Carter said he would wait with us until she got better.

You might think I was crazy, but I met a stranger who was crazy cute and I now was crazy in love with. That’s a lot of crazy.

“Over the past hours,” Carter said, “I feel the need to admit something… I…” he blushed, “lo –– ”

“Love you,” I finished.

“I love you too,” Carter said.

Then I learned up and looked him in the eye and we kissed.

 

Chapter 5

We walked and walked.

And when we saw a bright light behind us, I thought it was heaven. There was screaming. I heard Carter yell, “TRAIN!”

He pushed me right as the train flew over him.

At first, I was confused. But then I saw red. A puddle of red. And then I saw legs, feet, arms, more red.

“NO!” I said as I realized it was Carter’s body.

He was dead.

Mom put her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s keep going,” she tried to sooth my wrinkling heart but like a sharpie it stayed.

We walked three more hours. I was devastated the whole way, crying and barely able to keep my balance. But then we saw another bright light, this time not coming toward us.

 

Chapter 6

“Yes!” people yelled, rushing toward the light. I did too.

Finally, we jumped off the tracks and on the platform.

“Ahh!” people yelled. And then everything went blank.

I woke up to beige walls and curtains. Hospital. I felt rested, calm, but I remembered Carter and his body sucked in a red bloodbath. Mom and Grace walked in and gave me a kiss on the head and a heart-warming hug. I got out of the hospital and looked up at the frostbite sky and thought, Peace, finally, peace.

I walked home, my feet crunching in the snow. Although Grace had crutches, we were fine. And although Mom was in a wheelchair, we were fine. And although my heart had one huge piece missing, we were fine. Fine, or good, or okay, or not too bad. Like a bird flying and soaring… and then falling in an ocean, drowning, and dying, never to see the light again. That’s fine to me.

That night, I met Grace in Mom’s room for nightmares haunting me, reseeing the horrors I saw. And then we all woke up and played Sorry the game.

 

Chapter 7

Three Days Later…

I woke up to the chirping of birds. I put on my robe and grabbed a mug and made coffee. Mom was in the kitchen making blueberry pancakes. I grabbed some and sat on the couch. I watched the news and finally something caught my attention.

The headline: “One More Boy Walks Out From Subway… A Boy Named Carter.”

“Carter!?” I yelled. I ran to the hospital, only to see Carter outside in the snow staring at me.

I ran and threw myself into his arms. We fell in a pile of snow and rolled around, hugging.

“How?! What?” I said.

“You left me there!”

“What? I thought you were dead!”

“Didn’t you want a funeral with MY BODY?”

“We were scared! You would’ve held us behind!” I said, crying. Carter looked at me with a bitter face. The tears burned with flames and then froze in the cold.

“Do you love me?” I asked with the bitter face mask still on.

He didn’t seem to know how to answer.

“I….” But I knew his answer. “Don’t,” he said.

My face softened and turned from surprise to pity.

“What did I do!?” I yelled.

“You left me. I’ll never be able to play football again!”

He walked away.

“Do you… hate me?” I said out of breath.

At first, I thought he didn’t hear me, but he stopped. He turned and he was crying too. Then he walked away.

 

Chapter 8

My legs ached, my head ached, and my heart ached. I went to the hospital and I waited for my appointment. Outside, in the silent waiting room, I heard, “… you know you’ll die soon.”

“I… know,” said a voice I knew was Carter.

Then crying. His mom. And I was tearing up the memories of Carter.

One Week Later…

Carter was dead. Gone. And I was at his funeral.

“We will remember Carter…” I was sick in the belly. Hurt, and dissolved. My life, my heart, gone.

A Day at Work

A Day at Work

8:00 p.m. I just found out tomorrow I’m going to my mom’s job! This is great news because she works as an editor. Her office is a newsroom with people from all over the world and there is a vending machine and free hot chocolate. It sounds so exciting! Tomorrow’s gonna be my lucky day.

10:00 a.m. the following day: I’m here at my mom’s office. The ride was like a roller coaster. I got really sick in the car and almost threw up over my clothes. Now I have some hot chocolate, a bag of Cheetos, a good chair, and I have your company, my ever so precious diary. So everything is great. I’m loving it!

10:05 a.m. I was wrong. Oh my God, I was so wrong. Work is boring. It’s the most boring thing in the universe. Now I’m so glad that I’m still in fourth grade and won’t need to get a job like this for while.

10:10 a.m. Just imagine if I had to come here five days a week. This is eight hours per day, from Monday to Friday. 40 hours per week. Okay, you got it — I’ll just stop making this situation a math problem. The boringness would make me all wrinkly. Look at my hand… it’s getting wrinkly so fast!

10:20 a.m. I’m thinking about good jobs I could get. I’ll definitely never be a website editor. I’d like to have one of the super awesome top ten funnest jobs in the world. I think I’d be a great waterslide tester, or maybe even a professional sleeper. I’m just certain I WON’T TRY THIS JOB HERE, EVER.

10:30 a.m. I have finished the hot chocolate and the Cheetos. I asked my mom how much longer we’re gonna have to stay here. She didn’t say anything, just looked to me. You should have seen her face. I can only say one word: WRINKLED.

10:31 a.m. Okay, you know what? I’m done. It’s not even 10:40, and I can’t do this any more. So BYE!    

I Never Wanted a Coffee Shop

“I never wanted a coffee shop, Dad! Why do I have to work here? It’s not fair. This coffee shop doesn’t even look good, or have my favorite color, pink. Plus, it has weird drawings of coffee, and the tables are made of coffee beans. And I don’t want to work in a weird place without the color pink. Everything is brown! The walls, the cups! I just want to play outside with my friends. Look, they’re all playing out there,” I said with my arms crossed, standing beside the line. We had just opened the coffee shop and there was a huge line outside. We only had three employees and I had to be the fourth. It wasn’t fair.

My dad yelled back, “Well, you have to work here. Plus, you’re embarrassing me in front of the customers. Go to the counter. Look, there’s a HUGE line. And you’ve got to buy everything and make the recipes. And it’s not a joke. So have fun, goodbye.”

Some people in the line were staring at us. Other people were covering their children’s ears and eyes. And other people were just trying to not look, and looking at the walls. I couldn’t believe they were looking at the walls and not at us – the walls were really ugly. I went to the counter and started taking orders. There were a lot of orders.

The only employee who helped me learn all about the coffee making was Serina. I was in charge of buying everything at the supermarket and taking the orders, and she was in charge of making the coffee. She would always make hearts and pretty things on the surface of the coffee if it had milk, like lattes, frappuccinos, cafe con leche, and things like that. She told me that she wanted to be an architect or a painter when she grew up. She had always painted at her home. Now she was painting at the coffee shop. She painted the entire coffee shop and the tables (more like bought them, but don’t tell her I told you that).

At the end of the month, it was payday. We had enough money to pay everyone, but we didn’t win a lot for ourselves –– each one of us had earned only $10. This time, we bought new ingredients, and we knew exactly how our customers liked it. The first time I made a coffee, the customer asked for half the amount of sugar. I put way more than half the amount, and he spit it out and said he thought it was disgusting. But then, when I made the same coffee for another customer, she loved it and said she would come every day. The line eventually got bigger.

Now we had planned out each recipe and made a new menu, with new employees whom we had hired. Their names were Emily and Joey. They were our coffee servers. By the end of that month, each one of us had made at least $40.

Finally, the two months were over, but I had had a lot of fun. I kind of did want to stay in the coffee shop with all my friends; the friends that were always playing outside had all gone to New Jersey. I hate New Jersey. Don’t tell them I told you that. Basically, I hate everything. Don’t tell me secrets –– I’ll spit them out easily, just like I did to you.

So, I decided to stay in the coffee shop. My friends were so happy that they made me a special coffee which, instead of a heart, said “Best Friends Forever.”

The day after, I told them my plan: we could make little cupcakes that said “Best Friends Forever,” and each would come with a note that said: “Give this to your best friend: the person who never treats you badly and whom you also treat nicely.” When we made those cupcakes, everyone was so impressed that about ten people bought them after school. We made a special offer that said if you bought a “Best Friends Forever” cupcake, you would get a “Best Friends Forever” coffee.

Finally, we all got tired of the coffee shop. It showed: when the month ended, we got just $20 each. We had done something wrong, but I didn’t care. I liked the coffee shop a lot more because I had new friends, who all moved closer to the coffee shop.

Every morning we would go get a coffee. We thought about it and, entering as employees, we made friends and got a “Best Friends Forever” cupcake and coffee. We worked in the coffee shop until we were old enough to get another job.

Omar’s Great Adventure

There once was a seven-year-old boy named Omar Winerib. He lived in Lebanon with his dad, his mom, his teenager sister, and his two adult brothers. He went to a school called Barnesjan, which is a special school that teaches students how to not fight and live peacefully. He loved science and sports but most of all he loved to invent things. His goal was to one day invent a machine that made virtual reality real. Omar was a hard worker and he always thought about science and his inventions, even when he was walking home from school late at night in the dark by himself.

One night Omar was at his computer doing research and he came across a website that said, “Syria is dying! Syria is dying!” It made him feel very sad. Many of his friends and his dad’s friends were in Syria and he was very concerned for their safety. He did some more research about what was going on in Syria and he learned that there was a group called Fikke (which meant “powerful” in Arabic) who were killing the Syrian people.

This made him really really upset so he went to his father and said, “Dad! Dad, can we take your plane and go to Syria to try to save the people from Fikke?”  

“Okay,” his dad said. “But just this once.”

“Thank you so much!” Omar said. “Let’s go!”

They went to bed early that night because the plan was to wake up at three in the morning to leave for Syria. Omar’s dad’s plane was named The Cross of the Swords. It was parked in a gigantic garage behind their house. Omar’s dad climbed into the cockpit and Omar strapped himself into the co-pilot’s seat.

Then Omar’s dad said, “Syria, here we go!”

They left Lebanon and went to Syria. The plane ride was very, very, very scary because people tried to shoot them and the engine almost got shot, but they had a safe landing.

“Let’s go see why Fikke is bad,” said Omar’s dad.

Omar said, “How do you know where they are?”

“I went to school with many of them. Most times when I hear about Syria, Fikke is shooting at the president of Syria’s home and trying to kill the president,” Omar’s dad said.

“Where is the president?” Omar asked.

“It’s two miles away from here, so we better take a break.” Omar’s dad said.

So Omar and Omar’s dad stopped to eat two bananas, one jar of cookies, milk, and sausages. Then they walked and finally they found the leader of Fikke. His name was Patrick. He had brown eyes and black hair. He wore army clothes and a machine gun across his chest. He had three small bombs in his pocket.

Omar felt scared but he spoke to Patrick anyway, “Why are you bombing all the buildings and killing the people?”

“They have too much money and they aren’t sharing it with anyone,” Patrick said in a grumpy voice.

“Ask them and maybe they’ll share. If they say no, go to the bank,” Omar said.

“Why should I? What if the banks say ‘no’?” Patrick yelled. “I’ll make you a deal. If the person at the bank says I can have money, I will fix all the buildings with my team. If he says ‘no’ I will kill you, too.”

Omar felt so scared. In his head, he thought, What if the guy at the bank says no? Then he’d die for nothing. He agreed to the deal because he didn’t think he had a choice. Then, Omar ran away.

Omar told his dad: “What if the person at the bank says no?” But his dad reassured him the person at the bank wouldn’t say no.

“I know this place,” his dad said. “I lived here until I was 11, and the people at the bank are very nice.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Omar said.

The next day Omar went to the bank and saw Patrick walk in.

He heard the person at the bank say, “Of course you can have money. You can have all the money here! People save their money here for people who don’t have money.”

Patrick took his money and found Omar. He told him he wouldn’t kill him. “I’m going to help rebuild all the buildings,” he said. “I’m going to throw my guns away and throw my bombs away and never do this again. I’ll tell the rest of my team to do that, too.”

With Patrick’s help, Fikke helped to rebuild all of the walls and buildings. They put their weapons in a big chest underground and buried it. Omar and his dad jumped back on their plane and flew home safely. He was happy to be home and back with his family

Moon Shadows

We amble on the sidewalks,

The crevices connecting our hearts.

The brilliant glow of the moon

Lighting our path to destiny.

We think we have it figured out,

Old and polished.

But we realize that we’re wrong

As we stumble blindly through the shadows of the moon

Submerged in blue.

Sometimes we fall asleep under the stars,

Because we are not ready to be ordinary.

We’re extraordinary.

As for the moment, at least.

Darling, we’re adventurers

And there’s definitely not anything wrong with that.

We’re ready to see the world,

So bring it on Planet Earth.

How Burritos Came To Be

My name is Jerry and I’m a giant. I live in The Forests, which is  a group of (try and guess!) forests that protect different species of fairy. One day, I was visiting my friend Luna in The Pixie Forests, when suddenly I came upon a very interesting cottage that was big enough for me to fit. The door was open and there was smoke coming from the chimney. I decided to have a look. I went inside and found something beautiful! It looked as though it was made of gold and had tiny black speckles on it. I wanted to touch it! I needed to have it! I bent down to touch it, and alarms started to go off! A head with a crown fell from the chimney.

I know, you’re thinking, “ Eww, a head with no body!” But it wasn’t gross. It was the king of the Pixies, King Headless, which is kind of ironic. He had once been a Pixie but lost his body in a battle. He rolled on to his round chin and looked at me with red eyes. (He was a Pixie. They do these things.)

“How dare you try and disturb my marvelous taco shells! You may not touch my taco shells! You may not eat my taco shells! You may not even look at them! Now, shoo! Begone with you!”

I bowed down to the king and got out of there as quickly as I could. When I got to Luna’s yard (I couldn’t fit in her house) I sat down and told her the story.

When I was finished, Luna said, “We can make our own taco shells! We just need to find out what ingredients we need.”

“That’s a bit of a problem since the King won’t let me go back to the cottage.”

“Well, everything we make is made with flour, so there must be some in these.”

I nodded. Luna was smart in these ways.

“What color were the shells?”

“They were a golden shade.”

“Well, I’ll bring all of the yellow plants I grow in my garden, and we’ll see what I can ground into powder.” She came back with a banana, corn, and a pear. “I’ll make six of each using these.”

An hour later, the batch made with banana was ready. It looked flat, nothing like the shells I saw at the cottage. When I sampled it, boy, was it awful! It was as though a unicorn had pooped on them. Believe me, that stuff is memorable, in all the wrong ways! After gargling for five minutes or so, we waited for the next group. Frankly, that wasn’t any better!

“What am I going to do?” I moaned.

“Quit worrying. It’s just food! Geez!”

Easy for her to say! Did she see them? No. Was she attacked by a weird headless dude in a cape and crown? No. Did she feel pulled into the smell of the shells? I rest my case!

“Well, little miss —” I didn’t get the chance to finish my insult because the final six shells were ready. We took them out and were going to sample it, but it was already 20 o’clock, so we decided to save them for (a disgusting) breakfast. Luna invited me to sleep in the backyard, which was the most comfortable yard I had slept in. Grass cutting season must have been moved back a few months! While I was sleeping, I had a dream about the marvelous tacos. They were dancing around me and singing elvish songs.

I was reaching toward one, when they started to bang on each other and shout, “Jerry! Jerry, wake up!”

I did their bidding and woke up to the sound of Luna banging on a frying pan and shouting my name.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty! We have an emergency here!”

“Ah, Eho, what?”

“My cousin, Francesco Ferdinando is coming, and we have nothing to serve him!”

“You want us to cook something? You saw how badly those tacos worked out!”

“Well, if we serve those to him, he could fix them. He is a farmer, food-seller, and sampler by trade! He’ll have something to fix them.”

Just then, the braying of a donkey interrupted my thoughts drifting back to dancing tacos. Near the horizon, a man was riding a donkey. He was wearing a sombrero and had a mustache even I was jealous of! He shouted something in what sounded like gibberish, with a bunch of “r’s”. To my surprise, Luna answered back.

“You speak Gibberish? I have got to introduce you to the Fuzzball colony elders!”

“It’s Spanish, idiot!” answered an angry Luna with a fake smile.  

Must be some alien language. I ran behind the house, stuck my finger in the window, and was just about to say, “Hi!” when the donkey kicked its legs backward. Apparently, Francesco was carrying his food in baskets attached to his saddle. Everything was flying up!

MI ALIMENTO!!” Francesco shouted in Gibberish.

Luna got so nervous that she cast a slo-mo spell! I dived to save the food, but then realized I forgot to put the tray down! Too late now. I was already diving head first to the ground. Luna snapped her fingers and everything went back to normal time. I fell to the ground and so did the food, causing a five-second earthquake. I’ve got to cut back on weight! Luckily, when the food fell, it fell into the taco shells.

“Here, have your things back!” I said, holding out the tray.

He shook his head and muttered something to Luna.

She told me, “He wants to try his food with the taco shells.”

Francesco formed the taco to hold in the ingredients. He took one bite and instantly smiled, danced around, and sang Gibberish songs!

“He likes it!” laughed Luna.

“That is the one thing you don’t need to translate for me.”  I smiled. “Why don’t we make this official? Like, think of a name for this treat?!” I thought aloud.

Luna liked the idea, and asked Francesco if he agreed.“He likes the idea but wants to name it after his donkey. After all, he was the one that caused the food to fly!” translated Luna.

“What’s the mule’s name?”

“Burrito.”

And that’s how burritos came to be!

Prince Almando

When he reached sixteen, Prince Almando refused to be treated like a child, unlike his siblings, Williant, Sarafina, and Gretona.

The day after his birthday, instead of leaving his pajamas on, he put on his royal robe of red silk. He sat down straight like a king. My, he thought, my sisters and brother look so young compared to me in their silk pajamas.

Gretona sat on Father’s lap. Williant was eleven, and allowed Mother’s arm to be around him. And Serafina was almost ten and still cuddled with her china doll. Almando was so deep in thought that he spilled his porridge on his lap, leaving a gray, gooey stain.

“Almando, my dear, dear boy,” Maid Sylvia cried. “How many times do we have to talk about table manners!?”

“I am not a child,” Almando declared. “I would like to no longer be called ‘my dear boy.’”

“Almando,” his father said sternly, adjusting Gretona on his knee. “Please go change.”

Almando stood up politely and took steps one at a time like a gentlemen. In his room he slid on his horseback riding uniform, blue with gold trimming. Then, he quietly walked down the stairs.

“There’s a nice mud pit outside from that rain,” the children’s ‘playmate’ said, “you just yank on those ol’ mud bathin’ suits and you’ be ready to go.”

“I will not be prancing around with that diaper on!” Almando declared.

“Almando,” Lilika, the Queen, said. “They are not diapers. And I think it was very generous of Harry to offer to take you out. If you continue to have this behavior you will go upstairs.

Almando scowled at his mother. “Ma’am…”

“Almando!” the King thundered, “She is your mother! I appreciate your politeness but it is not needed!”

Angrily, Almando got up. “I’m going horseback riding.”

Two hours later, Almando’s uniform was torn and he was bleeding. The royal horse was running around in circles trying to get the too-small bridle out of his mouth. Almando pulled himself to his feet and stumbled to the castle.

After escaping his father’s scolding, Almando went up to the boys’ room, which used to be a nursery before he was sixteen. Williant sat on his bed, smushing the blue comforter.

“Still trying to be a man?” he asked, sounding almost pitiful. “You’re brave, Almando.”

Pondering the meaning of his little brother’s words, Almando strolled to the bathroom in a would-be casual way, as if he hadn’t been bleeding. Hoping not be caught by a maid, he crept into the crystal bathroom. Finding it empty of people, he wrapped bandages around his bleeding fingers.

He walked back downstairs, wanting to read one of his father’s books just to prove that he could. Almando read quickly, mostly to get to the good part: the end. It was some book about rules and courtesies, and it was very boring. Almando’s father walked in and sat down on the couch next to him. Almando’s father pointed to rule number two hundred and one.

“What does this mean?” his father asked.

“When one reaches the age of eighteen years he will be considered a grown man and shall be treated like one,” Almando read aloud. He frowned. The king smiled wisely.

“Almando, I’ve been meaning to talk to you. You are sixteen. I know this will ruffle your feathers, but you are still a child. Manhood will come, Almando, manhood will come.”

He wrapped his arm around Almando’s shoulders, and, Almando, even though he was sixteen, leaned his head on his father’s shoulder.

The Life Cycle

Chapter  1 : Sisters

Mia was brushing her hair and she just remembered that her friend Matilda was coming over for a playdate. They were best friends. When Matilda arrived, they took turns braiding eachother’s hair. Since they both had the same length hair, they saw what their hair could do, like make scarves out of their hair, and they saw how many times they could wrap their hair around their arm, which was about a thousand.

Matilda had blonde hair and Mia had long dark brown hair. They both had long straight hair to their knees, which was about five feet. They both loved their hair because they didn’t want real scarves, but the only thing that drove them nuts was their mother telling them, “Cut your hair! Cut your hair!” She wanted them to cut it because it was really hard to wash.

They were like, “No! Imagine you don’t need to buy me a scarf! And I’ll brush it more often!”

Since they went to the same school, they spoke about what they should play the next day at school. They thought about maybe playing hide and seek, or tag or, as Mia suggested, “Maybe let’s play cops and robbers!”

Matilda also suggested, “We could also play hide and seek after cops and robbers!” Normally, nobody really asked if they could play with them. Once a month, someone would ask. They actually liked it, just the two of them.

They talked about doing the butterfly one because she thought that they would fight a lot, like very often.

“That’s very sad. I wish we could get a way to get your mom to agree,”  Matilda hoped. “After that we will.”

“Oh, yeah. I think so too. Let’s think of a way to convince my mom to get me a younger sister.”

They started a whole other conversation on how they could get Mia’s mom, named Lauren, to get Mia to have another sister. Mia convinced her why she wanted another sister. Mia told her that why she wanted another sister was because she was a little lonely in playing and her mother used to get very annoyed, because she didn’t have any company.

Matilda explained that she knew how Mia felt. “I know because I’m an only child, and I also want a little sister.”

“We have a mission!”  Mia and Matilda said.

“First, let’s convince your mom,” explained Matilda.

“After that, the next time we have a playdate, I’ll come to your house and we’ll convince your mom!” said Mia. After that they started a whole new conversation, again, on how they were going to conquer their moms. They were sitting on the couch in Mia’s room.

They started their mission that day. They said, “Maybe we could convince my mom by saying, if you get me a little sister, I could start a job and earn a thousand dollars for you.” So they tried that.

So when Mia’s mom was working, they snuck up on her and scared her by saying, “Mom!” in a funky kind of voice tone.

And after that their mom was like, “Hey, you guys! You scared the bejeezus out of me!” She was texting Mia’s dad.

After that, Mia asked, “If you let me have a little sister, I’ll get a job and you could have a thousand dollars!”

And after that Mia’s mom was like, “I don’t need that much money. I’m sorry. And why do you even need someone to fight with?”

Mia thought, Well, that didn’t work. She felt disappointed that it didn’t work, because they weren’t very rich anyway. It was the first time she’d asked her mom for a sister. She felt disappointed and she stomped back to her room with Matilda and started thinking of another plan. She looked in one of her books of the chronicles of How To Convince Your Mom To Get A Little Sister. She did that because she had a lot of books and she knew she could find one book like that. Mia loved the color purple, so her bed was purple. Her walls were purple. The ceiling was purple. The floor color was purple. Everything was purple. Her two bookshelves were also purple.

Mia and Matilda sat on Mia’s bed to think of another little idea to convince Mia’s mom to get Mia a little sister.

“What about if we sneak up on my mom again but only this time, a little less money,” Mia suggested.

Matilda said, “That’s a great idea! Let’s try it.”

So they snuck up on Mia’s mom who was doing work; she worked from home but she used to work at work. Mia’s mom was a doctor.

After that when they snuck up on her they told her, “Mom,” in a friendly tone of voice but Mia’s mom didn’t get startled like last time.

“Oh hi guys, what do you want?” Mia’s mom asked.

“We just want to ask you a question. If you give me a little sister, after that I could get a job and earn you forty dollars.”

And after that Mia’s mom told them, “Yes, but I’m not going to give you a younger sister.”

After that Mia felt the same way as before, and told Matilda, “After this I’m not going to get a job!”

They went back to their bed. “Maybe we could talk to her about how we’re feeling!”

Matilda suggested, “I really think we should tell her because she does not know why we keep asking her and she is probably getting really annoyed because we’ve been doing this for quite a while now.” She was feeling a little nervous.

After that Mia and Matilda walked over to Mia’s mom in her chair near her desk. Mia said, “Mom, the reason why I really want a sister is because I don’t really have any company. You sometimes have work when I want to play, and I don’t like doing homework. And I just feel a little lonely. So can you please get me a little sister as soon as it’s possible?”

Mia’s mom said, “But I thought you guys would fight!”

“Maybe once in awhile, but not often,” said Mia.

After that Mia’s mom told them, “Okay. As soon as possible, I’ll get you one. As long as you don’t ask me so often.”

Nine months later, she got the sister from her mother! Mia’s little sister was named Monsoon. She had frizzy curly hair, it was dark brown to her neck. And now Mia felt so special to have a younger sister.

Mia said, “Yay!”

Later in the afternoon, Mia started playing with Monsoon. Mia taught Monsoon to play chess at such a young age. Monsoon became very good at it by the age of one. Monsoon was learning how to talk from Mia. Mia and Monsoon never fought. Mia’s mom was impressed by how much Mia taught Monsoon.

After that Mia left for a playdate with Matilda, but only this time, it was at Matilda’s house. Matilda was excited to try and get herself a younger sister as well. When Mia got there, Mia was like, “Are you ready to get a younger sister?”

After that Matilda said, “Yeah, I’m very ready! I’ve been waiting for it all week long! And three days more!” in an excited tone. So after that, Matilda said that she loved the color orange. The walls were orange, the ceiling was orange, the floor was orange and her bookshelves were orange. And her bed was orange.

Matilda told Mia why her mom didn’t want her to have a little sister. It was because Matilda’s mom, named Isabella, thought it would be too hard to brush both of their long hair. Both Mia’s and Matilda’s moms had long hair and younger sisters and their mom used to go bonkers brushing their hair.

Mia and Matilda sat on Matilda’s orange bed. It was very smooth, silky and soft.

“If you give me a sister, after that I can make extra special stuff for Thanksgiving, mother’s day, and father’s day for you and Dad and all family members, like presents, pop-up cards, and food, and awesome drinks.”

Matilda’s mom said, “Only if you do all of that every holiday, I’ll get you a sister.”

“I promise I will,” said Matilda. She was excited to have a new sister.

Ten days later, Matilda got her sister. Her name was Malla. Both Matilda and Malla had blue eyes and both of them had blonde hair. Malla had hair to the neck. Matilda felt very joyful that she had a younger sister. Matilda taught Malla how to play checkers at such a young age, at the age of one.

After that Mia came to Matilda’s house and asked how the baby was going. Mia asked, “What did you teach your little sister?”

Mia and Matilda sat on Matilda’s orange bed. And Matilda said, “While I was teaching Malla how to play checkers, she wouldn’t listen. I need her to listen to learn. The reason why I want her to listen is because she might feel more special next year at school.”

“Same with me,” Mia said.

“I feel kind of disappointed in her when she doesn’t listen,” said Matilda.

Since Mia and Matilda’s little sisters knew how to talk, they could talk to them and whenever it came to conversation, they would definitely listen. So they walked over to Malla and said, “If you will listen, maybe I could make you something yummy once a week, like a salad with grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.”

Malla was like, “Okay. As long as you do that.” She just stopped playing checkers because of the yummy food.

It was Tuesday and the next day was Wednesday. Matilda said just for a test, “If you stand up on your feet for a minute, after that I could give you one of my yummy cookies.”

Malla said,“Ooh! Okay, I’ll stand up on my two feet for a minute. Okay?”

“Well, you better promise!”

So she stood up on her two feet for a minute.

The next day, the first thing in the morning, Matilda made a salad for Malla. After that Matilda said to Malla, “You’ve got to listen to me, and Mom, and Dad when we tell you to do things or stuff. Because it makes us feel disappointed and upset when you don’t listen to us. I want you to listen because if  you work hard you could feel special next year in school if you listen to us. You might even get the highest grades.”

Malla said, “I will listen to you, Mom, and Dad from now on.” After the conversation, she hugged her older sister.

Ten days later, Matilda had another playdate with Mia again. And they sat on Mia’s purple bed and Matilda asked, “How’s your younger sister doing?”

“Again, she’s not listening to me when I teach her how to play chess or other things,” Mia said to Matilda, “I feel upset.”

Matilda said, “That’s terrible! In what way do you think I could help you?”

Mia said, “If you could find a way how to help me in getting my little sister to listen, would be a great help. I don’t want to talk to her because she won’t listen, because she is not listening.”

“That’s a good reason,” said Matilda.

“Thanks,” said Mia.

“What else can we do?” said Matilda.

Since Mia’s cousin was also there, they asked, “How do you think we could get Monsoon to listen?” Mia’s cousin was a girl and her name was Jessica.

Jessica said, “Maybe you should just talk to her!”

Mia said, “But I don’t want to, because she won’t listen!”

“After that maybe you could draw her a picture and maybe she could figure out what it meant, or write her a message or you could write her a story on how to listen to your family,” said Jessica.

“Maybe I’ll go with the book on how to listen to your family members,” said Mia and Matilda. Mia felt very joyful.

So after that Mia and Matilda wrote a story on how to listen to your family members. Matilda was the illustrator; Mia was the writer. Mia wrote first. After that, depending on what Mia wrote, Matilda read Mia’s writing. After that depending on what she wrote, she drew the pictures. The story told little kids how to behave themselves and listen to their older siblings. It said, if your family members told you something, you should respond to them, you shouldn’t just ignore them.

So they gave the story to Monsoon and Monsoon read it. Before Monsoon read it, they said it was by the best writer in the world. They were trying to trick her. Since they didn’t know who that was, they just said that.

After that Monsoon said, “I thought this was going to be by you!” And they were like, “Oh, no no no! It’s by the best writer in the world. But you better take notes.”

She read it and she was like, “Why do I have to take notes?”

“Because this is an important book. We read it before you and we know the truth,” said Mia.

Monsoon was like, “All right. I’ll read it with notes. But do I need to?”

Mia was like, “Yes, you need to. Now just sit on the couch and read it. Bye bye.”

So they went upstairs to Mia’s room and they waited there for five minutes. After that, they peeked and they were like, “She’s not done? It was a very short book!” After that they went upstairs again and waited for five minutes and peeked and said, “She’s not done?” After that they went upstairs for another five minutes and said, “Oh, finally, she’s done!” And after that Mia and Matilda went downstairs and asked, “Can we see your notes?”

“I have the notes in my head, since I don’t know how to write,” said Monsoon.

“Can you explain them to us?” asked Mia and Matilda at the same time.

After that Monsoon was like, “Alright!” Monsoon said that it was all about listening to your family members or whoever, except for strangers. Of course. She was feeling kind of weird because she didn’t realize that she was not listening and stuff. “But I am already listening,” said Monsoon.  

“You think you are, but you’re not,” said Mia.

“Remember chess?” said Mia.

“When did we play chess?” asked Monsoon.

“Well, you were to busy playing with new toy Mom got you,” said Mia.             

“Well I didn’t know you were teaching me how to play chess,” said Monsoon.

“Oh!” said Mia, “I thought you were paying attention and weren’t really doing it.”

Matilda said, “But why? You should listen to people when they’re telling you to do something, even though you’re paying so much attention to your little opening-up dollhouse.”

“That is the truth,” said Mia, feeling kind of disappointed and depressed.

“Well, I was kind of paying attention but when you told me to do something, I think I was looking at something else, so…” said Monsoon.

“But still, you weren’t listening,” said Mia and Matilda at the same time again.

“Now I understand,” said Monsoon. “I will listen.”

“You better,” said Mia.

“I will,” said Monsoon.

The next day at school, somebody asked if they could play with them. But normally that happened only once a month. They were in the same class as her. It was her birthday so she really wanted to play with them. Her name was Andrea.

Andrea asked if she could play with Mia and Matilda because it was her birthday.

“How old are you turning?” asked Matilda.

“Well, I’m turning eight,” said Andrea.

“All right, you can play with us,” they said, because they were also turning eight. Mia was turning eight five days later and Matilda was turning eight ten days later.

They played hide and seek. After that they played tag, and after that they tried playing both of them combined, and after that they played charades. And after that, one wanted to play charades again, another wanted to play hide and seek, and another wanted to play tag. So what they did was they said, “Eenie meenie miney moe,” and it landed on Andrea. And Andrea was voting for hide and seek, but Mia wanted to play charades. So they played hide and seek first, charades second, and tag last.

Andrea was really funny and pretty nice. She normally played with somebody else named Sophia. And whenever Sophia didn’t play with Andrea, she played with Elizabeth. And whenever Elizabeth didn’t play with Sophia, she played with Andrea. And whenever Andrea didn’t play with Sophia, she played with Elizabeth.

When Andrea wasn’t playing with Sophia, Sophia didn’t want to play with Elizabeth because she got bored just playing with her when Andrea wasn’t there. Anyway, Elizabeth wasn’t as very funny as Andrea. Sophia wanted another friend to play with.

But she was always very quiet. She never used to talk. She wanted to get over her shyness, but normally her mother wasn’t there and normally her mother used to introduce her to friends.

So she made a cardboard picture of one of the girls that she saw in her school and she tried talking and saying her name, but she couldn’t, even to the cardboard. She was like, “Oh, man!” She felt kind of weird, because she can’t even talk to a cardboard person that she made!

After that she tried doing it with her cousin, named Kira. Kira was 17. She loved beanie boos. She was very smart and pretty and she liked helping people and she had a beanie boo of happiness.

Sophia told her what had been happening in school and what she needed help with and asked if she could practice on her. Kira said, “Of course you could practice on me! I just have to think of a new name.”

Kira and Sophia went into Sophia’s room. Sophia loved the color blue, light blue. The ceiling was light blue, the walls were light blue, the door was light blue, the floor was light blue, her bed was light blue. Everything was light blue.

So after that Kira stood up and said, “Hello, my name is Melissa.” And after that Kira said, “What’s your name?”

“Hi Melissa, my name is Sophia.” She felt pretty excited that she did it.

Kira said, “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“My favorite thing to do is… to just sit on the couch and pretend to be bold,” said Sophia. “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“My favorite thing to do is draw,” said Kira, who was pretending to be Melissa.

Sophia was a little bit shy to start the conversation. She wouldn’t say her name first.

The next day, Sophia went to school and asked two girls named Melissa and another girl named Sophia as well, so there were two Sophia’s and one Melissa.

“Can I play with you?” asked Sophia number 1.

Sophia and Melissa said, “All right!”

“What’s your name?” asked Sophia and Melissa.

“My name is Sophia. What’s your name?” asked Sophia to Sophia.

“My name is Sophia,” said Sophia.

“What’s your name?

“My name is Melissa!” said Melissa.

Five days later, Mia and Matilda saw Sophia playing with Melissa and Sophia number 2. Sophia #1 was Sophia S. and Sophia #2 was Sophia B.

Mia and Matilda walked over to them and asked if they could play. They were playing a game of hide and seek, so after that they asked someone who was seeking so they wouldn’t give it away.

Melissa was the one who was seeking so Melissa shouted, “Pause game!” and everybody ran to Melissa, who was playing hide and seek with them. And Melissa said, “Mia and Matilda and Andrea want to play with us.”

“All right,” said Sophia B.

“What do you want to do? asked Melissa and Sophia S. and Sophia B.

Mia said, “I want to play hide and seek because we were going to play Andrea’s idea, because she’s also the birthday girl.”

They played hide and seek for another five minutes. But right after they were done with hide and seek, recess was over. Andrea really also wanted to play dodgeball. But they didn’t have the money to buy the net.

 

Chapter 2 : Lemonade

The next day at school, they talked about how to get a net, but after that Mia said, “Why don’t we make a lemonade stand?” The net cost 50 dollars.

Andrea got the lemonade, since Mia had a little table she brought her table, Sophia S. brought the lime, Sophia B. brought the lemon, and Melissa brought the sugar and water to make it. Matilda knew how to cook, so she made chocolate chip cookies for whoever had lemonade.

It was Sunday afternoon when they all met at Central Park to serve the lemonade and cookies. Mia and Matilda’s sisters were there. Sophia B.’s cousin was there. The lemonade cost one dollar and the cookies also cost a dollar, so whoever bought any of those would pay one dollar or two.

Before they started, they had to set up everything. So they had the table and they put chairs around it for the kids to sit in. And they put the lemonade bottle onto the right and the lime next to it, the lemon next to the lime, the sugar next to the lemon and in front of the lemon the cookies. And next to the cookies, the water. And next to the water, the cups. It was quite sunny, a little bit breezy, 82 degrees and they were at the edge of Central Park. And whenever people came by, they said, “Lemonade! And cookies! One dollar each!”

Everybody who passed by got lemonade. And before anybody got some, they drank some. And after they got to their third customer, they checked on their sisters and they weren’t there. So everyone went on a sister hunt for the sisters, Malla and Monsoon.

Mia and Matilda felt weird because their sisters never really went anywhere. They felt very scared. And they had to tell their parents, since they knew they had their own phones, they called their mothers and fathers.

“Our sisters are gone!” said Mia and Matilda in a very scared tone of voice.

Everybody helped to find them. They looked for an hour, and after that for another hour inside Central Park, outside Central Park, and in New York City, but they weren’t there! They felt super duper nervous that somebody took them, because they didn’t look in houses.

They didn’t look in any houses because if somebody was doing something, they would have disturbed them. They alerted the police. Somebody must have taken their little sisters!

Mia and Matilda and Sophia B. and Sophia S. and Melissa and Andrea took a plane to South America to go and see if their little sisters were there. They looked in Brazil and then, they looked all over South America. After that they went back to North America, after that they looked all around North America. After that they went to Africa and looked all around Africa, in Uganda they found their little sisters!

A robber named Uganda went to Uganda for the little sisters. He thought they were dolls, and he was on a trip, so he took them home. He was pretending that he thought that.

The police were like, “Why did you steal their little sisters?”

“Because I thought they were dolls!” said the robber named Uganda. Malla and Monsoon said to their older sisters, “If that ever happens again, I will definitely shout help!”

Uganda ran away for the rest of his life and never robbed anybody ever again because he knew what would happen if he did, go to jail. But he anyway went to jail for two years before he ran away.

They went back home to finish their lemonade stand. The search had taken two weeks because they had to search everywhere. They left their sisters home, just in case anything happened. And while they were gone, people gave them money and took the lemonade and cookies. They did all the stuff by themselves. For two weeks! And after that once they got back from Uganda, they saw how much money they got. They got $172! So they spent 50 dollars on the net, and Isabelle, Matilda’s mom, got the net for Andrea. And she also spent two dollars for the ball. After that they shared the money and gave $20 to each of them.

Next year, in seventh grade, they played dodgeball at recess with the net and the ball. Mia, Matilda, Sophia S., Sophia B., Andrea, and Melissa had played dodgeball finally in seventh grade. After that, Melissa wanted a sleepover with all her friends at her house. So, once she got home, she sat on the bed and called each one of her friends that she wanted to have over. She asked them to come over for a desperate, important meeting. So after that, in five minutes they were all there, and Melissa said, “How am I going to convince my mom to let me have a sleepover?”

“How?” Mia asked.

“Maybe if we do all her chores she may let us have a sleepover.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Nicola. That was Melissa’s new friend. She met her last month. Melissa also wanted to have a sleepover with her.

So, they tried doing the chore idea. They finished all of Melissa’s mom’s chores. They had to clean the bathtub, set the table for dinner, and if their mom agreed, put out beds.

“Well… we’ve done all our chores!” said Melissa and her friends, adding Nicola. They checked all the chores. It was all done.

They had so much time left that they thought they’d watch a movie. They all had a vote: Inside Out and Descendants.

“I hate Descendants! I want to watch the great and awesome Inside Out,” said everyone. So they watched Inside Out. So they watched, watched, watched until it was eight p.m. Thankfully, Melissa’s mom came back at nine p.m.

So they watched and watched and watched until Melissa’s mom got back from work. So after that Melissa’s mom said, “Was this what you were doing?”

“No no, Mom. We want a sleepover.”

“Well, what have you done to earn it?”

“Well, I’ll weird. Oooh, I get it. Five hours of TV. Yay! Let’s go.”

They went to watch TV for five hours in Melissa’s mom’s room. They watched it silently other than once in awhile, they would pause and retell an entire movie. They were feeling quite happy because they knew how Melissa’s mom was. She would say “okay” to almost anything. For three hours they watched Inside Out and after that the rest of the two hours they watched Descendants even though they all hated it.

“Okay, it’s time to go to Mom,” said Melissa.

Melissa’s mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Everyone was surprised because they thought Melissa’s mom would be on the couch thinking. So after that Melissa and her friends walked up to Melissa’s mom and asked her, “So what is your answer?”

“Okay, as long as you go to bed on time.”

“Okay, I will, I will, Mom.”

“Now come on. Eat your dinner.”

“But what is for dinner?” asked Melissa.

“Your favorite. Pesto pasta,” said Melissa’s mom.

“YAY,” cried Melissa.

After five minutes, everyone was ready to eat dinner.

Everyone liked it so much that they took around two or three helpings.

After that everyone but Melissa ran back home because they needed to get their pajamas and toothbrush and five minutes later they were all ready for the sleepover with all their stuff.

But Mia was really scared to sleep the night because it was so hard for her to wake up the next day because she always gets the worst nightmares. But that’s why she brought her teddy bear and all her other stuffed animals to protect her and took off her prettiest earrings that she wore and let out her hair and puffed her cushion up with it when it was time for the sleepover. But that was like three hours away. So, all she did was watch TV for three hours with the girls. And after that that’s when the terror of the sleepover happened. And also when Mia started getting terrified by the sleepover and sleeping. But she did her normal routine, which was take her fanciest earrings off, let out her hair from her braid, and puff up the pillow with it and go to sleep with a terrible nightmare and thought it would come alive!!! But this time she thought of a plan to not think about it. YAY! But it was good that she had THREE hours until the sleepover started.  

“PHEW!” Mia said in a relieved tone of voice.

She hoped no one heard her. Meanwhile, at Mia’s house, everyone, literally everyone, was so worried that she was gonna get the creeps. “She’s gonna get a nightmare. She’s not gonna wake up! Noooo!!!” they all shouted.

“But if we get there early we could wake her up!” said Simona, Mia’s favorite cousin.

“Ohhh,” everyone said with a grin.

Meanwhile at Melissa’s house, after the last three hours, everyone went to sleep and still Mia did her normal routine and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, she was at the top bunk and whenever she was at the top bunk at a sleepover, more of those bad dreams came to her head. But anyway, she had her big plan, which turned out to be a little plan. And now she went to sleep with all her bad dreams.

 

To be continued…

Mom’s Story Book

Hampton the Hamster

Once there was a hamster named Hampton. He wanted to leave home to go to the fair. He went to the fair, where he saw a movie theater and decided to watch a Star Wars movie. Then he saw an ice cream machine and felt tired. He went home on a magical pony that farted rainbows and feel asleep on his magic carpet. The end.

 

The Gnome.

The gnome was a happy fellow guarding gardens and watering plants. He wore red pants and a navy blue shirt. His eyes changed color and he had a long red hat that was shaped like a street cone. The gnome was short, about the size of a pen, and was a medium weight. He laughed and cried until the day he died. The gnome had a magical life in the garden of heaven’s light.

 

I Need to Go to the Bathroom!

I was in class and I needed to go to the bathroom. So I went to the bathroom and I turned on the light but then… There, standing in the dim light of the light bulb was the Ultimate Toilet Plunger, dun dun dun! The toilet plunger splashed dirty water and wiped toilet paper at me, but I outsmarted the plunger by bribing him to follow the toilet paper. Finally, I went to the bathroom. THE END.

 

Yoda Goes Rocker Mode

A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away… One day, when Yoda was in the temple meditating, he heard a voice say, “Yoda.”  

“Wha…” said Yoda. “Dreaming I must be.”

“Yoda,” the voice said again.

“Dreaming I am not,” said Yoda.

“Yoda, be a rocker.”

“Be a rocker I will,” said Yoda. So he got up from his chakra chair and set out on his journey. Finally, Yoda found a poster that said “Green Tall Guys,” but he thought he was too short. He tried to get in anyway, and said “Join I must,” in rocker mode.

The guys said, “You are too short.”

Then Yoda went ninja Jedi style on the dudes and they said, “Fine, you can join. But first I need to put some stuff on you.” So, till this day, Yoda looks like a green monster with headphones and sunglasses. His hair is the same and he plays drums on his high chair. The end, or, as Yoda would say, the end is now.

 

John Cena Prank Call

One day, John Cena wanted to do a prank call, but he couldn’t decide who to call. He made a list:

  • Luke Skywalker
  • Marine supporter

Two hours later after deciding, John Cena called Luke Skywalker. Beep beep beep.

“Hello, who is this?” Luke said.

“No, Luke, you should know,” said John Cena.

“Are you my mom?” said Luke.

“No, Luke, I am JOHN CENA,” said John Cena.

“NOOO!!!” moaned Luke, for about three hours.

“Well, time for my next prank,” said John Cena. So he called a marine supporter. BEEP BEEP BEEP.

“Hello, who is this?” said the supporter.

“Is this a marine supporter?” said John Cena.

“Yes, who is this?” said the supporter.

“A former marine needs your help and his name is JOHN CENA,” said John Cena.

“What the @#$^?” said the supporter. After the prank calls, John Cena felt good and fell asleep, but not before thinking about what he did. The end.

 

Baby Karate

Once upon a time, there was a child named Jeff, who was two years old and lived in Arizona in a mansion with his mom and dad. His dad and mom went out for dinner and they put an untrained babysitter with him. This babysitter was named Alison. She forgot to bring diapers, so she put little Jeff to sleep and plopped onto  the couch to watch TV. She saw Jeff on a little router. Jeff really, really needed to go to the bathroom, but he didn’t have a diaper.

There is one thing you didn’t know about Jeff: he had ninja moves. So, he flipped out of his bed, but on his way out he saw Mr. Teddy. Mr. Teddy was his very, very freaky teddy bear that was like the Five Nights at Freddy’s guy. He had to go through a lot of fighting, backflips, and rattle-throwing until, finally, to finish Mr. Teddy off, he took the block of wisdom from the mixed block box and struck him down right in the button.

Then, Jeff backflipped into the bathroom, closed the door, and went potty. The journey back to the crib was harsh. It was filled with Mr. Teddy’s babies. They had metal teeth and sharp claws. So, same thing all over again: backflips, hi-ya! Karate chops, hi-ya! Rattle-throwing, and finally, the Block of Building Steps. So, he took out every single one, until there were none left, and once he did that, he realized that he had one extra rattle. He knew what that meant – he had a magical wish from his rattle. He wished to be back in his crib. Then, finally, he got in his crib, but Alison called, “Jeff! Come down!”

Jeff was like, “NOOO!”

The same thing happened. Little Teddy’s babies turned into more Little Teddy’s babies, which meant that he had to make a new block to defeat the little teddies. After he did so, Alison said, “Jeff, I actually don’t need you go to bed.”

“Are you kidding me??” said Jeff.

THE END.

The Fire Prince

“Ohh no you don’t,” Kai argued. “I’m not doing that! You know that Elder John told us to only go in in case of an emergency.”

I gave him the Look. “This is an emergency! The Black Knights are attacking!!!” I whisper-yelled, “Go, go, go, hurry they’re coming, go!!”

“Okay, okay!” he said he climbed up the side of the rock wall and jumped down.

I followed. We ran as fast as we could through all of the shrubbery and trees; we had to get the the other side of the forest as fast as we could. We’re the king’s messengers; that means that when something bad happens, we have to get to the king’s castle as fast as possible to tell the king that his kingdom is under attack. Each village has a boy and a girl messenger. They have to be fast, and they have to be orphans, so they have to be from an orphanage. They have to have a good sense of direction, they need to be smart, athletic, sensible, and have to be a good team.

We had been running through the forest for almost ten minutes and I was starting to get cramps so we came to a stop at a small spring. We put down our stuff. We decided to make camp there, it was about two miles from the village where we lived. It’s called the village of Dragon Burrow. It got its name for all of its dragon nests.

I have an all-elemental dragon that was just born a couple months ago. Kai has a fire-water type dragon that is just a year old. It has already been trained by Elder John. The only reason why his is trained and mine is not is because dragons don’t open their eyes until they are exactly one year old and they won’t be able to understand you if they can’t even see you.

We started a fire and put some stones around it. We got out the food, only enough food for tonight, the breakfast, the next night, and the next breakfast. Well, we ate dinner that night and it was dumplings.

“Ew,” we both said at once. They were all soggy and uncooked dumplings with wet meat inside. Yuck.

Well, we had to make a fire with the help of the few remaining dry sticks left from Kai’s dragon. After we ate dinner, we put out the fire also. Using Pine’s help, we told the story about the Fire Prince. It’s a good story, about a boy who found that he had the power to control the flames and was able to use them to…

After that we went to bed in our tents we set up and fell asleep.

•••

We awoke to the sweltering heat. “Wake up!!! Wake up!!!” I shouted while shaking Kai’s tent.

“What’s going on? Why’s it so hot out there?”

“There’s a fire come on get out of there!!!” Suddenly, the back of Kai’s tent burst into flames.

“Get out of there NOW!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I pulled him out.

“Where are Pine and Evie?” Kai shouted over the the burning trees falling to the ground. My heart literally skipped a beat. Pine, one year old, and Evie, five months, were lost in a monstrous fire. Kai’s eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets, that’s how shocked he was. If he bent over, they would probably fall out. Then we heard the most high-pitched scream ever combined with the average puberty scream of a teenaged boy.

My dragon screaming in the fire sounded like: “AHHH!!!” And then plus the high pitched scream: “EEE!!!”

Suddenly there was a hand on Kai’s foot and a hand on my foot then there were four little stubs on the sides of my head. It also felt like there was a balloon sleeping on my head. Anyway, when I felt the hand on my foot, I screamed, then Kai screamed, then the hand screamed. Then we all stopped, including the fire. Which is weird because it’s a fire. Meh…  so the hand that was on my foot got up and so it was then that I realized that it was a human. Boy. Teenager. Looks. Like. King’s. Lost son. Whoa.

Good hair. Black armour? Bad person. Good hair. Questions go bop.

Bop. Bop. BOP!

“Uh, hi!” he said. He seriously looked like the lost prince, right down to the perfect teeth. Kai looked at him and made a face. “My name’s Ivan.” He held out his armored hand and put the other hand on his sword.

We backed away from him. Pine let out little rings of steam around his body. I felt Evie sink onto my head. I picked her up and held her up to my chest. She nestled in toward me.

“Why are you wearing the Black Knight armor?” I asked the boy. “You’re the lost prince!”

“Says who?” he asked, clearly confused.

“Who are your parents then?” asked Kai

“You mean my dad? Oh, he’s the king of the Black Knights,” the boy said, sounding rather casual.

“Then why aren’t you trying to kill us?” I asked. This was confusing enough with just waking up in a fire that suddenly stops right before your eyes. Then you meet the Lost Prince but he says that he’s not him, and that his dad is the king of the Black Knights.

“Well, I don’t really want to because it’s the world law that you are not allowed to kill any children or women, only men. And since you are both children, I can’t kill you,” he said with an uncertain glance every which way.

“Well, we’re going to the kingdom to see your dad. Do you want to come with us?” Kai asked.

“Sure!” said Ivan. We made our way through the forest to Fairy Way, which is a small city infested with man-sized fairies with giant wings. Next we had to go undercover through the City of Barbarians, which was followed by the Nice City of Everyone. Then on our ninth day, we entered the kingdom of King Edmund the II. We entered the kingdom with tons of guards. We entered the castle, and there were tons of other messengers. Some of which I had never seen, but some we had seen passing by our village for parades. One of the messengers had no shoes, but instead had bandages around blistered feet. Fire blisters. All of the other messengers had some sort of  sign that they had been in some sort of fire… even us. All of our clothes had been singed from the fire that had happened more than a week ago.

Suddenly King Edmund came bursting out of the hall doors muttering something about his evil brother. Two other messengers came out following him with troubled looks on their faces. The king stopped short once he opened the door. There, standing at the door, grinning the evilest, wickedest, grin ever. His dark hair was matted by sweat and revenge, his beard half shaved, and a giant scar running straight down his face. “Nice to see you again… brother!”

At that the wicked man jabbed his “brother” in the jaw, sending him flying back and landing his head on the step up to his office. The man (although he was more of a monster) walked straight up to the king and stomped on his stomach. At that horrid sight everyone in the room cringed and winced as we all grabbed a heavy object from behind us.

This is not going to work out the way we planned, I thought. This is NOT going to work out the way we planned. Now of course, you may be wondering about all this planning. Well, we kids just are special. We are all the same person, just in different bodies. We all have the same minds. It’s fun being a kid for many reasons, one of which I will tell and show you about very soon.

Finally, the horrid thing that called itself the king’s brother bent over the king’s half alive body. “Well, I’m going to take over your kingdom. How about that?” it muttered under its breath. That was when our child anger took over. We charged at the wicked thing, we had our chairs, poles, and parts of the crumbling pillars. In mid-charge, the master of evil made the loudest whistle but we kept running. Suddenly, an army of weirdos busted in to the room. That was when things got real. And I don’t mean like real, I mean like real real, like, real. People started hitting each other on the head! It was every man for himself. By that I mean everyone for themselves. I looked for Kai. When I couldn’t find him standing up I got a pit in my stomach and looked down. There he was, lying unconscious with blood spilling out from his leg. I checked for a pulse. His heart was barely beating.

I ran over to find someone Jack!! His name ran through my mind. Finally, I found him whacking some ugly guy with a chair. I smacked the guy in the head with a piece of wood lying on the ground. He fell flat on his face. He, he. “Kai’s out and we have to get the king to safety. C’mon!” I shouted over the roaring of the war.

We ran over to Kai and I dragged him by his armpits. We dropped him off in the king’s office. Then we went to get the king. I took his upper body and Jack took his lower. We dragged him into the office with Kai. “Jack, grab me that pitcher!” I took the pitcher from Jack and poured the cold water onto Kai’s face. He woke up spewing a fountain of water everywhere!

“What happened?” Kai asked. I passed the pitcher back to Jack and told Kai what happened.

“What happened to your leg?” I asked him, eyeing the gash on his left leg.

“You know, they say that if you don’t look at your own cut then it won’t hurt as much. So now that you reminded me that I will now scream in pain.” And with that he let out an extremely loud roar of pain that made the battle outside sound like a cool breeze.

But something else happened besides everyone in the room losing their hearing, the king woke up. But when I said everyone in the room losing their hearing, I meant everyone in the room. “WHAT IS IT, YAPPERS!!??” the king yelled. He sat straight up with his eyes peeled wide open. I do not know who Yappers is, so I guess that was just a side effect for being nearly killed: going mad. He stood up and with one long stride he reached out to Kai and said, “Take my hand, Marida. And we can ride away to freedom!!” Then he pretended to be a singer. Not good. He took one step forward in slow-mo while pulling up a fist, and then made a face like he had just bit his lip but tried to make it look good. It did not look good. Then he pretended to be a rabid cat. “Heaaasss!!” Then he tried being an evil witch stirring a cauldron but he got it all wrong: “Toilet, toilet, boil and trouble.” Then he was a soldier. “RUN! RUN! RUN! SHE’S GONNA BLOW!! TAKE COVER!!!”

After this went on for a little while more, I realized that the fighting seemed to have stopped. I opened the door to see a giant heap of hideous people and a group of kids brushing themselves off from the previous battle. Although the people in the heap were pretty unconscious the thing that called itself the king’s brother was still get kicked in the gut by some of the other kids. Suddenly, a fire flew up around the people lying on the floor, and a deafening screech filled the room. One moment there were a pile of weirdos. The next, they were gone. Strange. Evie came down from her hiding place and landed on my shoulder while Pine landed on Kai’s.

Now of course you may be wondering about Ivan: well, we hadn’t seen him all day. Oh and here’s the weird part: standing where the heap used to be was… Ivan. This was strange. The fire only appeared when when Ivan came! Like when we were in the woods, the fire came and when it stopped Ivan had appeared! Something rung in the back of my head: the Fire Prince!

The tale of the Fire Prince was a story about a boy who was able to make himself disappear into fire and was able to make others do the same. He could also appear in fire. He never learned how to control his powers until he was in a war and killed everyone in it on both sides. That’s what Elder John told us. But he also said that if the Fire Prince would be able to learn to control his power, no one would get hurt and he would banish the bad to the Horrid Lands. If he really was the Fire Prince, then we needed to teach him how to use his powers the right way. Every day he would become more powerful until the day the war was meant to come.

“Ivan? Is that you? Is it really you?” the king whispered. “After all these years, is it really you?”

“Dad?” Ivan said, getting just a bit teary. Okay, fine, very teary.

After that we all left. It was father-son business, not ours, and anyway, it would have been a bit awkward if we had stayed.

We all huddled out the room and into another room, almost as big as the one before. It was the king’s study. All of his notes were packed into hundreds of notebooks and papers. There was a desk at one end and the big oak door that we had come through. We all looked around in awe. There was a ginormous chandelier hanging by a small chain on the ceiling. After another hour or so, we had found many things such as old maps and other stuff like that. The servants came looking for us and ushered us out the big oak door and up to our rooms. We fell fast asleep, finally being able to feel comfort at last.

The next morning we awoke to the smell of scones and rolls. We went downstairs after getting changed into our new clothes, only to find the king and Ivan laughing and telling each other jokes and Ivan showing off his fire powers. We sat down and had the best meal of our lives: the food was delicious and perfectly cooked over Ivan’s fire that he summoned into the stove. It was a cold morning and no one really wanted be awake. Kai’s leg had been bandaged up but you could still see where it was. The blood had leaked through the cloth.

One of other messengers named Murie had walked over to the big glass window and peered through to reveal about forty giant troops of men lined up about a mile from the castle. It was a terrifying sight to see. “Uh, Your Majesty, th-there seems to  be someone outside,” Murie stuttered. She pointed out to the crowd while the king and Ivan looked out. Ivan looked fine, as he never knew the Black Knights to be evil, while the King looked about as worried as a turkey during hunting season.

“What?! I thought we got rid of him yesterday! When you made him switch places with you! How is he back so soon?” The king groaned. “What does he want now? George! Would you do me the favor of getting me my horse? Oh, and Flynn, go tell the men to get their gear on, and tell the people to go to William’s Church on the countryside. Go! Go! Go! Hurry!!!” he shouted without looking away from the window as the men marched toward the castle.

This wasn’t going to end well. They had obviously way more men than we did. This, we could tell, was not going to be an easy battle against the evilest (by far) person on Earth.

Suddenly, as the king rode out on his horse, five monstrous dragons galloped forward, about the height of the gallows on the other side of the field that were now being trampled by the dragons.

I grabbed Kai and led him outside and onto the steps out front, As soon as the dragons came close enough, Kai muttered, “The Titans.” He stared out onto the field as the king’s horse galloped towards them. Titans. Of course they would be the first choice of the evilest man on Earth. Of course. Why hadn’t we known that he would do this. Kai went back and came back with his sword in his hand. I turned towards Kai only to see him sprinting down the field, chasing after the King, chasing after death itself.

Suddenly, one of the Titans fired a massive fireball the size of a cannonball, and going as fast as one too. Kai took out the sword from the sheath he had been carrying it in and used it to block the fireball. He had already run about a mile from the castle when he jumped up the side of one of the Titans and dragged himself up the beast, it was about forty feet high and wide. It wasn’t long before he reached the top, barely even a minute. The Titan started to buck and kick and finally stood on its two hind legs, forcing Kai to hang on its head armour. The beast stood like that for a long time. Soon Kai began to slip, and he let go.

An amazing thing happened: the Titan caught Kai with one giant palm. The Titan brought Kai up to his face and breathed out, knocking Kai on to his back. The dragon placed Kai on the back of his neck and kept on walking forward. No one dared to move, not even the other Titans. Kai’s Titan walked the rest of the way, and pretty slowly too, until he reached the king. The Titan bent down slowly and plucked Kai from the back of his neck and gently placed him on the ground. The massive beast turned around just as Flynn’s men came onto the battlefield.

Kai had always had a way with dragons. He was always so good with the dragon babies back at home. Elder John used to call him the dragon master, and everyone in the village of Dragon Burrow knew that if anyone would be able to tame a Titan, it would be Kai. So to be honest, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that he had tamed the Titan.

What did amaze me was how he could have done that with a badly bruised and scraped leg that had a cut about an inch deep. Kai was able to talk to the beast, and it seemed that the Titan could understand him. He directed the beast toward the opposing side, and the beast blew a massive hole in the ground. It sent the front half of the troops flying backward toward the end of the field. That was when the war started, and the remaining soldiers charged forward.

To be honest, it was a pretty hilarious sight because all you saw was a group of five enormous dragons chasing a little person on a gray horse riding as fast as it could with an even smaller boy running next to it while a sixth dragon was trying to bomb about a million people behind the dragons. The dragons stopped when ordered, and the men advanced charging at the opposing side. They fought for fifteen hours, timed until half the men on each side were dead and the other half wounded.

The only ones that remained were the two brothers. They walked toward each other. Once they were close enough, they each picked up a bow from their sides and took their stances. They pulled the arrows back as far as they could, aimed, and the Dark King fired first, shooting a black-silver arrow into King Edward’s chest. It sent him staggering backwards until he finally fell to his knees and fell flat on his chest. A puff of smoke rose from where the arrow had hit him. It was black magic.

From where he stood, Ivan raced about 30 yards before kneeling next to the dead king. The Dark King turned away and walked back to his side. He was halfway there when Ivan stood up and yelled at him, “YOU MONSTER!!!” He ran after him and tackled him to the ground. We were all too stunned to move. We stood there on the steps of the king’s castle. What used to be King Edmund II’s. It wasn’t a good feeling to know that your king gave his life to save the entire kingdom.

No one wanted to do anything. We all stared at our feet, not wanting any part in this madness. Our king was dead, there was nothing good we could do or say. All we could think about was how we failed. We were sent by our village to come to warn the king that the Black Knights were coming so that he could be ready to protect his kingdom and all that surrounded it. Now he was dead, a quarter of the other people with him. It shouldn’t have ended in a battle of the brothers. After all, they were brothers. They suffered through their mother’s death when they were born and had to live alone with their father who later died in a battle when they were five. It was Edmund’s shoulder that his brother cried on. It wasn’t just a sin that the king’s brother, Rith, had made, it was a betrayal, a deception. Broke a brotherly bond between the two.

Suddenly, a beam of light shot up from the middle of King Edmund’s chest. The very top of it turned into an eagle. For ten seconds, it stood there beaming a blue-ish light into the blood-soaked sky. Then, as soon as it came, it vanished, taking his body with it. In its place laid a thin crown made of a worn silver, no longer shiny of the new creation, but dull and scratched from life’s hard work and pain. From a lost mother, a lost mather. And a lost brother. Rith shook the crying Ivan off of him and gently picked up the small crown.

As soon as he touched it, it seemed as if he had been relieved of a pain or a curse. The expression on his face turned from a hard, stern, frightening look, to a gentle, warm, soft look as he held the crown. Then a sudden look of realization and worry come to his face as he whispered, “The old witch at the end of the woods.” He dropped the crown and jumped back. The whole evil king thing was just some weird witch’s fault. It was only a curse. Only a curse. Just a simple spell on a poor man’s mind to make him do evil things for an evil one’s liking. It wasn’t right. But it was over now that the curse was gone. The king was gone too. Rith was left in a haze and we all went to the center of the field where Rith stood staring at the crown.

His eyes weren’t dull like they seemed before. In fact, now they were shining. They were gray with small flecks of gold, like the king’s except his were green. Now Rith only looked like a scared young man, no longer the vengeful demon that had killed his own brother. We walked over to him and we crowded around in a circle around him. We stood there for a long time.

Soon, Rith broke the silence. “Did I kill him?”

I nodded. He turned and cried. He later disappeared with Ivan. Ivan wanted to be with his newfound and good uncle. After all, he had no one else to live with.

We decided to leave. It took almost two weeks to get back and what we saw was amazing, though burnt. The people had begun to rebuild, though it seemed impossible. Evie and Pine had beat us home and left when the war started. It was amazing to get back to help the other people. When they heard the news about the king, we celebrated all through the night. Little pockets of bright green grass came out of ash. Right by the entrance to the village, there was a rose.

The Video Game

Characters:

Adam, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, Brother, Viegas 

One day, there was a kid named Adam. Adam was very smart and he loved to do technology and he also loved science. Adam was in fifth grade. One day, Adam wanted to play a video game, so he went to the app Minecraft, and then he saw that someone had hacked into his account. He went to see the village and the village was on fire!

Then he shouted, “Darn!” But, he said, “Oh right, I know how to go back to what I’ve played so far or what happened in Minecraft.” He rewound the game. He sighed and said, “Phew.” But he thought, “Oh, I really want to go into the game and see the experience.”

He knew that he had blueprints that he could use, so he took out a piece of blueprint and started to plan out how to go into a video game. The plan looked like a door with wires connected to it and said “Computer must be needed.” So he biked to the recycling center and got all of his pieces. But, Adam forgot to bring the box with him. But, he found that there was a string on his bike and he thought, Huh, I see some trucks that load things and wrap them with strings. I should try that. That was close, he thought.

He was biking home, but then he found that his grandparents were there. Adam loved his grandparents, but he also wanted to go into a video game. He had to choose one. Since he loved his grandparents he decided to make the videogame teleporter a little later. He found out that his grandpa was a technologist so he whispered in his ear, “Grandpa, come to my room.”  

Since his grandpa couldn’t hear that well, he said, “What?”

So then Adam slowly repeated the sentence loudly, “Grandpa, can you please come to my room?”

Since his grandpa heard the question this time, he stood up, took his cane, and started to slowly walk to Adam’s room.

When his grandpa got to his room, Adam asked, “Grandpa, can you help me make a portal to go into a video game?”

His grandpa asked, “Which video game?”  

Adam replied, “Minecraft! We also need to let our whole family know, because there’s the video gamegoing to be an ice age in a week!”

“Hmm… It appears that our whole family has to go into Minecraft.”

“But why, Grandpa?”

“Because, if we leave the whole family, they’re going to die and not gonna survive,” said Grandpa.

“Then first we need to tell my mom, my dad, my brother, and Grandma, okay?” Adam said.

“Okay,” answered Adam’s grandpa.

They started to build the teleporter. Adam went down to tell his whole family that the ice age was coming in a week. They all got confused.

“Honey,” said Adam’s mom. “It’s the middle of summer.”

“It’s 2032, we need to go.  The ice age is coming in a week, and I know it’s crazy, but we need to go into my favorite video game, Minecraft. I know it seems crazy, but it’s the only way we can survive even though there’s an ice age there. We just get covered in snow and all we need to do is make a house quickly.”

They took all the pieces that Adam got from the junkyard. His grandpa went to the backyard and dragged the pieces to the backyard in a wagon. They got a screwdriver and a drill and a hammer and a lot of nails, and they started to build the machine. They started off with the door and then pieces of metal, and it took them about five days. Max mentioned that there was only one day left until the ice age happened. 

Everybody said, “What?” They all were confused, but they still followed Adam’s lead and they went to the backyard. They found a weird looking door. They shouted, “Woah!” So they quickly ran into the door and opened the door and saw a whole new Minecraft universe.

So they all started to mine wood and get some wood. After a few days, they all got a lot of wood and they built a mansion made out of wood. Since his grandma didn’t know how to build so well, his grandma just made blueprints. Once they finished the mansion completely, they started placing items in their mansion, for example: beds, shelves, crafting tables, chairs, tables, etc. Max’s favorite part about the house was the attic, because the attic was big enough to play football in it.

Then, a few days later, someone hacked into their world and took flint and steel and touched a block of wood on their mansion. The fire spread and the whole mansion was on fire. Adam’s grandpa took a bucket of water and went to the top of the mansion and poured the water on the mansion and the fire vanished immediately. Max crafted a force field on the enchanted crafting table and his grandpa said, “Good job!” The whole family found a big chunk of iron and re-made the mansion. When they made the iron mansion it took about six weeks to make the mansion. But they made the mansion bigger and better. Adam also upgraded the force field he had made before.

A few weeks later his grandma went to the woods with the whole family to to get some fresh air. His grandma opened an unexpected door to see what it was. The whole family shouted “NO!!!” But it was too late. His grandma already opened the door and when the snow came through, it turned into snow blocks. The wind was very strong, and his grandma wasn’t very strong, so she accidentally slipped into the ice age universe.  Two glaciers were quickly coming toward his grandma. They all shouted “RUN!” but the ice was too slippery.  She couldn’t stand up, and the glaciers were going faster each second and unfortunately squashed his grandma.

That day it was the darkest day ever in their life in Minecraft. The family made a graveyard for Adam’s grandma in Minecraft. Suddenly, a shiny colored looking Steve came to his room at night. Adam realized that it was his grandma’s spirit. That night, Adam had a conversation. At the end of the talk, Adam’s grandma told him not to tell his family. Adam didn’t ask why. Instead he asked, “Where are you going to live in the day?” She said that she would hide in his Minecraft picture in his room.

The next day came and the whole family woke up saying, “Oh! It’s a new day!” They were acting as if they didn’t remember that Grandma had died!!! Then Adam’s dad mentioned, “We don’t have food, so why don’t we go out and get some food?”

Adam wondered, Why is everyone acting so happy? The whole family went out to kill a wolf and Adam’s brother suffered, suffered, screamed in pain because the wolf bit his leg off. Blood was all over the place. They had to take his organs and stuff them in his leg. Then they dragged his brother back to the mansion and went to the emergency room. They got stitches and a metal wire. They connected their wire with the blood vein on his thigh and the blood vein on his leg. They sewed the leg to the thigh. Adam’s brother tried to move his leg and … he moved it! He tried to walk on his leg, but he had to learn how to walk for about two weeks. SUCCESSFUL SURGERY!!!

Once Adam got home, he went to his room. He locked the door of his room. He talked to the picture and said, “Grandma, you can come out. I locked the door.” Suddenly his picture began to shine and spin and his grandma’s spirit came out of the picture. She said, “Ahhhh, that was a long sleep. Thanks for waking me up, Adam.”

Adam replied, “It’s nice to see you too. I have to tell you that my brother has to learn how to walk because his leg got chopped off by a wolf.”

His grandma said, “Oh, there’s a knock on your door! I’ll hide back in the picture!”

Adam replied, “Okay.” He opened his door.

His mom said, “There’s a guest who wants to see you. His name is Viegas. He is waiting in the living room. He wants to show something to you.”

Adam said, “Sure, he can come up to my room.”

Five minutes later, Viegas came to Adam’s room and said, “Quickly, lock the doors and pull down the shades.”

Adam said, “Okay, but why?”

“Just quickly do it!” said Viegas.

“Okay, okay, jeez,” replied Adam. So Adam did as Viegas said.

Then Viegas pulled out a paper. He said, “This is a map, a very ancient map. I asked your mom if I could go out with you into the woods. Your mom said it’s fine, but to come back by dinner time. She said that the dinner is wolf stew.”

Adam said, “Okay. Where does this map lead to?”

Viegas replied, “It leads to an ancient castle with treasures.” So they went downstairs and Adam told his mom that he was going out into the woods. So they opened the door and they started to walk into the woods. They ran in the direction of the map and Adam and Viegas had a compass and a clock in their chest just to check the time. So they started running.

They came up into the middle of the woods until Viegas tripped on an old gray brick. Viegas said, “This is the castle! I know that it’s a castle because I’ve been here, but be careful because there are monsters such as creepers, endermen, zombies, and skeletons. But the most dangerous thing of all that we need to kill is Mobzilla. Dun dun dun!”

Adam asked, “Why do we have to kill Mobzilla?”

Viegas replied, “To get the armor and the treasure.”

So they started to head into the castle. Once they got to the castle they found two zombies. Viegas said, “Quickly! Go to the furnace and try to melt the compass and the clock to make a time sword.” They pressed a button on the time sword and went to the time after they killed the zombies and had zombie disguise suits.

Both of them fell silent and started to make zombie sounds. Both of them ended up in a narrow pathway and started to come up to a tunnel where they had to crawl. Then they came to the part of the tunnel where there was a fork in the road. Then Vegas said “We have to split up. We’re close to Mobzilla’s throne.”

“Okay.” said Adam. So they split up.

They ended up right in front of Mobzilla, gladly still in disguise.

Mobzilla was a big and tough guy. He was strong enough to kill one hundred mutant zombies in one punch. He had poisonous spikes and magma hot leather. Just then, he started to moan out something that Adam didn’t understand. Then, Adam and Viegas, out of nowhere, took out a enchanted king-scale battle axe and duplicated the king-scale battle axe. Both of them started hitting Mobzilla. Mobzilla tried to dodge the hits, but he was too big to dodge the hits. Mobzilla eventually died and both of them got the Mobzilla armor. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a portal to the Ender World!

Before the two jumped in, they decided to visit their families. Viegas had lost his family because Endermen took his family, so he was kind of glad that the portal was an Enderportal. Anyway, they arrived at Adam’s home and told them that they had defeated Mobzilla. But of course they didn’t believe that they defeated Mobzilla until Viegas took out his Mobzilla helmet.

They talked for a while and decided that Adam and Viegas could go to the Ender World, so Adam’s mom packed their inventory full of food. Then they ran back to the portal and got their armor on and counted down: Three, two, one! They jumped inside the portal with their eyes closed…

The Lonely Glimmer of the Moon

The stars on navy black nights

wink at humans who stare up at the lonely glimmer of the moon.

The mystery girl sits on the dusty pewter gray surface

her lanky legs hanging down, dangling above the world she knew so well.

She hums a lullaby for the people to drift off to sleep,

into the world of dreams.

Where the world’s sins and rainy days are forgotten,

where there is a new glimmer of hope for each and every one of us.

The map in the center sets us on our path to destiny,

and at the end of the day,

the mystery girl dances among the stars.

The Night of the Pug Banshee

Ahhh! Pug banshee. That is what was in the letter, thought Detective Frank. Now he had to figure out who was the pug banshee.

Meanwhile, across town, a pug was right in front of a computer ordering a black hoodie and a new scythe because his old one had blood on it.

After interviewing every human in town, Frank fell onto his couch. It broke. I will order a new one on Amazon, he thought. Then he realized that the murderer must have ordered something on Amazon Prime. The signal led him to a warehouse. He stepped inside the warehouse. All of a sudden he heard a scream so loud he died. A Pug banshee was standing over him.

“Nice work,” Barney said as he stepped out of the shadows.

 

Leela Levine was crawling down the street at midnight, eating a box of cookies. Sure, she was not allowed to leave the house past her bedtime, or eat too many cookies, but hey, she could just blame the chauffeur. Then she crawled right into a cave in Hastings. The cave of the Pug banshee. He attacked her with his scream. Then she got upset and attacked him with a bazooka. Then they fell in love. All of a sudden they had a baby who they named Petruska.

“Awww, she is so cute,” Barney said. Little did Barney, Barney, and Barney know that she would start a war.

 

Blinky was bored. Sure, he had 765 marriages planned, but still, just because he’d called dibs on 764 pretty singers, and one dib on Heidi Klum, did not mean he wouldn’t be bored sometimes. Plus, he was a three year old, so he was not allowed to marry yet. He missed his adopted sister Leela Levine. It all began when he was walking to preschool on his first day. When he saw a box with a baby inside it, he thought the baby didn’t have such a bad idea and jumped in the box with her. Then a limo pulled up at the sidewalk and a chauffeur stepped out. He picked up the box and put it in the backseat. There sat Adam Levine.

“Hi, Leela, do not ever run away like that again.”

“Sorry, Daddy, but the chauffeur made me do that.”

“I did not.”

“Never mind,” said Adam. “Who is your friend?”

“Blinky! His name is Blinky,” Leela said.

From then on, Blinky had been at Leela’s side, when they destroyed the grand canyon, and when she kidnapped Blake Shelton, and that one time when they were lawyers defending a client and accidentally revealed that they killed Katy Perry. That time, the judge revealed that he was a murderer and the jury were his helpers. It was the first time that everyone in court was sent to jail. They were in jail for 2 months. The point is that he was at Leela’s side all the time, so where was she?

 

“Barney, you are under arrest,” yelled Frederick angrily.

“Never!” Barney yelled.

Just seconds later, Frederick and Tommy had flown into the cave and tried to arrest Barney for murdering detective Frank.

“Feel the pain!” yelled Frederick, as he shot fire at Barney. Just in time Leela jumped right in front of the fire, but the fire hit her and she died. The Pug banshee’s eyes filled with tears.

Petruska crawled up to the Pug banshee and said, “You need a hug,” and hugged him. Blinky and Tommy’s sister, Ms. Mati, ran into the cave.

“Where is Tommy?” asked Ms. Mati.

“Where is Leela?” asked Blinky.

“Tommy?” said Ms. Mati.

“No!!!” said Blinky.

Leela was dead and it was all Frederick’s fault.

 

One hour later:

The world was in mass destruction. All of them were fighting like crazy. Then Leela came out of nowhere except this time she was a ghost.

“What are you guys doing? You should be destroying Blake’s house,” the ghost of Leela said.

Everyone agreed that was a good idea. They destroyed Blake’s house, then went out for ice cream and vowed never to ALMOST destroy the world again.*

 

THE END.

 

*The Pug banshee lived happily ever after.

Becky’s Diary

Chapter 1: A Bad Start

Becky got ready to go home from her frustrating day at school. Her fist was soaked from all the sweat dripping between her fingers. She grabbed her backpack. She was still sad that her friend deserted her. She’d been excited to go to Sarah’s party, but suddenly she was uninvited. Becky was Sarah’s friend since kindergarten, but when Sarah met other people she forgot about Becky. When Becky got home, she grabbed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich her mom made for her. The jelly was squished out of the side of the bread, but Becky didn’t mind the mess. She licked her fingers as she climbed the stairs and closed herself inside her bedroom. Even from inside, she smelled the moist air from the rainy day.

The front door swung open, and her mom shouted up the stairs. “I’m home! Where are you?”

Becky felt dreadful now. She couldn’t have a nice, peaceful day with Mom’s endless questions. She tiptoed to her little brother’s room to retrieve the telephone charger he’d swiped from her. She plugged it in and belly flopped onto her bed. Starring up at the ceiling, kicking her legs in the air, Becky typed in Sarah’s phone number. She pressed “send” and waited a long time for Sarah to respond, but after what seemed like a hundred rings, she gave up hoping Sarah would answer the phone.

Becky wasn’t surprised. It had been a long time since Sarah was a real friend to Becky –– at least eight years. Becky was eleven now, and she wished Sarah would be her friend again.

She jumped out of bed when her mom called her for dinner: grilled brussel sprouts with mashed potatoes. Afterward, she brushed her teeth with super bubble gum pop ice cream flavored toothpaste, and then crept into the family room without her mother hearing her. She sunk into the soft purple velvet couch and started watching The Big Bang Theory, one of her favorite shows. After her eyelids started drooping, she returned to her room and fell asleep in her cozy pink bed, dreamily clutching her kitten-patterned comforter.

The next morning, Becky slipped out of bed and changed into the flowered dress her Aunt Nelson had given her for her birthday. Becky pranced to the door and down the stairs. It was Book Fair day, and she was so excited. She’d been waiting so long to get more books and participate in the drawing contest. Too bad she had to suffer through the boring parts of school first.

In homeroom, number 234, she tried to pay attention to her teacher.

”Okay, students, open your math notebooks to page 225,” he said. “We will be reading page 225-230, and also, do not forget to answer all of the problems. Remember, there are 24 problems on one page.”

Becky didn’t want to answer any amount of problems. She sneakily removed her diary from her bookbag, opened it on her desk, and wrote:

 

Dear Diary,

Ahh man, I wish I could make the teacher disappear, and then he could be a torturer for my little brother, but not me. But Torture Class is almost over and it’ll be time for social studies with… Oh, I can’t remember all my teachers’ names because I have seven teachers. That’s way too many teachers. Yesterday in social studies we learned how much trash has been dumped on earth, so we talked about how we can stop having so much trash. My idea was to get a machine that helps cancer but eats trash so then kids will be helped and there will be less trash. But the teacher said  impossible things can not be included, but then I told her it’s not impossible. Then the teacher gave us worksheets, but I just ripped it slowly and then started to cut it into tiny squares that were nicely ripped.

 

Becky went into the cafeteria and had her favorite lunch: a salad from the salad bar and fried chicken. The salad bar had almost all the toppings you could want: tomatoes, croutons, olives, and lots more. Becky chose tomato salad with olives. After lunch Becky went to recess. It was indoors because it was lightly raining outside. She picked up her diary.

 

I really hate this school. It’s really boring. If somebody talks, the whole class has to put their heads down for the whole recess. Another really bad thing is that whenever a teacher needs a substitute, it’s my mom. One time a teacher here needed a sub and my mom came it. She told other kids really embarrassing things about me!

 

Sarah went over. “What’s this?” she shrieked. She bent over and threw Becky’s diary across the room; it almost went into the trash can. Behind Sarah, Becky could hear Sarah’s friends. The boys roared. They were weird, and Becky rushed over to get her diary, but then one of the friends came and ripped the page out.

“Here’s your stupid diary,” he said.

Sarah and her friends walked away.

When recess was over the teacher came in and said, ”We’re going to do a pop quiz.”

Everyone moaned, “NOOO!”

 

Dear Diary,

Everyone in our classroom hates test and work. I’m stuck on the question 32 x 5. Ooh! I’ll pull out my calculator!

 

The teacher saw Becky reach for her calculator and glared across the room. “Becky, please sit at the back table. I’ll see you after class.”

Becky grumbled as she walked through the rows to the back of the classroom. As she stomped, she saw Sarah was halfway through her test already. That was when she saw Sarah’s arm covered with the answers for the test. Becky was about to tell on Sarah, but the teacher called her name. Becky walked to the front of the classroom.

“Tell everyone what you were doing.”

Becky hesitated, and then she told everyone. “I was getting a calculator.”

“I will give you a reflection. Tell your parents to sign it and bring it in,” the teacher said.

 

Dear Diary,

I got in big trouble from my parents today. At dinner, they called me down to ask what happened. I told them I needed the calculator. I told them I was stuck on the question. I told them about Sarah being mean and how she had the answers written on her arms. And Mom and Dad said they didn’t care about Sarah. They only cared about me. They told me if Sarah’s doing that, that’s her problem, not ours. That I should focus on my own business. But Sarah is my business, because I want to be friends with her.

 

For dinner, Becky had salmon and mushrooms. Becky quickly ate the salmon, but she didn’t like the mushrooms, so she made a big pile.  

“Becky, eat those mushrooms, or you won’t get ice cream for dessert,” her mom said.

But Becky knew they didn’t have ice cream, so she knew her mom was lying. Becky ate it anyway, though, because she didn’t want to get in more trouble.  She went to bed and put on her favorite fluffy pajamas with pictures of hamsters from head to toe. She went to the bathroom and started brushing her teeth with blueberry mint toothpaste and her puppy-patterned toothbrush. She yawned and her eyelids drooped. She was ready for bed! She slipped under her covers and fell into a dream.  

She dreamed about her friends. She dreamed about the girl in her class, Olivia, and dreamed about how she could be her friend. But then Sarah entered the dream and was really mean to her.

Why would she want to be Sarah’s friend? Becky thought. She abandoned her, she took her diary, she made fun of her, and in the last few years, she mocked Becky’s last name with her gang of meanies. Olivia was there again, happy and sweet and welcoming. Maybe Becky should be friends with Olivia instead. But, despite how nice she was, no one wanted to be Olivia’s friend, and Becky wondered why. Then she remembered that Sarah had told everybody not to be Olivia’s friend because if you played with her she’d steal all of your stuff.

Becky woke up, confused. The next day, she quickly ate her banana chocolate cereal with fresh milk from the cows in her dad’s farm for breakfast and went to school. During attendance, Sarah went over to Olivia and pushed her out of her chair.

“Oopsie,” Sarah said insincerely, and the class laughed at Olivia.

Becky stood, her hands on her hips and said, “Stop. I’m tired of people saying and doing mean things to Olivia.”

Olivia eyes welled with tears as she stood and approached Becky. “Wow. You’re so brave. Do you want to sit together at lunch?”

“Yes!”

So they sat together at lunch. Olivia had a salami sandwich her mom made, and Becky bought a Philly cheesesteak from the cafeteria. They shared bites with each other, just like best friends, but they were so distracted that Becky didn’t notice Sarah creep up and grab her backpack.

“Ha! Look what I’ve got!” Sarah said. “After I got it the last time, I thought you would’ve stopped carrying around your dumb diary.”

Sarah opened the diary again and began reading aloud:

 

Dear Diary,

What’s wrong with Sarah?

 

The girl stopped and looked at Becky with wide eyes. She cleared her throat and continued reading, but it wasn’t what Becky had actually written!

 

I hate Sarah. She is so mean, and nobody likes her. I bet she’s bad at school, too.

 

“Hey!” Becky exclaimed. “I didn’t write that!”

“So you just talk about people behind their backs. You’re the real mean one, Becky.”

The cafeteria buzzed with conversations, and several kids fired mean looks at Becky. Even Olivia looked concerned. Sarah looked like Queen of the World as she shook Becky’s diary in the air. She pouted her bottom lip like her heart had been broken, but Becky knew the truth. She hadn’t written those things about Sarah. She’d written nice things.

At recess, everyone in the class appeared to hate Becky. No one would talk to her or play with her. She had to get her diary back. She had to show them the truth.

Sarah was on the playground, flipping through the diary pages, when Becky stomped up to her.

“Can I please have my diary back?”

“So you can write more lies about me?” Sarah asked. Her voice boomed across the playground, and kids gathered around them.

“You’re the liar!” Becky said. “I didn’t write those things, and I can prove it.”

Becky ripped the diary out of Sarah’s hands and flipped it open to the page Sarah had lied about.

 

Dear Diary,

I think Sarah and I could be really good friends. The only thing is that Sarah is mean to me sometimes. She says we can hang out, but then she deserts me. She even invited me to a party, but then said I couldn’t come because it’s only for “cool girls.” I think I’m pretty cool. I wonder why Sarah doesn’t think so. I wish Sarah would be my friend and be at least a little nicer to me. Then she’d have a lot more friends, and I think people would like her instead of being scared of her. Sometimes I think that’s the only reason people hang out with her. She’s popular and everyone says she’s the best person, but I think that’s because she’d be mean to them if they don’t say they like her.

I could like her. I could be her real friend. We could all be her real friends.

 

Becky showed the kids the diary, and they gasped.

“She was telling the truth!” Olivia said. “And Sarah was lying.”

Sarah’s cheeks turned bright red, and her face crumpled in sorrow. She looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole and hide forever like a meerkat.

“Why did you lie to us?” a girl asked Sarah.

“And why did you trip me the other day?” a boy added.

“And why do you keep stealing Becky’s diary?” Olivia asked.

Sarah lowered her head. “I don’t know. I guess I just thought being tough would make me more popular and cooler. I thought people would like me more.”

“People like other people when they’re nice,” Becky said. “When they share and are fair and have fun jokes. You should treat people they way you want to be treated. Like your favorite pet, or your family, or ––”

“Like a best friend!” Olivia interjected. She wrapped her arm around Becky and smiled.  

Sarah stood there, mouth hanging open in shock. But Olivia and Becky reached out to her and smiled as they said, “Join us, Sarah. You can be our friend.”

Sarah was hesitant. No one had offered her kindness and friendship like this before, and she didn’t know if she could trust it.

But the girls and the other kids on the playground encouraged her to take their hands, to stop being mean, and to be friends with Becky.

Becky was so happy. She was still a little mad at Sarah for being mean to her, but now that Sarah was going to change her ways and be a good person, Becky could overlook her remaining anger.

She threw one arm around Sarah, one arm around Olivia, and as the bell rang to signal the end of recess, Becky wasn’t upset about having to go back inside.

At her locker, she pulled out her diary and pressed it against the locker to write.

 

Dear Diary,

This was a really hard year. But Sarah has finally become my friend and will stop bullying everybody. Olivia and I are best friends now. Even Mom has stopped asking me so many questions, and I can finally have a peaceful day.

 

The Turning Point

It was one of those days when Cameron woke up and was all alone. A few days ago, there was a person coming to babysit Cameron’s little sister and when Cameron came back home, she was gone.

The first few days, Cameron’s family had no idea who took her, but the day after, they saw a video of their babysitter putting a fist at his five-year-old sister.

Today Cameron was going to get her back. He still had no idea where she was, but he had a clue. In the video, he saw she was in a little cottage deep inside the woods. So that’s where he was headed.

After he finished gathering the stuff he needed, he set out into the woods. When he got into the woods, he couldn’t see any cottages in plain view, but he knew it was further into the woods.

* * *

“Please don’t hurt me,” Cameron’s younger sister, Emma, pleaded to her babysitter.

“I will, you moron,” the babysitter said with a malicious grin.

BANG!

They heard a noise outside. After that, the babysitter took out his machete and headed for the door.

Two minutes later the babysitter hadn’t come back, but her brother did. “Cameron! You came to save me,” Emma whispered.

“Or try,” the babysitter said as he entered the room.

The babysitter took out two little daggers.

“I will kill you!” Cameron yelled at the babysitter.

“But you won’t.”

Then Cameron took out two katanas. Then they started to duel.

Cameron then lunged at the babysitter and tried to get a good shot at the arm. But the babysitter used the daggers and pushed both katanas to the side and badly hurt Cameron’s arms, which led to death.

“NOOO!” Emma yelled at the top of her lungs. Then the babysitter took both daggers and chopped off the ropes. “I’ll let you live, on one condition. You kill your dad.”

Emma nodded glumly. She stared at the babysitter and asked, “Why do you want me to do that?”

“I want you to hurt and/or kill your parents.”

“But why do you want to do that.”

“Let me tell you a story. When I was in high school, I had a huge crush on your mom, but your mom married some other kid. So I’m getting revenge for her marrying the kid which was Joe right, yeah. So you are going to get your dad to divorce your mom.”

“Why would you want to do such horrible things. And I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“Because I just do. Now go do what I said.”

Emma didn’t have a choice and walked right out of the cabin. But instead of doing what the babysitter said, whose name Emma found out was was Mike, she ran to her house and told her mom as fast as she could, but while Emma was talking, her mom was crying from joy.

“So that’s where you were all this time,” Emma’s mom said with more tears in her eyes. “But where’s Cameron?” Emma’s mom asked worriedly.

“Um, let’s just say he’s not alive,” Emma said hesitantly.

Emma’s mom picked up the phone with a face like she has seen a ghost and rapidly dialed 911. After she finished talking to the police she ran upstairs and started to cry hysterically for hours.

Emma then started to run to the cottage to find Mike and lie to him. She said, “I did it.” She entered and called for Mike but there was no answer.

* * *

After Mike heard the police sirens outside of his “secret” hideout, he ran out of his emergency door and ran to his parents’ house for the first time in his whole life. When he was right at the door, he hesitantly knocked.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman appeared. “Is that you, Mike?” the middle-aged woman asked.

“Yes, it’s me,” Mike replied childishly and sheepishly. Then then middle-aged woman grabbed Mike and pulled him inside her house. “Mike, you came back, but why?”

Mike knew the middle-aged woman was his mom, Margaret. At first, Mike had no clue who this woman was because he thought he could ask one of his neighbors where his family moved. But apparently they just moved to a different town two minutes away from the their old one. Now he found his parents and had a happy, sad, angry feeling inside him. His mom hugged him and let him stay for the night. But Mike didn’t feel like he deserved that, and a sliver of guilt ran down his back. Then his old childhood memories came flooding back

* * *

I was sitting in the living room watching TV (as usual) on a Saturday, and then out of the blue, my mom came in and said,” Pack up your things! We’re moving out of here.” That sentence turned my brain into mush. “No, NO! Dad, you can’t do that to me. We’ve lived in this town for 12 years and I have made a bunch of new friends and I won’t abandon them and go somewhere else,” I yelled with tears on the verge. “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to live here anymore.”

“But I’m not going anywhere.”

“Excuse me, young man, you are my son and you do as I say.”

“Make me.”

“Mike, I won’t take any of this foolishness. Go and pack up.”

“I said I’m not going anywhere, you hear that?”

“MIKE HAMILTON, YOU GO UPSTAIRS AND PACK YOUR THINGS UP! YOU HEAR THAT? OR ELSE YOU ARE GROUNDED FOREVER,” boomed my father.

“No, I won’t leave.”

Then my dad took me by the ear and dragged me to my room. He yelled at me to start  packing. So I did, but when they were busy talking, I slipped out the door with my belongings and ran away from my home. When I got far enough, I chopped down some wood and  built a little cottage that I learned in Boy Scouts. After that, I went to get more wood and made a little fire in the house. Unfortunately, I had no furniture at all so I had to sit on the hard wooden floor. I decided to carve some furniture out of the spare wood. Now I have completed my mission. But 5 years later I saw a newspaper that said that the search for me was “over.” I was half happy and half sad. My parents don’t care about me now. Seriously they stopped caring for me? So I decided to get revenge later on in their life to pay back for canceling the search for me.

* * *

“So… can I stay for a while? Five days max.”

“Sure, anything for my son. But why?”

“Oh, because I haven’t seen you in 12 years.”

“O-kay…”

Mike felt very guilty because of how his mother was acting to him. Part of him was very happy because now he could finally get revenge. However, at this point, his guilt was taking control over his other feelings, so he couldn’t get revenge, not yet.

It was 10:00 o’clock already, so everyone was getting ready for bed. Mike already had the best dinner in his life and watched TV shows he wasn’t allowed to before. After what just happened, Mike couldn’t get any revenge again.

CREAK, CREAK!

Mike was walking very slowly down the stairs of his parents house because he didn’t want to stay another night, otherwise all his secrets would spill out and his parents would hate him for life. When he got down to the stairs, he secretly installed a little camera in all the rooms that can go 360 degrees around so he could see his parents. He still didn’t want to abandon them, at least not yet.

* * *

Go to mom and dad and tell them about everything and then you throw yourself into a cell. No, just leave and forget about everything. Yes, because they have been too nice to me. Okay, if I just forget about this and go they’re going to think somethings up. And if I throw myself into jail by confessing the things to my mom, she would be unpredictable.

* * *

Not wanting to disappoint his mom by lying, he put his hand on the doorknob, but his mind was processing totally different. His mind was taking him back up to his mom and dad’s room and confessing. And that’s what he did. “Mom, Dad, wake up. I need to tell you something very important.”

His mom shot up first and then a few seconds later his dad shot up later very groggily. “What do you want to tell us?”

“You know how I used to be a babysitter?”

“Yeah, you were babysitting, ummm… a girl named Emma, right?”

“Yeah, I killed her brother.”

Mike’s dad fainted.

“YOU WHAT?”

“I wasn’t in the right mind, Mom.”

Now her face was the color of a fresh tomato and her eyes were giving Mike an angry regretful expression, wishing she had a different son. And her hands were clenched into a strong hardy fist.

“No, excuses! I am ashamed to be your mom!”

“Mom, I’m really, really sorry. And I’ll show you by turning myself in.”

After that he ran downstairs, threw open the door and ran outside towards the police station.

When Mike got to the police station, he ran up to the counter and said, “I found the suspect to the murder of Cameron.”

“Yes, yes, who was it?”

“You might find this hard to believe…” I can’t believe that I’m doing this. But I shouldn’t do this. No, just do it  for mom. No, I would never do this. No, but I have to. “It was… me.”

The police’s face was very angry and shocked at the same time.

“Sir, you are going to go into one of those cells right now!!”

And after the police yelled that, another officer came running out of nowhere and threw handcuffs over his hands. He didn’t fight against it. He learned that paying his wrongdoings by throwing himself into jail was the least he could do. But he knew one thing, he would never be able to get his mom’s trust back. But he thought it was the right result to his actions.

 

Five Years Later

 

Now Mike and his parents, were at a facility in Trenton, New Jersey. Ready for Mike’s execution.

“Mike you know I always love you, but you must pay for your wrongdoings,” Mike’s mom said, holding back dramatic tears. “And I would always regret this, but the government has asked to do this.”

“Yes, I know and I always wanted to say that.”

After that, the police put the gun up to Mike’s face, but then Emma burst through the room and said, “Wait, he deserves to live because everyone needs another chance to change. He can’t die. Mike deserves to have another chance to have a new improved family and have a fresh start to a new improved life. And he’s already paid for five years.”

“Ma’am do you know who this man is?”

“Yes I do. He was my babysitter, so he’s not that evil.”

Mike and his mom were in shock. A little girl about ten years old just burst into the room and stopped an execution. Mike was in so much shock that you could blow a bull horn at his face and he wouldn’t notice at all.

“I’m sorry, but we already signed the papers.”

Then the other two police held him up by the arms. And then there was the sound of a gun fire.

 

Epilogue: Mom

 

At that time when my son was about to get executed I was so, so sad. I thought about the time when I yelled at him harshly and said those things I never should have said. And now I never got to apologize to him. I also had wished we had given him more love and appreciation. After he got executed, I cried so hard and my face was so hot you can cook an egg on it. My husband, he cried with me. That little girl, Emma, came to my house and told me the times where Mike babysat her. Those stories reminded me of him. But his debt to society was paid off.

 

The end

Rose Red

The rain compacts with the light,

the colors shine in my face.

Rose red,

ripe peach orange.

Sunset yellow,

mint leaf green.

Ocean blue,

and plump grape purple.

 

The window shades are pulled back,

and all eyes are staring out.

Rose red,

ripe peach orange.

Sunset yellow,

mint leaf green.

Ocean blue,

and plump grape purple.

 

And as soon as it arrives,

it disappears just like that.

Rose red…

is the last to leave.

 

A Rough Current

“We’re going that way.”

My friend, Billy, sounded so sure of himself when he announced the route we would take across the river. Our kayak was bobbing in the current, and we were running out of time to decide which way to take. “But that direction is the one with the stronger rapids,” I told Billy impatiently. “We’re just beginners. Do you really think you can go that way?”

Billy snickered and leaned into my face. “You scared?” he taunted.

I shook my head. “Come on, Billy, let’s just go that way, okay?” I begged.

“Okay, scaredy,” Billy sneered. “We’ll go the baby path.”

I felt both offended, but relieved. I never really expected for this trip to turn out well, but I didn’t think that I would have to go through such a rough current, either. None of the trips that my mom planned really worked out well. I was not exactly eager when she told me about her idea for me to go kayaking with Billy, especially after seeing him act slightly strange for a few days.

“Why don’t you go kayaking with Billy?” she had asked me. “He hasn’t hung out with you for a while. It’ll help your relationship.”

We kayaked over to the right just as we reached the area where the river split into two. The left path had a very rapid current, and the other way was way more appropriate for beginner kayakers. At least, I thought so. We paddled silently for a while. Then, the rapids started to get rougher. We bumped up and down quickly along the river.

“Um, Billy?” I asked nervously. “Uh, why is this so… rough?”

Billy did not respond. The farther we went, the stronger the rapids grew. Soon, when I felt like I was about to fall right out of the kayak, I saw a very frightening sight right ahead of my eyes.

It was a waterfall.

I panicked, and I started kayaking away from it.

“Billy! It’s a waterfall!” I shrieked to him. He glared at me without a word. We were both wearing life jackets, but the water was freezing cold. Billy, however, had an idea. He began steering towards a log floating in the river. Once we were close enough, he pushed me off the boat and onto the log. He climbed on after me, and grabbed the boat out of the water. We walked across the log and onto land, Billy still carrying the boat. He had just saved our lives.  

I had to thank him. “Billy?” I began. He turned to me and glared. A lump formed in my throat. “Um, never mind,” I told him nervously. I decided not to thank him. If he was going to treat me that way, he did not deserve to be thanked.

We walked back in silence. Billy had been my friend since I was 4 years old. Now, were we just going to break that friendship because of an accident? Of course not! He’s still my friend! I thought. But as we walked in silence, I didn’t feel so sure.

Soon, we reached the area where our parents were waiting for our return.

“Back already?” my mom asked when she saw us.

I nodded.

“What happened?” she urged. I shook my head. I was not in the mood to explain, and she didn’t make me, either. “I want to go home,” I told her. She didn’t object so I waved good-bye to Billy, and I headed home.

The entire car ride home was silent, but once we got home, my mom asked the question.

“Bob,” she asked me. “What happened at the river? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I would appreciate it if you did.”

I sighed as I shook my head. Somehow, I found myself spilling the whole story to my mother. She deserves the truth, I thought. But that was my biggest mistake. I guess I should have told her that this story was personal, because in less than 3 minutes, the story of my relationship with Billy was posted all over Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The next morning was Monday, which meant going to school–with Billy. I hoped that Billy didn’t have an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account. That would be a nightmare, I thought. But it was nothing compared to what actually happened.

At lunchtime, Billy, who had always sat at the “losers’” table with me, didn’t make it over without a bunch of popular kids crowding in his face.

“Yo, Billy!” one of the kids called out. “You going around kayaking waterfalls?”

Billy looked shocked. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

The kid stared. “My friend told me everything that happened in the river. He told me that you kayaked down a waterfall! At least, that’s what I heard. He told me that his friend’s father saw something about that on Instagram,” he explained.

The other kids nodded. “Well, hey, that’s cool! Wanna join us here?” another kid asked.

I was so shocked. I had no idea about all these rumors going on about the river incident.  

“Billy, no! Don’t go with them! You’re my friend…. right?” I pleaded. But Billy didn’t hear me. He smiled, nodded, and sat down at the popular kids’ table, deserting me.

I couldn’t believe what I just saw. Billy… a popular kid?! I thought. No way! He’ll be a friend of mine again in no time. But still, I was desperate to prove to myself that Billy was still my friend. It was hard to believe, though, seeing Billy hang around and talking with the popular kids, as if they were old friends. I felt left out and alone.

By the time school ended, I had a plan. If the plan succeeded, then Billy was truly my friend. However, if the plan failed, Billy was so totally over me.

On the bus, I sat at the seat reserved for the popular kids. I knew that when they came over and found out that I had taken one of the reserved seats, they would be angry. Then, what happened next would decide if Billy was still my friend.

I had to wait a while for the kids to come. When they finally arrived, I could see that Billy was among them. “Get out of my seat, loser,” one of the popular kids sneered. I looked over at Billy, waiting to see his reaction. He remained emotionless, just standing there.

“I said, GET OUT!” the kid shouted once again. I held my breath, waiting.

“Whatever, let him stay,” I heard Billy say. Relief flowed through me. He was my friend! “We can choose some other seats.”

As they walked away, Billy leaned over and whispered, “You owe me one, remember that.”

When he rejoined the popular kids, I heard one of them whisper to him with a frown, “Meet me this afternoon at the schoolyard. We need to talk.”

When I got home, I immediately went on to Twitter. I wanted to see what my mom posted about me, and I really wanted to see where the popular kids had gotten the information. What I saw completely shocked me. In front of my eyes was an article, an article so fake that I just couldn’t believe that my own mother had written it:

My poor son, Bob! His mean friend, Billy, went kayaking with him, and he didn’t know that Bob was only a beginner! He chose to kayak the route down the waterfall! Poor Bob was scared to death, and I felt so bad for my son. He could have died from that kayaking trip! What was Billy thinking?

At first I did not know how to react. Then, the reality began to sink in.

“Mom!” I shouted. “What have you been posting on Twitter?!” I ran out into the kitchen, holding the laptop.

My mom was busy making dinner. “What is it, honey?” she asked, surprised.

I held the laptop up for her to see. “What – why -” I was so mad, that if I had been in one of those cartoons, smoke would be coming out of my ears.

“How could you have posted something like this about me on Twitter, where everyone could see it?” I demanded.

She looked shocked for a moment. “Relax! Calm down, and show me.” She sat down on one of the dining room chairs, and I handed her the laptop. Slowly, she read the article.

“I… I’m not sure what’s wrong with what I posted,” she told me finally when she was finished. I glared at her.

“How can you not see?! Don’t you know that people at my school can read this stuff?!” I yelled in response. “Besides, this information isn’t even accurate! You just assumed most of this stuff!” I stomped off to my room and slammed the door.

“Young man!” my mom shouted. “Come back here, right now!” I stayed where I was, but I heard her footsteps coming towards my room. The door opened, and my mom was standing in my doorway. From the look on her face, I knew that I was about to get busted.

“Come over here,” she told me, beckoning me towards her. I stood up and followed her into the living room.

We sat down on the couch, and she calmed down immediately. “Go ride your bike,” she instructed me. “Ride a few laps around the schoolyard. When you feel calmed down, come back home, and we’ll talk.”

I followed her instructions and rode my bike out of the garage. Suddenly, I remembered what the popular kids had told Billy.

Meet me this afternoon on the schoolyard. We need to talk.

Something important was going to happen. I couldn’t miss it. I peddled as fast as I could, and when I reached the schoolyard, I could see figures standing on the basketball court. One of them was unmistakably Billy. I parked my bike and ran over, anxious to see what was happening.

Billy was standing on one side of the court, and all the popular kids were on the other side. I could hear them arguing. It didn’t sound so good.

“I take back what I said at lunchtime. You aren’t loyal to us. Why did you defend that loser when we were on the bus? If you want to be one of us, you can’t be loyal to anyone else.”

Billy looked scared, but I couldn’t blame him. The kid was taller than him, and looked very tough. I recognized him–John, a kid in my English class. He could be so intimidating that even the teachers didn’t dare to mess with him.

Billy sighed, and didn’t say anything. Then, he looked up and saw me, standing there. His eyes suddenly grew hopeful. None of the popular kids noticed.

“Just a few minutes ago, when we were pushing the little kids, what were you doing? You just stood there, watching. You can’t be one of us. You’re… a loser.”

John nodded to his gang, and they charged at him. They lifted him up, and threw him onto the ground. I couldn’t watch. I ran towards them, even though they were all taller and heavier than me, and I had no chance of beating them in a fight. Even so, I tried to push them off Billy, but they were too heavy. Now, the entire gang was focused on me, so Billy stood up. I wasn’t so fortunate, though. They pushed me down to the ground, and I couldn’t get up. Just as I felt as if I was suffocating, Billy came to the rescue. He grabbed one of the kids off of me and pulled me out of the human pile. Then, he pulled me up, helping me to my feet. I stood up and ran off.

I thought I was safe as I ran towards the edge of the basketball court. However, I didn’t expect that one of the kids–Ben–was standing there at the edge. He tripped me over as I ran, and I struggled to get up. Then Ben leaped on top of me.

“Help!” I yelled. Billy, however, was running over to save me.

It was just that look in his eye, that look of concern, that told me that he was my friend again. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, the way he took each long stride over, coming to save me. He was no longer mad at me, and now, he was going to save me. I couldn’t thank him enough.

Billy shoved Ben off of me from behind, and grabbed my arm. He pulled me towards the edge of the schoolyard. “Run!” he shouted to me.

I began to run out of the schoolyard, with Billy following me. I looked back, expecting to see Ben following us. I saw him sitting on the basketball court, looking surprised and shocked. He won’t be chasing us anytime soon, I thought. As I ran out of the schoolyard, I grabbed my bike and began riding with Billy running after me. I didn’t know where we were going, but it felt good to be going somewhere with Billy again. I realized that I was heading home, and I looked back at Billy. He nodded, telling me to keep going. So I biked on.

Once I was at my house, I hopped off my bike and turned to Billy. “You were quite impressive,” he told me with a smile. “That was really cool, the way you took them out.” I nodded. Did this mean he was my friend again? I decided to find out.

“Hey, Billy, wanna come inside my house and hang out?” I asked. To my relief, he nodded. When we headed inside, I found my mom hanging out on the laptop. Uh oh, I thought. My mom doesn’t mix well with computers. I walked over to her.

“Uh, mom?” I asked nervously. Billy, seeing that this was between me and my mom, took a step back. “Have you been posting… other stuff?” I walked over and looked at the screen of my mom’s laptop. Twitter. That wasn’t a good sign.

My mom smiled at me. “Bob, I’m really sorry if I had been posting offensive things about you and Billy. I promise that I’ll try to control myself better on social media.” She turned the laptop over to me. “Here, I wrote an article to make it up to you.”

Nervously, I read the article.

I’m sorry about the article that I last posted. Turns out, it isn’t so true, and Bob’s friend Billy is far from mean. And Bob is way more capable than I thought. He survived the trip down the waterfall, and that was way more than I expected. So, Bob, please understand that I am sorry for what I posted.  You are braver than I thought you would be, and I am proud of you.

For a moment, I was silent. Well, close enough. I sat up and embraced my mom, not at all embarrassed. “Thanks, Mom,” I said. “Thanks for posting this.” My mom smiled back, hugging me tighter.

“I’m very proud of you, Bob. You acted very wisely, and I am glad that you survived, and I’m sorry for posting the offensive material. Now, why don’t you go hang out with Billy for a while? I don’t want to distract you guys,” she told me, letting me go. I nodded to her, and walked over to where Billy was standing. Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind.

“Hey, Billy, I just wanted to ask you something,” I told him. He turned to me, and nodded. I felt so happy that we were speaking to each other again now. I couldn’t resist smiling.

“Yeah?”

“Well, I wanted to ask… would you like to go on another kayaking trip with me?”

Slowly, a smile formed across Billy’s face. “Yeah, sure… I guess so.” He was practically grinning by now. “Hey, by the way, I wanted to tell you… I’m really sorry about the whole kayaking thing in the first place. I shouldn’t have called you a scaredy, and I’ll admit that I had a really bad temper.” He sighed. “I guess you deserve to know what happened.”

I nodded. Billy went on.

“Well, the popular kids–they wanted to be my friends, and I wanted to have them as friends, too. I cared so much about popularity at that time. But then, when they found out that I often hung out with you, they rejected me. They told me you were a dork, and that you weren’t “cool” enough. So for me, the only clear solution at that time was to get rid of you. Of course, that wasn’t the right solution. You may be a dork, but you are a loyal friend, unlike the popular kids. When I found out the truth about the popular kids, I couldn’t believe it. They weren’t my friends. You are, and you always will be.”

It was hard to believe that Billy could be so foolish, or that he thought I was dorky, but I didn’t mention that. I nodded, and smiled. “Hey, it’s fine,” I told him. “Wanna go find the kayak in the garage? Maybe we can go tomorrow.”

He nodded, and we walked side by side into the garage, the way we had since we were 4 years old. Because we were friends, and we always will be.

And, like Billy said, nothing could ever change that.

The End

 

The Ultimate Paintball Match

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews need to beat Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and Roman Atwood in a paintball match to win one billion dollars. Let me tell you how this started.

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were at a WWE match and Brock missed a punch and hit Kane in the face. Without missing a beat, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Sting came up to beat up Brock Lesnar. Then Roman Reigns came out and tried to get everyone off of Brock, but he failed and he got hurt. Then Patrick Kane made a bet for 1 billion dollars on a paintball match. He had beat Brock Lesnar, Reigns, and Atwood. However, although Atwood said he was on one team, he was actually on the other: the team with Kane and Toews.

Why did he do that? Because Lesnar used to be Atwood’s best friend, but when he let Lesnar borrow his car, Lesnar blew it up accidentally.

They were playing at the Richmond Hunt Club Paintball fields. They started at 9 a.m., and the referee was to be MATT SAMPSON. The name of the game was Team Death Match.

 

It was 9 a.m… 5-4-3-2-1… go, go, go!

Right off the bat, Toews was shot. Then Atwood shot Raines.  

“Oh, I knew you didn’t like me,” Lesnar said angrily to Atwood.

It was just down to three. Then, Kane was shot. Lesnar took a shot, and it hit Atwood.

“You are out!” said Lesnar.

But the referee yelled, “No good, no good! Play on.”

Atwood got on top of a barrier, jumped, did a 360, shot, and hit Lesnar.

“You are out, that’s game,” said the ref as he pointed to the winners.

“Why did you change teams?” asked Lesner.

Boom!

A mushroom cloud came from the parking lot where only Lesnar had parked his car.

“That’s my new car!” said Lesnar. “Did you blow up my car because I blew up yours?” he asked.

All of the people on the winning team got one billion dollars and split the cost to buy the Willis Tower, which they made into a ski mountain so that they could play paintball. Lesnar tried to steal the money back, but Atwood caught him.

Now Lesnar is facing life in prison.

Star Gazer (Excerpt)

  

Chapter Two

“Day One, complete. Over,” I said into the radio. I was about to lay down in bed when Ainsley came over. I bet it wasn’t to wish me goodnight.

“You’re looking… lovely,” she said with distaste.

I was looking terrible, my eyes tired and my usually stick-straight auburn hair jutting up in odd places.

Of course she, the queen of beauty, was looking as magnificent as ever. Her silky hair was combed to perfection and her face was bright, despite the hour and condition of the living space in the ship.

“I just wanted you to know that just because your daddy is a great astronaut, does not mean you are too. So stop trying to pretend you know everything,” Ainsley snapped.

I expected this from a brat like her, so I had something to say back.

“Well, I just want you to know, that I have no intention of being like my ‘daddy’ at all, but I’m sure that you’ll turn out to be the exact same jerk he was.”

I was very proud with my response; I had always planned to say something like that in case someone insulted me. I lay down and turned to the other side of the bed, hiding my smirk from her boiling face. When I heard the sound of her retreating footsteps, I turned back to watch her hobbling body strained with muscle pains.

I groaned. She even managed to make that look graceful.

. . .

In my dreams, I saw my father. He was living another life, with his new wife and kids. I already knew this, but for some reason, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time. I was feeling the weight of his betrayal all over again.

When I was little, I was my father’s favorite. He was convinced that I would turn out just like him. I guess he didn’t know how he would turn out.

He faced me, unsurprised, almost as if he was the one who summoned me in the first place.

“I-”

“Don’t start, Alex,” my father said.

His voice had gotten lighter since the last time I saw him, like he didn’t have the burden he had when he was with our family.

I don’t know why I listened to him. I shouldn’t have listened to him, but something made me stop myself from grabbing him and screaming in his face.

His face had also changed since the last time. He had lines near his eyes, not worry lines, but lines you get when you smile a lot.

I knew that this was what he looked like. One summer, I did an internship at NASA, and they had a reunion with all their former astronauts. My dad was there. I saw him. But before he could see me, I ran and hid in the bathroom until the party was over. I wasn’t brave enough to face him yet.

He took a deep breath and started to talk. “I-I can’t think of any way to say this but, I’m leaving.”

This was his confrontation to me all over again. This was the exact same way he told me that he was leaving my mother. That he was leaving our family.

Of course this wasn’t what had really happened. He didn’t have his new wife and kids by then.

“I know,” I said solemnly. “I know.” This wasn’t even that emotional for me because I had experienced this before, and I didn’t care much for my father now.

I finally decided to ask him why he left, even though he wasn’t real.

“Why?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could make a sound, I was shaken awake.

Guess who it was. Ainsley.

“It’s your turn to man the controls, and you might want to brush your teeth while you’re at it,” she said curtly.

I moaned. “Can’t we just put it on autopilot?”

“It is, but we need to keep watch so everything goes smoothly. I thought you knew everything.”

I got up so she could sleep and asked, “Butch is going after me, right?”

”Yeah,” she answered through a yawn.

I wobbled to the main area of the ship and sat at the main control desk watching the autopilot steer us on course.

It would take another two hundred and ninety-nine days to reach our Martian destination. After spending four hundred Earth-days there, we would go back to Earth within three hundred days.

Again.

The only thing besides Ainsley I wasn’t compatible with on this journey was being away from my family for so long. With what little money we had left, they could easily starve or go bankrupt while I was in space. But when SCAT told me they would pay my family monthly during my mission, I decided that no harm could be done.

The autopilot showed no signs of malfunction, so I decided to doze off a little. After all, we had the most advanced technology for this trip than any other organization on Earth.

A beeping alarm informed me that the gas pipe down in the engines was loose. Apparently the engineers didn’t connect it tight enough to the boiler in all their rush to finish the ship.

I went down to the chilly engine room after grabbing a hoodie from my living space.

I took a gas mask from a  hook on the wall and strung it over my head while floating (due to the zero gravity below the main spaces in the ship) to the leaking gas pipe.

I took a look at the cracked metal of the pipe and turned away from the spraying fuel. There had to be a toolbox somewhere. Searching, I found it under a table in the middle of the maze-like engine room with a half-finished project on top.

When I found my way back to the leaking pipe (after getting lost) I managed to make a somewhat convincing plaster to patch the pipe until I could get Butch to look at it.

On my way back up I noticed that a few drops of gasoline had managed to get on my hoodie before I had patched up the crack in the pipe, but I ignored it as I made my way to the library of the ship, which was by far, the warmest room, thanks to the fireplace.

While the fire dried the gasoline off my sweatshirt, I decided to take a book or two back to the controls with me in case I got bored.

After roaming the endless shelves I went back to the controls with two of my favorite novels in hand. Before I knew it, Butch was coming to take his turn on watch. He was always prepared.

“You might want to take those back to your room,” he said as he swaggered over to the control panel and sat down at the other seat.

“Oh, I was, umm… just about to leave,” I explained. I dog-eared my page, closed my novel, and hurriedly got up from the seat.

“Knowing you, I bet you were planning to stay in that book world of yours,” he said jokingly.

The Boy, the Woman, and the Forest

Today was an average spring day. Even though (here in Alabama) spring days like those happen to pop up a lot here, it was still brilliant. The sky was more than blue. It was full of shadows and highlights and so many hues. The air out here in the country filled my lungs, heart, and soul. It was that fresh. And out there in the wilderness, there was the constant circulation of life. And that life was as much in the air, as the oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Today, however, I heard something other than the slow breeze. In the brush, there was a small boy. He had short hair that was so blond it was almost white. The poor boy had a mixture of dirt and tears on his face, with puffy eyes, that under normal circumstances, would be a brilliant blue. But today, his eyes were red, with small amounts of blue shining through. He had a torn red shirt with splotches of red and brown. His tearstreaked face screamed “innocence,” so I guessed that he might be from 10 to 11 years old. It pained me to imagine what or who would do this to this poor boy.

I watched the boy tear through the trees, like he was being chased by death itself. In his insane and desperate panic, he didn’t notice me. The boy started to slow. Now that his face wasn’t as blurred, I could clearly see how afraid he was. I wanted to call out to him. So I did.

“Hello?” I cried.

The boy jumped a foot off the ground at hearing my call. He looked around wildly for the source of the sound, and soon found me. I can’t say he grinned at the sight of my face, but he did seem to be a tiny bit relieved to find that I was not his pursuer.

“Hey. Are you okay?” I said. I knew it was a stupid question, it was important to know if he trusted me. I hoped he did.

He sniffed, “No.”

In an instant, feelings for this boy exploded in my soul. All in one moment, I wanted to track down whoever hurt this boy, hurt them, kill them maybe, all while being the mother of this boy, and giving him everything I have. I don’t know where this sympathy came from, but I wasn’t quick to stop thinking these thoughts. I inched toward the boy. I could protect him, and he could be the son I never could have. On a day like this, in a time like this, a miracle like this needs to be accepted.

Somewhere in my desperate brain, someone said, He still has family. And besides, he doesn’t even know you. For all you know, he still has love for his home and would be heartbroken to be torn away from his normal life. Or not. Or yes. It’s worth my time to see if this isn’t or is the case.

“Come here,” I said softly. I was not sure how I will come across as. Supportive? Nosy? Motherly even?

The boy walked towards me slowly, cracking and disrupting the silence.

“Where do you you come from?” I asked

“What do you mean?” He whispered, his voice barely audible.

“Where’s your family? What happened to you?” I asked.

The boy burst into tears, and collapsed on the ground, defeat weighing down on his shoulders. I rushed to his side, and wrapped my arms around him, feining sorrow. But inside, I was really rejoicing! This boy, this child, his suffering was caused by his family, and I doubt he’ll want to go back to that! This boy can be mine! I can protect him, and he will be my son. The son I could never have.

Far Past Is An Unknown Thing

An experience is either forgotten immediately, or never forgotten. Even when there are years between it, there is always something brought with you, and sometimes, even you don’t notice it. It’s always there, haunting you to your core, and you don’t notice until you break. Then nobody knows what will happen. You decide between the two choices, the two changes and chances to survive. You change your way of life. You change yourself. You discover things nobody has seen before.

That’s what happened to me. I stare into the distance not knowing what I’m looking at and not caring. The only thing that matters is that I escape. It’s getting to me. It’s the future. I can’t stop it. I don’t try, knowing that it’s no use. There was change again. I stopped running through the woods and sat down to write something. In case my village survives. In case someone, as curious as I am, reads it, so they know what I know. I hid the letter, and it told of all I knew, all I discovered. I hid it. I hid it somewhere only the curious ones can find it. This will be gone from eyes until that one person finds it. I know they are going to keep it a secret. That nothing goes wrong. I know of things nobody else does. I’ve seen things that others will gape at. I never dared to tell a soul, and I hope that the chosen one who finds it will not. There is something among us, good and bad, just like us humans, but so unlike all the same. I’ll leave the letter and run into the flames, the light of hope reflecting in my eyes. I looked back to the stream, and the fallen tree. I hope someone finds it far into the future. I hope that it won’t fall into the wrong hands. I took a deep breath and said a silent goodbye.

As soon as I turned around, I see them surrounding me. I was thrown into the flames with everyone else. I didn’t care that I was dying. I had hope. Someone will find it.

I will probably be just the far past to them.

Odysseus and the Cyclops

  

NARRATOR

For many days Odysseus and his ships wandered the empty seas for sanctuary. The Trojan war had ended and Odysseus and his men were returning home to the island of Ithaca. There his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus were waiting for him. Ten years had passed since he had laid eyes on them. Finally, they washed up on the shore of a mysterious island.

 

ODYSSEUS

Men, the gods have blessed us with refuge from the vigorous sea. (Stands tall, looks at men proudly.) Let’s explore the island.

(MEN nod in agreement.)

 

NARRATOR

As the men wander the island, they come across something unexpected.

MAN 3

Um, you might want to see this. (Looks at cave in astonishment.)

MAN 1

It looks like a giant cave!

MAN 2

Let’s explore it!

(MEN walk into cave.)

(Gasp in astonishment.)

NARRATOR

The walls were lined with jugs of milk and cheese as tall as a man. The men ate and ate until they couldn’t eat anymore.

(MEN slouch moan and hold stomachs.)

MAN 4

(Groans.) I’m so full.

MAN 1

So am I. I’ve never been any fuller in my entire life!

NARRATOR

Suddenly the cave shook.

MAN 3

Ahhh! Is this an earthquake?!

(MEN lie down, scared.)

NARRATOR

No. It wasn’t an earthquake, but a gigantic, hairy, one-eyed freak of nature, the Cyclops!

(Leads sheep into cave, sheep bleat, CYCLOPS looks at men with anger.)

CYCLOPS

You ate my food! You will be punished!

[Picks up two MEN (2&3) eats them, burps loudly. MEN look at CYCLOPS terrified.]

ODYSSEUS

Now that you have eaten, you must drink.

(Hands CYCLOPS giant wine jug.)

CYCLOPS

(Drinks wine, wipes mouth.) (Contented sigh.) Thank you for the Trojan wine. What is your name?

ODYSSEUS

My name is Nobody.

CYCLOPS

Nice name. My gift for you is that you will be eaten last. (Falls asleep, snores loudly)

MAN 4

Stab him with your sword, Odysseus!

ODYSSEUS

My sword is useless. He is huge. Instead, we can sharpen that log into a spear and set it on fire!  We can poke the Cyclops’s eye out with it.

(Men start working on spear.)

NARRATOR

The Cyclops started to stir.

(CYCLOPS stretches, yawns.)

ODYSSEUS

Set the log on fire!

(MEN charge into CYCLOPS’s eye.)

CYCLOPS

Aaargh! What have you done?!

OTHER CYCLOPS

(Walks over.) What happened?!

CYCLOPS

Nobody has blinded me!

OTHER CYCLOPS

You must have been dreaming. (Walks away.)

CYCLOPS

Nobody, you will pay for this!

(He lets sheep out.)

ODYSSEUS

Tie two sheep together then tie yourself to the sheep.

(Men tie themselves to sheep. Sheep walk out with men tied to them.)

CYCLOPS

I won’t let you escape! (Touches the tops of sheep looking for men.)

NARRATOR

Odysseus and his men were free! They rejoiced for having escaped the Cyclops, but mourned for their friends that had been eaten. They continued on their voyage back to Ithaca.

Fawn

Chapter One: Humans

 

It was a late summer evening in the forest. The sun was shining through the leaves of the birch trees, the ones near Fawn’s home. The early autumn leaves were just beginning to change colors, a sort of disco lighting of red, orange, and yellow. The streak of colors across the sky matched the leaves. Fawn, a young deer, was playing with his deer friend Abigail.

“Fawn, I ever tell you of humans?” she said sweetly.

“No,” said Fawn. “But my mom has.”

Abigail’s head tilted slightly to the right. She looked up at the sky as if she was looking for something… no not something, some story!

“Here we go again!” Fawn mumbled. Just then, the ground began to tremble. I guess the ground is shaking because it is trying to plug its ears, he thought.

“Well I know a story that I bet your mo — ”

But as Abigail said that there was a faint rumble and the ground shook more.

“Abigail, did you hear that?” Fawn interrupted.

“No,” Abigail said, frustrated that Fawn was interrupting her. “So one day my mom was wal

“Listen! There it is again!” Fawn said.

In the distance, Abigail and Fawn heard a loud rumble. It sounded dangerously close and the sky turned dark gray as a huge gust of wind blew in their direction, scattering leaves on the forest floor.

“I do hear it!” Abigail agreed. “And it’s getting louder!”

“The louder, the closer!” Fawn warned. “Let’s get out of here. It’s too dangerous! You can tell me the story when we’re safe in our den.”

“Come on, it’s not too loud. Now, let me tell the story!”

But before Abigail could say anything, a huge, tall, green monster-looking thing was tearing down the beautiful birch trees and charging straight towards them. All the bushes that formed a barrier around them were being uprooted; Abigail’s and Fawn’s hideout was destroyed. Mulch, bark, and twigs flew everywhere and smoke that made Fawn and Abigail cough filled the air. Fawn looked to see where it was coming from: out of the back of the monster. He felt an anger smolder inside of him. His face scrunched up in frustration and his big, soft, brown eyes became watery. This was his home! As much as he wanted to fight the monster, he needed to get Abigail to safety first. She was staring at the monster in awe, and looked as if she were paralyzed.

“AAAHHH!” Abigail screamed when she finally came back up to life.

“Hurry, Abigail. Follow me!” Fawn hastily instructed.

Fawn started dashing towards the other side of the woods where his home was, but when looked back he saw the monster right behind Abigail.

“HELP!” Abigail said frantically.

“I’m coming!” Fawn yelled, charging towards the monster, but he was not in time. The monster trampled over her back leg.

“Owww,” Abigail screeched in pain.

Without thinking, Fawn rammed into Abigail, knocking her into a bush out of the monster’s path. After that, he sprinted towards the bush to help Abigail.

 

Chapter 2: What is Going On?

 

“Ow, it hurts!” Abigail cried.

“Don’t worry, it will be over soon,” Fawn’s mother, Rebecca, said, while tending to Abigail’s wounds.

“Fawn, dear, since you are not hurt, can you go get Abigail’s mother and bring her to our den?” Rebecca said.

“Sure,” Fawn said reluctantly, for he didn’t want to leave Abigail’s side. But before Fawn could step out of the den, Lemo, Fawn’s family friend, rushed to the den, his front leg limping.

“Humans, smoke, death!” he panted.

“Lemo, calm down, and where is Juniper?” Rebecca was suddenly worried about her husband. She paused to look at Lemo’s leg. It was bleeding from a huge gash.

“Fawn, continue with what I asked you to do,” she said with urgency.

Fawn dashed with his remaining strength to fetch Abigail’s mom. He came back to the den with Abigail’s mom. When he got there, many animals, excluding their enemies, had arrived. Most were wounded and some couldn’t even budge. Abigail’s mom looked at Abigail. Her eyes started to water, but she wiped away her tears and she agreed to help the other animals.

“My daughter, Abigail,” she said. “That must’ve been very scary for you. And Fawn, thank you for saving her. That was so brave! I didn’t know you had that in you!”

Fawn blushed.

It really wasn’t much. I wasn’t even able to save her from getting hurt! he thought.

More animals arrived. There was still no sign of Fawn’s father, and it began to get very crowded. Thankfully, Abigail’s mother had gone out for more help and come back with several animals who wanted to help.

 

Chapter 3: Sad Times

 

Lemo lifted up his head and opened his mouth to say something, but he had no strength. He laid his head back down to rest. Many deaths had occurred in those last two hours. Some of Fawn’s other friend’s parents, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins had died. No animal in the forest had escaped losing someone. But some of the other animals had gotten better. They still couldn’t speak, but they sat up and looked around, including Lemo, who started looking around wide-eyed. Some of the younger ones even started getting up and playing. It would have been a happy place, if it weren’t for the deaths. More volunteers came to help. Most of them had just been informed about a loved one’s death.

Lemo started limping towards Fawn and his mother. Once Rebecca had made him comfy, he explain what happened.

“Your father and I were on our way home when we saw a human. He was holding a sort of stick, a cane-looking shape,” Lemo paused. “Then before we knew it, the man was holding up that stick to your father. The next thing we saw was smoke everywhere.”

Fawn opened his mouth in fascination, for he didn’t know what Lemo was about to tell him. Rebecca looked very scared. Lemo looked down ashamed.

“Then the man aimed it at me,” he continued. “I managed to escape, but after the man had gone I saw that your father had completely collapsed. I rested my muzzle on him, but it was too late, his heartbeat had gone.

“Juniper,” Lemo paused, “is dead!”

Then the trio all burst into tears.

 

Chapter four: Aftermath

 

A week after the incident, on a dark and stormy morning, Abigail and Fawn went back to their hideout to play. As they arrived, they saw all the uprooted bushes, scattered leaves and fallen logs everywhere. In frustration, Fawn kicked a rock only to find that it landed just two feet away.

“Stupid humans!” he yelled.

Abigail shook her head and walked to where the rock was. She placed it at Fawn’s feet, where it had originally been. “Even though they destroyed our hideout, they are living creatures like us. We must respect them,” Abigail said cautiously.

“Yeah, we must respect that they hurt you and KILLED my dad,” Fawn said sarcastically, his voice spilling with anger. “We should fight back! That will show them not to mess with us again!”

Abigail rolled her eyes. Typical boy, she thought. “Well, how are you supposed to do that? Plus, you saw what the humans did. How are you going to fight back against that?” She stuck out her right hoof, just missing his chest.

”Easy,” Fawn said. “With the help of all the forest animals! I bet humans are more scared of bears and wolves than us!’

”Well, don’t expect me to help.” Abigail walked off slowly. She didn’t know exactly where she was going, but she needed to show Fawn that he needed to walk away from what he was planning to do.

“But you’re my friend,” Fawn said, devastated at Abigail’s actions. “We have to help each other!”

“No, I am not going to help you. I’ve already said that, and I am not changing my mind. Besides, how are you going to get the bears and wolves on our — your side?” With that, Abigail ran off.

As Fawn watched Abigail flee into the forest, he dropped onto the ground and bowed his head.

Yeah, how? Fawn thought, with his head still bent.

He trudged home thinking about what Abigail had said.

She can’t just walk off like that — she’s my friend! Fawn thought. And I guess she forgot that I saved her life! If another monster comes her way, it serves her right if she becomes a monster’s lunch! Fawn thought, then sank his head low, a tear escaping his eye. “I guess she’s not my friend anymore.” Fawn cried as he dashed home.

 

Chapter Five: Plan A and B (and C)

 

On the way to his home, Fawn bumped into the chief bear. Fawn had heard of the chief bear and had seen him at forest gatherings from time to time, but he had never been this close to him. He jumped back in surprise that he, a young deer, was meeting the chief bear. Fawn had to crane his neck to see him. He was huge with thick, matted, brown, shaggy fur. He had a broad snout and a large face with small eyes, which Fawn thought didn’t go with the rest of his body.

“We have heard of your plan and we agree to help you for revenge on the humans,” the chief bear said in a voice deep from his belly. “We will do everything we can to stop them.” The bear stomped his foot, which made Fawn shake.

“Okay?” Fawn said awkwardly. He was recovering from the shock of the shake and the fact that he was meeting the chief bear. And not only that, the bear was going to help him.

The bear turned around and lumbered toward a rocky mountainside. Then, he rolled away a rock and disappeared into a dark cave.

One burden off, another one to go, Fawn thought. As soon as he arrived home, he started to think about how to get the wolves to cooperate.

Hmmm, what to do? Fawn lowered his ears as he thought. Maybe I could lower them pieces of food? His ears perked up. Nah, how about reasoning with them? His ears went back down. I doubt that will workwolves like action agreements, not verbal agreements but I’ll put it down as plan A. Then Fawn wrote it down in clay on the wall.

Now for plan B. How about I lie and say I saw humans kill eighteen wolves and… four pups? That will make them really angry and they will agree to help in order to get revenge on the humans. Fawn dipped his hoof into the wet clay.

Last, but not least, plan C. You never know, wolves are not the easiest creatures to persuade. I think we will fight fire with fire: force them to help with bear influence. Fawn smiled at himself.

As he was writing the last letters of his idea, he heard a voice.

“Those are some nice plans, Fawn.”

Fawn jumped up in surprise.

“You sure wouldn’t want the wolves to know?”

Fawn saw a ghostly shadow from his window, but he was too afraid to even investigate.

“Of course I want them to know, because my goal is to stop you.”

 

Chapter Six: The Challenge

 

Fawn’s blood froze when he saw who spoke the threat: Abigail.

She fixed her amber eyes on him while she stood like a statue and stared at him coldly.

“I saved your life,” Fawn managed to say.

“Yes, you did, which means you can spare the humans’ as well,” Abigail replied.

“Never!” Fawn said through gritted teeth. He resisted the urge to tackle her.

“Then you are not worthy of being the one who saved my life.”

There was a slight pang in Fawn’s heart. That was the very thing everyone was praising him aboutsaving Abigail. It’s only worth praising about if the person he saved thinks it’s still worth praising. All of those praises meant nothing now.

Abigail turned around to leave.

“Be careful,” she said. “I just might do what I said.” Then she bounded away so quietly you’d think she was never there.

“Okay,” Fawn said aloud as if to call after her. “Fine. If you want a battle, I’ll take it.” Then he quickly added, “And win!” I’d better go to the wolves tomorrow, he thought, before Abigail spills my plan. But not today. I don’t think I am ready yet.

The next day went smoothly. Fawn had gotten most of the animals to help, discussed his plans and did some practice runs on ambushing and destroying humans. But then came the time that he had dreaded and wished would never come. The time to consult the wolves.

 

Chapter 7: Wolf Forest

 

Fawn trudged toward the forbidden part of the forest. Why was it forbidden? You could guess. The wolves lived there, bathed there, and hunted there most of the time, and nobody wanted to go near them.

As Fawn drew closer and closer, his legs began to shake, his head started to droop, and his hair stood up on one end. He tried to tell himself to be brave, but that made it worse. By this time, he wanted to run to the safety of his mother and never set hoof near the forbidden forest again. Then Fawn heard something that made him jump. A wolf’s howl. Although it was distant, it made Fawn more discouraged to go in. Just as he was about to enter, he decided to give himself a pep talk, which went well on the first sentence….

“Okay, Fawn. You know what you’re about to do is for a good cause.”

But the last sentence made him even more discouraged.

“… Even if the wolves make you lunch.”

When Fawn finally got his act together, he started making his way through the forbidden forest to where the wolves lived. Once Fawn stepped in, it was like walking into an endless night. He could barely see his own legs. There were large, ink-black oak trees, which blended into the darkness and made it harder to figure out what was a tree and what wasn’t. Fawn guessed that there had been a rainstorm because the ground was very moist with damp-looking leaves scattered across the forest floor.

Just then, Fawn passed a bloodstained tree with pieces of fur at its roots. This gave him the creeps. He passed more of them, each more bloody than before, with animal bones or fur scattered around the trees. He remembered his dad telling him that if you follow the fur and the bone markings, you will reach the wolves’ den. Fawn could see the pattern – every five trees there was another marking.

As he approached the last marking to the wolves’ den, there lay one of the scariest sights Fawn had ever seen: a dead wolf with an arrow sticking out of its head! Fawn screamed.

After what had felt like forever, he had reached the den.

“Who’s there?!” the leader of the pack’s voice boomed from the cave.

Fawn gulped, then cleared his throat and said, “I am Fawn… from the other side of the for” The leader of the pack appeared, and Fawn stared in awe at the wolf leader.

His usually beautiful, grey shaggy fur was drenched in blood, his muzzle covered in it, and his leg was limping. The pack leader, Kay, tried to put on his wolf stare to shadow his weakness, but failed.

“We do not want you here.”

“I came to help,” Fawn replied.

“We don’t need it,” Kay said, looking as if it hurt to even say that, emotionally and physically.

Fawn gave Kay an observant look, from his head to this claws. “You look like you do.”

“Well….” Kay tilted his head to the side. Then straightened it and narrowed his eyes. “No,” he said firmly. Then he turned around to return to his cave.

“Wait!” Fawn called after him.

“We do not want you here, and I wish not to repeat that ONE MORE TIME,” Kay said through clenched teeth.

Fawn was very tempted to go home, but resisted the urge and gathered up his remaining courage and hope.

“You must help me then…” Fawn’s voice trailed off, unable to speak. His nerves had gotten the best of him. Fawn was always the good boy. He never was rebellious like the others. When the others went to the field, where the mothers didn’t want them to go, he would stay. This was the first time he had ever talked back to or challenged an adult. He had never even disobeyed a mother ladybug!

“Help you!” Kay chuckled. “A little deer wants help from me, the wolf! I can’t believe my ears!”

Fawn felt his cheeks get hot with anger and embarrassment.

“Shouldn’t this baby deer go back to Mommy? He will be safer there. He is too small to do anything.”

For a moment, that reminded Fawn of running back to his mother. No, he thought. I cannot do that. Fawn could not hold it in anymore. He burst with anger.

“Well, I am not as small as you think I am,” he said angrily. “I came up with the plan to destroy the humans. I have set up defense forces against the humans and my forest was destroyed by humans…” Fawn paused to take a few breaths.

“AND THAT IS WHY I AM HERE! TO ASK YOU TO HELP ME TO DESTROY THE HUMANS TO SAVE MY FOREST!” Fawn shouted. He had never been this angrynot since the humans had attacked.

“Okay, okay,” Kay said stepping backwards. “Calm down, kid, we will…”

“CALM DOWN?! CALM DOWN?! OUR FOREST HAS BEEN DESTROYED! HOW CAN YOU “CALM DOWN,” WOLF?”

“Ahem,” Kay cleared his throat. “We will cooperate… if there is something in it for us, which is?”

“The assurance of security against the humans,” Fawn said in relief.

Kay tilted his head.

“Which will make your job as a pack leader easier,” Fawn added.

“Okay, but there has be something. Everyone is getting security! We want something in addition to that,” Kay said.

“Which is… ?” Fawn questioned him, annoyed.

“That we have fresh meat ready for us everyday, meaning four animal sacrifices each day for us to kill,”Kay said with a hint of excitement.

Fawn gave him a “you’re crazy” look and knew what the other forest animals would say if he said yes. Traitor!

I think he turned into a wolf over night! Who does he think he is?! He thinks he is so great he can sacrifice any of us!

Fawn tried to shake the thought out of his head, but it was still lingering in there.

“So is it a yes or a no? If no, deals off,” Kay said impatiently. “We don’t have all day!”

“I – I need some time to think about it,” Fawn stammered.

Kay sighed. “I need an answer in the next three days. If not, the deal’s off.” Then he turned around and disappeared into the den’s deep, damp, and dark entrance.

 

Chapter 8: Troubling Choices

 

This probably will be the most challenging decision I will ever make, thought Fawn. He sat on the clover patch under a tree and frowned. He didn’t expect the wolves to have such a ridiculous request. Maybe in the back of his mind he expected it. Wolves are quite vicious and sly. There always has to be something in it for them.

He sighed. He started nibbling at the grass. That was what he always did when he was either anxious or really hungry. He got up and made his final decisionto ask the Animal Council for help. He knew what they would say, but at least he would get some kind of consult. Or get an idea to help him make his decision.

Fawn walked off in the direction of the Animal Oak Tree. It was a huge oak, almost as thick as 50 bears. It was home to a wise old owl, the head of the Animal Council, along with Mr. Rabbit, Fred the Frog and a few other animals. They had a wolf and a bear as part of the council, but they didn’t attend the meetings very often. You’d see bears once in awhile, but it would be a very critical circumstance when the wolves would attend such as when the humans attacked. With a lot of persuading, they finally attended.

Finally, Fawn had arrived at the large oak. As usual, Mr. Badger was at the entrance. He was used to this place. He knew almost everyone on the council because his dad had been part of it. Coming back to the place made Fawn a bit sad. Abigail’s father also used to attend. So did Lemo, who quit, because Fawn’s father was no longer there. Fawn and Abigail used to always hide behind a bush near the window where they held the council meetings, eavesdropping in on what was going on. Then they would inform all of their friends, and their friends would inform their friends. But the one person they never told was Bobby, the mole. One time they told him something, and he dashed down into the ground, buried a hole, and dug a tunnel straight to his parents. He was so desperate to tell his parents because he loved telling others’ secrets.

Fawn approached Mr. Badger.

“Good day, Fawn. I’m very sorry your father passed. The council has not been the same without him.” He put his paw on Fawn’s shoulder. “So,” he continued. “What made you pop by here today?”

“I would like to see Wise Old Owl.”

“Why is that?” Badger asked.

“Oh. It’s just a little something that’s been bothering me.”

“You can come inside and wait in the lobby. I’ll tell him that you want a consult. And by the way, what is it?”

“Don’t worry,” said Fawn. “You’ll find out soon.”

Before Fawn knew it, he was sitting in Wise Old Owl’s office. It was at the very top of the oak so Wise Owl could see the whole forest (or most of it.) Fawn had been here twice before. The first time was when his father was touring him around the place. The second time was when he, Abigail, and a few of their friends played a big trick, and the whole forest got so scared. All of the animals were very angry, and they took it to the council. Fawn remembered very well sitting there, waiting for the Owl to sentence his punishment. They were not allowed to go to the meadow where all of the animals played for three days. Some of the animals thought that was too weak of a punishment, but the rest of the animals knew they were just kids and the punishment should not have been more harsh.

The door behind him opened. Fawn was brought back from his daze.

“Well, hello, Fawn. Badger has told me that you wish to have a consult. What is your problem?”

 

Chapter 9: Truth and Mistakes

 

“G-good Afternoon, Mr. Owl,” Fawn stammered. He stared in awe. Mr. Owl looked much different than when he last saw him. His white feathers were now grey. The brown feathers were now dark brown, and the tufts on his head had gone white.You could see rings under his eyes and they were very dark. Mr. Owl approached Fawn very slowly, for he was walking with a stick, something he never had before.”

“Oh,” Mr. Owl said happily. “It’s such a pleasure seeing you again, Fawn. You will definitely grow to be as kind and handsome as your father! Hmmm,” he continued. “Ah, yes, so what was the thing you wanted to share with me?”

“Er…” Fawn hesitated. “You must have heard of my plans to stop the humans.”

Mr. Owl chuckled. “Yes, go on.”

Then Fawn began to tell Mr. Owl about the past morning. How they got through the forest, what it was like, all the way to the part when Kay had struck as Fawn said “a ridiculous deal.”

“Which was?” Mr. Owl urged on.

Fawn took a deep breath then said, “He said they will only participate if,” he paused, “there are four animal sacrifices ready for them every day!” Fawn exhaled. Now it was time to find out the answer.

Mr. Owl closed his eyes in deep thought.

Fawn continued. “I wish there was a way I did not have to choose!”

There was a long silence. Mr. Owl opened his eyes and gazed up at the ceiling

“You know, your friend Abigail came to me not too long ago.”

“Oh, really!” Fawn said surprised. What does she want?! he thought.

“She came to talk to me about you and your plans,” Mr. Owl said as if he read Fawn’s mind. “She told me not only that she thinks that your plans are wrong, but that it is dangerous for the rest of the animals participating and you.”

Yeah, right, Fawn thought. Like she cares.

Mr. Owl looked at Fawn and sighed. “Children never understand,” Fawn heard him say under his breath.

“You know what? She also complained about missing you and how she was really worried about you.”

Fawn just rolled his eyes.

“Fawn, listen to me. Even if you don’t take Abigail as your friend at least think about doing what she thinks you should do. And I’ll tell you here and now that that’s the answer. Don’t say yes. Don’t say no. Refresh, restart, try again.”

 

Chapter 10: Unfortunately

   

Fawn stepped back into the endless night. He made his way to the wolves’ den faster this time. He knew his way better through the forest now. He arrived at the wolves’ den. A sudden feeling of regret and nerves washed over him.

“Kay!” Fawn called nervously.

A booming voice from the cave came in return.”Who’s there?”

Fawn swallowed. “It’s Fawn. I’ve come with an answer.”

Kay emerged out of the shadows of the cave. He sniffed the air then looked down at Fawn. The look of triumph on his face was replaced with a petrifying stare.

“You’re late!” He snarled.

“Sorry,” Fawn mumbled.

“So,” Kay circled around him. “What’s the decision?”

This is it. Fawn thought. He lifted up his head and narrowed his eyes.

“No,” he said firmly.

Kay’s mouth hung open, but when he saw Fawn look at him he scowled.

“So be it!” Kay snarled.

Fawn saw the look of defeat in Kay’s eyes, but the rest of his body remained as stiff as stone. Suddenly Kay looked up and a sudden smirk appeared on his face. Two wolves dropped down behind Fawn, then two others dropped down beside Kay, and then two more appeared! Fawn was cornered! The wolves were snarling, and their hungry gaze was fixed on Fawn.

Kay chuckled. “I knew that you were too much of a softie to let all your fellow animals die for your sake. So I brought influences. My pack is starving. We haven’t had fresh meat for days, and look what we have here a big, plump, juicy piece of fresh meat! I should’ve done this long ago!”

The wolves were closing in on him. Fawn tried to figure out what to do. His mind was racing, he couldn’t think straight anymore. One thing Fawn never thought of was dying. Of course, he knew that he would die someday, but he definitely didn’t seriously think about it.

Slash!

Fawn was knocked to the ground. Blood was pouring down his chest. He was struggling to keep his eyes open. He could barely see the wolves crowding around him. Then he heard a voice.

“Fawn!” It was Abigail!

“Help me!” he moaned.

“I’m coming! Just hold on! I’ve got to get you home!” she replied.

Fawn knew that would be impossible. He closed his eyes for the last time and took one last deep breath. As he exhaled he knew no one could stop death.

 

Epilogue

 

It had been two weeks since Fawn’s death but no one was as stricken as Abigail. The little voice in her head kept saying over and over You failed Fawn, you failed him, you failed him… and it never stopped. Abigail walked to their old hideout; it felt weird to be there again, especially without Fawn. She had not been there since… she and Fawn had that fight.

“I wish I never fought with Fawn. That started this whole thing!” she whispered to herself. She could faintly hear Fawn jumping and saying, “Abigail, come play, come play, come and play!”

A tear trickled down her cheek, then she burst into tears.

“You had so much ahead of you Fawn! Why did you have to do this? You shouldn’t have gone to the wolves’ den. It was a trap!” she shouted to the air. Abigail sighed. “It’s just not the same without you!” she whispered.

That night as Abigail laid down to sleep she began to talk to herself. “You’ve got to stop grieving. You can’t be crying and feeling bad about yourself your whole life!”

Yeah right! another voice popped up in the conversation. How can I stop when it is technically all my fault! You failed him and you deserve to feel this way!

Well, I for one believe that you tried your hardest and now all you have to do is….” By that time, Abigail was drifting off to sleep.

As Abigail looked around, she saw the hideout that she and Fawn used to have. The birch trees that surrounded her had beautiful, new, green leaves. She felt the fresh, spring breeze rustle through her fur. The sunlight danced around her and the newly grown blades of grass felt as soft as cotton.

“Wait!” she said in confusion. “This isn’t right. It’s supposed to be winter, not spring! It’s cold out and there are no leaves. In fact there is supposed to be snow outside!”

Then she heard a voice: “Yes, that is true. It is winter, but not in this memory.”

Abigail spun around to see who said that. Tears began to fill her eyes. It was… no, it couldn’t be… Fawn!

“Fawn, is that really you?” she croaked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“How the heck am I seeing you and feeling youand you’re supposed to be DEAD!” Abigail screamed in outrage. “This is impossible!” Then she burst into tears.

“Abigail! Don’t cry!” Fawn said, annoyed. “You have to stop wasting your time grieving for me and get on with your life!”

Abigail looked up and smiled. It felt great to hear that familiar, annoying, playful voice again.

“But how?” she asked.

“That, you already know. Think deeply about it, the one thing that made this how it is now.”

Abigail stared at him blankly. Fawn just chuckled.

“Goodbye, Abigail. And remember what I said. Oh, and say hello to my mother for me.”

“Bye Fawn! It’ll never be the same without you!” Then she gave Fawn a hug. Abigail’s vision began to get hazy then…

Plick.

Abigail awoke to a drop of snow on her nose. Last night’s conversation was still quite vivid in her memory, but the warm feel of the sun disappeared and was replaced with the harsh, cold, biting feeling of snow. She got up out of her sleeping spot and trudged through the knee-high snow to the Animal Oak Tree to get shelter from the falling snow, that was starting to turn into a blizzard. She entered the oak to the sound of constant chatter. The noise was so deafening

Abigail had to plug her ears, while she pushed through the crowd to get to Wise Old Owl’s office.

She groaned. The line in front of Mr. Owl’s office was so long she couldn’t even see his office door. The hallway was crowded. Animals here. Animals there. Abigail could hear the fast chit chatter of the rabbits, the hollow voice of the toads, and the high pitched squeaks from the mice scurrying to get more food.

She sighed. And all I wanted was to have a simple conversation with Mr. Owl! She thought angrily. Abigail shot out the hallway as fast as she could, chatter flew behind her, animals turned to stare as she whizzed by. She knew what Fawn would say: “Abigail, stop overreacting!” Overreacting! I’m not overreacting.

She forced back tears, but before she knew it, streams of tears flooded her face and the cold wind made it sting. Abigail ran. She ran like she had never run before. Then silence. Abigail sighed in relief. Finally somewhere quiet where I can think.

She slumped against the wall and began to wonder what Fawn meant. How am I supposed to know? Okay, Fawn thinks I am pretty smart, but that doesn’t mean I know everything! What did he mean by “the one thing that made this how it is now.”

Abigail grunted in frustration, then it hit her. She was supposed to finish what he started — without the wolves’ help. How could this be! That killed Fawn. A sudden memory flashed in her mind. It was when Fawn said, “But you’re my friend, we have to help each other!”

Abigail smiled, “Well, Fawn, if that’s what you want!” She exclaimed as she left the room.

Abigail looked back at the spot where she had rested and vaguely saw Fawn lying down, beaming at her.

Fawn smiled in contentment as Abigail left the room.  My work here is done, he thought. As Fawn closed his eyes for the very last time, a rainbow showered over the entire forest.

Flight Adventure

In the inside of the shop, the room was still. No one was inside, so why would I need any more spare parts anyway? After all, I was looking forward to finally pursuing my dream and being assigned the best things to fix. Inside, one of the other late night mechanics was there. He didn’t look mad, but at the same time, he didn’t look happy.

At my desk was the parts needed to fix Jenk’s car. Jenk was a customer who had come into the shop one morning and asked the mechanic to fix his car. Today was my last day at the mechanics shop before I went to the derby race, enjoyed my first race, quit my job as a fixer, and moved on to greater things.

I packed a secret box with pieces and went in my car. The cars that we had now were too old and rusty. Wow, if it were the 2000s it would be awesome. I wasn’t surprised to find the perfect spot at the race.

You could say I never went to school much. My dad owned a mechanics shop and fixed cars. Everyday, I would sneak up and take parts for my super secret project.  Sneaking up made me laugh. Anyways, I had always dreamed of one day flying my super secret plane. And today was my time to shine. I took out the plane pieces and put them together. The other racers looked mean and tough, as well as prepared. I hadn’t even practiced and didn’t know how to fly the plane. Either way, I was sure I would win, even though it would be stupid if I did. The announcer was ready for the countdown, and I hopped in. I didn’t even look that great for a race like this.

The countdown went to 0, and I pressed the button and immediately went up in the air. I pressed random buttons and tried steering the plane. The wheel broke, and I taped it back but it didn’t even work. The plane was twisting and turning and I freaking crashed near the finish line while the other racers flew through it.

Marker the Marker

Once upon a time, there was a marker named Marker. Marker really wanted to draw on a piece of paper, but there was a rock in the way. Marker called for all of his friends to come and help him.

All of his friends got in a car to come and help him. All of his friends pushed the rock, and it moved out of the way. Unfortunately, there were bugs all over the paper. Marker and all his friends decided to try to kill the bugs so Marker could draw on the paper. It worked!

Marker drew on his paper and he was very happy.

THE  END

And His Name is John Cena

This is John Cena. He looks like a cool kid, with a bald head, a Blackhawks hat, a Patrick Kane T-shirt, a Jonathan Toews jersey, and red shorts.

His house is a mansion with 500 rooms and a huge man cave. If he would sell his house it would cost $1,000,000,000 at least. He has great kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, and a huge backyard. His lot is 50 miles long and 100 miles wide. It is on a hill overlooking the ocean. He has 20 boats at his private harbor.

John Cena wants the Stanley Cup. He wants to RKO Sidney Crosby. He wants to play on the best with all the legend players when they played, like Wayne Gretsky. He wants to meet Chuck Norris because he wants to RKO Chuck Norris and Gwen Stefani and Justin Bieber. He has a snake named John Cena Jr. He stinks at hockey. He can’t skate. He is a fail. He thinks he can throw pucks in the goal. He made his wrestling place into a hockey rink. He practiced skating and wants to try out for the Ice Hogs. He sees Blackhawks players like Panarin, Anisimov, and Bickell.

He gets eaten by a tissue box. He punches it though. He gets captured by Steph Curry with Kevin Durant. Their mastermind is Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Then he RKOs everybody and then gets captured by J.J. Watt and Luke Keekly and Cam Newton. The masterminds are Jerry Rice and Steve Young.

He thinks he is going to miss the tryouts. He is in his Ferrari. The tryouts started at 5:00 p.m. and it was 4:40 p.m., and he was in Evanston and the tryouts are near the Bean. He gets there right on time at 5:00 p.m. and gets on the ice at 5:15 and he sees Coach Q. Coach Q says he is not good enough to be on the Ice Hogs, but he says that if they don’t have enough players that he will play. He is so sad that he makes himself get every animal in the world and a dragon named Bob Cena. He gets a call from Randy Orton and Brock Lessner saying they hope he makes the team. That doesn’t make him feel any better so he goes to skate outside in his rink with his penguins and polar bears and all the other Arctic animals. He gets a call, and he makes the team. He is so happy, he gets his jersey and goes to the first camp against the AHL team, the Texas Stars. He is bummed. He is on the second line up, but also happy he got to play. He scores five goals that game and moves up to the Blackhawks to replace Teuvo Teravinan. He is on the line with Kane and Toews and is left wing.

The Hawks get loads of good players from trading and unfortunately he has a low salary cap — three million a year. He is on the best team, but they have not won the Stanley Cup yet. It is the last game. If they lose they will not be in the playoffs, and if they win they will be in the playoffs. It is 2-2 with two minutes left in the game. The other team scores. They are winning and there are two minutes left. Five, four, three, two, John Cena scores! It is tied, one second left, beeeep! It’s going to overtime, then if no one scores then it will go to a shoot out. Thirty seconds into overtime the other team scores! But the play is challenged by Coach Q. They review it and the call is no goal, goaltender interference. They score 15 seconds later — they are going to the playoffs.  


The first team they play in the playoffs is the St. Louis Blues. They crush them in the series 4-0 Next they have to play the Capitals. They win the first three games in the best of seven but then they win three so it will go to game 7. If they win they will go to the Stanley Cup finals and go against the New York Rangers. They will get the home advantage. The first game is at Madison Square Garden where the New York Knicks play. The Hawks beat the Capitals so they will play the Rangers. The first game is sold out. John Cena is the top scorer and leads in everything so he will get more than the Stanley Cup. He will have playoffs MVP, postseason MVP, most power play goals, most goals, and most points, so he will get five trophies. It is game 7, three seconds to go in the game, 3-2 Rangers. Three, two, one, goal John Cena. It is going to overtime and then another overtime and so on until someone scores. It is the seventh overtime, the longest game in history. They say that if he wants a Stanley Cup ring that he can’t play the rest of the game but he will get to hold the Stanley Cup and it will go to his house for a week. He gets the Stanley Cup and gets lots of stuff. John Cena still is on the Blackhawks team right now, and he is in the Hall of Fame.

The Trip

Eavesdropping

I woke up with a start! Mom was flipping the pancakes in the frying pan while scrambling her eggs at the same time. The sweet smell of maple syrup and batter filled my room.

I overheard my parents talking about going to D.C.

“No, David. She can’t go!!! She needs to stay-” I couldn’t make out the next words, only a name: Aunt Riannon.

“But, Rachel,” Dad said. I still couldn’t make out a lot of words. I tried to strain my neck to hear better.  I wasn’t going on the trip, I thought. That was all I heard.

I felt like screaming, but I didn’t want my parents to know that I was listening to what they were saying. I felt my cheeks get as hot as a frying pan. They knew that I hated my nanny. My nanny’s name was Aunt Riannon. She was a stubby woman with some really sharp, white teeth. I was just an 11-year-old girl. Why so much torture for me, I thought. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth and take a shower. While I dressed, all I thought was Why, why sooo much torture!!!

At breakfast, my parents looked like nothing had happened. I gave them a suspicious look, but they just smiled back. So I drooped around doing the casual routine (making the sandwiches for lunch, feeding the cat, eating my breakfast, packing my bag, going to school, sooo boring) the rest of the morning.

 

School

I couldn’t think of anything, except what I heard Mom and Dad say. Then suddenly I heard Mrs. Mitchell’s voice. I had been daydreaming!

“Uhumm, Taylor, please be focused. You are now a 6th grader!” she said in a confused but stern voice. When Mrs. Mitchell passed out the math tests, all I kept thinking was, Taylor, it’s all right. You might have misunderstood, BUT you know you can’t go on the trip, so don’t waste your time thinking that you can go. I stared at the math test Mrs. Mitchell had passed out. I couldn’t even see straight with all the stress I was having. I couldn’t even think what 1+1 was.

Mrs. Mitchell called “Time!” and I felt my tension go up. I was still just staring at the first problem. Mrs. Mitchell picked up my paper and saw that it was completely blank.

“You alright, Taylor? You haven’t been acting like you usually do.”

I stared into Mrs. Mitchell’s light blue eyes and then looked myself in the  classroom mirror. I saw a stupid little girl who wanted to tell her teacher everything, but couldn’t. I knew that Mrs. Mitchell was the nicest teacher ever and I could tell her anything. Should I just say a plain, old lie or tell the truth?!

I just blabbed everything out.

“I heard my parents say that I can’t go to D.C and that I have to stay with the meanest, ugliest, stupidest nanny in the whole world!” I lowered my voice. “I’m pretty sure, anyway.”

“Okay, just calm down and come with me,” Mrs. Mitchell said in a concerned and curious voice.

I knew I was going to get into trouble, so I didn’t make a sound. I felt like a maniac. Why didn’t I just say a plain, old lie? But I felt sooo good saying the truth – as good as it would feel to go on the trip to D.C.

Mrs. Mitchell took me to her office. “Tell me everything right now.”

I took a deep breath and started talking. “I woke up in the morning and–” I could feel a burning sensation in the corner of my eyes. “I can’t take it anymore. I am just a horrible kid and I am so stupid.”

“Now, now, you are the best kid in 6th grade. You always follow directions and get good grades. You’re also a very great friend. So tell me again everything that you had said.”

I cleared my throat. I was about to tell her everything about this morning’s incident. Then Mrs. Mitchell said something that I was hoping nobody would ask me. “How did you hear that?” she asked.

“Uhhh, um may I use the bathroom?”

“Fine,” Mrs. Mitchell said.

I ran up to the bathroom, locked myself into a stall and burst out into tears. This was the worst day ever! I thought. But it felt good to let my emotions out. I came back to my senses. What was I going to tell Mrs. Mitchell when she asks me again the question? The same question I had in mind a few minutes ago came to me again: Should I just say a plain old lie or tell the truth? Mrs. Mitchell is a very trustworthy teacher!

I heard Mrs. Mitchell’s voice calling for me. So I took a quick glimpse at the mirror and wiped my tears away and left. I met Mrs. Mitchell back in her office.

“I was getting worried about you,” she said. Then she asked me the question that I hate so much. “How did you hear what your parents were saying?”

“Well, I kind of ish was listening to what my parents were saying without them knowing that I was doing that, but it was a mistake,” I said.

“So you were basically eavesdropping,” said Mrs. Mitchell.

“Well not really,” I replied. There was a long silence and then Mrs. Mitchell said that it was getting late and we better get going to the classroom. I looked at her clock. It was about to strike one and we had to go to back to the classroom for lunch. When we came back to the classroom everyone was reading their books and they all had their lunch cards with them.

 

Friends Go On The Wrong Side

In the lunch line to get my lunch, I wondered if my friends would ask me why I left the classroom or if they would talk about the stupid field trip that I’m not going to!

I sat down with my friends. We all were silent for a few minutes.

“Are you guys going on the D.C field trip?”  Katie said.  

Everyone replied, “Of course!” in harmony.

“What about you, Taylor?” Katie asked me.

“Well, I haven’t asked my parents yet, but I’m pretty sure they’ll say, ‘uhh, no.’” Just after I said that I regretted it. I sounded so stupid.

“Okay, just please ask your parents when you go home,” Katie said. All of my other friends agreed.  

I couldn’t believe it — I had disappointed my friends!!! I felt so awful. What had I done? I hadn’t completely told the truth, but I somewhat did.

At recess it was even worse. My friends kept asking me why I think my parents won’t let me go on the D.C trip with them, when they usually would allow me to do anything like that. My response to all of them except Mia was, “I’m not sure, because sometimes they don’t want me around.”

But to Mia it was different. Mia is the trustworthiest, worthiest, and best friend I’ve ever had in my whole life. She won’t tell any of my secrets to anyone else. She always does nice things for me. She helps me with my work when I’m struggling and so much more.

I took a deep breath, but no words came out.

“You know you can tell me anything, you know that right?” Mia said. I was quiet for a few seconds.

I told Mia EVERYTHING I had heard my parents say word for word. “I was partly eavesdropping and I had heard my parents say that I was going to be stuck with Aunt Riannon.” Mia knew how Aunt Riannon was because I’ve spoken a lot about her. It’s almost like she was there with me at Aunt Riannon’s house.

“Wow, that sounds nothing like your parents,” Mia said.

I guess, I thought.

Mia looked at me and saw that I had a really depressed face. “So, let’s talk about something else now,” she said.

“Sure,” I said, relieved. So we talked about school and art and we didn’t bring up the D.C. trip again for the rest of recess.

When it was time to go back to class, my friends kept giving me “Are you okay?” looks. We started packing up because it would be time to go home soon. Today, Mrs. Mitchell didn’t tell us to pack our bags as usual, but I thought maybe she forgot and she still wanted us to. So I went to get my book bag.

Just then I heard Mrs. Mitchell’s voice. “Don’t get your book bag, I have something to say about the D.C trip.”

That’s when I got a really frustrated feeling and burst out, “IF YOU CARE SOOO MUCH ABOUT THE FIELD TRIP, WHY DON’T  YOU TEACH A WHOLE ENTIRE LESSON ON IT. YOU KNOW SOME KIDS REALLY WANT TO GO, BUT THEY CAN’T!!!”

I took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to put my head down and close my ears while you talk about the stupid field trip!” I had lost my voice but let out a few words.

“I — don’t care, uhhhmm, if I — don’t go in the, uhhhmm, field trip.”

“May I talk to you, Taylor?” Mrs. Mitchell said in a worried and mad voice. She took me into the hallway.

“We’re going into my office now, please.” Before I could reply we were walking down the hall. The last time I had gone this way I was going to repeat the stupid eavesdropping dilemma, but this time I was sure I was in big trouble.

 

Magic Has Taken Over My Body!

WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD SCREAM AT THEIR TEACHER AND SAY SOME NONSENSE STUFF ABOUT THEM, I thought.

We arrived at Mrs. Mitchell’s office. But Mrs. Mitchell didn’t sit down or ask me to. So I just stood.

“This way,” Mrs. Mitchell said. She walked up straight into a brick wall and said the word Operiano, then the brick wall magically opened. I just stared at Mrs. Mitchell.

“Come on, we don’t have forever.”

This has to be a dream, I thought. I pinched myself. Ouch, well, it isn’t a dream. Mrs. Mitchell led me down a dark hallway. I swore I saw a teddy bear wearing a hat run into a closet.

Then I finally saw a little bit of light.

“Race you,” Mrs. Mitchell said. I looked at her confused, but she started running as fast as a cheetah. Wow, I thought.

I tried to catch up to her, but by the time I took my first step, Mrs. Mitchell was already outside. When I got out, I was panting SO hard, while Mrs. Mitchell looked completely fine.

“Wow you’re fast,” I said with my hands on my knees.

“Ran the Boston Marathon in a 1½ hours and other marathons in usually 30 minutes.” I looked at my teacher as if this was the first time I had ever seen her.

“No, no no, that can’t be true because when the kids were playing tag outside you were the slowest person and you kept getting tagged.”

“I did that on purpose because I didn’t want anyone thinking that I was fast, so they won’t want to race me or ask me questions about my life.” I just looked dumbfoundedly at Mrs. Mitchell.

“Come on, I really want to show you this.” Suddenly, Mrs. Mitchell looked like a teenager to me.

“How old are you?”

“Why?” she asked.

“Just curiosity.”

“25.”

“Are you a Mrs.?”

“No.” Mrs. Mitchell laughed.

“Oh, then why do you not say anything when all the kids in class call you Mrs.?”

“I wanted you guys to think that I wasn’t that young.”

I saw a lot of candies flying through the sky.

“We better get going,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “It’s about to rain.”

As we continued toward the city, I wanted to talk with her more.

“What’s your whole name?”

“Taylor Caroline Mitchell.”

“We have the same first name!”

“Yeah… We gotta get going.”

“WHERE?” After all of the weird things I had seen, I wondered if everything I was seeing was fake or real.

“It’s a surprise.”

What a weird conversation I was having with Mrs. Mitchell, or should I say Ms. Mitchell or maybe Ms. Taylor, wait is it Ms. Caroline? My life just got so confusing in the last 30 minutes. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Ms. Mitchell and I were walking on a yellow brick road. I saw gingerbread houses, signs made out of lollipops, little fairies nibbling on gingerbread houses, and then gingerbread men screaming at the fairies as they broke down part of the gingerbread houses. Sad!

Then out of nowhere it started raining candy corn, Skittles, Mike and Ike’s, Hot tamales, M&M’s, 3 Musketeers, Air Head bits, Reeses Pieces, and more sweet treats.

“Oh dear, it’s raining,” Ms. Mitchell said.

I was running like a maniac to get candy in an old and rusty bucket that I had found on the floor.

“Oh my,” Ms. Mitchell mumbled under her breath.

But then she was right next to me.

“See who gets the most candy!”  

A few minutes later Ms. Mitchell said it was time to go and then in a really fast motion, I couldn’t breath, I was really dizzy and then I fell PLOP into the chair in Ms. Mitchell’s office. I was breathing SO hard.

“So how was that?” Ms. Mitchell asked.

“Great,” I wheezed. “Why’d you take me there?”

“I wanted to show you that you are not a stupid little girl and you’re really fun to be with. I wanted to show you that you can go up to your parent and ask them if that’s really what you heard.”

“You don’t understand, they’ll ask me a question that I hate.”

“I know exactly how you feel because I was in the same problem as you.”

Mrs. Mitchell took a breath.

“When I was young I had been awoken one morning and I heard my parents say that I was going to be stuck with my stupid aunt and I couldn’t go to the D.C. trip. Or at least that’s what I thought. All my friends would ask me about it. And, like you, any time my teacher was about to talk about the trip, I started to scream things. WHY DON’T YOU JUST TEACH A WHOLE LESSON ABOUT IT!”

I suddenly felt really ashamed about myself and also really, really, REALLY happy that Ms. Mitchell knew exactly how I felt.

“Why did you do that?”

“That is for you to figure out.”

“Uuuuuhhhhh…”

“Come on, it’s time to go,” said Ms. Mitchell.

When I was walking, I was thinking about what Ms. Mitchell had said. Then all of a sudden I heard Ms. Mitchell’s voice.

“Watch out!”

I saw a big bowling ball flying toward me, a bat that was about to smack me in the face, and a lasso that was coming toward my neck. I felt confused, but I didn’t have much time. The rope was around my neck and I started choking. Then I felt the bowling ball hit me on the chest and the bat smacking my face. Then everything went blank.

***

I woke up in a soft, comfy bed. Ms. Mitchell was screaming at the kid who had hurt me. Then she became quiet and came toward me.

“Who was that you were screaming at?” I asked.

“It’s nothing. Just a kid who was horseplaying at school.”

I tried to get up, but halfway through everything got blurry and I gave up.

“I have some good news and bad news,” she said. “Let’s start with the bad news.”

“Is it about me?”

“Kind of, but not exactly. Your parents had to go on an emergency business trip and they told Aunt Riannon to take care of you.”

Before I could say anything, Ms. Mitchell continued.

“But the good news is, I refused to let Aunt Riannon take care of you because of all the bad stuff you said she had done to you and now you’re going to spend the weekend at my house, which means you’re going to have to stay with me after school and even help me grade papers. Lastly you can finish that math quiz I gave you this morning so you don’t get an F.”

Wait. Mom and Dad went on a business trip and didn’t tell me? They haven’t been acting at all like their normal selves today.

“Now that I told you the news,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “Just close your eyes for a minute and relax.” I did as told and then I heard Ms. Mitchell’s voice say, “Healoria.” All of a sudden I felt back to normal and I saw that the time was 4:55, which meant school finished 25 minutes ago.

“Come on, let’s go,” Ms. Mitchell said. I followed her to the classroom and there I saw MIA!!

 

D.C Trip Yes? or No?

“AHHH!!!” Mia screamed. I began screaming, too. I have no idea why. Then Mia and I stopped and laughed at the same time.

“Why were you screaming?” I asked. “Well, I was scared the principal had come in.”

Mia and I just stared at each other in an awkward silence for what seemed like  forever. Finally, Ms. Mitchell came in and said, “Girls, I need to tell you something very important.”

“Sure,” we replied in unison.

We were sitting near Ms. Mitchell’s desk.

“Okay,” she said. “Just take a deep breath and relax.

“Well, your parents have gone on a business trip-”

“Not Aunt Riannon,” I said.

“Please don’t interrupt, Taylor,” said Ms. Mitchell. “Where was a I? Oh yeah, well your parents have gone on a business trip to Poland and they can’t take care of you while they’re halfway across the world so I want you to fill out a form.”

Mia and I just shook our head. Ms. Mitchell gave us the form and it said:

House location: 5421 Broadway Street, Los Angeles, 54634

School: Brooks Global Studies

Parent Phone Number: (573) 374-5479

Person to contact in an emergency (other than your parents): Lia Mitchell

Their phone number: (573) 934-2043

Closest relative: Parents – Dad and Mom – David Jackson and Rachel Jackson

Teacher’s name: Taylor Caroline Mitchell

Grade: 6th

                             Signature:

Taylor Caroline Mitchell and Taylor Jackson 

 

“Well, am I right with all the information? And please fill out your signatures. I know it’s not fair if I do it for you,” said Ms.Mitchell.

“You are right with all my information,” Mia said. “But how do you know that because none of the teachers in this school ask for your personal information?” I wasn’t listening to the next few words since I was trying to see what Mia’s form said, but this was all I saw was the house location, L.A.

“Well what do you think, Tay,” I heard Mia say.

“About what?” I was confused.

“Well, duh! DO YOU WANT TO STAY AT MS. MITCHELL’S HOUSE THIS WHOLE WEEK WITH ME?” Mia took a big breath and finished her sentence. “Since our parents have gone to a business trip to Poland.”

“Wait, explain,” I said.

“Well you see, like I just told you, our parents are in Poland.”

“But-”

“Wait, can I continue?” said Mia.


“Yes,” I sighed.

“Where was I? Oh yeah. Well our parents went to Poland for a business trip and they were really worried about how we could go to the D.C. trip, so they asked Ms. Mitchell if she would take care of us.”

“Wait can you repeat the line about the trip?” I said, curiously.

“Our parents were really worried how we could go to D.C. trip,” said Mia impatiently.

“Wait so, am I going on the D.C. trip or not? I’m really confused right now. But that can’t be possible because I know. I heard my parents say I couldn’t go. (I might have misunderstood, but there’s only a 20 percent chance, well fine 70 percent, but what’s the big difference?)

I put the things together and thought back to the conversation I heard Mom and Dad having this morning:

“No, David, she can’t go with Aunt Riannon. She needs to stay with us, never Aunt Riannon.”

“But Rachel, she could maybe go on the trip with Ms. Mitchell.”

“We’ll think about it,” Mom had responded.

I can’t believe that it all made sense now.

“Oh my gosh, this is awesome. I really need to go,” I told Mia and Ms. Mitchell. “See you in a sec.”

I got the school phone and called my mom.

“Hello, who is this?” I heard this woman say.

“It is Taylor Jackson. Can you please give the phone to Rachel Jackson?

“Hellooooo,” I heard my mom talking in her fake accent.

“It’s me, your daughter, Taylor Lee Jackson,” I replied.  

“Oh hey honey,” Mom said in her normal accent. “What’s the matter?”

“Well the matter is that you’re in Poland and you left me with Ms. Mitchell and you didn’t even tell me. The problem is actually that you never told me that you were going to travel halfway across the world!” I replied.

“Honey, I was going to tell you the problem this morning.”

I had totally forgot that Mom and Dad had had the talk this morning. I was thinking that it was yesterday or the day before.

“But you looked sad and down,” Mom continued. “So we decided that it would be best to not tell you, so yeah.”

“Wow,” I thought. “Well bye,” I said.

I hung up. That was the most unusual talk I had with Mom. I returned to the classroom.

“Ready for the trip?” Mrs. Mitchell asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

The Art Thief

 

Chapter 1

 

May 17th, 2014, 2:47 p.m.

Art Museum

Albany, New York

 

A great piece of art called, “The Finch,” was about to be revealed today at 2:50. Crowds gathered all around to see this masterpiece.

The clock ticked slowly. Each tick filled with anticipation and wonder. Finally the clock read 2:50, and the curtains dropped. Their mouths agape when they saw it. Nothing. Behind the curtains was pitch black. Nothing to be seen.

“Robbery! Robbery!” a voice screamed from the hallway. “Someone has stolen my masterpiece!” De’Livito yelled, worry on his face. “How will I ever find it?”

Thankfully, a security guard turned around to find a person in a dark cloak running. A painting next to him.

“Thief!” the guard yelled. The chase was on.

The  owner, Se’delava, quickly ushered his guards to chase the thief. The guards quickly took off.

“I hope they catch this fool. That painting cost a fortune.”

Crashing through paintings and exquisite pottery, the thief seemed determined.

He knocked over another beautiful sculpture made out of glass, creating an ear splitting shatter, as glass covered the ground.

Defeat hovered over the guards heads as they turned back. The art thief had won that day.

  

 

Chapter 2

 

May 18th, 2014, 6:22 p.m.

Joplin Family Residence

Albany, New York:

 

Lucas threw the football to Van. It sailed through the air, and Van surprisingly managed to catch it. He threw it back to Lucas, and Lucas got hit in the face with the football and fell to the ground.

“You alright?” Van asked Lucas, giving him a hand.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Lucas and Van Joplin! Come into the house this instant!” a voice sounded from the inside.

“Okay, Mom!” Lucas and Van said in unison, and started to walk to their house.

“What did you do this time?” Lucas said pushing Van, a smile on his face.

Van gave him a shove too as they walked inside.

“Dinner time!” Van and Lucas’s Mom yelled from the kitchen.

“Don’t scare us like that, Mom.” Lucas said. “We thought you found Dad’s bowling ball that we scratched.

“What?!” their mom yelled without thinking.

“Oh, nothing…” Van said as he pushed Lucas away from their Mom.

“Anyway boys, check this out,” their mom said as she turned the TV on to show a reporter was talking.

“I am standing outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. There has been a robbery where a new painting called, “The Finch” has been stolen. Mr. De’Livito is devastated. If you see the painting or someone acting suspicious, please call 9-1-1.”

Lucas and Van’s Mom shut off the TV.

“De’Livito!” Lucas exclaimed.

“Who?” Van asked.

“Our neighbors next door. You know crazy Maggie?”

“Yes,” Van said.

“She’s Maggie De’Livito.”

“Maggie is NOT crazy,” their Mom said. “You’ve just never met her. In fact, you’re going to go over there and say sorry that her father lost his painting.”

“Aw, Mom! But…” Lucas didn’t even finish his sentence.

“No buts. You’ll go in the morning.”

  

Chapter 3

 

May 19th, 2014, 9:33 a.m.

De’Livito Residence

Albany, New York

 

Maggie groggily got out of bed. She put on her glasses, went downstairs, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and waited for her parents to get back from New York.

The doorbell rang, and Maggie rushed to the door. Had her parents really come back so early? But it wasn’t her parents. She opened the door to find her next door neighbor, Lucas, standing there.

“Um…hey,” Lucas said. His eyes wide like he expected no one to open the door.

“Hi? What do you want?” Maggie inquired.

“I just wanted to say sorry for your dad losing his art to the jerk thief,” Lucas started. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Maggie said and opened the door a little bit wider for him.

“Wow…” Lucas said, eyeing all the paintings. “Your dad definitely does a lot of painting in his free time.

“Yeah I always come home from school to find three new paintings hanging up in my room,” Maggie chuckled.

“What does your mom do?”

“Oh, she’s the owner of De’Livito Tech,” Maggie said.

“I would have never guessed…” Lucas said, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, this is one he did recently,” Maggie said starting up the conversation again. She pointed to one of the attacks of 9/11 her father had done five days ago, showing planes hitting the twin towers and people running everywhere, flooding the streets. Grief hit Lucas in the face hard.

“What’s wrong?” Maggie asked.

“My dad was killed during 9/11.” Lucas said. Shock hit Maggie even harder. “He was on the 84th floor when the planes hit,” Lucas said, choking on his words. “He didn’t make it.”

“I’m so sorry.” Maggie said, not knowing what it was like to lose a family member. “At least they didn’t PLAN to kill your father.” 

“Plan! That’s it!” Lucas said. “Maggie. We’re going to catch the art thief!”

                    

 

Chapter 4

                    

May 19th, 2014, 12:39 p.m.

De’Livito Residence Backyard

Albany, New York

 

Maggie and Lucas strategized their plan. “So where do you think the art thief is going to break into next?” Lucas asked.

“Stop playing dumb! You SAW my house! It was like World War Two was going on with paintings in there!” Maggie yelled.

“Okay. So if everything goes according to plan, then the art thief will strike at 2:45, like before, and we can catch and unmask him.

“Alright.” Maggie said. “Now we wait.”

              

May 19th, 2014, 2:39 p.m.

 

The thief hid under the bushes. Using a paper clip, he picked at the De’Livitos’ door and opened it. Inside were paintings galore. “I could make a fortune out of this,” he said under his breath.

Quickly he began stuffing all the paintings that he could fit into his big duffel bag. He was about to walk out the door when his foot hit something. It was a little string, almost like a tripwire.

“Oh no…” the art thief said. He had barely any time to ponder when a net fell on him, trapping him securely to the ground.

“Ha! We got you,” a voice yelled from the kitchen. Maggie stepped into the light and grabbed a phone. “Hello? 9-1-1. Yes, this is Maggie at the De’Livito residence. We have the thief.” Then she hung up.

Lucas stepped out from the other corner and pointed a flashlight at the robber’s face. “Let’s see who this jerk is.” Lucas said, pulling off the mask. His eyes widened. His voice choked. “D… d… da… dad?”

 

Chapter 5

 

May 19th, 2014, 2:53 p.m.

De’Livito Residence

Albany, New York

 

“But…you’re dead!” Lucas said, his eyes wide in fear and disbelief.

“Your dad!” Maggie said, rushing over.

“No, son, I was not dead. I’m sorry, Lucas. I’m sorry,” Lucas’s father began to speak. “I had crawled out the back door just as the towers exploded, burying everyone in the rubble. The rescuers couldn’t find my body, so they thought I must have been buried under the rubble. So I ran. I began stealing and selling paintings to make a living now that your mom wasn’t there to help me. I had to let the whole world believe I was dead so that none of these thefts would get traced back to me. ”

“You lied to me…” Lucas said, his eyes dark. Fear and disbelief now washed out with anger and pure hatred. “You lied to our family! You lied to the entire world! I thought I could look up to you as a business man. But you’re no better than those rat thieves. I called you a jerk, Dad. A JERK! I’m not going to tell anyone this! But you mark my words: I will now always hate you.” His words had a piercing sting. And, just then, officers barged in, knocking down the door.

 

2 Days Later…

 

“Lucas! Van! Look!” their mother said, turning up the TV.

 

“The art thief has been captured but refuses to be named,” the reporter said. “This is a happy day for the De’Livitos but a dark day for the thief.”

“Thankfully that man is now in jail,” their mom said. “How could anyone love him for what he’s done?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know…” Lucas muttered under his breath.

THE END

Pink Is Pretty

Pink is pretty. She likes pink and the letters P and I and N and K, and her favorite thing to paint is her name. She does not like the color purple. She doesn’t like the color purple because in high school she had a best friend named Purple, but then Purple took her boyfriend. Her boyfriend’s name was Red. At high school prom, Pink wanted to go with Red, but Red said he was busy. So Pink went to prom with Blue. At the prom, she looked over to see what Purple was doing. Purple walked over to Red and started dancing. Red had said he was busy just so he could go to prom with Purple. Pink went over to Red and Purple and said to Red, “Oh, Red, I thought you were so busy you couldn’t even come to prom, and you’re here with Purple?” Pink and Purple got into a fist fight.

When colors fight, it’s a crayon with little arms, legs, a face, and a wrapper. First, Purple swung at Pink, but she ducked. Then she went down to the floor. She kicked Purple in the foot and then she fell. Yellow ran over to break it up. He went in the middle of them. He pushed Pink back, and then he pushed Purple back. Blue ran up to help Yellow. Yellow took Purple to the side and Blue took Pink to the side and told them to calm down.

So Pink went home and called Red. She told him that they were done. Then Red met up with White and he high-fived White. Pink saw that and punched Red in the face so hard she broke his tip. Then she walked White home and she said, “White, okay. I’m gonna warn you. Whenever Red tries to touch you, move. Because I’m done with him.”

Then she went back home. She told her mother what happened and then she cried. She called up Purple and she said, “Purple, meet me at the park.”

Pink tried to run Purple over with her car. Purple jumped out of the way. Then Red was there to catch her. So Pink went home to her dad’s garage and got his motorcycle. She went to Red’s house and she brought the motorcycle into his room. She closed the door and locked it. She started chasing Red around in the room with her dad’s motorcycle. She was chasing Red in circles. He was running and screaming.

Then she got a hammer.

She went to his game room. She started smashing up everything. They both had a picture of them on Christmas and she smashed it up a hundred times. And then she called up Orange, her new best friend, and she said, “Go to my house in five minutes. I’ll meet you.” She chased Red around his room once more and then she left him alone. She went and chased his parents around. Then she went back home.        

Orange was at her door. She let her in. They started talking about what happened. Orange thought that she should dump Red for good and find another boyfriend. Orange called up her boyfriend, Black and he called up his friends Gray, Dark Blue, Turquoise, Brown and Magenta. He said, “I’m giving you the option to get to know these guys and figure out which one you want to be your new boyfriend.” At first she examined Brown.

He said, “How ya doin’?” He had a French accent. Even though he was French, he talked a little slang.

And then she said, “Umm-mm.” She didn’t like the slang.

And then she went up to Gray and he said, “Hey, good looking.”

She said, “I’ll keep you in mind.”

And then she went to Magenta. He said, “Whatcha’ up to?” and she said,

“Keep you in mind, too.”

And then she went to Dark Blue and he said, “Hi. How was your day?”

And she said, “I’m gonna have to re-look over Gray and Magenta.”

Then after she went to Turquoise and Turquoise said, “What’s your name?”

In the end, she chose Dark Blue because he was nice and everybody else wasn’t really like him. They went out on a date at Coo Coo for Color. It was a fancy restaurant. They went to dinner. He paid for it all. And then the next day they talked to each other on the phone, and he came to  her house and gave her some flowers. He surprised her with a cake and he said, “Happy first date.”

On the way to school she ran into Red. Red said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” on his knees. She called up Dark Blue. Dark Blue beat him up. He punched him in the face. He kicked him in his legs. And then he elbowed him in his stomach. And then she called up Purple.

She said, “Purple, come get your little boyfriend, Red.”

Purple went to Red and said, “What happened to you, boy?” And then she called an ambulance. Purple went with Red.

Dark Blue walked Pink to school and they went into a classroom. Orange sat at the window. Pink was in the second row. And Blue was in the third. Pink was in the middle of Orange and Dark Blue. Dark Blue and Pink kissed. Red tried to kiss Purple, but Purple said, “Pink was my best friend, I’m done with this.” Pink went over to Purple after class and Purple said, “I’m sorry that I went out with Red.”

Pink said, “If he came on to you, you should’ve known better not to go out with him in the first place. If you knew I was being lied to, why would you even do it?”

Purple said, “I know. But can you please give me another chance?”

Then Pink called over Dark Blue and then they went over to Red. And she said, “Dark Bluebeat up Red.”

“Glad to,” Dark blue said and he beat up Red. Pink called the principal and told the principal that Red tried to touch all the girls butts in the school. He got in trouble and he got expelled. Pink got her revenge. She and Purple became friends and since Pink found a boyfriend from Black, Pink called Black and told him to call his friends so Purple can choose a boyfriend from his friends just like Pink. Her boyfriend was Gray.

Pink said, “Just don’t ever do that again,” and gave Purple a hug.

Purple said, “Okay.”

Pink, Purple, Dark Blue and Gray all went out on a double date. Then Gray and Dark Blue ganged up on Red and then took his house and put him a shelter. And then Red never bothered any of them again.

 

THE END

Buzzer’s Adventure

“Buzz!” said the bee, “I’m awful thirsty for some nectar.”

He looked at the garden next door, and wondered about how beautiful the flowers looked and if he could find some nectar there. He flew over, and he was almost there. His wings grew tired, and just when he was about to reach the garden, a giant planet crashed directly in the middle of his path! The bee tried to fly over it, but his wings were still too tired. Then, the bee tried to walk around it. But, the bee wasn’t quite used to walking.

Suddenly, the bee felt sleepy from trying to fly and walk. So, he decided to take a nap, but, while he was sleeping, the planet snatched him! When the bee woke up, he felt dizzy and confused. After all, he was inside a planet. The bee was worried, and desperately wanted to get out. He noticed that the creatures surrounding him were not bees at all. They were big, scary, and slimy monsters!

“Now I’ll never get my nectar,” wondered the bee aloud.

Soon after, a monster came forward, screaming. The words didn’t make much sense at first. Then, the bee heard his name.

“Buzzer! Buzzer! Is that you?” The monster kept screaming. The bee grew very scared and did not respond.

“Buzzer? Are you asleep? Talk to me or something!” yelled the monster, still thinking Buzzer was asleep.

“Who are you? And why do you know my name?” asked Buzzer.

“Don’t you know that everybody knows everybody’s name on this planet?” roared the monster as though it were obvious.

The bee shook his head.

“Nevermind. Anyway, what are you doing on the floor?” Asked the monster, changing the subject.

“I felt dizzy, so I fell down,” said the bee. The conversation grew friendlier. The bee and the monster weren’t so scared of each other anymore.

“Do you know a way out of here?” inquired the bee.

“No, but I’ll help you find a way out,” responded the monster.

The two began to walk, only to hear a deep voice. The voice was rough like a rock: all hard and edgy. Buzzer and Mr. Monster froze.

“Who are you?” boomed the voice. The pair looked around, only to find an orange and purple polka-dotted troll.

“ It is I, Buzzer and Mr. Monster,” stuttered the bee.

The bee points to a wobbly and unsturdy bridge, indicating that he and Mr. Monster want to cross it.

“You may not pass unless you answer my riddle.”

“Ok, what is your riddle?” asked the bee.

If you know what ‘beep bop boop’ means,” questioned the troll.

“Ummm. Not really,” exclaimed Buzzer.

But Mr. Monster knew what it meant. Those strange words translate to “cheeseburger.”

Finally, the pair walked across the rickety bridge. Once on solid ground, Buzzer asked a question.

“What is a cheeseburger?” inquired Buzzer.

“You don’t know what a cheeseburger is?! Well, I guess we’re going to have to stop for lunch,” said Mr. Monster, who didn’t seem so much like a monster anymore.

They all cheered. They walked and walked until their legs couldn’t carry them. They saw the lunch place, first. Next, they thought they saw a slimey monster, but really, it was an alien from Jotsifooja, a planet tucked in a far away galaxy. lt looked brown, scrawny, and was very short.

Buzzer exclaimed, “I didn’t know how many monsters were on this planet!”

“That’s not a monster from this planet! That’s an intruder!” screams Mr. Monster, scaring the rest of his friends.

“Woah, woah. There’s no need to scream. I’m Sapphire, a visitor from Jotsifooja. All I wanted was a cup of coffee and a cheeseburger,” Sapphire calmly explained.

“Again with the cheeseburgers! When am I going to have one?” joked Buzzer.

The restaurant was a narrow, tall building with a pointy top. Inside, the walls were grey and chipped. It looked as though someone had smeared slime all over it. The tables were unsturdy and rusty.

They went to get a cheeseburger. Still, they ran into more problems. A silly waiter told the crew that cheeseburgers were scarce because another employee kept eating them. Buzzer didn’t mind, though. He was a little scared to try new foods. What if it wasn’t good for him? However, Mr. Monster reacted differently. He had a total meltdown. He wanted Buzzer to try a cheeseburger. In fact, he wanted everyone to try a cheeseburger.

Mr. Monster ran out the door without a word. He kept running until he reached the edge of the planet.

“Wait up!” Buzzer yelled, flying as fast as his wings could carry him.

“A cheeseburger would have solved all the planet’s problems! World peace and everything! There’s no point in staying now,” Mr. Monster weeped.

“So I’m going home?” Buzzer asked.

“No. We’re both going home,” Mr. Monster said.

But before they could make the final jump, a trail of smoke wrapped around the pair. The air was black. Then, a witch appeared! Now, you would expect a witch to be green, but this was no regular witch. She was blue, purple, and orange all over. Her hair was messy, long with short pieces sticking out. It was brown, a very ugly color. She hopped off the burning vacuum cleaner, which was her favorite way to get around. Also, it caused all the smoke.

“Nobody leaves this planet without my permission! Unless they have a license, of course,” the witch said, her voice becoming lighter at the end.

“But, I got sucked into the planet. I don’t have a license,” said Buzzer, while Mr. Monster tried to shake a license out of his ball of goo.

“Here! Here’s our license,” Mr. Monster said, handing the witch his license.

“Oh, yes. You may go, “said the witch without even looking at it.

“Yes, oh yes! We’re out! You know, I can’t believe I wanted nectar. Now I have something even better: a friend,” Buzzer said aloud, hugging Mr. Monster as they jumped.

The Scary Mystery: Chapter One

The boys were sitting on the couch in the family room playing video games. It was, ya know, just a calm environment with the exception of everybody screaming.

The video game was not the reason they were screaming. A man had just broken in with a gun. They were definitely terrorists that had just escaped from jail because of the prison conviction tags attached to their wrist.

Matt said, “RUN EVERYBODY!!!” but it was too late. The terrorists had already taken his friends hostage and fled. From that day he vowed to himself to get them back. Matt used his jetpack, which he had made in 2600 to stop the savages, but the terrorists were already lightyears ahead of him… literally.

He found out they’d been taken to Jupiter with his intergalactic navigator. Suddenly, five missiles flew at him at once, and then it was time to use his wits. He pushed the jetpack to its max and dove back to earth, where he landed on a national monument. He saw the terrorists without his friends so as he flew to get them, but he hit an invisible forcefield.

The terrorists screamed, “You fool! You will not be able to cross, as the key is with Ragor the Dragon on Saturn.”

Matt said, “It doesn’t matter. Wherever you have hidden my friends, I will slay the dragon and get them back.”

He flew to Saturn expecting to find a big dragon but found a tiny toddler sized one instead. He laughed and said, “You have the key… ha ha ha!”

However, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an earth-shattering roar. An enormous beast towered over Matt, and he gulped, “Why do I even bother?”

After that, he decided he would need a weapon. As Matt already had previous encounters with dragons, he knew how to make the baby dragon retaliate against its father. A baby dragon’s fire breath has a lot more damage than an adult dragon’s fire breath, so he harnessed the baby dragon and made the father get severely burned from his son until it fled.

Matt wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction from a huge dragon but it did happen. Now Matt’s sole objective was to get the key, save his friends, and go home before he was grounded for life.

The key was embedded in a rock that was shaped like dodecahedron. It was very hard to get it out. Mostly because the rock was hard and it had so many sides. After nearly an hour of chiseling, Matt got the key. The only difficult part now was reaching his friends. He passed through a wall when he suddenly heard something so earth shattering that he almost went deaf.

His navigator told him his friends were in the planet Neptune, so he rushed there.

But it was all a trap.

There was no one except monsters and savages that had been waiting there to get him… It hit him like a rock that those terrorists had hacked his navigator into thinking his friends were at Neptune.

 

Press One at the Tone

BRIIINNNGGGGG! BRRRIINNNNGGGG!! BRIIINNNNNGGGGG!!! The brick rang endlessly, piercing the silence that permeated the dust covered bedroom. The noise annoyed me to no end. Groggily, I picked up the phone and answered. As soon as I picked up the brick, the noise stopped. On the other end, someone was using sound bytes from various old sci-fi films I knew (like, The Last Starfighter, 2001: A  Space Odyssey, and The Day The Earth Stood Still). “Klaatu barada nikto,” it repeated. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL,” pelted my ears at an increasingly higher pitch and tone, until it sounded like, “Greetings, starfighter, you have been recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the ko dan armada.” Then the fabled “DUH DAH DEE, your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system, to record a message, please press one at the tone.”

I wasn’t in a particularly good mood that morning because of my jarring wake up call. So I pressed one and gave the caller a piece of my mind, but the battery on my overclocked brick died at that moment, so I couldn’t do anything about the mysterious caller. I thus proceeded to my morning ritual, which consisted of a strict diet of granola bars and milk, plus the luxury of one small piece of canned fruit. My personal assistant tallied the calories to my daily calorie intake. Then I was repeatedly subjected to electrical muscular stimulation, which in effect meant shocking myself with electrically charged needles, replacing the need for exercise.

“HAL, any new messages?” I said to the open air.

“Affirmative, you’ve got five new emails,” replied my custom virtual assistant.

After checking my emails and strapping on my gear, I went to work. Work consisted of scavenging through the junkyard I called home and repairing and stripping down old electronics for resale to others. This was no ordinary junkyard scavenging job, however, it was surviving in one of the biggest tech wastes in the world the size of New York state. I had to compete with fellow scavengers, who were not above stealing from each other if necessary. During the War, the elitists bribed countless military officials to use non-nuclear warheads and avoid the giant scrap yards, as they had built luxurious bunkers underneath the yards. These yards were protected from harm by the barrier, which both kept things in and out. Sixty years after the war, the elite began rebuilding above ground, creating the Domes, megacities protected by 50 foot thick walls and a spherical force field that protected from all angles of attack, hence the nickname “the dome.”

The other 90% of earth’s population had also survived, but most were still underground. The reason scavengers were around was because, sometime around sixty years ago, there was a coalition of multiple rebel factions in several local bunkers who were then discovered by the overseers of their bunkers and forced into exile out into the wasteland, where they eventually became the scavengers. I sensed a disturbance in the force. I felt as if I was degrading from the story at hand. Anyways, back to my point of view.

“HAL, full lockdown while I’m gone, okay?” I said, initiating a series of actions in my hideout. I opened the hatch that led to a tunnel and to another hatch that led to the outside scraps. Before opening the final hatch, I remembered to grab my combo staff and my cycle baton. Then I stepped out into the waste that lay ahead of me.

 

Your Call Cannot Be Completed

 

The receiver hung limply from its wire, dangling from its cradle, the audio port shattered beyond repair. The stranger had been careless. Too careless. He had fled from the phone booth, fearing the chance of being hunted by Sentries. He was hidden in a dark crevice in the underground of the Citadel, a Dome known for it’s extensive black market. He listened keenly for the hum of the sentry engines. There was a patrol coming, nearly two blocks away. In an instant, the stranger took out a baton and ran, separating the halves of the baton. As he did so the halves transformed into a light cycle. He fled, making sure to turn off his lights, effectively becoming invisible in the darkness of the neglected streets. The stranger, intent on getting to his destination, entered a series of tunnels that led to a breach in the dome. Years ago he had discovered the breach while evading another patrol. He flew through the breach, and out into the scraps for half a mile. Then he stopped for a break. The stranger shook his canteen, trying to coax out the last drops of water that stubbornly clung to the interior of his canteen. After the water was gone, he took out a circular disc that he set on the floor. It began to glow as he did so, and after, he spoke into a small bracelet on his wrist that glowed softly as he whispered to it, “Transport me to the scavenger’s residence.”

Then he stepped onto the disk and there was a flash of bright light. Suddenly he was standing next to a circular hatch set into the ground. “Subject isn’t home, must be out scavenging,” he commented. He opened the hatch and into the darkness beyond. He dropped a messenger probe, its’ sleek glossy black shell humming with energy. The stranger promptly proceeded to erase all evidence he’d been at the scavenger’s residence, using a micro disinfector and his walkman to block out the annoying noise the disinfector made when in use. As the next song cued up on his walkman, he fled on his cycle, mouthing along to the lyrics currently blasting in his ears, “and another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust,” silently on his cycle.

An hour later, he arrived at his destination. To the passing observer, it would have seemed like a weary traveler stopping for a rest on a rock. In reality this was a beacon that was used to signal rebel forces, but that was not what he was there for. The beacon was also an entrance to his “office” as he liked to call it. It was more than his office, it was his home. Then he waited for the scavenger to come. With him, the stranger’s dream team would be complete.

A Strange Day at Writopia

A normal Monday quickly became an abnormal Monday at Writopia, when a phantom snuck into room 4-3.

[Duh, duh, duh]

But no one knew how badly it would curse the class.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Cake pops must have lured the phantom in.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Duh, duh, duh…

[Duh, duh, duh]

Even the teacher was a little hyper.

[Duh, duh, duh]

For example, she was on the ceiling and she was bouncing off the walls, literally.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Great idea for getting us cake pops, Abby!” (They said sarcastically.)

[Duh, duh, duh]

Hyperactivity is never good in a class that should be calm.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“I forgot what I was going to say to him,” said Max.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Jokes on you!” he also said.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Kake?” he also said.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Let’s go over the work we did today,” said Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Madeline said,  “Nicki Minaj’s laugh is scary.” (Everyone laughed at that.)

[Duh, duh, duh]

Nobody knew that Madeline was gonna be right.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Oh my god!” Everyone said when they heard her laugh.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Phantom, phantom, come out, come out wherever you are. Please leave us alone. We just want to write,” said Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Quit it!” said Max, Izy, and Madeline, having different ideas of how to stop the phantom.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“RICKY WANTS CAKE POP!” said the phantom, whose name was obviously Ricky.

[Duh, duh, duh]

So Madeline brought out her pokeball and said, “Go Nicki Minaj! Use hysterical laughter to make the phantom scared.”

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Tut, tut, tut,” Queen Elizabeth said coming into the room without any warning.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Umbrellas started to rain from the ceiling and out of nowhere, Queen Elizabeth jumped into the air and instead of floating down slowly like Mary Poppins, she fell down and hit her head on a chair.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Ventilation was unheard of at the time, and some poison gas filled the room.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Writers! Writers! Quick! Everyone evacuate. We must escape this spooky mess of a room,” pleaded Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Xylophones kept Madeline, Izy, and Max in the room. It was the alarm to say that they had forgotten their devices!

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Young people could never live without their devices,” said Madeline.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Zoe Lusk came into the room and rescued everyone but the phantom. He died a very unpeaceful death.

The End

Caribbean Adventure

It all started one ordinary day in the morning. I spent the early morning flipping through a book on geography to study for my test. I read for a few hours then slid down the staircase for breakfast. After breakfast, I started helping my Dad clean up our inn. The Whisky River Inn is usually busy and full of drunk men, but today was Sunday and the inn was closed. After finishing all the chores and church service, Mum and I took a short walk from the community baptist church to the lobster bay to catch some seafood for the inn. Mum had just started rowing back when disaster struck.

“AAAHHH ROW! IT’S A GIANT WHALE!” screamed another fisherman.

The great white whale splashed water and sent a huge harbor wave that engulfed me and Mum. Mum made it to the dock, but some force was pulling me out to sea.

“HELP! HELP! HELP!” I cried and screamed, but no one came to my rescue.

My mum screamed, “Lancelot!”

After what felt like ten hours, when I lay on my back to try and do the backstroke, I found an abandoned row boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“HUZZAH!” I cried for joy. I jumped on and began rowing back.

Night fell quickly and I had no bed, no food, no shelter and no water!

SPLASH! SPLASH!

It was a ship! It was a huge galleon and I started jumping up and down on the rowboat.

I was saved. But I was wrong.

There was an explosion. I felt the boat disintegrate under my back and I passed out. That was the last thing I heard that night.

I woke up in a bed made out of linen cloth and a pillow with feathers of a turtle dove. At first, I thought I was home on the island of Key West, but then I saw a shark head on the wall and then it hit me. I was on that ship. I jumped out of bed, but a strange clunk followed. I looked down at my feet and almost screamed. There, on my left leg, there was a wooden leg, one that a pirate wears. I freaked out like crazy. I almost screamed and my stomach dropped all the way down to Tartarus. Look, if you woke up to a wooden leg, you would freak out too.

Then footsteps made me jump into bed, pull the covers back on and pretend to sleep. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pirate coming in and adding a strange gadget to my wooden foot. Curiosity overtook me and I found myself blurting, “Who are you???”

“Ah me! I’m Captain of the Hispaniola, the galleon you’re on right now,” answered the Captain coolly.  “You all right? A foreign pirate ship holding the famous Blackbeard fired a cannon at you.”  

I looked around again and felt a weird sensation like the room was bobbing up and down. I got up and followed the Captain on the ship deck.

Wow! I thought. The deck itself was HUGE. When we got to the other side the Captain told me to stay on guard at the tallest post on the 50-foot mast. I climbed up and immediately I saw something suspicious. Three ships with pirate flags were firing cannons at each other and one was bearing the British flag. I rushed down to the deck and burst into the captain’s office.

“Captain! Pirates and British ships!” I panted. The captain jumped up and rushed on deck. He immediately started barking orders.

“You! Turn and sail to those ships! You! get a group of your friends and go on the mast decks to search the landscape of the  battle. Hey, Lancelot! Go down and get the cannons ready and fire when I signal!”  

“Aye-yah  Captain!” I yelled back. I rushed below deck and got a few barrels of gunpowder and loaded the cannons. A few other ship members came to join me later and ducked under the cannons. I heard a whistle and fired my cannon at the nearing ship.

BOOM!

The cannon blasted me backward and the other ship caught fire and started sinking. At the second whistle, I fired and ran backward so I couldn’t get hit again by the force. I made it back just in time to see the ship sink away.  I rushed up the deck and greeted the British captain who happened to be a whaler. Our captain was arguing with another sailor and we heard he was convincing (threatening) him to stop sleeping late in the morning. Then the British captain left and we sailed on.

The next few days were like normal days. I did chores and ate and talked to my fellow sailors. All was well until…

BOOM!

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” I rushed down below decks and kept lighting and firing the cannons. The attacker was a ginormous pirate ship and they had cannons on every square inch of the ship. Soon, all the gunpowder was used and the ship still wasn’t damaged, not even a blackened area of smoke!

BOOM!

The ship’s mast swayed and fell onto our ship! The pirates stormed across and I grabbed a silver sword to prepare for the attack. I fired the cannons one last time and rushed upstairs and started dueling the nearest pirate.

The pirate was quick, but I was strong. I pushed him back and into the waters below. I grabbed a nearby pike and pushed mast into the water so the pirates couldn’t climb here anymore. After the last pirate had fallen off the boat, the ship sped off. Every few days, we were attacked by pirates, but always we were able to fend off. After five months of this, we saw a shiny substance at the bottom of the ocean. GOLD AND JEWELS!     

The captain ordered me to lower a boat and to dive for the riches. I did this silently. I came up with pounds of gold, emeralds, diamonds, lapis lazuli, and amethyst. The captain was thrilled and agreed to give me a pound of all the rare stones once I arrived at Key West Island.

The next day, I woke up to the sounds of a rainy day. I grabbed my leather coat and rushed on deck. The rain pounded on the deck and the thunder broke the silence immediately. The captain was the only other soul on deck and he greeted me warmly.

Flash! Boom!

The wind howled as I rushed off the deck and joined my friends at the bar. Days past, the wind howled and the rain splattered the deck days on end. After the raining season, disaster struck.  

A pirate ship attacked us and the ship sank.

“GO! GO! GO! GO!” the captain screamed and yelled out orders. For no exact reason, I grabbed a handful of  salted meat and ran for the cannons.

Suddenly, a huge blast and the ship blew to bits. I found myself stranded on an island.

I tried to get up but I felt as if I weighed a million pounds. I dragged myself onto a stone and fell asleep.

I didn’t know how long I had been out, but when I woke up, it was dawn and the sun streaked red and orange lines across the sky. I stared and stared until a sudden sound snapped me out of the staring contest. A huge coconut had fallen off  a nearby tree and started rolling down the hill. I was suddenly full of energy and I started sprinting toward the coconut like the time I was ten feet from the finish line and first place. Just before it rolled into the waves, I pounced and grabbed the coconut. After I got my breath back, I found a sharp and jagged rock and cracked it open. It split in two and inside was delicious coconut milk. After I was done, a yellow cluster of fruits caught my eye and I had only one thought: Bananas. I ran and jumped just in time to grab the bananas and tumbled into something furry and soft.

Wait, furry!? I slowly turned around and I came face to face with a full-grown leopard. It growled and started sliding toward me. Frightened, I gave the leopard a bit of the salted meat I grabbed before the ship was blown to bits. The leopard tilted its head and bit the piece of meat. It chewed it and purred like a cat.

I had tamed it, I realized. I started to walk back to the beach, but the cat wouldn’t leave me.

I spent the rest of that day playing with the leopard. Even though I got covered in sand and I smelled like rotten meat, I had the greatest day of my life. Soon, night fell and I curled up on a bed of moss with the leopard which I had named Leonardo after my great great grandfather, who founded the inn which had been in a great financial state at that moment.

I woke up to the sound of a whimpering leopard (Leonardo). He was obviously  hungry so I gave him a bit of  the same piece of that strip of meat. I had a strip too but I was missing too many calories so I had some more coconut milk (same tree, different coconut) and another banana.

Once I got used to being alone, I took the time to realize what had happened in the last two days. The ship had been blown up, I had landed on this island and tamed a leopard. The days went by, then weeks, then months. The meat was gone by the second month but the island was huge and there seemed to be an unlimited supply of coconuts and bananas. By the end of the fourth month, I had lost almost all hopes that someone would save me.

But you have all the freedom anyone had ever wanted! echoed the small voice in my head. You have no chores, no bullies to worry about, and no parents to scold you. I pushed that voice out of my head and left and went to play with Leonardo. Every few days I made an occasional discovery, but the biggest was a tall cave that went straight into a huge cavern that was covered with shining gems. Every few days a wild animal would charge through the beach and jump into the water but I was always in a tree or in a lake or on the other side of the island. I felt like this island was the safest island in the world. Boy, was I wrong.

On the 134th day, a huge buffalo came charging out of the jungle and reared its hind legs and came smashing down onto the sand. I jumped up and started sprinting into the jungle. I pushed past a tapir when I came face to face with another buffalo, twice the size. I swam through a lake and jumped over a crevice. I ran up a tree, grabbed a leaf and started fanning all the parrots and colorful birds out of the way. I must have made a beacon with all those birds because a stampede of buffaloes came crashing through the jungle. My wooden leg was slowing me down so I decided to take a slimmer route. Bad idea!

The buffaloes charged in a horizontal line and head-butted all the trees so I had to dodge all the falling trees. My wooden leg was seriously slowing me down. I was ready to run. I was ready to hide. But was I ready to fall a million feet into the earth? I tripped over a big root and landed face down onto the dirt. The dirt gave way and I found myself tumbling to my death.

The fall went by in slow motion, but I blinked and I found myself in an underground stream. I was so happy I fainted. I came to right before I was going to burn up in lava. I hopped off the stream and saw only five buffaloes on the chase. I saw one on the ledge, two burning up and all the rest were stuck in a tight spot. I found the cave I found and started climbing.

The cave was sloping slightly and long stalactites and wide stalagmites forced me to lodge myself into weird and unbelievably uncomfortable. I climbed for what seemed like ages before I found myself in the brilliant sunshine. Leonardo was licking his paws and I saw my moss bed. I was back on the beach. The cave blew up when five buffaloes charged and head-butted the cave entrance. I stumbled, grabbed Leo, and sprinted away. I was saved when Leonardo jumped out of my grasp and bit one of the buffalo on its head.

He must have bit the leader because after that the buffalo ran away bleeding, all the others followed swiftly. I was just resting when the beach started to shake. Earthquake! The earthquake stopped as suddenly as it started. But I had no time to rest. A tsunami was pushing right to us. I grabbed Leo and ran toward the jungle. I hid behind the tree and closed my eyes.

The tsunami crashed onto the island. Water sprayed everywhere and I held Leo and prayed that this tree wouldn’t fall on me. Sand, coral, wood, stone, moss, smashed bananas, crushed coconuts, and a dead shark pushed their way through the dense forest. Dead animals were flying through the air. It was so gruesome I turned so I faced the wet and cracking tree. After the water retreated, I ran to the beach, spraying wet sand everywhere.

Leonardo growled which probably meant, “You covered me in water and squeezed me so hard and smashed my face into a mushed up banana so you don’t deserve my respect.”

Then the island shook and I heard an explosion before I passed out. I came to on a rock, with flowing lava surrounding me. The island was a volcano!

Suddenly one of the buffalo that survived the chase came pelting out of the burning jungle with a burning tail. The buffalo slammed down on the rock and laid spread-eagle on the rock, on top of Leonardo! I saw Leonardo kicking the buffalo but the buffalo was too heavy. Leonardo gave way. I kicked the buffalo five times and managed to push the buffalo into the lava and off Leonardo. I knelt down beside Leonardo. He felt cold and he wasn’t breathing! No! Then his head rolled and his eyes became glassy. I hugged him and cried tears of sadness that no one else would ever hear. I had a feeling that was a cross between hatred, sadness, and misery. I felt so bad I didn’t eat anything that day but everything changed.

“Lancelot!” The familiar voice lifted my spirits 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. The captain! I saw a huge galleon in front of me with the captain we saved on the ship, waving his cap around his head. I couldn’t help but laugh. He lowered a boat and I scrambled onto the boat and the British captain reeled us in. Captain and I laughed at the sight of me. I was blackened by the smoke and there was mud, leaves, feathers and bits of rock all over me. The captain said I looked like Christopher Columbus when he landed on Cuba and we both laughed.

That night I had a nightmare. Mum was screaming for me and Dad was trying to put out the fire in the bar. Soldiers were running in every direction. Fire burned all over the island. In the distance, a volcano erupted and ash and smoke filled the streets.

“Noo. Nooo, NOO!” I woke up panting. The captain was sitting on the bed stuffing herb water into my mouth. I blinked and went back to sleep. I woke up to screams. The ship had fissures springing all over the place and water poured and splashed into the ship. We were in a whirlpool and the ship’s mast was ripped. There was a terrifying sound of wood cracking and breaking and the exploding of nails. The entire ship was breaking apart. Then there was a huge explosion and sawdust dusted the bed from top to bottom. I looked up, stunned. The bed was floating and the captain was on a single piece of wood! I called his name but he had passed out. The whirlpool swirled us around. A swarm of sharks was circling the bottom for dead bodies. Then the bed tipped me into the freezing waters.

“Lancelot!” The captain awoke and paddled toward me and lowered himself into the waters. “Stay on this as a last favor!”

“ No,” I answered flatly, tears in my eyes, “I’ve had enough grief the past days. I cannot take another loss like this. You did all those things to help me and it’s time to do a favor back.” Tears were pouring down my face and my whole body was trembling but the captain jumped into the water and lifted me onto the board. I tried to pull him up but he disappeared into the howling whirlpool.

“NOOO!” I screamed and hollered until my voice got hoarse. I had just suffered the biggest loss in my life. Both Leo the leopard and the captain had died to save me. I swore if I survived this, I would write a book about this adventure and about Leonardo and the Captain.

My heart was permanently damaged. Emotions swirled around my head. All my positive feelings gushed out of my brain.

I managed to paddle out of the swirling water and into the calm waves. I had studied the captain’s map and I seemed to be on the north equatorial current which hit a monsoon current and the path I would take would lead me to Africa. I wasn’t pleased. Even if I were heading home on this little board, I would die of thirst and hunger and even if I managed to not die of those, I would go straight into a five-month period monsoon. The chances of me surviving were slimmer than outrunning a cheetah.

I drank salt water that burned my throat to keep me going but by the sixth week I couldn’t even sit down. I ended up lying down with my feet in the water. By the time I made it to the first month, I could just lie down and turn my head to drink water. My body was pushing my brain and urging my heart and forcing my lungs to stay awake.

I spent an unknown amount of time on that board before I saw a ship. It was drifting out of the clouds and lightning looking as if it just returned from the trojan war. Its masts were ripped, there were fissures in the wood, and the bronze mermaid on its tip had no head. I had no energy to stand up and yell and wave my arms. The only thing I could do was mutter “Help!” and try not to die. I felt like the biggest miracle happened. A group of thunder clouds was blocking the way they were going and were forced to turn my way! I just lay there smiling weakly.  I heard them shout, “There! A kid!” And I saw them lower a raft for me. A few sailors were paddling and the rest were craning their heads to look at me. When they got there, a sailor pulled me up and asked, “What do you want?”

“Water,” I groaned, and one other sailor pulled a flask out of his pocket. I gulped down the water in one sip.

“Where are we going?” I groaned.  The head sailor said, “Home lad, we are going home.”

The End   

***

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Mom, Dad, and my writing teacher Kira for supporting me throughout this writing semester and my everyday life. I gained lots of knowledge, experience and a universe full of imagination.

Pandora the Detective: How It All Began

One day when ten-year-old Pandora got home from gymnastics, her favorite activity, she ran into her sister Maria’s room and saw that she was crying.

“Why are you crying?” Pandora asked.

After blowing her nose, she told her, “I lost my necklace.”

“We will find your necklace, okay?” said Pandora.

“Okay,” said Maria.

Before they started looking, Pandora asked some questions like, “What were you doing?” or “When was the last time you saw it?”

“Well, I was in the kitchen helping Mom cut the onions and prepare dinner,” Maria said.

“Now we know that Mom was in the room, but was there anybody else?” said Pandora.

“Nope, there was nobody else,” Maria said.

“Okay, this is going to be harder than I thought. Did Mom pull on your necklace while you were putting the onions in the pot?” said Pandora, hoping that it did not happen.

“Yes,” said Maria, not knowing what Pandora was going to do.

“Oh no.” Pandora grabbed Maria’s hand.

“Where are we going? Let go of me,” Maria said.

“Didn’t you say Mom pulled on your necklace while you put the onions in the pot?”

“Yeah,” said Maria, while Pandora dragged her.

“Then it must have fallen into or around the pot. It must be boiling by now,” mumbled Pandora.

“What,” said Maria.

“Nothing you need to know,” said Pandora, rushing down the stairs and sighing.

After Maria answered the questions, Pandora said, “If you lose anything else or your necklace again, think of these questions and then retrace your steps.”

When they got down, they looked around the pot, but they couldn’t find the necklace.

“I think it fell into the pot, Maria,” Pandora said after searching everywhere and not knowing what Maria’s reaction was going to be.

“Wait, what?!” said Maria in shock.

“You have to ask mom if you could get it out,” said Maria with a worried look on her face.

Their mother was at another stove cooking.

“Hey Mom, I was wondering if you would let me turn off the gas and stick my hand in the pot to see if Maria’s necklace was in there,” said Pandora hoping that she would say yes.

“Yes,” said Pandora’s mom, distracted by cooking. After saying yes to the question Pandora said, “Quick, till she figures out what I really said.”

After Pandora’s mom figured out what Pandora said, Pandora’s mom said, “What?” while turning around to make sure they were not sticking their hands into the pot, but when she turned around Pandora’s hand was already in it. Pandora didn’t even realize that her mom was coming.

“Oh no, you should’ve told me to help you, Pandora. Now take your hand out of the pot so I can make sure you didn’t burn your hand.”

“Sorry I wrecked dinner,” Pandora whispered into her mom’s ear so no one else heard.

“Don’t worry. It’s okay. This time we’ll make dinner as a family,” Pandora’s mom said.

“Wait, one other thing, have you seen Maria’s necklace,” said Pandora hoping that she did.

“No, sweetheart. I’m sorry,” said Pandora’s mom. “Oh, by the way sweetie, can you go check on your brother to make sure that he’s doing his homework?”

“Sure,” Pandora said. She went up the stairs to go check on her brother. When she got up there she asked her brother, Peter, “Did you do all your homework?”

“Yeah,” said Peter thinking about something else.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause it seems like you lost something,” Pandora said.

“Um, Pandora can I tell you something? I think I lost my iPhone,” Peter said, whispering the word “iPhone.”

“I never heard the last word. What was it?”

“iPhone,” Peter said a little bit louder.

“Did you say iPhone?” Pandora said, confused.

“Yeah,” said Peter, hoping that Pandora wouldn’t be mad.

“It’s okay. We’ll find your iPhone, but first let’s go downstairs to get dinner and greet our guests. And we’ll have to tell mom,” said Pandora.

“Okay,” said Peter.

They walked down the stairs to find Mom, Dad and Maria sitting with their next-door neighbors, Kevin and Vincent, who were in their forties. Ever since Pandora’s family had moved to the Poconos, they only knew these neighbors, but not very well.

“Sweethearts,” their mother said, “come say hi to our neighbors.”

The guys got up and shook her hand, saying hello, and shook Peter’s hand too.

“Mom, Peter lost his phone by accident and we can’t find it, just like we can’t find Maria’s necklace!” Pandora said.

Her mother frowned. “Kids, take your food and go upstairs. We have to talk about something important and we’ll call you when you guys can come back down. And it’s okay, you don’t have to be upset, you will eventually find your phone and necklace.”

Wow, Pandora thought. It must be pretty serious if we kids need to leave.

After Pandora, Maria, and Peter ran up the stairs, their mother said to the neighbors, “Pandora is trying to help them find their things and doing a great job.”

Without anyone noticing, Pandora stayed on the stairs.

But their dad seemed worried. “I wonder if our credit cards and money will also go missing. It seems weird that one thing goes missing and then the other on the same day.”

“That is very odd. Did your kids check everywhere?” said Kevin.

“Like five times,” said Pandora’s father like a know-it-all.

“Then tell Pandora to keep up the good work,” said Vincent, complimenting her.

“You should go check on your bank account, and if you want we’ll stay behind and make sure that the kids are not up to any mischief,” they offered.

The parents thought that it was a good idea, so they quickly went to the bank.

As soon as they left the house, the neighbors started sneaking around.

Pandora followed Kevin and Vincent all around the house until they stopped. Pandora didn’t even notice what they were doing because she was focused on making sure her brother and sister didn’t come out of their rooms.

When she turned her head she was about to bump into Kevin and Vincent. But she was lucky that she didn’t. After a little while, she noticed that they were in front of her parents’ room. She thought to herself, Why would they want to go inside my parents’ room? Once they walked Pandora watched what they were both doing very closely. She saw that they were trying to steal her parents’ wedding rings, which were on their dresser.

Pandora quickly came out of hiding. Kevin and Vincent saw Pandora and said, “You’d better not tell your parents,” they gasped.

“Oh really? You both aren’t in charge of me. A matter of fact, I can call the police if you would like,” said Pandora.

Vincent and Kevin cupped their hands around Pandora’s mouth. They grabbed her arms and legs. Vincent gave Kevin Pandora’s arms. Vincent quickly got the sleeping spray. They sprayed and then stuffed her into a bag. Pandora shut her eyes and fell asleep.

When Pandora woke up, she had no idea where she was. She was still in a bag. Then she realized that she had been kidnapped. The bag was very dark, but there was a tiny hole that showed a speck of sunlight. She stayed calm, even though she felt like she was about to scream.

But then she felt something sharp. It was a broken part of a knife. It was in the bag. She started ripping her way out. Pandora could see Vincent and Kevin sleeping on the couch. Before she did anything else, she found the sleeping spray that they sprayed her with, and then sprayed them. Then she stuffed the bag with two beanbag chairs so that they would think she was still in there.

After she got out, she sewed the bag so they wouldn’t be suspicious when they woke up. The room was dark and empty. The couch and a small round desk were the only pieces of furniture. It was not welcoming. On the desk was her sister’s necklace, her brother’s iPhone, and her parents’ rings. She felt so happy that she found the stuff and hadn’t failed them. She grabbed them and put them in her pocket, while also putting on the rings.

Then she saw rusty pipes going up the wall and across the ceiling that looked like ladders and monkey bars. The last set of ladders was at the end and beginning, leading somewhere out of the room and outside.

After she got up she noticed that she could climb up the pipes. She was afraid that if she climbed them she’d be too heavy and the pipes would fall down. She decided that she should jump down from the rusty pipes and tiptoe the rest of the way. But she saw another set of pipes that weren’t as rusty so instead she started jumping up. She was almost out.

She climbed her way out of the stairs, pushed open a floor door that entered a real house, and got out. She realized that she was in her neighbor’s house next door, and needed to go home right away, so she ran there.

When she got home, she saw her parents looking around for her, very worried. They looked like they were about to cry until they saw her face.

“Where were you?” said Pandora’s parents.

“I was trying to get your wedding rings that were on the dresser,” said Pandora. “And now I can call the police.”

“Wow, that must have been hard.”

Before Pandora could even answer, her mom said, “But where did you go specifically?”

I don’t want to tell them the truth so they don’t freak out, but I also want to tell them, Pandora thought.

“Not to worry, I’m home safely, no scars or anything,” she said, “but I got kidnapped by the neighbors. I saw that they were stealing, so yeah. They didn’t want me to tell you. I threatened to call the police, and then they kidnapped me. I used a piece of a knife to get myself out and did some gymnastics to get here.”

Her mom’s jaw dropped open and she could barely move, but at the same time, she was handing Pandora her phone to call the police.

Pandora told the police everything. About five minutes later, she saw the police show up in front of her house. She went running outside to show them where the neighbors were underground in their secret lair. Then she went down the ladder with them to find Kevin and Vincent. They were still sleeping. They tiptoed around them. The police quickly handcuffed them before the two men got up. After they finished handcuffing them they felt uncomfortable and woke up.

“You called the police on us!” they both said at the same time.

“Well,” Pandora snapped her finger, “I told you that I would call the police.”

Then the police brought Vincent and Kevin to their car.

“Would you like to celebrate with a party at my house after you take them to the police station?” Pandora asked.

“Yeah, sounds fun,” said the police. They smiled. “You did an amazing job.”

“You did a horrible job,” said Vincent.

When the police came, they had a badge for a new detective coat and a leotard that had a badge on it. The police asked her, “Would you like to work with us?”

Her parents and her siblings stood around her, waiting to see what she would say.

Pandora exclaimed, “Yes!“ and the rest of the night they partied and stayed safe.

Madison and Mousey

Madison and Mousey

By: Mousey O. Cheddar

…by the hand of Rachel Alcazar…

 

Madison was a great hero. She saved me. Okay, please, if you wait a second, I will tell you the story.

My name is Mousey O. Cheddar. I call a big glass box my home. Well, it’s a bunch of boxes connected with tubes. It includes a school and a house for me, and my friends Brie Brie Stilton, Audrey Stilton, and Shawn Gouda. It also provides a house for my teacher, Ms. Alison Parmesan. The roof is a latex folder with two flaps. My awesome owner is Madison Crystal Sullivan. She is nine years old.

First of all, I had just gotten home from De Afficial Scool Fr Mousys and I rummaged through my backpack to look for my homework, when I realized I had lost it!   

So, I looked and looked and looked and still didn’t find it. I looked in Chef Garbanzo B. Bean’s stinky yet good trash soup. Nothing. Behind the TV? Nothing. In the underwear drawer? STILL nothing. Cereal box? NOTHING!!! Oh no!

Losing one’s homework has a horrible consequence, because if mouseys don’t have their assignment, they would get my teacher Ms. Alison’s (A.K.A. Ms. Grouchypants) detention. That’s when she takes away snack. We always have yummy creamy brie on crackers. But for detention she makes us stand in her closet upside down while eating broccoli! YUCK, I hate that leafy, greeny, gross stuff!

The next morning, I went to school. Before I left I tried to tell Madison, “Please get my homework.” But it sounded more like squeaks because humans do not understand mice, but mice can understand humans.

The school looks like a room with a clock, whiteboard, and some desks. I was getting worried. Ms. Grouchypants was walking toward me with broccoli in her hands. Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart raced like it was running a marathon. Just then, Madison lifted up the roof and she looked surprised that I was chewing on a big fat piece of broccoli. She screamed, “You are allergic to broccoli!”

When she spotted my homework sticking out of the pocket of the roof folder, she screamed again! She got it out and gave it to me. I sighed a sigh of relief and threw up that leafy, greeny, gross stuff!

That is how Madison saved me.

 

THE END

Another Peculiar Predicament

My eyes fluttered open like the wings of a butterfly about to take flight, peering up at the faint balls of light plastered onto the heavens. I swung back and forth on my hammock, each swing prompting bliss, until my body was engulfed in ecstasy. I looked around me at the vast, sweet grassy lawns surrounding me, each tendril of grass twirling around faster than the most talented dancer could ever wish to accomplish.

The mansion that I lived in, stood towering behind me with the most exquisite gold engravings on its edifice. The walls made out of the finest stainless steel, and then coated with a thin sheet of gold that made the windows seem like they were splashed on the walls like paint on a blank canvas. My house had approximately 300 rooms, with about 10 servants on each floor, which left our family of 3 with a multitude servants. These servants were paid, but a rather minute amount, for each servant got just a cent for every hour of labor.

The blankets that covered the hammock in my garden were made of the most extraordinary linen, forged from the heart of the Middle East where hundreds of workers labored for months to create every square inch. I was submerged in layers of these covers, each one so incredibly soft, I felt like I was one with my hammock. I slowly lifted my hand and brushed the linen apart, eager to meet with my parents. I treaded carefully onto the meadow (that over 50 servants tended to and kept perfect) and walked into the gilded doorway that lead to my house. The lawns were over 50 acres long, and had almost every type of exquisite flower growing in it except for some poisonous varieties.

I opened the golden metal encrusted door, which seemed to spellbind anyone who walked through it except me. I could not understand why so many people were awed by our family’s wealth. Some said that it was lavish, others simply shouted at my parents telling them that they should not parent me in this manner. For me however, it was a normal life, and I liked to think that anyone who was poor had not done enough labor to achieve the incomprehensible beauty and wealth that our family had achieved.

The interior of my house was a marvel, again, to anybody but me. It had a large silver ball hanging from a long, threadbare rope attached to a ceiling so high that you could barely see the top of it. The silver globe was one of our family’s masterpieces, for it took over six years to create. Slits, crevices, and crannies had been cleverly placed along the globe so that it reflected light to the adequate astonishment of the visitor. My house and I lived in quiet harmony with one another, and it was so perpetually luxurious that my mind often did not have the capacity to process it all.  Beneath the ball lay a large table, over 20 feet wide. It caused a plateau in the impeccably smooth polished floor beneath, and was one of the favorite places where my family united to partake our gorgeous meals. The floors were covered with a fluffy, white carpet that was as soft and silky as the fur of a beaver, which is actually what it was created from. Over 1,000 beavers were slaughtered for it. Some people might have thought that we were an unforgiving family, but I disagreed. I thought of beavers as a resource, just like every other animal, plant, and thing. If it was easy to harvest, it should be used until the source has been diminished to naught and it was time to find a new one. Some people call this cruel extinction. I simply called it the depletion of resources.

Since it was breakfast-time, I could hear my parents descending in their own glass elevator, getting ready to enjoy our meal. My parents were tall looming figures, at about 60 years old and in very good shape. Their faces were of a pale, opaque color and their bodies were very lithe and well kept, each inch scoured by the best plastic surgeons and cosmetologists. I was always astonished and very respectful when I met my parents, as they were the stars and heroes of my life. They had many burdens when they were younger, such as a small loan of 10 million dollars when they started (Some people say that 10 million dollars is a lot but I disagree!). They were able to build up from there to a worth of over a billion dollars through hard work.

We sat down to eat our meal consisting of 5 courses, composed entirely from organic produce from our own farm. My parents started to talk about the day as usual. “So Tom, now that you are 12 years old, you have to think of your future plans, are you going to continue to improve in your studies, so that you can be independent when you grow up? ”

“Of course,” I replied. “This home was a part of me since I first started walking and I am not about to give it up. I do not have a job yet, but I thought that I would just inherit your wealth when you die.”  

My dad’s face turned stern, “I know that, Tom, but you know that you cannot just rely on money to survive. After all, skills are very important too. Why did we go through all of the effort in sending you to the best school in the world? For nothing?”

“Ok, I understand,” I said, “I will try to study hard and be as successful as you.” After the meal that I had consumed, my family departed and I ran off to hang out with my friends.

Our estate had a forest with thousands of trees. My friends and I chased each other, racing through corn stalks, each fiber gleaming a crisp golden pigment. The kernels inside were like snails hiding inside of their shells. As we raced through the stalks, we left a thin wake in our path, which dozens of gardeners scuttled immediately to fix, making it seem like nothing had ever happened. As the forest approached us, the leaves merged together to create a thick blanket, draped over the millions of boughs that protruded out from the trunks. I never liked the trunks of these trees, as they are always in stark contrast to the beauty that my eyes had adjusted to living in. The tree trunks, with their drab, brown hue and dilapidated barks were a monstrosity to my eyes, that I had to shield my eyes with my hands although there was not the faintest trace of sunlight to be found.

As I ran through the forest, I surveyed my surroundings and realized that I had been stranded deep within it, with my friends, or my house, nowhere to be found. I ran faster and faster, but they were still nowhere to be found. The forest that I feared was like a cage, trapped me behind its thick brown bars. I instantly produced a wad of 100 dollar bills from my pocket, trying desperately to find a store so that I could pay them to lead me home (which was the way that I had been solving all my problems for years), but unfortunately, there was no such store or human to be found. Even though I knew that I was hopeless, I kept looking for one, for that was the only method that I had even known or used to solve my problems.

I wandered and wandered until I found a small hut made of wood harvested from our forest. It was so small I could barely see how someone could fit inside of the door. The hut was like a tent, except a bit larger, with large boughs strung together to create a triangular shape. Suddenly, my pent up rage increased, and I was about to demolish the hut when I heard a faint weeping coming from inside. I saw a small baby, about the age of 2 writhing inside, crying, probably because its parents had gone somewhere. I tried to console the baby, but again since I did not know what to do, I started to throw hundreds of dollars on the baby, thinking that it would stop the sorrow. Unfortunately, this idea did not work, and since I did not have any other remedy, I left the crying baby, thinking that there was nothing that I could have done to help.

I continued my trek through the forest, and as I walked, I felt strange feelings of shame and anger (as I had been taught they were called). “What is the magic remedy that can be used to solve all these problems that I have encountered. I must know now!” I muttered under my breath to myself. But as I walked, I encountered another problem, I had brought no food with me. I was about to draw more money from my pocket, when I realized that I had no way of spending it. I pondered about the ways that I had gotten food before, each time involving money and some person to give it to me, but this time I had no one to rely on to supply me with food. Instead, I had to use my own skills to get it.

I looked around thinking what I could do, and then I found a small bush growing in a neglected area of the forest floor. I looked more closely at the bush and found small red triangles sprouting on it. At close inspection, I realized that what I was looking at were actually strawberries. Picking one from the bush, my hunger got the better of me, and I ate them without thinking too much about what it was. The berry had a miraculously sweet and sour taste, much more appetizing than the strawberries that my money had given me.

With my pocket filled to the brim with these fruits, I continued on my adventure through the forest, completely losing the intent of getting back home. Wandering on, I bumped back into the hut that I was inspecting before. As I peeked inside, I saw the baby’s parent carefully cradling the baby and rocking it back and forth. I felt, for some reason, much happier just looking at this phenomenon, than any money had ever made me feel before. I thought that this must be the magical power that I was always looking for to solve my crisis, and it seemed to work, because in an instant the crying baby turned into a content one, without any money involved. My parents never did that to me and for the first time I thought that my parents had done something wrong.

 

PART II

 

Many hours seemed to have passed. I finally found myself at the back of the forest’s edge with my mansion at the end of the vast lawns. As I walked to the forest’s edge, I saw a tall, looming figure appearing before me. This figure actually happened to be a tree-like object so drab and dilapidated, that my eyes were repelled from the sight. The tree had hundreds of crooked boughs that were completely devoid of leaves, the branches so utterly twisted that I felt like they could break off at any moment. The tree took on a pigment of pitch black, and had the unostentatious stench of burnt wood struck by lightning. The putrid sight induced nausea in my body, and I shouted for my servants to come and eliminate it from my forest.

Unfortunately, there were no servants around, but after a few more shouts, my father’s workmen came with heavy lumbering axes. They tried to repeatedly strike it down, but each hit had no effect on it. The tree stood tall and refused to break. “Continue, you blithering fools. You were paid to work for me and you do almost nothing,” I screamed. “But sir, the tree might hit your house!” one servant cried. “Just do your work and do not question me. It is impossible that the tree will hit my house!” I screamed infuriated.

After a few more hours of relentless chopping, my servants finally cut it down, and released a cry of joy into the air. I too was delighted by the sight, but the large limp log on the ground started to roll even though there was no hill. The log rolled through the forest, taking lots of the beautiful vegetation with it. I followed, and saw that its width was rapidly increasing. Soon, it would be half the size of my house. The tree trunk continued to roll until it exited the forest, and appeared to be headed straight for my hammock. Instantly, hundreds of servants appeared around it, but it kept rolling on and on, and soon smashed right into the bottom of my mansion. My beautiful home folded in half like a floppy pancake, smoke and debris spewing out of the crash site. The steel, which seemed so thick, was now flattened by a piece of wood. My once wonderful home now looked like a garbage dump, with broken furniture, glass shards, and silver ball strewn all over large estate. Everything I had vanished in an instant.

I started to weep uncontrollably, a thing that I would have never done before. The house was a treasure that had connected my entire life, and now a very strange feeling of loss, almost like pain from a wound crept over me. I had always thought that my money would solve every problem that I had, but now here I was, standing on a field just after my home was destroyed, with nothing. I tried to find my parents, but they were nowhere to be found.

I looked around at the area surrounding me. I had depended on wealth and superiority for so long, but now that it was destroyed, I was lost. My parents were not there to support me, and now that my servants were no longer under the control of my family, they were running loose like a pack of random mice dashing about. I tried beckoning the servants to escort me into the ruins of the house, but they refused, as they had already long ran away from the house that they resented so much.

 

PART III

 

Exhausted, knowing that my whole life had been ruined by this catastrophe, I lay on the grass closed my eyes and fell asleep, thinking that I would never recover. When I awoke I saw that I was lying on a hard bench directly underneath a dark rugged wooden ceiling with not the faintest appearance of air or stars. My instincts kicked in, and I immediately jumped up and went to punish the person who put me in that position. But I found something oddly peculiar. Instead of me being in one room by myself which was bad enough, there were many such beds stacked in every part of the room imaginable. There were even beds atop other beds! Enraged by the preposterous view, I jumped out of the bed, and commanded forth the servant who did this at once. Unfortunately, there was no such person in the room, and as I opened the door in front of me, I was confronted by a warden wielding a large baton, his face a deep crimson red.

“So you are the new kid who is all over the news eh? They say that your parents were the richest in the world eh? Well now THEY ARE GONE!! Welcome to the real world kid. No matter how rich you are, you are getting the same beating nonetheless.” That final word being said, the man took his baton and started to smash it across my back. My parents had never done this to me before, and I was infuriated beyond belief, but I realized that my days of absolute wealth were over.

After the beating, I slumped back into the bed and had a look at my clothing. My brilliant robes were stripped off me and replaced with a handful of rags stitched together. After a couple of minutes, all of the other children started to wake up and walk out of the room. After that incident I was too frightened to go anywhere near that door, and had time to recollect myself. I was still shuddering from the shock that my house was destroyed and my parents were dead. It was very strange, for my parents were with me for my whole life, guiding me every step of the way, and now they’re gone. It seemed like a hole had bored into my heart and would remain. It was another strange feeling that I was not used to.

Cupping my hands into my head I started to rage about the turn that my life had taken, but then I realized that hundreds of other people around the world go through this sort of treachery since the day that day were born. I started to feel some compassion for my servants, even though every other day of my life I had taken them for granted. Looking up, though, I saw the clock ticking toward the better part of 11am. I was wondering who would deliver my breakfast, but then realized that since I was in the “new” world I had to think differently.

“That must be where they go for breakfast!” I exclaimed, and leapt out of the door in the room, thankful that I was leaving the putrid place for hopefully a long time. Unfortunately, the area outside of my room was even more appalling than I had expected.

It was a long hallway which expanded to either side of the room. Cautiously I stepped out of the room and started to walk down the left side of the hallway. I was trying to find the cafeteria and could not find it anywhere. Suddenly I heard a faint scream coming from a room and a bunch of screams following that. I peeked through the small glass window implanted in the door and saw hundreds of children lined up, sitting at tables finishing up their meals. I walked in and took a seat at one of the tables. If this was how I had to eat all of my meals than I did not think that I would last here that long.

I was presented with a glob of black slime. Everyone started to dive into their meals except for me who stared at the meal in confusion wondering if it was even edible. As I was doing this, a kid about the same age as me walked up to me. I hopped off my chair and started to saunter around the house, trying to lose this kid that was following my path, but he persisted until we ended up walking down the hallway to a little grassy yard.

I sat on a wooden bench to one corner, and the kid sat on another one across from me. “Hello,” the kid said to me.” I had no choice but to reply with a, “Hi.”

“So, how did you end up here?” he started again. I started to talk about my wealth and the kid alongside me listened in awe. He started to talk back to me and within an hour we were both playing together, laughing about our past stories and experiences.

We continued to play in the field, even after the sun had long set, and I started to reflect on my experiences. It was a peculiar feeling that I experienced, talking to this kid. It was much more gratifying than any wealth could have given me.

As I started to bond with my new friend I felt this surging feeling once more, but more importantly I realized that other humans were also of the same level as me.  As my friend went more in depth with his experiences. I started to understand that the attitude that I was imposing toward wealth and other human beings was all wrong, and my vanity was taking control of my mind. He talked about how he was at first very poor, and was a worker at a very rich man’s house, just like mine. He was treated so cruelly that he ran away and ended up here.

Days after that experience happened, my worries started to fade away, for I had discovered the one thing that was greater than money…Compassion. I vowed that if I were to ever become wealthy again, I would make sure to remain compassionate, something I would have never thought before!

My Life as a Dog

Sitting on the porch with my favorite human beside me, I can’t help but think about how much older she looks now. Not too long ago, she was the little girl of the family who tried to make me eat flowers because she hated me! I ran away that time. Now, I can’t run so well anymore. I get up and try to get my beat-up monkey that I named Robert. Seeing me struggle, Jess puts down her book and grabs Robert.

“Good dog, Buddy,” she praises me as she sticks Robert in my drooling mouth.

I will forever be loyal to Jess. She may not have always liked me, but she is my favorite person in the world. My name is Buddy. I’m a black lab who is ten years old. You must know that I am nearing the end of my life. That is why I am here to tell you the story of my life.

So as it was, I was the last of my brothers and sisters to be adopted. I didn’t know why, but I was all alone in a rusty pen. That’s when it happened. A man came in alone. Guy said some stuff and the big man that was in charge picked me up.

“Will this little guy do?” he gruffly asked.

“He’s perfect!” Guy smiled.

I didn’t understand a single thing they were saying, but I went along and that’s how I wound up in a machine thing. He stuck me in the back and went in the front.

After a while we pulled up in front of a white house. Guy got out of the machine. I struggled to jump out. All of a sudden, a boy came running and he hugged me so tight I was choking! Lady came out and gave me a collar.

“Jess, come see your birthday present!” Guy called into the house.

“What is it?” a girl’s voice called.

“Come and see!” Guy yelled back.

A little girl came running out of the house.

“A-a-a-a dog?” she timidly asked.

I could smell the scent of unwillingness and sadness steaming off of her.

“It’s to replace Riley, your old dog!” Guy beamed.

Jess bolted back into the house and I was very confused. Was there another dog here called Riley?

“She’s not ready to forget Riley, Mike, don’t push it,” Lady patted Guy on the back.

“Well, maybe in time she’ll accept Buddy,” Guy trudged inside and I followed him.

Apparently the house was all set. There was a bed, two bowls, a cage, and a pen like the one I had been in for so many months. The odd thing was that it faintly smelled like another dog. I decided to ignore this thought and check out what the family was doing.

“Buddy!” Boy called holding out a ball.

“Go get the ball!” Dad (as I heard the boy call him) Guy chanted.

I was confused! Who was Buddy? What was a ball?

Boy threw the round thing. My instincts took over and I ran to it. After all, I was a Labrador Retriever. Gingerly, I sniffed it and picked it up. I was starting to like this ball thingy! I ran to Boy who yanked it out of my mouth.

“Good boy, Buddy!” he praised.

Ohh, so I was Buddy. Now things were starting to make sense. This house would be my home for the rest of my life. No more rusty pen. I was going to enjoy it here.

After a few days, Jess still wouldn’t pet or talk to me. I was highly offended. What did I do wrong? Dad and Mom tried talking to her, but she wouldn’t listen. I knew if I wanted her to like me, I would have to prove myself worthy by doing something, but what would that something be?

That evening, Jess, Dad, Mom, and Boy (whose name I found out was Mason) took me to the lake. I meandered along the path going from Jess to Mason. Finally, we sat on a bench on the shore of the lake. Jess kicked a stick into the lake. My instincts took over and I leaped into the lake to get the stick. A few minutes later, I came back soaked and wet, the stick in my mouth. I proudly dropped it at Jess’s feet and expected her to finally like me. Contrary to my prediction, she scowled and pushed me away while holding her nose. Sorrowfully, I walked away and went to Mason.

“Jess!” Mason exclaimed, “Buddy just dove into a freezing cold lake and retrieved you a stick, be thankful,” he scolded.

“He’s just a stupid dog,” Jess muttered and trudged away.

Mom, Dad, and Mason looked at each other and sighed.

It seemed like I would have to do something other than retrieve a stick from a lake to get Jess’s appreciation.

The next day, the house became empty except for the girl who went to her room and slept. Basically, I was stuck in the house on my own. The night before, I had learned that I had a “dog door.” There was a flap that I could walk right through! Then I would be outside and the fresh air would blast at me. I walked around the empty house sniffing here and there. It was strange with nobody home.

All of a sudden, I smelled something weird. Like a burning of heat. I was confused, but my instincts told me I had to get out. That’s when it started; black smoke poured into the kitchen. It stung my eyes as I struggled to find my “dog door.”

Safely, I ran out of the house. The girl! Even though she hadn’t been very nice to me, it was my job to be loyal and protect my owner no matter how much she liked me. What was I going to do? I was safe and alive. Sirens blared up the driveway as men in red suits ran in the house. I wanted to warn them not to go in.

Another man in a navy blue uniform patted my head and tried to comfort me. Nothing could help me especially since I knew my girl was in there! Nudging the man in the navy blue uniform, I started to bark and whimper.

“What’s the matter, boy?” he asked, concerned.

I pointed my nose in the direction of the house. Then, I ran to the house. A man in a red suit outside stopped me.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

I ran inside without looking back. The men followed me, unsure of what I was doing. I bolted to the stairs and was about to go up when one man said, “Hey, maybe someone is up there!” Soon, I was dressed in a suit thing and a mask on my face. I charged into the house again with the men in red suits close behind. I expected the smoke to sting my eyes but to my surprise, I was fine! I quickly led the way up the stairs into Jess’s room. Jess was crying on the bed. The men carried her downstairs into a white truck that drove her away. Where were they taking her? I barked and barked but it was useless. The men in red suits were still spraying the house with the hose.

Finally, I believed my girl was safe so I let my instincts take over and ran to the house. Playfully, I jumped around and chased the hose. I was soaked when a man in a suit dragged me away. After a few hours, the house stopped secreting gray air that stung my eyes and made them water. I was still high on alert, straining to see if there was any scent of Jess or her family. Suddenly, a women stood above me. She was Jess’s mom!

“Oh Buddy, you must be worried!” she cooed as she stroked my head.

Heck, I was worried sick!

“Let’s go, we’re gonna go visit Jess!” She swept me in and stuck me in her machine.

A few minutes later, which seemed like an eon, I walked into a white building that smelled clean too clean! I was tempted to release waste all over the place. I quickly trotted behind Jess’s mom into a room. Jess was lying on the bed, sleeping. Seeing her there reassured me, and I went over and licked her. A second later, Jess’s eyes shot open and she screamed.

“What is that dog doing here!”

Startled, I jumped back.

“Relax, honey, Buddy is just trying to say hi,” Mom’s voice calmed her.

“And, Jess, Buddy here saved your life,” Dad informed Jess.

“Oh really, huh? Like I can believe that,” she sourly announced.

“Well, believe what you want, but that dog saved your life,” Mason pointed at me.

I felt proud and dejected at the same time. I had worked so hard to help Jess and now she didn’t even believing that I had saved her life! To think that I thought Jess would like me after she was told that I saved her life.

A few days later, everything was back to normal. Neighbors still came over with disgusting homemade dog treats for me, which I buried in the backyard for when I was  desperate for food. On this particular day, I decided to go wait for Jess at the bus stop because one of the neighbors had dropped off another batch of despicable dog treats, and I was starting to get tired of making holes in the yard to bury them in. I trotted to the bus stop and sat there ignoring the twitch of squirrels in the grass and focusing on the gasoline scent of the bus. After a century, the bus screeched to a stop in front of my face. Jess came off, followed by some blonde girls who were none other than Mia, Katy, Amanda, Sophie, and Summer. They were the popular girls Jess had always longed to be friends with. The ones she ranted about 24/7 and the ones that glared at her.

“So, Jess, I heard your dog is a life saver,” Amanda, the queen bee, motioned towards me.

It was like everything from then on was a movie. I couldn’t wait to hear Jess’s response.

“Uhhh, yeah, he saved me from a fire,” she replied.

I couldn’t believe it. First she was saying that she didn’t believe I saved her life. Then I knew, she was doing it for popularity. She was using me! Before I could decide whether I was proud or mad, Amanda said something very interesting.

“So, you wanna come to my house tonight, we can have a sleepover with Mia, Katy, Sophie, and Summer?” Amanda coolly asked. “Oh, and bring your awesome dog! I have a Yellow lab named Marley.” She sashayed away with her group following her, gushing and chattering. Before I could react, Jess was halfway down the path and I bolted to catch her.

Out of breath, Jess rushed in with the good news, me tagging behind her.

“Mom, dad!” she panted, “I was invited to a sleep over at Amanda’s!” she finished.

“Woah, hold on,” Dad said.

“Amanda Williams, the one who is the big popular one?” Mom raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, Amanda Williams and her friends have invited me with Buddy to her house for a sleepover,” Jess boasted.

Buddy!?” Mom and Dad yelled.

Say what? Did Jess just bail me out and tell them that I did my business in her mom’s flower garden?  Which I did, by the way.

“Yes, and Amanda has a yellow lab named Marley,” she reassured them.

Jess explained the whole story from beginning to end. When she was finished, everybody was gaping. I knew everyone was happy for her, not only because they reeked of the scent of cupcakes, but the fact that they were all smiling.

“Of course you can go!” Dad proclaimed.

“We are so happy for you!” Mom stated the obvious.

That night, Jess packed her bag and got into the machine. I bounded in behind her, and we were off. In what seemed like a month, we were finally there. Amanda’s house was HUGE. We stepped out of the machine and ran up the front path. Jess excitedly rang the doorbell and waited. Amanda answered the door with a smile on her face. Hmm, I thought I smelled a scent on her, an unusual scent, scared? Sad? Then it hit me, it was nervous. What was Amanda so nervous about?

As I sat down, all the girls started to pet me. I wasn’t so sure I cared that Jess used me anymore. I had never gotten this much attention in my whole life.

“Nice PJs,” Amanda complimented sarcastically to Jess.

Jess didn’t hear any sarcasm and glanced down at her dog pjs. I always thought they were cute.

“Thanks,” Jess gushed.

I watched as Amanda rolled her eyes at Mia secretly.

“Let’s paint our nails,” Katy suggested, breaking the silence.

Soon, the girls took out bottles of stuff and slathered it on their nails. The scent almost ruined my nose!

“I’m gonna go use the bathroom,” Jess got up and left the room, closing the door behind her.

“Girls!” Amanda whispered, “Let’s play a prank on that loser!”

Prank? Prank? Wait a minute, I trotted over to get a better listen.

“Oooh, let’s put itching powder in her sleeping bag!” Sophie jumped up.

“I brought some just in case,” Summer held up a can.

“WHAT?” All the others girls turned to face her.

“What?” Summer repeated, wanting to squirm out of the question.

“Perfect,” Amanda agreed.

Just in time, Jess came in.

“So, it’s lights out time!” Amanda cheerfully said, “you go brush your teeth first,” she told Jess.

I nudged Jess as if to say, No! Oblivious to my clues, she went into the bathroom again.

***

I watched as the girls hatched their plan. They moved fast, dumping bits of Itching Powder in Jess’s sleeping bag. I whimpered and whimpered, but the girls ignored me. Just mean. At last, Jess came in and everybody acted normal. Jess got into her sleeping bag. Then, the itching started.

“Uh, I think I might have gotten a rash,” Jess nervously announced.

“EWWW,” all the girls screamed.

“Go home,” Amanda advised.

Crying, Jess pulled out her phone and called her mom. A few minutes later, she pulled up. Amanda’s mom comfortingly assisted Jess outside. Once in the car, Jess started to cry again.

“I-I-I got a r-r-rash,” Jess cried, “and then the other girls started to glare at me and Amanda told me to go home,” Jess finished.

Jess sat there in silence as we pulled into the long gray path in front of the house that a machine always parked on. When we got inside, Jess’s mom started to wash her sleeping bag; Jess’s mom was a neat freak.

“Wait a minute! Jess, is there powder, itching powder, in your sleeping bag?” Jess’s mom asked suspiciously.

“Wha-a-t?” Jess sniffled.

“Jess, I think those girls played a cruel trick on you, they did the classic putting-itching powder-in-sleeping bag trick,” Jess’s mom frowned.

“Huh, maybe that’s why Buddy nudged me, he knew all along they would play a prank on me!” If Jess was in a comic, there would be a yellow lightbulb above her head.

“Now I know, those girls aren’t my true friends, Buddy is,” Jess ran up and hugged me.

“I’m so sorry I rejected you, you’re the best dog I ever had,” she almost suffocated me.

Now, many years later, I am still Jess’s best friend. As I shift my position, I accidentally drop Robert, my monkey, on the green, lush grass. Whimpering, I try to jump onto the patch of green but fail. Seeing me, Jess drops her book. Grunting, she gently lifts me onto the grass. I am grateful to her. It is hard to believe that a few years ago, she disliked me and pushed me away. Jess has changed a lot, and so have I. Jess used to be a carefree little girl. Today, she is a high schooler applying for what is called “College.” She will be leaving me soon and I will soon be leaving her. I wonder if she still remembered that phase when she rejected me. Leaning over, I gaze at Jess absorbed in her book, and she starts to stroke my head. Even though dogs hate it when humans pat them on the head, I lie still next to her without protest. Closing my eyes, I let the warm sun swallow me.

The End

The Mermaid Who Stole a Diamond

The moment Pearl saw the diamond, she wanted it, but the diamond was being guarded very securely. There were two guards, four bars, and an alarm. If Pearl tried to get the diamond, she would be caught for sure. Pearl had to think of a plan. She knew that if she didn’t have a plan, a police submarine would come after her. She thought and thought all afternoon.

Pearl swam into her small, cramped home. Her home was shaped as a circle. There were six doors leading off the main room. Three doors lead to bedrooms: Hers, her mom’s, and her brother’s. One door lead to the bathroom. The last door lead to their kitchen. Pearl swam down the hall that lead to her room. Pearl flopped down on her tiny, but comfortable bed.

Pearl’s room was decorated with a lot of posters. The posters had pictures of  very valuable items. There was even a small piece of gold in the corner of the room! She had gotten the gold when she won the lottery. Pearl had never wanted anything so much. She was a collector of valuables. Pearl was obsessed with diamonds and gold. She became obsessed when she first saw a block of gold. She was six. Now at twelve years she still loved valuables. Pearl got out a roll of parchment and a bottle of ink.

Pearl was going to make a plan. She dipped her quill into the ink and wrote a list. The list was of what Pearl was going to bring on her expedition. The list included a rock, a pair of large pliers, and an invisibility potion. The rock was to make a distraction. Pearl would throw the rock away from her to cause a distraction. Pearl would use the pliers to pry open the bars. She would drink the invisibility potion so that the guards won’t see her. As for the alarm, well, the rock would set the alarm off anyway.

Pearl went to the kitchen and got a pack of sea snacks. Since Pearl was going to get the diamond at midnight she knew that she had to rest. Pearl sat down on her bed and opened her snack. She found herself dreaming about the diamond. She dreamt about the way it glistened…

Before Pearl knew it, the time was 11:59. Pearl swam to the museum with the sack slung over her shoulder. Pearl thought of the way the diamond would feel if it was in her hands. Pearl was breathing heavily as she threw the rock through the bars. The rock landed right by the guards. Perfect. The guards looked around stupidly as the alarm went off. They walked to the entrance of the museum and shone their flashlights into the night. One of the guards pointed their flashlight at the other one. The two guards started tackling each other out of the museum. This gave Pearl the perfect chance to pry open the bars. Suddenly, the alarm stopped ringing. She couldn’t help but smile.

Pearl took out the pliers and pried open the bars. She had her hands on the diamond. Just as Pearl was about to take the diamond and go home, she stopped in her tracks. One of the museum guards had spotted her. Pearl dropped her bag and swam for her house as fast as she could. Pearl was breathing heavily as she entered her house. Pearl sank down onto her bed and started to cry.

The next morning Pearl was surprised to see her Dad standing over her. She barely ever saw her dad.

“Pearl, somebody tried to steal the diamond at the museum last night.” Pearl’s heart skipped a beat. Did he know? “The museum decided that the diamond wasn’t safe. So, they gave it to me. I’ve decided to give it to you.” Pearl smiled at her Dad as he handed her the diamond. Pearl had gotten the diamond and she didn’t even have to do a thing.   

 

Element of Silver (Excerpt)

Chapter 1

I didn’t expect to wake to the warmth of silk sheets. Nor did I expect the gigantic room decorated with champagne-colored furniture, or the soft bed covered with thick layers of blankets. I was used to the comfort of hard pavement beneath me, and unwanted newspapers.     

I didn’t remember who brought me here. All I remembered was walking back to my usual spot in a gloomy alley when something approached me. I couldn’t make out the object because my vision started getting blurry… until it was pitch black.

A knock on the door woke me from the trance cast by a magnificent room. I answered in a hurry and found a maid carrying freshly washed sheets. The maid had her hair up in a tight bun, and a french maid’s uniform like in a movie.

“Good morning Ms. Philips,” the maid said in a quiet voice.

Philips? My name was Maggie Archer. Where did she get Philips from?  I thought.

“Umm, excuse me, but my last name is Archer, not Philips,” I said.

“No, no, no, your name is Clara Philips,” she replied matter-of-factly.

I was utterly confused, but I didn’t show it. After all, Clara Philips was a good name, if not a bit sophisticated for a girl from the streets.

Once the maid left, a short and stern woman came in wearing a black topcoat, a pencil skirt, and high heels that didn’t make her look any taller. She also wore her hair in a tight bun, which pulled her facial skin taut as a drum.

“Here’s your schedule for the day,” she said in a businesslike manner. “Be on time for everything. I will be checking on you after lunch and before dinner.”

“Who are you?” I said before she could go.

“I am your assistant. I make sure you get your schedules. By all means, Clara, you should now who I am by now. I’ve been here for about a week. It isn’t my fault you go through assistants every ten days.”

After my assistant left in an annoyed huff, I looked through the schedule, eager to see what awaited me.

 

Schedule for the month of January

(Everyday Schedule)

10:00- 11:00am Breakfast

11:00-12:00pm History

12:00-1:00pm Arithmetic

1:00 -2:00pm Combat Training

2:00-3:00pm Lunch

3:00-4:00pm Chemistry

4:00 -5:00pm Supper

5:00 -6:00pm Piano Lessons

6:00-8:00pm Dinner

8:00 -9:00pm Dance Lessons

9:30pm Bedtime  

 

Chapter 2 

I decided to roll with my new life. After all, it was better than living on the streets. After an hour of deliberating over what to wear, I went with a pair of simple jeans and a blouse.

I raced down to what I assumed was the dining hall. It had several long dining tables set for about fifteen guests, just like the ones in Harry Potter. The room was full of teenagers happily munching away on breakfast food.

I quietly entered and sat down at the end of the table, closest to the door. A few minutes later, a maid approached me with a plate in her hand.

“Here’s your breakfast, Miss,” she said hurriedly.

When she left, I looked down at my plate neatly stacked with three pancakes and a swirl of whipped cream on top, next to a pile of scrambled eggs.

History was next, according to the schedule. When I finish breakfast and entered room 255, no one was there except a short man with streaks of silver in his chocolate brown hair.

What’s with short people here? I thought.

The man was too busy reading a book to notice me, so I politely sat down. I guess he could sense the presence of someone in his room, so he lifted his head and stared straight at me.

“Hi,” I said weakly.

“Good morning, Clara,” he said.

“My name is Maggie Archer. I don’t know why people keep calling me Clara Philips, much less why I’m here,” I said, on the verge of yelling.

“Maggie Archer? No wonder. You do look like them, even after all these years,” the man muttered.

“Who do I look like? What do you mean?”

“We’ll explain everything soon, I promise,” he said dismissively. “By the way, my name is Marcus Stepler. You can call me Mr. Stepler.”

With that, he raced out the door, leaving me to stare into oblivion.   

An Amber Story

PLOP. Hi, I’m Amber. When I grow up I want to be a writer! Amber Doller, the world’s best author, will be receiving her tenth golden medal for her new book, I thought. Well, I might as well show you my favorite book I’ve ever written.

It was a long time ago. A year ago, to be exact. Well, a year and a half. And my friend and I were shelving books. An hour later, I needed to get a book from one shelf to another, but it was really high up, so I couldn’t exactly reach it. I jumped as high as I could and then at the same time, my friend did, but on the other book shelf. All of a sudden I started floating. And weird enough, so did my friend.

We both screamed at the top of our lungs. Bump.

“What in the world just happened?” I asked.

“Ahhh,” said my friend, flying up and tumbling out of the window, catching herself a foot from the ground. She crossed her fingers and she floated back up using a bubble. Bubbles were coming out of her fingers. “Amber!” my friend yelled. “Why am I shooting bubbles out of my fingers?”

I tried that, but it didn’t work. Then for the oddest of reasons, I made a sad wolf with my hand and then bubbles came out. “It can’t be,” said her mother. Dun, dun, dunnn!

 

I finished writing. Until the next book, brb. I needed to go shelf my books with my bff, my reading room was long overdue for a reorganize sesh. I started pacing around the room, except all of a sudden, I was flying. I felt more airy on my face and I just felt a lot less lazy, like I didn’t have to do as much work. I also didn’t hear my own footsteps or hear anything.  

I looked down at my feet and I said, “Oh my god. Why meee?” because I was flying! My friend crossed her fingers that it wasn’t some weird disease that would make me die. And then, my friend shot bubbles out of her fingers. Real, actual bubbles.

“AAAaaa!” We both started screaming like we’ve never screamed before.

My friend was on the other side of the room, and she was still screaming into a pillow. I have powers. I have real actual powers. But it didn’t make any sense. I wrote about this. Writing stuff can’t really make it come true, can it? Or at least not fantasy.

Then a cartoon lightbulb popped above my head. Literally. My friend left when this idea popped into my head. She was so freaked out that my friend left to go to her house and scream in her pillows. (Then she flew to Mexico with her family.) But maybe, if I write something else down, it will come true. Let me give it a try: I just found out I own a gown of silk and gems. “I wish I could I wish I co –– ”

“Hun, a package is waiting for you,” my dad yelled.

“Yes!” I got the package and ran up to my room. Then, I got my specialist scissors and opened the package very, very carefully. And you know what was in there? And I’m not talking about talking to myself. Riiight? Na. It was a silk gown with beautiful gems on it. I showed it to my parents and they screamed in delight. I asked them if they wanted anything and then they said, “What now? Where did you even get this gown?”

And I said, “It’s something special.”

They said that they didn’t believe me, but they wanted a million dollars. So, I went upstairs and wrote down: My parents just got a million dollars. So then, something started raining through the house. It was green. It was money! It was a million dollars! I ran to the steps and my parents were jumping up and down and screaming and squealing. Then, we decided to have a ginormous party soon. School was starting so I wrote up a new backpack with everything I needed. My plan was to come to school in a limo with a butler. Then being me, I went to the deli to get Oreos.

The next morning, when I woke up, I got out of bed and went to collect my backpack from my desk. It gets a little annoying having a desk like mine because I have to pull out the bookshelf and I have to pull out the mini desk. Then, I went into my “walk-in” closet, a closet that was pretty big, five yards long and two yards wide. I got dressed in something that could be mistaken as a school uniform, so I changed it. I ended up wearing jeggings, a white t-shirt with a pink leopard print scarf, and black boots. Then, I took one of my books from the bookshelf, except it was a binder full of my plans for school. I was ready.

 

Chapter 2

 

“Dat’ll be $1.50,” the counter man said.

“Okay,” I said.

Grabbing the Oreos, I raced to the bench and found out I was in Ms. Peepee’s class, a.k.a. the meanest teacher ever. I took one look at my locker and almost barfed at the rusty walls. I started by putting a plain sheet of paper in my locker. Then I wrote down, I wish I had a perfectly decorated locker. In my locker was a little pink rug and on top of it, was a tiny table with a little drawer (the drawers for makeup, duh!), a mirror, a mini chandelier, an emergency outfit that was a bit over fancy –– it was a shirt that was purple with a bit of black lace over the belly and then the same color purple skirt with cowgirl boots –– then, there was hot pink winter coat and a beige sweater. There was also a pouch for my pencils and a little mini shelf for all my folders and notebooks. Then, I put up two more sheets of paper just in case. After that, I realized I may be late to Ms. Peepee’s class.

So then, I walked because it was right next to my locker, kind of wishing I was in Miss Lulu’s class. I went into the very back corner just when Ms. Peepee came into the class. She was wearing a purple dress with a blue sweater. She had her gray hair in a bun and she wore glasses on a chain. Who does that? Her heels clicked and clacked on the floor. She gave us an essay without even saying “Hello, new class.” And then, she said we had to write an essay on Africa and its animals and then for the week we had to write four essays about different animals that lived there. So then we had to start, and without thinking about what I was doing, I just started writing, I wish I was in Miss Lulu’s class.

Then, I teleported in front of the door and walked in.

Miss Lulu said, “You should be very ashamed. You are late, but since it’s the first day, some confusion must have happened with your teacher, so I will not mark you late.”

There was a seat in the very front, so I happily took the seat. Her voice was literally a sooong. We all wrote half a poem, then we had to finish for homework. But then, it was time for attendance…

“Kate.”

”Here.”

“Mark.”

“Godzilla!”

“Gareth?”

“Hi.”

“Adam.”

“Here.”  

“Amy.”

Uh stop that.”

“Alex.”

“Yo.”

“Alexandra

Hi.

“Josh.”

“Is better than.”

“Okay, anyone not called?”

Oh no! I raised my hand and I got called on.

Then, Miss Lily said, “Okay, I’ll make sure to add you.” And that was before the principal called.

 

Chapter 3

 

One of the students got the phone because it was one of the phones that was on the wall.

The kid said, “It’s for you, Miss Lily.”

Miss Lily got the phone and said, “Oh, really?” And then she came to

my desk and she said, “I am truly sorry, but someone who did not pay for the school is not allowed to be in the school.” So, I got sent to the principal’s office.

I got out a sticky note and a pencil on my way out. Then, I wrote down, I wish that I was on the attendance in Miss Lily’s class and didn’t have to go to the principal’s. Nothing happened. Miss Lily didn’t come calling back and say that it was an accident. I got very worried. Then, I wrote down, I wish that I had a pair of hoop earrings in my hand. Nothing happened. My face was getting scrunched up. It was my worried face. I knew I had to be incredibly specific on this, but I didn’t know I had to be that specific. I wrote down, I wish I had a gigantic pair of hoop earrings that are gold. Why was this happening? I was entering the principal’s office, holding my breath. I was writing faster than I’d ever wrote. I even wrote, I wish that my parents had a crown and a castle instead of a house, but I didn’t get a call from my parents. Now I was sweating as I sat down. Mr. Lightning started yelling what I should do with my attitude.

Blah, blah, blah about me trespassing on school property. Then I did something very stupid. I pulled out my phone and said, “Call my parents. They know that I belong in this school. They wasted a thousand dollars on it!”

So, Mr. Lightning banged his fist and said, “You are not supposed to have a phone in this school! You will be sent to detention dungeon.” Then five teachers with axes took me away to a dungeon with desks. The metal bars that surrounded the desk were rusty and had chains. Some had what I call peasants. I don’t know why, but I just decided to call them that. They all had these brownish, tannish gowns on that looked like a poor person owned, but somewhat a little more like mine.

Wait a second! I was wearing a pink gown?! It was sparkly and sleeveless. In the middle was a ribbon that was a couple of inches thick. I was locked up in the fanciest of dungeons. Unlike the others, was pink and purple and next to it was something that was blue and green. The pink one was marked “Princess” and the blue one was marked “Prince.” The pink one had an elegant bunk bed with pink polka dot covers and lighter pink fringe, it had a make up table and barely even looked like a dungeon. And on top of that, there was a hoity-toity closet and a beautiful tiara. Then the iron door slammed shut!

I started pacing and someone said “Will ya stop?”

There was a girl in a black dress. It had a bit of navy blue in some places, it was like a very dreary princess dress. I asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Andy, and I guess we’re roommates. Sadly,” she said, while rolling her eyes.

I think she was looking at my pink dress, but whatever it was, I was not happy. I reached into the pocket of my dress, which I didn’t even know that I had, and pulled out a really sharp diamond and I have no idea why I had a diamond in my pocket, but somehow I have a lot of things in my pocket that I don’t know about.

“Now what’s your name?” she asked me.

I may have groaned a little, but I said, “Amber.”

And then she replied, “Princess Amber from Cristalandia? I bet you’re actually happy to be in this room. I so wish I was in the Prince’s room. I mean, it’s perfect. It’s green and blue, my two favorite colors. And, instead of a two bunker, it has three bunkers with really cool designs on them, not just frilliness and pink dots. What’s up with that? And their crowns are gold, while all we get are silver. No one even wants to wear purple dresses they provide, no offense.”

“What do you mean by ‘they’?” I asked.

And she replied, “Don’t you know? The stupid people who run the place. The Queen of Schoolandia, who’s the principal’s mother and the king of Schoolandia, her husband. But, actually, technically, they just provide the clothes. The principal of Schoolandia and his wife, Alicia, the Princess of Knowledge, are going to be crowned the King and Queen of Schoolandia soon. And the only thing I’m happy about is that when that does happen, they will take all of the stupid peasants out of the school.”

“Why do you call them stupid?” I asked with curiosity.

She said, “Where have you been? peasants are stupid. We are princesses. Princesses are good, and get to marry overly stuck-up princes,” the odd princess, Andy, got up. Then she took the blue dust, sprinkled it on me and walked out of/into the wall.

I woke up. I sat up. I looked both ways and saw no portal like I did before. But what I did see is a black, shiny pony tail with a black crop top and a leather skirt attached to it.

“Andy, what in the world did you do?”

“What do you mean?” asked Andy in a very sarcastic, questioning, guilty voice. “I only put blue fairy dust on you that makes you go to sleep for, I’d say, ten hours. Be glad I didn’t put the death black one on you. I don’t even have that one. My mom took it away from me. Anyway, you might want to forget what you saw or else maybe I’ll use the purple on you. And then, once I do that, I’ll erase your memory from the pink and I’ll go off into the portal again to get a new outfit.”

“Oh yeah, that’s toootally what you were doing,” I said.

In return, she mumbled, “Wish the dust could help me ‘scape this misery.

I gave her a few mean looks.

She answered by taking her ponytail down, brushing her hair, and putting on odd (but fashionable) gloves. Ten minutes later, a guard came to take us to “reform” school, a place where they attempt to teach us to behave by yelling and misbehaving themselves.

An hour later, we had to go to set up for the next class, which was how to sew. They made us take a cloth and chains that were from the other class and make our chains pretty so we could wear them. But everyone knew that the only reason that they were making us make a cover for chains was one: we wouldn’t realize that we were wearing chains, and two: they needed an extra class. My chains had a fabric that matched my dress –– a pink with purple gems on the handcuffs. I tried not to smell through my nose because if I did I would smell peasants, who did smell pretty bad.

It was finally break time for an hour. I decided to change into my nightgown and sleep for the hour, but Andy kept asking me if she should wear the blue glitter or the blue and black glitter on her gloves, which were handcuffs. After break, I got changed and went to history of torture, sometimes they need volunteers. Next class was cooking. We had 20 minutes to cook a meal then we had to eat what we made. I personally loved bacon and rice, even if the bacon was a bit chewy. Everyone barfed except for like three people who just said, Ew.

Then, as an extra little challenge, we were forced to save a couple of bites for the teacher who was cooking the class and whoever won got one percent off of their time in the dungeon. He barfed five out of 15 times. He said, “Ew!” for everyone except one person, who was the baker’s daughter. I was the last person to get my food tasted and he said mine was definitely the best. So, I only had 14 more years in the dungeon (who knew having a cell phone in school could do that much?). Everyone was oohing and ahhing at me like I just won the gold medal for the Olympics.

After that, we got a half an hour break to eat lunch. I did not get the apples because there’s a saying: bad teachers get bad worms in their apples, so why don’t bad students? But the carrots were amazing and I asked for two cucumbers to put on my eyes. Of course they said five minutes because apparently, if you were a winner of one of the challenges, you are a celebrity for the day. So then, when I walked over to the closest table, they oohed and ahhed for no apparent reason. So, I went to a table and sat all by myself. The carrots were good and the pizza was okay, but my favorite thing to eat was the baguette that they always made daily for the person that won one of the contests. It tasted like donuts and cookies and chocolate and everything yummy and rainbows. After that we have P.E., a.k.a. Pain Ed taught by Mr. Peapee.

The class went by pretty fast, blah blah, blah, pain volunteer and etc. I was so bored I thought I might die. But I wish I did not say that because the teacher said I must go into a me-sized pencil sharpener and try to reach the other side before I die. But as a proper princess I couldn’t die, only get hurt.

As I went through, I missed my old life, my mom Rosa, and my dad Sasha, and my twin sister Sage. It was too much. I pulled out a pen. It was a bad time but I did it anyway. I felt like I needed to. I did it, wrote what I was going through like a story. My wrist felt so normal. It just felt like I found the joy in what I was doing. What I should be doing. And I saw a light. It was blurry from my tears, but I saw it. Anything. I just needed to go home. The paper got wetter and wetter, but I still felt good. I was still writing.

She cried and wept.

The light was bigger, brighter. The more I wrote, the closer it got. All of a sudden, I stopped. It was dangerous because I was in an enormous pencil sharpener, but I kept on writing.

She felt a bright light

The hole got closer, even though I wasn’t running. So I kept on writing even more. I leaped in. There were bright lights and cars. No horses, no icky smells. I knew where I was. I was home.

 

“Sooo,” I sigh, “that’s my story. I hope you liked it!”

“Free hats for the cold weather,” someone says to our Writopia group as we are packing up. “Maya and Morgan, time to go.”

“I like your story,” I say to Morgan.

“Thanks.”

20 minutes later, I’m doing ELA creative writing about anything, and this is my story, just look up: Learn to love life as it is, for only you can change it.

When I Went Down the Rabbit Hole

Dedicated to:

Isabella for being the coolest writing buddy

Maddie  for ALWAYS commenting on my stories

Amanda S. for always knowing the coolest video to share

Amanda C. for all of your awesome help

Lena I have known you for only a few months but I feel like I have known you for a few years.

Emily S. for having the coolest quirkiest stories to share

—-

When I went down the rabbit hole,

I saw the sky come to a hold.

The echo of the Cheshire Cat

wearing the Mad Hatter’s hat.

As my blue dress flows in the wind,

my head feels like it’s in mid-spin.

I hear the rabbit!

“Late, so late.”

As he runs through a flying gate,

I duck with hands over my head

because I saw a flying bed.

“When will I get out of here?”

I scream and I scream with fear.

Until I hit into a wall

and on my back a baby crawls.

A glass shard that is oh so tall

reads the words

“Eat me.”

I climb on top a table top

and brace myself for the big hop

to land on top the mystery liquid,

and get ready for lots of sippin’.

I hear the noise of my own slurp,

and then I hear a birdy chirp.

It’s body was all big and fat,

and it pecks on the wall with a rat a tat tat.

When I went down the rabbit hole

I saw the sky come to a hold.

Seasonal Haikus

 

Spring

Colorful blossoms

Easter eggs are all around

Soft bunnies hopping

 

Summer

Delicious ice cream

Riding my bike down the hill

Splashing in the pool

 

Fall

I eat pumpkin pie

Colorful leafs are falling

Halloween is near

 

Winter

Snow is falling down

White snowmen are everywhere

I will stay inside

 

Seasonal

Lots of holidays

Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter

This was a great year

A Halloween Story: Series 2

When Jeremy and the ghost and vampires met they started to hang out with each other. Every day they liked to be with each other all the time. Jeremy didn’t even have time to do his homework. When his mom got tired, she said that he could only play when he was done with his homework. But the school homework was super easy so that she had to give even more homework. Jeremy was sooo upset that when he came home he ran to his room and said he’d never come out. But soon he was hungry.  

His mom said, “We have pork for lunch.”

That was Jeremy’s worst food EVER. It always had spices in it. It always tasted bad because it had spices in it.

Jeremy said, “Nooo. Just not pork! I will do anything, just don’t make me eat the pork.”

Jeremy’s mom said, “Okay. First do homework, and then I will set you free without pork.”

Jeremy said, “Double nooo. I would rather eat pork than do my bunch of homework.”

Jeremy’s mother said, “Oh wait, I forgot you need to do your homework first and then eat.”

Jeremy said, “Triple noooooooooooo!” Then Jeremy said to himself, Tonight, when everyone is asleep, I will run away to Spooksville!

After he did his homework, he wrote out his plan on a piece of paper and then called the ghosts and vampires to say that he was going to move to Spooksville, to move in with the ghosts and vampires.

The ghosts and vampires said, “Okay, we have a free house for you to move into.”

When Jeremy hung up the phone, he went to him mom and said, “Okay, Mom, I’ll do my homework.”

When he was done with his homework, it was night and it was time for him to go to bed. When his mom and dad fell asleep, Jeremy carefully went out of bed, opened his door quietly, and changed his clothes and packed his pajamas and whatever stuff he needed, and wrote a note to his parents:

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

I ran away from home because Mom made me do too much homework. Write me a note to Spooksville because that is my new home and if you write that you’ll never make me do so many piles of homework, I will come back home.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

 

Then he left and closed the door carefully. He ran all the way to Spooksville, but it was too long a way and too dark to go by foot. He would have to go in the morning. So he got his phone out that he always kept in his pockets and called to Spooksville.

“Hello, ghosts and vampires. I need a taxi from Spooksville, please, and I’m sorry that I called at night to bother you.”

The ghosts and vampires said, “Okay, we’ll get a taxi right over to where you are. We have a location for you. Bye.”

“Bye.”

When the taxi came to where Jeremy was, it gave him a ride to Spooksville. It took around an hour for the taxi to get to Spooksville. The ghosts and vampires were waiting for the taxi. They were all so happy to see Jeremy at night because they never hang out at night.

Jeremy yawned and said, “Where is my house? I want to go to bed now. I’ve traveled all this way to Spooksville. It’s time for me to go to bed.”

The ghosts and vampires pointed Jeremy the way and gave Jeremy the key to the house.

Jeremy went to bed and was exhausted.

In the morning, when Jeremy’s old parents saw the note, they were surprised and shocked.

Jeremy’s mom said, “Oh man, this is all my fault. We have to write a note to say sorry–”

“No,” Jeremy’s dad said, “You need to write a note, not me.”

Jeremy’s old mom got a piece of paper and wrote:

 

Dear Jeremy,

I am sorry I made you do all that homework. I just wanted you to hang out less with the ghosts and vampires and I want you to get a little more smarter. Please come home. Me and your dad miss you.

Sincerely,

Mom and Dad

 

Then Dad said, “Why me? It’s not my fault. You better erase ‘Dad.’”

“Fine, I’ll erase ‘Dad’ but this is the last time I’ll erase it for being all my fault.”

Then they mailed it to Spooksville. When it reached Jeremy’s house in Spooksville, he read the letter and after he read it he said, “Fine, I will visit them for only one day.”

Then he got a piece of paper and pencil and started writing.

 

Dear Mom & Dad,

Fine, I will visit you for only one day, but I am warning you, Mom, if you give me soooooo much homework I will move for good, and I am saying that there is a chance I can move back in.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

 

When Jeremy got to his old house where he and his parents lived, his parents were so happy to see him.

Jeremy said, “This is my last warning for you guys to make me do less homework. I will only do my class homework and that is it. Do you understand me?!”

And so his parents went, “Fine. We’ll let you do your class homework only, but then you have to move in. Deal?”

Jeremy said, “We have ourselves a deal!”

Then Jeremy went back to Spooksville, collected all his stuff again, and moved back in the house.

His parents said, “Yay! You moved back in!”

Then the next day, when Jeremy got back from school and did his class homework, he was just about to leave through the doorway, when his mom said, “Wait! Stop! Hahahaha. I tricked you. Now do all the homework I make you do!”

Jeremy went to his room rushing and got all his bags again and quickly went through the door and called the taxi to Spooksville.

When the taxi arrived, Jeremy went in the taxi and rode all the way to Spooksville. When he got to Spooksville he moved into his new house and wrote a letter to his mom.

 

Dear Mom,

I am so so so mad at you. I trusted you and you didn’t make that trust all the way. You had it good last night and a little bit in the morning, but I must say I will not trust you ever again and I won’t go to your house ever again. 🙁  

Sincerely,

Jeremy

 

Then he mailed it to his old house and when his parents got the letter and read it, his mom got another piece of paper and wrote:

 

Dear Jeremy,

I am sorry but give me ONE MORE CHANCE and I promise you, I mean it, I promise you that I will keep that promise for ever and ever and ever. Just please, pleasey please, you don’t have to bring your stuff, just visit us for one night. Just bring your pajamas.

Sincerely,

Mom

 

Then they mailed it back to Spooksville, and when Jeremy got it and read it he wrote a letter to his parents saying:

 

Dear Mom,

Fine I will give you ONE, and I mean it ONE last chance for moving back in. And I’ll bring my underwear, just in case I wet them.

P.S. And I mean it. One last chance. I’ll never trust you again if you blow it.

 

He mailed it to his parents and then grabbed his underwear and went in the taxi.

When Jeremy arrived at his old house his parents were waiting for him. “I promise I won’t make you do a lot of homework.”

Jeremy said to his mom, “And remember, if you make me do a lot of homework and blow it, I’ll move away for good. I’m only trusting you this once.”

When they went inside the house they got some dinner and went to bed. In the morning, after school, Jeremy did his class homework and called the ghosts and vampires. “Hello, ghosts and vampires? How ya doin’?”

“We’re feeling good. How are you?”

“I’m doing well, too. My parents are now so nice to me, I bet I can come to Spooksville.”

“You can, but it’s just that our friends are coming over for a sleepover. But you can meet them if you want,” said the ghosts and vampires.

Then Jeremy said, “Of course, absolutely. I love meeting new friends. Plus I can get their number on my phone you guys got me.”

“Okay,” said the ghosts and vampires. “See you at six o’clock.”

“See ya!” said Jeremy.

When it was six o’clock, he said to his parents, “I’m going to Spooksville for a sleepover.”

“Okay,” said his parents.

When he got to Spooksville, he was amazed because there were other monsters, and he found out that they liked this place so much that they wanted to move into Spooksville.

Jeremy said, “Can I have your phone number, because you guys look nice.”

They said, “Ughhhhhhhhh.”

Jeremy said, “Sorry, I did not understand that. Say that again?”

“UGHHHHHHHH.”’

“Ohhhhh,” Jeremy said, “I get it! You guys speak Zombie!”

“UGHGHGHGHGHHHHH.”

“I guess that means I’m correct, right?”

“Uggghhhhh.”

“Vampires and ghosts, can you tell me what they’re saying, please?”

“They’re saying that, yes, you can get their phone number.”

“Thank you,” said Jeremy.

“Ugghhhhh.”

“That means ‘you’re welcome,’” said the ghosts and vampires.

The zombies gave their number to Jeremy and went to their house to get some sleep.

When it was morning, Jeremy said goodbye to the ghosts and vampires and zombies and went home. And Jeremy lived happily ever after.

THE END

The Electric Masterpiece

Chapter 1: A Remarkable Discovery

Dr. Dupont was fixing his latest and greatest machine. The machine was so revolutionary that no one could make a machine similar. The machine was – get ready for it – a Time Machine!!! A time machine was believed to be science fiction. No one really thought it could be done. But with lots of patience and time, Dr. Dupont managed to construct a prototype time machine, and he was planning to turn it into a real time machine. But like all inventors, Dr. Dupont needed to test out his time machine. He went inside and set the coordinates to random. The time machine started with a big shake, but then it acted a bit more normal. The time machine had made it into the time and space realm. The time and space realm was basically a big timeline where the time machine would go, based on the coordinates. It was thought to have been destroyed for years but this was one of the first times it was ever found.

 

Chapter 2: The Big Mistake

The time machine was going through a big speed process and was moving super fast. Dr. Dupont was pretty sure the time machine wasn’t supposed to move that fast. Dr. Dupont didn’t realize what was actually going on, but he rolled with it. The time machine was now in a full activation process, ready to reach its destination. However, guess what the machine said? It said… JOHN CENA!!! Just kidding, it said “Error: code of deactivation activated, self-destructions protocols in action.” Suddenly, the whole time machine started to shake. The parts were falling off, the red emergency light was on, and the time machine was rocking super hard. Dr. Dupont realized what was going on, but he had no time. With no time to spare, Dr. Dupont got on his security armor in order to protect himself from the explosion. But once he put on the armor, the armor started falling off him. He tried to get the armor back on, but then he saw that the self-destruction was about to activate. The countdown was on: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15- Dr. Dupont quickly grabbed the armor. The countdown was now on 10. The countdown was moving fast, and the door of the time machine flew off. Dr. Dupont knew that he would be stuck in time and space so he decided to grab whatever was left of the time machine and he would find a safe place to stay. But it was too late. The countdown was ending in: 3, 2, 1, BLAM!!!

 

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Landing

Dr. Dupont woke up very tired and weary. When he woke up, the time machine was broken and he was stranded in the middle of nowhere. Dr. Dupont wasn’t even on grass. He was on this cool looking metal. In fact, there was no grass. There was a big city with cool-looking cars. He decided to look around and see what was there. Dr. Dupont needed a way to fix his time machine. But first, he needed money. While Dr. Dupont was looking around, he saw a billboard that said:

 

Enter in a friendly game of…

EXTREME GO-KARTING!!!

For just $10 bucks, you can enter in

Extreme Go-Karting.

And you get one million dollars and a gold

trophy if you win!

 

Warning: Do not enter if you have lots of

diseases and pregnancy. If you have

Alcohol Problems, DON’T ENTER!!!

 

What was weird was that the billboard had arms and hands and it moved. It also flew. Dr. Dupont concluded that he was in the future. He checked his pocket to see if he had any money. All he had was his wallet which had his credit cards and some $10, some $20, $1, and $5 bills. Without hesitation, Dr. Dupont paid his money and signed up. He realized he was going to be injured. He even thought that he might die. Right after he signed up, he decided to find a place to live. He found a place called Robot Apartments. He went in and decided to look around. He noticed the whole place looked futuristic. There were robots instead of maids and there were teleporters instead of elevators. Dr. Dupont decided to buy a room.

“What can I help you with sir?” said the receptionist lady at the apartment place.

“I would like to buy a room please,” said Dr. Dupont.

“Your credit card is expired,” said the receptionist. “You should go to the bank and get a current one. I’ll tell you what. Because I’m nice, I’ll rent you a free room for a week. You can either take the moving stairs or you can take the teleporter. You are on floor number 4.”

Dr. Dupont was at least grateful that he got a free room. When he went inside, the room looked so cool. He had a king-sized bed where he could change the softness, and he had a Virtual Reality Television, as well as a robot maid. Dr. Dupont felt that he needed a good night’s sleep. So, he decided to go in his bed and watch some TV. The only good thing other than cartoons and dramas was the live Extreme Go-Karting match going on. Extreme Go-Karting was a lot more dangerous that Dr. Dupont had thought. First of all, it wasn’t a family-friendly car race. Instead, it was this game of bumper cars where you and the other people had lives and had to bump other people and knock them out of the race. You even had laser guns that would remove the person from existence for a few minutes. One person in the race got shot by the laser and was literally disintegrated into pieces. Whoever lost all their lives was out. In order to win, you had to be the last person standing. After the Extreme Go-Karting match on TV, Dr. Dupont went to sleep.

 

Chapter 4: Practice and Preparation

Before going to the Extreme Go-Karting Stadium to practice, Dr. Dupont needed to go to the bank to get his recent/future credit card. After getting the credit card, Dr. Dupont went around to see what he could buy with the credit card. There was one thing that everyone wanted to buy. It was the Speedster 2000, the newest Go-Kart for Extreme Go-Karting. Dr. Dupont went to the stadium. He chose one of the sample go-karts and started his practice. At first, he saw that the go-kart was a lot cooler than he thought it was. The steering wheel had buttons that could do various things such as giving a direction. Dr. Dupont was trying to bump into the other cars but he was so confused about the controls. He even tried the laser gun but he kept missing. After a while, Dr. Dupont started getting the hang of it. He even shot some people with the laser guns. Every day he started doing better in the Extreme Go-Karting Practice races. Right after the final practice, Dr. Dupont was feeling tired. He felt that he needed to prepare for the next day, which was the competition. He also needed a Go-Kart in the competition. The person at the stadium gave him a list of good karts. Suddenly, Dr. Dupont remembered about the Speedster 2000. He quickly bought it. The person at the store told him that they would deliver the kart to the stadium and in his booth. Dr. Dupont went to his apartment and went to sleep. He needed to be prepared for tomorrow. He felt something terrible was coming.

 

Chapter 5: Another Discovery?

Meanwhile, somewhere away from where Dr. Dupont was, a big secret was about to be revealed. There was a big event going on in a military base. Trucks were carrying large debris that came from a crash. The military officials were going to scan the pieces. They believed they had come from some kind of machine that came from space. The scan was going to start. Everyone was prepared to see the results.

Once the pieces were scanned, a robot voice said “Original Location: Old Den located in New Jersey. Destination: Unknown. Believed to have come from 2015.”

The General said, “Wait, it couldn’t have come from 2015. It’s 2203. Do you all know what this means?”

 The soldiers shook their heads. The General decided to host a feast/meeting to tell everyone. At the feast, The General said, “You are all wondering what the mysterious debris came from. Well, there are lots of conclusions such as comets, a meteorite, and even an alien ship. But the answer I’m thinking of may surprise you. I think that the debris came from a time machine.” Everyone was shocked, but not in the way you think. The General said, “I know what you’re all thinking. That’s impossible. Well, then I’ll tell you the story that concludes why this is a time machine. So most of you know about the big bang, which was a huge explosion that created the universe. Well, rumor has it that after the big bang, chunks of debris from the explosion formed up into a big piece of matter. Eventually, as the matter grew, it didn’t become matter anymore. It instead formed up into one big part of space, the time zone. Now, all of you know about the secret government project where the government experimented on time travel. But you all know the result: it failed. Well, someone else from 2015 experimented with time travel. The results are not going to be pretty, maybe even life threatening.”

 

Chapter 6: The Big Competition

Dr. Dupont was in his booth at the stadium the next day. The Speedster 2000 was getting repairs and Dr. Dupont was also test driving it. Dr. Dupont was prepared to take the challenge of winning the Extreme Go-Karting Competition. It was a longshot, but Dr. Dupont couldn’t lose. He needed the money to fix the time machine. The race was about to begin. But first, the announcer was announcing the contestants. He said, “Our first contestant is the fast but sneaky PURE POUNDER!!! And our second contestant is the slow but deadly STEALTH FIGHTER!!! The next contestant a new entry, the SUPER SPEEDER!!!” That was Dr. Dupont. The announcer continued, saying, “And last but definitely not least is the champion known as the RAGE MAKER!!! Now the match will begin in 3, 2, 1, GO!” The match had begun. Dr. Dupont quickly got over and went to hit the weak targets. “Looks like Stealth Fighter has been weakened. He loses one life and has only 2 lives,” said the announcer. In order to buy some time, Dr. Dupont decided to try and shoot the harder targets with some lasers. That way, he would have time to take out the weaker targets. But he kept missing. Stealth Fighter was hit twice by the other racers so therefore he could start on Pure Pounder. He first shot Pure Pounder and then he went to hit Rage Maker from behind. But Rage Maker hit him. So now, he had 2 lives. Using the place he shot the laser beam, he was able to hit Pure Pounder after he came back from existence. So Pure Pounder had only 2 lives. Dr. Dupont was now being chased by Pure Pounder and Rage Maker. They were on his tail. Eventually, Dr. Dupont escaped and it caused Pure Pounder and Rage Maker to lose one life. Dr. Dupont hit Pure Pounder in the back and now Pure Pounder was defeated. At the same time, Rage Maker had hit him. Now, Dr. Dupont had one life. He remembered that the rules change when there are 2 people left. If someone shoots the other with a laser, they win. Dr. Dupont decided to grab his laser gun and start shooting Rage Maker. Rage Maker was also trying to shoot him. One shot almost hit Dr. Dupont, which gave him the advantage to shoot Rage Maker while he was distracted. Dr. Dupont was so tired and he was so surprised that he managed to win. The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

He said, “Our first contestant is the fast but sneaky PURE POUNDER!!! And our second contestant is the slow but deadly STEALTH FIGHTER!!! The next contestant a new entry, the SUPER SPEEDER!!!” That was Dr. Dupont. The announcer continued, saying, “And last but definitely not least is the champion known as the RAGE MAKER!!! Now the match will begin in 3, 2, 1, GO!” The match had begun. Dr. Dupont quickly got over and went to hit the weak targets. “Looks like Stealth Fighter has been weakened. He loses one life and has only 2 lives,” said the announcer. In order to buy some time, Dr. Dupont decided to try and shoot the harder targets with some lasers. That way, he would have time to take out the weaker targets. But he kept missing. Stealth Fighter was hit twice by the other racers so therefore he could start on Pure Pounder. He first shot Pure Pounder and then he went to hit Rage Maker from behind. But Rage Maker hit him. So now, he had 2 lives. Using the place he shot the laser beam, he was able to hit Pure Pounder after he came back from existence. So Pure Pounder had only 2 lives. Dr. Dupont was now being chased by Pure Pounder and Rage Maker. They were on his tail. Eventually, Dr. Dupont escaped and it caused Pure Pounder and Rage Maker to lose one life. Dr. Dupont hit Pure Pounder in the back and now Pure Pounder was defeated. At the same time, Rage Maker had hit him. Now, Dr. Dupont had one life. He remembered that the rules change when there are 2 people left. If someone shoots the other with a laser, they win. Dr. Dupont decided to grab his laser gun and start shooting Rage Maker. Rage Maker was also trying to shoot him. One shot almost hit Dr. Dupont, which gave him the advantage to shoot Rage Maker while he was distracted. Dr. Dupont was so tired and he was so surprised that he managed to win. The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

That was Dr. Dupont. The announcer continued, saying, “And last but definitely not least is the champion known as the RAGE MAKER!!! Now the match will begin in 3, 2, 1, GO!” The match had begun. Dr. Dupont quickly got over and went to hit the weak targets. “Looks like Stealth Fighter has been weakened. He loses one life and has only 2 lives,” said the announcer. In order to buy some time, Dr. Dupont decided to try and shoot the harder targets with some lasers. That way, he would have time to take out the weaker targets. But he kept missing. Stealth Fighter was hit twice by the other racers so therefore he could start on Pure Pounder. He first shot Pure Pounder and then he went to hit Rage Maker from behind. But Rage Maker hit him. So now, he had 2 lives. Using the place he shot the laser beam, he was able to hit Pure Pounder after he came back from existence. So Pure Pounder had only 2 lives. Dr. Dupont was now being chased by Pure Pounder and Rage Maker. They were on his tail. Eventually, Dr. Dupont escaped and it caused Pure Pounder and Rage Maker to lose one life. Dr. Dupont hit Pure Pounder in the back and now Pure Pounder was defeated. At the same time, Rage Maker had hit him. Now, Dr. Dupont had one life. He remembered that the rules change when there are 2 people left. If someone shoots the other with a laser, they win. Dr. Dupont decided to grab his laser gun and start shooting Rage Maker. Rage Maker was also trying to shoot him. One shot almost hit Dr. Dupont, which gave him the advantage to shoot Rage Maker while he was distracted. Dr. Dupont was so tired and he was so surprised that he managed to win. The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

The match had begun. Dr. Dupont quickly got over and went to hit the weak targets. “Looks like Stealth Fighter has been weakened. He loses one life and has only 2 lives,” said the announcer. In order to buy some time, Dr. Dupont decided to try and shoot the harder targets with some lasers. That way, he would have time to take out the weaker targets. But he kept missing. Stealth Fighter was hit twice by the other racers so therefore he could start on Pure Pounder. He first shot Pure Pounder and then he went to hit Rage Maker from behind. But Rage Maker hit him. So now, he had 2 lives. Using the place he shot the laser beam, he was able to hit Pure Pounder after he came back from existence. So Pure Pounder had only 2 lives. Dr. Dupont was now being chased by Pure Pounder and Rage Maker. They were on his tail. Eventually, Dr. Dupont escaped and it caused Pure Pounder and Rage Maker to lose one life. Dr. Dupont hit Pure Pounder in the back and now Pure Pounder was defeated. At the same time, Rage Maker had hit him. Now, Dr. Dupont had one life. He remembered that the rules change when there are 2 people left. If someone shoots the other with a laser, they win. Dr. Dupont decided to grab his laser gun and start shooting Rage Maker. Rage Maker was also trying to shoot him. One shot almost hit Dr. Dupont, which gave him the advantage to shoot Rage Maker while he was distracted. Dr. Dupont was so tired and he was so surprised that he managed to win. The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

In order to buy some time, Dr. Dupont decided to try and shoot the harder targets with some lasers. That way, he would have time to take out the weaker targets. But he kept missing. Stealth Fighter was hit twice by the other racers so therefore he could start on Pure Pounder. He first shot Pure Pounder and then he went to hit Rage Maker from behind. But Rage Maker hit him. So now, he had 2 lives. Using the place he shot the laser beam, he was able to hit Pure Pounder after he came back from existence. So Pure Pounder had only 2 lives. Dr. Dupont was now being chased by Pure Pounder and Rage Maker. They were on his tail. Eventually, Dr. Dupont escaped and it caused Pure Pounder and Rage Maker to lose one life. Dr. Dupont hit Pure Pounder in the back and now Pure Pounder was defeated. At the same time, Rage Maker had hit him. Now, Dr. Dupont had one life. He remembered that the rules change when there are 2 people left. If someone shoots the other with a laser, they win. Dr. Dupont decided to grab his laser gun and start shooting Rage Maker. Rage Maker was also trying to shoot him. One shot almost hit Dr. Dupont, which gave him the advantage to shoot Rage Maker while he was distracted. Dr. Dupont was so tired and he was so surprised that he managed to win. The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

The announcer said, “And it looks like our winner is… The SUPER SPEEDER!!!” Everyone was cheering in the crowd as Dr. Dupont was handed his gold trophy and money. But under all the excitement, something dangerous was about to happen.

 

Chapter 7: A Dangerous Threat

While Dr. Dupont was happy with winning the Extreme Go-Karting match, a spectator was moving out of the bleachers and disappeared. Once Dr. Dupont got his trophy and money, he put them in the Speedster 2000 so that he would use its camouflage to act like it was a real car. Right after he put the trophy and money in the car, something unexpected happened. There was a quick flash of lightning and then a weird-looking person popped up. Dr. Dupont had suddenly recognized it and everyone else did too. It was Pure Pounder. Pure Pounder was carrying lots of potions, a cauldron, and a mysterious bottle. He put the cauldron down and then poured the stuff from the potions and bottle. Once he did that, he mixed them up and then, there was a cloud of smoke and Pure Pounder disappeared. A mysterious wizard appeared.

“I am The Wizard of Time and Space. I am one of the Evil Destroyers,” he said. Then, he pointed to Dr. Dupont and said, “You destroyed my chance to rule time and space by using that blasted machine of yours to go to the future, which ruined my chance to conjure a big spell that would alter the universe. The spell picked up your machine and tore it apart and somehow you survived. If you were in the future, then what would happen is we would have no control of the events because they wouldn’t be balanced. So I hunted you down.” The Wizard of Time and Space shot a bolt that would remove Dr. Dupont from existence for, you guessed it, a few minutes. But Dr. Dupont dodged the blast. He went and tried to shoot the wizard but the wizard blocked the attacks with his shield. With little time in his hands, Dr. Dupont went in his Go-Kart and tried to smash the wizard. The wizard used his shield and tried hard to block the attack while Dr. Dupont tried to break the shield. Then, Dr. Dupont decided to shoot a laser blast while breaking the shield. The combination broke the shield and it blasted the wizard far away. Even if he came back, he would be weakened. After the big battle, Dr. Dupont went and he decided to find an old abandoned shed so that he could rebuild the time machine.

***

Dr. Dupont had finished his second time machine which would bring him back to present day. He crossed his fingers and hoped that the time machine would not break apart. He went into the time machine and set the coordinates to present day 2015. The machine started from 3, 2, 1, blast off!!! The machine had a slow start, but then it sped far far away, to where no human had gone before.

 

Epilogue

Back in the time and space realm, The Space and Time Wizard was badly injured, with a lot of wounds. He was definitely not in a good mood.

“Curse that scientist,” he said. Right after he said that, he saw a big flash of light speed past him. He decided to go to the events and years where he would visit, and he realized how much he had to explore. He also noticed the Extreme Go-Karting match and the significance it had. Meanwhile, back in the military base, people were doing research on the time machine parts.

One researcher said, “Sir, we’ve found an identification on the material for this machine.”

The General walked over. “What did you find?” he asked.

“I took a closer look at the material. There is a label that says ‘Dupont Industries Inc.’ I also found that the machine did not come from space, sort of. It came from a mysterious place which we are currently naming the X spot. I used the space telescope and I looked at a whole map of our solar system. I found nothing. Then, I took a look at the places beyond space. All I found was a wave with lots of colors. Currently, I would say that this is the X spot,” said the researcher.

The general replied, “I don’t believe it. It can’t be, it just can’t.” The general had a shocked expression. Back in the time and space realm, the wizard was amazed by what he saw in the events. It was different from before. The wizard, The Time and Space Wizard, had seen so much more. It was revolutionary. Without this big chunk of space, he wouldn’t be powerful.

The wizard said, “Now I know just what I was missing.”

The Living Fart

Part I: The Living Fart

The living fart is evil. It has a big nozzle where it sprays extremely toxic fart gas on people.

It all started one warm summer day, when a new restaurant opened up in town. It was called Pepper Paradise. One day, my friend and I decided to go there. We burst through the door. Wow! The whole restaurant was literally COVERED in peppers.

“Holy cow!” said my friend.

A waiter came over to us. He gave us both menus. I looked at the menu. I settled on an all-pepper pepperburger… BRAPPPPP!!!

“What was that?” I asked.

“It was you,” my friend said. We had now finished our pepperburgers.

“It must be all that peppers,” I said.

A shadow loomed over us.

“What’s that smell? Is it you?” my friend said.

We both had a desperate feeling that something was wrong.

GRRRR… I broke into a cold sweat… GRRRR…

A HUGE fart floated over us. “SAY HELLO TO MY STINKY FRIENDS!’’ It raised its arms, showing some quite crusty armpit, and he sprayed gas from nozzles in his pits.

I escaped from the putrid gas, but my friend got encased in the brown fog the giant fart produced… I had to save my friend… The fart was coming for me…

“Run!” my friend cried, still conscious.

And so I ran… and ran… I dashed down Main Street and down an alley and into a building and oops, that building was the haunted blacksmith shop.

 

Part II: The Ghosts of Blacksmith Shop

“Hello,” a soft, smooth voice said.

I whirled around. A silhouette greeted me. I saw that it was a ghost of a woman. She looked green-tinted, and I could see right through her.

“Aaggghhh!” I shouted.

Now that was embarrassing because something in the darkness moved. A ghost of a man!

“We will take care of you until that evil fart is brought to justice or something,” the ghost of the man said.

I was getting hungry. ‘’What about dinner?’’

“Ah, yes, dinner,” the woman ghost said to the ghost man. “I forgot that people had to eat. Go whip up something to eat.’’

The man ghost disappeared into somewhere I don’t know of and came back with a HEAPING PLATTER FULL of “food.” Stuff like fish bones and frog liver.

I groaned and stared at it with dismay. “Humans don’t eat this kind of stuff,” I said.

“Don’t speak to your elder that way, or you’ll get the whipping of your life,” the man ghost said.

“Don’t you know that laws have changed since 2,660 years ago?” I said. “That’s illegal now.”

But the man ghost tied me to the wall (with a dead monkey’s tail), opened my mouth, and shoved the food in.

The sweet stuff on there was probably fruit, and it made me drowsy. I fought to keep awake. I glanced out the window. A brownish haze covered the city. I could see the giant fart who sprayed its fart gas everywhere, and people died left and right.

“Must save earth,” I moaned, because I was drowsy. I ran outside. I tore across Main Street again. I skidded to a stop in front of Pepper Paradise and saw the restaurant owner laughing maniacally. I faced him and said, “You’ve got to make this stop.”

But all he said was, “No way, little boy.”

He grabbed the front of my shirt. Then my stomach started to feel queasy. The restaurant owner held me way up to his face. Just when his mouth was about to spit out some cutting insults, when it was wide open, I blew my cookies. And you want to know where it went? Bet you don’t. Well here it is… his mouth!

I was so happy that I defeated one bad guy that I forgot about the “other’’ until I nearly got stepped on by it.

“HOW DARE YOU!!!” the living fart screamed.

“I hear you,” I said.

Then the fart broke out in uncontrollable tears. “WAAAAAAA!”

This was the most emotional fart I had ever seen. I ran to my own house where I grabbed our battery-operated vacuum cleaner. I heaved it to where the fart was still crying. Then I pushed the “on’’ button. The vacuum began sucking up the fart.

“BWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Now that the fart was taken care of, I needed to deal with the restaurant owner, who had fainted. Now I don’t know if this is legal, so don’t blame me for doing it. I picked up the restaurant owner and threw him in the air. Then, when he came down, I raised my knee against his back. I did this a couple times until I was sure he was dead. Then I went down the alley and had a party with the ghosts.

Epilogue

After our party was done, I remembered I had to rebuild the city. But first I decided to check out the restaurant. There was just something phony about it that I couldn’t shake out of my mind. I noticed a small door near the back of the restaurant. I kicked open the door and went inside.

WOW!”  I gasped when I saw inside. There were shelves and shelves and shelves of all different kinds of liquids. One was labeled ultimate super power juice. I drank it.

I started flying around. “Wheeee!’’

Then I flew out of the restaurant. Once I was outside, I realized that all the people lying around weren’t dead; they were just unconscious. So I decided to wake them. Then I realized something: if I appeared flying, they would faint again. So I had to wake them up standing.

I walked over to a construction guy. “Get up, bub,” I said.

“Eerrrggghhh,” said the construction guy.

I grabbed a stick from the ground and hit the construction guy. “Go rebuild the city.”

He moaned, “Isn’t that a hard order from just a kid?’’ But he started building a house anyway.

Once all the builders were woken up, I began waking up all the other people. Once all the people were woken up, I walked to my family’s house. It was untouched, so I relaxed for the first time in days. And in just a few weeks, the neighborhood was rebuilt. Then a year later, the whole town was rebuilt, and everything was all normal.

 

The End!!!

Saving Dad

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Emily. Emily was looking at her grandfather’s book in the basement. Emily found a crystal in her old book where her grandfather kept stuff.

All of a sudden, the crystal said, “I am magical and I will use my power to protect you from evil.” Then the crystal said, “Go to help your father. He is in a car and about to fall off a high cliff.”

Emily ran to the cliff as fast as she could go, but when she got there she saw she was too late. She ran to tell the bad news to a wizard.

The wizard said that there was a cure to make her dad alive again. He said, “You need to cross obstacles, like fighting and going through a castle to find the position. Then you have a secret tunnel somewhere in your house.”

Emily ran to her house. She ran to the basement. Then she saw books. She pushed one book, and a secret door appeared in the basement. Emily took a step closer and she fell down in the tunnel.

Emily said, “AHHH!”

  

CHAPTER 2

IN THE SECRET ROOM WITH GOO

                                                                                               

Finally, Emily landed in the secret tunnel with goo. Emily could barely stand up. Emily saw some bats and some snakes. Emily was walking in the goo until she fell down a slide. When she went down, some kind of animal bit her, and she fainted. When she woke up, she appeared in a different world with some fairies and ogres.

Some fairies went to Emily and carried her to the queen of the ogres and fairies.

The queen said, “Drop her in the ocean!”

The ogres put a chain on her foot and dropped her in the ocean. Emily was sinking, and she was losing her breath. She luckily found a knife and cut the chain. She swam toward the shore until the shore disappeared, so she had to swim to the palace of the Mermaids. When she went underwater, she saw lots of mermaids.

The mermaids grabbed Emily, and they poked her, and then she fainted. They threw her in a jungle, and the crystal said, “You are near the position.”

Then a bug whispered, “You need to get up, lazy head!”

Emily ran up a cliff, but before she was at the top, she found a key. She unlocked the door and saved Dad!

How Humans Were Made

A long time ago, when only animals roamed the earth, there was a frog that wondered and wondered the same thing over and over again. What if there was an animal who walked?

A day later, the frog was wondering the same questions he asked himself every day. Just then, the great god Father Sky exclaimed, “I will make your wonder come true for a day, and if you like the animals this world will have them forever. If you don’t like them, I’ll banish them from this earth. All for free.”

“Deal,” the frog told him.

The next day, rocks turned into the new species the frog called humans. The only one that came close to the frog was a young girl who whispered something the frog will never say aloud. She said it to him by a sparkly blue pond. It was the best day of the frog’s life. What the girl had said to the frog was so meaningful that he thought all the new animals must be as nice.

“I loved the new animals! I named them humans,” the frog told the great god Father Sky.

That is how humans were made.

 

Author’s Note/Afterword:

We all want to know what the girl said to the frog. What she said was: “You don’t look beautiful, but your insides are.”

Choose Your Own Adventure, Sort Of

I went to sleep as a normal 15-year-old and I woke up this morning as a professional adventurer. Well, not exactly.

All I remember is my parents saying goodbye to me and my little sister, sitting down on the padded airplane seats, closing my eyes, and falling asleep.                                                                                                        

I woke up to Scarlett whispering in my ear and doing anything to wake me up.

“Lila, there’s a little kid next to me. She looks about three years old and she’s crying. Right after you fell asleep some lady came by and dropped this kid off. She said that we had to take care of this kid, Elizabeth. I don’t know what’s wrong!!!”

“Hi, sweetie,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

“I want to go see Mommy.” Elizabeth said.

“You just saw your mom.”

“That’s not my mommy.”

“Then you’re going to see your mom after the plane ride.”

“Okay,” she said and just like that she went to sleep. She was obviously very tired.

* * *

When the plane landed, Elizabeth was still asleep. I unfolded her stroller and strapped  her in. I pushed her out and saw her mom holding a sign that said Elizabeth on it.

“Mommy!” she said.

“Hi, honey,” her mom answered.

Her mom thanked us for our help and left the airport. Scarlett and I started looking for the sign that would take us to our destination, The Hawi Trails.  Soon we saw a sign that said “Partner Backpacking On The Hawi Trails.”

“Hello girls, you must be Scarlett and Lila,” said a man who clearly thought we were hot girly girls.

“Um, are you pretty ladies single?”

“Of course… not,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Ryan’s so adorable. I keep a picture of him in my locker at school. Every single girl at school liked him until he asked me to the dance. My enemy, Ashley Von Bullymeyer, practically had steam coming out of her ears when she heard the news. On the other hand, I was smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, because for once, I got better privileges than my enemy!

“Oh, okay.” He said, looking disappointed, “How about you Scarlett, single?”

“Nope,” she said giving him the same impression I gave him. He looked like he had lost a family member as he let us by.

“The bus is outside. You’ll be able to tell it’s our bus by all the teenagers inside it.”

When we piled onto the bus, all the teens looked at us as if we were aliens. We were soon stopped by the man whose name turned out to be Jack Fost, the bus driver. “Why are you kids on this bus? You don’t  look like teenagers to me!”

“Well,” I replied, “that’s because you’re like, seven feet tall!”

We walked to the back of the bus and sat down. Suddenly, the bus lurched into motion, I felt a kick, and Jack started speaking. “This is going to be a long ride, so make yourselves as comfortable as possible,” he said. We sat down and managed to get through the ride by eating and sleeping and reading.

I woke up to the sound of Jack holding a megaphone in front of my face and screaming, “Get up!” I guess he thought I was like any other teenager who sleeps too long. I got off the bus, dazed, and the noise of the megaphone was still ringing in my ears. We had arrived at the safety house. It was green and brown and all the camouflage colors, so that the wild animals couldn’t get us. We thought about running away and going on our own, but then Jack said, “First, before you go, we have to go over safety tips and drills so you all know what to do if anything happens to you. The first safety drill is going to be swinging on ropes over lethal waters.” We climbed up a ladder above a tank of water with snakes springing up to try to bite us. Jack held onto the rope and swung. He almost got bitten by the snakes but he managed to avoid them. “Everybody, if you were watching, you would have seen how I did that.” He pointed to Scarlett. “How did I do that?” he asked her.

“You jumped onto the higher part of the rope and the snakes were too short to bite you so you were able to land on the platform on the other side.” I thought about it for a second and realized that Scarlett was right. He had jumped off the higher part of the rope. Then Jack pointed to Scarlett and said, “You try.” We all froze.

“Uh… ok…?” Scarlett questioned. She slowly climbed up the ladder and grabbed the rope. She shimmied up to the top like a monkey.

“Three… two… one… Go!” we all shouted.

She let go and hung on for dear life like she was a bull rider. She slowly started sliding to the bottom of the rope and at the very last second when the snakes were about to bite her, she landed on the platform with a smooth finish. And then everyone clapped and cheered.

“Who wants to go next?” asked Jack. Everyone was jumping and yelling saying, “Me! Me! Me!”

Jack said, “I’ll let Scarlett pick.”

She pointed to me.

“Okay,” I said. I stepped out onto the platform and I felt like everyone’s eyes were burning holes in my back. Here I go, I thought. I jumped down and started shimmying up to the top. A snake bit my sneaker but I tore away. I couldn’t believe I had avoided that snake. I landed on the other side and the whole place erupted in cheers once again. Everyone was eager to go and by the time we were done, we were practically professionals. By the time we had finished all the safety drills we had learned how to beat up gorillas, how to cook dead bat, and how to figure out which herbs were poisonous and which weren’t.

“Now it’s time for bed everyone,” said Jack. “But tomorrow morning we’ll get you up bright and early so that we can grab our supplies and get going.”

As we headed unto the bunks, one girl came up and asked us, “Do you two want to join a group with me and my buddy?”

“Um, I guess, why?” I said.

“See, we wanted to do this because it sounded fun but we know nothing about adventuring and survival, so we saw you were really good and we wanted you to help us.”

“Sure,” said Scarlett, always eager to help others.

After we spoke to the girl we went to bed. Right when I was falling asleep, I heard (a wail) Scarlett say something. “What did you say?” I asked.

“How are we going to survive?”

“We’ll make it,” I said, calmly.

Scarlett sounded scared. “You think when we go home, we’ll be professional adventurers.”

“Yeah, definitely,” I said, just as I was drifting off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning the girl we met the other night, who we had found out was named Sarah, met us at the trail that said, “If you are a professional, go on this trail.”

“Are you sure you want to do this one?” I asked Sarah and her buddy, Delilah.

“Yeah, we’re sure,” they said. “We knew you were good and we want a challenge.”

“Okay,” said Scarlett, looking nervously towards me. “Let’s go!”

But as soon as we stepped on the trail, we all came to halt and we heard someone’s phone ringing. I looked into my backpack and picked up my phone and checked it. It was my best friend, Emily. “Hi, Em,” I said. “How are you?”

“Good,” she answered.

Then I said, “I wish I could talk to you, but we’re about to start going on the adventure, so I can’t. I’ll be able to call you in a couple weeks when we get back to the safety house.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll say hi to everybody at home for you.”

“Okay, thanks! Bye!”

I got off the phone. “Ok, everybody! Let’s do this thing!” I said. And everyone cheered, “Yay!”

As we stepped into the woods, I saw our first obstacle. It was a pile of dead bats; it had a sign taped onto it. “Take these dead bats and cook them when you need it.” And at the bottom it said, “Bat Jack.”

So we picked up a pile of smelly, dead bats and stuffed them into plastic bags that were next to the pile. As we continued along, I heard Sarah say, “Look! There’s a lake full of rattlesnakes and a vine hanging down!”

We walked over there and decided we would go two at a time. First Scarlett and I went and shimmied up to the top, and she shimmied right below me. We started swinging and almost landed in the water but luckily we just avoided it. Then, when Delilah and Sarah went, Delilah’s shoe got bitten off by a snake, so we had to take turns giving her piggyback rides until we got to the campsite.

They had all of the supplies a professional adventurer would need. They had extra clothes, extra shoes and extra food. I took out the pot so we could make bat stew for dinner, and saw a slip of paper sticking out from under the cookbook. I assumed it was another note from Jack and opened it up. It said,

 

Dear Delilah, Sarah, Scarlett, and Lila,

I know you don’t think you’re good enough to do the professional trail, but you are.

Jack

 

Under the note there was another note but it was sealed with a wax sealer and it obviously wasn’t from Jack. I opened it and the first sentence I saw was, “If you don’t leave this trail I will kill you.”

“What’s that?” asked Sarah

“It’s some stupid note from Jack.” I said, trying to change the subject. After all I was basically the caretaker of these girls. I was 15 and Sarah, Delilah and Scarlett were 13.

As I went to bed that night I picked up the letter and studied it. I opened it up and started reading.

 

Dear Lila,

This trail belongs to me not you. If you do not leave this trail, I will kill you. In order to avoid me you must

 

  • complete every task twice,
  • take the long way every time,
  • use every material you get ten times.

 

Love,

The Trapper

 

Wow, I thought, feeling more scared than a 15-year-old should.

“Mommy, is it already time for school? I don’t want to go.”

I blinked and opened my eyes to see Sarah moaning like it was Monday morning. I crawled over to Sarah and shook her awake.

“ Wake up, sleepy head it’s time for —

“School?” cried Sarah, sitting up straight. “I don’t wanna go to school!”

“No. I was going to say wake up, sleepy head. It’s time to go.”

“Oh, okay.”

As we walked away from the campsite we came to a fork in the road. There were two signs. The first one said, “Long Way to treetop course.” The second one said, “Short Way to treetop course.”

“Guys, let’s take the long way there,” I said.

“Why?” asked Delilah.

I decided to tell all of them right away.

“So, this guy sent me a letter that said we had to take the long way every time, do each task twice, and use every material ten times. I don’t know who this is but the letter was signed The Trapper…”

I noticed Delilah standing away from us, reading a book.  

“Wow. That’s really freaky!” said Scarlett, “How do you think he knows your name?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s been watching us from above. Who cares? Let’s go to the treetop course!” I said, changing the subject.

“Okay,” said Sarah, rolling her eyes. I could tell that she was annoyed that we had to go the long way.

As we climbed up the tree, I noticed a rustling in the bushes and stopped. Is that The Trapper? I thought.

“Move it, Lila. We’re waiting.” Delilah’s harsh words interrupted my fantasy. She was right under me and Sarah and Scarlett were right under her.

“Sorry. I was spacing out. I’ll move.” I climbed up to the top of the tree and was past the tree wire, when I heard a scream. I turned around and saw Scarlett hanging on to the tree wire by just her hands.

“Help! Somebody!” shrieked Scarlett. “I don’t want to die young!”

Suddenly, someone scurried up the tree and pulled Scarlett to safety. I breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing I was holding my breath and stared at the man who had saved my younger sister. I heard my sister gasp and when he turned his head I gasped too.

It was Jack Fost! The man I had underestimated two days ago was so much braver and stronger than I would’ve believed!

“Jack, it’s you!” my sister breathed, “You’re my hero!”

“Thank you Scarlett. I would stay for the party but I must go spy on the other teams.” We all giggled.

“Come on Scarlett, let’s finish the treetop course.”

“I don’t want to. It’s too scary. You help me,” Scarlett said to Sarah.

“Umm, okay?” Sarah said as if she was talking to a little kid who was very needy.

As Sarah and Scarlett worked their way across the course, I shouted back to them, “Since two of us have to do the course again, Delilah and I will do it because you both look exhausted and a little freaked out.”

“I definitely am,” said Scarlett. “I don’t know about you, but you look freaked too.”

“Yup,” said Sarah.

When Delilah and I went up for a second time we looked down to see Scarlett and Sarah cheering for us. I liked it but it was getting annoying so I called down to them, “Please stop cheering. I can’t concentrate when you cheer, but thanks.”

“Okay!” they shouted. They continued to cheer for us but silently.

As I ziplined down to the bottom of the course, I heard a voice coming from the bushes and listened closely and heard bits and pieces of their conversation.

“That goody two shoes… I’m gonna get her… totally, she’s such an idiot…”

I froze. I never thought it was possible to freeze in midair but I guess it was. Maybe they were talking about Delilah (she was a goody two shoes). Sarah had told me when Delilah was told she couldn’t bring her suitcase filled with makeup and shoes, she cried for 30 minutes straight.

I snapped out of my vision just to hear a breaking noise and a crash. I opened my eyes to see the platform in front of me crashing down to the ground. Suddenly, I felt a lurch. I fell a few feet and landed safely on the ground.

“Tada!” I shouted, smiling at everyone’s worried faces. “What’s wrong?”

“Look up,” said Scarlett. I looked up and screamed. Quick as a flash we got into our formation and caught Delilah safely.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” We were firing questions at her like speeding bullets.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” said Delilah, clearly exasperated by our continuous questioning, “Leave me alone you guys. I’m okay! And you know, YOU GUYS DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT ME!!! YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ME OUT OF YOUR CONVERSATIONS!! I DON’T EVEN WANT TO BE WITH YOU!! GOODBYE!!!”

I stared as Delilah stomped out of the clearing. She walked back towards the campsite before turning around and yelling, “I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR SISTER ANYMORE, SARAH KATE ANDERSSON!!!

Sarah turned and started crying in my arms. She started blubbering about how she was the best big sister ever and how she wanted Delilah back.

I turned to Scarlett and she understood the look in my eyes. She started towards the path and turned around just to smile at Sarah with a sad but hopeful look in her eyes. Sarah smiled slightly but just when I thought she was going stop crying, she burst into tears once again.

“Come on, Sarah,” I said. “Let’s go sit down and we can talk.”

After a half-hour long conversation, Scarlett came back, covered in bristles and leaves but pulling a grumbling Delilah behind her.

“She tried to run away from me so I had to tie some rope around her hands.”

After we untied the ropes from her hands, I noticed two more letters on the ground, covered with leaves.

“Guys, I’m a little tired so I’m gonna go inside and read a little bit.”

I picked up the letters, brought them inside, and opened them up. The first one said,

Dear Sarah, Delilah, Scarlett, and Lila,

You guys are doing really well so far. I heard about the pole that fell and we’re going to get it fixed.

Jack

 

I noticed the other letter had a wax sealer on it. I opened it up to see another letter from the Trapper. It read:

 

Dear Lila,

Hello my name is Jack Fost and I hate you.

The Trapper

 

I gasped. Could Jack, the hero I used to know, be evil? All those thoughts whirled around in my head until I couldn’t stand it anymore and the whole world went black.

When I came to, all my friends were standing over me.

“Lila, are you OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” said Scarlett.

“I‘m okay. I just heard the craziest news. Jack is The Trapper!”

“OMG!!! Omg, omg, omg! Is it really true? No, it can’t be. I don’t know. AAHHH!” shouted Sarah.

“Listen, guys. I have a new plan. Our new goal is to go off the path and live in the wild to avoid Jack, and we’ll do the obstacles if they end up in our path,” said Delilah, finally in on the conversation.

“Good idea,” I said, and smiled happily at my friends. “But still, we should try to destroy him or kill him so we can get home safely instead of being killed by the person who once cared about my sister and life.” I heard a laugh and it sounded like Nicki Minaj from Anaconda. I said to my friends, “Does anyone hear a Nicki Minaj laugh?”

“Huh?” said Scarlett.

“What are you talking about? Don’t you understand what I’m saying about Jack?”

“You said, ‘Does anyone hear a Nicki Minaj laugh?’”

Then it was my turn to say, “Huh?”  

I sat down and started to cry. Sitting there, pouring out all my feelings to my friends, I could feel their warmth inside of me, running through my veins.

Suddenly, I felt heat, not caring heat but real heat like something was on fire. I looked down to see the fire that had been cracking moments ago form a circle around us as if it was made by a human, not nature. On the other side of the clearing, written in a  scrawled handwriting, words started to appear in fire! Suddenly, a man in black rushed through the bushes and then disappeared.

“Guys!!! Look, there’s some words over there!!! I’m going to read them. ‘Hello. It’s me. I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do before you kill me. Hahahahaha!!!’”

“Oh god,” said Scarlett, shuddering. “That’s creepy.”

“It’s not the time to think about that! We have to get out of here!” shouted Sarah. Delilah and I nodded our heads.

“I got an idea,” said Delilah. “Let’s have Lila jump out and then we’ll throw everyone else over and she can catch them.”

“Okay,” I said, a little nervously. I jumped over and had just turned around, when Sarah came flying in my arms. I teetered a little bit and almost fell into the flames. Luckily, I kept my balance and held Sarah for a second. She felt as light as Mia, my sister way back home in Maine, where I wanted to be right now.

Maine was my home for my whole life. I had always wanted a sister and when Scarlett came along I acted as if it was the happiest thing that had ever happened to me. But after I realized what it was like to have a little sister, another one came along. That time I was unhappy to have another sister but realized, being 13 made it better. I got to play with her and put her to bed. It was amazing for me.

Suddenly, Scarlett connected with my arms and we went toppling to the ground. I stood up and helped Scarlett up, staring at her knotted ponytail.

Delilah jumped over the fire and we continued on our way. I stopped for a second, realizing something.

“Where’s Delilah?” I asked.

“She was just here a minu — ”

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream coming from the fire, a platform was lowering Delilah underground!!! We ran over to the platform and jumped in just as the door closed.

We ended up in a white chamber so bright it burned my eyes. Everything went white, then black, then white again. Finally, it went pitch black and I fainted.

* * *

I woke up and tried to stand but I toppled for the fact that I was tied up. I managed to turn around and saw my sister and two friends tied up next to me. Suddenly, I heard a booming voice that woke them up and Delilah screamed and started to cry.

I noticed Jack standing in a corner of the room. He noticed me and walked over.

“So, you thought you could fool me, eh?”

“I did. But I think you don’t know what’s going on,” I said, my voice as cold and hard as ice. I stared into his eyes. That gray color in his eyes staring at me coldly, like a popsicle on a winter day.

I tried to stand again, but my feet and hands were tied with a metal rope. I remembered the steel nail file I had in my pocket and slowly reached in, being careful not to get a rope burn. I transfered it from my right hand to my left hand and started filing the rope down.

After about twenty minutes of filing, both my hands and feet were free. I could see that Jack was just going up to his room and assumed it was nighttime. The girls noticed me and sat up. I first went over to Sarah, then Scarlett, then Delilah, filing their ropes down to the point that they could just pull them apart.

We ran to the circular elevator in the middle of the room and shut the doors, setting off an alarm. Luckily the elevator was quick and we made it up to earth, managing to jump into the bushes as Jack and his troops jumped out of the elevator. They looked around the area expecting us to have not gone far.

Not knowing where we had gone, they retreated. I climbed out of the bushes and Elizabeth was sitting there, crying!!

“Hi, Elizabeth. Are you OK!?!”

“No. I want Lila now!” she said.

“I’m Lila, silly,” I said, with a little giggle to go along with my words.

Elizabeth grinned and jumped into my arms.

“I missed you.”

I stared at my friends in bewilderment. How could she have gotten here!?! I guess Delilah was thinking the same thing because she said, “How’d she get here!?!”

“No idea.”

After I put her down I heard sudden little whimper, like a miserable puppy. I turned to see Elizabeth crying in the corner of our tent, comforted by Scarlett. I could tell that she was asking for me even though I was listening to music.

“Hi, Elizabeth. You okay?”

“No.”

“Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Okay… Mommy is going with Jack and they put me here because I was in time out and they said that I had to lure (I was surprised she knew what the word meant) you in and make him kidnap you but I want to stay with you and I stole a paper with the the stuff about me when I was born. Here.”

I looked at the names of her parents and gasped. Her parents’ names were my parents’ names!!! I had just realized that Elizabeth was my sister when Delilah dived into the tent and started screaming,

“Jack is here and he says he’s here to pick up his daughter, Elizabeth!!”

“I have an idea. Go find Sarah and then you guys can distract Jack and his henchmen. Elizabeth and I will run away and you can call us when they leave so I can tell you where we are,” I said, trying to sound calm.

“Good idea,” said Sarah, just appearing as if out of nowhere.

“Okay,” I said, grinning at my friends happily. “Let’s blow this popsicle stick!”

“Elizabeth, honey. Are you okay going in a backpack?” I questioned. As she nodded I lifted her in, zipped the backpack up, and opened it a little bit for air.

As we ran through the woods, I sat down and said to Elizabeth,

“Let’s go home.”

Suddenly, I heard a rumble. “Is that an earthquake?” I asked. I heard another rumble and then a shrill voice.

“We’re going to California in five minutes,” squealed Scarlett as the plane prepared for the runway.

“I’m going to sleep in two seconds,” I answered sarcastically, and fell asleep.

I woke up to Scarlett shaking me awake.

“Lila, there’s a three-year-old next to me and her mom dropped her off and said to take care of her girl, Elizabeth, and that she’ll be picked up after the flight.”

Suddenly, I knew what this was about. I said, “Oh no…”

How Lego Was Created: A Series

  

Story One

A long time ago in a far away galaxy, I was an alien kid who was bored. I wanted to build something, but the only things to build with was space dirt. Boring old space dirt. I decided I would ask the humans on Earth. Humans always hated aliens, but I would make a difference.

It took three hours to teleport to the humans. Every alien had a teleporter in their house. To teleport, you press the big red button on the teleporter, then you fly through space and go to Earth. It’s only possible to teleport to Earth. During the three hours you can only see black, but that doesn’t matter.

“Hi humans!” Why are they screaming and running away? Wait a minute, what are they saying?

“Look at its green face, look at its wrinkled face, it’s so weird,” screamed the humans!

Humans are so unpredictable. Uh-oh. There is the SWAT team. That’s a giant SWAT team everywhere. Ahh, they’re shooting me with guns. I’ll teleport back home. I guess I will need to design my own toy. It will be called Lego. There will be bricks that you can build into anything. They will be every single color. There will also be small mini humans called minifigures. I wished I could play with them. Finally, I finished designing it. Darn it! I’m not bored anymore. I will just send it to Earth.

***

Story Two 

A long time ago, before Lego was created, there was a nice ice dragon who was the head of the world. His name was Frederick. Frederick lived in a big, freezing cave in Antarctica. Back then, nobody had toys, so Frederick thought he should make some. He thought a long time of what his biggest fan, Tommy, would like because he would get it first. Finally, he thought of something. He would make a toy that people could build into anything. He worked day and night to design them. He used other toys, and put them together to build Lego. It was a slow process. All of a sudden, the sky turned red, and millions of Lego pieces fell onto Frederick. He jumped up and down, and yelled “Yay,” because he didn’t need to build any more Lego pieces.

The next day Frederick handed Lego sets out to every kid in the world, and Tommy got the most Lego! He felt amazing to see his first fan happy.

***

Story Three

A long time ago, before Lego was created, there were three babies in a trenchcoat that wanted to take over the world. They look like a tall man in a trench coat, but they were really cute, but mean babies. Their names were Barney, Barney, and Barney which equals the ultimate name of Barney! Did I say that Barney wanted to take over the world? All of a sudden, smoke covered Barney, and he turned into a ghost. Then the same thing randomly turned into a Lego piece.

One year later: Someone finds the Lego piece and turns it into a world famous toy.

***

Story Four

A long time ago, before Lego was created, there was a giant monster named Bobby. Bobby hated humans. Bobby was bright green and had one million eyes. He wanted to kill all humans. All of a sudden, he had an idea. He would make a toy that human kids would love, but he would load them with bombs. Whenever he wanted, he could have set off all of the bombs at once, but first every kid needed to have the toy. Bobby gave it to the biggest selling toy company in the world called Lego.

One Year Later: Every kid had Lego and Bobby was about to set off the bombs. Then, someone cut the wire and Bobby couldn’t set off the bombs. Bobby was really annoyed. He stomped his feet and yelled. He was so annoyed that he died!

Now the kids are happier because they got a new toy.

***

Story Five

A long time ago, before Lego was created, there was a famous prince called Fat Joe. He was very mean and very fat (as the name says). He wanted all of the toys in the world. After that, he asked the king to make a toy that was perfect. The king thought day and night to think of something perfect. Finally, he thought of something. He would make a toy that the prince could build into any toy. The king thought it should be called Lego. That night the king snuck the Lego into the prince’s room.

That morning, the prince loved the toy, and when the prince was a king and he was nice, and he gave the Lego to all the other kids.

***

Story Six

A long time ago, before Lego was created, there was a monkey name Berserk. He was really stupid and thought he was a human. All of a sudden, there was an alien invasion. The aliens were bright blue and had ugly faces. The aliens told Berserk to design a new toy for the humans. Berserk said yes, so he worked day and night to design a toy. Finally, he designed a toy called Lego, and gave it to every kid in the world, including himself.

EXCERPT

“Okay,” I said to Eden.

I raced through the pile of splinters and jumped onto the panel on top of the cockpit, swiftly typing rings of code into the system. The cockpit was a spiraling vault, with buttons running along every inch. The sight was incomprehensibly dramatic, the clouds outside like fluffs of cotton poised over a landscape that only nature, the most skilled artist, could paint. As I typed into the generator panel, I glanced over at Eden with her twisted grin, I never liked her at the circus, and was very suspicious of her now. She was always causing a wreck, and had been known for her betrayals in the past.

Suddenly, I heard a faint stomp approaching the cockpit and realized that something had gone terribly wrong. The passengers were starting to understand what was happening. I typed faster and faster until my hands became overwhelmed from exhaustion. Hundreds of passengers outside the door hurled shouts, demanding to know what was going on, each shout exhausting me until I was reduced to nothing but a limp carcass in a puddle of my own sweat. Barely able to move, I tried to make one last attempt at hacking into the system, but the passengers were just too much for me, and my hands turned as limp as stone, making it impossible for me to move them no matter how hard I tried. Then the door slammed open and I looked up and saw a large head peering down at me, his hair a thin clump of dirt on the top of his gleaming head. He took a punch at me and struck me right in the stomach, over and over until my shirt seeped with scarlet red.

“Tell me what you are doing you wretched animal” he garbled at me. “TELL ME!”

He then withdrew a thin silver object from his pocket and seemed to stab it into my stomach. More passengers started to crowd around me until my body became paralyzed with pain. My mind started to whirl around, and I was just able to mutter something to one of my companions before my mind plunged into darkness.

“Help me Eden, the passengers are killing me!”

Annie’s Time Machine

“Annie, it’s time for breakfast,” said my mom from the kitchen.

“Ah, not now,” I said as I fell off my bed and landed on my rug. I threw my blanket onto my bed. I took off my sleep mask and threw it onto the floor next to me. I threw my head back and let out a big sigh. And a groan. I was always really cranky in the morning, especially when someone woke me up at the wrong time. It was 6:30! I usually wake up at 7 :00 or 7:30. My dalmatian, Spot, ran up to me and looked at me in the face. Spot tilted his head to the side. I knew that this meant my mom finally was going to be home for breakfast. (By the way, I know how to read faces–people’s and animals’.) “For once, an interesting breakfast with Mom.” I opened my bedroom door and walked down the hall to the kitchen like a person in a marching band.

“Annie, you’re actually wearing the sunflower pajamas I gave you for Christmas last year!” said my mom as she flipped a pancake, which landed on the ceiling and didn’t come down. “Would you mind getting me some more pancake powder? This is like the fifth pancake that’s landed on the ceiling this morning. I don’t know why this keeps on happening.”

I thought in my head, How come she just noticed my pajamas? Every morning when she leaves, she never even smiles or waves or looks at me. Even though I didn’t understand what was going on with my mom because she’s usually really strict, I was happy that she was finally home for breakfast. I opened the cupboard. My little brother’s stuffed dog came falling out and landed on the kitchen floor. Oh Charlie. He always puts his dog stuffed animal in the cupboards–and this was the one today, apparently. My brother, who’s three years old, always hides his stuffed animals all around the house.

“Annie, can you please put Charlie’s stuffed animal back in his room? Also, tell him to come for breakfast.”

I saluted. “Yes, sir, Mrs. Bossy Pants.”

“Annie, that’s not an appropriate joke right now.” My mom sounded frustrated as she reached one hand up to the now dog-less cupboard to try to get more pancake powder.

I ran to Charlie’s room and burst in. “There’s a monster invasion! Go into the kitchen now!”

“A monstuh invagun?” Charlie whined.

“We have to help Mom with the pancakes to feed the monsters!”

Charlie waved his arms and made a sound that was like a cry and happiness at the same time. He shook his curly dirty-blonde hair. It looked like there was a big, cute spider sitting on top of his little head. I picked him up by his arms and carried him into the kitchen. I set him down on the kitchen floor before running back down the hall. Mom was pretty strict, and she always got mad at me when I played jokes on Charlie. I heard Charlie say, “Mama, dey a monstuh invagun? I wan to hep you make a pancakey for da monstuhs.”

“Was Annie playing around with you again?” my mom said sternly, loud enough for me to hear.

After I heard my mom finished her sentence, I slammed my door.

“I dunho.” I heard Charlie banging on the counter with his fists and slapping his legs.

I grabbed a Sharpie from my art cabinet, and I found a piece of paper under my dresser. (I’m kind of an artist, so I have paper all over my bedroom floor.) I wrote, “MONSTER INVASION IN HERE. KEEP OUT.”  I wrote much neater than usual, so that my mom would think it was my older sister, Clara. Clara was nine years older than me. For a nineteen-year-old, she was fun and joyful like a seven- or eight-year-old. She went to college in San Francisco, where we lived, but she lived at home so she could see us more. She had tried living in a dorm, but she came home because she said she missed us all day, every day. Like I said, she’s basically a kid.

I heard Clara’s footsteps coming down the hall. I realized that I must escape the scene. I quickly taped the note to Charlie’s door so that my mom wouldn’t think I’d done it. I saw Clara’s shadow coming down the hall. Oh no, she’s coming faster than I thought she would–she’s usually pretty slow. I imagined myself running in slow motion back to the kitchen, just like in one of those cool action movies. I ran to my chair and sat down as quickly as I could. The chair shook. I held my hands to the sides of the chair to make it stop wobbling, and then I let go. I tried to make a face that said, I didn’t do anything. It’s not like I taped something to Charlie’s door and am going to blame you for it. I smiled.

Clara walked in holding her favorite vampire book. Her hair looked all knotty as usual, and she had black circles under her eyes from reading all night. She was wearing the Christmas pajamas she’d gotten three years ago. I couldn’t believe they still fit her. She sat down in her favorite chair. She was going to set down her book, until she dropped it in the maple syrup. “Ugh! Not again. Every single morning I have pancakes, I always drop a book or something into the maple syrup,” Clara said, frustrated.

Charlie waddled over like a penguin and tried with all his might to pull Clara’s chair back. “Charlie, please get your hands off my chair.”

Charlie pointed at Clara and said, “Noddy woman.”

“Ha!” I laughed. “He always tries to pull your chair back on pancake mornings. And maybe he should hit you with a frying pan next time.” Another cranky morning. I really should take back all the words that I’ve said. Oh! I could build a time machine. But that’s going to be hard.

“Annie! If you don’t behave, I’m gonna hit YOU with a frying pan,” my mom said.

“Well, I’ll hit you with one of these pancakes. How about that?!”

“Go to your room!”

“But I need a frying pan,” I whined, “so I can give it to Charlie to hit Clara.”

“Go to your room! No breakfast for you.” My mom’s face looked like she really meant it.

“Well, uh, can I just have a–” I didn’t get to finish my sentence.

“Go. To. Your. Room. NOW!” my mom said even more loudly.

Clara said, “I’ll hit you with a frying pan.”

“Why is everyone saying they’re going to hit me with a frying pan?” I asked.

“Fwying pan hit you!” I looked and saw Charlie holding the frying pan, looking like he was just about to throw it at me.

I ran to Charlie and we had a little tug of war over the frying pan for one or two minutes. After I finally got the frying pan, I ran back to my room and slammed the door. Then I almost kicked Spot in the face while jumping onto the bed. I held the frying pan in my arms like it was my little baby, and I whispered to it, “You’re home now. You’re home.”

I knew I was acting really crazy about the frying pan. Wow. Now I should reconsider the time machine thing. I threw the frying pan onto the floor. Spot jumped. He landed on my toy chest. “Oh, Spot, it’s just a frying pan…that hit the floor really loudly. You don’t need to be scared. It’s juuuust a frying pan.” I rolled my eyes.

Spot walked onto my bed, sat right in front of me, and stared into my eyes. I could tell he was scared of the frying pan. I pushed him off the bed and said, “That’s really creepy. Don’t look at me like that. It freaks me out, okay?”

I walked over to my dresser and opened it up. I pulled out a plaid shirt that had a little pocket on the right side. I pulled out a pair of jeans that had two pockets in the front and two pockets in the back. I got dressed and put a $20 bill in the back pocket of my jeans. I walked into the kitchen. I saw Charlie holding his favorite blanket. He smashed it into his pancake and said, “Tha’s what you get because you so dewishus.”

“Charlie, this will be your last pancake, because it is literally the twentieth time you’ve smashed your blanket into your pancake.” I could tell by Mom’s face that she wished that she hadn’t stayed home for breakfast today. Usually Clara cooked our breakfast, or Dad–but he’d been too busy at his job. He was a real estate agent for a woman who lived Amsterdam.

“Sorry, Mom, I’m getting really hungry. Can I pleeease have a pancake?” I asked.

“Fine, because you asked so nicely.” My mom handed me a very tiny pancake. It was probably the size of my fingernail. “This was one I messed up on. I accidentally poured too little batter.”

I plopped the pancake in my mouth and opened the fridge to get an apple. “Thank you.” Not. I walked back into my bedroom and put on my red sneakers. I grabbed my bike helmet, walked down the hall, took a left turn and then a right turn, and went out the back door. I went to wait for my friend Jessica. My mom knew where I was going; I’d told her I was going to the donut shop last night. I waited thirty minutes before I grabbed my bike and rode over to Jessica’s house.

On the way there, Jessica rode right past me. I knew it was her because her blonde hair was in a ponytail, one strip hanging down in front just like always. I turned my bike around and tried to catch her. “Jessica, wait! I’m trying to catch up with you!”

Jessica stopped her bike. “What?”

I couldn’t stop my bike, so I ran right into her. “Ughh,” we both said at the same time. Jessica pulled me up. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“No, are you okay?” I said.

“Nope. I scraped my knee and scratched my arm.” Jessica pointed to her elbow and then to her knee. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and short overalls. We were both really tomboys.

I said, “Well, I’m kind of okay.” Then I looked at my hand. “Oh, I scraped it,” I sighed.

“Well, let’s get riding so we can go to the donut shop early and get two free donuts.”

“Did you bring your $20? I brought mine!”

Jessica said, “Oh, all I got was a $5 bill. Sorry, maybe next time.”

“Well, I guess we can only buy–oh, wait, the donuts are only about a buck. And also, if we get there at nine o’clock right when they open, we get two free ones.”

We got back onto our bikes and started riding down the street. At about halfway to the shop, I was surprised to see my friend Betty walking her dog, which was a golden retriever. Usually she walked her dog at ten o’clock. I waved. Betty wasn’t really a tomboy. She was wearing a blue shirt with a white skirt and some white hi-tops.

“Hiiii!” Betty said. She tried to run as fast as our bikes, until she got too tired.

We would’ve stopped to talk, but we just really wanted those free delicious donuts. They were calling our name. It was our duty to get those donuts.

We turned on Dockman Street and took a left onto Parallel Road. I realized why it was called Parallel Road; it was in the middle of five streets that were all parallel to one another. When we saw Bobby’s Donut Shop, we immediately stopped our bikes. The front wheel of my bike touched Jessica’s back wheel. Jessica said, “Why you touchin’ my bike, huh? You gonna have to pay for the damages that you do to it!”

“Okay, okay.” I giggled. “Wait, are you actually being serious?”

Jessica raised an eyebrow. “I’m actually serious.”

“Good to know. But what about those free donuts?”

“Are you trying to be sassy? All you care about are those donuts, huh?”

My bike started to go forward. I pulled it back.

“Good thing you stopped your bike from hitting mine. Or else you’d have to pay for the damages, like I said.”

Jessica and I walked into the donut shop. There was a guy in the corner drinking coffee. He was there every morning. We walked up to the counter to ask for a donut, like we were adults. “Ah, Annie and Jessica, how are you? If you’re wondering if you can have a donut, sorry, you can’t–there’re no more left,” Bobby said with a little frown.

I dropped to my knees and screamed, “NOOOOOOO! THE HUMANITY!”

Jessica patted me on the back. “It’s okay, it’s just a donut.”

“It is NOT JUST A DONUT! It’s a creamy, delicious donut that was brought to the world by magic.”

“I think you care about that dumb donut more than friends. Maybe you should just go and live with donuts instead of playing with your friends!” Jessica walked out of the donut shop and slammed the door behind her. I saw her get back onto her bike and start riding home. I stood there on my knees and looked at the door that was now closed. I got up, opened the door, walked back out, looked back into the donut shop, and got onto my bike to ride home and probably cry in my room. I had just lost a friend. I think. And definitely I just lost my donuts. My delicious donuts.

I got back onto my bike and rode home. I turned onto Backey Street, stopped in front of my house, leaned my bike in the front lawn, and opened the front door. I walked in and slammed it behind me. Clara was standing right in front of me with a mad face, holding the note I had taped to Charlie’s door. “How do you explain this, Annie?” Clara said as she shoved the paper in my face.

“Oh, so you found the note that you wrote? Cooool. Now, can you let me into my room, please? I need to work on something–something that will blow your little mind.” I walked down the hall, took a left, opened my bedroom door, and closed it very carefully. I had a plan: a plan that really was gonna blow Clara’s little mind right out of her little head of nothingness.

I was going to make a time machine out of things I could find in my room. I took paint cans, rubber bands, paint, copper wire, and glue. Pretty convenient, huh? After ten or twenty minutes, I finally got it done. All I had to do was go inside, go back in time, and change what I’d said to everybody that morning. I knew I was being kind of a brat. I hope this works, I thought. I went into the time machine. I had to squat because it was so cramped in there. I turned the switch made of wire, glue, and paint, and everything started shaking. I could hear my mom from the kitchen yelling, “EARTHQUAKE!” But it wasn’t really an earthquake. Then everything turned all rainbow, right in front of my eyes.

I landed on my bed. Did it work? I thought. Since my door was open, I decided to take a look. Oh. My. Cheeseballs. I saw myself walking down the hall to Charlie’s room. I really didn’t think this through that well. Clearly this was a bad idea. I needed to get out of here. I looked around. My time machine wasn’t there, so I decided to build another one with the same materials. Everything happened that had happened before: rainbows. Mom yelling “Earthquake!” I wondered, How come I didn’t feel hear all this earlier this morning?

This time, I landed on my rug. I looked around my room for Spot. I thought everything had just stayed the same. “Spot?” I yelled. My mom came into the room.

“Annie, who’s Spot?”

I looked at my mom. “Mom, remember Spot? My dog? My dalmatian dog I got for Christmas when he was a puppy? Remember?”

“I don’t remember having any dogs. Charlie is allergic.”

“But Charlie was never allergic. He’s three. He’s not allergic to anything. I think you’re going crazy. You need to lie down.”

“Honey, your brother is twenty-three.”

“He’s WHAT? I don’t think I’m hearing you correctly, Mom.”

“You don’t remember Charlie being twenty-three? Honey, you probably hit your head. You should lie down in your bed.”

“Mom, I’m not going crazy!” I ran out of my room and bumped into Charlie. I looked up. His face looked the same, but he was way taller than me. “Hi…Charlie…how’s it going? You look…different…”

“Oh, Annie, like Mom said, you probably hit your head. I don’t look different. Well, I did get a haircut yesterday, but Mom doesn’t know. I don’t really tell her much anymore. I’m too old for permission.” He winked at me.

I ran into Clara’s room, thinking she could help me. But instead of seeing Clara’s bright pink room, I saw an office. A grey office. It looked like Dad’s office in the garage, but it was here inside instead. I ran back into my room. I looked under my bed, and I found a time machine! Wow, this must’ve been from when I came here–or something. I hopped in. The whole thing happened again.

Except instead of having everything be normal, I ended up in the future. The future. This time I landed in the middle of the street, and a car driven by robots passed me. This is just great, I thought. I looked around me. People were wearing clothes made of robotic parts. One guy had an arm coming out of the back of his shirt, and it was feeding him a big sandwich. Boy, that looked like George Clothman from my school. He always eats those sandwiches. I walked up to him. “Hi, I’m Annie. What’s your name?”


“Hey, Annie, you look different. You look like a young kid again. I thought you were thirty.”

“I was never thirty! Oh, yeah, um, I did…something…to make myself look different. Yeah, byyyye.” I ran away.

A person riding a mechanical bike almost slammed into me. “Hey! Look where you’re going!” he screamed.

I walked across the street. I looked around and saw my house, so of course I walked to my house and opened the door. Right in front of me was future me and Charlie–except Charlie’s hair was long and curly, and he was wearing a long, pink dress. It looked like a ball gown from Cinderella. Future Annie looked me in the face. “What are you doing in here, kid?” she said. “I should pull a prank on you and taze you with this pack of gum. Here, you want a piece?”

“No, I don’t want a piece of gum. You just told me you were going to play a prank on me.” Wow, I looked like a person who would prank someone. I was kind of shocked to see that this was how I would turn out in the future. It was kind of exciting, but it worried me a lot. I didn’t want to end up like this–a person who would prank someone and end up in jail or something.

Charlie spoke up in a very girly voice. “Hey, kid, get out of here. I’m going to a fancy prom for my school.”

I looked at Charlie. “Wow, cool. By the way, Charlie (I did little quotes with my hands)–”


“My name isn’t Charlie. That was my old name. My name is Charabella.”


I giggled. “Charabella? That’s your name? That’s dumb. You’re not a girl. Why do you want to be one? I thought you were a boy.”

I turned my head to him–ahem, I mean, her. Or whatever. I asked my future self, “Where’s Clara?”

“How do you know who Clara is? And why are you wearing those clothes? You look like you’re a last century girl. And Clara moved to Palm Springs. And why do you even wanna know things about her? You don’t even know who Clara is.” My future self looked very, very surprised. She squinted her eyebrows and looked at me like a person who had a chicken hat on. “Hey, what’s your name?” my future self said as she pointed at me.

“Um, my name is Annie,” I said as I took one step back.

“What’s your last name?” said my future self as she walked one step closer to me.

“It’s Thompson,” I said as I took another step back. I was getting ready to run.

“Wait, that’s my name. Wait! I remember this. I made a time machine when I was ten years old, and I traveled to the future. But then when I came back…”


After future me said that, Charlie shoved her back and slammed the door in my face. Clara moved away? I thought in my head. How could this be? I guessed it was kind of good for my future self, and me, but I eventually would get back to where I was supposed to be, and everything would be normal again. I hoped…

I looked around, hoping I would see Spot. Then I realized he had probably passed away by now, since it was twenty years in the future.

I decided to build another time machine. This was like the fourth one, but after this, I wasn’t going to be messing with time anymore. I knew what I’d done, and it was pretty bad. I felt guilty because I wanted to be back home with my family and Spot. Now I was just stuck in the future, where I didn’t want to be. I knew this was basically all my fault.

I slouched over and started walking, my hands at my sides and my head looking down at the sidewalk. I decided that I would go to the craft store because they probably had what I needed there. Oh! I still had the $20 in my pocket. That would be enough to buy the things that I needed. I started running–but then I stopped. I didn’t even know where the craft store was. I saw a bike in front of someone’s house. I knew it kind of seemed bad, but I hopped on it and started riding. I planned to return it (like, never), but I didn’t even know this person. I was a criminal, stealing something, but it was totally worth it. I needed to get back home and put things back to normal. Like I said–I hoped…

So I was riding down the street, until I passed a store that said “CRAFTS AND MORE.” I jumped off my bike, which went rolling down a hill and hit a trash can. A cat jumped out of the trash can and started running as fast as it could. Then it tripped and started tumbling. I thought to myself, Poor cat, but I had no time to think about adorable things. I opened the door to the store.

Everything looked so different. There were no real people, only robots! I got paint cans and all that stuff. There was one tiny, tiny problem. I only had $1 left after I bought everything. Okay, I guess I was overreacting, but I was wasting money here!

I got a shopping bag and just dragged it down the street until I came across a fence. On the other side of the fence was nothing–just pavement–so I decided to go there to build my time machine. Even though it smelled like butt and fish, it wasn’t a big deal. I jumped over the fence and gave myself a wedgie. The fence caught hold of my underwear, and I was just hanging there, hanging out by myself–until I fell face first onto the pavement. “Owwwwwww!” as I said as I shut my eyes really tightly and stood up. Where is my bag? Oh, right in front of me. I grabbed it and did the same things I did to build all the other time machines. I went inside. Rainbows. Unicorns–wait, this time there were unicorns. How weird was that? Okay, nevermind the beautiful unicorns that were pooping rainbows. I had to go back! It was my duty. They were calling me–well, no one was really calling me, but you know what I mean.

I landed on the roof of my house. “OW!” Again. “That hurt more than last time.” There were bricks and bricks and nothing but bricks–so many that I couldn’t count. Then I fell off into the front lawn and landed on a flower pot. How am I not dead? I stood up, walked to the front door, and opened it. Then I walked to my room. Instead of there being one bed, there were two. “Hello? Is anybody home? Who put this extra bed in my room? If this does any damages to my floor, they’re gonna have to pay!”

Wait! Jessica! I should make up to her. Right then, I ran out the front door. I had no time to look for my bike, even though it was right in front of my house. I was just running and running and running. When I got to the door, I knocked and stood there breathing really hard. I was so tired.

Jessica opened the door. “Oh. Hi, Annie. What are you doing here? Want a donut? Well, sorry, we don’t have any.” She didn’t look surprised, but she did look mad. She crossed her arms.

“Jessica, I’m sorry for what I did. Donuts are not brought to this world by magic. That’s just silly. I’m sorry. Please forgive me,” I said. I started to hug Jessica, and she hugged me back.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said.

And that went back and forth until I said, “Enough. We’re both sorry.”

She walked me back to my house, and before I went in, we hugged. “Oh, I’m having a playdate with Sagey tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

“Uh, who’s Sagey? I don’t know who Sagey is. Do you mean my cousin, Sage?”

“No, I mean, Sagey. Your nine-year-old sister. The one who likes dinosaurs?”

I shook my head No.

Jessica rolled her eyes and started to walk back home. Then she turned and smiled at me, and I waved.

I looked back at my door and opened it. I saw Clara, Charlie, and… three other kids. One looked nine, one looked thirteen, and one looked about five. Oh. My. Cheeseballs. The door slammed behind me. “Who are these people?” I asked Clara.

“Sagey, Elizabeth, and Ruby? Your sisters? Come on, you should remember this stuff. You have brain damage, I think, Annie. Or are you just kidding? I think you are.” Clara crossed her arms, and Charlie did the same.

“You awe bein so cwazy. You awe like a ducky,” said Charlie as he started to dance in the hallway.

I figured Ruby was the five year old, because she ran after Charlie, and Clara yelled, “Ruby! Get back here now. We’ve been at the mud market all day, jumping in puddles of mud, and everyone is so dirty. Mom will get mad if you get mud marks on the floor!”

Elizabeth, who had to be the thirteen year old, ran after Charlie and Ruby, picked them up, and walked into the bathroom to start a nice, steamy bath. Sagey walked to the bathroom to help with the bath.

I squinted my face up. I was about to throw a temper tantrum. I didn’t want three other siblings! That was way too much for me. FIVE siblings? I’d be the sixth! I really did not like that. I could feel myself about to burst out crying and shove everyone out of the way.

But I didn’t want to be a person who would scream a lot. I didn’t want to end up someone who pulled pranks. I decided to let it go. I took a deep breath and unballed my fists. I closed my eyes, then opened them.

“Your head should be made out of bird food, because birds want to bite it right off,” I said to Clara. I walked into my room, smiling and squinting my eyes. I could still say little mean things now and then.

“Annie’s back to normal,” Clara said.

“I heard that!” I screamed. I lay back on my bed, and Spot jumped on my stomach. “Oof!” I shouted. I pet Spot on the head.

Hamsterly Ever After

Isabella was sitting on the large couch in the living room of her house. Even though the couch was long enough for her to lay down on, she was sitting in the middle with her dark-blue-eyed puppy, Fluffy, on her lap. Isabella was thinking how she really wanted a pet hamster for her birthday, which was a week away, on July 28th. Isabella wasn’t sure if her parents would let her get a hamster, because she had to take care of her puppy, Fluffy. Isabella loved Fluffy, but as she pet his fluffy white fur on her lap, Isabella knew that if she didn’t get a hamster on her birthday, she would be so upset and disappointed. Her face would get red, and she would cross her arms and stomp her foot and spill a glass of milk on purpose.

Isabella felt bored just thinking of all this stuff (and about getting into trouble), so she went into the backyard and jumped on the trampoline. She did backflips and flips for fifteen minutes when she heard her mom call, “Isbelllllllaaaa!” Isabella didn’t know what her mom was calling her for, but when she rushed into the house and saw Fluffy throwing up, she knew what happened.

Her mom said, “I thought I gave you a job. I said to take care of Fluffy. But he’s thrown up again and again and again.” Fluffy stood up on his four feet close to Isabella’s mom wagging his tail. “Look! Fluffy threw up on my foot!”

“Mom, please don’t get mad at me. I accidentally forgot about Fluffy.” Isabella looked at the floor.

“I think your dad is right. I’m not sure if we should get you a hamster. You haven’t even been taking care of Fluffy.”

Isabella wanted to whine, but she knew she’d get in trouble if she did, and if she got in trouble, she wouldn’t get the pet hamster. She walked upstairs to her room and picked a random book off the floor and started to read on her bed. At the end of the book, Isabella was tired. She decided to take an afternoon nap.

The week flew by very fast, so it was right before Isabella’s birthday when a message came to Isabella’s iPhone. “Happy birthday, Isabella! You’re going to like this, spend time with this, and might even bring it to share at your school! Love, Aunt Livi.”

Isabella crossed her fingers and hoped it was going to be her hamster. She felt like it would be a hamster because her aunt knew that she’d wanted a hamster all her life since she was about two years old. Isabella couldn’t wait for her birthday party the next day. Her whole family would be there–her grandparents, her parents, and her aunt.

The next morning, Isabella’s mom woke her up at eight o’clock. Isabella went downstairs into the dining room in her pjs. Her grandma was knitting a scarf, her grandpa was emailing his friend, and her aunt Livi was watching baseball on TV. Fluffy was still in bed because he smelled the dumplings. Fluffy got a dog bone instead of a dumpling.

Isabella smelled a half-sweet, half-doughy smell that she knew because she’d smelled it so many times in her life–it was her favorite smell! Isabella was so surprised because her mom and dad were making dumplings for breakfast! Isabella smiled a happy smile and jumped up and down. There was chocolate milk poured into her favorite koala cup, fancy cloth napkins, party hats with their initials, and sparkly balloons with their initials. All of the party hats had different kinds of patterns like diamonds and stripes, and Isabella put on a yellow one with shooting star and planet pattern. There was an arts and crafts table where you could make pictures, party hats, or balloons. There was also a woman who could do facepaint. Also, in the very center of Isabella’s house was a disco ball with a dance party. Isabella’s mom played Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and all of Isabella’s other favorites on her iPhone. For eight hours, Isabella ate five dumplings, got her face painted with a koala and her hands painted as paws, and drank eight cups of chocolate milk. She danced and did cartwheels and backflips on the trampoline in the backyard.

When it was time to open her presents, Isabella got a tattoo set, a face paint set with a mirror on the inside, and a makeup set from her grandmother. She got a marker set from her parents. Isabella also got a paint set from the lady who had been painting faces at her party. She also got a box full of dog treats for Fluffy. Fluffy jumped right in! Isabella was happy because her parents had gotten her presents that she liked, but she was sad, and a little mad, that she hadn’t gotten what she really wanted — her hamster. Isabella didn’t want to be rude on her birthday because she knew she wouldn’t get her hamster, so she kept her disappointment inside and stayed on her best behavior.

In the evening after dinner, Isabella’s aunt came into her bedroom. She was hiding something behind her back. Isabella felt nervous. I hope I get the hamster!

Her aunt smiled. “You have one more present left.” She gave Isabella a box wrapped in smiley-face paper.

Isabella’s fingers started unwrapping the present. She saw a peanut butter-colored hamster in a colorful cage. The cage was red, white, and blue with white stars on it. Inside, the hamster was playing with a pink ball with green polka dots. Isabella took the hamster out of the cage and hugged it. “Thank you very much!” Isabella squeaked.

Isabella’s mom and dad stood in the corner of Isabella’s room listening. Her mom said, “You should take good care of the hamster, Isabella. Make sure you leave him on the bookshelf so that Fluffy doesn’t scare him.”

Isabella said, “I promise, Mommy. Can I name him Peanut?”

Isabella’s mom smiled, and Isabella gave her a big hug.