Category: Summer 2019

Two middle-aged people ran down a camp, optimistic to reach the big metal gate that is the only exit or entrance to, or from, the camp. Their names were Jem and Billy. Pursuing them were a set of men dressed in blue futuristic armor. As Jem and Billy reached the gate, Billy said:

“Climb, I’ll run around the camp to stop them from following you!” 

Jem began to climb and bounce around on her back. In a baby cradle was baby Peter. 

One of the blue, armored men followed Billy and the other aimed its guns at Jem’s head. 

A loud bang echoed through the camp followed by the scream of Jem. Then the sound of a lifeless body hitting the ground. 

“Jem!” Billy’s voice could be heard from camp 29. Billy sprinted at the body of his once beautiful wife. 

“Billy,” Jem’s hand trembled as it clasped his. “Take care of Peter for me, for us.”

“I will,” Billy said, tears streaming down his face. “Don’t leave me, please!”

Jem’s arm went limp as the last of her life was drained from her. Billy stooped down in a puddle of blood and picked up baby Peter. Even Peter could sense the sorrow in his father’s face for he began to cry.

The two men shot Billy from behind and tried to tug the baby cradle from his weak hands. He clutched with all the strength left in him, for he did not want to lose another person he loved. As he finally died and they managed to tug the cradle away, the baby began a chorus of crying and wailing at the men. Nevertheless, they held the baby cradle and walked into the dark night.

Peter snapped awake, he was tired of reliving his parents’ deaths the night they had tried to escape the misery of the camp in hopes of raising him in a new life. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t quite work, for both his parents were shot and killed before they could get over the wall. Somehow, the enforcers had known they were going to attempt their escape that night. Who told them, not even the oldest people in the camp know. If Peter were to find out though, he would kill the person who snitched on his parents even if he had to take the death penalty. 

Lucy was Peter’s adopted younger sister. They had adopted her from the orphanage when Peter had his 13th birthday because her parents had been killed by the enforcers. Even though she was adopted, Peter loved her as much as he would’ve loved his parents. He sacrificed his rations that they gave them when she was five and still growing. Now she was nine, and he was 15, and they were both living with Peter’s aunt.

Long ago, in the country once known as the US, a violent dictator built an army of enforcers, soldiers to do his bidding, and built 60 camps and a shining capitol. He had views that only “certain individuals” were worthy to live in the capitol. The rest were forced into camps where they would have to harvest resources used to build and power the capitol. And to remind the camps they were an inferior force compared to the capitol, they set up the Reamble.

Peter walked out of their small hut and ran down to the old abandoned warehouse where he and his friends used to meet. Now it was used as a meeting place for the gang of thieves that Peter was part of, the deadlock. When Peter was seven, and him and his family were starving, they had offered him a place in the gang, and from then on that’s how he fed his family. Today when he walked in, they were already crowded around a small map on table.

“Where are we robbing today?” Peter asked them.

“The barracks,” one of them responded, uninterested in his appearance.

Whoa, thought Peter. This is where the soldiers kept their guns, armor and belongings. They also slept there so this would be super dangerous.

“Are you insane?!” Peter said.

“It’s final. We’ve agreed on it,” the same man said.

That night, Peter prepared for the robbery. He ran down to the barracks but no one was there. Suddenly, a spotlight shone down on him and two men tackled and cuffed him from behind. He saw the boss of the gang getting paid by a policeman then he ran off into the darkness. The two men brought him onto a hovercraft that in the direction of the capital of Eros. 

“Where are you taking me?” he asked the enforcers.

“To the arena,” they responded in an unsympathetic tone.

They arrived at a big arena, and the guard said, “You have one day of training to prepare for the Reamble.”

Peter knew well that the Reamble is the way the capitalists built their elite army.  One hundred criminals are put in a ring with knives and weapons hidden around the map. They have to kill each other until there is only one left. Then the wall opens and you can run at the small pile of weapons and supplies. The winner gets a million dollars and a lifetime supply of food. 

 Peter went straight to knife throwing in the arena until his arm couldn’t throw anymore. Luckily, he had used a knife in his lifetime of robbery. By then, he had mastered it and was prepared for the next day.

Peter went back to his room looking at the capitol on the way. There were huge glinting buildings. Food would never be scarce here. The room he was given was huge with a diamond table and glass chairs. A large TV sat on a wall across from a large fluffy beige sofa. A bowl of fruit sat on the diamond table. Peter walked over to the bowl and picked up a plum. As his teeth punctured the smooth sweet surface of the plum, the sweet juice exploded in his mouth. He turned around and saw a white marble counter with three chairs hovering above the ground.

He walked into his bedroom and saw a large king’s bed with fluffed up pillows placed along the bed back. There were two closets on either side of the doorway filled with clothes that you could choose. He went over and collapsed on the bed. Thoughts of tomorrow swirled around his head.

Peter woke up and got dressed in a black shirt and jeans and took another plum as he walked down to the arena. He entered to a roar of fans and people watching the fight. He got into position and waited for the door to open.

Part Two: The Reamble

The doors swung open and Peter sprinted toward the pile of weapons and supplies. He grabbed a dozen knives and spun around. A large man swung a big iron spiked mace. It landed right to the left of Peter. Peter stabbed him and blood began to flow from his chest. He crumpled to the ground holding his hand to the wound to attempt to stop the blood flow. Peter felt terrible. Then there was a sharp pain in his left shoulder. Blood soaked his shirt where the arrow had hit. He snapped the shaft and threw a knife at the man dressed in the same outfit as him. It hit the man in the leg as he tried to run away from the pile and he started to limp away from the pile as the blood stained the grass he walked on. Peter picked up a large rock and hit the man on the head. His eyes closed as the puddle of blood around his head began to form. He looked down and crumpled by the side of the man and tears began to stream down his face, the bloody body reminded him of his parents. He would have to push through it so he could get back home to Lucy. 

He looked around and saw people hacking away at each other with knives and swords. Now he faced the choice, should he stay and help continue the blood bath. Well, he thought, the less opponents the better. He picked up a mace and ran back into the slaughter. 

He swung the mace at a small boy’s head and heard the crack as the mace hit his skull. By now Peter’s shirt was covered in blood. He gasped as he saw there were only 5 people left at the pile. About 60 had run at the pile and there were now 6 left counting himself.

“Stop!” Peter yelled.

“Why?!”  one girl with a spear asked.

“We could alliance!” Peter yelled.

Peter knew he couldn’t win all on his own. Plus these were the strongest players so they would be good allies. Also when there were very few people left he could kill them. 

“Okay!” they all said. 

They gathered all the weapons and supplies that were in the pile and set up a camp by the pile. Off in the distance he saw smoke coming from what he assumed was someone’s campfire. 

“What’s your name?” Peter asked a girl with blond hair, blue eyes, ripped jeans and a black leather jacket.

“Heather.” She responded in a high voice.

“Guys do you see that?” Peter asked seeing the smoke drifting up about 60 yards away from the entrance of the woods.

“Let’s go kill that idiot who started the fire.” A boy in a leather jacket named John said.

Peter noticed he was holding a knife behind his back as he said it.

They tread off through the forest toward the smoke coming from the campfire of a competitor. As they were about to reach the camp John tried to stab them in the back. He only was able to stab a boy from camp 4. I spun around and impaled him with a knife. He collapsed on the forest floor and another boy from camp 3 tried to stab Heather but she was to quick for him. She grabbed his arm and impaled it with her knife. He screamed as the blood ran down his arm and stained the grass below him. A big boy from camp 2 grabbed his head in his arms and violently jerked them in different directions. There was a loud crack and the boys body fell to the grass.

John turned to the others,

“Why are we even keeping Peter alive what use is he to us?” he asked

They all turned on him and started stabbing him and punching him. 

He tumbled down a hill into the woods and blacked out. 

Peter woke up and noticed there was no one left. He was getting up off of the forest floor when a voice said “Final 2, fight!” So Peter ran through the woods and found John. I threw a knife at him and it hit him in the arm. John shot an arrow at Peter and it hit him in the leg. Peter charged John and stabbed him in the chest. He fell bleeding to death at Peter’s feet. Then a voice came on, 

“Congratulations Peter from camp 25!”

The End

Dude the Cat has tattoos and rainbow fur. He has a mean dad who won’t give Dude the Cat a basketball for Christmas. His mom wants to get him a basketball for Christmas, but there has to be a special occasion for him to get the basketball. 

=====

Dude the Cat was at basketball camp, which was called Basketball Dudes. He plays basketball. 

He said, “Can I get a basketball?” 

His dad said no, but his mom said, “For a special occasion, yes.” Dude was sad. He went to his room crying. His mom came and said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t just give you one for no occasion.”

Dude the Cat said, “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at Dad.”

The mom said, “Well, it doesn’t matter about Dad. Just listen to your mom, and your mom says for a special occasion, and that’s that.”

Dude went back to camp and he talked to his friend Joe that he’s going to try to ask his mom to get it from his money. 

Joe said, “Great idea!” 

First, Dude went back home. It was nighttime. He ate dinner and he went straight to bed. The next morning, when he woke up, he ran to his mom and he said, “Is it camp?! Is it camp?!” 

His mom said yes, but his dad said, “I wish it was cancelled.”

Dude said, “Well, I’m going to solve the problem.” 

Chapter 2

Dude went to his camp running. He didn’t even greet the teacher. He went straight to his friend to say, “I have an idea! I have an idea!” The idea was smart. He told his friend, “I’m going to ask my mom to get a basketball from my money.” 

Joe said, “That’s the most amazing idea in the history of the world!” 

Dude got in trouble because he didn’t greet the teacher. At the principal’s office, he got in trouble because the teacher was so strict. They weren’t going to call his parents, he just had to talk to the principal. The principal said, “If you do that one more time, we will call your parents.” Dude was too excited to concentrate. So he got in more trouble. They had to call his parents. 

When his dad got there, his dad said, “I hate you.” 

Mom said, “We’re getting divorced.”

Dude the Cat smiled at the dad. 

Then, when it was bedtime, Mom went to give him a kiss and a hug. 

And then, the next morning, he remembered he needed to tell his mom his idea. He told his mom about the teacher first, and then he told his amazing idea. And the mom said, “On the weekend, you can do that.” 

At camp, he was running to his friend, but this time he remembered to greet the teacher. He went off to his friend and said, “My idea worked!” 

Today was Friday. He was so excited for tomorrow, so he went rushing to camp and he was the first one there. Dude found out he got there at 7. Camp was supposed to start at 10. For the three hours, he ate breakfast while he was playing with the basketball. But every time he looked at the basketballs, Dude got so excited for tomorrow when he would be practicing with his own basketball. When everybody came, he was playing basketball so well, he got an A+. 

When he went back home, he ate dinner, and he couldn’t even fall asleep with how excited he was. 

The next day, he was so excited. He asked his mom, “At what time can we get my basketball?!” 

She said, “After lunch.” 

Dude said, “Awww.” 

At lunch, he only ate half of his sandwich because he was so excited. His mom said, “You can only get the basketball if you eat all of your sandwich.”

After lunch, he said, “You don’t have any more excuses. Let’s go get the basketball.” 

She said, “All right.”

He got a rainbow basketball because it was his favorite color. 

Chapter 3

Dude asked, “Where does Dad live?”

Mom said, “He lives with his sister.”

“Can we have an interview with his sister?” he said. 

Mom said they could have one tomorrow. 

It was the next day. She came over and for some reason, she really looked like his teacher. She was strict, she looked like it, and she was acting like his teacher. She was very weird. But she seemed to be like his dad. That’s when Dude had the greatest idea in the history of the world. Their teacher had a tattoo. That’s not the amazing part. The amazing part was that he could check if Dad’s sister had a tattoo. And she sure did have a tattoo. He was going like crazy. This could not be his teacher. But Dude’s dad was mean so that made sense. He went to school, and Dude ran to his friend. And Dude yelled at him. 

“Our teacher is my aunt!” Dude went crazy. Joe went crazy too. He told Joe this was very bad. But his aunt didn’t know that he knew she was their teacher. 

Joe said,“I dare you to tell her that you know she’s your aunt.” 

Dude said, “Fine.” 

The teacher came to the camp and Dude said, “I know you’re my aunt.” 

She said, “No I’m not!” 

He said, “You have to be honest, everybody knows you’re my aunt because of the tattoo, I saw it then and you have it now.” The tattoo was a rainbow unicorn climbing a rock on her belly.  

“You just have to release the secret. Everybody knows,” Dude said one more time. He felt so, so glad that he found out who the teacher was and why she was so strict. She had to admit it. 

“I am your aunt.”

“I wish I could put an army on you, but you’re not just my teacher, you’re my aunt.” It made sense that she was strict because his dad was strict too. 

Dude told her, “I hate you. You are the worst teacher in the history of the world.” 

She started to cry. 

He was like, “That’s so fake.”  

“Alright. I was faking it. But you gotta admit that you cannot say those bad words.”

“Well, it’s actually true. I do hate you,” Dude said. 

She kicked him. They started fighting. And guess what? Dude won. Everybody cheered

for him. He was smiling at her because he won. She was bleeding. 

He said to her, “You suck.”

“YOU suck,” she said back. 

So Dude said, “You’re looking in the mirror,” 

“Fine, you won. But don’t forget you have to play basketball in the lower level because you suck.”

“Don’t forget you’re looking in the mirror!” he said. Dude went bump, bump, bump, all the way to the highest level easily. 

When he went home, he told his dad, “Your sister is the meanest teacher in the history of the world.” 

Dad said, “You figured it out?” 

“I got the basketball,” Dude told him.

“I wish I could kill you,” replied Dad. 

“I wish I could kill YOU!” 

“I wish I could get a dog. I got one,” Dude’s dad said. He didn’t. He just wanted to make 

Dude jealous. 

Dude went home to hug his mom. And he said, “I hate basketball camp because my aunt is the teacher. But I still love basketball.” 

Mom said, “I know. Your aunt is strict.” 

Dude told her, “You are the best mom in the history of the world.” 

She hugged Dude very tight and said, “You are a very good son.”

               Mom:

Adele

One summer evening when my family had rented a cottage, my sister Juliet and I decided to take a stroll in the gardens that were far away on the edge of the property. As I walked to the back doorstep and over to the top of the hill, I heard Juliet calling for me to wait for her. I slowly turned around to see her rushing out the door with her sweater.

Juliet

I panted as I yanked the rest of my sweater on and called, “Wait,” to Adele. As I ran to the top of the hill, I found Adele staring at the beautiful bridge that was covered with flowers down the big hill. We carefully crept down the hill. The bridge looked like it would break at any second. I looked at Adele, and she looked back at me. Hand in hand, we slowly walked down the bridge. Once we got to the end, we stepped on the soft grass, and I spotted Adele leaning over to a bird as if she were talking to it. I climbed up some rocks nearby, where I saw birds circling above. I creeped toward Adele as the birds fluttered toward her and me. Half of them were bluebirds and the other half were cardinals. The two groups of birds chirped at each other. The bluebirds flew away and circled Adele’s head. Then the cardinals fluttered their way over to me and circled around my head.

Adele

More and more birds flew out from the trees and from under the bridge, some of which possessed long white sheets for me and Juliet each. They were wrapped around me and Juliet. The sheets wrapped around us like cloaks. It was 8:00, way past dinner, and my sister and I both hadn’t eaten. I took off the sheet and the birds cawed in my ear. It was so annoying. Juliet laughed a bit, then stopped when I glared at her but still thought it was funny. I ignored her, but it was really hard. Besides that, she was a really fun sister I guess. 

Juliet had now gone off into the woods. Uh oh. I thought we hadn’t rented that part. I called out for her, but that just woke up my parents. Aaaaauuuggghhh. There was nowhere to go but the woods. I shot toward the woods without thinking. Once I realized what I had done, I heard my parents calling for me and Juliet in the distance. But I couldn’t turn back. I wandered further into the woods and started searching for my sister. I heard the birds, the same ones that were on the bridge before. 

After days of looking, I finally found a bracelet belonging to my sister. 

Juliet

Once I realized my bracelet was missing, I was able to find a log that had been chopped down by a storm, with the inside cleaned out by a beaver. I found some moss and made myself a small home. It took such a long time for me to get to sleep. 

Finally, I heard the birds chirp as I awoke from my sleep. I turned out to really be a sound sleeper. Ow. I moaned when I sat up and bonked my head. I crawled out and dragged it over to a bench, stopped, then continued. At least it’s light, but tiring.  

Once upon a time, there was a Candy Sushi girl. Her name was Lucy, and she was 12 years old. She lived in Hawaii (Maui), and she had three sisters named Aryana, Louisa, and Hilary. She and her family were very happy in Hawaii, but one day, Lucy realized that she really wanted to do something. That something was that she and her family had always wanted to go to Florida. So one day, she told her parents that, and they said, “Oh that’s a great idea, maybe we should go to Florida!” 

So one day, the Candy Sushi people had a meeting, and Lucy’s parents told her and her sisters that they would be going to Florida the next day. Her parents told them that they had to pack quickly because they were going on a boat to Florida. So Lucy went up to her room, and she packed all her stuff. She went to sleep, and soon it was the next morning. She woke up, she went downstairs, and she saw that her Candy Sushi mom had made her pancakes. That was her favorite dish, so she had ten of them. Soon it was time to go, and she got on the boat with her family. 

The boat was a three-day boat ride, so she had a room that she was going to sleep in. She went into the room, and she saw that she was sleeping with her sister Louisa. She saw that the boat was a cruise ship, and it had lots and lots of entertainment. So first, she, Louisa, and her sisters went on the water slide. It was super fun and so they went on it ten times! Soon it was the afternoon, so she had tea with her family on the boat. She had a delicious cake with cookie dough pieces on top. 

After that, she went to sleep, and in the morning, she woke up. She had breakfast in the dining hall, which was waffles. After that, she went swimming, and she went in the hot tub, which was very fun. After that, she took a shower, and she played Sorry! with her sisters, which was also really fun. Soon it was lunchtime, and she had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. That night, there were going to be s’mores so she had a fun time with her sisters. And she had ten s’mores! After that, there were fireworks. 

They next day, she woke up, and there was going to be a scuba diving tour underwater. She and her family were going to do it, so soon they put on the scuba diving gear (including a wetsuit so their Sushi bodies would not break), and they jumped into the water. On the scuba diving tour, they saw wonderful sites, like the glaciers and lots of fish. And they even saw starfish, which were amazing to see. When they got back on the ship, they had lunch, and after that, they went swimming again. Soon it was time to go to sleep, so they went to sleep. 

That next morning, it was almost time to leave the ship, so they got off the ship, and they landed in Florida (Miami). Soon they went to their hotel, which was a very nice hotel. It was almost nighttime, so they went to sleep. 

The next day, they woke up, and they went to the beach. On the beach, they played games, and went in the ocean, and they swam a little. After that they went into a cave, which was really cool, and they explored the cave and found treasure! They found ten pieces of gold, and someone had left a note with it. The note said: If you want to find more gold, go to the hot water beach and dig a hole in the hot water beach, and you shall find the next note. 

In the afternoon, they went to the hot water beach and they dug a hole (surprisingly, the water was very hot), and they dug and dug and dug. Soon they found the note, which said: If you want to find all the gold, dig a little to the right and a little deeper. So that was what they did. Soon they found a very beautiful pirate chest, and they opened it, and they found hundreds and hundreds of pieces of gold. The Candy Sushi people had a meeting that night, and they were trying to decide what to do with the gold, and finally they decided to donate it to a health place back in Hawaii, where they had a friend. 

Soon they wanted to go back to Hawaii because they were missing all of their family and their land. So, they went back on the plane to Hawaii, which was much faster and only took five hours. They played a few board games on the plane, and soon they were back in Hawaii. So they got back to their house, and they went to sleep because it was now nighttime. 

The next morning, they used their allowance to buy stuff, because on their last trip they lost their Kindles, so they went to the Kindle store, and bought a Kindle with their allowance. Their Kindles were very nice, and one day Lucy was reading her Kindle, and she realized that the Kindle had magic, because she went on the app and saw a little note that said, You can do magic on this Kindle. Lucy wondered what kind of magic she could do. The app answered: You can use this on your enemies or your friends to feel better if they’re sick, and you can use it for anything that you want.

Soon it was time to go to school, and Lucy had been in this school for her whole life so she knew everything about the school. This year, she would be in fifth grade, and she had Mr. Clemens, who was a very fun teacher. She knew that because her older sister Aryana had had Mr. Clemens two years ago as a teacher and she had said that he was very nice and really really fun, so she was super excited to start school. 

The next day, Lucy woke up, and she realized that it was the first day of school. When she went to school in the morning, she was really excited because when you start the fifth grade in school, you get a new binder. When she got to school, Mr. Clemens was waiting at the door to welcome his students. When she went inside the classroom, she saw that Mr. Clemens had set up a lot of desks, and soon it was first period, homeroom. First, they played a game called introducing yourself. 

After Lucy introduced herself, she saw a girl named Madeline. Madeline was very nice, and she said that she was from Texas and that she had come to Hawaii to visit her cousins. Her parents had decided to live there because they really liked Hawaii. After that, they had a computer class with their teacher Ms. Jackson. Ms. Jackson taught them how to type really fast. Lucy and Madeline were really good at typing and they were assigned a project for the Brearley school news. Lucy and Madeline were really excited because they had become best friends. Next period was math! 

Math was fun, but a little boring for the both of them. After that, they had lunch together in the cafeteria. Soon, it was the end of the day, and Lucy went home. When she got home, her mom asked her, “How was the first day of school?” Lucy replied saying that it was great, and that she made a new best friend, and her name was Madeline.

After a few weeks of school, Madeline asked Lucy to come to her house. Lucy replied, “Sure!” Lucy went to Madeline’s house and as soon as she got there, Madeline offered her a popsicle and together they watched TV. After that, it was time for Lucy to go home, and she was very upset because she enjoyed her time there. When she got back home, she went to sleep because she had dinner at Madeline’s house. 

The next day, Mr. Clemens said that they were going to go on a field trip. They were going to a horse stable. There, they were going to ride lots of different horses and clean the stables. Lucy discovered her talent for riding horses. She started with a brown horse named Chestnut. When she got on the horse, they taught her how to ride the horse and make it run. The horse manager said, “Wow, you’re very good at riding horses. Maybe you should come to us on Saturday to take classes.” 

That evening, Lucy asked her mom if she could take classes there because she had really liked riding Chestnut. Her mom said yes. The next Saturday, Lucy returned to the horse stables and she saw Chestnut again. She learned how to do jumps over a few classes, and soon, she became a champion kid horse rider. She entered many competitions, and her whole family was very proud of her. 

Soon, she went to the Olympics. Madeline was also very good, but not nearly as good as Lucy. Madeline also entered competitions with Lucy. Sometimes they tied, but she didn’t make it into the Olympics. When Lucy was in the Olympics, her whole family was there cheering her on and she won first place!! 

Soon it was her 13th birthday, and to celebrate, they got her a cookie dough cake, and they went to a movie theater to watch The Grinch Who Robbed Christmas. Lucy, Madeline, and the rest of their friends went to her house to play a few games. They played Sorry!, UNO, and Monopoly. Lucy won UNO, but she didn’t win the rest of the games. Soon it was time for all the girls to go except for Madeline, because Madeline was staying for a sleepover!! Lucy was really excited!

Madeline and Lucy had pizza for dinner. After that, Madeline and Lucy watched movies until midnight, and at midnight, they made smores. It was time to go to sleep, but Madeline and Lucy didn’t go to sleep. Instead, they stayed up until morning and only got two hours of sleep. And when they woke up, they were really tired. Lucy’s mom woke them up for breakfast, and they had frozen waffles. After that, they went to a trampoline park called Rush. There, they bounced on the trampolines, and they jousted with foam blocks. They also played dodgeball. Soon it was time for Madeline to go. When Madeline left, Lucy realized that she still had her magic Kindle. So she went home and decided to explore with it.

 She used it on one of her enemies: a freshman named Eric Sandies. That day, Eric was being very annoying, and was bragging about his new computer. He was telling everyone about how he got the newest computer and newest iPad at the Apple store. Lucy went up to Eric, and she pressed the Kindle button. Eric was ZAPPED into the air, and his head hit the ceiling. He was blasted into the air. He was never seen again.

The next day, Madeline was sick, so Lucy used her Kindle to make her feel better. That was when she realized that her Kindle was actually magic. The next day, Lucy asked her mom for an ice cream, but her mom said no. So she went up to her room, pressed the button, and asked for a cookie dough ice cream sandwich. She discovered that the Kindle was kind of amazing, and she had to savor it. 

Then she went through another year of school (7th grade). Soon it was her fourteenth birthday! She was going to have a sleepover birthday party in her grandma’s house, which was in Kauai. They all traveled to Kauai to visit her grandmother. The house was really big, so all of her friends could fit in. First, they watched Inside Out, and then they watched Super Human (the TV show). While they were watching these movies, they were eating a candy set that Lucy had prepared for them. After that, they made s’mores, which was super fun!! Then, Lucy’s mom said it was time to go to bed, but they stayed up talking about a lot of different stuff. 

In the morning, they made shaped pancakes that were really cool, and Lucy made an Eiffel Tower-shaped one. Her friends made even different shaped ones, which were really good too. After that it was time for her friends to go home. After a month or so, it was time for Christmas. Christmas was her favorite time because they got to decorate the Christmas tree, and it was super fun because she and her sisters always had fun decorating it. And then Lucy said, “I got the angel that goes on the top of the tree!” 

And then Hilary said, “I got the photos of us!” 

And then Aryana exclaimed, “I got the crafts that we made!” 

And then Lousisa said, “I got the letters!” 

Soon, they were finished decorating the tree. After that, they left out the milk and cookies for Santa Claus. 

The next morning, Lucy woke up first. And she said, “Wake up Aryana! Wake up Hilary! Wake up Lousia!” After that they woke up their parents, who were very sleepy but happy. Soon it was time to have Christmas breakfast, which was pancakes. Soon after that, it was time to open presents with their grandma, who was coming over to celebrate Christmas. First, Lucy went and opened the present first. Her first present was a magic kit. She was really excited because that year, she had really gotten into magic. It was Aryana’s turn after that. She got a playdough set because she really liked squishing things. After that, Hillary went. She got Squishies because she really adored animals.  Finally, Louisa went. She got a swimsuit because she really liked swimming. After that, all of them opened their stockings at the exact same time and got the exact same things. They all got a peppermint bark bar, some really cool pens, and some really cool origami paper. 

Next, their parents opened their presents. They had all gotten together and got their mom a new set of really nice black pens she really loved and always wanted. They got their dad a purple and pink shirt. After, they talked to the grandma and played board games. Then, they sat by the fire, gave hugs, and got hugs. After that, they had eggnog, which was really delicious becuase their mom had made it, and she was really good at making eggnog. Lucy got a new horse riding jacket, and her sister got a few board games. Then, they all sat together and played Hillary’s new board games. They were really fun, but challenging. 

Then, they went to this thing they always went to where they made a gingerbread house, which was super fun, and decorated it with candy. This year, Lucy wanted to do something really exciting, so she put a peppermint stick as the chimney and gummy bears on the roof. Then, she decorated the doors with M&Ms and Skittles to make it look really nice. Then, she decorated her gingerbread man with icing. She decorated the roof part with icing. She covered it all with the icing until there wasn’t a single brown spot. Then she smoothed it out and put Sour Patches on both sides. Soon, she was done with her gingerbread house. So she helped her sister Louisa, because Louisa was having trouble shooting out the icing. Soon it was time to leave, so they packed up their gingerbread houses and brought them home. They’d eat some but not all of it, and save the rest for another time. 

Next day, they went to school. At school, Mr. Clemens said that he was going to give a special social studies class. They were going to learn about humans. That day, Mr. Clemens told them all about humans and what they ate, all the places they lived, and what they looked like. Lucy soon became really interested in humans. She would ask Mr. Clemens lots and lots of questions about humans. She really wanted to go into the human world, but knew it was a little impossible. 

One day, she saw her magic Kindle, and thought, “Maybe I can use this to get the human world.”

 She asked it, “How can I get to the human world?” 

The Kindle told her, “You must go to the land of Sour Patches and ask the Queen how to get to the human world. If you’re nice, she might lend you the magic carpet she doesn’t let anyone use unless they’re very nice.” 

So Lucy asked the Kindle, “How do I get to the Sour Patch world?” 

The Kindle said, “That’s easy! You find a hole, dig deeper, and follow the path. After walking for a few minutes, you see a mat, and tell the mat to go to the Sour Patch world. Sit down, and the mat will fly you to the Sour Patch Queen.”

 So Lucy did exactly as the Kindle said, so she dug a hole, followed the path for a few minutes, and found the mat. But she couldn’t remember what the Kindle had said after that. She thought he said sit on the mat, but that was a little strange, so Lucy didn’t think that was right. So she followed the path for a few more minutes, and she found a goblin. 

The goblin asked, “Where are you trying to go, Ms. Lucy?” 

Lucy gasped and said, “How do you know my name?”

And the goblin said, “That’s easy! I am the know-it-all goblin. I know what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to get to the Queen of Sour Patches because you want to get to the world of humans.” 

Lucy was stunned, but decided she was going to go along with the goblin. She asked, “How am I supposed to get there?” 

The goblin said, “Just sit on the mat and tell it to take you.” 

Lucy realized that what the Kindle had said was true. So she went back to the mat, but it had disappeared! She waited, and then said, “Mat, come back!” She thought that might be a way to get the mat back, and she was right. The mat came back immediately. 

So she got on the mat and said “Mat, take me to the Queen of Sour Patches.” The mat took her up, up in the air. Lucy was stunned, she never thought she would be flying, and here she was! She sat back down and enjoyed the ride. Soon the mat was up in the clouds, they floated for a few minutes, but soon the mat started floating down, down, down. They landed in the Sour Patch world. Right outside the Queen’s door. So Lucy bravely went to the door. And went knock, knock, knock. 

A Sour Patch man come out. He looked like a servant but she wasn’t sure. “Who are you? Why aren’t you a Sour Patch person? Get out of our world!” 

Lucy was really afraid, so she went down the hill and saw a Grandma Sour Patch. She went to her and asked, “Please help me, I am a Candy Sushi girl and I need to get into the Sour Patch Queen’s castle.”

The Sour Patch Grandma looked up and said, “Very well. I will take you. You seem kind.” So she told Lucy to hide behind a bush. She went up to the door and bravely knocked. Sour Patch guard greeted Sour Patch Grandma Amy. “Hello, I am here to bring in the Candy Sushi girl!” 

The guard said, “Okay, if you know her.” 

Lucy emerged from behind the bush and walked in with Grandma Amy, whose name she just learned. Then, she saw a beautiful place with stained glass everywhere. She saw a tiny, tiny Sour Patch on the throne. She knew that wasn’t the Queen. So they moved on, and then, they came to a bigger throne with a bigger Sour Patch. Lucy thought that was the Queen, and she was correct. 

The Grandma approached and said, “Miss Queen, I have a visitor for you.” 

The Queen said, “Who’s that? She isn’t a Sour Patch.”

Lucy said, “Miss Queen, I am a Candy Sushi girl, and I really need to know how to get to the human world.”

 The Queen said, “Very well, I can see you are kind and brave. I will show you how to get to the human world.” So she motioned for Grandma Amy to leave. 

Lucy thanked Amy for her kindness, and she replied, “You’re welcome, Lucy. You deserve it.” Then, she whispered, “Go on the magic carpet, and I will say a few magic words. The carpet shall take you to the human world.”

Lucy got on the magic carpet, and whispered a few words. It sounded like the Queen was saying, “Go Lucy, go. Go to the human world.”

Suddenly, Lucy shot up into the air. She was flying! The view was amazing. Then, the magic carpet said, “Lucy! We’re flying! This is an overnight trip. You should click your phone and your room will appear.”

 Lucy did, and a room did appear. She went in, and there was a dining hall and everything. She also saw a bed. She was amazed. Realizing she was really tired from her trip, she went to bed. When she awoke, she was amazed at the beautiful bed. 

The carpet said, “Good morning Lucy, I hope you had a wonderful sleep. Go have breakfast in the dining hall now and we’ll probably land in the human world in 30 minutes.”

 Lucy changed and waited in the dining hall, where fresh donuts appeared. She had them with hot chocolate. The magic carpet called her out. 

She asked, “Are we gonna land soon?”

And the magic carpet said, “Sure! In about one minute.” 

Lucy went to the edge of the magic carpet. She saw tall skyscrapers. Lucy asked, “Where are we?” 

The carpet said, “New York! This is where I’m from.” After, they landed. It was not very bumpy. They landed on a soft patch of grass, which Lucy recognized as Central Park. “We landed in Central Park! That’s amazing!” Lucy looked at a mirror someone was carrying and realized she didn’t look like a Candy Sushi girl. She realized the Queen had also changed what Lucy looked like. 

And the magic carpet said, “I turned into a human too!” Lucy thought the carpet looked like her sister. They both looked about 18. Lucy said, “Let’s go and explore!” 

They saw other humans. 

“Hello, my name is Lucy. And I’m not sure exactly where in Central Park we are.”

And the woman said to Lucy, “Hello, dear. Here’s a map. Are you from here? You don’t look like you are. You look like you’re maybe from India.”

Lucy said, “Oh, yes, I am. Of course.” She chuckled. 

The woman said, “Okay, have a good time in the park.”

Lucy went to the playground, played on the swings, and thought, “If the woman thought I was from India, maybe I should go there!” So Lucy bought a plane ticket for herself and the magic carpet. It was at 6 AM the next day. They booked a hotel, and they slept. 

Next morning, they went to the airport. After checking in, they boarded the flight to India. They were in business class, so they went to sleep for eight hours of the flight. But the flight was 14 hours, so they watched some movies and played games, and talked. They were the first to get off because they were in the front of the plane. Then, they got off, and saw a beautiful sight of India. There was traffic, kind of like New York, but they thought it was much better. They checked into the hotel. They wanted to spend their only day in India to visit the Taj Mahal. They were amazed. It was a beautiful sight. They wanted to see inside, so they asked the security, “Can we go inside?” 

The security guard replied, “Yes, if you buy tickets.” 

They had. So they endured and saw it was beautiful inside. They took their long flight back. They slept and played games. When they got back to New York, Lucy realized she really missed her family and friends. Lucy told the carpet she wanted to go back. The carpet transformed and took her back to the Queen. The Queen welcomed her back. 

Lucy asked, “Where’s Grandma Amy?” Lucy gave her a gift: a picture of the Taj Mahal. 

Lucy got on the mat, waved to the goblin, and arrived home. She said, “Mom! Dad! Hi! Hilary, Aryana, Hi!’ When they asked where she was, she told them she had been at school because to them, she had only been gone for 10 minutes. She wrote a postcard to Grandma Amy. She thanked Grandma Amy.  

Grandma replied a few weeks later. The card said, “Hi Lucy, so nice to talk to you again. Thank you so much for the picture. It’s beautiful.” 

Lucy replied, “Thanks, Grandma Amy!” 

A few weeks later, Madeline was over at Lucy’s house hanging out. She asked Lucy if she could touch her Kindle. Lucy said, “H-How do you know about it?”

“I figured it out,” Madeline responded.

Lucy said, “Okay, I guess you can use it once.”

Madeline used it to make ice cream appear. She ate it, and told Lucy how lucky she was. “You have to savor it!”

Lucy said, “I know, I just don’t know what to use it for except for making sweets appear. 

After some thinking, Lucy said, “I know, I’ll use it to grant people wishes. If someone wants a baby sister, I can grant them that wish!”

Madeline said, “That’s a great idea, then you will be like a superhero, and everyone will like you, and you will be so popular.”

So the next day, when she was in school, she used the Kindle because her best friend Emma wanted a dog. Then she said, “Emma’s mom, get Emma a dog and be pleasant about it.” 

The next day, Emma came back and said, “Lucy thank you so much, my mom got me a dog last night and the dog’s name is Happy.”

 And the next day, one of her friends named Julie told her she forgot her science paper at home, and she really needed it, so Lucy used her Kindle to get Julie’s science paper. Everyone loved Lucy now because she was helping them get stuff like ice cream, science papers, and pets. And then one day a girl named Ruby, who was really popular, asked Lucy “Can I have your Kindle?” 

Lucy said, “I’m sorry, Ruby, but this Kindle is mine.”         

Ruby muttered, “Whatever,” and she walked away.

Lucy called after Ruby, “I’m really really sorry, but this Kindle is mine!”

When she got home, Lucy was reading a really good book called The Thea Sisters about five girls named Paulina, Pam, Collete, Violet and Nicky. She realized she really wanted to become Violet from the book. She turned to her Kindle and said, “I really want to become Violet.” 

The Kindle said, “Sure, I’ll transport you there”

Lucy said, “Thanks!”

The Kindle then said, “Wait, you need to hold on to the desk.”

The desk then flew and flew, and suddenly, Lucy was up in the air. She wasn’t holding on to the desk anymore. When she landed, she saw four other girls and she recognized them as Pam, Paulina, Collete and Nicky. She could tell Nicky was Nicky because she always wore a dark green shirt and red pants. She knew Collete was Collete because she was the most fashionable in all the stories. She knew Pam because Pam always looked relaxed. She knew Paulina was Paulina because she was the only one left. 

Soon she started her adventure! Paulina, Pam, Collete and Nicky didn’t know she wasn’t Violet. They all thought she was. Of course, Lucy wasn’t acting as Violet. She was just there, but the inner Violet spirit was guiding her.  So she was basically just following along looking. They encountered a mystery, worked together fabulously, and solved the mystery.

Soon it was time for Lucy to go home.  She held onto a desk nearby and said, “I would like to go home.” She then flew and flew and flew and flew, and soon landed in the house. When she landed after a few minutes, Louisa, her sister, knocked on her door.  

Louisa said, “Hiiii Lucy, want to do something together?” 

And Lucy said, “Sure.”

Louisa asked, “What do you want to do?”

Lucy said, “How about we play Clue?”

Louisa said, “That’s perfect, I’ll call Aryana and Hilary.” So she called their sisters, and they came into Lucy’s room. They were playing Clue, and Lucy thought it would be Peacock in the garage with the dagger. So she made an accusation and said, “I think it is Peacock in the garage with the dagger.” And she was right.  

The next day, Aryana won. But while they were playing Clue, Lucy didn’t feel very into the game like she normally was. She was feeling spacey, like she was thinking about something else. But she didn’t know what she was thinking about, and then she realized was that she was thinking about her old best friend, a Swedish Fish girl. Her name was Freddie, she was super nice and fun. They had met when Lucy was in kindergarten, and Freddie had come from Swedish Fish world because she had a grandma here. She and her family really liked it here, so they decided to stay. A few months later, Freddie got very sick and was in the hospital and had pneumonia. So Freddie’s family decided to move back to Swedish Fish world for her health, and Lucy never saw her best friend again. For the last three years, Lucy had been missing her best friend a lot, and today she was especially thinking about her because Clue was her favorite thing to do with Freddie. 

Before Freddie left, she said to Lucy, “Bye Lucy! I hope I see you again soon.” But they never saw each other again. Lucy really wanted to see her best friend again though. So one day, she went down to her mom and said, “Mom, did the doctors in Swedish Fish world cure her?” 

Mom said, “They’re still working on her. She hasn’t improved or gotten worse.” 

Lucy said to her mom, “Can we go to Sweedish Fish world and visit Freddie?”

 But later, she heard her mom saying to her dad, “I’ve always wanted to go to Swedish Fish world because it seems so awesome. And because Lucy misses Freddie so much, and Freddie’s older sister Sophie misses Aryana so much, maybe we should go!” 

The next day, Lucy’s mom announced that they were going to Swedish Fish world to visit Freddie’s family. 

Lucy said, “Mom, how are we going to get there?” 

And her mom said, “Well Lucy, I haven’t figured that out yet. I’m going to have to email Freddie’s mom about that. I’m really wondering how she got back to her house.” 

Lucy said, “Okay!” As she went up to her room with Louisa, she was thinking about Freddie, and if they weren’t going to go to Swedish fish world, what would they do?

Lucy realized that she could sit by Freddie’s bed and make her feel better, and maybe even use her Kindle to help her feel better. She went up to her room, and she went to her Kindle and said, “Kindle, can you make Freddie feel better?”

 And the Kindle said, “I’m sorry Lucy, but I can’t help with health problems because it’s not fair to other people.” 

She responded, “Okay, Kindle. I understand.” Lucy went downstairs, and she realized that her mom was talking on the phone. Then, she realized that it was Freddie’s mom. She went up to the door of the room that her mom was in, and she eavesdropped. She heard her mom saying, “I’m so worried about Freddie. Will Lucy be able to go into the hospital to see her?”

 But she could not hear Freddie’s mom answer, so she was really disappointed. She went into the kitchen and asked Mom when she was done with her phone call, “Hey Mom, how are we going to get to Freddie’s house?” 

Her mom said, “We’re going to go there next month!”

TO READ MORE, WAIT FOR PART TWO CANDY SUSHI FUN!

Hi I’m Cookie the bear or you can just call me Cookie. I live in a cave and I’m 3 years old. My mom and dad left me in this dark cave when I was really young… I was alone in this cave for the next 3 years of my life. But I made some friends. I have Rocky (he’s a rock) and I have Sophia the squirrel. I think she’s alive. She doesn’t like to move around much. For food, I eat these berries in a bush around my cave. Sometimes these moving objects come toward my cave and a living thing comes out and starts staring at me. It’s creepy. At night I look up at the shiny things in the sky and count how many there are, but there’s just way to many… Then I just go to sleep. I wake up and I go to the lake and get some fish for breakfast, then I go back to my cave. That’s my daily routine until one afternoon… I woke up from my nap and I see a piece of fish on the ground. “Oh free fish! At least I don’t have to go all the way to the lake for lunch.’’ I reach for the fish but it moves back. I reach again but it goes back. Then I started chasing after the fish until a tall living thing put me in a net! I tried getting out but I was stuck! Don’t forget me, Rocky And Sophia! I’ll come back I promise!” Then they shot something at me and I fell asleep.

***

*Yawwwnnnn* I opened my eyes and saw a cave, trees and bushes. “The living things (humans) probably felt bad and let me go back to my home!’’ I ran to my cave until I hit my head when I tried to go in it. “What!? I can’t go into my own cave?”  It was a flat surface, no place for a home. It was like a wall. I started scratching it until little pieces of paper fell off. “This isn’t my cave! It’s not even a cave!” Something wasn’t right.

 “Well if my cave isn’t a cave, then that must mean the trees are fake and the bushes are fake!” “Dun Dun Dun!”(Dramatic effect) “I have to get out of here! I need to survive! How am I gonna eat or sleep or most importantly PLAY!!!” * Ting ting ting* “What’s that noise?” Then when I turned around I saw a round flat thing (a plate) that had berries on it. “Food!” I was sooo hungry. I ran to the berries and ate all of them in three seconds. “Yumm that was good. But I have to focus on getting out of here. Hmmmmm let’s see, there are 3 see through squares (windows), a tall wooden rectangular board (a door), and a hole where they drop off the food…. Wait! A hole! I can go through the hole where they drop off the food so I can escape! Wow I’m so smart.” So I made my way into the hole and I actually got through! “Wow I never knew it would be this easy!” Then as soon as I stepped out of that hole, there was this noise that went sort of like *beep beep beep beep BEEP!* It was so loud! I turned to make a run for it while the living creatures (humans) were making it out of a rectangular opening (a door) So I was running and running until I looked back and saw 2 living creatures (humans) catching up to my speed with huge nets. I knew that if I didn’t try hard to make it out I would be stuck here, in this place, alone, forever. So I ran and ran and ran and “FREEDOM” I was so happy I made it out. But I had to hide so I made a quick turn to a dark narrow space (alleyway) filled with metal cylinders with stinky food in it (garbage cans). “Ok at least the living things are not chasing me anymore.” I was walking toward the end of the narrow space (alleyway)  until a small round animal with pink long tail (rat) jumped in front of me. 

“AH! Who are you!?” 

“Oh the name’s Ruby and I’m a rat! Tada!” said Ruby.    

“Ummmmm okay, well are the tall living things (humans) chasing you too?” 

“ What tall living things? You mean humans?”  

“Humans, what are those?” I asked.  

“The tall living things!” Ruby told me. 

“Ohhhhhhh that makes sense.” I said. 

“So what is a bear like you doing in the big city?” Ruby asked. 

“Well you see I live in the woods and I’ve been bearnapped by humans and I need to get back home so I can be with my friends Rocky and Sophia. Without them I’m just a bear with no friends.”  

“Well I’ll help you find your home,” Ruby said.     

“Really? You would do that?” 

“Of course, everyone deserves to have friends.” Ruby said.  

“Yay thank you so much!”              

 ***

“Ughhhhh we’ve been walking for hours! Where are we?” 

“We are in the big city!” 

“Ummmmm reality check, but we’ve been in the big city the whole time! All this time we’ve been walking in circles!” “ 

“Oh uh whoops.”  

*sigh* “I’ll never get back home.” 

“Don’t think like that. I’ll get you home but which woods?” 

 “What do you mean?” 

 “There are many woods in the world but which one do you live in?” 

“Oh, I live in the Canadian woods.” 

“WHAT!!!??? Wow that’s very far, that’s like north. Well we’re going to have to take a little trip up north but we’re never gonna make it by foot. So we’re gonna have to get on a plane and go to Canada.” 

“How are we gonna have to get on a plane? I don’t think that they even allow animals on planes not even bears.”

 “Well they allow PETS like birds, cats and dogs. So all we have to do is dress up like one of them.” Ruby said enthusiastically..

“Yeah! They will never notice that its a bear or a rat!” I said happily.

“Okay here’s the plan. First, we go to a shop and steal some kitty ears and dog ears the whole animal fake stuff. Next, we run to the airport and make our way into one of those pet cages. Then, the people at the airport will assume that we’re just ordinary pets, so they’re going to put us in the plane where all the pets are. Lastly, when the plane lands we are gonna land in Canada and we’re going to get out of our cages and make a run to the woods and boom your home.” 

“Yay! But what about you where are you gonna live?” I asked.

“Umm save the questions for last let’s go buy some animal stuff. We have a plane to catch!” Ruby said happily.

“Hey what are those other animals behind the trees they kind of like you-”

“Ummm it’s probably nothing, maybe it’s from all that walking we did you must be very tired.” Ruby said suspiciously..

“Yeah you’re right” I said believing her.       

So we walked all the way to the closest store and bought-technically stole some kitty ears, dog ears and stuff like that.

***

“Wow you really look like a cat, a small one though.” I said.

“Yeah you look just like a dog we are gonna nail this” Ruby said.

“So now since we’re all ready we should be heading to that airport” I said.

“Yeah” Ruby said.

***

We were on our way to the airport but we were still kind of far so we were talking about our past and what we do.

“So where are your parents?” Ruby asked.

“Well they left me when I was very little so I can take care of myself in my cave. I was lonely at first but I met some friends I met Rocky and Sophia and they’re my best friends, like you, your my friend too because you helping me get home.” 

“Well you know what they say you gotta help a friend in need.” she said kind of guiltily.

“Well how big is your cave? You think it’s big enough to fill 100 rats.”

“Probably more it’s really big. Why?” I said.

“No just asking,” Ruby said.

“Okay. Look there is is the airport!” I pointed 

“We made it yay! So now all we have to do is sneak in through the door when someone’s coming out and not get caught. But when we get in we have to sneak in one of those pet cages.” Ruby said.

“But will we fit in the cage?’’ I asked.

“Yeah they’re big. But in order to get in the cage the owner must be distracted so we can open it and get in.” Ruby said confidently.

I turned around and saw the rats again.

“Ruby?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Ruby replied.

“I think those pack of rats behind the trash can are following us,” I said suspiciously.

“Ummmm probably from all that walking. Now come on no fooling around we have a plane to catch!”

***

Now we just have to wait until a person comes out of the door so we can sneak back in.

20 minutes later… 

“The perfect moment… And… 2 more minutes… ” Ruby said.

“By now we probably missed our plane. Why not we go through the back door when someone comes out, like now!”

We ran and ran and ran and we finally made it inside. We quickly found a cage to get into until Ruby had to go to the bathroom.

“I have to go to the bathroom ill be right back,” Ruby said in a hurry.

“You’re a rat! Just use it somewhere else!” I replied.

 But she already left.

10 minutes later…

“What took you so long! I’ve been waiting for ten minutes come on!” 

We quickly got into a cage and waited for the owner to drop us off we’re the suitcases go. Although it was kind of hard because Ruby and i got into two separate cages with some rude cats that tried to scratch us, we just dealt with it until they got tired out.

*Bang* The people that worked at the airport threw us inside the bottom part of the plane where all the pets go.

Ruby and I quickly got out of our cages so when we land we jump out of the plane and run to the woods. But we were gonna land in the next 5 hours.  So we decided to wait and talk it out. But then Ruby and I got really hungry and we didn’t have anything to eat before we got on the plane. So we tried looking in seperate directions of the plane for food. But the only place where they had food was where all the people where, and it would take a miracle for us to sneak up there.  

*grrbrrgle* “Soooo hungry yyy,” Ruby said.

“Me too but just 4 more hours,” I said sadly… 

“Ya know what I’m going up there, and I have a plan.” Ruby said. 

 ***

“ Okay, so now we have to sneak in the snack bar and bring down some food where the animals are so we don’t get caught!” Ruby said excitedly.

“Ok so let’s go now since no one’s looking.” I said.

We were going to get a little bit of the food and bring it down to eat but, I saw that Ruby was getting a lot of food for like an entire pack of animals but I just ignored it. She was hungry…  Right? But as soon as we were gonna turn around to go down, a flight attendant caught us and held us both from the tails. We were gonna run but she was just too fast.

 “Ah, AH let go of me!” Ruby and I said.

Then we struggled so much that we got loose and ran all the way to the bathroom and locked ourselves in until we had a plan. 

 “What are we gonna do?’’ I asked. 

“I don’t know” Ruby said worryful.

 We were so nervous that we thought this was the end of finding my home until the Pilot said, “Welcome to Canada!” We were so happy that we finally got to Canada but the flight attendants and co-pilots we’re trying to knock down the door so we thought fast and there was an emergency escape pod on the top of the bathroom with paraschoots hooked to it. So we put on the parachutes and jumped off the plane. We landed on a small building and slowly went down. 

“Okay well at least we made it out.” I said.

“Yeah but now we just need to look for the woods and then your home!” Ruby told me.

“Yes!” I said

 “Wait the woods!” I said enthusiastically.

“Yeah. What about it?” Ruby asked.

“The woods I can see it! We just got to run a couple more blocks and we’re there. But Ruby I think those pack of rats are following us! I see their tails behind those trees.” I told Ruby.

“Ummm your probably sick from all that running Cookie that’s why we should get you to your cave.” Ruby told me.

“But I don’t get sick,” I told Ruby.

“C’mon let’s get to your home, aren’t you excited?” Ruby asked me.

“Yeah I really am but where are you going to live?” I asked Ruby.

“Ummm i’ll tell you later okay?” Ruby said.

“Okay,” I replied.

***

*Pant, pant, pant, pant, pant* 

“We’re here! We’re finally here! My home!” I said happily.

“Yeah your home” Ruby said weirdly

Then I turned around to look at my cave and I saw the pack of rats that were following us and I think they knocked me out cause everything after was a blur.

 ***

I opened my eyes and I looked around. I was home. But when I wanted to move, I couldn’t. I looked at my paws and feet and they were tied with thorny flexible branches tied to a tree. I couldn’t move.

“Ruby help! Ruby help!” I yelled for help.

“Well, Well, Well,” Ruby said in an evil voice. Well not really she sounded like a baby hahah.

As she turned around sitting on a throne of rats in MY CAVE! Not even helping me!

  “Hey what are YOU doing in MY CAVE, and why’d you tie me up!? Are some kind of crazy psycho rat!?” I yelled at her.

    “*chuckle, chuckle, chuckle* You are so gullible and naive Cookie. I can’t believe you never noticed.” Ruby said.

“Notice what?” I asked.

“See what I mean? This is what i’ve been trying to do the entire time! I wanted to take your cave in the first place when you asked for help. You think you could actually trust a rat? Why live on the streets if I can just take your home all to myself and rats,” Ruby said. 

“Well I don’t know. I never knew a rat or saw one before. I don’t know most things because I’ve never went anywhere else except here. But what I do know is that you’re not my friend and you’re crazy!But why would you do this? To me?” I asked sadly.

“Because living on the streets is for other animals but not me. I always wanted a home so now since I have this cave I am never going to let it go, not even to a nice, gullible, nieve bear!” Ruby said.

“So this was the plan. The question of how big my cave is, the rats following us everywhere, the long bathroom break, and all the food you we’re taking to the animal section on the plane? Why not we share the cave?” I asked persuading.

“What?! Never this is my cave, my food, my home!” Ruby said angrily. 

“But you have a choice. You either become one of my slaves along with the rats, or you’re banned from this cave forever!”

“I’d rather live on the streets, because I never ever want to see you again in my life!” I yelled.

“Well then your loss. No wonder your parents left you. You don’t know anything. But thank you for giving me this cave.” Ruby said evilly.

“Hey it not your cave it’s my cave!” I yelled.

But it was too late. I had lost everything. They threw me on the side of the road, with no home. And I have no one not even my parents. But when I turn my head I see these two big bears. I feel like I’ve seen them before. Mom? Dad? I ran to them so happy.

“Mom, Dad, I missed you so much.” I said tearing up.

“Why did you leave me?” I asked.

“Well we were caught by zookeepers or the humans and we finally escaped looking for you. We missed you so much Cookie. Now let’s go to your cave.” My mom said.

“Well a mean rat took my cave and 100 of her rat friends and they banned me from my cave.” I said sadly.

“Well no one steals our cave!” My dad said.

So we all went in and kicked some Ruby—i mean rat, butt! Then I said to Ruby, “Who’s the gullible one now?”

“Rocky! Sophia!” I said.

“I would like to introduce you to my parents. Mom this is Rocky and Sophia and dad this is Rocky and Sophia. They’re my best friends.”

“Well it’s good to be home.” Dad said.

“Yeah I’m never being friends with a rat.”

Then after that we lived happily with no rats.

THE END

Hello, my name is Agent Puppy. I’m actually an agent. I am a puppy which explains my name.

I’m really small, which is why The Puppy Organization hired me. Tomorrow I will be given my first mission. I’m so excited. Usually I would be squealing with joy, but I am a very serious puppy in a very serious puppy organization. I am the most amazing… spy. Of course they choose small puppies because the smaller the puppies, the smaller places they can hide. On top of that, we are very light. Oh, and my breed of course is Chihuahuas, but we aren’t as fancy as a Poodle or as strong as a German Shepherd, but we all love our puppy powers! 

We have so many cool gadgets. Like the Puppy Puller, which is a grappling hook, and Puppy Levitation, which is my jetpack, and of course my favorite is… the almighty, all powerful puppytastic… Boneifide! It shoots bones from my front paws! So amazing, right? Of course the Slipified is chewed slippers being shot from your back paws, but they aren’t that bad. And making them is lit, mostly because we all love chewing slippers! It satisfies our teeth.

Well, enough about me. But I hear that my first mission is going to be… going and stealing the Kitty Organization of Advanced Kitties, but they call themselves BTD for Better Than Dogs. Frowny face! Cats are never better than dogs! But I am kind of just saying that because I am a dog. I have to defend my species! Well, I just received an email on my PC, Puppy Communicator. Well the plan is they are going to launch a spell on fireworks which will make everyone in love with kitties and hate puppies! That’s so low, kitties! Well, what I have to do is dress like a cat and go into the Le Cats Hotel, for cats only. That’s where the kitty boss is staying for the night and with him the secret code to all their security, the code to disable the fireworks, and the secret information to all their field kitty agents! We could win over the humans with all of this, and our field spies have learned that the kitties have been told that all the codes are one word! It could be anything! It could be kitties, or cake, or cats are better than dogs! Wait, that’s not one word… CABTD as in Cats Are Better Than Dogs. Not true! At least we don’t spit hairballs! Sure, we chew shoes and drink from the toilet and use the bathroom outside in public… Wow, dogs are strange. Well, anyway my flight leaves soon… 

In Las Vegas… 

Okay I’m in Las Vegas, and I am dressed like a cat. Luckily cats are pretty dumb, so they won’t notice if I still look a bit like a dog. Hey, they didn’t say what kind of cat! This was what I wore last Halloween for a cat party. I had to blend in! Otherwise how would I have been able to find out that Carl was a double agent! But luckily this time I’ll be able to save our entire organization! If the BTD launches that cat spell, then puppies are done for it! No chewing slippers! No drinking from toilets! Nobody scooping up what I did on the sidewalk and even worse, no one to love me! Pouty face. Anyway, back to the mission. I got them to think I’m a cat, and my room number is 864. Right next to the kitty boss’s room, 865. That’s great! That’s bad! If I’m next to him, who says once I get it he won’t disable a bomb through the wall and get into my hotel room! I know if he tries to do that, I can use my PG (Puppy Glider) to be able to fly off my porch with the important files on my PF  (Puptastic Flash Drive). Okay, I just saw the kitty boss leave his hotel room. I’m going in. Weird, he left his door open. Eh, easier for me. Wait, this could be a trap. I have to use my PP. I know it sounds silly, but it was either that or number two cause. Number one was puppy oil! PP stands for Puppy Powder. I was right! There are lasers spread out across the room. These are state of the art lasers! Yikes. I threw a pebble, and it got split in half. Then Marshmallow comes behind me. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I have a sister. Her name is Marshmallow. She is pretty young. She is two years old. 

“Go back, Marshmallow! I don’t want you to get hurt!” I say.

“Fine! But I’m going because I want to not because you told me too!” She says with her baby voice, and she tries to storm away, but she falls a lot, so she hit the floor a couple times to be able to get to our hotel room right next door!

I go under the lasers and do a couple backflips, then I see Marshmallow at the other side of the room.

“Woah, that was super cool. I’m going to try!” she said, trying to do a backflip. 

“Marshmallow, if you go through the lasers, then no chocolate pudding for dessert! I’m warning you, Marshmallow Belle Summer!” I said with my I-am-in-control-voice, and boy, did she jump. 

“No pudding!!! You monster!” she says astonished. “Oh, say bye bye to the puddin — ”

 “Okay okay okay, bye, I’ll go to the hotel room!” she interrupts. 

Finally, I can go and get the flash drive. I hope she doesn’t cause any problems. Okay, I’m typing and hacking all the documents into the flash drive, including their future plans. Oh, if this doesn’t get me a promotion, then I don’t know what will! Okay, it’s all in my flash drive. I’m ready to go. I am disabling… the lasers… okay done!

 “Marshmallow! Come on, we have to go!” I yell.

But Marshmallow isn’t coming. I know what will make her come. 

“Marshmallow, if you don’t come, then I won’t let you have chocolate pudding!” I yell at the top of my lungs. She isn’t coming. Okay if this doesn’t work, then I think something is seriously wrong. “I’ll give you ice cream!” I yell even louder!

But she isn’t coming. I go out of the room and find our hotel room open. I go in and find the most terrifying thing I could ever imagine. I find her collar, where I put a tracking device (because believe me, she can get lost) and I find it on the floor with a post it attached.

It read, If you want your little mutt back, then come to the pool in five minutes, and don’t bring any of your little *gadgets* or else you can forget about seeing your little dog ever again, and if you do find her, you’ll find her at the bottom of the pool. See you then, Agent Puppy.

Signed,

Kitty Boss. 

I grinned and put a straight face on. I left the flash drive in my pocket but first emailed everything to the Puppy Boss, in case I don’t make it out with Marshmallow or alive. Okay, I am at the pool. Maybe they hid her somewhere near the pool. I’m looking behind the vases. I don’t see her. Wait, yes I do, but I see her reflection. 

She’s right on top of — “Oh hi, Kitty Boss,” I say with distaste.

“Hello, Agent Mutt. I see you have come to find your little sister. Too bad you won’t be able to get her back! Unless you want a little negotiation,” said the Kitty Boss. 

“It’s actually Agent Puppy, and I will get her back. I will trade her for all the fish you want,” I say. 

“What I want Agent, is the flash drive. You think I’ll give my power up that quickly. I have the upperhand against you. I want your flash drive with my information on it. You can’t slip out of this dilemma, now can you?” said Kitty Boss. 

“How do I know this isn’t a set-up? Show me Marshmallow,” I say.

 I know what you’re thinking, But the flash drive! Well she is my sister, and I knew this was a set-up of course. So I took out the flash drive from out of my sleeve and showed him the flash drive. 

“There it is. I’ll bring down Marshmallow, after you give me the flash drive,” said Kitty Boss with a grin on his face.

I wasn’t going to give up that quickly. Marshmallow was tied to the bottom of the high diving board, with duct tape on her mouth. She was right on top of the pool. I had my plan already set out since I read that note. I wasn’t giving him his flash drive.

 “I’ll give you your flash drive, but first let Marshmallow go,” I say.

“Oh you want me to let her go. I hope she can swim!” He says as his kitty henchman unties the rope.

“No!” I scream, and she goes falling.

Suddenly everything is in slow motion. I see Marshmallow’s tears dripping into the pool. I see her slowly falling, I throw the flash drive towards the pool and leap, I catch Marshmallow and we fall onto the side of the pool just making it as me, Marshmallow, Kitty Boss, and the kitty Boss’ henchman watch the flash drive fall into the pool and sink to the bottom of the pool. 

“You idiot!” he screams. “Not only do I not have my information, but neither do you! And your lives shall end!”

 “Ugh, cats. So dramatic. You definitely didn’t get it from dogs, I must say. But you are fierce. I’ll give you that, Well I’d love to chat, but S’more and I here have to leave! Adios, gatos!” I yell, and I hold Marshmallow tight and jump out the window.

Then I say, “Hold on tight, S’more!” and I equip my secret Puppy Puller and swing back to Puppy Org. Hey, if I told you guys that I had a secret Puppy Puller, then it wouldn’t be a secret now would it. 

“Woah! Never call me S’more ever again! And what about the flash drive? Aren’t you going to get fired???” asked Marshmallow.

“First of all okay, I’ll never call you S’more ever again, and I broke his flash drive, the one in my sleeve not the real important one in my pocket with cat pics on it, not the one with the information on it, and I saved you. I call it less of a negotiation and more of a win win for me,” I say.

And I got my promotion and became a field agent. But there have been some fishy things as in fish being found in the Puppy Boss’ desk. Everyone was happy and perfect, so it seemed, or was it?

The End, or is it

                 Clue #1 

                 T he

                 B oss

                 I s

                 A

                 C at

The house is haunted, and someone is there with you, looking at you right now. 

You hear a sorrow cry coming from downstairs, then you hear footsteps coming. 

It starts to get louder and louder, until you see a shadowy figure. You run, knowing you are being chased. As you run, you hear screaming, and it’s making you more desperate to leave. 

As soon as you run down the stairs, one zombie randomly starts to walk to you. When you look, you see there are people in the building and scream in horror. 

All the people in the building are zombies. 

When you run, one zombie blocks your path out. When you run the other way, you see the shadowy figure. You think this is all over so you start to sweat, but you have an idea. You run towards a zombie and knock it down and run to the door. 

The finger grabs you and chops your head off. 

 The end, literally 

Once there was a billionaire named Billy Bob Bob Bob Joe and his last name was Joe Bob Bob Bob Billy. He could swallow anything and gain the properties of said material if wanted. If he swallowed a machine, then he could do what that machine could do. He had swallowed a jet so he could fly really fast. He flew over to Area 51 because he wanted to break in. The U.S. Air Force saw him coming and said, “No trespassing.”  

“Sure,” he replied

Then he swallowed the gate and the Air Force had no choice but to shoot him. He swallowed a stealth machine and turned it on and then he turned the top layer of his skin to be bulletproof Kevlar. Then he snuck into Area 51. He searched everywhere but he could only find a bunch of test tech like new stealth planes and he could not find a single alien.

He thought, Boring. I’m getting out of here. He went back to his company building in L.A.

“Mr Joe Bob Bob Bob Billy, where were you?” his manager asked.

“Nowhere you need to know and please call me Billy Bob Bob Bob Joe.”

“Of course,” the man replied.

“How is business going?”

“We are churning out more technology by the second. And our sales for our computers are doing especially well.”

     “Can you get my game designers for me?”

“Of course, sir.” The manager got them and they started designing games. After a month he left the rest of the games to his game designers.

I’m all set for life. That was my game plan, I always wanted to know what was in there, I guess. Break into Area 51 and then I’m all set. Area 51 was always so interesting. Government secrets are cool. I just wanna live peacefully. Oh and lemme tell everyone that in  area 51 there is probably nothing there except for a bunch of military test tech, he thought. I don’t want anyone on my back trying to kill me or nothing. And life won’t get boring, I guess. Everything will go downhill pretty fast for me because bad people won’t like me for sticking my nose into things and everyone will try to kill me. Because of this, I can’t focus on my work. A big bounty would be on my head. So no thanks for me. Uh uh. I’m good. Then he continued working because he realized he liked designing games and technology stuff and he didn’t want to coast on his billions. He had a decent life.

Once in a pretty blue ocean was a mermaid… unicorn… cat. Yes, a mermaid unicorn cat. With long pink, blue, and purple ears, a scaly mermaid tale, and a long unicorn horn.

“I love my life,” she told her friend, Maria, who has short black hair, and doesn’t have a unicorn horn or cat ears. She’s just a mermaid.

Maria said, “Unicaid, you never know what could happen. Your life could turn into cloudy dark skies here in the ocean.”

“But it’s so nice here! How could anything bad ever happen here?”

“You never know.”

Just then, skies did turn cloudy and dark. The water felt less welcoming and more closed. All the rainbows started to collapse and turn into Skittles. Towering over the water was a big fat man in a scientist coat, holding an open bottle, pouring it in the water.

“What- what is that?” asked Unicaid.

“Now that, my friend, is just what I was talking about what could happen.”

“Who- who are you?” asked Unicaid.

“I am the Toxicky Water Scientist named Doctor Unsmartypants.”

“What are you pouring in the water?” asked Maria.

“Toxicky water, because I’m the Toxicky Water Scientist! Duh!”

“We have to stop this!” said someone.

“I know!” said others.

Unicaid asked, “But how?”

“Oh, I know,” said Maria. “We can get a filter from the outside world with clean water and help our world!”

“I have some friends from the outside world,” said Unicaid, “and I know where they live! They all have filters! And I bet they could lend one to us.”

“Okay. It’s kind of creepy that you know where they live, but all right,” said Maria. “Good idea.”

They slipped out of the water and started slithering down the road.

“So… I know the street, but not exactly the house—”

“Wait, what?” asked Maria.

“I’m sorry! But don’t worry. We can knock on all the doors and ask what door Alena Smith is on!”

“Everyone will just scream!” exclaimed Maria.

“Why?” asked Unicaid.

“Ya know. We’re not the same species!”

“Oh… yeah. But I bet it will be alright.”

“Fine!!!” Maria seemed to be getting mad. “Let’s do this.”

They knocked on one door. No answer.

At the second door there was an answer! But it was: “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” The lady screamed.

“Told you!” Maria said selfishly.

“Ayayayay!” Unicaid exclaimed, “Braggy braggy!”

They slithered down to the next door and knocked on the third door. “Whoah!” was the reply, “Who are you?”

“I’m Unicaid! And this is my friend, Maria,” Unicaid said proudly.

“Ahh! Yes! Unicaid!” The lady said, “Alana has told me so much about you! I’m Lea. Nice to meet you!”

Lea had long, brown, curly hair, and skin the color of chocolate.

“You too!” Maria seemed relieved.

“So where does she live?”

“Oh, Alana? Why do you need to talk to her? Is anything wrong?”

“Well,” Maria started, “This toxicy water scientist came and—”

“Toxicated up the water?

“Umm, yeah, basically.”

“So why do you need Alana for that?”

“We wanted to get a filter from her house so we could help save our ocean,” said Unicaid.

“Oh, I have a filter,” Lea said. “You can use it if you want.”

“That would be great! Thank you!” Maria said, seeming even more relieved.

Lea went inside and gave them the filter. Then Unicaid and Maria thanked her as they slithered back into the ocean.

“We got a filter!” They said as they plopped it in the water. It sounded like when you put a penny into a fountain. Dr. Unsmartypants tried to stop them, but it was too late. It was already in. Everyone cheered for them, except for the scientist. 

“Why? Why? Why?” Dr. Unsmartypants said, seeming very, very, very frustrated. He towered over the water and walked away.

“Yay! Hooray for Unicaid and Maria!” And suddenly the water felt more welcoming, less closed, and the dark skies went away. All the Skittles turned back into rainbows, and everything was okay.

The End!

“Welcome to Super Bowl 100 The Seattle Seahawks vs. The New England Patriots,” said the commentator. “This is going to be a great match. At the half, it is 28 to 27 Seattle. At three quarters, it is tied at 35 with a safety given up by Seattle. Now there are five minutes left in the game, and we are tied at 49. Seattle has the ball on the 50-yard line. Wilson throws to Baldwin, and that’s a first down. Baldwin is still going! Touchdown! Seattle up by seven at 56. Seattle returned! He gets past the defence, touchdown! We are tied at 56 now. Patriots kickoff. Seahawks get five yards on the return. Wilson takes the snap. Fakes the run, Wilson runs past the linemen, he is in the clear. HE. MAY. GO. ALL. THE. WAY! Russel Wilson 80-yard touchdown run to put Seattle ahead by seven. With the touchdown, we are at the two-minute warning. Pats return the kickoff five yards. Brady hail mary to Edelman, he gets to the 20. Brady hands off to Michelle. He is taken down at the one. Brady gets a QB sneak past the line. Conflict on the Pats’ sideline. Brady decides that they will try for a two-point conversion. Brady snaps. Brady runs to the corner, Bobby Wagner chasing him. Wagner strip-sacks Brady. Wagner has the ball; he is running. Wagner goes all the way! Two points for Seattle! Pats try an onside kick. Seattle recovers. Pats use first time out. 30 seconds on the clock. Wilson takes the snap. He runs in the backfield and is just running around. 15 seconds left. Wilson being chased. 10 seconds. Wilson throws the ball as far as he can. Ball is in the air for five seconds. Pats time out. Five seconds left. Wilson takes the snap. He runs to the sideline. Time is up! Seattle wins the 100th Super Bowl. They have done it! No losses in the season and a Super Bowl title. Brady made the biggest mistake in the Super Bowl. Wilson has the longest QB run in Super Bowl history! Let’s hear what Wilson has to say.” 

Wilson says, “I cannot believe this. We played great. This is great.” ______________________________________________________________________________

After the game, the commentator got in his car and started to drive home. It was really late at night, so he was very tired. Then, all of a sudden, he couldn’t see any people or any cars and saw complete darkness. Then his mind blanked. CRASH! He found his car smashed into another car. He had dozed off and didn’t have control. The two cars he crashed into were the Seattle Seahawks’ car and the Patriots’ car. He was hurt, but he got out of the car immediately to see if the teams were hurt. The police were already at the site of the crash, and there was a huge fire. The police called the firefighters, and the firefighters put out the fire and took him to the hospital.  Nobody on the Seahawks or the Patriots got injured. The commentator just got really injured, but he got better really soon. He had broken his collarbone, his neck bone, his backbone, and his arm.  

The Patriots filed a lawsuit because they didn’t like his commentating, and he crashed into them. The Seahawks, though, were okay with it, and they were fine with it.  

His lawyer was really bad because no one wanted to be his lawyer in the case, because they’re afraid he’s going to lose. His lawyer was not that good, so the commentator had to try and deal with that and be his own lawyer.

His lawyer kept telling him, “It’s okay if we lose, it’s okay if we lose.” But the commentator kept a positive attitude the whole time.

The lawyer said, “Man, we’re gonna lose.  I can’t believe you’re even trying. You shouldn’t be trying against the Patriots. They’re gonna have the better lawyer. They’re gonna beat us. Even though I am a lawyer, I have to admit they’re gonna beat us. So it’s okay if we lose.”

The commentator replied, “It’s not okay if we lose because I didn’t do anything wrong in that scenario. They crashed into me. They shouldn’t file a lawsuit on me just because the car ended up in the crash.”

The commentator felt guilty because he knew he fell asleep in the car. The first person to find out he was sleeping was the lawyer, who kept it a secret until his death.

He made a statement where he accused the Patriots’ bus driver that he fell asleep, dozed off, and crashed. That was a lie, because the Patriots’ driver wasn’t sleeping; the commentator was sleeping himself. The Patriots argued that they saw the commentator not paying attention, and they saw him drift off into the lane, and then they saw the crash. The jury thought that the Patriots were wrong because the Patriots had lost the Super Bowl, and the commentator had been speaking about them for everyone in the audience to hear, so the judge had thought that the Patriots were just mad because they lost the Super Bowl and the commentator was saying bad things about them.  This could be revenge.

The commentator went to court the next year and they didn’t know what decision to give, so eventually they went to the Supreme Court.  He won in the Supreme Court with a new argument saying, “The Patriots aren’t admitting that their bus driver fell asleep, and I’m admitting that I wasn’t not paying attention, because I have all a perfect concentration, but you guys never said that you have anything that prevented you from having a doze-off.”

He also said, “They’re trying to get revenge on me, when all I did was comment on the Super Bowl.”    

The Patriots said, “We’re not trying to get any revenge. You almost killed us, and if anyone got harmed, you would have to say that you have to do something about it. If it’s just about the Super Bowl, it’s not gonna be this severe. If I just say something on Twitter, not in court, so basically if someone gets harmed, you should come to justice and say that you did it.”

The judges thought that the Patriots didn’t defend themselves, and just brought up new arguments, so the Patriots would lose.

He won in the court, and he filed a lawsuit on the Patriots for crashing into him, because the Seahawks showed him a camera where the Patriots changed lanes. The Seahawks had hated the Patriots for a really long time, so every time if something went wrong, they would have to get back at the Patriots for the last-second Patriots win during the Super Bowl before. The Seahawks always had a camera in their car, and they happened to be staying at the same hotel as the Patriots, so they were driving on the same road. The Seahawks had the video of the bus driver going into a different lane, which was true, but just because it was earlier in a crash, and they didn’t have film of the crashing, so they only showed him changing lanes. But he did change lanes, which was a factor of the crash. The Patriots lost in court and were fined 1,000,000 dollars. The Patriots were really mad about it, and the bus driver had to go to jail, because falling asleep in a car is illegal, so he went to jail really mad, knowing he didn’t fall asleep and remembering every detail of the crash.

The commentator was relieved that he got away with it, and surprised the Patriots with filing a lawsuit, but was happy that the Patriots’ bus driver had to go to jail. The commentator forever lived hidden because he knew that people didn’t like him because all the Patriots fans didn’t like him because making the Patriots lose in court is a big thing.

Ten years after his death, they found the camera showing that he actually was sleeping in the car, and shouldn’t have won in court because he actually fell asleep in the car. 

The end.

Part One: Ordinary to extraordinary

Place: Annapolis, Maryland

Dimension: Hearth-not-Earth

Once upon a time, there was a fourteen-year-old boy named Leo. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was about to become more than your average boy. On his way home from his best friend Misha’s house (who lived across the bridge), he was hit by lightning. He was walking on the bridge with an Anti-monopoly board game when a thick bolt of lightning struck him. He passed out and his mind went completely blank, and his eyes went white in an instant. Someone found him a couple of minutes later and took him to the hospital.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Parker, learned in the hospital that Leo’s eyeballs were great conductors of electricity so the lightning went straight for him while he was crossing the bridge. He was put into a deep sleep until he was sixteen years old without realizing it. He woke up in the hospital, and found out that he had lost his eye. So they left the hospital with an eye patch covering Leo’s eye.

What Leo didn’t know was that he could accidentally control electricity, or that he could do things related to electricity that no one else could do, without realizing it was himself doing it. One time, he was playing Temple Surfers (a combination of Temple Run and Subway Surfers) on his iPhone when suddenly it died. 

“Oh, come on!” He ran out of his room and shouted, “Mom! Can I borrow your charger?”  

“Sorry, but I’m using it because my phone is five plus,” his mom replied (plus is percent).

“Porca miseria!” Leo carelessly said in Italian as he stomped into his bedroom and plopped onto the bed. He was so furious that his bedroom light flickered off and his phone turned on. He looked at his phone screen to check the percentage, and guess what it was? Full charge, or 100%.

“What happened?” he said as he turned the light back on. But then, he remembered the lightning strike two years ago. “Wait, what?!” he exclaimed, and ran out of the house, but with superspeed, like Hercules.

Later on, after doing some thinking, Leo concluded that when he was so mad sparks of electricity probably went into the phone, charging it instantly, and more sparks turned off the light. He didn’t know how that happened, but he was excited because he never found out about it. So he tried testing it out by going home and trying to turn off and on the lights, and so that happened and worked. Then he tried to travel at the speed of light and so he ran as fast as he could, and he could actually see light by his side because, of course, he was running as fast as the speed of light.   

Next he tried flying, but he knew he was really short and the knowledge came to him suddenly that, since he was really short, he could not fly. You have to be really tall to fly. He didn’t know how. He went to Misha’s house and looked inside, and overheard him telling his little sister a story about this magic potion that can make you taller in less than 3 hours, and an evil scarecrow was guarding it.  It was actually a mixture of a robot and an actual scarecrow. You can’t see him because when you get really close, he’ll attack you. Leo knocked on the door and Misha answered it.

“Well you’re back, and that’s awesome!” said Misha, and they did their ‘secret handshake.’ 

“I need to find out where the magic potion is,” Leo said. They went in the house.

“Really? Ok. It’s somewhere in the middle of Romania, Europe,” Misha said. He knew this because he actually, once, tried to get the potion, and he was told that it was in Romania, but he never found it.

“Thanks!” Leo ran with the superspeed he was given.

“Good luck!” Misha yelled. “Man, how does he do that?”

Part Two: The Scarecrow

Place: Somewhere in Romania

Dimension: Hearth-not-Earth

Leo had already told and explained his plan to his parents, and surprisingly, they accepted it. Since he had powers, they knew that he could protect himself.

“Just make sure you don’t die, honey,” Mrs. Parker told him.

“I won’t,” Leo responded.

“Be careful,” she said.

“I will, I will.” And Leo ran to the Annapolis dock, and dove into the warm Chesapeake bay, for what was a long journey ahead of him.

On the way, he found a map to the potion in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He found it because of a storm that drowned him. He floated up because there was a lot of air in his lungs already, and that’s how he found out he could breathe in water.

After finding the location on the map, Leo found that the place was surrounded by fire, and he figured out that the scarecrow might have fire powers. He found the magic potion on a tree stump, but when he was about to touch it, there was something that grabbed his shoulder. He looked around and there was the robot scarecrow, including at least one million other tiny robots.

“Do not touch my potion! I know why you have come for it, and I will put an end to your task!” the scarecrow bellowed in his robotic voice. 

Leo ran away from the scarecrow, surprisingly not touching him at all.  So he ran away from the robot with superspeed, but he didn’t have the potion. So Leon found this little pond and he heard a whisper that is saying, “Clone yourself to get it!”

Leo said, “How?”  But there was no reply.

He figured out that the lake was magic. And then there was some rumbling, and there was someone else that was standing there, and he took a closer look and saw it was himself, and so the clone multiplied and then multiplied again and again and again. Soon, there were at least ten thousand Leos surrounding the pond. It was the lake that had done this, he thought. And so he went back to the robot, his clones following him, but he couldn’t find him anywhere, and figured out that it could be a decoy, or they were hiding behind them. So he went the other way, and found the robot trying to attack them.

The million tiny robots were reduced to one robot, and it was so tall, as tall as Kevin Durant in the Golden State Warriors. 

“This robot used the potion, so if you fight me then you will fight him,” the scarecrow explained in monotone.

So the ten thousand Leos fought the robot first, but failed. 

Then came a thunderstorm, controlled by all of the Leos, and so it was pouring and it dried out all the fire, and a huge lightning bolt struck the tall robot and he was dead. 

“Curse you!” the scarecrow yelled. And then Leo himself jumped up and killed the cruel scarecrow by striking a sudden bolt of lightning, and he was dead too.

“I guess you didn’t put an end to my task.” Leo took the potion, drank a little bit, and he started feeling that the bushes were shrinking, and so when it stopped shrinking he looked down and it looked as though he was 7 feet tall. In fact, he was.

“Hey clones this is aweso—what happened?” All of the clones were gone. Disappeared. 

So Leo tested his flying and he flew all the way on top of Romania and then to Italy, and found out that he was able to fly since he was so tall. He was super happy. So he flew back across the Atlantic Ocean. He didn’t really feel bad about leaving them behind because he had himself.

Part Three: Fight in Dubai

Place: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dimension: Earth

Leo wanted to fly up Mount Everest on Earth, so he took the Dimension Teleporter to Earth, and flew to Asia and Nepal because he was already in China, to fly above the Great Wall. He was 20,000 feet above sea level when he felt that he couldn’t breathe. So he went back down 2,000 feet to get an oxygen mask, and then flew all the way up and saw the view.  It looked like he was in space, since he was so high up. He could see literally all of Nepal. It was snowing constantly, and everything looked snowy. He felt very satisfied. He wanted to fly up the tallest building in Dubai, called the Burj Khalifa.

Meanwhile, there was someone who liked to be called Nikyl to “seal his secret identity” as he said, who was pulled into a whirlpool, and got water powers, and could manipulate other people into giving him their powers.

Leo heard on TV that Nikyl wanted Leo to be Nikyl’s next target, so Leo decided to fight him. He thought about Dubai and closed his eyes, and after a moment he opened his eyes, but he wasn’t in Nepal. He was somewhere else.

“Where am I?” he asked someone who was passing by him.

“Dubai,” a man replied in a forgein language that Leo didn’t know.

“What?” Leo asked, but the man was already gone.

“He said you are in Dubai.” Leo turned around and there was a kid behind him. He was about Leo’s age, had brown hair, and his face reminded Leo of someone familiar.

“Misha! What are you doing here?”

It wasn’t long when Leo found out that he could teleport. He was thinking a lot about Dubai, so he teleported. This was too much for Leo already! Misha and Leo were at the entrance of the Burj Khalifa.

“You’re going to fly that high?” Misha looked at the top of the tower. 

“Yeah, I flew on top of Mount Everest, too. No biggie,” Leo said confidently.

Misha’s eyes almost popped out of his face. “Okkayyy…”

So Leo was halfway up the tower when he saw the water make bigger waves than before.  He stopped flying and there was someone that appeared from the water. He heard people screaming and saw people running. It was Nikyl. He had blue eyes and black hair. His face was blank. He had a poker face. And then there was this water strike coming from Nikyl, aiming at him. It was blue and foaming with bubbles. It was about to touch him when it immediately turned into ice and fell down.  Leo looked down and saw Misha, smiling.

“Did you do that?” Leo asked.

Misha nodded, still smiling.  

Leo looked up at Nikyl and saw that he was manipulating a water monster, so Leo flew to Nikyl, but stopped because he looked familiar, too, like when he met Misha.

“Sabino?” Leo asked, confused. Nikyl looked a lot like Sabino, who Leo was friends with also. In fact, Misha, Leo, and Sabino made up a trio.

“Who are you, how do you know me, and why are you here?” Nikyl or, as Leo suspected, Sabino asked.

“Oh, let me introduce myself.” Leo struck a huge bolt of lightning that pierced through the sky like Achilles’ sword, and Sabino stumbled, surprised.

“Convenient, Leo, that you’re back.” Leo and Sabino did the same ‘secret handshake’ that Misha and Leo did when Leo went to Misha’s house to ask where the potion is.

“Umm… guys?” Misha shouted from way below, “Could you come down here? I don’t think I can get up there.”

“Be proactive,” Sabino said.

“And you can easily build an ice staircase,” Leo added.

“Nah. I think it’s a little weird that we are up there. Just really, you know,” Misha pointed at the spectators who were mostly taking pictures with their phones, even a newscast.

So Sabino and Leo came down to meet Misha when about a thousand of people came to meet them to interview them. They reminded Leo of his clones. But worse.

A lot worse.

Part Four: Ending

Place: Annapolis, Maryland

Dimension: Hearth-not-Earth

Dum-tek-a-dum

Sabino’s drum gave a unique rhythm that banged through his house like the drum was summoning something. Everyone in the house was doing some movements, from nodding the head, to dancing. At least everyone was having a great time. Misha was playing the clarinet, and Leo, the trumpet. It was a year after the three had met in Dubai. All of them were very blown away that each of them had powers.

The song ended and everyone was cheering, “Happy birthday Sabino!”

It was Sabino’s eighteenth birthday.

They were done with higher school, (or high school) and since it was Sabino’s birthday on the last day of school, the moms of the trio decided to throw a party. A big one. All of the students were invited. 

Leo felt like the happiest person in the world. And so he knew, there were a lot more possibilities than a flash of lightning.

THE END

Or is it…

Yes it is…or maybe not…or maybe…you don’t know…only I do…dun dun dun!

Chapter 1

Sharpay

Right now, I am running for my life along with my faithful sibling who is holding the amber ring that we must hide, even though I am only 12.

“To the slope quickly!” Ben yelled. 

Though the villains chasing us had ideas of their own… You must be very confused, but I promise it will all be explained when I am not being chased by 2 people who can kill. 

Oh good, we’re here. The amber ring cave. Now that we’re safe, let’s begin. 

Recap: Ben and I were normal kids, or at least we thought we were. Our mom owned a ring that we always thought was beautiful, but now we know it was dangerous. Inside this ring was a very dangerous specimen, whatever that means. That’s all Mom ever said about it. Oh, I forgot. The people who were chasing us were the leaders of the other side of the fight.

 They wanted the ring because they wanted us dead. 

Chapter 2

Ben 

“Oh wow, that was fun,” I said sarcastically. 

“That wasn’t fun,” Sharpay said, clearly sarcasm was not in her vocabulary. Or readily understood. 

Tomorrow is my birthday, and the biggest gift I can get is being alive and safely having the ring. I remember when we used to throw a big party in the backyard with sprinklers, the yummy cake that Mom always made, and the bouncy house that Dad put together. I miss them. Even though they are just a few miles away, it feels like I will never see them again. 

“Ben, Ben, Ben! What are you writing?” 

“Nothing.” I quickly covered the book. My sister could be so annoying sometimes. Suddenly, we heard buzzing. 

“They’re back!” 

We climbed into the secret hole that was hidden at the base of the cave.

“Sharpay! Quickly!” 

We both jumped into the porthole towards the underground secret base. I quickly started to close the hatch.

“Wait!” Sharpay yelled, “My hair bow!”

Our mom gave each of us a present before we left for the secret mission. I got the journal (but I share it with Sharpay) and she got the hair bow. 

“Come on Sharpay!” 

She grabbed the bow and jumped into the hatch. I was waiting, ready to catch her. 

We ran, even though no one was chasing us. First mission complete. 

Chapter 3

Sharpay

We just arrived at the heart of the busy tunnels. There, our cousin, Will, was waiting for us. 

“Quickly!” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they tracked me down.”

My heart was racing. My brother was arguing with Will. All I heard were scraps of the ongoing conversation. 

“I told you to be careful.” 

“I tried.” 

“You’re so much smarter than them.” 

“But they have the amber ring.” 

“No, we have it!” 

“Okay, whatever.” 

I stayed silent. I didn’t want Ben yelling at me. But I knew I had to say something, so I did. 

“How did they track you down?” I said quietly. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have asked this question, I thought to myself. Will looked upset. Then he told us a story that I will never forget. 

He got captured, and the villains said they would track down everyone and release the amber ring once they had it. So he had no choice but to reveal his location. 

“It’s fine,” Ben said. “We have many other bases.” 

“Okay,” said Will, reassured. 

Meanwhile I keep thinking about the sparkle I saw when I left the cave. I screamed! 

“What was that about?” Ben asked. “You’re going to make my eardrums bleed.” 

“We lost the amber ring!” I said, trembling, 

“No, we didn’t, it is in my backpack. Look!” 

It wasn’t there. Without thinking, I ran back to the cave. I only stopped for as much as a breath of air. I didn’t look back. I tried to block the noises of Ben’s screaming. Finally, I made it to the amber ring cave. 

Suddenly, strong arms grabbed me, and then darkness. 

Chapter 4

Ben 

I couldn’t believe Sharpay. She made us go through so much trouble. Tracing and retracing my footsteps over and over again. We finally arrived at the palace that the villains lived in. Somehow, I thought that she would be here. I don’t know what brought me here, fate or coincidence, but out of some magic, I knew she was here. Thank god, the villains weren’t home. 

Plan: 

1. Go to the back door, and then use rope to hoist ourselves onto the roof. 
2. Pound a hole through the roof, tie the rope and lower ourselves down.
3. Find a good hiding place. 
4. Um, uh, think of a number 4. 
5. Search the house for Sharpay and look for any breadcrumbs 
6. Find Sharpay (hopefully) 
7. Hoist ourselves back up through the roof and down to safety.

Easy. 

Not. 

I couldn’t let this happen to my little sister. She could be annoying at times, but I made a promise to keep her safe. 

“Don’t worry. Nothing will go wrong,” Will said.

“About a thousand things could go wrong.” 

“At least it’s not a thousand and one!” 

I rolled my eyes. “We don’t have much time, let’s go.”

Will and I crawled through the grass to the back of the house.

“Rope,” I said, holding my hand out.

“Check,” Will said.

They had a chimney, so step 2 wasn’t needed. I picked up all the rope and dropped it down the chimney. Then I tied the rope around my waist and jumped. Immediately, I saw that Sharpay untied her bow and placed it on the floor. 

“Why can’t I come?” Will called from above.

“You need to keep a lookout!” I yelled back.

I followed the bow, which had been unfurled, towards the bookshelf, where there was a 

poem:

You must go where the rare orchids grow

then go below where there is no foe                                    

then to the maze where the young does graze

You are in a daze to be amazed                                                                                 

And there you will find me – Sharpay

 Chapter 5

Sharpay

I untied my ribbon and led it to a certain bookshelf, then wrote a small note and placed it within a book. I moved quickly and secretly before the villains noticed. 

“Move on quickly, or else I’ll slap you.”

I moved at a fast pace, hoping to keep up with my captors. I heard them talking to one another. 

“We’re gonna have to leave to search for the ring. Hope the girl doesn’t escape.”

One of the men opened a secret passage. I knew about the secret passage, of course. That’s why I mentioned it in my poem. Mom had been in a similar situation as I was, and if she could escape, then I could too. Even though I knew Ben would come to rescue me, I still wanted to find a way to escape on my own. 

In the secret passage, orchids lined the walls, or at least I thought they did. I was pretty sure they were orchids. I brought my nose towards the bright purple flowers. 

“Get a move on, girl! Get in here and do not make a noise,” the villains said.

I did as I was told. I nodded silently as I was getting pushed and dragged into a cage. I looked out one of the small windows in the cage, I saw a bird and felt a ray of hope. But then, the door clanged shut behind me. I was trapped! At least I had the amber ring. But I hoped Ben would know where to go and would bring his lock picks.

I studied the cage to find a secret code, but instead of finding a code, I found a key! Hidden in the dirt was a silver, curved key. Suddenly, I had a thought. Maybe mom knew I might be captured one day and left a key for me! I smiled, thinking of my clever parents. I opened the door and ran outside. Only to bump into to a horrified Ben!                             

“Aaaaaaaahh!” 

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!”

Giggling, I fell to the floor.

“Guess I didn’t need to find you,” Ben said sheepishly.

“Guess not.” I smiled.

Chapter 6

Ben

I almost wanted to kill Sharpay, but she had been kidnapped, so I’d wait to yell.

“I miss Mom and Dad,” Sharpay said sadly.

I did too, but I didn’t dare tell Sharpay. 

“Come on, let’s go!” I said to Sharpay, 

I was not mad but I was scared because the villains could come back any second now. We ran, hopefully to never come back to this horrible place. Sharpay and I ran up the stairs to where we entered the fortress. 

“Will, come on!” I yelled up through the chimney. 

“I’ll meet you outside,” Will responded with a loud echo. 

What does he have, a microphone? I thought to myself. 

Sharpay and I ran outside through the main door. This was easier than the way we came in. Why didn’t we just do this?

 Will… When outside, we saw Will with an ice cream cone. 

“Where’d you get that?!” Sharpay yelled. 

“I got bored, then a little hungry, so I raided the kitchen for something sweet. Then I found this! I really hope it’s not poisoned.” 

“Why did you eat that!” I said.

“I was hungry! This flavor is worth getting poisoned for.” 

Sharpay rolled her eyes with a little smile. 

“Come on, let’s go to the stream. There’s a rowboat there. We can use it to escape,” I said. 

Little Tip from Will: 

If you are on a secret mission, going to a top-secret place, avoid the road and always take nature path. Be careful of poison ivy! 

P.S. always bring snacks. 

We walked towards an abandoned treehouse. We used it as our secret base. Sharpay went up to grab a map. She handed it to me and then we were off! Following Will’s long complaints about how we had no snacks besides peanut butter and apples. After a while, Will was satisfied. 

 

Chapter 7

Sharpay 

After we made it to the rowboat, Ben lifted it up and then dropped it again! 

“What’s wrong Ben?” I said.

“There’s writing on the bottom!” 

“What type of writing?” 

“It looks like mostly gibberish.” 

“Look again, maybe it’s a code!” Will said. 

“Will, can I use your notebook?” Ben asked. 

“It’s mostly just doodles of burgers and fries!” Will exclaimed. 

“Can you spare us one page?” 

“But, it’s my french fries and burger collection.” 

“Fine.” 

Ben flipped the boat over and examined the code. 

“Look at it,” he said.

“Sharpay, remember when Mom taught us to crack different codes?”

“Yeah. I remember my favourite one was to cross out all the even numbers,” I reply. 

“Okay, let’s try that.” 

T S U Y N L N Z E

M L H B F E L E S W

Q I U T H H O M

T O F M P A Z 

N X D 3 D 3 A 3 D

TUNNEL BEE WITH MOM AND DAD 

Chapter 8

Ben

“Sharpay, do you still remember the way to Tunnel Bee?”

“Yes, we just have to go north for 16 miles, east for 7 miles, and then north for 2 more miles, then we go underground.” 

“Will, how long would it take to go 16 miles north?” 

“About an hour and a half.” 

“Only!?” Sharpay said. 

“Yup.” 

“It’ll take a lot longer than an hour and a half, if we don’t go,” I said.

We rowed for a while. I was glad Will doesn’t complain as much about food as before. Suddenly, Sharpay got quiet. 

“What is it?” I asked. 

“That,” Sharpay said, pointing into the distance. 

In the distance, there was a black sky with angry thunder and waves taller than our house. Which was pretty tall. 

“Sharpay! Find the nearest island or place to dock.” I yelled through the wind, but it was too late. Sharpay grabbed me as a massive wave went over the boat. I saw Sharpay drop the amber ring. 

“Thank you,” I mouthed through the wind.

Our boat split into two! I held onto the front of the boat with one hand. With the other, I grabbed Sharpay as tightly as I could. I wanted to say that everything was going to be alright, but I don’t like to lie. Black waves sloshed all around us. Finally, I couldn’t hold on any longer. I let go of the boat, and Sharpay and I were flooded by darkness. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I made sure that my grip on Sharpay remained strong. 

Chapter 9

Sharpay 

In the morning, I woke up on a sand dune. I reached into my pocket and took out the hair bow. I was glad it wasn’t lost in the storm. Just a few inches away, Ben was sitting down, writing in his journal. 

“Morning Ben.” 

“You’re already awake?”

“Where’s Will?”

“I don’t know where he is, maybe he’s—” 

“Look! I have a piña colada.” Will said, holding up a large coconut with a weed straw. Ben glared at Will. I tried to hold back a small giggle, but it still came out. I avoided looking at Ben, because he would probably glare at me too. 

“Where did you find the coconuts?” Ben asked. 

“You mean, piña colada.” 

“No trust me, I mean coconuts.” 

“No, I’m pretty sure you mean piña coladas.”

“Sharpay, what do you think?” 

“Sorry, Ben, but I’m going to say piña coladas.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll show you where the piña coladas are.”

“Since we’re gonna be stuck on this island, palm trees might make a good fort, and coconuts come from palm trees, so we can eat and sleep,” Ben stated, clearly annoyed by the piña colada incident. 

“I can build a fire,” I said.

“Fine with me,” Ben said.

“Will, come chop wood with me.” 

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” Will said. “Can I continue collecting more piña coladas?”

“No,” Ben said. “Now c’mon.” 

Will followed him, dragging his steps. 

“Phew,” I said. I hate chopping wood. 

Will tossed me his lighter. “Good luck,” he mouthed. This should be easy. How hard could it be? Soon, I had a fire burning brightly. A few minutes later, Ben came holding a mound of wood. Will came back holding a handful of berries. I rolled my eyes. We all helped Ben build the walls in the hut. 

Soon, I found that my stomach was rumbling. 

As if Ben read my mind. “There’s a lot of coconuts if anyone’s hungry.” 

“Piña coladas,” Will said. 

“Piña coladas,” Ben said, whispering to himself. 

Soon, my eyes started to close. “Goodnight,” I murmured, and fell into a dreary sleep. 

Chapter 10

Ben    

I shook Sharpay awake. A small boat was pulling up and inside was—

“Mom, Dad!”

Sharpay and I ran up to our parents, hugging them long and hard.

“I thought you would never come back,” Sharpay said, tears streaming down her eyes.

Dad turned to me as if I had something to say. I was speechless. I felt a tear well up my cheek. I ran into their arms.

“I missed you so much,” I said. 

I climbed into their small boat. 

“Will!” Mom said. “Your parents are waiting for you at your house. Come with us.”

“My parents?” Will said and happily climbed into the boat. 

We all sailed away happily.

Will tip:

Family is the best! 

Epilogue 

Ben and Sharpay

When Ben and Sharpay get home, they celebrate Ben’s birthday party. Their mom makes a yummy cake, and their dad puts together a bouncy castle. Soon, the family got used to being home again. 

I know that this is not a fairytale, but they did live happily ever after. 

Hi. My name is Ellie-Mae. I am moving from freezing Minnesota to boiling Florida. I am not ready. The whole reason I have to move is because of my mom’s stupid new job. At the moment, I am throwing out out all my pants, long sleeved shirts, and coats. Now I have to buy a ton of shorts and sun hats and sunscreen and popsicles and flip flops and I think I’m losing my mind. I am putting everything into giant garbage bags and in half an hour, we’re taking it to goodwill.

“EM? Where are you?” yells my mom. Sometimes she calls me EM just to save time.

“Right here mom,” I yell back.

“Ellie, we’re leaving in half an hour!” she says, entering my room. “Ellie, stop dawdling, we have to leave!!”

“I know, Mom. You’ve only told me, like, a million times,” I say back. “Also, I’m not dawdling.” I can’t believe she is doing this. She is making me move away from everything I’ve ever known, and now, she is lecturing me for dawdling. Really, mom?

I hear a cry from the next room. “Momma, Holly took my toy again!!” Oh great. It’s the littlies. Holly and Joy are six year old twins, and they are identical in looks, but in nothing else. Joy is a spunky, adventurous daredevil, while Holly is forever cautious, except about stealing everything of Joy’s. They are so annoying. I however, am 12, nowhere near six. I just don’t get them. They act like everything is such a big deal.

Hey, wait a minute. I run into their room. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be packing up your toys?”

Joy puts on her cute face and cute voice. “I sowwy, Ewwie. I didn’t mean too. They just looked like,” she sniffs, “so much fun.”

“OK, fiiine,” I say. Even though the twins are annoying, they are still so cute. They both have streaky blonde hair, like I used to. (Now I have brown) They also have these beautiful blue eyes. Mine are just hazel.

A few hours later…

All my stuff is gone. Everything. Everything for weather under 50 degrees. No more hoodies, or sweatpants. No more winter boots, or winter hats. No more fuzzy fleeces, or heaters. We will need about a kajillion ACs and fans. I’m actually kind of sad. Before I know it, tears are streaming down my cheeks. I know it sounds silly, crying over giving away some old pants, but, for some reason, it’s making me really emotional. Oh well. I guess I’ll just try to get some sleep. After all, it is 11pm and I have to get up early to pack more.

“Ellie-Mae Rose Davis!!! Get up!!!” That’s what I woke up to this morning.

“Yeah, Mom, I overslept. What’s the big deal?!” I responded, because she oversleeps all the time.

“Ellie, it’s 1 o’clock!!!” she said. So now I am rushing to pack up all my books before the van comes at 1:45.

Finally, I’m done. Now I’m gonna go check on the twins juuuuust in case. I open up my door, and march into the twins room. Sure enough, they are sitting on their beds not packing at all. 

“Hey guys, come on, you know what—Joy?” Joy is crying. That’s not like her at all.

I sit on her bed. “Joy, what happened?” I say in my most gentle voice possible. It’s not gentle enough. She grouches.

“Why do you want to know?” Man. I thought I was being gentle.

“Hmmph,” I hmmph and walk away. I go over to Holly. “Holly, what happened to Joy?” I say to her.

“I don’t know!! She just started crying out of nowhere!!” Holly responds. Oh well, I think. I’ll get to this later. We’re moving tomorrow. That’s what I should worry about. I go back into my room, and keep packing up my books. 

OK, so it’s four am and moving day. The twenty six hour drive is straight ahead. Luckily, nobody in our family gets carsick, so we won’t have to do a barf stop an hour in. We are leaving at four so we can get as much driving time as possible. We get in the car. It’s a seven seater, even though we only have four people in our family. My mom in the front, me in the middle row, and the twins in the back. That means I get a big comfy seat to myself. That’s good because it’s such a long car ride. I have my snack bag, with cheetos, chex mix, string cheese, oreos, goldfish, bunny grahams, and more. I get hungry fast. That is why I have so much food. I also have my phone with Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen on it. It’s really all I listen to. If you haven’t listened to those musicals, you really should. They are great for car rides. OK, onward. We buckle in, and zoom off. 

Not five minutes into the ride, Holly says, “Mommy?”

“Yes Holly?”

“Um, I forgot to use the bathroom,” she responds.

My mom pulls over into a gas station. “Go quickly,” she says.

And Holly does not. It’s been seven minutes now. My mom tells us to go in with her. We go in, and Holly is standing in front of the bathroom door.

She says, “I’ve been waiting for them to come out!!”

“Oh Holly!” my mom says. “You’re supposed to ask the employee for the key!! I thought you knew! Come on, let’s go.” My mom goes and asks the cashier for the key. He gives it to her and my mom unlocks the door. Holly goes and comes out.

“Okay, let’s go now,” I yell. We get back in the car and start driving again. I eat my cheez-its. I listen to Dear Evan Hansen. I listen to Hamilton. I listen to Dear Evan Hansen. It gets stuck in my head. Joy hits Holly. Holly hits Joy. Holly cries while Joy hits her again. Ugh. I turn my music up louder. I fall asleep. I wake up and it is 3pm. Wow, I slept a lot. Hamilton is still blasting in my ears. It’s hard to believe how I fell asleep listening to that. I look back and the twins are sleeping. Aww, how cute. Holly is sleeping on Joy’s shoulder. Ooh, Sincerely Me is coming on. (If you didn’t already know, it’s a song from Dear Evan Hansen that’s really funny.) 

One week later…

I am starting school tomorrow!!! Aah!! I have all my stuff. Composition notebooks. Graph paper. A calculator. I think I will be ready. The twins start school too. 1st grade. I know Joy is excited, but I’m not sure about Holly. She’s much more sensitive. I hope to make some friends. So, let’s go!!

Today’s the big day. School! I jump in the car, with my new striped backpack and buckle in. We’re off! It is a short drive, only about 10 minutes. I step out, and the new school is huge! Four stories, and a big grass lawn. It looks very modern, mostly made of blue glass. I cannot believe how big it is. Okay, breathe, Ellie, breathe. I walk in and the hallways are filled with people.

Someone pushes me from behind and says, “Newbie.”

I walk into my classroom and every single person is tan. Tan, tan, tan. Some may be spray tans, but for the most part, natural. While I look like an albino polar bear in the snow. The teacher takes attendance. Emma? Noah? Sophia? Ellie Mae?

“Here,” I say. Everyone starts looking at me.

“Thank you Ellie Mae,” the teacher says, “but next time, you can just raise your hand.” 

Oh no. I’ve already messed up, and it’s not even lunch yet. I hear snickering in the background. Oh, good. It’s time for lunch. No wait. Not good. Not good at all. I won’t have anyone to sit with. Shoot. Maybe I’ll eat in the bathroom like in movies. That’ll really boost my social confidence. The girl who eats in the bathroom. Great. Perfect for my resume. The bell rings. Everyone runs out of the room. Everyone but me. I walk slowly out of the room.

As I’m walking around the school, I see a poster for one free sailing class. Hm. That actually sounds really fun. In Minnesota, nobody sailed at all. I haven’t even seen an ocean yet.

I text my mom and say, “Free sailing class 2 go 2. Can I go? It’s on Sep 12.”

She almost immediately texts back, “Sure. Also numbers are not words.” Yes! I might find something I actually like here in muggy Florida. 

It’s time. September 12th. My first ever sailing class. I’m in my new glittery bikini that I bought just for this. I walk towards the boat dock and I see a girl in the exact same swimsuit!! We both laugh and point at each other. I can’t believe we bought the same thing!! This is hilarious. We start talking and I figured out that her name is Juniper, and she’s lived in Florida her entire life. She told me that she could show me around. Oh my god, this is great!! I think I made a friend. I’m not sure yet, but I think I did. There are three other girls there, all in matching swimsuits with polka dots. I decide to call them the polka dot girls. There are also two boys who are in swim trunks. The instructor comes out, and she looks like she is about eighteen. 

She says, “Okay guys, I am your instructor, Jaylee, and I will teach you the basics of sailing. The number one thing is don’t get hit with the boom! The boom is the bottom part of the sail and it is strong enough to knock you off the boat, which we don’t want happening. The water is cold. So, let’s get started, shall we? First up we have, uh, Nicholas.” One of the boys stands up and goes over to Jaylee. I can see that she is telling him how to control the boat, but I can’t hear what she is saying. He goes out on his own after about 15 minutes, and slowly navigates the boat in a small circle. 

“Umm, Kacy?” Jaylee says. One of the polka dots gets up. She falls in while trying to dance on the boat. “Maisie?” Another polka dot. Maisie doesn’t fall in, but she decides that she doesn’t want to go out alone and Jaylee basically does it for her. “John?” 

“Can you call me Jack?” he asks. 

“Ok, Jack, it’s your turn,” says Jaylee. He navigates the boat very well. It’s Juniper’s turn now. 

“Good luck,” I whisper. She does okay. Jaylee has to yell out a couple instructions. Now it’s Chelsea, the last polka dottie. She also falls in. Finally, it’s my turn.

Jaylee whispers, “I’ve got a good feeling about you.” She explains everything to me, and then, I do it. I turn the rudder, I avoid the boom. I think I did everything almost perfect. I steer the boat back to shore and Jaylee hugs me.

“You did so well!!” she cries, “I knew it.” I am just in awe. It was really fun. I can’t believe I had done so well. I now know what I want to do. I want to sail.

Emily was a girl like any other. She lived in a modest good sized house with her mother, father, and older brother Sam. Remember this now you might need this later.

That Tuesday, Emily went and picked daisies from the meadow.

“Ooh, pink daisies,” Emily cried. She quickly scooped them up and scurried home.

As soon as she went home, her older brother Sam ran over to her. As soon as he saw the daisies, he locked eyes with his sister and shared a worried look. Emily was confused. Sam dragged her to the kitchen, grabbed the daisies, ripped them up, and poured them down the drain. 

“Hey!” Emily screamed. “Get back here!” She started chasing him all around the house. As they tore through the living room, their mother was reading a book on the couch. 

“What is the meaning of this?” their mother asked. Sam told her about the daisies while catching his breath. At each word he said, his mother’s face paled even more. Emily was fed up.
“Why are you acting like the daisies are something bad? They’re just flowers!” Her mother didn’t hear her as she was calling for their father. 

Her father raced into the room and their mother started launching into an explanation of the daisies. Like their mother, his face paled at each word she spoke.

And Emily repeated, “What is the deal with the daisies? They’re just a bunch of flowers.”

Her father told her that they would explain in the car as he told her to pack just the essentials. Her mother shoved her blue and pink striped travel bag at her and told her to pack a flashlight and some spare socks. Her mother grabbed her and Sam’s coats and shoved them through the door, and the second they stepped into the car, the door was closed. 

Her father was usually one to go by the rules and he was a slow driver, but Emily was surprised at how fast he was driving, making sharp turns and not stopping at stop signs. 

“Now can you tell me what the deal about the daisies are?” Emily asked. 

Her mother took a deep breath and sighed. 

“This started a long time ago, during which your great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Agnes, was alive. She was a duchess. In other words, an ambassador of England.”

“Wow,” Emily breathed, “so we’re royalty!”

“Not now, Emily. This is important,” her mother said. So she continued the story, “Agnes was an ambassador of England. Since she was an ambassador, she travelled everywhere. From France, to Spain, even all the way to Japan. One day after a long trip to Norway, she sat down in the meadow. Yes, Emily, the very meadow you picked your daisies from.”

While Agnes was sitting down, she had a question. She thought to herself, ‘Why are the daisies pink? And why do they only bloom at a certain time and at a certain date?’ So she decided to go and ask the landscaper and the gardener. They had no idea. They told her that the daisies were there when they came, so they never bothered with them. A few times they tried taking them out but they wouldn’t budge. 

“So she went to the King. He was a personal friend. She didn’t talk to him all that much because he was a king, but she wasn’t afraid to talk to him. The King didn’t know either. All he knew was that his father’s father met a merchant on the street, and the merchant sold the seeds to him. That day he planted the seeds, and when he woke up, the flowers were fully grown. That was impossible. Agnes knew something fishy was going on, so she headed to the council. The council knew nothing more than the gardener, landscaper, or the King. So Agnes decided to find some information for herself. 

“The next day she headed to the royal library. She knew she was in for a long day because the library was three stories high (that was very high back then because they didn’t have the technology we do).” 

“I’m hungry,” Sam moaned. 

“Shhh,” Emily whispered, “I want to listen to the story.” 

“Here,” Mom said, and she tossed Sam a granola bar and gave Emily a box of yogurt covered raisins. 

“Now back to the story,” Mom said, “as Agnes walked down the long, cavernous hall, she looked at all of the books. She grabbed a big pile of books and settled down into the big, comfy armchair. She read and read and never saw anything about pink daisies, let alone daisies that only show up once a month. All she found was a chapter about glowing pink fungus. When she was about to give up and head home, a book caught her eye. It was titled: Flowers of the Rainbow. 

‘I guess one more book couldn’t hurt,’ Agnes said to herself. So Agnes settled herself once again into the big, comfy chair.

“When she reached the last chapter, the chapter about pink flowers, she found what she was looking for. So she rushed home to the gardener, the landscaper, the King, and the council. They couldn’t believe their ears, but apparently a councilman was taken aback by Agnes’ determination (it wasn’t very common for women to be too determined on a single thing. Mostly they were just there for tea parties), so he asked her to marry him. Of course she said yes. So they lived a good life and had three children. One of them was your great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother Fiona.”

“How did Agnes meet the councilman?” Emily cried.

“How did he decide to marry her right there and then?” Sam asked. 

“Woah, woah,” their mom said. “One at a time, one at a time. But let me finish my story first!

“When she and the councilman were married, they decided to do research about the pink daisies together. They found that the pink daisies were planted by leprechauns. That was the reason the plants wouldn’t budge. They tried to make the petals green, but it was a miscalculation and  they made the petals pink! Leprechauns hate pink, so that’s why the daisies only show up once in a blue moon. So, on the next blue moon, (12 years later) they went to the flowers and met the leprechauns (they show up every blue moon to look at the daisies). So when she went to the leprechaun, Agnes apologized for disturbing the flowers, and that nobody in her family (the Bellinghangrhs) would ever bother the pink daisies again.”

“But why did we have to run away?” Emily asked, still confused. 

“Because Agnes struck a deal with the leprechauns that whoever picked the daisies would have to serve them for 100 years.”

“But I can’t live 100 years!” Emily cried.

“Don’t worry, Agnes made sure that if we had a good, valid reason, we would not have to serve 100 years of servitude. Instead, we would pick them red bell peppers for 2 years. I know you don’t like the sound of that, but Agnes saved you from 100 years of leprechaunian servitude, and that’s harsh!”

“But you still didn’t answer why we had to run away.” Emily said.

“Oh we aren’t running away, sweetheart. We just can’t be late to the place where we meet the leprechauns or else they will think it’s a sign that we think that we’re better than them.” 

3 Days later … 

“Wow, I’m glad we got that over with,” Emily said, slumping on the couch. “I’m pooped!” 

“Haha,” Sam said, “you said ‘pooped’.” 

“Oh shut up Sam!” Emily said.

“Now we don’t use that language,” their mom said. 

“Sorry mom,” Emily muttered. 

“What a day,” their father said. “At least we got out of 100 years of leprechaunian servitude! But your mom almost made it 6 years of picking red bell peppers.”

“But I didn’t!” Mom called from the kitchen. 

“But barely,” Dad whispered.

“I heard that,” Mom said, standing at the doorway with her hands on her hips.

“Ooh, hands on her hips is not a good sign,” Sam said. 

Mom cast a disapproving stare at the both of them. 

“Someone’s in trouble, someone’s in trouble,” Emily chanted, tauntingly.

“I’m gonna get you,” Sam said.

“Get back here you two!” their father said as he tackled them to the couch. Their mother gave them another disapproving glare, this time at Emily too. 

“Ha ha,” Sam said jumping to his feet, “you can’t punish me if you can’t catch me.”

Emily ran with him. Their mother chased after them, their father right behind her as he tried to reason with her.

“Margaret”—(Margaret was their mother’s name, Robert was their father’s)—“they’re just kids!” he tried to tell her, catching his breath at the same time.

As the family tore through the house, Emily thought, “I have the best family!”

1/23/19

Running for Change

I was running. Who knew I would be running for my life while I was trying to change the world? My heart was pounding as an angry mob of kids chased me. They threw the flyers that I gave them at me. It was a terrible sight. This was not the day I was planning. I started walking home.

2/6/19

College

I found a place to hide as the mob rush past. I don’t have much time to explain, but I am Violet. I don’t know parents. When I was little, probably five, my parents died. I was left in my brother’s dorm room. Finally I ran away. College classes were so boring. They were not hard. They were just so boring. Even though I’m only eleven, I studied since I was five and a half. I got As on all my tests. I’m even better then my brother, Benjamin.

¨Mom and Dad would be proud,” Ben always said. I never believed him. He is seven years older than me, but I’m much smarter. This is why I ran away once I got better then my brother (that took a year and a half). But now I’́m changing the world, one girl at a time.

2/19/19 

Changing the World

I have a job, a house and a family. I have a job at the Women’s Rights Society. I change women’s lives across the globe. I have a small house in Cape Cod. I live with my cousins Lilian and Nicholas. Lilian works at the Women’s Rights Society with me. Nicholas is a soccer teacher. 

Our house has two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and two bathrooms. Lilian, Nicholas, and I all sleep in one room. Lilian and I sleep on the top bunk and Nicholas sleeps on the bottom bunk. The other bedroom they use for a reading room. 

In the Women’s Rights Society we get groups of people or schools to focus on human rights. People usually thought it was unfair we focus only on women’s rights. They think it’s a problem. They’re the problem! They are the ones who are being so unfair! Since I’m 12 now and already finished college my goal is to save 7,300 more lives in the next ten years.

That means I would save two to four people a day. That’s Lilian’s and my dream: change the world and save it. Lilian just got a new job at the Save The World Society. Her boss and the President of the society is her friend, Brigid. Lilian’s friend, Lily, is the vice president of the society. Brigid and Lily want to save the world, one plastic bag at a time.

3/2/19

Saving the World Society

Lilian works in two societies. Two days at The Women’s Rights Society and three days at Saving The World Society. On Lilian’s second week at her new job, Lilian takes me to her new job. Everyone is so nice. They are all women and they all love The Women’s Society. Today, Lilian has a test to make sure she can do the job. We always have to take a test because we’re kids. People! We graduated college already and we were eleven!! Give us a break!!!

3/12/19

Lilian

When Lilian comes home today, something happened. Lilian walked up to the door. Her brown hair was in a long braid. She walked to the door slowly. She opened the door.

“How did you do?” I asked. She looked so sad I shouldn’t have asked.

4/5/19

The Test

“I did it!!! I passed!!!” Lilian screamed. I was so happy for her. Now she can change the world and save it!

“Lily even said I did better than most of the adults!”

“That is so great!” I said. I was so happy for her.

5/27/19

The Women’s Rights Society

I walked to work the next day. Work was only 1 stop on the F train. I opened the door.

“Violet,” Rio said, “Sam would like to see you.” Rio works at the front desk. She tells people what the company is about. It’s been a few months since I started my goal. I saved 90 people each month. In other words I saved 270 people in three months that means I saved 2-3 people a day. I thought of all this as I walked to Sam’s office. I knock on her office door.

“Come in,” Sam said. It didn’t really think it sounded like Sam. I went in any way. I really regret that. It was dark in the room something jumped on me…

 6/9/19

The Evil President

When I woke up it was dark, but I sensed Sam. She always wore a lot of perfume. I snuck to the door. I opened it. I ran. I really wish I got just a promotion. I ran and ran down 8 flights of stairs. Everyone asked me what was going on. Sam had gone mad. I called the police.

“Hello,” the person on the other line said. 

“Yes,” I said. “Someone’s gone mad.” 

“We will be over in 10 minutes,” they said.

“Bye,” I said. I locked Sam in the worker’s lounge room.

“I guess we need a new president,” someone said.

“Let’s make Violet the President of the society,” another person said.

1/23/29

Women’s Rights Society President

After Sam was put in jail, I became president of the society. It’s been 10 years since I started my goal. I’ve done it! Saved 7,300 lives in ten years! I’m still changing the world, one girl at a time.

There once was a mermaid named Laura and she was twenty one. Laura had two friends. The friends’ names were Anna and Sophie. Laura was still not married. Anna was getting married in twenty days and Sophie was getting married in thirty days. The next day, all three of them went for a swim in the prettiest reef in seven miles from Anna’s home. In about forty minutes later, they went to their hideout. Then they got there so they swam out and all went back to their home. The next day, while they were waiting, they saw a light, but they ignored it and swam away. They talked about both of the weddings for a while. Then, when they were swimming back before they split up, they saw the light again and were getting curious. They went closer and then Laura’s tail got stuck on a fishing hook. Someone tugged on the line and started to reel it up. Anna and Sophie started trying to get the hook off her tail, but it wouldn’t budge. It was getting really close to the surface and all three of them heard the fisherman saying that he saw something orange, which was Laura’s tail. And they all got very scared. 

Laura made herself invisible quick and the fisherman were surprised because he thought he saw something on the hook. And then Laura dropped on the boat and it made a sound. The fisherman got scared. He knew that he was just hallucinating. Then, she thought really hard to get legs, but that didn’t work. The fisherman started to drive his boat away with Laura. Sophie and Anna started to follow the boat and they rushed in front of it, trying to stop the boat. But they were not strong enough. Laura tried to wiggle off the boat, and her tail was halfway off, but it wouldn’t budge. She was getting too dry and she saw a water bottle on the boat. The fisherman turned around and Laura took the water bottle she saw and poured it all over herself. She was so close to getting off the boat and she flipped off, and it made a huge splash. The fisherman knew that he was not hallucinating, so he jumped in. Laura saw Anna and Sophie, and all three of them became invisible. And they swam off, putting bubbles in the fisherman’s face. The fisherman swam after them, but they were too fast. The fisherman had never been so curious in his life. The mermaids were out of sight to the fisherman, but they were really at their hideout. The fisherman was running out of air and he could not see them, so he gave up and swam up to his boat, jumped on his boat, dried himself with a spare towel he brought, and drove away in his boat, feeling very scared.

For a little bit the three mermaids stayed in their hideout, in case. Right before they were leaving, Laura said that no one should say anything to their parents because they would be furious. The next day, they went for their morning swim over the reef and swam to their hideout and Laura said that the light that they saw was not the boat because she’s seen a boat and that’s not what it looks like. So the next morning, they followed the light and they were seeing something very big after swimming many miles. When they got a bit closer, they saw it wasn’t blurry anymore. They saw a place with lots of guards, but they moved aside to let the light in. The three of them made themselves invisible so that they could go into the palace too.

They saw a big room with everything you could imagine. When they got closer to the light, still invisible, they saw that it was the Queen of Mermaids. She had a light face, and her name was Aquata. Close up, she looked very pretty with very long dark blue hair.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

The three mermaids became visible and said, “How did you see us?”

“I am the Queen of Mermaids. Of course I can see you. I just didn’t tell the guards because they could destroy you,” Aquata said. The Queen says to Laura, “I know you are not married yet and your parents are not happy about that. So I have a great prince for you. I will throw the biggest wedding because he is my son.”

Laura screamed, “Yes!” And then, Aquata said to the three mermaids that she would lead them out so the guards wouldn’t do anything to them. She wanted Laura alive for the wedding. She escorted them out of the castle and swam home. When Laura went home, she told her parents about the Queen’s son and how they were getting married. Her parents had no choice but to say, “yay” because they needed Laura to get married and because she was now going to become the next queen once Aquata dies.

The next day, they tried to go back into the castle by being invisible, but the guards did not open the doors since they only opened for the queen. And then Laura pulled them aside and said that if they swam over them really high up to the sea level, they can get in. It was difficult to get in, but they did it. They walked into Aquata’s room and Aquata was so mad at them. Again, she held them by the tails and told the guards not to let them in again. The guards were surprised that they did not see them come in and were furious because they tricked them. They swam back eighty miles to the reef and talked there. And Anna wrote everything down with water pen. And then Anna gave the water paper to Sophie to take it to her home because it was the safest. 

The next day, Sophie brought the paper which had everything about the castle, guards, and Queen Aquata. Then, the Queen met them on the reef and behind her was her son. Sophie crumpled the paper in her hand. Aquata said in a serious voice that Laura and her friends had to come practice at her castle for the wedding. Sophie took a water pen and pencil to take notes. She and Anna had to come because they were the bridesmaids. They went to the castle and they had to catch up to the Queen and Prince because they were very fast. The three mermaids caught up to them right at the castle and they went to the royal wedding room. After the four hour practice, the three of them went back to their homes and the son stayed to measure his wedding gown. The next day, Aquata came to the reef with her son to practice again and this happened for another couple of months. 

Finally, it was the last practice and Aquata taught them so well that it could not be ruined. During the ceremony, as Laura was about to get married, Laura’s uncle Daileass barged in.

“Uncle Daileass, what are you doing here?! You were not invited,” Laura screamed.

“I want to be King!” Daileass said. Before the wedding, he took the crown that the son was gonna put on as a king, but he poisoned it. The prince looked at the crown and saw some green dots on it. He had experience with it and knew that Daileass did it because he wanted to be King.

The Prince yelled to his guards, “Get him!” The guards took Daileass out and they finished the wedding with the bridesmaids and they lived happily ever after with four merchildren.

Carol

My name is Carol Mystic. I am twelve years old and I died. Dying is not that bad. It doesn’t hurt. It just feels like falling asleep. I don’t remember what happened. All I remember is that it happened at the playground and I don’t know who did it. I know what I have said so far doesn’t sound bad but I am so mad at whoever pulled me from my family forever. My story is trying to find life again. Everyone who dies wants something and I want to come back. 

Jase

I don’t feel dead, but I know I am. I am not some angel with feathery wings. I just wander around the site of my death. I don’t leave it and that’s because if I leave, a part of me will stay (it is hard to explain). This rule applies to all spirits.  I am fourteen and I died in my garden. My physical body stays, but my personality watches as my family holds a small ceremony in our yard and as my body is carried away forever.

Shy

My name is Shy Ash and I am still alive. I can see the two dead children. I am thirteen, but I am powerful. I can see the dead. Carol and Jase want to come back and I will try to help them, even if it kills me. After Carol died, the playground closed and Jase’s parents have high security now. But I will bring them back permanently.

Carol

My parents moved after I died, moved to New York from New Jersey. I was going to get to New York by boat. As I stepped outside the playground, I felt half of my personality torn from my body. As I walked, I saw my reflection in a window. My shoulder-length deep brown hair, my extremely rare deep red eyes, and my albino skin, just the way it had been when I face planted in the dirt when I died a year ago. And then I felt it. I crumpled in pain as the aftershock of leaving half of me behind came, but I kept going.

Jase 

“Oh dear,” I said when I realized my perfect brown hair was covered in dirt. At least my brown skin was okay.

“Okay,” I sighed, “here goes,” and I climbed over the garden wall. The pain hit me like a tidal wave and I shut my green eyes and fell to the ground.

“Time to go,” I said and ran looking for the other dead who might be able to help me. And that is when I met the beautiful Shy Ash.

Shy

The way he looked at me was amazing. It was the way my mom looked at me before she died. Too stunned to say much,, I managed to utter one word.

“Carol,” I said.

“You can see me?” he gasped.

“Yes,” I said, “and I bring you back so everyone can see you.”

“But who is carol?” he asked me.

“Another kid who died,” I said. I grabbed his hand and together walked.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“To the harbour,” I said. “Carol will be there.”

We walked for a long time and then we found the boat and the gorgeous red-eyed spirit I was looking for.

Carol

One of the two figures was alive and she could see me, but the boy was dead.

“Listen,” said the girl, “I might be able to bring you back, but will have to listen to me.” I nodded. Any chance to be brought back is a blessing. The girl beckoned for me to follow her and I did. We end up stowing away on the boat. I am full of fear, not for myself because no one can see me, but I am scared for the girl who is visible to everyone.

Jase 

After we make proper introductions, Carol asks a question: “What will we say to our families if this works?”

Everyone is silent about this until I smartly say, “If you have magic to bring us back then can you just wipe everyone’s memories about our deaths?”

“No, you idiot!” says shy. “It’s called the spirit paradox and it is nearly impossible to use.”

Then we hear a stomping noise and the lid of the box we are hiding in is raised. A handsome blonde haired spirit is revealed.

“There are rules in death too,” he says but Shy leaps at him and drags him up to the deck. The rest is so awesome. 

Shy

I wrestled the blonde to the ground and held him there until he said, “Fine you can ride free,” but that did not satisfy me. I held him over the edge of the boat and dropped. He emerged, treading water and yelling at us. I giggled and we spent the rest of the rest of the ride in peace. We met more spirits, but I pretended she could not see them so they were all nice. When we reached the shore, Jase asked Carol a question: “Why were you trying to go to New York anyway?” 

Carol

“I just wanted to see my family one last time before they moved to Mexico. They were planning to stay in New York and move to Mexico,” I said.

Shy put her hand on my shoulder and said, “We need to go to find a spot to wait for the paradox to start.” We ended up staying at Shy’s aunt’s house. The building was a sweet pink color, unlike the woman inside.

“Shy. That’s you, I reckon, and I don’t reckon you’re wise to come back here,” she said. 

Jase

There are some things wrong with being a spirit: 1. You can’t fly. 2. You can’t see or walk through walls. 3. You can’t haunt dreams (well, not really). What I would want to do is haunt this woman’s dreams until she was nicer to shy. All through dinner she yelled at Shy about all the ways Shy’s mom’s (her sister’s) death was Shy’s fault.

Shy 

My name is Shy and I have a secret. I love Carol and I think she loves me back. But being in love with her would be weird. What I mean is that we can’t go of being girlfriend and girlfriend because she is dead. But I also have to tell Jase that I do not like him. In fact, I would have liked it better if we had needed a different spirit for the life ritual. I would have been a lot happier. Sometimes I will need to go up to Carol and say that I love her, but what if she doesn’t like me. What if she doesn’t like all the weird things about me, like how I could not bring my mom back or how I ran away and stole from people just so I would not have to stay with my dad or that I hate boys. I just hope she loves me.  

Carol

Once we leave the house I begin to worry. I want to ask where we are going and why we can’t do this at home. All these thoughts are starting to drive me crazy when I see Shy looking at a note:

“←↑→↓↤↔↕→→↓↔→↕↑↔↓→↔↑↓↓←→↕↔←↕↑↓↦↔↝↜↔↕↑←↖”

“These are the steps to use the paradox,” she says, “and I have to memorize them.” That night we stay at a crappy motel. Shy has the room above me and I can hear her thumping around doing the steps on the note.

Jase

I have to share a room with carol, the girl who says that she knows why Shy gets her own room, but won’t tell me why. The next morning we meet in the parking lot and Shy says “we meet at the graveyard at midnight,” and then she leaves to go get the ritual ready. We meet her at the graveyard. Carol holds my hand. Shy stands it front of an altar made of sticks and she has also drawn a circle with shapes inside of it. Shy looks at me and starts to chant.

Shy

Carol and Jase are standing back to back inside the circle (perfect). I begin to dance around the circle. The steps imprinted in my brain: ←↑→↓↤↔↕→→↓↔→↕↑↔↓→↔↑↓↓←→↕↔←↕↑↓↦↔↝↜↔↕↑←↖

“Come on, come on,” I mutter. I dance and dance until the circle starts to glow.

“Wait,” cries Carol, “I don’t want to go back.”

“But I do,” says Jase.

“Step out of the circle if you want to live,” I yell. Jase steps out, but for some reason I step in. Then a bright light comes and illuminates the sky.

“Goodbye, Jase,” I say and I take Carol’s hand and say, “sorry, Jase,” and together the two of us walk into the sky.

Sky (Epilogue)

Carol and I are happy as we are dead and we check on Jase once a month. I know he misses me but I would never be happy in the living world. Carol and I went to find the blonde I tossed off that boat twelve years ago. Carol and I have been married for two years and Jase has been doing fine. One day, Carol and I take a walk when I see a spirit that looks exactly like m, every feature pure white.

“Mom,” I say.

Two years later we adopt a child. We name her Angel and that is how we spend forever.

Chapter 1 

W i t c h e s   a n d c u r s e s

Once there was a girl named anabelle who had a pointy nose and a sister that saw a farm. She was thirsty so she got a Gatorade. She drank it and felt weird. “Ohhh…” she neighed. She looked down to see… a HORSE body!!!

 She quickly looked up and saw the farm. She ran to it. She looked and saw hay blocks “Mmm, yummy” she neighed. She ran to the hay blocks. She stopped. She was shocked. There was a VERY BIG fence in front of her. On the other side was SO MUCH hay. She really wanted it. She stepped back and JUMPED over the wall. She walked up to the hay and one block of hay disappeared! 

“WOW” she neighed. She quickly gobbled the rest of the hay blocks up. The world turned purple and green in her eyes. She felt oozy. “Ooo…” she whined. Then she walked up to the fence and bit it. “Owww” she neighed. She fell down and fell asleep. 

Then she suddenly wanted to be rich as a queen, and then woke up. She snuck out of the farm to get a REGULAR Gatorade. She actually STOLE it because she lost her money. What? She’s a HORSE! She drank it all up. “Ahhhh,” she horse-sighed. “Better,” she neighed. 

“Hey, what’s that horse doing out of the farm, betty?” One horse neighed to another. 

“I dunno, crispy!” neighed the other horse. 

“Uhhh, hi?” she neighed 

“Uhh, hey betty?” crispy asked. 

“Yeah, crispy?” betty neighed. 

“WHO IS THAT?!?!?!” crispy screamed. 

“I’m, uhh,  p r i c k ?” she neighed. Her real name was anabelle, but she thought it was too fancy for a horse. It WAS!!! 

“Ok, im betty, and this is crispy,” neighed betty. 

Then prick ran off into the old town. She saw a stained glass window on a VERY old cobblestone tower. “Hmmm, sneaking isn’t illegal as a horse, since you can’t arrest a pony…” prick neighed. So she quietly galloped into the tower. She saw… A WITCH!!! 

“Oh no, it’s a… hey! I can turn into a human now! But how will I tell her if i’m a horse…?” prick whisper-neighed. “I’ll just, uhhh, try to talk i guess,” prick thought. 

The witch turned around just then. “A horse! Get her, enchantments! Get her, human who drank my magic Gatorade and turned into a horse!” the old, ugly witch ordered grumpily. 

“Sis?” prick asked. “SIS!!!!!!” 

The other horse screamed. The they horse-hugged each other. 

“Oh no, they are SISTERS!!! The Gatorade spell will go away then!” the witch thought. The horse sisters turned into… HUMANS!!! 

“Sis! We’re human again!” prick said excitedly. Just then, the witch turned into a… QUEEN?!?!?! “Okay, you caught me. I’m really a queen. I’m a nice one though! Come into my horse and buggy, and I’ll take you to my palace. You’ll get your own room too!” the queen said. She wasn’t nice. Not even mean. She wasn’t even evil. She was  P U R E E V I L . 

The sisters came into the horse and buggy. “Good thing we’re not horses anymore!” prick said. “He he he,” the girls giggled. 

“Be quiet!” the witch ordered. The girls stayed quiet for the rest of the ride to the palace. The palace was really big, and it had big turrets that looked like they would be as big as a dragon. There was a drawbridge, and the girls thought that it was over water but it was over LAVA! The queen got off and told the girls to do the same. Then the girls got off and walked into the palace. 

“Follow me” the queen said. She led the girls into the prison, but the girls thought that they were going to their room. 

“This doesn’t look like we should stay here,” prick whispered to her sister. 

“You’re right!” Her sister said. 

The queen opened a door to a jail cell. “Right through here, ladies,” The queen said mysteriously. 

“But that’s a jail cell, not a bedroom!” prick said to the queen. 

The queen said, “I know that!” as she pushed them into the cell and locked the door. 

“Noooooooooo!!!” The sisters screamed at the queen as she walked away. 

Chapter 2

T h e  d a r k  w o r l d

prick looked around the cell and saw a sink with brown, dirty water coming out of it, a toilet that’s broken and clogged, a bed that doesn’t have a blanket, and a pillow that is a diamond, the hardest mineral. “Hmm, that might be useful some time,” prick thought. 

Then, prick’s sister, hannah, had a wonderful idea! “If we work together, we can lift the heavy diamond and throw it at the bars! It might work!” hannah noticed. 

So the two sisters lifted the diamond and threw it at the bars. It made a hole just big enough to crawl through. They crawled through the hole and escaped jail. “Shouldn’t we take a bathroom break?” hannah asked. 

“Uhhhh, let’s just get out of here!” prick laughed. Then the two girls ran out of the prison and ran towards the door. The queen saw them leave. 

“Huh? GET THEM!!!!!!” the queen shrieked. 

But the girls took the only horse and buggy back home. “YAH!” Hannah yelled in the driver’s seat. They went home and parked the horse and buggy outside on the other horse post. 

They open the door of their cottage. “MOM? DAD? WE’RE HOME!!!” the girls yelled. Their home was empty, except for their pet goldfish, gilbert. “Blub, blub.” gilbert blubbed. 

“Not now, gilbs.” hannah said.“Uhhh, sis?” hannah asked. 

prick wasn’t there. “YAH!!!” prick screamed and jumped out from behind hannah. 

“AAHHHHHHH!!!!!” hannah screamed in fear. 

“Where’s mom and dad?” hannah asked. “They’re-they’re-they’re… GONE!!!” prick said, scared. Then they went outside and looked for someone to take care of them. All the townspeople were GONE!!! 

“WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!?!?!” they both screamed. The sisters were so scared. Then a PORTAL appeared. The sisters linked arms, looked at each other, and nodded. Then ran into the portal. Everything went black. They were in a white, tall, room. There wasn’t a way to escape, except for a large gap at the top. They hooked arms, pushed their backs against each other, and started to CLIMB!!! 

At the top, they were stuck. “How are we going to get apart from each other, anabelle?” hannah asked.

 “Uhh, i don’t know, but my nickname is prick now. Actually, it was my horse name. I’m keeping it. Actually, i know how to do this. Hang by your legs then get your hands up, put your legs down, and climb up,” prick said.

 They did that and prick jumped over to hannah’s side of the top. “Wow…” they said together.

 “A dark world” prick said. There was a nest of dragon eggs and they noticed; the portal back home was GONE! It had somehow glitched onto the other side of the dark world. 

“Oh, you’ve got to be KIDDING me! PLEASE tell me this is a dream! Just TELL ME! Someone PINCH me,” hannah screamed. 

prick pinched her. “Owww!!! What was that for!?!?!?” hannah asked. 

“You asked SOMEONE to!” prick said. 

“Ugh. can we just go home? To the portal?” hannah asked, getting mad. 

“Okay, OKAY!” prick said then a BIG BIG BIG dragon came and scooped them up. 

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” they screamed. “SHHH! YOU’RE NOT SAFE HERE! I’M A NICE DRAGON! MY NAME IS FLAME. DON’T WORRY! I’M NOT LIKE THE QUEEN!” the dragon said. “STAY HERE! MAKE SURE MY EGGS DON’T HATCH!” she said. 

Then she flew off. C r a c k ! 

“sis, what’s that…?” hannah asked. 

They turned around slowly. “THE EGGS!!!” they both yelled together. Then, out of three eggs, popped out… THREE DRAGON BABIES! prick hid behind the nest, hannah didn’t get there in time. One baby pecked at her leg. There was a flowing stream of blood. She tore the sleeve off of her leather jacket and tied it around the wound. The other two babies pecked and missed. 

“SIS! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!” hannah screamed wildly. 

“I’M RIGHT HERE!!!” prick yelled. 

Hannah got up and ran to prick. “FLAME! COME BACK NOW!” they screamed together. “ WHAT!?!? I TOLD YOU; D O N ‘ T  L E T M Y E G G S H A T C H !” she roared.

“I have an idea.” hannah whispered to prick.

“What?” prick whispered back.

“RUN!!!” hannah yelled. Then they ran all the way to the portal with flame chasing them in the sky, shooting fireballs. They leaped through the portal. 

Chapter 3

I ‘ m   f u l l   n o w

“Phew!” hannah said.

“Hello!” a small, cute voice said. “You look like you need help! Come to my hut, and I’ll show you my sisters! My name is coco!” the little girl said. 

So hannah and prick followed coco into her hut. “These are my sisters, clair, chloe, cindy, caroline, cassandra, catrina, cobra, cady, callie, and me, coco!” coco said. 

“Do you want some food, girls?” coco and her sisters said in unison. 

“Uhh, no tha—” hannah was going to say, but prick was already stuffing her face. hannah pulled prick out but she kept going back. 

“I guess i am pretty hungry” hannah thought. She took a pig in a blanket. “Mmm!” hannah mmm-ed. She took more and more. 

“Uurp. I’m full, hannah,” prick said. 

“Me too,” hannah said. 

“ATTACK!!!!!!” the little people said. “RUUNNNNNNNN!!!” hannah and prick yelled together. 

They saw coco and her sister’s car. They saw the key, got it, jumped in, started the car, and hit the road. 

“I don’t have a license, sis!” hannah said in the driver’s seat. Then a portal appeared. 

“Go to the portal! Quick! Quick!” prick said. They drove into the portal. 

Chapter 4

N o t   n e i g h s   a g a i n !

They were in a land full of… HORSES?!?! 

“I want to be a horse now.” prick neighed to hannah. 

“But you ARE!” hannah neighed. 

“YOU TOO!” prick neighed. 

“Hey! prick! It’s me! betty! Down here! I never knew you had a sister!” betty neighed. 

“Hi, betty! How’d you get here?” prick neighed. The sisters got out of the car. Then betty DISAPPEARED! 

“HUH?” the girls neighed. Then, ALL the horses disappeared, except them. 

“Wait, we can’t disappear since we’re actually humans.” prick said. “Hey! I’m a human now! Sorry, sis. Say something smart to show that you’re a smart human.” prick said. 

“Neigh+neigh=two,” hannah neigh-into-said. hannah was a human again! They both were humans again! Then a portal appeared! 

“I hope it’s home, i hope it’s home, i hope it’s HOME!” hannah wished. Then they leaped through the portal. 

Chapter 5

H o m e    a g a i n

Meanwhile, the queen thought, “Maybe, I can take a chance. Try to be nice. I can be a HERO! People will love me.” She went down to the prison, opened up the jail cells by the remote all at once. 

“I’M NICE NOW. :D” the queen announced. All the innocent prisoners ran out and hugged the queen and thanked her so much. 

Back to the girls! They were HOME! Then crispy, betty’s ‘friend’, SHOT hannah with a magic soul-stealer 2000 gun. “You never spoke to me or even told me you had a sister, PRICK!” crispy said. “Yes, i’m human now!” crispy said again. 

“Why, crispy, why?” prick asked with tears in her eyes streaming down her face. 

“You…” hannah said, softly. 

Then the queen came in. “I’m nice now, don’t worry!” the queen said, then splashed a potion into hannah’s dying mouth. “Don’t worry, it will make her stay ALIVE!” the queen said. Then hannah BURST back to life and knocked the soul-stealer 2000 gun and used it on CRISPY. 

“Burned to a crisp!” hannah said. 

“Hah!” prick said, still crying a little.

THE END

One Saturday night, a girl named Lucy Aqua Rose said to her mom, “Can I please use my computer?”

“Yes.” Her mom said, but Lucy said to herself, Why? She never lets me use my computer at night. She was confused. She heard evil laughs coming from her mom and dad’s bedroom. Her dad was in the air force right now, and Lucy felt like her mom was up to something no good. 

She thought to herself, My mom is probably working with The Evil B’s. Their names are Bianca, Ben, Beatrix and Lucy. Mom’s name is Mila. She looked at the news for clues, and she just remembered that a few days ago, she had read on the news that The Evil B’s were hiring new people. Suddenly Lucy got up and fell smack onto the floor! 

“MOM HELP! I CAN’T GET UP AND MY LEG HURTS SUPER BADLY!” she screamed. 

Her mom said, “I don’t care, get up!!”

As her mom said those words, Lucy felt like her mom didn’t care anymore, as if she didn’t belong. The 16 year-old Lucy Aqua Rose wanted to investigate!

She wanted to investigate because ever since the news article came out about the Evil B’s hiring new employees, she hoped that her mom hadn’t become an Evil B employee. It was getting late, so Lucy took a shower, got dried off, put her hair in a braid, brushed her teeth, put on lotion, got into her pj’s, got into her bed, and then fell asleep. Lucy’s 2 year-old brother Matt came in her room and said, “Lucy, mom is gone!”

But Lucy couldn’t hear Matt because she was fast asleep. She was dreaming about her dog and all the fun they had before he disappeared one hot summer day. The family dog who was black and a little brown, was named Oreo. One hot summer day three years ago, Lucy woke up and Oreo was gone. 

“Mom I’m gonna go for a walk,” she said.

Lucy looked all over the neighborhood. Once she reached the park, she sat on a bench, and then she cried and cried and cried. Finally she called her BFF Lulu for support, well Oreo was her best friend. After a year of searching, she gave up. 

Finally, she woke up. She checked her phone, and she had a million or even billions of texts from her dad! 

The text said: “Help I’ve been captured!” She asked for his location and he replied, “I cannot tell you but I will, I am still on the army premise in a fallout shelter. I am in the basement of the fallout shelter.” 

“But which army premise?” 

Her dad said he was in the army premise in London. She lived in London. 

She got dressed and then packed a backpack. She put on her backpack and called their family babysitter. She came in 2 minutes because she lived right across the street!

“I will be back in about 3 to 5 hours or more.” 

The babysitter said, “Okay, but who will pay me?”

“My dad!” 

So she ran off saying not another word. She called her dad once she started walking to the army premise. But he didn’t pick up! Once she got to the army premise, she looked all around, but couldn’t find her dad. So she called him one more time, still no answer.

She was starting to feel suspicious. She called her mom to see what was going on with her.

She said, “Hi Mom, I was wondering if you were working with the Evil B’s.” 

“No,” she said in a very sarcastic voice. 

“You are then, Mom.” 

“No, trust me.” 

Meanwhile back at home, the babysitter was playing peek-a-boo with Matt. Matt loves the babysitter and peek-a-boo. The babysitter said naptime, and so she picked up Matt and put him in his crib tucked him in and put him to bed. Then the babysitter made his bottle and got him a clean pacifier. She gave the stuff to Matt, then she closed the door. She went downstairs, turned on the TV, and went on Netflix. She got onto her Netflix profile and then watched Flinch, afterwards she watched Home Alone. She woke up Matt when he was waking up. She turned off the TV and went upstairs, and then Matt started whining and she asked what was wrong.

“I want sis,” he said in a very cute voice. 

Lucy couldn’t get into the fallout shelter, so she ran and hid behind a Camo porta potty, and then she took off her backpack, and then she took a special Amulet out of her backpack. She put it on, and then she started gaining the Amulet’s power. She was weak, but strong without it on and so, she zipped her backpack up quietly, and then she put her backpack on, got up, and then ran towards the guards who happened to be guarding the fallout shelter, and so she said, “Fire amulet, go,” and it automatically shot fire.  

“OMG WHAT,” the guards said. “LET’S GET THAT THING, YEAH!” 

Meanwhile in the Fallout shelter, Dad Ben was yelling, “LUCY HELP ME!” She ran back behind the camo porta potty, and she took out her computer to email her cousin who was in the same air force to see if he was okay. But when she opened it, it looked like it had been hacked. She actually happened to know how to unhack.

Lucy tried and tried and tried, but couldn’t. She gave up after 5 hours, sitting in the dirt behind the porta potty. She reached into her camo ripped jeans back pocket for her phone, but it wasn’t there, so she checked all of her other pockets. It was not there either. She started rummaging through her backpack, but once she had reached the bottom, it wasn’t there. Crying inside, she tried to hold her tears in, and she successfully did it, but she needed her phone to call her dad or text him and that phone cost $1,099. She zipped her backpack up. She looked around for her phone. She found it lying in the dirt. She got up. She walked towards her phone. She saw a masked figure take her phone and run. So, she chased the masked figure, and when he looked back, she used her amulet to camoflauge. She kept running and stopped when he stopped. She revealed herself and followed him into the lake. 

“Amulet, give me diving equipment.” 

Her clothes magically went into her backpack, and it transformed into an oxygen tank. She dove behind him, until he stopped. She followed him into an underwater cave. He pressed the wall and a magic door opened. She followed him inside, she could breathe now. Everything transformed back into her normal clothes. 

“Hey, crazy guy, give me back my phones, and tell me the truth. Are you the one who hacked my computer?” 

“Who are you? And what are you doing here!” The masked figure said. 

“My name is Lucy Aqua Rose.” She used the amulet to camouflage and crept up to the masked man to remove his mask. 

She revealed herself once again, she saw that he was her cousin! She started asking questions: “What are you doing here? What is this place? Why did you take my phone?” 

He answered, “I didn’t want to do this, some random person hypnotized me, but the water just unhypnotized me. Do you have your computer with you?” 

“Yes, I do. How did you know you were hypnotized?” 

“I had a GoPro on while the hypnosis was happening.”

Lucy unzipped her backpack and gave him her computer. Then, he took off his hoodie and sweatpants, underneath he had on an air force uniform. He pressed a badge that made the sleeves of his uniform fall off. Then, he started unhacking her computer. After it was done, she turned it on, went into her profile, put in her password and checked her email. All the emails had disappeared. She checked her Google Drive. Everything in there was gone too. So, when she checked for apps all of them were gone except one: ROBLOX. Her cousin returned her phone. 

She swam to the surface, and returned to the fallout shelter. She killed two guards, who apparently were not strong at all. She got her dad and returned home. They returned home to see Matt and the babysitter making cupcakes in the kitchen. Then, Dad went to Matt and gave him a hug. Matt turned around and yelled, “Daddy!” The babysitter said Mom was home. So then, Lucy said, “Dad, ask Mom if she’s working with the Evil B’s. If she says no, give her this truth gummy.” 

He went to their room, and gave Mom the truth gummy. While she had originally said no, she finally revealed she was working with the Evil B’s.

Dad told Lucy, “Your mom is an Evil B.”

And Lucy said, “I knew it all along.” Lucy was VERY MAD. She was as mad as a whale in a whirlpool. 

Dad called the police and Mom went to jail. When the police came, Mom yelled, “No! Don’t take me. This was all a huge mistake!” 

Lucy said, “Mom, I know you are lying.” 

The next day Lucy, Dad, and Matt went to the New York Aquarium. They saw sharks, octopus, and other invertebrates. Then they also saw turtles. They all missed Mom. But they are glad that she got turned in because she did some bad things. Lucy saw a baby turtle and a mommy turtle swimming in the big tank outside. Lucy wondered if her mommy taught her how to swim. 

The end

The person was bored, so he wanted to do something. He wanted to watch something, but he didn’t have a TV. He wanted to go get a TV. The person started walking down the street. He was bored and wanted to watch TV. He went to the store, so he could get the TV. There were no more TVs when he got there! He went somewhere else to find a TV! So he went somewhere far from his house to get one. Then he got the TV. When he was flying back, the TV fell out of the plane. So he jumped out of the plane. He was falling—he saw the TV! He grabbed the TV. He saw a car on top of a hill, and he fell into the car. As soon as he fell into the car, the car drove all the way back to his house. He fixed his TV, and then he started watching it. 

The end.

Once upon a time, there was a kind wizard named Confucuis. He and his wife, Liva, lived in a happy town. Confucuis had a wizard hat, a long beard, and a staff. He was as tall as a statue of a man. But earlier, a dark wizard named Lord Black had cast a spell throughout the town, and the town had lost all its fortune. The town was so happy that it didn’t notice Lord Black casting his spell. So Confucuis decided to set off into Lord Black’s dark castle, where he had kept all the town’s gold. Confucuis packed a candle, a cup of tea, and a staff. He set off far, far away from his town. Finally, he found the entrance to Lord Black’s castle. 

“I have found Lord Black’s castle, but how am I supposed to get pass those guards?” Confucuis said to himself.

Then, he came up with an idea. He would hide behind a tree and then whisper his spell at the guards. The entrance lit up and the guards fell into a deep sleep. Confucuis crept quietly into the castle. He hid behind a wall of steel poles. He put his ear into a tiny hole in the wall. He listened to what Lord Black was saying to his servants. 

“I can’t be sleeping when Confucuis is sneaking around the castle. Find him now!” Black yelled to his servants. 

The servants and Black walked away. 

INFORMATION BOX Confucuis teaches a school with his wife, Livia. They teach witchcraft and wizardry. Livia has braces and wears bracelets. Their school is called Boar.

“Now’s my chance,” Confucuis whispered. He cast a spell against the steel wall and it fell over. Confucuis put on his invisibility cloak. He crept across the throne room and stopped at two temple doors with tiger faces on them. He opened the doors. He jumped through the trap door and ended up inside the dungeon. He saw the treasure chest where his country’s gold was. He suddenly grabbed the treasure chest and put all the gold into his pockets. He put his invisibility cloak back on. 

“Halt!” someone shouted. It was one of the knights. “You’re not going anywhere until you face me,” boomed the knight. 

“Fine,” said Confucuis, “then I will face you. I have a surprise for you while you are standing right there.” He cast a spell at the knight’s feet. The knight was thrown out of the castle and into the moat. Confucuis now put his invisibility cloak on. He walked all the way to the entrance. 

“Now my job is done,” he said, and he headed back to his country and returned all the gold to where it belonged. 

INFORMATION BOX Black has been taught in the dark wizard class in Wizard School.

One time a family went to the Big Apple Circus. The oldest was a girl. She was thirteen. The youngest was a boy who was nine turning ten. It was the middle of January. And it was ten degrees outside. So the show started. There were a lot of “oh”s and “oo”s from the crowd. So then the show was over and everybody started to leave, but then the girl and boy had to go to the bathroom but they realized their parents weren’t there. But they were super calm. So they quickly went to the bathroom, then went outside to see if their parents were there. But they weren’t. So they went to see if there was a security guard or police officers and there were a few police officers.

So they went to one of them and asked the police, “Can you help us find our parents?”

And the Police said, “What are your parents’ phone numbers?” The kids told the police their parents’ phone numbers and the police called their parents’ phone numbers and they both answered, but they were talking oddly. So they finished talking and the kids told the police that their parents were talking very oddly. So the police said, “Did they tell you where they are?”

“They said something about the dump.”

They said, “Oh no.”

And the kids said, “What?”

And the police said, “Go home. If anything happens, call 911. We gotta go. Don’t talk to anyone even if it’s someone you know. Also, lock the doors, close the windows, and shut the shades. Don’t answer the door even if it’s us and we’ll tell you when. And don’t make any noise at all. And we will tell you when you can let us in and we will ring the doorbell four times and then you can let us in. We better get going, see you later.”

Their parents snuck up behind them and said, “Boo.”

Then they both woke up to the smell of pancakes.

The End

Part One: Before

Chapter One                                            

“We must leave Candyport!” The president said on the TV. “The broccoli monsters have been roaming for almost a decade, and gummy bear dust has been blinding us for five months. We simply cannot survive these conditions, and if we do survive, a supernova will kill us instantly. If someone really wants to stay, then fine. However, I do not recommend staying.”

Basically all the citizens of Candyport agreed with the president, except for two people, who happened to be, unfortunately, my parents, Jane and Michael Buttercup. They were literally addicted to candy; they had to eat at least twelve packs of gummy bears or Skittles every week, or they would have diarrhea for the rest of their lives. Somehow I got lucky and I didn’t get addicted to candy. My mom and dad also wanted to stay because “we’ve never lived anywhere outside the planet,” or “I’ve never even been on an airplane. I could be nauseous and barf the rest of my life with diarrhea,” or “the President said it was our choice to go. We’re choosing not to go.”

So, in other words, my parents didn’t want to go, didn’t have to go, and didn’t go.

But it was also my choice if I would go or not. I wasn’t required to stay with my parents, since now that I was thirteen, I was no longer a minor. That’s how it worked in Candyport. Anyway, conditions were terrible on my home planet. Ninety-foot tall broccoli monsters were killing people with just swats of their deadly florettes, and they were stomping over our beautiful, scenic, prized candy mountains, creating candy dust storms that blocked out the sun, which made it even harder to predict when the sun would turn into a supernova! Ugh!

One day, I met up with my best friend Vera.

“My parents are so annoying,” I complained. “They refuse to leave. That’s fine with me, but I want to leave, and they want me to stay! They treat me like I’m still a baby.”

“Well, maybe my mom could talk with your mom. You could board the spaceship with us. Oh! Gummy bear incoming! Duck, Emily!” Vera says.

“Thank you so much!” I say, as the gummy bear lands harmlessly behind us.

Later at dinner I bring up our conversation with my mom. “Oh, yes. Vera’s mom called me. I’ll have to think it over. You know, I will worry about you. I can’t just leave you with someone.” 

“But Vera and her mom aren’t just someone! We know them!” I protest. My mother just stares at me with that penetrating glance that makes you shut up.

The next day, my mom tells me that yes, I can go with Vera and her mom.

“Thanks for letting me go, Mom. I know that was a hard decision for you and Dad to make.” I hug her.

“When are you leaving, sweetie?” she asks me.

“In three days. Thursday afternoon.”

The days flew by. I mostly spent them eating (considering that not a lot of good food would be available on the spaceship), reading, staying at home (since the candy storms were getting even worse, it was a good thing that I was leaving the planet soon), sleeping, and worrying that the flight would be delayed, or even canceled.

Well, the flight was delayed. Not even the President knows how long we will have to wait. I think that we should just go. Conditions are steadily getting worse and today’s part of the storm will be better than next week’s part of the storm. I sigh, and turn on the TV.

“Breaking news!” A news reporter appears on the screen. “President Gumstein has a message for us. This is him live!”

“I announce that the Escaper Express will start boarding at exactly 5:15 am tomorrow, and will take off at exactly 6:00 am tomorrow. The Escaper Express II will start boarding at exactly 6:15 AM tomorrow and will take off at exactly 7:00 AM tomorrow. This will go on and on until two weeks have passed. In total, there will be three hundred thirty-six Escaper Expresses, if the plan succeeds. Each Escaper Express will have enough room for eight thousand, nine hundred and thirty people, perfectly fitting Candyport’s population of approximately three million people. Each spaceship will be equipped with a high-tech machine that provides infinite food. It has not been 100% approved, more like 98% approved. Our time here is short, as we all know, so we must make do with what we have. That’s it. I know that was a lot of information coming at you, so I will repeat myself…”

I jump up. “Oh my molasses! Dad, did you hear that? I’m leaving in two weeks!”

“Yes, sweetie,” he says. “Stay strong, Emma. I love you.”

That night, I call Vera. “Which Escape Express are our tickets for?” I ask.

“One sec,” she says. I hear some rummaging. “Escape Express XXXVII. Next Monday, starts boarding at 6:15 PM, takes off at 7:00 PM,” Vera reports.

“Well, it could be worse,” I say. “See you Monday!”

I go to the living room. “Hey, Mom. I’m leaving tomorrow evening.”

“Okay, Emmie.” She hasn’t called me that since I was eight. But I have a feeling she just wants to spend time with me. So I let her be thirty-three, pretend I’m still six, and just spend time with her baby, taking in my smell, how I look, everything about me, for the last time.

Chapter Two

Monday afternoon comes all too soon. I hug my parents goodbye and head to the square with a single suitcase of clothes and books, Vera, and her mom. President Gumstein wasn’t kidding—there are probably almost nine thousand people here, and the Escaper Express XXXVII is huge, it barely fits in the main square. And our main square is gigantic, like, two square miles gigantic. I look at the spaceship in awe. The front has a huge, round window surrounded by smaller windows on the circumference of the round window, and the rest of the spaceship is covered in a thick layer of square glass panels that seem unbreakable; I sure hope they are! Suddenly I spot President Gumstein himself!

He shouts into his megaphone, “Okay, everyone! Quiet down!” A hush falls over the crowd. “This is the Escaper Express XXXVII! Not the Escaper Express XXXVI or the Escaper Express XXXVIII! Check your tickets. Okay, everyone’s good? Great. Now, divide yourself into twenty-six sections. Each of your tickets has a letter of the alphabet. Section A to my right, your left. Section B to my left; you’re right of Section A…”

“Looks like we’re Section H,” Vera’s mom says. We walk to Section H. There were still around three hundred fifty people in each group, now I understand why the spaceship had to be so big. It appears that there are twenty-six doors (one for each group, I presume). The president lets each group board the Escaper Express one by one. It’s a good thing that H is towards the beginning of the alphabet, because even just standing outside for fifteen minutes, plus waiting to board in the square, is grueling. One minute, it’s cold, another minute hot. One minute the air is clean, the next minute fruit tape starts to bounce off people’s heads.

Finally, President Gumstein calls Section H to board. I take my last look at the city where I was born, with its oceans of blue raspberry Airheads, its dark chocolate soil, and its trees of rainbow Fruit Roll-Up leaves. I take probably my last deep breath of fresh clean air with the scent of candy. There is no going back now. I step onto the spacecrafts. Yes, plural spacecrafts—one the physical, one the spacecraft of emotions I am feeling. And finally the spacecraft of possibilities that was awaiting me on the other side of the door.

Part Two: The First Weeks

Chapter Three

The first week is definitely rough. I’m not used to so many people living in one place and every day I think about the stuff I left at my former home. For me it’s my bed. Of course all the Escaper Expresses have real beds, but they are never exactly the most comfortable since the planet’s United Council had to manufacture three million of them, plus sheets, blankets, pillows, pillowcases, mattresses, etc. And don’t forget all three hundred thirty-six Escaper Expresses. Enough of that.

When I wake up, I listen for the alarm clock, but it isn’t an alarm clock waking me up. It’s the Breakfast Bell, which always rings at exactly 7:00 AM. All twenty-six sections go to the Main Dining Hall, in the center of the spaceship, where there’s a huge buffet. Well, very occasionally I wake up to an alarm clock, waking up at around 5:00 AM if it’s my turn to help cook food for the day. But this rarely happens to me, since there are almost nine thousand people on one ship, and only about one hundred people needed to cook food. That seems like a lot, but when you think about it, one hundred is tiny compared to nine thousand.

I miss a lot of stuff from Candyport, but there’s still a lot of unique things that you can only experience on a spaceship, like zero gravity. It takes some getting used to, but since I got used to it, I can float and fly around with just a kick of my feet. Plus, you know that huge window surrounded by smaller windows that I talked about earlier? It’s called the Rotunda, and the view from it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I can see the stars, and galaxies, and it feels like I am a mere grain of sand in the dense, endless ocean.

Once, I think I see a supernova in the distance, millions of light years away. It is shades of blue and violet and there are some splashes of yellow, and in the center there is a speck of white, but just for a second. I know it can’t be the supernova that will swallow up Candyport—it has been four days since we took off and Candyport is already fifty light years away—but for that short second, I feel a twinge of pain. I know my parents will be stranded, the only ones on my former home planet. Why didn’t I urge them to go with me? They were there when I was watching TV, and the president said there was an infinite food machine… they probably weren’t listening that closely, but still! They could have had infinite candy and not have diarrhea for the rest of their lives.

I forcefully push those thoughts out of my mind. If I think about my parents for too long, a balloon already inflated from living on a spacecraft (possibly eternally) will pop. And everything will come out.

The food is better than I expected. If you don’t think about the fact that it was made from a machine with who knows what, it tastes pretty decent. I guess in every hundred people, you’re bound to find a good cook. Every Friday, there is even pizza—but not like bad school lunch personal pizzas—real pizza. Sometimes for lunch there’s hamburgers with fries, or maybe a hot dog. For breakfast there is usually waffles or cereal. For some reason, 20% of the food produced by the machine is cereal. Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, every kind of sugary cereal you can think of. For dinner, it’s like lunch, but every once in a while the cooks throw in some pasta.

Chapter Four

Within a week I have mostly adjusted to living on a spaceship. And by mostly I mean, mostly. I still think about my parents every once in a while, but I’ve gotten better at ignoring my thoughts. A little part of me tells me that it’s wrong, but I ignore that too. Also, about every other day I just get a little nauseous. It isn’t too unpleasant—I don’t barf—but it’s just a little unexpected. Like, one moment, it’s been two days since the last time I got nauseous, and I think I’m no longer in the nausea phase. The next moment, I get dizzy.

One day I’m in the Rotunda, just looking out. And Vera comes. We silently talk to each other. And we just hug. I know it sounds kind of stupid, but we just know what each other is thinking. We stare at the stars. And we stay there for fifteen minutes, just thinking about everything, about our old life, and Vera’s dad (his brother murdered him, only three people know it), and my parents. And when our next cooking shift will be, and trying to picture Candyport when the Escaper Express XXXVII blasted off. Were Candyport’s rings turquoise or lavender? Oh, right, they were turquoise with indigo speckles. What color was the planet? Red or gold? Oh right, it was a rainbow…so pretty. My dad had glasses, wait no he had contacts. I can’t remember… isn’t living on a spaceship for a long time bad for your brain? And the radiation is ten times stronger than on Candyport, right? I should have stayed… no I shouldn’t have. I’ll live longer on the Escaper Express…or will I?

Every once in a while, someone gets called to the Candyport Connections Room. If you get called, it’s usually not a good thing. I’ve seen people come out of there, red faced, puffy eyed and teary. The CCR will probably only be in use until the Escaper Express CCCXXXVI blasts off, unless there’s an urgent message from someone staying on Candyport, like my parents. Then it will be converted to a museum dedicated to the future generations of Candyport, so they can learn about their ancestors’ home planet.

Chapter Five

When I was a kid, I thought Candyport was perfect. When a candy storm happened, I thought it was a blessing from the candy gods. When I played Candyland, I thought that it actually was just a small country in Candyport.

When I was a kid, more importantly, I heard fairy tales. I had no idea what a fairy was, or why people called these tales “fairy” tales. One fairy tale Vera and I heard was called “A Planet Called Earth.” It was about this fascinating planet with blue oceans, green and brown continents, flashing lights, and no rings! Plus, the humans of Earth didn’t have any natural candy landforms, and had to make candy in factories! Imagine that! Crazy stuff! There were strange creatures called “animals,” who were every other living thing besides the humans. Whoever came up with that fairy tale certainly had a crazy imagination. The humans of Earth were so big-headed, and all they were doing was just destroying their planet little by little. Amazing to think that the people of Candyport and the people of Earth were the same species. We were beyond being from different planets. It was like we were from different universes.

Part Three: Miracles

Chapter Six

It’s a typical day on the spaceship when I hear the announcement: “Emma Buttercup, Section H, please report to the Candyport Connections Room immediately.” What? Did they just say my name? Or did I hear that wrong? 

“I repeat, Emma Buttercup, from Section H, please report to the Candyport Connections Room. You have a message.” The announcer says calmly and clearly, as if I wasn’t just about to explode into sadness.

I take a deep breath, and walk to the Candyport Connections Room.

“Hello, Emma. I am Diana.” A middle-aged woman greets me as I enter the CCR. “I know you are very concerned, and you have reason to be. Here, listen to the message.” She hands me a phone, and I take it with trembling hands, and hold it up to my ear, terrified of what I’m about to hear. My chest gets tight.

“Emma Butterworth, I regret to say that your candy addicted parents almost escaped death; they boarded the Escaper Express CCCXXXVI, but there was a malfunction with the spacecraft during blastoff that we can’t fix ourselves. If it hadn’t been the last Escaper Express, then we could have gotten help. Unfortunately, the Escaper Express CCCXXXV was long gone. I’m sorry, Emily. I’m calling you as the ship commander of the Escaper Express CCCXXXVII. Goodbye.”

Static. 336 will forever be my unlucky number. A tear falls down my cheek and splatters on the checkered tile of the CCR. I sob. Why did I leave them behind? Why did I ignore the bad feeling in my gut? Why? I knew they were going to die soon. Why did this hit me so unexpectedly? I run back to Section H, back to my bunk, with my head in my hands, and just cry.

My balloon has popped.

I wake up the next day with a spongy pillow and a groggy head. How long did I sleep? I look at my watch. It says 8:47 AM, Monday, December 4th, 1173. I try to do the math. “So I fell asleep after lunch on Sunday, and slept through dinner. Breakfast is ending around now…wow.”

The first thing I need to do is get a new pillow and pillowcase. My current ones are tear soaked. I throw them into the huge hamper outside my dorm. Next, get some food. I’m starving! I go down to the Dining Hall and put a muffin and some eggs into a napkin.

When I come back to the dorm, everyone’s come back up from breakfast.

“You okay?” Vera says.

“Not really,” I admit.

“My parents boarded the last Escaper Express, but something went wrong with the spaceship and everyone died, including them.” 

Vera puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re handling it better than I did when my dad died.” She gives me a knowing glance. I nod. 

Chapter Seven

I go to the Rotunda. I look at the stars and galaxies. Happiness used to be mine for over a decade. I thought it would stay mine. Now I’m not so sure.

But when I look through the Rotunda, see space, all my thoughts disappear. Even as my life changes, the view is always the same. It’s comforting knowing that even when major things happen, some things have to stay the same.

Life goes on. The spaceship goes on. The food machine goes on.

But I am starting to feel homesick. Not necessarily for Candyport, but just for a home somewhere, to stay in one place and just be there. But every single day is the same here. It should be comforting, but I seek variety in my days now. “I don’t want to live on a spaceship. I—”

Vera interrupts me. “I know it’s hard, Emma. But you have to push through. You can’t let the death of your parents eat you up. I hate to be so candid, but either way you probably wouldn’t have seen your parents for the rest of your life. So I know it’ll be hard, but once you’re done grieving, you have to move along. Or else you’ll feel like this for your entire life. Think about that.”

This is one of the reasons why I love and hate Vera. She sometimes has to be frank to get to me. I know I need it sometimes, but I hate that I’m not strong enough to push through, to banish the bad thoughts from my head.

Vera continues her speech. “I know what you’re thinking, Emma. But this is what friends are for. This is why destiny chose us to be friends. This is why. So don’t worry. We have each other.”

Ten years later…

Part Four: Blue Marble

Chapter Eight

The year is 1183. I turned twenty-three two months ago. I have finally gotten over the deaths of my parents. I am looking through the Rotunda with Vera, something we’ve done every Saturday since we boarded the Escaper Express. Suddenly, I see a cool-looking blue planet. It has little greenish brown patches, and a bunch of beautiful white swirls. It looks different than any other planet I’ve seen. It looks…habitable. Other people think that too, I believe.

Suddenly, the loudspeaker cracks to life. “We are now approaching planet… um, unnamed. It appears that people want us to land on this planet. My data claims that the temperature and oxygen level is suitable for us humans. This Planet X is mostly uninhabited, so yes! Everyone, I am giving you five minutes to get to the dorms. Prepare for turbulence. We are going to land!’’ Everyone on board cheers, then rushes to their dorms.

Once Vera and I are in our bunks, I say, “I never thought we’d make it this far.”

“Yeah. Same.”

“Well, let’s get ready for landing.”

After landing…

Chapter Nine

“Welcome to Planet X, everyone. Please put your oxygen masks on. Though there is a suitable amount in the air, we just want to be cautious. Now, if you can just listen to my instructions. When exiting, Section Z will go first, followed by Y, X and so on. I will notify you when your Section exits,” the ship commander says.

Finally, Section H is called. When we go outside from the spacecraft, I at first laugh. 0.3% of the population of my (former) planet is walking around, astounded by a crazy, new world (to be fair, I was one of them) wearing black gas masks, peering around Planet X.

When everyone is off the ship, the ship commander takes a very forward-thinking looking radio out of his pocket and broadcasts all the other spaceships that we’ve landed on Planet X. Fortunately, since we’re Escaper Express XXXVII, there are only thirty-six ships ahead. And all of them have landed on Planet X, too. The remaining spaceships will try to find Planet X and land. For now we will try to communicate with the passengers of Escaper Expresses I-XXXVI to see where they are on this planet.

“Now it seems like we’re in a corner of a landmass. Pretty hot here, there is a blue mass of liquid close to us, and across from the liquid is another land mass.” This place is the Great Rift Valley of what is now Africa, near what is now Somalia, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, according to Google Maps. It is supposedly the cradle of humanity. 

“I know it’s very vague but sorry,” the ship commander says. Then suddenly I see a bunch of people out in the distance. I report to the commander. And eventually we all start trekking toward the other people, toward life and a new home and hope, with our few belongings and food on our backs. At least we don’t have to wear our hot gas masks anymore.

For about five hours, we walk to the mass of people in the sweltering heat. It is now clear that we are among fellow Candyport citizens.

“Hello!!!” We yell.

“Hello!!!” They yell.

Once we are united, we take a food break, and then decide to find shelter. Unfortunately, this part of Planet X is very dry and barren, except for desert shrubs that appear here and there. We decide that for the first day we will all set up camp under the shrubs and try to get some sleep. But then something very strange to us happens.

Chapter Ten

The entire world goes dark. No, I am not kidding. It’s crazy! No one expects it, and you know that bright thing in the sky that you only notice if you look for it that’s so ordinary (the sun)? Well Planet X’s sun slowly falls down in the water like a ball. And it changes the color of the sky until everything goes black! And it gets really cold too! It’s crazy, we worry the light won’t ever come back. We decide to go to sleep, and then we will plan things.

The next morning…

I wake up to a bright blue sky. Where am I? What is this shrub-like thing hovering above me? Suddenly, I remember yesterday’s events. We finally got off the spaceship, and we met up with our fellow Candyport citizens. Now, we must find the others. Also, we have to somehow get to our infinite food machines so that we have enough to feed everyone. That’s going to be hard. If we get lucky, then maybe an Escaper Express will land close to here. You see, when an Escaper Express lands, it can’t take off again, unless the fuel is completely recharged. While we wait for an Escaper Express to land, we eat a breakfast of energy bars, candy of course, and instant oatmeal.

At about noon, we see a giant spaceship shadowing the land we are living on. We all cheer for life and hope and love in a new place, the song of humanity. The spaceship lands, and the mass of people slowly exits the ship that is now basically a large piece of junk machinery but an hour ago carried 0.3% of an entire planet’s population across our universe.

Isn’t that amazing? Anything is possible. Even us humans living on Planet X (you probably know it as our currently own—but perhaps not original—planet, Earth!) have lived here almost a whole millenium (recall that in this story, at least, we landed in the year 1183 AD) or more depending on when you read this! It could mean that we were once strangers to our own planet(s), and not just to Earth. It could be anywhere, with anyone, anytime.

Footnotes:                                                  

This story was translated from Tamic (first human language) to Modern English in 2019.

I am not requesting the reader to believe anything in this story, including what they just read. But you are allowed to, because that’s what stories are for. A little something to brighten up your day, even if it’s not needed. Even if the title is cheesy. If you are living in a prison cell, or a mansion, it doesn’t matter. Because books are, and should be, for everyone. Because everyone sometimes needs a little enjoyment in their life. That is why I wrote this.

The End

Once there was a kid named Max who was 8 years old. He liked to read comics and liked to play baseball. One day he was walking and saw a car that looked like his parents’ and it was unlocked so he went inside. He thought it would be cool if he stepped on the gas, but he thought the car was not on so it would not move. He stepped on the gas and then he saw a rocket engine in the back.

All of a sudden the car was flying and he thought, “I hope I’m just flying and not going to outer space.” But the car went up and up and it broke through the atmosphere. Max started screaming because he thought he was not going to be able to breathe and die. He tried to breathe and… he actually could breathe. 

He said, “Yay, I’m not going to die.” He zoomed through space and then he saw that he was weaving through the Milky Way galaxy.

It was cool and Max wondered if maybe he made it back alive, he could share his findings with NASA.

He wondered what other galaxies were out there. Then he saw a planet that was red and green and blue and white. He decided to land on the planet. He looked at the car and realized it had changed and now had a bunch of buttons and levers. He pressed a button labeled autopilot and he told the car to land. Then he jumped out of the shift and amazingly, he could breathe. He found a planet with life on it. He started to explore by foot. He noticed that there were houses, but they were bigger than any house he’d ever seen. He wanted to go inside, but he was afraid that whoever was living there might not want him there. 

Max saw a store and decided to go inside. It had aliens in it. They were blue and red with one green eye. He remembered that he left his phone in the car. So he ran back inside to his car to take a picture of the aliens but he accidently left the flash on and the aliens saw him. They started chasing after him so he ran back into the car and saw a button that said “weapons” so he pressed it. A laser gun appeared. Max grabbed it, jumped out and ran at the aliens shooting it. But the aliens had laser guns too so Max ran back to the car and pressed the “weapons” button again. A grenade appeared this time. Max ran outside and threw it at the aliens and then he started running and the aliens ran after him. He detonated the grenade and all the aliens exploded. He decided to get off this crazy planet and he looked at the buttons and saw a button that said “home” and pressed it. The rocket zoomed and he was back in the Milky Way galaxy and it zoomed some more and then zoomed just a little more and in no time he was back to earth. 

He used the rocket car one more time and flew to NASA to share all of his crazy findings.

The End

Prologue:

I don’t know why I was left here. All I know is that this is where my life began. Right here in Birchwood forest. I can remember how I woke up here, the sun shining down on my face when I was very small. I remember how I sat up and looked around, and it felt like everything around me was a fresh start. This was the only place I remembered. The only place I ever knew as home.

Chapter 1:

It all started the day I woke up in the Birchwood forest. I was all alone. At first I was scared. Scared of this strange new place. Scared of being alone. Scared of myself. But then I realized that if this is where Earth put me, where Earth wanted me to live a life like this one, then this is the life I have to live.

Ever since the day when I woke up here, I tell myself that this is home. I don’t have any other history behind that. Just that this is me, this is where I belong. I wasn’t living in luxury, alone in the forest. I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything other than leaves, which I carefully expected for any signs of insects. Eventually I thought I might starve. The only source of water I could reach was a stream, the tinkling sounds of rushing water musical relief to my ears. By my second year in the forest, I was only turning two, but, of course, I didn’t know that. I wouldn’t have learned how to tell time and the days and the weeks, and the months and the years, or if I would survive living here for as long as a decade or more. And I did. How? It’s all thanks to the deer.

Chapter 2:

If it hadn’t been the fate that the deer had found me, I probably wouldn’t have lasted another week. They had watched me for awhile and saw me abandoned. They came on my second birthday, and ever since then, they had been my family. They found me sobbing under one of the youngest birch trees, the leaves and twigs and grass not been a filling enough diet, and I didn’t think I would survive the next few days like this. I looked up and saw a deer standing over me, looking into my somber face. Then something strange happened. Something I thought no human would ever be able to do. The deer/. It spoke to me. Not the way animals do in fantasy stories-through my mind. It was like a voice was softly speaking to me through every cell in my body. I could feel it vibrating through my heart, my soul, my head, to the tips of my fingers and toes, and all throughout my body. I could make out what the voice was saying, now, as the deer drew closer. I know you’re afraid. I hiccuped a reply. I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t even have to. The words rushed out through my head, not through my mouth. Y-yes. I stuttered through my mind, my new way of speaking difficult at first. Yes I am.  

The vibrations bounced back to me with the deer’s response. You don’t have to be. And ever since that day, I was one of them. I was one of the deer. Raised by them and lived like them, and learned the ways of the deer. I later found out the name of the deer that found me alone. Sage. I loved that name. Just like the plant my mother used to cook with before she abandoned me. I miss the smell of that beautiful plant. And from that day forward, my name–was Twig. 

In this instance, I am reminded that I am loved and probably was, even before I was found by the deer. Maybe Poppa and Momma didn’t want to abandon me, all alone, in the forest years ago. Maybe it was for my own sake, I thought, chewing on my thumbnail, maybe I was in danger, or, someone was coming to take me away! No loving family could let that happen, that’s for sure.

 I resumed positive and tried to focus on learning how to crack open a charcoal nut, a special type of vegetation that grows in the forest. I dropped the nut down on the rocks by the stream and waited for it to hopefully split open and the creamy inside would pour out. Unfortunately, this didn’t work the first time.

 “Really?!” 

Sage gave me a look that clearly meant, “Be patient.”

 I had to try it five more times until I got it right. Learning in the forest was harder than I expected. Grass, bark, twigs, and berries were all a part of a deer’s diet. I had to learn to live like them, so that was what I had to eat, too. I delved into studying the ways of survival. Now knew what was edible and what wasn’t. Now that I knew how to survive here, I wasn’t afraid anymore.  However, I had always been afraid of what I am once I found out exactly what powers I have, but the deer helped me. This is what I mean: At the age of five, I discovered that I was a deer shapeshifter.

Chapter 3:

One day, when I was down at the stream washing my face, I spotted a fox den and noticed three pups. Where had their mother gone? (It had been obvious that their mother had gone in search of food.) I crawled carefully over to the den and peered inside. I gasped as I noticed that one of the pups wasn’t breathing and leaned in closer. The two other pups growled at me and slowly backed away. I hesitated to do so, but I scooped up the pup in my arms and pulled it closer to me to see what was wrong. There was blood everywhere.

  It had seemed that something had attacked the fox pup and somehow had gotten into the den. The pup was dead. I had heard a sound from somewhere in the distance. The trotting of paws. The mother fox was close by. I carefully set down the pup’s limp body. I quickly ducked out of the den, and prepared to run.  But, it had been too late. The fox was getting closer and closer, and broke into a run. I ran for my life, but I had never been that great at running. 

Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation come over my body. I kept running and running, as the fox picked up speed. The more space I put between the fox and me, the better. But the tingling sensation reached the top of my head to the tips of my toes and all throughout my body. Then, I felt something on my skin, like snowflakes were landing on my arms and legs. My feet turned icy cold, and my hands, too. I looked back and saw the fox racing after me. I looked down at my feet and saw that they had been replaced with gleaming black hooves. I shrieked and looked at my hands to make sure nothing was going on there, but it wasn’t like anything else was going to make hooves on a human any less surprising. There were hooves on both my hands instead of human fingers. Then, I felt my body arch forward until I was running in the position of a dog (now that I think about it, like a deer). I felt big furry ears and antlers sprout up upon my head. This is where I had realized what was going on. I–was shapeshifting into the form of a deer. 

The fox really seemed to have a death wish for me! I thought, as the sweat dripped down my face.  Still in deer form, I was trotting away at such a speed that I felt as if I was flying. It was wonderful to be in deer form! A thought struck me then. I couldn’t let the fox chase me back to the herd! I would put all their lives in danger, and they won’t ever deserve that, not after saving my life. I flew myself around a turn and crouched low behind a huge rock. I thought I would surely be dead deer meat, and I really would be if I died as one. My heart had been pounding in my chest, and my legs shook as the fox drew nearer. I watched from the huge boulder as it sniffed the ground, trying to track my scent. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and the nerve racking thought of dying as something I only was once in my life and having my deer bones being crushed to bits kept floating back to mind. Eventually the fox gave up and stalked away, not happy with its loss of prey.

Well I certainly was. I let out the breath I was holding, which I didn’t realize I was, as I was hiding from the fox, worrying about whether or not I would be torn apart by fox jaws.

I walked back to the young birches that the herd lived in. What had just happened to me? I had thought.

  Later on I realized that maybe if I ripen this raw power, I’ll be able to shapeshift when I want, not only in a scary situation. I had thought. As I carved my skill for shapeshifting, I realized that if I practiced hard enough, I would be able to shift whenever I wanted to. I realized that when I was in danger with the fox that day, my shifting powers came because I needed saving. So, I practiced hard enough, every day, and soon was able to master the skill of shifting by the time I was nine years old.

Chapter 4:

Two years later…

 One night, on my eleventh birthday, I was up in one of the birch trees that I had carved my initials on, which meant “Twig has climbed this tree” and spotted a light– shining– from a little ways outside of the forest. Then, I spotted something miraculous. There was a garden in the front of the house with lettuce and tomatoes and all sorts of delicious foods for the deer and I thought that if I could reach the garden, I could bring back food for the herd and me to have. I jumped out of the tree and quietly crept over to where the garden was, and sneaked closer to the beautiful garden.  I thought I would be able to reach in and grab as many vegetables as I wanted to without being caught, but it was harder than it looked. As I drew nearer, I could see that there was a fence surrounding the garden. It was tall and spiky and it looked like it would be impossible for me to climb over it.

“Oh, honestly, this is to easy!” I smugly said to absolutely no one around me. I stood on my tiptoes and extended my fingers and arms in front of me. I thought about what a deer looks like, the tall white antlers and the slender hind legs. I pictured the whole body of a deer, every single descriptive part about one. This is the way the deer trained me up. Now I do it as if it’s as simple as plucking a flower from the soil. It’s a sweet sadness, happy you have a pretty flower to stick in a vase and stare at it just to admire its beauty. But then again, you miss how you saw the flower, innocent and sweet-smelling, and you know that it will eventually wilt, and you will want to return to what it was before, sorry for taking a life and want to plant another. That’s how it is with me. I can’t bear myself to stay in this form too long, for I know that this isn’t really who I am, I’m the girl who lives with a deer herd, not a deer who has found other deer to live with.

That’s Sage’s title.

With my human form swept away like the tide, I take passion in carefully making sure I use my deer form wisely, only to collect food in a simpler way, so that in case I’m ever near civilization, people won’t send me away!

Well, this time I won’t be in deer form for any of that. I’ll have to be in form just so I can’t tear open a space in the gate wide enough for me to climb through! Then I’ll change myself back and carry as many vegetables as I can back to the herd. Good plan! I thought, as I slowly and silently began to tear open a whole in the gate, carefully not to wake the possessor of the house. Once I had clambered through the tear in the gate (They really could have put better security on it, any animal would be smart enough to find a way to get through to the garden). I shifted back into my normal self and knelt down to reach for the lettuce and tomatoes and any other delicious vegetables I could find. Once I had enough to feed the whole herd, I took my loaded arms to the gate and tossed everything over. Then, I climbed back through the hole in the gate and grabbed everything up from the ground and with my arms full, I hurried back to the herd.

Chapter 5:

Sage had warned me not to go out again for if I was found I would be taken away and never able to see the deer again. Of course, I didn’t want that to happen at all, so I went back to feeding on the things we had before I traveled to the garden. One night, I became restless though, knowing that we had too many mouths to feed and I thought the herd needed more food because one morning the deer and awoke to a loud noise in the distance. It sounded like the calling of a stag but at a thousand times louder. Then, a few bushes collapsed ahead of us. Our berry grove! That meant that there would be less food for us all. That couldn’t happen! I wouldn’t let the herd starve. That night, Sage told me that the world was changing and the humans didn’t always care for the forests. They wanted their own ways and didn’t think ahead of time how nature could be affected. Then, I knew that if the world was changing, and if groves were being cut down as Sage tells me, then I needed to do what I had to do.  

Later that night, I waited until the herd was asleep and slowly crept past the snoozing deer. As I tiptoed past Sage, I stopped in front of her and whispered,

“I’m sorry, but this will do us all good.”

Then I quietly crept out through the tall bushes, separating me from the tall trees that would lead to the clearing where the house was and where the garden was planted. I crept closer to the garden and, planning to climb back through my hole that I made last week, I noticed that it was boarded up. I only had one other option, to dig under the gate and come out the other side. Sighing reluctantly, I quickly changed form in a flash. I began (I would say clawing, but I have hooves) digging in the ground until I had built a deep enough trench to wiggle my body through. 

As soon as I felt fresh air again, I held still and kept my body tucked away in the soil, only exhibiting my ears above ground. I heard a gunshot somewhere in the distance. I gulped. Sage’s warned me about human weapons.

“They could kill a deer in an instant.” She had told me. With my rattling nerves, I crept silently out of my trench, and stalked towards the garden. I changed back into my original form and filled my basket I had weaved from tiger grass a few days after my trip to the garden. I was about to return to the herd when I heard whispering voices coming from the house. As I crept near, I could make out what they were saying. I crouched low under the window and pressed my ear up against the wall. I heard a man’s voice, high-pitched and stupied:  “Yes, we must cut down the trees around this house if we aspire to build the town’s shopping mall here.” 

My eyes widened as I listened for more. 

Another voice, low and demanding, responded, “Certainly. And these trees will make fine 

lumber for materials to sell in the main mall.”  My heart was racing in my chest. Sweat dripped down my forehead. What would I tell Sage? I wasn’t supposed to be out.

“Shall we have a deadline for when we begin building?”

“In a week we may begin construction,” the demanding voice said.  “We have a deal then.” My heart was pounding now and I heard the front door unlocked and click open. I gasped and quickly ran around the corner of the house and pressed myself up against the wall. A skinny man walked down the front steps and out of the cottage. 

“Selfish man.” I heard him mutter.

He put his bowling hat over his head and stalked away, his black jacket billowing out behind him.

 Chapter 6:

My breath was coming out in short gasps, and my lungs burned. I was running as fast as I could, but I had to face it. I sucked at running. I was still in shock from what I had just heard from the two men’s conversation. My bare feet burned and my knees ached horribly. I skidded around a corner as the dirt flew up behind me and I coughed as in inhaled the musty air. I reached the bushes were we all lived and gasped in relief. Regret filled my body, but I dropped to my knees and shook Sage awake. 

“Sage!! Sage!!” I whisper-yelled, careful not to wake the other deer. Sage blinked open her sleepy eyes, and sat back on her hind legs. 

“What is it, my fawn?” (That was Sage’s nickname for me). I clutched at my side, a stitch digging into my skin. I panted, and a sob escaped. I covered my face with my hands as so Sage couldn’t see me crying. Sobs racked my body. I always thought I was brave…

“It’s alright to cry, little one, Sage said as if she read my mind. “Now where were you that you’ve gotten so upset?” I sniffed and didn’t look at Sage as I spoke.

“I…I went back to the garden,” I said with a sigh. Her hazelnut eyes widened. I knew that look. To encourage me to go on. I looked up, finally, and told her about what I had overheard from the two men. “What are we going to do?” I said softly, watching as Sage stares wistfully into the distance. 

“We must move the herd to another forest,” she said, determined.

“No!” I shrieked, the word echoing off the tall trees.

“Twig, there’s no other way to be safe. We can’t stay here and hope our home doesn’t fall on our heads. We will have no sources of food and nowhere to live.”

“That’s exactly why we need to stop this!” I yelled. The other deer arose to the sounds of yelling. “No, we can’t leave!” I exclaimed. Some of the young deer came over to me and nudged me with their small snouts, as if to say, “It’s going to be alright.” I gave them a sympathetic smile and looked up, ready for a fight. “I’m sorry. But Sage, you saved my life. This– this is how I can repay you. And It’s about time, too,” I said, a sensation of melancholy overcoming me. “Twelve years later.” I stood up, my hands balling into fists. “I won’t let this go on. It has to go down.” Then I turned on my heel, deaf to Sage’s “Wait!”

Chapter 7:

 I knew what I was doing. I was going to go up to that horrible man and tell him that there is a herd of deer living in the forest, there are foxes and woodpeckers, there are chipmunks and woodchucks, there is life itself and he just wants to cut it all down. I will not let that happen. As I grew nearer to the house, I noticed how nervous I was. I took a deep breath and knocked. I looked down at my rags. I look like I’m not even taken care of! Of course I am though! By the deer! 

Before I could make another remark on my clothes, the front door swung open and a man with greasy black hair and a lopsided tie approached me. 

“What do you want?” He growled. It was the man with the low and demanding voice! 

I gulped. “I was wondering if I could have a quick chat with you about the current events?” I asked in a weak voice. This guy was scarier than I expected! 

“Do you mean the new mall? Are you here to…complain?” He demanded. 

“Actually, yes!” I said with as much positivity as I could muster. “Do you realize that you are building insanity smack in the face of nature?!” 

He had no answer for this demanding question, except for a forced, “Come inside and explain yourself.” The man dragged me by the front of my shirt forward into a musty room, where three things startled me. One: a mean-looking dog with fangs that formed an underbite. He growled at me, must have been smelling the deer. I slowly inched away from him. Two: the skinny man with the high-pitched voice was cowering in the corner! I gave him a questioning look which he returned. Three: A girl, about my age, sitting on a ripped up couch, looking reluctant as she held a cup of tea which smelled as the fumes of rotting eggs. She smiled at me, a smile which I did not return. I turned to the low voiced man. 

“What is your name?” I demanded of him. “And why should I have trust in telling you any personal information?” 

He growled. “It’s Barney.” The skinny man said, smirking at him. ‘Barney’ glared at him and turned a bright shade of pink. The girl on the couch let a laugh escape, and I almost laughed with her when Barney rounded on her. “You may address me by Mr. Barns!” He yelled, wheeling on me. 

“Seeing as I have no respect for you-,” the girl shoved her fist in her mouth to force back a giggle, “–I will address you as Barney. Do you realize that you’re planning to build buildings and malls smack in the face of this forest? There are herds of deer living here, foxes in their dens, and all sorts of animals that rely on living and surviving here in this forest.”

“She’s right,” said the man with the high-pitched voice. “If there’s so much life here, then we must find a better place to build our houses and malls, or not build them at all.”

“Yes, I agree with that,” said the girl on the couch. This time I returned her smile. I smiled at the man in the corner, too. 

Barney turned pink and exploded at all of us. “Fools!” he yelled. “Who cares about what lies in the forest? We planned all this work out and now we will finish it!”

“No you will not!” I protested. “A great herd of deer live there! I live there!” Everyone stared at me. 

“You live there?” the girl asked. I flushed red and had to say something, so I admitted how I lived in the forest ever since I was a baby. After I finished the story of how the deer found me and took care of me, everyone was shocked at my tale.

“No children should be living in the forest!” Barney exclaimed. “We’ll send you off to a proper school and a proper home.”

“No!” I yelled. “I have to live with the deer! They saved my life, I have to protect them!”

“Now don’t fuss, you’ll be happy there,” said the man in the corner. 

“No, papa, I think she’s happy here. But I also think that you shouldn’t be planning with this terrible man-,” she gestures to Barney. “-to chop down the Birchwood Forest.” It was pure relief to hear her say that. “I mean, if you think about it, you just destroy a chain of life! How would you feel if someone came into town, kicked us out, and replaced it with skyscrapers and tall buildings, and we had to make a long journey to find a better life, and be scared all the while and anxious you wouldn’t be able to find a perfect way to be at ease again? You can’t do that to the animals living in the forest! I agree with–what’s your name?” She asked me. I blushed at the fact that she even wanted to name and, as a matter of fact, my name is Twig, and she probably has a name that has nothing to do with nature or anything strange, probably a really pretty name.

 “I’m Brooke. Named after that stream in the forest you live in! And that’s my father, he goes by Mr. Dave.” She gave me an ear to ear grin. This time, I returned it. “I’m Twig,” I said shyly. 

“That’s a great name!” She examined. 

“Thanks.” I muttered. “Now who’s with me? Are we going to stop this insanity or what?!” I felt like I was rousing a bunch of protesters. I felt so positive I thought I was going to burst. Barney, through all of this, was standing, his mouth hanging open, shocked. He shook his head.

“I will not stand for this. I am heading into town now to borrow a trencher. These trees will be gone by thursday.” At that point, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

 

Chapter 8:

“I’ll be right back.” I whispered to Brooke. She nodded and gave me a promising look. As Mr. Dave and Barney argued, I tiptoed back and out of the house. I turned on my heel and ran. I had to get Sage! I shouldn’t have left her all alone with the others! They need to be safe! And they can’t be when Barney is planning to rip apart our home! I headed for the the grove were we slept, racing along in the deer form (I had shifted as soon as I left), and was now racing along a dry path, my hooves clicking in the dirt. I almost collided with Sage, who seemed to have the intention of racing after me. “Sage!” I exclaimed. I tried to convince them, “I met a girl named Brooke who wants to help me save the forest, along with her father and one other man who completely disagrees with us and still won’t let us keep the forest the way it is.”    

“For the first time I’m going to try to fight back with you. We will make sure our home isn’t destroyed. Change back into your human form, so they won’t suspect anything.”

I heard a voice in the distance. “Twig!” It called out. I spun around and saw Brooke and her father racing after me. Sage backed a few steps away.

“You told them your name?” she whispered. 

“It’s okay, those people don’t want the forest to be teared down. They want to help us.”

Then Barney emerged from the cottage and came running after us. “He–doesn’t want to help. He just wants to be selfish and unfeeling.” I glared at the long shadow of Barney striding across the clearing of trees drawing nearer to us.

“What is this vermin you are standing by?” He questioned, looking up and down Sage. I could see in Sage’s face the terror of standing in the presence of a human as horrible as this. I, for one, was shocked at these words. 

“Excuse you? How heartless can man get if they haven’t grown up knowing the importance of nature in this world? The very deer who saved my life, who, if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be speaking to you in this moment, the mere presence of me but a faded existence. I bet you want that, don’t you, me to be a dead goner. Than take me, take me instead of them, instead of the forest. I reached my hands out wide. I’m all yours. Just let them be.” 

Sage stepped in front of me, nudging me back. 

“No,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. And I’ll get you out, I promise.” I said. 

“I can’t do that!” Barney exclaimed, taken aback. “I can’t kill a human child instead of chopping down a random forest to make way for the new! Those options do not go together.” 

“In my world, they do. But, then, if you are too nervous to take my life instead of theirs because you think society will rat you out for murder, then leave us all. Build your malls, your homes, your tall–rectangular things–somewhere else, in a clearing where you don’t have to chop down my world.” A few minutes ticked by. 

“Please,” a tear ran down my cheek. “You don’t know how much this means to me.” Finally, the words came out that would change my life forever. Barney put his head in his hands. 

“Fine. Go live whatever life you want to.”

 Chapter 9:

Five Years Later…

Brooke

It was my last day to deliver food to Twig before I moved away. After today she would go into town when she needed to. I took the small satchel of food I tied it up to all tall tree, throwing the rope around it. As I pulled the rope up so no animals would eat it, I remembered the girl I met five years ago, and heard her tinkling laugh somewhere in the distance. She must be riding Sage. Or living in the tree house I helped her build last year. I will miss her so, so much.

“Goodbye, Twig.” I whispered into the forest.                  

Chapter 1

The outbreak starts

“Hey Matt! Let’s drive to the outskirts mall! We can go to the arcade,” I said. 

“But I don’t have money for those games!” said my friend Matt. 

“I got enough money to get all four of us covered! Go grab Gary and Al and lets get going!” I said. 

“No problem and thanks Kevin!” With that, we left our house and got into the car since I was the only one with a driver’s license, I drove.

  After a short drive with the guys chatting away about Fortnite because season 60 had flying cars, we finally pulled up to the mall. So we parked and entered the mall. The mall had so many stores with all sorts of fast food places along with other food stores. The mall was almost like a giant food store even though it had a bunch of other toy stores and clothing stores. I looked around and saw that today there weren’t many people there so it was more like a small crowd there. 

We entered the arcade with so many new games.

“Guys! Let’s play the new four-player walking dead!” I say. We run over to the new game and start. After we play for 5 minutes, we get death penalties. 

“Oh my goodness!” cried Gary. 

“Poor guy!” We had failed to save one of the guys which gave us a death penalty. “I sure hope this doesn’t happen to us Kevin,” said Al.

 We kept running around playing all sorts of arcade games. But after 30 minutes, I didn’t want to spend anymore money. So we set off toward the parking lot. We were going to enter the car and we all had received a message that tons of deer were gonna be on the road today.

“Ok Kevin, we should. Just drive carefully just to make sure we don’t kill anything,” said Matt. We then just jumped into the car and zoomed away.

Meanwhile……

“Sir! We have a small nuclear leak in the tank and it’s seeped into the water supply!” said a scientist to the manager who wasn’t very friendly at all.

“If you useless creeps don’t fix the problem or block more from coming out or I’ll go mad!” screamed the manager. Nearby, car washers didn’t seem to realize that their water supply had been a little bit contaminated by nuclear waste. They sprayed a person’s car and the person who had not paid attention to the deer message had already driven away at high speed. He then drove on the road and BANG accidentally hit a deer with his window open. “Ugh dumb animals…” he growled.

At that exact moment…

“Guys did you hear that?” asked Matt. “It sounded like some sort of bang!”

“Yeah I heard it too!” said Al.

“Do you think that’s the bang?” I asked pointing to a dead deer on the sidewalk. “Yeah.. maybe so,” said Gary. We walked out of the car and inspected the deer.

“Who would have done this?” asked Matt sadly.

“I bet it was him!” I said pointing to a person. I took a picture of the license plate and sent it to the police.

***

Later we had arrived home and turned on the Xbox and played Minecraft until 3:00 at noon. Until then we decided to watch some TV. We turned it on. It started with saying,

“A man drove by a deer corpse today and appeared to see it moving!”

That made us all jump out of our seats. “Could it be our deer?” cried Al seeming crazy nervous.

“Here we are with our witness! John! Would you please come up here?” said the reporter.

“Yes sir!” said the man named John. “I was just driving across the road until this seemingly dead deer just came to life!” He cried. “I even saw him get up and pound at a car! I then just drove away with that in film!” The man then said even more. “I then kept driving on the road until I saw some kind of man that looked deranged burst out of his window! Then he started chasing a car!”

“Well folks! That is our scoop for today! A mysterious deer coming to life what do you think? Leave a message on our website news channel 3.org!” he said.

We then were trying to change channels until channel 12 came in and said,

”Everyone listen up! We are here to show you a film of a clip shown from our newscopter! We are taking you there live! Subject! Massive violence and many casualties in the city of US! Here we are! Miles?”

“Yes sir, I can hear you! Now we are right now seeing in this city in Kansas where as far as I can see something wrong with some people! It’s as if they are killing others! I’ll try and go for a zoom in!” As the copter lowered, the camera zoomed in and we saw people with faces that had cracks and blood on them. It was not a pretty sight. But then something happened and the heli exploded on the ground.

“I think we better take a train somewhere else.” I said. Everyone took to that idea right away. So we booked train tickets to leave to Boston.

Chapter 2

Train of the dead

The next day, we were going to the train station. We then had checked in tickets and everything. We got to the tracks and went inside. We just viewed outside the window at the person letting people in. All of a sudden something pounced on him. And we had no idea what had happened. We were totally clueless. But it almost seemed like it was exactly like the people we saw in the news last night.

We knew that the train ride was supposed to be almost a day. But it was worth it to run away from total carnage.

“Guys, do you think it’s gonna be safe in Boston?” asked Gary worried.

“Yeah I’m sure we will,” I said. 

After an hour and a half, we were just sitting there until we saw something strange.

“Guys,” said Gary. “Does anything about this person look wrong to you?”

He said pointing to a woman who was limping our way and looking as if she would tumble down in a few seconds.

“She’s walking weird…” I said. “Do you think she’s sick?”

“Yeah I think so…” said Al. “Do you think she’s…. One of them?”

“What do you mean?” asked Matt.

“One of the creatures.” I told him. We saw her run into one of the train stewardesses.

“Ma’am are you okay?” asked the stewardess, bringing the woman into the back of the train. She laid the person on the ground.

“Conductor, we have a situation. There’s somebody here who seems in need of medical attention,” she said. The woman then got up. She got up and grabbed the stewardess and bit her in the neck. The stewardess fell in front of some passengers including us.

“What the hell??” murmured the passengers.

“Guys… we should run.” I said. We all got out of our chairs. “Hurry people!! Run!” I cried. The passengers didn’t all buy it.

“We aren’t going to listen to no pranks, sonny,” said an old man. A few passengers had already gotten up and were warning others to get up and run away.

“Fine! Just don’t get killed.” I said running off. “Everyone who saw the news last night?!” I said to passengers in car 5 out of 16 so I could get everyone to safety. So as we kept warning people to go to the front cars, we got most of the passengers in. I was getting a few more people out of car 7 where there were some other people. I ran to someone on the ground who was just lying there. As soon as I saw that person only had eye whites, I shoved them across from me and ran into car 6 where all the other people were. I shut the door before the crazy humans were in car 12 just in case something else happened. Two more people had then come, they banged on the door to get us to let them in. I did that and the couple got in.

One minute later, the zombies were in car 7 which is where we were behind them. They groped at the door and banged on it. One man was pressing against the door and said, “Anyone know how to lock these?” he said.

“Yeah I’d try twisting the orange thing on your left,” said somebody. The man did that.

“But what are those people doing with all that blood on them?” said one person. “It’s like a virus or something!”

“That’s it! It’s like a zombie outbreak or something!” I said. 

“Wait a minute, are we stopping somewhere?” I said. We saw a bunch of people approaching the window which made us all back up a little.

“Let us in! Please!” They cried. It took us all a minute to realize the train station had been overrun by zombies.

“Conductor! Open the door!” said a person. The conductor did so which also let the zombies on the train out. A couple survivors got in and slammed the door. Right before zombies started pounding the windows.

We slowly creaked open the door that led us to the train. We opened another door where there was still one or three zombies still hanging there. The few survivors including Gary and Al ran back. We slammed the door and saw someone slowly get killed by the zombie.

“Hey guys we can’t just stay on this train!” I said. “It’s going to reach Boston at one point where the virus might have already reached! We should all stick together.” Everyone was then talking about whether we should ditch the train and go to a stop with no zombies or go straight to Boston.

Everybody had mixed opinions and tried to argue with each other.

“We should stop the train at a stop,” said one man.

“But then we could end up getting ambushed by tons of zombies!” said another. “We should stay on the train.”

“But if we do that, it could get us trapped on a train or something. Besides, those zombies could break through that glass after a few hours!” said a third.

While everyone argued, me, Matt, Gary, and Al looked for something to help us. We all looked around until we could find something. Then we overheard the people deciding that we get off at the next stop. The conductor also agreed.

Once we got to the next stop, we realized nobody was here. We looked around hoping that there were no zombies. We looked around until somebody saw a R.I.O.T shield. We hoped that meant there were more survivors. We kept looking around together to see if there  were were survivors nearby until Al pointed at a baton. Gary had picked up both the shield and a baton which made him look more like the survivor kind. To be honest, he looked like a character from the Walking Dead series. So after he had that stuff, we kept searching for stuff to defend ourselves.

At one point, everybody was snooping around for weapons and shields. What I found was a wooden bat. But I was hoping I’d get a baton. But the thing is, there were hardly any weapons at all. Only three people had shields and about five people had bats or batons.

I was thinking about getting out of the train station until I realized that if there were a few police weapons, there could be police force nearby. Maybe even a military. I decided to look around downstairs for more weapons in the station and that when I saw that there was a broken gun a few feet away from me. At first I thought I was safe and had found a gun. But then I found out that it had blood all over it. That’s when I realized it meant that there could be a military force nearby that was infected.

I went back up to talk to Gary, Al, and Matt and explained what I had thought. They also thought about it and agreed with me.

“But where do you think the infected military can be?” asked Al. “Most likely at the train exit since that’s where nobody has gone.” I said. That’s when we heard a scream and saw a person run out the exit and into the station.

“Run!” he cried. “Run!!!” That’s when we realized that my theory of zombies was correct.

Chapter 3

Military chaos

Suddenly the whole train station had been completely overrun by infected soldiers. Gary grabbed his baton and bashed a zombie onto the floor.

“Let’s get the hell outta here!” he said. We then opened a door with nobody in it.

“Hurry! Get in here!” I cried to the panicking survivors. One by one, people noticed me calling them and ran through the door. After a few people entered, we noticed nobody else was alive. So we locked the door and saw that the zombies were already attacking.

“There’s too many of them! They’ll break the glass! Run!” I scream.

We all run and see that there’s still one train that was almost gonna leave. We kept running and making sure the infected didn’t catch up to us. We got onto the train.

“There’s still more people coming!” I said. “Get them in here!” But it was too late. Zombies broke through a window up top and started falling onto the ground. The passengers had mostly got into the train. So with that, the final person got in and closed the door. We figured we were safe but I had no idea what was gonna happen.

We quickly figured out that the people who were still alive had went into the incorrect train car and they got infected so it was no surprise to me that they were continuing to bang the windows. But me and my friends along with two other people got back into car 1 where nobody else was. We had blocked the glass doors to be sure they didn’t know we were there. Hopefully they had no sense of smell. But at one point we heard that somebody had opened the door for some completely stupid reason.

We soon heard the shrieks of zombies and survivors screaming. But no zombies banged on our door. That meant as long as the zombies couldn’t see us, we wouldn’t get chased. We then went to the conductor. “Hi guys,” he said. “This has been the worst day I have ever lived out of my whole life!” “We should get to Boston soon though,” he added.

Gary was worried. “Do you think that we could make it?” He asked.

“It’s possible, but let’s not lose hope yet.” said the conductor.

After we were 18 hours away from Boston, we looked and saw that zombies had overrun another train station. We were just about to pull away and after we were 11 minutes away from the station, we heard the conductor shout. 

“God dangit!” he screamed. “The engine’s broken!” 

I went over to him.

“We have to exit the train!” I said. “Guys, we have to get off.” I said to my friends. The two other survivors I first thought were still with us, but it turned out that their instincts made them go onto the train station first thing.

Chapter 4

Alone

“We are on our own,” said Gary shaking his head sadly. 

“We can’t stay on this train.

We have to actually survive until we reach Boston,” said Matt. We soon were walking off the train hoping not to get noticed by any really dangerous things. We all ran into the woods. But once we were walking, there were some zombies on the tracks. We were about to assault them until a zombie was right behind us and jumped on the conductor.

“ACK!” He cried, throwing the zombie to the ground. Thankfully he, the conductor, hadn’t been bitten.

“Gary! Hit the shield!” I said. Gary smashed his R.I.O.T shield directly into the zombie’s neck. It was a one shot kill, but this wasn’t a video game and we needed to actually fight those zombies on the tracks if we wanted to live.

We walked over to the zombies. They looked at us and lunged at us. My bat actually came in handy for the first time the apocalypse even happened. I struck at the zombie knocking it to the ground. Gary smacked a zombie’s head with his metal bat and got him killed. I kept continuously hitting a zombie until its blood oozed out.

“Matt! Here!” I said tossing my bat to Matt who was being attacked by a zombie. Matt first took out the zombie’s legs and then shoved the bat at its mouth.

“DIE!” cried Matt, smacking the zombie even after it was already completely dead. That was until there was a zombie right behind him. Gary whacked the zombie aside and shielded himself from getting bitten. Matt then finished the zombie off by punching him and smashing him.

After we had taken care of the zombies, we kept walking until we got to another area with zombies. But we kept either sneaking past or killing the zombies. At one point, we came to an area where there was a whole horde of them. So the idea was that we had to clear them out one by one which would be impossible unless somebody sacrificed themselves. I then noticed a person who had gotten eaten. I looked in his bag. Once I saw what was inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

There was actually 1 or 2 guns in there! I could not even believe my luck. At first I thought the gun was broken, but as soon as a zombie ran at me from out of nowhere, I did the first thing I thought of doing which was to grab a gun. But as soon as I pulled the trigger, blood went on the zombie’s head. I grabbed the shotgun for myself and passed the pistol to Al. Then we were ready. Matt and Gary took down those zombies as I took down the small crowd of undead humans. Gary kept giving the zombies a good clock on the head and wiped them out while Matt kept hitting at the guys so hard. He killed a row of three zombies in one hit. After defeating a somewhat endless wave of zombies, we actually managed to keep walking. But then, Al turned around and said, “Kevin, where did you get that gun?” He asked.

“In a pack.” I replied.

“Let’s see if it has food!” He said. “I’m hungry!” So that’s what we did. We finally got to that pack and opened it up.

“A banana, half a bag of chips, bottled water, and six cheese sticks,” said Gary.

“Let’s eat!” said Al. We all split the food.

We soon slept and waited in bushes where we hoped nobody could see us. We had to keep going early in the night so the zombies couldn’t see us. Thankfully we had survived the first day of the outbreak. We later kept going.

Chapter 5

Safe at last

We had a few encounters with zombies. I smashed some zombies to death that day until we finally had gotten to some kind of place where it looked like there had been a train accident. We all ran trying to make sure we didn’t run into a zombie horde. Soon, we saw a whole group of zombies all lying on the ground. But in front of us, there was a ton of zombies all grouped together on a bridge which we for sure had to take down.

We charged at the horde and were smacking them across the ground. I grabbed a zombie by the back of the shirt and broke its head by twisting it. Gary smacked zombies off into the lake which while Al shot his pistol making sure every bullet counted. We all ran toward other zombies knocking them into the river and shooting them all down.

Later, we had already found a tunnel which we thought would make a good base to be for surviving. We were alarmed by the sound of walkie talkies that made us think we were gonna be facing some kind of ultra smart zombies. That’s when we saw some people in army suits. We worried and walked over to get a closer look to see if they were human or zombie. But they then noticed us and said,

“Survivors approaching!” said some men. “Bring them over! Quick!”

Me, Gary, Al, Matt, and the conductor all approached the army men.

“We’re safe.” I said. “We survived the Zombie apocalypse!” We all cheered. Then we heard a noise in the air. “Scientists in the world have developed a cure for this disease! Medical units will now be dropping! Everybody now be calm! You are now safe!” The army men and my friends and me all cheered.

“We are survivors!” I said.

The end

Nora lived right next to the waterfall Forest. The sky around the forest was always in perpetual sunset, so the ways the light hit the waterfall looked as if it was on fire. Nora never really noticed, but a water source kept her alive so she gave it some respect. Actually it was the only water source in the vicinity of fifty miles.  She lived on her own in the forest in a little grass hut. She got her water from the waterfall and salt from the ocean. She gathered roots and berries and set snares to catch the strange skinny birds. She was pretty self-dependent. She never noticed the beautiful setting or the pretty food that she gathered. The only thing about the nature that she really noticed was the crickets chirping that kept her from sleeping as early as she would like. Nora lived alone in her hut, but five miles away lived an old lady that seemed to know everything.

Every night when the crickets started to chirp, Nora started the long walk to the old lady’s grass hut and she learned about the possible plants and roots and edible birds that won’t give you bird fever. In return for the old lady’s knowledge, Nora fed her and shared her own knowledge , but since most of the useful things she knew were taught to her by the old lady, she mostly just told her stories of ancient gods and heroes. 

  One day when she was walking through the forest checking and resetting snares, she was unhappy to find that there were no edible birds, just the bright pink ones that were deadly poison. They were still alive so she let them go and walked over to the ocean to see if there was any fish to spear. None. She walked back into the forest and looked around for some roots and berries. She went to her favorite blackberry bush and found it untouched. She ran back to her hut, found a large basket, and stripped the berry bush clean of any fruit. 

She hauled the heavy basket inside and started eating. “Oh well,” she said to herself. “So much for a large lunch.” She sat down the half eaten blackberry basket and looked into the corner of the grass hut. There was an incredibly cute, little rabbit. Since Nora hardly noticed anything cute or pretty or nice she kicked it out of the hut and continued eating her berries. She set down the few remaining blackberries and wandered outside for a little afternoon stroll.

  After a mile or two, she noticed one of the strange skinny birds lying flat on its face. “Finally!” She said. “A real meal.” She kneeled down to pluck the bird when she noticed the the usually reddish brown skin of the strange skinny birds was paper white. Nora frowned and picked up the bird. Her stomach growled. She decided to consult the old lady. She took the long five mile hike up to the old lady’s house. She came running to the little grass hut. She walked into the hut.

Nora called the old lady Granny. Granny’s hut was strewn with thick, wooly rugs and sheepskin blankets from the real world.  Nora lived in the real world until she turned five. That was eight years ago. Bundles of good-smelling herbs hung from the ceiling.  Granny was sitting in a bundle of blankets cutting up meat Nora brought a few days ago on a large slab of wood that took up half the hut. Nora unclipped the bird from her belt. “Is that for me?” asked Granny. Nora’s cheeks turned red. She hadn’t anticipated this. “Sorry I will bring you your meat at the usual time but some weird things are happening.” Nora explained the vanished meat except for the paper white bird. “First you must not call it a bird. From now on you will call it a Apalaishan forest foul, and second give me the bird.” Granny said all in a hurry. “But you just said—” “No buts. Give me the bird.” Nora reluctantly gave Granny the bird.

Granny examined it for a solid five minutes. When she finally looked up from the Apalaishan forest foul she beckoned Nora to sit next to her. Nora sat down. Granny said, “Look at the slit in the side of your bird’s stomach.” She lifted the feathers that concealed the ugly gash. “The bird is completely sucked dry. There is not a trace of any blood. That explained why it is paper white. Your bird over here looked like he had an encounter with one of those giant leeches,” Granny paused and started plucking of the feathers.

 “You can have your dinner here. My cooking always tastes better than yours anyway.” Nora scowled at the floor, even though it was true. Granny always made good use of her herb bundles. It was starting to get dark. Nora walked over to close the grass curtain over the small hole in the hut and went around lighting candles with the fire that Granny had started to cook the food. Granny had three hundred and ninety-seven candles all stored away in a sheet of plastic to keep dry. It was unfortunate that she only had twenty candle holders. Granny had loads of stuff from the real world. That was the only thing that Nora did not like about Granny. 

After a long time of waiting for the stew to get ready, adding spices and unfamiliar herbs, supper was finally done. Granny spooned the stew into two wooden bowls and ate in silence. Nora was very hungry from her diminished lunch. She secretly thought that it was a bad idea that she showed Granny the bird. She wished she had eaten it all by herself. Even though the bird might have been poison, Nora had herbal remedies that Granny had taught her. 

Twenty minutes later, Nora got up and clipped the rest of the bird to her belt to be salted in her hut. A few years ago, she made a little trough out of sticks that she collected in the woods she filled it with salt. Now she had salted meat hanging from the roof of her hut as well as herbs and remedies. She salted the rest of the bird, hung it up, and crawled under a bear skin and went to sleep.   

The next day was a little more strange. Nora got up and pulled on a t-shirt and jeans that she brought to the from the real world, and went outside to check her snares all she found was paper white Apalashian forest foul. They were strewn across the forest floor. There were ten of them. She gathered them and took them to her hut. She plucked them and skinned them and did all sorts of things that you did to a piece of bird when you were hungry. She salted five and carried them over to Granny’s hut she dropped them off at the “Meat deposit” that Granny had installed for her. Since she already did the hunting and yesterday’s berries were still ripe, she decided to take a swim in the ocean.

 She walked to her hut, put on a bathing suit that used to fit Granny when she was thirteen, and headed to the ocean. Nora happened to be quite an accomplished swimmer, even when she was five and in the real world winning prizes for her back float and such. She went up to a cliff that looked down at the sea around forty feet down or so. She took a deep breath and dived into the blue-green waters once she touched the bottom she swam around face-down with her eyes open and she noticed something very strange. She got to her feet and swam deeper into the ocean and noticed fish lying on their backs. They were already dead. She looked up toward the cliff. There was a white flash of a tail disappearing into the woods. It looked like the rabbit she kicked out of her hut yesterday. 

She swam to the shore and ran to her hut and changed into her clothing. She got the long knife that she used for preparing meat and occasionally throwing a knife at a bird that wandered outside her hut. She silently slipped into her boots knife in hand and proceeded outside the hut. She was going to hunt down whoever was killing the animals. First she decided to tell Granny about her plan. She might give her something to help her. Last time something happened like this turned out to be a poacher. Nora had hit his head hard with a rock. He got amnesia, so instead of getting a buddy for Granny she led him over to the edge of the woods and pushed him out. He was probably now in some weird real world hospital.

Nora arrived at Granny’s hut and noticed that the meat was gone. She stepped into the hut and looked for some possible signs of life in the piles of blankets. “Granny! I need to tell you something,” Nora said loudly. No answer.  She looked and checked a couple of blanket piles. She checked the one nearest to the table. There she was! “Come here,” she croaked. Granny was very pale. As pale as the dead birds. Oh no. Nora hoped she was wrong about what she was thinking… Cause if she was right… “It the rabbit,” said Granny shakily. “The one who is killing the birds.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Granny collapsed. Nora’s eyes widened. She bit her lip. She felt Granny’s heart. Nothing. Nora made a small strangled sound. She carried Granny outside. 

  This could not be happening. Granny said that she wanted to have a proper, real-world burial. Hunting the rabbit could wait. She ran inside to fetch a shovel. She dug and dug and dug. Her hands were dotted with blisters. She set Granny down into the large hole and filled it in with dirt.  She went out to the meadow and picked Granny’s favorite purple flowers. She laid them around the grave. She went into Granny’s hut and collected all the herbs and meat. No use letting it go to waste. She carried them out to her own hut and hung them on the ceiling. 

‘Why did I like Granny so much? I guess she reminded me of my family in the real world. My dad my mom my sister. All of them. Even my infuriating cousins. I guess even Granny had a sassy side. I never actually knew my real grandmas. They died before I was born.  My grandma on my mom’s side died when my grandfather passed away due to a terrible sickness after the bombing of California. No one can even see the ruins because they are still toxic. My family lived In Nevada right near the border of California. Right near the bomb site. It wasn’t  even a normal bomb. It was the one that America swore to never use again. The Atom Bomb. Soon the sickness took hold of my whole family. My mother told me to flee to the Appalachian Trail. I did. I felt safe. But now no one is safe. I will avenge my adopted grandmother.’ Nora’s thinking time was over.

She picked up her knife filled with a new determination. She suddenly realized how ridiculous the whole situation was. A bloodsucking rabbit with a knife or an axe was out to get her. And Nora thought she had seen it all. Oh well. At least she had experience with killing animals. She might even enjoy rabbit stew. 

Nora trekked deeper into the woods. There was still no sign of the demon rabbit. At least he would stick out. There was no white rabbits in these woods. She decided to go in the direction of the cliff. The dead leaves crunched beneath her feet even though it was midsummer. She would scare of an elephant at this rate. Not that there were any elephants. She thought. Well with a demon rabbit who knew what was going to happen. She stepped onto the rocks. There wasn’t a sound. And suddenly behind a rock was the telltale flash of a white tail. She chased after it she threw her knife at it but missed. Appalashian forest foul were much slower. She yanked her knife out of the ground and threw again. This time the knife pinned the rabbit to the ground by its tail. Nora smiled. But something strange seemed to be happening. 

The rabbit’s tail looked like it was spinning. The tail lengthened and changed shape. Longer and longer and a strange square shape on top of the tail. The tail stopped spinning. The knife clattered to the ground. The tail had transformed into a large axe. The rabbit hopped around swinging the axe around and taunting Nora. The rabbit bared his teeth and jumped onto Nora swinging the axe like a madman. Nora did not know what to do. Her knife was still on the ground. All she had to do was get the knife. If that demon rabbit let her live long enough.  The rabbit started to shout meaningless things at her. The axe did not seem to ever get tired of flailing around. The rabbit’s pointy teeth were stained reddish brown from the fish and the birds. And Granny. Granny! She was the one who made Nora hunt the rabbit down not only because the birds were rotting but because the rabbit was the one who killed the only one who Nora liked anymore. Nora was so angry she could not see. She tore the rabbit off of her and lunged to get the fallen knife. She stomped down on the axe-tail an stabbed the rabbit. The rabbit still did not stop screaming. She stabbed it again and again but the rabbit did not cease to chatter. She held the rabbit by its neck and went to Granny ́s abandoned hut and got the big cooking pot. 

She started dumping herbal remedies into the pot that she brought with her everywhere. The water started to boil. She kept dumping random herbs into the pot until the water turned into a murky brown thick paste. Without thinking she dumped the rabbit into the pot and closed the lid on tightly this left her time to inspect her wounds. She had several deep gashes near her ankles and the rabbit left several puncture marks. She applied some dried seeds to her wounds and they immediately felt better. She checked on her rabbit stew. She knew that nothing could kill the rabbit. But she might put him in a state that will prevent them from ever doing harm to her and the forest. 

Nora reluctantly opened the pot lid. The murky brown had boiled down to a liquid that looked like the real world drink called coffee, only Nora’s concoction had brown mush floating around. The smell was overpowering. A tuft of brown sticky fur floated to the top. 

She went to Granny’s cabinet and retrieved a pair of tongs. She went back to the pot and fished around for awhile until she fished around for a while. She hit something. She pulled it out of the murky water and the rabbit was silent and sticky its eyes were closed and it mouth was only opened slightly as if it were asleep. Nora exhaled. She had avenged her Granny. She looked at the rabbit one last time to make sure it was dead. 

The rabbit opened its eyes and gave her a great big smile. “Peekaboo!” it said. The tail started to spin…

THE END   

PART l

Ch1: A bad day.

I feel as if the clouds departed for me today, for the sun is shining all over Akron even though I don’t like the sun. I think today is going to be the perfect day, mostly because tonight is going to be a full moon.

It’s my favorite subject in school, social studies. We are learning about wildlife. I am doing wolves.

“LISA! Are you paying attention?” My teacher Mrs. Moogs says pretty loud.

“I am, I am,” I reply even though I wasn’t.

”Well show us what your speech is about,” Mrs. Moogs says sounding annoyed.

 “Wolves, that’s what I am writing about,” I mumble walking up to the front of my classroom. 

“Well are you going to start?” Mrs. Moogs asks rudely. 

“I am, I am,“ I mumble once again. “I am writing about wolves. Wolves hunt mice, bunnies…”

”Wolves are DUMB,” a student yells out. I look down and see Bratt smirking at me. Bratt is the biggest and meanest bully in my school, P.S.37. He is so mean that he scares his own mom and dad. He is “like” a legend in school. Once Bratt was sent to the principal’s office when he came back the principal was following him, the principal had a black eye on his left eye. “Wolves are high predators and are related to dogs and coyotes,” I say raising my voice a little.

 “Still boring and BOO,” Bratt yells out again in mean voice.

Soon everyone starts yelling BOO at the top of their lungs. 

“SHUSH UP!” Mrs. Moogs screams at all the kids but that just made them louder.

 Mrs. Moogs looks at the kid that was yelling BOO the loudest. “Jack go to the office.” Everyone becomes silent watching Jack leave. “Anyone else that wants to join Jack?” Mrs. Moogs asks everyone in the classroom waiting for an answer. “Good. You may start over Lisa.”

”Most wolves hunt in packs. A pack means -” 

“I can’t hear you all, I can hear is your sassy, little voice,” he tells me.

This time I am so mad at Bratt for interrupting me again. I stare Bratt right across his face making him smile his horrible smile. Bratt stands up staring into my eyes as if he is winning a staring contest. Seeing that he stood up I do the same. Now I am standing up I am five inches taller than Bratt. This makes Bratt mad. He always brags about how he is the tallest in the whole school.

”Oh wow,” Nelson whispers even though I hear him. I look a little past Bratt, looking at my classmates which are Nelson, Max, and Ryla. 

“Hey guys stop starin’ and fight,” says Max with his English accent. Bratt looks at me devilishly as if he is agreeing with Max. But before I can do anything Mrs. Moogs calls me.

 “Lisa go to the principal.”

 I go downstairs without putting up a fight with Mrs. Moogs. 

When I get to Principal Cunningham’s office, he’s on the ground shivering to death. In front of him are two vikings that are arguing about whether they should take the principal first, and not take the students, or take the kids first and not take the principal. After a few minutes, they walk out of the room and decide to take the kids. I try to be silent as possible but they spot me and say,

“Why not start with this one?”

The viking with a red beard tries to hold me still but I bite him and run away to warn my best friends Kayla and Shawn. They are both in the same classroom, which is 3-208. I run upstairs. They can see me through the crack of the door. They both ask the teacher, which is their English teacher Mrs. Tiffany, if they can go to the bathroom, which she replies yes. They run out the door as fast as they can. They know all my secrets. 

“What’s the problem?” They ask at the same time.

“There are these viking dudes that are planning to capture all the students here,” I say in an excited voice. 

“Let’s go and beat them up!” says Shawn. “Give them a lesson.” We swiftly run down the stairs to see that there are seven hundred vikings with axes and spears caging kids. Shawn slows down and says, “I’m not sure I want to beat them up anymore.” 

Kayla bravely walks outside and says, “I demand you to stop!” To which they surprisingly do stop, and they all bow down to her. She thinks it’s a trick, so she takes one of their axes and starts hacking all the cages trying to get the kids out. Shawn takes a spear and starts swiftly cutting a viking’s helmet and starts attacking everybody he can see. After one hour of battling the vikings, we all huddle up together, knowing that there is no hope in defeating them, and we say that we will go home and hide. The vikings keep capturing the kids, but don’t hurt any of them. Kayla swiftly says that she is going to stay here and follow them to wherever they go. 

Shawn says that he is going to go and spend some time making a machine to defeat them. 

I now know that I’m going to be alone in hiding.

In the meanwhile, I keep trying to bite as many hairy arms and hairy legs as I can. We all agree that in two weeks from now, we will do what we need to do. When the two weeks are up, we will meet by the heart-tree. This time, Shawn like he always does, asks, “Why is it called the heart tree?” just to annoy us.

But I should say so anyway. The heart-tree is a tree, a normal tree, but it is shaved into a heart. A cat once got stuck in there when it was a normal tree and it was so scared that it kept going up the tree and down the tree, making it into a heart shape because the cat, everywhere it went, brushed off some leaves. It’s not a very exciting story. But that is the story. Soon all the vikings leave, with Kayla following them and Shawn running as fast as he can to go home and build a machine to destroy them. I look around and make sure nobody’s looking, and then I turn around. And when I’m right about to take my step, Mrs. Tiffany goes up to me and says, “Where are you going?” 

I reply and say, “I am going home.”

“I should call your parents before you go home,” she says.

“They’re probably sleeping,” I quickly say. 

“Then I shall walk you home, for you are only in first grade.”

“No thank you,” I say as politely and calmly as I can. But she insists. So I walk with her until we reach the forest. 

“You live here?” She asks me a little weirdly. 

“Yeah, I do.”

So we walk inside the forest. We walk for five hours until we come upon a cave. I tell her that we should rest there, for it is almost sundown. I don’t tell her this is my home.

Too tired to talk, she nods in agreement. She brings out two blankets and a pillow, as if she needs that in every situation, from her bag, and lays it down inside the misty cave. We both fall asleep very quickly. 

I wake up because I realize that it is a full moon and I’ve turned into a wolf. 

It all happened seven years ago when I was born. I remembered it all too well because I have a wolf’s memory. My mom was there in the hospital with me. It was midnight when I was born, and there was a full moon out. So I was a wolf at that time. My mom, who was also a wolf at that time, for some reason thought I was in danger. A few days later another female wolf, Guard came and brought me to her den with her four pups. Their names are Fluff, Ruff, and the twins, Sapphire and Chocolate.

Mrs. Tiffany wakes up in the middle of the night and looks at my bed and sees that I’m not there anymore. She turns to see me in wolf form gently lapping water in the nearby river. 

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” She screams and faints. When she faints, I put my paw on her to make sure that she’s not faking it. When she doesn’t get up, I curl up into a ball and fall asleep. When I wake up again, I wake up Mrs. Tiffany, who screams again when she wakes up and then thinks that it is all just a bad dream. And then, she looks at me and I realize that I still have my black fluffy wolf tail and my fluffy ears. And then I tell her that it’s not a dream.

Ch2: the explanation

She looks at me in shock and pinches herself to make sure that it isn’t a dream. I tell her that on full moons, when it is night, I turn into a wolf, that explains why I still have a wolf tail and wolf ears. She pinches herself again on the leg and tells herself it isn’t real. But I respond and say,

“It is real.”

She faints again and I dig in her bag and find a bucket and fill it up with water and pour it on her face. When she wakes up again, I tell her that we have to start leaving because I smell poachers, their miles away. The poachers are the worst, they once came into spot’s den. Spot growled as loud as he could. The poachers didn’t go away. They stayed and took a knife and cut off Spot’s leg. Guard rushed over to Spot and put him in his bed made out of wolf hair that they shed in the winter. Spot slept for a week. In the middle of the week, Spot got up, and was whimpering so loudly that Fluff and Ruff, who were in Guard’s stomach, kicked Guard’s stomach really hard.

She complains, “We haven’t even eaten breakfast yet.” 

“Well I’ve made it,” I tell her.

 She looks at me and asks, “What is it?”

“Chicken.”

“Where’d you get this?” Mrs. Tiffany questions me.

“I ran over to a farm and kinda stole a chicken and killed it.”

“We’ll get sued!” 

“Well, probably not, nobody knows where I live.”

“That makes sense.” 

“Well, let’s start eating.” 

“We have to cook it first!”

“Oh, right. I usually eat it raw.” 

Mrs. Tiffany starts pulling out footlong sticks and a packet of matches and lights the fire. I take two sticks and plant one on each side and plant one on top. She takes some string for her bag and ties the chicken to the top stick. I cut off the chicken breast and two chicken legs. She takes the chicken breast and wolfs it down. I take two chicken legs and wolf down all of them and spit out the bones. Mrs. Tiffany looks at me curiously and then remembers that I am a wolf, after all.

She asks, “Why do we have to leave?”

Ch3: run away with me.

“We have to leave because of poachers. They’ll probably kill me and then arrest you.”

“Kill you?” Mrs. Tiffany shouts. 

“And arrest you,” I add.

“Well, shouldn’t we pack some food?”

“Great idea. There are some walnuts that should be ripe by now and some shoots.”

“Walnuts and shoots?” Mrs. Tiffany exclaims. 

“Well, yeah. They’re mostly the only thing that won’t get rotten on our way there.” I should go warn Guard about the poachers, I think. We go over to the walnut tree. She picks some nuts and I pick some shoots. Mrs. Tiffany shoves them in her bag and I tell her to follow me. 

We run together over to Guard’s den. I tell her to wait outside because Guard doesn’t like strangers.

“Who’s Guard?” Mrs. Tiffany asks me. 

But I’ve already run inside. I go over to Guard and tell her in wolf language, “New poachers are in the area and we’re going to have to move until they leave.”

“Okay,” she says calmly. “I’ll go gather everyone up.”

I run back outside. Mrs. Tiffany asks me, “What happened in there?” She claims that she heard a lot of growling. 

“Oh, we were just speaking in wolf language,” I say while turning into a wolf from the moonlight I have been storing inside my body. It used to hurt me, it felt like sticks and stones breaking my bones but now I feel nothing. We run back inside the den and pick up Fluff and Ruff by the scruff of their necks. I set them down and tell them to get on my back.

“Yes, sissy,” they say at the same time. They jump on my back swiftly and I tell Sapphire to follow me and grab Chocolate by the scruff of his neck. I run outside and I see the whole pack of Sage and Stalk and their three pups, Rose, Cinnamon, and Grassy, also Splashy and Firy and their two pups, Rocky and Obsidian, and last but not least, Alpha’s husband, Spot.  It’s a big pack of fifteen, including the Alpha’s kids. 

It doesn’t take long to get to the other den. The whole time I walk next to Mrs. Tiffany for I think she was scared to be next to all the wolves. Most of the time Fluff and Ruff were yipping and yapping. Chocolate and Sapphire were arguing about whose eyes look better. We arrive at the tiny den, by then it is almost sundown. Sage and Stalk fall asleep first because they were carrying Rose, Cinnamon, and Grassy on their back the whole time. Then, Chocolate and Sapphire fall asleep next to Rocky and Obsidian. Splashy and Firy fall asleep next to Mrs. Tiffany. Guard and Spot fall asleep next to the single wolf that had been living there alone. His name was Spice. He is Sage’s dad. I fell asleep on top of Fluff and Ruff. 

I wake up to the sound of a gunshot. The poachers are only one foot away from the cave. I keep trying to wake up Spice, for he can howl the best and make everyone wake up. I realize the only way to wake everybody up was to wake Fluff and Ruff. So I jumped on Fluff and Ruff and they woke up. Immediately, they ran all the way over to Spice and started jumping on his stomach saying, “Wake up! Wake up!” very loudly in his ears. Finally, he is awake, and I tell him that the poachers are here and he is going to have to howl to wake everyone up. He nods in agreement and howls really loudly. Everybody wakes up, but now the poacher is right outside the cave. He comes in with a pistol. Everybody is awake, ready to attack. He blows the whistle and three more poachers come. Fluff and Ruff run to the back of the cave and start digging a little hole. Spice runs over to the hole and sat right on top of it. Guard and Spot jump on the first poacher and steal his pistol and start trying to break it. The second poacher shoots Spot on the stump of the leg that he doesn’t have, which doesn’t hurt at all because every morning he takes a pill to make his leg numb, that Stalk made so he doesn’t feel anything. Chocolate runs over to the second poacher and starts running circles around his leg as fast as he can, which was the whole circle around in five seconds. He is making the poacher dizzy, so dizzy the poacher just sees a flying chocolate bar around his legs. When he tries to grab Chocolate, Chocolate is on the other side of his legs. Soon, the poacher falls down in dizziness and Sapphire comes and started punching him in the face with her paws. Now his nose is bleeding. I jump on the second poacher’s stomach, who is now laying down. I grab his pistol and I throw it over to Mrs. Tiffany, who somehow catches it and starts shooting it at the first poacher’s toes. Sage and Stalk and Rose and Grassy and Cinnamon and Obsidian go over, run outside of the cave when nobody’s looking and start collecting bendable twigs to make a cage with some metal that they have found from recent adventures. The third poacher, who is just standing there in awe, does not notice when Sage and Stalk put the cage above him, and he does not notice it fall. Soon, he is trapped in a cage. The fourth poacher comes out of nowhere and seems to be the chief, takes a rifle and shoots at me at the same moment that I turn back into human. I try not to pay much attention to my pain, which is throbbing. I roll on my back. Mrs. Tiffany stops shooting the guy’s feet and picks me up and takes me to the back of the cave so no harm can be done to me anymore. Everything feels strange. When I try to talk or scream, no noise comes out. The world goes bonkers. Stars and rainbows are everywhere. I finally close my eyes and the pain goes away.

Ch 4: Don’t Lie To Me, I Can Eat You Alive

I’m in a room. Next to me is a donkey with a top hat and a sticker on his fur saying, “Hello, my name is Donkey Kong.” Next to me is a familiar face, one that I haven’t seen in a very long, long time…

The first poacher and the second poacher run away screaming, and the chief poacher runs away saying, 

“I want my mommy!” The third poacher is still stuck inside of his cage, sitting down, chewing on his nails, thinking of how to get out. 

“Hey you!” Mrs. Tiffany shouts at his face, running from the back of the cave. 

“What about me? Are you going to let me go or not?” says the third poacher.

“Well, first you have to answer some questions.”
“Okay, whatever.” 

“The person that your chief just killed name was Lisa. Do you know her?”

“What’s her last name?”

“Moonfire.”

“Oh yeah, I do know the Moonfires. We’re neighbors. And they have two kids, I didn’t know one of them ran away.”

“Where do they live?”

“Cleveland, Shawn Road. But they just recently moved.”

“Where did they move to?” Mrs. Tiffany asks, in suspense.

“I don’t know, they said they moved to somewhere in the forest, five hours away from Akron. They were nice neighbors.”

“Who do you work for?” 

“I work for the military,” he answers while smiling. 

Sapphire, who is usually very quiet, goes over to the third poacher and stands on her hind legs to make her one foot taller.

She grins and says, “Don’t lie to me. I can eat you alive,” in her best human voice.
The third poacher, clearly shaken, says, “Uh, yeah. I work for Queen Setorga. She has like a million viking dudes, they’re so weird. So basically I kinda work for the viking dudes.” Sweat trickles down his neck, scared by little Sapphire. 

“What is your name?” Mrs. Tiffany wonders out loud. 

“Oh, my name. My name. What is it again? Oh, right. It’s, umm… it’s, uhh… uhhh… I’ve clearly forgotten my name. Did you brainwash me or something?”

“No, we didn’t,” Mrs. Tiffany says, a little louder than she expected to say. “Just tell us your name!”

“Oh, yeah, that thing. My name… what does name mean again? So, my name, uh… Let’s see, what is my name again? Oh, right, it’s umm, umm, yeah, it’s Jeff. Yeah, that’s it.”

“Jeff what?” says Mrs. Tiffany, in curiosity. Sapphire takes one step forward and “Jeff” spills the beans.

“Ahh! Please don’t kill me! My name is Kevin Moonfire.”

I look down at my fingers. The tips are bone. You could see where the bullet hit my heart. Am I dead? Why am I still here?

“Hello, I’ve been waiting for you for a few minutes,” says the familiar person.

“Um, not to be rude, but WHO ARE YOU?” I say in a “soft voice.”

“My name is Emily, but you can call me Mrs. Moonfire.”

“Mom?” I’m looking around. There’s a big light above me, in a very big ceiling. There’s grass on the ground and the walls. 

“Yeah, it’s me, honey.” 

This calls me back to my senses. “Wait, what?” I say. “Why are you here?” I ask in confusion. “Why weren’t you there all those years ago? When I was born, why did you just leave me on the patio on the steps?”
“Because you were in danger.”
“How? What kind of danger? So much danger to you that you left me there?” 

“No, I meant danger to you. The person that made me into a wolf and the twins a wolf. He was a werewolf. He realized that when you were created, he could steal you and put you in his army, and then he’d just throw you away, like a piece of garbage.”

“Oh. Well, now that I’m dead, what else is there to do? And how did you die with me?” I wonder.  

“Well, every time a wolf dies that’s half human, I am drawn to it. You are free to leave, you can leave. You probably don’t want to be with me anymore. I’m a terrible mother.”

“I believe in second chances. But how do I leave?” 

“Do you see that tiny hole in the air, the dot in the air?”
“Yes, I do,” I reply.

“That is the way back. It is traveling through space and time. You have to be careful when you go back. If you don’t come back in the right place, then you could lose your wolf life. You would still be human but you need a lot of moonlight  to turn back. There is two sides of you. When you died, you were human. You don’t have that human life anymore. However, your wolf life is asking you for a second chance in life. You do not have to take this chance. But if you want to you can. If you go into the wrong time, and you see yourself as a wolf, it’s over.”

“Okay, okay. Now come with me and let’s get this over with.”
“I hope you have a wolf memory,” she holds my hand and we jump in together. 

I first see the first thing that I can see in the black hole, which is my mom. We move over to her putting me down on the steps. Then Guard finding me. Me playing Duck Duck Wolf, a hunting game, with Chocolate and Sapphire. Poachers coming and taking Spot’s leg. Fluff and Ruff being born. Me turning one year old with my birthday bear. It was delicious. Fluff and Ruff learning to talk. Chocolate turning three. Me turning five. Sapphire running away, and finding her. Me going to school. Me graduating into first grade. The vikings. Me, and Kayla and Shawn huddled together. Me and Mrs. Tiffany. The poachers. And me, dead in the back of the cave. I jump into that picture, my hands still tightly holding my mom’s. 

“Hi guys!” I say very casually in my human voice. 

“Who-what!!” Mrs. Tiffany says confuzzled.

“Yip!” yelps Fluff, poking her head out from the hole she’s in. 

“Yap!” yelps Ruff, also poking his head out from the hole.

Sapphire turns around and says, “Is that another you? A taller you? In human form?” 

“That’s my mom!” I say in an excited tone. Kevin turns around.

“Emily?” he says as if his dream came true.

“Yes?” My mom says. 

“Who is that talking wolf next to you?”

“Oh, that’s Lisa.”

“Who?”

“I’ll tell you later, but she’s our daughter.”

“Should we take her home?”

“Sure, but what about her wolves and that middle aged person?”

“Well, I guess they’ll fit in our seven-floored house.”

“Don’t lie to me, I can eat you alive.” Sapphire says the only words that she can say in human language. 

“Tell me now why you didn’t tell me about her before!” Kevin yells, inside of a cage.

“Why are you yelling at me now? You usually never yell,” Emily shouts at him. 

“Well, this is a reason to yell about!”

“I can’t agree with you.”

“Well.”

“Well, you’re the one that joined the poachers!”

“I guess I should tell you my story.”
“Yes, you should!” Emily shouts. Everybody stares at Emily, including the wolves. 

“One day, I was just cleaning the house ten years after we had gotten married and the viking dudes knocked down my door. Of course, I didn’t know who this was, so I answered, and they said ‘You have to come with us now.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m just doing my spring cleaning. Do you mind coming back maybe in the summer?’ They said no, and I asked them again. ‘No, I will not tolerate this!’ said the viking with the red beard–”

“Oh, I’ve met a viking with a red beard. He’s the one that captured a lot of students,” I interrupt.

“Let me continue with my story!” Kevin says in an angry voice. “They handcuffed my hands behind my back and blindfolded me. They spun me around until I barfed on the red beard viking’s face.”

“Hee Hee Hee Hee Haha,” Chocolate laughs. 

“Can I continue with my story?” Kevin hollers. Everyone nodded at him in agreement. “They brought me into their base a month ago. They said that if I didn’t become an army member they will kill me and my children and my wife. So immediately, I knew they were the bad guys. So I said sure, so I could become a snitch. One day, they told me that I needed to go on a mission to hunt some wolves that have been disturbing people in the wild. I came, but I did not do anything because the place looked familiar . So I didn’t fight any of the wolves. I didn’t do anything when you captured me. So here I am now. I thought it was pretty funny that the Chief, who was also the general of the army, was scared and was saying, ‘I want my mommy!’” 

“Oh, I‘m sorry, I didn’t know,” Emily said. 

“Guys, I just remembered something!” I say. 

“What?” Mrs. Tiffany exclaims. 

“You know how I’ve always been here for the wolves’ adventures. I think that now you should help me on my adventure.”

“Okay, Lisa. I don’t see where this is going,” says my mom.

“My friends said that we would meet together at the heart-shaped tree after two weeks. That’s up in two days. That’s exactly how long it’s going to take us. Do you want to join me?”

“Sure!” All the wolves say immediately, for they had been on all of her adventures.

“Well, Mom, Dad, and Mrs. Tiffany, would you like to come?”

“It would be fun,” Mrs. Tiffany admits. 

“I just met you. I don’t know if I can be with you,” says Kevin. 

“Just trust me, Dad.”

“If you’re going, Kevin, I’m going too,” my mom tells my dad. 

“Okay, then let’s start going!” 

“But wait!” My dad says. “We don’t have any rifles to hunt! The dried food you have isn’t going to last us two weeks!”

“You’re right, but we already have our weapons,” I say, pointing to the wolves. 

“Good point,” he says. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!”

“Well, it is late at night,” Mrs. Tiffany says. “We should get some rest before we go.”

“Okay,” all the wolves agree. Mrs. Tiffany gets my Mom and Dad a blanket and a big pillow to share. She flops down with her head on my side. She smiles in her sleep. I think she’s probably happy that the pillow is a soft big wolf. 

I wake up to Spice howling really loudly. “It’s okay, Spice,” I tell him. “I’m awake. I can wake all the humans up.” He stops howling. I jump on top of my Mom, who says something that I can’t understand. She waits for me to respond, but I tell her that I have no idea what she’s saying.

She tells me, “Part of being in wolf form for most of your life is that you won’t be able to hear humans very well.” She says it as if all of this is normal. I jump on Dad and tell him to wake up, but of course all he hears is growling and he thinks that it is Sapphire. My Mom explains to him why he only heard growling. Then, I go and I wake up Mrs. Tiffany. I whisper in her ear, “Wake up!”

She strangely understands me, and says, “Okay, Lisa. I’ll wake up.” My mom, not knowing that Mrs. Tiffany can still hear me, explains to her what had just happened, and she says, “But I just heard her clearly!”

Mom says that it’s strange then I tell her she’s been with me the whole time. Mom says that it is a very rare possibility that Mrs. Tiffany can hear what I am saying. 

When all the wolves are awake, I tell Mom to get on Sage and for Mom to tell Dad to get on Stalk. Mom picks up Rose and Cinnamon and Dad picks up Grassy. I tell Mrs. Tiffany to ride Spot. I let Rocky and Obsidian get on my back and I hold Fluff and Ruff by the scruff of their necks. Guard, who’s next to Firy, puts Sapphire on her back and she picks up Chocolate. And we run for two weeks.

We stop a few times. It’s very exhausting. Finally, we get there and we’re one day early. That whole day, everybody falls asleep, but I stay awake, my eyes open, waiting for Kayla and Shawn. I notice Shawn is wearing tattered armour and Kayla is wearing a crown and armour that’s embroidered with jewels. 

When Kayla and Shawn come, they notice me when I’m in wolf form. They’re surprised to see Mrs. Tiffany, and two other humans. I tell them I’ll share my story later. I tell them they should share theirs first. They nod in agreement, very tired from their journey. Kayla translates to Shawn what I am saying, for I have taught her how to speak wolf language. Shawn asks if I’m hungry. Me and Kayla say yes at the exact same time. He pulls out a donut from his pocket and says, “Do you want to split this dessert together?”

We are very happy. They told me what they did and then went over our battle plans.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sareen. She loved toys and especially her blanket. It was really fuzzy. It could fit as a cape and was made of black, really cozy material.

Whenever Sareen was feeling happy, sad, or any emotion, she wanted her special blanket. One day, Sareen left the blanket alone to go to breakfast and then the blanket started moving by itself. It first went to the washroom to flush the toilet. The next thing he did was he go outside the balcony watching the birds because the bird pooped on him. Then the blanket went in Sareen’s mom and dad’s room. He messed up the bed. Then he went to the guest room. Then Sareen went upstairs and saw that everything was a mess, but the blanket was gone because it was walking down to the kitchen. Then Sareen looked in the laundry room to look for the blanket and she also saw that the laundry room was a mess. The blanket was looking for something. Then Sareen found a little black piece of something because she thought it was her blanket. She started to run after the little black thing and then she got the blanket. Then it was night, so she needed to get her blanket. She looked everywhere and then she finally got it! Then she went to sleep with it. The blanket found a stuffed animal right next to Sareen so it took that instead. 

The next day, Sareen was wearing the blanket as a cape, and then the blanket was moving by itself! The blanket lifted Sareen off the ground, and she started flying in the living room! She then landed on the soft couch. Sareen said, “That was amazing!”

The blanket replied to Sareen by saying, “Let’s fly more!”

Sareen said, “How did you fly?” The blanket said nothing, but instead went on the ground and fell asleep. Sareen took it into her bed and had mint chocolate chip ice cream by herself. She watched a lot of TV because she had nothing to do because her blanket was asleep. She stayed awake all night. She tried to wake up her blanket because she wanted to fly! She shook the blanket. The blanket woke up. Sareen made a paper airplane with the blanket and flew! They flew outside and Sareen accidentally dropped into the pool while the blanket kept flying. The blanket then fell into the grass because it needed more energy. So then Sareen swam to the stairs and then went to the shower. She then changed into her PJs. She slept in her really comfy bed. Her blanket was still in the grass so the blanket walked up the stairs and slept in her bed with her. 

The end.

One day, a little girl named Emily decided to go for a walk. It was a nice day, and so Emily wanted to go to Central Park. So Emily went to her mom and said, “Mom can you take me to Central Park?” And her mom said, “Yes.”

So they headed out to the park and on the way there, an eagle swooped down and scared Emily. The eagle had a scratch on its nose, which made it look very scary, and it made scary noises and growls that sounded like, “RRR.” 

After the attack, Emily was terrified, and she told her mom that she wanted to head home. But her mom wanted to take her to a big grassy field in Central Park with swings, and so she said, “It’s fine, let’s just move on.” 

“Fine mom, but what if the eagle comes back?” 

“It won’t. I promise, okay?”

“I believe you.”

Then Emily and her mom entered Central Park, and went to the grassy field. And then, the giant eagle was back to scare her!

Emily was so scared that she wanted to leave Central Park. The mom agreed to leave Central Park. On the way out, the giant came out and ate the eagle. The giant was so big. Emily saw Central Park was haunted, and she never wanted to go back. They went back home.

Then it was night, and Emily thought she was going to have nightmares and couldn’t fall asleep. But when it was morning time, she was so sleepy. The moment she went on the couch, she fell asleep. When she fell asleep, she woke up in the nighttime, and she heard so many strange noises that freaked her out, and she ran to her mom’s room. But she wasn’t there. She was so scared that she stayed in her mom’s room and didn’t go out. So she fell asleep in there.

“MOM! WHERE ARE YOU?” 

Her mom was actually there, but it was too dark, so Emily couldn’t see. 

Her mom said, “Lower your voice! I’m right here.”

“Oh, I didn’t see you there.”

And the mom was so mad that she said, “Go back to your room!”

Emily said, “No mom! Remember, there’s a monster?” So Emily begged her mom and said, “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I promise I won’t do it again!”

“I don’t care! Go to your room.”

Emily said, “Can I borrow a flashlight?”

“No.”

Emily was so mad that she didn’t even care, and she walked out. “I don’t care. I’m still going to walk out.”

When she walked out, she told her mom that she was going to walk, but she ran instead. She didn’t wake up that morning. Her mom came to her room to check on her. 

And then Emily said, “Get out of my room.”

“Okay. But you can’t stay in there for long.” And then Emily’s mom said, “I guess you don’t want my homemade biscuits.”

And then Emily was so tempted that she ran out of her room. Her mom said, “Aha! What did I witness!” 

“Okay I might have ran out of my room, but I could smell the biscuits a mile away. How can I not smell them?”

“Oh I didn’t know that.” 

“Whatever, I’m still going to eat the biscuits.” 

“Ok. They are on the dining table.” 

Emily walked there and took a seat, and the moment she sat down, she heard something. She thought it was her mom making more biscuits until she asked her mom. 

tap,tap,tap   “Mom, are you making more biscuits?” 

And her mom answered, “No.” 

Then Emily said, “Look outside, mom… there’s an eagle!!!” 

“No there isn’t.” 

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa there’s an eagle in our window! Mom, how can we get it out?” 

Then the eagle said, “I am watching you! You will be in my sight wherever you go. You can go to space, and you will not find me. I have a place where I can hide, and no one knows about it. Not even my family! Sometimes I don’t even know where my own house is, and sometimes I even have to sleep on a cloud because I don’t know where my own house is! Once I didn’t come to my house for a whole month!”

“Well, if you get lost again you can’t sleep in my house,” said Emily. 

Emily’s mom went to the kitchen and got a broom and did this, “GET OUT. HAYAH!” 

And then the eagle got hit off of the window. 

The eagle was flying in the sky, and flew up again, and cracked their window sill, and said, “What was that for?” 

The mom said, “What are you doing here? I thought I hit the jelly out of you!” 

The eagle said, “Oh, I’m already dead. I just want to have company.” 

Then the mom said, “Oh, why do you keep scaring us then?”

Then Emily said, “Yeah, why do you have a big scar on your nose?” 

“Because when I was alive, I had an owner that was so mean, she threw a knife at my nose, but all I did was do my business on her bed! And as in business, I mean… you know… ” said the eagle. 

The mom said, “You can stay a week here, but you can’t do your business on my bed, or Emily’s bed.”

Then the eagle said, “Ok, shall we get this party started?” He went to the kitchen and got the chips, and put them on the fan, and put the fan on, and then the chips flew everywhere!

The mom said, “Don’t make me change my mind.” 

The eagle said, “Sorry, sorry.” He used his magic powers to clean up so fast, faster than a superhero. And the mom was speechless, the same was Emily. 

Then Emily said, “Can you clean my room?”

“No, sorry, I only can clean up when I make a mess,” said the eagle. 

Then Emily said, “Go make a mess in my room.”

“Of course not, then I’ll just have to clean up even more. How boring would that be?” said the eagle.

And then, secret agents knocked on our door and said, “We’re gonna need that eagle, and we DON’T take no for an answer.” 

And then, the eagle hid under the couch and whispered to Emily, “Don’t tell them where I am because they will kill me. That is why I have a secret house.” 

And then the secret agent told Emily’s mom, “When we find the eagle, we will feed it to a big giant.” 

The eagle told Emily, “See, what did I tell you?” 

“What was that?” said the secret agent. 

Emily’s mom said, “That was nothing!”

The secret agent said, “Are you hiding something from me?”

“Of course not! See you later, come back tomorrow.” And she slammed the door. The secret agent was so upset that he didn’t even care. He used his weapon and kicked the door open.

He said, “I know the eagle is here. I am searching, whether or not you say no.” 

First, the secret agent checked Emily’s room. Second, he checked Emily’s mom’s room. Third, he checked the kitchen. Fourth, he checked the living room. 

Dun dun Duuuuuunnnn. 

Emily said, “Hello, who are you? Nothing to see here, please get out of my house.” 

She used her hands to push him back out of the living room, but then the eagle sneezed! 

“AACHOOOOOO!” 

Then the secret agent turned around, and flipped Emily with his hands. 

He said, “Get out of my way, you’re wasting my time.” He went into the living room.

Emily said to her mom, “Mom, what should we do?”

“No worries, look! The eagle is flying away!” said her mom.

Then the evil agent spy said, “We need to get that eagle!” 

He pulled a strap on his bag, and then wings came out of the backpack. And then he flew after the eagle! The eagle flew back to his home, but then he didn’t know where his home was because it was hidden in camouflage! He instead went to a dead tree and camouflaged with that because it was brown, white, and black. 

When the secret agent got near the home where the eagle was flying, he said, “Where did the eagle go?” 

So he used his watch to scan everywhere, and he saw that the eagle was camouflaging with the tree, but the eagle saw him coming closer, so the eagle flew off, back to Emily’s home, and the eagle hid in their dog cage since Coco died. So they stuffed the eagle inside. The cage was very big because a Sammy Smile can be up to eighty-five pounds! When the secret agent came back, he asked where the eagle was. 

The mother said, “Nowhere, it’s just our dog Coco! You must’ve come to the wrong house!” 

The family dressed up in wigs, so that the agent wouldn’t recognize them. 

“Of course, I have! The person in the other house has brown straight hair. You guys have grey, black, curly hair.” 

The agent knew it was us because we didn’t use accents, and then he pulled our wigs off!

Emily said, “It’s a miracle! I’m young again!” 

The agent said, “Where’s your dog?”

Emily said, “In China.”

He said “I know you’re lying.”

Emily said, “Fine, she is in California getting a doggy groom.” 

Then the agent believed them because they gave him the location and why the dog was there. So he flew off!

The eagle said, “Thank you.” 

But really it was just a hologram! The agent was really under the couch the whole time! So really, he knew where the eagle was! 

“Get out of my way where is the dog cage?” 

“Nowhere,” said Emily. 

The End 

I was in the car going to the waterpark, and my dog was coming with me. The color of her fur was brown and white. She was snuggling with me, and when she got up and put her head out the window, she stuck her tongue out. My mom was driving and we pulled into the waterpark, which was in California, and we got our stuff out of the car. We got out our towels, our goggles, and our swimming caps. My goggles were dark blue and violet, and my cap was pink, and I was wearing my bathing suit. My bathing suit was pink and it had a ‘T’ on it, which was light blue. When we went to the gate, we realized we forgot our tickets in the car, so we went back to the car, and then we went back to the gate with our tickets. Then, we got in and went on a water slide. We finished the water slide, and it was really fun. Then, we went on a water-coaster, and it was really long and fun. When we got off, I was really dizzy because it went around in circles. Then, we got some Gatorade and ice cream because it was really hot. I got mint chocolate chip with hot fudge, and my mom got vanilla with caramel sauce. We got to put on our own toppings. We stayed at the water park for the whole day. I also did a throwing game, and I got a little teddy bear. Then, we got lunch. I got mac and cheese, and my mom got a burger. I took my first sip of my Gatorade, and then we went on the water-coaster again because it was really fun. Then, I finished my Gatorade. I took my cap off because it was really tight. My mom’s bathing suit had red roses and a yellow background. When it was almost nighttime, we went back to the car. When we were driving home, there was lots of traffic. My mom was running out of gas, so we stopped at a gas station and got more gas. When we got back on the road, there was much less traffic, so we got back home in one hour. 

THE END

Chapter 1 – A Message from Auntie Julie.

“Wake up!” shouted Mom.

“Why in the world are you waking me up? It’s only 3 o’clock in the morning!” said Joanne.

“Because I just got a message from Auntie Julie that she said that the farmhouse was empty and we could live on their farm forever!”

“Ugh, can I just sleep five more minutes?”

“Okay, five more minutes. Starting now!”

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven

Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,

Sixteen, seventeen…

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock…

“RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! FIVE MINUTES DONE!!!” 

It was 3:05 now. The sky was dark. There were no lights. It was the middle of the night. 

Joanne woke up and she peaked at the message—it was on her mom’s G-mail. She was amazed after she saw that message because Auntie Julie had discovered a new house that was in her property and was perfect for her family. 

Chapter 2 – Packing Up

“What are we going to do now that we’ve received the message?” Joanne asked.

“We have to pack!!” her mom said. So they called a gigantic moving truck to carry their furniture, so the people who were in the truck loaded the furniture inside the truck. Joanne felt sort of blank in the house, and they used all their six suitcases for their own little stuff. Joanne’s older sister Catherine carried two suitcases, one for her baby sister Maria, and one for herself. Joanne had another sister named Collette—Maria was the smallest. She was one year old, and Collette was two years older: she was three. Joanne was seven years old and Catherine was ten years old! 

So they started packing. They got their blankets and their stuffed animals and their bags plus their clothes. And their books were carried by the shelves. Now, after they all cleaned up, they dusted the floors to make it clean; it was plain white. There was nothing inside. Joanne felt like she was in a very white room like in Hollywood. She felt weird because she had never seen so much white before. It was very strange. Joanne felt like there was a ghost in the room. The ghost was spying on her now. Luckily it was morning, so there was still some light. The family took their butterfly curtains off and Catherine carried them to the truck with Joanne. Their dad carried the drawers and when the house was all cleaned up, the family only saw it blank. They were sad to leave their old house, but also excited to meet their farmhouse.

Chapter 3 – A Gas Problem

So the family told the truck where to go to their new house—‘the farm 28 gates.’ The farm was in Upstate New York, farther than the Bronx. It was on ‘28 gate’ street, higher than 299th st. The truck went there peacefully with some bumps, but that didn’t bother the furniture. But the family car faced a lot of problems. The dad had claustrophobia—which means that Dad couldn’t stand in small and tight places. So they went to the gas station because the car suddenly had no gas. The gas station was very small, and they could only recharge gas one car at a time, so the dad drove in and got very sweaty, scared, and nervous. So the dad closed his eyes while he was doing the gas. Then Mom suggested that she would drive the car out of the gas station, and then they would switch back to Dad, so he could be relaxed in the back seat, close his eyes and not drive blindfolded. So Dad got in the backseat, and Mom got in the front seat. When the gas was finished, they paid by the credit card, and the mom sort of drove out. Then they parked at a corner, and Mom went to the backseat. Dad started driving again.

Then Dad said, “The farm is sort of far. So if you want to sleep, you could sleep. Now we are in the beginning of  the Bronx. We still have to cross the Bronx. But the Bronx is very big. So it might take a long time to cross the Bronx.”

Chapter 4 – The Music Competition

After a few songs, Dad suggested that the family have a music contest. “The contest worked like this: we will play some songs and you have to guess the song’s name. We will only play the beginning or the middle or the end. Me and mom will be the judges and see who knows the most songs. And you kids will be split into teams.” 

“Yeeeeeeeeeeees!!!” Collete and Joanne yelled. 

“We will win the competition,” commented Collette. 

Maria and Catherine yelled, “Nooooooooooooo!!! Boooooooooo!!!” 

“Okay, what are your team names?” asked Dad. Joanne said their team is Lightning Bolt of Songs. Catherine said their team will be Catherinemaria superheros! 

“Yessss,” said Joanne because she knew a centillion songs.  

“One last note everyone, do not say bad things about your sisters!” 

Then they started the competition. ‘Their first song was like this: “We will rock you!” After the middle part, Joanne’s hand shot up. 

“What Joanne? What is the song? “ asked Dad. 

“The song is called we will, we will rock you!” shouted Joanne.

“Lightning Bolt of Songs wins one!!!” 

“Woo hoo!!!’ said Collette and Joanne,

“Okay next song. Eenie meenie miney mo. catch a tiger by his toe. If you holler let him, if she holler let him go. She indecisive she keeps a lie…” 

After the beginning, Catherine’s hand shot up. 

“What is the song’s name?” asked Dad. 

“It is called miney mo!” 

“Nope!” 

Just then Collette’s hand shot up.

“What is the song, Collette?” asked dad.

“It is called eenie meenie!” shouted Collette.

“Okay, Lightning Bolt of Songs wins!” 

“Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” shouted Collette and Joanne. 

“The competition is over now, everyone.” So then they relaxed in the car and went to sleep.

Chapter 5: We are here!!!!

After a while, they woke up. 

They were woken up by dad. “Now we are on the 299th street. We have crossed the whole Bronx. Now we have to cross the 200th avenue, and then we can see the countryside.” 

It was 5 o’clock in the morning and the sun hadn’t risen yet. So the family drove across the 200th avenue and saw 28 Gate Street. They drove onto the property and saw Auntie Julie!  

Auntie Julie led them to the house, and then Auntie Julie told a joke. “What is black and a dog?” she asked.

Joanne guessed Blacky, one of the farm’s dogs, and Auntie Julie said, “Right!” Auntie Julie explained that there were three more dogs too. Their names were Peggy, Rosie, and Maggie. Auntie Julie showed the dogs to them.

The girls played a while with the dogs, while the parents explored the giant house that they would be moving into.  

Chapter 6: Moving in!!!

Then the moving truck arrived. And then they loaded the furniture into the house and the girls helped. First, they moved one bunk into the gigantic room, then they moved another bunk to the same gigantic room, then they moved the bookshelves and the tables and the lamps. And they put some stuff on the balcony. Then on the second floor, they put the parents’ furniture in, and they put the workout stuff in another room on that floor. Back on the first floor, they put the dining table and kitchenware in the kitchen. And in the lounge, they put a lot of comfy stuff there. And in the basement, they put the recycled stuff in there. And their family car would go in there, so they drove it in. And they got the basement key and stored it in the car. 

After that, the parents went to sleep and the girls played with the dogs once again. They were feeling very happy, and Auntie Julie took the four girls to explore the farm because it was morning now! And after lunch, they slept for half an hour, and then they fed the horses and the sheep. Then they played with the horses by riding them, and they had a super duper happy time!

The End!

The bell rings. I grab my pencils and notebooks, and shove them into my bag. I rush to the front of the line; today I beat Nina. My class walks silently down the hall. In my head, all my thoughts are jumbled: Will my dad come to my basketball game? What will be his excuse this time? Unexpected business trip, a problem with the company? I can see Natasha looking at me with worried eyes.

”Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I try to shrug off the feeling of disappointment in my dad, but I can’t. As soon as we reach the dismissal door, I grab Natasha’s hand and wait for the light to turn white. The second it does, I race down the block and karate kick the door open; guess I can thank my karate lessons. I hurry to the soda section while desperately searching for Fanta. I snatch the last bottle and watch Natasha put her Sprite on  the counter.

The guy behind the counter says, “5.75.”

I dig into my pocket and pull out a crumpled up five-dollar bill and three 25 cents. Natasha grabs both of our drinks and heads to the door. I glance at my phone and look at the time: 3:20 PM. As soon I glance at my phone, I shove Natasha out the door, and we race down the streets as if it were a competition. When the subway station is within my sight, I walk down the stairs clinging on to my soda, hoping it doesn’t fall.

The F train comes right on time; Natasha and I high five each other and walk into a crowded subway. It smells like sweat and it’s really hot. About five stops later, a lot of the people get off the subway. We finally find ourselves some seats where we can sit and enjoy our soda. Especially since my house is a bit far away. 

All I can think about is Masha, my dad’s girlfriend. Masha always takes me and Nat to get ice cream. Nat always gets two scoops of chocolate fudge, I get two scoops of oreo, while Masha gets one scoop of lemon. But then a sudden thought comes to me, and I remember my father never told me who my mother was or what happened to her. All I know is that my mother loved the beaches. It was almost like a perfect day at the beach, but then the clouds took over the sky, and everyone had to go home. I must have daydreamed too much because by the time I finish my thoughts, we arrive at Coney Island. While we’re walking home, I pass by a school, and another thought comes to me. 

Why didn’t my dad send me to school here where I lived, instead of a school in Brooklyn? 

I decide I’m going to ask my dad tonight. Although something doesn’t seem right.

But then Natasha wakes me from my thoughts.

”You have been really quiet today? Are you sure you’re okay.”

“Am fine. Don’t worry.”

“Ok, whatever you say, Angel.” 

I hate that nickname, but that doesn’t stop Masha from calling me that. She takes the keys out of her back pocket, and unlocks the door. We climb up seven flights of stairs, huffing and puffing as if the stairs are Mount Everest. We reach Apt. 7D and open the door to walk into a cold breeze, which feels very good against the hot May air. 

At first, I can’t believe my eyes, but then I realize my dad is standing in front of us. He is rarely at home and if he is, it’s only because something bad happened or he comes at 2 in the morning. His blue eyes are staring straight at Natasha and smiling. Natasha tells me that she just remembered she had a project, so she has to go home now. I help her get all her pencils in her bag, since we were playing the floor is lava on her stuff. Silently, I stand waving goodbye. I feel as if today will be the last time I will see her in a while. But I know that’s not possible, so I try to get the thought out of my head. My dad takes the trash bag and says he is going to throw it out. I shrug and walk to my room to ponder over all my thoughts. For the first time, I think my dad wasn’t where he said he was. 

I guess I fell asleep because when I wake up, my room is pitch black, and I hear some faint creaking coming from the living room. I pat down my bed searching for my phone. I finally find it under a bunch of blankets. I put my finger on the button of my phone and look at the time. It’s 2:00 AM. It’s probably my dad, I wonder what he was doing at 2 AM. Something seems off again. I slowly get out of bed and open my door. Like a mouse, I creep down the hallway past Masha’s room to my dad’s bedroom, where I have never been. He told me once that if I go into his room, I’ll get in big trouble. So I never do. 

I bring my head back to reality and reach for the doorknob, but then I hear a creaking behind me and a deep voice with a faint Russian accent. I can immediately tell it’s him, but he sounds madder than I’ve ever heard him. Although he rarely even talks to me. I can never forget that he forgot about my birthday three years in a row. 

He flicks the light switch on, and I can see him staring at me. His blue eyes look more unfriendly than before. His face looks so intimidating that it just makes me want to fall in a hole to swallow me up.

“I will ask one more time. Why were you going to go in my room?”

“I um… I couldn’t uh… sleep, yeah, because umm… I thought I saw a, uh, mouse in my room.” It sounds like I’m trying to convince myself more than my dad. 

He quietly walks in front of the door that leads to his room. His eyebrows are pushed together. It looks like he is thinking really hard. I silently walk backwards to reach the safe, reassuring feeling of my room.
“Give me your phone; that will be your punishment, and next time, follow my rules.”

 I feel so relieved nothing horrible happened, so I go to my room to fetch my phone quickly. When I return my phone, my dad is shocked to see me smiling.

“Can Natasha come for a sleepover?” I give him the puppy eyes that Natasha taught me to do. 

Fortunately it works, and he nods slowly, like he is still trying to make up his mind. There is something in his eyes, but I’m too tired to think about it. I manage to drag myself to my room and fall onto my bed. 

The smell of pancakes wake me up. Finally it’s Saturday. I put on some ripped shorts and an orange T-shirt. I open my door and walk into the kitchen where Masha is standing, flipping over a pancake.

“Hey Angel, you hungry?”

 I nod. 

“Ok good, because I made way too many pancakes.” 

Before I can even open my mouth, she says, “And no. Dimitri won’t have breakfast with us. He had to leave because of some problems with the business.”

 I shift uncomfortably and stare at the ground, feeling my eyes tear up. My dad told me to never cry because nothing was worth crying about, and I don’t want to show Masha that I am a 13 year-old who cries.

“Hey Angel, how about you put as much Nutella on your pancakes, just make sure to eat some strawberries?”

 I smile and think to myself how much I wish my dad was like Masha. But he’s not. 

After breakfast, I put on my Jordans and walk to the subway. I think about me and Natasha and the day we met. I chuckle a little thinking about how strange we were five years ago. 

I get to the subway station, walk down the stairs while getting my MetroCard out of my pocket, and wait until the train comes. I get in and sit down. Today, the subway is empty. I take my headset out and listen to “wish you were gay” by Billie Eilish. I quietly hum to the beat, thinking about how I want a family like Natasha, where I wouldn’t be an only child, and I would also have two parents who really cared about me. I remember all the days at school when Natasha would complain to me about how her sister spilled juice over her homework or how her brother spray-painted her hairbrush. And I could never forget when her older brother, Jason, stole all of Natasha’s allowance to buy a PS4. 

I finally arrive in Brooklyn. I walk to her house, looking at the trees and listening to the quiet surroundings. I look at all the houses with beautiful gardens in the front and perfectly-cut grass, and then I come across her house, which really stands out since there are bikes, scooters, balls, empty spray paint bottles, and chalk all over the ground. I try to avoid all the objects and get to the door safely without falling. Thank God I do because I wouldn’t want a sprained ankle for my basketball game or my karate practice. I ring the doorbell and wait for Natasha to open the door, but then Mrs. Smith comes out and asks me, “Why isn’t Natasha with you? I thought you two maybe had a sleepover since she didn’t come home yesterday.” 

I can feel my face become pale and my palms start to sweat. I take a big gulp.

“Well, uh, you see, she told me yesterday she had to go home to finish a project, are you sure she isn’t in her room?”

But before Mrs. Smith can answer, she falls to the floor and passes out. I open the door more to put Mrs. Smith on the couch, when I see Jessie playing with dolls, while Nick is trying to spray paint his hair, and Jason is skateboarding in the house.

“Jason, Nick, come help me get your mom to the couch, she passed out.”

They both stare at their pale mom lying on the floor, drop their things, and run over to help. Jessie won’t stop crying while screaming, her mom is dead. As soon as we put Mrs. Smith on the couch, Mr. Smith walks in and asks us what happened, although his eyes won’t leave his wife. Nick and Jason say they don’t know what happened, and they just heard me asking for help to carry Mrs. Smith on the couch. Jessie won’t stop crying and screaming, “MOMMY’S DEAD.” 

“JESSIE! Mommy is not dead, ok?”

 Jessie hugs her doll tighter and sits in a bean bag. Mr. Smith looks me straight in the eyes and asks me what happened.

”It’s a long story.” 

“Well, I have a lot of time.” 

So I told him about how we went to my house, played the floor is lava, and then Natasha told me she had to go do a project, so she left, and my dad went to throw out the trash at the same time. Wait a minute. Does my dad maybe know something?

”Uh, I have to go. I just realized I have karate in 30 minutes.” It’s not completely a lie because I do have karate class, just not in 30 minutes. Halfway through the door, I shout,  “Bye! Hope Mrs. Smith gets better!” I slam the door shut and run down a few blocks to get to Prospect Park so I can find a bench to sit on. 

Could my dad, no, but maybe. I mean he was staring at Natasha and he did come home earlier. He also went to throw out the trash at the same time Natasha left. But would he do something to her? It was so much for me to process, maybe Masha could help me. I quickly look for her number and call her. Please pick up, please, please, please.

”Hey Angel, what happened? Are you ok? Where are you?” 

“Thank God you answered and don’t worry I’m fine, but Natasha isn’t.” 

“What do you mean?!” 

“Can you just pick me up? I’ll tell you in the car.” 

“Ok, I’ll be there soon. Wait, where are you?” 

“In Prospect Park. I have to go. Bye.” 

“Bye, Angel.”

Now I have to call my dad. I take two big gulps and press the button to call him. I wait and I wait, but he doesn’t answer the phone. I really miss Natasha. Is she… no, she can’t be.  And for the first time in a while, I start crying. I see a black car pulling up on the corner, and Masha rushes out of the car to me and hugs me. She smells like peppermint. I wish she could be my mother. As soon as I summon up all my courage, I tell her about Natasha going missing and my visit to her house. And about how Dad came early and was acting strange around Natasha. He also went to throw out the trash at the same time Natasha left.

Then I look back at her eyes, because my father said, “a person’s eyes can tell you everything.” 

“Angel, I am sorry, but this time, I don’t believe you. Maybe you should talk to your dad. Also, I am going to Pennyslviana to visit my sister for three days, so let’s go back home and I’ll get my stuff when we get there.” 

“Ok.” 

“And I can call your dad so you two can talk.”

I nodded my head, too tired to speak. When we get into the car, I sit in shotgun and change the radio to “Lovely” by Billie Eilish.

”You really love Billie Eilish.”

I stare out the window, looking at the people. Then I remember I forgot about my karate class. “I forgot to go to karate class,” I mutter.

”Nicki, your dad doesn’t like it when you skip karate” 

“I know.”

There is not a lot of traffic today, so it takes us 20 minutes to get home. Masha opens the door, we climb up all the stairs, and for the first time, we don’t say anything to each other, which never happens since Masha and I usually talk a lot. She opens our apartment door, hugs me really tight, and then takes her backpack and her mini suitcase.

Before I close the door she hollers, “Don’t forget to lock the door!”

I laugh a bit and lock the door. I look at my dad’s door and decide that I want to see what I can find in his room. So I text my basketball coach that I’m not going to go to the basketball game because I didn’t feel well. I put my phone in pocket and walk towards his room. I can feel my heart beating. I know that whatever I find in there could possibly change my life forever.

I grab the handle and yank the door open, knowing that if I don’t do that, I would probably back out. I am shocked to see that everything about the room looks normal. Maybe Masha was right. I look around the room one last time to make sure I didn’t miss anything. All I see is a bed, a closet that’s wide open with business suits in it, a desk with no drawers, a rug, and a bookshelf with some Russian and English books. My dad made sure that I could speak Russian, German, and French. When I asked him why I had to learn those languages, he said because some of my family is from those countries, but now I know the only place my family is from is Russia. As I am about to leave the room, I see something under his bed. I pull it out from under the bed and see a big black box with Russian words on it, не открывать, which means “do not open” in Russian. I sit on the rug in case I faint when I find out what’s in the box.

I slowly open the top, and find a black gun with a bit of blood on it. I also find a piece of paper in a wooden frame that says, Мы убиваем за деньги, мы приносим смерть в другие страны, кровь на наших руках, мы убиваем, как медузы в коробке. “We kill for money, we bring death into other countries, blood on our hands we kill like a box jellyfish.” I breathe in and out three times, hoping something else in the box will prove my thoughts wrong. But they don’t. I find a knife and try to convince myself that it’s just an antique or a family relic.

The box has one last object in it. I take out a photo in black and white, with a picture of four men and two women. I see my dad standing next to a man with short blonde hair and dark eyes, and a woman with black hair in a bun and black eyes. None of them are smiling. Their faces give away nothing. In the back of the picture there is a sign in Japanese, ボックスクラゲ. I can’t understand it, so I Google it and figure out it means “box jellyfish.”

All of a sudden, a bunch of questions pop in my head. What does box jellyfish mean? Who are the men and woman in the photo? And why does my dad have a gun and a knife? 

And then I realize my dad is an assassin. I look at my phone and start panicking. It’s 10 PM. I shove everything back into the box and push the box under the bed. I close the door to the kitchen, take two white pieces of bread, and put peanut butter on one and jelly on the other. I put the two pieces together, lick my fingers, and go to my room. I sit on the bed staring at the white walls and eating my sandwich. My phone buzzes and I pick it up. I press the answer button and am about to ask her where she is and what she’s doing. 

But then I hear a deep voice with a Russian accent. I put myself on mute, so that no one will know I am listening. I pull the phone closer to my ears. It’s my dad’s voice. I immediately know what to do. Natasha and I watched so many movies and TV shows about people getting kidnapped. I have to distract my dad. Assassins are afraid of being caught, which means they’re afraid of police. I smirk a bit and call my dad. He has to pick up since Masha probably called him and told him about what I said about him, so he would pick up to avoid any suspicion.

And I am right. He does pick up. “Hello, who is this”

“Hey dad, it’s Nicki. So the police are standing in front of our door and they want to ask you some questions. What should I tell them?” 

  “Tell them I’ll be home in 15 minutes”

“Ok, they want to know where you are.” 

“I am at my office.” And then he hangs up. What my dad doesn’t know is that Natasha and I keep pocket knives in our shoes. That makes me realize that my dad doesn’t know that much about me. Now all I have to do is wait, so I wait and then I hear the door unlock, and my dad walks in the apartment. 

“Where are the police?”

“They’re not here. I lied.”

He takes his shoe off and takes out a gun, he growls, “What did you say?” He walks towards me and I walk backwards. I am pinned to the wall with a gun pointing towards my stomach. 

I hold up my phone. “I’ll call 911 if you shoot.” 

I can tell he is thinking. He moves the gun away from me and suddenly says, “Let’s make a deal. If you don’t call the police or tell anyone I’m an assassin, I won’t kill Masha.”

I hesitate. “Ok. But you have to leave Natasha alone.” 

My dad looks at me, nods, and walks to his room. And I walk to my room, and now I know my father is an assassin and he tried to kill my friend. 

Once upon a time, before the dinosaur age, there was a dragon named Flame. He was captured by a really big dragon. He was captured in the big dragon’s cave since he was three. Flame was doing a lot of work for the big dragon, and he really wanted to get out. But there was a big boulder in his way, and the only way to move the boulder was to take the key from the dragon’s neck. He was in his room sleeping. Flame decided to try to take the key from the dragon’s neck. But he had to be careful, because the big dragon could wake up at any moment and eat him like he did to the other smaller dragons. 

So Flame opened the door, shivering in fear and thinking about what could happen if he woke the big dragon. Flame bit the key off the chain hanging off the big dragon’s neck with his sharp teeth. Then, he tiptoed to the boulder and put the key through the hole of the boulder. When the boulder rolled out of the doorway, it made a very loud sound. Flame heard the big dragon wake up. 

So Flame flew out. He heard the big dragon roar, “Flame!!!” As soon as Flame heard him, he flew as fast as he could, far away from the cave.

Flame had no idea where he was. It was raining and foggy, so it was hard to see. 

“Where am I?” Flame said to himself. Flame was cold and tired. He soared down to the ground and fell asleep. 

The next morning, Flame had figured out what he was going to do. He was going to find other dragons to make friends with. Before he was kidnapped, he heard of a forest full of dragons. Flame flew away happier than ever and ready for a long journey. 

While Flame was flying, he tried to remember where the forest was. He remembered that it was near an ocean, but he couldn’t remember what ocean it was. He decided to search around every ocean to find somebody to help him. He decided to first search the Pacific Ocean. He first started near the northwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, and he saw a castle. So he decided to go in. But there were two dragon guards. He asked the two dragon guards, “Where am I?”

They said, “You are looking at the Castle of Fire.” 

Then he asked, “Have you ever seen the Forest of Dragons?”

They answered, “No, but maybe the Queen Dragon knows.”

One of the guards asked another guard to tell the Queen Dragon that there was a visitor. A few moments later, the Queen Dragon came down and said, “I do know where the Forest of Dragons is.” 

The Queen Dragon had red scales. She had jewelry embedded in her wings. She had smoke coming out of her nostrils. She had very sharp claws, and she had many pearls on her arms. But the Queen was greedy about treasure. So she said, “I will tell you where the forest is only if you give me some jewelry.”

Flame says, “I have no jewelry, but I will try to find it.” 

So Flame went out on a search for jewelry. 

He asked a guard where he could find jewelries and the guard replied, “There is a mountain full of jewelry. It is nearby, but it is very dangerous. Many of us have still not made it back.” 

Flame thought about this. Would he really risk his life just to meet other dragons to make friends with? What happens if the big dragon finds him? Flame made up his mind. In order to be safe, protected, and happy, he must get the jewelry. 

When Flame reached the mountain, he looked up and saw how tall the mountain was. He thought about how many monsters could be up in that mountain. He climbed up and finally found a ledge. And there was a cave in there! He decided to rest in the cave — until he heard a growling sound. He took a stick he found on the ground, and he put a small bit of fire on the tip of it. He used the stick as a torch. He did not see anything. His teeth were chattering. He went deeper in, and he saw movement. He stepped back, and put his light a little closer. There was a giant worm, and it had many sharp teeth all around its mouth. And blood on his teeth. Flame decided to run for it. The worm chased after him, even though it looked like he just ate something. After Flame was near the exit, he threw his torch at the worm, which ate it. Flame decided to breathe fire, but basically none at all came out. He decided to fly away, but just when he was about to fly out, he sneezed on the worm. A lot of fire came out, and the worm ran away. If monsters like that popped up again, he was just gonna run for his life.    

  Flame didn’t want to see that ugly thing again.  Flame flew up for a long time until he reached another ledge. He saw things flying in the air. Flame did not know what the things were, until one of the things landed. They were giant horseflies! There was even a whole swarm of  them. Flame would not be able to take out all of the flies with his fire like he did to the worm. All of a sudden, the flies stared at him without moving. Then they jumped on Flame and attacked him. Flame struggled to breathe fire (which killed about 10 flies). And then, he started rolling around, which smushed a lot of flies. And then he breathed more fire, which got rid of all of them. 

Then, he flew up higher until he reached another ledge, and he realized he was near the top. But he needed a break, so he sat on the ledge. The mountain looked like a giant rock with very rough edges and with many ledges. He was sitting on one of them. He could see there were jewelries growing on top of it. But he had to rest because his wings were sore. 

On the ledge, he heard pinchers. Flame was not scared because he had faced many monsters already. But what came out was a spider, which was the predator of most bugs. And he couldn’t touch it because it was a tarantula. And a tarantula had hair on its body so when you touched it, you became itchy. He couldn’t run away because his wings were really tired, and he wouldn’t be able to fly well. And he couldn’t use his fire because he hadn’t eaten anything for a while. So he decided to try to throw rocks at the spider. He threw many rocks at the spider. One of his rocks missed and hit the top of the cave, which hit a rock that was holding a boulder in place. And the boulder fell on the spider! The spider was stuck.

After a few minutes, his wings felt okay. He decided to fly more until he finally got to the top of the mountain. Just right when he was about to take a jewelry, something came out from behind it. It was a giant scorpion!

It was a big threat, because it had pinchers and a stinger, and they were also poisonous. It had a hard armor. First, the scorpion jumped on Flame. Flame kicked him off, which took all his energy because he was very hungry. Flame tried to breathe fire, but he forgot he couldn’t. He knocked over a tower of jewelry onto the scorpion, which soon broke out by using his pinchers. Flame flew on the top of a jewelry tower to think about how to defeat the scorpion. 

He thought about what the scorpion couldn’t do that Flame could do. Flame got an idea. He had wings and the scorpion didn’t. Soon later, the scorpion pinched down the jewelry tower. Flame happily flew down because he had an idea. Flame jumped off the ledge. The scorpion followed. The scorpion looked straight and not below him. Then, he fell down the ledge. Flame flew back to the top and could not see the scorpion, because the mountain was so tall, and the scorpion fell so low. Flame took a big piece of jewelry. It looked like a pillar with pointy edging on the top. But it was very light. 

He finally took one more look at the top of the jewelry mountain. It was full of colorful jewelries. He flew back down to the Castle of Fire and asked one of the guards to bring the Queen down. When the Queen came down, Flame gave the jewelry to the Queen. The Queen kept her promise.

She said, “I will show you the way to the Forest of Dragons.”

She walked past the mountain and about a mile away from the mountain, she stood right in front of a forest. Then, she stopped and turned around.

She said, “This is the Forest of Dragons. Keep on walking forward until you see a big space with no trees. Then, you’ll see dragons walking around there. Then, you have reached the Forest of Dragons.”

Flame ran forward until he reached a big space. It was very big. He could see many dragons walking around there. Then, he had figured out he had reached the Forest of Dragons. He asked one of the walking dragons. Flame said he was new to the Forest of Dragons. The dragon was so nice, he gave Flame a big house. 

Since Flame had made it to the Forest of Dragons, he needed to make friends. But how? He went outside to think. He walked forward looking down, and he bumped into someone. He was blue with bits of silver scales. 

Flame said, “Hi, I’m new here.” 

The blue dragon also said, “Hi. If you are new, do you know if there are games here?” 

“No,” replied Flame. They hung out for a while and played many games, such as toss the rock, destroy the doll, and racing. After they ate dinner, it was time to go.

Flame thought about today. He thought to himself, I made a friend.

Chapter One: What Happened?

Once a squirrel called Lilly went into a walnut shop. After she bought some walnuts, she went out. Then she saw something weird. The traffic lights were off, and there were no lights in buildings and in the other shops. They could not cook. The ovens were off. And then Lilly the squirrel wondered why all the lights and the ovens were off. It got even worse when it was very dangerous to cross the streets. The cars never stopped. Lilly was very worried, and then she saw something even weirder. There were fire trucks and policemen everywhere. They were worried too. Some schools and hospitals still had light, which was very weird. She had no idea what was happening.

She talked to one of the policemen and asked, “What happened?”

Chapter Two: A Talk with the Policemen

Then, the policeman said, “The electricity transformer got on fire, so the electricity was cut off. The firemen will fix the problem. Now the firemen are on West 99th Street, so it might take days to have electricity, or if the firemen are fast tomorrow, we will have electricity.”

Chapter Three: A Mystery

When Lilly went into her apartment, she noticed that there was no air conditioner, and everybody was outside getting cold air.

The manager said, “The elevators don’t work, but do not worry because nobody’s stuck in the elevator.”

Then, when she went to the mailroom, she could not see anything except black.

The manager said, “We can only take the stairs,” so she climbed and climbed.

There was only a little bit of light in the stairs.

Chapter Four: In the Apartment

Once she got to the ninth floor, she saw two old women. One of the old women was holding a dog that was grunting.

Then, Lilly asked the other woman, “Is there light in the room? Why are you out here?” 

The woman said, “There’s no light in the room, and we’re out here to get a bit of light.” 

When Lilly got into her room, she saw no light and no air conditioner. It was very hot, so she opened all her windows. She could not sleep because she needed some light to sleep. There was no light, so she used her phone. Her phone had a percentage of 80. On her phone, she set a mode that saved electricity. When she went to the shower, she turned the water to hot, but only cold water came out.

When Lilly was showering, she was freezing and calling, “Ahh!!!”

Then when she got out, she quickly got dressed, but she could not use the hair dryer because there was no electricity. Then she tried to charge her phone, but she could not. Then, when she tried to sleep again, she heard the police and fire trucks sounds, and she was distracted. So she tried to sleep very deeply, but her phone shut off, and she couldn’t have light. Then, she tried her new way of sleeping without light, and she held onto her stuffed animal and fell asleep.

Chapter Five: The Plan

The next day she woke up. There was still no air conditioner and no light, but there was sunlight. After getting dressed, she decided to pack an emergency bag because her doctor told her that she could not live in a house without electricity for three days. Her eyes would hurt a lot if there was no electricity for three days. She started packing after breakfast. This was her list:

EMERGENCY BAG LIST

1. Money ($200)

2. Sleeping bag

3. Books 

4. Toys 

5. Clothes

6. Phone

So Lilly packed her emergency bag, and then she looked for a place to go, and she found the New York Public Library. A lot of animals were there, and they were affected by the blackout. There were a lot of comfy couches for sleeping bags. She unloaded her stuff on one of the purple couches, and she made a friend called Billy. He’s a hedgehog. Together they played games like chopsticks and poker. Billy was very good at chopsticks, and Lilly was very good at poker. Then, they explored Brooklyn by crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. They figured out the subway wasn’t working, so they took a taxi to the New York Public Library. Then, at last, it was night, so they fell asleep in their sleeping bags.

Chapter Six: Yes! Electricity! 

The next day, she noticed that there was electricity! She was super happy, and she took a taxi home. She cooked herself breakfast and turned on the lights. She was happier than ever. She marked this day 7/13. She took a little nap and got back to work.

Chapter 1

The Night Storm

Boom bang crash! Dark clouds covered the sky while I was inside my bedroom with my sheets over my head. I looked at the photo of my father on my nightstand. Me and my mother were looking at a bunch of stuff that was my father’s and found this photo. This was the only photo of him, he hated being in photos! My mother knocked on the door.

“Here is your dinner, Miranda,” my mother, Sarah, said.

Once I saw my mother, a thought just automatically popped into my head. How did Dad disappear? It was just like my mother read my mind. 

“We will never know. That night when he went to the lab, he just disappeared into thin air. Anyway, help your little brother with his homework.”

The next morning I went to my cousin Dawn’s house. We both were determined to find out what happened to my father. So we asked Dawn’s dad to drive us to the lab. He was overprotective of Dawn, so he set up a place where he would question us. 

So he said in a very serious low voice, “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?” he asked me. “I always wanted to know.”

“Um… chocolate,” I answered. Anyway, Dawn’s father continued speaking. He asked a lot of questions, so we thought the easiest way was to lie out of them, of course we learned that the hard way. We just said that there was stuff from the lab that belonged to my father. After A LOT of convincing, he FINALLY drove us to the lab. Okay, now step two, I thought. The guards. Me and Dawn talked about this. Our personalities were very different; I was on the dark side while she was little miss sunshine, so this is how the conversation went. 

Me: why don’t we threaten to stalk them for the rest of their lives?

Her: they will be threatened by two little girls? 

Me: good point. Then why don’t we cut off their toes and put them where they are not

supposed to be?

Her: NOOOO!!

Me: fine.

Her: why don’t we just use the same excuse that we used on my father: to recover my

father’s belongings.

Me: if you want to do it the boring way, sure. Why can’t we just knock ‘em out?

And that’s how the conversation ended. 

Chapter 2

The Lab

Then guess what method we used? Yes, Dawn’s method… such. A. Great. Method. But of course we got in. We went into the lab dressed how people who work in labs dress. White lab coats, goggles, and an evil smile on my face. We went to my dad’s workshop in the lab. It was empty with just a cement floor and a wood table, on the wall was a metal vent. We looked ALL over and found nothing! 

Just as I was checking under the table, Dawn shouted, “Miranda, there’s a switch here on the vent!” I rushed quickly over there and without thinking, I switched the switch down. Just then, the room transformed into a whole different place: potions filled the room, several different robot machines were roaming around from inch to inch. Paper was covering my dad’s desk from corner to corner. The room was pretty messy. Then, a whole different room appeared. There was a gigantic machine—his part was the only place in the room that seemed tidied up. The screen was showing the words “The Jurassic Times.”

Dawn looked really confused and I looked just as confused as her. Dawn was the one with the good eye and noticed a note on the machine. As she picked it up, she accidentally pressed the red button that said GO. Just then, I started to feel dizzy and the world started spinning. After a few seconds, things started to ease down. 

Chapter 3

The Jurassic Times

 I came to my senses and looked around me. I panicked because there were dinosaurs EVERYWHERE! Me and Dawn spent many hours running for our lives. We didn’t even have time to catch our breath. By the end of the day, we found a cave that was animal-free. We set up two beds that were made out of grass and hay. We also created a section for all the berries we picked to eat. We FINALLY had time to rest. Our cheeks were both red and we were breathing really hard. We looked at each other for a long time without saying anything. I  finally broke the silence.

“So…” I said between breaths, “we sure know what the machine is for now.”

“Yeah” she responded.

“I knew that your dad was smart but not so smart that he could make a time machine,” 

she remarked.

“We REALLY need to know how to get back!” I exclaimed.

The next day, we emptied our pockets to see what we had: I had a half eaten chocolate bar, a pack of gum, some money, a picture of my dad, and an iPod. Dawn had the note, she took some string, a pencil and paper. The note said: colonial times 828.

“What does 828 mean?” Dawn asked.

“No idea,” I responded. “Do you think Dad went to the colonial times?” I asked Dawn.

“Maybe? Anything else?” Dawn asked.

I checked all my pockets. “Oh yeah, I have a potion that I took from dad’s office.”

“What is it called?” Dawn exclaimed.

“It doesn’t have a name,” I replied.

Chapter 4

The Colonial Times

We drank the potion, then I accidentally looked at the note, then I went dizzy. After

that, we just blacked out. But this time, we ended up in a place where all girls wore dresses and bonnets, and boys petticoats and baggy pants. We looked down and saw that our clothes were different. Perfect! We wore the same clothes that everyone else wore! The time traveling with the potion came with clothes! Then I realized something! We were in the colonial times!

For the rest of the day, Dawn and I went looking for my father. We searched everywhere! We still couldn’t find him! At the end of the day, we stayed with a nice couple that said their names were Maria and David. They gave us a bedroom for the night.

“What do you think made us go into the colonial times?” Dawn asked.

I looked a bit guilty. “Um… I accidentally looked at the paper that said colonial times 828, that’s what probably triggered us to go here.”

“Ohhh, that makes sooo much more sense to me!”

“Yeah,” I responded. “So tomorrow…”

“Um, do you still have the picture—” I interrupted Dawn.

“Yeah,” Dawn finished her sentence. “We can show the people here it and see if they’ve ever seen him.”  

Every time we showed people the photo, they started murmuring to each other and started pointing at us. One person dropped everything she had in her hands and shouted, “WITCH!!” After that, with every step we took, people started backing away. Then, finally, Maria came out of the house and I showed her the photo. She looked shocked. 

She said, “Child, your father went to the place.”

“The place?”

Apparently I looked so confused that she started telling the whole story.

Chapter 5

“The Place”

“Once, there was a man and that man was your father. One day, he came out of nowhere. Everyone thought he was crazy because he kept saying that he came from a time machine from the future. They officially named him wizard of the year. This was the first time in 20 years they named a wizard of the year. Not since this one man who every time he snapped, a person in the town died. Everyone thought he was dangerous, and still thinks that. They think he is so dangerous that they built a special prison just for him. Anyone who goes in can’t get out. No one knows what to call it. So we just call it the place.

The legend states that the only way to bring a person out of there is if a person makes a potion strong enough to get out of there.”

Dawn murmured something under her breath so quietly that you couldn’t even manage to make out the words. Maria finished her story and nobody knew if that potion even exists. I was shocked! Dawn and I went back into the house. 

Right after we closed the door, Dawn exclaimed, “The potion that we have!”

I answered, “What do you mean? That potion was only for time traveling!”

Dawn explained, “When we went time travelling, do you know how much time it took to get here?”

“No?”

“Um, ten minutes and two seconds. And do you know how long it took to get to the jurassic times? 15 minutes and 56 seconds.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Oh I set a timer,” Dawn said. She continued speaking, “it’s like the potion wants us to be here.”

“Ok then what are we waiting for, let’s go!”

Chapter 6

Dirty Work

We walked and walked and walked and finally got there! It was in the middle of the woods. The place was very simple with stone walls and a moat around it and alligators snapping at you. It was so very welcoming! SO. VERY. We still had two things to do. Get past the alligators and get past the guards. Time to use MY method! This conversation was a bit different.

Me: this time, let’s knock ‘em out.

Her: can’t we just sweet talk them into letting us in?

Me: no!! We did your method last time, this time we’re going to jump on the alligators’ back and then they’re going to bring us to the guards. Then you go in the front and start talking to them. Then I sneak up on the back, knock them over and take their weapons.

Her: you can knock over the guards?

Me: I’m going to try, then you’re going to help me.

We jumped on the alligators’ backs, then they knocked us over.

I shouted, “Change of plans, we’re going swimming!”

It took longer than we thought, dodging all those alligators. We finally got to the castle and had to climb a bit. At least the plan with the guards worked. With a little help from pepper spray. When we got past the guards, we went to find my father.

“Miranda, is that you?”

“Hello? Dad?”

“I’m here.”

I turned around, then I saw him. He was nothing like how he looked in the picture. He looked older, dirty, like he hadn’t taken a shower in months. There were smudges of dirt all over his face. I gave some potion to my father. 

Then to Dawn, I said, “We’re going to drink it on the count of three, okay? One. Two. Three!”

I went dizzy then blacked out. We were back home. I saw my father and Dawn on the sides of me. I knocked on the door. 

When my mother saw me, she exclaimed, “Miranda, thank goodness! Where were you?”

When she saw Dad, all the color drained from her face. She screamed, “Ashton, come down here!”

“Ashton? ASHTON?” My mom went inside to look for my little brother. “Where’s Ashton?”

The End!             

I am woken by a bright light. I shield my eyes, only to realise I’m not at home. I’m in a huge, puffy, pink bed with purple pillows. I, for one, hate the colors pink and purple. Those colors are signs of a princess. A butler walks through the door, and I shriek.

 “Sorry, Your Highness. Didn’t mean to startle you, Your Highness. Here is your breakfast, Your Highness,” said the butler. 

 “Uhhh,” I said. What was going on!? Since when was I royalty? The closest I had ever gotten to royalty was our dog named King. “What’s this?” I say. It looks absolutely gross! It’s a big bowl of oatmeal with pineapple on top. I hate pineapple and oatmeal is so plain.

 “It’s your favorite,” says the butler, with a little concern in his voice. 

“Oh, really?” I say, and the butler looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. At this point, I have. “Thanks, I totally love it!”

 The butler is so confused at this point. “Are you feeling alright, Your Highness? I will set up a visit to the royal nurse today, Your Highness.” 

The butler leaves, wondering what just happened. People say you should stay calm in unfamiliar situations, but I think it’s appropriate to freak out in this situation. Here I am, in a huge, comfy, and probably very expensive bed. It is so much nicer than the floor I slept on at the farm. I work there, and the pay is very low, barely enough to support my family. My mother is very sick, so she can’t work, and my father died last year. My brother, Bob, is too young to work, since he’s only five. My grandma lives with us too, but she’s very sick. Now I actually have my own room, with gold jewelry and a very cute, very huge, and very fluffy teddy bear. “Bob would love this teddy bear!” I mumble. 

I get out of bed, feeling like a princess. In this world, I am a princess. 

An old but very stylish lady runs into my room. “Enough sleeping, it’s time for your Proper Princess lessons,” she says.  That’s a thing?! Before I can say anything, she pulls me to a ballroom. 

“Whoa,” I say loudly. It’s gold and huge and gold and beautiful and gold. It’s just like the movies. Did I mention it was gold? 

“Enough dilly dally! We must get to work immediately!” says the lady. She hands me a book. “You know what to do.” 

“Yep,” I say nervously. 

“What is this word ‘yep’? Ug, the slang the children are using these days. You must say, ‘Yes mam’ or ‘Of course’. Do you understand?” 

She gives me a deathening stare. “Yes mam,” I squeak. 

Now, what to do with this book…Maybe I balance it on my head? That seems reasonable. I walk across the ballroom without the book falling once. I was good at this kind of thing since this is what I did for fun on the farm. 

“You’re getting much better at this, good job,” said the lady. “We are done for the day. You may leave.” 

I walk out and there is a grand staircase on the left. It has red carpet and silver railings. Seriously, a girl who was living with all of this for fourteen years has got to be spoiled. I walk up the stairs, and I can’t believe my eyes. There are thousands of gowns in so many different colors. Maybe not thousands, but you get the idea. They are all topped in jewels and more jewels and, well, more jewels!

 “Would you like to choose your dress for today, Your Highness?” asks the butler.

 I shriek, again. This guy has to stop creeping up on me! “Um, sure,” I say, even though I’m unsure on which dress I’ll choose. There are so many options! 

After 20 minutes of searching, I settle for a sea-green gown with blue jewels on top. I look in the mirror, and I can’t believe my eyes. I look like someone else, someone who is important.

“You usually pick a pink or purple one, Your Highness,” says the butler. 

“This one is just fine,” I say. I turn to him, realising he is too nice to lie to. “I have to tell you something, but you have to promise to stay calm,” I say to the butler. 

“I promise, Your Highness,” says the butler.

 I took a deep breath, and broke the news to him. I told him that I’m not the princess. I told how my life was before, with being very poor and working on the farm. I told him how my grandma was sick and needed expensive medicine. I told him I’m the only person who works in my family. 

“Ever since my father died, my mother has struggled moneywise. She has no one to lean on. My brother is too young to work, since he’s only 4. My mother has to take care of my brother and my very sick grandma.”

“Oh my,” the butler says slowly, almost in a whisper.

“That leaves me. Even though I’m only 14 years old, I have a full-time maid job on the farm. The pay isn’t much, only five pence a day. Just enough to feed my family. 

“Life is so much easier here. I just need a little break. I still wonder how I got here,” I say. The butler looks at me long and hard. He stares at me for what feels like hours. I think he’s deciding if this is true, or just a sob story. 

“Fine, I believe you. I won’t tell, but you must figure out who, or what, did this to you. You must return the real princess to the throne.” 

“Thank you!” I tell him, relieved my secret won’t be revealed. 

“Now, you have breakfast with the queen and king, your ‘parents,’” says the butler. “Act like you are royalty and use very formal language.” 

Breakfast was scrumptious and the king and queen didn’t expect a thing. They actually didn’t talk to me at all. They were just talking about work and laws and things kings and queens need to worry about. The real princess must have felt neglected. 

After breakfast, I try to sneak outside. I’m this close to the door when a voice stops me. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” it asks.

 I turn around to see a man with a measuring cup on his shoulder and a scissor in his hand. “We must do the dress fitting for the ball tomorrow night!” 

I’m going to a ball? Wow, that will be so magnificent! 

“Okay,” I say, and I follow him to the dressing room. It’s huge and right in the middle is the most beautiful gown I have ever seen. It goes all the way up to the floor and it has gold jewels all over it. It’s pink, but I actually don’t mind it that much. I wear it, the man and his assistants adjust the dress a little bit. 

“PERFECT!” the man screams. I look in the mirror and I cannot agree more. I get out of the dress and I’m told I have a horse riding lesson. Apparently, I’m some national champion. I don’t know how to ride a horse! Well, let’s just hope I’m lucky…

I come outside, and a lady with the biggest horse I have ever seen is waiting for me. The horse is black and tall. He looks calm, which makes this a little less scary.

”Get on the horse,” she says sternly. After about 15 times, I’m on. “Trot,” she says. Okay, it can’t be that hard. Maybe I just take the rope, and hold it. Then, maybe I fling it. The horse starts moving, slowly. It’s not a trot, but hey, I’ve never ridden a horse before. “TROT I SAID,” the lady screams. 

You need to calm down, I think in my head.

 I fling it even harder, and the horse is running at full speed. I’m scared, but I pretend I’m okay. 

“Yes, good job!” the lady says. 

The lesson continued, and it wasn’t as hard as it seemed. She taught me tips and tricks and by the end of the lesson, I could ride a horse! 

After my lesson, the chef made me lunch. It was handmade pasta with red sauce. It was more delicious than anything I have  ever tasted. For the rest of the day I had Proper Princess lessons. It was a little boring for the first hour, since we were just balancing the books. Then we went over proper tea party attire and manners. It was annoying, because apparently I “keep on getting in wrong”. 

After an amazing-smelling caviar, I go to my bed. It was such an amazing day. However, I feel guilty. My family is probably starving and here I am eating caviar.  I am sitting in the most comfy bed I have ever felt, yet my brother was sleeping on the dirt. I had to find a way to go back soon, and figure out what happened.

It is the day of the ball, and I am already excited when I woke up. An actual ball, that I would be dancing and twirling and being really important in.

“Your breakfast,” the butler says, rushing in with breakfast of waffles. “Are you excited for your first ball?”

“YES, YES,YES, OH YES!” I say in a loud, but not screaming voice. 

The butler leans closer. “Have you figured it out yet?”

“Figured out what?”

“Why you’re here!”

“Not yet, I have to find a plan.”

“Well, do it fast.”

“I’m trying!”

“Try harder!”

We start laughing, and then the butler heads to the door.

“Wait!” I say.

“Yes?”

“What should I call you?”

“You can call me Robert.”

“Okay. You can call me Maybell.”

“Okay, Maybell.”

I smile, and he smiles back before he leaves. The same man who did my dress fitting comes in. 

“Time to get into your gown!” he says very loudly.

“Ok,” I say politely, but excitedly.

“Come on, come on, no time to waste!”

“Fine,” I say, a little reluctant to get out of bed.

We go to the dressing room, and I put on my gown. I look astonishing. They then take me to the hairdresser, and they put my hair into a neat bun. This is a literal whole new world. 

Now I have to go to Proper Princess lessons again, in order to prepare for the ball. We go over proper greetings and the way to walk. We also practice walking in heels. It is so painful. I don’t get what’s wrong with sneakers. They are so much more comfy. Besides, nobody’s going to see my shoes. The gown is floor-long. It goes on for hours and hours.  

By the time we are done, it’s time for the ball. I make a grand entrance with the king and queen. Everyone is awing at us, and I feel really special. People talk to me, and I make a lot of things up.

“Hello Your Highness, how are you this fine evening?” asks the duke.

“Very well, thank you. How about yourself?” I say, sounding very formal.

“Very well, thank you. How is the royal swim team doing this year?”

“Very well, we can expect a win this year.”

“Good to hear it.”

I have no idea what the royal swim team is. I don’t even know how to swim! I just came up with stuff along the way. 

It is time for the dancing part of the evening. I am going to be ballroom dancing with multiple young men who want to marry me. Great.

I danced and danced, my feet getting tired and the heels giving me blisters. The last boy I danced with, Henry, wasn’t like the others. His eyes were sweet and calm. He was a great dancer, and our eyes were locked on each other. When it was time to stop dancing, we went over to the side a talked. He was like nobody else, and he was funny and a great listener. It was almost like… no, it couldn’t be… it was almost like… love at first sight. He was staying over at the palace since his father had work to do with the king. 

We spent the whole week together. We ate at the fanciest restaurant in town, Souffle. We went to the water park and went on all the rides. He was a great company. We were having dinner at the palace when I hear something I’ve wanted to hear for a few days now.

“I’ve been wanting to tell you something for some time now. In other words, since the day I met you,” says Henry slowly.

“I’m all ears,” I say excitedly.

“I really like you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” He bends down with a ring.

I have no words. This is one of the best moments of my life. I would normally think he wants to just be king, but Henry’s different.

“YES!” I say, excitedly.

I hug him so tightly, he could pass out. We run to the meeting room, and announce our marriage. Everyone is excited and congratulates me. I know I made the right choice. 

You might be thinking we are pretty young to be married, but we love each other too much to wait. Besides, my grandma got married at my age, so did my mom. It’s kind of a tradition at this point. 

As I go to bed, I am excited to now have a financé. I have so many plans for us. Then I go back to thinking about home. Would mom approve? Would she be mad that I wasn’t there and I couldn’t find her? I have to tell Henry. Maybe he could help me sneak out. 

The next morning, I find Henry. I take a deep breath and tell him everything. I tell him about me not being a princess and my back story. After I finish, he looks at me with those sweet, calm eyes. Is he mad at me for lying? 

Henry looks at me. “It’s not your fault. I’m not mad.”

“Good. Will you help me find the original princess?”

Henry thinks for a minute. Then, he gives me a smile. “Of course.”

“Great!” This is finally getting to a good start.

After lunch, we sneak out of the palace and into the village. We have to disguise ourselves. We don’t want the paparazzi getting in the way. We look around and call out, “KASSY?”, the name of the original princess. Nobody has any ideas on where she could be. 

After two hours of searching, I sit down on a bench. “We’re never going to find her and I’m never going to see my family again.” No matter how much I try to hold it back, tears fall from my eyes. 

“We’ll find her,” says Henry. “I promise you”

“Some promises can’t be fulfilled.” 

I look at Henry. His face starts smiling, almost like he came up with the best idea ever.

“I just came up with the best idea ever!” Henry yells.

Called it. “What is it?” I say excitedly.

“The only thing that has changed is you and Kassy switching lives, right?”

“Yeah, so what?”

“That means your family lives in the same house and Kassy works where you use to work!”

“That’s genius. What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

We run to the house and barge through the door. My brother is playing with his rocks and my mother is cleaning the kitchen. 

My mother looks at us, surprised.

“Who are you and why did you just come inside my house?” she says.

I want to tell her everything. I want to tell her I am her daughter. I want to tell her where I was. I want to say I’m sorry for not being there for our family. But I can’t. I have to wait till everything is resolved. 

“It doesn’t matter,” I say.

“Where is Kassy? I mean, Maybell. Where is Maybell?” says Henry in his stern prince voice. 

“She is at the Mare Berry Farm,” says my mother, a little scared at this point.

I feel bad, but there’s nothing I could do. Not until I find Kassy.

Henry and I run to the farm. I’m full of hope and fear. Would Kassy be mad? Can we fix our lives? At this moment, I’m glad to have Henry by my side. 

When we get to the farm, we find Kassy milking a cow. Wow, she is doing really well, even better than me. We run up to her. She looks at us, scared and surprised.

“I knew I would get caught at some point,” Kassy says, a little sadness in her voice.

“What do you mean?” I say, a little anger in my voice.

“I did this. I was the one who gave you the life of the princess.”

“How, What, Where, When, Why?” says Henry sternly.

“What is this, English class? Anyway, I was bored of my life at the palace.  My parents never talk to me. I feel like I have no family, no shoulder to lean on. Everyone just waits on me at a fancy place. I wanted to have family moments and actually do something for myself.”

“But it’s my family, my life!” I say, a little surprised that anybody would get bored of a life at the palace. 

“I know it was wrong but I was desperate. I made a wish on the magical well, just for fun, but I thought it was a myth. I didn’t know it would work!”

“Did you make the wish of June 27th?” Henry asks.

“Yeah, so?” says Kassy.

“All the wishes made on June 27th come true! There is no way to reverse them!” Henry yells in a worried voice.

“So we’re stuck like this forever?” Kassy and I say at the same time. We look at each other with sad faces. 

“Lets go to my actual house,” I say.

We all walk to the house and come in. My mother is reading a book to my brother, who is now asleep. 

“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” my mother says sternly.

Then she pauses, like something is wrong. 

“Take off your hood,” she tells me. 

I do as told, and my mother gasps. She pulls out the birth certificate of both Kassy and I. 

“We’re… sisters?” I say.

20 YEARS LATER

“Remember the day you officially moved to the palace?” Kassy says. 

“The day we came to know we’re sisters?” I say. 

A lot has happened since that day. Kassy and I realised we were sisters. Apparently, the king and queen adopted Kassy. My mom, grandma, and brother moved to the palace. The king and queen bought the farm. We were a huge, happy family. Henry and I got married, and we had a child named Rose.

“Today is your coronation,” Kassy reminds me.

“Thanks for reminding me,” I say sarcastically, a little nervousness in my voice. “What if I do something wrong?”

“You’ll be fine. I gotta go get ready”

As Kassy leaves, I look out the window. It’s dawn, and the sunrise is beautiful. 20 years ago, I was wondering if my family and I would ever find a good home. Now, I live in one of the grandest places in the world. 

Alexandra had tried everything. She had tried begging her parents, she had tried refusing to come. Finally she agreed, but she convinced her parents to let her bring a couple books. But still, she was going to the beach. Her parents were taking her to the BEACH. Alexandra hated the beach, unlike her three year-old sister. Alexandra was very picky. One of the only things that she loved were books. BOOKS. She thought that there was nothing better than reading a good book on a summer day. She saw the beach come into view. Reluctantly, she climbed out of the car unenthusiastically. She got herself settled on the beach with her book, while her sister started a sandcastle.

“Alex help?” she asked. Alex groaned.

“Nooooo. I’m reading.”

“I’ll help,” said Dad.

“YAY YAY!” Alexandra’s sister, Charlotte, was grinning.

Silently thanking her dad, Alex started on her book about animal waste. Yes, animal waste. She was very interested in this right now. 

Her dad came over to her and asked, “Alex, want to swim?”

“WHAT! NO! I HATE SWIMMING!”

This was true. Alex hated swimming. Even worse, she didn’t know how.

“Alright,” said her dad. “But you need to learn how SOMETIME.”

Alex lay down just to find her book NOT THERE. Alex ran to her mom, yelling, “MOM! DID YOU TAKE MY BOOK?”

“NO, why?”

“MOOOM! ALL MY BOOKS ARE GONE!!”

“Get your other books, don’t bother me.”

Alex looked in her bag and reached in to find her other books on animal waste, only to find that they were also gone.

Alex glanced around to find a group of boys laughing and stealing glances at Alex. They had TAKEN HER BOOKS! 

Alex stormed over to them and yelled, “Give me my books back!”

A big boy, maybe 11 years old, sneered.

“Looks like that won’t happen.”

He had ripped out all the pages of Alexandra’s books and was now working on ripping the covers. Alex, trying not to cry, went back to the blanket and sat down. She loved those books. They had been her favorite. And now she would never get to finish them. She felt someone kneel down beside her. She looked up and found a boy with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes was looking at her.

“I’m sorry. My friends were being really mean to you.”

“It’s fine,” said Alex, even though it was not.

“You know there is a library on an island of the Ocean, right?”

“WHAT? Really? That would be so cool! I wish I could go.”

“You could,” said the boy.

“I’ll ask my parents. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Gabe,” said the boy.

Alexandra went and asked her parents.

“Mom and Dad, can I go with my friend named Gabe to the library across the Ocean?”

Mom looked surprised. “Sure!! But you know that you will have to swim across the ocean, right?”

“WHAT? BUT YOU KNOW I HATE THE WATER AND CAN’T SWIM!”

“Maybe Gabe can help you,” said Dad. “Go try.”

Alex went over to Gabe and said, “My mom made me swim!”

“That’s fine. I can teach you how. I’m on the NYC swim team.”

So Gabe took Alexandra’s hand and pulled her to the Ocean.

“Get in,” said Gabe.

Alex reluctantly got up to her chin in the water. Gabe held Alex’s legs up and told her to kick. Gabe let go and Alex felt herself float. It actually felt pretty good!

“Now move your arms!” Gabe continued directing Alexandra until she felt herself move in the water!

“What’s happening?” 

Gabe laughed. “What do you mean what’s happening? You’re swimming!”

“WOW!”

Alexandra had never felt this before. 

“Do you think you’re ready to swim?”

“I mean, yeah!”

“But will it get deep?”

“Nah, this Ocean’s surprisingly shallow, and I’ll walk with you and hold you up.”

So this continued until Alex spotted something disturbing. A big, big wave was forming a little way away. 

Alex shouted to Gabe, “LOOK, THAT IS THE BIGGEST WAVE EVER!”

“Oh, yeah, that’s the biggest wave of the year. It sometimes can kill people. Anyway, what’s your favorite thing to do?”

Alex was freaking out.

“Why are you asking me what my favorite thing to do is when we are maybe about to die?”

The wave was coming closer and closer, and the closer it came, the more Alexandra got more and more frantic!

“Okay, reeeeeeeeeelax! We can survive. It’s about a mile away, it just looks very close due to the size. But I think we will be okay.”

Alex noticed that Gabe seemed very calm.

“Have you experienced this before? You seem very calm.”

Gabe replied unusually. “Look, this wave is really scary to me too. I have not been in it before. But I have seen it, and this is one of the biggest waves ever. All I am doing is trying to stay calm, but inside me, I am freaking out. Just stay calm and—”

“But I thought you were the best swimmer in NYC! I am depending on you. I COULD DIE. This is really freaking me out.”

“Just because I am on a good swim team doesn’t mean I can swim through a wave as tall as the Empire State building!” The wave was less than 10 feet away from them now. “We are just going to have to face it now.”

Alexandra took some deep breaths.

“Face it,” she said, “FACE IT.”

The wave was about to come at Gabe and Alexandra. Alex braced herself for the worst. She peeked out of her hands— which were covering her face— and saw the wave a foot away. She heard Gabe yelling, “Do what you can! I am holding onto you! JUST BE CALM AND LOOK OUT!”

Alexandra repeated these words in her head. “Just be calm. JUST BE CALM!”

She felt the wave lift her up, high, high into the air. She spotted the beach and her Mom and Dad shouting. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but she could make out “Alexandra!” and “Careful!” She saw tears going down her mom’s face and her dad’s worried look. But she felt the comfort of Gabe next to her. Then, Alexandra felt the sensation of falling. Her brain raced as she shouted, “HHEEELLLLPPPP!!!”

The next thing she knew, she was flying in the air, head first. 

Alexandra felt her head smashed into the surging waves and a surge of pain in her right knee. She felt the sensation of falling into a dark, deep tunnel. She felt someone touch her shoulder. That was the last thing she remembered before everything went black.

***

Blink. Blink. Alexandra saw white. All white. She blinked again and realized that she was staring at a ceiling. She looked next to her and found her mom and dad sadly looking at her. She also spotted her sister in the playroom next door, playing with a toy airplane.  Their faces brightened when they saw Alexandra’s chocolate brown eyes.

“She’s awake!” said Dad.

“Thank God,” said Mom.

She felt her Mom kiss her on her cheek. Alexandra had millions of questions bubbling inside of her. But she surprisingly just couldn’t talk. (Emotionally and physically.) Why was she wearing pajamas with cupcakes on them? Who had rescued her? Was Gabe okay? Wait a second. Alexandra had a thought rush to her head. Was Gabe okay?

Alexandra looked next to her and saw Gabe, lying motionless. She saw a cast on his arm. It was white, but she could see red, probably blood. Alexandra felt so bad for her friend. And now he would never want to swim again, just like her. She saw Gabe’s eyes open and he mumbled, 

“Alexana?” He probably couldn’t talk as well, like her. Alex tried saying something.

“Hhhhiiii Gab.”

Huh. She was probably just tired. She saw the doctor come in, and Gabe did too.

“Hi guys!” the doctor said. “I am Dr. Ring. Gabe, you have broken your arm, as well as cut it on a rock in the Ocean, we think. Alexandra, you have a small crack in your right knee and will get crutches.” Alexandra hadn’t noticed that. She sat up and saw her knee in a cast. “You guys have headaches. You can’t speak very well yet.”

Dad spoke up. “Can we tell them what happened?”

The doctor smiled. “I think they would like to know.”

Dad started. “You guys had concussions. You didn’t feel this, but a lifeguard jumped in and got you guys. Then firefighters came. They used a crane to take you guys out of the Ocean.”

Mom continued. “The lifeguard couldn’t get you out because the waves after the big wave were too strong. Then they put you in an ambulance and brought you here.”

Alexandra felt better talking now.

“Shouldn’t I be wet? I- I was just in- in- in a big wave.”

“Yeah,” agreed Gabe. “How aren’t we w- wet and now both wearing cupcake p- p- p- pajamas?”

Dr. Ring laughed. “We cleaned you guys and dried you up. Oh, and these are the only pajamas we have.”

“Okay,” said Gabe. “But can you please get better pajamas?”

Just then Gabe’s parents arrived.

“Gabe!” exclaimed Gabe’s mom. “You should be resting, not talking about what pajamas this hospital has!”

“But they should have more,” retorted Gabe.

“Oh, hi Henry!” Gabe’s little two and a half year-old brother was staring at Gabe. Henry looked at Gabe.

“Gabee OK?”

“Yes, I’m fine, go play with Alexandra’s sister, Charlotte.”

Henry happily grabbed another toy airplane and started playing with Charlotte.

Alexandra decided that this was the time to tell her mom something important, something that had been waiting to say. Alex took a deep breath and began. 

“Mom?” asked Alex.

“Yes sweetie?”

“Can I learn how to swim?”

“Of course sweetie! But what changed your mind? I thought you would never want to swim now, even in pools!”

Alexandra started explaining. “Well, I don’t want to go in the ocean first, but I could take lessons in our swimming pool at home in Long Island. I want to be ready and not freaked out for a situation like this one.”

Gabe cut in. “Hey, I live in Long Island too!”

Gabe’s dad had an idea. Gabe could teach Alex to swim! “But Gabe, you’re cool because you are the only boy in your group that knows how to swim!”

That gave Alexandra an idea. “Can I get back at those boys who ripped up my books?”

“Oh yeah!” agreed Gabe. “We can push them into the water!”

Alexandra’s mom looked skeptical.

“Maybe that’s a little toooo much!”

Alexandra spoke up. “But can we do something?”

“Maybe just talk to them. But you should stand up for yourself and talk to them with Gabe.”

“Okay, after I learn how to swim because they are going to be meaner to me if I don’t know how to swim like them. Can we go home today?”

Charlotte and Henry came over. “Mommy, go home?” Charlotte asked.

“GO HOME! YAY YAY!” Henry was getting excited too.

“Yes, we are going home today,” the parents said in unison.

After a few more hours of rest, the families headed home. They went home in separate cars but Gabe promised to come visit Alexandra after they got home. (Because he was the one of them that could walk. Alexandra had crutches.)

At home, Alexandra met Gabe on the back porch. Gabe was the first one to speak.

“Well, this incident didn’t result in the best health.”

“Yes, but I learned to not be afraid of the Ocean and to fight through it.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you into the Ocean. This was all my fault.”

Alexandra felt bad for Gabe. “No, it’s not. It’s my fault for going into the Ocean. I wanted to go to the library.”

Gabe leaned over and hugged Alexandra. “You’re the best Alexandra. And it’s definitely not your fault.”

Alexandra leaned over to Gabe. Gabe put his arm around her. Then they heard footsteps coming. Thump. Thump. Thump. Gabe and Alex let go of each other and saw the mean boys coming over to them.

“Hey stupid!” yelled the tallest boy at Alex.

Gabe retorted. “Don’t call her that!”

“And you can call her anything you want, I guess?”

“She’s my friend!”

“Well, Gabe, then I guess you’re not our friends either. Go play with your girlfriend!”

“I’m not his girlfriend!” Alexandra said. “Am I?” 

LOOK ON NEXT PAGE!

THE END!!!!

Epilogue

After Gabe’s arm had healed and Alexandra’s leg healed, Gabe taught Alex swimming. Once Alex had learned how to be a great swimmer, the two of them decided to get back at those dumb boys. Gabe knew that the boys were going fishing, so Gabe and Alex had a plan. They swam in the Long Island river and pulled a prank on these boys. This was how it went. 

THE PRANK

“Allright, I see them.” Gabe and Alexandra were very exhausted having swam for so long. They could see the silhouettes of the tall boy and his friends. Alexandra was curious.

“What are their names?”

“The big one’s name is Parker, and his two friends are Daniel and Joshua. I used to like them, but now I regret EVER being friends with them. I much rather like being friends with you.” Alex blushed at the thought of how he meant “friends.”

Alexandra changed the topic. “So the plan is to push them into the water?”

“Yeah. I know our parents think it’s too much, but I think they deserve it.”

Alexandra agreed. “Surely pushing people into the water isn’t as bad as ripping up all their books, is it?”

“Exactly. Let’s do this.”

“IT’S TIME.” 

Gabe and Alex dove under the boy’s boat and pushed it over. They heard screams from above. Gabe laughed.

“Man, I haven’t heard them scream before. This is AMAZING. And they’re not wearing life jackets.”

Alex just thought of something. “Wait, will they drown? Let’s check.”

Gabe and Alex peered around the flipped boat and found Parker, Daniel, and Joshua trying to get back up on the boat.

“YOU-YOU DID THAT!” Parker was furious. “HOW DARE YOU!”

“How dare YOU rip up all my books?” Alexandra was glad that they finally got back at Parker and his gang.

Gabe cut in. “Here, take this.” Gabe handed them a buoy. “Use this to float home.”

Parker snatched it. “And why do we need this to float home?”

“Because we’re taking the boat.” Alexandra climbed on and helped Gabe up.

Daniel and Joshua yelled “No!” Parker just stared in fury. While Gabe was rowing away, Alexandra called to the boys.

“Hey! I hope the buoy fits all of you! Maybe you could SWIM?”

The boys groaned and started doggie paddling while their arms rested on the buoy. Alex and Gabe grinned and headed back home. 

THAT’S ALL FOLKS! WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK!

Endor isn’t like everyone else. He’s different for one reason, size. He’s bigger than any other of his species. He’s bigger because of mutation when he was born. He’s as big as the statue of liberty!!! There are monsters bigger than him, but those are different species. Like reptars and skylers, but those are other kinds. He’s only supposed to be 15 meters. But he’s more than five times the height!!! Endor is sort of like a turtle, but has spikes and has sharp teeth. Sadness makes him destroy cities. Anger. Rage. Endor has always been picked on by reptars saying, “Big body, gigantic coward!!!”

“Hey weakling,” said a reptar. His teeth started grinding. His spikes started bulging on his body.

“What do you want?” I asked. I was thinking of burning him with a flamethrower I was powering up in my mouth.

“Why don’t you get out of the way and give me your money, I want to buy something,” he replied with a grin on his face. Then out of nowhere, I blasted reptar. Then I realized I could use my size to protect the cities.

Endor faced many battles with skylers, fenines and more. But today was different.

“ROAR!!!” A huge roar was heard in the city, so Endor went to check it out.

What’s going on this time? I said to myself.

“Oh, just a reptar, wait, a REPTAR!!!” I screamed. Reptars are very powerful. So I went to the city to try and fight him off. But then, he slammed me onto a building. I shot fire at him but he shot me with plasma!!! I fell to the floor, he looked down at me, he was ready to devour me. There was nothing I could do. Except to fall in my fate. And sooner or later, I blacked out.

I woke up laying on the floor of a destroyed city. I did not know what happened. I saw the Reptar’s head on the floor. I saw a station over at the other side of the mountain. So I decided to go. 

I saw a skyler and he said he’d help me. So we made it there. But then the door slammed!!! I looked and saw some footage. I looked and saw me with the reptar!!! It showed me on the floor, and then my eyes turned red. I was shooting magma, shooting it toward the reptar, his skin started melting and then I fell. I was being tortured by the idea of being in this rusty station.

“HELP!!” I screamed. “PLEASE,” I said. “I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE!! JUST HELP.”

“Just calm down,” skyler said. “Calm’. It’s okay.’’ He calmed me down.

He managed to get me out, so we left the station. I realized, I was dangerous. But I was okay. I would still protect the cities.

THE END!!!

Chapter One

“Mommy, I don’t want to go to the hair salon! Please, leave me here by myself!”

“No, you have to go with me, because you’re the one that has to have the haircut.”

“My hair’s long! I want it to be like this!”

“Well, you have to cut your bangs.”

“Your bangs are way too long.”

“I know it’s up to my chin, but I’ll just move it to the sides and put a clip. Please, Mom! I just don’t want to cut my hair! Please, please, just respect me! I’ll stay here with Teddy.” 

“If you want to stay here with Teddy, you have to have a babysitter.”
“Not the mean one again! Not Sophia!”

“Well, that’s the only one I can find online.”

“Please, Mom! I want to stay here, I don’t want to cut my hair! My hair is the most beautiful thing right now. I don’t want it to be horrible! Please, let me Mom. I’m voting for you!”

“Silly, Sandy.”

“But Mom! Please! Or I’ll stay here with Daddy.”

“Well, he’s going to come at nighttime.”

“Well, I’ll wait for him at nighttime when he’s back from the day.”

“Well, I’m going to be back from the day,” said Mom.

“But Mom, I’m already ten. Why can’t you leave me here by myself?”

“Let’s not argue. Your hair is getting way too long, and it’s already touching your toes.”

“So? I like it there. I can make longer braids, tie it up into a bun, etc.”

“I know, but I want it to get shorter like this.”

“No, that’s way too short! I looked horrible when I had shorter hair when I was a baby like this.”

“Then, your hair was almost touching your knees. Come on, let’s just go.”

“Mommy, don’t pull my hair here! I’m not Sleeping Beauty. Even though I liked the movie.”

“Well, okay, fine. Only this once.”

“At least it’s up to my knees. I like my hair this long.”

“Well, sweetie, we have to go. It’s going to close any second.”

“That’s what I want to happen! Well, okay, fine. I’ll go with you. The hair salon is going to be bad. Oh, I have an idea. I can hide from the person that cuts my hair. Well, I think that won’t work. Because I went there last time, and they cut my hair up to my hands, and then I tried to hide, but they found me really easily under the chair. Oh! They never found me under the table. Let me try this time under the table.”

Chapter Two: The Bad Haircut

Oh, I’m here. Where’s the table around here so I can hide? I hope they don’t cut my hair like that guy: his hair, like, stripes. Mom says they put hair dye on his hair. I want pink hair dye.

“You’re not getting hair dye, because you’re too young.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m ten.”

“You have to be 14 to get hair dye.”

“Please, Mom!” 

“Okay, fine, only because your birthday’s coming up.”

“Which color do you want?”

“I want light blue that goes to pink. Dark pink.”

“Fine, okay. I’m going to ask them if we can do that.”

“We can do that!”

“Yay!! Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome. But I won’t let you do this again.”

“This is the last time I’m going to do this. I promise this is the last time. But Mommy, there’s a mistake. Tie dye doesn’t come out of your hair.”

“What? No!”

“But we already paid for it.”

“Okay, only this once.”

“But it won’t come out! For this whole year.”

“Fine. It will never come out.”

“Even when you’re a grandma it won’t come out.”

“Can I take my money back?”

“No.”

“No,” said Mom. 

“I’m going to have tie dye, ya ya ya ya ya.”

“Okay. I’m going to ask them if there’s any shampoo that can take it out of your hair.”

“No, there’s no shampoo.”

“Oh my gosh, I was almost caught there. I have to hurry, in case Mom says my birthday’s coming up. Can you not cut my hair and only put hair dye?”

“Okay, okay, okay, fine. Only because your birthday’s coming up, okay? You hear me?”

“Yes. Mom. Are you going to put the hair dye on? Or are you going to cut my hair?”

“She’s going to put the hair dye.” 

“Well let’s do it, yay!”

Snip.

“No! My hair is ruined!!!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Now it’s time to put hair dye on.”

Chapter Three: The Hair Dye

Sandy was sad that the hair lady cut her hair. She asked not to, but she did. Sandy was super sad.

“Mommy, I don’t want to stay here in this place. She cut my hair when I didn’t ask her to! I love my blond hair! Please, please, I want to get out of here, and I want to get a wig. Please! Because if she cuts everything off, I can get a wig!”

“If you get a wig, it’ll just fall off.”

“Just… please, Mom. I promise you.”

“No, you can’t do that.”

“I asked for a shark hair, with teeth.”

“I know, that’s why she made those big things. You can’t paint them.”

“Oh, that’s why. Please keep doing what you’re doing, Ms. Hairstylist. I forgot that I said I want shark hair. But don’t make it too big, because I still want to make rays on my hair.”

“Okay, I’m sorry that I cut it and you didn’t say to, but you said to make shark hair, and I’m sorry that I did. I can put your hair back with glue, then.”

“What? You can?”

“Only if I cut all of your hair out and put a wig on your head.”

“Which type of glue?”

“It’s like edible glue.”

“What? I don’t get what you’re saying, Ms. Stylist lady.”

“Well, I believe in you. Do you believe in me?’

“It’s not a poem.”

“Well, you know that you, miss little lady…”

“I’m not a little lady, I’m a kid. I’m ten years old. I’m turning eleven. I hope that you keep on doing your shark teeth, but not up to my forehead, because then I’d be really sad.”

“Okay,” said the hair stylist. “I’ll make them up to here, is that okay? To your knees?”

“Sure. Well, no, only up till my ankles, okay?”

“Okay. Up to your ankles. One cut, shark teeth, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and then… well, okay, I’m done. Now to put the hair dye on! First I’m going to get a brush and start putting the hair dye on your hair.”

“Okay! I hope it shines like my friend’s does. Wait, why are you putting my hair in the water? The hair dye will come out!”

“No, it’s to get your hair wet, and then it’ll come out lighter.” 

“Okay, fine. I love my hair. It’s wonderful. I’m going to look in the mirror! Ooh, I look like I’m in a shark place where the sharks play, at the end of the sea.” 

“You’re welcome! That’s 24 bucks!”

“What?? That’s way too much, I need to go to the bank. Wait, there’s Cece and her mom. Let me ask them if they have some money.”

Sandy asked Cece if she had any money.

“Oh,” she said. “Hi, Sandy?”

“Do you have any money for my haircut?”

“Oh, I love your hair!”

“I know, that’s why I need money to pay for it. Do you have any money?”

“Oh, I only have 24 bucks.”

“Wow, that’s perfect! Because I only have 100 dollars. So only give us 24 bucks, cuz that’s the right amount that I need to pay for my hair. Yay! I can pay for my hair, and I’m going to show dad when he gets home. He’s going to love it.”

Chapter Four: Getting Home

“Wow, my hair is so adorable! No wait, there’s a problem! There’s going to be a thunderstorm coming, and we’re only going to arrive in 30 minutes. And there’s so much traffic! If we get late, Dad will be mad, and also, we can maybe even get hurt, because our car is made out of metal. We need to go quick.”

“Okay, let’s hurry! Let’s take the shortcut.”

“Okay, let’s get home. Go down to 32, veer 34. It’s only one block. No wait, we’re in Columbus. We have to be in Broadway. We live in Broadway, not here. But this is where our cousin lives. Let’s ask them if we can sleep there for one day.”

But when they got there, they already had someone at their house. 

“Oh man, I guess we have to take another traffic the right way.”

“Okay, let’s go. Oh wait, wait a second! There’s no more traffic and no more thunder! Yay, we have all the street for ourselves!”

“No we don’t, because look. There’s still a little bit of traffic up ahead.”

“But still, I’m happy that we’re almost home, so I can show Daddy my hair. Yay, yay, yay, we’re almost home! Let’s go home. I’m so worried that Daddy gets hit by thunder.”

“That will never happen! He’s already home.”

“Let me call Daddy. I have a phone cuz I’m ten.”

“You’re actually eleven.”

“Well, I’m not eleven yet. Well I know tomorrow’s my birthday but tomorrow’s gonna be raining like today so we have to do it today at home, because we are going to vacation tomorrow to celebrate there. But we can’t go, because there’s a traffic jam- a big one!”

“Finally, the traffic jam is done and I can see home. FINALLY! Finally, we got here at home.”

“Where were you?” Daddy said.

“We were at the hair salon, and I got a new hairstyle!” Sandy said.

“I love it! I want to go there! 

“Not now, please. I can’t drive anymore. So many traffic jams.” Said Mom.

“Okay fine, another day.”

“I’ll go by myself tonight.”

“Don’t, please, it’s terrifying getting back home.”

THE END

Emma wanted to have a normal life where you can chill and get food at the store. But normal doesn’t apply when you live in a city infested with annoying sea dragons who go around asking for stuff. So it was a regular day at school when one of those things stopped her on her way home and asked for a fruit. She told it that she had none and walked on. However, the sea dragon did not stop. It followed her back to her house. She did not notice this until she got home and turned around to hang up her backpack and saw it standing right there, in the middle of a water spill on the floor.

“What do you want!?” she asked, exasperated.

“Can I have some fruit?” it asked.

“I told you, I don’t have any!”

She took her homework out of her backpack, went to her bedroom, and started it. Then the sea dragon tapped her on the finger. It had shrunk itself and was standing in the cup of water on her desk. 

“Can I please have a fruit now?”

That’s when she totally lost it. 

“Can you please shut now up now!!! For the last time can you not follow me everywhere?!” 

That’s when the sea dragon disappeared. For real, this time. Good, she thought, I can use some space. However, as she finished her homework she couldn’t help thinking that she had been a little bit rude. Don’t be silly, she told herself, it’s the thing’s fault that it can’t keep its big fat mouth shut. This still didn’t make her feel better about yelling at the top of her lungs. Then she smiled, and picked up a book. She read the title. “How to get rid of annoying creatures.” She flipped the pages until she got to the page of sea dragons. This is what it said:

1. Bore it out. Try patting your hair or blabbering nonstop about the newest book or movie. You might also want to talk about hair and makeup. They have no interest in that stuff. 
2. Ignore it. Make it so tired of sitting there that it just leaves. 
3. Don’t yell, or satisfy it. It will only ask for more, or keep asking for what you didn’t give it

Whatever. They shouldn’t expect us to do it that easily. It is not like sea dragons are cute little siblings. They don’t have any right to follow people all over the place. 

So what?

So they shouldn’t bother people!

Maybe you don’t have the right to yell!

Well, it was wasting my time!!

Well, two wrongs don’t make a right!!!

Fine. But it was still acting like a pain.

After that, Emma knew what would be the best plan. Just then, the door opened. It was Emma’s mom.

“Oh hi, Mom,” she said. “Can Kayla spend the night tomorrow?”

“Yes, but please do not stay up all night talking. If I hear a peep past midnight, I’m sending her straight home. Understand?”

“Okay fine.”

After her mom left the room, Emma sighed. She wished she and Kayla could spend the night giggling about the haunted comb at last summer’s sleepaway camp. (She knew Kayla had thrown it, Kayla liked to think it flew by itself.) Kayla was Emma’s best friend. However, unlike Emma, she seemed to think sea dragons were cute. At least they could stay up until midnight. It wasn’t a very long time for a sleepover, three hours, but it was something. After the incident with the comb, Emma had gotten a new white comb on a pink cloth. 

Okay, so it was a bit fancier than she expected. Honestly, she kind of liked it. Soon her mom called her out for dinner. They had pizza, which was one of Emma’s favorites. But she couldn’t focus on eating. She was too busy daydreaming. 

The next morning, Emma put on her favorite pink blouse and sparkly white lace skirt. She put little care into breakfast and brushing her teeth, as she had never cared for her morning routine. Then she ran off to meet Kayla at the bus stop.

“Hi, Kayla!”

“Hi, Emma! You seem quite cheerful.”

“Well, TGIF, because my mom says you can sleep over!”

“Cool! I’ll text my mom before we get there. And guess what?”

“What?”

“They expanded the bus system. So we don’t have to walk home!”

“What? Are you kidding? This is the best news!!!”

“Um, what is so interesting about a bus system, may I ask?”

“Um… so we can get some rest?”

As close as the girls were, Emma could not explain that she did not want to be followed by an annoying sea dragon because Kayla seemed to adore them.

That was when the bus driver said, “C’mon girls, everyone is waiting for you.”

“Coming!”

Kayla put down her phone. “She said… Yes!”

“Sweet! So my house, right?”

“Yeah! So when should I be there?”

“Just right after school. I’m so happy about the bus system!”

“I never knew how much you hated walking.”

They chatted for awhile, until they realized they were they only ones on the bus. 

“Oops!” said Kayla.

“Come on, we’re going to be late for class again.”

So as usual, they were late for class. In fact, the only times they weren’t late were when they had nothing to talk about on the bus, which was rare. 

“Ladies, what has been making you late for the past few days?” said the teacher, Miss Philips. “You both missed attendance. So you were marked absent. I guess I’ll have to adjust my notes.”

Emma sat down at her desk. So did Kayla. 

“Now, I hope you have memorized your times tables.” (The whole class sighed.) “Rose Miller, please recite the two times tables.”

Rose zipped right through (although this was probably because the two times tables are very easy).

The next five or so went through smoothly.

“Kayla Wexler, please recite the eight times tables.”

Kayla stood up and said them quickly, “Eight times one equals eight. Eight times two equals sixteen. Eight times three equals twenty-four. Eight times four equals thirty-two. Eight times five equals forty… ”

“Emma Taylor, please recite the nine times tables.”

“Nine times one equals nine. Nine times two equals eighteen. Nine times three equals twenty-seven. Nine times four equals thirty-six. Nine times five equals forty-five. Nine times six equals fifty-four. Nine times seven equals sixty-three. Nine times eight equals seventy-two. Nine times nine equals eighty-one. Nine times ten equals ninety. Nine times eleven equals ninety-nine. Nine times twelve equals one hundred and eight.”

After school, Emma and Kayla got on the bus. 

“Emma, did you ever wish that we could see the sea dragons more often? I mean, they are so cute.”

Oh boy, she is crazy sometimes. 

“Um, I never really thought about it.”

Because they are so annoying sometimes, she silently added. 

“Oh, this is our stop! Come on! I’ll run to my house and get my stuff, okay?”

“Sure, I’ll set up the sleeping bags. Or do you want to share the loft bed?”

“Sleeping bags sounds good. This way we can watch a movie or something. Should I get my own sleeping bag, or do you have a spare one?”

“Your choice. By the way, we can’t say anything past midnight. Or you get sent home.”

“Got it. Now I need to get my stuff.”

After that conversation, Emma took out a sleeping bag. It was pink with white stars. She laid it out in front of the TV. Then she went to her room and took out “How to get rid of annoying creatures.” Then Kayla came into the room. Emma instantly slammed the book down on the wooden floor.

“Hi, I put down my sleeping bag in the living room next to yours. Um, what’s that green thing on the floor?”

“Hi. That’s just a book. Why?”

“Let me get a look at the title. ‘How to get rid of annoying creatures.’ You’re not telling me you read this book? Also, why did you choose the green cover? I thought you would choose the pink. Or even white. Not green. I mean, it’s a nice color, but it was never your taste. Anyway, don’t you think this book is stereotypical?”

“Um, it only had green left. Plus, my room is pink enough.”

“But why did you get this book? It includes some of the cutest things ever. Look, sea dragons. Wait a minute, you bookmarked this page.”

“So?”

“So, you have been reading it.”

“So?”

“So, you agree with it.”

“Honestly, I do kind of think that they’re annoying. I mean, they always ask for stuff.”

“Fine. Let’s agree to disagree. But they are kind of cute in that way. Plus, they share whatever you give them.”

“Now that I think of it, they are kind of cute. Come on, let’s go get a snack. Glimmer chips? This time I did get them in pink.”

The girls giggled. As they walked to the kitchen, they passed their sleeping bags. The sleeping bags reflected their differences. Kayla’s was blue with a green dragon wrapped around it, while Emma’s was just pink with white stars, as most of her possessions were either pink, white, or both. Her only non-pink-or-white thing was “How to get rid of annoying creatures.” Kayla, on the other hand, owned anything with a cute animal decorating it. She was especially fond of sea dragons, and she hardly ever forgot about their cuteness. 

“Mmm, these are good,” said Kayla. “Are you sure you got these with your own money? Because they taste expensive.”

“Uh huh,” said Emma, who was sucking the chips, then chewing. Emma’s older brother, Eddie, burst into the house. 

“That is the slowest way to eat chips that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You don’t suck off all the glitter and then chew. You start chewing as soon as it’s in your mouth.”

Emma rolled her eyes.

“I can eat chips however I want, glutton,” she responded. “You don’t burst into the living room and say” (says this in a squeaky voice) “Eat it like this, not that, you have to eat before it rots’ like, that is so rude and nosy. I mean, keep your big fat mouth shut.”

By the time it was Emma and Kayla’s bedtime, the girls got into their sleeping bags and watched a movie. It was about a girl who was riding a sea dragon. Suddenly, Emma changed the channel.

“What was that all about?” asked Kayla. “We just started that one. We didn’t even get to the green ice cream part.”

  “Um, let’s watch The Sound of Music.”

“Sure, but why don’t you like this movie? Do you still hate sea dragons?”

“No, but I still find them annoying.”

“They’re nice though. They share whatever you give them with all their friends. I find it sweet.”

 “I guess I kind of like them. But I prefer nuns and children, thank you very much.”

“Okay, let’s watch The Sound of Music.”

“Sounds good. Remember the line of kids?”

“Hey by the way, did you see those adorable water alicorns?”

The End

On Monday morning, Edward the snobby lobster lost his memory but he didn’t lose all of his memory. For example: he remembered his name and he knew how to talk. 

Suddenly, Edward felt hungry, but he didn’t know it, so he started wandering around in a huge, dark, black room with a small machine. But because he had lost his memory just a minute ago, he didn’t care.

He wandered around the room trying to find a door or a way out. After five minutes, he finally found a window that led outside to an open grass field. There was a little dirt road. Edward followed that road and ended up by a convenience store. He tried opening the door, but it was locked and the lights were out. He looked around, trying to find another way in.

Eventually, after five times circling the convenience store, he broke down the door by breaking it with his sharp claws. He crawled up a shelf, grabbed a bag of Cheetos, and started smacking his face into it because he didn’t remember how to eat. The bag broke and he started chewing the Cheetos. When he was done, his face looked like a giant orange. 

All of a sudden, someone walked in, studied the door, looked Edward right in the face, grabbed a broom, and ran at him. Edward climbed up a ladder that led to the roof, jumped on the guy, and started cutting his hair to the point that the guy was bald. Then, Edward ran out the door without him even knowing. 

Suddenly his friend, Luke, came out of the ocean and said, “Hey Edward, long time no see! How are you doing?”

Edward stopped, stuttered and said, “Who are you?”

Luke said, “You know who I am, stop playing around!”

Edward slapped Luke in the face. 

And then, Edward said, “I’m not playing around.” 

Luke shouted, “Hey! Why did you slap me?” Luke slapped Edward back and Edward slapped Luke, and that went back and forth for about two months.

Two months later…

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” shouted Luke as he jumped into the ocean. “It burns!” complained Luke. “WHY, EDWARD, WHY!” But Edward just ignored him and went on his way. 

Five days later… 

Edward’s face was still red and bulging with pain as he walked down the road heading towards Azweiture city. Edward was crawling to Azweiture city when the ground started to shake and a huge black and silver circle rolled past him and hit him with a wave of air. Another black and silver circle rolled past; Edward looked behind him and saw two big white lights speeding towards him. He crouched down and when it was right over him, he grabbed a bit of metal and pinched as hard as he could. Edward climbed on top of the beast, broke the glass, climbed in, and buckled his seatbelt. 

Ten minutes later, the driver got out of the beast and screamed when he saw Edward. He pulled out a thin brick with a screen on it and hit three numbers, 9-1-1, and hit a button that said “call” on it. One minute later, animal control came and tried to grab him, but Edward cut all their hair off. Everyone was too busy crying and feeling their head to notice the oversized lobster crawling away into the darkness.

Thirty minutes later, Edward had walked all 328 miles of Azweiture city and broke into house 229 Tin Street. He dug a hole in the ground and up into the Romanus’ house. In the house, Edward saw flashing lights coming from a big room. The light hurt his eyes and he didn’t like it at all. He scampered in and saw it. The source of all of that light was from a small penguin, but its belly had a rectangular blinding light. He climbed up the wall and onto the ceiling. He left little dents in the wall as he walked. Finally, he jumped down behind the penguin and cut everything he saw, even the wall. The penguin’s belly turned black. Then, Edward heard a “What?” from a fat guy with a brown bottle in his hand. He walked up to the penguin and tapped its belly. He looked behind and when he saw Edward, he ran.

Three seconds later he came back, but instead of a brown bottle in his hand, he had a big metal tube and a red strap on his head. Edward jumped on the metal tube and onto the man’s belly. He climbed up to cut all of the man’s head but when Edward got to the top of the man’s head, he found out he had none. The man grabbed Edward and threw him out the window and onto the street. Edward ran up to a woman with a big purple square on her back. He jumped on and squirmed into a small dark cramped chamber.

Five minutes later, the woman dropped the square and shrieked when she opened it. A man came running over and grabbed Edward. Edward pinched him and he yelled something that Edward couldn’t make out. Thirty seconds later, two men ran in with a small metal bar. Edward knew it was dangerous and pinched a triangle on one man’s face and and on the other man’s face. One man dropped his bar and ran away. Edward crawled over and pulled a small, thin metal piece with his leg, which was attached to the bigger piece. A metal ball shot out of the bar and hit a girl in the leg. Red stuff spewed out of where the metal ball hit her and she fell to the floor. Edward heard sirens and he saw red and blue lights shining through the glass walls.

Six men rushed in and saw Edward standing by the metal bar and the injured girl. They pointed their medal bars at Edward and they pulled the little trigger. A small metal ball came right at him. He jumped over the ball and rushed for cover. One man ran away and came back with a stretchy brown circle. The man ran toward Edward and tied the stretchy brown circle around his claws and put him in a cage. The cage was brought to a big beast with a big metal square behind it. The man put Edward in the big square and shut the two big metal plates behind him. He was trapped!

To be continued…

Arstina was an evil doll. She had long since escaped the nursery and now roamed the underworld where she lived looking for something. She didn’t know what it was. Her hair was rough and knotted. Her eyes had splotches of paint on them. Her crippled body was stained with all sorts of things. Suddenly one day she knew what it meant.

She felt the rough spot on her stomach. She rubbed it, and it came off in flakes. She bent down and licked it off the hot floor of the underworld. Ice cream. In that moment, Arstina felt something odd. Desire. She longed for another taste. Sadly, though, that would be hard. 

There was no ice cream in the underworld. The shadow king ruled it all. And he did not give out sugary treats. He was very greedy. Arstina decided to beg the shadow king. Maybe he would show compassion.

She walked over to his palace. She rapped on the tall, black door. A guard answered. Arstina explained why she was there. The guard growled something and went to get the shadow king. Arstina hoped he would listen.

Soon, two guards came out. They both grabbed one of her arms and carried her in.

“What’s happening?” Arstina asked.

“The king is not pleased with you,” one guard responded in a gruff voice. “He thinks you are inconsiderate, horrible, lazy, annoying, and an overall nuisance. He wishes to kill you.”

Arstina gulped. Then she snapped back into reality. She started to yell at the guards.

“You are horrible people, and you should let me go! All I wanted was some ice cream!” Four words into her sentence, though, one guard stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth.

Six minutes later, she arrived in a courtyard out back. There was a big pile of wood in the middle. The shadow king walked up to Arstina and smiled. 

He said, “Hello, Arstina. I expect we’ll have some fun together. Simply jump on that pile of wood and allow us to tie you up.”

Arstina gulped and decided against it. The shadow king was holding a bunch of matches.

“Do you not want to?” Pause. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.” Another pause. Arstina still stood firm. “All right, the hard way.”

The shadow king grabbed a rope and tied her up before she could respond. Then he forced her to march to the wood pile. He then tied her down. The shadow king struck a match and smiled devilishly. He gingerly placed it on the pile and then stopped for a second to watch Arstina burst into flames.

She cried out in pain. “I just wanted some ice cream!”

The king paused for a moment, as if he was thinking of something. Then he ran into the castle to get something.

The last thing Arstina ever saw was the shadow king laughing maniacally as he licked an ice cream cone. 

Chapter One    

Once there was a girl named Emilly. Her sister’s name was Julie. And they always played. They had nicknames for each other but they were never that mean. One day, Emilly and Julie had a big fight. Emilly had a very mean, mean name to call her little sister Julie. It was “Stinkbreath.” Julie’s name for Emilly was “Meanie.” They kept on calling each other that and they never stopped the fight until their mom came home.

The mom said, “Why is this place is a mess?”

They both said at the same time, “She did it!”

The mom said, “Well, you two are grounded for a whole week! You’re going to pick up all this stuff and clean it up, and tidy my room AND yours. And your dad’s room.”

And then their dad came home. “What is this whole big mess?”

They both said at the same time, “She did it!”

Their dad made another punishment. “You two both have to do ten chores a week until September! Every day I’ll write you a list.”

They both said, We’re sorry,” and got to work. They didn’t have much time to go to school but their mom said, “I want this place tidied up by the time that I get home tomorrow.”

The mom picked up Julie’s stuffed bunny and said “Throw this in the garbage.”

Julie said, “No! That’s my only stuffed bunny!”

“Then why did I find this whole stack of stuffed bunnies in your candy jar?”

She said, “Ummmm….” She was speechless!

Her mom said, “Now! And you can save one if you want, but I want you to throw all of the rest out.”

Julie did as she was told, but secretly she kept all her bunnies in another place… in her lollipop drawer!

Her mom said, “I found these in your lollipop drawer! You’re grounded til November!”

Julie said, “Do you have anything for me to do?”

“No, what did you ever do?”

“Really? Thanks, you guys.” 

“Julie was the one who started the fight, not me,” said Emilly.

The parents believed this, so they called “Julie! Stop watching a show, give the phone to Emilly and start doing this now! No more discussions, now! Go to your room and pack. I’m sending you to your friend’s home to tell her about what you’ve done. Just this once. But I’m not going to pack for you this time.”

“Oh my god. Seriously? I really really have to get to work. Can you please pack for me?”

“Fine. Only because you’re doing work.”

By the time mom was finished, Julie was finished with everything. But secretly, she put it all in the backyard. 

Her dad said, “You cleaned up very quickly! I’m going to go and get my car from the backyard.”

“Julie!! I have a surprise for you!” said Dad.

“What is it?”

“The smashing robot that I made out of all of your very cool and fun things.”

“Dad!! I didn’t think that you’d be so mad at me! I thought only Mom would be, cuz you’re nicer than mom!”

“I am? I mean, yes, I am. Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll take all of the stuff out.”

She cleaned up very quickly, but this time, she actually did it. Julie was a very quick cleaner, so she finished, and her dad took her for a ride. 

“When you said that I was nicer than your mom, I’m going to take you for a little ride, just for fun. But it’s going to be a short ride and it’s going to go very quickly. This is where I go when I pretend to ride my bike. I go to this tractor, and nobody is here right now because it is night time. This is my real work. I used to work in a gas station, so everyone is feeling bad for me. But I’m a racecar driver now, so I get paid a lot of money!”

“You should tell that to the whole family.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Chapter Two

When they reached the tractor, Julie said, “This is the coolest thing ever! I wish Emilly was here!” 

“Well, I don’t really want to bring Emilly. She knows how to drive a car, soo… and then your mom will be the only person who doesn’t know what my job is. So I don’t really want to tell her that I have this. You have to keep my secret though. If you don’t, you’re going to get a humongous punishment,” said their dad.

“Sometimes, I tell Emilly some of my secrets, and she tells me some of hers, and we both keep them secret.”

“Emilly tells me all of your secrets.”

“What!! That’s so mean, I kept all of hers in!”

“That’s so mean.”

“Well, not really, you told me all of yours, too. I told Emilly I read your diary.”

“Emilly didn’t tell me! I don’t want you to drop me off. Emilly actually taught me how to drive a car, so hop on, I’m going to take you back home and tell mom that I want her to drive me.”

Then dad says, “Whee! Emilly sure knows how to drive.”

“I’m not Emilly.”

“I know, but I’m just saying that Emilly really knows how to drive.”

“But I’m better than her, right?”

“Ummm… no.”

“Now I especially don’t want you take me. You’re being very un-good at parenting right now. But Mom is nicer, and you are not nicer than mom! You are the meanest dad in the whole entire world!”

“Well then why did I pack you rice krispies for all of this?”

“You did?”

“Well, not anymore.”

“Uh oh, let’s go back to the tractor. I’ll drive.”

So then dad says, “Who’s nicer now, me or Mom?”

“Ummm… you.”

“Really? Am I actually, or are you pretending?”

“No, you are, actually, for real! Now can I have the rice krispies?”

“No, you get to share your rice krispies with your friends. Let’s go there. Mom’s probably wondering where you are and probably so is my friend.”

Chapter Three

They finally reached Coco’s house. 

“Coco! I’m so happy to see you!”

“Me too,” said Coco. 

Julie said, “I’m starving! I should have ate them before?”

“What?”

“The yummy yummy dumplings. At least I have some in my bag.”

“Julie? You have dumplings in your bag?”

“No.”

“Let me check your bag.”

“Oh, no dumplings.”

“Bye, dad!”

“Bye! Hope you have a good time!” 

At the sleepover, Julie’s like, “So, I started a fight with my sister Emilly, and I lied to my parents about not starting the fight, but then Emilly told them and they believed Emilly, and then I told the truth, and then they felt bad for me so they told me that I could come to your house just for one time. And she said it like this: just for ONCE! And I was like ahh, and then I said, okay, deal.”

They had lots of yummy rice krispies and the yummy yummy dumplings, which Julie hid in her bag, and they slept. 

Her dad was there to pick her up.

“Dad, can we go to your tractor, please?”

“Okay, we can go to the tractor. But just this once. And I mean just this once!”

“Okay. Yippee! Bye, Coco!” She gave Coco a big hug.

Coco gave Julie a big hug too. “Woohee!”

Chapter Four

They went to the tractor. They finally got there. “Whee! This is so much fun,” said Julie. And then they left. “Already, dad? Please can we get just one more?”

“Okay, but just one more.”

“Wheee! This is so much fun,” said Julie. 

Then they left. “Emilly, it was so much fun at the tractor!”

“What tractor?”

“Dad’s job tractor!”

“Julie!” said the Dad. “I told you not to tell them!”

“Tell us what?”

“Julie, stop. Be quiet and get to your chores. Otherwise you’re never going to go there again.”

“Okay, I’m just going to talk to her for one second.”

“Julie, you cannot do that ever again. It’s so, so, so bad. And then they’re going to know what my job is.”

“Why don’t you tell them what your job is?”

“Because your mom hates racecar drivers. The only one she likes is Derek.” And Derek is the dad’s name. “And I am Derek, the one that she likes.”

“Then why don’t you tell her?”

“I suppose so.”

Then they came out.

“Dad has something to say!” said Julie.

“What is it, Dad?” said Emilly.

“Go on, dad, tell them!”

“Ummmm… I sort of have a new job that’s a racecar driver and I’m Derek the driver!”

“You are? Is that why when you go the bathroom when we all see racecar drivers and you are Derek?”

“Yes.”

“Well now we know, so you can always get prepared earlier. Why wouldn’t you tell us that before?”

“Well… so I took Julie to the tractor and we raced so much and it was so much fun, because Emilly taught Julie how to drive a car. So we raced and raced and raced, and then we left. Julie was like really? Do we have to leave already? And I was having so much fun so I said maybe not already, and then I probably should not have taken the grounded girl to the tractor, but I really wanted to go there myself, and I didn’t want to get in trouble by anybody, so I always had to keep it secret.”

“Emilly knows about this!”

“Dad! You lied to me?”

“Maybe sorta kinda…” Then her dad said, “Yes.”

“But Emilly and you would have kept it a secret, but then I had to tell the whole family. And now I’m happy that I told the whole family.”

The mom made the decision that “You both do not have to be grounded. Your dad and I will clean all of this up.”

“We’ll help! Do we have to do the chores until November?”

“No!”

“Yay!! Let’s get to cleaning!”

The End. 

1. Dolls
2. Cars
3. Legos
4. Pizza
5. Fish
6. Meat
7. Ice cream
8. Chocolate
9. Art
10. Ice cream cone

Bep-Bop wants all of these things on the list above because if he doesn’t get them, he might die from starvation and be bored for the rest of his short life.

He goes to the mall called Dean’s Mall and buys the things on the list above. 

There is a problem though: the mall is crowded with people, so it is hard to find the store that he needs to go to to get the things on the list above.

 He finds his way to the store that has everything he needs, apparently. It is called Dean’s Happy Store. The name means, everything you need to buy is in this store. So, he gets the things he needs, and then another problem happens. It is still crowded! So, he needs to find his way to the register.

He finally pays for the stuff, and then he gets distracted by another store that has games for the Switch that he had bought for another time. He tries to resist it, but he can’t. He gets one game, at least one, and it is called Super Mario Maker 2 + Online.

Then, he gets to his car. This time it is not crowded. Then, he drives home and has a happy day.

“Carter! The school bus is here!”

“Coming!” I shouted.

“Don’t forget to bring your lunch bag!”

“Yeah, I know, whatever.”

I rushed to the bus just in time to see the fat bus driver wave his chubby, fat hand goodbye. Carrying my lunch bag, I trudged along the path to go to school. I was half a subject late just because the bus driver drove off without picking me up!

Fast forward, and we’re in my classroom after staying an eternity in the principal’s office to explain why I was late, which delayed even more of my time. When I entered my classroom, everyone looked at me, and half of them stared straight at my lunch. I looked down and saw water leaking through the paper bag. Like seriously, why do parents give their own child’s lunch in a paper bag?! No? Only me? Okay then, I guess only my parents are harassing their child even though I don’t even know what that word means or does, but it sounds like “spilling.”

Anyways, I sat down in my seat, and when I put my lunch down next to me, it went plofltp! My classmate made a disgusted face at me and quickly whipped her cube head back to the teacher and snickered under her putrid breath.

Fast forward again, and I finally made it to lunch with just a soggy sandwich. Long story short, everything else fell out. We went to the lunchroom, and I sat down with my only friend, Andy, who people also made fun of for being really short. 

Andy and I first became friends in first grade. One day at recess, Andy was being bullied by the school bully, Barter. I walked over and told Barter to stop.

He said, “No!”

Then he started kicking my leg and I fell over.

Then the teacher came over and said, “What’s going on?” 

Barter lied and said, “He tried to kick me.”

“But he’s on the ground,” the teacher replied. Then the teacher said, “Come with me, you’re going to the principal’s office.”

Then Barter started bawling, and Andy and I became friends at that moment. 

Every time Andy had even a little problem, Barter would come over and bully him for no reason at all and I thought, Please don’t bully me because my lunch is gone. Then, Barter came over and started bullying me. Barter snatched the lunch away.

Then, he realized the bag was wet and soggy, and he was like, “Ew, what did you do?” And he threw the lunch bag across the lunchroom, and it landed on a teacher’s foot.

The teacher hobbled over and shouted at Barter, “What happened here?”

I started to say, “He threw my lunch across… ”

And then Barter interrupted me and said, “He threw the lunch across the room, and it landed on you.”

And then the teacher said, “That doesn’t sound like a thing Carter would do.” 

Then Barter ran out of the lunchroom.

I whispered to Andy, “What’s up with him?” 

A classmate walked over and whispered in my ear, “How’s your lunch?” 

I bit my tongue to prevent the words I hate you! from coming out. So instead, I said, “Go away.” 

“No!”

“I am going to stay right here and watch you eat your lunch of air with a side of air and air for a drink!” She walked away, sneering and snickering to her friends. By the way, like half the class was her friend and the other half wanted to be her friend.

Andy said, “Why is it always us that gets bullied?!”

“Well… for one you are quite short for your age, no offense, and I am just bullied for my downsides.”

“I am talking to myself,” Andy replied.

The teacher came over and said, “I’m sorry for all the trouble about Barter and Victoria.”

Victoria was the second bully that came over to bully us. She was never nice to anyone except to her friends who actually didn’t support her bullying, but kept it a secret. Don’t ask me how I know, like please don’t. So now school just ended, and guess what?! I missed the bus to drive the students back home! That fat bus driver!

When I got home, I told my mom about the absolutely horrid day I had in school with my lunch bag.

“Call the principal, now!”

“I will… tomorrow…” Mom replied.

“What?! Why not right now?!”

“Ohhh… alright, I will call them in a second.”

(She started casually phone calling some stranger, while tapping random numbers.)

“Ahem? Where’d the call go?¨

“Didn’t you hear the phone? I just called them.”

“You cannot fool me, Mom. I know you were just tapping numbers and calling a random person.” Then I put on my I am disappointed at you for not calling my principal because two bullies bullied me because of my lunch on a Friday face.

I bet you’re out of breath from reading that, right? Well, to make it easier for you, it was my pouting face.

“Well, maybe you should change schools then,” Mom shot back at me.

“This was all my lunch’s fault because water started leaking from the bag. If it was Victoria, everyone in the class would go and help her in any way possible and would give her unnecessary amounts of towels. See how hard my life is?”

The very next day… 

We were driving to somewhere I wasn’t familiar with, and usually at this time we’d be pulling up to the school’s parking lot.

I asked my mom, “Where are we going?”

“To your new school…”

THE END

I run around in my backyard, playing a fun game called Red Light, Green Light. I am playing with my four best friends: Morgan, Miranda, Miriam, Mira, and me, Madison. 

“Caught you!” Miranda shouts in glee at me as I wobble over. Suddenly, I fall to the ground, clutching my side. It feels like a side stitch, just worse; a million times worse. I scream in agony and I can barely stand up. 

After staying there for a while, the pain finally begins to subside and I slowly get up. My tear-streaked face looks around. All of my friends are staring at me oddly. Finally, Miriam takes me by my arm back into my house. Then, all my friends leave. 

My mother knows that something is wrong with me. However, she doesn’t know what. She thinks that I’ll be alright, I probably just got a cramp. She was wrong, and not doing anything was the biggest mistake she has ever made. 

The next day is my 14th birthday. Little do I know that it is my last. The pain gets so bad that we go to the hospital, but the doctors can’t find out what is wrong with me. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I keep getting sudden pains all over my body. Once, my heart stops beating. Luckily, there is a nurse in the room and she rushes for help. 

Everyone comes into my hospital room to give me get-well cards and presents. They know that I will be alright. After all, I am only an eighth grader, I’m not going to die or anything. They are horribly wrong. The pains get worse and I begin having a hard time breathing. The doctors put an oxygen mask over me while I sleep or else I might suffocate. 

The next day, things start getting out of control. I wake up in excruciating pain. There are doctors and nurses shouting “Code blue in 4-8.” 

I already know that my room is 4-8. I wish that someone would take me out of this misery. There are sirens going off of my heart monitor and all the other fancy machines around my bed. Soon, those sirens began to fade away. I know what this means. When the sirens fade away, I fade away too. My whole body is in agony, every muscle tense and screaming. I want to curl up into a tiny ball and melt into a puddle on my bed. 

I see a helpless doctor that is standing right next to my bed. He doesn’t know what to do and is staring at me as I slowly die. I let out a strangled gasp and that is my last breath. I close my eyes, see a bright flash, and leave this world.

***

It is a dark and stormy day when I see Courtney Quinn walking down the sidewalk. I jump back in surprise, for she died three years ago from cancer! Then, I realize that it is probably Miriam Quinn, her daughter, and also one of my best friends. She is walking around in the rain without an umbrella or a care that I am staring at her. I get a closer look and know, this can not be Miriam. She is way too old and looks exactly like Courtney did before she died, even with the same exact clothes on. 

I turn around and I don’t know where I am. It looks like a hotel, or a very fancy apartment. The room is very decorated and doesn’t look like anything that I have ever seen before. I search through my memory, looking for some kind of information that would tell me how I got in this mysterious place. However, I draw a blank. I can’t seem to remember anything except the fact that I belong here. Still, I know I remember some things because I remember Courtney and Miriam.

I wander out of my room and spot someone else in the hallway. There is someone that has their head down, slowly counting some kind of currency. When that person lifts his head, I see his face. It is my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather had died before I was born, but the pictures that we had were a spitting image of the man in front of me right now. 

I am starting to get freaked out. I see a group of girls pass by me who look suspiciously like the group of girls in the newspaper that had died in a forest fire. 

I don’t know where I am, and I am starting to get creeped out by the fact that there are a bunch of people walking around that are supposed to be dead. 

Everyone in town has an odd look about them. Some people are wearing very old-fashioned clothes, clothes that I have never seen someone wear before. There are girls and women wearing really uncomfortable-looking dresses, very old-fashioned dresses. Others are wearing headdresses made of feathers. Then, realization hits me. Those girls and women wearing those dresses are from a long time ago, from the pioneer times! And those people wearing headdresses. Those are probably Native American chiefs. How are they still alive, and what are they doing here?

I am so confused, and I don’t even know how I got here! No one even talks here! Over half of this town looks like they are going to a costume party! I open my mouth to say something, anything to myself. 

Hello, I mouth to myself. I want to scream, and I probably would if I could make any sound. I am like everyone else! I can’t talk! I feel so confined, so limited and it makes me feel claustrophobic in some kind of weird way. And then, that’s when I figure it all out. Why I am here, how I came here, and what all these people are doing here: I am dead, just like the rest of the people around me. And my room…

I lean outside to confirm my suspicions. On the exterior wall, there it says, 

M.L.M 

R.I.P

My room is a gravestone. This place is a graveyard. And I will never be able to escape. 

As I figure this out, bits and pieces of my past return. I see myself leaning over on the ground, holding my side. Then, I see it. Nurses calling “code blue,” then me. Myself dying. My sight is blurred by tears and I wipe away the tears. I never got to say goodbye to my parents. Not to my friends. Now, I am stuck in this wretched place where only dead people are. I want to go back. I want to return back home. 

I realize that I can leave my grave and go out on the street. When I do, I look down and realize that I can see down on Earth! I see people at a funeral and realize it is my funeral! I spot Morgan, Miriam, Miranda, and Mira huddled together with tears streaking across their face. Then, I see my parents crying together. I wish that I could go down into my funeral and comfort them. I wonder if I can! 

In this place, life is not fun. In this place, life is a void of emptiness and nothingness.  There is nothing fun to do here. My theory behind this reasoning is that most people that go to the graveyard are very old. Many people all over the world die from old age and infirmity. Usually, people that die from sickness are older as well, around my parents’ age. However, there aren’t many children in this place. In fact, I haven’t seen a single person my age. 

When I go to the graveyard manager, I write down a question for him.

How do I go back to Earth and get my life back?

“One second,” the manager says while flipping through a book. It feels relieving to hear at least one person talk in this silent and horrible world. “Here, found it! You must find the Flower of Cator and crush it along with some Amberse Water. Then, you must spread the poultice on your head and temples to rejuvenate the life there in your brain, for it is believed that your soul is actually in your brain. The only thing that I can help you with is this.” And with that, the manager leaves, leaving only a glass vial and a piece of paper behind. 

I pick up the vial, wondering what it is. Then, I realize that it contains that Amberse Water, which I needed to mix with the Flower of Cator! Then, I pick up the paper and see that they are directions on how to find the Flower of Cator. I read the first instruction. 

1. Find the Master of Meditation. After doing this, ask him for help finding what you seek. No one has succeeded in doing this before, so the rest of the instructions are unknown.

Okay, so I know that I need to find this ‘Master of Meditation’ person. I see an old man that is sitting down with his legs crossed and arms in front of him. He is meditating. He will probably know how to find this Master of Meditation person. I walk up to him and show him the paper and Amberse Water. 

“You are looking for the Flower of Cator?” the man rumbles. I jump back in surprise, both because of the fact that he can talk and also that he already knows what I need. The man taps me on the throat and I fight the urge to run away. What is this creep doing? Then, I realize. This man is the Master of Meditation. “Speak!” the man announces. I look at him oddly. After all, shouldn’t he know that I can’t talk?

I clear my throat and attempt anyway. “H-hello?” I mutter under my breath. “Hello!” I exclaim in excitement. “My voice! It’s back!”

“Wow, I totally couldn’t tell,” the Master of Meditation groans. “Call me Mac. That was my name before…” his voice trails off. I decide not to question him because it’s obvious he doesn’t want to talk about it. “Now, you seem to be pretty confident about this Flower of Cator.”

“Yes,” I agree. “I really need to find this Flower so that I can get my life back and return back to Earth. I really miss my family and friends.”

“Well, I don’t think I can help you with that,” the man says to me, beginning to leave. 

“Wait! Please! I’ll do anything!” I plead to the man.

“Anything,” the man says with a smile beginning to creep up on his face. “You say? Well, then, I will help you. However, you must do everything I ask of you.”

By now, I am so desperate to get back to Earth, I accept. If I don’t get back to Earth, I’ll be stuck in this place forever! I don’t think I can survive with so much boredom in this place! We agree to meet at Dead Man Hill the next day. 

When I wake up the next day, I stretch and get ready to head for Dead Man Hill. When I get there, I see Mac already standing there underneath the hill. He seems impatient and irritated that I am late, but we never even had a certain meeting time. He just said, morning. Technically, if he is annoyed that I am so “late”, he is to blame for not telling me when we were going to meet up. After all, he was pretty vague on the time for meeting.

“Finally, you’ve come here,” Mac grumbles softly. “And don’t talk too loudly. After all, we don’t want those old grumps to be suspicious at you.”

I want to tell him that he has no right to call those old people old grumps because he is one himself, but I bite my tongue. I don’t want to annoy Mac because he is the only chance of me ever returning back to Earth with my family and friends! 

Mac has a lot of drills for me to do, and they are all puzzles. Puzzles to test my logical ability and other things like that. Here is one of my puzzles:

If

34+5=36

56+2=39

27+6=45

47+5=48

28+1=33

then

41+5=?

I don’t understand what help this will be to me. All I need is directions that lead to the Flower of Cator. However, I don’t want to question his way of thinking. 

After all of those puzzles, Mac makes me do all of his housework. He makes me mow his lawn and do his laundry. After I finish cleaning two extremely large windows, I realize now I’ve been bamboozled. 

“You’re not really the Master of Meditation, are you?” I accuse to Mac.

He shrugs. “I never said I was,” he replies. “You always just assumed it. Anyway, I got a lot of good things out of this. Thanks Mad.”

And I am very mad. Just like my nickname. In fact, I am furious. I storm out of Mac’s house, making a point to spill dirty water all over his floor and windows, then toss the dirty sponge and towel at his chest. 

I can’t believe that he tricked me into believing that he was actually the Master of Meditation. I was so stupid. 

The next day, I set out to look for the real Master of Meditation. And then, I realize something. How did Mac return my voice if he wasn’t the real Master of Meditation. It hits me like a car. The real Mac was at the place two days ago. However, yesterday, the real Mac didn’t show up. Meaning Mac was probably locked somewhere, or was taken somewhere! I have to find him, now! 

I head to the place where I first met Mac, in the lobby of my graveyard apartment. I don’t see anyone there, but I suddenly hear some muffled screams. I hear them coming from the janitor’s closet, so I rush over there. 

The door is locked. Luckily, I have a bobby pin with me because I need to hold back my long hair while playing soccer. I quickly pick the lock and open the door. I see Mac in there all tied up with a gag over his mouth. 

“Mac!” I cry out in horror. I quickly untie the ropes that are holding him back. 

“Uh oh,” Mac mutters. “Look behind you.”

I slowly turn around and see that every single person in the lobby is staring at me with disbelief as if I had grown another arm. Then, I realize why they are staring at me! I cried out ‘Mac’ really loudly and other people must have heard me. I want to run away but my legs aren’t functioning properly right now. 

The crowd closes in on us. It’s like a zombie apocalypse is attacking us, millions of people. Finally, my instincts return and I grab Mac’s arm and we run out of the building. 

“Are you crazy?” Mac asks me. “What are you thinking, talking that loud in front of all those people out there!” 

“I’m sorry, okay?” I retort. “I’m still trying to get used to the fact that I can’t speak with freedom.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that you found me. I thought I was going to suffocate if I had to stay there any longer. Luckily, oxygen was coming through the bottom of the door. I’m very claustrophobic, you know. What took you so long?” Mac rapidly asks. I am so annoyed. 

“You’re lucky I even came to save you. Instead of complaining, you might want to thank me for saving your butt right there!” I yell at Mac. 

“Geez, I’m sorry,” Mac mutters. 

We head off in silence. We can’t hear the crowd of people anymore, but we couldn’t hear them in the first place anyway. After we travel a long way, Mac stops me to talk. 

“Look, it’s time that I tell you how you’re going to get the Flower of Cator,” Mac tells me. “I can’t come with you because if I come in a one-mile radius of the flower, you and I will get trapped forever. This flower is very heavily guarded. There are only two. There used to be three, but I took one of them. The reason why I’m not on Earth is because I only had time to put a little on my head before they caught me. Don’t ask me who they are. There is a certain scent that will knock out the guards. You must carefully pluck the flower with its roots as well, for it must thrive or it will disintegrate if it dies.”

I process all the information that I have learned. Then I ask a question to Mac. “Where will I get this scent from?”

“I have it,” Mac takes it out of a heavily padded container. Then, he takes out two sets of nose plugs. “Here, open it after putting on the nose plugs.”

I open the container and I can smell it, even through the nose plugs! It smells horrible! I feel like I’m going to hurl. If it weren’t for the nose plugs, I probably would have passed out from the smell. I quickly close the container. Then, I reach to pull out my nose plugs, but Mac stops me. 

“Don’t,” he warns me. “The smell stills lingers for a couple hours. Leave them in until we go to bed.”

It is a couple hours ‘til it was time for me to sleep, so I decided that decision to be wise. We head over the hill and soon, the sun sets. I can see a faint blue glow very far in the distance. 

“That’s the natural glow of the Flower of Cator,” Mac explains after seeing me looking. “When the glow begins to fade, the flower is dying. This species of flowers used to be invasive, but soon, they began to die out. Rangers tried to destroy these flowers with acid and poison but it didn’t work. In the end, they destroyed it with fire. However, the chemicals from the acid and poison caused the flowers to become supernatural. They got a blue glow to it and possessed supernatural healing and rejuvenating powers.”

We set up camp and I remove my nose plugs. I can just barely smell the scent of the liquid in the vial. 

“It’s Aceart Water,” Mac explains to me. “It’s sucked from the Aceart plant.”

I nod in interest. This world turns out to be a lot more interesting than I thought it would have been when I had first died. 

The next morning, Mac tells me his whole story. Mac isn’t dead; he is very different from everyone else in this world. In fact, Mac is in the real world right now, but he’s also in this world. The reason is that Mac got into a really bad accident and he fell into a coma. When he fell into a coma, the doctors tried really hard to wake him from that coma. However, for the past nine years, Mac had never woken from his coma. Mac came very close to death many different times. Because of this, he became a part of this world. However, Mac says that he is kind of in between this world and the world where he is in a coma. 

The reason why Mac has the ability to return my voice and do many other things is because he messed up. Mac wanted to return back to the regular world, all rejuvenated, but he failed to do so. Like me, he attempted to get the Flower of Cator. He did get the flower, but he didn’t get Amberse Water. Mac thought that it was Amberse Water, but it was more of a copycat, a type of liquid that would give supernatural powers. This was called Ravenkint water. He spread the poultice over his head and temple, but only had enough time to use a little bit of it before he was caught. Mac only got small bits of abilities, but he used them to his advantage. Unfortunately, due to this mishap, being caught anywhere close to the Flower of Cator will be big trouble for Mac if anyone finds out. 

After he tells me the story, we begin traveling once again. I can tell that we are close to the flower; I can feel it. It is like a sixth sense to me. After long, hard traveling, we finally reach the botanical garden where the two flowers are being kept. 

“I’ll be waiting for you,” Mac tells me. “Blow this if you need help, and make sure to use that Aceart Water,” and hands me a whistle. It kind of looks like a dog whistle, and I wonder if it works like one too. I decide not to attempt blowing into it unless I got into a lot of trouble. 

Mac slips away and I slowly creep towards the flower. At the last second before I enter the building, I remember to put on my nose plugs. I rummage through my bag for the nose plugs, but I can’t find them! I realize that I must have left them with Mac! Uh oh! I’m in big trouble now. What am I going to do without the nose plugs! Suddenly, I spot some really nasty smelling plant. I form a plan in my head. 

I walk towards the group of guards surrounding the plant with those smelly plants stuffed up my nose. I must look really weird with those plants up my nose because one of the guards stare at me as if I’m mentally ill. Before any of the guards get the chance to ask me something, I open the vial of Aceart Water and one by one, the guards topple over like dominos. 

After they are on the floor, I reach over to pick one of the flowers. There are two, one seeming younger than the other. I pick the older one and quickly flee the place. 

Outside, Mac is waiting for me. “Did you get it?” he whisper-shouts. 

“Yes,” I reply. I am about to take the Amberse Water out of my backpack when suddenly Mac reaches for the flower. My reflexes kick in and I jerk the flower away from the reaching hands of Mac. “What are you doing?” I demand. 

“Madison, you are such a gullible child,” Mac laughs. “Don’t you know that I tricked you? That I wasn’t actually helping you?” All the pieces come together. Of course! Mac had played me. He just tricked me. He needed the flower to heal himself! 

“So all my hard work was for nothing!” I shout at Mac. I am livid. 

“Of course not!” Mac protests. “I need you to do all the manual work and get the flower for me, for I couldn’t get it myself after the last mishap.”

I am furious at Mac for tricking me, and myself for falling for it. I run away, trying to escape from Mac. All my hard work had gotten me this flower and Mac hadn’t done a thing! Unfortunately, Mac was unusually speedy for someone his age. However, I knew that Mac would never be strong enough to climb a tree.

I never climbed a tree, not even when I was a little girl. I hated getting dirt on my hands and also, my hands were really soft and it hurt when I even tried to do the monkey bars. Climbing trees was never my type of thing. Although this crisis was just hitting me, I tried to channel my inner monkey and grabbed a branch and began to climb. When I was close to the top, the branch broke and I almost went tumbling down 15 feet, but a stray branch broke my fall and also knocked the wind out of me. 

I was right about Mac being unable to climb the tree. He lingered at the bottom shouting, “You can’t stay up there forever! You’ll come down eventually for the Amberse Water!” However, he didn’t know that I had the Amberse Water in my backpack. 

I slowly pulled it out of my backpack and yelled back at Mac, “I have the Amberse Water right here!” and waved the vial. That was it. That’s all it took to set off Mac with shouts of anger. 

I took out the flower and I remembered that I had to crush it. However, I didn’t have a rock or anything to crush it with, so I knew that I only had one choice. 

I popped the flower in my mouth and began chewing on it. I pleaded that this flower wasn’t poisonous. The Flower of Cator actually had a fruity taste to it! After the poultice seemed pretty chewed up, I spit it out on my hand and poured in some of the Amberse Water. After mixing it together, I spread all of it over my forehead and temple. I even put some on my scalp. 

After this, I could still hear the faint shouting of Mac as my skin began to glow. I was going back home. 

Part One

My name is Chester. I am a cat of high society. I share a home with a human named Angela Lansbury. My life is simple yet exquisite and luxurious. 

Like most cats, I like sticking to a routine. This is my routine:

1. Wake Angela up
2. Meow until Angela feeds me
3. Eat 
4. Let Angela dress me
5. Dress Angela
6. Groom myself
7. Get in the “kitty carrier”
8. Go to tea with Angela

So naturally, I am stressed to death when I hear a knock at the door at approximately 7:13 A.M. just as I am eating my tuna and caviar salad. Angela (still dressed in her bathrobe) shuffles over to the door and cautiously peers through the eyepiece. Then she attempts to open the door. It takes her a minute to get the latch undone, but when she does, a tall, broad, important-looking man flanked by two police officers step into the foyer.

“Officer Lincoln!” exclaims Angela. “What brings you to my penthouse so early in the morning?”

“Official business.” 

“Official business?” she asks, taking a seat on an antique sofa. “What sort of official business would concern me?”

“Your safety of course, Mrs. Lansbury,” he replies in a most casual tone. “Someone, you see, has been targeting renowned Broadway actors and actresses.”

At this, Angela lets out a small shriek. She opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. A moment passes.

In a small, shaky voice she manages to say, “You mean to say, Officer Lincoln, that I am in danger of being assassinated?”

“Yes, I do,” he replies. “I hope you understand, Mrs. Lansbury, but you are not safe here, so you must go into hiding.”

“Hiding?! But who will take care of my darling Chester?” 

“I’m afraid I don’t know the details, just that a caretaker has been arranged and that you must come with us immediately. Your cat will be dropped off with the sitter shortly after we leave.”

A sitter? They’re leaving me with a sitter?

“Can’t I at least meet the sitter?” Angela begs.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we’ve got orders to follow!” says one of the officers who is standing around in the background.

Angela, Officer Lincoln, and I shoot him a look. The officer blushes and trains his small, watery eyes on his shoes. 

“Well,” Angela declares, “I must get packing for wherever it is that you are taking me.” 

“I’m afraid we were given strict instructions to leave your apartment untouched. It would look suspicious to anyone who set foot here if you took many of your things with you,” says Officer Linclon.

So, still dressed in a bathrobe, Angela, the two police officers, and Officer Lincoln ‘discreetly’ leave the building. It’s hard to be discreet when you have a celebrity with you. I climb to the top of the ‘cat castle,’ which actually is a fairly large structure that is carpeted in a soft, furry fabric that smells lovely. Ahh… I think. Unfortunately the smell isn’t enough to distract me from the dark cloud on the horizon in the shape of a cat-sitter. Also, there is the fact that Angela is in potential danger. My stomach knots itself. I am not used to being so nervous right after breakfast. I wonder to myself: what will this sitter be like? Would she even feed me?

 Then, all of a sudden, I hear keys in the lock. Could it be? The new sitter? I curl myself into a tight ball and watch, concealed from my castle, as a tall, thin woman wearing all leather steps inside the room. She opens a large, leather cat carrier and from it emerges a particularly malevolent-seeming pair of leather gloves which she pulls on as she scans the room for me. I hope she will have to check all 21 rooms of the penthouse before finding me. She tosses her blonde hair over her shoulder. I shrink back to the corner of the cat castle, hoping she won’t find me. But then the worst thing happens. I step on a squeaky toy. The sitter whips around, her pale blue eyes fixed on mine. 

“There you are, kitty.” She smiles, and I notice for the first time since I had met her that she has a long scar that runs from one corner of her mouth down to the base of her neck. “You and I are going to have a lot of fun together.” She is grinning now.

Then before I know what is happening, she is aiming what I recognize as a tranquilizer gun from watching soap operas with Angela right at me. The room starts to spin. I take one last glance at the sitter, her icy eyes bear right into mine, and then she is gone. And I am alone.

Part Two

I shiver awake and find myself in a freezing cold room. I long to go out and explore or possibly escape the clutches of the evil cat-sitter who tranquilized me who knows how long ago. As I start to get up, however, my face squishes against what seems to be a metal grate. Of course, I am in a cage. I can’t just expect her to let me walk around doing whatever I feel like. My ears perk up at a noise in the background. It is like lots of glass beads clinking together. The door swings open, and I recognize the police officer who had snapped at Angela earlier, followed by the dreaded evil cat-sitter.

“Where do you want the arsenic, Ms. A?” asks the officer.

Arsenic?! They have arsenic? I knew they were evil, but what do they need arsenic for? They’re not planning to kill anyone, are they?

“Right there is fine, Robert,” replies the cat-sitter, aka Ms. A.

“Well, who’s it going to be tonight, Ms. A?” asks Robert. 

“Lansbury.” My eyes bulge. I can’t believe my ears! “A little bird told me… ” Ms. A continues, “that you know exactly where Angela Lansbury is hiding.” 

“On 128th St in Luke’s Donut Shop,” mumbles the officer.

I gulp. I know saving Angela is entirely up to me. So when Robert comes to feed me some crumbly brown balls, I bite him so hard he lets loose a shriek, and I manage to scamper out of the freezing cold room, which turns out to be a huge refrigerator. I turn a corner into a room filled with tables and chairs, which I instantly recognize as a restaurant. I spot the doorway, which very conveniently has a catflap at the bottom which means this had to be the place Angela liked to go to with me when I was a kitten. Also, I am two blocks away from home! I am not quite sure what I will do what I get there. Whew. I need to stop talking so fast. All this sprinting is getting to me. 

As soon as I get home, I jump on the doorman’s desk, pumped full of adrenaline. Henry, the lonely doorman, would do just about anything for me. I pounce onto his keyboard, and after a series of pokes and prods, I manage to type in the address. He is so surprised that he doesn’t even notice that I am not accompanied by a human. 

“You want to go get some donuts, buddy?” he asks me. I nod my head like I’ve seen many other humans do. “Okay!” he says, abandoning his post. He is a good friend but not a very good doorman. He hails a cab, and we clamber aboard. The driver doesn’t even notice I am there. “Luke’s Donut Shop, please,” requests Henry.

The cab smells like incense. It is a long ride. Finally, we arrive. I leap out of the cab and swiftly race into the donut shop. I dash around the cashier counter and into the back room. 

“Chester!” cries Angela. “What are you doing here! Where’s the sitter?”

I let out a pained meow. Officer Lincoln seems to get the message. 

“We need to move!” he barks. “Now!” Angela, an officer that I don’t recognize, and I sprint out of the store, pursued by the lady behind the counter who tears off her apron to reveal a crisp, blue uniform. On the corner, we run into Ms. A and Robert dressed up as business people carrying briefcases. I hiss as an indication that these are the evil ones.

“Hands up!” chime all three of the police officers, brandishing pistols at them.

Ms. A and Robert, who are not expecting to be caught, drop their briefcases and bolt in the other direction. What happens next is so bewildering I myself can’t believe it is happening. Angela takes a tranquilizer from who knows where and shoots them both square in the bottom. They drop to the floor. As the officer cuffs Robert and Ms. A and pries open the briefcases to reveal a syringe loaded with arsenic and two pistols, Angela engulfs me in kisses. It feels good after what I have just been through.

Epilogue

I am perched on top of a soft, furry stool made of the same material of my cat castle back home.

A news reporter squishes her powder-caked face against mine for a photo. When I agreed to have a news feature done about me, I didn’t know that people would be invading my personal space and rubbing their grubby little fingers on my sleek, glossy fur. I am so relieved when it’s time to go home to all my new friends. Officer Lincoln, the other two officers, Henry, and Angela are throwing me a ‘surprise’ party. Henry let it slip, and now I know. Life is good.

Nia’s mom suddenly collapsed on the floor. Nia knew what this meant; her mom was dead. This maybe happened because her mom had a serious disease. Nia rushed to the hospital with her mom immediately and asked her mom’s doctor if her mom was officially dead.

The doctor checked if she was breathing and said, “She is officially dead because of a rare heart attack.”

Nia burst into tears. 

Later that day, her dad gave Nia a Ouija board. Nia didn’t know what was this was, so she asked. 

Her dad responded, “It’s used to summon dead people, like your mom, at three o’clock in the morning.”

Nia knew exactly what to do: summon her mom. It was already nine, and Nia’s dad told her that if she wanted to summon her mom, she needed to wake up at three in the morning. 

Nia was thinking how strange it was that her dad gave her a free gift, but after she thought that, her dad said, “And after you summon your mom, do the chores.”

Nia went straight to sleep and set an alarm for two in the morning. 

Ring ring ring! The sound of the alarm woke up Nia, and she went straight to her computer and searched up how to use a Ouija board. There were lots of suggestions, and they were all the same, so Nia picked a random one. She followed the instructions and prepared the Ouija board, and when she heard another timer, she knew it was time to summon her mom.

She said the old and un-understandable words, and she said, “Mom, come alive.”

Nia saw the lights flickering, and she heard a soft breeze. It started smelling weird, like yogurt with perfume in it. The windows were opening and shutting closed, along with the door. Suddenly, she heard a voice, and she saw a strange shadow come out of the Ouija board. She knew it was her mom. 

Her mom said, “Why did you wake me from my peaceful sleep?” in a low, dark voice. 

It was spooky, but Nia answered, “Because I want you to come back.”

Nia’s mom asked her, “How are you going to do that?”

Nia responded back, saying, “Well, I’ll just keep you a ghost, and you’ll just stay with me forever. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” 

Her mom said back, ”You’re such a child! Of course you can’t do that, silly.” Nia noticed her mom’s voice was cranky. Maybe that was because she had a hard fall. Her mom suddenly said, “I want to go back to sleep. Bye bye.” 

Nia followed the steps and said bye to her mom. Her mom disappeared, and all the creepy things suddenly stopped. Nia thought that the Ouija board wasn’t as scary as she thought. It was sort of like FaceTime. Nia knew she was going to look at her mom every day, but now she needed to do the chores.

After she was done with the chores, she plopped down on the sofa and took the remote and put on Birdbox. Since Nia was only 12, she felt really brave facing her fears of the Ouija board. When the movie was on, she was thinking about why her dad gave her the gift of the Ouija board. She paused the TV and went to her dad. 

Her dad said, “Shoo away little fly, I’m trying to focus!”

He was playing Fortnite on a video game console. She felt okay because she was used to her dad saying this to her. 

Nia asked her dad why did he gave the Ouija board to her. 

The dad answered by saying, “Well, it’s been in the family for generations, and now I’m passing it on to you. My mom also died, and my mom’s mom also died, and so on and so forth. And this time your mom died, so I’m giving the board to you.” Nia understood and went back to the TV. Nia’s dad said right after that, “Well, I think you missed a spot. A big one.” 

Nia went back to work and when she was finished, she went back to the sofa. But before her eyes, she saw her dad watching his favorite movie on Netflix called Shine. Nia was used to this, but she always thought to herself, What a creepy movie. But she also thought to herself, What a creepy family I have. Nia suddenly heard in the movie that a girl lost her mom and summoned her on the Ouija board. That girl sounded like Nia. She wondered if the story was based on her, but she was sure it wasn’t. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, she thought to herself. She plopped on the sofa again with her dad, but this time she was slouching. She started watching the show with her dad. The dad looked at her with sad and fierce eyes combined. Nia thought that maybe her dad was scared, so she grabbed the remote and paused it.

But Nia’s dad said, “Hey, don’t pause it. I want to keep on watching!” 

Nia asked, “Then why do you have fierce and sad eyes all at once?”

“You know how this story is kind of based on our family?”

”Yeah,” Nia said.

“In the movie the dad dies, so I’m worried that I will die like the dad in the movie scene, since it might be based on our family.” 

“I don’t want you to die,” said Nia. 

The dad said, “It’s fine if I die. At least I won’t need to be with you. If I die, you will need to stay home by yourself and cook and sleep and make the beds, but at least you will have the whole apartment to yourself.”

The next day when the dad was calmly eating breakfast, he dramatically collapsed on the floor, just like Nia’s mom. Nia was still sleeping. When she heard her alarm, she woke up. She had forgotten to call her mom. When Nia woke up and saw her dad, she put her knees on the floor and started crying as loud as she could. Tears were flowing down her cheeks like a waterfall. Nia decided that if her whole family was dead, then why couldn’t she be dead? Nia planned to kill herself with the sharpest knife she could find in the kitchen, but right before she was going to go on the Ouija board and summon the ghosts of her parents. She got her computer and the Ouija board, but it was not three o’clock yet, so she went to her bed and started dreaming about how Shine was correct about how her dad died. She woke up at exactly three and started saying the words on the Ouija board. Then the creepy things happened again, like the windows opened and shut, and it smelled weird, and this time she heard lightning outside. Two shadows now appeared, coming out of the board, and this time it was her mom and her dad.

She heard voices saying, “Hello.” 

She saw her parents on the board and said, “Hello,” back. 

The mom said, “I miss you so much.” 

Nia said, “I’m seeing you every day.”

The mom said back, “Well, it’s not like I can actually see you in real life. Now, I just remembered that today, your grandparents are going to move to Hawaii so they can see you. The Philippines is having some trouble with politics and your grandparents lived in the Philippines. Maybe you can go live with Grandpa and Grandma.”

Nia said to her mom, “That’s a much better idea than killing myself.”

The mom said, “You were gonna kill yourself?” Her eyes and mouth were wide open. 

Nia said back, “Yes I was going to plan to kill myself, but now since you gave me the idea to go live with Grandma and Grandpa, I can finally have a happy ending! When are they coming?”

Mom said, “Today!” 

“What time?” Nia said. 

“Right now!”

Nia said, for the last time, “Do you think that they’re here right now? What house are they gonna move to?”

The mom said, “They’re going to move to the open apartment on our apartment floor.”

“Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad,” said Nia. 

The dad ignored her, but the mom said, “Bye.”

Nia followed the steps to pause the Ouija board, and then she took the keys and unlocked the door. She ran to the apartment on her floor. She saw her grandma and grandpa waiting for her, and they looked surprisingly young.

They said that they were only 44 years old and Nia said, “Hey, that’s just as old as my parents, and they’re dead already!” 

They looked at Nia, surprised and shocked, and they said at the same time, “What? They’re dead? We’re their parents!”

“Yep. They’re dead.”

Then the grandparents pulled out a surprise for Nia. Nia had forgotten that it was her birthday. Their present was an iPhone X Super and a picture with Nia’s grandparents that had more than a billion dollars. 

Nia lived happily ever after with her grandparents. 

The End

One day in the middle of summer, Mummy Dragon was sitting on the top of the mountain in her dark and narrow cave, sitting on her eggs. Then she was hungry, so she flew off to the top of the woods to find food. As she flew off, her feet pushed one of the eggs down the mountain. The mummy dragon didn’t notice that one of her spotty eggs slipped out of the cave. 

Meanwhile, Lucy was in the house of her stepmother because her real mother got stuck in a car crash. Her stepmother had just kicked her out of the house. She went to the mountain to think about her lovely mom by the bushy bushes. Suddenly, the egg rolled out of the bush. Lucy was shocked. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. She ran back home with the egg in her arms. When she got there, her stepmother shouted at Lucy and said, “Get that smelly egg out of the house!”

Lucy then walked up a hill and found a palace. The palace had big cones at the top and had soldiers guarding the gate with big, fluffy hats. I think this is because the queen wanted to be mean by making them hot. It was so hot that the soldiers felt like it was cold, so they didn’t really mind.

So, back to the story. Lucy went into the palace and met a queen that was very wicked. She would always trick people with her nasty tricks. Lucy told the queen that she found this egg near the mountain of dragons.

The queen made a wicked smile and said, “Come here, my dear, and I’ll show you a cozy bed for your eggs to stay in.” Lucy followed her into a dark room. She said, “Bye, have fun!”

But as she closed the door, Lucy fell into something’s mouth. What could it be…?

It was a dragon! It was actually the egg’s mom that the queen’s servants had caught before. Lucy kicked and shouted, but the dragon wouldn’t let her out. Then, Lucy had an idea! She could rub the dragon’s tummy and make her sneeze, and then she shot out of the dragon’s mouth. That’s when the dragon noticed that the egg Lucy was holding was one of her babies because the egg just hatched. The mummy dragon got mad at Lucy and thought Lucy was trying to steal her babies, but the egg didn’t call her Mummy. She called Lucy Mummy, so she knew that Lucy had taken care of her babies and thanked her. So, she decided to fly Lucy back home. 

When they got there, Mummy Dragon noticed that Lucy’s face fell, so she asked Lucy, “Why are you looking so sad?

Lucy sadly told Mummy Dragon the story of her stepmother. 

Mummy Dragon decided to secretly burn the stepmother. So, they made a plan to burn the wicked stepmother. So, when the stepmother went out to call Lucy to do her chores, Mummy Dragon blew fire at the stepmother, and the stepmother turned black. 

So right now, Lucy lives with the mummy dragon, and the mummy dragon teaches her how to be a dragon. So she turns into a human dragon.

The End

Once upon a time, there was a girl dog named Molly, and she could run super fast. Molly was very energetic. All Molly wanted was to go to explore the galaxy.

Molly’s mom was a cat, and her dad was a dinosaur. She also had a little brother named Austin, who was also a dog. In two days Molly was going to turn 13 years old. So, her family started to plan a trip to explore the galaxy, just like Molly wanted. The dad was trying to get some rocket fuel for their rocket so they could have enough energy for the rocket to see everything in outer space.

On the day of Molly’s birthday, her parents told her about the trip they were going to have for her birthday. When everything was ready, the mom started the engine for the rocket and they blasted off into space. They saw all the stars twinkle in the sky.

But, there was a hole in their rocket, and fuel started to fall, well, float away. Molly was trying to think about how she could block the hole. She saw that her brother was chewing on mega-stretchy gum. She got a stick of gum, and she started to stretch it out. When the candy was big enough, she was able to block the hole, and no more fuel was coming out. 

Molly’s mom started the engine of the rocket again, and they were off. Molly saw so many different planets she had never seen. She saw Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune so far. Austin, the brother, took some photos on his camera. The dad was feeling a bit hot, so he opened a big window.

There was a big turn up ahead, however. When the mom turned the wheel, Molly fell out the window. Luckily, she had her space helmet on. She was floating away from the rocket. The family was freaking out. They went to go stop at a gas station, and they saw her getting farther and farther. Near the gas station was a shop. So, the dad bought some rope to swing the rope like a lasso.

Meanwhile, Molly saw herself getting away from her family. She started to relax, and she saw more planets, like Jupiter, Mars, and Earth. Earth was Molly’s favorite planet. She saw her family going to the shops, and they bought rope. Molly was very confused. Then she realized that her family was trying to save her. So, Molly tried to float closer to her family. 

The dad swung the rope, and Molly caught it, and they went back to their rocket. They saw the last and final planets. They saw Venus and Mercury. Then Molly saw… the sun!

Molly had the best birthday ever, and she would never forget this day.

It was a bright and sunny day outside on the planet Pluto, and Molly was in her house and had her favorite yellow hat on (she couldn’t put on a shirt or pants because she was a dog). She was also taking out the photos from her birthday, which was yesterday. Molly was thinking that she could go back to space. However, from what happened on her birthday, Molly’s parents wouldn’t want to go back out there. Her mom and dad did not want her to go and lose her again. But, Molly remembered she had a telescope, so now she could always see the stars and planets in space. 

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, my team and I, an elite group of ninjas, sat in our protective tent and did a final run-through of our plan. 

“Okay, first step?” asked August. August was a trained dancer who used to work in the circus. Just like all of us girls, she’s a GEM (Genetically Engineered Mutant). August’s DNA was mixed with a feather, so she had the ability to become weightless at will. August was thirteen years old.

“Sneak up to Dr. Penski’s secret lab,” replied May. Dr. Penski was the mad scientist who created us. He mutated animal life as a hobby, and we are all sworn to stop his evil plots. May’s DNA was mixed with coral. She could communicate with sea animals.

“Next step?” questioned June. June’s DNA was created with glass. She could turn invisible whenever she wanted.

“Take out the guards and sneak in,” said December. December’s DNA was mixed in with clouds. She could control the weather with her feelings. December was 16. 

“Final step?” quizzed January. January’s DNA had a piece of a dead person’s brain in it (yes, I know, sounds kind of creepy, but if you see it, it’s really cool). She could summon and control the undead. January was 17.

“Crush Dr. Penski!” I exclaimed, pounding my fist into my hand. I was 18. My name is April. My DNA is mutated with a bit of all animals. Don’t ask me how, but Dr. Penski is more powerful than you think. I was supposed to be his ultimate weapon, able to morph into any animal. But for an IQ of 300, he’s pretty clueless in keeping ‘henchmen’ in his favor. Because if you ask me, if you want people to stay with you, don’t leave them in tiny, cramped cages with barely enough food or water. And now look at us, escaped mutated beings out to kill him. Nice move, Dr. Penski! Anyways, lesson of the day, kids: Don’t imprison genetically engineered beings and expect them to work for you.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” yelled December, jumping up to her feet as a burst of brilliant sunlight illuminated her face. 

“Um, it’s that way,” said January, a rotting hand reaching out of the ground and pointing.

We swiftly jumped into the trees and ran quickly towards the secret lab, pulling up our masks and carefully sticking to the shadows.

Finally, we reached the secret lab. The entrance was hidden behind a curtain of moss, and the lab was disguised as an enormous stone. The lab was surrounded by guards.

Step one, complete, I thought. Now for step two.

“Now!” yelled May. 

“So much for a covert mission,” I said to myself.

Then all hell broke loose. Literally. Because January yelled and zombies rose from the ground and started attacking the guards and dragging them underground. 

August started floating around and kicking guards’ heads. She whirled around, kicking up, down, left, right, and around. Unconscious guards littered the ground.

June turned invisible and started pranking the guards, pulling down pants, yanking ears and noses, giving wedgies, and generally having a great time. She was just seven, after all.

December summoned a tornado that swept up the guards. She also made lightning strike the guards and fried them till they were crispy — the way I like my toast.

May just kicked and punched since she couldn’t really summon sea animals on land, but I wouldn’t be worried because man that six-year-old can hit.

I morphed into different animals and slashed, scratched, bit, and tackled until I felt like collapsing.

Finally, all the guards were either unconscious, dizzy, fried, pranked, or sucked to hell never to be seen again. Your average day in the life of a genetically engineered mutant. Pretty simple stuff.

“Okay, guys, be careful when you go in. We haven’t taken out all of the guards yet,” reminded June, turning visible and looking slightly out of breath from all of her vicious pranking. She turned invisible again, and we heard her say, “Let’s move!” 

Step three initiate! I thought excitedly as we crept stealthily inside. 

I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the dark, gloomy atmosphere of Dr. Penski’s laboratory.

“Brings back bad memories, doesn’t it?” June said, shuddering as she turned visible.

I shivered as I remembered being trapped in a tiny cage, unable to shapeshift or move.

“Let’s get this over with quickly,” said May, whimpering and grabbing hold of my hand. 

“Yeah,” I agreed, squeezing her hand gently.

We moved through the dark hallway, silent as a group of ninjas. Which I guess we were. 

We reached the end of the hall and peeked past the wall. We saw the hunched back of Dr. Penski, who was leaning over another one of his poor test subjects. He was chuckling evilly.

“A drop of spider DNA, a scorpion’s tail, ten strands of monkey fur… Complete!” he cackled. “Behold my latest creation: the spider-monkey!” A hulking monkey rose from the mist. But this wasn’t just some ordinary monkey. The monkey had eight long, hairy legs and a scorpion’s tail. The guards cheered and clapped. Dr. Penski stood proudly and admired his creation. “Beautiful!” he bragged. He clapped his hands, and the guards dragged the creature into a cage alongside the many other cages filled with mutant beasts, then exited the room.

The beasts were truly, well, gross. They snarled and clawed at the bars of the cages. Honestly, they had a speck of my sympathy. Technically, they were like us: genetically engineered mutants trapped in cages.

Come to Dr. Penski’s Mutant Emporium! (At your own risk)

• A whale/shark
• A donkey/monkey/snake
• A snake/scorpion/spider
• A zebra/lion/tiger/leopard
• A wolf/lion/cheetah
• And much more!

Entry fee: Your life

“He’s been at work since three years ago,” June muttered, flickering in anxiety. 

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get him,” said May.

  But something was wrong. My senses tingled as I scanned the room. The target was easy. Too easy.

A second too late I realized, “Wait, why did the guards leave?”

But it was too late. May, June, January, December, and August were already rushing into battle. 

Dr. Penski turned around and smirked. “E for effort, girls! Nice try. But you can’t scream ‘now’, annihilate my guards, and not expect me to notice! Guards, get em’!”

Guards rushed into the room, swarming around them. I knew we should have gone with covert, I thought, charging into battle.

The guards outnumbered us 20 to one. And no matter how amazing our powers were, we couldn’t defeat them. Eventually, they tied us up with rope and dragged us before Dr. Penski.

“Nice to see you again, daughters!” he cackled.

“Call us that one more time, and I swear, I will rip you apart piece by piece, you [this part was taken out by the editor]!” said January.

“I’d like to see you try!” Dr. Penski sneered. He clapped his hands, and the guards dragged us together. “I have a proposition for you. Work for me, and I’ll set you free!”

“No way!” we all declared simultaneously.

He started pacing around and muttering under his breath. Then he brightened.

“What if I told you that I would feed you to my mutants?”

We glanced at each other. “Still no,” we said.

He sagged.

“It’ll be painful… ”

“Nope.”

“Please?”

“Nuh-uh.”

He slumped. “Fine!” he declared. “The beasts it is.”

The guards pulled us towards the cages. I tried to shapeshift, but I couldn’t. The ground shook with the undead trying to surface. Thunder rumbled outside. June… hold on, where was June?

“Where’s June?” I whispered to January. 

“Uh… hold on, where is June?” she whisper-shouted.

“That’s what I asked you,” I pointed out.

“Do you think… ?” she trailed off.

“Just maybe… ?” We grinned at each other.

“Prepare to meet your doom!” screamed Dr. Penski. His robots started dancing. 

“D-O-O-M!” his robots chanted, standing on each others’ shoulders and waving pink sparkly pom poms in the air. “Your doom!”

“O-kay?” said August. “I’m not pretending that wasn’t terrible coordination and flips back there. They were. Now, I really thought you could have added a backflip at the end followed by a front handspring. The choreography was not too shabby, but you had too much transition time. Now, remember if your velocity downwards reaches over six miles per hour, you need to go down head first and tuck into a shoulder-roll 4.009 seconds before you make contact with the ground, and — ”

“Enough!” thundered Dr. Penski. “No one messes with my beautiful choreography and gets away with it! I will release my — !” He reached down to press the button to open the cage doors. 

“Not so fast!” An invisible hand reached over and plucked the remote control out of his hands and threw it to the side.

June turned visible, and we all cheered. She planted her hands on her hips and smiled triumphantly. She began working on our ropes, using a shard of glass. Finally, I was free! I shook myself out of the ropes, morphed into a jaguar, and used my sharp claws to free the rest of our GEMs. But just as I turned to smile at June, a shadow lurked behind May, grabbed her, and pressed a dagger to her neck. 

“May!” we all screamed.

“Stop attacking, and move silently into that cage, no funny business — or the girl dies!” snarled Dr. Penski.

“How could you?! She’s only six years old!” I screamed at Penski.

“The more reason to threaten you!”

“Leave her alone!” yelled January. 

“Ten, nine, eight!” He pressed harder, and May gave a stifled scream. 

Maybe… I thought.

The other GEMs moved into the cage, but I stood my ground, hatching a plan. 

“Seven, six, five!” he glared at me.

“April, please! What are you thinking?!” shrieked December.

Rain splattered the ground outside.

I didn’t move or respond, pursing my lips and steeling my nerves. If we wanted to be free, I had to take this chance. 

“April! Don’t be selfish!” yelled June.

“Four, three, two — ”

I kicked into action. I morphed into a cheetah and charged into Penski at lightning speed. Everything slowed down.

“No!” he shrieked. 

“Yes!” cheered May.

I rammed into Dr. Penski at full speed.

“Oof!” he grunted.

I let the GEMs out of their cages. June hugged May so fiercely that May’s face turned blue. 

“You had us worried sick!” she scolded. 

But in all the excitement, Dr. Penski reached the remote control! He grabbed it. “Mwa ha ha ha,” he cackled. “Prepare for the end of your worthless little lives — my worst monster! Meet Cerberus!” He slammed his hand on a button, releasing a cage door. An enormous three-headed dog leaped out. 

The beast had a scorpion’s tail, three sets of dripping poison jaws, and monstrous wings. The GEMs and I gaped in horror. 

“Attack!” yelled Penski. The monster lunged for us.

“Dodge under!” commanded January.

We slid under the giant dog and joined together behind him. 

“Okay, guys, you know the drill,” January sighed.

We assumed a fighting stance and gathered all our power. Zombies rose from the ground. Electricity crackled in the air. I morphed into a dragon. June turned invisible. August became weightless. The sea animals sloshed around in their tanks.

Cerberus turned around and roared. August and June jumped and climbed on top of the dog as a distraction. They pulled at his dark, grisly fur and screamed in his ears. The confused beast lumbered around and looked for the annoyance, leaving the coast clear for the rest of us. January’s zombies clambered on top of him. The sea animals churned up water and engulfed him. Lightning struck the water and electrocuted him. We had him pinned down… or so we thought.

Suddenly, Penski’s creation rose up and shook off the attacks. 

“Ha ha ha! Well done, my baby!” yelled Penski.

Cerberus struck down my sisters and hooked them up with his claws, choking them. My blood boiled. No one harms my siblings and gets away with it! I roared with fury as I spread my scaly wings. Rushing towards the monster, I struck him with my foot. He stumbled back and slashed me painfully on the face. I slapped him with my tail and pinned him to the ground. I raised my claws for the kill. But just as I brought my hand down, I hesitated. 

This beast is like us, I thought. Maybe it doesn’t deserve to die. Maybe it’s like another GEM, a mutant designed to kill. Maybe if I just let it go… Hold on, April, what are you thinking?! It hurt my sisters! But also… 

“April… I can’t breathe… ” choked May. 

“What are you waiting for?” gasped August.

That set me off. Once again, I brought my claw down, this time harder. I shuddered and closed my eyes when I heard the beast’s pitiful whimper as it took its final breath and went limp under me. I turned back to a human and closed my eyes in sorrow. A single tear slid down my cheek as I sank to my knees. I let out a sob and squeezed my eyes shut.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“You did the right thing,” January said. “I know it’s hard, but you did.”

“I know how it feels,” August said. “Remember the Chicago Mission?” I nodded, remembering Penski’s snake/bird.

May walked up to me, her big brown eyes shining with tears. “Thank you, April,” she whispered.

“Wow, that was beautiful! But I’m going to destroy you!” declared Penski half-heartedly.

“Face it, Penski! It’s over for you!” December said, planting her hands on her hips.

“Fine, but if it is, it’s over for you too! Guards, initiate self-destruct!” 

The GEMs and I stared at each other in shock.

“He wouldn’t do that, would he?” January asked.

“I think he just did,” I replied.

“Let’s go!” yelled June.

We rushed towards the exit.

“Blocked!” screamed December.

A hole in the roof blew up, and I had an idea. I morphed into a dragon.

“Get on my back!” I yelled over the sound of crumbling debris. They obeyed, and I soared into the starry night sky, seconds before the lab blew up. 

Then everything was quiet. A light breeze ruffled the GEMs’ hair as we soared above the clouds. We shared an understanding moment of silence. 

“Wow,” January murmured.

“Yeah,” June agreed.

And that summed it all up. Our dad commited suicide, I killed a sibling, May almost died. But it was all okay. Because being there, flying with my sisters on a beautiful night, I knew that I didn’t need anything else in the world as long as I had them. And I did. I had my GEMs. My beautiful gems.

Hi, I’m Lilah! I’m an ant. I hope you know a lot about ants, otherwise this story is going to make no sense. In my humble opinion, it’s pretty cool. FYI, ants are mostly girls. The males kind of just sit around the anthill until they go on a mating flight. Then they die. Anyway, the queen of this hill is all our moms. She gave birth to us. My job as a worker ant is to find food. But I’d rather watch the humans. They are really interesting. And I can actually understand their language.

We live right next to the house of Tony Relez. He recently divorced Elena W. His daughter is named Lucy. Now I’m hearing something really interesting.

“But Daddy, I want an ant farm!”

Wait — what?

“Yes, Lucy, but where would we get the ants?”

Oh, good. They can’t have one now. They won’t find us.

“There’s an anthill out back!”

Oh no. She knows! This is bad news. I need to tell mom! What? The queen is my mom.

I run in and to the queen’s private chamber.

“Mom! The people outside are going to capture us and put us in an ant farm!”

“Really?” Mom says skeptically. “I don’t remember that the humans know we exist.”

“Yes, it’s true! I heard them! Come see for yourself!”

“Very well,” Mom says.

We crawl out, and I show her.

Tony was just saying, “Okay, I’ll order the ant farm today.”

“See?” I say, annoyed.

“Oh no!!!” Mom says, ignoring me.

“We have to run away!” I sigh.

She never notices me.

Mom starts yelling to everybody. “We need to start packing up! Everybody, gather your things! Food! Don’t forget food! Carry as much food as you can!”

See? She never notices me. The bad part of this is, our anthill is so big. It can sometimes take days to notify everyone. I hope the ant farm takes a long time to deliver. 

It doesn’t. After three days, a package arrives. I can read human language. It’s the ant farm. The problem is, we are still packing up. Oh! Good news! We’re almost done. Uh-oh. The people are coming over with the ant farm. I get a lurching feeling in my stomach. They’re putting sand in. Tony has a funnel in his hand, Lucy a shovel. They take sand from the sandbox and fill up the ant farm. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. This is my fate, and I’m just sitting and watching it? I guess I just love to watch humans. That will never go away.

Mom yells, “Okay, we’re ready!”

“Wait no!” I yell.

Tony has finished filling up the ant farm. They’re ready to look for ants now.

Lucy yells, “Look!”

The whole population of the anthill is streaming out. Blast it! Blast, blast, blast it. Talk about bad timing! They’re definitely going to capture us now. Tony grabs an index card and holds it on the ground. The other ants are walking up to the card and checking it out.

“No!” I yell, but it’s too late.

In one quick movement, Tony picks up the card, opens the ant farm, and taps in the card. I feel like I’m next, and I’m right.

Tony puts the card in front of me, his hands blocking the sides. I have no escape. Sighing, I step onto the card. He puts the card on the hole to the ant farm. I’m doomed! I’m slipping… I can’t hold on much longer. Finally I give up and let go of the card. I fall in. 

“Ow!!!” It hurts. A lot. Instead of moist soil like I’m used to, I land on hard-packed sand. I see lots of ants here, too. Ella, Mya, Lou, and others. But not Mom. That’s good, I guess, but without her we can’t reproduce. We’ll all die here eventually.

Old woman Lina speaks first. “The humans have sealed our fates. We will… ” Her voice drifts off.

“Can I just be the one to say it?” I ask. I don’t wait for an answer. “We’re going to die here.” They all stare at me with did-you-really-have-to-say-that-we’re-already-in-a-bad-situation looks on their faces. I’m like, “Jeez, someone had to say it.” Now they have seriously-you’re-so-dark looks on their faces. I tune out then. These people are too much. I’m watching the humans now. 

Tony says, “I think that’s enough ants. Let’s go back inside and water the ants.”

I take this as a big insult. We’re animals, not plants! We don’t need to be watered! But soon I see what he meant. He takes a dropper and squeezes water into the sand. Now the sand is nice and moist. I lick some of the drops of water. It tastes delicious. I’ve been thirsty for a few days. There’s only so much water on the front porch, where our anthill used to be. I don’t know. I could get used to this. 

One month later… 

Living in an ant farm is actually not bad. We get water every day and food every week. And not bad food, either. Yummy stuff like pizza cheese that’s still melty and honey nut granola. The water is always nice. There’s only been one crisis. 

Okay so — about a week into when we got into the ant farm Lucy said, “Daddy, they’re not tunnelling… I don’t like them!”

“Okay,” said Tony, “We can get new ants.”

I gasped — what were they going to do? My question was answered soon enough.

Tony said, “Let’s dump these out where we got them.”

“Okay!” said Lucy.

Luckily I heard them.

“Guys, start tunnelling!” I yelled.

“Why?” asked Mya.

“Because, trust me, the humans are going to dump us out if you don’t.”

“Okay whatever,” they said.

“It’ll be something to do. We’re getting kind of bored.”

We started tunnelling as fast as we could. Actually, I was the only one really tunnelling because I was the only one that really cared. Fortunately our hard work paid off.

Lucy said, “Daddy, look! They’re tunnelling.”

Tony said, “Okay then, sweetheart, we don’t have to dump them out.”

Well, that was pretty much it for the crisis.

 Anyway, everything continued normally, pretty much. That is, until that one fateful day.

That day Lucy came downstairs from her bedroom crying. I wondered what had happened. Maybe Tony was getting remarried? But those weren’t happy tears.

“But Daddy, I want to keep them!”

Uh-oh. Is she talking about us?

“Honey, we’re moving.”

Wait — what?

“Your ants couldn’t possibly survive the drive.”

Wait — what? They’re moving and leaving us behind? This is horrible. 

“Like I said, we can leave them on a stoop sale and some other kid could take them.”

“But Daddy, I don’t want to move,” said Lucy.

“Yes, but we have to go today,” said Tony. “The rent is going up.” I’m devastated. Are they just going to leave us behind? This is horrible. “And we have to go today. I already ordered a moving truck.” Even worse! 

Even worse! I can’t leave her. It’s embarrassing to say, but I’ve really gotten attached to Lucy. And she’s gotten attached to us. I need to think. I really like Lucy. I can’t go with another kid. They might not give me pizza and granola. I’ve made up my mind. I’m going with them. But by now they’re getting in the truck. There’s nothing I can do… is there?

“Guys!” I say. “We have to go with them! We have to get out of here!”

“Why?” they ask.

“Because!” I sigh.

They will never understand me. I climb up and to the top of the ant farm, leaving them behind. In all the rush, Tony left the hatch open. I scamper out. By now the truck is pulling away. I can still make it! I run as fast as I can. It pays off. I grab onto a wheel and run up to the top. I jump up. I’m now on the big part of the truck. I run over to the window. It takes a long time. But thankfully Tony left it open. I climb in, unnoticed. I’m with Lucy, finally. 

The End

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Helen. She was married to a prince named Connor. They had lived a happy life together, but they wished for something more. A child. They had a child but couldn’t agree on a name. Princess Helen wanted to name her Ella. Prince Connor wanted to name her Rose. But the prince gave in, and so they named her Ella, but then decided her middle name would be Rose. Though, the prince and princess drifted apart over the years. Connor thought the princess was too selfish, his reasoning always being that they had chosen Ella as their daughter’s name instead of Rose. Princess Helen always said that Connor gave in in the end, and he agreed so it was fair. And, she said they had given her the middle name he wanted.

By the time Ella was two, Princess Helen and Prince Connor couldn’t stand each other. They would do everything separately. They also would fight over who would get to take Ella somewhere. For example, if Princess Helen went shopping, she would want to take Ella with her, but then Prince Connor would want to take Ella to an amusement park. Of course, he did this so that Ella would want to be with him instead of her mother. Ella would’ve wanted to go to the amusement park with her dad, because that would be fun, but she wouldn’t want to disappoint her mom. Even though she was little, she was very smart. Ella understood why her parents were fighting, but she didn’t understand why they got together in the first place. Why would they decide to marry each other in the first place, she thought, if they’re constantly fighting? She didn’t really remember anything from when she was little, so she didn’t remember how her parents acted before they started fighting. 

It was the day before Ella’s fourth birthday, and she was super excited. She was playing with her dolls in her room when she heard her parents fighting. She peeked into the living room where her mom was yelling at her dad.

“You can’t just walk out before Ella’s fourth birthday!” Princess Helen looked furious. 

“It’ll be better for Ella if I leave! How do you think Ella feels about us fighting all the time?”

Princess Helen paused. Ella held her breath. Prince Connor picked up a suitcase from the floor and walked to the door. He opened it. Ella ran out of her room and went to where her father was standing.

“Y-you can’t leave!” she cried.

Her father looked back at her with his watery blue eyes. He didn’t say anything at first. 

He gave her a hug and said, ”I love you. I will never forget you.”

And with that, he walked out and shut the door behind them. Ella stared at the door for a moment, tears in her eyes. Then she ran past her mother and into her bedroom. She flopped onto her bed and pushed her face into the pillow. She started to cry. Why did he have to leave? she thought. At least he understood what it was like for me to be in this situation, but there were other ways to solve the problem!

Princess Helen came into Ella’s room and sat on her bed.

Her face pale, she said, almost in a whisper, “I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t think of any words to comfort Ella, so she just sat on her bed for a while, until it was time for dinner. It was a very grim night that night. Neither Ella nor her mother said much. Princess Helen asked Ella if she wanted to sleep with her that night, but Ella refused. She didn’t want to think about what happened. She hugged her bear stuffed animal and tried to fall asleep. Why did he have to walk out like that? she thought as a tear rolled down her cheek. Why? After a while, Ella fell asleep, and the darkness of night fell upon the town.

December 28, 2006

It was Ella’s first day of sixth grade. Ella sat at her desk in class. She was taking a math test. Even though Ella had just started going to this school, at her elementary school, a few people recognized her and would follow her around and try to be her friend. But of course, none of her “admirers” understood what she was going through. It was also hard for her to make real friends because people might just want her for her fame. She had had a “friend” the year before at the beginning of fifth grade named Ashley who had seemed nice enough, but then one day, Ella saw Ashley on her phone. Here, let’s rewind. It was the end of the day, and Ella and Ashley were walking home together. 

“What are you doing?” asked Ella. 

“Just posting pictures on my story,” said Ashley. 

“Your story?” Ella asked. 

“On Instagram,” Ashley explained. 

Ashley showed Ella her phone. She was posting a picture of her and Ella.

“Don’t post those on your story!” Ella said.

“Why not?” said Ashley.

She paused and thought for a moment. 

“Actually, good point. They only stay for 24 hours. I’ll just post it regularly.”

Ashley tapped something on her phone. Then Ella realized something.

“Why do you need to post those on your story?” asked Ella.

“Uhhhh… ” said Ashley. “‘Cause we’re friends?”

“Let me see your phone!” Ella demanded.

They stopped walking. Ella scrolled through Ashley’s Instagram posts. Almost all of them were of her and Ella. Ella quickly scrolled down to the bottom where the first picture Ashley had posted was. Ashley looked worried. The first picture Ashley had posted was a selfie of her and Ella. It was also the day she had started the account. Ella knew this because Ella had asked Ashley what she was doing on her phone and Ashley had said she was setting up an Instagram account. And Ella also remembered that that picture was taken on the first day of fifth grade, which was when Ashley started the account. When Ashley had asked to take a picture with Ella, Ella had just thought, Eh, whatever, it can’t hurt. I’ll let her take a picture with me. But after seeing Ashley’s Instagram posts, Ella knew that Ashley had only been using her for her fame and popularity. Ella handed back Ashley’s phone and walked over to her limo driver’s car. Because of people like Ashley, Ella moved to a new school to get a fresh start. There she met Hannah. Hannah became Ella’s real and true friend. She was always there for Ella when she needed her. Coincidently, they got into the same middle school. But anyway, back to the math test. Ella looked at her paper. X=15-10. Solve for X. Ugh, what’s the point of these tests? Ella thought. She answered the question, then moved on to the next.

When Ella and the class was done with the test, everyone filed out of the classroom. They had a free period. 

As Ella walked out, a girl named Jessica from her class caught up to her and said, hurriedly, “Are you Ella Rose Welton?” 

“Umm, yes?” answered Ella awkwardly.

Jessica gasped and ran over to her friends, Elizabeth and Bridget. “It’s true!” she said excitedly.

Elizabeth and Bridget squealed. 

“Eeeeeeeee!!!” they screeched.

What the heck is wrong with them? thought Ella. They sound like dying pigs!

Jessica, Elizabeth, and Bridget talked together for a few seconds and then came over. 

Elizabeth asked, “Want to be friends with us?”

“Oops, I’m late for class, gotta go,” said Ella, pretending to check her watch.

She quickly walked away. 

“But it’s free period!” said Bridget, but it was too late.

Ella was gone.

When Ella was walking with Hannah to have lunch later that day, Jessica, Elizabeth, and Bridget walked over.

“Hey, want to have lunch with us?” asked Bridget, looking hopeful. 

“Sorry, I’m having lunch with Hannah,” said Ella, trying to be polite. 

“Ugh, whatever,” said Jessica. “Let’s go, girls.”

They walked away.

“What is up with them?” said Hannah.

“They asked me if I wanted to be their friend after the math test was over,” said Ella. “I said I had to go to class.”

“Ha,” said Hannah.

Ella and Hannah could tell that Jessica, Elizabeth, and Bridget were not the types of girls they would want to be friends with. They started to walk towards Pizza Hut together.

Then, another girl from Ella’s class (Emily) walked up to Ella and Hannah and said, “Can I eat lunch with you guys?”

She seemed nice enough, so Ella said, “Sure! We’re going to Pizza Hut!”

Hannah smiled. Ella and Hannah looked at each other and nodded.

Ella, Hannah, and Emily walked into pizza hut together. They had lunch together and had a really good time. As they walked back to school, Emily skipped ahead. 

“Want to come over for dinner?” asked Hannah. 

“Sure!” said Ella excitedly.

One and a half hours later… 

It was the end of school, and Ella and Hannah were walking home together.

“Hey, want to stop at the pastry shop?” asked Hannah. 

“Sure!”

They walked to the pastry shop and got their pastries.

“Oh my gosh, these are so good!!” said Ella, eating her pastry. 

“I know, right?” said Hannah.

They stayed in the pastry shop for a while and then headed to Hannah’s house.

“Will your mom be mad that we’re a bit late?” asked Ella.

“Nah, I texted her, it’s fine.”

Ella and Hannah turned the corner and walked up the steps to Hannah’s house. Hannah walked in first, then held the door open for Ella. 

“What are we having for dinner?” asked Ella.

“Probably spaghetti and meatballs again,” said Hannah, chuckling.

 “If we keep having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, I’m going to stop coming over,” Ella joked as she walked in.

Hannah rolled her eyes, smiling. 

“I’ll have to — ” Ella stopped mid-sentence. 

“What is it?” asked Hannah.

Ella ran out of the house as fast as she could and went down the road.

 “Ella!!” yelled Hannah. “What the heck?!”

Hannah slammed the door behind her and ran to where Ella was crouching at the end of the street. She sat down next to her. 

“What happened, Ella?”

 “M-my dad,” said Ella quietly.

 “What about your dad?” said Hannah. 

“He was there,” said Ella even more quietly than she had before. 

“I’m so sorry,” said Hannah. 

“What?” said Ella, looking up at Hannah. 

“Well, I… I kind of… knew before… ” Hannah trailed off.

Ella stood up, anger in her eyes. 

“You knew?!”

 “I… I couldn’t tell you!” said Hannah, backing away slowly. “It’s just… he’s my mom and dad’s friend, and… ”

Dark clouds came into the sky. It became dark out. It started to rain. Hannah could see tears in her friend’s eyes. Hannah had never seen Ella cry before. Hannah met Ella after her father had left, and after her father left, Ella didn’t believe that there was anything else worth crying for. Ella started to cry, and she crouched down on the ground again. Hannah crouched down too.

“Ella, let’s sit on my stoop, and I’ll tell you what happened,” said Hannah gently. They walked over and sat on the front steps of Hannah’s house. Hannah started to explain. “Okay, so my parents have a lot of money, right? They’re pretty wealthy. So, my mom and dad were invited to this cocktail party. My mom’s friend hosted it and invited her and my dad to it. At the party, my mom and dad met your dad, Prince Connor. They quickly became friends. And this was when you and me were already friends. 

“Go on,” said Ella. 

“The night my parents came home from the party, they didn’t say anything to me about meeting your dad there. But, when I was in bed, I heard them talking in their room, and I heard my mom say ‘Connor.’ I ignored it and went to bed thinking that it couldn’t possibly be your dad. But the next day my mom told me how she and my dad met your dad at the cocktail party. Now I understood why she had said ‘Connor’ the night before. I guess my parents were talking about how they met your dad.”

“Oh,” said Ella. She wiped her tears. “How come you didn’t tell me?” 

“Well,” said Hannah. “It’s complicated.”

“Tell me about it,” said Ella.

“Okay,” said Hannah. “For one thing, I didn’t really see why you had to know. But, also, one day, your dad came over for dinner like he did tonight, and my mom told him I was friends with you. I guess she hadn’t told him before, because he had no idea. Just like you had no idea that my mom and dad knew your dad. Well, anyway, after my mom told him that, he told me not to tell you. He said it was because he knew if you knew, you would tell your mom and she would be mad at him for leaving, or something like that.”

“Oh,” said Ella. “Well, does my dad even want to see me now if he didn’t want you to tell me that he was here? And did he see me when I started to walk in?”

“Relax,” said Hannah. “I’m sure he’ll want to see you. Are you sure you’re not mad at me for not telling you?”

“It’s complicated,” said Ella.

She smiled. Hannah could tell Ella was back to her old self.

“Actually, Ella, I asked my mom and dad to invite your dad over for dinner tonight so that I could bring you over and you could see him.”

“Aww, Hannah, that’s so sweet,” said Ella. “I haven’t seen my dad in seven years.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. She smiled, but it was a sad smile.

“Well, enough sitting around,” said Hannah. “Go in and see your dad.”

Ella got up from where she was sitting, walked up the rest of the steps, and put her hand on the doorknob. She hesitated for a moment. 

“Go on,” said Hannah.

Ella twisted the doorknob and opened the door. Her dad was sitting at the table. He got up. Ella and Prince Connor looked at each other.

THE END

Traxon Laxon is a 24-year-old person from Neptune. In his world, he is a person who is worth a lot of money because everyone wants his special powers. Those powers are flight and fire. People want these powers, so they send their soldiers to capture him, and he always has to hide, and he feels sad because that’s all he does every day. One day his friend told him about a mysterious place called earth. His friend said that nobody ever went to earth and it was a safe place to hide. So one day, he took a spaceship and went off, and nobody has seen him since.

When he got to earth, he didn’t want to be seen because people were going to think that he was from another planet trying to kill them. But then he remembered that he has the ability to transform into anything he touches and so he did. He transformed into a human and was walking around safely.

Three days had passed, and Traxon Laxon had a job as a police officer and friends that were called Zack, John, and Ben. But one day, Traxon Laxon was at his apartment building in Manhattan, and someone rang his doorbell. Traxon Laxon was confused because it was so early in the morning. So he got up to get the door and saw something he never wanted to see. It was the people that were trying to kill him. He knew it was them, because they were holding all kinds of weapons. So Traxon Laxon punched the first two guys with a fist of fire, the next person got hit by a chair, and the last person got hit with a pan in his face.

When he finished fighting, he thought he was done but, no… 

A giant one-eyed monster came into the room and grabbed Traxon Laxon and threw him out the window of the building. So Traxon Laxon flew up to the giant monster and gave him a fist of fire. The one-eyed monster was hurt, so he sent his minions to take care of Traxon Laxon. All of the minions were on top of him, even the one-eyed monster.

There are too many of them, he said in his mind as he looked at the damage he did. He realized he put these people in danger, and his friends. He told himself, I never wanted people to get hurt, especially my friends. But then Traxon Laxon realized if he won the fight, they would still keep looking for him, and he would start hiding all over again. So he did what he had to do and grabbed all the people that were trying to kill him and brought them up to the sky and self-destructed, which killed himself and the people who were trying to kill him. 

One day later, after the big fight, Traxon Laxon was dead, and people were having a funeral. Everyone cried, but they knew it was the best for the city.

Once, there was a young boy from the realm of magic. He was a young wizard and an apprentice of the greatest wizard in all of the realm. His name was Golgemort. And the apprentice’s name was Leo. And in the Earth realm, there was a girl named Rose who knew of the realm of magic in her grandmother’s stories. 

One day, Rose discovered a door covered in symbols in a different language. She tried to open the door, but it didn’t budge. But then, she found a small chest hidden in the snow. And inside was a key with strange handwriting on it. She assumed it was the key to the door. And it was. She opened the door and there was a hall of blue, glowing crystals. And at the other end of the hall there was another door. She walked down the hall and on her way down to the other door, there were little fairies flying around. She opened the door and she saw something beyond her imagination… a young boy… 

A few weeks earlier…

Leo was walking in the woods when he stumbled upon a little hut. Inside it he saw glowing lights. He looked inside and saw an old man. The man looked like the great wizard Golgemort. He tried to enter the house quietly without the man seeing him, but he tripped on a magic wand lying on the ground.

Then, Golgemort turned around and saw the boy lying on the ground. 

“What are you doing in my house?” Golgemort said, his eyes full of rage.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to invade your privacy, I was just curious,” Leo said hurriedly as he took a few steps backward. Not seeing where he was going, he slipped on a puddle of spilled water. As he plummeted towards the floor, he reached out towards the ceiling. Suddenly, his descent slowed to a halt. He was levitating.

Golgemort was shocked. “How are you doing that, boy? I thought I was the only wizard left…”

“The only wizard? I thought there were many wizards.”

“Well, a long time ago, there was a war between the magic realm and the Trolls. We won, but the Trolls kidnapped all the other wizards, but I escaped and I thought I was the only one left.”

“The only what?”

“Were you not listening to me, boy?”

“Not really, no,” Leo replied glumly, looking down at his worn boots. 

“What’s your name, boy?”

“Leo,” he whispered. 

“Speak up, boy!”

“My name’s Leo!” he yelled. 

“Calm down,” Golgemort said. “What is it you want?”

Leo looked up excitedly. “If you truly are the great mage, Golgemort, then you could train me to be a real wizard! Please, oh great and mighty sorcerer, be my teacher!”

“No, child, I can’t. I’m not a real wizard anymore. I’m far too old. You’re better off going somewhere else.” 

He looked up excitedly. “Could you please teach me?”

“Fine!” the old wizard snapped. “5:00 a.m. Your training starts then. Don’t be late or you shall suffer. Now get out of my house.“

Leo nearly jumped five feet into the air. “I won’t let you down, master!”

“Alright, alright. Now go! Don’t tell anyone about my existence! Everybody thinks the wizards are all dead.”

Leo quickly stepped out of the ramshackle house and ran with excitement towards his village. 

He was so tempted to tell all his friends about Golgemort, but he remembered his promise to the great wizard. He couldn’t let anyone know that magic still existed…

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Earth Realm…

“Let me tell you a story, my child… about the realm of magic…”

“Grandma, I’ve heard this story a million times already!”

“Fine, if you don’t want to hear my story again, go play outside,” Rose’s grandmother said, leading her to the door of her room. 

Rose sat in her bedroom, thinking about the classic tale that her grandmother would not shut up about. A long time ago, there was a war between the wizards of the Magic Realm and the Trolls. The great wizard, Golgemort, led an army of the greatest wizards against the Trolls.

“Nasty creatures,” her grandmother would always say. 

After thinking for a while, she elected to go outside. There was a thick layer of snow covering her backyard: perfect for building a snowman. 

“I’m going out, Grandma!” she called up to the half-deaf woman. 

Her grandmother grinned. “Alright, just don’t be too long now.” She knew Rose would find the door eventually.

Rose went out into the snow. She walked until she came upon a door with strange gold handwriting. She tried to open the door but it didn’t budge!

It was 5 a.m. Leo had been waiting outside for 5 minutes. When the old man came out, it was 5:06. The man said to Leo, “You’re here,“ the man said, surprised.  

“Yes,“ Leo said. “Alright, I’m ready to get into it, what kind of powerful, Troll-killing spells do you know?”

Then Golgemort said in his face, “Why do you want to learn any Troll-killing spells?”

Then Leo said, without thinking, “We never know when the Trolls are going to attack!”

Golgemort sighed. “You have a lot to learn.”

“Okay, then. What’s the first step of sorcery?”

“Well, the first step is using your wand. We have to get you one first.”

Then, Golgemort took him down into a dimly-lit cave with a gold door at the back. 

“So, I can choose any wand I want?” Leo asked. 

“No, no, no, child. The wand chooses you.”

“How do I know that it chooses me?”

“Well, if the wand doesn’t blow up in your face, it’s the one for you.”

“It blows up in my face?!” Leo exclaimed, horrified. 

“Yep!” Golgemort said excitedly. 

Leo gulped. “O-okay… ”

Golgemort unlocked the golden door, revealing a room with shelves upon shelves of different wands. Then, Leo picked up a wand and it exploded in his face. Golgemort stood in the corner, a smirk on his face, as Leo pushed himself up from the ground, his hair charred and ruined.

“Not the one,” Golgemort said. “Try another one.”

Leo gulped, even more terrified than he was before. He went over to another wand and picked it up. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Leo looked back to his master with a grin on his face.

“Hey, master, I think– ”

BOOM!

“… never mind.”

Golgemort looked around for a moment. “Maybe we should try a different type of wand,” he said, bringing the ashen boy a beautiful golden box, with only the tiniest hint of wear. “Maybe this one will do it,” Golgemort said, opening up the box to reveal a wand inlaid with phoenix feather, with gold and silver vines wrapping around the base. 

“Try it out,” Golgemort said. Leo took it, holding it gingerly away from his face.

“Please don’t explode, please don’t explode, please don’t explode… ”

After a few seconds, it didn’t explode. Nothing happened.

“Well, it didn’t explode within five seconds. I guess this is your wand.”

“Really?” Leo asked, a look of utter joy crossing his face. He jumped up and hugged his master.

“Get off me, boy!” Golgemort said, pushing him off. Leo was too ecstatic to even care

about his master’s hostility. 

“Well, we better get to training, then,” Golgemort said. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo said, still thinking about his wand. 

Then, Rose found a small chest with a key inside. She assumed it was the key to the door and it was! 

Inside the door was a blue crystal hallway with small fairies flying around. And at the end of the hallway, there was another door. She opened it. And she saw something beyond her imagination. A boy, wielding a small stick with multi-colored lights coming out of it. The boy appeared to be in battle with a dirty old man. She realized that the boy was fending the old man off, and needed help. She quickly jumped on the old man’s back and pulled him to the ground. 

The man grunted. “What are you doing, child. Didn’t you see that we were practicing?!” 

Rose looked at him quizzically. “Practicing? It looked like you were fighting!” Golgemort saw the girl’s clothes. She wore a strange skirt lined with stripes and odd buttons. Not the traditional robes of the realm.

“What are you wearing?!” Golgemort exclaimed. 

“You’re really asking me that?” Rose said, irritated. “I’d like to know where I am!”

“You are in the Realm of Magic,” Golgemort said. “Don’t you know that?”

“No, not really,” Rose responded. “Although…I have heard about a world like this from my

grandmother’s stories…”

“Where are you from?” Golgemort asked. 

“Um… Earth?”

“Ah, yes, the Earth Realm,” Golgemort said, looking off into the distance. “And how did you get here?”

“Well, I was playing around in the snow, and I found this door in the tree. I tried to open it but it wouldn’t open. Then I looked around for a key somewhere and I found a small chest with a key inside.”  

“I see,“ Golgemort said. “You can come to my house.” Then he yelled, “LEO, LET’S GO!”  

“Okay!” Leo responded. 

“Um, sure,” Rose said hesitantly.

So they set off to Golgemort’s house. Rose turned to the strange boy. “So what’s your name?”

“Leo,” he replied, looking down at his feet. “What’s yours?”

“Rose,” she said energetically. “So what’s the deal with–”

“We’ve arrived,” Golgemort interrupted. Rose laid her eyes upon the filthy shack that sat within the middle of a green swamp. 

“Really? This is your home?” Rose said incredulously. “This looks horrible!” 

Golgemort chuckled. “That’s what they all say.” He opened the splintered door, revealing a gorgeous home. The ceiling was a diverse array of different colors, all blending into each other, making everything seem infinite. Tiny fairies buzzed about the room, serenading Rose with an ethereal melody. Invisible maids were doing the dishes and cleaning the floors and cooking one of the most wonderful meals Rose had ever seen. 

Golgemort turned to Rose, a cocky smirk on his face. “Is it really that horrible?”

Rose looked down, filled with embarrassment. “No, not really, I guess.”

“Anywho, welcome to my humble abode,” Golgemort gestured to the space. A filthy grey dog popped out of its hiding space in the corner.

“What is that!“ Rose said.

“That’s just a dog,”  he said.

“Oh,”  she said. “This place is a bit strange. Are you sure that was a dog? It didn’t look like a dog.”

“Yes, I’m sure it was a dog. Now we have to find a way for you to get back home,” Golgemort said firmly, because he was getting a bit irritated with her and her billion questions.

“Easy, I just go back through that door and go home.”  

“Ha! The door doesn’t stay in one place for too long. It could be anywhere now. The dragon realm, the giant realm, even the realm of the mermaids, and that’s under the sea.”

“Then how do I get home?” she said a bit nervously, thinking she would be stuck in the realm of magic forever.

“Well, the door stays here for at least two days before it leaves for a different realm. And you came here a few minutes ago. So there’s a good chance we can still find it. But it’s dangerous, since in some parts there are dark wizards.” 

Rose gulped. 

“You know, The Cave of Wizards, where I got my wand, I saw some armor and a protection spellbook and we can give Rose a wand,” Leo said.

“You’re right, but she doesn’t know anything about magic,” Golgemort said.

“So what?” Leo said. “I learned magic and I knew nothing about it.”

“Yes, but it took you at least a few weeks to master it, and we only have two days to find the door.”

“Then we’ll only teach her the basic spells, to protect herself,” Leo said.

Golgemort was getting a bit annoyed with the back and forth and finally he said, “All right. Let’s go.”

“Where exactly are we going?” said Rose. 

“The Cave of Wizards!” said Leo. “We’re going to get you a wand and teach you how to protect yourself from the dark wizards.”

“But I don’t know anything about magic!”

“Well, it’s easy. All you have to do is–”

“We’re here!” Golgemort said, standing in front of two big gold doors. 

“Wow,” Rose said.

“This is where we’re going to get you a wand,” said Leo. Golgemort was looking for a wand while Leo told Rose how it works. “But you’d better hold it away from your face, because it’s the wand that chooses you, not you who chooses the wand. So you should be prepared for it to explode in your face if it’s not your wand.”

“Do I have to have a wand?” Rose said.

“Do you want to get killed looking for the door?” Leo said.

“No,” Rose said, a bit frightened.

All of a sudden, Golgemort said, “Try this.” It was a wand in a box, made out of wood with golden feathers wrapping around the bottom.

Leo yelled, “Remember to hold it away from your face if it explodes!”

“If it doesn’t explode within five seconds, it’s your wand,” Golgemort said.

Then Rose said in her head, five… four… three… two… one… Nothing happened, and Golgemort said, “Well done, this is your wand! It took Leo at least three tries to get his. Now we need to teach you spells. The first step is knowing how to hold your wand.”

“Like this?” she asked, holding the wand firmly.

“Yes, but you need to hold it a bit looser.”

“Like this?” she asked.

“Perfect.”

They spent all evening practicing. “Well, it’s getting late, and I think you’ve mastered all the basic spells. I think you should go to bed. Tomorrow morning we can start looking for the door,” Golgemort said.

The next day, when the sun rose, Rose woke up. Golgemort and Leo were already up.

Golgemort asked, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Rose all of a sudden said, “Oh yeah! I forgot my wand!” 

“And?” Golgemort said.

“And I have to get dressed.”

Five minutes later, Rose said, “Now I’m ready to go.” 

“Then let’s go,” Leo said, very excited to go on his first adventure using magic. 

So they set out into the dark part of the woods, where Golgemort assumed it would be, since he had gone into different realms before, and he knew the pattern of the door.

“We’re entering the dark part of the woods,” Golgemort said. “Everybody should get their wands out. Leo, do you have yours?”

“Yes.”
“Rose, do you have yours?”

“Yes.”

“Now we have to enter very quietly,” Golgemort said. “The dark wizards could be watching us.”

They walked for at least an hour. Nothing happened.

Rose said, “We have been walking forever. Are you sure there are dark wizards in the woods?”

Then all of a sudden, the dark wizards knocked them out with a magic spell. 

When they woke up, they were sitting in a small throne room in front of the leader of the dark wizards, Azulon. He had white hair, and one eye looked like it was blind. It was very creepy.

Azulon said, “Golgemort.”

Golgemort said, “Azulon.”

“Whaaaat?” Rose said. 

“I guess I haven’t introduced myself,” said Azulon. “I am Azulon, commander of the dark army, ruler of death, king of the dark wizards.”

“I guess you’re really into darkness,” Rose said. 

“Never mind,” said Azulon. “Why are you in the dark parts of the woods, Golgemort? You know that we are here and you know we kidnap anybody who trespasses.”

“We’re only looking for the door,” Golgemort said.

“So the door is here,” Azulon said, fascinated.

“Yes, why do you want to know?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Azulon said. “To conquer all of the realms!” 

“I should have known,” Golgemort said. “You still have that desire to conquer all the realms.”

“Of course I do. I am the greatest wizard in all of the realms.”

“Wrong!” Leo said. “Golgemort is!”

“Shush! Child,” Azulon said, and put him back to sleep with a spell.

“Why do you want to conquer all the realms so badly?” Rose asked.

“To prove I am the greatest wizard of all time!” Azulon said.

“Won’t that just terrorize people?” Rose said. 

“No! They will think that I am the greatest wizard ever!”

“Enough with saying you’re the greatest wizard! We get it!” Rose said.

Golgemort said, “Just let us pass. It’ll be easier this way.”

“No! I need to keep you here so you don’t find the door before I do.”

“Okay,” Golgemort said, knowing that they had their wands so they could escape.

When Azulon and his guards left, Golgemort used a spell to get him out of the chair. Then he said, “Leo! Wake up!”

“What? What?” Leo said. “How are you out of your chair?”

“Are you blinded, child? I used a spell!”

“Get me out of this chair if you got out of your chair using a spell,” Rose said.

And soon, they were all free. “Now we have to find a way to get out of this building. There are the dark army guards everywhere.”

“What about through the window?” Leo said.

“We can’t do that. The guards are surrounding the building.”

“What if we used a spell to make us invisible?” Leo said. 

“Yes, but we would need a rope, and we would have to make that rope invisible too.”
“Simple. The invisible spells last up to an hour,” Leo said.
“Okay,” Golgemort said, “But first we need to find a rope.”

“Good point.”

“We can only look for one in here, because there are guards outside the door,” Golgemort said. 

“There’s one!” Rose said, pointing to a rope on the wall. 

“Good spotting,” Golgemort said to her. 

“Now we’ve got to make this rope invisible,” Rose said to both Leo and Golgemort. “Could one of you do that?”

“Sure,” Leo said, taking out his wand and making the rope invisible. “Now we have to make ourselves invisible.” 

Golgemort said, “I’ll make you two invisible, but Leo will have to make me invisible.”

Golgemort made Leo and Rose invisible. Leo and Rose put their hands in front of their faces, but they couldn’t see them.

“Where are you guys?” Golgemort said.

“Right here,” they said. 

“Well, you guys shouldn’t move, otherwise you could get lost because I can’t see you. Leo, I’m right in front of you, you can now cast the spell with your wand.”

“You are now invisible,” Leo said.

“I already knew that! Now we have to find a place to put the rope where the guards aren’t.”

“Right here,” Rose said, while pointing. 

“Great spotting,” Golgemort said again. 

So they opened the window, placed the rope in between the guards, and climbed down the rope as silently and quickly as possible. When they were all down, they started running into the woods, as silently and quickly as possible.

They ran for twenty-five minutes and at least two miles away from the secret lair. Then they had been running for an hour, and wouldn’t stop, knowing that they might get caught. Then, they collapsed. They couldn’t even see the secret lair anymore, so they knew that the dark army hadn’t caught up with them. 

When they woke up, they saw the door in the distance. But then, they realized that there was a big river with crocodiles. They had to figure out a way across it. 

Then, they realized they had forgotten their wands back at the secret lair. 

Then Golgemort said, “It’s all right, I can do magic with my hands.” Then he did a spell that created a very high bridge across the river. 

They crossed the bridge, but then they realized that the door was moving slowly, so it was farther away than it was before. So they kept walking, and walking, and walking, and walking, and walking, and walking, until they saw flying books in the air.

“Careful, they’re really dangerous,” Golgemort said. 

“How dangerous can flying books be?” said Leo, so he walked up to them and they started flying around him and hitting him on the head. “Yep, they’re definitely–” he collapsed. 

“We better wake him up,” Golgemort said. “Azulon could come into the room where we were kidnapped and find out we escaped any minute. Leo! Leo! Wake up!”

Rose yelled, “Look! The door is moving again! We have to wake him up!”

“Okay, I’ll use my spell to wake him up.” Golgemort woke him up. 

Leo said, “Ugh, what happened?”

Then Rose said, “The door is moving quickly! We gotta go!”

Leo stood up and said, “But we’re going to need a protection spell to get past the books.”

“Good idea,” said Golgemort.

“Great,” said Rose.

“How do we cast that spell?” Leo said. “All our wands are in the secret lair.”
“Golgemort can do hand magic,” said Rose. “That’s how we got across the river, remember?”

“No, not really,” Leo said. “And can’t you remember I was hit by a bunch of books so I don’t remember stuff?”

“Oh, right,” Rose said. “Either way, the door is moving faster and faster. It looks like it’s going to go into another realm. We have to catch up with it.” 

So they started running towards the door, but then they stumbled upon the flying books.

“Now we need to protect ourselves,” said Rose. “Golgemort, can you make a protection spell?”

“I can try,” Golgemort said. “Aluminos devatos!” He said. And when they walked by the books, they didn’t get hit by any. 

“It worked!” Rose said. 

“I know,” Leo said.

“I told you,” Golgemort said.

Then Rose yelled, “Look! The door is moving even faster than before! We’ve got to move!” 

So they started to run and run and run. They couldn’t catch up to the door, so they decided to run even faster. Then, Leo spotted Azulon and his dark army behind them. 

“Um, I think we’ve got company,” Leo said. 

“Oh, no,” Golgemort said.

“Not them,” Rose said. “How are we gonna get away from them?”

“I don’t know,” Leo said.

“I think I might have a way,” Golgemort said. “If we keep running, we’ll tire them out. The Dark Army can’t stay alive for long, they’re from the dead.” They kept running and running and finally caught up to the door when the door stopped. 

Then, all of a sudden, a voice said, “We’ve got you!” They turned around and it was Azulon, holding up his wand. “Surrender now!” Azulon said. 

Golgemort and Leo yelled at the same time, “Rose, go!”

“No!” Rose said.

“Just go!” yelled Golgemort.

“No! I’m not going to just leave you to die with Azulon!”

“It’s fine! I’ve dealt with him before!”

“I’ll come back to help you!” Rose said, a bit sad. And she went through the door.

So once there was a beautiful raisin with beautiful hair. Her name was Berniece. She was going to the supermarket to get more salt and sugar to make salty sugary water. Berniece put on her sun hat and stepped outside. When she got outside, Berniece burned her wrinkly skin and got a rain jacket to not get burned. Once again, she got outside with her beautiful sun hat, rain jacket, and taco bag.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” a random stranger yelled. “I’m having a — I need a taco bag. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Berniece was very annoyed by this random guy’s tantrum. Luckily she had a 30-inch sized megaphone in her taco bag.

“Stop throwing a tantrum! Jeez!” yelled Berniece.

So the random stranger rolled away. He had no gender, so it was just trying to get lots of attention like the song “Attention.” A very good song. It also wanted lots of tacos because it was broken and also wanted a taco bag. After all that commotion, Berniece was only 120 centimeters away from the supermarket and her salt and sugar. She was walking and walking, but then a giant wrecking ball came out of nowhere and blocked the pass to the supermarket. The only way to get to the supermarket was to be Miley Cyrus and swing on the wrecking ball.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Berniece screamed with joy.

After the new Berniece Cyrus was done with her musical number, she dropped, stopped, and rolled right into the supermarket into the salt and sugar aisle. She put her salt and sugar in her taco bag and got them for free. So she got outside with her free groceries, but then Miley Cyrus popped out of nowhere and swung away with her wrecking ball.

So Berniece was driving her beautiful Lamborghini home after she finished swimming in 300,000 gallons of cranberry juice. When she went to go park her Lamborghini, she saw her jam jar of mail, and there was a magical golden letter that said… 

Congratulations! You are invited to the most fancy clancy lunch ever.

Berniece was flattered that she was going to eat fancy lunch in a fancy house. So she got her most fancy taco suit with her matching taco purse, not a bag. After she got her outfit done, she put sugar in her hair so she could be sweet. (Cringy.) Berniece was all ready for her fancy lunch. At the fancy clancy lunch there were 1,000,000,000 pizzas. There was also a guy with bunny slippers and french fries as a hat and 100,000,000,000,000,000 tacos. The host of the fancy clancy lunch was wearing a pink, fluffy unicorn outfit with 100,000,000,000,000,000 Chipotle sandwiches. It was a beautiful fancy clancy lunch. So Berniece left the fancy clancy lunch with 300 gallons of cranberry juice and 50,000,000 chipotle sandwiches.

So, after Berniece left her fancy clancy lunch, she went to her muffin house and made 300 gallons worth of cranberry gelatin in her house to last her 69 weeks of pure gelatin. She would leave the leftovers for when Russia and America start a feud.

Berniece is very stubborn because she keeps on getting invitations to important missions that just randomly happen. Very, very suspenseful… so, Berniece went to her jam jar of mail and saw… (suspense)… another letter to join the Russia Government Corporation. Berniece got her 300 gallons of cranberry gelatin for the one year in Russia. After she got to Russia, she got a computer and exploded McDonald’s, Chipotle, Wendy’s, and Burger King by exploding all the food and tables and chairs.

After Berniece finished exploding food and furniture, the Russian government wanted Berniece to destroy Taco Bell with boom boom explosion. So Berniece was very disappointed that she needed to destroy Taco Bell. Berniece didn’t explode Taco Bell, but she exploded Russia instead. So, at the end, Berniece left Russia with new, cool hacking skills and secrets. She went home with her gelatin and new computer from Russia. And her brand new car from Russia. So Berniece went to go drive in her new car all the way to the Los Angeles beach. And she got her tan on.

Berniece was burning in the sun. She was in raisin form, so she saw the sun burned a hole in her muffin house. So, Berniece got her pool noodle and 50,000 beach chairs and her Dora towel and (temporary) boyfriend Barney and her DJ set. Barney went to wrinkly beach because they are raisins. The beach was in a sandbox. So, they put down their stuff and music. Berniece put on the song “Señorita.”

So, Berniece was the new Jesus because she separated the water with her pool noodle because she dropped her spoon. So, she washed her spoon and ate her Taco Bell taco and fed the birds tacos and put some in jail because they attacked her. Then after the birds attacked Berniece, she got all the sand and her 1,000,000 meter shovel and dug a hole all the way to her muffin house because she forgot her sunscreen. She also needed her Berniece limited edition figure. Barney got lost at sea on a cruise. So, Berniece left the beach single.

There was once a man named Lefty. Nobody knew his real name. He lived in the woods. He also loved flowers. Red flowers, blue flowers, and yellow flowers. But he always did everything with his left hand. 

But one night, he was heading to bed when two motorcycle people came in.

“MY GARDENS!” Lefty screamed. 

  The motorcycle dude did a trick with the stick that sent the knife flying and cut his left hand off.

“MY HAND, MY HAND!” Lefty screamed. He ran back to his cabin, but by then, it was too late. He had already bled out.

***
About a year later, a few kids came into the camp. They were staying up late when one of them went into Lefty’s cabin. But he did not come out, so the others went in to get him. They heard a scream. The kid’s head came rolling out of the room. They went inside the room. They all gaped in horror at what they saw. Not someone but something. Nobody ever heard from the kids again!

Once upon a time there was a cupcake. A wise old tree had once told him his fortune was to have jelly. This wise tree was his mother. You should listen to your parents.

So he went to McDonalds because there was food there and said, “Hi. I’d like some jelly please.” The McDonalds waiters were very rude and instead of giving it to him, they threw the jelly in his face. Then the cupcake cried and his tears washed it off. 

He then walked to a laundry place. He walked in and asked, “Do you have any jelly?” 

“No,” said the person at the front desk. “You should try that jelly store across the street.”

So cupcake went over to the jelly store. “Hello. Do you have any jelly?”

“No.”

“But this is a jelly store.”

“It’s a jam store.”

“What’s jam?”

“Jelly.”

“I’ll take some jam then.”

“We don’t sell cars.”

“I did not ask for a car! I want Jelly!”

“I thought you said you wanted a traffic jam.”

“I’m leaving,” said the cupcake. So he left. He then arrived at a strange creepy door. It screeched when he opened it. Inside was a giant. He was holding a bat.

“Do you have jelly?”

The giant grunted, “Try that store.” He was pointing at the jam store.

“That’s a jam store.”

The giant shouted and hit the cupcake with his bat.

The cupcake woke up in a hospital cot. His mother, the wise old tree was leaning over him. She said, “I did not tell you your fortune was to have jelly. I told you that you had a fat belly.”

The cupcake turned red.

The End.

Lloyd is in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. He has always loved the ocean and is amazed by all the creatures in it. He swims to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine and sees a six gill shark. He sees a reef octopus, a great reef shark, a luminescent jellyfish, and anglerfish. 

Inside his submarine, Lloyd is always prepared. He has water, food, and tools to protect him in case an octopus attacks the submarine. One of Lloyd’s tools is a mask, so he can swim in the ocean when he leaves the submarine. He also has a suit with air tanks so he can breathe. In his submarine, Lloyd travels to the Arctic and he sees Arctic krill. Arctic krill can grow only up to two inches.

Lloyd came to the Arctic to learn about the ocean because he is a marine scientist. Lloyd loves the ocean because he wants to learn about how it changes over time. 

He is always angry that people were harming the ocean by throwing trash into it. The ocean is dying because of the trash being thrown in it every year and global warming. This makes it a hard place to learn about. This is because the fish, bottlenose dolphins, grey reef sharks, and all the other animals are dying.

Lloyd wants to save the ocean by building a special machine that sucks up trash from the ocean. When he gets back to shore, he puts back his submarine, and then he goes to his lab. He starts building his machine. To start building he needs metal, a screwdriver, screws, and all his other materials. Lloyd works by himself at the lab because he is a private marine scientist. But he does have a crew that works with him. Only tonight, Lloyd comes into his lab late and the rest of his crew is sleeping. Lloyd is best friends with his crew. 

A few hours later, he goes to bed, and then wakes up at 12pm. He goes out of bed and goes back to his lab to keep working on his machine. He works on his machine for seven days. After one week, Lloyd is super happy that he finished his machine. 

Before he puts it in the ocean, Lloyd has to do a test run. He sets up the experiment in his bathroom, and pretends the bathtub is the ocean. The test is a success! Now Lloyd knows that the machine works and he is ready to bring it to the ocean. 

The next morning he wakes up very early, and goes into the ocean in his submarine. He brings the machine to the ocean and turns it on. 8,000,000,000,000,000 pounds of trash are sucked up by the machine. Lloyd did it!  The ocean is saved. 

But he forgets one thing. Today is his birthday. He puts all the trash in his trash can and goes to the store to buy supplies for his birthday. 

He sets everything up and even bakes a cake. He looks at his watch and wonders why no one has arrived. Then he realizes that he forgot to send invitations. He decides to send invitations to his crew. A few hours later, his crew arrives, and he has his birthday party. They play bob the apple, spin the bottle, catch the cannonball. They split up into teams and play cannonball, which is when you throw an 1,800 pound bowling ball into the air and have to catch it. And then they play basketball for 18 hours. 

After their game, Lloyd heads to the ocean to discover more about it. He goes back to Australia’s Great Barrier reef and sees an electrical eel and a wedgehog shark. 

At first he doesn’t see the wedgehog shark because it blends into the environment. Out of nowhere, the shark jumps out at Lloyd’s submarine and starts chomping on the side of the submarine.

The wedgehog shark loses its teeth because the submarine is metal. The shark travels back to his friends to search for clams with them.

After the shark leaves, Lloyd goes to the Pacific Ocean. He sees a blue whale. It is the biggest animal that ever lived. It’s two times bigger than the biggest dinosaur. Its cub drinks 200 gallons of milk from its mother each day. 

Lloyd travels to the Atlantic Ocean. He sees a giant squid, which is called Caribbean Reef octopus. The giant squid has eight arms, one eye, and can eat two crabs at a time. He also sees a horseshoe crab. The horseshoe crab has ten legs and they can be many colors, like black and brown. He travels to the bottom of the ocean and sees a cookie cutter shark. The cookie cutter shark is bioluminescent, which means that it glows in the dark. The baby cookie cutter sharks stick onto whales and make cookie shaped bites. The adult cookie cutter sharks make large cookie shaped bites. Cookie cutter sharks eat squid, dolphins, and baby whales. 

The last ocean Lloyd goes to is the Indian Ocean. Lloyd goes there to learn about the sea creatures living there. The Indian Ocean is the youngest ocean. It was formed 64 million years ago. Lloyd sees a spinner dolphin and a dusky dolphin. Lloyd also sees a Great Reef Shark, which mostly eats fish. The biggest dolphin is an orca. Another name for the orca is killer whale. The reason why people call this killer whale is because it looks like a whale, but it is really a dolphin. An orca is the biggest kind of dolphin on earth. The Indian Ocean has the least amount of creatures of all the oceans. 

Lloyd goes back to the Atlantic Ocean and sees a lionfish. He also goes to the Coastal Waters of South Australia. There are whale sharks, which have spots and eat plankton. Cookie cutter sharks also feed on them. He also sees a manta ray. Manta rays are the size of three king sized beds. Manta rays can jump as high as 7ft outside the water, so they can jump over a seven foot wall. They eat mainly plankton. Phytoplankton use the sun as their food. Phytoplankton are 2 millimeters.

Then, Lloyd visits an American Coral Reef. At the American Coral Reef, Lloyd sees a family of wedgehog sharks. One of the shark’s dorsal fins slaps the side of the submarine. Lloyd quickly turns the submarine the other direction and travels for eight days. 

After eight days, Lloyd goes back home. It’s about time that he goes back to the lab. When he gets there, his crew his ready to work. 

Once he gets to the lab, Lloyd starts making statues of the animals he saw. He wants to put them in the museum and show all the people what he saw. The first animal Lloyd starts working on is the Caribbean Reef octopus. 

One animal Lloyd didn’t look for was the Great White Shark, but he still makes a statue of one. He remembers what it looks like from when he saw one when he was six at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. When he went there all those years ago, Lloyd also saw a bull shark.

Lloyd keeps making statues and starts working on the one of a blue whale. Lloyd works on his statues for eight months straight without sleeping. He only sleeps for 5 minutes each day. 

After eight months, Lloyd is finally finished with his project. After he puts them into the museum, everyone gets to see them and learn about the oceans and reefs. Lloyd gets a million dollars from the museum manager. 

THE END

One day a cow named Lucas is playing at the park with Nobey, and then he wants to pee, so he does, but instead he is playing in the bathroom. He’s playing with the toilet and stuffing toilet paper inside the toilet. The toilet starts to gurgle and it explodes, making all the other toilets explode too. And then, he explodes the whole bathroom. The cow throws the bricks into the park, and the park starts exploding too. The cow then explodes the whole city by throwing bricks everywhere. There’s only one person left on earth, and the only person is the cow. The cow wants to take over the world and explode the world. He is going to make his own cows. He will have an army of cows so no one will come. The cow lays eggs to make more cows to fill the whole city. They build new buildings and doors shaped like cows. All types of food in the world are shaped like a cow, even poop. They make more cow-shaped things like cups, dishes, rugs, chairs, and boxes. Then, pigs from space come to take over the cows. Other animals that come from space come to make teams to battle to take the city. The winners get the city. The other animals have to go home to space.

They use their whole body to fight each other. The cows, lions, jaguars, and the elephants win. Everyone else goes back to space. They change the city and break it all up into fourths. They make the shapes of what they are in the cities. Cows make cow-shaped things, jaguars make jaguar-shaped things, lions make lion-shaped things, and elephants make elephant-shaped things. And then they all battle each other to see who will take the whole city.

And everything explodes. It was too much of a racket! It is now a pile of dust and stones. It blows away into the ocean. Most of the sea creatures die because of the pollution. Only squids survive.

Mr. Eel is 15 and wants to go to Eel World for freedom. He has been trying to go to Eel World for eight years. He first started going when he was seven. Every time he tries to go to Eel World, Mr. Shark chases him away. Mr. Shark chases him away because eels are sharks’ dinner. Mr. Shark is never able to eat Mr. Eel because he runs away. But Mr. Eel is a weirdo eel because he never uses his electrical powers on Mr. Shark.

Mr. Eel doesn’t like Mr. Shark because he ate Mr. Eel’s brother. Mr. Eel’s brother wasn’t a weirdo eel, so he was going to use his electrical powers, but Mr. Shark was too fast. Mr. Eel and his brother were both 13 when Mr. Shark ate him. They were twins.

Mr. Eel wants to get revenge for his brother. He wants to kill Mr. Shark, but he’s too dumb to use his electric powers. He thinks he’s a normal eel. He doesn’t know he’s an electric eel.

In the beginning, Mr. Eel’s brother killed Mr. Shark’s brother. And then Mr. Shark killed Mr. Eel’s brother.

The first thing he does is think of a way to kill Mr. Shark. He thinks of a trap. He’s going to pretend he’s swimming near a pretend fish so that Mr. Shark will chase both of them. The real Mr. Eel and the real Mr. Fish are friends. After Mr. Shark chases both of them, he licks his lips. But they’re both really fast. Then they stop, and he tries to eat them. But then the spike comes out and traps him, but he gets away using his fins to stop the spikes. He’s quite injured and goes to the shark hospital.

While Mr. Shark is in the hospital, Mr. Shark’s sister comes along. Mr. Eel notices Mrs. Shark. So then he notices that he has a yellow spot and thinks that it is a strong spot and uses it, and then electricity start shooting everywhere. He points it at Mrs. Shark, and Mrs. Shark dies. 

Mr. Shark finds out in the hospital, and he gets really angry. He gets a lot of lollipops, and he eats them. Then he gets really strong. He plays some soccer. He finds out that his fins are fine. He looks around for Mr. Eel and Mr. Fish. Mr. Eel spots him and goes toward him. He presses the yellow spot that shoots electricity. He misses on the first shot. He misses on the second shot. He misses on the third shot. He misses on the fourth shot. He misses every shot until the 1,000th shot.

Mr. Eel celebrates by throwing a party with all of his friends: Mr. Fish, Mr. Seahorse, Mr. Starfish, Mr. Frog, and Mr. Dolphin and Mr. Whale. Then they go on a cruise, but the cruise sinks, so they jump off of the ship and get on a speedboat and go all around the world. And then they come back to their ocean, go home, and get some rest.

The End.

There was a girl who owned a cat, and that cat had baby kittens. The girl was named Lulu, and she wanted to keep Cardinal, her favorite kitten.

Cardinal was orangey and had black all around its eyes and mouth, and that’s what made her look like a Cardinal.

But her mom said, “Lulu, you have to sell them.”

Lulu felt very mad. She tried to hide the kittens—she put them in her bedroom and locked the bedroom door. But she thought her mom would make her unlock the door, so she hid them under the covers in her bed. Her mom found out where she hid them because Lulu’s brother told the mom. 

Next, a kid walking along the street with their mom asked to buy Cardinal. The kid’s mom had told her that Lulu’s family was selling kittens and her kid was looking for a pet. Cardinal the kitten wanted to stay with Lulu. She tried to run away and hide, but Lulu’s mom caught Cardinal. The kid was named Mary.

Mary loved cats. Cardinal squirmed in the cage. Mary walked to her home holding the cage. She looked very, very happy. When she got inside, she opened the cage and hugged Cardinal. Cardinal was happy but still missed Lulu. Meanwhile, Lulu was sitting on her bed thinking about Cardinal. She wondered if Cardinal escaped from the cage and was coming to her house. She wondered if Cardinal loved her new owner, but Lulu hoped Cardinal would come back. Cardinal was having a happy life with Mary, but she was hungry.

She walked towards Mary and said, “Meow,” and Mary wondered if Cardinal was hungry.

So she got a kitty bowl and filled it with cat food. Cardinal gobbled it up. It was delicious! She never had wet cat food before, only dry cat food. But now that she tried wet cat food, she really liked it. She drank some water and went to the couch to take a nap. Lulu, on the other hand, thought Cardinal was having a happy life. She knew Mary was a nice girl and that she knew how to take care of Cardinal because Mary had a pet cat before her, and Lulu came to Mary’s house to see the cat. The next day, Cardinal woke up to a fresh new day. Cardinal looked around and noticed Mary was still asleep in bed. She walked to Mary’s bedroom, pushed the door open, and jumped on Mary’s bed. She licked Mary’s face and laid down on her floor. Mary got out of bed and walked to her mom and dad’s room. 

“Mom, can I go outside?”

“Yes,” she replied.

Mary walked outside, and with her chalk, she drew a picture of Cardinal and thought about activities she could do with Cardinal. She came back inside and got breakfast ready for the family. She poured cat food into Cardinal’s food bowl. Cardinal smelled the food and ate it while Mary’s family ate breakfast. Cardinal wondered what to play with Mary now that she got used to the new home. Mary walked to Cardinal. She told Cardinal she was going to the pet store to get a collar for her because she wanted to play with Cardinal in her backyard. Mary’s mom walked with Mary to the pet store. Mary got a collar that was Cardinal’s size, and it was red. She wrote Cardinal’s name on the collar and the address of the house. When Mary and her mom entered the house, Cardinal came to Mary. Mary put the collar on Cardinal. Cardinal tried to look at it but couldn’t. She still loved the collar!

Mary took Cardinal outside to play. Mary drew with chalk. She drew a picture of her and Cardinal. Cardinal, on the other hand, ran around in the backyard chasing a rubber ball. Mary told Cardinal that she was really good at soccer. Cardinal scored another goal in the soccer net. Mary’s mom weaved the soccer net before. The next day Mary’s mom was on the phone calling Lulu for a playdate at Mary’s house. Mary was excited because she hadn’t seen Lulu in a long time.

When Lulu came, she asked, “How is Cardinal doing?”

“Cardinal is doing great!” Mary replied.

“Awesome,” Lulu told Mary. Lulu told Mary that she could take care of Cardinal for the rest of Cardinal’s life until Cardinal had babies just like her mom. Cardinal licked Lulu, and Lulu hugged Cardinal. Lulu and Mary played for a little while until the playdate ended. The two girls and Cardinal had happy lives.

The End.

Once there was a dolphin coming from school. Then there was a hurricane. It pushed her away from going home. It pushed her deep in the ocean where there was a giant squid who blocked her way. He pushed her from leaving home. The squid was as big as a ten story building. When the squid wasn’t looking, the dolphin went right past its arms. But then the squid caught him again. The squid held him and squeezed him. The dolphin was stuck with the squid until somebody saw him.

A seahorse saw them and tried to help the dolphin. It tried to distract the squid while the dolphin went out. It worked, but then it didn’t work. The seahorse got captured by the squid too. The seahorse and dolphin grabbed the squid’s arms and escaped. And then they finally got out and become friends. But the squid tried to chase them! And they ran around in circles five times. And then the squid trapped them with the net. But the dolphin and the seahorse found scissors buried in the ground, and they cut a hole in the net. And then they swam away.

They were going to go play in the park without getting seen by the squid. They played on the swings and on the slide and then they played tag. Then they went to meet the seahorse family and played until it was time to go. On the way home the dolphin saw the squid, and the squid saw the dolphin, and the dolphin was surprised because the dolphin thought that the squid would not come back. The squid grabbed the dolphin, who screamed for help. It didn’t work, so he screamed again. And then the seahorse came, and he saw what was going on, so he tried to help. He grabbed the dolphin from the squid, and they swam away. The squid followed them and tried to get them. But the dolphin and the seahorse were too fast. And then they hid, and the squid couldn’t find them. And then they said goodbye, and the dolphin went home, and they never saw the squid again. 

The End.

“Steven, will you please come up here and show everyone how to draw a cake?” Ms. Clinton asked me.

I stood up and slowly walked to the whiteboard, hoping the bell would ring. I grabbed a marker and tried drawing a cake. Oliver, the school bully, teased me, saying that my ‘cake’ looked like a broken down house. I tried again. And again. And again. I came up with a circle with a few dots in the middle. I told everyone that it was a bird’s eye view to a cake. Luckily, that’s when the bell rang. Art is my last class, and Eddy and I grabbed our backpacks and walked home. Eddy is my best friend and also my neighbor.

Since it was a Monday, I luckily had my allowance from Sunday. We stopped by Sydney’s Sweets and walked in.

“Two Tinker bars and a large bag of chips, please,” I told Sydney, the manager. 

“That will be $3.50,” Sydney said, handing me the treats.

I gave her a five-dollar bill and collected my change. I handed Eddy a Tinker and stuffed the chips in my bag.

After a few seconds of walking and a few minutes of talking, Eddy and I stopped in our tracks. We saw my parents standing in front of my house, putting everything into a truck that said MOVING MASTERS on the sides. My parents were talking to someone who was helping them put the suitcases and furniture in the truck. I ran to my parents and asked them what was happening. My mom told me to pack my stuff and that she’ll explain it to me later.

Eddy came upstairs with me and helped me pack. I took my suitcase out of the shelf and stuffed my clothes in it. Eddy asked me if I knew what was happening. I shook my head and finished packing. Eddy said that he should go home now. My mom came upstairs and sat on the bed. She told me to sit down.

“Steven, your father was promoted to Vice President of his company. His new office is on the other side of the state. We are moving to Oaktown.”

I froze. That was three hours away! A lot of thoughts rushed through my head. Which school will I go to? Will I make friends? Is our house going to be big? Are my teachers going to be nice?

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I lay in bed, thinking about what my mother said. Tossing and turning, I looked at my full suitcase next to the door. All of my furniture except my bed was inside of the truck, including my reading chair and my desk. Even my closet! I still didn’t know when we were leaving.

“Steve, wake up!” That was my dad. “We are leaving on Friday. I’ll pick you up from school, and Mom and Molly will be waiting in the car outside.”

Dad made me pancakes—my favorite—for breakfast. The maple syrup was dripping down my chin as the puffy pancakes melted in my mouth.

It was a normal school day; I had epic fails in art class but crushed PE. At the end of the day, we had an announcement. The principal, Mr. Mikelly, told us that a tennis tournament was coming up. Tennis was my favorite sport! He showed us the trophy, and I started jumping with joy. It was a golden man in trophy position. On the side of the stand, it said Tennis Tournament 2019 – Awarded to 

I imagined it saying my name, Steven Trenton. I was the first one to sign up for the tournament.

The next day was tournament day. I was playing Hudson Matts. It was my serve. I served and won the point. Soon the game. Soon the set. And then the match. Time for the quarter finals. Won. Semifinals. Won. Finals time. I was playing Oliver Frenzy. I lifted my racquet and smashed the ball. He hit it back to me. Slice! After a few sets, I looked up at the scoreboard. It was a deuce. The match point for both of us. Oliver served, and I played a backhand. Unfortunately, he smashed it, and it was his point. Advantage for Frenzy. Then it was deuce again. Advantage for Trenton. Deuce. My advantage again. I hit a powerful forehand with the win. I received my trophy and medal. I spotted Oliver on the bench, with sweat all over his face. I walked over to him.

“Tough game.”

He didn’t reply. Eddy ran over to me. 

“Great job, dude!” he said. “Nobody here is as good as you!”

Friday was the day before I moved. That morning when I went to school, the day flew by. In the afternoon, we had another announcement. But this time, Mr. Mikelly called me up on stage. The last time I went up there was my play in second grade! I was kind of nervous when I went up there. 

“Today, we have a very special announcement. One of our students, Steven Trent, is moving to Oaktown today. He is also our tennis champion. We will miss him.”

My dad came into the room. I gave Eddy a hug, and Dad and I left.

In the car, I stared out the window. I saw the trees and suddenly the big city. The tall buildings were gleaming in the sunlight, and the cars zoomed through town. People wearing suits and ties walked from one building to another. This must Oaktown, the big city. Finally, I saw a big apartment building. It had a swimming pool and a playground. I was astonished. I read a big sign. Now, I lived in Pretcot Towers. Awesome!