CHAPTER 1

I was walking toward the subway station with earbuds ringing with the sound of 50 Cent in my ears to help me walk on. When my tired legs got to sit down on the subway seat…

“Kasye,” Mom said.

I looked up to see Grace (my sister) holding her hand out. I rolled my eyes to Mom. Her green eyes pointed at my hand. I knew what my sister wanted. I stopped the music on my phone, pulled out my earbuds from my ear, and handed everything to Grace. Grace played a game while listening to Justin Bieber. Grace says she’s a “Belieber” (she’s obsessed with Justin Bieber). Then, all of a sudden, the subway lights went out. I heard someone scream, then the subway car stopped. I heard a huge CREAK and then the subway car fell sideways.

CHAPTER 2

My head throbbed. I heard my sister cry. People were holding up their phone flashlights for light.

“Listen up!” a man’s voice said, “Point your flashlights at the subway door. We’ll try to open the doors.”

“What will happen after that?” a voice said.

Everybody was silent, shining their flashlights on the door.

“We walk,” he said.

“One… two… three… push!” Creeeak went the door.

“Oh –– ” I covered Grace’s ears.

“It’s open,” the guy said.

The silence broke and everybody started toward the door. I went out into the track and saw more closely the guy who opened the door. He had light, straight, gold hair, sky-colored eyes with a hint of jade. Tall and strong. Right when I walked out of the car, he started to walk with me.

“Hi,” he finally said.

“Hi,” I said back.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Should I tell you my name?” I asked.

“I’m Carter,” Carter smiled.

“I’m Kasye.” I said.

“Cute name,” he said.

“I look like a poppy,” I blushed.

“No, you look more like a rose.”

I blushed more.

CHAPTER 3

I was scared. It was cold. I squeezed my sister’s hand.

“It’s okay,” Carter said, rubbing my back.

People tried to call 911, family, police, but there was no wifi. The driver was dead and his walkie-talkie was broken.

We were stuck.

We had to walk.

And I wanted to survive.

I put Grace on my shoulders to try to call 911. I shivered. Walked to the right of the tracks where there was a hill in the middle of the tracks going down, so we didn’t get electrified. Mom was helping an old woman whose leg was broken. 

“I’m scared too,” Carter said.

“Can I trust you?” I asked in my serious voice.

“Yes,” he said, not smiling but looking me in the eye.

I put Grace down. Then I hugged Carter and cried on his shoulder. He hugged back. And in that moment I felt safe.

CHAPTER 4

Dead mice and trash covered the area, sewage and mud pooled into my shoes, and the worst part, I was in love.

Yes. Carter. My heart thumped in me as he came closer.

“It’s so hot in here!” Grace complained.

“Go ask Mom for water,” I said.

Grace was right. People had bare skin showing right now. Even Carter had his sweater off.

“STOP! Don’t drink that, honey!” a woman’s voice shouted.

I turned to look as a kid found a puddle of swampy, muddy, sandy sewage water. The worst part was the kid put a scoop in his hand and gulped it down. The mom ran over as the kid threw up on the track. This was getting bad. Luckily, there was a doctor with his tools in his bag. The doctor made the kid throw up again. And the problem was that more people got sick. Even Mom did, and Carter said he would wait with us until she got better.

You might think I was crazy, but I met a stranger who was crazy cute and I now was crazy in love with. That’s a lot of crazy.

“Over the past hours,” Carter said, “I feel the need to admit something… I…” he blushed, “lo –– ”

“Love you,” I finished.

“I love you too,” Carter said.

Then I learned up and looked him in the eye and we kissed.

Chapter 5

We walked and walked.

And when we saw a bright light behind us, I thought it was heaven. There was screaming. I heard Carter yell, “TRAIN!”

He pushed me right as the train flew over him.

At first, I was confused. But then I saw red. A puddle of red. And then I saw legs, feet, arms, more red.

“NO!” I said as I realized it was Carter’s body.

He was dead.

Mom put her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s keep going,” she tried to sooth my wrinkling heart but like a sharpie it stayed.

We walked three more hours. I was devastated the whole way, crying and barely able to keep my balance. But then we saw another bright light, this time not coming toward us.

Chapter 6

“Yes!” people yelled, rushing toward the light. I did too.

Finally, we jumped off the tracks and on the platform.

“Ahh!” people yelled. And then everything went blank.

I woke up to beige walls and curtains. Hospital. I felt rested, calm, but I remembered Carter and his body sucked in a red bloodbath. Mom and Grace walked in and gave me a kiss on the head and a heart-warming hug. I got out of the hospital and looked up at the frostbite sky and thought, Peace, finally, peace.

I walked home, my feet crunching in the snow. Although Grace had crutches, we were fine. And although Mom was in a wheelchair, we were fine. And although my heart had one huge piece missing, we were fine. Fine, or good, or okay, or not too bad. Like a bird flying and soaring… and then falling in an ocean, drowning, and dying, never to see the light again. That’s fine to me.

That night, I met Grace in Mom’s room for nightmares haunting me, reseeing the horrors I saw. And then we all woke up and played Sorry the game.

Chapter 7

Three Days Later…

I woke up to the chirping of birds. I put on my robe and grabbed a mug and made coffee. Mom was in the kitchen making blueberry pancakes. I grabbed some and sat on the couch. I watched the news and finally something caught my attention.

The headline: “One More Boy Walks Out From Subway… A Boy Named Carter.”

“Carter!?” I yelled. I ran to the hospital, only to see Carter outside in the snow staring at me.

I ran and threw myself into his arms. We fell in a pile of snow and rolled around, hugging.

“How?! What?” I said.

“You left me there!”

“What? I thought you were dead!”

“Didn’t you want a funeral with MY BODY?”

“We were scared! You would’ve held us behind!” I said, crying. Carter looked at me with a bitter face. The tears burned with flames and then froze in the cold.

“Do you love me?” I asked with the bitter face mask still on.

He didn’t seem to know how to answer.

“I….” But I knew his answer. “Don’t,” he said.

My face softened and turned from surprise to pity.

“What did I do!?” I yelled.

“You left me. I’ll never be able to play football again!”

He walked away.

“Do you… hate me?” I said out of breath.

At first, I thought he didn’t hear me, but he stopped. He turned and he was crying too. Then he walked away.

Chapter 8

My legs ached, my head ached, and my heart ached. I went to the hospital and I waited for my appointment. Outside, in the silent waiting room, I heard, “… you know you’ll die soon.”

“I… know,” said a voice I knew was Carter.

Then crying. His mom. And I was tearing up the memories of Carter.

One Week Later…

Carter was dead. Gone. And I was at his funeral.

“We will remember Carter…” I was sick in the belly. Hurt, and dissolved. My life, my heart, gone.

“I never wanted a coffee shop, Dad! Why do I have to work here? It’s not fair. This coffee shop doesn’t even look good, or have my favorite color, pink. Plus, it has weird drawings of coffee, and the tables are made of coffee beans. And I don’t want to work in a weird place without the color pink. Everything is brown! The walls, the cups! I just want to play outside with my friends. Look, they’re all playing out there,” I said with my arms crossed, standing beside the line. We had just opened the coffee shop and there was a huge line outside. We only had three employees and I had to be the fourth. It wasn’t fair.

My dad yelled back, “Well, you have to work here. Plus, you’re embarrassing me in front of the customers. Go to the counter. Look, there’s a HUGE line. And you’ve got to buy everything and make the recipes. And it’s not a joke. So have fun, goodbye.”

Some people in the line were staring at us. Other people were covering their children’s ears and eyes. And other people were just trying to not look, and looking at the walls. I couldn’t believe they were looking at the walls and not at us – the walls were really ugly. I went to the counter and started taking orders. There were a lot of orders.

The only employee who helped me learn all about the coffee making was Serina. I was in charge of buying everything at the supermarket and taking the orders, and she was in charge of making the coffee. She would always make hearts and pretty things on the surface of the coffee if it had milk, like lattes, frappuccinos, cafe con leche, and things like that. She told me that she wanted to be an architect or a painter when she grew up. She had always painted at her home. Now she was painting at the coffee shop. She painted the entire coffee shop and the tables (more like bought them, but don’t tell her I told you that).

At the end of the month, it was payday. We had enough money to pay everyone, but we didn’t win a lot for ourselves –– each one of us had earned only $10. This time, we bought new ingredients, and we knew exactly how our customers liked it. The first time I made a coffee, the customer asked for half the amount of sugar. I put way more than half the amount, and he spit it out and said he thought it was disgusting. But then, when I made the same coffee for another customer, she loved it and said she would come every day. The line eventually got bigger.

Now we had planned out each recipe and made a new menu, with new employees whom we had hired. Their names were Emily and Joey. They were our coffee servers. By the end of that month, each one of us had made at least $40.

Finally, the two months were over, but I had had a lot of fun. I kind of did want to stay in the coffee shop with all my friends; the friends that were always playing outside had all gone to New Jersey. I hate New Jersey. Don’t tell them I told you that. Basically, I hate everything. Don’t tell me secrets –– I’ll spit them out easily, just like I did to you.

So, I decided to stay in the coffee shop. My friends were so happy that they made me a special coffee which, instead of a heart, said “Best Friends Forever.”

The day after, I told them my plan: we could make little cupcakes that said “Best Friends Forever,” and each would come with a note that said: “Give this to your best friend: the person who never treats you badly and whom you also treat nicely.” When we made those cupcakes, everyone was so impressed that about ten people bought them after school. We made a special offer that said if you bought a “Best Friends Forever” cupcake, you would get a “Best Friends Forever” coffee.

Finally, we all got tired of the coffee shop. It showed: when the month ended, we got just $20 each. We had done something wrong, but I didn’t care. I liked the coffee shop a lot more because I had new friends, who all moved closer to the coffee shop.

Every morning we would go get a coffee. We thought about it and, entering as employees, we made friends and got a “Best Friends Forever” cupcake and coffee. We worked in the coffee shop until we were old enough to get another job.

Chapter  1 : Sisters

Mia was brushing her hair and she just remembered that her friend Matilda was coming over for a playdate. They were best friends. When Matilda arrived, they took turns braiding eachother’s hair. Since they both had the same length hair, they saw what their hair could do, like make scarves out of their hair, and they saw how many times they could wrap their hair around their arm, which was about a thousand.

Matilda had blonde hair and Mia had long dark brown hair. They both had long straight hair to their knees, which was about five feet. They both loved their hair because they didn’t want real scarves, but the only thing that drove them nuts was their mother telling them, “Cut your hair! Cut your hair!” She wanted them to cut it because it was really hard to wash.

They were like, “No! Imagine you don’t need to buy me a scarf! And I’ll brush it more often!”

Since they went to the same school, they spoke about what they should play the next day at school. They thought about maybe playing hide and seek, or tag or, as Mia suggested, “Maybe let’s play cops and robbers!”

Matilda also suggested, “We could also play hide and seek after cops and robbers!” Normally, nobody really asked if they could play with them. Once a month, someone would ask. They actually liked it, just the two of them.

They talked about doing the butterfly one because she thought that they would fight a lot, like very often.

“That’s very sad. I wish we could get a way to get your mom to agree,”  Matilda hoped. “After that we will.”

“Oh, yeah. I think so too. Let’s think of a way to convince my mom to get me a younger sister.”

They started a whole other conversation on how they could get Mia’s mom, named Lauren, to get Mia to have another sister. Mia convinced her why she wanted another sister. Mia told her that why she wanted another sister was because she was a little lonely in playing and her mother used to get very annoyed, because she didn’t have any company.

Matilda explained that she knew how Mia felt. “I know because I’m an only child, and I also want a little sister.”

“We have a mission!”  Mia and Matilda said.

“First, let’s convince your mom,” explained Matilda.

“After that, the next time we have a playdate, I’ll come to your house and we’ll convince your mom!” said Mia. After that they started a whole new conversation, again, on how they were going to conquer their moms. They were sitting on the couch in Mia’s room.

They started their mission that day. They said, “Maybe we could convince my mom by saying, if you get me a little sister, I could start a job and earn a thousand dollars for you.” So they tried that.

So when Mia’s mom was working, they snuck up on her and scared her by saying, “Mom!” in a funky kind of voice tone.

And after that their mom was like, “Hey, you guys! You scared the bejeezus out of me!” She was texting Mia’s dad.

After that, Mia asked, “If you let me have a little sister, I’ll get a job and you could have a thousand dollars!”

And after that Mia’s mom was like, “I don’t need that much money. I’m sorry. And why do you even need someone to fight with?”

Mia thought, Well, that didn’t work. She felt disappointed that it didn’t work, because they weren’t very rich anyway. It was the first time she’d asked her mom for a sister. She felt disappointed and she stomped back to her room with Matilda and started thinking of another plan. She looked in one of her books of the chronicles of How To Convince Your Mom To Get A Little Sister. She did that because she had a lot of books and she knew she could find one book like that. Mia loved the color purple, so her bed was purple. Her walls were purple. The ceiling was purple. The floor color was purple. Everything was purple. Her two bookshelves were also purple.

Mia and Matilda sat on Mia’s bed to think of another little idea to convince Mia’s mom to get Mia a little sister.

“What about if we sneak up on my mom again but only this time, a little less money,” Mia suggested.

Matilda said, “That’s a great idea! Let’s try it.”

So they snuck up on Mia’s mom who was doing work; she worked from home but she used to work at work. Mia’s mom was a doctor.

After that when they snuck up on her they told her, “Mom,” in a friendly tone of voice but Mia’s mom didn’t get startled like last time.

“Oh hi guys, what do you want?” Mia’s mom asked.

“We just want to ask you a question. If you give me a little sister, after that I could get a job and earn you forty dollars.”

And after that Mia’s mom told them, “Yes, but I’m not going to give you a younger sister.”

After that Mia felt the same way as before, and told Matilda, “After this I’m not going to get a job!”

They went back to their bed. “Maybe we could talk to her about how we’re feeling!”

Matilda suggested, “I really think we should tell her because she does not know why we keep asking her and she is probably getting really annoyed because we’ve been doing this for quite a while now.” She was feeling a little nervous.

After that Mia and Matilda walked over to Mia’s mom in her chair near her desk. Mia said, “Mom, the reason why I really want a sister is because I don’t really have any company. You sometimes have work when I want to play, and I don’t like doing homework. And I just feel a little lonely. So can you please get me a little sister as soon as it’s possible?”

Mia’s mom said, “But I thought you guys would fight!”

“Maybe once in awhile, but not often,” said Mia.

After that Mia’s mom told them, “Okay. As soon as possible, I’ll get you one. As long as you don’t ask me so often.”

Nine months later, she got the sister from her mother! Mia’s little sister was named Monsoon. She had frizzy curly hair, it was dark brown to her neck. And now Mia felt so special to have a younger sister.

Mia said, “Yay!”

Later in the afternoon, Mia started playing with Monsoon. Mia taught Monsoon to play chess at such a young age. Monsoon became very good at it by the age of one. Monsoon was learning how to talk from Mia. Mia and Monsoon never fought. Mia’s mom was impressed by how much Mia taught Monsoon.

After that Mia left for a playdate with Matilda, but only this time, it was at Matilda’s house. Matilda was excited to try and get herself a younger sister as well. When Mia got there, Mia was like, “Are you ready to get a younger sister?”

After that Matilda said, “Yeah, I’m very ready! I’ve been waiting for it all week long! And three days more!” in an excited tone. So after that, Matilda said that she loved the color orange. The walls were orange, the ceiling was orange, the floor was orange and her bookshelves were orange. And her bed was orange.

Matilda told Mia why her mom didn’t want her to have a little sister. It was because Matilda’s mom, named Isabella, thought it would be too hard to brush both of their long hair. Both Mia’s and Matilda’s moms had long hair and younger sisters and their mom used to go bonkers brushing their hair.

Mia and Matilda sat on Matilda’s orange bed. It was very smooth, silky and soft.

“If you give me a sister, after that I can make extra special stuff for Thanksgiving, mother’s day, and father’s day for you and Dad and all family members, like presents, pop-up cards, and food, and awesome drinks.”

Matilda’s mom said, “Only if you do all of that every holiday, I’ll get you a sister.”

“I promise I will,” said Matilda. She was excited to have a new sister.

Ten days later, Matilda got her sister. Her name was Malla. Both Matilda and Malla had blue eyes and both of them had blonde hair. Malla had hair to the neck. Matilda felt very joyful that she had a younger sister. Matilda taught Malla how to play checkers at such a young age, at the age of one.

After that Mia came to Matilda’s house and asked how the baby was going. Mia asked, “What did you teach your little sister?”

Mia and Matilda sat on Matilda’s orange bed. And Matilda said, “While I was teaching Malla how to play checkers, she wouldn’t listen. I need her to listen to learn. The reason why I want her to listen is because she might feel more special next year at school.”

“Same with me,” Mia said.

“I feel kind of disappointed in her when she doesn’t listen,” said Matilda.

Since Mia and Matilda’s little sisters knew how to talk, they could talk to them and whenever it came to conversation, they would definitely listen. So they walked over to Malla and said, “If you will listen, maybe I could make you something yummy once a week, like a salad with grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.”

Malla was like, “Okay. As long as you do that.” She just stopped playing checkers because of the yummy food.

It was Tuesday and the next day was Wednesday. Matilda said just for a test, “If you stand up on your feet for a minute, after that I could give you one of my yummy cookies.”

Malla said,“Ooh! Okay, I’ll stand up on my two feet for a minute. Okay?”

“Well, you better promise!”

So she stood up on her two feet for a minute.

The next day, the first thing in the morning, Matilda made a salad for Malla. After that Matilda said to Malla, “You’ve got to listen to me, and Mom, and Dad when we tell you to do things or stuff. Because it makes us feel disappointed and upset when you don’t listen to us. I want you to listen because if  you work hard you could feel special next year in school if you listen to us. You might even get the highest grades.”

Malla said, “I will listen to you, Mom, and Dad from now on.” After the conversation, she hugged her older sister.

Ten days later, Matilda had another playdate with Mia again. And they sat on Mia’s purple bed and Matilda asked, “How’s your younger sister doing?”

“Again, she’s not listening to me when I teach her how to play chess or other things,” Mia said to Matilda, “I feel upset.”

Matilda said, “That’s terrible! In what way do you think I could help you?”

Mia said, “If you could find a way how to help me in getting my little sister to listen, would be a great help. I don’t want to talk to her because she won’t listen, because she is not listening.”

“That’s a good reason,” said Matilda.

“Thanks,” said Mia.

“What else can we do?” said Matilda.

Since Mia’s cousin was also there, they asked, “How do you think we could get Monsoon to listen?” Mia’s cousin was a girl and her name was Jessica.

Jessica said, “Maybe you should just talk to her!”

Mia said, “But I don’t want to, because she won’t listen!”

“After that maybe you could draw her a picture and maybe she could figure out what it meant, or write her a message or you could write her a story on how to listen to your family,” said Jessica.

“Maybe I’ll go with the book on how to listen to your family members,” said Mia and Matilda. Mia felt very joyful.

So after that Mia and Matilda wrote a story on how to listen to your family members. Matilda was the illustrator; Mia was the writer. Mia wrote first. After that, depending on what Mia wrote, Matilda read Mia’s writing. After that depending on what she wrote, she drew the pictures. The story told little kids how to behave themselves and listen to their older siblings. It said, if your family members told you something, you should respond to them, you shouldn’t just ignore them.

So they gave the story to Monsoon and Monsoon read it. Before Monsoon read it, they said it was by the best writer in the world. They were trying to trick her. Since they didn’t know who that was, they just said that.

After that Monsoon said, “I thought this was going to be by you!” And they were like, “Oh, no no no! It’s by the best writer in the world. But you better take notes.”

She read it and she was like, “Why do I have to take notes?”

“Because this is an important book. We read it before you and we know the truth,” said Mia.

Monsoon was like, “All right. I’ll read it with notes. But do I need to?”

Mia was like, “Yes, you need to. Now just sit on the couch and read it. Bye bye.”

So they went upstairs to Mia’s room and they waited there for five minutes. After that, they peeked and they were like, “She’s not done? It was a very short book!” After that they went upstairs again and waited for five minutes and peeked and said, “She’s not done?” After that they went upstairs for another five minutes and said, “Oh, finally, she’s done!” And after that Mia and Matilda went downstairs and asked, “Can we see your notes?”

“I have the notes in my head, since I don’t know how to write,” said Monsoon.

“Can you explain them to us?” asked Mia and Matilda at the same time.

After that Monsoon was like, “Alright!” Monsoon said that it was all about listening to your family members or whoever, except for strangers. Of course. She was feeling kind of weird because she didn’t realize that she was not listening and stuff. “But I am already listening,” said Monsoon.  

“You think you are, but you’re not,” said Mia.

“Remember chess?” said Mia.

“When did we play chess?” asked Monsoon.

“Well, you were to busy playing with new toy Mom got you,” said Mia.             

“Well I didn’t know you were teaching me how to play chess,” said Monsoon.

“Oh!” said Mia, “I thought you were paying attention and weren’t really doing it.”

Matilda said, “But why? You should listen to people when they’re telling you to do something, even though you’re paying so much attention to your little opening-up dollhouse.”

“That is the truth,” said Mia, feeling kind of disappointed and depressed.

“Well, I was kind of paying attention but when you told me to do something, I think I was looking at something else, so…” said Monsoon.

“But still, you weren’t listening,” said Mia and Matilda at the same time again.

“Now I understand,” said Monsoon. “I will listen.”

“You better,” said Mia.

“I will,” said Monsoon.

The next day at school, somebody asked if they could play with them. But normally that happened only once a month. They were in the same class as her. It was her birthday so she really wanted to play with them. Her name was Andrea.

Andrea asked if she could play with Mia and Matilda because it was her birthday.

“How old are you turning?” asked Matilda.

“Well, I’m turning eight,” said Andrea.

“All right, you can play with us,” they said, because they were also turning eight. Mia was turning eight five days later and Matilda was turning eight ten days later.

They played hide and seek. After that they played tag, and after that they tried playing both of them combined, and after that they played charades. And after that, one wanted to play charades again, another wanted to play hide and seek, and another wanted to play tag. So what they did was they said, “Eenie meenie miney moe,” and it landed on Andrea. And Andrea was voting for hide and seek, but Mia wanted to play charades. So they played hide and seek first, charades second, and tag last.

Andrea was really funny and pretty nice. She normally played with somebody else named Sophia. And whenever Sophia didn’t play with Andrea, she played with Elizabeth. And whenever Elizabeth didn’t play with Sophia, she played with Andrea. And whenever Andrea didn’t play with Sophia, she played with Elizabeth.

When Andrea wasn’t playing with Sophia, Sophia didn’t want to play with Elizabeth because she got bored just playing with her when Andrea wasn’t there. Anyway, Elizabeth wasn’t as very funny as Andrea. Sophia wanted another friend to play with.

But she was always very quiet. She never used to talk. She wanted to get over her shyness, but normally her mother wasn’t there and normally her mother used to introduce her to friends.

So she made a cardboard picture of one of the girls that she saw in her school and she tried talking and saying her name, but she couldn’t, even to the cardboard. She was like, “Oh, man!” She felt kind of weird, because she can’t even talk to a cardboard person that she made!

After that she tried doing it with her cousin, named Kira. Kira was 17. She loved beanie boos. She was very smart and pretty and she liked helping people and she had a beanie boo of happiness.

Sophia told her what had been happening in school and what she needed help with and asked if she could practice on her. Kira said, “Of course you could practice on me! I just have to think of a new name.”

Kira and Sophia went into Sophia’s room. Sophia loved the color blue, light blue. The ceiling was light blue, the walls were light blue, the door was light blue, the floor was light blue, her bed was light blue. Everything was light blue.

So after that Kira stood up and said, “Hello, my name is Melissa.” And after that Kira said, “What’s your name?”

“Hi Melissa, my name is Sophia.” She felt pretty excited that she did it.

Kira said, “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“My favorite thing to do is… to just sit on the couch and pretend to be bold,” said Sophia. “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“My favorite thing to do is draw,” said Kira, who was pretending to be Melissa.

Sophia was a little bit shy to start the conversation. She wouldn’t say her name first.

The next day, Sophia went to school and asked two girls named Melissa and another girl named Sophia as well, so there were two Sophia’s and one Melissa.

“Can I play with you?” asked Sophia number 1.

Sophia and Melissa said, “All right!”

“What’s your name?” asked Sophia and Melissa.

“My name is Sophia. What’s your name?” asked Sophia to Sophia.

“My name is Sophia,” said Sophia.

“What’s your name?

“My name is Melissa!” said Melissa.

Five days later, Mia and Matilda saw Sophia playing with Melissa and Sophia number 2. Sophia #1 was Sophia S. and Sophia #2 was Sophia B.

Mia and Matilda walked over to them and asked if they could play. They were playing a game of hide and seek, so after that they asked someone who was seeking so they wouldn’t give it away.

Melissa was the one who was seeking so Melissa shouted, “Pause game!” and everybody ran to Melissa, who was playing hide and seek with them. And Melissa said, “Mia and Matilda and Andrea want to play with us.”

“All right,” said Sophia B.

“What do you want to do? asked Melissa and Sophia S. and Sophia B.

Mia said, “I want to play hide and seek because we were going to play Andrea’s idea, because she’s also the birthday girl.”

They played hide and seek for another five minutes. But right after they were done with hide and seek, recess was over. Andrea really also wanted to play dodgeball. But they didn’t have the money to buy the net.

Chapter 2 : Lemonade

The next day at school, they talked about how to get a net, but after that Mia said, “Why don’t we make a lemonade stand?” The net cost 50 dollars.

Andrea got the lemonade, since Mia had a little table she brought her table, Sophia S. brought the lime, Sophia B. brought the lemon, and Melissa brought the sugar and water to make it. Matilda knew how to cook, so she made chocolate chip cookies for whoever had lemonade.

It was Sunday afternoon when they all met at Central Park to serve the lemonade and cookies. Mia and Matilda’s sisters were there. Sophia B.’s cousin was there. The lemonade cost one dollar and the cookies also cost a dollar, so whoever bought any of those would pay one dollar or two.

Before they started, they had to set up everything. So they had the table and they put chairs around it for the kids to sit in. And they put the lemonade bottle onto the right and the lime next to it, the lemon next to the lime, the sugar next to the lemon and in front of the lemon the cookies. And next to the cookies, the water. And next to the water, the cups. It was quite sunny, a little bit breezy, 82 degrees and they were at the edge of Central Park. And whenever people came by, they said, “Lemonade! And cookies! One dollar each!”

Everybody who passed by got lemonade. And before anybody got some, they drank some. And after they got to their third customer, they checked on their sisters and they weren’t there. So everyone went on a sister hunt for the sisters, Malla and Monsoon.

Mia and Matilda felt weird because their sisters never really went anywhere. They felt very scared. And they had to tell their parents, since they knew they had their own phones, they called their mothers and fathers.

“Our sisters are gone!” said Mia and Matilda in a very scared tone of voice.

Everybody helped to find them. They looked for an hour, and after that for another hour inside Central Park, outside Central Park, and in New York City, but they weren’t there! They felt super duper nervous that somebody took them, because they didn’t look in houses.

They didn’t look in any houses because if somebody was doing something, they would have disturbed them. They alerted the police. Somebody must have taken their little sisters!

Mia and Matilda and Sophia B. and Sophia S. and Melissa and Andrea took a plane to South America to go and see if their little sisters were there. They looked in Brazil and then, they looked all over South America. After that they went back to North America, after that they looked all around North America. After that they went to Africa and looked all around Africa, in Uganda they found their little sisters!

A robber named Uganda went to Uganda for the little sisters. He thought they were dolls, and he was on a trip, so he took them home. He was pretending that he thought that.

The police were like, “Why did you steal their little sisters?”

“Because I thought they were dolls!” said the robber named Uganda. Malla and Monsoon said to their older sisters, “If that ever happens again, I will definitely shout help!”

Uganda ran away for the rest of his life and never robbed anybody ever again because he knew what would happen if he did, go to jail. But he anyway went to jail for two years before he ran away.

They went back home to finish their lemonade stand. The search had taken two weeks because they had to search everywhere. They left their sisters home, just in case anything happened. And while they were gone, people gave them money and took the lemonade and cookies. They did all the stuff by themselves. For two weeks! And after that once they got back from Uganda, they saw how much money they got. They got $172! So they spent 50 dollars on the net, and Isabelle, Matilda’s mom, got the net for Andrea. And she also spent two dollars for the ball. After that they shared the money and gave $20 to each of them.

Next year, in seventh grade, they played dodgeball at recess with the net and the ball. Mia, Matilda, Sophia S., Sophia B., Andrea, and Melissa had played dodgeball finally in seventh grade. After that, Melissa wanted a sleepover with all her friends at her house. So, once she got home, she sat on the bed and called each one of her friends that she wanted to have over. She asked them to come over for a desperate, important meeting. So after that, in five minutes they were all there, and Melissa said, “How am I going to convince my mom to let me have a sleepover?”

“How?” Mia asked.

“Maybe if we do all her chores she may let us have a sleepover.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Nicola. That was Melissa’s new friend. She met her last month. Melissa also wanted to have a sleepover with her.

So, they tried doing the chore idea. They finished all of Melissa’s mom’s chores. They had to clean the bathtub, set the table for dinner, and if their mom agreed, put out beds.

“Well… we’ve done all our chores!” said Melissa and her friends, adding Nicola. They checked all the chores. It was all done.

They had so much time left that they thought they’d watch a movie. They all had a vote: Inside Out and Descendants.

“I hate Descendants! I want to watch the great and awesome Inside Out,” said everyone. So they watched Inside Out. So they watched, watched, watched until it was eight p.m. Thankfully, Melissa’s mom came back at nine p.m.

So they watched and watched and watched until Melissa’s mom got back from work. So after that Melissa’s mom said, “Was this what you were doing?”

“No no, Mom. We want a sleepover.”

“Well, what have you done to earn it?”

“Well, I’ll weird. Oooh, I get it. Five hours of TV. Yay! Let’s go.”

They went to watch TV for five hours in Melissa’s mom’s room. They watched it silently other than once in awhile, they would pause and retell an entire movie. They were feeling quite happy because they knew how Melissa’s mom was. She would say “okay” to almost anything. For three hours they watched Inside Out and after that the rest of the two hours they watched Descendants even though they all hated it.

“Okay, it’s time to go to Mom,” said Melissa.

Melissa’s mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Everyone was surprised because they thought Melissa’s mom would be on the couch thinking. So after that Melissa and her friends walked up to Melissa’s mom and asked her, “So what is your answer?”

“Okay, as long as you go to bed on time.”

“Okay, I will, I will, Mom.”

“Now come on. Eat your dinner.”

“But what is for dinner?” asked Melissa.

“Your favorite. Pesto pasta,” said Melissa’s mom.

“YAY,” cried Melissa.

After five minutes, everyone was ready to eat dinner.

Everyone liked it so much that they took around two or three helpings.

After that everyone but Melissa ran back home because they needed to get their pajamas and toothbrush and five minutes later they were all ready for the sleepover with all their stuff.

But Mia was really scared to sleep the night because it was so hard for her to wake up the next day because she always gets the worst nightmares. But that’s why she brought her teddy bear and all her other stuffed animals to protect her and took off her prettiest earrings that she wore and let out her hair and puffed her cushion up with it when it was time for the sleepover. But that was like three hours away. So, all she did was watch TV for three hours with the girls. And after that that’s when the terror of the sleepover happened. And also when Mia started getting terrified by the sleepover and sleeping. But she did her normal routine, which was take her fanciest earrings off, let out her hair from her braid, and puff up the pillow with it and go to sleep with a terrible nightmare and thought it would come alive!!! But this time she thought of a plan to not think about it. YAY! But it was good that she had THREE hours until the sleepover started.  

“PHEW!” Mia said in a relieved tone of voice.

She hoped no one heard her. Meanwhile, at Mia’s house, everyone, literally everyone, was so worried that she was gonna get the creeps. “She’s gonna get a nightmare. She’s not gonna wake up! Noooo!!!” they all shouted.

“But if we get there early we could wake her up!” said Simona, Mia’s favorite cousin.

“Ohhh,” everyone said with a grin.

Meanwhile at Melissa’s house, after the last three hours, everyone went to sleep and still Mia did her normal routine and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, she was at the top bunk and whenever she was at the top bunk at a sleepover, more of those bad dreams came to her head. But anyway, she had her big plan, which turned out to be a little plan. And now she went to sleep with all her bad dreams.

To be continued…

Hampton the Hamster

Once there was a hamster named Hampton. He wanted to leave home to go to the fair. He went to the fair, where he saw a movie theater and decided to watch a Star Wars movie. Then he saw an ice cream machine and felt tired. He went home on a magical pony that farted rainbows and feel asleep on his magic carpet. The end.

The Gnome.

The gnome was a happy fellow guarding gardens and watering plants. He wore red pants and a navy blue shirt. His eyes changed color and he had a long red hat that was shaped like a street cone. The gnome was short, about the size of a pen, and was a medium weight. He laughed and cried until the day he died. The gnome had a magical life in the garden of heaven’s light.

I Need to Go to the Bathroom!

I was in class and I needed to go to the bathroom. So I went to the bathroom and I turned on the light but then… There, standing in the dim light of the light bulb was the Ultimate Toilet Plunger, dun dun dun! The toilet plunger splashed dirty water and wiped toilet paper at me, but I outsmarted the plunger by bribing him to follow the toilet paper. Finally, I went to the bathroom. THE END.

Yoda Goes Rocker Mode

A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away… One day, when Yoda was in the temple meditating, he heard a voice say, “Yoda.”  

“Wha…” said Yoda. “Dreaming I must be.”

“Yoda,” the voice said again.

“Dreaming I am not,” said Yoda.

“Yoda, be a rocker.”

“Be a rocker I will,” said Yoda. So he got up from his chakra chair and set out on his journey. Finally, Yoda found a poster that said “Green Tall Guys,” but he thought he was too short. He tried to get in anyway, and said “Join I must,” in rocker mode.

The guys said, “You are too short.”

Then Yoda went ninja Jedi style on the dudes and they said, “Fine, you can join. But first I need to put some stuff on you.” So, till this day, Yoda looks like a green monster with headphones and sunglasses. His hair is the same and he plays drums on his high chair. The end, or, as Yoda would say, the end is now.

John Cena Prank Call

One day, John Cena wanted to do a prank call, but he couldn’t decide who to call. He made a list:

• Luke Skywalker
• Marine supporter

Two hours later after deciding, John Cena called Luke Skywalker. Beep beep beep.

“Hello, who is this?” Luke said.

“No, Luke, you should know,” said John Cena.

“Are you my mom?” said Luke.

“No, Luke, I am JOHN CENA,” said John Cena.

“NOOO!!!” moaned Luke, for about three hours.

“Well, time for my next prank,” said John Cena. So he called a marine supporter. BEEP BEEP BEEP.

“Hello, who is this?” said the supporter.

“Is this a marine supporter?” said John Cena.

“Yes, who is this?” said the supporter.

“A former marine needs your help and his name is JOHN CENA,” said John Cena.

“What the @#$^?” said the supporter. After the prank calls, John Cena felt good and fell asleep, but not before thinking about what he did. The end.

Baby Karate

Once upon a time, there was a child named Jeff, who was two years old and lived in Arizona in a mansion with his mom and dad. His dad and mom went out for dinner and they put an untrained babysitter with him. This babysitter was named Alison. She forgot to bring diapers, so she put little Jeff to sleep and plopped onto  the couch to watch TV. She saw Jeff on a little router. Jeff really, really needed to go to the bathroom, but he didn’t have a diaper.

There is one thing you didn’t know about Jeff: he had ninja moves. So, he flipped out of his bed, but on his way out he saw Mr. Teddy. Mr. Teddy was his very, very freaky teddy bear that was like the Five Nights at Freddy’s guy. He had to go through a lot of fighting, backflips, and rattle-throwing until, finally, to finish Mr. Teddy off, he took the block of wisdom from the mixed block box and struck him down right in the button.

Then, Jeff backflipped into the bathroom, closed the door, and went potty. The journey back to the crib was harsh. It was filled with Mr. Teddy’s babies. They had metal teeth and sharp claws. So, same thing all over again: backflips, hi-ya! Karate chops, hi-ya! Rattle-throwing, and finally, the Block of Building Steps. So, he took out every single one, until there were none left, and once he did that, he realized that he had one extra rattle. He knew what that meant – he had a magical wish from his rattle. He wished to be back in his crib. Then, finally, he got in his crib, but Alison called, “Jeff! Come down!”

Jeff was like, “NOOO!”

The same thing happened. Little Teddy’s babies turned into more Little Teddy’s babies, which meant that he had to make a new block to defeat the little teddies. After he did so, Alison said, “Jeff, I actually don’t need you go to bed.”

“Are you kidding me??” said Jeff.

THE END.

“Ohh no you don’t,” Kai argued. “I’m not doing that! You know that Elder John told us to only go in in case of an emergency.”

I gave him the Look. “This is an emergency! The Black Knights are attacking!!!” I whisper-yelled, “Go, go, go, hurry they’re coming, go!!”

“Okay, okay!” he said he climbed up the side of the rock wall and jumped down.

I followed. We ran as fast as we could through all of the shrubbery and trees; we had to get the the other side of the forest as fast as we could. We’re the king’s messengers; that means that when something bad happens, we have to get to the king’s castle as fast as possible to tell the king that his kingdom is under attack. Each village has a boy and a girl messenger. They have to be fast, and they have to be orphans, so they have to be from an orphanage. They have to have a good sense of direction, they need to be smart, athletic, sensible, and have to be a good team.

We had been running through the forest for almost ten minutes and I was starting to get cramps so we came to a stop at a small spring. We put down our stuff. We decided to make camp there, it was about two miles from the village where we lived. It’s called the village of Dragon Burrow. It got its name for all of its dragon nests.

I have an all-elemental dragon that was just born a couple months ago. Kai has a fire-water type dragon that is just a year old. It has already been trained by Elder John. The only reason why his is trained and mine is not is because dragons don’t open their eyes until they are exactly one year old and they won’t be able to understand you if they can’t even see you.

We started a fire and put some stones around it. We got out the food, only enough food for tonight, the breakfast, the next night, and the next breakfast. Well, we ate dinner that night and it was dumplings.

“Ew,” we both said at once. They were all soggy and uncooked dumplings with wet meat inside. Yuck.

Well, we had to make a fire with the help of the few remaining dry sticks left from Kai’s dragon. After we ate dinner, we put out the fire also. Using Pine’s help, we told the story about the Fire Prince. It’s a good story, about a boy who found that he had the power to control the flames and was able to use them to…

After that we went to bed in our tents we set up and fell asleep.

•••

We awoke to the sweltering heat. “Wake up!!! Wake up!!!” I shouted while shaking Kai’s tent.

“What’s going on? Why’s it so hot out there?”

“There’s a fire come on get out of there!!!” Suddenly, the back of Kai’s tent burst into flames.

“Get out of there NOW!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I pulled him out.

“Where are Pine and Evie?” Kai shouted over the the burning trees falling to the ground. My heart literally skipped a beat. Pine, one year old, and Evie, five months, were lost in a monstrous fire. Kai’s eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets, that’s how shocked he was. If he bent over, they would probably fall out. Then we heard the most high-pitched scream ever combined with the average puberty scream of a teenaged boy.

My dragon screaming in the fire sounded like: “AHHH!!!” And then plus the high pitched scream: “EEE!!!”

Suddenly there was a hand on Kai’s foot and a hand on my foot then there were four little stubs on the sides of my head. It also felt like there was a balloon sleeping on my head. Anyway, when I felt the hand on my foot, I screamed, then Kai screamed, then the hand screamed. Then we all stopped, including the fire. Which is weird because it’s a fire. Meh…  so the hand that was on my foot got up and so it was then that I realized that it was a human. Boy. Teenager. Looks. Like. King’s. Lost son. Whoa.

Good hair. Black armour? Bad person. Good hair. Questions go bop.

Bop. Bop. BOP!

“Uh, hi!” he said. He seriously looked like the lost prince, right down to the perfect teeth. Kai looked at him and made a face. “My name’s Ivan.” He held out his armored hand and put the other hand on his sword.

We backed away from him. Pine let out little rings of steam around his body. I felt Evie sink onto my head. I picked her up and held her up to my chest. She nestled in toward me.

“Why are you wearing the Black Knight armor?” I asked the boy. “You’re the lost prince!”

“Says who?” he asked, clearly confused.

“Who are your parents then?” asked Kai

“You mean my dad? Oh, he’s the king of the Black Knights,” the boy said, sounding rather casual.

“Then why aren’t you trying to kill us?” I asked. This was confusing enough with just waking up in a fire that suddenly stops right before your eyes. Then you meet the Lost Prince but he says that he’s not him, and that his dad is the king of the Black Knights.

“Well, I don’t really want to because it’s the world law that you are not allowed to kill any children or women, only men. And since you are both children, I can’t kill you,” he said with an uncertain glance every which way.

“Well, we’re going to the kingdom to see your dad. Do you want to come with us?” Kai asked.

“Sure!” said Ivan. We made our way through the forest to Fairy Way, which is a small city infested with man-sized fairies with giant wings. Next we had to go undercover through the City of Barbarians, which was followed by the Nice City of Everyone. Then on our ninth day, we entered the kingdom of King Edmund the II. We entered the kingdom with tons of guards. We entered the castle, and there were tons of other messengers. Some of which I had never seen, but some we had seen passing by our village for parades. One of the messengers had no shoes, but instead had bandages around blistered feet. Fire blisters. All of the other messengers had some sort of  sign that they had been in some sort of fire… even us. All of our clothes had been singed from the fire that had happened more than a week ago.

Suddenly King Edmund came bursting out of the hall doors muttering something about his evil brother. Two other messengers came out following him with troubled looks on their faces. The king stopped short once he opened the door. There, standing at the door, grinning the evilest, wickedest, grin ever. His dark hair was matted by sweat and revenge, his beard half shaved, and a giant scar running straight down his face. “Nice to see you again… brother!”

At that the wicked man jabbed his “brother” in the jaw, sending him flying back and landing his head on the step up to his office. The man (although he was more of a monster) walked straight up to the king and stomped on his stomach. At that horrid sight everyone in the room cringed and winced as we all grabbed a heavy object from behind us.

This is not going to work out the way we planned, I thought. This is NOT going to work out the way we planned. Now of course, you may be wondering about all this planning. Well, we kids just are special. We are all the same person, just in different bodies. We all have the same minds. It’s fun being a kid for many reasons, one of which I will tell and show you about very soon.

Finally, the horrid thing that called itself the king’s brother bent over the king’s half alive body. “Well, I’m going to take over your kingdom. How about that?” it muttered under its breath. That was when our child anger took over. We charged at the wicked thing, we had our chairs, poles, and parts of the crumbling pillars. In mid-charge, the master of evil made the loudest whistle but we kept running. Suddenly, an army of weirdos busted in to the room. That was when things got real. And I don’t mean like real, I mean like real real, like, real. People started hitting each other on the head! It was every man for himself. By that I mean everyone for themselves. I looked for Kai. When I couldn’t find him standing up I got a pit in my stomach and looked down. There he was, lying unconscious with blood spilling out from his leg. I checked for a pulse. His heart was barely beating.

I ran over to find someone Jack!! His name ran through my mind. Finally, I found him whacking some ugly guy with a chair. I smacked the guy in the head with a piece of wood lying on the ground. He fell flat on his face. He, he. “Kai’s out and we have to get the king to safety. C’mon!” I shouted over the roaring of the war.

We ran over to Kai and I dragged him by his armpits. We dropped him off in the king’s office. Then we went to get the king. I took his upper body and Jack took his lower. We dragged him into the office with Kai. “Jack, grab me that pitcher!” I took the pitcher from Jack and poured the cold water onto Kai’s face. He woke up spewing a fountain of water everywhere!

“What happened?” Kai asked. I passed the pitcher back to Jack and told Kai what happened.

“What happened to your leg?” I asked him, eyeing the gash on his left leg.

“You know, they say that if you don’t look at your own cut then it won’t hurt as much. So now that you reminded me that I will now scream in pain.” And with that he let out an extremely loud roar of pain that made the battle outside sound like a cool breeze.

But something else happened besides everyone in the room losing their hearing, the king woke up. But when I said everyone in the room losing their hearing, I meant everyone in the room. “WHAT IS IT, YAPPERS!!??” the king yelled. He sat straight up with his eyes peeled wide open. I do not know who Yappers is, so I guess that was just a side effect for being nearly killed: going mad. He stood up and with one long stride he reached out to Kai and said, “Take my hand, Marida. And we can ride away to freedom!!” Then he pretended to be a singer. Not good. He took one step forward in slow-mo while pulling up a fist, and then made a face like he had just bit his lip but tried to make it look good. It did not look good. Then he pretended to be a rabid cat. “Heaaasss!!” Then he tried being an evil witch stirring a cauldron but he got it all wrong: “Toilet, toilet, boil and trouble.” Then he was a soldier. “RUN! RUN! RUN! SHE’S GONNA BLOW!! TAKE COVER!!!”

After this went on for a little while more, I realized that the fighting seemed to have stopped. I opened the door to see a giant heap of hideous people and a group of kids brushing themselves off from the previous battle. Although the people in the heap were pretty unconscious the thing that called itself the king’s brother was still get kicked in the gut by some of the other kids. Suddenly, a fire flew up around the people lying on the floor, and a deafening screech filled the room. One moment there were a pile of weirdos. The next, they were gone. Strange. Evie came down from her hiding place and landed on my shoulder while Pine landed on Kai’s.

Now of course you may be wondering about Ivan: well, we hadn’t seen him all day. Oh and here’s the weird part: standing where the heap used to be was… Ivan. This was strange. The fire only appeared when when Ivan came! Like when we were in the woods, the fire came and when it stopped Ivan had appeared! Something rung in the back of my head: the Fire Prince!

The tale of the Fire Prince was a story about a boy who was able to make himself disappear into fire and was able to make others do the same. He could also appear in fire. He never learned how to control his powers until he was in a war and killed everyone in it on both sides. That’s what Elder John told us. But he also said that if the Fire Prince would be able to learn to control his power, no one would get hurt and he would banish the bad to the Horrid Lands. If he really was the Fire Prince, then we needed to teach him how to use his powers the right way. Every day he would become more powerful until the day the war was meant to come.

“Ivan? Is that you? Is it really you?” the king whispered. “After all these years, is it really you?”

“Dad?” Ivan said, getting just a bit teary. Okay, fine, very teary.

After that we all left. It was father-son business, not ours, and anyway, it would have been a bit awkward if we had stayed.

We all huddled out the room and into another room, almost as big as the one before. It was the king’s study. All of his notes were packed into hundreds of notebooks and papers. There was a desk at one end and the big oak door that we had come through. We all looked around in awe. There was a ginormous chandelier hanging by a small chain on the ceiling. After another hour or so, we had found many things such as old maps and other stuff like that. The servants came looking for us and ushered us out the big oak door and up to our rooms. We fell fast asleep, finally being able to feel comfort at last.

The next morning we awoke to the smell of scones and rolls. We went downstairs after getting changed into our new clothes, only to find the king and Ivan laughing and telling each other jokes and Ivan showing off his fire powers. We sat down and had the best meal of our lives: the food was delicious and perfectly cooked over Ivan’s fire that he summoned into the stove. It was a cold morning and no one really wanted be awake. Kai’s leg had been bandaged up but you could still see where it was. The blood had leaked through the cloth.

One of other messengers named Murie had walked over to the big glass window and peered through to reveal about forty giant troops of men lined up about a mile from the castle. It was a terrifying sight to see. “Uh, Your Majesty, th-there seems to  be someone outside,” Murie stuttered. She pointed out to the crowd while the king and Ivan looked out. Ivan looked fine, as he never knew the Black Knights to be evil, while the King looked about as worried as a turkey during hunting season.

“What?! I thought we got rid of him yesterday! When you made him switch places with you! How is he back so soon?” The king groaned. “What does he want now? George! Would you do me the favor of getting me my horse? Oh, and Flynn, go tell the men to get their gear on, and tell the people to go to William’s Church on the countryside. Go! Go! Go! Hurry!!!” he shouted without looking away from the window as the men marched toward the castle.

This wasn’t going to end well. They had obviously way more men than we did. This, we could tell, was not going to be an easy battle against the evilest (by far) person on Earth.

Suddenly, as the king rode out on his horse, five monstrous dragons galloped forward, about the height of the gallows on the other side of the field that were now being trampled by the dragons.

I grabbed Kai and led him outside and onto the steps out front, As soon as the dragons came close enough, Kai muttered, “The Titans.” He stared out onto the field as the king’s horse galloped towards them. Titans. Of course they would be the first choice of the evilest man on Earth. Of course. Why hadn’t we known that he would do this. Kai went back and came back with his sword in his hand. I turned towards Kai only to see him sprinting down the field, chasing after the King, chasing after death itself.

Suddenly, one of the Titans fired a massive fireball the size of a cannonball, and going as fast as one too. Kai took out the sword from the sheath he had been carrying it in and used it to block the fireball. He had already run about a mile from the castle when he jumped up the side of one of the Titans and dragged himself up the beast, it was about forty feet high and wide. It wasn’t long before he reached the top, barely even a minute. The Titan started to buck and kick and finally stood on its two hind legs, forcing Kai to hang on its head armour. The beast stood like that for a long time. Soon Kai began to slip, and he let go.

An amazing thing happened: the Titan caught Kai with one giant palm. The Titan brought Kai up to his face and breathed out, knocking Kai on to his back. The dragon placed Kai on the back of his neck and kept on walking forward. No one dared to move, not even the other Titans. Kai’s Titan walked the rest of the way, and pretty slowly too, until he reached the king. The Titan bent down slowly and plucked Kai from the back of his neck and gently placed him on the ground. The massive beast turned around just as Flynn’s men came onto the battlefield.

Kai had always had a way with dragons. He was always so good with the dragon babies back at home. Elder John used to call him the dragon master, and everyone in the village of Dragon Burrow knew that if anyone would be able to tame a Titan, it would be Kai. So to be honest, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that he had tamed the Titan.

What did amaze me was how he could have done that with a badly bruised and scraped leg that had a cut about an inch deep. Kai was able to talk to the beast, and it seemed that the Titan could understand him. He directed the beast toward the opposing side, and the beast blew a massive hole in the ground. It sent the front half of the troops flying backward toward the end of the field. That was when the war started, and the remaining soldiers charged forward.

To be honest, it was a pretty hilarious sight because all you saw was a group of five enormous dragons chasing a little person on a gray horse riding as fast as it could with an even smaller boy running next to it while a sixth dragon was trying to bomb about a million people behind the dragons. The dragons stopped when ordered, and the men advanced charging at the opposing side. They fought for fifteen hours, timed until half the men on each side were dead and the other half wounded.

The only ones that remained were the two brothers. They walked toward each other. Once they were close enough, they each picked up a bow from their sides and took their stances. They pulled the arrows back as far as they could, aimed, and the Dark King fired first, shooting a black-silver arrow into King Edward’s chest. It sent him staggering backwards until he finally fell to his knees and fell flat on his chest. A puff of smoke rose from where the arrow had hit him. It was black magic.

From where he stood, Ivan raced about 30 yards before kneeling next to the dead king. The Dark King turned away and walked back to his side. He was halfway there when Ivan stood up and yelled at him, “YOU MONSTER!!!” He ran after him and tackled him to the ground. We were all too stunned to move. We stood there on the steps of the king’s castle. What used to be King Edmund II’s. It wasn’t a good feeling to know that your king gave his life to save the entire kingdom.

No one wanted to do anything. We all stared at our feet, not wanting any part in this madness. Our king was dead, there was nothing good we could do or say. All we could think about was how we failed. We were sent by our village to come to warn the king that the Black Knights were coming so that he could be ready to protect his kingdom and all that surrounded it. Now he was dead, a quarter of the other people with him. It shouldn’t have ended in a battle of the brothers. After all, they were brothers. They suffered through their mother’s death when they were born and had to live alone with their father who later died in a battle when they were five. It was Edmund’s shoulder that his brother cried on. It wasn’t just a sin that the king’s brother, Rith, had made, it was a betrayal, a deception. Broke a brotherly bond between the two.

Suddenly, a beam of light shot up from the middle of King Edmund’s chest. The very top of it turned into an eagle. For ten seconds, it stood there beaming a blue-ish light into the blood-soaked sky. Then, as soon as it came, it vanished, taking his body with it. In its place laid a thin crown made of a worn silver, no longer shiny of the new creation, but dull and scratched from life’s hard work and pain. From a lost mother, a lost mather. And a lost brother. Rith shook the crying Ivan off of him and gently picked up the small crown.

As soon as he touched it, it seemed as if he had been relieved of a pain or a curse. The expression on his face turned from a hard, stern, frightening look, to a gentle, warm, soft look as he held the crown. Then a sudden look of realization and worry come to his face as he whispered, “The old witch at the end of the woods.” He dropped the crown and jumped back. The whole evil king thing was just some weird witch’s fault. It was only a curse. Only a curse. Just a simple spell on a poor man’s mind to make him do evil things for an evil one’s liking. It wasn’t right. But it was over now that the curse was gone. The king was gone too. Rith was left in a haze and we all went to the center of the field where Rith stood staring at the crown.

His eyes weren’t dull like they seemed before. In fact, now they were shining. They were gray with small flecks of gold, like the king’s except his were green. Now Rith only looked like a scared young man, no longer the vengeful demon that had killed his own brother. We walked over to him and we crowded around in a circle around him. We stood there for a long time.

Soon, Rith broke the silence. “Did I kill him?”

I nodded. He turned and cried. He later disappeared with Ivan. Ivan wanted to be with his newfound and good uncle. After all, he had no one else to live with.

We decided to leave. It took almost two weeks to get back and what we saw was amazing, though burnt. The people had begun to rebuild, though it seemed impossible. Evie and Pine had beat us home and left when the war started. It was amazing to get back to help the other people. When they heard the news about the king, we celebrated all through the night. Little pockets of bright green grass came out of ash. Right by the entrance to the village, there was a rose.

Characters:

Adam, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, Brother, Viegas 

One day, there was a kid named Adam. Adam was very smart and he loved to do technology and he also loved science. Adam was in fifth grade. One day, Adam wanted to play a video game, so he went to the app Minecraft, and then he saw that someone had hacked into his account. He went to see the village and the village was on fire!

Then he shouted, “Darn!” But, he said, “Oh right, I know how to go back to what I’ve played so far or what happened in Minecraft.” He rewound the game. He sighed and said, “Phew.” But he thought, “Oh, I really want to go into the game and see the experience.”

He knew that he had blueprints that he could use, so he took out a piece of blueprint and started to plan out how to go into a video game. The plan looked like a door with wires connected to it and said “Computer must be needed.” So he biked to the recycling center and got all of his pieces. But, Adam forgot to bring the box with him. But, he found that there was a string on his bike and he thought, Huh, I see some trucks that load things and wrap them with strings. I should try that. That was close, he thought.

He was biking home, but then he found that his grandparents were there. Adam loved his grandparents, but he also wanted to go into a video game. He had to choose one. Since he loved his grandparents he decided to make the videogame teleporter a little later. He found out that his grandpa was a technologist so he whispered in his ear, “Grandpa, come to my room.”  

Since his grandpa couldn’t hear that well, he said, “What?”

So then Adam slowly repeated the sentence loudly, “Grandpa, can you please come to my room?”

Since his grandpa heard the question this time, he stood up, took his cane, and started to slowly walk to Adam’s room.

When his grandpa got to his room, Adam asked, “Grandpa, can you help me make a portal to go into a video game?”

His grandpa asked, “Which video game?”  

Adam replied, “Minecraft! We also need to let our whole family know, because there’s going to be an ice age in a week!”

“Hmm… It appears that our whole family has to go into Minecraft.”

“But why, Grandpa?”

“Because, if we leave the whole family, they’re going to die and not gonna survive,” said Grandpa.

“Then first we need to tell my mom, my dad, my brother, and Grandma, okay?” Adam said.

“Okay,” answered Adam’s grandpa.

They started to build the teleporter. Adam went down to tell his whole family that the ice age was coming in a week. They all got confused.

“Honey,” said Adam’s mom. “It’s the middle of summer.”

“It’s 2032, we need to go.  The ice age is coming in a week, and I know it’s crazy, but we need to go into my favorite video game, Minecraft. I know it seems crazy, but it’s the only way we can survive even though there’s an ice age there. We just get covered in snow and all we need to do is make a house quickly.”

They took all the pieces that Adam got from the junkyard. His grandpa went to the backyard and dragged the pieces to the backyard in a wagon. They got a screwdriver and a drill and a hammer and a lot of nails, and they started to build the machine. They started off with the door and then pieces of metal, and it took them about five days. Max mentioned that there was only one day left until the ice age happened. 

Everybody said, “What?” They all were confused, but they still followed Adam’s lead and they went to the backyard. They found a weird looking door. They shouted, “Woah!” So they quickly ran into the door and opened the door and saw a whole new Minecraft universe.

So they all started to mine wood and get some wood. After a few days, they all got a lot of wood and they built a mansion made out of wood. Since his grandma didn’t know how to build so well, his grandma just made blueprints. Once they finished the mansion completely, they started placing items in their mansion, for example: beds, shelves, crafting tables, chairs, tables, etc. Max’s favorite part about the house was the attic, because the attic was big enough to play football in it.

Then, a few days later, someone hacked into their world and took flint and steel and touched a block of wood on their mansion. The fire spread and the whole mansion was on fire. Adam’s grandpa took a bucket of water and went to the top of the mansion and poured the water on the mansion and the fire vanished immediately. Max crafted a force field on the enchanted crafting table and his grandpa said, “Good job!” The whole family found a big chunk of iron and re-made the mansion. When they made the iron mansion it took about six weeks to make the mansion. But they made the mansion bigger and better. Adam also upgraded the force field he had made before.

A few weeks later his grandma went to the woods with the whole family to to get some fresh air. His grandma opened an unexpected door to see what it was. The whole family shouted “NO!!!” But it was too late. His grandma already opened the door and when the snow came through, it turned into snow blocks. The wind was very strong, and his grandma wasn’t very strong, so she accidentally slipped into the ice age universe.  Two glaciers were quickly coming toward his grandma. They all shouted “RUN!” but the ice was too slippery.  She couldn’t stand up, and the glaciers were going faster each second and unfortunately squashed his grandma.

That day it was the darkest day ever in their life in Minecraft. The family made a graveyard for Adam’s grandma in Minecraft. Suddenly, a shiny colored looking Steve came to his room at night. Adam realized that it was his grandma’s spirit. That night, Adam had a conversation. At the end of the talk, Adam’s grandma told him not to tell his family. Adam didn’t ask why. Instead he asked, “Where are you going to live in the day?” She said that she would hide in his Minecraft picture in his room.

The next day came and the whole family woke up saying, “Oh! It’s a new day!” They were acting as if they didn’t remember that Grandma had died!!! Then Adam’s dad mentioned, “We don’t have food, so why don’t we go out and get some food?”

Adam wondered, Why is everyone acting so happy? The whole family went out to kill a wolf and Adam’s brother suffered, suffered, screamed in pain because the wolf bit his leg off. Blood was all over the place. They had to take his organs and stuff them in his leg. Then they dragged his brother back to the mansion and went to the emergency room. They got stitches and a metal wire. They connected their wire with the blood vein on his thigh and the blood vein on his leg. They sewed the leg to the thigh. Adam’s brother tried to move his leg and … he moved it! He tried to walk on his leg, but he had to learn how to walk for about two weeks. SUCCESSFUL SURGERY!!!

Once Adam got home, he went to his room. He locked the door of his room. He talked to the picture and said, “Grandma, you can come out. I locked the door.” Suddenly his picture began to shine and spin and his grandma’s spirit came out of the picture. She said, “Ahhhh, that was a long sleep. Thanks for waking me up, Adam.”

Adam replied, “It’s nice to see you too. I have to tell you that my brother has to learn how to walk because his leg got chopped off by a wolf.”

His grandma said, “Oh, there’s a knock on your door! I’ll hide back in the picture!”

Adam replied, “Okay.” He opened his door.

His mom said, “There’s a guest who wants to see you. His name is Viegas. He is waiting in the living room. He wants to show something to you.”

Adam said, “Sure, he can come up to my room.”

Five minutes later, Viegas came to Adam’s room and said, “Quickly, lock the doors and pull down the shades.”

Adam said, “Okay, but why?”

“Just quickly do it!” said Viegas.

“Okay, okay, jeez,” replied Adam. So Adam did as Viegas said.

Then Viegas pulled out a paper. He said, “This is a map, a very ancient map. I asked your mom if I could go out with you into the woods. Your mom said it’s fine, but to come back by dinner time. She said that the dinner is wolf stew.”

Adam said, “Okay. Where does this map lead to?”

Viegas replied, “It leads to an ancient castle with treasures.” So they went downstairs and Adam told his mom that he was going out into the woods. So they opened the door and they started to walk into the woods. They ran in the direction of the map and Adam and Viegas had a compass and a clock in their chest just to check the time. So they started running.

They came up into the middle of the woods until Viegas tripped on an old gray brick. Viegas said, “This is the castle! I know that it’s a castle because I’ve been here, but be careful because there are monsters such as creepers, endermen, zombies, and skeletons. But the most dangerous thing of all that we need to kill is Mobzilla. Dun dun dun!”

Adam asked, “Why do we have to kill Mobzilla?”

Viegas replied, “To get the armor and the treasure.”

So they started to head into the castle. Once they got to the castle they found two zombies. Viegas said, “Quickly! Go to the furnace and try to melt the compass and the clock to make a time sword.” They pressed a button on the time sword and went to the time after they killed the zombies and had zombie disguise suits.

Both of them fell silent and started to make zombie sounds. Both of them ended up in a narrow pathway and started to come up to a tunnel where they had to crawl. Then they came to the part of the tunnel where there was a fork in the road. Then Vegas said “We have to split up. We’re close to Mobzilla’s throne.”

“Okay.” said Adam. So they split up.

They ended up right in front of Mobzilla, gladly still in disguise.

Mobzilla was a big and tough guy. He was strong enough to kill one hundred mutant zombies in one punch. He had poisonous spikes and magma hot leather. Just then, he started to moan out something that Adam didn’t understand. Then, Adam and Viegas, out of nowhere, took out a enchanted king-scale battle axe and duplicated the king-scale battle axe. Both of them started hitting Mobzilla. Mobzilla tried to dodge the hits, but he was too big to dodge the hits. Mobzilla eventually died and both of them got the Mobzilla armor. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a portal to the Ender World!

Before the two jumped in, they decided to visit their families. Viegas had lost his family because Endermen took his family, so he was kind of glad that the portal was an Enderportal. Anyway, they arrived at Adam’s home and told them that they had defeated Mobzilla. But of course they didn’t believe that they defeated Mobzilla until Viegas took out his Mobzilla helmet.

They talked for a while and decided that Adam and Viegas could go to the Ender World, so Adam’s mom packed their inventory full of food. Then they ran back to the portal and got their armor on and counted down: Three, two, one! They jumped inside the portal with their eyes closed…

Today was an average spring day. Even though (here in Alabama) spring days like those happen to pop up a lot here, it was still brilliant. The sky was more than blue. It was full of shadows and highlights and so many hues. The air out here in the country filled my lungs, heart, and soul. It was that fresh. And out there in the wilderness, there was the constant circulation of life. And that life was as much in the air, as the oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Today, however, I heard something other than the slow breeze. In the brush, there was a small boy. He had short hair that was so blond it was almost white. The poor boy had a mixture of dirt and tears on his face, with puffy eyes, that under normal circumstances, would be a brilliant blue. But today, his eyes were red, with small amounts of blue shining through. He had a torn red shirt with splotches of red and brown. His tearstreaked face screamed “innocence,” so I guessed that he might be from 10 to 11 years old. It pained me to imagine what or who would do this to this poor boy.

I watched the boy tear through the trees, like he was being chased by death itself. In his insane and desperate panic, he didn’t notice me. The boy started to slow. Now that his face wasn’t as blurred, I could clearly see how afraid he was. I wanted to call out to him. So I did.

“Hello?” I cried.

The boy jumped a foot off the ground at hearing my call. He looked around wildly for the source of the sound, and soon found me. I can’t say he grinned at the sight of my face, but he did seem to be a tiny bit relieved to find that I was not his pursuer.

“Hey. Are you okay?” I said. I knew it was a stupid question, it was important to know if he trusted me. I hoped he did.

He sniffed, “No.”

In an instant, feelings for this boy exploded in my soul. All in one moment, I wanted to track down whoever hurt this boy, hurt them, kill them maybe, all while being the mother of this boy, and giving him everything I have. I don’t know where this sympathy came from, but I wasn’t quick to stop thinking these thoughts. I inched toward the boy. I could protect him, and he could be the son I never could have. On a day like this, in a time like this, a miracle like this needs to be accepted.

Somewhere in my desperate brain, someone said, He still has family. And besides, he doesn’t even know you. For all you know, he still has love for his home and would be heartbroken to be torn away from his normal life. Or not. Or yes. It’s worth my time to see if this isn’t or is the case.

“Come here,” I said softly. I was not sure how I will come across as. Supportive? Nosy? Motherly even?

The boy walked towards me slowly, cracking and disrupting the silence.

“Where do you you come from?” I asked

“What do you mean?” He whispered, his voice barely audible.

“Where’s your family? What happened to you?” I asked.

The boy burst into tears, and collapsed on the ground, defeat weighing down on his shoulders. I rushed to his side, and wrapped my arms around him, feining sorrow. But inside, I was really rejoicing! This boy, this child, his suffering was caused by his family, and I doubt he’ll want to go back to that! This boy can be mine! I can protect him, and he will be my son. The son I could never have.

An experience is either forgotten immediately, or never forgotten. Even when there are years between it, there is always something brought with you, and sometimes, even you don’t notice it. It’s always there, haunting you to your core, and you don’t notice until you break. Then nobody knows what will happen. You decide between the two choices, the two changes and chances to survive. You change your way of life. You change yourself. You discover things nobody has seen before.

That’s what happened to me. I stare into the distance not knowing what I’m looking at and not caring. The only thing that matters is that I escape. It’s getting to me. It’s the future. I can’t stop it. I don’t try, knowing that it’s no use. There was change again. I stopped running through the woods and sat down to write something. In case my village survives. In case someone, as curious as I am, reads it, so they know what I know. I hid the letter, and it told of all I knew, all I discovered. I hid it. I hid it somewhere only the curious ones can find it. This will be gone from eyes until that one person finds it. I know they are going to keep it a secret. That nothing goes wrong. I know of things nobody else does. I’ve seen things that others will gape at. I never dared to tell a soul, and I hope that the chosen one who finds it will not. There is something among us, good and bad, just like us humans, but so unlike all the same. I’ll leave the letter and run into the flames, the light of hope reflecting in my eyes. I looked back to the stream, and the fallen tree. I hope someone finds it far into the future. I hope that it won’t fall into the wrong hands. I took a deep breath and said a silent goodbye.

As soon as I turned around, I see them surrounding me. I was thrown into the flames with everyone else. I didn’t care that I was dying. I had hope. Someone will find it.

I will probably be just the far past to them.

Pink is pretty. She likes pink and the letters P and I and N and K, and her favorite thing to paint is her name. She does not like the color purple. She doesn’t like the color purple because in high school she had a best friend named Purple, but then Purple took her boyfriend. Her boyfriend’s name was Red. At high school prom, Pink wanted to go with Red, but Red said he was busy. So Pink went to prom with Blue. At the prom, she looked over to see what Purple was doing. Purple walked over to Red and started dancing. Red had said he was busy just so he could go to prom with Purple. Pink went over to Red and Purple and said to Red, “Oh, Red, I thought you were so busy you couldn’t even come to prom, and you’re here with Purple?” Pink and Purple got into a fist fight.

When colors fight, it’s a crayon with little arms, legs, a face, and a wrapper. First, Purple swung at Pink, but she ducked. Then she went down to the floor. She kicked Purple in the foot and then she fell. Yellow ran over to break it up. He went in the middle of them. He pushed Pink back, and then he pushed Purple back. Blue ran up to help Yellow. Yellow took Purple to the side and Blue took Pink to the side and told them to calm down.

So Pink went home and called Red. She told him that they were done. Then Red met up with White and he high-fived White. Pink saw that and punched Red in the face so hard she broke his tip. Then she walked White home and she said, “White, okay. I’m gonna warn you. Whenever Red tries to touch you, move. Because I’m done with him.”

Then she went back home. She told her mother what happened and then she cried. She called up Purple and she said, “Purple, meet me at the park.”

Pink tried to run Purple over with her car. Purple jumped out of the way. Then Red was there to catch her. So Pink went home to her dad’s garage and got his motorcycle. She went to Red’s house and she brought the motorcycle into his room. She closed the door and locked it. She started chasing Red around in the room with her dad’s motorcycle. She was chasing Red in circles. He was running and screaming.

Then she got a hammer.

She went to his game room. She started smashing up everything. They both had a picture of them on Christmas and she smashed it up a hundred times. And then she called up Orange, her new best friend, and she said, “Go to my house in five minutes. I’ll meet you.” She chased Red around his room once more and then she left him alone. She went and chased his parents around. Then she went back home.        

Orange was at her door. She let her in. They started talking about what happened. Orange thought that she should dump Red for good and find another boyfriend. Orange called up her boyfriend, Black and he called up his friends Gray, Dark Blue, Turquoise, Brown and Magenta. He said, “I’m giving you the option to get to know these guys and figure out which one you want to be your new boyfriend.” At first she examined Brown.

He said, “How ya doin’?” He had a French accent. Even though he was French, he talked a little slang.

And then she said, “Umm-mm.” She didn’t like the slang.

And then she went up to Gray and he said, “Hey, good looking.”

She said, “I’ll keep you in mind.”

And then she went to Magenta. He said, “Whatcha’ up to?” and she said,

“Keep you in mind, too.”

And then she went to Dark Blue and he said, “Hi. How was your day?”

And she said, “I’m gonna have to re-look over Gray and Magenta.”

Then after she went to Turquoise and Turquoise said, “What’s your name?”

In the end, she chose Dark Blue because he was nice and everybody else wasn’t really like him. They went out on a date at Coo Coo for Color. It was a fancy restaurant. They went to dinner. He paid for it all. And then the next day they talked to each other on the phone, and he came to  her house and gave her some flowers. He surprised her with a cake and he said, “Happy first date.”

On the way to school she ran into Red. Red said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” on his knees. She called up Dark Blue. Dark Blue beat him up. He punched him in the face. He kicked him in his legs. And then he elbowed him in his stomach. And then she called up Purple.

She said, “Purple, come get your little boyfriend, Red.”

Purple went to Red and said, “What happened to you, boy?” And then she called an ambulance. Purple went with Red.

Dark Blue walked Pink to school and they went into a classroom. Orange sat at the window. Pink was in the second row. And Blue was in the third. Pink was in the middle of Orange and Dark Blue. Dark Blue and Pink kissed. Red tried to kiss Purple, but Purple said, “Pink was my best friend, I’m done with this.” Pink went over to Purple after class and Purple said, “I’m sorry that I went out with Red.”

Pink said, “If he came on to you, you should’ve known better not to go out with him in the first place. If you knew I was being lied to, why would you even do it?”

Purple said, “I know. But can you please give me another chance?”

Then Pink called over Dark Blue and then they went over to Red. And she said, “Dark Blue — beat up Red.”

“Glad to,” Dark blue said and he beat up Red. Pink called the principal and told the principal that Red tried to touch all the girls butts in the school. He got in trouble and he got expelled. Pink got her revenge. She and Purple became friends and since Pink found a boyfriend from Black, Pink called Black and told him to call his friends so Purple can choose a boyfriend from his friends just like Pink. Her boyfriend was Gray.

Pink said, “Just don’t ever do that again,” and gave Purple a hug.

Purple said, “Okay.”

Pink, Purple, Dark Blue and Gray all went out on a double date. Then Gray and Dark Blue ganged up on Red and then took his house and put him a shelter. And then Red never bothered any of them again.

THE END

BRIIINNNGGGGG! BRRRIINNNNGGGG!! BRIIINNNNNGGGGG!!! The brick rang endlessly, piercing the silence that permeated the dust covered bedroom. The noise annoyed me to no end. Groggily, I picked up the phone and answered. As soon as I picked up the brick, the noise stopped. On the other end, someone was using sound bytes from various old sci-fi films I knew (like, The Last Starfighter, 2001: A  Space Odyssey, and The Day The Earth Stood Still). “Klaatu barada nikto,” it repeated. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL,” pelted my ears at an increasingly higher pitch and tone, until it sounded like, “Greetings, starfighter, you have been recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the ko dan armada.” Then the fabled “DUH DAH DEE, your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system, to record a message, please press one at the tone.”

I wasn’t in a particularly good mood that morning because of my jarring wake up call. So I pressed one and gave the caller a piece of my mind, but the battery on my overclocked brick died at that moment, so I couldn’t do anything about the mysterious caller. I thus proceeded to my morning ritual, which consisted of a strict diet of granola bars and milk, plus the luxury of one small piece of canned fruit. My personal assistant tallied the calories to my daily calorie intake. Then I was repeatedly subjected to electrical muscular stimulation, which in effect meant shocking myself with electrically charged needles, replacing the need for exercise.

“HAL, any new messages?” I said to the open air.

“Affirmative, you’ve got five new emails,” replied my custom virtual assistant.

After checking my emails and strapping on my gear, I went to work. Work consisted of scavenging through the junkyard I called home and repairing and stripping down old electronics for resale to others. This was no ordinary junkyard scavenging job, however, it was surviving in one of the biggest tech wastes in the world the size of New York state. I had to compete with fellow scavengers, who were not above stealing from each other if necessary. During the War, the elitists bribed countless military officials to use non-nuclear warheads and avoid the giant scrap yards, as they had built luxurious bunkers underneath the yards. These yards were protected from harm by the barrier, which both kept things in and out. Sixty years after the war, the elite began rebuilding above ground, creating the Domes, megacities protected by 50 foot thick walls and a spherical force field that protected from all angles of attack, hence the nickname “the dome.”

The other 90% of earth’s population had also survived, but most were still underground. The reason scavengers were around was because, sometime around sixty years ago, there was a coalition of multiple rebel factions in several local bunkers who were then discovered by the overseers of their bunkers and forced into exile out into the wasteland, where they eventually became the scavengers. I sensed a disturbance in the force. I felt as if I was degrading from the story at hand. Anyways, back to my point of view.

“HAL, full lockdown while I’m gone, okay?” I said, initiating a series of actions in my hideout. I opened the hatch that led to a tunnel and to another hatch that led to the outside scraps. Before opening the final hatch, I remembered to grab my combo staff and my cycle baton. Then I stepped out into the waste that lay ahead of me.

Your Call Cannot Be Completed

The receiver hung limply from its wire, dangling from its cradle, the audio port shattered beyond repair. The stranger had been careless. Too careless. He had fled from the phone booth, fearing the chance of being hunted by Sentries. He was hidden in a dark crevice in the underground of the Citadel, a Dome known for it’s extensive black market. He listened keenly for the hum of the sentry engines. There was a patrol coming, nearly two blocks away. In an instant, the stranger took out a baton and ran, separating the halves of the baton. As he did so the halves transformed into a light cycle. He fled, making sure to turn off his lights, effectively becoming invisible in the darkness of the neglected streets. The stranger, intent on getting to his destination, entered a series of tunnels that led to a breach in the dome. Years ago he had discovered the breach while evading another patrol. He flew through the breach, and out into the scraps for half a mile. Then he stopped for a break. The stranger shook his canteen, trying to coax out the last drops of water that stubbornly clung to the interior of his canteen. After the water was gone, he took out a circular disc that he set on the floor. It began to glow as he did so, and after, he spoke into a small bracelet on his wrist that glowed softly as he whispered to it, “Transport me to the scavenger’s residence.”

Then he stepped onto the disk and there was a flash of bright light. Suddenly he was standing next to a circular hatch set into the ground. “Subject isn’t home, must be out scavenging,” he commented. He opened the hatch and into the darkness beyond. He dropped a messenger probe, its’ sleek glossy black shell humming with energy. The stranger promptly proceeded to erase all evidence he’d been at the scavenger’s residence, using a micro disinfector and his walkman to block out the annoying noise the disinfector made when in use. As the next song cued up on his walkman, he fled on his cycle, mouthing along to the lyrics currently blasting in his ears, “and another one gone, and another one gone, another one bites the dust,” silently on his cycle.

An hour later, he arrived at his destination. To the passing observer, it would have seemed like a weary traveler stopping for a rest on a rock. In reality this was a beacon that was used to signal rebel forces, but that was not what he was there for. The beacon was also an entrance to his “office” as he liked to call it. It was more than his office, it was his home. Then he waited for the scavenger to come. With him, the stranger’s dream team would be complete.

A normal Monday quickly became an abnormal Monday at Writopia, when a phantom snuck into room 4-3.

[Duh, duh, duh]

But no one knew how badly it would curse the class.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Cake pops must have lured the phantom in.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Duh, duh, duh…

[Duh, duh, duh]

Even the teacher was a little hyper.

[Duh, duh, duh]

For example, she was on the ceiling and she was bouncing off the walls, literally.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Great idea for getting us cake pops, Abby!” (They said sarcastically.)

[Duh, duh, duh]

Hyperactivity is never good in a class that should be calm.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“I forgot what I was going to say to him,” said Max.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Jokes on you!” he also said.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Kake?” he also said.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Let’s go over the work we did today,” said Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Madeline said,  “Nicki Minaj’s laugh is scary.” (Everyone laughed at that.)

[Duh, duh, duh]

Nobody knew that Madeline was gonna be right.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Oh my god!” Everyone said when they heard her laugh.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Phantom, phantom, come out, come out wherever you are. Please leave us alone. We just want to write,” said Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Quit it!” said Max, Izy, and Madeline, having different ideas of how to stop the phantom.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“RICKY WANTS CAKE POP!” said the phantom, whose name was obviously Ricky.

[Duh, duh, duh]

So Madeline brought out her pokeball and said, “Go Nicki Minaj! Use hysterical laughter to make the phantom scared.”

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Tut, tut, tut,” Queen Elizabeth said coming into the room without any warning.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Umbrellas started to rain from the ceiling and out of nowhere, Queen Elizabeth jumped into the air and instead of floating down slowly like Mary Poppins, she fell down and hit her head on a chair.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Ventilation was unheard of at the time, and some poison gas filled the room.

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Writers! Writers! Quick! Everyone evacuate. We must escape this spooky mess of a room,” pleaded Abby.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Xylophones kept Madeline, Izy, and Max in the room. It was the alarm to say that they had forgotten their devices!

[Duh, duh, duh]

“Young people could never live without their devices,” said Madeline.

[Duh, duh, duh]

Zoe Lusk came into the room and rescued everyone but the phantom. He died a very unpeaceful death.

The End

My eyes fluttered open like the wings of a butterfly about to take flight, peering up at the faint balls of light plastered onto the heavens. I swung back and forth on my hammock, each swing prompting bliss, until my body was engulfed in ecstasy. I looked around me at the vast, sweet grassy lawns surrounding me, each tendril of grass twirling around faster than the most talented dancer could ever wish to accomplish.

The mansion that I lived in, stood towering behind me with the most exquisite gold engravings on its edifice. The walls made out of the finest stainless steel, and then coated with a thin sheet of gold that made the windows seem like they were splashed on the walls like paint on a blank canvas. My house had approximately 300 rooms, with about 10 servants on each floor, which left our family of 3 with a multitude servants. These servants were paid, but a rather minute amount, for each servant got just a cent for every hour of labor.

The blankets that covered the hammock in my garden were made of the most extraordinary linen, forged from the heart of the Middle East where hundreds of workers labored for months to create every square inch. I was submerged in layers of these covers, each one so incredibly soft, I felt like I was one with my hammock. I slowly lifted my hand and brushed the linen apart, eager to meet with my parents. I treaded carefully onto the meadow (that over 50 servants tended to and kept perfect) and walked into the gilded doorway that lead to my house. The lawns were over 50 acres long, and had almost every type of exquisite flower growing in it except for some poisonous varieties.

I opened the golden metal encrusted door, which seemed to spellbind anyone who walked through it except me. I could not understand why so many people were awed by our family’s wealth. Some said that it was lavish, others simply shouted at my parents telling them that they should not parent me in this manner. For me however, it was a normal life, and I liked to think that anyone who was poor had not done enough labor to achieve the incomprehensible beauty and wealth that our family had achieved.

The interior of my house was a marvel, again, to anybody but me. It had a large silver ball hanging from a long, threadbare rope attached to a ceiling so high that you could barely see the top of it. The silver globe was one of our family’s masterpieces, for it took over six years to create. Slits, crevices, and crannies had been cleverly placed along the globe so that it reflected light to the adequate astonishment of the visitor. My house and I lived in quiet harmony with one another, and it was so perpetually luxurious that my mind often did not have the capacity to process it all.  Beneath the ball lay a large table, over 20 feet wide. It caused a plateau in the impeccably smooth polished floor beneath, and was one of the favorite places where my family united to partake our gorgeous meals. The floors were covered with a fluffy, white carpet that was as soft and silky as the fur of a beaver, which is actually what it was created from. Over 1,000 beavers were slaughtered for it. Some people might have thought that we were an unforgiving family, but I disagreed. I thought of beavers as a resource, just like every other animal, plant, and thing. If it was easy to harvest, it should be used until the source has been diminished to naught and it was time to find a new one. Some people call this cruel extinction. I simply called it the depletion of resources.

Since it was breakfast-time, I could hear my parents descending in their own glass elevator, getting ready to enjoy our meal. My parents were tall looming figures, at about 60 years old and in very good shape. Their faces were of a pale, opaque color and their bodies were very lithe and well kept, each inch scoured by the best plastic surgeons and cosmetologists. I was always astonished and very respectful when I met my parents, as they were the stars and heroes of my life. They had many burdens when they were younger, such as a small loan of 10 million dollars when they started (Some people say that 10 million dollars is a lot but I disagree!). They were able to build up from there to a worth of over a billion dollars through hard work.

We sat down to eat our meal consisting of 5 courses, composed entirely from organic produce from our own farm. My parents started to talk about the day as usual. “So Tom, now that you are 12 years old, you have to think of your future plans, are you going to continue to improve in your studies, so that you can be independent when you grow up? ”

“Of course,” I replied. “This home was a part of me since I first started walking and I am not about to give it up. I do not have a job yet, but I thought that I would just inherit your wealth when you die.”  

My dad’s face turned stern, “I know that, Tom, but you know that you cannot just rely on money to survive. After all, skills are very important too. Why did we go through all of the effort in sending you to the best school in the world? For nothing?”

“Ok, I understand,” I said, “I will try to study hard and be as successful as you.” After the meal that I had consumed, my family departed and I ran off to hang out with my friends.

Our estate had a forest with thousands of trees. My friends and I chased each other, racing through corn stalks, each fiber gleaming a crisp golden pigment. The kernels inside were like snails hiding inside of their shells. As we raced through the stalks, we left a thin wake in our path, which dozens of gardeners scuttled immediately to fix, making it seem like nothing had ever happened. As the forest approached us, the leaves merged together to create a thick blanket, draped over the millions of boughs that protruded out from the trunks. I never liked the trunks of these trees, as they are always in stark contrast to the beauty that my eyes had adjusted to living in. The tree trunks, with their drab, brown hue and dilapidated barks were a monstrosity to my eyes, that I had to shield my eyes with my hands although there was not the faintest trace of sunlight to be found.

As I ran through the forest, I surveyed my surroundings and realized that I had been stranded deep within it, with my friends, or my house, nowhere to be found. I ran faster and faster, but they were still nowhere to be found. The forest that I feared was like a cage, trapped me behind its thick brown bars. I instantly produced a wad of 100 dollar bills from my pocket, trying desperately to find a store so that I could pay them to lead me home (which was the way that I had been solving all my problems for years), but unfortunately, there was no such store or human to be found. Even though I knew that I was hopeless, I kept looking for one, for that was the only method that I had even known or used to solve my problems.

I wandered and wandered until I found a small hut made of wood harvested from our forest. It was so small I could barely see how someone could fit inside of the door. The hut was like a tent, except a bit larger, with large boughs strung together to create a triangular shape. Suddenly, my pent up rage increased, and I was about to demolish the hut when I heard a faint weeping coming from inside. I saw a small baby, about the age of 2 writhing inside, crying, probably because its parents had gone somewhere. I tried to console the baby, but again since I did not know what to do, I started to throw hundreds of dollars on the baby, thinking that it would stop the sorrow. Unfortunately, this idea did not work, and since I did not have any other remedy, I left the crying baby, thinking that there was nothing that I could have done to help.

I continued my trek through the forest, and as I walked, I felt strange feelings of shame and anger (as I had been taught they were called). “What is the magic remedy that can be used to solve all these problems that I have encountered. I must know now!” I muttered under my breath to myself. But as I walked, I encountered another problem, I had brought no food with me. I was about to draw more money from my pocket, when I realized that I had no way of spending it. I pondered about the ways that I had gotten food before, each time involving money and some person to give it to me, but this time I had no one to rely on to supply me with food. Instead, I had to use my own skills to get it.

I looked around thinking what I could do, and then I found a small bush growing in a neglected area of the forest floor. I looked more closely at the bush and found small red triangles sprouting on it. At close inspection, I realized that what I was looking at were actually strawberries. Picking one from the bush, my hunger got the better of me, and I ate them without thinking too much about what it was. The berry had a miraculously sweet and sour taste, much more appetizing than the strawberries that my money had given me.

With my pocket filled to the brim with these fruits, I continued on my adventure through the forest, completely losing the intent of getting back home. Wandering on, I bumped back into the hut that I was inspecting before. As I peeked inside, I saw the baby’s parent carefully cradling the baby and rocking it back and forth. I felt, for some reason, much happier just looking at this phenomenon, than any money had ever made me feel before. I thought that this must be the magical power that I was always looking for to solve my crisis, and it seemed to work, because in an instant the crying baby turned into a content one, without any money involved. My parents never did that to me and for the first time I thought that my parents had done something wrong.

PART II

Many hours seemed to have passed. I finally found myself at the back of the forest’s edge with my mansion at the end of the vast lawns. As I walked to the forest’s edge, I saw a tall, looming figure appearing before me. This figure actually happened to be a tree-like object so drab and dilapidated, that my eyes were repelled from the sight. The tree had hundreds of crooked boughs that were completely devoid of leaves, the branches so utterly twisted that I felt like they could break off at any moment. The tree took on a pigment of pitch black, and had the unostentatious stench of burnt wood struck by lightning. The putrid sight induced nausea in my body, and I shouted for my servants to come and eliminate it from my forest.

Unfortunately, there were no servants around, but after a few more shouts, my father’s workmen came with heavy lumbering axes. They tried to repeatedly strike it down, but each hit had no effect on it. The tree stood tall and refused to break. “Continue, you blithering fools. You were paid to work for me and you do almost nothing,” I screamed. “But sir, the tree might hit your house!” one servant cried. “Just do your work and do not question me. It is impossible that the tree will hit my house!” I screamed infuriated.

After a few more hours of relentless chopping, my servants finally cut it down, and released a cry of joy into the air. I too was delighted by the sight, but the large limp log on the ground started to roll even though there was no hill. The log rolled through the forest, taking lots of the beautiful vegetation with it. I followed, and saw that its width was rapidly increasing. Soon, it would be half the size of my house. The tree trunk continued to roll until it exited the forest, and appeared to be headed straight for my hammock. Instantly, hundreds of servants appeared around it, but it kept rolling on and on, and soon smashed right into the bottom of my mansion. My beautiful home folded in half like a floppy pancake, smoke and debris spewing out of the crash site. The steel, which seemed so thick, was now flattened by a piece of wood. My once wonderful home now looked like a garbage dump, with broken furniture, glass shards, and silver ball strewn all over large estate. Everything I had vanished in an instant.

I started to weep uncontrollably, a thing that I would have never done before. The house was a treasure that had connected my entire life, and now a very strange feeling of loss, almost like pain from a wound crept over me. I had always thought that my money would solve every problem that I had, but now here I was, standing on a field just after my home was destroyed, with nothing. I tried to find my parents, but they were nowhere to be found.

I looked around at the area surrounding me. I had depended on wealth and superiority for so long, but now that it was destroyed, I was lost. My parents were not there to support me, and now that my servants were no longer under the control of my family, they were running loose like a pack of random mice dashing about. I tried beckoning the servants to escort me into the ruins of the house, but they refused, as they had already long ran away from the house that they resented so much.

PART III

Exhausted, knowing that my whole life had been ruined by this catastrophe, I lay on the grass closed my eyes and fell asleep, thinking that I would never recover. When I awoke I saw that I was lying on a hard bench directly underneath a dark rugged wooden ceiling with not the faintest appearance of air or stars. My instincts kicked in, and I immediately jumped up and went to punish the person who put me in that position. But I found something oddly peculiar. Instead of me being in one room by myself which was bad enough, there were many such beds stacked in every part of the room imaginable. There were even beds atop other beds! Enraged by the preposterous view, I jumped out of the bed, and commanded forth the servant who did this at once. Unfortunately, there was no such person in the room, and as I opened the door in front of me, I was confronted by a warden wielding a large baton, his face a deep crimson red.

“So you are the new kid who is all over the news eh? They say that your parents were the richest in the world eh? Well now THEY ARE GONE!! Welcome to the real world kid. No matter how rich you are, you are getting the same beating nonetheless.” That final word being said, the man took his baton and started to smash it across my back. My parents had never done this to me before, and I was infuriated beyond belief, but I realized that my days of absolute wealth were over.

After the beating, I slumped back into the bed and had a look at my clothing. My brilliant robes were stripped off me and replaced with a handful of rags stitched together. After a couple of minutes, all of the other children started to wake up and walk out of the room. After that incident I was too frightened to go anywhere near that door, and had time to recollect myself. I was still shuddering from the shock that my house was destroyed and my parents were dead. It was very strange, for my parents were with me for my whole life, guiding me every step of the way, and now they’re gone. It seemed like a hole had bored into my heart and would remain. It was another strange feeling that I was not used to.

Cupping my hands into my head I started to rage about the turn that my life had taken, but then I realized that hundreds of other people around the world go through this sort of treachery since the day that day were born. I started to feel some compassion for my servants, even though every other day of my life I had taken them for granted. Looking up, though, I saw the clock ticking toward the better part of 11am. I was wondering who would deliver my breakfast, but then realized that since I was in the “new” world I had to think differently.

“That must be where they go for breakfast!” I exclaimed, and leapt out of the door in the room, thankful that I was leaving the putrid place for hopefully a long time. Unfortunately, the area outside of my room was even more appalling than I had expected.

It was a long hallway which expanded to either side of the room. Cautiously I stepped out of the room and started to walk down the left side of the hallway. I was trying to find the cafeteria and could not find it anywhere. Suddenly I heard a faint scream coming from a room and a bunch of screams following that. I peeked through the small glass window implanted in the door and saw hundreds of children lined up, sitting at tables finishing up their meals. I walked in and took a seat at one of the tables. If this was how I had to eat all of my meals than I did not think that I would last here that long.

I was presented with a glob of black slime. Everyone started to dive into their meals except for me who stared at the meal in confusion wondering if it was even edible. As I was doing this, a kid about the same age as me walked up to me. I hopped off my chair and started to saunter around the house, trying to lose this kid that was following my path, but he persisted until we ended up walking down the hallway to a little grassy yard.

I sat on a wooden bench to one corner, and the kid sat on another one across from me. “Hello,” the kid said to me.” I had no choice but to reply with a, “Hi.”

“So, how did you end up here?” he started again. I started to talk about my wealth and the kid alongside me listened in awe. He started to talk back to me and within an hour we were both playing together, laughing about our past stories and experiences.

We continued to play in the field, even after the sun had long set, and I started to reflect on my experiences. It was a peculiar feeling that I experienced, talking to this kid. It was much more gratifying than any wealth could have given me.

As I started to bond with my new friend I felt this surging feeling once more, but more importantly I realized that other humans were also of the same level as me.  As my friend went more in depth with his experiences. I started to understand that the attitude that I was imposing toward wealth and other human beings was all wrong, and my vanity was taking control of my mind. He talked about how he was at first very poor, and was a worker at a very rich man’s house, just like mine. He was treated so cruelly that he ran away and ended up here.

Days after that experience happened, my worries started to fade away, for I had discovered the one thing that was greater than money…Compassion. I vowed that if I were to ever become wealthy again, I would make sure to remain compassionate, something I would have never thought before!

PLOP. Hi, I’m Amber. When I grow up I want to be a writer! Amber Doller, the world’s best author, will be receiving her tenth golden medal for her new book, I thought. Well, I might as well show you my favorite book I’ve ever written.

It was a long time ago. A year ago, to be exact. Well, a year and a half. And my friend and I were shelving books. An hour later, I needed to get a book from one shelf to another, but it was really high up, so I couldn’t exactly reach it. I jumped as high as I could and then at the same time, my friend did, but on the other book shelf. All of a sudden I started floating. And weird enough, so did my friend.

We both screamed at the top of our lungs. Bump.

“What in the world just happened?” I asked.

“Ahhh,” said my friend, flying up and tumbling out of the window, catching herself a foot from the ground. She crossed her fingers and she floated back up using a bubble. Bubbles were coming out of her fingers. “Amber!” my friend yelled. “Why am I shooting bubbles out of my fingers?”

I tried that, but it didn’t work. Then for the oddest of reasons, I made a sad wolf with my hand and then bubbles came out. “It can’t be,” said her mother. Dun, dun, dunnn!

I finished writing. Until the next book, brb. I needed to go shelf my books with my bff, my reading room was long overdue for a reorganize sesh. I started pacing around the room, except all of a sudden, I was flying. I felt more airy on my face and I just felt a lot less lazy, like I didn’t have to do as much work. I also didn’t hear my own footsteps or hear anything.  

I looked down at my feet and I said, “Oh my god. Why meee?” because I was flying! My friend crossed her fingers that it wasn’t some weird disease that would make me die. And then, my friend shot bubbles out of her fingers. Real, actual bubbles.

“AAAaaa!” We both started screaming like we’ve never screamed before.

My friend was on the other side of the room, and she was still screaming into a pillow. I have powers. I have real actual powers. But it didn’t make any sense. I wrote about this. Writing stuff can’t really make it come true, can it? Or at least not fantasy.

Then a cartoon lightbulb popped above my head. Literally. My friend left when this idea popped into my head. She was so freaked out that my friend left to go to her house and scream in her pillows. (Then she flew to Mexico with her family.) But maybe, if I write something else down, it will come true. Let me give it a try: I just found out I own a gown of silk and gems. “I wish I could I wish I co –– ”

“Hun, a package is waiting for you,” my dad yelled.

“Yes!” I got the package and ran up to my room. Then, I got my specialist scissors and opened the package very, very carefully. And you know what was in there? And I’m not talking about talking to myself. Riiight? Na. It was a silk gown with beautiful gems on it. I showed it to my parents and they screamed in delight. I asked them if they wanted anything and then they said, “What now? Where did you even get this gown?”

And I said, “It’s something special.”

They said that they didn’t believe me, but they wanted a million dollars. So, I went upstairs and wrote down: My parents just got a million dollars. So then, something started raining through the house. It was green. It was money! It was a million dollars! I ran to the steps and my parents were jumping up and down and screaming and squealing. Then, we decided to have a ginormous party soon. School was starting so I wrote up a new backpack with everything I needed. My plan was to come to school in a limo with a butler. Then being me, I went to the deli to get Oreos.

The next morning, when I woke up, I got out of bed and went to collect my backpack from my desk. It gets a little annoying having a desk like mine because I have to pull out the bookshelf and I have to pull out the mini desk. Then, I went into my “walk-in” closet, a closet that was pretty big, five yards long and two yards wide. I got dressed in something that could be mistaken as a school uniform, so I changed it. I ended up wearing jeggings, a white t-shirt with a pink leopard print scarf, and black boots. Then, I took one of my books from the bookshelf, except it was a binder full of my plans for school. I was ready.

Chapter 2

“Dat’ll be $1.50,” the counter man said.

“Okay,” I said.

Grabbing the Oreos, I raced to the bench and found out I was in Ms. Peepee’s class, a.k.a. the meanest teacher ever. I took one look at my locker and almost barfed at the rusty walls. I started by putting a plain sheet of paper in my locker. Then I wrote down, I wish I had a perfectly decorated locker. In my locker was a little pink rug and on top of it, was a tiny table with a little drawer (the drawers for makeup, duh!), a mirror, a mini chandelier, an emergency outfit that was a bit over fancy –– it was a shirt that was purple with a bit of black lace over the belly and then the same color purple skirt with cowgirl boots –– then, there was hot pink winter coat and a beige sweater. There was also a pouch for my pencils and a little mini shelf for all my folders and notebooks. Then, I put up two more sheets of paper just in case. After that, I realized I may be late to Ms. Peepee’s class.

So then, I walked because it was right next to my locker, kind of wishing I was in Miss Lulu’s class. I went into the very back corner just when Ms. Peepee came into the class. She was wearing a purple dress with a blue sweater. She had her gray hair in a bun and she wore glasses on a chain. Who does that? Her heels clicked and clacked on the floor. She gave us an essay without even saying “Hello, new class.” And then, she said we had to write an essay on Africa and its animals and then for the week we had to write four essays about different animals that lived there. So then we had to start, and without thinking about what I was doing, I just started writing, I wish I was in Miss Lulu’s class.

Then, I teleported in front of the door and walked in.

Miss Lulu said, “You should be very ashamed. You are late, but since it’s the first day, some confusion must have happened with your teacher, so I will not mark you late.”

There was a seat in the very front, so I happily took the seat. Her voice was literally a sooong. We all wrote half a poem, then we had to finish for homework. But then, it was time for attendance…

“Kate.”

”Here.”

“Mark.”

“Godzilla!”

“Gareth?”

“Hi.”

“Adam.”

“Here.”  

“Amy.”

“Uh stop that.”

“Alex.”

“Yo.”

“Alexandra

“Hi.”

“Josh.”

“Is better than.”

“Okay, anyone not called?”

Oh no! I raised my hand and I got called on.

Then, Miss Lily said, “Okay, I’ll make sure to add you.” And that was before the principal called.

Chapter 3

One of the students got the phone because it was one of the phones that was on the wall.

The kid said, “It’s for you, Miss Lily.”

Miss Lily got the phone and said, “Oh, really?” And then she came to

my desk and she said, “I am truly sorry, but someone who did not pay for the school is not allowed to be in the school.” So, I got sent to the principal’s office.

I got out a sticky note and a pencil on my way out. Then, I wrote down, I wish that I was on the attendance in Miss Lily’s class and didn’t have to go to the principal’s. Nothing happened. Miss Lily didn’t come calling back and say that it was an accident. I got very worried. Then, I wrote down, I wish that I had a pair of hoop earrings in my hand. Nothing happened. My face was getting scrunched up. It was my worried face. I knew I had to be incredibly specific on this, but I didn’t know I had to be that specific. I wrote down, I wish I had a gigantic pair of hoop earrings that are gold. Why was this happening? I was entering the principal’s office, holding my breath. I was writing faster than I’d ever wrote. I even wrote, I wish that my parents had a crown and a castle instead of a house, but I didn’t get a call from my parents. Now I was sweating as I sat down. Mr. Lightning started yelling what I should do with my attitude.

Blah, blah, blah about me trespassing on school property. Then I did something very stupid. I pulled out my phone and said, “Call my parents. They know that I belong in this school. They wasted a thousand dollars on it!”

So, Mr. Lightning banged his fist and said, “You are not supposed to have a phone in this school! You will be sent to detention dungeon.” Then five teachers with axes took me away to a dungeon with desks. The metal bars that surrounded the desk were rusty and had chains. Some had what I call peasants. I don’t know why, but I just decided to call them that. They all had these brownish, tannish gowns on that looked like a poor person owned, but somewhat a little more like mine.

Wait a second! I was wearing a pink gown?! It was sparkly and sleeveless. In the middle was a ribbon that was a couple of inches thick. I was locked up in the fanciest of dungeons. Unlike the others, was pink and purple and next to it was something that was blue and green. The pink one was marked “Princess” and the blue one was marked “Prince.” The pink one had an elegant bunk bed with pink polka dot covers and lighter pink fringe, it had a make up table and barely even looked like a dungeon. And on top of that, there was a hoity-toity closet and a beautiful tiara. Then the iron door slammed shut!

I started pacing and someone said “Will ya stop?”

There was a girl in a black dress. It had a bit of navy blue in some places, it was like a very dreary princess dress. I asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Andy, and I guess we’re roommates. Sadly,” she said, while rolling her eyes.

I think she was looking at my pink dress, but whatever it was, I was not happy. I reached into the pocket of my dress, which I didn’t even know that I had, and pulled out a really sharp diamond and I have no idea why I had a diamond in my pocket, but somehow I have a lot of things in my pocket that I don’t know about.

“Now what’s your name?” she asked me.

I may have groaned a little, but I said, “Amber.”

And then she replied, “Princess Amber from Cristalandia? I bet you’re actually happy to be in this room. I so wish I was in the Prince’s room. I mean, it’s perfect. It’s green and blue, my two favorite colors. And, instead of a two bunker, it has three bunkers with really cool designs on them, not just frilliness and pink dots. What’s up with that? And their crowns are gold, while all we get are silver. No one even wants to wear purple dresses they provide, no offense.”

“What do you mean by ‘they’?” I asked.

And she replied, “Don’t you know? The stupid people who run the place. The Queen of Schoolandia, who’s the principal’s mother and the king of Schoolandia, her husband. But, actually, technically, they just provide the clothes. The principal of Schoolandia and his wife, Alicia, the Princess of Knowledge, are going to be crowned the King and Queen of Schoolandia soon. And the only thing I’m happy about is that when that does happen, they will take all of the stupid peasants out of the school.”

“Why do you call them stupid?” I asked with curiosity.

She said, “Where have you been? peasants are stupid. We are princesses. Princesses are good, and get to marry overly stuck-up princes,” the odd princess, Andy, got up. Then she took the blue dust, sprinkled it on me and walked out of/into the wall.

I woke up. I sat up. I looked both ways and saw no portal like I did before. But what I did see is a black, shiny pony tail with a black crop top and a leather skirt attached to it.

“Andy, what in the world did you do?”

“What do you mean?” asked Andy in a very sarcastic, questioning, guilty voice. “I only put blue fairy dust on you that makes you go to sleep for, I’d say, ten hours. Be glad I didn’t put the death black one on you. I don’t even have that one. My mom took it away from me. Anyway, you might want to forget what you saw or else maybe I’ll use the purple on you. And then, once I do that, I’ll erase your memory from the pink and I’ll go off into the portal again to get a new outfit.”

“Oh yeah, that’s toootally what you were doing,” I said.

In return, she mumbled, “Wish the dust could help me ‘scape this misery.

I gave her a few mean looks.

She answered by taking her ponytail down, brushing her hair, and putting on odd (but fashionable) gloves. Ten minutes later, a guard came to take us to “reform” school, a place where they attempt to teach us to behave by yelling and misbehaving themselves.

An hour later, we had to go to set up for the next class, which was how to sew. They made us take a cloth and chains that were from the other class and make our chains pretty so we could wear them. But everyone knew that the only reason that they were making us make a cover for chains was one: we wouldn’t realize that we were wearing chains, and two: they needed an extra class. My chains had a fabric that matched my dress –– a pink with purple gems on the handcuffs. I tried not to smell through my nose because if I did I would smell peasants, who did smell pretty bad.

It was finally break time for an hour. I decided to change into my nightgown and sleep for the hour, but Andy kept asking me if she should wear the blue glitter or the blue and black glitter on her gloves, which were handcuffs. After break, I got changed and went to history of torture, sometimes they need volunteers. Next class was cooking. We had 20 minutes to cook a meal then we had to eat what we made. I personally loved bacon and rice, even if the bacon was a bit chewy. Everyone barfed except for like three people who just said, Ew.

Then, as an extra little challenge, we were forced to save a couple of bites for the teacher who was cooking the class and whoever won got one percent off of their time in the dungeon. He barfed five out of 15 times. He said, “Ew!” for everyone except one person, who was the baker’s daughter. I was the last person to get my food tasted and he said mine was definitely the best. So, I only had 14 more years in the dungeon (who knew having a cell phone in school could do that much?). Everyone was oohing and ahhing at me like I just won the gold medal for the Olympics.

After that, we got a half an hour break to eat lunch. I did not get the apples because there’s a saying: bad teachers get bad worms in their apples, so why don’t bad students? But the carrots were amazing and I asked for two cucumbers to put on my eyes. Of course they said five minutes because apparently, if you were a winner of one of the challenges, you are a celebrity for the day. So then, when I walked over to the closest table, they oohed and ahhed for no apparent reason. So, I went to a table and sat all by myself. The carrots were good and the pizza was okay, but my favorite thing to eat was the baguette that they always made daily for the person that won one of the contests. It tasted like donuts and cookies and chocolate and everything yummy and rainbows. After that we have P.E., a.k.a. Pain Ed taught by Mr. Peapee.

The class went by pretty fast, blah blah, blah, pain volunteer and etc. I was so bored I thought I might die. But I wish I did not say that because the teacher said I must go into a me-sized pencil sharpener and try to reach the other side before I die. But as a proper princess I couldn’t die, only get hurt.

As I went through, I missed my old life, my mom Rosa, and my dad Sasha, and my twin sister Sage. It was too much. I pulled out a pen. It was a bad time but I did it anyway. I felt like I needed to. I did it, wrote what I was going through like a story. My wrist felt so normal. It just felt like I found the joy in what I was doing. What I should be doing. And I saw a light. It was blurry from my tears, but I saw it. Anything. I just needed to go home. The paper got wetter and wetter, but I still felt good. I was still writing.

She cried and wept.

The light was bigger, brighter. The more I wrote, the closer it got. All of a sudden, I stopped. It was dangerous because I was in an enormous pencil sharpener, but I kept on writing.

She felt a bright light

The hole got closer, even though I wasn’t running. So I kept on writing even more. I leaped in. There were bright lights and cars. No horses, no icky smells. I knew where I was. I was home.

“Sooo,” I sigh, “that’s my story. I hope you liked it!”

“Free hats for the cold weather,” someone says to our Writopia group as we are packing up. “Maya and Morgan, time to go.”

“I like your story,” I say to Morgan.

“Thanks.”

20 minutes later, I’m doing ELA creative writing about anything, and this is my story, just look up: Learn to love life as it is, for only you can change it.

I went to sleep as a normal 15-year-old and I woke up this morning as a professional adventurer. Well, not exactly.

All I remember is my parents saying goodbye to me and my little sister, sitting down on the padded airplane seats, closing my eyes, and falling asleep.                                                                                                        

I woke up to Scarlett whispering in my ear and doing anything to wake me up.

“Lila, there’s a little kid next to me. She looks about three years old and she’s crying. Right after you fell asleep some lady came by and dropped this kid off. She said that we had to take care of this kid, Elizabeth. I don’t know what’s wrong!!!”

“Hi, sweetie,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

“I want to go see Mommy.” Elizabeth said.

“You just saw your mom.”

“That’s not my mommy.”

“Then you’re going to see your mom after the plane ride.”

“Okay,” she said and just like that she went to sleep. She was obviously very tired.

* * *

When the plane landed, Elizabeth was still asleep. I unfolded her stroller and strapped  her in. I pushed her out and saw her mom holding a sign that said Elizabeth on it.

“Mommy!” she said.

“Hi, honey,” her mom answered.

Her mom thanked us for our help and left the airport. Scarlett and I started looking for the sign that would take us to our destination, The Hawi Trails.  Soon we saw a sign that said “Partner Backpacking On The Hawi Trails.”

“Hello girls, you must be Scarlett and Lila,” said a man who clearly thought we were hot girly girls.

“Um, are you pretty ladies single?”

“Of course… not,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Ryan’s so adorable. I keep a picture of him in my locker at school. Every single girl at school liked him until he asked me to the dance. My enemy, Ashley Von Bullymeyer, practically had steam coming out of her ears when she heard the news. On the other hand, I was smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, because for once, I got better privileges than my enemy!

“Oh, okay.” He said, looking disappointed, “How about you Scarlett, single?”

“Nope,” she said giving him the same impression I gave him. He looked like he had lost a family member as he let us by.

“The bus is outside. You’ll be able to tell it’s our bus by all the teenagers inside it.”

When we piled onto the bus, all the teens looked at us as if we were aliens. We were soon stopped by the man whose name turned out to be Jack Fost, the bus driver. “Why are you kids on this bus? You don’t  look like teenagers to me!”

“Well,” I replied, “that’s because you’re like, seven feet tall!”

We walked to the back of the bus and sat down. Suddenly, the bus lurched into motion, I felt a kick, and Jack started speaking. “This is going to be a long ride, so make yourselves as comfortable as possible,” he said. We sat down and managed to get through the ride by eating and sleeping and reading.

I woke up to the sound of Jack holding a megaphone in front of my face and screaming, “Get up!” I guess he thought I was like any other teenager who sleeps too long. I got off the bus, dazed, and the noise of the megaphone was still ringing in my ears. We had arrived at the safety house. It was green and brown and all the camouflage colors, so that the wild animals couldn’t get us. We thought about running away and going on our own, but then Jack said, “First, before you go, we have to go over safety tips and drills so you all know what to do if anything happens to you. The first safety drill is going to be swinging on ropes over lethal waters.” We climbed up a ladder above a tank of water with snakes springing up to try to bite us. Jack held onto the rope and swung. He almost got bitten by the snakes but he managed to avoid them. “Everybody, if you were watching, you would have seen how I did that.” He pointed to Scarlett. “How did I do that?” he asked her.

“You jumped onto the higher part of the rope and the snakes were too short to bite you so you were able to land on the platform on the other side.” I thought about it for a second and realized that Scarlett was right. He had jumped off the higher part of the rope. Then Jack pointed to Scarlett and said, “You try.” We all froze.

“Uh… ok…?” Scarlett questioned. She slowly climbed up the ladder and grabbed the rope. She shimmied up to the top like a monkey.

“Three… two… one… Go!” we all shouted.

She let go and hung on for dear life like she was a bull rider. She slowly started sliding to the bottom of the rope and at the very last second when the snakes were about to bite her, she landed on the platform with a smooth finish. And then everyone clapped and cheered.

“Who wants to go next?” asked Jack. Everyone was jumping and yelling saying, “Me! Me! Me!”

Jack said, “I’ll let Scarlett pick.”

She pointed to me.

“Okay,” I said. I stepped out onto the platform and I felt like everyone’s eyes were burning holes in my back. Here I go, I thought. I jumped down and started shimmying up to the top. A snake bit my sneaker but I tore away. I couldn’t believe I had avoided that snake. I landed on the other side and the whole place erupted in cheers once again. Everyone was eager to go and by the time we were done, we were practically professionals. By the time we had finished all the safety drills we had learned how to beat up gorillas, how to cook dead bat, and how to figure out which herbs were poisonous and which weren’t.

“Now it’s time for bed everyone,” said Jack. “But tomorrow morning we’ll get you up bright and early so that we can grab our supplies and get going.”

As we headed unto the bunks, one girl came up and asked us, “Do you two want to join a group with me and my buddy?”

“Um, I guess, why?” I said.

“See, we wanted to do this because it sounded fun but we know nothing about adventuring and survival, so we saw you were really good and we wanted you to help us.”

“Sure,” said Scarlett, always eager to help others.

After we spoke to the girl we went to bed. Right when I was falling asleep, I heard (a wail) Scarlett say something. “What did you say?” I asked.

“How are we going to survive?”

“We’ll make it,” I said, calmly.

Scarlett sounded scared. “You think when we go home, we’ll be professional adventurers.”

“Yeah, definitely,” I said, just as I was drifting off to sleep.

* * *

The next morning the girl we met the other night, who we had found out was named Sarah, met us at the trail that said, “If you are a professional, go on this trail.”

“Are you sure you want to do this one?” I asked Sarah and her buddy, Delilah.

“Yeah, we’re sure,” they said. “We knew you were good and we want a challenge.”

“Okay,” said Scarlett, looking nervously towards me. “Let’s go!”

But as soon as we stepped on the trail, we all came to halt and we heard someone’s phone ringing. I looked into my backpack and picked up my phone and checked it. It was my best friend, Emily. “Hi, Em,” I said. “How are you?”

“Good,” she answered.

Then I said, “I wish I could talk to you, but we’re about to start going on the adventure, so I can’t. I’ll be able to call you in a couple weeks when we get back to the safety house.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll say hi to everybody at home for you.”

“Okay, thanks! Bye!”

I got off the phone. “Ok, everybody! Let’s do this thing!” I said. And everyone cheered, “Yay!”

As we stepped into the woods, I saw our first obstacle. It was a pile of dead bats; it had a sign taped onto it. “Take these dead bats and cook them when you need it.” And at the bottom it said, “Bat Jack.”

So we picked up a pile of smelly, dead bats and stuffed them into plastic bags that were next to the pile. As we continued along, I heard Sarah say, “Look! There’s a lake full of rattlesnakes and a vine hanging down!”

We walked over there and decided we would go two at a time. First Scarlett and I went and shimmied up to the top, and she shimmied right below me. We started swinging and almost landed in the water but luckily we just avoided it. Then, when Delilah and Sarah went, Delilah’s shoe got bitten off by a snake, so we had to take turns giving her piggyback rides until we got to the campsite.

They had all of the supplies a professional adventurer would need. They had extra clothes, extra shoes and extra food. I took out the pot so we could make bat stew for dinner, and saw a slip of paper sticking out from under the cookbook. I assumed it was another note from Jack and opened it up. It said,

Dear Delilah, Sarah, Scarlett, and Lila,

I know you don’t think you’re good enough to do the professional trail, but you are.

Jack

Under the note there was another note but it was sealed with a wax sealer and it obviously wasn’t from Jack. I opened it and the first sentence I saw was, “If you don’t leave this trail I will kill you.”

“What’s that?” asked Sarah

“It’s some stupid note from Jack.” I said, trying to change the subject. After all I was basically the caretaker of these girls. I was 15 and Sarah, Delilah and Scarlett were 13.

As I went to bed that night I picked up the letter and studied it. I opened it up and started reading.

Dear Lila,

This trail belongs to me not you. If you do not leave this trail, I will kill you. In order to avoid me you must

• complete every task twice,

• take the long way every time,

• use every material you get ten times.

Love,

The Trapper

Wow, I thought, feeling more scared than a 15-year-old should.

“Mommy, is it already time for school? I don’t want to go.”

I blinked and opened my eyes to see Sarah moaning like it was Monday morning. I crawled over to Sarah and shook her awake.

“ Wake up, sleepy head it’s time for — ”

“School?” cried Sarah, sitting up straight. “I don’t wanna go to school!”

“No. I was going to say wake up, sleepy head. It’s time to go.”

“Oh, okay.”

As we walked away from the campsite we came to a fork in the road. There were two signs. The first one said, “Long Way to treetop course.” The second one said, “Short Way to treetop course.”

“Guys, let’s take the long way there,” I said.

“Why?” asked Delilah.

I decided to tell all of them right away.

“So, this guy sent me a letter that said we had to take the long way every time, do each task twice, and use every material ten times. I don’t know who this is but the letter was signed The Trapper…”

I noticed Delilah standing away from us, reading a book.  

“Wow. That’s really freaky!” said Scarlett, “How do you think he knows your name?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s been watching us from above. Who cares? Let’s go to the treetop course!” I said, changing the subject.

“Okay,” said Sarah, rolling her eyes. I could tell that she was annoyed that we had to go the long way.

As we climbed up the tree, I noticed a rustling in the bushes and stopped. Is that The Trapper? I thought.

“Move it, Lila. We’re waiting.” Delilah’s harsh words interrupted my fantasy. She was right under me and Sarah and Scarlett were right under her.

“Sorry. I was spacing out. I’ll move.” I climbed up to the top of the tree and was past the tree wire, when I heard a scream. I turned around and saw Scarlett hanging on to the tree wire by just her hands.

“Help! Somebody!” shrieked Scarlett. “I don’t want to die young!”

Suddenly, someone scurried up the tree and pulled Scarlett to safety. I breathed a sigh of relief, not realizing I was holding my breath and stared at the man who had saved my younger sister. I heard my sister gasp and when he turned his head I gasped too.

It was Jack Fost! The man I had underestimated two days ago was so much braver and stronger than I would’ve believed!

“Jack, it’s you!” my sister breathed, “You’re my hero!”

“Thank you Scarlett. I would stay for the party but I must go spy on the other teams.” We all giggled.

“Come on Scarlett, let’s finish the treetop course.”

“I don’t want to. It’s too scary. You help me,” Scarlett said to Sarah.

“Umm, okay?” Sarah said as if she was talking to a little kid who was very needy.

As Sarah and Scarlett worked their way across the course, I shouted back to them, “Since two of us have to do the course again, Delilah and I will do it because you both look exhausted and a little freaked out.”

“I definitely am,” said Scarlett. “I don’t know about you, but you look freaked too.”

“Yup,” said Sarah.

When Delilah and I went up for a second time we looked down to see Scarlett and Sarah cheering for us. I liked it but it was getting annoying so I called down to them, “Please stop cheering. I can’t concentrate when you cheer, but thanks.”

“Okay!” they shouted. They continued to cheer for us but silently.

As I ziplined down to the bottom of the course, I heard a voice coming from the bushes and listened closely and heard bits and pieces of their conversation.

“That goody two shoes… I’m gonna get her… totally, she’s such an idiot…”

I froze. I never thought it was possible to freeze in midair but I guess it was. Maybe they were talking about Delilah (she was a goody two shoes). Sarah had told me when Delilah was told she couldn’t bring her suitcase filled with makeup and shoes, she cried for 30 minutes straight.

I snapped out of my vision just to hear a breaking noise and a crash. I opened my eyes to see the platform in front of me crashing down to the ground. Suddenly, I felt a lurch. I fell a few feet and landed safely on the ground.

“Tada!” I shouted, smiling at everyone’s worried faces. “What’s wrong?”

“Look up,” said Scarlett. I looked up and screamed. Quick as a flash we got into our formation and caught Delilah safely.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” We were firing questions at her like speeding bullets.

“I’m okay, I’m okay!” said Delilah, clearly exasperated by our continuous questioning, “Leave me alone you guys. I’m okay! And you know, YOU GUYS DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT ME!!! YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ME OUT OF YOUR CONVERSATIONS!! I DON’T EVEN WANT TO BE WITH YOU!! GOODBYE!!!”

I stared as Delilah stomped out of the clearing. She walked back towards the campsite before turning around and yelling, “I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR SISTER ANYMORE, SARAH KATE ANDERSSON!!!

Sarah turned and started crying in my arms. She started blubbering about how she was the best big sister ever and how she wanted Delilah back.

I turned to Scarlett and she understood the look in my eyes. She started towards the path and turned around just to smile at Sarah with a sad but hopeful look in her eyes. Sarah smiled slightly but just when I thought she was going stop crying, she burst into tears once again.

“Come on, Sarah,” I said. “Let’s go sit down and we can talk.”

After a half-hour long conversation, Scarlett came back, covered in bristles and leaves but pulling a grumbling Delilah behind her.

“She tried to run away from me so I had to tie some rope around her hands.”

After we untied the ropes from her hands, I noticed two more letters on the ground, covered with leaves.

“Guys, I’m a little tired so I’m gonna go inside and read a little bit.”

I picked up the letters, brought them inside, and opened them up. The first one said,

Dear Sarah, Delilah, Scarlett, and Lila,

You guys are doing really well so far. I heard about the pole that fell and we’re going to get it fixed.

Jack

I noticed the other letter had a wax sealer on it. I opened it up to see another letter from the Trapper. It read:

Dear Lila,

Hello my name is Jack Fost and I hate you.

The Trapper

I gasped. Could Jack, the hero I used to know, be evil? All those thoughts whirled around in my head until I couldn’t stand it anymore and the whole world went black.

When I came to, all my friends were standing over me.

“Lila, are you OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” said Scarlett.

“I‘m okay. I just heard the craziest news. Jack is The Trapper!”

“OMG!!! Omg, omg, omg! Is it really true? No, it can’t be. I don’t know. AAHHH!” shouted Sarah.

“Listen, guys. I have a new plan. Our new goal is to go off the path and live in the wild to avoid Jack, and we’ll do the obstacles if they end up in our path,” said Delilah, finally in on the conversation.

“Good idea,” I said, and smiled happily at my friends. “But still, we should try to destroy him or kill him so we can get home safely instead of being killed by the person who once cared about my sister and life.” I heard a laugh and it sounded like Nicki Minaj from Anaconda. I said to my friends, “Does anyone hear a Nicki Minaj laugh?”

“Huh?” said Scarlett.

“What are you talking about? Don’t you understand what I’m saying about Jack?”

“You said, ‘Does anyone hear a Nicki Minaj laugh?’”

Then it was my turn to say, “Huh?”  

I sat down and started to cry. Sitting there, pouring out all my feelings to my friends, I could feel their warmth inside of me, running through my veins.

Suddenly, I felt heat, not caring heat but real heat like something was on fire. I looked down to see the fire that had been cracking moments ago form a circle around us as if it was made by a human, not nature. On the other side of the clearing, written in a  scrawled handwriting, words started to appear in fire! Suddenly, a man in black rushed through the bushes and then disappeared.

“Guys!!! Look, there’s some words over there!!! I’m going to read them. ‘Hello. It’s me. I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do before you kill me. Hahahahaha!!!’”

“Oh god,” said Scarlett, shuddering. “That’s creepy.”

“It’s not the time to think about that! We have to get out of here!” shouted Sarah. Delilah and I nodded our heads.

“I got an idea,” said Delilah. “Let’s have Lila jump out and then we’ll throw everyone else over and she can catch them.”

“Okay,” I said, a little nervously. I jumped over and had just turned around, when Sarah came flying in my arms. I teetered a little bit and almost fell into the flames. Luckily, I kept my balance and held Sarah for a second. She felt as light as Mia, my sister way back home in Maine, where I wanted to be right now.

Maine was my home for my whole life. I had always wanted a sister and when Scarlett came along I acted as if it was the happiest thing that had ever happened to me. But after I realized what it was like to have a little sister, another one came along. That time I was unhappy to have another sister but realized, being 13 made it better. I got to play with her and put her to bed. It was amazing for me.

Suddenly, Scarlett connected with my arms and we went toppling to the ground. I stood up and helped Scarlett up, staring at her knotted ponytail.

Delilah jumped over the fire and we continued on our way. I stopped for a second, realizing something.

“Where’s Delilah?” I asked.

“She was just here a minu — ”

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream coming from the fire, a platform was lowering Delilah underground!!! We ran over to the platform and jumped in just as the door closed.

We ended up in a white chamber so bright it burned my eyes. Everything went white, then black, then white again. Finally, it went pitch black and I fainted.

* * *

I woke up and tried to stand but I toppled for the fact that I was tied up. I managed to turn around and saw my sister and two friends tied up next to me. Suddenly, I heard a booming voice that woke them up and Delilah screamed and started to cry.

I noticed Jack standing in a corner of the room. He noticed me and walked over.

“So, you thought you could fool me, eh?”

“I did. But I think you don’t know what’s going on,” I said, my voice as cold and hard as ice. I stared into his eyes. That gray color in his eyes staring at me coldly, like a popsicle on a winter day.

I tried to stand again, but my feet and hands were tied with a metal rope. I remembered the steel nail file I had in my pocket and slowly reached in, being careful not to get a rope burn. I transfered it from my right hand to my left hand and started filing the rope down.

After about twenty minutes of filing, both my hands and feet were free. I could see that Jack was just going up to his room and assumed it was nighttime. The girls noticed me and sat up. I first went over to Sarah, then Scarlett, then Delilah, filing their ropes down to the point that they could just pull them apart.

We ran to the circular elevator in the middle of the room and shut the doors, setting off an alarm. Luckily the elevator was quick and we made it up to earth, managing to jump into the bushes as Jack and his troops jumped out of the elevator. They looked around the area expecting us to have not gone far.

Not knowing where we had gone, they retreated. I climbed out of the bushes and Elizabeth was sitting there, crying!!

“Hi, Elizabeth. Are you OK!?!”

“No. I want Lila now!” she said.

“I’m Lila, silly,” I said, with a little giggle to go along with my words.

Elizabeth grinned and jumped into my arms.

“I missed you.”

I stared at my friends in bewilderment. How could she have gotten here!?! I guess Delilah was thinking the same thing because she said, “How’d she get here!?!”

“No idea.”

After I put her down I heard sudden little whimper, like a miserable puppy. I turned to see Elizabeth crying in the corner of our tent, comforted by Scarlett. I could tell that she was asking for me even though I was listening to music.

“Hi, Elizabeth. You okay?”

“No.”

“Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Okay… Mommy is going with Jack and they put me here because I was in time out and they said that I had to lure (I was surprised she knew what the word meant) you in and make him kidnap you but I want to stay with you and I stole a paper with the the stuff about me when I was born. Here.”

I looked at the names of her parents and gasped. Her parents’ names were my parents’ names!!! I had just realized that Elizabeth was my sister when Delilah dived into the tent and started screaming,

“Jack is here and he says he’s here to pick up his daughter, Elizabeth!!”

“I have an idea. Go find Sarah and then you guys can distract Jack and his henchmen. Elizabeth and I will run away and you can call us when they leave so I can tell you where we are,” I said, trying to sound calm.

“Good idea,” said Sarah, just appearing as if out of nowhere.

“Okay,” I said, grinning at my friends happily. “Let’s blow this popsicle stick!”

“Elizabeth, honey. Are you okay going in a backpack?” I questioned. As she nodded I lifted her in, zipped the backpack up, and opened it a little bit for air.

As we ran through the woods, I sat down and said to Elizabeth,

“Let’s go home.”

Suddenly, I heard a rumble. “Is that an earthquake?” I asked. I heard another rumble and then a shrill voice.

“We’re going to California in five minutes,” squealed Scarlett as the plane prepared for the runway.

“I’m going to sleep in two seconds,” I answered sarcastically, and fell asleep.

I woke up to Scarlett shaking me awake.

“Lila, there’s a three-year-old next to me and her mom dropped her off and said to take care of her girl, Elizabeth, and that she’ll be picked up after the flight.”

Suddenly, I knew what this was about. I said, “Oh no…”

“Okay,” I said to Eden.

I raced through the pile of splinters and jumped onto the panel on top of the cockpit, swiftly typing rings of code into the system. The cockpit was a spiraling vault, with buttons running along every inch. The sight was incomprehensibly dramatic, the clouds outside like fluffs of cotton poised over a landscape that only nature, the most skilled artist, could paint. As I typed into the generator panel, I glanced over at Eden with her twisted grin, I never liked her at the circus, and was very suspicious of her now. She was always causing a wreck, and had been known for her betrayals in the past.

Suddenly, I heard a faint stomp approaching the cockpit and realized that something had gone terribly wrong. The passengers were starting to understand what was happening. I typed faster and faster until my hands became overwhelmed from exhaustion. Hundreds of passengers outside the door hurled shouts, demanding to know what was going on, each shout exhausting me until I was reduced to nothing but a limp carcass in a puddle of my own sweat. Barely able to move, I tried to make one last attempt at hacking into the system, but the passengers were just too much for me, and my hands turned as limp as stone, making it impossible for me to move them no matter how hard I tried. Then the door slammed open and I looked up and saw a large head peering down at me, his hair a thin clump of dirt on the top of his gleaming head. He took a punch at me and struck me right in the stomach, over and over until my shirt seeped with scarlet red.

“Tell me what you are doing you wretched animal” he garbled at me. “TELL ME!”

He then withdrew a thin silver object from his pocket and seemed to stab it into my stomach. More passengers started to crowd around me until my body became paralyzed with pain. My mind started to whirl around, and I was just able to mutter something to one of my companions before my mind plunged into darkness.

“Help me Eden, the passengers are killing me!”