Tag: New York City

Eliza had her whole life planned out. She wanted to finish school, go to college then medical school, become a doctor, get married, then have three kids named Delia, Celia, and Ophelia. She should have seen this coming. She had always noticed the weary looks her parents gave her when she talked about how Delia would wear pink, Celia would wear blue, and Ophelia would wear green, as if they knew something she didn’t. She noticed the way they exchanged glances when she talked about applying for college (even though she was only twelve), but she figured it was because they thought she was too young to think about it. She never thought twice about it. She had always envisioned a relatively normal life, the way she liked it. She hated spontaneous spur of the moment actions, but just her luck, her life was about to become one big spontaneous spur of the moment action. The warm summer day Eliza’s parents sat her down and told her what she was, it had not been a normal day from the beginning.

Eliza opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming through the window. Eliza checked her clock.

“Eight-freaking-thirty?” Why hadn’t her alarm gone off? In all the eight (give or take) years she had used an alarm clock, it never just stopped working. It only got weirder from there.

It was breakfast. Eliza was having what she always had, cereal and a banana. She was in the middle of chewing a bite when an odd feeling came over her. She kept on chewing, but there was something off. Her food seemed to be gathering in her mouth instead of getting chewed. All of a sudden, the piece of banana she had been chewing, now whole, flew out of her mouth as if pulled by a magnetic force and reattached itself back onto her banana.

“Uhhhhh… ” Eliza spluttered. Was this normal? Had it been in that book about body changes her mom had gotten her? Was she just crazy? She decided finally that she should call the doctor. But what the heck would I say? ‘Oh, hey, I regurgitated my banana and then it flew back onto the rest of my banana. Have any meds for that?’ No, she would sound crazy. Then she noticed the note on the counter from her parents. Out shopping! Be back at 9:30! She hadn’t even realized her parents weren’t home. She looked at the kitchen clock.

“How is that even possible!?” Eliza found herself saying. It read 7:32. Eliza made a mad dash for her alarm clock. When she was back in the kitchen, alarm clock in hand, she compared the two. They both read 7:32. Just then, then the door opened and Eliza’s parents walked in. They weren’t supposed to come back until 9:30! She held up the clocks.

“Explain. Now,” she said, her voice unnervingly calm. Her parents’ facial expressions were grim, but not surprised. Her dad took her by the shoulders and steered her to a chair. She sat down.

“You’re an Arbitrium. A Controller,” her mom said.

“And that means?” Eliza said wearily.

“Exactly what it sounds like. You can control something. Time in your case,” her dad said, his voice expressionless.

“Sooo… I still don’t get it. Do I just go on with my life?”

“Should I tell her?” Eliza’s mom asked. Her dad nodded. “When you were very young, we were told that you were chosen to be part of the arbitrium team. They gave us this.” She went to the drawer and took out a battered card, the size of a credit card. She handed it to Eliza. Eliza read it.

 

International Institute of the Arbitrium

Eliza Breanna Frederick King

Controller of Time

Level 0

Arbitrium #275

Room #42 Floor #4

 

“I still don’t get it,” Eliza said. “How does this affect me, besides the whole superpower thingy, I mean.”

“Well,” said her mom. “Your life isn’t necessarily going to be normal from now on.”

“You’re going to go to a special training school for kids like you,” said her dad. “And once you’ve gotten the training you need, you and your team will be sent on missions.”

By now, Eliza was practically in tears. Her life wasn’t going to be normal? That meant no medical school, no getting married, and no Delia, Celia or Ophelia.

“When do I have to go?” she managed to say.

“Don’t be mad at us, Eliza,” her dad said, “This is the only way you’re safe. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t send you away. If you don’t go, they will hunt you down and take you by force.”

“But who is they? And who is the person that came to tell you who I was in the first place?”

“You’ll learn when you get there,” said her mom. “For now, you should go upstairs and pack your bags. We’ll leave now.”

Eliza went to her room and got together some clothes, a toiletry, and other necessities (such as her secret stash of candy and her rock collection). She went back to the kitchen.

Her mom said, “Come outside with us.”

Eliza went outside and spotted her parents standing next to the fenced off area of the backyard that she had been instructed to never go near. The one time she had dared try and pry open the fence had been when she was only about four years old, which had landed her in time-out. That traumatizing experience made her reluctant to go near the fence again, but her parents were there, so she decided it was okay.

“Why are we in this part of the backyard?” Eliza asked.

“Let us show you,” said her dad. He opened the gate using a key, which revealed a large hole with what looked like galaxy colored corn syrup in it.

“They had this installed after they told us what you were. It’s a portal right into the school,” her mom said.

Again with the they, Eliza thought, Why can’t they be more specific?

“Are you ready?” asked her dad.

Eliza wanted to scream, No, I’ll never be ready! Or, Why me, universe? But, against all her better judgement, she said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

She hugged her parents, made them promise to visit, (it was allowed, according to her parents), consoled her mom (and her dad) who were practically in tears, and jumped into the portal.

She thought her day couldn’t get weirder, but jumping into a galaxy colored corn syrup hole might have been the peak point of the weirdness. The sensation was kind of like jumping into a swimming pool, but ten times stickier, and she felt like she was moving in slow motion through the gunk. I really hope that this comes off! Eliza thought. After what seemed like forever (at this point, it really could have been forever) Eliza emerged from the other side into a dimly lit room that looked like some sort of a communal living room, thankfully not covered in goop. A lady with a huge updo spotted her from the other side of the room and hurried over.

“Oh, you must be the new arrival!” she cried. “I’m Patty. I’ll be one of your trainers here. I’ll take you to the orientation desk.” She led Eliza through several rooms, a couple similar living rooms, a couple small kitchens, and a very large dining room, until they got to a big desk with a man behind it.

“Hi! I’m Harold. You must be the new arrival we heard about.”

“How did you know I was coming?” Eliza asked.

“As soon as you jumped into the portal, we got a message about your arrival. We have expected you for a few hours. We’ll check you in, and you can get settled in your room and meet your roomates. What’s your name?”

“Eliza,” she replied.

“Full name,” Harold replied.

“Eliza Breanna Frederick King. It’s long, I know.”

“Okay. Card please.” Eliza dug out the info card she had stuck in her pocket after reading it, what felt like so long ago. She handed it to Harold. He looked over it, then typed some things into his computer. When he handed it back, the Level 0 was replaced with Level 1.

“Patty will show you to your room,” Harold said.

Patty ushered Eliza away and led her to a fancy elevator which took them to the fourth floor. As soon as Eliza got off the elevator, she decided this whole arbitrium thing wouldn’t be so bad after all. No one would have guessed that a bunch of kids lived there. It was spotless. She followed Patty to an also immaculately spotless door. She knocked, and a boy about Eliza’s age with light brown hair and dark green eyes answered.

“Hey, Cody! I have a new roommate for you. This is Eliza,” Patty said. “Cody, will you introduce Eliza to your other roommates?” The boy nodded. Eliza went inside, dragging her bags behind her.

“Hi,” she said shyly. “My name’s Eliza. Eliza Breanna Frederick King.”

“I’m Cody Levine,” the boy said. “Hey guys, we have a new roommate!” he called out.

Two girls and two boys emerged from the rooms along the hallway. They took turns introducing themselves. There was black-haired, blue-eyed Bailey Copeland, tan skinned curly-haired Nicolas Rodriguez, blonde and green-eyed Jonathan Riley, and brown-haired hazel-eyed Brooke Holmes. Eliza introduced herself to everyone, and everyone greeted her warmly.

“So, like, what can you do?” asked Brooke.

“What do mean?” Eliza replied.

“She means what are your powers,” Cody explained.

“Oh… I can control time.”

“Coooool!” everyone said in unison.

“I can control fire!” said Nicolas.

“I can control the dead!” Bailey chimed in cheerily.

“I can manipulate people’s emotions. It’s lame, I know,” Brooke said disappointedly.

“It’s not,” said Nicolas. “It’s so cool. You might have the best powers of all of us.” This made Brooke blush.

“Anyway, I can control anything living,” Cody said. “So I’m like a plant and animal magnet. Oh, by the way, Eliza, do you want me to show you to your room?”

Eliza gratefully agreed. She felt like she could use a shower! She followed Cody past a bunch of rooms that looked identical besides the decorations. Cody pointed out his room, which had the most color and was definitely also the messiest. Eliza noticed him watching her cringe.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Do you ever clean up in there?” Eliza asked, appalled.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no,” he replied. Cody led Eliza the rest of the way to her room and bathroom.

“Great. I’ll leave you alone now, but we’re going to have dinner with everyone else at six o’clock, okay?”

Eliza nodded. Cody left the room and Eliza looked in the mirror. Okay, just-traveled-in-a-galaxy-colored-corn-syrup-portal was not a good look on her. Her normally wavy auburn hair was sticking out in all directions. She might have been allergic to the goop, because her violet blue eyes were red and puffy. There was also a layer of the slimy stuff all over her fair skin. She showered and brushed out her hair and chose out a sky blue dress to wear. When she got out of the bathroom, all of her roommates were sitting on the couch in the living room.

Everyone smiled at her, but Cody just goggled.

“You look nice.” Cody said.

Everyone made their way to the large dining room Eliza had seen on her way to her room, but now it was filled with kids and food. The ages of the kids seemed to range from eight to sixteen, and it looked like they were sitting with other kids their age, probably roommates. Eliza sat with her roommates at a table in the far corner, and they started eating the feast of roast chicken, potatoes, salad, and like twenty other things she couldn’t remember. After a little while of eating, a tall dark-haired man at the front of the room rang a gong to get everyone’s attention. Once everyone was looking at him, he smiled.

“Hi, everyone! Tonight we have a few new arbitriums among us, so for those who don’t know me, my name is Gideon Sullivan, and I run the Institute of the Arbitrium, the IA. I will call the new children up one by one, and test them for their weapon.”

Brooke leaned over and whispered, “He’s the one who chose us all to be controllers, Eliza.”

He then called up a bunch of kids and made a show of looking them over, measuring them, then having light emit from his hands, that, Eliza realized, must be magic. He would then conjure a weapon such as a sword, spear, or a bow and arrow. When it was Eliza’s turn, she walked to the front of the room, feeling everyone’s eyes searing into her. When she got to the front of the room, Gideon did what he done with everyone else. But when it came time for him to conjure a weapon, instead of conjuring a plain steel sword or a wooden bow and arrow, he conjured a bronze sword with a sapphire studded handle that matched Eliza’s eyes with intricate designs on the hilt.

“Well, I never,” muttered Gideon. “It looks like the rightful wielder of Soulblade is standing right in front of us!” Everyone stared at him. “Oh, I forgot I never explained that story. A thousand years ago, a special sword was forged, named Soulblade. It was the most desirable blade to wield, so people would steal it from each other. Then, there was a prophecy that said that only the person who the blade appeared for, the rightful wielder, could hold it. Anyone else would die instantly. The blade appeared for you, making you the rightful wielder.”

Eliza trudged back to her seat. She never wanted this! She sat down, frowning.

“You okay?” asked Cody.

“I hate it here!” Eliza said angrily. “I never planned any of this for myself! Nothing is normal here!”

“Sometimes,” Cody said quietly, “the best things in life are the ones we never planned.”

Right then, there was a big banging noise. Everyone looked up from their food in time to see three giants come lumbering into the dining room. Everyone whipped out their weapons. The biggest one, who Eliza thought looked like a hairy ball of fat and muscle, lumbered to the front of the room.

“We want the Soulblade!” it shouted in a deep, growling voice. “Give it to us now and no one dies!”

Gideon went right up to the giant even though the height difference was at least ten feet.

“You see, Mr. Giant,” he said, not even minding there was a large giant in grabbing distance from him, “you know about that prophecy? Back in the day, the one about the rightful wielder, any other wielder dies instantly, blah-dee-blah-dee-blah. You know the one?”

“Prophecy schmophecy. I am claiming the Soulblade!”

“You can’t really do that… ” Gideon said, but the giant was already scanning the room for the sword.

Eliza didn’t know what to do, but she impulsively willed it to turn into something else, and to her surprise, she found herself holding a stone. She pocketed her new stone-sword and went to Gideon.

“Why can’t those giants have my sword? Won’t that be better than people dying?” she asked him.

“You see, Eliza, this blade is as well as being the most desirable, is also the most destructive and formidable. And if you freely give it away you would not be the rightful wielder anymore, and it would have more of a chance of falling into the wrong hands,” Gideon explained. “In the past, this blade has been bestowed upon bad people, starting conflict, like the War of Ivory, The Battle of Occults, or the Siege of Burning Fields. We have been hoping the rightful wielder would be among us so that we could ensure it wouldn’t get into bad people’s hands. Okay?”

“Okay. But shouldn’t we be focusing on the giants?” Eliza and Gideon looked around, but the giants were still looking for Soulblade.

“Eliza… where’s the sword?” Gideon asked, looking agitatedly at the giants rummaging around. Eliza took out the rock. Gideon smiled. “Good. We have to kill these giants before they find the sword. You can use this so that they don’t find Soulblade.”

He took out a plain steel sword and handed it to Eliza. Eliza thanked him and ran off to the rest of the students. They were all standing with their weapons drawn, waiting for an order.

Someone yelled, “CHARGE!”

And after that it was a blur in Eliza’s memory. Students left and right were running to the giants, who had been in the middle of looking under tables and weren’t physically fit, so they couldn’t stand up fast enough to avoid a bunch of pre-teens and teenagers running at them with swords and spears. Everyone started slashing the giants with swords, driving their spears into them, and shooting their arrows at them. The giants were fighting back also by swinging their clubs and punching in random directions. Every now and then, a student would fly out from the crowd from a club blow or a giant punch. Eliza decided she would attack from the top. She look at the ceiling and noticed what looked like repair on a ledge, with a ladder leading up to a ledge. Eliza ran to the ladder and quickly climbed up. Eliza looked down from the ledge. She saw the battle playing out below her, the two smaller giants dead now, the larger one occasionally swatting a kid out of the way.

Eliza waited until the largest giant was under the ledge. The steel sword won’t do the job, Eliza thought. She pulled out the rock and willed it back to a sword. She jumped from the ledge and onto the giant’s head, and drove her sword right into its skull. The giant shouted, a horrible, ear splitting, sound, and dropped to the ground, dead. Unfortunately, that meant Eliza went down with him. When she hit the ground, she was knocked out, and her mind went completely blank.

Eliza woke up a day later in what she guessed was an infirmary. She took in her surroundings, stark white walls, stiff bed sheets, and wooden shelves with medicines and bandages and such lining the walls. She looked next to her where she saw Cody dozing in a chair. She tried to sit up and all of a sudden Cody’s eyes snapped open.

“Eliza! Thank goodness you’re awake! We were starting to get worried,” Cody said, relief evident in his voice.

“What happened?” Eliza asked.

“You killed the big giant! Even if everyone was working together, we wouldn’t have managed that!”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah. A couple broken bones here and there, but you probably got the worst of it.” Cody gave Eliza a hug. “I have to go now. Things to do. Training and stuff.”

Eliza realized she had learned a few things from this weird and not planned experience. First, she learned that good things in life are not always planned. On a related note, she learned that life often strays from the plan, sometimes for the better. Eliza looked down at the stone-sword she just realized she was still holding. Third, she decided that some things were just fated.

 

Once upon a time it started raining frogs. Everyone went inside because they thought frogs were slimy and gross. There was a frog named Slimey. He fell right into a pond. All the other frogs got hurt and didn’t go into the pond. And then, toads started to rain! Then, snakes started to rain! It was going crazy for about three days. Slimey was just watching everybody fall outside of the pond. But then, a shark came up and ate Slimey! He went into the shark’s tummy, but then Slimey farted, and the shark spit him out. The shark spit him out into a tree. He was stuck in the tree until a fox hit the tree, shaking the tree, and Slimey fell into somebody’s house.

He felt scared. He wanted to go back into the sky where he came from. Then, the person in the house saw him and trapped him in a garbage can! He threw Slimey into a hole where a groundhog lived. It was really dark and cold. The groundhog saw Slimey, and Slimey was scared, so he farted on the groundhog. The fart was so bad that the groundhog ran away. Slimey was trapped in the hole because it was too dark to find his way out. He ran into the mother groundhog, and she started to bite him. Slimey farted on her too, and she ran away. Through a tube in the groundhog tunnel, he found his way out, but a snake fell on him and pushed him back into the hole. The snake fell into the hole too. It was still raining animals. All the groundhogs started to bite the snake, and Slimey went back through the tube to get out while the groundhogs were distracted.

Slimey climbed into another person’s house and hid behind a can of tuna. Then, a girl lifted up the tuna can and started to open it with a can opener. The girl saw Slimey, picked him up, and put him in the garbage because she thought he was a toy. The garbage got dumped outside, and a whole bunch of animals fell into the garbage, squishing Slimey. Slimey was in the garbage, with all the other animals, for two hours before the garbage collector came and picked up the garbage and brought it to the dump.

Now, Slimey was in the dump with all the other animals that were on him. He was with foxes, snakes, toads, groundhogs, and gophers. Then, the garbage collector saw all the foxes, snakes, toads, groundhogs, and gophers, and he shot all of them. But Slimey didn’t get shot. He ran and hid in a pile of trash. It smelled like poop because there was donkey poop and dog poop and cat poop in there. So, Slimey got all dirty. Then when the garbage was going to be crushed, Slimey ran away and ran away to the pond.

Then, Slimey found a ramp that led to the sky. The ramp looked really purple, and there were other animals going up it.

Slimey talked to a snake and asked, “Where does this ramp lead to?”

And the snake said, “Back to the sky.”

Slimey felt very excited. So now he went in line to go up the ramp.

But then, a pile of garbage fell onto Slimey. He forgot everything. And he was really stinky, so no one wanted to talk to him anymore. He forgot about the ramp.

A snake was rushing away from a toad, because they were playing tag. But then, the toad bumped into Slimey. And when he bumped into Slimey, Slimey got back his memory. And Slimey went up the ramp and was back where he was from. In Slimey’s home, the houses were made out of stars, and the floors were made out of clouds, and the ceiling was sky blue, and Slimey could see all the planets through a telescope in the animal world.

Slimey saw his parents and all his cousins and aunts and grandparents. They looked happy to see him.

They said, “Where were you.”

And Slimey said, “In another world.”

And then Slimey hugged them, and they lived happily ever after.

 

It was a normal day for Tim. He was a normal house mouse, or to be more accurate, a castle mouse. The castle was five floors high, it was made of stone, it was chilly like the air conditioning was always on, there was a big front door, and there were two towers where the king and his children slept. But not anymore. The king welcomed Tim’s family to the castle, but as of an hour ago, the witch known as the queen (to the mouse family) moved in. When she saw Tim’s family, she was disgusted. She stepped on Tim’s brother, Tom. Then, she brought her ugly cat to the castle. It was scratching Tom with its magical nails, but Tim was able to save him before the cat finished. Now they lived in the junkyard. It was a big place. There were broken down cars everywhere. It was dirty. There was trash all around. Sometimes, there were other animals going through the junkyard. It was usually damp and warm in the junkyard. They slept in a car. It was a nice one. The only problem with it was a popped tire as they could see. They lived on the opposite side of the town. Anywhere was better than living with that cruel woman. Life was a bit rough. Tom was in bad shape. If they didn’t get a magic bear’s potion, he would be sick his whole life with the flu! Tim’s mother, Mama Mouse, called him.

“Tim. Tim, I know you can hear me.” Tim grunted.

“Yes, Mother. I hear you,” Tim said. There was a sound of annoyance in his voice.

“Tim, get your ratty butt over here,” yelled Mama Mouse.

“Yes, Mother,” said Tim.

As he was walking to the kitchen, he thought of what they wanted him to do. Probably wanted him to ask the wizard for help. But everyone knew that the wizard didn’t know any potions. Or maybe to write more mail to the magic bear. But everyone knew bears didn’t read mail. Why would a magical one? Especially when he’s busy making potions. The kitchen wasn’t really a kitchen. It was more a toy table that was purple, round, and big enough to fit the whole mouse family.

“Tim, I have a favor to ask of you,” said Mama Mouse.

Tim was hoping it was to cook grilled cheese because he had a big fear of bears.

“Can you please go to the bear’s cave and ask him for a potion that cures the flu?”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, thought Tim. Nothing but the bear. But everyone was counting on him.

Then out of nowhere, he shouted out, “Alright!” Tim gulped. Why did he say that???

“Good. I asked the wizard if she could mark trees to the bear’s cave.”

“Why didn’t she go ask the bear for the potion?” asked Tim.

“You know she has a grudge against the bear because she can’t make potions.”

“That’s stupid,” said Tim.

“Go now to get it while it’s late.”

Tim was in the magical forest. It was already nighttime, and Tim couldn’t see, so he went to sleep.

Tim was tired. It had been days on his trip toward the magical bear. He lived here somewhere. Wait, where was he? The wizard said she marked trees to the cave, but he didn’t see any marked trees. His hands were up in the air. Where was he?

“Don’t worry. I know where you should go.”

“Who are you,” said Tim, looking around for the creature that said those words, the words that gave him hope.

“Here, right here!” said a big, dirty tree. It looked almost dead.

“No, don’t listen to him. Go west,” said a small tree.

“No. South!” said the first tree.

“No, no. You are all wrong. It’s north. Hey, hey, hey, where are you going!” said a third tree.

Tim was pacing around. Where should he go? North? East? South? If only the trees could agree. Tim was thinking but getting nowhere. What direction should he choose?

“Follow north. It’s the best way you can go,” said the third tree.

“Alright,” said Tim.

While he was going north, he saw a giant tiger.

“Aaaahhhh!” yelled Tim as he ran away from the tiger. “Stupid tree,” mumbled Tim. As he was walking back toward the trees, he saw the third tree smirking.

 

“I told you it was south,” said the the first tree.

When he went south, he found a big, dirty wolf who was, of course, hungry. Luckily, Tim had some leftover bacon. He was able to calm the wolf down, but he did get scratched multiple times by the wolf. Rats aren’t pigs, he thought angrily. When he got back to the trees, he saw the first tree giggling as he looked at Tim’s scratches and cuts. Next, he went east. There was a bear trap!!! He went back to the trees. They were all roaring with laughter.

 

“Stupid rat,” they yelled and went back to laughing. Tim was furious. A rat. A rat? They had the audacity to call him a rat.

“I am a mouse for your information,” he squealed. They ignored him.

Tim went west, as it was the only direction he could go. When he was walking, he saw a big cave. It was the bear’s cave! thought Tim.

When he entered, he heard a rough voice say, “Drink the potion.”

Tim looked around. He found a potion. He drank his bottle of water.

“You may pass. What do need,” said a big, hairy bear.

“Oh, that doesn’t matter right now. Do you want water?” said Tim.

“Oh yes, very generous.” Tim slipped the bear’s own potion in his water.

“Ahh ahh!” He was on fire. He left a patch of fur, and it exploded! It burned Tim’s fur off… THE END.

 

Oh wait, there’s more!!!

 

It was December. They were in a cave. It was pretty cold but nice. It smelled like wet fur. They were singing a song. Tim was sitting, singing a song with his family. “Oh Tom is okay, Tom is okay, he has no flu today, yay.” Tim’s hair was all burnt off. He got rest, but he was a bit tired. His family all looked normal. They just looked a bit more joyful. While they were singing, Tim got the biggest problem he faced this whole journey solved! When his family went to sleep, he could rip their fur off and glue it to himself. It was December after all, and if he didn’t have anything to protect himself against the cold, he’d freeze to death. Tim stared at the outside world and waited for his next adventure as the explorer of rats. Finally, the end.

 

Nope, there’s a sequel.

 

                 

PROLOGUE

It was a pitch black night when Jeremy went to the frozen storage room and picked out the person he would pretend to drive to the factory. He was strolling through the room when he saw a boy that looked perfect for this job. Jeremy looked at the nametag. James Park. He opened the tube of ice and wheeled out a frozen version of him. Jeremy began to cough. The Virus was getting to him. The Virus is too strong, Victoria is crazy, and she’s going to make everybody else pay for it, thought the short man. He looked at his wrist phone and was astonished at what destruction the Virus has caused. Earthquakes and tsunamis everywhere and people dying twice as fast. “We have to stop this.”

 

STORM

I woke up in the trunk of a car. It was pitch black and had a strong smell of gasoline. My stomach rumbled, and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Then I remembered that I had no clue what time it was. I tried to move my hand to access my watch, and I felt a strong rope keeping my hands tied. I tried wiggling around, and I accidentally broke an object. A thick liquid ran down my hand, and I felt a piece of glass cut my hand. A loud curse came through the thin divider, and the wheels pulled the car over and squealed to a stop. They must have heard the glass break, I thought scaredly. A door slammed shut, and a person wandered to the trunk and opened it. The first thing I felt was the sun burning my eyes like fire was let loose in my retinas.

“Get up,” said the mysterious man.

The man was a stout little man with bushy eyebrows and a bushy mustache. He had almost no hair, and he was wearing a dirty business suit. I groaned and sat up. Immediately, my vision doubled, and I gagged.

“Hope you can walk a couple miles, son,” said the man. “You have ten minutes, and here is your lunch,” the man told me.

Then, he put two slices of bread and a piece of cheese in my hands. As the man walked away, I could hear him grumbling about breaking something. When I began to eat the sandwich, I remembered that my hands were tied, and I would certainly drop it. Then, I remembered the shard of broken glass that cut my hand. So, I reached into the trunk and brought a piece of glass out. I started to very slowly cut the bonds on my wrists. Just then, the man appeared again.

 

“What are you doing?” the man asked.

“Trying to eat my lunch,” I said.

“We have to go now! We are on a tight schedule,” said the man.

Before I was done with cutting through my bonds, he took the food out of my hands and placed four green bottles with a syrup-like liquid inside into my open hands.

“I can’t believe you broke the other bottle!” shouted the angry man. It seemed that his mood changed every minute. “Follow me,” said the man.

I now realized that his name was on a tag right above his heart. Jeremey. He began to walk, and I began to follow him. I now saw that we were in some sort of desert or plain. We began to follow a trail marked by stones that eventually led us to a weathered building. It was small and grey, and when we entered it, Jeremy shoved me towards a man in a pearl white lab coat. The doctor showed me to a room and laid me down on a bed.

“We want all of our patients to feel comfortable when we do our exams.”

I stiffened with terror, readying for the pain. Then, he injected a needle into my vein, and I neither heard nor saw anything more.

 

I awoke to Jeremy and the doctor talking in hushed voices in the back of the room.

“The antidote works!” shouted the doctor.

“Shhhh. Mike, are you sure you want to put him in the testing system?” whispered Jeremy.

“Yes! Seventeen years old when we froze him, six feet tall, muscular, and very healthy,” said Mike the doctor.

“Fine! But, if you fail me, you know what the boss will do,” said Jeremy. “Look at what he did.” Then, the little man pointed to the broken bottle.

“I know. I’ll wake him up, and you two can be on your way.” Then, the doctor took out the needle, and I yelped in pain. Blood was dripping down my arm. Mike put a bandage on my cut and sent me out of the room.

Jeremy beckoned to me outside, and I went to meet him. “See this truck here? Get into the passenger seat and buckle in. It should be about an hour before we get to the factory.”

On that note, we both got into the car, and he started up the engine. Inside the black truck, the upholstery was in ruins and the radio was on the fritz. Once the tire treads caught the rough ground, we were on our way.

 

The hour getting to the factory was the worst hour of my life. It was one hundred degrees outside, and there was no air conditioning, not that that would of helped. There was no breeze, and the ride was super bumpy. Because I didn’t have lunch, I was more starved than ever. When we pulled into the blank concrete parking lot, the smell of food wafted towards me, and I almost fainted from hunger. When I recovered, I opened the door to the truck and bolted out like I was running from a monster. Before I could enter the building, Jeremy grabbed my shoulder and led me towards another building. This next one was in slightly better shape than the last. He led me inside the building and into room 236.

“This is your room. Your uniform is on the bed, your food tray is on the desk, and the bathroom is down the hall. Change, I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

When he left, I changed and dug into the food he gave me. Mashed potatoes and steak. I immediately felt better. I heard a knock on the door. I opened it, and Jeremy came in.

“Time to meet your work mates!”

 

I followed Jeremy to a door labeled Work Area.

“Here is the key. You’ll be working here every day until you are ready for the field, like me. I know you have a lot of questions, but they will all be answered soon enough.” Then, Jeremy unlocked the door and gave the key to me. He shut the door and led me to another door. “There is an airborne antidote in here just to make sure you don’t contaminate everything inside.”

I nodded my head, pretending to know what was happening. He opened the second door, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were people in lab coats everywhere. Big forklifts were carrying hundreds of tiny green bottles. Conveyor belts were dispersing the bottles to little cubes. It was like everybody here was working in harmony.

Jeremy showed me to a cube in the far left corner and said, “Here is where you will work. Go inside and talk to Robert and Charlotte, they are the leaders of this cube.”

So, I went inside the cube and asked where Robert and Charlotte are. A woman named Caroline showed me to a room with many people in it. I opened the door and two thirty-year-old people welcomed me in.

“Hi, I’m Rob, and this is Charlotte. I’ll show you around and tell you all about Storm. Come on!” I followed Rob to what looked like a laboratory. “This is where you will work creating and improving the antidote.”

“Why do we need to have an antidote?” I said.

“The Virus.”

 

“What’s the Virus?” I asked.

“It’s the thing that has been destroying the world. The thing that is making everybody braindead. The thing that is causing the world to collapse.”

Then, Rob brought out a chart and started to teach me about what has happened since I was taken from my home to join Storm. He told me that the bottles in the car were antidotes to the virus, that Storm was founded by people who knew about the Virus, that the Virus is man made and was accidentally let loose, that the virus was for research purposes, and that the Earth is going through many tsunamis and earthquakes, which led to the Virus being released. He told me about the mission the company Storm has, which is to stop these natural disasters and the Virus. Then, before I could process all of this information, Rob led me to a little cubicle with a bunch of tools and empty glass beakers.

“And the reason Jeremy was mean to you, was because he didn’t want to rock the boat. Now, I will show you how to work everything here, and you’ll be on your way to saving the world!”

So, Rob showed me how to inject the antidote and use the subatomic microscope, and how to change the antidote. He led me back to my station and said to pack up, and when I’m done, to go to Jeremy in the office to become certified. Then if I need him, I can reach him in Room 254.

“What does being certified mean?” I asked Rob, but he was already gone.

 

When I was done packing up my limited things, I headed out the door, and I followed the signs to the office. Right. Left. Right. Left. I caught a glimpse of a door that said Office, and I entered it. Jeremy was in there, and I followed him to a quarantine room with people already in it. They laid it down and started to take my temperature. Then, they injected more antidote in me and another substance which missed my vein but, they didn’t seem to notice. They sent me out of the room very quickly, like they had to do something else. I went to the person at the desk, and I gave them my name so I could be in the system. James Park. They sent me to my room, and I thought about what happened. Everything went by so quickly it was hard to recall anything about it. I was so tired that I fell onto my bed and closed my eyes. Before I fell asleep, something crossed my mind. Something was definitely up.

 

The next morning, I went to my cube to do work because I had the morning shift. Work was actually very boring. All you did was slightly change the formula, inject into a test subject, and sit down and analyze the data. Rob and Charlotte were never there, so half the time I didn’t know what I was doing. You would think saving the world would be awesome, but it is very dull, unless you are in the field. When work was over, I went to the first building for lunch. Taco day. Because I was not starved, the food didn’t taste as good. After the tacos in the lunchroom, I went to the breakroom to spend the rest of the day because my shift was over. The break room was filled with air hockey, foosball, cards, and board games. There were no televisions anywhere. Spending five hours here would be a nightmare.

 

The first hour or two was spent doing almost nothing. I don’t know anybody here, so board games and card games were off the table. I also had no experience in foosball and the air hockey table wasn’t working. No television wasn’t the worst of it. There was not one library anywhere in the entire place. In school, I was the bookworm. A pluses in everything, part of the drama club, and not one sport, except for swimming. Once the third hour started, I went back to my room to take a nap. I now realized that the bed was stiff and the room was very cold. It was harder to take a nap than the first night. When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt about my family, out in the world without me. Then something hit me. I had to escape.

 

I decided I would do it during dinner, when everybody would be gone. Then I would sneak into the work area and steal some of the antidote to save my family. Dinner was in thirty minutes. I started to gather my stuff. Clothes, leftover food for the journey, key to the cube, and the family picture I forgot I had. It had me, my older sister, my younger sister, my mom, and my dad. It also reminded me of the reason I was breaking out of here. I knew it was dangerous, but I couldn’t stand the thought of letting my family die. I started to quietly cry. I knew that if I didn’t get to my family in time, I would never see them again.

 

Finally, it was dinner time. Everyone would be gone from work until the night shift. I quietly opened my door and slipped down the hallway. I pulled out the key from my pocket and opened the door. I went in the quarantine room to find that the door was locked. I pushed and pushed on the door. I kicked it and tried to force it open. The antidote was my family’s only hope. Then I remembered something about Rob being in Room 254 and that I could reach him if I needed anything. Right now I need the key to the work area. So, I went back out into the hallway and went into Room 254. Surprisingly, Rob left his door open on his way to dinner. It was almost like he knew I needed to break in. I went straight to his bedside table and grabbed his key. I closed the door to his room and dashed back to the work area. I went back into the quarantine area and opened the door with Rob’s keys. I quickly closed the door and entered the big room. It’s grandeur still surprised me. I went over to the storage cell and grabbed three bottles of regular antidote. Then I went over to my cube and went into my pockets for the keys. When I was pulling out the keys, I suddenly stopped. I realized that I was not only leaving for my family. I was leaving for a better life. I was leaving because there was no pay, because the cheese was horrible, and what I was about to find out, because they were brainwashing minds, and because they were the ones to release the Virus.

 

I now hurried to unlock the door with a newfound urgency. I opened the door and tiptoed in. I could hear voices in the meeting room in the back, very close to my desk. What are Robert and Charlotte doing here? I thought to myself.

“Victoria, are you sure we shouldn’t keep an eye on the new kid? He is not acting like the rest of them. I think he wasn’t brainwashed properly. He is going to be the downfall of the experiment!” yelled Charlotte.

“Charlotte, this has been going on for seven years! One puny little bookworm won’t stop us!” Then, Victoria laughed maniacally, sending shivers down my spine.

I now wanted to get out as fast as possible. I can’t believe that this has been a hoax the whole time. And that I am twenty-four! I completely missed college! I screamed inside me. I snapped out of it and grabbed what I had been working on. I special antidote that will destroy the Virus at its core. “Good thing I made a couple different bottles. I can use some for me and my family, and the extra to shutdown the machine making the Virus. As I tried to pick up all of the bottles, one of them fell and broke. The sound brought out three people I never want to see again.

 

“You are that receptionist at the cube, Caroline!” I suddenly realized.

“Yes, James, yes. Why don’t you come with me, and we can explain everything,” said Victoria softly.

I struggled to refuse the offer. My head began to swim. “No!”

She began to lunge at me, and Robert and Charlotte blocked the exit. I grabbed a syringe and the bottles and slid underneath Victoria. I got up and put the syringe in Charlotte’s arm. She fell to the floor, and Robert went to help her up.

“Thanks,” I said to Robert.

He looked at me confused. I slid out the door and moved some boxes so that they couldn’t get out. I went out both doors and went down the hall and out the door that I came in only a day ago. It seemed like a century. As I went outside, I knew that I would never see this place again. As I went down the road in the rundown truck I came in, I realized that the Virus was still going. So, I turned around and went into the only building I had never gone to. The one all the way to the left. I went down the road and stopped in the parking lot. I got out and started to crouch and sneak around. I opened the door and saw test tubes everywhere and five giant machines and Victoria at the other end.

“You are too late. You can’t shut it down. At first Storm was meant to help the human race, but now, Storm is creating chaos and destroying the world. Everybody is selfish, and they are taking up the world’s resources. The world’s population is going up by the millions.” Then, Victoria laughed maniacally and pressed a button on the side of the wall, and all the doors and windows closed and became locked. The place was on lockdown.

 

I started to run. I ran around the machines and dropped in the special serums. Immediately, they started to shut down and reverse directions.

“No! No! NO! You ruined everything! Now they are realizing the antidote!” yelled Victoria.

Then, Jeremy and Rob busted in through the door in the truck and told me to hop in.

“I owe it to you. Especially since I was so mean to you,” said Jeremy.

“And me, because I was such a bad mentor, and I didn’t support the decision to go bad, but majority rules.” Rob gave me a quick smile.

“Anyway, hop in. Victoria is coming this way. We can hold her off. Good luck! And just so you know, your family lives in San Diego. Right now, we are somewhere in northern New Mexico. Ask for the Park family, in building number 236 in apartment 25A.”

“Thanks for everything,” I said.

Jeremy nodded. Then, he got out of the truck and handed me the keys. I nodded back and sat in the driver seat. I started the engine and went in reverse to the road and went speeding away, with the remains of the Virus behind me.

 

EPILOGUE

As I rounded the corner to my building, I think about the time I spent making my journey getting here. From the desert pirates to the food shortages where I had to sneak inside of stores. When I finally figured out how to use the radio, and especially when I found out that Storm had shut down and were exposed for their horrible crimes. Rob and Jeremy got off on a light sentence, but Charlotte and Victoria were exposed as the leaders of the organization. They were pinned with most of the blame, and their sentence was one hundred percent worse than Jeremy’s and Robert’s. The officers inside discovered a serum that had brainwashing effects that had been used on the whole community of Storm. That’s why everybody was okay with no pay and other things. Then, I realized that that was what being certified meant.

As I went underneath the awning of my building, I saw the destruction that the Virus had caused. There was trash on the street, windows were broken, houses were abandoned, people lost their homes, there was no electricity in most buildings, and what I was about to realize, families taken away. I realized that my family must have moved because I don’t remember this new house. My old house was a two story house in the countryside. As I enter the building, the doorman was staring at me quizzically.

“Who are you? This is private property!”

“I am looking for the Park family, in apartment number 25A.”

He looked at me confused and told me that the Park family is gone, and that Storm took them to help stop everything has been happening. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I ran outside and got into the truck. I turned it on and zoomed out of the city. I will find my family.

 

   

Once there was a girl. It was her birthday. She had just woken up from her sleep. She couldn’t wait for her birthday party to start. She had invited all of her friends. She was so excited! She was having a spa birthday. Her birthday party was going to start at 10AM and end at 12PM. She got all the goody bags ready, and she couldn’t wait. She really wished she knew what kind of cake she was going to have, but her parents wanted to surprise her, and they always succeeded in surprising her with the most delicious cake she had ever had — at least, until the next year, when they got her an even better one. She couldn’t even imagine how good this year’s cake was going to have to be to top last year’s cake. Then, after she got the goody bags ready, she got ready. She had special pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes were special because they were birthday pancakes that were filled with nutella and had a smiley face of fruits with really yummy syrup on top. There was also one little candle on top, so she could make two wishes for her birthday: one with the real cake and one with her pancakes! She made a wish and blew it out. She really hoped that her wish would come true.

Then, she washed her face to make it super shiny. After that, she changed into her special party dress and put on a little bit of lipstick. Since she was just seven years old, she was only allowed to put on lipstick when it was her birthday or a special occasion. Then, she put on her special shoes, which were beautiful blue shoes with sparkles and blue glitter pom-poms on them. Next, she wanted to do her hair. She woke her parents up and asked them if she could use the curler by herself.

Her mom said, “No, sweetie! You’re not old enough, you’re only seven.”

So her mom got out of bed and did it for her. She didn’t really care if she curled her hair by herself or not. She just really cared about having her hair styled and in a pretty hairstyle. So after her mom curled her hair, she put it half up and half down. It looked fabulous and stunning. Now that she was finished getting ready, she went on her iPad and started to watch TV while she waited for her parents to get ready too. Her older sister woke up and also got ready. When her sister was done, she went on her phone and started texting her friends because her sister was 18 and old enough to have a phone. Her sister could also use the curler by herself, but she wanted her hair to be straight, so she used the flat iron instead.

Now that her whole family was ready, they drove to the spa in the dad’s car. They got everything ready. They put up decorations, put the goody bags in place, and put everyone’s names on them so the guests would know which one was theirs. Finally, all of her guests arrived, and the party could start. They danced, did their nails, got facials, played dress-up, and made their own lip balms. When they were done with all the activities, someone yelled out, “Pizza time!” so they all went and ate lunch.

When they were done with the pizza, someone yelled out, “Cake time!” Everyone got really excited, especially the birthday girl because she would finally get to see how good the cake would be and what type it was.

Her mom and dad brought out the cake and put it down on the table right in front of her. The flames from the candle were facing her, so she said, “Whoa!”

Her parents asked, “What, sweetie?”

She told them that the fire was right in front of her face and seemed dangerous, so they moved the cake a bit further away. Now that she was less worried, she took a good look at the cake. It was the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. It was a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, fondant flowers all around it, and a giant fondant statue of the birthday girl on it. The statue was also holding a small mini chocolate shaped like a cake, just for her. On top of the cake, it also said, in strawberry frosting, Happy birthday. There was a chocolate candle that was shaped like a seven too. She was so happy. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her, and she blew out the candle. She also made her second wish. She wished for the same thing that she had in the morning, just to make sure that the wish would come true. Suddenly, a giant box appeared at her house without her knowing because she was still at the spa.

When she was done with her party, she gave out all the goody bags and said goodbye to her friends. Then, when she got home, she saw the giant box. Her parents were confused because they had never gotten that for her. But there was a note attached and it said, From your wish. She told her parents what she had wished for. She opened the box and saw two adorable little puppies. One was a white Maltese, and one was a black Terrier. They were jumping up, and she let them out of the box. They started to lick her face. She was confused because there were two puppies. She realized that she had wished for the same thing twice and that her wish had come true twice too. She was so happy about the puppies, and her family loved them too. They had fun with the puppies as she opened her other presents. It was the best birthday she had ever had.

THE END

 

Once upon a time there was a hat who did construction work and lived on Mars. He couldn’t do his construction work because he didn’t have any hands, so he started to cry. He got fired, and then he got kicked back to Jupiter. He told his friends and cousins and family that he lost his job.

The hat went to his house and cried and cried until it was the next day, then the next day, then the next day, then the next day, then the next day, until he got really, really hungry. Then, he went into his kitchen, and he looked in there, and he ate a bowl of cereal, and he was so hungry that he ate another one and then another one until the next day and the next day until he was really full.

Then, the hat’s parents said, “What are you doing? You’re eating all the food!”

Then, he remembered that he had no hands and said, “I want hands! Someone give me hands! God, give me hands! I want some hands! I’m going to go on a quest for hands! I’ll find someone who’s dead and chop off their hands and use their hands.”

He knew where dead people came from. The only way to get dead people was from Earth. He had a rocket ship, and he realized that he still didn’t have any hands, so he just had to jump onto a button to blast off and used the little handles on his hands to close the door, and he blasted off into Earth.

When he landed, he landed in the lake, and then he swam out of the lake and spun around and around to get all the water off of him. He looked in the city and looked at a graveyard, and he was like, “I don’t know, this is going to be scary. What if someone sees me? I had to pull my rocket ship all the way here, and if someone sees me, I’ll get in there and just blast off.” He saw a body with hands that could fit him, and then he cut them off.

Then, a police officer saw him and he was like, “Hey, what are you doing, hat? Stay there, I’m coming for you!”

Then, the hat was really scared. He grabbed the hands and ran into the spaceship and took off. He wasn’t even flying the spaceship; he was trying to put on the hands, but he realized that he needed to steer. If he didn’t steer, he would crash. He put the hands down, and then he steered it to his house. When he got there, he put on the hands and tried to fit them on, and then the hands were starting to move, and he realized that he was the one moving them. So he tried to learn how to move the hands, but he just hit himself in the face with one hand, then the other one, then the other one. Then, he said, “Stop,” and the hands stopped. He realized that he knew how to control the hands.

When he went into his house, the parents asked, “What happened to you?”

He said, “I went to Earth and chopped off someone’s hands who was dead and put them on.”

The mom replied, “Honey, why did you do that? You don’t need hands. You’re just like everyone. You can do whatever you want without hands.”

The hat said, “Mom, why can’t I have hands? I just want hands, so I can touch things and I can grab things.”

“You don’t need that,” said the Mom. “You can just jump on everything that you need. You don’t need the hands.”

And the hat said, “You’re right, Mom. I don’t need hands.” But then, he just put the hands back on.

The police, in the graveyard, had asked, “Are you still going to do this?”

And he had just said, “I’m blasting off, baby.”

 

THE END

 

Once upon a time, there was a guy who made really good muffins and was definitely not evil. He lived on top of a mountain. There was a construction worker on his lunch break, and he said, “Hey, what should I have for lunch?”

Then, someone threw a phonebook at the construction worker, saying, “Get out of the road, bozo!” Then, the construction worker saw on the phone book, Muffin House (Definitely Not Run By An Evil Guy). It was located on a mountain.

“Oh no!” said the construction worker. “I don’t like mountains, and I really want a muffin!” So, he got a wrecking ball from his work and destroyed the mountain, so he could get his muffins.

Then, the definitely not evil guy (who I didn’t make a name for) said, “Hey! You will pay for that.”

Then, the construction worker, whose name was Bob, said, “How much? $5.99?”

Then, the evil guy who was evil and who I thought of a name for (Evil Guy), said, “You destroyed my house!”

“No,” said Bob, “I destroyed your bakery.”

“House!”

“Bakery!”
“House!”

“Bakery!”

“House!”
“Bakery!”

“Okay,” said Evil Guy. “You destroyed my bakery/house.”

“Fair enough,” said Bob. “Now what?”

One hour later…

“Hmmm,” said Bob and Evil Guy. It had been so long that the narrator got bored and quit, so they had to hire a new one.

“Oh, I was going to make you pay with my monster muffin with ridiculously big eyebrows,” said Evil Guy.

“O-M-G!” said Bob. “Those are ridiculously big eyebrows.”

He was right, said the new narrator. Now the big muffin was trying to eat Bob, and Bob was like, “O-M-G! A gigantic muffin is chasing me!”

Then, he realized it was a muffin that made this mess and that he was hungry. The muffin didn’t last long after that. To make this long story short, chomp chomp, burrp! Bob ate the muffin, got his lunch, and went back to work, when he realized the evil guy was still out there!!!

Bob realized he needed help when someone threw a phone book at him, saying, “Get out of the construction site, bozo!!!”

“Hey, I work here,” said Bob.

“Okay, sorry,” said the guy in the car, but this was a different phone book. On the back it said, Need help? Call this guy (his name is Good Guy)! Definitely not located on a mountain!

Then, Bob realized he should get help, so he went to the place that was definitely not on the mountain, and he asked for help. So he got help, and then he tried to find the evil guy who made the muffin to catch him and put him in jail. So that’s exactly what they did.

Then, they got a truck and rode around, trying to think where the Evil Guy would go. First, they checked a ton of bakeries, then they checked a ton of evil bases that luckily had no one in them, and then they tried looking for bakeries that had secret evil rooms. And they found Evil Guy, but he escaped.

They chased him and chased him, and then they finally caught him, but he escaped again. Then, they caught him. They really, really caught him, and then…

 

THE END

 

 

Most people live a normal life…

Some people’s lives are more extraordinary and adventurous…

I… for one live an extraordinarily abnormal life.

 

“Ms. Leo Bongores!” Yes, Leo, that’s my name. You don’t need to yell it in my ear. “Ms. Bongores, look up at me young lady.” I put down the book I was reading and looked up at Dr. Joel. “If you look at that book again, then I’ll send you to the office!”

I sighed and looked out the window. “Why did I let Mrs. A make me go to this school,” I whispered. I looked back at Dr. Joel. He was pacing around the room, back and forth, clip clop, clip clop.

“Your teachers just don’t know what do with you, always being a disruption in class, always causing problems.” He shook his head. “Sooner or later, we’ll have to call your mother.”

I burrowed in my arms on the desk. “Foster mother,” I said. My mother, Jane Bongores, died five years ago in a car accident. I had been living with a foster family since I was 12, and it didn’t help the fact that I was stuck living with two other kids. It was exhausting.

“Yes, foster mother.” He looked me in the eye. “Do you have anything to say to me, Ms. Bongores?” Dr. Joel asked.

“I forget.”

“Then you may be dismissed.” I stood up and grabbed my bag, and silently bid the yellow room goodbye, and cherished the fact that if my plan went well, I’d never have to be in this room again.

Stepping out, I saw the blinding lights of the hallway flash into my eyes and prayed that life would finally calm down for me and just leave me be.

But I could say that nothing went the way I hoped it would.

 

Chapter One: Backspace to hell

“Leo, what took you so long?” Mrs. A asked when I got back to the house. “I was worried sick!” She ran into the yard and started to guide me up the steps.

“I had art club.” I lied. Art club was only on Mondays. It would never be on a Tuesday like today.

Mrs. A frowned, deepening her wrinkles. She was a small, petite woman with a bundle of curly red hair covering her eyes, which were a dark shade of blue. She walked like a model which with the way she looked, made her look like a penguin walking away.

“Well, hurry up. Dinner is here.” She started to walk into the house. “It’s pork and chicken shumei. I ordered some vegetables too.” The door slammed on my face.

“At least it’s not ramen.” I sighed. I hated ramen. The soup part was disgusting.

 

“How was your day, Dave?” Mr. A asked. We were sitting at the dinner table, stuffing our faces with food.

“It was good. I played basketball with Sam and the other guys,” Dave said. Sam nodded in agreement. He was the only real child that was living with Mr. and Mrs. A.

Oh no, I thought, they are going to ask me next. I started to bite my nails, a habit of mine.

“So, Leo.” Sam cracked his knuckles. “Why were you at the office today? Did you get in trouble?” He smirked impishly.

“You little brat!” I stood up and started to chase him around the living room, jumping over seats and the table.

“That is enough, you two!” Mr. A slammed his fists on the table, and we stopped moving, dead silent. “Samuel Arnold Arson, we have raised you better than this young man. Snap out of it! And, Leo.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do with you anymore. You have been sent to the office five times this week, skipping classes, leaving the school to get lunch.” He sat down. “Why do we even put up with you, you aren’t even our child,” he whispered, so quiet I strained my ears to hear.

I ran to my room and slammed the door. You aren’t even my father, I thought. I guess the feeling is mutual.

I jumped up onto my bed. I had been living here for four years. They hadn’t bothered to decorate my room for me yet. It felt like the house would never be my home.

I rolled on to my back, looking at the glow in the dark stickers I placed on the ceiling when I moved here. They are forty cents per packet, or were. I used to collect them all those long years ago when I lived in San Francisco. On the harbor, there was Mikey’s Drug Store.

Mikey was a good friend of my mother. He would always be saying things like, “Y’all lookin’ fine today, little Leo. Ya look more like your mother each day” and “Where is Jane today, Leo?” And I would always answer, “At work” or “ I forget.” He always would greet me with a warm smile. I missed him. He was the only person that I had left.

 

“Don’t forget to take lunch with you.” Mrs. A waved as we walked to the school bus. “Have a good day.” Dave waved back at her.

“Hurry up, Dave,” I said.

He turned around and scurried after me, probably hoping that the bus would wait for him, or that he’d still have time to play Nintendo before the bell rang. When we got off the bus, he trailed off behind me.

“What are you following me for?” I asked.

“There are these two boys who beat me up, and all the boys are afraid of you, and I thought — ” He stopped in mid-sentence, pushing back his black bangs back from his forehead, which looked exotic against his pale skin.

“Boys, afraid of me?” We finally got to my locker. “Yeah right.”

“Oh.” Dave looked at his watch. “It’s time for class. I gotta go, bye.”

I put away my bag and started to head to class. “See ya.”

 

“So I, like, said, ‘Who do you think you’re talking to.’ And he was like, ‘A random girl?’ so I said… ” Britney, the Barbie girl of the class, chatted away with Harley.

“Carman claimed that they, “are as annoying as a chipmunk pretending to be a baboon,” and I believed her.

“Can you two please stop.” I covered my ears. It was Max talking. He was always the one to tried to stop them.

“Oooh,” Britney teased. “Maxie waxy doesn’t like noise. It wakes him up and scares him.”

Harley laughed. “Do you need a bottle to stop your pouting?” She held her canteen up in the air. “Drink up, boy.” I couldn’t help snickering to that, because as much as I hated them, their jokes cracked me up, and also because otherwise they’d drag me into this.

“I would appreciate it if you stopped teasing me as well,” he said, his face turning red. “It’s very irritating.” He looked at me. “Right, Leo.”

“Does Maxy waxy have a girlfriend?” Harley asked. “Is Maxy waxy’s feelings hurt, so he had to bring in little Leo?”

“Arghh!” I felt my nails digging into my head. “You just had to drag me into this!” Max looked as if he was going to say something, but I spoke first. “Really, Max? Really.”

“Oh, little Leo’s crying, wah wah.” Britney started to rub her eyes. “I’m Leo, and I’m a baby. Wah.” She grinned at Harley.

“Then you must be the first braindead blond to step on the planet!” I stood up and turned to Harley. “And you must be the only redhead to ever catch on fire!” I slammed my fists on my desk and ran to the girls bathroom.

I looked into the mirror and saw a girl. She looked like she was 15 or so, and she had long blond hair that trailed down to her hips, she was wearing a black T-shirt with words written on it saying I don’t go down without a fight, and baggy jeans. That girl in the mirror was me, or the person they saw.

I shut myself in a stall and started to cry, not because I was sick of the bullying, but because I couldn’t stand being here, here in this school, in this place, in this town. There was nowhere that I could go that would leave me be. Every day, it was the same thing over and over and over again. I’m sick of it! I thought. I can’t do this anymore! I’m leaving! That’s when I decided to run away. I couldn’t just stay at this place anymore. I’d stayed there for too long.

I walked out of the bathroom and thought to myself. Give it one day, I thought. One day until I’ll leave this place forever. Just finish today.

 

Chapter Two: Run Away

Clunk! The books fell into my bag one by one. I put in some clothes and put the bag on my back. I quietly opened the window, took a deep breath, and started to climb down. I stepped onto the window ledge and leaped to the nearest tree, which seemed a foot or two away, perfect for climbing. From stepping onto the ground I started to run.

“Goodbye, the Arsons!” I looked back at the yellow house and grinned. When I looked forward again, I smashed face first into something. I felt gravity push me into the ground, like a imposing force that was not to be reckoned with.

“God that hurt,” the person said. Their voice was deep, low just like…

I rubbed my eyes. “Max?” I backed away. “No, no. It can’t be. You have parents, nice parents. Why are you here?” Max didn’t move, and a chunk of his brown hair fell onto his face. “Max, are you okay?” I shook him. “Max!” I felt a hot tear run down my face. “Wake up!” I shook him harder.

“Ow… ” His eyes flickered open. “Leo?”

I sighed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought you were dead.”

He started to laugh. “Why would I be dead?” Then, he saw how serious I was. “Leo, were you crying?” He leaned in, examining the tear on my cheek.

I pushed his face away. “Stop it!”

“Sorry,” he said. “Why are you out here, Leo?”

I sighed. “I ran away from home.”

His eyes widened. “You’re running away?”

I felt a drop of rain fall on me, and I stood up. “Oh, it’s going to start raining soon,” I said, avoiding his comment. I started to walk away, but I felt a tug on my pants. I looked down at Max.

“Leo… ” He let go of my pants to my relief. “So am I.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You, yourself, are going to rain? Who are you, Aquarius? Yeah right.”

“No,” he sighed. “I’m running away, too.”

“What.” My eyes went to the men’s purse he carried with him. “But your parents, they’re so nice, they get along so well. I don’t understand. Why?”

“They are getting a divorce!” He stood up and stared at me, his eyes on fire. “Dad’s cheated on Mom, Mom’s sick, and we are not sure she’ll live.” He started to cry. But I couldn’t feel sympathetic. The same thing had happened to me, and no one was there to say anything to me, to help me, no one to reassure me, no one to say…

“I’m sorry.”

He looked up at me, surprised I said anything. I plopped down beside him, raindrops falling onto the concrete. Drop drip, drop drip.

“We’ve had it pretty bad, haven’t we,” he whispered.

I looked away and nodded.

But I’ve had it much worse. Much, much worse. Don’t you forget.

 

Chapter Three: Out in the Real World

“Nghh.” I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked around. Where am I? Was it just a dream? Where is Max? Thoughts rushed through my head, so many questions I thought I wouldn’t be able to bear it! Footsteps, I heard footsteps. I stood up. I was in an… apartment.

“Oh, did I wake you, dearie?” An old woman stepped into the room. She was very small and had a long nose that looked like the spike of the knife. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so loud.” She walked over to me and awkwardly patted my head and said, “Tee hee,” and walked out of the room.

I was flustered. Besides the fact I was in an apartment and why the woman patted my head, where in the world was Max?

Thousands of words swept through my brain as the sea swept the sand off the shore. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t settle on what to ask. Should I just look around or should I ask where Max is.

I heard snoring, and I swirled behind me. I saw Max sleeping on a blow up mattress. I looked down and saw the same mattress under me. It was long, about three meters long. Come to think of it, I was not even sure if it was a mattress at all, more like a long layered yoga mat.

I sighed in relief of finding him and collapsed on my half of the mat. I hadn’t realized before how tired I actually was. It was nerve-racking. I felt my head get drowsy and sleepy and let myself fall into a waterfall of dreams, and how could I forget, some nightmares too.

 

Chapter Four: The Old Dumpling Lady

Max and I were sitting at a small table, aghast, as the woman put a buttload of food on the table. As I looked closer, I realized that all the food was Chinese food, dumplings and rice. It was like we walked into a free restaurant.

It was amazing. She gave us clothes to change into while saying, “I used to have a son and daughter who were once your age. They moved out a while ago. I kept these clothes for their children.” She walked me to the bathroom saying, “Ladies should always get to change first.” I felt like at any moment she was going to lock the door and keep on repeating that line until the day I die. I shivered at the thought.

After we changed, she gave us back our clothes and bags.

Outside the building, she handed us two one hundred dollar bills and two MetroCards.

“Wow, thank you,” I said, breathless. This lady had just given away 200 dollars to two strangers, I thought. Wow.

“Good luck,” she bid us farewell and walked back into the building.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder and turned around in surprise. I kicked Max in the shin. “Stop it, alright!” I yelled. He backed away. “I’m not going to help you. Just because we’ve been in similar situations, doesn’t mean that I’m the person you go to for reassurance!” I kicked down a trash can, feeling as if I was about to burst into flames. “I don’t need help. I’ve escaped from an orphanage before. I don’t need you to help me!” I handed him a MetroCard and a 100 dollar bill, and I start running.

“Where are you going?” he yelled to me.

“The subway!” I yelled.

“To where?” he yelled back.

“To Mission Bay, San Francisco.” I ran down the steps. “Or anywhere besides here!”

I swiped my card through and ran to the first sign saying to San Francisco. The train was there, and I jumped on it and found a seat. I knew that the ride would take all day, so I wasn’t that worried.

I looked out the window as the doors closed and saw Max running to the door, out of breath and panting. I was happy that he didn’t see me looking out the window. It would have broken my heart.

I took my iPad out of my bag and put on some headphones and started to hum a jolly tune. My plan had worked after all. I highly doubted I’d have to see that yellow room again, or the yellow house, or the yellow school bus, or the yellow school that the yellow room resided in. So much yellow in such little time.

 

Chapter Five: San Francisco

I looked outside, the city’s view flashing by my window. I was so excited. It was five minutes until we got there, and I would see my hometown again. It was an amazing feeling, one I hadn’t felt in a long time, not since I was ten. I couldn’t wait to see Mikey again.

 

Chapter Six: Away

I stepped off the train and ran to the harbor. I saw a small shop, and I ran to it, hoping to find the place I loved for the people inside were so nice. I stopped in front of the shop and read the sign. Peter’s Pizza Palace. I stepped back, confused.

“I excuse me, ma’am, are you lost?” a man asked me.

“This shop used to be Mikey’s drugstore, right?” I asked.

“Yessiree. Mikey moved away with his fiance four years ago, why’d ya ask?” the man questioned.

“Just wondering,” I said.

I look at the ground. Mikey moved? No more drug store? Fiance? I was so confused. Since when did Mikey have a romance with anyone.

My mind couldn’t get any sense out of it, so I just sat down on the dirty floor in a big city.

“How could I forget?” I whispered. “Mikey and Mr. Frank were in love. They told me they wanted to adopt a kid last time I was here.” I wanted to run away from this town. It held more bad memories than it did good. I wanted to…

“Leo!” I heard a voice call to me, and it was Max, running toward me, waving the MetroCard in his hand.

I stood up in surprise. “How?”

Before I could finish, he ran up to be and hugged me, but to his disappointment, I pushed him away. He was hopeless.

I spent the day showing him the city and walking around and getting candy. It was a nice day. We jumped onto the train and went back to Tahoe, with posters, merchandise, and anything we could get our hands on.

When we got back, we got grounded for a week, but it was worth it.

And the rest… I forget.

 

Amie was nine months and two weeks into her pregnancy. Amie was in bed, and she woke up all wet. Her water had broke.

“Jules, my water broke!” Jules was the father and was so nervous to find out the gender of his kid. He just stood up, got the bag ready, gave Amie a new pair of clothes, helped her change, and they left. He desperately wanted a boy.

Amie was rushed to the hospital in their car. They ran three red lights and made a couple of wrong turns. Jules didn’t do well under pressure.

When they got to the hospital, Jules was out of breath and clearly sweating. Amie was rushed into the ER, and Jules waited outside. He didn’t want to make Amie nervous by seeing him nervous. Inside the ER with Amie, all the usual things happened, the breathing strategies and whatnot.

Three hours later, a beautiful baby girl was born in New York State Hospital named Xiomara, born on August 9th, 1987. Jules was told the news by a nurse, stood up, and walked away.

 

Twenty-six years later…

Jules knocked on the door of Xiomara’s house and said, “Hi umm. I believe I am your father. Is your name Xiomara?”

“Yes.”

 

Five years later…

The phone rang. Xiomara went to the phone slowly. She was nervous because it was from the hospital that her dad was staying in with stage four brain cancer.

Xiomara was speechless for a while on the phone. She finally said, “Hello, this is Xiomara.”

“Umm. Hello, this is New York State Hospital. I am so sorry. Your father has just passed away. You will have to come by tomorrow to pick him up, or we will burn him and put the ashes in the Hudson River. Sorry, but that is all we can do. We have already told your mom and your brother. They are here at the hospital.”

Xiomara wanted to cry, but she wanted to sound strong on the phone. “But I can’t. I have to read a poem tomorrow at an award ceremony!” Xiomara tried to explain.

“I am sorry. We can’t keep him here any longer. We don’t have the space,” he said as Xiomara hung up the phone.

“Oh, great. Now I can’t find my poem. I worked on that all week. I need a drink.” So Xiomara went to her local bar and instead of having one drink, she had 12 shots of tequila. Xiomara was wasted! There was no way she could find her poem, pick up her dead father from the hospital, and put him somewhere without getting arrested. With all of this on her mind, while being wasted, she walked into the street without looking, and she got hit by a car.

Xiomara ended up in a coma. Her mom, Amie, and her brother, Derek, stayed in the hospital with her and had been with her ever since she got hit by the car. That was last week. Xiomara’s foot twitched. Her mom stood up and started to cry. Xiomara’s brother started running to the doctor and told her that she had started to move. When they got back, Xiomara was sitting up and talking to her mom about what happened, but Xiomara couldn’t remember exactly.

“Hey, Mom. I know I got hit by a car because I was drunk. But I can’t remember anything else. I’m sorry,” Xiomara said in a soft voice.

“Oh, so don’t be sorry for getting hit by a car. I mean, it was your fault and the driver’s fault, but mostly yours. But don’t apologize to me for that. Apologize to you for that. Apologize to me for getting wasted and making me worry about you.”

 

Two weeks later…

Xiomara was riding her bike to work every day as a poem writer. Even though she didn’t get to read the poem, she still submitted it. Then, the judges got to read it, and they suggested her to a writing company, and Xiomara was offered a job. Now she had a well-paying job. And as for her father, Xiomara’s mom and brother took care of him by burning him and putting the ashes in the Hudson River.

 

Six months later…

Next week was Xiomara’s first family reunion without her dad. Xiomara was thinking about drinking, and she had been sober six months now, and that was one of the only labels that she wanted for herself. So she decided to go to a rehab class.

Xiomara arrived at the rehab class, paid the Uber driver, and got out of the car. She was so nervous to share her story, but listening to other people’s stories, especially if they were worse than hers, made her feel better. Xiomara went inside. The doors closed loudly behind her and class started.

In the class, Xiomara didn’t feel nervous. She felt lucky to be sober for a whole six months, probably because the other people in there had it harder, but they were sober and they were staying that way.

The day had finally come, Xiomara’s family reunion, the first one without her dad. She was pretty much up all night with her mom and her grandma, cooking her favorite mashed potatoes that her mom had taught her and that her grandma had taught her mom. Every year, three people worked together to make a dish. They always made mashed potatoes. Derek, Xiomara’s brother, her uncle, Jamey, and Xiomara’s dad would work together. But this year, it would just be the two of them, making rice and beans.

That afternoon, her whole family came except for her father. They all met at Fort Greene Park because most of her family lived in Brooklyn. They needed four tables to hold all the food and one other table to hold the plates and silverware. They even had to wash rocks to keep everything on the table. It was a windy and sunny Saturday with only a couple of clouds in the sky.

Xiomara’s uncle, Jamey, walked over to Xiomara and put his hand on her shoulder and said, “I’m so sorry you only knew your father for five years. But I will be here if you have any questions about him or just want to talk.”

“Okay, that is good to know. Thanks, Uncle Jamey,” Xiomara said with confidence.

The whole family ate and laughed, sent a prayer to Jules, and enjoyed life while they had it. And in that moment, Xiomara realized she could live a happy, full life without her father, and she had the rest of her giant family. I mean, she already lived 26 years without him. She’d be fine.

 

There was a person in the deep dark woods, and no one had ever seen him. He used to live on the planet Mars, but he had left five years before. His name was Rumble. He had four of everything: four ears, four arms, four legs, four heads. On each head, he had two eyes. He had six hands. He had four houses. He even had four pencils. Rumble wanted the magic cupcake more than anything. It was supposed to be very yummy, and it was supposed to make you see everything and hear everything.

Five years ago, there were space astronauts that came to Mars. They had the magic cupcake. Rumble had heard about the magic cupcake from a messenger, but no one had ever seen it. But then, one day, he saw the astronauts with the cupcake on Mars. It was rainbow colored and looked really good. But, when he tried to grab it from them, they went back to Earth. So, he got his spaceship and went to Earth. But on Earth, he accidentally crashed in the woods. And now, he lived there.

One day, Rumble decided he wanted to go back to Mars to get the cupcake. But also, he wanted to destroy Mars to get bricks so he could build with them. Mars was made of bricks. He got the bricks from Mars. He had a special power — he knew where the astronauts were. He wore booboo bands that made him have every special power.

He built a path to the astronauts with bricks. They were yellow so he wouldn’t get confused. The brick path took him to the thousand knights. He beat 100 knights, then 200, then 300, then 400, then 500, then 600, then 700, then 800, then 900, then 950, then 960, the 970, then 980, then 990, then 991, then 993, then 996, then 999, then the king of the knights.

Then, Rumble almost got hit by a knife when a ninja hit the king with a sword, so he stepped back because he would have gotten hit with the sword. The ninjas just appeared out of nowhere.

Rumble said, “Thank you.”

But then the ninja tried to hit him with the sword. Just in time, he ducked under the sword.  

“You meany!” cried Rumble.

“I give up,” said the ninja, and he walked away.

Rumble went on another path of bricks. For some reason, he met the ninja again.

“Hi,” said Rumble.  

For some reason, the ninja said hi back. Somehow, they became friends and they went on the path together. Then, they went to the secret tunnel, but one of Rumble’s arms fell off! He didn’t have to care because it would grow back again. Sooner or later there was a split in the tunnel. There were two ways, but it was so dark that they couldn’t see. Good thing that Rumble brought a flashlight so they could see what the sign said!

The left said dead skeletons and the right said pokey leaves. Rumble remembered that he had to go to the pokey leaves to get the cupcake. So, they went that way, but they saw dead skeletons. Then, Rumble noticed a big monster. He looked like a skeleton but alive. So Rumble and the ninja tried to run to an open door at the end of the tunnel. The ninja made it, but Rumble was so slow. He couldn’t come out through the door because then the worst thing in the world happened. I’m not going to tell you what it was.

Fine, I’m going to tell you. THE DOOR CLOSED!!! Rumble was so scared. Rumble kicked the door as hard as he could, but it didn’t budge. Then, he kicked even harder. Then, he kicked it so hard that his face turned red, and then the door opened with a crack! The door magically opened. But it wasn’t Rumble who opened it, it was ninja.

“Thank you!” Rumble said. Then, he realized something. “I think I know who switched the signs! It was the monster!”

  When the monster heard them say its name, he stood up and ran after them. They ran like the wind back to the way that said dead skeletons, because they knew it was the opposite. Even though they got hurt a little, it was at least better than being eaten by a big monster. Then, they finally got out of  the dangerous tunnel and started to go to the mean king.

They saw the mean king and heard him because he was yelling so loud. So they snuck up on him. Rumble was shaking with fear when a knight found them. The knight grabbed Rumble and Ninja and took them to the dungeon. Good thing that Rumble had a mini-gun that could shoot arms. So, he shot the mini-gun at the person who had the key. He got the key to the dungeon. And then, they opened the dungeon. They opened all of the dungeons and let everything out. There was another ninja, so the ninja hugged the other ninja. They went to the other side of the castle and opened the dungeons on the other side. In the middle was a lava pit.

Once the guards saw them, they said, “Come over here, you! Hey, you!” They tried to get more ninjas out, but they were so close to the guards that they just ran.

But, there were guards on the other side! So, they had to push them from behind. Rumble grabbed one of the guards and threw him at one of the other guards, so both of them fell down.

“Yes!!” Rumble screamed.

There were two guards on one side and two on the other side. Ninja grabbed one of the guards and threw him on the other guard. And then, they noticed that two guards were in the corner, so the guards grabbed Rumble and Ninja, both of them. Then, Rumble threw the keys at the other ninja in the dungeon, opened all the cages, and then he made a whole team. The guards chased after Rumble and the ninja and the two guards that got them. But then, they defeated the two guards because the guards were so tired from trying to catch all of them. When one of the ninjas was tired, he could take a rest. And then, he had to go back to running. There were 100 ninjas now.

“Where should we go,” asked a ninja.

“Oh yeah, my sticks,” Rumble remembered.

“Oh yeah, I have my sausage for a snack ‘cause we are going to be here for hours and hours and I might get hungry,” said the second ninja.

“How could you use a sausage to find a cupcake?” asked Rumble.

“You just brought sticks and I don’t think you can use them.”

“Oh yeah! Watch this. Let’s go mega sticks! I felt it! This way, let’s go!”

“Is he feeling okay?”

Then another ninja said, “I don’t know.”  They were worried Rumble was going crazy. They just followed Rumble cause they didn’t want to be separated.

“So, are you still 100% sure it’s this way?” asked a ninja.

“I keep telling you guys I got this,” Rumble said. “I think I see an astronaut!”

They ran to the astronaut because there was one astronaut and one hundred ninjas.

They all said at the same time, “Where is the magic cupcake?”

He didn’t answer for a while. “In a secret room,” he finally said.

“Nobody has ever been inside except the guards.”

“I’m going in,” said Rumble.

“I don’t- ” the astronaut said.

Rumble didn’t hear his full sentence because Rumble already left. He teleported to the secret room where the cupcake was. The ninjas stayed with the astronaut and distracted him. There were fences around the cupcake, so he teleported himself over the 50-foot fence. When he saw the cupcake, he felt double happy! It was the biggest cupcake in the world, and it was rainbow. It had rainbow icing and rainbow icing. When he grabbed it, he noticed on his watch that he didn’t have any more booboo bands to walk or run. Because they gave him every power, Booboo bands made him stronger. Each booboo band had a different power, and he originally had ten. But now he had none!

He couldn’t teleport anymore! He started yelling for help. The astronaut guards heard the yell and tried to look through the hole of the fence.

“How did he get inside there?” the guards wondered out loud. As the guards were looking through the fence, the ninjas sneakily came behind them and poked them with the swords. Since the ninjas knew how to jump and climb, they climbed and jumped to the top of the fence and made a chain with their hands to the top, so someone was able to go to the other side but still hold on.

Rumble was still stuck in the middle with the cupcake, but he couldn’t see the ninjas coming to get him because he was out of booboo bands. Without them, he was so tired that he just fell asleep. Fifty of the ninjas came inside to get him. They made a chain with their hands over the fence and brought him up and over the fence with the cupcake in his hands. On their way out, they passed an astronaut guard. The guard gasped.

“How did you do that?” the guard exclaimed.

The ninjas ignored him and kept walking. They brought Rumble to his house back in the forest and put more booboo bands on him. All one hundred ninjas shared the cupcake with Rumble. It was delicious!

 

THE END

                                                                                                                                      

Once upon a time, there was an old lady. Her name was Bill. She had a lot of wrinkles, a very tall and skinny nose with a bump on the end, and a mole right next to her mouth. She was very fat, as fat as the biggest room in your house. Bill was very strict and mean and went poop a lot. This was because she had bathroom issues. She had to get food sent to her room by her servants, Timpson & Timpson. 

Timpson & Timpson delivered her food every day. They also had a tiny little room, because they were mice. They had to work together to push the cart of food because they were so tiny. Bill’s bedroom was also her bathroom. It was bigger than the biggest room in the whole world, except for the room of Earth. You could see Bill’s bed-bathroom from outer space, it was that big. It had a ton of lights and there was a button so Bill could lay down and go to the bathroom at the same time.

Bill would only talk to Timpson & Timpson when she wanted something.

“Get me my food!” yelled Bill.

Timpson & Timpson were scared of Bill.

“Okay, miss,” they said.

“Don’t you call me miss! Call me Bill!”

“Okay, miss,” Timpson & Timpson’s bodies were shaking.

“Bring me food right now, or I will not feed you for ten weeks! And never call me miss again! If you do, I’ll call the mayor and ask for servants that are people!” Bill was so loud that they heard her from outer space.

“Yes, miss.”

Bill picked up the phone and called Mayor Nosey.

“Hello, Mayor. This is Bill. Timpson & Timpson must leave.”

“Timpson & Timpson must stay,” said Mayor Nosey. “Why do you want them to go?”

“I want them to leave! I want a human servant, okay, Mayor Nosey? They call me miss too much! I do not want to be called miss,” screamed Bill.

“Okay, miss. I’ll get you another mouse servant, but you can’t kick Timpson & Timpson out,” said Mayor Nosey. Mayor Nosey knew that no other mouse would sign up for the job, so he had a plan.

“I want to be called Bill! You’re so terrible, you should be my servant!”

“I will not be your servant,” said Mayor Nosey. “I’m the mayor, and I’m famous.” But Mayor Nosey was not as famous as Bill. She didn’t know, but people took pictures of her through her window because of how large she was.

“You better get me new servants, or I’ll come out of my house!” yelled Bill. So many people were taking pictures of her. Keechew!

Mayor Nosey wasn’t the best mayor, even though he had stopped Bill from destroying the city once. Mayor Nosey just didn’t know how to be a good mayor. He walked into meetings with his arms swinging while he yelled, “Howdy doody, partners!” No one at the meetings liked that.

One time, while a news crew was filming a show about a man named Dude Cool who ate a lot of burgers, Mayor Nosey walked up to the camera and asked, “Can I be on TV?”

Dude Cool looked at him and said, “Whatcha doin, bro? Hey, check out my girlfriend.” He pointed to Sexy Lady, a hamburger.

Mayor Nosey was confused but still wanted to be on TV. He looked into the camera and said, “Put me on TV!”

Then, Bill shouted, “Get off TV and speak to me!”  

Mayor Nosey did not hear her. Mayor Nosey did not like talking to Bill. Neither did anyone else on Earth. Bill hung up the phone on Mayor Nosey. Mayor Nosey was so frustrated, he tried calling Bill back to tell her now she wouldn’t get any servants. Bill hung up on him right away.

Mayor Nosey called Timpson & Timpson on their old-fashioned phone.

Timpson & Timpson said, “What? Who is it?”

Mayor Nosey said, “Timpson & Timpson, please come to my office.”

Timpson & Timpson had two robots that looked just like them. They had built them long ago in case they ever needed a replacement. They had only used their robots once before in hide and seek with their parents. Timpson & Timpson left their robots hiding behind the table, and they went to hide in a better spot.

This time, Timpson & Timpson put their robots in the bed-bathroom and went out their tiny door. Timpson & Timpson had built a very tiny car while Bill was sleeping one night. She had no idea. They had kept their car in a secret garage.

It was ten miles to Mayor Nosey’s house. Timpson drove & Timpson rode. They listened to “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic movie the whole way.

Mayor Nosey’s house looked like a statue of Mayor Nosey. It had his beautiful clothes but his ugly face. Mayor Nosey was ugly because he had a lot of bruises and boo-boos because he didn’t sleep well.

Timpson & Timpson had to sign in to the house before Mayor Nosey let them in. Bill didn’t know this, but Timpson & Timpson and Mayor Nosey were best friends. They only saw each other at night. Timpson & Timpson walked to the office.

“Okay, Timpson & Timpson,” said Mayor Nosey, “I have a mission for you. I want you to dress up in other clothes so Bill doesn’t know who you are. You must go and dress up at Bill’s house.” But Timpson and Timpson knew Bill would be able to recognize them.  

“You — Timpson. Please dress up like an elephant in a work suit. You’ll look good. Timpson — you should be a monkey. Dress like one in these pajamas.” He held up blue and white striped pajamas.

“Okay, but I don’t want to be a monkey with striped pajamas. I’ll look weird,” said Timpson.

“You have to,” said Mayor Nosey, “because I’m the mayor. If you don’t, I’m going to send you to jail.”

“Okay… I’ll wear it,” said Timpson.

Timpson laughed at Timpson because he had to wear something he didn’t want to wear.

“Timpson! Stop laughing at me because I’m gonna tell Bill.”

Timpson said, “Well, Bill won’t know you’re Timpson, because you’re a monkey in striped pajamas.”

“Well, when I’m Timpson again. I’m going to tell Bill.”

The Mayor Nosy said, “Stop arguing!”

Timpson said, “I don’t want to do this. I’m nervous.”

Mayor Nosy, “I’m sorry for what Timpson did. Well, I can’t know who is Timpson and who is Timpson.”

“I’m Timpson,” said Timpson.

“And I’m Timpson,” said Timpson.

“We should change your names,” said the Mayor Nosy, and he pointed at one of them.

“Okay, my name is what?”

“Your new name is Magalio!”

“I do not like my new name. I want my new name to be Jack like the guy from the Titanic who froze in the water.”

“What’s my name?” said the other Timpson.

“Your name is Dadolo.”

“I don’t like that name! Why can’t my name be Magalio and Timpson’s name be Dadolo?”

“Okay, my name will be Dadolo,” said Timpson, “And Timpson’s name will be Magalio.”

So, they drove to Bill’s house. When they arrived at her house, they knocked on the front door.

“Who is it?” Bill grumbled. She was very, very grumpy.

“It is I,” said Dadolo and Magolio.

“Come in,” she groaned.

So they both came inside.

“What are you here for?” Bill grumbled.

“We are here for a discussion about your behavior.”

“Blahhhh,” said Bill.

“Should we begin?” asked Timpson & Timpson in disguise.

“Where’s Timpson & Timpson? They must have gone somewhere.”

“We don’t know who’s Timpson and Timpson.”

“Hey, you two look a lot like Timpson and Timpson!”

Then, Timpson & Timpson said, “Who’s Timpson & Timpson?” But then they made a big mistake. They used their normal voice.

“You’re Timpson & Timpson!” Bill roared. She started to get out of the bathroom and walked outside.  

“Uh oh,” said Timpson & Timpson. “We did make a big mistake. Now Bill will destroy the world because when Bill gets mad, she sets off to destroy everything.”

Bill started to destroy the world — from Canada to Africa, to Norway, to France, to London, to Egypt, to China, to Japan, and finally she came to the place where we stay now. She came to New York City, and she destroyed all the people. Timpson and Timpson, because of what they had done, decided to save all the people. They took all the weapons and put on some gear, then they went off to save the world.

As Timpson & Timpson walked towards Bill, they started to chop up stuff. But it took an hour to chop up everything because they were super tiny, and their swords were super tiny. Soon, Bill couldn’t walk, talk, or even move her arms. Bill was furious! So, she started rolling towards Timpson & Timpson. But Timpson & Timpson were really high jumpers. So, they both jumped up as high as they could and landed on Bill’s tummy. And then Timpson cut one side of Bill’s tummy, and then Timpson cut the other side of Bill’s tummy. And then, they took Bill’s tummy and threw it away. Then, they took out Bill’s food. Then, they took out Bill’s heart. Then, they took out Bill’s brain and lungs. Then they threw it all out. Then, Bill died, and Timpson & Timpson saved the world!

“You’re our heroes!” everyone cried to Timpson & Timpson. But it wasn’t over yet. Bill had a sister who was growing and growing, and now she was as big as Bill. Her name was actually also Bill. So, Timpson & Timpson did the same thing. They ran up to Bill. They cut off her legs. They cut off her arms. Then, Bill couldn’t walk or move her arms. Then, Bill did the same thing. She rolled towards Timpson & Timpson. So, Timpson & Timpson jumped up towards Bill’s tummy and jumped on it. Timpson cut the side. Timpson cut the other side. Then, they threw Bill’s tummy away. Then, they took her food out and threw it away. And then, they took her heart, and her brain, and were still heros saving the world from Bills.

 

THE END

 

Once there was a rat who lived on the streets. He had black fur and big ears, two big front teeth, a big nose, small hands, a chip in his ear, and a unibrow. He ate cheese every single day. He found the cheese from a trash can.

A human came and tried to kill the rat, but he slipped and fell. His snowsuit came down on the rat, and the rat thought that he could use it as a bed. But it was so soft on the inside that he sunk right in. There was a hole nearby, and he managed to escape. Then, he tried the other side. It was too rough, though.

So, he found some tissues and used them as a bed. He used his jacket to block the entrance, so people wouldn’t get in, because it camouflaged with the colors outside. But the tissues were used, so he found a fresh box of tissues. He tried to get up, but it was too high. His friends came and helped him, and he used a cotton ball as a pillow.

Unfortunately, the snow started to melt, but his friends got all of the sponges in his house and started squeezing them out with the water. The rat was hungry, so he went to the fridge, but there was no cheese in the fridge. Then, he went to the basement door, but he had lost the keys to it. He looked under the couch and found the keys. He opened the basement door and ate some of the cheese inside the basement. He had more left, so he gave the rest to his friend.

The human had caught a flu and had broken his leg. He started charging towards the rat, but then realized he had broken his leg and wasn’t using his crutches, so he fell down. He called his mom, but she was too tired to get out of bed, so she fell back asleep.

The human and the rat started to head back to their homes, but then the rat’s friend told him that he had broken his leg too. The rat made a cast for his friend. Then, it got dark, and he had trouble finding his way home, but he had eleven flashlights with him. So, the rat found his way back home.

THE END

 

 

About The Character

My name is Jeff Stanley, and I am 28 years old.

 

Emergency

During the year of 1858, I went to a restaurant called Fallout. I really needed to go use the bathroom and couldn’t hold it anymore! My face turned red as I tried to hold it in. There were at least 20 people on the line as I waited. I decided to wait at my table and eat first. But after I ate my food, there were even more people on the line! When it couldn’t get any worse, hope started to shine. I could use the disgusting porta potties outside, I thought.

 

When I got there, there were five people on the line who probably had the same idea as me. But they took a long time. I wondered why they took so long. I found another porta potty that had two people on the line, which took about a minute until I went inside. It felt so good that I didn’t need to hold it anymore, but it was disgusting! I finally finished, and I felt like a caged bird being freed by its owner. If this happens again…

 

The Angry Man

One hour later…

It did. I had to go to the bathroom at a casino, but they had no bathroom. I finished up the game of poker and won $10 at the casino! I kept it in my pocket and waited to go use the bathroom. Since this was just as long as the line in the restaurant, I went to the porta potties outside. There was no line, so I went in. But inside, there was an angry man.

He was chasing me down the block! I was scared, so I ran and ran. Soon, I went back to the porta potty and locked it shut. I used the bathroom while the man was banging on the door. The porta potties saved my life, twice. When I washed my hands, the door broke, and the angry man chased me into my house, and I turned on my security. He must have got hurt badly from my tasers because he screamed in pain. He tried to break my door, but it was made of metal, so it broke his fingers instead. He ran to the hospital, and I was safe. I then turned my security off. Then, the police came and brought me to the court for breaking the man’s fingers.

 

The Court

Judge Quinn asked a few questions like, “How did you break this man’s fingers?” and “Did you use any weapons?” The big question was the last one though.

“Gerald, [the man’s name] why did you make this such a big deal?”

Gerald said, “I need my privacy.”

Quinn said, “Okay! The case is closed everyone. You will get the results next week.”

At bed, I wondered what will happen if I get fined or the press starts to talk to me. I stayed home because I wondered what will happen. I then decided to make a time machine and uses it to go to the future to next week.

 

Creating a Time Machine

I built the time machine by putting an engine to control time with electricity. After, I got a round platform which can fit up to one person. Later, I put two be with a dog’s heart together to have the fuel and the speed. Then, I put a few live wires and a clocuttons for the past and the future. Finally, I connected everything together with more live wire. Now since I finished the time machine, I could go to the past or the future. I stepped on the platform and pressed the future button and went to the future.

 

The Future

When I got to the future, the results said that I didn’t need to pay a fine. I was relieved, but the press was banging at the door for the news. I then went to the year of 2067 and found a shop for machines. I bought an invisibility cloak and a jetpack because I needed one to get away from the press, but I made another timeline for the present and created an evil person called Geoff.

 

Battle of the Gods

Geoff destroyed the whole city with one attack. The sun was getting blocked by the clouds. I told him to stop this mess, but he ignored me, so I activated my special green suit which allowed me to power my strength and speed by three times and fly. I tried to attack him, but he was so fast that he went behind me before I attacked him. I was just getting warmed up and punched him, but it had no effect on him. He was just too strong. I didn’t know what to do. I thought it was over, but then a power surged through me like never before. A gift from God helped me as I punched him and kicked him. I did severe damage to him as I punched him in the face for the finishing blow. The sun came out again.

People were cheering, “Jeff! Jeff! Jeff!”

I was a hero, and my heroic deeds scared all the criminals out in the world. I became a man for justice and got police equipment from the future for all the policeman out there.

 

Epilogue: 20 Years Later

Jeff is now 48 and has a wife named Stella who is 44. They have twins named Emma and Liam Stanley. They are both 19 years old and fight crime with special red and blue suits. The red one gives five times more speed and three times more strength to the user. The blue one gives three times more speed and five times more strength to the user. Both suits can go to the past or future and grants the user the power to fly. Emma wears the red one, and Liam wears the blue one. They have their names on the suit, and crime happens very rarely in the world now. But maybe one day, there will be someone who will take down the whole Stanley family…

 

Find out more in The Stanley Trio Book Two: The Sequel

 

 

Chapter One: The First Portal

One night, I heard a whoosh! I quickly opened my eyes to see what was there. Before my eyes, I saw a huge portal.

I looked at my watch. Exactly 3:00 am. I heard a faint voice say to me, “Jump in!” So, I did. A wizard threw me a parachute. We started to fall faster and faster through different colors. I screamed. In a few minutes, the colors were changing so fast that I got lightheaded and passed out.

The wizard yelled, “Quick! Press your parachute button on the top right of your shoulder!” I woke, and I did as he said.

The parachute jerked my shoulders up in a weird position. A seat magically appeared on the parachute, and I got teleported to the seat.

The wizard and I floated to a stone floor. Beside us was a white and black portal. We both stepped into it. After we stepped through the portal, everything was white and black. We were both in a city.

A twig hit my eye. In the distance was a big tornado. The wizard tried to tell me, “Jump in!” But it did not work. After a few more tries to talk, he slowly started to realize sound only came out when he thought something. So we talked to each other through our ached and dizzy heads.

A pig started snorting at us through his head. The wizard said in his head, “We have to take down the tornado!” Every time he thought something, a beam of white light would shoot through the air and powerfully strike the other person right in the skull. If you were that person that got struck in the head, it didn’t hurt that much. It felt like a strong basketball pass that hit you in the head. But since our heads already ached, it hurt a lot by the end.

We ran toward the tornado, and it suddenly vanished. The wizard said, “Reality isn’t really in existence.” For the last time, a beam struck me again.

I said, “I don’t get it. If nothing really exists, then how are you here?”

“You are already dead. Time in the real world has already stopped.” A beam struck me in the head one more time, and then I collapsed to the ground.

Then, I woke in a pitch black world. I couldn’t move. Then, I felt like nothing. I woke in the real world with time frozen. I saw everything. Falling. A few things were floating. Some people too. I gasped. Then, everything around me vanished. Or maybe I did. Since I already did not exist. Some yelling woke me up. I was inside the tornado. I flew out of the tornado and smashed into a brick wall. The tornado pulled me in one more time, and we fell through a blue portal.

 

Chapter Two: The Second Portal

I started to fall really fast. I yelled and kicked and screamed. Thud. I fell on the ground. A fake ground. Then, I fell right through the hologram and fell for a few more minutes. Then, I saw a huge reflection mirror, and I hit it. I rolled off and fell in some snow. In front of me were two giant ice sculptures about the size of the freedom tower.

I said, “Hi! Can you help me?”

Then, one of the two sculptures said, “The wizard is not lying. He has the power to make dead people think big things. You can only save the real world by getting past the red portal and putting the rainbow stone into the empty hole.” Then, the wizard fell through the snow with a thud.

I fell in too. Then, we fell into a red portal.

 

Chapter Three: The Fire Dragon

I almost fell into the lava under us. I balanced on the unsteady planks. Then, we saw a dragon covered in fire. It roared a booming roar. I saw the rainbow stone behind it. A metal sword floated to my hand. I didn’t think I was ready for this. I tried to slice him in half. My sword went right through him. He breathed a fireball. I blocked it with my sword. The wizard flipped a hidden stone switch. The lava disappeared. The fire dragon turned into a dragon with no fire. The dragon couldn’t breathe fire. It had no powers. I sliced it in half and shoved the stone in to the empty hole. Then, the world started to spin, and I fell back into bed. I looked at my watch. Exactly 3:00 am. My mom and dad came rushing into my room.

They said, “What happened? Where were you? Where was I?”

 

The End

 

 

Nothing

Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing. This story is about Nothing, who is somebody who is nothing. That’s why this story is called Nothing. Let’s get on with it. Can we just cancel this show and put our lives out of immediate danger?

Once there was a kid named Nothing, and she was nothing. She was three years old. One day, she pushed a chair until she moved it. There was a show called Reality Toddlers. Before she started pushing the chair, she had watched it for the first time. On the show, a toddler named Tiny had pushed a chair while his big brother was lying on the floor. He had kept pushing and pushing, but the chair wouldn’t move any further. On the TV it said, “Will there be drama at naptime?” Then, disaster struck: Teddy the dinosaur’s jaw was too small to bite the head off Dr. Mustache. Would someone please cancel this show and put our lives out of immediate danger? Find out on next week’s episode of Reality Toddlers.

Now Nothing wanted to fail super badly, so she tried to make herself fail by playing a game of chess with her dad. She closed her eyes when she moved the pieces, but she won. So, she went to the playground and went on the monkey bars, closing her eyes and trying to fall off on her first try, but she made it to the end without falling off.

“That’s weird,” said her mom and dad. “Why do you want to fail so much?”

“I want to be like the person from the show!” she said.

“Really?” said her dad. “Then I have a way to make you fail: get on a balance beam, close your eyes, and walk on it in different directions.”

Nothing did what he said, but she still didn’t fail. She did it again, and again, and again, until she finally failed. She kept doing things like this on purpose and kept trying to push the chair without moving it. One day, when she was walking up a hill, she slipped, and she didn’t do it on purpose. Then, she kept slipping and slipping and slipping, and she finally failed.

She got a job as an actor on Reality Toddlers. Her parents thought it was weird, but they let her do it so they could become millionaires.

 

Episode 1464: Crocs Apocalypse

This week, on Reality Toddlers… Somebody kicked a croc, and then everybody started crying and throwing crocs at each other. But then, disaster struck: a pacifier fell out of someone’s mouth. It got even worse when somebody threw their baby food up at the ceiling, and hit the light, and everything went black. Everybody thought that they were dead and in heaven, because the walls glowed white, and then somebody jumped out the window to check if it was a dream. Then, everybody jumped out the window, except four people. The daycare was on the 100th floor of the Empire State Building. The only survivors were Nothing, her brothers Chumball and Charlie, and her sister Panais. They just went out the exit and went home. The exit was similar to the window, except it had a ladder.

In real life, everyone was wearing a bungee suit that had a green screen on it so that it looked like their clothes. No one actually died — it was just a stunt. Nothing’s parents told the director that he should be ashamed of himself.

Nothing said, “Don’t say that! Everybody’s okay! We shot it on an actual 100-foot tall building, but we had bungee jumping things, so we wouldn’t die or fall off or make the show too violent.”

Right after everybody watched the episode, the news said, “BREAKING NEWS: The show Reality Toddlers is really violent, so everyone should forbid it and never watch it again.”

But the director said on TV, “But wait! Everybody had bungee jumping suits on, and no one got hurt! Take the L!”

Nothing’s parents said, “You can keep participating in it, but only if you do your chores ten times a week.”

Nothing really liked it, so she kept doing it; she actually lived in the studio. There were lockers, and behind them was a queen-sized locker bed for Nothing. Only Nothing and her family lived there, not the other toddlers. The director told Nothing that you can only get fired if you die. She was happy at first, because she loved it.

 

Seven years later…

Nothing was now ten, because she was three seven years ago. Three plus seven equals ten. The show had been going on for practically forever — for as long as its creator had been alive. There have been 1,464 seasons. Nothing now had to kneel to pretend she was a toddler. Nothing was really bored of the show, and she really wanted to quit, but the only way she could get fired was if she died.

Nothing was going to fake her own death. She got an actual arrow to stab herself with, but quickly switched it with one that was already split through the middle, to make it look like she’d been shot in the head. If that wasn’t enough, she had a back up plan: a knife that fit into her hip to make it look like she’d been stabbed. She succeeded. Her brothers and sister did it too, and it actually worked.

They brought the bodies back to the house, and their parents saw them. When their parents were crying, they sprung to life and said, “Hi” all at the same time. The parents’ jaws dropped to the bottom of the floor. “Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi,” they repeated, sounding like a computer.

“Don’t tell the toddler show that we’re still alive, because we still have millions of dollars.” Their house was actually a mansion now.

The parents carried the coffins to the cemetery without the children inside. Nothing became a normal kid. She didn’t go to school, though, because if people saw her in the public eye, she would have to go back to Reality Toddlers. She and her brothers and sister had to be homeschooled. But their parents were really bad at teaching them, because when they were homeschooled, their dad taught them, “Fried rice plus chicken noodle plus fried chicken equals ten bags of chicken noodle fried rice soup.”

 

The End

 

 

One

I have never told a lie in my whole entire life. Not ever. And I don’t plan to. I have been part of a spy agency, Spyglass, my whole life also.

When I was born, I joined the agency. My parents have been in it, and their parents too. So when I came along, I joined it. So did my brother Jame. When I joined, I had to take a solemn vow saying that I always had to tell the truth. That way, whatever I picked up from my spy mission, I would tell them every little detail. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That’s why earlier today, I was in a pickle.

Miss Gloria Cabernette, my neighbor, had asked me to water her plants while she was away. Of course I agreed. Miss Gloria is the best. She is just so nice. Anyway, she just got back today, and when she opened her apartment door, she was not happy.

“For heaven’s sake! What has happened to my plants?”

Unfortunately, I was still there.

“Lindie dear, where have you been? It certainly doesn’t look like you’ve been watering my plants.” Miss Gloria locked eyes with me.

That’s when I knew I shouldn’t tell the truth, but I had to. If I didn’t, you could tell. I’m so bad at lying. I’m just so used to telling the truth. The truth was, I was busy with spy missions and homework. I was thinking of just saying I was doing homework, but then knowing her, she’d go to a Board of Education meeting and try to give kids less homework. Plus, it would be breaking my “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” vow. So I did the only thing there was to do.

“Well, I was doing a little homework. But mostly, I… I was out on missions. Spy missions.”

 

Two

As I walked back to my apartment across the hall, I felt guilty. Not just guilty that Miss Gloria now knew my secret, but more guilty that Miss Gloria would probably keep her distance from my family, now that she knew we were spies. I felt guilty for my family.

Suddenly, I saw Miss Gloria bolt into her apartment, grab a hat and a flag, and run down the stairs. I didn’t know what was going on with her.

“Where are you going?” I called. She didn’t answer.

I walked in the door to my apartment across from Miss Gloria. Ardin, my adorable little Westie, West Highland Terrier, and Gabriela, the cutest Corgi I’ve ever seen were waiting for me. Ardin was pure snow white, and Gabriela was mostly tan with black and white splotches. Gabriela, with her short stubby legs, waddled up to me, and I bent over, so she could lick my face. Ardin followed, with more of a bound than a walk. How it was with them normally, was one would go first, and the other would follow. It kind of seemed like they took turns, like one day Gabriela would go first, the next day, Ardin.

“Hey, you guys! If I get in trouble for what I did, will you guys back me up?” I asked with puppy eyes.

They just jumped up and down and licked me.

“I take that as a yes,” I said.

Just then, Mom walked in.

“Spilling our secret is not okay.” That’s all she said. Then, she walked out.

Okay, I had to give her credit for finding out that quick, I mean, she was a spy after all. Gabriela looked at me confused. Ardin just kept running in circles. That made me laugh. I knew they would cheer me up. Even if they ate my homework, and I got an F in Math, my best subject, it would be hard to stay too mad for long. I trudged over to my room. The apartment was kind of small, but it was feasible.

Basically when you walked in, you would see the kitchen counter on your right. Behind the counter was a large-for-an-apartment kitchen/dining room. We usually ate at the kitchen counter. On your left would be the den, or living room if you please. If you walked a little bit from the front door, you’d hit the hallway. If you turned left down the hallway, you’d go to Mom and Dad’s room and then the bathroom. If you turned right, you’d go to Jame’s room and then mine. In the middle of Mom and Dad’s room and Jame’s room, was the laundry room.

Anyway, I went to my room and got out my homework. It was Saturday, but I had a project due on Monday, and I wasn’t finished yet. It was a book report. Suddenly, Jame bursted into my room.

“Dude, I can’t believe you told Miss Gloria. Mom and Dad are talking about it in the den. Mom sounds really mad,” Jame whispered the last part.

“Shut up! You shouldn’t even know! Get out, I need to finish my project!” Unfortunately, I yelled the first part. Well, I yelled the whole thing, but the first part is what would get me in trouble.

“Lindie! What was that?” Dad called.

“Uh, I said… um, um, what’s up?! Heh heh heh. What’s up, Jame?” I improvised. I sometimes tell little white lies to my parents. But you can still tell I’m lying.

“I hear it again and you’re spending the night in your room, young lady,” said Mom, indeed sounding mad.

Jame got out quick because he knew what was coming. I relaxed a bit, but not a lot.

An hour later, smells of Mom’s famous Italian dressing wafted through the crack under my closed door. Gabriela barked. She could smell it, too.

“Ruff!” said Gabriela.

“Ruff, ruff!” echoed Ardin.

I slightly opened my door. As soon as she could fit through the door, Gabriela bolted. Ardin followed. They both barked the whole way. Ardin and Gabriela love Salad Saturday. Well, they also loved Taco Tuesday. And Make-Your-Own-Monday. And Waffle Wednesday. I guess you could say they loved every night at dinner. Ardin skidded behind Gabriela, both panting. Pieces of cucumber flew out from under the knife, and Gabriela scooped them up with her very long tongue. Ardin whimpered.

“Aww, here Ardin.” I giggled, handing him a piece of cucumber.

He licked my finger. His tongue was rough and thin. Around his neck he wore one of those collars with spikes sticking out. Last Christmas, we thought it would suit him more than his old red one. Ardin pretends to be all tough, but he really is a sweetie. So when he gets all confident, he puffs out his chest with the spike collar. It’s really funny because he’s so small. It’s adorable.

Gabriela on the other hand, was all sweet on the outside, but tough and defensive on the inside, kind of like me, with a pink collar that says, Girl Power. Gabriela was a stray until the Animal Rescue Center brought her to a shelter. She has always been ready to fight. That’s why she’s the one who comes on missions with us. Ardin usually stays back with Miss Gloria. But that might change.

The seat on the counter, farthest away from the front door, is my seat. My favorite seat. So, I sat down. Ardin sat at my feet. Gabriela wandered over to Mom.

“What is everybody waiting for? Serve yourself.” Mom sounded annoyed.

We ate dinner in silence. Except for the chewing and clinking of utensils. It was like all the time on TV when the family would be having dinner, and all they did was clink their forks and spoons. The thought of our family having a TV show made me giggle. Our family was the opposite of those perfect TV families. We were apart of a spy agency, for goodness sakes! Although that would make a good plot for a TV show. I could picture it in my head. It could be called “The Watson Spies.” No, too simple. Maybe “Spyglass Presents: The Watsons.” That sounds like Spyglass is a TV show producing company. Actually, how about “Watch Out World, Here Come The Watsons.” Way too long. Yeah, I’m not too good at naming things. Oooh! How about “The Watsons in New York.”

Like I said, I’m not the best at naming things. On the other hand, I did name Ardin. I named him the day we met him. Gabriela was already named at the shelter. Not to brag or anything, but Ardin is a pretty good name, don’t you think?

 

Three

“Who would come to our door this late in the evening?” Mom muttered after the doorbell rang.

Dad was washing dishes from dinner, Mom was flipping through a magazine on the sofa, Ardin and Gabriela were with me in my room as I was finishing up my essay for my project, and Jame was reading in his room. The ring that echoed through our apartment sent Ardin and Gabriela into loud barks and fast skids.

“Quiet down! We don’t want to wake the neighbors,” I shushed them.

Mom walked over to the door, in no hurry at all, reading her magazine as she walked. Her hand fell onto the doorknob, but before she could turn it, it turned itself. In walked three men in dark suits and shades.

“And who might you be?” the man in the front of the triangle they had arranged themselves in said in a low, and might I add, creepy voice.

“How did you get in here? I’m sure I locked the door.” Mom sounded surprised.

“Well, even if you won’t tell us who you are, are you apart of Spyglass?” the man to Mom’s left asked.

“That is none of your business,” Mom snapped.

“Ma’am, actually it is,” the man to Mom’s right said in a matter-of-factly tone.

“Oh really. Well, I don’t have tell you any of my information if I don’t want to,” Mom served back as if it were a tennis match.

By then, Dad wanted to see this exchange and wandered over from the sink. He took Mom’s hand.

“Lucy,” Dad warned.

But Mom pulled her hand away.

“I don’t know who you are, so why don’t you just leave my apartment. I have kids I have to put to bed. So, toodle-loo.” With her hand moving in a shooing motion, Mom ushered them to the door because by then they had made their way to the counter and sat down on the stools.

“Ma’am. We are part of an agency that shall remain nameless. Now that you know who we are, will you please let us know who you are,” the front man asked.

“Not a chance.”

Just then, I felt an urge. So, I relieved that urge. I started to cry like a baby.

“Waaaahhhh! Moooooomy! I so tired! Mooooomy! Waaaaaahhhhh! Tuck me in! Moooomy! Kissy! Huggy! Wahhhh!” Since we were spies, I knew what to do in these sort of situations. I cry and talk like a baby. The men in our apartment were like Ardin, I could tell. Tough on the outside, soft on the inside. Soft enough to leave a mother to put her children to bed. Even though I hate comparing guys as awful as them to adorable, sweet, hilarious Ardin, I had to explain it somehow.

“Oh, you… you do have little kids to put to bed. I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am. Good night.” With that, the three men got back into their triangle position and marched out.

Once Mom could see them out the window and see that they left the building, she came into my room.

“Thanks, sweetie. You saved us. I know you told Miss Gloria the secret, but if they found out too, that could’ve been bad. It could’ve have been dangerous. I forgive you, though. Those guys kind of freaked me out, anyways. That crying trick you made up is brilliant.” Mom forgave me.

“Works every time.” I smiled.

“Going to bed soon?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, just got to finish up this project,” I answered, and Mom walked out.

As soon as she walked out, I felt tired. You know what? I’ll just finish up my project on Sunday.

 

Four

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to leave my project until today, I thought to myself after Mom told me we had a mission.

“Umm, Mom? This might not be the best time to tell you this but, I have homework,” I kind of mumbled.

“Oh, Lin. What am I going to do with you?” Mom asked.

“Maybe you’ll let me stay home with Ardin and Gabriela and finish my homework?” I cracked.

Mom frowned. “That was a rhetorical question.”

That is how I ended up on the subway to Brooklyn at noon. President Marole Xander, the president of Spyglass, called talking about this other spy agency who was kind of on to us. They were last spotted in Brooklyn. So, that’s where we were headed.

“STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS, PLEASE,” the subway blared as we rushed out into the wintery air of Windsor Terrace.

“So, where to?” I asked.

“President Marole said the other spies headed to Prospect Park. Apparently Spyglass got a threat phone call from this rival spy agency, so Spyglass is now tracking the phone that called them,” Mom answered.

“Cool! How did they do that?” Jame asked.

“Some spy tech they used to track the phone number to the phone and… I don’t really know,” Mom said.

We happened to be a block away from the park, so the walk wasn’t too bad. Then again, we’re New Yorkers. We can handle a long walk. I saw ice cream carts who obviously weren’t getting any customers since it was the middle of winter! There were those horse and buggy things. Pretty normal day at the park, except that it was mostly empty. But then I saw something other than lonely ice cream vendors and old-fashioned carriages.

“Mom, what does that flag mean?” I pointed to the flag that was forced into a bush. The flag had a hand with about 15 fingers. No joke.

“Looks like something we should investigate.”

We headed over to the bush just to see a head with a pointy hat scurry behind a tree.

“That’s definitely got to be something,” I said.

“Follow the figure,” Dad whispered.

We sneakily followed this figure. We followed them all the way to the subway. They got on the subway we took to get home. Coincidentally, the figure got off at the stop that we normally got off at to get home. Even weirder, the figure entered the apartment building where we lived. You had to have a special card to open the door to the lobby, or a visitor needs a tenant’s permission. We followed the figure up the stairs, and when we got to floor three, our floor, the figure went into Miss Gloria’s apartment.

“What is that person doing?” Mom inquired.

“Wait, after leaving Miss Gloria’s, I saw her get a hat similar to the one that figure had on, and a flag, which is probably the one we found in the bushes!” I remembered.

“Good work, Agent Lindie.” My watch popped up with a screen with President Marole’s face on it. “Now just find a way to confront her. Good luck.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked. But President Marole had already hung up.

 

Five

Monday was here, and my project was not done. Great.

“I’ve got to call Violet!”

I went to the den and picked up the landline. I didn’t have my own phone, so yes, I had to use the phone plugged into the wall. I dialed 534-890-1162 and waited for her to pick up.

“Vi? I just realized… my project is not finished! I don’t know what to do! I’m freaking out!”

“Okay, I’m coming over. We still have time. I’ll help you finish,” Violet said.

“You are a lifesaver. Thanks.”

I live a block away from school, so I can be a little late. Five minutes later, Violet rang the doorbell.

“Oh my gosh, Violet! I need your help!”

“Show me.”

I showed her my half finished book report. All I needed was my three reasons why I liked or disliked the book.

“Okay, well, did you like it?” Violet asked.

“Nope. It was horrible. So boring. I almost fell asleep reading chapter eight. No kidding!”

“Reason one, you were bored. Reason two, didn’t like genre Reason three, didn’t like plot. Sound about right?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Violet. Just, don’t consider this cheating.”

“I won’t. Anything for you, Lin.”

“Thanks. You can just stay here until it’s time to go.”

“Yeah sure.”

I finished typing my three reasons and glued them to the poster. Soon, it was time to go.

I got home with no homework and a B+ on my project. Luckily, the project wasn’t in math. I would never forgive myself for getting an B+ in math. Okay, B+ is okay I guess. If it were B- or C, that wouldn’t slide.

“So, what’s the deal with Miss Gloria?” I asked as I was eating some pretzels at the counter. “Like, is this going to be our next mission?”

“We’re waiting to hear back from President Marole.” Right as Dad said that, President Marole was calling us on our TV.

“Hello, President,” Dad said.

“Warner and Lindie. Good afternoon. Gather Jame and Lucy. I need to talk to you guys.”

“Lindie, go get Jame,” Dad told me. Then, he turned to President Marole. “Lucy is out shopping.”

“Then forget it! I’ll call you back later.” The president hung up.

“I’m going to check on Miss Gloria. Okay, Dad?”

“No. Not unless Marole tells you to.”

“But Dad!”

“No, Lindie. Do some homework.”

“Don’t have any.”

“Watch some TV.”

“Don’t want to.”

“Go to Violet’s”

“… Okay fine.” I gave up.

I called Violet on our landline. It’s so annoying. I told her I’m coming over. I went to the coat closet to grab my faux fur coat. It’s really soft. At the store they had real fur, but I like the faux one because it’s… well… faux. I put on my boots and headed out the door just in time to see a strange man in all black enter Miss Gloria’s apartment. I immediately hide behind a coat rack. About two minutes later, Miss Gloria and this strange man came out. They held up a phone and started talking.

Miss Gloria: How did I find out? She was watering my plants and then —

Wait, is Miss Gloria talking about me?

Miss Gloria: Yeah, I’m really close with the family. I always knew something was up with them. Especially the girl… No, I’ve seen her try to lie. It isn’t pretty… I don’t think they know… No one is in the hallway! Stop freaking out.

It was hard not to laugh because I was in the hallway. Unfortunately, I laughed.

“Who was that?” Miss Gloria whipped her head towards the coat rack. She lifted the coats.

Uh oh.

“Lindie dear. What are you doing out here?” Miss Gloria made her voice sound sweet.

“I heard your whole conversation. There’s no use hiding it anymore,” I said.

“Well, if you want to play like that, I can too. Take her, Alfonso.” Miss Gloria’s sidekick, Alfonso grabbed me and dragged me to the stairs.

“Let me go!” I ordered. Alfonso didn’t listen.

We got to the bottom of the stairs, and Mom walked in the lobby with her hands full of groceries. She saw me and immediately dropped everything. Literally.

“Lucy. So we meet again. Wait, this is the first time we met as spies. I mean, I’m not a — ” Miss Gloria started.

“Okay, just stop. Anyway, let her go,” Mom said.

“Ha! You think I’m just going to give her to you? She knows. I can’t just let her tell everybody. So bye, Lucy. Out of my way. Alfonso!” Miss Gloria shoved past Mom.

Mom tried to fight Alfonso. She kicked him to the ground, and I ran away from him to Mom. But Miss Gloria grabbed my hood and pulled me back.

“Uh, uh, uh. Not today. Sorry, Lindie. Actually, I’m not that sorry. That was sarcastic. Well you probably knew that it was s-OOF!” Miss Gloria fell to the floor. Behind her was…

“Violet?! But, but — ” I stammered.

“You never hung up the landline, plus your door was still open I’m guessing, so I heard the whole thing. I panicked and rushed over here. Then I came in, kicked your neighbor in the back, she fell, and now we are here. This is the right neighbor, right?”

“Violet, you are literally the best!” I ran and gave my friend a huge hug.

“Violet, thanks sweetie. Where are your parents? Do they know you’re here?” Mom asked.

“Mom is home. I told her I was coming over here. Didn’t know I would be fighting crime though.” Violet smiled.

“Well, do you want to stay for dinner, or at least for a little while? I’ll drive you home,” Mom suggested.

“Thanks, Mrs. Watson. I appreciate it.”

Violet and I headed upstairs while Mom talked to President Marole about what to do with Miss Gloria and Alfonso.

Mom: Hi, President. I have Miss Gloria, I mean Gloria Cabernette and her sidekick Alfonso. They should be knocked out for a while. Should I bring them to you?

President Marole Xander: Bring them to me. Is everyone okay?

Mom: All good. Also, Lindie’s friend Violet came in, and she actually is the one who defeated Gloria.

President Marole Xander: Who is this Violet, and when can I meet her? Would this weekend work for you?

Mom: I’ll see. But Gloria and Alfonso are coming to you. See you soon.

President Marole Xander: So long, Lucy.

Mom followed us upstairs, and when she came in the kitchen, she asked Violet if she wanted to come to Spyglass to meet President Marole.

“Are you kidding? Me, a real spy?” Violet gasped.

“Well, you would have to take the test first,” Mom said.

“I could train her!” I declared.

“Yeah! Yeah!”

So, it was settled. Violet was to be trained by me to become a real spy. Amazing.

“Training starts next week,” I assured.

 

Six

Finally, it was next week! Violet and I had it all planned out. She slept over for the week, just because it was more convenient. Also, we got to leave school early!

“Okay,” I said, pointing to my white board leaning against my wall. It was one of the ones with every day of the week. “Monday: Try Not To Laugh, for morning YouTube, Master Pools for Netflix Binge. Snack ideas?”

“Oooh, oooh! Caramel corn and chunky cookie vanilla caramel swirl! And pretzels.” Violet just said our all-time favorite snacks.

“Perfect. This sounds like the perfect day, but what are we going to do the rest of the week? We just crammed all our favorite things into one day.”

“What about Try Not To Laugh on Monday, Master Pools Tuesday, Caramel corn Wednesday, chunky cookie vanilla caramel swirl on Thursday, and pretzels Friday!”

“Okay. Now we just have to fill in the blanks. Like what will we watch on Wednesday? What will we eat on Tuesday? Think, Vi, think.”

Soon enough, our whole week of fun had been planned. And nothing would come in our way.

 

Arly was eight years old. He loved to read, he loved to write, and he loved to do martial arts. He was a purple belt in martial arts. His best friend Asher was also eight years old, and they pretty much had everything in common. They were both in martial arts when Arly’s belt fell off. The instructor picked up Arly’s belt and put it on the side. Then when they were finished with the drill, he tied Arly’s belt onto Arly. After that, when they were finished with martial arts class, they went out to lunch together and Arly left his belt there.

When they reached Arly’s house, Arly said, “Where did my belt go, Asher?!” (You need a belt because it tells you what level you are).

Asher said, “You must have lost it at the restaurant. I don’t know where else it could be.”

So they went back to the restaurant, and Arly said, “It’s not here anymore. Maybe somebody took it.”

Asher said, “It’s a purple belt, so it’s a pretty high belt. They must want to be higher at martial arts. Do you know anyone who would do that?”

“Only one person,” Arly said. “He’s a yellow belt at martial arts, and he really doesn’t like me.”

“Why doesn’t he like you?” asked Asher.

“He thinks I show off too much, but I don’t show off at all.”

“And who is he?” asked Asher.

“His name is Max,” replied Arly.

“Okay, then let’s go find him!” said Asher.

“Where would he be?” Arly asked.

“Let’s look around the restaurant and see if he’s still around there,” said Asher.

“Okay,” Arly said.

After 30 minutes of looking around the restaurant, they came back together, and Arly said, “It’s no use. It took 30 minutes to look for it. It must not be here. Maybe Max took it and took it home with him.”

“Do you know where Max lives?” asked Asher.

“No,” Arly said.

“Oh look, there’s Max out the window. Maybe we can follow him and see where he lives without him knowing,” Asher suggested.

“Okay,” said Arly. “Let’s go!”

So they went and they followed him, and he did not know at all. When he opened the door, they snuck in behind him. They were army crawling, so he wouldn’t hear them. (If you don’t know what army crawling is, it’s when you crawl on your stomach.)

Arly whispered to Asher, “Do you think he has the belt in his mom’s bag or in his pocket?”

“He couldn’t fit the belt in his pocket,” Asher whispered back.

“Then it must be in the bag,” Arly whispered excitedly.

When the mom was in the bathroom and Max was in his bedroom, they snuck to the bag and looked all around in it, but they just couldn’t find the belt. They snuck out of the house and went back to Arly’s house to discuss it.

“I do not think that Max has it,” said Asher. “And also, how do you know that Max was in the diner?”

“He’s always in the diner,” Arly answered.

“Okay,” said Asher.

“How about let’s think about how we got to the diner?”

“Okay,” said Arly.

So they walked and walked and walked until they walked 50 blocks, going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

“My legs are tired,” Arly said

“How about we get some rest and then get back to the case,” Asher replied.

Asher went back to his house, and Arly went back to his house, so they both took a little nap and then met again at Arly’s house.

“How about we check people to see if they took the belt,” Asher suggested.

Arly said, “They always put our names written down on our belt, so we can look for that too.”

“Okay,” said Asher. “Let’s go!”

After an hour of looking, they couldn’t find anyone with a purple belt that had Arly’s name on it.

“It’s no use,” Arly said. “Nobody has my belt.”

“Let’s look harder. Maybe somebody does have your belt. We just haven’t seen it yet,” Asher said.

After another hour of looking, they finally found a purple belt on the sidewalk, but this belt had zero stripes on it and did not have Arly’s name. Arly’s belt had four stripes and had Arly’s name. After an hour more of looking, they finally found a purple belt with four stripes, and it said Arly’s name on it.

“Excuse me sir,” said Arly. “That’s not your belt.”

“Yes it is,” said the person that stole the belt.

“No it’s not,” said Arly. “It has my name on it and four stripes, and it’s my purple belt.”

“It’s mine now because I took it.”

“It has my name on it, four stripes, and it’s a purple belt. It’s definitely mine.”

The man ran away.

“HEY, COME BACK HERE!!!” Arly screamed.

The friends raced towards the man. The man ran around the block, crossing the street and making a turn to his house. They followed him the whole way. The man slammed the door right when Arly was going to go into the house. Arly banged into the door.

“Ow!” Arly screamed.

“We have to find a way to get into the house.” Arly explained to Asher.

“I know we do,” Asher joked. “Check if it’s locked. He might not have locked it.”

Arly checked if it was locked. He pulled. It didn’t work. He pushed. It didn’t work.

“I think it’s locked. I can’t get in” said Arly.

“Oh look! He has a back corridor. Let’s see if we can get into it through the back corridor,” Asher said.

They ran into the backyard. They walked up the steps to see if the door was opened.

“It’s our lucky day,” Arly said “He didn’t lock it!”

“Yay!” Asher shouted. “What are you waiting for? Open it!” Asher told Arly.

Arly opened it. They army crawled to the belt, so he wouldn’t see them. The belt was on the table. The man saw them.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!” he screamed.

Arly was standing tall with his hands on his hips.

“I’m sorry,” Arly said. “I’m just getting my belt.”

“NO YOU’RE NOT!” screamed the man.

Asher was shaking. He was so scared.

“Let’s get out of here,” Asher said stuttering.

They ran out of the house. They made a mad dash to the street. This time, the man was chasing them. They ran all the way to Arly’s house. The man managed to make it in through the door.

“Give me my belt back!” the man yelled.

“Maybe you should take martial arts classes. You need to earn the purple belt.”

“Why earn it when I can just steal it?” the man asked.

“Because stealing isn’t a good thing to do,” Arly said.

The man fake threw the belt to the table, but Arly thought he actually threw the belt on the table. The man ran away. He was so mad.

“Yay! Now we have our belt!” Arly said. He looked at the table to take the belt, but the belt wasn’t there.

“HE TOOK THE BELT!” Arly screamed. “Let’s chase after him!”

“Let’s go!” Asher said. They ran as fast as they could. They beat the man to his house. This time, they were in the house with the man. The man was very mad that they went to his house and figured out where his house was.

The man threw the belt on the floor and said, “I give up.”

“Thank you,” Arly said as he took the belt.

Arly went back to Arly’s house with Asher, and they had a dance party.

 

The End

 

 

01

One day, the 7th avenue line was getting ready to wake up. All the 1 trains woke up at the 238th yard. “Yaawn,” all the 1 trains yawned. “It’s time to get to work!” said all the 1 trains.

They had to get to work every single day. Only one of all the 1 trains in the yard didn’t want to get up, and that was 1871-1890. The reason that they didn’t want to get up was because it was Car 1872’s last day on duty. It was his last day because he didn’t have any air conditioning. The car replacing him would be 1872A. They didn’t know him yet because he was still getting built. They didn’t want 1872 to leave. He could just get fixed. All of the 1 trains were really sad. He had been all of the 1 trains’ good friends since the year 1984. 1872 had been a good friend. He helped other cars by being a set of five. 1871-1875 were his best friends. 1872 would now be out of service, but he hoped he would still be in the yard. 1872 had hard times on his motors, so he couldn’t move, and the other trains had to pull him.

The drivers got them ready for their day. The drivers didn’t know the trains could talk. The trains kept it a secret, because they didn’t want their drivers to take them out of service. All of the trains talked, so they had to keep their identities a secret. So the second a driver stepped into the car, they couldn’t make a single sound except rrr and beep. All the trains started the day.

Meanwhile, at the Pitkin Yard, the C train was very delighted by 1872 retiring, because he didn’t like 1872 at all. The C train was very jealous that 1872 got all the attention today. “It’s time for me to get the attention!” said the R32 C train.

At the end of the day, the R62 trains — 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s — made a cake for 1872, and all the trains that were retired but still alive came to the yard too.

 

02

At the party, the 2 trains coupled to the 1s coupled to the 3s coupled to the 4s coupled to the 5s coupled to the 6s coupled to the 7s coupled to the old trains. They all went down the line, all the way to South Ferry. They came and turned back, but this time, they went past the yard to Van Cortlandt Park! Well, at least the yard was one stop away. So, they went back and ate the cake. The cake was really good, and after that, all of the trains went back to their yards and went to sleep.

The next morning, 1872A was done. 1872 had to stay in the yard, so they uncoupled him and went away for 1872A. 1872A was very shiny and new. They went to to work. 1872A was pushing the train all the way to South Ferry. He did not want to stop at all. He just wanted to have fun. They got all the way to South Ferry, and they crashed through the wall! 1871 did not get hurt, though he was still crashed in the wall on Track 4. 1872A had to get retired. So they retired 1872A, and they fixed 1872 to be another car. 1872 was part of the same train. 1871-1875 and 1876-1890 were really happy that he was back. So they all went slowly and carefully and stopped at all the stops, and then they went back to the yard. They were right on time.

 

THE END.

 

One day, there was a 32-year-old man named Mace from the planet NoBoo. He wanted to do target practice one morning to train for school, but he realized that he did not have an AK-47. He did not want to practice with a bow and arrow because it took too much time to load. He set out to find an AK-47. First, he went to the best gun store in NoBoo, The Great Guns.

“I need an AK-47 for target practice,” he said to the man at the counter.

“Sorry, we have horrible AK-47s here. They don’t shoot very well. They have horrible aim.” Mace started to leave, feeling defeated, but the man at the counter stopped him. “If you really want a good AK-47… I know where you can get one.” Mace was curious. “There is a greedy man,” said the man behind the counter. “Take my ship. It is very old, but it still works very well. Go to the Averdado System, that is where he lives.”

Mace smiled at him. He was so excited to finally get an AK-47 for target practice.

It was really important for Mace to learn to shoot at a target. In NoBoo, enemies were frequently trying to attack. Hackers were constantly trying to hack food, dentals, and other life necessities in order to be rich. This put a lot of lives in NoBoo in danger. Mace needed to protect himself and his things from the hackers. It was the most important thing. He reminded himself this as he climbed into the man from the shop’s old ship. The ship was small and it was very clearly used in a war against the Hackers a long time ago. It was covered in dents and the front of the ship, where there was usually a tip, was completely missing. Mace was confident in the ship, though. He climbed in and set off towards the Averdado System to get his AK-47.

Once he arrived in the Averdado System, Mace tried to go to the greedy man on a spaceship. On the spaceship, he went to the ship’s bridge, but he didn’t find him there. What he did find was crumpled weapons, and this made him feel not so good. How did these get here, and why are they so destroyed? Mace thought to himself. He had never fought before, and it was dawning on him that the greedy man may be more powerful than he expected. So what he did was that he went out to the bottom to try and find him, but the greedy man was actually on the bridge hiding.

The greedy man remembered his past and his childhood while he was under the bridge. When he was a child, he was a scaredy cat, because one day when he was five years old he was scared of his uncle. The greedy man couldn’t help it. He was born scared. His uncle didn’t do much to be mean or scary, but the greedy man was just scared. People made fun of the greedy man and said, “He he he he he is a scaredy cat!” This made the greedy man really upset, and it made him want to turn bad. One day, when he got home from a bad day of teasing, he was so upset that he destroyed a plane. It made him feel powerful. He got greedy and began destroying everything after that.

The greedy man was so lost in his memory that he forgot that Mace was his enemy. Mace was his enemy because he wanted the greedy man’s AK-47. The greedy man already had guards called Protocepters. The Protocepters went after Mace because they were robots and didn’t forget that Mace was the greedy man’s enemy. Mace went to the main hangar and found nothing. The guards went after him, but then one of the Protocepters called the greedy man and said, “Mace is your enemy.” The greedy man got so angry that he got the AK-47 and went down to the hangar. The Protocepters told the greedy man where Mace was and then met up with the greedy man. They had to wait for him or else they would’ve been fired, but Mace was escaping!

Mace managed to get off the ship eventually, but he didn’t get what he wanted. He decided to get a bow and arrow instead, but he changed his mind because he thought it would take too much time to load. Then, he thought of a rifle. Then he said, “Too long.” Then he decided to get a pistol. Then he said, “Too small.” This was a problem, a real problem. He decided to get a medium gun. Then he thought about getting the medium gun and figured it was not powerful enough. Then he said, “No.”

Then he went back to the spaceship and found the greedy man. He stared at his welcoming face and almost fell victim to his deception. “He is just in disguise as a nice man,” he reminded himself. The greedy man had guards called Protocepters. They were purple-eyed robot things standing tall and holding spears to defend the greedy man. When Mace got on the ship, he went to the bridge that was on the ship. He found the AK-47. He was so happy. A huge grin spread across his face. Oh! I’m the best! I’m the best! I found it! he thought to himself. He then quickly grabbed the gun and went to evacuate to the hangar. As he entered the hangar, he saw the greedy man and the Protocepters waiting for him.

Mace shot the AK-47 at a nearby Protocepter. It went down, and immediately a war broke out. First, one of the Protocepters grabbed his spear and started attacking Mace. But Mace was skilled. When the Protocepter jumped up as high as he could, Mace ran as fast as he could towards his ship. As he ran, another cruiser came out of space in light speed and got in his way. He was very surprised. Mace thought that there was just one cruiser! He looked into the driver’s seat and saw the greedy man’s brother sitting in the cruiser.

He said, “All cannons fire! Fire! Fire!” Then, a noise began to sound. It was the alarm button. The brother was hit. The cruiser spun out of control and crashed into the greedy man’s cruiser. Kaboom, it sounded. The greedy man said, “Come on! I was so close to winning!” and he died in his cruiser.

Mace looked around. The Protocepters threw their spears down outside of the cruiser and died one by one. Mace picked the spears up one by one. He flew back to his planet called NoBoo. He lived happily ever after!!!

 

I wish I could go on the Empire State Building! I’ve never been on it. I first found out about it when my mom and dad went on it.

They came home one night and said, “Guess what we did? We went on the Empire State Building.”

I was like, “What’s that?”

“It’s the tallest building in New York City.”

And then, I started reading books about the Empire State Building. I thought it was so cool because it glows and it’s so tall. It’s one hundred feet tall. It has different colors every day. When it’s dark, it glows. My favorite color is purple, so I love when it glows purple. My name is Anna. I’m six years old. For two years I’ve wanted to go on the Empire State Building. I live in New York City. If I haven’t already told you, I really want to go on the Empire State Building.

I told my parents that I really wanted to go to the Empire State building. They were like, “You don’t have time. You have school, and we have work.”

“How about on the weekend?”

“Oh yeah, we forgot about the weekends. We could go this weekend if you want to. You can only go if you are six and up, so that’s good that you are six.”

I was so excited, and I couldn’t wait. The next day, I went to school and I told all my friends that I was going to the Empire State building this weekend. My friends all started talking over each other.

“Wow that’s the tallest building in the world!” said my best friend Grace.

“That’s so cool!” said Jennette.

“You could come with me! And then you guys could come to my house and we can play,” I said to Grace and Jennette.

“Yay!” they said. “That will be so fun!”

I felt good because Grace is my first best friend, and Jennette is my second. I’ve known Grace and Jennette since I was in nursery. They have a lot in common. They love talking and playing. Jennette talks the most and Grace likes to play, and I like to play board games. We go to Central park, we have picnics, and we hang out in school. And then, Ruby overheard that we were going to the Empire State Building. Ruby is not that nice. Everyone wants to be friends with her, but she says no. I decided to invite her. It wouldn’t be nice if I just invited Jennette and Grace and not Ruby.

“Ruby, do you want to come?” I said to her.

Ruby was just jealous because she didn’t want to go with Jennette and Grace. “Ehh. It’s just a building,” said Ruby.

“What? It’s just a building! No, it’s the tallest building in the world! And it glows at night!” I felt upset that Ruby would say that, because it was my dream since I was younger. I was just trying to be nice! “Well I like it and I want to go with Grace and Jennette.”

“Thanks for inviting us, we will always come.”

Ruby ignored them and said, “Ugh, I don’t care anyway.”

During school, we played and did projects. I loved making projects. I was making a project about the Empire State Building. I got black paper, lights, scissors, white paper, and a glue stick. I cut papers in the shape of the building. Then, I cut windows. Then, I put lights on it. I made twenty mini Empire State Buildings! I’m going to show the people in the Empire State Building too! I thought. I’m going to show them that it’s my first time going there. I gave a mini Empire State Building to Jennette and to Grace, to my teacher, and to my parents.

Finally, it was Saturday. The day I was going to the Empire State Building! I couldn’t wait! I woke up early and woke up my parents. I got dressed. I wore my favorite hot pink pants and light purple shirt. I put my light milk chocolate brown hair in a bun and put diamond barrettes in. I saw an Empire State Building clip in my drawer. I’ll wear that instead of my diamonds, I said! So my dad and mom woke up and got dressed. We were going to eat breakfast at the Empire State building with Grace and Jennette. We picked them up at their houses. They were really excited! We were all wearing our light purple shirts, and Grace was wearing light pink pants and Jennette was wearing sparkly pink pants. And then we drove back to our house and went to the subway.

On the subway, I was so excited. It was only one stop, so I could wait. I screamed, “EEEEEE.”

“I know you’re excited, but you can’t scream on the train,” said my parents.

There was a train station at the Empire State Building, so we got off at that stop. We got out of the station, and we were in the lobby of the Empire State building.

“We’ll miss you! Have a good time! Don’t talk to strangers! And stick together!” said my parents.

I dropped my mouth. I felt like it was going to hit the floor. “This is amazing!” I said.

We took the elevator to the top floor. On the elevator, I felt like I was about to happy-cry. I started dancing with Jennette and Grace. There was no one else in the elevator except the security guard.

“We’re going to the top floor!” I said to the security guard.

“Okay! I’ll press the button!” he said.

The elevator went really fast, but it felt like it took forever. It was moving as slow as a snail. We finally got to the top.

“Have fun!” said the security guard. “Wait! Where are your parents?”

“They dropped us off because they wanted us to have fun by ourselves.

“Oh, I thought you lost them,” said the security guard.

We stepped out of the elevator, and I saw so many buildings. Good thing I don’t have a fear of heights, and good thing that Grace and Jennette don’t either! We ran over to the telescope, put in the quarters I had brought and looked down. We felt like we were going to fall! I felt like I could see everything. I felt really really happy. It was everything I wanted. I saw people down below really really small like ants. But ants wearing pants! And shirts. Maybe some wearing hats, because it was early June. We stayed there for hours, but it felt like it was only a minute. I bought a snow globe with the building inside it, and I bought two other ones for Grace and Jennette. We went to another area to take some pictures. And then we took the elevator back down. In the lobby, my parents picked us up.

“How was it?” they said.

“Great!” we all said at the same time.

Grace and Jennette were tired, so we went back to my house. We had lunch and then drove my friends home.

“Did you really like it?” my parents asked.

“Yes! Maybe next weekend we can go back!” I said.

“Maybe once a month,” said my parents.

Back home, I put my snow globe on the night table next to my bed. I shook it and it glowed pink, purple, red, and green. I fell asleep, dreaming of going there every single day.

 

THE END!

 

Once there were three triplets who wanted to be fairies. Their names were Sophia, Chloe, and Stella. They were all identical, but they liked to wear different clothes and had different personalities. Sophia was funny, Stella was shy, and Chloe was a little rude. They all had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. They had a friend fairy named Sparkly, but they had to keep her a secret from everyone else.

One day when they were nine, they were playing in their backyard, and they heard a scream. Sophia touched something, but she didn’t know what. It felt like a little person! Sparkly covered herself in fairy dust, so they were able to see her. They were amazed! Chloe thought she was fake for a whole day. Eventually, she agreed that Sparkly was a real fairy. Since that day, Sparkly always stayed with them. They had just turned twelve, but their parents still didn’t know about Sparkly. Sparkly had blue hair and a blue dress, but she wasn’t sparkly. She also liked to eat candy. Her favorite was chocolate.

It was summer, and Sophia, Chloe, and Stella went outside to play in the backyard of their townhouse. They brought Sparkly with them, too. They took a bunch of chocolate pieces to give Sparkly. Sophia had an idea.

“We should try to make ourselves fairies,” she said.

“Yeah!” said Chloe and Stella.

“You guys could be fairies,” said Sparkly, “but you will have to pass a test.”

“How long will it take us?” asked Stella.

“The whole journey will take you guys about two weeks.”

“Okay,” said Chloe, “let’s just tell our parents that we’re going to go camping in the woods for two weeks.” Chloe always had good ideas.

So, they went inside and told their parents that they wanted to go camping for two weeks, far away from home and asked if they could.

“Yes,” said their parents, “but look out for each other.”

Their parents weren’t that strict with them.

“So, where are you guys going to go?” their mom and dad asked.

“We won’t go far. We’re just going to go to Central Park.”

“Okay. Be safe.”

“We might be home earlier!” said Sophia, trying to make them a little calmer.

They packed one big blanket, extra clothes, and some gifts just in case. Sparkly had told them that they might need gifts. The gifts they brought were a very, very big trampoline, floaties, and a tiny, tiny blow up pool.

So, Sparkly, Sophia, Stella, and Chloe went to Central Park. Sparkly took them to a magic tree. On the way, they saw a lot of big rocks and a lot of grass. The magic tree looked like a regular tree, but it had a hole in it.

“We’re going to have to go through that hole,” said Sparkly.

Chloe ran up to the tree and tried to fit in the hole, but she couldn’t fit.

“Ahh, I’m stuck!” yelled Chloe.

Sophia and Stella tried to pull her out, and Chloe went flying! She landed on poor Stella, who cried, “Oh man.”

“You can’t fit in the hole. I’m going to shrink you!” Sparkly laughed a little.

She used her fairy magic, sprinkling invisible shrinking fairy dust on them. She made Chloe, Sophia, and Stella as small as she was, or as big as a marker. They were so tiny! A wind blew, and they went crazy! They landed five inches back. None of them were happy, because they wanted to get back to their normal size. Stella was worried and scared, but Chloe felt brave, and Sophia felt confused. Before the next wind blew, Sparkly grabbed Chloe, Sophia, and Stella and pushed them in the hole. Sparkly went too.

Suddenly, they were falling. It felt like they were going to die! It was pitch black. They were going as fast as the Cyclone on Coney Island, and they felt as dizzy as spinning around one hundred times. Thump! They all landed on their feet, except Sophia, who landed on her butt.

“Ow! I hit my butt!” said Sophia.

“Too bad,” responded Chloe.

“Wow! Look around!” exclaimed Stella.

They did. It was like a beautiful dream. There were green vines hanging down, blue and pink leafy trees, tiny peacocks walking and parrots flying, and the floor was carpeted in blue grass. In the distance, they saw a big river. They heard a waterfall falling and the peacocks playing.

“Wow! Look around!” said a high-pitched voice. It was the parrot, standing on the tippy top of a pink tree.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” yelled Chloe.

“It’s repeating everything we say!” repeated the parrot.

“This is a fairy forest under the grass, where fairies live,” explained Sparkly.

“It’s amazing!”

Chloe turned around and saw an old woman. She had very curly leaf green hair and very light blue eyes. There were wrinkles on her face, she was holding a gray three-legged cane, was wearing a black raggy dress, and was barefoot. Chloe was about to go up to her and ask, “Can you point us to a fairy palace,” but Sparkly reached out and pulled Chloe back.

“No, don’t ask her! She’s the witch!” she whispered. That made Chloe feel a little scared.

The witch hobbled up to them and said, “You guys want to go to the fairy palace, don’t you?”

“Yes!” said Stella.

“Do you have any gifts for me?” the witch asked.

“Yes, we have a pool for you.” Sophia said confidently. Stella and Chloe were relieved, because they really liked the trampoline.

“Perfect,” said the witch. “Hand it over.”

Chloe took the tiny pool out of her pocket and handed it to her. The witch jumped up and down out of excitement. The triplets wanted to start laughing, but they held it in because they didn’t want to get her mad. Sparkly would’ve known the way to the palace, but once you leave the fairy castle and go out of the tree, you forget how to get back. The witch pointed the way. They turned left. Everything still looked like the forest, except suddenly they saw a huge castle. It was sparkly pink.

“This is where the fairy queen and king live,” explained Sparkly.

The triplets went inside. They couldn’t even see the walls because there were so many pictures of the past kings and queens! Pictures covered every inch. Kings were on the left side, and queens were on the right. They saw a label, throne room. In the back of the room, there were three thrones. They were all gold. The king and queen were sitting on their thrones, but one was empty. The king and queen didn’t look happy. They didn’t look sad. They just looked normal. They both had brown hair and were tall. Well, tall for a fairy, which meant tiny for a person. They were both the size of three markers. The king and queen saw Sparkly, and their smiles almost covered their eyes.

“My daughter is finally home!” the king cried.

Sophia, Chloe, and Stella were like, whaaaat. Sparkly could see the shock on their faces.

“Yup, it’s true. I’m the princess!” she said. “Dad, these are my three friends who have been taking care of me. Can you make them fairies?”

“Anything you want. But they have to take the test before they become fairies.”

“Yay!” said Sophia. “Wait… a test?”

The test was only one question.

“The big question is,” the king said, “what do you have to do to be a fairy?”

The triplets were confused because they didn’t understand the question. They thought the questions would be fact-based, like, “Where does fairy dust come from?”

“You have thirty minutes to answer the question,” said the king.

Sparkly started playing with her mom and dad while they had to search for their answers.

Stella asked, “Maybe we could all search together?”

“There’s no way I’m searching with you guys!” Chloe yelled.

“I’ll search with you, Stella,” said Sophia.

So, the search began! Sophia, Chloe, and Stella all left the palace. Sophia and Stella decided they were going to ask some people what they did to become fairies. They went to see what fairies did. They ran around until they came to a field. On the grassy field, they saw a lot of fairies playing. They noticed that whenever one got hurt, they all helped each other.

In the meantime, Chloe was just looking around nature. She first looked in the pink and blue leaves. She cut some of the pink leaves, so she could give them to the king. They were so pretty, and she thought that they would appreciate her giving them something. She also looked in the waterfall, but she just got wet. And then, the king rang a bell that meant 30 minutes was up.

The three girls all arrived at the castle at the same time. Chloe ran through the front door holding the leaves. Sparkly had spent the time knitting with her mom and playing a huge game of Candyland, or, Sparklyland, with her dad. Sophia and Stella saw that Chloe had brought the really pretty leaves and were a little worried that they didn’t have anything new to give the king. They all stood in front of the king, and Chloe put the leaves down in front of the thrones.

“I brought these leaves to show what it means to be a fairy.”

Sparkly stepped off her throne and walked over to look at them. Suddenly, she slipped on one of the pink leaves! She went flying! Sophia and Stella instantly ran and helped Sparkly up.

“Are you okay?” they asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you for helping me.”

“We’ll always help you!”

“She’ll be fine,” said Chloe rudely.

Ignoring Chloe, the king turned Sparkly and asked, “What are their names? The two that helped you.”

“Their names are Stella and Sophia.”

“Stella and Sophia can become fairies!” declared the king.

“What!” yelled Chloe. “But I brought leaves!”

“You brought leaves from the trees,” the queen piped up. “Stella and Sophia went and watched the fairies and learned what they did. They showed that they could help other fairies.”

The king took bright pink fairy dust to pour on Sophia and Stella. “They get magic dust, and I don’t?” yelled Chloe.

The king just poured it all over Sophia and Stella.

Suddenly, there was a cloud of glittery fairy dust. When the cloud cleared, Sophia and Stella were flying high with big smiles on their faces. They had beautiful wings! Stella had neon purple wings, and Sophia had dark red wings. They were dancing in the air they were so happy. Chloe just stared into space. Sophia and Stella looked at Chloe, then at each other.

Stella took a deep breath and looked at the king and queen. “Chloe is a little rude sometimes, but at heart she is really nice. She’s a good sister.”

“So please make her a fairy!” added Sophia.

“Okay,” said the king. “I believe that you will teach her to help people, so I will make her a fairy too.”

He poured the fairy dust again, and there was another cloud of glitter. Chloe popped up in the air next to Stella and had turquoise wings.

“Thank you so much!” said Chloe. “I promise I’ll try to be nice. I want to be a good fairy!”

The girls all hugged each other for ten seconds. They flew around the room and did somersaults in the air. After five minutes, they went back to the ground.

“I miss our parents,” said Stella.

“I miss not being the size of a pencil,” said Sophia.

“Do you want to go home?” asked Chloe.

“Yes!” exclaimed Sparkly. They all giggled.

Then, the triplets thanked the king.

“Now that you are fairies, you can come back whenever. Now that you know what it means to be a fairy, I know you will help people who don’t know. I hope I see you soon. Bye to my favorite daughter. Have fun outside the tree.”

They grabbed Sparkly and flew out of the castle, out of the forest, out of the tree, and all the way home. When they finally landed at their front door, they grew to normal size, and their wings became invisible. They felt exhausted, so they went to their room. Sparkly sat on the dresser and watched over them. Now, she would always watch over them. They soon fell asleep, with fairy dust in their eyes.

 

This is Gordon, and he is an alien. He lives in an ice cream shaped planet. The name of his planet is Lexicon. One day, he and his friend decided to go to a planet named Pizton. Gordon told his friend, Brain, to fire up the engines and off they went. When they were in the middle of getting to the planet, they found out that their spaceship was running out of gas, so they refilled it. But they didn’t refill it enough so, when they nearly got to the planet, they figured out that they were out of gas.

“Can you fix the engine?” Gordon said to Brain.

“No. We ran out of gas,” Brain said.

“Get the parachutes!” Gordon told Brain.

Gordon and Brain jumped out of the spaceship. They watched their spaceship crash land onto Pizton’s side. They ran over to the spaceship, and Gordon asked Brain, “Can you fix it?”

Brain said, “Yes I can, but I need lots of materials.” So, Brain and Gordon went to the nearest town to ask people for help.

The people said, “You should go ask the king.”

When they reached the palace, they went into the throne room.

The king said, “Yes, we will help you, but we have a lot of giant mutated rats in the caves next to the town, and they are scaring away the town folks.” The king asked, “Can you help us?”

Brain said, “Yes.”

Gordon was just standing there frozen in fear because he was scared of rats. The king got some cold water and put it on Gordon’s face.

“Snap out of it,” he said.

Gordon said, “Sorry, let’s go, Brain,” in a shaking voice.

Gordon and Brain made their way to the cave. When they went in, they heard some squeaking noise. Then, they saw the rats. Gordon got freaked out, so he grabbed a blaster from his pocket.

“Stop! They’re nice rats,” Brain said.

“Yeah, nice rats that eat people!” Gordon screamed. The rats made some very scary noises, and Gordon screamed, “I wanna go home!” and ran out of there.

The rats crept up to Brain, and Brain was frozen with fear, but then he remembered what he learned about rats, and he crept up into his pocket and grabbed some cheese. He threw it into the part of the cave where there was only one way to get out. The rats ran towards the cheese and at that second, Gordon ran into the cave and started shooting blasts all over the cave and a bunch of rocks closed the entrances, so the rats couldn’t get out.

“Why did you trap them in there? They’re not bad,” Brain said.

The rats screamed and tried to hit the rocks down.

Gordon was like, “They’ll never get out of there.”

The rats broke out of the rocks and ran towards Brain, and Brain was about to get attacked by the rats. Brain covered his face with his arms. Gordon threw a bunch of cheese into a part of the cave and the rats stopped running towards Gordon and started running towards the cheese. At that second, the cave started breaking apart.

Gordon said to Brain, “Come on, dude! We gotta get out of here!” Brain and Gordon ran out of the cave.

They got to the palace and told the king that they stopped the rats. The king told the people to give Gordon and Brain the materials. Brain fixed the spaceship, and Gordon and Brain got into the spaceship and waved to the king and people.

“What a day we had, eh Brain?” said Gordon.

“Yes, we did,” said Brain in a tired voice. Brain and Gordon made their way onto Lexicon.

 

THE END

 

 

Chapter One: News to Die For

“Jake! Wait up!” yelled Jake’s best friend, a spunky, red-headed girl named Peri.

Jake turned around to see Peri’s big smile pressed right into his face. He didn’t know what she was about to tell him, but from that smile, he knew one thing: whatever she had to say included him, because whenever Peri got that twinkle in her eye, she was ready for adventure. It said she was ready for mischief. But worst of all, it meant that probably both she and Jake would be in a huge amount of trouble.

“And just what might be so important that you must sneak up behind me like a tiger and surprise me so greatly?” asked Jake, smiling goofily. He always loved to tease Peri with a professional attitude just to annoy her.

Peri pulled out a Choco-Nut from her pocket and popped it in her mouth. “Oh, you’re such a party pooper, Jake. Anyway, I have good news.” She offered another Choco-Nut to Jake, who took it gladly. They both loved the candy.

Through layers of melted chocolate, hazelnuts, and caramel, Jake managed to say, “Well, what is this ever so important news?”

“If you’d stop teasing me, maybe I’d tell you.” Peri stuck out her lip and turned her back on Jake. She was teasing him back. Jake and Peri would go through this cycle each day, and they both ended up laughing at the end after one person made the other happy.

Jake knew he wasn’t exactly ready for whatever the news was. On the other hand, Jake was a person who liked to know things. He wanted to know every secret at J. Bemink High School. He wanted to know every secret in England. He wanted to know every secret on Earth. He read the paper. He watched and listened to the news. He did everything he could do to find out every little tidbit of every single person in every single community of the world. He wanted to be a reporter for The London Times and learn about big important pieces of information. But for now, he would have to share only small information for working for the school newspaper. Still, Peri had good news, and any news is information.

“Okay, seriously, what is it?” asked Jake, trying not to tease.

By now, they were almost to school. They knew every little thing on the way to school. The crack in the sidewalk where Peri’s older brother had crashed his motorcycle. They drainpipe where people would splash in the puddles when it rained. And most importantly, the sandbox. A sandbox to anyone else would be just a place for little tots to make unrecognizable shapes of wet sand. For Jake and Peri though, this place was a memory.

When Jake and Peri were only two, Peri moved from Scotland to England. One day, Jake was a playing in the sandbox, making a mound of sand. Peri stomped over in her Wellington boots and kicked over the pile of sand Jake had been working on so lovingly. Jake started crying, but before his mother could even come to scoop him up, Peri was plopping down beside him and rebuilding his precious sculpture. Ever since, Peri and Jake were inseparable, and the sandbox was something of a heavenly monument.

“Jake!” Peri interrupted Jakes reminiscence. “You know, sometimes I don’t get you. You ask me to tell you something and then yo — ” Peri’s eyes widened as she glanced at the front yard of J. Bemink High School. It looked like she had just seen a ghost.

“Peri, what’s wrong? What’s the big d — ” Jake’s words pittered off as he turned to the front lawn. His eyes too, were as big as dinner plates.

On the front lawn, there were three main things. One, the principal was talking to three policeman, sweat beads running down his forehead. Two, there was a crowd of students huddling around an unseen object, some of them crying, some of them frozen in fear. Three, the unseen object was the dead body of Mona Barry, a freshman at the school. On her forehead, there was a note. Watch your back, the note said. Watch your back, or you’ll be next.

 

Chapter Two: A Note, A Call, And a Mission

Jake checked his watch. It was only 9:00 A.M., and he and Peri were walking home from school. They had sent everybody home that day because of the murder. Poor Peri, who usually was so cheerful about everything she did, was still in tears.

“Oh Jake! It was just so awful. Imagine that being me! It could happen to anybody! I mean, the note said anyone could be killed! And the killer’s still out there and it’s not safe and — ” She broke into tears again.

Jake put his arm around her. “It’s going to be okay. The killer isn’t going to choose just anyone. There must have been some reason. You don’t need to be afraid.”

Peri sniffled and finally went quiet. Too quiet. Jake hated seeing Peri upset. It was a heartbreaking sight. He decided that to make Peri feel better, he had to listen to her and keep her going so that she could be distracted from the horrid events that had occurred earlier that morning.

“So… erm, what was the good news you wanted to tell me?” Jake asked carefully, making sure not to startle her too much.

Peri perked up slightly. She looked up at him with damp eyes. “My uncle invited me and one friend to come to his house on Hakhito Island. It’s just south of Plymouth. I was hoping you would come with me.”

Jake agreed to go as long as his mother said yes, and they went to Peri’s house for the day. They walked to the store to get slushee drinks. They went to their special tree, and they watched their favorite show. They were having so much fun together. Peri was forgetting all about the disastrous morning. Jake, however, wasn’t sure about what he had said earlier that day.

Peri’s right, Jake thought. It could be just about anyone. Mona Barry didn’t do anything wrong. At least Jake didn’t think she did. It’s unfair, he thought, that one day, you’re just a good hardworking girl just at the most amazing part of your life, and it all ends to soon.

“Jake? Helloooo! Earth to the Jake-man!” Peri waved a hand in front of his face.

“Oh… sorry, erm… say again?”

“Honestly, Jake, are you alright? You looked like you were feeling ill. Anyways, my mother asked if you would like to stay for dinner.” Peri seemed concerned, and it looked she was about to cry again. It was quiet. Too quiet for Peri’s house in any case.

“Well, let me ask my mother.” Jake wasn’t sure about staying at Peri’s for dinner. He just wanted to go home and mull over this whole day. He felt uncertain, like someone was watching him.

He phoned his mother, who surprisingly wanted him to go back home. She was at work, but had heard of the murder over the radio. “I’m sorry, love, I’m just worried about you. You know I’ll always worry.” Her mother’s voice crackled on Peri’s old house phone.

“It’s alright, Mum. I’ll come home and heat up the casserole. Also, Mum — ”

Jake’s sentence was interrupted by a cough. Not a cough from his mother, but a man’s cough, a deep, low cough.

“Mum, did someone at your work just cough?”

“No, love, why?”

Jake’s eyes popped. Mum, I’m sorry, but I have to go. I’ll see you tonight.” He hung up so abruptly that the phone almost crashed to the floor. Someone had been listening to their conversation over the phone. Jake could only think that this was linked to the murder. This never happened to him or anyone else he had ever known. He said a quick goodbye to Peri, said thank you to Ms.Lee, and rushed out the door.

Jake was halfway down block when he felt cold, like eyes were covering him.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!” Jake shouted out suddenly. He raced home after he didn’t find an answer.

When he got home, there was a note on the door of his flat. Jake didn’t want to even look at the note.

Come on, Jake. Jake mustered up as much courage as possible. It’s just a note. It’ll be fine… Everything’s going to be fine.

Jake fumbled around for his old rusty key, looking around for anyone who might be scoping him out for their next murder. He opened the door, slid inside halfway, ripped the note from the door, and shut the door with such a bang it rattled the flat.

Jake heated up the chicken-eggplant casserole, settled on the couch, unfolded the pink paper containing the note, and started to read.

Watch out, Jake. We know where you are. We know who you are. The note was in cut and paste, the sign of a master criminal. Go to Hakhito Island. Go beneath the island. Retrieve the recording and leave it at the large pine tree at the center of the island. Do this if you want you and everything you know to be safe. You have one week.

 

Chapter Three: The Choice

The rest of the night went like it usually did, except for the brief moments when Jake would glance off toward the piece of pink paper laying on his desk. Jake watched his favorite television show, a show about a boy and a girl who communicated with animals, called Animal Maniacs. He brushed his teeth, got in bed, and shut his eyes. But in a minute, they were open again.

Jake was so overwhelmed and tired from the day, it seemed like he was too tired to fall asleep. He tried to concentrate on his breathing. He ended up staring at the ceiling. He tried listening to music. He just finished with his head down on his desk. He couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened. And he couldn’t stop thinking about the note on the door.

How did they know I was probably going to Hakhito Island? What is this a recording of? Is there something else going on on the island? Should I even be going to Hakhito?

His phone buzzed. It was Peri.

Hey, u still awake? Peri texted. Will ur mom let u go to Hakhito with me?

This was it. Where Jake had to make his decision. Of course his mom would let him go. She was always trying to get him to go on trips that she knows he will look back on. Jake just was worried that he wouldn’t look back on the trip happily if he went. On the other hand, he would have to get this recording, or else Peri, his mother, himself, and many other people would be harmed. This organization had tracked him down. He didn’t doubt the fact that they could harm him and all his loved ones.

“I can’t do this by myself. I just can’t. I’m going to need to tell Peri,” said Jake, all alone in his room. His mother didn’t get home until late that night. She worked late at the hospital doing paperwork and didn’t get home until 11:50. Jake asked her if he could go to Hakhito Island for a week.

“Well, I suppose it would be alright. Will you be going on Monday for spring break?”

It’s Friday now, thought Jake. Tomorrow’s my first day of the time limit. “I guess I could leave on Saturday or Sunday, Mum.”

“Alright, love. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Mum.” Jake slid into his room. He finally was able to sleep, but all night, he could only dream of eyes coming from the shadows, slinking towards him, devouring him, whispering a dark poem. He was finally able to pick up what they were chanting.

 

We’ll rise from underneath,

We have knives beneath our sheaths

We know what we’ll do,

When we rise from the beneath

 

Jake bolted upright in his bed. He checked the clock. It was only three in the morning. He knew he was dreaming, that he would go to Hakhito and everything would be fine. Except it wasn’t. Jake didn’t even know who these people were, or why they wanted this recording, or even what was beneath the island.

Jake suddenly had a new thought. What was on that recording? Was it evidence to get this killer (or killers) in jail? Was it a missile launch key recording to help these killers dominate the world? If it was, Jake could imagine it was. He could get in serious trouble.

Then Jake realized he had made a choice to go. But now, he had another choice. Whose life do you value more? Yours, or the others?

 

Chapter Four: A Departure

“Bye, Mum.” Jake waved goodbye to his mother as he and Peri got on the speedboat towards Hakhito Island. It had been what should be a boring drive with a time of 4 hours 30 minutes, for going to Plymouth from London is a not an easy trek. But two things were keeping Jake from going insane while looking at nothing but what seemed like boring scenery to Jake. The first thing keeping him joyful was Peri, for she was very talkative and would play the part of the entertainer in the friendship, with all her tidbits of funny thoughts. The second thing keeping Jake thoughtful, but not joyful in the least, was the pink letter.

Jake had thought all about that letter, what it meant, what the orders given by it meant, what he should do, what he shouldn’t do, and so much more. He had closed his eyes and wished every time that he could have both ways. A way where the tape wouldn’t possibly get him in trouble when he took it. A way where he and everyone else would be safe. A way where this wasn’t his problem.

They clambered into the speedboat. Jake was uneasy about the whole situation. One, he did not like boats. Two, he wondered, Are they going to the island too, to make sure I get the job done? Have they always been watching me? For how long?

All of Jake’s thoughts made his head swirl, and it didn’t help that Peri was still talking about something, probably rabbits (she had one of her own), the speedboat’s engine was revving up, and there was no driver.

“Who the heck is going to drive this thing?!” asked Jake over the crisp, loud wind.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you?” shouted Peri, for the wind was getting louder. “I’m going to drive the speedboat! I’ve been doing it for two years now!”

“WHAT?!” Jake almost stumbled back on to the dock. It wasn’t that Jake didn’t trust Peri, it was just that Peri seemed just a little too excited.

“Oh come on, Jake. Don’t be a chicken.”

Jake acted like he was shocked and gaped with his mouth unhinged. “Me? Chicken? Oh, how dare you.”

“Jake. Let’s go! We’re going to be late.” Peri climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition. “Buckle up, Jake. We’re going to go hyper-speed!”

Jake buckled up in his seat, wishing there was a seatbelt for every part of his body. He was a chicken. He admitted it. He always had been. Peri was more of a… well, Jake would call here an unpredictable firecracker. You would have never guessed the two were best friends, except for being so opposite that they fit each other perfectly, both filling out the attributes the other didn’t have.

All of a sudden, Jake was drawn from his thought by a jolt, and the boat started across the ocean. It was so extraordinary, the salty ocean spray, the forever blue water, the fog. Fog. Why was there fog? It made no sense. Jake hadn’t seen any fog at the docks.

“Uh… Peri?”

“Mm-hm?”

“Are you sure you can drive through that fog?” Jake felt his uneasiness coming back, for it all seemed very strange and lost to him. He had not been out on the ocean much in his life. Before all of this, he was a normal fifteen-year-old boy. He hung out with his friends. He went to school and did well. He had a nice flat and a nice small family with his mother. It all seemed so… ordinary. Then all of a sudden, his normal lifestyle had been torn to pieces by the murder and the note. He couldn’t do anything but make one choice. To have him get caught and possibly sent to juvenile detention and then to jail, or to have him and his loved ones’ lives in danger. He couldn’t do anything else. He couldn’t call the police. The note-writers would surely kill him. He couldn’t tell anyone else. Well, maybe Peri. He was on his own.

Alone. Jake felt isolated when he realized. He didn’t like knowing that he couldn’t get help, that he would have to do this with his own abilities.

All of a sudden, Jake snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that they had been driving for quite some while. It had been 1 hour 15 minutes, and the boat ride was supposed to take two hours. There was no island in sight.

“Peri… erm, are you sure you know the way?”

“Yes, Jake. It’s just very foggy today.” Peri’s voice was reassuring, but her face was scrunched up, staring straight ahead. Either Peri was concentrating, or she was concerned. Jake was pretty sure she was concentrated, but he thought that Peri might have had something else on her mind. Did she know something he didn’t?

Suddenly, Jake saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked to his right, and his eyes became wide with horror. “Peri,” said Jake, certainly frightened. “Who, or what is that?!”

 

 

Chapter One

A ninja is practicing with his sword on a cliff because he is preparing for his fight with the pirates. The ninja takes a step backwards and suddenly falls off the cliff! He tumbles backwards until he grabs a branch, but the branch breaks, so he falls and breaks his leg.

After he lands, the ninja hops to the hospital frowning because he broke his leg. At the hospital, the doctors are surprised to see him. They love ninjas because they fight. They help him and give him a metal leg.

At nine o’clock, it is time for the fight. The ninja goes to an island and swims to the pirate boat. When the ninja is going to flip the captain off of the boat, the other pirates flip the ninja off, but he holds onto the boat.

“Good job,” the pirates say, because they think that they won. But the ninja comes back and flips everyone off the boat. The ninja sails away to Florida, and the pirates swim back to land.

 

Chapter Two

“Hi!” everyone in Florida says to the ninja. He waves back to them.

The pirates are watching TV and see that the ninja is in Florida. The pirates come back and take the ninja to their secret hideout and lock him in a cave that has a bear in it that is hungry. The ninja sees a rock on the ground and moves it, so he can get out of the cave. The ninja locks the bear in the cave.

 

Chapter Three

The ninja goes to find the pirates. They start fighting, and a lot people come to watch. Someone brings a truck with a stadium in it for the pirates and ninjas to fight in. They fight more, and people go get seats. And the ninja wins by cutting off the pirate’s legs with his sword.

At the end of the fight, the ninja feels proud and takes off his mask and reveals that he is a baby.

“You’re a baby?!”

Everyone gasps.

 

Chapter Four

The baby ninja goes back to where he lives on the boat. He sails back to his home in New York, and he goes upstate to where his house is. He retires and stays home.

 

The End

 

 

I don’t know what to write,

I’m going to have a big fight,

All the pages are white,

I have to think of something to write.

This is all the trouble with writing,

This is why I keep fighting.

I don’t know what to write,

Now the pages aren’t all white,

But I still don’t know what to write.

 

One day, I was outside watering the plants. Then, I saw a frog hopping along the flowers. Then, it got really close. I was scared, but then out of nowhere, my dog Lucy came and bit the frog.

“Lucy, stop!” Then, she dropped the frog. “Come, Lucy. Hey, Mom. Let’s wash Lucy. She bit a frog.”

“Okay, Tim. Is the frog okay?”

“Yep it’s gone, so I’m guessing yes.” But then, I saw two frogs… wait three frogs… then so many frogs I couldn’t count. Then, it started raining. I couldn’t see it very well, but I saw people outside with frogs running after them. Good thing I came back inside before it started raining frogs like crazy.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Yes.”

“There are more frogs.”

“Huh?”

“How many.”

“A lot more than I can count.”

“Dun dun dun,” my mom said.

“Not joking!” I said.

“Sure.”

Then, the door swung open. It was Dad.

“It’s raining frogs like crazy.”

“Thank you! Mom didn’t believe me.”

“Well, she never believes this stuff.”

“Let’s watch the news.”

“Okay,” said someone on Channel 4. Blah blah blah Goldendoodle blah blah blah Tim.

Then, Dad shut off the TV. “You have to do this. We’ll be rich.”

“I will do it, but I need Lucy.”

“Fine.”

“Okay, let’s wait till after it rains.” After that, we all went to sleep, and my parents were watching their show that they never tell me what it is. The next morning, it stopped raining frogs, so I put Lucy’s harness on and her leash. We went to solve the problem. It took days to find the cause. After five storms of frogs, we got to a freaky cave with a light in a far distance. When I was walking towards the light, I tripped over something.

Then I said, “Hey, what was that for, Lucy.”

She said, “Bark,” but for some reason I understood what she said. She said, “That wasn’t me.”

“Then what was it.” Then, I looked at what I tripped on. It was a chicken. The chicken had an angry look in its eyes. Then, its eyes were gone but not to be found. So we went on. When we got to the crystal, I heard a funny voice that said, “You want crystal? You go through me.”

I looked around, and I saw this joker dude.

“Hahahahahaha.” Then, he threw a smoke bomb at the floor, but before he could go anywhere, Lucy bit him and then barked. I came to the bark and gave Lucy a treat. Then, the joker dude turned into a sledgehammer. I picked up the sledgehammer and smashed the crystal but took a shard. We went back home, and then I went upstairs and made it rain bills with the crystal.

 

 

Prologue:

As the rain started to fall harder and harder, my parents called me to dinner. As I climbed down the stairs, I heard a big crack, then a crash. Lightning must have struck a tree. I had always liked those trees. Big shady willows and towering oaks. BAM! Another one gone. I had been so intent on listening to the thunder booming and trees falling that I hadn’t realised I had reached the bottom of the stairs. “Mason!” Mother shouted. “I’m not going to tell you again!”

“Coming Mother!” I called in response and I sped into the dining room. Inside the dining room, there was a pot roast, some brussel sprouts and a salad with lettuce and tomato. For some reason, I had always hated meat so crossing out the pot roast, it was a pretty good dinner. As I sat down, I heard another crack.

“All this lightning will make us have to replant all the trees,” Mother was complaining to Father. Then she looked at me in disgust. “Why are you here?” she asked me.

“You told me to come downstairs for dinner, Mother,” I told her in the same tone.

“How dare you speak to me like that! No dinner for you!” she declared. I sulked back up the stairs in anger. My vision was turning red with hatred and wet from tears. As I looked out the window, I recoiled in shock. Lightning looked like it was aiming for the trees, as most of the trees in our yard were on the ground. And the rest, well they were taking a beating. Lightning was making the leaves sizzle. Suddenly, I heard a big bang.

“What was that?” Mother screeched

“I don’t know!” Father cried. “That was from the attic!”

We have a attic? I thought. My parents never told me we had a attic. They must have tried to keep it a secret. Well, they only kept it for 13 years, I thought bitterly. I thought what might they want to keep from me. I was thinking about this when I heard a series of thumps, and a crash. After I heard the crash, I went downstairs again. As I went around the bend into the kitchen, I saw two green things holding knives at my parent’s throats. Swords were strapped to their sides and quivers of arrows at  their shoulders.

“Run, Mason,” Father yelled

“Never!” I hollered.  “I’m not going to leave you to die!” One of the things threw their knife at me. I dodged and the knife ended up embeded up to the hilt in the wall. The other creature made up for it by stabbing my parents in their hearts.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed. I ran up the stairs in shock and fear, tears in my eyes. As I climbed the stairs to my room, I could hear laughter.  Those things had killed my parents and LAUGHED! I wanted to kill them, whatever they were, even if my mother treated me this way. Then, I heard a muffled voice speaking in a different language and more thumps. Those things were going to kill me. I assessed my options and thought of a plan. The only plan I had was bad. Really, really bad. Jump out the window. And as I jumped, the door burst open beholding not two but three beasts. Then, I looked down. I’m toast. I thought as lightning struck and my lifeless body hit the ground with a thud.

 

My name is Mason Jones and this is the story of how my life went downhill after I got killed. It may sound like maybe I was rushed to the hospital and miraculously saved. Nope. I died. Trust me, this may sound fun to read about but it’s no picnic. As I said,

trust me. I know.

 

 

2/4/19

Dear Old Diary,

Hi, I am Madison, A.K.A, the super dog lover. I really want a dog but, my mean old nanny claims she is allergic to fur even though she has a fluffy cat, which doesn’t make sense. My mom is on vacation, so I have to stay with my mean old nanny for a WHOLE ENTIRE month. NO! My old nanny just told me to clean my room. It’s ALWAYS so messy because of my annoying little brother. He throws Legos all over the place. He has blond hair like me, brown eyes like my mom does, and speaks English like Daddy. UH! I have to go to a fancy dinner in a white dress I have to wear that’s so itchy. I wish I could just watch TV instead. I have to stop writing now.

 

2/5/19

Dear Old Diary,

Where was I? Oh right! My nanny called me, “Go get ready!” So, I had to jump out of bed and zap into my clothes.

I had to go to the restaurant because my old nanny told me that if I didn’t go, then I couldn’t go shopping with Claire. When we got to the restaurant, my old nanny told me something CRAZY. It’s her birthday in TWO days! Isn’t that crazy? By the way, she’s turning… Wait for it… Wait for it… Wait for it… UH… My BFF just rang my doorbell gotta go! See ya soon!

Bye!

 

2/6/19

Dear Old Diary,

Tomorrow is old nanny’s birthday when she gets a year older! My friend Claire just came over. She has blond hair and green eyes. We’re going shopping together at the Golden Ring Shopping Center. But first I have to pick out a present for old nanna (old nanny). Maybe a frying pan would be nice!

Later that day…

So, I just got old nanna a Yankee candle, and I got her a coffee mug with her name on it since she drinks so much coffee everyday, and I had to use almost $30. And I got a leather purse, some lip gloss, an iPhone X, and a pair of puppy earrings.

And only spent…

$1,145

By the way, I got the money from my bank account which my Daddy had made for me.

Flashback…

It’s a sad story how my dad had died.

First, my brother was born, then two years after my dad had gone to work. When he came back, he got knocked off his shoes and fainted. We waited about two hours. He never woke up. My mom and I (my brother was too young for this) brought my dad to the hospital. Then, my mom broke into tears. The answer was obvious that my dad never woke up again, which meant he was dead…

I didn’t talk for about 14 days. My friends were concerned about me, but tears just rolled down my cheeks. I ran.

 

2/7/19

Dear Old Diary,

Today is my old nanny’s birthday. Finally I’m going to tell you how old my nanny is. Wait for it… Wait for it… Wait for it…

176 years old!

By the way, my nanny is going back to her house tomorrow because my really nice mom is coming back! My nanny is packing right now, and I did something really EVIL. I put on her ruby red lipstick. That’s the lipstick she loves. She usually doesn’t let me. Anyhow, I don’t think my wish is going to come true. I don’t think I will ever get a dog. My nanny is the only one who knows I like dogs. My mom can’t get me a dog, but I don’t want to tell her because I want a surprise. My nanny said she is allergic.

 

2/8/19

Dear old diary,

O-M-G!

The craziest thing happened!

My mom got me…

A DOG!

It is SO cute! I’ll show you a picture. I named her Daisy. It turns out that my nanny was not mean after all! Mostly because my nanny was going to get me a dog, but she is allergic, so she couldn’t. So, she told my mom to get me one because she thought that I was having a hard time with her and because she doesn’t want to be a mean nanny.

She is SO CUTE and SO SMALL!

So there is my life. It was first horrible, but now it’s complete. My wish was given and now, when you put it together, I can wrap it up in a perfect bow and finish.

 

The End

 

 

Hi, I’m Jack, a wizard with a book of spells. It’s a gift from my father Ionn. I live in a house by myself. My father died. His body is buried in a coffin in my house. I wanted to revive him, bring him back to life. My father was killed by a dark wizard, his brother. I was only nine. I surely smelled just fine, but I was too young. I wanted to go on a journey to save my father. I researched just the right thing to revive my father, the great wizard. I found out that dark elixir would work.

 

Another year passed. I thought about my trek. I was ready to journey to the planet Knowhere to get the dark elixir. It was hidden in a cave guarded by a dragon that breathed blue fire. I needed to go there… today.

 

Boom! I teleported to Knowhere. It was a small town, with very few apartment buildings, but then up ahead I saw a large cave. I met a lot of rude men there. Most of them were old and wrinkly. Some of them were young and tall. They wore animal cloaks and leather boots. They called me names such as trespasser and mindless.

 

I made the trek to the cave. There in front of me were 100 guards all in armored chest plates. My mind raced. What do I do? My spell book, use it! I started saying a spell. Elimination? Flames? Rise? All the guards started to burn. Flames rose up from the ground, and the guards screamed. They flailed in terror and fell to the ground.

 

And…

 

They died.

 

I entered the cave to the dragon. It was beautiful. It was filled with crystals that glowed like the sun. I saw the elixir, but… there was a dragon. It towered over me like a mountain. It had horrible yellow eyes, scales as green as a lizard, and a tongue as red as blood. I staggered backward out of the cave. I realized this was good. I could sneak back into the dragon’s cave and trap the dragon outside of the cave. It went exactly as I planned. It worked! I snuck past him by going through his legs. Then, I said eruption? Rocks fell and completely covered the entrance. I saw the elixir, took out my flask, and took a big scoop of the dark elixir.

 

On the way out I remembered I had to break the wall of rocks. So I chanted a spell on page 28 that was… cosmic creation? The wall exploded.

 

I walked out of the cave, and I was surprised to see a fallen dragon under a huge pile of rocks. I said to myself, That must have happened in the explosion. Boom! I teleported back to my house. I ran to my father’s coffin, opened it up, and poured the elixir into his mouth.

 

My father climbed out of his coffin and coughed. I hugged my father. Ionn hugged me back.

 

“How did you revive me?” Ionn asked.

 

“I went to Knowhere and defeated a dragon. Then, I retrieved the dark elixir and returned to you. I poured the elixir into your mouth. Then you woke.”

 

“Wow!” Ionn said.

 

“It’s so great to have you back,” I said in a weak voice.

 

“Oh, I must drink a strength potion. I’m very weak.” Ionn staggered to the potion stand where the potion was. Ionn drank the potion.

 

After that they lived happily, but then Ionn wanted to get revenge on his… brother!!!

 

 

Hi, I am the universe. I am made up of many beautiful things. Stars are one of those things.

My stars glisten in the moonlight, giving my planets light at night. My biggest star is the Sun.

My Sun is made up of hot gas. It shines so brightly you would get blinded at your first sight of it.

Some of my stars make shapes and items, and others make shapes of gods. I have more than billions of stars in my universe. My stars are a very beautiful part of me.

 

Now I will tell you about my planets. Mercury is the closest to my famous star, the Sun.

Mercury is gray with white spots. Since Mercury is the closest to the Sun, it is in the warmest area of all of the planets that orbit the sun. Mercury is often hit by asteroids and is made up of hard solid rock.

 

Venus is made of gas and rock and is extremely hot. Venus is the second closest planet to the sun. Venus looks like an erupting volcano with lava all over it. Venus is very beautiful. On Venus you will see fire and gas, and it is hard to breathe there.

 

Earth is a very beautiful planet. Earth is, for all that humans know, the only life-giving planet in the world. Earth is the third closest planet to the sun. It is 75% water and 25% land. Earth has a lot of nature, such as trees flowers and grass. There are so many different species. There are mammals, humans and lots of different types of living creatures on earth. Earth is brown, green, and blue and has lots of little colors on the planet.

 

The next planet I will tell you about is Mars. So far, humans do not know if there is even life on Mars, but they persist to investigate. Mars is the fourth closest planet to sun. Mars is made of rock, dust, and carbon dioxide. There used to be water on Mars, but now it is just the color of rust.

 

The next planet I will tell you about is Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth closest planet to the sun. Jupiter is the largest planet out of all the planets that orbit the sun. Jupiter is gray and brown with stripes.

Jupiter is a gas giant, and there is a storm that has been there nonstop for 350 years. Jupiter is made of all gas.

 

Here is another planet that I will tell you about. This planet is Saturn. Saturn is also a gas giant like Jupiter, so Saturn is made of gas too. Saturn is the sixth closest planet to the sun. Saturn has thousands of ringlets and seven rings that are made of rock and ice.

 

This is another planet I want to tell you about. It is the seventh closest planet to the sun, and it is an ice giant. Uranus looks like a normal bright clear sky on a sunny day. Uranus is made up of ice and also gas. It has helium, hydrogen, and methane.

 

This is last planet in the solar system. This planet is Neptune. Neptune is very, very beautiful.

Neptune looks like a clear dark and light sky combined. Neptune is an ice giant. Neptune also has the strongest winds in the solar system. Neptune is also so cold the gases on the planet freeze and turn into crystals.

 

Now I will tell you about Pluto. Pluto used to be a planet, and that is why I am telling you about it. Since Pluto is so small, it is considered a dwarf planet now, not a planet. Pluto is made of rock and ice.

Now since I have told you about my solar system, I will tell you about my galaxies. My galaxies explode with color, giving a beautiful flare of light, color, and life. In every single one of my galaxies, there are different planets with different colors and sizes. But this is me, and I am the universe.

 

Gary is taking a walk and looking at the waterfall. Jenny is doing that too. The waterfall is the biggest waterfall in the world, so they both came to see it. With his dog ears, he hears the waterfall, and Jenny with her cat ears hears the waterfall too.

They bump into each other, and they see something dark. They think it’s a cave.
“Hello. Do you want to go in the cave with me?” Gary says.

Jenny says, “Yes.”

They walk into the cave, and they see a shadow.
“Do you think that’s a monster?” Jenny says.

Gary says, “Yes.”

They turn on the flashlights.

Gary says, “Actually, it’s a dragon.”
Jenny says, “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

The dragon comes out roaring and chases them all the way into the lake.

“We’re both soaking wet,” Gary says.

Jenny says, “What should we do?”

He says, “Do you have any towels?”

She says, “No.”

But then, the dragon comes and scares them, so they come out and run away all the way back to the city. They know the dragon followed them back, so they ask the governor if they can use the biggest weapon that can freeze anything big or small, so they can freeze the dragon.

The governor says, “Sure.”

They freeze the dragon.

They say, “Let’s ice skate.”

They go ice skating on the dragon, and they make really good friends.

 

There once was a dog, cat, and bunny. The dog’s name was Ruff. The cat’s name was Meow. The bunny’s name was Hop. They lived in a forest. They all lived together in a house in the middle of the forest. In the forest, they played dog games, bunny games, and cat games. Ruff liked playing fetch. Hop liked to do hop races to see who could hop the fastest. Meow liked to carve yarn. Meow, Hop, and Ruff liked to see who could make the best figure. They went to a tennis court nearby and played with others who lived in the forest. The only problem was that they couldn’t drink the water from the lake or river because there were coyotes on each side of the lake and river.

They had heard stories about the coyotes not letting animals drink from the lake and river. They said that they looked scary because their eyebrows were firm, and they looked strong. The animals never went into the water unless they lived in the water. The animals felt scared because of the coyotes not letting them get water, and they were scared because they were sick and didn’t want to get more sick.

Ruff, Hop, and Meow looked a little unusual compared to real cats, dogs, and bunnies. They looked ill. Their throats and heads were sore. They were skinny, had problems walking, and had wrinkly faces, and they felt sad because they couldn’t get water and mad that the coyotes wouldn’t give them water. Without water they got grumpy; they firmed their eyebrows and got mad at each other for no reason because their brains were a little mixed up.

“Why don’t you, Ruff, try to get water,” said Hop.

“Because there are goats there!” said Ruff, confused.

“No, goats are not scary,” Meow exclaimed.

“Then what are they?” said Ruff.

“They’re goats! They won’t do any harm to you,” Meow responded.

But the coyotes didn’t know about the bunny, dog, and cat. The one that lived by the lake was named Jack, and the one that lived near the river was named Max. Max and Jack were the only two coyotes in the forest because the coyotes didn’t live in that particular forest, only these two coyotes did. Neither of the coyotes knew about each other. So, Hop and Meow and Ruff looked for help.

All of a sudden, Ruff saw his smart friend Garry.

“Oh look, there’s Garry!” said Ruff.

Hop and Meow didn’t know Garry, so Hop asked, “Can he help us?”

“He can! He’s the smartest turtle in the river and forest. Garry, we need your help!”

“Coming, one second, Ruff,” he said. But actually, it took him twenty minutes to get to Hop, Meow, and Ruff.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“We haven’t got water today, and we really need water because we’re sick,” said Ruff.

“Well, Max sleeps near the river, so at night you can drink. Fill your buckets to get as much water as possible. It is easier to get water from the lake even though Jack is the stronger coyote. Since the lake is a lot bigger, it will take a longer time for Jack to reach you guys if he catches you. I know someone who knows Jack. He said that the same way that Max sleeps at night near the river, Jack sleeps at night near the lake.”

Hop asked, “But, what if we want water in the daytime.”

“If you want to get water from the river, you have to ride on Max’s back. When he gets close to the river, you can jump into the river and drink as much as you want, but you have to be fast. Also, you have to be careful when you are on his back because if you move any bit, he will know that something’s fishy. If you want to get water from the lake, you should ask my friend. He’s right near Jack,” replied Garry.

Meow said, “First let’s try Max and do what you said.”

“Let’s tiptoe over,” said Ruff.

They jumped on Max’s back. But Max knew something was fishy and turned around quickly. The animals were scared because they never tried it before. They were too scared to speak. They began to quiver. They thought Max was going to eat them for being on his back. But Max was nice! He smiled at them without showing his sharp teeth to let them know he wasn’t going to eat them.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“We’re Hop, Ruff, Meow, and Garry. We came to the river to get water.”

“I’m a nice coyote. You can have as much water as you want.”

“Wow, Max is nice now?” said Garry, shocked.

Max was a little sad at Garry’s comment and said, “I was never mean.”
“I thought you were mean because a lot of people say that you’re mean and don’t let animals drink water from the river. I look at a coyote and all I think of is that they’re mean. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for apologizing.”

Ruff, Meow, Hop, and Garry were so happy that they finally got water. They asked Max to take them to the lake. Max asked Garry to guard the river. Garry said, “Yes,” and Max went with Hop, Ruff, and Meow to go to the lake. When they got over there, Max was scared because he didn’t know Jack, and Jack looked a lot stronger than Max.

“Can Ruff, Meow, and Hop get a sip from the river,” Max asked.

“Sure, I’m not a mean coyote. Who do you think I am?” said Jack.

So, Ruff, Hop, and Meow drank the lake’s water, and they said, “We like the water from the lake and river.” They asked, “Can we have your water whenever we want?”

Jack and Max said, “Yes!”

So, they had a party to celebrate that Hop, Ruff, and Meow could finally drink water. They lived happily ever after with the coyotes Jack and Max.

 

Once there was a pig name Kiku. Kiku was a baby pig. Kiku was not just a normal pig. She was a talking pig! She lived in a dimension with unicorns and pigs. It was very magical. Kiku didn’t have any friends — she was sad. So, she decided to try and make some. She tried to talk to other pigs and a unicorn, but they wouldn’t talk to her.

She asked them, “Can we be friends?”

But they said, “No, you’re too small”

Then she tried to talk to a baby unicorn; the unicorn’s name was Sophia. They bumped into each other, and they asked what each other’s names were.

Kiku said, “I’m Kiku.”

And Sophia said, “I’m Sophia.”

A sheep came along, and the sheep kicked Kiku. Then, Sophia saved Kiku. She put a magic spell on the sheep. The spell turned the sheep into a mouse, and the mouse/sheep ran away. Sophia asked if Kiku was okay, and they learned more about each other. And Kiku finally had a friend!

Kiku was so happy that she had found a friend that she squealed so loud that the hole universe could hear her. They liked to go to the water park together and also go to different dimensions together. The dimensions were very different from their home world. One dimension is just like a unicorn’s horn, another is a cloud world, and there’s a world made of triangle mirrors all over.

Kiku was jealous of Sophia because she had magic, and she didn’t. Kiku told Sophia that she was jealous, and she wanted magic.

Sophia said, “I don’t want you to be jealous, and I can give you magic.”

Kiku said, “Can you please give me magic. Please please pleeeaase?”

And Sophia gave Kiku wings and a magic horn. Kiku was jumping up and down, flying around in circles, and saying, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!”

Then, the sheep/mouse came along and was crawling around and saying, “What happened?”

He still sounded like a sheep. Their jaws were dropped down, and they walked away from the mouse/sheep. The mouse climbed up Sophia’s back and tore off her horn.

Sophia was crying, and she said, “It’s never gonna grow back.”

Kiku said, “I can make your horn grow back! Remember you gave me the horn, and now you just have to tell me how to control it.”

Sophia told Kiku how to control it. Kiku tried it, and her horn brought her all the way up into outer space. Luckily, because of Kiku’s wings, she could fly back. It took an hour because she had magic wings.

Sophia said, “Thank God you’re not dead! I was so worried! When you left you went ‘poof!’”

“I’m gonna try again” said Kiku.

She tried the spell again, and instead of whacking her horn forward, she swirled it around. That made her hit the mouse/sheep in the head with her tail. Then, Kiku landed on the mouse/sheep, and the mouse/sheep was gone forever. Kiku felt sad. When Kiku was walking back to Sophia, she was crying.

Sophia asked, “Why are you crying?”

Kiku said “I killed the mouse/sheep”

Sophia said, “How?”

Kiku said, “When I swirled my horn around, it made me fly in to the air, and I fell on the sheep/mouse.”

Sophia said, “That’s so sad.”

“Let’s give a funeral,” said Sophia.

“Let’s go,” said Kiku.

When they got there, they made a coffin.

They put him in the coffin, and they closed it. Suddenly, Sophia and Kiku heard a “baa.” Kiku and Sophia thought that it was the sheep/mouse‘s family, but it was sheep/mouse. But Sophia and Kiku didn’t know, so they dug up hole and pushed the coffin in, and then Sophia and Kiku heard a squeak. They thought it was a field mouse, so they walked away. They went back to try to put back Sophia’s horn, and it finally worked! Sparkles were floating around when Kiku put back Sophia’s horn.

The mouse/sheep came out of its coffin and dug out to the surface, and it took a whole day because it was such a small mouse. He was very excited. He finally got out and started walking around. He was very dizzy and walking around in a circles. It seemed like it was a whole new world. Then, he came to Kiku and Sophia, and he remembered that he tore off Sophia’s horn, but when he saw Sophia, he screamed and ran away.

Sophia yelled, “HE’S ALIVE!”

And then Kiku came and said, “Where is he?”

“He ran away,” Sophia said.

“Why did he run away?” said Kiku.

“I don’t know,” said Sophia.

“Well, let’s go find him,” said Kiku.

And they went off to find him. They walked day and night looking for him. They walked through the forest and had really bad blisters. At night they would make magic tents and camp out to sleep for a few hours, and they made ginormous doughnuts to eat for dinner. And in the morning, they ate from their magic giant neverending cucumber that is constantly growing. They had magic maps to track the mouse/sheep.

It took a month to find him. And when they found him, they took him back to their dimension. They were so tired that after they dropped him off at his house they fell asleep on the clouds. They woke up three days later! They felt great even though they didn’t know they had been asleep for three days. They made the cloud float back down and stepped off. They walked around, and they noticed that mouse/sheep was now a normal sheep.

Sophia said, “The spell must have worn off.”

Kiku said, “Do you think we should turn him back into a mouse so that he can’t make any mischief?”

“I don’t think we should,” said Sophia, “but if he does, then we definitely will.”

One day later, Sophia and Kiku decided to go to the walrus dimension to see their friend Wally. When they got there, they saw Sheep, and he was trying to kill Wally. He was gnawing on Wally’s tail. Wally had almost eaten Sheep, but he decided not to eat Sheep because Wally had already put two little holes in his back, and he felt sorry for Sheep. Sophia and Kiku ran over there and turned Sheep back into a mouse, but by accident they turned him into a human child. Then, they turned him back into a sheep, and then they turned him into a mouse again. Sophia, Kiku, and Wally started playing. The mouse fell into the water and swam away because it was a magical mouse, so it could swim.

After they played with Wally, Sophia and Kiku went to a cat dimension to see Mittens. They played with a bunch of yarn, and then Sophia and Kiku went home, and they told the other sheep that their baby sheep was making too much mischief and that Sophia and Kiku would turn him back into a sheep if the other sheep got him to stop making all the mischief.

“Okay,” the head of the sheep said.

And when sheep/mouse got home, they turned him back into a sheep and brought him to the head of the sheep.

“Stop making mischief!” the head of the sheep said.

“Pundjala dala,” said sheep/mouse.

The head of the sheep said, “Dun dala dun dala dun dala.”

 

“This is boring. Let’s just walk away,” said Sophia, so Sophia and Kiku walked away.

While they were walking they heard a boom noise, so they looked back and saw that all the sheep except for sheep/mouse had tripped and fallen forward. It was like a domino effect.

After they fell, there was an earthquake, and Archery Otter come out of the crack.

The otter said, “I’m here to help. I speak Sheep.” Archery Otter said, “Do Do Da Wa Wa.”

And the sheep said that, “Wa wa dee wa wa,” and Otter told Sophia and Kiku that the only way sheep/mouse is going to stop being mischievous is if everyone starts wearing shoes.

So Sophia and Kiku go to one dimension every day and try to find shoes. None of the dimensions had shoes, but they hadn’t checked two, and Kiku said one of them must have shoes. So the next day, they went to another dimension, but that dimension didn’t have shoes. So now there was only one left.

They went to that dimension, and there were no shoes! But then they noticed that there was another dimension connected to that dimension, so they jumped into space, and they landed on the second dimension, but there were no shoes there either. So they dug underground, and they found a treasure chest. They tried to open the chest, but it didn’t work! They tried to find the key, and then they remembered they were magic, and they both made different keys so that if one doesn’t work, the other should. They tried, and Kiku‘s worked! The chest opened, and there were a bunch of shoes in it, and so they brought the chest back to their home dimension, but it took a year because this dimension was very far away.

They were very tired of walking day and night, so they camped out, and they slept very long, and the next day they woke up, and magic giant cucumber was blocking them! So, Sophia and Kiku had to push the cucumber out of their way, and they ate some of it too. They continued their trip back. Once, giant doughnuts fell from the sky while they were walking. They put their mouths wide open, as big as the doughnuts, and the doughnuts just fell into their mouths to eat. It finally stopped doughnut-raining, and Kiku and Sophia were able to walk again.

A dragon came along and asked them, “Do you know Archery Otter?”

“Yes,” Sophia and Kiku said.

The dragon said, “‘Cause I only give rides to Archery Otter’s friends.”

So, the dragon flew them home. He was flying them home until it started raining doughnuts again, and the dragon caught doughnuts on his scaly back so that Sophia and Kiku could eat them. It stopped raining, and they went back on their journey. They finally got home, and they told the sheep that they had found shoes.

 

THE END.

 

“Greet the devil, the devil eats you, don’t greet the devil, the devil still eats you.”

 

Hi, I’m Jerry Johnson, and I’m in jail right now. This story is about how I ended up in jail which I like to believe is all my cell mate’s fault. It all started one hot summer morning on the last day of school when…

“Wake up!” called a raspy voice that could only belong to my dear old mother. “Hurry up, or you’ll be late,” she called from the kitchen. You don’t want to be late on the last day of school.

“Okay, okay I’m coming,” I said, and just like that, I was on my way to the last day of Katen Middle School.

When I got to class, I noticed a note taped to my locker. It said… Greet the devil, the devil eats you, don’t greet the, the devil still eats you.

During the rest of my school day, I could only think of one thing. What would happen if someone met the devil in real life? I thought. Well, my wish came true because later that day…

 

I went for a stroll in the park when I noticed something rather peculiar…

There was a person, no an e.t., meditating on one of the rusty park benches three feet to my right. This could only mean one thing, I thought excitedly. THE DEVIL was meditating right next to me.

This is my chance, I thought, so I cleared my throat and bravely walked past while saying hi devil.

He opened his eyes in three seconds flat while roaring, “LEAVE, OR I WILL BE FORCED TO EAT YOU!!!”
“Ahh!” I screamed as I ran away.

I had been running for 10 minutes before realizing I had left my phone right near the devil. It has all my bank accounts. Without that, I can’t go to a private high school. I quickly sprinted back in the other direction till I arrived at the meditating devil then I quickly walked past the devil hoping to not disturb him. But I realized I wasn’t as stealthy as I had imagined when…

I stepped on a twig, waking the devil yet again! If I thought he was really mad the first time around, boy was I wrong. He was black as night with a yellow smile, fire red horns, and bloodshot eyes filled with pure hatred.

“This time I actually really WANT TO EAT YOU!!!”

He lifted me up in an effortless fashion and put his face so close to mine that I could smell his breath in my nostrils, making me gag in disgust. This time I knew I was meeting my end when he opened his mouth and…

 

“Stop right there, mister,” called a policeman a little ways from us. “We have two rules in central park,” he called. “Rule number one, no littering, and rule number two, absolutely no eating each other,” he screamed orderly. “Now I’m afraid I’ll have to take both of you to jail.”

“Me? Why me?” I asked puzzled.

“Because everyone knows that you never ever go near the devil when he’s meditating,” the policeman said as though it was obvious.

“But, but,” I said pleadingly.

“This is out of discussion,” he said cutting me off.

 

Later that horrid day…

 

“Are we there yet?” I asked the police who put us in handcuffs for the 20,000,000 time.

“For crying out loud, when we’re there, we’re there,” he cried impatiently.

I was about to ask again when… “STOP TALKING!” screamed the devil.

Sheesh, I thought to myself. Someone’s got anger issues. But I still stayed quiet for the rest of the walk.

I knew we were there without even asking when I noticed a gray, gloomy building with many stories but surprisingly no windows. It looked foreign and out of place in the colorful and luscious forest.

When we got inside, they gave me and the devil each a gray jumpsuit and assigned us to our cells. I felt so angry and screamed like a baby because they thought it was a good idea to put me and… the devil in the same cell. It just goes to show you that some people don’t have any common sense. Am I right? Or am I right?

When we got into the cell, I saw the devil pull out a phone that could only be mine. It was an iPhone 4 with a red case and a cracked screen. It had all of my bank accounts on it because I need it to pay for school. I was so mad when I saw him on it, especially when I saw him on Facebook.

I thought to myself, He’s going to ruin my social media status before I even have one.

“Devil,” I said, “can you please give me my phone back?”

“Fine,” he said, exasperated, “but only if you don’t make any noise when you’re in this cell.”

“Not even a peep?” I asked.

“Not even a peep,” he replied.

“Fine,” I agreed, annoyed, so we both got what we wanted: me, my phone, and the devil, peace and quiet.

 

THE END!

(Have a nice day!)

 

               

PART ONE

This is a world of evil called “The Underworld.” There are two friends, a black spider as big as a 9-year-old boy, and a creepy ghost. Black Spider and Creepy Ghost won Champion Games in sixth grade for being creepy and tied in the championship. Their parents became friends, and then they eventually became best friends.

They love playing pranks on animals in The Underworld. When someone opens the door, a bucket of smelly slime goes on their head. Black Spider trips people with his sticky webs, and Creepy Ghost takes over their bodies and they do whatever he wants, like stealing Nintendo video games from their shelf under the TV.

They get promoted by everybody for being creepy. All the people think they should be King. Except for the grumpy guards for the King.

King Rotten Fart Strawberry gets jealous of them getting all the promotions, so he separates them.

Black Spider goes to Underworld’s version of America, to Long Island City. He likes it there because he likes taking the ferry to Brooklyn Bridge Park to get cherry ice cream. There are no people in the Underworld. There are only animals.

He meets a white tiger named Whitey, and then Whitey starts saying something like, “According to my calculations, you are — ”

Spidey stops him and kicks him to Manhattan.

Creepy Ghost goes to Underworld’s version of Japan, to Tokyo. He likes it there because he eats sushi and ramen all day. When he would take over the body of the sushi stand person, he would steal all the sushi, like one with salmon on it. Then, he would go to the ramen shop and take over a rich guy’s body and use his wallet to buy amazing things, like a mansion with a big pool. And then he would make the mansion with the pool his.

But he misses Black Spider, so they just FaceTime each other. But they are still bored, so they text each other a plan.

Creepy Ghost takes over the big mansion and then makes the big mansion move and turns it into a rocket and goes to America. It lands right on the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider gets on, and they fly to the castle in the Underworld to plan an attack on King Rotten Fart Strawberry. But it’s like a two-day ride, so they wait in the pool and eat sushi and ramen.

All of a sudden, Whitey comes out from under one of the five king-sized beds. He was hiding in the mansion!

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he says. He thinks the mansion is cool, but now he is crying for Mommy and Daddy.

Spider hears the crying, and then Spider gets out of the pool and puts his clothes on. He thinks, That’s annoying!

He sees Whitey climbing out of the bed and says, “If you want Mom, then go away!” And he kicks him out the window, and Whitey lands in his mom’s new apple pie out of the window in Massachusetts.

“Oh, what a coincidence. You’re already ready for dinner. Do you like my applepie!” says Whitey’s mom.

Black Spider and Creepy Ghost land right next to the Underworld Castle.

So, Black Spider and Creepy Ghost go inside and go pow pow to the bodyguards and then the King. King Fart Strawberry comes in and says, “What the heck is going on?”

Then, Black Spider says, “What’s going on is that we’re going to kick your butt!” And then Black Spider does exactly what he says.

Then, they become king and change all the bad laws, like that you can’t participate in the scaring games until you’re seven years old or that you can’t get married until you’re 100 years old. Then, people are happy because they didn’t like those laws. Then, they have Underworld Christmas, but it’s really the same as earth’s.

 

PART TWO

On one nice, sunny day, all the flowers get squished with Strawberry jam from… King Fart Strawberry’s new robot suit.

Strawberry says, “I’m itching for revenge and that bad mosquito bite I got… Wow it’s really itchy.”

Later, at the castle, Black Spider is relaxing in a nice, hot spring and gets out and has some pancakes with syrup, whipped cream, and blueberries.

Suddenly, King Fart Strawberry breaks off the roof of the castle with his robot suit!

Spider says, “Oh, hi there! What’s your name again? Are you that old man in the village who screams for no reason?”

Strawberry says, “Wait you don’t you remember me? Uh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now I can brainwash you.”

Black Spider says, “See look, you’re still screaming.”

Strawberry says, “Be quiet, and let me brainwash you”

Black Spider says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you look evil, and it sounds bad, and I’m also going get rid of that big jam shooting robot.”

Then, Strawberry says, “Well, then get ready to get jam’d”

Pow splash pow pow pow pow pow pow bang bling bam bam.

Then, all the citizens come and watch the battle.

Creepy Ghost comes and figures out a new attack that they have been training, where he tries to control Black Spider, and they become a big, red ghost with spider arms, with a cherry ice cream making machine inside.

Strawberry says, “It doesn’t matter how big you are. My robot’s stronger.”

And then, the big, red ghost robot shoots a web covered in cherry ice cream with poison that turns the robot into a statue.

A little kid comes and says, “Is this that new TV show? I want that robot!”

The citizens cheer, “Yay!”

But then, they look inside the statue, and Strawberry is not in it. And then, they see Whitey running away, but with something on his head… He is carrying Strawberry!

Creepy Ghost and Black Spider chase after him, and they get Whitey and say, “Why are you trying to save Strawberry?”

Whitey’s eyes are all green. Then, they see a big cage with a bunch of needles sticking out of Whitey’s head. Creepy Ghost carried both of them and take them to the castle. The guards take Strawberry down to the dungeon.

Black Spider uses his eight arms to take the needles out of Whitey’s head with tweezers and put bandages on him.

When they take the thing off, Whitey’s eyes goes back to normal. He says, “What in the world is going on?”

“You tried to save Strawberry!”

“Strawberry’s my worst enemy. Why would I try to do such a thing?”

Five minutes later, Spidey says, “I guess he was brainwashed.” They look at him, and Whitey has a black belt on and starts destroying all the dummies. He was a servant for Strawberry the whole time, but now, he is doing karate moves.

And then, they say, “How did you do all those moves?”

“I took karate lessons to kick you to Iceland.”

Two minutes later, they decide to let Whitey be their sidekick.

“Whitey, you can be our sidekick.”

Then, Whitey says, “Okay, you can be my helpful sidekick.”

Black Spider and Creepy Ghost say, “Sigh.”

A guard comes running and says, “Boss, I have a very important message: Strawberry has broken out of jail and ran towards Sumo Mountain.”

“DUN DUN DUN!” Whitey says.

“What’s Sumo Mountain?” Black Spider asks.

“It’s the most dangerous mountain ever. They say that if you go hiking on that mountain, Sumo Pandas will come and beat you up and throw you to Mars.”

Then, Creepy Ghost asks, “But why would Strawberry go there?”

Black Spider says, “Well, one way to find out!”

One hour later…

Whitey says, “Now we know that they don’t really throw you to Mars. They just throw you back to the bottom of the mountain.”

So then they get some iron weapons and force their way up. Finally, when they are at the top, they see the Sumo Pandas making a super duper big strawberry jam shooting robot!!! So, Creepy Ghost takes over the robot and destroys it.

Then, Strawberry comes and asks, “What am I gonna do now?”

Black Spider says, “Well right now you’re gonna let us turn you into strawberry jam.”

POW POW POW BAM.

 

Five hours later…

 

Everybody is eating strawberry jam sandwiches.

Black Spider says, “I kind of feel sorry for Strawberry… Not.”

 

THE END!

 

“Mom, no!” Evan was begging his mom not to make him go into the attic. The attic was very creepy and dark.

Evan’s mom said, “Okay, okay, I’ll do the work! I was really expecting more from you. You’re 12 now! I really thought you wouldn’t make me do all the work. You are in time-out. I want you to go to your room and lay on your bed.”

“I don’t want time-out! So, I’ll go to the attic,” Evan said.

He jumped from where he was standing to the top of the stairs. When he got into the attic, he found an old chest. He wanted to see if his mother knew what it was, so he took it downstairs.

His mom said, “What did you bring down?”

“I brought down this chest!” said the Evan.

“I haven’t seen that chest since I was a kid!” said his mom. “But I don’t think you should kid around. I remember it being dangerous.”

Evan would find out the true terrors of the attic the next night.

He crept up to the attic the next night, and a ghostly light fell over him. Then, he saw a shadow reaching out for him. It grabbed his shirt, lifted him off the ground, opened its mouth, and shot fire at the wall of the attic. Some of the wall crumpled away. Evan was very scared. Before him stood a dragon. His body was red, and his wings were yellow and orange. He had razor sharp black claws on his hands and his feet, and he had the tail of a scorpion. The dragon opened his mouth and let a roar. He snapped his mouth closed quickly, trying to bite Evan. Then, Evan wiggled out of his grasp. He ran down the stairs. The dragon was too big to follow him, so he flew out of the window and started to set the neighborhood on fire.

Evan ran outside and saw the damage that the dragon had done. Evan fought the dragon. Evan had a dagger, and he threw the dagger at the dragon. The dragon dodged it, and he jumped up high and burned it with his fire breath. Then, he opened his eyes real wide and shot lasers at Evan. Evan dodged. It hit a tree, and the tree fell on to a house. The house split in two. Evan knew they would think he was responsible. He jumped at the dragon and grabbed at his claw, but the dragon shook him off. Evan went flying across someone’s lawn. He landed in a flower bed. His vision was gone, but he heard the dragon coming for him.

He got closer, and then Evan bit the dragon’s toe. “Aaaaaaaaaahh!” The dragon screamed at the top of his lungs. It hurt Evan’s ears, so he got knocked out again. The dragon saw him, so he lifted his taiil off the ground and shot water at Evan. It missed Evan and hit the flowers. The dragon was very angry. He threw his head in the air, and his spine spikes shot out. The dragon’s spine spikes stuck into a fence, and one spine hit a man.

The man screamed at the dragon and said, “I hate you, dragon!” Then the man ran away because he saw it was a dragon. Then, the dragon turned its gaze back to Evan and breathed fire out of its nose.

Evan was hurt, but he wasn’t dead. Suddenly, Evan had an idea. He had noticed that the dragon had a soft looking glowing spot on his head. Evan was not a good climber, but he had to try. He climbed on the dragon for a few feet. Then, the dragon noticed him and shook him off. He slammed into a tree and felt sick. He got knocked out badly, but this time he knew the dragon was on top of him. It was stomping on him. He was very hurt. Evan began to slip away, and while he did, the dragon tripped and fell. This gave Evan a chance to run to his home. The dragon got up and flew in front of Evan’s home, keeping him from getting in.

The dragon could speak. He said, “Let me be king of your town, and then I’ll let you live. If you don’t, I’ll burn down your town and keep it to myself. Then there will be nobody there to tell me no.”

Evan had another idea. He jumped super high and punched the dragon in the glowing soft spot. The dragon fell over and died.

He ran into the house and burned the chest. He knew if he ever found another chest like that it could be a dragon, so he never opened another chest again.

 

 

Ellie

 

I am an ordinary kid. At least in the inside. I like ice cream like all other kids. I like riding my bike with my other friends. That was when I at least had friends. But last week, everything changed. It started like any normal day when I woke up from the ring of my alarm clock. Then I sprinted down the stairs to a delicious breakfast. But that is where the normal ended. As I ran to catch the bus, I didn’t see the car coming. I didn’t see anything at all except the bus. And the driver of the car didn’t see anything, just the green light in front of him.

 

The next thing I know I feel numb with pain, everything hurts, and I try to sit up. The bus driver’s head is swimming before my eyes. Then I hear the siren of the ambulance. I feel two people lifting me onto a bed that seem much softer than the ground. I hear my mom whisper in my ear that everything will be alright. Then, I black out.

I wake up to the sound of beeping above me. I open my eyes and see my mom peering down at me. I sit up and realize that my body does not hurt as much anymore. In fact, it almost doesn’t. I look down and see that both my legs and my right knee are in a cast of thick, hard white plastic. Then everything comes back to me. The car, the bus, and how normal the day had felt before this big accident. My mom and dad come visit me every day, but my best friend doesn’t. I reassure myself that school is still in session and that is the reason, but deep down I know that really in the small corner of my mind that actually they don’t want to come and visit. But I decide not to care, but I really do. We used to do everything together, but now she does not even want to see me. In my mind, I wish that this was just a dream.

After a few days, I am finally allowed to go home. The sad news though is that my knee and right foot will have to be in a brace for at least a few years. After a few days, I finally get the hang of it, and I can be left alone again without needing someone’s help. I am proud to be able to be left alone again. I just feel empty inside. I decide to call my best friend Annabelle. On the second ring, she picks up.

 

Annabelle

 

Ellie and I have been friends since we were in diapers. Our moms met each other when they both were pregnant at the supermarket. After that, they became fast friends, and when Ellie and I were born, they brought us to the park together, to each other’s houses, and to the baby group they were both a part of. Ellie and I were each other’s company day after day. I am not saying that I didn’t like it. I loved it. Every year when our birthdays rolled around, we always made our wishes together on each birthday cake. Even though we never told each other what we wished for, we always knew that the other person was always wishing that they would stay friends for the year to come. We didn’t have to tell because we always knew that we were Annabelle and Ellie, Ellie and Annabelle. Like two peas in a pod. I remember that we always cried together if one of us was hurt, and we always laughed together if someone said something funny. Always together, Annabelle and Ellie, Ellie and Annabelle.

But that all changed a few days ago. I remember it clearly because I was there. But of course not really. I saw the car coming, and I heard the tires squeal on the pavement. Then, the bus driver hearded the rest of the kids, including me, on the bus and drove to the side. The rest I didn’t see. Nervously, I sat on cool leather bench of the bus chewing my fingernails. After a few minutes, the bus driver came into the bus. He searched all the faces until he saw me and pulled me to the side. He said that Ellie had been hit with a car and that her parents and the ambulance were taking her to the hospital. Then, he patted me on the head and said that everything was going to be fine. But then I knew it was the first time anyone had ever lied to me. He walked up to the driver’s seat and started to engine. The force pushed me into my own seat. And just like that it was over. It was the same normal day that it had been before the accident. But it was not. Everything had changed. Maybe if Ellie didn’t know it yet, I did. I had enough of it, and it had to change. I wanted other friends, not just Ellie. The accident showed me that if you only had one friend, that friend could just be taken away from you in a snap. Then you have no one. The accident was way too hard to still be friends with Ellie.

I knew that some girls just didn’t like Ellie, but those girls were also the popular ones. And after the big accident, Ellie would just get more clingy, and I had really had enough. For example, I had been at her house, and we had been playing Monopoly. I had said that I wanted to go downstairs because I thought I heard my mom call me for something. As soon as I stepped out of the room and was on the top step of the stairs, Ellie had followed me and was waiting for me to go down the stairs. She was always with me anywhere I went. But when I said this to her, she could not get over that. I tried telling her, but it never worked. I think that Ellie does not even realize that she just changes the topic. I think that it just hurts too much to think that I do not want her. But that is not true. I swear that I am not a mean person! I just wanted a change.

A few days after the accident, my phone rings. I answer and hear Ellie’s voice on the phone. We talk for a few minutes, then I hang up. It was then I knew it was the last time Ellie could call me her best friend. Friends? Sure, but best friends never again. Because if I wanted to make it to the popular girls circle at school, I wouldn’t need Ellie or anybody else. Just me without Ellie.

 

Ellie

 

“Hello? Who is this?” Annabelle asked.

“Hi, it’s me, Ellie.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I was going to tell that I am coming back to school tomorrow!”

“Um, okay.”

“I was also going to ask if you wanted to meet up after school maybe?”

“Uh, sorry but no can do. I am meeting some friends after school. For um, homework.”

“Okay. I guess, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

As Ellie hangs up, she replays the conversation in her head. Something was up with Annabelle, and she had no idea what. Maybe something had happened at school when she was not there? Ellie decided that she would give it one more try to find out what was wrong with Annabelle. She would have a sleepover the following night. This sleepover would determine if their friendship was doomed or if she could save it from like coal from a burning fire. In truth, Ellie was really excited for the sleepover.

 

After dinner and playing board games and watching movies and eating popcorn, they were in their pajamas, and they started gossiping. Ellie knew that for every sleepover it was vital to gossip with one another. Tonight the topic was: crushes. As at every sleepover, they talked about who the liked and who they think liked them.

Ellie started by shyly saying, “I think that Henry really likes me.”

“Yes, duh,” Annabelle replied, smiling like a cat.

They always loved getting together like this. If she was even my friend still though, Ellie thought remorsefully while snuggling deeper into her bed. Right before they are both about to doze off, Ellie asks Annabelle if she wants to come home with her after school tomorrow. Annabelle ignores her and pretends to fall asleep. Ellie sighs and rolls over.

 

That night, long after she had heard Annabelle’s breath even out, she still couldn’t sleep. She thought about everything that Annabelle and she had gone through together, as friends. It hurt her so much to think that maybe Annabelle wouldn’t call Ellie her friend anymore. But the more she thought about it, the more it didn’t seem like a possibility anymore. She does not think that Annabelle would unfriend her after having a sleepover with Ellie. With that content thought in mind, she rolled over and fell fast asleep.

The next day was Ellie’s first day of school after so long! She could hardly wait! As she walked down the main hallway, she saw Annabelle whispering to Savannah, one person that they had never even dared to talk to before. She wondered why Annabelle was whispering to her, but she didn’t let her bother her as much. Then during lunch is where the big thing happened.

 

Annabelle

 

I sat at the popular table with my new friends: Savannah, Melanie, and Fiona. As soon as I sat down, the whole table applauded my choice.

“Finally! You decided to sit with us!” Savannah said.

I smiled inwardly, happy that I was being accepted into this new group.

“Hey, guys do you want to know a secret?” I said, doing something that I knew the old Annabelle would never do. “Ellie likes Henry!” I said, suppressing a giggle.

The rest of the table roared with laughter as they looked over at one of the boys tables where Henry sat and to the table where Ellie sat. All alone, eating her lunch quietly. For a second, I felt a little bit of regret as I saw her all alone. Just then, something weird happened. Melanie suddenly stood up on the bench that she had been sitting moments before and yelled out in a voice that carried through the whole lunchroom:

“Ellie and Henry kissing in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in a baby carriage!”

The whole lunchroom went dead silent. You could have heard a hairpin drop. Then, the whole boys table, except for Henry who stood red in the face, erupted with laughter. Then, all the boys started to make the kissing noise with their mouths and wrapping their arms around themselves as if they were kissing another person. Guiltily, I looked over to the table where Ellie was sitting and saw that her face was all red and there were tears starting to form beneath closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and saw me looking at her. She then gave me the dirtiest look she had ever given anyone and stormed out of the lunchroom. Meanwhile, the boys had stopped and were back to their annoying, obnoxious selves. The girls had also gone back to just talking quietly among themselves. It seemed like the teasing that had happened a few minutes before never even existed.

 

I ran from the lunchroom into the nearest girls bathroom and heard quiet sobbing coming from the stall the farthest away from the door. I stood in front of the door and saw Ellie’s feet. On one foot was a green converse shoe and on the other was the brace from her accident. Suddenly a wave of guilt washed over me as I saw the brace. The only thing I wanted right now was to hug Ellie, go back into the lunchroom, and sit at our normal table as if the last 15 minutes never even happened. But I know I can’t. I knock softly on the door.

“Who is it?” Ellie said quietly between sniffles.

“Me, Annabelle,” I say.

“What do you want?” she asks me rudely.

“I want to say that I am really sorry. I wanted to apologize. I don’t know what came over me. I hope you can forgive me,” I said, trying to stop myself from starting to cry.

She opened the door of the stall a little bit and peeked through the gap.

“Why did you do it?” she asked, looking at me questioningly.

“I really don’t know. I am still really sorry,” I whispered, still looking at her.

She opened the door a little more and stepped out.

“Well, I still don’t forgive you,” she said, still quietly.

I nodded and walked out of the bathroom. I walked into the lunchroom, but lunch had already ended and the grade below us was starting to eat their lunch. I walked back into the bathroom to see if Ellie was still there, but she left. I sat down on the floor and sighed. I just wished that the last 45 minutes of the day would just disappear.

 

Ellie

 

After talking to Annabelle, she ran out of the girls bathroom and speed walked into the nurse’s office. She walked in and sat down. The nurse asked what was wrong, and Ellie said that she wanted to go home because she was not feeling well. While Ellie waited to get picked up, she sat in the chair thinking about how just a few nights ago during the sleepover Annabelle seemed like the old Annabelle not like the Annabelle that hurt her by telling her secret to the whole grade. She knew that Annabelle the girl who used to be her best friend but definitely not anymore. She knew that she could never trust her anymore like she and Annabelle used to not trust other girls like Savannah, Fiona, and Melanie and the rest of their clique. But now Annabelle was part of that group as well.

 

Annabelle

 

After school was out, I ran over to my bike and unlocked it. Then, I started to bike to Ellie’s house, determined to make peace between Ellie and I. As I pedaled as fast as I could, I practiced saying to repair our friendship. But deep down I knew that even if she accept my apology I knew that we would never be friends like we were before. But I still wanted to try to repair our friendship. I ring the doorbell and a second later Ellie comes in view. She looks surprised but invites me in.

 

“I know I don’t deserve to be your friend anymore… ”

“I know, you really don’t, but I still can’t call you my friend anymore. I’m sorry.”

Ellie sighed and turned around, making her face her back not her face. I then stood up and gave her a hug.

“I understand,” I said.

I left and walked out to my bike, unlocked it, and slowly started for home.

 

Ellie

 

Ellie sat down on her bed in her room. She had been looking at the wall by her desk that had a bulletin board, and it was filled with pictures of her and Annabelle: at the beach together, at the bowling alley, at school, and many other places. She sighed and looked at her favorite pictures of them together. It was her and Annabelle standing together in front of the school on the first day of sixth grade. She was wearing coincidentally the same shirt that she had worn in that picture, but now the picture of the dolphin had faded and it looked more like a gray blur in the blue background. Will I ever have someone who I can trust? Like the Annabelle used to be? Ellie thought. A breeze fluttered through the room making the shadows of the pictures dance in the sunset. The picture fluttered to the floor. Ellie stood up and pinned it back on the wall.

 

The End

 

 

Introduction

 

“How much do we have?” my five-year-old brother asked.

“What do you mean?” Dad asked.

“How much money do we have?” he said.

“We have enough,” Mom said, not looking up. Truth was, I knew we had more than enough. While the other kids at school lived in apartments we lived in a townhouse.

“Ee, ee,ee!” my six-month-old adopted sister Evelyn “Evie” screeched from her playpen.

“Yes, but how much?” Tony asked.

That’s not something you need to know,” Mom said.

My name is Harriet “Hattie” Roxanne, age 11, and the money business was just starting.

“How much?” Tony screamed. Temper tantrum. I knew the drill.

“Hattie,” Mom whispered. I nodded. Dad stood up. So did I. I walked over to Evie and picked her up. Then, we walked slowly up the stairs. I heard Tony screaming from below. I heard mom soothing him. Suddenly, there was no more of Mom’s voice. I looked at Dad. He looked at me. Oh no, oh no. You see when Tony gets real angry he hurts someone. One time he knocked Mom out. That’s why we created the drill. Dad and I slowly crept down the stairs. Mom had fainted. And Tony, well, Tony was drawing all over Mom’s most precious statues that had been with her family for a long long, time.

 

Evelyn

 

You see, since Evie was adopted, some kids at school assumed she had something wrong with her. But there’s nothing wrong with her. She simply had a mother who died at her birth and a father who died not long after because of heartbreak. When it was time for the Saturday shopping, Dad wasn’t home. Mom had hired a babysitter to take care of Tony and Evie. We drove up to New Jersey.

“Onions, Hattie. Help me find the onions,” Mom said. Just then, Mom’s phone beeped.

“Just a minute, Hattie,” she said. She answered the phone, then she began walking frantically.

“Mom! Watch it!” I shouted. Too late. She slipped on a loose piece of cabbage. She fell backwards. I pursed my lips to hide my laughter. But I couldn’t hold it. I burst out laughing. People stared. Finally, an employee helped her up.

“Young lady! In the car now!” she shouted. People looked at her. She blushed, then stomped out the door. I raced after her.

“Mom! I warned you!”

“Hurry up, Hattie!” she answered. What was she so mad about? I asked.

“We didn’t get the onions or anything else!” I said.

“I don’t care. Evie and Tony are stuck in the bathroom, and the babysitter can’t find the key. They’ve been stuck in that bathroom for hours!” she nearly shouted. I sighed with relief. It wasn’t about slipping on cabbage after all. But I knew my mother didn’t feel relief. She stormed into the house and unlocked the bathroom door. I followed her.

“Ah!!” Mom screamed. She fainted. Right on the spot. I looked inside and burst out laughing. My brother was drawing on my sister — with Sharpie.

“See, see,” he said. “Tiger!”

And that is how we learned never to leave the children with that babysitter.

 

Tony

 

“Down the hatch!” I whispered.

Evie slurped down half of the pea-flavored baby food, then spit out the other half of it. I sighed. Feeding Evie took long. Way too long. Evie would always eat half of the spoon then spit the other half out. Tony walked in.

“Hey, Hatt,” he said.

“Who’s Hatt?” I asked even though I knew who he was talking about.

“You!” he laughed like crazy.

“Ooo!” Evie said spitting half of the half baby food over the side of the highchair, then spitting the other half of the half onto me.

“Cool!” Tony shouted. “Food fight!” he screamed. He began looking through the fridge and finally grabbed Evie’s leftover yucky mucky spinach baby food. He poured some over me and some over Evie. I screamed. Now I was covered with yucky mucky half spinach and half pea baby food. Evie started crying. Satisfied, Tony poured the rest of the spinach baby food onto his own head.

“Stop that, young man! Stop that right now!” I screamed.  

Suddenly, Mom bursted in.

“What is going on!” she shouted.

I pointed to Tony.

“TONY!” she screamed. “I am disgusted by you!”

“I tried to stop it,” I said.

Suddenly, Evie vomited all over Mom, who was standing in front of the highchair.

“Who’s disgusted now?” Tony said, shielding his eyes.

“Young man!” Mom screamed. “Time-out now!”

 

Mom (Carrie Roxanne’s POV)

 

“Mom! Come quick!” Hattie shouted.

“It wasn’t my fault, Mom!” Tony shouted back.

“Caroline! You didn’t forget the cabbage, did you?” Oren, my husband shouted.

“Ma… ma,” Evie said softly.

Sometimes, I feel like everything depends on me. I feel like if I wasn’t there, the whole house would fall apart. Sometimes, I feel jealous that Oren does not have to spend time caring for the kids.

First of all, I’m Caroline (Carrie) Becker Roxanne, Harriet, Tony, and Evelyn’s mom. Sometimes I don’t even know if I should have even adopted Evie. In fact, that’s an interesting story…

I was with Oren, visiting my friend Isabel, who was adopting a baby. I overheard the nurses talking about an orphan. I heard this baby was very sweet and intelligent, that was already making noises — noises that sounded like words. I thought, I have got to see this baby. I told Oren my thoughts. And the next thing I know, I’m staring at a baby who’s 6 pounds, 18 inches. Her big blue eyes stare back at me, her hand is curling around my finger. Less than a week old, and in good health and shape, and unnamed, one of the nurses say. Somehow, I know I’m going to see this baby again. The moment I saw her, I fell in love with her. The adoption papers took five months, but I was right. I did see that baby again — and I see her every day. So, who is that baby? That’s right! She’s Evelyn Williams Roxanne, the same baby I saw in that adoption shelter months ago. So every time I’m boiling mad at my family, I try to think of the four happiest days of my life — the day I got married, the day I had Harriet, the day I had Tony, and the day I brought Evelyn home.

I try to keep my temper when — for example — Oren goes on a boy trip with his friends. Why? Because it’s all worth it — adopting and giving birth to my three children, and my wedding.

 

Grandfather Crazy

Harriet Roxanne’s POV

 

Mom invited my favorite Auntie, Isabel, her son Bryan, grandmama and grandfather, and granny and grandpa, and some of Mom and Dad’s friends for a Christmas get together. I loved my new bottle green velvet dress that matched with Mom’s. I wasn’t too happy about Grandmama and grandfather coming though. Grandmama and Grandfather were on Mom’s side of the family. Grandfather cared a lot about manners. And when I say a lot, I mean we have to call him Sir instead of Grandfather. We had to walk properly, sit properly, get excused properly, and many more. He expected all women to be housewives, and all men to serve in the army. Grandfather “the Sir” and Grandmamma arrived first, as always.

“Straighten your back, young lady,” he said.

“Yes sir,” I said quietly.

“Huh?” Grandfather said.

“Yes sir!” I said. Grandfather was hard of hearing and seeing. Auntie Isabel and Bryan arrived next. They dumped presents in our hands and gave us a warm greeting.

“How’s my favorite girl?” she said, hugging me. She always held that soft, perfume smell that only Auntie Isabel had. Granny and Grandpa came. Then other people I didn’t really know. Yum, pie, I thought, as mom unloaded bags of food. Just then,the pie dropped. As Mom bent down to pick it up in, “The sir” came. He spanked Mom hard on the butt, in front of everyone, and her dress flipped up, revealing underwear with a hole in one of the buttcheek parts. The crowd gasped.

“How many times, Hattie, have I told you not to bend down like that?” The sir said to Mom.

What? I thought. I was right here! Wait a minute. Grandfather thought I was Mom!

“Sir, I’m right here!” I said.

Mom screamed. Loud. One by one, the guests left.

 

Oren Roxanne’s POV

 

Sometimes I feel bad for Carrie, staying in the house and caring for the children. I don’t know. Want to know my secret? I’ve been out dating with another woman, Suzanne. I feel like Carrie and I don’t share the same interests anymore. We don’t really talk anymore. There’s been issues. My boss gets mad at me because because I drink and smoke (I didn’t tell my family yet) and, I really love Suzanne. It’s getting serious now. I want her as a spouse instead of Carrie. I want a divorce. No one can stop us. I want a fresh family. The day I said that to Carrie, she fell apart.

 

Mom (Carrie Becker Roxanne’s POV)

 

I felt like a part of me had died when Oren told me he demanded a divorce. I felt like my heart was broken in half when I found out he was marrying another person, and especially Suzanne Marinata. The day I broke the news to Harriet, she sobbed. Sounds came out of her. Groaning. She was clutching her chest. I cried with her.

“Will we still live here?” she asked.

“We’ll figure something out,” I told her.

“Send that woman away!” She sobbed. “It was all her fault!” she screamed. “I hate Suzanne!”

 

Five months later…

 

The divorce wasn’t final yet, but Suzanne moved in, and the children and I moved in with my parents. I worked full time as a nurse. We split the money. I was tired.

“This is not you, you were made to be mine,” I told him desperately. I found out Suzanne was pretty nice, but I knew Oren was supposed to be mine.

 

Harriet’s POV

 

I don’t know how I feel sometimes. Like, one minute I’m washing the dishes, doing nothing, and the next minute I feel like I’m going to melt. Everything’s changed. I feel like my dad doesn’t love me anymore, even though Mom has told me they both still love me, and this has nothing to do with me. Tony’s changed too. He’s more quiet. More serious, too. He’s becoming a shy, hazel-eyed boy. I feel like everyone’s ageing.

 

Caroline Becker Roxanne’s POV

 

One morning, I heard knocking at the door. I looked through the peephole, and that’s when I saw — Oren.

“Go away,” I said.

“Caroline, please,” he said.

“I’m going to shatter to pieces if you argue with me. If I hear one insulting word, I will shatter. Please don’t,” I say. “For the sake of the children.” I turned away.

“I’ve come to say — ” he sputtered.

“No. please don’t talk,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. I opened the door. I sobbed. He hugged me.

“What happened to Suzanne?” I asked.

“She’s not my woman. My woman is in front of me,” he whispers. I sobbed harder.

“Does this mean… ” I started.

“Yes,” he said.

“I’ll only move in you stop drinking and smoking,” I whispered. We laughed together. He hugged me tighter.

“Where’s your ring, Carrie?” I ran upstairs. He placed the ring on my finger. I laughed, then sobbed. We stood there, cuddling for hours.

 

My 2DS XL is black and blue (mostly black). It is bigger than a normal 3DS XL, but it doesn’t have 3D. It could play any 3DS game. I would play “Pokémon X” and “Mario and Luigi: Dream Team.” When I play “Pokémon X,” the controls are smooth and easy to use, and they are white. The texture of the outside is smooth and bumpy. The 2DS and 3DS are handheld devices that have two screens. One screen is interactable, and the other isn’t.

 

I got my 2DS XL on January 2, 2018. Before, I asked my parents if I could get it, and they said, “Yes.” I was so happy about that. I was so hyper. So when I was in school on January 2, I had a feeling that the package was there. So when I got home, I rushed to the living room, and I found the package sitting on the table. I opened the package really quickly.

 

I thanked my mom for getting the package a million times. Even though it was a school day, my dad still let me play with it. Every time I hold the 2DS, I think of my mom. I always feel happy when I hold the 2DS if I have bad day. In exactly one month, I beat the game and got bored. Then by accident, my sister lost my charger, and my 2DS died. Then, my sister lost my copy of “Pokémon X.” I kept asking my mom if I could get another copy or the newest Pokémon game, but my mom said, “No, I already spent enough money on the 2DS.”

 

Now, my 2DS is sitting on the table doing nothing. Since I don’t have a charger, I can’t use it. If I get a charger, I would charge it for the night. I’ll get a new game called “Yokai Watch 2: Bony Spirits Fleshy Souls.” Once I get the game and the charger, I will link up with my friend, so we can trade Yokai and battle each other. I’ll wait until my mom has enough money to buy me “Yokai Watch 2,” but I want many other games for the Xbox One. So, I’ll have to make a big decision about what I want.

 

 

BOOK 1: COW VS. SUN

Once upon a time there was a cow named Cow. She loved flowers, but there was no water. It was so hot that the water evaporated. Plants were dying. Flowers were melting. The cow was moaning, sobbing. She tried to sob over the plants, but it evaporated. Her sobs were the only thing stopping her from melting. The tears evaporated off of her cheeks. She was so sad that she went to her house. She is a cow, so of course she lives in a big house all by herself. She went to the first faucet she found to get tap water for the plants. She filled a Swell water bottle because it keeps things cold. She only needed one. Then, she went outside and this time put the Swell water bottle right over the plant so that it wouldn’t be possible for the water to evaporate.

She took the cap off and shoved it down as fast as she could. The little plants started to grow! Tulips and sunflowers started to grow. Then, all of a sudden, they died. The sun was too hot, so they shriveled up and died. So, Cow tried to build a rocket to put water on the sun. This time she used at least fifteen Swell water bottles because the sun is so big.

She knocked her house down because her house was made out of metal. She started building the rocket. First the base, next the engine which takes a long time. Then the control panel, which was also metal. She named all the buttons: launch, start, release, anti-gravity, and emergency exit. She also needed to build a spacesuit. Cow went back to the dead plants and smashed them all together into a clothing material. She put it all over her body as a spacesuit. For the helmet, she emptied her dead fish’s bowl and put it over her head. She got a knife and cut a little hole through the back for the oxygen. For the oxygen pack, she grabbed a really big soda bottle and breathed into it, blowing it up like a balloon until it was completely full. She quickly put the top back on and quickly put a hole through and fed the tube through.

Now she needed to get fuel. She grabbed soil and squeezed all of the juices out of it. She used another soda bottle to catch all of the juice. Since soil is fuel for plants, Cow hoped that it would also work as fuel for the rocket! Once the bottle was filled with the soil juice fuel, she put it into the rocket. As the final touch, Cow moved her couch into the rocket as the seat.

She said to herself, “Three, two, one… blast off!”

The blast off looked like a giant explosion. Through a cloud of smoke, the rocket shot up into space! Cow was hoping it would work because of the fuel, and now it was! But Cow was worried because she couldn’t get in the rocket. It was too small for a cow! Her butt was sticking out of the front of the ship. She got into space and tried to turn the rocket by moving her legs since she couldn’t reach the control panel. Luckily, her legs worked. She was right on top of the sun. It was hot, and she was sweating. She reached out for the Swells, but she couldn’t reach! Luckily, she threw them in before she got in the rocket, so they were all there.

Out of nowhere, the Milky Way caught them! All of the Swells started rolling towards the Milky Way. The next day, they got right back on top of the sun. Cow grabbed the first Swell water bottle and poured it.

“Where did all of my other water bottles go?” Cow asked herself. “Oh right! I drank them.”

So then, Cow started slapping herself to make herself cry. She cried so much that a big glop of water just went rolling down, slowly because of anti-gravity. It got on the sun and covered the sun whole! It worked!

But the tears turned the sun into not the sun… it turned into a giant glop of water! Cow went back to Earth, barely missing the plants because of her legs. She landed right where her house used to be, next to her garden. For some reason, it wasn’t hot anymore. It was cold and rainy.

“Oh no!” said Cow. “A new problem, for me this time! For me and the plants this time!”

 

BOOK 2: COW VS. WATER

It was raining, pouring all over Cow and her rocket.

“I have to fix this! But the problem is that fire can’t go in space I don’t think!” Cow said to herself. “But maybe I could bring the rocket and not release the rocket until I get to the sun and not light it up as much as it used to be, that way it’s mostly sun, but still water because water is still good for the plants.”

Cow hoped this plan would work. She got right back in the rocket, but first she needed more fuel. She squeezed some more soil into the fuel bottle. She didn’t get any Swell bottles this time, instead she went right to the spaceship, filled the ship and got right into space. The vast cloud of smoke came again, right under the rocket.

Still sticking out of the rocket, but this time with her head, she thought to herself, Maybe I should lose some weight…

But there was no time for losing weight now, though! Cow had to save the planet. So then, once she got back in space, Cow got right up to the sun, well the water sun, and grabbed the light torch. She emptied the water off the the sun and evaporated all of the water that she could see by setting it on fire with the torch.

“Half fire, half water!” Cow went right back down to Earth.

Then, all of a sudden, it started raining again!

“Ah, crud!” Cow said. “Well, I need a new plan.”

Cow spent a few days trying to come up with a new plan while floating in an eight foot pool of water. The Earth was flooding.

“Maybe it would be better if we just didn’t have a sun at all!” Cow swam to the flooded supermarket, and nobody was there. She had her spacesuit on, so she could still breathe under the water. She went to aisle six, where all of the explosives are like fireworks, TNT and grenades, and took the TNT since nobody else was there. She swam back to her rocket (which was now her home) and after all of that wait, she now could kind of fit because what was there to eat in a flood? It had been a few days. She also noticed that she hadn’t dranken in two days too! She drank a big gulp of water. Oh no, now she couldn’t fit again!

Cow went back into the rocket, and luckily she already had fuel ready for the trip back to space. The rocket was now kind of flooded, and she said to herself for the second time, “Three, two one… blast off!!” The big puff of smoke didn’t appear for some reason. It went into the water, and the water started turning gray! It was getting polluted.

“We have to do this quick!” she said to herself.

She got near the sun when one one hundredth of the planet was covered with polluted water. She put the TNT on the big glob of water covering the sun, but right before she could do anything…

“No!” Cow screamed. She had lost her TNT. Right before she could push it down to blow it up, the Milky Way got her!

One day later…

“Finally!” she said. She threw one of her empty Swell water bottles, and it landed directly on the TNT handles, activating the explosion! Cow heard a big boom behind her. All of a sudden, her spaceship blew up too. She was right at the edge of the explosion and was thrown back into Earth’s atmosphere. She was falling but felt like she was flying. Except she didn’t know how to fly! She took off her helmet and fell as fast as a meteor. Cow hit Earth and bounced. Her fat made her bounce. She bounced all the way back to her house!

“Oh no, this is bad,” said Cow to herself.

Now there was no sun or rain. All of the plants were going to die for forever.

 

BOOK 3: COW VS. NOTHING

It was pitch black. Nothing anymore. Cow was out of ideas. No one was here. Everybody left for flode.

“It’s all my fault,” moaned Cow. “I wish I never did anything in the first place!” She was thinking of ideas to help the world. Finally, after an hour or two, she found out the solution! A rock gave her the inspiration. It was a small rock, maybe 3×3 and gray. She thought, Maybe I could get that rock and set it on fire! It could be a new sun.

She got back into her rocket with very little fuel left and blasted off with another cloud of smoke. She couldn’t see outside. It was too dark and cloudy. Luckily she knew where she was going. After the fifth try, she got her torch and let go of the rock in space.

Shhhhhhhh. Nothing happened to the rock.

“Ugh,” said Cow. “New plan, I guess. I can’t light rocks with fire… so how can the sun be on fire?” She immediately found out why. It was because the star had ashes in it. They were all over the sun, but Cow thought that they were bumps before. But then Cow remembered that that bumps weren’t black and peely.

Then, she went straight towards the volcano in Hawaii. There was nobody around her or anywhere on the beach. They were all on the other side of the world. Cow had never been to the ocean before. Cow’s rocket landed beside the base of the volcano, and she had to climb up to the top. Thankfully it was a tourist attraction, so they had special gloves on site in order to hold onto the rock. Of course, Cow’s hands are smaller than people’s hands. While hiking up the volcano, Cow didn’t feel very well. She had heard on the news about the guy who put his hand on top of a volcano, and one of the rocks popped up and went through his hand leaving a giant hole! But Cow was too busy thinking about saving the world to be scared.

Once Cow got to the very top, she had to wait until the rocks went upwards to try to catch them. She got one on her sixth try! She still had her space helmet on, so she didn’t breathe in the poisonous gasses. She grabbed the rock and took it all the way back to her rocket. Once she got there, she grabbed the soil and filled the tank up all the way. Then, she put more oxygen into the tank and blasted off. For the sixth time, she landed where the sun used to be. But this time, no sun. She grabbed the rock and threw it off and ignited it.

Pffffftt. The sun went back, but in a smaller version of itself. It didn’t grow. Cow went back to Earth feeling excited. In a few weeks, everybody was back!

 

BOOK 4: COW VS. CHICKEN

Until, someone got mad at Cow. A chicken, to be more specific because Cow caused everything. The chicken had a perfectly good life before because he had air conditioning. Chicken lived in the a/c apartment building in the city next to where Cow’s house used to be.

When Cow landed, Chicken started saying, “Hey you! You flooded my building!”

Cow heard him and said, “Well, I was trying to save the world from melting!”

“Well, you’re the only one without a/c!” Chicken responded.

“So what?” said Cow. “What if you had to go grocery shopping, it would’ve melted on the way.”

“Fine,” said Chicken, but he didn’t really mean it.

All of a sudden, a big grumble came. The sun was gone. The rock that Cow had put in space was now tumbling into Earth’s atmosphere. It came closer and closer and hit Chicken right on the head! He went on to tell a classic story called “Chicken Little.” Chicken ran away screaming, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

“Oh no,” said Cow. “I’ll have to find a better rock.”

Cow grabbed the rock where Chicken was once standing, and for some reason it didn’t hurt her. There was no more fire on it.

“Oh no,” said Cow. “The rock isn’t working! It only works for one week, and it’ll never go right. And in three years, all of the soil in the planet will melt and so will planet Earth.”

Cow did not have an idea. She did not know what to do other than run into the leftovers of his house and make a little shed of a room. Cow turned on the only thing to make it through the crash: The TV. Her favorite show was on: Dr. Who.

She watched episode one, and out of nowhere an alien came up. This time machine looks good… Hey! Time machine! That’s it! Cow thought. Without turning off the TV or anything, Cow threw out the remote and ran out of the shed. The moon was up in the sky. Cow started to take apart the shed and the TV and put them into a box-like-shape. She put the TV inside the box like a photobooth. The final touch was the remote: except Cow put the Triple A batteries backwards. Cow took a deep breath before turning on the TV. The screen said: Which one? Forwards or Backwards?

Cow understood that the TV was talking about time. “Phew,” said Cow.

 

BOOK 5: COW VS. SUN AGAIN

Cow pressed “backwards,” and it started spinning. The TV screen said 3… 2… 1…

But then Chicken popped in out of nowhere! “The sky is falling,” said Chicken. “Hey. What’s happening? We’re going back in time, but I don’t want to go back in time.”

“Well, too bad for you. You’re the one that popped in here,” said Cow. They heard another large pop.

And they were at the beginning of that day. “Hey Cow,” said Cow.

She said, “That’s me just before that day.”

They came out of the time machine. “We are here,” said the machine.

They started looking for Cow, well Cow did at least. Chicken was just running around and saying that the sky is going to fall. When Cow finally found her former self, she said, “Whatever you do, don’t try to help the plants from the sun.”

“Why not?” asked former Cow.

“Because everybody will hate you in the future.” Then, Cow went back into the time machine.

He heard a large pop. “Haha,” said Chicken. Cow didn’t notice that Chicken was happy.

“Why are you so happy?” asked Cow.

“Because of your little mistake,” said Chicken.

“Well, how would you’ve known that it was gonna happen?” asked Cow.

“I have this machine that allows me to control the weather. The next step is to buy a bunch of fans and T-shirt companies. I will be the richest man in the world. And then I’ll just drive up the prices of everything. Until I will become the king of the world.”

All of a sudden, Cow kicked Chicken out of the time machine and then heard a pop. After another five seconds, they heard another pop.

And then Cow said, “Don’t listen.” He saw both of the Cows talking to them. One was with Chicken, and the other was with Cow. Then, Cow pushed her former self out of the way. And she said to former former self, “Watch out, Chicken is going to take over the world.”

“Just keep going on with your life, save the plants, do whatever you can to save them.”

Former Cow heard all about Chicken. Then, Cow took Chicken back into the time machine.

They heard a pop and another pop.

Cow gave Chicken to the police. He took him straight to the police, without stopping. He gave Chicken in to the police. They decided to put him in a high security prison. Then, he told the police to take down his company.

They did so. All of a sudden, the weather turned back to normal. From there on forever.

 

This toy is beautiful. It’s shiny, big, and expensive. I can ride up to 55 miles per hour!! It even has parking lights, and it’s like a real car but for kids to drive. It even has the lever to push and go on the road or to reverse or to park. People will eat my dust when I pull up in the driver’s seat in my ride. I can drive anybody in the front passenger seat. It has only driver and front passenger seats because it’s one of those expensive cars. I haven’t got it yet, but it’s my dream mini car. It’s so big and real that you could mistake it for a kid driving a real car, but it’s not dangerous. Even adults can comfortably drive it; that’s how big it is. My name is Uniqua, and this car is the best car you’ll ever see.

This is important because I am really wishing for it. It’s something I’ve always wanted. It’s so cool to have, and it goes really fast for a child. And it can help you for driving since it’s basically a real car. It even has a radio and a screen, like for YouTube or GPS, where usually you see the radio. It’s between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat like a regular advanced car. It’s a child’s dream car, this child’s dream car. It’s so good it’s 50,000 dollars, but that’s too much, so on my phone I have a cheaper one.

I see this item on display online. It looks so beautiful. Of course I have never tested it. First off, it’s a car, and second of all, I don’t even have it yet. Also, although I don’t have the car, by it’s looks I can just feel how shiny and smooth it is. It even has scissor doors. Scissor doors! Do you know how awesome that is! I will roam the world with that car. Ahh, now this is just my dream. I want this car… wait hold up, actually not even want, I need this car. Ooooooo look at this beaut. Don’t you just love this. Now I’m going to plead with my mom and persuade her to get this car because I must have it. I go home.

“Good afternoon, Mother. Can I get you anything to drink?”

I think, This car is gonna be mine. Haha. All I have to do is be respectful. I plot as I give my mother water. (Mother looks confused since I am disrespectful to everyone, but I am the youngest in the house.)

I hum, “Mm, hhm, mhmm. Mommy, can I please get this Mini Veyron for kids!”

“Haha,” Mom chuckles. “I will get that for you when you go to college.”

“But Moooom, this is for children. How would you feel if you needed something and then you didn’t get it, but you would rejoice if you did get it, right?” (Mom stays silent.) Grr, of course pathos didn’t work. She is heartless. It is time for logos and ethos. “Mom, don’t you know how well I’ve been doing in school? And you still owe me a trip to Taco Bell.”

“Fine. Since you won’t shut up, I will get it.”

 

Three months later…

 

Ding-dong!!!

“AHHHHHHH!!! THE CAR IS FINALLY HERE!!!”

(I open the door and hug the mailman, then snatch the car keys.) Finally, finally, I open the door to my new car.

Ooooooooo it’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I will cherish it forever. (But that’s only what I thought.) I decide to speak to it, and so I go to the road to drive it. Vroom. Wow, it even starts like a real car, but it wasn’t my car. As I get ready to drive, a Mercedes-Benz crushes me and the car together. The driver calls for help. Whoop, whoop go the sirens as I am rushed to the hospital. While at the hospital, I am put on a monitor. I’m not looking too good. I literally looked crushed. I am badly hurt and look horrible.

 

One day later…

 

Uniqua is in a dark and grassy cemetery. She is lifeless, doing nothing with her arms crossed around her chest. Uniqua is thinking about nothing because she is limp and lifeless. She can’t see anything because her eyes are shut completely and forever in a casket. If she could see, which she can’t, she would see a soft and white blanket sewed on the inside of the casket. Unless Uniqua resurrects or reincarnates, she will never see what that casket looks like. Uniqua’s family was able to set up a GoFundMe account that afforded them the ability to give Uniqua a beautiful funeral service.

 

THE END

(LITERALLY)

 

 

Hello, my name is John. I was a slave from 1710, I think. So, I’m going to tell you a story about my slave life.

 

When I was six, I got separated from my family. People took me and my parents away from Africa. For the next seven years, we had been working and working, treated like peasants.

 

One day, I heard our guard, Mr. Simpoop, saying that there was a myth that there was an apple in a cave that could cure any sickness. Thousands of people had tried to get it, and no one had come back. I heard they were getting some soldiers to go inside the cave to get the apple. Our guard was cracking up when he heard that.

 

“Ha ha ha ha. Yeah right, there’s some magical apple in a cave. Hahah ha ha ha. Oh my god. Nice joke, but it can’t fool me. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

 

“Okay, whatever you say, Mr. Simpoop.”

 

Then, the guy left. In my head, I kind of wanted to do it. Get freedom. He would never let me though. I guess I would never try to do it.

 

When I went to bed, I had a dream.

 

I was working, and a voice told me, “Go get it. You are the chosen one. Wake up and leave.”

 

Suddenly I woke up, and I was not sure how, but I knew where to go. I left the house and went into this run down wooden shack. I saw a sword and took it. Suddenly, the ground disappeared, and I fell into a hole. There was a cave. I took out my sword and walked slowly down the cave. I did think that it would be very dark inside the cave, but it was really red, and it kind of had the feeling like it was evil. Suddenly, a rock fell behind me, and I knew I could not leave yet. This would be a big adventure.

 

I continued walking and realized I was being watched, but I didn’t know where. I continued, and I saw light. I felt like I had not seen light in years, even though that was not true. For a moment, I thought that I had found the apple, like I was done with the mission. But I had a feeling that this was only the beginning. Once I got to the light, it had disappeared. And I heard a laugh but not some ordinary laugh — an evil laugh, very evil, and it was coming from on top of me. So I went up the stairs, and it was still laughing, but there was no one there. Then, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, and there was a man but not some ordinary man. He was not a human. He was like a monster but in a human form. He had an evil smile. I swung my sword at him, and I could not move. I was stuck. I tried to swing at him with my sword, but it would not let me. I felt numb and lost consciousness.

 

Then, I woke up in a large cage filled with white people. They were all staring at me. I thought that these were the people who tried to get the apple but never came back. Most of them were dead. Everyone else was very, very tired. I had to figure out how to escape while I still had the energy. I was feeling sleepy. I looked around to see if the monster guy was there. I didn’t see him, but I felt like he was always watching. I looked around for my sword and realized he had taken it. But I saw one man who was looking at me, smiling, but not an evil smile — a nice smile.

 

Then, he said, “Hello, who are you?”

 

I did not know what to say because, well, I was a slave. And he was not a slave. He looked poor though. So, I told him that I was a slave and my whole story. I tried to hit the metal bars, but nothing happened. I looked in the pockets of the other people and found a penny. I didn’t pick the lock yet because I still had a feeling that he was watching. Suddenly I felt like he had gone. I knew that this was my chance. I picked the lock on the door and left, tip-toeing. I went inside a room with my “friend,” and I found my sword. I called it Byuma, the name of our tribe.

 

Then, I heard footsteps — the same footsteps as the monster. His big and loud footsteps. He was coming! So, I quickly went under a table with my friend. The monster went right past us. I felt like he saw us, but he did not look at us or stay in the room. He left the room, and it sounded like he disappeared. But I knew not to go because he might be at the exit of the room. And I didn’t think that he would be very happy when he saw us out of our cage. I looked up and saw a paper. I was not sure what it said, but I had a feeling that it was important. I wanted to get up from under the table, but I knew that I would have to wait. So, I waited about 30 minutes then finally got up and looked at the paper: You are here to trap the mortals, you cannot leave this area, do not try to leave you will regret it. That gave me an idea! If he wasn’t able to leave, maybe the best idea was to make a run for it. Try to leave the area and run. So I told my friend the idea — I think he nodded.

 

I went and ran towards the exit, and I saw the monster behind, levitating. He was very fast, but we managed to make it out in time. Woah, that was very close. We continued running and saw a blanket with a beam of light coming out. I took the blanket off, and there was the apple. My friend was silent, and I was too. We had found the apple. We turned around and saw the monster — he was not behind us. He was still in the area we had been captured in. Suddenly, he started to levitate towards us, but the second he left the area, he disappeared. And we saw the people in the cage walking out of the cage, and they were all energetic (except for the dead ones — they were really dead).

 

We all poured out of the cave, and everyone ran home. When I showed my owner the apple, I used it to heal his wife who was sick. After that, Mr. Simpoop gave us freedom. So, you would think this would be the end of the story. But you’re wrong. There were still some people that wanted this apple. The story is far from done. So, I’ll continue. So, I did get the apple, but that did not make a difference. I was free, but I had no house, no food, and people still tried to take it from me. I just wished I was still in Africa with my tribe, Byuma. Man, I really wanted to see my grandpa and grandma. Suddenly, five men came up with bats. They were big, tough-looking bullies. I started running and not surprisingly, they followed me. They were very fast. After five minutes of running, they stopped. They were cursing at me like crazy. I continued running and hid inside an alleyway. I thought I was safe. I was, for now.

 

But one day later, I was not. I went to bed inside this alleyway. And I woke up early. I didn’t know the time, but I could tell it was early. There was barely any sun. The wind howled like there were thousands of owls. But no other noises. So, I walked out of the alleyway thinking, What I should do with my life. How would I get back to Africa? Where should I eat? I had no money, no anything. I was so hungry. Suddenly, I realized that I had the apple. It was magic. Maybe it could cure my hunger. So, I had a bite of it, and I had no words. It tasted so good. And I wasn’t hungry at all. Maybe I could live with this apple: it regenerated each bite. I continued walking around the city, looking for anything I could do. Then, I thought about how I could get home. I just needed a boat. The problem was I did not know which way was east and which way was west. Could the magic apple do more than I thought?

 

I tried asking it how to get home, and I heard a voice saying, “Left, my friend. Left.”

 

Did that mean I had to go to the left? Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I went to the left. Was there a boat waiting for me? Was it an even bigger surprise? There was only one way to find out. I continued walking for about 30 minutes until I found a horse with someone on it. At this time, I was surprised someone else was awake. Maybe that was why she was telling me to go to the left. The person told me to get on the horse. So, I went on, and the guy hit me with a bat. And the horse ran off with me. Later, I woke up in a cage. Oh god, not again. The guys looked like bandits. They had tons of money on a table. And there was no one else in this cage. I nothing to do. The apple told me the wrong thing.

 

Then, I heard the a voice saying, “Do not worry. This was planned.”

 

I thought, What? Planned? But I didn’t say anything.

 

“Turn around, and you will be free. I must go now. Good luck.”

 

I turned around, and I saw my friend, the one I met while doing the apple quest. He took off his mask, and he was black. He was a slave undercover to get the apple. It all made sense now. He gave me a drink. So, I had it, and I felt weird.

 

Then he said, “Follow me.”

 

And he walked through the wall. So, I tried to copy him, and I walked right through the wall too. And when I looked, I saw a boat. He told me to go on the boat. And once I went on the boat, I was in Africa next to my tribe: Byuma. I was so happy to see my family.

 

The End

 

Kevin was a nine-year-old soccer player from the USA. His dream was to win the World Cup. Right now, he played on a Little League team called Simply Sports FC. He played striker. He won the State Cup Finals, and he was now in Red Bulls Academy. His best friend, Shane, was also in the Red Bulls Academy. Shane was his strike partner. Shane hung out with him a lot, and they both made the USA U-Thirteen team, and they won under 13 Olympics.

On his 18th birthday, the USA team called him up for the World Cup team.

He screamed, “Best present ever!”

Shane, who also had the same phone, the iPhone X, was called right after that to also be in the World Cup with the USA.

They both went to each other and said, “Guess what just happened?” at the same time.

And both said at the same time, “I’m in the World Cup for USA!”

They said, “That’s what I was gonna say!”

Once they got to training, meeting all these famous players, like Pulisic and Tim Howard, would be hard. But once the real training started, they felt fine. They had all the skills to match the other players. When it came to shooting drills, the only person who could get the ball past Tim Howard was Pulisic. Their best achievement was scoring at least one goal on Howard.

The team was so good that they qualified for the World Cup! They had to play Messi, the great Ronaldo, Pogba, Griezmann, and David de Gea. So far, Kevin and Shane were doing well. They had three goals, and they were feeling great. USA was undefeated because of the “Stonewall,” Tim Howard. When they made it to the semi-finals, their match against Germany would be really hard because they would play against the “Keeper Sweeper,” Manuel Neuer. But they managed to score a few goals and win 3-1. When they made it to the finals, they had to play the hardest opponent, England, and they won. The score was 2-2 USA. Kevin scored once, and Shane did too. It was a really close match. When Kane scored two for England, the US team got nervous.

When it was overtime, both teams scored one goal, Kevin for USA and Sterling scored for England. It went all the way to penalties, and it was down to Kevin to make the winning kick for the USA. He was feeling so nervous. He made his run up short and smashed the ball into the top right corner of the goal. England’s goalie dove to the bottom left. He was so happy that they had won the World Cup finals. When he scored, he screamed, “Yes!” He did it. He finally won the World Cup.

THE END

 

I was on the top of my van, and I was sunbathing. Suddenly, I heard the engine start. I looked down and saw a man, who had stolen my keys with a fishing rod, driving the van! I hung on the van and was so scared! I could die! The man was driving to a place where I saw many cars with water dripping all over them. They had men scrubbing them all over, and there was a place where I saw huge, scrubby soapy things all around with zero degree water. The man headed right there. It was so cold and scary he forced me to go there and give him my wallet and credit card, and he stole my car. I ran to my house and called 911.

I said, “Someone stole my keys with a fishing rod, stole my van, and my wallet, by forcing me in a car wash!”

The police officer just laughed. “Ha ha ha, ya weakling. They stole all of that by making you go into a car wash?! Think I’m gonna fall for that one, no way! Yer under arrest for three days for wasting my time!”

I ran from my house, saw a stranger on the street, and asked him if he saw a man riding in a van holding a fishing rod around here.

He said, “Yeah, I saw him. He told me he was going to Canada. Then, he stole my wallet! I’m going to get my car and chase him!”

I told him about what he did to me and how much I wanted my revenge. I asked the man, whose name was Bob, if he knew about the man.

Bob said, “Yes.” He said that the man was part of a gang. He also said that the man’s name was Olaf. When I asked him Olaf’s last name, he said it was Olaf. The name Olaf Olaf sounded very familiar to me. When I thought back to my dead family, it came to me! Olaf Olaf was the name of the man who had murdered my family! He was sent to jail, and he must have escaped.

When I told this to Bob, he didn’t sound so surprised. He told me he heard the news years back. We came up with a plan to track Olaf down, capture him, then turn him to the police. At that moment, we heard a police siren, and I told Bob to drive away together. We got away, but we were still on a police chase. Unfortunately, we came to a dead end. Bob and I were caught by the police and sentenced two weeks in jail, for running away from the police. I thought about Olaf committing more and more crimes. We were in our cell. It was hopeless. Life was gone. We grew beards, marked our days. For two days, we slept. All we ate was french fries. One day, we heard a blast in the wall.

“Blimey, what happened,” an officer said.

“Let’s get em, bub!” another said.

“CHARGE!!!” all of them said.

All of the officers charged, and criminals who had exploded the wall put down a gas bomb. Boom!!!

All the officers laid down on the floor. The criminals freed all the criminals, including me and Bob. We ran from the hotel, took one of the police cars, and drove to Canada.

“Wow,” I said to Bob.

“That was lucky,” he said to me.

As we drove all the way to Canada, we stopped somewhere to eat. While we were eating, we were watching the news.

Some news reporter said, “A man named Olaf Olaf has robbed the bank, and the police have currently been trying to track him down. There has also been another crime at a jail, too. A bunch o’ robbers broke into a jail and freed all the prisoners. Police have also been trying to track em down.”

“We gotta leave,” I said.

“Yeah,” Bob said.

We got back in the car and continued driving to Canada. We heard that Olaf Olaf was headed to Mount Robson, for no apparent reason. When we were driving, we saw a speeding vehicle ahead of us. When we looked who was inside of it, we saw Olaf driving my van! When we looked behind him, we saw more cars speeding behind him. Those must be the members of his gang, I thought. When we looked behind the gang member’s car’s, we saw the police.

“Hey, those were some of the other people who escaped from jail!”

“Let’s get ‘em too!!!”

“Oh no,” I said to Bob.

“What should we do?” he asked me.

“Go!!!” I shouted.

We sped past the police and past the cars in front of us. We went as fast as we would go. I wondered how we would get Olaf in jail, also with proving our innocence. When we lined up with my own van, (which Olaf was driving) he yelled at me.

“Yer never gonna catch me!!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

We directly aligned with the van, then I got my fishing rod and tried to get his/my keys. Unfortunately, I am not an experienced fisher, so when I tried to get his keys, I missed and got some hair. Then when I went for my wallet, I got it! When I got my fishing rod back up to my car, I opened my wallet, and it was empty!!!

I yelled at Olaf and said, “How is it empty!!!”

“I tricked you!!! That was a fake!!! Hahaha!!!” He shouted at me when he pulled out my real wallet. “You are so easy to trick!!!”

I growled at him with anger. I asked Bob if he wanted his revenge, and he told me that he did. If only I could have gotten those keys. I would’ve stopped the van, turned him over, explained our innocence, and gotten our money back. Olaf Olaf would pay for what he did. I thought back and remembered my last moment with my parents. I told them that I would be going to work, and then they died.

Bob and I kept thinking to come up with a plan to steal Olaf’s/my keys. We took a detour, to make the police stop following us and also to discuss our ideas. We stopped in a closed area, where the police would never find us. We made ourselves a sandwich, with some ingredients we found from the mall.

When we discussed our ideas, we finally came up with a plan: Bob would go and somehow distract the gang members of Olaf, while I would go and try to get the keys. I needed the police to keep Olaf distracted. Maybe I could sneak up on the top of the van and somehow steal the keys. I told this to Bob, and he said that it would not work. I told him that we should give it a try. He said okay. So we tried it.

We went on the path to Mount Robson. We drove and drove, until we came across Olaf’s gang. We came next to them, and Bob set out to distract Olaf’s gang. I auto drove my car and put my hands on the van. I thought about how much I needed the keys and the money. If I didn’t get that money, I would be considered a failure. I swung my legs over, put them on the top of the van, and grabbed the top of the van. I was on! I held on the top of the van for life. When the van was driving, it hit a bump. I flew off the top, only holding on with a finger. Bob had stopped his car, so I had to get back on the top of the van. I put my foot on a ledge of the van, grabbed the top, and swung myself over again. I grabbed my fishing rod with my hand and held on the van with one hand. I put the rod on top of the hole on the roof. I pressed the button, and the cord fell. Through the hole, inside the van, and next to the keys. I moved the rod, and it hooked on the keys. I let go of the van, got the keys, and flew completely off the van. I landed surprisingly unhurt on one of the other cars in Olaf’s gang with the keys in my hand! Thankfully, none of the cars had mirrors, so they didn’t notice me. I quickly stopped Olaf’s car and locked his doors.

People in his gang behind him quickly stopped, and the police caught up with them surrounded their car and said, “Yer under arrest, Bub.”

“They stole our car, stole our wallets, killed my family, and tried to get away with it. We are innocent. Don’t arrest us,” said Bob and I.

“Fine, I believe yer junk,” an officer said

“I’m coming for you!!!” Olaf Olaf shouted.

“You will pay for your crimes, Olaf,” I told him.

In the end, Olaf and his gang were arrested, and Bob and I got our money back. We got back to our houses, I got to use my own van. In the end I learned a valuable lesson: never sunbathe on the top of your van.

 

Hi, my name is Sonia. I live in Italy with my mom, dad, two brothers, and sister. My family is very poor. I want to go to New York City. I’m leaving in three days with my sister. We got our passports. We have to wait three more days before we can go on the train to get to the boat. I’m nervous and excited, and I have to pack my bags. I pack bread, clothes, and a special necklace that my mom gave me. The next morning it is time to go to the train. When we got to the train, I lose my sister. I’m so mad at myself for losing my sister in the crowd.

I look outside the window and see trees and water. We are almost at the boat, the SS Norden. The train stops, and I get off the train. All I could think about is my sister. My sister is tall and looks like me. She has a black dress and a white bow. She has very long, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She is carrying a black bag. I miss her so much. I go in the boat, and it is steering. I feel sick and eat some bread. I wish I never lost my sister. I hope I find her soon. The next morning, I go up on the top of the boat, and I sit. It smells weird. I have to sleep, so I go to bed. A month passes, and we still have not gotten there yet.

But then, I see a statue. Someone is screaming, “Statue of Liberty!”

We are almost at Ellis Island. Finally, we get off the boat. We walk into a big building and go into an area that is fenced in. There are people that look over our whole body. I saw other people with marks on their coats, but I did not have one. They tell us to walk down the stairs and take us into a big room and ask us questions. They asked me what my name is, and they change my name to Sofia. I walk out of the room, and we walk into the same room we were in before. People pass ten dollars around, and it comes to me. I am told to use it and then pass it on. We are then herded onto a boat and sit there for four minutes. We depart the boat and are free on the island. We are in New York.

My dad gives me a paper that tells me where I am going to live. The streets are so very crowded. I walk for a long time. Carriages and horses, fruitsellers, all different types of people. The noise and tons of buildings are crazy. I keep walking and am almost there. As I arrive, I see fabric on the walls and metal ceilings, but I have to go up the stairs. I open the door, and I see my sister sitting in the room. I am so happy to see my sister and am very surprised. We talk about our journey and how she got here.

“How did you get here so fast?!” I say.

“I took the boat before you. You missed that one,” Kiara says.

“That’s why my boat took so long.”

“I wish I never lost you,” Kiara tells me.

“Me too,” I cry.

This was a great experience.

 

One day Bob woke up and went to the bathroom, so he could brush his teeth. When he finished brushing, his mom called him for breakfast. It was eggs breakfast. When Bob looked at the news, he saw that a bank was robbed. When he finished his breakfast, he went to his friend Bobby’s house to tell him what happened and asked him to help him find the robber.

Bobby said, “Sure.”

So, they took Bobby’s dad’s car and drove it without a driver’s license. They had multiple crashes, but they ended up where they wanted to be, with twenty-seven scratches. They arrived in twenty days because they crashed twenty-seven times, but they were there. The bank was twenty miles away from Bob’s house.

“Where to?” said Bobby. “Are we gonna look for the criminal?”

“No, we’re gonna go to Wolfgang Steakhouse! I just lost my head a little bit over there,” Bob said.

“Now I think we have to head to the bank,” said Bobby.

“Yes,” said Bob. “Time to go back to my house.”

“What?” said Bobby.

“I only came here to have a good thinking spot for the plan,” said Bob.

“This is the loudest place in the town,” Bobby said. “Because there’s a lot of traffic.”

“Time to walk back to the house,” said Bob.

“You’re annoying, Bob!” Bobby told Bob as they walked towards Australia to rent a car there.

They put the car in a plane, and they got arrested because you’re not allowed to put a car in a plane. But luckily, the jail was right next to Bobby’s house. And they were happy. And sad that they wasted tons of money for two cars and a first class plane. But luckily, Bob and Bobby were going to jail next to Bobby’s house.

When Bob and Bobby arrived, they sat in the jail cell. Bobby had an idea. His idea was to steal a police officer’s clothes, and since Bob and Bobby are both nine, Bob got on top of Bobby’s shoulders because Bobby is stronger than Bob. Then, Bobby wore the police’s pants. Then, Bob wore his shirt, and they took the key out of the big police pants. Then they got out of the jail cell and walked one mile an hour out of jail. Next, they went back to Bobby’s parents’ house and stole the other car. Then, Bob asked Bobby if he got the plan.

And then, Bobby said, “Probably.”

Next, Bob said, “Good.”

And then they did as the plan said. When they got out, they went to the car. The first part was perfect, but they forgot to take off their police suit, and then fell at the front door and broke the window. Next, they took off the police suit and got the car. But the garage door closed behind them, so when they got in the car, they started driving and smashed into the garage door and drove through it. The car’s lamps broke severely. And by accident they drove to New Zealand. When they realized that they were in New Zealand, they actually drove to the bank. Then, they saw the robber and a Wolfgang restaurant. But instead they went to the Wolfgang restaurant And Bobby went mad and ran all the way back to his own house. Bob was wishing for that to happen.

Bob was very happy. Now he could have steak without a non stop talker with very bad temper.

“Sir! Sir! Sir!!!” It was the waiter asking for the order, and Bob was daydreaming. Bobby was right next to Bob shaking him to wake him up.

“Cghdyetrpon?” said Bob.

“May I take your order?” said the waiter.

“Huh,” said Bob. “Me want steek.”

“One steek coming up,” said the waiter.

“No!” said Bob. “I want my food to come down, not up!”

“Okay okay okay,” said the waiter.

Thirty minutes later, the food came and the food was soup. But it was supposed to be steak.

Bob was sleeping, so he said, “Steek.” On the menu there was steek soup, so they thought that he wanted soup. Then, Bob sued the waiter immediately and walked out with a one hundred dollar bill.

He tried to be generous to the other tables that sat there and didn’t do anything, so he left the bill there. Then, the waiter took the bill back. Then, Bob and Bobby left and sat inside of the car. Bob turned on the wheel, and they started for home. They got into twenty-five car crashes, and then Bobby called Bob so forgetful because they forgot to stop the robber. Then, they took the same car they crashed and went slower than walking speed. They arrived with zero crashes because they were going so slow. Then when they arrived at the bank, they saw footsteps going one way. It was a fork in the road, so they chose to follow the footsteps. But the robber had put the footsteps there, so they would follow that path.

“This can only mean one thing,” Bob said. “We go the other way.”

They walked the other way, and then they saw a fifty dollar bill on the other road. So they picked it up and walked that way because that was probably where the robber was since he dropped the money.

“At least we got half of the money back!” Bob said and he put it in the bank because the bank never moved and to return some of the money the robber stole.

Then, they continued walking on that road which led into a driveway. They didn’t notice, so they kept walking, and Bobby got hit by a car. He got a concussion and broke his back, so they had to go back home on foot.

Three months later, they arrived bruised and barely breathing. Then, they went to the hospital, and Bobby got a lot of casts and wasn’t allowed to walk for another week, but he wasn’t going to die. Bob was sad, and Bobby was happy. Bob was upset that Bobby didn’t die because Bobby didn’t behave well on their vacation. So, Bob went alone while Bobby couldn’t walk. He walked and walked and walked, but soon he figured out that he wasn’t at the bank, he was in Hawaii.

“At least it’s not as bad as when I was in Australia, but it’s still really bad,” said Bob.

When he came back to New York, he bought a car, but sadly the car shop was right next to the bank, so he wasted all his money, and now he was broke. He didn’t get a receipt, so he couldn’t return the car. At least I got a new car for the family, he thought. But he was daydreaming and crashed the car into the bank. He tried to sue the guy that sold the car, but he couldn’t because it was his own fault. So, he couldn’t sue. So, he walked into the bank through the hole he made in the wall.

He saw the broken money holders inside the bank that the robber broke open. The robbery was over a year ago, so Bob was now ten. He was smarter now, so he followed the old money path which was actually a twenty-six mile loop. So then he followed the highway.

He was going to do anything to find food. At least he found Burger King. He tried to go inside, but it was shut down. So, he had to continue his road to the robber. Bob was exhausted. He wished that he had brought Bobby with him. Then, he saw Bobby right behind him. He looked even more exhausted than him and was wearing a ripped pillow case. He said that he broke out of the hospital, and the hospital dogs attacked him. He managed to outsmart them by making them slam into a wall. But while he was doing this, he was attacked, but he ran away. So. they broke inside the Burger King and ate all their food. Then when Bobby came out, he looked at Bob.

“You’re as big as a balloon,” Bobby said.

Bob agreed and tried to run, but he toppled over. He bruised his arm. Then, Bobby saw something. It was a person in a black ski mask. It was the robber. Bobby tried to catch up to him, but the robber was too fast, and Bobby ate too much, so he toppled over too. Bob and Bobby couldn’t get up, so they had to roll wherever they went.

Finally, they got to the wall and were able to get up. Then, they both threw up and lost all their weight. They ran the way the robber went. They finally saw the robber pickpocketing someone at a five star restaurant. Bob was just about to tackle him, but the robber took the guy he stole the wallet from, so instead Bob tackled the innocent person. Bob asked him what his name was and said sorry, and then ran after the robber with Bobby. Then, they saw the police. The robber pulled Bob to the side and put his ski mask on his head and gave the money to Bob. Then, the police thought that Bob was the robber.

Then, the guy that the robber pickpocketed said, “No, it’s not Bob. It’s someone else.”

They found the robber, and luckily the police were faster than the robber, and they caught him.

“Finally! It was an exhausting year, but we finally caught him,” said Bob.

Finally, Bob got to ride in a car with a good driver, and the police didn’t let him sit in the front seat. Bob and Bobby were put into jail because they broke out last time. They were there for two months and had a great time in jail. There was Wi-Fi, so they got to do everything they wanted to do on their electronics. And the food service was much better than at Wolfgang. They didn’t deserve to be sued.

“This is perfect,” Bob told Bobby.

“Yeah,” said Bobby. “I’ve never had an experience better than this one.”

“I love jail,” said Bob. “We should ask for an extra night.”

“Yeah. But sadly my parents are screaming outside for me, so I don’t think that can happen,” said Bobby.

When the two months were over, they were released, and they both went home with their parents. But when Bob got home, it turned out that his parents were at Wolfgang, and Bob walked all the way there on his bare feet. The moment he got there, his mom spanked him so many times because he crashed their cars and the Lamborghini. They had to sell all their property for more money and gave the money to Bobby’s parents so that they could make fun for all of them. They also built a new part of Bobby’s house to make the house bigger. But sadly, there was no Wi-Fi in Bobby’s house, so they stretched the Wi-Fi closer to their house. Then, Bob and Bobby got their Xboxes and played. After five hours of screen time, they finally left the TV.

Then, they saw the robber’s son outside the door looking for his dad in jail. So, Bob and Bobby picked up the baby and walked all the way to jail and threw him into the cell with a bottle of milk. Then, they bought a toy car for their house to learn how to drive. They were no better than they were in a real car. They bumped into everything and broke a vase and turned over tables in three minutes.

“This isn’t the worst we’ve done. Remember the Lamborghini?” said Bob. “We wasted so much money.”

While they were walking home, Bob saw his new best friend on the street. Because Bobby wasn’t his friend anymore, he was his brother because they lived in the same house. Bobby asked Bob’s mom what was dinner.

Bob’s mom said, “We’re going to Wolfgang restaurant.”

Bob said, “No way, I’m never going there. I sued them.”

“Too bad,” Bob’s mom said. “But this time instead of walking, we’re going in a taxi.”

When they arrived, the same waiter they sued was serving them. Bob and Bobby ran all the way home screaming. They ran into the bathroom and locked the door. The waiter did the same thing. All the parents sued the restaurant and walked home.

Wolfgang and their home were eighteen miles apart. They were exhausted when they got home and asked Bob and Bobby how they walked almost one hundred and fifty miles nonstop.

Bob said, “You just need a person with you who always wears a ripped pillow case for a shirt.” Then, Bobby’s mom glared at him. Bob said, “Sorry.”

Then, Bobby gave him a slap on the back, and they roasted chicken wings with bbq sauce, french fries, and mashed potatoes. They had salad for an appetizer. Bob and Bobby were so hungry that they gobbled everything down at the speed of sound.

Then Bob said, “Do you think we’ll do this again?”

“I don’t know,” Bobby said, and everyone laughed.

 

My name is Peanut. I am a robot. Not one of those robots who takes over the world, or steals all of your jobs and makes you homeless. Instead, I am a helper robot. That means a robot who will help you clean the stinky bathroom, or clean the dusty attic, or wipe your butt. Right now, I am helping Red. I am helping him clean the stinky bathroom, and clean the attic, and wipe his butt.

Every Saturday, he goes out and does not come back until midnight. He wears something called a ski mask and comes back with a buttload of money. One day, I asked him what he was doing on Saturdays.

“None of your beeswax, stupid robot. Now wipe my butt.”

So, I wiped his butt.

 

Red Hood

 

Beep beep beep beep. Did I mention that I am also a portable alarm clock? It was Sunday, and as expected, he came back last night wearing a black ski mask and holding two bags with dollar signs on them. I knew it was weird, but I did not say anything. Today he woke up, and I brushed his teeth, and I dressed him, and he used the bathroom, so I had to wipe his butt. Then, he went downstairs and turned on the TV.

“In the year 3014, we have been having an all time record in crime thanks to the Red Hood who has attacked banks all over Brooklyn. He has stolen over 100 million dollars in one day and in total has stolen 600 million dollars. Watch out, Brooklyn. The Red Hood is a master criminal.”

Red just chuckled.

 

Morning Routine

 

Today I asked him what he doing again because I knew something was happening. I just could not put my robotic finger on it.

All he said was, “Nothing,” and my programming says to agree with Red no matter if I know it is false or not, so I nodded and went upstairs to clean the attic

Today is Tuesday, and we did our morning routine, which is to wake Red up, then brush his teeth, then wipe his butt, which was not even dirty today. There was no poop on that butt at all. Then, I cleaned the attic. Then, I did everything else that a helper robot is programmed to do.

 

Red Hood and Red

 

Today is another Saturday, so I expect Red to leave soon. I asked him again because I am starting to figure out that Red is not going to a bar and getting drunk or something, but he is doing something secret that he really does not want me to know, even though I can help him.

This time, he tells me this, “Okay, if I tell you, then will you stop asking me.” I nodded. “Okay, I’ll tell you.’’ He started to whisper, then he looked around to make sure that no one was around. “I am Red Hood.”

 

When the Police Get Involved

 

“Okay.”

“Wait, that’s it?”

“You’re not gonna say ‘what’ or ‘no way?’”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

Then, he got up and left to be Red Hood once again. Another part of my programming says that I have to tell the police if something bad may happen or if I find a criminal. So I called the police over to the house.

When they came, they said stuff like, “Who’s Red Hood.”

So I answered, “Red Revata.” (Red’s full name.)

“Where is he?” one cop said.

“Robbing a bank.”

“What??!! Oh dang it, we gotta go!”

“We got a Red Hood to catch!!”

Then, all the police got into the cars and went to the Boop Street Bank. But because I am programmed to help Red no matter what… I went to Boop Street Bank.

 

Red Hood and the Police (and a few sentences about me on the road.)

 

Inside the Boop Street Bank…

 

“I wonder how much I’ll get today ha ha.” Yuop yuop yuop yuop. “Oh come on, not the police.”

(Remember the year is 3014, so the tech is going to be a little bit more advanced.) Then, he pulled out his lazer gun. Then, he aimed at the ceiling and jumped right out onto the roof. Then, he ran and jumped from building to building while the police was still looking for him in the bank.

 

One the street…

 

“Get outta the road!!”

“Go to ya rich owner robots!!”

Then, I spotted Red! Well, it was Red Hood, but Red Hood is also Red, so it was Red Hood and Red. He stopped to breathe, and while he was doing that, I climbed up the building he was standing on. Then just as I got to the top, the police emerged from the hole in the bank roof.

 

We were talking a bunch.

“Peanut??!! What are you doing here??”

“My programming says that I need to help you when you are in potential danger.”

“How did you know that I was going to be chased on rooftops?”

“Because when I called the police on you — ”

“You did WHAT!!!”

“I called the police.”

“Yeah, you told me that.”

“Then I told them that you are Red Hood.”

“Uhhhhh why?”

“Because my — ”

“Right your programming blah blah blah.”

“You may want to run now.”

“Why?”

“Because while we were talking the police caught up to us.”

“Uh oh.”

 

The Escape

 

“Come here, Red Hood!! Your robot exposed you!!” Then he swung his nightstick around in the air like a lasso.

“Run, Peanut, run!!”

“Why?”

“Oh, I don’t have time for this.”

Then, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over the rooftops. We jumped from building to building to get to Red’s house. But the police were catching up slowly. So, Red pulled me harder, trying to make me go any faster.

Red is writing now: You don’t know how heavy a pure metal robot is.

Finally, we make it to the area where Red’s house is.

“How do we get down from here Peanut?” Red asked.

“I have plungers,” I said.

Red is writing now: I was confused that Peanut had plungers of all things. I mean plungers! Who has plungers!! But I guess they did help us get down from the building.

Red and I got down from the building thanks to my plungers. (I kiss my plungers in the background.) Once we got inside, Red ran to the kitchen and made a FOR SALE sign. Then, he went outside and hung up the FOR SALE sign. Then when the police came down from the building, somehow they came to the house and thought, I guess they aren’t here.

 

The Last One.

 

“I am so mad at you, Peanut!!”

“I am sorry, but I don’t really have feelings.”

“Then learn!!”

Then, he stormed up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door behind him with a bam!!

I carefully snuck up the stairs to make sure Red didn’t hear me. Then, I slowly knocked on the door. Clack clack clack.

“Get out.”

“My programming says — ”

“I don’t care. Just go.”

“Bu — ”

“Go… I said go!! Your stupid programming almost got me arrested!!” He took a deep breath and said, “For the last time… Go.”

Then, I walked down the stairs. Walked out the doors. And turned myself in to the police.

 

The End

 

 

The man, the leader of the TCOEP, told Matthew and Michael that he would be coming for them and walked away into the dust and disappeared.

 

“That was strange,” said Matthew after the leader of the TCOEP walked away.

 

“Yeah, he could have just got us right there,” said Michael as they reached their airplanes.

 

When they finally got to the base, it was already dawn. But the brothers didn’t get to rest for long. After they ate breakfast, the enemy alarm blared, startling Matthew and Michael. When Matthew walked over to the enemy detection screen, he saw something that surprised him! He saw that the enemy was in the control room of the base.

 

“What the?” said Matthew.

 

“Let’s go check it out,” said Michael as they went into the control room. In the control room, they heard a bomb, five, four, three, two, one.

 

“Uh-oh,” said Matthew as the bomb exploded.

 

When they woke up, Matthew and Michael found that they were in a jail cell in the TCOEP base. The jail cell was dirty, and there was a rusty bucket in the corner and an old bench and an emergency pack.

 

“Now what should we do?” asked Michael.

 

“I have an idea,” said Matthew, smiling and pulling out a chainsaw and slicing through the steel bars.

 

“Where did that chainsaw come from?” asked Michael.

 

“From the emergency pack over there,” said Matthew. “I bet they never check that emergency pack because all the criminals stuffed all their weapons in the emergency pack.”

 

“Now let’s get out of here!” yelled Michael as they broke out of the jail with weapons.

 

Getting out of the jail was not easy. There was a huge group of troopers guarding the base, so they had to sneak around a lot.

 

When they got outside, they saw that they were on a tall mountain and their base was in the distance.

 

“How are we going to get to our base?” asked Michael.

 

The brothers did not have a lot of time to think, because soon they were surrounded by troopers in black suits pointing rifles at them.

 

“Hands up!” said a trooper.

 

“Never!” Matthew yelled back as he and Michael got out guns from the emergency pack and started shooting.

 

Finally, the troopers surrendered.

 

“Where are the aircraft hangars?” asked Matthew to the troopers.

 

“They are right there,” said one of the troopers, pointing to a tall building.

 

Soon, they were on a helicopter flying back to their base. “Home sweet home!” said Michael as the helicopter landed.

 

Back in the base, the brothers received a message from their boss. The message said, Dear Matthew and Michael, please join the Navy. Sincerely, your boss.

 

Once upon a time, Amy was walking through the village, when she was thinking of having a bake sale to raise money for the animal shelter that was going out of business. So, as the caring person that she was, she wanted to help the animal shelter. As a use to staff, she wanted to help the shelter, so no animal had to suffer and not have a family. When she looked at the shelter, there was a sign. It said, We will close on July 10 at 8pm, which was today, (goal: $1,000).

After she read the sign, she said to herself, “l can do this.”

So, she quickly went to the bakery and found some items. The first item in her shopping list was a pumpkin pie (the cost: $5.00). The second item on the list was a blueberry muffin (the cost: $2.10). The next item were brownies (the cost:$2.00). The second to last item was a red velvet cake (cost: $7.70). The last item on the list was, of course, lemonade (cost: $2.75). After finishing the list, Amy started building the bake sale stand. When the stand was finished, she started to sell. When she started, she noticed nobody wanted to buy anything, until an old woman came. This old woman was actually a witch with long white hair, long nails, a hunchback, and lots of pimples.

She told Amy, “Why did you make this stand.”

Amy said, “To help the animal shelter.”

When Amy finished serving the old woman, she said, “I would give you luck, my young one.”

Once she said that, a bunch of people were coming to the bake sale. When it was about 7:30, Amy closed up her stand and counted her money. When she finished counting her money, she started sprinting all the way to the animal shelter. When she was there, she started talking to the man next to the animal shelter.

“Wait, wait. I have the money to save the animal shelter.”

“Wait, what? We’re not closing for good. We’re just moving.”

“What about the goal?”

“That’s for moving.”

“What about the closing date?”

“That date was the last day it will be there, but if you don’t need the money, we can use it here.”

“Aggh, just take the money.”

Ever since that day, Amy always asked for more details. Dummy Amy lived happily ever after.

 

The end.

 

Once upon a time there was a little fairy whose name was Randall. Randall didn’t have any friends. She travelled all over the world to find one. She looked high, and she looked low. There were lots of other fairies in the world. Some fairies were mean, but Randall knew there were lots more fairies in the world, so she kept saying in her head, “I’m going to keep looking until I find a friend.”

So, that’s what she did. She kept looking. She had a little rhyme: just keep looking, just keep looking. Every time she felt like giving up, she kept saying that rhyme, until one day Randall found some friends. There was a boy fairy named Jack, and there was a girl fairy named Galia. They loved living together. Until one day, they had to face a very big task.

They were told to go to a tiki’s cave to kill it because it wrecked their world. So, they packed their food, and then they set off for the tiki’s cave. The tiki was a lava tiki. It was as tall as an adult with big black eyes, and it was speaking a weird kind of language. They had to take a plane and a boat, because the tiki’s cave was on an island. Then, they were right in front of the tiki’s cave. Good thing they had a rope and a cage, and they had packed it with their food.

They wanted to tie the tiki up and put her in the cage. So, while Jack gave the tiki an apple and a bunch of bananas to distract her, Galia tied her up, and then Randall put her in the cage. Then, Jack gave her the food in her cage. They had packed an arrow to kill her. But the tiki had a whole family of tikis!

They only had one cage and one rope. So, they thought and thought, and then they found an idea. Their idea was that they were going to open the tiki’s cage, untie her, and then Jack was going to put so much food in the cage so that all the tikis would go in the cage and eat the food. While they ate the food, Galia would tie them up, and then Randall would close the cage and lock it.

Their idea worked! The tikis fell for the trick! But now they were stranded on the island. They didn’t know what to do. So, they thought, and they thought, and they found an idea. First, they put the tikis in the water, so they would die. They would die because water melts lava, and then the friends would use the cage as a boat. And good thing they packed swimsuits, because in case they were too heavy for the cage, the cage would sink down, and they would have to swim. And they brought their swimming caps. The cage did sink, so they swam and swam until they reached their world. But the tikis did not die.

The tikis were special tikis. They came back to Randall, Jack, and Galia’s world. The tikis were really, really mad that they fell for the trick. They were speaking their weird language, and it sounded really mad. They started throwing lava balls at Jack, Randall, and Galia. Jack, Randall, and Galia dodged out of the way. Then, Jack, Randall, and Galia got mad too. They threw rocks at the tikis. The tikis got even madder. But then, there was some lava from the tikis’ lava balls. And then, Jack, Randall, and Galia realized that the tikis would melt in the lava. But they knew that the tikis wouldn’t fall for the trick again. So, they shoved the tikis into the lava. Then, the tikis melted down. Jack, Randall, and Galia lived happily ever after.

 

The End

 

 

Hey, stop reading this. This is private!!!

 

Intro

 

July 1, 2019

 

“Let’s go!” Emily’s mom yelled up the stairs. “Time to get ready for camp!”

 

Blond-haired Emily got on her cat shirt and plain red shorts, then screamed back, “I’m ready. Are you ready?”

 

Then, she rushed down the stairs, snarfed down her breakfast, then got in the gray car with her mom. Emily was off to her first day of camp.

 

When Emily and her mom reached the Starry Sleepaway bus stop, they played would you rather with a few other kids for about 20 minutes until the bus arrived. A bus load of kids then got on, chatting loud as thunder.

 

Okay, now here’s the action part.

 

When Emily and the rest of the camp finally got off the camp bus (after three hours), they rushed into their cabins. After everyone had found their bunks (Emily’s bed was in cardinal cabin, right at the very edge of diamond-shaped Starry Sleepaway) they went to bed and had a good night’s sleep, not knowing what would happen the next day.

 

July 2, 2019

 

Now this is the action part.

 

In the morning, everyone in cardinal cabin woke up to a huge blizzard outside. The rest of the camp didn’t know what was happening in that corner. The rest of the camp was unusually cold, though. Everyone except cardinal cabin was fine. The only thing that could’ve been better was if anyone had something other than thin raincoats. Only the people in that corner cabin ever glanced in that direction. Suddenly, the people in lion cabin started screaming. The blizzard was spreading!!!

 

Right now, I am running out of my cabin, mouse cabin oh no my hands are numb waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt df aehlckhf hcgdfGCSTDXYCdyvu xBVFzhdhfgvcbzfhFfgddtuhcshjfey

 

July 2, 2019

 

Sorry! As I unclearly said, my hands were numb. And, as I didn’t say at all, my pencil went out of control.

 

And guess what? I found a way to duplicate overprotective Emily’s coats.

 

Then, I invented teleportation, and, after breakfast, everyone ran through the portal back to Los Angeles.

 

And I, “dumb” Katie Blake, saved Starry Sleepaway.

 

THE END

 

Once, there was a little girl who really wanted to go to the playground. She asked her parents if they would take her, but they said, “No, we can’t take you because your little sister is sick, and we have to watch of her.” So, she went upstairs and tried to sneak out of the window by tying her blankets together to make a rope. Unfortunately, there was a window downstairs, and her parents were drinking tea near it, so they saw her climbing out. They caught her and brought her back to her room. They also locked her window, so she couldn’t get out again.

 

She tried everything to unlock the window, but she couldn’t, so she snuck downstairs to her sister’s room and tried to use those windows. Her sister screamed, and their parents came and saw her trying to sneak out again. They locked her sister’s windows too, then went back downstairs to finish their tea. She asked her sister, “Why did you scream?”

 

Her sister said, “Because you’re not allowed to go the park, and you have to listen to our parents.”

 

“Yeah, but it’s not fair. Because of you, I can’t go to the park.”

 

“Well, it’s not my fault that I’m sick.”

 

“Yes, it is!”

 

“No, it’s not, and besides, our parents said that you can’t go because I’m sick, and they have to take care of me, and also you can’t go by yourself.”

 

“I’m old enough. I’m already eight.”

 

“Yeah, but still. Maybe when you’re 12, you can go by yourself.”

 

“But that’s such a long time!”

 

“It’s not my fault that you’re not patient.”

 

“I am being patient.”

 

“No, you’re not!”

 

“I have to wait four years!”

 

“Yeah, but that’s not so long you know.”

 

“Yeah, for you it’s not. Maybe I could wait for four minutes, but four years is way too long.”

 

“No, it’s not. Besides, four minutes is like one second.”

 

“No, it’s not.”

 

“Yes, it is.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Yeah, well at least I can wait for four minutes.”

 

“Yeah, but you can’t even wait for one hour. That’s so short.”

 

The older sister angrily walked away because she was frustrated that her sister was being annoying. She kept looking out the window at the park. Then, she went downstairs to the dining room where her parents were finishing their tea, and she made up a lie about how her sister’s fever was all gone and she felt better now. But the parents went upstairs to check for themselves. They came back down and said, “Well, it got a little better, so maybe you can go to the park.”

 

She asked, “So is that a yes?”

 

Then, her dad said, “Okay, it’s a yes. Mom will stay with your sister, and I’ll bring you to the park.” They got ready, and she did end up getting to go to the park after all.

 

The End

 

It all started with individuals who were monster hunters, Mike, Kevin, Chelsea, and Ruth.

Mike was by himself. He was in a Dragon Cave. It was damp and cold, and Mike was really scared. There was a big Fountain of Fire below the King Dragon. He was fighting a flying dark red thing. He was fighting the king dragon.

“Ahhhhhh!” said Mike as he got caught on fire. The dark scaled dragon just burned him with his fire breath. Mike ran at the dragon and sliced the dragon in half with his sword. Dragon got really hurt and fell to the ground.

“Did I kill him?” Mike asked. No, the dragon rose up and scratched him with his claws right in the face.

“Agh!” Mike screamed in pain. He was bleeding. Down his face with gushing blood. Mike ran at the King Dragon again and sliced him but instead of slicing him he first he jumped on the dragon’s arm. He jumped on his shoulder and stabbed him in his head. Finally, the dragon died. As he disintegrated into dust, more dragons came at Mike.

“Be ready,” Mike said to himself, and he killed all the dragons. Finally, he got what he wanted — the Sacred Sword, the most powerful weapon in the world. He still couldn’t believe he killed the most powerful dragon ever lived. The Sacred Sword was gold and unbreakable, and it had a diamond embedded in the middle of the handle. He went out and went to fight some more.

Meanwhile… Kevin was in the grasslands fighting thousands of zombies and a two-headed dragon. The grass was almost up to Kevin’s thigh in the middle of nowhere.

“This new planet is dangerous!” Kevin screamed as he was slashing the zombies. “I’m already burning!” he shouted. “Eh, at least I’m immune to fire,” Kevin said.

The two-headed dragon got really mad because Kevin didn’t get hurt. So it sprayed water out of its other head and almost drowned Kevin.

“Mmph!” said Kevin as he tried to breathe. He was drowning until…

Mike suddenly appeared. With his awesome new sword he killed all the zombies plus the two-headed dragon and broke the stone that was guarding the water that made Kevin drown.

“Hi,” said Kevin nervously. “How did you know I was here?”

“I was just wondering around fighting monsters looking for shelter,” replied MIke.

“Oh,” Kevin whispered in fear. Kevin was still scared about what just happened.

“My name is Mike. Do you have a shelter?” asked Mike.

“My name is Kevin. I don’t have a shelter. Want to go find one and team up?” Kevin said.

“Sure,” Mike said happily.

As they were wandering around, they heard something coming from the woods, so they got their weapons out. But instead of a monster, a small girl came out from the woods really really scared. She had brown hair and leaves were stuck to it. She was bleeding a lot and had a dagger in her right hand.

“You’re not monsters, are you?” the little girl asked.

“No,” they replied. “What’s your name?” they asked.

“Chelsea,” she replied. (Just so you know, I forgot to introduce this, but Mike was seventeen, Kevin was fifteen, Chelsea was ten, and Ruth was thirteen.)

“How much have you been fighting?” they asked Chelsea.

“I don’t know, but it’s been a lot of days,” Chelsea said. “Can I join you for fighting and team up?”

“Sure,” Mike and Kevin said.

All three of them were looking for shelter to sleep. They found a little cabin that was abandoned.

“Let’s sleep in there,” said Kevin.

“I’d rather sleep in the dragon’s cave,” Mike murmured.

As they approached, they got their weapons out in case any monsters were in there. When they went in, they heard a noise, but it was just spiders.

Chelsea said, “Should we break the spiderwebs and kill the spiders?”

“No! Well, yes. Break the spiderwebs, but don’t kill the spiders. They’re just harmless bugs.” But then…

Mutant spiders jumped out and attacked them.

“Ahhhhh!” they all screamed. But they all still fought back. After they killed all the mutant spiders, Chelsea found the lights. When the lights were on, they saw skeletons and spiderwebs.

“Looks like a lot of people died here,” said Mike.

“Yup,” Kevin agreed.

“Let’s clean this place up,” Chelsea said nervously.

After they cleaned the place up, they slept there for a night. “At least we have a shelter. We should track our places, so we can find it. Maybe it can be our home,” Kevin said.

They then went off into the woods, looking for other people. (I know what you’re thinking, Why don’t they have parents? Well this was why: their parents died because of the monsters, so the children want revenge.)

As they were searching, they saw a dragon. But immediately, the dragon died. “What just happened?” Chelsea asked.

As the dragon disintegrated, they saw another girl and slowly approached her.

“What’s your name,” Chelsea asked the girl.

“Ruth,” the girl said in pain. She was just caught in fire and was bloody. She was super scared.

“Why are you scared?” Kevin asked.

“How did you know I was scared?” replied Ruth.

“You look frightened,” said Kevin.

“Oh,” she said nervously.

“Want to team up with us?” Mike asked.

“Okay,” she said, feeling safe now.

“Let’s bring her to the shelter,” Chelsea said.

“Okay, let’s choose a leader,” Mike said. “I personally feel like I should be the leader.”

“Why do you think that?” Chelsea asked annoyed.

“Well, I have the strongest weapon, I’m the oldest, and I saved someone named Kevin,” replied Mike.

Noble enough, they all agreed, and Mike was their new leader.

As they were searching for the king of all monsters, Bast, if they killed him they just need to kill all the monsters in the world because Bast keeps on spawning new monsters. If he was dead, Bast wouldn’t be able to spawn new monsters anymore. And so they went off searching for Bast and his portal to bring him to a planet where no one can get to (well, they can get to it if they go in the portal).

As they were searching, they found lots of monsters and killed them. They still got hurt a lot.

They were all gushing blood. Ruth said, “We should really get stuff to stop our bleeding.”

“Yeah, we really should,” said Mike.

“Well, at least we can still fight and heal over time, just really slowly,” said Chelsea.

“You got that right,” said Kevin.

“Maybe we could craft access to chop down wood, and I have the strongest weapon, so we all have weapon, so we can get sheep, take the wool, and make it into little fluffy stuff. We could take the tree and maybe get some sap to make medicine. Then with the fluffy stuff, we could put it over our wounds to make the bleeding stop,” Mike said.

(This was what the characters looked like, if you’re wondering).

Ruth has blonde hair, white skinned, red eyes (not fully red, just the center), she has a light blue shirt green pants, and white shoes. Mike has blue eyes, light brown hair, a white shirt, red pants, and black shoes.

Chelsea has green eyes, blue shirt, white pants, and red shoes. kevin has grey eyes, blue pants, black shirt, and red shoes. Just so you know Mike was son of Poseidon, Ruth son of Hades, Chelsea son of Demeter, and Kevin son of Athena) Back to the story…

“Ruth! Mike! Kevin!” Chelsea screamed in fear.

“What!” Mike screamed.

“A dragon hoard!” Chelsea screamed in fear again.

The dragon heard Chelsea. They started running, but suddenly there was a 200 foot cliff. They couldn’t run anymore, so they fought back. Mike chopped off one of the dragon’s head, but suddenly, it grew back two more.

“I’ve heard of this monster before,” Mike said. “Hydra!” he yelled.

When they could run, they ran right to the shelter.

“We need wood to make a torch. The only way you can defeat a Hydra is by chopping off its head and lighting the neck on fire with the torch,” Mike said as he was hiding.

“I’ve stored some wood,” Ruth said.

“Great,” Mike replied.

Then, they made a torch with rocks and wood. They went out, Mike chopped off all of the Hydra’s heads, and quickly set the necks on fire. Mike got stabbed by one of their claws and was bleeding a lot. He was still alive, but really hurt.

As they got the fluff from the sheep they killed earlier, Mike put it on his stomach to heal.

“We need something better than sheep fluff,” Kevin said. “We need sheeps for beds.”

“How about we make rubber and take a tiny bit of sheep fluff to make bandages and wrappings?” Mike suggested.

“Okay, that will do,” Chelsea said.

“Okay,” Mike said. “We have to make teams. Ruth and I will cut down trees with our swords. Kevin and Chelsea, you kill sheep.”

“Okay,” they all agreed.

Ruth and Mike came back with 162 logs.

“All we need to do is turn the sap in this wood into rubber,” Mike said.

Meanwhile, when Chelsea and Kevin were killing sheep, they were attacked. But this time, not from a monster, but by a grizzly bear.

“This should be easy,” Chelsea said.

But it wasn’t. The grizzly bear was a monster. It transformed into a dragon.

“Actually, this is going to be hard,” Kevin said.

They kept on slashing the dragon until it finally died. They were all bleeding a lot. When they went back to the shelter, they came back with 652 pounds of wool.

“Great, now we just need to find leather,” Mike said.

“Maybe we can use the dragon skin as leather,” Kevin replied.

“Sure,” Mike said happily. At last, they were going to have four beds.

“Now we can sleep and also probably get annoyed, but still sleep!” Chelsea said excitedly.

“We need to make this shelter or bunker monster-proof, so they won’t annoy us at night,” Ruth said.

“Good thinking,” Mike complemented her.
“Thank you,” Ruth said.

Kevin and Chelsea were making beds, and Mike and Ruth were using sap to make rubber. Ruth and Mike finished make rubber. “Now we just need to add the cotton, also known as sheep fluff stuffing, onto the middle of the rubber,” Mike said.

Mike and Ruth finished at the same time as Kevin and Chelsea, and it was great timing. It was midnight.

Each of them went on their new bed and fell asleep immediately. In the morning, they went outside and collected some mint.

Then, all four of them went out and got some wood. They broke the back of shelter and then upgraded the shelter with the wood.

“Can we call the shelter home?” Kevin asked.

“Yes” Mike replied.

Their home was awesome. “Now we just need to go too the underworld!” Mike said.

“I thought you can’t get out once you go in,” Kevin said.

“Only for mortals, not demigods,” Mike said back.

They were searching and searching. “We should really get a car!” Chelsea complained.

“You’re right” Mike agreed.

Then they went and chopped some trees. Got sap, metal, and sand. Finally they had a car. they didn’t know where they going.

“We should really make a computer,” Mike said.

“You really know how to build anything!” Ruth said surprised.

Mike had the pieces to make a computer in his backpack, but he threw out the instructions because he didn’t need them. He was very smart. He removed the motherboard from its packaging, removed the processor from its packaging, inserted the processor into the motherboard, applied the thermal paste to the computer, attached the heatsink, installed the random access memory, and installed the backplate on the back of the case. They turned on the computer and it said, “You’ll find the Underworld in the country Russia, city Kazan.”

As they were driving to the Underworld, Mike asked Siri, “How many hours does it take to get to Kazan?”

“It’ll take two hours to go to the airport, and eighteen hours and thirty minutes to go to Kazan with the airplane,” said Siri.

“Okay, let’s go!” said Ruth happily.

“But we’ll need to stop by a hotel,” said Mike. “Siri, look up hotels.”

“Look, I found The Emerald Hotel,” Siri suggested.

“It looks like it’s really good, and it’s only $62. It has a massage place, a pool, lights for nighttime swimming, large parking lot, beautiful rooms, furnitures, and an awesome kitchen,” Mike said as he was driving to the airport.

“It’s $62 per night,” Ruth said.

“Oh,” Mike said.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” said Kevin. “I have like $375.”

“Good,” Chelsea said.

When they were at the airport, it was almost midnight. Finally, they were going to Russia. They were so excited to go to the hotel

When they got to Russia, it was six in the afternoon. They were in their hotel getting unpacked.

Ruth said, “Good thing they didn’t know about our weapons,” as they took their weapons out of their bag.

As they were resting, Ruth asked, “Can just chill out for a couple of days because we’re not timed, and I just want to look around first.”

“Okay,” Mike agreed. “I’ll be in the pool.”

“Right, son of Poseidon,” Kevin remembered. (If you think that the godparents died, well that’s not true. They’re immortal. If you keep on polluting, and there’s no more wilderness, then Pan will fade away. So only their foster parents died.)

Chelsea was exploring the forest. Ruth was looking around, and Kevin was practicing fighting in the forest so no one saw him.

Six days passed. They were finally ready to go into the Underworld. When they found the Underworld, it said on the dirt ground:

 

Αλίμονο σε όλες τις ψυχές που κατεβαίνουν εδώ

 

“Woe to all souls who go down here,” Mike translated.

Suddenly the ground opened.

They went in the hole. How deep was the hole? Chelsea asked herself. Suddenly the stopped falling.

“I think we’re there,” Ruth said nervously.

They opened the doors. Then they saw it, Bast’s throne was right in front of them. All of the ran at him at the same time. Mike stabbed him in the head, Ruth stabbed him in the chest and slice his heart in half, Kevin cut his arms of, and Chelsea sliced his body in half again and again until he finally died.

“Yes, we killed him,” Mike said.

Suddenly, four pearls floated down from where his chest was. Then, Mike passed out.

 

THE END

 

 

Part One

 

Gordon and David were sitting on the couch in Gordon’s house.

“Remember the lava people?” Gordon said to David.

“Yeah, those dudes were creepy.”

“Do you think they’re coming to get revenge?”

“Not sure. They don’t even have a spaceship, so how can they get here?”

“Let’s watch the news.”

David and Gordon looked at the news. The news said that a lava spaceship was about to land on Lexicon. David and Gordon freaked out and ran to where the spaceship was going to land. Brain was there.

“What’s going on?” Brain, David, and Gordon said at the same time.

The spaceship landed, and three dozen lava monsters came out and started chasing everyone. Everyone got on spaceships and took off. David, Gordon, and Brain’s families got onto one big spaceship and took off.

 

To be continued…

 

Part Two

 

At Lexicon, many more lava spaceships landed, and the entire population of the lava monsters, 5,000, took over Lexicon. At Pizton, Brain, David, and Gordon were practicing with their blasters. They tried to fight but not destroy lava monsters. Gordon asked the king to give them a few fighters because 3,000 of the 5,000 lava monsters were fighters and the 5,000 person population of Lexicon only had 1000 fighters, including Brain, David, and Gordon.

The mayor of Lexicon asked for 2,000 more fighters because the population of Pizton was 20,000 people. The troops of Lexicon made their way to the planets of Lexicon and started shooting with their tanks at Lexicon.

Pew! Pew!

But their tanks got destroyed by the lava tanks. They jumped at Lexicon and started shooting with their blasters. There was a giant fight. The lava monster captured 2,000 of the Lexicon troops. The Lexicon troops also captured 2,000 of the lava monster troops. Lexicon was winning! There were 2,000 more people left, and there were only 1,000 lava monsters left.

The lava monsters surrendered. Brain, David, and Gordon let the lava monsters free and, the lava monster let the Lexicons free. They combined forces and made a truce that they would never fight again. David, Gordon, and Brain went to bed because of the long fight.

On the lava planet, the red monsters had taken over, and they had 25,000 troops.

 

THE END

 

Once upon a time, there was a tree named Tom who was very weak because he had no water and sunlight. No one thought he would make very good wood, so everyone didn’t want to go near him. The tree was sad. He said to himself, “I wish somebody was here to help me grow.” The next day, he had completely forgotten about what he had said yesterday. All he was doing was staring at the dry grass. Suddenly, he saw a mouse walking by. He remembered what he had said about growing. He said to the mouse, “Can you please give me sunlight and water to help me grow.” The mouse agreed. First, he got a ladder and a lightbulb. Then, he climbed up the tree and put the lightbulb on top of the tree. The tree took in all the sunlight. Then, the mouse got a watering can full of water and watered every single bit of the tree. When the tree was feeling much better, he thanked the mouse for helping him.

 

The End

Once upon a time on Earth, there was a little town, and a few families lived there. The town was located in Canada. One day, there was an alien invasion. And all the families were scared. The aliens were trying to chase them, but the aliens got tired, so the aliens got into their spaceship and went back to Mars. The family consisted of a mom, a dad, one daughter — Alshia — and two sons — Varaaj and Daniel.

After returning to Mars, the aliens remembered they accidentally left their kid on Earth. So, they went back to Earth and found that one of the human families was taking care of the kid. At first glance, the aliens thought the family took the kid away. So, the aliens started chasing the family. The family gave the kid back, but the aliens still thought the family took the kid. Then, the other families in the town explained to the aliens that the family was taking care of the kid, and the aliens apologized about the whole invasion and promised not to bother Earth.

 

The end.

 

           

Prologue

The mother ran and ran as far as she could. She had to get food for her young one! She could feel her feet getting laden, but she knew she had to go on. Her creation she had brought into the world had to live on.

She felt her chest screaming for air. Her mind was battling with her body. No grubs in this one. She realized she didn’t recognize the area anymore. Oh, no… If she didn’t recognize the area anymore, that meant… she felt the barrier sucking her in.

 

Chapter One

Kimi fluffed her brown feathers and waited for her mother to come home. She was achingly hungry, but still she waited. Finally, her hunger won over her. She knew she shouldn’t get out of the nest, but she wanted fooooood! She smelled with the nostrils at the end of her beak for grubs and detected one worming its way around the root of her tree, right outside her burrow. Gotcha! But the wriggling grub got out of her grasp. Bad grub!

Suddenly, she spotted a worm and snatched it up. This time, she was successful. Kimi hoped that was enough to sustain her hunger. Then, she sensed footsteps crashing towards her with her bristles on her mouth. Featherless! Kimi froze in terror.

“See, in the night it’s so beautiful here.”

She saw a bigger featherless speak to a smaller featherless, holding their longer wings that didn’t even look like wings. Then, the smaller one let go.

“Umm… you go on Mom. I’ll stay here for a sec,” the smaller one said.

They both had the long feathery strands on top of their heads running down (which indicated that both were female). For both of them, the color of the strands was light yellow. The kiwi wasn’t used to seeing in the dark, so it could see color.

Kimi was frozen now too, not in terror, but in curiosity. The bigger featherless nodded her head and left. The smaller one squatted down.

“Hey, little one. Are you lost?” it said.

Kimi wasn’t sure who the featherless was talking to, but she squawked in return. The featherless smiled.

“I’m Maddie. What’s your name?”

Kimi did not know what to do, so she sat and stared.

“You seem lost.”

Kimi turned around and shook her tushie. Maddie laughed.

“You are one silly little bird,” she said. “My mom would kill me if she saw me taking you… but otherwise you’re going to die… ” She frowned.

Kimi shook her tushie again. It seemed to make her laugh. She did. Then, she scooped Kimi up and into a slit in her thing she wore over her. The slit turned out to be very comfortable. In it was also a green fruit with a brown cover. Kimi was still very hungry, for the worm had not satisfied her hunger. She dug her beak into the green fruit. It was delicious. By the time the featherless was reaching in to scoop her out, she had finished the fruit. “Hey! You finished my kiwi!” Maddie said. Kimi burped.

 

Chapter Two

Kimi was in Maddie’s room. She seemed to be fretting about something. Kimi could not understand what. She couldn’t understand human language (okay, maybe a bit), so when Maddie talked to her she was very confuddled. “How am I going to get you on the plane?” Maddie looked worried. Huh? The pwane sounded weird. But it looked scary to Maddie. “I guess I’ll just have to put you in my pocket,” Maddie said. “In fact, let’s practice now.” Maddie scooped her up into one of her slits in her cover she was wearing. Ohhhh, so the slits were called pokets. Kimi nestled in and slept. An hour later, which seemed like a minute to Kimi, Maddie reached inside her pocket and lifted her out. She had a smile on her face. “That was really good! We might even survive the metal detectors!” She was so happy that she was dancing. Kimi tried to imitate her moves and ended up flat on her back. Maddie laughed and then froze, for she heard a voice calling her.

“Maddie, it’s time to go to bed! You have a flight to New York tomorrow!” Maddie quickly shoved Kimi under a pillow.

Maddie said, “Yes, Mom!” and left the room. Kimi crawled out from under the pillow and found an unused napkin. She nestled in and slept (again).

 

Chapter Three

Kimi woke up in the poket. Maddie felt very tense, and Kimi did not know why. Maddie reached her wing in (which Kimi later learned were called hands) the poket, and Kimi nuzzled against it. Then, she felt some sort of metal probing around Maddie’s clothing. What? Why is Maddie letting herself be probed by metal? This was not right. Kimi went as far as she could next to Maddie’s body to avoid getting probed. She successfully did not get probed. Yay. And she fell asleep. Again.

After she woke up, Kimi realized that she was in the air. She didn’t know how, she just knew. She could feel it, even though she couldn’t see the blue of the sky through her slit. Ahem. Poket. She could see a gray cushion with a bar. Maddie was sitting on most of the gray cushion. She took Kimi out for a little bit though, where no one could see her.

“Wait until you get to New York City,” she said. “You’re going to love it!”

The city? If this was the city, Kimi did not like it. Though it was pretty cool that the city was in the air. Kimi snuggled against Maddie’s shirt. Maddie smiled. Suddenly, a bright

looking featherless came down the aisle rolling a big square stone. Maddie shoved Kimi in her poket. The bright featherless asked Maddie something, and Maddie replied. Soon Maddie had a cup of yellowish, fizzy water in front of her.

“Thanks for the ginger ale.”

Jinjer ail? What were all these new words? Kimi was very tired of these — these words. Or so she thought, until Maddie leaned over and said to the big featherless — who she originally saw when she first met Maddie.

“It’s not so bad to be on the plane after all, Mom.”

There it is again! Pwane! So they were in the pwane, huh? Not so bad, for a pwane! And the big featherless was Maddie’s mother? She hadn’t seen her own mother in quite a while. Her heart ached for her. She had never returned from her food expedition. What if she got snatched by a predator? And she couldn’t fly away from it! Kimi then made up her mind that she was going to learn to fly. It didn’t matter how. And, plus, she was with humans now. Her mother told her they could do almost anything, right? Much more than a kiwi could do. (Her mother also told her to stay away from them, but that wasn’t important… right?)

 

Chapter Four

They were finally off the plane and in the… city. They were on something which Kimi learned was a kar. She was back in Maddie’s slit. The city seemed pretty gray. She squawked to let Maddie know.

“What was that?” Maddie’s mother exclaimed.

“What?” inquired Maddie.

“That squawk!” her mother cried.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Maddie looked utterly confused.

“Oh, well. I must be hearing things.” Kimi was amazed. Maddie was a very good actor! She also resolved not to make any more sounds. Soon they came to a big stone slab that was shaped in a rectangular prism. Maddie’s mother sighed. “Home, again.”

Home??? This slab was not home. In fact, Kimi wondered if she’d ever go home again.