One day, there were two brothers named Kye and Mac. They both played on a soccer team called the Bulls. The Bulls had a perfect record in their games with Mac and Kye, the star players. They made it to a national tournament. Kye and Mac trained hard and they both felt confident, until one day Mac got tripped and hurt his leg. Kye didn’t feel confident anymore. The first game was in one week and the doctor wanted Mac to not do anything with his leg for a month! (Dramatic Music)

One week later, they both went to the soccer game, except Mac sat on the side. But he really wanted to play.

Nobody scored until 68 minutes and the other team scored.

But then at 79 minutes the Bulls scored.

The game went on until 89 minutes when the Bulls scored!!!

When the whistle was blown, the Bulls won!!!

Mac’s foot was still not healed, but getting better.

A week later, Mac went to a doctor’s appointment while Kye played again. Nobody scored at all until 90 minutes when Kye scored a free kick. The Bulls won!!!

When Kye got back, Mac was already there. Kye was so glad to hear that Mac could play in a week. In a week Mac went to practice before the game to make sure he was alright, and he was.

When the game started, Mac started with the ball and dribbled up the field and passed it to another teammate while Kye was back at goal getting ready (Kye is the goalkeeper).The other teammate passed it back to Mac and Mac scored!!! After the game, the team was proud of Mac. One of the team members even gave him Chelsea, Barca, and MLS soccer balls. At the next practice, a teammate was sliding and hit Kye! It really hurt for Kye and it turned out it was a broken leg just like Mac except the doctor said not to use it too much for one week. For the week they had to use the substitute goalkeeper.

After the week, they used Kye for the final game. The Bulls started with the ball (again) and almost scored, but the goalkeeper saved it but Mac got the rebound, took a long range shot, and scored!

The team thought they were going to win until 88 minutes when the other team scored.

Nobody else scored, not even in extra time, so they went to penalty shots. In penalty shots nobody missed until a team member of the Bulls missed!!! But the other team missed too. Then another team member from the Bulls was about to shoot when the other team’s best player pushed him. He got sent off the field by the ref and the Bulls scored and the other team missed! Bulls win the tournament!!! The whole team was cheering and was extremely happy.

The End

Have you ever met a person who doesn’t seem to be there, a person who shouldn’t be alive, a person with no breath no feel, no anything? A person like that probably isn’t who they say they are. They probably have taken the life out of a stranger, out of a person who should be there, they have probably lost it and now it is never to be found.

My brother was here last night and now he is gone. Someone has replaced him, someone who took his life. I’m going to find my brother’s life and take it back.

He is all I have, the rest was taken, long and hard was how they took it. A person can’t be real if they have stolen what they have. So I guess I’m not real for all I have is stolen, even my life. I am not Sidny Bright. I am only what I have taken from her.

My mother and father are somewhere else with different lives and they are not real either. They are stealers, too.

Today a lady came to see me. She had neat blond hair and a big broad smile. She wore a bright blue dress and golden earrings and a bright orange scarf. She asked my name and I told her that my name was Sidny Bright, but I was not Sidny Bright. She smiled and nodded like she believed me. No one else has ever believed me. They have thought that I was crazy, and told me I was sick with a disease that makes me think funny. I know they’re wrong because what I have done makes me know that weird things are out there, things regular children should not know. I am different. I have a power that I can’t pronounce the name of. This power makes me special, I am a special.

It’s Wednesday, the middle weekday, the day no one ever expects anything to happen on. That’s why I am going to find my brother’s life today. I have asked the lady who came over yesterday to help me, but not to tell anyone because they would just call me crazy and tell my parents, and that would not end well. She said she wouldn’t, but then she went and talked to my parents, so I am not completely sure if I can trust her. But she was the first person to even pretend to believe me, so I guess I have to trust her. She is all that I have since my brother is gone.

I also showed the lady my list of where all the stealers will be and at what times. You’re probably wondering, just like the lady, how I know where they’ll be and at what times. It all happened like this: when I was eight years old, I had stolen Sidny Bright’s life and now I am using it. After I began using Sidny Bright’s life, I saw a bright light. It felt as if it was calling me, wanting me, loving me unlike anyone else has wanted or loved me before. It was like a force field that would always save me. From that moment on, it has guided me in life showing me what to do. Like right now, it has been helping me to know where the life stealers will be, so that I will be able to find my brother.

LIFE STEALER’S LIST

Thin man with a dark suit on the corner of Fifth Avenue at 1:33 p.m.

Large lady with a fur coat at the third stop on the subway at 2:44 p.m.

Little boy about 5 years old, messy blond hair with blue jeans and a monster truck shirt at the playground on 50th street at 5:22 p.m.

Old man with gray hair and an orange T-shirt in the book store on 35th and Main, paging through a magazine at 7:55 p.m.

Pretty girl about 8 years old with bright red hair and freckles in the supermarket on the end of Elmers lane at 3:55 p.m.

I just finished lunch and told my parents I was going up to my room to play with Eve (by the way, that’s the lady’s name. I found it out over lunch). She had brought a backpack with her things in it, just like I had asked. The ladder was leaned up against my bedroom window. Everything was ready, so I jumped out the window onto the ladder and shimmied down to my backyard.

We started down the alley and took a left on Fifth Avenue. The first person I saw was a lean man, about as tall as the man who says he is my father. He had a dark suit on and I told him that my name was Sidny Bright, but I was not Sidny Bright. He looked at me with a confused face. He asked if I was disabled. I told him that I was the opposite of disabled, that I had an ability. I told him how I was a stealer and how my brother’s life had been stolen. I told him how my parents weren’t my parents and all about what I had seen and learned and how I was a special. He nodded but I think he was confused. He asked me how I knew all of these things and I answered by telling him about the light and how it guides and loves me. While I was talking he seemed confused, but once I had finished, he understood and somehow it made more sense to me to have him understand. It gave me the courage to continue on. I was slowly sharing my gift.

That’s when I thought: kind and generous, understanding but not ignorant. Maybe he is the one who took my brother’s life?

At that moment I decided that I wasn’t going to take any chances. I charged at the man, pinning him to the ground. I screamed at him to tell me if he had taken my brother’s life and to tell me how to take it back. Eve calmly tried to pull me off the man, but I refused to budge. Eve tried seven more times and finally, I gave in.

Calmly and quietly, Eve sat me down. She reminded me of a flower: calm, quiet, beautiful. First she told me to calm down. Having nothing else to do and not wanting to get in trouble, I did as she said and explained why I had attacked him. Each time I got loud and started to raise my temper, she would calm me down. By the end of the conversation I was completely calm and apologized to the man even though I didn’t want to. The man was very cross, but he forgave me.

Tonight we stayed at a hotel with pretty little soap containers and a free breakfast. Since the breakfast was free, I ate as much as I could stuff in my small stomach, which ended up being three waffles, three pancakes, two muffins, five pieces of toast with caramel, four helpings of eggs, two cinnamon rolls and four helpings of fruit. I believe I was more stuffed than I have ever been before. It felt as if I was about to explode.

With the breakfast, I was ready to continue my search, so we began the walk to the third stop on the subway to find the large lady in the fur coat. And sure enough, she was there at 2:44 p.m. at the third stop on the subway.

Unlike last time, I went to the lady calmly and quietly. I told her that my name was Sidny Bright, but I was not Sidny Bright. I told her about how my brother’s life was stolen and how I was looking for the person who stole it and I told her how I knew that she was a life stealer and might have taken my brother’s life. She looked at me confused and maybe a bit angry, but once I finished talking and telling her all about my life and the life stealers, she seemed to understand.

But still she asked me, “How is it that you can be real and not real at the same time?”

My answer was this: “Well, the half that makes you real is that you have a name and that you have a life, but the half that makes you unreal is that your life is stolen and that your name doesn’t belong to you.”

When I started talking she was still confused and had a glint in her eyes that made me think that maybe she wanted me to stop talking and leave, but once I finished, she too, just like the man, understood.

I waited about 30 seconds for her to respond and tell me if she had taken it or not, but when she didn’t I got angry and told her to tell me right away everything that she knew.

The lady seemed stunned, confused and overall very scared, and when I saw her start to shiver I realized what I had done. She was not the culprit — she was merely a life stealer who had stolen no lives and had not taken my brother’s life, for no villain would wince in fear as she had.

Ashamed of myself, I walked away with Eve at my side. Still I had to keep going, for what would become of my brother if I did not?

The next stop was the playground on 50th street to find a little boy about 5 years old with messy blond hair, blue jeans, and a monster truck T-shirt.

Sure enough, when we got to the playground at 5:22 p.m. the boy was there, and just like every time I told him that my name was Sidny Bright, but I was not Sidny Bright— that my brother’s life had been stolen, and that I knew that he was a life stealer and that I was a life stealer.

This time he just called me crazy and said, “How could you see a light without anyone else seeing it?”

I told him that the light was inside my eyes so that only I could see it. While I was talking, the boy was listening intently, and once I finished, he clapped and then told me that somehow it almost made sense. Luckily, this time he told me that he had not stolen my brother’s life and that he didn’t know anything about it. I thanked him and went over to find Eve.

This time, sad still that we had not gotten any clues to where the thief could be, I was happier that I did not get mad this time but got answers.

So once again we went in search for my brother’s life, this time in the bookstore on 35th Street. We were looking for an old man with gray hair and an orange T-shirt paging through a magazine, though I was running out of hope now for I had only two more people left to talk to on my list.

As always, the old man was in the bookstore at 7:55 p.m. exactly. Just as I had every other time, I walked up to the man and told him that my name was Sidny Bright, but I am not Sidny Bright. I told him about how my brother’s life was stolen, and how I am a stealer and how I know that you’re a life stealer, too.

The man was confused at first, but came to understand. And he even told me that he did steal lives, but said that he didn’t understand how I knew that he was a life stealer. I told him all about how when I was eight I saw a light and that it tells me things, like for example, that he was a life stealer. The man understood and asked me what I wanted. I took a deep breath and told him that I wanted to know if he had taken my brother’s life or if he knew who did, but the old man couldn’t hear me so I told him again and again and again. By the eighth time, my teeth had become clenched and my breath had sped up. I asked one more time and again he didn’t hear me and I stormed out of the bookstore.

Once again I left shamefully, but still I knew I had to find my brother’s life, so Eve and I went to our next stop: the supermarket on the end of Elmers Lane to find a pretty little girl with bright red hair and freckles.

Just as I was told, we found the little girl in the supermarket at 3:55 p.m. sharp. Just as I had the first two people I met, I introduced myself by telling her that my name was Sidny Bright but that I was not Sidny Bright. I told her about how my brother’s life was stolen and how I was out to get it back. I also told her about how my parents weren’t my parents and how I am a stealer and how I knew that she was a stealer, too. The girl looked at me as if I was crazy, which many do think I am, but like I said before, I am not.

Still confused, the girl asked me how I knew that my brother’s life was stolen and that he didn’t just die or run away.

That question stopped me in my tracks. It left me thinking on another planet in another universe. How did I know? Was I working myself up over nothing? Was I crazy? How long had I been like this? Is none of this world real? Who can I trust? Who can I believe?

Today, Eve walked my heart broken body home. I had finally realized that my whole world was only make believe. My brother was dead and no one can steal lives.

I was only a crazy twelve year old dreamer with her head in the clouds.

One day I was reading in my bed when my mom told me to clean my brother’s and my room. I usually stuff it all under my bed, but my bed was kind of full so I decided to put it in my closet. When I was putting everything in my closet, I accidentally dropped my locket inside the closet.

When I went to go get it the next morning, it was missing. My brother was playing in our room.

”You wanna help me find my locket?” I asked him. He nodded. As we looked, he went inside my closet.

I hollered, “EDWARD!”

But no one responded. Then I heard a squeaky noise coming from the floor of my closet. So I stepped inside. But then, I wasn’t in my closet anymore!

I was inside of a world and there were flowers everywhere. There were a bunch of fairies flying over my head. And my brother called, “Maya! Maya!” I went looking for my brother and I saw him hiding behind a tree.

“Why are you hiding?” I asked him.

He told me he was playing hide-and-go-seek with a talking mouse. At first I thought it was his imagination when I heard the squeaky noise again, except it sounded more like a word. The voice said, “I found you, Edward!” And Edward stepped out of hiding.

“This is my sister,” he said.

The mouse said, “Hello, my sister.”

And I said, “I’m not your sister and I have a name, you know.”

“Then what is your name?” the mouse asked.

“Maya,” I replied. “And what is your name?”

The mouse said, “Sir Squeaks!”

I asked him where we were.

He said, “You are in the world of Jellybean.”

“Do you have a king or something?” I asked.

“Yes, King Jellybean.”

Then we heard horns playing. Then there were a bunch of trolls guarding a carriage and out of the carriage came a jellybean! And Sir Squeaks bowed. So Edward followed him. I didn’t know what to do, so I asked the jellybean who he was.

“I am King Jellybean the Third!”

And then I said, “Are you the king of this place?”

“Yes, everyone should know this! Are you new here?”

“Yeah. Me and my brother came through a closet.”

“That is rather unusual,” he said.

“I thought the same thing,” I said.

King Jellybean said, “You think like me. Would you like to come with me in my carriage to have royal dinner?”

When we got to the palace I was amazed! There were tons of jellybeans walking through the hall, waving. There were white tall pillars. It smelled of cherry jellybeans. I met the king’s wife, Queen Jellybean the Third, and his son Baby Jellybean the Third and so many more! It was hard to remember names and NOT to eat them and I took a bite out of Uncle Jellybean the Fifteenth. King Jellybean said, “Well, maybe it is best that you leave.”

I wandered around Jellybean Land. I ran into Sir Squeaks.

“Hey, Sir Squeaks,” I said.

“Hi Maya. Did you see Edward?”

“No. I told YOU to watch him.”
“Yeah… about that… when we were playing hide and seek, all I heard was, ‘Ooo, shiny!’ and poof, gone.”

I yelled at him.

He told me he was sorry and said I could come home with him and tomorrow we could look for Edward.

When we got to Sir Squeaks house, there was a little mouse woman in a dress, a little mouse baby in a crib, and two mice children playing on the floor.

Sir Squeaks said, “Honey, can you prepare the guest bed? A friend of mine is staying over for the night.”

It was hard to get inside of their small crack in the wall but eventually, I got in. Their bed was very hard to sleep in, but I managed.

The next morning, me and Sir Squeaks decided what we would do. I recommended that we go to the police. But Sir Squeaks said there was no police. He suggested that we put up signs. But then we decided that we would look for him ourselves. When we left the small crack in the wall, we checked the cafe and asked a few random creatures if they had seen Edward. But when we got to a particular creature (a cat), Sir Squeaks was too afraid to talk to her. So I asked her alone. She said she had seen him chasing her friend’s ball over by the playground. So we looked in the playground.

We met a dog there who said he saw Edward go to the King’s house to look for a girl called Maya. So we immediately left for the castle. It was awkward for me to see the torn, spitted-up Uncle Duke. But the King let us look in the castle for him. We met a maid who said he went to explore the dungeon. When we got down there, a prisoner said, “I saw him. But he left. And I know where he went, but I’ll only tell you if you help me escape.”

Me and Sir Squeaks talked it over and we decided to help him escape. We found a stool in the kitchen and helped push him up the bar, but he fell. So we met a guard and sneakily took the key from him and unlocked the door. He showed us the schoolhouse where he saw Edward come in. When we checked inside, the teacher told us Edward was eating lunch. When we got in the lunchroom we saw Edward and Edward screamed, “Maya!” and we hugged. Then Sir Squeaks took us back to where he met us and we said goodbye to Sir Squeaks and entered the space that we came through in and poofed back in my closet.

My brother and I told my parents that we were playing a game. Sometimes we came back to Jellybean Land, but not for too long. We made new friends, but then one day my mom said that we were gonna move. I was nervous because that means I wouldn’t get to see them. Before the day that we moved I said goodbye to my friends in Jellybean Land. One day when I left, I went into my new closet and imagined myself back in Jellybean Land, and then, once again, I heard the squeaky noise and then I really was in Jellybean Land! Sir Squeaks told me that, “Jellybean Land keeps traveling to different closets, and you might not see me again,” but when I left I was in a different closet. Thank goodness no one lived there! I went home and I told Edward and we were both sad, but we always remembered Jellybean Land.

THE END

Chapter One: It Starts

My friends Tony, Shawn, David, and I were hanging out in school when class was over. Suddenly, all the lights turned off and I heard the the most high pitched scream come from three floors above us. My friends and I were about to go check it out when I noticed Shawn was gone.Then Shawn suspiciously appeared from the wall.  

“Hey Lucien,” he said.

But I noticed blood over Shawn’s shirt. “Hey Shawn, why do you have blood on your shirt?” I asked him.

“Uuuhhh, I had a bloody nose,” he said.

“Okay,” we all said. We went to check the freaky situation. We took the elevator to the third floor. When we got up I saw janitor Jimmy dead with blood coming rapidly out of his ears and chest. We were so scared that we sprang back into the elevator and punched the first floor button.

We went to the courtyard and ran out. I could not believe what I saw. I even had Tony slap me to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, and unluckily it was no dream. When I got back home I went straight to bed. I was trying to sleep desperately, but I couldn’t because the thought of Jimmy being killed on school grounds kept coming back to haunt me. Eventually I got too tired and fell asleep. In the morning I woke up with sweat all over me. I had a nightmare about the incident yesterday.

On the walk to school I bumped into Shawn and the others.  On the way, Tony and I talked about the freaky incident. I told him that it was probably a ghost since Jimmy looked like he died, but didn’t know anyone was coming. Then Tony hit me with all his science, saying that it was highly impossible for ghosts to exist blah, blah science stuff do the math blah, blah.Then I slapped him and said not to get all nerdy on me or I’d slap him again, harder, on the face.  

We got to school, but we noticed Shawn was gone again. The door to the freaky haunted basement was wide open. “We should go in to find him in there,”  I said.

“Look, I have done many scary things, but this is beyond anything,” David said.

Chapter Two: The Basement

But before I could enter, the bell for class rang — ding!!!  

“Thank God!!!” David said. “Two more seconds and I would have had to go into that pitch dark haunted basement.”  

“Don’t be such a big scaredy cat. We can bring a flashlight, David,” Tony said.

In class, I signaled all of my friends to “go to the bathroom.” We went to the bathroom and discussed the plan. Tony took a flashlight, David was nowhere to be seen, and I was taking a #1. When I was done I looked outside and saw a hand close the door to the basement. “Oh no!” I thought. “David must’ve gone in by himself.” I told Tony what had happened.

“Oh no!” Tony said. “We need to go in!!!”

We went out the bathroom door to go get David back from this horror. We frantically ran to the door to the basement.  I slapped my hand on the handle, grasped it tightly while twisting it in one split second.

But Tony said, “We should get the police involved in this.” I agreed and closed the door to the basement and ran to Tony while he smashed the numbers 9 1 1 on his iPhone 6 [everyone nowadays has iPhones for safety].  

“Hello! Who is this?” the officer said.

“This is Tony Boils and I”m reporting some strange things that have happened here at school,” Tony said.

“Like what?” the officer said.

Tony says that the janitor died and his friend David was captured.

The officer says, “We’ll come right away.”

When the officer got there he kicked open the door and barged in. Then we heard a scream. Tony went in with me. We saw the officer down on the floor, the same way Jimmy was killed and we walked deeper into the basement and saw David hung on the wall. When we got him down, we asked him what happened. I was walking down the hall when I got pulled up and slammed into the wall. So, us three walked deeper into the basement when Shawn came out of nowhere. We asked him, “Where have you been?”

He said, “Trying to find the killer.” Then we told him we should get home. So we ran out and started to walk home. When I got home, I told Mom and Dad about what happened and they didn’t believe me. They said they would check it out. So the next morning, Dad came with me to school and went into the basement. Shawn and David were gone again. Then I heard another high pitched scream, but luckily this time I brought my earplugs and then I found my dad running out. Luckily, he had his earplugs on, too. He said he saw someone that looked like Shawn or David.

I didn’t want my dad to be in trouble. So, me and Tony went in by ourselves with a flashlight and other equipment.

Chapter 3: The Screaming Killer

When we went in I saw Shawn walking toward us with a knife and he ran at us so we asked him if he was okay.

He said that David tried to kill him. So we went in to find David. There were many corridors and we chose the middle one. The deeper we walked in the darker it got. Tony turned on his flashlight and noticed that Shawn was gone again!

So we screamed out, “Shawn!”

We heard a voice say, “I’m over here in the third corridor!” So we went to the third corridor and found him in the middle of the room with his eyes as red as ever, a knife, and David hung on the wall again. Shawn was about to scream and we knew it was gonna happen. I threw a pair of earplugs to David. David caught them and put them on and he survived the devastating scream. Then I threw David a knife and he cut himself free with the knife. He dropped to the floor, gasping for breath as Shawn said, “I’m the screaming killer and you will not get away!”

The screaming killer threw his knife at David and it whizzed past his arm. Tony ran to David, shining the flashlight in Shawn’s eyes. Shawn was trying to block the light. We ran to get David. With him on our shoulders, we ran out the corridor and hid in the fifth.

Tony turned off his flashlight so Shawn wouldn’t see us. Two minutes had passed and David was shivering like he had been in the North Pole for five hours. We waited for another ten minutes when we heard footsteps coming rapidly and voices. The principal had come with police. Then we heard the same devastating scream and bodies fell on the ground. Shawn must have been possessed because he would never act like this. Tony didn’t like this so he ran to finish the job but I stopped him. I told him that if he went, he would just die along with the principal and the others. So we stayed there, waiting for Shawn to kill us all. But then I realized we needed to man up a little and I took the nearest police officer’s gun, ready to shoot my best friend. But even the thought of it haunted me. So I went back to Tony and David and waited, trying to think of another strategy. Tony told us that if we could suck whoever’s possessing Shawn out of him. We could seal him inside a steel box. We might be able to defeat him.

Chapter 4: Finding a Box

David said he recalled seeing an ancient box that could catch ghosts in a store across the street. Then I slapped him on the arm and said, “How are we gonna get out of here?”

Tony said that we could just blind him with the flashlights. So we ran out of the corridor with our flashlights on, pointing them at Shawn’s eyes. Shawn fell to the floor like he’d just been shot by the FBI. We ran out of the school and went to the store. Unfortunately, it was closed so I took a wrench from a builder and slammed the door open with it. We ran in and took the box as fast as we could. Then we ran back to school. When we ran to the third corridor, Shawn was gone. If we didn’t run as fast, he could kill the entire city by screaming into radios. But then we heard a high pitched scream come from two floors higher and slammed into the elevator. When we got into the second floor, we saw Shawn next to two teachers that were lifeless on the floor.

Chapter 5: Finishing the Job

David shone the flashlight on Shawn’s eyes while I hit Shawn in the head with the gun. I didn’t shoot him, I threw the gun at his head, which was a bad idea because he caught the gun and shot the flashlight out of David’s hand. David jerked back and fell on his head as I slapped myself in the face. Shawn had a gun and he was shooting me and Tony. Shawn must have had FBI training because he shot the box out of Tony’s hand and it smashed through the window. Now it was on the street, three stories down.

“Why?!” I shouted while Tony looked out the window and he dove to get it. I told Shawn, “Wait right here.”

But luckily, the fair was going on below and Tony and I landed on the bouncy house. Tony grabbed the box and he bounced to the wall of the school hanging on the wall and started climbing up. I smashed into the window, kicked the button on the elevator and missed while I dived in. “Come on!” I said. I went to the first floor and took the stairs. Tony was dodging Shawn’s bullets. I threw my pencil at Shawn’s forehead and it bounced right off.

Now Tony and Shawn stared at me and Shawn said, “Really? A pencil?” While Shawn was distracted, Tony took the vacuum cleaner out of the janitor’s closet and sucked the screaming killer out of Shawn. We saw a green spirit burst out of him, but it broke through the glass and I threw the ancient box where it broke free. It ran into the box and the box closed shut, sealing it in forever.

“Yes!” me and Tony said at the same time.

Chapter 6: The End

After the celebration, I called the ambulance to pick up David and Shawn. David didn’t look too good, or worse than usual, because he usually had chocolate off his mouth. Shawn looked normal, without red eyes. We waited outside the school for the ambulance. We might have lost many people but we became more brave.

THE END

Once upon a time, there was a Rice Krispies Treat named Max in a container. But the Rice Krispies Treat didn’t want to be eaten. So, he took off the lid of the container (he had hands and legs) and got out. He looked young but he actually had been made a week ago. So he continued his adventure. He jumped off the counter and ran to the door. He tried to jump up to reach the doorknob but it was too high. But then he saw the doggie door. So he crawled out the doggie door and set off.

It was windy. He almost got blown away into a garbage can. But he caught himself. So he set off. He was looking for someone to love because he loved nobody but everybody loved him (because he was a Rice Krispies Treat). So, he looked in every house for a Rice Krispies Treat, but it wasn’t there. But he still kept searching. He searched for days, weeks, months and finally, he found a house.

So he walked inside the window and into the house. He looked in all the rooms and finally he found the kitchen. The kitchen had a humongous table, a really long brown counter and a lot of food. It smelled like food. There was roast beef, fried chicken, french fries, soft chocolate chip cookies, chocolate macaroons, M&M’s and regular Rice Krispies Treats. He was a little bit hungry, okay, a lot! So he ate all the food except the Rice Krispies Treats.

So he climbed on the counter and took a Rice Krispies Treat. But it wasn’t a girl so he put it back. Then he searched every single Rice Krispies Treat except one of them. Then he knew that that must be it. So he took the Rice Krispies Treat… but it was a boy! So he decided to search the other kitchen and there was more food.

There was turkey, lamb chops, meatballs, chicken noodle soup, apple pie, blueberry pie, pear pie, chocolate pie, whipped cream pie, macaroon pie, cookies, macaroons (all kinds,) ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, roast beef, and chicken. It smelled delicious. And there was also french fries, corn dogs and there was more Rice Krispies Treats of all kinds. So, he searched this Rice Krispies Treat, it wasn’t it. That Rice Krispies Treat, it wasn’t a girl. He searched every single platter of Rice Krispies Treats. And finally, he had searched all of them except one of them. He KNEW that this had to be her.

And he took the Rice Krispies Treat in it’s arms and looked at it’s face. And… it was a girl! And it turned out that the girl also wanted true love. He asked her, “What is your name?”

She answered back, “Rosie.”

He asked her, “Can we be friends?”

“Of course!” she answered.

He took her on a date everywhere in the kitchen and they ate everything in the kitchen. He built a house for her out of tiny sticks of wood he found. They spent almost every second together. Except one day, in the middle of the night, when they were both fast asleep, someone took the girl Rice Krispies Treat and ran with her. Then finally in the morning when Max woke up, he was about to say good morning, when he looked at her bed she wasn’t there! He started crying Rice Krispies. But he was brave so he went off to look for her.

He took some pieces of paper and drew a picture of her on every sign. And it said in big letters “Have you seen this Rice Krispies Treat? $10,000 reward if you find it. (He found the money lying on the ground.) So, he put the signs everywhere he could think of where most people walk by. Maldia was a very poor and small country with only 3,500 people. So 10,000 dollars was a lot of money.

But he got bored. So he wanted to look for her too. So he started searching with his bag (his bag had food, water, sleeping bags and a night light, and an emergency stick in it.) He found some footprints, some really big footprints. So he followed them. But suddenly, they stopped at a crooked road. Then he saw a van. Next to the van was a building. And then there was an open window in the building. Then he heard a familiar voice saying, “Ahh! Help me!” It was Rosie!

So he ran to the doors of the building. He was ready for action. Surprisingly, there was a doggie door on one of the doors. So he went through the doggie door and got in the building. He remembered that when he heard her screaming, it was on the top, top floor. So he ran up the stairs because he tried to use the elevator but it was broken. So he ran and ran and ran and ran. And when he was running so much, it got him thinking, How many more flights of stairs? It was really hard for him because it was all twisty and it was crooked and there were no railings. It was really narrow. But he kept running.

Finally, he saw a sign and it said: “If you are going to the top floor and have to go to the bathroom, there are restrooms on the right.” But then he saw something else that was written on the bottom in marker. “Do not come up, work is being done.”

First, he wanted to go to the restroom. So he went to the restroom. After five minutes, he was finished and so he went back. So he went up one more flight of stairs and saw another sign. It said, “Ten more flights of stairs till the top.”

He thought, “Ten more flights of stairs? I’ve been running up the stairs for hours! And there’s still ten more flights of stairs?” He was shocked. But he kept running.

Finally, he had one more flight of stairs left. He ran up that last flight of stairs, and… Bam! The stair that he was just on fell down! But he was still holding on to the top floor. But then he felt something. It was a stick trying to push him down! He thought, I can’t get pushed down! I’ve been climbing these stairs for hours. So he quickly moved to the other side of the ground and pulled himself up. It was hard because it had cracks in it and it was kind of crooked. So he started running when he heard the screaming. There was still screaming. Even more surprisingly, there was another doggie door. But since this was such a scary place, he decided to look through the doggie door before he went through. So he looked on the other side and he decided he wasn’t going through because it was actually a window. It looked like a doggie door on the inside but it was a window on the outside.

He looked around and he saw a lot more doggie doors. So he checked every single one of them. One of them was the same one as the first one he checked. Another one was a twenty foot deep pool. Another one was a pool of lava. And the rest were spikes. There was only one left. He thought, This one has to be the right door. But he still checked. And it was the right door! He saw Rosie tied to a plate and it looked like a guy was about to chop her in half with a really sharp knife. The guy was in a black suit. He had glasses. And on one side of the room Max saw precious treasures that he thought that the guy had stolen. Then he said, “Never fear, because Max is here!”

He leaped up to the plate and as he was about to untie her, the guy grabbed him. “I’ll eat you first if you try to rescue her!”

He didn’t want to be eaten. But he had to rescue her. He wanted to risk his own life for her. So, as he was gonna untie her, the guy said, “You made up your mind. I’ll eat you first.”

But first Max untied her before he could take him. And right as he untied her… Rosie took the knife out of the guy’s hand and said, “If you try to eat Max, I’ll cut you first!”

The guy was scared, so he ran away and started screaming, “Mommy, Mommy, Rice Krispies Treats are trying to kill me!”

Right as they were about to get out, a mean old woman took both of them in her hands and said, “Don’t you try to scare my son!” Her voice sounded cruel. She threw them out of the window. But Max took Rosie’s hand and his bag, dumped everything out of his bag, and used his bag as a parachute. It was really scary, but at least he had a parachute. They screamed, “Ahh, help me!” But they tried not to because they had a parachute.

Finally, when they reached the ground, Max took his stuff, and as they were walking, suddenly, they fell down again into the sewer! (Yuck, yuck!) But luckily, they didn’t land in the water. They heard rat noises. There were spiderwebs, and it was really, really dusty. So they looked and looked, and kept on looking for a ladder to ground level. It was dark so he took out his night light. Now they could see better. And they kept on searching. After they searched for five hours, they got hungry. Their stomachs felt empty. So they ate some food, but they didn’t want to eat too much so they just had one big piece of a turkey leg and drank some water and kept on searching. They searched for days and nights and weeks and months, and surprisingly, they found some other Rice Krispies Treats. The other Rice Krispies Treats were old and tired. They were kind of hard and cold and hungry.

Rosie and Max decided that they needed to share some food with them. So Rosie said, “Hi, my name is Rosie.”

Max said, “Hi, my name is Max.”

Then, they asked them, “What’s your name?”

One of them said, “My name is Matthew.” Matthew had a hat with red and white stripes and shoes that were black and orange.

The other one said, “My name is Emily.” Emily had glasses and purple earrings and pink shoes.

Rosie and Max asked, “Are you hungry? Because we have a lot of food.”

Matthew and Emily shook their heads wildly.

Rosie and Max said, “Okay, what would you like to have? We have turkey, chicken, french fries, beef, corn, green beans, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, honeydew, cheese, and yogurt.” Rosie and Max were offering this because they wanted to be friends, and if they were friends, maybe they would show them a way out. They continued. “To drink, we have milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, apple juice, pomegranate juice, carrot juice, lemonade, hot chocolate with marshmallows, pink lemonade, water, coffee, and tea. And for dessert we have all kinds of pie, cake, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, macaroons, meringues, and pastries.”

As Rosie and Max were saying this, Matthew and Emily were licking their lips because they were really, really, really hungry. Matthew and Emily said at the same time, “Everything!”

Rosie and Max said surprisingly, “How about just three things of each food group?”

Matthew and Emily said, “As long as it’s big!”

After they all had some food, Max remembered he brought more than one sleeping bag. So he gave everybody a sleeping bag and they all went to sleep. The sleeping bags were really, really, really comfortable. They all slept until three o’clock in the afternoon. Rosie and Max were thinking of eating only two times a day to save food, but Matthew and Emily refused. But they wanted to be friends, so they said, “Okay.”

So they had breakfast. For breakfast, they all shared a big pie. Matthew and Emily were actually down there on purpose. They WERE actually old, hungry, and tired. But the real reason they were down there was to help other people. The reason why they were so hungry and tired was because they spent so long down there and didn’t find anybody to help that they just ended up staying there without any food. But they wanted to test them first before they showed them the way out of the sewer.

So when Rosie and Max were searching for a way out, Matthew and Emily were looking in Rosie and Max’s bag. They were searching for any weapons Rosie and Max could use to kill Matthew and Emily. Suddenly, they heard them coming back. So they zipped the bag shut and ran back to their normal places. They decided that they would show them the way out, but first they would wait one more week because they might still be a bad guy, but just not carry around weapons.

So when they came back, they had lunch. Rosie and Max wanted to test Matthew and Emily too to see if they were bad guys. So they decide that they would wait one more week too.

One night, Emily had ants in her pants. “Ahh!” she started screaming. It woke everybody up.

Everybody asked, “Why are you screaming so loud in the middle of the night?”

“I have ants in my pants!”

“That happens to everybody,” said Matthew.

“Yeah,” agreed everybody else.

“No,” said Emily, “I have actual ants in my pants.”

“Oh,” said Matthew. “Now I get it.”

“That’s a reason to scream about,” said Max.

“Can you just get these ants out of my pants?” said Emily to Matthew.

“Okay,” said Matthew. He threw bread far away, and then the ants chased after it.

“Now,” said Max, “I think we should find out who put in ants in Emily’s pants.”

“It’s probably whoever isn’t listening to this to make themselves look innocent,” said Matthew.

They looked around, and Rosie wasn’t paying attention. So they all suspected Rosie, even Max.

Max asked Rosie, “Why did you put ants in Emily’s pants?”

“What?” said Rosie. “I didn’t put ants in anybody’s pants.” She sat there.

“Really?” said Max. “Then how come in movies all the time, the person who isn’t paying attention is always the person who did the crime?”

“I don’t know,” said Rosie.

“Well it still wasn’t good that you put ants in Emily’s pants.”

“I didn’t!” said Rosie.

Max rolled his eyes.

The next night, Rosie got ants in her pants. In the middle of the night, she started screaming. “Ahh, I have ants in my pants!”

“You have lants in your mants?” said Max, because he was so tired that he couldn’t hear that so well.

“No,” said Rosie. “I have ANTS in my PANTS.”

Now they all think Emily did it. They all asked Emily at the same time, “Why did you put ants in Rosie’s pants?”

Emily said, “No, I didn’t!”

“Well, everybody knows you did because Rosie put ants in your pants, and you want revenge,” said Max.

“I didn’t put ants in her pants!” said Emily and Rosie at the same time, pointing to each other.

“Face it,” said Matthew. “You both did something bad.”

“Well,” Rosie said to Max, “Can you just get these ants out of my pants?”

“Okay,” said Max. So he got the ants out of her pants. He threw bread far away and the ants chased it. So they went back to sleep.

Rosie and Emily were right. They didn’t put ants in each other’s pants. The guy did. How he did it was when they were all looking, he put crumbs in their pants because you can’t just put ants in someone’s pants because they wouldn’t stay there. How he knew they were there because he saw them fall into the sewer. How he got there was his mom. His mom took a long, long, long rope, tied it to a really strong pole, tied the other end to her son, and lowered him down. He was still trying to eat them. He didn’t want to eat any other Rice Krispies Treats because they weren’t made the way he liked it, and his mom couldn’t make it that way. Those kinds of Rice Krispies Treats were made in the microwave, not in the oven. The reason why he put ants in their pants was because if they stopped being friends, they would probably separate, which would make them easier to catch because nobody would rescue them.

The next day, when Max, Rosie, Matthew, and Emily woke up, they found a letter. And it said, “If you don’t go to the top of the building with a green van parked next to it, you will die.” They shivered with fear. “From, The Guy,” it said on the bottom. The handwriting was messy. But underneath, where it said, “From, The Guy,” it said, “Be there in two weeks or die.” They were really, really scared.

But then Max remembered. He’d been to the building with the green van parked next to it, and on the top floor, that was where the guy was trying to eat Rosie. So basically, the only choice they had was to die by getting tied to a plate and get eaten, or die by getting found and getting cut in half and getting eaten. Or, they could stay in the sewer. That was an option Max made up, but that was the same option as the second one because the guy knew he was in the sewer. Max didn’t know that.

Five days later, right before they were both thinking that each other was bad guys, he realized something. He couldn’t do the third option. And Rosie and Emily didn’t put ants in each other’s pants. The Guy put ants in their pants! And why he couldn’t do the third option was because he knew they were in the sewer! He was so scared. He wanted to just tell it to Rosie, but he had to tell it to Emily and Matthew because he didn’t want them to die. So he told it to everybody else.

Now, Matthew and Emily decided that they would show Rosie and Max the way out. So, when Rosie and Max were about to give up hope, Matthew and Emily told them that they were down there on purpose. But they were hungry and tired, and they would be really happy to show them the way out. Rosie and Max were thrilled. They were jumping with joy.

But Matthew and Emily said that it might take a half an hour. But Rosie and Max were okay with that. So they kept jumping with joy.

They brought their food and everything they brought, and followed Matthew and Emily. They walked a half an hour until they saw a ladder. And then Matthew and Emily said, “Watch out. This ladder is really old.” It had cracks in it, with dust and made cracking sounds as you stepped on it. But they wanted to get out, so they climbed up.

It took them five minutes! But when they got up, they were so happy that they ran to their house. But before they ran, they asked Emily and Matthew if they wanted to live with them. They said yes. They were really surprised that they invited them to live in their house.

But the guy checked the sewer. And they weren’t there. He wasn’t happy. He stomped his feet. So the only place they could be was their stick house. But he always did his work in night time, because in day time they were awake. So, he waited until they were asleep.

Finally, it was nighttime, and they all went to sleep, in their sleeping bags. So the guy snuck into their house and took Rosie, Emily, he was about to take Matthew and Max… But they were sleeping and they kicked him by accident. The guy thought they were awake and were pretending to be asleep, so he left them alone.

They woke up and they were about to say good morning to Rosie and Emily, but they weren’t there! So Max said to Matthew, “I know where he is!”

“Okay,” said Matthew. “As long as I can rescue Emily, I’ll come with you.”

But the building with the green van was a long walk from there. So they walked for an hour, and then they stopped. They had to buy some Rice Krispies. So they walked for another hour, and then they stopped. They had to buy some butter. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy some marshmallows. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a cookbook. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a microwave. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a cooking tray. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy cooking spray. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a pan. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a cooking spoon. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a bowl. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a bag. So they walked for another hour. They had to buy a tray to serve desserts.

Finally, they got there. Matthew didn’t know why Max was buying all this stuff, but Max was buying the stuff cause he had a plan. Max checked again if the elevator was working, but it wasn’t, so they had to use the stairs. They walked up one flight of stairs. It felt like a million flights. They walked for another flight of stairs. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And another one. And finally, they got to the restroom sign. Matthew didn’t notice that the stairs was curved to the right a little bit, so he walked straight. Bam! He fell. But before he fell, Max caught his arm and pulled him up. He was really heavy, but he did it anyway.

When Max pulled Matthew up, he said to him, “Watch your step next time.” So they both used the bathroom, and walked another flight up. And another flight. And ten more flights. And then, they saw the other sign that said, “If you’re going to the top, ten more flights of stairs.” And he saw the same marker writing that said, “Do not go up. Work is being done.”

So they went up ten more flights of stairs, and they got there. But Max forgot about the crooked step! But he was still holding on to Matthew’s hand. But Matthew was very smart, and he noticed that that was a crooked step. So Matthew was holding onto Max’s hand, and before Matthew could tell Max that it was a crooked step, he stepped on it! But Matthew held on. They pulled themselves up, and Max remembered the right door. But they stayed out the door and started making Rice Krispies Treats with ingredients he collected. Finally, when they were finished, they went through the door and they were just in time. Max said, “If you don’t eat my friends, I’ll give you a nice, big platter of microwaved Rice Krispies Treats with a cookbook so you can make even more.”

The guy liked this idea very much, so he agreed. He gave Max his friends back. Max gave him the cookbook and Rice Krispies Treats. Max and his friends went back home, and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

I watch the ocean passing by me. I hear the wind whooshing around and a little bit of sea water sprinkles on me. I listen to the big waves and I watch as days go by. We still haven’t reached France. We travel for days watching them go from morning to late night, and then one morning I wake up and hear bells ringing and people talking. I look around and I am on the shore. The ship has stopped and I’m in France.

I walk off the ship with my young sister who is seven years old, and she starts whining about how long that was. Then she starts crying, saying she’s hungry, and tired and she wants to see Auntie Lucia. I pick her up and give her a piggy back ride and then she stops. She has always loved that. I watch her smile and that’s the first time in days that I’ve smiled. Ever since my dad died everything has been broken. But I finally decided to cheer up. I know it’s very sad and I’m heartbroken but all I can do is be happy. It’s Thanksgiving (in America), and I should try to enjoy it and then I can go back to the days of misery.

My sister and I get our luggage and we walk around the large city that we arrived in called Marseille. I try to find a place to eat that’s nearby to eat a small lunch, but all I can find is an ice cream/pastry shop. So my sister runs and looks in the window while I slowly walk with all the heavy luggage. It probably weighs like 25 pounds in all. Finally for what seems like hours of walking only one block I get to the pastry shop. I put the bags down and tell my sister to watch them while I order ice cream, but one thing I know now is never leave a young seven-year-old in charge of your bags and valuables because when you turn around they will be gone, and that’s what happens. I go to her to give her ice cream, but what I found was not my sister with our luggage.

My sister is sucking a lollipop she had taken from the store and the store manager says,  “You have to pay for that, missy, you can’t just go around taking food.”

So assuming she didn’t pay I hurriedly give the women money, run over and grab my sister hard and yell, ”Where did our luggage go? I gave you one simple job and you lose your clothes! Everything we have was there, including money and valuables.”

She stares into my eyes and whines, “You’re being so mean, I just wanted a lollipop.”

I start to sweat and I clench my fists together because I felt like I could just pick her up and drag her home. I almost do it, but instead I just pick her up and start walking toward my Aunt’s house. As I walk I eat my ice cream and all of the sudden my sister screams and wiggles because she isn’t getting ice cream.

She begins to throw a tantrum. I quickly grab her by her shirt and yell, “Quit it, that’s enough, behave yourself! You’re acting like a baby. Look around, I don’t see any other seven-year-olds crying like you do. You lost our stuff and stole a lollipop you don’t get any ice cream, so stop complaining!” But that didn’t do anything, except make her cry more,

I give her one last chance and say, “If you don’t stop right now I will leave you here, you can stay right here on this street while I go and see Auntie. It’s your choice, You stop your racket and come home or you could  just stay here.” She should have stopped, but all she does is keep going.

So I walk away saying, “Bye, I’m going to see Auntie Lucia. That’s when she screamed and stomped and got so mad.

So I run over, pick her up and yell so hard, “Stop!” Then she stopped.

I pull her around the streets by her shirt dragging her because I am so mad about the way she was acting. I was sick of the baby coming out of her. We walk along the streets with everybody staring at us until I get to the house, put her down and try to say kindly,  “Now behave you have to be good in front of Auntie Lucia, do you understand?” I just see her small head nod and I give her a small kiss on the head to make her feel better. We walk into the house and I see Auntie come out of the kitchen. I run over to her and give her a big hug like I haven’t seen her in years because I haven’t really last time I saw her was eight years ago.

Then all of a sudden not expecting this at all, I see my mother. I stay frozen because I am very upset with her and I haven’t seen her in so long. I just stare blankly at my mom and continued to hug my aunt.

I look up at my aunt who’s admiring us (she does this every time) and she says, “Lana tu et tres grande, tu as combien ans?” That means “Lana you’re very big! How old are you?” in French.

I respond saying, “J’ai dix-sept ans maintenant,” meaning “I’m seventeen now.” I smile at her and tell her that next year I’m going off to college and we’re going to need someone to watch my sister, but since mom is not close to us anymore, I ask her if she could watch my sister.

She asks me to sit down at her dining room table, which is a beautiful piece of wood that she just added legs too and her dining room is filled with marvelous french antiques. Just as I go to sit down, she asks me where our luggage is, and that’s when I remember we lost our luggage. I sit down and say that someone stole it. She looks at me with sharp eyes and tells me in French that we will have to go shopping and get clothes and bathroom supplies that were going to  need. She tells me places we can go and things we can get, and we all talk for hours. We go out for a small walk and come back. When we get back my auntie tells me she prepared us a special Thanksgiving dinner. I am so pleased to hear this because in France they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving so it’s nice that that she thought of us. I set the table and we all sit down to eat. I see all the good-smelling foods that my aunt cooked for tonight. I can smell garlic, mashed potatoes with salt, and the turkey with gravy spread onto it. We serve the food once my aunt sits down to eat we are allowed to start.

I stuff a mouthful of turkey into my mouth and I can barely chew because there is so much food filling up my mouth. The turkey is delicious, and with the gravy it’s even better. It tastes juicy and fresh and my aunt added a tiny bit of honey, which makes it even better. Once I finish my meal, I get up from the dinner table wash the dishes and then go sit down on the crystal blue sofa. Once I sit down it’s obvious what’s coming next (my sister). So I decided to ask my aunt where my room is, every time it changes. My aunt was busy at the moment so my mom says, “Girls come, both of you. I’ll show you your room.”

I stop for a second thinking, “our room?” No that’s not happening. No way will I be sharing a room with my sister.

So I ask my mom, “ Uh, why did you say, our room? I can’t share a room with my sister, I don’t think that’s happening.”

“Darling, I’m sorry but I can’t save you from this one, that’s all the room we have,” whispers my mother.

“Excuse me. Did you just say you won’t save me from this one? When have you ever saved me? When have you been here for me, my whole life you were never here and now you pretend like you were. I grew up and took care of myself with dad, and you left me at the age of five, came back and then left. You don’t care about our family. I have been watching your daughter and my sister, taking care of her by myself for two years. You didn’t even bother to help. So no, don’t say you can’t save me from this one because you never saved me, you don’t know what I have saved myself from.”

I reach out for my sister’s hand and she takes it, we walk up stairs and I go into the room put my purse down and lock the door. My sister watches me looking at my every move while I just pace back and forth through the room. I finally sit down on the bed and I tell my sister that I want her to know how we grew up and who took care of her. She nods silently still staring at me with her beautiful hazel eyes, and her shining blonde hair.

When I was about five years old mother left, she said she would be coming back in two years, but she never did. She never came back for me or our dad. She said she had a ton of work and that involved travel, but it wasn’t all work. I thought she didn’t care about me and I was right. Dad took care of me until I was nine. That’s when mom came back. She acted like nothing happened and we played along, I guess I played along, but dad still loved mom. Then one day out of a sudden, mom said she was having a baby and that’s when she had you. At the time I wasn’t pleased because I was upset that she just got to come right back and have a baby.

I didn’t understand how my dad just fell right into her. But I  just kept playing along until you were born and then a year later. When I was 12 mom left again, this time she didn’t say anything, she only left while I was at school and dad was at work and she was supposed to be taking care of you.

Dad picked me up from school and I went home and when we got home you were crying and you had gotten out of your crib somehow and fallen. We settled things and looked everywhere for mom but I knew she had left us once and for all. We lived the rest of the years happily until dad died when you were five and I was 15. I was devastated because I didn’t know how to take care of you and I didn’t know what to do. But I did know that for a year we had to stay undercover because I was only 15 and I had to be 16 to take care of you. I took care of you for two years until now when I’m 17 I don’t have much time left with you since I will have to go off to college.

I finished my story and told my sister not to worry. I tucked her in bed and I went downstairs. Once I was downstairs I went over to my aunt and said, “I think we are going to have to go home soon. I’m sorry but I can’t stay here with my mom, she has done too much damage to this family.” I tell her I love her and it’s not her it’s my mom and I’m sorry. I go upstairs, brush my teeth, put my pajamas on and get into the cozy warm bed.

Next thing I know is my sister is on top of me saying, “Morning, morning, good morning!” multiple times. I open my eyes wide and pull the covers off to get out of bed. I get ready and me and my sister go downstairs to have breakfast. Aunt Lucia made us scrambled eggs and croissants, with a special chocolate one for my sister.

We finish our delicious meal clean up and my mom says, “Why don’t we go to the museum? It’s beautiful.” Again, she acts like nothing ever happened.

I pretended she didn’t say anything and then I say in a bratty way on purpose, “Oh were you talking to us? Sorry, didn’t hear you, but we can’t. We were thinking to go to the zoo.”

My mother stares into my eyes sharply and whispers in an angry way,“The closest zoo is far away, and it will take you a long time to get there.”

I tell her, “It’s fine, it’s always good to walk and get exercise.” And then I put on my shoes and ask if my aunt wants to come. She says she would love to and she gets a map. I quickly push her out because I don’t want to talk to my mom anymore and we leave. I’m really happy that she said yes and we didn’t have to go with my mom because if I had to go with her I would end up having the worst day ever. We walk down the streets to the subway and we go about three stops (not long like someone said) and then walk a block until we reach the zoo. We pay euros and we walk around the zoo. They have really nice animals. Racoons, baboons, giraffes, penguins, meerkats, birds, lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, kangaroos, zebras, panthers, and wolves.

I walk by loads of animals and admire them for a while. I draw a few and keep going. This zoo is so beautiful and they have thousands of animals. I think we’ll have to come back to see the other half of the zoo.

I keep walking and then while I’m drawing I hear my sister yelling, “Lana, Lana, Lana, look at the animals! They are so cute.”
I laugh because she is reaching her arm in and jumping up and down so I mumble laughing while saying, “Alice, you’re going to scare the animals, I know they’re cute but don’t scare them, why don’t you go feed the ducks?”

She shrieks and jumps up, then runs over to feed the ducks. I hear her going, “Quack quack quack” with the ducks and I smile happily. I wonder to myself for a minute and then get back to my drawing.

Once we get to Aunt Lucia’s house I notice it seems empty, I pause for a minute and look around and notice a small note on the ground. I pick it up and its says “goodbye.” I open it up and read out loud.

To Lana and Alice,

I know things haven’t been perfect between us and I made a little mistake but, I keep trying and trying to be friends and you don’t seem to accept me. I wanted to come back but I  just felt like I already left and I can’t come back. I’m sorry if this hurts you because I know deep inside you love me but I can’t be with you if you won’t accept me as your mother. Maybe I didn’t grow up with you and I wasn’t there for you but you’re still my daughters and your still related to me, so since you won’t accept me as your mother I can’t stay. I’m sorry but I’ve left fFance and gone back to America where you grew up so you can stay here and be with your aunt.

Love,

your mother

I think about what she said and I’m really glad she left, I don’t mind it doesn’t hurt because my aunt is my mother to me.  My mother is just a selfish woman who  doesn’t care about anyone else or her family.  I don’t need to live with her and I’m just fine for another year with my sister and my aunt. Then I go off to college and my aunt takes care of my sister. I think I can handle a few years without my mom.

Five years later

“Lana, Lana wake up! Come on, we’re gonna be late for class, also today is our last day of college!” my roommate Coral tells me.

I lift my head up only hearing the last few words she said, “last day of college.” I jump out of bed and think to myself, “Last day, it’s been such a short four years. Oh and I almost forgot, I get to see my sister. I can’t believe she will be 11 years old. I think it will be much easier to take care of her. I haven’t seen her in four years! Because college has been very stressful.”

Coral calls me again and I tell her I’m ready to leave. I quickly stuff everything into my bag and we get to class. I get to school and I see a lot of my best friends crying. We talk about what we are going to do for  the next few years and we enjoy our last day. When I finish my last course of college for the year, I walk out and meet Coral and Avery and Alex and we go eat lunch at this ramen food place. I tell them that I get to be with my sister in four days and I will move to Australia for two years while my aunt takes care of my sister, and then I will come back to my sister and take care of her for a few years while I’m in grad school. Everyone else tells me their adventures, and that’s the end of college.

Four Days Later

I see my tall, skinny, beautiful sister run out the door and she grabs me tight. I hold her for a long time because I can’t believe I haven’t seen her in four years. She tells me she missed me so much and everyday for the first few years she would go to bed crying because she didn’t have me around, then she got used to it but would think about me all the time. We have a small conversation outside and then we go into the house with my sister still clinging onto me and and I see my aunt. I go up to her and squeeze her hard. She asks me thousands of questions about college and I tell her my stories. We eat dinner, and watch this French movie that my grandmother loves, called Cache. I get ready for bed and my sister hops in my bed with me, I snuggle her close to me and feel her warm body breathing softly. I give her a kiss and tell her to sleep.

That’s the end of my story, sweetheart. That’s what my life was like, that’s how I grew up. My mother was never close to me, and so we never saw each other after that. But don’t you worry, you will always be my small little princess and I will never do anything to you that my mother did to me. Now close your eyes — tomorrow will be a beautiful new day.

PART 1

One day I was walking in the park. I fell in a thin, deep hole! I fell inside water, but I could still breathe, and the whole world was there! I saw over the hills, and a big mountain was over there! The hill was amazingly big, just with a tiny, tiny house on top. Under my feet, I saw a treasure chest! There was a shark swimming over it, but it was under me, and the treasure chest was even deeper.

The shark swam away. I swam down and opened the treasure chest and I found a portal and a letter. The portal was purple, and the middle was gold. It was moving clockwise! The letter said: “Jump in this portal!” and it was signed from my great great grandmother! I was really surprised! She had written, “Jump inside this portal. You will have to go through different portals to get home.”

I felt a little surprised, because I didn’t know my grandma would leave portals for me!

So, I jumped in, feeling really brave. At the end of the portal I ended up in a bathtub! I looked up, and I saw a sign with gold letters that said “Alien World.” There was also an alien bathing in the bathtub! He was green had only one eye, and six feet! He was going crazy when he saw me! He had his hand out and was shaking it, it looked like he was saying “STOP!” I had a little shock! Then, I went through the next portal inside the tub.

I saw a blue sign that said I was in Space World! I could tell, because I jumped on all of the asteroids. Then I went to the next portal, which was next to the other portal, because the sun and it was in my face.

I saw a sign with lots of gummy bears around it that said I was in Candy World. The floor was made out of gumballs! Then, I saw a snowball fight with kids, but with white cotton candy as the snowballs! There was also a big, fat, fat, donut factory, and I had a big, fat, fat donut! And I went in a palace! The palace was made out of whipped cream, with a cherry on top. I saw a picture that said “King Candy’s First Crown.” He had a big scarf on that was made out of licorice. His pants were made out of melted chocolate that were called “Spray on Jeans.” I knew they were spray on jeans, because when they took the photo, he was spraying it on! His first crown looked like a big gummy bear, and it was! It was a huge gummy bear stuck to his head, so nobody could steal it!

“So how did they get it off?” I thought.

He was looking at the picture too, and he was right next to me! And, I asked, “Wow, what you doing here?!” And, he was wearing his crown out of licorice and gumballs. And he brought a big gumball machine inside, and I asked, “Are you getting ready for something?”

And he told me “Yes. I am having a war with the Chocolate Army. I am going to get a bunch of licorice coins to put in this gumball machine and all of the gumballs will fire at them!”

King Candy asked me which side I was on. I told him I was a visitor. So, he said, “Go in this room for the war!”

I was in a ginormous room. On one of the walls, there was writing that said, “King Candy’s first room to make out of licorice.” I stayed in there for an hour. I made stuff out of wood from the walls. I made a family and one was an alien, and I played with them. King Candy and his servants won the battle. I knew because he told me after. He told me that it was easy to win, because most of the chocolates melted because it was a very hot day! Then he let me go.

Then, I went in the next portal that was outside King Candy’s castle. And I realized I was home!

I didn’t feel brave anymore. Maybe it was just for the mission. But, something wasn’t right. My whole family was tied up on a tree! I saw a black portal coming out from a tower, and loads of black robots came out! They tried to destroy the world. They were breaking everything with their lasers! They had to stop, but they wouldn’t! I thought I could stop them. My dad was a scientist and so I went into my house and into the lab. I took his newest invention that made people really really big! So, I went in it. I pressed the on button, then I went outside. I turned into a really big person, and it made me metal! So, I took all of the black robots down, with my hands. They only had lasers, so the lasers hit the metal and bounced back, and sometimes it would go to them, and they would get killed! I saved the world. It was easy, because I was made out of metal!

I realized that I never saw my great great grandmother ever again. It happened right when she was walking in the park. Maybe she fell in, and she got trapped in the alien world? She was very different from other people. She only had one eye and she was a little green when she went in bathtubs. Then, I just realized that my grandmother was an alien! Maybe she left portals for me to go into, so I could know that she was an alien! Me and my grandmother are not really close. Then, the next morning, I felt brave, and there was an another portal out my window.

PART 2

It was Christmas! I was very excited. We were going to have lots of fun. But then, my mom told me that my great great Grandmother is coming over to spend Christmas with us! Then I gasped, and I yelled, “Oh no!”

My mom asked me, “What’s the problem?”

I told her, “Nothing…”

My mom told me to keep these really really nice scissors in my pocket, for my great great grandmother. It was a Christmas Present. But then, the doorbell rang, and I opened the door. And then, I saw my great great grandmother and she said, “Come with me!” and she grabbed me and she took me into the portal, and she told me, “Something is wrong with Space World.” I said ,“Were you the alien?” and she said, “Yes. I went crazy, because I wanted you to stay and live with me there.”

“Where were you born?” I asked.

My great great grandmother told me, “I was born when my mother was between the Alien World and the Normal World, and her mom was also an alien. She had eight legs, and ten arms, and 500 brains, and she was the queen of the aliens. She was very special, and I didn’t tell you before, because I didn’t want you to tell anybody.”

Then she said, “And I think me and you can fix Space World, because you already went there. So, I thought both of us could do it together.”

“What happened?” I asked.

My great great grandmother said, “The path to Alien World with the asteroids is broken! It’s all mixed up, and all the asteroids are splatting all over the place, and people can’t get across it. So we need to drive my spaceship up and up and we need to hit asteroids and make them go in place!” So the spaceship went under water in a deep hole, and then it went up and up and up! We went up into the sky and I said, “Aaaa!” We went into space, but it wasn’t the same Space World that was part of the portal: we were much higher up. So we went higher and higher. Then we hit one asteroid! It went really close to the portal. It almost went in and we got a little worried, but it stayed. So then we tried hitting another one, but we ran out of gas! Then, luckily, an asteroid hit us, and made us go in the direction we wanted! The rocketship was on fire! But it didn’t burn the metal very much, so it looked like the fire was coming from the engine. So we kept trying to hit asteroids in the right place, but instead we actually built a big tower out of them, because they kept landing in the same place. So, then we actually could go in the tower, and we found another portal, but it was a black one-just like the one that came out of the tower with the robots- and we took a little adventure in it.

Then we saw all of the black robots in a castle. When we saw them, we hid behind a shelf. When they saw us hiding, they charged at us. But right when they were going to put a knife in us, they froze They were just charging and they ran out of battery!

My great great grandmother said, “Phew! That was close!”

We kept walking and walking until we could find the person who controlled the robots and try to capture that person. Then, we saw that my great great grandmother’s friend was there too. My great great grandmother told me about her, and she was an alien too, but with red skin, and with six eyes, and seven feet.

“She also goes on adventures, and sometimes she runs into me,” said Grandma. “And then, she normally helps me on some adventures to save the world!”

So, then she tried helping us, but we still couldn’t find the person who controls them!

But what if nobody controls them? My great great grandmother said, “Wear these glasses!” I said, “What do these do?”

She told me, “They’re X-Ray glasses. Tap them twice anywhere and they’ll turn on.”

I said, “Why do we even need to wear them?”

She said, “I think there’s something in the wall that controls them!”

So we looked and looked, and by accident I looked at the floor, but I saw something. It was a box! It said “ROBOT CONTROLLERS.” I told my great great grandmother and her friend, and we dug it out with a shovel. We found the shovel lying on the floor there, and then we dug the box up. And we looked in it, and there was a computer. We smashed it with the shovel, so the robots could not move anymore. The robots exploded too! It was pretty easy to smash, but then there were loads under it, because there were loads of robots! But the other ones were really hard to break. Then, we kept going, because we needed to find out who controlled the computers. And then we kept on going, and then we got captured in a huge net from the wall, and we heard a noise saying, “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

So then, we saw the person who controlled everything, and he told us his name. His name was called “THE CONTROLLER.” My great great grandmother said she knew him! She told me he always wanted to take over the world. He is half human, half alien. He has one leg, two eyes, ten brains, and one side of his stomach is green and the other side is brown. And he is really smart, because he is like two people!

I said to him, “Is that really your name?”

He was stomping on the ground, and moving his arms really strongly. He shouted, “No! My parents didn’t give me a name. But I don’t care. And now, I am going to take over the world!”

Then, I angrily screamed, “You can’t do that! You have to stop!”

And he said, “No!” in an, fierce, loud way.

Then, I felt a little worried. But I checked my pockets, because normally I’d have weird things in them that help me with stuff. Then I forgot about the scissors! I could cut the rope with them. So, then, I just cut the ropes, and everybody got out, and my great great grandma had a little screwdriver. I asked my great great grandmother where she got the screwdriver from. She forgot to give it back to the builder who came to her house, and he was also an alien. He had 16 legs! He had five brains, and three eyes! With the screwdriver, my great great grandmother made a hole in the ground. Then, I pushed the man into the big hole, and he couldn’t get out! Just for protection, we put the net over him, and my great great grandmother screwed it on the ground so he would never get out. He felt a little worried and angry. He was banging on the floor! He kept trying to get out, but he couldn’t!

Then we went back,and we saw all of the asteroids were in their place again,and we thought that The Controller was doing everything. So, we went down and down with the rocketship. My great great grandmother stayed over for Christmas, and her friend went to her house in Alien World.

THE END

All my friends have pets. Dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, bunnies. They never mention their pets but it must be nice having something to play with after school or when you’re bored. I feel like I’m the only one that doesn’t have a pet. I’m Christina Waters. I have long blonde hair and blue eyes. I‘m tall and skinny. I never wear makeup unless it’s a special day. I live in california with my mom, my dad, my shy but adorable little brother Tylor, my little sister Taylor who is so chubby and stubborn, and my older sister Catherine. My mom is a doctor and my dad is a lawyer. Catherine is in 9th grade and is perfect at everything. She’s even captain of the cheerleading team. When somebody sees or hears our last name they think of the amazing doctor, or the cute little boy and girl, or the pretty and popular student. Not really me. My mom always wanted me to be like my sister but, I want to be a scientist when I grow up. I go to Rosemont Middle School and my best friend’s name is Violet White. She has 2 bunnies named Karel and Carl. I always go to her house to play with them. I want a pet. That is the first thing on my “I want” list. That and a more normal family.

I keep asking my mom if we can get a pet but she always gives me the same answer. She says I’m not responsible enough even though Catherine gets whatever she wants and she’s not responsible. Plus, if she’s so responsible then why did she lose all four of her makeup sets? But she’s the perfect daughter that Mom and Dad always wanted and loved. Mom says she had a bunny that she gave to Catherine before I was born. So unfair! Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong in my family. They all have something special and unique about them. What’s my talent?

Yesterday I went to the pet store called Pet-up to hang out with Ginger, my favorite dog there. She is a creamy brown and has a white spot on her left eye. Then I spotted Corey. She is the most popular girl in middle school and I’m so jealous! She spotted me and walked over. I moved away. She followed me. “Leave me alone,” I said.

“I don’t have to listen to you,” she said. I still had Ginger in my arms. She was scared and shaking. So was I. Corey snached Ginger from me. Suddenly I wasn’t scared anymore. I was mad! She couldn’t tell me what to do!

“You’re not the boss of me!” I grabbed Ginger and put her in her cage. Then I stomped out, thanking Mr. green, the manager, as I went.

The next day, my mom woke me up at 6:00 a.m.. “I need to go to a meeting. Can you watch Tylor and Taylor?”

“Why can’t Catherine do it?” I groaned.

“She has a big competition tomorrow, she needs rest,” mom replied.

“Fine,” I said.

And I rolled out of bed. The next thing I knew, Tylor was jumping on the bed that I just made. “Get off!’’ I said.

“There a doggie outside! Can we keep it?!” he screams. “

Keep doggie!” Taylor yells.

“No! Wait, what, yes! I don’t know. Let me see it!” I shout, running down the stairs. I open the door to reveal an adorable puppy on the front porch getting drenched in the rain. She was mostly a light amber brown and had a white spot on her right eye. She looked Just like ginger. I was going to name ner Amber.

Chapter Two

The next day after mom screamed at me for bringing a dog in the house. I dropped Amber off at Pet-up and told Mr. Green her name, where I found her, and her condition, then went home to babysit Tylor and Hannah.

One day when I walked into school, I saw a huge crowd of boys and girls at the bulletin board. There was a sign that read:

………………………………………………………….

Movie making

movie making competition

pairs of two can compete

middle schoolers only

best movie/film wins

1,000 dollars

………………………………………………………………………….

There was no way I was going to let this opportunity pass up. That money could buy me a pet! All I had to do was win this competition and prove to my mom I was trustworthy. But how? I could just act like Catherine. After all, she seems very trustworthy to mom. But who would be my partner? I could pair with one of the kids in any of my classes. There was Maya Blackwiler but she didn’t really know how to make films and wasn’t great on the computer. There was Garret Johnson but he didn’t know me that well. Then it hits me. I should do the project with Jackup Forester. He is nice, smart, and he’s in all my classes. I’ve bumped into him in the hall a couple of times and he should remember me. Plus, he looks like the kind of guy who Mom would be ok with. And, I like him a little bit. Fine, I like him a lot! He has spiky brown hair and big brown eyes. He’s tall like me and very strong. He’s on the football team. The bell rings. I walk into home room with a flyer. I had to win that competition. I had to get a pet.

Chapter Three

I spotted Jackup in the hall near his locker. I started walking up to him but when I passed Corey in the hall I heard her saying she wanted to be Jackup’s partner too. I sped up and got to him before her. “Here,” I said handing him the flyer. Corey was getting closer so I cut to the chase. “Do you wanna be my Partner?”

“Sure,” he replied.

“So what is our topic gonn-”

“Hi Jackup. Do you wanna be my partner for the movie making thingy?” Corey asked.

“Sorry Corey, but Christina already asked sooo … no,” he replied. Corey harumphed and walked away with her nose in the air, arms crossed. Score I thought. I have a partner and I have a chance of winning!

“Sorry mom, I promised Jackup I would go to his house so we could work on our project together, so I can’t watch Tylor tonight!” I yelled as I ran out the door. As I walked down the path I heard my sister yelling, “No Tylor! Thats my makeup! Play with one of your disgusting toy trucks that you find interesting for some weird reason that only Christina gets!! Mooommm!!!”

When I arrived at his house Jackup was waiting outside for me. “Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” I said back. “Do you have any ideas for what are topic for the film will be?” I said walking into his house.

“Nope, not really” he replied shyly. “You?”

“No,” I said. Then I looked up. His house was huge! To my right was a long winding staircase. There was a door next to it that I guessed led to the kitchen because there were amazing smells coming out of it. In front of me was a long hallway with doors on either side. Next to that was an open door that led to the dining room. To my left there was a room that had a desk and bookshelves filled with books. In the center of the room there was a table with a countless amount of special photographs of Jackup’s family. All framed. I hadn’t even seen the upstairs.  

“This is amazing!” I yelled.

“Thanks,” he said, “We had it built last year. Do ya wanna see the upstairs?”

“Yes!” I replied, running up the fancy stairs. When we got upstairs he showed me his room that had blue wallpaper and posters that lined the wall, his mom’s room, his dad’s room, the maid’s room, the bathroom, and his little sister Suzette’s room. Then he showed me the play room that had every toy or source of entertainment ever invented and the lounge with couches and stools and chairs. It had the biggest TV I’ve ever seen in the center of the grand room. finally he led me into the last part of the house: the balcony/terrace. It had big cushion chairs and a  wonderful view of down below the house.

“So cool,” I whispered in shock.

“Thanks,” he whispered back.

Jackup took me to the study and started looking at all the book titles. “What are you doing?’’ I asked, confused.

“Trying to find an interesting topic,” he said. Then a tall skinny woman wearing a dress walked into the room and shook my hand. A black-haired man in a suit came in after her and did the same.

“You must be Christina, Jackup’s research partner!” the woman said. “I’m Mrs. Forester but you can call me Abby. And this right here is Mr. Forester but you can call him Paul. Jackup told me all about you.” I looked over at Jakeup and he blushed. “Enjoy!” With that Abby strolled out of the room with Paul behind her. “Dinner will be ready in about one hour,” she called behind her.

“So now you’ve met my parents,” Jackup said. “I’ve got it!”

“Found  what?” I asked, confused. “Our topic,” he replied.

We worked for hours and hours that night and finally I went home.

That night was amazing.

Chapter Four

The next day in the morning, Tylor spilled his milk, Mom had a migraine, Dad was super tired, and Catherine had early cheerleading practice and I had to work on my film. The morning was crazy. Plus, Taylor wanted candy for breakfast and when I didn’t let her she started bawling. I ran to my room and slammed the door. I couldn’t take it. I’m only 14 not a babysitter or a nurse.

I pulled out my camera and sat down at my desk. then I started downloading pictures from my camera to my computer. Then Taylor shouts from downstairs, “Chrissy, a boy is here to see you. Don’t keep him waiting!! Hee, hee, ha!!’’ I run downstairs and push Taylor away. Jackup’s at the door. ‘’Did you work on our project yet?” he asked.

He was wearing jeans and a blue button down shirt. He looked nice. I was wearing my pajamas. I looked bad. I knew Jackup was trying hard not to laugh.

“Uhh, I was just doing that,’’ I said. “Do ya wanna come in and help?”

He glanced inside and said, “sure.” I brought him to my room and showed him the pictures I found and the videos I took. At 10:00 he left but so did everyone else. I was stuck babysitting. Again.

Chapter Five

“Family meeting! Family meeting! Everybody in the living room! Important news!!” Mom and Dad called. I ran down the stairs the same time Taylor and Tylor ran out of the kitchen. We collided. “Owwwwwwyyyyy!” we all said. Then we slowly got up. Taylor had a scrape on her arm, Tylor had a bruise on his leg, and I had a bump on the back of my head. Catherine came down the stairs all okay and perfect.

“Ugh,” she said when she saw us. “What else is new?” When we were all okay we sat on the couch and Mom gave us the news.

”We’re moving,” she said slowly.

“Noooooooo!” everyone cried.

“I’m moving away from Jackup,” I said.

“I’m moving away from Luckis!” catherine cried.

“We don’t care!” the twins yelled.

“We’re moving into Violet White’s neighborhood.” Everyone was silent.

“Yeessss!!!” I screamed.

Chapter Six

The moving van pulled up at 10:00 on Monday morning. It was big and blue and had white writing. I was helping Mom get the boxes out of the house. Catherine was inside, still packing. Tylor and Taylor were playing with bubbles on the lawn and Dad was wrapping the couch. This was going to be a long day.

We were in the car driving. It was going to be a 15 minute drive every day to go to school. I was sitting in the middle of Taylor and Tylor to keep them from fighting and Dad was in the back. Catherine got to sit in the passenger seat even though it was her turn to sit where I was sitting.  

When we arrive at the new house, I’m surprised at the size. It’s at least double the size of the old one. Mom tells me my room is the biggest. Then she tells me when the movie making competition is. It’s in one week! How can we finish our film? I zoom over to Jakeup’s house on my bike and tell him the news. We have a snack of graham crackers and cheese then we work on our film. We’re almost done. When I get home the house is all unpacked. It looks amazing.

Mom told me my friend called and she wants to have a sleepover. First I’m thrilled. Then I’m confused. What friend? Mom sees the look on my face and tells me my old friend that called was Lily Renold!! We met in first grade and she was my best/only friend until fourth grade. Then she moved to Chicago. She promised she’d be back one day and today’s the day. I packed my bag and zipped over to her house. I was so excited to see her again. I rung her doorbell and her mom answered. She called Lily down and when I saw my best friend, I knew one thing. She changed. A lot.

Chapter Seven

Lily was wearing a pink nightgown and I was wearing sweatpants. Her black hair was in a braid. My hair was messy and knotted. Lily was wearing tons of bracelets up her arms. And I had teeth marks from Taylor and Tylor biting me up my arm. She looked just like my sister except, what’s the word I want? Oh, yeah: a new version of my best friend! “Hey bestie!” she squealed.

“Hi Lily,” I said feeling kind of down. She looked surprised.

“Seriously, you haven’t changed a bit! Add a little sparkle to your plain old life!”

I looked Lily in the eye and said, “What happened to you! You know I don’t do sparkle! I thought you didn’t!”

Lily’s older sister, Lucy, came down the stairs. She looked just like Lily. But at least she hadn’t changed! “So ummmm… what’s new here? I mean what’s new with you?” Lily asked.

I lowered my voice and said, “I’m pretty sure somebody likes me, and I like him back.”

“Hey, you have a boyfriend!” she screamed so loud that I’m pretty sure everyone in California had heard.

“Shhhhh! I don’t want anyone to know. Well just forget it. We’re just partners for this movie making project,” I said.

“That’s not how it goes, bestie!” she said. “You have to tell him how you feel!” I was mad now.

“What happened to you!” I screamed. “You changed so much! I mean too much!”

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m kinda the popular girl now. That’s just my thing.”

“You’re not popular,” I said. “Have you even met the other new girl Corey?” I was calming down. I was sweating though.

“Yes. I have met her in fact. She really likes me.”

“Oh” I said. things went on like that all night. We still had a lot of catching up to do.

Chapter Eight

Then came the day of the film competition. I’m so nervous. I led my family over to the benches. They sat. I ran to backstage and find Jackup with are disk. We went into the back room and put our film into the player. It started to play.

Under the sea

by christina waters and jackup forester

a film about sea creatures

The film went on and as I watched I couldn’t believe what I had made. I needed to win! Violet and her partner, Mia, came in to the room. They waited until our film was over and then put their film into the player. I watched it and it was amazing! There were so many details and interesting facts! It was about all the different planets! Now I wasn’t so sure we were going to win. Our chance was getting smaller and smaller as their video went on. I still needed to win!!

Chapter Nine

Suddenly a voice came on over the school speaker. The judges wanted the films! I ran to the booth and handed in our film. The man thanked me. I felt like I was gonna barf! I had so many butterflies. I went to find my family. Jackup’s family and my family were talking. When we arrived, everyone said at once, “Did you win?” I explained that we had a few hours while the judges watched and voted the films. Catherine and the parents stayed and talked while Jackup and I took Taylor,  Tylor, and Suzette to find a snack. Taylor and Tylor were shy with strangers and hid behind me. But Suzette, oh no. She was talking the whole time. Mostly about rainbows, ponies, and wanting to find a snack. But she also asked questions. Finally, we found hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream. The little kids seemed to be okay with that. We brought Taylor, Tylor, and Suzette back to the parents and then Jakeup and I sat and talked.

Then the judges said that it was time to announce the winners! For the second time that day i felt like I was gonna barf. We all gathered around the stage trying to find the best seats around the big rectangle stage. And then the third place winners were announced. “And… nice job to Sophia bentley and Alex green for getting third place!” the man on the stage said. Everyone clapped as the winners walked on to the stage and bowed. A lot. Next he announced second place and when I heard the names, I almost fainted.

Chapter Ten

The names that were announced were Jackup Forester and Christina Waters. That was me! Jackup led me on to the stage. I was fine with that because I was shaking so much I thought I was gonna fall over. I saw my friends and family and all my teachers and classmates. Then everyone stood up while my film was playing! I was getting a standing ovation! I never thought I was the type of person who would ever get this! I took my spot on the platform and bowed. This felt good. When I finally got my senses back, the man announced  the first place winners. “Finally, for our all stars winners we have… Mia Osborne and Violet White!!!”

As Violet walked on to the stage after Mia, I hugged her. “Nice job”, I said.

“Thanks,” she said back. Then I joined in with the clapping.

Even though I didn’t win all the 1,000 dollars, I still won 100 dollars. I’m a tenth of the way there. After the celebration at the theater, my family took Violet and Mia out for ice cream. Somewhere around 5:00 p.m. my family went to do an “errand”. Then I dropped Violet off at her house then went to mine. I was supposed to meet my family there. I was so tired but when I walked in the living room, everyone shouted out, “Surprise!!!”

Chapter Eleven

Violet, mom, dad, Jackup, Abby, Paul, Catherine, Suzette, Taylor, Tylor, and everyone else I knew was standing in our living room. There was a big white box in the center of the room. “Open it!” everyone told me. I walked over to the box and began opening and unfolding the flaps.

Suddenly I heard a small, “Bark!” I kept going then I heard it again, “Bark!” This time it was louder. I finally lifted a white crate from the huge box. When i opened the tiny door, an adorable little golden retriever puppy shot out of the cage. Her big brown eyes looked into my blue ones and at once I knew what I was going to name her. Maple. I stayed up until 2:00 that night just playing with Maple. Then I went to bed and dreamed about that day.

Chapter Twelve

Now that it’s summer, I spend all my free time training Maple. She is so smart! So far, she can roll over, sit, play dead, and I’m teaching her how to stand on her hind legs. I’m so glad I have a dog now! I have a perfect pet!

I have the perfect pet!

~the end~

Startasia was a peculiar girl who wanted nothing more than to be normal. She was a tall girl who had nothing to do with anything but everything had something to do with her. She was had short curly brown hair and brown eyes. She live in Loomville, a small place that she hoped to love. She moved there because she thought there would be less people to make fun of her disability. She is just a normal girl with two legs and one arm.

Yes, Startasia had one arm. She once went swimming and had a shark bite. All she wants now is to have a normal life with two arms. Everywhere she goes, people stare. Even the parents who tell their children not to.

Her life wasn’t all miserable. She once had two arms and a best friend and she lost some of that. How was she going to be settled if everyone treats her like she a bubonic plague? She longs to be like those people who love their differences.

Unfortunately she wasn’t. Star had a long way to  come in making friends. She knew the school year was going to be terrible. It was not a hunch, just a It-Happens-Everywhere-She-Went-So-She Know- What-To-Expect-From-Everyone-feeling.

Chapter 1 : The Doom of School

On August 20th, Startasia went to WaterBear middle school. It was a new experience. As different as it might be, the expectation of the mockery, laughter and stares was still high inside of Startasia.

The moment that Startasia stepped through her classroom there was a long pause and silence. The stares were worse than ever. She quietly sort  of tip-toed to the back of the room to l take a seat. Then a lengthy girl with so much lipstick- enough to be Miranda Sings- approached her. Startasia gave an awkward smile.

“Yo Ms. One-Arm, this is my seat,” said the lengthy girl, “and I don’t want your disease rubbing off it!!”

“Kamielle Loof please report to the main office,” said the loud speaker. The lengthy girl groaned, wiped her raven black hair, twitched her freckles and walked out the room. Some girls were smiling at Startasia, other people were just staring at the empty space where her left hand used to be.

Just sat down and someone already hates you. Wow, nice going. Why couldn’t I just be homed schooled? My mom will love me with one arm and won’t say I have a disease.

Startasia ’s thoughts were interrupted by a little girl with a big smile on her face. She came towards Startasia and said, “I think you’re really cool. I’ll make sure you don’t explode before the end of the school year.” Then the little girl disappeared and left Startasia clueless.

It turned out that in the classroom they sat in Alphabetical order due to their last name. Bear being Statartsia’s last name makes her front and center, exactly what she wished not to be. The day went smoother than expected. People did not stare much. It turns out every new girl gets the “stare” for a moment.

Algebra was a piece of cake. History was fun. Literature and Science were breezy. Writing was awkward with one arm. Startasia was actually pretty smart. Some people thought the mind problem was as big as the arm problem.

Lunch. The small recess of devotion for gossip, friends, and social level to be in one room creating tension in the air as a tornado of words bounce off the walls. It was chaos. It was art. It was beautiful chaos. But Startasia sat by herself and eating with speaking to no one .

A girl with dark frizzy hair with freckles and brown eyes sat next to Startasia and said, “Hi.”

It was a magical time when Startasia smiled and forgot her lost arm.  The girl introduced herself as Orchid. Startasia smiled at Orchid and said “Hi. I’m Startasia.”

Orchid responded, “I know how you feel about your arm and it’s ok. Nobody’s perfect. Love yourself and freely determine who you are. No one can hurt you unless you let them hurt you.”

Startasia was upset. The only conversation she can conjure up was about her arm. why didn’t people just talk to her about normal stuff? Stuff like manners, love, or maybe even gossip. Why is her arm the thing people care about?

Tears slowly glisten down her face. Startasia got up and went in the bathroom.

From then on, Startasia ate in the bathroom and studied there as well. Sure, it was disgusting, but it was better than focusing on her arm. She sat on the floor against the bathroom stall. Drenched in tears and thoughts. Her head down at her knees. She thought of those people with two arms and cried harder.

She felt the whole world against her just for being different.

Chapter 2: The Past Is Still Present

Today, when she went home she raided the fridge, watched TV, wiped her tears and spoke not a word about school to her parents. Her mom Cecilia was home doing yoga and barely noticed her own daughter upset.

As Startasia scurried to her room smiling at her grades, she heard of more people who had to flee the beach because of numerous shark attacks. She felt a sharp object poking through her stomach, in her gut and right through her soul. The sound of that word shark revived a memory she had hoped to banish year ago.

It was a fun day like no other. She was playing in the water with her best friend Oyact. His brown hair was drooping over his eyes and his brown eyes were shut tight. Playing Marco-Polo. A woman yelled shark and everyone left the water. It was actually her and her husband playing with their kid. She back in the water with Oyact and was back to playing. The small fish nibbled Startasia’s feet. She felt a strong tug and thought it was her friends playing with her. Then she fell rows of teeth twisting at her arm. It was painless. As she looked at her arm she cried in terror of the amount of blood she saw, the lacking arm and the weird feeling that it did not hurt. She heard Oyact yelling for help as she saw him being dragged down to the ocean floor. She could barely moved as she was paralyzed in fear. Oyact’s body was never found. Sometimes she called that woman, “The woman who cried shark.”

Startasia was lost in her memory. She never forgave herself for the death of Oyact. It was a time in her life when her life was just so damaged.

Orchid snuck in Statasia’s house and watched her quietly on the stairs reading a book. She found it strange that it was unlocked. I mean, come on, you can pick a lock with a stale cheeto if you wanted to. Such poor security, thought Orchid. With a clear of the throat from jumps back and shrieks to see the girl who upset her in her house uninvited.

“Look, I’m sorry I about the lunch thing and the sneaking into the house thing even though you house can use some work with the security. I Know I probably should explain. I know how you feel because I have the same thing.”

Startasia responded, “Stop saying stuff like that you. You have no idea what it is like to be me. Being stared at to death just for being different.”

“Just let me talk. The only reason you are upset is because you think everything’s your fault.”

“Just get out, it’s illegal to break into people houses.”

“The only reason I know what you’re going through is because I’m prosthetic. I’m missing an arm as well.”

Chapter 3: The Truth Is Revealed

Orchid took off her robotic arm and placed it gently on the floor. Startasia gasped in shock. She never knew there were others like her.   Orchid rolled her sleeve to show the missing arm. Was this a joke or a prank? Was it true?

Orchid smiled. “I was there on the beach. I was in the water too. I held up Oyact. I helped you to the shore and went for more people. no one was there except the sharks. They bit me as well. I saw you and called the ambulance.”

“You mean to say Oyact is alive?” Startasia asked.

“Tried to tell you that day at lunch but you were too upset. Oyact is my brother. He is just fine. He always wonders about you and thought you were dead too.”

“But if you were there on the beach. How come you were not at the hospital?”

“There was massive amount of people in the hospital so I was transferred to the other side of town to Newton hospital for blood control.”

“But what about that little girl who said she’ll make sure I don’t explode?’’

“Oh, her? That’s Lizzy. She says it to everyone she doesn’t recognize. Se is kind of weird you’ll have to get use to her.”

Oyact walked in the room with a big smile. Startasia was wobbling. Her legs could not hold her up. She fell to her knees and had tears in her eyes.

Orchid responded “You know, if you keep crying like that you are going to die of dehydration.”   

Oyact was there standing breathless. The amputees hugged.  Startasia’s mom walked in and said, “Wow a family reunion and I‘m invited.”

Scribble scribble, write write. That was the sound the colored pencils made when they were busy. Scribble scribble, BLAH BLAH. That was the sound the black pencils made. The colored pencils were busy coloring their house because they just found out they could color.

In the meantime, the servants of the king of the Black Kingdom were busy working to make the world black because they were evil and the king of the Black Kingdom was shouting out orders like, “Release the paint bombs and go to the Color Kingdom. Can someone get me a glass of water? I’m about to die of thirst!!!”

Two security guys offered him bottled waters.

“OMG, you expect me to drink from a BOTTLED WATER?!?!?” he shrieked.

The security guys rushed off to get him a glass of water.

“OMG, you expect me to drink from a GLASS of water?!?!” the King shrieked.

Finally, a servant came up and offered him water in a giant, cup-shaped, onyx jewel.

“There!” He snapped in a cold voice, “Now get back to work!” He shouted back to the servant.

The servant saluted and went back to work. The security guards stared at the King, waiting for his orders. The King glared back at them, “SO?” He roared. “What are you waiting for?! Totally go!!”

The two guards ran back to the gate.

The King sighed. “I’m getting too young for this.” He muttered to himself as he popped a few black licorice-flavored jelly beans into his mouth.

Then, a pilot working for the Black Kingdom, who was away spying on the Color Kingdom, said, “Emergency! Emergency!” through the walkie-talkie that was on his controls. The King heard the calls from the walkie-talkie that was resting on his throne.

The King replied through the walkie-talkie, “Release the paint bombs, dummy!”

“Yes, sir!” the pilot replied back.

The pilot released the first paint bomb and flew back to the Black Kingdom as fast as his airplane controls could go.

SPLASH! KABOOM!!!!

“What is that noise?” Tansmo asked.

“It must be raining,” Rose replied.

“Oh,” Tansmo said. And she grabbed a rainbow-colored raincoat and stepped outside to take a look if it was actually raining.

She gasped and then gave out a scream.

“Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat?” Tangy yelled.

“L-l-l-l-ook for yours-s-s-self-f-f-f,” Tansmo said.

She handed her raincoat to Tangy who put on the raincoat and poked her head outside to take a look.

Tangy screamed and squealed.

“What is it, Tangy?” Rose asked in an annoyed voice. Tangy usually screamed and squealed and whined and it drove Rose furballs.

“Look!” Tangy squealed, and handed Rose Tansmo’s raincoat. Rose, too, put on the coat and too, stuck her head out the door.

Rose yelled, “Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“What?” the rest of Color Kingdom who lived in the same house as Rose and Tansmo asked; they all heard Rose’s yell.

They all put on rainbow-colored raincoats and stuck their heads out of the door to take a peek. All the jaws in Color Kingdom dropped to the floor, (they had to pick their jaws back off from the floor and push them up to their mouths again) when they saw what happened to their garden. The flowers were drooping, the trees had fallen, and worst of all, everything was black.

“What just happened! Oh my god!” Rose and Violet screeched.

“YEAH!!” Sunshine and all the others agreed. Click Clack Tip Tap.

“What is that noise?” Goldie and Silver questioned.They turned to find Amber, Ruby, Heather and India (all messengers) sitting in front of a computer on a little desk near the open door.

“More sod, flowers, and trees,” Amber declared.

“But less money,” India added.

India went into the money room and released a few dollars. She inserted the dollars through a slot and went outside to remove the sod, trees, and plants.

“I said, what just HAPPENED?!?!” yelled Violet, who had been quiet the whole time (and whose jaw was the only one that didn’t drop in Color Kingdom). Ruby walked in holding a really big octillion page long book.

She flipped to a page (487) and said, “The rulebook says that it was a paint bomb from the Black Kingdom.”

“Whaaaaaaat??” said the rest of the colored pencils.

“And,” Ruby continued, “once it falls to the ground, it explodes and releases lots and lots and lots of fatal black paint. But thank god we were inside our house or else we would be dead by now.”

“Guys,” Violet said, her face was ‘violet’ with anger. “We have to get revenge, make a plan already!”

“Actually,” Amber interrupted, “me, Ruby, India, and Heather will plan the plan.”

“Sure,” Violet said. Violet’s inner face started to fade into her normal shade of violet. A few hours later, Amber and Ruby returned back to the main room where all the colored pencils usually are. The main room is basically everything except for business because it is filled with everything they need, there are only three other rooms, the money room which is where they keep all of their money, the top secret room which is top secret information, and the spare offices. Amber and Ruby told their plan for making revenge to the color pencils. Very few of the colored pencils were satisfied, because they thought it was a horrible plan. The first plan was basically ‘run for your life, burst through the gates, and kill the King.’ Three of the colored pencils agreed, and the rest were not convinced at all (like negative 50 million pecent).

Violet said, “Seriously–seriously!? You literally had the nerve to suggest that?”

Even though there was no leader in the Color Kingdom, Violet was kind of like one.

“Heh, heh, oopsies!” Amber stuttered.

Ruby and Amber hurried back to the TOP SECRET room and began planning on Plan B. The next day at 12:00, Ruby and Amber returned to the main room and announced their plan. Go into their cellar and dig a tunnel all the way to the dark kingdom, creep underground into the gates, under the gates so the security guards wouldn’t see us, and crawl through a hole in the King’s dark kingdom throne room. Then crawl behind the throne and stab a knife through the King’s heart. The colored pencils waited for Violet to respond.

“We do not take showers and we are not getting dirty!” Violet finally responded. Ruby and Amber dragged their bodies back to the TOP SECRET room. Days and days passed, the days turned to weeks, the weeks turned to months, as Amber and Ruby planned from plan A to plan Z to plan 1 to plan 1,000. Finally, after 10 years, Violet was satisfied with plan 90 million. But the plan was so advanced that it took them 20 more years to pack and get ready. Things included invisible cloaks, gallons and gallons and gallons of water (to make it look like it is raining), black dye, etcetera. They had gotten all of the supplies from adventures a long, long time ago when the mysterious knight who had four giant horses gave Violet her invisibility cloak when she was only five. Tangy who was only three at the time, was also given an invisibility cloak. They also had a clone machine so they were able to make 4 really big ones like the ones the four horses had.  

Now they began their journey. Since the Black Kingdom was all the way across the world they had to walk millions and millions and millions of miles. Finally when they got there, they put on their invisibility cloaks and stepped up the stone steps to the gate.

Amber and her group (111 members) pushed through the gate and made a “BOOM BOOM” sound. Meanwhile, The Black Kingdom had no idea that the Color Kingdom was seeking revenge on them because the black king thought that they had completely destroyed the Color Kingdom. So because of that, they decided to chill out and relax for 30 years. The Color Kingdom thought since there were no guards or armour in the gate, they thought the Black Kingdom had replaced the guards with security cameras.

But actually there was no guard, no security cameras and the the Black Kingdom were just sitting in the movie theater eating black liquorice flavored popcorn. Tangy, from Amber’s group, asked Violet, who had her own invisibility cloak and was in front of everybody else even though you couldn’t see it, asked, “D-d-d-do you th-th-think this is a g-g-g-good idea?”

“Yes, I do!” Violet snapped in a whisper-shouting voice.

“B-b-b-b-but–” Tangy began.

“No buts, no cuts, and no coconuts!!! Now shush!”

“O-o-okay,” Tangy stuttered. Violet glared at Tangy and made the mouth-zipping noise. As Amber’s group went into the Black Kingdom, Ruby’s group (246 members) hopped up onto the ceiling and poured the gallons of water down to the ground, so the “security cameras” would think it was raining. Then Ruby’s group hopped of the ceiling and went through the gates. India’s group (105 members) went “WOOSH!!!” and pushed the gates open, then closed. Finally, Heather’s group managed to sail into the gate before it flapped closed.

“Why does it smell so bad?” Rose complained.

“It’s soot!” Violet snapped. “Duh!”

“Well it certainly doesn’t smell like soot,” Rose answered back.

“Then what does it smell like?” Violet snapped back again.

“Uhhhhhhhhh…” Rose said.

“Well, if you don’t know what it smells like and you don’t think what everybody else thinks then why are you asking me?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” Rose continued.

“Stop uhhhhhhh-ing and continue with your group. You fell behind!” Violet  pushed Rose into her group and started to go back to the front of the group.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” Rose uuuuhed.

India looked at Rose (who was in her group) and asked, “Why are you uuuuh-ing?”

“Uhhhhh…..” Rose kept on saying.

India pulled her suitcase out, rummaged through it and found a bandage. She put the bandage over Rose’s mouth and continued back to her group.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…” she could hear Rose still saying.

They never found out what the bad smell was.

The colored pencils quietly entered into the throne room. They took out one of their color bombs, (they explode fatal, colorful, permanent paint). They put one in each room of the Black Kingdom and put on each of their timers for 20 seconds and then hurried as fast as they could back home. Meanwhile, at the Black Kingdom, the King and all the other servants: the security guards, the chefs, etc, were all laughing at the funny things in the movie Wicked, (because they were evil) when they heard a robotic voice, “Exploding in 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11…”

“What is that sound?” The King roared.

“It must be your imagination, your Majesty. None of us heard a single thing.”

The voice continued, “Exploding in 5,4,3,2,1…”

KABOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

A few years later, (which is now) Earth found out about the colored pencils. The colored pencils were brought to Earth and they told their true story to the world, after which they went back home. However, the world wondered, why they didn’t get the Black Kingdom’s side of the story? That was because the Black Kingdom no longer existed to tell the story.    

THE END

My parents were divorced and she had been dating this really nice and funny man named Chris. My mother came into my room with an excited face and I was scared. She was so happy that I think she forgot to breathe. Then that was when my life changed forever. She told me that Chris proposed to her and that their wedding was in 11 months. I mean, I couldn’t be mad because she was happy and he was pretty nice, but… I was an only child, so I was used to it being just me and my mom. Chris was everywhere. I went to the mall with my mom and Chris came with us and his daughter Chloe came with us. P.S. Chloe is my best friend and I love her. We went to a concert and he came with us. It was like he was invading my personal space. After like TWO WHOLE YEARS, I’m used to him being everywhere. The next day at school was terrible.

1 Day Before the Wedding

“Mom, can I talk to you?” I said calmly to my mom.

“Sure honey, what’s up?” my mom said, confused.

“So…like, I’m happy for you, but what is it going to be like when me and you have fun over the summer, is he going to come with us? What’s going to happen to me? Will you still hang with me? Mommy, I’m scared,” I explained to mom.

“Katie, Katie, Katie it’s ok. I will always love you and how could I forget about you, you are my little baby. Things will change, but we will still have fun in the summer and we will still do stuff, just me and you, once in a while,” my mom said after taking a big deep breath.

“Once in a while, that’s not enough, I want to have some mommy-and-daughter days or nights,” I explained to her, almost crying.

“You know what, I’m just going to walk away and we can talk after the wedding tomorrow. K, ttyl,” my mom said, with attitude and sass.

Eight Hours Before the Wedding

Soooo, yesterday didn’t go how I thought, but at least I told her what I needed to be said. Her last sentence threw me off and got me really annoyed. I guess I have to go get ready, which I really don’t want to. I have this beautiful white flower girl dress that makes it look like I’m nine when I’m really only six! I have a heart fun ring and a charm bracelet. When Chris saw me he was like, WOW. Chloe was standing right next to me and she felt like he was ignoring her. Chloe always plays with me and she is my best friend!!! She has gorgeous brown curly hair and has beautiful blue eyes. Me and her have the same style!

When my mom came into the room, she looked gorgeous. I helped her pick out her dress, so of course she looks gorgeous! Chris then came in the room and he was like, WOW. He had never seen his daughter like that and he never saw my mom and me like that. Chloe and I went into the corner and we started having our little scared talk.

“Hey Katie?” Chloe asked me.

“Yeah Chloe, what’s up?” I asked, confused.

“Sooo…don’t get me wrong, I love you and I love your family, but I’m really scared. You now how siblings fight, what will happen when we are sisters? Will we still be besties?” Chloe asked me, really scared.

“Everything will be alright,” I tried to say calmly.

Then my mom came over and asked us, “Is everything alright?”

“Mom, everything is alright, just talking about our speech,” I replied.

“You’re sure? You seem like you’re hiding something,” my mom whispered with confidence.

“No, we’re not, we’re just really happy and when we’re really happy, we happy cry!” I said, hoping she won’t find out.

“K, if you ever want to tell me, I’m always open. Also, TTYL girls and BTW its my wedding!!!!!” My mom said with more attitude and sass.

One hour before the wedding

I walked into the ballroom and the flowers were set, the streamers were set. I looked in front of me and the flowers were gorgeous. They were big white bloomed roses with a light pink center. The glass they were in was light pink like the middle of the flower with little white roses on it. I turned around and my mom was there. My mom looked confused. Then I was confused. She was probably wondering why I was here an hour before and I was wondering why she was here but that’s another story why she was. I was there because, well, I like to do flowers and I just wanted to see if any one was here yet. I sat down, then my mom sat down. It was like she was copying me. We both looked around and we were impressed. Then Chris ruined the moment. He just walked in with his big mouth and just ruined the moment just like he ruined my family. I looked at my mom and she knew exactly what I meant so I just walked away. Just as I was walking out, Chris grabbed my arm and said, “I’m sorry if I have changed your life, but me and your mom would only do this if it was the right thing to do.”

I thought to myself, Yeah right, like he actually means that.

15 Minutes before the wedding

Everyone’s starting to come and the knot in my stomach is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. When the last person came in the room, the door slowly shuts. Then that’s when I knew I couldn’t change my mind and I couldn’t do anything about it. I sat down and my mom smiled at me and all I did was look away. The service started and my eyes were filling up with tears. I looked up at my mom and then she yelled “ STOP!!!” Everyone stopped where they were. My mom ran down to me and grabbed my hand and we ran out the door.

She grabbed me and asked, “Are you ok, you don’t seem like you’re happy?”

“Mom, I’m fine, I’m just really happy for you,” I explained to my mom.

We walked back in and when we did everyone was staring at us. It was like we did something wrong. I sat down and when my mom went back up Chris looked confused and I think he whispered to my mom, “Hey, what was that about, is everything alright?” It looked like my mom ignored him. I was proud of her.

When the wedding actually started I was actually happy! At the end of the wedding I ran over to Chris and I hugged him. He smiled at me and I smiled at him right back. My mom then looked over at us and she smiled. My mom ran over and I felt like everything was coming to back together. I actually felt like Chris was a part of the family and he was! We took a family photo of me, Chloe, Chris and my mom and it was amazing.

THE END

Kelly was having breakfast with her dad and it was exactly a week after her last day of school.It was her eighth birthday and she was having her party. It was a softball party. She was so excited because she was going to sleepaway camp. She was leaving in the evening.

After breakfast, Kelly went to get dressed. Suddenly, she saw two mysterious black figures run by her window very quickly. Kelly ran outside to check if she could she could still see them but everything was normal. She went back into her room and just then her mom came in. She just woke up.

“Happy birthday!” she said. “I’m not going to work today!”

“Yay!” said Kelly. “Can I organize the decorations? Please!”

“Okay, okay, you can,” said her mom.

Then, when Kelly was done, she went back to her room and remembered about the black figures.

Kelly invited all the girls in her class, some of her neighbors and some other friends from school.

Later at Kelly’s party, people were arriving. When everyone arrived, they went out to the softball field and her mom told everyone how to play. They started playing, and while they were playing, Kelly saw two black figures run by very quickly again. That distracted her and she missed the ball.

When they finished playing, they went back to Kelly’s house to have cake. It was chocolate cake. They went out in the backyard to play when they were finished with their cake. You could see the softball field and Kelly’s aunt and uncle’s house from there. Her aunt and uncle’s house was right next to the field. She leaned on the fence and looked at the softball field and at the house. She saw something run around the house very quickly again. It seemed to be black but it was kind of blurry so she could not see perfectly. Kelly started to do cartwheels back and forth. In a few minutes everyone had to leave because the party was over. Katie, Kelly’s best friend, stayed though. Kelly told her about the black figures and how they had also been around the softball field.

They decided to go there and investigate. They told Kelly’s mom and they went to Kelly’s and uncle’s house. When they got there, they creeped around the side of the building and suddenly they heard whispering around the corner of the building. One man had brown hair and the other had blonde. They looked like they were in their mid-thirties.

“They’re watching TV in the living room,” the brown-haired one whispered.

The blonde-haired one was looking around.

“We need to go in, creep up the-”

“Look, a little girl!!”

The men tied them up and gagged them. Luckily, it was not that tight so when the men kept whispering, they managed to get out and run home. They got Kelly’s mom and told her about the criminals. Her mom ran into the house with them and warned Kelly’s aunt and uncle, and then they found the men and they tied them up with some rope and Kelly’s mom called the police. The police came and the men went to jail.

The end.

It was fifth grade and the last day of school, Olivia was helping Mrs. Hogan-Miller clean up her stuff for the last day of school. She entered the classroom. It was beautiful with blue walls and tan desks. But Mrs. Hogan-Miller hid her face so Olivia couldn’t see her.

“Hi,” Olivia said.

“Hi honey, Elizabeth is supposed to be here” Mrs. Hogan-Miller said.

“Um, she can’t come because she’s in lunch detention.”

“Why?”

“Oh, she’s being lunch monitor…” Olivia said, playing with her hands and looking around.

“Well, only Mrs. Leona, a teacher, can do that sweetie. You should tell your friend that.”

“Mrs. Hogan-Miller you didn’t hear? Students can be lunch monitors!”

Elizabeth actually was in detention for not doing her homework and Olivia just saved her best friend from getting scolded at the loudest-shouting teacher in the school. Olivia knew this because she heard Bryant Marcello getting scolded at before.

After those awkward moments, they started to clean. Mrs. Hogan-Miller seemed really nice, Olivia thought.

The whole school was released from class. You were able to see all the 6th graders to 12th grade in one big huddle and you could hear them speaking. Elizabeth wanted to know what they were saying so she pulled Olivia by the arm and dragged her to the group.  They heard rumors about Mrs. Hogan-Miller. Like, “She’s so ugly under her mask.” Or “She’s so mean and weird!”

Olivia rolled her eyes from the embarrassing comments about Mrs. Hogan-Miller. Then a boy named Rico Donic said “Fifth graders, let’s see your luck. Whoever’s in Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s class stands where the fourth pole is and needs to hold this sign.” Rico held up a rectangular sign that read: LOZRS- IN MIS HOGAN MILERS CLESS!

Olivia rolled her eyes, and opened up her report card: B’s and C’s and next year’s teacher: MRS.HOGAN-MILLER! She took the piece of paper and stood next to the pole. Elizabeth opened her report card: B’s and 1 C in behavior, and… MRS.HOGAN-MILLER! So she stood next to her best friend Olivia.

But Olivia didn’t know why everyone in Willow Pine Falls was acting like her teacher Mrs. Hogan-Miller was a sea monster. There were rumors around the school like crazy!

When she went to history class Dino Lewis whispered to her best friend’s big brother “Mrs. Hogan-Miller gives test on the first day of school!”

Then, when Olivia said “Knock it off!” The whole hallway looked at her like she had purple hair or something! That was it. Olivia Houston would show that Mrs. Hogan-Miller was the nicest teacher ever!

Olivia went over to her best friend Elizabeth’s house and they talk over the whole idea. They sat on Elizabeth’s bed with the door closed.

Olivia was pointing down to the floor as if she was the president trying to get elected for a second term and she said, boldly and powerfully, “We need to make a change about what people think about Mrs. Hogan-Miller. I think we can show she is a really good person.”

Elizabeth stopped listening to Olivia after she said ‘I think.’ Elizabeth started day dreaming she was the most famous person in the world and she was giving out autographs. “Yay, attention!”

Elizabeth’s older brother Jake barged into their room with his headphones on and taunted them, “Amateurs, you can’t change Mrs. Hogan-Miller! She is the worst teacher ever. Good luck with your nerd clan.”

When Jake started closing the door, Olivia tried to kick him. Elizabeth let it go– she didn’t really care.

Olivia said, annoyed, “Can you please tell your brother to how to act?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “ Calm down Olivia it doesn’t really matter, just don’t talk to him and he won’t talk to you. He gets into other people’s business which isn’t right but that’s what older brothers do and you just have to ignore him.”

Olivia just said, “Ugh.”

Elizabeth’s mom called, “Honey, you and your friend need to go to sleep because tomorrow is the first day of school.”

When it was the morning, Olivia yelled, “Wake up Elizabeth!”

“No! Make it night again! Make it night again!” Elizabeth sobbed.

Olivia picked up Elizabeth and then dropped her. Elizabeth started standing up from the hard floor with her night eye patch on and said,”Okay, I’m up.”

The two girls started getting ready for the first day of Willow Pines Middle School. Elizabeth wore a pink skirt with a white shirt and a ripped jean jacket with grey flower combat boots. Olivia wore high waisted shorts with a purple flower jean jacket and a white silver t-shirt and tall brown boots with wedges.

Elizabeth’s mom dropped them off in the school yard. Students were standing nervously around the school making a big deal about all the kids who were going to Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s class. Everyone was creating new rumors about Mrs. Hogan-Miller just to scare Elizabeth and Olivia out of their plan so they could prove she is a mean teacher.

Jake, who was going to high school, said, “She gives tests everyday, even on the first day of school and if kids give her presents, she throws them out in the stinky cafeteria garbage bin.”

Dino Parker, Jake’s friend, who was another popular kid going into high school said, “And she hates children and the only reason she became a teacher is to torture them.”

Olivia said proudly, “Well, that doesn’t matter because this year we are going to change what everybody thinks about Mrs. Hogan-Miller and we are going to prove that she is nice.”

Elizabeth said, “Yah! You people are going to change how you think about Ms. Hogan-Mill-e-r!” and then her voice trails off because she is fainting. Olivia rolled her eyes– she knew Elizabeth loved attention. Then the door opened. Olivia, while holding poor fainting Elizabeth, said “Let the expedition begin!”

Elizabeth and Olivia walked inside the hallway. They saw Ms. Hogan-Miller’s classroom. They went in. No one else was there except Ms. Hogen-Miller, who was chewing an apple. The classroom was dark, creaky, and there were spider guts on the walls.

“Um are you sure we should do this expedition business? Because I think we’re gonna get killed if this is what we’re dealing with,”  Elizabeth whispered to Olivia, moving her finger in a circle. Oliva shoved her further inside the room. Ms. Hogan-Miller didn’t notice them. She was busy trying to memorize kids names.

“Hi… Ms. Hogan-Miller. I’m Elizabeth Mcenroe, and this is Olivia- Houston- we’re in your class.” Ms. Hogan-Miller turned the light on. She had a messy unkempt blonde hair, pinned all over. She wore a grey and yellow suit, with a gray skirt and gray clogs. Her legs were very wrinkly and her skin looked damaged. A bandage was by her blue eye and pointy glasses. They had no idea how old she was– she could be 30 or 60. She looked at them.

“Hi girls! Welcome to my classroom. You guys are going to have a great time. If you behave nicely,” she said in a friendly tone with a mischievous smile.

She looked down at her dirty fingernails. Elizabeth couldn’t stop looking at her ungroomed hair.

She whispered to Olivia, “Did like a roach die in there?”

“Just stick with the plan!” Olivia whispered. Ms. Hogan-Miller shouted to the hallway,

“Come on kids! Get in, it’s time to learn!” All the kids slowly came in. They thought she was going to say something. When she welcomed everyone, they thought she sounded nice, but most of the kids thought she was just playing tricks on them.

Mark Edmonds said, “She can’t be this nice. Look at that wardrobe. Messy nails, ugly hair…” Elizabeth sighed.

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover!” she said to Mark. Then the day began.

When recess started and everybody was supposed to be outside, Elizabeth and Olivia stayed and asked if they could stay after to talk to her. Ms. Hogan-Miller nodded. Olivia’s eyes met with Elizabeth’s. Elizabeth knew that Olivia’s eyes meant C’mon it’s business time we need to talk to Ms. Hogan-Miller about her appearance and what people think about her.

They went to Ms. Hogan-Miller’s desk and said, “There are a few things we need to talk with you.”

Ms. Hogan-Miller smiled and nodded and said, “You may begin happily.”

Elizabeth says, “Mrs. Hogan-Miller, we know people are saying mean things about you and we want to change what people think about you.” Elizabeth and Olivia’s eyes meet.

Olivia said, “Okay, we need to talk to you after school about a few things because you have a meeting with the principal and we need to head to lunch. Trust us, the next day people will like you.”

Mrs. Hogen-Miller smiled and she became so happy about her school year because she had two amazing students who wanted to change the way people think about her. After they said that Olivia and Elizabeth headed to lunch. When they reached the lunchroom, Elizabeth went up to the counter Ms. Leona the lunch monitor was usually at and Elizabeth said, “Attention students at Willow Pine Falls middle school– you will see the new and improved Ms. Hogan-Miller tomorrow and none of you will say anything bad about her ever again.”

All the kids smiled and clapped because they were really excited about Olivia and Elizabeth’s plan and even the lunch ladies who never smile clapped as well. They all wanted to believe Ms. Hogan-Miller could change.

@@@

When school was over, the girls walked over to Ms. Hogan-Miller’s house and they opened the door and saw paradise. All of the furniture was gold and really comfortable and the kitchen was a luxury kitchen. The laundry room didn’t even have clothes in it, and there were just a bunch of empty bins because the space was so big. The walls were pink, purple, and green, and it looked springtime paradise to them. From the kitchen you could see the big blue fresh water pool.

Finally they came to Ms. Hogan-Miller’s room and it was beautiful. They sat on the couch.

Elizabeth started out, “You kind have the whole school against you because you are a part of this kind of rumor and we want to change that.”

Olivia said, “Yeah, we are going to have to change the way you look, talk, and controlling your anger.”

So Elizabeth said, “First let’s start with your appearance. We know that’s not the most important thing, but it’ll make people feel more comfortable around you.”

 “Okay, so hair. Your hair needs a definite change. You hair is blond so let’s comb out the knots, straighten it and then curl it out so it will look perfect for tomorrow” Olivia said. That is what they did.

Ms. Hogan-Miller said, “Thank you so much you girls didn’t have to do this it was totally unnecessary.”

Elizabeth said, “Yes, actually we did. I thought there was a roach living in there.”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller blushed.

Olivia said, “Next is your wardrobe. We need to get rid of all your ugly disgusting horrible… mainly all your disgusting clothes. We can borrow from my mom permanently. She will say, “yes” because her friend Tory is a fashion designer and will re-design her clothes. Also… I will make sure she does.”

Mrs. Hogen-Miller shouted with a very high-pitched annoying voice, “Wait! We don’t know if they are the same size, lady.”

“Nah, you guys are about the same height, don’t worry” Olivia said.

Elizabeth was throwing out Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s old clothes while Olivia was getting her mom’s. Elizabeth gave Mrs. Hogan-Miller some tips for her wardrobe and hair to keep it nice.

Then they left the house and started walking back to Olivia’s house.

Elizabeth said, “Can you believe Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s house? It is beautiful we should totally go there more often.”

Olivia rolled her eyes, “Anyway our plan is going perfect so far all we need to do is make it work out tomorrow; just as we imagined.”

The next day, everyone came into Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s class thinking it would be the same creepy thing. There used to be spider webs everywhere, and dust everywhere, and you had to be careful moving your desk and chairs because they could fall apart. Elizabeth and Olivia cleaned it up when she was at a principal’s meeting. Mark Edmonds was really surprised and Mrs. Hogan-Miller didn’t do exactly what they said but she looked a lot better than she had yesterday. Ms. Hogan-Miller blushed and smiled as the students whispered things to each other like, “ What did she do with her hair? It looks perfect and it’s supposed to be ugly.”

Jake and Dino came inside the room to deliver something to Mrs. Hogen-Miller

“Well I guess your little nerd plan didn’t go SO bad… you guys can’t do many things but I guess this one you did,” he said, smiling. “You’re still a nerd though.”

Forty five minutes later it was history and William Norwalk was not paying attention. Actually, no one was paying attention but Ms. Hogan-Miller thought William was listening. He was playing with his fingernails when Mrs. Hogan-Miller called on him for a question.

She asked, “Who was Julius Caesar?”

William didn’t know and couldn’t answer because he wasn’t paying attention. He started stuttering. Ms. Hogan-Miller got mad.

So she shouted, “William Cermit Norwalk! How dare you not listen to me in my class! You have detention for four weeks. If you had listened this wouldn’t have happened. You need to stop doing these ridiculous things! This abSURD!”

William started to cry. Olivia thought, “Well, he is the shyest kid in school, no doubt now, the most sensitive boy now!” Then Olivia hit her head and thought, partially scolded herself. “This isn’t a time for nonsense. Liz and I need to fix this, NOW! You can do this Olive just think, just think, Yes, I got it! I’ll just stay and talk to Mrs. Hogan-Miller, but even I can’t show my anger, I don’t want to be stuck with Crybaby Cermit!” Olivia stopped thinking and met eyes with Elizabeth. Mrs. Hogan-Miller knew that Olivia and Elizabeth wanted to talk with her. So Mrs. Hogan-Miller made sure that recess was early. Soon, everyone was out and it was just the three of them.

Olivia was furious. She tapped her foot madly. Finally she said, “You messed up, Mrs. Hogan- Miller, now the whole world hates you, and you know what I hate you TOO!”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller looked surprised. Olivia just went into the hallway humming so loudly, and madly that she couldn’t hear a thing. Elizabeth just comforted Mrs. Hogan-Miller and shouted, “Come here Olivia, say sorry!”

Olivia apologized.

And Elizabeth said, “It will be okay. We’ll make sure.”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller smiled, then Olivia gave Elizabeth the look, which is “Ugh. Everyone will totally hate us at the cafeteria.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes in agreement.

Once they reached the cafeteria, everyone was aiming spit-balls at them and throwing lasagna, but they missed, but then Elizabeth slipped and her clothes were full of Lasagna and mushy stuff.

Then Olivia said to everyone, “This isn’t funny we just had a little flipflop.”

The people in the lunchroom kept saying, “Boo!”

Elizabeth stormed into the bathroom, and then Olivia followed her to comfort her. Olivia said, “It’s okay Elizabeth. Nothing bad is going to happen. Nobody hates you.”

Elizabeth said, “This isn’t the kind of attention I wanted. I wanted everyone to agree and I wanted people to think I’m nice.”

Olivia got angry, “You know, this isn’t about you!”

Elizabeth said, “It’s not about you either!”

Olivia said, “I never said it was about me, I didn’t do anything!”

They kept arguing until Olivia began to leave the bathroom and Elizabeth said, “If we are going to keep arguing then I don’t think we should be friends anymore.”

Elizabeth and Olivia separated. Through math, science, English and writing Olivia would be correcting Elizabeth even when Elizabeth was correct.

Later that day, when school was over, instead of stopping by at Elizabeth’s house, Olivia went straight home. Olivia’s mom was in the kitchen making cookies. Olivia threw her bag down and slammed the door.

She looked at Olivia.

“What’s wrong…” her mom said.

“Elizabeth and I kind of separated, we had this big fight about attention and stuff, it was really weird. It’s boring though not being with her. Like today, I got lost trying to come home! I usually go to her house, I want to go back to being friends, but she’s the kind of girl that holds grudges, so I don’t know if she can do it.”

“Oh, honey, it’s ok. Just because you and your friend had a little mishap, it’s not gonna affect your friendship. All you need to do is say sorry.”

“But mom, I can’t! The fight was all about her, she wanted all the attention! I can’t do anything really.”

“Well you have to step the plate.” Olivia’s mom slid her a plate of cookies. Olivia said

“Mom. Don’t.” Olivia’s mom laughed.

On Sunday, Elizabeth logged in to the Kid’s Time Blog, where everyone from school chatted. Elizabeth saw that Dino Parker made a drama column about Ms. Hogan- Miller. She read all of it.

Dinosaur123– OLIVIA AND ELIZABETH’S NERD CLAN TOTALLY FAILED. REMEMBER CRYBABY CERMIT COMMOTION.

Polly4life– I know, they like totally failed they like, should really like stop it’s not like, like, like, nice!

Mega-Mark-460– Yeah, it should totally stop… (his mom was watching him)

Jurassic-Jake– I don’t know why my sister is so obsessed with this nerd clan. Did you hear they’re not even friends anymore. We should totally through lasagna at them again.

OctapusOlive– Stop. You guys need to stop making fun of our plan, we are doing our best. Don’t you see if we can help Ms. Hogan-Miller, it can be better for everyone. You need to shush yourselves.

Dinosaur123– ROFL.

Elizabeth pounded the keyboard. She didn’t want to say anything though… between her brother and Olivia it was too much. Elizabeth had nothing to do so she started writing a diary.

Day 1 (Without Olivia)

Things are going pretty bad. First of all, I checked the school blog. Everyone is mad at me! I don’t think our plan is going good without Olivia. I miss her! Maybe I was acting a bit crazy about attention… but Olivia, she’s just so bossy and gives you no choice to do things or she’ll stay your enemy forever.

Monday morning, Ms. Hogan-Miller paired Olivia and Elizabeth together for an exercise. She thought that they were still friends. The activity was to talk about what happened over the weekend. They both looked awkwardly down at the floor.

“So, what did you do over the weekend…” Olivia asked.

“Well, I wrote a diary, and I also saw the school blog…” Elizabeth said. Olivia brightened up.

“I know I saw it too. It’s so mean. They were talking about us and how our ‘clan’ was horrible! Even your own brother insulted you!” Olivia said. Elizabeth nodded.

“I know, I’m kinda used to it. I’m totally gonna get him for it, I don’t care. What I do care about, is our friendship… Maybe the whole thing we were fighting over wasn’t really that important” Elizabeth said.

“So… that means…”

“We could be friends again?” Elizabeth finished for her friend. Olivia thought for a second.

“Yeah. I think that’s permanent,” Olivia said, smiling.

“Now we have to get Mrs. Hogan-Miller back together so we can finish our expedition and people will like her again” Elizabeth said.

Olivia said, “I think I know what we can do. If we can show people that Mrs. Hogan-Miller can be nice for a whole month then people will start liking her again.”

Elizabeth said, “Okay when ELA is done let’s go to Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s desk and talk with her about it and we can start next week.”

Olivia added, “Let’s start planning this weekend and this time let’s do it at my house.”

When ELA was over, Elizabeth and Olivia packed up early so they would have time to talk to their teacher.

“Mrs. Hoggen-Miller, we have a few things to ask you,” Olivia said.

Elizabeth looked like she wanted to back out of the conversation because she thought it was risky. Olivia kicked her in the ankle so she would stay.

Elizabeth said rapidly, “Mrs. Hogan-Miller we really need you to agree to be really nice and show your kindness for the whole month so people in school will like you and respect you.”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller said, “Sure… it will make my life much more fascinating.”

Elizabeth and Olivia squealed a little and then they did their little happy dance. Mrs. Hogan-Miller started laughing, and then Elizabeth and Olivia went to Olivia’s house. Once they got there, Elizabeth and Olivia started planning.

“So we already have the hair, wardrobe, and shoes done. Next we need to change her attitude and the way people respect her. If we can change her attitude we can make people respect her until the next year’s sixth graders, and high school students and middle school students.” Olivia said.

Elizabeth replied, “You know what for once I think that can work.” Olivia laughed.  

Soon after the whole talk, they had a snack of strawberry ice cream with a ‘Chocolate Paradise Milkshake’, and ‘Fruit-Z Mellows.’

When Elizabeth was about to go to bed her brother Jake stormed into her room and said, “You totally flunked it with that speech about Mrs. Hogan-Miller now everyone in the lunchroom hates you even William Nowalk and no one even talks to him so that’s just sad. Also you and Olivia aren’t friends anymore. You have a very very dreadful life.”

Then he laughed, and before he left the room Elizabeth got up and kicked him in the shins. Then Elizabeth yelled, “For your information Olivia and I are friends again, and just because one little thing happened doesn’t mean my life is over. If you talk to me like this again you will be grounded for four weeks because I’m gonna te-ell. By the way you also totally deserved that kick.”

Jake said, “Oh I’m Elizabeth and I’m a stuck up person. The more stuck up I am the better.”

Elizabeth just went under the covers and goes to bed. Then Jake left.

The next day was Sunday. Mainly everything was going well, but it got really short because what felt like in three hours it was Monday.

They were really nervous if the plan would work out.

“If we fail, I bet we will have to switch schools because everyone will keep hating us,” Olivia said.  

“Yah!” Elizabeth said. “In agreement. But we need to not just focus on what can happen wrong but on what can happen right.”

In Elizabeth’s diary, they started to keep notes on their progress with Ms. Hogan-Miller.

NOTE 1

If things flunk out then everything is my life will go wrong,and everyone will hate me and I will have a horrible life and end up selling food stamps.

Elizabeth 🙁

NOTE 5

Five days have passed and it is going well. It’s not that bad. Mrs. Hogan-Miller is being nice, and her hair still looks good. In the middle of math class, we convinced her and the principle to change the lunch food. We said Ms. Hogan-Miller did. We need her to keep the nice attitude so people will like her.

-OLIVIA

Note 10

Ten days have passed and it’s not going bad. Dino Parker I believe, he is actually being good since the lunch food. Jake is also actually proud of me and the way I am going through with this expedition. We got Ms. Hogan-Miller to ask the principal for more free time.

-Elizabeth

Note 15

Things are going pretty well I am actually really proud of Mrs. Hogan-Miller. It was a nice day. William Cermit Norwalk is maybe even becoming teacher’s pet!

-Olivia

Note 30

Whoo Hoo! The whole Mrs. Hogan-Miller expedition is finished. We just need to make sure everything turns out good and if everything turns out good then Mrs. Hogan-Miller and me and Olivia will have to make a speech so that we can be popular.

-Elizabeth

Once Elizabeth was done writing that note she gave it to Olivia.

Olivia said, “Since the plan is almost done all Mrs. Hogan-Miller needs to do is say she is proud to be a teacher and then our plan is done.”

Then Mrs. Hogan-Miller said,” The plan is done finally!”

Then Olivia and Elizabeth look at each other and Olivia said, “No not exactly in order to complete the plan you need to make a speech so that the school and the students can trust you.”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller smiled and said, “ Well, uh, I don’t know how to make speeches.”

Elizabeth and Olivia stared at each other and said, “Who doesn’t know how to make a speech?”

“Don’t worry I was just playing with you,” Mrs. Hogan-Miller smiled.

Elizabeth and Olivia sighed in relief.

This time, when everybody was sent out to go to lunch, Mrs. Hogan-Miller followed and stood on the podium where Ms.Liona usually stands. When Mrs. Hogan-Miller stepped up everyone cheered.

They start chanting, “Mrs. Hogan-Miller, Hogan-Miller, Hogan-Miller.” She laughed.

“Everyone, it’s a pleasure to see that you all enjoy me. I am so happy the school year is going slowly so that I have a chance to meet each and every one of you.”

Everyone blushed and cheered.

Olivia got up and said, “We’re very happy that you all appreciate Mrs. Hogan-Miller and that our plan worked.”

Elizabeth got up and said, “ We are so happy that we were able to help everyone in Willow Pines Middle school appreciate Mrs. Hogan-Miller who would do anything to make her students happy.”

Mrs. Hogan-Miller blushed and even the principle clapped. Then, after that year was finished, the students who got into Mrs. Hogan-Miller’s class the next year were really happy to be in her class and hear about how she got her fame.

Everyone in Willow Pines Middle School including Elizabeth, Olivia, and Mrs. Hoggan-Miller lived happily, luckily, and perfectly as anybody could ever live.

Chapter 1

Hi my name is Angela and there is a mysterious bully in school. This is why I’m trying to find out about this bully. Because one day I can speak up to him and say, “Stop bullying people.” First thing in the morning I ate my breakfast then got washed and then put my clothes on then went to school.

When I was in school my friend Simone said, “I heard about this bully,” but she said she didn’t know him.

I said, “Wow let’s find more about this bully.” After that I said, “Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Chapter 2

Today we will find more about this bully. Yay! So I went to school and my other friend Emma said, “I think I know his name: it is Tyler Ortega.” We found the first clue! Today we will find even more about this bully. My friend Korri said that Angela C. said she got bullied by Tyler. I said, “Okay, what did Angela C. find out about Tyler?” He wrecked the school in 2015.

Then Angela C. said, “Because of that he got suspended for a year.”

I said, “Wow that’s a long time.” We found the second clue. We had writing class which was the last class of the day.

“Bye guys, it’s time for me to go home. It’s the end of the day,” I said. The next day I went to school, saw my friend, Dyllan.

She said, “Hi Angela! Remember that bully you were talking about the other day?”

I said, “Yeah.”

Then Dyllan said, “I found out something about him,”

Then I said, “So what did you find out about Tyler?”

Then Dyllan said, “So this is what I found out about him. He is seven years old and he is in first grade.” I said, “Cool.”

Let’s see what happens in chapter three.

Chapter 3

The next day I went to school I asked Emma, “Remember you told me you used to be best friends with the bully?”

She said, “Yeah.”

I said, “So do you remember how he looks?

She said, “He had skin like Emil. And curly hair. He has super duper, duper, duper, duper curly hair. He’s medium-sized. He has a really high voice. He looks sad most of the time. He’s by himself a lot.”

Chapter 4

I went to find him in the closet at school. It was empty. I knew he was in there because I heard angry sounds and shouting and stomping coming from the closet. So I opened the door and said, “WHY ARE YOU IN THERE?”

He looked scared and angry and surprised. He said, “Why are you up in my face like that?”

I said, “Because! I was worried about you!”

Then I said, “Why are you bullying people?”

Then he said, “I have no friends and I get angry.”

Then I said, “But you don’t have to take it out on people.”

Then he said, “I don’t understand how to make friends.”

Then I said, “I will teach you how to make friends.”

Then he said okay and that is how we became friends.

The End.

Dedicated to my mom.

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in Ohio. She sometimes felt lonely. She wanted a pet. Her name was Madeline. She wanted a pet because her mom was always working and she never had time to play with Madeline.

One day, when her mom was at work, she went to see if she could find a pet. She had been walking for a long time and she was very hungry. She was walking and she entered a field. She saw something in the distance and walked towards it. When she was closer she saw an old man who was wearing a dark green cloak and he had a long beard which went to his wrists. When they met he asked her what she was doing. She said that she was trying to find a pet.

“Oh, what kind of pet?” he said.

She said, “A pet I can play with.”

He said, “Oh, let me tell you about this store that I know. You can probably find the best pet for you there. It’s a magical store and there will be many different pets there I am sure you will find a perfect pet there.”

“Really?” said Madeline.

“Yes. Oh my, is that the time? Sorry, I have to go.”

Madeline was so happy, then she realized that he had not given her any directions to get there. Madeline thought that if she had a magical pet store she would hide it somewhere no one would find it. She thought the mountains! It has to be behind the mountains. She went in the direction of the mountains and walked and walked for four hours. Then when she finally got to the top of the mountains she saw one huge pet shop below the mountains. The glass building was sparkly and big, there were windows with food for pets that she had never seen before. There was pet furniture and clothing for pets that she had never seen before; everything was made for their shape. Surprisingly, Madeline saw the old man, who looked up and waved at her. She could not wait to go down there and find her pet. She quickly ran down the mountain. It only took about ten minutes and she went to the man who told her to follow him. He took her to the area where the pets were. Madeline was so happy.

“So you want a pet to keep you company and to play with too?” asked the man.

“Yes,” said Madeline.

“Hmm, well I think I have some pets for you to look at,” he said and then turned around. “What about the phoenix? She is the kindest magical pet and she has a lot of energy. She can turn invisible although sometimes she can be very stubborn and she always sleeps for a long time.”

“Wow,” said Madeline.

“You know,” said the man, “I was just like you I had nothing to do and I felt lonely. So I decided to open this pet shop. I have the kindest people working to be with me and I have the best pets here now with anyone of these pets you will always have fun.”

Madeline smiled, it felt good to know someone who was like her.

“Well, Madeline, let me show you the unicorn.”

Madeline and the man walked in the next room. On the right corner Madeline saw an adorable baby unicorn. It was pink and white.

“The unicorn is very sweet she loves to play and she has a magical horn,” said the man.

“She is so pretty,“ said Madeline.

“Yes,” said the man. “She loves to be with people and if you are kind to her she will go with you everywhere. This is the owl, he is very shy and kind but he makes friends very fast. Well now it is time to choose one. They are all very great pets but you have to choose one,” said the man.

“I can not choose, they’re all so nice. How about the…phoenix…ummm…no, what about the unicorn, actually the owl, oww, I don’t know. They’re all the best.”

“Yes, I know how it feels but there is only one right pet for you. That is how it works. Only one magical pet, that’s the magical pet law. I can see the perfect pet but if I tell you it will no longer be the best pet for you. So think who will really help you.Think from the very beginning, Madeline, think. What did you want all that time.”

“A friend to keep me company and play with me?” Madeline thinks about that.

“Have you chose a pet yet?” said the old man.

“Yes I have,” said Madeline.

“Who is is it?”

“It–it–it–is the unicorn.”

“Really, great! You chose the best pet for you and trust me you will have lots of fun with her.”

THE END!

Chapter 1: Going to Cape Cod

Once when I was in New York, I was getting ready to go to Cape Cod. We were going there because we were dropping off my sister and her best friend for sleep away camp. My sister and her friend Uma were excited but a little nervous. We were going early because we were going to visit our friends Christopher, Paige, and Brooke. We were going to visit them because I would get really carsick if we had to drive straight without stopping at the camp, which is called Cape Cod Sea Camps.

I asked my dad if he knew how long the car ride would be. He said, “Probably six and a half hours.”

“I better get comfortable,” I said. I thought I better take a nap. My sister’s friend was in the car too.

I was excited to get to be in Cape Cod with my friend Brooke, but I was sad that the car ride was SO long. When we started moving, I, my sister Audrey, and her friend Uma listened to our favorite radio channel, Hits 1. They have great music, like “My Friend,” which is a name of a song, I think. We all sang along to the songs!

The car was black. Uma, Audrey and I sat in the back seats, my mom and dad sat in the front seats. Audrey and I have boosters and Uma didn’t have one because it’s not her car. We talked a lot in the car. Some of the things we talked about were how excited we were to get to Cape Cod because we want to see our friends! And I took two naps, my sister and her friend Uma didn’t take a nap so they wanted something to do.

When we got to Cape Cod we went out to lunch at a place on the way to our friends’ house. There was a kids’ menu – my sister and I had mac n’ cheese. It tasted really good and smelled cheesy. Uma, my sister’s friend, got chicken fingers. Uma said they tasted really good, too.

Once we got back in the car after lunch, we drove to their house.

Chapter 2: At Their House

When we got there, Paige greeted us. She is the same age as Audrey and Uma. Paige has a brother named Christopher. He is eighteen (I think). I have a friend the same age as me named Brooke. It was great to see everybody again.

For the first 20 minutes, Brooke and I didn’t talk a lot. My mom and Brooke’s mom said we should go next door to their old house and pick some flowers. On the way, we started talking to each other. We talked about what we were going to do tomorrow.

Brooke said, “I think we’re going to the beach tomorrow!”

I said, “Okay!”

“But before we go to the beach, do you want to take a walk so I can show you around?” Brooke asked.

I said, “Sure. Where should we go?”

Brooke said, “We could go to the club and golf course because my dad knows most people in this town.”

Once we got next door we weren’t wearing any shoes and my feet felt kind of dirty. We had to go in the dirt without any shoes and my feet got even dirtier. First we picked blue flowers (I don’t know the names of most of the flowers). Next we picked pink flowers. All the flowers smelled really good. They smelled like birthday cake! Next we picked white flowers. The blue, pink and white flowers were the same kind but different colors. Next we picked dog bark (I think that’s the kind of flower it was). The petals were sticky. Brooke showed me the inside of the house, but there wasn’t a lot to see. All the rooms were empty except for the kitchen and bathrooms, but the bathrooms didn’t even work. In the kitchen, nothing was in the fridge.

Chapter 3: Flowers for Mom

We got back to the house and gave our moms the basket of flowers. The basket was actually Paige’s laundry bag, but her mom said we could use it. She didn’t ask Paige, so we still weren’t sure if we could use it so we just took it out for a little while. When we were outside on their lawn organizing the flowers into piles, Paige yelled from her room, “Brooke! Did you take my laundry basket?”

Brooke said, “Mom said I could use it!”

Paige ran downstairs and we could hear her yelling, “Mom!”

After we were done organizing the flowers, we needed to find a way to get them inside. We couldn’t use the laundry basket, because we gave it back to Paige. Brooke went inside and asked her mom- “we don’t know how to bring the flowers in?”

Brooke’s mom said, “You can just put in on the middle of the table.”

Brooke said, “Thanks mom!!” She came running back and said, “Nellie, my mom said we can put the flowers on the table.

I said, “Great!!

After we put the organized flowers on the table, it was time for dinner.

Chapter 4: Before the Walk

Dinner was corn and hamburgers. After we ate, we were going to hang out for a couple of hours and then go to sleep. We played in Brooke’s room for twenty minutes and before we were going to watch Teen Beach Movie 2, Brooke and I made our couch bed in the little TV room where we were going to watch the movie. There was another blow-up mattress bed on the floor for Audrey, Uma and Paige. The couch bed was really just a couch, and we had to put sheets, pillows and blankets on it. After we watched the movie we got ready for bed. Brooke and I decided that we didn’t want to sleep on a couch. So that night we slept in our parents bedroom.

In the morning, Brooke got up, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair (I didn’t, I just stayed in bed), and came into my room. She said, “Good morning, Nellie! Are you ready for the walk?”

I said, “Almost, Brooke. I just have to…brush my teeth and hair, get dressed, and eat breakfast. So… it’ll probably take me twenty to thirty minutes.”

Brooke said “Ok, I will just wait for you.”

I said, “Thanks!!”

30 MINUTES LATER…

“Ok Brooke, I’m ready to go on the walk now!”

Brooke said, “Yay!” We went downstairs and got our shoes on. We told everyone where we were going to go, and what we were doing. The grownups said “That’s great, we were just thinking about getting some fresh air.”

We asked, “Can we go by ourselves?!”

The grownups said, “Sure!”

Chapter 5: The Long Walk

Brooke and I started our walk. First we were going to go the golf course since it’s close to her house. When we saw the sign ‘Golfers Crossing’ we knew we were really close. When we saw the golf course, we found two mushrooms. We picked them up. I felt the inside of one and it felt squishy and slimy. The outside was just a little dirty, so we put them in Brooke’s pocket and thought maybe when we get home we can wash them.

When we got into the golf course, Brooke said, “Do you see that circle of sand over there?”

I said I did.

Brooke said, “When we get there, make sure you don’t put your feet in too deep because you’re not allowed to walk in it.”

I said, “I’ll try not to.”

The golf course was super long and we were walking on it for about twenty minutes. We forgot about how long we told the parents how long we’d walk for, and we didn’t care about going back because we forgot. After we got off the golf course we saw the golf club, there’s two clubs a regular club and a golf club. We saw the golf club.

Once we got to the golf club we saw somebody inside.

We asked him, “Do you know where the regular club is? We want some water because we’re both really thirsty.”

He said the club was across the golf course. We got so annoyed because we had to walk across the course again. But since we were so thirsty we had to do it. It took us another 20 minutes. While we were on our walk, Brooke and I talked about our pets. We both have dogs – Brooke’s dog is in Hong Kong in the summer, but Brooke goes to New York in the summer. Brooke told me she missed her dog. Her dog is a goldendoodle. I told her that my dog is a Tibetan terrier, and he is so fluffy.

Brooke said, “I think I remember him from Christmas? Is his name Fela?”

I said, “Yes!’’

Brooke said, “I don’t think our dogs have ever met.”

I said “No! They didn’t.”

On the long walk, we also talked about our older sisters. I said to Brooke, “How is Paige?”

Brooke said, “She’s good, but sometimes she can be a little annoying.”

I said, “Same here.”

Brooke said, “I think Audrey’s nice.”

“I think Paige is really nice,” I replied.

When we got out of the golf course, and onto the street, Brooke said, “Nellie, we’re almost to the club!”

I said, “Good, because I’m getting thirsty.”

Chapter 6: The Club, Part I

When we got to the club, we asked the doorman how we could get some water. He said, “Go straight and make a right.” We followed his directions and came upon a fancy room with a lot of people. We went in and saw that this guy was taking family pictures. We asked him if he could take a photo of us.

He said, “Are you here for the anniversary party?”

Brooke and I were confused. “Um, what anniversary party?” we asked.

The photographer said, “Did you girls not know that this is an anniversary party?”

We said, “No!” We looked around the room and figured it out. We had walked right in to some couple’s anniversary party! There were people everywhere. As we were leaving, these 12 or 13-year-old girls stared at us in a mean way. We tried to ignore them and walk out without anyone else noticing us.

We finally got out and saw a waiter walking by. We asked him how to get water? He said “down the corner.” We said “Thanks!” We got to the diner and Nobody was there. There were just waiter and waitresses, we asked them can we have two waters please. They said sure. They gave us two waters and walked out.

Brooke said, “I have to go to the bathroom.

I said, “Okay. Do you know where the bathroom is?”

She said, “Yep!”

I said, “Okay, lets go then.”

Once we got downstairs to the bathroom we went in to the girls locker room, and went into the stalls. When we got out of the stalls Brooke spotted mint mouthwash…Brooke loves mint anything. She basically screamed, “MINT MOUTHWASH!!!”

I said, “Shhh!”

Brooke said, “sorry, I just love mint anything.”

I said, “I realized that.”

Brooke took a cup and spurted mouthwash into a mini plastic cup. Luckily the mouthwash didn’t spray everywhere, like once when I was with my grandma at a restaurant. Brooke literally took twenty sips of mouthwash and then asked me if I wanted some. I said, “I’m okay.”

She said, “You have to. It’s so refreshing!”

I said, “Okay, once.”

She said, “Once or twice.”

I took a sip and fell in love with it!! (We didn’t swallow the mouthwash because that would be kind of gross, we spit it out). We both drank SO, SO, SO, much of it. And then we walk out of the bathroom and we were about to go but…we saw a piece of paper that said Name on one line, and locker number on another. Brooke and I both love filling out surveys. We both took one and filled out our name. Of course we don’t have a locker number so we just had to make one up. I looked at the lockers and saw names. I then realized that the lockers with name are taken. Then I looked witch locker Brooke chose. I think she didn’t realize that the lockers with names were taken. I told Brooke about the locker name thing, and we decided to pick a locker.

We looked at the rows of lockers and on one of the lockers we saw the name ‘Mary Olsen.’ Mary-Kate Olsen is a famous person, so Brooke and I were shocked and excited. We erased our real names on the surveys and pretended our names were Mary Olsen. Our locker numbers were 122 (that was mine) and I think Brooke’s was 153. Brooke asked me where we should put them? I said we can keep them. Brooke didn’t want to keep them and so she put it back in the slot. And then we left the locker room and went out the back door to go to the playground.

The Club, Part II

I said, “Where is the playground?”

Brooke said, “Next to my camp because it’s the camps playground.

I said, “If it’s the camps playground then are you sure we can play in it?”

Brooke said, “Yes. I’m sure.”

Once we got to the playground, we played on the slide. There were two slides, so we went on the one that was longer and scarier. It was pitch black and you could hear the slide wobbling. Next we went on the swings, first Brooke pushed me and I went super high. Then I pushed Brooke and she went super high too. After that Brooke showed me what she does at camp on the playground. Under the bridge there was a little circle of sand that you could play in. Brooke made a city!! The city was made out of flowers and mushrooms.

I said, “It’s so pretty!”

Brooke said, “Do you want to go to the back lawn of the club and roll down the hill and do cartwheels and handstands?”

I said, “Sure!! Let’s go!!”

When we got to the back lawn, we rolled down the hill three times and we did cartwheels and handstands a bunch of times. We still had our water but they fell down. After that we felt really dizzy. We got some leaves in our hair from rolling down the hill. Brooke said, “Do you know what time it is? I have no idea because we completely lost track of how long we would be out here for.”

We told the moms that we’d be gone for 20 minutes, but it felt like we’d been away for longer.

Chapter 7: The Angry Moms

Just then, we saw a car stop right in front of the hill.

Brooke said, “That car looks familiar…”

My mom and Brooke’s mom came running out of the car, shouting, “Nellie! Brooke! You’ve been away for almost two hours? What happened to you?”

Brooke and I ran down the hill to meet our moms, who gave us a big hug. They had a lot of questions for us.

“Why are there leaves in your hair?” asked my mom.

“Did you guys get lost?” asked Brooke’s mom.

“We were so worried!! But now we’re really happy to see you.” The moms were upset that we’d lost track of time and had walked all the way to the club, but they were relieved to see us all safe and sound.

We all got in the car to go back to Brooke’s house. When we got there, everybody in the kitchen was so happy to see us (Brooke’s dad and my dad). We went upstairs to see Audrey, Paige and Uma.

We said, “Did you guys miss us? Were you scared that we’d gotten kidnapped?”

Audrey said, “Oh? You guys were gone?”

Paige chimed in, “We didn’t even notice!”

Uma then said, “How long were you gone for?”

“Almost two hours – and you didn’t notice we left, and then didn’t come back?” we said. We were outraged. How dare they not notice?!

They said, “No.”

15 MINUTES LATER…

Our moms said, “It’s time to go to the beach!!”

Chapter 8: Time for the Beach!

We packed some sandwiches and drinks and headed to the car. We all sat in one car but we had to pull the back seats up so we could all fit. When we got to the beach, our dads said that we were going on a boat ride. We brought the sandwiches to the boat so when we got to the second beach where we were going we could have a picnic. Our dads called, “Time to get on Jetlag!” I had no idea what that meant. It turned out that the boat’s name was Jetlag. The boat next to ours was named ‘I Love Ponies.’

Chapter 9: The Boat, Part I

In the boat, one of the couches could be opened to reveal a little bathroom – with no door. The bathroom was the dirtiest thing I had ever seen. They never used it. When my eyes looked at it I got so grossed out and I felt like I lost my appetite for the sandwiches. The boat  went really slowly at first and then we told them we wanted to go faster. The dads said that we have to get to the ocean first.

Once we were about to get to the ocean we said, “We’re not going any faster than we were!”

They said, “What one second.”

They were right, in one second we began going so, so, so, fast!! We went so fast that Uma’s hat blew off her head! We had to turn back and my dad had to try to grab it right on time…

The Boat, Part II

Our dad luckily got the hat and we turned back for the boat ride. That didn’t happen again because all of us were either holding on to our hats or me (I took off my hat).  We were still going really fast but now all of us got used to going this fast!! We got to the beach and ate our sandwiches, I had turkey. I wanted to look for hermit crabs now.

Brooke said “I don’t think that there are any hermit crabs here…”

I asked Brooke’s dad and it turned out that there were hermit crabs. I asked my mom if she wanted to help me and she said she would but only if she doesn’t have to pick them up. I said “sure.” We began, We walked this way and that way but we didn’t find any hermit crabs.

Audrey, Uma and Brooke were in the water and they wanted me to come in. I said, “I’m looking for hermit crabs! You can join me, but I don’t want to come in the water right now.”

They said, “Okay, but we don’t really want to look for hermit crabs.”

Sadly, I didn’t find any hermit crabs, but Brooke told me that there are a lot at their beach. After swimming in the water for a while, it was time to head back since it was late in the afternoon. We got back on the boat, and we were about to go.

Chapter 10: Heading Home

When we started heading back to their beach, I felt like we were going even faster than the first time. But it was still super fun. Once we could see their beach, we slowed down a lot. When I could see their beach more clearly, we saw…the boat police! We drove over to them and the coast guard said, “Hey folks. I see four children without any lifejackets on and I don’t know how old they are. So…how old are they?”

He pointed to Audrey and she said, “I’m almost ten.”

Then he pointed to Uma, who said, “I’m also almost ten.”

Paige said, “I’m eleven.”

Then he pointed to me and Brooke. We said, “We’re both almost seven and a half.”

The coast guard said, “Okay, I know these kids’ ages and there are four who need life jackets on.”

Brooke’s dad said, “Sorry sir. For the rest of the ride we will wear them.”

The lifejackets were really, really itchy. But I lived with it. When we got to their beach I was so happy to be there, We ran to the dock and every kid except for me didn’t wear shoes. When we got to the car we got in and I sat in the back again. We drove home and I was happy to be there.

I said, “What a day!!!”

THE END

Chapter 1

One dark night, on Ginger Berry Road, a little girl was born. Her mother and father loved her more then anything, and wanted the most special, beautiful and remarkable name that they could think of. For three weeks after she was born, she still had no name. After thinking and thinking, the mother came up with the name Cora.  That would be her name. She grew and grew and grew and grew, and before her mother and father knew it, she was a four year old girl. Cora was a beautiful girl and was also very sweet. She had long chestnut hair, sparkling deep green eyes and fresh pink lips. She loved animals and in her mind she could understand what they were saying. This was a thing that only she could understand, she had tried to explain it to her parents but even they didn’t understand. She helped whomever was in need. You could see the pride in her parents’ eyes whenever they looked at her. And so on she grew and grew, her inner and outer beauty growing with her.

Chapter 2

On her seventh birthday, it was a day just like when she was born. Dark, stormy, windy and wet. The small shack that she and her parents lived in started to sway from the wind. Then the thunder started to come. Her mother and father knew that the lightning was coming soon after. The lighting struck the wooden house, and before they knew it, the house lit on fire and started to come down. Her mother and father ran upstairs to gather every valuable thing that they had. Cora just stood there sobbing. Her parents did not come down, all Cora heard was the screams and shrieks for their little baby to run.

Cora ran and ran in her birthday dress that her daddy had picked out all by himself the day before. It was yellow like the sun and had a purple belt.  When her father had came home the day before with the dress he had said to Cora, “My little baby needs a beautiful dress that matches her own beauty.” Then Cora had taken her birthday dress out of his hands and danced around the room. Her father just smiled as she twirled.

Her bare feet were dirty and black from the muddy ground. She did not care about her feet, for all she cared about was getting away from the burning house that held her loving parents. She could still hear the screams from her parents ringing in her ears.

She finally had to stop. She sat down on the muddy, cold, wet floor and as she wept and wept the storm grew and grew. She huddled next to a wet rock and fell asleep thinking about her mother and father and what had happened……

Chapter 3

She woke up the next morning in the back of a wagon bumping around the rocky ground. Cora had forgotten about the night before, and thought she was still in her own warm cozy bed and would walk downstairs to a warm breakfast awaiting her.  Then she rubbed her eyes and looked down at her own body to see if she was any bigger than she had been the day before. She saw her birthday dress that her father had given her and remembered everything.

She did not want to cry again but she still had to figure out where she was. She sat up, looked around, then screamed out “HEEEELLLLLLLOOOOO??” and in return she heard a cackling voice say, “It’s okay darling, we will be at my home very soon, there is nothing to worry about, we will get you fixed up.”  Cora could only hear the woman and could not see her so she did not think too much about it. She feel back asleep, but as the wagon came to a stop she woke up too.

The lady who had spoke to her earlier lifted her up out of the wagon and into the tall tower the lady called home. Cora let the lady pick her up, because her legs were so tired from all the running she did the day before. She thought she was dreaming, and she thought to herself, I am dreaming, nothing happened to my parents, I am going to wake up in my own bed on my birthday. I will have my birthday breakfast, wake up tomorrow and be a lot bigger then I was yesterday!!!  Then she pinched herself and hit herself. But she did not wake up. She started to realize that it was really happening. Cora screamed at the thought of her dead parents and her burned house. Then she knew that there was nothing she could do. She started to cry. She cried and cried. She did not even realize when her and the lady got up to the top floor and the lady sat her down in a big fluffy chair.

Chapter 4

The lady stroked Cora’s head, and after a while Cora calmed down and looked at the lady. She had long, pitch-black hair that was falling all over her shoulders, and was wearing a purple cloak and a purple hat to match. She had a long nose, a wart on the side of her face, yellow teeth and one snagle tooth. Cora thought that some people might think of her as ugly, but Cora thought she had her type of special beauty with in her.

She finally asked “Who are you?”

The lady sat down herself and said in the same cackling voice “I am a witch, darling and you will soon enough be one too!”

Cora ran it through her head a few times then asked “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”

The witch answered with an evil laugh and said, “There is only one type little girl, we will talk more about that when we start your training,  but in the meantime, you will tell me your story.” So Cora told her all about what had happened to her house and her parents and as she did she cried and cried and cried once more.

Chapter 5

The very next morning, Cora was told to get a broom from the closet. She did as she was told. The witch just looked at her, so Cora started to sweep.

The witch laughed her evil laugh and told her, “No! The broom is not for sweeping it is for riding.” The witch sat on her own broom and showed her how to fly on it. After a little while of falling, she finally got it and was up in the air, flying around the high-ceilinged house. Day after day, Cora learned more and more about witches. She learned how to make potions, cast spells, dress like a witch, grow her short little nails and much more. She tried sleeping spells, turning people into a frog spells, ugliness spells and nightmare spells. As she learned, she realized that she was only learning how to do bad things, like turning people into frogs, undoing all their work and making everybody else’s life miserable. She wanted to do so much more than evil, she wanted to help people and to save people, just like her parents would want her to do. Even though she kept learning all the bad magic the witch was teaching her, at night up in her bedroom she practiced all the good magic that she could come up with. She snuck down every night to look through the witch’s stuff, but she could never find a single thing, not a book, a spell, or anything about good magic. So she had to come up with everything. She tried spells from fairytales and storybooks that her mother had read her. Only some of the spells worked. Of course she thought that “abra cadabra” would work, but it did not. She found out how to do a protection spell by mixing some cinnamon and other herbs and spices she found in the witch’s closet. She learned a healing spell, a truth spell, an awakening spell, a love spell, a good dream spell, and more.  

One day the witch said that she was leaving for the Bad Witch Day.

When Cora asked what that is, the witch said “It is when all the bad witches in the universe cast bad spells on every single good person in the world.”

Cora thought to herself, then just said, “Go witch! Have a good Bad Witch Day, I will just stay here, as I am too young to go with you.” They waved good bye, and the witch left. A couple minutes later, Cora ran to get her broom and the Good Spells book that she had decided to write. She flew out the window after the bad witch, and when she saw a bad witch cast a bad spell right, she would reverse it. Again and again, she reversed every bad spell that she could catch. Finally, she found the witch that she was staying with. The witch cast a ugly spell and Cora cast a pretty spell. Over and over. Again and again. Until all the witches got tired and went home. Cora went to bed feeling very satisfied and happy.

Chapter 6

The next morning when Cora came down for breakfast, the witch was not up yet. She thought about the day before, and was so happy with her work. Cora made herself some breakfast, and for the first time in a while, she cried. She missed her parents too much and she could not take it any more. She wanted to ask the witch so many questions about what the town that they were in was called and what was the witch’s real name. A few minutes later, the witch came in, and as soon as she did, Cora flooded her with questions.

She asked, “Ms. Witch? What is your name? What town are we in? How was your day yesterday?”

The witch laughed and said, “Darling, darling, calm down!! I will answer all your questions!” Then she started to answer. “My name is Linda (the bad witch). We are in Mulberry town, and my day was awful yesterday!!! It almost felt like someone was reversing all my spells!! I hated it!!!” Cora answered with a frown.

Cora then said, “I am sorry for asking but have you ever thought about being a good witch?”

The witch replied, “Yes darling, but my enemy is a good witch and if I become a good witch we will be on the same team, and I never want that to happen, and I mean never ever want that to happen.”

Cora said, “But don’t you want to be a hero, don’t you want to be happy and have everyone love you??”

Then the witch said, “Darling this conversation is too long, but let me tell you… I used to be a good witch. Then I did something wrong. I was in love with a mortal man. It is dangerous to be in love with mortals. People who are born witches are supposed to keep it a secret and if someone finds out about the people who are born witches, everything will go wrong. You see, the witches that are born witches are born with powers. They don’t even have to cast any spells or read any books. Well, when I fell in love with the mortal the queen of all good witches made me look like this. An ugly old hag.”

“I don’t think that you are ugly, you are beautiful in your own way.” And for the first time the witch smiled a real smile.

The witch stood up and turned around, but before leaving she said, “I have always tried to be the evilest witch, but really I am not all that bad.”    

Chapter 7

Cora began to realize that maybe the good witches weren’t really that good. She ran to the Linda’s bedroom and asked, “Are the good witches really that good?” Linda answered with, “The good witches are in a way the bad ones. They turn any good witch that does something bad ugly. Then those witches want to be their enemies and they get on the bad side. There are no witches that are born bad.” Cora knew it! But it was still better to have more good witches than bad ones, so Cora was going to find a way to turn Linda into a good witch.   

Chapter 8

Cora just smiled, she had helped the town and maybe even Linda. Maybe Linda wasn’t a bad witch inside. Maybe she just wanted to get revenge on the good witches for turning her into a old hag. In the next couple seconds the witch came down dressed and ready.

She said “I am going out again, I am going to see if I can ruin somebody’s life today. Are you sure that you don’t want to come?” Cora thought about it, then said, “No, but I am going to look around the town.”  

“Okay, but really there isn’t much to see.” And with that, Linda hopped on her broom and flew out the window. Cora was not actually going to explore the town, but she was going to go have a talk with the good witch queen.

When she got to the kingdom, she said to one of the guards, “I am here to see the queen.” The guards let her in after making sure she was really a good witch.

She flew to the queen and said, “Let Linda have another chance, she is a good witch. It doesn’t matter if she is in love with a mortal. Please give her another chance.”

The queen thought about it then said, “I will give her another chance, if you can prove to me that Linda is a good witch at heart.”

Cora smiled, then said, “Thank you so much!!! What do I have to do?”

“You have to get Linda to cast a love spell, a good dream spell and a happiness spell without telling her about you coming here. Now go, I know you told her you were exploring the town.”

“Ok I am on my wa-  wait how did you know that I told her that?”

“I know everything, GOOOOOO!!!”

So Cora left and went back to Linda’s home. When she got there Linda was already home.

“How was your day today?” Asked Cora.

“It was fine, I only cast one spell but it did work.”

“That’s good, when are you going out again?”

“Tomorrow. Now go get some rest!! You need it.”

“Goodnight, Linda.” Then Cora went up to her bedroom and fell asleep thinking about how she would get Linda to cast her three good spells.

Chapter 9

The next day when Cora woke up Linda was already halfway out the window. She ran to get dressed and then rushed out the window after her, making sure to stay hidden. She watched

Linda cast a hatred spell, then she went up right next to Linda and cast a love spell.

Linda looked at Cora then said, “What did you do that for?”

“I am a good witch!!! There is nothing you can do to change it!!”

“Why are you a good witch? Bad witches know so much more!!!”

“Well I bet you can’t cast a love spell!”

“YES I CAN!!”

“Then cast one!!”

Then Linda cast one, and as she did her yellow buck teeth got fixed back to perfect straight white ones.

“WOW!”

“What?”

“Your teeth are so perfect!!”

“Oh, I wish.”

Cora thought that maybe Linda could not see any of her changes until she cast all three spells. When they got home, Linda was fuming and said that if she did that tomorrow she would have to leave, and that she had to be a bad witch. Then she sent Cora to bed.

Chapter 10

The next day Cora stayed in the kitchen until Linda came back from flying. Then she

asked. “Linda, will you cast a happiness spell so I can try to reverse it?”

Linda said “As long as you don’t do anything good!!” Then Linda did, and Cora did not even try to reverse it. The wart on her nose disappeared and she was even more beautiful.

Later, Cora went back to bed to plot her next plan. She brainstormed, and finally came up with a plan. That night, she stayed awake, and when the witch came in to check on her she pretended that she was having a bad dream.

She kicked and screamed, and when the witch tried to calm her down, she kept saying “I can’t, I can’t!! I had such a bad dream!” After a while the witch could not take it anymore and she was very tired. The Witch cast a good dream spell on her. Cora took one last look at The Witch, and noticed that her long nose had become short. Then Cora went right back to sleep, dreaming about unicorns and candy.

The next morning, when Cora looked at Linda, her old ugly clothes had been replaced with beautiful ones and then her black nails changed to pink!! She was so happy! She thanked Cora millions of times and was so happy that she could be a good witch once more!!

So that is the story of how the little witch changed someone from bad to good and helped many other people in many different ways.

Epilogue

After Cora turned Linda from good to bad……..

Linda decided to really adopt Cora. They went to the town and Linda filled out many papers, and when she was done they walked back to their high tower that now both Cora and Linda called home.  Linda also married the mortal man that she was in love with (the good queen made an exception). Now Cora has a mother and a father that could take care of her, and while her father is at work, Linda and Cora still go out and stop all the bad magic that goes on!     

     The End

Prologue

Nobody lives in the house next door. At least, that’s what Haley told me. Our house is in a friendly family neighborhood where everyone knows everyone. The people here click like clockworks — complicated and intricate, always keeping perfect time. Every minute is filled up, with no time for stragglers. And like a clock, one extra piece can set everything off kilter. In this case, there are two extra pieces — me and the house.

CHAPTER 1

Haley is my sister. She thinks we look nothing alike and I guess I’ll have to take her word  for it. I’m not entirely sure what I look like anyway. Not anymore, at least. I lost my sight five years ago, when we moved here.

The day we got here, Haley and I went exploring. We peeked through holes in fences, spying on the new neighbors, tiptoeing through yards and climbing trees and dropping down lightly into the next neighbor’s yard. Where we live, all the houses are in the same area — a large cul-de-sac with more than twenty crisp-looking houses placed in a neat, but relaxed oval. One house away from the empty one, two from our own, I stumbled on a naughty runaway vine, the kind that trips and chokes your house, growing over windows and clinging to walls, gripping with a sticky iron fist. Blood poured out of my leg, bright crimson streams quickly staining my feet.

“Oh, no,” Haley whispered.

“Oww,” was my sad excuse of a reply.

Haley had a look on her face, the kind of look that in my five years of living meant she was up to something. “Alright Princess Caroline, since you’re such important royalty, I shall let you lean on me as I escort you home,” she grinned. Weakly, I grinned back, and in no more than an instant, two very young girls could be seen giggling away down the street.

And when I woke up the next morning, I was blind.

Those colors have faded now, and often I wonder if that vine is gone now, or if Mr. Ross’ patio is still blood-stained, him walking out to water his flowers, and wondering whose blood was spilled on his property. I lie in bed, mine being the bottom bunk of an untidy room I share with Haley. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

Haley shakes me awake. “Up, sleepyhead!” she says.

I toss and turn a bit for emphasis. “Alright,” I respond lazily.

“I laid out clothes for you,” Haley tells me.

I can sense her aura — a buzz or a certain color that person is radiating. Haley’s is orange and bouncy-excited. I turn my head to face her. “You excited about something?” I ask her.

“Mm-hmm.”

I guess she’s nodding as she tells me this, but to be honest, I can’t be sure of anything. “What?” I say.

“Secret,” she tells me.

CHAPTER 2

We are home-schooled. Whenever I ask why, I get the same unsatisfactory reply. “You’re special, Caroline, special.” What does that mean, special? Does it mean gifted? Does it mean athletic? Does it mean disabled? Does it mean BLIND? I hate that answer. It’s so… vague.

When I ask this this morning, Mom tells me, “No school today.”

She sounds so depressed, I don’t bother asking why. Her aura is black. Black and liquidy. Like a patch of oil. Thick and gooey, forever sinking through anything and everything, never stopping, slow and sluggish.

Haley interrupts my train of thought. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards the door. I grab my walking stick and head out. Apparently, it’s hot pink. When I was five, that was my favorite color. Every day, I would wear something pink. Pink dress, pink top, pink whatever. I still do. I make sure of it.

“Where are we going?” I ask Haley. She doesn”t answer. “Haley!”

“We’re here!” she chirps.

“What?” I say

“We’re here.”

“Oh. Where are we?”

“Secret,” she reminds me.

Haley lets go of my hand. She pushes open an old, uncared-for gate, and I walk through. The gate clangs shut, an echo banging around the cul-de-sac. The path to the place where my sister is kindly not telling me about is overgrown and the bricks are loose under my feet. We come to a stop.

“Step here,” Haley says.

I climb them — there are twelve in total. Then I stand on the landing, and everything blacks out.

CHAPTER 3

When I fainted, everything really did black out. I was wiped out of consciousness. I couldn’t see — not with sound, not with touch. All other senses — my window into the big world — no match for a blind ten-year-old, lost. For a second, I was actually helpless.

A hand — which I very well know is Haley’s — warm and heavy, comforting, yet strong, rests on my forehead. “Stand up,” she informs me, more direct and firm than I’ve ever heard. I stand up.

“Caroline, cover your eyes,” she tells me.

I feel something familiar boiling up inside. A hot, flaming mass strangling me. Inside, lava bubbles up so high, I explode. “What? What are you talking about?! Don’t tell me to ‘cover my eyes.’ I’m blind as it is! Don’t act like I can see, ‘cause I can’t! Whatever game you’re playing at, it’s not funny! It’s sick!”

“Please, Caroline,” she says softly, like a wounded soldier saying their last words and “I love yous.” Her aura is blue and small, fading away. Light, but holding a heavy burden.

But for me, “please” doesn’t cut it. “Fine! I’ll be your docile little sheep! I’ll play the obedient little blind girl! Fine!” I smack my hands over my eyes. My face stings.

“Follow me.”

“Yes, master,” I retort.

She opens yet another door and we both walk inside.

“Uncover your eyes.”

I obey.

I gasp. The dust from the explosion is still settling, but somewhere in the haze, a bright light beams, and a flood of blues, reds, pinks, greens, a rainbow, streams past my eyes. A little voice in my head says, light, color. My mind is clear. A sudden feeling of happiness overwhelms me. Something nags at my brain. Nobody lives in the house next door.

Once upon a time in a ice cold  winter forest, there was an ice palace with a princess named Scarlet who had magical powers to control water and ice. She didn’t know how to use them, but that was all going to change. She was going to be the next ice queen. On that day it was her birthday. The celebration of the Ice Queen was a special day. It is when you get to use your powers for good deeds.

But when her mother the queen had came in her room, she said “Scarlet! Today is your big celebration! So get ready.”

But Scarlet had replied that she could not go on with the celebration. She was too shy.

Her mother replied: “It’s okay to be scared or shy sometimes.”

But many times Scarlet had been shy. So her mother said to her to stand up for herself. Then Scarlet felt a little better.Then her mother called the servant and gave her a cup of green tea with a little dab of sugar before the ceremony began. Scarlet had come with her mother in the throne room and sat down in the royal chair. They began the ceremony with a table filled with delicious food.

Scarlet had made an announcement to all of the people in the room with her. As Scarlet finished her announcement she felt much better. Her mom told her that while she was doing her announcement.  She never realized that how good it was.

When the party was over, Scarlet was tired from everything she did that a queen was supposed to do properly. She went to bed in her room. She was really exhausted. She couldn’t do anything at this time.

When her mother had came in her room, she said, “Being a queen is not easy at all, my dear.”

Scarlet replied,  “Maybe I need more confidence in myself to complete my destiny to be a real Ice Queen.”

Scarlet had never given up on anything in her whole life. On that same day, Scarlet worked really hard. She almost didn’t have enough time to get to the royal palace to be announced Ice Queen. Scarlet had hurried to the church before it was over. Then finally she had made it just in time. Then as she agreed to be Ice Queen, they all celebrated. They were all happy and Scarlet was grateful to lead them.

As they say to princesses, “You’ll be a great queen.”

The End   

Part 1: The Great Voyage

Hi, my name is Chris Kamenstor and I just got drafted by the Montreal Expos. It is World War 2 and there is a lot of stuff going on. I am going to the majors, the Expos are playing the Yankees, but there is a huge crowd on the field and it’s very loud. I ask someone what’s going on. He said baseball is being cancelled because of the war. I felt broken but I wouldn’t give up then. I decided to help. I got on the next boat leaving to England with the army.

We started towards England but got pushed off track toward south. It started getting stormy and the sea level rose. I was scared but tried to control the boat. Soon it got better and calm. We all had our lunch and were trying to steer the boat towards north.

1:00 p.m. Antarctic border

It started getting chilly and hard to stay warm. We didn’t have any winter clothes so ten of the thirty-two people got frostbite. Our boat just turned away from ice of Antarctica and we started headed away from the winter air into the warm air of Africa.

3:15 p.m. South Africa

We were running out of food supply. Luckily we reached hot land and ran into South African people. They helped us prepare for the journey ahead of us. I felt weird in a new place where I had never been before. I was on the other part of the world. I could guess we would be traveling to new places where I had never been before.  We were still far from the war but made some progress. We didn’t notice it but we were heading west. It was a very relaxing ride for most of it but we knew things would get worse and we were right.

6:00 p.m. Australia

We started seeing sharks biting at us and pushing us around. At least we made it to land quickly. We soon discovered we were in Australia. We stayed in Australia until daybreak. We got back on the sea and rode north. Soon we stumbled upon giant waves and we saw land.

7:00 a.m. Japan

We came towards Japan and realized they were on the other side. We started hearing a lot of gunfire; we tried to steer away from them. I started getting nervous, we weren’t prepared for this. We used everything the boat had and got away.

12:30 p.m. Top of Russia

For the second time of the trip it got cold. The first time I didn’t get frostbite. I hoped I wouldn’t get it the second time. Luckily I didn’t get it but 7 of the 22 people did. 15 left. It was still very cold as they got toward Europe.

2:15 p.m. Sweden

Finally we arrived in Europe but we couldn’t celebrate because we had to get to England. We got a car and started riding it to the Swedish border. We knew this trip would easily take a day so we took a plane.

4:30 p.m. England The Last Place

The flight only took an hour. We were all relieved we made it on a trip around the world. I didn’t realize it but we went to six of the seven continents. After I was told that, I thought I made history but we hadn’t done anything in the war yet still.

Part 2: The War

We’ve met before right? Well if you don’t know me, I’m Chris Kamenstor. Hold up, boom! That was a bomb. I’m in the army at the military base in England. I think the more I fight, the sooner the war is over. I’m with my new friend Jackson Whodil. It’s Tuesday, my eighth day at the camp. It will be my first war. I head with my group towards the war. We see the Germans shooting. We shoot. I killed a couple then the person next to me gets shot. More and more blood poured around me. Then a bullet hit me. My eyes were burning. My thigh was burning with pain like fire. I closed my eyes. I opened my eyes and I was laying on a comfy bed with other people on other beds. Then I saw someone. She said I was shot in the arm and they took the bullet out. I didn’t have the strength to ask who she was. “Hello, I am Leslie, the nurse,” said Leslie. It was like she read my mind. I wanted to get up but the nurse told me to stay in bed. I really want to get out of this hospital and see Jackson. How is Jackson doing?

I was in the hospital for another day. Then general Smith came and said, “Get up.”

“How’s Jackson doing?” I said.

“There are two Jacksons. What’s the last name?” he said.

“Who.”

“Jackson.”

“Who!”

“Jackson!”

“Yeah I know, Who is short for Whodil.”

“Oh,” he said. ”He’s doing fine.” I got back on my feet and hurried on to my group. I saw Jackson and he said, ”Hey, you’re alive, man.” I gave a little smile. Jackson was not an athlete but was a great joke teller and always made me smile. That’s what made me like him. I couldn’t really remember the first time we met but I know we had a lot of fun.

It was a bumpy road down the rough dirt path. There was tall green grass around us. Jackson and I were at the back of the cart ready for anything. We started to feel some rain. After a while it started to pour. Everyone made their own shelters for the night. I started writing to my parents with the writing materials I brought.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I am having a fine time.

I got shot but am healed.

Finally, I have made a new friend named Jackson.

Sincerely,  Chris

I missed my parents but was confident that I would see them again. BOOM! A giant explosion doesn’t happen far away. The Germans are here this time they brought a whole bunch of them. I quickly grabbed my gun and found protection. Shots were getting fired, they were going like 9,000 mph. We took our cannons out shooting them. We had about 3,000 soldiers, they had 6,900 soldiers. Then someone next to me started talking to me. It was really weird I didn’t even know who that guy was. They retreated and I asked who he was. He said his name was Cole. If you don’t know him, you don’t know baseball. Cole Ross is the best player in baseball right now. We got back on our truck and I went with Jackson in the front this time. The same exact way as last time. Then we got in our tents and went to bed.

Then someone woke me. The Germans were attacking us in our base. We weren’t prepared. I started panicking, where was Jackson! Then I saw him lying on the floor. I knew what had happened and I knew what I had to do.

I got into the plane and flew over the Germans and shot. I killed a lot of Germans and got shot in the butt but I wasn’t down. Then they retreated for the last time. Both generals met and Germany Surrendered.

We won the war. I was feeling melancholy. I went home to Montreal. The baseball season was coming in a week. I sat on my couch it felt much quieter and good to be alone with no more violence. I put the news on tv. Breaking news, there had been bombing in downtown Montreal. The baseball season for the Expos had been cancelled. Not Again!

There was a lightning storm and it was early in the morning, and the dad, named Monday, and the uncle, Sunday, were playing golf. They shot the golf ball into someone’s window, and it dropped into their bowl of breakfast and spilled the breakfast all over their face. The mom, Tuesday, was putting flowers into the vase but she just cut the flowers and put the stems in the vase.

So one day, they were going to fix their house by breaking the wall for the balcony so it wouldn’t matter if they fall. One day, they were having a light saber fight with someone and the other people had to take over their house, and they put them in a boring world. There was no spooky stuff, and they didn’t have any entertainment, and the dad just watched TV with one hundred packs of chips.

So the children, Thursday and Friday, went into their house because they wanted to get more stuff from the house, but then they got into trouble by the people because they took their house. Then they had to run around the house to get away. There was a place you had to pick one book to get through.

First, they picked a book that had wind going through it, and then they got back to the house, but there were more people after them. They had to fight for their house. Some people were stealing their gold and money so the children had to stay in the house, and the mom and dad, Monday and Tuesday, and her grandma Saturday and her uncle Sunday went in the house to fight back for their things like spooky stuff and money and gold.

They had some tricks – like to scare the people and they knew secret ways around the house. So the family used their lightsabers to defeat the people in the house, Clown CooCoo and Zarf Zazer. And the family got their things back, and they broke the bad guys’ house with their lightsabers. They were happy for a hundred years because no one was bothering them, and they could scare everybody!

One hundred years later:

Fifty years ago, the uncle Sunday went to the Triangle Bermuda and a zombie took his brain and they had to give him a new brain. The uncle just stayed in bed and just lay down and couldn’t speak. The baby brother Wednesday started to laugh and got sick, and he looked different because Sunday was gone. Then they found a supermarket with brains and the zombies were running it and one of the brains was Sunday’s but it was a billion trillion gazillion dollars. They had a billion and trillion but they didn’t have gazillion. So they sold lemonade but it wasn’t real lemonade.

Then there was a girl selling chicken cookies, and she said, “Can I have some lemonade? Is it made of real lemons? Actually, I’ll have some lemonade if you have some of my chicken scout cookies.”

“Are they made of real chicken scouts?”

No one would take their lemonade. They found out that the gazillion dollars was with the people who took their money. But they had to take lots of tests in order to get the money back, even though it was their money. When they were teaching the kids, they snuck out and got the money and ran away.

No one was leaving them alone for a long time. It made them feel annoyed, but they kind of like problems, so they didn’t really get that angry.  

Nine hundred years later:

The family got the gazillion dollars and they paid all the money for the brain.

Ten million years later:

They needed their uncle or else they wouldn’t be as weird anymore. And the world would be very bad without the uncle.

The family decided to get a lot of brains back to the people to be nice so that the people would leave them alone.

The family wanted to bring all the brains back to everyone but they didn’t know how to get them without being spotted. So, first the mom, Tuesday, got four brains and delivered them back but there were 100 brains. So everyone got 10 brains, and they got 64 brains so far. Then, the children took 10 brains each and then there were 84 brains, and then all the family members except the mom and dad were singing a song to distract the people so they could steal the brains. The dad took 10 and the mom took 6 brains. They didn’t know that there was a gigantic giant guarding the last brain so the baby had to go “Goo goo ga ga” in front of them. The zombies trapped the baby, so they had to get the baby back. There were seven entrances and they each took six to surround the zombies. They got nets and sprung them over the zombies. But they didn’t  know the password to the cage and you only have 100 choices. And on the 100th one, they did, zombiezazalahalakalototo, and that was the password. They got the baby out, and they didn’t have anymore troubles because that was the last trouble. Then they decided “We don’t need a password, we could just break the cage with the lightsabers.” They tried to kill the zombies with their lightsabers but the zombies couldn’t die because they were zombies so they just had to stay in the nets forever.

A billion years later:

There were no more troubles. The end.

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there lived a fish named Fishy. He had pink in his outline and was gray everywhere else. His eyes were black. He had gills and fins. He swam very fast. This kind of fish is called a Pinkalish. He was in the ocean with seaweed and rocks. His favorite color was pink. He loved to eat smaller fish. He was 5 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide. He loved the ocean. He was sound asleep. He was in a good dream when suddenly his mom woke him up. He yawned and said, “I was in a good dream.” He went down into the dining room and ate his breakfast. His breakfast was cereal shaped like fish, in a bowl, with some milk. After he ate, he flossed his teeth and rinsed his mouth. He opened the curtains of the house because inside the house there are no lights. Then he suddenly remember that he forgot to brush his teeth. So he went upstairs, brushed his teeth in one minute, and looked in the mirror again. He said, “I have to wash my face. My face is so filthy!” So he took his napkin, and put cold water on it, and washed his face. When he looked in the mirror he said, “Look, at that handsome fish!” He went to his closet and put on a bowtie. He put on a black sweater with buttons and walked to the sofa. He sat down and watched television.

Then, when he opened the television, he saw his daddy making funny faces behind it. Fishy said, “Oh my gosh, my dad tricked me!” Fishy and his dad always played pranks on each other. He made a television out of cardboard, and pretended he was part of the television! Fishy laughed and laughed and fell over and rolled around. Then he suddenly called his dad “Freakout!”

His dad said, “Don’t call me Freakout! I’m your dad, not a Freakout!”

“Okay,” said Fishy. “I won’t call you Freakout, I’ll call you daddy!”

“Good, now you’re not making fun of my name!” said his dad.

Fishy went outside in the water and started to play ball with one of his friends. One of his friends was named Tom and another friend’s name was Eel. He was an eel. The eel could control his electricity and not shock anybody. Fishy was the eel’s BFF. They played together everyday at recess, they sat together at Lunch Time, they played the same game at Choice Time, and they always high fived each other.

Tom looks fat, and has a fin on the top and bottom. He swims fast. His favorite food is shrimp. He is really strong. Then, suddenly, a war between Fishy and Tom happened. Fishy and Tom got mad at each other because Fishy threw the ball right into Tom’s face on purpose. Eel was on Fishy’s team, but Tom had another friend named Al. She was a rainbow fish. Suddenly, the bell rang very loudly so they couldn’t fight. Everyone swam quickly to school. Fishy said, “Oh no, I left my backpack at home! I must swim five miles back to get it!” So he quickly swam back home, grabbed his backpack, and got in school just in time before the doors closed.

Chapter 2

When Fishy was in his classroom, he sat quietly listening to his teacher, Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve was made out of wood. He used sign language to speak, but he could never speak English. Whenever he took a bath, he fell apart, but whenever he was done he put himself back together. He didn’t fall apart in class because he glued himself together. Suddenly, the bell rang again. That meant it was time for recess and lunch.

In recess, there were no rules about fighting or pushing, but there a was a rule that you were not allowed to run or skip. You could only speed walk or walk. So Fishy and Tom went outside and looked at each other suspiciously. Eel and Al was gonna fight next. Fishy took out his chainsaws, swords and guns. Tom only took out his hat and put in on head. The hat was really soft, so he could get hurt a lot.

Tom said, “No fair, you have a lot of weapons and I only have a hat! It’s not fair, because I know how to do karate, and you know how to do karate, but you have more strong weapons than I have. You have a gun, sword, things that could kill people already!”

Fishy said, “So what? You didn’t say we couldn’t bring them! Three….two…one…let’s start the battle!”

KA-CHING! Tom was cut in four pieces, then eight pieces, then 12, until he was chopped into a hundred little pieces. Fishy was angry because Tom said, “I’m never gonna be your friend again, so let’s battle and I’ll kill you for sure.” He was mad with rage!

Fishy then roasted Tom and ate him. It was Eel’s and Al’s turn to fight. Eel used his electric shock and shocked Al a hundred times and into a hundred pieces. They ate her up, and were really full, so when they got to lunch they just talked and talked and high fived each other.

Suddenly, someone came out, and said, “Where’s Tom and Al? They were my bffs, did you kill them? Because I heard someone roasted and killed them and ate them all up, and you’re the only one who didn’t eat their lunch, so you’re probably the one who ate and killed Tom and Al!”

“Oh, we just finished, we just threw it out. That’s why we’re not eating our lunch anymore.”

“Oh, that means you didn’t kill Tom and Al. Bye!” Fishy and Eel both said bye. They whispered into each other’s ear, “That was just a trick. That person was so funny!”

“Maybe we can tattle tale and tell the principal that he did it!”

“Yeah, I think I remember his name. Yeah, I do remember his name. His name is Croc!”

“Let’s go!”

So they walked upstairs to the principal’s office and said, “Croc ate Al and Tom all up! I feel sorry for them, and I miss them very much!”

The principal was kind of a goldfish. He looked really pretty and was gold. His eyes were kind of weird because they’re orange inside of black. Inside the ocean, it’s very dark. He looked confused. The principal said, “Okay, I will punish Croc! Croc is in really big trouble! I will talk to his parents. He must have consequences!” So Eel and Fishy went out and went back home because it was time to go home. When Fishy went home, he went to the bathroom, flossed his teeth, and washed his face again. Then he went sat on the sofa and sat there until it was dinner time.

Chapter 3

His mom called his dinner, but Fishy pretended not to care. His mom called again, but Fishy, instead of responding, pretended not to hear, and hid somewhere his mom could never find him. Then he put his sneakers behind the curtains, to pretend that he was behind the curtains. His mom angrily stomped up to his room and she opened the curtains and said, “Oh my god! My son tricked me. I must punish him!”

So, when Fishy got out and scared his mom, his mom said, “This is your punishment! Go down into the basement and dust the floor!”

“Why do I have to, mother?” said Fishy.

“Because, you tricked me and you pretended not to hear me. Remember, no dinner for you tonight!”

“Okay,” said Fishy. So he went down to the basement and started to dust, dust, dust. When he was done he was all dirty and tired. He wanted to eat some food and take a bath, but his mom didn’t let him because his mom was really mad. His dad came to the rescue and brought Fishy to the bathtub and brought him some dinner to eat. Then he went to bed, but when he laid down, he fell to the floor, because his mom moved his bed and threw it in the garbage. But his dad let Fishy sleep with him.

Then, the mom punished Fishy and his dad by throwing them outside the home. So Fishy and his Dad went to find some materials to find another home. They tried to find materials by asking neighbors, but they all said no. Then they came to the same neighbor again, and snuck into the house and stole the materials. They didn’t have hammers and nails so they stole from the builders.

Then they tried to build a house but it kept falling down, so they threw the hammer and nails to the ground. Then they had a brilliant idea: they could use super glue. So they stole super glue from the houses. They made a house and it didn’t fall down again. They were really happy and started to dance around with top hats. Suddenly the police came and said, “No dancing on the street when it’s morning! You’re arrested!”

So Fishy and his dad went to jail and stayed there for a million years, but they still lived. Inside the jail it was really dusty and dirty and there was no food or water. They stayed alive because they brought milk and a million chocolate bars in their pockets. They got out of jail by sneaking and using a chainsaw. They used the chainsaw by pulling the string. It started to make a lot of noise, but the father turned the volume down to 0% so it made no sound and they got out of jail. They went back into their home and slept there until it was morning.

Fishy went to school and the principal was in front of the door waiting for him. The principal said, “I tried to punish the fish named Croc but he said he didn’t do it and he said you did because you were the only one who didn’t eat lunch that day. So you lied to me, you tricked Croc, and you tricked me. Now I’m gonna give you the biggest punishment in the whole world. You’re gonna stay in school for a million-finity-hundred years and do a lot of work. I know you hate school, but you’re not allowed to trick the principal. You got it? Now go in school and do your work and after school you can go back home and you can eat your dinner, but you must come right back at nine. So you only have one hour to eat. Plus I told your parents no playing for you ever again.”

So Fishy went inside the school, sat at his chair, and learned a lot until the bell rang for recess. After recess he ate lunch, and after lunch he went home. After he got home he quickly ate dinner and went back to school at nine.

Chapter 4

When he arrived at school, nobody was there, only a policeman and the principal. They said, “Go inside the classroom and sit down. There’s a substitute teacher just for you, and he’s really strict so you better sit down and listen carefully. He’s not like Mr. Steve.” Suddenly Fishy, because he felt embarrassed, began to grow a nose that was really long and at the end there was a nest with birds inside.

Suddenly the principal said, “Oh my god, I must bring you to the nurse!” So the principal took him to the nurse. The nurse got the nose off and Fishy started to bleed. The nurse put a Band-Aid on and then the nose started to bleed again because the Band-Aid fell off. Then the doctor put a lot of Band-Aids on and it finally stopped. The fish walked into the class and fell down on the floor because he was too sick to move. The strict teacher’s name was Mrs. Lovely.

Mrs. Lovely said, “Please get up and listen carefully. I’m a really strict teacher so you better not listen.”

“Okay,” said Fishy.

“Ha! I tricked you. I said for you not to listen, because I wanted to make sure you’re a good student,” said the teacher. “You should have known! You never listen. You must be sent to the doctor, and cut in half. You’re gonna be eaten and roasted just like Tom and Al.”

“But I’ll never do that again!” said Fishy.

“No excuses. Just go to the nurse, and you’ll die forever. Your friend Eel was a good student. He proved better. Even though he killed Al, he thought better and he brought Al back to life.”

So Fishy walked sadly to the doctor’s and the doctor cut him in half. Tears came down and it made a heart shape, so Fishy came back to life in one piece, and Tom too. Tom came back to life and everybody was happy, but the principal. The principal said, “How come? We must kill Fishy, we must kill him this instant. What’s our plan?”

All the teachers shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Suddenly Tom ran out of school while Fishy sneaked out of school. When Fishy arrived at his dad’s home, he went to sleep and so did his dad. Suddenly no one knew but the evil principal opened the door and killed Fishy into a million pieces and ate him all up.
THE END

The day started out as any day would be. The crisp air and the breezy wind greeted Carrie and woke her up to tell her it was a perfect day for a morning run. She quickly got dressed and headed straight for the kitchen table. Her mother was setting the table. She almost bumped into her when she was running down the stairs.

Her mother said, “Slow down, Carrie.”

And then Carrie said, “Sorry. I’m going for a morning run.”

What Carrie wanted most was running in the Olympics. She ate breakfast quickly and then she put her shoes on and then rushed out the door. The wind was waiting for her.

It said, “It’s a nice day for running.”

She ran across the field and held her arms like a bird and had her eyes closed. By sundown she was still running and then she ran back home and, they had supper.

And then her mother asked, “How was your morning run?”

Carrie replied, “It was great Mom! I saw the trees and the birds and the flowers. I saw squirrels and bears and it was really nice.”

That night, Carrie went out of bed, got dressed, and went outside to go run. Then her mother saw her and she just smiled. She loved seeing her daughter play with nature and she loved seeing her running.

Then the next day, Carrie started high school. Carrie was a little nervous. Her mother asked her if she wanted to take the car.

Carrie responded, “I want to run to school.”

Carrie did a few errands before school. She was in class HB. And at lunch, she and her best friend Rebecca ate on the grass and ran together. At recess Carrie ran with Rebecca and she made new friends named Megan and Stephany.

A moving truck came to her house when she got home from school. Her mother told her that they were moving to Tennessee. She didn’t like this. She was angry at her mother for not telling her sooner.

She asked her mother, “Why are we moving?”

Her mother responded, “We don’t have enough money to live here anymore. We have to move to Tennessee.”

She went to Rebecca’s house and she told her that she was moving.

“I really don’t want you to move. What am I gonna do without you?” Rebecca said.

“We have to move because we can’t afford the house anymore, so we have to live in a teensy hut in Tennessee.”

After she told her, Rebecca went for a run with her because it was going to be the last day they were together. Then they picked some berries in a field and then they ran across the field a few times. They had a picnic. They made berry cakes and they remembered every moment they were together.

Rebecca said, “Just remember, we are together always.”

Carrie saw on TV that she was being nominated in the Olympics. The Olympics was taking place in Wisconsin! Carrie was so happy! The winner would get $800,000! If she won against 400 other people she could save her mother and father’s house!

Carrie remembered her mother’s words, “Believe in yourself or not, do what is right always, if it does not occur to you, retry.”

Carrie ran with 400 other people. She did not like Tennessee because the people in school did not like Carrie. Tennessee was smaller than Wisconsin, the house was smaller, and they did not have a big field. They all missed being in Wisconsin. Carrie missed Rebecca, Megan, and Stephany, and the BIG field, and picking berries before school. She liked having picnics with her friends and she loved sitting under the big tree and just relaxing, or reading a book with her friends, doing her  homework, or just eating lunch.

So since she won the Olympics she got to go back to Wisconsin, her hometown! Carrie wanted to go to Wisconsin right away when she got the prize money! Carrie asked her mother and her father and they bought the plane tickets and they flew to Wisconsin. When they got there they bought their old house and they were happier now. Carrie went to Rebecca’s house and they had a sleepover.                    

Whenever the rain starts, in the end, there is a rainbow.

Chapter 2

PROPHECY

Message from the author: This chapter will be told from Matthieu’s point of view.

I was walking in the street to my house when I got an idea. I ran home and told my brothers.

”I’m going on a quest to find the killer of our parents! Who is in?” I asked.

No one responded. They were all stuck on the Greek gods book in the library and  choosing a book. My brothers and me were obsessed by Greek gods’ stories. I would be Poseidon lord of the sea (water). Nicolas would be Zeus, lord of the air. Evan would be Hephaestus, lord of the forges, because in the forges there is fire. Gaetan would be this lord of the wild. I forgot his name.

Well, let’s come back to reality. They were so psycho about it that I had to yell so they would hear me. They asked when we were going. I told them we were leaving now. I had an idea to find the murderer. We just had to instal power detectors all over the place. The murderer had to have powers to beat our parents.

“Matthieu, there is a locked door up in the attic, do you know what is inside?” Nicolas asked me.

“No, but let’s see what is inside.”

I slammed the door open and looked inside. It was all black. I wondered why our parents had hid that from us.

“I wish I could know who killed our parents,” I said

Suddenly a voice started to speak. “To find the wanted killer, you shall go in the land without water find the guy with twelve fingers and your family shall rise.”

“I think this is a prophecy for us,” I told Nicolas. We went and told the prophecy to Evan and Gaetan who were of course, reading books.

“This is awesome!” Gaetan said.

“So when are we going?” Evan asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Let’s do a party to celebrate this discovery and our quest,” said Nicolas.

So we all had a big party. At the end we all kind of started battling with our powers. I would start slamming Gaetan into the wall and Nicolas would make me fly up and Evan would make us hot and sweaty.

“At least we are well prepared,” Evan said while I was trying to get the room colder by freezing him.

After all this battling, we went to sleep.The next day we made our backpacks and took Nicolas’ private jet to the desert. Over there we started walking, walking, always walking. When it came to night, we made a tent and I made water so we could drink. The next day we found a village. We thought was kind of weird to find a village in the middle of nowhere, but we still went inside and started visiting. It was a beautiful village. The people were nice. We bought some clothes and made a water fountain work because it was broken. I put water in there. The people started being nice to us and invited us to eat. Then we came back to our tent and slept the second night. We had lots of food because the population gave us and we bought some. We were very happy. But we needed to continue our quest.

So we started walking north and found of troup of merchants who were passing. We looked at their fingers to see if they had twelve fingers. None of them had so we ignored them and passed. We saw lots of people like that, but none of them had twelve fingers.

But one day, a mysterious man was walking in the middle of our passage. When we looked at his fingers, we saw that he had twelve.

“Not good,” we all said.

“Hi man, do you have any magical powers? Because we’re here to get revenge for our parents,” I said.

“You’re not going anywhere when I’m here,” said the man. The guy burst us out of his way and we went flying.

Nicolas did not hit the floor. I did a sort of airbag with water and Gaeton dissolved into the earth and came back. Evan did the same as me but with fire.

“Whaaaaaaaaaat!” Evan screamed. This guy controls all the elements!

“That explains how he killed our parents,” Evan said.

“Wait a minute, I read in some notes from our parents that if you killed a very powerful guy, everyone he killed will come back to life,” Nicolas said.

“So let’s hurry up to kill him,” I said.

“Attaaaack!” we all screamed but he easily exploded us back.

“We need strategy because this guy is super strong,” said Evan.

So, we decided to have me in the front and while I was distracting him, the three others would attack him. So we tried that idea. It was kind of a good idea, so we tried it. I distracted the bad guy and Evan and Nicolas attacked him, then Gaetan attacked from the side. We could only hit him two or three times, but then he would just throw us away. So we tried a lot of strategies like that, but he was too strong for us to beat him. We tried doing the Superball at least ten times, but he was still alive.

“This guy is crazy strong. How are we going to beat him?” said Nicolas.

“Maybe we could try doing crazy things to see if we can invent a new kind of attack,”  I proposed.

So we tried doing crazy things, like exploding stuff or holding hands and exploding something, but it still didn’t work. But suddenly, I had an idea. We jumped on the guy and all touched him and put all our powers in his body, and then he just literally died. We were so happy. And Nicolas was right about the thing that our parents said — that if someone very strong would be killed, all the people who he had killed would come back to life.

And so, after the explosion, we saw our happy parents standing there with 1,000,000 other people. We were so happy and started hugging them a hundred billion and ten times, until they would suffocate. But after that, we stopped, because they actually would suffocate and we didn’t want that to happen. After that, we brought them back home and we were very happy.

Introduction

Once upon a time, a very long time ago there was a girl named Elizabeth who lived in the Evil Land where there were monsters, wizards, dragons and invisible traps and dungeons everywhere. Elizabeth lived in a house with her older sister, Raven, separated from her parents, other siblings and cousins because of evil creatures. The evil creatures had pushed the family apart, and Elizabeth and Raven had to build themselves a house. Outside their house there was a dragon who always stood there making sure they didn’t go out of the house. But Elizabeth couldn’t help thinking about how it would be if her family was together again, and if she got to see her parents, cousins and other siblings again.  She also wished to meet her Grandma and Grandpa again.  But Raven didn’t think it was safe for them to go outside.

The Day Elizabeth Started her Journey

One day in the house Elizabeth decided she wanted to go outside and find her family. So Elizabeth snuck out of the house in the morning while Raven was sleeping. As soon as she was outside, she realized that Raven was right to not let her go. But Elizabeth was desperate to find her family. At this point, nothing could change her mind. Elizabeth realized she needed a weapon, so she ran back inside, and quietly not to awake Raven, she grabbed scissors. Then she went back outside. That minute the dragon turned around and looked straight at her. He grabbed her, and fire came out of his mouth, Elizabeth was speechless. Not only because of the dragon, but also when she looked around she noticed there were wizards, monsters and other creepy evil things. Then the dragon put her down and she was happy until she noticed she was in one of the dark dungeons. Suddenly all of the walls of the dungeon appeared and so did the door and the floor. Elizabeth was scared, but still nothing would stop Elizabeth from trying to see her family. Quickly Elizabeth felt the walls all around for any secret doors because she didn’t know what else to do.

When she touched the walls, she came to a bump. She noticed she had a flashlight in her pocket. She took the flashlight and shined it on the bump. The dark dungeon felt so much lighter, even with just the splash of light from the flashlight. Elizabeth took her scissors and cut through the wallpaper around the bump. When she cut through the bump, there was an electric number pad, and which required a code to exit the dungeon. Elizabeth tried and tried all night long to enter the code, and finally the next morning she typed in the right code.  She typed 35810 and the door opened.  This code reminded Elizabeth of her old life. She barely remembered her old life anymore, but this code was the last thing she had entered on a video game before her land totally changed. At least, she thought that was the last thing, she couldn’t remember.

Then Elizabeth came back to reality and remembered the open exit door. She ran out of it.

Defeating

Elizabeth continued her journey. She didn’t take more than five steps before getting caught in one of the rope traps. The trap was really small and Elizabeth was squashed. Elizabeth didn’t know what to do. She thought, and finally after 15 minutes of thinking, she remembered the scissors. Elizabeth slowly moved her hand to her pocket, not to get her fingers caught in the trap. But that didn’t work, they got caught. She spent another ten minutes untangling her fingers and then finally she got her fingers down to her pocket and slowly grabbed the scissors. Then she cut the rope trap all around and landed with a thump! on the ground. She got up and an evil wizard looked at her.

The wizard zapped his wand at her, and the next thing Elizabeth knew she was a frog because she looked down and saw her webbed green frog hands. It might have been easier to get through everything if she was a frog, but how would her family know it was her. She couldn’t even talk. Every time she tried to talk it came out in a croak-like noise. Elizabeth wondered if there were any good wizards on this land. The way they dressed looked oddly like a videogame she thought she had played before.  They wore a tall pointed hat, and a purple cloak. Elizabeth thought about how she could turn back into a person, but she didn’t know how. There was nothing Elizabeth could do, but she decided to jump on the wizard’s shoulder to get a faster ride to see her parents.

Her little frog legs wouldn’t get to her family anytime soon.

When she landed on the wizard’s shoulder she felt metal under her feet. She wanted to see what it was, so she used her scissors that shrunk when the wizard struck her to cut his clothing. She noticed the same electric pad that was in the dungeon. She entered the same code as before: 35810. The wizard immediately fell to the ground. That’s weird, Elizabeth thought. Elizabeth looked at her body and noticed it was a little bigger and a little less green. Elizabeth thought about how this all happened. Elizabeth thought about what would happen if she entered the code on all of the wizards. Would they all fall down? She tried it on another wizard, and surely enough, he fell to the ground. And she got less green and bigger.  By the end of the day Elizabeth had killed 56 wizards, four dragons, and ten monsters!!! Elizabeth took a little break— she was tired after defeating some of the wizards, dragons and monsters.

After an hour, Elizabeth was ready to start on her journey again. She defeated the rest of the wizards, except for the head wizard. She knew he was head wizard because she had heard stories about him. But there were also monsters and dragons that she needed to shut down with the code.  Elizabeth shut down the rest of the dragons and monsters and was tired again. Elizabeth looked mostly human except for the sticky frog fingers, but her skin was human. Elizabeth continued on her journey to defeat the last wizard and find her family.

The Evil Wizard

The next morning Elizabeth started her journey to defeat the last wizard, but she didn’t know where he was. So Elizabeth chose to go left from the center of town. Elizabeth kept going and going left. After two hours, Elizabeth had made her way to the forest. But there was a problem, there were jaguars and lions everywhere.  And there were lizards on the ground. One of the lizards ran over her feet, and she was only at the edge of the forest.  Elizabeth knew she had to find the electric number pad to shut down the animals before it was safe for her to find her family. She knew this because so far she had shut down almost all the creatures with the code. First Elizabeth shut down the lions, then the jaguars, and then the lizards. One by one, they all fell to the ground.

Elizabeth continued through the forest. A little deeper in the woods, she saw that the forest was blocked by big trees. It looked like a creepy cave.  But the trees were so close together that Elizabeth couldn’t push through them. Elizabeth didn’t know what to do.

Then, Elizabeth tried to climb up one of the trees, and she got to the very top of the tree. Elizabeth carefully stepped from tree to tree, and when she got out of the big trees, she saw the last evil wizard standing there. Elizabeth knew she would have to creep up on the wizard, so he wouldn’t cast a spell that would make her a frog again. But Elizabeth didn’t know how she would find the electric pad on the wizard without the wizard knowing she was there. Luckily, she could see the wizard’s number pad. Elizabeth tip toed to the wizard and quickly typed the code. The wizard half turned around before he fell to the ground. Elizabeth knew he was about to cast the spell on her. Fortunately, he didn’t because he fell before he could do it.

Elizabeth was now completely human, even her fingers. There was nothing that could stop her now from getting to her family.

The Third Day of the Journey

Elizabeth kept going until the whole night had passed and it was morning. By then Elizabeth had come to a river of lava. How am I going to cross the river? Elizabeth thought.   Elizabeth sat down and thought about how she was going to cross the Lava River. Then Elizabeth remembered the forest. She knew how to build things out of wood because she built her house with Raven. She went back to the forest and noticed the wizard’s sword was sticking out of his pocket.  She took the sword and cut down a few trees with it, using the sword like a saw. She cut them into long strips of wood. She then used the strips to make a boat and used the long grass to tie the pieces together. Then she used the last strip of wood to make a paddle. She made her way across the Lava River.  When she was three feet away from the end of the river, some lava leaked in. Fortunately, Elizabeth paddled quickly so she got out of the boat safely.

Elizabeth then continued on her journey to get to her family. She couldn’t wait to be with her parents, grandparents, other siblings and cousins again.

Elizabeth continued on her journey, and when she went a little farther she saw her cousin, Addy, walking up the trail. It looked like Addy was looking for her.

“Addy!!!” she called. Addy turned around, and they ran for each other. Addy went down the trail, and they continued together.

“Addy, do you know where my mother is?”

“No,” said Addy.

“Haven’t you been living with her since I was separated from you guys?”

“No, I’ve been living with my own mother,” said Addy.

“Addy, can you help me find my mother? I haven’t been with her for so long!” said Elizabeth.  

“Okay,” said Addy.  So they continued down the trail until they got caught in a giant dungeon.  

“Ahhhhh!!” Addy screamed. Elizabeth quickly found the electric pad and typed in the code, she wasn’t scared. The dungeon disappeared and they got out of it.

“How did you do that?” Addy asked.

“Magic,” said Elizabeth.

“Can you teach me?” Addy asked.

“It’s the same code I typed into the video game I used to play. It’s the only thing I remember from the last world.”

“What do you mean the last world?”

“I don’t know,” said Elizabeth.

“I hate when people say they don’t know,” said Addy.

“I don’t know how to explain it.  All I know is that this world is like the video game I used to play.”

“What’s a video game?” Addy asked.

“How come you don’t remember? How come you don’t remember the game I used to play? There are dragons, wizards, and they were all evil. And there was a magic code to defeat the video game world,” Elizabeth said.

“That’s it! That’s the way to get back home. You just have to type the evil code thing you were talking about,” Addy said.

“Okay, but where do I type it?” said Elizabeth.  

“I don’t know yet. We’ll find out.” Addy said. So they kept going on the trail to find Elizabeth’s mother and Addy’s aunt.

The Day Elizabeth Found Her Aunt

As they continued walking down the trail they saw another house.

“That’s my Mom’s house. Do you want to say hi to your aunt?” asked Addy.

“Of course!” Elizabeth responded. Elizabeth really wanted to find her mother, but she wanted to see her aunt also. When Elizabeth entered the house, she saw that they had worked really hard to make it. It was a lot prettier than the house she made with Raven, which was shabby. There were a lot of rooms, and you could tell what the furniture was made to be. It was amazing that they had built it.

“Mama!! Guess who’s here?” Addy called. Elizabeth’s aunt came running down the stairs with Elizabeth’s uncle behind her.

“Elizabeth!! It’s been so long! We’re so happy you’re okay!” Her aunt and uncle came and gave Elizabeth a big hug.

“Where’s Raven?” Elizabeth’s aunt asked.

“At home,” said Elizabeth.

“So you’re outside in the Evil Land without Raven? Why?”

“Because I wanted to find my family, but Raven didn’t want to go outside.” Elizabeth said.

“I’m happy you’re here, but you should have taken Raven, too.  Maybe you should stay with us?” Elizabeth’s aunt asked.

“Okay, I’ll stay here but I have one question for you. Do you know where my parents are?” Elizabeth asked.

“No, but all of your cousins, grandparents are living here in this house. And they would also like to see you!!” Her aunt said.  After she hugged all her cousins and grandparents, it had been about half an hour. It was time for her to go to bed.

After she slept, she continued on her journey the next morning. She said goodbye to her aunt, uncle, cousins and grandparents.

Finding her Parents

Addy also wanted to come with Elizabeth to find Elizabeth’s parents.  So Elizabeth and Addy continued going down the trail.  They kept going until they saw a house. In front of the house there was a girl. Elizabeth had felt that she had seen that face before. It was her sister. Elizabeth ran to her sister, she was really really happy.  She thought her parents would be inside, too. But when she asked her sister, her sister didn’t know where they were. But her sister said that inside of the house were the rest of Elizabeth’s sisters except for Raven. Elizabeth now had seen her aunt, uncle, grandparents, all her cousins and all her sisters. She still wanted to find her parents, and for her family to live together again. So she asked her sisters if they wanted to come find their parents, and they said yes.

So Elizabeth, Addy, and Elizabeth’s sisters continued down the trail until they saw a gigantic rat with red eyes blocking the only trail. Elizabeth knew how to defeat the rat with the code, but the rat was so big that she didn’t know how she was going to find such a small electric pad on the big rat. Elizabeth looked at the rat, she thought it was about 60 feet tall.

Elizabeth, Addy and her sisters were scared. Fortunately, she saw the little electric pad on the tail. Elizabeth quickly typed the code on the electric pad and the rat shut down. Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s sisters, and Addy continued on the trail to find Elizabeth’s parents.

As they continued down the trail, they saw that it got better as they traveled farther.  They traveled until they came to a house, and Elizabeth knocked on the door. When Elizabeth’s mom opened the door, Elizabeth hugged her mom and said it was the best day ever. Elizabeth was so, so happy that her sisters, and mom were together again except for Raven.  She had gone so far and so long to find her parents, and finally she found them. She had missed them a lot.

“Is Daddy here?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes,” said her mom. Her mom called her dad down.

“Is Raven here?” her mom asked.

“No, she’s back at our house.” said Elizabeth.

“Elizabeth, you know how dangerous it is to travel alone, right?”

“Yeah, but Raven thought it was too scary to go.”

“Well I’m happy you made it safe, but you should have come with Raven.”

“Mom, we’re here, too!” Elizabeth’s sisters said.

“Oh, I didn’t see you guys!” She hugged each of them, smiling because she could see her kids again. She hadn’t seen them in a really long time.  She also hugged Addy. Then their Dad appeared behind Mom, and Elizabeth, her sisters and Addy rushed to him. And he hugged them all, too.

“C’mon, your own parents and siblings are down the trail. Let’s bring the whole family together. But, Raven is going to be hard to retrieve. So let’s start now if we want to get the family together,” Elizabeth said.

Joining the Family Together

As they went up the trail, they passed by Elizabeth’s sister’s house and stayed there for the night. The next morning they continued their journey to find Raven and Elizabeth’s aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. They continued up the trail, until they saw the rat.

“AHHH, let’s turn back!!” Elizabeth’s parents screamed.

“Don’t worry it’s shut down.” Elizabeth said.

“Uhhh, what do you mean shut down?” They asked.

“It’s  a long story. It’s under a code, and I think we’re in a video game.”

“Ahhh what? I thought this was the real world!! Not a―”

“Okay, let’s talk about this later. For now let’s just find the rest of the family,” Elizabeth said.

They continued on the trail until they ran into Elizabeth’s aunt’s, uncle’s, cousin’s, and grandparent’s house.

“You and Dad should stay here with your parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews and we we’ll go get Raven. Okay? Yeah, great this plan works. Bye!” Elizabeth said. Elizabeth ran off with Addy and her sisters.

“Guys! Wait! We want to come, too,” Elizabeth’s Mom and Dad called.

“Thanks for letting us go. This plan will work. We’ll be back with Raven soon.” Elizabeth said. She didn’t want her parent’s to be in danger, and she knew they would be safe at the house.

They ran and ran until they came to the Lava River.

“How are we going to get through this??” Addy and the sisters asked.

Elizabeth saw her boat, and the paddle next to it.  Next to the paddle was the wizard’s sword. She picked up the paddle and cut of a piece of the paddle to patch the hole in the boat from where lava had leaked in.  She used the long grass to tie it on. Then, she put the boat in the water and got in it.

“I’ll paddle across, and then use the magic sword to throw the boat back to you. Only one of us can go at a time.” Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth paddled down the river, and then Addy went, and then her sisters went. Elizabeth warned them they would have to climb trees, and step from tree to tree to pass through the forest.

But Addy and her sisters said they still wanted to help find Raven. As they entered the forest, they saw the trees Elizabeth was talking about. First Elizabeth went, and showed them how to climb up the trees, then Addy went and then her sisters went. They together stepped from tree to tree until they got to the end of the forest.  They all climbed down the trees.

When they got down they saw shut down lions, lizards and jaguars lying on the ground. They knew they were shut down because they weren’t moving. When there were no more jaguars, lizards and lions anymore, they saw wizards, monsters and dragons lying on the ground. They could see a really big shutdown dragon in the distance. Elizabeth knew that was the dragon that guarded her house.  Elizabeth ran to the house and signaled for Addy and her sisters to come. When Addy and her sisters came, Elizabeth knocked on the door.  Elizabeth was happy to be with Raven again and tell her the awesome news that they had found their family. When everyone hugged Raven, they went down the trail through the forest and the big trees until they came to the Lava River. They told Raven about the plan to cross the Lava River. Raven looked unsure, but said she would do it. She was nervous to be outside again. Raven hadn’t been outside since they built their house, but she was proud of Elizabeth that she shut the evil things down. They crossed the river and ran to the house which everyone was in.  Everyone hugged Raven, and were so happy to see her.

“We’re going on the trail to see if we have shut down all the creatures.” Elizabeth said.

“Fine, but if you’re going, we’re going. I don’t want you to get lost, and for our family to not be together,” Addy said.

Out of the Evil Land

They went down the trail and they passed Elizabeth’s sister’s house, the shutdown rat, and her parent’s house. They walked until they came to a wall, which seemed like the edge of the Evil Land. Elizabeth saw an electric pad and typed in the code, 35810.

As soon as Elizabeth typed the code she found herself sitting on her desk with the videogame and the typed code right in front of her.

“It’s time for dinner!” her Mom called.  

Elizabeth shut down her computer and thought to herself, I’m never going to play this video game again. She went to have dinner.  Elizabeth hardly remembered, but she knew she had transported herself and all of her family into her videogame.  She didn’t want to think about it, but she was happy that she was home.

It was 10:57 and David Trout was watching ESPN’s Sports Center. Just as it ended and he was about to go to sleep, Sara Walsh announced that coming up next was a new 30 for 30 about the Legion of Boom. David knew that his destiny was to watch it.

“No matter what your team is, no matter what your sport is, no matter what your situation is, even if you never even heard of the sport of football, you have to love Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, and Earl Thomas III. Sherman is tied in first for interception yards along with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the preseason. And in 2013 he lead the NFL in interceptions with nine!”

The narrator’s words got David into it. All of a sudden, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to be an NFL player!

The very next day, David woke up to the sound of his alarm clock.

Now to get back to my dream! he thought. Nothing ever worked! He tried to be a zookeeper, and he really enjoyed it until the zoo moved to Hawaii! Then he was drafted as an MLB player for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and had time to become friends with Mike Trout, who he shared the same last name with. But in a game against the Yankees he was hit with a 100 miles per hour pitch by Dellin Betances and his career was over. After that he had decided he was cursed now that he had two really nice jobs that had ended for reasons that he wasn’t even responsible for! He decided that at exactly 11:07 PM when it was 24 hours ago that he wanted to be an NFL player, he would share his dream with the public on Twitter.

@dezbryant @calvinjohnsonjr guess what?! I want to be an NFL wide receiver! You two are surely the best in the game, so could you give me some tips?

He double checked it for words that he might have mispelled, and finally posted it onto the web. He decided to go for a walk in the park and when he came back, he would see the comments he got. The walk was inspirational. He saw a blue jay egg hatch, and a cardinal had flew onto his shoulder. But when he got home what he saw was unpleasant.

“Come on man! Be real here! Don’t try to push yourself to something that you know you are never going to accomplish. You are 57 years old!” some guy had commented. Many other comments were rude and uninspiring. The only comments that had hope in them were Dez Bryant’s, the one written by Calvin Johnson Jr, and Mike Trout.

Dez Bryant wrote, “Go for it!”

Calvin Johnson Jr wrote, “You’ve got this!”

And Mike Trout commented, “Best of luck!” It wasn’t time to give up just yet!

David Trout opened the doors to the dream that nearly nobody gave into. He was at the NFL Draft tryouts!

100 drills! You can do that! a voice inside his head told him.  

Ahhh, but there are no breaks allowed! his doubtful side came back.

If he spent the tryout in doubt, he would never succeed because he would never try! But if he believed what his good side told him and then he failed, it would lead him to doubt himself all the time! What was he going to do?

He looked at his crowd. Calvin had come to watch, while Dez and Mike couldn’t make it.

“Since it’s a wide receiver you want to be, we have a selection of quarterbacks for you to choose from, and defenders for you to pick out,” explained the man at the draft tryouts.

He decided that because Calvin Johnson Jr. had taken time out of his day to come and support him, picking Matthew Stafford was the nicest thing he could do. The middle linebacker was going to be Luke Kuechly, the defensive end would be Rob Ninkovich, the center would be Eric Wood, and guarding him would be the one and only Calvin Pryor. He wanted to make it hard on himself so that they didn’t assume that he needed to make it easy.

Luke was playing at his hardest, so David couldn’t be surprised when Eric was picked up and thrown to the floor. Next, now that Luke had gotten through the defense, he stormed his way up to Mr. Stafford. He picked him up and the crowd roared. Wait a second, thought David. Matthew Stafford isn’t on the ground so what Luke is doing isn’t helping! But that’s when David realized that he had said all this out loud. So there was a second down and Matthew Stafford had passed out.

After that, David found himself hit in the head with a can of soup and being booed by nearly everyone in the crowd because they wanted to see action. Russell Wilson was picked by David as his backup, so he entered. Calvin came down to give him some wide receiver tips, and after Russell gave him his encouragement, the tryouts resumed. Russell and David decided that they would go for the Hail Mary play, and his heart stopped beating when Calvin Pryor intercepted it. But that was when he dropped the ball, and David Trout went for the amazing play and dove for the ball and actually caught it!! Russell Wilson also had something to be proud of because he had to jump over Luke Kuechly in order to make that play happen! They were both exhausted and needed a commercial break.

After hearing about the Convenient Stores of Speedway 2 times in a row, and then listening to how you can get chicken, fries, and a biscuit for $3.99 at Popeyes, the pressure resumed. Maybe I am NFL material after all!! thought David, 30 yards away from completion of the first drill. He met up with Russell Wilson again.

“I would like to use you as a halfback for this play,” Russell suggested.

“Okay. You have much more of a football mind than anyone in the draft so that’s fine by me!”

He also knew that if this play was successful, his draft chances would increase, because teams do like players that (Like Brandon Marshall and Julian Edelman!) can be used at different positions. That was when David Trout had a great idea! He told it to Russell who approved, and then launched the plan.

“CATCH IT!” yelled Calvin Johnson Jr, which made everyone assume that it was a rushing play.

Wilson pretended to throw while Trout came from behind, the ball was handed off to him. He rushed to the endzone while crossing up Ninkovich AND Calvin Pryor!! Touchdown!  99 more drills and David Trout was in the NFL Draft!

 It was rough and hard and he collapsed after it all, but David Trout had climbed 400 foot rock walls and lifted 500 pound weights just to get into the NFL. Lying on the ground with the crowd shrieking, Calvin Johnson Jr and Russell Wilson came over and gave him a Gatorade bath.

PART  2:

NOT DRAFT NIGHT, BUT DRAFT  FIGHT

Sitting at the NFL Draft, David Trout knew that any team could be his. Phil Simms had said after the tryouts, “This is a man that teams would want to trade for.”

He was positive that he would go somewhere, the question being “WHERE?”

“Welcome to the 2015 NFL Draft! With the first pick in the draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select… Jameis Winston!”

Oh well, I never did expect to be 1st pick!  David said to himself, while also feeling happy for Winston.

“What team would you like to be drafted by?” asked Mike Trout, while it was announced that the Tennessee Titans had drafted Marcus Mariota.

“I’ll take anything!” David responded, as Marcus went up to receive his jersey and hat. David saw Dez and Calvin walk into the room together and they sat down next to him.

The Jaguars drafted Dante Fowler Jr, and the Raiders went along with Amari Cooper, while David was starting to get a tiny bit nervous.

“Ahhhh…. #2! That was my pick!!” Calvin yelled out.

“Oh come on!!” Whispered Russell Wilson, who had just gotten to the draft. “I was the 75th pick!”

“I’m not nervous!” lied David, but Russell wasn’t fooled for a split second.

Soon though, David had a reason to be nervous. Luke Kuechly had told him that after 60 picks, if nobody had picked him, it was reasonable to be nervous. 60 picks had happened that he was not involved in. Just then it was announced that the Buccaneers had drafted Ali Marpet, and that made it 61.

“Your pick should be any minute now…” Dez Bryant encouraged.

David was pretty sure that the Packers were his team, but they drafted Quinten Rollins. The Seahawks were picking for the first time now, and David wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he saw Russell Wilson wink at BEASTMODE, who was sitting right next to Wilson.

“With the 63rd pick in the NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks select…” Suddenly the moment paused and David Trout realized something. He wanted to go to the Seahawks!! Time resumed, besides for the fact that announcing the pick had started again. “With the 63rd pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks select… David Trout!”

As he walked up to the stage, David Trout realized something new. Just two weeks ago, the dream had started by a 30 for 30 on the Seahawks!! And then who did he get drafted by? The Seahawks! Just then, Martin Mayhew, the GM of the Detroit Lions came over to him along with Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson who were on top of him.

“I have a deal for you! David Trout for Matthew Stafford!” John Schneider, the Seahawks GM got onto the stage.

“I am forced to say never!!” screamed John.

“Okay,” said Martin.

That’s when Pete Carroll got onto the stage. “John!” barked Pete. “How could you possibly be so rude!”

“I’m not sure that listening to you is the greatest idea after that Malcolm Butler interception!” John came back with.

T om Brady stood up and screamed something in laughter, but it didn’t stop their quarrelling. Suddenly, the words of flame escaped the mouth of Pete. “You are fired!”  

“Good luck losing all your games!!” shouted John.

“Ooooh,” interrupted the crowd.

“Get wrecked!”  Pete came back with. A typical draft fight.

Kam Chancellor whispered to David Trout, now a wide receiver for the Seahawks, “Welcome to the Seahaws!”

PART 3: NOT  FINISHED YET

“Wake up!” David was waken up by his roommate, Jimmy Graham.

“What happened!?” asked David.

“Coach hired a new GM, and we’re having a meeting about it.”

“Oh. Is he nice?”

“He’s the best guy in the world!” yelled Doug Baldwin rushing in, which burst the whole team into laughter.

“And we will be hearing a lot more of that when you guys here the deal he made!” erupted Marshawn Lynch, bursting into the room.

“How come you know!?” they all asked, as Kam Chancellor started practicing interceptions.

“Cause I’m one of the team captains!” responded Lynch.

“Come on guys, Russell Wilson is already here!” said Pete.

We all gathered around the meeting table. “Why aren’t Jermaine Kearse or Kevin Norwood at this table?” the whole team asked.

“And Kevin Norwoods’ jersey is hanging there!”

“You’ll find out!” Pete said. “It isn’t anything big at all.”

“Well okay!!”

“The big thing is that, as you probably heard, we got a new GM.”

“JOHN IS SERVING AS AN ADVISOR!” Steven Hauschka bursted out

“STEVEN!” Pete screamed. “Just because you are a captain, doesn’t mean you need to burst out every bit of news you find out.”

“Sorry,” Steven muttered.

“Anyway,” Pete continued, “He made his first trade with the Detroit Lions, who he loves. It’s no major trade, and you probably never heard of the person that we acquired. That is why Jermaine and Kevin aren’t here.”

“But how come Kevin’s jersey is still here!!?” questioned Richard Sherman.

“All will be explained!” answered Jon Ryan.

“So who did we get?” asked D’anthony Smith.

“A new number 81!!”

Everyone was silent for all of one second until one scream became a million. “We got Calvin Johnson Jr.!” screamed the Seattle Seahawks.

“This new GM will be great!” Malcolm Smith yelled.

Calvin entered the room. “I had to be on David Trout’s team!!” And David Trout had to be on Calvin Johnson Jr.’s team!

TO BE CONTINUED!

“On July 4th we should sneak on the cruise.”

It was July 3rd.

Sam continued, “Because we could set off fireworks to distract the sailors,” Sam said with her door closed and locked so her parents could not hear.

“How will we get the fireworks?” asked Railey.

“We will steal them from the ship, they’ll probably sell them on the ship. We will steal them at 10:00 a.m., set them up, and then set them off at 12:00 midnight but, if we get caught we might get thrown overboard, and the water’s cold enough to freeze to death.”

“All right,” Railey said, “goodnight.”

Sam was about to hang up the phone, just when Railey said, “Wait a minute. How will we get into the store to steal the fireworks?”

“Oh, easy, we will just pick the lock like we always do.”

“Ok.”

“Then we can steal the jewelry, diamonds, and clothes.”

Sam and Riley wanted to steal the stuff just for the fun of it and to know that they did it. They had stolen stuff before, when they were 9, just never on a ship.

When Sam got into bed she fell asleep immediately. She had a dream that she was ready to steal the fireworks but all of her nails had fallen off and she was not able to pick the lock. She heard the floor creak. She thought a security guard was about to come. Then she woke up.

It was four in the morning and it was raining so hard that it sounded like a waterfall. She was worried that she would not be able to set off the fireworks. She wasn’t able to fall asleep because of the thunder. She was wondering when they’d set off the fireworks and if they’d still sell them. She noticed that the floor kept creaking. It was actually her parents. She realized that she had the dream about picking the lock because she had forgotten to unlock her door when she went to sleep and her parents were trying to get in.

Her parents were trying to get in to say goodnight to her. “I wonder what the punishment should be. We’re not allowed to lock doors in this house,” said her mom.

“I just wonder what she’s doing in there,” said her dad.

So Sam tried to unlock it, but it was stuck. Since she couldn’t go back to sleep she decided to go to Railey’s house. She climbed out the window. The wind was strong and she thought that it was going to knock her down. She started to fall but she managed to grab onto a rope that was hanging from a window washing machine. She was still about 20 feet from the ground. She let go and landed on her back. It hurt, but she was ok, so she stood up. She started walking to Railey’s house. The ground was very wet and slippery. When she made it there, it was 4:30 a.m. Sam climbed in the window.

“How did you get here?” asked Railey.

“I snuck to your house because I was bored,” said Sam.

Railey was also worried that they would not be able to set of the fireworks. Eventually they decided that they would go on the ship the next day because of the storm. Sam stayed at Railey’s house the rest of the night. Meanwhile Sam’s parents were still trying to get into her room. Sam’s parents were also trying to get in touch with Railey’s parents, but the storm was so bad, it shut off all the power. Sam’s dad was usually very lazy and he sat around and watched TV and slept all day. He was only trying to get in touch because he didn’t want her mom to see him being lazy.

Part 2: On the Ship

The next day they were ready to sneak onto the ship. They secretly packed the stuff they needed, extra clothes, goggles and they were wearing their wetsuits. They were extra light weight so they could sneak them out without them being too poofy. They brought their bikes and planned to just leave them on the side of the road when they got there.

“Where are you two going now?” said Railey’s mom.

“Oh, just going on a bike ride,” said Railey.

When they got about three miles out they could feel the wind from the ocean. They parked their bikes and walked to the ocean. When they got there, they could see their ship, which looked like a tiny speck out in the ocean. The water was freezing cold when they felt it. They went in and the water tasted horrible. It tasted like skunk spray and dead fish. They started to swim, but then they heard thunder. The ship was moving very slowly, so hopefully they’d get there pretty quickly. It looked like they were a mile away from the ship. They finally got close enough to see how fast the boat was moving. It was moving about as fast as they could swim. They reached out and held on to the edge of the boat, but it was hard because of all of the algae. They grabbed onto a buoy and they started to climb. When they got to the top, there was the captain right under them, and his steering wheel. They flipped over the edge into the boat and accidentally hit the captain.

The ship tilted a little but went back the right way up. They snuck into a room and put all their stuff down. They heard someone coming and noticed it wasn’t an empty room. So they moved to the next room over and it was empty. It was 6:30 at night and Sam went down to the shop to see if they sold fireworks. They did but a sign said that it was their last day of selling them. Sam went back and told Railey. They were both very excited that they sold fireworks.

In their room they changed into dry clothes and hung around until 10:00 p.m. Railey went out of their room to see if anyone was out. She saw one person, but he was a security guard, and he was not close to the shop. Railey went to get Sam to steal the fireworks.

They snuck out to the store. They were about to pick the lock (Railey was better at picking locks). They heard the floor creak. It was a security guard coming their way. They picked the lock and the door opened. They hid under a desk, then the light fell off the desk and made a crashing noise. The security guard heard it and saw that the door was open, and started to walk in. And while he was walking in they noticed that the fireworks had fallen so they reached in to grab them. The security guard stayed in there for 30 minutes. They held their breath for as long as they could. When the security guard left they snached 26 boxes. They snuck out and started to set the fireworks on the edge of the ship. One fell into the water so now they had 25 firework boxes.

When it was time, at 12:00 p.m. exactly, they set the fireworks off. Everyone started to wake up and it was hectic and everyone was running around. Then they noticed that it wasn’t an explosion, it was just fireworks. While everyone was on the deck watching them, they secretly snuck into lots of the passengers’ rooms. They stole clothes, rings, earrings, necklaces, food, and a cooler but they didn’t decide to steal that.

They had their sacks loaded and were heading back to their room. They hid the stuff in their bags and put it in their wetsuits. Then they went to sleep and woke up because they felt the ship tilting. No one knew what was going on. Then they heard thunder and saw lightning and it started to rain.

The ship was going deeper into the water but it wasn’t sinking, and the rain was getting stronger, and when lightning struck it almost struck their ship. In fact, it did strike their ship, but they jumped into the water and Sam found a stick-like object. It was a lightning rod. Then they threw it onto the ship and all the lightning went out.

They got back on the ship the same way they climbed on the ship the first time. Then the ship started tilting again. This time it was actually sinking and everybody was running all over the place. Water was up to the upper deck. There was no Internet. By the time everybody was getting their lifejackets, lots of people were in the water including all the jewelry and clothes.

They started swimming back to shore when one of the passengers shouted, “Noooooooo!” One of the passengers started drowning, it was really scary. Then one passenger shouted, “Oooowwww!” A shark started attacking one of the passengers and they died, too.

Some of the passengers started finding the stuff that they had stolen but they did not know that any of it had been robbed.

When Sam and Railey got to land they were wet and cold but their bikes were still there. They were really rusty. When they got back to Railey’s house, they did not want their parents to see them because they would be mad at them. So they snuck tents and pitched them next to our property.

Then the next day they were really bored and they missed being on the ship. So they got their bikes and ran away to the ship port. They waited for the next boat. They got on the boat.

The water looked really blue and clear. The boat was going to Norway. When they got to Norway they would wait for the next boat to a different place. And so on and so on.

don don don

Dave was a very special boy. He had powers. When he saw something he liked, all he had to say in his head was “Get it,” and he used his magical powers and got whatever he saw. Dave was very, very, very rich. He had 90 houses and 60 beach houses. The house he always lived in was in America. It was 120 feet tall, and inside, it was 500 square feet. He had everything he wanted, except a friend. He went to school, and no one ever wanted to sit next to him because he thought they would brag to them too much. Dave was sad most of the time because he didn’t have any friends. He always tried to make friends, but no one wanted to be friends because they thought he would always brag.

He opened his lunch box and said, “I want a friend.”

This girl named Matthews said to him, “I am not going to be your friend. And that’s it!”

Everyone in the lunch room said, “Yeah!!!”

Then the teacher, Ms. Roses, said, “What’s all this yelling about?”

“That was Dave, he was yelling and bragging about his house,” Matthews said.

“Dave, why are you bragging about your house? We know you’re rich, too,” Ms. Roses said.

“You can’t yell and brag about you, Dave,” Ms. Roses said. Ms. Roses was a sweet delight.

“Dave, I will cut off your recess,” she said. “And while you don’t have that much recess time, you will be doing extra homework.”

“But it wasn’t it me, it was Matthews. She said she would never be my friend and everyone started screaming ‘yeah.’”

“Well, I think most of us say that you did and it’s not very nice to lie so it’s two extra minutes.”

Dave is really mad. Then he sees this girl named Julia. Julia was Dave’s age, they were both 12 years old. Julia never knew that Dave was rich. She only had five friends and they were very nice. Dave said, “Hi, do you have any friends?”

“Not much, but yeah,” she said.

“Hey, do you want to–”

Chuck, the biggest bully in the school came over and said, “Look, Julia’s talking to Mr. Fancy Pants.”

Everyone laughed. Dave felt very sad. “Don’t be sad, Dave. You can be my friend.”

Julia was really sweet, she said, “Come on, you can meet my other friends, Percy, Sparkle, Peter, Diamond, and my sister, Jules.” They call it the friends club for people who don’t have that many friends. Peter had glasses. He never liked girls, and he always thought that girls were just, like, weird. But then Peter met Julia and then he started liking them. Percy loved riding horses. Her mom named her after her horse, and she is really calm and doesn’t talk that much. Sparkle and her sister, Diamond, live in a beautiful house. Diamond and Sparkle want to be famous fashion designers. When they work together, they make beautiful dresses with diamonds and sparkles. Jules loved reading, and she was very smart. Julia liked reading too.
“You can come to my house and help me build a treehouse,” Julia said.

“Don’t worry,” Dave said, “You can come to my tree house because no one is ever in there.” They decided that was a good idea. Once they got to his house their jaws were open. They felt amazed. He said, “Come this way to the house.” They saw the inside of the house and were even more amazed. They saw everything and a movie theater. When they were looking around, they bumped into something. It was his tree house. It was beautiful! They went upstairs and saw that the inside was beautiful too.

They closed the door, and everyone sat on the couch inside the tree house. “Now all we have to do is make a sign that says the friends club,” Dave said. They went in the club house.

They started making signs, the signs said “Friends Club.” Dave said, “Next thing we have to do is make a secret handshake to make sure that no one goes in our clubhouse.”

They said, “Let’s do it!”

Dave said, “Is there anything that you guys want to do?”

Jules said, “Yes. I want to put bows on the treehouse so that it could be fancier.”

Peter said, “I think that would be just too girly. We need something cool! Like rocket ships and aliens.”

Just then Dave said, “No guys. We’ll just keep it as it is, not too girly and not too boy-y.”

Just then Sparkle said, “Well you might want to add some sparkles.”

Diamond said, “You might want to add some diamonds.”

Dave said, “Let’s just leave it as it is.” Then they went in the clubhouse. Dave said, “You know, a talent show is coming up. We could practice for the talent show.”

Sparkles said, “Good but I want to go to Grandmas.”

So they went into the tree house and Dave said, “Oh, there you guys are!”

“And we got you a cinnamon muffin” said Sparkle.

“I know what we should do!” said Dave. “We should sing. I’ll be the singer, Peter will be the drummer, Sparkle will be the harp player, Peter drummer, Diamond will play the bass, Jules will be the other singer, and Julia will be a dancer.”

Julia asked, “Why are you being so bossy?”

“Why are you telling us what to do?” said Peter. Diamond, Sparkle, and Jules agreed too.

Dave said, “No! You can do whatever you want! I think the song should be slow, like a slow song.”

But nobody listens. “Guess what!” he yelled. “I don’t need you in my club.” But, secretly, he cried when they left. He said to himself, “I still have to do the talent show. I have three weeks.”

He wrote a song at his music studio with music teacher, Colongo. But the song that he was writing was bad. He ate lots of apples, he let his wire engineer person test the microphones. He let his costume designer make five costumes in case his friends showed up. They were blue with sparkles. The dresses had diamonds and sparkles, so he hoped that Diamond and Sparkle would like them. He was being nice and caring again. He let his artist designer make a beautiful scene. It was blue, there was a canoe, the canoe was blue, and the moon was singing too.

Then he said, “Colongo! That’s my song!”

On the last day, Dave practiced as much as he could. And then, it was the morning of the contest. He drank some water just to warm up. Then Tappidy Toes Shows came up with Tina and Tania. The Applause Meter said that they were right in the middle. And then all the other shows came up. He started to become really nervous because all of them were so good. And then the host announced, “Dave and Blue Moons!”

So then, Dave looked behind him. He saw his group. He saw Diamond, Sparkle, Julia, Jules, and Peter. Dave felt happy.

Diamond said, “We’re here to do the show.”

Then Dave said, “Here! Put these costumes on.” He throws them the costumes.

Sparkle saids, “Very sparkly!”

Diamond saids, “I like the diamonds on it.” They could tell that he was now thoughtful and caring, and they appreciated it.

Then Jules said, “Nice costume but we have to go on.”

Dave said, “Yeah, come on. You might not know the music but Julia, you are the best dancer and you can do any dance. And the rest of you guys, you can do whatever you want.”

They sang the song and they won first prize!

“Congratulations!” said the host. “You win fifteen million dollars!”

Dave said, “Guys, it’s your choice. What do you guys want to do with the money?”

They said, “Hmm…”

“Buy new outfits!” said Sparkle and Diamond.

Then, Peter said, “Buy a real live alien pet.”

Dave said, “First of all, I don’t think we should do that. Second of all, I don’t think we could do that, anyway.”

Then everyone said, “Yeah, I don’t think we can do that.”

And then, Jules and Julia said it. “I think that we should buy new decorations for our clubhouse. We can buy books and desks.”

Dave said to Peter, “I know! We can make rocket ships and make them blast off with science.” He said to Sparkle and Diamond, “And we can have some Sparkles and Diamonds.”

Dave said, “We’re gonna buy all of that.” And they went to the store.

THE END

Chapter 1

I’m in the war fighting with my army, and my ship sunk. Luckily, I was with my army, so I covered the leak with a cushion, so it didn’t sink. Then, the British fired their cannons and we fired back. I felt like I wanted to sneak away. We surrendered, so the British ships went away. We were fine, but my wife was not. My wife was packing most of her stuff because she was going to a picnic, but while she was packing up at home, the British surrounded her and she ran away, but the British burned down the White House with their guns.

Luckily, everyone got out. My wife smelled fire and all the women that were fighting saw that the White House was burning with yellow fire, so they all ran away. I went back to the White House. I asked my wife what happened.

She said, “I saw the British burn down the White House, but luckily everyone got away in time.”

“I’m so glad you got away,” I said angrily.

I was really mad that I asked my soldiers to rebuild the White House. “Build the White House,” I shouted bossily. To my surprise they didn’t do it, but when my wife asked, they did. Then I asked my wife, “How come they listen to you?”

She said, “You’re not talking nicely because you’re mad.”

I took a deep breath and said, “I think you’re right.”

To our surprise, we saw people from France. We both saw their ships sit in the ocean and didn’t know why they were here. The French said, “We’re here to settle the war.”

I got mad again. My wife figured out that I was mad, and said to the French, “He’s mad because the White House burned down.”

“Well that’s sad for you,” said the French.

Finally they re-built the White House in an hour. I went with the French to Britain and told them that they should stop the war. My wife came with me. The British were forced to stop the war, so they finally did. The French asked the British and the Americans to come over to France. We all went to France and had a great time. Me and my wife also had a great time. We went on rides for grown-ups. Then we went to Britain. We didn’t have as much fun as we did in France because the food was better and we loved the rides there. We learned how to speak British and French.

Chapter 2                                                 

I didn’t know if we should go to America or not because we had been fighting the whole entire war there and we didn’t want them to see the darkness of America. It was all dark, it was not light. New York City was also dark. I did know what was going on and there was some sort of shape in the sky. It looked like a dragon.

Finally the ghost of battles appeared and told them all what was happening. The ghost said, “I want to hurt you.”

“What the heck,” I said.

“That’s not the right way to speak,” said the ghost in the horrible voice. He disappeared and I chased him on the ship. I finally saw what the ghost. It was blue, and it had wings, four feet, and a tail. He was a dragon. I finally realized it was a mythical creature that was named Charizard. I went closer to him, and he shot something that made a hole in the ship. The ship sunk, with me inside. I took off my shirt and got into my swimsuit, which I already had on. I swam to shore. Everyone was alright. I didn’t want to tell my wife about what happened because I knew she wouldn’t like it. I just knew about it, and my army knew too. I asked Charizard why he was doing this to them.

The dragon said, “I don’t have any friends so can we become friends?”

“No,” I shouted.

The dragon did more of his frightful powers. The soldiers said that they wanted to be friends, but I still didn’t want to be friends with a dragon!

“War!” I shouted.

Another war began with the British and the Americans. The dragon asked if he could help the American side. The soldiers said yes and I said no. The dragon fought with the Americans and they won the battle.

“Thank you,” I cried happily.

Just then me and my wife heard someone walking in our house. “Stop!” I cried. But the robber would not get out of my house. “I am the president of the United States,” I said. “You should respect me.”

“I’ll help you,”  said the dragon.

The robber took the goods and went. One of the guards saw the robber and told me that the robber went into my house and told me he stole some of the goods.

“I’ll go check my house and you wait here,” I said.

I went into my house and to my surprise the coins were still there. They were actually fake, but I didn’t know that yet. I went back outside and saw the guard who told me he saw the robber.

“You’re kidding,” I shouted.

The dragon came up again and asked  if we could be friends and the dragon also said, “If we don’t become friends I’ll curse and spell on you, President.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll be friends with you.”

“I need to tell you something,” said the dragon.

Chapter 3

“What?” I asked.

“I want you to know that someone snuck in your house and stole all of your precious belongings.”

“Really?” I screamed.

“Really,” said the dragon.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” I said to the soldier.

“It’s alright,” said the soldier.

“Mr. Dragon,” my wife said. “I would love to become friends with you.”

I go check again in my house and bring out the money left on the table. I gave it to the dragon and the dragon experimented it. He said that they were fake.

“I knew it!” shouted the guard.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” shouted the dragon so the guard could hear him.

I thought I  saw the robber again near the blue and purple waves.  “Is that the robber?” I said. I got closer and saw two people that looked like my wife.

My wife ran from the waves and said, “Do you know who I am?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’m the robber,” she said. The disguise of my fake wife was taken off. I saw that the robber had on a blue coat and black pants with polished shoes. He was very short even shorter than me. “I am part of the British army,” he said. “My name is Jo.”

“Oh no!” my real wife cried. Luckily, I ran away in time. The dragon was right behind the robber, so he used his fiery breath to kill the robber. Some of the soldiers threw the robber into the ocean and he floated away.

I went to bed, and my wife came with me. In the morning, I woke up early and got the dragon to have breakfast with me. We ate cheerios.  My wife came down for breakfast after we were done. I was about to go outside when my wife put on her coat and went outside before me. I asked, “How did you get here so fast?”  

“I finished early,” said my wife. I ran after my wife, and the dragon followed me. The dragon tripped and accidentally froze my wife to ice. “Sorry!” said the Dragon.

“It’s alright,” I said. “If you can, you can unfreeze her.”

“I’ll try,” said the dragon. “Zippity zappity zoo, I pick you,” said the dragon.

BOOM, there was a flash of light and my wife turned to flames. Luckily, my wife didn’t die. I got some water and poured it on her. “Zippity zappity zoo,” I said. “I pick you.” BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

“I think you did it,” said the dragon.

The smoke cleared away and my wife was back to normal, except for one thing. She turned back to being still. “I thought you said she was unfrozen!” I said.

“I’m not very good at magic,” the dragon said. I left my wife standing there and went to talk to the dragon.

“I think you’re a fake dragon,” I said.

“Why do you think that?” the dragon said back in a bossy voice. “That’s very nice of you to think. I am a fake dragon.” The fake dragon named Bool took off his costume, I saw that his feet were very big and he wore boxing clothes and tried to box me.

I am really James Madison and my wife is Dolly Madison.

Abandoned

Once there was a king named Rusty. His kingdom, Forland, had been robbed by seven robbers and by now he had grown greedy because his kingdom was poor. The royal treasury in his kingdom was almost empty.

Over the years he began to grow cunning and his ministers and courtiers started to talk about leaving the castle. Forland was a small kingdom that did not have many people or houses. It was a kingdom right off the coast of Europe.

One day the queen grew ill. Nobody had any knowledge about diseases in this kingdom because there was nobody to train them. So with no money at all, the kingdom had a law that when a human was ill that person had no right to have anything to do with Forland. Anyone who was ill was either put to death or he or she was prohibited to step foot into the kingdom. The king’s great grandparents made this law so he did not want to change it, even though he was sad about being separated from his wife.

The queen had a high position so she was left out, abandoned, from the kingdom. When anyone in the royal court was ill he or she had twenty days and if that person could survive he or she was permitted in the kingdom not as a part of the royal family. So the queen was left condemned to die.

I.

It had been two days since the queen had left and Rusty could not handle having the queen out for so long. He missed seeing her jewelry and talking with her and he could not call her back because that would be fighting with tradition.

The one thing he could do was ask his courtiers to leave the kingdom with his note, paper, and pencil. He said, “Go to the jungle, find my wife, give her this note and ask her to reply on this paper.”

This was the note:

Dear Queen, October 21 1956

It has been two days since you left. We all really miss you. You’ve been a great queen. I hope you are beginning to feel better. I really miss you!

Please wait outside the kingdom because when you are permitted to step into the kingdom I will know where to find you. Please write back saying what you have been doing over the last two days.

LOVE,
RUSTY

P.S. Oh, and remember, let my guards see you so you can read this note!

Back in the forest the queen was feeling super-ill, walking toward a mysterious-looking, huge city.

II.

The guards had just left Forland and were searching all over the forest while the queen was in the mysterious city. One guard caught sight of the queen’s footprint. They followed the footprint until they found the mysterious city. When they looked at it, it was crowded with lots of business. Whereas when the queen looked at it, it was lonely and huge.

The queen was lying uncomfortably in a hospital in the mysterious city while the guards were searching all around it. They followed her footprints, until it led them in front of the hospital.

They went into the hospital where the queen was and asked the person at the counter if she had seen the queen. She said she had and she lead them to the room she was in. The guard showed the queen the letter and asked her to write back. At the end, her letter looked like this:

1995 October 25th

Dear King,

The guards took four days to find me but now I only have fourteen days left. I will wait outside of Forland until I’m permitted to step back in.

Love,

Queen

III.

The queen couldn’t go back to the kingdom yet because she had surgery for her unknown illness. All night she was lying in the hospital thinking about her surgery. After the surgery she realized it took five hours and then she was in the recovery room for the rest. The day after the surgery she started making her way up the hill until she saw a large tree that was never there before. The tree started talking. She had never seen a tree that talked.

The tree said: “Before you make it back to your kingdom, you will have to complete multiple tasks. You will have to go back into the deep part of the forest and find another tree that will give you a list of things to do.”

“Will I get a break for the night?” she asked.

“Yes. For three days you’ll be trying to find the tree. It lives almost in a different country- miles and miles away. After you make it to the other tree and he gives you a list of twelve things to do and you complete those twelve things, you will get a lot of money that you will have to pay back to the other tree. Otherwise there will be consequences.”

“Fine, I’ll do that….”

She began her journey to the forest.

IV.

The dawn broke and dusk passed. The queen continued her journey south. Now it had been eight days since she left her kingdom. Twelve more days to go before she could go back to Forland. She had seven more hours of traveling before she got to the tree.

She was tired, hungry, and thirsty. The first tree did say that the second tree the queen was going to would provide her with shade to rest, food to eat, and water to quench her thirst. She wanted to take a break but she was determined to get to the tree. When she got to the tree, it gave her a list of twelve things to do. The list looked like this:

1. Travel twenty miles south until you hit the border of Forland and our neighboring country.
2. At the border you’ll meet seven more trees that will tell you what to do for number two.
3. Start making your way back until you reach your mysterious city again.
4. In the city, go back to the hospital and pay the lady at the counter our bills for becoming trees.
5. Make your way back to the hill.
6. Go back to your kingdom and wait there.
7. All of the trees will meet you and you will become a tree.
8. Find a place to plant yourself.
9. Grow roots.
10. Grow branches.
11. Unplant yourself and wait outside of your kingdom.
12. The trees are going to meet you again and you will turn into a human.

“How will I finish everything in twelve days?” the queen asked.

“You have eight days to finish everything,” the tree said, “and then if you complete everything you will be given a box and we will call your guards.”

The queen began to ask, “Why will you call the guards?” but the tree disappeared.

V.

The next morning was the ninth day. The queen was fully recovered and she began on her first task: Go twenty miles south until you hit the border of Forland and our neighboring country. She thought, That’s going to take a long time. She began on her journey.

Surprisingly, she saw a huge, rose gold bird that stopped right in front of her and grabbed her.

“Let go of me!” the queen reproved.

“My name is Shiva,” the bird replied, “and the tree has ordered me to take you to the border of our country.”

The queen went on the bird’s back and the twenty miles was a two-hour ride on his back. After the journey was over, the queen said, “Thank you,” and met seven trees.

VI.

She thought this was her second step: At the border you’ll meet seven more trees that will tell you what to do for number two.

“For step two, you will have to take a seven hour trip to the queen of the neighboring kingdom,” the trees said. “Her name is Swira and she is very friendly. You will have to tell her that the seven robbers are in the desert. After you tell her, come back.”

She began her journey south to the castle. The same bird picked her up and this time. It was a seven hour ride to the neighboring kingdom’s castle.

At the castle door, the guard recognized the queen and said, “You are the abandoned queen of Forland who came to tell the queen where seven robbers are.”

The queen asked, “How did you know?”

The guard replied, “One of the trees you met on your journey told me about you.”

The queen asked, “Can I come inside?”

The guard said, “Yes.”

She went inside and told the queen, “The seven robbers are hiding behind a log in the desert.”

Swira replied, “Thank you,” and she left the castle. She went back to the seven trees and she didn’t see them so she went to sleep.

VII.

The next morning was a bright windy day. She took out the list of things to do and went to number three. She remembered to tell the seven trees she had come back. She thought the seven trees knew that because they still weren’t there. The queen looked at number three and it said: Start making your way back until you reach your mysterious city again. She had to make her way back to the mysterious city. That was just a two-hour journey. She walked north until she met the first tree she saw.

“Why do I only get six more days to complete nine more tasks?” she asked.

“The tasks won’t take so long,” the tree said, “Shiva is supposed to help you. Now get to the mysterious city.” She did as she was told.

When she got to the mysterious city she took out the list again and she remembered step 4: In the city, go back to the hospital and pay the lady at the counter our bills for becoming trees. She went back to the hospital and gave the lady at the counter $20.

VIII.

She finished step 4 so she took out her list again and looked at step 5: Make your way back to the hill. She walked out of the mysterious city and made her way back to the hill that lead her into the mysterious city. She remembered that step 6 was: Go back to your kingdom and wait there. She went back and waited right in front of her kingdom door.

Dusk came and dawn broke. She was tired so she went to bed and thought that the seven trees would meet her in the morning. She had five more days to complete the rest of the task. The next day she met the seven trees right outside the kingdom. She remembered that she was going to turn into a tree. Step 7 was that: All of the trees will meet you and you will become a tree.

“It will take at least three minutes for you to become a tree,” the trees said, “So you can’t talk while you’re becoming a tree.”

Before she could say anything, the trees had already started transforming her. The process started by a cloud coming over her head then a raindrop falling on her head. After the raindrop fell on her head there was a bubble that came all around her. When all four sides of the bubble were touching her at the same time she turned into a tree. As a tree, she was big and she had gold bark and green soil that always traveled under her. She was rather uncomfortable as a tree.

IX.

She decided not to do any more tasks for two days so on the last day she could finish the final five tasks. Then she thought maybe she should just finish the tasks and get them over with so she could see what the box was for.

Step 8 was: Find a place to plant yourself. She walked for two hours until she found a place near the bracken where she could plant herself. Step 9 was to: Grow roots. She knew that any plant had roots before it sprouted so she skipped that step. Step 10 was to: Grow branches. She already had branches. She thought step 9 and 10 were trying to fool her and waste her time. She thought it would hurt to unplant herself. Even though she found being a tree rather uncomfortable, she knew she had to stay as a tree for two or three more hours. She thought she should just wait until the next day to unplant herself.

Dusk passed again and it was the fifth day of having to do tasks and the fourteenth day of being abandoned from her kingdom. She had to unplant herself now. She knew she couldn’t talk during the process and it would take five minutes again so she tried breaking her roots and it took five minutes for her to unplant herself. Breaking her roots hurt her legs a lot because she had to break her roots off of her leg, and her legs were connected to her roots.

Hopping around the forest uncomfortably was one of the most dreadful parts of her twenty days, but she knew outside of her kingdom she would become a human again.

She went all the way to her kingdom when she found the seven trees as robbers. They were trying to make themselves trees again so she thought she could arrest them later for stealing jewels from her kingdom. She recognized the robbers. She was still going to arrest them later. Then Rusty might let her be the queen again so she waited until they were trees again and she started jumping towards the kingdom door.

At the door the trees said, “There’s no talking during becoming a human again, and it will take less than one minute.”

The trees started the process before she knew she was a human again. She had five more days until she could go to the kingdom again. She had finished all 12 tasks and now the trees would give the guards the box.

X.

The trees had disguised themselves as guards to get into Forland. The queen knew she recognized the human versions of them. She remembered that in the clan of the seven robbers they had four males who were always wearing the same color clothing even though the color changed. All of their faces looked wrinkled. They looked like they were wearing masks and they looked avarous. The females looked younger than the males and they looked like the males’ daughters who didn’t want to rob anybody. They asked the queen not to look at them but the queen knew they were turning into robbers then putting on costumes to look like guards. After ten minutes they looked like seven guards with a metal box that looked old. The paint was peeling off, there were cracks, and parts were missing.

“The king will receive this box,” said one of the robbers, “and it has something magical about it.”

Four of the guards climbed over the fence and three stayed with the queen.

“I know all seven of you are robbers,” said the queen. “You three are the females who don’t want to rob anybody and the four who went over the fence are your dads who are actually robbers.”

One of the daughters asked, “How did you know?”

“Today I saw you in your human versions before you turned me back into a human. It doesn’t matter if your dads want you to rob other people. You don’t have to. All three of you are grown adults who can live by themselves who can make their own choices. Nobody can control what you have to do. I knew I recognized you when I saw you in your human version. I knew you looked like the seven robbers who robbed my kingdom before it became poor.”

The daughter said, “In the box there is a magical bracelet that will make today the twentieth day of you being abandoned. Everybody will forget about how you became ill, for a few weeks you’ll be part of the royal family again, and all three of us will pay you for the twelve tasks you did. Our family should pay you more than 1,200 dollars. The tasks that they made you do were so they could make their own money.”

In the kingdom, Rusty had just received the magical box and the robbers had just left the castle when their daughters ran away. The queen was hiding behind a bush so the robbers didn’t think the queen drove their daughters away. The king had just taken out his bracelet and just pressed the red button that made him and his guard think that today was the twentieth day of the queen being abandoned. The robbers had just come out of the kingdom and they knew the king recognized them.

XI.

The king was overjoyed. He and his guards had just opened the kingdom door to let the queen in.

“The four people who just came in the kingdom were actually robbers. The robbers who stole our gold before I grew ill who made our kingdom poor.”

Once the queen entered the kingdom it started raining diamonds. The queen knew this was from the robbers’ daughters. The king sent the guards out to find the robbers and arrest them. The kingdom became rich again. Over the years, the queen gave birth to newborn children and they married princes and princesses that made Forland a bigger and happier place. Rusty was not greedy and cunning anymore.

The End of the Queen’s Story

Fluffy is eight years old. He has dark hair, he’s really smart, he likes sports, and he was born in 2015. He is a human, and lives with human parents.

Fluffy and Fluff Ball both got their names from an interesting place. One day, the science teacher at school quit, so there was a new science teacher. Everybody laughed at his name, so he made a machine and he said that if you didn’t change your name to something weird, you would be zapped by this machine and turned into air. Fluffy and Fluff Ball were really scared, so they changed their names from Billy and Joe to Fluffy and Fluff Ball, respectively.

Now, Fluffy the human is taking an afternoon walk when he sees someone fall from the clouds. He is the Marshmallow God, who is made out of marshmallows! Even his magic is marshmallow! Marshmallow magic is when marshmallows hit the center of the Earth, thus making everything into a marshmallow.

Then, the God zaps the entire Earth with marshmallow beams from his marshmallow staff, and almost everything turns into marshmallow.  He floats back into the sky. The world is entirely white, and everything is squishy and bouncy. There is one thing that isn’t exactly marshmallow: it’s every liquid. The liquids are made out of squished marshmallow, or melted marshmallow. The people have carved marshmallow smiley faces, with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, with two fluffy ears. Fluffy doesn’t notice at first, but when he looks at himself in the marshmallow mirror, he sees that he is a marshmallow and that everything else is marshmallow, too.

He is initially surprised, then scared, then happy because there are always marshmallows to eat. He then decides he doesn’t like how it looks. The whole scenery is made out of marshmallows, so no one can taste or smell, because everything smells and tastes like marshmallows, but they are able to feel, see and hear. Fluffy misses the other two senses. Fluffy not only misses his two senses, but he misses beautiful flowers, he misses color, and he also misses having arms and legs, as he wants to walk and grab things. He also fears being eaten by another marshmallow, because since everything looks like a marshmallow, someone might think he’s an object. Also, toys are no longer fun since they’re all just marshmallows, along with TV and video games. Fluffy realizes that since                       there is a Marshmallow God, there must be a Marshmallow Heaven. He decides he wants to go to Marshmallow Heaven to face the Marshmallow God. However, he is distracted by China, which is much closer now since the marshmallows are so squishy, and he decides to eat a small part of it. He takes a bite of the Forbidden City. It tastes so good that everyone begins eating it.

Meanwhile, Fluff Ball, after going to school in the morning, is begging his science teacher to let his name be Joe again.

The science teacher says, “No, you can’t have your old name back, or I will zap you with my invention!”

Fluff Ball walks away, calls Fluffy, and hatches a plan to zap the science teacher with his own invention! But once everything turns into marshmallow, the invention no longer works. The engine is made out of marshmallow and doesn’t work. Fluff Ball decides to eat the machine, and then calls himself Joe again. The teacher, however, still calls him Fluff Ball. He plans to make a new machine if the world turns back to normal.

Fluffy and Fluff Ball decide to buy a jet and find the Marshmallow Heaven that the Marshmallow God lives in in order to defeat him. They leave from the marshmallow runway and fly into the sky. Zoom!

The Heaven is split up into different dimensions with all kinds of Gods and Devils. The Gods have Heavens with golden gates and unlimited luxuries. The Devils have blood everywhere, pitchforks, corpses, and more bloooood. Heaven is pretty much a dream, while the pieces of Hell are pretty much nightmares. The Gods float around, while the Devils sit on thrones which are red and black with torches on either side. The seats are also covered in blood. The thrones have red cloud puffs underneath them, and fire besides. Hell and Heaven rest side by side with no real barrier. The Devils and Gods can come and go as they please, which is why certain Gods and Devils fall from the sky. Holes in the clouds open up and Devils and Gods float down from the holes until they land on the ground. Some Gods are more powerful than others; for example, the Marshmallow God isn’t as powerful as the Chainsaw God, who could easily kill the Marshmallow God.

However, since they live in different dimensions, they leave each other alone. The Devils are monsters, while the Gods are ghosts.

So, after getting to Heaven, the boys see the Marshmallow God. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” the Marshmallow God says.

“We’ve come here to get our world turned back to normal!” says Fluffy.

“Never!”  

“I declare a fight! Charge!” Fluffy yells. “If we win, the world is saved, if you win, the world is stuck as a marshmallow forever.”

“Okay.”

Evil marshmallows start attacking. They are marshmallows with tiny little legs and tall, pointy spears.

The evil marshmallow men say, “We are going to eat you!”

“Wait,” Fluff Ball says, “can’t we just eat them?”
“Great idea!” Fluffy says. Fluffy and Fluff Ball start eating all of the evil marshmallow men.

The Marshmallow God says, “I will marshmallowify you!”

Fluffy and Fluff Ball decide to eat the Marshmallow God’s arms and legs, along with his staff. The staff is made of a bunch of marshmallows stuck together with curved marshmallows along the sides. Then, after eating the Marshmallow staff, they think they are stuck as marshmallows! But then, the Marshmallow Devil comes. “I will remove all marshmallows from Earth!” He waved his staff and removed all of the marshmallows from the whole world. Fluffy and Fluff Ball turn back into humans.

Fluffy is now sad, because he realizes that he will miss marshmallows! So Fluffy seeks revenge. He challenges the Marshmallow Devil to a battle. The Devil brings Fluffy and Fluff Ball to Marshmallow Hell. The Devil turns things into marshmallows before destroying them. Fluffy wins by using karate! Fluffy chops the horns off of the Devil, and cuts off his wings, too! He knocks the Devil out. The Devil returns the regular marshmallows to Earth.

Fluffy and Fluff Ball fly back to Earth in their jet. They become famous for saving the day!

Then, the Carrot God falls from the sky and turns the world into a carrot!

Fluff Ball gets angry that the world is entirely made out of carrots, so he takes a carrot and throws it at the Carrot God. However, the God only gets stronger!

“Wait, don’t bunnies eat carrots?” Fluffy says. Fluffy, realizing this, takes his pet bunny, Hoppy, and unleashes him onto the Carrot God. The Carrot God runs away screaming with his arms in the air, and is defeated. Then, the Carrot Devils fall from the sky. Fluffy realizes that the Devil must be the opposite of the God, so his weakness must be carrots. Fluffy takes the Devil this time and Fluff Ball takes the God.

A few months later, they see the Fur Ball God. Fluffy and Fluff Ball realize that, like the Carrot God, the Fur Ball God’s strength must be his element. Fluff Ball thinks for a moment. He realizes that the Fur Ball God could be easily sucked up by a vacuum. So, Fluffy takes a vacuum and suckes the Fur Ball God up. Right after, they see the Fur Ball Devil. They throw fur balls at him until he dies. This time Fluffy gets the God and Fluff Ball gets the Devil.

Then Paper God and Paper Devil come down simultaneously. Before they can turn the world into paper, Fluff Ball starts throwing paper at the Paper Devil, who is soon defeated. Then, Fluffy, realizing the Paper God is made of paper, throws the Paper God into a shredder and kills him.

Fluffy and Fluff Ball decided to make a series of days called The Random God Days. Each year they would celebrate Marshmallow God Day, Carrot God Day, Paper God Day, etcetera, by having a parade.

Then, something that isn’t a God falls from the sky: a carrot! Fluffy and Fluff Ball are in their house when they see the carrot.The carrot that falls from the sky hits all but one of the remaining element Gods. Then, a meteor crashes into them and they explode into a million pieces. The Devils also get hit by the meteor and die.

Then, the Army God, the last remaining element God, falls from the sky. The army God is an army of many people with red and gold armor, with red helmets with a gold trim. They have iron swords. Each army member looks exactly the same. They are all men who stand about five feet tall. They also each have a pair of wings.

Fluffy and Fluff Ball feel worried because there are so many army members, and only two of them. They decide to make a few other friends, so there are now ten people fighting. The other eight people are named Jackie, Matilda, Emily, John, Lawrence, Liam, Eric, and William. They cover themselves in cardboard armor and they have nerf guns with them. They go into battle! However, they realize the nerf guns aren’t powerful enough. So, they put on very spiky shoes and kick each army guy in the face. When they get to the last army guy, he puts all of the army’s armor on, but the boys still kick him in the face. Thus, the Army God is defeated. Now, all of the humans rejoice because all of the Gods and Devils are officially defeated.

But the Original God and Devil get angry that all of the element Gods and Devils were defeated. The Devil says, “I want to turn the Earth into a dark, fiery place!”

The God says, “I want to turn all of the Earth into Heaven!”

The God and Devil fight for many years, and they are placed in a museum inside of a glass cage. They even make it a show! Everybody gets to see the God and the Devil fighting.

The end.

John felt sick so his father told him to eat soup. He started to eat the soup and when he got to the bottom he found a squirrel in the soup.

He said, ”Daddy, can you get me a different type of soup? This soup has a squirrel in it.”

The dad gave him a different type of soup and then when he got to the bottom again, there was a piece of the moon.

He said, “Daddy, I need another soup, this one has a piece of the moon in it!” Then the dad gave him another type of soup, but this one had a key in it. The boy said,

“Dad this one has a key in it, can you get a different type of soup that is guaranteed to not have things in it?”

So the dad got him another soup, and there was a jetpack in it.

The boy said, “Ooh! Yay! Jetpack!” So he got it out, plugged in the key, turned it, the jetpack started, and he flew around the whole world. When he came back the father was waiting for him and he was very angry. He took the jetpack away, gave it to John’s mom, and she flew it but she didn’t know how to operate it and she died. The father tried it, and the same thing happened. Every person in the whole world tried it, even the animals, and they all failed. The boy thought he could rule the world, but there was one old man with a bunch of horses who were not stupid and they went and beat the kid up and John died. The old man ran to outer space on a spaceship with a horse, the horse was flying with the jetpack. The horse flew outside of the atmosphere, and the old man took the jetpack back and a different spaceship came along and shot the horse and blasted it to bits because it froze into ice and died. Then, I came along. I got the jetpack and the horses, the old man died, and I became a rodeo maker with a jetpack. I’m the only person in the whole wide world and I would never want any kids so it will be just myself and I’m immortal, I can get food for free, and I live happily ever after.

THE END   

Sofia, a 10-year-old girl, was going on a quest to find the rainbow jewel. The reason why she wanted to get the jewel was because she wanted to save her grandfather. Grandpa Joe always took her on adventures. When he was walking through the garden with Sofia on their last adventure, he touched a plant and it made him sick. Grandpa Joe was sick with a deadly sickness that made it hard for him to breath. Sofia had heard that there were lots of evil devils on the way.

When Sofia was passing a rock, she saw a man dressed in a fancy suit.

“Hello,” said the man. “I am going to a party, but can I ask you a favor? Can you take care of my lion?”

“Why?” asked Sofia.

“Because I want them to eat you!”

“I am sorry, but I knew this was a trick,” Sofia said. “I have a feeling that you are a devil,” she shouted.

“Not so fast,” he said. “How do you know I am a devil?”

“I know that because I have read about you in my books! I am off to find my jewel.”

“Do you know why I asked you to do this?” the devil asked.

“Why?” Sofia demanded.

“I asked you this because I wanted to stop you from getting the jewel,” the devil said.

“Well, that’s not going to work!” Sofia said.

Sofia stomped off. Then, she passed an apple tree and she had a snack. And then, Sofia camped outside overnight. She felt a little bit nervous about doing that. She was in a meadow, but she had to be careful because there were dangerous animals there: mosquitos and wolves.

When she wasn’t sleeping, she heard soft footsteps in the night. She went outside to see what was going on. Then, she saw a werewolf. She knew it was a werewolf because it was half-man and half-wolf. The werewolf was big and wore a T-shirt that said, “I Will Eat You!”

When he saw Sofia, he ran toward her. He was fast. Sofia was scared. She went back into the tent. Then, she had an idea. She went outside again and dug out worms. The werewolf was still out there, but he didn’t see because she was leaning against the tent.

She dropped the worms and said, “Here is your dinner. Don’t eat me.” The werewolf ate the worms and he went away.

The werewolf came back and he said, “Thank you. Is there anything that I can do for you?”

Sofia said, “Can you come with me on my journey to find the rainbow jewel?”

The werewolf said, “Yes.”

Then, Sofia rode on the werewolf’s back.

They went to a graveyard. They saw a ghost. He was one of those ghosts who doesn’t have a white cloth, he was transparent. He looked like a mummy and he told them, “Go to Egyptia.”

He tried to convince them by saying, “There are treasures,” but he didn’t tell them that there were a lot of mummies in Egyptia. There were only two mummies that were good, and the rest were bad. The mummies had powers to freeze people forever.

Sofia said, “Sure, we’ll go to Egyptia.”

When they first got to Egyptia, it didn’t look like what they expected. Everything was made out of solid gold. Then, they went into a castle and they met the Mummy King. He was wrapped up in bandages and he had a crown. The Mummy King said, “Why are you here?”

Sofia and the werewolf say, “The mummy sent us here for treasure.”

The Mummy King said, “I won’t give you any. I sent him to trap you. Now, you have a choice: Your choices are, you either get frozen, or you can work as a servant.”

Sofia said, “None!”

“Well, if you choose none of them then I will choose for you. I choose that you will be our servant!” he yelled.

While Sofia was sweeping, she caught sight of something rainbow! The rainbow jewel! Sofia took the jewel. Sofia took the jewel home! She gave it to her grandfather! He was healed!

But slowly, a shadow appeared. It was the Mummy King! Sofia hid the jewel and used a fake plastic jewel to replace the real one! When the mummy came in, he glared at Sofia. She took the fake jewel and threw it at the mummy! The king mummy took the fake jewel and ran away!

The End

Once upon a time there lived a tennager named Lenwood Heath. He was a big troublemaker. He burned his neighbor’s trash can and knocked down trash cans while he skateboarded. His parents got so sick of what he did so they sent him to the Spank Union Military Academy.

Lenwood really hated to go to a military academy but his dad said, “It will get  you into good shape and change your behavior!” So Lenwood started to pack his bags  but  he didn’t pack the right things. This is what he packed: five bottles of grape soda, 99 candy bars, his computer, iPhone, and iPad.

His dad said, “LLLEEENNNWWWOOODDD!!!”

“Yeah Dad?”

“You packed the wrong stuff. What will the Spank Union say!?”                        Imagine…

“Private Lenwood!”

“Yes sir.”

“I am going to kick you out of Spank Union.”

“…”  

POOF.  

So later his dad emptied everything in Lenwood’s bag and gave him his military uniform and he boarded the bus and went to the military academy.
THE END!

 Prologue

“Brian, Lindsey,” Dad said, “Your mother and I have to talk to you about something.”  I  could sense the nervousness in Dad’s voice. I glanced over at my twin brother, Brian and by the look on his face, I could tell he sensed it too.

“Grandma is really sick and she’s going to pass away soon,” Dad continued. “This is going to be a very hard time for all of us.” I could feel tears in my eyes. Grandma loved me and Brian very much and I knew it would be very hard to say goodbye.

Things were quiet after that, and four days later, Grandma did die. Brian was a lot quieter than usual. He didn’t do the usual taunting and I avoided the usual teasing. Brian and I had a talk the night she passed.

“It’s a terrible thing that happened,” I said.

“I know,” Brian agreed, “but it happens to everyone,” and Brian started to cry. I hugged him and cried too. After that, we didn’t really fight until the safe was broken into.

             ****************

I woke up to the sound of an alarm going off. The first thought that came to mind was fire. I took a deep breath but didn’t smell any smoke. I glanced at my digital alarm clock: 1:00 it said. I hurried across the hall to Brian’s bedroom. I rushed into the room and saw Brian getting out of bed.

“What is that horrible noise?” he shouted above the sound.

“I don’t know,” I shouted back. “There’s no smoke.” Together we raced downstairs to our parents’ room. They were both just leaving the room.

“What’s that sound?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” Mom ignored my question.

“I think it might be the burglar alarm.” Dad ran to the first floor to shut it off, and Brian and I followed. Dad punched a few buttons and the horrible noise stopped.

“What do you think was stolen?” Brian inquired.

“I don’t know, but we can look.” The first room I went to was the den. I switched on the light and saw that thankfully the T.V. was still there and intact. I thoroughly searched the rest of the room but everything was still there. The next room I went to was the kitchen. I looked around the room, but like the den, nothing seemed to be missing. Not even a speck of food had been touched or taken.

Brian hurried in from the living room. “Nothing,” he reported.

“Nothing,” I agreed.

“There can only be one more place.” Brian looked at the door to the basement.

“Where?” But then I realized it too. The basement safe.

I turned on the light and Brian opened the door and we ran down the stairs. The door to the storage room had been left flung open and Brian led the way inside. He gasped and then I did.

The safe, in the far corner of the room, had been broken open. The lock seemed to have been smashed. We walked over. All the family jewels were gone. Our grandma’s diamond necklace, our grandparents’ engagement rings, the pearl bracelets. “Who could have done this?” I thought. “Why would they have done this? Who knew about the safe?”

I reached up to touch the smashed lock, but Brian jerked my hand back.

“Don’t, there could be fingerprints.” I doubted it but decided not to say anything.

I heard sirens coming from outside and figured the police had arrived.

“We have to solve this mystery.” Brain loved mysteries and watched mystery movies all the time.

I looked at Brian like he was crazy, “How are we, two kids, going to solve an actual mystery?”   

“Well first we have to look for clues,” Brian explained. “And remember, Grandma’s jewelry was stolen too. ”

I sighed.  Brian did have a point. It was really important to get the jewelry back. “Okay. Let’s go look for clues.”

  Brian pulled me up the stairs and to the back door. By that time, the police had come inside and were asking my parents questions. “He or she probably exited out of this door so he wouldn’t be seen by people on the street,” Brian told me. “There are no windows open so the intruder must have picked the lock.”     

“I’ll go get my fingerprint kit. Don’t touch the door,” and he dashed up the stairs.  I sighed. Yes, my brother did have a fingerprint kit.

When Brian returned, he dusted the door handle for fingerprints. “They’re all too smudged to tell the difference between them,” Brian said, “but we can look outside for clues.”

“ Maybe we should wait until the morning,” I said uneasily. “There is a robber on the loose.”

“I guess you’re right,” Brian said with disappointment in his voice.

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

“Lindsey, Lindsey! Wake up,” someone shouted in my ear. I opened my eyes to find my brother standing above me.

“What,”  I asked groggily, tasting my morning breath in my mouth.

“We have a mystery to solve.” Brian looked at me annoyed.

I glanced at the clock: 7:00, it said. “Brian, it’s 7:00 in the morning. The mystery won’t run away from us.”

“Yes, but the robber will,” Brian pointed out and I sighed. I hated waking up early on Sunday mornings.

“I’ll get dressed,” I said.

Fifteen minutes later, Brian and I were standing at the door.

“What are we supposed to do?” I asked.

“Look for clues,” Brian replied.

I rolled my eyes. “And how are we supposed to do that?”

Brian ignored my question. “Just look for anything suspicious.” Then he opened the door and we walked outside. I followed Brian down the steps and he stopped at the last one. I was about to take a step in front of him, but he put out his arm.

“Look.” Brian pointed to a mark in the dirt next to the stairs. It was in the shape of a foot. “It’s a footprint.”

“And?” I asked. “That could be anyone’s footprint. It’s not like we can go searching the whole town for the person who made it.”

“But still, it’s our first clue.” Brian walked over to the footprint and took his backpack off his shoulder. He started to fish around in it for something.

“What are you doing now?”

“Here it is.” Brian pulled a tape measurer out of his bag. Who carries around a tape measurer? My brother was such a nerd.  I walked over and watched as he measured the footprint.

“Nine inches,” he said. “Dad’s shoes aren’t as big as that.”

“How do you know it’s not a woman’s shoe?” I asked.

“It’s too wide at the toe to be a woman’s shoe.”   

Oh great, I wanted to say, Now you’re a nerd who studies shoes.

“Now all we have to do is figure out who has a shoe print like this and our mystery is solved,” Brian said.

We spent the next hour after that looking for “clues,” but found none. There were no more shoe prints or any fingerprints, on the safe or anything else.

“Now we have to analyze the pieces of evidence we found,” Brian said, when we finished.

“The piece of evidence,” I corrected him. Brian pulled out his phone and opened the picture of the shoe print. The print had an interesting zigzag pattern going across it. It seemed almost familiar, like I had seen it before, but maybe I was mistaken.

“We can take this to the local stores and compare it to the other shoes that run in that size,” Brian said. “Can you go ask Dad to take us? I’ll search online for the addresses of the nearby shoe stores.”

I left the room and walked to our parents’ room. They were both sleeping soundly. I came back into the den, where Brian was sitting, typing on the computer on his lap .

“Brian, he’s sleeping,” I said.

“That’s okay,” he said, “most of the shoe stores don’t open until ten. In the meantime we can look on the website. Also, I called Pete and asked if he wanted to come over and help but he just mumbled something about being busy.”

That’s weird. Brian’s best friend Pete usually loves mysteries. But I decided to push the thought out of my mind.

“He never gives up,” I thought. I sat down on the couch next to my brother and he started to scroll down the page of men’s shoes. Not all of the shoes showed pictures of the sole, so Brian took pictures of those. Out of the ones we did see, none of them matched the footprint we found. Brian went to a different website and we did the same thing. Still, nothing.

This went on for at least an hour until I heard the sound of footsteps trudging down the stairs and the sound of the coffee grinder going. Brian rushed into the kitchen and I followed slowly after him.

“Dad can you take us to the shoe store?” Brian asked.

“I thought we were done,” I complained.

“We have to look for the shoes that didn’t have pictures of the bottom.”

“Great, more shoe hunting,” I murmured under my breath.  

“Well we can go, but the police are coming to search for evidence at 10:00 and they are going to question you,” Dad said and I saw Brian freeze. “But we can go after. Do you need new shoes?”

“Well Brian wanted to try to match the foot–”

“Yes, I need new shoes,” Brian said cutting me off and then glaring at me. He had never glared at me like that before and it felt like a slap. Then Dad went back to making his coffee and I pulled Brian into the den.

“What was that about?” I asked trying to keep from shouting.

“We can’t tell Dad we found a footprint. This is our mystery. Those were our grandparents jewelry that got stolen,” Brian said. “I don’t want the police getting into our business.”

They’re the police. That’s what they do, I thought.  

After that, we had breakfast and Brian barely even looked at me. The glare he gave me when he did, made me feel like an ice cube and I almost shivered. I didn’t even do anything, but Brian seems to think I ended the world, or something like that, I thought, I need to make it up to him.

When the police came, Brian hurried upstairs. I looked after him concerned but decided not to say anything.  A police officer came over and started talking to Mom and Dad. I heard him asking them a few questions about who knew about the safe. Then it was my turn. I had never been questioned by the police before.  I felt a tingling inside of me. The feeling I had when I was about to do something I wasn’t sure I wanted to do.

“I am Officer Hutchins and I am going to ask you a few questions about the robbery,” he said.

I felt my stomach churn but I took a deep breath. “Okay.”

Officer Hutchins took out a notepad. “How did you find out that the safe was robbed?”

“I woke up when the alarm went off but I wasn’t sure what it was. I went downstairs and my dad said it was the burglar alarm. So, my brother and I checked the rooms on the first floor to see what was stolen. We didn’t see anything in it so we checked the safe in the basement and saw that everything from it was stolen.”

Officer Higgins finished writing down what I told him and then said, “Did you know what was in the safe?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell anyone about it?”

I thought for a moment and then responded, “No,” but then I remembered something. I had heard Brian telling his best friend about it. Is this why he didn’t want to talk to the police? Should I tell the officer?

“Did your brother tell anyone about the safe?”

I didn’t know what to say. If I told the police, then I would completely lose Brian’s trust.  I couldn’t do that. “You’ll have to ask him.”  I wasn’t really lying.

“Can you go get your brother so I can ask him some questions?” asked Officer Hutchins.  I nodded and hurried upstairs. When I got to his room, I knocked on the door.

“Brian,” I said, “the police want to ask you questions.”   He didn’t answer so I opened the door.

“I already know who robbed the safe,” Brian said, “and it’s all my fault.”

I sat down next to him. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is. I told someone about the safe. You know Pete Baker? We were downstairs and he saw it so I told him about it. I didn’t mean to. It just slipped out.” Brian looked as if he were about to cry. I felt the need to say something but I didn’t know what.  “He probably told his Dad,” Brian continued, “and now the safe is robbed.”

I remembered Dad talking to Pete’s dad about investing in a new restaurant. I remember how Dad was talking to his friends about how the restaurant failed. I guess that’s why Pete’s Dad wanted to rob us.

“Maybe you should tell the police about it,” I suggested.

“But then Mom and Dad will find out and they told us not to tell anyone,” Brian argued.

“But it could help the police solve the case and catch the robber.”

“That’s why we have to solve the case first !” Brian yelled.

“Oh,” everything made sense now, “I know you don’t want to tell the police about Pete knowing about the safe but you still have to answer their questions.” Brian and I walked down the stairs and over to Officer Hutchins who was waiting in the living room.

“How did you find out the safe was robbed?” he questioned. Brian opened his mouth to answer, when Officer Hutchins’ walkie talkie buzzed. He picked it up and clicked a button, “Yes?”

There was a little static on the other end and then a voice said, “There’s been another robbery at 33 Cherry Street.”

“The interview will have to wait,” Officer Hutchins said and he grabbed the officers and left. They went speeding off in their police cars. Lights shining, sirens blaring.

“Do you think they’re related?”  I wondered aloud.

“Of course they’re related. We have to go to 33 Cherry Street to look for evidence,” Brian said.  33 Cherry Street, I thought, Why did that sound familiar?

And then I remembered. “Isn’t that where one of Dad’s friends lives?”

Brian thought for a minute, “Yeah and he is one of the guys who talked Pete’s dad into that investment. I guess he really wants revenge. ”  

  “We have to think of away to catch him,” I said.  

Suddenly I remembered one more thing. There was one last person who had talked to Pete’s dad into the investment.  He lived in the house next to the park. A plan started to form in my head.  “I think I know how we can catch the robber.”

I was about to tell Brian about my plan when Dad walked in. “Brian, do still want to go get new shoes?”

“Um, no it’s fine.” Brian pulled me quickly upstairs. “ So, what’s your idea.”

“What do you think about a stake out?”

              **************

We gathered up everything we needed for the stake out. Brian had told Mom and Dad that Pete had invited us to go camping in his backyard.

I watched as Brian piled things on his bed. “Do we have everything.”

Brian glanced down at the pile. “I think so.”

“Flashlights and string?”

“Check.”

“Sleeping bags?”

“Check.”

“Tent?”

“Check.”

“Clothes?”

“Check.”

“Bug spray?”

“Check.”

“Nutrition bars and water bottles?”

“Check.”

“And most importantly, camera?”

“Check.”

We were all set. I helped Brian pack the things into two backpacks. We told our parents we would walk to Pete’s house. Brian and I would camp in the park and easily peak over the fence. Brian led the way and out of the house and down the street to the park.  Even though it was 8:00, it was still light outside. The sun was just setting over the horizon and the sky was filled with a beautiful orange, pink, and blue glow.  A summer breeze rustled through the branches of the trees in the park. I started to get that same feeling I got when I was getting interviewed by Officer Hutchins.

“Are you sure were allowed to do this?” I asked Brian uneasily.

“There’s no sign that says we can’t, but, just to be sure, let’s try not to let anyone see us.” Brian set down his backpack and the tent and plopped down next them. “Nutrition bar?” He held one out to me, but I shook my head.

I sat down next to him. “Should we set up the tent?”

“Let’s wait until it’s a little bit darker.” So there were, waiting for the sky to turn to a dark shade of blue and fill with stars.  We were waiting for the crickets chirping to get louder.

Finally after a little while Brian agreed it was dark enough and we started to get everything ready. We clicked on the flashlight and zipped open the tent bag. As Brian wrestled with the poles, I laid down the tent cover.  I helped put up the tent and then it was time for the camera.

I switched on the camera and fastened it onto the tripod. “Won’t it be too dark too dark?”

“That’s what the flashlight is for.” Brian flicked on the flashlight and positioned it next to the camera so it lit up the backyard of the house that was going to be robbed.  Then he covered  the light with a tree branch filled with leaves.

“I’m going to tie this branch in front of the flashlight so it’s not as bright,” he whispered. “Can you test the camera and make sure it’s working and ready?”

I clicked the video button on the camera and then hit the record button. I waited a few seconds and then clicked it again. I pressed the play button to watch the test. The lighting was perfect.  “It’s ready,” I said as I set the camera up again. Brian finished tying a knot in the string and then we sat down in the tent.

I turned on the other flashlight. “Can we go over the plan again?” I was starting to feel nervous again. What if the plan failed? What if we scare away the robber and never get to catch him on video? What if I mess up the plan?

“We’ll take turns starting at 10:30, watching for the robber, and if we see him then  we’ll turn on the camera and call the police. If the police don’t come on time then we’ll have evidence of who it is. I’ll go first.” Then Brian grabbed a nutrition bar and his phone, and left. I lay out my sleeping bag and settled down on it. Before I knew it, I was asleep.

“Lindsey, wake up.” Brian was shaking me. At first  I forgot where I was but then looking around I realized we were in the tent in the park.

“Did you see him?” I asked eagerly.

“No. It’s your turn.”

I sighed as I sat up and picked up my phone from my bag. I left the tent yawning.  I stood at the camera watching the screen and glancing up occasionally. I could feel my eyelids starting to droop, but I forced them back open.

I was about to give up hope that the burglar was going to come when I saw a dark figure walking carefully across the lawn.

I blinked my eyes.

Was I dreaming? But the figure was still there picking the lock on the back door. I stood silent, failing to remember what to do, but then I sprung into action, clicking the record button and then turning on my phone. I took a short glance at the time, 12:25. Then I clicked the emergency icon and tapped the numbers 911. The phone rang once and a woman’s voice said, “Please state your location and the situation.”

I quickly explained in a whisper what was going on. “Please remain calm and officers will be there shortly.” I turned off the phone hurried into the tent.

“Brian!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah.” He lifted his head slowly.

“The robber came.”

“Really!” He jerked his body up so quickly, that I thought his head would fly off. “Did you turn on the video camera and call the police?”

“Yes and yes.” My brother had no faith in me but maybe that was because  I had no faith in me.

I heard sirens wailing and realized that the police must have arrived. Brian, and I scrambled out of the tent just in time to see the robber dashing out of the house. Three police cars had arrived and five policemen hurried out of them. They cornered in on the robber and he was put in handcuffs. I switched off the camera and Brian grabbed the flashlight. We hurried over as the robber was being loaded into the back of one of the police cars. I see the bottom of his shoe and realize that it matched the shoe print we found. I caught a glance of his face and as  I had suspected it was Pete’s dad.  He snarled at me and it sent a shiver down my spine.

“Were you the one who called the police?” one of the policemen asked Brian.

“Well, actually it was my sister.” He smiled at me and I beamed.

“Thank you,” said the officer, “that was the smart thing to do. Now how did you happen to see the robber?”  Brian and I looked at each other. I guess we had a lot of explaining to do.

Epilogue

Our parents weren’t as proud of us as I thought they would be when we were brought home by the police. They were mostly worried.

“What were you thinking?” Dad shouted.

“You could have gotten hurt,” Mom said. I sighed. Didn’t they see we just caught a robber, and a robber who robbed us?  Couldn’t they have been the slightest bit happy? At least I knew that if Grandma were here, she’d be proud.

“But we didn’t get hurt,” I pointed out. Still, we were grounded for a week. I hated being grounded, especially in the summer, but Brian just thought it was an opportunity to look for more mysteries to solve and he asked if I wanted to help. Maybe before Brian and I caught a robber together I would have said no, but now, I couldn’t wait to get started. 

My cat Pumpkin is my beloved pet. He is bright orange, and has white paws and a white belly. He’s very soft and cuddly. When we pet him, he purrs loudly. He’s very gentle and wouldn’t put a mark on someone or hurt anyone. We got him from a kill shelter, and saved him. My cat had cancer when we got him from the kill shelter. He was born with it. That day, when we got to the car, Pumpkin scratched the box till it opened and crawled out of it. He came out and curled up in a ball on my lap and slept through the car ride. When we came home, Pumpkin ran around the house looking around excitedly as if he were saying “This is my new home?!” Our family adored him, and he was very sweet. Pumpkin’s different from other cats because he understands me and helps me feel better in bad moments in my life. Like when I got all sad and gloomy, Pumpkin would be there for me and he would gracefully jump in my bed and lay beside me. He would rub the side of his body against my shoulder to comfort me. Pumpkin’s been brave because in all the days where he has pain and struggles through cancer, he accepts it and doesn’t let it affect his life. Pumpkin’s gone through horrible things, which makes me sad. He’s been at a kill shelter, where he was almost about to be killed. He lived in a terrifying cage for months, lost his own mother and was lonely. Pumpkin’s struggled through pain, and he’s a great role model for me and many people who go through things like Pumpkin. I’ve wished Pumpkin would still be with me at this moment, but what’s in the past stays like that. Right now my cat is in heaven, and is there living peacefully in the clouds.

Phoebe woke up with a yawn. She looked at the picture of her mom, Alicia, her dad, Eric, and her two-year-old self. She sighed in happiness. She got dressed, brushed her teeth, ate breakfast and put her backpack on. When her mom came down, she yawned. Her eyes suddenly brightened when she saw Phoebe. “Take your backpack off silly, it’s the first day of summer!”

“Oh yeah!” Phoebe exclaimed. She had forgot yesterday was the last day of school! Although Phoebe loved school and was very smart, she was tired of hard math equations (she was in honors math as well as every other subject), and never-ending homework. First she asked her mom to go to her best friend (or BFF, whichever you prefer) Lilica’s house. Her mom asked if Phoebe was 100% sure Lilica would be awake and Phoebe said yes.They had promised to wake up at 7:00 every summer day so they could see each other every day. They could alternate which house they played in. Phoebe hopped on her bike (with her helmet of course) and pedalled at full speed (although careful to not bump into anybody) to the white house (not in Washington D.C.) on Lake Street. When she knocked on the door, Lilica’s muffled voice said, “She’s here! She’s here!”

Mrs. Park answered the door. “Welcome to our home on this lovely day.” That was the thing about Mrs. Park. She was very formal and one of her unspoken rules was to never, ever, ever use contractions or slang words. Instead of “I’d,” it would be “I would” even if the contraction took away four whole letters!

“Hello Mrs. Park,” Phoebe said, trying to sound serious but inside howling with laughter. Mrs. Park slyly smiled (which was the happiest you could get her) and let her in. Phoebe saw the beautiful, blonde, elegant girl who was her best friend in the entire world. They were basically the same person. They hated marshmallows alone but loved s’mores, they loved their hair in braids but hated ponytails, and they were both afraid of alligators. I, the narrator, could go on and on about their inseparable friendship, but they didn’t know what was coming their way…

*****

The girl’s were up in  Lilica’s room. They were looking at all of Lilica’s fancy stuff. Her dad owned a famous company which is why they were rich. Lilica was not a bratty kid like most rich kids are. She was very nice, thoughtful, and smart. As they were looking, they came upon a beautiful ruby necklace. Just then, Mrs. Park came into the room having a worried look on her face.

“Phoebe, you must go home,” she said.

“But why?” Phoebe asked.

“Your mother will tell you when you get home,” replied Mrs. Park. Phoebe raced home. She was bubbling with questions. What happened? Did the dog get out again? Why was Mrs. Park so worried?  When she got to the front door she dropped her bike. When she got in her mom was pacing. When she finally saw her she squeezed her. When she let go of her she said, “Your father has gone missing.”

*****

The next week it didn’t get better at all. Her next door neighbor, Hannah, her dad had also disappeared and her school friend (not best friend) Ella’s grandfather disappeared as well. Phoebe thought that only boys disappeared, but the day after, Mrs. Park disappeared! Sadly, no one knew what had happened to them. On the first week, the town decided they just  wanted to run away, but the next week and the next, the town’s trusted guards noticed a pattern. Every week on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday a person would get stolen. They finally called the police and reported all the missing people and the pattern. 20 guards patrolled the area 24/7. Although the town felt safe, there was still that emptiness of the lost people. When Phoebe went to Lilica’s there wasn’t the same liveliness as before. “My mother…” she said. “My father…” Phoebe said. They attempted to sound cheerful countless numbers of times but failed. Then, they came upon the ruby necklace again and this time, it seemed to be saying, This is the necklace. Your father is in my world Phoebe, your mother is in my world Lilica, just touch me and I’ll send you. That world is perfect except for a mysterious evil villain. I’ve been countless places but never to this evil person. And, you Phoebe, can stop him.

“Huh? This is weird. Did you…” Phoebe asked.

“Yep.” Lilica replied. The girls knew what they had to do.

*****

They held hands and Phoebe touched the necklace. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Then there was a sound like whomp and their world dissolved and a new, cheerful world appeared. Magic animals roamed through the forest (yes there was a beautiful forest here) and there were people speaking a different language. Phoebe and Lilica walked towards the forest because that’s where all bad guys live, right? They saw a sign that said:

στρίβετε δεξιά στο πλησιέστερο δέντρο αφρού , και διασχίζουν το λάκκο λάβα . Θα δείτε έναν ιππότη και τον καλούν στα αραβικά για να σας φέρει στο έρημο δάσος . Διασχίστε το αλιγάτορα μολυσμένο βάλτο και να πάει στο πιο σκοτεινές κάστρο . Εκεί θα συναντήσετε το κακό .

“Umm…” Lilica and Phoebe said. “How do we figure this out?” All of a sudden the words starting forming into English words. Now it said this:

Turn right at the nearest green tree, and cross the lava pit. You will see a knight and ask him in to put you in the darkest forest. Cross the alligator-infested swamp and find the darkest castle. There you will find him.

“Well, that solves the problem” Lilica said. Then the girls started on their adventure.

****

They came to their first obstacle: the Lava Pit. They turned right at the nearest green tree (which was all green since they were in a magical world) and there they were. Phoebe was very nervous and knew Lilica was too, but she decided to go first. There were rocks bobbing up and down that you had to jump on. Phoebe took her first step and wobbled. Then, her foot slipped off! She regained balance with a struggle and made it to the second.  Only 3 more to go, she told herself, already drenched in sweat. After she finished crossing, it was Lilica’s turn. She was very flexible and quick so she got through easily. They walked for hours and hours to an open field. Right in the middle, a knight stood, frozen it seemed. The girls walked up to him. “Hello,” Phoebe said. The knight didn’t budge.

“Excuse me!” Lilica tried. He still didn’t move.

“Maybe we just have to ask him.” Phoebe told Lilica.

“Okay, let’s try it,” Lilica replied.

“Could you bring us to something called the ‘Dark Forest’?” she asked. Suddenly, a horse appeared.

“Get on his back,” a low, gruff voice said.

“Ye-yes sir” The girls said, a bit afraid. They climbed onto the horse’s back. The knight got on behind them. The horse started flying, with the girls dumbstruck. Soon, the friends were at a very gloomy looking place. “Thank you for the ride,” Phoebe said.

“My pleasure,” the knight replied. The girls continued their journey.

****

They came upon the swamp. As you know, they were afraid of alligators. This is what had them worried the whole time. You had to step on the alligator’s mouth (to ensure it doesn’t bite) to get across.  This time Lilica decided to go first. She crossed the first 4 alligators with ease, but then, at the very last alligator, it bit her! She scrambled to the other side and sat there in pain. Without thinking about it, Phoebe crossed the swamp.

“Are you okay?” Phoebe asked Lilica.

“It bit really hard.” She replied. Phoebe got some leaves and patched her up. They decided to call it a day.

****

The next day, Lilica a bit sore but ready as well, they advanced to the castle. It had been 3 long weeks and they were at the final obstacle.

Before entering the pitch black castle, the girls sharpened limbs of trees with other sticks and made a torch. They were now as ready as could be. They climbed up the castle stairs and they met no-one until the 3rd floor. They met guards. When the guards finally spotted the two girls they shouted “Intruders intruders!!” All of the guards surrounded them. Phoebe wasn’t ready to give up. They heard swords clanking and screaming. Lilica thought she heard Phoebe cry out in pain, so Lilica turned around. Then, Lilica got stabbed in the back by a guard. Phoebe didn’t hear Lilica cry out.

Phoebe battled her heart out and defeated all of them!

“Come on Lilica,” Phoebe said. But Lilica didn’t come. When Phoebe turned around Lilica was lying on the floor with her eyes closed with the rest of the guards. Phoebe ran down the steps. “Lilica? Lilica?” Phoebe asked.

“Save everyone,” she said weakly. She closed her eyes for the last time.

“Please wake up!” She shook Lilica. It wasn’t any use. Phoebe ventured on, mad and sad.

****

She went into the room on the top floor. It had no walls so you could easily fall off it. She saw her dad, Mrs. Park, Emma’s grandfather, and Hannah’s father.

“Ha ha ha, I am Onyx,” an evil, devilish voice said with his back turned. “I see you have come to kill me.”

“Your guards killed my best friend!” Phoebe shouted.

“So I have.” He said “You will soon be in the same place as her.”

Phoebe was now the angriest she’d been in her life. With her only weapon (the tree limb) she jabbed at him, but Onyx quickly dodged it. Now he took a jab at her with his electric sword but Phoebe dodged it, but only by a millimeter. She could feel the wind from the sword. Then, all of a sudden he made a quick jab to Phoebe’s hip and it hit! Phoebe was thrown back. There she lay in pain. “So ends Phoebe,” he boomed, towering over Phoebe. She didn’t know how he knew her name, but she pushed that out of her mind.

“Not now,” she said and she jabbed Onyx right in the heart and he fell back. There were whoops and shouts from the prisoners, but they quickly fell silent when Onyx rose and pulled the branch out of his body. Phoebe stood there, weaponless, and scared. But then, Phoebe remembered: The castle had no walls! Phoebe started moving in a circle like a boxer at the beginning of a match. And Onyx, obviously wanting to stay parallel with her, moved around too.

“Any last words?” he asked. Phoebe didn’t answer. Then, as quick as a cheetah, she sprang and pushed Onyx off the castle. Finally, she freed all of the captives. When she returned home everyone was feeling happy for Phoebe and sad for Lilica and her parents. Although still heartbroken about Lilica’s death, Phoebe knew she would be proud of her and Mrs. Park knew too. The town and (the now famous) Phoebe were never bothered again.

There was a mouse named Pinky who was trapped in a monster’s room. He wanted to sneak under the door but he’s too fat because he ate all of the monster’s food, which was dog food. He went under the door (before he was fat) because he thought somebody nice was in the room, and then he ate the dog food thinking it was mouse food so he couldn’t sneak back out and he had to live in the fishtank — Pinky doesn’t breathe but he can still survive. The monster’s name is Mr. Little — his father is named Mr. Big and his mother is named Mrs. Tape (because she uses tape a lot). When Mr. Little was trying to feed the fish, he saw the mouse and he took Pinky out of the water and he asked Mrs. Tape to tape him to the floor and they were going to have a contest and splat him first.

When nobody could smash him, they untaped him, and Mr. Little had an idea.

“Maybe we could eat him because he’s so fat. But I want some more mice to eat.”

He threw Pinky in the cage and jumped out of the window for more mice to eat. Mr. Little was searching for a long time, but he didn’t find anything. He was searching for sixty years. But in the time Mr. Little was searching for more mice, Pinky was getting skinnier and skinnier. Soon, he was just a flat little mouse. Flat enough to fit under the crack under the door. But then he realized there was a hole in the floor, and he squeezed through that hole and he came out into a world of candy, all kinds of candy: stacks and stacks and heaps of candy.

He jumped on top of all of the candy and ate half of it. When he was done he felt sick. Then he realized the tiny tiny hole in ceiling. It seemed like this whole journey was meant for him – there was a path just big enough to fit him. He got through the hole in the ceiling by building a ladder made of candy. When he went through the hole there were millions of toys around the wall. Then, he played with all of them. Then he went through the next hole in the ceiling by building a ladder of candy wrappers. Then, the next thing he knew, millions of monsters were surrounding him.

When he looked closer, he realized these monsters were millions of Mr. Littles, and they each said, “We will kill you!” and they stamped their feet upon Pinky and said, “You will never escape!”

He saw a hole in the floor right below him. “You will not go through the hole, you will die” said the monsters.

He went through the hole. He was outside again. There was a big sign right in front of him saying, “Everything You Want Land.” But there was a big cross out on “Everything You Want.” The Mr. Littles had changed it to “Everything You Hate Land.” He had just entered everything you hate land – the last land he had been in with candy and toys was everything you want land. he wished there was a way to get back to the sewer system where he lived. He looked up. There was the monster’s house. He remembered that the sewer system manhole was nearby — he was standing on it! But he couldn’t get through the manhole, so he went back to the monster’s house, and ate all the dog food, and then he went down into the sewer and back home.

Pinky’s Adventure Part II

Once Pinky had adventures in different worlds, now it was time to have an adventure in the same world but a very very wild adventure. Maybe Pinky wouldn’t even have an adventure. Pinky walked down the sewer system. Then he saw a store in the sewer system — there were stores in the sewer for mice who lived there. There was an advertisement on the window that said, “selling the amazing everything watch that does everything.” Pinky went into the store and bought it — it was two cents. It fit on his wrist perfectly — and there was still a lot of growing space. It did everything — it had a phone on it, it had a flashlight, a computer, etc etc etc.

It could produce anything you wanted. Everybody on the street was surrounding him to examine the everything watch. They were testing all the gadgets and everything. He walked down the street in mouseland in the sewer system, but then he saw a hole, a very very very small hole that only a bug could go through, saying, “Verathingy.”

“I don’t know what verathingy is,” said Pinky.

“What does it mean? Maybe it’s a secret code. I have to go home and get a pen and paper to decode the secret code.” Mr. Little and his parents were now Pinky’s friends. He had convinced them to be his friend so they wouldn’t be mean to him anymore. After a lot of hard work, he figured out what the secret code meant by asking Mr. Little. It meant “everything.” Vera is ever, and thingy, means everything. Maybe it means “everything.” He went down to the exact same hole in mouseland, and he activated the lazer on his watch that would scan anything, and he pointed it at the…

He had no idea which letter he was supposed to activate with his everything watch. Then he went back to the store, but he couldn’t read. The code made him forget how to read so that you could never open the hole! Then he asked Mr. Little to come down to the sewer system to read for him. So Mr. Little flushed himself down the toilet so he could get to the sewer system to read for Pinky in mouseland. All the mice thought that it was a giant, so they got out of mouseland and into humanland.

“Now we can have some peace and quiet,” said Pinky. “What is that little mark under the s in the window? Under the amazing everything watch display.” The watch said “everything” on it, it was directly below the T in everything.

“It’s an H,” said Mr. Little. “Maybe H means hole, so maybe we scan T on top of the hole to get in.” And that’s exactly what they did. They jumped in and crashed on the ground and Mr. Little died.

“Whatever,” said Pinky. “I didn’t like him anyway.” And he kept on walking along the sewer system under the sewer system. Then he realized that he was trapped except for the hole in the ceiling. There was no way to get out. He was trapped.

Then Mr. Little awoke from the dead — he was a ghost.

He flew to Pinky and said, “You will die!” and flew up into the hole.

Pinky was starving. He lay down and went to sleep. He had a dream that he was back up into the sewer system and a ghost swept down on him and said, “You will die, you will die, you will die.” He could not get the words out of his head. But his dream came true when he woke up. He realized he was standing in the sewer system and it was deserted.

The ghost of Mr. Little came down and said, “You will die you will die you will die!” But Pinky took a giant jump and he had turned into a frog! He got on the ghost’s back and flew into his apartment and vanished, dropping Pinky to the ground. Pinky realized that, now that he was a frog, he had to change his name. He went to the president of frogs. Frogland was up in the sky. He jumped onto a cloud because he could jump so high. Frogland was in the clouds.

He went to the president of frogs, and said ”Can I change my name? I was a mouse and I was named Pinky but now I am a frog and I want to be called Greeny.”

And then the president made an announcement, “Pinky is now Greeny and he is a frog.”

All the people in mouseland came back to celebrate with him and they all had a party, even though he was a frog and they were mice.

The end!

But… little did they know, Mr. Little was still alive…

While they were having a big frog and mice party, there was a loud voice. “You will die. You will die. You will die.” It was the ghost of Mr. Little. He was back. Mr. Little cast magic on them to die. So they all died except Greeny.

Greeny was in Cloud Land. She saw a sign: “Everything You Want Land” with a cross-out, now saying “Everything You Hate Land.”

“Oh no,” said Greeny. “Everything You Hate Land is back!”

She was walking right into it without realizing, and when you’re in Everything You Hate Land, you can never come out. But everything matched her Everything watch. Maybe it was another secret code. She saw a flash of a thousand Mr. Littles surrounding her, like last time she was in Everything You Hate Land.

They said, “YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL DIE!”

But this time was even worse. It wasn’t just words.

The Mr. Little’s grabbed her by the heels and swung her around. She looked at her Everything watch.

It was flashing, “Everything, everything, everything.”

She didn’t know what that meant. She yelled, “Mr. Little, help me!”

“We will not!” said the Mr. Littles.

She looked at her watch. It was still flashing “everything.”

The Mr. Littles dropped her. She flew into the air. She landed on a different cloud.

“I’m happy I’m back in Cloud Land, not Everything You Hate Land, but I want to be in Everything You Want Land.” She looked at her watch.

It was flashing: “Time travel.”

She pushed it. The next thing she knew, she was spinning, spinning, spinning, into the past. She was in the time when she was in Everything World for the first time. She knew that now she was in the past, she wouldn’t suffer all the Mr. Littles that are in the future. Then she realized that she shouldn’t have pressed the time travel button. Now she was in the time when she could mess up everything. She didn’t remember what she said the first time she was in everything world. She would mess up everything. “Everything” was flashing on her everything watch. She pressed it. She was zooming back into the future, but now, she was back with her spinning and spinning around. Her watch was flashing, “Future Time.” She had messed things up. She pressed it. Nothing happened. She realized that when she was in Everything You Hate Land, she could not travel into the future, because it was Everything You Hate, not Everything You Want, and it only worked because going into the past was bad. Now she was back into a mouse, even though she was back in the right time, because she had gone into the past and then back into the future.  Now she knew what Everything meant. It meant that something that her watch does, she has to activate. She pressed all the buttons — laser, flashlight, immediate fan producing mode, but she couldn’t find it. Then she found something: Super Laser. When she pressed the button, it flashed, “Everything, Everything, Everything.” But she had to figure out what to point Super Laser at. “Maybe I have to point Super Laser at something in the past.” She pressed the time travel button. She was looking right at herself. It was the other herself from the past! Maybe she was supposed to scan a cloud from the past with the Super Laser. Nothing happened when she scanned it. Herself didn’t notice her. She had to hide behind a cloud and be sneaky. Her other self is looking at her everything watch and pressing the button. Off she goes to the past. “Good,” said Pinky. “Now I can do my business.”

“Oh! Now I just realized what I was supposed to scan with my super laser!” said Pinky. “I

was supposed to scan myself from the past with my Super Laser. But now it’s too late. That’s what I was supposed to do to get out of Everything You Hate Land. But now myself is gone.” But then she remembered that when she left for the future, it didn’t work, so she was going to come back. She got her Everything Watch ready to shoot the Super Laser at Pinky from the past. The Pinky from the past appeared right in front of Pinky from the future.

“Ahhhhh!” they both screamed. They had no idea what was going on.

“Oh no,” said Pinky from the future, “I forgot to shoot!”

“I’ll do it now,” said Pinky.

“It didn’t work!” said Pinky from the future.

“The code was double everything!”

“I have to steal Pinky from the pasts everything watch.” She ran towards Pinky from the past.

“What are you doing?” asked Pinky from the past. “Who are you?”

Pinky from the future ignored her. She grabbed the everything watch from her wrist. Pinky from the past Greeny was in Cloud Land. She saw a sign: “Everything You Want Land” with a cross-out, now saying “Everything You Hate Land.”

“Oh no,” said Greeny. “Everything You Hate Land is back!”

She was walking right into without realizing, and when you’re in Everything You Hate Land, you can never come out. But everything matched her everything watch. Maybe it was another secret code. She saw a flash of a thousand Mr. Littles surrounding her, like last time she was in Everything You Hate Land.

They said, “YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL DIE!”

But this time was even worse. It wasn’t just words.

The Mr. Little’s grabbed her by the heels and swung her around. She looked at her Everything watch.

It was flashing, “Everything, everything, everything.”

She didn’t know what that meant. She yelled, “Mr. Little, help me!”

“We will not!” said the Mr. Littles.

She looked at her watch. It was still flashing “everything.”

The Mr. Littles dropped her. She flew into the air. She landed on a different cloud.

“I’m happy I’m back in Cloud Land, not Everything You Hate Land, but I want to be in Everything You Want Land.” She looked at her watch.

It was flashing: “Time travel.”

She pushed it. The next thing she knew, she was spinning, spinning, spinning, into the past. She was in the time when she was in Everything World for the first time. She knew that now she was in the past, she wouldn’t suffer all the Mr. Littles that are in the future. Then she realized that she shouldn’t have pressed the time travel button. Now she was in the time when she could mess up everything. She didn’t remember what she said the first time she was in everything world. She would mess up everything. “Everything” was flashing on her everything watch. She pressed it. She was zooming back into the future, but now, she was back with her spinning and spinning around. Her watch was flashing, “Future Time.” She had messed things up. She pressed it. Nothing happened. She realized that when she was in Everything You Hate Land, you could not travel into the future, because it was Everything You Hate, not Everything You Want, and it only worked because going into the past was bad, and it was Everything You Hate. Now she was back into a mouse, even though she was back in the right time, because she had gone into the past and then back into the future.  

Now she knew what Everything meant. It meant that something that her watch does, she has to activate. She pressed all the buttons — laser, flashlight, immediate fan producing mode, but she couldn’t find it. Then she found something: Super Laser. When she pressed the button, it flashed, “Everything, Everything, Everything.” But she had to figure out what to point Super Laser at. “Maybe I have to point Super Laser at something in the past.” She pressed the time travel button. She was looking right at herself. It was the other herself from the past! Maybe she was supposed to scan a cloud from the past with the Super Laser. Nothing happened when she scanned it. Herself didn’t notice her. She had to hide behind a cloud and be sneaky. Her other self is looking at her everything watch and pressing the button. Off she goes to the past. “Good,” said Pinky. “Now I can do my business.”

“Oh! Now I just realized what I was supposed to scan with my super laser!” said Pinky. “I

was supposed to scan myself from the past with my Super Laser. But now it’s too late. That’s what I was supposed to do to get out of Everything You Hate Land. But now myself is gone.” But then she remembered that when she left for the future, it didn’t work, so she was going to come back. She got her Everything Watch ready to shoot the Super Laser at Pinky from the past. The Pinky from the past appeared right in front of Pinky from the future.

“Ahhhhh!” they both screamed. They had no idea what was going on. “Oh no,” said Pinky from the future, “I forgot to shoot!”

“I’ll do it now,” said Pinky.

“It didn’t work!” said Pinky from the future. “The code was double everything!”

“I have to steal Pinky from the pasts everything watch.” She ran towards Pinky from the past.

“What are you doing?” asked Pinky from the past. “Who are you?”

Pinky from the future ignored her. She grabbed the everything watch from her wrist.

Pinky from the past threw herself on the ground and cried. “I need my everything watch!” she yelled. This was the perfect time to shoot her superlasers at Pinky from the past. She did it. She was back to her normal self in her house in Cloudland, like the none of this ever happened.

“Where is my ring?” said Ringo.

“I don’t know,” said John, Paul, and George at the same time.

“Let’s check the basement. I’ll check the attic,” said George.

“I’ll check the dining room,” said Paul.

“And I’ll check the kitchen,” said John.

“We’ll meet back in three minutes,” said Ringo.

…

“It’s been three minutes already?!” said Paul.

“It’s not anywhere,” they all replied at the same time.

“Let’s keep looking! That ring cost me a lot of money and I just got it!” said Ringo.

“Maybe you dropped it on your way home,” said John.

“Yeah! That’s a great idea!” said Ringo.

“Let’s retrace our steps and look for it. Let’s all walk across Abbey Road.”

“Say, that would make a great album cover!” said Paul.

“Yeah! Let’s get our cameramen! Let’s get to it,” said everyone else.

“Okay. Let’s walk across the street now.”

“But wait! How are we going to make the music? We haven’t done an album in a while. Let’s make the album after.”

“Hopefully any of my songs are on it,” said George loudly.

“Uh oh,” said George. “It’s raining. Let’s play a game of chess until the rain stops.”

“Hey! Here comes the sun! Say, that would be a good name for one of my songs!”

“Yeah!” everyone agreed.

“Okay. Now let’s go get Ringo’s ring,” said John.

“Okay. Let’s make a plan on how to find Ringo’s ring. First, we’ll take the picture, then we’ll split up. I’ll take North Abbey Road,” said Paul.

“I’ll take South Abbey Road,” said John.

“And I’ll take East and West Side, so we can make sure the ring is not on Abbey Road. Say, what does the ring look like?”

“It’s a golden ring with a diamond in the middle.”

“Okay, let’s hop to it,” said John.

“No ring on North Street!” said Paul.

“Not on South, East or West street either!” said everyone else.

“Hey! Hold on a second! Oopsies! It’s on my finger, actually,” said Ringo.

“RINGO!!!” said everyone.

“What?” said Ringo.

They went back to the studio. As soon as they got home they remembered about the album. The Beatles got right to work on the album. It took days and nights. Finally, they thought they were done, but then something terrible happened! The recorder broke and the album was not saved.  

It took another whole day to re-record the album. And then the worst thing that could ever happen, happened. Can you guess what it was? The album was put out out of order. Instead of ‘The End’ being last, it was second to last and ‘Her Majesty’ was last.

Paul tried to calm everyone else down. “Calm down, everybody. It isn’t such a big deal,” he said.

“I can’t calm down! It’s just too upsetting and frustrating!” said John.

“I agree,” said Ringo and George at the same time. John was the most upset. Then Ringo, then George.

“Hey guys! This is one the of only albums with my songs on it!”

The final mistake was that the picture had a person’s finger in the picture. Everyone went ballistic. They didn’t discover this until they were at a ball held in the album’s honor.

After the ball was over they got together in the kitchen. They talked about how hard making the album was. ‘‘At least it can’t get any worse!’’ said Paul. Then it started to rain and there was a leak in the ceiling. Nevermind!      

Once upon a time there was a king who was very sick and needed to drink a potion called the water of life. The king said that the first one to get the water of life would get the whole kingdom. The king first sent out his big son to ride to the castle that had the water. On the way there he met a small man named the man. The man asked if he could give him some of his food but the prince said, ”I don’t have much for myself, and go away you beggar!” The man was a god who came down to see who was greedy and would sent them into a canyon and would never come out unless he said so.

A long time went by and the king got worse, so he sent his second son out. On the way he met the man and at last he went to a canyon. The king was almost at his end and the littlest son went out. On the way he met the man, but he gave the man some food and the man gave him a magic stick and a cup and told him to hit the door three times and push the door open. On the floor would be a magic wand. He had to pick it up and get the water before 12 or he would be stuck in the castle and turn into stone. The prince did what the man said and went in.

There was a princess inside and the princess kissed him and said, “if you get the water out before 12 I will be saved.” And the princes gave the prince a sword. The sword was magic, it could kill everyone the prince wanted. And there was a cake, the cake was endless, you could eat as much as you want and each crumb you could make it into a new huge cake by saying the word ”crumb.”

The prince went into each room and found a bed and slept. When he got up, it was 11:55 so the prince found the water and ran out.

When he got out the door shut and  the princess called, ”I will marry you one year later. When you come go on the golden road and I will know it is you.”

On the way back the prince helped three kingdoms from hunger and three kingdoms from the enemy. He got to the man and gave him the stick. When he got home he wished that his brothers were there with him. The magic wand granted his wish. The brothers were right next to the small prince. They switched the water when the small one was not looking but the king saw it and sent the big ones away. When the king drank the water he felt better and the six kingdoms sent a lot of gold, silver and diamonds and raised the little prince as their king.

The little prince told them his brothers about the princess but did not tell them about the golden road. The big one had the fastest horse and got there first. He saw the golden road but thought riding on this road will make the road dirty so he went on the left.

The princess told the guards, “Only let the prince that comes on the golden road in, no one else.” The second one got there second and came on the right. He did not get in.The small prince got there last but went on the golden road and married the princess and lived happily ever after. But his brothers killed themselves.

It was all a blur when it happened. It just made me want to know even more. The first thing I remember, I was sitting at a booth in a restaurant called Tables and Chairs, with my mom and dad, and our waiter came over to our table. He took our orders and then walked away. Then my parents started asking me boring questions about what I was going to wear to my cousin’s wedding. I honestly couldn’t care less about that. Suddenly, we heard a scream and everyone was dead silent.

“No one will ever know!” a deep male voice yelled. We couldn’t see this man because he was blocked by all of the fancy chandeliers and table centers.  

Then we heard a gunshot and people frantically started calling 9-1-1 for ambulances and police. Some people just immediately started running out of the restaurant. My mom took me by the hand and rushed me out of Tables and Chairs. My dad followed us, and suddenly the three of us were running home. I was so excited that a boring dinner just turned into a murder, but I was scared of the murderer. I was so curious to learn more. A part of me wanted to run back and learn more, but then I was reminded by the sensible part of my brain that it would be very unsafe. We ran about 20 blocks, but stopped to catch our breath every few minutes. Now I wish we had brought the car so we wouldn’t have had to run this far.

Once we got home I went straight up to my room and started getting ready for bed. Minutes later, my mom came in.

“Sweetie,” she began to say.

“Mom, I told you this before, please don’t call me sweetie.”

“Sorry, honey.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Anyway,” she said, “Tables and Chairs just called and said there was a murder and the person died, and we are welcome to come to the funeral. Personally, I don’t think we needed to know that the person died. we were already scared enough. And I hate funerals! Who would just choose to go to a funeral of a person they don’t even know?!”

My mom was yelling then, and I wasn’t sure why. She was probably just mad about something else.

“It’s okay, Mom,” I said, trying to comfort her. “You can just forget everything that has happened and continue with your life.”

I said this only for her. I was not going to continue on like this. I was going to find out every single detail until I knew the whole story. I get obsessed with mysteries.

“Good night, Mom.”

The next morning was the first day back at school from winter break. I had set up a whole list of questions to ask the people at my school. They included:

• Were you at Table and Chairs last night? (I didn’t need to explain more about this restaurant because this restaurant was the height of popularity, the exact reason my parents like to go there a lot.)
• Did you hear anything about a murder?
• Was anyone you know killed last night?

Of course, no one knew what I was talking about or cared to find out. Even my best friend June said, “Piper, come on. You’re gonna use all your time just to find out the answer to this stupid mystery?”

June and I were very different. She didn’t care about grades, she cared more about popularity. I cared some about grades, but I honestly couldn’t care less about popularity. I devoted my time to things to figuring things like mysteries out, and she spent her time figuring out how she should do her hair and what she should wear to school. I was still very confused about why we were best friends. I guess it was just that we had such different personalities that made us like each other.

“Hey Piper, look at that teacher. Have we seen him before?”

“Maybe he is a new teacher, or he’s on a tour of the school,” I replied.

“But all the teachers are surrounding him and talking to him like he has been here forever!”

“June, he’s probably just a new teacher that the teachers like a lot. How about we go over and talk to him?”

“Okay,” she said with a small hint of caution.

We walked over to him just as he was telling Mrs. Fairfield, the English teacher, about tea..

“Well, Mrs. Fairfield I think that my most valuable lesson about tea is that camomile tea needs to be preheated so that once you start drinking it the minty taste doesn’t diminish as the tea gets colder.”

“Ohohoho,” Mrs. Fairfield chuckled. “That is definitely a valuable lesson. I can’t wait to tell my friends about that at high tea on Sunday.” Mrs. Fairfield had her strange ways and proper attitude.

“Excuse me,” I said as June slowly followed. Another different thing about June and I is that I won’t be afraid to ask questions and say what I think, while June kind of just cowers in the corner. “Excuse me, Mister, but are you new here?”

“Why yes I am! I’m Mr. Rank, your new History teacher! What are your names?”

“I’m Piper and that’s June.”

“Wait but what happened to Mr. Dean? He was so nice,” June said, suddenly gaining up the courage to speak.

“He had to leave on personal terms,” Mr. Rank said a little hesitantly as if he wasn’t sure he should be telling us that.

Then the bell rang and he said, “Well it was nice talking to you, Mrs. Fairfield, and you two,” he said while gesturing at us. “See you in class later!”

“Ugh,” June said to me as we headed up the stairs to science class. “Mr. Dean was like the only teacher I liked! He was so fun and he didn’t get mad if I turned homework in a month late or never turned it in at all. I hope this Mr. Rank guy is as nice as he was.”

Suddenly, we heard a scream coming from Vivian Miller, who then started sobbing hysterically. We started to run toward her to see what had happened.

“What’s wrong? What happened! Do you need some Kleenex?”

Then Ms. Toran, the math teacher who was hovering above Vivian, came over to us and whispered in our ears that her dad had just died, so to just leave her alone. June had a look of surprise and horror on her face while I had a look of intrigue and curiosity on my face.  

Once we got to science class we were given a little talk from Mr. Rodrick about not being late to class. June got all panicky, but I stayed calm. Luckily, Mr. Rodrick didn’t punish people. He was really nice. He wasn’t at all like Coach Haldon who gives crazy punishments. One time there were about ten minutes left of class and some people were whispering while he was giving instructions. He gave each of the people that were whispering ten cones and then they had to walk around the gym and drop one of their ten cones each minute. It was actually really funny.

June went home with me that day so we could study for our math quiz on fractions the next day. She was supposed to stay and study for two hours and have dinner with us and then go home. We were supposed to study for two hours but instead we studied for five minutes and talked for an one hour and 55 minutes.

“Piper, now I kinda get why you want to solve this mystery. Like so many things have happened, it’s kinda crazy!”

“Yeah! Now you get it! I don’t know what the details are so I want to solve the mystery!” I said in my most sarcastic tone.

“Hey I was just tryin’ to be interested,” said June a little defensively.

“Whatever, never mind.” I replied. Then there was kind of an awkward silence between us for a few minutes, and then my mom called for dinner.

“How did your studying go, girls?” my mom asked as she served us some spaghetti with meatballs.

“It was fine,” I said while shoving a forkful of spaghetti in my mouth.

“Oh June!” my mom said as she remembered something. “What are you going to wear to graduation?”

My mom had been pestering me ever since we started fifth grade about what I was going to wear to graduation. Does it really matter? Of course, June had also been thinking about what to wear to graduation since the beginning of fifth grade. My mom and June had similar personalities. It was a little strange.

“Well I think I’m going to wear a floral dress with a pink sweater and white sandals and then put my hair…”

“Hey, you know Mom, I think I’m done with my food. I’m going to go get ready for bed,” I interrupted and started to rise from the table.

“Piper, we have a guest over,” my mom said through gritted teeth.

“It’s fine, Mrs. Andrews, I have to go soon anyway,” June said.

“Okay, well see you some other time!” my mom said a little disappointedly.

“Bye June,” I said with not much enthusiasm.

She shut the door, and I went upstairs to go get ready for bed. My mom came in ten minutes later.

“Why were you so rude at dinner?” she inquired.

“Well mom, to tell you the truth, I don’t really think that what you and June were talking about was very interesting. I just don’t care. You know, June and I are kinda growing apart.”

“Really? I think you guys are great friends. I mean, I love talking to June!”

“That’s exactly my point! We are too different! We don’t have enough in common. Whatever mom, I can deal with it.”

“Okay. Well, see you tomorrow. If you um, need anything, I’ll be here. Good night.” My mom said a little cautiously.

“Good. Night.”

The next day at school was a little awkward between June and me. We said hi to each other on the way to class, but we didn’t really talk. Lunch was a whole other story. I was walking through the cafeteria doors, when a girl I hadn’t seen before came toward me.

“Hi, I’m Meg. I’m a little new here. Do you think you could show me around? I heard you trying to solve a mystery, and, well, you seemed like my type of person!” This girl said this at the speed of lightning. She was wearing jeans and a striped t-shirt.

“Hello, I’m Piper. Um, yeah sure I can show you around. You want to eat lunch first?” This girl seemed really nice. I would rather sit with her than with June.

“Yeah sure!” she said excitedly.

“Okay, there is an open table over there,” I said gesturing to a deserted table in the back of the cafeteria..

We walked over to the table and I started telling her about the mystery. The whole entire five minutes I talked, she stared at me with intent eyes. Though I was having a lot of fun with her and we had similar interests, I glanced over at June a couple of times. She occasionally gave me dirty glances, but other times she would look over at me longingly. I felt a little guilty, but I would tell her later that I was just trying to make Meg feel welcome.

“Hey Meg, you want to come over to my house after school?”

“Yeah! Can you show me around the school?”

“Oh, right. Let’s go so we don’t miss the bell.”

As we headed out the door of the lunch room, I motioned to June to call me, and she replied with a nasty glare. If she didn’t call me, I was still going to call her anyway.

First, I showed Meg the gym, and then homeroom, the auditorium, and then the rest of the classrooms. The bell rang, and I headed to History and she headed to English. This was my first History class since Mr. Rank was the new teacher, and I was a little excited.

“Hello class, today we will learn about the American Revolution. Am I correct that this is where you left off?”

“Yes,” the class said in unison. This man was all business and no fun. This man may know answers, but he sure wasn’t going to reveal anything soon.

“Now, who are the four founding fathers blah blah blah…what’s the name of blah blah blah…” I really didn’t pay attention much until the very end when he said, “Class dismissed,” because I wanted to go up to his desk and ask him a question.

“Excuse me Mr. Rank, but could you please tell me what happened to Mr. Dean? I was so close to him, I was just thinking I should maybe write to him and say that we will miss him.” That was mostly improvisation.   

To be Continued…

Once there was a boy named Alex. He used to live in Colorado, but moved to Chicago. It was very different in Colorado, because it snowed so much. It even snowed in early spring. In Chicago, it was very warm, and in the early spring, it was about 60 degrees. On his first day of his new school, Alex tried to make new friends. He didn’t know anyone yet in Chicago.

He tried to make friends with a boy named Zack. Alex said, “Hi, would you want to be friends?”

Zack said, “Who’d want to be friends with a new kid?” Without another word, Zack walked away. Alex felt bad because Zack didn’t want to be friends with him.

When he went home, his mom was waiting for him at the door. She asked, “How was your first day at school?”

“It wasn’t that good,” Alex answered.

“Why?” she asked.

“This boy named Zack didn’t want to be friends with me.”

“Maybe you’ll make a friend tomorrow!”

After that, they had dinner. At dinner, Alex didn’t say a word then he brushed his teeth and went to bed. In the middle of the night, Alex saw something move out of his closet. He didn’t hear anything, though. He turned his night light on. In the light, Alex could see that it was a monster. He screamed, “HELP!!!” Alex ran into his mom’s room, and his mom said, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” She was worried about him.

Alex replied, “There’s a monster in my room!” His mom screamed too. They both ran into Alex’s room. The monster had a round body, four eyes and it made squeaky noises. They lifted up the monster, put him in the closet and quickly shut the door and locked it. Then Alex fell back to sleep.

The next morning, Alex went to school and tried making friends with this boy named Joe. He walked away too, just like Zack did yesterday. What he didn’t know was that the monster was giving him bad luck. because he had just moved there. Nobody knew it, but when people moved to Chicago, monsters haunted them.

Then he went home and his mother asked him how his day was again. He said it was even worse than yesterday. His mom said “I feel so bad for you.” After, they had dinner and went to bed. Sure enough, in the middle of the night, the monster came out. It ran with its arms out to Alex’s bed. Alex thought he was trying to talk to him without using words. He wasn’t scared because he had expected the monster to do something like that.

This time Alex and his mom locked the door and put tape around the closet.

After, Alex’s mom said, “Alex, I think we have to move.”

Alex said, “But we just moved.”

Alex’s mom said, “There is a MONSTER in our house.”

Alex said, “Ok, you’re right.” Then Alex and his mom went back to bed.

When they woke up the next morning, they got all their things and moved to a different house next door. This house didn’t seem as haunted as the last one.

When they got settled in their new house, Alex’s mom took him to school.

Alex met this boy Joseph. Alex said, “Do you want to be friends?”

Joseph said, “Sure.” Alex felt happy. They played together the rest of the day. When Alex got home he told his mom that he made friends with Joseph.

Alex’s mom said, “I’m so happy.” Alex asked his mom if he could have a playdate with him. Alex’s mom said, “Sure.”

The next day, Alex and Joseph had a playdate. They had so much fun that after they had a sleepover!!! At the sleepover, Alex told Joseph about the monster. Joseph said in a shaky voice, “That’s so freaky.” Then they went to bed. In the middle of the night, even though they moved, the monster came out from the closet. Joseph and Alex screamed, “HELP!!!”

This time, the mom woke up and she screamed, “What’s wrong? Did someone get hurt?” She was breathing very heavily because she was so worried.

Then Alex’s mom saw the monster. “Oh, you scared me! It was the monster. Are we going to have to move again??” she said.

Alex said, “I don’t want to move again.”

The monster was just listening to them, like he didn’t know what they were saying. He speaks monster language, not English.

Alex’s mom told Alex and Joseph to stand back while she dealt with the monster. She locked the door, put tape on the door and glued the door shut. Then they all went back to bed. The mom was awake though, in case the monster came out again.

Joseph and Alex were in their beds and thought that they could name the monster.

“Maybe if we named him, he would listen to it and they could tell him to stop if he was doing something that they didn’t like or want him to do.”

Joseph said, “Do you have any suggestions for names?”

Alex said, “Well, I thought of four names, and they are:

1. Four Eyes
2. Logan
3. Pizza

and

4. Cookies.”
   They chose Pizza. The monster heard this and he went wild in the closet because he was so happy that his name was Pizza. He was so happy that he went wild in the closet like he was making pizza.

Then he stopped. After that, Alex and Joseph fell asleep.

The next day, Alex and Joseph played together the whole day. At recess, they talked together about the monster. They went home and told Alex’s mom they wanted to let the monster out and see if all three of them could be friends. Alex’s mom said, “NO way I’m letting you do that.”

Joseph and Alex said, “But we’ll be careful! Can we please do it?”

Alex’s mom said, “Maybe.”

After that, Alex and Joseph thought of a few plans. They thought, maybe we can convince her by making pizza so he can smell it and then he’ll want to eat the pizza so he’ll come out. Then when he comes out, he won’t go crazy. They thought of a few more ideas, but they decided to make a cage for Pizza. They asked Alex’s mom if they could make the cage.

Alex’s mom said, “Okay, I think we can do that. But we need some wire.”

They went to the store and got pliers to cut the wires, and they got wire. Then they came back and built the cage.

Then, Joseph went to his house and asked his mom if they could have another sleepover. His mom said, “Sure, you can have another sleepover with Alex. Just be careful.” She said okay because she never knew about the monster. They didn’t tell her because she would’ve been really worried that Joseph would get eaten by the monster.

That night, Joseph and Alex had a sleepover. They had dinner and went to bed. At 12:00, they woke up Alex’s mom and told her they were going to let the monster out. They went to his room, but they forgot that they glued the door last night! They said, “Oh no! The door’s glued!”

Alex’s mom said, “What can we do?”

Alex said, “Maybe we can tell Pizza to bang on the door. We can unlock the door and we can try to turn the doorknob until it gets loose and we can open the door.”

Joseph said, “Or maybe we can laser the door out.”

“I don’t think we can do that either,” replied Alex’s mom. “I don’t think any of these ideas are good. Maybe we can think of something else.”

They sat down and thought of a bunch of ideas. None of them could work. After a while, Alex said, “Oh! Maybe we could get a few knives and cut the glue out of the door!!”

They each got a knife and got the glue out of the door. It was hard, but they did it in about 20 minutes. After, Pizza came out, and he wasn’t looking where he was going, and he walked straight into the cage.

Alex’s mom locked the cage to make sure he couldn’t get out. Then Pizza realized that he was in a cage. He said, “LALA!!!” That means HELP!!! in monster language.

Alex’s mom said, “It’s okay! You can stay in Alex’s room and we’ll let you out every day so you can play with Alex. We’ll put pizza in your cage three times a day because we know you love pizza.”

Pizza said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” He wasn’t scared because he knew that he was going to have a good time at Alex’s house.

“In the morning, every day, we’ll teach you English, and then you’ll be able to speak English with us,” said Alex’s mom.

“Then we can all talk to each other!” Pizza said.

After, they went to bed, and they built a little bed for Pizza in his cage.

The next morning, Joseph had breakfast with Alex, thanked Alex’s mom for such a good night, said goodbye to Pizza, and went home. It was the weekend. Alex had breakfast, took Pizza out of his cage, and played with him for the rest of the day. They played catch with pizza crumbs, they ate pizza together, and they had a one-hour lesson so Pizza could learn English. After doing that for a few days, Pizza could speak English.

Monkey Do lived in the rainforest in a tree in Puerto Rico. Monkey Do’s friends hated him. And they always called him names like Monkey Poo. Monkey Do knew that all of his friends were all more athletic than he was and ever could be. But, Monkey Doo tried to be friends with them. Monkey Doo’s nickname was Dumb. That’s another thing that his friends teased him about. But, Dumb was smarter than the rest of his friends and much nicer.

But, Monkey Doo’s habitat was in danger. Every day more animals are getting killed and trees are getting knocked down. Dumb watching from his house in his tree saw it all happening. He wanted to do something, but he couldn’t. But he wanted to try. Later that day Dumb watched the rainforest being killed. Suddenly, Dumb saw men with axes coming towards his tree.

“Oh no!” cried Dumb and called his parents. He said, “our house is going to get destroyed!”

Dumb’s parents said “pack up your bags, we’re going to leave.”

They left and started swinging from trees to trees trying to find a new tree to have a home in. Dumb looked behind him along with his family as they saw their home being chopped down. Dumb’s younger brother started crying, along with his mom. Dumb wished that this whole thing wouldn’t have started. But as he walked through this rainforest his family got split up. His mom and dad stayed together, his older brother and his younger brother stayed together, Dumb was left alone. “Oh no!” said Dumb. And he started calling out his family’s name. “Tom, Do, Mom, Dad, where are you?”

There was no answer. Dumb looked under him and saw a bunch of men pointing guns right where he was. “Oh no!” said Dumb. And he started flying through the trees as fast as he could. He saw gunshots flying through the air near him. He was trying to dodge them. He saw one fly right above his head until one of them hit his leg and he fell to the ground.

A nearby leopard picked him up and carried him as fast as he could to his home. The next thing Dumb knew he was in the home of his one friend who didn’t call him names. This was Dumb’s only friend.

“Hi,” he muttered. “Thanks for saving me. I was really in a disaster”.

“Since your wound is very bad I’m going to call for a few doctors to come and look at your leg,” said the Leopard. “Maybe we can play after”.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen” said Dumb.

Suddenly the door burst open and a mole a chipmunk and a mouse wearing a ginormous doctor cap.

“Take off the silly cap,” said the Leopard. And they did. “Now take a look at my friend’s leg. He was shot by a gun.” They said “play on a bed, it’ll be easier to look at him”. For two days the doctors stood over Dumb and inspected him. Then for two more weeks they decided what they were going to do. Then for a whole month they tried to fix him up. And then in 20 other months he was finally healed.

Dumb said, “Woohoo, I’m healed! Good as new.”

Leopard said “costs a thousand dollars”. Dumb looked inside his bag and found a thousand dollars.

“Now hand it to the doctors”. And he did.

“Off you go!” yelled Leopard. “Thank you,” said Leopard.

“Thank you” said Dumb. And they left. Later that day, Dumb and Leopard played chase outside. You obviously know who won that. And then, the next day, there was on a notice board it said ‘spelling bee coming up’.

Dumb said, “I’ll enter that”.

“You should,” said Leopard, “you’re pretty smart”. So later that day, Dumb made his way over to the spelling bee contest. It was going to last the whole week. On the first day, Dumb did pretty well. He was going to make it to the second round. He made it all the way to the last round when he faced someone from China.

“Ni hao Dumb” said his opponent who happened to be a mole and laughed. And Dumb said, “Hello Smart”.

“Let’s begin,” said the announcer. “Smart, how do you spell picture?” “P-I-C-T-U-R-E”

“Correct” said the announcer. “Now Dumb, how do you spell grandma?”

“G-R-A-N-D-M-A”

“Correct! Smart, how do you spell novel?”

“N-O-V-A-L-S”

“Wronnngggg.]: Now, Dumb if you get this right you win. How do you spell brothers?”

“B-R-O-T-H-E-R-S”

“Cooorrrect!(: Dumb wins!” Smart walked off the platform crying. On the other hand Dumb walked off the stage smiling. Leopard’s whole family, rushed up to him and gave him a big hug.

“You did it!” yelled Leopard. “Now I can buy with your money the new car I want”. “ “Um, Leopard, going off that cliff with the car isn’t the smartest idea”.

But Leopard couldn’t hear him he was already screaming.

“Help me! Hellllpppp me!” And before that there was a leopard driver. Dumb covered his ears. “Boom!” a big heap of smoke coming up from under the cliff. Leopard climbed out of his car full of dust.

“What did I tell you” said Dumb.

“I guess that wasn’t the smartest idea”. Two days later “I bought another car with me own money”

Dumb says “I don’t think thats a good idea”. The same thing happened again.

“What did I tell you?”

“Okay next time I’ll listen to you”.

“Can I have more money for the car

“No, anyways haven’t you learned that this whole rainforest is getting knocked down? I want to help my family get out of here and I want to help you

“Okay” said Leopard, “what’s your plan?”

“My plan is to have a big bunch of animals behind me all carrying signs yelling “don’t knock down the rainforest. The leopards and the cheetahs meaning you will run around us yelling “that’s right that’s right that’s right. The monkeys like us will start jumping around holding the signs that are going to say “don’t knock down the rainforest” and the rest of the people are just going to hold signs saying “don’t knock down the rainforest. The rainforest belongs to the animals and help you humans breath. Haven’t you learned from your studies?”

For the rest of the week, Leopard’s family along with Dumb made signs and started gathering friends. A bunch of people approved of it, but some didn’t. And the police started coming over to their house and say “you’re going to jail because it has been a new law that you’re not allowed to have new projects without letting the government know”. Leopard’s family along with Dumb went to jail. They spent 20 full years in jail. Finally they got out when it was time. And when they got out of jail they went right to the government and said “can we start this new project.” And the government said “no you may not” coming towards them “no you may not, no you may not!

“You’re going to jail” said the governor. Part of the law that you went to jail with I said that once I say no you may not you would have to leave. And you did not. So you will spend a full fifteen years in jail. And they went to jail. In their time in jail, Leopard’s family was growing old. Leopard’s mom and dad both died in there. After their fifteen years were done Dumb carried Leopard’s mom and dad away and buried them. Leopard’s entire family cried, including Dumb. They were better artists than we were. And who knows who will be the new governor.

Dumb said “You could be the new governor, you’re old enough, plus he only has one year left and it’s coming to an end”

“Okay,” said Leopard. And for the rest of the year, Leopard started making speeches and going public and telling people why he should be governor. A lot of people agreed with him. And leopard thought he was going to win.

“Let’s not get our hopes up” said Dumb one day. “You never know what could go wrong” Right before the year ended the governor made a new law. The governor stays governor for as long as it is until he dies. He had been drinking too much alcohol and smoking too much. Although it was his law not to smoke and his recommendation. The day before the law was made he died. War broke out because no one knew who the next governor was going to be. People wanted to make their own laws now that their was no governor but if there was no governor then you didn’t know who it could be and no one had power to arrange something. And just letting you know, there’s no presidents or mayors or stuff like that. There was a month of war until there was only two people left. Leopard had gone into hiding and one of Leopard’s friends from school who was the strongest also was there. People thought that the strongest one should be the governor until Leopard came out of hiding and explained his story and what he believed in. Finally someone had some common sense whose name was Albert Einstein the dog. We should set up a vote” he said. “People said “that’s right!” so they did. Leopard had 5 thousand votes and Leopard’s opponent had four hundred ninety nine votes. The vote was done that Leopard would be the new governor. He took away all the laws from the governor and put some of his own. Like, it was silly for him to say that you’re not allowed to have dessert every single night. And for him to put in a law that it was a free right. And people to join him in his fight to stop the rain forest from being knocked down. A lot of people agreed with him and soon almost everyone was joining with his fight. A month later they had gotten a decision. Everybody was going to carry signs walking down and there would be 2 floats of people saying” don’t cut down the rainforest” with music screaming “don’t cut down the rainforest” and someone video taping was screaming how loud he could so when they turned it to the highest knoch it was even louder. He decided that that was one of the best ideas. And that they should use that idea. And they were going to decorate the float with trees that whenever someone tried to knock it down they would multiply by ten and in those tens if someone knocked it down it would knock it down by 5 and if they knocked that down it would multiply by 3 and if they knocked that down it would multiply by 100. Just when you think you’re going to knock the whole thing down, it multiplies by 100. A month later the team of fighters walked up to

the human president’s office. One of the people ran up to one of the trees and cut one of the trees down. It multiplied by 10. And they cut it down again and it multiplied by 5 and he knocked it down and it multiplied it by 3 and then he knocked it down and it multiplied by 100. Oh no” he said “this is some real magic!” Suddenly the president came out from the white house along with a lot of people. The animals were scared out of their bejesus of how weird they were looking. The president said (who happened to be Theodore Roosevelt) “what do you want!” Dumb and Leopard said, “we want for you not to knock down the rainforest!” Theodore Roosevelt said “I’ll think about it. Now go back to where you came from. Two years later Theodore Roosevelt hadn’t told them anything yet. Dumb said to Leopard “I think we should send him a letter to remind him”. And they sent him a letter that said,

Dear Theodore Roosevelt,

Two years ago we protested up to where you live and told you that our rainforest is being cut down and can you fix it. You said i’ll be working on it. I don’t know if you forgot or something but you haven’t responded to us quite yet. Is that a mistake or are you getting to it soon?

Your friends from the rainforest,

Leopard and Dumb

And they sent it. At the white house Theodore Roosevelt took the letter and ripped it to pieces as soon as he saw the bottom of it. Then he taped it back together again “Oh i love my puzzles” and then he did it again. “Oh i really like puzzles. Ok now I will read the letter from my friends. And he did.

“Dear Theodore Roosevelt,

Two  years ago we protested up to where you live and told you that our rainforest is being cut down and can you fix it. You said i’ll be working on it. I don’t know if you forgot or something but you haven’t responded to us quite yet. Is that a mistake or are you getting to it soon?

Your friends from the rainforest,

Leopard and Dumb”

And he smiled. Oh I forgot about that one. With the screaming music. No one could really forget it. And he sent a letter to them, that said

Dear animals of the rainforest,

I have now given permission for all rainforests in Puerto Rico for no trees to be cut down and no animals to be killed.

The President of the United States,

Theodore Roosevelt

The animals of the rainforest were so happy to see the return address to see Theodore Roosevelt but they didn’t know if it was a good sign or a bad sign. They called for a huge celebration when they opened the letter. They arranged it that when everyone was there and people with beer bottles ready to pour it on the letter when it was opened, he opened the letter.

“Dear animals of the rainforest,

I have now given permission for all rainforests in Puerto Rico no trees to be cut down and no animals to be killed.

The President of the United States,

Theodore Roosevelt”

And before he could say anything else, four bottles of beer poured on the letter and one of them even poured on top of Leopard. Dumb gave Leopard a big hug. But now that Dumb had made sure that Puerto Rico was safe he still hadn’t found his parents. And this is what what happened when Dumb lost his mom and dad.

Dumb’s dad name was D and moms Elizabeth. As soon as Dumb lost his mom and dad they started swinging from trees to find the safest place. They found a tree towards the middle of the rainforest that was empty and no one was there. They decided it was a good place.

“Oh I miss our family,” said D. “I hope we get together soon. Maybe we’ll have to find them or they’ll have to find us.”

And for the next few weeks Elizabeth and D lived in that tree and they made their tree a living. They made a bed of leaves, they made clothing out of leaves and bark, and branch berries to the tree to eat. And if they were thirsty they would go to the stream nearby and drink. But  their water was  dirty because fish always swam around in there and lilypads were always floating around. Suddenly they heard rustling in the bushes nearby. D picked up a carving knife he had made and held it up to where the leaves were. The leaves broke apart to reveal a snake coming towards them.

“Protect me!” yelled Elizabeth.

I have a knife said D, “and I’m not afraid to use it.”

“Then use it!” said Elizabeth.

But while they were talking, the snake was already crawling towards them. “Use it!” cried Elizabeth. And he did, striking the snake with the carving knife. The snake died before it could scream.

“Woohoo!” said Elizabeth, “You killed it! And now we have more food to eat.”

“I don’t think we should celebrate,” said D. “We still have to find our family. And it’s gonna take a long time.”

“I think I’ve got some information about Dumb. I heard he won the Spelling Bee in a part of the rainforest 400 miles from here.”

“Then we better start moving,” said Elizabeth.

“Not right now,” said D, “We still have to have more information. We don’t want to chase dumb in circles.”

And they started going on the internet looking for information about Dumb. “Ooo he met with Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the United States! And he led a protest! Then we know what part of the rainforest he’s in, let’s go!”

“Not now Elizabeth,” said D. “We still have to find out where he is.”
So after a month of research, they finally went to look for him. As soon as they went onto the road, they saw a hungry alligator waiting by the road.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” said the alligator. “If I can bite off your tail, I’ll give you the exact information of who you’re looking for, and only one of your tails will be cut off. I will also give you the bandages to heal the other person.” D and Elizabeth were no fools, “The bandages are poison bandages. If we use the bandages to cover up the wound, the wounded one will die because the bandages would be poisoned.”

“Well,” said the alligator, “if you don’t wanna take my deal, then don`t, and then you will never find your son Dumb.” Elizabeth and D started to cry. “Take it or leave it,” said the alligator. “I’ll leave.”

“We’re not taking it,” said D. “Bye.” And they both departed in different ways.

“Let’s wait in the leaves to make sure he leaves, and then we can go on our way.” So they waited and waited and waited, but he was still there, watching where they were.

“If I were you,” said Elizabeth, “I would get out that carving knife right now.” And that was smart because as soon as she said that, the alligator jumped from where he was and started running towards them. “Run!” yelled Elizabeth.

“Go faster,” said D. And they started running. “Jump onto that tree,” said D. “Alligators can’t swing from trees.”

“But they can wait underneath it and bite into the tree trunks!”

“Just jump onto it and worry about that later.” And as they predicted as soon as they got on the tree, the alligator started chomping down the tree trying to make the monkeys lose their balance.

“Keep going!” said D. “You gotta go quickly, he’s starting to catch up.”

“Oh no!” cried Elizabeth, “there’s a whole family of them!”

And as she said that, twenty alligators started running out from the trees, joining the chase. “MWAHAHAHAHAHA,” said one of the alligators, “We will get them.”

“Go the right” said Elizabeth.

“Nice tactics, but I don’t think that’s gonna fool them.” It didn’t fool them, they started running in the direction they were going. They saw a Cheetah running around. Elizabeth said, “Hey cheetah can you help us?”

He said, “Yes, just jump onto my back and I’ll help you escape from these alligators.”

So they jumped off the tree where they were, landed on the cheetah’s back and they screamed, “Goooo!” As they went the alligators started chasing them.

Before they knew it they couldn’t see alligators behind them, the only thing they saw was a swirling wind.

“You can stop,” said D.

“Okay,” said the cheetah.

“Thank you,” said Elizabeth, “How much does it cost?”

“$50,” said the cheetah. “A little cheap for saving your life.” And the cheetah ran off into the distance. This is the story of Dumb’s older brother Tom, and Dumb’s younger brother Do. Tom grabbed Do’s hand as the shooting continued. “You’ll forgive me for this some day,” said Tom.

“Maybe I will,” said Do in a little voice.

“What did you say?” said Tom “You’re gonna have to speak up.”

“Maybe I will,” said Do. “Now let’s start moving.” Everywhere they went they could still hear the sound of shooting.

“You realize?” said Do, “That we’re going in circles. That’s why we can still hear it.”

“Then let’s move.” And they started going straight.

“I think I saw our parents go that way.”

“No,” said Tom, “They went the other way.”

“Oh drop it,” said Do.

“Hey hey hey, don’t speak to me like that,” said Tom, “I saved your life.”

“But I’m younger,” said Do, “I’m more intelligent, which means you should follow my instincts.”

“You said you’re more intelligent? I don’t know what happened to your brain, but nothing good because two days ago you dropped four dishes on the floor.”

“That was four days ago that was a long time ago!”

“A long time ago?” said Tom.

“Well you’ve done something more recent. You picked me up and said you were giving me a hug and then dropped me out the window. Is that intelligent?”

“Well “not,” said Tom. “But you have done more stuff than me!”

“But none of them were as bad as dropping your baby brother out the window on purpose.”

“Fine,” said Tom, “You win. We’ll go your direction.” So they started heading south. “We’re going north,” said Do.

“Know your cardinal directions, we’re going south Do.”

“Oh whatever, we’ve already covered that I’m more intelligent.”

“Just remember I saved your life.”

“You said that almost a hundred times,” said Do.

“I’ve only said that twice!” said Tom. “Plus we haven’t gotten anywhere near where mom and dad are. We would’ve seen them already.”

“I see an open tree,” said Do. “Let’s look inside.” And sure enough when they looked inside they saw a painting of their mom and dad.

“Which means they already left this place,” said Do. “Let’s stay in here, so once our parents find Dumb, they’ll come back to this tree and they’ll see us!”

“Good idea,” said Tom. “We just don’t have any weapons to save us, if anything comes near us.”

“Why are you always talking about weapons?” said Do, “It’s not like a creature with six heads, eight arms, and sixteen legs is gonna come out of nowhere and attack us, but you always think.”

“I don’t think that. Fine I do, but I don’t do it for real life I do it for fun.”

“No, you said, oh no oh no save me!”

“Whatever,” said Tom. “Let’s make a living out of here.”  So for the next few months they started making a living, and then suddenly from the bushes six snakes came out all wrapped up.

“Hey hey hey look at this,” said Tom, “Six heads!”

“I don’t think they’re playing around,” said Do. “I think they want some food.”

“Well in that case,” said Tom. He lifted a knife that he’d been carving and sliced them in half. “Die potato!”

“Nice,” said Do, “It just didn’t have 16 legs etc.”

“But it was pretty dangerous,” said Tom.

“Well let’s just rest here for the rest of the day and work on some other stuff tomorrow. And luckily for us that there was that weird little monkey and a leopard who decided that they didn’t want any shooting in the rainforest. So they decided to go to the white house and tell Theodore Roosevelt that they didn’t have to.” They didn’t know that that was their brother Dumb. As soon as Elizabeth and D saw a little monkey flying through the trees going the other way, they said, “Go!” and they started swinging through the trees, but that wasn’t a nice monkey now was that. It was a snake dressed up as a monkey, looking like their son Dumb.

“Yay Dumb you’re here!”

“Huh?” said the figure. And before they knew it they were hugging some arms that didn’t have bones inside of them. And the next thing they knew they were being squeezed by something slimy.

“Help us!” yelled Elizabeth, “We’re being strangled by a snake.”

A few robins who were nearby said, “I don’t think I want to help them, they smashed our nest a few days ago and haven’t apologized yet.”

“Well maybe if we help them, they’ll apologize.”

“Just help us,” yelled D.

“Fine,” they said. They started ripping at the rope-ish snake.

The monkeys left, “We saved your life.”

“Oh thank you, and sorry for smashing your nest open.”

“I do not accept,” said the first robin.

“Well I will,” said the second robin. “Just because they said sorry.”

“But still we always help the animals of the rain forest. Well in that case I wish god never put us on this Earth.” And God who was passing by killed them.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said the second robin. “Well now that he’s dead I might as well eat him.”

God who was still watching them said, “You should bury him. He was still part of your family.”

“But I didn’t like him.”

“Have you ever heard of it?” said God. “Those who do not obey God shall die.”

“Oh please please please don’t kill me.”

But God didn’t really listen to him, and he killed him right away. People not hearing God who was talking to him said, “Why did he just fall down right away? Maybe they killed each other.

Elizabeth and D were still looking for Dumb. And Dumb was still looking for Elizabeth and D and they started going in circles, just as Elizabeth and D wished would not happen. Finally one of them stopped for a short second to see someone going the opposite direction.a

“Let’s just wait here. And ask him a question before hugging him. Ask him how old he is because he’s 23 years old, then ask him where he lives,” said D.

So when they came back they asked him, “How old are you?”

“23.”

“Where do you live?”

“My house was knocked down and I fled to different places and I had a friend who was the governor.”

“Okay,” said D. “That’s very impressive. Who’s your mom and dad?”

“D and Elizabeth. And who’s your son?”

“Dumb.” And the three hugged each other.

“Have you found a new home yet?” said Dumb.

“Yes we have, but we don’t know the way back to it.”

“Well that’s useful,” said Dumb. “Let’s find a new house.”

“Let’s not,” said Elizabeth. “A centaur who happened to be on our path said your brothers Tom and Do had found the way to where we lived.”

“How do you know that’s where you lived?”

“Because there’s a painting of us that we painted. I accidentally put one more piece of hair on my head. And I accidentally forgot to put the exact height of how far down it goes on my head, and I was one millimeter off.”

“Well I got enough of this painting talk, let’s get back to our family,” said Dumb.

So they started walking around and trying to find where they were. Suddenly a whole bunch of alligators who were in the bushes came out.

They screamed, “Cheetah!” but there was no cheetah. “Leopard help us!” there was no leopard. “Something help us!” but there was no something until suddenly a big knife came down from a tree.

“Do you think this is going to help us? Then send down two more it will help us better,” said D and two more came down, but before they could say anything else the alligators were upon them. They were fighting like mad not to kill the alligators but to defend themselves. With the alligators sharp talons and hard backs, the knife didn’t even hit the flesh, it just hit the metal-ish back and the sharp teeth which was hanging onto the gum. No one was dying which was a problem because 1, they were starting to get thirsty and hungry 2, the alligators could go in shifts to get water. Suddenly the biggest alligator of all, which happened to be 10 feet tall and 16 feet long started coming toward the monkeys.

The monkeys said “Forget the others, go towards him!” And they started going towards him, “And drive him back!” They started driving him back.

“They’re too strong!” said the alligators and they all jumped into the water.

“Well that was easy,” said the monkeys. “Now let’s go to that house of ours.” Suddenly two leopards and two cheetahs started bouncing towards them.

“You called for us?” said the leopards and the cheetahs.

“Well you’re too late,” said the monkeys.

“Awww” said the cheetahs and the leopards, “We were looking for some payment!”