Otherworldly Pursuits

2023-24 Writing from 826michigan’s After-school Writing Program

Otherworldly Pursuits at the Dawn of Future Horizons

Otherworldly Pursuits

at the Dawn of Future Horizons

Writing From 826michigan’s After-school Students in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti | 2023–2024

826michigan Staff

Megan Shuchman, Executive Director

Kinyel Friday, Operations Director

Megan Gilson, Program Manager

Denise Ervin, Program Manager

Amy Sumerton, Development & Communications Manager

Eli Sparkman, Program & Volunteer Coordinator

Diamond Sharpe, Program & Volunteer Administrative Assistant

Alexa Carlozzi, Retail Administrative Assistant

Catherine Calabro Cavin, Grants Writer

Teaching Artists & Apprentices

Paige Bennett

Alexa Carlozzi

Rachel Chalfant

Makenna Crossley

Special Thanks

Cherise Morris

826michigan Board of Directors

Maria Montoya, President & Secretary

Holly Hunt, Treasurer

Christopher Ankney

Abby Fanelli

James A. Hiller

Caitlin Koska

Adeline Navarro

Alex Quada

Mazen Shahbain

Tanya Line

Denice Olson

Danté Richmond

Patti Wheeler

Copyright © 2024 by 826michigan and Blotch Books.

All rights reserved by 826michigan, the many whims of Drs. T & G Blotch, the illustrators, and the authors.

The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826michigan. We believe in the power of youth voice and are thrilled that you picked up this book. No part of this book may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher, except for small excerpts for the purposes of review or scholarly study.

ISBN 979-8-88694-059-6

Printed in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Design by Laura Chodoroff

By purchasing this book, you are helping 826michigan continue to offer free student programs. For more information, please visit: 826michigan.org

Also Published by 826michigan

Young Authors Book Project:

Stories in Stereo: Voices of Detroit Students

Atomic! Earth’s Final Fight With and Against the Strange Glimpses of Magic

The Book of Many Wisdoms Because No One Else Could Do It

In Our Defense In the Clouds Over Ypsilanti

A Moment to Remember Rare Air / Aire raro

A Lantern of Fireflies

Tell Me How It Was Where Is It Coming From?

Enjoy! Recipes for Building Community

All I Could Do Was Look Up: Anatomy of a Middle School What to Call the Place I Call Home: Voices of 26 Ypsilanti Middle School Students

The Moons Were Jealous 2020: Visions of the [Near] Future Don’t Stay Up So Late

How to Rise Or, I Put My Heart into the Close Tall Tales & True Stories Suddenly My Heart Stopped for Just a Small Portion of Time: Defining Moments

OMNIBUS:

826michigan OMNIBUS I

826michigan OMNIBUS II

826michigan OMNIBUS III

826michigan OMNIBUS IV

826michigan OMNIBUS V

826michigan OMNIBUS VI

826michigan OMNIBUS VII

826michigan OMNIBUS VIII

826michigan OMNIBUS IX

826michigan OMNIBUS X

826michigan OMNIBUS 11

826michigan OMNIBUS 12

826michigan OMNIBUS 13

An Incomplete List of Chapbooks:

140-Character Fairy Tale Characters

And I Did My Best

And Suddenly, We Ran Into a Cliff of Gold

Because Their Feet Will Be Wet, They Will Agree to the Monster’s Demands

The Big Mess-Up and Other Stories

The Big Treasure Should Be Gold

Bon Temps Roulez!

A Burning Forest, An Underground Castle, and a Misled Princess: The Papaya Problem

Cats Came to the Dog Party

Carrying Ourselves Across: The Art of Self-Translation

Cinderella’s Bad Day, Prince Charming is a Monster, and Other Tragic Love Tales

The Clouds Spell Detroit

Colors Came Out

Crazy Soup

Cuando los robots atacan

Don’t Get Freaked Out, But I am a Fifteen-Year-Old Vampire

Deluxe: Tales from Two Tutoring Labs

Detectives on the Case

The Distance Between Two Sides of a Color

Dr. Von Humor’s Encyclopedia of Monster Botany

Ekphrastic is Fantastic!

Even the Stars are Robotic

Everybody Will Know You

Every Day Got Better and Better

Everything You Could Ever Want . . . and More!

Everything You Fight For And Gain

Expecting Greatness and Excitement

Fall into the Land of Dreams

Feed Your Mac and Cheese To Your Pet Crocodile

Flying High

The Fog Was Geemy

Four Years’ Worth of Ice Cream

The Golden Nose 2.0

Growl!! Everybody Will Know You

He Gets in a Pickle Almost Every Hour

He Liked to Hip-Hop All Around

Hello Sandwich

Hey Mom, Taking Flight

The Hippo Ate Like a Regular Hippo

How To Be Crazy

How To Survive a Slime Attack with Me

How To Survive an Underground Volcano

How To Survive Being Chased by a Million Squirrels

How To Survive Having All the Powers in the Universe

How To Use Your Nine Lives

I Am Thankful for the Moon So I Can See in the Dark

I Have Hidden A Treasure Somewhere I Cannot Remember

I Hope You Consider What I’ve Said: Kids’ Letters to President Trump

I Never Want to Leave

I Rode My Yak to School

I Suddenly Became Noodles

I Use This Pencil To Write

I Wrote All the Words

Identifying the Common Bot Jot

If I Ever Saw Mr. JK, I Would Ask Him These Things

If I was a Unicorn (Ms. Todd Would Freak Out)

It All Started Like a Regular Day

It Tasted Like the Sun

Joy Got Up and Laughed

Let’s Make a Bridge

Maybe I was Born to be One of the Big Creatures MEOWCH!

The Monster Had a Whole Lot of Question Marks, Volume 1

The Monster Had a Whole Lot of Question Marks, Volume 2

The Moon Smells Like Pizza

My Fish is a Good Fish

My Heart Felt Sad for the Bird

My Robot Eats Pie and Other Habits of Highly Successful Robots

My Robot Eats Pudding and Other Habits of Highly Successful Robots

My Strange Outfit

Near and Far

Never Runs out of Battery

The Nicest Car in Monsterland, Volume 1

The Nicest Car in Monsterland, Volume 2

Now I Know Many People Here

Oatmeal is My Worst Weakness

Once Upon a Time, There was a Baby, Then Another Baby, and Another Baby, and One More Baby

One Step Closer to the Robot Takeover

Perry was in Love with the Wind

Playing Chess with Owls in the Dark

The Quest for the Diamond Candy Corn

Read This Book!

Really, Really Melted Up

Robot School 101

The Rothman Observer

The Sandwich Never Wanted to be Eaten

See Modern, Marvelous Ann Arbor by Train, Plane, or Automobile

Shark Math

She Found the Perfect Soup, but it Tasted Weird

Shorter Days

A Skeleton With Fire All Over Him With a Purple Jacket

So Many Different Monsters at Monster School

So Many Monsters at Monster School, Volume 1

So Many Monsters at Monster School, Volume 2

Someone Said You Were Looking For Me

Spinach Doughnut

The Stars Danced on the Ceiling

Talking Back, Giving Thanks, and Why You Should Never Drink the Haterade

That Moment Broke My Heart But Also Made Me Strong

They Are Monsters, But They’re Nice Monsters

They Have Pet Stars

They Mean the World to Me

There Was a Boom in My Ice Cream

This is How I Became One of the Greatest Heroes in the History

This Pencil is My Most Important Possession

This Rock is Missing

This Song Still Endures: A 1966 Motown Retrospective

Thunder-, Lightning-, and Waterproof!

Tom the Robot Prince’s Comedy Special: Live from the Enchanted Ice Jungle Kingdom

A Tough Wolf With No Name

Training a Shark

The Ultimate Tacocat

Underworld Archives

Up in the Air

We Went up with the Pearls and Were All Millionaires

When the Whales Celebrate

Where Everything is Written

Where We Danced and Laughed

A Whole Bunch of Candy

The Wind Shushes and Hushes

The Ypsilanti Community Review

Zomb, the Formalist

Introduction

Are you ready for a journey beyond this world?

The book that you are holding is the culmination of months of dedicated effort from student writers ages 8-14 in 826michigan’s three after-school writing programs held across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Each week, students, volunteers, and staff formed a supportive community of writers, where everyone could explore the ideas and storylines that felt meaningful to them. This program is built on the idea that everyone is a writer, and everyone has a story to tell. With this in mind, both students and adults are writing alongside each other, sharing their stories, and providing feedback to one another. Everyone has ideas worth sharing, and every writer is strengthened by support and feedback from other writers. It’s magical to see a student light up not only when they’re celebrated for the great parts in their own writing, but also when they get to take on the “editor” role and provide feedback to our volunteers.

In our After-school Writing Lab programs, students explore writers’ habits, like “Writers make plans—and break them” and try out new strategies as they build their own personal toolkits of writing habits. Our after-school writing programs are the ultimate lesson in persistence. Rather than working on a story for a short amount of time and never seeing it again, students practice their determination by working on the same story for weeks to months at a time, honing and revising their ideas to prepare them for the publication you’re now holding.

In these stories and characters, students forged new worlds—some heartwarming, some thrilling, and others spooky. All are what former program leader Cherise Morris described as a “peek into the magic and brilliance that lies within our youth.” These stories serve as a reminder of the power that words have to destroy—and also to build. We hope that by reading this book, you are reminded of your own power, found at the dawn of every future horizon you encounter.

Please note that this book contains writing by students ages 8-14. Many students have written wildly fantastical stories, some including intense content that is age-appropriate for the writer but may not be appropriate for younger readers. Some stories contain content warnings; please make note of these when reading with younger audiences.

here we go!

All She Could Do Was Move Forward

Ann Arbor After-school Writing Lab

Left to Die

Eberwhite Elementary School

Age 9

by Graham Falkner

I wake up in my bed when there is a big yell outside. I get out of bed to see a big group of people who tie my parents to a tree! I run down the stairs and rush outside. When they see me, they tackle me to the ground. I try to struggle free, but they are too strong! I close my eyes and prepare for the worst, but it never comes.

Slowly, I open my eyes to see white tiles. I stand up and look at my surroundings while thinking about how I teleported to this place. When I see the window, I run over to see where I am. But all I see is an abandoned town. Right then, I see something in one of the alleyways.

It’s in the shadows, so I can’t see what it is. Right at that moment, the wall starts to move. That’s when I realize it’s not a wall at all. It’s a door! It’s the same color as the wall, so I did not see it at first. Then a man walks in who has a big beard.

He says to me, “Please stay away from the windows.” When he moves forward, I back up to the wall. Then someone else comes in, and when they see me, they start taking photos and start asking me endless questions. Then all of the sudden, more people come into the room, and before I know it, the old man takes me to his office to chat. He tells me what is going on. Turns out it is the future, and we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. They need the blood of a person from my time to make a cure. Then he draws some of my blood. Afterward, we walk down

to the lab and give it to someone there. The man tells me I should go to bed. I go to where he says, and I find an empty bedroom and go to sleep. I wake up to a boom for the second time! I get out of bed, but a person bursts through the door holding a blaster full of red liquid that he says is the cure. Then another person comes in, but if you look close you can see that the liquid inside is green. Then I know it’s a zombie! The person shoots the zombie with his blaster, and it falls to the floor. Suddenly, all the moaning stops, and all the zombies turn into humans. I go to bed after that, and when I wake up, I am back in my house with my mom and dad huddled over me. They tell me I was sick, and I had been asleep for two whole days. After getting up, I go to get breakfast, and everything is good.

The

Last

One Slauson Middle School

Age 12

by Annabelle Chen

Don’t stop running. My heart is beating so hard, and my breath is coming out in gasps. Rain is pounding against my head, and my boots are already soaked through. I don’t even know how I got here, but maybe I should start at the beginning.

There. A rustle in the bushes. I slowly stalk through the bushes, bow at the ready. In the middle of a clearing, there it is. A doe blinks up at the trees with big brown eyes. If I bring it back, surely Mother will be proud of me. My first one for the Harvest. No one has ever brought back one. I pause and pull an arrow out of my backpack. Slowly, I slide the arrow into the bowstring and fwish! Right through the doe’s eye. I run forward and fling it over my back. Then I start sneaking back to the Skim. The Skim, our tiny city, has been around for the longest time out of all the cities. Technically, hunting outside of the Skim is forbidden before the Harvest, but I manage it everytime.

I get back and plop the deer down onto our small, wood porch and start to get myself ready for the Harvest. I rinse myself off in our rickety wooden shower and look for my outfit. Once I’m ready, Mom and Lily, my little sister, get home. It takes them what feels like forever, and then we are ready to go to the Harvest.

While everyone is eating, President Mayberry stands up.

“Attention!” she yells. “Can I please have everyone’s attention?”

All eyes go to her. President Mayberry is a plain-looking woman with her long brown hair pulled into a constrictive bun.

“Yes, yes. Hello, and welcome to the Harvest! I know that these times are trying times, but we will get through.”

Then she launches into her signature speech for the Harvest.

“Thank you, and have a wonderful, wonderful year,” she finishes.

Me and my sister always say the last part with her. But this year, she doesn’t sit back down. She doesn’t end.

The Harvest started when our city was still forming. It’s a time when all of the people come together. But what it really is is a time for peace. The Government really hopes that everyone will stay at peace so that there aren’t any uprisings. I hate it. President Mayberry gives the same plastic speech every time, and nothing ever happens. But this one might be different.

“This year, our technology department had a breakthrough. They discovered a way to make microchips that we can implant into people’s brains,” President Mayberry drones.

People start to murmur and a crowd starts to form.

“We will be choosing six people from the Riverview High School—” I don’t hear anything except for Riverview High School. My high school! She starts calling names, and I close my eyes and pray. Please not Cae, don’t say Cae—

“Jacob Last, Hayes Warner, and finally Cae Elin.”

My insides are exploding right now, and people are pushing me forward toward the stage. I can see the shocked faces of the other students chosen. Their families look pale and miserable. I crane my head to see whether my mom is sad or crying, but I already know the answer to that. Lily is sobbing profusely, and guards are shoving her back. My blood starts to curdle, and I try to step forward, but there are so many people between me and her. When I get up to the stage, President Mayberry shakes my hand and “congratulates” me. I fake a smile and try to hold in tears. They say something about taking us to a facility tomorrow, but I’m too upset to hear. There is a crumbling feeling in my stomach like I know that this isn’t going to go well.

Rain is pounding against the window, and the sky is gray as ever. I’ve been staring out the window for what feels like hours. They told us that we have two hours. Two hours to pack. Two hours to say goodbye. Two

hours felt like the end of the world. Mom didn’t care, of course. She told me that it would be good for me.

* * * * *

“Attention, all passengers. We will be arriving soon.”

The train starts to slow, and I see a huge facility come into view. My eyes start to water and I quickly wipe them. When the train comes to a complete stop, everyone gets off. A lady is there to meet us.

“Hello, students from Riverview High School! We are very excited to introduce this new system of technology to the world. My name is Emma. You will be staying in Area 23B. If you need anything, there should be a red button. Press it, and I or one of my colleagues will come assist you,” she says plainly like she has informed people about this before. “Please follow me.”

We start to follow her into a small branch of the facility, and she leads us into a room. In the room there are six small pods with beds. Emma leads us to two doors: one pink, one blue. I let out a small gasp. Underneath Emma’s hair is a small metal device. A microchip. That explains why she sounds so robotic. So controlled.

“These are the bathrooms. Everything you will need is provided on a shelf near the sink.”

Then she leads us down a flight of stairs to what looks like a kitchen. There is a simple stove, fridge, table, etc. I look around at the plain, brown walls. This is considered nice compared to the Skim.

“You are not to leave your quarters before 7:00 or after 8:00. Lights must be off by 10:00. Understand?” Emma says. We all nod.

“When do we start?” I blurt. “Implanting the chips, I mean.”

Emma glances at me sideways.

“I have been informed that you will begin the process tomorrow after breakfast,” she says.

I nod and she leaves. All six of us are too shaken and tired to do anything, so we all start to settle into our pods. I start to get claustrophobic after a few minutes in the pod, and so I decide to go on a walk. I slip out of the room and start to walk down the hallway. It looks the same all around until I reach a glass window. The lights inside are dark, but there is a small blinking light. I peer closer. I immediately close my eyes once I see what is inside. Emma is sitting on a chair next to the blinking light,

her eyes shut. I stand there for a few minutes, and she suddenly opens her eyes. I jump back but she runs out of the room and grabs my arm.

“Listen to me. You cannot get a chip implanted into your brain. You—” she is cut off, and her head starts to jerk back and forth. “Don’t listen to them. Any of them. They’re lying! Don’t take the pill!” She falls to the floor and I catch her.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” she says before something in her brain takes over. She stands up straight and marches back through the door. Then she sits down on her chair and shuts off.

My hands are shaking and I can’t think. I start to run back to our room, and I jump into my pod. No one eats. I don’t think anyone can eat at a time like this. After 8:00, our door clicks shut and I try to fall asleep. I lie there, twisting and turning, Emma’s words echoing in my head. Don’t listen to them. Any of them. They’re lying . . .

“Hold still.” Tick.

“OK, move to the right please.” Tick.

A robot is measuring me and I feel nauseous. I got no sleep last night and microchip implanting is getting closer by the minute.

“OK, you may head to the next room.” Bzzzzt shhh. The door opens. I head out of the room into a new room and my stomach lurches. There on the table is the microchip to be implanted in my brain. I am the first out of the six to get my chip implanted.

“Please sit in the chair provided.”

Great, another robot. I sit down, and the robot starts to get something from a wooden box.

“What is that?” I can’t help asking.

“A simple fluid that will help make the process less painful and less complicated,” it responds, moving closer.

“Is that legal—” I start to ask before I feel a sharp pain in my arm, and I start to drift off into space.

Oww. All over. I slowly sit up. My vision starts to return, and I am glad to see that I am still in the same room. I reach my hand up to touch the back of my head, and I immediately lurch backward, back onto the chair. I suddenly remember what Emma said and I am fully awake.

I stand up and walk out the open door. I end up back in the waiting room. My body moves as if on command, and I sit down on one of the

chairs. Wha— Two metal bars clamp around me and I start to scream. Suddenly I see that every student is sitting in a chair.

Beep beep! The bars go away and I breathe out.

“Please remain seated. If you move, an automatic alarm will sound, and you will be restrained once more,” a robotic voice says from the speakers. “This is the final part of the chip process. To complete the process, just swallow the pill in front of you.”

“What will that do?” I ask.

“This will help the chip settle, and it will make sure that there are no malfunctions or bugs.”

I start to reach forward when I remember Emma. She said something about the pill. Don’t take the pill. My hand wobbles. My brain is telling me to go and eat the pill, but I can’t. In one fluid motion, I leap up out of my chair. I only have a few seconds.

“We need to get out of here!” I yell at the top of my lungs, before the alarm sounds. “Hurry!”

All of them turn to stare at me. There is something off about their stares. Their eyes are glazed over like—like there is nothing there. I stare at them and take off running.

My legs are stopping. Something under the surface is taking over. I dig my fingers into my palms, almost drawing blood, and I regain control. The chip, it’s doing something to my brain. I figure, since I didn’t take the pill, the control isn’t too strong. I look back, and robots are still chasing me. I run faster. Suddenly my body stops. I want to scream but I can’t. They have me. I can’t regain control. I close my eyes.

But I didn’t take the pill. Breathe, breathe. I am in control. I am still me. I open my eyes and move my arm. I take a few more breaths and look around. The robots seem to have lost me, and I seem to be in an abandoned town. A metal sign catches my eye. Blacksmith. Perfect.

There are so many different weapons, but I’m best at using a sword and a bow. I take a sharp sword, an expertly crafted bow, and some arrows. I strap a sheath to my waist and take a bag for my arrows. I step outside into the light, where I see what now is a mob of humans and robots. I tilt my head to the sun and smile. My hand grips tighter on the hilt of my sword. Bring it on.

The Survivors

Burns Park Elementary School

Age 10

by Graham Critchfield

Preface

Twelve years since the destruction. Twelve years since the world apocalypse. Four twelve-year-old survivors. The world has been rewritten. Only these people can rebuild civilization. The fate of the world rests on these young shoulders.

* * * * *

Around a giant floating black ball, miners celebrate. “We did it! We’ve finally done it!” they cheer. The leader takes out a drill.

“We’ve reached the center of the Earth. Our task is completed. We must bring back a shard of necrotite for inspection to make sure the Earth is safe.” He raises the drill high. Then, without any warning, he brings it down on the huge, floating orb. Screams everywhere.

Their leader gasps, and then keels over.

In the wreckage of the orb, something growls.

* * * * *

Chapter One: Chase

I open my sleep canister and roll out.

Ever since the fall of the world, I’ve only known three people: my friends Dakota and Eli, and my sister Elisa. I’m Chase. I don’t know how I met them, and the only reason that I know about the world apocalypse is because of the books and notes our parents left us here. They’re vague though—like something at the center of the world will be civilization’s downfall. I don’t truly understand what they mean, though. Dakota is still puzzled about what they meant—and she’s the smartest one here.

I roll out of the sleep canister to get myself breakfast. I choose a nutrient smoothie. We don’t exactly eat food anymore, not like the older times long ago, like the 2000s. The library in our underground base is incredible. Practically all of my knowledge comes from it.

As I drink my smoothie, Dakota walks out of the library.

“How long have you been in there?” I ask.

“Since about 2:30,” she responds. “I’ve been reading.”

“You’re always reading, aren’t you?”

“Reading improves the mind.”

She takes a seat at the metal table and opens a book.

“I was actually finding out more on the apocalypse. I discovered that the reason of the destruction was some mineral called necrotite from millions of years ago.”

At that moment, Eli walks in.

Dakota and I shift away from each other.

“Chase, how’s your morning going so far?” Eli asks, helping himself to a glass of water.

“Fine,” I reply. “Dakota, tell him about your discovery.”

Dakota starts. “The reason the world was destroyed was—”

“Good morning!” Elisa shouts as she enters the room. I cringe.

“Keep your voice down,” I tell her. “Eli and I just woke up.”

She throws me a grin and takes a seat next to Dakota. “Watcha reading?” she asks as she peers over Dakota’s shoulder.

Dakota shifts away. “As I was saying, the world apocalypse was triggered by necrotite at the center of the world.”

I finish my drink and clean out the glass. Then I head to the tech lab.

When I open the door, I walk up to the big screen and check for monsters outside the lab. No sign. I guess I could go outside for a little bit.

I walk over to the tunnel entrance, push the numbers on the keypad, and crawl up the tunnel.

As I exit the tunnel, I take a look around to make sure it’s safe. Then I take a seat on the hard ground and look out past the barren wasteland of the world and toward the horizon.

The sun is coming up, bright scarlet. Pink and orange clouds scutter across the sky. I’ve heard that there are things called trees out there. They used to be abundant all over the world. Now there are only a few left. I wonder if I will ever escape this worthless land of rocks and dirt and find the color green. I’ve never even seen it, I think.

I hear a distinct sound of dirt scattering behind me as the trapdoor opens.

“Chase? You OK?”

“I’m fine, Eli.”

He comes over to me and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to be cooped up my entire life. I want to live my life and explore the universe.”

“It’s OK, man. Come back down and get a little more rest.”

And with that, I crawl down the tunnel and hop into my sleep canister.

* * * * *

I’m walking through green. It looks like the color of the sky at midday mixed with the yellow sand outside. It’s wonderful. I feel like I’m flying. Something cracks. Then it’s not just green. It’s black too. It’s a monster. I can tell. It’s just a dream, I tell myself. But this one is new. I’ve never seen anything like it. Then it lunges at me. I scream. And it all goes black.

* * * * *

I wake up in the medical room. It’s bright white. I can’t see anything. I hear voices.

“Is he OK?”

“What happened?”

“He’s awake!”

My eyes begin to make out images. Eli and Elisa are standing over my bed. Dakota is over by the sink, preparing a needle.

“Chase! What happened?” says a voice that could only be Eli’s.

I tell them all I remember about my dream.

“How can you get hurt in a dream?!”

Dakota stops getting the medicine ready, comes over, and answers, “Some monsters can dreamstalk—”

“What the heck is that?!”

“I was going to tell you,” she said irritably. “Dreamstalking means to act like normal in dreams, just like in real life.”

“So if a monster is dreamstalking you, you can get hurt. Weird,” Elisa comments. She doesn’t seem to care.

“Don’t you realize what this means? Someone could get hurt. Or worse—”

“They could track us down,” I say.

The lab was chaos. Everyone was in the room, monitoring the cameras outside, monster data, and who knows what else. It’s hard to focus, but it’s vital for our survival. Sirens are blaring, people yelling. It’s hectic.

“What should I handle?” I ask.

Dakota gives me the seat for the camera monitoring. “Take this,” she says.

I’m watching the four boxes on the screen like my life depends on it. Actually, it does. Anyway, as I’m watching, there are some shapes on the horizon. As they get closer, I start to make out what they are. Giant floating eyes covered in scaly skin.

“Spectres,” I growl under my breath.

* * * * *

Me and Eli are getting into our armor when Elisa darts into the room.

“Hurry up!” she snaps, then runs back out.

When I’m finished putting on the herilcate armor, I take out my sterlite doublade and rush out, up the tunnel, and into a dust storm.

Eli and I draw our weapons as the spectres get closer.

Fifty feet away. My lip quivers.

Twenty-five feet away. Eli grips his hammer a little tighter.

Fifteen feet away. We rush at the spectres, weapons held high.

The spectres attack us, weakening us with their rotting gazes, ramming us with their boulder-like bodies. There’s three of them.

How are we supposed to destroy these things?! I think, lying on the ground, the wind knocked away from me.

Eli’s crushing it, though. He smashes through one of them, sending it flying twenty feet away, knocked out. Then he slams another against the ground, flattening it.

I pick up my blade and rush at the final one, slashing it in half.

We both take a moment to collect ourselves, then we walk back to the trapdoor and crawl back down to the fort.

* * * * *

“I get that you use the training room a lot, but that was incredible, Eli!” I tell him.

He’s modest. “Did you really think that we couldn’t take on just spectres on our own?” he asked.

“Those things were brutal!”

He laughs. “Those were the easiest monsters that you’ll ever come across, according to the data files. We haven’t discovered many, though.”

“I sure hope there are easier ones.”

* * * * *

We’re lying in our sleep canisters across the room, worn out by the fight. Sleeping is impossible. I’m shaken up.

“Do you want a sleep pill?” asks Eli.

“Sure.”

He walks off to the medical room.

I lie in my sleep canister for a couple minutes when I hear thumping. It’s growing louder, and louder, and—

It all goes black.

* * * * *

I’m in a room with a desk, a table with a pile of paper on it. There is a door on one side of the room and a big, domed window with sunlight streaming through it.

I walk over to the desk. It has a couple books on it with a small computer. The books have titles like Botany Encyclopedia, and Field Guide to the Trees of the World. I take a look inside one of them. It has an image of a certain vine with some facts about it.

I walk over to the door and open it. There is nothing on the other side.

What is this place?

I go look at the table with the packets and the pot. The pot has some dirt in it, while the packets have little things in them, about a quarter of the size of your fingernail. The writing says these things are seeds. Apparently, this is what plants grow from. Put these in some soil, and

water them every so often, and they’ll grow. I look at the pot. The can has water inside of it. This is how it will get water.

I’ll try it later.

Suddenly, I stumble over one of the chair legs. I trip over my own feet towards the—

Open door.

The last thing I remember is that I still have the seed packets in my hands as I fall into the endless darkness.

My eyes snap open. The seeds are still in my hand. What?

I get out of the sleep canister and walk out of the bedroom. I need to tell the others, I think.

I walk into the library. Dakota is sitting in a bean bag, reading a book. “Dakota, I need to tell you someth—”

Alarms blare.

She looks at me.

We rush out of the room to find Eli and Elisa in the kitchen. “What’s going on?!” Elisa shouts.

“I don’t know!”

We all rush into the lab. I take a look at the cameras. On the screen, something black and dark purple is moving so fast it’s a blur.

It pauses for a second. I see an armored, slim, canine body with an elongated snout. It looks like what the books in the library say a wolf used to look like.

“Oh no,” Eli whispers under his breath. I stare at the screen.

Elisa speaks softly. “A nightbeast.”

The Lot

Burns Park Elementary School

Age 11

by Gwendolyn Etheridge

Chapter One

In Hartford, Connecticut, a large apartment area stood next to the highway, with an abandoned construction site three lots down. In the middle of the apartments stood two apartments across the street from each other, one dark blue, one beige.

In the blue apartment was a family of three, one dad and two kids, Pierce and Piercen. Pierce was like a golden retriever, and Piercen was like a squirrel. Both siblings were brunette and like their father with high energy.

A family of three had moved in a week ago into the beige apartment: a red-haired mother and a brown-haired father, and a brownish-reddish-haired daughter named Maeve. She was like a black cat, mysterious and angered easily.

Maeve’s family moved from Colorado. Her father got a business opportunity, and her mother wanted to be somewhere warmer, but Maeve liked Colorado and was upset at the news.

Maeve had spent the week inside the apartment crocheting her anxiety away, but no matter how many bees and mini yarn dinosaurs she made, she still felt anxious. It felt like being inside made it worse. She tried everything: television, cooking, gardening, even reading a big book about Albert Einstein for two hours straight. But nothing worked.

“Papa, I’m so bored!” moaned Maeve.

Her father walked into the living room with a cup of coffee.

“Roxie hasn’t had a walk today. Why don’t you take her around the other apartments?” her father asked politely.

Roxie was a small, gray, one-year-old pit bull. Maeve sighed and walked to get her coat. She clipped Roxie’s leash to her yellow collar, and they stepped out the door.

They walked around the apartments: small ones, big ones, ones that smelled of cat pee.

Her eyes fell onto one place, but it wasn’t an apartment that caught her eye. What caught her eye was the construction site, with big mounds of gravel and metal pipes and a fence surrounding the lot.

Toward the highway was a small hole in the fence big enough for someone to slip through. Maeve looked up. It was hard to see, but she saw two kids sliding down a gravel hill with a trash can lid.

“How peculiar,” Maeve mumbled under her breath.

A squirrel crawled on the fence. Roxie bolted after the squirrel, and her leash slipped out of Maeve’s hand as she fell onto the gravel.

“Roxie! Heel! Heel!” Maeve cried.

Roxie ran through the hole in the fence chasing the pest.

Maeve ran toward the hole and put her foot through the fence, and then she stopped.

Maeve took a deep breath and began running after Roxie.

Metal pipes and wood frames lay in messy piles on the ground. The wood was rotting and growing mold, and a family of mice had nested in the pipe.

Maeve slowly walked around.

“Roxie, we must go now,” she whispered.

Maeve was anxious but fascinated, startled but settled, like the mice in the pipe. Maeve walked a little more into the lot and looked around.

“Hey!”

Maeve whirled around with her hands in a flat shape like she was doing karate.

Two kids, one boy and one girl, stood behind her, Roxie’s leash in their hands.

“Is this your dog?” the girl asked.

“Yes!” Maeve said politely as she took Roxie’s leash. “Thank you.”

The girl stuck out her hand. “Pierce and Piercen,” she said as she grabbed Maeve’s hand and shook it.

“Maeve.”

“You’re the family who moved in, aren’t you?” asked Piercen.

“Yep, that’s us,” Maeve said, smiling sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid my mother would be worried if I stay for too long,” sighed Maeve.

“It’s been a lovely time.”

Maeve walked through the fence with Roxie and waved goodbye.

“My, they were lovely, weren’t they, Roxie?” asked Maeve.

Maeve and Roxie strolled around for a little while more then walked back home.

“Papa, I’m home!” yelled Maeve as she flopped onto a chair next to the dining table.

Maeve looked down at the table. A sticky note was on the fruit bowl from her dad.

At the store! the sticky note said.

Maeve’s mother worked as a teacher in the high school down the road. Maeve was homeschooled.

Maeve grabbed an apple from the bowl. She wasn’t very hungry. She stood up and walked to the window. Piercen and Pierce were still sliding down the gravel hill.

Maeve took a bite of her apple. Sticky, sweet juice fell down her face.

She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and fished her phone out of her pocket. She looked down at her lock screen. A picture of her and her dad playing in the snow shone onto her face. She missed Colorado, skiing down the hills with her dad, sledding down the golf course hills on inflatable donuts.

She missed everything.

At dinner, Maeve picked at her Chinese takeout with her fork.

“So, how’s the neighborhood?” asked Maeve’s dad.

“Fine and dandy,” sighed Maeve.

Maeve’s mother glared at Maeve.

“Sorry, I’m tired.”

Maeve looked at the window. Pierce and Piercen were playing with cardboard tubes like they were swords.

Pierce looked at the window and waved to Maeve. Maeve smiled and waved back.

“Maeve, eat your food, it’s getting rather cold,” said Maeve’s mother, annoyed.

Maeve took a few more bites. “May I be excused?” asked Maeve. Maeve’s mother nodded.

Maeve flopped onto her bed in her favorite sweatshirt. Roxie laid down next to her legs, keeping them warm. Maeve pressed her face onto the cold frosted glass. The twins were walking to their apartment with a garbage can top.

The cold window was soothing. Maeve felt her eyelids get heavy. Her breathing became steady, and she drifted off to sleep.

The sky shone a peachy yellow. Leaves floated past her window in the cold, frosty wind.

Wam! A tennis ball hit the window where Maeve was sleeping, and she fell off the bed, startled, Roxie still sleeping like a stone.

Pierce and Piercen stood below the window.

“Are you mad?” Maeve opened the window and yelled down.

“Wanna play in the lot with us?” asked Pierce.

Maeve was hesitant, but she wanted to, badly.

“I’ll be right down.”

Maeve put on pants and walked down the stairs slowly, the stairs creaking under her weight. She tied her shoes, and then she slowly grabbed the door knob and opened the back door.

She closed the door quietly and walked around the apartment. Maeve greeted her new friends.

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” yelled Piercen running toward the lot.

“Hey, no fair!” Pierce yelled back, running after her.

Maeve laughed and ran after them.

Maeve sprinted past Pierce and grabbed Piercen’s hood and pulled her back.

Maeve squeezed between the fence hole, kneeling down to catch her breath.

“No fair! You’re faster than us,” said Piercen as she squeezed through the hole in the fence.

“Sore loser,” Maeve whispered under her breath. Pierce chuckled. Maeve looked at him.

How could he have heard that? Maeve thought standing up straight.

Maeve looked around. “So, what should we do?” said Maeve, rocking up and down on her heels.

“Ooh! Piercen, let’s show her the saucer game,” Pierce said. “I’ll go get the saucer!”

“A saucer? Like a frying pan?” Maeve asked.

Pierce ran behind a wooden pallet and came back with a trash can lid.

Piercen ushered Maeve to the gravel hill.

“I’ll explain the game,” Piercen said.

“Can I?” Pierce asked.

“No, I will.” Piercen said.

“So we take the metal saucer to the top of the hill, and we slide down. Simple, really.”

Maeve walked up the hill with the twins and they placed the trash can lid onto the gravel.

Maeve sat down.

“I don’t think there’s enough room for all of us?” Maeve said, looking back.

Piercen had a big grin on her face,“That’s the whole point.”

Piercen kicked Maeve’s back and sent her flying down the hill.

Maeve slid down the gravel hill at rapid speed, her legs tucked into her chest so hard it was difficult to breathe.

Down at the bottom was a foundation of a building, with a solid concrete wall at the back and two wooden, squarelike poles in the front on either side.

Maeve grabbed one of the wooden poles, and she turned sideways, falling onto the cold, frosty ground in the foundation. Maeve was frightened, but she felt alive.

“Do you like the saucer game?!” Pierce yelled down.

Maeve sat up, “Yes, yes I do.”

Maeve grabbed the lid and ran up the gravel hill.

She slipped on the gravel.

Maeve dusted herself off and kept climbing up. It was steep and difficult to get up, but she made it to the top.

Maeve and the twins took turns sliding down the hill, each making close calls of hitting the wall.

“My turn!” Pierce yelled down to Piercen.

Piercen handed Pierce the lid. He put it on the gravel and sped up. Pierce slid down. He had his feet in the air. He looked away for just a moment, but when he looked back he was speeding toward the wall. The only thing to stop him from face-planting into the wall was his leg.

Piercen and Maeve were talking to each other on top of the hill. Even though Piercen talked loud, and they were far away, Maeve could make out a small sound.

Snap.

Chapter Two

Maeve whirled around to see Pierce screeching, holding his leg, his foot twirled in the opposite direction. It was most definitely broken.

Maeve panicked and looked at Piercen. She stood glued to the gravel just staring at him.

Maeve ran down the hill and looked down at her new friend, panicking.

Would her mother be worried? Would she be angry? Would she ground her? Maeve couldn’t bear the thought.

Piercen woke up from her daze and sprinted down the hill, yelling for her dad.

All Maeve could do was stand over Pierce, who howled like a dog.

It took a little bit, but finally Pierce’s dad came running through the fence. A wave of relief washed over her, but the relief was soon gone.

* * * * *

Maeve sat on the chair in the emergency room, tapping her leg on the floor. She tried to remove the sounds of sirens from her mind, but she couldn’t. The flashing lights in her eyes, the fear.

She had been waiting for an hour. Pierce’s family was in a room together getting his leg wrapped in a cast.

The hospital doors opened. Maeve’s mother came storming in with her husband running after.

“Why didn’t you text me where you were?” Maeve’s mother yelled. She grabbed Maeve’s arm, Maeve pulled away.

“Maeve, I was so worried about you.” Maeve’s mother tried to act sad.

“Were you though?” Maeve yelled back.

Maeve’s mother slowly backed away in shock.

“For years—years!—I’ve tried to be perfect and meet your expectations, but I was never enough for you!” Maeve had tears running down her face.

“I’ll ride home with Pierce’s family,” she sniffed, and she stormed off. Maeve’s mother stood there in shock, frozen as Maeve turned the corner.

Maeve saw Piercen sitting in a chair next to a hospital room.

“Is Pierce in there?” Maeve asked.

Piercen looked startled but happy that Maeve was there.

“Yeah, I can’t believe it’s all my fault,” she sighed.

“What do you mean? I was about to hurl! I didn’t even have breakfast.” Maeve chuckled.

Piercen chuckled.

A nurse in blue scrubs opened the door. “You two can come in now,” they said.

Piercen and Maeve walked into the room. Pierce had a blue cast on his leg and was sucking on a lollipop.

Maeve smiled at him, just happy that he was OK.

Mr. Morrallis’s Secret

Bach Elementary School

Age 8

by Ellie Carmody

It was raining hard, with dust flying in the wind. Mr. Morrallis woke up with a start. He lit a candle, only to see it blow out. Mr. Morrallis tiptoed to the window to see what had woken him. Nothing, he thought. But it wasn’t nothing. How could it be? Why else would he have woken up in the middle of the night?

The choo-choo, choo-choo of the train interrupted his thoughts. He looked through the window, expecting to see a train. But Mr. Morrallis didn’t see a train. He saw a man. This man had on a yellowish-green shirt and purple-and-orange-plaid pants. Who was this person? And where was he going? It looked like he was walking toward the woods. But he surely couldn’t be going to the woods. The woods were the most feared place at night.

I wonder who this is, Mr. Morrallis thought. The man kept looking behind his shoulder like he was being followed. But no one was following him now, at least. Mr. Morrallis decided he would follow him.

The man kept going, nearer and nearer to the woods. Once he got inside the woods, he said, “Hello, Sally,” in a warm tone.

“Hello, Jonathan,” the person called “Sally” replied in a cooler tone. Mr. Morrallis (who was hiding in the trees) zipped to the next tree to hide.

“What was that?” Sally asked. “Jonathan, we agreed to not bring any visitors or friends.”

“But I didn’t,” Jonathan insisted. “I really didn’t!”

“Then who is that?” Sally asked, pointing at Mr. Morrallis.

“GET HIM!” Jonathan cried.

Mr. Morrallis tried to run, but he tripped and fell flat on his face.

“How much did he hear?” Jonathan muttered to himself. “How much did he hear?”

What could have gone worse? Mr. Morrallis thought.

“Ah, we have been waiting,” Sally said quietly.

“For who?” Mr. Morrallis asked, shakily.

“For you,” she replied. And with that, she disappeared into the trees.

* * * * *

Sally left Jonathan and Mr. Morrallis together. “H-H-H-Hi . . . ,” Mr. Morrallis said. A growl replied. “Jonathan, was that you?” Mr. Morrallis asked.

“No, that wasn’t,” Jonathan replied. “Maybe it was that,” he said, pointing at a dark figure that was coming toward them.

Mr. Morrallis grabbed a stick to hit the figure with, but his aim quickly missed. The stick bounced off a tree, heading for Jonathan. “Jonathan! Watch out!” Mr. Morrallis yelled from behind a fence. Jonathan ducked just in time and ran behind the fence. “Phew,” Mr. Morrallis sighed. “Now that was close!”

Jonathan looked ahead. “It looks like a stream,” Jonathan said. “But how do we cross it?” he said.

“Hmm,” Mr. Morrallis said. “Well, maybe we could use that vine to swing across,” he said, pointing at the trees.

“No!” was Jonathan’s answer.

“Please!” Mr. Morrallis pleaded. “For once, listen to me.” Mr. Morrallis swung across on the vine and landed in the exact area he had meant to.

“I don’t know,” Jonathan complained. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I am going to keep going,” Mr. Morrallis said.

“No!” Jonathan cried. “We are supposed to be sticking together.”

“And who said that?” Mr. Morrallis asked.

“Well—,” Jonathan started to reply.

Mr. Morrallis cut him off. “That was a rhetorical question.”

Jonathan tried to cross the stream, but he missed the vine and landed in the water.

Mr. Morrallis hesitated. Should I save him?, he thought. After all he’s done to me? Mr. Morrallis wasn’t sure, but he did. He plunged into the water, grabbing Jonathan. He pulled him to the ground.

“Cough, cough,” was Jonathan’s only reply.

Had Mr. Morrallis hesitated too long? Was Jonathan OK?

“Ha! Gotcha!” Jonathan yelled. He had been tricking Mr. Morrallis!

“Come on, that was definitely not funny!” Mr. Morrallis said rudely.

“Wait, what was that?” Mr. Morrallis asked.

“It was me,” came a reply from behind him.

“Who?”

“ME. Sally.”

“Sally! No! It can’t be you!” Mr. Morrallis cried.

Jonathan sat up straight. “Leave, Sally!” Jonathan said.

“What did you say, Jonathan?”

“I said to leave,” Jonathan said coolly.

“NO!” raged Sally. “Jonathan, I thought you were my partner in crime.”

“And what made you, Sally, think that?” Jonathan asked while smirking. “I am a spy, Sally. Did you not notice it before?”

“NO, I didn’t,” Sally raged. “No, I did not. Jonathan, stop, just stop.” Sally slowly walked back with a glum look on her face. “GO. Now.”

“What’s wrong?” Jonathan felt bad for Sally.

“You don’t know?” Sally asked. “OK, I’ll tell you.” Sally started her story of how she became a criminal.

“Once, when I was a young girl, I worked in a bread shop. One day, while I was working, someone stole a loaf of bread. Before he left, he gave me a smile. He paid no money. It looked so easy to steal,” Sally said.

“That makes sense,” Mr. Morrallis said.

“Does it?” Jonathan asked.

“I don’t know,” Sally said. “I really don’t know.”

“And I have one more question,” Mr. Morrallis started.

“What is it?” Sally asked.

“What were you and Jonathan talking about in the woods?” Mr. Morrallis asked.

“Top secre—,” Sally started to respond.

Jonathan said, “No, tell him! He is our friend now.”

Sally sighed. “Alright. We were planning to start a company that makes evil robots. It was going to be the best-selling company in the

world, but then you just cut into the forest, and then, well, we didn’t talk very much anymore.”

“Why don’t we make that company into a good robot company?” Mr. Morrallis said.

“OK!” they all agreed. And so they did.

The Girl and the Robot

Angell Elementary School

Age 8

by Aina Haruta

Part One

One time, there was a robot-dog, robot-human, and a girl that lived on Planet Robot. There were so many robot things on Planet Robot. The robot-human gave the girl a robot-dog. The girl went to a hotel. “Someone stole from my room,” said a robot. “It is that person?!”

“Run,” said the girl. The girl ran so fast, she and the dog were tired. “Are we safe?” asked the girl.

“Arf,” said the dog.

“OMG!” More people were coming. “We have to run,” said the girl. So they ran into a portal to the human world. Everybody went into the portal. The humans were running into their houses or stores or hotels. Every robot was like, “What the heck just happened to us?” They tried to run back into the portal, but it closed before they were able to get in. Every robot was on Earth. The people and the robots were scared.

Meanwhile, the robot-human said, “I did not mean to do that.” He was the only robot that was left in the robot world. He stole all of the things that were left in the robot world. Now he was super rich, but no one was coming back. He became sadder and sadder. He wished he had not done that. He did not care if he was rich. He tried to feel better, but he did not feel better. Meanwhile, on Earth, the people and the robots

were wanting to fight so badly. The girl wanted to stop them because the robots were stronger than the people.

Part Two

The people might go extinct! “Oh no,” said the girl. “Please help,” she prayed to God. Then the portal opened. The others did not notice when the girl said, “The portal opened.”

The robots said, “Who cares?” Then the robot-human tried to keep the portal open. He put many of the metal sticks in so his robot clan could come back. He felt better and better. But then, the battle started. The girl ran into the portal, and she and the robot-human looked at the battle from the other side of the portal. Lots of people and robots did the same thing. Now, there was a tie. The robots went back to the portal. They were glad. They were happy when they got home because their home was so cozy! It was nighttime, so they went to sleep. The next day, all the robots wanted to ask the humans to come to the robot world! Then the girl went on an adventure to find a magic wand. They found pieces of a tiny wand then went to find a person that could put the wand back together. The pieces were so hard to put together. They found an old person that used to live in a museum. He found a portal and went in. But he soon got in trouble with the robots!

To be continued . . .

A2 STEAM School

Age 10

by Claire Jung

Once upon a time, I woke up and it was 2121! It was 2024 yesterday, but now it is 2121? I was freaking out. Soon, I noticed that I smelled a strong candy smell. Then I knew it. Everything had turned to candy. The walls were candy. The trees were candy. Everything was candy. But there is a problem. I have a strong allergy to corn. So, fun fact: most candy is made of corn syrup. So I was all swollen like a big, fat tomato. And red like a tomato. I started coughing like crazy. And as soon as you knew it, my mom came racing to my room, got me a mask, and went into the car.

The car trip was fun because everything was candy. A thing that I found out lately is that if you pour water on this candy, the candy melts and never comes back. I was wondering why my mom was not freaking out about everything turning into candy. I thought I had a hundred percent chance that I would not go to school at the right time. Because I said this and because I had a test first thing when I went to school. And if I didn’t do the test, I would get an F-. That is the lowest thing you can get. So, if you guessed, my mom would be very disappointed with me.

So now I was in the doctor’s office. You know when you go into the nurse’s office it smells like medicine. OK, the doctor was in the office. “Hello, today you are going to take allergy shots,” exclaimed the doctor. What! I did not want to take fifteen allergy shots. Ugh. At least my mom told me I can get a drink after I am done. Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Go. Aaaaa! That hurts so dang bad I am never going to do that again. Well,

after that, we went right back home. Well, I guess that is how I am going to live every single day.

So, twenty days later, I started smelling everything whenever I needed it. The first day I couldn’t go to school, but now I can start going to school!

One Hundred Years Later

Burns Park Elementary School

Age 9

by Ayoon Jung

“...! What . . . ? Why does this place look like this . . . ? Where am I . . . ? Why am I here. . . ?”

I woke up on the grass where I had been lying. I walked around here and there to find out where this place was and what year it was here. I think . . . this place . . . !

It is one hundred years in the future. I could be wrong, but I think we’re definitely one hundred years from now. While walking around earlier, I had seen an old calendar covered in dirt and sand in a building. The calendar said January 12, 2102. That’s why I thought it was one hundred years later. I wonder, Why one hundred years later?, but water and food are important now. First, we need to get water. Because you can’t survive even four days without water. But . . . the supermarket was just an old building, and there was no water. Everything in nature was rotting and there was nothing that could be saved. How many days can I survive with two water bottles? First of all, I think I need to go into other buildings and check if there is water and food. When I looked to one side, I found a building that looked clean. It seemed like there might be some more water in that building. I decided to go into the building. When I went in, there was a room, and it seemed like there were people there. What . . . ?! The moment I thought, How did that person get here . . . ?, I heard a very loud sound.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

“What . . . !”

The sound probably came from the room I had just seen! When I woke up, I was in the field again. But it was different from before. It was an environment in which creatures could live, and the buildings all looked fine. Now it seemed more difficult to see rotten or old buildings and objects. “I’m back . . . ! I’m back . . . ! It’s back like before! Perhaps because I kept running around and searching the strange old streets, I was very thirsty. I thought, Oh, I’m thirsty. . . I need to get some water from the supermarket! While running to the supermarket, I lost my footing and fell. . . . ! That time when I stood up thinking I had to get up again. . . ! The environment caught my eye because . . . !

The environment was destroyed, as it had been. Besides, I was back inside the building. It felt like a time loop.

I was more panicked than when I first came to this world. I felt like my hopes were shattered. Just when I thought I could survive, I couldn’t help but feel panic when I returned to this world. A few minutes later, I came to my senses, stood up, and looked into the room. Inside the room, people who appeared to be researchers were talking in confusion.

“We failed . . . ”

I saw a sign on the wall next to the room. The sign said 0198 Yeseol. “Ye . . . seol . . . ?” The name sounded familiar to me. “My nameplate . . . !” It was exactly the same as my name written on the name tag.

And one thing . . .

The test subject over there was also me.

The Happy Family Lakewood Elementary School

Age 8

by Tia Son

Once there was a family living in a wooden house. In the family, there was a dad, mom, sister, and brother. The sister’s name was Lucy. The brother was Ben. But one day there was a problem. The problem was that all the rice ran out! The family was worried. Dad suggested they go to their neighbor. But Mom suggested calling the rice family. Lucy was on Mom’s team. But Ben was on Dad’s team. That night, they got angry and began to fight.

The next morning, Dad put on a race: whoever comes home with rice first wins. Dad and Ben were the Dragon Team. Mom and Lucy were the Rainbow Team.

They tried, but they had another problem. Then Lucy and Ben said together, “I think it is better because we can have more rice!” Then Mom and Dad said, “Yeah!” And they became a great, happy family!

Pictures of Cats

Lawton Elementary School

Age 10

by

Simone Lutz

Part One

Snowball the kitten (a white kitty with gray spots) was walking down the street for no good reason when he got sucked up into . . . PICTURES OF CATS.

Chapter One: What a Dumb Day

He was sucked up by a portal void thingy and got teleported to a forest with tall, red pines that blocked out the sky. A skinny tree next to Snowball had a birch sign that said: WELCOME TO THE PICTURES OF CATS!

“Great.” Snowball thought bitterly. “I’m in the middle of nowhere.” He started walking deep into the forest. The more he walked, the more (strangely) the trees blurred. Soon, they were just brown, vertical lines with blurry green dots here and there. Then something big flashed in front of him.

“What was that?!” Snowball wondered. Then another thing flashed. Then another. Snowball took a closer look and realized they were pictures of him! There was a pic of him snuggling peacefully with Luna, his calmest friend, and a pic of him with a pair of underwear on his face. As he stared at them, he heard sounds coming from the pics. He heard chewing from the pic of him happily eating a pie and loud snoring from the pic of him and Fatfat, his chubbiest, orange, snuggly friend, sleeping.

Then he heard an ear splitting HOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLL! It was a wolf! It was coming straight for him!

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” Snowball ran. The wolf was right behind him! The trees became clearer. Snowball was getting tired. So he did something crazy: he lept on top of the wolf and scratched his eyes! The wolf fainted from shock (which is not weird at all!). Snowball ran far away, back to the picture place, hid behind the underwear-face pic and fell asleep. When he woke up, the wolf was back. It happened all over again. What a dumb day.

Chapter Two: Giant Hot Dog Marks the Spot

Snowball woke up (for the second time) and found that the pics were gone. He found a giant hot dog with a wooden sign on it: GIANT HOT DOG MARKS THE SPOT!

Chapter Three: The Scroll

Snowball took a bite out of the hot dog. Suddenly, it vanished! Instead, there was a fat orange cat.

“Ahhh! Fatfat?! What the cat?” Snowball screamed. Fatfat tilted his head.

“Hi!” he meowed. “I came to visit!”

“How did you get here?!” Snowball meowed.

“Cause I did,” Fatfat said. Then he vanished.

Fatfat come back! Snowball thought. Suddenly, he flashed back, causing Snowball to scream.

“Oh. I almost forgot. Luna said I had to deliver this.” He handed Snowball a scroll. Snowball opened it.

“Beware of that queen. Beware of Boppy, the Loyal Guard. Beware of Pobby, Commander of Water. Beware of Silver, that Loony Sundew maniac. But most of all, beware of that queen.” Fatfat vanished.

To be continued . . .

Homeschool

Age 12

by Simon Tunks

I was sitting in my room one day. I was writing a story about the future for my after school writing lab in Ann Arbor. I was feeling proud of my story.

I found out what a Type I civilization is from an internet video. A Type I civilization is a civilization that can harness all the power of its home planet.

My mom said I had to do spring cleaning. I didn’t want to do spring cleaning. I hated it. So I was procrastinating, just staring at my blue bedroom wall, which I made into an art gallery. I had a painting from when I was six, a copy of the Mona Lisa from when I was nine, a glowin-the-dark painting of the moon from my dad’s friend Dan, and a color wheel for when I do watercolors.

I stared at my calendar. 2024 had been bogus so far.

And then I heard a strange noise, and the pictures started swirling into a swirly hole that looked like Superman ice cream.

I felt interested and nervous and curious at the same time. I felt that I should go in and find out, so I jumped in.

What is this? Flying cars, futuristic buildings! All plants were made of plastic! Aliens!

I stared out into the distance, and I felt like I was in a sci-fi story.

It looked like the buildings were 3D printed! The trees were either holograms or plastic, and there were no cow restaurants anywhere because they were extinct. Lots of aliens, people, robots. For some reason, there

were penguins everywhere. And there were tons of people in Ann Arbor (including me). Lots more than normal. I saw a huge billboard blasting an intergalactic news bulletin about a war between Jupiter and Saturn.

I realized that humanity had become a Type I civilization.

I wandered around the tech district. I liked the tech district. I saw an Apple mall, a repair shop, and a Microsoft store there.

After a while, I bumped into a boy. He said his name was Filja. He thought I looked like someone he was related to. He had a vintage heirloom family tree from the 2020s. He carried it wherever he went. He took it out for us to look at and see his father/my grandson, Joe Tunks, followed by my son, Steven Tunks the Second. And on that tree? Me.

Shock.

I got hungry because I hadn’t eaten anything in five hours.

“I think we could eat at that Martian cuisine restaurant that just opened,” said Filja.

While we waited for the waiter, Filja gave me tips on how to live in 2124.

“Conformity has been banned, don’t go anywhere near the Microsoftmart, save all coupons you will ever encounter, don’t use Comic Sans as a font, and beware of the evil penguins that have been a Type I civilization ever since sixty-five million years ago!” said Filja. “They claimed both Antarctica and Pluto in the year 10,000 BC, they stole a castle from Spain and filled it with fish in the year 1500 AD, and three days ago, they stole a giant 3D printer and printed a giant fish statue out of cement!”

But I wasn’t listening. I was too distracted by the future.

I picked up an unusual cylinder he left on the table.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It’s a high-tech gamma laser pointer. Something everything else is vulnerable to,” answered Filja. “It’s got tons of features. My favorites are flashlight, UV, and cat pointer.”

I didn’t want to stay in the future. But I didn’t know how to get back; neither did Filja.

“I need to get back home,” I said.

The Martian waiter overheard what we were talking about. “If you want to go back in time, you got to go where you could’ve bought or repaired a robot one hundred years ago.”

I thought about it and remembered the robot store!

We went there and that turned out to be an abandoned grocery store from the year 2050.

Right as we walked in, the cash registers spewed out old, dusty money. In the frozen aisle’s vegan freezer with the old, rotten broccoli bites was a paper with a timeline of video formats. On the bottom-right corner in an extremely small typeface there were the words “Copyright 2021, Henry Ford Museum.” We had found another clue!

We had to find the final clue before the penguins won! We tried JFK’s assassination car and nothing was in there. We tried looking everywhere! Eventually, we found the third and final clue at the old-timey theater recreation. It was a Mega-Meijer coupon for free potato chips with a time-hole purchase! We went to the Mega-Meijer for the timehole and free chips.

The time-hole generator cost $6,000,000. These penguins were at the time-hole, and they were about to go back in time and get as many penguins as they could for their evil plot. Their plan was to build an army of penguins and robot-penguins to destroy the sun.

I saw that there were a lot of penguins at the bread sample booth. I just looked at the refried beans, and there was something under the booth. The penguins were under the bread sample booth having a super secret meeting on how to destroy the sun. I finally realized the penguins were evil.

“We are blocking the portal!” announced the penguins.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to fight,” said Filja. And we fought the penguins with hand-to-hand combat. I threw the first punch! But the penguin blocked it. Filja tried going around it, but it was blocked by a giant brick wall. Then we realized the penguins were too strong because the penguins blocked all our moves. Filja and I tried blocking the penguins’ punches and kicks, but the penguins went for the unblocked areas, so Filja brought out his gamma laser pointer. Filja turned the laser frequency up to gamma, pointed it at the penguins, and zapped the penguins with it.

If you zap someone with a laser pointer, the laser frequency needs to be at microwave, X-ray, or gamma. When you zap someone with a laser pointer, if it is visible or infrared, nothing happens. If microwave, then they’re cooked. If X-ray, you might be able to scramble their DNA or RNA around. If gamma, then they will explode! The same thing happens to

penguins and people, but it just cuts a wall, and all light goes forever and ever until all of it gets absorbed.

We used the display unit of the time portal generator. The portal got me home. I set the space-time coordinates to the robot supply shop on March 20, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. I got back home to Ann Arbor in 2024 safe and sound. Then I ran into myself and the space-time continuum unraveled. But that’s another story.

Kevin’s Magical Adventure Slauson Middle School

Age 12

by Taeheon Jun

Once there was a kid named Kevin. He was living happily with his family and the villagers in a small village. But then a magical artifact was indeed at the center of the village. He and the villagers were curious about it. The artifact got activated, and then monsters formed around the artifact to protect it, because if the artifact gets taken, they turn to stone. After that, the villagers were hiding from the monsters, but Kevin found a way to escape. He told the villagers quietly so the monsters couldn’t hear, “I found a way to escape this disaster, follow me!” So he and the villagers went to the passage that Kevin found, but because of the artifact, a hole formed at the passage. Kevin and the villagers got trapped inside the hole. He tried to get out of it, but the hole was too deep to climb up. But then adventurers came and rescued the villagers (including Kevin). They got the artifact by fighting the monsters, and when the artifact was out of the ruin, the monsters turned to stone and got destroyed.

Then one of the adventurers said, “We need to go to the safe place,” with an exhausted voice from fighting the monsters, so Kevin and the villagers followed the adventurers to the safe place. On the way, the adventurers protected them and rescued other people. After that, they reached the only safe place, Hopeville! When they got there, the adventurers said that they needed to go to save more people, so they waved goodbye and went to the wilderness. After that, Kevin was amazed by

what adventurers do. He dreamed of being an adventurer and saving land. So he kept training to be an adventurer, but when he kept training, more artifacts came to this land. They kept making the land not livable and kept making monsters that attacked humans. Then a few years passed, and finally Kevin became an official adventurer by graduating from a ridiculously difficult adventurer training school. He ran home fast as a bunny and put on his adventure suit. He said bye to his family and home and got ready for traveling the world. He left his family at Hopeville Harbor and went straight up from the harbor. He arrived at Hopeville City, and it was more evolved than the harbor.

He went to the gateway, and when the guards blocked him, he showed them the diploma that said he graduated adventuring school, so the guards allowed Kevin to go through the gateway.

First, he went to the village he used to live in. There was no one to take care of the village. So the village was empty and rusty, and when he entered his old house, everything he had in this village was now just a rusty past.

He came out and saw monsters coming from the cave near the village, so he attacked them and headed to the cave. He found a powerful artifact that kept summoning monsters, and then he found this cave was made by the artifact too. That means if he takes the artifact off the podium, the cave will collapse and he’ll get in it. He slayed the monsters, took the artifact, and ran fast as a bunny and got out of the cave before it collapsed.

After he came out, he looked back and saw rocks that were once a cave. He saw the artifact and it was a drill. But when he poked the ground, a sinkhole formed at that spot, so Kevin stored it in his bag and continued the journey again. On the journey, he saw a village that was peaceful and had no attacks from monsters. He was shocked and got curious and visited that village. At the front of it, there was a sign saying “Welcome to Miracle City, a place that is peaceful and safe from monsters.”

He went into the city cautiously because he thought there weren’t any villages that are protected from magical damages. Then a tourist came and said, “Welcome to Miracle City. It’s uncommon for people to come by on their own, and what is that drill?”

So Kevin replied, “I’m an adventurer from a village called Hopeville. I’m surprised that there is a place that is safe from the disasters caused

by magic. Our village is safe because there are adventurers that are trained to protect it.”

“So,” the tourist replied. “Well, we have our own way to be safe and it’s technology, and something else,” the tourist said with a strange voice that was hiding something. Kevin started researching because he was curious about the “other thing.” What adventures would wait for him?!

Bob’s Adventure

Angell Elementary School Age 8

by Kenshin Haruta

Part One

One day, there was a boy named Bob, and he bought a robot named Ros. Fifty years later, the sun moved close to the Earth. It was only one centimeter away from Earth! So the humans and robots decided to leave Earth and go to Planet Blah. Bob and Ros met Ly on the planet. And they also met Kill, the alien that destroys anything! So Bob, Ros, and Ly went searching for stuff.

They found a wand and Bob kept it. Bob had learned magic! Bob tried waving the wand and made Ros float! Bob wanted to do more kinds of magic, so he trained. A year later, he mastered magic! He learned every kind of magic you can think of! With magic, they put on a war.

Part Two: Bob’s Adventure and the Big War

After they put on the war

Bob made an unbreakable field to battle on. They had started the battle! It was Kill vs. Bob. After the battle, Bob lost! He ended up in a trillion pieces! But then his body magically stuck back together and exploded Kill! So, Bob won!

Part Three: Bob’s Adventure: The Farewell

They finished their mission and got magic. So they chose to do a little farewell party and said their farewells and headed home. Bob used his magic to change the sun back to its normal size. Ros chose to stay on Planet Blah. Ly went to his home world with his mom’s portal magic. The End.

Bob’s Adventure

Lawton Elementary School

Age 10

by Terry Jun

! Watch This First !

The zombie’s name was Bob. He worked at a restaurant. Bob was born in his tomb. Bob was playing video games in his house, and Bob saw a new video game had come out, but the sale ended in three days. So he had to earn money quickly so he could buy a new video game, stream it, and earn more money than he paid for it.

Chapter One: Game Sale

Bob was playing a game and he was hungry, so he went to a market to buy ingredients. After he was done shopping, he was coming home, and he saw on a poster that the new game had come out! He thought, Let’s buy the game because the game was selling. But he didn’t have money, so he thought about how to make money to buy the game.

Chapter Two: Making Money

Bob was at a restaurant serving food, but he wasn’t paying attention. He accidentally served a brain because he was thinking only about making money, not paying attention to work. He put tomato, garlic, cheese, and pickles on top of the brain. How it was: tomato on the side. Cheese and garlic in the middle, and, at last, pickle all over. The family was trying to eat after they were served, but the kid in the family said,

“Why is there pink in the food?” The kid asked if they noticed something pink before they ate, so they dumped all the topping off the serving plate and then they saw Bob’s brain.

The people who ordered the food screamed, “AHHHHH! Why is there a brain instead of spaghetti?!” Bob said sorry three times and called the owner of the restaurant. The owner gave one thousand dollars to the people who ordered spaghetti and got a brain.

After the disaster, the owner said “You’re fired!” Bob was very sad and started looking for more jobs.

Chapter Three: Finding a New Job

So after the owner gave the family one thousand dollars, Bob also gave them one hundred dollars. So now, he only had two hundred dollars, but the game cost five hundred dollars. So, he had to get three hundred dollars more. He was looking for a job, and then he found a Halloween party. You could work at the party for money, and after you work there is five hundred dollars. He thought he could sell brainshaped food with brain sandwiches. Then he was thinking about what he is good at. He thought maybe he could be a YouTuber.

He started recording. He turned on the game that he created. The game is a survival game. Every minute, you get a random item so you can fight. The game is called Zombie Survival. Sometimes zombies spawn in random places, so you have to survive people and zombies.

So, Bob started a game that involved getting items and running away from players who are talking. He got stuck to the ground and summoned his friend Hulk Hogan, who is seventy years old and rips his shirt and wrestles everybody in the game server. So, Hulk Hogan helped Bob get up and get a weapon and win many games. Then a hacker showed up and destroyed everybody with hacks. Then, everybody didn’t know that Bob was the admin of the game. So, Bob banned the hacker so that he can’t come back ever again to the game. After doing the streaming, he saw how much money he got. He got twenty-five dollars, so he saved that money and slept for the next morning.

Chapter Four: Streaming for Money

The next day, he started to think he should make money from streaming, not streaming on live, and he was playing Super Mario Wonder

with Nintendo Switch. Then he died, so he asked the people who were watching his stream: “This stage is so hard, how do you clear this level?” And the people taught him how to clear the level. Then he said, “I will stop streaming today and see you guys next time!” and stopped streaming. He got seventy-five dollars by doing a stream because the Super Mario Wonder was a famous game.

Chapter Five: Streaming for One Hundred Dollars

He was talking to his friend about how to get money, and his friend said there was a little job to get seventy-five dollars. It was a market job. After Bob was done driving to the market, his friend tried it. First, he saw his first person to buy something, and he scanned with a barcode scanner. After the person was done choosing food, he said, “It’s $39.51, sir.”

The person swiped the card to buy the food. After Bob was done helping to buy the food, he worked there for five hours more. A few minutes or an hour later, he came home, and he got seventy-five dollars more. Now he had $475, and he would do a live stream tomorrow and get the leftover twenty-five dollars. He left to go to bed and sleep.

Chapter Six: Last Twenty-Five Dollars

The next day, Bob woke up with a clock ringing with a song called “Rickroll,” and at the end of the alarm and song he just tried to forget it. Then the alarm said, “You got rickrolled.” He was so mad, and he broke the alarm.

Then, he did a live stream. It was 3:35 p.m., and he was playing a game called Minecraft. He was crafting netherite armor to get less damage to fight a warden. Also he made a night-vision potion so he could see better at the warden’s battle. Somebody did a mission: “Fight a warden = $25,” so he used a netherite ax and night-vision potion. He won, so he got twenty-five dollars as promised. He bought the game he wanted and the story ended. The End.

Wait, We Didn’t Get to the Backroom, That’s Disappointing

Clague Middle School

Age 13

by James Sandstedt-Fields

Nik used to love running. Now it was all he did. Run away from home when it was attacked. Run away from the train he was using to get somewhere safe. Now he was running through a forest away from soldiers. Branches whipped at his face as he stumbled and tripped on an exposed root. As he looked up, he saw soldiers coming out of the trees around the clearing he was in.

“Put your hands up,” said one of the soldiers. The soldiers led him to some sort of military base with barbed wire and all the stuff you would expect from a military base. As he came closer, he saw a line of people, which the soldiers led him toward. Next to the line, an old man was sitting on the ground.

When Nik reached him, the old man looked up and said, “Take this. You won’t get anything else to eat or drink where you’re going,” as he gave Nik a bottle of almond water. As Nik continued, he thought he saw the old man dissolve into smoke.

The Frozen City Is a Ghoutius Place with Dragons Guarding It Age 12

by

James Ledbetter

Deep in the woods a merchant walks toward the city. A kobold performs for the tavern.

A fire satyr stumbles toward the bar. The satyr gets a fire drink while listening to his future comrade, the kobold. The kobold plays an instrument out of his arm. As the satyr looks closer, he notices that the kobold is made almost entirely out of metal. The kobold is tarred off the stage and notices the fire drink the satyr is drinking. The kobold asks the satyr, “Did you know about the extreme fire drink challenge?”

“No, I just came from Felgar,” replied the satyr. The kobold answers in shock, “Wow, that’s a far ways away.”

In the Void

Ann Arbor Open School

Age 9

by Kensington Dotson

Chapter One: Last Day

Anna was an extraordinary kid. She lived in a house on Academy Street, and you might think, This is a pretty boring story, but there’s one catch: she was living in the year 2931.

It was Friday morning, the last day before summer break. The air was moist, and it smelled like Anna’s dad’s pancakes with maple syrup.

Mmmm, thought Anna as her robot, Miley, dressed her.

After that, she had a quick bathroom break and then went downstairs to find her little brother, Issac, sitting in her seat.

“Of all the days, you chose to be the most annoying brother on the day before summer break,” Anna yelled!

“Hey,” her seven-year-old brother said, as if he just got pinched.

“STOP IT, you two. Today is the day before summer break, so let’s all enjoy it. The next time you go back, Anna, you’ll be in seventh grade, and Issac, you’ll be in second.” Anna’s mom’s voice was very strict, so Anna forced a smile. Anna got back on the hoverbus where her best (and only) friend sat.

“So, you ready for summer break?” asked Stacey.

“No, the school year has gone by too fast!” Anna replied. Anna thought about how next year would be her last year. She thought about her favorite teacher in third grade, Mrs. Megonmy. But

then, Anna put it all aside because today was going to be a great day. Anna was deep in thought when she realized that someone was shaking her. It was Stacey. The bus was completely empty except for Stacey, the bus driver, Mr. Jet, and some people that, by the looks of it, were medical professionals.

“Finally! Thank goodness you’re alive. I thought you were going into a coma, so I asked Mr. Jet for help. I called the ambulance, and I called out your name 125 times. I counted,” said Stacey.

“First of all, why would you think I was in a coma? Second of all, you couldn’t have said my name 125 times, and if you did, that means we’ve been here for a long time. Wait, what time is it?” asked Anna.

She checked her watch, and it was 11:10. She had missed a lot of school. Stacey took Anna to the office. She had missed four periods with only four left to go. Anna’s first (after the four she had missed) was history.

That seems like a good start, thought Anna.

She was wrong. History was boring, but at least she didn’t get a lot of homework because it was almost summer break! The one period that Anna liked was teleportation survivation. It taught you how to summon teleportation. It was the only class she paid attention to but did not understand. Anna had to learn how to summon teleportation. When you’re little, you travel with your parents, but as you grow older, you start traveling by yourself. And Anna had never traveled by herself.

At the end of the day, when Anna’s bus landed with a BOOM, she waited for everyone to get off. Then she, Stacey, and this one other girl who sat just behind them walked to the end of the hoverbus (or bus for short) and fell, but not to the ground. A hoverboard scooped each of them up and took them home. Swish swoosh until she got to Academy Street. As the door opened, Anna walked in. Her mom was making dinner, and her dad was watching TV. Anna walked upstairs to her room and started to look on Instagram Plus. After that, Anna ate dinner and then went to bed (unaware that this might be the last time in a while that she slept soundly).

Chapter Two: Reunion

Morning came, and it was finally summer break. Anna was ready to sleep in, but her mom interrupted.

“Come on, Anna, get ready, almost time to go!”

“Go where?” asked Anna, disappointed to get woken up.

“To the reunion, of course” said her mom.

Anna, who wanted to sleep in but didn’t have a choice, got up. Miley got her dressed in her favorite gray tank top and navy blue shorts and took her downstairs to eat. Everyone was silent. Everyone stared at Anna. Anna didn’t know what was wrong until Anna’s dad said

“Can you wear something more . . . formal?”

“Sure,” replied Anna.

So Anna went back upstairs, and then Miley got her dressed in a fancy blue dress. Then she went back downstairs. After that, Anna’s mom lectured her about the safeties of teleportation survivation, but Anna stopped listening after her mom said, “Here are the very important . . . ” Anna thought that she didn’t have to be lectured to on teleportation, but was it true?

Chapter Three: The Void

Anna was now ready to go to her family reunion. Her hair was in a high ponytail and she was wearing fancy shoes. Now all she had to do was teleport.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go on your own?” asked Anna’s mom.

“Yes, Mom, yes, I am ready,” replied Anna.

“OK then, let’s go,” Anna’s mom said.

Anna was ready, or at least she thought she was. The first step of summoning teleportation was to relax and think about where you want to go, so that’s what Anna did. She calmed down and thought about summer, all the flowers, warmness. The second step was to summon by putting your hands out forward then out to the sides ten times. Anna tried to count, but she accidently did it eleven times. In order to go where you wanted to go, you had to do everything perfectly, so while Anna’s family went to her grandparents’ house, Anna went . . . elsewhere.

It was black. Anna woke up. Thankfully, Anna happened to have a torchlight so she could see. But there was nothing to see, because when she turned on the light, all there was was garbage and trash. As Anna went farther, it got worse. Broken cars, dead animals, and rocks, yes, lots and lots of rocks. There was something spinning, glowing almost. When Anna reached out to touch it, she got sucked in! Suddenly, Anna got spit out. She was on the other side of the void! After Anna got spit out of the

vortex, the vortex vanished just like smoke. What was Anna to do? All she could do was move forward. Anna started to panic. She started to frantically look for an exit until she realized there was no exit. Maybe she’d be stuck here forever! Suddenly Anna realized she was going to miss seeing her 102-year-old great-grandmom maybe for the last time! Anna was going to miss the family photo. Anna was going to miss everything! She had to get out of here, and she had to get out now!

The Friendship of Rory and Bob Eberwhite Elementary School

Age 10

by Nora Wingfield

Below, as you will read, Rory is a human, and Bob is a monkey Also note the Tuka Tuka tree is a bendy and leaning tree

Chapter One

Rory and Bob were searching for food in the forest when the supersecret ninja jumped out and tried to steal Bob!

Rory grabbed Bob and ran as fast as she could, but the ninja was close on her heels. She turned a sharp corner and jumped into a Tuka Tuka tree! Rory’s breath caught in her throat as the ninja swung slowly past them and didn’t even notice Rory and Bob, who were tucked in Tuka Tuka tree leaves and branches.

“Let’s go home,” Rory said. Bob nodded, showing that he did not want to be in the forest any longer.

They had just reached the hut. They opened the door to the little house and climbed the bamboo steps to the second floor. Rory walked into her room with Bob on her back. She layed Bob down on his little bed and she got in hers. Rory tucked herself in and thought about what had happened that day and about the ninja until sleep finally washed over her.

In the morning, Rory got up and out of bed.

“Come on, Bob, we have to go get food because we didn’t get any yesterday—because of that dreaded ninja,” Rory said. “Oh, Bob, you can

never seem to wake up early in the morning.” She rummaged around in his bed. But the covers were untidy and the bed was cold!

Rory was out in the forest looking for Bob. She had been out for five hours. Then she heard a splash. The only water on this island was the ocean that circled it. She looked through a bush, and she saw a man in a white lab coat carrying Bob into an enormous fortress!

“How have I not noticed this?” Rory whispered. She shook her head. “I have to follow them,” she muttered.

She grabbed the door right before it closed. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. When they did, Rory saw a clothing rack with lab coats and shoes underneath. She grabbed a pair of shoes and a lab coat.

“They won’t even know it’s me,” she said under her breath.

Chapter 2

Bob was freakishly calm. He had felt odd after he woke up a few minutes ago. Dizzy but awake. He felt better now but was surprised he wasn’t scared out of his mind. He was in a big glass box with a bunch of odd-looking test tubes attached to his body. He looked outside the box, and he saw a bunch of scientists everywhere. He saw one woman in a white dress with blond hair with caramel tips.

When did that come into style? thought Bob. And what’s going on here? Where am I and where is Rory? I want to go home! Bob screamed in his mind.

Then a scientist showed up. She had a big cart with a cage on it. As the scientist got closer, Bob realized it was Rory! She said some stuff to a scientist. He nodded and pushed a button, and the entire front wall of his cage opened. She picked him up gently.

“You came for me,” Bob whispered.

“Of course I did, but we don’t have much time before they find out who I really am,” said Rory.

Chapter 3

Rory took a bomb out of her pocket and stuck it to the wall. She set the timer to half an hour.

“We have half an hour until it blows up.” They started walking down the hall when, all of a sudden, a bunch of evil scientists showed up.

I got this far, I’m not giving up now, thought Rory.

She grabbed the cage that Bob was in and pushed the cart into the scientists. Rory ran as fast as she could. She could feel the time ticking down. She ran and pushed open the door. She kept running until she reached the cottage. She stopped, breathing heavily.

“We’re home,” Rory whispered.

“And we are safe,” squeaked Bob.

Rory pointed at the orange glow on the horizon. “It worked,” Rory said, relieved. “Come on, let’s go take a nap,” she whispered.

The End.

Your Thoughts

Forsythe Middle School

Age 13

by Elona Ziegler

Inside, the lighthouse was dim and dusty. As I walked in, I could feel the thunder alive in the walls. Looking around, there was not much here, but I felt at home on this job. I stepped in and slipped off my shoes, placing them neatly in the corner.

Grandpa had always talked about this place when I was a little girl. He told me about how he missed the salty air and the crashing waves that woke him up at night.

As I took my coat off, a soft breeze brushed the back of my neck like a song filled with sad memories. I looked around for the source—maybe an open window? Nope. Light switch, which could hopefully kill the strange feeling I had.

Great, I thought, as I made my way up the stairs, which creaked with every step. At the top, I found myself hit with a stack of family photos on the bed. I brushed off my feelings. I needed to focus on the bigger goal. I left my equipment on the humid floor, my back relieved from the pain. As I made my way to the wooden door, I heard creaking behind me. I whipped my head around and grabbed one of many old fishing lures for protection. “Who’s there?”

Stunned, I walked over to the window. What happened to the crashing waves? What happened to the booming thunder? And the blinding lightning?

Suddenly I heard the voice . . .

“You can’t fix the light all by yourself you know.”

BOOM

The thunder slammed into my ears.

“Who said that?” I asked as I tightened my hold upon my lure.

“Your thoughts.”

Wonder, Mind and You

King Elementary School

Age 11

by Audrey Yang

Inspired by dance classes and wonders

No matter what pain is in your mind

If you do a lot of times Just wonder you shall find I’m wondering if I can do more rhymes

Soon all your pain

Will go down the drain You will wonder what you can do With just your mind and you

There is a new world in your mind And there is you Just waiting to be found And all the things to do

Suddenly things are not clear

And a lot of things to fear

Do NOT fright

Just get a light . . .

Now things are going fast If it only could last

Then you notice Earth is so vast And lots of stuff passed

Just remember your mind And you have you Use your mind

With you

Then

The end but not quite

The Land of Terror

Clague Middle School

Age 11

by Ethan Chen

Rose was having a fine day until the school disappeared. Normally, he would be overjoyed to hear this, but only a few minutes ago, his friend, Snow, entered the building and immediately exited, looking like the physical version of his name. A couple of other kids joined him in escaping. Each jaunt was like every single muscle they had got sucked right out of them. Snow ran past Rose as if he had never existed. Rose turned to ask what was going on but saw that his friend had disappeared. Rose looked back at the children, but they had also disappeared without a trace of their existence.

Rose started toward his house, half expecting it to disappear, and found the air thicker than molasses. Although the air seemed five times as thick as before, he was only moving around two times slower. Breathing felt almost the same—except it took a longer time to inhale and exhale. As he was focused on this discovery, he noticed a strange, glowing, white marking that looked suspiciously like a stick figure with an elongated nose that was as long as a third of its body. Then it started crawling out of the ground . . .

Snow felt like he was literally on fire. Seeing that thing was the worst thing he’d ever seen, completely overshadowing horror movies. And that wasn’t including how it walked. The thing moved like it didn’t have any bones, in a never-repeating pattern. He barely managed to find the strength to move his legs, but he soon found the courage to run as fast

as possible, as soon as possible. He rushed out of the school, noticing his friend, hoping he would notice his haste and follow his example of getting the heck out of there. Snow suddenly felt nauseated and tripped on the sidewalk. But, before he hit the ground, he saw it becoming transparent and being replaced with withering grass.

At first, Snow thought he had just fallen through some fake sidewalk, the illusion made by a hologram created in the previous year, but his surrounding environment also underwent the same transformation. Plus, he didn’t remember passing through the sidewalk. Snow hadn’t believed in the supernatural existing outside of stories before, but now he might have thought otherwise.

Rose felt like it was the proper time to start panicking, or, if he was dreaming, the proper time to start waking up. The surrounding road was forming a bubble, popping, then repeating the process over and over again. This reminded him of boiling water in a pot, without the steam. The stick figure was almost fully out of the ground, but its previous glow was dimmed. Rose would’ve liked to observe the stick figure, but the “bubbling” motion of the road was intensifying, and he wanted to get out of the area that was doing the “bubbling” motion. Unfortunately, the affected area seemed to follow his movements. Rose turned to check the stick figure’s progress but was getting thrown around by the road’s rapid movements. Each time he landed, he felt a slight bump but never more. He also noticed the stick figure holding what looked like a sharp stick. He also noticed that it was walking toward him.

Snow’s first and most traumatizing sight in this new environment was this . . . thing. This “thing” was headed toward him, limbs twisting into unnatural angles, and he knew that he needed to get away from it as fast as possible. As he was running, he spotted a tattered house. He glanced around and saw a hand with eyes spread evenly throughout its body. Snow judged that it was a safe distance of around a half of a mile away. Snow’s judgment would be correct, if not for the fact that it could fly. Very fast.

Snow conveniently found the house mentioned before right next to him and ducked inside it. He then found himself bleeding from the sharp edges of teeth poking through the floorboards of the house. To be continued . . .

Bike Betrayal

Pattengill Elementary School

Age 11

by Azeel Jones

A little girl named Aisu had a two-wheel bike which she loved to ride to her grandma’s house. Except one day, when she was riding her new bike—the fresh breeze hitting against her face and her curls bouncing with the wind—she wanted to be brave and ride her bike like her older friends did. She slowly and carefully lifted her behind off her seat, almost like she was standing on the pedals. She smiled gleefully as her bike started to wobble a bit. Aisu ignored it and continued to have a joyful smile from ear to ear. The wind unexpectedly let out a harsh, cold blow, knocking her off her bike as her smile quickly faded. Her expression quickly turned to a scared look as she slid on the hard road, her eyes swelling up with tears of embarrassment as cars drove past her. She felt her knee sting as she took heavy breaths. She sat back up as she shook her head. Pebbles and random stuff started falling out as she wiped her eyes before she cried. Aisu knew that if one tear fell, a lake of tears would start rolling out one by one. She looked at her hand, cuts with dirt around them. The cuts stung like a wasp had stabbed its stinger deep. She finally lifted her leg out from under her as she took a good look at her knee. She could see the white muscle in her knee, also known as the fascia. She slowly stood up, bearing the stinging pain as blood gushed out of her knee. She knew she had to get home to her mother. She picked her bike back up, sat back on it, placed her feet on the pedal, and started

to ride. Her cheeks flushed a bright red as her lip quivered. The tears started falling down her cheeks like a flowing river.

Aisu rode back home to her mother’s house and limped in. Her mother looked at Aisu, her face instantly turning worried. She sat her book down and rushed to treat Aisu. She looked at her mother and wiped her tears.

Her mother asked her, “Oh my . . . What happened?” with a gentle tone.

Aisu replied, “I was riding my bike,” sniffle, “and I fell.”

Her mother sighed. “My, oh my. Come on now, let’s get you cleaned up,” she said as she helped. Aisu walked to the bathroom. Aisu’s mother helped her sit on the toilet. “Wait here, mijo, I’ll grab the rubbing alcohol and Band-Aids.” Her mother walked over to the bathroom closet as Aisu sat on the toilet. She wiped her tears as her mother came back to clean up her wound. Aisu put her leg on the toilet so her mom could clean the wound properly. Her mom took a close look then shook her head as she took a cotton swab and applied rubbing alcohol to it, placing the swab on it without warning. Aisu gritted her teeth and breathed in as her mother moved it around a bit, taking it off as if she were in a rush. She grabbed the Band-Aids and applied them carefully. When she was done, she patted her knee gently. “There, mijo!”

Aisu smiled as she stood up. “Thanks, Mom,” Aisu said as she looked up and gave her mom a warm smile.

The Adventure of Mr. Potato

Thurston Elementary School

Age 8

by Anna Liu

Mr. Potato #1

Once there was a hat store. There were hats, but . . . there in the hat store was a magical hat. It was red with a laser-striped hat. It could talk, walk, fight, party, and be your buddy. But it got lost!

How Grape Got Evil #2

The main character will be the potato (Mr. Potato) because he is the bravest and leads people. He always tells people to try that and this. They always say, “No way,” but he always says, “If I can do it, you can do it.” Whenever Mr. Potato does something to prove there’s nothing to be afraid of, they do it after Mr. Potato. The other fruits think Mr. Potato will get hurt by Evil Grape because long ago, when Evil Grape was little, he was not evil! He loved school, but one day the new fruit, which was a lemon, said “Grumpy Grape!” That day he cried and cried. He decided to stop being nice, and that’s how Grape became evil.

How Fruit Became Alive #3

There was an evil person that sprayed poison on the fruits that made them alive, and he gave it to a mailboy for ten dollars. When he brought it and went home, the fruits escaped!

Gets Eaten! #4

Watermelon decided to get a pet because he was lonely. So he went to the pet store when he was ready to buy but realized that he did not have any money! He was ready to go out of the store when he saw a free pet! It was a pet ant, but he still grabbed it and went to the counter and said, “I want to get this.”

The staff said, “Sure, take it.” So, he went out with his pet ant. Mr. Potato came to visit and knocked on the door. He did not hear anything, so he went inside. To Mr. Potato’s surprise, Watermelon was eaten by his pet ant. Then he felt sad, so he went to see his friends.

The End.

Watermelon

When I Wake Up

A2 STEAM School

Age 9

by Logan Jung

When I woke up, it was the year 2121! When I looked outside, I saw flying cars! I was going to go outside, but my dog was in front of me! I was so happy that my dog did not die! Then when I went outside, I saw candy trees and my home. I was eating the trees, and when I was in the bathtub, the tub was candy! My room was candy! All the rooms were candy! Then I went outside and went up to a big dog. The dog was in front of me. The dog was so big that it could see Mars! So I ran home and went to the tub. I hoped the big dog would never come to my home. Then I went outside, and then I ate the tree. It tasted like chocolate. It tasted so good! I saw the big dog! I saw the big dog! I ran to my house but . . . the dog was so fast it was in front of me! I ran to a big tree! The big dog did not see me. But the tree looked so good, so I ate it and it was sweet! But the big dog heard me! So I ran back to my home, and went inside. I ran to the tub. But I did not see the dog! I saw my dog in the tree! I went up the tree up . . . up . . . up . . . but the tree was so big! So I got my dog, but the big dog was already there! So I went up the tree! The tree was so big. It was taller than the big dog, so the big dog could not see me! I ran back to my home by the big trees! I was at home! Then I heard a KNOCK, KNOCK at the door, so I opened it. I saw my dad and mom! Then I was so happy. Then boom! Boom! I opened the door. It was my sister! I was so happy! I looked outside, and then I saw James and Ian! I went outside and said “Hi, my name is Logan Jung.” I asked, “Do you speak Korean?”

because I can speak Korean. Korean is so fun to speak! James did not speak Korean.

But Ian could speak Korean! So I spoke Korean to Ian! My dad and mom and sister came to me.

“Get inside.”

“Why?!” The big dog was in front of me! We went inside. The big dog was outside. My dog, Choco, was in front of me! My dog is small, but it is strong! So we went to my room. My mom and dad and Ian and James were in my home. I went in my airship. I went up, up, up. A box was in the airship. My dog was in the air! I did not know that! It did not work! My dog went and punched the big dog. It went to Mars! My dog did it! I was so happy that I had my dog!

So I went home. I saw a door in my home. When I opened it, there was a big black hole! I went in the hole . . . I saw . . . video games! And a new red car and a door on the wall! I opened it. It was a big, big, big, big airship! I put the big new red car in the airship. And I went into the big airship. There was a door, so I opened it. It had video games. And a door on the wall. I had a good time. The home was bigger and bigger than my home. I went to my room and it had . . . video games and a small airship! My room was the biggest room in the airship! I saw my bed and a door I opened. It was a hole, and it was my basement! In my room! I had a black new car. I saw a big, big, big, big Nintendo Switch! I saw ten thousand video games! So, I was playing video games with my sister and dad and mom and Ian and my dog! I won and my dog won too! I had a good time.

The End.

The Adventures of Fred and Isabella Eberwhite

Elementary School

Age 9

by Cara Murphy

Chapter One

Fred is a rainbow pig. He went to his friend’s house to get food, but once he got past the cat’s cottage, a man jumped from his plane. He had what looked like a weapon in his hand. He tried to get Fred. Fred was scared but managed to dodge the attack and run to the cat’s cottage. The gun was a deadly banana gun, the deadliest of all guns—it shoots deadly bananas! The food that no one could resist (on this planet). Fred quickly ran into the cat’s cottage for safety. He asked Isabella for help.

“OK,” she said. Then Isabella turned into a dragon and said, “Follow me.” But in a few minutes, Fred was falling behind. So Isabella asked, “Do you want to ride on me?”

Fred said, “No, I’m afraid of heights.” Then Isabella turned into a horse. And after a few minutes of learning how to ride a horse, Fred rode Isabella into the forest. Then they realized they were lost. Fred asked Isabella if she could turn into a bird, fly up into the sky, and see if she could see her cottage from up high.

Chapter Two

When Isabella came back down, Fred was gone. The only trace of him was a lot of footprints. Then Isabella heard a scream: “HELP ME!” It was Fred. He had been pig-napped!

I have to save him, Isabella thought. So she started to search the woods for Fred. Plus she started to feel like this was all her fault.

Isabella said, “Oh no, what if the person with the banana gun got Fred? I have to find him!”

Chapter Three

After an hour of searching, Isabella finally found Fred with red goo all over him. Her first thought was, Fred is dead!

“Where were you?!” Isabella exclaimed.

“I was just napping and eating some fries,” was Fred’s answer.

“Come on,” said Isabella, “we can go to my cottage.” After walking for a bit, they found a cottage. “Well this certainly isn’t my cottage,” said Isabella firmly.

“Just a peek inside?” asked Fred.

“Fine,” said Isabella. So they went in. At first, they didn’t see much (the only thing they saw was a few clay pots). Then, Fred spotted a small door and opened it a crack. When they got in, they saw a woman standing over a pot and chanting, “Show me my son.” And it showed her a hunter! Suddenly, a ghostly white figure appeared, and it said, “Fred, you have ten lives before you die for real. Be wise with them.” The ghost disappeared. Fred and Isabella became boyfriend and girlfriend.

The End.

Max and Motown Space Adventure

Bach Elementary School

Age 9

by Jack Cicero

Max is on an abandoned spaceship, and Motown is on Trampoline Planet. Max’s ship is about to crash, so he is freaking out. CRASH! Bong Bong Bong! Motown goes over to the crash, Max is fine and jumps up behind Motown and scares him silly.

Then Max says, “Want to play, let’s play, I want to play!”

Motown says, “No, I was in an important nap, go away.”

Max says, “Come oooooonnnnnn, play with me.”

“No,” says Motown.

“Come on.”

“No.”

“Let’s play!”

“NO! Go away!” And Motown jumps on a big floating platform.

“Come on,” says Max. “I can’t get up there.”

“Yeah, that’s the point,” Motown says. Max has brown spots and is blue and his head is pink. Motown is orange. By the way, Motown secretly likes Max and Max likes Motown. Shhh . . . Don’t tell them I told you that. Shhhhh. What are we talking about?

Max thinks, Well, I guess I will make the most out of the time, and with that, he goes to sleep. Motown is dreaming about a spaceship chasing him down and BOOM—with that, he wakes up. Literally Max is whacking him

with a piece of salami. How did he even get a piece of salami? And then, Max wakes up and eats the salami and asks where the salami was from.

Motown says, “I don’t know. You woke me up with it! Now, go away! Now!” And he jumps back up on the ledge.

Then Max says “Let’s play! Come on!”

“No, go away!”

“Come on and play with me!”

“Fine. Let’s play hide and seek. You count.” So he hides and goes to sleep. Max looks and looks but just cannot find Motown until he finds him on the platform thing.

“Now I want to sleep.”

“So, let’s sleep!” And that’s what they do for a week!

When they wake up, they are under a blanket made of puppies! And there is a mountain of salami. And Max eats all of it in one millisecond!

Motown says, “How did you?”

Max says, “What can I say? I like salami.”

“Get me more salami now!”

And a robot crashes. BOOM!

“What!” Motown says. It shoots eggs at them.

And they get superpowers when they win, of course! And another robot crashes. BOOM! And they win again, but this time, they look at the robot and realize Max now knows where these robots are from.

What a Rush of Sugar! Clague Middle School

Age 12

by

Niyata Honnikoppa

In a world far, far away lie Milk Dud civilizations, and popcorn-humans. They live on a world with marshmallow clouds, graham cracker desserts, and licorice roads. Most of the popcorn-humans are leaders, and the Milk Duds, better known as Duds, are, you know, the civilians.

Duddy and Duddo are the most popular Duds in Milky City. Milky City is the most popular city in the Milk Dud world, and most celebrities live there. Speaking of celebrities, Popper and Poppy are the most popular, well-known popcorn puffs, better known as puffs.

There’s a world far away from Earth. This planet has all the same weather no matter where you are. There are marshmallow clouds and licorice roads. The Milk Duds are like construction workers making the world nice for the popcorn puffs. They work for the popcorn puffs, who make most of the decisions in the Milk Dud world. There are also Kit Kats who run the Kit Kat satellites. Suddenly, all of the Milk Dud Space Station (MDSS) computers begin beeping and flashing red lights. The Kit Kats say, “What’s going on?”

CLICK! CLACK! CLICK! CLACK! the computer repeats.

“Looks like there is something heading our way!!!”

CLICK! CLACK!

“Um, guys, we only have seventy-two hours to stop it before it hits us!”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Sam yells, running frantically around the room. Sam’s always been afraid of anything bad happening, but he’s very smart and his passion for space is out of this world.

CLACK! CLICK! CLACK! Sam does some more typing and then realizes, “THERE IS AN ASTEROID HEADING OUR WAY! Oh no. Oh no no no no no,” Sam repeats. Karmen is the head worker at MDSS. All the Duds are scared of him because he is so strict, but he is also very smart, and the MDSS needs him.

“TRUST ME.”

Let’s take a quick pause and tell you a little about the MDSS. The MDSS is fairly new compared to NASA, and that is partly because Sugar Rush is a planet that got stable and established its place as a society around fifty years ago. This means they aren’t very advanced in technology. Anyway, back to the story.

Karmen comes out of his super top secret office and shouts, “CALM DOWN, SAM! As long as we do what we learned, we should all be fine. Now stop freaking out and GET TO WORK!”

“OK, OK,” Sam sighs and says. He does some more typing and comes up with a plan. “OK guys, I have a plan! We could contact the Popcorn Puff Construction Company and ask them to build us a machine that could help deter the asteroid. All we have to do is come up with a plan and hand it over to the PPCC (Popcorn Puff Construction Company),” Sam announces to the whole team of MDSS workers.

“OK, Sam, that sounds amazing.”

“Woohoo, Sam, that’s a great plan!” The audience cheers.

After hours of hard work and absolutely no sleep, the MDSS comes up with a sketch and model of the machine. It is a machine that would go out to outer space and spew caramel and chocolate to redirect the asteroid.

Soon after they finish their models and sketches, they have Karmen go over them to make sure they are effective and that they have a good plan. After Karmen approves the models, he sends them to the PPCC to have them build the machine. Karmen tells them they were in a rush and were trying to save the world.

A few hours later, when there are two hours before the asteroid hits, the machine is handed over to the MDSS, and they all work on making astronauts to launch the machine out and create the launcher. But soon after, Sam gets nervous, scared he will mess up the whole mission. He

starts to panic. He loses focus on the mission and what he’s supposed to be doing. The rest of the MDSS crew keep telling Sam he can do it and, if he doesn’t, Sugar Rush will go into shambles.

“Press the green button! Press the red button!” Sam is confused and overwhelmed trying to do things before the three minutes run out. In a rush and exhaustion, Sam clicks all of the buttons! The launcher launches the machine . . .

Phuuuuuuu. Glonk. CRRGGHB.

The craziest noises come out of the software and from outside.

Bluuuuuuuuuuphweeeew.

No noises are heard after that!

Muffin & BobiCat Chronicles

Lawton Elementary School

Age 10

by Mai-Ly Connelly

There were two cats, living in two different places. Bob was a cat living with his owners in the suburbs. He was a big orange tabby and a chubby boy. He liked everyone and everyone liked him.

Muffin hated everybody. Everybody. I’m not kidding. Everyone in the entire world and everything.

In her defense, as a kitten she lost everything. Her parents abandoned her and her siblings and found humans to live with. Muffin wasn’t her actual name. Her name was Padi. She gave herself the name Muffin to fit in with the other cats in Breadtown, where she was abandoned. (Yes, I know Breadtown is odd.) But it didn’t work. Muffin was still just a messy-furred, black-and-white alley cat. Come to think of it, that was around when everyone started hating everyone.

Then, on the happy day of March 13, 2025, Bob’s family moved to Breadtown.

They could’ve moved into any old house or apartment. But they rented a house right in the middle of the city, and that house was part of an alley. Part of the alley that Muffin lived in. The first few days, Bob’s owners were reluctant to let him go outside. They were afraid he might get lost or hit by a car. But after days of microchipping, Bob finally got to go outside.

When Bob went outside, he saw a cat he didn’t know. (It was Muffin.)

“Hello, friend!” Bob meowed. “My name is Bob, what’s your name? Can I call you Pinky? You look like a Pinky.” Bob didn’t know that there were times not to talk.

“Go away!” Muffin yowled. Then she scratched Bob on the tip of his nose. Bob made a mew noise. Then he ran away home. His owners wouldn’t let him go outside again.

Muffin walked deep into Croissant Alley. She considered maybe talking to Bob. But she hated clichés. Including the “a-mean-person-becomes-nice” cliché. She kept thinking about how he had called her a pinky.

Bob felt bad for the pinky alley cat he had seen. So at night, he wriggled out of a window outside (which is not an easy feat for an ultra-chubby cat to do, mind you). He saw the strange cat.

“Hello!” he purred.

Muffin couldn’t believe it. Bob had come back to taunt her again! She unsheathed her claws.

“Why won’t you just go away?!” But then, a blinding flash of light appeared. Muffin felt a strange tickling sensation. And then there was only darkness.

Muffin woke up. She saw . . . a big, black horse? Wait, no, it was just a chess piece. But . . . it was huge.

Bob gasped. “What is this place?” he meowed.

“Wait, is this a giant chess game?” Muffin gasped. “I call the black pieces! You’re going down, Bob-dude.” Then a bunch of floating words appeared! Muffin shrieked. Then she read the words.

“ACTUALLY, YOU’LL BE BOTH FACING THE CAT OF CHESSTOPIA!”

“You mean we have to work as a team?!” Muffin cried. “AAAH!”

“YUP! TAKE THOSE WHITE CROWNS IN THE WHITE SQUARE OVER IN THE CORNER. BOB, YOU’RE THE KING. MUFFIN, YOU’RE THE QUEEN.”

“Well, this is a horrid development,” Muffin mewed bitterly.

“OH, AND ONE MORE THING! IF YOU LOSE, YOU WILL BE TELEPORTED INTO THE VOID, WHERE GIANT RAINBOW JELLY DONUTS WILL SMOOSH YOU!”

“Yippee!” Bob cried. “Rainbow jelly donuts rule!”

Muffin groaned. “Someone save me.”

To be continued . . .

Crazy Dimensions

Angell Elementary School

Age 11

by Nicholas Tippie (Loki)

Way back in a little hut was a kid who had no choice but to live alone. Nicholas’s parents had not come back to the hut in a while.

“Mom . . . Dad . . . wwwwaaaaahhhhh.” It started to feel colder and the door opened, but nothing was there. “Who’s there?!” He saw a figure staring at him, but when he turned on the lamp, the figure disappeared. He turned on the lights in the hut and grabbed his water-gun.

“I’m n-n-n-n-no-not af-fffraid-d-d o-o-f yo-o-oo-u!” he said, trembling. He wandered around wondering where it went. “Y-y-you c-c-c-can come out n-n-n-now!” The lights started flickering.

“AAAAHHHHHH!” He heard someone break in through one of the windows. “EEEEKKKKKKK!” He saw someone run toward them. Time seemed to stop for a minute. “What the—?” The person tried to attack Nicholas, but he couldn’t even get close to him! Then the mysterious figure appeared again!

The figure spoke to the random person. “Stay away from this place and NEVER RETURN!”

Nicholas was in shock. He never had anyone else except his parents come into the hut. The person ran away. Nicholas didn’t know how to act, but, before he could say anything, the figure said, “Run, go to that portal!” Nicholas did as they said, and as soon as he entered the portal, he started to feel tired!

Nicholas woke up in wet, green grass. “Where am I?” He started wandering around, and that’s when he saw it, a zombie. He carefully maneuvered around it, but Nicholas accidentally stepped on a twig. Snap! The zombie immediately started chasing Nicholas.

“AAAAHHHHH!” He attracted more zombies! Finally someone grabbed him by the shoulder. “EEEKKKK!” It was dark but the lights turned on. “Aaaaaoouuhh oh whoah!” He was saved by a team of survivors! Nicholas was shocked. He couldn’t move! But he was safe until a week later.

Nicholas woke up alone again. Someone was knocking on the door rapidly! He carefully pressed the button to open the door, but it was a bad idea because the team was there but something didn’t feel right. They all started sprinting toward Nicholas! He ran to the balcony and closed the door. Nicholas was breathing heavily and panting. He took a breath, but then BOOM! The door broke down, and Nicholas decided to jump off the balcony.

“AAAAAHHHHHHH!”—WUMP—FWOOSH.

He woke up on something fluffy and wet. He looked all around him. There were so many flying islands! But Nicholas was on a tiny island. He didn’t know how to get onto the other islands! So he tried to make a toy plane for help! But it slightly backfired . . .

Ruttle ruttle ruttle ruttle, BOOM.

And after hours, Nicholas started to feel hungry, so he climbed up the fifty-foot-tall tree! And when he got to the top, he realized . . . No, there was no food, but there were bridges to the other islands! He got fruit from there, like a jingleberry, a bursting cloud, and some water berries. It was peaceful until the thunderclouds came. They were claimed to be the most dangerous sky raiders, but they were just here to trade sky gems. They offered Nicholas the legendary Locanite, which was claimed to be the only thing that can let you travel to other dimensions that you have explored. Nicholas accepted the offer and left through another portal, and said bye to everyone,

“Bye, everyone, I will make sure to visit you!”

Nicholas woke up in a laboratory, but it felt wrong to be there. He tried using the Locanite, but he couldn’t, so he started walking. But little did he know that using the Locanite was going to set off an alarm, RRRR,RRRR,RRRR,RRRR.

WhShoooo. A door opened with other people. They ran toward Nicholas, trying to catch him.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?” Nicholas ran and found a hiding spot, so he hid in a barrel for two hours. Nicholas woke up because he accidentally went to sleep! He remembered what had happened and moved around carefully. But one thing was off: it was quiet, there were no signs of life so far.

Then there were loud alarms again, but this time a voice calling out, “Area 407-3925-3653 breached, send reinforcements. I repeat: area 407-3925-3653 has been breached!” Then, there were many footsteps moving fast.

There were some screams and shouts, and one of them said, “Fall back! Fall back! Evacuate the facilit—” He was cut off by a loud chomping noise.

“AAAAHHHHH!”

Nicholas knew he had to exit the facility. He ran to the door. He almost hit his face on the door, but then fear kicked in, and he had temporary super strength. He lifted up the door and heard a terrible screaming noise, but he didn’t stop. He opened it just in time and closed it immediately. Then, after five seconds there was a big roaring sound, then a loud BAM! Nicholas looked at the door, and there was a huge dent in it! Then a loud banging noise. It was trying to get out! Then it broke out! Luckily, Nicholas had been running while it was trying to get out. But then they saw Nicholas and sprinted ten times faster than Nicholas ever could. So he ran to the nearest tree and climbed up it and looked at the thing, but it didn’t budge! And so he looked around for a second, but it grabbed his leg. Nicholas looked back and it almost ate his leg! And so he jumped on the thing’s head and kept looking at him. He ran to the nearest ravine and jumped down it, and the thing chased him down the ravine and grabbed him. Just before the thing could eat him, Nicholas disappeared and the thing fell, crying. Nicholas looked around, and he was in a forest. He started crying and didn’t want to explore anymore. He was hungry, but decided that he’d been through enough, so he decided to sleep. When Nicholas woke up, he was in a bear’s den! So he pretended to sleep, but then his hands felt tied together. He started to feel warm, then warmer, then he felt very hot. He opened his eyes and he was above a fire! And the bears noticed, so the bears clawed at him, but luckily he dodged it. But now he was on fire and realized his Locanite gem was on fire. He quickly grabbed it and ran out of the den and climbed up a tree.

He just remembered what the sky raiders had told him: “The flames are always helpful.” He didn’t know what that meant, but then the flames on Nicholas disappeared! And now the gem looked different, it looked like it was glowing, but he decided it was just the sun’s reflection. Then he saw a portal and jumped right into it and went elsewhere! Nicholas woke up on a bed . . .

“Home?”

He looked around. It looked normal, but when he opened the door, everything looked all blocky! Even his whole body was square! He looked outside, and there were blocky zombies, skeletons, a lanky black figure with purple, glowing eyes and something green with four short legs! And things with no limbs that looked like the slime at Nicholas’s house! He slowly opened the door, and the skeleton, zombie, green thing, green slime, and something new, a zombified human-pig, were all chasing him! He quickly closed the door and ran to his bedroom. Nicholas didn’t know what to do! He punched the wooden wall and he fell!

“Ow.”

Then he realized that he had broken the wall, and it fell on the floor as a portable item! Then he got the option to be able to switch the dimension and to be able to break blocks in whatever dimension he was in! Nicholas was going to do “no” but he accidentally pressed “yes”! Then the door broke down and all the monsters came in! He ran out the door and went somewhere else, again! Nicholas woke up in a bed and everything was normal again! Except for one thing: it was a different house! He went out the door and was greeted by a mother with three girls. He immediately shut the door and blocked it up. Then they were banging on the door, and then there was a loud CRACK! The mom punched through the door! Nicholas opened the window and climbed on the roof! He saw another portal, but there was a floating parkour course in the way! Luckily, Nicholas knew how to do parkour. So, he just ran up a one-foot wall, then climbed a five-foot-tall tree, and ran to the portal. But then the ground beneath him moved, and he went way back to the beginning and with the mom and three girls! They rushed at Nicholas, trying to get him to the dungeon, but Nicholas was still going to the portal at the end of the lava pit. There was only one way to the portal, but it was Nicholas’s weakness, monkey bars! But he went anyway. He dodged the family and

went toward the portal, past the monkey bars, and ran through. BANG. His face hit a door.

“Ow.” Then he looked around and started crying, but he wasn’t sad. He was happy! “I’M HOME!” He checked everywhere and back to his bedroom. Everything was back to normal! Except for one thing . . . Nicholas’s parents were still missing!

Adventures to Earth

Emerson School

Age 8

by June Zillich

Lick! Lick! Lick! I woke up with a dog licking me. It felt wet, slimy, and gross! I was sitting in a hard, bumpy chair. And then I noticed a girl sitting across from me. She had golden-brown hair and a bright red hat.

I said, “Hi, my name is June.”

“My name is Stella,” she said. “And this is Sunny.”

The dog that had just licked me was snuggled up all cozy and warm on Stella’s lap.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I woke up just a few minutes before you,” said Stella.

“It’s hot in here,” I said. “Do you want to go outside and get some fresh air?”

“Sure,” said Stella. The door was right behind the chair I was sitting on. So then we walked out the door, and that’s when we saw a cucumber! He said, “Howdy, are you folks from around here?”

“No,” I said. “Where are we?” I asked.

“You are on the nicest planet in the universe named Eltwick.”

“How do we get out of here,” I asked?

“The only way to leave is to get past Mr. Watermelon and to get to the door that leads to Earth.”

“How do we get there?” I asked.

“First, you take a right on Wain Street, and then go straight on Mest Avenue.”

“Thank you!” I said.

So we continued our journey.

“I wonder how we ended up here,” said Stella.

“That is a good question,” I said.

It looked like we were close, because I saw a sign that said, “Earth is this way.” So we walked a few more minutes, and then we saw a big door with a grumpy-looking watermelon standing in front of it.

“Hand over the key or we will be making a fruit salad!” I said.

“Ohhh, I am soooo scared!” said Mr. Watermelon.

“THE FIGHT IS ON!” I said.

“I am not letting you through!” said Mr. Watermelon.

“You are going down!”

Then we both rushed him at the same time and hit him in the stomach! He rolled backward down a small hill and hit a rock. He split wide open! And there was the key sitting right between his two halves! Stella grabbed the key, unlocked the door, and we all jumped in!

The End.

Who Pushed Her Down the Stairs?

Ann Arbor Open School

Age 10

by Hallie Zakrajsek

There were three girls named Sarue, Samy, and Emue. They were in an apartment, and as they were walking down the stairs, Samy got pushed down the stairs. There was blood everywhere, so Sarue and Emue called an ambulance and also Samy’s mom and dad. The ambulance came before Samy’s mom and dad, so they called Samy’s mom and dad on their way to the hospital.

They said, “We are on our way to the hospital, so you should get to the hospital instead.”

Samy’s parents sounded angry. So Sarue and Emue were a little scared of Samy’s parents. Then they got to the hospital and rushed in. Samy’s parents came, and they were really mad at Sarue and Emue. So Samy’s parents told Sarue and Emue to get away from Samy. Samy didn’t want them to leave, but Samy’s parents won the fight. So Sarue and Emue left, and they went back to the apartment. They were scared because the person who had pushed Samy down the stairs could still be there, but all they found was a janitor. So they inspected the area where she got pushed down the stairs, and there were shoe prints, but they weren’t their shoe prints. So they inspected a little longer. Then they thought it was Samy’s parents, or so they thought.

So they marched down to Samy’s parents house, and they said, “You pushed Samy down the stairs and you’re not letting us see her.”

For some reason, Samy’s parents were surprised and astonished that they would think that, and a little mad. “Why would you ever think that we would do that?” they said.

“Because you would do that, just admit it, you did do it. You’re trying to blame it on us because you won’t admit it.”

“No, now leave.”

So Emue and Sarue left, and Sarue had a great idea to check everyone’s shoes in the building. And, yes, the shoe prints were from the janitor. But it couldn’t have been him because he was cleaning it up. His shoe prints were all over the crime scene, so they went right back to square one. They searched the janitor’s apartment for his shoes, and they both remembered the person who pushed Samy down the stairs was wearing a trench coat and hat. The janitor had the same trench coat and hat as the person who pushed Samy down the stairs, and it all finally made sense that the janitor did it. Except, why did he push Samy down the stairs? So they marched down to the janitor and asked if they could talk to him in private.

He said, “Yes.”

So they went to the hospital and said, “Look what you did,” and they made him talk.

“Fine, I did it.”

“But why did you do it?”

“Because you three have been putting your trash on the floor”

“Because there are no trash cans.”

“Oh, I probably should get one, I am so stupid.”

“No you aren’t, you’re amazing.”

“How about we just forget about it?”

“OK, that sounds good.”

The End.

Marshmallow and Tom’s Adventure

Bach Elementary School Age 9

by Charlotte Cicero

One day in a galaxy far, far away . . . There was a kitten, and her name was Marshmallow. Now Marshmallow wasn’t an ordinary kitten. She lived on Banana Planet.

Meanwhile . . .

Tom Bonkin was a dog. He lived on a Gibberish planet. He liked Trampoline Planet just like Marshmallow did. So before he knew it, he was on a rocket ship to Trampoline Planet.

At this point, you’re probably wondering about Marshmallow. She was going to the same place on Trampoline Planet. They both got there at the same time. What was the chance of that! Maybe they were meant to be friends? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Anyway, back to the story. Marshmallow and Tom had just landed, and when they got out, they saw each other.

Then Marshmallow said, “Hi, do you wanna be friends?”

Tom replied, “Um sure, I’m Tom. TOM BONKIN! What’s your name?”

“I’m Marshmallow. Marshmallow Greencute,” said Marshmallow.

Tom and Marshmallow became good friends, and they bounced on the trampolines all day.

When they were about to go their separate ways, they exchanged phone numbers and went home to their planets.

A few weeks later . . .

Marshmallow and Tom decided to have a hangout day. They went to Trampoline Planet together, and they played and bounced for two hours. Suddenly, evil aliens came and exploded Tom and Marshy’s (a.k.a. Marshmallow’s) ships! They were stranded. First Tom and Marshy tried making lots of noise. Sadly, it failed. Next, Marshy tried launching weapons into the air while making some noise . . . It worked! Hooray! The aliens landed, but these aliens were only here to take Tom. They unloaded and took Tom!

“AWAHH,” yelled Marshmallow and Tom at the same time.

The aliens took off at top speed with Tom. While they were going back to their home planet with Tom, they were doing tests on him and mutating him.

Meanwhile, Marshmallow was trying to get more space aliens’ attention. It was almost an hour later, and it was getting dark. Their parents were very worried. They went back to the planet to look for their children. And they arrived. They looked for Marshmallow and found her. They also looked for Tom, but there was no sign of him. Suddenly, the same ship that captured Tom landed. Tom emerged. But Tom didn’t look like Tom. He looked like a whole other dog. His mother and father were concerned.

“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad,” said Tom.

“Y-y-you’re not my son,” said Tom’s dad.

“Yes he is,” said Marshy.

They would know that voice anywhere. They tried to pretend everything was normal, but it wasn’t.

They tried to, but it took one whole year! It was resolved. They had a calm rest of their lives.

The End.

The First Magic Eberwhite Elementary School

Age 10

by Aaron Passey

Chapter One

Today was the first day of magic school! If you were wondering how we have magic, well, it is a long story, so I will make it short. Some random people were exploring a cave and found a crystal. When they touched it, they got magic powers.

Anyway, this was my first day of magic schoo—BOOM BOOM.

“What’s that?” I said.

And then it happened. The school exploded. And I went flying in the air. Then I remembered the flying spell.

As I flew down to safety, I saw the island, and there were twenty monsters on it. The monsters had metal arms and were very slimy. They were also magnetic. They started attacking us. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

Then some of the teachers flew toward a small island, and it had a cave in it, so I followed the teachers.

Chapter Two

As I flew to the island, I thought, Why did these monsters want to attack us? Finally, I landed on the small island. Then a portal appeared.

Some of the teachers flew into the portal, so me and some other students went in. Then, everything went black. When I woke up, I looked around and I saw a sign that said, “Ann Arbor, Michigan.” I looked around some more, and I saw that me and a bunch of other students and a teacher were sitting under a bridge. The teacher said that this city was infested by monsters, and with that, she taught us a spell called Spark. So with that, we went into the city.

Chapter Three

As we stepped into the city, the monster alarm sounded, and they came pouring down the street. We all attacked at the same time, and all of the monsters evaporated.

“OK,” said the teacher as we flew off.

Then I spotted a creepy castle, and a voice appeared in my head. “Go to the castle.” I was so scared that I almost fell out of the sky.

Chapter Four

“Let’s go to the castle.”

“OK,” said the teacher. “Class, let’s go to that creepy castle.”

“Wait, what?”

“The Creepy Castle?”

But all the kids had already flown off and were ready at the castle doors. I knocked at the door and the giant monster came out.

“You will die . . . Wha ha ha ha.”

And for some strange reason, I said the word laser-ify. And with that, a giant laser came out of my wand and hit the monster in the eye.

The End.

Warpix

Bach Elementary School Age 9

by Ben Cicero

You warp through time and find a warpix egg. But you have not had any food in one year, so you eat the warpix egg. Then a dementor sees you and tries to suck away your happiness, but a tiny mage saves you! After the tiny mage saves you from the dementor, he brings you back to his mage tower.

“There was nuclear fallout and you’re the last one surviving.”

Inside the mage tower, you find a tiny taco buddy! There is a mage staff next to it. You reach out and . . .

“Stop!” yells the tiny mage. “3DSDA.”

Suddenly, the tiny mage’s staff comes right to him! Then he stumbles back and falls asleep on the floor. Five minutes later . . . he wakes up, then yells, “8u8~~t5.”

Then a giant cage appears around you. But disaster strikes, and you feel the ground shake around you. The magic mage rumbles and jumps. You hit your head on the magic bars and you faint . . .

Four days later . . .

You wake up. The cage is gone. You find the tower in rubble and call, “Tiny mage, tiny mage!”

You call again. No answer. You look in the rubble and find the tiny mage, and you shake him awake.

He asks, “Where is my staff?”

“What?! You almost died and you’re worried about your staff?!” you reply.

“Yeah, so,” the tiny mage tells you. Then silence . . .

“Follow me,” says the tiny mage. You follow the tiny mage to a cave slowly. You enter to find . . . a dementor. You watch the mage fire magic blasts at the dementor, and the dementor explodes. Then, the tiny mage signals to follow him into another room. You see a portal open in front of you. Then you gasp. Gasp. The mage motions to go into the portal, so you do . . . you get out on the other side. You find a dragon temple on top of a hill. You look around and see a destroyed city. No people. Silence . . . Then the mage puts a spell on the dimension, and people reappear and life is normal.

The End.

Amy & Friends: Forest Mayhem

Eberwhite Elementary School

Age 9

by Elodie

DiPerna

Chapter One

In the world, environments, animals, and elements do their part to help, but they brave the wild. Hi, I’m Amy. Some people are brave and enter the wild. Some people take big risks and do big things. Like going on an adventure into the unknown, like in the movies.

“Well, I don’t. I don’t at all. I am not brave, I’ve never been. I’m in fact very, very, very shy,” Amy said, talking to herself, trying to stay positive. Amy had reddish hair and white skin. She was a very scared person.

As Amy went down the stairs, she saw her mother waiting at the door. Her mother had long, brown hair with brown eyes. She was holding her backpack and wearing a bright smile.

“Hello,” her mother said. “Here’s your backpack. Have a good day.”

She arrived at her school, Celamay. Their mascot was cats. She loved her school. She loved her teachers, her best friends, her principal, but she did not like Britney, the mean girl. But her new best friend, Marlowe, took her on and they became friends. She loved Marlowe. She was quirky and funny and nice. And her best friend was Zuri, the one who’s crazy.

She walked into school, and saw her best friends waiting by her locker.

“Hey! How’s it going?” Marlowe said excitedly.

“I’m good,” Amy said fast.

She put her stuff in her locker and headed through the classroom door. She saw her best friends waving goodbye. Her best friends weren’t in her classroom, which made her sad. She had nobody to stand up for her, and even worse, Britney and her friends were in her classroom.

“OK, kids, we will start math now. Open your math books to page twenty-seven!” her teacher said.

Her teacher was Ms. Page. She was her favorite teacher. She had brown hair and brown eyes. She always wore red shoes and blue dresses.

As she worked on her math, she noticed Britney talking to her friends. Amy was too shy to ask, so she went back to her math. She was the smartest kid in school but also the scaredest kid in school.

Then, out of the blue, she heard a voice behind her. “Hey, nice to see you, Amy.”

“Akk! Ohh, you scared me, Claudia,” Amy said, panting.

“Well, just wanted to say hi, so, yeah,” Claudia said, her eyebrow raised but smiling.

They finally went out for recess. Amy found Marlowe on the playground.

“Hey, found ya!” Amy said.

“Yes, you did,” Marlowe said.

“Let’s go play, it’s nice outside.”

At the end of the day, Amy packed her bag quickly, seeing her mother outside. “Wow. I never got bullied today. I still have luck,” Amy said happily. Until a voice appeared and Amy knew exactly who it was. “Well your time for luck is running out now.” Amy turned around and saw Britney with an evil expression, just like Marlowe described when she had trouble with Britney.

“Why are you here?!” Amy said, scared.

“Ohh, just want to say bye bye to my little friend,” Britney said in a baby voice.

Amy didn’t know if Britney was tricking her or warning her.

“Good luck with tomorrow. You’ll need it.” Britney said, laughing.

Amy didn’t know what Britney was saying, but she knew it was something terrible. She hurried through the door and found her mother. It was like an oasis with nobody around. That’s how she knew she took a long time.

They came back to the house. They walked into the kitchen. It had a cherry wood floor, a marble kitchen counter, and a tiny chandelier.

“OK, Amy. Go get packed,” her mother said.

“What do you mean?” Amy said suspiciously.

“Ohh. You didn’t hear? We’re going camping,” Amy’s mother said.

“What?!” Amy said, surprised. This is probably what Britney meant, Amy said. Amy couldn’t do this! She did not like the outdoors. “I can’t do this! What if there are bears, snakes, wasps?”Amy said, walking from side to side, panicking.

“It will be good for you,” her mother said.

“But what if we get hurt, or die, or even worse, EXPELLED!” Amy said loudly.

“You’ll be fine. Now, go pack your stuff. And anyway, someone’s going with you,” her mother said, chopping the veggies for dinner.

“Who?” Amy said, panting from the worrying.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Amy’s mother said, her eyebrow raised.

“OK,” Amy said, going up the stairs into her room. After dinner, she wiped her mouth and headed to the couch.

The next day, Amy was eating breakfast. Then the doorbell rang, and Amy walked in her PJs with clementines on them. She opened the door to see Marlowe with her backpack.

“Hey, I’m ready.” Marlowe said.

“Ohh, I forgot you’re coming on the camping trip,” Amy said, slapping her hand to her forehead. “I haven’t finished breakfast yet, so come in,” Amy said, smiling.

“Well, I bet you’ll be full from all those clementines,” Marlowe said, walking through the hallway.

“Yeah,” Amy said, rolling her eyes.

Amy raced up the stairs and brushed her teeth. She put her socks on and went down the stairs.

“Well, that was fast,” Marlowe said, amazed.

“Ohh, I forgot my backpack. I’ll be right back,” Amy said. She grabbed her backpack and went downstairs.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Amy said, panting.

They went out the door and into the car.

They drove for hours, but to Amy it felt like years.

“YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DESTINATION,” the GPS said.

“Finally,” said Marlowe, dancing in her seat. Amy chuckled a bit at Marlowe’s crazy dancing.

Chapter Two: Down with the Acorn

Amy got out of the car feeling woozy. She felt carsick. She walked on the gravel road, feeling the crunch of rocks under her blue sneakers. “This is going to be the best time of my life!” Marlowe cheered, jumping up and down. Amy was not feeling the same.

They walked through the forest, the breeze ruffled the leaves. Every step Amy took welled with misery. Although, she did smell the fresh scent of sap from a tree. Amy felt a sweat drop fall upon her forehead. Then, something hit her head.

“Akk!” Amy shouted. “Ohhh, sorry, false alarm! Just an acorn!” Amy said, embarrassed. As she cursed under her breath, she followed her parents and friend. She saw a tiny squirrel with brown fur and a fluffy tail. Amy fell head-over-heels seeing the adorable squirrel. But she looked away anyway.

She ran toward the group, grabbing her water from the back of her backpack.

“All right, here we are! The campsite!”Amy’s mom said. Amy had feared these words ever since her mom told her about the trip.

She could see a clearing in the middle of a forest. She swore she saw a deer. Butterflies flapped their wings softly in the breeze.

“This . . . is . . . a nightmare!“ Amy screamed as all the deer and butterflies scurried. “There! Sort of better!” Amy said proudly.

“Yeah . . . ” Marlowe said sarcastically.

They set up their tent and made a fire, even though it was still light outside. “Hey, you should take a walk in the woods!” Amy’s mom said.

Do you think I would want to do that?! I could get expelled from the woods, Margret, my mother, Amy thought to herself, but still she replied with, “ . . . Sure.”

She stepped into the woods, feeling her muscles tense. Her mother thought she could handle the forest. She couldn’t even handle an acorn. An acorn! How can someone be afraid of an acorn?! She stepped deeper into the woods, feeling the weight of second thoughts on her. Every step she took, she would look behind her. Then all of a sudden, everything turned dark, and someone had put a bag over her head! She said, “Oh, poop.”

Chapter Three: A Cinematic Event

Marlowe helped Amy’s parents with setting up the tent. She felt that something bad had happened, but she went on. But for some reason, she couldn’t shake the feeling off.

“Could I go into the forest?” Marlowe asked.

“Sure!“ said Amy’s mom.

Marlowe stepped into the woods, feeling scared for Amy. She was really sensitive. Who knows what was out there! Marlowe followed the trail, going deeper into the woods.

Then, all of a sudden, she heard a hoarse voice echo across the forest. “Marlowe, help me!” Marlowe felt a chill go down her spine. Who was that?! How did they know her name!? She tried to look where the voice came from. Then she stepped in front of a tree, and she shot through the air! She was trapped in a net! And she wasn’t the only person. Amy was also trapped!

“Amy! I was so worried,“ Marlowe said, while hugging her. Then a rustle was heard in the bushes. A person stepped out!

“Hello,” said the person. “You should get out of the forest.“

“Then why hang us up here?” Amy said, cranky.

“Well, I just wanted to feel a little more cinematic,” the person said.

“Wow, you’re filming us?” Amy said sarcastically, while clapping slowly.

The boy untied them and said goodbye.

“Wait!” Marlowe yelled. “Did you actually have a good reason for tying us up?”

There was a long pause, until the boy finally spoke. “Well . . . yes, and no. You see, I wanted to warn you about this thing in the forest, but also no, because I could’ve just told you instead of tying you up.”

“WHAT?!” Amy yelled.

“Amy, come on.“ Marlowe said, willing Amy to not embarrass her.

“I’m trying to give him what I got!“ Amy whispered to Marlowe. Marlowe slapped her hand on her forehead. “You think . . . Hey, anyway, what’s the bad thing going on?” Marlowe said, interrupting Amy. Amy gave the “oh, OK, we’re going to die” face. But Marlowe carried on anyway.

The boy said, “Well, to start . . . ”

Chapter Four: Silent but Deadly

Part of the forest fell silent but eerie.

“Ignitea, I have some bad news,”a person said.

Ignitea was not happy that she had to have more bad news, but she asked anyway, “What is it, Larry?”

“Well, there has been a sighting of two humans. And your boy has spilled the secret,” Larry said, gulping.

Ignitea was furious. She was going to have a talk with her son.

“How dare he!” Ignitea yelled angrily. She was a witch. She could just burn the humans to crisps, but that would be too quick and easy. She wanted it to be slow and painful. She raced to the entrance and went to the forest. She was red in the face. She was ready to fight. But she had to talk to her son, Zephyr.

“Wait! I forgot my wand!” Ignitea reminded herself. She was so angry she had forgotten her prized possession! She quickly grabbed her wand and ran so fast that she felt like she was flying. Her wand looked like a stick, but it looked like it was on fire! She had little diamond shapes on her cheeks too.

“Actually, I should use my magic to eavesdrop on them,” she said with an evil expression on her face.

Then, a little flame rested at the top of her hand, and she turned into a lizard. She still had the little flame on her hand. She scurried through the grove and searched for the kids.

Chapter Five: Wait? What?!

Amy was shocked to hear that Zephyr’s mother was evil! She was not ready for this!

“Anyway, my mother may be on her way right now, so let’s . . . ” Zephyr said, pausing.

“Let’s . . . what?” Amy said loudly.

“I sense my mother . . . ” Zephyr said eerily. Then there was a long pause.

“Well, where is she?!” Amy blurted out, interrupting the quiet.

“Amy!” Marlowe said, glaring at Amy.

“What?! I just wanted to know!” Amy said.

Ignitea was ready to charge at them with a hypnotizing spell. She charged at them while holding her wand and said, “Hypnosis, blast!”

Then, light purple clouds blinded the scene, leaving no trace except the whirling eyes on the two girls. She had got them!

“Come with me, children,” Ignitea said in a soothing tone.

“Don’t do it!” Zephyr yelled. “She’s tricking you!”

“She would never trick us . . . ” Amy and Marlowe said eerily.

Ignitea led the girls through her castle and into the dining room. There were hundreds and thousands of crumpets. Zephyr’s mother loved crumpets, but he had to eat them all the time and he hated them.

Zephyr saw that Ignitea was not leading them into the dining room, but into the library. Ignitea grabbed another wand from a case, and it looked like a pitchfork, except, of course, it was a wand. But she was going to use it for evil! She would first destroy them and then everyone in the forest!

But then, Zephyr thought of something, the magic word to end the hypnosis spell! He yelled, “CRUMPETS!”

And immediately, the girls snapped out of it, and the only word they yelled was, “Ahhhh!!!”

Chapter 6: The Dawn of the Fart/The End

Marlowe, Amy, and Zephyr ran into the forest, terrified. They had escaped the grasp of Ignitea, but she was still on the loose out in the forest. She had to be destroyed. But also, Amy felt bad about how Zephyr had to go through all this. He would have to attack his own mother! But it would be worth it.

Amy found a crumpet in her back pocket. She ate it. It had been a long time, but then they heard a loud noise. “Was that a fart?” Zephyr asked.

“Sorry,” Amy said, embarrassed.

To be continued . . .

No Way to Leave

Ann Arbor Open School

Age 12

by Gabe Kosnoski

Why are they doing this? There is no point in doing this. We were perfectly fine before. Why are they going to do this to our planet?

“I need to stop this,” I said to myself.

I left my tower, got on my horse, and started to go to the nearest farm by train. When I got there, I manipulated the farmer’s mind to help me get on the train. I had to hide myself, so I cast a spell that would make me invisible because the government doesn’t like magic users. When I got off the train, I went straight to the industrial district to sabotage the factories there. Surprisingly, there was no one guarding the factories. When I went in, there was a sign that said medicine but I didn’t bother to read it. When I looked around, I saw a machine dispensing flowers, smashing them, then liquefying them, then mixing them with other liquids, then bottling them. The process was mesmerizing, I stood there looking at it for two minutes, but I snapped out of it. When I did snap out of it, I instantaneously cast fireball, then I did the same to the rest of the factories. But then I thought that was not enough.

I had to take the train, but I would have no way to leave. Then I got an idea. I would use the train to get back to the farm I left my horse at. Then I would go halfway through the train tracks, and then I would derail the train. Just then some people in all blue with gold badges started chasing me and shouting, “Stop!” From what their badges said, they were factory security. I was able to get away. That little distraction made my plan a

little bit harder. But it was still doable when I got to the train station. I was easily able to get on the train. I think a guard might have seen me when I got on the train.

When I got off the train at the farm, I got on my horse. Then I went about halfway. But just when I finished breaking the train tracks, there were a bunch of people surrounding me. I could not run this time and I got captured.

When I woke up, I was in a dark room with a bed and a pot and bars and a door. I had to get out of there, but the bars were too close together for me to get through. I saw the door had a lock, so if I could get the keys from someone, I could get out of this cage. Then I just saw a person with keys, so I asked where I was, and he said I was in a prison cell. But when he got closer to me, I pulled him into the bars, grabbed his keys, and unlocked the door. Just then, he ran into my cell, but I ran out and locked him in there. So now that I was out of my cell, I did not know where to go. So I started looking around, then I thought to myself, The other prisoners should know how to get out. So I started freeing the other prisoners, and then I asked them which way to get out and they said to follow them. After running for two minutes, we got to a cafeteria, and there were a lot of guards there. The other prisoners distracted the guards, and I opened the door.

I Am Only This Ann Arbor Open School

Age 10

by Ani Walker

Chapter One

Coming into my homeroom class, I felt the same vibe of normalness, the normalness of the classroom, the normal desks, the normal globe in front of the teacher’s desk, the normal “WELCOME” sign on the whiteboard. There was the normal smell of my mom’s lavender perfume, the normal warm hug she gave, the normal kiss on my forehead, the normal whisper in my ear, saying, “There is nothing to prove,” and then adding, “You will do amazing in school, and remember, the kids want a reaction from you, so just don’t show it.” I just stared at the floor. Then I headed off and gave a little wave goodbye.

They want a reaction from you, they want a reaction from you, I played it in my head about a thousand times. My teacher greeted us and said to take time to get to know people, or just relax. But, of course, starting middle school was no place to relax. It was a place to worry. Especially for me, because I had no idea how people would treat me. I found a little table at the corner of the room and sat down. Everybody else seemed to have friends, and I knew I was the only one without any. I tapped my fingers against the desk, wishing there was more space in the classroom. I let out a heavy sigh.

“Hello everyone,” my teacher said in a kind but commanding voice. “I hope you took time to chat with other students and get used to this

space. As you all know, my name is Ms. Maria, and I’d like to start off by telling you, for those who aren’t exactly sure, how we’re going to do things here in middle school. You’ll come back to our homeroom class a few times a day for about fifteen to twenty minutes.” A lot of people rolled their eyes. She continued to talk: “I’ll pass out sheets of what classes you’ll do at which times and days, and I know that you all put in the free activities you’d like to do along with your academic classes on your computers.” Many people groaned. They knew all that already. Ms. Maria gave them a look. She then said, “I encourage you guys to memorize your sheets of paper.” Then she passed them out.

The rest of school went along. We didn’t have much going on. I just kept thinking to myself, They want a reaction from you, they want a reaction from you. Luckily, the day wasn’t too bad, even though it was just the beginning.

Chapter Two

My mom picked me up from school and asked how it was. I didn’t say much, of course. Soon, I could just listen to the echo of her voice. I was too busy thinking about going home to play my favorite video game, not having to listen to the world around me, not having to pay attention to school, how horrid it will eventually be.

I was homeschooled before this. My mom was teaching me, but she thought it would be good for me to go to actual school this year. I was so, so angry. But she got me this book called Wonder, which was very similar to my scenario. I’m not very good at all at reading books. Sometimes it’s hard for me to sound out the words, so I kind of just imagined it.

When I got home, I ran up my porch steps and got to my room. I turned on my iPad mini, and got transferred to my new world. The game is called Fire Dragons. I pressed the buttons on the game and darted fireballs at the goblins trying to steal stuff from the castle. I was the protector of the castle. Then my mom came in and told me to pause the game. I glared at her, but paused it.

“Hey,” she said, “Anything else you want to share about school?”

“I don’t know, Mom, just let me keep playing this.

“Hasel,” she said. “Read a book or something. OK?”

“You know I can’t read!” I said angrily.

But my mom just said, “Of course you can read, it’s been seven years of school.”

“Right. Homeschool!” I walked away from her and kicked my feet. It went like that for a while.

Six hours later, I got into bed. School would start again tomorrow. And what could I do?

* * * * *

The next week of school, my mom dropped me off by the class door again. I was glad that school went OK for the whole week. I didn’t like it, of course. I always sat alone in the cafeteria. But I did memorize the list of our classes. Then these two girls came up to me, kind of snickering.

“Um hey,” one of them said. “Why does your mom always drop you off right at this door? Because most of the kids who go to middle school just, like, walk to school or something.” I could feel my face burning up. I knew she was making fun of me.

“Um, I think your mom is really overprotective,” the other girl said, smiling at me in a teasing way. “Or do you have special problems?!” Did they know I was autistic?

Then, I yelled as hard as I could and all of my class noticed. Including some people in the hall. “That’s none of your business! You guys are rude, horrible, and mean!! You have NO idea what it’s like!” And for some reason, I slapped one of them across the face. But it was hard, and my hand kind of pushed her to the ground.

“OWW! OWW!!” she moaned. Everybody watched to see the commotion. Ms. Maria then took her to the nurse’s office right away.

When she came back, she said to me very sternly, “Hasel. Come with me.” I slumped behind her as I followed her out to the hall. I knew this was not going to be good.

Chapter Three

Ms. Maria took me to a big office space. A lady came to say hello. I laid against the edge of the door while Ms. Maria was saying something quietly to her. I could kind of hear, but I didn’t want to listen. Finally, she said goodbye and left. I did not want to be there. The woman sat down.

“Hello Hasel,” she said, “Please. Come sit.” She motioned to another chair across from her. I turned to the side, so I wasn’t looking at her. “Please. Come sit.” She said in the exact same way. I glared at her, but I came over and sat. I studied her closely. She was very pretty. She had a

goldenish blonde bun and strands of pink hair hanging from the side. I had to admit, I liked her diamond earrings and especially the cardigan sweater she was wearing. “So,” she said, “my name is Ms. Katrina. I am a guidance counselor. I can also be known as a school therapist or social worker. But—”

“I already do therapy with my mom.” I snapped.

“And that is completely fine,” she responded, “But I was going to say that you can just think of me as a friend. A friend who helps you work and focus and tries to help you achieve what you wish to do for the rest of your eighty years of life.”

“So . . . are you going to punish me for slapping that girl in the face?” I asked.

Ms. Katrina continued to smile thoughtfully. “I am not going to punish you in any way. We can just discuss and take it easy.” I was confused. Wasn’t that the reason I was sent to this place? But Ms. Katrina just kept asking me questions I didn’t answer and said how this is a safe place and that I could talk to her whenever I wanted to. I wasn’t really listening though. I was just thinking about how horrible this was. But then, suddenly, it was over. She said goodbye, and then I left. I was so furious and confused that I didn’t even glare or anything.

When my mom picked me up, I thought about it again. I thought about Ms. Katrina and how she said she would help me “achieve my goals,” which obviously she couldn’t.

When I got home, I decided to tell my mom about what had happened. “Uh, Mom?” I said. “So earlier, I kind of lost it with this girl, even though she was being really mean to me, and I got sent to this guidance counselor.”

“Oh, you mean Katrina?”

“Yes,” I grumbled.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.” she said.

“Tell me what?” I snapped.

“Well, honey, me and your teachers knew you were going to be seeing her. I didn’t exactly know when you’d start seeing a guidance counselor. But I think that maybe then was a good moment. I guess I’ve just been so caught up in things that I didn’t tell you.”

“What!” I yelled. So this wasn’t about the girl! I should have known it was just about my disability.

“I don’t like Ms. Katrina anyway,” I grumbled.

Then my mom said, “Hey, I know this is so incredibly frustrating. Do you want to just take a walk outside for a bit? Just in silence?” I nodded. That was one thing I liked. Being outside. In silence.

Chapter Four

As we walked, my feet stepping through the grass, my mom’s brown skin against mine, my mom said, “Hey, love, I know I said this could just be a silent walk, but I want you to know that you’re in a safe place with Ms. Katrina.”

“That’s what she said to me,” I mumbled. She nodded her head.

“She’s also incredibly kind, understanding, and considerate. And I think that once you get to know her better, you’ll feel more confident talking to her than you did on the first day. I know it’s harder for you to control yourself than other kids. But it doesn’t change anything, does it?” She squeezed my hand. Although I didn’t think I’d feel more confident talking to Ms. Katrina, and me having autism did change some things, I still looked up at my mom and squeezed her hand tighter.

The next day my mom dropped me off at school and said, “Oh, the soccer game is going late today, so your father will pick you up from school, and I’ll get to his house at around eight.”

“Oh. I’m sure that will be fun,” I grumbled sarcastically.

My mom knelt down and sighed. Then she kissed my forehead. “Your father doesn’t know how strong you are, honey. But it will only be a few hours, OK? Bye. I love you. Stay confident.” Then she stood up and left.

My parents are divorced. My mom’s a soccer coach and sometimes has to stay late. So, I have to stay at my dad’s house. But he just looks at his phone all the time and doesn’t really realize I’m there. That’s one of the most important reasons they divorced. And my mom was furious, because of that. I’m glad I usually stay with her though.

Again, later that day during history class, I had to go to Ms. Katrina’s office. As I was following the teacher, I was trying my best to stay calm, and trying not to explode.

When we got there, the history teacher whispered to me, “Come to the lunch room when you’re done.” I nodded. When he left, I noticed all the posters on Ms. Katrina’s wall. Mostly about giving kindness and stuff.

“Hi Hasel,” she said. “I’m glad that you’re here again today.”

Yeah, like I had a choice. But I just kept that thought to myself. I had a seat.

“So, now that we’re both settled, I’d like to tell you how we’re going to do our, well, let us say, ‘schedule,’” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘schedule?!’” I snapped.

“What I mean,” Ms. Katrina said calmly, “is how we’re going to be working things. You’ll be coming to my office for another week or so, and then I’ll be coming to your class throughout the day. Is that OK with you?”

“No.” I said, but my word came out in more of a grunt. Sometimes that happens to me, but I can’t really help it. Ms. Katrina nodded. “I’m glad that you responded. And I know you might not like it at first, but don’t worry, I think you’ll change your mind.”

“How long will I be seeing you?” I tried again.

“Well, we’ll have to see later on, to see how much you’ve improved, but it’s . . . more complicated.” She said this pretty softly. Then she let out a small sigh. I looked away. “Oh, I forgot,” she said. “Want some hot chocolate?” She pulled out a large mug that seemed like it came from nowhere. But then I noticed a small table kind of hidden away behind her. There was another mug next to it.

“I’m fine.” I mumbled.

“No, take it,” she said. “C’mon, you deserve it. I put some marshmallows in there as well. Classic, I know. I’ll have to think of a more interesting topping later.”

“OK, well, sure,” I said, grabbing the hot chocolate carefully. “Thank you,” I said very quietly.

“No prob. Are you OK with eating and drinking?”

“Yeah.” I said as I took a small sip. Some people with autism have a hard time eating and doing some other stuff. I’m pretty good with that stuff, though. I just have a much worse temper than most people, and it’s really hard to talk to people. Also my body sometimes does random movements, and it’s hard for me to control, but I work with a physical therapist. I’m definitely not one of the “normal” kids, but I’m not too different. Ms. Katrina grabbed her hot chocolate and took a sip. This was made especially well.

Chapter Five

Later that day, my dad picked me up from school. He didn’t talk to me at all though. And I didn’t talk to him either.

When we got home, my mom and dad were on the phone. Eventually, they were yelling at each other. My mom probably started the call by asking, Is Hasel at the house with you?

And then, Why wouldn’t she be at the house with me, do you think I forgot to pick her up? My dad would snap.

Then my mom would say, You don’t have to overreact about it so much, and maybe you would forget, because obviously it doesn’t matter to you if she’s just left at school all her life! And that would definitely lead to a fight.

I sat there and groaned. I wish I had my iPad with me, to play Fire Dragons. I could choose the Phoenix Dragon with the giant gold wings. If you level up enough, like I did, you could choose it. It’s one of the most special dragons. Because there was nothing to do here, I just decided to do my homework. It was the first homework assignment we got, so I thought it shouldn’t be too hard, but we did have some big beginning-ofthe-year tests, so I probably would need to study a lot. I’m pretty good at math, though. But some people don’t think I’m good at anything.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of confusing story problems, which are harder for me to do. But I studied a lot when my mom homeschooled me, so I thought I could probably figure it out on my own.

My dad then came into the living room, looking grouchy and tired. “Oh,” he said, “you’re doing homework. Good.” Then he muttered to himself, “At least you’re not playing that stupid game of yours.” I glared at him. Then he walked back to his room. Yeah, yeah. Fire Dragons is stupid. Don’t think I didn’t hear you, Michael Thompsan. But I didn’t want to let that distract me. I needed to focus. The thing that’s weird though, is that I have trouble reading books but not with reading other stuff. It’s strange. I guess I just can’t really pay attention when reading books. Maybe it’s because there’s just always so much stuff going on in them. My mom thinks otherwise. She knows I can, and I do too, I guess. I like books, but it’s not like I can always know what’s going on in them.

Later, my mom picked me up from my dad’s house. She ignored him but said to me, “Hey. You ready to go home?”

“Yeah.” I said.

“Did you get any homework today?”

“Yeah. I worked on it here.”

“Awesome,” my mom said, smiling.

I played Fire Dragons for a while until I got ready for bed. The Phoenix Dragon would be waiting for me the next day.

Chapter Six

Today, I went to Ms. Katrina’s office again.

“Hey!” she said. “Come take a seat. Oh, I thought of a couple new hot chocolate toppings. Melted peppermint Yorks with a chocolate peanut butter drizzle. I hope you don’t have another dessert tonight!” she said in a jokey sort of way. I nodded in response. That actually sounded really good, and I was excited to try it, but I didn’t tell her that.

“So,” Ms. Katrina said, as we took our hot chocolate mugs, “I hear you have some big tests coming up. Next week I’ll come over to your class, and we’ll work together on anything you might be struggling with. Only if that’s OK with you. But I won’t give you any of the answers.” I nodded again. “Awesome. I am going to work you hard, and you are going to ace all of those tests.”

“Is anybody else getting extra help?” I asked as quietly as I could. Her head tilted to the side, and I could see the reflection of her light brown eyes looking directly at me. She smiled thoughtfully. “I’m not going to help you much, Hasel. I want you to figure out as much as you can on your own.”

“But you’re still working with me, and not with anybody else.” I said it even more quietly this time, hoping that now she couldn’t hear me, but teachers are crazily amazing at hearing, so she could.

Speaking her words carefully, she said, “ Yes, nobody else in your class is working with a different adult on their school work. And I’m sure that you’re quite aware why you are here. Because you have autism, it’s better if somebody works with you on some things. And sometimes it’s good to talk about things with someone. That’s why I’m here. I want to make sure that you feel comfortable at home, but also at school. And of course, I can’t assume anything, but I think it might be a little hard to be starting a new school, especially when you’ve been homeschooled for most of your life. And you might struggle to feel that you fit in. But it’s not just you. A lot of people starting middle school find it hard to adjust,

and they feel like they don’t fit in. And remember, sometimes, if people are being mean to you, they might just feel nervous themselves, and think that maybe if they take it out on other people they can kind of . . . push those feelings away. Do you think you understand?”

“Yes,” I finally said, this time looking directly into her eyes. Over the weekend, I mostly played Fire Dragons, but a lot of the time I thought. I thought more than usually anybody thinks. I thought a lot about school, but mostly about Ms. Katrina. I thought about what she said: A lot of people starting middle school feel like they don’t fit in. A lot of people starting middle school feel like they don’t fit in. I didn’t really pay attention to the other parts as much. Just near the last part. I don’t know why, but random sentences that other people say just get stuck in my brain, and I think about it over, and over, and over again. Like what my mom whispered to me on the first day of school. They want a reaction from you. Although some people think that I don’t even have a brain because I have autism, I know I do. Of course I do. But the truth is, I’m jealous. Jealous times one thousand. No, jealous times infinity. And why does it have to be me who’s so different? But no matter how hard I tried asking my mom, I just couldn’t get the explanation. WHY? Why is the question. WHY? But another thing to be truthful about was that I think I trusted Ms. Katrina. I trusted every one of her words. Maybe part of me didn’t like her, like I would break into pieces just seeing her, like I would explode with frustration, but part of me, well, maybe a tiny part of me, kind of . . . liked her. I liked her with angriness. In the beginning, the angriness took over. It was more powerful. But after that, the angriness disappeared. Like when it used its power to take over the niceness, the angriness was suddenly gone. Like the niceness was always part of the angriness. Like the angriness kept the nice part hidden. Like the angriness was secretly afraid.

Chapter Seven

The next week passed by quickly. It was pretty normal, except for the fact that Ms. Katrina now came to some of my classes instead of me going to her office. I now accepted why she was working with me on my tests and homework. Nobody really paid attention or was mean to me when I was there with her, which was good. But one time in my homeroom class, the girl that I slapped the day I went to Ms. Katrina’s office

went up to me, trying to talk in that fake nice sort of way on purpose, said to me, “I see you’ve got some company, Hasel. I suppose she’s helping cheat on your tests, ’cuz you’re more ‘special’ then the rest of us?” She waited for a response with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. I got angry and was about to react, but then Ms. Katrina looked at me and that stopped me. It was like she had the power to stop somebody from doing something with just a glance.

Instead, she said calmly to her, “Yes, she does have company. And no, she won’t be cheating on any tests whatsoever, so how about you keep doing your own work instead of being involved with other people’s stuff.” The girl sort of flinched, and then walked away. I wish I had the ability to respond in a cool way like that, but I can’t. I will never be able to respond like Ms. Katrina. And that really, really sucks.

Me and Ms. Katrina mostly worked on history and science story problems. I actually think I’m getting better. And she was right! I did ace every test. She was trustworthy.

*

More weeks passed by, and I felt . . . I felt like the angriness was disappearing a little more every day. I don’t know why, but I felt less frustrated. Even though I wasn’t really talking to her much; just looking out the window, not really paying attention, my thoughts were talking to her. A few times in the months of November and December, Ms. Katrina came to my house, and my mom and I talked with her. I think that I changed. And I felt like Ms. Katrina helped me feel more calm without me really even knowing it. Someday I would tell her that. Probably not this year. Maybe in seventh grade. Maybe at my eighth-grade graduation. Someday. I made that a goal to tell her. I thought about that one word for the whole rest of December, including winter break. Someday.

Chapter Eight

After winter break, we had a big back-to-school celebration. It was pretty fun. There were a lot of snacks and treats and drinks. We watched a movie and played games, though I didn’t participate in the games, because for most of them, you needed to partner with someone, and I don’t think anyone would ever want to partner up with me.

* * * * *

The more times I’d been with Ms. Katrina and the more times I’d done therapy, the more my reading had especially improved. I was able to read a five hundred-page book in less than a week. Ms. Katrina was very impressed, and I know she thought to herself what an amazing guidance counselor she was.

But of course, I didn’t just magically become an ordinary kid. I definitely still had my horrible moods and embarrassing and overwhelming times when I couldn’t talk to anyone. My dad was still the same. Always looking at his phone, not paying attention to me at all. But some things you can’t change. Although those girls kept saying I was cheating on the tests and all, I was getting better at talking to bullies like them. And Ms. Katrina definitely helped with that.

On the night of May 19, my mom came into my room and said, “Less than a month until the end of school, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said as I pushed the buttons to play Fire Dragons, leveling up each minute.

“You love that game don’t you?” My mom asked, raising her eyebrows. I knew that was a signal for me to stop playing. I turned off my iPad, put my headphones down, and looked at her.

“Seventh grade,” she said, almost in a whisper, and rubbed my cheek.

“I know. I can’t believe it,” I said.

She looked at me with thoughtful eyes and sighed. She was kind of trembling. “I just can’t believe . . . I can’t believe . . . wow.” She shook and then started to cry. I scooted closer to her.

“Mom,” I said, “please don’t cry. It—”

“I’m so sorry. God,” she said and wiped her eyes. We snuggled together for a while.

Then my mom said, “I love you, Hasel. So much.”

And then I said the words that needed to be said.

“I love you too, Mom. So much.”

Chapter Nine

Today was the night before the last day of school.

“Mom, I won’t be able to fall asleep,” I said as my mom came in to say goodnight.

“Hasel. Tomorrow is gonna be awesome. You’re just going to party all day. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll try not to,” I responded. She kissed my forehead and said goodnight.

“The next day, I got to school, and there was a big party. It was like the one in January, but bigger. We had different parties in different classes, so there were so many people! Even Ms. Katrina was there. “Hey,” she said, “good party, right?” I nodded.

Later, we started to sign yearbooks. I told Ms. Katrina that I didn’t want to do it because no one would ever want to sign my yearbook. But she looked at me and said, “Just try it,” and that kind of pushed me into doing it. At first I was really nervous, but as I went along, I felt better. Near the end of the day, I got all the courage, and went up to Ms. Katrina. “Um, Ms. Katrina?” I said, “Thank you.” She smiled at me. I continued to speak. “I . . . I didn’t think so at first, but this has been a great school year, and . . . and I think you’re one of the most important people who made my year great.” I could NOT believe I just said that.

She pulled me in for a hug. “Hasel,” she said, “I am so, so proud of you. And I know you’ll still be rockin’ and rollin’ next year.” I smiled at her. I thank my mom for always being there and putting me into this school. I thank my teachers for always being supportive and for teaching me things I didn’t know. And I thank Ms. Katrina. I thank her for helping me be a student, a real student. I learned something that day. I learned that I am only this:

Hasel. I am only myself. And I, Hasel Patrick Thompsan, am a kid with autism, a kid with a bad temper, a kid who finds it hard to talk to people, a kid who some people don’t understand. And also: a kid with a ginormous brain, a kid with a wild imagination, a kid who is worth listening to, a kid who knows who she is, a kid who loves, a kid who is loved, and finally, a kid who is prepared to face her next eighty years of life.

Abnormal Life on Earth

Wylie Elementary School

Age 9

by Eva McCall

Her whole entire world revolved around the music shop. The strings, drumsticks, and picks. She loved to let the music drown her in sound, then she liked to swim in it, get lost in it. She loved it. She cherished it deep in her heart. She loved music and that was all. The shop’s janitor, Mr. Noodle, always let her help out at the shop on Sundays, when the shop usually needed an extra hand. It was one day at the shop when Mr. Noodle said, “Hey Sally, I need you to take this to the back for me.”

“Sure,” said Sally. She took the package from Mr. Noodle.

“Oh, one more thing,” said Mr. Noodle. “Be careful.”

“Thanks, I will,” she said. Then she walked into the back of the store and went through a little door that led to a somewhat big room. She usually put the boxes on the counter, but then something caught her eye. There, on the table in front of her, was the first violin ever made! She had heard stories of it passed down generation to generation. It was exactly as everyone described, more like a square with rounded corners and thin strings with no f-holes, unlike other violins. It also had a magical, tingly feeling in the air around it.

She was tempted to go and touch it, but she remembered that she had a job to do and that the first violin ever made was probably fragile, so she left the room, closed the tiny door, and went to find Mr. Noodle, who was sorting out different kinds of rosin.

“I’m back,” she said.

Mr. Noodle suddenly spun around. “Oh, it’s you. Sorry, I just got a little bit frightened,” he said. “I have a question for you, did you happen to see any old artifacts in the back room?”

“Yes, actually, I think I saw the first violin ever made, but I might have seen something else.”

“I have feared this for centuries,” Mr. Noodle said. He was white and shaking with fear. “Follow me.” He took her to the back room. After seeing the violin, he became even more fidgety and nervous. He showed her to a curtain behind a shelf. She followed him into the tiny crawl space behind the curtain. Then, they went down an elevator that took them to another secret room. This room was a small, modest room that reminded Sally of the ice cream shop on the other side of town.

“Mr. Noodle, what put the violin there?”

“Musalanites.”

“What are Musalanites?”

“You mean who!” he said as he started fumbling with a lock on a big wooden crate. He took out a silver pearl.

“What’s that?” asked Sally, getting more and more curious and scared.

“Put it in your pocket!” he said. Then, he took what looked like a one hundred-year-old vase and threw it. It shattered on the ground.

Sally was about to open her mouth to say something when the shattered pieces started to float. They started spinning faster and faster until they were spinning about fifty miles an hour. Then the middle of the circle started to fill in with black mist. The black mist seemed to crackle with lightning.

“This is a portal,” he said.

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Nope, you were chosen . . . You will protect us from Queen Musala and the Musalanites. Now go, I will see you again after you have finished this journey.”

“What do you mean?”

“You will know when the time comes,” he said. “Go!”

She jumped into the portal. It closed behind her. Vwoosh! Sally ended up in a spaceship.

“Where am I?” she whispered. There were footsteps coming her way! She hid as fast as she could. It was an alien! It looked so scary and vicious that Sally just had to let out a little yelp. The alien turned in her direction.

She could tell it could not see her. It started coming closer and closer and . . . Yikes! It only had one eye!

It walked on hundreds of sharp toes. Its mouth was on its belly. It had four long, slimy tentacles. It sniffed. She couldn’t see its nose but she heard a sniff. He came forward at once. Then, a strong jingle came from far away, and the alien followed it. Sally got curious and got the idea of following him, but then she remembered the pearl. She took it out of her pocket and then realized that she didn’t know what to do with it. A powerful urge came over her. She felt like throwing it, and before she could stop herself, CRASH! It was in pieces.

Then, all of a sudden, she was in full battle armor that shined with blue light. A sword appeared in her hand and a shield on her arm. The noise alerted the guard. He spun his tentacles toward her. Thinking quickly, she took her sword and cut off a tentacle from the shocked alien. She stood up from where she was crouching, ran into the main hallway, and realized that the alien was giving chase. Sally felt excited. This was her first battle! She stopped, turned around, and faced the alien. There was blood dripping from the red stump where the tentacle had once been. It had three tentacles left. It lunged forward and Sally dodged. She took that chance. She slid her blade under the alien, unbalancing it and slicing off most of its toes. It squeaked in pain.

Two more guards ran at her. She dodged and sliced into each one. She was getting a hang of this. They all got up and charged. She bonked them with her shield. They fell back, dazed. She found a rope and tied them up. Suddenly, she heard the screeching of an alarm. She quickly hid. All of the aliens seemed to have come from one direction, so she went the direction that they had come from. There was a narrow hallway that led to a large, circular room. The room was enormous, twenty-three feet tall at least! Suddenly, a secret door came out of nowhere and blocked the exit. And then a huge alien about seven feet tall came into view.

“I was expecting you. It seems Mr. Noodle hasn’t given you much training,” she said. “I bet you don’t even know who I am.”

Sally looked around. She saw a throne with a banner hanging above it that said: “Queen Musala.”

“Your name is Queen Musala.”

“Ah, so you know something. Why are you here?”

Sally thought. She didn’t even know why she was here. But then again, she did. “Because your Musalanites are setting traps for the people on Earth. And unless you have a good reason to, stop,” she said boldly.

“We’ve raided almost every other planet in the galaxy, and Earth is the second-to-last on our list.”

“If you’re still thinking about invading Earth, you have to get through me.”

“Brave words, but with hardly any training, I could beat you easily. I’ll give you ten seconds to back down.”

“No, my answer is no.”

“As you wish.” The queen charged at Sally. She was as dim-witted as the other aliens. Sally dodged and delivered a powerful blow on the queen’s side. She prepared to lunge again but this time Sally had a plan. As the queen lunged, Sally covered her head and stabbed her underbelly. The queen fell back, stunned and in pain. Sally could tell she wasn’t going to die, but her injuries were fatal.

Sally pointed her blade at Queen Musala and said, “I don’t want to destroy you, and if you promise to leave Earth alone, I won’t have to.”

“Fine, I will surrender.” A vase appeared out of nowhere. Sally teleported back home.

Epilogue

When Sally came back, Mr. Noodle was waiting for her. But there was a strange glow about him, as if he were magic . . .

The End.

To Save the Future

Slauson Middle School

Age 12

by Stella Falkner

I hop into bed soon after my parents get home, but I can’t fall asleep right away. I’m just starting to close my eyes when I hear a weird noise coming from my window.

Tap . . . tap . . . CLINK! Tap tap SCCRRAATTCCHH— Goosebumps pop up along my arm, and I duck my head under my blanket.

Tap tap CLANG! It sounds like someone is trying to get in. An awful feeling rises in my stomach. As quietly as possible, I roll out of bed and tiptoe over to the window. I cautiously reach my hand out and grip the edge of my curtain. Very slowly, I pull it to the side and press my eye to the gap. A girl’s face stares back at me.

My instincts react before my mind does, and I flail backward, screeching. As if on its own accord, my hand darts out and flings the curtain back into place. As if that will make whoever’s out there disappear. I stand in the middle of my room for a few seconds, gasping for air. I can’t exactly just ignore the girl, but every nerve in my body is telling me not to open the window. Curiosity gets the best of me. I tentatively reach out my hand to pull the curtain aside.

Two faces stare back at me, a girl and a boy. They look about my age, but it’s hard to tell when it’s so dark out. They look surprised to see me but not nearly as startled as I was.

The boy reaches out and opens my window a crack, just enough to talk through. I take a few steps back, but the pair doesn’t look like they mean much harm.

“Who are y-you?” I stammer.

“My name’s Maia, and this is Three,” replies the girl calmly. Slightly more comfortably, I ask my next question. “What do you want, and why are you here?” I try to keep my voice steady, but it cracks on “here” all the same.

The boy cooly replies that they are not here to hurt me and that they actually need my help with something.

“Something” sounds very vague, so I say I’m gonna need a lot more details.

I listen hard as the boy begins to explain. “In the year 2031,” he begins, and my eyes widen, “a big company called Mindlift, Inc. rises to power. Mindlift specializes in tiny computer chips that you can get implanted into your brain.” He starts to say something else but I cut him off. I try not to freak out.

“Umm . . . do you guys need some help?” I say.

The girl’s face lights up. “Yes!” she says brightly. “That’s exactly what we came here for!”

“OK . . . so there’s a hospital just a few blocks away, they can help you with whatever you’re dealing with . . . ” I think fast. “I’m going to need you to go now, before I call the police.” I yank my phone off my bedside stand and navigate to the emergency dial icon.

“No, stop!” the girl says before I can hit it. “Not that kind of help, we need . . . ” She gets cut off by the boy.

“I know this is a lot,” he says soothingly, “but we’re not crazy and we can prove it.” He pulls a drone-thing out of his pocket and whispers something to it. It flies through the open window and straight at me.

“STOP!” I say, jumping out of the way.

“It’s OK, it’s not going to hurt you,” he says. The drone slowly flies over and plucks the phone out of my hands with a weird grabber-arm. It proceeds to exit out of the emergency screen before plopping it down onto my nightstand. That’s it.

“I must be dreaming” I whisper to myself. Well, I realize, if I’m dreaming, I have nothing to lose. I actually sort of want to see what else

the boy is trying to tell me. I walk over to the window so the boy can continue his spiel.

“All right, I believe you.” I say. I think the boy can tell I’m lying, but he goes on anyway.

“I’m sure you’re wondering how we know what will happen in 2031, and the answer is pretty simple. We’re from the future, and we came back to get you. We need your help.”

The girl stares at me waiting for a reaction. I give her a small one.

“Oohh . . . ” I say. There is no way this dream could possibly get any weirder. “Alright, cool,” I say politely. “Why do you want my help?”

This time, the girl takes over explaining. “We are pretty sure that the CEO of Mindlift, Miles Graff, wants to become president. Once he becomes president, he will use his microchips to gain control of the rest of the government, without anyone knowing.”

I just stare at her for a second.

“What? . . . ” I say. After thinking for a moment, I ask, “If this guy is so evil, why would anyone vote him in as president in the first place?”

The boy looks at me like I’m the dumbest person he’s ever met. “The brain-chips, he has them in over half of the population. Technically if he really wanted to, he could force all of them to support him. Also, all he cares about is money and power. Once he has the power, he’ll probably take everyone’s money and make them worship him or something.”

“Holy cow,” I say, but that doesn’t quite sum up the position. “That stinks, but what do you want me to do about it?”

The girl sighs. “This is where it gets complicated. If you want to change the future, you have to change the past. We want you to stop Miles Graff from ever inventing the brain-chip in the first place.”

They each stare me in the eyes, clearly waiting for a response. I get the feeling they’ve practiced this conversation before. I’m pretty sure they were expecting an epic reaction, but that’s not what I gave them.

“Alright.” They look at me. “What? I said yes.” They clearly didn’t realize that I knew this was a dream and that nothing I did actually mattered. To the pair’s immense surprise, I walk over to the window, push it open the rest of the way, and hop out onto the damp grass. Maia narrows her eyes suspiciously, questioning why my surprise had faded so quickly. Three just grins at me.

“All right then . . . here we go!” he says.

“Wait, where?” I say, confused.

“The future.” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. I just nod, dumfounded. Three loops his arm around Maia and leads us off down the street.

Normally I’d never get lost in my own neighborhood. But Three manages it. After only a few blocks, I am completely turned around.

I tap Three on the shoulder and ask, “Wait, where are we? How much farther is the FUTURE?” I wobble the word future in the most wacky way I can. They don’t laugh.

Maia gives me a look as Three responds. “We’re so close, not much further.”

I frown, but keep following them anyway. Sure enough, after about one more minute of walking, we come to an old shed on the side of the road. It looks like a garden shed from one of the houses next door. The inside, on the other hand, is not like any gardening shed I’ve ever seen. Instead of unlocking the door, Maia pushes her finger against a specific spot on the door frame. Instantly, a glow emits from the windows, pale and mysterious. The door slips open on its own, and my two companions march through confidently. I step through the door after them but then jump back in surprise. Most of the walls are normal, wooden shelves, but the fourth is just . . . light. A swirling, writhing mass of long, white tendrils of light. It is almost too bright to look at. It looks exactly like a portal from a sci-fi movie, and that’s why I don’t feel particularly surprised when Maia and Three step through it.

We emerge into a world I could have never imagined. It’s too hard to take in all at once. I spin in a slow circle, trying to absorb everything. To my left and right are tall buildings, made out of some sort of white metal. The portal behind us disappears, and it’s instead replaced with a long, cleared area of land. It seems like a road, but I wonder why it isn’t paved. Then I look above me and see sleek silver and black automobiles gliding in organized rows.

“Flying cars,” I mutter. “That explains it.” I blink a few times, trying to process everything. There are sidewalks on the sides of the streets, but no one is walking. Everyone sits on plush chairs that seem to be hovering above the ground and gliding on their own. Everyone seems fully absorbed in the holographic screens in front of them, and no one notices a strange trio appear in the middle of the road.

I realize that, while I was gawking, Maia and Three had picked up their pace.

After I catch up, I say, “Alright, we’re in the FUTURE, where are we going now?”

“MindCore!” Maia replies like I’m the dumbest person she’s ever met. That quiets me, and we spend the rest of the walk in silence.

After what feels like an eternity, we finally stop outside a big building that sort of looks like a hospital gone wrong. It’s taller than all of the other buildings, but it’s the same starch-white color. Various roads and satellite dishes jut from the sides and top. There is a humongous set of doors on the front, below a big glowing “MINDCORE” sign. When Maia leads us across the street and over to the building, I assume that’s where we’re going in. Apparently not. We run up to the building, then hug the corner to get around the side. Maia leads us methodically, in zigzag patterns and loops to dodge security cameras.

Finally, we reach the back of the building, where there is another set of much smaller doors. Instead of using fingerprints to open this one, Three hands Maia a small device to hold against the sensor. It makes a few angry squeaks, but after a couple strong zaps the door loudly swings open.

“I get the feeling we’re not supposed to be here,” I whisper to Three. In response, Maia puts a finger to her lips. I nod, and we tiptoe in.

The inside of Mindcore is like a big maze. A lopsided pattern of gray and white hallways stretch as far as I can see, lined with hundreds of unmarked doors. The building looked big from the outside, but somehow it’s even bigger in here. Thankfully, Maia seems to know where we’re going, and she leads us down the hallway to our right. After a few twists and turns, Maia uses the little device to open another door, this one much quieter, thankfully. Everything is totally silent in here. Even the sound of my heartbeat seems too loud. We slip into the room, and the door latches itself behind us. Even though I have no clue where we are, I feel my shoulders relax. Three lets out a sigh of relief, while Maia uncurls her tight fists.

“Good job, Emily.” Three says. “Not bad for your first time.” I smile at him, but it fades quickly when I realize I had never told him my name. What have I gotten myself into? The room is relatively bare, but one wall is covered in computer monitors. Maia strides over and turns them on confidently, and I wonder how many times she’s done this before.

The displays light up with videos. On a closer look, they turn out to be security camera feeds.

“These are live videos coming from different rooms around the building,” Maia explains. “We’re showing you this so you can get some firsthand information about what you’re up against.”

We’re all quiet for a few seconds as Maia clicks through different tapes. When she finds what she’s looking for, we all crowd around to see the film.

A young man sits at a small table across from a young woman. The woman has round glasses and short dark hair. She’s holding a clipboard and appears to be questioning the man sitting across from her. They are separated by a screen of plexiglass, but I think they’re wearing microphones because they can hear each other and we can hear them.

The audio loads in, and we hear part of the woman’s question.

“Would you protect your son, or Colonel Ori?” The man stiffens in his chair, as if something happened in his brain, which is probably true. The man’s pupils dilate like crazy, until almost all of his eyes are black.

“The Colonel,” he replies automatically. His voice is completely monotone, betraying no emotions. The woman smiles, and the man relaxes ever so slightly, sensing the end of that question.

“One last thing,” intones the woman calmly. The man snaps back to attention. “If the master asked you to give up your life for him, would you?”

“Of course,” comes the man’s response.

The woman smirks and marks a few things down on her clipboard. She seems very pleased with herself.

“You are excused, wonderful job.” The man stands up stiffly and lurches out of the room. Something buzzes, and the woman pulls a sleek-looking cell phone out of her pocket. She quickly scans the message, and her pleasant expression melts away. Frowning, she looks up and then pulls a dart gun out from under the table. She aims and fires. The dart hits the camera we’re watching from, and the feed goes dark.

Three steps away from the monitor, and Maia whirls in a circle, eyes wild. Three looks at me, eyes desperate.

“He knows we’re here.” Our trio makes a break for the exit, but we’re too late. Three guards burst in, weapons trained on our foreheads.

“Don’t MOVE,” one of them says, breathless from racing here.

Everything’s quiet, until we hear him. The chilling click of dress shoes on tile.

Click . . . clack . . . click . . . clack . . . The figure comes into view, silhouetted against the harsh hallway lighting. He is nicely dressed in a suit, perfectly combed brown hair, and leather dress shoes. He coolly steps into the room and gazes at each of us, sizing us up. Maia and Three glare back at him defiantly, chins held high and proud. Me, on the other hand . . . I’m completely out of my depth. As Colonel Ori’s icy gaze falls on me, I shrivel up. I hope he can’t see the goosebumps popping up on my arms or hear my heart hammering away against my ribs. After what feels like an eternity, he looks away, addressing all three of us as a group.

“Who. Do. You. Think. You. ARE!” He barks the last word, making all of us jump, even the guards. He starts pacing around us. “You think some fancy footsteps and pure luck could bypass my state-of-the-art security system, and that I would just let it sl—!” He tumbles to the floor, hitting his forehead hard.

Two of the guards drop their weapons and rush over to their fallen leader, but one stays with us, torn. His weapon falters, and Three and Maia exchange an uncertain glance. Suddenly, the guard stiffens, and his pupils dilate to twice their previous size. His weapon clanks to the ground as he rushes over to the Colonel.

Maia and Three waste no time snatching up the weapons and rushing out the open door. Dream or no dream, I do not want to get caught by these people. I shake the fear off my face and quickly follow suit. We sprint back through the hallways, all hopes of being sneaky forgotten. We practically fly out the back door and into the nearby neighborhood. When Maia thinks we’re completely out of range of their massive security system, we collapse on the sidewalk, gasping for breath.

After a few seconds, our pile of panting middle schoolers starts drawing some attention. Three pulls us into a nearby alleyway, and we sit in a small circle.

“Now you see what we’re dealing with?” I just nod. That camera footage had shook me to the core, even without the attack afterwards. If this man was going to control the future . . . just no. I have to stop it.

We walk back to the portal slowly, still recovering from the sprint. After we pass through and begin to walk back to my house, Three begins to explain the plan.

“Maia and I have traced the idea for mind-chips back as far as we can. We think that Ori first came up with the idea in his middle school science fair.”

My eyes widen. Huh? Middle schoolers do NOT come up with that kind of stuff.

Three must have sensed my confusion because he added, “It was a really primitive version, nothing more than research, really. But still, we think that that brain research project is what the idea for mind-chips stemmed from. The reason we brought you into this is because he goes to your school right now.” I just blink a few times, too stunned to say anything. “Ori is actually his last name. We’re pretty sure that right now, the Colonel goes by Jeff.”

I stop dead. “JEFF? Jeff is the shyest, most normal person I’ve ever met.” I assumed the Colonel would be one of the nerds, or the rowdy mean kids that always get on the teacher’s nerves. Three just nods.

“Alright.” I say. “Tomorrow, Colonel Ori will have never signed up for the science fair.”

We’ve finally reached my house, and I clamber back in through my window. For a few seconds, I just look at Three and Maia, the kids from the future. A future I have to save. Three smiles back at me encouragingly.

“Good luck,” he tells me. Maia stares me straight in the eyes.

“We’re counting on you,” she says. With that, they melt away into the mist.

The next day at school, I walk over to the bulletin board with the science fair sign-up sheet. All the spots are full, but it doesn’t take me long to notice Jeff’s name. Before anyone can see me, I snatch some WiteOut from my pencil case and blot away his neat handwriting.

A few minutes later, I see another kid notice the empty slot and fill his name out on top. Problem solved.

The End.

Wylie Elementary School

Age 9

by Nora McCall

1 Blindness

It started when the birds were singing and the flowers were starting to bloom. The sun was shining bright, and then, all of a sudden, she popped out into the world. Of course, she was still underground, so everything was dark. It felt glorious to live. Then, she heard the scuttling of feet all around her. For the first time, she was scared. She could not see anything. Some would say she was blind. You see, reader, when flowers first germinate they have no buds. Although, if her bud was open, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway, because the underground was dark. Hearing the scuttling noise made her feel curious, a strange and exciting feeling. She wondered if the sounds she heard were the scuttling of feet, and if so, who or what was making them. Then she waited. A ray of light shone through the soil. She waited. The soft pitter-patter of rain was to be heard, but still she waited and waited. There was an occasional scuffle to be heard, but she waited in blindness.

2 Above

After a long time, how long she did not know, she grew a stem and was very close to sprouting. Waiting seemed to be paying off, as her stem was very long. She felt that if she just pushed a little, she could rise out of the ground. Pushing was the only option, as she was bored of

waiting. She pushed and pushed against the cold, damp Earth. Using all her strength, she pushed. Finally, her pushing somewhat paid off. She pushed up, up, up through the ground till there was only a thin sheet of ground above her. Still, she did not stop. She was so close, only a little bit further! A little more effort and pop! She had finally sprouted! She heard the birds and felt the wind. But still she was blind. It felt wonderful, this new way of life. Above.

3 Growth

Living above was different from underground life. The air was fresher and the rain was wetter, but the sun was scorching hot. Day after day, the sun blazed upon her like a lamp over a desktop. The one thing she would most hope for every day was the reassurance of the cool, dark moon. She absolutely loved the moon shining down on her at night. She loved the moon over the refreshing, cooling effects of the rain. Day after day, she stood waiting for the moon to come out. On one particularly hot day, she felt a tiny tinge in the side of her stem. It’s nothing, she thought. It is just hot. But an hour later, it turned into a sting, and after that the sting turned into a searing pain. She couldn’t stand it. But there was nothing else she could do about it. She stood there, helplessly, wailing in pain. After weeks and weeks of pain, it suddenly stopped. She felt it. It was growth.

4 Friendship

Lately, she had been living in the silence of a flower. She was quietly drinking rain water when she heard a voice.

“Hey, new kid! What’s up!”

She didn’t move because she didn’t know where the voice was coming from.

“Hello?” she whispered in a voice like the wind.

“Up here, kid,” said the full, loud voice.

“I’m sorry, but can you see?” asked the small flower.

“Yes!” said the voice, quite taken aback.

“Well, I cannot. So please, if it is just me, or you’ve never talked to anyone but your big nasty self, think before you speak!”

The flower was so loud and so furious that anyone would have been terrified. The speaker was.

“I-I-I-I’m s-s-sor-r-ry. I d-didn’t m-m-m-m-m-mean to m-m-make you a-angry.”

She calmed down a little. “So, what did you mean to do then?”

“I just wanted to m-make a friendship.”

That night was a drowsy night. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d done.

“Hey, up there!” she called.

“Go away,” the voice moaned.

“Look,” she said, “I’m sorry, I did not know. I’ve never talked to anyone before. I was just scared, I guess. I don’t think you would want to have a friendship with me now, but, if you want to, I’m always here.”

“Really?” the voice asked.

“Thank you, I’m sorry for intimidating you.”

There was an awkward silence.

“So do you want to make a friendship or not?” asked the flower.

“Oh, right, forgot about that.”

“How far are your roots?”

“Not that far, I’ll start reaching toward you.”

Then the two plants devoted time to making a friendship. You see, reader, a friendship is where many plants connect their roots, so instead of flapping their leaves and petals in the wind (this is how they communicate), they can just send a message with their roots to form a faster, easier way of talking. When you are a plant, the more friendships you have in life, the more plants you know. And as they finally touched roots, she could feel the other plants’ energy flowing through her. This feels weird. The message came rushing out of her roots and into her new friends. I know was the reply. It felt glorious and confusing, how it came. Speeding up her roots and how she instantly knew what it meant. OK. I think it’s time to sleep. Fine, she felt. Now she knew what it was like. Having a friendship.

5 Anticipation

It was just another boiling day, and she was having a conversation with her friend. It was about life before they met each other. She had just finished talking about her life.

“I’m a lot older than you by the sound of it,” he said. “I don’t really think I ever introduced myself. I’m a mushroom, I call myself Mushroom because that’s what I am. Understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Well, there actually is a lot to tell. I germinated, like you, I grew, but what actually happened was in between all that. I felt the cool breeze blow by, I heard the bees pollinating trees and flowers, then met you, and here we are. I am perfectly content.”

A wonderful silence lingered as the young flower thought about what he’d said. She realized how much life Mushroom had lived. Then she fell asleep, dreaming of buzzing bees and nice cool winds. In the morning she felt different.

“Mushroom, do I look different?” She felt anxious as she waited for her answer.

“Yeah, yeah, you do look different. You grew a bud!”

“Stop. You’re tugging my root. Tell me what happened!”

“I’m not kidding. You did grow a bud.”

“Wow. I cannot believe it.”

“Now the only question is, what flower do you think you’re going to be? I think . . . I don’t know! It’s so hard to guess!”

“I don’t know either!”

Then, silent days passed, and they did not speak. This was her first time living. In anticipation.”

6 Pain

Today, they were making a list of things that were a waste of time.

“Arguing, hating, pretending to be embarrassed,” she said.

“And don’t forget fighting!” Mushroom responded back.

“What do you think is not a waste of time?”

“Poetry, I have always favored poetry. Do you want to hear some of mine?”

“Oh yes!” she said.

“OK. As the clouds cross the sky, two good friends say goodbye. As the clouds cross the bay, the eagles cry and cry. The clouds across the sky. Cars go by and by. The clouds have left the sky.”

As Mushroom finished, a truffle pig crept behind Mushroom with evil eyes and chomp! Mushroom was dead! Then she felt it stronger than ever before. Pain.

7 Names

It was lonely without Mushroom. But she knew that the more she thought about it, the sadder it would be. As the days passed, she felt the air more than usual. She saw visions of cracks of light in the darkness. One day, she dreamt. That was weird. She dreamt that she was as rooted in a grassy field as a tree. Branches swaying in the wind. She tried to shake it off, but she realized that her bud was open. She looked grand, her petals shining in the moonlight. But wait, what was she going to call herself?

Let’s see, she thought. I love the moon, my bud opened in the night, the first thing I saw was the moon, how about Luna?

She liked that name. They were such silly but important things.

8

Silence

Fall was coming, and Luna could sense it. The wind had started blowing. Her seeds were falling. Her leaves had started browning, and the animals had grown scarce. Over time, she focused on preserving her energy and working on preparing for her new life, in silence.

9 Awaking

It has been months since Luna had seen the sun, and now that the snow was melting, she was beginning to stir. She could now see the beauty of early spring. It was a nice quiet feeling, waking.

10 Betrayal

Luna, again, started the work of a flower. She was always busy. One day, she was busy making food, and she didn’t notice a deer nibbling on one of her leaves. But when she did notice, the deer said “Sorry, I just needed your attention. I was wondering if you could be my friend.”

“Of course,” said Luna.

“You know, I could make sure the other animals don’t eat you.”

“That would be nice,” Luna responded.

The deer galloped into the forest. They didn’t see each other for a long time. Years passed, and Luna had almost forgotten her when Luna spotted her.

“Hello, old friend!” she called.

“Oh,” said the deer, “nice to see you. I need a favor.”

“What?” the flower asked.

“Well, I need to eat.”

“What?” asked the flower. “I can’t hear you.”

“This!” Then the deer ate the flower. It is a horrible, rotten, filthy thing. Betrayal.

11 Life

Though her life ended in betrayal, she was deeply grateful for it. It is a sad, beautiful and fortunate thing. Life.

Because without it, she would have never made a friendship, heard the buzzing of bees or felt the wind on her petals. And that was all she needed.

I AM ATOMIC!

Ypsilanti Community Middle School Writers Club

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 14

by A’riel Martin

Content warning for readers: This story is written in homage to a certain style of writing about the Wild West and thereby references alcohol/ saloons, guns, and blood.

“So, are you gonna kill me or what?” Mabel asks, her blonde hair frazzled from the heat as she leans against the wood of the horse stable.

Valentine looks over at her. Her eyes are sharp, almost like a snake. As her pin-straight black hair falls over her shoulders, some hairs are sticking up. She holds her hand over her holster as a warning.

“Not if you give me my money back.”

Mabel’s eyes are daring as she smiles over at her. “Woo! I like your attitude, missy.” Mabel looks over and puts her hand on her pistol as well.

Valentine stares into Mabel’s eyes. “Longer you stare, the longer I want to rip the smile off your face.”

Mabel just smiles back wider, her canines showing. “Honey, I don’t think you could if you tried.”

Valentine reaches for her gun, immediately taking a shot. She misses. The shot startles Mabel’s horse as she yanks Mabel’s foot by the reins. Valentine takes another shot, this time at her horse’s hooves. Her horse takes off, dragging her through the sand.

Mabel sits down, coughing up the sand. She starts to clap her hands. “Wooo! Missy, you sure are a smart girl.”

Valentine ignores her, only reaching for her money. She moves to hop on her horse. Valentine looks over, her eyes downturned as she smiles at Mabel. “Thank you, Miss.”

How Much?

Mabel sits at the front of the bar, waiting for her usual from the bartender, Minx. As she moves over to the counter, he sets down a small glass filled with ice and pours her favorite. As it fizzes into the cup, Mabel looks over at the poster. The wanted sign has a picture of a girl with pin-straight black hair, her hat pulled up, showing off her piercing green eyes. Next to her is another poster, this time with a man whose face is covered by a cowboy hat that shines with jewelry. The rest of his face is covered by a bandana. Mabel looks at the picture, and the grin across her face begins to widen.

“Say Minx, you know how much them two are worth?” Mabel nudges toward the pictures of them.

“Bout five grand if ya can catch ’em together.”

She looks over and she scans their faces again.

“Ya drink’s melting, May.” He looks over at her, as the drink has turned a lighter color due to its sitting.

Mabel takes a drink as she pulls her knife from her right boot square in between the pictures. “I could catch ’em both. Give me a week.” The smile across her face gets bigger as her curls frazzle from the heat of the bar.

The bartender looks over and smiles. “Sure you will, May.”

Mabel looks over and downs the rest of her drink. It burns in her throat as she moves to place a stack of money underneath her glass. “Thank you, honey, but I really gotta get going now.” Mabel hops off the stool and yanks her hat off the empty chair next to her. She smiles a wild grin. “I got some money to make.”

She makes her way to the back of the bar. “Mind if I use your phone, honey? I’ll just be a minute.”

Minx lets out a nod, cleaning out her glass.

Mabel makes her way to the back of the booth. She pulls the phone off the wall, dialing the numbers as if it’s second nature. She twirls the cord around her hand as she listens to the ring. She hears the crackle of someone on the other end. The person who answers has a chipper voice as he speaks.

“Hi! How can I help you today?”

Mabel smiles as she lets out a laugh. “Hey, Rusty. How you been? Is Caroline there?”

His surprise is evident. She can almost feel his eyes widen over the phone. “Oh—oh. Heya, Mabel! Yeah Caroline’s in, I’ll get her for you!” He pulls the phone down, and Mabel can hear him shout, “Caroline! Phone’s for you!”

Mabel can already hear the fast clicks of Caroline’s heels as she makes her way to the phone.

“Hi, honey. How can I help you?” she responds.

Mabel can feel her tired voice through the phone. Mabel lets out a grin as she responds, “Hi, Cary. How you doin’? I’m here to ask you a favor.” Mabel can already picture the surprise on her face.

“Hi, May. Been a while since we last saw each other. What kinda favor you need this time?” she asks as Mabel smiles, letting out a laugh.

“I got a job for you. It’s five grand, and if ya help me, I’ll be sure to give some of the money up to you. Ya know I’m good for it.”

Caroline lets out a sigh before she says, “What fix you tryna get me in with this time?”

“It’s nothing really, just need you to perform one of your pretty shows. Y’know, the ones with all the beautiful art and money and suits. Just so I can lure ’em out. Leave the rest to me, hun!”

She lets out a sigh as she says, “Sure, May. Just this once. Don’t want any of the customers getting word of this. Ya hear?”

Mabel can hear her let out a sigh over the phone as her smile drops.

“Cary, you know I’d never do anything to hurt you or your business, right?”

There’s silence on the other end before Mabel hears her speak. “I know, May. I’ll see you soon.” She clicks off the phone before Mabel can respond.

Mabel walks out of the booth giving Minx a slow nod. As she leaves, he lets out a sigh.

“Don’t let this be the nail in your coffin, May.”

Mabel doesn’t respond as she leaves, letting the doors swing behind her.

Snake Eyes

“Valentine, you know some blondie’s looking for us right now? To all my eyes, they say that girl’s got a dead good shot, and she won’t stop till we’re laying in a heap.”

Valentine doesn’t look up just yet. She waits a minute till she turns her head to the side to look at him, giving an angry glare. “You got some blondie girl giving you the creeps right now? We got more important stuff to worry about than some darn girl running around with her mouth open. Got a job to do.”

Silas’s glare is almost as fierce as hers. He grips her collar. “Now, you listen here, Val. I don’t care what you do, what money you want—I ain’t no pushover, so you play by my cards so we ain’t six feet under, ya hear?”

The anger is evident in both their eyes, almost daring one another for an opening. Valentine looks away, nudging him off her collar as she pulls her hat down.

“What’s this girl got you so up in arms for?” She scrunches up her nose and looks closer at him, looking for a sign of fear.

“I ain’t scared, Val.” He turns his head, planting his hands on the counter as he shakes his head. “Lord knows what’s gotten into you, but I just want you to look out is all. What’s this job you on about?”

Valentine turns her gaze away, looking over at him. The sun going down, the mix of reds and oranges, makes her soften for a moment.

“It’s a quick job, we’ll make a pretty penny too. They got lots of them fancy people there, the ones in their suits and dresses showing some art, they say—auctions and whatnot.”

Silas nods in acknowledgement. “ ’Kay, Val. I’ll help you out.”

Valentine gives a nod as she heads for the door. “Oh, and Silas, don’t worry about this girl that’s got you so up in arms.” The grin on her face is wild as she pulls her bandana up to her eyes, showing off the way her eyes scrunch up as she smiles.

[Mabel] After Party

I grin as I look over at the attendees at the party. Lots of rich folk hoping to get their hands on something valuable. I’m looking for the same thing. Not in these paintings, though. No, my money’s on something else. I saunter over to the bar, already seeing Rusty hand off drinks faster than I can think of an order.

“Ya see any snakes in here yet, Dusty?” I let out a slight laugh at my own joke. To no surprise, he’s not amused.

“For the last time, it’s Rusty, May. And, no. I ain’t. Cary’s going up soon. Your snake better make a move before we start the bidding.”

I nod as I move over to the stage. The girl singing now has a beautiful voice. It echoes through all the chatter as she moves toward the front of the stage, finishing off the song with a gentle smile on her face. “And now, please welcome up Carolin—!”

Before she can finish her words, the lights are off. There are whispers of confusion from the party-goers around. The sudden shots to the air make the party-goers start to scream. The panic in the room is chaotic. There’s scrambling everywhere.

I move toward the back of the stage. Caroline sits behind the stage door I slowly open. She lets out a sigh of relief, realizing it’s me. She crosses her arms.

“Rusty’s already on the lights. Just wished they’d showed up before my opening act.”

I give her a sympathetic smile that I know she can’t see in the dark. “I’m sorry Cary, this my last time bothering ya, ’kay?

She reaches a hand down and places it on my shoulder. “I hear ya, May.”

I slide out of the door, moving toward the bar. Many attendees of the party have already evacuated. I scan the area. I can hear footsteps moving around. They’re getting closer to the back of the stage. The figure bends down, reaching for something across the stage. I take a shot at them. The loud sound echoes through the room. On reflex, they shoot toward me.

I crawl closer to the edge of the bar, hoping for the lights to be on. Like clockwork, there’s the hum of the lights being turned on. I don’t move from my spot just yet. I take a slight glance at the edge to where the culprit of the shot is. There she is, my snake eyes, I think as I see her look over at the other side of the bar.

She’s moving closer to my side. I think about what to do for a second. I reach for her leg. It startles her, making her drop her guard. She goes to kick me in the side. I yank her down onto the floor. She lets out a groan as she hits the ground. I immediately move to stand, trying to catch my breath. She’s right after me. She moves for a glass off the counter, smashing it on my face as she presses me against the bar. My face is dizzy with thought. I hate to say it, but she looks beautiful in an unearthly way. Her hair falling downward onto the table as she looks down at me makes my heart jump. Her words are what snap me out of my trance.

“Let me tell you sometime, girlie. You think you’re better than me cause you ain’t got no one chasing after you? You ain’t. Truth is, you’re just as bad as me. You wanna take my life and my brother’s for some money? I’ll tell you what. I ain’t never hurt no one who ain’t tried me first. But you? No, you kill cause you don’t know any other way. You’re an animal.”

The grip around my neck starts to tighten as I feel the spots in my eyes. My knee comes up to kick her in the stomach, making her lurch back as she hacks up blood onto the floor.

“You ain’t got no right to call me an animal. I do what I have to do and I don’t care. You ain’t gon’ stop me—not you, not your brother, not nobody. You want to talk about animals? You’re a rat. You’re a stealing, no-good, doggone rat. I’ll kill you and that brother that ain’t even here to help his own sister, you filthy fleabag—”

The gunshots ring out, hitting the light above me. I can hear the fuse go out and the footsteps of someone else. They’re moving fast, but not toward me. I can’t see a single thing. I scramble to hide behind the bar, holding out my gun. I let out a shot in front of me—there’s nothing there anymore; the faint wheezing is all I can hear as I try to listen to where it’s coming from. They’re getting away.

I can hear my heartbeat in my ears as I reach for my gun. She’s right in front of me, and I still can’t bring myself to pull the trigger. She’s got those same green eyes, and they don’t look like snakes anymore. There’s defeat there. The blood dripping down her face makes me soften. The green in her eyes looks less like money and more like a friend. I think about the time in the bar when I asked her if she had anything to live for but stealing. I think about her horse and her brother. I think about her family and the hat she wears on her head. It makes me think of mine. If she was on the other side, would she feel the same for me? Her breath is getting shallow. She looks desperate. I’ve never seen that look. Her cocky grin or angry eyes are what I’m used to. The fear in her eyes is a feeling I’ve felt before. It’s human.

I look down at the floor of the saloon. My baby sister’s blood is there in a pool. I can just see her, her green eyes are gray. I’ve never seen my sister scared ever. Maybe it’s good I wasn’t there? I shake the thought from my mind. If I had been there, would I have shot that girl dead, took her horse, and her hat as some sick trophy? I’ll burn down this saloon you love so much.

The Day I Saved My Mom?!

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 13

by Cesar

Amaya

One bloomy night, it was 8:00 p.m., and I was around ten years old. My mom was making dinner and my father was watching television, when suddenly a warning from the television sounded.

I was a little scared, but my mom said, “It’s OK.” My dad told me to relax while we were watching football. He said it always sends a warning and that nothing would happen. So I went to the window, and I saw it storming really hard. It was like the trees were dancing and the water was going up. It seemed like the bushes wanted to run away.

I told my mom it was not a fake warning and that it was really bad weather, but my mom thought it was cute and funny.

Out of nowhere we heard a scream of “Help!”

We all rushed to see what it was, and then we saw a little girl trapped in the shed. My dad rushed to help her. Lightning struck a tree, and branches fell to the ground. My dad got knocked out by one of the falling branches, and my mom took my dad into the house.

My mom was putting bandages all over his head. My mom was trying to call the police, but they didn’t pick up the signal because of the storm and wind. My mom went outside to try to help the little girl when the remaining trunk from the tree that got hit fell and blocked the shed door. She was trapped inside with the girl.

I wanted to cry, but I knew that my mom needed help. So, I rushed to the basement. I was scared, but I knew they needed me, so I went down

anyway. I looked for something to use and found an ax. I grabbed it and went upstairs. It was heavy. I felt like my shoulders were going to rip off because of how heavy it was.

I went outside and looked up at the sky. The clouds were gray and full of thunder. Rain and hail was falling from the sky. It looked like rocks were dropping down. But I still ran to the shed, and then I heard the police coming. Then a tree fell in front of the cop, and the branches hit the cops’ cars. Then the cops had to step out of the cars. The cops were a little dizzy, and they could barely stand up. The cops looked like they were looking for something or someone. Then a garbage can hit the cop, and the cop fell and got knocked out. I was really scared, and I didn’t think I could do anything.

Even though I was scared, I had to help the girl, my mom, and the cop. I grabbed the ax and I went to the basement, but I was scared because I thought there was a monster down there and that he rises from the flames. But I had to save people. So, without a second thought, I rushed downstairs, and then I hit the monster with the ax. But, in reality, it was just a coat next to the furnace.

I wasn’t so scared now. I grabbed a hockey helmet and I put it on. I put a pillow inside my shirt, and then I put my jacket on and rushed outside. While I was outside, I could feel the cold, hard, and heavy hail. I grabbed my ax and went toward the shed. I raised the ax, and I started to hit the branches until they broke in half.

My mom was worried, and the little girl was crying and sobbed while saying,“I want to go home.”

My mom asked,“How did you call the cops?”

I said, “I didn’t.”

Then my mom and I took the little girl inside the house. My mom put her jacket on and headed outside with me to help the cop. While we were helping him, we saw a poster of the little girl and we knew why the cop was here. They were here to find the little girl and take her home. It seemed like she had gotten lost in the crowd while she was following her mother. Then she had seen a toy on the ground and had picked it up, and then she couldn’t see her mom anymore. We took the cop inside, but it was a little hard because it was too haily.

My mom and I were able to take the cop inside, and we waited for the storm to go away. I looked outside. I saw that the clouds were swarming,

and it looked like a hurricane but upside down. My mom told me not to get close to the window because it might break and it might hurt me. But I was just so shocked about how the weather was. The cop woke up and told us that the little girl’s name was Emily and that she was lost and her parents were really worried.

Need for Speed (excerpt)

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 12

by Robert Campbell

Chapter One

So I get up, get my keys, and I get in my car. I go to my friends’ house and tell them about the race that’s happening tomorrow. I ask my friends if they want to join.

They say, “Yeah, we will join!”

I say, “Cool. See you guys tomorrow. Oh yeah, if you lose, you have to give up yo’ car.” They say, “OK, see you tomorrow.”

“And it’s in the city at 2 a.m.”

They say, “OK, tomorrow.”

And I say, “Yeah, tomorrow.” I leave and I get back in my Nissan GT-R and go home.

The next day, I get up, get in my car, go to the spot, and I park. I talk to my friends until the race, but then someone walks up. His name is Bob and he says, “You guys are racing, too?”

I say, “Yeah. What about you?”

“Yeah, I’m racing,” Bob says, “and my friends are, too.”

“Oh,” I say, “what type of car do you have?”

Bob says, “I have a Nissan 350Z.”

I say, “OK.” And then I ask my friends, “What type of cars do you guys have?”

“A Mazda RX-7 and a Nissan R34,” they say.

I say, “OK, the race starts in ten minutes.” So we talk for nine minutes. I say, “The race is starting.”

So we all get in cars and three . . . two . . . one! We all go. All of us are flying and cops are chasing us, so we all speed up. The race is supposed to last forty-nine minutes, so we all are hoping we don’t get caught. So about forty-eight minutes later, eight people get caught, and it’s just me and Bob.

So Bob speeds up more, and I speed up more. He tries to hit me off the road, but I move in time and I win. So I get Bob’s car.

He says, “Hehe. I will get my car back. I don’t care what I have to do.” I say, “LOL, OK. Bye, Bob.”

I leave and go home and sleep.

To be continued . . .

Truth or Dare? It’s Your Choice . . .

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 12

by Hannah Johnson

Max, Lexi, Bethany, Alex, Axel, Hannah, and Nathan were playing truth or dare with friends. Then, Max and Alex dared Nathan to get on top of the fridge. Nathan stupidly accepted the dare.

ALEX

Aw man, he’s gonna be a scaredy-cat about this one!

MAX

Oh, shush. Nathan is a good sport, unlike . . . Lexi.

NATHAN

Dude, don’t bring Lexi into this conversation. Please.

MAX

C’mon man . . . Fine, Mr. Scaredy-Cat.

Max teased Nathan about not doing the dare. It tipped Nathan’s boat a little bit. Nathan got up and went into the kitchen. He got dared by the others to try and get on top of the house’s fridge. It was big, but it was also kind of slanted–and slippery.

Hannah, Nathan’s sister, was in the kitchen. She was making some popcorn since they were gonna watch a movie a little later.

HANNAH

Hey, Nathan! Whatcha up to?

NATHAN

I got dared by Max and Jacob to go on top of the fridge.

Hannah nearly dropped the bowl she was holding out of shock.

HANNAH

WHAT!? DUDE, DON’T GO ON THERE! MOM AND DAD WOULD GET US FOR THAT!

NATHAN

It’s just really quick! They wouldn’t even notice!

Nathan sighed and got on top of the fridge. Just then his parents walked in . . .

MOTHER

NATHAN MAXWELL JOHNS! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!

HANNAH

I’m out. He’s gonna get a good yell at him.

Hannah walked out quickly into the living room, avoiding the yelling and crashing of pots, pans, drying plates, and planters smashing.

MAX

What the heck is happening in there?

AXEL

I think Nathan’s parents caught him going on top of the fridge . . .

LEXI

Why the heck did you guys dare him to go onto the fridge . . .

MOTHER

Nathan! You know what we agreed to earlier, correct? Why are your friends over right now?!

Earlier that day, almost the end of school

ALEX

Yo, Nathan! Hold up!

Alex, Lexi, Max, and Beth ran over to Nathan, and they started walking together. Hannah and Brendon were behind the crowds of people rushing to the buses.

NATHAN

So, what’d y’all need?

MAX

We were wondering if we could have a friends’ night in. Movies, staying up late since it’s Friday, and so on and so forth.

NATHAN

Uhhh . . . I’ll call my parents, alright?

Nathan called his parents, and they agreed on the Friday night at his house. They all got on Bus 113. It suddenly started to rain. The sky had been clear until around advisory time. It was around 2:00 p.m. when it started to get gloomy in the sky. The other students had checked their phones’ weather forecasts, but the weather app said clear skies until 4:33 p.m.

HANNAH

The weather forecast is always wrong, isn’t it . . .

She sighed as more kids got on the bus, and she sat down with Axel and the others going to Nathan and Hannah’s house.

The present time at the house

Nathan’s mom and dad were still yelling at Nathan since he was on top of the fridge. There was a massive no-getting-on-the-fridge rule.

MOTHER

NATHAN, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! You could have gotten hurt! Or worse, you could have fallen and broken something!

DAD

You know what? NATHAN, you’re GROUNDED!

There was a loud yelling match with the three of them. And the others in the living room decided to go upstairs and relax in Hannah’s room.

LEXI

Jeez! Your parents are going OFF on Nathan!

Hannah groaned and sighed as her head hung down.

HANNAH

Yep, they’re mad, alright. He’s gonna be grounded for a while. What’s y’alls guessing on the timeline?

To be continued . . .

Arise

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 12

by Ethan Adkins

Chapter One

It was a normal night at the house. Zack and his family were asleep. Then Zack woke up and he dodged Death. He faced Death and then he woke up from the dream.

Then he went to school with his friends, and he told them about the dream he had last night. His friends had had the same dream last night. Then in the school, Death appeared. They fought Death and won against Death somehow, and then they all woke up again.

Zack and Kavan fought Death together, and then Kavan and Zack went to the movies. They watched the movie together. Then Death appeared and said,“I am Death, and I am here to end you.”

Zack and Kavan said, “No, we will end you.”

Then Death summoned ghosts to attack. Their friend Jackson came in and hit a ghost with a broom. Then a ghost entered Jackson’s body. But Jackson overpowered the ghost and the ghost was dead. Soon, Jackson felt weak and passed out. As he was on the ground passed out, he felt his body getting dragged. He woke up in a jail cell. Jackson heard screaming, and he got scared and laid flat on the ground to make himself seem dead.

Chapter Two

Jackson was captured by Death; they saw he wasn’t dead, so Death let him go. Zack and Kavan came to get ready for Kavan’s birthday the next day. They went to school, and then ghosts appeared and they attacked their host. They won, and when they got home, they researched ghosts and Death. They found out that Death takes orders from the god of death, Hades. So to beat Death, they knew they would have to beat Hades.

Chapter Three

They went to Zelda, Arthur, and Rico’s house to get them for the journey. “Hey!” said Zack after they got them.

Then they went to Death’s base. When they were fighting Death, Zack realized he had powers this whole time. He had just unlocked them.

Then Hades said, “Death, retreat! Or you will die.”

Chapter Four

Kavan ran over and said to summon a portal. It summoned up a portal. Kavan said, “Hop in. It will send you to a new planet to learn and train.”

Zack hopped in and said, “Thanks.”

Kavan left for an Earth-like portal. Then Death and Hades imprisoned Kavan.

Zack came back two years later and fought Death to ask, “Where’s Kavan?” Then Zack defeated Death. Death said Hades imprisoned Kavan in Hell with Hades. Zack then went off to Hell to defeat Hades.

Chapter Five

Zack finally made it to Hell. When he saw Hades on his throne, he saw Kavan in a cage right next to Hades.

Zack yelled, “LET HIM GO!” Hades laughed.

Then Zack ran toward Hades, and Hades ran toward Zack. They started punching and fighting. Zack won. Then the god of time, Chronos, appeared. Chronos said to Zack, “Come with me if you want to get stronger.”

Zack said, “OK.”

Then he left to go train.

Two years later, he came back and had to defeat all twelve gods. Zack had defeated one. Only eleven more to go.

They had to go out to sea to find Poseidon. They looked for many moons and days. They finally found Atlantis. They went to the main chamber and found Poseidon. They began the fight and Zack won. Now off to Sparta for the fight with Ares. They traveled to Sparta on a horse. They arrived in Sparta, but somehow Ares found out.

“How did he find out? There is a traitor among us.”

Zack needed to find the traitor. The traitor was the watch that he had found. I am going to get rid of it in Sparta, he thought

They made it to the castle and found Ares. The fight began and Zack died over and over again, but he reversed time and eventually beat Ares. Then Kratos appeared, and now they had to fight Kratos. They ran for now and hid in Sparta.

A few days later, they went and fought Kratos and they won. They were off to find Apollo and send the crow to search. They found Apollo. They began a fight. Zack was too weak, so they fled to train more. When training, they found a scythe, and Zack trained with it to be proficient with a scythe. Now he was so good at it.

Zack had now been trained enough. He basically went back to who he was previously fighting—Apollo. They got help from Chronos, the god of time, who was supposedly dead, but was not dead. They finally beat Apollo after three hours of fighting.

It was now night, so they decided to stay inside of the city. The next morning, they left to find the next god.

Chapter Six

A laugh could be heard in the background. They were back on the road and were traveling.

They were moving through ancient Mesopotamia, and they heard a deep, maniacal laugh. Then they saw a figure out of the corner of their eyes holding a sword that was black with red accents glowing. As soon as they saw it, it went away.

“What was that!?” said Zack.

“I don’t know,” wondered Kavan.

They got back on the road and started heading toward Hercules. It was very bumpy, and their horses kept going.

Suddenly, Hercules jumped down, cracking the road.

Zack immediately drew his scythe and got ready for a fight. They rushed at each other with blinding speed, and they started slashing at each other. Zack noticed that one of Hercules’ tattoos was starting to spread.

Hercules said, “First labor,” and the tattoo on his arm spread to cover his whole arm and a little bit above the jaw with red, flaming ink. Hercules smashed down his hammer and hit Zack. You could hear the word arise from a mysterious character who was black and purple all around. Zack stood back up and said the word arise himself. And then, everything that was dead came back to life, except the plants. Two figures jumped down. Their names were Igris and Beru. The fight continued. Hercules got absolutely destroyed. His body got crumbled, and the dust particles floated up in the air.

Then, Kavan said “What was that?” Then, they all got back on the road. They headed toward Artemis, the god of the hunt. They stopped in a city before they got to where Artemis was. They took a very, very long nap. Two days later, they were back on the road traveling.

Chapter Seven

They got stopped by some guards just before they entered Artemis’s kingdom. The guards asked, “Where are you all going?”

They said, “We are just going into the city to rest.”

Then the guard let them through. They reached the temple of Artemis. They asked Artemis to come down for a fight. All of them sensed a giant arrow coming toward them. The arrow scratched them, but they all dodged it before it could do any real damage.

Artemis jumped down and said, “I am shocked you actually dodged that.” Artemis then summoned three dogs. They all came into one dog and became Cerberus.

Zack said, “Arise.” Then his two shadows came back out. Zack moved at lightning speed with his scythe hand, and Artemis dodged with just a second to spare. Suddenly a wyvern flew in. Zack rushed toward it and sliced off its head.

He said, “Arise,” and it came back as a shadow then disappeared into the monarch’s domain.

Chapter Eight

Zack was suddenly hit by Artemis’s arrow. It pierced him, narrowly missing his heart. He aimed his scythe up in the air, revealing a new power as he said, “I AM ATOMIC!”

An area of magic was around him, coming up and down. There was a barrier around him and Artemis. The barrier was close to touching his friends, and an explosion erupted.

From the fog there was a vile scream,“AHH!”

As the fog cleared, you could see Artemis, laying in despair—burnt to the atom. They left the country on the wyvern that had now become a shadow. They flew overhead as the townsfolk saw a large, threatening shadow above.

They all said, “What the—”

As they soared above, they searched for a new god. They came to a town that was for some reason in winter when it was in fact supposed to be summer. They realized this was the town of the god Demeter, who was goddess of the harvest. They realized they should stay in the town for a while. They entered the town with some money.

Suddenly, a figure appeared with red tattoos and a black sword with red accents. A portal appeared as a sword soared through the air straight to Zack’s acquaintance, almost striking him in the heart. As he went to pick it up, it faded away as if it had never been there.

Chapter Nine

Zack and the others were enjoying a feast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes on the floor with a side of tomatoes. They got called to the temple later on. Demeter came out of her temple and surrendered to this war. She wanted no part of this war.

Zack thought to himself, We just wasted an entire month here for nothing. They all left the town on the wyvern. They ventured on to the next closest town, where they settled in for the next two months.

They reached Athens, and they went up to Ares’s temple to pray. Ares saw this. In the back of the group, a yellow portal came out, and Ares jumped down in front of them all.

A sword came flying down in between them. They looked to the side, and the portal was gone. Ares went into a fighting stance and he roared,

which gave him a ten percent power boost. Two shadows of Zack’s, Igris and Beru, and Zack’s scythe got summoned. They all jumped together and cut Ares’s left cheek.

He touched his cheek and cockily said, “Huh, just a scratch.”

Zack told everyone to back up. He put his scythe up in the air and faced it toward Ares, and said, “I. Am. Atomic!”

A crater was created where they were standing. The left side of Ares’s body was completely destroyed. Ares fell to the ground. He gave Zack a boost of strength before he died.

They soon traveled on Kiasel. A strange figure with red tattoos on his body appeared. He held up his sword as if he were guarding something, and then he smirked.

To be continued . . .

Who Did It?

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 13

by Alanah Reed

Content warning for readers: this story is a murder mystery and contains light references to blood and death.

Introduction

Welcome to Who Did It? My first novel was written on October 16, 2023. So first, I want to thank my mom, grandfather, Ms. Walker, and whoever else is reading. This is a murder mystery, if you did not know that. As you join FBI agents (me and my partner) in different cases, think about how we save the victims. How would you as a reader help the people survive? Think about the situation and put yourself in their shoes. Solve the cases with me and my partner, Lory.

Chapter One: The Suspects

It was a slow Monday afternoon till a call came in. The caller was an elderly woman, reporting that she had heard a scream coming from across the street right next door to the Wilsons’ house. My partner Lory and I were sent to the scene. I looked to my left, only to find Lory running for the driver seat of the car. “LORY, WAIT UP!” I yelled.

After I got to the car and opened up the door to sit down, I told Lory, nearly out of breath, “You could have just asked for the seat.”

All she could say was, “Slowpoke,” hysterically.

“You ran, Lory!” I cried out.

“I know,” she said sarcastically while panting.

After me and my partner arrived on the scene, we got out of the car and closed the doors. It was a mansion with the cleanest yard within a few miles of Apricot Road.

“Should have known—rich people,” Lory whined.

“Why here?” I asked myself.

We walked up to the door and opened it up.

“Hurry, he’s in here!” cried the wife.

“OK?” I sarcastically said.

We walked into the room where the body was. Lory squealed then she gasped,“WHY SO BRUTAL?!”

A silence went on after that till it was interrupted by a demand.

“Don’t just stand there move him! My poor carpet has blood on it!” the wife cried out.

“Fine!” I yelled.

“Ew! It smells like dead rotten fish!” Lory cried.

“Quit your whining, Lory!” I exclaimed.

“I’m not,” Lory said with anger.

“Whatever, just come over and help me.”

“Fine,” she said in a bossy tone.

After we moved the body, we examined the suspects. We walked over to them. “Did any of you see anything?” we asked.

That’s when things got out of hand. They all started yelling at once.

“Calm down and take a deep breath,” we told them. All they could do was start to blame each other.

“We’re going to call you all up one by one to take your statements. Starting with the chef. Please come with us to the dining room.”

“Fine,” he groaned.

I sighed because I knew it wasn’t going to end well. After we entered the dining room, I asked him to sit down. I asked him what he had seen and what had happened earlier that evening.

He said,“I was cooking in the kitchen when I heard a bang. I ran upstairs to see him on the floor. So I called 911 as fast as I could. They put

me on hold for a few seconds and said it wasn’t even as important as the home invasion down the street. So, I hung up and called the FBI directly.”

“Well, that’s pretty interesting,” I said, sounding angry and surprised. “Is there anything else that you noticed? Did you see anybody enter or leave the house?”

“No,” he said, enraged.

“OK. Well, thank you,” said Lory. “Send the wife in on your way out.”

As he left, he stopped and said, “I think it’s the wife who did it. She never left the house.”

“Well, OK,“ I groaned.

The wife walked in and sat down.

“Can’t you see I’m grieving? What do you want now?”

“I just want to ask you a few questions about your husband.”

“Well, can we get this over with?”

“Yes,” I told her.

“Where were you when your husband was killed?”

“Out shopping, like I said,” she yelled.

“Well, the chef said that you were home the whole time,” I told her, sounding a little bit angry.

“Of course he did! He never liked me in the first place. My husband broke up our fight last week because it was getting intense.”She lifted her arm to show a bruise.“See?!” she yelled.

“Oh wow . . .” I said in shock.

“Can I go?” She asked in a shaky voice.

“Yes, you may go,” I said, still in shock but almost centered.

She left the room, but as she left I saw a cut on her leg.

“WAIT!” I said as I stood up.

She stopped dead in her tracks. That’s when she took off running.

“Why do they always run?!” Lory asked as we ran after her. The wife ran out the door. By the time we caught up to her, she was driving away down the block in her black Escalade.

That’s when I asked Lory,“Did you get the license plate?”

Lory breathed heavily and managed to say,“N-no, but did you?”

I was about to scream, but I took a deep breath and said,“No, but if I did, I would not have asked you!”

We went back inside to ask the others a question.

“Do you know where she might have gone?”

“No,” the butler said.

“It might be where her and her husband used to go,” said the maid with a quiet yet worried tone.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

“Yeah . . .”

“You sure?”

“Not really, it’s just I worked with this family for forty happy, long years. I even helped with their twenty-year-old daughter when she was born. I just hope Madam Regina is OK.”

“We will find her, I promise.”

“I hold you and your partner to that.”

Chapter Two: The Mysterious Person

Regina George

In the forest, I ran through the woods.

“OW! I just want my husband back,” I muttered while breathing heavily. I cried while shivering due to the cold weather. Suddenly, leaves ruffled in the distance.

“Who’s there?” I cried out.

Suddenly, a young man walked out of the trees with a lantern.

“You OK?” he asked.

There was a long pause till I realized he was talking to me.

“Oh, yeah. I’m fine—if you don’t mind me asking though, who are you?

He looked confused before saying,“Me?”

Long staring at each other went on once again.

“Yes, but it’s rude of me to ask your name and not tell you mine, of course. My name is Regina George.”

After I told him, he kind of looked as if he were making up a fake name.

“Sorry, I haven’t met someone in a long time. So I kind of really haven’t used my name in a while.”

I looked at him in shock. I was shaking from the cold wind, but that would not compare to the fear I felt right at this moment. Things were going through my mind. Like, What would happen to me? What would he do to me? That’s when I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, then back out.

“Laumer,” he said quietly.

“What did you say?” I ask. He breathed heavily.

“Laumer. My name is Laumer, Laumer Hondro.”

I breathed a sigh of relief because he had seen the fear on my face and immediately knew I needed him to step at least two steps back.

“My cabin is at least 5.9 miles east. Would you like to come? You can stay as long as you need.”

His voice was calm as the waves of the ocean. He knew what to say, because all the things he said made me feel calm. It felt nice, especially after my husband Eric had died. I felt upset, but he made me feel like nothing bad ever happened. As if, when I go home, my husband Eric would be there, welcoming me with open arms.

“Sure, I will come. Only for three days, if it’s OK with you.”

After a short while of walking, I took a deep breath. The weather was cold and chilly. I thought to myself, It’s so cold out here.

“How much farther?” I asked, starting to get tired.

Laumer stopped in front of a sign. He grunted. I asked, “What’s wrong?”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP?!” he yelled with anger. Fear came across my face as he yelled with anger as if I did something wrong or simply said something to set him off. As if he were a ticking time bomb. I looked at him stunned and scared. I flinched a little bit. I sniffled as tears streamed down my face. They even hit the floor as if I had thrown a rock down to the ground.

“Look, I’m sorry—” he said. He walked closer.

I was shaking from fear. All I could remember was the fight between me and Jerry the cook. He walked over to me and hugged me. His hands were colder than frozen ice water, but the hug was warmer than summer itself. Especially as cold as I was, anything to warm me up, I was all for it.

“I’m sorry, too,” I said as my teeth chattered.

We stayed like that for a little while. Then he broke the hug and said, “One more mile to the middle east.” He put me on the sled and pulled me the rest of the way there. On the inside, my heart wanted to get off and tell him I could walk. My head, on the other hand, said that I hurt my leg when I fell, and my legs ached from walking. So I just rested the rest of the way there.

A little while later, I woke up to Laumer building a Santa’s village. I sat up and watched him carve out the different elves’ shapes and sizes. He even carved out Santa Claus and his wife Mrs. Claus. He looked over with a curious look.

“Regina?”

“Yeah,” I asked, confused.

“Why were you out in the woods?” he questioned while looking as if he were invading privacy.

“Oh,” I sighed.

“It’s OK to not say anything!” he stammered.

“No, no! It’s just that my husband died and the FBI showed up! So I ran out of fear. Sorry to drag someone like you into this. It’s just that you seemed so kind to offer me a place to stay, so I could not refuse such kindness.”

“Oh. I know how that is. I myself have been in that situation when I worked for my stepbrother, Gary. So you can stay as long as you need, like I said before when I found you in the woods.”

“Thank you, Laumer,” I said, trying to sound generous. If not for him, I don’t know what I would do. I lay back down and pulled the blanket up and took in the fire from the fireplace.

“Goodnight,” I yawned.

“Goodnight,” he whispered softly.

To be continued . . .

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Age 12

by Brenden Moore

Chapter One: Stunt Double

Character: Johnny Cage

JOHNNY

Hey! Thanks again for dinner at Madam Bo’s.

KUNG LAO

So, who’s paying?

RAIDEN Not me.

KUNG LAO

Me neither.

JOHNNY

Let’s settle this two against one. Let’s go right now.

One fight later.

You two split the bill.

JOHNNY

KUNG LAO

OK. You win. We will split the bill.

RAIDEN

Kung Lao, why do you eat so much?

LIU KANG

We need to leave urgently.

JOHNNY

So we need to save not just Earthrealm, but all of them.

LIU KANG

Yes, we need to train Shujinko quickly.

NPC

Good, Shujinko. Now, to Johnny.

JOHNNY

Well, you’ve beaten the monk. Now let’s see if you can beat me.

After the fight.

SHUJINKO

I can’t beat you. I shall leave back to the monks.

JOHNNY

No, proceed to Kung Lao. You did well. So what, you didn’t beat me.

SHUJINKO

OK, and Johnny . . .

Yeah?

JOHNNY

SHUJINKO

Thank you.

JOHNNY

You’re welcome.

Later.

RAIDEN

So Johnny, you ready?

JOHNNY

Born ready!

RAIDEN

OK, let’s begin.

One fight after the dialogue.

RAIDEN

Nice, at first you couldn’t beat me.

JOHNNY I got better.

Travels to different location using teleportation; Madame Bo’s. Kung Lao and Johnny are casually eating.

KUNG LAO

So, who’s paying?

JOHNNY

You, most likely.

KUNG LAO

No way, man! We had a whole feast here!

JOHNNY

Not my fault you eat like your mom.

KUNG LAO

Let’s settle this like men! Whoever wins does not have to pay.

JOHNNY GG EZ

One bank account drain later.

KUNG LAO

I am in debt.

Chapter Two: Many in One

Character: Ermac

ERMAC

I am max chill right now.

Door explodes.

Hey, I was max chill.

ERMAC

SCORPION

You are coming with me.

Scorpion grabs him. Scorpion throws him. Ermac floats.

ERMAC WHAT THE HECK!?

SCORPION

Are you not going to ask where we are?

ERMAC

Oh, yeah. Where are we?

SCORPION

The Shirai Ryu Fire Garden.

ERMAC WTH.

SCORPION LANGUAGE!

ERMAC

Fine. I am sorry.

SCORPION

OK, train the kid.

ERMAC

OK, what is his name?

SCORPION

Hanzo Hashi.

ERMAC

OK, now time to slap him around.

One beatdown later.

HANZO Ow!

ERMAC

Good, you know how to stay strong, even after getting slapped up and down by magic powers. Good. Anyway, I’ll go home now, peace.

Ermac disappears.

ERMAC

THAT KID TOOK THE L. LOL.

Door explodes again.

ERMAC

WHY!? WHY ME!? Oh, karma.

REPTILE

Nah, just me.

ERMAC

Oh. Well, you are paying for damage.

SYZOTH (REPTILE)

Kay, come with me.

ERMAC

Not again.

Reptile grabs him.

Reptile launches him down.

Ermac does not have enough time to react, unlike last time. He is so dumb, he could have just pried his hand open with telekinesis. Wasted.

ERMAC Ow!

REPTILE

So, welcome to my house.

ERMAC

We are in Shang Tsung’s flesh pits.

REPTILE

OK, and . . .

ERMAC

Bro, you hate the guy.

REPTILE

OK and . . . ?

ERMAC

Nevermind.

REPTILE

No sarcasm!

Ermac

OK, sorry. Now what do you need me for?

REPTILE

(Visually thinking . . . . . . . . . light bulb)

Train me.

ERMAC

(Visually disappointed)

Bruh fine

REVENGE.

ERMAC HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

REPTILE

Stop laughing.

I’m leaving. (still laughing)

Finally, peace and quiet.

ERMAC

Chapter Three: To Be Continued

The last chapter will be epic, with one big last fight, and the reader gets to choose the character. The options are Ermac, Liu Kang, Katana, Kung Lao, Raden, Reptile.

Rebellion: Her Own Mind

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Ages 14 & 13

by Qamara Bryant & David Steger

Content warning for readers: this is a story for mature readers that takes place in the world of Five Nights at Freddy’s and includes blood, robot violence, and death.

Chapter One: The Bite of ’84

In December of 1984, The Bite happened. Matthew Daniels and Aiden Bustamante saw potential in the opportunity given by Henry Emily. They dialed the number, and were given the location and details to pick up an animatronic. After parking their truck, they arrived at the outside of an old warehouse with a man sitting on a canister, chewing something slowly.

“Excuse us?” Matthew walked up to the man. He was wearing his business suit and looked very formal. Unlike the man in front of him, who wore a stained, white T-shirt and worn-down, boxy jeans.

“You fellas Daniels and Bustamante?”

“Yes, sir, that’s us.” The man eyed the men before getting up from where he was and going into the warehouse, stopping to turn around to the men.

“Come on. The robot is back here.”

Matthew and Aiden followed the man into the warehouse garage and walked into the room that had very rusted walls. The place looked straight-up abandoned. The shelves were completely empty, seemingly gathering dust for years. The man led them into another part of the warehouse. Chica was sitting on an old desk, propped up against the wall. She was a bit withered, but the men knew they could fix her up.

She was a pale yellow chicken with an orange beak, often mistaken for a duck. She had on a bib that read, “Let’s Eat!” in bubbly letters, though the print was a bit faded.

“Here she is. She’s up for 3k.”

Daniels and Bustamante looked at each other. “That’s way less than what we thought,” Bustamante said to Daniels quietly.

“We’ll take it,” Daniels said as he put his hand out for the man to shake. The man shook his hand.

“I’ll get her into your truck. You can pay me when she’s on.”

The men nodded and walked out of the warehouse, back outside, and to their truck. Bustamante opened the door and took a suitcase out of it. He opened the suitcase, which had thousands of dollars in it, and took out a few stacks until the count was only three thousand dollars. Daniels stood not far behind and reached his hands out, offering to take the suitcase. Bustamante gave it and sat in the truck as he watched Daniels head back into the warehouse.

He got into the warehouse and saw the man hauling Chica onto a hand truck. He then stood in place, remembering that the man wanted the payment at the truck. So he stood in the doorway and watched him instead. The man looked around quickly, not noticing Daniels in the doorway. He then turned back to Chica and whispered something too quiet for Daniels to hear. How odd.

“Thank you again, sir, for helping us. Say, we never did get your name?” Daniels asked as he stood outside of the truck, Bustamante and Chica already inside.

“It’s . . . Miller. Dave Miller.”

And with that, they were off.

Chapter Two: Something about Chica

Daniels and Bustamante had Chica in the back, in the employees-only room. She was laid on a metal table, her chest plate was opened, and

her endoskeleton was exposed. Bustamante was hard at work, focusing intently on screwing something into the endoskeleton. Daniels never really knew how to do all that animatronic stuff, so he usually sat back and let Bustamante do it. He sat on a counter a little bit away from the table, and stared at Chica.

He didn’t know why, but he felt like her eyes were on him. He didn’t remember them facing that way before.

“OK. I don’t know if she’ll work, but we can at least set her up on her stage for tomorrow,” Bustamante said, breaking the silence.

Daniels stood up. “And can I help with that?”

“Sure.”

The men took a step back and looked at each other, and then at Chica on her stage. She had a small, wooden stage with purple curtains that closed on the sides. Chica stood in the middle of the stage, still turned off, but with slight improvements to her clothes and all-around self.

“Great. Now all we need to do now is finish the other three animatronics before . . . tomorrow,” Daniels said as he rubbed his nape unsurely.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve been coming down the past nights, about two weeks or so, to work on them. We could finish them by tomorrow.”

Daniels sighed in relief. The men walked into the backstage, where they kept the unfinished animatronics. Daniels was a bit surprised at just how much progress Bustamante had made, but he still needed to do some things. Bustamante walked ahead of Daniels and pointed to each animatronic.

“So, I decided on names yesterday. The pony is Pumpkin, the cheetah is Cookie, and the owl is Skittle. Well, the snowy owl, to keep the theme.”

Daniels nodded, looking over at the animatronics as he pointed to each of them.

“And I have something you can actually do. Skittle needs their stage done today. And that won’t need any coding or anything like that.”

Daniels nodded. He walked over to where Skittle’s stage was and started to set up the curtains. He found himself feeling like he was being watched and couldn’t help but look at Chica.

Daniels stood still, staring at Chica, waiting for her to move, anything. They fell silent for a moment, and she was void of any movement. Just then, Bustamante went back into the room, which led Daniels to flinch.

Bustamante stood there, confused. “Why’d you get so scared?”

Daniels shook his head. “Nothing. Just, Chica is a bit odd looking, right?” Daniels said.

Bustamante perked up at the comment and snapped. “Oh yeah, Henry Emily sent a letter about her. I forgot to read it.” He then left the room and came back a few moments later with an envelope in his hand. He opened the envelope and started reading it out loud.

“What baloney. You both are just paranoid,” Bustamante dismissed as he stuffed the envelope in his pocket.

“This has to mean something, Aiden. Are you sure we really should be using Chica? Won’t she scare the kids?” Daniels tried to reason.

“We open tomorrow, we can’t make a big decision like that on such short notice. Here’s the plan. We’ll have the new animatronics ready by tomorrow, but we can have Chica just set up on stage, OK? What about that?”

“Sure . . .” Bustamante walked out the room and back to the employees-only room to work on the animatronics, and Daniels went back to Skittle’s stage. He finished setting up the curtains, and left them slightly ajar. Daniels stood where he was and turned toward Chica again. When he looked back, she did too. He was sure this time. He quickly walked to the back where Bustamante was working on the animatronics.

“Do you need any help back here? I finished Skittle’s stage just now.”

Bustamante looked up from what he was working on and shook his head. “Not really. If you wanna head in for the day, I’ll be fine.”

Daniels nodded slowly, unsure about leaving him alone with the animatronics in the building. “OK, have a good night.”

Chapter Three

The Big Day

Today was the day. The day that Pumpkin’s Pizza would open. There was a crowd outside the door, and it seemed the place would have a good start to it. Aiden and Bustamante stood at the front, Daniels with a microphone in hand, getting ready to open the doors for the first time to the public. Bustamante held a pair of large scissors to a ribbon that he would cut to announce the opening, and it was red and shiny. Daniels started his speech, clearing his throat as he held the microphone close to his face.

“Welcome everyone, to the grand opening of Pumpkin’s Pizza! Before we cut the ribbon, I would like to thank my business partner and dearest friend, Aiden Bustamante, for the work he put into this place. Thank you all for coming today, and we hope you have a great time here!”

Bustamante then cut the ribbon, and everyone cheered. They opened the doors and let the people flood in. The building immediately burst out in sound, children running around playing. The day was going great. The chefs they had hired were doing a great job with getting the pizza orders, and it seemed everyone was happy. Daniels’s worries washed away, and he stopped thinking about Chica for a while.

Just as it seemed nothing could go wrong, from behind her curtain, Chica started singing a song. It seemed the entire diner went silent, and everyone was wondering what was behind the curtain.

“Matthew?” Bustamante said as he walked up to Daniels, looking at Chica’s curtain. “Did you . . . program her showtime?”

Daniels shook his head slowly. The men walked toward the curtain. They slightly opened the curtain and looked inside to see Chica doing a performance as she sang “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Bustamante fully opened the curtain, trying to play it off as if they did this on purpose to surprise the guests.

Some guests—most guests, who recognized Chica, cheered. Daniels and Bustamante seemed relieved at this. The two men then quickly walked away as Chica continued singing, heading for the back room to talk.

“So are we gonna talk about this? How does Chica even do that? Does she have a working voice box? I know you never got around to fixing her . . . internal stuff. Or whatever,” Daniels voiced.

Bustamante shook his head. “I don’t know. There has to be some . . . explanation. But for now, the guests are happy. So let’s just go with it.”

The duo walked back into the main part of the diner and went along with the day as if nothing had happened.

And nothing did happen, until a group of shady teenagers walked into the building an hour prior to closing time. Most of the guests had cleared out, and they were getting ready to start closing. Daniels took note of this and watched them closely. They ordered pizza and sat at a table in the far back of the diner. He could not make out anything they were saying, but something told him it wasn’t anything good. They were smirking and laughing amongst themselves.

Daniels walked up to Bustamante as he was wiping down a counter and cleared his throat. The man looked up. “What’s wrong?”

Daniels jerked his head in the direction of the teens. “These guys just walked in. I don’t trust them.”

Bustamante looked up at the teens and sneered. “What fools come in when we’re about to close?”

Bustamante shook his head slowly. “Keep an eye on them for me, alright?” And he walked away.

Daniels turned back to the teens and squinted his eyes, straining to hear their conversations. He heard something along the lines of “no night guard to stop us” and his blood boiled. They needed a night guard. These teens were definitely planning something.

It was finally closing time, and the teens ended up leaving on their own. Daniels and Bustamante just focused on cleaning the diner for tomorrow, not yet addressing anything that had happened prior. Once they were done, they sat at a table, facing each other.

Daniels spoke up. “We need someone to watch this place while we’re gone. Those kids are coming back, I know it,” he stated.

“But where, where would we get one on such short notice? It’s almost midnight.” Daniels tapped his fingers on the table thoughtfully.

“How about we ask one of our friends? I’m sure at least one of them owes us a favor,” he finally said.

“That would be one big favor.”

“Yes, but it’d only be for a night. And we can pay them for it.” Daniels explained with a determined expression.

Bustamante sighed, accepting defeat. “OK, then go call around. But make it quick.”

Chapter Four A Meal to Remember

“And you’re positive you’ll be here till seven?” Bustamante said to Ernest, his and Daniels’s friend who accepted being the night guard for the night.

Ernest nodded eagerly, ushering the other two men out the door.

“Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine. I can watch a screen for a few hours. Now y’all run along, don’t worry about me.” The duo finally walked out the door, leaving Ernest to the diner.

Ernest locked the door behind them and waved at them as they drove off. He turned around, getting a good look at the place. He saw the walls, which were painted sky blue with fluffy clouds. There was a near-empty bulletin board with a few drawings of the characters that kids had made. He walked over, inspecting the art closer. He saw one of Chica and smiled, remembering how he had taken his daughter to Fredbear’s Diner years ago.

He made his way to the employees-only room and sat at a desk. He turned on the cameras, scanning them momentarily. When he saw nothing, he sighed contentedly and leaned back in his chair, beginning to doze off.

Thud, thud, thud, is what Ernest heard from his seat, causing him to jolt awake. His first thought was that someone had broken in, or was currently trying. He stood up slowly and looked at the clock on the wall. 2 a.m. He reached for the flashlight on his desk that Daniels and Bustamante had supplied him with, and he turned it on. Thud, thud, thud. He walked over to the door and grabbed the handle. The thudding stopped.

“Boys? That you two pulling my leg?” Ernest called out.

He wasn’t given a reply, so he twisted the handle and opened the door.

He was met with colorful letters that spelled out “Let’s Eat!” on a bib that belonged to Chica. He pointed his flashlight up to see her face.

“What in tarnation? How’d she move on her own like—” Ernest immediately stopped talking as he felt himself being lifted up.

“Hey—let me down, you stupid robot!” The old man struggled in the animatronic’s grip. He kicked his legs as hard as he could and thrashed around, but the hold Chica had on him would not falter. Still struggling against her hold, Ernest looked up to meet her eyes. They were not the same eyes that his daughter used to love.

Chica’s jaw opened slowly, and he felt himself being lifted even higher toward the animatronic. Ernest reeled back, trying to get as much distance as possible from Chica. The hands on his arms tightened, and he yelled in pain.

He kicked Chica again. This time it landed on her chest plate, which flew open to reveal her endoskeleton. Chica seemed to actually stagger back at this and dropped Ernest unexpectedly. He scrambled to his feet and began to run toward the exit of the building, but something was already there waiting for him. It was one of the new animatronics, Pumpkin the Pony, if he remembered correctly. He turned back around and didn’t see Chica in front of the employees-only room anymore, so he ran back to it.

He shut the door behind him when he entered the room. While he locked the door, he saw a shadow on the wall. It was from the computer screen light. But the shadow was bigger than him. The shadow was not his own. He turned around slowly to see Chica standing in front of him. His eyes widened, and he twisted his body to face the door once more. But Chica was faster. She grabbed Ernest again, and he screamed in pain. She lifted him up swiftly and shoved his head into her jaws. Ernest yelled again, his yells now muffled.

Chica bit down on his body, her blunt teeth crushing him painfully. He tried to yell again, but his throat closed up. Chica continued to bite Ernest, now starting to chew him. The last thought Ernest had was of his daughter and how she could have ever loved such a monster. Chica forced more of Ernest’s body into her mouth, his body now slowly being ground into her endoskeleton. Once his full body was into her casing, she collapsed to the floor, hunger satisfied, and powered off.

Chapter Five Salvation

At 7 a.m., Daniels and Bustamante walked into the building. It was quiet inside, and immediately they noticed something was off. Daniels

walked into the employees-only room, only to find Ernest not there. Maybe he had already left, but his flashlight lay on the floor, flicking on and off. He looked to his left, and he saw nothing. He looked to the right, and he flinched. Chica sat slumped over in the middle of the room, and there were prominent red stains around her mouth. Daniels wondered what they were, but he already had an itching feeling.

“Aiden! Did Ernest tell you he was leaving?” Daniels called out to Bustamante, who walked into the room upon hearing him. “No, he— why’s Chica in here?” Daniels and Bustamante now both turned to Chica.

“I don’t know, I didn’t put her in here. Ernest, maybe?”

“And why exactly would he do that?”

“I don’t know. He’s a curious guy.” Bustmante turned to Daniels, and he shook his head slowly. Daniels cleared his throat and gestured to Chica.

“Also, there’s um . . . A substance on her mouth. It looks like blood,” he pointed out. Bustamante let out a scoff.

“Why would it be blood?” Bustamante said, crossing his arms. Daniels shrugged unsurely. He then walked closer to Chica, bent down, and jabbed a finger at her. When she didn’t react, he touched her again, but used all of his fingers. He swiped them over the liquid, but it was already dry.

“Aiden, this is blood,” he stated as he got up and turned to the man he was talking to. Bustamante nodded slowly.

“We . . . should call the police then. And Ernest, make sure he got home safe,” Daniels nodded in agreement.

The two men were at the front desk. Daniels sat in an office chair while Bustamante stood close to him. Daniels started with calling Ernest, picking up the phone and dialing the number. The phone rang and rang, and there was no answer. So he called again. This time, there was an answer. But it wasn’t Ernest. It was Riley, Ernest’s daughter.

“Hello?”

“Oh, hey, Riley. Is your dad there with you?” The other line went silent for a moment before Riley spoke up again.

“No, I thought he was with you guys at the restaurant. Is he not there? Where is he? Where is my dad?” Her voice became more and more frantic with every word she spoke. Daniels looked up at Bustamante worriedly.

“I . . . We don’t know. He’s not here, Riley.”

“He would never do something like this and not tell anyone! Please, Mr. Daniels. I need my dad home.”

“I know, I’ll find him. I’m sure it’s nothing serious. I’ll call you back when I get something, bye.” Daniels hung up the phone and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“We need to call the police, man.”

“Yeah . . . I think you’re right.” Bustamante picked up the phone himself and dialed the number 911. He put the phone on Daniels’ ear. Daniels took the phone, and it was answered within a few seconds.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Yes, um, I’d like to report a missing person.”

“OK, please provide a description of the person; name, age, time they went missing, and last place seen.”

“Ernest Smith, age seventy. He was last seen yesterday at 10 p.m. at the Pumpkin’s Pizza establishment. He was supposed to be back at home with his daughter at around 7 a.m., but she says he is not there.”

“Officers will be heading your way to investigate the scene. Please remain in the area.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Daniels hung up the phone and turned to Bustamante.

“So now what? The police will be here soon, and Ernest has gone missing in our restaurant. People will think this is just a Fredbear’s repeat. Is this it for us?”

Bustamante stayed quiet for a second, then he sighed. “I don’t know. But I think we can figure it out. Lately, I, uh, haven’t been listening to you, I’ll admit. But I’m listening now, Matthew. And we can do this . . . together.”

Power is Born

Ypsilanti After-school Writing Lab

The Weekend

Ypsilanti International Elementary School

Age 11

by Aaliyah Williams

The weekend can be pretty hard without a schedule. If you have a schedule, you can follow it and have the best weekend. Thinking of a schedule can be a little bit hard because you want to do so much. In this guide, you will see many ways you can relax on the weekend.

Friday

On Friday, you want to buy or gather stuff to have your weekend as chill as possible. For people who are wanting to spend the weekend by themselves (also for people who have anxiety):

• Bath bombs

• Flowers (clean)

• Comfortable clothes and blankets

• Device to play music

• Snacks—see below

• Fast food or any favorite food (non-snack)

• Pet or stuffed animal

• Fairy lights to brighten the room

• Drinks—see below

• Incense to make the room smell like roses or anything you like

• Books (reading is important!)

For people who are wanting to spend the weekend with friends:

• Comfortable clothes and blankets

• Device to play music

• Snacks

• Fast food or any favorite food (non-snacks)

• Pet or stuffed animal

• Fairy lights

• Drinks

• Camera (Polaroid)

• Video game devices, like a PS4/5 or Nintendo

Saturday

This is the day you really want to chill out. My best suggestion is to start at 7:30–8:30 pm. It might be weird doing it so late, but this is when you will usually avoid crazy siblings, parent lectures, or homework from a million years ago. Things you will put on a table or anything stable in front of you could be:

• Drinks—pop, juice, or just hot cocoa

• Snacks—ice cream, cookies, popcorn, chips, or candy

◦ Places where you can buy items in this guide are Target, Walmart, or Meijer

Special add-ons:

• Add fairy lights to feel warm

• Put on lo-fi music

• Put on a movie

• Special baths

In your bath, add a comfortable bath bomb and some flowers. Try to make it a bubble bath. Baking might also be a good thing to try!

Extra: If you really want to study, put on lo-fi, grab a shake, and try laying down with your favorite things around you.

Tip: Try to do this in your room or in a small but also open space.

Sunday

For some people, Sundays can be the worst part of the weekend because you have to go to work or school the next day. You always want to look at the bright side.

You can always exercise. When you exercise, you can relieve stress and feel calm. That is exactly what I want to help you do.

Exercises you can do:

• Yoga: Yoga can help your body and your mind. It calms you and is very healthy.

• Running: Running can feel great and can help your body and mind get stronger.

• Walking and jogging: After a run, these two things can help with breathing.

Ivy and Lucy Investigate

Homeschool

Age 10

by Addie Bolak

Ivy is one of many huntresses of Artemis. She has green eyes and black hair, which always seems to have sticks in it. Lucy, who is a daughter of Ares, is on a quest to tell the huntresses that the god’s powers have been stolen. They find each other at the city of the gods, Mount Olympus. They start to investigate the city for clues. They find a shirt from a half-blood in a bathroom, and in a hallway they find a bead from a Camp Half-Blood necklace. They find half of a name tag on the ground with the letters L-E-Y on it, and Lucy says, “I wonder if the thief is from camp?”

“I wonder if there is a traitor?” Ivy says.

There are scuff marks on the wall, and they follow them into the garden of the gods. They find muddy footprints on the ground and the other half of the name tag lying on the path.

Ivy looks confused and says, “If you put these two pieces together, it says FINLEY.”

Lucy says, “But it can’t be, he’s one of my best friends.”

The footprints continue to the throne room of the gods, and they follow them. They hear something go thump

Lucy says, “It sounds like it’s coming from the ceiling.” They look up and see Finley hovering near the ceiling.

Ivy shouts, “Come down here and return the powers that are not yours.” Ivy pulls out her bow and shoots Finley in the foot.

“Ouch!” he says. “I still have feelings, you know.”

He comes down from the ceiling and uses the god’s powers to freeze time. He steals Lucy’s sword and unfreezes time. Ivy shoots him with a flaming arrow, which makes him pass out. They find the power sucker in his pocket and use it to take back the powers. The gods all celebrate and Ivy returns their powers.

Sloppy the Superhero

South Arbor Charter Academy

Age 9

by Ayaan

Jain

Chapter One

One time, there was a kid named Sloppy. He wanted to be a superhero, but he couldn’t be one because he didn’t have superpowers. But then an alarm came. Sloppy zoomed to the city and saw a bad guy.

“Haha,” said the bad guy. “I will turn everyone to Sloppy.”

“Hey!” said Sloppy. “You took my name!”

“Grrr,” said the bad guy as he zapped his machine.

“Oh no,” said Sloppy.

The city got zapped. Then, in five seconds, everyone turned to Sloppy. Then Sloppy ran to his base.

“Haha,” said the bad guy as his robot-chopper chopped his hands.

“Let’s make a blue bot to destroy Sloppy,” said the bad guy.

“My name has to change to ‘Bad Guy Sloppy,’” said Bad Guy Sloppy.

“Good name,” said Chopper.

“Haha,” laughed Bad Guy Sloppy. Meanwhile, back at Sloppy’s base:

“I cannot be a superhero,” said Sloppy as he watched superhero videos. Then, he went outside and saw a big blue robot.

“Help,” said Sloppy, but he never gave up.

Sloppy did a mega-jump and hit the robot.

“Ow!” said Sloppy. But he knew that superheroes never give up. So, Sloppy found a turn-off button and turned off the robot. It fell on the ground.

“No!” said Bad Guy Sloppy. Then he ran away with his robot chopper. “I am a superhero!” said Sloppy. To be continued . . .

Ach the Space Dog

South Arbor Charter Academy

Age 9

by Riya Choudhary

Ach was a dog who lived in space. His parents hated Earth and thought it was a waste of time. But Ach thought Earth was a unique place and wanted to visit. Then he heard about a gem that granted wishes. That was the final reason that made him want to go to Earth. But, there was one problem: he did not even know what Earth was! He went planet to planet to find out what Earth was. Finally, he found out.

“I will go to Earth,” he whispered so his mom and dad would not hear him. He packed some stuff and wore . . . an Earth suit! He was scared, but excited. “It’s time to go to Earth,” he said.

He left early in the morning, and it took twenty seconds to arrive there! He was so surprised that he could not fly!

He landed on an island, a really, really weird island.

There were so many things! So many smells, sounds, feelings, tastes, and so much more. There was candy, sweet grass, and so much happiness. It was amazing, so many different things! There was candy, candy, candy. He had landed somewhere new. He was excited and tried to explore the island, but he soon met a cat. A cat named Annie.

“Who are you? What are you?” said Annie.

“I’m Ach, a space dog,” he said.

Soon they were friends and got to know each other better. Ach told Annie about the gem’s powers and his story. They went off together to find the powerful gem named the Witch Gem. But Annie warned Ach

about weird, different creatures and obstacles and how it would be hard to find the gem.

Ach thought it would be OK, but he did not know what he was in for.

“You don’t understand, it is a dangerous place, OK?” said Annie.

“OK,” said Ach. On the way, Ach stepped on a button.

“Don’t move!” yelled Annie.

They managed to escape, but they were in for worse.

“Come on, come on,” said Ach.

“OK,” said Annie, and they were off.

After walking for thirty-two hours, they stopped.

“I’m so tired!” they both said. There was a shiny leaf and they slept on it.

The next day, they woke up at 6 a.m. and continued on. They stumbled upon a cave.

“That looks scary,” said Ach.

“Yeah,” said Annie.

They both went to it. It was dark, and they heard weird sounds. Suddenly, there was a swoosh.

“What was that?” asked Ach.

“I don’t know,” said Annie.

They kept walking along the cave. They soon heard the weird sounds again! Suddenly, a big monster came up! They ran so quickly, they did not see what the monster looked like.

They were so scared they instantly ran 10,000,000,003,456,321 miles! They finally stopped running to breathe.

“OH MY GOSH!” they both yelled at the same exact time. They were so scared. But Ach was determined and Annie was too, sooo . . . they went back to the cave!

This time, they did not run away. They kept going! When the monster came, they thought it would eat them but . . . it wanted to be friends with them! The monster was a giant potato! It had wings that belonged to a butterfly, and they were beautiful. Soon, they became friends and continued their journey. After saying bye and heading on, they came across an obstacle. They crossed it and continued on. Soon, they got tired and went to sleep.

The next day, they ate cereal and rested all day long. Then they headed out. They came across a jungle and kept walking for 1,100,345,62 3,842,162,532,716,892 miles and then . . . they found it!

“YEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!” Ach yelled. But now, what would they wish for? What would he tell his parents? He was scared of what his parents would think. What will they do?

To be continued . . .

Adventures of Bob

Ypsilanti International Elementary School

Age 9

by Angus Wilson

Chapter One: The First World

The villager Bob lived in Adventure Village with his Mom and Dad. Bob was ten years old and loved to go on adventures. Unlike the other villagers, Bob was up for the challenge of going to other dimensions.

One day, Bob was listening to his favorite CD, when all of a sudden, a portal fell from the sky. The portal was a nether portal, and it was shaped like a rectangle. It was black and purple in color.

When the portal appeared, Bob was nervous, but he was up for the challenge. Although he didn’t trust it, he jumped into the nether portal. He found himself in another world far, far away. This world was called Earth. When Bob found himself on Earth, he said to himself, “Holy blockomoly!” All of a sudden, he heard a loud noise. He looked up and saw a medium-sized car driving right at him. The car was green, so he thought it was a zombie. He then jumped from the middle of the road onto the sidewalk. When he was laying on the sidewalk, he noticed he hadn’t taken any fall damage. This is when Bob realized he was nowhere near Adventure Village.

Laying on the ground, Bob decided to try and find a portal that would bring him back home. Bob heard a loud noise that sounded like cheering. He walked toward it and found a big red-and-white triangle supported by stilts. This is when he realized that gravity actually exists. Just to

make sure, he picked up a rock and tossed it, and the rock made a loud thud as it hit the ground. Bob decided to go inside the tent but found no portal, just a bunch of people and animals. He decided to keep adventuring on Earth in hopes of finding a portal. He then noticed these big pillars that he thought were buildings from Adventure Village. However, they were much bigger and were not floating. He tried to punch the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when he noticed the shiny, round, metal thing and decided to turn it. The door opened and he walked inside. He noticed new things that he’d never seen before. However, there was no portal.

He continued on his way when he noticed a round object that had glass panels, which he thought was stained glass. Instead, it was a yellow taxi. Bob struggled to open the door, but he finally found the handle. Sitting in the car, Bob said, “This is a weird world.” The taxi began to move which freaked Bob out. The taxi came to a stop, and Bob got out right away. Still he had found no portal and had to keep looking.

Before he lost hope, Bob stumbled upon a big body of water. Bob said to himself, “Finally something related to back home.” He noticed a rectangle of purple sparkles at the bottom of the lake. He knew that was the only way out of this strange world. He held his breath and jumped into the lake. He kept swimming until he was sucked into the portal. He was hoping that he would be back home, but instead he was in a new world somewhere else.

To be continued . . .

Maurila and the Magic Bubble

South Arbor Charter Academy

Age 9

by Sila Abd Elsayed

Once upon a time, a princess named Maurila lived in a nice kingdom with her parents and her friend Evelyn, who lived next door to the castle. One night, Maurila and her family went to the wish ceremony. Maurila wished she could come too and make a wish. She saw Evelyn in the audience.

“Hi Maurila! I can help you get to the Wish Room to make a wish!” said Evelyn.

Maurila asked her mom and dad, the queen and king, to make a wish. “Please Mother and Father, let me make a wish!” She waited for a response.

“Sorry, but you are not old enough. My rule is that you can wish if you are at least sixteen,” said the king.

Maurila was so sad that she couldn’t make a wish. So Evelyn tried to cheer her up by inviting her to her house. “Let’s make a plan,” said Evelyn. “We could sneak into the Inner City.”

“Yeah, but only the royal family can go to the Inner City and the Wish Room,” said Maurila.

“What if I sneak in, and you watch for the king and distract him?” The girls thought it was a great idea. They set the plan.

“Hmm, I don’t know where the Inner City is,” Maurila said. Evelyn went to go ask the queen where the Inner City is.

“Why honey, Evelyn, the Inner City is straight down this hall,” said the Queen. Maurila headed out. To be continued . . .

The Haunted Mansion

Pattengill Elementary School

Age 10

by Grace

Zhao

One day, a group of friends came into a haunted mansion to discover the mysteries of it, but it was a big mistake. On a rainy day . . .

ERIN

C’mon, guys, let’s go in. Don’t be scared, it’s not like there’s going to be a monster attacking us.

LUCA

But what if there is a monster, or even worse, what if we die? There could be so many creepy things inside of that house that we didn’t even know existed!

ALLISON

Luca is kinda right, we don’t know what’s going to be in there or what’s going to happen!

Erin

Ugh, why do you all have to be so paranoid about this? We’re only exploring. It’s not like we are going to be here forever!

AARON

Erin’s right, guys, stop being so paranoid, and let’s just go on. The rumors about here are probably fake anyways.

ALLISON

You’re only agreeing with her because you’re twins!

AARON

I am not, I’m just saying my opinion if we should go in or not, and I vote we should go!

SKYLAR

Uhm, maybe we should go in, there is a possibility that all the stuff that they said about here isn’t true, and we’ll also get a lot of cool stuff in there.

ERIN

Well, that’s three votes over two, so it’s settled, we’re going in!

LUCA

OK, but I still don’t have a good feeling about this.

AARON

Stop being a scaredy-cat, Luca.

When they are inside of the Mansion . . .

ERIN

See, it doesn’t even look that scary.

ALLISON

Are you kidding me, there’s cobwebs on the roof and on the buildng, and there’s blood on the windows!

ERIN

So? It’s just old, of course there will be cobwebs here.

ALLISON

How can you explain the blood?

ERIN

In one word, ketchup!

LUCA

That is not ketchup.

AARON

Just relax, it’s still probably not haunted, you guys are just overreacting!

BUTLER

Oh, what a surprise, there’s a guest at the door!

SKYLAR

And, who are you, exactly?!

BUTLER

Oh, sorry for not introducing myself sooner, I am the butler of this house!

ERIN

See, it’s not haunted, or else he wouldn’t be living right now!

LUCA

I mean, I guess so.

BUTLER

Would you like a tour, or do you just want to explore?

ALL

We’re good.

After three hours of exploring . . .

ALLISON

Why is this place so big? We’ve only explored half of the house, and it’s been three whole hours in here!

AARON

I know, I’m literally sweating from how much I’ve run today!

ERIN

I’m only warming up!

LUCA

Maybe we should eat something, it’s lunch.

Everyone agrees . . . but then they hear a scream.

LUCA

Who was that?

ERIN

I don’t know what that was, but we should investigate it.

They go to the noise.

ALLISON

OMG! The butler’s dead on the floor!

AARON

They were right about this place, it is haunted.

ERIN

You’re the one who agreed with me, and I didn’t even ask you to!

LUCA

Wait a minute, if he’s dead here, and we were all the way back, there then how could he have been murdered if there was nobody around?

SKYLAR

Well, maybe this is just a prank and it’s a fake body.

AARON

That doesn’t look fake at all.

ALLISON

Well, this is just great. All because of Erin, we’re stuck in here until we die!

ERIN

We’re not trapped, we can open the doors.

ALLISON

I already tried to, and I couldn’t open it.

ERIN

Maybe you’re just too weak, let me try!

ALLISON

OK, but I really doubt you can.

Erin tries to open the doors.

ERIN

Ugh! It’s impossible.

SKYLAR

Guys, stop arguing about this, what matters is that we get out of here alive!

AARON Yeah.

ALLISON

So, what’s the plan for now?

SKYLAR

Didn’t I just say it?! We have to make it out alive.

To be continued . . .

Allen Elementary School

Age 8

by Parwaan Deol

The Heroes:

Dragon Man: He is talkative and desperate to destroy the bads and the king.

Airman: He is silly and a not-focused guy. He has anger issues and is a soldier.

Commander K: He is young and the commander of the army—and not brave because he is scared of dying.

First, it was a nice time on both planets. The first planet was exploring the other planet. When the first planet got there, it was a dark land. There also was a deadly creature that could shoot one shot and then destroy! They didn’t want that, so the others went. They didn’t see anyone, until . . . they saw people!

They said, “Who are you?”

We said, “We are not from this planet. We live in Lightville, and my name is Dragon Man.”

“Well, my name is Mechanical Man, and get off our land, or else.”

“Or what?” Dragon Man said.

“War,” Mechanical Man said, and they started fighting. When Dragon Man retreated to his spaceship, there were a few people who got injured. So in the spaceship, they headed to Darkville.

“I wonder what this planet is called,” Dragon Man said.

When they were at Darkville and getting off, Airman said, “I wonder who is their leader.”

“It’s probably the guy who started the war,” said Dragon Man.

“Let’s chill,” said Airman.

“I don’t think so,” said Dragon Man. So, they went to sleep the next day.

When they made it to Darkville, they got off the spaceship. They went back to the rest of the houses. I wonder when we should attack, Dragon Man thought.

The next day when they were at training.

“I want to attack them!” Airman said.

After training, they started getting the spaceship ready to go to the other team’s planet. They didn’t know what was on the planet.

When they were going to the other planet, they were getting stuff ready to explore the planet, so they got more stuff ready for exploring the other planet. Then they rested until they got to the other planet.

When they got to the planet, they started exploring. They got suspicious exploring the planet. They started seeing city life. Also, they saw new fruit. They didn’t eat the fruit. They also saw more city life, and now they were in city life.

Then people started attacking them! So Dragon Man put on his mask for protection. They also had a spaceship, so they kept fighting. But then there were more people! It took days until the war ended. They were getting tired, so they used the robo mech. The robo mech lost power, so they kept fighting. Which team won?!

To be continued . . .

Mittens the Explorer. The Truth.

Homeschool

Age 9

by Jules Strube

Chapter One: Meet Mittens

Hi, my name is Mittens. I will tell you the tale of how I lost my tail. It was a normal day, but suddenly, I tumbled into a bat cave. So I ran, but then a trap sprang up, and it caught my tail. The bats were coming, and I tried to wiggle out of the trap, but it slammed shut with a stinging SLAM! I thought I was not injured. I escaped the bats, and then I looked behind me and noticed my tail was gone!

Mittens is a black cat with green eyes and now is tailless. If you want to know what happens next, you will have to read the next book.

Money Man

Gallimore Elementary School

Age 10

by Vedat Celiker

Hello, I’m Charlie. I’m pretty poor. I really want to go to a different world because this world is dangerous. There are tornadoes and volcanoes happening every second, but we have safe things that help us survive. The reason why I don’t have much money is because some random creatures, who are ghosts but have no body, and a pumpkin, have stolen my money. I’m now robbing banks so that I get money. I did cause all the tornadoes because I mixed a bunch of spiderwebs with milk and somehow created an infinite tornado.

Alright, back to me robbing banks. I’ve written over ten books on how to rob banks, which I read myself. I’ve robbed many banks. Today, on my seventh bank with over fifty-six thousand dollars, I got caught. The police arrested me, and I was in jail for two years, but I escaped. I dug out with the spoon they gave me. They were really dumb because the whole entire building was made of wood. I just punched the wood a couple times, and it broke. Now, if someone finds me, then they get $55 million. Also, that is just how much money I need to fly to space.

My mom tells me to do chores. I get ten dollars for each chore. I usually do the chores each day. Which means I get one hundred dollars. I can do over five hundred chores each day and get five thousand dollars, but that would take so long to do. Right now I have one hundred thousand dollars. I try selling things, like non-working flashlights, but I only gain about fifty dollars. I find out that a coin I have is fake. I sell it for fifteen

thousand dollars. A person buys it, and I get super lucky, but the guy says it’s ten dollars, not ten thousand dollars. He asks for his money back, but I run away into my secret bunker. I peek out, and he is still waiting there. Then I throw some trash at him. I keep on throwing until he is in a trash swimming pool. He doesn’t move. Then I look at his face, and apparently it’s a statue that represents a World War Fifty attack. I don’t really care because I am already a weird person getting hunted by the FBI. I wear a hat and a suit for a disguise. I go outside to sell things and get money.

Speaking of money, as mentioned, I need $55 million just to go to space. I sell lemonade, and I scam people. After eleven months of selling and scamming, I have reached the one million dollar mark. I decide to now take risks. Someone sets up a tag infection where, if you are the last one surviving, you earn one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and if I lose, my five hundred dollars would go to waste. The people are joining the tournament. It is inside a parkour tag area. We start the game in under ten minutes, and already thirty-one people are tagged. That means seventy-two people are left. I’ve been running for one hour. After some time, I meet this guy, and he shows me a map of the area. I start to like this guy, and we become friends.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“I’m Alex. I was trying to find the key to the secret door.”

Forty-eight people are left, and I am really sweaty. I see that the key is near a trap, which is really dangerous. I decide to go and be brave.

“I don’t prefer you to go,” says Alex, but I don’t care and go there anyway.

I see the area and I reach my hand into it. I feel the key and grab it quickly. I run toward the door, but I notice three infected people. I slide through, open the door, and shut it. I go through the purple portal. It leads to a nice area, including snacks, a TV, and a chair. Alex finds out that I left the door unlocked. Alex goes through and leaves the door open. All the infected find out and go through. They hear the noise, and they leave the area and lock the infected in. Phew! That was very close. Wait, where is Alex? I look around, but then I notice I left him inside the area where . . . the infected are. I feel bad, but at least I won. They give me money. I check my money, and it says twenty million dollars! How is that possible? Ding! Dong! I open the door.

“Hello, I am Elon Muscular Mustache McDonald the third.”

“Ummm . . . that’s a very interesting name.”

“I am inviting you to Mars.”

“No you’re not.”

“I am!”

“Ok, let’s go then. The spaceship is waiting for you.”

I get in the spaceship, and we fly all the way to Mars. Wait, with the money I have, I can buy my dream house on Mars. I buy it, and I live a ghost life until Alex pops out of nowhere and starts annoying me while I am standing next to my mansion.

The End.

Just kidding. I would not end a story at a good part. I know I am annoying, but not as much as Alex. Well, I’m not actually on Mars. I am on a visual of Mars, and Alex is on it too.

I decide to chase Elon for what he did. I run to him, tackle him, and I feel relieved.

I go to a website that says “Free Money” and “No Scam,” so I try it, and it asks for my credit card number. I give it because that’s probably how it puts the money in. I do it, and I look at my money. It says ten million dollars. How? I had lost half my money!

I go to my bed tired, sad, confused, and bored. I wish it would rain money. I keep on looking at the ceiling, and then all of a sudden it starts raining money. It is raining gold, diamonds, and thousand-dollar bills. It stops and I collect everything. I trade it in and get fifteen million dollars. I am so happy, but then another tournament starts. It is a hot dog eating contest. I haven’t eaten anything for one to three days straight, so I enter it. It will give one million dollars. I start driving there in my off-brand Apple car. Apparently, Alex is going too. This time, Alex is probably going to use a Robot-Eater-3000. Also, the tournament takes place in a Samsung house. Everything these days is based off of phone types.

A Princess’s Journey

Erickson Elementary School

Age 11

by Rae Mussen

Content warning for readers: this story is a thriller that contains references to death and assassination.

Once upon a time in the land of Lylaconukei, a girl named Seti was kidnapped and taken to the island of Petaki. No one has ever returned from this island, not one soul. Luckily, Seti was a survivalist and had her heart set on getting back home. She thought, Maybe I could build a raft strong enough to get me past the waves and get me home! So with just herself and the forest to keep her company, she vowed to find a way home. Now, let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

“Mother, I know I’m ready to take over and become a ruler of the five eleven tribes. Why won’t you listen to me!?” Seti yelled angrily to her mother.

“Because you are too young! You will understand in time, now go wash up for supper,” Mother exclaimed.

Seti liked to just follow her own flow. Her father said that was her best trait before he was killed. The murderer was never caught, unfortunately. Since then, Seti’s mother hasn’t thought of her as much. Because of this, Seti longs to take over and find the person who killed her father. Later that night, Seti was kidnapped! A group of bandits took her away to the island of Petaki.

“Hey! Let me down! I’ll make sure you’re arrested for this! You hear me?” Seti yelled angrily at the bandits.

“Oh, quiet in there. You’re way too chatty, just like your father,” the bandit chief replied angrily.

“You killed my father, I will get my revenge for this!” Seti yelled. Seti’s temper was exploding out of her. She never knew who killed her father, so the news came as a shock for her.

A few hours later, “Huh. Wow. Hey. Oww. Whaa!! What just happened? Where am I? Wait . . . I recognize this place. This is the island of Petaki,” Seti said, alarmed. “I should find some shelter.” And she did. She made her way to the moving mansion, a galloping ghost mansion.

When she arrived, she had second thoughts because bad things happened in the mansion. Seti thought out loud and said, “If I don’t die here, then I will go outside. The mansion must be safer than staying out here!” So then, she walked inside, and it was twice as creepy as it was outside, and that’s saying something!

Well, here goes nothing! Seti thought. Scrriiiitch, scraaaatch.

“Great, just great, I am not only on the deadliest island in the world, but I’m also being stalked! Perfect, just plain perfect,” Seti said as she kicked the closest thing she could find, which was the door.

The scratching drew closer, and Seti knew she had to run and get far away from whatever was causing the scratching. Whatever it was, it had locked onto her as if she were prey.

“Oh no!” Seti gulped. The creature looked like a mix of a wolf and mutant. It was something out of a nightmare.

“Oh cruddle feathers,” Seti said in terror.

If you’re wondering, a cruddle is the second smallest bird in Lylaconukei.

The creature growled as it got closer. Oh crud, Seti thought. As the creature advanced, Seti knew she needed to do something, so she knocked over a potted plant and ran for the door. She headed to the beach as quickly as she could. Seti built a raft and thought to herself, What was that? as she was panting for air.

“NO NO NO NO,” Seti said, as a wolf-fox tore up the raft and the pieces floated away. “What, what in the name of Onuh Hacki is that?!”

It was an assassin’s guild boat, which always meant one thing: their target was one in Petaki.

Seti ran as fast as she could into the woods. When the ship finally docked, the captain was yelling orders. Seti knew she had to stay hidden or be caught and killed.

“Remember your target,” the captain told the assassin.

“Princess Seti. This isn’t the first time I’ve killed royalty,” the assassin replied.

“Don’t count your cruddles before they hatch, King.”

“Remember, the princess is young, agile, and fast. She’s also creative. She’s harder to catch than you, so give her credit for that,” said the captain.

“Understood,” said the king.

“Oh, crud!” Seti whispered.

“What was that?!” the captain barked. Seti knew it was time to leave. The assassin had found her. A squirrel-scorpion climbed up into the tree she was hiding in. Squirrel-scorpions can actually be really affectionate. You just need a nut or a piece of raw meat.

“Hey, little guy,” Seti said, offering the little squirrel-scorpion a nut. “Think you can help me? I need you to get your friends to buy me some time, think you can do that?”

The squirrel-scorpion nodded. About a minute later, a miniature array of squirrel-scorpions were attacking the assassin and the captain. Being careful not to step on one of the squirrel-scorpions, Seti ran deep into the forest. When Seti finally made it back into the heart of the forest, she had a few minutes to catch her breath. Then, the little squirrel-scorpion caught up with her.

“OK, little guy, should I stay here or go try again with the raft?” Seti asked the squirrel-scorpion, who just tilted his head. She found the Galloping Ghost Mansion. Seti opened the doors and ran for the beach, where, hopefully, the assassin was. The creature ran after her. She made it to the beach, where the assassin had just finished unpacking. The ship had just gotten far enough away from the island to not be detected by the creature when Seti skidded to the left and left the creature and assassin to deal with each other. With the squirrel-scorpion still following her, she made her way to the other side of the island. She waited a few hours until she was sure that the coast was clear before she went back to that section of the beach. A few minutes later, Seti saw a boat in the distance, and she

waved to them. Seti knew it was a royal guard boat because it had the royal insignia on it. Another few minutes later, and she was on the boat home. Seti finally saw her mother for the first time in days, and there were many hugs and tears.

* * * * *

A few years later, it was Queen Seti’s coronation day, and everything was perfect. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and everybody was happy. The only downside was that Seti’s mother wasn’t there to see it. She had passed away the previous year.

The bandits that captured Seti three years back were captured a month ago. Because of this, Queen Seti was very happy.

“My Queen, the preparations for the crowning are ready,” said the captain of the royal guards.

“Good, let’s begin,” replied Seti. So the crowning began, and then the feasts of remembrance and celebration.

“I now crown you Queen Seti of Kirindel!” the priest announced to the crowd, who clapped and cheered.

During the feast, Seti whispered to her friend and closest advisor, Annabel.

“Do you think I’ll be a good leader?” Seti asked Annabel.

“Of course!” Annabel replied.

“Attention!” announced the priest, “I’d like to take this moment to make a toast to our new queen, Queen Seti!” the priest finished.

“TO QUEEN SETI!” the crowd cheered.

“See?” Annabel whispered. “You’re going to do just fine.”

The End.

Bear and the Gum Drop Hunt

Homeschool (Beyers Academy for Excellence)

Age 8

by Cadence Beyers

Bear and Cadence found out that for some reason birds love pink gumdrops, so they decided to give all the pink ones they found (even the ones in Gumdrop World) to the birds. Surprisingly, the birds were Japanese.

“Arigatō (thank you),” they said in Japanese.

“Mmm . . . oishii (yummy),” could be heard from the little birds’ nests.

But the two travelers had no time to waste. Suddenly, they said bye and off they left, heading toward Gumdrop Land.

Soon they realized that, in their excitement, they had forgotten to pack food for their trip. Luckily, there was a store for food and campers. So they went into the store and, surprisingly, the store had everything they needed. They even had horses!

Soon, Cadence (sorry, Bear, not you) decided to get a speckled brown horse, a tent, a doggy and a human rain jacket, and a year’s worth of food. She also decided to get some rope and bridle for the horse.

Three minutes later, they left the store, naming the pony Caramel. Surprisingly, Caramel had another space so that Cadence and Bear could ride on her!

Suddenly, a small Eevee came and said, “Can I come too?”

They said, “Sure!”

“Yay!”

So little Eevee joined the group. Caramel got grumpy. Cadence gave her an apple, and instantly she got happier. Then, Cadence, Bear, Elodie

the Eevee, and Caramel got hungry. Cadence gave herself a protein bar, Bear some dog treats, Eevee a Pokétreat, and Caramel another apple.

Finally, the three travelers remembered why they had journeyed, and they got off, tied Caramel up, and looked for gumdrops. One hour later, they found glittery, colorful gumdrops in jewel-toned colors.

Now Cadence knew that the black gumdrops are black licorice, but little Eevee sure didn’t. Soon, she nibbled it, then spat it out.

“YUCK!” she said.

Then Cadence came over and said, “Always ask what the flavor of the gumdrops are.”

So Eevee said, “OK!”

“Thank you, Elodie.”

Suddenly Caramel whinnied, and Cadence realized that Bear wanted to play with Caramel and Caramel was uneasy with Bear trying to jump on her. So she stomped her feet, whinnying. Scared, Cadence rushed over to the wild scene. Soon, she had Bear on a leash, Caramel calm, and Elodie safe.

To be continued . . .

Big Trouble

Thurston Elementary School

Age 9

by Anaya Chawla

One day, not too long ago, there was a little girl named Raina who hated to lose. Today, she had a playdate with her greatest friend, Natalie.

Ding dong!

“Natalie is here!” Mom went to get the door.

“Hi, Natalie,” I said really loud.

Natalie asked, “You wanna play?”

“Sure,” I said, “Uno.”

“Sure,” said Natalie.

“OK,” I said while shuffling the cards.

Thirty minutes later . . .

“I won for the third time!” I yelled.

“Not fair!” Natalie said very loudly. “Hey Raina, I’m going home!” Natalie roared.

“Great, go,” I said, but then my mom’s phone rang. Me and Natalie went running to get the phone. Suddenly . . . CRASH—my mom’s phone fell.

“Oh no!” Natalie said.

“I’ll be in so much trouble!” I said.

“Yes, you will, Raina. Yes, you will,” Natalie said.

“Oh no, I hear my mom. She’s coming.”

“I’m out,” Natalie said.

“Hey,” I heard, “Raina, is that my phone?” Mom asked.

“Um . . . maybe.”

“RAINA!” Mom screamed.

“I’m sorry,” I said a bit quietly, and before I knew it, my feet started to run. I had run one whole mile and not just that—I had no way to get home. I was also in the middle of the highway. I ran as fast as I could. Finally, I was off the highway. I thought, Hmm, I’ll catch a ride with no money or food. I started begging for rides. After two whole hours, I saw someone stopping. It was an old man.

He said, “What’s wrong, young girl? Are you hungry?”

“No,” I said, “I need a ride.”

“Sorry, I can’t give you a ride . . . but here’s one hundred dollars and a tent plus a blanket. Bye now!” the old man said. But then, I felt strange. Something was wrong about that man—but then, I remembered, Hey, he looked a lot like that crook who escaped prison . . . oh God! I just met a giant prisoner . . . oh man . . . hey, this money is fake, this tent is broken, and this blanket has poison . . . how will I fix this? It’s almost night. But then, I heard a police car.

“We need to get the prisoner,” I heard.

“Hey, I know where the prisoner is!” I yelled. Then, the police stopped.

“Where is he?” they asked.

“He said he’s going to Costco, and he gave me these!” I gave them the blanket, the tent, and the money.

“Thank you,” the policeman said. “My name is Greg. Do you need a ride home?”

“Yes, I do,” I said.

“Where do you live?”

“1234 Billion Street.”

“OK, I’ll take you there,” Greg said. “Hop on in.”

Twenty minutes later, I was standing in front of Mom. Mom hugged me straight away. She gave me about a thousand kisses.

But, then, she asked me, “Why would you try to run away, honey?”

“Mom, I was just scared you’d kick me out.”

“I’d never kick you out.”

I said, “I’m going to go to my room.” While my mom was still watching, I crept toward my room. I shut my door once I get to my room and

turned on the TV, watching my favorite episode of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

But, right when my favorite part of the episode came, my mom said, “Raina! Come down here this instant!”

Once I got downstairs, I saw my mom near the pile of broken glass that used to be her phone. Mom said, “Raina, you’re still in trouble since you broke the phone.”

Then, I dashed to the front door.

“Not so fast!” said my mom. “You are staying in this house. You’re not off the hook.”

The Soccer Heroes

Tappan Middle School

Age 12

by Rami

Itaiwi

Hulk, Thor, Batman, and Superman are known for being heroes, but not many people know that they are as good at soccer as much as they are superheroes. So, the heroes for their week off wanted to play soccer! Since Hulk was a part-time engineer, the heroes wanted him to build a ship, so they could play only soccer, nothing else . . . in another world!

While the superheroes were sailing, Batman’s bats saw an island! The bats looked again to make sure because they joked around a lot. The heroes changed the direction of the ship and went onward.

At last, they parked the ship on the dock and went exploring to see if everything that they heard was true! Superman reminded everybody to be safe while Hulk ate all his food. He was still so hungry.

They started playing a game together, and Superman said, “This is so fun!”

Then the heroes had a rumble . . . dun dun dun.

Villains had somehow come to the island, and the villains were Ultron, Thanos, Lex Luthor, and The Riddler! The villains challenged the heroes to a soccer match, and if the villains won, the heroes would stop being heroes. But if the heroes won, the villains would stop being villains.

The heroes agreed, and then the game began. Superman passed to Thor, then Thor headed it to Batman and Batman did a through ball to Hulk. Hulk blasted it from half field, and it went in the top-right corner. But Thanos disagreed with the referee because he thought it was

offsides, so he burned the referee to dust. Then the backup referee came and gave a red card to Thanos, and he got sent out of the game.

Then after the big upset of Thanos, the villains knew they couldn’t win without him, their star player! So the villains knew they had to cheat. Lex Luthor shot a laser cannon at Thor, and he went beyond the stands. Then Lex held the ball and threw it in the goal, and it counted!

After this upset for the heroes, they knew they had to give it their all. So the heroes stepped up their game and got very close to scoring, but one of their counterattacks looked special, really special. And Thor had gone out of the game, so this would be a miracle. Superman flew with the ball, passed to Hulk, then Hulk crossed the ball to Batman. But the cross was a little off, so Batman threw his bat at the ball. He sunk his teeth into the ball without it popping and then flew into the goal . . . and the goal was allowed! Then Ultron got mad and made his clones chase him to sea. After this happened, the referee died very tragically, but the heroes won!

After the heroes celebrated their win for one hour, they were going to go to the Taj Medal to get the medals and team trophy that they so very deserved. But then the heroes remembered that the villains had to stop wreaking havoc, so . . . the villains gave up all their weapons to the heroes and agreed to stop being villains.

The heroes stood in front of the referee, who was holding the medal. The heroes took the medals from the referee and stood on the podium while the fans were taking pictures, until Joker broke in and stole the trophies!

Suddenly, after the heroes realized the trophies were stolen, they chased Joker until he reached the ocean.

Superman said, “You’re cornered here, nowhere to hide!”

But Joker jumped in the water and Riddler (the one who loves riddles and question marks) put Joker in the cane. The cane was a disguised rock launcher, and it was on max power. Hulk tried to stop him, but he was too late. Joker launched into the air and landed in the Mediterranean Sea! So Superman called Aquaman to go swim all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and catch the Joker, who is said to be there right to this very day, until he is caught by Aquaman. It’s going to take so long. Aquaman is in the Pacific Ocean right now! It will take one to ten million years, but Aquaman has eternal life!

Aquaman started swimming and swimming and swimming.

Nevermind, we’re not actually going to wait for Aquaman to reach Joker. I think we’re all too lazy to wait ten million years so we can reach the scene of the crime. We can just travel through time, maybe like something that’s in the movies, like fast forwarding! Except . . . through a portal! But now, let’s really cut to the chase. This is exactly what Aquaman did because he’s so lazy!

Two seconds later, in a beam of lightning, he arrived at the scene of the crime, a.k.a. (also known as) the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Aquaman started exploring, looking for even a trace of Joker. Then Aquaman saw a sign. It said: “Joker the evil laughter has died, come to his funeral at 6:30 pm to come together and celebrate him!” Aquaman didn’t understand. It only took two seconds to reach the shore. How could he have died? He asked a resident about his problem with the portal. The resident told him that two seconds in the Pacific Ocean is equal to one hundred years in the Mediterranean Sea! Aquaman was shocked and headed home right away.

When Aquaman reached home, he told the heroes that Joker had died, and he didn’t know where the trophies were. As the heroes aimlessly walked along the shore, Hulk spotted something shining in the water. It was glimmering as much as the sun. But that glimmering . . . so familiar. When they took it out of the water, they saw it was the trophies! But there was a note on the back. It said: “You foiled my plan. I wanted to lure you to the ocean to catch me, so that the trophies could wash away before you got back. Please let a gust of wind take the trophy far, far away! Worst of luck.” Then the heroes lived happily ever after.

Georgie

Pattengill Elementary School

Age 10

by Savannah Holloway-Welch

“Hi sir, I’m Georgie!” I shouted, freezing in place after hearing their laughter.

“ . . . .Smith,” I continued.

My application fell from my hands as I walked away in sorrow. That night, I read through the script again. Why was I so foolish? I dropped down onto my bed with a sigh, leaving the stapled stack of words on the ground. Again. I rolled over and forced myself to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.

The next day, I began walking back to the auditorium, more confident than ever before. I came to a halt. Hunter Jacobs. My face heated up. I looked down at his paper. He played my character’s love interest. My life could never have been better.

I walked right toward him and walked right past. I couldn’t bring myself to speak to him. I stepped up onto the stage and began.

“Hi, sir. I’m Georgie. I’d like to audition for the role of Mia,” I swallowed, waiting for a reply. He nodded, taking my paper. That was it. I was in.

The following night was normal. I slept, and in the morning, I woke up and caught the bus. I walked back to the auditorium for rehearsal and there he was.

Hunter.

I swallowed before my gaze shifted, snapping out of my imagination. “Yo, Georgie. What are you zoning out at? Hunter?”

Max laughed, making fun of me as his friends followed suit.

“I . . . leave me alone, Max,” I muttered as he pushed me, spitting.

“What? Are you scared?”

Max looked down at me, my head bruised from the hard fall.

“Why are you so mean?”

Holding back tears, I stumbled upward before being hit with another push. There it was. Tears. I wiped them off my cheeks and swallowed. A huge headache pounded in my brain . . . All I remember is red and blue lights shining in my face before waking up in a hospital bed.

“Mama?” I called out. Where was everybody? I turned to my side to see Hunter again, a bouquet of flowers resting in his hands.

“For me?” I asked, receiving a nod for a reply as he handed them to me.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

He cared. I felt warm inside. Maybe this injury wasn’t so bad.

The next day was the same. I woke up, ate, and went to the auditorium for rehearsal. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Then it was the day of the show. Fixing the pink, vintage dress that was tightly hugging my body, I swallowed, taking a deep breath.

“Everyone, I present . . . THE KNIGHT AND THE MAID!” my counselor announced.

I stepped from behind the red curtain, opening my mouth to speak . . . stepping in front of Hunter.

“Hi, I’m Mia,” I smiled.

“Dani,” Hunter replied, smiling back. The play had begun. My time to shine.

The End.

The Jewel of Frostwind

Homeschool

Age 12

by Sonya Bialk

Sania lived in the kingdom of Frostwind in a castle made of icicles. She was an ice fox and the queen’s youngest messenger. Right now, she had to tell the queen something important. Just that morning, her bedroom ceiling had dripped on her, and her chair had turned to mush. It was very strange because nothing ever melted in Frostwind—it was too cold.

When she got to the throne room, all the other messengers were there too with the same story as hers.

The queen waved her tail for silence and said, “Our ice jewel has been stolen by goblins. Without it, Frostwind will melt; our ice jewel is what keeps it cold.”

“I can go after the goblin,” said Sania.

“It will be very dangerous,” said the queen, “but you can go. Here, take this.” The queen gave Sania an ice knife that could cut through any metal. There were only six of those in Frostwind, so the knife was very precious. Then Sania set out toward a volcano. In its center was where the goblins lived. Sania traveled all day, and just as night was beginning to fall, she reached the rim of the crater. Since ice foxes do not need to sleep, Sania continued into the darkness.

Goblins can see in the dark and despise light, so there were no candles or lanterns. Once, when Sania lost her footing, her ice knife slid out of its case and clattered to the floor. It filled the cave with a dim glow. Sania grabbed the knife and continued on into the dark tunnel. Little did

she know that the goblins knew she was there and were planning a trap deep in the center of the mountain.

Meanwhile, the goblins were driving a cart full of sparkling diamonds. Sania jumped into the cart onto a pile of sharp, uncut diamonds. There was nothing to hide behind, so Sania hoped the goblins would not turn around. The cart rattled along a narrow, rocky tunnel, then they rounded a corner and entered a massive cavern. In the middle of it, there was the biggest goblin Sania had ever seen. She could see the ice jewel embedded in the top spike of his throne.

The goblin king! Sania thought in panic. Quickly, she jumped out of the cart. Immediately, the king saw her and snarled. Then, dozens of liquid snakes came out of the ground and formed a circle around Sania. She ran quickly into a smaller tunnel. The tunnel had lots of twists and turns. Soon, Sania could not hear the snakes anymore, but she was lost. She went into a small cave and came face-to-face with a goblin.

“You’re looking for your ice jewel,” the goblin said. Sania snarled and took out her ice knife.

“Before you stab me, I have been banished by the king. My name is Dentem,” the goblin said.

Sania wondered if she could trust the goblin. Goblins are known for their treachery and lies. But she needed help if she was going to save her kingdom from melting.

“We can work together to get back the ice jewel,” Sania told the goblin.

The next day, they decided to attack. The goblins had servants that were mindless, gray clouds used for carrying food. Sania got inside one of the clouds. She and Dentem made a plan that they would be disguised as servants carrying food to the king. It was hard to walk under the cloud, and Sania was worried about someone seeing her feet or tail.

When they got into the king’s cavern, the king growled, “I have been waiting long enough for my food. You are always late.”

Once they were closer to the king, Dentem splashed a bowl of soup he was carrying in the king’s face. The soup had a powder in it that temporarily blinded you. The king roared and tried to grab Dentem. Meanwhile, Sania clawed the ice jewel free from the king’s throne.

“I got it! Let’s go!” Sania barked. Then, she and Dentem ran toward the door and up a long, twisting tunnel. Suddenly, the goblin stopped

running and touched part of the rock, which opened up into a very warm cavern.

“I will never take cold for granted again,” thought Sania.

“Be very quiet,” Dentem whispered. “This is the dragon’s room.”

“Why, in all of Frostwind, would we be where we are going to be inevitably burned up?” asked Sania.

“It’s the only place where no goblin will go. They sealed the main entrance when the dragon burned down the forging shaft.”

Now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark, she could see a long pile of ashes and charred boards with glints of misshapen silver slabs, which she assumed must be the half-forged swords. Suddenly, a shape loomed in front of them! The dragon was magnificent with shining, deep-blue scales with flecks of green and black.

“Why are we in this cave anyway?” asked Sania.

“I remember a weak spot in the ceiling where the roof caved in once. We could use that to escape!” Dentem hissed. He was quiet but suddenly the dragon woke up!

“I heard you found your ice jewel. I hear everything in the mountain,” Ash, the dragon, told them. “There are goblins who know exactly what you are doing, and they are waiting for you up there.”

Ash pointed her tail toward the roof of the cavern.

“Can you help us?” asked Sania.

“If you free me from the curse that keeps me here, I will show you a way out.” Ash nodded at a sword embedded in the rock. “That is the curse. I have to stay here until it is destroyed!”

“We could cut the curse with my knife,” Sania said.

The sword cut in half easily. Ash kept her promise to help them and pushed a large boulder, and a long, straight tunnel appeared.

“At the end of this tunnel is the ocean where the goblins drop their finished swords,” Ash told them.

The goblin jumped down the tunnel but Sania paused and asked, “Are you coming?” to Ash.

“No,” Ash growled, “I want to get revenge and eat the goblin who imprisoned me so long ago.”

Sania turned and jumped down the tunnel. It was a long fall, and she was not prepared for the shock of cold water that went up her mouth and nose. Waves lapped at her ears. She struggled to keep from running

into the rock wall. When the tunnel finally ended in the bright sunlight, Sania noticed things were different. There was no more snow, not even the enormous glacier. Just soggy, damp grass and a lot of mud. Sania took the ice jewel from her bag and held it up. The jewel sparkled in the sun but did nothing about warm weather. Maybe only the queen could use it. Where was the queen? thought Sania. Their castle was huge, surely it would not have all melted.

After two days of searching, Sania found the ice foxes living on a hill that was less muddy than the rest. Sania had a meal of shellfish and mouse rolls and told her friend Karia all about her adventures. Then she saw the queen.

“Thank you for finding our ice jewel. We need to make sure this never happens again, so we will build a new castle on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean.”

The next morning, Sania went to look for Dentem. Sania liked hearing the crunch of frosty grass as she ran across the tundra. When she found Dentem in a rocky cave near the volcano, Sania gave him a map to thank him for helping her. The map was to the Darven Mines because Dentem still liked diamonds.

Peace from the River

South Arbor Charter Academy

Age 7

by Asil Abd Elsayed

Chapter One: Power is Born

“Jenifer! Come here!”

“What, Bobby?”

“This pretty river!”

“Bobby, we have to get home for iftar!” said Jenifer.

Bobby and Jenifer walked home as Jenifer thought, Wow! That river is actually really beautiful! And then, the river hypnotized her!

All of Jenifer and Bobby’s friends got hypnotized too! Bobby tried all kinds of ways to alert them. He tried lifting them and pulling them on a wagon, but nothing worked!

Then, Bobby realized how relaxing the river is. Bobby, Jenifer, and their friends enjoyed the river together.

The End.

Light Knight Homeschool

Age 12

by Walter Strube

Chapter One: The Beginning

Hi, my name is Light Knight, and here is my story. I am at my final test. There are ten enemies and one person to save, who is in a cage over a fire and there is a bomb with two minutes left. I have a diamond titanium sword, armor, and a laser blaster. What do I do? I think fast, and I quickly pull out my blaster and blast four of the enemies. They charge at me! I swap out my blaster and blast four of the enemies with my sword and spin at four more. I take them out. I have thirty seconds left and two enemies left. I charge and jump at one and kick the last one. Fifteen seconds. I spin, put out the fire, and blast the cage. I save the person from the cage and guard them from the blast. BOOM!! That. . . was close. Test done and to the throne room. (Don’t worry, it was a hologram test. No one was hurt.) I just make it to the throne room. The king is sitting on the throne with two guards on both sides.

“Light Knight, you have passed the test,” the king says.

“OK,” I say.

“Well, you are now a knight of . . . ”

“Yes,” I say happily.

“. . . of Tor Tecknica.”

“YES,” I say happily. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t. I wish you good luck,” says the king.

Then we hear a knock on the door.

“SIR, THE DARKNESS. IT’S HERE,” says a servant.

“Go, Light Knight!” shouts the king.

“Yes, my King!” I rush to the gates.

Chapter Two: The Darkness

“Almost there.” I reach the gates.

“Hey, you. Yes, you. You’re that new knight, right?” says an unknown voice.

“Uh, yes. That’s me.”

“Good. The others just went outside.”

“Thanks, stay safe,” says the unknown voice.

“You too, bye!”

“Good, you’re here. What took you so long?”

“Hey, be nice. He’s new . . . Sorry about that. She’s a bit . . . uh . . . nevermind.”

“Hi, I’m Techno, and I love all tech. I even made the vehicles. Yep. Cool, right? And this is Crusher and he loves t—”

“SMASH!” Crusher yells.

“What?” I say.

“I love to smash!” Crusher says. “You have a problem with that?!”

“No, smashing is cool (sometimes).”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.” I feel so nervous when I am with him.

“Stop messing around. We have to go,” Shuri says, and we go outside the gates and get ready to fight.

“It’s here,” Shuri says.

“What’s here?”

“The darkness.”

“The what?”

“You don’t know about the darkness?” Crusher says.

“No.”

“Well, legend said that the darkness could destroy cities in one swap with nothing left.”

“That is just legend. No one knows what it can do,” Crusher says.

“Maybe, maybe not. Legends are warnings,” Shuri says.

“Wow, good to know,” I say.

WOOOSH. The darkness stops. Then a lot of dark monsters walk out.

“Well, this can’t be good,” Crusher says.

“No, it cannot. Well, here we go,” I say.

My very first mission. Better not mess this up.

Chapter Three: The Dark Lord BOOM.

“I don’t want to see them in my sight again,” Dark Lord says.

“Yes, sir.”

“Null.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Battle report.”

“Well, sir. The dark monsters just made it to the kingdom, and I will keep you posted.”

“Good. You have always served me well, Null.”

“Yes, I have, my lord.”

“I look forward to your battle report.”

“I won’t let you down.”

To be continued . . .

“oh cruddle feathers.”

About 826michigan

With 20 years of experience, 826michigan is the premiere youth literacy and writing program serving thousands of students throughout Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Ypsilanti each year.

We believe that the more fun a student has, and the more directly we speak to a student’s interests, the more we can help students find the fun in learning. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power via writing to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in their individual voice.

826michigan utilizes community and college volunteers to provide students with one-on-one attention and small group work in every program offered. With the help of caring adults, students not only gain experience and confidence in writing which contributes to academic success, but also find a community of like-minded peers, and experience mentorship and social and emotional support that will feed them for a lifetime.

AFTER-SCHOOL WRITING LAB

In this weekly program, we build a supportive community of writers where students brainstorm, write, revise, and publish a story of their choosing. At the end of the program, students’ writing is published in a book and celebrated with a book release party. Each session includes a mini lesson taught by 826michigan staff and introduction to a new writer's habit, such as Writers Change their Minds and Writers Make Plans–and Break Them! Students discuss and practice these new habits as they go through the writing process, building their own toolkit of writing practices and preferences.

WORKSHOPS

We offer a number of free writing workshops taught by professional artists, writers, and our talented volunteers. From comic books to screenplays, bookmaking to radio, and including our Song Shop Workshop with Third Man Records and Lafayette American, our wide variety of 826michigan — the power of story.

workshops are perfect for writers of all ages and interests. One of the most popular workshops we offer is our weekly Wee-bots program for elementary-aged writers.

IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS

Our staff and trained volunteers go into local public schools to support teachers with their classroom writing goals. In partnership with the teacher’s writing curriculum, our projects range from writing fairy tales to crafting college essays to exploring poetry.

FIELD TRIPS & ROADSHOWS

Always full of surprises and theatrics (and sometimes a visit from our grumpy editor, Dr. Blotch), our Field Trip program is an experiential writing extravaganza. We welcome teachers to bring their classes in for field trips during the school day or we can bring the party to schools as a field trip roadshow! Students join a group of volunteers, interns, and staff to help solve a problem through writing—whether that is Dr. Blotch’s insomnia, our looming story deadline, a mystery in need of solving, or one of the many others we encounter. Our field trips always end in a finished publication of original writing that students take home. Often the field trip writing is connected to a second leg of the students’ journey, whether a trip to a museum, library, or local record label, thanks to our many incredible community partners.

OUR STORE

Our Robot Supply Co. store, located in Ann Arbor, is a one-stop shop for robots, robot owners, and enthusiasts alike. It is designed to inspire creativity and bring awareness of our programs to the community. In addition, our online store is always open; visit the Robot Supply Co. at onwardrobots.com. All proceeds from our store directly fund our free student programming. Onward robots!

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We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, talking)

We study the writing we want to do so we can try it

We learn how to change our writing for genre, audience, and purpose

We work with a group of writers who help and support each other

www.826michigan.org

Acknowledgments

We are delighted to share the future horizons, extraordinary worlds, and bold pursuits envisioned in this book, and we couldn’t have done it without the efforts of so many amazing educators, community partners, families and guardians, and volunteers.

2023-2024 After-school Writing Lab Volunteers

Abdu Allaah Hallouche

Adam Akhtar

Aditya Bodanapu

Alayna Judd

Alayna Todd

Alexandra Allen

Aliyah Alikhan

Alyssa Rahmani

Amare Harlan

Anika Sharma

Anna Hullet

Ashley Brown

Atasi Lata Maji

Atticus Solomon

Averi Weitzmann

Blake Lewis

Bradley Sloat

Bree Stanford

Brenda Garcia

Brendan Passerman

Caleb Bahlau

Carter Pontone

Cassidy Seitz

Cece Fifelski

Cierra Robica

Claire Chang

Constance Powers

Destiny Hutchons

Devan Morey

Divya Balaji

Elizabeth Todor

Ella Larsen

Em Liker

Ethan Meadows

Evelyn Alcomo

Gordon White

Grace Meyers

Hannah Combs

Hannah McComas

Harry Wang

Hui Ying Michelle Xiao

Hunter Allen

Isabella Cimmino

Jessica Fyall

Jessica Rehberg

Jiahn Yoo

Jim Ottaviani

Joseph Goodman

Julia Kanter

Julia Kropa

Kailey Susewitz

Karishma Shah

Kate Levy

Kayla Chenault

Kaylee Ray

Kenneth Jiang

Ken Thomas Obed

Kortney Bell

Kristina Aguilar

Lainey Byrd

Landon Montano

Leah Tannehill

Lelia Darmer

Logan Wilkowski

Madeline Swanson

Madison Bretz

Madison Doyle

Marina Elliott

Marisol Castro

Marvin Cordeniel

McKenna Koch

Natalee Petrean

Nazim Ali

Nethaniel Hyman

Olivia Belau

Omaima Uddin

Owen Alvarez

Paige Bunker

Paul Runowski

Paulyn Baringanire

Pete Westhead

Program Facilitators

Pranav Tammineedi

Priscilla Du

Rachel Koopersmith

Renee Wehrle

Riley Golshan

Rose Sarner

Savannah De Mond

Savannah Servia

Simone Dennison

Sofia Karti

Sophia Merkle

Taylor Silvester

Victoria Maclean

William Hoppe

Wyatt Mason

Yuzhou Lei

Zadia Torres

Zoe Wright

Cherise Morris - Program Coordinator, Ann Arbor After-school Writing Lab

Shai Rao - Program Support, Ann Arbor After-school Writing Lab

Rachel Chalfant - Teaching Artist, Ypsilanti After-school Writing Lab

Alexa Carlozzi - Teaching Artist Apprentice, Ypsilanti After-school Writing Lab

Caitlin Koska - Teaching Artist, Ypsilanti Community Middle School Writers Club

2023-2024 Washtenaw County Program Interns

Allison Eastburn

Elizabeth Lee

Ella Larsen

Community Partners

Ypsilanti District Library

Mary Garboden

Ypsilanti Community Middle School

Principal Charles Davis

Jibril Naeem

Further Acknowledgments

Grantor of this Publication:

With additional and heartfelt thanks given to:

Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation

Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan including via the Inclusive Arts Fund established by The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation EOTECH

First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor

Galens Medical Society

Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor

James A. and Faith Knight Foundation

The Hawkins Project

The Leinweber Foundation

May Family Foundation

Michigan Arts and Culture Council

The Robbins Family Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

United Way for Southeastern Michigan

The University of Michigan 2024 Big House 5K

Brown Chapel AME Church Foundation

This project is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov

TTFN - ta ta for now!

In Otherworldly Pursuits at the Dawn of Future Horizons, stories brim with eccentric characters, whimsical worlds, and a fantastical swirl of emotions. Written by Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti students, with support from volunteers and sta , these wondrous tales are a culmination of many dedicated hours of writing, revising, learning, and growing. We hope the otherworldly pursuits within the imaginative writings of 826michigan after-school students inspire you to discover future horizons!

Through 826michigan youth literacy and writing programs, school-aged students are inspired and encouraged to write with con dence, creativity, and most importantly, fun. By working in small groups with adult volunteers, students build a connection with supportive mentors from their community—encouraging them to express and develop their individual voices through writing. Learn more at 826michigan.org