Naomi Velasco

Pine Grove Flower Garden

Naomi Velasco

On a beautiful, sunny day, I was walking through property that was in a forest, wind blowing through my hair and the damp grass on my feet. I found a beautiful spot full of just blank grass when an idea popped into my head.

I ran home and got my grandma.

“Is this area part of our property?” I asked, hoping for a yes.

“I forgot this was even here!”

“Yes, it is. Your grandfather and I used to have picnics there.”

I asked her permission if I could try and garden. As soon as I got the yes from my grandma, I started to get to work. I planted tomatoes and sunflowers, the only seeds I had. And the word spread. People from all around Pine Grove came and planted things such as flowers and vegetables. And one even planted a blueberry bush. A few even put some investment into it, such as building a fence and a beautiful entrance with a sign that said The Pine Grove Garden.

Ms. Leeper’s Class

天から地へ - From Heaven to Earth

Group Story

Once, there was an ordinary anime schoolboy with fire powers named Aikio. His hair was blond and floofy, and he had bangs that sometimes met in the middle but sometimes parted at the sides. During his past, he was bullied, and he had no friends.

Aikio’s dad, who left him when he was born, was evil and a huge threat to the small settlement of Blurberry Town because he was constantly attacking the town, trying to steal treasure from the townspeople. His dad had been in prison but managed to escape using his world-class thief skills, which he’d honed through years of stealing magical creatures across all eight continents. At one point, Aikio was about to make a few friends before his dad again attacked the city, killing innocent folk. It’s pretty hard to make friends with dead people.

Trying to distance himself from his father’s terrible shadow, Aikio wanted to prove to everyone in the town that he was a good guy. All Aikio wanted was friends.

Aikio did have one friend: a phoenix named Hi. They had been friends since they were born.

One evening, after a long day of senseless theft and bloodshed, Aikio’s dad, in his thirst for stealing stuff, stole Hi from Aikio without even realizing what he had done.

In order to search for his father, who has mysteriously fled with the scared, reluctant phoenix stuffed inside his coat, Aikio decided to leave the village himself and chase after his father.

Ice Girl and Nature Boy were out looking for food to make a fire and firewood to fill their hunger. They heard footsteps coming toward them. A floofy-haired anime boy came out from the bushes. Everyone stopped and locked eyes. Aikio got scared, reminded of his experiences of being bullied, and ran away. Nature Boy then chased after him and said, “HEY, WAIT! DON’T RUN!”

Aikio stopped running after hearing Nature Boy’s calm and seemingly caring voice. Aikio turned around to him.

Nature Boy and Ice Girl joyfully invited Aikio to their home for some food and rest. Upon arrival, Aikio laid eyes on a towering tree house reaching into the forest canopy. Aikio, Nature Boy, and Ice Girl became friends quickly, sharing their experiences of growth, joy, and loss. Aikio explained his pain, the current situation with his father, and lamented over his best friend Hi.

Aikio didn’t know where to go to find the thief’s lair, but Ice Girl did her best to help, sharing her knowledge of the land. After some time, Ice Girl revealed that she saw a darkly dressed man going into the abandoned school in the forest while she was freezing the rivers for fun. Nature Boy said the same. Both liked going into the abandoned school, but they saw lights in the old science lab, like someone was in there, the last time they stopped by. They had since stayed away..

Aikio had a feeling that it was his father. Ice Girl and Nature Boy decided to go with Aikio to make sure he stayed safe and knew where to go.

As they approached the school, they saw guards in strange armor out front of the school. They looked closer and noticed that the armor of the guards wasn’t armor at all but was in fact shells. “Th-th-th-they look like turtles,” Aikio stuttered.

“We’ve never seen these guards before,” Ice Girl said.

“They look pretty strong,” Nature Boy noted. Deciding that the guards were too strong, Ice Girl devised a distraction that was so fully distracting that the part of the author’s brain that forms memories was distracted and didn’t even make a memory to recount the event. Nevertheless, they sneaked past the guards and made it into the school.

As they walked down the halls of the school, they saw old, bent lockers and flickering lights. Ice Girl led the group to the science lab. After they recharged by eating food, they found a diary in the lab as well as a mysterious chemical. They took the diary and chemical home and began to read the diary. There was information on Ice Girl and Nature Boy, as if someone had been following

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them continuously. There was also information about what the chemical was. Its name was the Power Compound. They all drank the chemical. Ice Girl gained the power of telekinesis, Nature Boy gained incredible raw strength, and Aikio gained the ability to levitate.

While the group was having fun using their powers, Aikio decided to look at the diary again to find any information on Hi. Aikio saw information about a black market auction for phoenixes and the amount that could be made off a phoenix. He knew that was where they needed to head next.

To be continued…

Rude Kids

Caynan Terrill

I used to live in Rancho Cordova and moved near Old Sac, an amusement park that is famous for its older ways because it is what Sacramento used to look like. My neighborhood is terrible. Once they threw a firecracker at my sister and called us racist even though they were calling us Hitler kids. We barely went outside to play there because of that. My little brother always got punched in the face or got kicked in the face about twenty times every day by twenty-year-olds, and I got thrown around a lot by them. They broke my leg.

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Caynan Terrill

There are some moments that everyone has had in their life that allows them to make good decisions in their life. People have certain things they like. I love games, but some people hate them; I love reading, and some people like reading a lot. The key mentors are my mom and authors that have inspired me to read, but my dad inspired me to play games like Call of Duty. The steps that I’ll be taking are going to college and getting a good job and reading a lot of books for children in the future.

Paintball Mania

Caynan Terrill

This Sunday I went paintballing, and I wanted to have fun. I was having fun until Capture the Castle, and I got hit in the stomach and the back. The next round, we played the Trenches, and I got 72 people in a row. Then the next round it said our overall score, and my score was 143 eliminations, and I was third place on the scoreboard.

SPIDER FACTS

Caynan Terrill

Did you know that all 40,000 species of spiders all spin silk? And as spiders have evolved, so has their ability to work with silk. One spider can produce up to seven different types, each used for a different purpose such as spinning webs or capturing prey.

Did you know that female spiders produce about 2,000 to 3,000 baby spider eggs at once?

Also, did you know that when hunting or trying to escape a predator, jumping spiders are able to make very agile movements and jump multiple times their body length? This is possible due to an internal hydraulic system. Jumping spiders can alter the pressure of fluids in their legs, resulting in a springing motion that propels them forward.

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Caynan Terrill

I went disc golfing with my dad on Monday and Saturday, and when we were playing, I wasn’t as good as him because he plays disc golf almost every day. I don’t know if I popped a muscle or if I pulled it, but I also sprained my arm a little. It hurts but not as bad as it did yesterday. My dad said my throws got farther and farther every time, and eventually I threw farther than him, but that is when I hit my arm on a metal pole on a hole. My dad’s friend is really good at disc golf, and he can throw farther than me and my dad. He was fun competition in disc golf, but he got an ace on the last hole.

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Caynan Terrill

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have, and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

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Julie Schleeter

When the sun rises, I wake from my slumber, slumped for all the sadness the day brings. As Mom and Brother bicker, I must get ready for the dreadful hours of the day. Trying my best to be helpful, I sit and wait to be instructed.

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Tyler Roe

I live in a small town outside of Michigan with my mom, dad, and sister. Nothing really ever happens, but one day a military squad came rolling up into town and announced that a bomb had been dropped in Detroit. We immediately went into the nuclear bunkers around town, but my mother couldn’t make it. About three months passed, and we came out of the bunker. Everything was destroyed, and there were these weird creatures roaming around. They became hostile and attacked. About four more months passed, and it was just me and my dad. My sister got attacked by what we call ghoulies. There were four different types of ghoulies: hounds, sneakers, brutes, and croakers. Hounds are just normal ghouls; sneakers are silent and very deadly; brutes are giant, ugly ghouls; and croakers rely on sound to get around, and they make a croaking noise as they walk.

We were heading across town over to Detroit, and eventually we found a working car and headed off to our destination. When we got there, it was supposed to be a kind of safe zone, but there was no one. As we progressed deeper into town, we heard strange noises, and then about seven people rose up from the ground holding rifles. They were scouts. They walked up to us, and we told them about the safe zone we were trying to reach. They imminently started walking away, so we followed them. We went into this weird building, and they opened some sort of hatch. We climbed into it, and at the bottom there was a humongous underground city. It was beautiful. There were so many markets and houses and normal people.

About a year passed, and we settled down; everything was perfect. We have lived in this wasteland for years, scavenging, killing, and looting, but we have never tried to even think about making a cure or figuring out where this virus came from. Maybe it is because all the scientists are dead or because we are too lazy. Since all this time has passed and none of us tried to do anything, I’m going to find where this virus came from and cure it, even if it kills me.

The Plan

Tyler Roe

Step One: go to the place everyone suspected this was from

Step Two: loot the place for information

Step Three: idk yet

The Plan (In Action)

Tyler Roe

We had to go to Washington, D.C, but first we needed a car that was actually running instead of crashed or exploded. So we headed to the dealerships around town, and we found a working car! But it was a minivan. We got in and headed toward Washington. We were about 30 miles into the ride when we saw a broken SWAT truck on the side of the road. We got out to look at it and opened up the back door. It was amazing. There were rifles, shotguns, handguns, hand grenades, and a flamethrower. We loaded it all back up and headed on our way again.

22 INTO THE DEPTHS—EARLY WORDS

Inspirators

How to Be... (The Best Student)

Ms. Saenz

Open those eyes and get up Eat that breakfast and say, “Wassup?”

Make your way to school Yes, you, to be cool

Log into that class on time Answer those questions in class with a rhyme

Listen and talk with all your might Open those eyes and look with all your sight

Try your best and do not quit Come to class ready to learn as you sit

Think about your future and what you want for yourself Don’t just let it fly by and put your education on the shelf

The time is now and won’t be long I know you can do it because you are super strong!

THIS BOOK WAS PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

WITH MAJOR SUPPORT FROM

AND FUNDED IN PART BY The Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation

The Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture, with support from the City of Sacramento.