Nine naive narratives first semester anthology by Anne Sharp

Nine Naïve Narratives Table of Contents p.3

Finding Lemon

Mia Enriquez

p.7

The Secret

Natalie Nardino

p.9

The Writer’s Journey

Nicole Ortuno

p.31

The Planet of Orn

Nathan Rabinovitch

p.35

The Experiment

Ben McDannell

p.39

The Department of Mysterious Phenomena

Andrew Carr

p.51

Darker Shadows

Nathan Eberhart

p.61

Seven Days After Twenty-Eight

Ben O’Brien

p.63

@The Reset

William Baker

an excerpt from

FINDING LEMON by Mia Enriquez, grade 7, age 12

As Clemantra Garver walked home from school she studied the cracks in the sidewalk, counting each one as it passed under her feet. Eighty-three, eighty-four, eighty-five…. She was nearing the house now. Despite having lived in 1706 Foley Street for over a year, Clemantra had trouble seeing the place as hers. Since her father died over a year ago, Clemantra constantly felt like a spectator, watching life unfold around her but never taking part in it. She spoke little, preferring to sit quietly by herself than talk or play with the other schoolchildren, and Clemantra’s silent, watchful manner unnerved the other kids so that they gave her plenty of space. No matter where she was or how many people were around her, she always felt alone and detached from everything and everyone else. But Clemantra didn’t mind being alone at school, or so she told herself, as long as she had Lemon. Lemon was the bright spot in her life. When she was with him, Clemantra didn't feel like a spectator. His big yellow eyes and round face made her smile, and his relaxed, eager-to-please countenance made her feel loved and appreciated. Most of all, Lemon made Clemantra feel close to her father. Lemon was the last birthday present her father had ever given her, over two years ago on her sixth birthday. Those days were the best days, just Clemantra, her father, and Lemon, playing together, laughing together, and having fun together, blissfully ignorant that that happy year was the last one in Thomas Garver’s life. As Clemantra trudged along the long stretch of sunken sidewalk, counting cracks in the concrete, she pushed away the worries of school and pain of grieving for her father and contented herself daydreaming about what she would do with Lemon when she got home. Play with him, of course. Maybe take him for a walk before it got dark and Aunt Clara called her in for dinner? She did not know this day was different. She had no idea that today there was no small, gray, big-eyed cat watching for her through the bedroom window of her little yellow room. She did not realize that there would be no one to sit with her through the struggles of homework, no one to listen patiently as she ranted about school, no one to soothe her to sleep with his gentle purrs. She did not realize that at that very moment, Lemon was sprinting beneath the trees, dipping and dodging under ferns, slipping through bushes, and leaping over logs and sticks as he dashed through the wild, West Virginian countryside. When Clemantra got home Aunt Clara was in the kitchen. Hoping to slip upstairs unnoticed, Clemantra eased the front door closed and stealthily slipped off her sneakers. She tiptoed silently up the flight of stairs to her bedroom, where she ever so carefully turned the doorknob, millimeters at a time, until... SQUEEEEE, the door swung open. Clemantra cringed at the sound and willed the door to be quiet, but it was no use. She heard Aunt Clara call her name from the kitchen. Silently cursing her bedroom door she slammed it closed and thundered down the stairs, skidding around the corner of the dining room and into the kitchen. Aunt Clara was carrying steaming pots back and forth from the stove to the counter. She plopped down a large gray pot onto the counter and sprinkled something into it, partially veiled in vapor. With the oversized oven mitts on her hands and steam obscuring her face she looked comical. “Clemantra! Come see what I’m making for dinner,” she gushed, without turning around. Aunt Clara loved cooking. Every night she made something new for dinner, and, although the food was delicious, Clemanra would never admit that she liked it. It would only encourage Aunt Clara. Crossing her arms, Clemantra glared at Aunt Clara as she made her way to the pot on the counter and peered inside. The steam obscured Clemantra’s vision, but she thought she could make out green lumps in the boiling water. “Green Arrow Peas,” Aunt Clara declared proudly, “home grown in the garden outside!” Clemantra was unimpressed. “You’re going to set the fire alarm off again,” she complained. “Oh, don’t worry about the fire alarm. I’ve opened the windows! And anyway, there’s a really cool TV show on right now that I think you might like!” Aunt Clara gestured toward the living room where the TV was blaring. Clemantra pouted. “I want to go upstairs and see Lemon!”

“Lemon isn’t going anywhere dear. An-” “Don’t call me ‘dear.’” “Okay, Clemi. I’m sorry. But I really -” “Don’t call me ‘Clemi.’” “Okay, Clemantra. Now I really-” “Don’t call me ‘Clemantra.’” “Uh, okay, then...then? Okay then. There’s a show about cats on TV. It sounds like something you would be interested in, right?” Clemantra didn’t respond. “What do you think about watching it together? It has all kinds of cool information about cats?” Clemantra wrinkled her nose. “I have homework to do.” “You can do homework later! It's only four o'clock...” Clemantra scowled. “Please, Clemantra,” Aunt Clara’s voice was soft. “The show is Kitty Kat Kapers. Your father told me he used to watch it with you...” Clemantra’s eyes widened. “Yes,” she said stiffly, “Yes, I used to watch it with him.” And with that Clemantra turned and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving Clara Garver staring at the place where Clemantra had stood, wishing she had said something differently. Clemantra stomped her way upstairs, slamming the door to her little yellow room behind her. She plopped down her backpack on the bed and wrestled her homework binder out. She glanced around and was surprised to find that Lemon was nowhere in sight. “Lemon? I’m home!” Usually, Lemon would be waiting for her on the bed. If he was not on the bed, he was under the bed, waiting to jump out and surprise Clemantra. Clemantra got on her hands and knees and looked under the bed. Lemon was not there. Clemantra opened all of the drawers in her dresser and dumped all of her her stuff out. Lemon was not there. She looked behind all of the clothes in the closet, tearing down each shirt, dress, or pair of pants until she was up to her knees in clothes. Lemon was not there. Okay, then, Clemantra thought. If he’s not in here he’ll be in his litter box. Clemantra checked Lemon’s litter box. He was not inside. He must be in Aunt Clara’s room. Lemon was not in Aunt Clara’s room. So he’s downstairs. That’s a new one. Clemantra marched downstairs, brushing past Aunt Clara and into the living room. The TV was still playing Kitty Kat Kapers. Aunt Clara popped her head into the room. “So do you wanna watch the show now? Clemantra?” Clemantra ignored her. She had stopped dead in front of the sofa, staring out of the open window. “Clemantra? Are you okay? Speak to me!” Clemantra turned slowly to face Aunt Clara, voice trembling, “You - you - you - you-o-ooooo!” She broke down wailing and collapsed on the floor, hiccupsobbing. “Clemantra?...” Aunt Clara had never seen a child so distraught and had no idea what to do. She stepped gingerly toward Clemantra and gently lay a hand on her back. Clemantra howled. “YOU LET HIM OUT! THE WINDOW! HE’S GO-O-O-ONE!” “Clemantra-?” “NO! IT'S YOUR FAULT!”

“Clemantra!” “LEMON’S GONE!” “CLEMANTRA GARVER! CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW!” Clemantra wailed, then went silent. “You say Lemon is gone.” Clemantra nodded her head meekly. “You say Lemon ran out of the window.” Clemantra nodded. “And he’s not in the house?” Clemantra nodded. “You looked for him?” Clemantra nodded. “Can you talk to me please?” Clemantra didn’t move. “He’s definitely not in the house? Come on. I’m sure he’s here somewhere. Let’s look for him.” Aunt Clara reached out her hand, and Clemantra took it. An hour later, Clara and Clemantra Garver still had not found Lemon. They had searched every nook and cranny of 1706 Foley street, inside and out. They had even searched in the woods a bit, before realizing that it was hopeless. At this point, Clemantra was shaking. Literally shaking. She stayed on her feet only by repeating the same words over and over again: Stay calm. Breathe deep. Don’t panic. Panicking jumbles up your head and slows you down. Those were the words her father had whispered to her a-year-and-a-half ago when they had found themselves in a forest clearing alive with wasps. She remembered how her father had navigated them out of the clearing and back to the trail without a single sting between them. As for Clara Garver, she was desperate. She had lost Clemantra’s cat, and although didn’t know the extent to which Clemantra cared for the cat, she knew that it was important. She knew the cat had been a gift from her brother Thomas. When they got back to the house, Clemantra dropped onto the sofa, put her head in her knees, and began to cry quietly. Aunt Clara looked around and wrung her hands, not sure of what she should say. A few tense minutes passed, until finally Clara said softly, “Clemantra, I’m sorry.” And after a pause, “I am so so sorry. Oh please, what can I do.” Clemantra turned toward her, face scrunched up and red, twisted up the way her heart felt twisted up, and whispered, “Go. Go away. You can go away. That’s what you can do. You can go away and never, EVER talk to me again.” She fell back onto the couch sobbing. Aunt Clara dropped her gaze to the floor and nodded her head. She turned and walked out of the room, down the hall, out the door, and got into her car. She pulled out of the driveway, leaving Clemantra alone in the house.

No sooner than Clemantra heard Aunt Clara’s car speed off, she stopped crying and got to her feet. She had to act fast. Time was running out. She knew what she had to do. She couldn’t let Lemon down. Lips pressed together, fists clenched, nose held high, she marched off in search of her backpack. Clara Garver screeched to a stop in front of the Clearedge Pet Supermarket. Hurriedly backing her car into an empty parking space, she paid no attention to her sloppy parking. She rushed through the glass doors and into the large warehouse like store… “Water, food, binoculars...” Clemantra put another package of peanuts into her backpack. “A-a-a-a-aaaand Money!” She zoomed upstairs and, lifting her pink polka-dotted piggy bank over her head, she hurled it down the stairs with all her might. It smashed to pieces on the landing, leaving her to gather the coins. “Is that all!? There’s gotta be something I can do besides just hang flyers!!” Clara persisted. The young man in front of Clara looked frightened. He was getting paid to clean the fish tanks, not deal with crazy customers yelling at him about some lost cat. “I’m awfully sorry ma’am. You can put up posters and leave out food and just hope that it’ll come home, but other than that there’s not much else you can do. Gotta go help the other customers. Bye!” Before Clara could protest, the employee had disappeared down the fish food isle. She looked around. It was almost closing time. There was not a single other customer in sight. Muttering something about lousy customer service, she whirled around and walked across the shopping center parking lot, aiming for Perfect Print Print Shop. Shouldering her heavy backpack, Clemantra glanced back one last time at 1706 Foley Street. Its brick walls, small windows, green shutters and black roof. Then, she took a deep breath, and thinking only of her father and her beloved cat, she plunged into the woods…

The Secret By: Natalie Nardino Chapter 1 Time was all that I needed. Just a minute more. They would eventually figure out that I was there. “You need to start the tracker,” my mom said in my ear. “I’m trying, but one of the wires is snapped.” “Ok, but hurry up, they’re going to exit in t-minus 5 minutes.” I searched my bag for a spare wire. I saw the exit they were going to take on the horizon. I had less than three minutes to finish replacing the wire and get the tracker working. “Ocean! You need to start the tracker, you have one minute!” There, I got the wire in place. “Is the tracker reading?” I asked my mom. “Yes, now remember..” “I know, three cars back.” I unhooked the wire that was tethering me to the car and dropped onto the highway. I counted the cars that passed over me. Then, as the third car was approaching, I got the clips around the pole on the underside of the car and crawled through the hatch. “Does the tracker confirm our suspicions?” I asked as I undid the harness. “No, they seem to be going to a barber shop instead of the warehouse we suspected. We’ll call in the team to eliminate them.” My dad replied. “Why not just go fetch them yourself?” said a voice from the back of the van. Without even turning around I knew that the voice came from one of the trainees that had come to watch the mission. “Considering that they have eluded capture for the last three years and that we have lost some of our best solo agents to them, I think it is best to send a team to arrest them,” I replied. “Well won't they be high or something, considering that they have a whole stash of drugs that they can't deal?” The agent in training asked. I was seriously doubting the agency's choice of recruiting this person, and then letting him come to watch a mission. “According to our... research,” I said, careful to not give away what Agent Keith did not need to know until he finished his training,“ they only deal drugs and don't consume them themselves. And besides, they have an inside person in the DEA that tell them which drugs are the most used.” “Now Sweety,” my mom said, “you know not to lecture the trainees when they first start. And besides, you have somewhere to be.” Darn it. Chapter 2 “Now let’s thank Mr. Owen for telling us about his job,” my teacher said. I’ve argued with my parents that one of the best spies in the country doesn’t need to go to school but the answer is always the same:

you still have a lot to learn, you’re too young to not be in school, it’s a good full time mission to test you on how you can handle undercover assignments, or they just avoid the question and change the subject, so here I am stuck in a useless career day when I already have a job. “Next we have a former CIA field agent that has gotten permission to tell us about some of the missions he went on. Please welcome Mr. James Harris.” As he walked into the room my hope that he was someone other than I thought vanished. There in front of the class stood the man that had single-handedly exposed over eighty agents, forcing the CIA to keep them behind the desk. The “missions” that he told sounded like the missions he went on except with more action and an ending where he completed the mission with seconds to spare, instead of being captured and having to be rescued by a sixteen year old girl.

The Writer’s Journey By Nicole Ortuno As the chirping flock of birds announced the rise of the sun, the wind blew, making the tree branches sway from side to side at a slow rate. The weather had calmed down from the days before but still managed to have the people of Colombia bundled in their houses. There were only one or two schools in the entire city; although, that was about the average amount in the cities of Colombia. The schools taught basic math and the usual history; there was nothing special about it. Writing was definitely not focused on in Colombia. No one special was born in the small city of Cartagena, except one person and her name was Isabella Garcia. Bella, meaning loving, beautiful, and graceful, would often help write the daily paper that was given to the citizens in the city. Although she wrote about the events that happened in the city, she didn’t enjoy it as much as she thought she would. Cartagena was a small city were a very limited amount of events happened. The daily paper didn’t allow Isabella to express herself. It was mainly just to update people on the weather for the upcoming week or any danger that might have occurred. Cartagena wasn’t the safest place in Colombia; there were many robberies and most of the houses weren’t in great condition. The income of many of the citizens in Cartagena was low. Isabella grew up in a tiny house that was dirty and old. Her mother grew up there every since she was three months old. All of the markets and stores were walking distances from their house. She was usually sent by her family to buy the “groceries,” but this just included bread, few drinks, and some spices because her family couldn’t afford much. Bella couldn’t do much with her life. Her family couldn't afford to send her to school, so she would stay home and clean and sell food to get money for her family; although Bella’s sister, Sophia, went to one of the local high schools. Sophia was sixteen. Bella lived with her sister and mom; no one had any information on where her dad was even located. There were rumors that he left her family when she was about two years old. The only knowledge Bella had of him was that his name was Sebastian and he lived in Colombia, but that was all the information she planned to know. Bella didn’t want anything to do with her father. Since he left, she despised him. She had few memories with him. The one positive memory that Bella cherished of her father, is the silver necklace he had given her for her first birthday. There were three beautiful pearls attached to the silver necklace. Bella loved this necklace because it was one of the nicest things she owned. Sebastian worked at a very prestigious bank. He was the one who would support the Garcias a living. Luciana, Bella’s mom, was left with nothing when Sebastian divorced her. The Garcia’s often got sick because of the bad living conditions. They were very interested in finding a new place to live instead of Colombia although they knew that they weren’t able to afford it.

Bella didn’t have much family. Many of them weren’t in Colombia or died because of very dreadful diseases that could be cured with large amounts of money that they didn’t have. She had family all over the world; such as, Peru, Brazil, France, Australia, and USA. Most of Bella’s ancestors on her mom's side had low incomes. That was very different to Sebastian's family because most of them were very wealthy and had some of the best jobs you could get in Colombia. Bella had light brown hair and hazel eyes. She wasn’t very tall, which seemed to run in the family, and she didn’t play any sports so she wasn’t the skinniest or healthiest person. Bella would often look outside the one window in the back of the house and observe the beautiful pink tulips growing in the tiny garden outside. Bella would often talk in Spanish to her mom and sister but she started to talk more in English. Her mom understood English but she couldn’t speak it. Bella was born in 1992 when computers were just becoming more popular in Colombia. Until her 7th birthday, Bella would write by hand but that changed when her mom got her an old typewriter from a yard sale. Bella considered it the best gift she had ever received from her dad and she was very grateful. Many of the stories that were written by Isabella were in Spanish; because of the lack of education that she received, English wasn’t an option for her. Bella lived in a small townhouse. Many of the houses were Bella and her family lived were owned by low-income families and they were poorly constructed. The walls of Isabella’s house were thin and had holes in them from the bad conditions around the houses. They weren’t fully repaired so you were able to hear conversations in the next house down. Bella’s personality was very strong, loved to learn new things and was passionate about it. Bella learned to teach herself English by overhearing the people next door, who had a handful of conversations in English. The people next door came to Colombia after being deported from America. They didn’t necessarily get along with Isabella’s family or anyone. As Isabella grew older, her writing pieces contained more English but mainly Spanish, which explained itself because Spanish was her first language. She was an excellent writer who wrote about her everyday life and many things that went on in her imagination and in real life. She first started writing when her parents got divorced. Isabella was described as a quiet young girl who had a lot of capability to achieve something great. Ever since Bella was little, she dreamt of living in France. All of the art and food, she wanted that for herself. Bella and her sister have been there once to visit there grandparents but never returned because the trip was super expensive. Both of the girls fell in love with France. Sophia wants to study in France because they have great schools there but she would never leave Colombia because she has so many friends and she goes to school, which if she went to France for the schools she doesn’t know

the price and she isn’t even sure if she will be able to attend. A life in France wasn’t as convincing for Sophia as it was to Bella. When Bella was in France her grandmother gave her a very old polaroid. Bella used it to take hundreds of pictures of places in France; such as, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and more. She thought the landscape was beautiful and she would cherish that trip forever. Bella kept all of the pictures in an old chest located in the closet of her room. When Bella needed encouragement, she would open the chest and look at all the pictures of France she had taken. It would motivate her to work hard so that one day she could live there and accomplish her dreams of being a writer. No one knew about the chest in Bella’s closet because she decided to keep it a secret. She knew that if her mom were to find out that Bella’s dream was to live in France her mom would feel awful and start to say, “I should have given you a better life,” or, “If you father was here we wouldn’t be living in the dump.” Bella would avoid complaining to her mom because she knew how hard her mom worked. There were only two people that mattered to Bella -- her mom and sister. They meant the world to her and she would do anything for them.

Bella “Mama, can I go to la escuela de Sophia? Mama, can I go to Sophia’s school?” asked Bella. “Porque? Why?” answered Luciana. “I want to show the writing teacher one of my stories that I just finished writing last night. He said I could show him anytime, and I am really proud of my work.” “Ya pero despues besa ir a la tienda y compra comida para cocinar. Fine, but later you are going to go to the store and buy groceries to cook dinner,” said Luciana. Bella had a huge smile on her face and she ran to her room and got her 20-page paper that she had typed on her typewriter. She had been working on it for the past month, and she just finished last night. Sophia’s school wasn’t that far from the house. The Garcias didn’t have a car like most people in Colombia. Before they started their walk to the school, Bella and Sophia had to wait for their mom to finish smoking outside. The entire walk Luciana was just coughing and kept complaining of chest pains.

“Mama, estas bien? Mama, are you alright?” asked Sophia with a worried look on her face. “Estoy bien. I am fine,” answered Luciana firmly. When they got to Sophia’s school, Sophia told Bella the room number of Mr. Juan, the writing teacher “306.” “Hey Mr. Juan, sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to stop by and share with you my story that I have been working on. I was wondering if you could give me any advice to make it better,” said Bella after she went into his room. “Of course, mi nina. Of course, my girl,” he answered. ““I will read it during my one of my classes and get back to you later.” After leaving the school, Bella went to the market to buy groceries, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her story. She was so anxious to find out what Mr. Juan thought about it. That afternoon Bella was the only one in the house. She was cooking food for the family. School was over, but usually Sophia goes to walk with her friends. Bella knew that Sophia just hangs out with her friends after school, but her mom didn’t and if she found out, Sophia would never be let out of the house, which is why she kept it a secret. While Bella was cooking, she heard a knock on the door. “Quien es? Who is it?” asked Bella with a nervous feeling. ““It is me, Mr. Juan,” Bella slowly walked to the door and was slightly nervous to open the door because she was worried that the man might not be who he says he is. “Hey what are you doing here?” “I needed to personally tell you how much I loved your story.” he says, “Uno de lo mejores. One of the best.” “Really?” “Si pero puedo entrar porque hasta haciendo un frio afuera. Yea but can I please enter because it is really cold outside.”

Bella was so caught up in the moment that she completely forgot it was freezing outside, so she just chuckled a little. “My bad.” Mr. Juan and Bella both sat down at the table and started talking about the story. “This is a work of art,” said Mr. Juan, starting a conversation. “Thank you,” said Bella humbly. “Alguien sabe de tu estorias? Does anyone know of your stories?” he asked.” “No.” And then the two of them just sat in silence, but finally, Mr. Juan said something: “I’ve been thinking,” he says, “Tengo un amigo ke trabaja en el L'Académie de Paris. I have a friend who works in the L'Academie de Paris.” As soon as Mr. Juan said that, Bella’s eyes lit up the entire room. “My plan is to ask him if he has any available spots in the Academy. You have a gift and that has to be noticed by the world. Are you in any writing programs?” Writing was a big deal to Mr. Juan and he thought that Bella’s story has a very strong statement. He has never met someone who has such an amazing talent in writing. “No.” He had a shocked look on his face, “ Wow. I have an idea, why don’t you get about five stories that you are most proud of. Then give them to me and I will mail them off to my friend in France.” The two of them just continued talking about how Bella started to write and why she enjoys writing, but they didn’t notice that Bella left the stove on. All of a sudden, the phone on the wall started to ring. It was the only phone that the Garcia’s owned. Bella slid the chair behind her and started walking to the phone. ““Perdon, dame un minuto. Sorry please give me a minute,” she said to Mr. Juan. Mr. Juan just sat there in silence waiting for Bella. He was scrunched up in his seat with goosebumps all across his skin because the house was letting in small amounts of cold air from outside.

“Hola? Hello?” There was an eager voice that answered, “Hola, esto es Isabella Garcia? Hello, is this Isabella Garcia?” “Yeah,” she slowly answered with a confused look. “This is Maya, and I work at the hospital downtown. Your mother is here. Someone from her job brought her here because she had major chest pains and she couldn’t stop coughing. Then all of a sudden she started coughing out blood. We were trying to cure her and find out what is wrong. We just wanted to notify you where she is and that she wants to see you.” All of a sudden Bella started bursting out into tears. She loved her mom and she knew that if her mom died her life would be even harder. As she was bursting into tears she quickly said, “Mr. Juan can you please take to the hospital because my mother is there. She is very sick.” “Por supuesto. Of course,” he said. They quickly got into his car, and he began driving to the hospital. ********************************** As Mr. Juan and I got to the hospital I quickly said, “Estamos aqui para Luciana Garcia.” “We are here for Luciana Garcia.” The lady at the front desk quickly answered, “Quarto 76 y es en el tercer piso. Room 76 and it is on the third floor.” “Gracias. Thank you” When I found the room my mom was, in I just started bursting into tears. I had never seen my mom like that. She had needles in her and she couldn’t even get up. As I was crying, I said, “Mom como estas. Te amo y no ai nada ce puedo hacer sin ti. Mom how are you? I love you and there is nothing I could do without you,” and I just leaned into her and gave her a big hug. My mom finally started mumbling, “Estoy bien pero me duele todo. I am fine but everything hurts.Yo pense que ibas a llegar aquí mas luego porque ibas a caminar. I thought you were gonna get here later because you had to walk.”

I took a glance at Mr. Juan who was leaning on the door just looking at us and I smiled. “Mr. Juan drove me here.” “Gracias. Thank you,” said my mom. As I was talking with my mom, Mr. Juan called me over. He started to whisper something to me, “There is a post office down the street so I am going to send these stories to my friend in France so we can get a response as soon as possible.” All I did for a minute before I answered was think if I get accepted to the academy in France not only will I live my dream but I will also get a great education. But my mom is terribly sick and I don’t want to have her travel when she can barely go one minute without a chest pain. I don’t want her to worry more about Sophia and I“So should I mail him the stories?” he asked. “Sure, but I just remembered that Sophia doesn’t know where we are. She doesn’t know that my mom is sick and she is in the hosp-” Then all of a sudden my mom asked, “ Donde esta tu hermana? Where is your sister?” I honestly didn’t know where she was, all I knew is that she was out with her friends when she was supposed to be helping me cook after school. I was about to tell her the truth, but then Mr. Juan spoke before I could, “I saw her leave school with her friends, but I don’t nowhere she went.” I had to say something, “Mom, Sophia nunca a venido a la casa. Mom, Sophia never came to the house.” And then all of a sudden my mom yelled, “Donde esta? Where is she?” Mr. Juan and I just stood there in silence because we both had no idea where Sophia was, but we didn’t want to make mom more stressed than she already was.

Sophia Meanwhile, Sophia had been with her friends just walking in the streets. The sun started to go down, while the moon started to rise and her family still didn’t know where she was.

I started to get a little scared because it was dark and I kept hearing noises of bangs and I felt like someone was watching me. “Hey guys, I am going to head home because I was supposed to be home an hour ago,” I said as I turned around and started to walk towards my house. “We will see you tomorrow right,” my friend said. “Yeah,” I shouted in the distance. Out of fear, I started to run to my house. There was barely any light, but every once in a while, I would pass a house that had a light post. I could finally see my house from the distance, and when I got closer, I had a feeling of relief and I felt a little safer. None of the lights in the house were on, so that meant that both my mom and sister weren’t here. I had a feeling of curiosity and fear. I spent about minute looking for the key in my pocket. It was dark outside so it made my job a lot harder. I finally found my key and I opened the front door. And that very moment the worst thing in the world happened to me. I saw a fire on the stove. The fire began to grow. It began to spread on the walls and then the floor. The front door was still open, so I quickly walked backward out of the house and I stood there just looking at the house. Tears were running down my face. The entire right side of my was burning down. The house slowly started to burn down. Luckily both of our neighbors to the right and left side of us got out of their house. Just then a car quickly pulled up to my house and my sister and Mr. Juan got out of the car. All of a sudden, there was something very important that I remembered when I looked at Bella. All along I knew about her “secret” chest in her closet. I knew that it held the photos she took in France and I knew that she cherished those. This morning, I remembered seeing her put a couple of her stories in the chest. All of the things in that chest I knew were very special to her. “I will be right back,” I yelled as I ran into the part of my house that wasn’t yet burned down. I was willing to risk my life for my sister’s happiness and success. And then all I could hear was my sister yelling, “NO!” I was terrified when I went into the house; The fire was going to burn me in just moments I thought so I quickly ran to my sister’s room. I ran to her closet and tried to open it but it wouldn’t open. I thought I am going to die today but then I realized that was stuck on something, so I used all of my strengths and yanked the door open. Bella’s chest was buried under a large amount of clothes. I pulled out the chest and ran with it to the front door. I was burning hot and I had a lot of ash on me.

As I made it out of the door, I saw Mr. Juan holding Bella back while she was yelling, “Let me go! I need to save my sister,” and I saw many of our neighbors and other pedestrians with tears on there face just looking at the house burning down. I threw down the chest and collapsed to the cement. Bella ran over to me and started bursting into tears. She was calling for help and the last thing I remember was the sound of the loud sirens of ambulances.

Bella I was devastated. I grabbed my chest that my sister had gotten for me and I quickly went into the car with Mr. Juan. The entire time I was just crying and all I thought about was my family, Why, why did this have to happen to my family. If I lose them I don’t know what I would do without them. And then I remembered something. I never turned off the stove. When Mr. Juan came to my house, I left it on and it has been on ever since. My sister is about to die because of me. I burned down the house I thought as I cried loudly in the backseat of the car. When we got to the hospital, my sister was put in a room on the fourth floor. We followed her in and after about an hour, everything started to settle down. Mr. Juan and I just sat in Sophia’s room until she woke up. I told Mr. Juan, “Thank you.” “Porque? Why?” he asked. “You drove me to several places today and because of you, I might be able to accomplish my dreams in France.” “You're welcome,” he said. “But if I do make it to the academy in France, I don’t think I will be able to go. The two people I love most are terribly injured and I would never leave them.” “I understand, but I still think you should tell both your mom and sister about the opportunity.” And then Sophia woke up. I walked over to her and asked, “How are you feeling?” “Better,” she answered.

“I love you so much and I couldn’t thank you more for what you did. How did you even know about the chest in my closet?” I asked. “When you are sad about something I see you go to your chest. It was pretty noticeable,” she said as she chuckled a little. “But why did you get it? You risked your life for something that wasn’t even yours,” I asked with curiosity. “I know how much it meant to you. I also remembered seeing you put a couple of your stories in the chest and I know you work very hard on those.” I was speechless, so I just smiled. “Where is mom?” Sophia asked. And then all of a sudden, I remembered that we had left my mom in the room and she doesn’t even know what had happened with Sophia. I had to tell Sophia the terrible news, “Today mom was brought to the hospital because she had major chest pains and she was coughing out blood. She is currently on the third floor.” Suddenly, Sophia started to cry. “I should have been there for her,” she said. I had to distract her from focusing on the injury of my mom. The last thing I wanted to do was make Sophia feel more guilty. So I decided to tell her about my chance to get into the academy in France. “No te preocupes de la mama. Don’t worry about mom,” Bella said, “The doctors are doing everything in their power to cure her. Today while you were with your friends after school, Mr. Juan came to the house and told me he was going to send over some of my stories to his friend in France that works in the L'Academie de Paris. Sophia, I might get a chance to live my dreams in France and study at a prestigious school for writing, but if I get an offer and you and mom are still in the hospital, I am going to decline the offer.” “Sophia had a huge smile on her face, “I am so proud of you, Bella. I would never want to stop you from accomplishing your dreams, but I still wouldn’t come with you because I love my life in Colombia even if I don’t have the best things.”

I didn’t know what to think. I would never want to be separated from my family. I just stood there thinking about what Sophia said, and then one of the nurses came into the room. “Tu mama quiere verte. You mom wants to see you,” she said. “Ya vuelvo. I’ll be right back,” I told Sophia. When I went into my mom’s room, she had a concerned look on her face and immediately asked, “Esta bien? Is she okay?” I ended up telling her the entire story. “I accidentally left the stove on and it caused a fire...” While I was telling my mom the story, she was shedding a couple tears. “And when Sophia came out of the fire, she just collapsed to the floor. The doctors said that you can see her when all her pain and swelling is cured.” I was felt terrible as I told my mom the news. “I am sorry, mom. The reason Sophia is in the hospital right now is my fault and now we don’t have a house,” I said as I was crying on my mom. “Mamita no te preocupes. Vamos a arreglar esta situación. Honey, don’t worry. We are going to fix this situation,” said my mom. Mr. Juan went home and I slept at the hospital in my mom’s room and then my sister’s room the next day. Days went by, and on the fifth day, it started to get complicated. The nurse came into our room that morning. “Bella, you have a visitor,” she said as Mr. Juan came into the room. “You got accepted an offer to join the school in France,” he said with joy on his face. “Shhh, mi mama esta durmiendo. Shh, my mom is sleeping,” I said. And then we stepped outside of the room. Mr. Juan started to tell me the amazing news he had, “My friend got back to me and he told me that he would love for you to attend the academy. He is willing to give

you a full scholarship. In my opinion, I think you should take the offer, Bella you only get this opportunity once in a lifetime.” My heart was pounding so fast. I was confused. My body was happy but also devastated because I would have to leave my family. This was one of the hardest decisions. “No se que voy a hacer. I don’t know what I am going to do. I think I am going to tell my mom sooner than later.” I noticed that my mom had woken up, so I left Mr. Juan outside without a final answer on the offer. “Todo esta bien? Is everything okay?” my mom asked as I walked into the room. I finally was willing to tell my mom about the academy in France, “Yeah but I’ve been wanting to tell you something.” My mom looked a little worried, “Que es? What is it?” I told her the entire story, from the time Mr. Juan came to my house to when he told me about the academy in France. “Today I found out that they accepted me into the academy and they are willing to give me a full scholarship. I have always wanted to live in France, but there is no way that I would go and leave you here. Both you and Sophia are in terrible conditions.” As I was telling my mom the story, she had a huge smile on her face. “Estoy muy orgullosa.I am so proud of you.” I felt so relieved to tell my mom. “I don’t know what I am going to do. I think I just need some more time to think about it.” Days went by and my sister was feeling healthier but sadly my mom wasn’t. Every night I spent in that hospital, I just thought about how life would be without my mom. Those thoughts terrified me. I love my mom and I don’t know what I would do without her I thought. Today is now the seventh day and Sophia, my mom, and I have continued to be in the hospital. I was just wondering why my family and I were suffering so much. First my mom is put in the hospital and then my sister, and to top it all off, my house burned down because of me. After taking many tests, the doctors are finally going to tell us what my mom has and what is making her so sick.

As we were eating lunch, the doctor came in and he was caring the results of the many tests that were taken. I was very nervous and I could tell my mom was too. “After many tests, we have come to a conclusion. Ms.Garcia, you have lung cancer.” As soon as the doctor said that my mom had lung cancer, my heart immediately dropped. “Unfortunately, your cancer is advanced and we are going to have to do surgery; although, it is very expensive and-” “No puedo apagarlo. I will not be able to afford it,” said Luciana, as she interrupted the doctor. “So the only option is to have you quit smoking and hope for the best. We are going to keep you in the hospital for a couple more days to see if we can do anything else to help you.” “Gracias, doctor. Thank you, doctor,” said my mom. When the doctor left the room, my mom just looked at the wall quietly for a couple minutes. I didn’t know what to think. What if I lose my mom. “Bella, te amo. Solo cero el mejor para ti. I love you, Bella and I only want the best for you,” my mom said with a look of faith. That night I went to my sister’s room and I was the one that had to tell her about my mom having lung cancer. Sophia hadn’t seen our mom in a whole week because she had just been in the bed in room 416 being cured by the doctors. Sophia just started asking tons of questions: “What if we lose mom, who will we live with and if you get accepted to the academy in France who will you go with?” I hadn’t yet told Sophia that the L'Academie de Paris had accepted me. I decided to not keep it a secret from my sister. “Actually, I got accepted into the L'Academie de Paris in France and I got offered a scholarship.” I could tell that Sophia had a worried look on her face because we were about to lose the most important person in our lives. “I am so proud of you,” Sophia said. Later that night my sister and I were just resting in the hospital room and watching some news. There was the daily weather news that was given and some

random news about animals. Nothing really caught my attention, so the news just ran in the background as I layed on the chair. “There has just been breaking news on President Roberto. Last night when he returned from his trip to the US with his family, him and his family found out that someone had broke into his house, robbed it clean, and set a bomb further into the house. President Roberto lives in a beautiful three story house that had just been bombed so it didn’t have many decorations and had broken glass on the floor.” As I started to hear the news that was being told on the news, I sat up and began to pay more attention. “When President Roberto went further into his house he found one of the security guards unconscious lying on the floor towards the back of the house. He sat the security guard up and he immediately called the ambulance. While they were waiting for the ambulance President Roberto took the security guard outside so he could have some fresh air. The security guards name was Jose and he started to become more conscious when he was outside. ‘I tried to stop the group of men that broke into the house but they just came in and all of them stated shooting guns, killing many of the security guards. I was terrified,’ said Jose as he began to tell President Roberto what had happened that night, ‘I was trying to hide so I could secretly attack them but then they set up a bomb right where I was hiding and everything started to fall on me, so I got knocked out.’ There are many people currently on the case trying to figure out more information on these men, according to Jose, that attacked the President’s house.” I was devastated when I heard the news. I knew that if my family and I stayed in Colombia we weren’t safe, so this was just another reason to go to France. “This was the first time that President Roberto had ever been attacked in the five years of his presidency, so this is definitely a shock to many people. We currently do not know where these men are located, so it is very important that everyone is safe and when you go out make sure you aren’t alone. We will continue to update everyone on this terrible situation,” stated the lady on the news. My sister just picked up the remote and turned off the television. “I think we should go to sleep now.” “Te amo. I love you,” I said. “You tambien. Me too,” said Sophia. I was definitely scared and I could tell that my sister was too. That night I couldn’t sleep at all. I kept thinking of the worst things that could possibly happen to my family and I.

That week just kept getting worse and worse and it was definitely life-changing. On the bright side, my sister recovered from her injury and she was finally able to see our mom. Both my mom and my sister were very happy to see one another but my mom wasn’t feeling much better. My sister and I slept in my mom’s hospital room and sadly we both had a terrible feeling that our mom wasn’t going to recover from her illness. The both of us were trying to cherish the last few days we had with our mom. This was definitely the hardest thing to go through. As I was telling my mom and sister about one of my stories that I had been writing the doctor came into the room and pulled both my sister and I outside into the hallway. “I am sorry to bother you but may I have a minute with you two girls,” asked the doctor as he came into the room. “As you both know your mom isn’t getting any better and she won’t be. Unfortunately, Luciana only has a few day left and we are soon going to have to put her in a coma.” My heart dropped and it felt like I was never going to be able to recover from this terrible feeling. I had no words. “Thank you doctor for all your efforts,” said my sister as she had tears slowly falling down her face. When the doctor left I leaned into my sister and her and I just started bursting into more tears. “All we have is each other now and we have to take care of each other,” said my sister. “But if I accept the offer to the academy in France you said you weren’t going to come. Then we will be separated.” I knew my sister was worried, which is why she said, “We will figure it out but no matter what happens we will always have each others back.” When my sister and I went back into the room we could both tell that our mom had a feeling she knew what the doctor had said to us. “Te amo y solo cero lo mejor. I love you both and I only want the best for you two.” That night my mom was put into a coma and the next morning she was gone. It was a very difficult situation to take in for my sister and me. My mom was my angle and now I lost her. That day I just couldn’t stop crying and thinking of the best memories my mom and I had together.

This was one of the hardest points in our lives. We still didn’t have a home and we currently had no family. Luckily Mr. Juan allowed my sister and I to stay at his house. Sophia stopped going to school and the both of us were just trying to figure out our situation. I still haven't made my decision for France so I decided to bring it up with my sister because I have just been avoiding it ever since my mom died. “Hey, I know it has been a rough week but I still haven’t made my decision for the offer to the academy in France. It is a big opportunity for me but if you don’t go then I will just decline the offer.” As I was talking my sister just stared off in the distance, listening to my words and contemplating on the idea. “I love you so much,” she said as she slowly started telling how she felt, “and I would never want to be separated from you. I have done a lot of thinking and there are many reasons why I wouldn’t go, but after everything that has happened the last thing I would want to do is separate us because you are all I have now. My final decision is to go with you to France.” I felt so elated when my sister told me the news. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how excited I am, but why did you decide to go?” “I thought that maybe being in a new country would be better for me and I also thought that it would be a lot safer for the both of us. Another reason is that we will have some family to rely on now because grandma lives in France so we could probably live with her.” That day my sister and I just decided to walk around the town and talked about things for the future. When we got home Mr. Juan was already there because he had already came home from his job at school. I was super excited to tell Mr. Juan that I accepted the offer to L'Academie de Paris. “Guess what? Voy a aceptar el oferta a la esquela en Francia y Sophia y yo vamos vivir con nuestro abuela.I am going to accept the offer the the school in France and Sophia and I will be living with our grandma.” Mr. Juan had a huge smile on his face as I told him the news. “I am so happy for the both of you and I am positive that Sophia will get into just a great as a school in France as you did. I will tell Sergio, my friend that works at the school, that you have accepted the offer and I will let you know what he says.”

Days had passed by and every one of them I would ask Mr. Juan for a response but it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t till seven days had passed until I finally got one. That afternoon Mr. Juan came home from work with an envelope in his hands. As he came through the door I quickly went to the front to see a great surprise. He handed me the envelope and I basically ripped it open, leaving the scraps fall to the hardwood floors.

February 12, 2006 12 Boulevard d'Indochine 75019 Paris, France Dear Isabella Garcia: We are proud to have heard that you will be joining L'Academie de Paris. Over the next few weeks we are planning to send you and your family more information of the school and how to prepare for the future semester. You will be starting the school year with us in the spring which is in about a month. Plane tickets will be sent to you for your direct flight to France. As you know we will be giving you a full scholarship to our school. Although, we will not be providing you a house for the semester. Another side note is that there is a variety of students around the world that have gotten accepted to the L'Academie de Paris so many of your classes will be in english or even spanish. Mr. Juan has let me know that unfortunately you have lost your mom and you and your sister are currently staying with him. Mr. Juan has also sent over some of the work your sister has done in his class over the past semesters and our staff is very impressed with her work. We would also like to offer Sophia Garcia a spot in our academy for the semester that is coming up in the spring. L'Academie de Paris is also known for having an advanced math program so we encourage Sophia to join. We are all very excited to have you join our school in the spring and we encourage your sister to join as well; as she would also get a full scholarship to our school like you are. Congratulations again and we will see you soon! Sincerely,

Sergio M. Martin Director of Administrations

*************************************** I was so happy to read that I would be going to school in France in just a month. The entire time I was reading the letter I just had a big smile across my face and I couldn’t stop jumping up and down. After I read the letter I was so happy but I immediately walked over to my sister with a smirk on my face and handed her the letter. “You have to read this Sophia,” I said as I handed her the paper. As she was reading it I went over the envelope and I saw another letter in it. It was to Sophia and it was the acceptance letter. It looked similar to the one I got but I gave different information on the things she would be studying. After Sophia stopped reading the letter she just said, “Yes! I would love to go and I will get to study with my sister, which will be so fun. Thank you so much Mr. Juan for sending over some samples of my best work.” I was so happy to hear that my sister will be studying at the same school as me and she didn’t hesitate at all before she said her answer. Sadly Mr. Juan couldn’t come with us to France because although his kids are all adults he doesn't want to leave them in Colombia alone. ********************************** I couldn’t believe how fast a month had gone by but I was certainly trying to enjoy the final days I had in Colombia. I was really going to miss my hometown because I had so many great moments here with my family but I also had some terrible moments. When it was only two days till my sister and I left for France the both of us made sure to thank Mr. Juan for everything he had done for us because he basically made my dream come true; he took care of us and kept us safe and now he was definitely apart of our family. It was Tuesday and our flight will be leaving on Thursday. I made sure to pack all my stuff today so I wouldn’t have to rush and worry tomorrow. It didn’t take me long to pack because I didn’t own that many things. My sister and I combined had about three suitcases that Mr. Juan bought for us. Later that day Sophia and I walked around the town for the final time and we passed many memorable places. We said bye to many people we group up with. We got home around five in the afternoon to a very special dinner that Mr. Juan cooked for us. It was grilled chicken with corn, rice, and salad. He also had desserts prepared for

us in the freezer (it was just ice cream but we aren’t allowed to eat it that often and it was so delicious). When we all finished eating, many things were said at the dinner table. It was one of the most meaningful discussion I had ever had. Mr. Juan started of the conversation, “I just want to say that I am so proud of both of you girls for making it into one of the hardest schools ever. I knew you guys were talented girls the moment I met you guys, which is why I made the effort to get you into the academy in France. I love you girls so much and I want you guys to know that you can always count on me to be there for you.” “Gracias. Thank you,” I said. Then Sophia began to thank Mr. Juan for everything he had done for us. “Gracias por todo ce as echo. Thank you for everything you have done for my sister and I,” Sophia said. I then slightly interrupted her, “I thought studying in France was just a dream of mine but because of you, you helped me accomplish my dream. Thank you, you will forever be someone who I trust and love. You are a part of our family now and I couldn’t be happier.” The three of us just kept talking and at times we would bring back good memories we had together over the past few months. As the night was ending Mr. Juan told us one more thing that was going to happen before left Colombia. “There is one more thing I need to tell you guys,” he started off with, although I was a little nervous to see what he was going to say, “ the day you mom died your dad, Sebastian, had somehow gotten information about what hospital your mom was staying in and he went to try and see her, but unfortunately he was to late. When I was little your father and I grew up together and we were pretty good friends, so when I saw him walking in the hall of the hospital I immediately remembered him. We sat down in one of the chairs and began to talk about you mom and you guys. I told him that Bella might get accepted to a school in France and he was so proud of you. We exchanged number so we could stay in contact incase of anything. Ealier today I talked to him and I told him that you guys both got accepted to L'Academie de Paris. Even though you girls haven't talked to you dad in a long time, I thought it would be a good idea to see him before you guys leave for France. I asked him if you guys could go to his house and visit him for the day.” I haven’t thought of my dad in such a long time that when Mr. Juan started talking about him I was surprised.

“He was very happy to hear that you guys were safe and he said that you guys are welcomed to come. So is it okay with you guys?” It was silent for a couple minutes. “Wow, I haven’t heard from Sebastian in such a long time so I am surprised he still remembers us,” I said with a chuckle. “Well your dad just wanted to see you guys because he hasn’t seen or talked to you girls in two years, which I know if I hadn’t talked to my kids in more than two years I would be devastated.” Mr. Juan replied. Sophia finally started talking after her long thinking period. “Bella I think the best decision to make is to go and visit Sebastian. I know that he hurt our mom but he is still our dad and this might be the last time we ever see him.” “You are right Sophia,” I said as I sighed. Then Mr. Juan said, “That sounds like a great plans girls. I will be taking you guys tomorrow to his house, which is two hours away, so we will be leaving around seven in the morning. You guys will spend the day with your dad and then I will pick you guys up around seven at night and take you to the airport right after because your flight leaves at one in the morning the next day. Make sure you both pack everything you need tonight so that tomorrow you are ready to take it to your dad’s house because we will not be returning here tomorrow before we go to the airport.” I went to my room and I felt kind of excited for tomorrow. The fact that my dad made an effort to see my mom in the hospital show that he is a good man. Maybe he has changed I thought to myself. Before I went to sleep I took a minute to just look outside the window. The small city of Cartagena will always be apart of me no matter what. I love this place so much and I am definitely going to miss it, I thought as I looked at the city. It was seven in the morning and both my sister and Mr. Juan were ready to go. “Desperta, ya es hora para ir. Wake up, it is time to go,” said my sister as she opened my door. When I finally go up, I got dressed and slowly dragged my luggage to the front door because I was super tired. We got into the car and packed both of our luggage into the trunk. I sat in the back seat of Mr. Juan’s car and I got very comfortable for the two hour drive to my dad’s house.

During the car ride we just told funny stories and listened to some music; although, I was trying to sleep. We stopped for gas ten minutes before we got to my dad’s house. When Mr. Juan got out of the car, Sophia looked at me from the front seat and said, “Everything is going to be fine as long as we stick together.” When we got to Sebastian's house my sister and I put our luggage by the front door. Sebastian was living alone with his dog named Collet. He had many pictures of him traveling the world. “Gracias por dejándonos venir. Thank you for letting us come,” said Sophia to Sebastian. “No problem,” he answered. “I think it is time for me to go. I will see you guys later,” said Mr. Juan as he left. Sebastian fed us breakfast and then he showed us around his house. It was a two-story house and it had a lot of expensive looking furniture. While we were eating breakfast Sophia and I were telling him about how our mom got sick. I could tell as we were telling Sebastian, he felt really bad. He took the two of us to walk around the city. It was beautiful and luckily I took my polaroid because I was taking dozens of pictures. The day was going by really fast because I was having so much fun. My dad kept telling my sister and I that he was so proud of us for getting into the school in France. “Ever since you guys were little I knew that both of you guys were going to be very successful in life and I just want to apologize for leaving you and your mom. I know a simple sorry won’t fix the problem but I want you guys to know that I think of you girls everyday. It was very complicated back then but I shouldn’t have left; I love you guys and I just want the best for both of you,” he said. I felt so much closer to my dad and really wish I would have been able to spend more time with him. The three of us spent a lot of our time talking about past memories. My dad gave us advice and tips to be successful at our new school. Overall I had a great day with my sister and my dad. When Mr. Juan got to my dad’s house the four us ate dinner together and then we headed to the airport.

As we were leaving I went up to my dad and said, “I love you dad. Thank you for an amazing day and I know how much you care about my sister and I, which is why I accept your apology.” I gave him a big hug and we were on our way to the airport. ******************************************** Many hours had passed by as we were waiting for our flight. Luckily there was only an hour left so we started heading towards the gate. The luggage was taken care of and now we were just waiting in line to go into the plane. I gave Mr. Juan a big hug and said, “Gracias por todo. Thank you for everything.” and my sister did the same. When it was our turn in line to get in the plane my sister and I turned around and waved Mr. Juan goodbye. Tears of joy and sadness were running down my face. I looked at my sister and I said, “There has been many obstacles in our life but because we stayed together we are about to accomplish our dreams,” and then a smile just appeared on her face.

2 years later My sister and have had the best two year of our life. We currently live with our grandma and school has been extraordinary. The both of us still have a full scholarship to the school. Sophia has been doing great in high school and she already got accepted into a very special college. My grades have also been very high. My sister and I have worked really hard to get to this school and all of that has now paid off.

The Planet of Orn By Nathan Rabinovitch while in 7th Grade The story starts with two friends, by the names of Carl and George. They are in math class in school, and the teacher is in the middle of a lesson. In Carl and George’s class, , there are fourteen students. While the teacher is finishing their lesson, Carl and George begin to feel dizzy. Simultaneously, they both fall over, unconscious to the floor. However, they never reach the classroom floor because all of the sudden, they are both transported to another world. When they wake up, they find that they aren’t in their math classroom anymore. When they look around, Carl and George see that they are in a forest. They realize that about twenty feet away from them, there are people, watching them, looking amazed. The only thing different about them compared to Carl and George, was the fact that they all were the height of Carl and George’s thighs… Carl yelled, “WHAT ARE YOU???” One of them called out to them incredulously, “Who are you???” George replied, “Who are you?” A different person replied. “We should be asking questions, you just popped out of nowhere onto our ground, unconscious!” Carl asked, “Wait, where are we?” The same person replied, “You are on our planet, Orn. What are your names?” Carl, “We’re on a different planet??” The same person replied, “Yes, apparently, you are. What is your home planet, then?” George replied, “We live on Earth.”’ A different person said, “Never heard of it. What are your names?” George replied, “I am George” he then gestured to Carl. “and this is Carl. What are all of your names?” The first person that talked replied, “I am Rathel, this is Heddet,” he continued naming all of the people. When he finished naming everyone’s names, Carl asked, “Is there any way that George and I can get back to Earth?” The same person replied, “Not that we know of.” George asked, “If we can’t get back, what do we do here?” A different person replied, “I don’t know. Try to find a way to get back to your home planet?” The second person asked, “We could give you a tour of our town.” Carl replied, “Ok, thanks!” The same person replied, “You’re welcome.” After that, Carl and George followed the people back to their town. When they got there, which only took about five minutes, the same person that had last spoken to them said, “This is my house,” He pointed to one of the small huts that were on the sides. George whispered to Carl, “Their huts are so small.” Carl replied, whispering, “Yeah,” They walked a bit farther before the person said, “This is the watchtower.” he pointed to a building that was about three times the huts that at the top had holes where they probably intended to use a bow to shoot down enemies. George asked, “Is the watchtower necessary to survive?”

The person replied, “It is. It always has people inside of it and sometimes there are enemies that come into our town and we need to keep them away to survive. Unfortunately, their most recent attacks have been becoming closer and closer to being able to fully invade the town.” Carl asked, “Them?” The person replied, “Yes, they teamed up into a evil organization about a year ago. They are stronger than ever before.” George replied, “Okay.” They continued to walk around the city, and some of the other parts that the person pointed out were the farms where they got some of their food, the meeting place, which was basically a bunch of chairs made out of wood, surrounding five seats, which were facing outward. Carl asked, “Why are there five seats in the middle of the meeting place?” The person replied, “Each chair holds one of the five rulers of our town. They each have equal power.” George then asked, “When are the meeting held?” The person responded, “On every other Wednesday, and when it is necessary to have a emergency meeting. There is probably going to be a emergency meeting tomorrow, deciding what to do with you two.” Carl replied, “Okay,” Then the person said, “You could find somewhere to rest, it is going to be night soon.” Carl replied, “Ok,” The person nodded and said, “Alright. I’m going to go to sleep.” After that, they left. George asked Carl, “Where should we sleep?” Carl replied, “We could just sleep on the ground, I guess.” George asked, “Should we go back to the forest?” Carl thought a moment before replying. “Probably. It will probably be quieter there than here in the middle of a town.” George nodded in agreement. “How far away should we go?” Carl replied, “Not too far. Probably only a bit away from the town.” George replied, “Okay, let’s go.” They then started to walk out of the town. When they had gotten a fair distance away from the town, Carl asked, “We should sleep here.” George looked around before replying. “It seems like a good place to sleep in.” Carl replied, “Yeah.” Then they each lied down on the forest floor and went to sleep, although neither of them thought that they were going to able to sleep after they had been teleported to another world. At around midnight, they were both sleeping, until suddenly, a twig snapped, and they both woke up. They looked at each other, as if checking that the other had heard the twig snapping had actually happened. Suddenly, out of nowhere, four figures came out and attacked the friends. They were the normal size for the inhabitants of the alternate world that they were on. The four of them came so quickly that they hadn’t had enough time to retaliate. The four enemies quickly tied the two friends up, and Carl and George both wondered, who were these people and where were they going to? One of them quickly shoved a gag into each of their mouths. They weren’t able to take them out because they were tied up. Suddenly, after approximately five seconds, Carl realized that there was a sickly sweet taste coming off of the gag. Too late to try to do anything, not that he could have done much, he was unconscious. George then, a moment later, was knocked out as well. When George woke up, he tried to move, but he realized that he was tied down to the ground. When he moved his head to move around, a voice came from behind him. “One of them woke up, boss.” A different person, likely the boss, replied, “Do you think I can’t see that?!? You doofus. Let’s see if that boy knows anything.”

Because of all of the talking, Carl then woke, up. George turned his head to the side and saw that Carl was also tied up to the ground. This time the person that isn’t the boss didn’t say anything. The boss then said, “Ah. Good. The other one woke up as well. We’ll be able to question both of them at the same time and see if one is lying.” Suddenly, a person came into view of George. The person then somewhat asked, somewhat demanded, “Do you know anything?” George tried to reply, “About what?” but nothing came out because he still had the gag in his mouth. The person then realized this, “Oh, right. Take the gags out of each of their mouths, Phil.” George realized that the person that had tried to question them was the boss that he had heard behind him. A hand came and took the gags out of Carl and George’s mouths. George’s mouth was dry. The boss person repeated his question. “As I asked before, what do you know?” George then replied, “About what?” The boss person replied, “About how you get here and how to get back.” Carl then replied in a scratchy voice, probably from the gag, “We don’t know anything about that.” George then realized that these people were probably in the evil secret society that the person that had given him a tour of the town had talked about when he had asked about how much the watchtower was actually used. The boss replied, “Really. I don’t believe that the people in that stupid town wouldn’t tell you two how to get back to your planet.” Carl replied, “If you’re so surprised, why don’t you just tell us now how to get back?” The boss person snorted. “What good would it do to me to tell you how to get back to your world?” He didn’t wait for a answer. He motioned to one of the people behind them. “Hang them in an hour.” He then left before either Carl or George could argue. Everyone else in the room left for another hour, before they were going to hang Carl and George. Suddenly, a voice whispered from behind them, “I can get you out of here.” George tried to turn around to see the person. “If you can, why don’t you free us?” The person went over in front of them so that they could see the person. The person then cut the ropes that kept Carl and George to the ground. When they were free, George said, “Thanks for freeing us.” The person replied, “No problem. We need to go before anybody sees us.” Once they had left, the person that had freed them led them through the forest, until they emerged into the town. When they got there, now that there wasn’t trees above them, Carl realized that it was around 2:00 PM from the position of the sun. When someone saw them, the person that saw them rushed over on their tiny legs. When the person got closer, Carl realized that it was the person that had given him the tour. When the person got close enough for them to hear them the person called out, “Where were both of you?” Carl replied, “We got attacked by some people. Probably the evil group that you had been talking about yesterday. This person here,” he motioned at the person that had helped them escape. “Helped us get out of their lair. Also, the boss person there mentioned that the town knows how to get us back to our world.” The person that had given them the tour responded, “To get back to your world, you have to help us.” George sighed before he responded, “How could we help the town?” The person that had given them a tour replied, “By intimidating the enemies with your height.” The person that had helped them escape asked, “How are two people, no matter their height, going to intimidate them?” The person replied, “Because they’re cowards. Even if they see only two ‘giants’ they are going to turn back and not know that you two are just going to leave here.” Carl replied after thinking, “Okay, I’ll do it.” George also said, “Okay, I will too.”

The person that had freed them then said, “They are planning on attacking us in a few hours but because of their escapes they might do it sooner.” The tour person replied, “Good. Let’s do it then.” Carl and George replied, “Ok,” A few hours later, a few people darted along the edge of the town. Carl and George, as instructed, rushed over there and tried to look intimidating as they rushed toward them. When they saw them, their eyes went big before they rushed back into the forest. George was surprised at how easy that was. They immediately rushed to where the tour person was waiting. Carl asked, “We scared them away. How do we get back to Earth?” The tour person then put a hand into his pocket and came out with two small bottles. “You each need to drink these to teleport back to your world.” He handed them to Carl and George. George then said, “I only have one question. How did you get us here in the first place?” The tour person replied, “We made this drink, only we added a substance that made it teleport far away and put itself in the person’s drink. We hoped that the being that would come would look intimidating.” George replied, “Okay.” Carl then asked George, “Are you ready?” George replied, “Yep,” They both then drank the drink, and went back to Earth.

The End!

The Experiment By Ben McDannell, 7th/12 In the beginning . . . There was dark. Only the blackness of the void was present in the unrelenting crush of the steel jaws of the dark. Anything could be there, but there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Then, out of the void came a speck. A tiny piece of another place, another time. It was virtually nothing compared to the infinite darkness of the void, yet there it was, a miniscule speck of light in a sea of shadow. Then, very slowly, more specks followed. It took thousands of millenia, but eventually, there were millions and millions of tiny specks, floating in the darkness. Suddenly, the specks began to feel something; a sudden desire to BE something in this great abyss of inky blackness. So they slowly began congregating until, finally, they formed the mass we now call Earth. The one difference that that earth had from the Earth of today was that it was perfect in every single way, and destined to be perfect for the rest of time. Unfortunately, much later, that Earth was destroyed in the tragic event we call the big bang. Our story starts on this previous Earth, in a small slave town inhabited by humans called Ernestia. The people of Ernestia were mostly simple minded, they went about their day with complete ignorance, not a care in the world except the task at hand, but there was one who was different. His name was Gilborne and he

was renowned in the village for his extensive knowledge and his amazing thinking and problem solving. Villagers would seek his counsel whenever they had a dilemma or problem. Gilborne was also owner of a large slave ranch and a small fortune. His slaves did not necessarily love what they did, or, for that matter, their master, but they accepted it because they knew they could never change who they were. One however, by the name of Ash Rat had a slightly different view. He worked at Gilborne’s furnace (hence the name he had been given by his fellow slaves) and hated every minute of it. Shoveling ash day after day, there had to be more to this world than just mindlessly chipping away at repetitive tasks. He was slightly more intellectually inclined than his peers, and he still had a dream of being free, a dream which burned brightly in his mind, and could never be extinguished, by neither his friends’ cynicism nor by the harsh rule of his master. One day, as Ash Rat was shoveling coals, he heard his master passing by. He seemed to be talking in a very strange matter, muttering strange snippets of sentences. Ash Rat listened in, thinking that he could somehow piece together the fragments of his master’s thoughts. “No, I couldn't show them, they’d never understand,” Gilborne muttered. “Yes, I must keep the Spirit a secret, at least for now,”

Ash Rat was taken aback. What was this Spirit? Was it dangerous? Why was Gilborne so worried? He had to do something. He rushed to his friend Imp, (who was given his name because of his diminutive stature and imp-like features) to tell him about this strange event and gather his input. “What is wrong?” Imp asked. “Howd’ya know that I was worried?” Ash Rat responded. “I can see it in yer’ eyes. Anyhoo, what is the trouble Rat?” “I just overheard master and he was talkin’ about some sort of sprit,” Ash Rat said, “What say you?”. “Oh no,” Imp sighed, “Not one of your silly ‘Theories’ again! Last time you said master was a bear in disguise, and that got us in real trouble!” “I’m tellin’ ya’! This time I know I’m right, I heard master say it with my very own ears!” Ash Rat exclaimed. “Go prove your theory by yourself, I will have nothing to do with this mischievousness!” retorted Imp. “Maybe I will!” yelled Ash Rat. He trudged back to the furnace to plan his investigations on his own. Ash Rat racked his brain for some way to prove to Imp that his theory was correct, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn't find a way to prove it to him without evidence. That was it! Evidence! He had to find something to show Imp that would convince him that he was right! All he had to do was get his master to leave his residence long enough for him to snoop around and find something that Imp couldn’t deny was real. Ash Rat slowly hatched his plan together all night, until he was finally ready to carry out his scheme.

His plan was as follows; First, luckily for him, today was the day of the weekly market, to which Gilborne always went to sell his crop, tilled and picked by the slaves themselves. Rat would have to take a few shovels of his coals (not too much or someone might get suspicious), and put them in his masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wagon of goods so that they would be soiled and when the people at the market saw the soiled food, they would get angry, for they would think that Gilborne was trying to sell them bad goods, and the enraged mob would keep him at bay long enough for Rat to sneak in and find some incriminating evidence to show Imp and convince him to help the cause.

THE DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA By Andrew Carr

Chapter 1 [INFORMATION CLASSIFIED] “The Department of Mysterious Phenomena is a non-government agency dedicated to protecting the public from things that don’t make any sense. In the past, we have destroyed asteroids made of dark matter, gotten into battles with yetis and packs of Chupacabras and generally tried to control and contain dangerous and mysterious things. I am the commissioner, and I work for the DMP. Because the DMP is a non-government agency, we work all over the world and wherever it is necessary. I work chiefly in sectors F and G. This is a large area covering most of East Russia and parts of Asia. I have worked here for twenty-five years. This concludes the introduction. Can someone please turn the lights back on?” The recruits blinked as the lights flickered back on. “Thank you. As you all know, tomorrow is your final test. That will be your first true mission for the DMP. Class dismissed.” The twenty or so recruits filed out through the two main doors. All of them felt a mixture of worry and excitement. None of them felt this more strongly than Robert Edwin. Robert was a man who was formerly in the military and CIA but had retired from both and decided to go to a more secret, interesting, and useful job. He was at the end of a long introduction into his job at the DMP as a subdual agent: someone who found monsters, took them down, and brought them back to containment. It was an important job. He would be capturing monsters and recapturing ones that broke out of containment. This, as the commissioner had said, was their first mission. They were all becoming class six (6) workers and would work the smallest tasks or the most dangerous ones, or just whatever needed non-critical personnel. This was a mission to

capture an Oni. Oni are hideous, gigantic ogre-like creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns. They often carry iron clubs and wear tiger skin clothes. They are rather powerful, but only rank a security level of III. All the new workers would need to work together or else not succeed.

The next day

The new workers walked into the planes carrying everything that they would need to defeat the creature. Various weapons, from handguns to grenades to a canister of poison, and personal belongings. After an uneventful full day of flight, they reached Tokyo at 22:00. They all knew in advance that they could do nothing this late and checked into their hotels.

Chapter 2 The recruits woke up early in the morning and walked over to a predetermined meeting place. They had been given the location that the monster was most often seen under a large superhighway next to a bike and walking trail. All the recruits piled into the transport vehicle and drove to the trail with their weapons at the ready. Four men set out to find it. In no time they found it. There it was. Huge, red, and covered in muscle. The Oni hefted its iron club menacingly. Some of the men were not as prepared as they should have been. The monster jumped toward one of the men. Immediately, he started firing rounds at the monster. This started the full attack. All the men started to attack at once, swinging swords, shooting guns and darts. None of this seemed to affect the Oni which simply roared and swung its mace, knocking down anyone within reach. It soon became apparent that neither side was doing well. The trainees withdrew to make a plan. Several minutes later, two small groups quietly marched up to the monster from each side. The monster was not going to be tricked that easily. It roared and swung its mighty mace to keep them back. The men did not stop. They advanced slowly. Something began to dawn in the monsterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind. Something it had never felt before. A mixture of anger and fear and a sense of betrayal. Suddenly, three men dropped down 15 feet from the overpass onto the giantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoulders and leaping off again knocking him off balance. At once, three more men threw small grenades at the monster and knocked him down. The club was wrested away from the monster. The group behind the monster pulled out a net and threw it over the Oni. The monster had been secured. One of the people called back to base to report that the mission was a success.

Chapter 3 Seattle

Lewis Dean woke up and looked to the side. He had slept in. It was nearly nine o clock! Today that did not matter because it was Saturday. Mr. Dean sat up and rolled out of bed. He yawned. This was going to be a thoroughly boring weekend. After slowly dressing and walking downstairs he stared at the refrigerator for a full three minutes before thinking, “What am I doing! It’s the weekend! Why on earth am I wasting my free time? I have been saving up money to treat myself and this is a perfect time.” He walked outside and looked up. The weather was like his mood, clear and sunny. He wasn’t hungry but felt like he might be later and decided to go have some brunch at IHOP. He grabbed his keys and wallet and went out with the intention to have a day of self-indulgence and fun. At IHOP, he took a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and a glass of hot chocolate. He sat down and tried to think of what to do next. He wanted to host a party but didn’t have anyone to invite. He wasn't really a sports guy and there weren't any beaches nearby so what could he do? He eventually finished his brunch and decided to go out to his favorite path in the woods, not really a day of “fun” but better than nothing. He brought his car back home and went out for a walk. He walked for a while before coming to the sign that said “[INFORMATION CLASSIFIED] Park”. He smiled and went in. This was his favorite place to be. There was nowhere more peaceful or naturally beautiful than here. Today, like always, it was empty. He sat down on a bench, not to rest, just to look around. After a while he decided what he could do today; he could walk along a new path. He had always walked along one of three paths and their subpaths, but today he was going somewhere else. There was a map at the entrance that showed all the trails and all other important landmarks. There was one that caught his eye ‘The Dim grove’. He decided to go there. It seemed like a perfect place to rest, to contemplate life, and meditate on it. He walked slowly, he was never much of a runner. After a very long time, he got there and sighed. It was perfect. A grove full of the greenest trees and plants with branches so thick that it subdued the light. A squirrel ran up a tree. There was no bench, so Lewis simply sat down against a tree. It was so peaceful that he dozed off. When he woke up, he looked around. He was in the

same clearing but something was certainly wrong. There was a something on the edge of the clearing. He stood up to see what it was better. The sound made the thing turn around. “Oh, hael no!”

Chapter 4 The men had just finished loading the great beast into the armored truck and bringing it back to the airport. As they loaded it onto the plane they took it out of the net and placed it in an iron cage in the cargo bay. The plane ride back was very happy. The mood was a lot like the mood of a man just coming out of a successful career interview. Back at the base, a compartment was being prepared for the monster. The men landed on the strip right next to the base and walked into the meeting room where they had their lessons before. They were received well and a party was arranged for their joining, but they learned that in a freak accident a level 4 worker had been killed while they had been gone. He was well known and nice and the mood of the party was significantly subdued, though most present had a secret wish of taking his spot. The next day, the people who completed their mission presented themselves to the commissioner and all of them were given the identifying badge in the shape of a [INFORMATION CLASSIFIED]. This was the official sign that they were in the organization. Half of the group were given very small missions right away and the other half had things to attend to or prepare for their job or heal from the club wounds. Robert, luckily, was not hurt but decided to prepare his cubicle and get his papers together before going to work.

Chapter 5 Thailand

“Ma'am? ma'am, I think you should see this. Is this normal?”, a voice piped up meekly as her boss walked past. “What? Look, you don’t need my help little level fiver. Do your job.” The project manager was not in a bad mood but not in a good mood either. She was in a work-needs-to-be-done-mood and that was exactly how she was planning to make everyone else feel too. There was no time for this ‘look at this’ nonsense.

“This is pretty important ma'am, I think you should see this.” “What? … I said, what is it!?” “Sorry, ma'am. There is something odd showing up in Washington, near Seattle, in a forest. Seems to be an anomaly: very large. I’m requesting use of satellite 18A to study the creature live and in more detail.” The monster had piqued her interest, “Permission granted.” Also, ma'am, you may want to send out a small team of local agents to this park to further investi-” “Yes! Fine! Gather information but I expect a report in on the creature in 24 hours.” The project manager was excited. This was a big find. “Oh, and Lou?” “Yes Ma’am?” “Remind me to give you a raise.” “Thank you, ma’am”

Chapter 6 The creature slowly came closer to Lewis. After a while, he could stand it no longer and broke into a run. He was, as I said before, not a very good runner but could run darn fast when he wanted to. The creature was 40 feet tall and had 4 arms. It had a face that looked like an African tribal mask; long, frozen, mostly a furry brown with stripes of color going up. The face had a look of surprised anger on its face, an open mouth, wide eyes and furrowed brows. Lewis looked back and broke into a sprint. He was almost a third of the way back to the park entrance and the creature was gaining on him. He broke off the main trail onto a small path that was too thin for the colossus. After a while, Lewis could run no longer. He stopped and leaned against a tree. His vision was swimming and his heart was pounding harder than it had in a long time. This was by no

definition a “fun” or “peaceful” walk. What was that thing? Just thinking about it made his hair stand on end. At the same time, the new team received a new call from Thailand. “You are to go to [INFORMATION CLASSIFIED] park and study what is thought to be an enormous anomalous creature. Do not engage until ordered to. Take heavy weapons just in case. This monster is the biggest thing we have seen in a decade. We will send in teams once we have more information. Take infrared cameras and motion sensors. Take measurements and the like. This has been elevated to urgent. Leave now. [TRANSMISSION OVER]” This was sent to all the new graduates and a few other teams. They were there in a hour. They set up cameras of different types all around the park and spread out through the forest. After a while of looking around in the section he was assigned to, Robert heard heavy breathing. He jumped and turned. A man was standing behind a tree. Resting as if from a long run. Lewis saw Robert at last. “AAAH! Oh, hello! Nice to meet you! Who are you!” The man seemed very tense. “I’m sorry sir, but you have to leave now. There has been a report of a bear inside these woods and we are tracking it down.” Robert was reciting the protocol to be used in this case to ward away people still at the scene. “Oh no there isn’t! There is a monster in these woods! There is a freakin’ forty foot tall monster with the head of a tribal mask running around in these woods!” Lewis was breaking down a little bit from fear and the thing he had just seen. “I know you are a government agent that has been sent out to shoot it or something. Take your failed lab experiment and get it out of Seattle! Your monster ruined my day and almost killed me!” “Can you tell me where you saw this creature first and where it is now?” Robert could see that the man had seen the creature already. That was good now they had proof it existed and possibly more information surrounding it. Lewis was calming down. He could see that this situation was now in safe hands. “Yeah. Yeah I can. I was taking a walk in the woods and saw it near the dim grove. I ran and it started to chase me but it could not follow me through the small trail that I took. Now neuralyze me and take it down please.” “Sorry sir, I don’t ‘neuralyze’ anyone. This is not a failed lab experiment that ran loose. This is what we believe to be an unexplained class 8 anomalous creature. I hopefully do not

have to take it down either. I am just studying it. Can you give me any more information about this creature?” “It has six appendages and does not seem friendly. That’s all I know. Who are you?” “I am afraid I can’t tell you that-” Robert’s explanation was cut off by a roar to their right. “Oh god, it’s close. Sir, you need to leave now. Please exit this park immediately and get as far away as possible.” Lewis started off at a brisk walk but after he had gone a little ways paused to think over what just happened. He had seen a giant monster and while escaping saw a government agent who was meant to take them down. He had not been arrested or neuralized but probably would be in the future. He decided that since he had probably angered the monster it was partly his fault and he knew slightly more than anyone else about the creature. This was why he did not leave the park and go home like the man asked him to. Instead, he snuck back toward the monster and climbed a tree as carefully as he could. From there he saw the whole affair. Many different agents heard the roar and started converging on the point. One by one, the agents started appearing. They saw the monster and took up a 1000 foot radius. After the monster had only seen one person so far, Lewis and they were careful to remain unseen by the monster. Different people started pulling out guns and other weapons, notebooks and cameras. The monster started to move. It was moving slowly toward the dim grove. The people in that direction moved to the side. The agents once again kept a 1000 foot distance from the monster and were moving stealthily along with it. After they were all out of sight, Lewis came down from the tree. He decided to go a different path so as not to run into agents. He moved along the trail and got to the dim grove and climbed another tree. The monster appeared. He now was also taking notes of the monster. The creature had reptilian legs with long toes that ended in sharp yellow claws. The pupils were slits and the iris was green. The skin was not scaly, it was more leathery. The hands had serrated claws on all four arms. The arms had joints that could bend both ways. The monster walked over to the end of the clearing. Then everything went wrong. The monster bent down and started digging. Everyone was confused. The creature finally unearthed something. Something crawled out of the ground. Than another. And another. And another. The ground was crawling with monsters, tiny compared to the large one but all at least eight feet long. The agents were

confused. Was this simply a stage in the creatures life cycle? Were they babies? Were they like cicadas? Did they bury themselves to wait until the right time? Or was this something far darker; was this part of a plan? Lewis was sitting in the tree tring to suppress a scream. This was worse than his worst nightmare. He had always been afraid of tiny creatures coming out of nests. This was a catastrophe. It was clear from what he saw of the agents faces that they had no idea this would happen. The smaller monsters started spreading out. The agents moved back another 500 feet. At this point it was clear that this was a formidable enemy that definitely needed its space. Some of the agents were taking notes and some were calling back to base about this new development. Nothing seemed to be happening. The small monsters (letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just call them smalls) were wandering about and the large one (letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call it The Big) was just standing there. There was nothing to do but wait and see what smalls and big would do.

Chapter 8 Thailand

The project manager had just received two calls. First was her secretary calling to say that she had a satellite look closely and confirmed there was a monster. Shortly after there was a call from one of the agents with the same thing but with more details about the monster. The project manager was now a team commander. She quickly came up with a plan. After a few short calls to higher level workers her plan was okayed. This was too dangerous to continue. These monsters could utterly destroy the nearby city.

Seattle

They needed more subdual agents. A few dozen new people were called in and a few of the original agents left. 75% of them were told to move out. Those who moved out got more and different weapons and equipment. They rehearsed the plan. They had been told to take down the main monster and bring it back alive along with at least half of the small ones. After two hours the plan had got out to everyone and those who had left had returned with the extra equipment. The fight started immediately. One man threw a sticky vial of neurotoxic gas. It stuck below the mouth and expelled a red mist. The monster roared. At once all the littles were at the

ready. The smaller monsters swarmed at the men who started firing rounds of bullets at them. The monsters thick hide stopped most of the damage from the small guns. One of the smalls got to where the agents were. The fight was now hand to claw. The men drew knives and bayonets. The monsters roared and attacked. The monsters were attacking the men; biting, clawing. Man after man was wounded and withdrew. A quarter of the creatures were out of action and the men went into capture mode. The big roared. The neurotoxin had been used up. The monster was weakened but not stopped. Half of the men now went to fight the big. The monster tried to step on the men who dodged and rolled. The men threw flash-bang grenades and turned away. The monster stumbled. Four men saw their chance and ran forward with two modified car batteries. The batteries were meant to deliver the final blow. The monster was having none of it. It went down in all fours and used the front pair of arms to fight. It knocked the men with the car batteries back into the trees at the end of the clearing. The men hit the trees and fell to the ground with a yell. One of the batteries snapped and started leaking acid. There was two extra batteries but no one was able to get anywhere near the creature with them. The small monsters were slowly being tasered or darted or caught in nets. Only a quarter of the original 70 were left. The large monster roared. The roar went from low to high and low again. The remaining monsters heard and left their fight. The agents fighting the big were caught unaware and many were injured. The few left were swatted like flies by the big. He now had no opposition. The medics on the edge of the clearing were in a craze of activity. They had brought many of the wounded to the side. Some were calling for backup. All of the men were withdrawn, many of them wounded. Luckily many of the injuries were no more serious than scratches from the smalls but 4 men were dead. They were all people who had been hit by the big. The large creature was no longer interested in chasing or fighting but the smalls still were. They crept toward the withdrawn party but were held off by a woman who had a mounted machine gun and a dart gun. Lewis had watched all this in amazement. These people were doing an amazing job. They had risked their lives to protect Seattle. Once the men withdrew he started climbing down from the tree. He was on the opposite side from the withdrawn men and only a few hundred feet from the monster. At first he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what he would do. Run? Get to the men on the other side?

Once his feet touched the ground his mind cleared and he knew what to do. He moved across the field to the batteries. He grabbed them and ran toward the monster. Luckily it had its back to him and did not notice him but there was a small who did. Lewis dropped the battery and pulled out a large pocket knife and prepared for the charging beast. The monster tried to claw him and Lewis nicked its wrist. The real mistake was when the small tried to bite him. Lewis in fear slashed the creatures nose then tried to stab it again he ended up stabbing it in the side of the neck the creature crawled away wounded but not fatally. Lewis stopped in surprise. How had he done that? Then he remembered his job. He picked up the battery and ran. He got to the monster and decided to get it at its ankle. He held it up, paused, then held it to the creatures skin and flicked the switch. 50,000 volts at 25 watts hit the monster who roared and crumpled to one knee. Lewis then ran to the other leg and did the same thing. The monster fell headlong. It twitched and let out a strangled roar then was unconscious.

Chapter 8 Lewis gave it another charge. Now the battery was completely gone. The agents who had been lightly or not hurt were running over. They had no time to question Lewis as the monster could wake at any moment. They took chains and bound all six legs and the mouth. They then added the blindfold and the monster was secure. All of the agents started moving toward Lewis but Robert got there first. Robert seemed to be trying to say three different things at once. “What! Why? How on earth did you do that? Where were you? You disobeyed orders! You took down the monster!” “I know. I’m sorry. You guys looked like you needed help. I hid in a tree until now.” Lewis was also feeling many different things. Embarrassment, pride, surprise and much more was churning around in his stomach. What would they do to him now? He had taken down the monster but he had disobeyed the order to stay away. He still felt as if he had done the right thing, especially as he had succeeded. Robert left. He had to help the others take the monster back to base. All civilians (besides Lewis) were now far away so it was easy to take the monster away. A flatbed truck was brought into the parking lot and the monster was brought out to it using the widest path and a few jeeps. After it had been put in the truck and covered with a tarp it was brought directly to the nearest giant anomaly containment facility which had been modified for the purpose.

Lewis hitched a ride. After that, there was the mission completion celebration. All people who had died had their own service and a gold star was put next to their name wherever it could be found signifying brave death in the line of duty. All people involved had some sort of upgrade in their status. Several level two people were invited and a personal message from a level one person was included. After the celebrations, Lewis was put into containment.

Chapter 9 A week later he was brought to a DMP military-style court to discuss the happenings of that day. Something like what Lewis did had never happened before. The case started with the acknowledgement of his deed. “Before we begin the case, we must acknowledge what Lewis here has done. Yes, it was reckless and it may have been unnecessary but he took a risk and single handedly took down the monster. We need to keep this in mind during this case.” The defense and the prosecution argued for over an hour over various points. Mostly the same things many times. The main things they argued about were the fact that he was given orders and disobeyed them. The defense pointed out that he had no reason to be ordered around by a total stranger and that he was right to be worried about what they could have done to him. The prosecution congratulated him on taking down the monster but stated that it was unnecessary. The defense said that it may have been. An attack at that point would have been devastating. He stopped the monster in the nick of time. The case was won in Lewis’s favor. One more thing had to be cleared up before it was over. He now knew too much to be safe. He signed a binding document of silence; that was what usually happened when someone knew too much. He was never to speak of what he knew to anyone else. Because of his courage and knowledge of the DMP he was offered a job as a subdual agent alongside Robert. He turned it down.

Russia Suddenly, something that seemed to be a vast oval-shape in the sky showed up on a radar screen. “код красный! код красный! позвонить в штаб-квартиру!” (Code red! Code red! Call headquarters!)

The next day he left the compound to go back to his house. Robert caught up with him at the runway. “Good-bye Lewis. Thank you. Please keep in touch.” “I will, my friend.” Lewis turned and started walking down the runway. He walked up the four steps into the helicopter. As he sat down and buckled he noticed that many of the people that were in the mission had come out and were waving. The propeller rotors started turning and the helicopter slowly rose into the air. As the helicopter picked up speed and got higher, Lewis looked forward and started to relax. That was a very stressful though interesting few days. He had defeated a monster, been arrested, learned of a secret organization, and promised never to speak of any of it again. Lewis was definitely not a thrill-seeking sort of guy, but as he headed home he realized how uninteresting his normal life would seem in comparison. He also thought of how hard it would be to keep the secret and explain why he was gone. He looked down at the ground again. The people were tiny and shrinking still more but even they could see the giant glowing ship slowly lowering itself out of the sky. Lewis saw it too and smiled. He was ready.

THE END

By Nathan Eberhart, 7th Grade/13

Darker Shadows Chapter 1: The Darkness in the Night A tremor shook the house, glass shattered and pictures fell. Nickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes shot open; he had been sleeping, but he was still in complete darkness. He could not feel or smell or see anything, he could not sense anything. Suddenly, as he was forgetting what senses were, he could sense everything again. A loud creaking filled the air, it sounded like a door. Getting up, he still had trouble seeing because he was in complete darkness. Scrambling around, he shot his hands out trying to find his way. He heard many sounds as he was scrambling around. He heard things land with a thud, glass shatter, and metal scrapping, all at the same time. He got to his bedroom door and before he had even touched the doorknob it swung open in a creepy and eerie way. A faint but haunting green light filled the air around him somewhat lighting his path. He walked up to the staircase and reached for the railing. Stepping forward he continued to grasp for the railing and when he had a good grasp on the railing it turned into thin air he and a force pushed him forward and he went plummeting down the stairs. As he fell he screamed: â&#x20AC;&#x153;HELP!â&#x20AC;?, he kept screaming until his voice was hoarse. He was endlessly falling down the stairs, like he was in repeat. Then he fell through the stairs and he was on sand. Looking around, he found that he was on the bottom floor of his house except for the ground which was made of sand. He walked towards the front door repeatedly falling down when the house began to shake and turn almost as if it was on an axle. Running in a circle like he was a hamster on a

wheel he began to feel exhausted and his eyes began to droop when his back slammed on the wall and he fell face first into the sand. With the wind knocked out of him, he struggled to breathe and but slowly the ability to breathe returned to him again. There was still sand on the ground but his house was horribly disfigured, walls were diagonal or upside down, items were two dimensional, the stairs and railing to his house were gone and a brick wall lay where the entrance to the top floor had been. He got up and started for the front door again. But before he got to it, like his bedroom door, it swung open and red light rushed into the room. He saw a large green planet hovering above him and the ground was red with a sand or dirt texture. Green lightning filled the air constantly with loud thunder that ringed in his ear. Then, as he stepped out of his house the world started shaking like it was a snowglobe and he got struck by a bolt of lightning. Sitting straight up in his bed, Nick found a pool of sweat where his head had been on his pillow. He was thirsty, he was still in his blue jeans and grey sweatshirt that he had been wearing in school that day. Getting up he heard a thump as something landed on the floor. Looking down he spotted a book he had been reading and noticed that his bedside light was still on. He turned the light out and but the book on his bedside table. Putting down his book he admired the green gover with golden embroidery that said The Cabin in the Woods and started for his bedroom door to go downstairs and grab some water. As he was walking to his kitchen to grab some water he passed a calendar that read December. Grabbing a pen, he marked another day off on it with a big check mark. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge. While sipping his water he looked around. The dining room table was set for one person, his dad, who had not yet arrived from work. The clock in his kitchen ticked loudly in the quiet of the night, almost like an eerie horror movie. He walked into his living room and sat down on his moth eaten couch sinking into an abnormally large hole made by the moths. Leather worn chairs scattered across the living room made the place look like a dump and his small boxy TV didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help with the mix. His eyes were fluttering in and out from sleep. A tremor in the ground finally startled him awake. He didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what was going on but it gave him an unsettling feeling in his stomach. The tremors were coming from the door. It was almost like a strong force was banging on the houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hurricane proof doors. The tremors were coming more frequently now. He slowly crept to the door not sure what to expect. Opening the door, a searing red light burned and stung his eyes at the same time. Green lightning flashed on the horizon as a faint shadow of some kind formed behind the lightning. The green flashes formed a cloud around a certain area moving in a circle as green bolts of lightning landed in different spots.

He stood there watching, almost paralyzed, not sure what to think and unable to move. The paralyzation lifted off of him and he said “What the..”. Then a force almost like a battering ram hit him in the chest and he was flung against the bottom of the staircase in his living room. All around him the force began to hit the walls of the house. The windows shattered, the furniture toppled, the TV broke as it hit the floor. Things began to fall down the stairs, trinkets and toys. It was like the house was being compacted. The front door continued to swing open, letting the force in, and slam closed, forcing it out. When it closed again Nick mustered all of his strength to get on his feet. He walked two steps forward slowly as if he was in slow motion. His right foot went forward then his left, his knees slowly bending at the joints. “Come on, come on,” he slowly said. Then the door swung open and he was lurched to the side slamming into his grandfather’s old oak coffee table. There was a stinging pain in his head. He touched the side of his head right above the right ear and felt blood. He followed the blood with his finger as if it was a trail, it was a deep and long cut. It ran from the top of his ear along his forehead down to the top of his eye, forking in different paths. The door slammed shut. But this time instead of the strong force slowing, it only got stronger. The air pressure in the house increased until his ears wanted to bleed. The house began to spin like he was in a dryer or washing machine. All of the objects in the house stayed in the same place not falling not sliding or any other type of movement at all, he could not move either he was almost glued in place hanging upside down, then sideways, then standing normally. Then all gravity left the house objects began to move but not normally. They were slowly falling and hovering at the same time in the air, like someone was dangling them in the air with a piece of string. He felt like he was dangling in the air. He could almost swim in the air like it was a goopy water. Things on and in the house began to just vanish. The stairwell disappeared, a brick wall replacing it. The windows sealed up the wall folding in on itself on top of the window. Soon all that was left was a brick box with a front door, a moth eaten couch, and a boxy TV that was just static all over. He, painfully, landed face first on the ground. A loud thud proceeded as if the whole house had just crashed. He could see no damage from the inside. Sand began to fill the floor of the house coming in through the cracks between the wood boards. It flowed like water but it came slowly as if there was some kind of resistance. Quickly he realized that the only thing holding this house to the ground of where ever he was must be the sand. He tried walking forward but he was not used to walking in sand because it was hard and required a lot of balance. He fell face first, sand flowing into his mouth. Spitting the sand out he could feel the sand sticking to the dried blood on his forehead. He continued to try to make it to the front door but kept falling down.

He got up for what was at least the fourth time. Facing the front door he made a mad dash for it. While he was running he kept falling then continued to run but would just end up back on the couch when ever he reached his hand to touch the doorknob. Getting off the couch he got his balance and carefully walked towards the front door. He was about to touch the doorknob when he lost his balance and fell on the threshold of the door. The cut in his forehead opened more and he could feel fresh blood dripping from the wound. He stumbled to his feet and opened the front door. Nick gasped and said, “Where the heck am I?” Thunder boomed outside. Green lightning struck the ground causing sparks to fly in the air like debris. The lightning always went in a specific pattern. The sky above him was fluctuating colors from a dark navy blue to a bright-ish red. In the sky floated a murky green planet like a moon but bigger than a moon, more like another planet or maybe a sun. The whole place was majestical except for the fact that he had no clue where he was. Trees surrounded him, growing out of the sandy ground below him. The trees were beautiful some were tall and sturdy with long trunks and leaves of various colors from purple, dark yellow, and turquoise blue. Some were more like bushes with only one color of leaves but those had beautiful flowers springing out of them. The flowers were of all various sizes, shapes, and colors. Then there were the rocks. They looked like coral, straight out of the ocean. The rocks looked fun to climb and twisted and coiled into magnificent shapes of all sizes. A bolt of lightning landed on the ground right next to him. Sparks flew and the ground turned to glass. Then almost like a TV screen everything flickered, Nick saw everything in darker colors. Everything was almost black or was dark beyond imagination. The pretty site was gone. Everything continued to flicker until it remained in the dark version of the place he had originally landed on. When he looked around he saw people. Real people from his...neighborhood? He watched as they approached him cautiously almost as if he was an endangered species or someone everyone thought was dead. “Nick?” someone asked. Nick turned around to face the voice that was addressing him. It was an old man, Mr. McCarthy! Nick gasped to see a familiar face. Nick yelled his name,“Mr. McCarthy” He responded, “Is that you Nick?”

“Yes!, how did you get here?” Nick asked. “I got here when something swallowed up my house in the middle of the night. I have been here for what feels like a couple of minutes. But on this planet, time doesn’t exist. What feels like a couple minutes or an hour here, could be five seconds on Earth, or it could be a year.” said Mr. McCarthy. A lightning bolt crashed a few feet away from him. He jumped in the air and landed on his feet and stumbled forward. “Uh, ok so do you know what the deal with everything going black all of a sudden was?” asked Nick. “This world or wherever we are has daytime and nighttime just like Earth except night time is a lot shorter and happens at random moments in time.” responded Mr. McCarthy. The thunder interrupted something that Mr.McCarthy attempted to say as Nick was hit by a lightning bolt. He looked around one last time before he passed out and felt the cushioned sand below him captured him and wrap around him like a blanket.

*** Jonah was wearing a tan and dark brown striped shirt. It was smudged with frosty dirt from putting up Christmas decorations. His dark brown hair covered the vision of his cloudy blue eyes. His mom wanted him to get rid of the bangs, but what did he care. He was at the Huckley Mini Mart to get some milk and butter, they were out at home. He looked down at the butter shaking in his grocery cart. He was coming up on the dairy in the refrigerated section to grab the milk when a message rang out on the P.A. “The Huckley Mini Mart will be closing in 15 minutes, The Huckley Mini Mart will be closing in 15 minutes, thank you for shopping at Huckley Mini Mart and have a great evening.” Jonah glanced at the clock above the produce aisle. The time was 8:45, he grabbed the milk, dropped it into the grocery cart and headed to the checkout aisle. Since it was so close to closing time almost nobody was at the checkout aisle so he had no reason to rush there. He arrived at the checkout aisle and only saw one clerk waiting at the checkout aisle. He walked up to him, he was wearing a black T-shirt that said Bones are Dead with a skull looking symbol behind the red and green letters. He had his ears pierced and long black hair that went to his shoulders. On his shirt was a gold pin that said Daniel B.

Jonah put his items on the conveyor belt and began to talk to Daniel. “Bands these days” murmured Jonah as he placed the milk carton on the conveyor belt. “Bones are Dead is not any band, they have shown the truth about society to me, through their music” announced Daniel as he put the butter and milk in the white shopping bag, which had a yellow smiley face that read; “Thank You for Shopping at Huckley Mini Mart, Come Again Soon!” Under his breath Jonah said “Whatever” and rooted through his pocket for the coupon he had. Daniel said “That will be $6.50” as Jonah placed the coupon on the conveyor belt. “I have a coupon” said Jonah “It’s expired.” “No it isn’t! It expires December 20 and today is December 18!” Daniel glared at him as Jonah sighed and placed a five and a one, and all his coins on the conveyor belt. As he walked away he said,, “Keep the change!” “If there is any” he said under his breath. Walking up to the automatic doors of the Huckley Mini Mart he noticed that none of the street lights were on, it was pitch black outside. He pulled out his car keys and unlocked his car but couldn’t see the head or tail lights. Suddenly it seemed almost as if the darkness was a wall, edging closer to him. He started toward the ominess black of the night, but couldn’t, he was frozen to the spot. All he could do was stare at the white door and its clear glass paneling. Daniel looked up from his phone and cocked his head looking at Jonah curiously, “Are you going to leave or…” But before Daniel could finish his sentence the glass paneling shattered and Jonah flew in the air and slammed into the white tile ground in front of the toiletries aisle. He felt dizzy and confused as he looked about himself, checking his surroundings. He stood up and grabbed the edge of the metal shelf next him feeling the holes along it with his fingertips. He steadied himself and looked at the door, a shadow, like a storm cloud, hung in the air in front of the door.

The shadow moved of its own accord. It turned almost facing him now then skreiched a high pitch scream like a banshee and charged. As it flew in the air it twisted and turned like a corkscrew making a swishing sound all the way. He didn’t know if he should fear it our comfort it, but a gut feeling inside, told him to run. He turned and saw the elevator to the second floor of the Mini Mart. He sprinted towards it stumbling, attempting to maintain his balance, he was still dizzy from his fall. He stumbled to the left and tripped, smashing into the paper towels. He turned around and saw the shadow, it was still twisting towards him the swishing getting louder and louder as it approached. It shrieked, picking up speed. He started sprinting and reached the elevator. He began hitting the up arrow that was in the wall, getting more and more inpatient, as the shadow drew nearer and nearer. The elevator doors slowly opened. The shadow was only a few feet away, at most, he jumped in and mashed the second floor button. The shadow screeched and flew off. He heard static almost blare in his ears but then it was over, the elevator began to rise then stopped. The lights in the elevator went out and through the glass walls of the elevator he could see the lights in the rest of the Mini Mart go out aisle by aisle. A loud screech coming from seemingly nowhere caused the glass walls around him to shatter. The shadow was floating right in front of the rear wall twisting and swishing. Jonah backed up against the elevator door and looked out both of the shattered walls. One lead to a small but risky drop to the main level, the other had a blue railing above it, the second floor. He ran to the left wall and leaped. His hands grasped the twisted blue bars of the railing. Jonah hoisted himself up, placing one foot on the rim of the floor to push himself over the railing. He threw one foot over the edge, then the other and looked behind him, the shadow was peeking around the corner of the elevator, it began speeding towards him. Jonah turned and began to run but before he could make it far he tripped and fell face first on the ground. The shadow approached him, Jonah crawled backwards into the shelf behind him. He leaped to his feet and turned to face the shelf, on it were some plastic baseball bats. “How convenient” thought Jonah as he grabbed one and turned around swinging it at the shadow. A hole appeared in the shadow’s body but as quickly as it was there it was gone. Jonah gasped.“What on earth?”

He dropped the bat and kept running he turned around and saw Daniel, he was sprawled on the ground beside one of the aisles. Jonah wondered if he was dead. An icy pinprick touched his back and he felt lose of all motor functions as he collapsed on the ground and landed on his knees. Searing, icy pain shot through his body as darkness surrounded him, it was closing in on him like a bubble, but he couldn’t move, the only thing he could think about was the pain and the darkness. The pain was unbearable, he screamed and the pain was released, all he could see was a bright light. He heard a shriek, than a screech, and the light and shadow and pain were all lifted. All that was left was his heart beating like a drum, a feeling of dread, and a exhaustion. Jonah got up stumbling, he couldn’t process what had happened and could barely walk. Lights flickered in and out as the elevator doors opened and slammed shut. He barely got into the elevator and clicked the first floor button and heard loud static. He slumped against the ground and his eyes closed shut as he feel asleep. Jonah woke up with a jolt, gasping for air and sweating like crazy. There was glass everywhere. He was still in the elevator, he didn’t know what time it was or how long he had been asleep. The lights were on and the elevator doors were open as he got up. He had scrapes and bruises covering his body. Shelves were knocked down, glass was everywhere and products were smashed and broken across the floor. He looked at his cracked watch, it read 11:30. He must have been out for a while by now. He couldn’t remember much about what had happened. He began heading out to the entrance of the store so he could go home. He walked up to the entrance and stepped through the shattered white doors and into the cold black night. When he got out the first thing he noticed was that there was nobody on the streets, they were empty. Everything else though, was complete havoc and chaos. Cars were crashed into buildings, fire hydrants, other cars, some were flipped, and some were even on fire. He turned around in a complete circle expecting to see at least one living soul, but it appeared that none existed, everyone was gone. He began walking towards where he had left his car. When he got to his car all the windows were shattered, the bumper was smashed, and the hood was open. Jonah reached in and

opened the door. Sticking the key in the ignition he attempted to start the car. It sputtered came to life, then died. He knew he would have to walk back, it was a long walk back to his house, but he would have to do it since his car was broken. After about fifteen minutes he came across a pile of rubble. He slowly climbed the rubble, curiosity filling him as he heard a familiar screech. When he got to the top he looked out, it was a barren field roughly two football fields in length and width. His jaw dropped as he looked upon the barren landscape, what could have caused all this. Then he noticed a strange thing as he looked down, he saw a house that looked like his, it was among a few others left on the almost barren field. He couldn’t be sure that it was his because the crater had no sense of direction but he began running towards it. As he got closer he saw something else getting closer, another screech filled the air and he remembered the shadow gaining on him, and the pain, as soon as he thought of it, a jolt of searing shot along his spine. He feel on his knees, just like he had at the store, but this time he could do nothing but watch. He was exhausted and the pain held him still like a chain. The shadow reached the house and enveloped it like a blanket and soon it was gone. Blanketed by the screeching of the shadow beast he could hear a slam and say blue light shining on the ground in front of him. A hand shot up to his mouth and before he could do anything he heard an almost old voice say, “Don’t scream” as Jonah felt a prick in his arm like a needle. A couple seconds passed and his eyes grew weary as his sight grew dim and everything went black, as he fell unconscious.

THE END Or is it…?

Excerpt of Seven Days After Twenty-eight. By Ben O’Brien, grade 7. Day 1 “This will be the last time.” my mom had told me. After this, you and your brother can quit Boy Scouts. And so I’m here. In a car full of jerks. On my way to a week of summer camp. It’s very anticlimactic you see. After what I might call the greatest month of my life, I’m being hauled off to Boy Scout camp. My summer started off with a month long session of TTE, an acting camp. It was a long day camp that had camp outs every Thursday nights/Friday mornings and didn’t happen during the weekends. I joined an ensemble, went on tour, made a bunch of new friends, and discovered that acting meant a lot more to me than I thought it did. But my final performance, the last day of TTE, was yesterday. And today I started Boy Scout camp. Early this morning, I had woken up, put on my uniform, and took my luggage to the church. The ride I was assigned to was in Mr Wilson’s car, and that sounded pretty good to me, because he’d probably be with new scouts, like his son Jake. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The other scouts I was riding with were the Dragon patrol, some jerky fifth years. Immediately when I got in the car and took the middle seat, Russel, one of the Dragon patrol members, shouted “Seriously?! We’re riding with this stupid second year?! Ug! He’s such a wimp!” I have no idea what he was talking about, honest. A lot of people are under the misconception that because most of the scouts from my generation in the troop are either wimpy or stupid, all of them are. In fact, When people think of my patrol, the Phoenix patrol, they don’t think of me, the responsible patrol leader, (Which I had earned the title of by being the last person to say “Not it”, because by the third patrol rework, we all knew that being patrol leader sucked.) or my brother, who works hard and acts mature. They think of Mike, an idiotic scout who never behaves and is always getting into fights with other patrols or adults. Thus our patrol is pinned as a troublemaker patrol, because of one out of three people in it. Anyway, I figured Russell was either someone under that misconception, or he had me mixed up with someone else. I got similar reactions from the other Dragon scouts in the car, and when I looked over at Mr. Wilson expecting him to stand up for me, I noticed he wasn’t paying attention. It was a cramped car, so one of the Dragon scouts, Jun, thought it would be a good Idea to put his heavy bag on my lap, and when I tried to move it, he threatened “The bag stays on your lap!” They also wanted to watch Family Guy on Russell's phone, which (Don’t judge) I think is a terrible show. And so everyone could see, they also put the phone on my lap. So I was literally forced to watch a show I didn’t like. Eventually, everyone but me stopped and went to sleep, so I started thinking about life, and why I’m here, in a car full of jerks. That is, until I got to the rest stop. When we stopped at the rest stop, I met up with my patrol mates, who had gone in a car together, to eat lunch. While we were eating, I asked them if I could switch to their car. They said to ask Mike’s dad, so I did, and he told me to ask Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson asked if the other driver was okay with it, and I said yes. So that’s how the rest of my ride to the camp was a lot less miserable. We eventually got to the camp, where we were led to our campsite to put our gear in our tents. I unfortunately shared my tent with Kevin, a very annoying third year who was always talking and never knew when to shut up. I had gotten him because everyone else had already paired up, except for this one kid who was worse.

We went on a tour of the camp, ate dinner, which was terrible, then went back to our campsite for the rest of the evening. I found out there was no service at the camp, and the wifi password was only given out to adults. This meant I had no way of contacting my friends or family. But before I went to bed, I heard a rumor that a scout in our troop had gotten ahold of the wifi password. I decided I would find out more about this rumor tomorrow, and see if I could get in contact with the outside world. Will the author think of a name for the main character? WIll said main character get ahold of the wifi? What other problems will he face? Will the author have enough time to finish the book? Find out in 7 Days After 28 (If itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever released)

@TheReset By William Baker, 12.3 years old. My mother is dressing me up for my big day, Graduation day. I am thrilled to be graduating high school and become an adult. “Do you think that looks nice Cora?”, says Faith, my mother. She knows that I hate red and that I’ve always liked green for my entire life over any other color, but I just tell her that it's great because I don’t want to get her upset again: “It’s great. It’s better than what dad would’ve done.” I still remember watching my dad die of lung cancer on his deathbed. It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen, but he wasn’t that nice anyway. He was very harsh and once threatened to kill my mother if she didn’t do taxes by herself for the next five years. He even threatened to kill me if I didn’t get an a on an algebra 2 test. Luckily I got an a on the test because I spent all of my free time studying instead of playing with my friends or playing video games. “Are you sure?” my mother interrupts my thoughts by asking. “Yes. I’m sure,” I replied. She seems like she wants to make sure that I’m fine with what I am wearing so that I don’t complain. “Mom, are you implying that you don’t want me to complain about my dress?” I ask my mom. “Yes, and I want you to have a great time at your graduation because I remember I hated my dress.” I just want her out of my freaking life because she barely did anything for me. I always had to be the one to go to the grocery store, feed all of our 20 pets, do the laundry, do our taxes, do my homework by myself, work at Creamery of Ice for about five horrible hours each day, --My mother interrupts my thoughts by asking, "are you ready?" I reply confidently, "Yes, yes I am."

**** Is graduation day going to live up to the hype that I was hoping? I'm only 16, and can't believe that I finished high school four and a half years early. Now that I think of it, I'm going to be one of the only people there who can't drink. Nevertheless, I think that I'll have a fantastic time there. But what if I don't? What if I'm just bored within the 5 hours that I'm there. Like how I was a lot at Creamery Of Ice. Usually, it was very, very, VERY slow. as in that, there were rarely any people there. But when there were people there, it was a LOT of people. Just a looooong line. Sometimes, it would only be a person

each time the other was done being served. If that happened, I was at least not bored, but I had to make Ice Cream the entire time. Now that I think of it, my thoughts are contradicting, in a way. Well, what I want is for there to be a customer every minute or so because I wouldn't be bored, yet I wouldn't have a constant stream of customers. What I mentioned previously would be great anyway, we are required to start a timer the moment that we start preparing the food. To make sure, there are about 20 security cameras in the store just for that. and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not all. If we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t finish making it in under five minutes, we were fired. It seems crazy, but it's true. "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey!" my mother says to me. I think she was trying to talk to me while I was thinking. I guess I was in "the zone". "Yes Mom," I reply. "You haven't been responding to me," my mother tells me, "What's wrong?" I guess my theory was correct. "Nothing," I respond, "I guess I just zoned you out." "What's up?" I say without second guessing myself. "I was just wondering how you're feeling," my mother replies,"You've been distant lately." I think about my mom's words. The phrase "You've been distant lately" makes me puzzled. I thought I was spending a lot of time with my mom. Is she just doing this because I didn't want to go to that concert with her or that scrapbooking convention? Just thinking about it makes me feel like my mom is ungrateful of the time that we have spent with each other. Or is it just me? am I not spending enough time with my mom? I might not be. Now that I think about it more, I have been a little distant lately. Going out with friends, playing my games with my friends in my room, doing homework, and more. Oh my gosh. I've been spending too much time doing homework. Wait, hold your horses, Cora. That can't be the reason because my mom understands that I have a ton of homework because she has been through the same. Or has she? I've evidence on her computer that she skipped high-school. That might not be the case. She might have just skipped the twelfth grade, the grade that I'm in. I can't wait until I'm legally finished with high-school, twelfth grade, and legally an adult. "I've been feeling fine," I lie. "Okay," my mom replies in a mix of sadness, anger, and frustration. I ask desperately, "How long have we been walking, mom?" "We've been walking for only five minutes," my mother replies in pure honesty. "Really? How has it only been five minutes?" "I don't know," my mother replies, "You've probably been overthinking." "Yeah, I think I have."

****

We finally arrive at the party. I watch my mother go flirt while I try to make friends. I start to wait in line at Creamery Of Ice. I realize that I am standing right behind Xanar, our current Xanar. Wait a second! He doesn't have any guards! Strange. I try to get Xanar's attention by speaking: "Hey!" “Oh! I didn't see you there! Hello there sixteen-year-old! Where are your parents? You shouldn't be here right now because--" "I am completely authorized to be here!", I snap. "How the heck are you authorized to be here?", he replies extremely quickly, "You’re only sixteen years old!" "I graduated early because I skipped four grades," I reply in a cocky voice. He replies in a shocking voice, "Dear Lord!" "What?" "How in mother nature did you skip FOUR freaking grades?" "Well, I actually skipped 4.5 grades." "Oh... my.... gosh....", he replies in pure shock. "What?" "HOW DID YOU SKIP 4.5 GRADES?!!?!?!?!", he exclaims. "Because I'm smart." He probably thinks that he just got roasted by a sixteen-year-old. He didn't. I think… "I've lost my appetite for ice cream. I'm gonna go flirt with your mom while I’m drunk," he says. I think my mom is drunk too. I'm gonna go watch them from a safe distance. If my mom sees me while she's drunk, she will try to kill me. No one knows why she does it. Even the doctors can't figure it out. Wait a second is that my boyfriend Brad?!?!? Why is he getting arrested? Oh! He seems to be drinking illegally. *Sigh* Time to break up with another boy. I run over to the five police officers arresting him. He keeps trying to break free. No wonder why there are five of them. "Hi there, Brad." "Oh hi there, Cora. It seems that you've caught me in an awkward situation." "It seems like I have," I walk away to call his mom and tell her that he just got arrested. It seems like he's going to get grounded after they bail him out.

** 55 minutes later ** BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! “WHaT THE HECK IS THaT NOISE?!?!” Xanar exclaims. “I DON'T KNOW!” I reply.

To be continued...