Literary Magazine 2013

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LITERARY MAGAZIN A forum for stud E ent exp res

ARROW

Renton High School 400 South 2nd Street Renton, WA 98057

CALLING ALL SOULFUL ARTISTS,BEATNIK POETS,HARDCORE RAPPERS,INK-STAINED CARTOONISTS,FEDORA-SPORTING PIANISTS,CONCERT POSTER DESIGNERS,SPACE NEEDLE ILLUSTRATORS,GRACEFUL BALLROOM DANCERS,HEARTWRENCHING WRITERS,TEAR-JERKING ORATERS,OSCAR-WINNING PERFORMERS,CALOUSED SCULPTORS,MACHO-MAN BANJO PLUCKERS,CORSET-BURNING OPERA SINGERS,TRENDING TWEETERS,STRESSED SOCIAL-MEDIA MANAGERS,OBSESSIVE APPLE USERS,COMPULSIVE TUMBLR BLOGGERS,CRIME SCENE SKETCH ARTISTS,BACK-BREAKING CARNIES,CAPITOL HILL YOGIS,SAFEWAY DONUT BAKERS,CANDLESTICK MAKERS,SOLITARY BATHTUB LOUNGERS,GOOFY-FACED COURT JESTERS,GILDED GOBLET-CLUTCHING THRONE SITTERS,FIT-THROWERS,SILKSTOCKINGED HARLOTS,SMOOTH CRIMINALS,SWEDISH MEATBALL THIEVES,GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN WHOLE GRAIN MARIONBERRY PASTRY PUFF MUNCHERS,FACE-PAINTED HONEYS,JUST-ONESTRAP-ON-MY-OVERALLS THUGS,STRAIGHT-TOOTHED CHANNEL SURFERS,NOSTALGIC DISNEY LOVERS,HOLLOW-HEADED RADIO LISTENERS,AND SIREN SEDUCED CYCLOPSBLINDING NOBODY-NAMED SAILORS:THIS LITERARY MAGAZINE IS FOR YOU. IT’S CALLED PASSION.

ArrowApologiesVision Hi , this isn’t your usual ARROW.

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Aaliyah Howly a ici Al to preserve original content. Unsigned editorials and editorial cartoons represent the majority view of ARROW editorial board and do not represent the views of the Renton School District or RHS. Opinions, commentaries, satires, and perspectives are the views of the writers and artists, not the Renton School District or ARROW editorial board.

ARROW is financed by advertising based on sizedetermined rates. These range from $20-$80.

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Vanessa Abenojar, Editor-in-Chief

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The staff welcomes letters to the editor and will publish letters which meet our standards of good taste (as space permits). Letters must be signed. ARROW reserves the right to edit letters, though every attempt will be made

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ARROW is printed eight times a year by Pacific Publishing Company in Seattle, Washington. Word processing, graphics and layouts are created on Microsoft Office 2007 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 programs. ARROW has a press run of 2,000.

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ARROW is an open forum produced by extremely loud guacamole addicts, photobombers, and Justin Timberlake fan girl screamers. Their only weakness is food, the good kind. They all can rodomontade about the amazing artwork that happens at Renton High School at 400 S. 2nd St., Renton, WA, 98057. We are all artists. The editor-in-chief is senior Vanessa Abenojar.

You can contact her at vanessa.abenojar@gmail.com

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With great love,

FINE PRINT

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Ksenia Ivanova

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We haven’t actually had a “usual” ARROW in a long while, but that’s how we roll. We love the unusual.

I’m going to confuse you a little more right now. By apologizing and then unnecessarily yelling at you.

I’m sorry if you had to submit a piece of writing or art to us for a grade for one of your classes. I wish you had done it voluntarily. I’m sorry if you wanted to get printed but didn’t.

There was a huge juicy stack to choose from but I feel like you guys held out on us! (This is where I get angry.) We looked through about 130 submissions. That’s not even enough students to fill up the IPAC. Don’t lie. You’re an artist. I know you are.

Why couldn’t you just prove it to us?

Why couldn’t you come out from under your tired coat? Why couldn’t bloom from your bud and emerge as a winner of our blind judgment?

Blind judging is when a third party—not someone from ARROW—runs through OUR submissions before we have the opportunity to see who submitted what. The third party is usually a ninja, and the ninja prints the submissions and strips them of the creators’ names, and labels them with a horrible, impersonal number—so that all the ARROW staff sees is pure artwork.

The sections in this fancy issue run circles around our theme: Passion.

To us, Passion means: Vision, the thing that puts perspective under a microscope.

Addiction, the thing that makes us realize that no matter what we do, where we go, we can’t quit or stay away.

Tribulation, the thing that illuminates amidst the dim or black.

Devotion, the thing that surfs on committed waters.

Affection, the thing that makes our cheeks boil with bubblegum.

Illusion, the thing that you may think you can’t see but is always there.

Creation, the thing that separates the animals from the humans because our fingers have details and need to sometimes be reminded that we have no limits.

Finally, Ambition, the thing that pushes and pulls your dreams.

Hold this issue like an addict. Read it with passion.

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Alex Kalinin

ApologiesVisionAddiction

I used to think small.

ARROW 234

AALIYAH

HAWLEY QUIET

As small as the speck of green I was born on some 4,000 miles away.

Its edge was my edge, INTERNET all rocky and rugged. L O V I N G There was nothing B O O K beyond it worth seeing.

Just more blues from R E A D E R the sky that escaped me In her own words: not sure where and oceans that waved goodbye. I’m my inspiration Then something hit me. came for this one.

It swooped me up on four I just went home opened my engines and ferried me and window. It’s kind of farther than I’d ever been. emotional for me to think about it. I lived

Now the Space Needle is my on the US Virgin

palm tree. I absolutely adore the rain.

Islands. It’s way different from here.

And everything small has been left to It’s a small place.

trail along those edges Not really advanced.

because there are no cages I feel very fortunate to be here. in the Evergreen State.

Times have changed What is going on anymore?

This stream of consciousness doesn’t even make sense to me I don’t know what happened To me or my life Everything has changed I feel sometimes Like it is all a dream And one day I will wake up and remember none of it And none of it will be real Things are too different And not what they should be Definitely not what they should be [EMMA COLLIER]

[JHANA WILLIAMS]

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I R F O R C E

VANESSA ABENOJAR HOPELESS ROMANTIC

IN HER WORDS: When I told my boyfriend that I submitted the photo I took of his car into the lit mag, he asked me why. I told him that it was more than just a photo of his car at Alki because it’s where he asked me out, it’s our favorite place, and the car is a symbol of a new life because he’s the one making the monthly payments as an adult. I’m the first girlfriend to A be in that car, and personally our lives have P changed a lot since he got the car.

VisionAddictionTribulation

ARROW456

Tired of this blandness.

I think that’s how I will always feel.

[BANYON MCBRAYER]

AddictionTribulationCreation I skipped first period that day

to avoid a scolding about missing assignments.

The sun wasn’t up yet, despite it being almost eight, then,

I saw this little kid... had been trying to swing earlier. He wasn’t doing crafts or passed by on my left. It was a kids’ school and a high school, coloring or even talking to the other children. Just sitting.

He was sitting on a swing. The local Christian academy

so all of the little ones were in the same courtyard as the bigger ones. I stopped on the corner, and watched through

Someone from outside my range of view threw a marker from the whiteboard at his head. He

the fence.

bowed , and let a lone tear fall to the

This little kid, he was sitting on a swing, he was alone. He tried to swing, but he just ended up kicking uselessly .

ground in front of him.

I drew away my attention and reached in my pocket for my book. As I pulled it out, this girl, an older girl , probably

that one tear for a good amount of time,

my age, she gave me this little half-smile and watched

children who sit alone and get markers

I turned around and thought about and I began to cry myself, for all of the

me. When I did a little wave at her, she turned toward the thrown at them. For all of the children classrooms, and then giggled. That cracked me up. It cracked who will grow up and be unaccepted her up, too.

After the bell before classes rang and all the kids had

by their peers, when all they want to do is say hello . I cried for all of the kids

BANYON M C B R AY E R

INSOMNIAC VINYL-LOVING CELLO- PLAYING

W R I T E R gone inside, I walked into the courtyard. Now, it was nothing who would grow up and have their IN HIS WORDS: Usually more than a receptacle for trash and dead leaves . I sat on when I’m out I walk hearts broken , or lose their homes , or around aimlessly.

I the nearest granite bench and continued to read. have to skip a meal, or two , or go to jail , took an event that

Behind me was a class of small kids all doing some sort of or the ones that will become addicts , arts and crafts. Soon after, some nun came by and opened or live a life on someone else’s terms. the window, allowing me to hear the dull roar of children Then I began to cried for myself . I cried talking, peppered with screams and laughs.

I saw this kid sitting in the corner, the same kid who

because these children, just like me, cannot wait to grow up.

actually happened to me, then fictionalized a bunch of the details to make a story out of it. Originally, I posted it to my Tumblr where I post most of my stories.

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember.

ARROW 678

It repulses me, the thought of discrimination exploiting society in dramatic measures.

I have the ability to reduce your life span and switch your head, filled with uncanny notions, off.

You are repugnant, gruesome, dreadful, and you have no authority to long subsist in this already corruptedworld.

[ELIZABETH NGUYEN]

Because my friend died, I cry every night. I met her in elementary school. I want to cry right now. We started high school. I am in love with her. She fell to ashes. She is Gone.

[DOMINIQUE VIRAY]

Those gloves on his hands just take them off and put them in the back of the closet I want to spin around in all those colors I hope they clean up after they are done tossing things around [SAMANTHA HONMYO]

789 ARROW

ANGELA VU DESIGNER CREATOR SWIMMER ILLUSTRATOR G

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IN HER WORDS: I like making characters for fun.

I usually draw people and create sci-fi, fantasy or military inspired character design and illustration because I grew up watching and playing these genres of games.

I’ve been teaching myself Photoshop for almost eight years in hopes of being as amazing as the artists from Blizzard Entertainment and other concept game artists like Sparth, who has done Assassin’s Creed and Halo 4 art. This art piece features a character I often mess around with for designing.

He has his own backstory which is complicated but from it I have created casual designs to military uniforms and sci-fi suits to medieval.

In today’s society, looking good in front of

and skinny and are supposed to be there only

other people is important. In fact, people get

to please the eye of everyone else. The truth

the first impression of what others are just by

is that no woman is perfect, and the pressure

looking at them, how they care for themselves,

that women have to be presentable in front

what they wear. That is why there is always

of everyone drives them to always look for

that pressure of fitting in with your peers; it

products that can help them be accepted more

is human nature that people want to be part

into society. Men have the same pressure, but

of something. People want to fit in with the

there is even a greater pressure on the women

rest and feel accepted. In the society we live

of today. [CYNTHIA MORA]

in today, women are supposed to be beautiful

ARROW8910

[ANGELA VU]

It was just like old times. They make a circle, just like the way he used to when they spent time together.

“Well damn,” Kurt says, “you guys haven’t changed a bit! Well, except you Eric, you’ve gained some pounds there.”

Everyone laughs, and Lenny joins in. “Yeah, you shouldn’t be talking Kurt. I heard your woman is doing a good job being a housewife. Oh wait, that’s you!”

More laughter comes, and then silence. The men look into each others’ eyes and all of them were ready to forgive.

“That game sure did give us action and adventure,” says Rob. Eric grins. “Yeah, remember when I beat you up after you pushed me?”

“You did not,” Robert says with a glare. Soon enough, the best friends begin to argue again.

Honestly, they didn’t mind arguing because they missed it. It was good to be back again. [ KIZZTAL UNTALAN]

DETERMINED

and pictures in each panel, that is what I love the most. Gamaton is a story about an orphan boy named Rayus who discovers a new world.

He finds out this new-found location is the death place of his parents.

He meets his guardian Zion and explores the world with his best Ria Rose and Evan Nightfall. The more he explores, the closer he RAMBUNCTIOUS friends gets to knowing who is responsible for the death of his parents. This R A N D O M is a small part of the ending scene where Zion shields Rayus from an D R E A M E R attack. Rayus is devastated, having lost the only family he had left.

ASIROT IMAGINATIVE

WORDS: It’s the music that I listen to that brings my comics to A D R I A N INlife.HISI really like drawing but the story behind my comics, the meaning

ARROW 101112

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[ASHLEY

KELLEY]

[DEREK ELIZONDO]

DevotionAffectionIllusion Elementary/Childhood: Why is it that the worst memories are the ones we remember? I remember the silence. I remember the splitting of the house. I remember dressing in all black. What do I remember of

the good times in my childhood? I remember school. That was my escape. As a kid, I didn’t know what was

NORLENE TEJADA RHYTHMIC STUMBLER

S O F T B A L L P

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happening at the time.I didn’t know what was happening around me, what was slowly falling apart at the

seams. By the time I was 11 years old, I had experienced so much but, at the same time, so little.

E N T H U S I A S T

IN HER WORDS: This is just a stream of conciousness that I wrote to describe my life and my memories that I remember about it. I tend not to use this kind of vocabulary when talking or writing but for this piece I thought it was appropriate.

Middle School/Pre-teen Years: I had reached a kind of maturity you wouldn’t expect from a pre-teen girl. I was the responsible one, the caring one, the fun one. I was getting a taste of what was to come in

high school. These years were some of the best. Life at home after the split was, for lack of a good description,

awkwardly tense. My brother and I would try to do stuff for our dad, but that would lead to fights with our

mom. Honestly, even though I was happpier at this time, I was still at my most vulnerable state.

High school/Now: High school is a big step. Through the challenges, I smile everyday, for the most part, the smile is real. These past two years though, I don’t know whether I’ve been the best friend to everyone or if

I’m just used as a “venting machine.” I didn’t mind, but it has got more frequent, and now, I don’t know if I’m

happy to be someone’s shoulder to cry on or if I will end up drowning completely

with no savior of my own.

ARROW121314

I like being involved with folks who have a certain method to their madness, which even they still have much to learn about.

The problem with this is sometimes I don’t like what I find. Sometimes, I, and occasionally the both of us, get in too deep, too involved. Sometimes, I find out what the reasons are for their actions, and a lot of times, it seems like there really isn’t any reason at all.

Maybe, a part of me has given up on searching for these kinds of people. But I don’t really know which route is lonelier now: not knowing where to look for a personality with depth or being left alone.

The reason for that, I think, is because I tend to pour way too much of myself out to one person at a time. So here we are, a person who knows everything about me, and I am way too damn stubborn and/or insecure to get close to anyone else.

Too much effort. And for what?

I’m no gambler; I don’t like taking a chance on something that takes too much time and dedication on my part only to get squat in the end. So all of this, all of this, has left me a bitter human being. And just like that, I’m dissatisfied with two different aspects of my life on multiple levels.

Leaving me more lost.

Too many people make too many decisions without really analyzing why they do. They just do, and do little thinking doing so. I’d like for my future guy to think about it, wonder about it, spend hours pondering it. [NINI NGUYEN]

Give my arms to the boy who can’t carry his dying sister to the hospital Give my mouth to the boy who can’t speak for himself Give my eyes to the boy who can only see the dead Give my shoulders to the boy who has no one to help him hold his head up Give my knees to the boy who has no one to protect his fall Give my legs to the boy who walks up the mountain everyday to work Give my back to the boy who picks up trash in streets to sell Give my all to the boy who I don’t know, for that is all I want to do before I ever go [CARINA TRAN]

AffectionIllusionAmbition

JORDAN BOWENS W I L D A T H L E T E CHEERFUL

P R E S I D E N T L E A D E R IN HIS WORDS: “On Tumblr®, I always see these posts about this word ‘wanderlust’ and I’ve heard the word in songs before, so I looked it up. I found out it meant a strong desire to travel, to see the world. I just feel like it really describes me because I’m going to Syracuse University. It gives me the chance to go somewhere completely different, see something I’ve never seen. I love that. The reason I chose to do this is because I think words are awesome, especially those rarely used that hold so much meaning.”

Silence is peaceful.

Silence is the moment after the first kiss

Silence is golden.

with your soul mate.

Silence is libraries

Silence is when there is nothing else to be said.

Silence is the first awkward moment in a

To you,

conversation.

Silence is a beauty, and even a gift.

Silence is staring into the stars on a warm autumn

But for me, Silence is tense,

night.

strange, and uncertain.

Silence is when your crush’s hand slightly grazes yours. To me, Silence is after the new love song is over.

Silence is the opposite of song. [KOYLE KENDRICK]

IllusionAmbition

ARROW141516

We hear these voices in our head constantly, telling us which road to take or which obstacle to break though sometimes I wonder how those voices can become silent

JHANA WILLIAMS INNOVATOR

DANCING W R I T E R C

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S

E

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K

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IN HER WORDS: The way I think, I’m always aware.

It controls me and clouds my thoughts. There are people who can relate and I wanted to let them know I feel the same way.

I wanted to connect with today and just put it all on paper. The world we live in is crazy. The options in this life never end.

JUST

I am old enough to know how many options are offered to us all to use to get away from it all

GIVE

People go out tryin’ it roll it up, take a hit getting messed up becomes a riot, taking over your body, eventually consuming your spirits left up with a brain full of

DON’T

Those thoughts can be overwhelming, make you go crazy but even something that seems to break you down can make you learn so much about your strength

UP

Take control of your own mind because

bruises

the world we live in today will only be

not willing to understand why you

against what you truly disagree with

even chose this

just don’t give up

[SUMAYO ABDI]

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