Medusas (Mattea V., Grade 5

and my floor. It stood in the corner of our room for about 2 years, until the 7 year old me finally decided to complete the challenge. Russell, my youngest brother, who was now 5, was too little to help, so Lincoln (my other younger brother) and I completed the masterpiece. It stood on our clothes shelf until the move. At 10 years old, we moved into our new house. One of the things that had to be moved by hand was the Tower Bridge. Since we only moved a block, my parents walked it into our new house, where it sat securely next to the couch ready for it to be moved up into my room. We decided we should move it upstairs to my room that day, but it got delayed and delayed until we forgot about it. Then one day, my worst nightmare came true, and Russell tripped while jumping on the couch. I watched in horror as he tripped and accidentally pushed a pile of books onto my now destroyed 4000 piece lego set. “No!!” I screamed. Frustration was like watching something that took so long to build get crushed in a blink of an eye. I watched in slow-mo as all the hours I had spent building it got dumped in the trash. The towers ripped apart, the bridge cracking into pieces, the spires and cables getting snapped in a billion different places, and falling onto the floor, with an explosion of pieces. Boom! “Sorry,” Russell mumbled like he didn’t even care. He was usually nice and was probably just trying to have some fun. But he had done something so mean to me, that even if by accident, I still wanted him to get severely punished. Even after my various complaints to my parents, Russell’s only punishment was to go to his room for 10 minutes. I imagined the gleaming bridge put back together. I finally managed to fix the bridge in five days, but I was still missing a green car and a red bus. As soon as it was fixed, Marcus and the Tower Bridge we immediately moved it to my room, where it sits to this day. Even after searching the scene for weeks and weeks on end, the green car and red bus were nowhere to be found. Eventually my frustration faded and everything was okay… except the lost car and bus.

Medusas By Mattea V., Grade 5

The cool breeze fluttered past my face as I lay down in the shade. My dripping wet bathing suit had started to dry, just as I heard Dad exclaim, “Oh, the water is so nice and clear!” It was true. I could see the ocean floor from where I was lying on the deck of the boat. “Mattea, you should come in!” Mom called from the paddleboard. “No thanks. I just got out!” I replied, sitting up to watch my mom, dad, and sister swim in the water. It did look nice, but I had definitely swam enough that morning. I laid back down, tired. It was definitely easy to fall asleep on a rocking boat. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts

wander to what we had done. It was our second day on the boat here in Mallorca, and I was enjoying my time. My great aunt and uncle were very kind, and I felt so grateful they had invited us to spend the week with them on their boat. When my dad told me that my family, my grandparents, and I were invited, I couldn’t stop thinking about the trip. It was already so much fun, and I knew my dreams of this trip being amazing were coming true. I hoped that the rest of this trip would be just as peaceful as it already was. Unfortunately, there were creatures in the ocean that could cause a lot of pain. My mom was about to meet one. “OOOOWWWW!!!” Mom suddenly cried, loud enough to hear from miles away. I jolted up from my spot and ran to the ladder at the back of the boat. Mom was floating in the water as I watched pain spread across her face. Swimming away speedily was a medusa, like it knew it was in trouble. It was smaller than I expected, about half a foot long, with a yellowish - clearish body and tentacles. Little red dots sprinkled at the top. It was a beautiful creature, but I shuddered to think of all the pain it caused. “Come here, come here!” I screamed at Dad, who had scooped up Mom and was swimming as fast as he could to the water. I imagined all the things that might have happened to her. Was the jellyfish poisonous? Would my mom get hives where she got stung, or would she have a scar? I really hoped it was nothing bad, and that no one else got stung. Luckily, my sister had already come out of the ocean, so she was safe. I watched as everybody congregated on the deck, startled by all the noise. “¿Que paso?” My grandpa asked. Everyone was staring at my mom’s right shoulder. It was redder than usual, and a brown scar had started to form. “The medusa came, and it stung me on my shoulder.” Mom said, barely able to speak. “A medusa!” My grandma exclaimed, very surprised. Right then, the two people helping on the boat, Georgie and Joe, came out of their room downstairs. “What happened?” Georgie asked. “Catalina got stung by a jellyfish. Do you have any sting relief?” Dad replied. “A jellyfish?” Joe said, fishing for the sting relief. “We haven’t seen those in a while. They are probably coming here now, but hopefully we will still be able to swim.” “So, when I get stung by a mysterious sea creature you tell me I’ll be fine, yet when Mama gets stung you don’t?” My dad didn’t respond. He was busy applying the sting relief. “Here we go,” said Georgie, looking at something on her phone. “Based on your description, you were stung by a baby Mauve jellyfish. Luckily they aren’t poisonous, but they can leave scars, like the one you got.”

I hugged Mom, squeezing her hard enough that I could feel it, too. I was so glad she was ok. I thought back to when we were planning this trip. This past year had been hard with Covid - 19. Luckily no one in my family got sick, and I was hoping this would be the trip where everyone could just relax. Everybody needed to get away from the rest of the world. I came out of my daydream and focused on Georgie. She was continuing to update my mind’s jellyfish wikipedia page.