Our Voice

October 2011

INSIDE • First day of school pictures • Author Spotlight: James Patterson • The Finale: Dream Catchers final installment

Above: Pachia Vue, left, and Seng Lily Moua begin their senior year at Stevens Point Area Senior HIgh. Above left: A new school year is underway at Stevens Point Area Senior HIgh, complete with 11 digital clocks in the hallways which go into a countdown mode between classes, indicating the time remaining before the start of the next class.

(PHOTOS BY DOUG WOJCIK/STEVENS POINT JOURNAL)

2

October 2011

From top left clockwise: Brooke Stanton, Myranda Cherney, Lilyan Laszewski and Ethan Pelot are ready for their first day of fourthgrade at Plover-Whiting Elementary School. Delaney Pallen is ready for her first day of 4K at Canaland Christian Academy of Early Learning in Stevens Point. Hadyn Ligman, center, and her twin sisters Haley and Hanah, are ready for their first day of the new school at McDill Elementary School. Casey Jahn is ready for her first day of 10th grade at SPASH. Travis Adams gets on the school bus for his first day of kindergarten at Roosevelt I.D.E.A. School in Plover. Tyler Sopa, a junior at Stevens Point Area Senior High, is happy he no longer has to take the bus to school. Marissa Sopa waits for the bus on her first day of seventh grade at Ben Franklin Junior High School. (ALL PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED)

“My mom tells her friends that martial arts has been great for my confidence and that I’m treating my little sister better. That’s nice I guess. But I know why I love my martial arts school, IT’S FUN!”

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y now you’ve probably heard all about how martial arts lessons can help kids learn lifesaving self-defense skills.

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October 2011

Author Spotlight: James Patterson

I

By Danielle Pederson Our Voice Staff Stevens Point Area Senior High 10th grader

have found myself multiple times overwhelmed with some libraries and bookstores. Walking in and not having any idea what I was looking for, and if I would pick a bad book and waste the money or waste my time reading the book.

In this column I hope to help settle your stomachs and help you quit your fretting. In today’s Author Spotlight I will feature arguably one of the greatest writers still living, James Patterson.

Some of his books are a little more mature then others, but in an overall look he is a very wellknown author with a lot of talent.

Patterson is best known for his Maximum Ride, Alex Cross and Women’s Murder Club series.

He has written so many books it would take up a whole page if I let it, but here are just a few you can pick up at your local library or book store:

The Midnight Club Along Came a Spider Kiss the Girls Jack & Jill Hide & Seek Cat & Mouse Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas 1st to Die Beach House 2nd Chance The Big Bad Wolf The Lake House 3rd Degree * santaKid Honeymoon Lifeguard * The Angel Experiment * Sundays at Tiffany’s Sail Cross Country Step on a Crack The Murder of King Tut Beach Road Judge & Jury

The 6th Target You’ve Been Warned Mary, Mary * Worst Case Swimsuit Don’t Blink Private The Postcard Killers * Tick Tock Cross Fire Toys Cradle & All * Books that I’ve read and would suggest others pick up

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4

October 2011

Dead or Alive Our Voice Staff Ben Franklin Junior High School Ninth-Grader

“How ... But ... Why …

How …,” she stuttered, grasping for words.

Carlos looked at her, smiled and turned to Sling.

“Keep her here ‘till she’s well, then we’ll talk. OK? I still have work to finish,” he ordered.

Sling nodded robotically.

“OK. Get well, then talk.

Got it.”

A n g e l a ’s m o u t h w a s still open in shock, and she finally snapped back to reality and started demanding.

“You’re my dad? How do I know? Why’d you leave us? If you’re my dad, I mean. Why am I here? Why are you here?”

Angela sat up and glared at Carlos, releasing many years of covered up furry at her father for leaving her and Sherri.

“Sweetie, Angela, ahem, I’ll see you later. I need to go. Goodbye, uh, Angela.”

“Angie,” she muttered.

“Or Ang. Or Angel.” She regretted these last words.

Her mom had called her Angel when she was a tot.

It was too babyish for a time like this.

“Uh, OK, Angie. Well, bye.” Carlos seemed to force himself out of the room and gently shut the door behind him. Carleen, who had silently been watching from the room’s corner, started hustling about, fixing this and that, murmuring to herself. Sling returned to his grumpy mood, but stopped the questioning and left

Angela, shaking his head in disbelief.

A week later, after many boring hours spent in the small recovery room with no television (apparently there was no reception UNDER THE OCEAN) and with a mental list of questions to which Sling ignored whenever he got around to her room, which was once or twice, just to grab a paper he had dropped and to tell her to mind the maid, to which Angie had been being a stubborn pain, Angela was

allowed to leave and was escorted down to a large conference room. She kept tugging up the clothes they had given her, a khaki pair of shorts and a baggy p u r p l e T- s h i r t , w h i c h were both too big for her.

Carleen, who had taken care of her in the recovery room, led the way into the room and motioned to a chair for Angela.

“What am I doing here, again?” Angela asked. Lisa just smiled and shook her head. “Be patient, dear,” she answered. A few minutes later, men in suits

135 North Division Street, Stevens Point

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By Hanna Burch

Editor’s note: This is the 11th chapter in a continuing series.

The 12th installment will appear in the November issue.

trickled into the room and took seats, quietly talking among themselves and never passing more than a glance toward Angela.

Finally, Angela spotted Carlos stride in and take seat at the head of the table.

“Good Afternoon,” he started. A man three seats down from Carlos raised his hand. “Um, yes, Andrew?”

“Sir, isn’t it our policy to not allow minors into our production, let alone our highly confidential meetings?”

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Carlos smiled. “Why yes, Andrew, it is. Is there a problem with this rule?”

Andrew lowered his eyebrows, but said, “No, sir.”

He obviously either didn’t want to embarrass Carlos by asking what Angela was doing in the room, or he thought Carlos had a good reason for her presence and didn’t want to embarrass himself. Probably the later, Angela thought.

“Anyways,” Carlos continued, “we have very little topics to discuss today, but there is an extremely important subject we must deal with at the end. First, John, did you get those updates on the locations of the seekers?”

A man, who must’ve been John, nodded. “Yes, sir. I will send them over as soon as possible.”

Carlos gave a nod of satisfaction.

“Kurt, did you get copies

of the designs of, well, the Dog?” Kurt nodded, after following Carlos’ lingering glance on Angela. She supposed he was talking in some sort of code, so she had no idea what he was talking about.

Carlos went through, checking off items on a notepad, questioning the men in turn, until he set his pen down and folded his hands.

“Now, the matter of Angela, ahem, our visiting minor,” Carlos said uncertainly. The men, now with permission, looked at Angela and murmured amongst themselves, pointing and shaking their heads and all wondering the same thing.

“Angela here was taken away from her home into the hands of some seekers, and taken to pod zero. Our guarder, Rufus, found her See DEAD/Page 5

5

October 2011

DEAD From Page 4

and led her here.” Carlos smiled. Angela frowned.

“She will be visiting and be questioned, as I think she is our key to success.

Please accommodate with this suggestion and see me for any questions. Thank you.” Carlos dismissed the men. Angela watched them talk even more excitedly and look at her strangely as they slowly left the room until Angela, Carlos and Carleen, busy dusting some non-existent picture, remained.

“So,” Angela muttered. Carlos smiled at her, picked up a folder, and said, “See you later, Angie.” He was just out the door when Angela yelled, “You abandoned me!”

Carlos stopped, looked over his shoulder, and simply said, “I had to.”

CALLING ALL WRITERS!

A

re you a student in Portage County who loves to write?

Are you interested in learning what it takes to put a newspaper together?

Do you want your artwork or creative writing pieces published?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, this student newspaper needs your help.

O u r Vo i c e , a monthly product of the Stevens Point Journal and the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County, needs students to write

about issues affecting them, entertainment, fashion, books, sports and more.

Co-founder Sam Dinga created this publication in summer 2006, recognizing that youth often are disengaged from newspapers. He created it to boost interest in reading and writing.

Our Voice is delivered to all households in the boundaries of the Stevens Point Area Public School District with students in grades six to 12. It also is available at the Boys & Girls Club sites.

There is no fee to join the staff, and students can write as much or as little as they want.

If you are interested in learning more, call the Stevens Point Journal at 715345-2256.

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October 2011

DREAM CATCHERS:

The Finale

By Kaylyn Kluck Our Voice Staff Pacelli High School Ninth-Grader

I

t had been a long night.

The wreckage of the machine, the explanations to their friends about what the heck was going on, and the weight of the world hung over Kat and Lyd like storm clouds.

Now that Cairo was gone, all should have been well, but the planet Earth was still in peril.

They both knew destruction was not the answer, there had to be some way to save it. But

what?

This was the question at hand when the sisters sat across from their uncles at a table inside one of the constantly shifting rooms on some unknown location up in the clouds. They were filthy, bloody, and a bit charred from all the fire that had rose up as they took down the machine.

Their loyal friends had been told to wait outside.

“You two have just killed off your father, ruler of all.

He was going to destroy everything, but now you believe you can prevent the

Editor’s note: This is the final installment of Dream Catchers in Our Voice.

meltdown Earth is bound for.

How?” Brathea asked them, his glowing figure was the only source of light in the dark room.

“I don’t know.” Kat stared off into the distance.

“If the humans only knew …” Lyd looked at her empty palms splayed out on the table. They were cut up, but healing fast.

“If you two are so brilliant, you should be able to know the solution.” Megusa shook his head.

Kat rolled her eyes. “Don’t forget, we’re half human.

That fact doesn’t really help us, despite how awesome we appear to be.”

Lyd was thinking hard.

They needed to cause some type of miraculous revelation throughout the human race to warn them all that if they didn’t take action, they were doomed. They couldn’t exactly just swoop down onto Earth and demand that everyone save themselves. No, they had to cause everyone to follow orders without being harsh or obvious, because they couldn’t find out about Dream Catchers. Or could they …?

“What if …,” Lyd’s voice trailed off.

“What?” Kat and her two uncles asked in synchronization.

Lyd looked at Brathea and Megusa. “You two can make a dream about anything, right?”

“Yes,” they confirmed.

“Imagine if everyone on Earth had the same exact dream. One of magical beings telling them to change their ways …”

“I like where this is going.”

Kat smiled at her sister.

“You want us to make a dream of the two of you telling the humans to repent their tedious ways?” Megusa looked estranged.

“Yes. We could give them direction. We could tell them what to do. If we made the dreams extra strong, so they would remember them instead of just forgetting them a few minutes after they wake up in the morning.

It would be a global phenomenon.” Lyd inhaled. “We could do it.”

Brathea’s face looked brighter than ever. “What an excellent idea. You seem to have inherited your father’s brain.”

“Ouch,” remarked Kat. “But anyways, I say we do it.”

Through a little bit of teleportation courtesy of Brathea, Lyd, Kat and their friends made it back to Headquarters in seconds. Before heading off to save the world, they had to address their friends. Kat smiled, for the first time in ages letting happiness instead of cruelty cross her face as she thanked her friends.

Lyd smiled at her sister, and then turned to her friends.

“I hear you lost a hand in the process of saving my neck.”

She sighed, looking at the stump at the end of Jason’s arm.

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October 2011 son who would come and save me from being crushed in a giant cylinder like I was supposed to be, it would be you.

Part of me knew you would come.” She hugged him.

Looking genuinely pleased, Chase just nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m here for.”

She thanked the rest of her airball team, plus Kat’s team, too. They all had sure grown up since that wild airball game that day not long ago.

“Come on Lyd, we have to go save the human race now.”

Kat dragged her sister into a room set up for them. Brathea and Megusa were there, with the queerest-looking camera the sisters had ever seen.

“So you are going to be filming us talking?” Kat asked.

“If we want the humans to fully remember the dream, if we want it to stick in their minds, we have to film it.

We can’t just use our regular powers on these.” Brathea told them.

Make your space your own!

The girls sat in chairs put out for them, and Megusa pressed record. They were literally filming a dream.

“Hello there. I’m Lyd, and this is my sister Kat.” “Right now you are asleep, and will stay asleep until this dream is over. How can we do this? Because we are Dream Catchers, mystical beings you humans would call ‘magic.’ We go out and distribute dreams to you all every night,” Kat said into the lens.

“This probably is shocking, but it is the truth. And we are trying to save you.” Lyd made her face go stern. “You see, planet Earth is headed for destruction. You will all die along with it if you do not take action now.”

“Yes. This is serious. You need to stop behaving as you currently do. You can’t fight wars amongst yourself. You are a team. There are billions of you, and you should all have one goal: To live to the

fullest. You have to get along and pitch in. Because Lyd and I know better than anyone that even your worst enemy can become your ally in the worst situation.” Kat smiled at her sister.

Lyd reciprocated the expression and went on, “Please, treat your planet, your home, better. Recycle, and stop using so much oil.

Stop destroying Earth. Adapt new living styles that are healthier for you, the ones you love, and the Earth.”

“This could be the first in a series of dreams for you humans. So when you wake up, you will remember this dream, because we are inserting it into the mind of every human as they sleep. Do as we say, because we care.” Kat nodded.

“So as you save yourselves, just know that we are watching you. We are real, even though you can’t see us when you’re awake. We’re like your

… guardian angels.” Lyd hesitantly unfolded her wings, flipping them out for the soonto-be worldwide audience to see. Kat did the same.

“Until next time. Over and out.” Kat grinned.

“Over and out,” Lyd repeated softly.

Megusa stopped filming then. And then something occurred to the girls as they looked at their Uncle Brathea.

Even though he was a powerful, beautiful, immortal being, he could still have proud tears of joy streaming down his glistening face.

The eyes of the millions of Dream Catchers were confused, but the message was clear. Go out and deliver the same dream to every sleeping person. One day, they would all understand why this had to be done.

Instantly, the global phenomenon that was the dream was sweeping the planet, taking over the human’s news-

The End

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feeds, Internet and their entire lives. Each night there was a new message from Kat and Lyd, often words of praise and encouragement, but slowly they revealed more information about Dream Catchers and the secrets of the Earth.

The population was confused, but awed. They did as they were told, the voices of their winged protectors echoing in their minds all day, and playing in their heads every night. Life was much simpler on Earth, but so much better.

Everyone had their own ideas to what was happening and that Kat and Lyd weren’t real.

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Living on Earth was still not perfect, but it was anything but a nightmare.

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“Well, I never needed it. I look good enough with only one hand, don’t you think?”

He nodded at her, and she gave him a look of gratitude.

She turned to Olivia. “I don’t know where to begin with you. I’ve always treated you terribly, and yet you risked your life just to help me and Kat out. I’m so sorry for how I’ve treated you.”

“Oh, no Lydia! You were always so brave and strong, exactly the type of Dream Catcher I wanted to be. It has been amazing just knowing you,” Olivia assured her.

“Also, I’m sorry I always call you by your full name.”

“That’s all right. I’ve gotten used to it,” Lyd shrugged.

“And I still have that airball you made me. I’d be glad to finally try it out with you once I’m done recording the dream.”

Olivia looked thrilled.

Satisfied, Lyd turned to Chase. “If there was one per-

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