Rainbow School Bus
Emily Wu 1
Words checked = [3615] Words in Oxford 3000 = [91%]
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Contents
About The Author:P4
Prologue:P5
Chapter I
Chapter II : The First Wish --------------P13
Chapter III : The Second Wish -----------P20
Chapter IV : The Third Wish --------------P27
Chapter V
Chapter VI :The Fifth Wish--------------P38
Chapter VII : The Last Wish ---------------P45
Chapter VIII: Dream or Reality?-----------P50
Synopsis:P54
Source:P55
: Rainbow School Bus---------P6
: The Fourth Wish--------------P32
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About The Author First of all, welcome to all you readers who happened to find this book to read. Before moving on to the next page, I am going to tell you something about me. My name is Emily Wu and I am 19 years old. I am currently a fourth year student at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Although this is my first time writing a novel, and I don’t have a rich vocabulary, I tried my best to write a fine novel and hope you enjoy it.
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Prologue
I have been looking forward to my 18th birthday since I just passed my 17th. When I am 18, I can get my driving license, make my own decisions, and be able to do things that I haven’t experienced before 18. This story happened on my 18th birthday. Anticipating my first day of my 18th, something unusual and unexpected happened which left me unforgettable memories.
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Ch1: Rainbow School Bus
On my 18th birthday, I woke up early, got dressed and got ready to catch the school bus. Suddenly, I received a message from an anonymous person who congratulated me on being chosen to be
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the last member of their mystery trip. I completely had no idea what the message meant. Soon, I forgot the message and moved on to leave. On my way to the bus stop, I couldn’t hide my excitement in reaching adulthood. I was looking forward to the birthday surprise and the presents I would get from my friends. While I was approaching the bus stop, I was surprised that the school bus was totally different from the typical one. The bus was painted red, orange,
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yellow, green, blue and purple, just like a rainbow. The driver got off the bus and asked me to show her my pass. I was so confused and we had never had to show any identification to get on the bus before. Then she asked me to check the wrist on my left hand. Unexpectedly, there was a purple mark on it. “Ah! You are The Purple! Quick, get on the bus! The trip is about to start�, said the driver. When I got on the bus, there were seven seats painted with seven colors. Six
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of them were seated by people wearing in six different colors. ‘Welcome, my friend. You must be The Purple! I am The Red, from Australia’, one of them stood up and said. ‘Bonjour, nice to meet you, Purple! I am The Orange, just call me Orange, a girl with brown curly hair said. ‘By the way, I am French and I live in Paris. You are Taiwanese, right? I love Taiwanese food so much. I’ve been there once several years ago and I will never forget the
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wonderful time I had in Taiwan. Also my friend taught me some Taiwanese and they said my accent was so good and…’ ‘Hey Orange …that’s enough! It’s my turn now,’ the man in yellow said covering Orange’s mouth. ‘Hey buddy, I’m The Yellow as you can see. I’m from South Africa’, the man said shaking my hands excitedly and giving me a purple shirt. ‘This is for you. All of us have to wear our own uniform during the trip’. ‘Yeah! Look at mine, the green one,
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my favorite!’ the man sitting at the back said. ‘So, let me guess…you are The Green, aren’t you?’ I said to him. ‘You got it!’ he answered and laughed out loud. ‘And me and me! I’m The Blue, from Japan. ‘Alright, guys, it’s about time to leave!’ The driver started the engine and shouted: ‘Fasten your seat belt, or you’ll be sorry!’ The bus suddenly flew into the
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sky, and all of us on the bus were horrified by the high speed. When we reached a rainbow, the driver said: ‘Okay, we are now on the way to our first stop, but it’ll take a few hours to get there, so you guys can take a nap if you want’. The driver turned on some music and switched off the lights on the bus. Suddenly, I felt sleepy and before knowing my eyelids closed.
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Ch2: The First Wish ‘Wake up! Wake up!’ Yellow shook me excitedly. ‘What’s going on?’ I drowsily yawned opening my eyes, and then I was shocked by what I saw. ‘Are we in the U.S.?’ I shouted while our bus just passed by the Statue of Liberty. ‘Sweeties, as you can see, yes, we are in America now!’ said the bus driver suddenly speeding up. ‘We’ll arrive in 13
L.A. soon in about 15 minutes. Pack your luggage and get ready to attend school at one of the most famous school in the U.SUCLA!’ ‘Goodness me!’ Red shouted out happily. ‘I couldn’t believe that I could study abroad. My family can’t even pay my tuition. It’s been my birthday wish since I was little!’ He could not hide his excitement and kept jumping up and down inside the bus. ‘Calm down, kid! All of your dreams
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will come true during our trip. Just wait and see’ the driver said. She parked the bus on the roof of the UCLA building and said: ‘Now it’s time for you guys to enjoy the first day of your trip! Here are the textbooks you might need for today’s classes’. We took the books and hurried to our classroom. In our class, there were approximately 30 students, from different countries. We could only communicate with each other in English and by using some gestures.
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During the class, we talked about our cultures, introduced our countries and taught everyone how to say ‘I love you’ in different languages. The mode of teaching in the U.S. was casual and more interesting than in Taiwan. The way students talking to teachers were like friends talk, which makes the class more interesting. In the afternoon class, our teacher decided to take us on a field trip discovering L.A. Then, we took the bus to Hollywood. It was a fantastic place where
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we met many celebrities. Though all of them were disguised as street performers, we still felt so excited. First, we went to the Chinese theater to see the famous handprints and footprints. Then we walked along the Walk of Fame to the new-opened wax museum. We were surprised that all the waxen statues were almost real. We took many photos there. After that, we had dinner in In-N-Out, which we were told the most delicious hamburgers in L.A. It really was. The
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meat in those burgers was fresh and juicy, the tomatoes were luscious, and their French fries were tasty. I was sure that I would miss it after I was back in Taiwan. After dinner, we took a walk to Kodak Theater and did some shopping. We saw the sign of Hollywood on the faraway mountain and also enjoyed the night view there. After all, we went to the movies. It was our first time watching a movie without subtitle in our native languages. Although we could not understand what
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the movie was about, we still enjoyed the fantastic science fiction. Then we went back to our bus and had a nice sleep.
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Ch3: The Second Wish ‘Good morning, kids!’ the driver shouted waking us up while the sky was still dark. ‘Aw…it’s only 6a.m. Why are you waking us up so early?’ asked Blue. ‘Sorry for interrupting your nice dreams. I just want to tell you guys to be ready for today’s adventurous trip in Grand Canyon. As you can see, we’re now in Las Vegas!’ 20
the driver said excitedly. ‘Oh! It’s my birthday wish! And it has come true!’ Orange screamed out loud. ‘As you know, Vegas is famous for its night life, so we’re going to spend our daytime in Grand Canyon. I’m sure you’ll love the scenery there. After that, we’ll come back to Vegas, and you can enjoy yourself the whole night’, the driver said leading us to the tour car of the Grand Canyon. When we arrived at Grand Canyon, we were all attracted by the
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unforgettable views there-the high, steep canyons, the clear, blue sky and the warm, bright sun. It was so beautiful that I could not speak a word for almost ten seconds. After exploring how fabulous the Grand Canyon was, we had lunch in an Indian restaurant. We grabbed the food without using tableware to experience the Indian culture. It was very fun, and we enjoyed the traditional Indian curry and spices. Then we went straight back to our hotel to take a shower and get ready to enjoy the
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night life in Vegas. ‘Sweeties, make sure you get dressed-up and wear your best suit or dress. We’re going to watch a fantastic show which is called Blue Man. After that, I’m going to take you guys to a casino where you can drink a little and maybe win some extra money. Just look forward to it, as it is sure to be a wonderful and unforgettable memory in your life’, said the driver. I felt so excited about that night. It was my first time dressing-up, wearing
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an elegant dress and high-heels. Everything was new to me-gambling, watching shows and drinking cocktails. The Blue Man show was marvelous that the entire audience stood up and could not stop clapping and cheering for them when the show ended. After the show, we went straight to the casino. However, Green and I were under 21 years old, so we could only play the slot machines. We randomly chose a machine then inserted a hundred-dollar bill. We pulled the
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baragain and again until we almost lost all of our money. ‘They cheat!’ Green said angrily. ‘How could it be possible that we haven’t won once? Let’s deposit all the rest of our money’. Just after he finished complaining and pulling the bar, the slot machine started playing music. ‘We won! We won! We did it! We got the second prize!’ I screamed out loud, and all of our friends ran to us immediately.
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‘Congrats! You are so lucky!’ the driver said. ‘Yeah! Finally the fortune star has smiled at me! Guys, let’s have a party tonight. It’s on me’, said Green happily. Then we drove back to our hotel with bags of snacks and drinks. We turned on some music and had a crazy party until midnight.
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Ch4: The Third Wish The fourth day, I was woken by bright sunshine. ‘Are we back in L.A.?’ I said rubbing my eyes. ‘Right! We’re now at Venice Beach. Get your swimming suits and enjoy yourselves’ the driver said. ‘Oh! It’s so beautiful just as I saw on the magazine’, said Yellow, ‘I’m always willing to spend a whole day on the beach. And now, it has come true.’ On this 27
perfect beach, there were the bright sun, blue sky and many foreigners. We got off the bus, quickly ran to the dressing-room and started our wonderful day there. We could not wait to run into the sea. When we just stepped into the sea, all of us screamed at the same time. The water was so cold even though it was in midsummer. Then we started splashing water on each other. Although it was really fun, it didn’t last so long because of the cold water. So we later lied on the sand sunbathing and to
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get warm. Yellow was buried the sand and could not move at all. We also built a sand castle on him. Then some girls wearing bikinis asked us to play volleyball with them. We had a good time with them except Yellow, because he was still stuck in the sand. A few hours later, we all got tan and were hungry. So we took a shower and had dinner in a popular seafood restaurant there. After that, we took a walk at the seaside. There was a long street with several different stores near by the beach.
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Many street performers were doing fabulous shows, and I spent a lot of money tipping them. Also, on Venice Beach, temporal Tattoo was popular. Some of us tried it and took a lot of funky pictures. Before we left, we went to a night club there. It was really exciting to get in there because some of us were under 21 years old; however, we successfully got in by showing them fake IDs. The driver said it was hard for them to differentiate Asians. So I danced, drank
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and had fun with foreigners inside. It was so cool that I did not feel afraid but rather felt free to speak using my poor English with foreigners while I was a little drunk. That night, most of us were drunk and could not go back to our bus without others’ help. Still it was an unforgettable experience that I had never had.
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Ch5: The Forth Wish ‘Ring-ring-ring-ring!’ the tinkle of bells came into my ears. ‘Where are we?’ I asked. ‘It’s San Francisco!’ Green shouted, ‘Look, there’s a cable car, the feature of San Francisco’. ‘I’ve been collecting different kinds of cable cars since I was very little. I’m always expecting for the 32
day to visit San Francisco, and now it’s time!’ ‘Aw, it’s really cold outside. How come the temperature is like this in the summer’ complained Yellow. ‘Don’t be surprised, kids. It’s normal’, the driver said. ‘Also San Francisco is famous for its foggy weather, but it seems you’re lucky today to have such a sunny day. Before you get off, put on your jackets or you’ll be sorry.’ When I got off the bus, the cold wind kept blowing at us.
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‘Gosh, the weather is so weird. Though it is sunny, I still feel cold. I hate cold weather,’ said Red. ‘But I like it! I won’t sweat easily in this cold weather,’ Green said. Then we got off the bus and the driver asked us to catch the cable car which was still moving on the trail. We jumped up the cable car and bought an one-day pass which meant that we could take the cable car unlimited times during the day. There were several hills in San Francisco, and the cable car
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ran up and down the hills which was so exciting. Then we arrived at the Cable Car Museum, and we looked around inside. After that, we went to Fishermen’s wharf to have lunch. Also, we took a walk and enjoyed the view there which included cute sea lions on the deck. And we went to the most famous chocolate store in San Francisco- Chirardelli. We drank their most
popular
drink,
Sea
Salt
Hot
Chocolate, which tasted so special that the sweet melt in your mouth with some salt.
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We also bought a lot of chocolate as souvenirs. At night, our driver took us to see the most prominent architecture in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. The closer we got to the bridge, the faster my heart beat. It was hard to express that strong feeling. The night scene there was so touching. And I had another feeling while we were driving along the bridge. I felt like I was flying through a beautiful rainbow in dreamland. ‘Tell me that I’m not dreaming,’
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Green said as a tear dropped on his hand which was covering his opened-mouth.
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Ch6-The Fifth Wish ‘Beep beep!’ all of us were suddenly awoke by a terrible noise. ‘Why is it so noisy?’ Blue said impatiently. ‘Uni…Universal…Universal Studios! We are at Universal Studios!’ she shouted jumping up and screaming happily. ‘Yeah. I remember one of your birthday wishes is to go to the most 38
exciting and scary haunted house, isn’t it? Why don’t you try the one at Universal Studios? I’m sure that this one won’t let you down,’ the driver replied. ‘Yes! Yes! Yes! That’s where I always wanted to go,’ Blue said while couldn’t stop smiling. The driver gave us the tickets, and we entered Universal Studios immediately. Blue could not hide her excitement at all, and led us to our first stop, the Horror House. Before we went into the Horror House, we needed
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someone to be the vanguard. Although each of us was very interested in the Horror House, none of us dared to be the first to enter. Therefore, we decided to play the finger-guessing game to assign the one who was going to lead us. Unfortunately, I was the loser who had to be the first one into the Horror House. When I began walking in, the rest of them started lining up behind me. The atmosphere inside was so scary that I started trembling. Also, it was so dark
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that I could not find the right way to go and kept being scared by the horrifying property. But sometimes I felt that it was so funny while I was shocked and screamed out loud because the rest of my members would cry out loud too after me. I thought it was the biggest and the most scary haunted house that I had ever gone to. We needed to go up stairs being horrified by the unexpected ghosts, go through several ghastly rooms then go down stairs to find the exit. There was a
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time that I really wanted to give up finding the exit because I kept getting lost and some ghosts suddenly appeared and grabbed my hands which frightened me so much that I could not move my legs at all. Finally, I found the exit and ran toward it. All of a sudden, a huge monster jumped out and shocked all of us just at the moment before we left. Blue was terribly horrified by it. ‘It is my first time and would be my last time getting into the horror house. I don’t want to
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abuse myself anymore. It’s so scary. I think I will have a nightmare tonight,’ she cried and said. ‘Alright, stop crying, my little girl. You must be hungry. Why don’t we find a nice restaurant and have something to eat?’ said Green. ‘Yeah, I’m so hungry now. The horror house made me so tired, and I think I could eat a horse!’ Red replied and laughed. So we chose a restaurant randomly and enjoyed our lunch. The
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interior decorations were all from recent famous movies which caught our eyes during the time we were eating. After that, we visited almost all of the attractions until Universal Studios closed. We were lucky that there weren’t so many people that day that we did not have to stay in a line for any of the attractions. All of us had fun and were so tired that we quickly fell asleep when we were back to our bus.
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Ch7: The Last Wish ‘Welcome to Disneyland, my dear. Wake up! Wake up! Do you know what date it is? It’s July 4th! There’s going to be marvelous fireworks in Disneyland tonight! Enjoy it!’ the driver said, and left us in front of the main gate at Disneyland. ‘Watching fireworks in Disneyland…it’s my wish! And I’m the 45
last one who joined this trip. Is it our final destination?’ I wondered. ‘Purple, come on, let’s go in! Hurry up!’ Orange said pulling my arm and quickly running toward the main gate. At Disneyland, there were buildings in different styles. Some of them were European style, some of them were historical, but my favorite ones were the cartoon style houses. We took a lot of pictures around Disneyland with the popular characters. Also, we rode several
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interesting amusement ridings and watched different kinds of shows. Later that night, we had dinner in Mickey’s restaurant. Everything in it was shaped like Mickey Mouse, including the food we ate. That was so cute and I didn’t know how or what to eat first. After dinner, we saw people started sitting on the street around Disneyland. ‘It’s just six o’clock; I remember the driver said that the fireworks start at eight. Why do people come here so early
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for the fireworks?’ Yellow confusedly asked. Suddenly, we heard the music, and then a car decorated with colorful light bulbs appeared. Then there were more and more cars with different styles which came out one after another. On the cars, there were many dancers disguised as the Disney characters. ‘That’s the Disneyland parade!’ I excitedly shouted. We quickly found a place and sat down to watch this fantastic parade. At eight, the fireworks started
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with the American national song. For me, it was an unforgettable experience celebrating Independent Day with foreigners in Disneyland. The fireworks lasted so long and were really fascinating that I tried my best not to blink my eyes. I even shed tears unconsciously during the fireworks. I would never forget what I saw that night. After the fireworks ended, we went back to the bus and had a nice sleep.
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Ch8: Dream or Reality?
‘It’s seven thirty! You’ll miss your school bus if you insist on staying in bed. Get out of bed right now!’ Mom shouted.
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‘Give me five more minutes, just five more…’I begged falling asleep again. ‘It’s up to you if you want to go to school on foot,’ Mom said slamming the door. ‘Aww…’ I was shocked and not awake. I looked at the calendar; it was still my 18th birthday.
‘Oh…it was all just a
dream. But why did it seen so real?’ Then I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face. I finished my breakfast in a bite and rushed to the bus stop. Luckily, I
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caught the school bus and was safely on time for the first class. I got many birthday gifts and cards from my classmates which pleased me so much. They also bought a big chocolate cake and sang “Happy Birthday� song to me. It was really a beautiful day. After class, my best friends finally gave me the present they prepared. I was looking forward to it the whole day. They gave me a special manual t-shirt which was the same as the one I wore in my dream. I was too surprised to say
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anything. They asked me to try it on. When I took off my jacket, I suddenly realized that there was a purple mark on the wrist of my left hand. ‘It’s…it’s not a dream!’ I cried happily and running straight to the back door while someone just rushed in and ran me down. ‘Ouch!’ I opened my eyes and stood up. I realized that I was still in my bedroom, and it seemed like that I fell from my bed. ‘It was simply a dream,’ I disappointedly murmured.
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Synopsis On my 18th birthday, while I was approaching the bus stop as usual, there was a strange feel in my mind. Something mysterious happened to me when I got on the bus. Then a mysterious trip began.
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Source: hight246.pixnet.net/blog/post/24842861 http://www.uccainc.org/images/School-Bus.jpg www.lizziebcre8ive.com/blog/?p=698
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