Ink Stains 2019

INK STAINS

SUMMER 2019

SECONDARY SCHOOL

AN IB WORLD SCHOOL SINCE 2000

A PLACE WHERE WE BELONG

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CONTENT 4

FOREWORDS

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ALEXANDER LITERARY AWARD WINNERS 2019 LOW E R M Y P

10 P O E T RY

UPPER MYP 40

P O E T RY

26 P R O S E F I C T I O N

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PROSE FICTION

32 T H E M E

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NON FICTION

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THEME

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NON FICTION

DP

F R O N T C O V E R : Z O YA S C H M I T T , G R A D E 1 2 , S O N D E R , A C R Y L I C O N C A N VA S

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ALEXANDER LITERARY AWARD CONTEST SUBMISSIONS 2019 LOW E R M Y P

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P O E T RY

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PROSE FICTION

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THEME

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FORE All always Ink Stains magazine presents to you a collection of works created by PSI students of all ages. Students from EC to Grade 12 were invited to enter the annual writing competition and showed creativity and imagination in their writing and artwork, producing work of a high standard. We saw very strong entries across all grade levels which led to a significant change in the judging process for the Primary school entries. Rather than having 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner it was decided to award “Commended” and “Highly Commended” status meaning that more entries could be recognised for excellence. The Secondary school students competed in four categories: “Poetry, Prose Fiction and Prose Non-Fiction and Theme”.

This year, the theme for both the Young Author’s Award and the Alexander Award was “Firsts” – love, friend, pain, success, failure, impressions, experiences, snow, holiday and more. Students were encouraged to think creatively about the theme and while some based their entries on personal experiences other delved into their imagination and submitted works of poetry, fantasy and science fiction exploring the theme from new and often unexpected angles.

Students’ passions and interests are evident through poems and narratives that are presented in this magazine for your entertainment and reading pleasure.

The magazine also contains artwork created by primary and secondary school students in the academic year 2018 - 2019 during visual art classes and photos of secondary school drama productions.

We are proud to present yet another example of PSI students’ creativity, passion, dedication and hard work across several different disciplines.

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Simply speaking, one may define visual art as the expression of creativity in a visual manner. Yet, however simply one may define visual art, the human expression of creative thought, imagination and ideas, is really anything but simple. Art provides the artist a sense of control or a release of control, a way to communicate symbolically or literally. It challenges and calms. Art can be a reflection of an individual experience or that of a community.

The visual art found amongst these pages are also just as simple and just as complex – they are the visual representations of each student’s voice – artwork providing a momentary glimpse into the rich and diverse student body of PSI: students from varied and international backgrounds, students who have strong opinions and diverse insights, students with differing experiences and unique imaginations – and through their individual pieces we are offered the chance to understand their views and their own realities. Through the artwork our students have created this year we are given the wonderful opportunity to be participants in their visual worlds.

Be it through printmaking, painting, drawing or textile, each artwork is both a reflection of each individual student, as well as a reflection of our community as a whole here at PSI.

POLINA SPENCER AND PAM YORK

MAGGIE KESSEL

PSI Librarians

Secondary Visual Art Teacher

EWORDS Do you remember some of the unforgettable ‘firsts’ in your life? You might answer with the typical: first day of school; first best friend; first pet; first driving lesson – and you would absolutely be forgiven for thinking of these things first. Yet scratch the surface a little deeper and try to really remember that first day of school or that first friend and vividly encapsulate it. Difficult, huh? This, however, was the challenge for our participants in this year’s Alexander Literary Award and our secondary students at PSI have once again surpassed themselves with their entries in the media of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

It is always an absolute joy, as a judge, to see a familiar name – or even encounter a vague familiarity with a name – and see the personality of that student suddenly leap from the page at you. Once more we see a maturity in style and sophistication that belie their young years, from our ‘babies’ in grade 6 to our seniors in grade 12 who are on the verge of moving on to pastures new. ‘Firsts’ is such a wonderful theme to reflect upon and write about, and I am sure that our participants this year will continue to find new ways to explore this theme. Enjoy the big read!

The process of submitting work to be published can be exactly that: a process. Aside from the pain and contortion of drafting, editing, and cutting chunks from the product of hours of thought and work, publication demands further torture. We open ourselves up to peer revision, teacher reprobation, and technological drama that fights our submission at every turn.

What will they think? What will the panel decide? Will they love my product as much as I do? I worked so hard! I stretched myself further than I ever have in the past. What if I fail? Will people laugh at me? Will I impress? Oh, how little certainty I have of how this will turn out.

And oh, the fear of decision making pushes the student out of the comfort of dependency and into the world of individual agency. In the school system here at Pechersk School International, this falls under the behaviors of attending to opportunities and making individual choices. For Literacy Month, a handful of students seized the chance to show their skill in writing, from prose non-fiction to poetry, from prose fiction to the freedom of writing for a theme: “Firsts.” Many of the pieces submitted were produced outside of the classroom, in response to the students’ own sense of need to communicate a feeling or opinion in writing.

As we, once again, move through Literacy Month, the teachers here at PSI are impressed by the agony the students show in pushing themselves beyond teacher expectation, beyond marked responses, beyond requirement. They do this to make the choice to show pride and ownership in what they have created. This work, published here in PSI’s Ink Stains reminds us every year that the person inside the student is pushing to express individuality and surpass expectations.

JAMES SPENCER

KELLI KARG

Teacher of EAL and English Language Acquisition

Head of English

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FRONT ROW: 01.

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NIKOLAYA ORESHAROVA ANASTASIYA SAKOVYCH ALEXANDER ERBEN MYKHAILO YURKEVYCH ROSHAN BASU MEDEINE VALIONYTE SENA CINAR

SECOND ROW: 08.

09.

10.

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KELLI KARG CORY HAUGEN PAUL CHRISTOPHER JAMES SPENCER

NOT IN THE PICTURE: 12. SOFIIA DOMOCHKA 13. ALISA DZHASSIM 14. SONJA RINGGER

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ALEXAND LITERARY WINNERS LOW E R M Y P :

Poetry Winner 10 THE CYCLE OF A ROCK Alexander Erben (Grade 6)

Prose Fiction Honorable Mention 30 A LONELY PUPPY Anastasiya Sakovych (Grade 8)

Poetry Honorable Mention 24 BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT BEGINS… Mykhailo Yurkevych (Grade 6)

Theme Winner 32 FIRST TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL Nikolaya Oresharova (Grade 8)

Prose Fiction Winner 26 THE BREAKOUT Roshan Basu (Grade 8)

Theme Honorable Mention 34 FIRST TASTE Alisa Dzhassim (Grade 8)

Prose Fiction Honorable Mention 28 MY FIRST FRIEND Sofiia Domochka (Grade 8)

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DER Y AWARD S 2019 UPPER MYP:

Non Fiction Winner 36 MEMORIES Medeine Valionyte (Grade 10)

DP:

Poetry Winner 40 LOVEBUGS Sonja Ringger (Grade 12) Prose Fiction Winner 42 EMPTY SPACE Sonja Ringger (Grade 12) Non Fiction Honorable Mention 48 NORA HELMER: CHARACTER PROGRESSION THROUGH THE ACTS Sena Cinar (Grade 11) Theme Winner 50 A MEMORY Sena Cinar (Grade 11)

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P O E T RY W I N N E R

THE CYCLE OF A ROCK ALEXANDER ERBEN GRADE 6

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G R A D E 6 , F A N TA S T I C C R E AT U R E S , P A P E R M A C H É , A C R I L I C P A I N T

GEMMA STOLAR

A- M H O N KA SA LO

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K ATA R Z Y N A WA S K O W

ANA ALEKSISHVILI

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ANNA BERTRAND

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P O E T RY H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N

BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT BEGINS… MYKHAILO YURKEVYCH GRADE 6

Before the tournament begins...

I remember my freestyle sins I hope that I won’t get last place I don’t want to be a disgrace

When I stand on the diving block I only hear, the ticking clock Waiting for the whistle to blow I feel like I'm ready to go

Before the tournament begins…

My heart and brain freaks out and spins Opening the door makes me scared I'm feeling very unprepared

When I dive in the water I..

Feel like I’m about to pass by Everybody who is ahead Later, is about to be shred

When the swimming tournament starts…

I take a look at the race charts Oh no, I am in the next race Hopefully this is a misplace

I got third place, at least not last All of that went by very fast I am determined about this I have escaped the dark abyss

Before the middle school race starts…

I feel like I am throwing darts I won’t win, I can guarantee All my fears are ahead of me

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N A D I A P A L O S S I , G R A D E 9 , N O N -T R A D I T I O N A L S E L F - P O R T R A I T, M I X E D M E D I A

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PROSE FICTION WINNER

THE BREAKOUT ROSHAN BASU GRADE 8

Elon Amancio was sent to prison two months ago. He’s no ordinary Joe, though. He is a property magnate and the wealthiest man in the world, his net worth is 5 trillion dollars.

And he’ll give half of the fortune to anyone who can free him.

He was charged with first-degree murder and is set to have imprisonment for life. Bail is set at 2 billion dollars, but he can’t access his bank and he has no significant other who can for him. Someone would have to pay it, or break him out of jail.

The only problem with the former though is he is at ADX Florence, the most heavily guarded prison in the United States of America. Even better guarded than a maximum security prison. Even if the breakout was successful he would be sought out and brought back in.

That’s what everyone thought. Not me, though. I got a team of five engineers, hackers, and drivers together with one goal: to break him out. It may be an impossible feat that could get us all killed, we’d never done nothin’ like this before. But it would be an awesome way to go out.

You may think we’re insane. Some of us are. We won’t deny it. But we’re smart, and we are going to get those 2.5 trillion dollars if it’s the last thing we do.

It was one of those dry nights. We were working in my garage. The blueprint of the impenetrable prison laid before us on a wooden stand. Mikey was working away on his computer, I regret bringing him. He’s been pretty much useless this entire time.

The conditions at ADX aren’t too great. We’re talking twenty-three hours of solitary confinement a day, the one other hour they are allowed out is into a bigger cell with vaulted ceilings called the “empty swimming pool.” This room has a 4-inch by 4-foot skylight as the only window. It is designed to prevent the prisoners from knowing where they are, and they still spend this time alone.

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As far as breaking Amancio out, we’re looking at no mess hall. All food is hand delivered. Around every corner is a motion detector and a camera. There’s fourteen hundred remote controlled steel doors. And even if we do make it out of the facility, we have to get Amancio over 12 foot high razor wire fences. Once out there are laser beams, pressure pads, and even attack dogs.

The only way to get in and out would be by air. Luckily one of our guys – Randy – can pilot a helicopter. About the cameras – we’ll have one of our hackers on ‘em – the dude’s name is Julio. He’ll be posing as a guard. The third shift change a day is at 11pm sharp. He’s gonna pretend to be a guard moving in to monitor the camera. That gives us one problem though, how we’ll stop the other guard from taking their shift. That’s easy, we’ll take that guard out. Just using tranquilizer darts, though. Once the cameras, motion detectors, and alarms are down that's where Mickey and I come in. Mickey owns an oxy-acetylene torch. We’d use the oxy-acetylene torch to cut straight through the steel door, and my power saws to cut through the second door, an average jail cell bar. We’ll have all our watches set to the same time, down to the second, so at this time it will be 11:25 pm. At 11:26-11:27 the helicopter will move to being on top of the largest building, facing the South gate. We’ll get Amancio, and hopefully make our way to the stairwell, following the hallway to the fire escape ladder, once again cutting through the locked door with torch, we’ll climb up the ladder, get in the helicopter (meeting up with Julio before climbing) and lift off at 11:30. If nothing goes wrong we’ll be gone by 11:30. Hopefully before the guards can respond.

I pitched the plan to everyone. We all familiarized ourselves with every step, and made sure everyone was on page. The only problem would be hacking Julio says he would

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need an hour to get through the system, but we can only give him less than half of that max. There was no way around it, so Julio shook his head in doubt and went back home to get rest before the big night tomorrow.

I thought I would be able to flop down on my bed and pass out. But, it was quite a long night, fill with dreams of failed attempts and jail time. It was as if everything could go wrong, and if it did, we’ll end up just like Amancio, but, for Amancio, we’d mean nothing, someone else would make an attempt to free him the next day, for sure.

The alarm went off. 10 pm. I met the crew at the lot. A place near all of our houses where we parked the van, from there we drove to Randy’s helipad. It was situated smack in the middle of the pad. Randy turned on the engine and we all climbed aboard.

We hooked our watches up to the second. 10:54 pm we touched down on top of the prison. The alarms had already gone off at the prison, they had the whole package, guard dogs, armed guardsmen, even an aerial assault. We quickly climbed into the building to begin, the helicopter flew up and away, for now.

We escorted Julio halfway to the guard station, we split up so we could take out the guard. He quickly found the guy and tranquilized him. Should have him down for an hour or so.

We looked around to make sure that Julio had taken out the cameras, but he hadn’t. My heart sank to my stomach. I quickly checked my watch, 11:20. We were behind schedule. I told the guys and we began to panic, if any of the motion detectors went off the guards would know where we were.

Some guy tried to call Julio but I guess there was no cell service in the building. They probably had it tapped out. It was when we were trying to call him for the second time that the cameras fell limp and hung. The red light at the front turned to gray. That meant we were good to go. We ran to Elon’s cell and quickly took the torch to it. As we hoped it quickly melted straight trough. It took no time to grab Elon and make our way to the exits.

The sirens were so loud. I couldn’t think. That’s why when I was supposed to turn right I turned left. We were lost. It was a huge building. No way we were gonna make it out a different way. I could hear the guards running at us from all angles. I used the torch to open a nearby vent, we climbed up it and stayed perfectly still. The guards went right by us. I checked my watch again – 11:28. Liftoff in 2 minutes. We began asending the vents. Trying to find an opening to at least make it to the roof. It was a maze of vents, obviously made confusing so prisoners couldn’t climb their way out. Time was ticking fast. 11:29. I could barely check my watch now because it was sliding around everyone due to the sweat on my wrist.

Elon was struggling to keep up Mickey was trying to push him up the vents as I lead the group. I lifted up one of the seals on the vents as I’d been doing for the past couple minutes.

This time instead of more vents I saw the sky. I climbed out, just in time to see the helicopter taking off and flying away.

I wasn’t the only person on the roof though, the police had just missed the helicopter. They were armed. I quickly ducked back down into the vent.

We had climbed further down into the vent. We sat there for a while trying to collect ourselves, there was no way would be able to walk out. We would have to steal a helicopter. It was the only way. We crawled through the vents. And were able to come out of the side of the building. It was midnight now. I pulled out my glock that I had brought just in case. We all ran across the court and into the guard tower, greeting us were at least 3 guys. Mickey was also armed and we took them all out and ascended the tower. At the top was a helicopter just as we expected. We climbed in, and then as I sat in the piolet seat I froze. I had no clue as to how to fly a helicopter. We were gonna get captured. We would be set to death penalty, and that would be it. The end of the line for us.

I was gonna have to try to fly the thing. I turned on all the mains, beacon and fuel pump. Just like flying a plane. After that I tried turning on the rotors, no luck. Then I primed the engine and turned on the mags. I cranked the engine up to a fast idle and tried engaging the rotors again. I heard them begin to spin. We were in the air.

It was nothing like flying a plane. Think of knowing how to ride a bike and comparing that to riding a unicycle while juggling. There was no way. We were going back and forth and all around. Up and down and every which way. But, like anything, I got the hang out of it after causing everyone to have extreme nausea. Once I was in forward flight the inputs were very much like a normal airplane. The moon was high in the sky and the stars twinkled.

Elon leaned over to me and said: “You’re a trillionaire”. We flew through the night towards the helipad, towards safety.

The moon was long behind us now, I had to turn around if I were to look at it. As we touched down I smiled, Mickey tapped me on the shoulder and asked me what I was doing sitting in the helicopter like an idiot.

We laughed with each other, Elon walked over and handed us a check, he had paid his own bail which was at a ridiculous amount, nothing much to a trillionaire though. 1 trillion dollars for each of us, 500 billion we opted to give to the rest of the crew, even though they bailed.

Mission complete.

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PROSE FICTION HONORABLE MENTION

MY FIRST FRIEND SOFIIA DOMOCHKA GRADE 8

The person remembers everything happened to him for the first time. Regardless, it is a positive experience filling you with joy and happiness, or negative one leaving scars in your soul.

I’d like to tell you about one of my first pleasant memories concerning my first friend.

I have always wanted to have a faithful friend. My parents, being very hospitable, have a great number of friends and the doors of our house are always open to everybody. Moreover, the motto of our family is: “The more friends you have, the happier you are.”

In spite of being a very communicative girl, in my childhood, I had some problems with making friends. Frankly speaking, I could get along with various people, but there was nobody I could call my first friend.

Once, walking in the park, I heard somebody crying.

Someone was crying so quite that I could hardly hear him. I can’t explain what made me stop and find out who he was. My curiosity completely changes all my life. I got acquainted with my first friend.

It was a small, but really cute puppy trembling with fear.

I looked around trying to understand what way he appeared in this park. There was nobody nearby and I realized that tiny creature was alone in this enormous and cruel world. He ran up to me, hugged my leg and said: “I am your new friend. Take my paw and take me to your house.” Of course, the dogs can’t speak, but I could read these words in his eyes. Without any hesitations, I put him into my large pocket and we went home.

When my mother saw a puppy, she wondered if he was my new pet. “No,” I answered, “He is my new friend.” And Roxy – as I called him – licked me on the cheek as if confirming my words.

He even barked loudly to take away any doubts if somebody had them. Roxy started to live in my room. He refused to sleep in his dogs’ bed fairly considering that true friends must be together in any situation even while sleeping.

Like, true friends, we had the same habits. For example, to get up early and go for a walk no matter I didn’t guess about 28

this my habit before Roxy’s appearance. He thought that his duty was to entertain me and the best way of it (according to Roxy) was to throw a stick or a ball. Roxy was willing to make friends with all the members of my family. Understanding that my father was the head of our family, Roxy treated him with great respect and care. I mean he tried to hide father’s shoes to make him stay at home and rest because Roxy saw father work hard earning our living.

He never let me be bored and didn’t let anybody shout at me. He barked frantically or even threatened to bite if somebody tried to hurt me. In such a small body, there was such a huge, brave and kind heart.

Nevertheless, he had his own shortcomings and weaknesses. Roxy liked sweets very much. So, he allowed patting himself if he saw candy in our hands. What is more, he was jealous of all the animals. Roxy was afraid that I could make one more friend. On the other hand, Roxy was a very generous dog willing to share his bone with me and deeply respected father.

I can’t help mentioning that in spite of being quite a shy dog, he enjoyed being taken pictures. It was exciting to watch him making faces in front of the camera.

You can tell me that he was just a pet, but you are mistaken. He was not only the first, but also a faithful friend who was eager to listen to me without cutting in, agree with me, support me in everything and, of course, keep my secrets.

Even if I did something wrong, Roxy didn’t allow my parents to tell me off, he was ready to take the blame and be punished instead of me. He was the most true-hearted creature in the world.

That was a long time ago. Now, I am a tolerant person who can easily make new friends and have good terms with different people. But, I must admit that I have always been looking for the friend like my first one, Roxy, but I’ve never succeeded. Roxy will always be in my heart and my best childhood memories connected with him.

M A I A TAY L O R , G R A D E 6 , R E N N Y V S . T H E B I R D , P E N O N P A P E R

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PROSE FICTION HONORABLE MENTION

A LONELY PUPPY ANASTASIYA SAKOVYCH GRADE 8

The tiny puppy was alone in the unfamiliar and messy backyard. He did not remember how long he was walking for but he decided not to stop. He was neither used to the feeling of a cold, sharp ground under his paws nor to the strange tension in his muscles. From time to time, he would trip and fall, luckily avoiding serious injuries. The puppy looked around, shocked by what he saw. It was a different side of New York City. The streets were pale and gloomy, like somebody spilt a giant can of grey paint all over them, the air felt heavy and full of pungent scents which made the puppy sneeze. He passed dozens of frowning people who seemed too bothered with their own problems to pay any attention to him. He could not believe that his favourite New York can be so unwelcoming.

The puppy jerked his nose, it was getting colder. He felt disappointed and let down. Why his family did not look for him? He always tried to be a good boy… Maybe they were trying to but failed? The puppy kept walking still confused. His life changed so rapidly. It felt like only a couple minutes ago he was laying on the warm, soft carpet in a cosy living room. He even thought that if he turned his head, he would see a bowl full of his favorite biscuits. However, hours passed and slowly he realised the ice-cold truth that painfully wounded him – he was lost, lost for the first time. All alone, in the giant city, in the enormous state, in the endless country, he was now ought to take care of himself.

It was hard to see the sun through the dense fog, but the puppy understood that the night was approaching. He was starving as if he had not eaten for ages. He felt like his stomach got stuck to his spine. The hunger appeared to be so desperate that the puppy was searching every trash can, dreaming to find at least a tiny scrap of food. But all of them were empty. After twenty or thirty attempts, the dog was unable to continue.

Every step was more and more painful, he felt like his paws were sticking to the ground. Drowsy and hopeless, he settled under a wet piece of cardboard and wallowed in his sweet memories.

The puppy recalled his carefree life. He remembered his dark-blue couch which had stitched bones all over it. When the puppy was younger, he used to think that those were real and often tried to grab one with his teeth. Only now, while laying on 30

the cold asphalt, he realized how soft and cosy his old couch was. His next memory caused him to jerk his nose again and lick his lips. He recalled the heavy, sweet smell of fried meat that he used to eat every Sunday. He would give away anything he owned to have something half as delicious right now. His belly hummed quietly.

Suddenly, he spotted a tiny, golden nameplate on his collar. It reminded him of his family. He thought of a strong and tall man with silver-black hair who used to come late in the evening and leave early in the morning and whose hands smelled like paper or ink. This man often talked to him, and despite the dog did not understand a single word, somehow he knew exactly this man’s emotions and his current mood. Then an image of a slim and rather pretty woman with tiny wrinkles near her eyes popped in the puppy’s head. She used to give him pieces of everything she cooked and her hands always smelled like honey and sunflowers. Finally, he thought of an amusing little boy with messy blond hair. He always tried to lift the puppy and never missed an opportunity to caress him.

His hands smelled like apples and grass, which was by far the puppy’s favourite smell. The world without his family lost its colours and life lost its meaning.

The puppy did not even notice when he fell asleep. Though, when he woke up the next morning, the sun had not yet risen and New York was shrouded in fog. The dog was shivering. The hunger, which seemed to calm down since yesterday, erupted again and became even stronger. Suddenly, something caused him to stand on all four paws and to rise his head as high as possible. He sensed this extremely familiar smell… he inhaled deeper. Impossible, but he could not be wrong. The air had a marvellous hint of honey... and sunflowers. It seemed so fragile that the puppy was afraid to move. Did she come back for him?

Will she take the puppy back home? Maybe this entire disaster was just a foolish accident? The puppy immediately forgot about his hunger and fatigue, and burst into running and was as fast as wind.

This scent led the puppy like an invisible hand. Relying on his instincts, he went out onto the central street. At first, the chaos shocked him. People ran, talked on their phones, drank coffee on the way, and their empty eyes showed no interest. Massive

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billboards glowed with all colours of the rainbow. The puppy looked up at the enormous skyscrapers. It seemed that they went up for miles and their roofs were somewhere in outer space. Now with every fiber of his body, he seized his solitude. He was a tiny shallop in the middle of the storming sea.

The puppy almost forgot what he was coming for. The scent of honey and sunflowers that was quite fragile in the beginning was now almost gone. Suddenly, his nose caught the last bit of it. It powerfully dragged him across the road, but he was only able to make two or three steps forward. Thousands of cars, trucks, and other vehicles flashed in front of him at the speed of light. An endless string of them blocked the view, but the puppy knew that his goal was just on the opposite side of the street. Though he could not move. Was there any way he could get there without crossing the road? He looked around with the eyes full of sadness and hopelessness. The puppy was trapped.

He recalled the feeling of cold asphalt under his paws and painful hunger in his stomach. Without a doubt, he made a step. Then one more, then another. He heard the harsh screech of tires. The puppy jumped, avoiding a truck. His heart was beating faster. Suddenly, something big and heavy hit him from the side. First, he couldn’t see or feel nothing. Cold, sticky darkness wrapped him. Then the puppy drowned in pain. He

was unable to squeal or move. He was choking. Everything around him merged in shapeless spots. The puppy tried to lift his head, but sharp pain caused him to lay back and give up.

The puppy did not remember how long he was laying for.

Maybe it was only an hour? Or a whole day? Finally, when his pain eased, he made another attempt to get up. His head was dizzy. He was lacking air. When the puppy put all four paws on the ground, he lost balance and fell immediately. A sharp pain pierced his left leg. However, the puppy mustered up all his willpower and rose again.

When the dog got up, he realised that somebody had moved him away from the roadway to the other side of the street. Happiness overwhelmed him for a second, but it passed as rapidly as it arrived. He, indeed, felt the scent of sunflowers and honey. In fact, it was stronger than ever before. The puppy was standing in front of a perfume shop. His fate, his instincts, everything he could relay on betrayed him.

The puppy stared at the signboard for a little while. His whole essence refused to believe in what has happened. He was only alone for little more than twenty-four hours, yet it felt like centuries had passed. He lost everything too quickly. Yes, he hated life without his family, but life without a hope was even worse. In reality, it was not life at all, it was just existence.

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THEME WINNER

FIRST TRIP TO THE HOSPITAL NIKOLAYA ORESHAROVA GRADE 8

I had just gotten home from school. My parents were still at work, so I had to make sandwiches for my sister and I, otherwise she would annoy me to death. Little kids are so annoying, can’t she survive two hours without food? While I was at home, the telephone started ringing, which was weird,and no one calls by the telephone anymore. I told Angie (my sister) to answer it, but she kept on making poor excuses like “What if the wolf is calling to eat me”. I told her over and over “Just answer the phone!”. The little spoiled child didn’t, so I had to. I could hear a lot of background voices, as if the person calling me was in a crowded area of some sort.

“Good afternoon, is Erik Andersson there?”

I thought to myself, why would someone be calling for my dad? No one ever uses our old phone.

“Um, this is his daughter, Rosa Andersson. My dad is currently at work.”

“We would like to inform you that Abigail Andersson is currently in the state hospital. There was a car crash, from which Abigail is badly injured from.”

I hung up – I didn’t want to listen about my aunt’s injury. I loved her. I couldn’t do anything. I had this fear, that something awful could have happened. I called my dad, explaining what had happened. He didn’t ask any questions. In my mind I kept on pictured what happened to Aunt Abby. When my parents came home we immediately went to the hospital.

My family was in our black ford driving to the hospital. The whole car ride was in complete silence. I recalled the memories, 32

I felt like crying, I kept on thinking what if she died and what if she never comes back. I didn’t cry in front of my family because I have to act strong. The memories of Aunt Abby kept on surfacing around in my mind. I remember how I wanted a dog, but my parents disagreed. Aunt Abby had secretly bought me a puppy, I named it Cookie, because my aunt loved cookies.

That was the best day of my life. I remember how Aunt Abby taught me to swim. I was so scared but she kept me close, I felt safe next to her. I remember sledding down the hill with her and then going to the cafe for hot chocolate in the winter time.

I remember how she supported me when something happened.

When I wanted to learn to play the guitar, my parents said it was for boys, I had to learn the piano or violin. Aunt Abby supported my opinion and took me to guitar lessons. She has always been there for me, I don’t want this to be the end. If you get in a fight with someone you, you can make up. But when it’s the end it’s the end, you can’t do anything. She is my role model for life. She does whatever she wants without caring about others opinions.

When we got to the hospital, all I could think about was my aunt. The thought of her dying broke my heart. Then I looked around and realised this was the first time I was in a hospital.

This hospital is the oldest building in my town and I couldn’t believe I was standing in it. Somehow I had forgotten all about my aunt, I was just admiring the way everything worked. How the doctors were helping, how the cleaners where cleaning. It felt like paradise, I was standing in one of the most significant

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buildings. Then I remember that I was here for my beloved aunt. I was scared to see her. What if she had scars, or had her leg amputated, or if she had a black eye. I kept on thinking about the worse, I couldn’t stop myself. I walked in slow motion until I reached her room. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see her.

She’s my favorite aunt, my best friend. The doctor wouldn’t let my sister and I go in, he said she was in a bad condition. Now I really wanted to see her, after all she is my aunt. I couldn’t take the pressure, if I didn’t see her now I would regret this moment my whole life. I felt like she was telling me to come in. I felt like she would die if I didn’t. My brain was going to explode, so I peeked in. There she was attached to what seemed like one thousand machines. She looked weak, like she wasn’t her energetic self.

I felt like time had stopped. My parents just stayed in the room, and my sister and I were waiting to hear the news. I overheard some of their conversations. I know this is wrong, but I knew my parents would tell me she is okay no matter what, they don’t want to me to worry. I wanted to know the truth.I wanted to be informed of everything happening.

“The car crash happened a couple of hours ago. It’s a miracle she is still alive. She might have some severe scars.

We are not sure how this week will past”, said the doctor in a mild tone.

Now I was really anxious. I hate not knowing what will arise. We drove home and again nobody spoke a word.

The week after was… intense. There was tension around the house, my parents went to see my aunt every day. It seemed like her condition was becoming worse, but my parents wouldn’t tell me anything, they were always stressed and tired . Usually my house was boisterous but now it became silent, which I found eccentric. Before our house was like a wild jungle now it’s like a calm desert. I like being in noisy places, it calms me down, I feel like i’m not alone. The only time we spoke was during dinner. I couldn’t sleep at night, I was worried and concerned about my aunt. The thought of Aunt Abby passing away breaks my heart. I am sure my whole family felt this way. She is a crucial part of the family.

One morning, we got a phone call from the hospital. I thought to myself they were going to tell us the horrible news no one wanted to know.I remember when my dad was picking up the telephone, my heart was beating as fast as a cheetah running. I felt like it was going to exploding, all I wanted was my aunt to be healthy. Luckily, the doctors told us Aunt Abby was going to be okay, but she needs to rest a lot. We immediately ran to the car, still in our pyjamas. I was ecstatic. In the car we played music, cheerful music. When we got to the hospital, I completely forgot to admire the beauty of the hospital, I just ran and gave Aunt Abby a big hug. Aunt Abby was looking like herself. The way I knew her. My aunt was back and she was lucky to be alive.

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

THEME HONORABLE MENTION

FIRST TASTE ALISA DZHASSIM GRADE 8

It was an awkward afternoon and I had just come home from school. That day I had gotten several incompletes on assignments, even though I had done the homework – I guess my work just wasn’t “perfect”. I had also been tired out by Spanish, in which I had worked extremely hard to pay attention.

I somehow survived PHE with the long wait for volleyball unit, history, and language and literature. I was drained.

When I came home, I realized that my aunt had come to our house, which really cheered me up, as I love my aunt – this was going to be a fun afternoon. By this, I mean that every time we have my aunt over we play cards, watch movies, chat, eat, laugh, and have fun, to be exact.

However, as it turned out, my aunt took action upon the absence of sweets in our house and brought some. What she brought were sweets I had never tried before, even though I was familiar with their brand name. She had brought what looked like candy and chocolate bars, which were not small or large, they were just average. The two chocolate bars lay on the table, opened and cut with a knife, laying in small, thin, neat little pieces.

I then came to realize that they weren’t ordinary chocolate bars, they were rather eccentric. Both of then seemed to have three layers; the first bottom layer actual chocolate – extremely thin. The next, thicker layer being somewhat sandy, brown, food element – I suspected it to be a layer of brownie, as it said so on the wrapping of the chocolate bar. That, however, wasn’t the most strange concept about these two bars. I noticed, that on the last layer before the chocolate covering, there was this 34

unusual layer of what looked like jelly; the first bar having orange and the other dark pink jelly. Both looked interesting and delicious. I was tempted to try the chocolate bars.

Knowing my love for red flavors (most of them being cherry, strawberry, and raspberry along with some other flavors) I took and devoured a piece of the red-jelly-bar.

It was overwhelming. While it tasted extremely amazing I also realized that it tastes exactly like another candy I enjoyed, only this one being three times the size. It was a miracle. My favorite candy bar finally bigger than I had ever seen.

It was a feeling of sensation. I loved it. It was sweet, chocolaty, amazing, rich, scrumptious and delicious. The best candy bar I had ever tried.

Later that day I started stealing small bits of it from the kitchen – I just couldn’t not eat more.. It was as if I was a hunter, hunting for food, not getting noticed, not making a single sound, being sneaky. I was coming in and out of the kitchen, it was as if every time I left the kitchen, eating my stomach just burned everything I ate. The chocolate bar was big and cut into small pieces, but at the end, I ate it all.

That was the first time I ate the chocolate bar. It was amazing and had an unbelievable deliciousness to it. It was my first taste of the best chocolate chocolate bar I had ever eaten.

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

PROSE NON FICTION WINNER

MEMORIES MEDEINE VALIONYTE GRADE 10

My oldest memories are from when I was about 4 years old.

There are few of them and time has made even those hazy. I do however remember some the ones that impacted me the most.

Back then I lived in the Flemish region of Brussels, Belgium and the kindergarten I went to was in French. I don’t remember my first days there, but my mom says that I adjusted and learned the language very quickly.

I believe her, after all, I do remember how a boy from my group asked me once: “Is it true that you’re not Belgian?”

“I’m not. I’m Lithuanian.”

He gave me a haughty look.

“Say something in Lithuanian then.”

That somehow triggered the stubborn mind of a four-yearold. My cheeks flushed, and I shouted: “NO!” The little boy smirked.

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

“I’m not lying!” I denied, though there really was little point in arguing, I had no reason to refuse to speak.

However, I persisted and this argument grew between me and the other children and continued until I left.

Another thing I know for sure happened there was my first kiss. It’s an awkward and uncomfortable memory, and I like to silently laugh at it when I’m alone.

There is no particular thing that makes it uncomfortable, just many things that together make this a funny memory.

In my kindergarten, like in most other kindergartens in Brussels at the time, children always had to go outside during recess except during extreme weather conditions. I assume that this system was adopted so that the teachers would have a break.

They were very strict about this rule and there was always 36

someone standing at the door asking children why they were going inside. They would even remember if I had already gone to the bathroom at the beginning of recess, and I would have to undergo humiliating questions on why I had to go again.

There was only one time when I lied about where I was going to the person guarding the door. That was when during recess one of the boys approached me. His name was Lucas and I remember him as being a troubled child that seemed to have a little too much sadness and anger for someone his age.

He told me that he really wanted to show me something inside, which of course intrigued me, so I immediately followed his instructions and came inside the building a few seconds after him. The hallway was mostly dark because the lights were always shut off during the long break.

Lucas led me to the darker end of the hallway and just like that, he kissed me. It was very short and awkward and I was very confused, especially when he immediately ran away after doing it. It was so strange to me that I never even told anyone about it. I thought that maybe it was a dare, but then why do it somewhere where no one could see? I’ll never know. I was so embarrassed about what happened, that I never did tell anyone about it.

There is only one other person that I remember from then.

It’s my best friend at the time. her name has slipped my mind since then, but there are many other things about her that I remember. For one, I thought that she was the prettiest girl in our group. She had eyes that were so blue they seemed almost white, and blonde curly hair that I was always jealous of. She would often wear lip gloss or even mascara and eyeshadow, which at the time seemed very unfair considering that I was never allowed to do that, but now only seems strange. Few parents would allow a four year old to wear makeup.

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Despite my jealousy we were good friends and spent a lot of time together. One day as I was playing outside I noticed her being told off by the teacher. I couldn’t hear what either were saying,but their body language said it all.

What caught my eye was that my friend seemed to have a rather strange response to it. Instead of crying or mouthing of, like I would have done, she looked down at the ground, and once the teacher was done talking she looked up, smiled and apologised. The teacher smiled back and let her run off.

As I was watching this, something in my stomach knotted. It seemed very unfair. My friend and I always got into trouble, and she was often let of easier than me. I never thought much of it before – adults always seemed to make decisions based on things I didn’t understand.

That day, when I came home, I stood in front of the mirror for a long time.

I looked down, then lifted my head and tried to smile…

And immediately burst into tears. My hair was straight and

seemed to stick to my head, my eyes were mud-colored and my smile resembled a pained grimace.

This was the first time in my life that I felt ugly and inadequate.

When I left Belgium I was sad to leave the small world that I knew, but I was also excited to go on a new adventure and experience new things.

I never contacted my friends again and that was my choice. I felt that I could create something more beautiful for myself in the future.

Now I know that life is never easier no matter how many times you start over.

To this day I still don’t understand why my first and only kiss happened when I was four, why as an adorable toddler I felt ugly, why I was embarrassed to be bilingual or why many of the things that formed the most important parts of how I perceive the world now happened so early.

Now the most important parts of my childhood that I still remember, are ones that I would now like to forget.

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M A R I YA K R Y S H C H U K

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VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 2019 • UPPER MYP

GRADE 9, SELF-PORTRAITS, G R A P H I T E O N PA P E R

HYUNWOO RA

M A R I A TA R AT O R I N A

ARTEMIA KALUGIN

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P O E T RY W I N N E R

LOVEBUGS SONJA RINGGER GRADE 12

Yellowjackets Sting more than once.

They don’t mind bees (they’ve got more to lose); Wasps They hate…

… The dress you wore: A beautiful warning.

Hot summer night skies are your territory.

(My suit: brown and boring.)

You’re airborne, I’m trapped down here.

I have wings, too useless to fly – I’m left scattering.

I polished my coat Just for tonight, to see If you descend, like a fallen angel.

You do not.

Breadcrumbs on the floor Are enough for me, But you want something more sweet; You won’t find it here.

You soar like an idiot (everyone is watching, weary) And you refuse to think with reason.

Not fast enough…

… But you look wonderful To me, down here on the ground, In that pretty Yellow jacket.

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

PROSE FICTION WINNER

EMPTY SPACE SONJA RINGGER GRADE 12

Journal entry 45: November 27th

Journal entry 63: March 7th

Andy died on the 18th of August.

I’m worried about Ryan.

He’s overworking himself.

His desk is littered in papers with crossed out words on them.

Driving home from the studio, they said he lost control of the car.

Slammed into a wall. Killed on impact.

We’re dead, too.

Who am I kidding? We can’t perform as two.

Our music is dead.

No one listens to indie bands anymore. We’re not flashy and colorful enough, or not edgy enough.

We used to think that’s what made us unique, but in the end it killed us.

We used to feel like we were on top of the world, youthful faces filled with hope, fresh out of college and ready to take on anything.

We’re closer to thirty now than we are to twenty, and the only time our names are in the news anymore is because of Andy.

I’m not the only one who can’t write.

Out lyrical genius, it seems, is also dead.

There’s empty space everywhere.

The apartment is too big for two. Andy’s missing.

Was it an accident?

Journal entry 64: March 8th We fought today.

Straight out of highschool, he knew what he wanted, knew what kind of life he wanted with us, some strangers he used to hang out in the park with.

I don’t want us to become strangers again.

We cancelled the tour.

Journal entry 52: January 19th I want to write songs again, even if it’s just the meaningless catchy ones we’d churn out for album fillers and a quick buck.

But I’m dead too, it seems.

Can’t write a thing. Nothing ever sounds good anymore.

Ryan, too, is dying.

He comes home at dawn smelling like perfume, or cologne, or both, with a heavy note of alcohol mixed in, just to crash on the couch.

He has a bed here. This is his flat, too, but he insists on the couch.

I’m worried about him.

He’s the youngest of us, the most sensitive, I feel.

I don’t want him to wither away, because he is dying, no doubt about it.

I’m telling him to be safe, at least, be careful when he’s going out.

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He talked about moving out of the apartment, our apartment.

Said it was full of ghosts or something like that.

Said he can’t take it anymore, coming home and expecting Andy to be fooling around on his guitar in the living room, only to be greeted with silence.

Does he think he’s the only one?

I wake up every morning to get breakfast and expect to see Andy bustling around the kitchen.

But we can’t move out. This is all we have left.

What right does he have to leave?

And with what money anyways?

Journal entry 65: March 9th Ryan isn’t home yet. It’s 2:30 am.

We need to go perform again.

We need another album.

We’re broke.

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I need to sleep. I’m so tired.

Journal entry 68: March 14th Andy used to say: “For a star to shine it must burn, and those stars who shine the brightest also burn the fastest.”

Ryan was a ball of sunshine and happiness.

Andy was melancholy and thoughtful and kind. (And an utter romantic. It was funny.)

He had a dark streak to his personality, was quite content to suffer if he felt down.

I like to think of myself as the calm, responsible one.

I’m so tired. The days are fusing into one.

This is hell. This is limbo.

I don’t even remember what I did yesterday. I can’t recall anything anymore.

I’m so tired.

We smile not because of what we have, but because of what we will have; the hope of a better future is a joy greater than any momentary achievement. And without hope, who are we?

What is it to live without a dream, a goal, something to look forward to?

We see happiness and hope wherever we go, wherever we look.

We might as well not see it at all.

Journal entry 76: April 1st This can’t be the end.

We’re dying.

My chest is caving in and we’re dying.

I can’t get up.

I’ve been in bed for the past 3 days.

It’s just all so tiring, my mind is spinning in circles.

When did Ryan last come home?

It’s all so bleak. I don’t feel anything anymore.

Journal entry 72: March 25th

Journal entry 79: April 5th

This has been a mistake. Where the hell are you?

What are we doing with ourselves?

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

We need an album I’m not going to do it I can’t get up.

Journal entry 83: April 16th We gave an interview today.

I kept Ryan under lock and key yesterday so he couldn’t go out.

He’s not going to go to our first interview hungover, goddammit.

It was a bad decision.

To go out into the real world again, to see them all smiling and being kind and enjoying life.

How can you be happy? Andy DIED! How can you be happy when Andy’s dead?

Journal entry 84: April 18th I picked Ryan up from the ER tonight.

He’s sleeping next to me. He’s safe.

We had a talk.

I sat us down on the couch and we talked for hours, about Andy, about us, about the world, about what comes next.

It felt good.

I feel human again, full of energy, as if I’ve just woken up from a good night’s sleep.

Ryan does too, I think.

He’s smiling with his eyes. He’s smiling at me right now.

I’m going to grab my metaphorical shovel and dig us out of our graves.

And Ryan’s going to help me, because if I end up doing all the work again I will smack him silly, so help me god.

Journal entry 95: May 10th

I don’t know what he took. I couldn’t concentrate on the doctor at all, not when Ryan was there.

He’s so small. I can’t believe how skinny he’s gotten.

We wrote a song.

It’s good. Andy would like it.

We sat down in the recording booth and got to work.

It was best not to think about it at all.

Ryan’s always been a collection of extremes.

When he’s excited he bounces off the walls.

When he’s down he cried big, fat tears like it’s the end of the world.

We need some more practice though.

My fingers feel thick and clumsy on the keyboard, and Ryan fumbles chords sometimes.

He’s just a kid. How did we mess up this bad?

For our next album, we’re going to have to find our sound again. A new ‘us’.

Ryan’s currently sitting at the kitchen table, wolfing down a salad, furiously scribbling lyrics on a piece of paper.

He’s inspired. It feels good to see him like this, to see us like this.

I’m so happy right now.

Journal entry 87: April 24th Ryan doesn’t go out clubbing anymore, he doesn’t sleep around anymore, I’m relieved.

If overdosing is what it took to finally break this cycle, I’m glad.

He doesn’t say it, but I know he thinks that Andy’s death was somehow his fault.

That maybe Andy died regretting the band, regretting us, hating him.

That’s just the kind of person he is. He’d do anything for approval.

I spent a lot of time thinking recently.

I have nothing better to do anyways.

I’ll never know what exactly was going through Andy’s head when he died.

When he “lost control”.

Did he really?

I’m never sure what to believe anymore.

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Journal entry 90: April 30th

Journal entry 100: May 17th It’s hard, writing a song without Andy.

His voice was so flawlessly high and clear that he had no trouble singing anything.

But we’re not like that. Ryan and I together sound so different.

No one will ever replace Andy, and that’s a comfort.

We promised that to ourselves.

We’re not trying to fill a gap. The empty space will stay.

We’re going to be ok.

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NON FICTION HONORABLE MENTION

NORA HELMER: CHARACTER PROGRESSION THROUGH THE ACTS SENA CINAR GRADE 11

In 1879, the strong woman persona was not common, which was when A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was written. The three act play encompasses the protagonist, Nora, who is hiding a big secret from her husband. The audience sees her anxiety through various milestones in the play, although the key progression is that of her character. The impression that the audience receives of her character at the very end of the play, is consequently much different to her character in the beginning. In the beginning of act one, we are faced with a Nora who embodies a childish character who doesn’t tell the truth, causing the reader to believe that she is quite submissive as well as a liar.

Nora, Torvald’s little skylark, frequently has something to hide from her husband throughout the beginning of act one. She eats a macaroon before talking to Torvald after he comes out of his study. Torvald asks her, “Didn’t go nibbling a macaroon or two? (Ibsen, 5)” to which she answers, “No, Torvald, honestly, you must believe me! (Ibsen, 5)” This may be a small lie that might not seem meaningful, but it symbolises other things that she may be hiding from her husband that, perhaps, are much bigger.

This leads to the conversation between Nora and her friend, Kristine, where Nora explains how it was her who paid for their trip to Italy, and not her father (which is what Torvald believes as the truth). Nora says, “Daddy never gave us a penny. I was the one who raised the money. (Ibsen, 13)” When Kristine asks her how she had found the money, Nora simply responds with, “H’m, tra-la-la! (Ibsen, 13)” This is something else that she is keeping from Torvald, although a much bigger secret, which gives us the impression that she is not an honest person. Consequently, her childish response shows the typical stereotype of the character of a woman in the late 1800s, meaning she can’t comprehend serious matters.

This gives off the impression that she doesn’t care about what she has just admitted. Towards the end of the first act, 48

Nora’s embodiment of the character of a lying wife is further emphasised. Parallelly, the audience can see the changes in her character.

Nora has bigger things that she is hiding from her husband. After being confronted by Krogstad, her biggest secret is revealed: the truth about how she got the money to go to Italy, where she forged her father’s signature: “No it wasn’t. It was me who signed father’s name (Ibsen, 28).”

Through her reactions to Krogstad’s rather persistent nature, the audience can quickly see the contrast in her thoughts and feelings from the beginning of act one, to the end. Her reactions give off the impression that she isn’t as carefree as the audience made her out to be. Krogstad says, “If I produce this document in court, you’ll be condemned according to them (Ibsen, 29),” and leaves. Nora continues getting the Christmas preparations ready, trying to distract herself, “Candles here...and flowers here. – Revolting man! It’s all nonsense! There’s nothing to worry about. We’ll have a lovely Christmas tree. And I’ll do anything you want me to, Torvald; I’ll sing for you, dance for you…(Ibsen, 30).” The change in her actions towards Torvald after he comes back, communicate how her motives behind keeping this big secret from him are good. It is a clear indicator on the fact that she truly cares about her husband. “I’m so looking forward to the fancy dress ball at the Stenborgs on Boxing Day (Ibsen, 31),” she says.

Although we would’ve assumed she’s silly and can’t ever talk about serious matters, the audience understand now that she isn’t so shallow. The plot starts to progress more rapidly in act two, in turn revealing Nora’s new attitudes.

As the plot develops, the big secrets that Nora is keeping from her husband are revealed. The tension rises between Nora and Krogstad, and Nora’s mood clearly changes as she starts to become more anxious about the situation. Her feelings towards the cause can be seen through the way she dances; Helmer (Ibsen, 59) says, “But my dear darling Nora,

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you are dancing as though your life depended on it,” to which Nora, still dancing, replies, “It does (Ibsen, 59).” As visualised in the movie, she looks quite exhausted and so anxious that she might even faint. Since this is where she is trying to distract Torvald as Kristine has gone to Krogstad to reason with him, she is evidently stressed about the events that may occur after. She is debating whether or not Kristine’s plan is going to work, and the repercussions that will come if the plan doesn’t work. The events that take place at the end of the play shape Nora’s true beliefs and important realisations she comes to regarding herself.

The climax of the play reveals the true character of Torvald Helmer. Nora comes to realisations about herself and her life, which affects the way the audience views her at the end of the play. Seeing the difference in Torvald’s reaction when he finds out about her secret versus his change in character after learning the danger is gone, leads Nora to the decision of leaving him, and realisation that she never really was in love with him. She says: “I’m desperately sorry, Torvald. Because you have always been so kind to me. But I can’t help it. I don’t love you anymore (Ibsen, 83).” Nora (Ibsen, 84), also explains to him that “When you had gotten over your fright – and you weren’t concerned about me but only about what might happen to you – and when all danger was past, you acted as though nothing had happened.” She is becoming aware of her worth and what she truly deserves. At the same time, she has realised that her husband of eight years doesn’t truly care about her, and rather is concerned about what would happen only to himself.

Nora doesn’t want to keep impressing Torvald and suppressing her thoughts and emotions, in fear of upsetting him. She starts comparing herself to a doll, and explains to Torvald how, like her father, he is treating her like his doll. Nora

says, “But our house has never been anything but a playroom.

I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Daddy’s doll child (Ibsen, 80).” This is indicative of the realisation Nora has come to about the way she has been treated her whole life.

After being a part of this situation, Nora is exposed to many ideas she had never even thought about: the law, society’s beliefs versus her own, and just how unfair she has been treated in her eight years of marriage with Torvald. “I’ve also learnt that the law is different from what I thought; but I simply can’t get it into my head that that particular law is right. Apparently a woman has no right to spare her old father on his death-bed, or to save her husband’s life, even.

I just don’t believe it (Ibsen, 83),” Nora explains to Torvald, showing the clash of her own opinions and beliefs with the law. This leads her to become more aware of her own personal thoughts, and how she has realised that she has to suppress them to keep from creating controversy with the two main male figures in her life: her father, and her husband Torvald.

As the plot progresses, the readers’ impressions of Nora, as well as her own impression of herself, alters. Ibsen is making the protagonist Nora take many actions that were considered not accustomed to women in the late 1800s. In turn, this created controversy at the time. Investigating into Nora’s change in character throughout the play in the present time, leads us to understand the harsh realities of gender issues in the late 1800s, and to compare the controversial aspects to the truths of today.

Reference List: Ibsen, H. (1998) Four Major Plays. New York: Oxford University, pp. 5, 13, 28, 29, 30, 31, 59, 80, 83, 84.

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THEME WINNER

A MEMORY SENA CINAR GRADE 11

I narrowly recall my first taste of disappointment, the eternal shame carried with a scent of great sublimity.

Childish desire to hold your firsts and your hands, doesn’t stir joy, instead the wish that it would dissolve.

Our pathetic attempts at endeavouring my first campfire, tastes, books, all-nighters, love; when suddenly the expired memories all include you.

I never before understood what I was holding on to.

Life moves in fast motion when you watch it through creaked eyelashes.

Colours blur together; flowers with severed leaves.

The silky white curtains suddenly look like the swinging branches behind them.

It almost feels like you’re hallucinating; was anything you felt before this moment, real?

I often wonder a lot of things.

At times, my brain feels as if it is carrying all of my body’s organs and all their complaints as well as mine.

All my senses seem to want to burst; out of my mouth, my nostrils, my ears, my eyes, and dance above the water in bursts of colour, creating images of thorns and stones, ones that my heart hosts.

The sunsets and sunrises absorbed from the roof, remind me to not take the feelings for granted. as when I think about them now, I don’t feel the pain, but rather my worth.

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VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 2019 • DP

JOKUBAS LABUTIS, GRADE 11, REDEMPTION, LINOLEUM PRINT

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ALEXANDER LITERARY AW CONTEST SUBMISSION LOW E R M Y P P O E T RY:

LOW E R M Y P P R O S E FICTION:

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WHAT DOES A HOBBY

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TELEPORTING TO MY

MEAN TO YOU?

INDIGENOUS GROUP

Alessandra Sikharulidze (Grade 6)

Anushka Goel (Grade 6)

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FIRST TIME STEPPING ON MARS Etienne Fallick-Marechal (Grade 8)

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VIOLET WITH A REAL BOOK Maya Kobyletska (Grade 8)

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R WARD

NS 2019 LOW E R M Y P T H E M E :

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HAND TO KEYBOARD – A FIRST SHORT STORY Alexander Werner (Grade 8)

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HER FIRST STORM Finola Quinn (Grade 8)

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I’M A PILOT NOW Simonas Koncevičius (Grade 8)

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THE HUNTSMANS: FIRST KILL Sacha Luella Draycott (Grade 8)

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LOW E R M Y P P O E T RY

WHAT DOES A HOBBY MEAN TO YOU? ALESSANDRA SIKHARULIDZE GRADE 6

Think about it, what is a real hobby to you?

Tennis is a hobby that I love to come to.

For me, it is something that you do everyday, And a feeling of living in it as you play.

You people might think that tennis is just training, But in fact for me it’s very entertaining.

I get to travel around and make new good friends, I see it in my future and hope it ne’er ends.

I feel adrenaline, power and joy as I play, I give tennis my attention so it would stay.

You see a big smile on my face when I win, But losing makes my racket aim for the green bin.

A tournament makes the bugs in my head appear, Because of tension and a small feeling of fear.

During matches my thinking can’t be organized, Since all of the thoughts in my head are memorized.

I experience independence when playing.

I don’t like wasting my day time only laying.

I like tennis cause I’m always engaged in it, I hope that winning and me will never be split.

For me it is the world’s most interesting sport, Since I stand from when I was six on this clay court.

Tennis is something that I do spending my days, And I care about this meaningful to me phrase 56

ANA CHIRICENCO, GRADE 10, MARSI, SCULPTURE

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TELEPORTING TO MY INDIGENOUS GROUP ANUSHKA GOEL GRADE 6

Dear Family,

I have teleported to the Indigenous group that I researched in I&S I will be here for a month. The Karen people in Thailand, they are known for the rings they were on the necks and legs I tried the rings to its cool. Also, these people live in small groups and in hills where you can find space for agriculture. Even though they are different from us they are very fun and nice people. Other interesting things you can see in the next paragraph.

One of the most interesting things that I learned about them is that they have few religions even in the small groups of people, they believe in Buddhism, Christianity, and Animist. Also one of the things that captured were the rings that they were and never take of these rings stay on you almost till the end of your life. They started wearing this to protect themselves from tigers as many women were killed because a tiger bites her on the neck, they don’t even know how their necks look without rings ( I also tried the rings on me they look so cool). Their tribe started from a history/ legend that said once a beautiful women fell in love with a dragon and got married, then they got three eggs the Padung, the Karen, and the Yan yo. They also have very nice dances they have on different occasions when I came it was the Karen revolution day which was very beautiful and interesting with flowers and dance.

This is all for know, I really enjoyed to be hear and hope to come back soon.

Anushka Goel

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FIRST TIME STEPPING ON MARS ETIENNE FALLICK-MARECHAL GRADE 8

2074, In the University of Space Studies: “Today we will chose the five most adequate students to have a chance to join Nasa’s recruiting center to have a chance to join the Elite Mars Development astronaut group which may save Earth and Humanity” said our Mars Study Professor. “Good Luck to all of you the test will be given in exactly 3 weeks so study hard everyone a minimum of fifteen out of twenty to pass or to get a chance to have another great job in the Space Domain” told us another Professor that i didn’t know but i knew i had no time to waste if i wanted to have a chance go to Mars. I studied real hard for the three weeks studied for more than twelve hours a day to have the best chances of succeeding. The day finally arrived and i knew that this is gonna decide my future.

The University Director started his speech “Everybody we are starting the test in fifteen minutes, try your best everyone and good luck to succeed”. I started the test by completing all the questions i was sure about knowing the answer of first and then the ones i had trouble with to be able to secure as many points as possible right away. There were two questions that i had to guess logically because i wasn’t sure about them but i had answered sixty three questions before these two which means they won’t really impact my total score that much and i have a chance to get chosen.

A month later our whole University finally gets there result on the test and me too. The average score on the exam for our University was forty-one and the average of all Space University is thirty nine which means that there is a really high chance that i’ll get a good result. Finally the moment arrived when the professor hands me an envelop with my results. I slowly open it and then i see my score and there i saw that i got 57/65 and i couldn’t even imagine i did this well. “I was 60

qualified for the Elite Mars Group training and try-out” i said to myself. I knew that this is going to change my life. I was sent to California more precisely San Francisco to start preparing and learning about Mars and how we will be able to make it a livable planet for humans. I learned a lot about how we could make rockets launch from mars which requires a very advanced technologie which we just developed. After a year of training and revising a group of fifty of us where going to leave for Mars in different rockets ten people per rocket and a lot of materials and equipments in them for the construction of homes on mars.

2078, After 4 years of intense studies and physical efforts to be prepared for the launch of Mars Craft Rocket. Day -7 before the launch we were all packing our equipment and clothing we needed to put in the rocket with a limit of 50 kilos per person. We also prepared the water, food and air supplies.

We also had trainings to learn how to use the vertical beds in the rocket and how to use the bathroom properly. We also had trainings underwater to train at repairing and constructing in space where there is less gravity. For the whole week we prepared ourselves for it. The day finally arrived and we entered the rocket with the cheers of the crowd that came to see us leave. We entered and sat down in our seats and attached ourselves and we launched up and accelerated at an impressive speed. “Let’s go” screamed Serge excitedly, “First Time in Mars it’s going to be great and first time stepping on it” uttered the mission leader which our group elected a month ago. “Everyone when we arrive we start by making our dome and we make sure it’s well attached and closed and then we fill it with air, we will put our bunk beds on the walls and attach them” told us the leader. “The following days we will have to

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prepare the plantation of fruits and vegetables so we have to having everything prepared as soon as possible”. Three days later we finally arrived at Mars after a very complicated landing on a very vertical hill. We all started by equipping our suit and then we opened the port and we saw a dusty red planet like the desert i went to in jordania called Wadi Rum where i went when i was thirteen during spring. Then i stepped out on a dusty ruff rock of Mars and never felt any sensations like this before and i felt the difference of gravity which more than half times weaker than on Earth which gave me the feeling of being really light. Gravity is two times stronger on Mars than the Moon which is impressive and would make us feel even lighter except that Mars is a way more liveable planet than the moon because of it’s good gravity and with the ice under the ruff rock surface of Mars. It’s also a big planet even though it’s

smaller than Earth. It was an extreme sensation when i landed on the ground and jumped at least two meters high without a big impulsion. It was amazing, then i turn around and see a person that couldn’t control his jumps and was about to land in a crater so i jumped as high as i could. I landed near the edge of the grater. I grabbed his leg and pulled him to the edge and he was very grateful.

This was just the start of the men colonization of mars and five years latter when this book is published, Mars already welcomed hundreds of habitants and now has a vegetation under the big air bubble we made around the city. This how the colonization of Mars at in its current stage still very empty but will we be able to take a solar rocket every day to go to Mars or will it stay a privilege to live there. We may soon know...

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VIOLET WITH A REAL BOOK MAYA KOBYLETSKA GRADE 8

A FRAGMENT

Violet’s Life This story will tell you about Violet’s life, which is truly extraordinary. Violet is a very intelligent and inquisitive girl, which may be annoying for some people. She is a peculiar child who does not use any technology as everyone does nowadays. Some people call Violet a witch, as she acts like one and wears particularly unusual outfits. Violet, her parents and her younger brother live in a small, comfortable house.

The house has three floors, which are quite small in size.

Although Violet’s room is located in the attic, she loves it very much. The reason behind this is that it incorporates black and purple decorations. Violet’s mum says that she should change her room. However, Violet's opinion about this is different.

Speaking of the house, outside of it there is a long straight road. Once, Violet walked along the road and discovered that there was an immense tree nearby. She decided to sit next to it and read peacefully.

Life Is A Peculiar Memory “If You Explore It Enough” One day Violet sat near her favorite tree and explored her new book. She leafed through the pages and acknowledged that it was very unusual. This convinced Violet to carry on reading it.

When she came to the end of the second chapter something made her stop. The strange silence caused her to be furious.

She tried to ignore it and continued looking through the story. In spite of that, the silence kept floating in her mind which made her frantic. Afterward, Violet decided to go and eat a snack.

However, when she stood up it seemed as though the world had changed, everything had become sadder. This seemed like a vision, but Violet felt as though it was actually real.

As Violet was a brave child, she desperately carried on walking. When she entered the house, her mum called Violet for some cake, which was delicious. After having a snack she decided to go to her room and watch this peculiarity in the world. It seemed as though everything had begun to reappear in diverse and abstract shapes. This world was becoming something which was never known before. Some billboards reappeared. That made Violet puzzled about what was actually happening. She rapidly ran downstairs and opened the door slightly. Everything outside was flying unbelievably quickly in an abnormal way. Violet was never scared of going on new adventures. That made her feel strong enough to go and explore the new world. When she went outside she felt as though she entered a fully improved universe. It contained strange lights and displays which changed every few minutes.

Violet became curious about this peculiar behavior of the world, it bothered her. She could not quite understand what was going on and this was the most frantic part of this situation.

As Violet acknowledged that this should not be occurring, she became very keen on knowing what was wrong. She still could not understand why this whole bizarre change had happened.

Later, Violet tried to understand what one billboard was saying. She read that a nearby shop was located three 63

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kilometers away from this point. She thought that maybe someone there would help her. However, Violet was wrong because when she entered, strange objects were moving around. They acted exactly like human beings, although they were made of metal. This reminded her of the book that she had just begun to read. Violet remembered that the story talked about an abnormal society. This community consisted of robots instead of humans and computers rather than books, which was very shocking.

Now Violet realized that she should read the book and find out more. Of course, she had her book in her pocket. She took it out and leafed through the pages. From what she read she understood that soon some kind of technology will appear.

This device was described as a “useful object for humans”.

Violet got sad that this new world is very modern and only based on the internet. She wanted to fight the people who would admit that they created this world. The book stated that a girl had once entered a peculiar world and needed to adapt to it. This world would never come back to what it was before, and this made Violet realized that everything was happening as the book predicted…

Is There A Way Out? Now Violet assumed that she was stuck in a world which would change people’s perspectives. She could not accept this. She was puzzled with anxious thoughts. Violet could not wait to see her best friend, Mary. They had known each other since they were five years old. For Violet, it was hard to imagine what Mary’s opinion of the situation was. Violet was getting worried that Mary might be in grave danger. She did not want to lose a close friend. Violet decided to visit Mary. She was not sure where she could find her friend. She began to search for street number two. After a long search, she gave up. She sat down near a tree and began to cry.

One hour later, Violet realized that next to her there was an envelope. She gently picked it up and opened it. There was a strange note which flew out. It read, “there is no way out until you find it”. The writing was unclear so Violet spent an hour figuring out what the note said. She had no idea what this note meant, so she decided to find out who had written it.

“Maybe Mary is pranking me,” thought poor Violet.

Violet could not find out who had sent the note. She even read it several times. However, later she decided to look at the back of the letter and found out that it had been written

by Puffy Ghost. The name sounded pretty funny and very unexpected for Violet. The envelope was quite big in size so she fumbled through it until she found something. It was an 64

immense map. The map was designed differently from the usual ones. It had strange street names and signs which were unreadable. Violet still had hope that she would be able to find Mary’s house. However, on the map, there was nothing similar to the street that she lived on. After thinking of what to do, Violet came to a conclusion. “I will never find the way out of this place,” stated Violet…

The Two Strange Shops Violet did not know what to do. She decided to wander around the world and look for something that will help her find any important clues for escaping this world. She came to the point where there were two signs. One said “the Apple Street” and the other “the Android Street.” She had no idea which path to follow. She chose the Apple Street as she understood the meaning of it.

Half an hour later, after walking along the Apple Street, Violet saw a restaurant. She was so joyful to finally find somewhere to stop. However, when she stepped inside it, it turned out not to be a restaurant, but a shop. It had lights all around it. Things were making sounds. They looked rather thin and scary to touch. People, including the metal ones, were walking around. They were touching those devices. That was when Violet realized what the book was talking about. It said that there would be a new machine. This technology would display things and talk. It actually did both, and even had light effects which were frightening for Violet. She wanted to leave but the crowd was too big. It seemed as though she was in a stampede. People began to run to the same point. Violet looked there and saw that the shop owner brought the new gadget. That's when people realized that the first person to arrive there would be the one to buy it. They started off by shouting out different prices for that little thing. Violet could not understand how one could even give a dollar for that. It did nothing useful for your life. When the crowd surrounded the owner, Violet sneaked out of the shop.

The actual street was rather strange to walk on. It had wonderful lights and bright displays of advertisement. There were billboards everywhere along the Apple Street. “I do not actually know what is presented on the billboards, it seems very flat and useless,” thought Violet.

Violet was looking for a place to sit down. She actually did find one near a river. It felt very pleasant to sit there.

She took out her book and leafed through it again. She read another three chapters and found out that soon there would be a competition. Two stores would present their products and try to persuade as many people as possible to buy them.

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The products would be based on more advanced technology.

Another part of the book talked about a girl meeting a friend and talking about the cause of this radical change in the world. Violet hoped that this friend would be Mary; however, she did not actually believe that. Violet got bored reading and decided to go for a walk. She went in the other direction.

An hour later, Violet appeared near the same two street signs. She was interested to see what the android part looked like. She walked past the billboards which showed a different device. It seemed very similar, however, the color was odd and the buttons were rearranged. Violet stopped for a while as she got quite tired of walking. She saw a shop again. After she entered, Violet realized that it was full of the same devices that she had seen in the other shop. They were all lit and displayed something on their screens. Violet came up to see one of the machines more closely. She saw that it had a black surface on one side and a yellow one on the other. When she touched one button the thing came on. This scared Violet so much that she even jumped with a little scream. A boy was standing next to her looking rather curious about what had just happened. He asked her if she needed any advice on what to buy, however, Violet refused. She decided to go out of the shop. Strangely, when she came to the door everyone began to run again. Violet nearly tripped over one huge man. When everything calmed down, Violet sneaked out.

Violet lied down on the grass and had a thought. She understood that there was no point in entering any shops.

People are just wild there and can easily kill you in order to buy something. While she peacefully swimming in her thoughts, something or someone tapped on her shoulder.

Old Friend The moment Violet opened her eyes she saw a girl looking approximately her age. She got up and looked curiously. Then she asked what was the girl’s name. The girl kindly replied, “Did you forget who I am?” Violet could not remember this girl from anywhere. “Come on, Violet, it’s me, Mary.” When she heard that Violet realized it was her old lovely friend Mary. She looked so different from the last time that they had seen each other. They both hugged and smiled happily.

After a minute of joyful silence, Mary asked Violet if she understood what had happened to the world. Violet told Mary about her journey and Mary told about hers. She said that she had passed strange billboards and shops that had thin gadgets with buttons. Also, there were metal people and street names had been changed. Everything was in disorder and both girls agreed to bring it back to normal. They looked at the map that

Violet had found and tried to understand where they were.

Then they decided to follow the path in order to get to a house called “Puffy.” It seemed like this house was related to the ghost who had written the strange letter. They set off on the real journey together.

The Puffy House When the two friends came to the Puffy house they were unaware of what was waiting for them there. However, since both of them were risk-takers, they knocked on the door.

When it opened, no one was there. This worried Mary a lot.

They stepped inside and the door closed behind them. Before even turning around, they heard someone say, “Hello ladies, I am the Puffy Ghost.” This cheered up Violet as she had hoped to meet this creature. It turned out that the ghost was visible whenever it wanted to be. So it appeared next to the girls and smiled. It looked very fat and funny. Violet and Mary calmed down and were invited to sit down by the fire. The ghost joined them and seemed happy about this visit, “I have waited for someone to come for ages.” Violet tried to stay serious and confident. She did not think that believing ghosts was the right thing to do because they could easily trick you. Mary did not enjoy the silence so she asked the ghost about the world they ended up in. He joyfully agreed to explain everything.

The ghost started by saying, “It is my mission to inform the new inhabitants of the world what is happening here.

First, you should be aware of the technology used here. There are two companies, the Apple and the Android. After choosing one of them you had better stay with it or otherwise, you will be in big trouble.” Violet still did not see any difference in the devices that the companies had made. She asked the ghost what was the difference between those two producers.

“I am rather happy to tell you about this. The apple is very accurate in making the phone’s appearance look appealing.

They add color, new buttons, new details, better cameras, new apps, etc. On the other hand, Android is very simple and easy to use. It is developed just like Apple, but it does not have as many complex features,” explained the ghost. Afterward, Mary asked, “Which side are you on, Puffy?” “I like Apple more as it is prettier, however, Android is simpler to use,” said the ghost. Violet considered this comment. “How could the ghost choose both companies?” thought Violet. So she simply asked the ghost once more about his opinion. “I told you that both producers have pros and cons, however, I would rather pick the Apple,” joyfully explained the ghost.

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note that was left next to a tree. It was written by you, Puffy,”.

She showing the letter to Puffy. The Ghost seemed puzzled, “I never wrote this letter. There is no way back out of this place.”

“What do you mean?” said Mary. “Welcome! This is the new society,” said the ghost finally.

He later disappeared and they were left in silence. Mary began to cry. Violet calmed her down although she felt bad as well. They both went out of the house and looked at this huge new community. They had to get used to those billboards, devices and even metal people. This was becoming outrageous and illogical. “Mary, there should be a way out. We will find it no matter what,” said Violet angrily.

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The Helpful Hill The girls set out to find the way out. There were so many places to visit. Maybe even the ghost house contained some clues. They looked at the map while sitting by the river. Ten minutes later, Violet jumped up and said, “Do you see this hill?

It must have a clue.” So they set off for a new adventure.

When they approached the hill, it seemed usual. However, when they moved closer, writings could be seen on the hill. The writings read, “Say a word and I will open.” That seemed very strange to both Violet and Mary. They came up with words that could cause this to open. After an hour of trying they both said “no way” and the hill opened.

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ANA CHIRICENCO, GRADE 10, D AY D R E A M I N G , AC R Y L I C O N PA P E R

Inside it, it was very dark and nothing could be seen. Mary found something that could be clicked. She did so and the lights went on. There were several entrances and a question next to them. Violet read it out loud “Which entrance contains mice? Listen carefully and follow the path.” The girls listened to every door however, no mice were heard, only bats and silence. They sat and thought about it as they did not want to enter the wrong door. Later, another clue appeared “Don't think too long, follow your heart.” The girls did so and went through the nearest door to the right. They saw some mice, and at the end of the path, a wonderful garden appeared.

This garden had so many different bush types that even

Violet, who was a plant lover, was not able to name them.

After looking around and enjoying the weather, the girls found another note. It said, “You are now in a swirled garden. Be aware that it does not end unless you find the purple flower. Take care and be quite quick. There is not a lot of time for this, otherwise, there will be no way back.” This scared Violet and Mary very much. They rapidly ran around looking for the flower. This did not help, it was nowhere to be seen. They even took out their map, however, the garden was not on it. Violet began to worry, and again her thoughts told her that there would never be a way out of this place.

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Z O YA S C H M I T T , G R A D E 1 2 , FA L S E B L I N G , M I X M E D I A

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LOW E R M Y P T H E M E

HAND TO KEYBOARD – A FIRST SHORT STORY ALEXANDER WERNER GRADE 8

“And remember class, your short stories are due on Friday. I recognize you haven’t written any before, but you’ve already had two weeks and we’re in a time crunch. Consider it a… learning experience. You won’t have much class time, so I suggest you...” Mr. Smith’s voice dropped off. English really was Lando’s least favorite subject of the entire school day, in Lando’s opinion. He idly gripped his pen, twirling it around, running it through his short cut brown hair, twiddling his thumbs, doing anything to alleviate the boredom of just sitting at a desk at the back of a classroom, watching the worst professor in the school go on and on about meaningless topics in front of a whiteboard.

It’s not that he wasn’t good at English. Lando was certain that no one else could have matched his writing skill. He very well could be correct. His analytical skills were on point as well, it’s just that listening to Mr. Smith drone on about random topics in some obscure college course sucked all vestiges of fun from the class. Lando put his chin on the desk, struggling to keep his eyes open, when the bell finally rang. Thank God, for he was saved.

He packed up all his stuff and nearly sprinted out of the class, wanting to get away from that hell-hole. “Why, Lando!” came the slightly high-pitched voice of Suchi, “I’ve never seen you so eager to get away from English. Did Mr. Smith call you up to give feedback and then fall asleep again?”

“It’s a nightmare standing and waiting for him to wake up.” grumbled Lando. “He really should give up that herbal tea of his.”

“Eyyyy, what’s poppin’, Lando? Survive English yet 70

another day? Your Monday classes have got to be the worst.

For you, that is. I do love math.” Lando turned his head to see his small friend Roger coming up to him. As usual, he wore a black sweater that blended in with his hair, as well as shorts.

Even though it was the middle of winter Roger never seemed to be fazed by the cold.

“Yup. Of course I do, you know that I don’t complain that much, and when I do it’s only jokingly.” His two friends stopped to look at him. Even the people around him stopped to look.

Lando was a well known moaner around the school. Looking around, he blushed from embarrassment. “Maybe I complain a couple times extra.” Lando admitted. A chorus of “Mhmm”s came from the passing people that you would think had to have been rehearsed.

The rest of the day passed without event, with more classes in which nothing much occured, and then the walk back to the dormitory. Lando was a college student, who of course lived in a communal dorm. Roger was his roommate.

When the two arrived in their dorm, Lando completely ignored his schoolwork, and just dropped his backpack on the bed, opened the window, and hopped out. Being on the second floor made entry and exitry quite easy. Lando had perfected the art of self-defenestration, and had quite recently managed to get the people in the dorm below used to his extravagant exits.

He waltzed off campus, and headed to his favorite bar where he always had his dinner and his nightly drink. He may have been only 20, but what’s a year between bar owner and paying customer?

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When he pushed open the door to the bar he found it quite busy. The evening was when the house was most packed with drinkers. Lando walked over to his usual table, where his friend ET was sitting. ET had an actual name, but no one could ever pronounce it. Or remember it. Or had ever asked it.

ET currently had a mug in one hand and was laughing uproariously at what was currently playing on the multiple televisions in the bar. “Did you see that play? He missed the target by a foot!” he wheezed. As you could hear the audience cheer on the TV, ET buried his face in the table to laugh silently. You could really see his shoulders going up and down as he laughed. A faint pulse in Lando’s mind alerted him to the memory of him needing to write first short story, but he shoved it away into the dark recesses of his mind as he approached his friend.

He raised his head as Lando drew near, and greeted him in a friendly fashion. In ET’s way, that was to take a sip and then spew it out in Lando’s general direction as he laughed again.

Lando, however, raised the tablecloth to deflect the spray of spittle, but a good bit of got through and soaked Lando’s shirt.

Best hello he’d gotten yet.

Lando pulled up a chair and asked “What’s the current play?”

Without looking at him, ET replied “Top of the 7th, Rays are losing hard.” Lando waited. “How’s college?” ET was a vagabond, always wandering around and taking loans from his friends. He hadn’t had the grades to get in to college, and didn’t much care. In some ways, he had a good life. ET was as unburdened as could be.

“Boring, as usual. And easy.” Lando looked down at his shirt, poking and prodding it. The liquid felt uncomfortable on his skin.

“Good, good. And Smith? Enjoying the tea I sent him?”

“You sent him that tea?” Lando thought about this. “Well I must say, what a splendid blend of flavors. How ever did you come about it?”

“Well, I move about. I learn things as I go. When I don’t have anything else to do I spend my time rooting around the park for edible plants. Not like have much other choice.” ET looked over at Lando. “Helps if you know what is and isn’t poisonous.”

Lando nodded. “Where do you get your mixture?”

“Oh.” ET sighed. “I have a guy. I work part time for him, lets me take what I want.”

“Mhmm. A guy of what sort?”

“Oh, not that sort!” ET exclaimed exasperatedly. “Smith’s tea is regular stuff. The… special stuff is only for my good friends.” ET raised his eyebrows repeatedly with a mischievous expression.

Lando stood up abruptly, aghast. “Hahaha!” roared ET.

“Got you there!” Lando cautiously sat down, assessing and reassessing the person he thought was his friend. “Good. Good thing you don’t do that.”

“Mmm.” ET agreed, taking a sip of his drink. “But if you ever want that, I know just where” “No!” shouted Lando, banging on the table with his fist.

“I’m soft, unlike you!”

“That is insulting! I would never do something like that.”

ET looked back at his mug. “You know, this is what you call a pint. They do it well here.” He took another draft of its contents. “See, that play there was excellent.” ET pointed to the TV. “Look at that stance! Watch that swing there, and then the follow through. And his wrist speed! What power! That is a good batter. Ey, batter batter.” He didn’t notice how Lando had already left.

Lando walked whistling through the city. It was beautiful at night. Lights would shine down on the streets, but not too many. There was only the occasional car passing by. He constantly looked down at his shirt, to see if it was dry yet.

Roger hated it when he came to the dorm with a wet shirt.

As he took in the scenery, Lando constantly had the looming presence of the short story in his mind. However, the night was still young, and so he managed to push the thought away.

He passed into an alley, looking up as he walked. He heard footsteps above him, and just as he saw a shadow appear at the top of the building left of him. “Hey!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. He heard a small gasp above him, and saw the shadow leap above him, but instead of making it to the next roof it hit the side, and fell down to the street.

Lando rushed forward to catch it and Suchi fell down into his arms. He began walking over to the side. “Put me down!” she growled, putting greater emphasis on each word, and Lando gave his acquiescence. “Okay.”

His arms had just moved over a dumpster, and as he let Suchi go she fell in with her legs sprawling out. She flailed her legs for a bit, before reaching her arms on to the side and pulled herself out.

She came out spitting and covered in miscellaneous items that Lando could not name, nor would he care to. “That was dirty.”

“I know!” Lando happily agreed, with a huge grin splitting his face. “And now you are as well.”

They walked out of the alley together. “How did you find out about my parkour route?” Suchi asked.

“It was simple, really. I have contacts, first of all.” Lando said, tapping the side of his nose. “Second, I have followed you for many nights. Unlike ET, I don’t frequent the many wonderful bars of this fair city. It all builds on each other.”

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did as well. They walked in silence back to the dormitory.

After a while, Lando asked “Hey, what smells?” It was rather an understatement – the smell emanating from Suchi was horrific. As society got better, its waste only got worse.

Suchi’s reaction was one of fury. She completely abandoned any restraint and launched herself at Lando. The rest of the trip back to the college was a sprint. It was not entirely a victory on Lando’s part.

As he lifted himself up through his dormitory window, Lando found Roger sitting on the communal bunk bed reading.

As he raised his head to look at Lando, he gasped.

“Hell!” He leaped off his bed, ripped open the drawer from the nightstands and grabbed a first aid kit. “What happened this time?”

“What?” Lando looked down at his shirt to find a couple of moist spots. He groaned. Last year he had come home when a rabid dog had bit him in the chest. Lando has always found dogs to be partial to him, and not in a positive way. It was a major incident, and news of it spread like wildfire through the student community. Secrets were a thing unheard of among the students of Ramapo College.

From then on Roger had always worried whenever there were moist spots on Lando’s shirt. He always took it as a telltale sign that something bad had happened, such as when he bled through after the dog bite. Roger may have been detached and absorbed in the modern meme world, but he cared deeply for Lando. As a friend, of course. And as a friend, Lando took care not to worry Roger.

“Don’t worry! It’s not anything I exuded. ET splashed it at me.” Lando tried to placate his friend.

Roger was panting from his fear for Lando. “You good then?”

“I’m good.”

Roger tried to slow down his pounding heart with some deep breaths. “Okay.” He climbed onto the bottom bunk, and laid down on the pillow. “I’m gonna sleep now. You’re too stressful for me. Don’t keep the light on too long.”

As Roger turned his head to go to sleep, Lando undressed to put on his pajamas. Instead of doing his usual reading before bed, he climbed straight in onto the top bunk. It was 11:00, later than normal. Lando may have been a bit of a wild card, but he preferred to keep a strict sleep schedule.

Before falling asleep, Lando took some time to ponder the events of the day. Always surfacing to his attention was the knowledge that his short story would be due, and soon. He really had never written one before, and that scared him, but because of the time he had it didn’t seem all that necessary to concentrate on ideas for the short story now.

He had only drifted into deep sleep when the familiar buzz of a text message arriving sounded on his phone. As with all of 72

the day’s youth, that single not-so-loud noise penetrated the layers of Lando’s rest. His eyes shot open.

Lando reached over to the wooden board he had nailed to the side of his bed on which he kept what he needed. He didn’t have easy access to the nightstand from the top bunk, so he made his own table. He grabbed his phone and looked at the lock screen, to see what was going on. He scrolled through random texts from Suchi, mumbling to himself about how devoted Suchi was to him. “She’s totally into me.” was the most common line, until his scrolling showed him the recent email from Mr. Smith. It had been sent 2 minutes ago.

According to Lando’s phone clock that would be 2:32 a.m.

“What a night owl.” Lando chuckled to himself as he opened the email, thumbing in his passcode. As he read the email, his humor turned to dead fear.

‘Dear class,’ it read.

‘As the due dates for all grades have been moved up, I will require your short story to be due tomorrow. Be prepared to hwelifgiuqg...’

The email trailed off as Mr. Smith no doubt finished off his next mixture of the herbal tea ET had been supplying him with.

‘The Dragon’s Breath’ is what ET had once called his herbal mixture. That was before Lando knew where ET was sending his Breath. ‘I call it that because it feels you got breathed on by a dragon. You know what that feels like? It’s intoxicating.

I’ve managed to create the perfect blend of herbs, resulting in a pristine infusion of chemicals and aromas.’

Mr. Smith had pushed up the due date of the story to tomorrow. It was 2:35 a.m., and English was at 8 on Tuesdays.

There would be no time to work during the day. If the short story were to be finished, then it was now or never.

Shaking off his already loosely put on pajamas to really stimulate his creative juices, he put on a quick robe in case anyone were to walk in at this embarrassing moment.

Lando always worked better in the freedom of only body, not constrained by mortal clothing. Something to do with his skin feeling fresh air, he didn’t really know why. He just knew that it worked.

Pacing across the room to get inspiration, he was lost at the moment. His heart was racing, he had no idea what to do.

He stopped as he heard a creak on the bunk bed mattress. He looked over to see what was happening, and saw Roger sitting up watching him.

For anyone just entering the room, this would be a movie worthy scene. Roger sitting up in bed, groggy from sleep, and looking at Lando almost entirely bodily exposed, save for a robe not covering his front. That is, completely exposing that which was important.

“I’m not even going to ask.” was all Roger said, before turning over to go back to sleep. It was a good façade, but as

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M A R I A TA R AT O R I N A , GRADE 9, THROUGH THE ASHES, MIXED MEDIA

Lando looked in closer he saw past the deceptive appearance to find the reality – Roger was doing all he could to hold in his laughing. He deserved to laugh, for it was an inherently amusing scene and Roger had never caught his friend in such a situation.

Lando pulled out the chair to the desk in the room, and sat there, cradling his head in his arms. He may have considered himself to be a good writer but he had never written a short story.

How long should it be? What should it be about? What could he include and what couldn’t he? What was he to do? There seemed to be no end to the line of questions in Lando’s head.

He got out of the chair and began pacing. He ran through ideas in his head, but none of them worked. How would he go about doing this? Lando groaned as he remembered not paying attention and pushing away the need to mentally develop the short story. Why was he so short-sighted?

Didn’t he know something like this could happen? What had happened to the careful fear he used to have of having to face something new, like writing this short story.

A while later, Lando looked down at his phone to find that it was already 3:45 a.m. Lando’s fear grew by the minute.

He was lost in the plethora of ideas filling his head, the smorgasbord of questions that were abundant in his mind.

Lando sat down again at his desk and tried to calm himself down. It would come to him, eventually. The perfect idea would arrive, as it always did. He just needed to be in the right situation.

He angled his head upwards towards the ceiling. Perhaps it was time to go about this logically, and not creatively. What was the best and most simple way to go about doing this?

What was the best and most obvious idea he could use?

Lando sat there for a good bit of time, thinking. And then it came to him. It was so obvious to him that he couldn’t believe he never thought of it before. He laughed at the sheer level of clarity he now had.

It was so simple! He knew it exactly what he would write about.

Lando opened up his computer screen, rapidly entered his password. He typed so quickly that he got it wrong the first time, and had to enter it a second time. He quickly opened up his word processor Doogle Gocs, and filled with adrenaline, elated at his new idea, he began to type. His hands flew across his keyboard, punching the keys and then hitting them again before they could fully recoil.

He most definitely would finish his short story in time.

Lando knew exactly what he would write about.

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LOW E R M Y P T H E M E

HER FIRST STORM FINOLA QUINN GRADE 8

The Storm did not use to be a terrifying event, at least from what I have heard. There are tales about ancient countries who enjoyed The Storm. These ancient countries like Orgon, or Numeksico would celebrate it, although I could not really remember the names. These countries would celebrate the Storm. Although, their Storm didn’t have Them. This is something that the Leads tell us to do, to enjoy The Storm. My country, Ashtax, was going through growth the past 16 years, meaning I had never celebrated The Storm. Until that day.

In Ashtax, women stay home and work. We study until we are 15, then we work at home, caring for the family. It’s what we need to do. One day I was at home, preparing dinner for that day. We were going to have some neighbors over for dinner.

That month, we had had two Rains. The third Rain is The Storm, but it is different than the other two Rains. We didn’t expect another Rain that month, as it was the last day of it.

“Lisanna! It’s almost time to go pick Casden up from classes, school is almost over!”

“Mother, why can’t he walk home himself?”

“You know that you both need to be together when you’re out!”

I reluctantly go up to my room to get my overcoat. I start leaving but get an overwhelming urge to check my radar machine. Radar is illegal, as the Leads do not like when commoners know when The Storm is coming, so they banned radar. Although it is still possible to use it, it is very dangerous.

They can ping when a commoner is using radar, and I’d almost been caught using it a couple of times. But for some reason, I felt like I needed to check.

I walk over to my closet, where the radar is hidden, and search through my old clothing. I feel the rounded grooves of the piece of ancient technology, and pull it out from the pile.

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I still couldn’t believe that this radar is from the year 2011, still working. I check whether there is a coming Rain, and lo and behold, a cluster of red dots was approaching Ashtax. The Storm was coming, and fast.

I immediately close the radar and sprint down the stairs. Ç“Mother! The Storm! It’s coming!”

“Don’t be silly, it’ll come tomorrow as a Rain.”

“Mother, I am serious! Message father, he needs to come home now!”

“Well, you can’t take Casden out of school before everyone else is done!”

“I’ll figure it out, get father home now!”

I ran out the door. My feet were moving faster and faster, so fast that I couldn’t even think clearly. “Get to the school, get to the school, get to the school.” Was all that went through my head. Then, I felt a drop, and heard a siren.

I had heard that before The Storm, a siren goes off, marking 5 minutes before Them are released. I was panicking, I couldn’t see Casden, until I heard someone scream my name.

It was my father and Casden.

“Lisanna! What are you doing? Run!” I grab Casden and start sprinting, dragging him alongside me, my father not far behind. I checked the timer in the sky.

Two minutes. I kept running and running, my hair had come undone and was now blowing in the wind and soaked with tears and rain. My home came into view, my mother in front of the door, waiting. She swings the door open. I checked the timer again, 15 seconds.

We barely make it through the door in time, and we make our way down into our Storm shelter. My mother covers the hatch with a rug and table, and crawls her way down the ladder, locking the hatch in the process. Then we hear the buzz.

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Once the buzzer sounds, Them are released into The Storm. We hear crying, screaming, and people yelling “Help!” while banging on our house’s door. Then we hear the door break. We thought it was just a helpless person, so we weren’t originally scared until we hear a Them screech. A Them was in our house.

One may ask, “What is Them?” We don’t know, but in Ashtax, it’s usually the last thing everyone sees. We believe they’re a type of large cat, or dog, or both, we don’t really know.

The screeching get louder and louder, we knew at this point that it wasn’t a person. We hear items crash and shatter, wood breaking, sounds such as that. Then we hear the scratching.

The Them have a great sense of smell, it most likely knew that there was life underneath it. My father looked for a weapon.

Guns had been only permitted to be used by soldiers, but my father had acquired one during The Storm before this one, he didn’t fully know how to use it though.

I check the radar again, and The Storm has almost passed. One The Storm has fully passed, Them die. They die immediately. After that, the body quickly disintegrates. It looked like we had maybe fifteen minutes, but Them was still working on moving the table on top of us.

Casden was screaming and crying at this point, as was the

rest of my family. We thought it was the end until we hear the body drop. Them had died.

“Huh?” Casden said.

“I think it’s over,” I replied.

I check the radar again. It was over, safe to go outside. We open the hatch, and there Them was. It was something that we had never seen before. It had large teeth and sharp claws, we expected that, but it didn’t have eyes or fur. It looked squishy, but we didn’t dare touch it.

“I’m going outside.”

“Lisanna don’t you dare.”

“I need to see what happened!”

“Lisanna soldiers are going around right now executing wounded people, don’t go out there.”

“Mother, you can’t stop me. They won’t kill me, I’m not wounded.”

I went outside and screamed with terror. I saw women, children, men, elders, babies, dead. All dead. I heard a crying baby, no doubt wounded. No more then two seconds later, I heard a bang, and the crying ceased. I scream again. My tears running down my face, I collapse. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This is what the Leads do to us? Kill us?

No. Never again. This may have been my first Storm, but it was also going to be the last.

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WINTER PRODUCTION "OUR SONGS ARE STREWN IN THIS JEWEL HOUSE B E AC H E D O N T H E T I DA L WO U N D "

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WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY THE CAST: L A R A A R E N C I B I A - P E N D E R , S A R A A S H R A F, E VA B E R T R A N D , V I B E K E B O S M A , S O F I E D AYA N , K A I F R I T Z , E K AT E R I N A G O R S H U N O VA , J U L I A J Y D E , M I S H E L - A N A S TA S YA K Y R Y L L O VA , N A D I A O ’ H A R A , M A R I YA S H E V E T O V S K A , K AT E R Y N A U S H M A I E VA , A N N A WA S C H U K

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LOW E R M Y P T H E M E

I’M A PILOT NOW ˇ SIMONAS KONCEVICIUS GRADE 8

It was three o’clock in the morning. I just hopped off my bed.

My alarm rang a minute ago. This is the day, I thought. This was the day. The day I was about to have my first flight.

I laid back down. I wasn’t ready, I thought. I imagined how it would go: the sound of the engines, the smell of the cockpit, the view from the window… and after I set off – what a wonderful view I would see! And here I was, five hours before my flight, lying in my bed, buried in my thoughts.

Five hours?! I needed to speed up. The cabin crew was probably already waiting for me.

I have, indeed, flown a plane before – this wasn’t new to me. But that was two years ago. It was a windy day in autumn, and I flew a glider. It is a lot easier to fly a glider: there is nothing to control. It’s as simple as flying a paper plane, except that the person (you) who sent it is onboard. The glider I flew was minuscule compared to what I was about to fly, a giant Airbus A320!

I was training for this for so long. Everything started when I was 17. I was in my last years of high school, and I didn’t know what to study next. I didn’t know who I wanted to become. I didn’t know what the future was holding for me. Still, I needed to pick something. I thought that the future would guide me the right way. I was always astounded by the art of flying, so I decided to try and study it. After all, my brother also picked this profession ten years ago. I was ready to put dedication and will into flying.

During the eighteen months of training, I learnt all about my aircraft: why it flies, what features it has, what the knobs and buttons in the cockpit are there for. I was training in a real-life flying simulator. It replicated each and every aspect of what I was about to feel. I could hear the sounds, feel the winds and sense the tilts that I would normally experience in a flight. Yet the simulator didn’t replicate one thing: it didn’t show how my surroundings were going to look like.

I was worried. I don’t even know why I felt so unsure of myself. Ultimately, there was nothing to worry about. I knew how to take-off, how to land and how to do everything in between. I had done it a million times in the simulator. I knew how to do every action automatically. I’ve been doing it for 78

the past year. My flight was only about 40 minutes, and I was going to land at a nearby airport. I was ready, but I didn’t feel like I was.

Two hours later, when I finally got to the airport, I still needed to go through security and medical checks. It is only there that I would get the detailed plan and map of my flight.

I was also about to meet my co-pilot. I was concerned that I wouldn’t pass through the medical check. I didn’t sleep well, and I was scared of the flight. So many things could go wrong.

Still, I passed the test. My heart rate was a little higher than usual, but according to the doctor who checked me, that was normal.

‘Everyone is worried before their first flight’, she said.

‘Good luck, and have a safe flight’, she added.

I then received my briefing. I would fly from my hometown to an airport in a nearby country.

‘What?’ – I asked. I was confused ‘Are you taking me for another pilot, or am I going to fly a one-and-a-half-hour-long flight to a different country?’ I definitely wasn’t ready for a flight that long. ‘With 150 passengers?’ I was sure I was not ready for that!

However, after all of this confusion, I was introduced to my co-pilot. I was immediately reassured. My co-pilot was my brother! He had ten years more of experience than me: I could indeed fly with him! We quickly started studying the briefing more thoroughly. The expected weather was good.

We examined the landing chart. This was so we would know where to land and how to land properly.

Soon after that, we entered the plane. We were ready, and the crew was ready too. The jet was just about to be ready to take-off: some final touches... Passengers, one by one, were boarding the aircraft. Little did they know about what was happening simultaneously. I checked whether the inside systems in the aircraft worked. My brother insisted on examining the engines. The ground handling team was de-icing the wings and filling the tanks with fuel. After these procedures were done, that was it. We were completely ready.

‘You can start the engines’, said my brother. ‘This is your day’, he added. A big lever was standing in front of me. ‘This is my

A L E X A N D E R L I T E R A R Y AWA R D C O N T E S T S U B M I S S I O N S 2 0 1 9 • L O W E R M Y P

ALFRED HUDSON, GRADE 7, LINOLEUM PRINT

day’, I repeated to myself. And with the movement of my hand, the jet engines started, the elevators, slats and spoilers were raised. The weather was perfect: there were some clouds, and the sun was dimly shining. The Air Traffic Control station gave us permission to take off. Consequently, after a one-and-ahalf-kilometre ride on the runway, the nose was raised and the plane took off. We were in the air.

I was excited, but I wasn’t showing my emotions. I needed to focus on what was before me. Take-off and landing, as I determined from what I learnt, were the hardest parts of the flight. I concentrated on the take-off procedures. Our speed was gradually increasing from the 275 km/h required for take-off to our cruise speed of 829 km/h. Slowly, I lowered the thrust lever back to normal. Sure enough, after twenty minutes of careful controlling, adjusting and ascending, we reached that speed. We were in the air and above the clouds.

The autopilot mode was on, and we were cruising. We could now relax for a bit. As I was focused on controlling the plane, I didn’t see anything that was under the plane – I didn’t pay attention. Now I saw it.

I was seeing the planet from the cockpit of a plane for the first time. I can only explain what I saw as a sea of clouds quickly gliding under me. Between the sea of clouds, I spotted small square patches of land so colourful. Some patches were brown, some were green, and some, occasionally, were yellow and orange. It felt like looking at a painting so close I could

only see small patches of colour splattered around with no apparent meaning. I sat there, amazed at the beauty of the planet we were flying over.

‘Altitude’s decreasing! Check settings immediately!’, exclaimed my brother, alarmed. Various clashing thoughts went through my head. Should I call the nearest air traffic control centre, or should I just check the settings? Is an engine malfunctioning, or am I imagining? I quickly got back to thinking rationally. I instantly opened up the Airbus A320 Checkride Procedures book. It has instructions on what to do if anything unusual happens. With the flick of my thumb, I flipped to the necessary page in the book. As instructed, I checked through the Navigation Controls dashboard. I quickly found the source of the problem. The autopilot was off. Quickly, I set it back on. I dodged the bullet. We escaped danger by a hair’s breadth. Everything was back to normal.

Our one-and-a-half-hour flight was quickly coming to an end. It was finally time to descend. My brother contacted the Air Traffic Control centre at our destination airport. ‘Runway cleared to land’, they answered. I selected the second autopilot and enabled the auto landing mode. We were gradually pushing on our brakes, thus landing our plane.

‘Approaching alert height’, I transferred through the radio system.

A minute or two later, we touched the ground. We made it.

I’m a pilot now.

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

LOW E R M Y P T H E M E

THE HUNTSMANS: FIRST KILL SACHA LUELLA DRAYCOTT GRADE 8

It was a torrid and dry morning, and the sweltry sun had shone its first light, and it dawned ever so brightly shining through the leafy tree branches. The parched grass had a despairing look, as if thirst and hunger was all they knew, awaiting to taste the rain opening from the skies. The forest was equally as dead, standing silently as if its treetops were immersed in gloom.

At the brink of the field a hulky, heavy set young man of his early twenties holding a bolt action rifle, in a checkered red and black flannel shirt, in rolled up trousers and mud caked boots, with a hunched back and a stomach churning with fear. He was nervously readying his leg traps along the forest trail.

The young man was alone in the wilderness. He had been born into a family of great hunters, save himself. His siblings had already hunted their first deer weeks before. The man had feared to hunt alongside them. When he attempted to shoot his first kill somehow he feared it. The fear and the ear-splitting noises from the gunfire caused him stress ... immense stress.

The look of the animal in agonizing pain before death made him be afraid, and the look of pain plain on their face terrified him. He felt certain that he could not muster the nerve to go into the woods and hunt, despite his family reassurances.

Even when his siblings, who were far younger than he was, went into the woods, scouting for deer and hunted one, he failed to rouse the courage to take that leap of faith which appeared to him as a forlorn hope. His mother and father after a morning of hunting had gone around and called out to him angrily, lashing out at him with threats to disown him from the family unless he hunted a deer. In any means possible he could not hunt even if his life were at stake. His mother and father after a whole day of bickering were fed up with the man’s unrelenting fear of hunting and decided that the best that they could do was kick him out the house for a solo hunt.

That was yesterday. Since then he had been alone in the forest wandering about. While wandering he pictured his parents 80

teaching his siblings to learn the ins and outs of setting traps for deer. He had watched them hunting about, polishing them to near perfection of hunters, watching them teaching how to set traps and readying their guns for the kill.

He had seen one of his siblings capture his first deer and bring it back to the family cottage, while his parents gathered around huffing and puffing with great pride to have raised a natural born hunter. And his whole family had come together to feast upon roasted deer glistening with a red spicy glaze, while laughing at his own timidity.

He stood on the green of the forest trail, on the right were forest wildflowers dried out and withering. He set down his traps, scattering them over the overgrown rye and covering them with a thin layers of dried leaves. He breathed a sigh of panic as he pried open the trap, opening the curved jaws. He secured the trap to a nearby overgrown and slightly bending elm tree.

He continued on to plow the land placing traps here and there hoping to end his ordeal quickly. It was hard for the man to conceal the traps as the burnt rye and leaves would crumble in his hands as he took them out of the ground to place on his traps. There was a stillness surrounding the forest, sounds were hushed, only hearing the muffled buzz of the insects hiding among the forest.

After a tiresome afternoon of pulling rye from the ground and collecting scattered leaves placing them on traps. The man began to grow weary just at the sight of how much more traps he needed to place. He felt his energy draining from him and wondered if he would stay for the night in this desolate forest. He let a sigh escape from his lips, he could no longer handle the heaviness in the air.

Suddenly a monstrous scream echoed out from the right of the trail, a part overgrown with still standing trees. He waited a moment shocked from the outburst, wondering what animal could have uttered that noise, and it was then he realised the trap, the deer, the deer trap. Maddened by thirst of home, a

A L E X A N D E R L I T E R A R Y AWA R D C O N T E S T S U B M I S S I O N S 2 0 1 9 • L O W E R M Y P

A LY S S A E A S TA B R O O K , G R A D E 6 , " S T O R M Y & M U F F I N " A U T O B I O G R A P H I C A L C O M I C , P E N O N PA P E R

rush of adrenaline surged through. He sprinted with his rifle loaded to the ready in his hand, and he screwed up his eyes in the direction of the sound he had heard. "I've got you now" he muttered.

While running he felt a widespread of emotions, some fear and widespread panic some in enjoyment and the hope to return home. When he reached the part of the forest where the deer: a doe lay immobilised by the trap, he saw a pool of blood, gradually increasing in size, and the doe still alive was visibly frightened. Despite the fear the doe had, the man's fear had melted away. He felt vast courage surging through him, demanding him to be bold and that a warrior deep inside him had broken free. “I can do this, I am brave” he said in a whisper.

He stood still hearing his own heart beat and the doe’s cries of pain. But that lasted only for a short moment. The next he felt himself grip the gun high on the nook of it and his finger on the trigger. “Thank you for your sacrifice” he said with gratitude.

He fired, aiming at the head of the doe, the discharge started a deafening sound filling the forest, he could feel the bullet cutting through the air. The doe’s body no longer moved

and dropped lifeless to the ground, as the bullet striked headlong.

He no longer was afraid. He just felt weak. He placed his hand on each side by the springs of the trap and pressed down, releasing the dead doe. He hauled the doe’s body onto his back. He felt triumphant, he had succeeded. He had made his first kill.

The man went on his way on the forest trail back towards his cottage. As he walked the long trail, a light brown buck appeared in the corner of the clearing, pale and unmoving, mimicking a statue. His eyes were aimed toward the dead deer body laying on the man. The man realized that the doe he had killed, was of the mate of the buck, he felt a twinge of regret for killing this particular doe. The buck as if sensing nothing more were to be done, leaped away into the forest, its colors dispersing into the dark forest, soon it could not be distinguished from the ground.

As the buck faded into the distance, the man continued sharply on his way back, imagining his family squawking at him with praises and pure delight at his capture. As he walked on the path, further and further away from the kill spot, he too vanished into the dark… He had made his first kill.

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I N K S TA I N S • S E C O N D A R Y S C H O O L

SUMMER PRODUCTION " N AV I G AT I N G W R E C K A G E , R I V E R S , A N D W R I T E R ' S B L O C K . "

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V I S U A L A N D P E R F O R M I N G A R T S 2 0 1 9 • M Y P/ D P

W R I T T E N A N D D I R E C T E D BY: L A R A A R E N C I B I A- P E N D E R

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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INK STAINS

SUMMER 2019

PRIMARY SCHOOL

AN IB WORLD SCHOOL SINCE 2000

A PLACE WHERE WE BELONG

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

CONTENT 4

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FOREWORD PSI YOUNG AUTHOR’S AWARD WINNERS 2019 G 3-5

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POETRY

FRONT COVER: JAC K M CW H O R T E R, G R A D E 5B

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KG - G 2 18

NARRATIVE

G 3-5 54

NARRATIVE

TS 80

PSI YOUNG AUTHOR’S AWARD SUBMISSIONS 2019 KG - G 2

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NARRATIVE

G 3-5 116

POETRY

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

FOREWO All always Ink Stains magazine presents to you a collection of works created by PSI students of all ages. Students from EC to Grade 12 were invited to enter the annual writing competition and showed creativity and imagination in their writing and artwork, producing work of a high standard. We saw very strong entries across all grade levels which led to a significant change in the judging process for the Primary school entries.

Rather than having 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner it was decided to award “Commended” and “Highly Commended” status meaning that more entries could be recognised for excellence. The Secondary school students competed in four categories: “Poetry, Prose Fiction and Prose Non-Fiction and Theme”.

This year, the theme for both the Young Author’s Award and the Alexander Award was “Firsts” – love, friend, pain, success, failure, impressions, experiences, snow, holiday and more. Students were encouraged to think creatively about the theme and while some based their entries on personal experiences other delved into their imagination and submitted works of poetry, fantasy and science fiction exploring the theme from new and often unexpected angles.

Students’ passions and interests are evident through poems and narratives that are presented in this magazine for your entertainment and reading pleasure.

The magazine also contains artwork created by primary and secondary school students in the academic year 2018 - 2019 during visual art classes and photos of secondary school drama productions.

We are proud to present yet another example of PSI students’ creativity, passion, dedication and hard work across several different disciplines.

PAM YORK AND POLINA SPENCER PSI Librarians

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B E AT R I C E R E K A S I U T E , G R A D E 5 R

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MATTHEW PETRASHKO KAJUS PETKUS GREGORY WERNER OLHA STORCHAK DUNYA GORDIYENKO

MIDDLE ROW: 06.

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RAFAEL DAYAN XIXI CHEN IAGO ARENCIBIA PENDER BORYS GLADKYI

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JANE RINGGER JAMES MAUNDERS ALINA BADRITDINOVA SHAHAR SHANY MARIIA ZHURZHII ARINA SHULMEYSTER

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MARNIE CROMPTON LILITH BARBOLET-SWIFT SOFIIA SPATAR DARIA BURMA KAJA KASUBAITE SILVA PALMIRA KATJA MONASTYRSKI

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PSI YOUNG AUTHOR’S AW WINNERS 20 10

G 3-5 P O E T RY

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

Highly Commended

Highly Commended

MY FIRST PET DRAGON

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Jane Ringger 5B

MY FIRST VISIT AT

Commended

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THE FIRST TIME GOING

MY DAD’S WORK

TO SCHOOL

Rafael Dayan 2B

Kajus Petkus 2T

Highly Commended

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FIRST DAY OF JULY Sofiia Spatar 5R

Highly Commended

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THE CUTE GIRAFFE

Commended

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A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE

Sasha Popova 1L Highly Commended

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Gregory Werner 2T

FIRST EVER DRAGON Mariia Zhurzhii 5B

Commended

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FIRST TIME I WENT TO BELGIUM

Highly Commended

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Commended

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Matthew Petrashko 2T

Commended

Commended

THE FIRST PERSON

Commended

ON SOKTRONUS

THE THRILL OF

Olha Storchak 2T

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Commended

James Maunders 4L

Commended

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MY FIRST CAT MASHA

THE FIRST TIME I SAW SANTA Anais Barbolet-Swift 1L

Xixi Chen 2B

THE FOOLS OF Shahar Shany 5B

ROCKET BOY Iago Arencibia Pender 2T

FIRST PLACE

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THE FIRST TIME SKIING

Dunya Gordiyenko 2M

AIRPLANE Arina Shulmeyster 5R

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THE FIRST PERSON IN

Commended

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HOW I GOT MY BEST FRIEND Borys Gladkyi 2B

WARD 019 G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E Highly Commended

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THE FIRST BLUE TIGER

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Commended FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

Alina Badritdinova 5B

Arina Shulmeyster 5R

Highly Commended

Commended

A SLIMY TALE: MY FIRST

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EXPERIENCE AS A PET OWNER

MY FIRST ADVENTURE Marnie Crompton 3U

Katja Monastyrski 3C Commended Commended

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JUANA’S FIRST TIME REALIZING

A HOME Lilith Barbolet-Swift 3U

THE WORLD NEEDS HELP Silva Palmira 4L

Commended

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THE FIRST TIME FLYING

Commended

BY THE AIRPLANE

WISH YOU LUCK

Kaja Kasubaite 4L

Daria Burma 4W

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

MY FIRST PET DRAGON

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JANE RINGGER

HIGHLY

GRADE 5B

COMMENDED

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • G 3 - 5 P O E T R Y

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

FIRST DAY OF JULY SOFIIA SPATAR GRADE 5R

HIGHLY COMMENDED

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

FIRST EVER DRAGON

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MARIIA ZHURZHII

HIGHLY

GRADE 5B

COMMENDED

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • G 3 - 5 P O E T R Y

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

AIRPLANE ARINA SHULMEYSTER

HIGHLY

GRADE 5R

COMMENDED

Anyone who wants, can!

It is not impossible.

Right or wrong, you decide. A worry sits in you because of the unknown?

Place your hand on mine and don’t be worried.

Late? No just worried.

An airplane flight is not that scary!

Nothing to worry about, just listen, for your time!

Elephants can’t fly, but now is your opportunity to, a first time comes to everyone.

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • G 3 - 5 P O E T R Y

AG N E S N I L S S O N , G R A D E 1 L

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

THE THRILL OF FIRST PLACE JAMES MAUNDERS

COMMENDED

GRADE 4L

place it’s the greatest feeling you will ever experience.

The feeling rushing through your body As you run around in excitement, and then catching your Breath the feeling is divine.

Going onto the podium for the first time you don’t know how the crowd is going to react, it’s all silent you get very nervous chills go down spine, sweat trickles drop down from

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your forehead and then the crowd burst into excitement the feeling goes away and you are thrilled for the first time ever, the feeling is absolutely essential to your life and others too.

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • G 3 - 5 P O E T R Y

G 3-5 P O E T RY W I N N E R S

THE FOOLS OF THE DAY SHAHAR SHANY

COMMENDED

GRADE 5B

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

MY FIRST VISIT AT MY DAD’S WORK

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RAFAEL DAYAN

HIGHLY

GRADE 2B

COMMENDED

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE CUTE GIRAFFE

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SASHA POPOVA

HIGHLY

GRADE 1L

COMMENDED

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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A N A S TA S I YA S I M O N O VA , G R A D E 1 L

I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

FIRST TIME I WENT TO BELGIUM DUNYA GORDIYENKO

COMMENDED

GRADE 2M

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST PERSON ON SOKTRONUS OLHA STORCHAK

COMMENDED

GRADE 2T

My name is Kitt. I’m a teenager. Suddenly I get a phone call from NUSA. I do not know what to do. I pick up the phone.They say I need to fly on a spaceship. I say NO! But they make me do that. I go to the special hiding spot.

It is in the volcano Vesuvius.

I take my flying cat with me! I am nervous, but I am going on the spaceship and I feel fine. I don’t know where I am going. Then, on the board I realize that it is written Soktronus. Later, I land on the planet. I am surprised that it has oxygen! I have some water to live for a little bit. In 10 days I feel like I love to live there, so I build lego houses. I put the pieces one on top of the other very carefully. It takes time but I do it! Then I get the best idea ever - I want this to be the future world.

3 years have passed and I have done it! The world of future is done!

Suddenly, I get a phone call again. It tells me that other people are coming! I am so happy that I have lived on a different planet!

Finally, I see my family again!

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

A L I N A B A D R I T D I N O VA , G R A D E 5 B

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

MY FIRST CAT MASHA XIXI CHEN GRADE 2B

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COMMENDED

P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

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CLARA HARTER, GRADE 3C 41

I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST TIME GOING TO SCHOOL KAJUS PETKUS

COMMENDED

GRADE 2T

My mom said I need to go to school. It was my first day at PSI. I was nervous. I was 5 years old and could not speak English. When I came inside I saw one girl that knew how to speak Lithuanian.

Then I saw my teacher, her name was Kaly. I was copying the students and their words to go to the bathroom. My mom talked to the teacher because I did not know how to talk to the teacher.

But after a little bit I learned how to speak to them. Then I spoke to the students. I did not stay at school for the whole day.

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

FILIPPOS ALEVIZOS, GRADE 3U 43

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KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST PERSON IN A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE GREGORY WERNER

COMMENDED

GRADE 2T

Hello. My name is Greg Hellingson and I’m 20 years old. I’m an astronaut and I have to make it into a different universe.

First I have to get good fuel by finding a way to add up all the different kinds of fuel to make a fuel strong enough to take people into different universes. Next, I have to get good pilots by witch I mean skilled pilots.

I might discover white holes to be real. I wonder what they look like.

This time I get good fuel. The scientists mixed the fuels and we have a whole new kind of fuel! We already have the pilots.

This time we go into a different universe! 3,2,1, BLAST OFF! Somehow we’re already in a different UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now we just have to avoid black holes. There’s a white hole right over there!

That means we’re either in the center of a galaxy or in the center of this universe! Wait a minute, we’re heading toward a star! We’ve got to get away from the star! Now, ones the star’s gravity can’t reach us, let’s take some pictures of the white hole.

Now let’s land on one of the planets, and name it something. We landed on a planet, and we don’t need our helmets! It’s a forest planet. What should we name it? We named it after me, so the name of the planet is hell.

Well it’s time to go home. So we did the same thing as last time, and we’re back on Earth.

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P S I Y O U N G A U T H O R ’ S AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 • K G - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST TIME SKIING MATTHEW PETRASHKO

COMMENDED

GRADE 2T

I was excited when it was my first time skiing . I stayed in a big hotel. I went with my mom and brother. First, we went to our hotel room. It was big.The first day we didn’t ski because we needed to find gear for me and my brother.

The next day we went to eat and then we went to ski. My brother and me had instructors. First, we practiced going down the small hill and it wasn’t that hard.

We went down the hill a couple times.Then, we went on a chairlift to ski down bigger hill.We didn’t ski down hard hills because it was my first time skiing. I skied for 5 hours after that. Me and my brother played games, then we went to lunch. After, we went to the room and showered. Finally, we brushed our teeth and went to sleep.

The next day we went to breakfast and after we went to our instructors. Both my brother and me went to the first hill and went on a chairlift.This time we went down harder hills because then I was much better at skiing. Next, we ate.

After lunch there was 1 hour left of skiing.That 1 hour we were skiing down pretty hard hills and went home.

The next day was the last day. We woke up and brushed our teeth. Then, we went to breakfast. The employees helped us to pack our bags in the room. We went to the car and then were driving for 2 and a half hours to the airport. We got on the plane and flew for 55 minutes. Finally, we got onto the car to drive home. We got home. YAY!!!!!

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I N K S TA I N S • P R I M A R Y S C H O O L

KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

ROCKET BOY IAGO ARENCIBIA PENDER

COMMENDED

GRADE 2T

Hi. I’m Michael Kerman. I am an astronaut in training. I hear there is an election for 3 people who should enter and survive a black hole. Rrrring…. I get a phone call. A man said:”You have been chosen as a commander and a pilot of the mission to survive a black hole. Your training starts tomorrow“. The next morning I catch the bus to the space center. I meet the guy from the phone call. He takes me to mission control. I meet the other 2 astronauts. There names are Carl Theis and Matthew Green. Carl is an engineer and Matthew is the scientist.

We go to the rocket. We get in. The launch starts in 5...4...3...2...1… blast off!!! Yay!!!! We are flying. Some time passes. We get through the troposphere, the stratosphere, the 3 layers of the mesosphere and we get through the 2 layers of the mesosphere. Also we get through the exosphere. Yay! We’re in space. We fly through the stars and it’s so beautiful. We are seeing the black hole. We turn off the engine and we are sucked into the black hole. AAAHHHH!!!! It’s so crazy! I get knocked out. The other astronauts wakes me up. We’re in space. Yayyyy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST TIME I SAW SANTA ANAIS BARBOLET-SWIFT

COMMENDED

GRADE 1L

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KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

HOW I GOT MY BEST FRIEND BORYS GLADKYI GRADE 2B

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G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST BLUE TIGER ALINA BADRITDINOVA

HIGHLY

GRADE 5B

COMMENDED

Hi! I’m a tiger and I am blue. Want to find out my story? Read on!

My mom lived in Africa. She was free like all the other tigers. But one day, these strange things called “people” took her away. She told me a lot about these creatures. Mo told me they walk on two “legs” what they call them.

It’s just shocking isn’t it? She drove in a car for days, she told me. Finally she got to this big thing called England. At England she lived in a place that these people call a zoo. Mommy said it was like prison. You were surrounded by bars and these two-legged people were watching you just live.

One day mom was bored of this locked-up life. So, that night she escaped.

She was cold and thirsty outside on the busy streets. Mom said she saw a blue puddle. “My ink!” one boy shouted watching it spill from his small bottle. Mom tried it on her pink soft tongue. It wasn’t as good as water but it was fine.

That was when I was born. That night. I was blue. My mother cried all night long. I tried to cheer her up, but she kept saying it was her fault that I was blue. We fell asleep.

In the morning, I don’t know how, but we ended up in a circus.I didn’t know what that meant and didn’t want to. I thought it was these two-legged creatures again, who found us on the street. (I mean, tigers are quite big. As well easy to spot.)

But time passed. I was 1 year old already, and from time to time mom had to leave. To “perform” she called it.

So passed the second year and so did the third. On my fourth year, I would come up on “stage” and roar. These two-legged creatures seemed to love it. On year five, mom couldn’t stay anymore. Life became boring again. So we ran away, just like mom did last time. We saw a boat saying “Africa”. “Home” said mom. We jumped in, there and then. It took us twelve days to get there. I am not going to talk about each day on board, because on some days we just lay there in the kitchen. It was a good place to hide in, because we could come out at night and 54

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while the “people” slept, we could creep in and steal their food. The so called “people” here are different from the ones in the zoo or circus. They have blue all over their body, even on top of their heads. Mom told me it was called “hats”.

Also, these strange two-legged people were called sailors. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was also blue, so I liked them.

Anyway, let’s get back. The first eleven days everything was fine. Each night, we ate the fish that the blue men had in the shiny box. Mom helped me open it (it was hard) and she added “This thing is called a fridge, or in long, refrigerator.” Mommy is really good with “people” names. Like, how can she remember all those!? Actually, I am fine with “shiny box”.

But, on the night of the eleventh day at the boat, me and mom heard something. The blue men were laughing and shouting. It turned out it was a “kid” they were laughing at. Although when we came closer, we saw that the “kid” had a beard. It was a man. But he was short! They were laughing at his height! Mom taught me when I was smaller: what matters is how big you are inside. Then, they ran after him in circles. He was very frightened. But he became more scared when he turned around to the kitchen, hid there, well.., yeah….. that was when he saw…. US! His mouth opened, to scream it seemed, but then he remembered he was hiding and closed it. I licked him in the face and he smiled. He came out of the kitchen, and he called us too. It seemed like the right thing to do. So we went out of the kitchen with him. Now they had opened mouths. Me and mom scared them so much, that they all jumped into the water, and away they swam. Except the short one. He thanked us and hugged us. “One day left” he announced. “Now sleep tight” he told us pointing to a comfy bed. Me and mom were really happy and cozy under the covers.

The next day we awoke to the sound of men talking. We were in Africa. It was very hot there. When we came to our home, the villagers welcomed mom but looked at me strangely. I asked her “They don’t like me?”

“No, they like you.”

“Then why are they looking at me like this?”

“Well, they don’t understand what you understand.”

“What do I understand?”

“That each tiger is unique in its own way.”

So here I am now. Living in the middle of Africa “The first blue tiger”. So now you know my story.

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A SLIMY TALE: MY FIRST EXPERIENCE AS A PET OWNER

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KATJA MONASTYRSKI

HIGHLY

GRADE 3C

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JUANA’S FIRST TIME REALIZING THE WORLD NEEDS HELP SILVA PALMIRA

COMMENDED

GRADE 4L

It all started when I started reading books about how the world was suffering.

I thought of it for a very long time, till I said “ This world needs to be saved “ I started with my friends, I tried with many presentations. No one cared but me and Emma. We one day thought of sending letters to the government. Well let's start now. That day me and my friends, Emma, Michael, Marie, Sophia and Chloe went to my house. We first all tried to put ideas together till, Michael said “ I think this is hopeless we can't do this, the government doesn't even check all the letters or even care about them “ then Marie said loudly “ We are doing this too fast we need to start at school first then get to the city and then to the government “. The next day we all came to agreement of making machines, where we put all the bottles and then use them for craft time. That idea started well, till some people didn't want to have craft time. But the good part was that we this time we asked for people who are interested on crafting, they could craft and then we could sale all the things, and then the money would go to a charity to save the world from plastic. Then me and my friends started writing letters to the government and also writing books about recycling and why is it important to the world. One day we got sent to the principal's office and she told us we got a letter from the government. The letter said ` Dear students, We talked about your plan about recollecting water bottles from the city every Wednesday and Friday to then use them as cloth, crafts, ect. We thought it was a good idea, but we want to change it a bit. We thought of 58

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using the water bottles and making cloth for the people in Africa and Asia who are poor. We also wanted to change the timing to Monday and Friday.

Best Wishes, The government When we read the letter we all started jumping up and down. The mini problem was, to start other projects we can wait till we graduate and then starting big, big, big projects. And that is what exactly happened, we graduated and now I am 21, i work with a association and not only that I also do some experimenting to find medicine for ocean animals so they do not get sick from eating plastic.

Now I live in Nicaragua where I am originally from. I help poor people and I am trying to get the world to do the same. We already started helping 23 countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Venezuela ( which was the hardest one, and there is not a big change ), Madagascar, Chile, Zambia, Libya, Peru, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and more. Something I really value is the World and my nationality.

Actually I am have Cuban, half Nicaraguan. I already have a whole society and its name is Help the world, Help yourself. I now am in Hungaria on my way to Bulgaria. I will also get to see Sophia and Michael to start a project in Arizona, to help help people to recollect bottles and on needed things like cloth and toys. 2 months ago I met India's government to help them collect water. We all went to different countries, even though we meet in many different places, like 2 weeks ago I met Michael in France but it was only because he had to go to Sweden to finish up some work with his friend John. If you are asking where are we sleeping, well sometimes hotels and sometimes in our friends house. At some point we are going to start working on some offices in Los Angeles and we might have one in Sweden and Finland, but it is most likely to not because we do not have enough money to build one, but in Los Angeles we have already the building. We also sent some people to United States to take shots. Do not imagine this was all free, it all cost hundreds to help the world and people.

Today I met Chloe in the airport and I also my sister Emily in the airport, she was going to donate some money to our organisation and some so we can buy food for the poor people.

The next 2 weeks were super extra hard. We had a 14 hour flight to Argentina from Spain. We worked from six in the morning to twelve in the night.

It is so much work but at least we get to save the world. would you also save the world too ?

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WISH YOU LUCK DARIA BURMA GRADE 4W

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G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN ARINA SHULMEYSTER

COMMENDED

GRADE 5R

A few years ago, well exactly five, Melissa's mother took her to the dentist for the first time. Just imagine a five year old girl who never even saw a dentist, was taken to him for the first time.

Melissa is a five year old girl who is scared of pretty much everything. So when her friends told her how terrifying was the dentist she actually thought to hibernate even though it was summer, she was that scared.

It was a saturday morning when Melissa's mom called her to come down to have breakfast, even then Melissa new that today was her dentist day. “ Come on Melissa come down or we are gonna be late!” said Melissa's mom. “ No, I am sick, my head feels hot, and my nose is runny.” answered Melissa.

Her mom knew that she wasn't really sick, she was just trying to find away to escape the dentist because of what kids in school told her. So Melissa's mom decided that the best way to persuade Melissa is to have an open talk. So they did.

Melissa and her mom were finally off to Melissa's first dentist visit, yay.

While driving her mom told here that what her friends told her was not true and it was only a lie like caterpillars were birds.

After the dentist visit Mellisa felt proud of herself because she did it and not only that she did it but also she liked it. On the way home she told her mom that she was happy she has overcome her fear of the unknown.

In school Melissa told everyone to not be scared, and try new things.

Also she talked to the girls who lied, or just misunderstood a person who has been to a dentist before. But, then they said that actually they never had a dentist appointment, and they were kind of jealous of her.

After this Melissa understood a very important thing for herself, that being scared of something you never tried is fine, it is that you overcome it, is what matters most!

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K AT YA B I L O U S , G R A D E 2 M

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G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

MY FIRST ADVENTURE MARNIE CROMPTON

COMMENDED

GRADE 3U

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G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

A HOME LILITH BARBOLET-SWIFT GRADE 3U

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G 3-5 N A R R AT I V E W I N N E R S

THE FIRST TIME FLYING BY THE AIRPLANE KAJA KASUBAITE GRADE 4L

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PSI YOUNG AUTHOR’S AW SUBMISSION KG - G 2 N A R R AT I V E

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FIRST QUEEN OF VOLCANOES

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Mina Raison 2T

THE FIRST PERSON ALIVE

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THE FIRST CHILD KING OF FINLAND

Freya Horkan 2T

Timo Petrov 2T

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FIRST TIME ICE SKATING

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THE FIRST CHILD WHO MAKE POOP

Tor Hagstrom 2M

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Nuray Ahmadli 2T

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Qaylif Mohd Izra 2T

MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL Selin Cinar 2M

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MY FIRST SLEEPOVER

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Charlotte McWhorter 2M

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Luka Karamanishvili 2T THE FIRST TIME ICE SKATING Isabella Nicholson 2M

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MINECRAFT Daniil Kozhevin 2M

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A CHILD PRESIDENT OF A PLANET Sasha Gabak 2T

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THE GREEN QUEEN Flora Moliejute 2T

A FIRST CHILD WHO EXPLODED A STAR

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THE FIRST KING TO BE BORN

FLYING DOG

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Leonardo Cristofaro 1L

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THE PHONE CALL THAT

A KIND AND PEACEFUL WORLD Greta O’Neill 2T

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THE FIRST PERSON WHO BUILT

CHANGED EVERYTHING

A CITY ON THE MOON

Maya Ventura 2T

George Agamyan 2T

WARD NS 2019 G 3-5 P O E T RY

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MY FIRST DAY OF 3RD GRADE

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THE FIRST JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD

Adele Souslenskii 3U

Ilian Bugasov 4W

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SNOW Maria Fiala 3C

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HAPPY DOG HAPPY HOUSE Vlada Bjelajac 5R

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THE FIRST TIME I MET AUNT VARKA Matilda Crompton 5R

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PETER’S FIRST TIME MAKING ICE CREAM Anastasia Hagstrom 4L

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FIRST QUEEN OF VOLCANOES MINA RAISON GRADE 2T

First I’ll stop explosions so many babies won’t cry anymore and people won’t be scared.

Next, I’ll make a kingdom! We’ll have a place to live. It’ll be enormous! All the people will like my kingdom. Every single person will get a pet and every week there will be a party with volcano explosions! Boom!!!!!!!

In the dark dark sky on Christmas night everybody’s hat looks like volcano.

So many people ask soooooooo many questions. I can’t answer all of them.

My kingdom will be 3 times bigger than PSI school. My bedroom will be the size of an elephant. My bed is in the left corner. I will get a bunk bed with my sister.

Ohhh... I totally forgot to introduce myself. So, I am 13 years old and my name is Lily. I have a sister, her name is Ima and she is 10 years old. Now I’m living in India. I’m leaving soon. My parents live in Poland and my sister Ima also lives with them. So where am I? Were I telling you about my bedroom, right? Oh! Yes. I have a phone and computer. I have a friend Elizabeth. We met when I was only 8 years old. Can you believe it? I was so small. I couldn’t spell freezing. OMG. I am moving to a different life! Goodbye reader.

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M AYA A A E N , G R A D E 1 L

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FIRST TIME ICE SKATING TOR HAGSTROM GRADE 2M

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MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SELIN CINAR GRADE 2M

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A FIRST CHILD WHO EXPLODED A STAR LUKA KARAMANISHVILI GRADE 2T

I am LUKA. I really want to go into the space. My rocket is made of diamonds. I will go to space. I will go with my mom and dad.

Shoooosh!!!! I see the star. Let’s explode this star. I take RPG and then BOOM!!!!!! The star has exploded, but the rocket has stopped working. “Oops” – said dad. “We don’t have rocket fuel”. But my dad has a container with rocket fuel. And we are back home.

THE END

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THE FIRST TIME ICE SKATING ISABELLA NICHOLSON GRADE 2M

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MINECRAFT DANIIL KOZHEVIN GRADE 2M

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A CHILD PRESIDENT OF A PLANET SASHA GABAK GRADE 2T

I am a child president of another planet. I will build a new planet and find an alien friend. That planet will be called Socktroneo. I want to stop the war by talking with all presidents.

But if they say No then we need to defend our planet.

I can protect my planet by telling people it's not nice to war. We can not cut trees, but we need to plant trees to live.

The leaves give as oxygen. We can protect our planet by stop building factories. They make gas and animals die. And if we cut a lot of tree erosion may happen faster.

We can protect our planet by recycling things. We also need sun to grow plants.

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J O N A S JAC K S O N , G R A D E 5 B

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THE FIRST PERSON ALIVE FREYA HORKAN GRADE 2T

Hi! I am Elizabeth. I am the first person alive. There are only two people that can be the first humans alive. It is me and Lily. I found her on the other side of the world. I traveled around the world to her because the tectonic plates were connected one to each other.

When we saw each other for the firsts time we thought that we had both been Bad Guys. Then we realized we both had been Good Guys.

Finally, we became friends forever. We worked together to create more people. We trained monkeys to be people. Yes! It worked.

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THE FIRST CHILD WHO MAKE POOP NURAY AHMADLI GRADE 2T

I was playing with play dough and I was making a chocolate. But it didn’t look like a chocolate. Then I had an idea and I named it poop. And I put it on all people.

But one day I put it on the princess. She hated brown and she said “How can you dare?”. Then I said something and went to cry.

After she said:”Then we have to do the war”.

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MY FIRST SLEEPOVER CHARLOTTE MCWHORTER GRADE 2M

It was my first sleepover with the milam's.

I had packed my bag with all different stuff.

We played some games and watched tv and then we finally went to sleep.

As time went by during the night I heard a noise and then woke up.

I looked around to see what it was but there was nothing all around.

But then my ear was bugging me. So I got up. it was hurting so much I couldn’t move my head. from side to side. from left to right. from forward to backward .

It just was not right .

It was very dark in that giant Room.

It was one o’clock .

I tried to fall back asleep but my ear would not stop hurting me.

So I stayed awake the whole night.

Sunday morning was so tiring.

I hardly stayed awake.

In the car I fell asleep.

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FLYING DOG LEONARDO CRISTOFARO GRADE 1L

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THE PHONE CALL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING MAYA VENTURA GRADE 2T

I am Mia. I’m in 5th grade with my best friends Gracie and Lily and Elizabeth. I am 12 years old. I have 2 twin baby brothers. One day the phone rings at my house and at the same time my neighbor Gracie’s phone rings too.The people say that I have been chosen to be the president of the Earth but I say that I’m just a kid. They say that it is that what makes things so amazing. I almost faint because I have never been asked this before. I start packing my things and then I see 2 servants coming to my room and starting to pack up my things. “No. Thank you” - I say. “I can do it by myself”. “No. We will do it” – say the servants – “Because we are your servants”. I gasp and go downstairs. And then I see like 1000 guards in my house. In my head I say that it must be very special to a president. Then, the next crazy thing I see is a royal car waiting for me. It is just like that being the president of the earth which I am now.The first thing I will do is to stop war. I have a meeting in my office with all the presidents, queens and kings.

I talk to them. I say: “Why do we have to have war? It sacrifices the loved ones. It costs lots of money for the guns. If you try to take over a country you are going to jail”.

A lot of years have passed. The world is peaceful and better now. But what happened to Mia? Her daughter Hilda is the new president of the earth and Mia died in 209.

The end.

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THE FIRST CHILD KING OF FINLAND TIMO PETROV GRADE 2T

Hi my name is Carl. I got a phone call that I have to be the king of Finland. I will be the king. Yay!!

My country has the tallest buildings and sky skraypers and as well the biggest and largest international airports in the world. I am commanding the whole country. No one is allowed to break the law! No weapons are allowed except a pistol and a machine gun weapons of class 4, but explosives are not allowed. If I see someone breaks the law, the police arrest them.

I have my own plane. I use the plane when I have meetings in other countries. I like to cause war. My army is the largest and biggest in the world so that’s why we win all the wars.

Finland is the best best best best place to visit and the law is so good that you can’t imagine.

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THE FIRST KING TO BE BORN QAYLIF MOHD IZRA GRADE 2T

Hello. I’m king Arthur. I am born to be a king. My job is to build houses for lonely people. When I was born I was supposed to make peace with other kings. By being a king I can help different communities so they can help their people that are very lonely. So our job is to help. I can help people to be safe. I am the person that can make the world a better place so I can also protect nature. Nature makes the world a better place, but now people are killing plants and animals.

When people build new homes they have to make sure to build strong houses to stay safe. So the kings have to protect their people.

Bad people need to understand we have to discuss the nature problems. So we make sure the world is protected by us.

Places on Earth are sometimes dangerous. We are all a family.

We are always a family and things will get better in the future.

We will always stay healthy.

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THE GREEN QUEEN FLORA MOLIEJUTE GRADE 2T

I am the queen of the whole earth. I will stop everybody from telephones because they are hurting people eyes. I’ll break cars because they are destroying the whole earth too. I’ll break houses because they are also destroying the earth. I’ll make houses from lego and papers . I want to be a green queen.

RING-RING…. The telephone rings. I don’t no what is wrong. It says that I am the best queen ever. And I don’t no why. The person on the telephone is saying that it is because I rule the Earth and now it’s the best place ever. I wonder why is it like that.

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LAURA BROUCKE, GRADE 5B

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A KIND AND PEACEFUL WORLD GRETA O’NEILL GRADE 2T

I am Gracie. I am in 5th grade. My best friends are Mia, Lily and Elizabeth. I have one sister and a brother. They are twins. The phone rings. They say: “You have been chosen”. I say: ”Chosen for what?” “You are the new president and meet us at the park tomorrow at 8:00 am. Ok?” – they said.

The next day at the park what is your first decision to send a family to space to see if we can live in space. the first volunteer goes next week. Tell the world we have a vote. the next order is to give everyone a home, how many don’t have homes? 123 people. A little bit later – 40 quillion. A year later the world is kind and peaceful.

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THE FIRST PERSON WHO BUILT A CITY ON THE MOON GEORGE AGAMYAN GRADE 2T

Hi, my name is George. I am going to be the first person who built a city on the Moon. I am going to built a city on the Moon.

The city will have no grass because I don’t need grass on the Moon. I am going to make the Moon just like the Earth is, but with no grass and only some trees. I will try to make super heros, like Batman or heros with weapons. I don’t have that now but I will build it.

Thirty years have passed.

Hi, my name is George. Do you remember me? I am the first person who built the city on the Moon. You know I actually built it and there I have all what I told of thirty years ago and I have a lot of money to have fun. oh no the

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ARINA SHULMEYSTER, GRADE 5R

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MY FIRST DAY OF 3RD GRADE ADELE SOUSLENSKII GRADE 3U

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SNOW MARIA FIALA GRADE 3C

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SHAHAR SHANY, GRADE 5B

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THE FIRST JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD ILIAN BUGASOV GRADE 4W

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HAPPY DOG HAPPY HOUSE VLADA BJELAJAC GRADE 5R

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THE FIRST TIME I MET AUNT VARKA MATILDA CROMPTON GRADE 5R

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PETER’S FIRST TIME MAKING ICE CREAM ANASTASIA HAGSTROM GRADE 4L

Hello. I’m king Arthur. I am born to be a king. My job is to build houses for lonely people. When I was born I was supposed to make peace with other kings. By being a king I can help different communities so they can help their people that are very lonely. So our job is to help. I can help people to be safe. I am the person that can make the world a better place so I can also protect nature. Nature makes the world a better place, but now people are killing plants and animals.

When people build new homes they have to make sure to build strong houses to stay safe. So the kings have to protect their people.

Bad people need to understand we have to discuss the nature problems. So we make sure the world is protected by us.

Places on Earth are sometimes dangerous. We are all a family.

We are always a family and things will get better in the future.

We will always stay healthy.

128

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M I C H A E L VA L U A , G R A D E 1 L

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