Searching for a Pebble in the Sands of the Universe: Stories by 5A

L

Dowiz

far o~ of 4Kt

M Me VftivtrsQ ‘ ~9ofle S

-

z

f

C

<4

~

I

$

DOUBLE DOWN BOOKS author bios Milla Avery is an author in SA and her favorite animal is a Pangolin, her worst fear is bright lights in doctor offices, and her main hobby is cooking. We wonder if sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever made an onion milkshake.

Tessa Chavez is an author in SA and she likes dogs and is super scared of snakes, but she likes snakes when they play basketball. We really donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know why.

Maria Delyannis is a publicist in SA who likes monkeys, hates spiders, and loves basketball. She really likes playing basketball with monkeys.

Kiran Foick is one of the people who have typed this for you. Morgz and All-A make me cringe so badly that I am scared of them. My favorite food is sushi, and my favorite sport is baseball. I especially like eating sushi after baseball games.

Sofia Griffey is an author is in SA who loves dogs, hates fuzzy spiders, and likes art without spiders in 3D. Aditya Jam is a publicist who loves dogs, hates bugs, and loves, loves, I MEAN LOVES Indian food without bugs.

Wyatt Lewis is an editor who likes cats and sushi, except for when it has doctor needles in them.

Grant Marilley is a editor and his favorite animal is a gorilla and he plays basketball and baseball. And his favorite food is steak.

David Martin likes capybaras that drive model airplanes. He also loves chicken curry and his biggest greatest terror is getting lost.

Miles Mckenzie is an editor and his favorite animal is a Yorkie and his greatest fear is cars and he loves to golf and his favorite food is pizza.

Davis Mcnulty is an editor in SA who gives all his love to dogs. His favorite hobby is playing rec league soccer. Davisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite food is eating juicy steak.

Maple Murphy is a lively SA student, whose favorite animal is a horse. Her biggest fear is shots. Her favorite hobby is horse riding. Maple’s favorite food is sushi, because we said so.

Anna Pang is a student in SA whose job is an illustrator. Her biggest fear is Maple’s face (just kidding). Her most Gucci hobby is horseback riding. Her favorite food is sushi.

Maeve Rhatigan is a student in SA whose job is a publicist. Maeve’s favorite animal is a monkey Her greatest fear is dying. She really really really really really really really likes pasta.

Grace Robertson is an author in SA. She loves owls,her greatest fear is bugs, and she plays volleyball. Her favorite food is pizza, as long as there aren’t any bugs in it!

Kameron Saman is a lover of dragonflies, fearer of spiders, and could play badminton all day while eating avocados!

Braden Snyder loves phoenixes, but is afraid of heights. He loves playing video games while eating cheesecake.

Brody Stuart loves penguins, but not airplanes. He loves to trampoline in his yard, and eat fried duck.

Sophia Thomas is an alpaca supporter, while not that of a cockroach. She loves playing sports and eating sushi.

Erin Wainger loves weasels, dislikes whales, likes soccer, and stuffs her face with ice cream.

Blake Watkins is an author in SA. Her favorite animal is a horse and her

biggest fear is dying. She loves horse back riding. Blake’s favorite food is pasta.

Double Down Publishing From thrilling mysteries to breathe-taking adventures, Double Down Books will keep you on the edge of your seat. Our writers are very skilled and work hard to make sure their stories are the best they can be. If you enjoy fantasy, mystery or adventure you’ll love our book.

About Us We are from 5A. (The story masters.) Our publishers work hard to inform you about our amazing stories.The editors help fix mistakes that slipped by. Lastly, our illustrators and cover designers create beautiful drawings and extraordinary covers. Everyone works hard and does their job with talent and skill.

Party Time Excited to read our book? That’s great because you’re all invited to come to our publishing party on Friday, May 24, 2019 at 8:45am in The General Story. There will be food, fun and readings by the authors themselves! We thank you for your support and kindness towards these young writers. Our party will be thrown by our publicists, so please make sure to give them a big thank you for planning this wonderful party. We hope you can make it! Thank You!!

•OflC it C~’tep. ~tOVtOftoo

--

~C~i~L Ptftt!ioFs

-

•,

o’oiio ‘C, ~CSflflS

—

‘I-.

J—.’-~_

—

.—.——

s-flnocQjn..jt.

C ~tttaaMttic~..

In

Argon lawns,

I.

~rra /

Finding Family By: Milla Avery I am Rose. I lived in the city and I was, weil, an outcast. People didn’t even take the time to talk to me. Everyone called me a freak just because I was different. I lived in the streets. No one even gave me a scrap of food. The only people I could remember who loved me were my mom and dad.

It’s been seven years since they disappeared.

One night I met my new best friend. I named her Beila. It was weird she (a dog) spoke English, or at least I could understand her. Then I was looking for food and I understood the raccoons. I knew I was different in almost every way but talking to animals--that was new.

I went to sleep that night and I dreamed of being a pretty princess all doiled up. Then I woke up and realized it was just a dream. I feil asleep again and woke up with pieces of trash being thrown at me. Another hint of reality. One day I was walking around a new part of town and I saw an entrance to the mountains. I saw it and I took it.

Beila seemed to know this place. Was she from here? Later that day she brought me to a den. It was as if she wanted me to go in, so I did. I went in and I saw these paintings. They looked like Beila and me! Had someone know we were coming? I saw something in the shadows. It stepped out. I recognized her. Was it really who I thought it was? Yes!!!! My sister!! I ran forward and jumped into my older sister’s arms. Blake told me about what happened to our parents. She said that a women broke in and took them.

Blake said I had to go and find our parents. She said that where the sun rises over the mountains I will find our parents. Suddenly she was gone and I heard her scream. I walked out into a world of darkness and I decided that I would wait until morning to find my family.

I woke up at the break of dawn and looked at the mountains. My family was waiting for me I was their only hope. I began my dangerous exploit.

Squirrels were helping me along the way. Then they feil silent. Something lunged at me. I saw Beila flying out in front of me. She saved me! No wonder dogs are man’s best friend.

Beila was badly wounded. I found some food for both of us. She was whimpering louder than I could have ever imagined. I did what I could, she stopped whining and I decided that this time we will rest.

In the morning we kept on. We started our long hike up the mountain.

After hiking for 7 hours my heart was beating harder than ever before, my feet were trembling, and I could not go any longer. We stopped to take a rest and then I blacked out.

What felt like two days later, I woke up in a weird lab. I tried to get up, but I was tethered to the table and worst of all i couldn’t see Beila.

“Beila, Beila!” I caned her name but got no answer other than an echoing voice saying “Give up you’il never find your parents or your dog.” I stopped my caning. The voice was coming closerer and closer. I saw a woman whose hair was jet black and was slicked back with gel. She put on a lab coat and showed me a picture of my parents.

I screamed. She somehow had tightened the things holding me to the table. Suddenly she spoke in a language I didn’t understand. I thought it was Albanian. Then I understood why Della didn’t answer, I had been speaking human not animal!

I caned to her in animal language so she would understand me. She answered me and said” Her weakness is her power. If you threaten her she will weaken.” Then I got an idea. I thought up a plan. I would compromise the lab with animals then I would break free. The way it would work would be when I caned the wolves to attack the woman I would send in the mini army of chipmunks to help break me free. After I was free I would can in the bats to help me find Beila.

My plan started out well, but then she caned in reinforcements. They pinned me into the table and kicked Della. My face got red hot and I clenched my flsts. Then something happened. My eyes turned cerise and I became a pure blast of energy.

I was free. I really was free, I’m not sure how, but I was! I found Beila, but she wasn’t a mut. She was a Newfie. Only my favorite type of dog. I heard a voice calling my name. Could it be? It was my mom and dad! They took me home after we found my sister. Della even had her own bed. My life had changed forever. I had found my family.

Is SI

•1s’

O\ia~ovot~CC

The Disappearance of Paige Patterson By: Tessa Chavez

Five year old Paige Patterson and six other family members are going on a vacation to Europe. All the kids are under the age of nine.They arrive at the airport, Mrs. Patterson tells Paige to stay close to her. The families check into their hotel rooms. They all agree to meet up tomorrow for breakfast. The next morning the families meet up and Mr. Patterson tells them that, “One of the staff members told me that they have a five star restaurant in the hotel and its right next to the pool”.Paige’s aunt comes up with a plan.

“If were right next to the restaurant why don’t we leave all the kids in one room and every 30 minutes we come and check on them?” All of the family agrees, Mrs. Patterson is a little skeptic, but she agrees anyways. The parents took turns checking on the kids every thirty minutes. But when it was Mrs. Patterson’s turn, Paige was missing. She screamed, then fainted.

Mr. Patterson heard the scream, then he rushed to the room, and saw poor Mrs. Patterson on the cold, hard, floor. He checked her pulse, Alive, he thought. He looked up and noticed that Paige was missing.

The family noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Patterson hadn’t returned yet.

So, they went to the room.

“What have you been doing Jack?”, Paige’s aunt asked. They noticed Mrs. Patterson, who was unconscious and Paige, who was gone.

“I called the police and told them what happened.”, Mr. Patterson informed them.

“The children are still napping.”, Paige’s aunt whispered, “We should wake them up now.” There was a thump. Beth, Paige’s cousin, came out of the darkness “I-I saw the whole thing. Paige is gone. She got kidnapped by a man in black clothing she whimpered. “,

“No”, Mr. Patterson cried. Four hours later, the children awoke, and so did Mrs. Patterson but in tears.

“My poor baby.”, She sobbed,” Who knows what happened to her a-and who knows where she could be!” Soon the police arrived.

“What happened?”, the officer questioned Mr. Patterson.

“Our child is missing!”, said Mrs. Patterson, trying to recover from her tears.

“Stand back. This is a crime scene. We need to investigate the area.”, the officer commanded.

“Our poor child is gone, and we can’t do anything about it” She sobbed.”

“Don’t worry Anne, we’ll find her even if it means giving up everything...”, Mr. Patterson promised. A day later, Paige’s parents found her disappearance on the newspaper,they were relieved that it was on the paper. The rest of the family decided to just go home and leave Europe. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson stayed in Europe to find their daughter. Countless days went by, it felt like years to them.

“We’re never going to find her Jack, it’s impossible.”, Mrs. Patterson said in a doubtful manner. “Don’t worry honey, we will find her even if it is a risky move.”, Mr. Patterson kissed her forehead. Two hours later, Paige’s aunt called, “Any luck?”, she ask with hope. “Not a trace”, said Mr. Patterson.

She sobbed,”How will we find her?”

“We put up fliers every place we could think of.”, said Mr. Patterson.

“Keep looking”, she ordered “I’m sorry Jack”, said Paige’s aunt guilty “Sorry for what?” ask Mr. Patterson who was confused. “It was my idea to leave all the kids in the room Jack.” “It was my fault!” Paige’s aunt moaned, puffing her face in her hands.

“It’ll be okay Lillian, it’s not your fault it’s all ours.” “We all agreed, remember?, said Mr. Patterson trying to hold in his tears,”We can’t the past

change, but we can change the future.” “We can find Paige.”, said Mr. Patterson.

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Patterson got a strange phone call.

“Bring us what we want and we’ll give you want you want. It’ll be a trade off.” Whispered the stranger. “What do you what.” asked Mr. Patterson supposedly.

“Money of course.” “How much?” Mr. Patterson ask with a sigh.

“500,000 if you ever want to see your precious daughter again.”, the stranger roughly said “We’ll do whatever it takes.” said Mr. Patterson hesitantly.

“Perfect”, the stranger smirked, “We’ll meet by the bridge at midnight. Any tricks and I won’t bring your daughter to your filthy hands.

Bring the money in a black garbage bag and don’t be late.” “Is she coming back?”, Mrs. Patterson asked, full of hope.

“Yes. Yes Anne, she will.”, replied Mr. Patterson with tears in his eyes,” But I have an idea. I think we can save the money but call the cops also.”

“I’m not sure how, but the kidnapper must be stopped.”, Mrs. Patterson said. She agreed and the two nervously waited at the bridge with a garbage bag, with the money, but the police were in the shadows, waiting to catch who the kidnapper was.

Finally, when midnight came, the stranger showed up, gave them Paige, and stuck his hand out for the money.

“Ready, and... NOW! Catch the kidnapper!”, commanded the officer. “You said no tricks.”, the stranger said. “You didn’t see that coming.”, smiled Mr. Patterson. But Mrs. Patterson paid no mind to the kidnapper. She ran to her poor child. “Paige!”, cried Mrs. Patterson.

“Mommy! I was afraid, Mommy. The man made me clean his house and he threatened. Mommy! I missed you so much! I have so much to tell you.”, Paige sobbed, running to her mommy’s arms, which were warm with love.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Come now, dear, we shall eat dinner. I have prepared something that you love.â&#x20AC;?, Mrs. Patterson smiled. Apparently the man was a guy named Garrett Lonzan, a man known for his scams, kidnaps, and all his robbery. Paige told them about how she got kidnapped, how she heard the plan from one of his friends and was about to run away. also, how she got past his friends who were involved in this situation. Then the Pattersons went back home to America and lived happily ever after.

?hetnd

The Quest

By Maria Delyannis Introduction There Bobilina goes with the Evil Koalas. Wait let’s take you all the way back. So Jeff is a walking shark with his wife Bobilina. They were hated by Bob, The Leader of The Evil Monkeys) who wanted to capture Bobilinia cause of her beauty. They always had to hide from him and make sure he never came near her. But then..

Part One One day while Bobilinia was walking she came over a dollar. She bent down to get it and something came over her and she was graped, kicked, and hit. The people that took her put her in a car and drove away. When they got to their destination (Land of Kokolas) Bob came out and said “If you ever want to see you husband, Jeff then he has three days to give me $10,000 I will go and call him.”

At home Jeff was wondering what was taking Bobilinia so long to get home. Jeff went and called her. She did not answer so he started to get suspicious. So he just sat down to get calm and eat a bag of chips. In the next half and hour Jeff woke up from his relaxing nap, and Bobilinia was not there, there was just a note under the door. Jeff went over to it and it read:

If you wanE ?o&&uia 6ac& you &aue for ma $70,000 Ut caJ noE 4L u mine.

8y 4:00 in fAme c&y*~ 4

lJow’ Te.4 1308, LaLLs 424 Wo.1L14 Jeff freaked out and knew he had give the money to Bob in three days. Jeff got on some clothes and ran to the bank to get money.When he got there to the bank they didn’t have enough money to give him it today but they said they could give him it in three more days. Jeff told them he didn’t have the time to wait but they said they couldn’t do it. All Jeff got was $2,000. He knew he had to find a way to get the rest before the end of the day. He went to all his friends for help but no one could spare some change. He went to another bank but it was closed.What would he do. Jeff went back home to think.

Back at the Evil Monkey Land, Bobilinia is screaming for help when Bob walks in. Bob tells her to shut her trap or he will wipe her. She got quiet. Bob said, “I will walk out of this room and if you say anything you will not get any food tonight.” Bob went out of the room and got the dinner

when he came back she was sleeping. Bob smacked with a broom her tell she woke up and then gave her the food.

Two days later....

Jeff was still thinking when the phone rang he wobbled over to it and picked it up. The person on the other end was a very kind koala. Bob said “Hi” and asked how it was, the koala on the other end said his name was Billy. Billy said ,“l can help you get Bobilinia, but in return you have to give me a Golden Necklace.” “Why do you want to help me?” Jeff asked. Billy said, “No more questions, is it a yes or a no.” “YES” Jeff said “Please help me.”

“If your husband does not get here in 24 hours with the money you are mine forever.” Says Bob. Now stay here it’s cheese time. When Bob got back he went into the room and said twelve hours left.

Billy came over to Jeff’s house with a few other people, his helpers. Jeff gave Billy the Golden Necklace. Then they made a plan out, which was for Billy to give all the money he had to Jeff and they would have another stack of fake money and would give that stack to Bob. When they got to the Land of Monkeys it was the biggest and scariest thing they had ever seen. Bob was waiting for them When they walked in they all got the chills. Bob said, “Where’s the money.”

Jeff said “First can I have a glass of water and while you are doing that I will put the money on your desk.” Bob went and got the water. While gone getting the water, Jeff put the fake money bag on Bob desk and Billy took the real Money to the car. When Bob got back he saw the money gave the water and Bobilinia to Jeff and they left. .

The next day Bob called and said “Open up the door.” Jeff was a little skeptic but he opened it and the

To Be Continued

-V

\

Bca

~1

-el

.4.’

S

‘S

3

V

The bangerous Bedwetters By: Kiran Folck It all started out as a normal day, I put on my Sesame Street underwear, and went to work. Oh no! I thought as I got to work. I forgot to put my pants on! I raced home. It was 8:00 am, and I have a patient at 8:30. By the way, I am Billy Bob Steve, but you can call me Bill. I am a dentist, possibly the most sophisticated one on Earth. My IQ is 12. 12,000,000!!!!!! Finally, I got home. It was 8:20! I hopped in my car, my nicer car. You see, I normally drive my mini van to work. But, in desperate times like this I had to drive my Ferrari. If I wanted to get to work, I would have to go over the speed limit in my golden Ferrari! I didn’t want to risk being pulled over by the cops, but I needed my money! I got to work at 8:29, I ran up to my office on the 3rd floor, put on my Gucci scrubs(doctor clothes), and got to my patient right on time! Phew! That was very tiring. Next, I went to Burger King to eat foot lettuce. My foot lettuce didn’t taste good, so I fed it to my pet chungus. A chungus is an animal, a fat rabbit. I decided to name mine Joe. It was 5 P.M., and I got a text from my mom. It read, Meet me at KFC at exactly 7:00 tonight. Okay... I thought as I got dressed in my Supreme sweatpants and sweatshirt. I also put on a hat. It was 6:50 when I left. I had to park a block away from the KFC because there was only one parking space left in the 5 car parking lot, and I wanted to give it to my mom. As I walked out of the car I saw some gangsters hanging around. They saw my sweats, and wanted my money. Once the leader got closer, I recognized him. They were the Bedwetters, known for their notoriously violent pillow-fights. I saw them loaded up with pillows. I broke into a sprint. As I got farther from my car they started closing in more, and more, and MORE! I had to lose them!

Finally, I got to KFC, but they were going to chase me in there! As I got inside and closer to the cash register, I saw my mom. I decided that I shouldn’t let her see all this trouble, so I just, well, stopped running. I thought I was safe. They actually REALLY wanted my money.

My mom didn’t even see me. I threw off my hat and took off my hood as quickly as possible. I then yelled for my mom to come. She eventually heard, but it was too late. The Bedwetters took me to my Ferrari, stole my keys, drove it away, and threw me into their “Kidnapper Van”. I had no clue that they kidnapped people! I just thought that they had pillowfights! Lucky for me, the person that was driving the van was actually my mom! But, our van got shot and we crashed. The gang took us to their secret base and hit us with pillows. The first hit wasn’t bad, but the 4th and 5th hit us harder. All of a sudden, everything went black Chapter 2 After I woke up I checked my watch, the time was 10 am. I had been kidnapped for 15 hours! I looked over to my mom who was sleeping. I decided that until she woke up I would study my surroundings. By the way, we were tied up to chairs. For some reason the Bedwetters were so dumb that they left us alone in the room without guards and with a knife on my mom’s lap. I woke her up so that she could cut us out of the chairs and we could get away. When she woke up she had a HEART ATTACK!!! I went into panic mode and used all of my strength to shimmy out of the ropes. I felt my mom’s neck to check for a pulse. She was ok!!! I got her out of the ropes and waited for her to get up. When she got up we tried to open the door. It was unlocked! We got out of the lair and went home to get even MORE sleep. We then decided not to mess with this stupid, but vicious gang.

After that, something happened that you won’t believe. That whole conundrum was a dream! THE END

N’.

-I

7

•

‘~~Nj•’.~.

N

,

1:

N

-—‘•.

•

“N-.

•.•-•

-

1..>’

“N ‘•‘%_~

~SZ

:7::..

-

•

—

•,r••

•.•

•

. —~•‘ -

—

—~

-

•

I

v:., ~‘r

~‘c• ?

~‘•

f.

V

,

•

‘

••

•.-.S

~•‘

‘:-

~4.

-

-‘~‘~4.•~~3

-~

..

~

V

-‘c

-

½ ~

-~“

‘ç

• .• ••t•••’

~.•I

N

i•~’ ‘4

•

—

I

‘

:::; ~~-: -

Ii

••

‘I

-

N— 1,E.’

V.—.

L:j~c=L

~-

-}

~

•.H~-.

•n fl’s ‘t..

e,.

-t’~’~••

\tt~~

t~

:“:“~“-.

-

My Adventure Bock Home

By Sofia Griffey My adventure started when I went looking for treasure. I had been washed up on an unknown island many years ago. I enjoyed staying on the island but I was determined to go back home. When my Sailboat crashed, I couldn’t go back so I made another. There were no people on the island but I liked it the way it was. One day I decided to set sail and journey home.

I collected plants and fruits along in case I needed food and other stuff. I gathered as much as I could and started my journey. The weather was perfect and sunny. Later that day when it was getting dark, I noticed dolphins swimming nearby. There was three of them swimming along. I heard birds and seagulls and I could smell the salty air I couldn’t wait to go back home. The only thing I was worrying about was not having a map with me but, the island I was on probably wasn’t very far from my home. I went to bed that night and it got slightly colder The next day I woke up and I could barely see ahead of the boat. It was so foggy and the air was misty. The waves were rough and I could hear them splash against my boat Just in minutes, I could feel a sLight change in the weather It got windier and there were bigger waves. Cold rain started coming down from the sky faster When I looked as far as I could, I saw a water spout. It was huge and tall It looked like it was fifty feet high! It was about twenty feet away from me. It was very dangerous and It looked like a water tornado. I fixed my sails and headed the other direction. The clouds and sky were dark gray. After that, I was lucky I didn’t get sucked into the waterspout. I kept going as far as I could away from it until I knew it wasn’t very close. I rested and looked though all my stuff to make sure it was all safe. That evening I could see blue skies and a pretty sunset up far ahead of me. I was surrounded by thick gray clouds but once I reached where it was clear

skies, I would be safe. Two hours passed and I reached the clear area. I suddenly remembered that the sun sets in the west, I used the sun to hetp navigate most of my way untit it got dark. The next day the ocean stayed calm. After that, I saw two blue wholes! There was one big whale and one smaller whale. I saw hundreds of colorful fish go under my boat. The water was so clear I could see the bottom of the ocean floor I spotted a sandbar so I fixed the salts and headed toward it. I anchored the boat so that it wouldn’t float away. Then I stepped on the soft sand and I saw pretty shells and rocks. I kept some and stored them in my boat as souvenirs. I looked closely at the fish swimming by. They had lots of colors on them. Some were big and some were smalL It looked like the fish were swimming away from something. When I looked up from the fish, I saw five great white sharks approaching me. I hurried on my boat and brought the anchor onto it. I saw their pointy fins stick out of the water with scars on their bodies. The sharks bumped my sailboat on the side and almost tipped it over When I finally got the chance to sail away, they kept following me for thirty minutes. After that, they swam away to find some other food. Next I ate my dinner and went to steep. The sky covered me like a starry blanket.

Another day passed and I finally spotted land. I hoped I wouldn’t land where I started. But then I saw familiar buildings and shops. I realized that it was the place I belonged. I hurried to get home as fast as I could. I fixed the sailes and headed toward the shore until I noticed a little girt screaming for help. She was getting sucked in a ocean current. She was getting putled far out to sea. I steered my boat around and sailed toward her There weren’t any lifeguards or swimmers nearby. I quickly threw a rope beside her and she grabbed it. I steered the sailboat away from the current and helped her up. We both went back to the shore and she thanked me. Then I gave her some safety tips before she left.

This is my story about my adventure to home.

-I

e

/, /

The Shadow Kidnapper

by Aditya Jam Chapter 1

“I love India,” said Aditya. “Woof. Woof.,” said Arjun the dog. We were driving to the Gateway of India. When we got there we stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace for 2 nights. (It is just a hotel, not a palace). Then we were walking along the street, looking around. We heard someone in an ally. “Are you good?” I said. “GET DOWN OR ELSE!!”

“Ok, Ok.” “Get in the van NOW.” I got in the van, he locked me in, and drove off. At least Arjun came with me.

Chapter 2 I am very worried about Arjun. I haven’t seen him in a week. He came with me here, but when I woke up I didn’t see him. “Where is my dog you-” before I could say anything they gave me Arjun. “Thank you” I said. Then I got a phone call from my mom.

“The Police are looking for you. But I want to tell you your dad disappeared.

Come home in one piece. Love you!” I feel horrible. This was going to be a fun family vacation, but now it is just me, a puny 20 year-old as a hostage.

Chapter 3 I don’t know why the kidnappers need me! They just say “Wait for a while,” but today I think they need me.

“Hey you”.

“Yes?” “We need you”.

I went with them, and I saw Logan Paul. “Here he is sir Logan Paul sir”.

“Thank you”.

“I know where your dad is. If you tell me where the leader of Fortnite is I will let you go.”

“Why”?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I can make him delete the game with all the people who play it.

Chapter 4 I stalled for a long time, but I think he is getting mad. Then, all of a sudden, someone said it was the FBI. I turned around, and I saw my Mom, Dad, and brother.

They got me and the police took Logan Paul and all the crooks. I was so happy to see my parents and brother. After all this happened, I saw my cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Chapter 5 I thanked the FBI, and went back to New Delhi with my family. I enjoyed life in India, and we went back to my house in America.

The END...

Ic~

Jackson the Runaway

By Wyatt Lewis A kid named Jackson really hated his parents. He had been planning to run away from home for around 2 months. His parents smoked and went to parties almost every day and told him to stay in his room when they did so. He had no friends at school. He was never allowed to go to his friends’ houses or have sleepovers. He had to buy all his food even though Jackson was only 13.

I yanked down the ladder that led up to the attic. I climbed up the wooden ladder jumped on top of a brown cardboard box and climbed over to the box labeled travel equipment. I pulled the box out of the towering stack and watched as all the other boxes tumbled down. I cracked open the box and yanked out a few of the maps that said Idaho, or Sandpoint Idaho. I also noticed a black and white picture squished in the far right corner of the box. I took it and all my maps down stairs. As I was walking I dropped my maps on the couch.

I walked over to my father who was sitting next to my mom at the breakfast table drinking coffee. and asked, “who are these people in this photo?”

Then his father asked, “where did you find that?”

“Uhhhh, under the sofa,” lied Jackson.

Then his mother answered, “No you didn’t. Now stop lying, I cleaned under the couch just this morning. Now where did you find it!?”

“Ok, I found it in the attic.”

“Give me the photo!” yelled Jackson’s father.”

“Whyyy, it’s just a photo” cried Jackson” Then his father snatched the picture and shredded it over the trash can. Then, Jackson stormed off to his room. “Well, at least I have the maps, but who were those people?” Jackson questioned. The following day he was walking through his school he couldn’t get the following questions, Who were they? Where were they?

What did they know about me?

I looked at the maps I found in the attic earlier on. I found out that there is a forest behind some house a mile or two east. At least I found my destination. I then figured that I would make a bit of a hideout back there in the woods. I know I need

to take some food with me though. So I’m going to run down stairs and fix myself a few sandwiches. I will also need something to drink so I will pack a myself a water bottle. I dash over to the faucet and filled up my bottle to the brim, then shoved it in my backpack. I also pulled a few changes of clothes. I forgot something though, I need to get my phone so I can contact someone if it’s needed.

Then I went over to my nightstand and got my iPhone charger. I threw my backpack on my shoulders, and ran downstairs to the garage door. I hopped on my bike, took a deep breath, and ran out the door.

It took me a mere 20 minutes to cover the two miles needed to get to the forest. As expected there was a ranch style house in front of the forest, but that is not all. There was also a man watering his garden. I trotted over to a nearby tree. I assessed my options. Number one, I could try to attempt to run past the man, or, number two, I could wait till nighttime. I choose to try and run through his backyard and scale the his fence. Scaling the fence would probably be the hardest part of the attempt as the fence was five feet high. I gathered up my wits, and when he was not looking at me I ran through his yard as fast as I could.

The man than yelled, “Get out of my lawn you hoodlum.” I ran through his yard as fast as my legs could go. My heart was pounding like a rock in my chest. I jumped over the fence and ran about a half mile into the forest. I started running ahead completely ignoring my surroundings. When I felt like I had ran far enough I stopped and took a break. I observed my surroundings. To me it looked like I was in an oak forest because when I went to boy scouts they told me how to look for certain plants and trees. I sat down and opened my backpack up and pulled out the maps I had put in there. Judging from how far I had come and where the map said the nearest oak forest was I found out that there was a small stream about 5 miles north of where I currently am. Since my small bottle of water was not going to last me forever I figured that I might as well set up camp near a water source.

Though I just remembered that I had left my bike near the old man’s lawn, so I thought that I should probably go get it. I ran the half mile back to his house and scaled the fence as quietly as I possibly could. I heard what sounded like a football game on the television inside his house. I crept across his lawn and snatched my bike and drug it over to the fence. I threw my bike over the fence and heard a re astounding smash. I stood there quietly for a minute or so and heard nothing more. I figured that he hadn’t heard me over the blaring TV. I crept over

20

the fence once more. I hopped on my bike and rode for around 6 miles in the direction of the stream until I found it. The sky was already getting dark, I heard thunder, and I did not think to bring a tent of any sort. I walked over to a dense patch of branches, and rolled out my sleeping bag and settled in for the night. After I woke up the following morning to the wonderful sound of birds, but the strange thing was my sleeping bag and my surroundings were not wet. I suppose the clouds must have moved on. I pulled out my second to last turkey sandwich. I knew that I would need to start finding food very soon if I was to continue living like this. I started to walk around my campsite to see if I could get to any easy to find food.While I was pushing away a cluster of branches I spotted some sort of fruit of berry. I had found several blackberry bushes, and one cranberry bush. The blackberries were ripe and looked like they were about to burst in the blazing heat of July, though the cranberries were small and bright green as they were not ripe yet. I picked all the blackberries I could see and stuffed my pockets full of them.

I ran over to the cranberry bush, I said, “I might as well try one of them.” It tasted like I had bitten into every most sour candy in the world combined, it tasted that bad. Almost as soon as I put it in my mouth I spat it right out. I decided that I would never try unripe cranberries again. At least I still have the blackberries. I dashed all the way back to my campsite. I was parched, so I cupped my hands and dipped them into the water and poured it into my mouth. I did that several times until I was satisfied. Since it was so scorching hot I figured I might as well take a bit of a dip in a bit of water. I followed the stream down a little ways and found out that it emptied into a pool in which several other streams flowed into. I saw a few fish in it, though I did not know what they were. I figured they wouldn’t hurt me as they were quite small. I jumped into the pool of water cannonball style. Though I got a shocking result. The pool wasn’t as deep as I thought it was, it was only a few feet deep, the water was up to about my waist. I rested my head on the edge of the pond for a few minutes. After that I swam around in the water for about fifteen minutes. I crawled out onto the grass. As I was walking back to my campsite I saw a little woodpecker. I smiled to it, it stopped and looked at me, and then kept on pecking. When I got to my campsite I sat down and thought about the picture that my parents had shredded. Maybe those people were related to me in some way, or maybe they had passed away and my parents didn’t want to think about them?

Then I said, “I will figure out who those people were. I could go to town and ask around. I hopped on my bike and rode my way to town. I first went to my friend Harold’s ho’..se. \Vhen I knocked on his door he answered it and asked, “Can we go ride bikes together, as I see you brought your bike?”

I sighed, “No, but can I ask your mother a few things.”

He responded, “My mom is not here just my grandma, my mom is on some kind of business trip. She is supposed to be gone for a few days.” “Can I talk to your grandmother than?” “Uhh, sure I guess, why do you want to talk to her?”

“Because I do.” When his grandmother came to the door she said, “Come inside, come inside.”

“Would you like something to eat you look famished?”

“Uhh, could I have a slice of bread with butter. No actually could you make that two?

“Sure honey” I might as well take two so I can have a bit of a snack later I thought. As she started to prepare my bread, I said, “1 actually came to ask you if you know who a man was who I found in a picture a while back.”

“Can you give me a description of him?” she questioned.

“Wait, there was two people, a man and a woman.”

“Ok, then give me both, I know quite a few people in this little city.”

“The man had white and wavy longish hair, bushy mustache and brown eyes.”

“Hmm, I might know who you are looking for.” She walked down a hallway, and walked into a little room off to the side. I heard her rummaging through what sounded like piles of boxes. She came back walking down the hallway carrying a small box. She sat down on the couch next to where I wa sitting. She opened up the flaps on the box and revealed a pile of pictures. Some looked new and some were old and faded.

She exclaimed, “By the way, you can call me catherine.”

Catherine plopped the pile of pictures down on the table and spread them out over the table. “Here we go,” she exclaimed. She handed me a well worn and

‘22~

yellowed picture of a man wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. I studied the picture for a moment.

“I don’t think this man meets the description of the man I saw.”

“The man I saw had a bit lighter skin.”

“Though I never gave you the description of the woman sitting next to him.”

“One moment, Jackson.”

She walked over to her kitchen that looked as though someone had thrown an antique store in her house. Catherine opened up a cabinet above her sink which housed a bunch of assorted dishes. She selected a small coffee cup. Catherine walked over to the sink and filled it up three quarters of the way. She came back over to where I was sitting.

“Now can you tell me a little bit about the woman?”

“She had blond hair, brown eyes, she looked about 5’4, and she had pale skin.”

“I have quite a few pictures that you could look at,” said Catherine.

She scooped up all the pictures that were on the table, and neatly organized them in the flower decorated box. She walked down the hallway once more, Catherine walked into the side room. She placed the box on a high shelf, and pulled out another one. She walked back to where I was sitting holding the box.

Catherine took the lid off and arrayed the pictures on the table by taking the pictures out and running her hand across them to even them out upon the table. She selected a few of the pictures and handed them to me.

“These are the best pictures that met the description of the woman in the other picture.”

Some of the pictures were worn but some were reasonably new. When I was scanning through the pictures, one caught my eye. It was a picture with a woman with a man by her side.

“Catherine, I need to show you something” I handed her the picture that caught my eye.

“I think that this is the woman I saw, though I don’t know who the man in the background is.”

She studied the picture for a moment.

“The woman’s name is Naomi, she was your great grandmother, the man is your great grandfather. Both of them are on your mom’s side. When I was younger, around your age, Naomi was always very nice to us, she helped us with our schoolwork, and sometimes took us to get ice cream at the ice cream parlor.”

“As you now know the man was her husband, he was always suffering one medical problem or another. Sadly a couple years ago, 8 to be specific, he passed away from heart failure. It was all a very sad story. I got told a couple days after the small funeral. I assume your parents never told you. As they probably were too sad to tell you.”

To Be Continued

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cIersr

2

41

re

2

Timmvs Adventure

By Grant Mariuev There was a boy named Timmy Standing. He loves playing outside In his own world. He did it today. But now he is eating dinner with his parents. About to go to sleep his parents tuck him in. Allot the sudden he was in a new world.

Timmy was now in a jungle. All alone he explored the jungle. The jungle seemed like it never ends. Timmy was walking for ahout an hour in the vast jungle. He finds a village after searching thoroughly through the jungle. The village is populated with tons of Indians. First Timmy thought he could make friends with the Indians.

But then he thought about the consequences If they were unfriendly.

He got a hue closer to the hue village. if he got a little closer he thought that he would get caught. He risked getting caught and got closer. They saw him hut did not attack him. They were friendly! Timmy was greeted to everyone in the village and what they were host at. Timmv already felt like he was he was at home well almost. Ho made wonderful friends with the kids and adults. They taught Timmy their way of hunting, attacking, fighting, and more. Timmy was taught that when you go hunting you are assigned to groups. Timmy was assigned to the best group. He was so excited to get started. Timniy was searching for food with his group. He saw an enemy tribe. No not a tribe, It was the pilgrims! Timmy remembered the Indians fighting the Pilgrims in social studies class. So he warned the tribe members about their supplies, weapons, strength, and more.

They were going to have a war. Everyone was ready they went to their positions.

Timmy was frightened. The war began. it was so very violent. The war lasted forever. That’s what ii seemed like. They were defeated. It was a pitiful war. Some escaped the village, including Timmy. They started a now village, and a new life.

Timmy feels strange and is In his room agaln.”lt was all a dream,”said Timmy. But every night the dream continues. He and the Indians grew stronger and they went on new adventures. Every night he went back into the jungle but he still the same age every time. But he still enjoys the adventures.

4

lnzperfectTimea ~y David Marlin I was all alone in the open ocean, not a soul in sight I was praying for salvation on my second day without freshwater.

I had been treading water for twenty-seven hours and was exhausted. I needed rest, but if a military boat were to come by, which seldom happens in these waters, I’d be filled with lead in a second. Being a twelve year old deserter is not very easy. Weakness and vulnerability are two issues.

Recognizability is also against me. Treading water for hours on a month of military training is difficult. I thought of the last week. All of the gunfire and explosions were haunting my memories. To think that a month ago I was safe at home.

“Mom! What’s for dinner tonight?”

“It’s lamb stew honey:’ A thunderclap sounded loud as lightning flashed and illuminated the already bright room.

The glare flashed off of the white tiles. The TV suddenly turned on. Venezuela had fallen into anarchy and a rebellion had started. Three government officials had been found all in the same dump as garbage bag bodies. They were each beaten unrecognizably and if it weren’t for their unmistakable suits and ties, they would be nothing more than three rebels. It appeared that Venezuela had unofficially declared war on itself. Thousands lifted arms and thousands more opened shops. Groceries were being sold at hardware stores. Weapons at Target Anything to bring in the customers. Next the news reported that Russia was siding with communism and found out we were supporting the democracy for Venezuela.

I remember the words exactly:’ It appears that due to political instability in South America Russia has declared war on the United States of America. The first landing of opposing forces will be on July 7, 2019.” It was April 16.

Next was the most haunting part of the entire broadcast.” If the opposing forces will not give up arms, a draft will be placed for male civilians of the ages twelve to seventy:’ If I haven’t already mentioned it, my name is Michael Dunn, and lam twelve years of age.

No civilians were allowed to possess firearms and if not turned in to the police by April 30 would face prosecution. My dad was an anti-guns person so I wasn’t worried about that I was worried about the draft.

The limo came the next day. Last night I had dreamed that I had been taken away and went to battle. In Venezuela, a rebel mistook me for an enemy and squeezed the trigger hard enough to split a solid rock in half. The bullet slammed my shoulder and I instantly passed out from shock He somehow knew I wasn’t dead and came up to me, knife in hand and then brought down the blade as fast as a speeding train and a second before it went straight through my heart, I woke up. I was practically in a pool of sweat and had a lump in my throat and tears ready to burst my eyes out of their sockets.

When the soldiers came out of the car and approached my door, I sprinted to my room and crawled under my bed, trying to stay hidden. I heard a knock on the door. Then footsteps coming up the stairs, and then voices, to people talking about me. I heard my parents voices over theirs and they said that I had sprinted up here when I saw the car.

I crawled out from under the bed and the soldiers, surprisingly, shook my hand.

“It is truly an honor to meet a future elite trooper for the Fourteenth Division of Secretive Missions, Michael.”

“How do you know my name?” I asked, fearfully.

“We have eyes everywhere, Michael, we’ve seen what you can do, and we rather you fight for what is right than for nothing at all. If you fell into enemy hands it could cause unfathomable damage and could cause the loss of millions of civilian lives:’ All of this just came at me at once. It was like somebody just punched me in the face and I was just recovering from the blow. Millions of civilians dead. How on earth could this happen? What if my parents died? I just knew one thing, I was not gonna go down without fighting one battle.

“I’ll come with you if you promise to protect my parents.”

“We’ll do what we can, by the way, my name is Steven Rosemont7 They led me down the stairs and through the long front hail and outside to the limo.

They all had pistols holstered at their sides, and I knew that there was no turning back. If I did anything funny, they’d shoot me before I could take a single step.

It was a five hour drive of complete silence. Nobody had said a single word until we arrived at the naval base in Norfolk, VA. The leader, Steven, said that I had to learn to shoot a gun and dodge an enemies sights in a month. They brought me to the Marine base shooting range. I missed all of the shots. That was at twenty-five yards. Ten yards hit twenty out of thirty. I needed to get better by the end of the month. If not, that was the end of me. Thirty out of thirty. Twenty-five yards. That was at the end of the month. I barely passed survival school.

There were three wanted posters, said “Catch these escapees for thousand dollar reward:’ I thought to myself, I’ll be up there next, I’ll be the one they try to catch. The next day was off to Venezuela.

In survival school, I learned how to escape a plane full of armed terrorists. Nine times out of ten I succeeded. I ran for the parachutes. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. The bullets clanged against the hollow fuselage of the plane. Ricocheting everywhere, every step could’ve been my last I grabbed a heavy parachute and slid the door open. Then it came, without any warning. BANG! There was a burning, stinging pain radiating in my back. Steven had shot me, and I was rendered immobile. I fell. Down, down, down I went. They must have thought I was a goner, with a broken backbone and petrified with fear. I gained the life in my arms for long enough to rip the cord on the parachute, saving my life, for now anyway.

Blood was spilling out of my back and into the water, saltwater was stinging the gunshot wound. I was floating on my back, but I knew that I would fall asleep if I was laying like this for too long. If that happened, then I would surely die, sinking under the waves

29

without realizing. I also had to cut the parachute from my back, or else it would act as a drag chute and would also pull me under.

With about a thousand things that could kill me and my only shot at survival was getting to Cuba and taking refuge in a kind persons home who wouldn’t recognize me as a deserter, just as a lost kid.

Then a bomb slapped the water and blasted me right out of the water and a hundred feet into the air. The bomb leaked napalm out onto the surface of the ocean and was lit up in a bright flare. The ocean was on fire and I was falling towards the churning sea. I landed in the middle of the patch of fire and was knocked out by the impact I woke up about an hour later, then came the second wave of bombers, or so I thought. Three unidentified planes were zooming towards me. They opened fire. The bullets were hitting the water with tiny splashes and were getting closer to me by the second. I dove under as a last resort to try to not get killed. The rounds slowed as they got deeper in the water but were still extremely deadly. Miraculously, I was only hit once more in the leg.

Then it hit me, I was bleeding in the middle of the ocean. Sharks.

I grabbed a survival knife out of the parachute pack. It was snagged on one of the cords. I sliced right through the parachute and made a temporary bandage. If! would live to see another sunrise on land, I sure wouldn’t be welcome in America.

If I was flying to Venezuela and landed in the ocean, the nearest communist country would be Cuba. That’s the only one I know of anyway. I swam for what seemed like an eternity. After an hour I was exhausted. I just started treading water and decided to let the current take me along. Then the third wave of planes hit. It was a stealth attack because they were using gliders. They were dropping grenades onto the location they thought I was at. I heard the deafening blasts of the grenades and then made the horrif5,ing realization that they were getting closer to me. I started feeling the shockwaves of the blasts in the water.

The sea was starting to get choppy.

I was seasick and exhausted, my head barely above the water when I saw a sliver of land. I swam to get there and saw people, Cuban people. I was so relieved to see land. The Cubans welcomed me and I told them all of my past adventures. That was a bad decision.

They forced me to be in the army and I was flown right back to Venezuela. They didn’t ask me for top secret plans or for the locations of the military base. They just wanted me to fight.

I fought against the Americans for most of the time in Venezuela. I never actually fired, I just hoped. I hoped they wouldn’t notice that I wouldn’t fight, that I wouldn’t pull the trigger.

Then came the explosions. They just zoomed out of nowhere and dropped their payloads. I had no warning. It nearly killed me. Boom, Boom, Boom, BOOM! They came in waves, getting progressively louder as they slowly crept closer to me, getting everso more dangerous to me. Then it hit me. A stealth bomber, 82 1 believe. It was carrying twenty-three bombs, all dropped within a one hundred foot radius of me. After four bombs hit I was knocked out. Then It came down right next to me. I just woke up and a new plane, also bomber, dropped it ten feet away from me. It ripped a chunk the size of my fist off of my side.

I was bleeding out, and the Cubans retreated after the first wave of bombers. Surviving would be a miracle. Then I saw him for a second time, Steven Rosemont. He met my eyes and

30

we locked eyes. He drew his weapon, and what I did was unavoidable. If! missed, I died. If I was too slow, I died. He shot first, hit me right in the jaw. Then he started talking. “You really thought you could get off of our radars. When I shot you jumping off the plane, it was with a tracker. We followed your signal all the way to Cuba. That’s how we got targeted explosives on your location. But you really thought you could make it through this war. I always knew you wouldn’t be enough:’ He held out his arm to help me up. “Join the Americans again, or die.” I took his hand and at the same time drew my knife out of my pocket. “Watch where my hands are, Steve:’ I said this in a slurred voice because of my broken jasw I pulled myself close to him, and then everything slowed down, I thrusted my hand into his stomach. I kept telling myself that it was all a bad dream. He knew what was happening but too late. I had finally freed myself from his reign. I was no longer his puppet.

It turns out he was the only person who had access to my location, so I was safe from targeted bombings, at least for now.

Then came reinforcements, Cubans. They came off of a cargo helicopter. It was giant.

Then a fleet of American Predators flew in and shot down the helicopter eliminating my last hope of survival. The helicopter came down in a bright flash of red and orange and yellow, blinding the pilot of the predator. It flew straight towards the ground and exploded. I was almost sure the pilot died but then he climbed out of the burning debris and he pleaded for mercy.

“Please, don’t kill me!”, he begged,”! have a wife and kids to live for at home!”

“I won’t kill you. I was kidnapped by the Cubans.” I lied. If he found out! was Michael Dunn, he wouldn’t let me see my mom and dad at home. I took of my jacket to show him I was unarmed. “Show me your weapons!” I yelled to him. I didn’t want to be killed at the age of thirteen. My birthday had been on July twenty-seventh, twenty days into the war. “What’s your name!” ! had to yell so he could hear me over the battles raging at the city next to us.

“What is your name!” By now! was reaching for a dropped rifle. He had a secret, I could tell by the look on his face. “Last time,” I pulled the bolt on the rifle, for intimidation “What is your name!” Bang! Bang! Bang! He missed all three.! dropped the gun and sprinted for the helicopter wreckage. I ducked behind an unhinged door and just in time because another round of bullets came seconds after I got behind the door.! then bolted for the water. I dove in and swam around right into the base of the Americans.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;F-

THE FIRE RETURNS By: Miles McKenzie Prologue The world is being taken over by the lx. And it’s up to me to save it.

Greetings, my name is David Rain, and I am special, because I am sent from the world of Fain, unknowingly. And I was previously a tenant at the Pennykettle residence. They are descendants of Gwendolen. There’s a whole backstory, but I’m afraid you’ll close this book from boredom and sciency stuff before I’m even through. Anyway, they have icefire in them, so that when Liz, the house owner, makes clay dragons, she can sprinkle some icefire from a snowball onto them and it gives them the fire within, aka auma, aka life. Anyway, the shadow of Ix has enveloped Earth. There is an evil persecutor of mine named Gawaink. I also have a friend named Zanna. She also comes from the world of Fain, but I don’t know if she knows or not. RING RING. Oh, that’s the phone. Gotta go!

Chapter 1: The Emergency “Hello? Yes. Zanna. Haha. Very funny. Your serious? That’s not good.

I will be right there. Ok. Bye.” This can’t be good. Grockle has turned to stone again! The Ix must have gotten him. They stole his icefire.

When I got there, Zanna. Liz, and Lucy looked like they were turned to stone too, out of pure horrification.

“What’s going on?!” I asked.

I heard a crash in the distance.

“I will be right back,” I said.

I ran over to the burning building.

And right there in the middle of it, Gawaink.

And then she was gone.

“Was that Gawaink?” Liz asked.

“Mm h mm.”

Chapter 2: Life as we Don’t Know It “Ugh. Dad, like what happened?” asked Alexa.

“Oh, it was just a regular fire. It’s ok.”

Not going into further details, I asked, “Hey, where’s Zanna?”

“Good question.”

“Let’s go check back.”

We turned around the car at the designated U-turn, and pulled back vigorously at a red light. I looked out of the window on my side and of all people, Gawaink was staring back.

“Hey, Liz, can we, um, speed up, just like ten million times faster, please, right now?”

“Why?” “N eve rm in d.”

I opened up a rift in the space time continuum.

“I’ll see you later.”

I went through, and appeared on Farlowe Island. And of course, still in the same spot, were the ravens, glued to the wonderification of the area of where a dragon was once risen.

And then Gawaink materialized in front of me.

“I want to make a deal with you, child.”

“You can go play with the mushroom fairies, but I will NEVER make a deal with you!” Quote from Zanna.

“Without this, you will never survive.” She showed me the claw.

“Wow, your an expert at double talking.”

“Your loss!” She dematerialized.

I went to the transportation hub, interdimensional traveling is easier here for this area lays upon several ley lines. I opened a rift, and then traveled to the graveyard. When I got there, it was practically deserted.

Except for Agatha Bacon. She seemed to be awaiting me.

3q-

“Child, there is a lot you do not know about yourself.”

“Like?”

“You are not Fain.”

“Then I am?”

“You are part of the lx.”

“No!” “Oh, yes. What you don’t know could fill a library.”

“And what you do know could fill a pebble.”

And just like that, she was beat. But was Agatha telling the truth? If so, then who am I? Would Gawaine attack me? What would happen if the Wearle found out? Then, right on que, my watch beeped. The image of a dragon popped up.

“Hello?”

“David, what’s the status?”

“The package still isn’t taken. The tear is still in the obsidian.”

“Remember your job. Bring the fire tear to us. Time is running out.

Your purpose is to recover it, then bring it to us. Once that is completed, your time on Earth is done.”

Remembering that, I glanced at the mailbox of 42 Wayward Crescent.

I remembered catching Snigger, finding Conker. Back then, everything was so simple. Times have changed, however I felt a tear running down my cheek, then the Fain part of me sucked it back up.

“Affirmative,” I said.

Then the dragon hung up.

Chapter 3: The Finding I started searching the graveyard. Hhhh! Graveyard starts with a G! The letter G starts every dragon name! I found the grave of George Lock. Then I dug a bit. It probably looked suspicious, as if I were a grave robber But right then, I found the body of a small dragon. Zanna can wait. I have made a remarkable discovery. I ran back to the Pennykettle’s.

35~

“EVERYBODY! I HAVE MADE A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY!” I yelled.

“Wh-what is it?” Lucy asked.

“Just follow me.”

When we arrived at the graveyard, I showed Lucy the grave.

“Hhhhh!” Lucy exclaimed.

I picked up the dormant dragon that was in stasis. It was lighter than it should be. I set it back down.

“We can show your mom later” She nodded.

Chapter 4: The Problem with Zanna Now, it was time to find Zanna. Lucy went back home, so I could do this privately. I searched the graveyard, and all around, but there was no Zanna found. Maybe she went to Ki:mera, the world in between, I thought. I traveled through there, but no Zanna was found. I felt like I had traveled through space and time, looking for a pebble in the plains of the universe. Oh, wait, that’s metaphorically what I just did.

My last guess is that she somehow got into the Fire Eternal, to Fire World. I didn’t dare going there though, because I wouldn’t be David Rain, I would be a different David. And Zanna would be Rosa. So that would be my last resort. I went back to Farlowe Island, and searched there.

“Hi.” “Who’s there?”

“It’s me!”

“Who?” I turned around.

“Ahal I found you, Zanna. Why did you come here?”

“I find it relaxing.”

“Mm h mm.”

Right then, Gawaink appeared.

Chapter 5: The Battle of Farlowe Island “ATTACK!” Zanna yelled.

We charged at Gawaink, using the native dragon battle cry.

“Hrrrrrrr’ we yelled.

Let the battle begin.

Grockle joined midfight, and helped us greatly. He would sneak attack while we provided a distraction, in a way so that she could pin two of us down, while the other one attacked. It was super overwhelming for her And eventually, we all knew, she would have to give in. And that’s how it went.

“Ok, ok, you win, just leave me be!” Gawaink said.

Since Zanna was a sybil too, she did something of a jail. A spell of paralysis. And then we left.

Back at home, we were congratulated by all the dragons.

“THREE CHEERS FOR DRAGONKIND: HIP, HIP, HRRRRRR!”

THE END

I /4

-w

-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

-

--C

Recovery

By Davis McNulty Beep Beep! Beep Beep! I opened my sleepy eyes and looked over at my trashy alarm clock on my nightstand. It read 7:45 am. That old alarm clock woke me up late again! I need to go find a new one in the piles of stuff my dad has lying around all over our house, I thought.

My dad used to be a respectable man, but what happened was... it hurts to think about, but my mom died 6 years ago and ever since my mother passed away that sad day in July, my dad seemed to give up at Trying. It felt like my dad was sleep walking, only with his eyes open. He started to take anything he found on the ground and brought it into our house. He quit his old job and his new job is filling our house with as many things as possible. Then, the crowning achievement, the neglect. Its like my father was never really there. I barely see him around the house since he’s always out finding new things to fill are house with. I’ve gotten used to it, but it is still not the same. I raced down the steps, stepping over the missing and hazardous boards with such expertise only gainable from repetition and in all the hurry to potentially get to school without getting a tardy note, I tripped on a junk pile.

As I fell down those steps, my first thought is: imagine if I die because of a Barbie doll, two yo-yos and a Percy Jackson book, that’s going to be so embarrassing! My second, more rational thought is: will dad just leave me here? And then it all went black. You now how in other books, or in movies, when someone is unconscious it just says or shows ‘everything went black’? Well being unconscious is much worse than that. It’s literally just nothing. You don’t see anything, not even black, you just, like don’t see.

Horrible nothingness.

Next thing I know, I’m laying out on the sidewalk with a crazy homeless guy bending over me, like he was just... kissing me!

30~

“Get off me!” I yelled almost directly into his ear, trying to make as much noise as possible to draw in bystanders. But nobody was around. No one to save me. I was alone. Eventually my throat was too dry and raspy to continue yelling and I calmed down enough to come to my senses and listen to the homeless guy’s explanation. Turns out he actually wasn’t homeless, to my great surprise. He actually saw me on the floor of our house through our dirty windows and broke the window open to get me out and do CPR on me. I whirled back around and sure enough, one of our grimy, old windows were broken. Good, I thought. I always hated that window.

“Kid”. “Yeah?” “I’ve seen how your dad is never home.” “And?” The entire block knows about it, it’s not like I care if anyone else does But all those people, they never did anything. They never helped. That’s what I want to do. I want to help you out kiddo.” looking back on this now that was an insanely stupid thing to do. Never except and offer like this. I was just going through such a hard time in life, and I just wasn’t thinking, so, I accepted ol harry’s offer.

The next day I got up on time and raced down the same steps that knocked me down yesterday. I still had the stair incident in my head, fresh as new cut grass. But thankfully, nothing happened. I thought ol harry would be waiting outside my house. But he wasn’t. I was disappointed, although I am used to people giving up on me. I got on the bus and the two twins Ricky and Vicky who have been tormenting me for years before... just weren’t there. I asked one of the more pitiful girls on the bus were they were and she told me their family had moved out of the city to take care of the twins’ sickly old grandparents. I turned away and smiled. Maybe my luck took a turn for the better after all.

My bus pulled up to the curb of the school and to my utter surprise, the principal wasn’t waiting at the bus stop to confront me on the request of my good for nothing, ratty, flat out evil teacher. I walked through the hallways as slowly as the five minutes until the bell would allow me, grimacing about all my evil teacher might bully me today. But when I walked .““

LEO

in, the teacher wasn’t there it was a substitute. I asked the kid sitting next to me.

“She was fired when the principal realized all the false accusation she was making against students”. I was confused by what she said. The principal of Hudson middle actually caring about student welfare? Unheard of? Maybe my newfound luck has given the principal a heart.

I went through the entire class listening and taking notes surprisingly well, and somehow managing to not lose conscious which was a first for me, since our old teacher had the most monotone voice known to mankind.

I got used to my luck quite quickly, since I thought I wouldn’t have it for much longer. I’m used to having to pay for things or doing something in return for them. I haven’t had somebody do something for me in a long while.

While I was walking back from the bus stop, Cl Harry walked up to me from the alley up ahead. Oh no I thought, here comes the confrontation.

“What do you want from me?” I said in the most pathetic voice I could muster, trying to elicit some pity from the old man. “You really don’t need to try pity with me. I used to be homeless you know.” “Explains the look.” I muttered under my breath. “Hey, watch it.” I cringed, half thinking that what I just said would spell the end of our deal. “Hey, kid. I’m gonna need something from you, something in exchange for my services.” “And what would that be.” I asked, half wishing I could leave the conversation.

“I’m gonna need you to retrieve something for me. You know the Bed Wetters, right.” I know them, that’s for sure. To be honest who doesn’t.

They are the most notorious gang in all of New Blank Land and are known for their cruel punishments, involving all types of horrific wedgies and other cruel punishments that would demonetise this story. In short, I didn’t exactly want anything to do with them. “I’m gonna need you to go to their ‘secret’ little hideout on 43 street. You know, that target everyone hates. You are going to have bargain with their leader who is wearing the tea towel around his neck. Tell him Harry sent you and he will bring you to the milk aisle and give you the 2% chocolate milk. As soon as you get the jug you run out of there as fast as you can and come back here.” “So my mission is to go

L1~I

grocery shopping.” The idiotic, less experienced me asked, unimpressed.

“Exactly.”

Getting there was the easy part, since all I had to do was find my favorite cab driver, Milly, who promised me free rides after I enhilated him in a game of bingo. Once i got there, I had to face the true danger of my mission. As i walked in I immediately noticed the gangs presence and the next thing I noticed was the wretched smell. It was something between an alley cat, sardines and a full garbage can. The one cashier there was quite obviously new and scared out of her mind, which gave me a good Idea of what was to come. I was much too scared to face the Bed Wetter’s leader, so I mad a mad dash towards the milk aisle. Then, as I was running past the toilet paper aisle, I saw it. The infamous leader of the bed wetters. With the TP bandana on his head, and the kleenex throne he was upon, I could see what the cashier lady seemed scared for her life.

“Hey! Who is that! Stop right! There guards, get the intruder!” He said in a booming voice. I ran faster then I thought I could ever run and dashed into the dairy aisle and immediately noticed the two percent milk sitting there on a big TP pedestal, like something straight out of Indiana Jones. I grab it and immediately went into running mode. I ran out of the dairy aisle and two masked men stopped me dead in my tracks. These two big, burly men are in between me and the door. How could I get past them? The I looked around at my surroundings. I saw a super cracked glass window, and I was holding a heavy milk jug. With a large, smug grin, I chucked the milk jug as hard as I could.

I walked towards the alleyway where I met with Harry two hours ago, my head held high, and holding a big, unscaffed jug of milk in my hand. “01 Harry”, I called “Look what I brought for you.” No answer. I looked around the corner. No Harry. My mind immediately jumped to quited horrible conclusions. Did the BedWetters get him? What would they do to him? But I told myself to keep calm and hope for the best. I walked down the street towards Harry’s home, praying all the way. Knocked on his door. No Harry.

Where could this old man who had become his friend so fast could have gone?

To be continued

Lf2

-P

C) V

pGJ 9%

C4

q-r~

-3-

-.3

r r

r

3

at

.5 -J

(-p

C.’—

C

cm3

a-

-ta

~1C’ we

c—i 4

The A4ys’tee-y of tke ctoles’~. Hoe-fec

By A4apfe ,‘Uue-phy The ~ew

brAr(%

Chapter 1

\‘m movin~ barns soon. \ collected m~5 stuff and drove down to m~ new barn. ihe barn was nice, nicer than m~ old barn. instructor was ama~in~ to!

And \ ~ot a new horse, his name was ‘Junior. He was a bi~ 46,2 hh horse who could jump s’6ft. Later that week ~had found out that he had bean stolen! ~told m~ mom we had to help find him but m~ mom said to leave it to Ta~lor but thou~ht otherwise.

The m\ss\n~ horses chapter ~ asked m~ friends about it who also rode horses, First \ asked Slake. she had said that her horse had been stolen to! bow we reall~ had to do somethin~. she had also told me that her friend ‘Pe~ton’s pond had been stolen, we first searched slake’s barn. ioo horses were found. \ was devastated, what would \ do without ‘Junior~ He is ver~ important to me, we had to think who would want au these horses~ ~was afraid that ‘Junior would ~3et sold, he is a ver~ yr~eous and well tempered horse, Sut ‘~ also knew that he had a coot problem so ~wasnt that worried. ~Rnall~ Slake arrived at the barn she ran up to me and said, ‘~ saw some horses that look like ours at Catapult Farms. \‘m not sure if the~ are our horses but when \ tried to talk to the lad~5 who had the horses, she quickl~j walked the horses in their stalls. oh ~jea, and ~foryt to mention the stalls were covered with some kind of tarp so we couldn’t see the horses.” “suspicious” said “we should ~o tell Ta~bor.” we ran to Ta~bor and said, “~ think we know where the horses are!” before she could repl~ we ~rabbed her hand ran her over to Catapult Farms Cthe~ are our ne~hbors). we also 5ot slake’s instructor ‘Jen.

we walked in the barn quitel’~. we looked around makin3 sure nobod~ was around then we walked over to the cirst stall. Ta~lor reached her hand out to 5ab to tare, ceit m~ heart racin~ and we all held our breath. iben out cc nowhere a lads came uç~ behind us. “Excuse me, but what are ~ou doin~ here’~ ibis is m~ eroeert~ and ~et sour hands oW m~ stall.” ceit her an~er boilin~ inside cc her, \ was waitin~ cor her to burst with sells and screams. ‘Some cc our horses have yne missin~’ said ‘Jen, “Tho ~ou have an~ idea where the~ went’~” I could tell she was tr~in,~ to be colite and ~et on her yod side, iben she burst, “Are. ~ou accusin~ me oc stealin3 sour horses~! I would never do such a thin~4 kow ~et 0c m~ eroeert~’ “Sorr~ mam” said Ta~jlor. we lect, discussin~ what haceen.

The Horse ChaFter

S

we sat in ‘Ta~lors occice tr~in~ to make a elan. “we could call the çzolice” \ said. we have no evidence” said Ta~lor. “what ~c we snuck in ton~ht?’ Su~ested ‘Slake.

And so the elan was set, we would sneak into the barn, I was sick oc waitin~ around cor the sun to set so when cinan~ I saw the sun slowl~ started to disacecar I was cilled with excitement!

“Are ~ou ~irIs reads to ~o~” said Ta~lor and ~Jen. “yes!” we both said excitedl~. we tietoed onto the dusts road and walked silentl~ to the farm. we looked around hoeing we were r~ht. Ta~lor culled back the tare to the Qirst stall revealin3 ‘Junior. heart burst with ~ as Iran to hu3 him, “we’ll save ~ou bud” I whiseered to him ha~çail~. watched ‘Slake tear down the next stall’s tare, I could tell she was as worried as I was, but when she saw Axel her cear washed awa~. ‘Jen oçaened the last stall... ‘Please be ‘Dottie thou~ht to m~selc, when ‘len culled back the tare and we all saw ‘Dottie ‘Slake ,~umeed on her bare back hu~in~ her,

44

we walked the. horses home and coiled the eol\ce on cataçzult carms.~ smDed,

A~P~J? ChoFter ~ -n-~e next da~ we c~nd out the~ were yne a~a~n. ~wOs s\ck cc m~ horse be\r5 stolen, we checked all the barns \n V\r~\n\a, we d\dn’t frd an~ horses, we dec\ded to check home barns, we knocked on the cirst door1 \ tcled to sta~ conc~dent know\n~ noth\n~ about the eeoele who hved there \ knew that there was some cree~ çzerson who i\ved \n the area. \ was hop\n~ \t wasn’t them.

The peoFle told vs that the~ d\dn’t have the horses so we \nterv\ewed Cataçzvlt Tarms. F~naii~j the~j adm\tted the~ were sellin~ our horses to some barn ~n the Eastern Shore. \ was curious but once the~ told me. the~ were onl~ do\n~ it to ~et mone~ to bu~ coed cor the horses since the~ were sfru~in~, \ calmed down a bit. The owners oc the barn in the Eastern Shore 3ot arrested and so Cataçzult even thou~h the~ had somewhat yod intentions.

Wanderer:The Beginning Written By Anna Pang Have you ever had a purpose in life? I don’t know what my purpose is but to live the fullest in my angel life. But things took a turn in mine. I was punished and sent to the Earth. Not just what happened, but I was hollow. I had no heart, no memory, no love, and no emotion. I only felt... pity. Pity for everyone. Pity for myself.

I woke up on a patch of flowers. Where am I? Am I on Earth? A million questions filled within the small space in my mind. I don’t think I’m in the right place. I heard birds chirping close to my ear. I looked around the field and focused my eyes on that tree. The tree was whispering slowly. I leaned my ears against the rough bark. I could feel a flashback coming towards me.

“Listen closely my dear, for I am the Tree of Wisdom. Heed the words I speak, Young One.” the tree whispered,” You have a broken heart consisting of three pieces. The memory, the emotion, and your mind.”

I was confused. I felt the thumping of my heart inside me. Please, Young One. Trust my words.,” I heard the last words “Wander, Little One.” And then the tree whispers stopped. I thought and thought until I had a solution.

What if I went into that woods? I saw a tree that was carved TA~e FOrest Of cfreamS on it. Huh..., I wondered. I think I went here when I was a human before.

As I went in, the scream was only fainter this time. I decided to go deeper into the woods. But it only made it worse this time. I could barely hear it now. I saw a dim light in front of me. I saw this... creature. The creature was radiant with shades of yellow and green. I couldn’t tell what it was but I knew it was in need of help. I rushed to the glow and helped her out. After I helped her, I decided I should just ask some questions. “Who are you?”, I asked. “Well, I am Lost, and I am looking for my master. I appear I have gotten stuck in those thorns. Thank you for helping me”, it said. Lost began to hover away from me. “Wait!”, I yelled,” I can help you “

find your master. But you’ll have to help me in return. Can you tell me my name?”” Of course! Your name is Mara, Mara Angel, and you were a Lost Angel from Heaven. You just came here to deliver a message to someone.”, Lost said,” Shall we go now?!”Lost and I walked through the woods rapidly and consistently. It seemed like hours until we saw a light.

When the woods cleared away, we saw a small village. It looked as if it was evacuated. “What happened?”, I murmured. “Well, it seems that something bad happened.”, Lost replied. I shivered. Things could get ugly here, or it might already have.

One villager ran towards us and cried for help. Then, a couple more villagers came and were talking a foreign language to us. I don’t think that they evacuated...”, I whispered to Lost. “Yeah.”, Lost replied. Help us, please, stranger. We have been attacked by some soldiers,” one villager cried. “I’m afraid I don’t even know how to help...”, I stammered,” I’m really sorry” Tears ran down their faces. They walked back to their hiding place. I heard the door lock and said,” I think we should walk away now.” Ok...”, Lost said. We walked in the rain for a long time. Lost started to tell me something, she said,” You know, the soldiers that attacked the village are part of the Abigor. The Abigor is an evil infantry that has claimed many parts of this world, including Bonzlan, the biggest country of them all.” She told me that the Abigor took over her land too. I heard a crack, so I looked around me but saw nothing. Then, a teenage girl stumbled into me. Hey! What’s your problem?”, She scowled. “I’m sorry...”, I apologized. She saw the mark on my hand. I forgot to tell you that strange thing that happened to me. I had this mark of a dove on my right hand. “Wait a minute. What’s your name?”, she asked suspiciously. I answered,” Well, my name is Mara and I’m on a quest, what’s yours?” “Mine is Beatrice and I was looking for you. Can you come with me?”, she replied, calming down a little bit. I was awfully thinking she was not trustworthy. But I finally gave in and decided we should follow her.

A strange vehicle appeared from the dark fog. It looked like a SpeedStar 3000! “Where did you get that?!”, I stammered. “Our army did, duh!”, Beatrice smiled. “That’s really cool!”, I exclaimed. What if she works “

“

“

“

L~9

for the Abigor, that terrible thought came into my mind. “I think we should go back.”, Lost whispered. “Let’s follow her. Maybe she knows about your master and my life.”, I whispered back. We got into the ship and she turned the ship on. She pulled the lever up and we drove at high speed. I screamed, it wasn’t a scream of fear, It was a scream of happiness.

Beatrice was very focused until... Boom! “We entered a space storm!”, Beatrice yelled,” Function the emergency system!” But, I didn’t know which lever to pull. “Which one?”, I yelled back. “The green one!”, she said. I pulled the only green one. The ship slowed down. What happened? Was this part of the plan? Is this the emergency system?”, I asked. No...”, she replied. Beatrice checked what happened. “Our fuel is low.”, She grumbled, “Get the extra fuel. I’m going to need it.” I ran to Room 13B to get more fuel. I sprinted across to the Engine Room to give her the tank of gas. “Thanks”, said Beatrice, smiling towards me. I blushed,” You’re welcome.” Once the ship was ready to go, She pressed the button. “What’s that for?”, I asked. “Auto-Pilot.”, She says in a doubtful way,” I don’t think it will work.” The ship shook, then turned on. “Yes!”, Beatrice celebrated. Lost was sleeping, then awoke,”Guh... what happened? Is the ship broken?” “It was broken.”, I corrected her. Lost floated towards me,” Do you trust her?”

“Of course I do!”, I reply. But little did I know I made a huge mistake saying that phrase. “

“

To Be Continued

zov 4

4

I

To make it fun I’ll tell you a story to make you remember it......

By Maeve Rhatigan Introduction Hi, my name is Marcia, Marcia Elizabeth Lunar, yes, I know I have a

weird name but that is what I what I was born with. I haven’t had the best life so I have learned to accept what is given to me. Ever since I accepted my name I started to realize that I should be grateful for everything God has given me such as a house, a family, even though my parents are divorced, and my name. It’s not weird, just different.

My parents have been divorced for a while, almost 4 years. I learned to live with my step mom and my step brother. I go to my mom’s house every other week. My dad gets a week then my mom gets a week. I know I said I have a step brother but I also have to 2 brothers and 2 sisters. My life has only taken a turn since the phone came along in 2008 when my brother and sisters got phones but I didn’t. It was not like I wanted a phone it was just I got annoyed that they loved their phones so much. Everyday when we picked them up from practice in middle school they were on that little box with light that teases your brain and hurts your eyes. I was in fifth grade my brother Conner in 7th, and Cohn in 8th, and my twin sisters Piper and Penelope in 6th.

Every weekend they would play on it in their free time instead of playing outside or doing homework, well I think I have done enough telling you about phones I think I need to teach you a lesson that you need to know but to make it fun I’ll tell the story to make you remember it.

S2-

ChaDter I It was a monday morning like any other except that nobody new that this would be everyone’s last day with phones. I woke up got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. My mom was up and had made me an egg sandwich which I ate slowly. Once I was done I went upstairs to wash my face and brush my teeth but I couldn’t get into the bathroom because Penelope was on her phone and was the slowest person in the house when it came to getting ready, so I had wait. I went into my room and decided to start working on my homework for the week. I was halfway through my math when I heard the bathroom door open and then close, I got up and went to brush my teeth but Piper was on her phone and bumped into me when she was also going to the bathroom, I had lost my chance again.

Finally Piper got out of the bathroom at 6:55 and I went in to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I got out of the bathroom I raced down stairs and grabbed my backpack and basketball shoes for after school.

When I got in the car again everyone was on their phones, the car ride was very boring and all I did was stare out the window watching the houses go by. We got to school late so I ran inside to get to class, my first class was math and I had a very big test which I was almost certain I would fail because it was on algebra which was my worst chapter in math. I always sat next to my best friend in the grade Mophia. Mophia was a mathematician she always studied for tests and I knew that she would ace this test. I sat down next and told her what had happened, all she told me was, “do your test we only have 20 more minutes” which I didn’t really appreciate. All my subjects were boring and I couldn’t wait till the bell rang and I could go to basketball practice which was always the best part of the ,

day. Finally it was 3:00, 10 minutes till basketball where I could be whoever I wanted.

The bell rang and I quickly packed up my bag and went to the locker room to change into my shorts and shoes. I was walking out of the locker room when Mophia came in with a look of terror on her face, t-the g-gym is g-getting a-tta-cked, Penelope down, frozen w-with terror! I ran like my life depended on it to the cold dark gym. There was Penelope laying on the ground, her phone crushed into a million pieces.

TO BE CONTINUED

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ELf

b

C C’

:;~-~ ~ •-!~

..:r~.~?sd -

-

-

•

I

“‘~‘ r.~

•,•

-1-c n

~•

-

‘.7 V

e

•3’!~ ~

C’

ft .7

•1 I,

1

4,

w

is kuojo~ S~S0 79’, 9 41

c~Mk~4 ki~ i. U0!$~!1\ 04 ‘,flO~ V ~0 ~0 ‘pw~os 5~bV 795 ‘~4Lfl0k 3~V ~\.~0M 794 tA! 7!9≥0S 9 4! ‘~0~ kwi 4,tA9 4~ ~ ‘3~09≥ 394 ~7MS~V k9rA ~ pop 3~ 4S(W~ 4°91 iIüiiii~!P ~~A!P c~!O

7~I~ ~tAfl0’, 04

~7l~0M

~

~

~

~

≥7a~’, 04 u0~ p~~0

794 ~ 43~ ‘7*!0~

04 5flO~

i’,rot4t*o~3o~ k’.~ 10 ~ o

3~04 ‘tAA00.h94t0~

5!

04 cLMOc

‘*0

~t*J ‘For P”°

‘*AQtAA

kw~

.w~°r

i kjpo’, ks~r~ sky’) 79’,

3’*03~1a%0’, 351~OD3O~

d’~9&

3i~39 vw.~.

04

.k03. 340’* V 7f’~03~

~.

409M MOih*

ko’, L’~#

kw~

‘#S°1*0~°~ 3f’09 kVp 394 ~“0~ kpo3i~ 47r0 ‘J’3N’09’, 794 04 0r0 ~ 10 4l~0 ~09 I ~~jjjh703 ‘~373~ ‘~33~

~

koMo

1~7tAA

WV’ 04

~33\.A

)~39 4~’04S P’*° 4~

04

fl0)>~1

4!

~A0 O~ ~ ‘357790 ~tA0 QOtAA J~39 7T?0~M I 4094 J~39 ~74

~‘*0 ~fl ~‘39 7~0~’ ~ a33j50

I

7tA0~’ ~MV

5! 4! 71!9W’

~iA0 7VJs0Q 04

p~Afl0C

~‘~#1~ kw~

rAy v.aooj~ s,vs~o~~ kw~

04 9’,O~ ~ ~oo~ V.A0I~ 7p0%A0tM3~ 7~sA05 ~ k~~pin” i

J~39 ptAi3.

3cptk}

4094

794

7F!°~T’ r° 357390 P’*0 00’*” ~ 39fltA V J~03- koä ~A00 39 05 k3’*ow~ ~4~3 41o 04 49~°!’*°# 541!95 1, rO~!~l~OM 5!

39 nooao1 04,3; ;~t*n 7’*A09 40V1 u~”~ ror kw~ 4094 M0~A~ I 35fl003O~ ~ ~3’*’*W ~~O’*’i 4J~O45 ptAV ~A7904!* 394 04 WV’ 1 7~~a9 41o ~ tA79~

4! o

43;

VAOtAA

4fl0G~0

J~0

k≥≥09

s!9

J~03.

10090’,

~\O

10

450~M

cLAlkA4 kl≥33~ I ~79 10 ~ ~*°4 4flOOjV 5! P°O ktM ‘5536 I ko~a 5! ~M0W S~S0 395 ~M0I,p4 s~riok 9

T2tAflQS

#!fl’° 04

3~0tAA 04

40

P’*o ~v~ir~o~ ‘kw*n~-

04

04

3SNW

40 9cfl0).94 c~~; ‘MV I 4V9~” SM0”c1~ 5! 7% ~ *50 pjnoo I F’*3!”I 4S70~ 394 5! ~9S ~tA0 3Wi09

•3!9~°S SOfA 41 70 Cf~ 5~p’*~} #‘)~°l

kw~

I ‘~iiiiiiiiiiiiiQO~1

3’039 I ~*39M

1009DS M7’* 0 04 .k319.AOJh4 ‘*00 1!

~SO ptAO l°°9~S 4~) ~A*itA3à~09 9 409M VA0V’A k~ 1174 04 ‘3tAAO9 9’3ft~00j 394 C4tAI 3’M ~3A095 3’Olkt~S ~.A79M VA0~3. .k3pjflo95

0

1371

p’*o s’7t’o

iv

04 *!OM

4o3≥a.A p’~o

407á3’ (~0~A0~%~ ~39 .“039 ~ ‘jiok ‘*094 J’34J~VVAS 9 JhapOJ& 49i 0 940VA 40 ~VO~ 05 33’0 r*!oco J~7r~0

iiiiüiiiiüi’M°%

I~i%O.ts3G~O~ 3DtJ’9 ~ ~ko~a~og

10i’J

kvA ‘*l~’*9C~0J~94 ~0 uo p’*0

‘*00 ~

k~

a~’~

“Secause vn’..j vnovn Said Sovneone was cowünj to ca?ture her and I needed to ~Q.a’Je ~SAP~ I anSwer, “I don* tnow arøjthinj eise, that IS afl she. toid wie. I have, to ~o, 1°N~•” When I jet off the 1ouS I wait around for about W ‘minutes. ‘Then I v’~ail’~j find a ho’meleSS shelter, there iS ‘oarel’j an\j 5?ace ieft, I have lite 4 fee.t of c?ace. The food is a’oSolutelN diSjUStinj~ but I don’t covn?lan because I tnow that wi’.~ wiovn and dad are doinj the best the’j can.

Gr’r~. I wate to the Sound of sow,eone tr9inj to jet there doj to wait throujh water. I need to find a job, I rewind ~1seif.

I jet inter%JiQ.wed f~ ~ d~ffe.~~e~t jobs ‘out I ho?e I jet the one at Itea because that will rewind we wiost of w’~j wow even thoujh that 15 all I thint about ever’.j Sinjle wovnent of evel SinjIe. daN. I head boact to the shelter, jet dinner and jo to dee?.

In the vnorninj I head Straijht to Ite.a, I aw jettinj the results todaN. When I o~et In the store I head straijht to the wianjer, he is So cute.

Ll’{ou o~ot 4he job as a stocter in the eveninj and in the w’iorninj and

0v

the rest of’ the daN, when we are o?en Nov will ~oe at the reji5ter.”~ he said ver~j ‘oorinjl~.j. Yocccscccccc I Screaw in ‘m~j head.

A~fter wortinj at Itea for ~i w’ionths I decided that it’s tiwe to jo loact howe and jet vn~j wows and dad. It is ThW N” and I fiapre out that it will tate hours to jet there. I jet on the bus boact to r4or4h Carolina and start readino1 a boot that I found in the howeless Shelter. The boot is about a jirl +hat ‘moved to the US~i to a ?lace I don’t even tnow how to ?‘Conounce and where in the world it 15. I ‘must have fallen aslee? because the neict thinj I tnow I aw woten U? ‘oN a loud ‘Dee?!! I loot at the cloct at the front of the bus it is, creatN and old. The tiwe Shows 9~ A.v~. ‘(ec, ~ oniN have a~oout ‘50 ‘minuteS left. I can’t wait to jet howe and Show wow and dad how ‘much woneN I wade and our new a?artwent I ‘ooujht. I finish the rest of wiN ~coot and then it is wiN Sto?. I 5?rmnt off the bus and fijure out what Street I aw on and Start headinj hovne. When I jet howe the lijhtS are off and it IS ver~ dart, ‘mN dad ?roboa’olN toot w’j wow out to jet Sowe fresh air (which she never does). I wait into the house verN slowIN feelinj Scared for Sowe reason, it is just wine own house what’s wronj with we. I turn on the lijht, I loot around and See a sli? of ?~?~‘r on the jround and ?ict it u~. On it Sa’~j5 that “Von’t covne lootinj for we or Nou will rejret it!” I aw So scared i fan to the jround and Start crNinj. fkfter I rejain ‘~

5-)

W9 Strenjth I jet the couraje to Stand u~ and waI~ to vnovn’S roOvn. I need to revnevnloer that wsj wiovn iS in trouble and it is vn’.l dutN to save her.

I Start boo~inj around for clues and feel 5o~nethinc~ reall’.1 bouvn~ on the wall.

I start ?ushinj thin~.inj it reveals a secret ?att~iMaN or so~ethinj live in the wiovie5. There is nothino~ ‘cut then I remem1oer how vn’~j wiovn writes i~ her jornal with a ?en that can onl%j ce Seen with a s?ecial liojht. I need to find that li~ht I hear vn’jself re?eat~nOj over and over in head. Then I revnev4er that it iS verN hard to wor~ on an evn?t~bl stovnach. I jo into the ~-itchen and have Nojurt with chocolate chi?5. Once I avn done eatin’3 I head straijht boact to vn’.j vno~rn5 roow-~, I have to work as fast as vossibole because who V-now5 theN could bce cow~inj boac~ for vne. I find a notebooc*- and Start writinj down all the clues I alreadN now. All of a sudden I think about how w-~owi li~e5 to ~ee~ all of her ‘celonjinjs in one drawer in onlN her roowi. I 5~I? into her roow~ and trN to revne’m~cer where that drawer is then I find it 1cut it is loc~-ed. I Start loo~inc~ on the floor and everNwhere ‘cut I can not find It. Then I. feel Sow~ethin9 jo W then ~cac~ down on the ‘3round. I start around and then the floor droç’s.

11Eet~”, I Screavn at the to? of w9 lunjs.

“Hello A’cboN, this ~ust vnean I have been ca?tured ION ~ Uncle ~obo’oN, he ca?tured w~e because he wants to jet reveno~e on Nour dad ~cecauSe ~ uncle was datinj yne and then dad and toot w~e and vnarried yne and we had Nou.”, I hear over the loud5?ea~.ers.

“Where do I t5o’~”, I as~.

“Go to ‘54]b Sunset Avenue in t4orth Carolina”, the loud s?ea~~ter5 5a~j. I 5?rint out of the house and catch the boos to that address. Then I thin~ about it for a few ~inutes then reynind vnNself that it is joinj to 1oe hard to fi3ure this out on own so I call w~ boestie, So?hie. Qin5 din5 vn~.j ?hone iS rinjinO1.

1’Hi” she ?racticallN Nells and the whole entire bus incbudinj the drives 1cecowies 9uiet and loo~5 at vne.

“Shhhhhhh”, I tell her I avn on the 1cu5. She as~S whN and I recount of all that has ha??ened in the last ] vnonths and a5¼ her what I Should do. She sa\~s that I should find out where ~N father is and we should CiO there tojether, 5nea~ into the house and handle it li¼e adults and nof babies.

“Stov the 1ou5!!!!?~, I 5creaw~ at the to? of vnN lunjs. Screech, the bus cow~e5 to a sto?, I 5a~j Sorr’j to the bus driver and all of the ?eo?le on the bus, and I 5?rint off ho?inj that no one cow~eS runninj after vne. After ~ wünutes of wal~ino~ I arrive at ~n~j houSe. I run u~ the stairs and ho?e that dad is there f~ow~ woS. When I jet inside I boo’~. in all of the roomS,

cack one. tkat vn~j dad iS riot in I C~et €‘JCn Sadde’c. I WaS to loSe. ko?e. and I ~e’~-nevn~oe’ced tkat I. fojot to ~oo?.~ in the. ~caSe.vne.nt. I S~i~ down tke’ce. thin~.iwj that i•~ I have jood S?iritS then he will ~ce there. When I jet down there the IcaSew~ent lijht iS on, then I See hi’m ctandinj there with a le’monade in hiS hand. I juv’nv into hiS arvnS and he S?inS ‘me around and around.

“We need to ta~e Uncle ~oIcIc’,j to court, I have caved u~ $i000 wor~inj at Ueo.”, I. Stavnvner reall’.~ fast.

~

After we ta~e Uncle ~oIcIc’.j to court and we win I jet to See wio’m ajain. I. hold on to her and never want to let jo or I thin~. I will loSe her ajain. To Ice continued.

r Fâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

by:Kameron Saman

Resources The man on the speaker said. I lifted off all by myself with years of training.

I’m going to be all alone on this ship headed to a different solar system. We were going very fast in a very big rocket with 10 million pounds of fuel.

We were miles into the sky probably lOOs in the sky. And 1 part of the ship has been detached. We’re thousands of miles into the sky now. But there are stations in the sky that can refuel me once on mars and again on pluto. We might not need to stop in case we have enough fuel. I was sad that I needed to leave my family and so were they.

But we need to save earth. The sun has dried earth out and we are running out of water.

The sun has risen in temperature. It’s the year 9076 and the earth has heated up faster than we thought. NASA launched me off to a different solar system. I am being watched live by millions.

0 Zone has been torn apart by the pollution so people are dying of skin cancer. But we are fixing it now.

A couple of centuries back we were thinking of moving the population to mars since there are 5 billion people on earth but we realized we don’t have enough resources to do that.

Fueling up takes a while because it’s manual. I got out of my ship. As I looked at earth I thought Wow, we have really polluted this earth, how dumb can humans be? But Earth is still beautiful to me. There has been so much history on the planet. I get on my rocket and launch off to pluto after fueling my rocket on mars. I have four thrusters on my ship filled with two million pounds of fuel each. I launch off to pluto. Fueling on pluto is automatic because there is an extreme amount of gravity enough to crush a human and extreme temperatures up too 370°. I land on it and it takes five minutes to fuel the rocket. I leave.

There are no more places to fuel and no stops. This rocket will last for 10 years without stopping. There was a lot of work put into planning design~ng and building this rocket.

C)

\

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

The IMP/fl/fe Drecur

By BVAd6MV ≤‘Mf/der Once upon time there was a boy named Jake. He was a boy with a special power that he didn’t know about until one day he found out...

[HMIER ~NE Jake jumped out of bed and ran downstairs for breakfast. He rushed though breakfast so he could get ready for school. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, got his shoes on, and ran to the bus stop. Jake had made it just in the nick of time. As he walked down the aisle he saw his friend Bob’s clothes, but his body wasn’t there.

[IIMTE1~ Iwo “Bob! What happened to you?”

“What did happen?” Bob asked in confusion.

“Look at yourself, you’re invisible” “No I’m not, I’m right next to you.”

“If you’re not invisible then how come I can’t see you.”

“I think you’re seeing things Jake or maybe you are unseeing things.”

“I don’t feel so good, I think I’m gonna go home”

[KArTER IBREE Jake woke up the next morning but he wasn’t in his bed. He was on the floor. He went downstairs to get breakfast but nobody was home. He scoured the house for his family but he couldn’t find them. He got on his new bike he got for Christmas and went around the neighborhood looking for his parents. Suddenly he noticed that everyone else

(~~3

was gone too. He thought to himself Where could everyone have gone? Or maybe I’m the one who went somewhere.

[KA~IER FaUR He stopped pedaling his bike and looked around. He observed his surroundings and looked at the sky. The sky was empty. No planes, no birds, not even a single cloud. He kept pedaling until the road ended. At the end of the road was a cave. He could see something glowing. He walked slowly towards the glowing light. He heard a loud “R000AAARRR.” Jake hid behind a rock. The roar became louder and louder, Then it stopped. Everything was silent. The only thing you could hear was the drops of water from the ceiling hitting the floor.

[RAPTER H~VE Suddenly Jake was in his bed. He went downstairs and heard his parents talking.

He was relieved to hear his parent’s voices again. He ate breakfast, got dressed, brushed his teeth, got his shoes on, and ran to the bus stop. He walked down the aisle, and saw his friend Bob’s clothes, but his body wasn’t there.

[BArTER 511 Jake went home and stayed in his bed all day. He dozed off afier a while and woke up on the floor again. He took his bike and pedaled back to the cave. He stopped right in front of the cave. IfI want to get in there I will have to figure out how to get past that beast. I’ll also need backup. Jake got back on his bike and started pedaling again. He went around another neighborhood. Jake couldn’t find a single living thing. If no one else is in the dream I’ll have to bring someone into the dream.

To be continued...

I

/ â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;f/I I

All Or Nothing

By Brody Stuart Chapter 1 “Mom,dad where are you,” he called. Jason grabbed his gas mask and climbed out of the bomb shelter. All he could see was dust. He must have passed out from fright in the shelter. It had been two weeks since the Blackheads (a very large terrorist organization) had set off three nuclear bombs they had stole from a nuclear facility in North Korea.

Jason scrambled over to what was left of his house. He heard a growl. What if it’s some mutant coyote, just waiting to tear me to shreds, he thought. Henry braced himself for the unthinkable pain. Nothing happened. Jason squinted his eyes. Standing their white as a cloud was his dog, Snowy. His family had came up with the name last winter. The second they let him out he sprinted to the snow like he was meeting an old friend.

“Come here boy,” Jason said to Snowy. He jumped up into Jason’s arms and licked his face until his tongue went dry. They sat down on what Jason was pretty sure was the remains of his kitchen table. He turned over the table, Snowy curled up in his arms, and they both fell fast asleep.

Chapter 2 The sun beat down on his face. Jason scrambled to his feet. Snowy sat up straight.

Jason heard a loud rumbling noise. It must be a thunderstorm, he thought. Then he realized it was his stomach.He climbed on top of the table and looked around. Then he remembered the back up supply of food in the shelter. He strolled over to the shelter opening, Snowy at his side. Stumbling, down the slippery stairs he finally got to the shelf. Jason grabbed a packet of stale crackers and some canned tuna for himself and

U0

a thing of dog food forSnowy. Once they were done finishing their snack, Jason stuffed the rest of the food into his backpack. He grabbed the rifle, some ammo, his swiss army knife, a muzzle, a flashlight, a small jar of advil (just in case ) and a roll of bandages.

Snowy ran to the back of the shelter and grabbed his leash. Jason tied the leash around Snowy,s thin neck and headed off from the only home he ever had.

Chapter 3 The gas station sign glittered in the moonlight. They had walked just about 5 miles. He pushed open the door. The inside was like a ghost town. Jason scanned the shelves. All he could manage to find was a bag of Skittles and a rusty lighter. He turned around expecting to see Snowy but instead all he saw was the barrel of a gun pointed straight at his face. ‘Well, well, well what do we have here,” a deep, hoarse voice croaked.

Jason tried to scream but nothing came out. The man had a blue baseball hat, a hawaiian shirt, short bloodstained kaikis and mud boots. Jason recognized him. He worked at the post office.He snatched Jason’s back pack and tied him to the side of the shelf. The man snickered and raised his gun. Jason fought to escape the painful grasp of the rope tightening around him. He braced himself for the pain. But, instead of the sound of a bullet he heard a snarl then a scream. The man toppled forward. Sure enough, there was Snowy sitting dead still licking his paws. Stunned, Jason grabbed his pack stuffed the Skittles and the lighter inside and headed out the door with Snowy following a few feet behind.

Chapter 4 Jason stumbled to keep his balance as he and Snowy sprinted as far as they could from the gas station, hoping no one had heard them leaving. Finally, they stopped to rest. Jason crawled under the thicket and saw a little clearing hidden by some dead, wilting trees. He rolled out his sleeping bag, his pack sitting right by him. Snowy had found a little patch of shade under a dead oak tree and curled up under it to escape the

(ô~7

dreadful summer heat. Jason woke to the sound of voices Quickly, he packed up his things and split the pack of skittles between him and Snowy.The voices got closer.

Jason stood up to leave.

Then someone grabbed his collar. He struggled to free himself. A bat swiveled into his forehead. Everything went dark. When Jason woke up he wasn’t in the clearing anymore. He turned his head. Sitting next to him licking at a chew toy was Snowy. He didn’t know where Snowy got the toy but that wasn’t the most important thing right now.

Jason struggled to free himself from the ropes holding him to the chair. “Don’t be scared”, a voice said. Standing next to him were 4 people. “Who are you and what do you want from me”, Jason hollered. He was scared but also a bit suspicious because instead of a bunch of muscular armed adults, as Jason had imagined, there were 4 kids just about his age. One was holding a bat, one was holding a AWP with a strap of ammo slung over his shoulder and the other two were holding a axe and a bloody machete. The girl reluctantly untied the ropes. Jason’s muscles relaxed a bit. He could feel his blood pumping again. One of the boys handed him his pack. Jason thought to himself I should just grab my gun and leave. But there was something about the kids that kept bothering Jason. He felt kind of happy to be with people his age.The kids started to walk away but Jason yelled “Wait”. They turned back around. “Can, can I come with you”, Jason stuttered. The girl said something under her breath to the others.

They huddled together and started whispering. A few minutes later they stopped and turned toward Jason.

Chapter 5 ‘Ok”, the girl said. Jason was stunned. Did they really just accept him. They barely knew him. One by one they introduced themselves. There were two boys named David and Mike. There were two girls too. Sarah and Lily. Apparently, Sarah was the leader.

Jason introduced himself. Once they had gotten to no each other they headed out.

When they got outside Jason found that he really was not in the gas station. He had

been taken to the storage room of a old Walmart. Lily grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back to the group. Mike was holding a gray map of Michigan. Sarah was pointing at a little spot that was marked with red ink. “What’s that,” Jason asked. “It’s our base,” Sarah replied. We have a base!, Jason thought. Mike threw the map in his backpack and zipped it shut. They all picked up their things and continued walking. Blam, Jason heard a gunshot in the distance. Jason turned around, only to find a big red oval speeding towards him. It was a bomb! “Get down now”, Sarah commanded.

The missle soared right over his head. He picked up his rifle and shot in the direction it had come from. He heard the crunch of bone splitting. David fired a round off his AWR Jason heard a cry of pain. It was quite, too quite. He heard the all too familiar clicking. A shot rang out. Jason turned. Mike flopped on top of him like a deflated pool float. Jason knew his friend didn’t have much time to live. He grabbed the bandages in his pack and tried to stop the bleeding. Mike said “It’s okay Jason. “No please don’t go, please” Jason begged. Mike asked to be taken to Sarah. Jason dragged him over. Mike asked for one last request, to be taken to Fox Theatre. He said his dad had worked their and he wanted something to remember him by. Then they set out for the theatre. They set out to the last place Jason would ever see his friend.

(~O\

•1~i b

N

2

Fl

I •

I

4

I

di 2’

/

0’

I’

‘p j%’\~’

S~f~

I

~

Alpaca

By Sophia Thomas ChaDter one HEY!!! Ugh what do you want chipster. Bubbles was in his cave getting ready to go to alpaca graduation. He had on a graduation hat that was black with a gold string on it.

Why are you getting all dressed up for this stupid thing. Chipster you don’t get it.

Bubbles straightened his collar and turned to Chipster. His little speckled eyes glimmered in the light. Chipster this is a huge ceremony if you are going to be king after me you can’t act like a runt any more. But I don’t want to be King. I want to travel the world. You know live on the edge. No I don’t know and I don’t care. You were born to be king and nothing else. Chipster rolled his eyes and galloped out of the cave.

He saw an opening and snuck past the guards.Bubbles resumed grooming himself. As Chipster ran faster and faster he lost sight of the big cave on the tall mountain. He went to the water hole and sat at the edge by the wise tree. Looking at his curly light brown hair in reflection of the cool blue water he thought about what it was like to live in the village. With all of the other alpacas. Don’t get Bubbles wrong they were both born into a long line of kings. They lived in high rule over the land of Muchinana. It is Chipsters destiny to be king in this land.

Chipster lost train of thought as he heard something move. He looked up at the endless land of trees. Stretching far and wide. He heard a sound.

Again the crackle of sticks moved around him. He accepted it as the wind and went back to staring into the blue water. Something suddenly jumped out of the woods. It screamed a weird thing. He knew he was supposed to be scared but it was a friendly scream. More like a puppy crying for its mother. Chipster turned and to his sight he saw Bobby.

Bobby is Chipsters best friend. No one likes him because he is sooooooooooooo dumb and does not have a thing but a peanut in that little noggin of his. He had mud splotches on his yellow and white hair. He had straight hair which is very unusual for an alpaca

this caused him to not see because his straight hair covers his eyes and he had fleas all over him. He doesn’t talk just gestures. He flicks back his head every five seconds trying to move his hair out of his eyes.

If you ever saw his eyes they are a beautiful icy blue with black speckles with gold around the edge. Bobby started running like a maniac around the water hole. He was stopping every ten seconds and reared on his hind legs and put his hooves to his pitts.

Bouncing like a bunny. Chipster chased after him trying to understand what was happening. Then out of the wood there she was. Lola nothing but a grass croppers daughter from the village.

Chipster had a crush on her. Meanwhile Bobby was still acting like ,welI, Bobby.

Chipster trotted over and plopped down next to her. She was sifting on a large root ,from the wise tree, sticking out of the ground. She had violet fluff with white dots and blue eyes. She always has a rose bud on her left ear. Red as it can get. It was a forbidden love, for Chipster must marry from what his parents chose. Chipster, what is it like up there. She said with a curious glimmer in her eye. He answered, Not whatever you think it is. Is there gold roses and silver ponds just like the books say?

More like pink roses and no ponds. They looked up at the cave at the top of the hill with two colossal gold gates in front with two burly guards. And who are they. She gestured to the two alpacas standing in front of the gate. Oh thats Flare he is the sergeant of the alpaca rangers. His dad Camo is the general. If you look really close you can see the hot red fluff yelling orders angrily.They laughed together and there gaze went back to the cave. ,

The other guy on the right is Breeze. He is really cool. He used to be a surfer alpaca but a horrible incident happened that he never talks about. He is bound to the life of guarding a stupid gate. Oh that’s horrible. She had a confused, scared, sad look on her face. We sat in silence waiting for the other alpaca to say something. Then, Bobby let out a piercing scream that forced us to jump off the root. Then he was gone.

Chapter two I wish I could go back in time and stop that dreadful thing from happening. If I stayed with Bobby maybe they wouldn’t have maybe just maybe. This story is

heartbreaking,happy, sad and confusing. Its kinda weird that we are starting it on the second chapter but you gotta do what you gotta do. Now let’s start from when Bobby got taken. Lola and I ran over to the orchid he was running under. Oh no no no no no. I knew he was trying to tell us something why didn’t I listen. Chipster paced back and forth under the tall tree. Chipster calm down take deep breaths. Do you have a meeting spot or something. Chipster stopped and looked up, you could see him thinking. He didn’t speak just bolted across the grass and into the woods.

Lola dashed after him all four legs running hard and fast. She could see the trees and dirt flying past her. She looked back and saw a flash of pink or maybe black.

As she was looking back she didn’t realize the tree that she was about to smash into.

She heard. She looked. She saw. She fell. He ran. Chipster didn’t look back until he was at the old maple tree. Then he saw the violet fluff laying on the ground about 50 feet away. He ran back to her body laying on the ground. She was breathing. That was good. She had a cut on her leg and a big gash on he head. Chipster screamed. He felt something he has never felt before something dark and deep. Like he lost something that let him live. She mumbled something. She put words together slowly one by one forming a sentence. It sounded like she said.

I-it’s coming watch your back. She tried to sit up but gave up because of the pain.

Chipster hauled her up on his back and slowly but surely carried her to the village hospital. The hospital is a small shak made out of straw mud and bricks. It has two beds a sink and a refrigerator. Chipster has never been here. He has a royal nurse at the castle. He barged in and put her on the bed he called out desperately. A little peppy black and white alpaca came in she had a black body with white dots. She didn’t say anything.

She just ran to the fridge and got the bandage thing but it looked more like a mummy wrap. She dipped under cold water and placed it on Lolas’ gash in her head.

Lola woke up and started saying something. She said something about little creatures.

Jumping from trees and eating bugs. We didn’t have anything on muchinana except alpaca’s food ,water and other needs. But no other creatures only alpacas. The nurse finally spoke. She had a high pitched small voice soft and sweet. She said her name was CC said it stood for cookie and cream.

Lola finally stopped saying crazy things and went back to her normal self. I took her home and her father thanked me and sent regards to the king, my father. As I left the village I saw how they all worked together. Somewhere making food others making blankets or houses. I thought about why we didn’t live with our fellow alpacas. Why did we live so far away on the tall mountain. I kept walking and forgot about my dreams to

~13

be a villager. While I was walking through the forest I heard something. Like a squeak but a deep voice. In patterns like ohh ahh ohh. Fast swift and loud but deep.

I started running fast. Then I heard something chasing me. It was smaller than an alpaca and it wasn’t on the ground. It was in the trees! I ran faster and faster trying to get away from the un alpacian creature. There was the sound pattern again ohh ahh ohh. Louder deeper again it spoke. Then silence fell over the trees as I sprinted back to the big cave on the big mountain with my big, royal family.

Chapter three When I arrived at the colossal golden gates Breeze was guarding. I went around to the side of the wall splitting the world and my cave in half. I found the small hole I dug under the wall. It looked like something had dug it deeper than it was before.l scrambled through the small hole and into my cave. The castle is like this. The big cave, in the middle is my parents cave. The wings on it are the guards quarters. Then the little cave in the back is the nurse. The one beside the nurse is the kitchen. Behind the left guard quarters is Bubbles and my cave. We split a cave. This was going to be the hard part.

Getting in without Bubbles noticing. Once Chipster was in the cave he heard something something peculiar.

The sound was familiar it was loud and deep. He heard mumbling. He dared to turn on the light. To his eyes he saw something so peculiar so weird that he didn’t think he was seeing this. It was Bubbles wrapped up and tied in rope laying on the bed. His mouth was taped shut. There was Bobby on the ground same thing with him. The he heard it again the ohh ahh ohh. This two legged creature jumped in. It was small but had feet on his upper body I think they called it hands. They were jumping up and down and puffing there whatever they are called to their pits just like Bobby did. There was two. One was pink with black waves on it and had little black beady eyes and a cold black nose. The other was light green and teal. A teal body but a light green belly. It had a yellow thing in its hand with things dangling off it. There was the sound again ohh ahh ohh. Then the pink and black one said, Hello prince Chipster we have come to make peace with the alpacas. W-who are you. Chipster stumbled back a bit. Trying to get closer to the button that alerts the guards. We are the monkeys of Lavinia. Then the teal one spoke up and said, Oh how rude of us we didn’t introduce ourselves. I am Stilton next in line to be king. This is Tia she is next in line to be queen and daughter of the Coca tribe. I am son of the Mallow tribe. We have come to takeover your little island here. What!? Oh yeah I was lying about the whole peace thing sorry little guy.Chipster

~7LF

jumped back and pushed the big red button to alert the guards. It made an erie crackling sound and shutoff. The monkeys then said. Oh that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work we have cut off all communications. Then four more monkeys walked. I was jabbed with something sharp that made fall to the ground I felt them tying me up. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t move I think I was hit with a tranquilizer dart. Then everything went black.

To be Continued....

S..’

—~

-

t

The Story of Grocie Lynn

By Erin Woinger Chapter 1 My name is Grade Lynn. I’m a 15 year old girl at Woodpark Middle SchooL in RaLeigh, North Carolina. My parents have never gotten along, but now it’s getting reaLly, really bad. They used to fight over stupid things like who is going to do the dishes, but now they fight over financial things like taxes and rent in our 2 room apartment in downtown Raleigh.

My mom just got fired from her job in a Local department store. My dad is the one making the money for the famiLy but he does not make nearLy enough to support our family.

My parents’ fighting is now getting excessive and its devastating me.

We sit down for a family discussion about our plans for the next week, but of course it turns into another fight. Gracie has now decided that it is time to speak her feelings.

“Mom, Dad, this is getting ridiculous. I think it is time to speak my feelings.

4 months later My parents are now Living in separate houses and it is very peaceful, but I know this is going to take a lot of adjusting and getting used to. My mom has now met a man name Johnny. And my dad has now met a girl named Sara. Johnny and Sara are both super sweet but they do not get along very well just as my parents didn’t get along. Both of my parents are now married. My life is really messed up once again.

-

Chapter 2 My mom has just gotten diagnosed with lung cancer from all of her smoking. And a month later, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer as welL They are both undergoing treatment which is devastating Johnny and Sara.

My mom and dad are now in their last moments. But that doesn’t stop Johnny and Sara from fighting. Now, they are my primary care takers and they are now forced to live together because they have to

-Ti

communicate to keep me safe. You wouLd have never thought that Sara flipped over the dinner table and ran out of the house.

I went to school today, and we have a field trip. Leah, one of my best friends step parents hate each other as weLL She understands what I’m going through. She gave me a list of things to do to distract me from what is going on at home.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Go on a bike ride Goonarun Take deep breaths CounttolO Sing the ABC’s

Not one of those worked. So, I went home and sat in my room. And then I had an idea... I’m going to express all of my feeling by writing a book.

I started out by saying, Hello, my name is Gracie and my parents don’t get along, well step parents. My best friends name is Leah and she has the same problem. Then, I stopped writing because I realize something. My step parents sent me to a school for kids who have family issues at home.

All though I am happy that they realize and care about me, I want to be normal Like everybody else.

I went home and told my parents I realized what they were doing and they said okay. But they did nothing. So I took matters into my own hand.

1. I stole my parents credit card number and their license 2. I grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter 3. I hopped into my step moms little sports car and drove myself to my school 4. I went in and took a deep breath feeLing anxious. I forged my step mom’s signature 5. I quit the school with no question 6. I went to a private school with rich people and enrolled myself there 7. I went back home but things got complicated I got pulled over by the poLice and they asked for my license.

They said my License didn’t look like me so they gave me a ticket. I had to pay that with the credit card I stole. Now, my family is in debt. This kind of stuff stresses me out.

1%

They drove me to school the next day. And the principal said ‘Yesterday, you guys took Gracie out of school, so why are you here?’

I ran out of school before my step mom wouLd scold me. And I ran to my old school and started my day. I liked it there. And I never Left.

3 weeks later I am home now and I haven’t said a word to my step parents in a little under a month. Now is the bad part of going to a new school. The bills came and there were parent teacher conferences. Now we are really in a doozy. Sara stomped into my bedroom, slammed the door with her face beet red and said Gracie, how dare you do this to Johnny and mer I was speechless. I sat there for what seemed Like a year with my mouth wide open like I was about to say something, but I had nothing to say.

That’s when Johnny walked in a let it alL out, I mean ALL out. Screaming, stomping, yelling, and stressed he walked into my room and plopped himself onto my desk chair We all sat there in siLence.

Chapter 3

The next day, Sara went to an interview to appLy for ajob as a barista. And Johnny woke up at 5:00 am every morning to go to his job as a pharmacist at Raleigh Pharmacy.

TO BE CONTINUED...

~~761

N

Tke. N’\Nctci of Sto~cn f\v~c\ 2n.~t

2’~th.c vJa-k4.i~c

\ntrocluct\on one da~ \ was at school and all the sudden \ yt a call crom the occice. ~t was that all the horses were out and Rxei and lottie were missi~4 ~rushed to the barn as cast as \ could. Then the nCws people yt there and \ was on T’~ and in the newspaper. The~ asked me about how it to have F~xel missin~. \was sad and mad at the same time.\ decided the case could not

ceit

ChaFter one To start the search \ needed recruits. Their names are Pa~ton and Maple. Their horses were missin3 too, Their names are lottie and ‘Junior. we went to ever~ barn to see W the thiec was there. Pa~ton was yin~ awa~ to Mar~land cor the summer so W lottie was not cound b~ summer would be up to me and Maple. we had to think who who would want horses with all different personalities. lottie can be wild1 while ‘Junior is ~entle and ~iant.The m~ horse, Axel, was a cood driven horse. Axel had rain rot and was old1 but the~ were both beautWul horses. ~was drivin~ to Maple’s barn and ~saw, at Catapult Farms, there were S horses that looked like our horses.~told m~ mom to stop the car and \ ~5ot out.

As soon as she saw me she ran the horses into stalls with tarp. She knew~ was one oc the owners. when yt to ~r~htstone (Maple’s barn)1 \ quickl~ ran up to her and told her what happened. Maple, Tagor(who is Maples instructor),’Jen(m~ instructor

and I walked down to Cataçault carms. IJo one was there. Va~ton was airead~j in Mar~land. we waed over to the tarçzed stalls and Ta~lor went to ~ra6 the tare. I was pra~in3 the~ were in there, All oc the sudden the owner walked in.

“Excuse me what are ~ou ~u~s doin3 here. ibis is m~ eropert~, ~et sour hands out oc that stallu she said. “we were lookin~ cor some lost horses,” ‘lou could tell ‘Jan was tr~Ln~5 to be çzohte, “Are ~ou accusin3 me cor steahn3 horses. I would never do that. ioow ~et oW m~j eroeert~.” she was mad. “Sorr~ ma’am” said Ta~lor as we lect the barn,

Cha?tec two we went back to Ta~lors barn discussin~ what haceened. Macla said” ma~be we should call the colice.” ‘tut we have no evidence” said Ta~lor. “leah we don’t know W the~ are in there or not,”said ‘Jen. “what ic we snuck in ton~ht” I said And that’s the plan. It celt like hours becore the sun set. “Are ~ou ~u~s read~j to we said excitedl~. we tiptoed to Catapult Farms, turned on the l~ht and hoped and ~ra~ed not to be seen, It was midn~ht. ~could ceel m~j heart thumpin~ in m~ chest. As Ta~jlor opened the c~rst stall... there was ‘Junior, ‘lou could see the excited look on Maples cace.

As I opened the next stall there was Axel. ~was so happ~I almost cried. I said to him we are ,~oin~ to ~et ~ou and sour criends out

oc here.

‘Jen opened the last stall... and out came tottie. I was so happ~j to see her. I ,~umped on dottie bare back and ~rabbed Axels lead rope

and quickl~ walked home. \ was so reheved that had Axal back. saddled Axei ue and took him cor a ride. ~had a lesson so i~umeed, also rode dottie i ,~umçzed her. She was yod. \ heljzed with some. barn work. \ could not ~et it oW m~ mind that Axel and dottie ~ot stolen. \t made me mad at CataFuit carms ,~ust thinkin~ about it.

Charter three we called the çaolice to deal with the owners. That n~ht we sta~ed over at Ta~lor. ihe next mornin~ we woke Uçz and lottie, Axel, and ‘Junior were yne3 a3ain! we rushed to all the barns in va. 1he~ werent there. Catapult did not have them, we looked there last, thinking the~ were there. The~ werent there. Ibis was so uçDsettin~. \ was mad. we had done enou~h invest~atin3. ibis was a ,~ob cor the police. when i had told them to call the police, the~j said no. we had to do it on our own. ibe onl~j place we did not check were home barns. The~ were probabl~ there. ~t was scars not knowin~ who lived there. heart racin~ we knocked on the cirst door. ~ecore that we had yt the police to come with us just in case the~ tried to hurt us or an~thin~ like that.

As we knocked on the cirst door and we checked the yarn the~ weren’t there. we checked all the barns. ibe~j weren’t there. we interviewed the owner cc Catapult carms and the owner said that a barn in the eastern shore was pa’jin~ catapult carms to steal them. ibe barn owners yt arrested and were never to be seen a~ain. when i heard that i cor~ave Catapult. we drove to the eastern shore. \ was so relieved.

~rc~ g~

a pGbblt ?rt the ?k;OS

‘-I

E

5tQr7es

~

E{

cc

the

U~;verse”