15 cambia anthology final

NERVE

CAMBIA Writers in the Schools 2015

CAMBIA cambium \kam-bē-әm\ noun plural cambia, \- bē-ә\ The live, actively growing, layer of a tree. The cambium is one cell thick. It repeatedly divides itself to form new wood and causes the tree to grow and expand.

CAMBIA Writers in the Schools 2015

This is a Log Cabin Book, an imprint of THE CABIN 801 S. Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho 83702 (208) 331-8000 www.thecabinidaho.org Š 2015 The Cabin All rights reserved.

Book design by Jocelyn Robertson.

Printed and bound in the USA in an edition of 200 copies.

Writers in the Schools and publication of Cambia are made possible by generous support from: Bank of the Cascades, Boise Cascade L.L.C., The City of Boise, Idaho Commission on the Arts and TumbleWords, Idaho Power, Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation, KeyBank Foundation, SOVRN Creative, The Idaho Community Foundation, The Kissler Family Foundation in the Idaho Community Foundation, The Nagel Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Walter and Leona Dufresne Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation, and The Whittenberger Foundation.

We extend our thanks to the faculty and administration of: Ada County Juvenile Detention, Frank Church High School, Marian Pritchett High School, Roosevelt Elementary, Rose Hill Montessori School, Seven Oaks Elementary, Southwest Idaho Regional Detention Center, Trail Wind Elementary, Victory Academy, West Canyon Elementary, Idaho Distance Education Academy (I-DEA), and White Pine Elementary.

CONTENTS Introduction

• 1

SHORT STORIES

• 5

CREATIVE NON-FICTION ONE-ACT PLAYS POEMS

• 63

• 93

• 121

Teaching Writers’ Biographies About The Cabin Index

• 182

• 180

• 176

INTRODUCTION Writers in the Schools (WITS) by The Cabin supports creative writing enrichment in 3rd-12th grade classrooms throughout the Treasure Valley. During the school year, WITS employs professional local writers—poets, novelists, playwrights, and journalists—to teach semester- or schoolyear-long writing residencies in schools, juvenile detention centers, and community learning centers.

Through active, imaginative writing experiences under the mentorship of The Cabin’s teaching-writers, WITS engages students in a culture of creative reading and writing. WITS teaching-writers emphasize experimentation, creativity and imagination above rules and conventions, helping students develop a commitment to reading and writing that lasts a lifetime.

We teaching-writers are continually awed by the fearless spirits and adventurous minds of the students and teachers who graciously welcome us into their classrooms. The writing in this collection represents just a sample of the poems, stories, articles and plays written by over 1,000 WITS students this school year. We’re honored to share their writing with you.

Laura Roghaar Teaching-Writer and Program Manager The Cabin

1

CAMBIA

SHORT STORIES “Ia Johnason” reads the lunch bag perched in-between her book-bag and left sneakered-foot. I think I should like to be her friend.

— ELLIE

THE SHOT Ryan White Pine Elementary

My family and I lived in Boston in the 1930s. We lived in a mansion on 39th Street. It had a swimming pool. It also had eight bedrooms! We had a backyard that was thirteen acres and a living room with many couches and chairs. We lived near a green donut bakery that sold delicious donuts. We could also smell the aroma from the spaghetti place called Ronald’s. Miles away from us we could hear the banging of cars being built.

I played college basketball at Penn State from 19301934. I only averaged 4.3 assists per game, but lots of people believed that I was a great passer. But in the 1935 draft for the US FIBA team, they wanted to have me on the team.

On the plane light to my irst FIBA basketball game I was lying to Madrid, Spain and out the window I could see the blue and black ocean moving very swiftly. When we got to Madrid, I started thinking of myself shooting. When we got to the small reddish and yellowish hotel we were staying at, I told my coach that when I got of the plane that I was thinking of making shots, not assisting.

Our coach told us we were going to scrimmage for an hour. When we started, I faded away on a three pointer, and made it. My coach was amazed. He told me that I should take a lot of shots. At the end of the scrimmage, I had scored forty-seven points. That night, my coach had to have a talk with me. He said I was going to be a starter versus Spain’s powerful team. And later that night, I dreamt about beating Spain by thirty points.

When I woke up the next day, the day we were to play Spain, I had sausage for my late breakfast because we weren’t playing until ten that night. When we got on our bikes it was 6:30 in the evening and it was a twenty-minute bike ride to Madrid’s basketball arena. When we got there after the slow, windy bike ride, we went inside for our three-hour warmup. For our warm-up we had a layup line and a rebounding 7

line. The layup line would shoot layups and the rebounding line would rebound those layups.

Once the game started, our center, Rick Lance, won the jump ball. Then I shot a downtown three pointer and nailed it. And at the end of the irst quarter, I already had nineteen points. Then in the second quarter I added on another ifteen points. The score at halftime was 42 to 42. I had 34 points! And in the third quarter I added on another sixteen. But in the fourth quarter, I was scoreless until the last seconds. The score of the game was 85 to 83 and we were losing.

We did not have our center because he got hurt with only two minutes left. So it was up to me with three seconds left. My teammate passed the ball to me at half court. I took ive dribbles being double-guarded and shot a crazy fadeaway three pointer. It felt like the ball balanced on the rim for an hour, then inally dropped in. Then my teammates tackled me.

After the game, when I was in the locker room, my wife came in and told me she wanted to go out to dinner.

She also told me if I did not go out to dinner with her, she would divorce me. My eyes opened wide. I was too tired and sweaty to go out to dinner, so I told her I would do it tomorrow. “No,� she said.

So I told her I would divorce her because she was being to mean and we divorced right at that very moment. So she left and lew to Los Angeles, but I was still in Madrid when our team was supposed to be in France in thirty-six hours to play in the international championship.

We rode our rental bikes to the train station and started traveling to France. The train ride was long, but it felt even longer. When we got there we went straight to the gym for our two hour warm-up because we still had to spend the night in Madrid. So we started the same warm-up we had done against Spain.

Once the game started, we won the jump ball. I missed a wide-open three pointer and at halftime I had only two points. In the third quarter I had zero points through to the fourth quarter, where I managed to score ive. With thirteen 8

seconds left, we did an inbounds play from half court. So they threw it to me in the corner at the three-point line and I shot it wide open and hit the rim, then watched the ball bounce out of the basket. We had lost!

My teammates were so mad at me in the locker room.

They would not even say a word to me. So on the way home I got a light that my teammates were not on. It was a sad light home for me and once I got home, I looked in the mirror and saw the saddest look that I had ever seen.

I felt so bad, divorcing my wife, missing a game winning shot in the FIBA inals, teammates getting mad at me. I felt the worst about divorcing my wife—it was the worst choice I could have ever made. Then, I thought I heard the doorbell ring.

9

THE HORBID IN THE BIG WOODS Clay White Pine Elementary

Once, in Georgia, there was a huge forest. It was so big it would take a man a month to trek through the forest. It had hard, bulky trees. Nobody lived there except one little family in the eastern area. They lived in a log cabin. The cabin reeked of marshmallows. The family had to churn butter, hunt, and cook in a tree for food. The cabin was about ten feet tall and ifteen feet wide. It was snug and cozy. The family was proud of the house.

The family was called the Harfords. They had Ma, Pa, Sam, Sara, and me, I’m Al. Ma did the butchering and cooking. She could make the tastiest meat in the world. Pa did the hard stuf and hunting. I love to explore. Sam, my brother, is the same as me. Sara, my sister, loses everything!

So that is my family.

Today we have lots of work to do.

“Al, get in here,” Ma shouted.

“Okay,” I said as I hobbled to the kitchen. When I got near the kitchen I could smell the aroma of lemon, beef, and salt. When I got in the kitchen we were having deer, with salt and lemon zest.

“Sit down,” Ma said.

I sat down at the table with Ma and Sara next to me. I took a bite and it was delicious. It had everything in it.

When I inished the deer, Ma said, “Al, you and Sam go feed the cows.”

“Okay,” we said and strode away.

We got to the barn when I said, “Let’s go into the forest.”

We went deep into the forest. We had so much fun.

Finally, we got the cows fed, and ran home. When we were done talking to our parents about what took us so long, I went up to my room.

Right away I started reading my collection of animal books. I kept reading when I had free time for the next six weeks. I was about to read when Pa came into my room.

10

“Al, I just wanted to tell you that we have low resources for winter. We might be forced to hunt. I am going to teach you to hunt tomorrow.”

“Really?” I said.

“Yes,” Pa said, then he walked out. I was shocked about the news. Then I thought how easy it would be to hunt, so I kept on reading.

The next morning, I went outside with Pa to start hunting training. The air was windy. “Let’s start,” said Pa as he handed me my new gun. It was broad and brown. Pa taught me how to load the gun. At irst I was puzzled, but I caught on quick. After thirty minutes, I could load a gun and shoot.

“Now, we will work on accuracy,” Pa said. We worked all day, but at the end I could shoot a pebble. “Great,” Pa said, “we will hunt tomorrow.”

So I went up to my room with my gun. Instantly, I got fabric and made a ire pattern and glued it onto the gun. I used sap. The next day I went downstairs and had a small breakfast and went outside. Pa and I instantly dashed into the forest, and we walked for a long time. We inally killed a buck, and he was broad. With a kill like this, I wouldn’t have to hunt for weeks. I was so happy. The next day, Ma found ive wooden barrels of meat.

“Well maybe you didn’t need to kill the buck after all,” she blabbered.

I was mad, but when I realized I lost my lucky stone, I was furious! Oh no, I thought. I had to ind it, but how? I wanted to think of plan, so I went up to my room. I decided Sam and I would look in the forest tonight. I asked Sam and he said yes. We headed out to the forest. Sam carried a lantern, and I carried a paper telescope. We went to where the buck died. Instantly we saw the stone in a nest. I picked up the stone and heard a squack. It sounded like a mad ostrich. We both screamed in terror and fell backwards. We saw a small animal with a stout trunk. It was gray. A baby elephant? I thought. Just then the animal spread out a pair of wings.

“Oh my goodness.” we said.

“We should name it a Horbird,” Sam said proudly. I 11

agreed and I picked up the creature and took two steps.

“Should we get the stone?” asked Sam. “Oh, I’ll grab it.” So I picked up the creature and the stone and headed home. Then we realized it was almost morning so we went to sleep. We decided to keep the whole “Horbird” thing to ourselves.

So the “Horbird” secret was found out today. Pa was shocked to see a lying elephant in the closet. He had no idea what it was so he asked Sam and I. We told him the whole story. When we were done Pa left the room. We were hoping for light punishment, and suddenly Pa came back and asked, “Did you know that you guys found a new species?”

We were astonished. We all started jumping around.

Right away we ran to the “Horbid” and named him Jimmy.

We taught Jimmy all sorts of tricks. We had so much fun.

The next day Pa said he would take me and Sam to Hertzgibins, a far town near the edge of the forest. He would sell fur blankets, while Sam and I let people see Jimmy. The next day me and Sam dashed outside and pulled a rope. Small pieces of colored paper same down, it was called confetti. “Yes,” I said, “our entrance worked.” We waited for Pa. “What an entrance!,” he said, “Let’s go.”

We marched to Hertzgibins. The trip was long. We started to notice dark sky, so we lay down and slept. The next morning Sam and Pa were looking at me. “Let’s go,” Sam said. I got up and started walking.

We inally got there, and we saw cabins and ponds.

Hertzgibins was a beautiful place. We headed over to Town Square. Sam and I set up our table. It was a small wooden structure that was very strong. We had a circle made of leftover branches, and we had peanuts. Soon a tall man approached us.

“Why, what do you have here?” he asked.

“A new species called a Horbid,” I replied.

“Can it do tricks?” the man asked.

Sam started directing Jimmy to do his tricks. The man was very pleased. He dug out two dollars from his pocket.

“Tips,” he said. “I am a news reporter. I ind news all 12

around Georgia. You should be expecting more tips. My name is Ronald McDonald,” he said as he handed us his card.

We took the card and he walked away, “Are we famous?”

Sam asked.

“Probably,” I said. “Let’s go tell Pa.” We did tell Pa, and he was amazed. “You two met a news reporter?” he asked with a puzzled look.

“We should come here everyday!”

“Look what I got for the furs,” Pa said as he held out a gold bar.

“We are rich!” we yelled. The bar was so shiny I thought I might go blind.

We started home to tell Mom and Sara. We got home and Sara had jammed the door. We looked all day for a stick that could open the door. We had to go to sleep eventually.

Sara lay down and found a perfect stick in her pocket. We opened the door and went inside. We told Ma and Sara about Ronald McDonald. Then Ma told us to go to bed, and we did.

We went Hertzgibins for four weeks straight. We made ninety dollars. We were famous. We saw news reporters, interviewers, and more. We saw them all. It went this way for six months. Eventually Jimmy and another Horbid had babies, and Horbids multiplied. Me and Sam were so happy. We matured a lot over the four weeks. Jimmy was happy too.

Soon everyone knew who we were. Suddenly the door opened and a man entered. He wore a black trench coat.

“I heard you found a new species,” he said.

Here we go again, I thought.

13

A TRIP THROUGH HOLOCAUST Hayoon White Pine Elementary

In Copenhagen, Denmark, Anne’s family lives in an old, rundown house. Her family is made up of her older sister Maria, Cofee the adorable rabbit, and her kind mother Annie. They are dreadfully lonely. Their father Daniel is captured in a hard-working German camp. Anne has always wanted terribly to rescue him. Their whole family is lonely because of him.

“Anne! Come down here!” her mother shouts.

Anne races down the dusty, long hallway to the living room. Her mother is sitting on the couch with an excited look on her face, like when a child is bought a sugar candy bar. Maria is there, a tall and bossy sister.

“I have something to tell you,” Mother says. “Remember last year, when Father was captured? We should go sneak into a ship that goes to Germany to rescue him in a camp.”

“That’s a great idea!” says Anne, not realizing that they can’t exit the neighborhood.

“How are we going to get in?” Maria asks. “We can’t just walk in there.”

“We will sneak in disguised as Germans. Then we will go down to the ship’s cargo area and hide there,” says Mother excitedly. “So do we all agree?”

The next day they put on hats to hide their faces. Cofee is in a tiny, pitch black cage with some yellow corn to keep her from making too much noise. Then they sneak down to the dock, where they climb on.

“Now we have to ind the entrance to the bottom,” whispers Mother.

“Over there!” Maria says.

The latch is closed but there is no deadly iron lock.

They go in, and carefully jump down.

“It smells like dead lobsters down here!” Anne says. The place does smell like horrible seasickness.

“Just get down quietly,” says Mother. “Find a good place to sit, and ind an even place for Cofee.”

14

Maria and Anne ind a stable and comfortable place for Cofee near Anne.

“Try to get some rest,” says Mother.

“I will never get to sleep in this dump,” says Anne doubtfully. But a few minutes later she’s drowsy and her eyelids close.

“Hey! Why are there Jews on my ship?”

Anne slowly sits up and the captain is towering over her like a giant bluf. He grabs her hand and his irm grip sprains her wrist. Anne is forced to stand up and she can see that her mother and Maria are handcufed miserably in cold iron.

“I will be sending you to Berlin,” he says, then leaves.

Suddenly Anne notices that Maria looks sick “Maria has pneumonia,” explains Mother. Maria is now napping peacefully, like she has nothing to worry about Soon the captain comes back and says, “I will be sending you to the camp in Berlin. There, one man has tried to escape twelve times, but has never succeeded. He goes by the name of Daniel Crone.” Then he leaves again.

“That’s father!” Mother says excitedly. “If we can manage to escape, we can take him with us!”

A few minutes later they are on a train to Berlin, with a soldier with cold, staring eyes watching them of course. He is supposed to listen carefully to them and make sure they don’t make an escape plan.

They arrive at the camp and Anne is roughly grabbed and set right to hard labor, for chopping woods with sharp edges, which hurts their backs and hands terribly. At night, they are in a small, tight jail cell and Mother begins to call hopefully to see if Daniel is near them.

Finally, Daniel answers. “Annie?” he asks.

“I will talk to you in the morning,” Mother says.

The next morning at dawn, they are set right to backbreaking work. The master slaps them with a cold, leather whip if they stop just for a moment. The sun is blazing hot and Anne hopes lunch is soon. Even though Maria is sick, she still has to work and passes out every few minutes.

“Lunch!” the master calls.

15

Anne stands up straight, her back hurting terribly. For her, lunch is a small and sour apple, a slice of bread, and a cup of ilthy water. Even though it is small, Anne is grateful for food at all.

“Get back to work!” the master shouts in a cold, raspy voice a few minutes later.

By night, Maria needs care and is in the master’s house, being taken care of by the master’s wife. Mr. Adolf, as she has discovered the name, is very well known in Berlin.

Tonight, her father is going to try to climb over to their cell—they had discovered that he was next to them. Tonight, they’re going to talk about an escape plan.

Thump—Father jumps down. Now Anne looks at him.

His clothes are worn out and much too small. He is dirty, like he crawled out of a dirty ditch.

“Does anyone have a thing we could use?” Father asks.

“I saved a plastic knife from the dinner table,” Mother says. “I also found a broken paper clip and some wire.”

“We’ll make the plan today, and do it when Maria gets better,” Father says.

Suddenly, the jail door to the whole room swings open.

It is the master talking sharply to the guard.

“I’ll have you guard for a week,” he says. “Bruno is guarding the house. Maria might try to escape.”

“Come on!” Mother says. They are escaping with Maria.

Mother has just opened the heavy iron door with her think piece of wire. The door inches silently forward, letting them leave no trace of how they got out.

They have made the whole plan to slip through the alley and go to the dock. The yard is chilly and breezy. The creep over to the gate and Mother unlocks it with her wire.

Then they slip through the oily gate and jog toward the alley leading to the gate. Father knows the way, having been captured for about a year. The ugly ish smell creeps toward Anne. It is clear that this is the fastest way to the dock. They quietly put on big hats to hide their Jewish faces and head forward to the ship they came from. They have to get on before the captain because they do not have a ticket, being 16

Jewish.

They’re in the cargo area! Maria says, “Let’s keep our hats on in case the captain inds us.”

“Find somewhere to hide that is comfortable and d—” A sound stops the conversation. The ship starts lurching forward quickly. # “Anne, wake up! We’re back in Copenhagen!”

Anne opens her eyes and remembers that she is back in Denmark again and shouts with joy.

“Everybody hide!” calls Mother, and they scamper back to their hiding places. They hear the captain thump down.

“I’m positive that someone called from down here,” the captain mutters. “I guess not.” He climbs back up.

Then Anne and her family get out of their hiding places “That was a close one, Anne,” says Maria. “Lets get of now. I can’t wait to get home.”

They creep silently out of the boat with their hats on and hurry toward the old and shabby house. It is home.

Then they start talking about the times earlier. The Father tells about his time in Germany and what he learned. Anne thinks, and knows, everyone had a trip through holocaust.

AFTERWORD/1947 I am now fourteen. It had been two years since cruel World War II. Now Danish and Jewish people aren’t imprisoned in Copenhagen. It is now peaceful, and friendliness spreads through the streets again. Some people return to Copenhagen, released from prison and camps. Everybody is back together. And every once in a while someone comes back and they and rejoiced with their family. Everybody is full of hope and many families are so grateful to have their parents back. It’s like a candle has lit up the pitch black of miserable Copenhagen.

Our family has moved to a diferent house. I am grateful that we have Father back and it is safe to go to school again.

We are catching up with old friends, and I have met my old 17

friend Marie. She has told me what happened while we were gone. Many Jews were executed in public, on the streets. I told her about our adventure.

The king has taken charge again and we live by fair laws. The people of Denmark have been redecorating and ixing the damage. The place is new and safe here now. Copenhagen has been hit hard with happiness and cheerfulness. All of us have forgotten the cruel war and have become more considerate.

Denmark is like it was before, cheerful and happy.

I think everyone here had a trip, a journey through holocaust, of what they saw or experienced, and they know the sufering that prisoners went through. World War II is deinitely, deinitely a journey through holocaust.

18

BEAR’S FAMOUS LIFE Jalen White Pine Elementary

Once upon a time when Philadelphia was a capital, there was a cave fourteen miles from the city. The cave is where the best, freshest food is for a bear. Farther down there is another cave, the empty cave that is used for a junkyard. Then there is another cave where three bears live.

One bear’s name is Bear. The others are Gear and Pear.

Bear always wanted to let people like him. He let Branden, the only person who likes him, be the cave clown.

His three brothers asked for his autograph. Bear once danced with Branden, but that did not go too well because he broke the stage. Another time, he made Branden lift him, white and fearless.

Bear also let Rabbit play with his toys. He also let Rabbit go to the store to buy carrots. Rabbit also like Bear, so she made him her best friend.

Five months later, Bear got an idea. He decided he would sing, so he went to Philadelphia. Branden told everyone about Bear so he did not frighten anyone. He got a job to sing, but he just sang like this: “La ba ga.” They said he should just give up.

But he didn’t give up, and now he was going to write a book. He made a book, but it got wet. Then, in Philadelphia, he met Ben Franklin. Ben had a big problem.

Ben couldn’t ind materials for a lightning rod.

Bear knew he had to help so he went to the store. The storekeeper said he didn’t have the stuf, so Bear knew he had to ind it on his own. First he went to his cave. He found a rod there. Then he went to the junkyard and he found a hammer there. Then he went back to Philadelphia and gave Ben the stuf. Ben told everybody about Bear’s help and Bear got famous.

After a few years, Bear realized he didn’t have to be popular. So he decided to just stay at the location he lived.

And Gear, Pear, and Rabbit still like him, just the way he is.

19

THE WOLVES Sawyer White Pine Elementary

Over the huge, green forest, the small den was barely visible. The den was mostly made of dirt and rocks. In the dark den, all the gray fur was easy to see and the only one hard to see was the black fur.

Haiden woke up and saw his brothers and sisters, but where was Mom and Dad? He asked his sister but his sister didn’t answer. She only looked sad.

“Well?” he asked.

“Hunting,” she said.

“Then why are you so sad?”

His siblings explained their parents had said they would be back in ten minutes but it had already been an hour.

“When do you think they will be home?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” replied his sister.

“I’ll go look for them,” Haiden said.

He ran out of the dark den and into the woods. He saw a squirrel on the ground. He pounced and killed it and then ate it as he walked. Haiden saw a house then and trotted toward it. It didn’t look occupied, so he nudged the door with his nose. It opened.

Bats and a few bugs lew out of the house. Three big gray cats were in there and they all jumped at Haiden. He bit one’s tail of and it ran into the woods. It tasted like fur and blood. Another scratched him, so he bit it and it ran too. Haiden bit the third cat’s paw and it ran. Then he walked into the house.

He saw a bullet maker, some beds, and a furnace. There was a gun on the side of one of the beds. He stepped away from the gun. Then he saw something moving. Haiden was scared. If it was a ghost, he feared it might try to rip him apart. He walked toward a closet and went inside. It was dim and shadowy, but Haiden looked around anyway.

It wasn’t a rat or cat or bat, it was too big to be any of those. He looked closer at it. The something touched him from behind. He spun around. It was Dad! 20

“Where’s Mom?” Haiden asked.

“At home,” said Dad. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait!” said Haiden. “What’s that?” He pointed to the thing that was moving.

“It is a bundle of rats. Let’s go!”

They walked home. Haiden was happy and he felt good. He raised his head in the air and howled. Then Mom howled back, and then his siblings did too.

“Thanks, Dad,” he said. “Thanks.”

“You are welcome.”

21

MY ISLAND Kai White Pine Elementary

I lived in New York with my family. The streets were always buzzing, and the sounds of cars were deafening. My family and I lived in one of the richer neighborhoods, and had one of the better houses. My name is Alex, and I live with my mother, father, and sister. I have dark hair, and am about ive feet tall.

One hot spring afternoon, my dad came running in. “I got tickets to go on a cruise to Spain!” he said. “We’re going to leave in one month.”

The next day, my morning was a rush. I overslept, skipped breakfast, and rushed to school. I was twelve years old, and in the sixth grade. I hated school; I didn’t like all the sitting and waiting as the teacher droned on about stuf I didn’t care about. The only subject that actually interested me was survival. It ignited a spark inside me that couldn’t wait to learn more. But survival was over quickly, and then it was back to boring old math, social studies, and language arts. Today, I was extra grumpy because of my hectic morning. For that reason, something horrible happened.

Not far away, my sister was having a rough day too. She was seven, and in irst grade. She went to the same school as me, and sometimes we saw each other. But today, she got into big trouble. Her teacher saw her in a ight. I heard her teacher yell, “Stop it!” all the way across the playground. I went over to see what had happened. My sister was crying as the teacher led her inside.

It was Friday, and we had a big test in school. I didn’t study and was stunned when I saw my grade—a ifty-nine percent. My parents were horriied. They threatened that if I didn’t get better grades, we were not going to Spain. I escaped up to my room and stayed there, all the way until I fell asleep.

The days passed quickly, and the weeks swept by. Then, it was inally time for the trip. We were really going to Spain! We went to the harbor and got on the ship. The 22

captain greeted us with a friendly smile and a “hello.”

The ship was an expensive and beautiful one. After all the packing, I was exhausted. I barely had time to get to our cabin before I fell into a deep sleep. I dreamt of home, our beautiful gardens, and our house.

“Where am I? This isn’t my house!” I said. Then I remembered. We were on a ship headed for Spain. The velvety red seats and the luxurious rooms amazed me. As I walked down the hall, I saw workers and people having a good time. Outside, I breathed the fresh, cool air and felt the wind blowing on my face. I’d never seen anything like the sight I saw now: the ocean a color of deep, dark blue and the sun rising in the distance. My sister appeared behind me.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” she asked.

Just then, a dolphin leapt out into the air. This made her gasp. She turned away to go tell Mom and Dad. Then I saw another breathtaking sight. A whale spouted water high up into the sky. I caught a glimpse of its slick black skin. Then it was over and the ocean was calm again. I walked back to our cabin to ind that my family was gone.

Of course. My sister had led them to the magniicent view. I walked back and found them watching the ocean.

The days passed in a similar fashion, and everything was okay. At least, until one night that changed everything.

I woke to a large noise that sounded like metal sliding with ice. My family was gone. I ran to the deck, and there an awful sight awaited me. The ship had hit an iceberg, and people were running everywhere. Ship attendants were trying to hustle everyone into lifeboats and my family was in one of them.

My sister might have been having it rougher than me.

My family had woken up to the sound of the alarm. It was such a rush to get out of the room and onto the lifeboat that they didn’t even realize I wasn’t there. When my sister said, “Where is Alex?” my mother’s face turned bone white.

“Jump!” my mother called to me.

I did and soon met the icy cold water. I stabbed my left leg on something and it hurt like crazy. I somehow made it 23

to the raft where I laid there, losing consciousness. The last thing I remembered was the sight of the ship, half tipped over, about to sink into the depths of the sea.

When I inally regained consciousness, I immediately clutched my left leg and groaned in pain. My hand came away bloody. Around me, I heard shouts.

“The raft is too full! It’s going to sink!”

Next all I felt was someone shoving me, then picking me up, and then the icy coldness of the dark blue sea. The salt on my leg killed. I worked my way back to consciousness, only to hear my sister call my name before I slipped back into the void of nothingness.

I washed up on an island and groaned. I lay there, writhing in pain, and hoped that there was help nearby. I had no idea where I was, or what time or day it was. Worst of all, there was not a lifeboat in sight. I slowly limped around the island for a while, searching for any sign of human life.

The island had many beautiful trees, and after wandering around for a while, I realized that there were many animals and edible plants. I called out for what seemed like hours, and then inally accepted that I was alone. Even though night was coming, I just laid down to calm my mind and rest my body. I realized that only one week ago I was in school. I would do anything to be back there right now.

I woke up to the sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear—I’d been bitten so many times. I staggered to my feet, and then I noticed that there was something very wrong.

My leg had swollen to twice its normal size and I knew that if I didn’t do something soon, I would die. So I walked over to the ocean and soaked my leg in water. Even though it hurt, I soaked my leg for as long as I could stand the pain. I remembered from my Survival Unit that salt helped wounds, so I soaked my shirt in saltwater, and then used it was a bandage.

I limped over to an outcropping of rock and put down my bearings. It wasn’t much—I had only a few coins and a sharp rock I always kept with me. I gathered some wood using my rock as an ax, and then just laid down in an outcropping of rock that I could use as my shelter, thinking about how this possibly could have happened. I fell into a 24

deep sleep just as the rock above me collapsed onto my arm.

The next thing I felt was pain. The sharp, steep burning was going to kill me. The rock had trapped my arm. I unsuccessfully tried to wiggle it out. I laid there for what seemed like house, and then realized I was stuck. I’d have to move the rock or cut my arm of. I exhausted my strength trying to get my arm out, so moving the rock was not an option. I gathered up enough courage, and then used my rock as a saw. It went against my will, but I inally sawed of the arm. I screamed in agony. Even though the blood had stopped circulating to that arm long ago, a little bit of blood still oozed out. I quickly applied a tourniquet made out of my sweatshirt to stop the blood low.

I inally realized that I had to ind water. I was feeling weaker than ever, and it was a miracle that I’d lived as long as I had. I walked around until I found a lake. I drank until I calmed the gnawing that was inside of me. Tomorrow I will ind food, I told myself. In the meantime, I found a little ditch that would be perfect for sleeping in. I made a bed out of pine needles, and for the irst time in a while, had a good sleep.

The next morning, I searched for berries until I found a nice patch of white ones. I was just about to put on to my lips when I remembered my Survival Unit at school from years ago—ninety percent of white berries were poisonous.

I quickly threw them on the ground. I kept searching for berries in the thick, dense forest until I found some blueberries. I stufed my mouth until I was full. Then I gathered up extra to put in my shelter. Blueberries were good, but I needed to ind other sources of vitamins.

The days went in a similar order: get up, get water, collect wood, and then ind food. Even though the greens and berries were plentiful, I soon had a craving for meat.

To cook meat, I would need a ire. I tried rubbing wood together, but the wood was wet. I threw my belongings at the wall in frustration. But when the rock hit the wall, a shower of sparks came down. That gave me an idea.

I collected some wood and put it next to the wall. When I threw the rock, the sparks fell onto the wood, and then I 25

blew lightly to coax the lames to life. With my ire, I killed, skinned, and ate animals like rabbits and pheasants to my pleasure. Each night, I was full. I grew stronger and more careful over the days. One day, I felt ready to explore the island some more. I walked for days, stopping every once in a while to drink water and eat. I found temporary shelters each night and one night I found success.

In the early daybreak, I found an abandoned camp, a ire with smoke still coming out. I followed the tracks at a good pace, and inally was face to face with some people who looked like natives to this island. They had colored feathers in their hair, and they were dancing around in bufalo costumes. I approached nervously.

“Hello,” I said.

They stopped dancing and looked at me. One of the dancers came over to me.

“Who are you? Do you come in peace?”

“I am lost,” I said. “My ship crashed and I washed up on the island. My name is Alex, and I come in peace.”

“Very well. If what you say is true, we will lead you to our village,” the dancer said.

The tribe led me to their village and I followed, never once complaining, just walking along with the rest of the tribe. Finally, we got to the village. It was made out of wood, and looked very comforting. The tribe led me into a building that looked like a church. I was instructed to wait there by someone who looked like the chief. I waited until I was beckoned to come over to a place that looked like a court. I sat down in a chair and waited as people talked about if they should let me into their village. I had to retell my story a few times, but that was all I had to do. After what seemed like hours, everybody left the room. I was told to stay where I was. I was so anxious to know what they were talking about I almost got out of my chair.

Finally, the tribe leader came in.

“You are welcome to our tribe,” he said. “You will go to cottage number four.”

I thanked him, and then was escorted to my cabin. It felt like a huge weight was of my shoulders. These people knew all about the island: how to ind food, water, and stay 26

safe from predators.

I shared my cabin with one other person. He was tall, friendly, and looked about my age. He said his name was Carlos. We talked for a while, and I learned that his tribe had been native to this island for many years. I told him all about my story, and he was amazed to know that I had survived after the ship crash. Just like that, we became friends.

Although I only had one arm, I became better at hunting food and gathering wood. I slowly earned more respect from the tribe, and eventually became the lead hunter. I took down big animals like caribou and deer and provided food for my tribe. I slowly forgot about my family and focused more on helping the tribe, which I learned was called the Bubi People.

Over the years, I learned to love the tribe. They became my family and I became one of them. I danced with them and learned their cultures and ways. I lived with them for all my life and became one of them forever.

27

THE BONFIRE Minjun White Pine Elementary

Alex Flores lives on an island about 144 miles away from Papa New Guinea with his sister Zoey, his dad Aden, and his parrot Mister Coconut. They had a little hut made of sticks, a cooking pot outside, and a vegetable garden. The reason he was there was because of an incident that happened about a year ago. Alex, Zoey, Dad, and their mom had gone to Papa New Guinea for a family vacation. Alex’s mom decided to go to an ancient temple, but the rest were still recovering from jet lag. So she decided to go alone. When Aden, Zoey, and Alex woke up, they waited for their mom. But she never came back.

So they built a raft and tried to sail back to their homeland, America. But huge waves and severe winds blew them of course, so they ended up on the island. And for the next few weeks they built the shelter, the vegetable garden, and found an old cooking pot. One night, after they wrapped up, the trio went into the hut. But in there, was a parrot. A red parrot. So to make a long story short, the parrot was named Mister Coconut, and he became Alex’s pet.

NOW IN THE PRESENT The sunbeams shined onto the outside walls of the hut.

Zoey woke up, then woke Alex up. They went to the vegetable garden to check for any ripe ones. There were only two tomatoes and a pepper.

“Really?” Zoey said, upset.

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Alex answered as he started picking.

Later in the day, Alex and Zoey dug in the sand, hoping to ind some clams. They found nothing at all.

“Oh come on!” Alex shouted.

“Looks like we’re gonna starve,” Zoey replied.

28

Alex pushed his shovel into the sand. Bonk—his shovel hit something hard. The noise startled the children. Then Alex started digging where his shovel hit. There, right there, was a chest.

“Treasure!” they both shouted. The noise woke Aden.

He stumbled out of the hut.

“Let me see!” He walked to the hole. “Looks like it was buried last year,” he said. He opened the chest and inside was a bag. They peered in the bag. Inside it was preserved lour. The children had only one word to say.

“Spaghetti!”

Zoey gathered water through a bucket from a pond. Alex dried seawater, hoping for salt. Aden also realized that in the chest, there was yeast. The salt was ready. So they made the dough. Alex and Zoey smashed their tomatoes they had gathered. They made noodles, then started cooking. At last, there the spaghetti was in front of them. It was served in wooden bowls they had carved a long time ago. They took out their carved wooden forks. Then they ate.

The stars blinkered like irelies in the night sky. Mr. Coconut had had his share of the noodles, and Alex and Zoey were getting ready for bed. They cleaned leaves and used some of the salt Alex had dried up to clean their teeth.

Aden gathered some branches, put them in a bucket, and hung them overnight. They all walked back to the hut, got in their sleeping leather, and snoozed.

The next morning, after the trio woke up, they got their makeshift clothes. They each headed to diferent ponds, took of their clothes, put on their makeshift clothes, and soaked their clothes in the water. They waited for ive minutes or so, then took their clothes out and carried them back to the hut. They would then lay their clothes on the sandy shores of the beach. They would do this about two to three times per week, for this was their laundry process.

They also did this with their sleeping skins. Afterwards, they went back to the hut.

“Alex and I are going to the vegetable garden,” Zoey said to Aden.

“Let’s go,” said Alex.

They walked up to the vegetable garden and found out 29

there were lots of ripe foods. They found more than thirty carrots, sixteen broccoli stalks, and some garlic “Awesome!” exclaimed Zoey.

“Yahoo!” Alex said back.

Zoey started gathering in their basket. Clouds started appearing over the horizon. Alex was the irst to notice.

“Storm,” he murmured.

“Yeah, let’s run,” Zoey replied.

They started running. Their legs picked up speed as they ran to the hut. All of a sudden, Alex saw a gleam in the sand. He picked it up quickly. It was a pearl. He was used to pearls. But for some reason, this one looked special.

“Woah!” he said, excited.

“Come on!” Zoey said worriedly.

They ran to the hut. But inside were two animals, Mister Coconut and a black panther. The panther had cornered Aden and was threatening to bite.

“Oh, what should we do?” Zoey asked.

Alex looked at the pearl in his hand. “I’ll throw it,” he said to himself. “Dad is more important than this dumb pearl.” He threw it and the pearl struck the panther with such great force that it shattered into shards. The shards poked the panther. For once, Alex was actually grateful for his baseball skills. The panther yowled and leapt out the window.

When the panther was gone, Alex looked at his sleeping leather. He looked for Mister Coconut. He inally found him, only with a claw mark and laying down, eyes closed.

Alex bowed down in sorrow.

Lightning lashed outside and rain followed like hail. The water was very strong. The tides went up and came crashing, nearly knocking out the cooking pot, Alex and Zoey were asleep, and Aden was knocked out cold.

The waves came crashing in and that did it. The pot was standing, then it came down with a wave. The pot’s charcoal scattered all over the sandy beach. Lightning came down, striking the water. The pot loated out to sea. It was metal, plus it was loating out in the sea. Lightning struck it. It sank to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again.

Alex woke up. He looked around. Zoey was still asleep 30

and Aden was dozing of. He woke up Zoey.

“Let’s go make breakfast,” he said.

“I agree,” she said. “I’m starved.”

Alex opened their veggie jar and took out some carrots, broccoli, and peppers. “Hopefully we can ind some quail eggs. We could make vegetable omelet. My favorite.” Alex licked his lips.

They went outside. “Where’s the pot?” Zoey asked.

“Dunno,” Alex replied.

They looked around the hut, but the pot was nowhere to be found. They kept searching but found no sign of the pot.

“Time for plan B,” Alex said. They found a couple of branches and took the leaves of. They started rubbing the sticks together, desperately trying to make ire. Rub, rub, sounded the sticks. They kept trying. They twisted the sticks, pointing them at diferent angles. A spark began to burst.

“Fire!” they both shouted.

“Eight, nine,” Zoey counted. “Nine eggs.”

“Great! Just enough to make two omelets!” Alex said.

The bonire roared over the sandy beaches. Alex plucked of twigs and started adding them to the ire. Aden cam out, startled by the ire.

“Wow!” he said, surprised.

“I know, right”?” Zoey replied.

“Sorry we don’t have enough eggs for you,” Alex added.

“It’s okay. I’ll have grilled vegetables,” Aden said.

They cooked quickly, for they were starving. Once they had their breakfast in their hands, Zoey asked something to Alex.

“What do you think of our island?”

“It’s great,” Alex sat toward the sea. “Well, except Mr. Coconut’s death.”

31

ISOLATED Kaiya White Pine Elementary

“Are we there yet?” said Sherlie.

She had been saying this for hours, but everyone was too tired to answer. That is, except Alex.

“Shut up!” he said.

“You shut up!” said Sherlie.

While the two were shouting at each other, or in Sherlie’s case, biting each other, Mary, their ten-year-old sister, was staring out the window, thinking. Mary, her fourteen-year-old brother Alex, her seven-year-old sister Sherlie, and her father were driving to an isolated ski resort in Canada from their home in Chicago. Their baby brother Eved was being taken care of by their mom at home. They still had two hours to go before they got there, and Mary had no idea how long it had been already. The sun is going down, she thought, so I might as well take a nap.

She woke up to the sound of her sister screaming and clapping.

“We’re here! Finally! Hooray!”

Mary, her siblings, and dad loved to ski, which is why they came here a few days before New Years.

“It’s the middle of the night!” said her father. “You’ll wake people.”

After everyone inished getting their luggage out of the car, they started heading towards the inn. It was called the Silver Inn. They got to their room, number 20, and started unpacking. After the siblings had brushed and changed, they lazily stumbled to their bedroom and crawled into bed.

Their father opened the door and spoke.

“Get a good sleep, we’ll head out straight in the morning,” he said.

Mary woke up as a stack of thick, wooly clothes landed on her face. She heard a voice say, “Change, eat, then we’ll head out for the day!” It was her father’s, she assumed.

“Now get out!” yelled Sherlie. “The best skier changes irst!”

32

Mary slowly crawled out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. She sleepily ate her breakfast of oatmeal with Alex.

The two glanced at each other. Today was going to be a long day.

The May family had headed far into the mountains and were already freezing. Sherlie was skiing next to Mary as they continued into the wilderness.

“I’m starving!” she said to Mary.

“Just wait until lunch,” Mary replied. “Besides, it’s your fault for not eating your breakfast.”

Sherlie was silent. After they had skied a while longer, the family heard a loud rumbling.

“See!” said Sherlie. “My tummy is rumbling.”

“I don’t think that’s your stomach,” Mary said, but it was too late. Mary was being buried in snow.

Mary awoke the next sunrise. She was freezing and bruised, but she was above the snow. What was she doing here? The avalanche! Where was Sherlie? Where was Alex?

Where was her father? If there were any footprints, they were covered up by now. There was a good six inches of fresh downfall.

Mary quickly stood up. She had to ind her siblings!

She took her skis of and started to carry them around.

A little while uphill she saw a pink hat peeking out of the snow. Sherlie! She ran to the hat, dropped the skis, and desperately started digging.

After a while, she dragged out a lifeless looking, blue body. Mary immediately checked for a pulse. She felt nothing for a while, and her eyes were starting to water, then suddenly she felt the faintest pulse. She needed to start a ire, and fast! But how?

Mary had a sudden memory of a camping trip three years ago. Her dad had shown her that if you rub two sticks together over a pile of pine needles, it would start a ire.

Luckily, there was a small forest of trees nearby.

She ran to a yellow, dying pine with a pool of needles underneath it. Mary swept a couple to the side, then snapped two branches of the tree and started rubbing them 33

together. It took a lot of sweat, energy, and many hours, but she inally saw smoke and gently blew at it. Soon, she had a ire. Mary sighed with relief.

After she had quickly carried Sherlie to the ire, Mary realized the sun was coming up. I’m starving, she thought, but I have to make sure Sherlie’s ok. She stared at her sibling’s pale, blue body. Slowly Mary took of her lufy jacket and gave it to Sherlie as a blanket, then lay down next to her. I’ll wait, she thought, I’ll just wait.

About an hour later, Mary heard a faint scream.

“What’s going on?” Sherlie was awake.

As Mary’s stomach growled, she explained. “Well, it’s bright and sunny today, so want to help me ind some berries?”

As Mary and Sherlie were heading into the forest, search teams were heading out to ind them. Hours earlier, their father had managed to use his phone to ind his way back to the one building in the ski resort other than the inn—the lodge.

“My children!” he had shouted. “My children are lost in an avalanche!”

The staf had tried to calm him down, then asked for as much information as possible. As the search party was headed out, they said, “We’ll do our best, Sir, but if we are not able to ind them in three days, two days before the New Year, we will give up. Clear?”

As the doors of the wooden lodge closed, their father, holding back tears, managed to mumble, “Clear.”

Back in the forest, it had been about half an hour and the sisters were heading back to camp with about a pound of red berries in their pockets. When they got back to camp, Sherlie spoke.

“You eat one irst. I know you’re hungry,” she said.

“No you can,” replied Mary. “After all, you found them.” She ofered Sherlie a berry.

“I just want to know if they’re poisonous,” said Sherlie, and pushed it away.

Mary rolled her eyes and ate one. She spit out a small 34

pit and said, “Tastes ine.”

Sherlie was extremely hungry, as always, and she stufed ive of them into her mouth. She instantly spit them all out.

“Gross!” Sherlie shouted. “That’s the most bitter thing I’ve ever tasted!”

Mary ate another. “Well it’s all we’ve got, for now.”

The sun was going down, and the girls were adding sticks to the ire. Earlier, they had been eating berries and drinking melted snow, for they were too exhausted to do anything else. They had also agreed to build a shelter in the morning. Mary and Sherlie lay down by the ire and started talking about how they would build the shelter, and when they decided how, they fell right asleep.

In the morning, Sherlie woke up freezing. She couldn’t wait to inish building the shelter. She sat up and stretched, turned around, and saw Mary sound asleep. Great, she had to start by herself. Sherlie started to slowly and sleepily stumble out of the forest, heading towards two neon blue skis, where Mary said she had dug Sherlie out of the avalanche.

When she got to the skis, she started to tug at one, but she collapsed. She was way too weak from the avalanche to build a shelter. She started stumbling all the way back to Mary and when she got back she shoved her.

“Wake up!” Sherlie whined.

It took a while, but Mary managed to get up and wobble to the skis. She picked them up, watching Sherlie make a snow angel on the ground, then started heading back to camp. When she got there she remembered they should eat breakfast, but Mary was so full from yesterday she could burst.

“Are you hungry?” she asked Sherlie as they started to collect sticks.

“Not at all!” said Sherlie.

Well that’s a irst, Mary thought. It took a long time because Sherlie wasn’t exactly able to help, but soon the girls had a large pile of branches and twigs. As Sherlie lay down and fell asleep, Mary picked up a ski and angled it leaning on a nearby tree facing towards the campire, then did the same with the other, except she wedged it behind a branch 35

sticking out of a tree to keep it steady. She knew the other one might fall over too if she didn’t do anything, so she took of her scarf and used it to tie the ski to the tall evergreen tree. Next, she placed branches and twigs vertically under the skis to use as support and to act as walls. She wished she had Sherlie’s skis to build the shelter, but they had fallen of during the avalanche.

Then she had a sudden thought. Mary wished Alex were there to help her build the shelter. Where was Alex? Was he okay? What about her father? What if they were—Mary shook her head and cleared the thought, then got back to work.

She piled some branches and twigs in between the trees to function as the back wall. Next, she stabbed a branch into the ground in the middle of the shelter, but closer to the ire. Then she used the largest, longest, making them the heaviest branches and she heaved them carefully to the top of the shelter, resting the sides on the side walls and they wouldn’t roll of because she had added the stick in the middle to support them, but obviously it wasn’t in the ground deep enough. Many times it fell over, making all the logs roll of as well.

After she inally got the shelter ready, and made sure the roof wouldn’t collapse, she realized it was already the middle of the day. She woke up her snoring, drooling younger sister and told her to go pick some more berries while she started a ire.

“But it’s gonna take forever to go back to that disgusting berry bush!” Sherlie complained.

“Well then do you want to start a ire?” Mary replied.

Sherlie started stomping and huing to the berry bush while Mary picked up some leftover sticks from building the shelter. She glanced at the shelter for a moment. I’ve never built a shelter before, only set up a tent, she thought.

I think I did a pretty good job. She gathered up some pine needles and put them on top of the black, ashy branches of what used to be a ire.

As she iercely rubbed the sticks together, Mary began daydreaming about her old friends. Her best friends were named Sarah, Arin, and Candace. She loved to go 36

to the neighborhood pool with them and have diving competitions. Every time they would sit by the pool at the end and talk about school. Mary missed school. She missed her friends. She missed her old life and wondered if she would ever have it again. Suddenly she smelled smoke. She looked down and saw a small ire. She added in some twigs and soon she had a burning ire. That was fast, she thought.

Then Sherlie walked towards the ire with lots of berries and juice running down her cheeks.

“Want some?” she asked with her mouth full.

Later, after the sisters had inished their dinner of berries, they were settling down in shelter.

“I saw a little white bunny today,” said Sherlie.

“Cool. I bet it was a snowshoe hare,” Mary replied.

They were silent for a while.

“Well,” Mary said. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” said Sherlie.

After a few minutes of tossing and turning, the two were fast asleep.

Sherlie woke up to the sound of footsteps. It must be Mary, she thought. She rolled around, but Mary was still sleeping soundly right next to her. Sherlie started to panic.

Who was it? Or what?

“It’s a bear,” she whispered. “It’s a wolf! It’s going to be like the Big Bad Wolf! It’ll destroy the stick house and eat us whole!”

“Sherlie?” said a voice. “Is that you?”

Soon she saw the face of her beloved brother, Alex, peeking in at her from outside.

“Alex!” she screamed as she threw her arms around him.

“Shh,” whispered her brother. “You might attract bears!”

Sherlie’s eyes widened. Soon, Mary woke up.

“Alex!” she screamed, just as her sister had.

“Shh,” Alex and Sherlie whispered. They all giggled.

“Come in and rest,” Mary whispered. “We can talk in the morning.”

Alex nodded, crawled inside and lay down. In an instant, he was asleep.

37

In the morning, the joyful siblings were sitting by the ire cooking raw deer meat. Alex was telling them what happened to him before he found them.

“I awoke,” he said, “to realize I was buried in snow. Very deep in snow. I instantly started digging myself out, only to ind more snow towering onto me. It felt like a lifetime, but I inally got out. I pulled my skis out of the snow, to ind one of them sharp and broken. After a while I decided to sharpen a branch with the ski, creating a spear.”

He told them his story in every detail—inding a small cave to live in, hunting down deer and using their pelts for a bag that contained his meat and his destroyed phone, the same bag he was holding as he told the story. He also told them how he had found the two by seeing the smoke of their ire the night before. Then Mary explained the girls’ side of the story while they enjoyed the cooked meat for breakfast.

They even showed him the berry bush they ate from. By the time they were done, it as after midday. While they were heading back, Alex pointed to a clif nearby and said he could see it when he was hunting a deer. When they reached the camp, Mary tried to start a ire while all the siblings talked.

“Do you think we will ind our way back?” was the main question. Nobody was sure.

“In most survival stories,” Alex said, “everyone survives and lives happily ever after.”

Sherlie shrugged. Suddenly, Mary saw smoke and had a ire going. After she added more branches, Alex put more meat on a stick and started cooking it. For the rest of the day, the siblings didn’t know what to do so they started telling stories and telling jokes by the ire.

It was late at night, and the siblings were eating more meat and playing hide and go seek by the berry bushes.

“Found you guys!” Alex said, pointing at his sisters.

They all laughed.

All of a sudden, the siblings heard a faint boom. Was it another avalanche? No, it was diferent, it was quiet. There was another one. Alex signaled for the sisters to follow, and they ran all the way to the clif. When they got there, they 38

couldn’t believe their eyes. Fireworks. They all sat down and watched the New Years ireworks explode in the distance, above the Silver Inn. In the morning, they needed to get ready and hike, but for now, all they could do was watch.

39

A JOURNEY THROUGH NEW YORK CITY Sandra White Pine Elementary

There was a time when I thought the place I loved in was a never-ending land, stretching beyond the sky. I always thought I would stay here, bathing in the wonderful, brilliant sunshine and preying on the juicy, plentiful, delicious ield mice. It turns out the paradise wasn’t forever.

I was taken up by a diferent owner, a rather careless one—he knew he could not multitask but he tried anyway. By two days I was lost, completely.

My surroundings were alien-ish, nothing like the paradise I was born into. There were people everywhere— you could not take a step without bumping into one. The sound was deafening, it was an endless clang of cowbells, cymbals, and gongs, and the noise made cars sound like the buss of lies. In fact, cars were a part of this sound; it was a mixture of loud humans (which in my point of view was already loud enough), honking cars, screaming sirens, and the barking of animals. The buildings were endless, they seemed even higher than mountaintops. I bet if you looked hard enough you could see them bursting past the clouds.

The air was thick with the smoke that came out of the back of cars and I found it hard to breathe. It was like trying to walk through water. This was New York City.

My name is Toby, a tawny brown cat about one foot tall and eighteen inches wide, and according to my old owner, Terry, I smell like cinnamon and my fur feels like the fur of a rabbit. They taste good, although they are pretty hard to catch, but they’re normally worth it. But back to the story.

Once I got to New York City, my irst instinct was to hide, but I didn’t ind any hiding-sized places so I ran to a back alley hoping to ind shelter from the awful smoke that was produced from cars. But instead, I found it much worse.

“Of course,” I thought. “Back at home, fresh air was always in the open.” So I ran out of the alley but there was no “open.” At this I was dismayed, then suddenly I saw a 40

shadow licker across an alley wall. It was fast and I almost missed it.

It must have been an animal—food, yum. I could feel saliva brimming at the corners of my mouth. I ran.

Whatever the animal was, it was surprisingly fast. I never caught a glimpse of it and followed its strange, doglike shadow. I was just about to collapse when the igure stopped, then it started to come back to me, but then a car whizzed by me, its shadow blocking out the igure’s. Once the car passed, the shadow disappeared. Utterly exhausted, hungry, and defeated, I slumped into the alley where I lost the igure, and there it was. When it saw me it stifened but after noticing my features it relaxed. “It” was a hideous sight: skinny with ribs showing, its face streaked with dirt and mud, its ears torn and worn. I barely made out that it was a cat.

It stared, I stared, we stared, starring. Then suddenly, it shattered the silence and spoke in a rather sharp, silencing tone, as if to be in charge.

“Who are you?”

I just stood there, not sure what to say. He repeated the question in a more impatient tone.

“Who are you?”

I stood there, silenced. Then, it abruptly roared a harsh demand.

“Attack!”

And then there was a movement in the shadows, then a ripple, then it lunged at me, a sea of cats as they attacked following their leader’s command. A irst one scratched my side, causing a stab of pain, the second one bit my leg and hung on, sending a wave of agony down my left side. I managed to rip of the second cat when a third one latched on. I ran. The cats were just as fast as their leader but once I reached the end of the alleyway they stopped, nodded a sort of agreement, then disappeared into the shadows.

The leader, however, was not to act meek. It glared at me, sending the warning I will always remember.

“Don’t come back!”

I doubt I ever will.

I limped along the sidewalk, dodging human legs here 41

and there. Exhausted, hungry, and injured, I lay down in another alleyway, checking for any cats, as exhaustion took over and I felt myself slipping.

“I’ll ind food and water tomorrow,” I thought. “Right now…” My thoughts trailed of as I closed my eyes.

When Toby wakes up he is not in New York, and instead he is back home. Maybe all of it was a dream. And there was his owner! Toby ran straight at his owner and he went right through, what? He tried again, right through. Then he saw him, another cat, galloping next to his owner and his owner picking up the new cat, both of them leaping around in the grass. No! Toby thought. He ran up to them and tried to claw the new cat but his paw went through, as if he were just thin air. When Toby’s owner went inside to get something, the evil cat turned around, showing its hideous fangs—the street cat!

But the dream kept nagging at me. What if the dream was a sign? What if it was to show me that the street cat was better than me? Then the most horrifying thought occurred to me: what if my owner gave me to the bad owner just to get another cat? Did no one care about me? The careless owner didn’t seem to care much about me. After all, he was the one who lost me in the irst place.

I was too hungry and thirsty to get up, though I desperately needed both. Instead I started licking my paw and inspected my position. I was lost in an unfamiliar place.

I had a wound on my hind paw and my left side. There was a group of deadly cats waiting to kill me. I was starving and thirsty, or more like the small emptiness in my stomach was now a deep void. My throat felt was burning, and if you touched it, it would have crumbled up like a dried leaf. I had no idea how to get food or water. So either I was going to die of hunger, thirst, or battle.

Then, there was Terry. Was the dream really true? I forced the thought out of my head and focused on water.

But I didn’t know where that was, so I just wandered of into a bundle of houses. Suddenly I picked up the scent of water and followed it, and though the scent of humans was becoming obvious, something deep down inside of me told me that it was okay. Eventually I heard excited yelps and 42

laughs from what I interpreted to be human kittens. My grandma told me human kittens were called kids. I reached a fence and the scent was stronger. I had to get past this wall.

Then I saw a tree—it stretched so far I couldn’t see the top, even when I was on the tree, climbing it. Cats are pretty good at climbing trees, as long as you can get down, and that was what I was planning to do. I could see it now, the large, lake-like expanse of water, and the kids were playing in it. I shuddered. Never in my life will I do that, but I was going to get a drink.

I planned every step of it. I was going to jump from the branch to the tree just past the fence. From there I was going to jump of and land on my feet, a troubling task, for the tree was about nine cat lengths high, but I was going to do it because of my tremendous thirst, and my promise to Terry. Once I got to the ground I would rush up and take a drink. If I needed to escape I would go through the bushes surrounding the little closed-in yard. That was it, that was all I needed to do to get the water I desired, but not everything is that easy at irst glance.

When I got to the next tree a kid spotted me and shouted in a tone rather surprised, then the other kids ran up to inspect me. I panicked, jumped down from the tree on my feet just as planned, but once I got to the water a human behind a solid column I hadn’t noticed before took something from her ears and came over and picked me up.

I clawed, mewed, and scratched until the kid jumped away and called out something that seemed threatening to me.

But at that second I didn’t care because the other ones were racing towards me with huge, creepy smiles. I jumped into a bush and started crawling through it, but the kids were smart and they followed me until I hopelessly jumped out of the bushes and ran, only to come to a screeching stop in front of a full grown human. It had a stern expression, one I did not want to experience. There was only one way to go now—through the water.

I ran straight forward then suddenly swerved to the right and jumped in. The water was freezing and damp and I felt like I just plunged past the sky. It was horrible.

43

Paddling hard, I headed across and at about middle point, I realized I should get a drink. I dunked my head in then suddenly lost balance, falling. I desperately paddled as hard as I could, and just then, three thoughts passed through my head. One: the water tasted like someone dumped a bucket of salt in it. Two: the humans were following me at a much faster pace. Three: I was going to die. Then, as if all of these thoughts were an energy boost, I was determined to get to the end of the lake for Terry and I rocketed forward in the water. Then, taking a inal gulp at the shore, I leapt up onto the tree and jumped the fence, landing hard on my feet.

I led and led until the lake was a distant memory. I found myself looking for a place to sleep and my gaze fell on a little area under a platform. As I eased myself into the little shelter my hunger increased, this time in sharp pangs that felt as if the hollowness of my stomach was consuming everything around it. All I could think of was food—sweet, juicy mice that yielded their lives to you as you crunched their tiny skulls in satisfaction. I could vividly picture myself in my bed of soft fabric, slowly enjoying the tiny ield mouse clamped in my jaws. No, that only made it worse. Terry, it made me think of Terry. I turned my attention to trying to get rest but now that I was thinking about it, it became easier. I slumped into a deep sleep.

Lying on the sidewalk, I tried hard not to think of the dream and slowly lifted myself up. I have to do this, I’ll survive for him, I’ll survive to see my owner once again. I slowly got up, letting the hunger push the dream out of my head, and swore that I would either survive, or die trying.

I crept down the alleyway—no cats, good. There they were, the garbage cans. I leapt onto the edge and hung on, then pulled with all my might. It was not surprising when it came down because it was empty. I tried the next one, and this one was harder. I looked in—food—the scent lingered at my nose until I couldn’t stand it any longer. I dove in and devoured everything edible. Satisied with my new “hunting” strategy, I continued on to the lake again.

It has been two weeks and I have been getting water and food successfully, but the thought about Terry is still 44

nagging at me. As I walk across the sidewalk, a human notices me and picks me up, studying the thing around my neck Terry had given me. I start to scratch, but the human holds me out in front of her, avoiding any attacks.

She starts walking and we arrive at a building. When we go inside there are diferent animals in cages—I didn’t want to be there too. I scratch harder and the human puts me down on a lat surface. I immediately jump away, but she picks me up again and another human comes over. The other human picks me up and says something to the irst one. He inspects the thing around my neck. What is he going to do to me?

A couple of minutes later, I get my answer as he shoves me in a cage and we go into a car. Although all my surroundings are unfamiliar and I am trapped in a cage, something tells me that I am going home and Terry will be waiting for me.

45

STRENGTH OF WAR Patrick M. White Pine Elementary

As the green island came into view I held my breath and watched for land mines. I am Sebastian Sawyer, general of the Navajo people. I hated this war. It had destroyed Mumbai Island’s scenery. This was later to be called World War II. We were sent to reinforce and attack the Nazis. I had a plan to escape but the Navajos were watched day and night for “protection.” I knew though that the white people didn’t trust us.

As we landed, I jumped on the bloody sands and yelled instructions. A searing pain embedded in my right arm.

“Ambush!” I yelled. I bolted, being shot at, and as I ran among the crevices in the clif I ducked into one.

One of my comrades came into view and jumped into the crevice next to me. As the Nazis that had ambushed us came into view, I shouted for us to shoot. Our shots took out ten out of ten of the Nazis. The remaining Navajos hid in my crevice as I outlined a plan to rebel and inish the mission against the Nazis. We didn’t know the amount of Nazis but we knew the whereabouts of their command center and that there were at least 400 cavalry, not including the spy planes and bombers we had seen.

My comrades bandaged and cleaned the bullet wound inlicted by the ambush. Our mission was to bomb one of the two command centers. For a successful mission, the bomber takeof platform and the communication satellite must be destroyed. Our 500 cavalry stood ready to ight as we realized that our crevices were right behind the command center. We scanned it and found it empty, but as we scanned the crevices we realized that the real base was underground, a clever trick by the Nazis.

We began to search for nearby wood and using the wood made a smokeless ire and smelted stone pickaxes, and shovels. Then we posted a guard and began to dig for the base. Progress was slow but we proceeded. We were 46

ambushed twice and lost ive men, leaving us with 495 troops. I had decided to win this war and stay for the three widows made so far by this war and the two dead mean who could never be married. I tried to encourage my workers to mine faster an we inally made a small hole that served as a place to spy and know when the best time would be to attack.

400 men stood ready to ight, for the 95 men in the mining workforce needed rest. Our war party waited for seven days before the right time came. To survive we had adapted to hunt stealthily. We needed to be stealthy so we were unnoticed by both the Nazis and animals. After hunting we watched and ambushed lone Nazis. To lone Navajos however, we invited to our crevice, and that way we gained 55 cavalry, making us 550 men ready to die for our mission.

At the end of the seventh day the opportunity came: the Nazis were called to ight, leaving a large hole in the watchmen and ranks. I led the war party and we blew our way in with one precious grenade. We killed the few watchmen and cavalry around. Then we set advanced timer grenades and land mines and set the grenades for when the ground underneath them was triggered. Then we mapped the place and ran.

We built a tree house base in the woods and watched the sadly victorious Nazis walk back to base. We watched as exactly 300 out of 400 Nazis were blown up. As spy planes came to investigate the mushroom cloud covering nearly the whole island, we shot them down. Then we ran to the boat deck and killed the Nazis surrounding the German lag, hoisted the American lag, and ired three times in the air. The Navajos around all came to reunite and celebrate our victory over base one. We didn’t know why the Germans were hated. All we knew was we must ight to be able to get home.

Base two was already annihilated by the other groups.

Nazis were rounded up and killed. We built an enormous shack to house our troops and stayed on the island for four days before we noticed something odd. We had only killed 350 Nazis. Where we the other 50? We searched the 47

entire island and found not a trace until we noticed a very, very odd rock. We picked it up and realized it was an atom bomb. We were surprised and knew that the contraption was camoulaged to look like an old, rusty spring. We were so lucky to ind it now because one minutes later it would have killed everyone on the island. We unset it and ran back to home base, inding a man dead to a bullet wound.

“We’re being surprise attacked one man at a time,” I said. “We need to start setting scouts for these unknown ambushes.”

We set up guards and the next day we found springs nearly everywhere! We began to notice machinery and then the unimaginable happened: one Nazi base per day began appearing out of the ground until there were no less than twenty bases around us. We did the math and realized 400 cavalry x 20 bases equaled no less than 8,000 cavalry, and ten spy planes per base meant 200 spy planes total.

We’re going to need a monthly supply ship for this new danger, I thought, illing out the form with one of our precious ive sheets of paper. If we were to ight, we needed at least soldiers, bombs, and riles.

We prepared to ight this menace by training because 450 trained troops are much better than 8,000 untrained ones. We were ambushed once and lost none but killed twenty Nazis. I kept my soldiers in top condition. I had a feeling this lucky battle wouldn’t hold out during the war.

Our luck could change and kill us or stay and we would emerge victorious. I had a gut feeling my soldiers felt anxious and scared and I knew that skill was better than numbers because I could see it in the Nazi’s luck in this war.

I know though, we must be strong.

48

AM A TIGER Emma T. Roosevelt Elementary

I act like I’m the top tiger, but I’m not. I run around with my cub friends waiting for my top tiger to come home, but he doesn’t. So I lay down with my “I’m the star” look and drift to sleep. I sleep until morning then I go play. I run through the ield. I hide from my mother not wanting to go home. My friends hide me. Mother says I have to come home soon. I go live and laugh!

I go home to do my chores, head to my cave, and play with some string. I go to sleep. When I wake up the top tiger is here: my friend, my life, my brother. I’m not shy to run up and hug him. My mom and uncle talk. While they talk we jump around having fun. I love my brother. We run to Grandma’s and have dinner. After dinner we head to sleep.

We have an amazing breakfast. We go play for hours. I’m smiling inally. Now he has to go write. When he leaves I stop smiling and when he comes back I’ll wait for the dreadful moment when he leaves and that time I won’t let him go.

While he’s leaving in his amazing army uniform he looks around at me. Now this is the life. No more tigers, just humans. His bald head with his glasses and holding a suitcase he gets in his car and drives away.

49

AFTERNOON AT MY HOUSE Jonah Roosevelt Elementary

“Conner, want to race to your car?”

“Sure,” Conner says.

So then we say, “Three, two, one, GO!” I run so fast.

We race to the car, take a right on the road, and we’re there.

We get inside the car, and Conner’s dad asks, “How was school today?”

“Good,” we say in unison. We buckle our seat belts, and start driving. Conner’s dad drops me of at my house.

“Thank you,” I say. I step out of the car and approach my front door. It is dark wooden brown, and it has a glass lower knocker and a rectangular doorbell to the right of the door. I turn the long curly knob and walk inside.

I see a living room with a piano, a cofee table, and two couches with a designed purple rug under them. Then I look down and I see I am standing on a cobblestone loor with a shoebox. Then I hear my mom’s footsteps coming into the living room.

She goes to the kitchen, and says, “What do you want for an after school snack?”

I say, “Can I have a bagel with cream cheese?”

“Sure,” she says. Then I turn right, and walk down a staircase that goes down about eleven steps and ends in a long hall that lows into a TV room, with three couches, a ireplace, a lat screen TV, and a piano way out of tune. I jump on the couch, and start watching TV. Just then, my mom calls my name, and says, “Jonah, will you come up for your bagel?”

“Coming mom,” I yell. I go upstairs, and sit at the kitchen counter for lunch. I inish my bagel, and go back downstairs to watch TV again. I start getting sleepy from the movie I’m watching, and close my eyes.

50

BOB THE PIG: The Best of the Bestsellers Aidan Rose Hill Montessori School

Once upon a time there was a pig named Bob. He lived on a farm. Bob did not know where the farm was because the person that owned the farm wouldn’t tell Bob the address. But he knew that the farm was on the top of a big hill. Just down the hill, there was a store called Costco. It was Bob’s dream to go there. He would watch the store for hours at a time, seeing all the people go into the store and come out with carts full of food and other things. Bob loved food.

Two days later, Bob started planning how he was going to get to Costco. He decided that the next night he would leave for the store. So the next night, Bob jumped over the fence and started his journey down the hill. When he got down the hill, he noticed that the sun was starting to rise. He knew that if anyone saw him, he would be in big trouble. He hid in some large, green bushes and waited for night. It was a little painful getting into the bushes, but he managed to do it. He ate some leaves of the bush for his meals. After a while, the sun started to set and he snuck into Costco just as they were closing for the night.

It was a bad idea because it was pitch black and he couldn’t see anything. After running into a couple of shelves, he knocked himself out.

When he woke up, he realized he was in the place of wonderful things, Costco. Bob looked around and saw aisles and aisles of food and other things. Then he saw the managers. Bob knew that if the managers saw him, he would be in really big trouble. Strangely, they didn’t notice him.

Then Bob smelled something. That something was burgers. He did not know they were burgers because he had not seen them before. Then he started chomping away at the delicious burgers. When the customers came and started shopping, one saw Bob and fainted. Another saw Bob and told a manager. The manager called the animal 51

control. It took him a long time to convince the animal control that the situation was real. The animal control came in about ive minutes. They started chasing Bob. But Bob was too fast, which is really weird. Bob ran out of Costco and ran back in, confusing the animal control into thinking he ran away. Bob then inished of the burgers and came out of Costco very full. Then he went back up the hill and into the pig pen and greeted all the pigs with an oink.

The story of Bob the Pig would be known forever. It turns out that one of the customers took a video of Bob eating the burgers that went viral on the internet. Bob was now famous and his new dream was to travel the world tasting burgers from all diferent countries.

The End. And coming soon, Bob the Pig has gas!

52

FISSURE Conor Rose Hill Montessori School

The early morning light iltered through the windows of all the houses in Burlington. It was a Monday and it was snowing, of course. In Burlington, Vermont the winters are very cold. People would have competitions on who would turn their heaters on irst. Many of the people who live there will be playing at the lake at ten degrees Fahrenheit.

It was a very quiet town…Not today. The rumble started out small and then it grew until it was shaking the houses.

The ground started cracking, roofs started collapsing, then it started dying down until it stopped. Many of the people had fallen out of their beds. Cody Green woke to his face slamming into hardwood.

“Hello to you, too, morning!” Cody brumbled, as he pushed himself up.

He was a seventh grader at Baytown Junior High. He walked to the kitchen to get ready for school; a large crack was currently in the middle of the kitchen.

“Mom,” Cody yelled.

“I know, I know,” Cody’s Mom replied.

Cody’s Mom walked to the kitchen.

“Mo—” “I know,” soothed Cody’s Mom, interrupting him.

“Hey the good news is that it’s a snow day.”

“But we have to ix the giant crack in the kitchen,” replied Cody.

“I’ll get that. You go play at the sledding hill.”

In Vermont there is rarely a snow day, but since the earthquake triggered a power outage the snowplows couldn’t work. Cody grabbed his snow stuf and pulled on many layers of jackets and snow-pants, gloves and boots. As Cody walked outside, he grabbed his sled and was bombarded by the cold. It was snowing so hard Cody could only see about ifteen feet in front of him. As he trudged up the sledding hill he saw distant igures at the top of it. As Cody neared 53

the top, he noticed many of the people there. Most were from his school, but some were from the neighborhood.

He trudged over to meet them.

“You guys wanna race?” asked a tall kid with brown hair Cody didn’t recognize. In Vermont, sled racing was a big deal. Often, people would grab other’s sleds and shove them or push of of other people’s sled in the start. Cody thought of all of this and was almost certain the others were thinking of this too.

“Sure, but no foul-play such as pushing or bashing,” said Cody.

“Deal,” said the tall kid.

The ten kids set their sleds in the snow. Cody had a blue circular sled with two handles on the sides.

“Go!” shouted one of the kids.

Right of the bat, somebody pushed Cody for extra speed.

“Hey!” Cody yelled.

His heart was pounding as he took of down the hill.

The hill was a long run with many jumps and twists. Cody had inherited his sled from his father and could steer it very well. As he raced down the hill, he put his hand down to catch some snow. He then packed the snow into a snowball and hurled it at the brat.

He then heard a thud and a yell. As Cody rounded the corner, he saw the brat sprawled out on the snow. He vaguely glimpsed the remaining eight kids in front of him.

This part of the track was straight and had three jumps in the middle of it. Cody leaned forward, gaining speed to hit the middle jump. On the ascent, Cody caught about six feet of air.

In mid-air Cody lost his balance, his sled slid out from under him! He reached out, trying to snag it. Cody had almost hit the ground when the ground shook and a quick rumble came. It was the aftermath of the earthquake. The remaining eight kids had been thrown of their sleds, but Cody was still in the air when that happened. Cody hit hard but rolled as soon as he hit the ground his shoulder felt a sharp shot of pain, but he was ine besides that.

He quickly got on his sled and pushed of. He passed 54

seven of the kids but the eighth, a black-haired kid in a green coat, was already back on his sled. Cody and GreenCoat were neck and neck. They were on the inishing stretch, on the stretch with many cracks in the ground.

Cody turned his sled, making it so Green-Coat could turn.

Right before Cody and Green-Coat inished, Cody hit a clump of snow and jumped over a crack. Green-coat was not so fortunate. He hit the crack and fell of his sled.

Cody walked home ready for a warm breakfast.

55

THEA CONLEY Ellie Rose Hill Montessori School

Introduction: It is a normal, average, sunny day on precisely the thirteenth of May at 10:30 in the morning. In East Cream Drive, there are twelve houses. Six on one side of the culde-sac, and six on the other. Each house has a trimmed, green lawn, some with peach colored roses and others with purple primroses. Then a sound of a car comes, a wellkept, clean, black S.U.V. illed with unleaded gasoline and tires illed fully with air. This car, not before seen by the residents of the street, comes to a brake beside 31773 E. Cream Drive.

The man steps out of the car with a sign, looking business-like in a suit with a blue tie, holding nails and a hammer. He quickly hammers the sign into a board which is held up by two posts in the grass. The board that advertises, “Roselm Realtors” now reads “SOLD.” Chapter 1: Bonjour, je mapelle Thea Conley. Hola, me llama Thea Conley. Hello, my name is Thea Conley. 11.2 years of age.

New resident of 31773 E. Cream Drive. Status: Lonely.

Everyone teases me. “The Nerd,” I’m called. I wear the same kind of clothes every day: light-weight pants, blue hiking shirt and tennis shoes. Two braids of gold-brown unruly hair. Braces, but no glasses. Still 100% nerd.

I have a sharper chin, and ice-like grey eyes. Lighter skin and “nerdy” freckles. I am excited for my new school, and I love my new house. My room is practical: my bed and small dresser on one side of the room, and my desk and bookshelf on the other. This makes the room like two rooms—bedroom and oice. Coniguring my room like this gives me a sense of organization.

56

Chapter 2: Name: Thea Conley. Time: 6:30am. Action: Going to school on the bus. Status: Worried.

I am going to my new school, Elkoak Junior High. I skipped three grades and just turned eleven years of age, therefore putting me in junior high-school, 7th grade. The bus smells of rotting lunch and tennis shoes. The leather seats are cracked and worn. The girl sitting in the seat next to mine interests me. She is wearing sports gear, which is not the fashion the other girls wear. “Ia Johnason� reads the lunch bag perched in-between her book-bag and left sneakered-foot. I think I should like to be her friend.

57

OPPOSITE DAY Elyse Rose Hill Montessori School

A little while ago, April 3, 2012, to be exact, when Lilly Evelyn woke up. Lilly was ten years old, and had blond hair with blue eyes. For some reason, Lilly felt diferent. Not because it was Saturday. It was a diferent kind of diferent.

Lilly had a younger brother named Sam. Sam was ive years old, and had brown hair with brown eyes. Lilly and Sam met in the hallway.

“I feel weird,” said Lilly.

“So do I,” said Sam. “And it’s not because it’s Saturday.”

Lilly and Sam walked downstairs only to ind their parents sitting at the table.

“Why aren’t you at work, Dad?” asked Lilly and Sam’s Dad. “Who me?” asked Sam. “Yeah! Don’t you remember that you’re our parents?” asked Lilly and Sam’s Mom. “No, you’re our parents and you’re supposed to be at work, Dad,” said Lilly.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to play along,” said Lilly.

“Let’s get dressed in our own clothes and I should get to work,” said Sam. “Oh no! it’s twelve o’clock! We slept in until lunch time!” exclaimed Lilly.

Five minutes later Sam and Lilly were dressed in their clothes, and Sam was getting in the car, getting ready to drive away.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Lilly.

“Positive!” Sam replied conidently.

Sam turned the car on, and attempted to back out, but the car wasn’t in reverse.

“Whoops!” said Sam looking worried.

“You didn’t put it in reverse,” groaned Lilly.

Sam put the car in reverse.

“Bye!” he yelled over the car motor.

58

Lilly walked back inside and into the kitchen.

“I’m making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch!” Lilly said cheerfully.

Lilly started getting out ingredients, when out of nowhere Lilly’s Mom’s car crashed through the door like an elephant crashing into a house.

“Whoops!” yelled Sam, who was driving the car. “I forgot it was Saturday, so there’s no work today! Plus there’s a major traic problem downtown.”

Then suddenly, Lilly woke up with a jerk. She was so scared that she fell out of the bed and hit her head on the air vent.

“I’m so glad that wasn’t real,” said Lilly.

Sam suddenly walked in through the door and blurted, “Lilly, I had the weirdest dream last night. Mom and Dad were sitting at the table and we had a ight about who were the parents. We inally said we were, and I started driving the car to Dad’s work but it was Saturday and there were major traic problems downtown so I drove back home and accidentally crashed through the door and I woke up!”

“Wow!” exclaimed Lilly. “You know what’s really weird?

I had the same dream!”

“Oh no!” they both cried together.

They ran downstairs as fast as they could, only to ind their parents sitting at the table!

(And you know what happens after that!)

59

SENSES Sierra Rose Hill Montessori School

Chapter 1: In a place 500,000 light-years away is the Senses Alliance, and in the Senses Alliance there are six planets.

Earington, Feelton, Lickston, Noseaplin, Eyeville, and the head of the alliance, Brain World.

Each planet has a leader, and each leader has a headquarters. The leader of Earington is Sir Hear. The leader of Feelton is Emporer Finger. The leader of Lickston is King Tongue. The head of Noseaplin is Queen Snifa.

The head of Eyeville is Princess Seela. The head of all the alliances and Brain World is Star Lord Thinkaton.

Sir Hear’s headquarters is in a damp, grimy cave in the city of Earill. Emperor Finger’s headquarters is in a deep, dark, smooth trench in the city of Wrinkle. King Tonuge’s headquarters is in a rough, crisp abandoned salt-mine in the town of Tastemocline. Queen Snifa’s headquarters is a rocky, fried, dormant volcano in the town of Smellca.

Princess Seela’s headquarters is in a beautiful, smooth ice palace in the town of Sighto. Star Lord Thinkaton’s headquarters is in a cracked, dented giant skull in the city of New Heddelin.

Far away in the galaxy alliance, a science project gone wrong is attacking a small planet named Blanakin. The science project gone wrong is a green blob called Sglop. It has the power to take any shape. It has just created a new super weapon called Sglubbles. It can harness any element and can destroy planets. In the town of Blanakin, a maid is carrying a small child wrapped in a blanket. She sets the child down in a small scouting shuttle and sets its course to a close planet called Starton in the same alliance. The shuttle hovered above the ground for a few seconds, just long enough for the maiden to say goodbye. Then the shuttle took of toward Starton, but as the shuttle left the atmosphere, almost suddenly it was knocked of on an uncharted course by an asteroid loating by.

60

CREATIVE NON-FICTION Meringue – the sugary cousin of garlic, the color sister of a cloud, the texture aunt of chalk.

— IVY

GORONGOSA RESTORATION Lucas Idaho Distance Education Academy

Gorongosa is a national park in Mozambique, Africa.

Gorongosa used to be amazing; they called it “The Gem of Africa.” Gorongosa was a great park alright, but then a war erupted in Mozambique. Sadly, out of all the places in Mozambique the soldiers used Gorongosa as a base. The zebras were used as horses, wild boars and turkeys as food, and elephants for ivory. Many of the animals were killed and Gorongosa was destroyed.

Greg Carr, an Idaho philanthropist went to Mozambique and was inspired by the history of Gorongosa.

So, he decided to make Gorongosa his project. “Carr is the driving force behind the Gorongosa restoration project.”

There are two things that the project is doing.

First, it is helping the people in Mozambique around Gorongosa to get jobs. People have jobs as veterinarians, park rangers, teachers, farmers and doctors. Greg Carr and his crew made a farm, clinic and school house around Gorongosa. The jobs around Gorongosa help people to become educated and restore the park.

Second, the project is helping the national park of Gorongosa get restored. The project is teaming up with Zoo Boise. Zoo Boise decided to charge 50 cents of every admission to go straight to helping restore Gorongosa. “The zoo is investing two million dollars over the next ten years to the park.” Zoo Boise will also be adding a Gorongosa exhibit to the zoo. The exhibit should open around 2018.

65

BEAUTY THE BALD EAGLE Ava Idaho Distance Education Academy

Beauty is a bald eagle that was found nearly dead, in a landill in Alaska. A hunter shot of her top beak. She was rescued by Jane Cantwell and was taken near Coeur D’ Alene, Idaho to help her live. “Cantwell wished for a way to reconstruct Beauty’s beak so that she could lead a normal life.”

Beauty could not eat or tear ish so workers from Raptor Recovery are keeping her there while she recovers. They are making her a new beak and feeding her by a tube with liquid in it. Nate Calvin heard about Beauty and wanted to help. He has a computer with a 3D printer that could make her a new beak! “The next day Beauty already used her new beak to drink water and clean herself,” reported Brooke Kaelin Beauty is important to Idahoans because many people, veterinarians, and dentists donated time and money to help her. I guess that some people think it is interesting because the bald eagle is our country’s bird that resembles freedom.

I hope that these people can keep taking care of her and she can be free someday.

66

EWALU Noella Idaho Distance Education Academy

The Octopus Palace is ready for their juvenile giant paciic octopus! Her name is Ewalu (eh-va-loo) which is Hawaiian for 8. The 1200 gallon cold seawater exhibit has a two chambered tank for eating, sleeping and playing! This tank gives the octopus a happier healthier environment with caves to explore! This octopus has the problem solving skills of an 8 year old child, can change colors in a second to hide, and she can open toys to get food! The new palace features a corridor for Ewalu to travel back and forth between the feeding area and play area with toys!

In the future, go to the corner of Cole and Franklin to see her for yourself.

67

LOST IN THE 50s Gretta Idaho Distance Education Academy

Lost in the 50s is a car parade in Sandpoint, Idaho that has been running since 1986. Whether it is sunny, rainy, or cloudy people always come to watch the May car parade with the 50s cars. There are a lot of cars. It feels like 100 but it is over 700! People come from Montana, Washington, and Sandpoint to get Lost in the 50s. “It is the biggest event in Sandpoint,” says Hotrod.com The concert sounds like so much fun! The concert is fun because they bring musicians from the 50s to the concert! It is hard because either they are old and don’t sing any more or they passed away. There is a group of singers called the Tokens from the 50s and they sing a very good song called The Lion sleeps Tonight. It is my favorite 50s song.

The clothing is so cute! The hair is really cool! The men put their hair to the side or to the front. The women do not wear their hair straight. If they put their hair in a ponytail they would curl it. There was no such thing as messy hair in the 50s.

The car parade is so much fun! The parade is loud and it makes pollution. It isn’t that bad after you get used to it.

My grandpa rides in the parade and they throw candy to the crowd. We can take it home and eat it. I like the candy!

Photo credit: ineartamerica.com At the car show you can walk around and look at the car’s engines that look confusing. There are people walking in the middle of the street. The cars are awesome; there are a lot of them to look at. I think it is cool because there is a car with lames on it.

My favorite things in Lost in the 50s are the car show, and the car parade. I think that other people would like Lost in the 50s!

68

PUPPY TROUBLE Annie Idaho Distance Education Academy

If you get a puppy, a lot of people will tell you that your dog should take training sessions. I think training dogs is ine, but I also wonder if they have started to learn less.

My grandmother Adams got a puppy named Pearl, and she is kind of a naughty puppy. My grandma decided to take Pearl to a puppy behavior class. She soon discovered that Pearl gets car sick. When she found out, she started giving Pearl a seasickness pill. This makes her drowsy. When she goes to the class, she is too drugged to pay attention. Then the teacher has everyone take out their dog and work on a trick she wants them to learn. Pearl does well, but because of the pill she takes, she forgets just about everything she was just taught. The only thing that would wake her mind is popping. Popping a dog is when you hit your dog on the snout if it is biting. The problem with that is that a drowsy dog normally doesn’t bite.

I think this problem would change if people started teaching online puppy classes, where you can just video call the teacher or something like that. Then, your puppy does not need a pill, but it can learn when it is being itself.

69

MEMORY OF SPRING BREAK Timmy West Canyon Elementary

This is my memory of spring break. We got into the truck and we drove up to Council. When we got to Council we found our house and we found a very, very big pond. We stopped and went in the house and watched a movie. After the movie we went to get our water at the pond. We will ill our jugs by using smaller pitchers. We took the jugs back to the house and used the water to wash dishes. I went to play gods outside. While experiencing lots of fun we also experienced setbacks. This included our power going out on the last day. This is my memory of spring break.

70

HISTORY OF WEST CANYON Joselynn West Canyon Elementary

West Canyon was irst built in 1971. The school counselor Mrs. Reed has been here for 19 years. Mrs. Reed said she does not know the years that it took to build West Canyon. The teachers that have been here longest are Mrs. Dario, Mrs. Bright, and Mr. Avasher. “The irst meal was sloppy joes I think,� says Mrs. Read.

She remembers the principal in 1976 loved them. His name was Mr. Luis. The principal now is Mrs. Dodd. She is amazing. She has been here for 8 years.

When they irst started there was open pods. Open pods is when there are two or more class and there are no walls to separate them. West Canyon has been up for 40 years! I love West Canyon and all the amazing teachers.

GO BLUBIRDS!!!! DARE TO DREAM, IT MATTERS!!!!

71

DEBATE: SHOULD SPORTS BE ALLOWED AT SCHOOL? Hunter and Cristian West Canyon Elementary

Do you think sports should be allowed at school? What we think is yes because you get a daily exercise.

Sports prevent obesity for you. You may think that kids will get into ights, but that is why there is problem-solving.

You also will make friends and have more and more people to play with you and be active. If you don’t like eating healthy, but like to play sports then that is another reason why. If you play sports in high-school and you are really good at what you do then you might get a scholarship and go to your favorite college.

Another reason that we think sports should be allowed at school is goal-setting and teamwork. Those are really good things because kids need to learn to be kind to one another and kids need to work really hard so they can achieve any goal they set. Why should teachers take away something that kids or pre teens love.

These were some of the reasons why we think sports should be allowed in school.

72

MEMORY OF SHADOW Gavin West Canyon Elementary

It was the night before we had to leave our trip to Arizona. We were at my mom’s friend’s house. I was hanging out with their cat, Shadow. The cat would lay down shyly but was still agile. I stared into the cat’s eyes seeing the relection of the couch and me. But his skin was oily, and because of that the fur glistened from the moon’s light creeping in from the window. Although I was sad we were leaving to Idaho. The more I looked at the cat the more soothed I became. There was only one thing, his name, I never asked what his name was. Leah and Rudy were cooking tacos. My mom and dad were swimming, same with my brother.

“Shadow, Shadow,” the name repeated in my head like in a movie. So the cat had a perfect match of characterization as a shadow; agile, sneaky and a deep black color. The only diference was the he had amber eyes standing out in the midst of his fur. They glowed like dimmed ireworks. Staring at them made me feel like I no longer have a foot on earth.

Well I didn’t exactly ascend from Earth, I had closed my soul on it, leaving it to rest. But I realized that it was time to leave, it was time to leave him, it was time to leave Arizona.

As I said my “Goodbye” I cuddled Shadow a long time. We walked from their home to our Suburban, and we drove away, we saw scorpions, cacti and The Park. The Park was a big giant Shadow.

73

THE PARTY Matt West Canyon Elementary

One fantastic memory I had was a tailgate party in 3rd grade in April 2013. I was in Mrs. Cramer’s class. And we won.

The school was collecting box tops to raise money for West Canyon Elementary school. But there’s an addition!

The class that raises the most money and brings in the most box tops gets a tailgate party! We tallied them up and we won! We were just counting days after that!

Then the party. We set up chairs outside the circle to eat the burgers, hot dogs, chips, and drink soda. We got in a line, got our stuf, and then ate. We felt a litte breeze, yet it didn’t matter because the taste of the food was delicious! We ate and then went for recess.

We played football, well, just the boys, and the girls played on the jungle gym. When we got inside, outside was an oven and the classroom the North Pole compared to each other.

We all have that memory and that’s how I remember it.

74

FOOD REVIEW: CHILI AND TORTILLA Glecilyn West Canyon Elementary

I did a food review on Wednesday and it was chili and tortilla. I got chili. It was like beans and was good. It looked wet and sticky. It felt soft and wet at the same time. It smelled good like sweet sauce I like chili. I interviewed 12 people about liking chili. Four people didn’t like chili, but eight people did.

After I was done eating I took some notes and this is what I thought was is interesting. Chili was made in 1893.

In 1880 a market in San Antonio started selling chili.

This is one of my very interesting facts I found when I was looking up about chili. I found this fact: U.S president Lyndon B. Johnson was a chili lover. The irst chili bake of took place in 1967 in Terlingua.

I think it is fun to do food reviews because you get to do research and get to know facts about food like chili and that it’s pretty cool learning to do lots of writing. I like chili because it’s good and that’s actually my favorite food. Do you like chili or do you not like chili? You should eat chili some day.

75

THE TIME MY BROTHER CAME TO PRESENT THINGS ABOUT COLLEGE Emily West Canyon Elementary

My brother came to my school to present things we should know about college. My brothers name is Ali. He came with his friend Carry. They used to go to the College of Idaho but now he goes to Lewis-Clark state college.

But in the year 2014 he still went to College of Idaho. My brother Ali came on November 25, 2014. In the room it was illed with 4th and 5th graders. I felt so excited to see my brother. It smelled like my brothers cologne and it looked like the library. Then it started, I felt embarrassed cause my brother said, “Hey everybody my name is Ali and this is my friend Carry. I’m the brother of Emily Garcia.” I felt so embarrassed he told me to stand but I said “Nooo!”

Finally, it ended. Me and my brother went to lunch.

Eventually, my brother played football with the boys.

76

UNIFORMS YES OR NO Zac West Canyon Elementary

Imagine not being able to show your style of at school.

That is what some kids are having to do. Many kids don’t like wearing uniforms and nether do I, but that is our opinion. What is yours?

My irst reason I don’t think uniforms should be a priority is that you don’t get to show of your style. Kids have their own style. They also should be able to pick their own clothes to wear. The other reason of that is that they all want to wear their own style of clothes. It should be a choice to wear uniforms, not a priority.

The next reason I think that they shouldn’t be a priority is that you don’t get to express yourself. Some examples of that are you look just like everyone around you. You also don’t get to show who you really are. They also want you to look like everyone else. So people won’t get distracted in class.

Here are some facts from the U.S. In the South West 400 people said no to uniforms, 64 said yes. In central U.S 573 said no, 137 said yes. In North East 1031 said no, 2177 said yes. In the North West 9 said no, 14 said yes. In the west 241 said no 79 said yes.

Those are the reasons I think uniforms should not be a priority.

77

FRENCH FOOD IS UNFAIR Carson West Canyon Elementary

Have you ever thought about moving to France? For school? So, they have their food made 2 months in advance and sent to a nutritionist. Also they have no frozen premade meals. They’re made by hand. On Tuesday they have roast beef with baked potatoes with a kiwi and a cabbage and tomato salad. Wait, that is not all they get, they also have breaded ish sausage and real marinated and those are only the main meals. So if you have the chance to go to France for school I suggest you go.

78

THE BIOGRAPHY OF HEATHER WRENCH Kansas West Canyon Elementary

Heather Wrench is a third grade teacher at West Canyon Elementary. She’s in her thirties and has been teaching for eleven years. Mrs. Wrench loves the color green. She has two children, one in third grade, Dillon, and one in preschool, Sierra. Mrs. Wrench has always loved teaching kids to learn.

Mrs. Wrench has always wanted to be a teacher her whole life. When Mrs. Wrench irst began college she wanted to teach preschool, but once she started she decided that she wanted to teach elementary her whole life.

She went to college in California. Mrs. Wrench went to that college because it was close to home, and was afordable. She actually went to two colleges, irst junior then regular.

Mrs. Wrench’s favorite memory from teaching was to get to watch students from the beginning of the year when they couldn’t read, to the end where they master reading.

Mrs. Wrench loves to be outdoors with her family. Her favorite things to do all involve nature, riding bikes with her family, camping, and hiking.

Mrs. Wrench is a pretty, smart, and intelligent woman.

She has blue eyes, blonde shoulder length hair with bangs.

She is funny and sweet. She loves to help others persevere and try. She loves kids. Mrs. Wrench is caring, and loving to all those around her.

79

FOOD REVIEW - NACHOS Katanya West Canyon Elementary

As I was sitting down to eat in a cool cafeteria, grateful to have something warm to eat, I took a bite out of a chip covered in melted cheese, known as a nacho. I was blown away by its deliciousness. I was eating it with my friend, Grace, who was also experiencing the taste of this divine cheesy food. I was eating it slow and enjoyable, savoring it’s taste. The smell was very refreshing, but it looked too cheesy, but I was wrong-it was just right. As I picked up a plate of dry chip, it felt rough and salty. It even felt yummy!

There were many things that I liked about this dish, but one of the highlights was how cheesy it was, how it was made, and how tasty it was. I was amazed and ind myself thinking that this is a food beyond compare.

80

PIG DAYS Ruben West Canyon Elementary

One day at school in the morning my 4th grade teacher came and told me to go back to his class, but one of his students brought pigs. We had to go through a presentation and then a couple of minutes later I went outside to pet pigs. There were three pigs so I pet each one and then I went back to class and everything else was normal. The pigs’ colors were, two pink, and one brown. I also was very happy because pigs are my favorite.

81

INTERVIEW: REAGAN RAE JACKSON Maudelynn West Canyon Elementary

Reagan Rae Jackson is an exciting six year old. She has hazel eyes and dirty unruly blonde hair. Reagan has a brother and a sister; Maudelynn is the oldest then Jantyen then Reagan. Her birthday is November 24th, 2009.

Reagan likes to play. She likes to play Barbies, outside with the dogs Yinc and Yoo, and also with her brother and sister. She said her favorite thing to do with her siblings is to play Minecraft. Reagan’s favorite colors are blue, pink, and purple.

One of her family traditions is waking up early on Christmas and Easter, and her always being the irst to eat the candy.

Reagan has broken a bone before. She was on the monkey bars and fell on her wrist. She said the pain was crazy. It hurt so bad. Reagan also said her wrist turned purple. She got a pink cast and everybody signed it.

Reagan is an awesome kindergartener.

82

GOING TO BAKER CITY Karina West Canyon Elementary

One of my favorite memories is when I went to Baker City. I was in 4th grade, the bus took about 4 hours to get to Oregon. When we got there we got a paper and we had to answer all the questions. I was with my friend Faith and her mom as a group. I brought a whole bunch of rocks, candy, and a treasure box. Faith and I dressed like country girls and took pictures.

There were tracks where you can walk and see awesome things and we went to one and it was a wool maker. We saw the wool maker inside the house and it was made out of metal. It was awesome. After that we went to walk and for no reason we ended up where the wagons were and then we went on top of one and it felt like the old days. It was time to go.

Halfway to school the bus broke down. We had to go in a diferent bus and we were very crowded. Finally we got to West Canyon and had a very fun day. My favorite part was when we got dressed like a country girl.

83

Noah’s Life Greg West Canyon Elementary

Noah’s full name is Noah Riley Blum. Noah’s birthday is March 26, 1994. Noah’s favorite video games to play are Halo Reach because him and his brother built their own map, and his other favorite video game to play is Call of duty Advanced Warfare because he knows cheats for the game. Noah has three siblings one brother and two sisters. His brother’s name is Konor, his sisters’ names are Bailey and Emily.

Noah told me he was very crazy. Noah doesn’t like his two sisters. He likes his brother to play football with and to play video games with, Konor. Noah’s best friend names is Coltin B. Noah says his personality is funny and friendly.

Noah’s favorite place to go is Kart Time and Wahooz. He likes Kart Time and Wahooz to ride go karts. Noah has three favorite football teams they are Seattle Seahawks, Boise State Broncos, and the Carolina Panthers.

If Noah were in a video game he would be in Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare so he could hide in one spot all game. His favorite thing to do at his house is to play football with his dad and brother because he gets money every time he catches the football. Noah’s favorite book is Hatchet because of the adventures and it has a good ending. Noah would want a little brother to play football with. Noah wants to be a welder when he grows up. Noah’s best friends are Coltin B and Ruben because they like Noah for who he his. Noah is an amazing ifth grader.

84

MY NAME Machaiah Idaho Distance Education Academy

Machaiah. Long, thick, hard to say, hard to understand.

And old. With a name as old as the Bible itself, sometimes you feel like it identiies you. I should be as mature as my name portrays. I should be as proper as the ones I was named after. I should be as brave as the queen my name was derived from. But all of these things just seem like burdens added on.

The correct description of my name is a question; “Who is like God?” And while the answer is no one, it feels like a pressure to show that I can be like God, if I tried. My name makes me feel like I need to be reaching for goals, impossible ones.

My mother loves the name; she always had. She has told me that when she opened up a book of baby names, the irst name she saw was Machaiah. It was truly love at irst sight. But for me, it was just a struggle. Everyone, teachers, Sunday school teachers, you name it. Everyone had trouble with my name.

I was always the strange kid when it came to my eloquent name. Surely, my name shouldn’t separate me from others.

Yet it seemed to, in a strange way. If you couldn’t remember a person’s name, you were less likely to call on them, or invite them to play. It was always diicult. And even now, I still have to repeat my name multiple times to any new person I meet.

A simple name would be nicer, something everyone knows how to pronounce, that lows of the tongue. A name that is so popular, it doesn’t stick you to one stereotype. I try to call myself Kia whenever I introduce myself. But it doesn’t seem any easier to spell, nor any easier to break away from.

Sometimes, I dream of changing my name. Maybe I’d even change it just for the sake of making it easier to develop new goals and aspirations. I just can’t think of any name that feels right. When I look at myself in the mirror, I 85

can’t see a Jenny, or Sally, or an Esperanza. I see Machaiah, and no way to see anyone else.

So I may be dissatisied with my name, but I can’t bear to try anything else. Nothing else seems right. So I will stick with Machaiah. Long, thick, hard to say, hard to understand, but my name.

86

IF HER SPIRIT WAS WITH ME Hannah Idaho Distance Education Academy

My grandma Myrt was short with a white head of hair, her face was wrinkly but soft, and her eyes were a sparkly Blue. She was kind, and made everyone smile. She loved to spend time with her family and she also liked to work in her bountiful garden with lowers, and veggies galore. I am imagining her lively spirit coming back to life and I can see her working in her garden digging up carrots, potatoes, and beets. She is cold and wears a leece sweater in the hottest of weather. Hard at work in her garden, I tell her to take a break and relax in the cool shade and I inish the work. She is as hard headed as a rock, and says she is just ine and she can inish the work. I tell her about school, dance, violin and other things about my family that have happened since she has been gone. I picture her in her green rocking chair, in her kitchen looking out her tiny window, and seeing the shimmering snow fall. . . listening to my thoughts.

87

SISTER OF A CLOUD Ivy Idaho Distance Education Academy

Meringue-- the sugary cousin of garlic, the color sister of a cloud, the texture aunt of chalk. It smells like a cheap Nilla wafer. When you bite in to it the crunch will cause Pompeii. The chalk-like texture could break a baby’s jaw.

It is made of pure sugar. Sometimes, parts of the cookie adhere to your teeth like a marshmallow. When you see it for the irst time you ly in to heaven with vanilla-bean leaf wings! I could imagine myself consuming this sugary cloud at a fancy Italian restaurant where they only serve mini-appetizers. The aftertastes are like sugar particles that you don’t want to slide down your slippery throat. The meringue could have been made by a magic baker. In a magic kitchen, with a magic oven!

88

A GAME I USED TO PLAY Anna P. Idaho Distance Education Academy

I used to play many games when I was younger. I outgrew most of them, but the game still lives on. The joy that radiates from me when I play the games is still there.

For example, I used to pretend I was Dora the Explorer, and romp around the house. I had my own Dora the Explorer plastic, talking backpack that contained a fake map, compass, telescope, and video camera. I would pack up the backpack, and then walk around for a little while until I thought up something I had to “ind”. I would then open up the backpack, and pull out the map. My face would have a serious expression pasted on it as I looked at the map, as if I really was Dora and I really did need to “ind” that object. I would then “follow” the map. I would occasionally “check” the compass to see if I was going in the right direction.

I would also look through the telescope. All the while, I would be “videotaping” everything, and talking as if I were Dora herself.

When I inally found what I was “looking for”, I would celebrate.

As I said before: I outgrew most of the games I used to play, but the game still lives on. And with this game, that is especially true. Now the house is smaller (Fun fact: I have moved twice, and I think the house I am currently living in is bigger than the house I lived in when I was four). I can’t imagine the scenery as well as when I was four years old. Now chairs aren’t mountains, carpeted areas aren’t vast deserts, and cats aren’t mountain lions. But it’s not the house that’s smaller-- I’m the one who’s bigger. I still love to go on adventures, real or fake. I would love to go camping.

But if my backpack started talking, I would probably throw it of a clif.

89

THIS I BELIEVE Mya Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

I believe in the power of photographs. Photographs show us what we used to be and what we have become. Just like life, they can bring us happiness and sadness. I believe in photographs because they let me see my brother and sister, even though we are on opposite sides of the world.

My favorite photograph is of my grandpa. He’s wearing his favorite hat, the one I would take and put on my head when I was a little girl, but it would just fall down over my eyes.

And he’s wearing that same gold watch. I’d always ask him what time it was and he would show me the watch and say, “You tell me.”

My grandpa is gone, but I still have this picture. I believe in photographs because they keep us close to the things we love most.

90

ONE-ACT PLAYS Dad, sorry to burst your “happy day”, but I have some news: you…are…totally…baloney! I haven’t gotten any high heels since September and, like, I was wondering, do you love me at all?

— KATHERINE

ADVENTURE IN THE WOODS Lily Trail Wind Elementary

CHARACTERS: Channele Menalopea Soia Lydia Mistey/Narrator NARRATOR: Let me introduce myself. My name is Mistey Purdy. I am a narrator. I work for people who don’t know me. And they don’t know I am working for them, but still they have to pay me, and I follow them around. Let’s get to the point. It was a dark and stormy night! Just kidding. So, I am in their room. Whose room you ask? I’m in Channele, Menalopea, and Soia’s room.

TRIPLETS (surprised): Who’s talking!

NARRATOR (perky): I am!

TRIPLETS (scared): I am who?

NARRATOR: Ooooooh. I think I forgot to tell you.

CHANNELE: Tell us what?

NARRATOR (sassy): That I am the narrator to your story, “Adventure in the Woods.” I thought you knew about YOUR story.

MENALOPEA: Oh yah! That thing.

CHANNELE: Oh and let me introduce myself. My name is Channele. My nickname is, yes, Mrs. Perfect Pants, but not in a mean way. I like things to be right.

95

SOFIA: Anyway, we have to get this story started. Oh, and I am Soia. My nickname is Mrs. Question. I ask a lot of those.

NARRATOR: So they need to get dressed to go to their best friend, Lydia’s, party. P.S.: Lydia is awesome.

MENALOPEA: Let’s get dressed. Oh and I am Menalopea.

My nickname is I don’t have one.

SOFIA and CHANNELE: Yeah you do!

MENALOPEA: Ok it’s Do Fries Come With That Shake. I like junk food. (yelling) Bye mom, bye dad!

SOFIA (sassy): No one’s home.

MENALOPEA: Oh! NARRATOR: Right now, the girls are walking down the street to their crazy best friend, Lydia’s, party. Why is she crazy. Well, she’s crazy because she eats worms, collects different DNAs by taking tissues out of the trash. Wow! SOFIA: Why are we Lydia’s BFFs? CHANNELE: I don’t know.

SOFIA: What did we get her?

MENALOPEA: I don’t know. Well I do but be quiet.

SOFIA: Why do humans have eyes and…

CHANELLE: Be quiet!

MENALOPEA: Yeah, be quiet!

SOFIA (talking to both): Why are you so MAD? 96

MENALOPEA: Because Mrs. Perfect Pants doesn’t like to be late.

CHANNELE: She was talking to both of us. And your nickname is Do Fries Come with That Shake? My nickname’s weird.

NARRATOR: Ok be quiet.

SOFIA : Oh look, we’re here!

Ding dong.

MENALOPEA: When you come in, say that you are our cousin, OK? NARRATOR (manly): OK. Sir, I mean, (girly) Ma’am.

LYDIA: Hi guys, you’re almost in time for, LEAVING! CHANNELE: Sorry, we were running “a little” bit late.

LYDIA: We are just opening presents and who is this?

MENALOPEA: This is our cousin Mistey.

LYDIA: Come sit down on the carpet, we’ll open presents.

NARRATOR: Lydia is opening her presents.

LYDIA: This is so cool. I was always wanting a genealogy kit!

MISTEY & TRIPLETS: You are welcome.

NARRATOR: Everyone thinks it is weird but she thinks it’s awesome.

LYDIA: Thanks for coming. Well bye guys. I’ll walk you home. Oh and I have an awesome shortcut. Let’s go.

97

NARRATOR: What they don’t know is that the “shortcut” has dangerous traps and dangerous things.

CHANNELE: This looks like more of a haunted shortcut.

LYDIA: It is!

NARRATOR: Maybe this story should of started with it was a dark and stormy night. Menalopea falls in quicksand.

MENALOPEA: Ahhhhhh!!!!!! Help, I am stuck in quicksand.

EVERYONE: Hold on, we’ll ind something to pull you with.

SOFIA: Hold to each other now!!!

NARRATOR: Yay! We got her.

CHANNELE: Did you know that was gonna happen?

LYDIA: Yes. Let’s go.

SOFIA: Like that was funny!!

NARRATOR: Soia is about to get trapped by a plant that eats cake. No biggy!

SOFIA: Ummmmmm! Guys, a plant is grabbing ME! HHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!

CHANNELE: Does anyone have scissors?

NARRATOR: I do! Oh, no I don’t.

LYDIA: I actually do!

MENALOPEA: I wasn’t expecting an answer.

98

LYDIA: Awh, got it.

SOFIA: Thanks!

NARRATOR: Everyone is crazy!

ALL: I just noticed that too.

LILY: You just noticed that?

NARRATOR: There was an awkward moment of silence… ………………

SOFIA: Awkward.

NARRATOR: Channele falls in a sinkhole.

CHANNELE: EEEEEE!! Help, this sinkhole is huge.

NARRATOR: Does anyone have a rope?

LYDIA: I do!

MENALOPEA: Again, wasn’t expecting an answer.

CHANNELE: Thanks! I hope this doesn’t happen again.

NARRATOR: It’s gonna happen again, to me. Who cares?

Just wait, watch and see! Ummm, I knew this was gonna happen! But seriously, HHHEEELLLLPPPPPP. MENALOPEA: Woaaa, what did you fall into it? It looks horrible, but seriously, what did you fall into? It stinks.

NARRATOR: There’s a skunk hole.

CHANNELE: How do you know?

NARRATOR: A skunk is sitting on my head.

SOFIA (sassy): Lydia, rope, now!

99

LYDIA: Gotcha.

MENALOPEA: Again…

CHANNELE: Stop. We know what you’re gonna say.

SOFIA: Oh look, it’s our house. This led right to our back fence. Well bye!

MENALOPEA: Why are you still following us?

NARRATOR: Who, me? Oh, I thought maybe we could be friends.

CHANNELE: Oh, that sounds good.

MENALOPEA: This was a long, crazy day.

NARRATOR: A few weeks later, I had a B-day and they came, including Lydia, and they gave me a necklace. That’s it. Bye. All: To be continued…

100

GOOD OL’ KING LARRY Katherine Trail Wind Elementary

Scene 1 LARRY is coming to his castle on a horse. Horse goes into fast trot.

LARRY: Dum Dee Dum—Whoa!

Pulls on reins, horse rears, Larry is sent to the moat, horse trots away.

LARRY (is sinking): Huh? Blub Blub Blub.

Knight comes along.

KNIGHT: Oh no. Larry’s in the moat again. Better go rescue him.

Prepares to jump in moat. NARRATOR goes onstage, and shoves the knight away, knight falls.

NARRATOR: Hey there everyone! I’m the narrator and I’m here to tell you about that guy.

Points to Larry.

NARRATOR (con’t): His name is Larry. He’s kinda crazy so don’t mind him.

Glances at Larry.

NARRATOR (con’t): Uh-Oh. Looks like he’s drowning badly. Knight!

Knight stands.

NARRATOR: Go rescue Larry!

Narrator goes to side stage.

101

KNIGHT: Finally!

Jumps in moat, grabs Larry and pulls him out. Larry slowly grins a scary grin.

LARRY: Thankee Shankee Knight! I’m gonna go change.

KNIGHT: I’ll escort you!

They start walking to the castle.

NARRATOR: Uh oh. I see something evil.

He looks up at EVIL QUEEN, who is watching as Larry and Knight walk to castle. She taps her ingers impatiently.

NARRATOR: This does not look good.

Scene 2 The royal dining hall. Larry, Queen and DAUGHTER are eating.

DAUGHTER: Dad, sorry to burst your “happy day”, but I have some news: you…are…totally…baloney! I haven’t gotten any high heels since September and, like, I was wondering, do you love me at all?

Does mad Bambi eyes.

LARRY: I don’t think salt goes on ketchup. Sugar does.

DAUGHTER: Dad! Seriously! You aren’t taking this seriously! Hmph!

Leaves table.

LARRY: Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum (etc.). Was it something I said?

102

EVIL QUEEN: Larry, you really ought to get our daughter something.

Evil queen is quiet but mouths out words.

NARRATOR: Okay, this part’s not really what you want to see so, let’s skip that. We will go to the part when Evil Queen and her daughter are out taking over the world and Larry is trying to stop them…

Scene 3 In castle. Narrator looks at stage.

NARRATOR: Action!

Moves to side of stage.

LARRY (picks up phone and dials): 111-1112…

DIAMA LEM: Alo? Who’s there?

LARRY (grins): Larry the awesome-est.

DIAMA LEM: Hi! What do you need this time? Jacuzzi?

Tennis ball? Clay?

LARRY: My wife and daughter are taking over the planet. I need help.

DIAMA LEM: I love that movie! Wanna go see it?

LARRY: It’s happening now.

DIAMA LEM: Oh. I’ll help!

LARRY: Watch the movie?

DIAMA LEM: No! Destroy your wife and daughter!

103

LARRY (looks sad): Oh. Okay.

DIAMA LEM: I’ll meet you at your castle!

NARRATOR: 3 seconds later…

DIAMA LEM (outside castle): I’m here! I asked your wife and daughter to meet us here.

Evil Queen and Daughter slowly go to corner of stage and walk in place.

LARRY: What should we do? Hug them? That works with my dog!

Starts daydreaming and sighs.

DIAMA LEM (slaps his forehead): No! You talk it out!

LARRY: Okay!

Turns toward Evil Queen and Daughter.

LARRY (con’t.): I know it was wrong and I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Wanna hug?

EVIL QUEEN: No. You always were so happ— DIAMA LEM: Hey! Let’s just get along and be friends, OK? Friends!

DAUGHTER: Why? I wanna ight!

DIAMA LEM: OK then!

Draws two swords.

DIAMA LEM (con’t.): Larry! Catch!

Throws Larry sword. It hits Larry. Larry falls. Everyone stares at Larry for 3 seconds, then looks back at each other.

104

EVIL QUEEN: Time to die, whatever your name is.

DIAMA LEM: It’s Diama Lem. Lem for short.

EVIL QUEEN: Whatever. Time to die Lem. Corners him.

DIAMA LEM: There’s only one thing left to do.

14/482m+b(c=Zx2)/2.18-9=√3x18000000/George Washington+EVIL QUEEN: Stop! We’re sorry! We surrender!

DAUGHTER (simultaneous): WE surrender! We’re sorry! Stop!

Both of them fall to their knees and repeat:

EVIL QUEEN: Stop! We’re sorry! We surrender!

DAUGHTER (simultaneous): WE surrender! We’re sorry! Stop!

LARRY (stands up): Wha-? How? You defeated them!

How?!?!

DIAMA LEM: Plan D…’rithmetic or, math.

LARRY: Um… DIAMA LEM: Never mind. Anyways— Points at Evil Queen and Daughter.

DIAMA LEM (con’t.): Why did you take over the world?

Larry stumbles ofstage, muttering wha? etc.

EVIL QUEEN: I won’t tell.

105

DAUGHTER: I won’t tell either.

DIAMA LEM: x=T+2 (T=M/DAUGHTER: I’ll tell! I’ll tell! It’s just that…we didn’t really want to be girls in this play. We wanted to be men who play shuleboard. The only person who could turn us to men was a mysterious person named Katherine, and nobody knows where she is. So, in order to ind her, we had to take over the world!

DIAMA LEM: Wow. Narrator pops in.

NARRATOR: Hey! Did somebody mention Katherine? I know her.

Everyone stares at Narrator in bewilderment.

NARRATOR: I’ll call her in! Katherine!

Katherine enters.

KATHERINE: Yo. You called, Ryan?

DAUGHTER: Your name’s Ryan?

NARRATOR: Yes. Katherine, these girls— Points to Evil Queen and Daughter.

NARRATOR:—want to be men. Can you turn them into men?

KATHERINE: Sure.

Writes on notebook and Queen and Daughter turn to men and Katherine walks away.

MEN (together): Let’s go play shuleboard!

106

They run away and Larry jogs in.

DIAMA LEM: Well, all’s well that ends well! Now let’s go see the movie My Wife And Daughter Are Taking Over The World. I Need Help.

LARRY and NARRATOR: Okay!

They run away. All characters enter, say The End and leave.

107

HOME Michel Trail Wind Elementary

CHARACTERS: Michel Ryan Jarvis Benhamion Nora Mysterious Narrator Scene 1 Robot noise. Whistle blowing in a football stadium. RYAN is drinking water on a metal bench. MICHEL walks in.

MICHEL: Hey, bud!

RYAN (in a confused way): …

Ten-second awkward moment.

RYAN: Umm, who are you?

MICHEL: Oh, stop it, you know who I am!

RYAN: You are…a (slowly) guy that’s name is Jarvis?

MICHEL: WHAT?! No I’m Michel, were you brain washed?

RYAN (looking like he doesn’t know at all): Oh no I was just joking…Totally!

NARRATOR: Ryan suddenly knows who he is and Michel disappears. Ryan sees a plane ly and about to crash. The plane crashes and Ryan goes to check stuf out. He sees it’s Jarvis and Nora.

108

Scene 2 RYAN: Jarvis! Nora! Are you OK? JARVIS: Yeah, that was just a plane test.

RYAN (yelling): You mean crashing a plane is a plane test?

NORA: Actuall— JARVIS: Actually you’re in a simulator.

Hologram shields rise up.

Scene 3 MICHEL: Hello test subject 170083, also known as RYAN. RYAN (yelling): So you mean all this time I spent with my mom and dad…THEY WERE FAKE??!!

MICHEL: Yea, it’s a simulator, everything is fake.

Ryan starts crying.

MICHEL: Kinda…

RYAN: What do you mean?

NORA: Well, your dad is— JARVIS: ME! MICHEL: No, stop it.

JARVIS: Why? BEHAMION: I’m your father, Luke Skywalker…I mean Ryan.

109

Ben and Michel start an eye staring contest.

MICHEL: Brother.

RYAN: Wait, what?

Silence.

RYAN: Then who’s my mom?

BENHAMION: We never knew.

RYAN: This is a dream!

Ryan starts crying.

MICHEL: Why, what, who, what?!

Robot noise: system failure, backup power shutting d—

MICHEL: Ryan, Nora, Benha—forget it just get OUT! The whole place is falling down!

Scene 4 Ryan and Jarvis get out, the rest are trapped.

BENHAMION: No! MICHEL: Stop being a wimp!

BENHAMION: He’s my son, and I am not a WIMP! MICHEL: OK, OK! NORA: Can we just get moving?

MICHEL: OK! 110

NORA: Michel.

MICHEL: Yes? NORA: You know the way out, right?

MICHEL: Yes, Maybe, no.

NORA (face gets red, then pauses, then): You don’t know the way out?

MICHEL: Actua— NORA: You built this place!

MICHEL: No, you planned it so shouldn’t you know?

NORA: Oh yea. Go forward. Take a left. Press a button. Go in. Take another left. Go up to the right, go on the ladder, go down and— MICHEL: We’re there, YAY! NORA: No, go down again, take a left.

Scene 5 Ten hours later, on the other side of Jarvis and Ryan.

RYAN: Let’s ind the others!

JARVIS: You think you can ind them, in that?

Jarvis points at the destroyed hologram.

RYAN: Well we got a chance.

JARVIS: Nope, not happening! I think even here is better than home.

111

RYAN: They call it home for a reason.

Back at the others.

Scene 6 NORA: We’re halfway there.

BENHAMION (eating and talking): and I’m halfway done with this yummy delicious candy bar.

Nora looks at Ben in a paranoid way.

NORA: Oh my gosh!

Nora grabs the bar out of Ben’s mouth.

BENHAMION: Hey! Nora throws it on the loor.

Scene 7 MICHEL: Annd we’re out.

RYAN (in a monotone way): Yay. JARVIS (in a startled way): Wow, that worked.

RYAN: See, told you.

MICHEL: Let’s go home.

ROBOT: Backup power failing.

Holograms raise up.

112

Scene 8 MYSTERIOUS: Welcome sons and daughter.

MICHEL, RYAN, NORA, BEN, JARVIS: What?!

NARRATOR: The end.

MYSTERIOUS: No it’s not.

2 Second Silence.

MYSTERIOUS: Now it is.

MICHEL: Wait!

MYSTERIOUS: Yes? MICHEL: What if we were all someone’s kids, now that would be funny.

Everyone nods, except for Michel.

MYSTERIOUS: I agree, wait, I’m supposed to be…I… just…never mind.

A sign drops down reading:

THE END

113

THE EMBARRASSMENT Coby Trail Wind Elementary NARRATOR, COBY and TOMMY enter. Coby is swinging his backpack by his side and Tommy has his backpack on his shoulder.

NARRATOR: There once were two kids walking to school on a Monday morning. The school’s name is Trail Wind.

It’s in Boise city. It’s the irst day of school. One of the kid’s names is Coby and the other is Tommy. They’re both 9. They’re telling jokes and laughing as hard as they can.

They’re having a great time for now. After a while, they reach the school, and: TOMMY (nervous): A kid wanted to talk to me in the ield, so I’ll see you when the bell rings.

NARRATOR: And he ran of.

Tommy exits.

NARRATOR: Coby just went to the cave where his class was, and where most of the classmates were. When they got inside, the teacher said: TEACHER enters.

TEACHER: OK class it’s time to go to P.E., and after that we have I.R.I. NARRATOR: Suddenly, Coby started to sweat. When they got to P.E., they had to line up at the door to go outside to do the mile run.

Tommy enters.

NARRATOR: When they started, Tommy started in irst and Coby in second place and it stayed like that till the end.

After P.E. they walked back to class.

114

IRI PEOPLE enter.

TEACHER: OK class these are the people who will be testing you.

NARRATOR: Coby started to sweat again. One by one the people picked a kid. The last one said, I would like Coby please. Coby walked up and they walked into the hall.

IRI PERSON: OK read as many words as you can in a minute. When I stay start, start reading. On your mark, get set, Go! NARRATOR: Coby did not start reading.

IRI PERSON: OK let’s try again on your mark get set go.

NARRATOR: Again Coby did not start reading.

IRI PERSON: OK I’m sending you to the principal’s oice.

COBY: WHY! IRI PERSON: Because you’re not reading!

COBY: OK ine!

They walk to the principal’s oice then walk in and shut the door, then the IRI person walked out. PRINCIPAL enters.

PRINCIPAL: So I hear you won’t read. Why is that.

Coby mumbles under his breath.

PRINCIPAL: What.

COBY: I can’t read!

NARRATOR: But what he did not know was the IRI person 115

put a camera in the room and plugged it into the class’s TV, so everybody in his class started laughing. The principal just said: PRINCIPAL: We can address that. I’ll tell the teacher of your class and you will be taking lessons with her.

COBY: OK. NARRATOR: Coby walked back to class and when he got in everybody started laughing at him. The teacher said, TEACHER: Coby, can you come here?

COBY: Yes. NARRATOR: The teacher whispered in his ear.

TEACHER: We’ll do lessons after school.

NARRATOR: After about a year, he became a really good reader and lived a very happy life.

116

THE FUNERAL HOME Nicole Trail Wind Elementary

Scene 1 Once upon a time, MENALOPEA and OLIVER, two 15-year-old siblings, are a little curious. One day:

MENALOPEA: Let’s go!

OLIVER: Let’s go where?

MENALOPEA: You’ll see.

OLIVER: There’s something up with you. Do I want to know?

MENALOPEA: Maybe. You never know. Why are you such a baby?

OLIVER: I’m not a baby. Why do you say that?

MENALOPEA: I say that because it’s true, now come on.

OLIVER: Fine. I’m going to regret this.

MENALOPEA: Here we are. Look.

OLIVER: It’s a funeral home. You got here quick.

MENALOPEA: I know. This is where you’ll die.

OLIVER: What do you mean?

MENALOPEA: You’re dying today.

OLIVER: What do you mean?

NARRATOR: Hi. Can you be quiet I’m trying to talk.

117

MENALOPEA: No. OLIVER: But I… MENALOPEA: Just died!

NARRATOR: Oliver died. No one knows how, but Menalopea did it.

MENALOPEA: Here’s your grave. Be safe down there.

OLIVER: Hi. Scene 2 MENALOPEA: You’re dead.

NARRATOR: I’m scared. Anyway, Menalopea thought he died, but he didn’t. He faked it.

OLIVER: I faked it. You so fell for that.

MENALOPEA: Ha ha ha. How funny. But I tried to scare you.

OLIVER: You don’t think I read your book of Evil Jokes?

I’m smart.

NARRATOR: So…I’m out of here. Bye. MENALOPEA: Well sorry. Hey where’s the narrator?

NARRATOR: Over here.

OLIVER: Right there.

MENALOPEA: Huh. You’re behind a wall!

NARRATOR: That’s what I’ve been trying to say this whole time.

118

OLIVER: You were.

MENALOPEA: Oh ya.

NARRATOR: Ya. What do you think…GET ME OUT OF HERE means?

MENALOPEA: OH! OLIVER: We should get her out.

Scene 3 NARRATOR: They pushed, they pulled, they went to the bathroom.

OLIVER (tiring): Narrator, now’s not the time to talk.

NARRATOR: Oh, here’s a door.

MENALOPEA: What?!

OLIVER: Go, get out!

NARRATOR: Bye. MENALOPEA (sigh): It was all a dream. Why is there a person behind a wall? Are you OK? NARRATOR: Help me I’ll help you.

MENALOPEA: What do you mean?

OLIVER: Now it’s your turn, but for real.

MENALOPEAL What?

OLIVER: You know what I mean Menalopea.

MENALOPEA: Oliver, no I don’t.

NARRATOR: Bye bye.

119

POEMS Chainsaws, a teeter totter, a gallon of water. — ROBERT

SECRETS Luke Roosevelt Elementary

Its color, red as if it cares about me. Loves me. I’m talking about a keychain that my mom got me from Las Vegas. It says Luke on it, my name. It holds the secrets that my mom has. Those secrets are the secrets of love my mom has for me. I just have to unlock the safe that the secrets are in. I have to ind my way out of the Maze of Darkness and into the Light. The Light of Love. If I’m in a bad situation and my mom’s angry, she will still never stop loving me. She will always care even if I did something bad. She makes me feel happy, joyful, hope, courage, and strength. I have unlocked the truth and secrets in the safe. And I like the results.

SCALES Delphi Roosevelt Elementary

Your smooth scales are soft like cold silver.

Like rocks of obsidian.

Your claws are like sharp rocks of diamond for each inger.

You smell like nectar as sweet as ripe berries made by fairies of all shapes and sizes.

Your color like shining crystals as bright as the stars in the moonlight.

Your eyes like blue sapphires on a pale river.

Big gleaming horns as black as night but make the room glow.

Your swishing tail as sleek as snakes.

You are as dazzling as a star.

Your body giving the curves of an arched cat.

Yet you are a dragon.

123

GOLDEN GALAXY Grace Roosevelt Elementary

A galaxy before me a universe big then small many colors in front of me, overwhelming my color But there is more of me, a part that won’t die A piece so strong that it hurts to think about it for the others But I, Gold, rule the galaxy not the world but the galaxy before me Silver is jealous Red is mad, Yellow is green with envy— what a change!

Green is yellow with rage Blue is boiling over But I, gold, am still whole I won’t shatter

124

IN OHIO Emma Br. Roosevelt Elementary

We go up and down the hills, it is like a roller coaster. We inally come rumbling up the driveway, but we don’t go up the driveway, we go along it because it is so lat and long.

I can breathe in the fresh air of the countryside, so clean. We unpack in the house that smells like my grandpa and grandma (they smell nice).

When I go outside to play, I run into Groucho, he is the cat that my grandparents’ housekeeper found in a ditch, that seems so long ago. I pet him, he is so very, very soft, and smooth. Then, we go ishing on the side of the pond.

125

FOREST Caroline Roosevelt Elementary

Rivers, canyons and roads connected.

Leading to an insightful forest. With colorful waterfalls, I’m away from my home but it is worth it to stay and climb the canyon, and I feel like a king with great power.

Leaves around me with water droplets so delicate as a fairy’s wing.

The forest so delicate I’m taking care of it like a fawn (baby deer) that has broke its leg.

Everywhere I look it is green a beautiful green.

The relection on the water with the brightness of the sun beaming down on the sparkling. The sparkle has blinded me. I thought it was a dream but it was not. I could not believe I was here in the breathtaking forest. I had taken a great adventure through the mystery of this unusual world. It looks like ifty shades of gray but it is not. The world is too big and too colorful for gray to take over.

126

LEAVING MY HOME TOWN Juliette Roosevelt Elementary

I feel the breeze against my face in the pool. I push myself through the water to the steps to get out I walk out drenched from the bottom to the top.

I walk barefoot to my courtyard as I drop a tear on a rock because I am moving to Boise. I feel empty inside. I try to imagine what it was like before my things were packed. I walk inside each room I see boxes piled high like building blocks each one stufed with all my things.

I walk slowly to my room and feel like screaming. I hear the fan under my window I see a blue bird that seems like it is singing a sad song. I fear that when I leave I will never talk to my friends again.

127

THE BOOK OF OUR HISTORY Rebecca Roosevelt Elementary

Pages and pages of history it carries. It’s illed with stories of our lands past. It’s 306 pages of things that are behind us. Memories of long ago. It is like your mind full of memories long long ago. It overhears our past and takes it to store in its 306 pages.

All it dreams at night is our history. It teaches us lessons. It’s not math, science or grammar. It’s history.

It is a big bulky book of history. It waits all summer in a cabinet until it is passed out to a new student.

Somebody else’s history year after year. it wants to be someone. to have its own history. its own past. it wants its own life. it wants to be an explorer like all the people in the pages it carries. but no it waits in a desk.

SOCCER FIELD Marcos Roosevelt Elementary

On the soccer ield I feel at home. On the soccer ield every goal counts. My star is Lionel Messi. He gives me conidence. When I score goals he is on my mind. He is the best. The soccer ield is my home. I’ve spent my entire life on the ball. I train hard and get paid with good performance.

The ball is a rock, the rock is coming to me. I catch the rock. And just throw it back. A mouse in a hole. And I am in a house. The cat tries to get me. I am too fast.

128

IDAHO Brycen Seven Oaks Elementary

Snow It falls out of the sky Perches itself on a tree I feel it on my face In the cool brisk morning air I feel the wind blow down my back Birds chirp they sing for the morning

CRAZY NIKA Dillen Seven Oaks Elementary

My little sister Nika is as cute as a blooming lower.

Nika is as purple as a violet in bloom.

Nika tastes so sweet like candy, but my dad thinks she tastes like chicken.

Nika’s sound is like a bird singing its pretty song Nika looks like a bunch of lowers.

129

HOPE Emma Bu. Seven Oaks Elementary

1.

When I had no hope I made God my hope and my destiny.

2.

When I had no mom I made the world my mom.

3.

When there was no light I used the moon and it guided me to happiness.

4.

When I had no love I used my imagination for the love I was dreaming for.

5.

When there was nobody I used a tree for my very best friend.

SUMMER Olivia Seven Oaks Elementary

Daylight A girl skipping in puddles With mud on her face Holding my sunken heart Up with all my love For you Crossing through the lower patch In the summer My feet feel the warmth of the sun 130

RACE’S FLIP Race Seven Oaks Elementary

The ice jumps Up and down The paper Dances out Of the desk The pencil Skips away The hotel Seems Like it’s sledding The ish Are snowboarding All while Race Flips

BELIEVE Megan C. Seven Oaks Elementary

That’s the one Lonely and still Makes a dropping Sorrow like the rain That poor lower Lonely with fear It stands alone Just one day He’ll see With hope and dreams And Believe 131

FEELINGS Harrison Seven Oaks Elementary

Stars are Dying I’m Running Friends are Talking Black cats are Booming My house is Screaming The sky is Dancing Harrison is tumbling Down Bogus Basin

132

THE COOL RAINY NIGHT Jacob Seven Oaks Elementary

I look out of my room window And saw shooting stars and rain The rain looks so cool.

I can climb a hill and win I get on the top of the hill I can look to the sky And see a lying dog in the sky The sky and dream A day, a family and I can touch the sky The sky is cool.

BOISE PHILHARMONIC Lukas Seven Oaks Elementary

The songs tasted like everlasting fruit.

The songs smelled like honey.

My ear buds were dancing.

The songs sounded like rockets blasting of Jupiter sounded like an endless hallway.

It felt like laying on an earthquake.

I saw planets orbiting around the sun, quicker and quicker.

I saw ifty eggs cracking.

The loudest music of all The music is my favorite dream Finally it calms down

133

I DOODLE Aubriana Seven Oaks Elementary

My pencil walks across my page I draw a pretty stream as it pours down my page I draw a red rose that stares at the calming sunshine petals fall from the cherry tree I sit on the quaint bench underneath the cherry tree.

I’m eating a box of chocolates Their taste sleeps in my mouth.

Compared to the tastes of the fresh cherries Suddenly I see a dirty wrapper lowing down my pretty stream Then My teacher catches me

134

NATURE Violet Seven Oaks Elementary

The long streaming river of salt water, And the new petals, Of the lower, All in a beauty I see nature, among me.

The high mountains, the smell of petunias, I can skip the smooth rocks across the ragged water and listen, to the lowing water and birds.

What wonderful nature and its ways.

The lovely work.

The smell, The looks, The sight, and The feel of rocks, rivers, lowers, and mountains.

BABY NINJAS Emma R. Seven Oaks Elementary

You, my sister, kicking me in the face You look like a baby ninja I look disturbed You look ferocious I have a pear dress with pear leggings You are wearing a patterned dress with polka dots We are now two baby ninjas ighting while falling 135

ALL AROUND ME Sydney Seven Oaks Elementary

When I had no mother to comfort me I made the earth my mother to sing me to sleep.

When I had no father to guide me I made the Sun my father to lead me through life.

When I had no pet I made the river my pet to run with me.

When I had no happiness the sky was my happiness the thing to cheer me up.

When I had no water I made the raindrops my water to keep me going.

When I had no bed I made the ground my bed to help me sleep.

Now the world is my home.

THE UNFORGETTABLE WAR OF WEIRDNESS Ben Seven Oaks Elementary

136

In the peaceful land of the Marshmallows, the Gummy Bears declared a revolutionary war on the Marshmallows to be free. If they got caught, they would be thrown into the duckling and be engulfed. The Marshmallows got counterofensive, but before that they had a nice lasagna. They got more condensed. They were so distracted by the lasagna, the Gummy Bears stole their cattle and livestock. This was a lethal attack because the Marshmallows didn’t have anything to eat. They couldn’t hunt because they were very condensed. The Gummy Bears developed quick. The next day the Gummy Bear hoodlums got crazy as the brethren stampeded Marshmallow City and won their freedom. Then a huge T-Rex ate them all. The T-Rex shrunk as a volcano rose up and exploded like a pimple getting popped. All of a sudden a meteorite with an atom bomb exploded onto the Earth and created the Atlantic Ocean.

Try forgetting this!

BOOM!

DREAMING OF THE STARS Megan R. Seven Oaks Elementary

I walk along the beach thinking the world has no peace, no happiness at all.

I hear the roar of the ocean, the crash of the waves, the seagulls’ cries.

Then I feel the sand, the sky, the stars wrap around me hearing the sounds.

The sand tossing me over until I open my eyes again.

I see light and dark and colors wrapped into a ball.

The ball drags me until I touch it.

I close my eyes again, wondering.

Then I fall back to the ocean knowing I had been to the place where peace was kept; wrapped in the stars.

The waves rock me until I sleep dreaming of the stars.

137

THE RIVER BANKS Tyler Seven Oaks Elementary

The river lows clearly, silently Only the rush of water is to be heard.

The mountains snow capped Their shadow casting a gray gloom Over our valley.

I could smell mama cooking In the other room.

The smell of Huckleberry pie Smells like heaven.

The rose’s texture felt like silk.

The sun rising over the valley Casts an orange gloom Scaring the darkness away.

138

THE PEBBLE Madden Seven Oaks Elementary

I am a pebble, a puny pebble. Getting blown around in the wind. I transform into a mountain, larger than the largest mountain.

I see everything. I see over the world. Banks being robbed, murders. How can I stop this?

I turn back into a pebble, then into a river of hate.

I dislike crime, so all criminals come here to drink.

But when they do I take them underwater.

Wait. I am not this. I don’t like myself anymore.

I turn into air, pure air. I die. I am no more. That is what I want. But I don’t die. I dance in the wind. I am good now.

I throw lightning bolts down at criminals.

I am rolling next to a black and blue fence.

I freeze and I come out instantly. I am immortal.

100,000 years later I am still here.

I sleep under a dead willow tree. I don’t like being a god. It is boring. I throw a lightning bolt at me and die.

Only I can kill myself.

I am happy now. I am dead, inally dead.

Thank goodness.

139

THE NICE WOLF Anna D. Grade 5, Seven Oaks Elementary

I’m at the beach.

Just me, the only one.

Then dogs come running out here.

It’s Harry and Ruger.

Wait, there’s more, B.J. 2 and my ish, Spot and Goldy. (I never knew ish could walk!)

Now I’m not alone, I have my pets.

WAIT, THEY ARE SPEAKING. They are saying leave, leave!

So I did and they followed, but they were right, because something was coming. It was dangerous. What was it? A wolf, dinosaur, or maybe, wait! It’s a wolf.

It’s chasing me.

I RAN INTO MY HOUSE. IT FOLLOWED. I TRIED TO STOP HIM BUT I COULDN’T. I FINALLY STOPPED MY HEART RACING, BUT I calmed down.

I sat on the 140

couch.

Where is he?

He could be anywhere.

Where is he?

I FOUND HIM WALKING OVER TO ME. I GAVE UP, I TOLD HIM, BUT HE CAME OVER AND lied with me and he just wanted to lay with me.

MOST OF Hawkins Seven Oaks Elementary

Most of us broken Most of eggs broken Most weapons broken Most bones broken Most walls broken Most hearts broken Most houses broken Most doors broken Most toys broken Most bread broken Most soldiers broken Most broken world there ever was Most coming back Most walls coming back Most people coming back Most bones coming back Most houses coming back Most eggs coming back Most hearts coming back 142

PANDA Dan Seven Oaks Elementary

July harsh winter Antarctica feels never getting warmth from the smite of the sun A back lip of the Sun something beautiful but small and strange it is a pack of hungry piranhas a big great white a python biting it is not beautiful to Antarctica it kills it does not show mercy Antarctica cowers at the feet of the SUN it needs a savior something big furry a calming sensation a big warm weight and black blanket shielding you from hurt A PANDA 143

ADVICE Aurora Seven Oaks Elementary

sing in your room—into your brush write it down sizzling eggs write it down tangy write it down walka-walka kaninkazia write it down after you’ve traveled the world sit down and write sing into your brush sizzling eggs tangy walka-walka kaninkazia in the jungle write it in rhinoceros ink on beetle paper g’day

144

A TRICKLE DOWN MY CHEEK Leifur Seven Oaks Elementary

A tear sounds like a leg snapping like a branch screaming laughing at the boy who wishes he was never born a slam, blood a crash, a car making an abomination of its owner destruction the leveling of a home a birthday where your father isn’t there a lag a mission never ending never completing but also like healing a star shooting seeing your parents once more

145

CRYSTALLINE WATERS Erik Seven Oaks Elementary

Liquid green, unlike nothing you’ve ever seen. Dancing on the water like a disc shaped stone, skipping across the water, lung from well skilled hands.

You’re not alone. You have your well spoken friend on your side.

There’s no need to ight the tide.

You’re in peaceful waters. It feels like you’re on a sacred water dish, it for the likes of the knights of the round table.

No rapids…

No waves…

No tides…

Just the light of the warm summer breeze makes the crystalline water shimmer like Snow White’s mirror.

Shimmer the water.

Glisten like falling glass.

Glisten like breaking diamonds.

A kayak on the waters.

Waters, waters.

Crystalline waters.

146

GRASS-HOPPER Brittnie Marian Pritchett High School

I’m walking in the park with my little boy.

It’s warm and sunny outside with only a few clouds in the sky.

As we walk he twists and turns looking all around us.

He stops occasionally to smell a lower or pick up a bug.

But he is quick to catch up to me.

He has found a grass hopper.

It jumps, he laughs, and chases after it.

It jumps again and he catches it in his hands.

He comes running over to me happy as can be and shows me what he has found.

“It’s a grass-hopper,” I say.

He looks down into his hands.

“Grass-hopper?”

“Yes. Grass-hopper.”

SKY Cheyanna Marian Pritchett High School

147

As if to try And touch the sky His arms reach out but he starts to cry.

So I dry his eyes And he lets out a big sigh, With a last tear coming out his eye, I let him know it’s time to say good-bye To that blue, blue sky

THE TREE Jyoti Marian Pritchett High School

I am a tree A tall, tall tree I look above I look below I see the birds Flying high Skies of birds playing with me And I am feeling happy I am a tree A tall, tall tree I look above I look below I see the snails I see the butterlies Flying low Universes of insects living with me And I am feeling happy

148

I COME FROM A DISTANT LAND Maisara Marian Pritchett High School

I was born in Rwanda I did not go to school because of genocide School for me was sleeping on the street Under cardboards I would look for someone who would take my daughter inside for the night I would look around at all the children who were cold on the street I wanted to help them bad I remember my family’s voices well The voices were deep The voices came to me I did not want to hear.

I want to hear The voices I need to be Think about my sis When I am full of silence Is all I want to hear A new life came with my girl So special to me Now I can honor the memories of my life Memories from my family At last I can see Can you speak to your imagination?

Where were you born?

Where did you go to school?

Listen to your voice How do you get home?

Memories are in my hand And I know I come from a distant land 149

BABY LISA READ Sarah Marian Pritchett High School

Read, read, read, baby Lisa You know you will reach far You will learn more, baby Lisa You will see the world change color Where will you go, where will you stay?

Where will you sleep, where will you be?

Be strong, it will help you And you will explore the world Think, think, think, baby Lisa You know you will learn a lot You will learn to be happy You will learn not to be scared Where will you go, where will you stay?

Where will you sleep, where will you be?

You have the power in your mind And you will keep it in your heart

HOPE Alex Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

They say there’s no hope in these streets Another mother crying over a son who’s deceased Damn, another baby girl crying who’s in need, Hustlers on the corner they got mouths to feed Ha they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, so does that mean there’s no hope, the cycle gonna repeat, does that mean we don’t have a right to follow our dreams Nah there’s always hope you just got to learn how to believe

150

HALLWAY Brayden Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Staring down the dark hallway I start walking and I see every door.

Open one door and light comes out, the next door pure darkness.

The light is Truth.

The dark is a confession.

I choose darkness as the door.

Seems to be sucking my soul out of my bloody heart.

I let all my confessions fall out of my mouth like a waterfall. It’s like hell, all the secrets I had.

Not secrets. confessions.

It sends all my confessions through everyone’s thoughts.

I wonder what was behind the other door of light.

151

SILVER UNDER DUST Spencer Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Something missing but unknowingly gained.

The hole can be illed.

Names, unimportant.

Flesh, as well.

Turn the key, hear the click.

Release the tension, wipe the dust.

Reveal the wound for it to be tended to.

The hole can be illed.

Digging deep to boiling hot.

Climbing out, inally awake.

CONFUSION Seth Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Please take back the humans. They are needed. They are angry and mean. They are not stupid. They are destructive and helpful. They are ingenious. They are not stupid. They are not harmful. They fear time and mortality. They are not indestructible, yet they live forever. They love and hate.

These humans are worth the trouble. They make their own choices. They live in the past. They hate each other. They want to live together. Please take back the humans. They don’t know what they are not doing.

152

PURIFICATION Seth Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

About him: strong as an iron wall.

He inds himself walking through a dark and bare room.

He keeps walking, not knowing where he is going.

In the distance a light appears.

It casts shadows of unseen horrors, he doesn’t know what he sees, but he can’t stop.

As the light gets closer he sees a ire, looming and destroying.

Fear races through his veins, but he can’t stop.

He knows his destination is through that ire.

So he walks.

153

WHY I AM OBSESSED WITH HOPE Seth Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Lying on the loor the dust and earth tickling your nose the cold feeling pressing against your cheek your mouth dry as the barren desert your eyes staring at your friend He had been there since the beginning Now his eyes no longer hold life he stares at the sky and you at him You then with the last strength you can muster get on your knees and look around you the confusion of it loods in the place you were laying looks welcoming “This won’t do,” you say You’re standing now, battling to move on or stop and you lie down “This simply won’t do,” you state as you start to walk The day has only begun and the sorrows dig in deep You’re lost in a sea of death You grab what you need and move on You never know why you moved on that day but you know if you hadn’t you would still be lying in that same spot looking at your friend as he started to look back at you

154

PLEASE Patrick Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Give me forty-inch biceps so I can curl the burdens for my peers, save them from the disappearing line on a cup full of hot urine, save them from the guilt their parents feel.

Save me from this feeling of frail bones.

Do not let me turn into the shadow I once was, wearing out the path others have made.

I need help, no more, no less.

BATTERY Ashley Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

everything runs of a black and white battery surrounded by wires underneath the hood of an old blue pickup 155

WEEK LONG WAVES IN A DAY Jordan Frank Church High School

Monday hits my vessel hard. I lean up to breathe air as I tread water.

I look out into a vast nothingness in the ocean. The sky is closed to my caress and the sea of black below me reaches to pull me under. My vessel aches and I cringe; I hate it. My chamber serves as a life raft. I go for the feeling of ire up and down my spine hoping to improve the world I see.

Skeletons smile at me from under the world. I embrace them as I pull them up to the surface. I squint as the medicated sun warms my face, I drop the bony embrace, leaving my friend for the end of Monday and the awful beginning of a new day.

156

HOW TO HAVE FUN Angel Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

Walk to your friend’s house.

Knock on his door until you hear footsteps.

Give him a big grin and Say, “Let’s walk.”

Take of down the street.

Laugh and push each other around.

At the end of the street pull out a crisp twenty dollar bill and say, “You hungry?”

THE PAST Aaron Frank Church High School

The guy that outraged me broke her heart with a word.

We fought we argued, we hit we dragged.

My father hit me, mother ground me.

The only scent that wrenches me is the smell of his blood on my hands.

His gore on the asphalt, nose twisted in half and cracked.

The taste of victory on my tongue, the feeling of accomplishment.

Then I realized it was all in the past.

157

FOR AS I GROW Emilio Frank Church High School

Growing up in the ghetto of Idaho not too bad of a place but nowhere I wanted to stay crack heads walk through my house stealing food that was for my family and myself morning time on my way to school one shot two shots loudest boom one man down as I run back to my room childhood city made me love the town I cherish the lives of all I am the one who made through it all.

I will be the one who sings the lovely song.

HOW TO DRIFT IN A PARKING LOT Nathan Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

Find an empty parking lot.

Check your tires.

Put your truck in drive.

Get a feel for it, Understand the language it’s speaking.

Turn when it’s time.

When you are about to stop, Accelerate.

Smell the rubber burning.

158

ESOTERIC Gabriella Frank Church High School

He could take my heart, and I would cease to breathe But the smile would stick to my face while I faded away Despite the pain burying itself inside of my chest Eating away all that is left of my mind- my cruel mind With whispered words inishing me of and carrying the remains High into the clouds to rest in Heaven Before deciding I’m unworthy and dropping me to Hell Letting me rest in the ire by my father’s side He is the light, and the dark, that has haunted me And I have fed his memory pieces of my heart over the years To keep alive his face so that I may hug it painfully Scrubbing away the alcohol and leaving behind tan skin So dark it matches my own, but wrinkled with decay and abuse Pain so deep in his veins you can see them blackening And tears so buried they leak from damaged pores Relecting my own when I watched him walk away He may be dead, encased in an urn and left in a lonely room His sins forgotten or relented for lack of evidence But I remember the joy I felt when he promised he would stay And the pain I felt when he decided he wanted to leave The anger that consumed me when I longed for a false memory Sadness, beyond all other, when I realized he was gone forever And apathy, forced and distorted, as I tried to ignore the heartbreak Emotions so contradictory, but so familiar, they blended and mutated 159

Could one weigh the price of keeping his memory?

Nobody but those who have felt this sting- this empty ache The longing for a father I know would’ve done more damage Than any of the familial daydreams I hold in my head Defying logic and reason with falsehood and fantasy Like a hole in my chest I don’t quite want illed And anger so false it echoes like ghostly wails, Love so strong and painful it can overcome death.

TRUTHFULLY NOT Chloe Frank Church High School

Truthfully not, I have to tell you.

Baby girl, I love you.

You make me smile as big as the sun’s.

You are my whole world and nothing less.

Truthfully not, I will tell you you are as beautiful; as life itself.

You are as sweet as the chocolate from a baker.

Honey, you are all I want.

Truthfully not, I will show you the beauties the world has to ofer.

The vitality to everything and everyone the inconsistencies and abnormalities of intergalactic space.

Truthfully not, I have not been honest with you.

My love?

I have lied, but not just once, You see, we are a lie. I love you.

Truthfully not, you are a chess piece.

I am the queen that protects the king.

And my love, you are not the king, but merely a pawn that is just being played.

160

AFTER WORK Austin Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

smell of McDonald’s and Febreeze stereo blaring engine roaring ever changing colors of the deck dust settling after a hard work week bass vibrating jumper cables jingling against the jack under the seat

GHOST Robert B. Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

Her eyes glimmer Shaking her head And backing away She is giggling I exhale loudly Above the surface I say her name Softer this time The weight of my Soggy clothes I see But she isn’t there

161

FRIDAY Kaitlyn Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

When I awoke I crinkled my toes when I got dressed I held my breath when I entered the bus I lost trust in myself when I pulled down my sleeve everyone stared at me when I arrived on the school grounds I ran downtown when I caught my breath I laid down to rest.

PLACERVILLE Robert Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

A place of work green and brown forest and the kicked up dirt.

Fear of a windy, narrow road, waiting to consume me.

Lunch, just six hours away.

Hot Pizza Pockets.

A watering sensation.

Mountain lions and black bears ighting starvation.

Chainsaws, a teeter totter, a gallon of water.

A pack today is the beginning of tomorrow.

162

EXPECTING Thomas Victory Academy

When I irst saw you, I thought you were pregnant with the way your belly hung to the loor.

You wore this magniicent coat that covered your length from head to toes.

Across the loor with your gait, your belly bobbled and swayed.

Your vocabulary is one word.

You took over the closet beneath the stairs.

I only see you in the morning when I leave for school.

Then, you won’t leave me alone.

You’re old and never shut up with that single word vocabulary.

Your name is Lily, and you’re one fat kitty.

HER Seth Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

163

Your eyes like the ends of the galaxy They twirl and spin with lecks of gold and green Losing myself in the mystery of them Your smile like a refreshing breeze I can see it across a crowded room no matter what, I know it would be you People may call you small or diferent I know though that you’re beautiful and mine I always think about how I want to see you Even after you broke what was rightfully mine

TO MOTHERS Samantha Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center

To the women who gave up their dreams so their children could dream I say thank you.

For the women who believe in tough love (even though I’ve never liked it) I say thank you.

For the moms who gave up addictions, I see your strength and say thank you.

For the women who have buried their children I am sorry and I thank you.

To the daughters who had to become mothers to siblings I am one of you and I say thank you.

164

I NEVER KNEW Alicia Victory Academy

165

I never knew I hated my past until my parents spoke of it constantly.

I never knew I hated math until they changed the curriculum.

I never knew I hated Screamo until I heard it.

I never knew I’d hate being bored until I got put on Electronic Monitoring.

I never knew I hated data until I had Wi-Fi. I never knew I could fall in love to the point where it hurts, again.

I never hated cottage cheese until I ate so much I threw up.

I never knew I’d like a girl until I met my best friend.

I never knew someone’s voice could be so annoying until she walked into the room, causing a ruckus.

I never hated water until I nearly drowned.

I never knew I was obsessed with fashion until I cried over Paris Fashion Week.

I never knew I’d love sitting on the freezing beach at night until my favorite person sat with me.

I didn’t know I loved my bed so much until I went to juvie.

I didn’t know I loved cheese so much until I ate a whole bag of shredded cheddar alone.

I didn’t know I loved my phone until it got taken away.

I didn’t know I loved Channing Tatum until my mom put a picture of him on her wall to piss my dad of.

I didn’t know I liked making snow angels until I got tackled.

ALONE Alyssa Victory Academy

They walk right by me Heads turned with closed eyes They don’t see me At night I feel alone This is not a home They don’t see me The scars on my body They don’t even bleed I never do this for me I can’t stop thinking about the way you left me sinking No escape Keep looking down on me I’m more than you’ll ever be

MIRROR MIRROR Sophia Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Mirrors Crystal clean Breaking apart The quiet has become too loud My vision has become too blurred My screams have become silenced Blood trails on my hands As pieces I pick up linger Putting together the puzzle Gluing the pieces together The mirrors relects as I inish Never as perfect as I wanted But I smile with joy Because I am me.

166

FORGIVE TO FORGET Kaitlyn Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

First the hitting then the yelling or is it the other way around?

I let her calm herself down in the kitchen while I lock myself in my room.

That’s one way you can see it.

Like mother like daughter they say.

As if we were perfect. Ha. And then the screaming weakens.

Few minutes later we talk.

As I see her struggle to apologize I forgive her like it’s nothing new.

SO FAR Tabitha Victory Academy

16 Moved schools, quit smoking (in progress) Made friends Left probation behind 15 Community service, brother arrested Summer school: Centennial Got a cat 14 Left middle school Moved homes Got a dog

167

13 Failed PACE Project Met my BFF, another friend moved 12 Brother ran away Started smoking Had a new ish 11 Painted my home 10 9 Moved to Idaho 8 Lived in Cali with Grandma 7 Moved to Oregon 6 Dad left 5 Lived in Texas 4 First dog 3 Lost cat and kittens 2 Lots of crying 1 I was born 168

COUNTDOWN Xander Victory Academy

16.

I graduate drug court and am inally set free.

15.

I spend most of the year behind bars because my addictions are too intense for the “community.�

14.

Everyone is moving: Mom, grandparents, friends. The world really never holds still.

13.

The end to the harsh struggles of a hindered marriage and the separation of a family.

12.

The root of a terrible time has been seeded while schooling plummets and the money does as well.

11.

New friends from the new school.

Just wish they had been better friends.

10.

The big move 169

from one life into another!

9.

I’m watching a death happen like it’s straight out of gangland.

8.

I’m just a little shorty living in the ghetto without any worries.

7.

We had so many diferent cars… but I never remember anyone buying them.

6.

New video game system…

Playstation 2.

Just gamed and slept.

5.

Just discovering the stories of the family, so I can understand why I’m here.

4.

Half-heard discussions and misprounounced words; I learn the words you’re not supposed to know at uncle’s parties.

3.

One step, two step, waddle, waddle, waddle.

170

2.

Momma, Dadda, hello. That kinda stuf.

1.

I drool all over the place.

FLESH IN CLOTHES Spencer Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Huddled in crowds they communicate through sound.

They are never not moving.

Sounds are important.

Random noises put together briely excite them.

More, more, more.

There is always something not to do done anyway.

Shifting, thinking, breathing, hurting.

They hate and love.

To wish I wasn’t one of them is to wish death.

To wish I wasn’t one of them is to wish death.

I wish to not be them but something else.

They ight. They spit. They dance.

They hate their bodies and nature.

Cold they feel, but never are, alive.

They overthink but not in direction.

I wish I wasn’t but I am by natural law.

171

DON’T Sterling Victory Academy

Don’t talk down to me Don’t tell me I’m wrong even if I am Don’t make me angry And don’t make me sad Do buy me lowers Don’t expect me to love you Don’t expect a kiss or hug Do expect a Thanks, Bro Don’t tell me I’m gay Because I’m sure that I know Don’t insult me Or do run, run fast Do buy me chocolate in a heart box Don’t expect anything back Do cut of your house arrest bracelet Unless you weren’t told to do so Don’t live behind a locked door Do go get lunch I don’t want to be hungry Do buy me Panda Express But don’t get teriyaki chicken

172

BOY Kasidy Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

Don’t take him away. Even though he cries.

He’s bothersome and cute. he is not talking.

He smells like a baby. He screams bloody murder like someone has pinched him. He stinks like a dairy. He bathes in a sink. And sleeps in a basinet. He cries, cries, cries, cries.

I want to pull my hair out. Don’t take him away.

S. R. Tysen Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

You hurt me.

Why did you have to hurt me?

There’s a feeling of something caving in the erosion of my heart You built the tower but you were the terrorist that set of the bomb why can’t I forget you?

I want to hate you you were the light tower why didn’t you ix the broken bulb?

You just let someone crash you let them recess into darkness I was the iron man you were my armor falling away piece by piece I gave you my kingdom you let it fall through your hands I am feeling your lips against mine This is why I don’t want to sleep 173

THE PENCIL Hailey Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

The pencil takes its marks, it takes all of the marks in my mind. The towers, the cameras, the memories. The pencil writes without me knowing it taps on the paper, almost mocking me. The pencil tells my stories, my stories about my life, right out of my brain. It erases my problems, it clears my mind, the full, full, full mind. Cleared.

[THE COLD OCEAN BREEZE] Cristian Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

the cold ocean breeze. wave wave wave splash splash. to the hot tapatio on the burrito poured. I see you diving in like you’ve experienced it before. every splash every year lived. you got taken back. but I didn’t go back.

I’m still here. to the tears in your eyes to every splash of the diving in. rest like dust in the garden. like sand in the bottom of the ocean. until the day of the ocean breeze. I didn’t visit the day of the wave wave. the darkened heart and broken. the pieces lay scattered all over.

174

TEACHING WRITERS’ BIOGRAPHIES Bill Pettitt is a iction writer and ilmmaker from Phoenix, Arizona. He currently teaches creative writing, composition and the Art of Film at College of Western Idaho. His work has appeared in Zoetrope and The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology.

Brady Udall is the author of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, Letting Loose the Hounds and The Lonely Polygamist. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, Esquire and elsewhere. He teaches writing at Boise

State University, and was appointed Writer-in-Residence of Idaho in 2010.

Cassie Angley lived in New York City where she wrote, produced, and often performed in more than 12 original plays and musicals. Most recently she performed her play Finding the Michaels of Broadway at the San Francisco Marsh.

She’s worked as a teaching artist for almost a decade.

Daniel Stewart, a teaching-writer for The Cabin’s Writers in

the Schools and Summer Writing Camps since 1999, has authored a collection of poems, The Imaginary World. A variety of print and online publications featured his poems, including Educe, Lonesome Fowl, Puerto Del Sol, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, and Thrush, among others.

Erin Belair is an MFA in creative writing candidate in her second year at Boise State University. Before coming to Boise, she received a BA in creative writing from UC Irvine, was the lifestyle editor and feature story writer for Local Magazine, and taught poetry to irst generation bilingual students in Santa Ana, California.

176

Guisela Baruth is a writer of iction, poetry and prose. She

has been working with young writers for more than ifteen years. A native of Guatemala, Guisela has lived in Boise for 25 years where she was a Top Ten Scholar at Boise State University and earned her M.A. in Literacy. She has been teaching since 1977. She has provided literacy and whole language Spanish workshops throughout the Northwest.

She runs La Tertulia Spanish Learning Center in Boise, an organization that aims to promote bilingualism and the beneits of multiculturalism.

Heidi Kraay is a playwright who also writes poetry, iction and

noniction. Selected work is published in Bewildering Stories, Anastamoo, The 5-2, The Zodiac Review and others. Plays have been developed and/or produced locally, regionally and in NYC. She loves bridging genre gaps and teaching through Boise Contemporary Theater and The Cabin.

Katie Fuller is in the MFA-Poetry program at Boise State University. She holds an MA in English from the University of Maine where she also edited the journals Stolen Island and Paideuma. Her poems have appeared in WSQ and SP CE, among others. Formerly a freelance writer in the northeast with work in Downeast and Maine magazines, Katie enjoys the mountains and the sea.

Kerri Webster is the author of two books of poetry: Grand & Arsenal (winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and published in 2012) and We Do Not Eat Our Hearts Alone (Georgia, 2005). The

recipient of awards from the Whiting Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, and the Idaho Commission on the Arts, she has taught in the MFA programs at Washington University in St. Louis and Boise State. Through WITS, Webster has held residencies in Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, Bruneau, Horseshoe Bend, Idaho City, and Payette.

177

Lacey Daley grew up in Bufalo, New York and has since

moved west to pursue her MFA in iction from Boise State University. Her work has made the pages of FUSION, Prairie Margins, the top 25 in Glimmer Train’s August 2013 Short Story Award for New Writers, and recently received irst place in the 2014 Glenn Balch Award. She is currently serving as the 2014-2015 Associate Editor of The Idaho Review. Aside from iction, Lacey writes for artscope, a New England arts and culture magazine.

Laura Roghaar is a poet and educator. She teaches writing at The Cabin where she is also the program manager for WITS, workshops, and summer writing camps. She holds a BA in English and Communication from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in English Literature from Boise State University where she is also a candidate for the MFA in poetry. Her chapbook of poems, SISTERHOUSE, is out from dancing girl press.

Mollie Ficek is a Midwestern girl—raised between the lakes of Minnesota and the plains of North Dakota. Her work has appeared in the Mid-American Review, Hawai’i Review, New Ohio Review, Four Way Review, Bayou Magazine, and most recently, Another Chicago Magazine. Presently, she lives in Boise, ID with her partner writer Michael Capel and their handsome pup, Rusty.

178

179

ABOUT THE CABIN The Cabin’s mission is to inspire and celebrate a love of reading, writing, and discourse throughout Idaho and the region.

Each year, The Cabin serves 750 members, more than 2,000 children and youth, and 30,000 people through educational and cultural programs.

We serve our diverse constituents through:

Readings & Conversations, an annual lecture series featuring world-class authors.

Writers in the Schools (WITS) which places professional writers in classrooms, juvenile detention centers, and community organizations for in depth writing-residencies.

Cabin Writing Camps ofering summer creative writing adventures for youth across Idaho.

Writing Workshops which provide a space for writers in our community to develop their craft through discussion and critique.

Writers in the Attic, an annual publication opportunity for local writers.

Read Me Treasure Valley, an invitation for the community to read the same book.

Literary activities such as visiting author workshops, readings

by Idaho authors, free drop-in workshops and other programs for readers and writers of all ages.

180

INDEX A

D

Aaron • 157 Aidan • 51 Alex • 150 Alicia • 165 Alyssa • 166 Angel • 157 Anna D. • 140 Anna P. • 89 Annie • 69 Ashley • 155 Aubriana • 134 Aurora • 144 Austin • 161 Ava • 66

Dan • 143 Delphi • 123 Dillen • 129

B

G

Ben • 136 Brayden • 151 Brittnie • 147 Brycen • 129

Gabriella • 159 Gavin • 73 Glecilyn • 75 Grace • 124 Greg • 84 Gretta • 68

C Caroline • 126 Carson • 78 Cheyanna • 147 Chloe • 160 Clay • 10 Coby • 114 Conor • 53 Cristian • 72, 174

E Ellie • 56 Elyse • 58 Emilio • 158 Emily • 76 Emma Br. • 125 Emma Bu. • 130 Emma R. • 135 Emma T. • 49 Erik • 146

H Hailey • 174 Hannah • 87 Harrison • 132 Hawkins • 142 Hayoon • 14 Hunter • 72

182

I/J Ivy • 88 Jacob • 133 Jalen • 19 Jonah • 50 Jordan • 156 Joselynn • 71 Juliette • 127 Jyoti • 148

Michel • 108 Minjun • 28 Mya • 90

N Nathan • 158 Nicole • 117 Noella • 67

O/P K Kai • 22 Kaitlyn • 162, 167 Kaiya • 32 Kansas • 79 Karina • 83 Kasidy • 173 Katanya • 80 Katherine • 101

L Leifur • 145 Lily • 95 Lucas • 65 Lukas • 133 Luke • 123

M Machaiah • 85 Madden • 139 Maisara • 149 Marcos • 128 Matt • 74 Maudelynn • 82 Megan C. • 131 Megan R. • 137 183

Olivia • 130 Patrick • 155 Patrick M. • 46

R Race • 131 Rebecca • 128 Robert • 162 Robert B. • 161 Ruben • 81 Ryan • 7

S Samantha • 164 Sandra • 40 Sarah • 150 Sawyer • 20 Seth • 152-154, 163 Sierra • 60 Sophia • 166 Spencer • 152, 171 Sterling • 172 Sydney • 136

T Tabitha • 167 Thomas • 163 Timmy • 70 Tysen • 173 Tyler • 138

V-Z Violet • 135 Xander • 169 Zac • 77

184

CAMBIA Writers in Schools 2015 the cold ocean breeze. wave wave wave splash splash. to the hot tapatio on the burrito poured. I see you diving in like you’ve experienced it before. every splash every year lived. you got taken back. but I didn’t go back.

I’m still here. to the tears in your eyes to every splash of the diving in. rest like dust in the garden. like sand in the bottom of the ocean. until the day of the ocean breeze. I didn’t visit the day of the wave wave. the darkened heart and broken. the pieces lay scattered all over.

– CRISTIAN, Ada County Juvenile Detention Center

THE Cover photograph: Swisshippo Cover design: Jocelyn Robertson