Our story

OUR STORY

BY R O O M 2 3 - 2 015

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MY 10TH BIRTHDAY "When are the guest's coming" I asked my mom happily. Soon she told me. I waited and waited then I heard a knock on the door. "Finally you are here" I said. Let's go upstairs and get the nerf guns,"Yeah, ok, sure, why not" they all said in unison Ami, Ilan, and Jake. " Race to my room" yelled Ilan. We all ran and went searching for the nerf guns." Dibs on the rough cut" "no I want" screamed my brother.

When we all got a nerf gun and loaded them we started the game. " 3..2..1..GO!" We chanted I ran into my room and hid behind the drawer. Ami ran into 1

my room, we started shooting each other. i could feel the bullets flying at me. I tried to dodge some of them but i want fast enough. " Truce" he suggested. I agreed, we walked around till we found my brother he was hiding in the closet. He shot me" Get him" screamed Ami we shot him over and over again till he surrendered. We ran down stairs to search for the others our parents were talking about minions the movie and about how bad it was. "Let's split up" Ami suggested. I went to my dad's office and he went upstairs. I heard some footsteps and I sneaked to where I heard someone. I looked around the corner it was Jake. I quickly filled my gun with bullets shot him. He turned around and saw nothing he started coming closer to me! I ran away quietly and went to find Ami. " I have something to tell you "I said once I found him. "What is it?", "I'm a double agent" I shot him and ran. I sprinted down the staircase. He didn't chase after me. I stopped and listened to him I couldn't make out what he was saying but I think he was trying to truce with Ilan to get me. I ran to find Jake, when I found him I asked him for a temporary truce until Ami and Ilan weren't trucked any more. He agreed well that's good I thought. We were about to go upstairs when my parents stopped us and told us to eat.

Ami and Ilan soon followed. "Mmm look at that cake" said my brother. We waited for the parents to cut the cake and give everyone a piece. The lights went dark and everyone was singing the birthday song. Finally I was ten. We ate the cake and talked about what we did. That was one delicious cake all chocolate.Once we finished the cake we played hide from the parents. This was my favorite birthday yet and better birthdays will probably come. I just can't wait till next year.

by Sam Leytes

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MY SOCCER GAME Today me and my team were having our first state cup soccer game. State cup soccer games are soccer games on the weekend that add up to a enormous tournament. You have to win a lot to get in a high rank. There are usually almost 300 teams! Or at least that's my guess. There might only be 50 or so. The problem is, the game starts at 7:30, my team has to get there at 6:45, and it’s away, so that means I have to wake up at about 6:15. no sleep at all for me. Even worse, I forgot to go to bed early. Instead, I fell

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asleep at 10:00.(the new puppy that my family got kept annoying me when I lay down.

It's almost like he likes to lick anyone's face that lies down. But he's so cute!

Now it's time for the team practice. We do a few possession drills,passing, juggling and then shoot for the last 10-15 minutes of practice. Now I feel pumped out for this game! I feel like winning man! sooner or later the team has to do the check in with the refs. “line up for the ref!” my coach Miguel says.

“Okay… so, no shiny jewelry, & watches?” they ask as we line up, "So, I'm going to to call out your name, and you tell me the number.Mateo?..."

A couple minutes later, the refs ask for the captain, my coach gives a pep talk on how to work well as a team, and start the game. as soon as the game starts, I look to see how the other team attacks. either long balls or master dribbling. But as a defender, it doesn't affect me. I’ve been playing Defense for almost 4 years and out of 1000 attempts to pass me and score, 10-15 made. otherwise I’m a good player on the team. and the best at the position left back and I enjoy playing it.

This game was easier than I expected. for the other team was very slow at making decisions. so we could make it by the other team fast. but their goalie was good. so it took a while to score. eventually we scored a couple goals. but then it was halftime and each team got a break with water or whatever kind of drink that they have. while the coaches give another pep talk on how they could do better. then each team switch sides and the game continues. once and awhile, some player on my team take the ball from the back and goes for a 4 v. 1. which kinda means that somebody tries to juke out a lot of players.

Most of the time they fail, but Enrico, the best player on our team is boss at dribbling.

He makes it almost every time if he gets a bit of space So think about this, my best friend reed falls down and twists his ankle. But I'm on the bench and I don't see it happen. Moments later, he comes out to the bench limping. He couldn't come in for the rest of the game. So how about that!?! Reed can't play for the rest of the game. And he's our best backup goalie. I feel sorry for him and don't play as well for the rest of the game. my team scores 2 more goal. one of them was a header from a corner kick. but before we got the 4th goal, the other team got a goal from a corner kick. it went to Alan (who is clumsy on my team) and he missed it. giving the opponents an open shot on the goal. which obviously went in. but I felt kind of guilty. It went in the right side of the goal and that was my place to be.

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Once the game ends, both teams get together and cheer out: “good game team name,” we say together as we line up to say good game to the other team.. then I high five/fist bump the refs...

Aaand... everybody goes home and watches cartoons.

by Josh Michelson

5

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THE FIRST TIME I WENT TO A CASTLE The first time I went to a castle I was in Germany, with my Dad at Devconf. There were dozens of other people attending the conference and tons of fun tours and free food!

One of the tours was going to a castle, so we went. We took a boat ride on the Neckar river. Once we were there we had to go up a hill. It took about FOREVER to get up the hill where the Castle was sitting on top. When we got there I was not satisfied.

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Usually you think of a Giant Kingdom with dozens of citizens, but no this “castle” had only 1 tower and a broken down wall from attacks.

Although I wasn’t the coolest thing ever, I mean this if from the like 16th century.

The interior with no roof had a well and a Dungeon. I wanted to go up the tower and onto the top of the wall partially surrounding the tower.

As I looked around I noticed a door, an old creaky door at the bottom of the tower so with reflex and curiosity i opened it, I was hoping for like a secret passageway to like a dragon or something, but it was just steps up to the top, what I didn’t notice was I had attracted a lot more attention than I’d hoped and more people were going up the stairs. As I followed others going up the stairs I noticed a lot from a higher view, like on top of the dungeon there was a TON of grass growing. when I got higher and higher I noticed things OVER the wall and on the other side of the castle.

I saw a church and a small town that we went through to get to the top of the mountain. As I came down I had noticed that the tour had started. I quickly ran down the stairs as fast as I could, and tagged along with the group and followed down a trail that led to a forest of some sort. We made a couple turns and twists, then there it was a mysterious tunnel that led to an abyss. The large group was split, I was apart of group 2 and group 1 went first into the tunnel. As we entered the ceiling was very low, but that wasn’t a problem for me. when we got to the end of the tunnel, it was at the bottom of the well in the castle! I was very surprised and shocked. After, we left the tunnel and caught a bus back to the hotel, we caught some dinner with friends and went to bed.

by Ethan Aday

7

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ZIP LINING It was a sunny day in Skagway ,Alaska and It was a long ride into town with our bus driver, he  was telling us about how you could make a map of Alaska just with your hand,also that how we had just missed the rain! Also that there was a big black bear in the front yard of someone’s house and was taking all their garbage, and eating it! Then we got off the bus and waited for 10 no 12 whole minutes then got on another one. It took a whole ONE HOUR until we got to the zip lining place. I was so tired when we got there. We got off the bus and walked to the place where they strap you up. After 8

that we got on another bus I was really getting tired of busses, but fortunately this ride was shorter. We got to the place we went in and we got strapped. All of the stuff was very heavy. I almost fell over. Some of it was uncomfortable. The helmets were big. My mom had to use a kids one Then we walked to the lines. First the safety people did it then we went.

They showed me how to stop we had to put our hand on the line and pushed hard then you would slow down. The first line we went down was a small one to just try it out.

Then we did our first big one. At first it was scary I thought that I was going to crash into the tree in front of me then I put my hand down really hard then I stopped I was so relived. A few moments later I was standing on the platform nice and sound.

The next one we went on was longer. First my mom went on she screamed so loud I could hear her from the other side. they unhooked her then on the person's walky-talky there was a “buzz” and they started hooking me up I felt like I was flying.

Just then I jumped off the stool. Now I really felt like I was flying.

WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I started waving my arms and legs like crazy! Then the lady on the other side yelled impatiently “STOP” I put my hand down to slow down. then I slowed down too much I was stuck! I started wiggling,I thought to myself I’m going to die here! I turned around on accident, I was spinning around “Oh no that’s not good” then they told me to turn around and pull on the line so, I started to pull on the line.

The person on the other side grabbed my foot. I thought my shoe would fall off and I would lose it forever, then I thought what is she doing? Just then I realized she was pulling me in. The next thing I knew I was on the stool on the next platform. Safe and sound thank goodness I wasn't stuck there!

We kept going on the longest on they took a picture my pose was with my arms and legs out and sticking out my tongue. Moments later we got off on a rope you would be attached then jump backwards. Then just drop down. My dad fell on his back then just stayed there. It was hilarious. we took off all our stuff then headed back.

When we got there we got medals for our first time zip lining. After we waited for the bus.We got on and started driving back on the way back we saw a big black bear in someone's front yard, the driver said they were native to Alaska. We all thought that it was the bear that the driver was telling us about earlier even though there was a rare chance.

I'm glad we went zip lining, I had a fun time. In town we got fudge from Alaskan Fudge Co. We got back in the cruise and sailed back to Vancouver.

by Beanie José 9

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UNTITLED I was in the car with my family. We were driving to the animal shelter. I was really happy because I love animals and I really wanted to see all the dogs and cats. I hoped that we would adopt a dog even though that was unlikely.

We got to the shelter. There were lots of people there. We went to the cat area first. There were so many cats and they were cute. I wanted one but I knew I couldn’t have one because everyone else in my family is scared of cats.

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We went to the dog place. The dogs were cute but I didn’t really like any of them because they all barked too much.

Then I saw this really nice little dog. It was so cute and it didn’t bark at all. The description said that her name was Luna and she was a 3-month old Chihuahua. She was cute and I really wanted her.

“Mom, can we adopt this dog?” I asked.

My family came over and looked at Luna.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” my mom said.

I was really excited. I knew my mom didn’t want a dog so if she liked Luna we might adopt her!

My mom went to a worker and asked if we could adopt Luna. The worker took us and Luna to the playroom and let us play with her. She was really nice and she didn’t bite or anything.

“Are we going to adopt her?” I asked.

“Yes.” my mom said.

I was so happy. My parents filled out some papers and then we bought some food and a leash and treats and a collar and some other stuff for Luna. Then we went home.

by Alexis Kim

11

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THE DRIVE TO SIERRA CAMP I was in my moms car just riding to sierra camp which was in lake tahoe so the drive was four hours long. My mom, my two brothers and my grandma were in the car. It was all going well, I was reading, watching a movie when the engine died. We were drifting to the side of the road and I was super scared because to the side of us was a little cliff! I crouched up and put random stuff on me because I was a little scared. We were going slower so I wasn’t that scared anymore. We used the last of the engine and braked at the side. Phew, I was relived.

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We sat there for what felt like an hour until someone picked us up. The man that picked us up drove us to fairfield where was the first jelly belly factory (Jelly belly is a jelly bean factory). One of the presidents used to come there a lot. It also smelled like gas and oil I put random stuff on my nose it smelled so bad. man that smelled bad. It all turned out okay,the guy that picked us up drove us to a hertz to get a rental car that I thought was the biggest car in the world! The car had a lot of different features. It had a built in TV (only for movies) It beeped whenever you switched lanes it was so annoying!

Then we went to a Mcdonald's because that was the only restaurant there. At mcdonalds they actually have pretty good chicken nuggets but there burgers make me car sick and lightheaded. They also have really good strawberry lemonade. Actually all there food is good especially the fries, (their fries are amazing,) but the burgers are the worst food of mankind. Those burgers make my head feel really weird.

We had to unpack everything from our car and I mean everything, the whole entire car had to be spotless or else we would lose whatever was in the car because that car would go to the mechanics and get fixed but then I heard the news that it would be less expensive to just get another car then to get the car fixed. We drove up in the rental car and watched another movie after that everything was fine, the ride up was safe even though in some parts there was a giant cliff that if we fell off would easily be dead.

After we finished the 8 hour ride we finally got to our cabin We got everything out of the rental car we finally got to relax. My brother Rory wanted to go play pingpong and maybe meet some friends I thought I’ve been bored for a while so I came, and I did meet a friend. that friend’s name was Chase, I meet him a year ago and he lives in Florida. Sadly he won’t be a Sierra camp next year and I forgot why he couldn’t come.

We got there 2 days late and we did not come late because of the crash. We actually were supposed to leave on saturday (we left on monday) because my oldest brother was at my grandma's house in alabama and arrived in the middle of saturday and Rory was at a singing thing in oregon and he arrived at sunday evening and it takes my familly about 5-6 hours to get packed so we left at about noon. Overall the trip was fun, (and scary) entertaining, (and boring waiting for someone to pick us up) but that part still was a little bit fun and we have the new car now (the car is way better than the other one) and nobody got injured on the crash,I think well, at least I didn’t.

So that was my ride to sierra camp and if you want to what sierra camp is I’m not going to tell you well, It. Is. Fun. 13

by Brendan Cannon

14

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GO KART RACING ZOOOOOM!!! I heard my opponent's speed next to my go-kart. I pushed as hard as I could on the accelerator. The turn was coming up. I went on the outside. I slowed down then I sped back up and made kind of a good turn. My dad gave me a thumbs up in the sidelines so I kind of knew that it was good. But what I really focused on was my opponents. One of my opponents went in front of me and cut me off. “Oh don’t worry dude I’m coming back” I said with disgust. I cut in front of him and the ref saw it and he told me to not do it again. I thought to myself “Not cool brosome not 15

cool!” I felt kind of angry that he cut me off and I did it back but I got in trouble. But then I thought to myself "Take a chill pill bro. Chill pill."

Then a different guy crashed into me. The force of the impact was so hard. I went all the way to wall and spun out. The instructor did see this but I don’t know why he didn’t see the other guy who cut in front of me. The bad part about these situations is you go slow for the first 5 minutes, then you start really going fast. Also I had to wait 2 and a ½ hours just to get a chance to race!!!!! I was soooo impatient. It took forever!!!!!! It took so long that me and my dad had to go around the block. I got a pretzel and my dad got a pretzel too. I felt kinda bad for my dad. He already spent 60 dollars on racing. I said to my dad “I’m sorry that you’re spending way too much money. But my dad said it's ok. I also saw this really cool baseball place around the corner. We started hitting wiffle balls in the meantime. Then it was finally my turn. I got to RACE!!! I was nervous and excited at the same time. I honestly thought that I was going to not do so well.

What I really enjoyed was how fast we went. WE PROBABLY WENT 30 MILES AN HOUR!!!!!!!! I zoomed in front of my opponents and I started to speed up. But what I really enjoyed about my go cart racing was to get in front of my opponents.

Now I kind of want to be a professional racer!!! When I looked at the results I saw that I got 3rd place!!!! I felt so proud of myself. I was surprised and out of breath when I saw the results. After the race I still felt jittery from how fast we were going. I asked my dad if we could go again sometime. He said that we could go again sometime later.

I thought to myself “Hopefully we’ll get to have a quicker turn!!”

by Kyle Cuthill

16

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FIRST FOOTBALL GAME "YAY", Today me, my dad, and my brother and I are going to a football game and I am Six years old and I am a little scared. So my dad tells me to get on a jersey so I look like a fan. Then when we are all ready we get in our car and drive to our destination. As we are driving I am excited because I have been watching football ever since I was 4 years old and I know what the sport is all about. Then I could see the stadium and I know that we are there. Then we find A parking spot and go to the stadium.

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by Caleb Salinas

18

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CRUISE TIME It all started on a partly cloudy day in Seattle. We went there because that is where the ship " The Norwegian Jewel" was waiting for us. My friend was with her cousin in Portland and they had to take a bus to Seattle. We had to stand in a long line. Reminded me of the time I went to a roller coaster ride in Six Flags.

The line was so LONG! My feet hurt after staying in the slow line for half an hour. “Ugh, Mom my feet hurt. Can we sit down on the chairs over there which are in 19

a row? Please” I begged. My mom said, “Okay but take your little brother.” “Fine.” I answered.

My friend, Rachana, and her family had come when after we had taken our pictures for game cards and money cards, just like in the hotel in Las Vegas. We had game cards to play the games there.

We saw them and we waited for them, and waited and waited. Finally, it was their turn and they finished all the pictures. As soon as we went aboard we started to explore the massive "Jewel.“ Now I get why they call it the "Norwegian Jewel", it is so magnificent.” I told my mom. My dad went ahead with everyone else.

Rachana and I were exploring for ½ an hour at the most, then we realized no one was with us. “ Rachana, where did everyone go?” “ I don’t know, they were with us when we were on the 7th floor.” Rachana answered. “ I am scared and hungry. Wanna see if Lena 'Aunty' is at the buffet, wait let me see if I have something in my pocket. Rachana I got something, I feel something. It’s the room key. let’s go.” I was so happy, I had a hope thanks to the room key.

We went to room # 115, I was feeling joyful. Time passed by. The clock was annoyingly ticking.” Tick tock, tick tock” It was finally dinner time mom came in thinking we were in their “ Megha, why did you come back in so early, I told you that I would stay in Varoon’s daycare “Uh we were”tired, Yeah but now off to the buffet” ‘ OMG, I didn’t even hear my mom say that’ I thought.

We had our last feast on the very last day. “ Independence day” We saw fireworks and when I woke up the next morning we were in our hotel. “ Mom how did we come here, did dad carry me. Or did you put me in the stroller.” I asked. “ Yes, we kept you in the stroller, Go to sleep I will wake you up when we go to the Seattle Dish, Right Daddy” “ Yes, go to sleep, Megha. I fell asleep as my Dad said so.

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by Megha Madabhushi

21

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BUILDING THE SUKKAH It was a hot September weekend ,when  my dad my dad came back  from the store with a ton of wooden planks and some tools with a motivated expression on his face. I didn't understand what he was doing. "What is he doing!!?" I thought !! He took everything and brought it outside."Oh I get it !! I thought. He was building a sukkah (sewkah). "Dad, are you sure you know how to do this ?" I asked worriedly. " Of course I do!! It's a piece of cake!!" "Yeah right !" I thought and rolled my eyes at the same time.

I walked back to the house with slow and unsure steps. I ran up to my my mom who 22

was cooking some lunch and I said "Why can't we build a sukkah next year instead of this year." I asked impatiently.

by Maayane Dadon

23

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RAIN!!!

I was in Kerala with a my family. We were staying at my grandpa’s brother's house. It was a huge house with lots of rooms and space. I was visiting from Palo Alto. Earlier when I used to live in Bengaluru we always used to come and visited here and we would always go to this river where there are sea others. My grandpa used told me stories of the time people go fishing or swimming in the river and get bitten by a sea otter. I have always wanted to see one but ,I’ve never seen one.

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I was asked my mom over and over again and she finally agreed. So me and my aunt, uncle,dad,mom,and brother came along. It took a long time as we trudged through the road. My brother and I moaned as we walked we couldn’t take it any longer. It was hot and sticky and I was really tired but, obviously mom didn’t listen and so we walked for about half an hour.

When we finally got there, we were really disappointed. Instead of seeing a beautiful lake with otters swimming, we saw a lake and a brown and white cow grazing on grass. My brother and I were the most disappointed.I wanted to leave and go home and watch TV. But, my parents wanted to in their words “ Remember this amazing memory” or ,in short form “ memories”. So I groaned through the next 15 minutes we stood and took pictures. And the worst part was that the cow photo bombed our pictures. I was really anxious to see a otter, so when we were taking pictures I peeked back to see if I could find them.

For what seemed like hours we were finally done with “memories” and were ready to go back home. The way back home was the woooooooooooooooooooooorst. It was really hot and all I did was wail(while I walk of course).

It was really hot. my aunt tried to cheer me up but, it didn't work. She tried playing name place animal thing with me but, that didn't work either. It was hopeless. My mom was really mad that I was wailing. The only thing that made me happy was the touch- me knots. When you touched it it would die. It was my only hope. After I killed all my touch me nots ,I started to wail again.

I looked up and saw nothing but ,grey clouds. I thought to myself" wait isn't it hot". “Weather was confusing”? Then I felt a pat on my head. I put on my mad face and went after my brother,cause I knew that he was the one who did it. On the other hand it could be just rain but, it also couldn't It was hot. I ran till my brother hid behind my mom's back. Then I just waited for my mom to get mad at me.

So it took 5 minutes to tell my mom , then probably another 2 minutes for her to understand. So 7 min after her hand on her hips and one on my brother.I was waiting for the lecture right before I explained my part of the story.

When it was time,I explained to my mom. Then she gave me a lecture. This was really different I thought to myself. The judge( played by mom) was otherwise really nice. After I was freed from court, I was able to be left alone. I looked up at the 25

sky, and then again felt a sudden pat on my head. I glared at my brother who then hid behind my mom. So obviously my mom glared back at me. Then again I felt a huge pat and another another and soon there was a billion. I looked up and then saw rain.

OPPs!!!! I was so glad ,I didn’t do anything mean to him.

I was so happy I yelled “ It’s raining”. This was probably the happiest moment ever, ( for that day at least) and who would ever have thought that on such a hot day rain formed unexpectedly. My dad quickly put his camera in his shirt ,to make sure it didn’t get wet.

We ran and ran and finally came to a garden. It had a tiny shelter which only looked good for about 3 people but, we had 6 people. It had to do, it was getting worse.

So we crammed into there, except for my aunt. She waved me over to the garden, where she was getting drenched in rain. Without asking my parents I joined her. I was already pretty wet,so it couldn’t get any worse. I waved over my uncle and brother,and they joined in. I asked my mom to come to,but she refused. Something about not liking to get wet. WIERD!!!!!! I knew my dad wouldn’t want to, cause of the camera. So instead of arguing I danced around and around playing in the rain. It was a lot of fun.

And you know that thing where I was hot and sticky and wet to it .

My aunt picked 2 flowers and gave 1 to me. I followed her and put the flower in my rar. Then she called my dad and he took pictures. Then we picked 2 more and played and posed. I have never liked the camera though, my dad has about a million pictures of me. I remember seeing those pictures. Boy was that a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My uncle did poses with my brother, my favorite was superman. It was really funny. We all joined in and had a blast. When it was about time to get home we all ran back.

When we got back, my grandparents greeted us. Did I mention with astounded faces.;) They were shocked at how wet we were , and this time I had to agree. She quickly got towels for us. We all ran in and had a warm shower. I don’t think that it has ever felt that good. After we had lunch and watched Tv. I have to admit that was the most fun I’ve ever had in rain. I wondered why my mom has never let me do. It’s probably because she didn’t want to get me sick. I apologized to my brother in the end. cause I really was sorry for it. After I punched him in the arm.Cause you got to admit I was being way too nice to my brother.

by Diya Kocherry 26

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BEAR-Y BAD RESTAURANT “We’re almost there! I can see the inn!!!” I screamed. “Mom, Philip, hurry up!! Stop being so slow! You realize that I’m hungry here, right?!”

“Fooooood?Foooooooooood!”Philip screamed and charged up the path and in front of me. Hm. That’s a good idea.

“Foooood!” I yelled and followed him running towards the inn. And food.

FOOD!!

“Slow down!” Mom shouted after us. Nice try. But not gonna happen.

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Charge! I ran and ran and ran until I reached the beginning of the path in front of the inn. By then, I felt pretty tired and winded.

I thought, “Hurry up, Mom. Dad, you too. HURRY UP!! I am starving hungry after that long hike. I mean, it was like a mile and a half (which isn’t to bad, considering that I’ve hiked 3 miles straight before, but it is the end of the day, and we’ve done a lot)?! And it took us about 3 hours? How do you expect me to not be hungry? And yet, you walk as slow as ever. Seriously?” I started getting a little bit mad.

Cause for the millionth time in forever - Hurry up， will you?!

Finally, after 10 more painstaking minutes, they arrived. Or was it 5 seconds?

Hmm. Either way, each step they stook seemed to take 5 minutes. First, they slowly lifted their leg. Then, they moved their foot. They swung their arms up, straightened their leg, then put their foot down, and lowered their arms. And repeated this over and over. I was starting to get a tad bit bored of waiting for them when they arrived at last.

I hurried up the path in front of the inn in front of them. They were seriously being slow pokes. I read the sign above the front door. It read: Swiftcurrent Motor Inn And Italian Garden Serving Pizza and Pasta Yup. This place has food. Then I noticed that the sign also said: “We have pizza! We have spaghetti! Come in and eat!” Yumm! Pizza and spaghetti sounds good. Actually , on second thought, anything sounds good right now. But since usually I like spaghetti and pizza a lot, they sound extra good now.

“Pizza!” Philip cheered. “Mom, Dad, can we go in and eat now? I am starving hungry.” Philip pleaded.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Sure! Because I’m also hungry,” Dad said with a smile. “ In we go, in we go,” I sang to myself as we walked through the door.

“Uh - oh.” Was that Dad who said uh-oh? What’s wrong? How about I go investigate? I turned around……… and saw a huge line of people coming out of the door of the restaurant. Seriously? First a 3 hour hike and starving, and now this? Actually, the first 2 hours weren’t too bad, but the last 1 hour was terrible. Oh, well.

5 Minutes Later……

“Dad, are we even close to the front of the line?” I whined.

“Be patient,” Dad replied. which is a formal way of saying: not even close. Sigh.

10 Minutes Later….

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“Dad, are we close yet?” I whined yet again. I was saying that 100 times a second now. I was seriously getting impatient.

“Almost!” Dad answered. My spirits soared. Food was on the way at last! Suddenly, I felt like I needed to go use the washroom. Really badly. I hastily told dad where I was headed to, then hurried to the girl’s washroom. Uh - oh. My spirits dropped at the drop of the hat. I saw a sign at the front of the door. Which probably meant that the bathroom was unavailable or out of order. “Just in case it’s not out of order,”I whispered as I read the sign. But…….. it said:

Bathroom Being Cleaned Please Keep Out Ugh. Why, oh why did that have to happen?! Why did my bad luck get from bad luck to even badder luck to terrible luck?! I suddenly remembered that time I went kayaking, and than I really needed to go pee, so I started paddling really fast, and I asked Mom to help me paddle, but Mom wouldn’t help me paddle, so I had to paddle extra fast and hold my pee at the same time, which was very inconvenient.

“Just wait a few more minutes and the bathroom will be ready, okay?” An unfamiliar voice yanked me out of my Memory Lane and back to reality. I found myself staring at a weathered old man holding a dripping wet mop peering from behind the door at me.

“Okay,” I whispered, not knowing what else to say. Thankfully, the man darted back into the washroom to resume his cleaning of the washroom. I paced back and forth in front of the washroom willing the cleaning dude to hurry up and finish cleaning the washroom.

"Lucy? I thought that you said that you would use the bathroom."

"Huh?" I had been caught off guard. Again. But it was just Dad. "Oh,"I cried.

"Oh, yeah I was, but the washroom is being cleaned right now so I can't."

"Philip also needs to go pee. You could go into the boy's washroom,"Dad offered.

That idea wasn't pleasing, but it was better than waiting for who knows how long for the cleaning dude to finish up.

"Okay?"I said. I heard Dad telling Philip something that sounded like “Philip do you need to go pee or not? Hurry up then!” I walked over to the boy’s washroom door.

I was sort of expecting it to also have a sign that said “Out of Order” or “Being Cleaned” or something like that with all my rotten luck. I whispered a thankful prayer to the Lord because, thankfully, there wasn’t.

“Lucy, stay outside. I need to check that there isn’t any boys in the bathroom first,” Dad instructed me. He cautiously peered into the washroom and walked in. I 29

whispered under my breath, “Lord, please don’t let there be a boy in the boy’s washroom right now.” I held my breath, crossed my legs to keep me from peeing in my pants, shut my eyes tight, and crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. After a few more seconds, I heard Dad call out, “THe coast is clear! You can go in.” Oh, thank you Lord. Thank you. I let out the breath that I was holding, uncrossed my legs(a tiny bit), opened my eyes, and relaxed my fingers. With my eyes darting around the room to make sure that no one saw me, I slipped into the washroom.

The washroom was cleaner than I expected, but then again, the cleaner dude could have just cleaned it right before he moved onto the girl's washroom. I hobbled over the closest stall to the door(because my legs were crossed), and went in. What a relief!

After I went back out, I stopped in front of the girl’s washroom for no apparent reason.

“Hi! I just finished cleaning the washroom. Do you want to go use it?” I whipped around and found myself face to face with the cleaner dude. Uh-oh. He remembers that I needed to use the washroom. What should I say?

“Uh……. Okay. Thank you,”I mumbled. I think I just messed things up a little more. After that, he just left with all his cleaning supplies. Whew! That was a close call. At least he didn’t stay to watch me go in.

“Lucy! Hurry up and come over here!” Mom called. “ We’re second in line!”

Yes! Food is finally really on the way now. But……………… Since WHEN have I been the one that needs to hurry up? Oh, well. As I tried to reach the rest of my family through the big mass of people, I saw some people at an information desk. I also noticed those shelf things that people use to hold brochures and stuff. I ran over and grabbed a few maps and/or brochures(I just randomly took them -I didn’t look), then returned to trying to find a path through the constantly changing maze of people. After a few tries, I finally managed to wind my way through and find my parents.

When I arrived, Mom and Dad were talking to a lady who was working at the front desk. I saw a sign that said stuff in bright neon pink. It said: We have Bear-y good pizza!

Why don’t you come in and try it?

Hm. I think I want to order pizza. It sounds good.

"Lucy, it's our turn. Let's go to our table," Dad said.

"But aren't those people in front of us?"I asked, even though I was starving.

"No they aren't. Now get moving! Why did you ask anyways?!" Dad answered grouchily. I wondered why he's that grumpy. But I didn't get to wonder for long, be30

cause. Dad dragged me to our table, then shoved a menu into my hands. "Get ordering!"Dad told me. And with that, he started looking into his menu and muttering something like " That sounds good" or something like that. Following his lead, I looked at the menu. I noticed that they let you choose your own toppings, unlike other restaurants that I had been to. There was also salad(yuck! :P), soup(okay), and spaghetti, and a bunch of other stuff that I was too lazy to look at.

"Guys, are you ready to order? The sooner the better!" Philip said. His words made sense, because the sooner you order, the sooner the food comes. And the sooner the food comes................ The sooner you can eat!!!!!!!

"Yeah. I agreed. I want to eat cheese pizza."

"I want to eat chicken pizza,"Dad argued.

"How about we get 1 cheese pizza, and 2 chicken pizzas?" Mom suggested.

"Yeah. That's a good idea." I agreed. And so it was settled.

A few moments later......

“Hello. Are you ready to order?” A lady asked us. I thought that that question was pretty stupid, since that was exactly the reason we asked her to come.

“Yes, we are. We would like 2 chicken pizzas, 1 with tomatoes and one with just chicken, and 1 cheese pizza,” Mom answered.

“Would you like a big or small pizza?” the lady asked.

“Umm….. small, please. For all of them.” And so the conversation continued in such a manner.

“Okay! What drinks would you guys like?” That sentence didn’t register in my mind until Mom shoved me sharply and said : “Lucy! Someone’s talking to you! Pay more attention. What would you like to drink?”

“Uhhhhh… what is there?” I asked, embarrassed.

“Well, there’s apple juice, orange juice, tea, water, coffee, and lemonade,” the waitress replied. From my experience at restaurants, I know that most of the time the apple juice and orange juice are gross. And since I don’t want to drink coffee, and I’m not in the mood for tea, I’m only left with 2 choices: water or lemonade. I think I’ll go with lemonade.

“I’d like lemonade, please,” I say. I look over at Philip.

“And you?” the waitress asked.

“I want orange juice,”Philip said.

“I would like tea, and my husband would like water, no ice, please,” Mom said without being prompted.

31

As we waited for the waitress to come back with the drinks, I noticed the table had a game on it. I recognized it. I had played it before. I was so-so at it. my best was 2 pins left, which was pretty good. I reached towards the game, and moved it in front of me. I started playing. It ended pretty terribly. 6 pins left! Aiya.

“Lucy, what’s that?” Philip asked.

“Well, it’s a game that you play. You have to try to end up with the least pins in the board as possible, 1. To do that, you start with all the holes filled with pegs, except for 1 hole. Then, you have to make a peg jump over another peg into an empty space. Every time you jump, you have to remove the peg that was jumped over. The pegs have to be right next to each other, though,” I explained to Philip. Just then, the waitress arrived carrying a tray with our dinks.

“Here you go! She said cheerfully. I took of my lemonade and set it beside me in case I got thirsty.

After she left, I demonstrated to Philip how to play to play the board peg thing.

Then, when I was done, Philip played. Then, when he was done, I played. Then he played. then I played. Then et cetera. Then Dad joined in. So then it was me, Philip, Dad, etc. After my tenth time of playing, I asked Dad: “When is our pizza coming? It's been a long time.” ”Yeah,” Philip whined. “When is she coming with our pizza? I'm hungry.”

“She’ll come soon,” promised Dad. But he didn’t sound very convincing.

10 Minutes Later…….

“When is our pizza coming? Those people over there came after us, and they already have their food!” I practically screamed. But it was at nobody in particular.

Well, maybe the chefs. “Dad, when is our pizza coming?”

“It’ll come soon.”

“Dad, you said that like 10 minutes ago!” Philip and I said at the same time.

“Patience,” Mom said. Sigh.

10 Minutes Later…….

“Dad, when is our pizza coming? I am STARVING!” I “said”, once more.

“You know what?” Dad answered, getting out of his seat.

“What?” I asked.

32

“I’m hungry. And I’m tired of waiting for this stupid restaurant to give us food. So I’m going to get some bananas from our car,” Dad announced. “Bye!” Seriously, Dad? I was starving, and only NOW you think of that? Urrggggggggggggg!!!!!!!

10 Minutes Later…….

“Excuse me? Is our pizza ready yet?” I politely asked the waitress.

“I saw it cooking in the oven!” She replied. I saw her glance at Philip and walk over to another table. Then, she took the peg game that was in the other table and took it to our table.

“You can play with this,” she said with a smile.

“I like your hair extensions,” I told the waitress. “They’re pretty.”

“Thank you,”She said. Then, she told us that she came from Juneau, Alaska, and some other stuff.

“I heard that there is a big fire going on in Alaska,”Dad inquired. “Is it true?”

“Yeah. My parents called me and told me about it,” she said. And with that, she returned to the kitchen and we returned to playing with, now, the 2 peg games.

5 Minutes later…….

“Dad, look!” I cried. The waitress is coming out of the kitchen with a tray!”

“Really?”Dad turned aroud to look. Just then, we both knew that it wasn’t our pizza. But then why did the waitress head over to our table?

“Hi!” She greeted us warmly, and set the tray on our table. It had 4 bowls of soup on it. Who had ordered soup? Nobody. Then why is it here? “The cooks felt bad about you waiting so long, so they sent you this soup.” Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. So that’s why they sent us soup even though nobody had ordered it. As we dug into the SUPER salty soup and crackers, I felt really happy and glad that they had sent us the soup, even though the soup was too salty for my taste.

5 Minutes Later…….

“Pizza’s here!” the waitress called out joyfully.

“Finally!” I said. She gave us the pizza and left.

“Everybody, dig in!’ I cried. Following my lead, we all grabbed a slice of pizza and ate like we were dogs from the dump.

I noticed that the pizza wasn’t very good, though. Well, at least it’s food. Shame on them. If they made us wait 40 minutes for pizza, it should at least be good.

33

Lesson learned: Even if you wait a looooooooooog time for something, the something may not be the best.(In my case, it was the pizza.)

by Lucy Ma

34

13

TRICK OR TREAT "No Francie, you can not go trick or treating at South Court. It is too far away" My father said sternly.

"But dad, Lea is allowed to go and she is two months younger than me! And last year you promised me that I could go this year!" I protested.

"Fine," My dad gave in, "but you can not stay longer than two hours."

"Yay!" I said, "Can I go with Lea?" "If it is okay with her parents" He said.

35

"I know it is okay with them because I sent Lea an email to ask her mom if we can go trick or treating together and her mom said yes!" I said out of breath.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." my dad said.

"I sent an email to Lea and her mom said yes." I said.

"Okay should I bring you?" He asked.

"Yes!" I shouted and ran to my room to get dressed into my Halloween costume. This year I was a Native American. I slipped on my costume in about five seconds and ran out of the door and into the car where my dad was already waiting. On the outside I was sitting calmly in the car but on the inside I was doing my happy dance.

That is how I ended up on Lea's doorstep five minutes later. I rang the doorbell and tried not to jump with happiness. Lea’s mom opened the door and let me in.

“Lea is still changing into her costume,” She said, “how about you go check if she is finished?”

“Okay, sure.” I answered and shook of my shoes and ran up the stairs. I knocked on Lea’s door and said, “Merry Halloween and now please let me in.” I said to the locked door. I heard a click that told me she had unlocked the door. I opened the door and looked inside. Lea was nowhere to be seen. Silently I crept into the room and looked into the closet to see if Lea was hiding there. Suddenly I heard something rustling behind me and someone yelled, “BOO!” “Ahh,” I screamed, “ you scared me Lea!” “Good, so I reached my goal. You are scared too easily.” Lea said.

“Says the person who covers her eyes in Harry Potter movies.” I retorted. “By the way, I like your costume, you look fabulous.”

“Thanks.” Lea said.

“Girls, are you ready yet?” Lea’s mom yelled up the stairs.

“Coming!” We yelled in chorus. We ran down the stairs, slipped on our shoes and got our trick or treating bags. We walked out the door and started walking towards South Court.

Ten minutes later we arrived at South Court. We could have gotten there in five minutes but we trick or treated at every house. Well, we tried to. At some houses no one was home so we didn't get candy. Even though we didn't get candy we still didn't trick them. Last year I tricked someone because someone was home but they didn't give me candy so I threw eggs at the house it was really fun! Served them right! Okay now back to the story. We walked along South Court and tried to find a house that wasn’t swarming with witches, mummies, princesses and so on. Finally we found a 36

house that only had two people. We ran over and yelled, “Trick or treat!” I got a snicker, a piece of hershey chocolate, and a bag of m&ms. I was happy with my first three pieces of treasure.

“Look at that house,” Lea said, “there is no one there!”

“Okay, let’s go” I said. As we got closer we noticed why no one was trick or treating here. There was a man dressed up in torn clothes and a "bloody" dagger in his hand.

"Ugh," Lea said,"why do they have to have a creepy man in front of the best candy!"

"I don't know, maybe he will just keep on standing there when we go get candy."

I said.

"Maybe, let's go try!" Lea said. We walked slowly towards the man on tiptoes and tried to get around him. When we were halfway there he started walking towards us waving his dagger.

"Ahh!" We screamed and ran away.

by Francie Brants

37

14

FRONT WALKOVERS I  go outside for recess and find my friend, Molly eating her snack. She was eating her snack when she saw L and R. I don't want to say that we were spying, but... OK we were. They were talking, then suddenly L does a front walkover. Molly quickly runs over to me and says, "L can do a front walkover! Come'on let's go to the lucky spot!" So we run to the lucky spot as fast as we can. (On the right side of the beam on the little structure.) " I have to do this. I have to get my front walkover NOW. I don't want L to "beat" me!!!" I think in my head. I look at all the  acorns, leaves and broken sticks scat38

tered across the ground. I think back to the time when I was at the the park and my friend, Elena taught me how to do a kickover from a backbend at the park. She taught me how to do it in about 10-15min. If I could learn that so fast then how could I not learn a front walkover  in the time I had right now, in 20 min? I hold my hands up high and bring them down, then swing my legs over my head. I felt my feet land, then I crashed down on my back. I heard the leaves crumple under me. I had fallen on my back many times before so that didn't bother me. But my 1st result was a failure. Still determined, I walk back to my starting point and raise my arms up by my ears. I swing my legs over again and this time I manage to get up halfway, but then I fall to the ground hearing that crunching sound again. Molly is now standing on the beam saying, "Almost! Try Again! Try Again!"  I keep repeating this process about five times getting more tired after each one. I decide to try just one last time. Just like the last times I raise my arms swing them towards the ground and kick my legs over. The next thing I know, I'm standing up my feet spread apart, just like their supposed to be. I did it! I shout. I actually did it! Molly congratulates me and I rush to try again before the bell rings. This time all the power from the first walkover swings me forward and I do it two times in a row! Then the bell rings and everyone stops what they're doing and hurries toward their classroom. I  start walking towards my classroom too, but when I get to the middle of the field I do two front walkovers in a row just like I did before. I hear a little squish and my hands get a little muddy, but I don't care. I walk up the stairs with a smile on my face. I had done it.

by Emma Messarian

39

15

FISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME I was quivering with excitement because I was going on a camping trip. not any camping trip, but one with my brother’s boy scout troop! I was so excited, this was my way of showing dad that I was experienced enough to go with RYAN (my brother) who was a seventh grader. While I was wiggling in the seat, my brother grumbled “Shut up” and “Stop squirming” through the entire 3 hour trip to Mt. Lassen.

40

By the time I got there, even I was tired. While my dad was setting up the tent, I went over to the nearby lake (Butte Lake) to find something entertaining to do.

There was just a bunch of people from the Boy Scouts (Phillip and Calvin) who were fishing. Boring I yawned, but since they seemed to be having more fun than I was, I decided to head over to where they were casting.

I’ve never thought of fishing as a sport, although when I did, I was like, aw yeah! there’s a sport where you can take naps while waiting! So I asked if I could maybe try to learn to fish. Calvin gladly lent me his fishing pole and taught me the basics. “Okay, so you press the button…” He guided me through the steps of fishing and even made it look easy. By the end of the day, I knew I would definitely go out fishing again tomorrow.

During the night, after a nice dinner, we all retreated to the biggest tent, where we played Big Two, BS, and Uno. By the time we decided we had enough card games for the day, it was midnight and we were all half asleep. We all trudged to our own tents and settled in for the night.

Sssssssssssss. there was a sizzling sound around 6 the next day. Snake? I thought, I crept out, trying not to be heard by the snake. Then, there was more hissing.

I was really freaked out now. LOTS OF SNAKES!!! I didn't know what to do! I cautiously poked my head out the tent to see Phillip frying the fish he caught, whistling while he cooked.

When Philip was cooking, nobody else was awake, but slowly, as the minutes passed, more drowsy scouts emerged from their tents, and the adults were murmuring in some sort of ancient alien language something that sounded like “Coffee. Need coffee”. Pretty soon all the scouts were up cooking instant ramen, and they were also asking Phillip for fish, who caught like, ten of them.

Later, after everyone was finished eating and all bored again, I decided to head over to Butte Lake, where I went to fish again.

by Andy Li

41

16

POLTERGEIST DONE! dudududu dudududu dudududu du duuuuu… bum ba dum dum bum bum bum... ding dong ding dong ding dong bum ba dum bum bu-CRASH! “DANG! 75 percent!” I muttered.

“25 to go,” Alan commented as he looked at my screen. I remember the time I met him. Our parents were friends, so we ended up being at the same summer camp.

42

When he came over to my house in the middle of the summer, I saw him playing this game unknown to me called geometry dash. He was working on the 4th level. I am currently on 3rd level in this story.

“Yeah…”I sighed. This level was taking me a long, long time!

124th attempt. Not that I thought it was special at that time. Maye the digits add up to seven, but I surely didn’t think I’d complete it on this attempt. I thought the tune to this level was catchy and started dancing. This was only the start of the level, so I could dance. Only the end was hard in this level.

I cut out dancing at the rocket part. The trick here is to just stay at the top so you’ll get the coin. After the rocket part was the HARD part.

"YOU CAN DO IT!" Alan cheered me on.Crash! "Nooooooooo! 64 percent on can't let go(Alan Was working on another level in geometry dash)!"He punched a pillow in retaliation.

I sweated as I tapped and held the screen for a certain time to stay alive(in the game) and strained to time the jumps correctly. One mistiming could make you crCRASH!

“NOOOOO! 87 percent!” I burst out. I was going to be stuck on this level for about 1 more week, but this was a big step in completing the level. I had improved by 37 percent.

One month later, and I was STILL wasn’t done with the level. This was at Alan’s house. I was planning to finish the level at a playdate with him, but considering my 2041 attempts, I wouldn’t think I’d finish it. On the way there, I felt a little nervous.

Alan greeted me with the usual “Want some Coke?” and the taking out Ipad.

I started the level. I tapped the screen multiple times and held my finger on the screen too. I thought sarcastically, “great, Jeff. You are doing a terrific job.” As I looked at the progress bar and I realized that I was going past my record. I quickly glanced back to 43

the screen and I looked at what the next jump was. I saw a wall with a yellow light shining. Great. That is impossible to pa“WAIT THAT’S THE FINISH WALL!” shuuuuu-Briiiing!(sound effect when you win).

"D-D-Did y-y-you-"Alan stuttered as he looked at my screen."WOW(MOM upside down) Nice!"

And there you go. I finished the level with 2042 attempts. Or did I?...

by Jeffrey Kang

44

17

JAPAN The first time I went to Japan was in Spring 2015. I was really excited. My family drove to the airport. I couldn’t wait. I was in the plane, sitting with my mom. It took 9 hours to get there! It felt really boring. My best friend wasn’t there, so I did everything to sleep. I put my feet up, under, I put my arms over my head. I put my head sideways, the other way, back, hung it. No success. I tried writing in my secret journal, listening to music, trying to do stuff to make me drowsy. No luck. I looked at Dad, across from me. He was sound asleep.

45

I was in the airport with my older sister. She was in the bathroom, taking her time as usual.

“Manda!” I shouted. “Hurry up; Dad told us to go to the Snack Shop at 12:15, it’s already 12:10 and we are supposed to meet him at the snack shop.”

“Okay, I get it!” Manda shouted back.”You’ve been nagging me for like 10 minutes!!!”

“If you heard me, hurry up!” I yelled through the stall-doors.

“I’m coming,” my sister whined, and I heard the satisfying flush of the toilet, and she came out of the stalls. She was typing something on her phone.

“What’re you typing?” I asked her.

“None of your business,” Manda said.

“Let’s go now,” I told her.

“No,” she said. “I need to wash my hands.”

“Okay, meet you at Family Mart,” I said, putting my roller-blading skates on and skating towards Family Mart.

“Wait!” Manda cried out. “I’m coming with you!”she dried her hands on a nearby towel, tying her roller-blading skates on.

I waited as I rode in circles, cursing her to hurry up. It was like 2 feet to Family Mart. I could get my favorite candy, the pop-in-your-mouth kind! I would get blue raspberry and sour lemon, since I loved the candy. My mouth watered as I thought about the tasty, sour, treat. Two packs! Dad said so. I would have 12 in each big bag.

24! Wow, I would be eating it on the plane back to California. Manda said that she wanted Grape and Apple. Those don’t taste as good as my favorite flavors.

Manda skates out of the bathroom, and joins me. We use the money that Dad lent us, and each get 2 big bags. Manda starts eating right away. I, however, saves my candy, since that’s our only candy quarter for the year. Besides Halloween, of course.

We’d only get one more bag of candy each.

“What took you so long?” Dad asked us in Chinese.

“Uhh, we were…” I started “Nothing!” Manda says loudly as she snorts at me. “What were you doing?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Dad says. “Let’s go join Mom and her friend.”

We skated into the elevator, then went up one story. We saw my mom and her friend, Yin Zhihong (Chinese).

“Say hi to Yin Zhihong,” Mom said.

“Hi, Yin Zhihong,” Manda and I said in unison in Chinese. “Nice to meet you,” “Oh, hello, aren’t you Shen Jong’s kids,” Yin Zhihong said. ` 46

by Charlotte Shum

47

18

GAME DAY FINAL It was a gloomy Saturday morning our coach was telling us which positions we were going to "Arjun play center forward" my coach said urgently,I sighed nervously we went on to the field you can do this I thought to myself confidently you have done It before I remembered when I had scored a goal during the district cup tournament.

Tweet! Tweep!went the referee's whistle Philip and I charged the opposing team's center-forward he passed quickly to the left mid who took the ball down the 48

field. Miller (who was very tall) took the ball from him and booted it down the field Philip controlled ball and passed to me.This is my chance I thought to myself as I tore across the field I looked at the goalkeeper he put his hands near his chest I pulled my leg back and blasted the ball. It soared high but the goalkeeper jumped backwards and snagged the ball out of the air. Darn It! Tweep Tweep!went the referee's whistle It was half time. After ten minutes the game was starting again. I was playing center forward again. Phillip and I charged the other team's center forward Phillip took the ball from him and passed it to me a player was charging me I did a double scissor and hit the ball with the outside of my foot I sprinted down the field with all my might I took long strides I passed the ball to Miller who played the ball back to me as I took each stride I became more nervous and more nervous I looked around the crowd cheering me forward. I looked at my coach who nodded I pulled my leg back like last time but this time I didn’t look at the goalkeeper I looked at the goal. I blasted the ball with all my strength It soared high above the goalkeeper and went into the goal. I had scored a goal . Now don’t get me wrong I have scored other goals but something about this goal that made it extra special . Maybe it was that I had taken the shot from a particularly hard angle or maybe It was because I worked extra hard or maybe all of the above. The game ended seconds later I was kind of disappointed we didn't win but at the end of the Day all That matters is that you havé fun.

by Arjun Shah

49

19

ROOM CLEANING “Please Giovanni, Help me”, my little brother and little sister were not helping me clean the room. My mom told me to clean the room with my brother ,and sister, over ,and under the beds. My little sister was playing with her stuffies a dog ,and a cat on her bed. Her bed had a pink cover and a white mattress. The cat had eyes that were like green marbles and the cat's fur was gray. The dog had hazel colored eyes and the same dog had white fur. I thought it looked bad. Then my little sister threw both stuffies on to the floor. After the stuffies were thrown onto the floor my little brother 50

started making noise. My little sister joined him in  making the noise. After a minute my little sister threw another stuffie, and a marble that  was blue ,and had a white line in it. My little brother started using his iPad to playing minecraft pocket edition.I was almost done cleaning the room but then I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back the room was clean.

by Giordano Rischmoller

51

20

FEEDING THE SNAKE It was a warm Friday afternoon at BBKC, an aftercare program I go to-and several of my friends. I was spending my time drawing a map of an island that I created, the Island of Quests. I had just finished the West Region. Whew, glad I got that done!

I glanced over at the new snake BBKC had just gotten. The new snake reminded me of another snake a professional reptile man in LA that came to my old friend's birthday (which was really cool). It is a female snake, and her name is Flame. By her name, you can probably guess what she looks like-orange with scarlet red spots. Some 52

people are scared of snakes, but there really isn’t anything to be scared of. Plus, Flame is a corn snake, so she isn’t poisonous. As you can tell, I love snakes.

Since today was a Friday, it was time to feed Flame. Koharu (a kid at BBCK who is my friend) already started defrosting the rat, which trust me, wasn’t pretty. The rat had tiny claws, sleek white fur, a wobbly pink tail and it’s little dead eyes. Though it really fun to touch (hehe). But anyways, someone had to feed Flame. I (of course) asked for the job, and Brain (who is the head staff member) said yes! Once Flame’s treat was defrosted (SQUISHY GUSHY), I knew what to do, cause I had seen kids do I it before. Here we go! To Flame!

As I dangled Flame’s rat, her head darted back and forth, trying to confuse her rat, thinking her food was still alive. I'm guessing that if we realise her into the wild again, she'll be fine. She slowly slithered onto the side of the tank, then, BAM! In a flash, she had jerked her body upwards like a rocket in lift off, opening her mouth, then as fast as lightning snatched her prey from my hand and fell back. I jumped, shocked. It’s a lot more fun feeding a snake in reality than watching some other random person feed it. I watched Flame as she started unhinging her jaw. Soon, there was no rat to be seen.

Wait a minute……What the...? I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the rat flowing down Flame’s body in a giant clump. Yikes! That’s freaky! It’s going down fast, and it almost seemed as if a cheetah was running down her intestines! I better get out of here before the rat comes out of her other end. I hope I can do more things like this.

Nice, fun and new things.

by Sydney Cook

53

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CAMPING "Vroom vroom!" roared the car as we drove along the meandering road. My eyes danced as we neared the camp ground. Many kids were playing in the green trees finding new secret pathways to secret hideouts. I saw where all the Wolves were staying and struggled in my  seat belt. In scouts our ranks were named after different animals.

As the car stopped I couldn't contain my excitement. I unbuckled my seatbelt and jumped out of the car and into the wilderness. I neared the place where the Wolves camped. My eyes flew around wildly looking at the green trees and bushes. I heard a 54

bullet shot and remembered I was late for B.B. gunning. My dad took me up the green dirty pathway to the B.B. gunning range. I remembered when my brother went to this camp when he was a Bear. We shot at the targets then went back to the campground.

Arthur was coming down the hill when I came back and showed me a pathway up the hill to our secret hideout. I liked this place. It had everything to play on and also it was plentiful in green stuff. Me and my friends went higher than anyone. We trudged over the dirt and went over the hill and to the other side. But some people from a higher rank found us and took credit for finding the place.

Arthur and I wanted to go further so we started climbing up the hill. I got tangled in the midst of a few vines so I had to sit down and untie myself from the batch of vines. Arthur and I climbed up and went to the left for a long time. Then we couldn’t see my camp. I ran back and finally found the lush camp where we were setting up with a fire. I helped carry the heavy logs to the fire.

Then, once the fire was made I climbed back up and went left again. Arthur was already there. I slowly went forward. But the I heard a mountain lion and I froze. Arthur froze as well."did you hear that?" said Arthur. "Yeah" I said. He stealthily walked towards the bush in front of us. The mountain lion roared again and Arthur sprinted away at top speed. My eyes darted around the forest. I took a cautious step.

“CRUNCH” the leaves crumpled. Behind me a bush rustled. I turned around gradually, my eyes darting. My eyes darted around as I took a step forward. Out of the bush came Alan on of the scouts in my den. “Phew” I thought. “They’re making hot dogs” said Alan. “You came all this way just to tell me that they’re making hot dogs?” I said.

“Uh yeah” said Alan. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "What do you think?" I answered. Alan thought for a moment. "Venturing?" He asked. "No way" I said in a sarcastic tone. Alan stepped over the brush and climbed up the hill. The mountain lion roared again and Alan ran back and ran down the hill as fast as he could. I skulked over to the campfire making sure that I made no sound. Or else a mountain lion might actually hear me.

Last year when my brother went camping there was a mountain lion in the hills so they couldn’t climb where I was. Instead they had to do achievements from their handbooks. My brother loved doing the achievements for some reason. In my den nobody liked doing achievements.

I remembered two years ago when I wasn’t a scout yet but my brother was. I remember when my mom told me I couldn’t venture into the woods with them. I had walked around the campground thinking of something to do. But this year I could ven55

ture throughout the woods as much as I wanted to. Unless there were mountain lions.

Then nobody would want to go to that side of the hill.

After I ate my hot dog my dad told me not to go to the other side where I venture because there is a mountain lion there. I had to stop going there for the camping trip.

We started setting up camp and I picked up a rock and started hammering the nails.

My dad stopped me before I could bend the nails. “Don’t do it like that!” my brother said. He shaked his head at me. I chased him around the camp until he got tired and I got him. After we set up camp we had to sleep because it was so late.

The next day it started to rain and shower so we couldn’t do archery. This was the THIRD time in a row we couldn’t do archery. Since there was nothing to do most of the group left. I wanted to venture but we decided to leave since there was nothing to do and we might as well go home and chillax.

by Samarth Pusegaonkar

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22

EXPANDERS I was at my orthodontist, waiting nervously in the waiting room. I wanted to be anywhere but there.  I would of even rather go to the dentist. I would of  gotten the same prize thing I would get then at the dentist. I wished I could just go home. Today I was going to get my expanders!

I had mixed feelings about this. It would look kinda cool with a wire on my teeth, but there were many food restrictions that came with it. I thought a little bit about the

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fact that my lower one would be cemented in. I wonder how they will do that. I hope it doesn’t hurt and that it won’t taste bad. I thought to myself.

When they called my name, I slowly walked over to the person who was going to put on my expanders. I hoped with all my heart that it wouldn’t be too bad. But my hopes were dashed.

My mom, sister and I went over to the chair I would sit in. There was a Gameboy Advanced SP next to every orthodontist chair. The person who was going to help me introduced another person who was new and was going to watch me get my expanders on. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. But it didn’t really matter what I thought about it. It was going to happen any way.

The person got out a box with a metal thing in it. To see if it fit in my mouth, she put it in there and told me to bite on the bite stick that I had to bite on when they put metal rings on my teeth for my molds and told me the ring would give my tooth a “tight hug”. That was weird.

The lower expander fit, and they took it off. This time they applied sour cherry glue to it. It might sound like it tastes good, but it doesn’t, Quite the opposite. It was more sour than cherry. The orthodontist people told me that if I didn’t like sour things, I should keep my tongue away from it. It was harder than it sounds.

When they finished with that, there was still plenty of extra glue in my mouth. It was everywhere, transported by my tongue, It was awful. Has anyone here ever thought about letting me wash out my mouth at the brushing station? I thought, remembering the person who took my molds, who let me wash out my mouth after each of my molds. She had given me three tokens instead of one, one for each mold. I hoped these people would give me more than one token, since this was way worse.

The people told me to close my eyes because they were going to aim a light at my mouth that would dry the glue. They also told my sister and mom to close their eyes.

The light must be strong if they want us to close our eyes. I thought, as I saw a light through my closed eyelids. It made my vision red, instead of black, as it went through my eyelid skin. How long will this take? I thought.

Then, the intense light stopped. I was able to open my eyes. I could still taste that disgusting glue. I could not get my tongue away from it. I wonder when I’ll finally stop tasting that glue. I wondered. I hope it will be soon. If you like sour things and think you'd like it, you are mistaken. No one would like that glue. It is so bad, I can't describe it, but trust me, it's awful. No one in their right mind would eat that voluntarily.

After the torture, * the orthodontists brought out a red box. I wonder what is in that, I thought to myself. The box was opened and I saw a shiny gold thing. What the 58

heck? Is that my upper expander? I know I wanted a “sparkle gold” expander. That’s is probably what that is. I wondered.

My questions were answered when they told me that they were going cut down on the plastic to make it fit me. They went away and did just that, leaving me to sit there with the horrible taste. Can someone please tell me I can wash out my mouth?

PLEASE! Is that to much to ask? I thought. This is unbearable.

After about fifteen minutes, the people came back and tried it on me and went back to adjusting it. After a couple rounds of that, they finally were satisfied. The people taught me how to ratchet it, to make it expand to make my jaw larger. I did that a couple of times, while the other orthodontist talked to my mom about who knows what. Then the people put away the ratcheting key, and handed me the red box.

After that, they taught my mom how to ratchet my lower expander, since I could not do it myself. Even she could admit that she did pretty horrible, and decided to teach my dad how to do that, because he would probably do better.

Then, the orthodontist handed me a bigger purple box and taught me about it’s contents. It had a calendar, on which she wrote when to ratchet my expanders, a pen that had the name of my orthodontist place on it, wax, in case any of the expander felt “sharp or poky”, the ratchet stick, a proxy brush to get into to tighter spaces, a travel toothbrush, and a normal toothbrush. Quite a lot of things for a small expander.

Finally, they gave me a bag of dental stuff that I always get from my dentist, and a token to use for the machine. I put the boxes in the bag and went off to get something from the machine while my mom arranged my next appointment. I settled on getting a tiny duck, I went over to my mom, who gathered my sister and together, we left, with the terrible taste still stuck in my mouth.

by Julia Sather

59

23

IN THE AIRPORT When we got there, we went through Airport Security, and mom realized she had forgotten her makeup bag in grandpa’s van. She didn’t go anywhere to see friends or family without her makeup bag. Mom sat me on a bench and gave me everything except for the airport passes. She told me to stay there and not move from the spot. She told the Security and asked them to watch me. Then she went outside to call grandpa. I was alone with all the bags, and I didn’t know what to do. I was frightened. I started falling asleep, as it was 11:55 pm. I heard grandpa’s van pull up, and my mom say thank you.

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by Katrina Dingmann

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