One day I was on my way to a Volleyball game when I ran into Mark and his gang in the halls.
“What are you in a rush for short stuff?” he sneered.
I rolled my eyes at him and snapped back, “None of your business jerk!”
I sprint past him, to the beach where the match has already started. I groan under my breath, knowing I will be scolded by both my coach and my parents for being a few minutes late to the game.
“What took you so long in June?”
My coach didn’t sound happy once I had made it to where she was standing, “Sorry I ran into someone and they wouldn’t let me pass them for 5 minutes… But please don’t make me run laps for being a little late coach!”
I pleaded for her not to make me run laps until she made a bet with me, “If you get us to win this game you don’t have to run laps. If not, then it’s 20 laps at practice.”
I accept it and go switch with my teammate, the opposite team hits the ball over and within seconds I spike it down into the sand.
The crowd cheers for us while others groan disappointed with the team they were going for. I give my friends high fives and handshakes then it’s my turn to serve.
I tossed the ball up and hit it over the net. The other team hit it but it went into the net. We kept playing for some time till we needed the last winning points. Which made me think if I was making my coach proud or not?
When I went to serve again a bird flew by, knowing the details of its blue and green color, I should have known it was my grandma’s pet parrot Mango. I made our last point and we won!
After our huddle I look for my grandma and find her with my parents. I walk over and hug her asking how her and mango have been doing. “Oh we have been great! How have you been June?”
“I have been good, I’ve had better days but yeah.”
I walk with her to the car and then we say our goodbyes. Once I get home I instantly shower, eat some dinner, brush my teeth, and go to bed.
The next day my whole body was aching, I couldn’t bear to get out of bed but I still had to get ready for church.
I got out of bed the pain and my body ached, but I fought it off and got dressed out of my pjs. I went downstairs to get myself some breakfast and called my best friend who also plays volleyball with me.
“Hey girl, what’s up?”, she asks when she answers the phone. “ Hey Ally, I was wondering if you would be at church this morning?”, She was silent for a second before replying “ I’m already at church waiting for you”
I nearly dropped the phone when I saw the time. It’s 9:40?! Church starts in 20 minutes!
I set the phone down on speaker while I shoot up the stairs and get dressed into my church uniform.
I ran back down the stairs grabbing my toast with butter, my bag, and my phone. I get my shoes on as quickly as possible running out the door, I arrive at the church.
Oh my gosh I am so tired from running… “Oh hey Ally” I’m panting my hands on my knees. “Jeez how long do you live from here again June?”
She gives me a mocking grin and I stand up straight. “ I live like five blocks down the street from here down the hill.” I was breathing heavily, My blood started to boil when Mark called out “June you look like a mess!”
He starts laughing and I’m on the last thread from punching him in the face. “Mark, stop it!” Ally tries to get him to stop while I just get more angry.
Him and his gang just laugh, I grab Ally’s arm and walk away with her, my grip on her arm tightens,
“Let’s go Ally….” My voice was cold as I just looked straight at the doors to inside the church. “Ow June, that kinda hurts!”
she winces in pain, I let go of her arm and I continue walking to the doors.
Mark follows us and he manage to catch up to us with how much faster of a walker he is than us two are.
“What’s the matter June? Are you a little upset because you look like a wet dog right now?” His friends behind us snicker,
I stop in my tracks and turn to Mark. “ You either shut up Mark or I’m going to punch you in the nose. You always wanna bug me so that you can just get yourself hurt then!” I shout at him.
“You sound like a high pitched squirrel when you’re mad..” He sneers while he grabs my arm.
I could feel how tight his grip was on my arm, I tried to pull away but he just pulled me closer.
“Mark let me go, Your acting so weird-” He cuts me off interrupting me.
“June you’re so dang stubborn just give up already” for some reason his words give me butterflies in my stomach.
“What?” I pull out of his grip and back up, “what are you saying Mark?”
I was confused and flustered at the same time. “I like you June. That’s what I’m saying…”
I could see the embarrassment on his face, “Give me time to think mark..” My heart was racing as I walked into church, after church was over I still couldn’t get the thought of what he said out of my head. What were these feelings I have for him?
“June!”. Mark Walked over and I could feel my cheeks burning as he got closer to where I was located.
“What is it Mark?”. I asked in a stern tone. “Whoa still mad about earlier?” He said in a seductive tone which made my heart pound in my chest.
“No.. I’m not mad about anything” I mumble as he gets closer.
“Then what is it June?” he goes silent for a second,
“Are you still thinking of what I confessed to you still?” He smirks,
My heart was racing and I couldn’t get the words out to say anything.
I rest my forehead on his chest embarrassed to look up at him.
He held me in a somewhat hug that made me feel safe.
“Mark.. I like you too, but I just didn’t know how to tell you..”
His eyes lit up as he heard what I had just said.
“That’s why you are always in a snappy mood, hm?” He teases me as he chuckles. I look up at him as he looks back down at me. “ Wanna go to the park?”. I asked.
He Smiles and nods his head. “Yeah I would love to go to the park with you June.” We walked together to the park.
I started to speed up when a man in all black clothes was following us with his hand behind his back “Speed up..”
I whisper to Mark as we walk faster.
The man starts sprinting at us. We started running and hid in the bushes.
“Are you okay June?” I nod my head and my breathing is heavy.
We got out of the bushes and continued walking to the park, once we made it to the park it started to rain.
“Oh how I love the rain..” I say in a soft tone.
Mark looks at me and smiles “Wanna jump in puddles?” I accept his request and we jump in puddles dancing in the rain.“I love this!”
I giggle as I spin around In circles.
A while later we thought it was a good idea to go home. “It’s starting to rain a lot.” Mark holds me close to him.
While we started to walk home, The man was back… But he wasn’t alone, He had a whole gang with him. We sprinted home and stayed at my house. I called 911 and told them there was a group of guys with weapons in front of the house.
When the cops arrived they looked around the house and only caught 3 of them, when there were 6. Mark told me he would stay at my place to make sure I would be okay sleeping, “Yeah that’s fine..”
I tried to sleep in bed but I was still scared, so I went downstairs to the living room where Mark is. “What’s wrong June?”
He has this worried expression on his face, I sit down beside him. “I’m just scared they might find us again..”
He puts his arms around me in a hug. “It will be okay, they won’t be back soon..”
We watched a movie and I ended up falling asleep, Mark also fell asleep too and the next morning we didn’t wake up till 10:23am. “Good morning…”
I mumble as I start to open my eyes to see Mark was making breakfast. “Good morning sleepy head..”
I could smell eggs and steak being cooked. “Are you making eggs and steak?”
I walked over to him and the smell of the eggs and steak’s amazing.
The siren was the last thing he remembered after that mesmerizing day. His name was Hayden Deegan and he was only 23 years old. He was a pro motocross rider. He was driving up to the gate and his handlebars felt loose. He called his mechanic to come over but he was nowhere to be found. So he started the race. I did not expect to end up in an ambulance.
The race went on he started to get anxious about his handlebars. He just got done with his first lap and was just starting his second lap out of a 100 lap race. He needed to go see if his mechanic was in the pits. But for some strange reason he wasn’t there again. So he flew out of the pits and got back in the race.
He was in last place for a bit until lap 8. He got to first place for the first time in that whole race. He was going to do a nice trick named whip when he got past by Jett Lawrence. Jett was locked in that race because, if you win, you will get 1,000,000 dollars without tax. So Hayden stopped trying to do the whip.
Lap 21 Hayden and Eli Tomac were head to head but Eli was about to land short on a jump so he went full throttle and………. He made it and the crowd went wild. Almost everyone thought that he was going to get MVP for what he just did.
Out of the corner of Haydens eye he saw his mechanic so he flew into the pit and got his handlebars fixed. And He went back into the race and he got a flat tire which he figured out pretty easily because he wasn’t getting enough psi. So he continued the race. He went to the pit to get some water when all of a sudden Donald trump showed up to the track and went back to track but he was just so happy that Donald Trump was there so he started to sing the National Anthem in his head. He locked back in and was in 2 place behind Eli Tomac. But tomac was getting a little swirly on a berm so Hayden got time to get to first place and he did it but Tomac crashed on the berm the black flag came out it means stop ASAP. So Hayden stopped and so did the other riders.
He was rushed into the ambulance instantly and all had to go to the pit and then the green flag came out and the race started once again. Jett came out of nowhere and got to first place and he was on his 60th lap Hayden on the other hand was only on his 59th. Jett was very hydrated in this race which kept him good for the first part of the race and most of the race to come. Anyway Hayden came up to Jett.
Because he got done with a lap really fast. Jett was about to hit a jump when Hayden flew past him hitting a quad on the jump. Everyone was so mad because a lot of people were not wanting him to pass Jett because Jett was the best person there at that moment. So Jett went to his pits to get some performance enhancement liquid but his crew were out because he uses so much of it not many people knew he was a cheater.
Lap 70 was when the race became the worst crash in motocross history. Jett went crazy on another berm and had to jump off the bike. He was alright but had to jump back on the bike and almost broke his throttle cable. He twisted it back so hard. He went to the pit’s to see if it broke. It wasn’t but his hand brake and foot brake did brake so he had to switch his bikes and get on his yz 250. It’s a dirt bike for those who don’t know.
And then he saw Donald Trump in Hayden’s pits sitting on a trumpet. It’s a dirt bike for those who don’t already know. He was mad because he wanted Donald Trump to come over to his pit lane. So he went back to the track to race again when he saw Eli coming back after his crash and he was scared for him because he’s still hurt. Heyden was on a jump with every one behind him and he fell off his bike and broke his arm and his bike started to leak antifreeze on some gas that fell out of Elis bike when he crashed earlier and it started a fire and all the people behind him had to swerve out the way and they all slipped on Hayden and his bike which were both on fire and the fire grew and everyone’s bikes lit up on fire and and Jett was the first to tragically passed away then Eli got 3 degree berns from the fire. Everyone got rushed to the hospital and all the people in the crowd started saying that it was the worst crash in motocross history and they were right. Heyden was the only one that lived out of 2. Him and Eli Heyden’s last words in the ambulance was (is this a dream mom) and it was not he didn’t say a thing after a while when he got to the hospital. And then later got a disease from all the fumes from the fire and he later got perlaza Eli on the other hand sadly passed away a year after the crash. Heyden 15 years later is married and has 3 kids and lived happily ever after.
Once upon a time in the world of sports there lived two twins born from nothing. The Yin twin was very wild and rude to the people in the village. The Yang twin was very smart and kind to the people in the village. Whatever the Yin twin would destroy, the Yang twin would fix it. Since the Yin twin was so destructive he was banished from the village. One day the twins heard a mysterious voice.
”You two are the beginning of a great story.”
After that they never heard that mysterious voice ever again. The Yang twin became king and had a son named Evony Manorest. Fifteen years later, the king was kidnaped and taken to the Darklands and a big prize was given out to rescue the king. Meanwhile in the Darklands the king meets his brother, and they have a family reunion and they have a good time. They saw what each other was up to and get to know how each other’s life was going. Meanwhile in the kingdom of the king, everything was in chaos. With the king gone everyone didn’t know what to do. Ebony tried to calm everyone down, but it only worsened it so Evony decided to go bring the king back to the castle.
Evony asked everyone who would want to help him rescue the king and stop the chaos from worsening. The only people that wanted to save the king were Carl, Josh, Doni, and Megis. Evony and Carl went to the Adventurers Guild to become adventurers to begin to start their journey to rescue the king. When everyone was all ready and packed up, they left the village and started their adventure to find and rescue the king.
Meanwhile with the king and his brother, his brother was introducing his family to him and showing him around. Back to Evony and his party, they encountered a goblin camp and they got attacked by goblins and they swiftly and effortlessly defeated the goblins. A few hours later they found ruins and decided to camp out there while everyone was unpacking Evony went to explore the ruins and found a secret door that led to a treasure room and before he went in he told everyone else.
Evony said,”Guys I found a hidden treasure room!”
They all went in and they looked through the treasures, and they grabbed some magic weapons and some gold and started a fire back at the camp. After they had dinner they went to sleep. When they woke up they all started to pack up and continue their journey. After some time passed they got attacked by Orcs that saw them while they were hunting and they defeated the Orcs but it took a good amount of time.
They were getting closer to the king when they came across an inn. The innkeeper welcomed them in kind to stay the night. During the night they heard a weird noise that sounded like a monster. They got ready and started to leave the inn but ran into the monster, the innkeeper.
They were captured and tied up after they freed themself and found each other. They went to save the kids the innkeeper kidnapped. They saved the kids and looked for the innkeeper to defeat him. When they found the innkeeper and wounded him, he got away and reported it to the king’s brother. The king’s brother ordered his servants to set traps to stop Evony’s party from stealing his brother away from him.
While they were walking down the path they accidentally activated a teleporting trap that separated them all and trapped them in a huge maze with traps and treasures. They all knew that following the right wall was the way to the exit. So after five hours in the maze they finally got out. After they stepped out of the maze it teleported to a treasure room and they took only the valuables, and then they were teleported to where they got teleported to the maze and continued down the path.
They took a little break after they were walking on the path for a few hours for a lunch break. They voted for who would cook the food. They all voted for Doni to cook lunch because he owned the best restaurant in the kingdom. After lunch they continued down the path but they got attacked by bandits and gave them one hundred gold coins and the bandits left them alone.
In the beginning Bob started his engine. Then Bob went on the track to start to warm up. After Bob got warmed up Bob and the other races went back to three trals. Bob got something to eat then Bob went back to the track and got in line to start the race.
Bob and the other people got the green flag so they started the race. Three laps in, someone wrecked the car and then the race had to stop so the clean up tem could clear the track and the race got going.
Then Bob and the other race are fighting for 1st place. They were bumping into each other and they kept fighting. Bob was still fighting for 1st place and his car was losing speed but he was not giving up.
Donald Trump sped up. The crowd went crazy, but Bob was still fighting and there was only one lap to go.
Bob was in 1st place now. Bob won the first race. Now he was going to his trial to rest. In 30 minutes, Bob will go and start the second race.
They got the green flag. There was a pile up in the 1st corner of the track. Then 3 people started to fight, and the cops came to split them up. Bob wanted to keep going, but they had to stop the race. Then 20 minutes went by and the race still was not going.
Bob was getting mad but they said five more minutes left to wait, so he was happy. Then Bob got on the track. They got lined up again and Bob got in the front of the line. Bob doesn’t want to lose this shot in the race. Suddenly Bob got hit from the back of his car. Bob lost his spot in the race. Bob was not going to give up. Bob and this other guy were fighting for 1st place. Bob was now in 1st place with 2 laps to go. Now there was only 1 lap to go. Bob was still in first place. Bob saw the checker flag. Bob was happy he got first place in that race. Now Bob and the 4 winds have to have the championship race in one week.
Bob has one week to rebuild his car so it can go alot faster than it did at the home races. Bob got his car done but the race is in 2 days. So Bob now had put his car back together fast. Bob and his new friend Bill.
“Bob, this is not going to get done in 2 days. We still have the second car to put together. We will not put this car together in 2 days. We should not rebuild this car, we are not going to make it.” – said Bill
“Do not tell me what to do. You should be happy that I’m helping you with these dumb cars so shut up and let me work.” – Said Bill
“Bill this car is not dumb you are dumb if you want me to win we have to work” – said Bob
“Bob, I’m not dumb. If you want me to work, leave me alone.’ – said Bill
“Yes we are if you stop talking we will yes we will not going to get this done so get to work.” -Said Bob
“I’m going to get something to eat. Do you want something to eat?” – Said Bob
“No. Well, where are you going?” – Said Bill
“I’m going to Casey’s, what do you want, pizza and a Mtn Dew.” – Said Bob
“Bill, are you still mad at me? I got you food.” – Said Bob
“Yes Bob, I’m still mad at you because I’m stupid.”
“Bill, you are not in preschool. You are a grown man so you can grow up and drop it. And get to work you are slowing me down.” – Said Bob
“Well I know that I’m not in preschool. And I’m already a grown man. I will drop it if you do not shut up. I’m not slowing you down.” – Said Bill
“Bill is just going to start working to.” – Said Bob
“We got it done well, let’s see if it will start tomorrow.” – Said Bill
“I hope it does. We only have one day to work on it and we have to leave early to get there on time.” – said Bob
“Well it runs!” – said Bill
“Yes it does bill!” – said Bob
“Let’s put it on the trailer and let’s get ready to leave.” – said Bill
“I hope that we make it on time we left late.” – said Bill
“We won’t be late so do not worry bill. We just be one of the late ones at the ticket booth.” – said Bob
“We made it and we are not late like I told you bill” – said Bob
“Hope you do well at warm ups Bob!” -said bill
“Me to bill!” – said Bob
“Bill, this car is good on this track.” – said Bob
“That is the best news of my day so far. Well get out of the car and take a break be for you have to go and race.” – said Bill
“Good idea Bill.” – said Bob
30 mins late.
“It is time to go race now, wish me luck.” – said Bob
Bob got in the 3 other races the green flag. Bob got the lead and they had 30 more laps to go. Bob’s car is smoking all the other cars. Now there are only 20 more laps to go and all the cars are going well so for now there are 10 laps left and the cars are slowing down but Bob’s car was in the worst shape.
“Oh no” Bob slid out in the third corner and this is going end over end then his car burnt into flames. The fire dept rushed onto the track, and he got rushed to the hospital.
“Bob you were going good what happened” – said Bill
“I do not know what happened bill” – said Bob
Bob passed away 3 days later from 3 degree burns and a lot of broken bones.
Everyone loves summer break, whether it’s getting to play out in the warm sun, hanging with friends, relaxing, and going back to school and telling people about their summer. Everyone thinks that they had a crazy and chaotic summer, but, I don’t think you’ve heard of one this crazy.
“Come on, we’re going to be late!!” I yelled. We were getting ready to go to the second to last football game of the year. Everyone was so excited to go. We have been undefeated!!
We were just about to make a touchdown when billions of people started to say “ooo, that must have hurt.” I looked around to see what had happened, I couldn’t tell, so my friend Chloe pointed out to Billy on the field. Then I saw it, HIS BONE WAS STICKING OUT OF HIS LEG!! The police came and were talking on the walkie talkies to signal the ambulance to come to their location. My brother Sam saw the walkie talkie, and he instantly wanted one, so I told him that we have baby monitors that could work, and he was so excited to go home and find his old baby- monitor.
“I found it!” Sam yelled, “It’s in this box!!”
I ran over there to see if he really did, and he did find it! Chloe came over and helped us get the cords untangled. We sat them up and turned them on.
Kkkrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The static overwhelmed the room. “Hey!! I hear something. Do you hear that?” Chloe said
“Ya, I hear that too!!” Sam said
“But wait,” I said, “I turned this one off to make the static go away.” “It must be picking up another signal from another baby monitor.” Chloe explained.
“Y, y..ya, I, I guess you’re right.” I said.
“Ashley,” said Sam, “are you ok?”
“Ya, Ya, I, I, I’m fine.” I said
“Well I’ve got to go home, it’s getting late.” said Chloe
“Ok, I’ll call you later.” I said
Later that night we kept hearing those strange noises on the baby monitor. My mom said to put it away, but when Sam got up I started to hear words, English!!
“Wait!!” I yelled “Stay right there!!”
“What?” Sam asked
“Do you hear that?” I said.
My brother swung his hands up, and I heard it more clearly.
“Wait!!” I said, “Hold that up again!!”
“I hear it!!” My brother exclaimed “The higher it is, the more clear it gets.”
We held it up higher, but it was still too quiet, so I put a chair on the table and squatted down on it.
“Stop!!” I yelled, “Nobody move”
Krrrrrrrrr “Yes” Krrrrrrrrrr “That is de plan. Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Get more of those earthlings to do more studies. Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr “Wait!! Nrrrg nnrrrrrgsssnrrggg”
“Oh man, We lost the signal.” I said, “Earthlings!!”
“What?” Sam asked.
“They said earthlings, so that must mean that they live somewhere else, and not on earth.”
“You mean like aliens?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know.” I said, “But what I do know is that somethings up, and I don’t think it’s good.”
We kept hearing the noises, but nothing was abnormal. We didn’t think much more about it, and went on with our summer. I was helping Sam get packed for camping at our cabin,when I saw the baby monitor on his dresser. We didn’t think much about it, but we still took it just in case.
Afterwards we picked up Chloe and headed to our cabin. When we got there we unpacked and went to bed. When we went to bed I had this strange feeling that something was wrong, or something bad was going to happen, but I still didn’t think much about it. I went to sleep and when I woke up I was outside, so was my brother, and chloe!! I didn’t know why but we were. We were all confused about what happened. I itched my arm.
“What?” I thought to myself, I looked down and there was this strange marking on my arm, almost like a diamond with a line through it.
I grabbed Chloe and Sam’s wrists and looked at them. They had it too. That’s when I really started to freak out. We ran back inside and turned on the baby monitor and there it was, the voices again.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Those earthlings, they’re perfect!! Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr They will make perfect specimens for our labs!! Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
“I think they’re talking about us!” Chloe said. That’s when I got this eerie feeling in my stomach.
“Here it comes again!!” Said Sam.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Them Krrrrrrrrrrr I think they know our plan!! Krrrrrrrrrrrrr Noo!! They must not know of our plan!! Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
“Oh man, we lost the signal again!!”
Later on that night, we all three tried to stay awake, I looked down at my wrist to see the sign again, but it was not there!! They looked at their arms too. Theirs was also gone!! We looked outside, nothing was different.
We all eventually fell asleep, but I got spooked or something and woke up. I looked around, and I was in this strange white room filled with these strange creatures with big heads, but little bodies doing some sort of lab work! One looked over at me with these big glowing eyes!!
I tried to scream but my throat felt like it was in my stomach. It hovered over to me and put some sort of mask over my mouth, and I fell asleep.
When I woke up again, Chloe and Sam were at my side yelling my name.
“We have to get out of here!!” Chloe said
“Ashley!!” My brother cried, “I just want to go home!!”
Just then, a loud bang came from the left!
“Come on, we’ve got to go!!” yelled Chloe.
We ran down this very narrow hall to this weirdly shaped door.
“It’s locked!!” I yelled “Come on, this way!! They’re following us!! Quick!! Hurry up!!”
We ran down this hallway to our right that led us to this big circle on the floor. Right beside it was this big red button, and of course Sam pushed it. As we stood on the circle, it shined this big beam of light down towards the ground and we floated down to the ground. Right as our feet touched the ground, we ran towards the trees to hide. The weird creatures floated down from the beam of light right after we ran toward the trees. Just then, the marks on our arms started glowing this bright blue.
“Wait, what if they are tracking us!! What if this is how they know where we are always at!” I said
“Hey, Do you still have that flashlight with the magnet on the bottom?” Chloe asked.
“Ya, In Fact I do, I was going to use it tonight just in case we heard something outside. Why?”
“Because we could rub the magnet on our wrists to mess up the tracking device so they can’t find us.”
“Ya, then we won’t ever have to worry about them ever again! You are so smart!!”
“Thank you, hurry now up, let’s do this fast.”
We all rubbed the magnet on our wrists. Just then a beam of light shined around as if it was looking for something.
“I think it’s looking for us,” I yelled. Come on, go this way!!”
All of a sudden three rays of light shot down at us and we all three floated in the air. We could,’t move, we were like frozen in our place. 2 figures came out from the trees, and hovered right to us. They spoke to each other as if we weren’t even there.
“Those earthlings are too smart for us, we’ve got to hide their GPS trackers better, and where they can’t find them, like in their nose or on their tung.”
“I got a great idea for a place.”
“Really? What?”
“What about on the surface of their eye or behind their eye socket?!”
“Great idea!!”
Just then, one snapped their finger and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes Sam, and Chloe were laying at my side. All three of us looked around, and we couldn’t remember what happened. I looked at and at Chloe and Sam. I could see tears in Sam’s eyes. I couldn’t believe how hard it must be for a 7 year old boy going through this. I went over to him and gave him a big hug. Then all of a sudden, This big eerie screech came from the night sky. All three of us jumped.
“We’ve got to go find your parents!!” Chloe yelled
“I know.” I said
“And after that, we should go tell the police!!” Sam cried
“Good thinking, we will.” I said “I promise you, I will never let anything happen to you. Neither of you.” I said
Scr Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
“Did you hear that? It’s getting louder!!” I yelled, “Come on, let’s get to the cabin!!”
“Where is the cabin?” Chloe yelled
“What do you mean?” I yelled
“Where are we?” She yelled
“I don’t know where we are?” I yelled
“I just Want to go home.” Sam yelled, “I want mom, and dad.”
“I know buddy, We just got to find..
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
“Ahhhhh” We all held our ears from the loud screech.
“It’s gettin closer, RUN!!” I screamed
We ran for as far as we could, when Sam collapsed.
“Sam!! Are you ok?” I yelled
“I can’t run any farther!!” He yelled back
I put him on my back and kept running. When we reached this pond I just remembered that I read this book that said Aliens don’t like water, it kills them!!
“Jump in the water!!” I yelled
“Are you crazy?” Chloe yelled
“Just do it!!” I yelled back
We all jumped in the water and that’s when we heard the most gut rotting, the most eerie, the most terrifying screech ever!! Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! It sounded like 200 or more screeches all at once. All of a sudden I saw something swoop down and grab Chloe. Chloe screamed as loud as she could, but nothing worked. Then something swooped down and tried to grab me and Sam, but I dogged it, then a second one came and grabbed me by my arms as I was still holding Sam on my back. We screamed, and kicked but nothing worked. We were brought into the ship, and into this very little room with three hard plastic looking beds. All I remembered was that Sam was taken off of my back, and all three of us were placed on the bed like things and we were strapped down to them and about 13 figures circled around us and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was at home lying down in my bed. I couldn’t remember anything that happened.
“Was it all a dream?” I thought to myself, “It seemed so real. Did I dream my whole summer? That’s impossible!! You can’t do that.”
That’s when I had the idea to go to sam. He didn’t know what happened either so I called Chloe and asked her to come over to our house, but she was already here. She had no idea what happened either. I went down stairs.
“Mom, Dad?” I yelled “Where are you?”
“Ummm, Ashley, don’t you mean where are we?”Chloe said as she looked out the window.
“What do you mean?”
“Look!”
I looked out the window and we were not at home. There were stars, and a dark sky.
“We’re in space!!” Sam yelled “But why?”
“I don’t know Sam, but…”
Something interrupted me and woke up.I was sitting up against a mailbox. I was all alone, I started freaking out and I started yelling for Sam and Chloe. Nothing, nothing but silence. I looked around in this nearby field. I saw something lying on the ground, and to the right of it was another one.
“Sam!!, Chloe!!” I yelled, “Sam!!, Chloe!!” I ran over there, and sure enough it was them. I shook them until they woke up.
“Where are we?” Sam asked
I ran back over to the mailbox to read the address. It read “San Diego, California”
We are in San Diego, California!!” I yelled to them as they ran towards me.
“Why are we in Calla, fonia?” Sam asked
“It’s pronounced California sam, and I don’t know why we are.” I said
“Wait!! California is the state with the most alien sightings!!” Chloe said
“But why would they take us over 1,800 miles away from home?” I asked
“I don’t know.” Chloe said as she looked down
“Wait!!” she said “what if this is where the ship is located, what if this is where we’ve been this whole time!!”
“Is 1,800 a lot of miles from home?” sam asked
“Yes buddy, it is. But the real question is how do we get home? What if we don’t get to see our parents ever again!!” I panicked
Sam started to cry.
“Oh buddy, I’m so sorry. I never should have said that.” I said
“You promised we would get home!! You promised!!”
“I know buddy, and I will keep my promise.”
“How are you going to keep your promise?” Chloe asked me
Chloe looked at me funny.
“What?” I asked
She didn’t answer me.
“What? Answer me!!”
“At the corner of your eye!! She said
“What about it, is there an eyelash? I asked, “Chloe!!”
“There is a tiny blue shining diamond with a line in it.” She said
“What do you mean?” I cried
I itched my eye
A large ship hovered above us.
“Hide!!” I yelled!!
We hid behind this bush, as if it was going to do anything.
“We’ve gotta get out of here, make a run for it!”
“ Where are we going to go?” Sam asked
“Wait!! I know where!! My aunt Edna lives in Los Angeles!!”
“But that’s about 130 miles from here!! How are we supposed to get there? We don’t have any money, we haven’t ate anything for over 3 days, we are tired from running, what are we supposed to do now?”
“I didn’t think of that.”
“I know you didn’t, you never think about what’s happening, you only think about what could happen.”
“So that’s how you feel about me.”
“No, Chloe, I didn’t mean it.”
“No, I get it, I always try to find all of the good things, or the good possibilities that could happen.”
“I know, and that’s what I love about you, that’s what makes you, you!!”
“Thanks!!”
“Now come on!! We need to get a head start to your aunt Edna’s house!! Come on Sam!!”
We went into the big city to go find Aunt Edna.
“Guys!! Look!!” Chloe yelled as she pointed to the jumbotron.
“Hey, that’s the big ship that we were on!!” Sam yelled
“ That’s us!!” I said, “We were all shot down towards the ground!!” I said
“Hey!!” A man yelled, “Those are the kids that were in the UFO and got shot down from that ray of light!!”
“No, we’re not!!” Chloe said
(She doesn’t like crowds)
“Wait, Yes we are the kids!” I yelled
“Ashley!!” Chloe said
“I know what I’m doing Chloe, trust me.” I said back, “Hey everyone, We were taken over 1,800 miles from home, and these weird creatures have done so many studies on us. We haven’t eaten in over 3 days, and we are so tired. So will somebody be so kind as to take us home or at least to Los Angeles?” I asked
“Ya, and some food!!” Sam added
“Hey, I will!!” Yelled a woman from the crowd, “Just come with me and we can stop and get some burgers and fries!! Does that sound ok? Then I will take you home!!”
“Thank you so much!! You are so kind!!” I said back
“ Ya, thank you!!” Sam said
We ate for about an hour, and then we headed for home. The woman of course asked so many questions, and I was very comfortable sharing everything with her, especially for how much she has done for us!! We stayed at a hotel for the night because we still had over 1,200 miles to go.
“How do you have so much time to help us?” I asked the kind lady
“Well, I recently lost my husband in a car crash and then I realized how precious life is, so don’t waste it all and enjoy your life. My husband always told me to “live as if this was your last day.” I never knew what that meant until he passed away. So now, I want to travel the world and live my life!!” She replied
“I’m so sorry.” I said back
“Oh, that’s ok, it feels good to let it all out.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I didn’t know if it was because it was weird sleeping with a stranger, or if it was because of what she said.
We traveled for 2 days and we finally got home. My mom and dad were so happy to see us, and They thanked the kind lady for bringing us home. When she left, they sat us down and we told them everything. They didn’t really believe us, but they were just happy that we were home. I heard my mom talking to dad in her room, and she said that she thinks that the real reason we left was because we were mad at them for taking the baby monitor away. Even if they don’t believe us, we will always know the truth about what happened.
We tried forgetting about it, and I sort of did for a little while, until one day after school, I got an itch in my eye, and could see a little blue diamond with a line in it at the corner of my eye.
The referee’s whistle blows. The crowd goes silent, all Eyes on me. It’s a one point game and we need that last point. It took me a bit but I finally threw the ball into the air and hit a deep corner. Everyone’s quiet, the line guard looks at the referee, and nods his head. It’s all up to him . He looks like he’s standing on a throne, kinda like he has all the power. He puts his arms out and blows the whistle. I got the winning point. I look in the crowd and see my sister, the one I’m playing for.
“This is for you” I mouth to her
“Thank you” she mouths
I smile slightly, still sad she’s going back to the hospital tomorrow. My whole team is cheering me on and saying “ Oswald high school forever!”
I smile at them as they crowd around me. It’s making me very claustrophobic if I do say so myself, but it doesn’t matter since I got the point for her. My sister has had Astrocytomas (brain cancer) since she was 9 years old. She’s been living with it for 2 years now and it has brought our family to Chaos. Mom started her old habit of smoking, and dad is just. Dad’s just not doing as well as he used to be before she developed cancer. But it was just how it always is, them fighting over small things. Stupid small things.
“Why did you make JayLynn walk to school yesterday?”
“Its 70* out Martha, She’s fine. She’s still alive isn’t she?”
“How dare you speak to me like that david!”
“Well sorry you can’t drive your own kid to school!”
Like I said, “Stupid small things” but it doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that Maddie’s getting better. She got diagnosed on 5/07/2020 it was 1 month after her birthday. She passed out at school at 10 in the morning and no one could wake her up. Not even the teacher could get her up. I was still in the school at the time so they called me down immediately to try and get her awake. The police, hospital,and my parents were called. The paramedics arrived first and then my parents after, the police arrived 15 minutes after the secretary made the call.
I swore when I saw her lying at her desk and I held her hand. It felt Cold. When the paramedics got there I wouldn’t let them take her away from me, so they had to wait until the police came to restrain me. A 14 year old girl in a private school made a fool of herself in front of her parents. I was so disrespectful to them and everyone else. I was in the fight, flight or freeze mode and it chose to fight. The police took me to my parents, flailing my arms trying to get out of their grip so I could see my sister.
I looked over my moms shoulder since she’s so short and I saw my sister being put into the back of an ambulance. I cried harder than I’ve ever cried before. It was about 5 hours later that she got an MRI when she finally woke up right then and there in the front of the hospital my dad finally couldn’t hold back anymore ,and brokedown. I couldn’t tell what it was from . If it was from the bleach on the floor which was his least favorite smell,or the fact his youngest daughter got diagnosed with cancer.
It’s the next day now and my snapchat is filled with snaps from my friends and VB team. Everyones congratulates me for the serve I made and then I smell the air just to smell pancakes, the best smell in the world.So I get out of bed and get dressed into a fluffy pair of pants and a big sweatshirt. I brush my hair and that’s when my father calls from downstairs. I stop brushing my hair and say to myself “it looks good enough” before I go downstairs and eat the delicious pancakes.
I get downstairs to see Maddie there and I ask her“How did you get here so fast?”I asked smiling
“You’re too old to run fast anymore!” She replied, making me laugh.
I go over to the table and sit down. My father asks me “why is your hair such a mess Lynn?”
I look at him with a puzzled look and ask “What do you mean?”
He laughs and points to the bathroom”Go get a good look at yourself!”
he says in a playful tone. So I got up and went to the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
My strawberry blonde hair and light green eyes staring back at me from the mirror. My bruises from past volleyball games on my arms, and legs basically all over my body. I look at my wavy hair all the way down to the middle of my back and notice how frizzy it is. I use my brush to comb it out, and get it straightened out. After I do that I head out to see the most delicious pancakes in the whole world. They had chocolate syrup, strawberries,and little bites of banana on them too.
I sat down to eat and get a big whiff of this amazing smell. Then those beautiful pancakes sat down right infront of me. I swear I was drooling but they looked delicious. How could I help myself? After my dad passes them around he sits down and we all dig into the exquisite food. My dad only makes this type of food for maddie never me, Whenever she isn’t here i usually just have a slice of toast, or a small bowl of cereal.
After breakfast I clean up the food by taking them to the sink and rinsing them off, so there’s nothing on them. I put them carefully down in the sink and go back to the table. “So Maddie has something to share with us?”
My father says smiling and anticipatingly. Maddie then stands up like she’s going to make a huge announcement.
“The doctors said they can cure me with Mitotic and topoisomerase inhibitors or whatever they call it. They said it would be around 20,000 dollars but I knew you guys had enough money, so I signed your names on the sheet to cure me!” The room went so silent you could hear mom and dads worry in their heads.
“What’s wrong guys? I can be normal again!”Mom and Dad exchange worried glances. “Of course honey!” Mom has such a worried tone, and Dad has his head in his hands. All of a sudden dad stands up, shoves his chair in and walks upstairs at a quick pace and slams his door to his bedroom.”David.”
My mom says and goes after him. I’m just in the dining room with Maddie. She looks at me confused. “Did I do something wrong?”
She asks in a meaningful voice (for once). I didn’t know what to say. If she was being sincere or not.
My mom finally came out of her room “JaeLynn go to your room, im taking Maddie back to the hospital. I’m going to have a little chat with her on the way there.”
she said. And at that moment, I knew Maddie wasn’t just getting a “Little chat”. So I did as she said, and went up to my room and shut the door behind me. Immediately after I do that, mom starts calling out Maddie. I can barely hear anything, everything is muffled
I look around in my room. The same baby blue walls with green paint splatter on them. I see my white desk,made out of wood with the same green paint splatters. Then there’s my trophies. From my newest one all the way to my first one I got when I was Seven. Such a memorable moment. It was when I got to state for my outstanding performance. I was playing with kids that were Eight and Nine! I felt like such an outcast in that group.
I was practicing with my team in our personal gym and I was in fourth spot and my friend Maggie did a perfect set for me while she was in second spot and I put that ball in the best deep corner. I think that was the best one my coach had ever seen, especially from a 7 year old. She was so impressed by me she got me a little statue of a girl spiking the ball over the net and the wording on it said “#1 spiker”, and she gave maddie one that said “#1 setter”. That’s how we became best friends.
She goes to the same highschool as me and she’s on my volleyball team. We’ve been friends for about nine years, soon to be ten. She’s a year older than me, but she got held back for ripping out a kid’s hair in 2nd grade so me and her got in a class together. She scared me at first, and even the teacher was scared of her, but I was her only friend and it was like that forever. We’re in 9th grade together now and I’m 15 and she’s 16.
I get dressed into a pair of pjs and scroll on my phone. I look at the snaps from this morning. Some of them are congratulating me, others are just streaks. I continue to scroll on my phone until my bestie texts me. It’s always bad when she texts first. Bc that means she isn’t tired and we’re going to stay up the whole night talking.Im already tired so i don’t answer her, just for both of us to sleep well tonight. She texts me
“Nice corner you hit today. I’ve been telling you for months you need to teach me how to do that 😭 😭 😭“, I laughed at her remark, tempted to write back.I smiled at her text then put my phone on my night stand i looked at my easel and i went to clean it off.
After i got my easel cleaned off i looked at my cats food bowl noticing it’s empty. I look around the room and notice I can’t find her. I shrug it off and go in my closet for some cat food. I get the cat food and pour it in her bowl. She always stays in my room.Everyone knows not to let her outside into the wild. Ecsp-ecialy from the Tuna incident. When I was about 10 I got a cat named tuna. He was the best cat I could ever ask for.
One day Tuna got out of my room. I don’t know how it happened but he got out. My sister was about 3 at the time and Tuna was scratching at the door to go outside. My sister could actually reach the door handle to let him outside. So she did and shut the door after he went out. My mom was driving me to school at the time and my dad was working in his office since he is a work at home dad.
He didn’t even notice the door open. It was about 7 hours before I came home from school. We live in the country so it takes longer to get there. When I got home I went to my room and called for Tuna. But he didn’t answer. I particularly thought he was sleeping under my bed, so I didn’t think much about it.
I filled up his bowl since he always came running to the food bowl once he heard the food against the metal bowl. This time he didn’t come so I looked everywhere in my room. I went downstairs to ask my dad if he had seen him.
“Dad, did tuna come out of my room today?” He just shooed me out of the room. I guess he was on a business call or something. About an hour later mom finally pulled into the driveway. I ran out in tears.”What’s wrong JaeLynn?”
she asked in such a calm tone “Tunas missing” By this point I was sobbing. She hugged me.
“He’s probably just in your room somewhere sweetie”
“No mom, he’s not in there, I checked everywhere!”
“Its ok let me rest then we can go look for him”
“Mama you don’t understand!”
She ignored me and went inside. I followed after her looking everywhere in the house. Looking in the kitchen, dining room, maddies room, and even my dads work area. My dad wasn’t thrilled when he came back to see his room messed up and everything disorganized. Maddie kept following me around the house and saying stuff like “Tutu” , what she called Tuna.”Kitty”, and “out out” non understanding what she meant by that but she always said that when she was waiting by the door.
I looked everywhere and I tore up the house. Me and my family came to an agreement that Tuna got out, and that my parents wouldn’t be able to trust me with a cat for a while. It wasn’t until a year later when maddie finally fessed up and told us that she let tuna outside, and that she didn’t feel bad about it since she never liked that cat anyway.
I got so furious at her I yelled at her for days, and she was only 7. I got so angry at her while we were in this quarrel when she teased me about “Not being able to function my emotions”, or something stupid like that. I punched her in her side, and she still has a little scar from me to this day.Lets just say she never came into my room and never touched my cat again. The only time she did is when we got Cookie, my new cat. We got her last year after me and my parents had enough money.
Cookie is a Main coon ragdoll moggy. She has a light brown fur color with little black circles all on her fur. Her fur is super soft, and relaxing to pet on stressful days. I got her 1 year ago when she was still a kitten. She’s always been in my room, and she’s never left my room once. Cookie gets home sick when I leave for school, so she’s always happy when I come home. She would always meow at me, rub against my legs, and bats at her food bowl. Somehow she never got fat. I feed her so much that sometimes I think she will explode!
I hear my mom get back and slam the door.
“David, get out here now.”
“Yes matha?”
“That brat actually signed both of our names on the paper, and now we can’t get them off.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Does my face look like it’s kidding?”
“No martha it doesn’t”
“I’m shocked you’re not even angry. She is your favorite after all”
My dad just stormes back into his room furious. I don’t hear any arguing after that so I think it’s safe to come out of my room. I open my door and shut it quietly, so then they don’t hear it shut. I slowly make my way down to the kitchen noticing no one is there. I go to the cabinets and pull out some cereal. I pour it into a bowl, and go to get some milk from the fridge. I open the fridge door and notice there isn’t any milk, but i can just eat my cereal without any milk
I take my bowl of dry cereal up to my room to eat it. I don’t have a spoon or anything but cereal is cereal with or without the spoon. I sit on my bed and eat my cereal just scrolling through my youtube feed. I finish my cereal about 10 minutes later, but when i finish it i put down my phone and head back downstairs. I go to the kitchen and hear my dad working in his office with his door shut. I don’t know where my mom is, but I suspect that she’s probably in her room watching a new show or something like that.
I rinse out my bowl and head back upstairs to go snuggle with Cookie. I get to my room and sit on the bean bag chair in front of my bed and turn on the tv right in front of me. I watch a movie and Cookie lays on my lap petting her. She’s purring so loud I feel like the whole room is shaking. Her purr only lasts a few seconds before she jumps off my lap, and jumps on my bed. I look at my clock on my wall and see that its 11:00 p.m. I turn off my tv, and get dressed into a silky shirt and a pair of matching silky shorts. I brush out my hair, and get into my bed. I turn to my right side, and fall asleep.
Hi my name is Ben,I’m 23 and I’m going to tell you about my childhood and how I played football when I was a kid.
I was born in 2001,September26.
Fast forward to when I was six and I started to get interested in football and on my birthday I got a football to play with my older sister. My sister and I went outside to play catch and the football coach was walking by.
“You are good at throwing a football.” seid the coach.
“Thank you” seid Ben
“Your welcome”
“I have a question”
“What that kiddo”
“Can I join the football team for the quarterback since I’m good at throwing the ball?”
“Yauy you can. Let’s start you off at widresever so you can get used to running first.”
“Ok thank you for letting me know coach”
“Your welcome Ben.”
So the next day I was on the football team doing drills and running laps around the football field. The next day we were doing drills like the left then cut right to chech the ball in mid air to get a touchdown.
“You are good at catching the football and throwing it.” sied jem.
“Thank you for the compliment man.”
“No problem for my best friend.”
I had the best time in football and we had made it to the big leagues and we had won.That was the first big game of the year.We had to head home after the game.My mom was worried for my safety on the way home from the bus making noises when we were leaving the school.
We had another football game and we were going to the new york field to play in and we were only 9 and 10 from the age and we are in a famous football field and we are from New Jersey.We are far from home to go back right away.The coach got about 20 rooms for each on of us to be in ower own room to be in and we get to do water we want to.But we have to be quiet whal we are doing the stuff that we want to do.
It was the next day and we were on our way to New Jersey on the school bus and it should take two days to get there.Well i was wrong cuz the bus broke down and nowone had sarves for their phones.But luckily the coach had a satellite phone for just in case this happens to us on the way home.We all called ower parents to let them know that we whald be home later than planned.So instead of taking two days it whald take about three days to get home safely.
The next day we broke down again so we had to call our parents again to let them know we won’t be home as planned again. We were getting irritated.I helped with the engine.We had to tear the engine apart so we could fix it so it wouldn’t break down again.We put the engine back together and we got back on the main highway so we could get home.
The next day we had made it to the school and we had to go home.My dog was so excited to see me again,my sister was still being a jerk like she always is.The next day I was sore as can be win I woke up and thin my sister sad to take the dog out and i told her to take the cuz of how sore i was.She told on me for not taking the dog out and they said
“Why don’t you take the dog out yourself cuz your brother is to sore to get out of bed to take the dog out.” said mom
“No it’s not my chore.My chore is the dishes every other night.
“Thin dishes ant his chore if taking the dog out is so hard to do.”
“O my god I will take the dog out cuz i don’t whant to do dishes every night cuz i whant it where we swap nights.”
Like I said she is a jerk and onley thinks about herself and she stells all of my hard earned money.On a Tuesday i had to mow the lawn.I got paid by my parents to mow the lawn.I got paid $50 to mow the lawn.
We had gone back to school the next day and every one had been hanging on me all day asking me all kinds of questions like
“Are you a football player?”
“Yes I am a football player and we won awer last game by three points.It was a close game.
I saw the crowd roar in joy. I smile getting into my car. I look at my opponent. I heard a gunshot and the race was off. I was three laps in and I saw two cars on my side. I see them getting closer.
BOOM!
I was in the air. I saw the sky and then the ground over and over. The ground upside down. People yelling.
“MICK! MICK! SOMEBODY HELP.” Ben yelled. Ben was my brother.
I heard the ambulance there, but I couldn’t see it. The race was stopped. They tried and tried to get me out, but they noticed I had a broken neck, arm, and leg. They did the Jaws of Life on the car to get me out. It took 40 – 50 seconds to get me out. They put a neck brace on my neck and put me on a bodyboard. They put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital with my brother. Twenty minutes later my brother and I made it to the hospital.
They performed emergency surgeries. Six hours after I got done with my surgery, I was in a hospital bed with my wife by my side and my daughter on my other side. Ben was standing at the end of my bed.
“Dad?” said Angel. She is his daughter.
“Yeah”
“ Are you going to be healed for my wedding?”
“ I don’t know but I hope I am.”
The next day I had to go do another surgery. I went in and my wife and Angel stayed in the room. My wife was praying when I went in. Five hours later I got out and I was in my room asleep. My wife was holding my hand. Angel had her head on my shoulder.
Two weeks later I got out of the hospital. My wife was driving Angel and me home from the hospital. When we got home the TV was on and President Trump was speaking. I sat on the couch with my wife. It got later and my wife started to make dinner. I was sitting on the couch watching her cook.
“What are you making?” said Mick.
“Chicken tacos.”
“Okay.”
After dinner, my wife and I are sitting in bed. My wife is setting up an appointment for me. I fell asleep with her. The next day my neighbors were over and their little girl was coloring my cast on my arm. I smiled down at her remembering my daughter when she was little. I knew at that moment I was going to walk my daughter down the aisle.
Six weeks later I was in physical therapy and I was doing well. I was working really hard to get healed for my daughter’s wedding. I worked every day. My arm was healed. I was still having trouble walking. I kept pushing through and never gave up. I had too much that I still wanted to do in my career, and I knew my daughter wanted me to keep going.
After my therapy session, I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife. When she got in the car we went to Taco Bell to get lunch. We got our food and went home. When we got home, she helped me in my wheelchair to the house. After I finished my food. I moved to the living room and sat on the couch turning on the TV. My wife sat down with me. I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me. I was thankful to have her.
Three weeks before my daughter’s wedding, my wife went dress shopping today and I stayed at home with Ben and my daughter’s fiance. We were watching football. Five hours laters the girls came back from dress shopping. I pulled my daughter into the other room.
“Princess I don’t think I can walk at your wedding I am so sorry”
“It is okay Dad, I understand.” she said, looking at the ground.
The wedding day came, and everyone was getting ready. My wife was by my side. I was shaking in my wheelchair. Everyone started to fill the seats. I sat there listening to the birds sing thinking how beautiful this day was. I waited at the end of the aisle. As my daughter approached, she knelt down to me.
“Do you want Uncle Ben to push you?” she whispered.
I grabbed the arms of the wheelchair and slowly stood up.
“No I got it” I looked at her and smiled. “Let’s go,” I said softly.
With tears streaming down both of our faces, I walked my daughter down the aisle.
The forest was dark and quiet, the only noise was the light footsteps of a big buck walking through the woods. They didn’t see the deer at first but they heard the leaves crunching under its hooves. When it came into view they could see it was a ten pointer.
“Look, it’s a big one.” Emma whispered.
“It’s a ten pointer, get ready to shoot it,” whispered Bob.
Emma aimed right behind the shoulder and was interrupted by another noise so she turned around and saw… she couldn’t see anything, It was dark. She woke up to the voice of her father saying,
“Emma, wake up!”
“What happened?” Emma asked.
“You fell off the tree,” said Andrew, her boyfriend.
They walked back home and Emma sat down on the chair. Bob was about to walk out the door but before he did Emma said,
“What was the noise I heard before I fell?”
“What noise?” Said Andrew.
“The sound of someone walking behind us.”
“There was no noise Emma.” Bob said
Then Bob walked out the door and went hunting again. Emma and Andrew stayed behind and Emma went to bed. She had a terrible dream where she was hunting again and heard that noise again. She turned around and saw… Then she felt herself falling again. She woke up the next morning and couldn’t remember what she had dreamed about. She walked upstairs and her dad was up there.
“How do you feel this morning?” He asked.
“Fine.” She said.
“Do you want to go hunting again today?” Said Bob.
“No, I don’t think I will at all this year.”
“Alright.”
Bob left to go hunting and Emma sat there trying to remember what her dream was, but she couldn’t. Andrew came over and asked her how she was and then made her some breakfast. She started to eat and then she remembered something about her dream. She remembered turning around and seeing something but she couldn’t remember what it was. Then she remembered falling and hitting the ground.
“Did you hear that noise yesterday?” Emma asked.
“No. What do you think you heard?” Andrew said.
“I don’t know but I definitely heard something.”
“What did it sound like?”
“It kind of sounded like someone or something walking behind us.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just hearing things?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
That was that so they continued eating quietly. Emma kept thinking about her dream and kept trying to remember what she saw when she turned around. She just couldn’t remember. All she could remember was falling off of the tree. Her dad came back in and she said,
“When can I go hunting again?”
“I don’t know, probably tomorrow,” said Bob.
“Ok.” said Emma.
She spent that whole day trying to remember what she saw right before she fell out of the tree. She couldn’t remember what she saw. That night as she started to drift off to sleep. She felt like she was falling and she was. She was back in the dream so she turned around to see what was over there and she saw… She woke up and couldn’t remember again. She got dressed and ready to go hunting again. She walked upstairs and her and her dad Bob walked out the door and got to the tree stand and stopped.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Bob asked.
“Yup.”
They climbed up the ladder and sat in the tree stand. Emma kept looking behind them to see if anything was there. She didn’t see anything or hear anything until they were about to leave. She heard the crunching of leaves like someone was walking towards them. She ran back there to see what it was but there was nothing there.
“Emma, what are you doing?” her father asked.
“I heard it again! That crunching noise!” she said.
“What noise Emma, there was no noise.” Bob said.
“Yes there was, it was like someone was walking towards us and before you say anything there was a noise I heard it the other day and again today.”
“I think it’s time to go home,” said Bob.
So they went home and Emma went straight to her room, she knew she heard something and she needed to know what it was. So when everyone was sleeping she snuck out and went to find out what it was. She walked down to the tree stand and went to look around behind the tree stand and she saw something hiding in the grass. It was a baby deer with a cute button nose and white on the tip of its ear. She couldn’t help but smile, she had been worried so much about such a little thing. A little and cute thing. She walked back home and woke up the next morning happy and she remembered what she had seen last night.
It was the fourth quarter of my basketball game, and we were ahead by two baskets. Our game started at 10:00 am and it was currently 10:45. There were eight minutes left in our game and the quarter just started. It was our ball. We took it down the court and they stole it. Time to get payback. I ran as fast as I could and blocked her layup.
Fifteen seconds left in the game. They were up by one basket and it was our ball. My best friend was also on the team and she was the point guard. She dribbled down the court and passed it to me. There were now only five seconds left. I went out to the three point line and shot it.
Swish!
Errrrt!
I made the 3!
We won!!!
It was now 11:30 and we are going out for lunch. My mom said that I could choose where we went. So I picked Chick-fil-a. My mom ordered our stuff.
“Can I get two eight piece chicken nuggets with ranch cheese sauce and a Dr. Pepper?”
That was my favorite thing to get from Chick-fil-a. After we got our food, my best friend Scarlett called me. She had been my best friend since preschool because our names rhyme. My name is Charlotte.
“Hello.”
“Hey Charlotte, I was wondering if you wanted to go hunting with me in my timber”
“Sure, let me ask my mom quickly. Mom, can I go hunting with Scarlett?”
“Yes,” said my mom.
“We will be leaving at 3 o’clock to go.”
“Okay see you then!”
My mom and I got done eating and we went to Theisens to get myself a deer tag to go hunting with Scarlett. It was packed. There were 15 other people getting deer tags.
We have been waiting in line for 30 minutes and I finally got to the desk. The guy asked us all of the questions and told us the price. It was $33 dollars plus tax. Now it was time to go to Scarlett’s house!
We got there and she was already waiting outside. I got out of the car and Scarlett started running towards me.
“CHARLOTTE! I’m so happy to see you!”
“I am so excited to go hunting!”
“Oh my gosh, same!”
We walked into her house and put on some orange.
“I have two orange vests and two orange hats.”
“Okay let’s put it on.”
We put on the orange and grabbed the guns. It was currently 3:00 so we started heading back towards the tree stand. It was pretty far back so it took us 10 minutes to get there. We got to the stand and realized three nails had fallen out of the ladder.
“It will be fine. We just have to be careful,” said Scarlett.
“Okay, I’m kinda scared.”
“We will be fine, just be very careful.”
Scarlett climbed up first and it started creaking. I was really scared to climb up. I started climbing up, and it started creaking again. I made it up the ladder and we sat there. We had to sit there until 30 minutes after sunset. Sunset was at 4:32 so that meant we could leave at 5:02.
An hour had passed and it was very windy. The ladder was making very weird noises.
“Umm, was that supposed to happen,” I said.
“No, I think it was because of the wind.”
“Should we be concerned?”
“No, it will be fine.”
“Right after she said fine the ladder fell.”
“OMG we are STRANDED!” I said.
“We have no service! What are we going to do?”
“We are gonna have to call for help.”
“Do you mean to yell? No one is going to hear us.”
“Yes it is worth the try right? I mean what else are we going to do?”
We started yelling and no one heard us. We were going to have to stay the night in the timber, stranded in the tree. I knew something was going to happen as soon as we got to the tree stand. We couldn’t sleep. The raccoons kept squeaking all night. We finally fell asleep, but we only got two hours of sleep because it was bright out by 6:00 am. At 6:30 we heard a strange noise. There was something stomping in the leaves.
“What was that noise?” I asked.
“I don’t know, maybe it is a deer.”
“Let’s wait and see till it comes over here.”
“Okay!”
It came a little closer and we realized it was bigfoot.
Scarlett screamed,”AAAAHHHHHH”
“We should ask him to help us!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, then we might be saved!”
“Okay here we go”
I asked bigfoot if he could help us.
“Bigfoot, can you help us get down from the tree?”
“Ummmm sure!”
“OMG thank you!!!”
He helped us down and told us not to tell anyone about him. We said okay and walked home. We were starving so we ran home. When we got back to Scarlett’s house, her parents were crying. They didn’t realize we were home yet.
“Mom, Dad, where are you?”
“Scarlett! I can’t believe you are home! I was so worried,” said Scarlett’s mom.
“I’m so happy to see you too!”
“Charlotte, let’s get you home to your parents.”
“Okay!”
My house was five minutes away from Scarlett’s house. On the way to my house Scarlett’s mom called my mom. She told her that we were safe and I just heard my mom say thank goodness. We got to my house and my mom was waiting outside. I got out of the car and ran to my mom. I gave her a big hug.
“I missed you so much Mom!”
“I missed you too! Let’s go inside and have some steak!”
“That sounds like a great idea!”
Scarlett’s mom left. We went inside and ate some steak and she told me the whole time we ate how much she missed me. I told her that we got stuck in a tree. She asked how we got down and I said, “I guess you’ll never know!”
The crowd was yelling and hollering “Lil-y Lil-y Lil-y!!!” and I could hear my mom cheering for me. I had won and then I saw her. My sister’s name is Lola and my moms name is Suzie. My dads name was Allan, I was about 10 years old when my sister went missing. It was about four years ago.
When my sister got kidnapped, my dad left because he was so sad about it. My mom hadn’t been around the house much so I went to school. After school I have my swim team, and swim practice is over at about 5:30. I usually babysit my neighbor’s kid on Thursdays and Sundays until 6-11, but they usually get home earlier because they dont want me up too late. I get about 30$-40$ a day, and I’ve been saving up my money in case Lola ever comes back or is found. We could go to the movies or go shopping together or basically just do girly/sister things together.
I’ve always wondered if my sister came home, what my dad would do. Sometimes I wonder what she looks like,what she’s doing,what she’s wearing, if she’s even still alive… but I say hi to her friends all the time. They’re always asking how I’m doing. Lola was into volleyball,she was also sweet, nice, and caring. She also had dark purple hair and she was always so pretty with or without makeup.
I have to swim at 4:00pm today but I think I’m going to go to the pool at 2 so I can get some more practice because in 2 weeks I have a swim meet that I HAVE TO win. I was walking to the bus stop and there’s this billboard of missing kids and I don’t see my sister there. I know she was up there before because I stapled it extra so the wind wouldn’t take it because it’s happened before. I’m just confused who took it down. Could she be in this town and the kidnapper took it down? What happened to my sister’s missing photo?
The bus finally came andI was frustrated about my sister’s photo being gone. I’m looking out of the bus window onto the trashed streets and the color of everything just looks dull, like if my town had the colors washed out or just they all faded. I see trash blowing with the wind down the empty streets with no cars but there’s random tweakers down them. I see stray cats jumping out of dumpsters or chasing birds. You ever feel bad for them, because I do. I wonder where the cats’ owner or mom is at or if any of these cats ever had an owner to show them love or if they have ever felt someone’s touch because the tweakers ain’t good for them.
I finally made it to the pool
“Isn’t it a bit early, Lilly? Swim team practice doesn’t start for another hour or two,” said the lifeguard.
“You know you have to get extra practice to win right?” I said back to him.
He just chuckled and walked away. I start walking into the locker room to shower and change before I get into the pool and that’s when I started to feel lightheaded. I took the old people’s shower because it has a chair for you to sit on and I was just gonna sit down and get changed and showered and ready for my swim. I started to hear my sister and for a second I thought she was in this locker room with me, but I knew it was just because I was lightheaded so I just stayed in the shower a little bit longer. I finally am getting into the clear water but it looks blue because of the paint. The water feels warm at first but then when I got more into the water it was near freezing at first and then I went underneath the water and when I came back up it wasnt cold anymore.
I like swimming because it keeps my mind off of things especially home things and how my sister still isn’t back and keeps my mind away from thoughts that are like “is Lola even still alive?” or the thoughts of imagining what Lola is going through right now I don’t know just everything has felt so odd, when she went missing she was at a volleyball game and after. Well after she never came home, my parents and I just thought she was at a friend’s place because she always did on Fridays. I just miss my sister.
It was a Saturday morning. My mom and I were waiting for my swim number to come around for me to swim my laps. I had a headache so I went to the locker room to get away from all of the noise, when I heard my number get called. I ran out and grabbed my goggles and swim cap and went over to the diving block. My timer lady asked if I was ready and I said yes, I got up there and got into my starting position and then BEEP. I dived off into the water. I felt free but pressured. I gave three dolphin kicks and then made it to the surface. I was swimming faster than ever before. I can hear my movements underwater and I feel the water moving with me. I was turning my head to the side and lifting it out of the water to breathe after every 10 strokes. Every time I go to breathe I look at my mom. She seems so proud so I’m guessing I’m winning. Then suddenly I look over to hear my name being chanted and it’s my sister’s whole friend group going “Lil-y Lil-y Lil-y” that made me go faster. I touch the wall and get up and out to breath and I look at my competitors and they’re barely half way done so I am so proud of myself. So I’m walking over to my mom and suddenly a girl walks over to her and my mom starts to cry and calls me over. I start running towards her and the girl turns around and looks at me.
I know those eyes. I know that smile. That is my sister’s hair. I am more than happy. I am crying, I have my sister back and I’m so so happy, I gave her a hug and then asked
“How? What? Where were you?”
“I’m sorry sis. I know it’s been awhile but I tried escaping and it never worked until now. I heard about you joining the swim team. I’m so proud and I’ve been in a dude’s basement for some time but I’m here now, but can we please go home”
I started running over to my swim members to tell them this exciting news and that I was leaving and then I slipped and it went blurry and sounds were muffled and then it turned black.
Eddie Fox, is a seven foot six inch beast. He was twenty six years old and still living in his dad’s basement. He had been practicing baseball since he was five years old, and part of his dream had finally come true. He made it to pro baseball. He was an outfielder so he doesn’t make money yet. He needed to support his dad and try to make him proud of his son again. With his mom bills piling up especially with the bills that his mom had put on them, this was his darkest time. He felt as if he had died or was going to die.
He had been trying to make them pick him for first base. That was his other part of his dream. He had not been able to practice much because of his mom. So the first day of baseball Coach Brian said that Eddie was in the outfield. Then the dad said unencouraging things. It went like this.
“Eddie, you are outfield,” said Coach Brian.
“Of course you are. You always are. How did I have this big of a failure,” said dad.
Then in the outfield he met his soon to be best friend, Blake. He is 4 foot 9 inches and he is 24 years old. He had already accomplished his dream of being a catcher. Eventually a ball got hit toward him, and it did not end so well.
“I got it, I got it,” said Eddie. Cluck! “That is not good. What are my teammates and especially my dad?”
Then his practice is over and Blake went over and talked to Eddie.
“Hey if you would have put your glove up higher and tilted it more to the side you would have caught it,” said Blake.
“Thanks for the tips and looking out for me, that is the first thing anyone nice has done for me,” said Eddie.
“What do you mean by that,” said Blake.
“Well my dad thinks I am a failure, disappointment, and did I mention a failure. My mom died in a car accident and the last thing she said to him was something like you were a failure and you will never be a pro baseball player,” said Eddie.
“That is pretty rough. Dad died from cancer when I was little and my mom has been the best mom I could have ever asked for,” said Blake.
Then after they were done talking Coach Brian pulled him to the side. That did not go too well for Eddie.
“Eddie, if you keep playing like this, I am going to have to kick you off the team,” said Coach Brian.
“Coach Brian you know how much I need this,” said Eddie.
“I know but the team would be better off if you were just gone. Unless somehow you improve in a month. It will be hard for you to improve because you are bad at baseball,” said Coach Brian.
“Can’t you see that I am trying, I have been trying since I was five years old. Trying to make everyone proud of me but it seems that no one cares about me except for one person, Blake,” said Eddie.
Eddie walked away wiping his tears from his face with Blake slowly recognizing and coming to comfort him. Then Eddie thought of what his dad said, what his coach said, and what his mom said before the car accident. He never forgot what she said.
“You are such a failure,” said Mom.
That is when his dad saw him. It was brutal to watch for Blake. Blake saw exactly how his dad treated him. Blake then knew that his dad thought Eddie was a nobody. So did everyone else except for him. Blake felt so bad for him. For a second when Eddie’s dad looked at Blake and then back at Eddie he thought that he was going to kill the kid. Then all of a sudden Eddie’s dad raised his arm ready to strike him. Right as he was about to, Coach Brian caught his hand and punched Eddie’s dad right in the nose, breaking it.
“Thank you so much Coach Brian. You don’t know how much that meant to me. But now when he wakes up and comes to our house he is going to kill me.” said Eddie.
Then Blake ran over.
“He won’t because you are going to stay with me for a while,” said Blake.
“Are you sure you don’t have to,” said Eddie.
“Like you said earlier he would kill you,” said Blake.
“Okay, I will as long as it is not too much trouble for you mom,” said Eddie
“I think she will understand,” said Blake.
So Eddie started living with Blake and his mom. It turned out that Blake lived right by a baseball field so they practiced every morning. Eventually in a month he had practiced fives hours a day. Eventually, they both became really good at baseball.Then came the final day before Coach Brian said he could not do that. He ended up impressing Coach Brian so much that he got put on second base. Eventually, the next month he got put on first base. He was also making money now. A lot of it too. Then his dad came three months later.
“Son, I am so proud of you. Do you think you could give me some cash,” said Dad.
“What do you mean? My entire life you said I was a disappointment or a failure. Now since you did not need me when I was at my lowest then I do not need you now,” said Eddie.
So in the end Eddie realized that he did not need his dad in the end because all he wanted was money. He also paid off all of the debt and with the rest of his money he spent on more important things. Something that matters to him like Blake. So Eddie also treated Blake with all the nice things in the world like watches, TVs, cars, boats, a house, and he gave them ten thousand dollars. Eddie was really proud of himself. Blake and Eddie were having so much fun at their fun job that they loved so much. From that day on they lived the happiest they had ever been.
“Cleo, are you excited for my birthday party?” Violet asked.
“Yea I am, but who all is going to the party?” I said.
“Sarah, Keara, Tova, you, and I. But my twin brother Asaiah is also having a sleepover with his friends. I’ll make him and his friends leave us alone.”
Ding ding ding
“Well I have to go to class but have a good day.”
“Ya you too.” said Violet.
I went to my 7th period class of the day, it was different because I got my schedule changed. I just hope my class is not with Anna. Anna and I were friends in third grade but after sixth grade my and she started getting farther apart and stopped talking to each other after she made rumors about me. She made a rumor about me saying I had a crush on a kid Kyle. Because we were really good friends at the time and our parents were friends, we had a lot of classes together. We had a lot of classes together because we were able to choose our classes and me and her chose the same classes.
I got to my class and it was a study period and I was happy about that, and I saw my friend Keara there.
“Hi Keara.” I said.
“Heyyy Cleo. I thought you had literacy in the first period? “said Keara.”
“ I got my classes switched.”
“Oh ok”
Ring ring ring
“That’s the announcement guys be quiet so we can hear it.” Mrs. Smith said
“Whoever wants to go out for basketball please go to the gym” the voice over the intercom said.
“Cleo, are you going out for basketball?” said Keara
“Ya you?” I asked.
“Ya I am. Wanna walk together?”
“Sure, I just hope Asaiah, Sarah, Keara, Tova, you, and I All get on the same team.”
“Ya me too.”
I got down to the gym with my friend Keara. When I went inside the gym I saw Anna was talking to my crush Asaiah. Maybe they’re just friends? Oh no Anna is walking over here.
“Yo Cleo, did you hear?” asked Anna
“Here what?” I asked
“Asaiah and I are dating.” Anna smirks.
“Ok????”
“Why so defensive? Do you like him or something?”
“Noo that’s Violet’s twin brother!” Omg I can’t stand her, why won’t she leave me alone.. You may be wondering why Anna and I split ways. In 6th grade I had a best friend, her name was Bridget. She moved in 5th to my school, I got called down to the office to help her and show her to her classes. After that we started to hang out and we became best friends. Then one day I introduced her to Anna. Then they became best friends and stopped including me in things. Eventually they stopped including me in everything. So in classes I ignored them. Eventually Bridget moved away to her old school. Anna came and tried to talk to me and ask to go to my house. But I ended up just ignoring her because I knew that she would ditch me again for someone different. Then she told me that she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, I knew that it was going to end up happening in the end. And that’s why we are not friends anymore.
“Hey Cleo, what time are you coming to my party?” Violet asked.
“Probably around 5pm because I have travel ball and I have to ride the bus home today.” I said
“Ok sounds good.”
Ding ding ding
“Ok you guys can head to your 8th period now. If you have travel basketball, head to the girls locker room and get ready for the game. ” Coach said. “Are you in travel basketball Violet?” I asked.
“Ya I am. I hope we’re on the same team.” Violet said.
“Ya me too. Let’s gooo.” While we were on the way to the locker room I got tripped by Anna. I couldn’t move my leg! “VIOLET I CAN’T FEEL MY LEG!”
“Ok just uh um stay right there i’ll get the nurse.”“Is the nurse here?!” Violet asked.
“No, she’s not here at the moment. Is there anything I could do for you?” Mrs. Collins, one of the secretaries asked.
“Yes, call an ambulance please!”
“First I need to know what happened.”
“CLE -CLE -CLEO GOT TRIPPED BY ANNA AND SHE CAN’T FEEL HER LEG!” Violet stuttered.
“Ok Mrs. Williams will call an ambulance. Where is Cleo at?” Mrs. Collins asked.
“She is by the girls locker room.” Violet said.
“Ok why don’t you stay here and Mrs. Williams will give you her locker number and code. Once you get into her locker get her stuff and bring it down here ok.”
“Ok”
“Violet’s locker number is 412 and her combo is 13-30-08” Mrs. Williams said.
“Ok, got it.” Violet said. 13 30 08, 13 30 08, 13 30 08. Come on open COME ON OPEN ALREADY.
“Violet, why are you running?” Mr. Smith asked
“Can’t talk right now. Ok I got her stuff.” Violet said.
“Ok thank you Violet, Why don’t you sit down for now. Mrs.Williams said.
“Ok”
Ring ring ring
“Hello this is 911. What’s your emergency?” the 911 operator said.
“A kid tripped and can’t feel her leg.” Mrs. Williams said.
“Ok where are you located?
“Brookside Middle School.”
“Ok we have an ambulance on the way.”
“I have to tell the mom so I was wondering if I could let you go because she is stable and an ambulance is on the way?”
“Yes, that’s ok as long as she is stable.”
“Ok.”
Ring ring ring
“Hello this is Mrs. Williams, am I speaking to Cleo Smith’s mom?” Mrs. Williams asked.
Yes this is she. How can I help you?” Cleo’s mom asked.
“Your daughter fell down and she can’t feel her leg.”
“Well is she okay?”
We don’t know but there is an ambulance rushing her to the hospital.”
“Ok I’m on my way.” Cleo’s mom said.
1 hour later…
“Hello, are you Cleo Smith’s mom?” one of the doctor’s asked.
“Yes I am.” Cleo’s mom said
“Why don’t you sit down.”
“Ok what happened ?”
“Cleo went into cardiac arrest. And she did not make it.”
I was always just a normal person, except for living in the Sub-Lanes. For those who don’t understand, the Sub-Lanes is a city underneath the real world, where all of the homeless, crazy, and messed up people live.
My name’s Ryder. I was one of the homeless people who roamed around the Sub-Lanes, looking for any places to be able to sleep in or just not be with the toxic underground air, that poisons and endangers everyone who breaths it in.
Milo has been my best friend since we were around four years old. Both of us lost our parents to the guards. He’s one of the best engineers in the sublanes. One time he made a mech that could fire bolts. Even though it was only a foot tall, it was still better than most things I’ve seen anyone make before.
Anyway, I need money soon or I’m not going to be able to buy anything to survive. There’s this soccer league in the Over City, and if you win a whole bunch of games, you become a champion. It’s nearly impossible to become a champion, and only three people have ever became champions. Mr. Haddington was the first ever champion and people say he’s unbeatable, even though he’s eighty now. But also if you win, you get a grand prize of fifty million dollars, and you become famous, but I don’t really care about being famous or anything though.
I don’t really care if people say I’m bad at soccer, I just need the money. You have to win a ton of games and then win fifteen games in a row, to go to the championship match. If I lose a game, at least I tried, and I’ll still get some money.
“ Hey Milo, wanna try to compete in the big soccer league?”
“ Wait, dude you know it’s like impossible to win right?”
“ Yeah, but I don’t care. We can try and if we win we get money.”
“ Ryder, even if we did want to play we need at least eight players to complete a team. I’m not doing it. Sorry Ryder.”
“ You could become famous Milo.”
“ Are you trying to bribe me Ryder? You know I like being aknowledged for my robots and engineering skills.”
“ Come on you know you want to be known for you work.”
“ Ah, fine I’ll do it I guess, but you better make sure people try to hire me at an engineering buisness.”
“ Let’s go! I’ll make sure that you get into the best engineering company there is Milo!”
“ Ok let’s find some teammates Ryder!”
Me and Milo went to find some teammates. The first one was easy because we have a friend in the Sub-Lanes. Her name is Sarah. She really likes to study magic, because she wants to be a mage. To cast spells you need a tech staff, which can only be located in the best magic store in the Over City. Her parents used to live in the Over City, but then when a big attack happend, her parents house got destroyed, and they had to move to the Sub-Lanes. After Sarah of course said yes to joining us, we went to the Over City to recruit another friend.
Her name is Chloe, and she works with the biggest names in the Over City. She’s kinda famous, but she just likes that she gets to help people. Her goal is to make peace with the entirety of the Sub-Lanes, since both sides sorta hate eachother. She is already getting good progress on her goal, since she’s already made some friends in the sub-lanes, and she’s made more allies too. It was hard to get Chloe on the team, since she didn’t want to be seen,” Not being professional.”, she said. After we gave her some confidence she said that she would join if it didn’t waste time.
Next, it was time for a hard one. Mini and Tall, the brothers from nowhere. You might be wondering why we call them the brothers from nowhere, but it’s because their brothers, obviously, but they aren’t really from anywhere, because they live in the Over City sometimes, and the Sub-Lanes for the rest of the time. They were born in the Sub-Lanes but they are welcomed in the Over City as well. Tiny was the easier of the two brothers to get on the team, because even though he liked working with Milo in engineering, he also liked soccer. Tall’s passion was being a guard in the Over City. He has his passion because when he was six, a tile fell from a building and was coming straight for him, but then a guard stepped in and caught the tile, saving Tall’s life. That’s the reason why Tall is determined to be a guard. Mini and Tall’s names are hilarious, because Tall is three feet tall, and Mini is a brick wall weighing a staggering three hundred and fifty pounds and being 7 feet tall. Mini joined the team right away, because he loves soccer, but Tall insisted that he kept training for being a guard.
“ Nope sorry buddy. Not doing it Ryder.”
That’s exactly what happened where I tried to get Milo to join earlier today.
“ Come on on lil bud.”
“ My names Tall, not lil bud!”
“ Ok you dont’ have to talk to me but at least talk to Milo.”
“ Fine. I’ll talk to him I guess if I have to.”
“ Hey Tall.”
“ What do ya want, Milo.”
“ You can join our team and play soccer with us.”
“ Why should I do that?”
“ Because we’ll have a lot of fun playing together.”
Milo is good with talking to people and persuading them. For some reason people just like to agree with him, like if they don’t they’re going to get beat up, which they won’t, because Milo’s to scrawny to hurt anyone, except for when he needs to.
“ Fine, Milo I’ll play on your team or whatever.”
“ Ok dude. That’s great. We’ll have so much fun on a team together!”
“ We better.”
With the hardest person down, all we have left is the triplets.
Two of the triplets are calm and loyal people, Tinker and Poppy. On the other hand, Spinner is probably the weirdest, craziest, and the most wild person you’ll ever see.
Tinker’s a boy, and his passion is tinkering, obviously, but not that kind of tinkering like with gadgets and stuff. He wants to tinker with star dust. With people taking constant trips to the moon, people always bring star dust back to Earth with them, there’s a lot of star dust in magic shops. Sarah always goes in magic shops and tells me about the star dust. We plan to someday put together some money and buy Tinker a bag of stardust, even though a single bag of it is twenty thousand dollars.
Poppy is a girl who loves to experiment with bombs and explosions. As a kid, she would hold fire crackers, and whenever a stranger walked up to her, she would throw one in their face. Then they would run away in pain, and it brought joy to her, because she was independent and could protect herself. She’s been making bombs and hoping that she can make different explosions each time. She’s a very kind person who doesn’t like to upset people, so she always tries to help people. Her goal is to make every kind of explosion and sound of bombs that there is.
Spinner is definetly something. Spinner likes to carry around his rusty sword that will probably give you tetanus and kill you if it stabs you. His goal is to rule the world, which he is definitely crazy and capable enough to do it. He’s not crazy strong or anything, but he is crazy enough to make anyone scared of him. Spinner cares about people more than most people, but he just doen’t show it a lot. Since Spinner was a little kid, he would always barge into random stores and buildings saying that he would take them over, while holding a little piece of wood with a nail in it that was taller than him.
Tinker and Poppy both said yes, and Spinner after almost cutting me with the tetanus blade of death, agreed to join us too.
“ Ok everyone, now that we’ve recruited everyone, let’s go sign up!”
“ Yeah let’s do it!”
“ Yeah let’s go!”
“ Woohoo!”
We took the longest way to the stadium, since we all wanted to chat. We were also eager to get to the stadium because we could be signing up to have fifty million dollars.
“ Is this were we sign up Milo?”
“ Ryder are you dumb or something?”
“ Um rude. Why do you say that?”
“ Because we are standing right infront of the stadium, so of course this is where we are supposed to go!”
“ Ok geez dude.”
“ Hello sir, we would like to buy an entry ticket for the soccer league.”
“ And what is your name sir?”
“ My name’s Ryder.”
“ Ok Ryder, an entry ticket is five thousand dollars.”
“ Ok here you go sir.”
“ Here’s your ticket, and the hotel is that way, and the training facility is right next to the hotel on the left of it.”
“ Ok thank you sir.”
The reason that we had five thousand dollars is because when everyone joined our team they also chipped in four hundred bucks, which is a lot of money fore us.
We were very surprised that we got to stay in a hotel, since none of us except Tall and Mini, but they were little kids when they went in one, and it wasn’t as big as this one. We all headed over to the hotel and slept the rest of the night cause we were very tired. In the morning, we all ate and headed down to the training facility.
We’ve all played a little bit of soccer before, because right before I thought about joining the league, I played in a match on the street, because someone bet me ten bucks that I couldn’t beat them. I beat them 5-0 in three minutes, but I felt bad, so I told him it was beginner’s luck, and I let him keep the money. We all trained at the hotel for about a month before the first qualifying match was here. The qualifying match is where the winning team moves on to the stadium matches. There are occasions where if the losing team has a lot of talent, and they don’t want to waste the teams talent, they let them join the stadium matches aswell. We all became beasts at soccer, and I was the leader of the team, obviously.
“ Ok guys the day we’ve all been waiting for is here! We will win if we try our hardest, we will win this game!”
“ Everyone say,” We will win!”.”
“ WE WILL WIN! WE WILL WIN!”
“ LET”S GOOOOOOOOOOO!”
We stepped onto the pitch and met the opposing team. They’re team captain was a rich person whos name was Zack.
“ Hi, I heard your name is Zack. Nice to meet you.”
“ Hi poor kid. Haha we’re going to destroy you.”
“ That’s not very nice dude.”
“ Do you think I care what you think?”
“ You should! Rude.”
“ We will beat you poor kids.”
“ Nope, we will beat you!”
The match started and right away the other team took the ball and made a goal right away. The score was now 1-0 and we were not happy. Our team coordination was not very good, but it got better. After they scored another goal. The score was now 2-0, and we were ready to win this game.
“ Guys, there’s five minutes left until the game’s over! We need to win this!”
“ Let’s win this guys, so that we can accomplish our dreams later!”
We started the last five minutes with the ball and we made a miracle happen.
“ I’m passing to you, Ryder!”
“ Here, Mini. Score with your power!”
Mini launches the ball at probably fifty miles an hour. “AND HE SCORES”, the announcer says.
Now it’s 2-1 with three minutes and thirty seconds left.
“ Hey poor boy.”
“ What do you want Zack? Are you scared that we are going to beat you?”
“ Shut up, no I’m not. That’s just what I expect a non- grateful Sub-Lanes person to say.”
“ Shut it rich boy. We will beat you whether you like it or not!”
They started the final minutes with the ball and they almost wreck our chances of winning.
“ Milo take the ball!”
“ I’ll try!”
Milo misses the steal and they are now twenty feet from the goal.
“ Spinner, get the ball from them!”
“ You got it Captain!”
Spinner saves us and almost gets fouled by doing it. But, he did get the ball for us and now there’s one minute left in the game. We pass down the field, scrambling for the goal.
“ Here Milo!”
“Pass to Poppy!”
“ Take the pass Tinker!”
“ Here Sarah!”
“ Pass to Chloe!”
“ Score the ball, Tall!”
Tall winds up his tiny leg, but there’s only five seconds left!
“ Shoot the ball Tall!”
“ THERES FIVE SECONDS, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE!”, the announcer screams at the stadium.
He shoots the ball. It goes a little slow, but it throws the goalie off guard and he dives to the left. I see the one second fade to zero, but I look at the ball and hear the announcer say,“ HE SCORES WITH THE SLOW BALL! OH MY WHAT A COMEBACK! NOW IT’S 2-2 AND COULD THE SUB-LANES TEAM MAKE A COMEBACK IN OVERTIME?!”, the announcer yells to the whole stadium.
In over time, we start with the ball and it’s a fight back and forth with no goal made. Over time is coming to an end and we had the luck on our side, and by luck I mean the ball.
“ Ok guys let’s do this thing, AND WIN!”
We pass back and forth and then we are at the goal and we have a chance.
“ Here Ryder, Score the ball!!!”
I shoot and the goalie gets ready to block. I close my eyes…….and I SCORE!!!
“ We win guys. Let’s go!!!”
“ Let’s goooo!!!”
We move on to the stadium matches, and the team that we beat was apparently a good team that the rich people didn’t want their talent to go to waste, so they let them join the stadium rounds as well, but I don’t know how that’s fair, but I don’t care.
We train for months and keep winning matches. We became one of the best teams in the league. Now everybody knows who we are and the rich people and even Mr. Haddington says that we are the most favorited team in the entire league.
The day of the championship comes and we are all nervous, but excited. We get our uniforms and get ready to win this game. We all need to win this for our dreams.
We get onto the field and get ready. We find out that the other team is Zack’s team again. We aren’t that happy that we can’t play a different team but it’s fine, I guess.
“ THE MATCH WILL START IN TWENTY SECONDS!!!” the announcer yells at the champion stadium. Mr. Haddington walks up to me and starts talking to me.
“ Hi Ryder. I’ve heard that your team is pretty well known.”
“ Yeah haha we are.”
“ Well good luck out there and I hope you win. Not to be biased.”
“ Thanks. I hope we will win.”
The matches starts and for the first twenty minutes we score goals back and forth and the score is 5-5.
“ Score the ball, Tall!”
“ You got it!”
Tall scores another goal and with forty minutes left the score is 6-5 and we are winning. So far we are all working great together as a team, but we aren’t winning by enough. We pass it back and forth a few more times until Zack scores a goal. Now the score is 6-6 and we aren’t doing as good as we need to, but we get ourselves together and with thirty five minutes left we score another goal. The score is 6-6, and were tied again.
The final stretch of the game comeswith five minutes left and we pass the ball a few times and each team scores a goal. Now the score is 7-7, and there is thirty seconds left. Neither of the teams can score, so we go into over time, but still, no one can score, so now we go into penalty kicks.
“ RYDER SCORES!!!”
“ ZACK SCORES!!”
We go on and the penalty score is 4-4 and we kick.
“ Come on Sarah, you can score!!!”
Sarah winds up and…GOOOAAALLLLLL!!!!!
“ Let’s go Sarah we did it!!! Now we just have to block them and we win the whole game!”
“ OK EVERYONE, THERE IS ONE KICK LEFT CAN THEY DO IT!!!”
“Zack shoots with Chloe in the goal and he…..MISSES THE GOAL!!! OH MY GOD THAT IS A WIN FOR RYDER AND THE SUB-LANES TEAM!!!”
“ Let’s go guys our dreams can now be reality!!!”
( 1 YEAR LATER )
“ Hi Ryder!”
“ Hey Milo! I haven’t seen you for a long time.”
“ It’s only been a week.”
“ Still now that we are interviewed all the time it’s hard to be able to see eachother all the time.”
“ Yeah, well it’s been good seeing you and i’ve been talking to everyone and it seems like we have all accomplished our goals!”
“ Yeah, bye!”
“ Bye!”
Tinker got a bag of star dust, and is now one year older. Tall became a guard. Spinner kinda rules the world. Chloe has made peace with the Sub-Lanes. Milo and Mini have gotten into the best engineering academy kinda because they’re famous. Poppy has figured out every explosion and bomb there is. Sarah became a magic conjurer. And I have made some money, and by some I mean eight million dollars, and I am now the forth champion of the pitch.
I love gymnastics! There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the wind rushing through my ears as I run through my routine. We have a competition coming up in a month, and we practice every day. I am especially good at the bars, but I’m also skilled at the balance beam.
My name is Ellieanna Ericson, but I prefer to go by Ellie. Although I am an only child, I consider my teammates my sisters. Right now, I’m in school, sitting in my favorite class, social studies. My teacher is discussing George Washington and how he became the first president.
Suddenly, the intercom buzzes, and Principal Jenson’s voice comes on:
“Ellieanna Ericson, please come to the office. Ellieanna Ericson to the office.”
I stared at my teacher, who motioned for me to come to the front.
“Go down to the office,” Mrs. Heart, my teacher, said. “You won’t miss anything.” I nodded and left the room, wondering if I was in trouble. I hurried down the stairs and to Principal Jenson’s office. When I arrived, Principal Jenson was standing outside her door as if she had been waiting for me.
“Come in, my dear,” Principal Jenson said, waving me into her office. I sat down in the chair across from her as she settled into her seat at the desk. “I have some troubling news for you. Your mother had to go to the hospital this morning.”
“What!?” I exclaimed, shocked. When I left for school that morning, Mom had seemed perfectly fine. “Why?”
“She was having brunch with your neighbor when she started choking. Your neighbor tried to help her, but they couldn’t dislodge the food, so she called an ambulance, and they took your mother to the hospital.”
“Will Mom be alright?” I asked anxiously.
“Yes, they’ve connected her to a breathing tube,” Principal Jenson assured me. If you’d like, I can call your father to come and pick you up to see your mother.”
“I would appreciate that,” I said, feeling relieved that Principal Jenson wouldn’t make me return to class. Principal Jenson called my father, hung up, and said, “Your father is on his way. You can get your backpack. I will inform your teacher that you won’t return today.”
“Thank you, Principal Jenson,” I said, feeling grateful. I left the office and went to my locker to grab my stuff. Dad was waiting for me when I returned to Principal Jenson’s office. He hugged me, thanked Principal Jenson, and we went outside to our car.
On the way to the hospital, I asked tentatively, “Have you seen Mom yet?”
“No, I was going to, but something came up that I had to work on.”
“Do you think she’ll die?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think she will die,” Dad responded.
For the rest of the drive to the hospital, Dad and I remained silent. When we arrived at the hospital, I was feeling very nervous. Dad noticed because he stopped, turned around, and said, “Hey, I know you’re feeling nervous, but it’s going to be alright. Mom might look a little different with all of the tubes, but inside, she is the same Mom. She still loves you.”
I took a deep breath and we walked inside. Dad talked to the lady at the front desk, and she told us to go to room 437 on the third floor. Dad opened the door when we arrived at Mom’s room, and I followed him inside. Mom was lying on her bed, and Dad was right; Mom did have a lot of tubes, but she didn’t look that different. She still had the same loving and beautiful face, but she looked weak. I went around to her side of the bed, and she smiled at me. I smiled back and brushed the back of my hand across her cheek. Mom reached up, took my hand, and pressed it to herself.
“Honey,” Mom said softly, “I love you, always remember that. I will get better, and I will be home soon.”
“I love you too, Mom,” I said, and then I broke down. I curled up beside Mom on her bed and cried. After Principal Jenson had told me that Mom was at the hospital, I felt the tears coming, but I had forced myself not to cry. Now that I had seen Mom and was at the hospital, I started crying. Mom rubbed my back as I lay there crying on her shoulder. After a while, I stopped crying, but I lay still on the bed, and Dad kept standing where he was.
Soon, Dad said, “I think it’s time to let your mother rest, Ellie. Anyway, it’s almost dinner time.” I nodded, hugged Mom one more time, and then followed Dad out, like a sad puppy. When we got home, I went to my room to practice for our competition. Four years ago, when I decided I wanted to start gymnastics, Mom and Dad bought a balance beam and a set of uneven bars. I started my routine on bars, but I kept messing up. Finally, I got up, threw myself on my bed, and started crying.
“Ellie,” Dad called upstairs, “time for dinner.” I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and went downstairs for dinner. Dad probably noticed that I had been crying, but he didn’t say anything. That’s one thing I love about Dad—he respects my space and my emotions.
The next day was Saturday, so as soon as I finished getting ready and ate breakfast, I ran upstairs to practice my routine a couple of times before I needed to leave for gymnastics practice. I messed up a few times, but unlike last night, I didn’t break down in tears. I just kept going.
Ten minutes later, I was getting out of Dad’s car when I heard someone yell my name. I waved to Dad as he drove off, then turned around just in time to see one of my best friends run up to me and give me a big bear hug.
“I missed you so much!” Alyssa exclaimed excitedly.
“I missed you too!” I replied with just as much enthusiasm. “How was your vacation?”
“it was awesome!” Alyssa chattered about her trip to Hawaii as we got ready for practice and headed out to the mats. We had been best friends since kindergarten.
“Alright, girls,” Coach Lilly called, motioning for us to gather around her. “We have a big competition coming up, and we need to practice. Are any of you doing bars?”
I raised my hand along with a few other girls.
“Okay, you can go and start working on your routines, but remember, we only have two sets, so you’ll have to take turns.”
I nodded and followed the other girls to the two sets of bars. While waiting for my turn, I put chalk on my hands. When it was my turn, I started my routine, but halfway through, I fell, landing on my hand. I clenched my teeth against the pain and started again. You might wonder, why didn’t I wait until my turn again? Coach Lilly has a rule: if you fall during your routine, you have to keep practicing it until you don’t fall.
Unfortunately, I fell again at the same spot. I tried over and over, but I kept falling at that same point in my routine. Eventually, I gave up and sat down on the side of one of the mats. I watched the other girls run through their routines; only a few of them fell, and if they did, it was only a couple of times, unlike my six falls.
Eventually, Coach Lilly noticed that I wasn’t practicing and came over to see what was wrong.
“Hey, Ellie,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
“I keep messing up,” I muttered.
“Everyone messes up,” Coach Lilly tried to reassure me.
“Yeah, but I messed up at the same spot every single time.”
“That just means you need to practice more,” Coach Lilly said. “Why don’t you go try it again?”
“Okay,” I agreed. I got back in line and put more chalk on my hands. When it was my turn, I took a deep breath and started my routine again. This time, I didn’t fall at the same spot as before, but I did fall just over halfway through. I kept practicing my routines until it was time to leave. I hopped into the car just as Dad asked,
“How was practice?”
“It was good,” I said, “I kept falling off the bars.”
“I’m sorry, did you keep trying?”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t until I gave up, sat out a while, and tried again that I finally did better. The last time I ran through my routine before you picked me up, I had performed perfectly,” I exclaimed happily.
“Good for you!” Dad said, smiling at me. I smiled back at him. We got back home and I ran upstairs to read one of my favorite books. I lay on my stomach on my bed and started reading for, like, the fourth time.
I finished the book and sighed. I wish there were a second book, I thought. I took a drink from my water bottle that I kept in my room and put chalk on my hands. I took a deep breath and started my routine. I didn’t fall, but I messed up a couple of times. I kept practicing until Dad called me downstairs for lunch. I walked downstairs to the smell of my favorite lunch; pulled pork and green beans. Mom and Dad have always switched which days they cooked for as long as I can remember, if Mom cooked on Monday, Dad would cook on Tuesday, and they would switch off every other day.
The next morning, I was up and ready for gymnastics practice long before Dad was up. I chalked up my hands and started on my bars. I fell several times, but I didn’t let that get to me. I needed all of my enthusiasm and happiness for practice, and letting myself think about how bad I was doing was going to take that away. After I had run through my routine a couple of times, I started a new book until Dad was ready to drop me off at practice.
“Hey, where are we going?” I asked, realizing that we weren’t going toward the gymnastics studio.
“I thought we could pay a visit to your mother,” Dad said without looking up from the road. “If that’s alright with you.”
“Of course,” I said, surprised that he would think that I wouldn’t want to see my mother. “I’d love to see Mom.” We pulled into the hospital parking lot, got out, and went outside. Dad talked to the lady at the front desk, and she waved us to the hallway. Dad and I found our way to room 437, where I opened the door and went over to Mom’s side.
“Hi Mom,” I said, smiling at her.
“Hi sweetie,” Mom said weakly, but she smiled back at me. She squeezed my hand. “Are you excited for your competition? Do you think you are ready?”
“Yeah, I’m excited,” I said, adding, “I think I will be ready if I practice more.”
Dad and I stayed in Mom’s room talking to Mom until it was time for us to leave for gymnastics. I waved to Mom as we left her room, and I saw her wave back. We drove to the studio, and as I got out, I was nearly tackled to the ground. As Dad left, I wrestled myself away from Alyssa and walked with her into the studio. Coach Lilly talked to us about the competition and then she dismissed us to go work on our routines. As I waited for my turn I chalked up my hands and when it was my turn I started my routine off perfectly but then fell from the highest bar and landed on my hand. Pain shot up my fingers, up my wrist, and into my arm. I curled up into a ball and as much as I wanted to not cry, the tears flowed down my face anyway. My teammates surrounded me but they backed up when Coach Lilly told them to. She helped me stand up and walk over to the bench near the bars. When the other girls noticed that I would be alright they started practicing their routines again.
“Are you okay Ellie?” Coach Lilly asked concern filling her face.
“I will be,” I mumbled wincing in pain. “Eventually.” The tears kept flowing down my face.
“Does it hurt that bad?” Coach Lilly asked. I shook my head, took a few deep breaths, and started speaking.
“A couple of days ago my Mom went to the hospital because she was having a lot of trouble breathing. I’ve visited her twice once the day she was admitted to the hospital and then this morning. I’m scared that she won’t live long enough to go to my competition.”
“Ellie,” Coach Lilly scooted closer to me and hugged me. We stayed there until she pulled away and wiped my tears away. “Your mom is a strong and loving mother. I’m sure she will be fine, and even if she doesn’t make it, she will be in your heart.”
I nodded and stopped crying but I still felt horrible.
“Can I see your wrist?”
I nodded and Coach Lilly gently lifted my wrist and rubbed it. I winced but stayed still.
“I’ll be back,” Coach Lilly left but was soon back with adhesive tape. She sat down next to me and wrapped my wrist with the tape. When she was done my wrist instantly felt better, but it was still sore when I rotated my wrist. “Do you think you can practice?”
I hesitated then nodded. I stood up and got back in line. While I waited my turn, I chalked up my hands. When it was my turn I took a deep breath, jumped up to the bar, and started my routine. It was perfect! I kept working on it until Dad picked me up. At home, I ran upstairs, threw myself on my bed, and started reading.
The day of the competition I was very nervous but I remembered what Coach Lilly had said a couple of weeks ago. That morning as Dad drove me to the competition he said, “I have a surprise for you, but you won’t find out until it is your turn.” I was very confused but we have a rule in our house to not guess the surprise before you find out.
When it was my turn I smiled at Coach Lilly, took a deep breath, and completed a perfect routine on the bars. I was so happy, and then I noticed a familiar face in the crowd; Mom. I gasped and ran to hug her. I was so happy that she was out of the hospital. That night I found out that I had won the competition!
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 