Tag Archives: fiction

The Baby Monitor!!

Posted on by

The Baby Monitor!!

By: Katie Cat

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”

Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 

“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.

☆Make ‘em Proud☆

Posted on by

☆Make ‘em Proud☆

Made By

 Jane Sawyer

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.

Worst Car Crash in NASCAR

Posted on by

Worst Car Crash in NASCAR 

By Trisha Payless

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.

What She Saw

Posted on by

What She Saw

    By: John Doe

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.

Stranded

Posted on by

Stranded 

 By: Lavender Brown

Errrrt! 

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!”

Gone Before the Game

Posted on by

Gone Before The Game 

                                               By: DingleHopper The OpperBopper

“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.” 

“What no,  she was fine this morning.”

Grief-Stricken

Posted on by

Grief-Stricken

By: Sofie Mintz

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!

The Thunder Storm

Posted on by

The Thunder Storm

By Billy Bob Joe

One day Mom, Dad, Slimmy and Kimmy were sitting on the couch watching sports games.  

When Kimmy was feeling hungry she said “ Hey Mom, I’m feeling hungry so I’m going to grab a snack really quick.”

 “ Okay, honey but be quick though.” Mom said. So Kimmy checked the pantry and it was very empty. Kimmy wanted some Takis and a Bubbler or two.

So she asked her mom and she said “Yes, in 5 minutes, let me finish watching this tennis match and then we can go.” 

“Okay.” said Kimmy. 

While the tennis match was finishing it started to sprinkle and then it progressively got harder. When the tennis match ended Kimmy came back and said, “ Mom can we go now?”

“Yes honey, we can go  .” said Mom

So they went outside and it was pouring down hard “ Let’s wait out the rain first and then we can go ok Kimmy?” said Mom

“ Ok “ said Kimmy 

So Mom and Kimmy sat down on the couch again and then Mom, Dad, Slimmy and Kimmy turned on the news channel and it said that there were going to be thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Everyone got an emergency alert and it said TORNADO WATCH.

So after the alert everyone got up from the couch and started grabbing their emergency bags. They put them downstairs in their Bulkhead doors( Tornado shelter). Just in case there was a tornado they would be prepared. So then they went back inside. A couple minutes later Slimmy says, “ Mom it looks really dark outside.”

“ Yes it does look very, very, very dark outside.” said Mom

 After a couple of minutes Kimmy says, “ Mom, when can we go to the gas station?” 

“ I don’t know Kimmy.” said Mom

A few minutes after that everyone gets an emergency alert

 TORNADO WARNING EVERYONE TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY.

 So Mom, Dad, Slimmy and Kimmy went to grab a blanket and went to their Bulkhead doors( Tornado shelter). Soon after they all went to the Bulkhead doors( tornado shelter) Dad heard the town’s sirens go off and he knew it was now very serious because he knew the town sirens only went  off when a big tornado was coming straight for the town.

 “Are we going to die Dad?” said Slimmy 

“ No, of course not honey,” said Dad.

There was a very big thunder and it shook the Bulkhead doors( tornado shelter) and Kimmy started crying because she was scared and then they all got an Emergency alert saying EF5 TORNADO COMING STRAIGHT FOR FLORALVILL EVERYONE EVACUATE! So dad went outside and he saw a tornado forming and he knew that it was too late to evacuate.

“ EVERYONE GET IN THE CORNER NOW!” he said.

Everyone got in the corner and then even more sirens started going off so they knew something bad was coming. Dad turned on his phone and checked the news. 

“ IF YOU LIVE IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS BE PREPARED FOR WHATS COMING AND WE PRAY FOR YOU.” “ FLORAVILL, HOPEVILLE, DELICAVILL AND BLUEELA.” said the news 

So Mom was getting very worried and she thought that the house might be going down but she wasn’t sure so she didn’t say anything. 

Kimmy was crying but then she remembered that she still hadn’t gotten her Takis and Bubbler so she said “ MOM WHEN CAN I GET MY TAKIS AND BUBBLER I’M GETTING MAD!”

“ WERE GETTING A TORNADO COMING STRAIGHT FOR THE TOWN! BE QUIET AND SIT DOWN NOW!”

So Mom was very angry at this point and Kimmy was getting more and more upset and there was a big “BOOM!” Dad had to go outside and check what was going on so he looked out really quick because he knew it wasn’t safe but when he looked outside the power line was on FIRE! Dad got really worried but it was pouring down and the fire was across the bridge.

Mom saw the horrified look on Dads face and pulled him over “ What did you see i know that look on your face,” said Mom

“ There’s a fire outside.” said Dad,

“ WHAT!” said Mom loudly ,

“SHHH.”  said Dad ,

“ What’s going on Dad?” said Slimmy,

“ Nothing.” said Dad.

There started to be a lot more thunder and the tornado went through the whole town destroying every house in its way including  Robert’s house, Slimmy and Kimmy’s neighbor’s house.

So after the tornado was done Kimmy remembered about the gas station. “ Hey Mom, could we possibly go to the gas station?” said Kimmy 

“ Yes let’s go now.” said Mom 

So they went to the gas station and it was destroyed so they went home, picked up Slimmy and Dad and went to a family’s house and watched a football game and the rest of sports games that day.

Cheesy Problems

Posted on by

Cheesy Problems

                     By: Cheryl Dean the 3rd

Do you cheese roll? Well hi, I’m Derek, and I’m a cheese roller. On July 15th which is tomorrow I will be going to the Summer Olympics for their first year of cheese rolling. I have been cheese rolling since I was 8. I am now 19 and I live in Albert Lea, Minnesota. I am currently staying at the 2034 Olympian Hotel in Paris. I will be going tomorrow at 7:30 am to get prepared to race at 4:30. My judge (Jill) will then weigh me, measure me, and much more. I’m going to bed at 7:30 to be prepared for the race tomorrow. It is now 7:02 and I’m going to brush my teeth, shower, and go to bed. Goodnight.

The next morning I’m going to training with my instructor (Jackson), and my coach (Owen). I’m at my warm ups but Owen is not here. Even worse, neither is Jackson. I’m starting to worry. (13 minutes go by). I know they stayed in the same hotel room. Maybe I’ll try calling them. Ring ring ring. Owen didn’t answer so I’ll try calling Jackson and if he doesn’t answer we have a problem.

I go to the front desk to talk to them. I found out their room number 304 and I got a room key since I came with them. 

Swoosh 

I go up the elevator to the 3rd floor. I found their room and I opened the door. I walk in to find them still asleep. I wake them up. 

“What are you doing in here Derek” 

I’m waking you up for training? 

“You didn’t get the email?” 

Huh?

 “It’s rescheduled for tomorrow Judge Meredith is sick”

 Ok. 

I leave. 

I guess I will check my emails for more info. Wait, I don’t have an email? Maybe it just didn’t go through. I’m going to try to email her to get more info. Oh! She emailed me back and said that she was confused. I asked her what she was confused about. 

 “I’m confused because we’re still having the race today and I’m not sick,” she said.

I go down the elevator. 

Swoosh. 

I go to room 304, use the room key, and walk in. No one is in there. So I go down to the front desk and ask them if they know anything about them or have seen them. They say

 “yeah they checked out about 30 minutes ago”. 

I am now confused because we were supposed to warm up, and they lied to me about today and told me it was tomorrow. Were they trying to make me miss it? I look out the window at the parking lot. The van was gone. I’m stuck here. No vehicle. 

I start getting hungry. I end up calling an uber. I go to Mcdonalds and there is a fight. I don’t think too much of it. Until I realize it’s my instructor fighting the chef and worker yelling “GIVE ME MY FRIES, MILKSHAKE, AND DR. PEPPER!” 

I leave.

After that I try to get an uber but it will be 35 minutes until I can. So I decided to go on a walk in Paris since I’ve never been here before. The eiffel tower was only a few blocks away. I’m sweating. I’m thirsty. I’m nervous. I don’t think I’m ready. Since my coach and instructor left, it’s just me. I decided to run a few blocks to the eiffel tower. And for extra preparation run to the hotel.

I am dripping sweat. I got ready for the race, including showering again. It is a 3:28 race that starts in one hour. I arrived at 3:34 and now they are weighing me, measuring me, and everything else. They’re are a lot of people. I’m anxious. I’m excited. I have a good feeling about this race. Even though my coach isn’t here to support me I will prove to him I’m fine without him and I’m better than ever.

“Alrighty ladies and gentlemen welcome our first contestant for cheese rolling!” 

They are about to introduce me!

 “6 ‘2’, 154 pound, male Derek Shepard!”

 Omg that’s me! 

Being announced at the olympics has always been my dream! And I am here to chase it. I am also here to chase that rolling cheese!

“And the race starts on 20, 19, 18”

 Oh my gosh I better have stretched well. 

“17, 16, 15, 14” 

It’s getting to me but nothing is stopping me.

 “5, 4” 

It’s the last few seconds! I got this and I’m more ready than ever. 

“ 3, 2, 1, GO!” 

I am running faster than ever.

 “And Derek Shpeard took the lead in 1st place!”

Ok i’m doing good. I’m almost there. I finished! Did I just win? We’re about to find out! Fingers crossed!

“Ok everybody we have our first place championship winner! Great job to…Derek Shepherd!”

Omg I just won 1st place at the olympics! I can’t believe this! Wait, are my coach and instructor in the audience? Why are they here? Well it’s kinda a good thing because I was able to prove I’m better off without them and maybe it’s a good thing they never showed up to practice. I just cannot believe they tried to convince me my big day was cancelled. I dont know whats going on with them but I don’t care because I just won 1st place at the world wide olympics!

After today I finally did some research and I would like you to meet my new instructor Alex, and my new coach Mark. They have really shown me what it looks like when people are really trying to put in their effort and help show me and tell me how I can improve and accomplish my goals.

Five Olympic Rings: One Cross Country Team

Posted on by

Five Olympic Rings One Cross Country Team     

By: Tater Tot The Smart Goober

Sarah Konalie was a 5 ‘8 , sixteen year old girl who had deep blue eyes, curly brown hair and skin that stayed tan all year around. Sarah was a very talented cross country runner who was ranked number one in  her conference. Sarah Konalia was born in Boston Massachusetts, but at the age of four, she moved to a small town in Iowa. The same year Sarah moved she started running to help take off some of the stress of joining a new school and having to make new friends. Sarah went undefeated last cross country season even going on to win state.

 Just when Sarah thought her season was over she got a call from the Olympic Cross Country team head coach Bertha Johanson. 

“Sarah I am so glad I was able to get a hold of you, you accomplished great last season, and I am excited to inform you that a spot on our Olympic team has opened up, and I would like to personally invite you to come to the meet where we will choose who our next member will be,” said Bertha

 Sarah said, “Thank you so much for this opportunity! This is a dream come true, I can’t wait!”

Bertha Johanson sighed over the phone and then said, “Sarah, I am happy to know you are excited, but you will be going against people that are almost double your age, and have been training for this their whole life. Now that being said, you do have the best time out of all of these people, but you still need to train hard and keep improving.”

“I completely understand, and, if you don’t mind me asking, who has the next best time behind me?” Sarah said.

“That is a great question and it is actually someone that is your age, and you have gone against often this past season,” Bertha said. 

“Oh, do I know them personally?” Sarah asked.

“Umm yeah you actually know them very well. It is your teammate Karen Shoop.” Bertha said.

“Oh, Karen, as in the one that in our last meet I only beat by a couple seconds?” Sarah said in a worried tone.

Betha Johanson then said, “Yes, I thought it would be a great competition, and motivation to challenge the both of you. I was talking to your coach and she said the two of you really pushed each other during the season.”

Sarah was too stunned to speak but then got the words out, “Uhh yeah something like that.”

Coach Bertha then said, “This isn’t a problem for you is it?”

“No, not at all!” Sarah quickly said.

“All right, good, I look forward to seeing you two weeks from now on Saturday.” Bertha Johanson said.

“See you in two weeks,” said sarah. “Oh and thank you so much for this opportunity!”

After the phone call ended Sarah couldn’t help but worry about Karen being at the race. Although Sarah had always beaten Karen, recently Karen had been getting closer and closer to beating Sarah. Even to the point of Sarah only winning by two seconds at their last meet.

That was not the only problem Sarah had with Karen. Although they would always treat each other with respect, in the second grade, Sarah’s boyfriend at the time, Mike who she had been dating since kindergarten, was playing at recess with Karen, and did not come over by Sarah when she walked outside. This was something he did everyday, so when he did not it really hurt Sarah’s feelings. After that day Sarah and Mike broke up and shortly after he started dating Karen. 

Sarah knew she needed to start training immediately to improve her time, as well as give her body some time to heal. The race was only two weeks away which is not a lot of time for her to improve her time as well as give her body the amount of rest it will need to perform at it’s best of abilities. There was no way Sarah was going to let that boyfriend stealing witch get in the way of her making the Olympic team. 

Sarah decided to make a schedule for her training. On Mondays she would run four miles at her race pace, eat a good meal, and then do arms at the gym. On Tuesdays she would do five easy miles, and then go straight to the gym where she will do legs. On Wednesday Sarah would go for a walk, and then go to a yoga class. On Thursday Sarah was going to do integrals, sprint half a mile, walk a fourth a mile, sprint a mile, walk a half mile. Sarah would do that a total of three times. On Friday Sarah is going to go on a seven mile long run, then go to the pool to relax. On Saturday Sarah will go to the gym and do a full body workout followed by yoga afterwards. On Sunday Sarah will clean, and do stuff around the house, but no workout.

Now that Sarah had already created her schedule for training, she started right away wasting no time at all. It was Saturday so that meant Sarah needed to go to the gym and do a full body workout accompanied by some yoga after words.

Sarah got dressed in her workout clothes and headed out the door to the gym. When Sarah arrived she stretched, and proceeded to grab the 20 pound weights to start with arms. Sarah did 10 shoulder presses, rest, 10 bicep curls, rest, for a total of three rounds.  

After arms, Sarah did abs because as a runner it was super important for Sarah to have a strong core. Sarah did 10 crunches, 10 sit ups, rest for 30 seconds, one minute plank, rest for 30 seconds, 15 leg raises, and repeated three times.

All that was left for Sarah to do at the gym was legs. Sarah did 10 squats, 10 left leg split squats, 10 right leg split squats, and repeated it for three rounds.

After the gym Sarah was a little sore so she was excited to go to yoga and stretch. 

When Sarah arrived at yoga she grabbed one of the mats and started stretching before the teacher arrived. When the teacher walked into the dimly lit, lavender-scented yoga room they all started to stretch together. Throughout the yoga class they proceeded to stretch, and hold poses that helped work on flexibility. Sarah loved yoga because it helped her get longer strides, and made her body feel refreshed.

After yoga, Sarah went home and prepared a steak, with potatoes, and five cut up strawberries. While Sarah was going to sit down to eat, she got a call, a very unexpected call, from Karen. Sarah answered the phone with a sweet, welcoming tone, “Hi Karen it has been so long since I have talked to you! How have you been?”

“I am doing great, I actually wanted to call and tell you that I got a call from the Olympic head coach, Bertha Johanson saying that she wants me to go to the Olympic Cross Country team tryouts, and that I have a really good chance of making the team. There is only one person with better times than me. Can you believe it? This is a dream come true!” Karen said with an excited but also arrogant tone.

“Oh, that’s great Karen, I am so happy for you!” Sarah said with excitement, even though in her head she was annoyed with the fact that Karen had called her to brag about her accomplishment.

“Oh I am glad you feel that way because I was actually calling you to ask for your help. I was wondering if you know who the person that has a better time than me could be? Coach Bertha told me that they were my age but I was too scared to ask her who,” Karen said.

Sarah smiled over the phone, barely able to keep in her excitement about how Karen was going to react when Sarah told her that the person with better times is actually her. Sarah took a deep breath and then said, “I actually do know who you are talking about, and I know them very well.”

“Oh really, that’s great Sarah! I am so happy we are able to put our past behind us, and you are willing to help me out.” Karen said excitedly. 

“Yeah no problem at all, and you actually know them too. In fact you are speaking to them over the phone right now.” Sarah said smugly. 

Karen, after being too stunned to speak, finally managed to say, “Oh that is great, I am so happy for you.”

“Yeah I am happy for you too, well I have to let you go and get back to training, and I am sure you have to do the same. So see you in two weeks!” Sarah said

“See you in two weeks.” Karen said still in shock from finding out that Sarah was going to be at the Olympic tryouts too.

After the phone call with Karen, Sarah worked hard for the next two weeks of training. During the two weeks of training there was only one problem Sarah encountered. She kept replaying the race that Karen was so close to beating her over and over in her head. Sarah would replay this moment and then get in her head and not focus on her breathing and strides. 

This problem caused Sarah to only improve her time by five seconds, opposed to the ten seconds she was planning. Although five seconds is a really good improvement in cross country, the ten seconds would have given Sarah more reassurance to be able to beat Karen.

The day of the race quickly occurred. and it was time to see if all of Sarah’s hard work was going to pay off. Before the race started Sarah stretched and then went on a slow one mile run to get her body moving. After the run Sarah stretched again and took her box at the starting line where she did stride outs.

With only one minute till the race would start. Sarah walked to her box and got ready to start. Just as the starting guy was walking to the stand, he shot his fake pistol from to signal the take off of the runners, Sarah looked to her far right and saw Karen Shoop. 

This was not good. Sarah started thinking about the race that they were neck and neck, and could not help feeling that this time it was going to be different. Before Sarah could replay that moment in her head for a second time she got interrupted by the starting guy counting down. 

“On your marks! Get set Go!” The pistol went off and so did the runners. 

Sarah was off to a great start. She was feeling the wind in her face, and she had a great adrenaline rush. Sarah had a pretty decent gap in between her and the group of people behind her, but when she looked back to double check she noticed that there was a person getting closer to her. That person was Karen. 

This time instead of letting Karen get in her head Sarah embraced the freeing feeling she got when she ran and ignored Karen behind her.

Sarah had just finished mile one of the race and her time clocked in at five minutes to be exact. This was good, but for mile two Sarah has to pick up the pace a little and try for a four minutes and fifty five seconds mile.

Sarah focussed on her breathing and strides for mile two. When Sarah finished mile two she was still feeling good and was able to run that mile at a four minute and forty five second mile pace. At the two mile marker Sarah looked behind her to see Karen holding her pace and only a few feet behind.

Sarah knew that for mile three she would have to give it all that she had left. Sarah slowly started picking her pace up and widened the gap between her and Karen. Sarah was feeling good about herself and started to focus on the trail ahead. 

After a minute Sarah looked behind her to see that Karen had gotten really close, maybe five feet behind her. Sarah knew that with only three quarters of a mile to go she would have to widen the gap before the final stretch. Karen was a great sprinter so when it came down to the final stretch between the two, Karen would have been able to sprint right past Sarah to win. 

Sarah picked up her pace even more, and with only a half mile left Karen was still behind her so close that Sarah could hear her breathing.

That’s when Sarah decided to pick up the pace. Sarah started to practically sprint; she was bound and determined to beat Karen. Sarah practically sprinted for a fourth of a mile and that gave a huge gap between her and Karen, there was at least fifteen feet between the two of them. Since Sarah was practically sprinting, she used a lot of her energy, and now she had to hold a good steady fast pace while also leaving energy for when she sprinted at the end.

Sarah was able to see the finish line now. There was still a good ten feet gap between Sarah and Karen, but Sarah knew she had to pick up the pace because when Karen started sprinting that gap would shorten drastically. Sarah took off and now there was only fifteen feet between her and the finish line, but there was also only ten feet between Sarah and Karen.

Even though Sarah was in pain she sprinted as fast as she could and that’s when she heard people cheering. They were cheering for her. Sarah had done it! She had made the Olympic Cross Country team! A dream she had since she was just a little girl. Sarah had run the best race of her life. Her old personal record was 15:55, and she ran a 15:30! 

Sarah was happy she made the Olympic team and not only that, she was happy to have learned a new lesson that she has never forgotten, and used it for the rest of her running career and everyday in her life since. Sarah learned that no one can stop you from reaching your goals except for you, and your own mindset. Not even a boyfriend-snatching, evil, backstabbing, witch!

Creature Commandos S2 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Chasing Squirrels”

The fourth episode of Creature Commandos on MAX is uneven and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The mixture of the silly comedy and horrible tragedy felt at odds with each other and I am not sure how I feel about it.

The section about Weasel’s backstory was tragic and sad. Seeing eight children being killed in a fire is something that you do not expect to see in an animation. I did think that this backstory really presented us with the story that humanized the Weasel character.

I’m not sure how I felt about the Frankenstein part of this episode. The comedy surrounding Frankenstein did not hit well for me. The whole Frankenstein-Rick Flagg interaction did not work for me either.

Perhaps the dichotomy of the two storylines was what didn’t work for me. I did find the Weasel part of the story to be very compelling, but the humor of Frankenstein felt like it took away from the overall story. I am not someone who believes that you can’t have humor in a tragic story, but this felt too over the top for me.

Still love The Bride though. She is great. I have a much more positive feeling toward Weasel.

Battlestar Galactica S3 E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Unfinished Business”

The perfect example of a toxic relationship is explored as we do a deep dive into the strange relationship between Lee and Kara.

Both Lee and Kara are married to others, but neither seem to be able to keep from each other. However, it felt that the anger and violence overtook them as we saw flashbacks to detail specifics of their past and how they ended up where they were.

I have to say, there was a time once where I felt as if Lee and Kara was the rooting couple, the one that you wanted to see together. That is no longer as they both seem beset on a self-destructive path. Nothing symbolized that better than some brutal boxing.

Admiral Adama stepped into the ring as well, calling out Chief Tyrol, whom he was having troubles with too. This felt like an addition to the storyline, and we see some flashbacks that gave some understanding where this animosity came from.

This whole episode, while expertly written and acted, was extremely uncomfortable and difficult to watch. It truly made me not like either the character of Lee or Kara. It did make me think about Dave and Maddie from Moonlighting with their first time having sex, how violent it was and how angry they seemed. That is not the kind of relationship that I want to support.

Both Kara and Lee are damaged people with a selfish side to them, and they have or will hurt the people who love them and it will be difficult to watch. You can feel it.

Bates Motel S5 E7, E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Inseparable”

“The Body”

So much for Chick being the author of the novel Psycho was based on. One bullet to the head from Alex Romero took care of that.

I really do not remember how this is resolved, so I cannot begin to know where this is heading. I just have two more episodes left for the season and it is thrilling. I’m sure I watched this when it was released on A & E, but I legit do not remember much of this.

These two episodes had so many massive moments that it took my breath away.

The whole scene where Norman, as Norma, attacked Dylan and Norman prevented his other side from stabbing him was insane. I was telling Dylan to get out of there, I was so worried about him. Dylan is the conscience of the story, the heart of this family. His loyalty to his brother, despite all, is amazing. I do not remember Dylan’s fate, but I really do not want him to die. I want him to go back to Seattle with Emma and raise their baby girl, Katie. I feel a foreboding that those thoughts are pipe dreams.

Alex Romero is another character that I do not want to see come to an end. I think he is going to end up dying, but his will to come back for vengeance against Norman is downright Shakespearian. Alex is so damaged that you could see the pain constantly. The look on his face as Chick was telling him about what Norman had done (digging up Norma’s body and building a ‘mausoleum’ for her int he basement freezer) was very telling. There was one shot where his face looked to be like death itself, pale and conflicted.

I kind of loved watching Norma take over control of the body of Norman only to be thwarted by the new sheriff. ‘Norma’ thought she had everything handled, but surprises kept coming.

The police discovered the body of Emma’s mother in the lake alongside the guy Romero sent to try and kill Norman.

Just two more to go…

Yellowjackets S2 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen”

The second season of Yellowjackets is underway and the winter has started to take its toll. There also appears to be some mental breakdowns starting to creep into the survivors (I say ‘starting’ although this is probably a mad rush). Shauna eating the ear of Jackie, who had died two months earlier, but not buried (I assume because the ground is too frozen to do so). Shauna has spent much of the last two months since her friend’s death talking to the frozen corpse in the food storage area (unsanitary). Of course, Jackie would talk back to her too, as they got into discussion of Shauna and Jeff’s affair. Tiassa continuing her own crazy behavior, which will continue into the present day. And there is Lottie who is some kind of self-help cult leader and the person who had Natalie kidnapped at the end of season one. Don’t worry Nat, cause Misty is on the case.

Present day, I would think that Shauna would have been better about concealing a crime by this point in her life. Burning Adam’s license and things in her barbeque was just a silly way to get rid of evidence. Then, the art studio caper made no sense either. They can’t control their passions? Shauna and Jeff have sex and leave all kinds of DNA evidence around. And did they just use paint remover to ruin all the painting of her they found? Um… that is not a good choice.

Natalie and Lottie coming face to face at the end of the episode as her cult were burying an old naked man alive was weird, and probably not the best choice by Natalie, but she is a very impulsive character so I can believe that she would see her old teammate and head right forward to her.

A couple of strange choices were made this episode, including some new survivors in the wilderness (I assume they were the background characters in season one and now have more importance… aka Nikki and Paolo from LOST. We know what their fate turned out to be).

Bates Motel S5 E1

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Dark Paradise”

The final season of Bates Motel got underway with a bit of a time jump. I just talked about time jumps in the Battlestar Galactica season 2 finale write up. This is another year jump.

Norman is running his hotel with ghost Norma hanging around making him breakfast. Ghost Norma is quite the helpful hand… baking, laundry, killing hitmen and helping to dispose of the body. Not sure how the physics of any of that happens.

The funniest moment in the show was when Ghost Norma grabbed Norman by the ear and dragged him up to the house to show him the body of the man she killed. All I could picture was Norman with his head tilted to the side, with no one actually pulling on his ear, but he acting as if someone was. If only someone could have seen that.

Dylan and Emma had a baby girl. Awwwww…. I did not remember that from the first time I saw this series and I thought that was great. Of course, Caleb showed up looking for some kind of connection. This story was very nicely handled and showed some emotion. Its funny that a teenage rapist who got his sister pregnant is not the worst one in the family.

One would think that after having a baby, Dylan might have reached out to his mother or brother…even once maybe. Didn’t Emma have a good relationship with both of them. Keeping them isolated does feel a bit convoluted, though I understand they would be building toward something.

Romero is beating the hell out of that punching bag in prison. He had parole denied and he apparently hired the guy that tried to kill Norman. I think Romero is meant to be seen as the bad guy, but I still feel like I understand his rage toward Norman.

They introduced a new female potential victim for Norman. Maybe she will be okay since she reminds Norman of Norma. Or maybe not. Females do not have a good track record around Norman.

Nine episodes remaining for this rewatch. I really have enjoyed revisiting this show. Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga have been on the top of their game every week.