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Grief-Stricken

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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

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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.

Five Olympic Rings: One Cross Country Team

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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!

MMS 7th Grade Short Stories

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I am a teacher at a middle school and I have assigned my class a short story writing assignment. As a way of trying to inspire them, I told them that I would publish their stories on my website when they were finished with them. I knew I had a section on the site for Fan Fiction and I decided that I could easily post these stories under that section.

These stories will not be perfect. These are 7th grade students who do not have a lot of experience in writing stories. They have been introduced to the idea of a plot map and they are working toward using thas as a tool when they write. The story assignment was supposed to have some connection to a sport or a sporting event. I was following the end of unit assignment from the HMH curriculum that we use.

The assignment is due this Friday, January 18th so I will start posting the stories some time that day and perhaps over the weekend.

The students will all have a pseudonym on their stories just as a way to protect their identities. I know my community here is great, but the internet itself can be a negatove place and I want to protect these kids as much as possible.

There will be a variety of writing. I know some are really working well on this while others are wasting time. I am sure the product will show this as well. However, please be kind to the kids. Most of them are working fairly well on their stories.

Thanks to everyone who gives this a chance.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

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2025 kicks off with our third annual Genre-ary. We started with Sci-Fi movies. Then we did Musicals. This year, we will be doing Documentaries.

Again, this will be documentaries that are movies or shorts. There will be no doc series such as the Jinx. Of course, it is a DailyView which means I will be watching a movie every day in the month of January that I have never seen before.

I have compiled a list of documentaries from over the years that I have not seen before. Some will be well known ones, some will be ones we have never heard of before. I will be including some 2024 films instead of waiting for the June Swoon.

I will keep the tally of the Genre-ary on this page.

2025 Genre-ary: Documentaries

Wednesday, January 1: The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

Thursday, January 2: The Amazing Jonathan Documentary (2019)

Friday, January 3: The Turnaround (2024)

Saturday, January 4: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Sunday, January 5: Remembering Gene Wilder (2023)

Monday, January 6: ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black (2018)

Tuesday, January 7: The Blue Angels (2024)

Wednesday, January 8: In-spi-ra-tion (2023)

Thursday, January 9: Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (2017)

Friday, January 10: ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (2019)

Saturday, January 11: Nature Boy: 30 on 30 (2017)

Sunday, January 12: Hoop Dreams (1994)

Monday, January 13: Will & Harper (2024)

Tuesday, January 14: Have You Seen Andy (2007)

Wednesday, January 15: The Rocket on the Roof (2016)

Thursday, January 16: Bigfoot: Fear in the Woods (2020)

Friday, January 17: 65 Roses (2019)

Saturday, January 18: Daughters (2024)

Sunday, January 19: Amy (2015)

Monday, January 20: MLK/FBI (2020)

Tuesday, January 21: The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Wednesday, January 22: MoviePass, MovieCrash (2024)

Thursday, January 23: Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2016)

Friday, January 24: American Tragedy (2019)

Saturday, January 25: Whitney (2018)

Sunday, January 26: Misha and the Wolves (2021)

Monday, January 27: Last Breath (2019)

Tuesday, January 28: There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (2011)

Wednesday, January 29: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)

Thursday, January 30: Invasion on Chestnut Ridge (2017)

Friday, January 31: Girl in the Picture (2022)

Creature Commandos S2 E4

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“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.

2024 Year in Review: Comic Cover Artist of the Year

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This year, we started a weekly post called Favorite Comic Covers of the Week. I wound up giving our Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist every week for the best comic covers (in my opinion) of the week.

I decided that we then could give out the Comic Cover Artist of the Year and use what we have done this year to determine our medalists.

I kept track of the medal winners each week. If they received a Gold medal, they earned 3 points. Everyone listed as working on the cover each got three points. If they received a Silver medal, they got two points and a Bronze would earn them 1 point.

If there was a tie, the number of gold medals was the first tie break and the second tie break was how many artists worked on the cover. A solo artist gets the edge over the duos.

Spoiler alert, both of those tie breaks came into play.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of December 2

Well, this was an easy week to pick the medal winners.

See, I got to Comic World today and a huge section of the shipment was missing. Everything from Diamond was not delivered. Okay, apparently, there was an attempt at a delivery with a holiday driver that turned out very badly.

Making a long story short, I only wound up with four books this week. Two weeks ago I had over 40. If the Marvel, Image, Boom etc. don’t come til next week, I dread the pile for next week.

Until then, we have two DC books and one from IPI Comics as the medalists this week.

Bronze Medalist

Sherlock Holmes: The Dark Detective #2

Cover art by Dave Elsey

This is a really creepy cover with Sherlock looking out a dark window. He sure seems to be a dark detective.

Silver Medalist

Two-Face #1

Cover art by Baldemar Rivas

I picked this one up off the rack because I did not have very many books this week. This is a cool cover with the focus on the coin being flipped. Again, I love the white background with the red of his face and title.

Gold Medalist

Absolute Superman #2

Cover art by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola

The cool new Absolute Superman looks great and the Peacemakers all around him make a great counter. The cover creates a great bit of what is going to happen. Looks excellent.

Grotesquerie S1 E9

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“Episode 9”

An intense episode that, once again, really throws my understanding of what is going on into a confused state… and I loved that.

It felt as if Lois was on a crusade to put things to rest before she moved down to Florida. She saw Marshall and gave him divorce papers (and he was downright cruel at this point), she saw her daughter for one final slap, and she continued dream therapy.

It was here where things started to go weird once more. It was suggested that Lois’s dream, specifically about the Burnside family, which had no connection to her own life, was Lois seeing the future.

Of course, Megan was arriving at a murder scene exactly like the Burnside murder in reality. Right down to the mystery contents of the boiling pot on the stove, which feels as if it is a secret that we will be getting in the finale.

Reality? Hm, I wonder.

When Lois met Megan at the hotel, Lois had her cut her arm so she could see her blood. That was supposed to be how Lois proved to herself that this was real… and then the most surreal thing happened, with Megan’s abusive boyfriend showing up and attacking her. Lois held a gun on him but he did not stop. He tormented Lois about being the dream woman and that she knew she couldn’t kill him. He went so far as to put the barrel of the gun Lois held into his own mouth.

And then she shot him.

That was an awesome moment. A-hole got what he deserved. However, I worry for Lois.

Still, I am not convinced that everything here is real life. The background TVs kept talking about the fires that were spreading, much like the final sections of Lois’s dreams, and I feel there may be something “biblical” going down.

Yellowjackets S1 E7

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“No Compass”

An exciting episode. With the three current day women dropping off the money, and the dramatic danger at the end of the episode with a pack of wolves, this was exciting throughout the whole episode.

So many things happened. Taissa had tackled the guy who was blackmailing them, but took an elbow to the face allowing him to get away. Kevin discovered that his gun was messed up and questioned Natalie about it. Shauna came back and had sex with Adam.

I saw that Christina Ricci was on the credits and I did not know that she was on this show. So I looked up who she played. I thought it might be current day Natalie, but I was shocked to see that she is playing current day Misty. Couldn’t believe it. Then, we see Misty and her sociopathy tendencies as she interviewed the reporter.

The wolves attack at the end with them tearing off parts of Van’s face. It was a brutal reminder how dangerous of a situation that they were in.

The whole Shauna/Jackie story with Shauna’s pregnancy was another key component of the episode. Jackie found the diary with the truth in it after Shauna had told her that it was Randy who had gotten her pregnant.

Three more episodes of season one.

The Changeling (1980)

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The October 11 of 13

So The October 13 has been a little lower of quality than I would have preferred this year. However, we came across a good one today. The Changeling, starring George C. Scott, is one of the best haunted house movies I have seen.

The film grabs your attention immediately as it sets up the tragedy for George C. Scott’s character, composer John Russell. His wife and daughter are killed in a tragic accident and this sends him spiraling out of control. Renting a house in Seattle, John goes to hopefully work on his music.

However, once in the house, strange sounds and events started happening, leading John to investigate what had happened in the house’s past.

Honestly, the seance scene was one of the scariest seance scenes I have ever seen. The way that the psychic approached the actual execution of the seance was great. I had never seen a seance handled in this manner before and it really set the stage for the rest of the mystery that would be at the heart of the film.

There is also a horrifying scene with a young boy and a bathtub that I will not go into further description of because it is unsettling.

George C. Scott is a tremendous actor and his very presence in the film give it a credibility that a lot of these haunted house movies lack.

I am happy that this film made the October 13 list this year and I am happy that it has helped put the list back on track.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #118

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October 4, 2024

It will be a busy Saturday this week, with a couple of movies, Badd Blood from the WWE, and a Dodger post season game, so with a smaller number of books this week than recently, my goal was to get this Comic Cavalcade out on a Friday instead of the weekend. I just finished reading, even with a couple of new arrivals from eBay.

Books this week:

Storm #1. “Grand Opening.” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Lucas Werneck. I go the variant foil cover with the art by Jerome Opena. Storm is seeing quite the upswing of popularity as she is just recently in the Avengers and now with this new series. This is the fifth volume of Storm which surprised me, and she is one of my favorite mutant characters out there these days.

Hyde Street #1. Storytellers are Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis. Cover art was by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki and Brad Anderson did the cover art (Gold Medalist). This is the new series joining the Ghost Machine imprint from Image. It is very creative concept and it gave me an Ice Cream Man type flavor. This one is going to be very interesting.

Dead Eyes #1-4. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by John McCrea. Here is the eBay series I just recently purchased. A few week ago, I picked up Dead Eyes: Empty Frames and the book felt as if it were a sequel series, and, after a quick trip to eBay, I confirmed that truth. The Dead Eyes series arrived in the mail today. I loved this first series. Read them all in one sitting tonight.

Ultimate Black Panther #9. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Stefano Caselli. Cover art by Stefano Caselli and David Curiel. I have not done a write up for this series recently and it is because it has been my least favorite new Ultimates series. That is still the case, but we get a issue that is heavily featuring Storm and Killmonger and they do make a good team.

Daredevil #14. “Introductory Rites” Part Fourteen. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Luigi Zagaria. Cover art this issue was by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove (Bronze Medalist). Matt Murdock has to face off with Elektra and she is not having it. To say that she is spurned is an understatement. However, there is little time for hurt feelings as they are in search of the missing kid from the halfway house.

The Power Fantasy #1-2. Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Caspar Wijngaaard. This is a series that I missed the first issue of and I had heard positives about, so I got #1 on eBay and read these two. Only a handful of superheroes on the earth and they are causing trouble. How about one Kieron Gillen has done a solid job with that.

Immortal Thor #16. “Fire and Stone.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Alex Ross did the cover art. If I am being honest, this was a fairly pedestrian issue of Thor that was saved by a new group of villains and a shocking final page. I am excited to see where this goes from here.

Deadpool #7. Written by Cody Ziglar & Alexis Quasarano and art by Andrea Di Vito. Tauron Clarke did the cover art. This was okay, but I am not sure how I feel about the daughter of Deadpool taking up his mantel. I do like how they are keeping Wade’s body around with sunglasses on it expecting a resurrection.

X-Men #5. “Psychic Rescue in Progress” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Stegman, JP Mayer & Marte Gracia did the cover art. Psylocke and Quentin Quire heading on a psychic mission together was a joy. I am a fan of Quentin Quire because he is such a little jerk. And I love it.

Redcoat #6. Creators are Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch. Variant cover art is by Francis Manapul. For awhile in this book, it was feeling like a end of the series as things were wrapping up with Benedict Arnold. However, there is another issue coming as George Washington has reared his wigged head. Next issue is entitled “Epilogue” so does that mean next issue is the final one? That would be sad as this has been a consistently entertaining book.

The Deviant #8. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Joshua Hixson. The penultimate issue of this series really sets this one up for a huge finale. The mystery of what is exactly happening is great.

Plastic Man No More #2. Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Alex Lins. Alex Lins & Marcelo Maiolo did the cover art (Silver Medalist). Plastic Man is taking a huge step to try and solve the problem of his rubbery body falling apart, afraid that his son may wind up the same way. Unfortunately, it leads to a bad situation for the Metal Men.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #6. “Haunted” Part 6. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen Stacy joined up with one of my favorite female Marvel characters, Jessica Jones, and I loved it. I could always enjoy the appearance of Jessica Jones.

Get Fury #6. Written by Garth Ennis and art by Jacen Burrows. Cover art was done by Dave Johnson. The finale of this series is just as brutal as this series has been. Nick Fury is downright unbalanced. This was a series that I did not initially plan on getting, but after re-reading the first issue again, I was in and I have enjoyed it each month.

Other books this week: Creature Commandos #1, The Nice House by the Sea #3, Robbie Reyes: Ghost Rider Marvel Voices Special #1, All In Special #1, and Wolverine: Deep Cut #4.

Sonnet writing- Four Wheeler

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In my 8th grade classes, we have been doing some study on sonnets. I said to my class that I wanted to write a sonnet too and I asked them to give me a topic. Most sonnets are love poems, but I did not want the eighth graders writing love poems, so I allowed them to do whatever topic they wanted. My topic was chosen to be Four-Wheelers.

The rules were that the poem had to have fourteen lines, follow the rhyme scheme of abbaabbacdcdcd and could have no more or nor less than ten syllables per line (which is kind of linked to iambic pentameter. Yes, I know there is more to it than just the syllable count, but it is a tough concept for 8th graders).

Here is my sonnet.

FOUR-WHEELER

The sun shines brightly in the midday sky,

The warmth on my face brings joy to my life.

It washes away the pain and strife

I am so excited, I want to fly.

Bursting forth with an exuberant cry,

Bouncing and hopping; excitement is rife.

Sharing this fun with my friend and his wife.

Suddenly, the fun ceases. Why oh why?

I cry as my body flies through the air.

My four-wheeler flipped when I hit a rock,

The oncoming ground gave me quite the scare.

Spiking my head caused me a state of shock,

The doctors placed me in intensive care.

Months and months to recover. What a crock.

Bates Motel S4 E5

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“Refraction”

Sometimes this show catches me off-guard. Chick followed Norma for awhile, and wound up coming to see her, offering to fix the stained-glass window that was broken during the break in. It was very stalker-like, but during the episode, Chick almost had me convinced that he was going to turn over a new leaf and just fix the stained glass and redeem himself for his past sins.

Nope. At the end of the episode, he comes to Norma and tells her the truth. That he wants to find her brother Caleb. When they were speaking before, Norma called Caleb her brother and Chick was able to piece it together since Caleb had introduced himself to Chick originally as Dylan’s father. Chick took this info and tried to play on Norma’s uncertainty, her deep seeded pain over what had happened to her. He was manipulating Norma and suddenly the good tidings that he had earned in this episode went right out the broken stained-glass window.

I really felt for Norma in that moment. Its as if she can never fully catch a break. She has just started to connect with Romero, so much so that she even asked him if he had killed Bob Paris. His response was that he had no choice, but you could see the truth in his face. He killed him because Bob was a danger to Norma. It was to protect her that Romero had no choice. Norma could see that. I say this every episode write-up but I loved Romero and Norma as a couple which makes what I know is coming up later this season all the worse.

Dr. Edwards met Norman’s Mother personality as Norman blacked out during a session. Edwards had pushed Norman about an imagined meeting Norman had with Norma at the mental institution which happened in Norman’s head and Norman flipped out. Freddie Highmore does a great job switching into Mother. The way he moves, the glint in his eyes, the tilt of a head. Highmore is exceptional in playing the role.

There was a sweet scene between Dylan and Emma where Emma showed Dylan her scar. She was embarrassed by it, but she wanted to get past it. Dylan handled it wonderfully, showing Emma the scars across his body from gunshots and other moments from the drug running career he had been involved in. Another fun moment was when Dylan interviewed for a real, honest job and told the interviewer the truth about his past in the drug trade. Amazingly, it seems as if the truth may have worked out for him.

We have gone past the halfway point in season four and I am not thinking that Chick is long for this world.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E4

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“Hog Wild”

Ralph and Bill are on the way back from a communication seminar and they come across a biker gang that was itching for trouble.

Now, Bill is anything but subtle and his borderline obnoxious personality ended up getting him three broken ribs and taken hostage by the gang.

Oh, and the gang wound up with the suit.

Of course, it only works on Ralph, but it still led to a whole bunch of trouble as the biker gang returned to a town that had run them off the day before and blackmailed Ralph into being their “muscle.”

Bill was really over the edge in this episode, displaying how he is too stubborn and hard headed in most situations. Ralph, although too involved with the communication from the seminar, does a great job doing what he could. I liked how Ralph and Bill used some other characters in the show to help the overall scenario. It was neat to see Ralph working with others without having to hide the suit.

I do think that Ralph could have taken this biker gang out much easier than he did, but I understand they needed to stretch the story to make it a full length episode. Overall, it was a fun show, but probably the weakest episode of the second season so far.