"That's a great idea." So we were off all day every day cutting wood and anything else that could burn and make black smoke. After several days of hard work, we had all we needed. We set out all the logs we gathered and stacked them high. We left a space at the bottom for all the dead grass and dried bark we could find. Luckily we had a match in my pocket and we lit it I never saw so much smoke in my life. To no surprise about an hour and a half after it was lit there was a boat coming to the shoreline. "Over here help, over here.” HONK! Finally, we were rescued and the nightmare was over. Jalen Ervin 6th Grade Brown Middle School Mrs. Monica Gordon
The Music Box It was a sunny afternoon. The 1996 school year was finally over, so all the children were outside playing in the hot Tennessee sun, the distant sound of the ice cream truck ringing through your ears. This is what seemed to be a perfect day. Sheldon was a sixth grader. They are the youngest so they are always getting picked on. What made it worse is that he was a big nerd, from his big old glasses to his Arizona jean suspenders. Alex was the too cool for school girl, when she actually bothered to show up for school she was making a solid D-in every class. Dylan was the goody two shoes, he always made A+'s and did nothing wrong. Diana was just an average girl who made pretty good grades, and lived across the street. They met earlier in the year and were all best friends. Dylan was having a birthday party and they all went to his house, they had the best time eating cake, pizza, and ice cream. When he was opening his gifts, he got a plasma screen TV, an electric scooter and an Xbox 360. It was his last gift that surprised him the most. It was an ancient looking music box. It had the most detailed paintings on the sides. It has paintings of a jungle, a glum looking city, and a strange looking cottage in a field that seemed to be close to nothing. His mom said it was his grandma's before she died, and she was passing it on to him. He set it on the desk in his room, thinking it was just a regular music box, but he had no idea what was in store for him, and his friends. After the party was over and the commotion settled, they went into Dylan's room to chill. Then they noticed the music box and asked if they could see it. So they set it on the floor and gathered around it. Dylan cranked it 3 times, "CRANK, CRANK, CRANK," and very slowly it opened. It then played a light, eerie sounding tune, like something from a horror movie, and snapped close. There was something on the inside that Dylan noticed. It read, “Do not crank more than 3 times.” So Dylan set it back on the desk, uneager to find out what would happen if they cranked it more than 3 times. Alex who was of course curious grabbed it and cranked it, "CRANK, CRANK, RANK.....CRANK" Suddenly it snapped open the faint music was playing lightning fast, over and over, but faster. Wind started whirling around causing them to fly all over the place. Then there was a small aqua light emanating from the box. Then they felt as though their stomachs were being split from the inside. Then they were all at once sucked into the music box. They hit a hard muddy ground and in all the commotion they blacked out, the last thing they heard was the gentle, almost silent "ding, ding, ding, dong, ding," last keys of the music box tune.
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